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Writer, illustrator, and professor of synophonic literature, Wu Ming-Yi (Taoyuan, Taiwan, 1971) publishes a collection of six short stories in which humans, nature, and technology invade other worlds and confirm their interdependence. Wu Ming-Yi's literature has been labeled magical realism for the way it seamlessly links human and non-human experiences. In this sense, The Land of Bitter Rain (Chronos) questions anthropocentrism and suggests that humans must learn to communicate through non-human and more effective languages and perspectives. Translated by Mireia Vargas-Urpí, the book features illustrations of animals by the author himself.

I'm writing this column while hearing a hellish noise. In my building, two renovations are happening at the same time, one on the first floor and another on the third. I live on the second. I work imagining I'm the filling of a construction site sandwich, and in fact, the racket often forces me to wander around bars or libraries. Today, however, I'm staying home, because the noise of drills and hammers, or the strident whistle of the builder who enters and leaves the building and hums dubious tunes on the stairs, is very suitable for the book I've been reading for a few days: Un metre quadrat, by Llucia Ramis (Anagrama, 2026).

The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Friday that the number two of the Islamic State and the "most active terrorist on the planet" Abu-Bilal al-Minuki has been eliminated in Nigeria. According to Trump, his death occurred during a "very complex and meticulously planned mission" between the Armed Forces of the United States and those of Nigeria. Trump made the announcement on his social network, Truth Social: "Under my direction, brave American forces and the Nigerian Armed Forces have impeccably executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate from the battlefield the world's most active terrorist, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS (Islamic State)." "He will no longer terrorize the African people nor help plan operations against Americans," the leader added in his publication.

Suddenly, the protesters begin to shout: "Out, police!" Shortly after, two people leave the protest walking and disappear around a corner. Who are they? Normally, a pair of agents from the Mossos d'Esquadra, from the General Information Commissioner's Office, who dress in plain clothes and listen closely to the demonstrations, especially those that may have a violent component. Now, let's assume that the demonstration has ended in riots and the protesters gather in an assembly to decide the next steps. It is also not strange that there are camouflaged Mossos agents to hear what they will do.

It is an ordinary spring day. Someone, from their home, is preparing a letter. The envelope also contains a series of illustrations. The ritual is repeated, a gesture that transports us to a past century, when algorithms did not yet exist. The one writing could be Mercè Rodoreda; the one receiving the letter, Joan Sales. But we are not in 1960 nor facing a classic literary correspondence, but rather a trend that emerged on social networks, called mail club, which points to a timid return of postal mail in a scenario of digital saturation and the search for analog alternatives.Through a model we already know, that of the monthly subscription, artists and illustrators from all over the world send letters, stickers, illustrations, photographs, or recipes to a group of subscribers. "Receiving a well-cared-for and beautiful letter in your mailbox every month, in a world saturated with information and mediated by screens, seems like a stroke of luck to me," explains Lorena, a young woman who is subscribed to two mail clubs different, Bunny Mail Club and La Mamarrracha. "I believe that, in addition, it is a way to support artists, because their work is often lost in the immensity of content distributed on social networks," she reflects.A new way to connect

While other digital trends are born and stay in the online universe, the mail club, on the other hand, has managed to make the leap to the offline world, and has gained special strength among generations like Z. “We need community in all areas, and this component is especially important for generations like Z. In Spain, 35% of young people between 18 and 24 years old feel lonely; we have a very significant situation of unwanted loneliness. Initiatives like mail clubs can contribute to creating community and connecting with objects in another way,” reflects Liliana Arroyo Moliner, director of the SoReDI (Chair for Socially Responsible Digital Innovation) at Esade.The phenomenon, which has been operating in the United States for a couple of years through crowdfunding platforms like Patreon, has found its niche in Catalonia thanks to profiles like communicator Berta Aroca or illustrator Irina Torres Conejero, creator of Bon Profit Club, who prepares a surprise content each month, often related to a time of year like Valentine's Day, Christmas, or seasons like spring.“I always include a letter written and signed by me, a sheet of A5 cotton paper, and some small details like a sticker, a postcard, a template for journaling, and other surprises”, explains Irina, who started this project in November 2025 and already has over forty subscribers. As with most of these mailings, her letter is much more than a simple piece of paper: “You don’t just open and read the letter, but you also decide what to do with the materials I send”.Unlike a newsletter, which can go unnoticed among countless emails, a paper letter fills a space and accompanies us. “It can be smelled, framed, and can live in a drawer, in the fridge, on a wall, or in furniture. Besides being more subtle and erotic, it is tangible, and we are short on experiences that involve the use of hands, and not just eyes and ears,” explains Bea Salas, psychologist, illustrator, and creativity teacher.Following this line, the artist Laura García, from León, created in June 2024 Garlic Yaya Club, a monthly mail club that combines unpublished recipes, letters, and various artistic objects designed by herself. “I wanted to create something physical that people could touch, collect, and enjoy beyond the screen.” In Laura's case, each edition revolves around a theme and a recipe that inspires her: “When I discovered the format, I realized it had to be about cooking. It was something I hadn't seen before, so I decided that Garlic Yaya Club would have its own recipes to convey my passion for home cooking, slow processes, and carefully made things,” explains this entrepreneur, co-owner of Antisouvenir®, a bookstore specializing in independent publications that she runs with her partner.This slowness, in contrast with the immediate gratification of algorithms, seems to be the key to these postal deliveries. Even though in 2011, with the creation of the first social networks, users acted as true "internet inhabitants", today networks have become a publicity showcase, both of ourselves and of all kinds of products, as Marta G. Franco explains in the book Les xarxes són nostres. Una història popular d’internet i un mapa per tornar a habitar-la, published in Spanish by the editorial Consonni. We scroll without looking, we accumulate links that we never open and, amidst so much digital chaos, we all seek the feeling of belonging to something more real, especially at a time marked by the generation of images with artificial intelligence.“Faced with empires like ChatGPT, Spotify, Google, Amazon, and Apple, phenomena naturally emerge in the opposite direction, in this case, spaces that protect and celebrate our humanity: handmade art, dedicated communication, the use of senses, and face-to-face interaction. Mail clubs seem to be a response to a real need to express ourselves, communicate, and belong without major intermediaries,” explains Salas. mail clubs seem to be a response to a real need to express ourselves, communicate, and belong without major intermediaries,” explains Salas. The value of physical experience

In fact, for Generation Z, the internet is a central element in their daily lives and also their main leisure activity: 90% spend two or more hours a day online, according to the 2023 Youth Survey, collected in the 2024 Report on Youth in Spain. the 2024 Report on Youth in Spain. "I don't know if this model will last as is, but it does respond to a deep need that will probably remain: generations that have grown up with digital find more value in non-virtuality and in what is tangible," confirms Arroyo.Marina, who was subscribed for two months to a mail club from the United States, confirms this theory that we have already seen in trends like Sonny Angels: “I was very excited about opening the letter, not knowing exactly what was coming, discovering the postcards and stickers; more than the letter, it was the whole package that surrounded it. However –she explains–, being in another language, I didn't end up feeling part of the community”.This is not the case for Irina and Laura. They do maintain direct communication with their subscribers: “I always encourage them to write to me whenever they want, even by letter, because I love getting to know them. In fact, I always send a personalized welcome email, encouraging them to tell me who they are, what they like, and what motivates them to cook,” says the creator of Garlic Yaya Club, who, despite not being able to live solely off this format, sees it as a viable alternative. “I always ask in the letter how they are, and I receive quite a few messages replying to me on Instagram, and that’s really cool because I do feel that a different bond is created,” says Irina.Like any trend born on social media, mail clubs cannot be disconnected from their digital component, nor can they foresee the behavior of some users, who will probably limit themselves to photographing the content and posting it on their social networks. Nevertheless, artisanal work and analog creation exist beyond these subscriptions. The format only shows us that, faced with a lack of intimacy and connection, "human beings are more intelligent and creative, and look for ways like these to recover what they miss: connection, contact, and a shared experience," reflects psychologist and illustrator Bea Salas.

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Six years ago, the life of Virginia Torrecilla (Cala Millor, 1994) changed completely. At just 25 years old, and just when she had arrived at Atlètic de Madrid, a brain tumor was detected. A very big impact – even more so in the midst of the covid pandemic – for a footballer who saw how, all of a sudden, she lost everything.

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A large part of the world looks with concern towards the Strait of Hormuz, the passage that connects the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean and through which a fifth of the hydrocarbons that reached the international market passed before the United States and Israel decided to attack Iran. Hydrocarbons are the basis of fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) and, currently, are essential for generating energy and manufacturing plastics. Many European countries fear that if the war continues and the blockade of the strait persists, as well as attacks on refineries and petrochemical plants in the Middle East, oil derivatives such as kerosene, which powers airplanes, may begin to run out. Faced with this situation, in Spain, eyes are not focused far away, but rather on the eight refineries of Repsol, BP, and Moeve that are still operational – among them, the one in the Tarragona petrochemical complex – which have become a breath of fresh air in the face of the threat of hydrocarbon shortages.

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Andalusia is the last stop before the municipal elections and the general elections scheduled for 2027. The most populated region of the State ends the regional electoral cycle that began on December 21 in Extremadura and that, five months later, culminates in a key event to measure the forces of the PP, the PSOE, Vox and the alternative left. After the elections in Aragon on February 8 and in Castile and Leon on March 15 drew a panorama practically identical to Extremadura, with PP victories insufficient to govern alone, these elections could mean a change of script for the popular party, under the leadership of the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno.

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In Sant Bartomeu del Grau, they have the Vic plain at their feet. “We are a borderland,” they say half-jokingly, as the town is within Lluçanès but administratively attached to Osona. One spring weekend, residents arrive at the municipal building where the assembly hall is located. People of all ages. Some children are playing football outside, and inside, tables are being prepared for a fellowship meal where local cured meats are not lacking. The Barça supporters' club is organizing an event, and it seems half the town will be there.

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May 18, 2026, will be a date etched in the history of Bizum, the Spanish payment services provider par excellence. This Monday, its BizumPay platform will land in shops, bars, and restaurants to present itself as a payment alternative to conventional debit and credit cards, a universe until now dominated by North American groups like Visa or Mastercard. The news excites banks and European institutions, who are looking for new ways to reduce dependence on the United States in all sectors. However, commerce greets the measure with doubts and a rather limited initial implementation is expected.

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Catalonia has for decades opted for a model of cultural policy focused on financing the supply. The main instrument has been editorial, audiovisual, and artistic subsidies. The logic of this model is sound. Many cultural activities generate high social value but have insufficient or too uncertain private profitability. Without public support, a part of the cultural production in Catalan would simply not exist.

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Meetings with children's tutors are the opportunity to know what their life is like in the microcosm where they spend a large part of the day, at least from the age of six to sixteen. If there are no major problems, one or two meetings per academic year are usually scheduled, with meetings lasting around an hour. Although lately, teachers and families also communicate throughout the year, via email, when they deem it appropriate.Both Montse Jiménez, a secondary school teacher at Fundació Vedruna Catalunya Educació, and Núria Sabaté, a primary school teacher at Escola Marià Fortuny in Reus, recommend asking, in addition to academic questions, about your children's personal development. There is life beyond notes

Jiménez considers that most families are mainly concerned about grades, focusing on results even though the reports are qualitative and include tutor observations that assess transversal skills: “It still weighs heavily on 'How is my child doing?', and they refer to how they are doing in terms of results”. Along the same lines, Sabaté recommends that families ask questions to ensure they understand the tutors' perception of how their children are in class, if they participate, are happy, integrated, and get along well with their classmates: “To begin with, families should become aware of how their children are doing at school, and if there is anything that concerns the family, this is the time to discuss it”. In these meetings, parents can be interested in their children's overall development, progress and process, their achievements, and if they are improving. “Knowing their strengths, the difficulties they might have, their level, or if they are happy at school”, suggests the teacher. Therefore, it is the perfect opportunity to learn more about your children, beyond the reports. The use of technology

One of the recurring questions that have been arising lately from families is the use of technology in the center, for what, with which applications or platforms and with what supervision. “It is an issue that increasingly occupies families. These meetings can be a space to discuss it,” says the teacher. Meetings with families are also an opportunity for the center to ask – not to scrutinize, they say – about the uses of technologies and screens. “Sometimes we find primary school children who fall asleep in class or have trouble keeping up with the pace,” says the teacher, and she comments that they usually take the opportunity to share good uses of digital devices with families. Bond of trust

The teachers insist on the importance of weaving a bond of trust between the family and the school, “each of us wants the best for our children and students, we need to find points of convergence, focus more on the possible solution than on the problem”, proposes Jiménez. These spaces are perfect for complicity between the school and the family, for families to ask what they can do at home so that their children improve with what they need, and that these are not always shortcomings related to academic matters, they can also be personal or social skills. “The more fluid the communication, the better. It is worth setting common goals, because when the family and the school work together, the children perceive it quickly and it encourages them to improve. This is what we all want, for children and young people to achieve the best of themselves”, explains Sabaté. The two teachers recall the importance of asking about the person in all their dimensions, “they may have good academic results, but they need to improve personal aspects”, says Jiménez. “In such an individualistic society, it is necessary to form empathetic citizens, capable of weaving complicities, and who work for the common good. All together we must worry about what each student does and how they are”, she concludes.

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A single ambiguous phrase from Vladimir Putin was enough for everyone to venture into predicting the proximity of a peace agreement in Ukraine. The Russian president implied that the war “is approaching its end”, opened the door to meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky in a third country, and proposed former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as a possible European interlocutor with Russia. But, in reality, the Kremlin has not moved for a long time: its leader is convinced that Kyiv's defeat is a matter of months, he has no intention of meeting with the Ukrainian president unless it is to sign the end of the conflict, and any negotiation with the European Union will have to be done on his terms.If Donald Trump is difficult to decipher because he constantly contradicts himself, the exegeses of Putin's statements tend to overinterpret. During the surprise press conference that the Russian president convened on Victory Day evening, he took advantage of a criticism of Western support for Ukraine to say: “They began to stoke confrontation with Russia, which continues to this day. I believe the matter is approaching its end, but nevertheless, it is a serious matter.” 

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A regime of Soviet origin that has been in power for more than 25 years is telling us about its rigid and hermetic nature. Vladimir Putin's quarter-century in the Kremlin is one of the longest authoritarian periods in Russian history, and it already surpasses Stalin's. That is why the bleak climate surrounding the Red Army parade –it is still called that– on May 9th in Red Square also spoke volumes: the images say a lot. And, beyond that, messages and comments about a Putin distanced from his usual residences, confined to the Kremlin and surrounded by security devices for fear of an attack. This had not happened since, almost three years ago, Wagner mercenaries, with Yevgeny Prigozhin at the forefront, staged an impromptu march towards Moscow. A logistical and political blunder that sought to impose conditions on Putin regarding the war in Ukraine.

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It might seem that as societies modernize they tend to gradually shed inherited rituals laden with formality. Current times, increasingly oriented towards practicality and immediacy, have refined many social ceremonies that today seem excessively solemn: from the rigor of wearing mourning clothes to the protocols associated with baptisms or communions. However, from time to time, rituals emerge that, like stubborn salmon swimming against the current, not only survive but reappear hypertrophied, clad in a ceremonial that they did not even have in the past. This is the case with graduations. The turn is so unexpected that there are already specialized brands in this festive-academic niche and teenagers capable of patiently waiting five hours in line to get the outfit with which to publicly stage that they have finished the fourth year of ESO.

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Representatives from Israel and Lebanon agreed this Friday in Washington to extend the ceasefire for 45 more days. The truce was declared on April 16, although it has not been respected. The announcement was made by the United States, which is acting as a mediator. Talks will resume on June 2 and 3, and in a military meeting at the Pentagon on May 29. Israel and Lebanon, which do not have diplomatic relations, had held two previous rounds of contacts in Washington.

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The Nobel laureate in economics Paul Krugman very well described the importance of an economic variable that is fundamental, although it may be unknown to most citizens. "Productivity is not everything, but in the long run, it is almost everything," he said. The fact is that growing is one thing, and progressing or prospering is another. Or, more simply, volume or quantity is one thing – gross domestic product (GDP) is increasing and in Catalonia it has already exceeded 300 billion euros – and quality is another, that is, how this pie is distributed among all those who live in a given economy.

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Jordi Évole and Eduardo Casanova's new documentary to raise awareness about HIV causes great perplexity. Firstly, because of the title: Sidosa. The actor, who has the virus in an undetectable state due to medical treatment, tells Évole: “I have AIDS. Well, I don't have AIDS. I say «sida» as a reclamation, because I like the word. HIV and AIDS are two different diseases. But, just as gay people have reclaimed the word «maricón», I want to reclaim «Sidosa». I would love to”. The reclamation of words, especially insults, requires decades of shared cultural circulation. They are not an individual decision. Because then one falls into trivialization and the temptation to turn a very serious historical and health stigma into an aesthetic operation. The feminization of the term also deflects the focus. In Spain and Western Europe, the epidemic predominantly affects men, with rates exceeding 80% of cases. Everyone is susceptible to infection, men and women, but giving it a feminine gender is a theatrical transgression that has nothing to do with the epidemiological reality or with HIV education. It is understood that the title seeks queer dissidence, but this is also a way of specifically linking the collective with the disease again, and this reactivates imaginations that for decades contributed to stigmatization.The result of the documentary is a mess. Eduardo Casanova's role dilutes and hinders the educational purpose due to an egocentrism and immaturity that turn the narrative into an at times unbearable loop. The actor's rhetoric confuses and even causes the discourse to regress. He himself, on several occasions, faced with the panic of telling his surroundings that he has undetectable HIV, speculates on when to say it, and repeats "I have AIDS!". In the context of a film festival, he suggests to Évole: "And if I go up and say: “Look, I have HIV! I have AIDS!”", making the two conditions synonymous. In the documentary, phrases like "We've been stuck in the eighties" and "Things haven't changed that much". Unfair statements given the reality, both scientific and human.An activist advises Casanova to always maintain dignity when communicating it, speaking with serenity and firmness. The protagonist contradicts the approach. It is legitimate for the actor to express fear, anguish, or vulnerability. But the imagery he projects to the viewer is too often melodramatic, with hyperbolic emotionality focused on the identity wound and a spiral of suffering. After communicating it to his hairdresser, he asks: “Are you afraid to cut my hair now?” This is going backward and reiterating prejudices. This drama pigeonholes HIV into an inexorable pain that goes against the medical advances that have transformed the lives of seropositive people. The documentary falls very short on positive references, normalization, and prevention education, which is what is needed. Sidosa is organized from a devastated self-perception that reinforces the stigma it seeks to combat.

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Donald Trump has left China –where he met with Xi Jinping– with kind words, but without having resolved any of his concerns: neither the blockade in Hormuz, nor the Taiwan crisis, nor the trade balance. Manel Ollé, professor of Chinese studies at the UPF and expert in the Asian giant, analyzes the meeting between the two leaders, which has been more marked by gestures than by tangible agreements.

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In the last decade, the number of people forced to flee their homes and move elsewhere within their own country has doubled. Natural disasters, exacerbated by the climate crisis, used to be the main cause, but last year, for the first time, wars and violence became the factor forcing more people to move, according to the latest annual report from the Internal Displacement Observatory (IDMC), linked to the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC).

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He who takes a flag takes a burden. Of all symbols, the colored cloths representing countries are the most epic. And although he is only 18 years old, we will agree that Lamine Yamal is fully aware of this.

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Beyond the great historical television battle between Antena 3 and Telecinco, secondary channels also exchange elbows, especially intensely this past year. And with good reason, considering that since La Sexta and Cuatro tied with a 6% market share in 2013, the balance had been tipping year after year in favor of Atresmedia's channel, and to the detriment of Mediaset's. This, however, could change in 2026, because Telecinco's little sister, if we count these almost five months of the year already consumed, already surpasses its direct rival and this May clearly wins 5.9% vs. 6.3%.

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The PA system explains to us –both locals and tourists– that once we arrive at Sant Vicenç de Calders, due to the construction work, we will need to take a bus that will take us to Prat de Llobregat, where we can catch another train or the metro. Just in case, once the train arrives at its destination, I quickly get off and –being a boomer as I am– I ask the girl in the pumpkin-colored uniform: “And isn't there a train that goes directly to Barcelona?”. “Oh, yes, but it takes an hour and a half”, she says. Then, I run towards a vacant lot where the queue to get on the vehicle is forming. I see they are counting us. Diligently, I take the front seat because I get motion sickness.

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The passage of a polar front has caused a significant cooling, with an atmosphere more typical of March than May. Temperatures have been between 3 and 8 degrees below average for the time of year, and snow has fallen in the Pyrenees below 1,400 m, leaving wintery and postcard-like landscapes at medium and high altitudes. In Montseny, it has also snowed anecdotally at the highest elevations. Yesterday, showers and storms intensified during the afternoon in the center and north of the country. They were locally strong and accompanied by hail, short-lived, and accumulated little water: most left between 2 and 8 l/m². Nevertheless, in some cases these figures were exceeded, notably 18 l/m² at Lac Redon (2,245 m, Vall d'Aran) or 12 at Santa Coloma de Farners (Selva).

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British politics has been advancing for decades like a Shakespearean comedy of errors: the characters change, but the pattern repeats. Long before Brexit, which will be a decade next month, Westminster was already chaining together cycles of confusion, miscalculated maneuvers, and governments trapped in their own mistakes. From 1974 –with two general elections, the fall of the conservative government, the winter of discontent, and the unions on war footing–, to the parliaments without an absolute majority in the 21st century, passing through the illegal suspension of Parliament in 2019, the British system has shown a recurring fragility that contrasts with an image of impeccable solidity.

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The exceptional visit of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to China has ended without a clear path for the geopolitical tensions caused by his administration. The unfounded optimism of the New York executive has not served to calm the market: on the contrary, the end of the trip coincided, this Friday, with the most intense rise in the price of the Brent barrel of the entire week. The European reference for crude oil skyrocketed at half past five in the afternoon, approaching 109 dollars. It is already on its way to the highs since the beginning of the war, close to 115 dollars, set at the beginning of the month.

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The problem –or at least part of it– of education in Catalonia has erupted publicly and noisily. After tug-of-war with the unions, the collective has called for several days of strike in the sector, with harsh mobilizations that have led to the blocking of streets and communication routes. Educational stoppages create a certain social alarm, as well as practical problems for families. A delicate issue in which the Government has reached an agreement with the less representative unions, but the main one, USTEC, has been left out, which has seized the opportunity to claim and reinforce its hegemony. Educational demands are almost always sympathetic to a good part of the citizenry. It is assumed that these are mobilizations to improve the conditions of their work, and this seems to be beyond discussion, just as farmers mobilize, who always have unquestioned support. Certainly, both education and healthcare have lacked the economic and personnel resources they need for many years, the minimum means to continue playing their role as pillars of the welfare state. Schools have been excessively equipped with technology, but the profession and consideration of teachers has not been dignified, nor has sufficient personnel been provided – reinforcements – to assume the diverse and demanding reality of multiculturalism in schools. The weak point of the mobilization is that it may seem excessively corporatist and dominated by salary concerns. By the way, a reasonable claim to the extent that we want to incentivize the best graduates towards teaching. Communicatively, the convening union has shot itself in the foot by implying that a rapid end to the discussion would be brought about by a monthly increase of 400 euros in their salary.In the context of the current conflict, the issue of the Mossos d’Esquadra in schools has served to worsen the atmosphere. Here the matter is not relevant in itself, but rather due to somewhat deficient communication. A topic prone to demagoguery, as has been seen. That schools should be areas for detecting security problems should not make us cry foul. The Mossos are logically responsible for prevention, and they need to get ahead of some things. The anti-police discourse that has been launched, even from the institutes themselves, is quite stale. Police forces are essential and should not be characterized as if they were still the Francoist “grisos” (grey ones). It is not a topic that yields much, nor is the presence in teacher assemblies, even though they could have avoided it. There has been a lack of tact in the methods, in the information provided, and especially in the lack of discretion. All this has shifted the focus from the educational issue, as if the problem were only a matter of money and public security. Now, these are the trees in the front line; they prevent us from seeing the forest. The debate should focus on the structural and systemic problems of education, on a model that has turned out to be, and not only in Catalonia, a complete failure and that hardly anyone seems willing to address.

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Recently, various interventions and reports have been published presenting biogas as a renewable and circular energy source. These are messages that hide the complexity of this technology. To begin with, the projected biogas plants are refineries that produce a non-renewable fuel that needs to be processed. Furthermore, the energy balance of the entire process for biogas production, from cradle to grave, is negative: more energy is consumed than is ultimately produced.The internal operation of the biogas plants themselves can absorb nearly 30% of the energy obtained. To this, approximately an additional 16% must be added for the transport of slurry, manure, and animal waste that feed the plants, as well as the resulting digestate to the farms that will accept it. However, the largest – and often ignored – energy cost is associated with the generation of slurry and manure. These materials are not free; they require a significant energy expenditure in feed, climate control, and farm operations. The meat obtained only recovers approximately 50%-60% of the energy contained in the feed, and the energy invested in producing slurry can be equivalent to 80% of the energy that the biogas plant ultimately generates.And what do these feeds contain? Primarily, soy and cereals. Soy mostly comes from America, transported by ships that consume large quantities of diesel. Both soy and cereals are produced using agricultural machinery – again, diesel – and to make them grow, chemical fertilizers and pesticides are needed. The production of these fertilizers depends on fossil fuels and minerals from mines in the Sahara, Canada, and other distant locations, all of which are finite and non-renewable resources. The expansion of these crops also entails other problems, such as deforestation in the countries where they are produced, contributing directly to climate change.To all this, we must add the industrial inputs that these plants require. The project planned in La Sentiu de Sió (Noguera), the largest currently in Catalonia, would annually require thousands of tons of nitric acid, potassium carbonate, ferric chloride, or methanol, in addition to tens of thousands of tons of water. The associated waste is also considerable: ferrous metals, plastics, and contaminated filters, among others.

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It was the thirties. Robert Moses, the most powerful urban planner in New York's history, ordered the construction of bridges so low that buses could not pass. Buses were the transport of the poor and the black population. No law was needed: the bridge was exclusionary by design and by default.

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It seems the current war will end up strengthening Iran. Perhaps it will end up returning, more or less and under another name, to Obama's 2015 JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), which limited Iran's nuclear program in exchange for lifting the imposed sanctions. A situation that would weaken the almost unconditional support of the US for Israel and would question the Greater Israel project shamelessly defended by the Netanyahu government.On the other hand, the Israel-Palestine conflict has entered our homes in recent days, even in sports celebrations and in the support that Pedro Sánchez has given to the Barça footballer Lamine Yamal for having waved a Palestinian flag. However, some key concepts of this conflict, such as Zionism or anti-Semitism, are not always entirely clear when these topics are discussed. For example: are there anti-Semitic Zionists? Yes, and more than one type.

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The Almarí restaurant, located within the Cala del Pi hotel in the town of Platja d'Aro, wants to make lovers of pasta, vegetables, rice dishes, fish, and meat happy. For the former, rigatoni stuffed with oxtail under a langoustine topping. A memorable, decadent dish, generously portioned, that is one of those that brings joy just by arriving at the table. Combine it with a variety of starters, such as fried calamari, prawn carpaccio with extra virgin olive oil, or with lobster salad with red berries.

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Accept that people might call them hamsters. "We always make the joke too: 'Come on, let's do the hamster'," says Oriol Antolí (Terrassa, 1983). A few days ago, he achieved the Spanish record for Backyard Ultra, a discipline that comes from America. It consists of running a 6.7-kilometer circuit with a start every hour on the hour: the minutes left between reaching the finish line and the next starting gun are used to eat, rest, and even sleep. Whoever lasts the longest wins, like in the Japanese movie Battle Royale. It's a test of endurance, not speed. The discipline is "very successful" and is becoming increasingly popular in Catalonia: the third edition of the Backyard Ultra de Terra Endins brought together 200 participants in Torelló at the beginning of May.

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Attention to the headline that is marked OK Diario: “Exclusive images of the Catalan person to whom euthanasia has been authorized: without crutches, shopping and driving at full speed”. Let's overlook the derogatory point that we sense when referring to a person who does not want to live as “the Catalan” and let's focus on stopping for a second and, yes, noting that the newspaper boasts of having filmed a particular citizen who does not want to continue living to demonstrate that, well, he is not as messed up as he says if he can burn rubber and go get tobacco and medicine. It would be good for the media to clarify what state of physical deterioration they accept before allowing a Catalan to exercise a right

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Users of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya (FGC) were surprised this morning to notice that several trains were making unusual use of their horns. Every time a train met another coming in the opposite direction, an exchange of sounds was heard between the two drivers. The situation kept repeating and, due to its unusual nature, it caught the attention of some users, who joked on social media about whether the drivers were trying to wake them up completely early in the morning.

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With a t-shirt that reads "Palestinians will be free" and two uppercase tattoos on his forearms that say "SILENCE IS COMPLICITY", the pharmaceutical group Ferrer businessman and patron of the Ferrer Foundations, Sergi Ferrer-Salat, presented this Friday with his kind anti-system vehemence an exceptional project in Barcelona: the only bookstore in the world dedicated to the Palestinian conflict and its ramifications. "The question shouldn't be why we are opening this bookstore, the question is why no one has opened it before —he begins—. The main reason is the lack of awareness of to what extent the cause of the Palestinian people condenses, like no other in terms of virulence, cruelty, cynicism, and dehumanization, the full contemporary validity of the fateful triangle of imperialcolonialism, capitalism, and racism that has led us to today's world, a world eaten away and devastated by an unsustainable and immoral degree of inequality and injustice.

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Some people think that childhood is just a stage of games and laughter, with no further significance. Or, conversely, there are also those who believe that early childhood should be used to transmit as much knowledge as possible to children, introducing them, for example, to literacy as soon as possible, preferably at three years old rather than four. A team of scientists led by researcher Ángel Barco, an expert in brain epigenetics and director of the Institute of Neurosciences at Miguel Hernández University of Alicante, has published a paper in Nature Communications showing for the first time how early experiences durably shape brain biology, through precise molecular mechanisms. has published a paper in Nature Communications in which it is shown for the first time how early experiences durably shape brain biology, through precise molecular mechanisms.This discovery not only confirms a long-held intuition, but also opens new doors for understanding learning and, potentially, future therapies. As the authors of the study say, "this stage is much more than fun: it is a critical window in which the environment acts as an invisible sculptor of our brain, programming neural circuits that will become crucial for memory and learning."

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The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), the African Union’s peak public health agency, has confirmed a new Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with 246 suspected cases and 65 reported deaths. So far, four deaths from Ebola have been confirmed by laboratory analysis, the agency reported in a statement on Friday.

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"Success is never accidental." This is one of the mottos of Barça's medical services, which have made creatine the invisible fuel for a club always attentive to the latest medical innovations. The blaugrana entity uses this supplement in both its youth and professional teams.

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Jaume Collboni has saved this Friday one of the last hot potatoes he had on his table this term. Junts per Barcelona has announced its favorable vote for the new Ciutat Vella usage plan, the mechanism with which the City Council can influence the commercial fabric of the district. A document that had caused a stir among neighborhood associations and left-wing groups in the council – they consider that it consolidates the tourist monoculture of the area – and that the district councilor, Albert Batlle, has defended once the necessary support has been secured to move it forward.

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A conventional data center and an artificial intelligence gigafactory (or gigafactory, the fashionable Anglicism, adopted by analogy with the name Tesla gives to its automotive factories) share the same exterior appearance: immense industrial warehouses surrounded by ventilation systems and electrical substations. But inside they are completely different. The first is a warehouse of bits: it stores data and serves it when requested. The second is a manufacturing facility, but instead of car parts or cookies, it produces responses generated by artificial intelligence (and the resulting "brain" from training the algorithm with millions of data).

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The CRIT Awards, which recognize and promote digital audiovisual projects in Catalan, celebrated their second edition yesterday at the Teatre Coliseum in Barcelona. Presented by Núria Marín, a total of 14 projects were recognized at the gala, with an attendance of 1,200 professionals and creators, including producers, journalists, and members of the Catalan audiovisual industry. This year's edition highlights the highest recognition for best creator of the year, which went to Laura Grau, and the podcast Guarres!, whose characters were interviewed by l'ARA a few weeks ago, as the best independent project.

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In Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, the second part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the character Humpty Dumpty asks Alice how many days there are in a year. She replies 365. Then he asks how many birthdays a person has. And the protagonist says one. And Humpty Dumpty triumphantly concludes that this allows for 364 days a year to celebrate unbirthdays, non-birthdays. From a satirical and literary perspective, the proposal might seem attractive. But it is of absurd logic because the fun lies in celebrating the exception and not the norm. Years later, from Disney's version of Alice in Wonderland, the Mad Hatter character sang A very merry unbirthday to you during the tea party. It was a way of telling us again that any occasion is good for a celebration without giving too much importance to the reason.

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I used to think that the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice was the worst in the Taliban regime. The Taliban in this ministry are the ones who yell at women on the street, question our way of dressing, and treat us as if the act of existing and being a woman were a crime. But last Sunday, when the Taliban intelligence service raided the media outlet where I work in Kabul, I realized that they are still worse.

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Since November 2023, public health specialist Javier Padilla (Madrid, 1983) has been the Secretary of State for Health. Last week he led the unprecedented operation to disembark the ship MV Hondius in the Canary Islands, affected by a hantavirus outbreak that, to date, has caused ten infections and three deaths. He speaks to ARA via video call.

]]> In this chapter, there is not one wise woman. There are two. Two wise women who, like all the food lovers who stroll through Mengem, have set themselves the duty (a most delightful duty) of recovering and disseminating Catalan cuisine. Montse and Julia have an essential blog, Mengem, where they disseminate recipes, so it will be us, this time, who will disseminate the blog. Both of them, jokingly, say, because they have been cooking together for a long time, that they are "half a kilometer each."

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Much more than an endemic species, the Ibiza wall lizard (Podarcis pityusensis),which has inhabited Ibiza and Formentera and the surrounding islets for millennia, is a living cultural and identity symbol, as well as a key piece of the island ecosystems. And yet, it is being erased from the territory. In fact, the situation it is in is so critical that the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has placed it on its red list in the category ofendangered.The reason for this extreme situation is that an invasive snake, the horseshoe snake (Hemorrhois hippocrepis),which arrived hidden in ornamental olive trees imported from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa in the 2000s, has already spread across 90% of Ibiza's territory, and is devouring most specimens of lizards. Now, moreover, and worryingly, the snake has made the leap to Formentera and many of the nearly 40 surrounding islets, where unique populations of this small lizard live.

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In 2020, a still unknown Berta Cusó (Barcelona, 1989) was a finalist for the Premi ARA de Còmic. She felt no sadness for not winning, but rather excitement for a career that was just beginning with that short comic strip (Paral·lel) and which now also includes two magnificent long comics: La conca dels àngels (Pagès, 2025), which has just won the first edition of the Vinyeta Ficomic award, and the recent L’extraordinària història del Circ Cric (Andana, 2026), winner of the València graphic novel award.

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4,311 days after Jordi Pujol's confession, the trial against his family has been postponed for sentencing. In between, there has been an arduous judicial investigation that lasted six years, an eight-month stay in prison for the eldest son of the former President of the Generalitat, and a sum of 80,000 pages. On November 24, 2025, the National Court kicked off the trial: 38 sessions, 200 witnesses, 17 defendants defended by the elite of Catalan criminal law, and two accusations. Three judges and one question to answer: was the fortune the Pujol family had in Andorra an inheritance or was it the fruit of corruption? These have been the best moments at the National Court.

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The Vega Andújar family founded a project in the sports events sector in 1999. They organized a Coca-Cola Cup and some summer camps. The idea evolved towards the distribution of sportswear, and at the beginning of the 2000s, it grew to have eight multi-brand stores. From this initiative, Gedo (Gestión de Eventos Deportivos y Ocio) was born, founded in May 2002, and it grew to the point of outfitting more than 800 sports clubs throughout the country. In Catalonia, l’Hospitalet, Llagostera, Terrassa, and Reus were part of its client portfolio. But what seemed like a solvent business was not so much in reality. In fact, up to five transactions by brothers Ricard and Jordi Vega to raise funds for the company have ended up in court due to non-payment. Other attempts to capitalize Gedo, which today is a project in limbo, have involved several professional footballers. Most have lost their money and their faith in recovering it.

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Alberto Gadel (Santa Cristina d'Aro, 2004) became known on TikTok for creating content in Catalan when almost nobody else was. With a provocative touch and a language that jumps from masculine to feminine and from Catalan to Spanish and English, Gadel presented 3Cat's Espai Eufòria with Aina da Silva, and presents the Loft with Gal·la Castellfort. Like many people of his generation, the beginnings of his relationship with wine have a clear name: Vinya del Mar.Let's start here.

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It was almost nine at night and at the emergency admissions desk of the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, two people were attending to the patients arriving. There was a third desk, but it was closed because the worker there was chatting quietly with two other colleagues. Perhaps they were talking about work, but the feeling that they were ignoring those of us waiting was exasperating: if you go to the emergency room, it's precisely because you need someone to attend to you urgently. I had the misfortune of having to go there last Friday to accompany my partner.

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The Old City of Jerusalem, a walled nucleus sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, has once again become a funnel for ultranationalist chants, shoves, and insults. Since noon, thousands of young ultranationalist Jews, many of them settlers from different parts of Israel and the West Bank, have flooded the narrow streets of the Muslim Quarter during their celebration of Jerusalem Day, the day on which Israel commemorates the conquest of East Jerusalem in 1967, the part of the city with a Muslim majority. The result, once again, has been a show of force laden with tension, intimidation, and verbal violence against Palestinians, activists, and journalists. Amidst the morning chaos, several groups of volunteers from the anti-occupation Judeo-Arab movement Standing Together were trying to form a human barrier between the ultranationalist groups and the Palestinians. “We act as a protective presence. We try to stop violence with non-violent techniques, with our bodies. We know we can be arrested. But we do not want to leave the city in the hands of extremists or to further divide Jerusalem”, explained one of the activists from the organization. According to him, the movement has grown year after year to be 400 today. Early in the afternoon, the swarm of ultra-nationalist Jews entering through the Damascus Gate, the entrance that connects East Jerusalem with the Muslim quarter and the main access for Palestinians to the Old City, was impressive: human rivers of flags advanced slowly amid dances, drums, and chants. “We need another Nakba” or “may your people burn”, were some of the main slogans. “We must finish them [the Arabs] because they want to kill us. It is our day”, said one of the few demonstrators who agreed to speak to the press.Whole buses unloaded groups of young people wearing kippahs, the typical cap worn by Jews, who carried giant banners, Israeli flags and of the Third Temple, a religious symbol used by messianic movements that advocate for the construction of a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, the place where the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, stands today. In the mid-afternoon, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the march to applause after having visited the Temple Mount during the morning. Shortly after, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also joined. As every year, the marches ended at the Western Wall.However, not all participants in the march shared the more radical chants. “We celebrate the unification of the city and the aggressors are isolated cases,” defended a young man with an Israeli flag over his shoulders. “I believe there is a peaceful solution under Israeli control of the entire city. I don't like Palestinians being beaten.” Throughout the day, Palestinian businesses in the Muslim quarter have closed. “It's as if for a few hours the city stopped being ours,” said the owner of a small, almost empty grocery store. “I'm not afraid, but today it's better to stay open as little as possible.” According to the authorities, more than 4,000 agents, including soldiers and police, have been deployed to secure this part of the city.The military service of the ultra-Orthodox

Tensions in the streets coincide with a delicate political moment: this Wednesday, the parties in Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition have registered a bill to dissolve the Israeli parliament prematurely and call elections, in a maneuver with which Netanyahu is trying to control the pace of the political crisis before the opposition capitalizes on the internal rupture of the government, according to Israeli media. The text proposes holding elections within a minimum of ninety days after the law's approval, which would open the door to elections as early as late August or early September, instead of October.The crisis has been precipitated by the conflict with the ultra-Orthodox parties over the exemption from mandatory military service for Haredi students. After months of negotiations without agreement, the ultra-Orthodox faction Degel HaTorah announced this week that it would support dissolving Parliament in the face of the government's inability to pass a law guaranteeing the military exemption for the ultra-Orthodox. Next week the bill will undergo a first vote. If it passes this first stage, the proposal will have to pass three more votes before officially activating the electoral call.

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After the confirmation of a blank season, with the defeat in the classic against Barça at the Camp Nou, the players, the coach, and the president of Real Madrid had to answer to the fans. And the Bernabéu delivered its verdict. Well, partially, because Madrid's stadium had the lowest attendance of the season in the inconsequential duel against an Oviedo that is already relegated to the Second Division. It didn't help that it was San Isidro's festivities and the poor results of Álvaro Arbeloa's team. But the spectators responded with whistles, especially towards Kylian Mbappé, and also with banners directed at Florentino Pérez, who lately doesn't have a moment's peace.

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No society can survive without respecting and preserving its heritage. That is why heritage is always controversial, always provokes tensions, is always disputed, claimed and, when there is conflict, eliminated. It is what defines us as a people and what makes us universal, what ties us to our past and what allows us to glimpse the future. Of heritages, however, there are many types. It makes no sense today to relate it only to stone, buildings, archives or classical arts such as painting or sculpture. Cinema, photography, video and, of course, comics have been part of it for many years. In fact, in the digital world we live in, some may wrongly think that they are also part of the past.

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With all he has done for Girona and still had things to do. If the Gerundenses achieve permanence, it is necessary to move forward with the project of the statue of Cristhian Stuani that has been requested for years. The Uruguayan, as in Vallecas, and as so many times in nine years, appeared to draw against Real Sociedad a match that smelled of defeat (1-1). Infiltrated and without training, he has scored two goals and has avoided two defeats four days apart. With this result, the white and red team escapes relegation and is placed fifteenth, with a point's margin. And, most relevantly, it continues to depend on itself.

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At the ARA newspaper, we have believed for many years that comics are an art and also a journalistic genre in which there is opinion, information, reflection, and humor. For this reason, coinciding with Comic Barcelona, we are replacing photographs with drawings by cartoonists who give their vision of current events.

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If with Scream horror cinema entered its meta phase, with Teenage sex & death at Camp Miasma, which opened the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival, the genre enters a new phase of hyper-reflection and absolute self-awareness. Jane Schoenbrun's film is a love letter to the slasher subgenre of the 80s – that of sagas like Friday the 13th, Halloween, or A Nightmare on Elm Street– and, at the same time, a relentless satire full of cinephile jokes about Hollywood's current obsession with remakes, and reboots. But, above all, it is something unusual in 2026: a vindication of the Dionysian power of horror cinema, which was the audiovisual space in which various generations of teenagers – especially those of the 80s video stores – experienced their sexual awakening amidst predictable stimuli (female motherhood, heteronormative sex) and others less common (psychopathic killers, liters of blood, violent deaths).

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The Old City of Jerusalem, a walled nucleus sacred to Jews, Muslims, and Christians, has once again become a funnel of ultranationalist chants, pushes, and insults. Since noon, thousands of young ultranationalist Jews – many of them settlers who arrived from different parts of Israel and the West Bank – have flooded the narrow streets of the Muslim quarter during their celebration of Jerusalem Day, the day on which Israel commemorates the conquest of East Jerusalem in 1967, the part of the city with a Muslim majority.The result, one more year, has been a show of force loaded with tension, intimidation, and verbal violence against Palestinians, activists, and journalists. Amidst the morning chaos, several groups of volunteers from the Jewish-Arab movement against the occupation, Standing Together, were trying to form a human barrier between ultranationalist groups and Palestinians. “We act as a protective presence. We try to stop violence with non-violent techniques, with our bodies. We know we can be arrested, but we don't want to leave the city in the hands of extremists or further divide Jerusalem,” explained one of the organization's activists. According to him, the movement has grown year after year to be 400 strong today.In the early afternoon, the swarm of ultranationalist Jews entering through the Damascus Gate, the entrance connecting East Jerusalem with the Muslim Quarter and the main access for Palestinians to the Old City, was impressive: human rivers of flags advanced slowly amidst dances, drums, and chants. "We need another Nakba" or "May your people burn" were some of the main slogans. "We must eliminate them [the Arabs] because they want to kill us. It is our day," said one of the few demonstrators who agreed to speak with the press.Entire buses have unloaded groups of young people wearing kippahs – the typical hat of Jews – carrying giant banners, Israeli flags, and flags of the Third Temple, a religious symbol used by messianic movements that advocate for the construction of a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, the site where the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, stands today. Mid-afternoon, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir arrived at the march to applause after visiting the Temple Mount during the morning. Shortly after, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich also joined. As every year, the marches ended at the Western Wall.However, not all participants in the march shared the more radical chants. "We are celebrating the unification of the city and the aggressive ones are isolated cases," defended a young man with an Israeli flag over his shoulders. "I believe there is a peaceful solution under Israeli control for the entire city. I don't like Palestinians being beaten," he added.Throughout the day, Palestinian businesses in the Muslim quarter have closed. “It’s as if for a few hours the city stopped being ours”, said the owner of a small, almost empty grocery store. “I’m not afraid, but today it’s better to stay open as little as possible”, he affirmed. According to the authorities, more than 4,000 agents, including soldiers and police, have been deployed to secure this part of the city.Israel dissolves Parliament

The tension in the streets coincides with a delicate political moment: this Wednesday the parties of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition have registered a bill to dissolve the Israeli Parliament early and call elections, in a maneuver with which Netanyahu tries to control the pace of the political crisis before the opposition capitalizes on the internal rupture of the government, according to Israeli media. The text proposes holding elections within a minimum period of ninety days after the law's approval, which would open the door to elections as early as the end of August or the beginning of September, instead of October.The crisis has been triggered by the conflict with the ultra-Orthodox parties over the exemption from compulsory military service. After months of negotiations without agreement, the ultra-Orthodox faction Degel HaTorah announced this week that it would support dissolving Parliament in the face of the government's inability to pass a law guaranteeing the military exemption for the ultra-Orthodox. Next week, the bill will undergo a first vote. If it overcomes this first hurdle, the proposal will have to pass three more votes before officially triggering the election call.

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Next week CBS will close The late show with Stephen Colbert. It says goodbye to its main star and puts an end to the historic late night franchise that opened in 1993 with David Letterman. The network has attributed it to the program's economic losses and the crisis of this genre, which is declining in viewers and advertising revenue. But behind it are more powerful reasons: Donald Trump's pressures in a very hostile political context. Stephen Colbert has been, in recent years, one of the toughest television voices against the president. And the chronology of events reveals that Paramount (the parent company) has sought the administration's favor for the benefit of its business interests, in exchange for handing over Colbert's head. In recent weeks, the presenter has been saying goodbye to the audience by inviting influential people to highlight the end of an era. This Monday he organized a historic meeting. He brought together the four colleagues from the other late nights that are usually competition. Jimmy Kimmel (ABC), Jimmy Fallon (NBC), Seth Meyers (NBC), and John Oliver (HBO) visited Colbert's show to honor their colleague before he closes shop. They call themselves the Strike Force Five. It's the name of the podcast they made together during the writers' strike to raise money to pay their crews. John Stewart, whom they considered the “designated survivor”, did not attend. The concept has to do with government meetings, where there is always one member who stays out of the office so that, in case of a catastrophe in which everyone dies, there is always an authority to manage the nation. “Someone among us has to survive so the president can get angry,” they joked, aware that television nights have become a hostile adversary for Trump. Colbert reflected with them on the possible crisis of the late night, which they logically denied, although the figures also suggest it. “Have you ever thought you would do a job that the President of the United States could not stand?” he asked them. The responses betrayed a certain celebration of this circumstance. The host suggested that, now that he will be free, he would offer to be a guest on their respective shows or to replace them if they want to take vacations.Last week Colbert interviewed Barack Obama, and the comedian joked about the need to find a new job. Both played with the speculations that Colbert could run as a candidate in the next White House elections. Obama hinted to him that "the bar has been lowered," referring to the demands to obtain the position. A clear allusion to Trump. For the moment, they are only rumors, but all of this reminds us how the line between the world of politics and entertainment has blurred. We have known for a long time that media figures can reach the presidency. But late nights have also ended up having a decisive influence on politics and opinion creation.late nights have also ended up having a decisive influence on politics and opinion creation.

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Florentino Pérez's press conference on Tuesday was surprising, chaotic and, at times, grotesque. But the fact that the Real Madrid president, visibly nervous, had a sometimes disorganized speech and made off-topic, derogatory or sexist comments, does not mean he did not have some things clear. It was a campaign event, in which he launched the electoral machinery without prior planning and took the opportunity to disqualify the one who, for some time now, he knows is the only rival who can overshadow him.

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Given the impossibility of advancing in the short term with the transfer of personal income tax (IRPF), Esquerra had to look for another trophy that would allow it to exhibit some influence in Salvador Illa's government. It has ended up choosing the railway 'fourth ring road', the orbital line that the tripartite had begun to plan and which had been stored away since 2010. And once it has the PSC's commitment, the republicans consider that the time has come to approve the Government's budgets. As reported by RAC1 and confirmed by ARA, next Monday the leadership has convened an extraordinary national council at 6:30 p.m. to validate what the negotiating team has achieved and give the go-ahead to the accounts, which the executive will present imminently. The agenda includes an analysis of the political moment and the state of the budgetary negotiation.

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THE celebration of the half-century of the newspaper El País has revealed the deep wound among some of the founders, who felt underestimated for not having been invited to the official commemorative event. No need to worry: they made up for it with a dinner washed down with wine and resentment, and have written about it. Juan Luis Cebrián, founding director and former CEO of Prisa, signs the most interesting piece, spitting at his successor at the company, Joseph Oughourlian, whom he called a vulture financier of null intellectual stature, and recalling "cancelled" journalists such as Fernando Savater, Félix de Azúa, Francesc de Carreras or Antonio Caño. Apart from himself, of course: modesty was never the main cebrianesque virtue.

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Everyone who presses the train door button, to get on or off, does the same thing, without exception. On the train, on the plane, not so much on the bus or the subway, we are all flustered. They might tell us, as for example, still in the carriage, that when we get off at Sant Vicenç de Calders, those of us going to Vila-seca will have to change trains, to platform 4, because there is construction. We can see this train from the carriage, yes, on platform 4, and know that there are many of us who will get off and take it, and therefore know that it will wait for us. But we arrive at the station and everyone, everyone in front of the door, shows the same behavior: a completely sterile impatience when pressing the button. We press it many seconds before it's time to do so. The train is still stopping. Most of us take trains every day, more than once. We know perfectly well that we have to wait a few seconds, until it has stopped. But we can't help it. We press the button. And our fellow travelers, those who haven't reached out to press the button, making a colossal effort of restraint, look at us worriedly, with a heavy heart, in case today is the day that, because of us, the train leaves with us inside.

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Ten months after reaching an agreement to reduce cruise terminals, the Port and the Barcelona City Council once again have an open melon on the table. It was placed this Wednesday by the mayor, Jaume Collboni, when he defended in an interview with Betevé that he aspired for scale cruises – those that only spend a few hours in the city – to disappear completely in the coming years. This Thursday, from the Port, they have responded to the mayor, defending the importance of this type of vessel and emphasizing that eliminating them will not solve the problem of tourist overcrowding in the Catalan capital.

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The weather continues to be unsettled, and this Friday a polar front will arrive, which will accentuate instability and cause temperatures to hit rock bottom, with a very cool atmosphere, more typical of early spring than mid-May. Thermometers will be between 3 and 8 degrees below the average for the season, with the vast majority of maximums below 20 ºC. A drop that will contrast with the 25 ºC reached today on the Barcelona coast and the Costa Dorada due to the reheated wind from between mistral and west. There will also be a late snowfall in the Pyrenees, with a snowline that will drop below 1,500 m.

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A Japanese food company has announced that it is removing the color from the packaging of its products due to a shortage of the material used for ink in But because they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, it is very suggestive where black and white can lead us. Because this combination can be either very elegant or very mothballed, with that included smell of this chemical product that in the colorful world is already practically out of use. So let's forget the elegance of black and white and focus on that black and white that smells of a dingy past that refuses to leave. A good example is Florentino's press conference and the fact of addressing a journalist as "little girl

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In an effort to put names to things, some Barcelona fans have dubbed the season the "Clàssic League," for having won it just against Real Madrid. Others have simply called it Flick's second league. Some wanted to name it by reaching 100 points, but it won't be possible because the team won't reach that figure after the defeat at Alabès' ground (1-0) when there was nothing more at stake than honor. But the title, achieved three matchdays before the end, could be called the "Catalans' League." And it's because it had been half a century since there was a Barça with such participation of players born in Catalonia: almost half of the available minutes.

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The writer Llucia Ramis says she is “acollonada” because despite having been able to afford a mortgage for an apartment, after years of going from one rental to another, who knows if one day she won't be able to pay the installment. We thank the writer and the interviewer, Laura Serra, for having contributed to popularizing this Mallorcan way of being “acollonida” in Catalonia and, at the same time, we regret that this opportunity to enrich vocabulary arises from the harsh reality of real estate. Because if anyone wants to read a very well-explained summary of the great contemporary unease that affording a place to live has become, they should read the interview.

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It is better to remain silent and appear foolish than to speak and remove all doubt. For many years, Florentino Pérez has cultivated his image as a powerful man by managing his silences and using spokespeople of all kinds to deliver his messages. This formula has served him well in forging an image of a person who pulls the strings from the shadows to achieve his aims and bend wills. But on Tuesday, he broke his silence, and in just one hour of a press conference, he displayed arrogance, haughtiness, and irritation because things are not going his way.The president of Real Madrid presented himself to the media as a victim of journalists, a victim of a media conspiracy, a victim of a hostile environment that, according to him, is obsessed with harming his club and his personal image. But this idea of a defenseless man does not quite fit with reality, because he holds large shares of economic, media, and institutional power. He has been president of Real Madrid for twenty-six years, since July 18, 2000, ruling the white club with an iron fist, and now aspires to exceed thirty years in office if he wins the elections he has called. At the same time, he controls an international business conglomerate that invoices tens of billions and employs 170,000 workers. All this has allowed him to weave a network of complicities at all levels, which until today seemed indestructible.No matter how much some try to rewrite history, Real Madrid has historically been the team of the regime. Its proximity to political, economic, and media power has been structural and has yielded evident benefits for decades. The collusion with the State's elites has never been hidden; on the contrary, it has been displayed with absolute naturalness. Also, the large real estate operations that have allowed the club to obtain extraordinary resources, a kind of economic doping that has facilitated sustaining pharaonic sporting projects and always competing with an advantage over many rivals.Florentino Pérez represents this way of understanding football: multimillion-dollar signings, permanent grandiloquence, and a triumphalist narrative built with a deep pocket. When things are going well, he appears as the great visionary. But when the ball stops going in, the project never fails. There are always external enemies ready to conspire against Madrid. And this time the culprits are the journalists.The season that is now ending has been sportingly devastating for the white club, and the final touch has been a defeat at the Camp Nou that has given the League to Barça. It is already known that in football, when the ball doesn't go in, everything that seemed solid is questioned. And when the triumphant narrative cracks, then everything is urgency and the worst version of a leader accustomed to controlling everything emerges.Florentino Pérez offered an exhibition of resentment and arrogance unbecoming of someone with his experience. In just one hour, he managed to portray himself as a leader deeply irritated by any dissenting voice. He pointed out people by name and surname, and fed fake news about supposed refereeing privileges for Barça. And all seasoned, as usually happens, with a paternalistic and sexist tone that some still confuse with friendliness.Powerful people tend to be distrustful, surely as a defense mechanism to protect themselves from self-interested and opportunistic individuals. They talk to many people, but trust no one. Or even worse: they only listen to those who tell them exactly what they want to hear, and those who dare to contradict them, even if they do so honestly, end up marginalized. Nevertheless, it is difficult to imagine that there was no one minimally sensible in Florentino's circle who was capable of advising him not to appear before the media with that tone. Resentment weighed more than intelligence, and the result has been a genuine communication disaster that cannot be disguised even by the court of jesters who, like Josep Pedrerol, have come to the rescue to cover up their master's shame.The Madrid of power has been in shock for a few days. The detonator is an undeniable sporting crisis of a team without soul or project, but in the end, everything has been talked about except football. When such a powerful club dedicates more energy to chasing media phantoms than to analyzing its sporting errors, it means something profound is cracking. And that is probably what most worries those in the Bernabéu box today. Not so much having lost titles as having started to lose control of the narrative.

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In the first scene of Viva, the opera prima by director Aina Clotet, who also stars in it, the actress appears uncomfortable and naked in the hospital, where the character she plays is undergoing the final test to complete her breast cancer treatment. The close-up of the mastectomy scar is the first sign that Clotet is going all out in this film about the intense desire to live of Nora, a scientific researcher who, after seeing death up close, feels the need to shake up her life and, as one must start somewhere, cheats on her husband with a much younger man with a sculpted physique.

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Miki Esparbé, one of the most popular Catalan actors, has been one of the latest guests on the program L'eclipsi, from 3Cat. Roger Escapa's space for intimate and relaxed interviews allows guests to end up explaining things they had never shared with the public, and this is precisely what happened to Esparbé. The actor from Barcelona, nit d'estiu has revealed to the Catalunya Ràdio journalist the near-death experience he had when he was six years old.

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This Saturday marks the Eurovision final, which this year takes place in Vienna, Austria. In Spain, however, the festival will not be broadcast on La 1 as is tradition, since in December 2025 the public entity withdrew from the contest as a sign of protest against the organization's decision to keep Israel among the participants. Besides Spain, four other delegations – Ireland, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Iceland – have also renounced sending a song to the festival, although some do maintain the broadcast of the competition. Spanish eurofans who wish to follow Eurovision will have to do so through the official YouTube channel, which will broadcast it in English.

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The playwright Lluïsa Cunillé (Badalona, 1961) wrote the play Dinamarca in 2014 and published it in 2017. The text is, according to director Albert Arribas, "a contemporary classic that has impacted many people" but which, until now, had never premiered in Catalonia. Sala Beckett and the production company Bitò have joined forces to bring it to the stage, in a production starring Pere Arquillué and Imma Colomer under Arribas's direction. The play will be performed from May 15 to June 14 at the Beckett and, from the autumn, will tour Catalonia. "Dinamarca is Lluïsa Cunillé's Hamlet. It revisits the ghosts of two characters marked by resentment and the need for revenge. The world had made them promises that have been broken, and they consider whether to be or not to be, whether to commit suicide or not," explains the director.

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The Roig Arena experienced a night they will never forget. Valencia Basket completed a historic comeback against Panathinaikos and left the Greek team without the final four it organizes. The qualification has many protagonists, but it is led by a Catalan. A few weeks after being chosen as the best coach in the Euroleague, Pedro Martínez (61 years old) led the orange team to an unprecedented feat. He is an old cat who is in vogue.

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The Minister for Digital Transformation, Óscar López, has defended the Spanish government's strategy for regulating AI and digital tools. In an intervention at the first Meeting for Digital Rights, held this Thursday at the Llotja de Mar in Barcelona, López assured that the executive's proposals in this regard, such as the prohibition of minors' access to social networks, are "common sense".

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Israel Katz, Israeli Defense Minister, has lashed out at Lamine Yamal for , on Monday in Barcelona. In a tweet in Spanish, Katz accused the Barça star of "inciting hatred", and resorted to the mantra that defending Palestinians is supporting terrorism. Katz has asked Barça to distance itself from it.

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Isabel Díaz Ayuso further tightens the noose with Mexico. The Madrid president doesn't seem to have had enough of the controversy over her trip to the country, in which she claimed the conqueror Hernán Cortés, and this Thursday she made another statement with a clear provocative intent: 'Mexico did not exist until the Spanish arrived,' she said in the plenary session of the Madrid Assembly. 'It was another civilization,' she added in response to criticism from the PSOE over her stay in Mexico.

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The ongoing teachers' strikes in Catalonia and the Valencian Country are significant events, in the sense that they go beyond their professional dimension (which is also fundamental and, of course, entirely respectable) and bring to public discussion issues that affect us all. Issues such as what kind of society we want to have, and also how we want this society to be governed, and according to what values and with what idea of the future. Of course, they also point to what future we want, as citizens of the Catalan Countries, for our language and culture, and for our viability as a cultural community in the world of technofascisms. Universal public education up to the age of sixteen, and in Catalan, are recent achievements that have brought great progress to a society that largely defines itself as democratic. Not only that, but – in Catalonia, in the Valencian Country, and in the Balearic Islands – this society has had as its central nerve the awareness of being a democracy that is still fragile in many aspects (the weight of a Civil War, a fascist military dictatorship, and a democracy born with all sorts of subservience to the previous regime is heavy) and, in response to this fragility, the will to deepen, precisely, in democracy. This means in the knowledge, defense, and respect for the rights and freedoms of citizens. To advance in this democratic deepening, public education in Catalan has played a fundamental role. Today it has more than ever, because the will to live in democracy is seriously questioned for the first time. That is why it is a serious error, or a too dark bad faith, for elected rulers to present teachers and professors as enemies (as the PP and Vox do in the Valencian Country) or as an extremist group that makes unreasonable demands (as the socialist government does in Catalonia). Trying to reduce or caricature their demands as a simple matter of so much money per month or year, besides being disrespectful, is to distort the content of protests that reflect a long-standing discontent and in which all governments —regional and state— that have existed until now have a share of responsibility. To underestimate teachers or to try to get by with an agreement with large but minority unions within the sector, or — much worse still — infiltrating police into assemblies and then offering half-hearted apologies, are gestures between disrespect and authoritarianism.

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In case it wasn't clear from the title of this review: take note of the name Julie Roset, a young French soprano of only 29 years old who has already done many things in the world of opera (for example, winning the 2023 Operalia edition) and has participated in shows directed by some of the best conductors of the moment.Her debut in Catalonia has been possible thanks to this season's edition of the Lied Festival Life Victoria – which concludes its journey on May 26 with a recital by Simon Keenlyside and Malcolm Martineau – and within the modernist complex of the Hospital de Sant Pau. Alongside the pianistic wisdom of Susan Manoff (extraordinary in La fille aux cheveux de lin by Debussy and in Le banc songeur by Han), the French singer offered a recital that was pure filigree, especially for introducing us to pieces by composers little or not at all showcased among us, such as Charles Koechlin, Manuel Rosenthal, Louis Beydts, Mel Bonis, and, above all, the exquisite Isabelle Aboulker. To these names were added works by much more famous musicians in the style of Poulenc, Enescu, Lili Boulanger, and the already mentioned Han and Debussy.The French mélodie (equivalent to the German Lied) requires a pure singing style, with impeccable phrasing and, above all, chromatic iridescences to adorn each phrase, each word, each syllable, and each letter in order to give expressive emphasis and precise colors to what is being interpreted. In her outrageously young age, Julie Roset demonstrates mastery of all these tools, essential for a successful performance.Roset, moreover, stands out as a communicative, expressive, and even theatrical artist in pieces like the fun La princesse aux petits pois by Alboulker, a composer who makes it very difficult with the staccato notes, and the high notes of Je t’aime, or in the intervallic leaps of L’inconstante. A true discovery is the music of this artist, the only living one (she was born in 1938) among the composers for a difficult and demanding program for the performer, but very well received by the attending audience.It will be necessary to follow Roset's career, to listen to her in larger venues, in operatic performances and with varied repertoires. I would not be at all surprised if we heard from her, a lot and very well. Her presentation in Barcelona could not have been better crafted.

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In Girona, they will soon change the idiom es ven com xurros to es ven com xuixos. All the pastry shops in the city, especially those in the center, have queues of people wanting to buy the fried sweets made with croissant dough. All means all. It's Flower Time, a top-notch tourist attraction for the city that shows that picturesque architecture can be even more beautiful if you decorate it with flowers. However, the surprise is that creativity or outlandish imagination has also reached xuixos, so you can find them filled with Oreo cookies, mango cream, pistachio cream (a suspicious fluorescent green), Maria cookies, Nocilla... It seems that with xuixos anything goes, but it is not so, because the Guild of Pastry Chefs, the Guild of Bakers, the Girona City Council and the promoter and inventor of the World Xuixo Contest, Salvador Garcia-Arbós, want to create the Xuixo de Girona guarantee mark so that only the one with pastry cream is the authentic one and with puff pastry, fermented and straight.

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After six months and 38 sessions, the National Court puts an end to the Pujol case trial. It is time for the lawyers of the last seven businessmen to defend their conclusions and request their acquittal. One of those who has intervened is Carles Monguilod, lawyer for Gustavo Buesa. "During the investigation, at times I had a slight feeling that there was anA por ellos. Due to the actions of a certain police force, it seemed that the predicate offense [of money laundering] was being part of the Pujol family or being Catalan", he said. "I know that is not the case, I know that this court will not allow it and will conclude with an acquittal sentence", he concluded. He also took the opportunity to refute the slogan the prosecutor mentioned: "I have publicly confronted it. Spain has never stolen and this is an offense to Spaniards and cannot be tolerated". The Prosecutor's Office requests five years in prison for eight businessmen for the crimes of money laundering and document forgery.

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Niacinamide is a form of vitamin B3 that in recent years has not stopped gaining ground in all kinds of cosmetic formulas. Its triumph is explained because it offers several benefits to the skin. According to various scientific studies, it helps to reduce acne; it reduces dark spots and unifies skin tone; it strengthens the skin barrier, as it helps the skin retain more moisture; it reduces oil production, and has an anti-inflammatory effect. For all these reasons, it is easy to find it in creams, serums, and toners of all price ranges. Furthermore, even though its success is recent, it is a product with a long history, as the industry has been using it for decades. Below, some cosmetics that include it in their composition.

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The three-day truce agreed between Russia and Ukraine with the mediation of Donald Trump, which expired on Monday night, was marked by three elements: Volodymyr Zelensky refrained from launching drones against Red Square during Volodymyr Putin's military parade; if this agreement were violated, Moscow threatened a retaliatory attack against Kyiv; and, in a humanitarian gesture, each side committed to releasing a thousand prisoners. 24 hours after the ceasefire ended, the Russian army launched one of the most massive bombardments against Ukrainian cities since the start of the war, and the Kremlin resisted carrying out the promised exchange of captives.

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The reduction in electricity and natural gas bills moderated the increase in the cost of living in April, both in Catalonia and in Spain as a whole. The measures approved by the Spanish government to reduce some taxes on electricity and gas had the desired effect, although, on the other hand, the cost of fuel continued to rise due to uncertainty in international energy markets because of the war in Iran.

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Spanish strawberries, mostly produced in Huelva, have flooded French supermarkets for decades. Their price is clearly lower than French varieties. But little by little, strawberries produced in France have been gaining ground. According to the sector, for the first time, 50% of this fruit consumed in France has been grown in the country. The rest is imported, mainly from Spain. "It hasn't happened suddenly. Over 15 years, we have gained 10% of the market share from Spanish strawberries. It hasn't been a sudden change," explains Emeline Vanespen, director of the main French association of strawberry producers (AOPn Fraises et Framboises de France).

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The annual Nazi gathering returns to Maresme. For the fourth consecutive year, a farmhouse belonging to the Pawnees MC biker group in Santa Susanna will host the Chaos in the Sun music festival, which has been advertised on social media for days. And for the fourth consecutive year, antifascist groups from the region will demonstrate against it. The event is private — only accessible by invitation — and intended, as some of the guests let it be known, "only for those on this side of the street".

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Martina lives on an island; she is a receptionist at a hotel and in her free time she works on her first comic book. She spends her days with Jon, her best friend. Until they meet Sofia, a successful illustrator who looks like Martina. Jon, half-jokingly, thinks she might be her double. This is the premise of Martina y la isla (Salamandra, 2026), by Jaume Pallardó (Valencia, 1978), a regular in the Valencian fanzine scene and author of the series L’Olivera (2024), for ARA. His latest long comic, La muerte rosa (Che Books, 2018-2019) is very notable. In his new work, a finalist for the Fnac-Salamandra Prize, he deals with themes often explored in postmodern metafiction: comics about people who make comics are already practically a genre in themselves, with their particular mannerisms. But Pallardó works with a mechanism of mise en abyme, that is, of stories within stories –the central one, that of the comic Martina draws and the novel written by the protagonist of this second comic–; another narrative convention that, in this case, dates back to The Thousand and One Nights.

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Paco Roca is busy. On top of his studio desk in Valencia, we find sketches for his latest project: a journalistic comic about the regularization of immigrants, which will be published this Friday by ARA, in an already traditional illustrated newspaper coinciding with Comic Barcelona. Precisely, Roca will visit the multitudinous fair on Thursday to inaugurate an exhibition about his work, one year after receiving the Gran Premi del Cómic. Asked what he believes justifies an ever-growing list of recognitions, Roca speculates about his legacy: having built with other authors "a bridge between the world of comics and the general reader." Roca assures that most of his readers do not usually read comics, and that it is more important to have entered neighborhood bookstores than to have exhibited in museums. Prestige and commercial success have allowed Roca to fulfill the dream of many artists: to make a living from his art, without having to compromise it. That is why, he says, he has the privilege of accepting only the commissions he likes. This is the case of the ARA comic, titled The immigrant in his labyrinth.

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Kind words, promises of economic agreements and warnings about the risk of a conflict over Taiwan summarize the first face-to-face meeting between the leaders of the two world powers. Xi Jinping and Donald Trump have striven to show détente and cordiality in their first meeting in Beijing after almost a decade. From gestures they moved to words, and while Trump assured that Xi Jinping is a great leader, the Chinese president defended that both countries should be partners and not rivals.

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Closing a restaurant is not just about lowering a shutter. It is putting an end to decades of life, of service, of silent sacrifice, and of a way of understanding cuisine. Guillem and his family did so after forty-five years at the helm of Can Castells, in Vidreres. With that gesture, they were not only closing a business: they were leaving behind a legacy built dish by dish, customer by customer, day by day.For two years, Guillem Gubau tried to distance himself from this world. He looked for new motivations, other paths, a life outside of gastronomy and hospitality. But there are professions that are not entirely chosen: they end up finding you. And he didn't find any other that suited him equally. It was then that he accepted the offer to become the maître of the restaurant at Mas Solà, in Santa Coloma de Farners. A space with history, located in a 16th-century Catalan farmhouse, which goes beyond the simple act of eating: it is also a hotel and sports center, a small universe where time seems to move at another pace.“Here what we do is market cuisine, seasonal. We look for the product that is best at each moment”, explains Guillem. This philosophy translates into a proposal that he himself defines as creative, but without ever losing clarity: dishes with a first and last name, recognizable, but worked with precision and with an elaboration that is noticeable in every bite.We attest to this from the very first moment. The croquettes arrive golden and crispy, with a creamy interior that speaks of patience and technique. The fritters, light but full of flavor, confirm that behind every apparent simplicity there is careful work. And it is in this balance, between tradition and intention, where Mas Solà finds its voice. We finish the first ones with some anchovies from L'Escala on focaccia with smoked butter and some artichoke hearts confited with Iberian bacon. “It’s one of the star dishes of the season, we clean the hearts well and chop them. A success!” says Guillem. For the second course, we have two meats and one fish: cod confit with tender garlic mousseline, tomato sofrito, and Santa Pau beans; crispy suckling pig cooked in two ways with red pepper chutney –“We add the sauce during the same cooking process, and that's why it turns out so good”, he says – and Girona veal entrecôte –“We always look for the meat to be from the area”, he recalls.The domain of the room

The desserts, egg flan with toffee, chocolate coulant and three-cheese cake. Today we accompany this meal with a cava from the Oliveda family, a young brut ideal for accompanying any dish. You can tell Guillem enjoys what he does. He commands the dining room and customer interaction with a naturalness that cannot be learned: it's in his blood. With infinite patience, he explains the history of the farmhouse to anyone who asks, almost as if he were part of it himself. “The patriarch of the Solà family is the one who creates everything many, many years ago. He first promotes the swimming pool, the fronton, and the tennis courts. It's not until 1971 that the restaurant is born. Now it is managed by a family that has nothing to do with the Solàs, but they have wanted to keep the name,” he explains. And perhaps it is here where everything fits. Because Mas Solà is not just a place to go to eat: it is a space where stories continue, where each stage adds without erasing the previous one. And in this invisible thread between past and present, Guillem has found his place again. Far from being a final point, his path confirms that, in gastronomy, as in life, there are vocations that never completely close, they only change scenery.

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An uncontrolled cry. This is how Jorge Aragone remembers the day he discovered Casa Batlló. The same reaction at the MNAC when faced with Duchamp's The Great Glass. One gets goosebumps listening to the emotion that emanates from the memories and erudition of who is undoubtedly one of the greatest stained-glass artists we can find in Barcelona today. He has had his workshop for ten years on Carrer del Peu de la Creu. He offers his services for restoration and also for the creation of new work. It's easy to fall head over heels for one of the stained-glass windows hanging on the walls. Perhaps for a Corto Maltés, perhaps your favorite comic book character. Whenever he makes it, he sells it. And there have been quite a few.

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Since March 11, there has been an open selection process to choose the next Spanish judge at the European Court of Human Rights. It is a call that has opened a new dispute between the judiciary and the Spanish government, there are about twenty applicants and interviews have already begun. Among those who have applied for this call, according to various sources consulted by ARA, is the Catalan jurist Jordi Nieva-Fenoll (Barcelona, 1970). This well-known professor of procedural law in Catalonia, along with the member of the General Council of the Judiciary (CGPJ) Carlos Hugo Preciado (who has challenged the procedure in the National High Court), are the two Catalans of whom this newspaper is aware among the 28 applicants who have submitted credentials to reach Strasbourg. A list that is not public at the moment.

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Cycle change in the ranking of the most influential brands on the planet. According to a report published this Thursday by the consumer consultancy Kantar, Zara has achieved what seemed impossible just a decade ago: to surpass the North American giant Nike and become the most valuable fashion brand in the world. The flagship firm of the Inditex group has reached a value of 44 billion dollars, with a growth of 18% in the last year.

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AI is already the great ally of the logistics sector. This is revealed by the XVI Barometer of the Logistics Circle 2026, published by SIL Barcelona, the reference fair for Logistics, Transport, intralogistics and Supply Chain. The event returns to Fira de Barcelona, in Montjuïc, from June 3 to 5, to showcase the advances of this new tool that is on its way to transforming the sector.

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AI is already the great ally of the logistics sector. This is revealed by the XVI Barometer of the Logistics Circle 2026, published by SIL Barcelona, the reference fair for Logistics, Transport, intralogistics and Supply Chain. The event returns to Fira de Barcelona, in Montjuïc, from June 3 to 5, to showcase the advances of this new tool that is on its way to transforming the sector.

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With a global map marked by geopolitical tensions, armed conflicts, and the struggle for hegemony among great powers, the world faces a new stage of uncertainty also in economic terms. “The new signs of the times strengthen nations and countries, by themselves, can do very little,” warned Pol Morillas. According to the president of CIDOB, the global interdependence that for years had contributed to ensuring stability “is now instrumentalized by the great powers” through tariffs or new political pressure formulas, in a context that goes far beyond the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz.

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Barça fell in Vitoria in the first of the three formalities left in the League (1-0). Hansi Flick presented a team rich in rotations. Next, some quick notes.

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Barça did not get entangled by a much improved Coviran Granada (98-101). The bottom of the Liga Endesa, who could not avoid relegation, forced the Blaugrana team to play with concentration until the end. Xavi Pascual could not count on Tomás Satoransky, Will Clyburn or Jan Vesely, who on Tuesday announced he will retire at the end of the season. The local fans bid farewell to their players in tears.

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