This week marks four years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine; the Israeli-Palestinian conflict continues; the internal war in Myanmar has been ongoing since 2021, and so on with at least a dozen other conflicts. And amidst so much bitterness, a scientific article published this year in the International Political Science Review In which Giuditta Fontana, from the University of Birmingham, and colleagues from the same university and the University of Hamburg conclude that, when women participate in peace processes, the probability of the conflict reigniting is reduced by at least 11%, reaching up to 37% when the UN intervenes.

Trump has proclaimed the end of the war and announced a new era in the Middle East, "an era of harmony." As always, everything about the American president sounds superlative and triumphant. It's undoubtedly very significant that the two years of hell in Gaza are over and the last Israeli hostages have been returned, exchanged for Palestinian prisoners. The ceasefire, of course, is a relief for everyone. But it's too early, and the announcement of a brave new world sounds naive and ridiculous. Trump's egotism is neither credible nor can it hide the harsh and unstable reality. The Israeli attempt at Palestinian ethnic cleansing has been as shocking as it is unfinished: amid the rubble, Gazans have returned to their destroyed homes.

Europe, Gaza and Israel woke up this morning to the news that "Israel and Hamas have approved the first phase of the peace plan."As a result, "all hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw its troops to an agreed-upon line as a first step toward a firm and lasting peace."

In a context of military escalation and in a world that hasn't seen so many armed conflicts since World War II, how can we talk about peace and war in schools? Toni Álvarez, a special education teacher and member of Demilitarize Education and CGT Ensenyament, proposes listening, dialogue, and denunciation for an education for peace and global justice, but also advocates addressing conflict. Although more and more time is being given to students' small, personal conflicts, he believes we focus on relationships with others and the question is how this affects the community, thus recovering the concept of security. "We understand security through weapons, through armies, and, in the end, what gives us security is having a roof over our heads, having food to eat, being surrounded by those we love, being able to relate harmoniously, and resolving conflicts through listening and dialogue," says Álvarez.

I hope these announced bilateral peace talks prosper. Peace between Ukraine and Russia would not only end so much misery and death, it would also be the beginning of a new economic landscape.

In the middle of a judicial offensive against Catalan in education, Catalonia's High Court has agreed with the Assembly for a Bilingual School, which last June sued the Catalan government over its instructions for holding university entrance exams, because they only asked invigilators to distribute exam papers in Catalan, and only when students requested it handing out a copy in Catalan. Thus, Catalonia's High Court has declared the instructions null and void. According to the judges, doing this is contrary to the Constitution because it violates the right of students not to be discriminated against (Article 14 of the Constitution) and the right to education (Article 27).

The 2021 university entrance exams were marked by the judicial decision to stop prioritising Catalan in exams and to distribute the questions in Spanish too. That order was published when the exams were already printed and the Generalitat came outand stated the exams would not change: the exams would be distributed in Catalan and anyone who wanted to could ask for them in Spanish or Aranese, as had always been the case. Less than 24 hours before the start of the September exam date, which is held between Tuesday and Thursday, Catalonia's High Court has reissued a resolution ordering the Catalan Department for Universities and Research and the Inter-University Council of Catalonia "not to identify" the students who choose to take the tests in Spanish and to offer the students "the statements in any of the co-official languages of Catalonia, without preference for any of them", since the decision corresponds to the students in whichever way allows them to complete the exercises to the best of their abilities. In practice, the judicial decision means each student will have to be asked individually in which language he or she wants to read the statements of the exams before starting each test.

The days of the current selectividad (university entrance exams) are numbered. Whether they will be few or many depends on the department of education and the universities, but for the moment the former seem determined to reform the current university entrance system. "We won't be able to hold out much longer with the current selectividad. The current university entrance exams (PAU) are unsustainable", said the Minister of Education, Josep Bargalló. The bachillerato (A-levels), said Bargalló, is the level of education that has remained most on the fringes of the wave of educational transformation that has shaken the education system in recent years, and this has meant that two entire academic years are conditioned by an exam. "The bachillerato has a corset called PAU", he said, and reviewed the grievances: he said that it is an exam that has "nothing to do with" skills-based work, that is based on "the old memorised study" and that "causes anxiety" to students. Despite the "reticence" that exists, the Education Ministry assures us that we are getting closer and closer to reforming this stage of education.