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Catalan company Recam Làser, which specialises in laser cutting, is responsible for making the torch for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. The plant has already developed a final prototype and will start making torches this October and the 15,000 units must be delivered early next year. 800 torches will start the tour in Greece and the rest will go directly to Brazil. The torch is made out of recycled aluminium and weighs 1.5 kilos. When lit, it extends by a few centimetres and shows the colours of the flag of Brazil. Each torch will cost around 400 dollars. “This order will project us as the company which manufactured the torch in Rio 2016,” said president and founder of  Recam Làser, Pere Barrios.

A gigantic demonstration is being prepared by the two civil society associations supporting the independence process, the Catalan National Assembly and Òmnium Cultural, for Catalonia’s National Day. The ‘Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana’ (‘Gateway to the Catalan Republic’) arrives after three years in a row of historic pro-independence rallies that have gathered more than 1.5 million people each. This time the demonstration will take place along Meridiana Avenue in Barcelona and there are already 360,000 people registered to participate. The rally will make its way along a 5.2-kilometre-stretch, from the ‘Parc de la Ciutadella’ – where the Catalan Parliament is located – to the outskirts of the Catalan capital, symbolically linking the institution that represents Catalonia's sovereignty with the streets of Barcelona and the rest of the country. 

The Spanish Defence Minister, Pedro Morenés, warned that the army won’t intervene in Catalonia during the 27-S upcoming elections as long as “everybody fulfils their duty”. Morenés said this referring to a possible unilateral declaration of independence, in the event that pro-independence forces win the Catalan elections. In an interview on Spanish National Radio (RNE) he underlined that the army “is an absolutely and perfectly democratic” institution and its members “will strictly obey the law”. The Minister also spoke in support of the application of Article 115 of the Spanish Constitution, which allows the central government to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy if the “rules aren’t adhered to”.

The activity of cruises in ‘Port de Barcelona’ provides 413.2 million euros to Catalonia’s GDP and each cruise generates on average a turnover of one million euros, according to a study from the University of Barcelona (UB) released this Tuesday. The total turnover, including the expenses of passengers, shipping companies and crews, amounts to 796 million euros in both direct and indirect expenses. The study also shows that the activity of these cruises generates around 7,000 jobs, besides the other positive effects on the Catalan economy such as increased demand at Barcelona’s main airport, ‘Aeroport del Prat’. The Catalan capital benefits the most from the cruise activity, as 75% of the revenues stay in Barcelona.

‘Barcelona Catalonia Culture Week’ will export the Catalan culture to Shanghai between the 1^st and the 8^th of November. Traditional human towers, ‘Castellers’, will be displayed all around the city and a 3D exhibition on Antoni Gaudí’s architecture and a retrospective of Salvador Dalí’s surrealist art will be amongst the main attractions. Live music, gastronomic exhibitions and many more happenings will complete the programme, composed of 30 events. President of the Catalan Society in Shanghai, Alexis Roig, stated that the week will allow the projecting of Catalonia and Barcelona as “innovative places” to the Chinese audience. Half a million are expected to attend ‘Barcelona Catalonia Culture Week’ and all activities will be “open and for free”, said Roig.

This is the highest growth registered in Catalonia since 2007, when prices increased by 6.5% and comes after five consecutive months of rising house prices, according to figures released on Tuesday by the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE). Prices rose more in Catalonia than in Spain as a whole, where the increase was around 4%. The number of buying and selling transactions reached 2010 levels, with the previously owned market registering the highest growth. 

Around 2,000 war refugees will arrive in Catalonia in three months’ time and stay “for a long time”, Catalan Government spokeswoman Neus Munté announced at a meeting this morning. The main goal is to integrate the refugees as much as possible and to guarantee their access to health and education services. During the meeting, Mayor of Barcelona, Ada Colau, and Neus Munté, urged the Spanish government to “accelerate the asylum process” and announce the resources that the EU will allocate for this matter. Colau declared that 2,000 families registered on the list of volunteers even before the authorities agreed on a coordinated answer. This shows “the solidarity of Catalan society and that of Barcelona city” Colau said “and it has been crucial in forcing the government to act”, she added. 

Vidar Helgesen declared to CNA that the process of independence Catalonia is facing is a “demanding situation” but assured that international organisations have the “procedures to handle it”. Although he said that Norway doesn’t want to interfere in Catalonia’s process he admitted that they are “certainly observing” the situation and they will “play along with international rules” in the event of a hypothetic independence. Regarding the future of Catalonia in the EU he recalled former President of the European Commission José Manuel Durão Barroso’s words on the Scottish matter and stated that “it wouldn’t be an automatic process”. 

Nearly 300 Catalans living in London have come out in support for the independence process and defended a “yes” vote in the forthcoming 27-S elections, set to be a ‘de facto’ plebiscite on independence. Carrying Catalan and pro-independence flags, they marched along the streets of the British capital passing by icons of the city such as St Paul’s Cathedral, Westminster Parliament and the London Eye. The rally was linked to the ‘Via Lliure cap a la República Catalana’ (‘Gateway to the Catalan Republic’), the mass demonstration that the civil society organisations Catalan National Assembly (ANC) and Òmnium Cultural are organising for this coming Catalan National Day, on the 11^th of September. Once the demonstrators arrived at Kennington Park, they displayed the same mosaic that will be created in Barcelona on the 11^th of September. Catalan traditional human towers, ‘Castellers’, and ‘Sardanes’, Catalonia’s traditional dance, were also on display in the most festive part of the London rally.  

The pro-independence unitary list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ gave details about its roadmap towards independence, which was first presented last week after a massive rally in Barcelona. The cross-party coalition brings together members of Catalan civil society and politicians from both right and left that favour independence, including Catalan President Artur Mas, who is fourth on the coalition’s candidate list. The Commissioner for National Transition, solicitor Carles Viver Pi-Sunyer, assured this Friday during the presentation that there won’t be any “leap into the void” as everything is planned “rigorously”. He also detailed the steps to follow after the 27^th of September elections and, if the results show clear support for Catalan independence, the last stage would be the composition of a Catalan Constitution.

Since 2012, the demonstrations on Catalonia’s National Day, on the 11^th of September, have grown exponentially. Nearly two million pro-independence supporters have shown their demands regarding Catalonia’s political future at each of the different manifestations that have filled the streets of Barcelona and towns all over the territory. Two organisations, Òmnium Cultural, which is a civil society organisation promoting Catalan culture and language, and the Catalan National Assembly (ANC), a grassroots association demanding Catalonia's independence from Spain, have played a key role in turning these three demonstrations into massive, historic rallies. 

All Catalonia’s employers’ associations, with the exception of ‘Foment del Treball’, and every chamber of commerce have united behind Catalonia’s right to vote and expressed on Thursday their wish to “unconditionally support” the result of the upcoming elections on the 27^th of September. The president of the employers’ association CECOT, Antoni Abad, said that “the right to decide is a structural element of a democracy”, adding that “we must re-establish Spain or found a new state”. The businessmen handed a copy of ‘Manifest del Far’ - a document signed in 2014, in which they expressed their commitment to Catalonia’s process of sovereignty - to the President of the Catalan Parliament, Núria de Gispert. She thanked the employers for “such a necessary” event and emphasised that “the time of ambiguity is over”. 

Although the exact date is not yet clear, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has assured that he will hold Spanish elections “in December”, “once the general budget for next year is approved” as it “creates certainty and stability”, he added. In an interview with Cadena Cope Radio this Thursday, Rajoy also admitted that in the event that the conservative People’s Party, which he leads, does not gain an absolute majority in the upcoming elections it would be necessary “to find this majority with other parties”. Nevertheless, he highlighted that since 1977 it has always been the party that topped the polls which has ruled the Spanish Executive afterwards. The Spanish elections will be held after the 27-S Catalan elections and its result may influence the approach of the different parties and their proposals regarding Catalonia.

Registered unemployment in Catalonia rose by 4,521 people during the month of August and totalled 506,306 according to statistics published on Wednesday by the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security. However, the number of unemployed decreased by 11.43% compared to August 2014, which makes this month the best August since 1999. The monthly decline was caused mainly by the increase in unemployment in the services sector, which is to be expected considering that August marks the end of many seasonal contracts. The number of unemployed also increased in August in Spain as a whole, by 0.54%. The Spanish annual rate, however, was slightly less positive than the Catalan one, with unemployment in August decreasing by 8.13% in comparison with the same month last year. Overall, there are 21,679 more unemployed this month and the total number of people jobless in Spain is 4,067,955.

The Catalan President, Artur Mas, has stated that the 27-S Catalan elections are not an “improvised event” but “the last resort” for Catalans to decide their political future. He justified the elections by saying that up until now all attempts have “crashed into the granite wall that is Spain”. At his appearance before Parliament this Wednesday, Mas admitted that calling elections hadn’t been his first choice but that it was “the only option left”. He added that the upcoming elections “are exceptional” and mentioned the pro-independence unitary list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ as an example of this. The gathering together of “so many people with different ideologies but a common purpose has no precedents” and should at least “be respected”, he said. Mas also gave explanations for the search that the Spanish Guardia Civil carried out on the headquarters of his party CDC and those of the party’s foundation CatDem.