Local

Neighbors of a building on Muntaner Street at the height of Mallorca Street report that the coming and going of drugged people through their staircase is ruining their lives. Some are already planning to move, others don’t even want to go on vacation. This community has already installed cameras in some common areas, hired a security guard who patrols the landings at dawn, filed a bunch of complaints and reports with the Mossos d’Esquadra and the Barcelona City Council… The RAC1 radio station echoed the laments of these neighbors yesterday.

112 received this first semester of the year in the city of Barcelona, 3,500 calls alerting about incidents related to drugs. A thousand more than the first six months of last year. Those complaints from citizens are just the tip of the iceberg of a problem that the Catalan capital suffers: drugs. Barcelona is a setting where drugs are cultivated, manufactured in laboratories, are within anyone’s reach, and their consumption is protected in cannabis clubs. A vicious circle that generates coexistence, social, security, and public health problems, hence the response cannot be only police-based, it must be transversal. Intensifying the pursuit of dealing and consumption in public spaces will become a priority for the Urban Guard. Yesterday, its leaders presented a new and ambitious anti-drug strategy: plan Druida.

A young man died early this Tuesday very close to Menorca airport after being hit by a taxi. The accident occurred around five in the morning and just a few meters from the terminal, on a curve located next to the bus parking lot, where the victim was lying on the road.

A total of 17 migrants have died trying to reach the coasts of the Balearic Islands by boat after drifting for 15 days, according to the testimony of two occupants of Maghreb origin who were rescued southwest of Mallorca. The migrants were trying to reach the coasts of the archipelago from Algeria on a new migration route that connects this country with the Balearic archipelago.

Now 20 years ago, during a heatwave, dry vegetation due to lack of rain, and a tramontana wind that lasted for two weeks, nearly 2,000 hectares burned in the Empordà in a series of nine fires between August 3 and 7. Most were caused by human activity, as are 90% of the fires recorded in Catalonia. The largest of that 2006 episode, the one that started in Ventalló and burned about a thousand hectares across several municipalities between Alt and Baix Empordà, according to data from the Agents Rurals, was intentional. There were no personal injuries, but there was material damage, and it sparked a debate about improving forest management, restoring the mosaic landscape, and protecting residential areas. These proposals are repeated every time there is a major fire, like the one in early July that burned about 2,200 hectares in the Gavarres massif and has so far become the most significant this summer in Catalonia.

The Generalitat was forced to dismantle the Directorate General for Child and Adolescent Care (DGAIA) a year ago following yet another scandal in the guardianship of minors and due to million-euro irregularities in management. The case of a 12-year-old girl under guardianship by the…

Los Mossos d’Esquadra have found anti-aircraft projectiles in an apartment in the Eixample, in Barcelona, after receiving a prior warning. Following this discovery, the security force activated the Tedax, who collected the projectiles and took care of destroying them.

A 74-year-old woman has drowned this Sunday while bathing in the Maset cove, near the Sant Pol beach of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, in Girona.

About 400 people demonstrated this Sunday in Serra de Daró (Baix Empordà) to demand more safety on the roads of Baix Ter. They did so in a slow march on foot, by bicycle, or with tractors to Mas Bahí, heading towards Gualta, to denounce the lack of investments in the road network.

Alberto González Amador, partner of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has put up for sale the apartment where he lives with the president of the Community of Madrid, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, in the Vallehermoso neighborhood for almost 1.8 million euros. The listing was published online on July 16, three months after the regional government bought, without making it public, a penthouse of almost 485 square meters in Chamberí.