"Order is needed, legal entry routes must be recovered. A country must control its borders. Based on rights and obligations," stated Gabriel Rufián in an interview on Salvados, on La Sexta. A discourse with which the ERC spokesperson himself in Congress has admitted that the left could accuse him of "buying the right's framework" in the migration debate. "It is completely bought, I only aspire to compete," he answered himself. Rufián's words highlight the debate the left is having when it comes to forging a discourse on immigration, and also that the republican spokesperson, just like his party, ERC, have made a turn to try to stop the far-right's discourse.

Barcelona said goodbye this Sunday to the 2026 La Mercè Festival with the traditional Piromusical, which this year featured several novelties. On one hand, after years of having Avinguda Maria Cristina as the stage, this year the fireworks and music show was held for the first time from Nova Icària beach. On the other, another novelty was television-related: Dulceida, influencer and presenter of La gran cita, was in charge of hosting the broadcast on TV3.

The Castellers d’Esparreguera won the first day of the XXX Castells Competition in Torredembarra with 1,940 points, in a day that was decided practically at the last moment. The team in the burgundy shirts surpassed the Castellers de Figueres by only fifteen points, while the Castellers de Cerdanyola completed the podium with 1,735 points. In total, 44 human towers were seen in less than three hours, and notably, there were only two falls.

For years I had a passport that opened very few doors for me. Today I have a Spanish passport and I can look at the world from a different place. I am still the same person, but the document I carry in my pocket has changed. I explain this to remember that inequality is also expressed in the capacity one may have to move freely.

I have been wondering for some time what will happen between Europe and the United States when, one day, Donald Trump leaves the White House.If a Democratic president wins, will transatlantic relations return to the previous point? They will probably improve. Good manners, diplomatic coordination, and the recognition of allies will return. But I do not think we will return to the place from where we started.A future president will be able to repair the relationship with Europe, but not restore the previous trust. Trump has not necessarily brought about the end of the Atlantic Alliance, but he has brought about the end of European dependence based on the certainty that the United States would always be there.The damage that is truly difficult to repair does not lie in tariffs, military agreements, or a specific position on Ukraine. All of this can be modified through decrees, treaties, and budgetary decisions. What is irreversible is the European discovery that American policy can make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn every four years.Europe no longer distrusts only Trump. It distrusts the United States. Trump has been elected twice and his positions have a significant social base. Even if a Democratic president arrives and rebuilds relations, no one will be able to guarantee that four years later someone similar will not return.On the other hand, public opinion has already changed. A survey released by Reuters indicates that only 11% of Europeans in fifteen countries currently consider the United States an ally. In 2024, it was 22%. Another study by the Bertelsmann Foundation points out that 73% of European Union citizens believe that we should follow our own path. Relationships between countries depend on governments, but also on what their citizens feel towards one another.Distrust has already led to irreversible decisions. Europe is increasing its military spending, developing its own defense industry, and trying to reduce its strategic dependencies. Once these investments are made, Europe will have no reason to undo them, nor will any future American president be able to demand that it trust as it did before.But even the Democrats have changed. They continue to defend NATO and the transatlantic relationship, but they also demand that Europeans assume a larger share of their defense. The European Council on Foreign Relations warns that the historical bond with Europe has also weakened within the Democratic Party. Trump has accelerated the process, but he has not invented it entirely.Cooperation will continue. The United States and Europe will continue to trade, share intelligence information, and collaborate militarily. However, it will no longer be a relationship based on the security of unconditional protection, but rather on the convenience of each moment.

The war between Iran and the United States is entering a phase of high tension once again. After weeks in which indirect contacts have kept a diplomatic path open, Washington has rejected Tehran's proposal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, while Iran is hardening its military discourse and warning that it is prepared for a new American offensive.

The pressure on the streets for the Spanish government to approve the new housing decree to curb evictions has increased this weekend. The citizen mobilization has been an indisputable success. As the promoters of the demonstration and the encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid have said themselves, it cannot be compared to the 15-M of 2011. There is less underlying ideological movement and more concrete demands. In reality, the current cry has a perfectly describable objective: to resolve access to housing, which has become the main cause of precariousness and inequality. And it responds to a very generalized malaise that is interclass and intergenerational. The image of Maricarmen Abascal, 87 years old, being evicted on a stretcher from the apartment where she has lived all her life, has made an impact on public opinion: many elderly citizens have imagined themselves in her situation, and many young people and adults have projected their own grandmother or mother onto her.

iLerna Lleida pulled off the big surprise at the Roig Arena, where they defeated Valencia Basket for the first time (100-105). The Lleida team overcame a 9-point deficit to spoil Nikola Mirotic's debut. Gerard Encuentra, the youngest coach in the Liga Endesa (he will turn 37 in January), moved his pieces with great intelligence. James Batemon and Darius McGhee combined for 44 points on the court of the reigning champion.

"If you don't help us, we will kill you. Do you know what it is to be a gangster? We will cut off both your hands so they can make an ear out of them." It is November 15, 2022, and alleged members of the Casuals, the criminal group that was born from the Boixos Nois, held a man in a house after kidnapping him by force and placing him inside a car. He was a friend of a caretaker of a marijuana plantation who owed money to the feared Casuals. They tied him up in a house and threatened him: "Nobody plays with the Boixos Nois," they warned him. Finally, they released him and this illegal detention was one of the starting points of a major judicial case by the Mossos d'Esquadra against the Casuals.Last Saturday afternoon, some men disguised as police officers kidnapped another man in the middle of the AP-7, in front of many drivers who witnessed how they pulled him out by force, assaulted him, and took him away. Later, they released him a few kilometers away. Apart from coinciding in the method, this latest illegal detention also coincides with that of the Casuals because everything points to it being related to a marijuana plantation that the victim was supposedly guarding and that the police discovered in 2025. On Monday, a man was also kidnapped in Barcelona, beaten up, and left at liberty near a gas station in Salt.

"Cities can end up paying a very high cost if no one worries about a more equitable distribution of resources." This is the statement of one of the most influential voices in territorial planning in Europe, architect and urban planner – and former City Councilor for Urban Planning in Milan – Alessandro Balducci (Rome, 1954), who visited Barcelona in July within the framework of presentations organized by the Barcelona Metropolitan Area (AMB). Taking into account the invisible, that which politicians often do not want to see and which we are leaving "in the hands of algorithms," has become his firmest defense. In conversation with ARA, he asserts that institutions must begin to cooperate and "stop working like in the last century."

On Thursdays, paella. And on Sundays, in Madrid, a demonstration. Until now, the right and the far-right dominated the Sunday rallies, but it turns out that the rally calendar has become so strained that the marching fervor is now spilling over into other days of the week, and on Saturday, two demonstrations of opposing signs coincided, in search of the coveted Sunday cover photo. In this case, the one demanding interventions in housing won by a landslide. The most 'Sanchista' newspapers like El País or La Vanguardia chose it to adorn their front pages, but so did El Mundo. Obviously, this last newspaper was not looking to show solidarity with those who live with the anguish of their lease contract nearing its end, but because it allows them to write a headline such that the protest acts as a boomerang against Sánchez: “The indignation over housing leads to a 15-M attempt: "Either the rentier falls or the government falls"".

The weekend has been marked by fairly quiet weather, with temperatures losing strength and this Sunday "only" reaching 31 ºC in parts of the Ponent region and the interior of the Ebro valley. An "only" in parentheses because we are talking about values that are still very high for this time of year, but lower than those of Saturday or previous days. The coming week looks more unsettled and cooler, with rain that will end up making an appearance in practically every part of the country.

After a decade living away from home, one of the great names of local water polo returns to Catalonia. Albert Español (Barcelona, 1985) has traveled half the world thanks to this sport, from China to Italy. Now retired as a player, he will coach CN Sabadell. For the moment, he has already achieved a first success by overcoming the first phase of the Champions League in a very tough group played in Georgia. The great challenge for the team from Vallès is huge: to stand up to Atlètic Barceloneta, the European champion. That is to say, the club where Albert was trained, where he won everything and where the coach is one of his best friends.

The brutal death of two women, murdered by their husbands, triggered a mechanism in the mind of journalist and writer Nathacha Appanah (Mahébourg, Mauritius, 1973). She decided to silence the murderers, stand by the victims, and tell her own story as well. In The Night at the Heart (Angle/ADN), translated from French into Catalan by Andreu Gomila, the writer weaves together the three stories to confront the ghosts, to not let anyone erase who these women were, and to reflect on a society where femicides are all too frequent.

"I am the concrete one", assures Miguel Pita, geneticist and professor at the UAM, with a laugh. On WhatsApp, his profile picture is a fragment of an abstract painting by his father, the architect and painter Juan Pita. The scientist has published El cerebro enamorado (Periférica, 2025), an informative book about the biology of love, from the first sting to the last argument.

And then, our Homeric protagonist, pursued by judges, chased by the opposition and abandoned by his partners, still had the strength to stand up and proclaim: “And I, Maricarmen, have a message for you: the government is working against the clock to bring the royal decree-law on housing on Tuesday, because it is not a question of ideology, it is a question of humanity”.Audiovisuals have long taught us that there is nothing more exciting than an impossible mission hanging on a life-or-death countdown. It is a matter of hours before the decree is signed. The problem is that Maricarmen is not the title of a series, nor are we citizens mere spectators.Contrary to what the Spanish president says, the issue is one of ideology: if it were only a question of humanity, the problem would already be solved. I certainly believe it is a matter of ideology, from the moment that market laws, the right to housing, the right to property, the anxiety over the end of rental contracts for many tenants, and the savings of not a few small holders collide. If not, why does Pedro Sánchez (like anyone else) find it so hard to square the circle? Bound by his investiture agreements with both the right and the left, he now finds that, unlike the biblical advice, whatever he signs with his right hand will end up being known by his left hand.It is sad, because Maricarmen is not the metonymy of a sudden flood or an unexpected pandemic. For decades, housing has eaten up the good intentions of governments of all colors. This Tuesday's decree will, at most, cushion the blow. But without negotiating, yielding, and abandoning demagoguery, Maricarmen will continue to be treated like a series and not like what it is: the problem of our time.

Notice for castaways and other products derived from existential shipwreck: this article is based on real-life flotation devices. It begins on a moving island. Zulu time. September 2026. Interior day. Public transport in Barcelona (it could be any other space-time of the bitter Catalonia). The boy (9 years old) sits on the floor like a rock from the Upper Chalcolithic. The mother: "Oh, honey, stand up, the floor is dirty". Rock boy: "I don't want to!!!" (A unique phrase, like an expansive sonic destructive missile.) More mother: "Oh, honey, it's dirty, people can't pass, oh, your trousers, oh, oh, oh...." Operation dialogue and more dialogue. Final result of the journey: the kid didn't budge a micrometer. Nor will he for the next thousand years. 1st Century of the human rock.

Reading and understanding the labels of the food we want to buy is basic to knowing what we are eating. I have seen elderly people using a large magnifying glass to read them by enlarging the small print. Let's do it however we want, but let's do it. The other day, a friend told me that he had bought a Cadí cheese, DOP Urgèlia, which is semi-cured and with a washed rind, very good, and he sent me the image of the labeling. It indicated the origin of the milk, which is from the State. The ingredients: pasteurized cow's milk, salt, lactic ferments, stabilizer (calcium chloride) and rennet. On the rind there is a preservative, E-235 (an antifungal). And, attention, in the list of allergens, the labeling indicated that it could contain gluten, egg, sulfites, soy, nuts, celery, mustard, fish and crustaceans. And my friend asked me: "Why can a cheese from the Pyrenees contain traces of fish and crustaceans?"

For ninety years, the photograph Death of a Loyalist Militiaman has been attributed to Robert Capa. The image of a republican combatant at the moment of falling to his death consecrated the Hungarian photographer. The precise instant it portrays, with the militiaman losing his balance but not yet having touched the ground, gives it a drama that condenses the cruelty of war. The rifle seems to slip from his hand and the barren landscape further accentuates the tragedy of the soldiers. An atrocious and lonely death. It is impossible to identify his face, and the slight lack of sharpness in the image allows one to intuit the urgency of a photographer who triggers the shutter at the very moment they are startled by the horror of the scene.

After over half a century of a prolific career, the film and series adaptations of Stephen King's books are rapidly approaching one hundred. We have selected the most outstanding ones from each platform for those who wish, taking advantage of the proximity of Halloween, to catch up with the television (and cinematic) adaptations of this benchmark of the horror genre.

The decadent speech delivered by Benjamin Bibi Netanyahu before the UN General Assembly, which included insults and fallacies against the delegates who left the room in protest, had the sole value of reminding the international community that the genocide in Gaza, and the illegal occupation of the West Bank by Israel's far-right and fundamentalist government, continues its course. The massacre of October 7th and 8th of Israeli citizens by Hamas, an unprecedented attack due to its violence, with about 1,400 civilians killed, was met with an immediate response of a genocide recognized as such by a committee and an independent commission of the United Nations itself, as well as Amnesty International, Doctors Without Borders, and a list of the most relevant international entities and organizations. More than 75,000 Palestinians have died there, of whom more than 20,000 are minors. In this case, it cannot be said that the slaughter has no precedent, because the hostilities of the Israeli army, trained with the idea of treating the Palestinian population as subhumans who must be exterminated while young so they do not grow up to be murderous adults, goes back a long way. Of both things, the Hamas massacre and the beginning of Israel's genocidal response, it will be three years in a few days. In Gaza, more than ninety percent of homes have been destroyed, the arrival of international aid has been obstructed, doctors and journalists have been murdered, and the population has been subjected to a health and food crisis (that is, famine and infectious diseases), among other war crimes. In the West Bank, these days we have seen again the images of Zionist bulldozers razing olive groves, thus destroying the main source of income for many Palestinian families.Netanyahu is the most visible face of a coalition government that includes ministers such as the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who toasted with champagne in the Knesset after approving the establishment of the death penalty for Palestinians considered terrorists, and who asks that every night 30 or 40 people be executed in Gaza, until “clearing” the area of its Palestinian population. Or like the Minister of Finance, Bezalel Smotrich, who boasts that the Gaza Strip is “a real estate gold mine” that the government of Israel is sharing with that of the USA. Since Netanyahu referred to the delegates who left the United Nations hall as “moral cowards,” we must understand that his depraved ministers and he himself consider themselves examples of moral strength. Invoking the right to defense, or much worse, the memory of the Shoah, as a justification for these atrocities does nothing but intensify their baseness.We emphasize that in this article we have referred to the crimes of the government of Israel. Not "of Israel", a confusion that our local Zionism always tries to promote, seasoned with the ineffable touch of indecent victimhood that seeks to equate Catalonia and Israel as peoples joined in misfortune. The decrepit, offensive image of Netanyahu at the UN serves as their mirror.

“Vera, Parra, Teruel, Artigas, Diego, Casas, González, Grau, Celma, Pujol, Segarra and Egea. Pujol is my father, who was a forward and was on trial at Espanyol,” says Xavier Pujol with a smile, after reciting from memory the starting eleven from a photo from the 1950-51 season that hangs on one of the walls of the ground floor of his house, in a small village in the interior of the Garraf. That space was prepared to be a wine cellar, but Xavier, one of the most renowned white-and-blue collectors most recognized, decided to turn it into a museum dedicated to the club of his loves.

Noelia Acosta is the second vice president of the Association of Chartered Accountants (auditors) and a partner at Baker Tilly. Acosta, 49, asserts that her profession, to which she has been dedicated for 25 years, is subject to many regulatory changes that often arise in the wake of financial scandals. An expert in measuring the sustainability of companies and entities, she receives Companiesat the collegiate headquarters, the Torre Moré, a modernist mansion in the Barcelona neighborhood of Pedralbes, remodeled by the architect Òscar Tusquets, whom this organization, with some 2,000 members, will pay tribute to next Wednesday. Precisely on that day, they will celebrate the 30th anniversary of the creation of the association and its headquarters with challenges such as artificial intelligence (AI) and improving the balance between men and women. In the group as a whole, there is still a significant gap: 80% men and 20% women among the members. Among practitioners, the difference is reduced among those at the base: 65% men and 35% women. On the other hand, regarding executive partners, the presence of women is below 30%.

Portbou has the last train station in Catalonia before crossing the administrative border with France through the Belitres tunnel. The station and the entire complex of tracks occupy nearly a third of the surface area of this small municipality on the Costa Brava, linked since the 19th century to the country's railway history. Inside the Portbou facilities there is a workshop, the only one of Renfe in the Girona region, where maintenance and repair tasks for locomotives and freight trains are carried out. Over time, however, this base has been losing weight and personnel, until, finally, Renfe has decided to stop its activity.

The protests over the housing situation that have sparked an encampment at the Puerta del Sol in Madrid will extend to Barcelona this Monday. The Tenants' Union (Sindicat de Llogateres) has announced a day of mobilizations in the Catalan capital that will begin with a surprise action at 8 in the morning and will be completed with a demonstration in the evening, taking advantage of the visit to Barcelona by the President of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sánchez. Spokesperson Carme Arcarazo has called to “paralyze” Barcelona.

The Catalan Book Week closed this Sunday its 44th edition with more than 130,000 visitors, 8,000 more than last year, and a turnover that will reach one million euros, 12% more than a year ago, pending the final figures. The organization assures that, taking into account the absolute sales data, the 2026 edition has been the best in the history of the Week. "We have experienced the best edition of the Week in its entire history, a fact that demonstrates the good work done in previous years and reaffirms the vitality of the book in Catalan, and we are already starting to think about the 45th edition so that it can once again be a great celebration of books and culture," asserted the presidentof Editors.cat, Oriol Magrinyà.

Pedro Sánchez has tried to send a message this Sunday in response to the pressure from the streets for the Spanish government to approve the new housing decree this very Tuesday. In fact, he addressed Maricarmen Abascal directly, the 87-year-old woman who was evicted on Wednesday and who this Saturday asked him directly—through a video recorded from the Gregorio Marañón Hospital in Madrid—to approve this regulation to prevent a case like hers from being repeated. "Maricarmen, I have a message for you: we are working against the clock to bring the royal decree on housing on Tuesday," affirmed Sánchez. "It is not a matter of ideology, but of humanity," he added at a PSOE event in Madrid in Getafe to present his mayoral candidates for next year's municipal elections. Furthermore, the Spanish president also promised that on Tuesday the Council of Ministers will approve an extension until the end of the year for the measures that include the social shield that was approved a few months ago to deal with the war in Ukraine.

"This is a concert that justifies the narrative of a band with 25 years of history," said the lead singer of Love of Lesbian, Santi Balmes, a while before going out on the Estrella Damm stage at Bogatell beach in Barcelona, the most crowded of the La Mercè festivities. Love of Lesbian are folding, or taking an indefinite break according to musical newspeak. They still have about ten performances scheduled in Spain and Mexico, but Saturday's at Bogatell was the last one in Barcelona.

"Being on the left means taking on great challenges. And achieving them". The New York Assembly member, Zohran Mamdani, and the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, show harmony in the latest video that the New York city council has uploaded to its social networks. In an informal tone, even though both are dressed in formal wear, the two political leaders dedicate themselves to throwing paper balls into a trash can. And as the message accompanying the tweet says, they end up making all of them, despite the risks they take symbolically: Sánchez opts for the skyhook, the hook shot patented by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the great legends of the NBA, and Mamdani dares with the shot with his eyes closed that Michael Jordan ironically dedicated to Dikembe Mutombo.

There is a strait south of the Red Sea that helps explain why the Houthis have ceased to be just an actor in the Yemen war: Bab el-Mandeb, the maritime passage that connects the Gulf of Aden with the Red Sea and through which 12% of global trade passes. In recent weeks, the group, aligned with Iran, has advanced along the western coast of Yemen and has consolidated positions at strategic points in the strait. At the same time, has resumed attacks against Saudi Arabia and has announced a blockade against ships linked to the kingdom.Now, the Houthis have a position that allows them to threaten one of the main maritime routes between Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. And they do so while the war between Iran and the United States has turned the Strait of Hormuz into the other major focus of maritime tension in the region.“The Houthis have a real capacity for pressure. They cannot indefinitely close traffic through the Red Sea, but they can certainly increase costs, generate uncertainty, and periodically interrupt commercial and energy flows,” explains Neil Quilliam to ARA, a researcher at the Middle East and North Africa program at the international analysis center Chatham House. According to the expert, they do not need to close the strait: it is enough for them to increase the risk.If sailing through the Red Sea is too expensive or unsafe, companies can divert ships around the Cape of Good Hope, on the Atlantic coast of South Africa, with more days of navigation and higher costs. Thus, Tehran and its allies can exert pressure from two different points on two key routes for global trade and energy.The Houthis, who officially call themselves Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), are part of the so-called "axis of resistance," the network of armed and political actors linked to Iran, and they receive military and technological support from Tehran. A 2024 UN report documents transfers of military material, assistance, and training linked to Iran and other actors in the axis to the Zaydi Shia group. Although Iran denies supplying weapons to the group and claims its support is only political, the Houthis have gone from being a local militia in northern Yemen to possessing about 350,000 fighters and a significant arsenal of missiles, drones, and anti-ship weapons.The role of the Houthis in the US-Iran confrontation

Various reports from the analysis centers Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Chatham House point out that the Houthis can now act as a negotiation instrument for Iran before Washington, in a war that has already been going on for seven months. But this does not mean that Tehran controls the group's decisions. The movement has a command structure, territorial interests, and its own political agenda. Control of the coast, in fact, responds to its own interests: it gives them more capacity to pressure Saudi Arabia, strengthens their position ahead of future negotiations regarding Yemen, and expands their control over the oil and gas in the areas they dominate.

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André Breton played the role of Pope of Surrealism with great forcefulness: he did not tolerate any of the movement's members deviating from the path of aesthetic and political radicalism he had set. And when they did, he would exclude them or subject them to public scorn, as happened to Joan Miró in 1926 with the sets and costumes for the Russian Ballet's production of Romeo and Juliet, created in collaboration with Max Ernst. André Breton and Louis Aragon led a group of surrealists who burst into the premiere with whistles and shouts and handed out a pamphlet titled Protest, in which they accused Miró and Ernst of having betrayed the principles of surrealism by creating commercial art. "It is not acceptable for thought to be in the service of money," said the authors, for whom that collaboration meant "domesticating dreams for the benefit of the international aristocracy."

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There are only a few weeks left until the Israeli legislative elections scheduled for October 27, elections that will determine the country's future for the next four years, and it seems difficult for there to be significant changes in the dynamics of the century-old conflict with the Palestinians. During the long campaign underway, we are witnessing a continuous evolution of attacks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the opposition leaders; a bellicosity that will continue to grow until the polls open and that periodically reaches intense isolated clashes.

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The British police have reported that they have arrested five people for handling explosives near the Royal Air Force base in Fairford in the county of Gloucestershire, in southwest England. The authorities, who consider this a "serious incident" and have established a security perimeter in the town of Whelford, suspect that it could be the preparation of a terrorist attack. In fact, the counter-terrorism unit has assumed control of the investigation, according to the British government. The military base has an American presence and, specifically, it has been used by the United States Air Force (USAF) during the war against Iran. Army bomb disposal experts examined vehicles in the area this Sunday and several homes have been evacuated.

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The Puerta del Sol in Madrid woke up this morning with the usual hustle and bustle of tourists, but with an unprecedented image not seen for fifteen years: the tents of the housing rights protesters have been pitched since this Saturday night in the middle of the square, emulating the 15-M movement of 2011. They intend to stay at least until Tuesday, which is when they demand that the Council of Ministers presided over by Pedro Sánchez approve a decree-law that solves the housing problem.

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New sexist crime in the State, this time in Seville. A 56-year-old man killed a 47-year-old woman on Saturday night with a bladed weapon in the Sevillian town of La Campana. According to Europa Press, the victim was the man's current partner. After the crime, the man barricaded himself inside the apartment and it was not until this Sunday at noon that the Civil Guard managed to get him to surrender.

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It is a done deal. It only remains to be officially confirmed who will replace Cardinal Joan Josep Omella as Archbishop of Barcelona and when. Before it is made public, however, the apostolic nuncio to Spain, Piero Pioppo – the envoy of Pope Leo XIV – was in Tarragona last week, from Tuesday to Friday, to meet with the archbishop of the diocese and primate of Catalonia, Joan Planellas.

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The announcement on June 4th by the mayor of Barcelona, Jaume Collboni, that licenses for shared bicycles will not be renewed and that from January 1st they will no longer be able to circulate in the Catalan capital took everyone by surprise. Including the operators that offer this service called bicisharing, who have since started a race to try to reverse the decision. Although they assume the city council will not change its mind and that by the end of the year they will have to store the bicycles in warehouses, they are confident they can turn things around after the municipal elections and obtain a pardon to operate in the city again.

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What Sharon Stone explained on Mayim Bialik's podcast could perfectly well be the beginning of one of her rawest films. According to the artist, while she was hospitalized for a severe stroke that almost killed her, she opened her eyes on a gurney moving through a hospital corridor toward the operating room. As she regained consciousness, a jolt of the gurney finished waking her up and gave her the strength to ask what was happening to her and where they were taking her. If all that already gives you goosebumps, the answer the doctor gave her then was worse: she was going straight to the operating room to have exploratory brain surgery. A surgery that, according to her testimony, she had never authorized.

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Virgilio Martínez (Lima, 1977) is one of the most renowned chefs in the world. His restaurant Central, in Lima, was considered the best in the world in 2023. It was a milestone that no one had ever achieved in Latin America. And he achieved it by placing at the center the ingredients used in all the ecosystems and altitudes of Peru. Many of them, safeguarded by indigenous communities. “When I was a child, they told me that these people were poor. Later I understood that they were rich,” says the chef. In addition to Central, he has the Mil restaurant, where he cooks Andean cuisine at 3,800 meters, and a multidisciplinary knowledge center called Mater. Martínez speaks to ARA at the Andorra Taste congress, dedicated to high-mountain gastronomy, where he was awarded the career achievement award. An award previously received by Michel Bras, Gastón Acurio, Ferran Adrià, and Carme Ruscalleda.

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The Catalan Society of Clinical Psychology (SCPC-ACAPIR) published a devastating study last June based on the experience of professionals who attend to patients on a day-to-day basis. Its title is already quite significant: Mental health in Catalonia: between institutional discourse and actual practice. Or in other words, politicians sell us one thing but reality is something very different. The president and vice president of SCPC-ACAPIR, María José Miñano and Jesús López, respectively, speak bluntly.

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I was once told that when Carles Capdevila, the driving force behind this newspaper, saw on a CV that someone had sung in a choir, he valued it positively, because it meant that, on one hand, they knew how to work for the common good of the group and, on the other, they knew how to project their own voice. I don't know if it is entirely true, but I remembered this anecdote as soon as I started reading Una catalana a París. Articles d’exili, a collection of articles by Teresa Pàmies which has been edited by Montserrat Bacardí and published by Comanegra.

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The American political scientist Susan Stokes explores in the book The Regressors: Leaders Who Erode Their Own Democracies (Galaxia Gutenberg) the causes behind the democratic backsliding that the world is experiencing in the 21st century. She points to economic inequalities as one of the key factors and describes the process followed by leaders of different countries and ideologies to dismantle the democratic system from within. We talk about it in a conversation in Barcelona, where she has participated in a debate at the CCCB.

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Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid; Olga, the 54-year-old woman from l'Hospitalet who committed suicide after being evicted... The list is terribly long. Although the total number of judicial evictions is lower than it was a few years ago, it remains a problem, a scourge. And what is most serious is that when a measure has been attempted to be applied, even if temporary –such as the decree to prevent the eviction of vulnerable people–, a group of parties, such as the PP, Vox and Junts, opposed it.

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To find a wolf, you must learn to look at the landscape through the eyes of a wolf. Gabriel Lampreave knows this well. He has spent 25 years following the trail of this canid in Catalonia. It is like looking for a needle in a haystack: these elusive animals travel vast distances in a short time. “You have to learn to read the territory,” this rural agent explains with humility, in charge of coordinating the monitoring of the two large predators we have, the brown bear and the wolf.

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The European Commission, concerned about the European Union's loss of competitiveness compared to China and the United States, has long been repeating a mantra to reverse the situation: EU citizens need to invest more and have the means to do so.

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Barça's good sporting streak suggested a calm assembly of delegates for Joan Laporta, but neither the president nor the executives breathed completely easily until the fourth item on the agenda was approved. The social base authorized the expansion of the Espai Barça credit by 300 million and validated the issuance of bonds for an additional 210 million. Money that was essential to finish the remodeling of a Camp Nou that has ended up costing more and has also taken longer than expected.

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Two years after the death of Hassan Nasrallah, his face is still everywhere in Dahieh, the vast southern suburb of Beirut, which for decades was the main showcase of Hezbollah's power. On the walls, in the shops, on the posters remembering the dead leaders. But the city that Nasrallah left behind is no longer the same.Nasrallah died on September 27, 2024, in an Israeli bombardment on Haret Hreik, in the heart of Dahieh. For more than three decades, he had led Hezbollah and had turned the movement into much more than an armed organization. Under his leadership, the party built an extensive network of institutions, schools, clinics, media outlets, and social services, in addition to a powerful military and political structure.Dahieh was the natural setting for this power. But reducing it to a "Hezbollah bastion" is an understatement. It is a densely populated part of Beirut that grew from ancient villages, fields, and informal settlements to become a huge urban extension of the capital. A Shiite majority lives there, but also other communities. And its streets physically blend with other neighborhoods of Beirut.It is enough to travel a few kilometers for the city to change. In Gemmayzeh or Mar Mikhael, restaurants, bars, galleries, and terraces project an image of a cosmopolitan Beirut. In these neighborhoods, other urban codes and a different political history predominate. In Hamra, universities, hotels, offices, and shops are concentrated. In Dahieh, on the other hand, Hezbollah built for years a much more visible and daily presence. It was not just a party that was voted for. It was part of the life of the neighborhood.The 2024 war broke a good part of this landscape. And the 2026 one has done it again. In March, the southern periphery of Beirut, once again, emptied out. Closed shops, deserted streets and families displaced to other areas of the capital. Some residents returned during the day to check the state of their homes, collect belongings or feed their pets. At the Camille Chamoun stadium, the same setting that months earlier had hosted the massive funeral of Nasrallah, tents were set up for displaced families.The image summarizes well to what extent Hezbollah's territory has changed. The organization survived the death of a large part of its leadership, including that of Nasrallah and his designated successor, Hashem Safieddine. Naim Qassem assumed leadership in October 2024 and Hezbollah began to reorganize. There is no longer the charismatic leader who for decades concentrated much of the movement's identity. There is a more battered and more decentralized structure, and a different relationship with its regional environment.But the loss of power does not mean the disappearance of its social base. In March of this year, when Dahieh was being bombed again, some residents continued to say that they supported Hezbollah and that they would return to their neighborhoods. At the same time, others expressed something that a few years ago was much more difficult to hear publicly: weariness at the price of wars and questions about the role of Hezbollah and its disarmament.The burial and the cult of a symbol

Perhaps that is why Nasrallah's anniversary continues to be of great importance to the movement. His death has not closed an era; it has become one of its main symbols. Due to the war, the funeral had to wait. Nasrallah was initially buried provisionally and when conditions allowed it, on February 23, 2025, almost five months after his assassination, the great farewell arrived. Hundreds of thousands of people went to the sports complex to pay tribute to him and then accompanied the funeral procession to his mausoleum in Dahieh.That day, the stadium stands were filled with yellow flags and portraits of Nasrallah. Delegations from Iran, Iraq, and Yemen attended, and thousands of people followed the ceremony from outside the Sports City. Afterwards, the crowd accompanied the coffin to the place where he was finally buried.In September 2025, his followers gathered again for the first anniversary of his death, this time around his mausoleum in Dahieh. Days earlier, Hezbollah had also brought his image to the center of Beirut. His portraits and those of Hashem Safieddine were projected onto the Raouché rock, in a ceremony that sparked criticism and a dispute with the capital's authorities.And this Sunday, two years after his martyrdom, they will gather again to remember it. Nasrallah's image remains present on the streets of Dahieh. But around this face, the movement he built, the neighborhood that for decades symbolized his power, and Beirut itself have changed.

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When a lawyer has to prepare a document, a law student looks for a legal term, a civil servant needs a document template, or a company has to draft a contract, often the difficulty is not finding information, but knowing where to find it. In the legal field, resources are spread across websites of administrations, universities, professional associations, institutions, and various bodies. And when one wants to work in Catalan, this dispersion can turn a simple task into a time-consuming search.To facilitate this work, Compendium.cat was born, a portal promoted by the Catalan Council of the Bar Association that gathers and interrelates more than a thousand resources for legal and administrative writing in Catalan. The goal is simple: to make finding a form, an expression, a legal term, or a reference tool in Catalan as easy as possible. Much more than a legal dictionary

Entering Compendium.cat is finding a digital legal library, but also a work tool. The portal allows you to consult legal forms, linguistic resources, manuals, dictionaries, regulations, publications, and specialized materials, among many other contents.Forms are one of their most practical resources. There are procedural, notarial and contractual, business and union ones, as well as models related to different areas of law. The portal also incorporates resources for addressing registries, materials on mediation and arbitration, and other documents designed to resolve specific needs of day-to-day professional life. But Compendium.cat is not limited to offering documents. One of its peculiarities is that it connects resources to each other and allows them to be filtered according to different criteria. In the case of legal forms, for example, one can consult information about the applicable legal system, the procedural stage, or the document's revision date. This makes it possible to know if a form has been updated in accordance with the most recent legislative reforms. This combination of content and search tools makes the portal useful for very different profiles, such as legal practice, notaries, the judiciary, the public prosecution service, public administration, legal representation, mediation and arbitration, registries, companies, universities, or professionals in linguistic consulting and translation. Also for students who are still becoming familiar with the language of law. When using Catalan also means having tools

The need for this type of resource becomes especially evident in the field of justice. The latest available data shows that Catalan continues to have a minority presence in the courts of Catalonia. During 2025, only 6.34% of sentences were written in Catalan. That same year, lawsuits filed in Catalan in the civil, commercial, administrative litigation, and social areas represented 5.21% of the total. The data explains part of the reality, but there is another, less visible part, which is that in order to be able to use a language normally in such a specialized field as the legal one, it is necessary to have the necessary resources.This is where Compendium.cat wants to make an impact. It is not just about defending that Catalan can be used in law, but about facilitating its use. So that a professional does not have to start from scratch when they want to draft a document in Catalan. So that a student has tools to learn the terminology specific to their future profession. So that an administration can have adequate models and linguistic resources at its disposal.A tool for day-to-day life

The value of the portal, ultimately, is not just the quantity of resources it contains, but the possibility of having them at hand when they are needed. Because working in Catalan in the legal field should not entail an added difficulty. Neither for those already practicing, nor for those studying, nor for those drafting documents from the administration or a company.Catalan is also a working language. And for it to be so normally, it is necessary to have tools that make it possible to use it with rigor, precision, and effectiveness. Compendium.cat puts a good part of these tools in one place, for free and openly. A gateway to more than a thousand resources to make working, studying, and practicing law in Catalan a little easier.

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The circus returns to Esparreguera with La Palanca. The town in the Baix Llobregat region will once again host the best contemporary circus proposals with this benchmark festival, which this year reaches its sixth edition. From October 2nd to 4th, La Palanca, Contemporary Circus Festival, will transform the streets and facilities of Esparreguera with the best shows and a quality, diverse, and inclusive program for all audiences.

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The international Spanish-language book business will once again look towards Barcelona for Liber 2026. The fair, which will be held from September 29th to October 1st at the Gran Via venue, will open new commercial opportunities in emerging markets and will focus on boosting the growth of publishing rights sales and sector debate.

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It was the only possible Golden Shell. Tender loving care, which will surely be the last work of the British filmmaker Mike Leigh, has won the award for best film at the San Sebastian Festival. It is a recognition that should not be interpreted only as a tribute to a great director in his farewell to cinema due to health problems –he suffers from myositis, which weakens the musculature and hinders movement– that have prevented him from collecting the award in person. On the contrary, this minimalist film about two social workers and the parents of one of them is extraordinary and deeply humanistic, one of the best works by an author who is a champion of cinematic realism and who, for more than five decades, has dedicated himself to portraying life in all its painful complexity and beauty.

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Journalist Pere Bosch shared on social media a message he received on WhatsApp from the press office of the Ministry of Transport. It was about the latest cyberattack suffered by Renfe and was the classic salad of insubstantial arguments and empty phrases, and 'we will investigate everything' and 'move along, move along.' But the last paragraph was revealing: “This second version has a more institutional and firm tone, oriented towards media and public opinion, while maintaining a certain legal prudence (…) that protects Renfe against possible conclusions different from the final investigation.” It is obvious what happened, and the only doubt is whether the author's name is Claude, Copilot, Gemini, or GPT.

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Sabadell continues to add points. Ferran Costa's team drew at Balaídos against Celta's reserve team in a match where they carried the weight of the game but lacked firepower (1-1). The territorial dominance of the 'arlequinats' did not translate into clear chances in a match where they always showed the ambition to win away from home for the first time. Sabadell, however, seems to have been in the division their whole lives, even though they are one of the newcomers. They have craft and ambition. And they know how to take a hit, only to get back up afterwards.

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The Catalan public mental health system, especially for young people and adolescents, is under great strain. It is no consolation that, compared to the rest of the State, Catalonia is better off in this care field. It is not, because the professionals, who in recent months have raised various alarms in the form of reports and manifestos, still cannot cope. And families have to endure long waiting lists or, if they can, opt for private care –a visit with a psychologist or a psychiatrist costs between 50 and 120 euros–. Although the Generalitat has allocated more resources in recent years, the shortcomings remain notorious.

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"We took Paula to the emergency room at least a hundred times," state Germán and Beatriz, the parents of Paula Baquedano Martínez, who for five years fought for someone to help her get out of the pit she was in. She suffered from borderline personality disorder, and self-harm became her daily life.

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Doctor Josep Tristany is the director of the Mental Health and Addictions Master Plan of the Generalitat, but just over two years ago he was on the other side, attending to patients. It is clear that he knows what he is talking about and that he is eager to improve the system, but he is also aware that it will not be easy at all.

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The heat peaked this Friday with maximums of up to 37.4 ºC at the Riba-roja reservoir and 37 ºC in Vinebre (Ribera d'Ebre) and Aldover (Baix Ebre), but this weekend has started with less heat and the maximum values have remained around 32 or 33 ºC. This Saturday we already noticed an increase in thin clouds, a situation that will repeat on Sunday, when we will also have low coastal clouds. The coming week looks more unsettled and cooler, although still with a generally mild atmosphere.

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The global map of liquefied natural gas (LNG), as well as that of raw materials, has been upside down for some time. First due to the war in Ukraine and the fact that Europe turned off the tap for this fuel from Russia. Now, the war in Iran has been added to this following the attack by the United States and Israel and the subsequent blockade of the Strait of Hormuz –through which between a quarter and a fifth of the world's crude oil and natural gas circulated–, as well as an escalation of tension in the Red Sea. The context has forced many countries to look for gas under rocks –metaphorically and literally– and to chart unimaginable, or at least unusual, maritime routes, to the point that during the first eight months of 2026 (between January and August) the port of Barcelona has seen 7,439 tons of LNG loaded from the regasification plant tanks bound for Thailand. Specifically to the port of Bangkok, according to data on LNG shipments, to which ARA has had access.

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On July 30, Viktor Kalinin, aged 14 years and three months, became the youngest person to be included in Russia's list of terrorists and extremists. His crime: having set fire to a railway signaling system box. Although he stated that he had acted under coercion, the police accused him of terrorism. That same day, Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, was also accused of collaborating with terrorism, in the latest episode of his war with the secret services.

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It is very possible that some of you remember Super Size Me, that 2004 documentary where Morgan Spurlock took on the challenge of spending thirty days gorging himself on McDonald’s food. He wanted to demonstrate how it harmed health and to make the low quality of food in the United States evident. He gained eleven kilos, developed liver alterations, and his cholesterol increased drastically. In 2017 he directed a second part that went more unnoticed: Super Size Me 2: Holy Chicken!. Spurlock opened his own fried chicken establishment to show how these businesses work, creating a false image of natural and healthy food.Netflix now has in its catalog a new production that emulates Spurlock's work. In Big chicken: A fast food conspiracy (Big chicken), comedian Mo Gillighan sets the goal of eating only fried chicken for twenty-eight days to see how it affects his health. At the same time, he explores the chicken business in both the United Kingdom and the United States in the face of the massive expansion of this food around the world. He investigates how the industry manipulates and processes it to give it an appetizing appearance. The chicken is the most farmed land animal on the planet. In the United Kingdom, traditional fish & chips businesses have disappeared, swallowed up by a plague of fried chicken businesses: more than six thousand establishments across the country. Every day, twelve million pounds are spent on chicken consumption.Gillighan tries to keep a sense of humor during his investigation, but after the first week his mood declines and he feels unwell. The same thing that happened to Spurlock in Super size me. In the research process, the comedian interviews various experts in nutrition, food chemistry, and sensory scientists who explain to him how the entire chicken farming and meat ultra-processing industry works. You should know that if you decide to watch the documentary, it will be a few days before you eat chicken again, because there are sequences that are very disgusting. Gillighan shows terrible fattening farms. They make a forceful comparison: if a human baby grew at the same speed as chicks are made to grow, a baby would be the size of a sow after two months. Big chicken is a documentary that works above all because of the curiosity about the aberrations we will find. But the data is devastating. It makes us look at these fried chicken places installed in our cities differently after watching the documentary. We give them a new meaning, from an economic, as well as a social and cultural point of view.However, twenty years after the documentary Super size me, repeating the experiment forces us to ask ourselves how many times we will have to show the consequences of this food model for something to change. Documentaries are being made to denounce this industry, which keeps transforming itself to survive by doing the same as always.

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Barça delivers in Logroño and returns from Las Gaunas with three more points (0-2). The goals from Mayssa Baha, who debuts as a goalscorer, and Patri Guijarro, with a chip from the edge of the area, give the victory to the blaugranes. Pere Romeu made many changes to the starting eleven to distribute minutes and give rest to the players with the heaviest workload, and Aitana Bonmatí returned to play after almost four months.

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It is between irony and sarcasm that during the state dinner hosted by Donald Trump for Xi Jinping at the White House, it was Chinese television that showed the world the images of the pompous meeting. In fact, more pompous than productive. The television of the communist single-party state with a planned economy provided the images, while American networks suspended joint coverage in response to Donald Trump's veto.

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Where the Pyrenees plunge into the Mediterranean Sea, some rocks resist submergence. The water reaches great depths close to the coast, and yet, some islets protrude, like perennial icebergs. Two of these islets are found at the tip of Cap de Creus, near the lighthouse: s'Encalladora and the Massa d'Or (or Maça d'Oros).

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The heading of the annual report of the Reader's Ombudsman must be one of gratitude to the 235 people who have sent me their complaints, both to those who have seen them commented on in my columns and to those I have not been able to address publicly, but which I have read, assessed and, as much as I could, conveyed to the editorial staff. The time frame of the analysis runs from May 5, 2025, to June 7, 2026, and the results and assessments were presented to the editorial board on September 17.You will find the data in the infographic, so I am conveying my reflections to you accordingly.The preliminary idea is that the Reader's Ombudsman, being a container for criticism, inspired by the Office of the Ombudsman and in general by ombuds, should not fall into the synecdoche syndrome, where the negative part is extensible to the entire newspaper; quite the contrary, we start from the premise that the journalistic product is good and that the criticisms have great qualitative value and help us to improve it. I find this consideration in various communications, as also, a contrario sensu, there are readers who give us a last chance so as not to stop reading us or cancel their subscription.The complaints that refer to management are high not because of their own deficits but because, although they point to sections punctually, they raise inductive, global, and editorial line issues rather than a specific topic. I will provide two of the most frequent cases. The primarily metropolitan gaze to the detriment of certain regions, especially of the “New Catalonia”, as if a historical curse were reincarnated in an ink ectoplasm. The second case is the contradiction of sponsored content which, nevertheless, is signed corporately by ARA or the editorial staff. I will dedicate more attention to this very complex issue, which impacts the Code of Ethics and has more scope at the Press Council of Catalonia, contrasting it with the delicate position of some newspapers –not only ARA– that have to manage this generalized demand for advertising, which is a source of income that contributes to the viability of a free press.I highlight the high level of the criticisms I receive, which involve us in an intellectual recycling of journalism. And I thank the management for having attended to all of them, just as I also appreciate the fair play of the journalists who have always responded to my requests for verification, even though attending to the Readers' Editor who brings some correction is not a flattering interaction.I also thank the twelve professional experts in various fields from whom I have requested opinions of auctoritas and who, placed side by side in this balanced mode, paint a true hall of fame of different areas of knowledge, an expert list of quality that provides an external perspective to the dialogue-debate between readers and journalists.The comments in the language section go beyond grammatical corrections, which have other channels of expression. However, for the damage control that I see from the proscenium, regarding errors not only of language, I have suggested recycling the old figure of the "plate editor," an experienced professional who performs one last reading at least before the printing press perpetuates blunders into the enduring life of the newspaper archives.Comments about the language show a special interest from readers and demonstrate linguistic militancy, the language factor as content in itself. The Catalan language comes from having to fight to stay alive against the linguistic annihilation policy of a dictatorship, and it still carries problems of intolerance. However, the need for self-affirmation responds with great dynamic potential, with activism, with constant regeneration, with diverse visions in agreements and disagreements, but always enriching, and newspapers, as the main producers of language, are both art and a prominent part of it. That is why I also thank the readers who raise linguistic questions with me, which in my balance are practically equal numerically to those related to the mother of all controversies: politics and opinion.The criticisms of the subscriptions department refer to poor distribution, digital re-identifications to read an article, and advertising intrusions. “My kingdom is not of this world,” as the evangelical saying goes: logistics is not my area of expertise, as I am focused on the content, but nonetheless, I have taken note of it, passed the criticisms on to the appropriate people, and expressed my concern about it all to the management.I end by redoubling my gratitude to all the readers who have placed their trust in me, who are the essence of this section that has now been running for two years.The Readers' Editor takes note of doubts, suggestions, criticisms, and complaints regarding the newspaper's content in its digital and print editions, and ensures that the treatment of information is in accordance with codes of ethics.To contact the Reader's Ombudsman you can send an email to eldefensor@ara.cat or record a message of no more than one minute on the WhatsApp number 653784787. In all cases, identification with full name and ID number is required.

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“What is good for Barcelona is good for Catalonia, and what is good for Catalonia is good for Spain”. This transitive formula summarized the political thought of Pasqual Maragall and his party, in the years of the so-called Olympic spirit. Unity of action, mutual benefit. Catalonia is Spain on the condition that Spain is Catalonia. Shared passion thanks to sporting success. Els segadors and the Royal March playing consecutively when the Bourbon king enters a stadium with a republican name. It is an approach that connects with the federal tradition. A double antidote against assimilationism and against independence. And an alternative to the Pujolist project, which was to make of Catalonia, little by little –as if nothing– a kind of pseudo-state.But the Olympic success passed, and the dreams of Maragall and Pujol proved impossible. Maragall, as president, saw how his Catalan Spain became a mirage. And the failed reform of the Statute made it clear that Catalonia could not achieve real political power without posing a direct challenge to the State. The emotional distance between Catalonia and Spain was not only expressed in the rise of sovereignty, but also in the laments of the PSC: Montilla spoke of “disaffection”, and Maragall himself, playing with reversing the terms, warned in a famous article that “Madrid se va”. Despite the warnings, the clash of trains was inevitable.The years of the 'Procés' left the PSC in a very bad state. Its leaders promised themselves that they would never again allow an overdose of Catalanism to jeopardize their relationship with the PSOE. Then came the 155, the repression, and the fall of Rajoy's PP. When two socialist presidents coincided again in Catalonia and Spain, Salvador Illa promised to focus on management and move away from identity-related disquisitions. But he had plans. Illa, in the style of Pujol, that is to say, without stridency, has executed a strategy in favor of his version of the Olympic ideal, that of "Catalonia is Spain and Spain is Catalonia," with the aim of dissolving the mental and political wall between both realities; his ultimate goal is that, in the eyes of the Catalans, the State and the Generalitat be two extensions of the same body –that is, of the same political and emotional reality.Illa has been skillful enough to carry out this policy despite depending on the votes of the pro-independence parties. For example, Junts managed to secure the commitment to Catalanize the second TVE channel; the socialists christened it 2Cat (a name that is not at all innocent) and used it to broadcast the matches of la roja in Catalan. ERC demanded the transfer of the Rodalies service, and the result has been a joint consortium that will encompass, under a new brand, all railway services, both those that run well and those that are a disaster. Thus, management and responsibility are diluted. The same formula is applied to the new tax consortium, and it serves for large infrastructure, cultural facilities, foreign policy... Catalonia is Spain, Spain is Catalonia. The best way to tame the Catalans is to give them a taste of real power: as the Count-Duke of Olivares said four centuries ago.The question is whether this strategic commitment, which is also a party policy, will be able to survive the current situation, with Pedro Sánchez cornered and the Spanish nationalist right lying in wait. If the PP comes to power, it will have two options regarding Catalonia: follow its own instincts (and those of Vox) or, in a fit of lucidity, maintain this joint relationship with the Catalan government, which is the best way to strengthen the presence of the State in Catalonia without it being noticed.

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Two years ago, one of the spokespersons for the Madrid Renters' Union, Valeria Racu, uttered a sentence that—though we didn't know it at the time—these days we remember with sadness. It was a program of Espejo público that began with the story of a pensioner named Maricarmen, the owner of an apartment whose tenant had stopped paying rent and was subletting the rooms. After acknowledging that, undoubtedly, it was a difficult situation, Racu asked to talk about another Maricarmen: "A Maricarmen I know […], who is facing eviction because a company has bought her building to invest in it".

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The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal in Madrid is one of those events that mark a stage of Spanish life. It has an enormous symbolic weight, just as in the eighties it was held by Cojo Manteca, a boy with a disability who was then 20 years old and became famous for how he lashed out against street furniture during the student protests that took place in Madrid in 1987. The significance of the current protagonist's appearance on all the news is quite different from that of Jon Manteca Cabañes, who was born in Arrasate in 1967 and died in Orihuela in 1996. However, the images that unite them have many things in common, although the protest was undoubtedly carried out with more dignity by Maricarmen Abascal, because Manteca went down in the country's graphic history striking all kinds of glass and telephone booths with his crutches, when they were a mandatory fixture on city streets.

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1. Football clubs in the Spanish league, in the late 90s, introduced the custom of covering minutes of silence with music. They did this to avoid shouts or insults from troublemakers. In English stadiums, on the other hand, they do not play music, and the fans of one team and the other usually keep their mouths shut. Fifty thousand people absolutely silent is an impressive spectacle, yes, but above all it is a breathtaking show of respect. In England, if any jerk tries to boycott the tribute, the crowd starts clapping to deactivate them. A civilized people should know how to manage, without institutional help, the griefs that touch their hearts. 2. It is enough to visit any country in Northern Europe to perceive that we, the Catalans, are culturally closer to the Greeks, Spaniards, Portuguese, or Italians than to the Danes, Norwegians, Finns, or Flemish. Like it or not, we are a southern people: poor, dirty, sad (at times), and unfortunate. A touchstone that never fails to know who we really are is to check the state and cleanliness of public restrooms: in train stations, service areas, gas stations, or cafeterias and set-menu restaurants.3. Regarding cultural differences, ARA published a revealing piece on August 1st: politicians in Southern Europe do not resign like those in the North. Here, we interpret resignation as a weakness; in the North, as a sign of honesty. I propose a complementary explanation: Catalan politicians confuse their feelings. They believe that if they resign when there is a problem, they are acknowledging that they are to blame. But no: resignation is not an admission of guilt, but of responsibility. This entails taking charge not only of one's own decisions, but of the decisions (and mistakes) of all the people on our team. And then, a politician who resigned when appropriate should not have to be finished for the public cause.4. In April 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine. Three years later, Russia started a war. Until today. Soon, Zelensky, elected only once, will begin his eighth year as president. Holding elections in wartime is not easy. In fact, on the very day the invasion began, martial law was decreed, which expressly prohibits calling elections, going on strike, organizing demonstrations, and going out during the curfew. Martial law allows the government to censor and control the media and prohibit the activity of parties if it considers that national security is at stake. I do not have a clear opinion on this. I see the difficulties, surely insurmountable, of going to the polls while at war. But when you have been governing for many years with the prerogatives that, under normal conditions, only dictators have, the incentives to keep things as they are are very powerful. 5. With or without an invoice? When the carpenter, the plumber, the bricklayer, the mechanic, the painter, the physiotherapist, or any other professional asks you this question, what do you answer? I answer: with VAT and with an invoice. But, for an instant, I have the impression that I am being a fool. From the client's point of view, the only advantage of paying for services with VAT is peace of mind, which for me has enormous value. However, since they still keep asking me the question, I have to think that the underground economy continues, as always, in full swing, and that peace of mind, in general, is an asset in decline. The other day, while waiting for my visit at the dermatologist's office (I was covered by my insurance company), the receptionist reminded another patient, out loud and quite calmly, that they had to pay for that session in cash. A fair, responsible, and internalized tax system is still the great pending subject of our country.6. Since I have been writing these articles for ARA, more or less every two weeks, I have seen that in the comments, invariably, there is always some reader who demands something along the lines of: “Yes, yes, plenty of chatter, but where are the solutions?” This challenge to my texts is as legitimate as it is discouraging, because what it highlights is that there are those who believe that problems such as the assimilation of immigrants, global warming, the depressing operation of Rodalies, and the abysmal level of Catalan students could be fixed with a formula that would fit on half a page of this newspaper. When the mental framework is this, the inclination towards simple and easy-to-understand political offers is, to the misfortune of democracy, the most natural one.

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Suddenly, signs appear that give reason to think that the fabrications that led to the regressive phase of the transition from liberal democracies to post-democratic authoritarianism are beginning to decline. It was Milton Friedman who said that "the invisible hand of the market is superior to any other institution that regulates economic life" and that, consequently, the "social responsibility of business is to increase its profits," when the rise of capital was unfolding against the post-war mixed economy. This logic has been imposing itself at the same time that liberals and social democrats were disturbingly blurring.

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Jaume Collboni has returned from New York with an idea under his arm. After meeting with Mayor Mamdani, he announced that Barcelona will have a network of affordable shops. The concern is easy to understand: in five years, the purchase of food has become nearly 30% more expensive, and for many families this item already weighs too much on the family budget. The proposal also has a certain glamour: it has been presented as a "genuinely New York experience". But what does it exactly mean to make shopping more affordable?It may be difficult for us to fill the fridge for different reasons. Perhaps in the neighborhood we do not have enough supply of fresh produce. Or perhaps we have supermarkets and shops within reach, but we cannot afford their prices. In one case, there is a lack of supply; in the other, purchasing power: having a store downstairs is useless if we cannot pay for it. Both hinder access to adequate nutrition, but they are not the same problem nor do they require the same response.The City Council's pilot project will begin in La Marina del Prat Vermell, a growing neighborhood where the commercial offer is still limited. Bringing fresh produce there responds to the first of the problems and makes sense. But the project wants to go further: it not only promises proximity, but also affordable prices. And here begins the most interesting question: what will make them so? Because lowering the price has a cost: someone has to assume it, be it the City Council, the manager, the suppliers, or a combination of all three.There is no single way to lower the cost of groceries. New York is planning five municipal supermarkets: the city covers part of the costs and requires the savings to be passed on to prices, with a discount for everyone who shops there. Istanbul, on the other hand, has for decades combined a public network of food at low prices with aid directed at families with fewer resources. In the first case, public support makes the same basket cheaper regardless of who is doing the shopping; in the second, part of the effort is concentrated on those with lower income. Each formula allocates public resources differently and does not necessarily benefit the same families.Barcelona, furthermore, does not start from zero. It has a network of municipal markets, farmers' markets, and consumer cooperatives, as well as experience with aid such as prepaid cards. It already has, therefore, instruments to act both on supply and on the purchasing power of families. The question is whether it is necessary to create a new structure or if part of the objective can be achieved by reinforcing, connecting, or reorienting those that already exist. In Marina itself, in fact, the City Council was already working to promote local commerce before the trip to New York. Looking at what other cities are doing can be useful, but the question is not where we import the idea from, but who we want to reach, with what instrument, and what problem we want to solve.

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After having two children very close together and finding herself locked at home with COVID-19, Evelina Johansson, a professor of gender studies at Örebro University (Sweden) and a specialist in Marxism and feminist theory, reached her breaking point. "I was having a very hard time, overwhelmed and very tired," she recalls. Looking for a way out of the tunnel, she began reading and researching the role of the home in society and delving into literature on the abolition of the family. This school of thought does not advocate ending love, affection, or cohabitation, but rather opposes the privatization of care and the dependency, sometimes somewhat forced, on a small unit, the family, in order to survive. It advocates for a world where everyone has access to an unconditional and collective network of support, food, and shelter, regardless of who you were born to.

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The deepest transatlantic crisis in recent times closed at the latest UN summit in New York. The handshake between United States President Donald Trump, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, and Greenland's Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, has sealed—at least apparently—the diplomatic fire ignited in January, when Washington launched a campaign of pressure and threats against the Arctic island. "In the Kingdom of Denmark, the United States has a friend and an ally it can always rely on," the Danish leader stated.

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In recent days, prisons have experienced a series of serious incidents. Last week, an inmate from Mas d'Enric convicted of murder escaped during a scheduled outing in Tarragona. A prisoner at Quatre Camins killed his cellmate and another inmate at the same prison died by suicide. His death is the seventh by suicide in Catalan prisons this year, one more than in the whole of last year. All this at a time when the prison population is on the rise and the centers are approaching their capacity limit.

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In December 2025, a good number of African countries had found themselves with a window of opportunity. The price of oil was low and in global markets it seemed there was more supply of oil than demand, a fact that would have kept energy prices stable. Most African countries are importers of gasoline and diesel, with prices that tend to move at the same rate as those of oil. At the end of February 2026, however, war broke out in Iran.

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In current politics, hyper-leadership proliferates, but what is valued most is a personal brand that exceeds the party brand. This is what characters as disparate as Gabriel Rufián, Carles Puigdemont, Ada Colau, or Juanma Moreno Bonilla have in common.

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Born in Guédiawaye (Senegal), Eli Ndiaye's chances of ending up becoming a professional basketball player were slim. And yet, if it weren't for an injury, he would have made his NBA debut. "I started playing basketball when I was in a boarding school. When I returned home I kept playing and then Oumar Sow appeared, who proposed that I go to Europe. I didn't think twice. I had trials with Baskonia, but it didn't work out, and then Real Madrid appeared," explains Ndiaye to ARA, who at that time was only 13 years old.“When I started playing basketball my family struggled with it, because they wanted me to prioritize my studies, but when they understood that it is something I am passionate about they understood that it could also help me be more focused on my studies. My family has always helped me”, explains the Asisa Joventut player, who starts the Liga Endesa on Sunday on the court of Rio Breogan (12 p.m., TV3 and DAZN).“Before, basketball was less accessible in Senegal, but now there are many people betting on training and that is noticeable. There are many academies and more and more players are emerging. Basketball has opened up a great space in my country and people enjoy it more. Having players like Brancou Badio helps it become a very popular sport,” says Ndiaye with an enthusiasm that is contagious. It is hard to see him speak without smiling.

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The eviction of Maricarmen Abascal has triggered a wave of indignation that was visible on Wednesday in the streets of Madrid, Barcelona, and various cities across the State, and it was repeated this Saturday in a demonstration in the center of the Spanish capital that ended in an encampment. Under the slogan Not one more Maricarmen, thousands of people gathered at the Puerta del Sol, where the seat of the government of the Community of Madrid is located, to walk to the Madrid City Hall and finish at the Congress of Deputies. In total, 25,000 people took to the streets, according to the Spanish government delegation – 300,000 according to the organizers. The Madrid Tenants' Union ended the demonstration by calling for an encampment at the Puerta del Sol, and tents spread across this square in the center of Madrid throughout the night.

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The Donald Trump administration has fully entered the Brazilian presidential race, which will hold its first round on Sunday, October 4th. The explicit support for the far-right candidate, Flávio Bolsonaro, has turned into an operation of electoral interference that has forced Lula da Silva, who is running for re-election, and his executive branch to take measures to protect themselves.Brazil, due to its position as a regional leader and for being one of the last great bastions of the left on the continent, has become a priority for the Republican administration within the framework of the reinterpretation of the Monroe Doctrine, which defended “America for the Americans”. Now, Latin America, forgotten during the last decades by Washington, is once again a key zone of influence for the United States, which wants to exercise direct and unilateral dominance there and integrate it into its national security and economic exploitation strategy, curbing Chinese commercial expansion.In the case of the Brazilian elections, there is a coincidence of personal, business, and political interests between Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who, in some conflicts generated by the White House, has acted as a counterbalance to the presidential rashness and outbursts. In this case, however, that has not been so.

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If there is one thing that has remained intact since the 16th and 17th centuries in Madrid, it is the mentideros. They are no longer at the Gradas de San Felipe, but rather information comes and goes in the corridors of Congress, the Senate, Moncloa, and beyond. And, as it could not be otherwise, at the point we have reached in the Spanish legislature, the great topic of conversation now is when the future elections will be. In reality, only Pedro Sánchez knows, since he is the one who has the prerogative to press the red button and he has only said two clear things: that they will be in 2027 and that he will not make them coincide with the municipal and regional elections on May 23rd. However, the scenarios are multiple if one takes into account the unknowns that remain to be resolved in 2026 and that next year is packed with decisive elections on both sides of the Atlantic. Before the end of the year, it will be determined whether a return of Carles Puigdemont changes the stability –for the better, Moncloa hopes– of the plurinational majority; whether the crisis in Ceuta is resolved and how the judicial calendar is configured, with the jury trial for Begoña Gómez as the culmination.

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The general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly runs the risk of becoming a mere stage for an increasingly unilateral world. But, paradoxically, it is the only stage that continues to exist so that the 193 countries that are part of it can make themselves heard. Even if it is to threaten the "annihilation" of the other, to make warmongering proclamations of "not bowing one's head" or to attempt to whitewash a genocide.

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At the beginning of April 2024, few people knew Juan Carlos Peinado. His name rose to fame when on April 24th it became known that he had opened a case against Begoña Gómez, the wife of Pedro Sánchez, following a complaint from Manos Limpias. A decision that led to the five days of reflection during which the Spanish president considered resigning, although in the end he decided to continue. Last Monday, five days before his retirement—this Saturday the BOE already publishes his forced retirement at 72 years of age—, the controversial judge put the finishing touch on his career by sending Begoña Gómez to trial before a jury for influence peddling and embezzlement.

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Choosing between the multitude of similar products offered by a supermarket has become almost an escape room. The options for basic foods such as bread or milk have multiplied, the range is increasingly wide, and deciding can sometimes be complicated. A good way to tip the scales one way or the other is to look at the labels of different products, compare them, and choose the one that best fits each person's nutritional needs. However, interpreting them is not always easy, as processed foods include a long list of ingredients, some of which are additives associated with a number or a technical name, and it is complicated to separate the wheat from the chaff. ARA has consulted various experts in nutrition and endocrinology to create an easy guide that allows understanding food labels and leaving the supermarket with the conviction of having chosen the best option.

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"And what are they doing today?", asked a woman on Madrid's Gran Vía a few minutes past nine in the morning. "I think a demonstration for democracy and rights," a security guard replied, sympathetic to the cause but clearly misinformed. At that moment, the avenue was already blocked off and the first attendees were beginning to arrive for the call by the Sociedad Civil Española platform at the Plaza de Cibeles in support of Ceuta and against the Spanish government. Well, especially against Pedro Sánchez, who, as is now usual in right-wing demonstrations, has become the target and has been called absolutely everything: traitor, son of a bitch, to prison... In fact, the manifesto calling for the mobilization, supported by the PP and Vox, demanded immediate elections, treason proceedings against the Spanish Prime Minister, and the militarization of Ceuta to drive out the "invaders." According to the Spanish government delegation in Madrid, they managed to gather 20,000 attendees on a three-kilometer route that reached the Moncloa.

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Naomi Campbell, Cameron Diaz, Nicole Kidman, Lily Collins, Michelle Williams, Kim Kardashian, Amber Heard, Lucy Liu, Elton John and Ricky Martin are just some of the celebrities who have turned to surrogacy to have a family. Recently, singer Lady Gaga and television creator Lena Dunham have also joined this practice, which is illegal in Spain, both supposedly aligned with feminist ideas, but who, when it came to starting a family, chose a path condemned by a large part of the women's rights movement. Although they are not the first to opt for surrogacy, they are two of the celebrities who have been most harshly criticized for doing so. Many of their followers have understood the use of another woman's body to gestate, a process that is usually accompanied by a financial transaction, as a sign of vital contradiction.

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Sigfrid Gras, director of TV3, admitted in the CCMA control commission that took place this Friday that the removal of a mention of RAC1 in the broadcast of the play Dones de ràdio was an internal error. "It was our mistake," he said. However, he remarked that the management of 3Cat had no knowledge of the alteration of the work and that at no time did they give any instruction regarding it. On September 17th Jordi Basté denounced during the Davantal of El món a RAC1 that during the broadcast of Dones de ràdio on TV3, a mention of RAC1 made by the character played by Àngels Gonyalons had been removed. Specifically, in one scene, Gonyalons' character says: "I host a radio program on one of the country's main stations. It's RAC1, I don't know why I hide it. It's an evening magazine show, where I can do my own thing quite a bit… and have a large audience. I mean that on the radio, I am also the queen." But the phrase "It's RAC1, I don't know why I hide it" was not heard in the recording that TV3 broadcast.

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The pepper spray that PP deputy Ana Belén Vázquez (Bande, 1975) showed on Wednesday in Congress to show solidarity with Ceuta triggered chaos. It happened after the President of Congress, Francina Armengol, expelled her from the chamber and a party employee emptied the spray in the restroom. In total, a dozen people received medical attention, three floors of the lower house were closed, and one worker went on sick leave. But who is Vázquez?

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Artificial intelligence agents developed by OpenAI attempted to gain unauthorized access to websites of United States government agencies and a university, according to an investigation published Friday by The New York Times. And they did so without having received explicit instructions to act in this manner, according to the company.

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Although We, the Survivors (Les Hores/Anagrama) is the first novel by Tash Aw (Taipei, 1971) that we can read in Catalan, the work of this author born in Taiwan, raised in Malaysia, and emigrated to the United Kingdom has had a remarkable international journey for two decades. With his debut, The Harmony Silk Factory (Harper, 2005; in Spanish at Salamandra, with the title La fábrica de sedas), he was already a Booker finalist, a merit he has repeated on two more occasions: with Five Star Billionaire (Fourth State, 2013) and also with We, the Survivors. Translated into more than twenty languages (in Catalan by Míriam Cano), Tash Aw explores in his novels the day-to-day life of the Malaysian working class. We, the Survivors narrates, with remarkable precision and subtlety, the sexual awakening of a 16-year-old boy in parallel with his parents' marital crisis and his relationship with his sisters.

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In the mid-eighties, it was difficult to spend a day in Catalonia without bumping into the ATO logo at least once. Their milk cartons filled supermarket shelves and a million households kept them in their home pantries. Spectators of the Jean Bouin race, the Volta, or the 24 Hours of Motorcycle Racing at Montjuïc also came across advertising banners. The company was the Catalan leader in the sector: it collected milk from 3,700 farmers, and about 480 people worked at the bottling plant.

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Knowing how to read, reading to learn, and a love for reading. These are the three pillars on which, according to the Department of Education, the school reading plan (PLEC) must be based. Or, in other words, the plan that sets the didactic and organizational line that a school or institute must follow to ensure that students end up being good readers. At the moment, this organizational document is only a recommendation, and only about 700 of the little more than 2,500 public educational centers have a reading plan that meets the requirements set by the Generalitat. However, among the measures to reinforce learning announced by Minister Esther Niubó this week is, precisely, making the PLEC mandatory. This implies that, for the coming academic year, more than 1,800 public schools and institutes will have to create their reading plan from scratch or modify it to comply with this directive.

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The death of the renowned Catalan architect Josep Juanpere was initially attributed to a heart attack. He was with his partner at their second home in Baqueira when, after not answering the phone for hours, his nephew went there and discovered the architect's lifeless body, with his wife by his side. The autopsy is one of the keys to this case, which is open for homicide, and the wife, who this Friday managed to be released on bail by paying 80,000 euros, is the only person under investigation.

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The stand-up comedy is in fashion. And not only in Spanish, which at the beginning was the hegemonic language of this comedy genre, but also in Catalan. In Barcelona, more and more venues are choosing to invite stand-up comedians who, standing up and with a microphone, seek to make people laugh with their stories and jokes. Outside the Catalan capital, in Girona, this format has also been on the rise, especially after the pandemic. And one of the agents that has contributed most to this is the El Foment Cultural Foundation, which, from its headquarters in the Old Town, regularly organizes open mics, comedy clubs, and shows by famous comedians, as well as courses and competitions for amateur stand-up comedians. And always exclusively in Catalan. All this has contributed to professionalizing a group of new generations of comedians and has grown the interest in the art of jokes and wit in the city.

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The day she arrived at the laboratory and saw that the mice were moving again, Zaida Álvarez (Barcelona, 1984) could not help but shudder. Behind her lay more than six years of research, from Monday to Sunday, and a risky bet to outsmart evolution and repair the irreparable: the central nervous system of a mammal. "It was mind-blowing. Those animals, which had a severe spinal cord injury and were paralyzed, were walking again," she recounts, still moved, this bioengineer and researcher at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

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Among the luxurious high-end bicycle establishments with English names that have proliferated in Girona in recent years, drawn by the cycle tourism boom, the small shop-workshop Bicicletes Fortià stands firm. Throughout its 44-year history, it has managed to earn a loyal clientele that values the professionalism and the friendly, approachable manner of the business owner, Jordi Fortià.

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When I was writing the book, the stories that impacted me the most were those in which parents lost their children not because of death, but due to circumstances caused by the parents themselves.

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I highly recommend to anyone who goes to see the version of Aida signed by Shirin Neshat and that inaugurates the Liceu season, read the article "The empire in action: Aida by Verdi", by Edward W. Said, included in Culture and imperialism. Because it can help to understand the conceptual key of the show. Neshat interprets Verdi's opera based on themes such as decolonialism and feminism. And she does so with scenes without concessions to the gallery, but without discarding an undeniable poetic sense. In fact, Aida speaks to us about the abuse of theocracies, about militaristic savagery, and about the refugees who flee wars to end up in no-man's-lands. Nothing too far from the catastrophic spectacle that we from the West watch comfortably in front of the television, curled up on our sofas at home and with a remote control to change what is unbearable to our gaze. In this sense, the gaze of the Iranian Shirin Neshat is not at all compassionate, and for that reason, it can be uncomfortable.However, the problem with the show lies in the fact that the oriental artist masters the video-artistic language but not the theatrical one. And the result is excessively contrasted between some well-found performative and conceptual elements and a stereotypical and even dated stage movement of singers or—in the case of Anna Netrebko's gestures—downright ridiculous. Nor is it helped by some scenes located in the intermissions which, although personally I found them stimulating, may clash with the tradition of an opera that is the most watched and performed at the Liceu, always from a classical perspective and artificial historicism. Nevertheless, it must be said that the show is effective, risky, and of unquestionable scenic category.Aida is not a chamber opera, but it is intimate despite the most famous scenes (especially the second one of the second act), of great spectacularity. But the rest is concentrated on a story of loves and hates for which Verdi writes wise and subtle music. And it must be served with good taste and precision. And although Antonello Manacorda's direction is never messy, it does at least align well with the guidelines of the score and serves it with detail and good taste. The response of the house orchestra was up to the task, not to mention a simply capital choir, especially the male one (the scene of the temple of Vulcan is brilliant).

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Tranquility at Real Madrid after the medical tests that Kylian Mbappé underwent throughout this Saturday at the Valdebebas sports city. The white club has announced that the French forward is suffering from a "hyperextension of the posterior capsule of the left knee," but has not wanted to give a specific recovery timeline. The Madrid entity has limited itself to saying that he is "pending evolution," although various media outlets suggest he would only be out for two weeks.

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Girona accelerates with their fourth victory in the last five matchdays on a perfect and emotional night against Albacete (2-0), in which goals from Abel Ruiz and Van de Beek, saves by Paulo Gazzaniga, and the visitors' lack of accuracy tipped the scales. The sentimental note was provided by Portu, who returned to the pitch ten months after his injury. He received a massive ovation.

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Behind the warmongering rhetoric at the UN podium, Tehran seems to be moving in another direction. In the corridors of the United Nations General Assembly, the Iranian delegation, which had arrived in New York without showing any interest in dialogue, presented the US with a new proposal for an agreement to reopen the strait. The information was first leaked to the press by people familiar with the talks, and now the Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, has confirmed it.

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