If we saw a monkey eating dirt, we would probably think it was strange or accidental behavior. But what if this behavior were actually an adaptive response to a problem created by humans? This is the question that anthropologist Sylvain Lemoine and his collaborators, from various English, French, and Catalan universities and research centers, with the participation of researchers from the Catalan Institute of Human Paleoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) at the Rovira i Virgili University, have posed after studying the macaques living on the Rock of Gibraltar. The results, recently published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest that these primates deliberately eat dirt to alleviate the digestive effects of a diet altered by constant contact with tourists.The Barbary macaques, also known as the Gibraltar apes (Macaca sylvanus), constitute a unique population. They are the only non-human primates living in freedom in Europe. Although their origin is in North Africa, they have inhabited Gibraltar for centuries and today they are an inseparable part of the place's identity. Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the rock to observe them. Although feeding them is prohibited, many tourists continue to offer them biscuits, crisps, sweets, ice cream, or other processed products. In addition, these monkeys have also learned to appropriate visitors' food, and they take it from them when they have the opportunity.

Shortly after midday this Wednesday, a couple of telescopic cranes lifted and removed the fences of one of the "last walls of continental Europe", in the words of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, which separated Gibraltar from La Línea de la Concepción. The ceremonial act has put an end to a negotiation process of almost five years between the European Commission and London, since the United Kingdom made Brexit effective (2020) and the status of the British territory was left in limbo caused by the divorce from the Union.

It has been days since the dismantling work of the Gibraltar fence began. The scar that separated the Rock from the Campo de Gibraltar will be erased from the maps – not from history – this Wednesday, when it enters in force the agreement reached a year and a bit ago the United Kingdom, the European Commission, the Spanish state and Gibraltar, and that definitively regulates the post-Brexit status of the territory. This Tuesday the EU and the United Kingdom formalized the signing of the agreement in Brussels and, the following day, the most symbolic aspect of the new status, a frank and barrier-free step, will already be clearly visible. The new framework for relations comes into provisional effect until the definitive ratification by the European Parliament and the House of Commons.

Practically, ten years after the Brexit referendumGibraltar returns to the single market, the fence is definitively taken down, and while it remains under British sovereignty, the Rock cedes border control of ports and airports to the Spanish police. The future of Gibraltar now has a defined legal roadmap according to the full text of the agreement between Brussels, London, and Madrid, which the Spanish and British foreign ministries made public this Thursday morning. The legal formulation –a text of more than 1,000 pages– puts it in black and white the political agreement to which the three capitals involved In the negotiations, in addition to Gibraltar itself, they reached an agreement in June of last year.

Without effusive hugs like Emmanuel Macron or Volodymyr Zelensky, the premier British Prime Minister Keir Starmer received Pedro Sánchez in Downing Street this Wednesday afternoon, marking the first visit by a Spanish Prime Minister to the famous Number 10 in seven years, something Starmer found "incredible." In a lightning-fast trip lasting just over two hours, with very limited media coverage, no questions asked, and less than four minutes of open statements, the two discussed the significance of the meeting and the importance of the ties between the two countries, both on a human and commercial level. These ties have been sealed by the signing of a bilateral strategic agreement, "crucial," in Starmer's words, which aims to strengthen "cooperation after Brexit, and which is parallel and complementary to the United Kingdom's relationship with the European Union," according to the signed text.

Josep Farré (Barcelona, ​​1946) will once again be the oldest swimmer this Saturday, competing in an Open Water Championship. He was the oldest swimmer last April in Ibiza at the national tournament. Now he will repeat the goal in Tarragona with the aim of completing the three kilometers in a time close to an hour. "It's been many years since I've had the goal of improving my times. At the beginning, I did them in about 50 minutes, but over the years, it's normal to lose speed and strength," he explains in a conversation with ARA. At the Spanish Championships in April, he completed the crossing in one hour and two minutes.

The historic dispute over Gibraltar's sovereignty is set aside. No one was willing to give in on this. Their respective nationalist positions remain intact, both in Madrid and London. But the path of pragmatic negotiation has prevailed. Although five years have passed since Brexit—in fact, it was the last Brexit detail left to be finalized—an understanding has finally been reached. The most visible result is that, from now on, social and economic life on the Rock will return to a degree of normality.

Optimism in Gibraltar, cautious caution in Madrid, and expectant silence in London and Brussels. One of the many open chapters. in the wake of Brexit, the uncertain situation of the Rock and its citizens, seems about to be resolved after five years of negotiations between the various governments involved, as well as representatives of the territory, a British sovereign territory. Chief Minister Fabian Picardo told the British press: "Now we can see the finish line."