The Japanese have been able to verify in recent days that Calbee's potato chip bags have suddenly changed their design. Where previously there were bright colors, eye-catching illustrations and intense orange tones, now more sober, almost bare packaging appears, dominated by black and white. The gesture, seemingly minor, responds to a decision that is unusual in the world of food marketing: to minimize ink usage to ensure continuity of supply.

On March 1, 2026, a spokesperson for the Iranian government announced on television: “After a lifetime of incessant and tireless struggle (...), the supreme leader Ali Khamenei drank the sweet chalice of martyrdom and entered Paradise.” He described Khamenei as “the tireless leader who has guided the state for the last 40 years” and, at the end of his statement, could not contain his tears.Not everyone in Iran thinks this way. There are citizens who would be willing to negotiate a reduction in economic sanctions and an agreement with the US, but they have no vehicle to express it. In an autocratic state, the opposition does not have the capacity to express itself. Even less so in Iran, where the opposition is physically massacred, with thousands of deaths and dozens of executions.Khamenei has been able to politically nullify his adversaries over the almost 40 years he has been the supreme leader –reformists at different levels: Rafsanjani, Khatami, Ahmadinejad, Rouhani, Pezeshkian–, and has consolidated his orthodoxy of intransigence with the support of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the backbone of a police state. The fact that the one chosen to succeed him has been his son, Mojtaba, confirms this.The relationship between the US and Israel has mutated under the Trump administration into an alliance of equals. Beyond the supply of American weaponry, ammunition, and military intelligence since the birth of the Hebrew state in 1948, the alliance between the two countries to conduct a shared war in the Gulf seeks to obtain an incontestable political, military, and economic supremacy, which both imagine as viable and for which Israel has openly fought since 1967 and the US since the 1980s.

The war between the United States and Israel against Iran and the consequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is beginning to have a direct impact on the mental health and working conditions of the sailors trapped in the area, who, according to data from the International Maritime Organization (IMO), number around 20,000. This pressure is confirmed to ARA by Amy Liebthal, spokesperson for the International Seafarers' Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN), an entity that operates a free, confidential, and multilingual 24-hour telephone assistance service (Seafarer Help), aimed at seafarers in situations of risk and their families.

Financial markets seem unfazed. Despite the war between the United States and Iran, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz as the epicenter of the conflict, and repeated warnings from major international organizations about the risks of a prolonged escalation, the reaction has, for the moment, been one of containment. Or, at least, of a certain indifference. The world's main stock exchanges are trading near all-time highs, and in some cases continue to break records, as if the geopolitical background noise is being muffled by a confidence that, even today, is holding up better than many anticipated. It's not just a matter of markets: household behavior also doesn't seem particularly altered.The stock market is not always a good predictor of the economic future. Sometimes it is right, but it often underestimates risks, especially when they are complex or difficult to quantify. Is this the case? The economic dynamics of the main economies – also the Catalan one – remain relatively solid, at least for now. First-quarter corporate results have been, in general terms, positive and have reinforced the perception that global growth maintains a certain favorable inertia, despite the accumulation of shocks and uncertainties.To this optimism is added another key element: the growing expectation about the impact that artificial intelligence can have on productivity. Not in a distant future, but already today. The latest advances, both in capabilities and applications, fuel the perception of a far-reaching economic transformation, which is not limited to specialized technological sectors, but is beginning to extend to the economy as a whole. If you tried an AI application a few years ago –or even a few months ago– and it disappointed you, try it again. And if you haven't done so yet, the time has come. The qualitative leap is evident, and its transformative potential, difficult to ignore. You will be amazed!Macroeconomic data confirm that the economy is resisting better than could have been feared. In the Spanish case, GDP grew by 2.7% year-on-year in the first quarter, slightly above what had been forecast before the outbreak of the conflict. This growth is healthy and rests mainly on domestic demand, with a prominent role for household consumption and investment that consolidates the momentum of recent quarters. High-frequency indicators suggest that this inertia is being maintained, even though the conflict has already lasted two months: household spending continues to advance strongly, especially in items sensitive to confidence such as leisure, restaurants, or, more recently, fashion, furniture, and decoration.To all this is added a factor often forgotten, but key to understanding the reaction, so far contained, of the price of energy: before the outbreak of the conflict, global oil reserves were at historically high levels. It is true that the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has generated a significant deficit in the global production of oil and gas – insufficient, at the moment, to meet demand – and that reserves are being reduced rapidly. But the starting point was relatively favorable.Finally, there is an implicit calculation –risky, but fundamental– that helps explain the markets' serenity. From the outset, they have assumed that the conflict would be short-lived. Perhaps because a prolonged scenario would end up having a serious impact on the global economy, also on the North American one, in a context marked, moreover, by the fall in popularity of the President of the United States a few months before the midterm elections. The fact is that oil and gas futures markets continue to anticipate a contained and time-limited price increase.It is, however, a risky calculation. The situation could turn sour, the conflict intensify and drag on. In this case, the scenario would change substantially: supply problems in some Asian or less resourced countries, a much less accommodating attitude from the markets, sustained tensions in energy prices and, finally, a clear impact on household budgets. We are not yet at this point. Time is running out, but, for the moment, the economy is holding up and looking the other way.

Donald Trump reiterated this midday, on his Truth Social network, threats to Iran's energy infrastructure, after yesterday the Revolutionary Guard attacked "a French ship and a British cargo ship" and again closed the Strait of Hormuz. "A total violation of our ceasefire agreement!", he proclaimed, after announcing that he is sending representatives to Pakistan again to resume negotiations for the peace agreement.

The United States and Iran are squeezing the last days of the ceasefire, which expires on Tuesday night to Wednesday, in a race against time negotiation. Neither wants to return to an open war that would have unpredictable consequences, but no significant approximation of positions is seen either. The truce is affected by the situation in the Strait of Hormuz, which remains closed. Iran announced on Friday that it would allow commercial vessels to pass through a route under its control, but, after Washington said it maintained its blockade on the passage of Iranian vessels, the Revolutionary Guard said the strait "returned to the previous situation," and attacked several vessels. Trump considered it a violation of the ceasefire, and this Sunday he announced that his representatives will arrive in Islamabad on Monday night. He also stated that the US military had captured an Iranian ship attempting to cross the naval blockade. Vice President J.D. Vance will once again lead the US delegation, along with envoy Steve Witkoff and President's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Iranian authorities, on the other hand, have not confirmed the second round of talks and have accused Washington of "excessive demands, unrealistic expectations, constant changes of stance, repeated contradictions" and consider the US naval blockade a violation of the ceasefire.

The weekly magazine Destino published an editorial note on January 17, 1959, which resonates strongly today. It stated: "As we announced to our readers, Josep Pla has boarded a tanker in El Ferrol to produce a series of major reports exclusively for the readers of Destino. The information we have commissioned from our friend is about oil. Europe is dependent on this fuel, and it is necessary for a journalist like Pla to explain to us, with his unparalleled acuity, all the political and economic problems involved in the extraction and exploitation of oil." Almost seventy years have passed, and not only Europe, but the whole world is dependent on it.

Tankers that left the Persian Gulf before the war are now arriving at port. That is to say: the worst moment in terms of hydrocarbon availability is yet to come. But the disruption will not be permanent. For a paradoxical reason. US stocks hit their all-time high this week. Financial markets are telling Trump that they want peace and for him to stop the war. It is a market that Trump can manipulate with tricks for his own benefit, but hardly to encourage him to wage war if they do not want it. They are his friends and they have expressed themselves clearly. Nevertheless, the moment is dangerous. The temptation to flee forward will be there. But I believe that the Persian leaders, fanatical but not stupid, will understand, and that in a relatively short period an understanding will be reached that will allow both sides to claim victory. I think it will include an open Strait of Hormuz.

Although Iran announced this Friday the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz in response to the 10-day truce agreed in Lebanon, this Saturday it has backtracked and announced that it will re-impose "strict control" over the passage. This plot twist comes after the United States maintained the blockade against Iranian ports yesterday. "Control of the Strait of Hormuz has returned to its previous state and this strategic waterway is under strict management and control by the Armed Forces," announced the spokesman for the Jatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, Lieutenant Colonel Ebrahim Zolfagari, in a statement collected by the Tasnim agency.

Donald Trump's deadline to block the Strait of Hormuz expired this Monday past 10 a.m. in Washington and, during the first hour, the only visible change has been on a rhetorical level. The president has once again threatened the Iranians, warning them that any of their ships that try to overcome the siege of the US military will be "eliminated". "If any of these ships approach our blockade, they will be immediately eliminated, and we will use the same elimination system that we use against drug traffickers on boats at sea. It is fast and brutal," warned the Republican, alluding to extrajudicial executions in the Caribbean Sea against alleged narco-boats. Shortly after the Republican announced on Sunday his intention to obstruct maritime passage to economically harm the ayatollahs, Tehran warned that no port in the Persian Gulf would be safe if he tried to stop their ships.

Good news arrived tonight from Hungary:Viktor Orbán has lost the elections. He has lost them clearly, because the opposition leader has won them with a resounding two-thirds absolute majority with the highest turnout in Hungary's recent democratic history; never before had so many people gone to vote since 1989 when the communist regime fell, meaning there was a desire to vote and a desire for change.The profile of the winner, Péter Magyar, is apparently contradictory: he worked for Orbán's government, but has been increasingly distancing himself until stating tonight that "the people of Hungary have said yes to Europe". And in Brussels there is euphoria, because although Hungary is a relatively small country (9 and a half million inhabitants), Orbán's Hungary was a kind of black sheep in the European Union for a double and powerful reason: it was the candidate of Putin and Trump. It has always opposed European sanctions on Russia, and as for Trump, Orbán was one of the European references for the American president, to the point that last week Vice President Vance went to Hungary to support Orbán in an electoral rally. That Trump's candidates lose in Europe, that going hand in hand with Trump detracts rather than adds, is a sign that people do not want wars like those in Iran that are making us more expensive and complicating our lives, as we explain on this page: the rising cost of fertilizers threatens the cost of food, and it turns out that the Persian Gulf countries are among the main producers.the rising cost of fertilizers threatens the cost of food, and it turns out that the Persian Gulf countries are among the main producers.By the way, the first round of peace talks with Iran ended in disagreement (as expected) and tonight Trump said he will block the Strait of Hormuz (which will prevent Iran from charging tolls to pass through it), which in essence is an acknowledgment that he cannot open it. And since he does everything in bulk, this morning he attacked Pope Leo XIV in one of those on-the-fly responses, saying that the Pope is

Donald Trump's roller coaster doctrine has permeated the third Gulf War from the outset. This weekend we have seen another abrupt, precipitous turn: from the moderate optimism generated by the start of talks between Americans and Iranians in Islamabad, after the last-minute agreement on Tuesday that averted "hell" in the Middle East; to worrying pessimism due to the lack of agreement in Pakistani meeting rooms and the return to the most visceral threats between Washington and Tehran, which hint at bombing the strategic Hormuz, the epicenter of this war, again.hint at a renewed bombing of strategic Hormuz, the epicenter of this war.Tehran responded quickly, stating that it will consider it a violation of the ceasefire if military ships approach Hormuz and that, therefore, it will respond forcefully. The blockade of Hormuz by the Iranians —their strategic philosopher's stone— has indeed stifled the global economy, and with sufficient effectiveness, placing Washington in a compromised position.

One of the key points of the fragile ceasefire established between the United States and Iran on Wednesday is the free movement of maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. A key passage for tankers, fertilizers, and dry goods, the strangulation generated as a result of the war threatens the entire world economy. The volume of ship passage has fallen from between 150 and 200 daily on February 27 to less than ten in the last forty-eight hours.

The head of International for ARA and special envoy to Dubai, Francesc Millan, answers subscribers' questions about the war in the Middle East in a live conversation with deputy director Carla Turró.

Today is one of those days when you don't even have time to get your bearings. We are waiting for Iran, because Trump seems determined not to give any more ultimatums. Yesterday he said: "We can destroy Iran in one night, and that night could be tomorrow," meaning, this coming dawn. This time it could be for real, because these extended ultimatums are starting to be a joke and because the crude language Trump has used these days shows more desperation than ability to intimidate the ayatollahs' regime, and that makes it even more dangerous. If his threat is fulfilled, the consequences could be catastrophic, almost unimaginable, beyond the deaths, the war crimes he will commit, and the world economy also going up in smoke.To understand how erratic and neronian Trump is, we only need to think that he has the world admiring the NASA trip to the Moon: human beings had never been so far from Earth, and this is extraordinary news and of national and almost worldwide unity, but Trump himself has counter-programmed himself with a war whose meaning he does not know and from which he does not know how to get out. He only knows how to boast about the rescue of the shot-down pilot (a meritorious operation, yes, because if the Iranians had taken a prisoner the political cost for Trump would have been very high), but when you look at it, Iran already has a great hostage, which is the Strait of Hormuz, on which we all depend.Speaking of Hormuz, we highly recommend the reports that our Head of International, Francesc Millan, is currently filing from the Middle East. Yesterday we read about him sailing through the Strait, and today we find him in the ultra-modern and very exposed Dubai.Not everything is misfortune: unemployment has fallen in Catalonia and the number of people who have jobs and are affiliated with Social Security is nearing records. It is good news, which unfortunately does not prevent people from working and not escaping poverty.And yesterday an old acquaintance, Jorge Fernández Díaz, went to trial accused of having participated in the theft of information from Luis Bárcenas that compromised the PP. The Kitchen plot allegedly paid bribes to Bárcenas' driver with money from reserved police funds. On the defendants' bench are one who was a minister, one who was a secretary of state, five commissioners, two inspectors, and two police officers. Rot to the bone of the State, a type of rot we know well, because some of these, starting with Fernández Díaz, appear in all the photos of the patriotic police.And today begins the Koldo case, which affects the PSOE: purchase of masks, contracts, cronyism and favors. Do these two trials have anything in common? Yes, that Fernández Díaz was of Rajoy's utmost trust and Ábalos was of Pedro Sánchez's utmost trust.And we end with a page that makes us think that the nightmare will continue in Rodalies. It is this one signed by Natàlia Vila. As you know, the service is provided with trains from 1990, and now the new ones were supposed to arrive. First they were supposed to arrive last year, then at the beginning of the year, and now they say "in the autumn", and most will be for Rodalies and few will come to Regionals, and they will be delivered over the next 4 years, until 2030. On top of that, some new trains that are already in the testing phase are already covered in graffiti. No further questions, your honor.Good morning.

Iran's regime is defending itself from the joint attack by the United States and Israel with a weapon that is not military, but economic: choking the transit of oil in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's gas and oil transit passed. But it is a selective closure: instead of mining the strait to block the passage of all ships, Tehran allows the passage of its own vessels and those it considers "non-hostile," while blocking those from countries it considers "enemies." It has established a selective toll with a physical corridor in the sea, through which it forces ships it is interested in to pass. Those that do not do so risk being attacked with drones, missiles, or speedboats.

Without insurance, there are no ships to sail. That is why, at number 1 Lime Street, in the heart of the City of London, Donald Trump's words have a relative impact. He can say one thing or the opposite. Either that the war will end in "the next two or three weeks", after sending Iran "to the Stone Age, where it belongs." Or that the navy's aircraft carriers will protect the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. Or even more: that it will be the Western allies who will have to do it, either by warlike or diplomatic means, such as those discussed on Thursday by the thirty-five countries that, with the United Kingdom as host, met virtually to analyze the alternatives to the blockade of oil flow in the Persian Gulf.

The war against Iran is impacting the global fertilizer trade: its scarcity will drive up prices and lead to less abundant harvests. Most fertilizers are produced in the Middle East and also transit through the Strait of Hormuz, just like oil and gas. In fact, one-third of the world's fertilizer trade passes through this strait, and its main destination is Southeast Asia. Asia already fears not having enough food due to the conflict.

Long before the coordinated bombings on Iran by Israel and the United States, the Tehran regime had been warning for weeks that any attack would trigger a war escalation of the utmost consequences. A month later, the confrontation is already being played out on the battlefield of the economy and threatens to cause a new global recession.

On the war: the United States and Israel have neither overthrown the ayatollahs' regime, nor do they control the Strait of Hormuz, nor is Trump advancing peace talks as he wants us to believe with this daily obsession of talking, talking, and talking.Trump wants to claim victory and cannot, he wants to announce peace and bombs and missiles continue to be heard, and Tehran says they are not negotiating anything, the war is harming the lives of people and businesses all over the world, and it is sending us into an energy crisis that could strangle us all. The dictatorship of the Iranian clergy has understood that Trump is in a hurry to finish, and logically they are not; the regime is already very damaged, and now they want the whole world to blame Trump for the general impoverishment.In this regard, I recommend again theanalysis by our Head of International, Francesc Millán, on what might happen now. Because Trump said the war would last 4 weeks. It will be 4 weeks the day after tomorrow, Saturday. What should we do: insist on the diplomatic path or escalate the war, with nuclear weapons if necessary?In this scenario, today the anti-crisis decree is being voted on in Congress. It will be approved because Junts has already said they will support it because the PSOE will support what we explained yesterday about the zero VAT reduction for self-employed workers earning less than 85,000 euros per year. The vote and debate will be today, but yesterday Esquerra and Junts already debated another issue that will be voted on in a month, which is the decree extending rental contracts. And Rufián went all out against Junts: "Who do they work for? For whom? If they overthrow this decree, I wish them years of political ostracism. And I promise you that while I am here, I will strive very hard for that to be the case. Very. Because they do terrible harm to people, to this country, and to my country. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes..."