New date for Antoni Gaudí’s basilica announced but enormous, controversial stairway will take another eight years

Barcelona’s Sagrada Familia basilica has a new completion date of 2026, which will come 144 years after the first stone was laid.

The president of the organisation tasked with completing Antoni Gaudí’s masterwork announced the date last Wednesday, which coincides with the centenary of the death of the building’s architect.

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Pere Aragonès says vote validated his decision to pursue political negotiations with Pedro Sánchez

Catalonia’s president has hailed a “new stage” in the quest for regional self-determination after a vote by MPs backing the Spanish government’s deeply divisive amnesty law and vowed to continue pushing for a mutually agreed referendum if he wins another term in May’s snap election.

Pere Aragonès, who has led the regional government for the past three years, told the Guardian the amnesty – demanded by Catalan separatist parties in return for helping Spain’s Socialist-led coalition back into power after last year’s election – had validated his decision to pursue political negotiations with the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez.

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Prime minister Pedro Sánchez argues the bill, unpopular with many, is needed for Spain to move on

Spain’s congress is expected to approve a controversial and divisive Catalan amnesty law that regional separatists demanded in return for helping the country’s Socialist-led coalition government back into office following last year’s inconclusive general election.

Thursday’s vote comes amid heightened political tensions a day after Catalonia’s president, Pere Aragonès, called an early regional election after the defeat of his government’s budget in the Catalan assembly.

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Move by Spanish regional government to tackle period poverty will benefit about 2.5m people

The Catalonia region in Spain has begun providing free reusable menstrual cups, period underwear and cloth pads at pharmacies, in one of the first initiatives of its kind in the world.

The programme is part of a drive by the regional government to reduce period poverty after a survey found 44% of women using menstruation products in Catalonia could not afford their first-choice product and 23% said they had to reuse items designed for single use.

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Increased evaporation, shorter rainy seasons and less mountain snow cover are set to worsen water crises in the western Mediterranean

Magdalena Coromina tapped the hard ground with her walking stick and looked up at a church that was meant to be underwater. Six decades ago, when engineers had built the reservoir in which she stood, they had flooded the town of Sant Romà de Sau and drowned its buildings. The rains that slaked the region’s thirst had kept the ruins covered.

But that world no longer exists. Struck by a drought that has dried the reservoir to 1% of its capacity, the remains of the village have come back into view. Crumbling stone structures now sit on cracked soil among ashen plants. The church, whose spire used to poke above the surface during dry spells, today stands high above the waterline.

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Tens of thousands of people rally against government offer of clemency to those who made illegal push for independence in 2017

Tens of thousands of people have gathered across Spain to protest against the acting government’s plans to secure another term in office by offering an amnesty to those who took part in the illegal and failed push for Catalan independence six years ago .

The proposed amnesty law, which would apply to hundreds of people who participated in the unilateral effort to secede from Spain, has already led to a series of violent protests outside the Madrid headquarters of the governing Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE).

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Conservatives call rally as acting PM refuses to rule out deal with independence leaders to form new government

Thousands of people are expected to gather in Madrid on Sunday to protest against a possible amnesty for those who took part in the failed push for Catalan independence six years ago that plunged Spain into its worst political crisis in decades.

The issue of an amnesty was raised after July’s inconclusive general election , in which Spain’s ruling Socialist party (PSOE) was narrowly defeated by the conservative People’s party (PP).

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