From his room in a house in Alicante, where he lived with his mother, a 16-year-old boy managed an international network of hackers that had carried out more than 1,000 cyberattacks around the world. He had even perpetrated a cyberattack against the Government of Catalonia, specifically at Infraestructures.cat, causing damages close to one million euros last year. They called themselves KillSec and were specialists in using malicious software (ransomware) and demanding ransoms to recover the stolen data.

The fires this summer have left a lesson for the continent: climate emergencies are a new reality that we must live with. Just in July, simultaneous fires in France and Spain burned nearly 100,000 hectares and the brutality of the fire put emergency services against the ropes, to the point that they had to ask for help from other European Union states.

The year 2017 changed many things, including the Mossos d'Esquadra police force. From the beginning of the deployment throughout Catalonia in the 90s until the October 1st referendum, the Catalan police only had four heads of the force, the last one being Josep Lluís Trapero. The prosecution of the major of the Mossos for the events of the autumn of 2017 opened a period of instability that has not yet closed – although now it is strictly due to the internal tensions of Catalan politics and the force itself –. Since 2017 there have been nine appointments for head of the Mossos, one per year. "Can you imagine a company with more than 20,000 employees that changes its CEO every year? It wouldn't be sustainable," comments a police source.

The Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, confirmed this Wednesday that they will open a file for an "alleged very serious or serious misconduct" against the police officers who, on August 23rd, assaulted a minor, a Barça club member, in the vicinity of the Elche stadium. "The action that was carried out is in no way justified, regardless of the fact that the person was carrying a symbol that is absolutely legitimate in a state of law," replied Marlaska to Junts per Catalunya MP Marta Madrenas during the control session of the Spanish government in Congress. In the video distributed through social media, the agents can be seen striking the minor, who ends up on the ground, after taking an estelada from him.

The ERC deputy in Congress Francesc-Marc Álvaro wore a tie with the Barça colors and took out an estelada (Catalan independence flag) in the interior commission to denounce the actions of the National Police in Elche, where a minor was subjected to police aggression for carrying this flag. In this commission, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, was appearing due to the crisis in Ceuta, and Álvaro took the opportunity to denounce the attack on the fan boy during the run-up to the Barça match."Do you think this flag [the estelada] is a weapon of mass destruction or a prohibited item that should be seized?", the deputy and journalist asked Marlaska. Álvaro demanded explanations from the Interior Ministry and argued that if we are talking about a democratic state, such actions should be inadmissible. "I regret, Mr. Marlaska, that UIP forces were rough and beat a 17-year-old boy and arrested him with absolutely excessive police brutality", Álvaro insisted, while from the commission's table they asked him to refer to the Ceuta issue, which was the focus of the minister's appearance. There is currently an internal investigation within the National Police to determine if the officers acted with proportionality.

This summer, a truck carrying more than 500 kilos of cocaine from Portugal disappeared in the State. The cargo was valued at around 30 million euros and its disappearance generated a climate of extreme distrust among the members of the drug trafficking network responsible for the drug. The head of the organization had commissioned the transport to a driver, but he resorted to a third person to carry out the transfer. However, during the journey, the latter fled and hid. Since the intermediary could not explain where the merchandise was, the person in charge of the operation held him responsible for the loss and violently kidnapped him at the end of July. After ten days of being held against his will, the National Police released him in Caldes de Montbui.

The Irish press has echoed the terrible events that occurred on August 25, when a couple of this nationality was found by their children in the jacuzzi of the house they had rented in the Cap Blanc urbanization in Cullera, Valencia.

The wait has ended and the day of the solar eclipse, special for its total condition, has arrived. This will only be visible in a very narrow strip of the planet, where the demarcations of Castelló and València fall. In Alacant, the phenomenon will only be visible partially.

It is the turn of the former Minister of Health Alba Vergés to explain herself at the trial for the vaccination against covid of the National Police and Civil Guard officers stationed in Catalonia. In her statement, she focused on explaining that they always followed the criteria set by the Interterritorial Council of Health on the vaccination strategy, even when it was decided to prioritize AstraZeneca doses for people between 55 and 65 years old. This, she clarified, did not prevent essential worker groups – such as police officers, healthcare personnel, or teachers – from continuing to receive doses, but it had to be done "as vaccines became available." In fact, when directly asked, she denied giving any order to delay vaccination for the officers.

The former Minister of Health, Josep Maria Argimon, testified early in the trial for the COVID vaccination of national police and civil guards stationed in Catalonia. The then director of the Catalan Health Institute and Secretary of Public Health assured that the decision to limit the AstraZeneca vaccine to the 60 to 65 age group – whether or not they were essential workers – was a decision of the Interterritorial Health Council and "did not pose any ethical conflict" nor in the epidemiological field, because it prioritized people most vulnerable to the virus. Nevertheless, he was in favor of continuing to vaccinate all officers, because the logistics were already in place, and he communicated this to the minister Alba Vergés.

New round of witnesses in the trial for allegedly "discriminating" against national police and civil guards with covid vaccines. After the commanders of both forces cleared the defendants, among whom are former ministers Josep Maria Argimon and Alba Vergés, this Monday it was the turn of other former Health directors to explain themselves. Among them, Vergés's advisor who sent a key message in the investigation of the case, in which she said: "Once again, the minister asks to stop Civil Guard and National Police. We cannot justify it. We should stop it".

The testimony of those responsible for the covid vaccination of National Police and Civil Guard agents in Catalonia has been a cold shower for police unions that accuse former heads of the Health department of having "discriminated" against them compared to the Mossos d'Esquadra. The second day of the trial of former councilors Alba Vergés and Josep Maria Argimon focused on the statements of the commanders of these two forces who organized the vaccination of their agents stationed in Catalonia, and both stressed that they spoke daily with their interlocutor at Health, Xavier Rodríguez Guasch, about whom they said he always had a good disposition for coordination.

In August 2008, chance brought me to the scorching city of Page, Arizona. I have never experienced more scorching heat in my life. To try and keep myself biologically intact, I took refuge with a pitcher of beer at the Mexican restaurant La Fiesta. I was glancing at the Lake Powell Chronicle when Stevie Manniel, a Navajo Indian, sat next to me. He was half-drunk and wanted money. I showed him the state of my pants, in tatters, and he replied that only the rich dared to go out on the street with ripped pants.—What do you find interesting in the newspaper? —he/she asked me.I told him about a piece of news that I found surprising: the county's educational authorities were organizing teenage work teams during the hottest months of summer. They did strenuous work, such as repairing street furniture or the gardens of the elderly, or even road labor, with the aim of creating bonds between isolated teenagers, because —the newspaper said— "there is no worse company for teenagers than loneliness." Although everything was organized by the county's educational authorities, the implementation was carried out by local police volunteers without any financial compensation. One policeman assured that working under those climatic conditions made the collaboration between all those involved and the creation of bonds of trust and solidarity essential. Participation was voluntary and young people could withdraw whenever they wished.Given that my image of deep America's police was shaped by the arbitrary sheriffs of Hollywood movies, all of this surprised me so much that I took it with suspicion, even though the program supervisor assured that the mission of the police is, first and foremost, to prevent crime and ensure the well-being of the entire community. And then, surprisingly, that woman quoted Plato: the mission of the police, she said, is to guarantee the freedom of citizens.

Now that the public safety alarm has sounded in the streets, it is pertinent to ask what the feeling of security in the streets is made of. When garbage is scattered at the foot of the bins, when trains run graffiti-covered, when drivers of all kinds act as if a red or green traffic light were a mere non-binding opinion, when investment is made for the first-day photo and we forget about maintenance, when the usual shops are replaced by businesses not aimed at residents but at passers-by, when people have to leave the neighborhood because they can no longer afford it, the knots that socially bind us come undone, because the primacy of the common interest has been replaced by the law of the jungle, and we feel insecure.

The current head of the National Police in the Balearic Islands, José Santafé Arnedo, will now be the new Deputy Director of Operations (DAO) of the force. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska appointed him to the top police command position, replacing José Ángel González, who resigned when it became known that he was under investigation. allegedly for sexually assaulting a subordinateThe vacancy for the position of Deputy Director of Operations (DAO)—which in practice means being the number two in the force—opened seven days ago, and Santafé submitted his application. Since González's resignation and while the new police chief was being chosen, the position had been temporarily filled by the deputy director of human resources, Gema Barroso. Finally, Marlaska chose Santafé at the suggestion of the director general of the force, Francisco Pardo; a political leadership position and the only one above the DAO.

Santafé is 61 years old and has held various positions throughout his career in the force, which began in 1990. As an inspector, he worked in public safety, the judicial police, and immigration matters, both in Madrid and the Balearic Islands. In 2005, Santafé was promoted to chief inspector and in 2012 to commissioner. With this rank, he served in the Canary Islands and again in the Balearic Islands, where in 2020 he reached the highest rank in the police force—that of chief commissioner—and since 2022 had been the chief superintendent of the regional police headquarters. During this time, he worked alongside the current Secretary of State for Security, Aina Calvo, who served as the Spanish government's delegate in the Balearic Islands between 2020 and 2023.

]]>

L'Hospitalet de Llobregat will be the site of the pilot test of a system that aims to eliminate the business of reselling appointments for immigration proceduresThis is a model that will automate the scheduling of appointments for the process, making it easier for users to obtain one. The system has already been successfully tested in Castellón and Girona, and the goal is to gradually expand and implement it throughout Spain. While the trial is underway, when a resident of Hospitalet's immigration application is approved, the notification will inform them that they will no longer need to schedule an appointment to obtain their Foreigner's Identity Card (TIE), as has been the practice until now. The difference from now on is that, a few days later, they will receive a text message or email assigning them a date and time to complete the procedure at the National Police station. They will also receive a reminder the day before the appointment. In fact, the first steps of this trial have already been taken. The first notifications informing users that they would receive an automated appointment were sent on Monday, January 12. A week later, on Monday the 19th, users received the first messages with their appointments. The first date they have been summoned for is next Monday, February 2.

]]>

The most commercially successful platforms have increased their productions focused on elite military units and have normalized an aesthetic of order, strength, and discipline. One of the latest examples is the documentary series Pelayo: Beyond the Limit on Prime Video. The protagonist is Pelayo Gayol, a veteran inspector with the Spanish National Police's GEO special operations unit who joins real anti-drug trafficking missions in Colombia. We already met the character in another documentary series, GEO: Beyond the Limitwhere he trained and selected the Special Operations Group, pushing agents to their limits to transform them into superhumans. Pelayo fosters a testosterone-fueled emotional immersion in military discipline. He plunges us into a context of violence and tension while constructing a cheap, pseudo-intellectual discourse about his work.

]]>

This week we will continue discussing funding, because on Wednesday Spanish Vice President Montero will present the model agreed upon with Esquerra Republicana in all the autonomous communities. It will be a formality, because the Spanish government holds a majority in this meeting.

]]>

A minor's complaint in Tarragona has uncovered a sexual predator who used fake Instagram profiles to obtain child pornography and had harassed at least eight victims across Spain, six of them minors. The 26-year-old man lived in Santander and had even arranged in-person meetings with some of the victims, both minors and adults. With the man now in custody, the police investigation continues to clarify the full extent of the crimes.

]]>

Sub-inspectors are the quintessential mid-level officers in the Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police force). Just above sergeants and below inspectors, there are 414 officers with this rank, responsible for supervising units, groups, and subgroups. In other words, they often act as a liaison between the rank-and-file officers—the first line of defense when investigating or patrolling the streets—and the executive or upper echelon, comprised of the force's chiefs and coordinators. "We translate strategic decisions into operational work," sources within this rank explain, adding that their responsibilities are very similar to those of inspectors, especially when on duty. However, sub-inspectors have been fighting for months: they believe their duties are not commensurate with their salaries.

]]>