Sabadell suffered their second defeat of the season, after seeing how Burgos took advantage of a penalty that had to be retaken to take the three points (1-0). The arlequinat team strongly protested the referee's decision to order a retake of the penalty, which was initially saved by Fuoli. Curro, on the second attempt, did not fail, giving the victory to a local team that created the best chances of the match.

Asisa Joventut repeated their Supercopa Endesa exhibition and sent Barça back to the corner to think (113-89). La Penya, which thrives in scenarios that motivate them, made the 10,248 spectators at the Palau Olímpic go wild. Ricky Rubio, Nico Laprovittola, and Eli Ndiaye led the green-and-black triumph. Furthermore, the young Adrián Torres completed a great performance. "Catalonia is green-and-black," the pavilion ended up chanting.

A society is ordered when it is governed according to a common concept of justice that is shared and respected. This must begin with self-respect, which is the primary principle. That is what John Rawls thought. Spinoza, in a similar vein, proposed that without self-respect and self-appreciation, happiness is impossible: a person will not be able to respect others if they do not respect themselves. This entails believing in one's own project but also having enough strength to carry it out. This second element is as important as the first. In Spain, we often forget this, both historically and in current practice.

A few days ago, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, upon accepting the National Culture Award, ended her acceptance speech by saying that if we take care of culture, culture will take care of us. It seemed to me that I had heard her say it on some other occasion, and I found it very fitting: it is hard to think of anyone who can state it with such conviction, and at the same time with such meaning. One only needs to evoke one of Sílvia's songs, or any of her concerts, or even her way of speaking, moving, acting, to see that, certainly, she takes her craft as an act of caring. And of responsibility, too. Mireia Sallarès says this, that having an idea is having a responsibility, and I like how both ideas resonate together because, beyond the political thing or the social dimension of creation in terms of a manifesto or a claim, there is a political action in the gesture of writing (poems, songs, ideas, art...) that deals with a more delicate and sinuous political intention, I would say, more subtle and perhaps imperceptible, which is that of caring and that of having responsibility.

The other day, during a conference in Almeria, the managers of a cooperative explained to me that they needed to have a workforce approximately 20% larger than what their activity required. They had around 1,500 workers and every day between 200 and 300 people were absent. To ensure normal operation, they had to maintain hundreds of additional workers.

France woke up on Sunday in a state of shock after the riots caused a degree of destruction not seen for many years in the country's main cities, starting with the capital, Paris. The Parisian City Council has admitted that law enforcement was overwhelmed, on a day when between 550,000 and 800,000 protesters were counted across the country and there were about 2,000 arrests. The outburst of rage began to brew during student protests a few weeks ago and has quickly spread to other layers of society, who see their standard of living becoming lower and, in parallel, public services becoming weaker. The result is the shocking images of this weekend, with a town hall in flames, that of Limoges, and the looting of luxury shops in the heart of Paris in the face of police helplessness. A police force, by the way, that was also in the spotlight for the excessive use of force against students.

Girona needed life and Andorra gave it to them. The Gironins could not have had it easier and took advantage of two unfortunate actions by goalkeeper Owono to secure the victory before halftime (2-0). With this result, they are five points away from the direct promotion zone.

The only thing missing was Ángela Carrasco blaring through the speakers with those shrieks that said “si tu eres mi hooombreee y yo tu mujeeeer, donde quieras que estés amooor, contigo estarééé”. Pedro Sánchez’s kiss to Begoña Gómez is one of the campaign’s images, and most newspapers included it on their front page. The scene, being prefabricated, had a touch of discomfort and, in the wide shots showing the crowd applauding that display of intimate affection, also a dose of political pornography. Perhaps that is why the headline in El País (“Sánchez puts Begoña into the campaign”) expressed a certain discomfort and was identical to that of El Mundo.

"We are in an era of manifest mistrust: it seems we do not know where things are headed, or perhaps we do not want to know, and all this generates discomfort and restlessness," said philosopher Josep Ramoneda to Esther Vera, director of the ARA, and Xavier Mas de Xaxàs, journalist for La Vanguardia, the two speakers at the closing conversation of the Cap Roig Meetings of the La Caixa Foundation, held this weekend.

The weekend has been dominated by weather that has progressively destabilized, shifting from the mildness and fair conditions of Saturday morning to the downpours and cool atmosphere of this Sunday. The DANA Dana and the arrival of humid maritime winds have caused precipitation that, in some cases, has exceeded 200 mm on the peninsular Mediterranean coast (you will find more data at the end of this report). The weather will remain unsettled on Monday, with widespread and once again heavy rain in some areas, such as in a large part of Catalonia, where some monthly rainfall records are already approaching 400 mm.

In Riyadh, cars fill the roads, restaurants receive customers and football matches are played. But, under this appearance of normality, an uneasiness that is difficult to erase has settled in: not knowing when the next alert will sound or where the next projectile might fall. The wave of attacks by the Houthis from Yemen has hit strategic infrastructures and has exposed the limits of a country that has invested enormous resources in defense.

From being disparagingly called the Monguer by some of her party colleagues to receiving the nickname of the Empress. The rise of Isabel Díaz Ayuso within the Madrid PP has been as surprising as it has been meteoric. How has she managed to go from contempt to hegemony? The journalist David Fernández (Madrid, 1975) analyzes this trajectory in the book Ayuso. Zancadillas, intrigas y venganzas en la Corte de Madrid (Libros del K.O., 2026), an unauthorized biography for which he has spoken with 180 people who have known the current president of the Community of Madrid in different stages of her political career.

When Jonathan was born, Charles Darwin was only 23 years old. This giant tortoise of the Aldabra species is the longest-living (terrestrial) animal in the world known to date. It is 194 years old and still today it walks, at a very slow pace, through the gardens of Plantation House, which is the residence of the governor of Saint Helena, one of the Seychelles islands. It has lost its sight and sense of smell, and it must be fed (basically lettuce and carrots), but it is still active and weighs about 180 kilograms. Now, scientists have studied its DNA to try to extract data that will help us live longer.

In an autumn marked by the discourse surrounding artificial intelligence, Europe seemed far from any seat of power. Just a few weeks away from the predictable mega-IPO of Anthropic, and still with the echoes of the controversy over the technology's safety that shook the United States in September, the Twenty-Seven have moved a relevant piece for the first time in recent years. At the beginning of October, Mistral, the French benchmark for AI –the only European player mentioned in the conversation of the most advanced models– launched its latest model, Mistral Large 4, also known "very officially" as le Chonk.

Josefina, president of the Sant Andreu University Extension Classroom, which meets at the Ignasi Iglesias Municipal Library, writes to me. It turns out that the library workers in Barcelona have been on strike since May, and this means that this group of elderly people has been left without a climate refuge in the summer and without an auditorium for the classes that have started in the autumn. They have had to turn to another space that is less central and has a cost they will not be able to afford for the whole course. They are elderly, active people who try not to miss a single outing or lecture. Classrooms like this one exist all over the country, and they are of enormous value in terms of human relationships, emotional well-being, and the quality of life in neighborhoods and towns.

Barça has announced the absences of Eric Garcia and Jules Kounde just hours before boarding a plane to travel to Paris, where the 'blaugrana' team will face Paris Saint-Germain. These are two very important absences for Hansi Flick, as they are the two players he relies on to occupy the right-back position and cover Lamine Yamal's back. Both returned from this Saturday's match against Betis (2-5) with discomfort, which has resulted in injuries of varying nature. Together with the rest of the expedition, they landed 14 hours later than scheduled in Barcelona due to the storm and underwent the relevant medical tests.

What was small has become big. And the insignificant, important. Corners have moved rapidly and essentially to the center. What was judged as unreal, artificial, now becomes an unquestionable, absolute, total sentence of naturalness, of reality. Microscopic things, Lilliputian beings, are being seen as skyscrapers of humanity, of hope. But the collapse, the barbarism, the illiteracy will also arrive there. Prepare yourselves for the occupation.

The sunglasses in her hands betray the age of the image. "It's not that I want to look younger," Matilde Ferrer excuses herself with a laugh, it's that the photograph in that Berlin restaurant reminds her of the happy trip she took with her children and she always likes to look at it again. In the background, there is no green or any plant to be seen. Nor any of the flowers that she has dedicated herself to hybridizing for more than forty years.

One out of every three food items ends up in the trash. The figure is staggering, and it should make us think about what we buy, how much we buy, and how we cook it. Chef Ada Parellada explains that she has seen a person throwing away dry bread and, immediately after, buying a package of breadcrumbs (or biscuit flour, as we can correctly call it both ways). "It is neither ethical nor moral, because bread should not be thrown away," she says, and adds that she entered the fight against food waste out of indignation and anger at seeing facts like the one we have just recounted.

British actor and presenter Russell Brand steps out of a black Mercedes in front of the Southwark Crown Court in London. His sunglasses, the tie undone over his chest, the way he adjusts his trousers, and his air of superiority are more reminiscent of a celebrity arriving at Paris Fashion Week than a defendant appearing before the justice system. Brand faces seven charges related to sexual offenses, including three allegations of rape. Six women accuse him of acts that allegedly took place between 1999 and 2009. He maintains he is innocent. In the photograph, his bodyguard is carrying the Bible in his hand. A grotesque detail that has to do with the new image this individual is trying to build for himself following the accusations.

In an interview with El Periódico and published this Sunday, the PP candidate for the presidency of the Spanish government, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, said that “government with Vox can work, it already does so in four autonomous communities”. It was not so long ago that PP leaders, and especially Feijóo, avoided being photographed with those from Vox at demonstrations, so as not to be associated with the far right. Those were the times when Vox called the PP “derechita cobarde”, while they were eating into their ground and electorate.

Peugeot has waited for the Paris Motor Show to reveal one of its best-kept secrets, the brand-new electric prototype E-T16. This vehicle is, in reality, a conceptual prototype that aims to pay tribute to the legendary Peugeot 205 T16, a rally car that conquered the world rally championships in the years 1985 and 1986 in the Group B category.

La Zaranda, Teatro Inestable de Ninguna Parte, celebrates its fortieth anniversary with the annual appointment at the Romea by the will of its until now director Josep Maria Pou and in attention to the group of fans that have followed them for so many years. And the fact is that La Zaranda's theater is so peculiar and different from everything that can be seen on stage... A theater stripped of artifices that makes virtue of simplicity and that draws from the classics without performing them. A theater in which the creation of a singular world prevails, crossed by an almost existentialist poetics and inhabited by losers. Displaced characters like Beckett's clowns who do not know what to do or how to do it but who continue with inherited routines. Characters of great pathos like these angels that Eusebio Calonge has imagined and that could just as well inhabit a corner of the Spanish picaresque of the Golden Age as the London neighborhood of Mackie the Knife, from The Threepenny Opera, or the suburbs of a modern city. Through the black space of All the angels took flight –occupied only by four large old books, which will finally be the martyrs' tombstone, a bed frame, a box of Imperial beers and plenty of blankets– walk a robber and drug dealer named Virgilio (Gaspar Campuzano), the Romanian prostitute Micaela (Ingrid Magrinyà), the also prostitute and junkie Alacrana (Natalia Martínez), the pimp Paco Cadena (Enrique Frutos) and Ramonet (Francisco Sánchez), a poor “fool” who speaks little but quotes Shakespeare and Dostoevsky.

Valls will once again become the epicenter of the world of castells. From October 16th to 25th, the Santa Úrsula Fair will fill the city with popular culture, music, heritage, fire, and activities, but it will be on Sunday when all the focus will once again point toward a single place: the Plaça del Blat. There, the Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls and the Colla Joves Xiquets de Valls will star in a new battle with the precedent of one of the most extraordinary and tumultuous Santa Úrsula festivals in recent years.

One at four in the morning and the other at eight in the morning. The Mossos d'Esquadra are investigating two possible cases of men kidnapped by force in the country. As ARA has learned, one occurred in Santa Coloma de Gramenet and the victim has not yet appeared. The other took place in Fontanals de Cerdanya and, in this case, the man has been located injured.

After Saturday's outburst of rage, tension between police and protesters returned to the streets of several French cities this Sunday. In Toulouse, Lyon, Rennes, or Lille, hundreds of people took to the streets again in protests organized through social media, and in Paris, some of the scenes that turned the streets of the French capital into a battlefield on Saturday were repeated. The epicenter was once again the Place de la République, and there were also renewed looting incidents in some shops, although fewer than during Saturday's events.

350 days later, Barça returned to Zubieta, the scene of the last official match defeat for the Barcelona side. That November 2, 2025, Pere Romeu's team fell 1-0 to Real Sociedad. Almost a year later, the Basque side became their nemesis once again. Pere Romeu's players, who went into the international break with the best possible feelings, lost 2-1, including refereeing controversy.

Aware that to reach the Moncloa he needs to achieve a good result in Catalonia, where 48 of the 350 seats at stake are distributed, the PP candidate, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, has returned to Barcelona in what is his third visit in just one month. In the first pre-campaign event, the Popular Party's presidential hopeful surrounded himself with the party's top brass in Catalonia to try to stop the rise of Vox.

The date for the first pre-campaign event for Gabriel Rufián and Irene Montero has been set. The ERC candidate and the head of the Podemos list for the Spanish elections on November 29th will debut at a joint rally next Saturday, October 24th, in Barcelona. The event is the result of a collaboration agreement between their respective parties for the general elections, under which the purple party will not run in Catalonia and will instead support ERC, which includes members of Podemos as independents on its lists, while Rufián will hold campaign events with the former Minister of Equality on Spanish soil.

The Titan Desert in Morocco is one of the toughest races in the world of endurance cycling. Over the course of six stages, participants cross the Atlas mountain range and the dunes of the Sahara Desert to complete a route of nearly 600 kilometers and more than 6,000 meters of positive elevation gain. And the 2026 edition, held between late April and early May, had a Catalan seal. The brand Inverse, based in Mollet del Vallès, was chosen to design and manufacture the official jersey for the competition, a garment adapted to withstand the heat, wind, and sand of the landscape, which several of the 475 cyclists who took on the challenge wore.

Human remains that can offer a lot of data about our past, sediments with a lot of information about what was eaten centuries ago, textile machines, computers, amphorae, tombstones, sculptures, paintings, murals, capitals, clothes, fossils, stones, seeds, bullets, pitchers... If we were to add up the heritage guarded by Catalan museums, the figure would reach eight million pieces. It is an unreachable and heterogeneous collection of which the public only sees a very small part in the exhibition halls; the rest, the vast majority, remains invisible in warehouses and depots.

The rain has given a certain respite to Catalonia this Sunday, but the presence of the DANA Adam will cause a new day of persistent and widespread rainfall across much of the country throughout this Monday. Within 24 hours, the downpours could leave accumulations of more than 100 liters per square meter. The President of the Generalitat, Salvador Illa, has warned that the risk associated with this cold drop is still "not over" and has requested maximum caution in the face of the forecast for this new episode. According to meteorological predictions, however, at the moment there is no area marked with a red warning and the rainfall is expected to be less intense than that experienced this past weekend. However, the affected territory still needs to be "calibrated" and these phenomena have a point of uncertainty that does not always allow for anticipating them with so much lead time.

"If these songs have reached today, it is because they are bangers", declared Marc Heredia, composer and pianist of the Trio Fortuny. Agreed, they are bangers. But what the chamber trio has done with the voice of Judit Neddermann is the eighth wonder: they have recovered the songs that move us the most in the world, the traditional songs that our mother or grandmother sang to us when we were little –the stories of The heir Riera and of The spinner, the Gifted mountains and The sailor, compositions that have been gleaned from the Càntut archive, and have reinterpreted them through chamber music, with new arrangements and recompositions. The result is Edge, a jewel that next year will take the form of an album, but which is already a beautiful and exciting show, delicate and at the same time powerful, premiered Saturday evening at the Kursaal, in one of the climaxes of the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, which has supported them as co-producers from its Obrador d’Arrel.

There are few Latin American women more famous than Sofía Vergara. The 54-year-old Colombian actress is today on the Olympus of Latin American fame on a global scale. So much so that she can only be compared to JLo, Shakira and, in a way, Salma Hayek. It is for this reason that any mention made of her is susceptible to becoming a press headline eager to be clicked in Latin America, the United States or Europe.

Amid the rapprochement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, the Ukrainian army launched a drone attack this Saturday night against Saint Petersburg, Russia's second-largest city with more than five million inhabitants, and the Leningrad region. It is considered one of the largest drone attacks of the entire war, and it has left one person dead and five injured. About 20,000 people were left without electricity due to the damage caused to an electrical substation, and damage also occurred to several residential buildings.

In 2022, the results of the program were published for mindfulness largest school study to date, with the participation of 84 high schools and more than 8,000 students aged 11 to 13. The data showed that it was of no use and, furthermore, the adolescents who were already struggling ended up worse off. In Australia, an eight-session emotional skills program increased depression and anxiety in students, and worsened their relationship with their parents. Psychologist Lucy Foulkes, from the University of Oxford, says that if we teach young people to observe their emotions, some learn to interpret discomfort as a symptom and the label ends up becoming true. Talking about emotions is not the problem: the key is how we talk about them, because monitoring oneself is not the same as understanding oneself.

As a child, Mohammed Fadily met thousands of children like him, minors living in shelters after having crossed the border illegally to achieve a better life in Europe. Only about twenty of them made it. "Most have died sleeping on the street, are in prison, or have returned to Morocco." When he arrived by boat he was fifteen years old and, although some of his cousins were already living in Spain, none of them gave him a hand when he asked them for help. He did not speak Catalan or Spanish and the few familiar faces turned their backs on him. His family was miles away, he would not be able to visit them until he reached the age of majority. He was transferred from one center to another without being informed of anything. The only certainty he had was that he did not know anyone.

Donald Trump, who in his election campaign promised to end the war in Ukraine in 24 hours, began his second term by starring in an extremely tense meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office, where he did not hide his disdain for the Ukrainian leader. That set off alarms in Kyiv and, although the two leaders apparently eased the tension, it has become clear in recent days that Trump continues to belittle the Ukrainian president, whom he points to as the culprit for not being able to reach a peace agreement while celebrating the alleged willingness of Vladimir Putin. And in all this context, aid from the United States to Ukraine has remained blocked for almost two years, since Trump returned to the White House.

A phone call interrupts the conversation, but it no longer leaves her "desperate," as it did a few months ago. "They keep calling, but now I answer the phone calmly and tell them that I am exonerated," says Lisa Manresa. As she explains it, she breaks down the amounts that ended up becoming an unaffordable debt: 14,000 euros for her husband's dental work, 15,000 for the car, and 72,000 euros pending on the mortgage she shared with her ex-partner, the expenses associated with her eldest daughter's borderline personality disorder, who is 30... When she could no longer keep up with the payments, the accumulated debt had climbed to 208,000 euros.

The Spanish economy remains at the forefront of advanced countries in growth, with a forecast of 2.6% this year according to the Bank of Spain and 2.5% according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But inflation, they also warn, eats away at the purchasing power of wages that are not enough to buy or rent a house. The remuneration of employees has gained weight in the Spanish economy, but it is starting to lose it in favor of the profits of some business sectors. Workers perceive that with every euro they buy fewer and fewer things, or that they need more to acquire the same. There is a palpable reality, the rise in prices, which has stalled the contribution of wages to the total wealth this year, and a psychological element, according to the experts consulted, which makes many ask themselves: "Now that the economy is doing well, when is it my turn?"

LeBron James will live in New York but play in Philadelphia. The new star of the Philadelphia 76ers, who will debut his 24th NBA season on Tuesday, will make a daily commute equivalent to going from Barcelona to Lleida. The forward will travel the distance by helicopter to avoid the dreaded traffic jams of the East Coast of the United States. The eccentricity has generated a flood of comments from fans. Some see it as practical, but the majority criticize the ecological footprint it will generate every day he has to go to training. Others remember the unfortunate Kobe Bryant, who died in an air accident.

"Cross the catwalk!" It has been 25 years since this television cry became popular. It was one of the key moments of every broadcast of Operación Triunfo, the talent show that revolutionized Spanish television and music and that this October celebrates a quarter of a century. On the night of October 22, 2001, TVE kicked off a new format that mixed elements of the reality genre, which was just beginning to emerge, and musical contests. After the third gala, when the phenomenon exploded, nothing was ever the same again, neither on Spanish television nor in the lives of the sixteen young contestants who had signed up for the program with the hope of making a career as singers.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will change the way we work and many other things. Among them, taxes. The tax system of countries will have to adapt. Currently, a large part of tax revenue comes from labor income (wages) through a progressive tax (the more you earn, the more you pay), which is the personal income tax (IRPF). But to the extent that AI will reduce jobs – at least during a transition period during which many jobs will disappear, be transformed, or require less personnel – public coffers will notice it.

The Centre Excursionista de Catalunya (CEC) is turning 150 years old, and starting this November, it will organize a whole series of activities to commemorate its birth and, above all, to celebrate that it remains a living entity well-connected to the country's cultural activity. The presentation of this program of events will be announced next week, but for now, it is already known that the poster is a work by the artist Perejaume, one of the great figures of contemporary Catalan art. The work invites a broad look at the backbone spirit that hiking has traditionally had in Catalonia: the resemblance between the waves of the sea and the shapes of the mountain ranges refers to an integral concept of the territory that unites nature, culture, and identity.

Laura Díez (Barcelona, 1969) is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Barcelona and a member of the Constitutional Court since 2023. She speaks to ARA following a key decision on the amparo appeal by former minister Dolors Bassa, which is expected to trigger the full application of the amnesty by the Supreme Court.

Connection, growth, knowledge, talent, and purpose. These are the five pillars of Innobaix, the metropolitan public-private management agency of Baix Llobregat and L'Hospitalet, which works to connect companies, talent, city councils, and public institutions. Baix Llobregat is one of the main economic engines of Catalonia, and its powerful business fabric and strategic location, between the port and the airport of Barcelona, make it a key territory for the country's economic activity.

Neither the presence of European diplomats nor a press vest has prevented Israeli settlers from acting with violence again in the West Bank. This Saturday, a group of settlers attacked a European diplomatic delegation in Taybeh, a Christian-majority Palestinian town located east of Ramallah in the West Bank, a territory considered occupied since 1967 by the international community.

This past week, the new White House press secretary, Katie Zacharia, made her debut in the briefing room in an appearance that was a failure. Nervous and overwhelmed, she only took three questions in fourteen minutes.

Catalonia is once again suffering a critical rainstorm. The downpours this Saturday evening have fallen mainly in the Vallès Oriental and Maresme areas, where what is, for now, the most serious incident of this storm has occurred. A team made up of the Generalitat Fire Department, Mossos d'Esquadra, and Maritime Rescue is working on the search for a woman who, according to several witnesses, reportedly fell into the stream in Cabrera de Mar shortly before eight in the evening. The operation continued throughout the night and is continuing this Sunday morning, expanding the search radius to the river mouth at the sea.

The 'Adam' DANA and the arrival of humid sea winds have caused very intense storms in the last few hours, with accumulations that in some cases have exceeded 50 or 60 mm and have set some precipitation records (you will find more data at the end of this report). The weather will remain unsettled this Sunday, with widespread but less intense rain, good news for watering many regions in a more gradual way, without the downpours that have affected us regularly this month of October.

Barça overcomes Betis at the Cartuja in Seville (2-5) in a match that went wild at the start of the second half. No one until today had managed to scrape points at the home of the green-and-white team this season.

"I had never entered a literary contest to avoid coming in last,", asserted Isabel Allende during her acceptance speech for the 75th Planeta Prize, endowed with one million euros, which meant she would leave Penguin Random House and join the group currently presided over by José Creuheras. The news has reopened, once again, the controversy over publishers changing by some authors, often spurred by literary awards for unpublished work, but also by economic offers difficult to refuse (although they do not usually transcend), by the desire to give a new boost to their career by changing houses and even as a sign of protest.

Little is said about unwanted loneliness. We have so many major social problems –housing, the education crisis, chronic poverty, mental health...– that unwanted loneliness, which is not very evident at first glance, does not generate alarm. But in the world we have built, it is a growing malaise: more and more people, of all social conditions and ages, from urban and rural environments, live the trauma of social isolation. Even people we would never imagine. It does not affect, as many think, only and above all the elderly. It also affects, and increasingly so, children, adolescents, and young people; and it also affects adults who apparently lead a conventional life. This harsh reality is well documented and known, but it does not receive enough attention, neither from the media nor from professional support. So it is not on the list of social priorities. Clearly, there is a lack of awareness of the seriousness it entails.

We usually consider resignations an honorable (and rare) gesture but they are often more cosmetic than decisive. In the case of the socialists' spokesperson, it is obvious that it is an aesthetic issue: it looks bad for someone to come out making grand proclamations in favor of tenants while their partner is actively pursuing evictions in the courts and speculating in the real estate casino, where the bank also always wins. Now, I would bet a pea, or a penthouse in Madrid if I had one, that she must not be the only politician caught in this contradiction. The thing is not to get caught. From there, the day's press made it evident that the situation was a lose-lose for Sánchez. And the right-wing newspapers fell into amusing contradictions. For example, El Mundo headlined: “Hypocrisy over housing wipes out the PSOE spokesperson” and said in a subtitle that “Sánchez asked her to stay because she was 'a great asset' to the party”. According to this thesis, it is Montse Mínguez who decides to quit, knowing that she has become a burden. And the newspaper, of course, tried to attach this dead weight to the leader of the PSOE, to see if there is any luck and he sinks with her in the process. On the other hand, the ABCexecuted a different (and incompatible) strategy. On the front page they wrote: “Sánchez sacrifices the PSOE spokesperson to cover up the housing fiasco”. Here they did not buy that the Spanish president wanted to retain her and they portrayed him with the executioner's axe, merciless, capable of decapitating one of his own to survive another day and divert the focus from the umpteenth scandal.

Issiaga Sylla was 19 years old when he arrived in Catalonia completely alone. He says he did not understand the culture, nor did he speak Catalan or Spanish, and he barely knew anyone here from his country. He is from Guinea Conakry. "I didn't interact with anyone," he confesses.

Training as an insertion tool. The Formació i Treball Foundation is a true institution in Catalonia. It was founded in 1992 by Caritas and its main objective is to train people at risk of social exclusion so that they can subsequently be inserted into the labor market. Their model is radically opposed to that of traditional companies: while companies usually seek to retain talent, the foundation provides jobs to hundreds of people so that they can later work in conventional companies. "Our reason for being is the labor insertion of people," the entity's president, Misi Borràs, assuresCompanies.

Our history can be explained through kings, wars, revolutions, and great inventions. But it can also be explained through the stones, sediments, volcanoes, and minerals that have conditioned human life throughout the centuries. Without all the resources that the Earth offers, many of the great civilizations would not have been possible. And without the geological processes that transform it, our history would have been very different. This is the perspective proposed by the geologist and popularizer Esther Lapaz, who invites us to retrace the past of humanity through geology in her new book Con los pies en la Tierra (Ediciones B, 2026).

Uncertainty has settled into Donald Trump's United States electoral appointments, and the midterm elections of November 3rd are no exception. The concern regarding any possible attempt by the U.S. president to interfere in the elections has led thousands of volunteers to train for what might happen on November 3rd: from a possible deployment of ICE agents to the White House's attempt to challenge the results in some districts. "Authoritarians feed on fear, and the way to combat it is by organizing people," explains Jessica Acee to ARA, organizer of States at the Core (STAC), a pro-democracy group that has trained more than 50,000 volunteers for the upcoming elections.

When Conchi found out that incandescent light bulbs, the classic ones, were going to disappear, she had an anxiety attack. Luckily, Dolors, her partner of many years, gave her a paper bag so she could breathe slowly and emerge from her distress. That same afternoon they went to Monsó i Benet, on Muntaner Street, their go-to hardware store, and inquired about the dramatic situation. Indeed, they had stopped being manufactured. Faced with that devastating news, they began to buy every incandescent bulb they could find to stock up for life.

OpenAI has released more than 720 working papers that collect mathematical advances put together with very little time, a lot of money, and some "mathematical assistants (AI)" that are a marvel. Once everything is duly verified, we will be able to calibrate its importance. For my part, I reserve the most enthusiastic applause for the day that some central questions in the mathematics of the present are solved (such as the Riemann hypothesis or P not equal to NP). It is certain, however, that the ways of doing things in the mathematical profession –do not worry: like the medical one, it will surpass the 3,000-year threshold– will incorporate an intensive use of the new instruments.

Without ideas, without direction, and increasingly distanced from the citizenry, the left to the left of the socialists present a miserable spectacle of impotence and an absence of goals and discourse, such that the only thing that surfaces are worn-out egos that no longer attract anyone, trapped in the mire of the eternal and pathetic psychopathology of small differences. There is no project, only infighting, and not even the emergency of the sustained growth of the far right serves to make people react and place the need to curb the authoritarian drift above the miserable dynamic of move over so I can take your place.

Unitary platforms against something (everyone united against a common enemy) are an invention from ages ago that sounds very good in anthems and can mobilize dormant wills, but experience tells us that Fronts, whether popular or patriotic, only exert their centripetal force in concrete, short-lived, and highly tense situations. Afterwards, the diversity of origin and destination, of likes and dislikes, causes plurality and rivalry to return, which are the basis of the system, and which are only rejected by those who wanted to use the unitary fever to avoid a failure on their own.

Writer Sofia Andrukhovych (Ukraine, 1982) continues to try, despite the war, to write from Kyiv. These days she is in Barcelona to talk about memory, trauma, and creation in times of conflict at the Biennial of Thought, and to present The story of Romana and Uliana. Amadoca (Salamandra), translated into Spanish by Olga Korobenko. Originally conceived in three interconnected parts (the story of Romana, the story of Uliana, and the story of Sofia), the Spanish edition includes only the first two books. Through family memories and intense love stories, the author, daughter of the writer Yuri Andrukhovych, covers the Stalinist repression, the Holocaust, and the war in the Donbas.

The most common question these days among the journalists in Congress themselves is: "And you, what do you think will happen on November 29th? Who will win? It is curious to verify that, at first, practically everyone takes it for granted that the PP will prevail and that it will govern with the support of a few dozen Vox deputies, between 50 and 70. However, if the person being asked looks unsure, their interlocutor also begins to search for arguments to give consistency to their prediction, as if they needed to convince themselves that their forecast is well-founded and a foregone conclusion.

War is horror. Its impact on the defeated is, furthermore, long and deep. Nazism and fascism emerged after the defeat of Germany and Italy in World War I. The Soviet Union fell months after the defeat in Afghanistan. And Trumpism cannot be explained without the defeat of the United States in Vietnam. Half a century has passed, yes, but the concatenation seems clear.

There are laws with their own names. Nothing to do with the official one, made of the number, the year, and a description longer than a day without bread. The popular title arises from episodes that shake the social conscience, such as the Maricarmen decree (two decree-laws, pending validation). A timely name, not an opportunistic one. It is not a patch for the specific case because, unfortunately, there are many Maricarmens on the verge of ruin. It sets limits on the law of the jungle and grants more stability: suspension of evictions for vulnerable people, extraordinary extensions, limitation or freezing of updates, and measures against fraud (with seasonal rentals, for example). Nor does it seem hasty or radical. It is symptomatic that the Basque right, calm and pragmatic, offers partial support, with the red line of automatic extensions.

There are wise decisions made at suspicious moments. The increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) is a good example of this. The Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, has asked the committee of experts to propose the increase for 2027, by early November at the latest, so that it can be approved before the November 29 elections, when it is normally approved in February. Coincidence? Not at all. The employers' association has rushed to denounce it as electoralism, and with good reason: the SMI affects some 2.5 million people, many of whom have the right to vote.

The war in Ukraine has entered a new stage. Trump is not only distancing himself from Kyiv but is also altering the European strategic balance and reviving a privileged relationship with Putin. His policy responds to a worldview that disdains traditional alliances, but it also responds to the historical fatigue of a society that has paid with lives and money for its status as a superpower.

The day of mobilization in France to protest against the rising cost of living has left images of authentic chaos, violence, and clashes between protesters and police in Paris and other cities such as Marseille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Rennes, and Limoges. According to the organizers, 800,000 people have taken to the streets, a figure that the French authorities lower to 550,000. Across the country, more than 90 demonstrations and 500 protests were called, and many have ended in riots –especially serious in Paris–, on a day in which the police have arrested hundreds of people. Just in the metropolitan area of the French capital, there have been 855 arrests. Nationwide, the toll of detainees rises to 1,800 people, and there are 500 injured police officers.

On December 27th, Marc Sarrats will settle accounts with 2026 in the show El 2026, vist per sentència, at the Teatre Coliseum in Barcelona, with tickets already on sale. Taking advantage of the occasion, we talk unhurriedly about comedy, fatherhood, politics, and ghosts.

In the eyes of the world, France is once again the sick man of Europe. It is nothing new in a country historically marked by labor conflict, political scandals, military defeats, and crises of all kinds, but at the same time, it is not good news that, in the current climate of student protests and a pre-election environment marked by the rise of the far right, fears regarding the viability of the country's public finances are now being added.

Espanyol is competing again. And they have discovered that they have a great goalkeeper. These are the two best pieces of news for the blue-and-whites, who this afternoon made Atlético de Madrid sweat hard. Even so, neither a good match nor Fortuño's saves were enough to get anything positive against the second-placed team, the only one that can keep up with Barça in the League. Another cruel goal, by Baena in the 89th minute, dashed the efforts of the parakeets, who improved on the image offered against Rayo, Elche, and Málaga, but have lost again (0-1) and have only achieved one point out of the last 12. The defeat adds even more doubts about the continuity of Manolo González, questioned for weeks and who now faces three consecutive away games that could seal his future.

The second episode of the podcast Tocar sostre revolves around how we should understand housing: is it a basic necessity, an investment asset, or a social right? Participants include urban anthropologist Manuel Delgado, economist Josep Oliver, and economist and president of the Hàbitat3 Foundation, Carme Trilla. Moderated by journalist Carla Turró.

Despite the advances, lung cancer remains the deadliest cancer in the world. Now Catalonia is taking another step to improve its prevention. Starting in 2027, the Department of Health will offer lung cancer screenings to people over 60 who have smoked at least one pack a day for thirty years. Later on, the measure will be extended to other population groups that could benefit from early diagnosis.

It is unusual for Judit Carrera, director of the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), to appear in the economics pages. Tourism governance and access to housing are two such huge and transversal challenges that they also impact the definition of Barcelona as a city and its cultural dynamics. From the CCCB, she has placed these topics at the center of many of her activities, from the Biennial of Thought that is being held these days to the Cities and Tourism cycle, for which there are precisely two new activities this very week. The topic, however, also affects the very functioning of the center. Carrera, on one hand, argues that limits must be placed on tourism and, on the other, is committed to the CCCB reaching more foreign visitors. When the search for a new tourism model has become the Holy Grail, Carrera establishes culture as a vector of change.

The two worst moments in the relationship between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy have had a common denominator: they have arrived preceded by a telephone conversation between the United States president and Vladimir Putin, in which the Kremlin leader promised him major joint business deals. It happened in February 2025, before the public brawl between the American leader and the Ukrainian leader in the Oval Office of the White House, and it has happened again now, following the agreement for Moscow to sell diesel with Washington's permission, which caught Kyiv off guard. The Russian president has known at all times how to offer Trump what he desired, persuade him with his reasons, draw him to his positions, and pit him against Zelenskyy.

Until recently, getting the residents of the Sagrada Família and the temple to agree seemed like an impossible mission. Now, however, the Barcelona City Council has achieved it twice over. On one hand, because before the summer it reached a nascent agreement regarding the impact that the staircase of the Glory façade would have on the buildings in front, which satisfied both parties. On the other hand, because since then it has maintained a silence that is making both sides of the negotiation impatient, and they are pressuring it to take a position now.

It is logical that a good part of the audience that goes to the theater looks for entertainment with laughter that does not make them think. It is no longer so logical that the billboard is filled with this type of theater, ignoring proposals that invite one to ask questions and talk about what has been seen. As you can imagine with this preamble, A small distortion is a proposal from the latter, like almost all the theater of Enric Nolla. A theatre that avoids conventional logic and approaches the dark corners of the human being, as is evident in his dramaturgical debut, Hurricane (2000), passing through White slave trade (2001) and ending with this A small distortion, in which he reflects on the creation of masculinity in our society, making it very clear with the title that it is the author himself who poses the question. And he does so with the help of a character of those who take the air bridge in first class, who have a closet full of ties. A self-satisfied winner who despises the weak and hates failure in a clear critique of a model with Trump-like airs. And the fact is that Nolla's theater is neither innocuous nor kind; it avoids the obvious and responds to the restlessness of someone who confronts an ungraspable world often prone to destruction. We find the protagonist in a luxurious penthouse with impressive views of the city, while he prepares the speech he is to deliver at the company party that has just awarded him the management of an international delegation.

The audience at the Sitges Festival, so noted this edition for the bad habit some spectators have of applauding every violent death whether it is pertinent or not, has once again shown that, when it wants to, it can be the great asset of this festival. And it has done so with a simple and natural gesture, of elemental justice: awarding the best film of the festival, Wildwood, an extraordinary film that is already history of animation cinema, if not of cinema in general. The film from the animation studio in stop motion Laika, a true technical and cinematic prodigy, has taken the festival's Audience Award, but the official section jury has completely ignored it in its list of winners and opted to award a minor and derivative work like the French Sanguine, the second feature film by Marion Le Corroller, which underlines with a fluorescent pencil its critique of the labor exploitation of capitalism with elements of body horror borrowed from much superior recent titles like Cru or The Substance.

The song Los niños del barrio was playing when the leaders of the Broad Front appeared this Saturday in Madrid before more than a thousand militants who were waiting to learn about the project that brings together the left in the State for the November 29 elections. But not everyone was there. Los niños from Podem were missing, with whom the possibility of running together in Madrid, Barcelona, and other territories vanished this Friday night after an "agonizing" negotiation, acknowledge some voices from this space, who arrived at the event having barely slept. Gabriel Rufián was also not there, who had risen as the unifying face of all the forces to the left of the PSOE to curb the threat of a PP-Vox government. Nor was Yolanda Díaz, who three years ago was the candidate for this space – then under the name Sumar – for the presidency of the Spanish government. This Saturday she had a parallel event at a university. Today, Ada Colau returns to the political front line, candidate of the Broad Front for the presidency of the Spanish government and number one for Barcelona – Ernest Urtasun will run as number two on the ticket in the Catalan capital –, and Emilio Delgado will be the number one for Madrid.

"Let them hear it loud and clear: I love you". This is how the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, addressed his wife during a rally in Fuenlabrada following the federal committee meeting that approved the PSOE's candidate lists for November 29th. In an event charged with high emotion, Sánchez began his speech by referring to Begoña Gómez, his wife, who is facing trial and was seated in the front row. "They have tried to break us in every way and have achieved just the opposite. Today we are more united and stronger than ever. Let them hear it loud and clear: I love you," he declared, while also thanking her for being his wife and the mother of his daughters. Then Gómez went up to the stage, and they hugged and kissed before the audience's ovation. Later, he made a post saying that he loves her with the video of the scene.

Just one week after the President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced the acquisition of 300,000 tons of Russian diesel, the New York tycoon signed an executive order late this Friday that temporarily suspends the application of a broad package of sanctions against Russia. He argued before Congress that it is a measure that responds to the "national interest," as reported by the White House.

The facts are as follows: the Broad Front, which wanted to recreate the 2023 Sumar formula, has not been possible on a general scale, so both Irene Montero and Ada Colau will formally be candidates for the presidency of the Spanish government. Neither of them, however, is the preferred candidate for the bulk of Spanish left-wing voters, who prefer (oh, surprise) the republican Gabriel Rufián. And now let's recap.

"We were born in war and we will die in war," says Natasha, accompanied by her husband, Leonidas, both eighty-three years old, on the fourth floor of an empty building in the center of Kramatorsk. Liena, a worker at one of the few grocery stores left in the neighborhood, tries to convince them to leave the city, that even living in a basement is a death sentence: "If the Russians arrive, they will throw a grenade and ask afterwards if there is anyone alive." The octogenarian couple lives trapped in the uncertainty of a meager pension, between the approach of a war front that is about nine kilometers away and the anxiety over daily shootings and the high-pitched sound of fiber-optic drones searching for vehicles to destroy. Despite this situation on the streets, every Sunday morning they attend the mass offered in an abandoned restaurant near their home, where about thirty people gather to pray and sing.

Like penguins is an autofiction show, in which I tell the story of Helena, who is me. I explain why I became a clown.

Sydney Schertenleib (Zurich, 2007) is the big name of this start of the season for Barça. The Swiss footballer has taken the step forward that Pere Romeu demanded so much and has taken advantage of the injury absences to consolidate her place in the starting eleven. She has been a starter in the eight matches that the 'blaugranes' have played so far, the last one in the 'Clásico' against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou, with a goal included (7-0). "When you shoot you don't think much, you just do it," she confessed after the duel.

Roberto Saviano (Naples, 1979) wanted to write a love novel. But when he discovered the story of Rossella Casini, a young woman raped, murdered, and dismembered by the family of her boyfriend, Francesco Frisina, heir to a 'Ndrangheta clan, he began an investigation that brought to light one of the cruelest crimes perpetrated by the Calabrian mafia. My love does not die (Ara Llibres) is the result of five years of work. A book with which the author of Gomorrah (2006) tries to do justice to a forgotten victim of the mafia, while continuing to fight against his own demons. A battle of which he confesses to being increasingly tired. Saviano meets ARA at the Cervantes Institute in Rome. The Italian journalist seems especially dejected, convinced that he has sacrificed his life in vain. While abroad he is recognized as a brave writer, in Italy there are those who reproach him for having diminished or tarnished the country's image by denouncing the relationships between power and organized crime. Saviano has lived under police protection for 20 years after being threatened with death by the Casalesi clan, one of the most bloodthirsty in the Camorra. He was 26 years old, almost the same age as Rossella Casini when she was brutally murdered.

His story could well turn into a movie. In the seventies, when Robert Proctor (Texas, 1954) was investigating the reason why we get cancer –at a time when there was an intense debate about the role that tobacco, pesticides, and other pollutants played in it–, he delved into the secret archives of the big tobacco companies and discovered a chilling fact: for decades, they had manipulated science to sow doubt about the deadly effects of their products.

Enthusiasm in the Catalan PP for who will be enthroned this Sunday as the PP candidate for Barcelona in the upcoming Spanish elections. The mayor of Badalona, Xavier García Albiol, has been selected as the Populars' candidate for Barcelona with the fundamental task of being the antidote to Vox, especially considering the great growth of the radical right-wing party in the Principality. Once the elections were brought forward, it immediately became clear that the most beloved person within the Catalan PP is Albiol. Furthermore, La Vanguardia was already pointing out that the leader of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, was considering betting on him as a candidate.

Every day, more than 2,000 heavy-duty trucks pass through Olot and follow the route along the Les Preses regional road. Most of them are trucks from the meat industry, which make the round trip between Osona and the mega-slaughterhouse of the Garrotxa capital, and they transport live pigs, offal, or fresh goods. The constant passage of trucks through this entire urban section, with houses right next to the road, generates a lot of unrest among neighbors and causes repeated traffic problems. For this reason, for some time now, town councils, companies, and neighborhood platforms have been demanding the construction of a bypass that circles the city and avoids the passage of heavy vehicles. Finally, after years of negotiations, in March 2026 the Generalitat approved the construction project for the new bypass, with a budget of 470 million euros, and the main work is already out for tender. But the new road has environmentalists and farmers against it: they argue that it would seriously affect fertile farmland areas and, above all, the fluvio-volcanic aquifer of La Garrotxa, which supplies water to the entire region.

On October 16 of last year, Banc Sabadell and BBVA definitively buried any possibility of a merger. After 17 months of open warfare and tug-of-war, a statement to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV) confirmed it. The offer from the entity presided over by Carlos Torres had achieved only 25% acceptance from the capital of the Valles-based bank, below the 30% minimum threshold that the Basque-origin group had set to continue with the operation. The group presided over by Josep Oliu had won the battle. But twelve months later, time has shown that, after the failed takeover bid, the final outcome has turned out to be happy for both.

For several years now, Catalan readers have been able to savor the meticulous, introspective, and hallucinatory prose of Mircea Cartarescu (Bucharest, 1956). While Periscopi published Solenoid (2017) and the Blinding trilogy (2018-2022), novels translated by Antònia Escandell Tur, thanks to the Mallorcan publisher Lleonard Muntaner and translator Xavier Montoliu Pauli, the volumes of short stories Why We Love Women (2016), the poems of Nothing (2018), an extensive and essential anthology of his Diaries (2024) have arrived, and now, Travesti, which according to the Romanian author was "the beginning of everything that has come after." This short novel, published in Romanian in 1994, presents a 34-year-old writer who, with the desire to emerge from the crisis he finds himself in, recalls the summer of his adolescence spent in camps where contact with nature, music, and inquiries into his own sexuality changed his life.

Autumn is here, and that is synonymous with Catalan traditions. Panellets and sweet potatoes, like this stuffed one. But there are also new foreign traditions that are taking hold. We make it work so we don't stop having panellets, by adding a touch of terror.

Governments will meet in Antalya, Turkey, from November 9 to 20, 2026, for the 31st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP31), to discuss the progress made and agree on new measures against climate change. What should Catalonia and Spain advocate for at COP31? Adaptation to climate change. Adaptation consists of preparing for climate risks and reducing their impacts, for example, by protecting our coasts, improving infrastructure, and protecting people from extreme heat and droughts.

Sometimes it is hard to tell where football ends and art begins with this Barça. A team full of artists that turns a game with a ball into a spectacle that catches the eye, stringing together routs as if it were easy to score five goals (2-5). And all this, with a Lamine Yamal who is up to his usual tricks. A teenager who is rewriting the history books of football. In a stadium that is always imposing, Hansi Flick's team did not fail either, even though they suffered at times. The setting was complex and became complicated with dirty moments, scuffles, and the injuries to Eric Garcia and Gerard Martín, the worrying note of the day. But this team, which has signed off on the best start to the League in its entire history, has magic to spare. The Blaugrana music prevailed over the noise. To overcome challenges like the one at La Cartuja, you need joy and you need to know how to suffer.

The best Barça of the season so far recovered from a 14-point deficit against Olympiacos, forced overtime, but could not complete the feat (100-105). The blaugrana team played with the passion of Pep Guardiola, who witnessed the match live, but lacked the necessary determination to overcome the EuroLeague champion. Justin Robinson, who forced extra time with a three-pointer, and Tyrese Martin had a great performance at the Palau Blaugrana.

Many people do not know this, but 20% of Israel's population is Palestinian. And for the first time in its history, this minority could be key in tipping the result of the Israeli elections on October 27th. Polls point to a 50-50 tie between the governing bloc of Benjamin Netanyahu's right and far-right and the liberal opposition forces. With this almost unprecedented scenario, the Arab minority would hold the key to Netanyahu's defeat, a candidate who is under an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for the genocide in Gaza. However, in a context of strong anti-Arab racism, neither the government nor the opposition wants to reach agreements with the parties that represent them. Last month, the electoral board banned all Arab parties from running in the elections, as well as the communists of the only party that brings together Arabs and Jews. The decision was so discriminatory that the Supreme Court reversed it, but only partially. The United Arab List (Ra'am) will be able to run, as will the Unified List. The candidate from one of their parties, Sami Abu Shehadeh, remains banned. The Jewish communist candidate Ofer Cassif will also be able to run. In contrast, Israeli far-right parties with candidates who are under international sanctions for human rights violations have been able to run without problems.

"The press may not be very successful in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about." The phrase, pronounced by political scientist Bernard Cohen in the sixties, admits many nuances adapted to the current world, in which the media no longer monopolize what is known as agenda-setting (basically, the determination of which topics are most relevant). And during the last few days, in political and journalistic circles, there was talk of nothing else but the 30 rental apartments with which the partner of the PSOE spokesperson does business.

We will have to spend this weekend under supervised release, warned as we are that as soon as it starts raining cats and dogs we had better lock ourselves at home, because with these climate change downpours there is no negotiating anything.

"It's been many years and many hatreds." That is how Gabriel Rufián spoke, in an interview this Friday on RAC1, about the obstacles to achieving a unitary list of the left in the State. Personal enmities also influence the dispute between parties, and the baggage of the divorce between Podemos and Sumar still weighs heavily; this was definitively consummated three years ago in Congress and may condemn the electoral prospects of the left. In the negotiations of the last few days, wounds that are still open and distrust that has been dragging on since the process of drafting the lists for the 2023 elections have been perceptible.