Look at the pedestrians in the middle of this frame. Almost every one of them is doing the same thing: standing still, looking up, hands empty or holding a camera, bag hanging off one shoulder and swung round to the back. That posture is the entire business model. La Rambla does not have a crime problem so much as it has a distraction industry, and the two are the same thing.

Begoña Gómez was in Beijing with her husband when the ruling dropped. The timing was almost operatic — Spain’s prime minister on a state visit to China, projecting statesmanship, while back home a judge signed off on four criminal charges against his wife. The image of Pedro Sánchez at Tsinghua University urging Beijing to help end wars while his domestic political foundation crumbled may be the defining photograph of his premiership.