This summer has already left a series of human tragedies and on the landscape that invite us to think about the material conditions of our time. Thermodynamic and geological phenomena – such as high temperatures that force us to re-adapt to the environment, or the spiral of fires across the sub-European territory – and social dramas such as the massive flows of migrants arriving from Africa – and xenophobic reactions, this summer in Ceuta, last summer in Torre Pacheco – overlap in space and time. It is the time of heat and scarcity of the Earth.

This summer doesn't smell of the sea. It smells of ash, of loss, of destruction. Ask the thousands of people displaced from their homes or those who have lost everything, even a family member. And they are right: it is not climate change. The unbearable temperatures, the deaths from the heatwave, and the thousands of hectares scorched are not the result of climate change. It is us. We have already changed the climate and now we are living in full emergency.

Last week, 186 passengers on a river cruise ship from the company Viking Cruises had to be evacuated by Bulgarian border police after the ship Viking Ullur ran aground on a sandbank in the Danube. The incident took place near the Bulgarian town of Gomotartsi, in a context of exceptionally low water levels that continue to disrupt river navigation and freight transport in much of Central Europe.

Within Homer's Odyssey, one of the most beautiful characters – allow me to put it that way— is Eumaeus, or Eumeos, depending on the different versions (it is fascinating work, which obviously does not belong here, the comparative reading between the magnificent Catalan translations of the Homeric poem: that of Carles Riba, that of Joan Francesc Mira, and the recent one by Pau Sabaté, which do not confront each other, but rather add to and complement each other). Eumaeus is the swineherd of Ulysses or Odysseus, to whom he has remained loyal during his twenty-year absence. Along with Penelope and Telemachus, Eumaeus is the only one who still believes that Ulysses will one day return to Ithaca. He is the first to recognize him, but first he welcomes him into his home, convinced that he is a poor old man wandering without a home, without direction, and without identity. Eumaeus barely asks him questions; he sees someone in need and shares what he has with him: shelter, food, and a place to spend the night under cover. It seems little, but it is a lot: it is human dignity. In one of the most memorable passages of the Odyssey, Eumaeus converses with his guest and informs him of the misfortune of Ithaca and the difficult situation in which Penelope finds herself, cornered by a multitude of greedy, cunning, and parasitic suitors. He also tells him his own story: Eumaeus himself was of royal blood, son of Ctesius, king of the island of Syros. However, a slave girl handed Eumaeus over, when he was still an infant, to some pirates, who sold him as a slave to Laertes, Ulysses' father. Since then he has been the palace swineherd (the "divine swineherd," in one of the Homeric epithets associated with him), and his lofty origin serves as a reflection of Ulysses' own destiny, who left for the Trojan War as a king and warrior and returns to Ithaca, twenty years later, as an old beggar, dispossessed and uprooted, whom everyone presumes dead. Everyone except those who still love him. Eumaeus's intervention is one of the most delicate parts of the Odyssey. If you want to see a good film adaptation (without judging Christopher Nolan's, which I haven't seen yet), the 2024 film The return, directed by Uberto Pasolini and starring Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, and Claudio Santamaria as Ulysses, Penelope, and Eumaeus, respectively, is well worth it.

Junts per Catalunya formalized this Monday its integration into the European Democratic Party (PDE), an adhesion that had been being finalized for months as the ARA advanced. With this step, the party led by Carles Puigdemont closes a long period of political orphanhood on the Old Continent, which dated back to 2018. It was that year when the PDECat was expelled from the Party of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) under pressure from Ciutadans and in a context marked by accusations of corruption against the formation then led by David Bonvehí for the 3% case.

The United Arab Emirates are everywhere, whether publicly or in the shadows, but always very close to where influence, money and important decisions are made. The latest most media-friendly example we have is in one of the major controversies of this Football World Cup. The president of FIFA's disciplinary committee, who agreed to withdraw Folarin Balogun's red card without consulting any of the other committee members and at the request of Donald Trump, is Mohammad al-Kamali, a lawyer and former member of the Parliament of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Another much less media-friendly and much less frivolous example is Sudan, where a war has been going on for years that is already the largest humanitarian crisis in the world according to the United Nations.

1. We have seen ridiculous things in the history of football – a suitable territory for egos needing recognition to let loose – but Donald Trump asking President Infantino to withdraw a red card for Balogun, a forward for the United States team, and the order being immediately executed breaks records for frivolity and indecency. It's not surprising from Trump, because he has been showing off for years and prioritizing his conviction that anything is permissible for him, that there are no limits for him, but it seems to be a vice that contaminates. The anecdote comes at a time when the contradictions his uncontrolled ego has led him to are generating accelerated disrepute that is already directly impacting the United States, where awareness of the president's irresponsibility is spreading. The way he acts, doing and undoing, means that, for example, in Venezuela he today supports those he wanted to overthrow yesterday, or that in the Middle East the impasse his delusions have led him to is giving life to the totalitarian regime of the Iranian ayatollahs, who have abruptly curbed his excesses by exposing him for what he is.

Europe is facing a new climatic reality. Extreme, long, and historic heatwaves are becoming increasingly frequent and are one of the most evident faces of a climate crisis that demands urgent responses. The episode of high temperatures affecting a large part of the continent this June (also in places where it was previously unthinkable) is breaking records in several countries and is the result of global warming caused by human activity and the accumulation of greenhouse gases. And it is no coincidence: Europe is the continent that is warming fastest on the planet and the impacts are already visible on health, agriculture, ecosystems, and water availability.

Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange platform, has hit the wall of European regulation. As the Reuters agency had already reported, the company will not receive permission to operate under the European crypto-asset law, MiCA, before the transition period ends on June 30. The company founded by Changpeng Zhao, it should be remembered, sought to obtain regulatory clearance in Greece, where market sources assure that it expected to find institutions "more lenient" in their application of the European directive.

A new episode of intense and widespread heat is setting record highs across much of Western and Central Europe. Sustained high temperatures for several days and sleepless nights are affecting countries accustomed to heat this week—though not this early—such as France, Catalonia, Spain, and Italy, and parts of the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Germany, where it is increasingly less exceptional for the mercury to soar. The impact of the heatwave on health is high, and several states have issued meteorological alerts to warn the population of dehydration, heatstroke, and even death.

For days, Madrid has been a hub for major events – the Pope's visit coincided with ten Bad Bunny concerts – and European trade unionism has wanted to do its bit. This week, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) chose the Palacio Vistalegre in the Spanish capital as a stage for a show of strength, but also to warn Europe that it will act as a containment wall against all proposals that, in its opinion, represent a step backwards in labor rights and human rights.

The journalist Claudi Pérez, international correspondent for El País, publishes the book Las invasiones bárbaras, a mix between an essay and journalistic chronicle about the crises that have shaken the world during the first quarter of this century, with a special focus on Europe and its role in the new international order.

Discovering Europe without worries and with the convenience of having everything organized is the perfect proposal for the second half of the year. From Barcelona, these short and medium-distance trips offer cultural routes, urban getaways, and itineraries through the most attractive corners of the continent, always with an accompanying guide, all visits included, and full board. A comfortable, safe, and enriching way to travel, designed to enjoy each destination with peace of mind and without unforeseen events.Eurovacances Travel, with 40 years of experience in the sector and with three offices –Barcelona, Granollers and Girona–, offers you proposals along these lines for the months of September, October and November.

The heat arrives, and with it the peak months for tourism in Catalonia. This year the season kicks off after a record first quarter. Catalonia received the highest number of visitors in this period in the last decade between January and April, and it's also the year they have spent the most.

The word rearmament has been occupying headlines for months. In an increasingly unstable and fierce world order, where armed conflicts are multiplying and major global actors are setting aside diplomatic channels and rendering current international law null and void, it seems inevitable that states must invest in weapons to guarantee their sovereignty and, in general, their medium-term future.

The Mossos d'Esquadra are investigating an attack with a bladed weapon suffered by a follower of the Europa football club this Sunday in Nou Barris, after the promotion match that the Gracienc team played against Celta B. The fan was seriously injured in the stomach, but his life is not in danger. The Catalan police arrested the alleged aggressor that same afternoon not far from the scene, after he tried to flee and hide in a building entrance.

The Cercle d'Economia is approaching its annual conferences, increasingly focused on the health of the European project, with a touch of pessimism. In the opinion note prior to this year's meeting, which will be held between June 1 and 3 at the Palau de Congressos de Catalunya, the entity warns of the "fractures" and "divisions" that risk the Twenty-seven's ability to become autonomous in an increasingly disjointed world.

The 22@, Barcelona's technology district, has a new building with open-plan offices, modern spaces, and multilingual workers. This time, however, it is the largest coworking space in Southern Europe by surface area. It is located just a ten-minute walk from Plaça de les Glòries and covers 20,000 square meters, including a gym, swimming pool, climbing wall, terraces, a restaurant, a games room, and a slide that goes from the first floor to the ground floor.

A program that can remotely activate the microphone and camera of a mobile phone or access message history. Software capable of scanning real-time traffic to identify people and generate profiles. A device that connects to a computer or mobile phone and can download all its information by bypassing passwords. These and other technologies manufactured in member states of the European Union too often end up in the hands of governments that violate human rights, despite current legislation to prevent it. This is the main conclusion of the report "Looking the Other Way" published this Tuesday by the NGO Human Rights Watch, which denounces that the European Union's mechanisms to prevent these exports have failed.

Catalonia is one of the territories with the most clinical trials active in the world. In 2025 it participated in 5,768 studies, which catapulted it to seventh place in the world ranking, according to the BioRegion of Catalonia Report. The United States, with 38,218 trials underway, and China, with 17,321, led the list of countries.