The life of the economist, politician, and writer Antoni Vives (Barcelona, 1965) took a radical turn when, in 2018, he landed in Saudi Arabia to meet with the country's prince, Mohammed bin Salman, and the team with which he was preparing Vision 2030, which was to translate into the urbanization of a region in the middle of the desert "the size of Belgium" called Neom – which integrates the words new and future– to build "a city designed for nine million inhabitants" in the middle of the desert. He has now decided to explain the seven years he spent leading that mammoth project in a memoir literary and very interesting, In the secret country (Pòrtic, 2026), which does not hide the contradictions of an absolute monarchy guided by Sharia, capable of having a journalist critical of the regime murdered and dismembered as Jamal Khashoggi and which, at the same time, has the aspiration to modernize itself. Vives's own trajectory will surprise more than one reader. In addition to winning the Crexells prize with Farringdon Road's Dream (La Magrana, 2011) and the Bookseller with And tomorrow, paradise (RBA, 2014), has been deputy mayor for Urbanism between 2011 and 2015 at Barcelona City Council —during Xavier Trias's last term— and in 2022 was sentenced to two years in prison, settled with a compensation of 155,000 euros, for irregular contracting of the then mayor of Santa Coloma de Cervelló, Jesús Arévalo, by the entity Barcelona Regional, which Vives had chaired.

Only Pelé had managed to score the first goal of a World Cup match at eighteen years old or younger. Until Lamine Yamal arrived. The Rocafonda genius was in charge of scoring the first goal in Spain's thrashing of Saudi Arabia in Atlanta (4-0), a match where Luis de la Fuente's team shook off the bad feelings from their weak debut against Cape Verde. If against the Africans Spain couldn't even score a single goal, against the Saudis they already had three in 25 minutes. Between Lamine Yamal and a brilliant Mikel Oyarzabal, Spain thrashed in a match that became increasingly disjointed as the minutes passed, as Luis De la Fuente's team had quickly finished the job. In fact, he substituted Lamine Yamal at halftime to protect him, because the future of the national team in the World Cup depends heavily on him.

"Anything to declare?" Most people have heard this phrase when their plane had just landed. But customs control is more flexible when it affects authorities. Miguel Sebastián, former Minister of Industry (2008-2011), recently recounted how gifts on official trips were managed – at least in his time. In 2008, already on board the Falcon during the return flight from the city of Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), a royal emissary handed him a leather wallet that hid luxury jewelry inside. He decided not to take the gift home and it is currently in a display case at the ministry, but he recalls that the officials told him: "The most common thing was for us ministers to keep the gifts."Sebastián intended to defend the former Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero for the jewelry case that he will have to justify before the judge – which come from "inheritances and gifts", according to his spokesperson. But the former minister ended up opening up the can of worms about whether there are many gifts of this kind on official trips that end up at the homes of monarchs, presidents, and ministers, which often land at Torrejón de Ardoz air base (Madrid), the military facilities where official Falcon-type planes are housed.

The politician, writer, economist, and urban planning consultant Antoni Vives has lived for six and a half years in Saudi Arabia, at the service of Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), designing and promoting the construction of the linear city Neom, in the desert at the northern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, on the Red Sea coast; a unique commitment to sustainable modernity, conceived for architects and engineers as well as botanists. Civilization and nature: 170 km long, on paper it is designed to run on renewable energies and intended for 9 million inhabitants who will not need to use cars, with all personal and collective services within 5 minutes. It is the largest open-air construction project in the world. Will they succeed?

Of all the Persian Gulf monarchies that have suffered attacks from Iran since Washington initiated the war, Saudi Arabia is in the most confusing position, immersed in a genuine strategic dilemma. Among other reasons, because it is the largest and most powerful country in the region, the one with the oldest and closest ties to the United States, but the one which, along with Oman, has suffered least from the wrath of the ayatollah regime. At least, until now. Therefore, contradictory news has been published about how and when Riyadh would like the war to end, and what its future security strategy might be, given the failure of the current one.

The fourth title of the Hansi Flick era is here. Barça has beaten Real Madrid (3-2) and continues to dominate the national scene under the guidance of the German coachHe has equaled Luis Enrique's record after winning four of the first five titles he has competed for on the Catalan bench. Joan Garcia, Marc Bernal, Marcus Rashford, and Rooney Bardghji have all won their first titles with Barça, while Hansi Flick remains Real Madrid's nemesis. Since taking over at Barça, he has won five of the six Clásicos he has managed, three of them in finals. Flick has never lost a final; the German coach has won all eight finals he has managed.

Barça is a feast for the eyes. One of those teams that, for a few minutes, makes its fans forget the dreary routine of daily life and this increasingly crazy world. For 18 glorious minutes, Flick's team thrashed Athletic, scoring four goals that could have been more, and sealed a one-sided semifinal, a match played in only one direction, an avalanche of attacking football that overwhelmed Unai Simón (5-0). Barça didn't allow the Basques to write their own part of the story, condemning them to be yet another victim of a team that steamrolls you with the force of a bulldozer, all while heavenly violins play.

Two Catalans have died and two others have been injured, one of them seriously, in a traffic accident in Saudi Arabia, according to reports. 20 minutes Sources familiar with the matter have confirmed to ACN that the fatalities are a man and a woman, according to the Spanish Foreign Ministry. The four were on a tourist trip together and were involved in the accident approximately 1,000 kilometers from the country's capital, Riyadh.

The board of directors of the video game giant Electronic Arts (EA) has approved its sale to the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund PIF, the asset management firm Silver Lake Partners and the Affinity Partners fund, owned by Jared Kushner, son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, for $55 billion (US$7 billion). This is one of the largest transactions in the history of the sector.

Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Khaled bin Talal Al Saud, popularly known as the Sleeping Prince, has died at the age of 36 after spending more than two decades in a coma. His father, Prince Khaled bin Tabal, confirmed this via X. Al-Waleed had been unconscious since 2005, when he suffered an accident in London that caused a brain hemorrhage and internal bleeding.

US President Donald Trump met with Syria's interim president on Wednesday, Ahmed al-Sharaa, for more than half an hour after announcing yesterday the lifting of all sanctions on the new Damascus government to give it "an opportunity to grow." On the endless carpets of the Royal Palace in Riyadh, hand-woven with geometric motifs evoking the solemnity of power, Trump and Al Sharaa, accompanied by the crown prince and leader de facto of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, have posed together for the press in a very studied and symbolically charged image.

As happened in 2018, Saudi Arabia and its crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, are on everyone's lips: both from leaders and from the international media. However, the reasons could not be more diametrically opposed. At that time, the Saudi leader and his kingdom were in the eye of the storm due to the brutal murder of journalist and dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Now, they are protagonists because they have acquired enormous weight on the geostrategic board, especially in the Middle East, but not only. The visits of presidents, foreign ministers and emissaries in Riyadh are happening these days at a frenetic pace. The icing on the cake of this status of hub The diplomatic one could be the holding of a summit on peace in Ukraine between Russian President Vladimir Putin and American President Donald Trump, himself the promoter of the idea.

Ali Jameel and his colleagues from the NGO Mwatana for Human Rights are risking their lives to document war crimes in Yemen, martyred by decades of conflict. After a bombing in a neighbourhood or a hospital, they quickly go to the area to collect the remains of the ammunition used and to interview the survivors. This is how, since Saudi Arabia's intervention began in 2015, they have gathered evidence of 177 aerial bombardments. In 29 cases they were able to prove that the Saudi coalition was dropping bombs made in the UK, Italy and Germany. And where are these bombs being dropped from? Well, also from planes made in Europe, including Spain. "Spain is an accomplice to war crimes for selling fighters and military ships to Saudi Arabia", denounces Jameel from Sana'a in a telephone conversation with ARA.

It is one of the world's leading arms manufacturers and exporters. Spain occupies the seventh place in the world ranking: for a decade now it has been in the top ten of this list, alongside powers such as the United States, Russia, Germany, China and the United Kingdom, and therefore well above its economic potential. It is ahead of Israel, South Korea and Italy. Its main buyers are NATO countries, especially Germany and the United Kingdom, followed at a distance by France and Australia. In fifth place it has two controversial clients: Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Because of the war in Yemen, plagued by atrocities, Germany and Italy have stopped selling to the Saudis. Spain, on the other hand, has not. Since 2015, at least 233,000 people have died in the Yemen war (there are allegations of war crimes against all sides). The Turkish genocide against the Kurds has not put a brake on Spanish arms sales. After Venezuela, the Arab Emirates are the eighth client of the State: the violations of human rights have led Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands to deny them the sale of arms. Again, Spain has kept it.