Cristian Fàbrega Gallego is a professor in the Department of Electronic and Biomedical Engineering and coordinates the master's degree in renewable energies and energy sustainability at the University of Barcelona. He speaks to ARA to explain the environmental impact and energy consumption of artificial intelligence data centers, which are multiplying worldwide.

For the vast majority of Americans, artificial intelligence has appeared in their lives in the form of a chatbot. For others, however, it has also materialized in concrete bunkers, full of servers and cables, that they can see from their own windows. When one of these giants appears, in many municipalities the water pressure drops – or the supply fails altogether – and residents begin to notice health problems.

Venezuela is the paradigm of theoretically rich South American states subjected to historical political disjunctions between left-wing spaces that, wrapped in the flags of revolution, promise and do not deliver, and right-wing spaces abducted by the rules of maximum profit that promise and also do not deliver, between the defense of identity —they call it patriotism— and selling out to the highest bidder. Today's Venezuela is the Venezuela between, on the one hand, the inoperative and incapable Chavista dictatorship sold to the American mafia by the executors of utopia and, on the other, the siren songs of an opposition led by a candidate who trusted the same gang that doesn't even let her return to her country.

The theater director Àlex Rigola does not conceive of summer readings as light readings. "Light literature just doesn't get to me. Books like The Girl on the Train seem unbearable to me, very hard to read, because there are only actions," he explains. What seduces him is more the "how it is told" than the "what." That is, the style, the voice, in short, high-flying literature. "I look for art in the narrative of writing more than in cinema. Sometimes emotional cinema takes me away, and on the other hand, in literature, I need the text itself to have quality," says the director of the Heartbreak Hotel theater.

In sexuality, normality does not exist. And, what's more, people lie quite a lot about what they do and don't do in bed: we come from a historically taboo subject that, at the same time, gives a certain status. Saying you have a lot of sex continues to be on the rise. Many times this creates what "is expected" to be a kind of "collective mirage" created from lies and exaggerations.

The most serious fire in France, that in the southwest of Bordeaux, continues to burn uncontrollably. This Sunday morning the flames had already devoured 42,000 hectares —practically 10,000 more than in yesterday's report— and have forced the evacuation of nearly 20,000 people during the night. Thus, the number of displaced people exceeds 220,000 since Wednesday, when it started.

Salvador Illa closes ranks with the Minister of Education, Esther Niubó, after the Government made public "the error" in the PISA tests. "All the support", expressed the President of the Generalitat from Vietnam, where he is on an official trip. It is the first time that Illa has spoken about this fiasco, which the Department of Education made public on Friday and that this Monday Niubó is expected to appear in Parliament to give explanations. In fact, Illa has assured that the minister will "make things clear" in her appearance. The "technical incident" that the Generalitat spoke of on Friday will not allow Catalonia to compare the results that will be made public in September with other territories or with previous years.

Rosa Boladeras (Terrassa, 1972) is an actress driven by passions. Enthusiasm led her at a young age to make the stage her calling, and since then, she has built a very long career made up of shows and television projects that have made her one of the most outstanding performers in our country. After being away from theater for seven years to dedicate herself to municipal politics, at the Terrassa City Council, Boladeras is now experiencing one of the most recognized moments of her professional career thanks to the Margarida Xirgu award, which received on Monday at the Teatre Romea for their work in the show I have a forest in my brain, by Guadalupe Sáez and directed by Alícia Gorina at Sala Beckett.

The years go by and Queralt Casas maintains her passion intact. After seven seasons at Valencia Basket, the Bescanó player will strengthen the Spar Girona project, where she arrives eager to prove herself. “I have very good feelings and I am very happy to be able to return home. I am convinced that we will enjoy this season a lot and that we will experience many magical moments at Fontajau,” admits the shooting guard, who will reunite with Roberto Íñiguez, with whom she already coincided at Sopron.Casas, who is training these days at ExtraTime in Fornells de la Selva, has now fully recovered from the fracture of the ulna and radius she had in her left arm. “Injuries are the toughest part of sports, nobody wants to go through them, but once you have them and accept them, you have to work to return as soon as possible. The truth is that I recovered very well, I have good feelings and I have already forgotten about it,” she acknowledges.

In little more than a decade, Morrissey has gone from playing at Palau Sant Jordi, and his visit being quite an event, to doing so at Poble Espanyol and it having little cultural relevance. Nowadays, everyone knows the reasons why this has happened: this grumpy old man no longer makes particularly good records and, above all, insists, day in and day out, on behaving like a complete cretin, whether by skirting (or directly crossing) red lines with racism or cancelling concerts at will. But the songs, oh dear, the songs are still there, intact, apotheosic. So when Morrissey, the leader of The Smiths, the great English pop singer of the eighties, blows his trumpet, there is always a congregation ready to listen to him once more.

The three lines affected by the collapse of the tracks this Wednesday in Montcada i Reixac are now running again. The R2, R2 Nord, and R11 have resumed service this Sunday morning between the stations of Sant Andreu and Montcada i Reixac, which had been stopped since the collapse of one of the shafts from the works to bury the tracks on the border between the two cities. Temporarily, a speed limit has been set on the affected stretch.

The Catalan socialists deny any relationship with the media Crónica Libre, the supposed informative "instrument" of Leire Díez's plot in the PSOE. The collaborator and shareholder of the newspaper directed by the late Patricia López, operated under the leadership of the then organization secretary Santos Cerdán, according to the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard. There is no trace in the summary of a relationship between the PSC and the plot – although the UCO does not rule it out – and only a specific link with a town hall governed by the socialists. The municipal government of Salou, headed by the PSC-Sumem coalition, paid for an advertising campaign to Crónica Libre.

Multiple fires continue to hit different parts of the State. The two main centers of concern are the flames that have affected 90,000 people and have burned 77,000 hectares in Madrid, Ávila, and Toledo, and the fire in Vall d'Uixó, in the Castellón region of La Plana Baixa, in the Valencian Country. In this second front, 450 firefighters are working, and the authorities have evacuated nearly a thousand residents from the Texas neighborhood and 113 people from a residence in the early morning. This Sunday, two more municipalities, Assuévar and Almedíxer, totaling about 600 inhabitants, had to be evacuated.

The title, Visions de la Palestina. Notes d’un pelegrinatge, by Miquel Costa i Llobera (Pollença, 1854-Palma, 1922), suggests a narrative travel diary written in prose, but it is a collection of autonomous poems linked by theme (different biblical episodes from the Old and New Testaments, the history of the Jewish people), the setting (the landscapes, the arid and venerable light and atmosphere of the Middle East) and the formal choice (the Hebrew verse), a very long Hebrew verse, which various scholars have mistakenly considered prose. The inspiration for the book was a cruise through the Mediterranean that Costa took in 1907, which took him to Rome, Greece, the Holy Land, and Egypt.Although Visions de la Palestina is not as well-known or central as Costa's two canonical titles, Poesies (1885, 1907) and Horacianes (1906), it is a valuable and important work, in which the poet demonstrates his majestic command of the language and his versatile formal virtuosity. The agile magnificence and imposing grace with which Costa, like Verdaguer, poeticizes matters both human and divine, the sacred and the profane, underscores his condition as a highly cultured and inspired priest-poet. It is for all these reasons that it is very good news that now, fifty-five years after it was last reissued as an independent book, the Lleonard Muntaner publishing house has produced a new edition, complete and impeccable, with paratexts (preface, notes, letters) of all kinds and origins. The critical edition, edited by Carles Cabrera Villalonga, is headed by a preliminary study by Gabriel de la S. T. Sampol which is so good that it not only exhaustively explains and contextualizes the work it presents but even functions as a partial but detailed and in-depth introduction to the overall costalloberiana work.Sampol, poet and translator, leaves nothing aside. He explains the circumstances of the work's writing; he reasons the why of the literary genre –lyrical poetry, not diariestism– and the why of the title –they are literal visions and also a vision of spiritual transport–; he points out the crucial fact that, with this book, Costa completed his cultivation of “the three formal possibilities” that he had mentioned a few years earlier in a conference at the Ateneu Barcelonès (classical, modern poetry and Hebrew versicle); he lists the main thematic axes of the poems (landscape, sentiment, spirituality and metaliterature); he unravels the rhetorical architecture and the most common rhetorical resources of the Hebrew versicle and Costa's adaptation of it, and indicates the scarce following that Catalan poetry has made of it later... What I said before: a very complete preliminary study. Meticulous and substantial erudition.It is evident, in any case, that most of the poems in Visions de la Palestina do not reach the category of Costa's best poetry. There is more deliberation and painstaking craft here than inspiration and grace, the rhythm flows with a somewhat affected and hesitant musicality, and the profusion of geographical and biblical references becomes burdensome. There are also, however, powerful poems, such as Llatzèria and Jerusalem, where we find, among others, these grandiloquent and inflamed verses: “Oh city of glory and terror!, your fate can only be explained by Calvary: the true Ark of your sanctification is this Sepulchre where Death was conquered”. A little-known but important book by one of the fathers of modern Catalan poetry.

Besides being one of the most popular footballers of the moment thanks to the goal that gave Spain victory against the Argentine national team in the football World Cup final, Ferran Torres has also inspired the Oceanogràfic of Valencia, the largest aquarium in the European Union, to name one of its sandbar sharks, of the species carcharhinus plumbeus. The decision was made in recognition of the footballer's connection with marine conservation and to raise public awareness about the importance of protecting these cartilaginous-bodied, rough-skinned fish. "We want to reinforce the message that these animals are emblematic and indispensable for the functioning of ecosystems," the institution states in a press release.

Remodeling the Camp Nou from top to bottom was not only aimed at repairing possible damage to a stadium built in 1957. The world of football has changed a lot since then and stadiums are no longer just meeting points where one goes to watch a match every two weeks. They are business spaces open 365 days a year and are commercially exploited beyond competition. UEFA and FIFA have also modified their regulations. Football can be played almost anywhere as long as the pitch has the regulation dimensions. But the big tournaments, the big finals, are reserved for the best stadiums. And the old Camp Nou had become obsolete.

The euphoria that followed the stock market debut of SpaceX, Elon Musk's aerospace and artificial intelligence giant, has completely deflated. The company, which staged the largest initial public offering (IPO) in history on June 12, has seen its value plummet in recent weeks. The IPO price, it should be recalled, was set at $135 per share, and within just a few days, it soared to over $200. However, by Friday, the tech company was trading around $115, leaving all its investors in the red.

In a gloomy basement of a destroyed building in Druzhkivka, a soldier pilots a small drone against a Russian antenna somewhere in Ukrainian Donbas. The pilots take twenty-hour shifts to fight Russian positions sixteen kilometers away, and fatigue does not prevent them from being optimistic about the new army commander-in-chief, Mikhailo Drapati, after his predecessor was sacked this week by President Volodymyr Zelensky, amid the most significant protests the country has experienced since the Maidan revolt in 2014.

Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida was a totem for many years of Catalan and Spanish politics. The best-rated leader in Catalonia and with influence in Madrid, he was abruptly removed from politics because he did not secure representation for Unió in the Spanish elections of 2015. He had already planned to gradually retire, but that defeat, which he experienced as a tragedy, relegated him from public life. Now, eleven years later, he gives thanks every day for not being there. Thanks for not having experienced the peak of the 'Procés' firsthand, which he always considered to be going down the wrong path, nor the current Congress hemicycle with its polarized atmosphere. He does deeply regret the demise of CiU, as he believes that both Catalonia and the State as a whole have lost out. However, this does not mean that Duran i Lleida is retired. At 74 years old and a grandfather, he continues to be hyperactive and his schedule is packed. The difference is that now he does it out of the spotlight.

When he was little, Aleix Roig was fascinated by observing the night sky. In the library of the Sabadell Astronomical Association, he found – and devoured – a book on how to build a telescope with simple materials. He didn't think twice: with a long drainpipe and some mirrors, he built his first window to the universe. Aleix began to study physical sciences, but he left it unfinished: "I wasn't motivated to spend my life in front of a computer," he says. Then he studied teaching. He worked for a few years as a primary school teacher. With his students, he often did astronomy practices.Aleix didn't dislike taking classes in Catalan, Spanish, Art... As well as Science classes. All this took away time from cultivating his hobby. Until he thought that hobby and profession could not only be compatible, but also add up.Then he started looking with his partner for the best night skies in Catalonia to set up an observatory. "One of the areas we liked most is the Prades mountain range," explains Georgina Serven, Aleix's professional and romantic partner. "Here we are at almost 1,000 meters altitude and there are no other high points around. We are on a kind of plateau, which provides good image stability (seeing), day and night. Imagine you are inside a swimming pool and looking out with glasses. If the water is dirty or disturbed, you see nothing. Here, in Prades, it's as if we had transparent and calm water," explains Aleix Roig, who is a Starlight auditor, of dark skies, that is, skies without light pollution. What a beautiful job, traveling the world certifying the best night skies!Aleix and Georgina haven't had an easy time making the Muntanyes de Prades Astronomical Park a reality. Just as they were about to open it, the world stopped: the pandemic arrived. This wasn't the only setback: the town was illuminated with white lights, which are the ones that cause the most light pollution. They managed to get the Town Council to replace them with less pollutingones. The council also supported them with the "Prades turns off the lights and turns on the stars" initiative. Turning off the streetlights (how beautiful they are with hanging flowers!) in the Plaça Major so that it would be very dark... the mayor, of course, saw it as a dark prospect. But in the end, she decided to go ahead with it. And it was a great success. Seeing the starry sky (with telescopes) from the Plaça Major in Prades is a real privilege. "Prades turns off the lights and turns on the stars" is an activity that is still carried out from time to time.The promoters of the Muntanyes de Prades Astronomical Park have also set up a sky brightness measuring device, SQM (Sky Quality Meter), at the Tossal de la Baltasana – the county's highest point – and at the Prades center, at the Astrocat Observatory, a meteor detection station, which studies, among other things, comet tails.Furthermore, they organize a lot of astronomy courses, astrophotography courses, trips to different points on the planet to see northern lights or dark skies, dinners with stars – with a waiting list of three or four months–,a night photography contest, telescope observations and sessions in a 360° planetarium. Today I was able to get to know the sky of Prades from this modest planetarium, located in the center of the village (they also have two inflatable ones that tour Catalonia). Right after, we headed towards a sky observation point. It gets dark, and just as we pass along a dirt path, some little lights magically turn on on either side. As we advance, the houses disappear and we enter the darkness. At the viewpoint, we lie down on some loungers and enjoy a very starry sky.Finally, with Aleix we take a walk through the town, quite lively. The element stellar is the main square. It is certainly large, this arcaded square, considering the dimensions of the municipality. It shows that the market and livestock fairs were important. Of course, Prades was located at a crossroads of trade routes. The celestial elements are very present here: the fountain with four spouts – the most characteristic of the Catalan Renaissance, made of red stone, popularly known as «grinding stone» – is a terrestrial globe. And next to the square, on Sant Martí street, which leads into it, there is a magnificent drawing of a telescope, made by Pilarín. It is one of the main attractions of Prades, and of course, the telescope is not missing. Yes, Prades and astrotourism make an excellent tandem.10,000 visitors per yearThe set of activities at the Muntanyes de Prades Astronomical Park attracts around 10,000 visitors per year. "Of the visitors, I imagine there are quite a few foreigners, right?", I ask Aleix. "Well, not many," he replies. "Almost all are Catalans... and some Basques, who usually come for Easter and in the summer. There are also some French people." When the Muntanyes de Prades Astronomical Park enters the international tourism circuit, this small town could have a large crowd for a good part of the year.Prades is a charming village situated on one end of the Baix Camp region, which has little in common with Cambrils and Reus, from the same region, and more with some villages in Priorat.In addition to the astronomical park and the valuable cultural heritage of the village of Prades, there are two heritage elements that I consider essential to visit: the hermitage of l'Abellera, located under a rock, and the Roca Foradada, next to a lake.

What could be an architect's favorite place? A spectacular natural space? A construction visited by millions of people every year? Pol Casellas, architect and cultural communicator, is very clear about it: the Bogatell breakwater in Barcelona: “It's close to me and I go there often. It's not idyllic, but for me it's special, I've always been very connected to the sea, and I feel that breakwaters give me a lot of calm”.

Historically in Catalonia, masovers were peasant families who lived in a farmhouse that did not belong to them in exchange for working the land, feeding the livestock, and guarding the property. However, for some years now, a new form of masoveria adapted to modern times has emerged: masovers are responsible for rehabilitating and renovating a dilapidated farmhouse that is not their property and, in return, can live there for years without paying rent. This formula of mutual exchange allows families who do not have the necessary resources to fulfill their dream of living in the countryside, while at the same time preventing ancestral homes, often inherited, from deteriorating and a valuable architectural heritage from being lost. A true win-win. win-win in every way.

Heat waves don't just affect humans. High temperatures, heat, and tropical nights can also take a toll on our pets, which is why it's important to adjust their environment and daily activities so they can have the best possible summer. As veterinarian Jaume Martínez, from the El Masnou Veterinary Center, who has been caring for the health of pets for nearly forty years, explains, heat, "if they didn't live with us, they would experience it very well, because they would be still during the day, they wouldn't do anything, they would be in the shade, in a cool place. And even more so for cats, who are specialists at finding the coolest place to take refuge." As Martínez reflects, they would spend the day resting, trying to hydrate themselves when they could, "and it's at night that they would be more active: they would go to eat, they would go hunting, they wouldn't be making useless efforts." With us it's different: "Things change because we, obviously I'm thinking of dogs, take them for walks in places that can be asphalted or with surfaces that get very hot, and that makes them suffer the heat in a very different way."

The German government has committed this Saturday to bringing to justice those responsible for the fatal hit-and-run at a Pride event in Berlin on Friday night, which left at least one person dead and twenty-nine injured —some seriously—. The Interior Ministry is treating the incident as a terrorist attack while police continue to search for the driver, whom they accuse of having ties to Islamist circles. "Everything we see here indicates that we are dealing with an Islamist attack," stated the Interior Minister, Alexander Dobrindt.

The passage of a trough at high altitude has caused the weather to change in the last few hours. Thunderstorms have discharged with intensity due to the generation of large convection clouds fed by cold air that has descended from more northern latitudes. This clash of air masses with very different conditions has contributed to intense downpours, accompanied by electrical activity, hail, and sleet (for example, yesterday afternoon, in Arbúcies). By mid-afternoon on Saturday, we had already accumulated up to 35 l/m² in Sant Llorenç Savall and between 15 and 30 l/m² around the Montseny massif.

The United States Department of Justice has waived its attempt to subpoena journalists from The New York Times to reveal the sources that provided them with details about the replacement Air Force One that Qatar gifted to President Trump. Some are given jewelry, others planes worth $400 million. In this retraction, one should not see the American president's return to the paths of common sense, which in fact he has never trod, but rather surely the fear of putting someone in the White House in an uncomfortable position with the capacity to lift carpets and point out piles of dirt, or the remains of some cadaver. In fact, Trump has initiated a multitude of lawsuits against journalists and media outlets, but most have fallen by the wayside because he himself has withdrawn them or had them withdrawn. The objective has never been to seek justice, but rather to instill fear in professionals. Not only those who see themselves facing the threat of having the entire State machinery—and what a state!—against them, but also the press as a whole, so that the oppressive climate favors self-censorship. In this specific case, FBI agents showed up at the reporters' homes with great fanfare. In other cases, the request for information also affected their immediate family members, which constitutes blatant blackmail. 

Paid holidays were, less than a century ago, a gain for the working class, with France as the first country to generalize them in 1936: 15 days for everyone. Since then, and especially after the Second World War, with the consolidation of the European welfare state, much progress has been made in holiday welfare. Only in this way can it be understood that tourism has become a global industry, with Catalonia-Barcelona as a privileged destination. But it is an industry of little added value which, paradoxically, is leaving people not without holidays, but without the possibility of enjoying them at the level of years past. More and more Catalans cannot afford long stays away from home.

In Gerard Quintana's life there have been many special nights, but none like that one in the summer of 1977 which, he assures, "changed his life and career forever".

The defense strategy of businessman Julio Martínez Martínez has become a new headache for José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The friend and alleged frontman of the former Spanish government president has put it into practice this week, advised by lawyer María Dolores Márquez de Prado. It is with whom he was accompanied this Tuesday when he appeared as an investigated party at the National Court, a scenario that Márquez de Prado knows very well. This renowned criminal lawyer worked as a prosecutor there for seventeen years. A period in which she earned the nickname "indomitable." Precisely for being a headache for another former socialist leader, former Spanish president Felipe González during his time in Moncloa.

It has been more than two years since the publication of the Letta report ("Much more than a market") and, in September, it will be two years since the publication of the Draghi report ("The future of European competitiveness"). These reports are the two essential pieces of the diagnosis that warned that Europe has been falling behind in the global economy.

Forceful response from school principals in the face of an error that will make the PISA test results in Catalonia incomparable with other territories or previous years. The association of school principals issued a statement this Saturday in which they blame the error with the tests, warning that it will have a "devastating consequence": "Catalonia loses the possibility of comparing the evolution of its education system with the rest of the world," they warn in the text.

The crisis in education in Catalonia not only has consequences today. If the degradation continues, the country condemns itself to a future of economic irrelevance and social fracture.

Alhora, the party founded in 2024 by Clara Ponsatí and Jordi Graupera, has begun to deploy its municipal strategy with the aim of presenting itself in some forty town councils in the 2027 elections. Currently, Alhora has no councilors of its own: it had never run in municipal elections before. But the party has already made public, in Sant Cugat del Vallès, its first confirmed candidacy: it is the one that will be led by lawyer Maria Vila.

While more foreign tourists than ever arrive in Catalonia, domestic tourism is falling. Excursions and trips by Catalans within the territory are down 25.6% compared to before the pandemic, 2019. According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) compiled by ARA, trips are down 19.1%, and day trips are down 28.3%.

Héctor and Magnolia work in luxury hotel establishments. He holds a position of responsibility in the kitchen of a well-known hotel in Barcelona, and she cleans rooms in an exclusive tourist establishment near the city's beach. Despite living daily with tourism, Magnolia is part of the 28.8% of Catalans who, according to Idescat, cannot afford to take a week's vacation away from home, and until six or seven years ago, Héctor was also one of them.

The United States commemorates the 250th anniversary of its independence while observing its democratic foundations in crisis. Platforms also celebrate this with some productions that revisit the nation's history with the subtle intention of reclaiming the values that are being undermined. On HBO Max, Barack and Michelle Obama have produced a series of comedic sketches together with Larry David. The actor, besides being the main protagonist, is also co-creator, co-writer, and producer alongside Jeff Schaffer, his collaborator on Curb your enthusiasm. The series Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness: An almost history of America can be read allegorically. The title parodies the formula of the Declaration of Independence: “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”.Larry David introduces his curmudgeonly and killjoy character into emblematic moments of United States history. The production is cinematic and features cameos from a large cast of celebrities such as Jimmy Kimmel, Kaley Cuoco, Jon Hamm, Sarah Silverman, or Rob Reiner, to whom a posthumous dedication is made. Life, Larry and the pursuit of unhappiness pays homage to history with a sense of humor while always seeking a biting contemporary reading. Not all sketches are successful, some are too long, but it has wit. Obama makes the initial presentation recalling the petty characters who have tried to prevent the progress of the United States, in an allusion to the protagonist, but it is inevitable to also think of Trump, who will become the absent and unmentionable protagonist. The past calls to him as a bad future that is inconceivable to exist. The sketch in which George Washington decides to set a limit of two terms for future presidents of the United States to guarantee the democratic health of the nation becomes visionary considering Trump's challenge this week in which he assures that he wants to run for a third term.One of the best sketches is the one that recreates the Rosa Parks episode on the bus. Traveling next to Larry David will blow up all the epicness of the woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man and became the symbol of the civil rights struggle. The whole series summarizes an alternative history of the United States where, for example, Bob Woodward will end up begging deep throat not to call him anymore to inform him about the Watergate case, we will discover the particular sense of decency of Senator McCarthy in his fall or the uncomfortable first airplane flight of the Wright brothers. Also the overwhelming pride of the mother of Jonas Salk, the discoverer of the polio vaccine. The television exercise is fun, and it turns out to be a bit paradoxical. While Donald Trump is destroying the values of the nation's founding spirit, the Obamas are rewriting its history with humor. Perhaps it's the saying that it's better to laugh than to cry.

Describing the PSOE's life these days is equivalent to writing the chronicle of a desolation. If it was already difficult to give full credit to the merely exculpatory initial statements of former government president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, followed by more than two months of silence, his television appearance to give explanations has only worsened the situation, especially in the political arena. In the judicial sphere, it may be different, because there are other rules of the game. The defense will play the card of requesting the nullity of the proceedings strongly, based on procedural problems and guarantees of fundamental rights. Nor is it an easy battle, but Zapatero has an experienced lawyer in this regard, Víctor Moreno Catena. He is a professor of procedural law who, for six years (1988-1994), held high positions in the Ministry of the Interior, first as technical secretary general and later as undersecretary.

The fact that xenophobia is increasing in Catalonia is a fact, and it is a repugnant fact for those of us who venerate the concept of universal human rights.The trigger for this phenomenon is the migratory flow we have been receiving since the beginning of the century, and if we want to combat it, the first thing we must do is face an uncomfortable truth: that immigration inevitably harms some, and very specifically, members of the popular classes. Why? Because immigration puts downward pressure on wages (when employers have difficulty filling vacancies, the alternative to raising wages is to hire an immigrant), because it puts upward pressure on housing prices (does the fact that we have gone from 6 to 8 million inhabitants so rapidly and without planning have nothing to do with it?), and because it makes access to public services difficult ("if I am poor but the immigrant is poorer, they take my school lunch scholarship"). Faced with these facts, well-meaning people —on the left and on the right— tend to respond with two arguments. The first, that the phenomenon is inevitable (due to our aging, due to their lack of alternatives...); the second, that immigration is good for the economy because it increases GDP, and therefore allows us to dedicate more resources to financing public services and thus compensate those who may be adversely affected. Unfortunately, both arguments are false.

On Wednesday I was at the summer party of ARA, where, besides greeting colleagues and readers, I heard live the conversation between Albert Om and Ada Parellada, who in September returns to the newspaper to share her recipe book with her numerous followers. Ada is a whirlwind of a woman, and you can easily imagine her cooking four dishes at once. But she is a person with a very thoughtful discourse, in which enthusiasm responds not only to impulse but to a method and an idea. When I hear her, or Maria Nicolau, or Empar Moliner, and so many other people who talk about the land, the product, the wines, and agriculture, I realize that behind their fiery speeches there is not only hedonism, good habits, and environmentalism, but a whole idea of country, of how what is now called the territory should be managed, of how food connects us with a way of doing and living that are also past, heritage, and culture in all senses of the term.I would venture to say that, in these times of political discredit, these proclamations are an authentic reformulation of Catalanism, that concept which, as Josep Pla said, links with everything, and which always knows how to reinvent itself and disguise itself in the most useful way to approach the objective – which is, as always, the defense of the right to exist of a national community–. In the 17th century (and until 1714) Catalanism was revolt; in the 18th, economic development; in the 19th, simultaneously and not always friendly, it was cultural renaissance and social revolution. In the 20th century, political Catalanism exploded, harshly repressed by two dictatorships. And now, in times of political weariness and authentic demographic metamorphosis, one of the safe havens of Catalanism is the land, also threatened, but which continues to function as a mirror of the values and intangible heritage of the country. If cuisine is – back to Josep Pla – the landscape put in a pot, the nation is a human collective living together in the same space. If the political landscape is a wasteland, and the human landscape changes constantly, the natural landscape, the space where we exist, becomes even more the repository of some essential truths that define us and allow us to face changes with the tranquility of knowing that some things – the fruits of the land and culinary tradition – remain unaltered, even if they are enriched and diversified over time. They are the roots that prevent the tree from having to suffer from the length and reach of the new branches, which alter its shape without damaging its essence.This Catalanism of the land, or of the fruits of the land, does not only serve to claim escudella, garnacha, sea and mountain or ratafia. It is also the guarantee of a model of country that respects the environment, the sown fields, fishing and livestock; a country that does not let itself be swallowed by exorbitant growth or the greed of tourism. A country, in short, that respects itself, that does not renounce offering all the good it has to the world. Of this, in politics, we would call it sovereignty. And while history shows us that politics ends up being necessary to defend the country's model, we also know, as is tradition in this land, that when politics fails it is society that protects and organizes itself, shines with its own light and makes the country remain despite not appearing on maps with its own color. I toast, therefore, to all the farmers, ranchers, fishermen, restaurant or home cooks, sommeliers and disseminators who help us understand that, under a surface increasingly battered by plastic and cement, there is the land, watching the centuries and millennia pass, reminding us who we are.

A terribly familiar war rhythm has returned to prevail in Iran: bombed highways, a sinking currency, threatening messages from President Trump on social media, and incendiary rhetoric from religious leaders of the Iranian regime. But when Behnam, an unemployed musician from Tehran, calls relatives or friends to see how they are, he never starts by talking about the war. "The first question we ask each other is: have you eaten?"

Why does Zapatero take the stage to play the sad role he played, with few concrete statements, half-truths, and the intriguing nuisance of the gifted jewelry? From a judicial point of view, he insisted on recognizing the judges' final say in valuing each thing, as could not be otherwise. And in fact, he was only emphatic regarding his actions for the benefit of Plus Ultra: "It's not that I didn't influence, it's that I didn't speak to anyone." A sentence that will pass the test of validation in the courts.

A few days ago, Bonnie Blue – the British adult content creator who has carried out sexual challenges with hundreds of men – shared her latest "exhibition" on social media. Six months pregnant, she has staged what is called a baby shower, a no longer new and neoconservative trend that serves to announce the sex of the baby to be born. In this case, however, she has done so accompanied by more than 100 men – many of them with their faces covered – and carrying out various sexual practices. The objective: to share it on social media. Obviously, it has gone viral, as it does every time she takes an action.The complete analysis of the meaning and interpretation of this action (both regarding her and the men involved) requires several debates that have already taken place in some media and also on social networks; therefore, I do not want to talk here about what is a current dilemma in feminisms about the weight of the patriarchal structure in these practices or women's right to their bodies. I believe there is a parallel reflection that is often overlooked because it ends up being invisible to the eyes in the face of situations that are, from the outset, disturbing to us.I would like to address this topic: how glaring and classist the double standard is in contemporary capitalist society. Despite all the social criticisms that the character of Bonnie Blue has generated throughout her career, her situation is privileged. Behind this latest "performance", as with the previous ones, there is monetization. On her part, on the part of the companies that own the different social networks and perhaps – we don't know – on the part of the men who accompany her. The entire situation is at the service of capitalism; it is a business. And, as far as I know, no child protection institution has decided to monitor the pregnancy, nor what this woman's context might be for being a mother, nor to investigate the men around her or their role. Bonnie is European, white, and has become rich; despite the criticisms, she is ultimately accepted as an "exercise" of freedom or even as an exercise in provocation towards "bleeding hearts".This supposed "freedom" is only offered by social class. It's the usual story: Bonnie Blue will most likely be immune to institutional "guardianship" as a mother. And I don't mean by this that we should start evaluating her maternal capacities or even the type of parenting she wants to do; what I'm talking about is that we have a system that, structurally, ends up questioning mostly the pregnancies and maternities of poor, immigrant, racialized women, those who use drugs, those who don't have a safe home, etc. What I mean is that institutions end up being a reflection of societies and how they interpret reality. The stigma and rejection of women living in profound social vulnerability also impact their maternities.We are legitimizing a world that whitewashes what we would not want to admit as long as it is done by someone who, in some way, belongs to our "tribe". Let's exercise ourselves: if the woman who had carried out this action were poor and racialized, what would we have done, said?

An open international trade system has, in its favor, a strong reason: it can provide goods and services at a comparatively low price and, at the same time, provide markets for companies that can supply them from anywhere in the world. Both, consumers and producers, benefit from it. The gains can be very considerable, and that is why its volume (sum of exports and imports) has reached 60% of global GDP.

"I want to live with Luis for the next 30 years, even if the last ones are, as they popularly say, with a bit of a struggle", assured the Catalan journalist Susanna Griso – presenter of the morning magazine Espejo público on Antena 3 – shortly after announcing her wedding to the businessman and economist from Madrid, Luis Enríquez. Although they have known each other for more than two decades, it wasn't until a year and a half ago that the two friends became a couple, and they have chosen the Costa Brava as the setting for the double celebration of their wedding.

"We fell here as we could have fallen anywhere else. And then came this whole story: an Argentine named Leo who is Lamine's first coach. It's as if it were already written," smiles Leo Giordanella (Cipolletti, Patagonia; 1992). Leo Messi and Lamine Yamal first crossed paths in the World Cup final, with a victory for the Spanish national team and the young star from Rocafonda, but their relationship is full of precious connections and incredible coincidences that have united them for years.

What you will read here, more than an interview, is a gastronomic manifesto that the cook Ada Parellada (Granollers, 1967) let go of on Wednesday, in a disordered, fun, and captivating way, at the ARA summer party, in front of 200 newspaper subscribers. Born into the family of the mythical Fonda Europa in Granollers, owner of the Semproniana restaurant in Barcelona, author of a dozen books, and disseminator of traditional Catalan cuisine on Instagram, Ada Parellada will collaborate again with ARA after the summer by publishing two weekly recipes on video.What does returning to the PRESENT mean to you?

Three days after the collapse that on Wednesday swallowed a crane at the R2 line's underground works, Adif and Renfe have announced key steps to restore traffic on the affected tracks, but without yet specifying when the R2, R2 Nord, and R11 will return to normal operation. This Saturday at noon, Adif declared the sinkhole repaired after finishing filling the hole that opened on the border between Barcelona and Montcada i Reixac with concrete. Once all safety checks were completed, Renfe began conducting empty test runs, with empty trains, before restoring service.

Although it was already a publicly known secret since last April, it has not been until last week that it was a publicly known secret since last April that Geely and Ford have signed a historic agreement that will allow the Chinese brand to manufacture several models at the Valencian plant in Almussafes, the factory most highly valued by the Chinese giant's top management thanks to its location, the ease of communication with the rest of Europe, and the proximity of battery manufacturing centers and other suppliers. The agreement between the two automotive giants will allow the Almussafes facilities to go from producing a single model, the Ford Kuga, to five. This is because the roadmap shared by the two companies foresees adding three new models by the end of 2028 and another already planned by the oval brand, the all-terrain Ford Bronco, which will land on the European market during 2027.Two important models in China

The first car that Geely will manufacture in Europe will be the new Geely E5, a compact SUV that is marketed in a fully electric format with a 218 HP engine and a range of 628 kilometers in urban environments (around 450 kilometers in mixed driving cycles). The Geely E5 has a fast-charging system that allows it to charge the batteries from 30% to 80% in just twenty minutes.The second Geely model to land in the Valencian Community – and which has all the makings of a sales success in Europe – will be the Geely E2, also known as the Galaxy Xingyuan in China, an electric B-segment SUV, equivalent to the European utility vehicles it will have to compete with (Renault 5, Cupra Raval and Volkswagen ID Polo). 

]]>

A year and a half after Anagrama "indefinitely suspended" the publication ofEl odio,, in which Luisgé Martín (Madrid, 1962) collected the letters he exchanged with José Bretón, who is serving a prison sentence for the murder of his two children, the Madrid-born author has announced the publication of a new book with Altamarea in which he will give his version of events and which will arrive in bookstores on September 30.

]]>

When on February 21, 2024, the Civil Guard arrested him, Víctor de Aldama was president of Zamora CF and his name had never appeared related to the Spanish government. Two and a half years later, his “active” collaboration in the judicial investigations that tarnish Pedro Sánchez has turned him into a ticking time bomb for the PSOE. Not only because of the “full and continuous cooperation” with justice that has led to the "condemnation of José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García, but because, boasting of the benefits of stretching the blanket, it has become a path to follow for other people. And it is a weak point of the defense that Moncloa, under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, puts up. This very week we have had some examples. 

]]>

During the last few weeks, the figure of the confessor has taken on absolute prominence in the Spanish judicial ecosystem. But the so-called reward law – the State's practice of granting benefits and sentence reductions in exchange for internal information – was not designed in Madrid's offices to combat political corruption. Some of its roots take us back to prisons in the United States and the streets of Palermo (Sicily), where the state had to accept a prior defeat in order to move forward: the only way to destroy a closed criminal organization is to buy the betrayal of its own members.

]]>

She was unique in life and also after death. This would be the sentence that summarizes the figure of the Duchess of Kent, Katherine Worsley by birth, Kate to most of those who knew her throughout her long life. She was related to the most central core of the Windsor family since she married in 1961 the Duke of Kent, grandson of King George V and a prince with the consideration of royal highness who, besides being Duke, was also Earl of St Andrews and Baron Downpatrick. Her presence in this controversial and problematic family was always valued. And this, despite representing what for a large part of the aristocracy at the time was a sacrilege: a commoner in the palace!

]]>

When I returned to work from Girona four years ago, after years covering political information in Madrid, I set out to understand the cycling boom that the city has experienced. One of the first people I spoke to was Anna Gibert Sau (Riudarenes, 1977), a police officer specialized in sexist violence and co-founder of Girona Gravel Girls, a community made up exclusively of women that today already exceeds 430 members.

]]>

With La gran família (Club Editor, 2025), the writer and editor Antònia Carré-Pons (Terrassa, 1960) has won the last Òmnium award for best novel of the year. An avid reader of new releases and classics, Carré-Pons is clear about which book to recommend for this summer: Cosdiví, by Theodore Sturgeon, which Males Herbes has published in Catalan with a translation by Josep Sempere.

]]>

The West Bank has experienced one of the most explosive days in recent months. A shooting in the village of Tell, southwest of Nablus, in which at least four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers died, triggered a massive wave of settler attacks against several Palestinian communities early this morning. Israeli authorities have arrested seventy Palestinians, who have been taken to an interrogation center set up in a house in the village where the incident took place. The army and settlers have organized raids in which they have carried out more arbitrary arrests, after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised "forceful measures," such as demolishing the house of one of those involved in the riots and building new settlements in the area. Israeli settlers have attacked several Palestinian villages, including Urif, Surra, Far'ata, Jit, Imatin, Khirbet Imreiha, Iraq Burin, and the Masafer Yatta area, in the north and center of the West Bank. In Urif, a home was set on fire and at least one Palestinian was injured. In Far'ata, settlers burned agricultural land and shot a man in the chest, who is in critical condition. Other videos shared by residents of various localities show homes, businesses, and vehicles on fire, excavators uprooting olive trees, as well as the word revenge painted on the walls. In some of the incidents, according to local sources, Israeli troops dispersed Palestinian residents with tear gas.The incident that precipitated the escalation occurred after a group of Israeli settlers entered a restricted military zone without authorization or coordination with the army, according to the Israeli army. From here, the versions diverge. The army maintains that the settlers were on an unauthorized excursion when they were attacked and that a Palestinian snatched the weapon from one of the security members before opening fire. Palestinian witnesses, on the other hand, assure that it was the settlers, with the support of the soldiers present, who began to shoot at the inhabitants of the village.A video recorded during the events shows an armed settler trying to push two Palestinians away by pushing them with his rifle. A struggle for the weapon then ensues, while shouts of revenge in Hebrew are heard in the background. Moments later, one of the Palestinians appears holding the rifle and at least a dozen shots are heard coming from different points. Be that as it may, the result was four Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers dead, one of whom was also a settler, according to the Efe agency.A pretext to intensify the offensive

After the events in Tell, the Israeli Prime Minister and Defense Minister, Israel Katz, announced that they would intensify military operations in villages that Israel considers "a hotbed of terrorism." They announced new military deployments, the demolition of homes of suspects who may have participated in the Tell incident, the confiscation of weapons, and the withdrawal of work permits for the inhabitants of this village.Netanyahu also ordered the acceleration of the construction of new settler outposts in the area where the events occurred and the legalization of those that already exist, even though the settlements are considered illegal, according to international law and by the majority of the international community.

]]>

This Friday, the Government announced that an error in the sample of selected students has resulted in Catalonia's PISA test results being invalidated for comparison with other territories or previous years. The error by Education means that the sample is not representative and it will not be possible to know if the Catalan educational level has improved or worsened. L'ARA interviews Francesc Pedró, who has worked for a decade with the OECD in the educational field. He is also a professor at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and co-director of the 2026 Yearbook of Education in Catalonia from the Equitat.org Foundation.

]]>

A worker who was carrying out maintenance on the train tracks near Sant Mori (Alt Empordà) died early this Saturday morning. According to police sources, he suffered an electric shock while maintaining the railway line, halfway between the Sant Miquel de Fluvià and Camallera stations. At the latter, Adif has been carrying out works for some time. The victim is a 66-year-old man.

]]>

Unlike the idea one might have of countries like Mauritania, from which the main migratory routes to the Canary Islands depart, a large part of the young people in this country do not want to leave their homes and are looking for solutions to continue living where they were born. “You always have to have hope”, says Yacine from a multipurpose room where she was able to watch the documentary "Ebre Trarza, in which he has participated. The project, which will be seen soon at festivals in Catalonia, summarizes more than a year of letter exchange between young people from the Trarza region, in Mauritania, and from the Ebro Delta, two territories that are experiencing the effects of climate change but whose young inhabitants are resisting leaving. “If the Delta dies, we will die with it,” says Jordi Parés, of the Sediments Association in the same documentary.

]]>

Double message from Pedro Sánchez from the advanced command post of the fire ravaging the Community of Madrid and which has burned almost 10,000 hectares. The Spanish president warned that the situation “remains complex” because, although temperatures have dropped, it is not known “what the evolution and intensity of the winds will be” in the coming hours, but at the same time he has not ruled out that, during the weekend, there will be a “window of opportunity” to “fight the fire and protect lives and population centers”. He verbalized this after it was reported that, during the night, both the Madrid fire and the Ávila fire – which has burned between 13,000 and 15,000 hectares – have remained out of control despite the efforts of the firefighters.

]]>

The United States and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday closed a civil nuclear cooperation agreement that would open the door to the development of a Saudi nuclear program without some of the safeguards traditionally required by Washington. U.S. President Donald Trump has assured that "there will be no enrichment of nuclear material" and that the program will be exclusively for civilian uses. He also specified that the pact will only go ahead if Saudi Arabia adheres to the Abraham Accords, promoted by the United States in 2020, and if it normalizes relations with Israel. Riyadh has not yet reacted publicly.

]]>

.

]]>

(As every summer, ARA dedicates a series of Sunday Media articles to reviewing television history. This year we rescue some of the most notable channel changes that historical fictions experienced.)

]]>

“Fallen from the sky”, John Naylor (Akal, 2005)

This guide is an essential classic for anyone who wants to understand the firmament and know how to observe its natural phenomena. It has some chapters focused on the night sky, but what truly makes this book special is the attention it pays to observing the daytime sky. The descriptions of the phenomena are suitable for all audiences and are complemented by illustrative photographs. The author expands on scientific concepts with historical and mythological notes, offering a broad and contextualized view, but without ever losing the rigor that underpins this work. Furthermore, as it focuses only on what we can see with the naked eye, we will not need any equipment to enjoy the spectacles the sky offers us!Pioneer

On August 12, 1919, Margaret Burbidge was born

Astrophysicist, astronomer, and one of the founders of modern astronomy. Her career was marked by the fight against gender discrimination: she was often denied the use of telescopes for being a woman. But by overcoming obstacles, she was the first author of the paper demonstrating that most of the known chemical elements are formed inside stars. From this came the inspiring phrase that "we are made of stardust".Agenda

Solaris Citizen Science Project

Available on the app, from July 12

]]>

This summer, which many of us have seen fires ravage our forests and where we don't know for sure if what we are experiencing is nature becoming unbalanced or, on the contrary, doing its best to rebalance itself; this summer Editorial Barcino has published a new edition of Liliana, by Apel·les Mestres (Barcelona, 1854-1936), and has given us the opportunity to re-evaluate a writer whom we should all know better. Personally, I would swear I had never read anything by him, although I had seen illustrations by him at the MNAC. I delved into his life a few months ago, when I was preparing the script for a podcast about classic authors that I present, La contracoberta. And since then I have been amazed not only by his pen, but also by everything he knew how to do well: drawing, painting, writing poetry, theatre, prose and music, translating and giving graphic illustration the artistic category it deserves.

]]>

The fires in Madrid and Ávila continue without control. Mid-morning, seeing the evolution of the fires, the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) decided to create a “unified emergency command” to work with a single sector: “It is the best way to manage and save time”, justified Francisco Javier Marcos, head of the UME, from the advanced command post in Cenicientos. “Treating this catastrophe and this fire as one [...] will contribute to the efficiency, coordination, and agility of all the decisions we make”, he stressed. But the presence of the authorities in this municipality eighty kilometers from the capital was numbered. In the evening, the territory under joint operational direction was also extended to the province of Toledo.

]]>

Péter Magyar took the helm of Hungary's government on May 9 and has not eased up on the accelerator since then, aiming to leave the autocratic regime built by Viktor Orbán over the last sixteen years behind as quickly as possible, to leave the autocratic regime behind as quickly as possible. The prime minister has christened this democratic transition operation with the name purifying fire, whose top priority is to dismiss Fidesz loyalists holding public office who could hinder the process of reconstructing the rule of law. The first to fall has been the country's president, Tamás Sulyok, whom Magyar described as Orbán's "puppet." This express democratization process has further boosted the popularity of the new government, but it has also raised eyebrows among some organizations and analysts who warn of the risk of overdoing it and falling into the same trap of power concentration as the previous regime.

]]>

The Catalan education system has experienced a real upheaval: an error in the sample of students who took the PISA tests will make Catalonia's results in the OECD tests unrepresentative and incomparable with the scores of other countries or with the results that Catalan students achieved in previous editions. In other words, the PISA tests will not serve to know if Catalan schools have improved or worsened compared to the last report in 2022, which was a disaster for Catalonia, nor to know the level of Catalan students compared to that of boys and girls from other territories. Broadly speaking, the problem is that there was an error in deciding which students should be excluded from the tests due to learning difficulties: Catalonia exempted 23% of the students who were part of the sample, when the OECD sets a maximum of 5% of participants to be exempted. But what is the process for deciding which adolescents take the PISA tests?

]]>

It was meant to be the big trade deal that end the belligerence of the United States against the European Union and restore good relations between the two transatlantic powers. However, a year after the handshake between the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, and the US President, Donald Trump, in Scotland, the pact has not managed to change the White House's attitude towards its European allies. During these twelve months – Monday marks the first anniversary – the New York magnate has not stopped threatening and insulting the European Union's partners, which has endangered the application of the trade agreement on repeated occasions and delayed its entry into force in European institutions.

]]>

The uncertainty about the application of the amnesty law to the leaders of the Procés has left a judicial labyrinth open. Waiting to see if the Supreme Court will apply the CJEU ruling, within this labyrinth there is a path that is still unresolved and leaves an open question: in case of a hypothetical non-application of the amnesty, is it possible to open the file for a second pardon to erase what was left pending? At the time, the Spanish government partially pardoned the leaders of the Procés – it was the only possible way after the sentencing court opposed the measure of grace – that is, they forgave them the prison sentence, but kept intact the disqualification penalty that affected Oriol Junqueras, Jordi Turull, Raül Romeva and Dolors Bassa, who were also convicted of embezzlement. This disqualification, for example, prevents the current leader of ERC from running in an election –as he has shown himself willing to do– or to teach.

]]>

Tired of the few future options he saw in Senegal, Awa Fam's father traveled to Alicante, where he had a friend who helped him process his papers and find work. His wife arrived shortly after and the family settled in Santa Pola. His parents, Madoumbe and Arane, ran an African craft shop, but when she was born at Elche Hospital they closed it to dedicate themselves to street vending.

]]>

"There have been five major extinction crises on the planet so far. The last one was caused by a meteorite that fell to Earth. That's when the dinosaurs went extinct. Now we are immersed in the sixth: animals are going extinct at a faster rate than usual due to climate change and human action," explains Carles Lalueza-Fox, director of the Natural Sciences Museum of Barcelona, an expert in ancient DNA recovery techniques and evolutionary genetics. Lalueza holds a doctorate in biology and is a world authority in paleogenetics (the science that studies past genomes). This extinction, the current one, is the first that is our fault, humanity's. It is due to a few factors: habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species, climate change... It is estimated that there are currently about 47,000 species in danger of extinction. Yes, it is an outrage.That is why this museum, which should become the National Museum of Natural Sciences of Catalonia – something that is advancing at a snail's pace – has promoted several biobanks, facilities where biological samples and even stem cells of endangered species are kept cold. For example, samples of amphibians currently threatened in Catalonia are being collected. The DNA is preserved in the biobank and can thus be the subject of genetic studies later, in the next century, for example."Furthermore, we collaborate with CrioZoo, where cell cultures and animal stem cells are stored in liquid nitrogen," Carles explains to me. "We also work on biodiversity conservation, mainly in collaboration with the Generalitat. When a road is built that affects endangered native plants, they call us and we take them to the botanical garden of Barcelona, where we replant them or store their seeds in our germplasm bank"."We are now in the process of genetically 'understanding' living beings in the context of the current biodiversity crisis," Carles explains to me as we walk through the Biography of the Earth area of the "Planet Life" exhibition. "Threatened species must be able to be preserved for future generations," he adds.We enter a very well-made recreation of a collector's cabinet, the Salvador Collection. It is one of the so-called "islands of science." This collection contained, for both collector's and curative purposes, animals, herbaria, soils, minerals... and quite a few fossils. Since evolution or past life was not conceived of before, some people thought that fossils were "copies" that nature "made," and thus God tested believers. "God deceives the unbelievers, they thought," comments Carles while touching a pyrite (golden in color, cube-shaped). Museums have long not only "allowed" touching but also "invited" touching, and this one is no exception.A long time ago, in museums everything was protected with display cases. Here there are indeed display cases, with naturalized animals. But they are display cases "in the open air". In front of me there is a naturalized lion, inside a display case, which shares the space with many other predatory beasts. Next to the lion is Urko – in this case in a display case for him alone – a gorilla, son of the mythical Floquet de Neu and Ndengue from the Barcelona Zoo. He died at 25 as a result of peritonitis. "Shouldn't he be white?", I ask Carles. "No. What causes albinism is a recessive gene. I participated in the study that obtained Floquet's complete genome. We discovered that the parents were consanguineous, that is, they were related", he explains.The architects Herzog and De Meuron took charge of the museography, and designed these display cases "in the open air". Furthermore, they adapted the building, which had been built for the Forum of Cultures and which remained empty after its celebration. "This is one of the curses of natural science museums: they are installed in buildings that were not designed to house them. It is a strange building for a museum: labyrinthine, with changes in levels... and dark: you have to illuminate the pieces; this makes the visit an immersive experience," says Carles. Herzog and De Meuron, authors of the renovation of the Tate Modern in London and the Beijing Olympic Stadium, had to squeeze their knowledge to adapt it into a museum. One of the unique features of this museum is that it has a visitable green roof, with species from the Mediterranean area.Another "science island" that catches my attention at the museum is the one dedicated to how living beings are classified. To introduce it, it talks about the different ways we can classify buttons. "Now living beings are classified according to their evolutionary context. Without evolution, the natural world cannot be understood," emphasizes Carles. That is why the museum does not show living beings ordered as we did in school (birds, mammals...) but by concepts such as flying or avoiding being eaten. That is, taking into account everything that has allowed them to survive throughout evolution. Lalueza's head is buzzing with projects. "I would like one day to do an exhibition of historical meteorites in Catalonia". The Natural Science Museum has samples of four meteorites that fell in Catalonia between the 18th and 19th centuries. They are small fragments that explain characteristics of the origin of the solar system. One is the officially known as the "meteorite of Barcelona", which fell in... Terrassa!, on Christmas Day 1704, in the middle of the War of Succession. Some said it predicted great misfortunes. Anyway, Catalonia lost the war.A second exhibition that Lalueza would like to carry out – this one is underway – is about a mammoth found in 1920. "Our paleontologists are studying it (they want to determine its sex, age, and are also reconstructing the bones it is missing)". It will be held in 2028. The mammoth was found in the Barcelona neighborhood of Pedralbes. Yes, long before building high-standing houses, mammoths roamed there.A spectacular 19th-century whale skeleton I remember seeing it at the Castle of the Three Dragons, in the Ciutadella, where the Museum of Zoology was located, from which part of the pieces of the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona come. Fortunately, it has been preserved. It is a spectacular whale skeleton. The visitor entering the museum passes underneath it: it is located above the entrance stairs. This skeleton is from a cetacean that ran aground on the beach of Llançà in 1862. It weighs one ton – the skeleton alone! – and is almost twenty meters long.

]]>

"No more than work," replies Josep Bou when asked what he has done since leaving Barcelona City Council four years ago. After a term at the head of the PP municipal group, Bou returned to his company. At 71 years old, he is not thinking of retirement by a long shot. "I have given up retiring and collecting any pension. My life is work," he assures.

]]>

The illustrator and filmmaker Lyona (Marta Puig) spent all the August months of the eighties and nineties in La Sénia, in Montsià, her favorite place in Catalonia. About five years ago, the whole family reunited at this house belonging to her aunt and uncle in Benicarló, which had been the meeting point for the sisters of the family with their partners and children: "There were fourteen of us cousins of similar ages, with a ten-year difference between the oldest and the youngest. I have very good memories of it, it was heavenly, we were far from the town, in the middle of the mountains, without a phone line or television. Back then there were no mobile phones or internet, you were completely cut off".

]]>

There is no doubt that summer is a time for rest and disconnection. The heat does not help with work, and studying while friends are at the pool is a more than complicated challenge, especially when there are no retakes in September. But if there are suspended (not achieved) subjects in the report cards and you want to start the course better than you finished it, many families consider combining the necessary rest and disconnection with this "catching up". How many hours should be dedicated each day? A private tutor or should we let them do it freely? Should other summer activities be given up? We talk to the managers of L’Acadèmia, a study center in Mollerussa that accompanies students all year round but which also has its doors open in the summer for all those families who find themselves in similar situations.

]]>

Languages are not only useful for conversation, but also for legislating, negotiating, defending rights, and building societies. Catalan is one of them. And in the Balearic Islands, this reality takes on a special dimension: the native language coexists with a rich legal tradition that is part of the identity of the Islands and remains fully in force.

]]>

Entrepreneurship is much more than having a good idea. It's turning it into a real project. It's taking risks, overcoming difficulties, and making decisions. It's taking a step forward. And, above all, it's knowing with whom to take it. Transforming an idea into a viable business is one of the challenges many entrepreneurs face, and often the path is not easy.

]]>

The audience rose to their feet, applauding Josep Pons's final performance as musical director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu. The work chosen for the occasion could not have been more fitting, as a statement of principles: the last symphony Mahler would premiere in his lifetime, the Eighth (he still had the profound restraint of the Ninth, premiered posthumously), popularly known as the Symphony of a Thousand, which is a hymn to optimism and the return to the natural through Faustian beauty. We could debate whether it is truly a symphony or a cantata. It matters little, because Mahler's genius is showcased from beginning to end of a score that sometimes borders on excess, but never leaves one indifferent.

]]>

After the most complicated school year in Catalan classrooms, with a final month marked by an unprecedented series of strikes, when practically the entire educational community is already on vacation, a new bucket of cold water arrives. This time on one of the international evaluation pillars. The latest PISA tests taken in Catalonia were a fiasco. It is a real disaster: the selection of students who took them was done incorrectly. In the rest of Spain, it was done correctly.

]]>

Wednesday, finally, we saw the season finale special of Com si fos ahir. An broadcast scheduled for Monday, after being announced in multiple promotions. The broadcast on La 1 of the celebration of the Spanish national team's victory in the World Cup caused a sudden change in programming. TV3 resigned itself to subordinating itself to the grandiose television spectacle of la roja} for fear of losing viewers.

]]>

No matter how you look at it, the fiasco of the Department of Education with the PISA tests cannot be justified: the OECD discovered and communicated the error in March, but the Generalitat has not reported it until now, four months later, on a Friday in late July. But we should not see any will of "concealment" and "manipulation".Even though four months have already passed, some "preliminary informative proceedings of a reserved nature" are still open to find out what might have happened, but it is not ruled out that it may have coincided with another basic competencies exam and with a "transition process" between the old Superior Council of Evaluation and the new Agency for Evaluation and Prospective of Education, and to prevent it from happening again, the Commission for Coordination of Evaluation Tests and Studies has been created.Instead of applying the maximum exclusion rate of 5% of students, a rate of 23.3% was applied, a circumstance that the Director General of Curriculum and Professional Development, who comes out to face the music (and not the minister), describes as an "technical, isolated and isolated incident". Total: the PISA test results that will be published in September will not be comparable with other territories or with other previous years in Catalonia.It is a national and international ridicule for the Generalitat, because Catalonia participates in the OECD's PISA tests with its own sample and because, seeing that in the last exam in 2022 Catalan students were below the average for the OECD, Europe, and Spain, President Illa signed an agreement with the OECD to lift the results. Well, for now, before knowing how the students have done, it is the Catalan administration that has failed. In education, we are playing with the future, and it has been too long since we have been doing well.

]]>

The member states of the International Criminal Court (ICC) voted this Friday to dismiss prosecutor Karim Khan after receiving accusations of sexual abuse, according to two diplomatic sources who informed Reuters. The 125 member states of the court decided this in a closed-door meeting, and according to the same sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, 82 of the court's member states voted in favor.

]]>

Longer and more relaxed days lend themselves to reading at leisure. To meet this need, ARA already has its summer supplement ready, which this year arrives more renewed than ever with completely new sections that mix information, entertainment, and knowledge. Ara Estiu kicks off this Sunday in the print edition (Saturday on Ara.cat) and will be published until Sunday, August 30. On the web, all the supplement's content will be gathered in a special site that will have a prominent space on the digital cover.

]]>

Will it be in September when the PP designates Juanfran Pérez Llorca as the conservatives' candidate for next year's regional elections or is Alberto Núñez Feijóo fighting for an alternative to the current president of the Generalitat? This is the debate that has been ongoing in the Valencian Community for months and has only weakened the leadership of a head of the Consell who carries the burden of not having been chosen by the affiliates, of not having won an election, and of having to listen almost every week to the criticisms of former president Francisco Camps who claims to be the electoral poster.

]]>

If there is anything that has marked the week, again, it is the Zapatero case. It began with the defense statement of businessman Julio Martínez Martínez to the National Court, in which he implicated the former Spanish president in the rescue of Plus Ultra; and it ends with Zapatero's first interview since he was charged on May 19. The former PSOE leader maintains his innocence: this Thursday he again denied any dealings with the Spanish government to obtain credit for the Venezuelan-capital airline; and explained that the jewelry was a "courtesy gift" without explaining its origin. The former president said he would explain this soon to the judge of the National Court. However, has Zapatero convinced? How does it affect Pedro Sánchez's government? See the analysis.

]]>

It has been 121 years since Catalonia last saw a solar eclipse, and another 154 will have to pass before there is another. Between 7:30 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. on August 12, the southern strip of the country will experience a total eclipse. The Sun, however, will only be covered by the moon for a period of between 28 seconds and 1 minute and 32 seconds.

]]>

Perhaps you will read this on your way to the beach, or sunbathing on the sand. For me, the beach transports me to childhood; that's why I like it so much. I learned French at El Golfet, making friends with the grandchildren of my grandparents' friends. My grandmother loved to practice the language on the sand and looked for any excuse to socialize with French retirees rather than Catalans. I believe she always thought that France was a civilized country, a refuge to escape to if the dictatorship returned. Walking down the coastal path, looking for shellfish on the rocks, and jumping over the waves before retracing the uphill path was my life. Now I go there to play paddleball, to read, or simply to listen to the waves so I don't hear anything else.For urban planners, the beach is a magical place. In the city it is very difficult, and it is becoming increasingly difficult, to mix people. Everyone tends to move where they feel comfortable with their tribe, and with the polarization between the rich and the rest of urbanites, urban boundaries are expanding. But the beach is different, and that fascinates me.Each beach is a world. I choose them according to how much I want to keep my distance. In Castelldefels and Gavà, you can sit by the sea, on a kind of natural step carved by the waves, which allows you to place the book on your lap and read without back pain, while you dip your feet in the salty foam. In Barceloneta or Vila Olímpica, you can get there by metro, which is a luxury within reach of very few seaside environments. In Maresme, you can travel along the beaches by train, with no more interference than a nautical club or a beach bar. And in the coves of Empordà, you can sacrifice towel space for a rocky scenery, with steep reds and green pine forests, which invite you to swim along the rocks without losing proximity to the mainland. You can be packed in like anchovies, but you go into the water and you can see fish and seaweed with cheap glasses.

]]>

I currently attend to more than a dozen young people in my practice, some born in Morocco and others here, children of Moroccan parents. When I listen to them, I often think about how little they resemble the portrait we usually paint of the children of immigrants. They all have higher education: degrees, master's degrees, or doctorates. They hold diverse professions and occupy positions of responsibility in hospitals, universities, professional associations, and other institutions in the country. But there is a characteristic that unites them even more than their résumés.

]]>

Every summer that passes confirms it: extreme heat has ceased to be a conjunctural accident to become a structural element. On the Mediterranean facade, moreover, it has a specific and especially insidious form, which are tropical and torrid nights, when the thermometer does not drop below 25 degrees and the body cannot recover. Because heat kills mostly at night and kills in silence. It strikes the elderly who live alone, poorly insulated apartments, those who work outdoors. The climate crisis is decided on a planetary scale, but heat is suffered, and it must also be fought, on the street. In the square without shade, in the classroom without air conditioning, in the neighborhood without greenery. Therefore, we could say that the front line of this battle is not only at international summits. On a day-to-day basis, it is played out in town halls.And the city councils have started to get involved. This summer there are nearly 2,000 active climate shelters in almost 400 Catalan municipalities, and the metropolitan area of Barcelona has expanded its network to 319, 31% more than last year. Valencia has doubled the number, from 18 to 39, to guarantee at least one in each district. And the movement is no longer just a matter for large cities. In Pla de Mallorca, towns like Sineu, Costitx, and Lloret de Vistalegre are transforming the areas around their schools into climate shelters. Away from asphalt and concrete: permeable pavements, large trees, shade designed to protect children and the elderly. Small municipalities doing, on their scale, what Paris does with the city as a whole, from the Seine to the schoolyards as “oases”.So far, the good news: adaptation to heat has entered the daily agenda of municipalism. The less good news is that, for the moment, the changes are more of intention than of transformation. In Valencia, a third of the announced shelters are libraries, which close in August, just when the heat hits hardest. In Barcelona, out of the 41 municipal libraries, 19 will remain open throughout August. On this matter, we should avoid continuing to play by the logic of "he who lives day by day", because everything suggests that the coming years will not be precisely better. Climate adaptation cannot be limited to an exercise of relabeling and adapting existing facilities, without touching a single square meter of asphalt.

]]>

We have become accustomed to confusing pessimism with lucidity. When was the last time a public debate left you wanting to do something, and not simply resigned? This question defines a paradox of our time: we have never had so much information, so many experts, and so much analytical capacity, and yet the feeling that the big problems are beyond our control has never been so widespread.Every day, public debate follows a known ritual. War, polarization, housing crisis, climate change, immigration, aging, artificial intelligence. Then come the analysts and commentators, who with solid arguments explain to us why institutions are weak, why politics is blocked, and why challenges are becoming increasingly difficult. Necessary analyses, but which leave an implicit conclusion: there is very little room to change things.Perhaps this is the great blind spot of our public debate. We have confused intelligence with the ability to diagnose problems. We give prestige to those who detect risks first and who construct the most convincing narrative about decline; on the other hand, we dedicate much less energy to exploring solutions, to comparing experiences that have worked, or to imagining institutions capable of responding to new challenges.It is as if we admire the doctor who brilliantly describes an illness more than the one who dedicates the same talent to finding a treatment for it. Diagnosis is essential, but it is not the end goal of medicine. Nor should it be the end goal of public debate. Democracy needs criticism, but above all civic imagination: the collective ability to imagine possible futures and mobilize wills to make them a reality. When this imagination weakens, we stop asking ourselves "what can we do?" and limit ourselves to asking "what will happen to us?" The first question creates citizens; the second creates spectators.History often reminds us that the future does not obey predictions. In the mid-1980s, almost no one foresaw the fall of the Berlin Wall; the European order seemed immutable. But millions of citizens demonstrated that what seemed unimaginable was only so until someone started to make it possible.

]]>

"United in difference, we are unstoppable", stated Juan Carlos Rivero at the closing of RTVE's broadcast of the match between France and Spain, considered by many to be the true World Cup final. Beyond the fact that this grandiloquent cliché seemed to be part of the string of responses with which the governmental orbit reacted to Rajoy's few-hours-old sincerity about the French, it is worth asking to what extent this appeal was not only about football but also about politics. In this second scenario — worse things have been seen — and taking for granted the existence of an "us" that allows us to go "united in difference", perhaps we should ask ourselves: to do what? Only to reinforce the sense of belonging? Perhaps it would be better to unite to improve Rodalies, to complete the Mediterranean Corridor or to achieve, once and for all, railway interoperability. Or are we to unite to colonize institutions, protect relatives or raise walls against immigrants, against the right, or against anyone who aspires to a political alternation in Spain? I confess that doubts are piling up.

]]>

Long before chatbots entered our lives, we already had too much judgment and lacked listening. Perhaps that's why we find it so seductive to converse with technology that never interrupts us, never questions us, and almost always agrees with us. The paradox is that we run the risk of confusing validation with listening and elevating this experience to a new thermometer for our relationships.

]]>

The Catalan car manufacturer Seat is experiencing a sweet moment amidst a complicated period for its parent company, the German group Volkswagen, which is considering severe staff cuts. Between January and June, the Martorell-based company tripled its operating profit, reaching 122 million euros, as reported this Friday in a statement.

]]>

We read in ARA that the mural in Obradors street dedicated to the Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente in Barcelona's Gothic Quarter "appeared vandalized less than 24 hours after it was painted". The painting, which is the work of artist Alberto León, shows – or rather, used to show – the coach with the World Cup after Spain's victory in the Football World Cup.

]]>

Any politician knows that one goes to an interview with two or three strong ideas that, well articulated, should be the subsequent headlines remembered from that conversation. After sixty-five days, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero gave his first interview after being seriously indicted and chose a friendly playing field: a TVE turned into a socialist trench and Javier Ruiz as a referee who was correct and professional, but without making him sweat. Of course, I am not capable of offering a convincing thesis on what effect the former Spanish president intended: to act as a firewall for Sánchez, as a penultimate service to the cause? Because not even The Country dedicated a not-so-kind headline to him: “Zapatero defends his innocence without revealing the origin of the jewels”. As he detailed, he considered that he had to explain it first to the judge. But, if that is the premise, then what was he doing in front of a journalist and a few hundred thousand viewers? The interview has had prominent spaces on all the front pages of Barcelona and Madrid, but none of the headlines contribute anything to the case, because nothing, zero, zilch, is what the interested party clarified. Which forces the media to consider whether it is worth giving so much hype to a big bubble empty of content.

]]>

The fires that are devastating the south of Madrid, Toledo, and Ávila in a completely uncontrolled manner have not brought a truce between the Spanish government and the executive of the Community of Madrid. After the Madrid president Isabel Díaz Ayuso requested on Thursday night the declaration of a national emergency "due to the seriousness and simultaneity of forest fires in three autonomous communities" and that the Military Emergencies Unit (UME) joined the extinction services, this Friday Minister Óscar Puente has lashed out at the popular governments for this way of facing forest fires.

]]>

Yesterday we experienced the last day of extreme heat of the week. Temperatures dropped inland, but still reached 38 or 39°C in Ponent, the Tremp basin, or the Pre-Pyrenees. It will be this weekend – the last of July – when the arrival of a clearly colder air mass will sweep away the warm bubble and the suspended African dust, with a north wind and a clear drop in thermometers.

]]>

The race for gene therapy and the desperation of some parents have ended up costing the life of a six-year-old girl in China. The minor, named Mei – a fictitious name to preserve the family's privacy – died at Shanghai Xinhua Hospital in March 2025 due to thrombotic microangiopathy – that is, the formation of deadly microscopic clots –, seven days after receiving an injection of a virus at the base of her spine. The parents had opted for this therapy after learning that their daughter had an alteration in the CHD3 gene, which caused her a syndrome compatible with autism and a consequent delay in physical and cognitive development.

]]>

Two months after crossing the Atlantic and visiting California, Salvador Illa is now looking towards Asia and this Saturday begins a five-day trip to Vietnam and Singapore to strengthen commercial ties with Southeast Asia. In fact, it is the first time a President of the Generalitat visits this area, but it is the third trip Illa makes to Asia: since he has been President of the Government, he has visited Japan, South Korea, and China. The objective is to promote exports and attract investments from the Asian market. Salvador Illa will visit Hanoi, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh, and Singapore to meet with economic agents and the main airline of each country, in addition to visiting Catalan companies located in both territories. In parallel, the president will also meet with the Prime Minister of Singapore, Lawrence Wong, and the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam, Pham Gia Tuc.

]]>

After almost a decade as Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola decided to stop. "I know it's time," he said, without clarifying the reasons for a decision made with his heart, but also with his head. He still had a year left on his contract with the English club, but in his last renewal, he had already added a possible second course, which was a maneuver to gain time and peace of mind. He had been thinking about stopping for a while, but he didn't want to spend more than half a season with the press asking him if, as it would turn out, the last one would be his final campaign on the bench of a team with which he won up to six Premier Leagues and the first Champions League in the history of the "sky blue entity, among many other titles and records broken in a football as competitive as British. In total, he has won forty official trophies between Barça, Bayern Munich, and City.

]]>

With only a few months left until the elections, the trial against Benjamin Netanyahu has entered a new phase. The Israeli prime minister concluded his testimony before the court at the end of June, after 98 sessions that lasted a year and a half. But the process is still far from over: defense testimonies, final reports from the parties, and the judges' deliberations are still pending before a verdict. What future awaits a case that has marked Israeli politics in recent years and that will mark the country's electoral pre-campaign?The process that began in 2020 has advanced through marathon declarations, postponements for political and security reasons, constant calendar changes due to the different wars Israel has experienced in recent years, and an increasingly open confrontation between the prime minister and the country's judicial system. This is an unprecedented episode in Israeli judicial history: it is the first time that a prime minister in office has faced a criminal trial and has testified for so long in court. True to the strategy he has maintained since the beginning, Netanyahu has denied all accusations and has once again presented the case as a political persecution.The judicial proceeding focuses on three open cases, known as cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, in which the prosecution alleges there are indications of bribery, fraud, and abuse of power. Case 1000 investigates the receipt of gifts valued at approximately 260,000 euros from businessmen such as Arnon Milchan and James Packer, in exchange for possible political favors. For now, Netanyahu has admitted they were friends, but argues that the gifts were part of a personal relationship and not an exchange of favors.Case 2000 analyzes the conversations held with Arnon Mozes, editor of the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, about a possible improvement in media coverage in exchange for limiting the influence of the rival newspaper Israel Hayom. The legal discussion now focuses on whether those conversations constituted a real negotiation or a political maneuver without intention of materializing.Case 4000, the most serious, focuses on the alleged granting of regulatory favors to businessman Shaul Elovitch in exchange for favorable coverage on the Walla portal. It is the only case in which Netanyahu is accused of bribery, but where the judges have reiterated that they have difficulty seeing where this crime lies. The prosecution maintains the accusation.

]]>