Pope Leo XIV delivered a historic speech on Monday inside Spanish parliament in a joint session of both houses, where he stressed that the moral value of political decisions must prevail “over mutable social consensus” and lamented “the permanent denigration of the adversary.”
If Polymarket had opened betting on its platform being blocked in Spain, surely a high percentage of users would have put money on it happening sooner or later. The trickle of countries that have imposed restrictions on the popular application, which makes it possible to win money by guessing the winner of the World Cup — not to mention the declaration of war or the start of a pandemic — continues to grow. Argentina suspended its use in March, while Brazil did so in April, India last week, and Indonesia on Monday. These are but a few examples. Other bans, like those of France and Switzerland, have been around longer, with prohibition in effect since 2024.
© Olga Fedorova (AP)
U.S. Senator Rubén Gallego, an emerging figure in the Democratic Party, says it is highly likely the Donald Trump administration will opt for a new military intervention to force a regime change in Cuba. “Cubans in Florida have a lot of power and the State Secretary, Marco Rubio, is obsessed with the island,” he told reporters on Friday at the Real Instituto Elcano think tank headquarters in Madrid. “But I don’t believe Cuba is a threat to the U.S.; it’s a very poor country of nine million inhabitants,” he added.
© ZIPI (EFE)
At the rate at which Spain’s population has grown in recent years, a country of 50 million inhabitants could soon become a reality. The National Institute of Statistics (INE) is expected to reveal this month, in its 2026-2076 population projections, when it believes this milestone will be reached. According to the 2025 census, Spain surpassed 49.1 million inhabitants last year, but data from the Continuous Population Statistics—which combines census data with quarterly estimates—indicate that Spain already had 49,687,120 inhabitants in April.
© Samuel Sánchez
A century has passed since the day that forever changed the life of Salvador Dalí: his second dismissal, this one permanent, from the Special School of Drawing, Sculpture and Printmaking at Madrid’s prestigious San Fernando Fine Art Royal Academy. In such a rigid, rule‑bound environment, Dalí felt out of place — and perhaps for that reason, this academic period has been overshadowed in scholarly writing. What dominates the narrative of those years in Madrid — which he described as the happiest of his life— are his escapades and artistic exchanges with Federico García Lorca, Maruja Mallo, and Luis Buñuel, his companions at the Residencia de Estudiantes, a pioneering cultural and academic residence, and a circle of mutual inspiration.
Ruth Benito
Fernando Anido
Inés Arcones
Brenda Valverde Rubio
Salvador Dalí and his classmates at the Special School of Painting, Sculpture, and Engraving (Academy of San Fernando). 1922–1923. GALA-SALVADOR DALÍ FOUNDATION
© Museo Nacional del Prado
© Archivo Residencia de Estudiantes
© ARCHIVIO GBB / Alamy Stock Photo (Alamy Stock Photo)
© FUNDACIÓN GALA - SALVADOR DALÍ
© Juan Vicens (Archivo Residencia de Estudiantes)
Diego Luna was seven years old in 1985. A devastating magnitude 8.1 earthquake struck Mexico City just nine months before the start of the FIFA World Cup. He recalls that the overall feeling among residents of the capital was “really intense,” “very sad,” and that there was a “sense of helplessness” because of the state’s absence. Amid that, as in other tragedies that have hit the country, the actor says there was also a “very beautiful” feeling of solidarity and community response — but “it seemed like the destruction made it impossible to imagine a World Cup.” What lay behind Mexico becoming the first nation to host the tournament twice is a mix of true events, anecdotes, acts of corruption, and a few urban legends. Or at least that is how Netflix movie México 86 frames it: a satirical account of how those who run soccer off the field focused national efforts to turn the event into a symbol of unity and recovery after mourning, but which also helped trigger the Mexican national team’s ban from the 1990 World Cup in Italy.
© Netflix
In September 2017, just as Abner Román and Karla Ly Quiñones were about to open the doors of Café Comunión in the Santurce neighborhood of San Juan, Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria devastated the island.
© Harold Camilo
Caetano Veloso, in a video call from Lisbon, Portugal, speaks slowly with that blend of intellectual clarity and Bahian melancholy that for six decades has turned each of his interviews into something more like a philosophical conversation than a mere promotion of new albums or concerts. At age 83, the celebrated musician from Brazil is embarking on a tour titled Caetano nos festivais, which will stop in Madrid on June 4 and which he himself describes, without drama but with honesty, as perhaps his last visit to Spain. That is despite the close relationship he has always maintained with Spanish culture. There is no monumental nostalgia in his words; rather a physical weariness, a wise resignation, political concern and a bitter — though not yet defeated — view of the present. He speaks, without losing passion, about the military dictatorship his country suffered, about Silicon Valley, The Beatles, contemporary confusion and a Brazil that, in spite of everything, he still believes can “say something to the world.”
© Jota Erre (AGIF via AFP / Europa Press)
Employees in Spain worked an average of 36.3 hours a week in 2025, according to the latest figures released by Eurostat. That figure keeps Spain above the European average of 35.9 hours and far from the countries where the average working week is shortest. The latter include some of the continent’s most economically advanced states, the opposite of those with the longest hours and with less-developed productive sectors.
Bad Bunny performs today, June 1, at Metropolitano Stadium. He played on May 30 and 31, and will return on June 2, 3, and so on, for a total of 10 shows. In the entertainment industry, this is known as a musical residency — a series of concerts an artist stages in the same venue over a short period of time. There’s no exact number that defines one, but one of the core ideas behind the concept is impact: the more shows, the better.
MADRID, June 6 — Pope Leo on Saturday urged global leaders to avoid dividing their electorates with “sterile simplifications” to gain popularity and called on them to listen to the world’s cries for peace, in a forceful speech opening a week-long tour of Spain.
Leo, who has angered US President Donald Trump by criticising his anti-immigration policies and the Iran war, will meet homeless people in Madrid and migrants in the Canary Islands during a visit he has said he hopes will set an example to the world about respecting “every human being.”
“Today, the temptation to gain popularity by fanning the flames of polarization seems to have grown rather than diminished, and human dignity continues to be violated,” Leo said in a speech before King Felipe VI at the Royal Palace in Madrid.
“I invite everyone to set aside the divisive and polarising narratives of your societal reality and history, so as to overcome sterile simplifications through the fruitful appreciation of complexity,” he added.
Technology was partly to blame for creating an environment which magnifies prejudices and weakens critical thinking, Leo said. The world was crying “from its depths for peace”, he said.
He drew on Spain’s history as an example of peaceful co-habitation between religions and cultures, making reference to how Christians, Muslims and Jews cooperated during medieval times to enhance human knowledge by translating Arabic texts into Latin, Spanish and Hebrew at the School of Translators in Toledo.
“Your own history suggests that a culture of encounter, not confrontation, is what fosters stability and prosperity. In reality, the message of peace, which at present unfortunately strikes some as naïve and others as confrontational, is welcomed by those who do not shut themselves off in preconceived ideologies, but are rather open to the truth,” he said.
Huge crowds expected for Pope
Crowds of people, some waving Vatican and Spanish flags, lined the street as Leo was driven to the Royal Palace. Huge gatherings are expected in the coming days for the first visit to Spain by a pope since 2011.
Leo, who has adopted a more assertive tone against the direction of global leadership in recent months, is scheduled to give more than 20 speeches during his first trip to a European Union country outside Italy, and will be the first pope to address the Spanish parliament.
Leo spent decades as a missionary and bishop in Peru before becoming pope last May, and will speak Spanish throughout most of the trip.
But when he meets migrants in Tenerife, part of the Spanish Canary Islands archipelago off the west coast of Africa, he expects to speak French, as many have come from Francophone Africa.
In sharp contrast to many leading Western powers, not least Trump’s United States, Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s government has opened a mass amnesty programme, allowing an estimated 500,000 immigrants to apply for legal status.
More than 3,000 people died in 2025 trying to reach the Canary Islands, often in makeshift dinghies, according to the NGO Caminando Fronteras.
Sanchez has been lauded abroad by some for criticising Trump, but at home is under heavy pressure from a string of corruption allegations against his party.
Meeting with victims of sexual abuse
During his June 6-12 trip, the first US head of the Catholic Church will also inaugurate a new tower in Barcelona’s famed Sagrada Familia basilica and will meet survivors of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, the Vatican said, adding that further details will be provided after the meeting.
A 2023 report by Spain’s human rights ombudsman estimated hundreds of thousands of victims of clergy abuse there over decades, echoing similar scandals that have shaken the Church internationally.
Later on Saturday, the pope will meet young people in the square outside the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home to the Real Madrid soccer club, and visit a Catholic charity for homeless people. — Reuters
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