The recurrent storms in eastern Spain that led to massive flooding last week and killed over 200 people, mostly near Valencia, are dumping rain on Barcelona.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont says he plans to return to his country on Thursday despite the likelihood of being arrested on his return.

Spain’s ruling Socialist party scored a crucial victory in regional elections in the powerful northeastern region of Catalonia, garnering the most seats and dealing a blow to the region’s two main separatist parties that have governed for decades.

Spanish rail authorities say commuter rail service serving Barcelona and northeastern Spain has suffered major disruption because of the theft of copper cables from a train installation.

Separatist parties are in danger of losing their decade-long hold of power in Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia.

About 6 million Catalans are called to cast ballots in regional elections on Sunday that will surely have reverberations in Spain's national politics.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has kept his part of a bargain struck last year with Catalonia’s separatists to keep him in power by pushing through a divisive amnesty bill.

The regional president of Catalonia has called an early election for May 12 after his minority government failed to pass a budget for Spain’s wealthy northeast region that includes Barcelona.

Spain’s Catalonia region rolled out this week a pioneering women’s health initiative that offers millions of women and girls reusable menstruation products for free.

Spain's northeastern region of Catalonia has declared a drought emergency for the area of around 6 million people including the city of Barcelona.

Catalan separatist lawmakers have dealt Spain’s government a blow by voting against a hugely divisive amnesty law that was aimed at helping hundreds of their supporters involved in Catalonia’s unsuccessful 2017 independence bid.

Tighter water restrictions for drought-stricken northeast Spain have gone in effect as authorities in Catalonia say that Barcelona may need to have fresh water shipped in by boat in the coming months.

Spain’s acting Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has won a parliamentary vote to form a new leftist coalition government.

Spain’s acting Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has defended his controversial amnesty deal for Catalonia’s separatists in parliament.

Thousands of ordinary citizens got into legal trouble for their parts in Catalonia’s illegal independence bid that brought Spain to the brink of rupture six years ago.

Nearly six years ago, the leader of Catalonia’s failed secession bid slipped secretly across the Spanish border to escape arrest and start a life as a self-styled political exile.

Take a prolonged drought amid record-high temperatures for Spain, toss in an increasingly dense forest unable to adapt to a fast-changing climate, and Asier Larrañaga has reason to be on guard.

Authorities in Spain’s parched northeast have warned that Barcelona and a surrounding area that's home to some 6 million people could face even tighter restrictions of water use in the coming months.

In drought-stricken Spain, around 250 villagers brought back the faded practice of a special Mass and procession to pray for rain.

Spain has entered a period of a long-term drought, owing to high temperatures and low rainfall over the past three years, and likely faces another year of heatwaves and forest fires.

The European Union's top court has issued a ruling that allows Spain to make another attempt to seek the extradition of a former Catalan separatist politician living in Brussels.

A Spanish judge has dropped sedition charges against former Catalan President Carles Puigdemont for his role in the region’s illegal secession push in 2017 that brought Spain’s most serious political crisis for decades.

Catalonia’s separatist movement has suffered its biggest rift since it became the leading political force in northeast Spain after the junior member of its ruling coalition abandoned the region’s government.

Thousands of Catalans have gathered in Barcelona to commemorate the fifth anniversary of an independence referendum that marked the high point of their movement to break away from the rest of Spain.

Around 150,000 Catalan separatists have rallying in Barcelona in an attempt to reignite the independence movement that is fraying as it nears the five-year anniversary of its failed breakaway bid from Spain.

Catalonia's president is accusing Spain’s intelligence agency of conducting what he calls “massive political espionage” on the northeastern region’s independence movement.

Despite vaccination rates that make other governments envious, Spain and Portugal are facing the hard truth that these winter holidays won’t be a time of unrestrained joy.

Thousands of Catalans has taken to the streets of Barcelona to protest against a court decision that mandates that 25% of all school subjects be taught in Spanish and reduces the still predominant use of the local Catalan language in classrooms.

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has taken a leisurely walk Saturday in Sardinia a day after a judge freed him from jail on the Italian island pending a hearing on his extradition to Spain to face sedition charges.

Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont has been released from a jail in Sardinia after a judge ruled that he could go free ahead of an Oct. 4 extradition hearing.

The lawyer for Carles Puigdemont says the former Catalan leader has been detained in Sardinia, Italy.

The leader of Catalonia in northeastern Spain has announced that it’s excluding a separatist party in his ruling regional coalition from talks with the central government aimed at solving the tensions over the growing pro-independence sentiment.

Tens of thousands of Catalans have rallied for independence from the rest of Spain in their first major mass gathering since the start of the pandemic.

Barcelona and the surrounding northeast corner of Spain are curtailing public activity again to stem an outbreak of the delta variant of the coronavirus that is running wild among unvaccinated younger people.

Spanish regions are bringing back curfews as well as restrictions on socializing and nightlife to contain a sharp rise in coronavirus infections.

Supporters of independence for Catalonia have protested against a visit to its regional capital Barcelona by Spain’s King Felipe VI.

Spain’s government has granted pardons to nine instigators of an illegal 2017 secession bid for Catalonia.

Nine Catalan separatist leaders jailed for sedition are eyeing freedom, after Spain’s Cabinet pardoned them in the hope of starting what Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called a much-needed reconciliation in the country’s restive northeast.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez says the Spanish Cabinet will approve pardons for nine separatist Catalan politicians and activists imprisoned for their roles in the 2017 push to break away from Spain.

Thousands of people in Madrid are protesting the Spanish government’s plan to issue pardons to a dozen imprisoned Catalan separatist leaders who were convicted for their roles in a failed push for the Catalonia region’s independence.

Former Catalan government member Meritxell Serret handed herself into Spain's Supreme Court on Thursday March 11, 2021, three years after she fled to Belgium. (AP Photo/Olivier Matthys, File)BARCELONA – Former Catalan government member Meritxell Serret handed herself into Spain’s Supreme Court on Thursday, three years after she fled to Belgium along with other associates who led Catalonia’s failed secession attempt. When Puigdemont fled Spain in October 2017 he was accompanied by Serret and six other members of the Catalan regional government, which was disbanded by Spain’s central authorities when their independence bid collapsed. She said that she intended to take the seat in the Catalan regional legislature she won in an election earlier this year. Puigdemont refused to return to Spain on claims that he could not get a fair trial.

Member of European Parliament Carles Puigdemont prepares for an interview at the European Parliament in Brussels, Tuesday, March 9, 2021. In the decision on Puigdemont, 400 legislators voted for the waiver of immunity, 248 were against and 45 abstained. The measures to lift the immunity of his associates — former Catalan Health Minister Toni Comín and former regional Education Minister Clara Ponsatí — were by largely similar margins. Ad“We have lost our immunity, but the European Parliament has lost more than that. In 2019, Puigdemont and his two associates won seats in the European Parliament and were afforded protection as members of the EU assembly.

A man throws a bouquet of flowers against a national police station during a protest condemning the arrest of rap singer Pablo Hasel in Barcelona, Spain, Monday, Feb. 22, 2021. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)BARCELONA – The imprisonment of a rap artist for his music and tweets praising terrorist violence and insulting the Spanish monarchy has set off a powder keg of pent-up rage this week in the southern European country. The arrest of Pablo Hasél has brought thousands to the streets for different reasons. Under the banner of freedom of expression, many Spaniards strongly object to putting an artist behind bars for his lyrics and social media remarks. AdAs well as shouting its support for Hasél, a crowd that gathered in Madrid on Saturday chanted “Where is the change?

A demonstrator smashes a shop window during a protest condemning the arrest of rap singer Pablo Hasl in Barcelona, Spain, Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. A fifth night of peaceful protests to denounce the imprisonment of a Spanish rap artist once more devolved into clashes between police and fringe group members who set up street barricades and smashed storefront windows in Barcelona. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)BARCELONA – A fifth night of peaceful protests to denounce the imprisonment of a Spanish rap artist once more devolved into clashes between police and the members of fringe groups who set up street barricades and smashed storefront windows Saturday night in downtown Barcelona. AdCatalonia’s regional police force said there also was defiance in the city of Tarragona, where groups threw glass bottles at police lines and smashed store windows. Most were peaceful, but Pamplona in the central north saw clashes between police and people throwing bottles.

In 2017, those same parties won 70 seats of the 135-seat chamber, just two above the majority. The Socialist party led by former health minister Salvador Illa was poised to take 33 seats with over 625,000 votes. The pro-secession Republican Left of Catalonia was also set to claim 33 seats, but with 580,000 votes. The results shifted the power within the pro-secession camp to the leftist Republican Left of Catalonia party, whose 33 seats edged out the center-right Together for Catalonia, set to win 32 seats. Adrià Hoguet, a 29-year-old who works in banking, switched his vote from Together for Catalonia to the Republican Left of Catalonia.

People are detained and inspected by Mossos D'Esquadra, the regional police of Catalonia, after curfew in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2020. Despite a large adherence to the recently re-imposed curfews in Spain, police patrolling Barcelona are still finding young people breaking the rules. Associated Press journalists accompanied officers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, the police force for Spain’s Catalonia region, on curfew patrol. In Spain, most of the enforcement effort has involving nudging stragglers indoors after curfew. Even with the curfew in place, police broke up over 100 such gatherings in apartments and 22 “botellones” on Friday night alone.

A man holding an "estelada" or independence flag waits for a protest to condemn a police raid on Catalan separatists in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2020. Spanish officials say that police have arrested 21 individuals with links to the Catalan separatist movement on suspicion of corruption and promoting public disorder. The Catalan separatist movement has always proclaimed non-violent beliefs, even though last year there were violent clashes with police after several top leaders were sentenced to prison for their roles in the 2017 breakaway bid. The Spanish government had accused Russia in 2017 of meddling in the Catalan conflict, a charge that Russian officials denied then. Another detainee, Oriol Soler, is a publisher who is considered one of the top strategists of the separatist movement.

MADRID – A Madrid court on Wednesday acquitted the heads of Catalonia’s regional police of charges of sedition and disobedience for what state prosecutors had argued was their alleged role in the northeast region’s 2017 secession attempt. Spain’s National Court ruled in a 2-1 decision that police chief Josep Lluis Trapero, officer Teresa Laplana, and political heads Pere Soler and César Puig hadn't supported the illegal secession referendum organized against court orders by Catalonia’s government prior to its unsuccessful declaration of independence. Prosecutors had asked for prison sentences of 10 years for Trapero, Soler and Puig, and four years for Laplana. Prosecutors accused Trapero and his civilian bosses of having intentionally allowed voting to occur despite court orders to impede the referendum, leaving fellow national police forces to bear the brunt of the operation to stop the vote. Last year, Spain’s Supreme Court condemned 12 separatist politicians and activist leaders on charges of sedition and the misuse of public funds for leading the secession bid.