Anniversaries are always a cause for anticipation and happiness. If, moreover, it's four decades of continued success and future projects, the celebration becomes even happier. This Sunday, Hipercentro celebrated the 40th anniversary of the opening of its first supermarket, in Manacor on June 7, 1986, when three partners: Pere Gonçal Aguiló, Bernat Font, and Pere Nicolau, mortgaged what they had to compete at a distance with the large retail spaces that were opening in Palma. Today, they already have between 1,000 and 1,200 employees (depending on the season) and keep about thirty of their own establishments open in the Balearic Islands, with a forthcoming opening in Sóller.

The Vice President of the Government, Antònia Maria Estarellas, referred this Monday to the 0.9% increase in tourist arrivals in the Balearic Islands until April and recalled that the Executive "does not speak of a decrease, but of containment" and that its model "is not in the figures", but in how they want there to be an increase in tourism. "The Government's model is not in the figures, it is in how we want this increase in tourism to come, in extending the months and in deconcentrating the massive influx in very specific months," she commented.

The Government's Marine Conservation Plan, which was intended to position the Balearic Islands as an "international benchmark in marine environmental protection", as stated by the Executive, was nothing more than "a declaration of intent", according to the Director General of Fisheries, Antoni M. Grau. The plan was conceived without any budget allocation and has not been made public, despite requests from parties such as the PSIB, which has repeatedly called for it without the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Natural Environment, headed by Joan Simonet, facilitating access to the document. The Government, conservation organisations, and representatives of the fishing sector signed the plan on February 16, and little has been heard of it since President Marga Prohens presented it.

The population of ferreret, Alytes muletensis, an endemic frog of Europe and restricted to the Serra de Tramuntana, is growing slowly although it continues to be listed as an endangered species in the first Spanish Red List of Endangered Species, which the International Union for Conservation of Nature presented this Friday within the framework of World Biodiversity Day. According to the list, consulted by Europa Press, the population is approximately 500 to 1,500 adult pairs, although it is growing slowly thanks to coordinated recovery efforts after a long period of decline and near extinction. The current increase, which probably began around the time the first reintroductions were made in 1989, has been maintained even during years of drought, notably in 1999-2000.

Doctors and medical professionals are called this Monday to a new week of strike, from May 18 to 22, the fourth since the beginning of the year, to reject the framework statute proposed by the Ministry of Health and demand their own text.

Among the thousands of new releases that will arrive in bookstores in the coming months – more than 85,000 books are published each year in Spain, the vast majority in print, according to data from the Federation of Publishers' Guilds – there are numerous by Balearic authors. And a very important part of those that will be published before the end of the year will be found in the non-fiction section. This is the case of the new book by writer Lucia Pietrelli, with the provisional title Vestiges. Labyrinth with a father with flames. It will be after the summer that Adia Edicions will publish this literary essay where, from the personal experience of her father's death, Pietrelli explores, investigates, and fabricates on the theme of death through mythology.

The Parliament has called on the Government to prepare and publish the Report on the State of the Environment of the Balearic Islands before the end of 2026, thanks to the approval of a Non-Law Proposal (PNL) by the PSIB in the Commission for Territorial Planning, Housing, Mobility, the Sea, and the Water Cycle. Although Vox was the only party to vote against it, the PP has maneuvered to avoid carrying out the study, which is mandatory by law, during this legislature. The Popular Party has presented an amendment to remove the deadline for submission that was included in the first point and, as the PSIB rejected it, they abstained (the Popular Party did vote in favor of the other points of the initiative).

A phone call announced on January 7, 2001, to Marta Balcells that her father had died. She was not told the cause. He was 55 years old and had heart problems. She inferred that he had suffered a sudden heart attack. She flew from Palma to Barcelona. Upon arriving at the family home, she noticed a very strange atmosphere. “People looked at me in a strange way. I thought it might be due to the shock of the death, but it didn't add up,” she recalls. A cousin pulled her aside and told her that her father had committed suicide. “I remember those days as something brutal, very shocking. The situation was chaotic because we couldn't see the body or organize the funeral, as we depended on forensic investigations. It was very painful to think about what he had done, but you also need to understand it.”

A call announced on January 7, 2001, to Marta Balcells that her father had died. They did not tell her the cause. He was 55 years old and had heart problems. She inferred that he had suffered a sudden heart attack. She flew from Palma to Barcelona. Upon arriving at the family home, she noticed a very strange atmosphere. “People looked at me in a strange way. I thought it might be due to the impact of the death, but it didn't add up,” she recalls. A cousin pulled her aside and told her that her father had committed suicide. “I remember those days as something brutal, very shocking. The situation was chaotic because we couldn't see the body or organize the funeral, as we depended on the forensic investigations. It was very painful to think about what he had done, but you also need to understand it.”

The water reserves of the Balearic Islands have stood at 50% during the month of April, which represents a decrease of four points compared to March, when they were at 54%. Despite this drop, the general situation of the Hydrographic Demarcation (0.514) remains at values higher than those recorded a year ago (0.475) and two years ago (0.455).

The main employers' associations in the Balearic Islands (CAEB and Pimem) have applauded the reduction in unemployment during the month of May in the Balearic Islands, despite having warned of a shortage of workers. The president of CAEB, Carmen Planas, has applauded that the labor market has maintained its strength despite the usual cooling after Easter and has pointed to the confidence of the business fabric that international uncertainty and the end of some public aid will not affect consumption or the economic evolution of the season.

Housing sales fell 18.6% in the Balearic Islands in February, despite a 1.4% drop in prices, according to data from the General Council of Notaries. Specifically, housing sales fell in a total of 14 autonomous communities, where the Islands rank third, only behind the Canary Islands (-21%) and Navarre (19.2%), while also being ahead of Asturias (-17.6%).

Unemployment fell by 4.5% in the first quarter of the year in the Balearic Islands, with a total of 91,800 unemployed people, which is 4,400 less than in the same period of 2025, and 76.5% more than the previous quarter, with 39,800 more unemployed people in the islands.

The third week of medical strike since the beginning of the year to oppose the Framework Statute proposed by the Ministry of Health, whose negotiations have not yet been unblocked, has started "with force".

The rise of the far right is a transversal phenomenon that affects groups from different spheres of societies. The transfeminist movement is one of them, and Argentine activists Ornella Infante (former director of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism of Argentina) and Belén Correa (researcher at the Archive of Trans Memory of Argentina) know this well. Both warn that the rights gained in recent decades are in danger and insist that no social conquest has been made without a struggle nor is maintained without defending it. Infante and Correa participated last Friday in Palma in a meeting on memory and rights.

The artistic legacy of the former Sa Nostra Social and Cultural Work is now in more hands than ever. Many of the creations made by artists from the Balearic Islands between the late 20th and early 21st centuries were stored after the Balearic savings bank ended its 130-year history. And now, 14 years after the closure of Sa Nostra's offices, some of the funds, transferred with the subsequent merger between CaixaBank and Bankia, are being raffled off in charity auctions.

The EAPN Balearic Islands Network for Inclusion has detected political guidelines in island town halls to curb the reinforcement of personnel in social services that are attending to migrants in the processing of vulnerability certificates within the framework of the extraordinary regularization process.

Thirteen months remain until the regional elections and all Balearic parties are already in full electoral campaign mode or, failing that, will be very soon.

The alleged terrorist arrested in Palma on March 25, leader of a cell with two more members arrested in Tangier, was involved in the financing and logistical support of Islamic State (IS) fighters in Somalia and was preparing an attack on Spanish territory.

The Telephone of Hope has warned of the significant increase in emotional distress, especially after the covid-19 pandemic, as well as the psychological impact of prolonged care, a reality that is "invisible" and mainly affects women. According to data presented this Tuesday by the entity, on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, the Telephone of Hope in the Balearic Islands has attended since 1986 a total of 98,540 requests for help and nearly 25% –24,735– of the demands have been concentrated in the last six years, as pointed out by the spokesperson, Lino Salas.