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The Spanish Government, chaired by Mariano Rajoy, has activated the machinery to suspend the alternative non-binding participatory process that the Catalan Executive is organising on the 9^th of November, which replaces the original consultation vote. On Monday evening, Rajoy asked the State Council – his main advisory body – for a non-binding report on the Catalonia's new vote; it did so on the same day that a broad network of corruption, mainly involving Rajoy's People's Party (PP), was revealed. On Tuesday, the Catalan Government replied that its will is to put out ballot boxes, since it does not believe the Constitutional Court will suspend such a participatory process. Left-wing parties backing a self-determination consultation asked the Catalan Government to keep the vote no matter what. Now that the unity of action among pro-self-determination forces has been restored, the PP is calling the vote a "referendum", after downplaying it for two weeks.

Four Barça players have been shortlisted for the FIFA Ballon d’Or 2014. They are Leo Messi, Neymar Jr, Andrés Iniesta and Javier Mascherano. FIFA and France Football magazine announced on Tuesday morning those players nominated for the award, which is given to the best player of the calendar year. The final decision will be taken by the coaches and captains from every single national team around the world as well as by journalists from France Football via a system of votes. On the 1^st of December the final shortlist of the three finalists will be made public. The winner of the Ballon d’Or 2014 will be revealed on the 12^th of January, 2015 during a gala ceremony which will take place in Zurich.

Figures released by the Barcelona Chamber of Commerce on Monday showed that the economy of Catalonia is set to grow by 1.6% in 2014 and 2.1% in 2015. The Chamber also predicted that by 2015, there will be a 2% rise in Spain’s GDP and 1.4% in that of the Eurozone countries average. According to the President of the Chamber, Miquel Valls, the recovery of Catalan and Spanish economies is "solid", but he stressed that the "austerity in wages" must be maintained. This report comes after the success of all Catalan banks passing the stress tests issued by the European Banking Authority and the European Central Bank, which 25 banks across Europe failed. Related economic news is that the unemployment figures released for third quarter of 2014 set Catalonia’s rate at 19.1% and Spain’s at 23.67%.

A new computational method allows the detection, within just a few hours, of the genetic alterations responsible for the formation and progression of cancer tumours. This new method manages to accurately identify almost all types of genetic changes of cancer cells in a simple, quick and precise way. It is also able to identify large-scale chromosome rearrangements, which had been difficult to be detect until this breakthrough. The new method, called SMUFIN, has been developed by the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the ICREA (Catalan Institution of Research and Advanced Studies), in collaboration with research groups from Barcelona, Oviedo and Heidelberg. This progress has been published by the prestigious journal 'Nature Biotechnology' and represents a significant step forward towards the personalised treatment of cancer and other illnesses.

The Catalan banking system boasts a strong image after the publication on Sunday of the 2014 EU-wide stress test results, issued by the European Banking Authority (EBA). All the financial entities based in Catalonia have sailed through the EBA stress test, showing they could face the most adverse economic developments with only their own resources. In the most difficult scenario, Barcelona-based CaixaBank – which is the largest bank in the Spanish market – reached a 9.3% equity ratio (CET1), Banc Sabadell got an 8.3% and Catalunya Banc an 8%. The minimum required was 5.5%, which was not reached by 24 of the 123 European banks analysed. Only one Spanish entity, Madrid-based Liberbank, would need additional capital in the worst case scenario.

Barça fall as Madrid turn game round following an early Neymar score. Despite a dream start, when Neymar swept home an early opener, Barça went down 3-1 in Madrid on Saturday’s first Clasico of the season in a game in which Luis Suarez made his official debut and Claudio Bravo finally conceded. The game could hardly have started better for Barça, when after just 3 minutes, Luís Suárez sent a cross field ball from the right to Neymar and the Brazilian cut inside, leaving a couple of defenders trailing in his wake to fire low past Iker Casillas and open the scoring.

The Spanish Government announced on Friday that it has asked its legal services to analyse all the aspects of Catalonia's alternative vote of the 9^th of November, which is replacing the original consultation vote that has already been banned by the Spanish authorities. 16 days before the consultation vote has to take place and 10 days after it was announced by the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, the Spanish Executive is starting to pave the way for appealing against this new participatory process that asks Catalans their opinion about independence from Spain. On Friday, the Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, stated that Mas is pretending to replace "an illegal process for one that is even more antidemocratic". Therefore, it seems that after a few days hesitating whether or not to ban the new vote, the Spanish Government will probably appeal against it and make the Constitutional Court temporarily suspend it. In the last few days, Catalan political parties and civil society organisations have rebuilt their unity of action, which seemed broken during the time the Spanish Government was hesitating.

Great expectation in the press room at the Ciutat Esportiva just 24 hours before the Clasico in the Santiago Bernabéu. In the traditional pre-game press conference ahead of Madrid-Barça,Luis Enrique revealed his thoughts before his first Clásico as a coach. He revealed that Luis Suárez will appear at some point and Sergio Busquets is fit to take part. Furthermore he is clear about what he wants from his players: “We will go out there with the same footballing ideas and the same attitude as always. That, according to the coach, is “going after the from the start, without sitting back, having the ball and deserving the victory”.

The Spanish Airport Authority (AENA) has announced that this coming winter season over 8.4 million seats will be on offer on flights out of Barcelona El Prat Airport, an increase of 6.8% compared to last year. Seats on intercontinental destinations have increased by 13.6% over last year. The number of flight operations (take-offs and landings) is anticipated to be 47,000: an increase of 4.1% to 2013. In contrast, the airport of Girona Costa Brava (northern Catalonia) has announced it will offer 16 routes this winter season, 20% less than last year. Ryanair has implemented the cuts it announced last May and will no longer be connecting Girona to London or Paris. Ryanair and Wizz Air will be the only airlines flying from Girona to Kiev, and only Ten Airwais will operate charter flights to Nador, Morocco. This summer, Girona airport connected passengers to 69 destinations.

Catalonia's National Alliance for Self-Determination, which brings together more than 3,000 civil society, business, cultural, sports and political organisations, pledged to make sure that the alternative participatory process scheduled on the 9^th of November will be a success, in terms of voter turnout and of other "great mobilisations". Despite the acknowledged limitations of this alternative vote that replaces the original consultation vote scheduled on the same day, the National Alliance has agreed to focus its collective efforts on this day's success, also backing "other forms of mobilisation that will strengthen citizen participation" in the self-determination process. Furthermore, the Alliance Coordinator, the veteran Christian-Democrat politician Joan Rigol, stressed that political parties will also focus on this day and will increase "coordination" to overcome recent tensions among them. The National Alliance will meet again after November 9 to discuss the next steps.

Spain's unemployment rate at the end of the third quarter stands at 23.67%, according to the latest Active Population Survey (EPA). The unemployment rate for Catalonia has fallen below 20% for the first time in the last 3 years and is set at 19.10%. The number of unemployed people in Catalonia has dropped by 44,400 in the third quarter of 2014, a decrease of 5.76% compared to the previous quarter. This is the biggest reduction since at least 2002, when the Spain's Statistical Institute began the series. Thanks to the creation of 69,100 new jobs in Catalonia over the last 12 months, there are now 34,800 more people employed in the third quarter. This makes Catalonia have the second highest unemployment drop in Spain, second only to Madrid Region (-48,200 people). The Catalan Minister for Business and Employment, Felip Puig, has called the figures are "encouraging" and "hopeful", although a 19.1% rate is still "very high".

The Constitutional Court has accepted the Spanish Government's appeal against the Catalan Executive' decree from December 2013 with which families in need are protected from their household electricity and gas being cut off by energy supply companies during winter months. The Catalan Government's measure aimed to fight the so-called 'energy poverty': people who cannot afford to pay for their energy bills because they do not get minimum income. The decree was not a cancellation of the bills but to allow those families to postpone the payment during the winter months. However, the Spanish Executive considered that the Catalan measure represented a "discrimination" against the citizens from other Autonomous Communities, who have to pay their energy bills on time. The appeal goes against Catalonia's political autonomy and is arbitrary. The Catalan Government stated it was "upset" by the ban and added that it will find an alternative way to help those families.

The Uruguayan is ready to make his official Barça debut as his FIFA ban comes to an end and could do so on Saturday in the Spanish League game against Real Madrid. Luis Suárez played in the Joan Gamper Trophy and the Barça B friendly against an Indonesia Under 19 team and last week picked up his Golden Boot award for the 2013/14 season. Hopefully Suárez' FC Barcelona debut will post the same results as he managed on his debut for Liverpool, when he scored after just 11 minutes on the pitch, Ajax – a goal after 42 minutes and Groningen where he scored after 36 minutes.

On Thursday, Oleguer Pujol, the youngest son of the former Catalan President, Jordi Pujol Soley, was formally indicted for alleged fiscal fraud and money laundering. The Spanish Police and the Public Prosecutor searched his house and several of his companies looking for files regarding real estate operations. This makes Oleguer the third son of the historical leader of conservative Catalan nationalism to be indicted for fiscal offenses. Furthermore, on Wednesday another judge indicted 11 people related to the former President's oldest son, Jordi Pujol Ferrusola – who seems to be at the centre of almost all the investigations. In addition, the judge has requested the freezing of his bank accounts in Andorra, from which he transferred €2.4 million to Mexico just after his father's fiscal fraud confession in July. On top of this, a judge from Liechtenstein is investigating the former Catalan President for alleged money laundering, after requests from the Spanish Police. Jordi Pujol senior has denied having had any bank account in the Alpine country.

The President of the Catalan Government and leader of the centre-right pro-Catalan State CiU, Artur Mas, and the President of the left-wing Catalan independence party ERC, Oriol Junqueras, met on Wednesday, after days of tensions among the parties supporting self-determination. The tensions have been mainly about how to raise the legal profile of the alternative participatory process scheduled on the 9^th of November, which replaces the original consultation vote, and about a common platform to run in early elections transformed into a 'de facto' referendum on independence. According to Junqueras, the two leaders decided to work on making sure that the alternative consultation vote is "a success". In addition, he said that Mas had requested that he leave the debate about the early elections for the days after the 9^th of November's vote, despite Junqueras insisting on an immediate electoral call.