The Balearic Islands coastal cleaning service removed more than 5.3 tons of waste from the waters and coasts of the Archipelago during the month of September. The daily average collection was 178 kilos, according to data from the Ministry of the Sea and the Water Cycle.

A magnitude 3.1 earthquake was recorded this Saturday afternoon in the sea between Catalonia and the Balearic Islands, as reported by the Cartographic and Geological Institute of Catalonia (ICGC).

I liked passing by the dovecote when I went to his house. It looked like a large cupboard with wire mesh doors. Instead of dishes or books, the pigeons rested there, watching me restlessly. Those wide-open eyes clamored to get out, and I enjoyed opening the cage for them because I knew they would return soon. I found it curious that they preferred the comfort of a roof over the freedom of flight. A complicated choice. In some compartments there were nests with tiny eggs; in others, the absorbed squabs, always waiting.

An operation by the National Police and the Civil Guard under the coordination of Europol has made it possible to dismantle a criminal organization that was introducing cocaine into Europe using luxury real estate agencies to launder illicit money in luxury homes in Ibiza, Marbella, and Madrid.

The State Public Employment Service (SEPE) has recorded 26,547 unemployed in September in the Balearic Islands, 493 more than the same month of the previous year, which represents a rise of 1.9%, while affiliation to Social Security has increased by 4.5% year-on-year, with 29,079 more, reaching 684,079.

The Calar Alto Astronomical Observatory, located in Almeria, has recorded a super fireball originated from a rock detached from a comet that entered the Earth's atmosphere at an estimated speed of 238,000 kilometers per hour, at a point located northeast of the Balearic Islands. The episode took place between September 10 and 11 and is part of the high-luminosity phenomena detected in recent days by the Calar Alto observation systems.

The census of absent resident voters (CERA) has grown considerably since October 2022, when the instruction regulating naturalizations through the Democratic Memory Law came into effect. Specifically, in the Balearic Islands, the increase has been 27%. Given this, the Supreme Court has acceded to the claims of Vox and Iustitia Europa and has temporarily blocked the right to vote for a portion of the people who have obtained nationality through this route. But the truth is that the votes of those registered in the CERA are a small percentage of the total. In the last general elections of 2023, they represented 0.84% of the country as a whole, and 0.46% of the Islands. How do these changes to the census affect things in practice?

Aemet has raised the warning level for this Thursday and forecasts a day with greater intensity of rainfall, especially in Ibiza and Formentera, which will be under an orange warning for rain and storms throughout the day, with accumulations that could reach 50 liters per square meter in one hour. These precipitations could be accompanied by wind gusts of up to 50 kilometers per hour.

The Balearic Islands reached a maximum temperature of 40.1 degrees in Llucmajor this Monday, an unprecedented figure that marks a new record for the month of September and, above all, a record never before reached outside of the summer quarter – June, July, and August – since meteorological records have been kept in the Islands.

The team from the Archaeological Museum of Ibiza and Formentera (MAEF) has carried out the reception and transfer to its archaeological warehouse of a set of approximately 26 Roman amphorae and 17 boxes of fragmented ceramic material. It is a fairly homogeneous set from a typological point of view, Dressel 20 type Roman amphorae for the transport of oil, but, in this case, with a multitude of stamps and marks that will provide a lot of information in their study.

The Balearic water reserves have dropped to 38% during the month of August, one point less than in July and two points below the level recorded a year ago. The situation has worsened in all the Islands: Mallorca goes from 39% to 38%; Menorca, from 34% to 33%, and Ibiza, from 42% to 37%.

The Government announced this Tuesday that it wants to install walls of dignity in the municipalities of the Archipelago where there were victims of bombings during the Civil War. Within this framework, it has sent official notices to the town councils of Artà, Inca, Santa Maria del Camí, ses Salines, Sóller, Maó, and Eivissa with the necessary information to begin working together on the installation of this commemorative element.

A worker was injured this Saturday morning after being run over by a truck that was reversing in the parking lot of a shopping center in Palma.

In the last article in ARA I focused on the sociological aspects of tourism. In this second one, I would like to analyze some elements that surround the sector and that mark its evolution in the Islands. With the irruption of tourism, in its initial moments (subdivisions, constructions, sale of places to tour operators), the traditional activities of the Balearic Islands lost strength. We do not know what would have happened without tourism, but we do know that, from an entrepreneurial point of view, this new activity ended up swallowing the others, being as it was much simpler than the traditional industrial one. Without a doubt, for those who had surpluses to spend, the business alternative in favor of tourist promotions and associated activities was very tempting.From here we have entrepreneurs enriched in real estate transactions (buying to resell) and others who have made an industry out of the tourism offer (production cycle, with infrastructure and job creation). Without regulation, they all want, even today, more: more developable land, more hotel rooms, more licenses for bars and restaurants. Some think that the existence of more visitors gives more possibilities for new places or restaurant terraces to be filled. But it is a reality that increasingly more visitors are needed to achieve business, as a growing part escapes this legal offer and planned consumption (where they sleep, where they eat, where they spend). And, of course, when we turn on the tap we cannot later separate it by types of water. Thinking that our boots are fuller by putting water in them not only serves to deceive ourselves, but also ends up spoiling the good initial wine.The industrial hotel entrepreneur, neat with his offer and respectful of his surroundings, will take care of integrating consumption and preserving the brand. All we have to ask him is that he does not expect the business to work on the basis of volume, subsidized by the State and with broad discretion from the administrations. As I have commented in other articles, the sector receives multiple and diverse aid (low taxation, incomplete costs, water prices, quite lax labor regulation) because it suits the State to increase stays (we mean foreign currency) at any price, if necessary subsidizing costs to maintain demand at low prices. The good entrepreneur knows, however, that all this cannot have a future.Every islander comes to think that in one way or another they live thanks to tourism. In some cases directly because of the job they have, and in others because of the auxiliary services that external demand inflates for a few months. Undoing this web is very difficult today. That is why it is always advisable to emphasize that the feasible alternative is not to do more of the same, but to improve the tourism we already have; not to make the web more extensive, thinner, and with more risk of a gust of wind carrying it all away. But the workers in the sector themselves must be clear that, to secure their jobs, the solution is not to grow more with employment that we do not have and that we must seek elsewhere. Employers have been complaining for years that they lack workers: carpenters, mechanics, plumbers, technical engineers, minimally trained labor. But by now it should be evident to everyone that, in the past, all the increase in the new population has been absorbed by the hospitality industry, which requires less training, with tasks for "seasonal discontinuous" workers that do not allow for the desirable stabilization and professional integration. And every year we continue the same. This is not a question of immigrants yes or no, but of straightening out our own vocational training once and for all!Opting for more people to come is as easy as it is wrong, and then socially complex to manage. For example, regarding Menorca, since we are not a "province", the INE does not say how many residents of the island were born on the island, but in certain population segments we may no longer reach half. It is not at all clear how we will maintain the country's language and culture, social cohesion, and commitment to the inherited heritage.Warning, ultimately, when ecosystem solutions are proposed: since everything ends up depending on everything else, it is usually a great excuse to do nothing (perhaps one doesn't know where to start?). Be attentive when the recipe is the need for a "cultural change", an "institutional" reform, the wait for "political consensus", the modification of "capitalism's structures", or the extension and achievement of more "social awareness"... While all are correct factors, thinking this way doesn't solve what we do in the meantime. It's tiring that some want to pull our leg with new studies, future initiatives, and various occurrences. Meanwhile, the Balearic Islands are the place with the most housing access problems, with the highest cost of living, with clear symptoms of depleting resources... And as of June 30th, it was the autonomous community that had increased visitors the most and created the most employment. But with what is happening, regarding gross disposable family income, in real terms of purchasing power, they don't say a peep!

“Speak to me, O Muse, of the man of many turns, who wandered far...”. No one would ever have thought that the Odyssey, a 2,700-year-old classic, would unleash heated controversies on social media, as it is doing, thanks to Christopher Nolan's recent film adaptation. For the islanders, there is still another point of interest in Homer's story: whether its hero, Odysseus – or Ulysses – passed through any of the Balearic Islands, during his decade of journeys across the Mediterranean, after the Trojan War – ten more years – to return to his home island, Ithaca. Perhaps he did?

The Balearic Islands experienced a total solar eclipse this Wednesday, August 12, 2026, the first visible in the Islands since 1905. It darkened the sky for just over a minute. On this same day, moreover, three more astronomical phenomena occurred (the Perseid meteor shower, the green flash, and the alignment of six planets).

IB3 and IB-Red have launched an initiative that combines technology, communication, and dissemination of the natural heritage of the Balearic Islands, for the live broadcast of the seabed of the marine reserve of Ponent de Mallorca, around the islet of Toro, in Calvià. As IB3 explained this Tuesday, the project makes an audiovisual window to the seabed available to citizens, accessible from any device – mobile, tablet, or computer – which allows real-time observation of the biodiversity of a protected natural space.

"Whoever goes to the beach in Formentera and wants to rent a sun lounger, doesn't have one." This is how the Vice President and Government Spokesperson, Antoni Costa, spoke about the situation on the island regarding the concession of sun loungers and umbrellas, which has led to the dismissal of the already former Director General of Coasts, Maria Joaquina Ferrer, this Friday after the Government Council meeting. The origin of this conflict dates back to May, when a resolution from the Directorate General of Coasts for temporary facilities for 2026-2029 denied authorization for 681 sun loungers and 339 umbrellas, provoking criticism from the Formentera Council towards the Government (Coasts did authorize 1,169 sun loungers and 589 umbrellas). The Vice President commented that this situation "had not occurred in Formentera in previous years" and stressed that "it has a very significant impact on public interest." "Whoever goes to the beach in Formentera and wants to rent a sun lounger, doesn't have one," he lamented.

On August 12, 2026, the Balearic Islands will be one of the few places from which to contemplate a total solar eclipse. But it won't be enough to find yourself on the right island: the phenomenon will practically coincide with sunset and any building, tree or mountain that blocks the western horizon may prevent you from seeing its most spectacular moment.