There is not enough water for everyone. Even more so in Maó, where the City Council has decided to bring forward the usual restrictions of these past summers. It is already prohibited in the city for companies and establishments to clean cars in the street and for individuals to clean boats and water gardens. Cruise ships can no longer refuel at the port either. Even so, a good part of the water served to the population continues to be non-potable and is mixed with water from other wells, even from outside the municipality, to guarantee at least the quantity, if not the quality, that is needed.

The Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has set a date for the preliminary hearing of the oral trial against the President of the Parliament, Gabriel Le Senne. It will take place on October 28. This was reported by the association Memòria de Mallorca, which is part of the private prosecution. The leader of the Chamber faces charges for an alleged hate crime, for having torn up a photograph of Aurora Picornell and les Roges del Molinar during the plenary session of the Parliament.

89.6% of the students who took the ordinary call for the University Entrance Exams (PAU) in June have obtained a passing grade. In total, 3,533 students out of the 3,942 who took them have passed the exams. The average access grade – which combines the Baccalaureate qualification with the exam phase – stands at 7.086, a figure very similar to that recorded last year, when it was 7.099, according to the data provided.

The territorial coordinator of GOB, Miquel Camps Taltavull (Maó, 1963), is warming up to launch from this Saturday, June 13 (7:30 PM), the new summer of mobilizations announced by Via Menorca. An army of ants "fed up with mass tourism" are already walking towards the Biosphere Square in Maó to demonstrate in defense of the right to housing and against those who "suck our water dry until the aquifers are left dry" and those who "condemn us to precarious jobs to barely live off tourism".

Two people died this Thursday early in the morning in a fire that broke out at 5.23 am in a residential building in Magaluf, in the Mallorcan municipality of Calvià, where several people were also injured. The Civil Guard reported that the deceased are a 58-year-old man of Argentine nationality and a woman who has not yet been identified. They also added that they did not live together, but were in different homes at the time of the fire.

"For two years now, practically every time we go there, we find problems."practically every time we go there, we find problemsThe decision made on Monday has caused a real race against time to guarantee the canteen service for 33 educational centers and redistribute nearly 2,000 school menus daily with only nine days left until the end of the school year. Officially, the Ministry of Health has justified the closure due to non-compliance detected in the preparation, handling, and transport of food. However, the consulted sources assure that the intervention is the culmination of years of inspections, warnings, and proceedings.

What happened that, with only a few days left until the end of the school year, the closure of one of the main central kitchens supplying school canteens in Mallorca was ordered and nearly 2,000 daily menus were put at risk? This is the question that remains open after the Ministry of Health of the Balearic Islands decreed the precautionary closure of the central kitchen of the restaurant Can Arabí, a decision made on Monday, June 8, following a health inspection. The closure has had an immediate effect on the school canteen system: 33 educational centers had to be urgently reorganized and menus redistributed among various companies. In total, Can Arabí managed nearly 45 school canteens, many of them on a catering basis. That same Monday night, the Department of Education activated an emergency device to ensure that no center would be left without service.

The Ombudsman has opened an investigation into the Palma City Council following a complaint filed by Ben Amics, which accuses the Consistory of violating fundamental rights due to the repeated difficulties that, according to the entity, it has placed in organizing the Pride events.

The statement of the former president of the Parliament Balti Picornell, who had been summoned as investigated in the case promoted by Vox leader Jorge Campos, was suspended this Thursday in the Palma courts after his defense alleged defects in the notification of the procedure.

It is the first time that an independent leads a list since MÉS per Mallorca was founded. David Pujol (Palma, 1980) will lead the MÉS per Palma candidacy in the municipal elections of 2027, with Xisca Mir as number two. He says these are tumultuous times and that precisely for this reason he is taking this step, in search of a broad left-wing front. However, he is also aware that he is racing against time and that the far-right wave is difficult to stop.

The Department of Education and Universities will launch, at the request of the Educational Inspection department, an evaluation system for the management teams of the centers with the aim of detecting possible problems with the work environment, improving conflict management, and reinforcing pedagogical leadership. This is one of the main measures arising from the "Docent 360" working group, promoted by the Government to strengthen the emotional well-being of teachers, the conclusions of which were presented this Wednesday by the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera.

The PSIB-PSOE has registered requests for appearances so that the Minister of Education, Antoni Vera, and the Minister of Health, Manuela García, give explanations to Parliament for the closure of the central kitchen of Can Arabí and for the uncertainty that the situation may generate regarding summer schools, which will begin in a few weeks. Socialist deputy Amanda Fernández has warned that the same company has provided services in previous years for summer activities and has requested to know what will happen this year with these services, which are on the verge of being activated. The closure of the kitchen, one of the main school catering companies in Mallorca and responsible for 45 school canteens across the island, has occurred just nine days before the end of the course and has forced an urgent reorganization of the canteen service in 33 educational centers, with the redistribution of nearly 2,000 daily menus.

“We ask the Manacor City Council and the Government to stop this aberration which, among other things, will produce eight tons of manure daily. When it rains, they will intoxicate all the aquifers that reach the city,” denounced this Wednesday afternoon Sílvia Llull, one of those affected by the mega-farm of 80,000 laying hens that the company Avícola Son Perot wants to build on the Manacor estate of Son Brau.

Red Eléctrica has initiated the technical work necessary to advance the environmental processing of the second electrical link between Mallorca and Menorca, a controversial project that has generated debate due to its passage through the Maristany environment, one of Alcúdia's main wetland areas.

Approximately 1,500 undergraduate students from the University of the Balearic Islands will participate in the joint graduation ceremony that will take place on July 9 at the Son Moix stadium in Palma. Registrations are still open, so the final number of participants may vary slightly.

The Government presented this Wednesday a new action guide for educational centers that establishes how situations arising from adverse weather phenomena such as heavy rainfall, episodes of drought, heat waves, strong winds, and floods should be managed. The document was presented by the Minister of the Presidency, Coordination of Government Action and Local Cooperation, Antònia Estarellas, and the Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera. As they explained, the new tool is born with the aim of homogenizing criteria and providing greater security to management teams in emergency situations.

The Porreres Apricot Fair is all set for its 13th edition, which has gradually established itself as one of the most special events on the calendar. This Saturday, the town's streets will be filled with colour, flavour, and creativity, with the apricot as the undisputed main and sole star.

The organizations Sineu en Bici i a Peu, Vianants Mallorca, the Train Users Association (AUT), and Terraferida have evaluated the new law regulating vehicle influx approved by the Consell de Mallorca, but they consider that the norm, by itself, will not serve to decongest the island. In a joint statement, they demand that the Consell and the Government stop announcing studies and large future infrastructures and promote immediate improvements in public transport.

The Palma City Council has evicted the old Palma prison after a court authorized its execution due to the high risk that, according to various technical reports, the state of the property represents for the people who still reside there. The operation, coordinated between the Local Police and the National Police, began at 12 noon and lasted for a large part of the day. One of the evicted, Bernardino, a 60-year-old Italian who was evicted, criticized being treated like a drug trafficker and commented to journalists: "Tonight I will sleep on the street, in this park, what a mess."

The ARA Balears awards return in 2026 to recognize, once again, projects and careers that improve these Islands and the world. Within the framework of the newspaper's thirteenth anniversary and its ninth edition, these awards aim to highlight innovative and transformative initiatives in key areas such as education, culture, social action, commitment to the Catalan language, and economic activity.

Albert Xamena is a biochemist, neuroscience student, and content creator. On Instagram, he already exceeds 11,000 followers thanks to Entre Fones i Neurones, a Catalan-language outreach project where he combines science, history, art, and thought from the Balearic Islands. He has achieved this popularity without insulting people in 50-second videos with split screens and hundreds of stimuli, but with an educational and calm space. In this interview, he reflects on algorithms, mental health, scientific dissemination, and the role of social networks in today's society.

La Cassie persegueix els seus somnis. Des del confort de la seva habitació, grava vídeos fetitxistes dels seus peus, fa sorollets amb un micròfon, personalitza calces i prova joguines sexuals fins que es desmaia. "No soc una treballadora sexual", explica després a un director de Hollywood. "Soc una intèrpret que fa servir el seu cos per explicar històries". Insisteix a dir que això és l'empoderament.

A figure dressed in traditional peasant attire, her face hidden behind a skull mask and, often, dragging a large bag of rubbish. This is how Madò Farta has presented herself on social media, a new anonymous character who, in a few days, has begun to make her mark in different settings in Mallorca with a message against tourist overcrowding and, in particular, against incivility.

The mayor of Calvià has signed a municipal decree due to the 2026 Football World Cup, which will take place between June 11 and July 19. The document establishes a series of rules aimed at reconciling the development of leisure activities with safety, citizen coexistence, and the rest of residents and tourists.The text establishes an exceptional time regulation for broadcasting certain matches. According to the City Council, through a statement, if a match starts within the establishment's ordinary opening hours, it will not be necessary to stop the activity of the premises or the terrace at the usual closing time, thus avoiding clients being left without seeing the end. Establishments will be able to extend closing time up to 15 minutes after the end of the match, including extra time and penalty shootouts. It is important to note that this time exception will apply exclusively to matches played by the national teams of Spain, Germany, England, and Scotland, in addition to the semi-final matches, the final, and the third-place play-off.Conversely, if the match starts at or after the official closing time of the public establishment, it will not be able to keep its doors open and must strictly adhere to the time stipulated in the ordinary license.The decree consolidates a series of coexistence rules that were already implemented during Eurocopa 2024, an event that took place with complete normality in Calvià under these same guidelines: in terraces and outdoor areas, from midnight the audio emission must be completely suppressed, and the volume will be set to zero. Only the visual signal of the matches may be broadcast to ensure the rest of neighbors and tourists.Likewise, screens and televisions must always be oriented towards the inside of establishments. The measure aims to prevent public space crowds that could hinder the passage of pedestrians and road traffic.The Calvià Town Hall warns that non-compliance with the provisions of this decree, as well as with the applicable Municipal Ordinances, will be subject to sanction. Therefore, establishment owners are appealed to collaborate in preventing any disturbance to safety and coexistence.

For decades, Biel Mesquida (Castelló de la Plana, 1947) has been inviting readers to delve into all the nuances of the "censored perfume" of freedom, whether sexual or political. On the evening he received the 58th Premi d'Honor de les Lletres Catalanes, the verses of Lluita de classes, one of the agile and radiant poems from El bell país on els homes desitgen els homes –written in 1974 but unpublished until 1985–, once again resonated at the Palau de la Música with the elegant diction of the poet Adrià Targa. "You are a creature, fierce creature, playing with my hips, / biting them, while I knelt, pushed and compelled by your frenzy and / this desire to sink into the beautiful hole of my anus": thus, the urgent connection between the lyrical self and the "disheveled boy" of the commissions still sounds forcefully, an oasis of free love amidst the national-Catholic and Francoist darkness.

The drivers of EMT Palma have added new complaints about the state of the fleet and the municipal company's infrastructure following criticism leveled in recent days over the lack of operational vehicles and difficulties in incorporating new electric buses. According to staff sources, among the detected incidents are widespread problems with the air conditioning systems of many older buses. The workers, who have sent their complaints to ARA Balears and requested anonymity, assure that a significant portion of conventional buses are operating with climate control systems in poor condition because those in charge have allegedly not performed the necessary annual recharge.

The Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca (FEHM) expressed this Tuesday its respect for the demonstration called against the tourist saturation planned for July in Palma, but has harshly criticized the narrative of the protest, which it considers "uses tourism as a punching bag".

The Federation of Monasteries of Hieronymite Nuns of Santa Paula is studying the future of the Santa Elisabet de Palma monastery and has made it clear that they will prioritize its use for religious purposes, if possible, to house a community of nuns. Among other options, they have pointed to the possibility of dedicating the convent to social or educational use, as Saint Jerome was dedicated to teaching Christian morality. In any case, the order of the Hieronymites is clear that the convent will not, under any circumstances, be converted into a hotel, and they have pointed to this possibility as an "unfounded rumor" from the time of Bishop Javier Salinas.

Donald Trump's plot twists in his war against Iran are constant, and this Thursday he offered one of the clearest examples. After a second night of crossfire attacks, the President of the United States had threatened more bombings and had even raised the possibility of invading the Iranian island of Kharg, the country's main oil hub. A few hours later, however, he assured that he had canceled the planned attacks, arguing that there had been significant progress in negotiations.

The Pope has reserved the two small-format, more intimate events for the second and last day of his visit to Barcelona to meet with vulnerable groups. In the morning, he met with about eighty inmates at the Brians 1 prison, in Sant Esteve Sesrovires, before heading to the monastery of Montserrat. In the afternoon, he chose the modest church of Sant Agustí, in the heart of Barcelona's Raval, on his way to the central event of the blessing of the Sagrada Família's tower of Jesus. It was, therefore, a day marked, on the one hand, by two great symbols of Catalan spirituality and, on the other, by two points where current social problems are felt.

Elon Musk, owner of X and founder of companies like SpaceX or Tesla, is one step away from becoming the first trillionaire in history, and would accumulate unprecedented levels of wealth. According to a report published this Thursday by the NGO Oxfam Intermón, the magnate of South African origin is on track to accumulate as much wealth as the entire poorest 46% of the world's population, the equivalent of about 3.8 billion people.

Violence has shaken Belfast for the second consecutive night despite the victim's family's plea for The clashes have concentrated at the Sandyknowes roundabout, a predominantly unionist and Protestant area located about 13 kilometers northwest of the center of Belfast, near the M2 motorway and the Chimney Corner hotel, where, according to various local groups, asylum seekers are being housed. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has established a large deployment with armored vans, riot squads, and water cannons to prevent protesters from reaching the establishment.

Sílvia Munt (Barcelona, 1957) is an actress, screenwriter, and director. Last Gaudí Award of Honor. In the autumn, she will premiere a documentary film about Mercè Rodoreda and will direct the play Panorama des del pont.

She was born in the Clot neighborhood, in Barcelona. “But I spent my early childhood and also part of my adolescence in the Canary Islands, because my mother is French but her father is from the Canary Islands. On the one hand, I feel very urban, very much from the neighborhood. My father was from Clot. But, on the other hand, the island, the way of understanding life there... is important to me... And I am a bit of this mix”.

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"This is good cultural journalism," says journalist Imma Merino about Àngel Quintana's book Dylan and Cinema. Filming the Legend (Enderrock Llibres, 2026). "It's the fruit of a passion for Dylan, but you put that passion to work," continues Merino, who does not hide her friendship and admiration for Quintana (Torroella de Montgrí, 1960), a professor of film history and theory and one of the most relevant film critics in the country. At the presentation of this splendid book at Llibreria Ona in Barcelona, filmmaker Albert Serra is also present, who will recount an unexpected anecdote and also praises the author's work, highlighting some phrases that, he says, perfectly describe Bob Dylan, "a man who lives in the world as if he lived in a fiction": "You say that Dylan is someone who «decided to turn his existence into a kind of crossroads between old mythical fictions, the constant desire to live diverse experiences and to turn creation into an impulse that conditions everything»". By the way, both Serra and Merino agree in criticizing the book cover, which reproduces an image of Timothée Chalamet playing Dylan in the film A complete unknow (John Mangold, 2025). "What is that kid Chalamet doing here!", exclaims Merino, who, when it comes to criticizing, regrets that Quintana doesn't praise Cate Blanchett more, one of the actresses in I'm not there (2007), Todd Haynes' approach to Dylan's multiplicity. All three, by the way, admire Dylan. Merino, furthermore, values that he has Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945) as a cinematic reference. Serra considers him an "anti-academic in everything" who carries on the singer's legacy as a preacher, "like Hank Williams". "And he is a great poet and a great musician", adds Quintana, who is wearing a t-shirt with the phrase I contain multitudes which Dylan borrowed from Walt Whitman to title one of the songs on the album Rough and rowdy ways (2020).

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A group of trans women momentarily leads a protest on Barcelona's Rambla. Fists raised, shouts immortalized in the expression of their faces, and a banner with the slogan We are not afraid, we are just behind him. It is one of the images that captured the photographer Isabel Steva Hernández, known as Colita (1940-2023)"At first I wasn't aware of the danger, but I was aware that we were attracting attention," explains Sofia, who was walking in the group of "the transvestites, as we were called then," and ended up being hit, in addition to the insults and mockery of some pedestrians. The Government delegate in Madrid, Núria Marín, recalled that "the law on dangerousness and social rehabilitation" was still in force and highlighted that Colita put "her camera at the service of the cultural, social, and political transformation of our country." The exhibition's curator, Rafael Doctor, insisted that it is "100% relevant" for the exhibition to take place now, in the midst of a surge of the far-right that endangers conquered rights and "freedom with a capital F." After its run in Madrid, the exhibition will move to the old Model prison in the Catalan capital, which is precisely where some of the people who participated in the protest photographed by Colita ended up, and which is relived almost fifty years later.

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The coalition between island parties Ara Més (MÉS per Mallorca, Més per Menorca and Ara Eivissa) has managed to secure the support of a good part of the Spanish government's parliamentary partners so that they vote in favor of the airport co-management of the Balearic Islands in Congress. Representatives of the three parties presented the proposal, which was approved in the Balearic Parliament, this Wednesday in Congress.airport co-management of the Balearic Islands in Congress. Representatives of the three parties presented the proposal, which was approved in the Balearic Parliament, this Wednesday in Congress.

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The Urban Planning Department of the Palma City Council has authorized the license for the construction of 80 limited-price rental homes in the Son Ferragut neighborhood, specifically on plot number 6 of Isabel de Villena street.

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The first person to knock on Vicenç Vidal's office door at Congress was a deputy from EH Bildu, to offer him technical or legal assistance if he needed it. It was the first time in history that MÉS per Mallorca had representation in the Lower House. That summer of 2023, the deputy began to see the fruits of the efforts the party had made for years to stop being unknown in the State's sovereignist movement. Informally, the Basque left has become one of the most important supporters of the eco-sovereignists, beyond the pacts with ERC in the Balearic Islands and the strategic alliance with Sumar.

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285,000 people living in Palma – two out of three, if we take the 430,000 inhabitants of 2023 as a reference – do not have access to green areas of more than one hectare, according to the report How to guarantee the right to nature?, which compares the green areas of cities according to the population's income and which was made public this Wednesday by Friends of the Earth. Income determines food, education, housing, opportunities, and also something as seemingly simple as living near a park. The entity's analysis is based on the recommendation of the World Health Organization, the 3-30-300 rule: being able to see 3 trees from the window, 30% vegetation cover in the neighborhood, and a park of at least one hectare no more than 300 meters away.Palma has large parks, but proximity vegetation is scarce in neighborhoods with higher population density, which are also those with lower incomes. "In the lower-income neighborhoods, the area of green space per inhabitant is lower than in higher-income areas due to population density," says the report, which notes that "the situation is especially worrying mainly for vulnerable people, who are the ones with less green space and fewer options to adapt to climate change," explains the head of Participation and Projects at Amics de la Terra Mallorca, Lucía Ami. These are people who do not have their "right to nature" guaranteed.

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The Second Section of the Provincial Court of the Balearic Islands has on Wednesday sentenced a man to five years in prison for attempting to kill his partner, another man, during an assault that occurred in Manacor in September 2024.

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The migratory route between Algeria and the Spanish state has claimed the lives of 507 people between January and May 2026, many of whom are believed to have died in waters near the Balearic Islands. This is according to the latest report from the NGO Caminando Fronteras, which documents a total of 1,317 fatal victims on the different routes to the Spanish coasts during the first five months of the year.

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The closure this Monday of the central kitchen of Can Arabí, a company that manages the largest volume of school canteens in the Balearic Islands (45, many of them catering), has left about 2,000 daily menus in suspense, as ARA Balears has been able to exclusively learn from various sources. The canteens that Can Arabí serves with kitchens at the same center maintain their activity. Given this situation, and with the reasons for the closure still unknown at this time, a contingency plan will be activated this Tuesday that foresees the distribution of meals through three other supplier companies. However, the usual adaptations for students with food intolerances or allergies will not be guaranteed.

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For non-compliance in the preparation, handling, and transport of food intended for educational centers. These are the reasons why the Ministry of Health has ordered the precautionary closure of the central kitchen of the Can Arabí restaurant with only nine days left to finish the school year. The decision has forced the redistribution, from one day to the next, of nearly 2,000 school menus from 33 centers among three different companies. In total, Can Arabí manages 45 school canteens, many of them catering. The inspection was carried out this Monday and, well into the night, technicians from the Ministry of Education contacted management teams and families to inform them of the situation and activate an emergency plan to maintain the canteen service.

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The University of Mallorca (Umac), the first private university in the Balearic Islands, has appointed Dr. Pere Riutord Sbert as the institution's new rector. The center's board of trustees has entrusted the academic direction of the project to one of the most recognized names in the field of odontology in the Islands, with a long teaching, research, and university management career.

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The new Ports Law, which plans to extend the private management of some marinas and sports ports in the Balearic Islands until the age of 75, has coincided with the abrupt end of the concession of the 270 moorings at Lago Resort in Cala en Bosc, Ciutadella, the only one that had been in force for 30 years without any economic consideration from the company to the Administration.

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Red Eléctrica, a subsidiary of Redeia responsible for the transport and operation of the Spanish electricity system, is advancing in the construction of the battery system alongside the existing Sant Antoni substation (Ibiza), as the Secretary of State for Energy, Joan Groizard, and the president of Redeia, Beatriz Corredor, were able to verify today during a visit to the works.

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For years, Cuba was one of the star destinations in the Caribbean for residents of the Balearic Islands. Its beaches, colonial heritage, culture, and close ties with Mallorcan tourism companies made it a regular choice for travel agencies. Today, however, the situation is very different. Vacation bookings to the island have plummeted, and the sector openly admits it no longer recommends it with the same confidence as before.

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The recent popular singing of ‘La Balanguera’, organized by Obra Cultural Balear, was attended by Marga Prohens and other PP officials. The intention seemed to be, on the part of the organization, to hold a politically transversal symbolic event devoid of ideological connotations. It was achieved and the result was a great success in participation. 

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]]> For decades, the prestige and recognition of teachers in our society have been in steady decline. A high school teacher is no longer more than a poor wretch in the eyes of too many people, it seems, who are despised by both the intelligent students, who finally realize the farce, and the lazy or dull ones, who oppose everything that involves rolling up one's sleeves. From politics, the profession has not been provided with tools and values, with the excuse of the budget or that high schools were just transit zones between university, where the capable would finish their education, and vocational training, where the others would learn a trade to avoid starving. There have also been, certainly, accommodating spirits, who have lived up to the cliché of the lazy and evasive civil servant, who only seeks to do the minimum – distribute photocopies – and run away for the weekend. But the majority are people passionately dedicated to knowledge and the transmission of knowledge, who enjoy explaining themselves and making knowledge what it truly is: an adventure. The rest of society, however, has been left with the image of the useless and condescending professor, who has two months of vacation, double pay, and who takes sick leave when they can, doesn't explain much to the kids, and deep down wouldn't want to be there. But what has worsened the profession has not been the teachers but the students; if they came with a real desire to work, learn and improve, the teachers would be the first to be amazed; if the students had a real desire to work and study, things could become unbearable for the entire system. What has declined and made everything even more complicated has been the failure of basic home education, which sends to institutions – the law requires it – children who have no desire to do anything other than look at a screen or lie around. If young people do not believe in the future, in knowledge, in the progressive improvement of themselves and society, in the fact that by knowing things they can have a good future and a good life, any educational reform, even of the conditions of teachers, is useless. But the world they think they know speaks to them of millionaire footballers and YouTubers, of irredeemable people who get rich with nonsense and without knowing anything. They are not surrounded by a reality where knowledge seems to have any importance or prestige, and herein lies the problem. Often, the same teacher they have in front of them is nothing more than a warning, not an example: as if the best that could happen to them from getting good grades was to become a secondary school teacher, with all that it implies in terms of frustrations and more or less economic miseries (now accentuated by strikes). Society, the world, does not give them the necessary information for them to end up understanding all the options and realities that exist in a vast and complex world like the one outside the classrooms. A world that despises teachers, that laughs at them, just like the national police officer who went viral for arbitrarily beating a sixty-eight-year-old Valencian teacher.

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The Literanta bookstore has announced its definitive closure after twenty years of activity in the historic center of Palma. This was communicated this Tuesday through a social media post in which it bids farewell to its clients and friends.

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The Llull Laboratory – a space for experimentation, teaching, debate, and dissemination, inspired by Ramon Llull's ideas as a source of reflection created by the Estudi General Lul·lià – has announced, following the success of the first edition, a second call for international artistic creation grants for projects linked to the work of Ramon Llull, thus fostering the dissemination and research of Lullian thought through contemporary art.

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From a very young age, she had her ideas very clear. “When she set her mind on something, she had to have her way,” they say about her. She soon developed a special ability to achieve what she wanted: “She knew perfectly how to ask for things from each person. She did it with innocence, but she almost always succeeded. She had great intuition for reading people.” Children and stories have been two constants throughout her life. When she was a girl, she would sit the little ones down and tell them stories. Later she studied teaching and worked for a few years as a Primary school teacher before dedicating herself fully to philology. We are talking about Caterina Valriu (Inca, 1960), na Catalina Contacontes, and her older sister, Paula, who is seven years her junior, introduces us to her.

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Between 1960 and 1980, in just two decades, the population of Palma doubled. It went from 150,000 inhabitants to 300,000. The tourist boom, with its epicenter in l'Arenal, turned the Balearic capital into a kind of promised land not only for peninsulars, especially from Andalusia and Murcia, but also for families from the Part Forana, who were fleeing the harshness of the countryside. One of the suburban neighborhoods that was suddenly colonized was Son Gotleu, located in the Llevant district, between Aragó street and La Soledat. Its transformation can be traced in the exhibition Son Gotleu, beyond the headline. The origins of a welcoming neighborhood (1960-1980). Until the second week of June it will be at the neighborhood's health center and then it will move to the Mater center. It is a project by Palma XXI and Arquitectives, coordinated by the historian from Pollença Leyla Dworkin with the support of Caixa Colonya and Fundació Iniciatives del Mediterrani.

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He reached 95 years of age and was absolutely prolific. Josep Costa Ferrer, nicknamed Picarol, was an excellent draftsman and satirical cartoonist, a specialist in art and antiques, an amateur archaeologist, a gallery owner, also a pioneer of tourism and landscape defense, and even the creator of a utopian urbanization. Ibiza will remember him with an exhibition this summer, when it is 150 years since his birth, on June 7, 1876. That was the beginning of a life path that would culminate in Cala d’Or, Mallorca, after a North American adventure in Chicago.

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From his house in Bunyola, at the foot of the Serra d’Alfàbia, Miquel Canals Canyelles Moro, 93 years old, proudly displays a framed photo from his youth. It's no ordinary photo. It shows him with the trophy that in 1956, at the age of 23, accredited him as the best pine cutter in the entire State. At the end of November 2019, local researcher Biel Mateu Batle rescued his story and that of his companions from oblivion. This was during the Mountain Fair he organized in the town, which would later be called the Fira de Santa Catalina.

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The week ahead, with Jordi Garrigós

Some of the things we hope not to miss in the next seven days

I will start the grief caused by the separation of Zoo by listening to Malifeta, the project of the guitarist of the Valencians, Arnau Giménez, and Mireia Matoses (from Pupil·les). After a time publishing songs created during the pandemic, in which they both lived and composed together, their first album, Mitologia, has just been released, a compilation of songs they have been making for the last three years and which are now seeing the light of day. Ideal for missing Panxo's band and company less, because here there is also rap and love for the beats.

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Bread, a staple food for humanity, seems to have originated by chance. It is said that the first inhabitants collected wild cereals and then used the grain by crushing it between two stones to make porridge. It is believed that one day, someone forgot some of this porridge near the fire, or perhaps poured it intentionally onto a hot stone. The result was a dry, flat, and crispy paste, the first unleavened bread (without yeast) in history. Bread as we know it today, fluffy, with crumb and volume, was born in ancient Egypt. Chance again played in its favor when some forgotten shepherd captured some of the yeast fungi that live suspended in the air. That dough swelled and when they found it, they decided to bake it. The result was truly a miracle: a soft, tasty, and much easier to digest bread.

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An enormous casserole dish presided over the center. We sat around it. Someone cut bread with a small knife and ate directly from the dish with the help of a slice. The others repeated the gesture and took our share without haste. Then the old man said that when he was little, everyone would pounce like a ferret when the plate touched the table. There was hunger. He and his brothers learned to eat quickly and since then he had an instinct, a jolt that twisted his throat and stomach when lunchtime arrived. It was necessary to feed, to calm the groans that echoed in the belly. In his memory lived the smells of his mother's dishes, the taste of dishes he would never taste again and that he still felt. Cuisine made of nothing that configured a world, a handful, a pinch, a trickle.

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“It was a grey and rainy day; in the middle of a scrubland of strawberry trees and myrtles, my men had lost their way and we trod for a long time, before finding the path that leads from the Cave to Valldemossa” (What I know about Miramar, Archduke Ludwig Salvator, 1911). It was the month of September 1867 and the ‘prince, scientist and traveller’, as the scholar Helga Schwendinger defined him, had opted for the sea route to visit this town in the Tramuntana mountain range. He disembarked at the coast of Son Ferrandell, at the coastal spot known as Hort de la Cova d’en Claret. A place that the people of Valldemossa remember, above all, because three centuries earlier, on October 1, 1552, when precisely the Clarets owned what was later known as Son Ferrandell, which at that time also included Son Olesa and Vistamar, a fleet of 400 pirates disembarked there with the intention of sacking the town and capturing people to sell them as slaves or obtain a ransom.

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From his childhood are the memories of the youth years of P. Rafel Ginard i Bauçà (Sant Joan, 1899-Artà, 1976), a gem of Majorcan literature from the first half of the 20th century, first published in November 2003. Through the work, we get in touch with the daily life of Majorcan rural life in an exquisite way, with an authentic and passionate language. It is not possible to pass through the Sant Joan domains in Pla de Mallorca without evoking the spirit of a soul attached to the rocks of tradition. About 'the Sant Joan landscape', Father Ginard says, “it is the triumph of humility. It is not a showy and magnificent land, but it is fertile. Other places will be a garden, my town is a granary. Land without daring; the hills barely dare to raise their heads, afraid of breaking the rhythm, monotonous and solemn, with arrogant postures. Very smooth hills that, from below, raising your hand, you already reach the summit.”

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The hill of Banya is a spur of 598 meters in height of the Teix massif. At the Tramuntana end, we find the Rocafort rock, our objective, a natural viewpoint from which we can contemplate all the charms of the Sóller valley. At its foot, there is a small viewpoint located at one of the stops of the Sóller train, which offers good views over the Sóller valley. All in all, an intense trek through the interior slopes of the Teix massif, via the Metro path and the Pi pass, which allows us to reflect on the description transmitted to us by the Catalan journalist and writer Josep Pla nearly sixty years ago. “The Sóller valley has all the charms that can be desired in this life: tranquility, silence, a mild climate, a warm and sweet air like a feather pillow.” (Les illes. Josep Pla i Casadevall. 1970, Edicions Destino).

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Netflix will premiere on May 29 Rafa, a documentary series dedicated to the personal and sporting career of Rafel Nadal. The platform published the trailer for the production this Tuesday, a two-and-a-half-minute preview that revisits some of the most defining moments of the Manacorí's career and focuses on his ability to overcome injuries.

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Netflix will premiere on May 29th Rafa, a documentary series dedicated to the personal and sporting career of Rafael Nadal. The platform published the trailer for the production this Tuesday, a two-and-a-half-minute preview that covers some of the most defining moments of the Manacorí's career and focuses on his ability to overcome injuries.

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Mallorca will host the 1st Para-Karate Championship on June 4th, an initiative promoted by the Kifudo karate school and Aspace Mallorca that aims to be a starting point for giving more visibility to adapted sports in the Islands. The project was born after two years of joint work between sensei Ian Bauzá and Aspace users.

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Can Gabriel is a house that explains how it is made. Also how the building in the historic center of Palma where it is located is made. The radical intervention carried out by the architects of TEd’A, the team led by Jaume Mayol and Irene Pérez, is explained through an architecture that turns construction processes into part of the daily experience of living. This is a work that claims the beauty of bare materials, of joints, of seams, of textures, and of visible imperfections. And it shows that, sometimes, a good way to transform a space is to start by leaving it to the bones. This project has become one of the most celebrated works of recent Spanish architecture: awarded at the XVII Spanish Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism, distinguished with an award by La Casa de la Arquitectura, finalist of the FAD 2025 awards, and selected for the Mies van der Rohe awards.

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Quan Martin Short tenia 12 anys, el seu germà gran va morir en un accident de cotxe. Cinc anys més tard, la seva mare va morir de càncer; tres anys després, el seu pare va patir un vessament cerebral i també va morir. Això va deixar Short, als 20 anys, el menor de cinc germans, vivint tot sol a la casa familiar de Hamilton, Ontario. "Van ser vuit anys durs", diu Michael Short, germà de Martin, a Marty, life is short: el documental, el nou documental de Netflix que explica la carrera hilarant de l'estrella al món de l'espectacle i una vida personal plena d'amistats duradores però també de tragèdies insuportables. A la pel·lícula, Short respon al seu germà amb una opinió reveladora sobre aquest període de la seva vida. “Hi va haver rialles”, diu, i emfatitza la frase següent: “D'això es tracta". 

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A.J. Alfafara is 47 years old and has a life rebuilt on the ashes of a past that civil law refuses to bury. Although she hasn't heard from her husband in over a decade, the Philippine state still considers her his wife. This activist encountered the cruelty of the system when trying to buy a home: a routine procedure became a wall when the notary informed her that, without the signature of a man who had been missing for ten years, she had no legal standing to acquire her own roof over her head. Her case is not an anecdote, but a reflection of a legal structure that keeps tens of thousands of women in the Philippines – one of only two countries in the world, along with the Vatican, where divorce is illegal – trapped in marriages that now only exist on the republic's stamped paper.

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When Marilyn Monroe died on August 4, 1962, her belongings went to Lee Strasberg, who had been her teacher at the legendary Actor's Studio and had become her confidant. Among the actress's possessions were a handful of manuscripts, letters, and some of her own poems, texts that Monroe often scribbled on hotel stationery wherever she stayed. All these personal writings were first edited in 2010, under the title Fragments" (Spanish edition published by Seix Barral), and they offer a privileged glimpse into the inner world, expressed in the first person, of this actress who was born a century ago, on June 1, 1926. They also give us a lesser-known image of the star: that of the avid reader; that of the actress who feels secure in front of photographers but not when she has to speak with journalists; that of the woman who connects with the progressive political concerns of the time; that of the performer who finds in New York a territory for artistic enrichment at the antipodes of Hollywood glamour.

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When you start reading any narrative by Gustave Flaubert, it's inevitable to think of Madame Bovary. The reasons are obvious: this prodigious novel, a founder of modern literature, is the compendium of all the wisdom of the realist novel, and I assure you it is a great deal of wisdom. Implicit in it, moreover, is the entire world of cinema, which would use and abuse Flaubert's techniques: the parallel montage of the conversation between Emma and Rodolphe at the agricultural fair, the enigmatic itinerary of the fiacre through Rouen (the same Rouen as Claude Monet) with Emma and Léon inside as the mystery of seduction reopens (which reminds me, by the way, of the scene in James Cameron's Titanicwhen Jack and Rose make love for the first time in a car), or Emma's visit to the tax collector to avoid seizure, observed through the viewpoint of two neighbors.Everything in this marvelous novel, in effect, presaged cinema. But if in anything Flaubert proves himself a master, it is in the rhythm of narration, with the perfect management of summaries, ellipses, and amplifications. It's curious because, years ago, Quim Monzó introduced, as a preliminary quote for one of his story collections (Guadalajara), the following quote from Flaubert's masterpiece: "They started slowly, then they went faster" (ch. 8 of the first part). As I read in an interview, it seems Monzó wanted to mock the custom of "preliminary quotes." But the fact is that, whether he wanted to or not, he chose a sentence (from the ballroom scene at the Marquis d'Audervilliers' house) that could be understood as a summary of Flaubert's attitude towards narrating, which is nothing more than knowing when to summarize and when to make moments last. In fact, on one occasion when Emma walks with Léon, the narrator repeats the same sentence structure: "For a time she walked quickly; then she slowed her pace" (ch. 3 of the second part). Perhaps Monzó wanted to mock it, but he surely understood very well the invaluable narrative lesson it implied.With all this in tow, embarking now on the reading of Tres contes which Georgina Solà has magnificently translated for the Flâneur publishing house is to reconnect with the immortal style of the also author of L’educació sentimental. Because one should not look for plots, nor get confused with the genealogy of the characters. The authentic protagonist of everything Flaubert writes is his style.A description, for example, of Julià's wife, the hero of the second story: “She was very pale, a little proud, and intelligent. The horns of her cap brushed the lintels of the doors; the train of her wool dress dragged three steps behind her. Her house was run like the inside of a monastery; every morning she assigned the work to the maids, checked the jams and ointments, and spun or embroidered altar cloths. By dint of praying, a son came to her”.“By dint of praying, a son came to him”. Only the sagacity of a born narrator is capable of condensing irony, time, and syntax into just nine words. This is Flaubert, without a shadow of a doubt.Of the three stories in the collection, the first, A Simple Heart, is the one that most resembles the world of Madame Bovary. It is the France after the Napoleonic dream, the arrière-pays populated by petty bourgeoisie, widows, servants, and priests. In this provincial universe, the characters dream, save or squander, and strive to survive without ever cheapening their dream. Like Emma Bovary.

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On October 23, 1969, the telephone rang in the room of the Tunisian hotel where Samuel Beckett and his partner, Suzanne Déchevaux-Dumesnil, were on vacation. She answered, and a spokesperson for the Swedish Academy informed her that her husband, the author of such acclaimed plays as Waiting for Godot (1952) and Endgame (1955), had just won the Nobel Prize in Literature. "What a catastrophe!" he exclaimed. With these two words, he summarized the discomfort with which Beckett lived the award: he did not go to Stockholm to collect it, he did not keep the financial compensation, nor did he allow himself to write anything for a good while, until the world had managed to forget that his work had deserved such a prestigious distinction.

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A good relationship with your father keeps you company and drives you throughout your life; a bad relationship with your father weighs you down and deforms you throughout your life. Matthew Tree (Barcelona, 1958), the London-born writer who has lived in Catalonia for decades and has produced his literary work in both English and Catalan, always had a conflictive and hurtful relationship with his father, a tormented and problematic man who, in turn, had an alcoholic and absent father. Be that as it may, however, a father is always a father, and, even long after they are dead (Tree's father died in 1994), children remember them, keep them in mind, and often need to understand them.In Almost Everything, a book that functions as a portrait of his father, as a sketch of an autobiography, and as a transcription and interpretation of existing literary materials, Matthew Tree sets out to understand the enigma that his father has always been for him. It is an enigma full of thorns and holes, because Tree remembers and writes from the awareness of many grievances and many wounds. He explicitly states that for a long time he blamed his father for the severe chronic obsessive disorder he has suffered for a large part of his life and which has at times made him feel dramatically uncomfortable in his own skin and led him to drink too much.Tree, in any case, does not write out of vengeful resentment, but out of a desire to investigate and understand. His father was the man who humiliated him in public, who had fits of rage and from whom he, as a son, needed to escape, but he was also the man he loved and who was capable of great displays of affection. In the initial pages, Tree explains that he does not want to settle accounts with his father, and perhaps this is true, but this does not detract from the fact that the whole book – and this is one of its virtues – has a ghostly air of an unfinished conversation.Sordid, gloomy and at the same time moving

The trigger for Tree's literary maneuver, originally written in English and translated into Catalan by Jordi Dausà Mascort, is the reading of his father's youth diaries, a reading that did not occur until years after finding them – and it is evident that this impasse denotes many things, from reverential respect to fear, disinterest, and repudiation. It is one of the axes of Almost Everything: the faithful transcription, only modestly commented, of what are supposed to be some of the most interesting and significant passages of young Michael Tree's diary production.Conscientious objector during World War II and in the midst of the blitz, “pacifist, socialist and Anglican,” a fervent believer tortured by the notion of sin, a young man with hormones boiling afflicted by complicated relationships with women and sex, a depressive son of a father prematurely destroyed by alcohol, a vocational writer who published three novels that passed without glory or shame and who, after leaving literature, lived submerged in a prosperous but very frustrating life, full of enervating self-pity and rage: the reader's impression when reading these diary fragments is that Michael Tree was made of good stuff, but that the moral rigidity of the time and personal circumstances corroded him. All in all, it has that air of sordidness, a bit grim and a bit moving, of Philip Larkin's poems.Philip Larkin.More than the father's annotations, and the reconstruction of his personality by the son, the most raw and confessional passages of the book are particularly interesting, those in which the son, that is, the author, tells – without prevarication, but also without immodest exhibitionism – the biographical, psychological and literary consequences of the bad relationship with his father. Free from bitterness and resentment, grateful for all the good things life has given him (partner, children, a home in Banyoles), Matthew Tree's conclusion about his father is generous and at the same time terribly stark: he was not a bad person, he was just a very unhappy man. Almost everything proves that painful and sad reproaches can also be a tribute.

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The hosts that symbolize the body of Christ are made of wheat flour and water. And wheat has gluten. This means that a part of the population, coeliacs and those sensitive to gluten, cannot consume them. How do these people manage if they are devout? Well, the Church has not always made it easy for them.

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Extra virgin olive oil is the liquid gold of our kitchen. We revere it, respect it, and know that it is one of the healthiest fats, and probably the most studied. When From 180 degrees, extra virgin olive oil begins to oxidize, but it is also true that it will do so more or less depending on the amount of time it is kept at this temperature, and "it will also depend on what we cook in it," states dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols, who adds that despite this, "extra virgin olive oil is much more stable than is often believed thanks to its high content of two components: oleic acid and natural antioxidant compounds such as polyphenols and vitamin E". A maximum of two times

To the point: we can reuse extra virgin olive oil between one and two times, "as long as we have never taken it to high temperatures, as long as it has not reached the smoke point, if it does not contain burnt residues, if it has been filtered and if it has been stored correctly after use". On the other hand, "when extra virgin olive oil darkens, when it smells rancid, when it produces a lot of smoke or when its texture changes, it is a clear sign that the quality has been lost", says Grífols, who assures that this advice is general, the one that people can follow at home. "We could reuse it ten times if we did not heat the oil beyond 180°, if we fried vegetables in it, if we completely covered the food, if we filtered it after use and if we then stored it in a suitable place". Since meeting all these requirements is difficult, the recommendation is to reuse extra virgin olive oil a maximum of two times. A note on the idea that frying vegetables in it makes it more profitable: "It is not the same to fry vegetables in extra virgin olive oil as battered or protein-rich foods, because the organic and protein residues they leave behind accelerate the degradation of the oil and, moreover, increase the production of potentially toxic compounds", states Grífols, who underlines the idea that extra virgin olive oil should not smoke: "When it burns or is used too many times, it stops being a protective food and becomes a source of oxidized compounds that do not help our health".Finally, extra virgin olive oil can be solidified (not frozen) if you need to keep it for months with the same properties as when you bought it. "Below zero degrees, we manage to solidify the saturated fats in the oil, which are 15%," says dietitian-nutritionist Anna Costa, who suggests the idea of taking an ice cube tray and adding sauces that contain extra virgin olive oil (like a pesto sauce) and then using them according to the use we want to give to our dishes. The extra virgin olive oil will have been preserved intact with all its benefits, for health and for cooking.

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The chef Rafa Zafra, from Seville and an adopted Barcelonian, has a pile of successful restaurants. But a few weeks ago he had to close the restaurant with his most popular cuisine located on Via Augusta in Barcelona. "Per Feina has been the most exciting project of my life. My mother used to punish me by sending me with my father on the truck. I didn't know that deep down I loved it. The truck bounced and then we stopped to eat a menu of three starters and three mains. And I was the happiest child. As an adult, I wanted to do the same, but updated," explains the chef on the day he presents another popular project: the Masia Tibidabo restaurant, at the top of the amusement park.The establishment was first located in Poblenou, on Ciutat de Granada street, but at the end of August last year it decided to move it to the upper part because it had many difficulties in making the nights profitable. In the new location, the restaurant gained a surname: "Per Feina / Per Plaer" (For Work / For Pleasure). In this case, in addition to an economical menu, a more substantial meal could also be had. Even so, it has not been enough to keep the business afloat. "I wanted to keep the prices, cheap, and the restaurant was working. We had two hundred people every day, but we invoiced 4,000 euros. And that's a table at Estimar. Or at Jondal [the restaurant Rafa Zafra has in Ibiza], I don't even need to say. We had a whole team working and running for that," explains the chef.

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