To begin with, I'm talking about a "national rail pact," not simply a national rail pact. The reason for this will become clear later. I'm referring, of course, to the offer made by the Minister of the Presidency, Albert Dalmau, to address the rail debacle at the parliamentary session on January 28th of this year. The situation is serious and affects far more than just the government; it's a profound social and political crisis. This pact should include civil society, not just the political parties.

In the 1950s and 60s, the competition among shipowners to possess the largest tanker in the world's oil fleet intensely shook the oil market. The main protagonists of this battle were the Greeks Stavros Niarchos and Aristotle Onassis, and the American Daniel Keith Ludwig, who would eventually become one of the richest men in the world.

In the second century CE, the Roman Empire was at its zenith, boasting some 55 million inhabitants and stretching from the eastern Mediterranean basin to Great Britain. This vast territory covered more than four million square kilometers. Goods, people, knowledge, beliefs, and even epidemics circulated. This was all done through a complex network of roads connecting farms, villages, and cities, allowing emperors to maintain control of the empire.

Every night before going to bed, Cristina—and many other Berga residents who work in Barcelona—begins to calculate how she'll get to work the next morning. "I have three options; all of them terrible. The first is to take the early morning bus, the 5:30 a.m. one, which runs along the old road. But it makes more than 10 stops, enters the towns, and the journey is extremely long: a long two and a half hours if everything goes well to get to work. It feels like an eternity," she explains. "Then there's another option, at 6:30 a.m., but I always rule this one out because it's only available during school hours, for students. It goes through Bellaterra and means more hours of travel, so I wouldn't make it on time," she continues. "So I usually take the 6:45 a.m. bus from Andorra, which is semi-direct, but it drops me off at 9:15 a.m., if all goes well and it's not full or delayed, at Bonanova, which means I'm late for work," explains this local resident, who works in the sector, who works in the sector, who works in the sector, who works in the sector, who works in the sector, "working from the bus with my laptop" despite being somewhat late. "If I have meetings, I don't take any chances and I go down by car, although I would prefer to go by public transport," she explains.

Made on the basis of the recommendations of the Committee of Experts on Climate Change To achieve climate neutrality by 2050, as set by the European Union, the Government will approve Catalonia's first carbon budget this Tuesday. Although it is years late—the 2017 climate change law stipulated that they would be approved— before 2021–, this roadmap with the greenhouse gas limits that different economic sectors can emit into the atmosphere should reach Parliament in the autumn, according to Silvia Paneque, Minister for Ecological Transition and Government spokesperson.

Aside from large doses of anger, frustration, and resignation, the repeated disruptions to the commuter rail service in Catalonia have also led many users to develop strategies for surviving the experience of taking the train every day to and from work. Below, we've compiled some of the most notable:

Adrià Ramírez (Taradell, 1987) is the president of the Public Transport Promotion (PTP). He leads one of the most important public transport user associations in Catalonia, which is not affiliated with any political party. They are a thorn in the side of the mobility teams working in the various public administrations. "I'd like to think that now there's the focus and political will to try to solve the suburban rail chaos," he says, unconvinced.

On January 1 of that year, Moventia appointed a new president, replacing Miquel Martí with his brother, Josep Maria. The family business explained to ARA its challenges for the coming years, with a milestone it could achieve by 2025: doubling its turnover in just three years.

The nautical company bound4blue is a company focused on wind energy applied to the maritime sector. Specifically, it produces automated wind-assisted propulsion systems, known as eSAILs. This system consists of elliptical suction sails with a fan inside, resembling an airplane wing placed vertically on board a boat. These sails generate six to seven times more power than conventional ones and reduce engine usage and free up propulsion power, offsetting the forward thrust of the vessel with the system. All of this saves fuel and reduces polluting gas emissions.

Almost at the last minute, the majority unions of Renfe and Adif reached an agreement with the Spanish and Catalan governments on Sunday night that allows for the cancellation of the strike scheduled for tomorrow, Monday, on the commuter rail service. In a joint statement signed by the Ministry of Transport and the Regional Ministry of Territories, they indicated that the agreement will allow "the planned rail services to be provided almost completely normally," although incidents early in the morning are not ruled out. On the one hand, because there may not have been enough time to assign services to all drivers; and, on the other, because the minority CGT and Confederación Intersindical-SF have disassociated themselves from the agreement.

The week Horribilis of Adif and Renfe has not yet finished. After Five consecutive days of chaos in rail transport, this Saturday two new breakdowns have collapsed the network again, in this case the high-speed one. Early in the morning, another problem in a catenary, now at Sants station, has forced a fast train from the Ouigo company to stop in the middle of the exit tunnel from Sants. In turn, the incident has paralyzed all high-speed train traffic and this has also affected users of Renfe AVE and those of the Italian company Iryo.

It is the longest metro line in Europe and possibly the one that will take the longest time to finish. Line 9 of the Barcelona metro is currently in operation at both ends, but not in its central section, which is its main purpose. Now the works have just been resumed and the tunnel boring machine is working on the section between Zona Universitaria and Lesseps stations.

Coinciding with the month in which nightclubs and bars are reopening in Catalonia and many other areas, such as the Balearic Islands, and after over a year and a half closed due to covid restrictions, New York gin Seagram's has run out of stock in Spain. As ARA has learnt, the reason has not been the strong demand after pubs and nightclubs reopened, but supply chain problems experienced by industry worldwide and which this sector has not been able to dodge. "We are having difficulties transporting, like most companies," say spokesmen for the multinational in Spain, who point out that as stock arrives it is distributed. Spokesmen have not been able to specify what the delay is. Be that as it may, several nightclubs consulted by ARA have confirmed that the gin arrives in dribs and drabs.

Obtaining sustainable fuels from nature is nothing new, and there are already several brands, such as Geely or Audi, who have been working on the research and development of new synthetic fuels that use organic waste or even volcanic lava as a source of energy to obtain fuel in a sustainable way for some time.

The lifting of tolls has a direct effect on traffic, according to data from motorways where the tolls have been removed after decades. On January 1, 2020, several toll sections were lifted and during the first year of toll-free use, car traffic has increased by up to 40% despite the pandemic, according to data from the Ministry of Transport obtained by ARA.