Despite the geopolitical environment, CaixaBank managed to increase its profits by 7% in the first quarter to 1,572 million euros. The bank also maintained an upward trend in the net interest margin in the first quarter, something it also achieved in the second half of the year.
According to most indicators, China’s manufacturing sector is the largest in the world and has grown faster than that of any other major economy in the past 25 years. The manufacturing sector has generated a total of about 5 trillion dollars in value added; and in 2024 it employed about 70 million workers in manufacturing enterprises above a certain size. China’s share in the global manufacturing industry has experienced strong increases: it went from 6% in 2000 to 26% in 2015; and, despite the ups and downs of some years, it approached 30% in 2024.
One year after the blackout in Spain, which led us to an unusual situation, any major service outage begins to seem possible. We now live in a kind of technological variant of the Overton window concept, a theoretical model in political science by which an unthinkable discourse or situation ends up being accepted in the long run as normal due to its constant presence in the public space.
Firm, right! Right, right! March, right! One would think that the initiative of the Generalitat Government to strengthen the presence of the Mossos d’Esquadra in educational centers was equivalent to the promulgation of martial law. The so-called educational community, the part
The price of Brent crude oil has exceeded $125 early this Thursday after negotiations between the United States and Iran stalled, increasing uncertainty about the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and pushing away the possible definitive end of the war.
Household consumption has driven the economy in the first quarter of the year, allowing GDP growth of 0.6%, which represents a moderation compared to the pace at which activity closed in 2025, although more limited than expected. Where analysts pointed to a GDP increase of four or five tenths, it has finally been six, according to data published this morning by the INE. Therefore, it remains below the 0.8% growth of the last quarter of last year.
For almost 40 years Andalusia was considered a socialist stronghold. It seemed like an enormous impregnable fortress. The socialists managed to blend in with the landscape in a remarkable way by identifying their brand with the construction of autonomy and the strengthening of an Andalusian identity in the early 80s. The so-called “captive vote” did the rest: for a long time the PSOE was skillful in attributing to itself the granting of agricultural aid and the implementation of public services. All this gave it an undeniable political stability. Now it is one of the few autonomous communities where the PP governs with an absolute majority, at a time when that achievement is a rarity. Has Andalusia turned to the right?
It was many hours of testimony, seven and a half. The commissioner Víctor de Aldama was interrogated before the Supreme Court throughout the entire day yesterday. He admitted some of his illicit businesses. He claimed to have paid commissions and gifts to the former minister José Luis Ábalos and his advisor Koldo García. And he also tried to implicate the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, with the shady dealings of the network.
Víctor de Aldama had to prove before the Supreme Court that he is telling the truth; it is his lifeline to have his collaboration with justice and repentance recognized and to achieve a considerable reduction of the sentence. To do this, he had to betray former minister José Luis Ábalos and his loyal squire Koldo García. And he did. Eight hours of testimony in which he recounted how he was paying them a kind of salary of 10,000 euros per month, in addition to other gifts including rents, vacations, apartments, motorcycles, cars, and even medical treatments, totaling between three and a half and four million. These amounts were qualified, but the estimate of what the former minister and his advisor received would be that, according to the commission agent’s version. The money did not all come out of his pocket. Aldama put in part, and other companies seeking contracts – with which he acted as a link – paid the rest. Part went to the minister and the advisor and another part to the PSOE, always according to his version.
The rental housing market in Spain is experiencing an unprecedented situation of legal uncertainty after the Congress of Deputies repealed the Government’s royal decree-law that allowed an extraordinary and mandatory extension of up to two years in lease contracts.