Live News From Spain As It Happens

SPAIN'S president Mariano Rajoy has promised to lower electricity bills – just as consumer association FACUA has warned of a 9.1% hike on the cards for this year.

Rajoy says 'as soon as there is a margin to do so', he will reduce the cost of domestic energy, and that he will reduce income tax 'once Spain's deficit has reached its target' of less than 3% of the GDP.

The deficit target for this year is 3.1%, falling to 2.2% by the end of 2018, although Spain has as yet failed to comply with its self-imposed targets and narrowly avoided a massive fine from the EU a few months ago.

Even if Spain does meet its targets, this will not be until 2019, meaning it will have taken 10 years to resolve the country's recession-related debt.

Rajoy also says that by the year 2020, a total of 20 million people in Spain will be in employment, and says the Spanish economy has 'experienced an unprecedented transformation' thanks to his government's reforms since it gained power in November 2011, making Spain 'one of the fastest-growing economies in the Eurozone'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

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SIX terrorist suspects have been arrested in the UK, Palma de Mallorca and Germany as part of the same operation this morning (Wednesday).

The interior ministry says the group were well-connected and responsible for creating and distributing 'exceptionally radical audio-visual material' as well as organising clandestine meetings every week. They arranged for young recruits to the DAESH cause to travel to Syria and Iraq for training in Jihad combat. The suspects are said to have publicly supported and promoted suicide bombings and other violent actions such as those reported in the last two years in France, Belgium and the UK.

Investigations started long before the Paris attacks in 2015 when a website was uncovered showing a young Muslim resident in Spain having been 'radicalised', recruited and sent to Syria. An extremist who had slipped through the net and managed to practise as an Iman was caught in the UK.

The accused had travelled several times to Palma de Mallorca where he started to set up a group dedicated to luring vulnerable youngsters to join the soi-disant'Islamic State'. His rhetoric was well-known to police and Intelligence services across Europe....

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A FAMILY of 13 Iberian Lynxes trapped in the Doñana National Park forest fire have finally been found and moved to safety, although another has died in the process because of the trauma of being captured and transported.

The creatures, an endangered species closely monitored in the Andalucía nature reserve in a bid to increase their population, live in semi-freedom at the El Acebuche breeding centre, but when the inferno broke out in the Moguer (Huelva province) area they were surrounded by flames and unable to be evacuated.

Some 36 hours after the blaze erupted, they have been caught using humane traps similar to those used for 'trap, neuter, return' programmes with feral cats.

A total of 11 were caught on Monday morning, but two others remained unaccounted for until later that evening, according to the conservation and wildlife charity LIFE Iberlince Andalucía.

The flames were just two kilometres from the El Acebuche centre and licking the edges of the Doñana, hindering the animals' evacuation.

Five males, four females and five babies were rescued on Sunday, but workers from the breeding centre had to go back for the remaining 13.

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WATER temperatures in the Mediterranean and Cantabrian Seas have hit historic highs for the month of June, rising by up to 2.53ºC in a decade.

Buoys fitted with temperature guages show that the Atlantic ocean off the Cabo Silleiro in Galicia has registered a record of 19.9ºC – the warmest ever recorded and a hike of 1.25ºC on figures from last June.

The buoy off the coast of Bilbao, in the Bay of Biscay, showed the Cantabrian Sea had hotted up to 23.5ºC this month, whilst the one off the Cabo de Gata in the province of Almería registered a 2.48ºC hike reaching 24.3ºC.

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A JUDGE has ordered the body of surrealist painter Salvador Dalí to be exhumed following a paternity suit filed by a woman from Girona.

María Pilar Abel Martínez, known as Pilar Abel, claims the artist behind the melting clock and My mother, my mother, my mother is her biological father, and a court in Madrid has agreed to DNA tests being carried out on the deceased painter.

No other 'biological remains or personal items' which could contain Dalí's DNA are in existence, the court says.

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EL CORTE Inglés department store has brought forward its summer sales for the first time in history, with prices due to be slashed from this coming Friday (June 30).

Although Spanish shops have been allowed, by law, to hold sales at any time of the year and as often as they wish, the majority – especially national and international chains – stick to the twice-yearly post-Christmas and summer calendar, with discounts ranging from 30% to 80% in late December to early February and over July and most of August.

El Corte Inglés, present in all Spain's major cities and also in Portugal, will start its sales on Thursday, June 29 at 22.00 – just after its shops shut – for online customers.

Discounts start at 50% on a vast selection of household items, fashion and accessories, most of which are top-branded goods, and are likely to rise to 70% in the weeks that follow.

The department store's own-branded budget fashion line, Sfera, already started its sales a week ago, as did other cut-price high-street brands like Cortefiel, Springfield, H&M and underwear firm Women's Secret, plus designer chain Bimba & Lola.

Their wares are now on sale at between 50% and 60% off.

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OVER 2,000 residents have been evacuated as a major inferno sweeps across the province of Huelva, threatening the Doñana National Park.

Two holiday parks, the Parador Nacional State-run hotel and the El Arenosillo Army barracks have all been emptied and their occupants forced to flee for their own safety.

Regional president of Andalucía, Susana Díaz, says she suspects 'the human factor' is behind the blaze, or that it is the work of arsonists.

High temperatures and winds of over 60 kilometres per hour mean the fire is out of control and emergency services say the next few hours will be 'critical'.

The inferno broke out at around 21.30 last night (Saturday) in the rural La Peñuela area close to the town of Moguer and has already crept across the Doñana border.

Firefighters say they have managed to get the flames surrounded and expect a wind change that could help stop it spreading further.

The flames have been extending in a long line, fuelled by a north wind, and by this morning had travelled over 12 kilometres in less than five hours.

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This summer, which officially started at 6h24 on Wednesday, looks set to be a hot one across the whole of Spain with temperatures between 0.5 and 1 degree higher than the season average, especially in central and southern regions, after the hottest spring of the 21st century.

A spokesperson for the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET), Ana Casals, said in a press conference yesterday that the high temperatures experienced over the past month suggested that July, August and September would continue in a similar vein as was the case with the hot summers of 2003, 2015 and 2016.

Casals also mentioned that meteorological analysis was increasingly showing that "summer starts earlier" and that forecasts predict it to move forward by a whole day every ten years.

With regard to rainfall this summer, little or no change is expected across the pensinsula, although there might be slightly less in some areas.

Casals highlighted the fact that June started in normal temperatures, but that from 7th or 8th onwards temperatures started to rise much higher than normal in the south-eastern provinces, in Castilla y León and in the Ebro Valley. The intense heat continued until June 18th and temperatures remain very high for the time of year.

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Members of the National Police Intelligence Agency arrested a 32-year-old man of Moroccan origin in the Divino Valles street in Madrid on Wednesday after he was found to be a member of the Islamic State terrorist organisation and in an advanced stated of radicalisation.

According to a police statement, the man is "extremely dangerous", displaying similar characteristics to the terrorists implicated in the recent attacks in the UK and France, and constituted a clear threat for the security of the country.

The accused had carried out an exhaustive search of official Islamic State training documentation and had compiled a huge number of manuals referring specifically to terrorist activity within a jihadi framework, for example a manual on suicide terrorism and a manual on electronic jihad.

The files cover all aspects of terrorism, from the most extreme ideological preparation to acts of martyrdom.  During the investigation, police officers were able to highlight certain indicators on social networks, which link the accused to members of Islamic State in the Syrian-Iraqi jihadi combat zone.

The accused has also been found to have been in the process of radicalising people around him, trying to persuade them to carry out violent acts of terror in Spain.

The Islamic State training material seized was allegedly being used to prepare his chosen candidates in radical religious notions, as well as in other aspects of theoretical and practical operational training.

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Agents from Spain's Civil Guard, working in conjunction with the country's tax authorities, have made three arrests at the Adolfo Suárez airport in the capital, after seizing a shipment of fresh coconuts from Colombia into which 50kg of liquid cocaine had been injected.

The operation began with a customs risk analysis at the Madrid-Barajas airport, carried out by Customs surveillance agents working for the tax authorities and then continued in conjunction with the Guardia Civil's tax specialists.

Both sets of operatives, working independently of each other, detected a suspicious shipment of fresh coconuts coming in from Colombia and decided to pool resources to look into it further, applying the strictest of tax measures to the shipment.

The scam was revealed after airport scanners showed unusual density inside some of the coconuts.

The discovery led to the arrest of those receiving the goods, a Venezuelan woman and two Colombian men, all of whom have been charged with endangering public health.

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SEVERAL major TV channels have been thrown into the spotlight after a royalties fraud was uncovered this week, and National Police have carried out 16 raids.

Nationwide channels such as TVE and regional stations – Telemadrid, Euskal Irrati Telebista (EITB) in the Basque Country, Castilla-La Mancha Televisión (CMM), Radiotelevisión Canaria, Televisión de Aragón, TPA from Asturias, and Murcia's 7RM – have been ordered to supply information.

Investigators refer to a corruption scam involving suspected fraud in charging royalties payable to composers whose music is played on programmes and slots, by making minor changes to tracks made by other artists and passing them off as being original works.

According to details of the case, the accused channels created 'poor-quality' music and registered 'false adjustments' to existing works already in the public domain, declaring them as the original pieces of other companies and individuals, and paying them for their use on screen during the night-time schedule, after the watershed.

The State arts agency, SGAE, says it has been attempting to 'combat this kind of fraud' for years, and is helping police and the court in Madrid with their inquiries.

According to the SGAE, the scandal dates back to around 2006 and covers a five-year period.

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Alfonso Dastis, Minister of Foreign Affairs, has confirmed that Spain will not use any disagreement over Gibraltar to block the UK's exit from the EU and emphasised that any discussion over the sovereignty of 'The Rock' would be a bilateral one between the two countries.

The Minister was responding to questions regarding a veto by Spain over Gibraltar and its potential to affect the Brexit negotiations that began in Brussels on Monday.

"I don't think so," he said, "this doesn't just depend on us, it depends on the United Kingdom, most of all, if we are to reach an agreement."

"The most important thing," he continued, "and we hope the UK understands this in the same way, is that there is a constructive relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union."

Dastis highlighted the fact that Spain has requested that all future negotiations relating to Gibraltar be a matter for Spain and the UK only, once the framework of the UK's new relationship with the EU has been determined.

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A total of 32 provinces are on alert today (Wednesday) with a high risk of heavy rain, storms and above all high temperatures in the centre of the country.

Temperatures are set to go up in the east of the country, go down in Galicia and Andalucía, and stay relatively stable across the rest of Spain.

The provinces of Granada, Jaén, Sevilla, Huesca, Zaragoza, Albacete, Guadalajara, Cantabria, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Toledo, Ávila, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Valladolid, Zamora, Madrid, Navarra, Cáceres, Lugo, Orense, La Rioja, Vizcaya, Gipúzcoa y Asturias are on yellow alert for high temperatures.

An amber alert has been activated in Córdoba and Badajoz, where highs of 41ºC and 38ºC respectively are forecast.

The four Catalan provinces - Barcelona, Gerona, Lérida and Tarragona - are on yellow alert for a number of different meteorological phenomena: Barcelona, for heavy rain and storms; Gerona and Lérida for heavy rain, storms and high temperatures; and Tarragona for high temperatures.

Overall, the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) has forecast temperatures considerably higher than the average for this time of year along the coastline of Cantabria and Catalonia and much of the peninsula.

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BRITISH foreign affairs minister Boris Johnson has praised Spanish terror attack hero for his 'bravery' and 'courage' which cost him his life when he took on knife-men in London's Borough Market.

Johnson, upon arriving at the Council of European Union Foreign Ministers – due to take place today (Tuesday) in Luxembourg – said this would be 'the first chance' the UK government had to 'speak with its associates' following the London Bridge and Borough Market attack.

The head of diplomatic relations for Britain recalled that the majority of victims, both the dead and the injured, were 'from other European countries', such as Poles and French, 'including a very brave and courageous Spaniard', in reference to Ignacio Echeverría, 39.

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CONSUMER organisation OCU has filed a 'block' compensation claim for €22.6 million for customers affected by the Volkswagen 'Dieselgate' scandal.

Around 7,500 people have registered to take action against Volkswagen-Audi Spain after having bought cars with the EA 189 diesel engine, which was doctored in the factory in Germany with a software fitted to mask true nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions readings.

Volkswagen-Audi Spain has been refusing to compensate owners for over a year, given that the Volkswagen Group in the USA agreed to pay between US$5,000 and US$10,000 per vehicle.

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DESPITE attempts by Calvià town council to eradicate its beach resorts' reputations of cheap, boozy hedonism, the season has kicked off with British tourists plumbing new depths of unseemly behaviour – such as wandering around naked in public.

Two young British women were caught on camera with no clothes on whatsoever in daylight early in the morning on Magaluf's famous Punta Ballena strip, where most of the nightclubs and bars are based.

They were seen standing around chatting to two other women, who were fully clothed.

One of them was wearing nothing and not even carrying clothing, whilst another, who was carrying hers, wore only a very skimpy thong.

They were attracting wolf-whistles and lurid comments from young men nearby, but did not seem to be concerned by this.

It was only when they realised they were on camera that they became alarmed and walked off, one of them covering her rear end with her hands.

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MAJOR telephone operators are under close scrutiny from consumer protection groups due to ongoing price hikes – as much as €5 a month this year alone.

Orange, Vodafone and Movístar – particularly for customers with packages that include landlines, mobiles, internet and TV – have upped their tariffs without consultation and claimed to be offering greater connection speeds or 'more exclusive' television content in exchange.

In some cases, download limits have been applied out of the blue with penalties charged for exceeding them, even where customers' actual internet use has not changed – leaving them with bills for use in Spain higher than they received just months earlier in roaming mode.

Telefónica Spain, which owns the mobile brand Movístar, says the price rises are due to the 'growing demand' in mobile data bandwidth.

“We're gradually adjusting prices in line with consumers needing more from their service,” said Luis Miguel Gilpérez, company chairman.

Vodafone's strategy manager David Sola says: “Any customer whose tariff has changed is perfectly free to choose a different one – they have a great deal of choice.”

Consumer giant FACUA says the rising costs are 'not circumstantial', because they do not happen 'every few years' – rather 'every few months'.

“There's no excuse,” said spokesman Miguel Ángel Serrano.

“Companies' only purpose is financial, nothing to do with customers' needs. No consumer would be against a unilateral change if it was for their benefit and met their requirements.”

He calls for customers to file claims with the consumer authorities in their region.

FACUA and the OCU will not act – or even advise – unless a customer pays a yearly membership fee of around €70, but council-run consumer officers, known as OMIC, will generally help.

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LONDON terror attack hero Ignacio Echeverría was not saving a woman's life when he was killed, but was helping a police officer to restrain the killers, the Galicia-born analyst's family reveals.

They admitted they fabricated the story about the woman being stabbed, because they feared that if he was still alive and other terror suspects were involved, they would find out where he lived and cause him harm.

But now he has been repatriated and his funeral is over, father and brother – both called Joaquín – say that according to Ignacio's friends, he saw a policeman trying to hold off the terrorists, got off his bike and went to help.

He beat one of the killers with his skateboard, but was stabbed in the back by another two.

Meanwhile, he still died a hero, as he managed to help the officer hold back the knife-wielding extremists for a whole 40 seconds – long enough for police back-up to arrive.

“Ignacio's friends saw, from a distance, that one of the terrorists was stabbing a woman, but a policeman rushed past them with a truncheon and stopped them,” said Joaquín junior.

“The officer was knocked to the ground in seconds.

“At this point, Ignacio got off his bike and ran to help the officer.

“We think he saw the policeman run towards the terrorists and went to help him pin them down so they would not carry on attacking.

“He wasn't exactly helping the woman directly, but he was trying to stop the attack, though.

“We know he stopped the terrorists for long enough to keep them back. He was fighting with them for about 40 seconds while more police were coming.

“But we spread the story about him rescuing a woman, because we were scared that if the terrorist organisation thought he was helping the police, if he was still alive and they found out where he lived, they would go after him.”

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YESTERDAY (Thursday) saw roaming charges finally dropped between EU and some EEA nations, meaning expats in Spain taking a trip home to the UK or Ireland, or holidaymakers travelling to Spain, are among those whose mobile bills will be no different when they cross the borders.

This does not apply to calls made from, for example, Spain to the UK on a mobile, which will still be charged as an international exchange, but will prevent travellers getting an unpleasant shock when they receive their bills upon their return home.

Even for general internet surfing and no calls, price hikes of up to 25% have applied, but for Brits downloading films and music or streaming whilst on holiday abroad, some have been hit with bills of between €500 and €1,000 for the month.

The 'Roam like at Home' plan will also make life easier for workers who travel abroad every day for their jobs – in many central European nations such as the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary, employees do not have to emigrate to work, they simply commute, aided by the Schengen agreement which means they merely drive across the border without having to queue to show their passports.

The same applies to workers who live in Spain's far west and commute to Portugal for their jobs, or vice versa.

Ending roaming charges is something the European Commission has been pushing for over a very long time, since it considered this vital to creating a digital single market – but mobile phone operators have long fought against the EC, claiming it would lose money and would have to put its tariffs up at home to compensate.

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FIVE children needed medical attention at schools in Madrid today (Thursday) and civil servants walked out of the courts in the region because of the heatwave currently gripping the whole of Spain.

Judges and admin staff in Majadahonda were sweltering in 35ºC inside the building when they decided they could not take any more and went home.

Meanwhile, five pupils were taken to the Infanta Elena hospital after they became dizzy and some fainted at the Neil Armstrong high school (pictured) in Valdemoro.

They have all since been discharged, having been admitted with symptoms of dehydration, headaches, feeling sick, and severe light-headedness.

Medics said none of them had suffered actual heatstroke, which is defined as the body temperature rising to 40ºC or more – 42ºC usually being fatal – which would require the patient to be placed in an urgent refrigeration system.

But they were still feverish, and although only five went to hospital, ambulance staff attended to 47 pupils at the centre in one afternoon.

The worst-affected students were taken to the crematorium, since this is on the same street as the school and has air-conditioning, to be able to assist them urgently.

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The Bank of Spain has raised it growth predictions for this year by 0.3% to 3.1 % as the country looks set to sustain its strong growth momentum.

It is forecast to be 2.5% in 2018 - also 0.3% higher than the forecasts published in April, and 2.2% in 2019.

The government forecasts for economic growth, however, stand at 2.7% for this year, below projections made by the majority of entities, and 2.5% in 2018.

"The improved GDP growth projections are underpinned by the better outlook for global markets, particularly over the short term, lower oil prices, and lower interest rates," said the bank.

A prolongation of the growth phase is predicted for the 2017-2019 period, based on three factors: the competitivity profit accumulated since the beginning of the recession, lower debt in the private sector and a continuation of these favourable financial conditions.

With regards to the relative weight of each of the GDP components it says growth will continue in line with domestic demand, which will nevertheless
keep slowing down as overseas demand continues to rise.

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The Straits of Gibraltar saw another incident in the early hours of Tuesday morning when Customs Officials and members of the Royal Gibraltar Police force were fired upon by what were believed to be drugs traffickers, highlighting the escalating problem with drugs mafias in the area.

The incident occurred around 2:50am, when a Gibraltar police launch, in collaboration with Spanish customs officials, was taking part in a high-speed chase of a rigid zodiac-style boat allegedly carrying drugs.

"As the police launch approached the zodiac, the crew heard two shots, at which point they dropped back to a safe distance", explained the police press release. They confirmed that neither shot hit either the boat or the officers on board.

The incident took place approximately two nautical miles to the east of La Caleta (Catalan Bay) and is being considered a "turning point" in current maritime surveillance practices and as such is being "analysed" by the Gibraltar police

The Spanish Association of Civil Guards (AEGC) also released a statement saying that "for some time now" the traffickers "have been carrying weapons and even hiring hitmen" to repel police intervention. They bemoaned the fact that the danger from traffickers in the area is "increasing" and that the authorities are "not being given complete and up-to-date information" about the scale of the problem and therefore "the necessary measures" are not being taken to combat this escalation of violence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

The first big heatwave of the year is set to sweep the country on Thursday and last until at least Sunday.

After numerous days with "episodes of high temperatures" across much of the country, the state meteorological agency (AEMET) explained today that forecasts suggest "intense amounts of sunshine" which will further heat up the air mass hanging over the centre of Spain.

Furthermore, the hot weather is highly likely to persist into the beginning of next week, with little or no change in air pressure expected and with temperatures of over 35ºC in numerous places on mainland Spain and in the Balearic Islands.

From Thursday until Sunday, AEMET warns, the south western corner of the country will be "the most obviously affected by this situation".

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SPAIN'S Rafa Nadal has leapt into the history books after clinching the Paris Open title for the 10^th time, fending off third-seeded Stan Wawrinka with an immensely powerful play.

The Swiss national had seen off world number one Andy Murray in the semi-finals, so even though Rafa had already beaten Wawrinka 15 times out of the 19 matches they have played each other, he was not expecting an easy ride.

But after Wawrinka missed a break point in the third game and did not manage to earn any more, the Mallorca-born star – who is now world number two following his epic victory – took advantage of his rival's constant errors and got on a roll.

After winning seven games on the trot, Rafa was flying whilst Wawrinka was down 3-0 in the second set and becoming more and more frustrated, even breaking his racquet on the court with a determined thwack as he saw set two slip from his grasp.

Rafa's relentless forehand in set three meant he was invincible, breaking serve three times and unsettling Wawrinka enough that he hit the net on his second match point.

Later, tennis veteran Pat Cash described Rafa on Radio Five Live as 'lightning-fast' and 'ruthlessly tough'.

He recalled that the Spaniard, now 31, has only lost two Roland Garros titles since 2005, when he first sang victory aged just 19 – and both times he lost he had been grappling with injuries that eventually forced him off the circuit for months.

His first defeat at the Paris stadium was in 2009 against Sweden's Robin Söderling, then he lost again in 2015 to Serbia's Novak Djokovic during a season where he was barely coping due to ongoing injuries in his knee, wrist and back.

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MANCHESTER City FC manager and former Barça legend Pep Guardiola has urged residents in Catalunya, and natives living elsewhere, to vote in the October 1 referendum on independence.

“Referendum means democracy,” says Guardiola, who has called for the international community to appeal to all democrats in Europe and the world to 'support the right to decide'.

He recalls that the regional government has attempted to agree a deal on the referendum with the national government 18 times, but has always been given a flat 'no' and a refusal to even enter into discussions.

The mythical footballer and trainer says democrats round the world should back the people of Catalunya 'against the abuses of an authoritarian State' which has 'ignored us and said 'no' 18 times' despite the referendum idea being backed by 80% of the region's population – whether they support the region's becoming independent or not.

“We're here to make it patently clear that on October 1, we will be voting in a referendum to decide our future,” Guardiola announced in his manifesto during the march in support of the secession election today (Sunday) in Barcelona, attended by several thousand members of the public.

“And we'll vote whether the State wants us to or not.

“Now that the voice of democracy is about to be gagged, now more than ever is when we should head to the polling stations and defend with all our strength our right to democracy and support our elected representatives.

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A REFERENDUM on Catalunya's independence is likely to be held on October 1, according to an announcement by regional president Carles Puigdemont.

Voters will be asked, “Do you want Catalunya to be an independent State in the form of a republic?” and will be given 'yes' and 'no' tick-boxes.

Ballots will be printed in Spanish, catalán and aranés, the local language of the Aran Valley in the land-locked province of Lleida.

“Now is the time for the catalán people to decide their future and demonstrate that democracy unites us above any of the legitimate and healthy discrepancies that characterise any community-spirited and mature society which is capable of deciding for itself and respecting all the possible answers to the question formulated,” Puigdemont said.

Concerning the illegality of the referendum – which goes against Spain's Constitution, drawn up at the end of Franco's dictatorship and brought into effect in 1978 – Puigdemont says the regional government of Catalunya has 'repeatedly attempted to pursue an agreement with the State of Spain', but that Catalunya is 'coming to the end of its legislature without having received a positive response'.

Puigdemont says Spain's legal framework 'does not impede' an agreed referendum and that the only problem is Mariano Rajoy's government's 'I don't want'.

“With an 'I don't', you can't go to the altar,” Puigdemont adds.

He will 'keep the door open' to negotiate with the Spanish government until the last minute before the referendum, but will not hold up the process waiting for Rajoy's cabinet to agree to open discussions.

Puigdemont explains that the referendum was originally going to be in the last weekend of September – voting in Spain always happens on a Sunday, to guarantee workers can cast their ballots – but that it would have clashed with Barcelona's Verge de la Mercè ('Virgin of Mercy') patron saint festival, potentially reducing turnout.

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LONDON police have denied terror victim and hero Ignacio Echeverría was killed by a stray bullet, insisting he was stabbed by one of the killers whilst attempting to fight them off a woman they were attacking.

His sister Ana says the family was summoned by forensic judge Andrew Harris at the Crown Court in Southwark, and that the explanations given for her brother's death were 'correct and sufficient'.

Ignacio was riding his bike and carrying his skateboard near Borough Market on the night of the attack and, when he saw a woman being stabbed, jumped off his cycle and beat the terrorist with his skateboard.

But he was then assaulted from behind by two other terrorists.

All three killers were shot dead by the police, leading to suspicions the Spanish hero had been killed in the crossfire.

It took four days before he was identified as being among the eight dead in the horrendous multiple attack which started on London Bridge, something Ignacio's father Joaquín, sisters Ana and Isabel – the latter of whom also lives in London – and other family members criticised heavily.

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Banco Santander has bought Banco Popular for €1, rescuing its fellow Spanish lender from from the brink of collapse.

The European Central Bank (ECB) and European Commission (EC) gave their go-ahead for the sale early on Wednesday morning after the ECB deemed the Banco Popular to be “failing or likely to fail”.

"The significant deterioration of the liquidity situation of the bank in recent days led to a determination that the entity would have, in the near future, been unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fell due," it concluded.

The Banco Popular's rescue will not cost the taxpayer anything, because Santander will raise €7bn of new capital from the markets €7bn to cover the capital shortfall and strengthen the Popular's balance sheet.

Banco Popular’s collapse was primarily due to ‘toxic’ real estate loans on its books, and its failure to raise fresh capital. The bank made some bad loans before the financial crisis triggered a major Spanish housing crash, and its management have been unable to fix the damage. Back in February, Popular posted a €3.5bn annual loss due to bad debts, restructuring costs and various writedowns. Then in May it admitted that it was setting aside even more money to cover real estate losses.

Its new chairman, Emilio Saracho, has been trying to sell assets and issue more shares to raise capital, but the market has proved unreceptive to his efforts. The crisis escalated in recent days, as a series of potential buyers dropped out of an auction to buy Banco Popular. With capital levels running dangerously low, and its shares in freefall, the ECB was forced to step in and trigger today’s rescue.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

McDonald's has launched its McDelivery service in Spain, a home delivery service they will operate in conjunction with the Spanish startup company Glovo.

The fast food chain is clearly keeping up with consumer habits, having posted sales of over 600 million euros last year, a 10% rise on 2015's figures.

The new home delivery service is only available in Madrid and Barcelona for the time being, but there are plans to implement it gradually across the rest of Spain.

McDonald's is working with the Spanish startup Glovo, whose job it is to guarantee delivery of the orders placed via the application.

There is no minimum order in order to use the service, which will available during each restaurant's normal opening hours, even in the case of those that are open 24 hours.

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SPANISH fuel giant Repsol has uncovered a source of gas large enough to supply the whole of Spain for two years – its biggest discovery since 2012 when it struck liquid gold in the Sagari oil field in Perú.

This time, the two billion cubic feet (TCF) of gas has been discovered at Repsol's platform in Trinidad and Tobago, and is the largest found in the country in more than a decade.

Repsol has found two gas wells, named Savannah and Macadamia, as part of its ongoing exploitation from the offshore rig in Trinidad and Tobago.

The company owns a 30% holding in the main fuel consortium, bpTT, whilst the remaining 70% belongs to BP.

The fuel source is even greater than Repsol's last major find in Perú when, working alongside Brazilian petroleum company Petrobras, it found somewhere between one and two TCF.

Trinidad and Tobago is one of the most oil-rich production countries in the world after the USA, where Repsol also found a major source in March.

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The Bank of Spain has confirmed that the 12-month Euribor - the indicator used to calculate most mortgage rates in Spain - dropped to -0.127% in May, a new historic low which translates to an average annual saving of some 61 euros.

May's figures mark the 16th month in a row with the Euribor in negative figures, and the downward trend looks set to continue with the Central European Bank confirming "solid" economic prospects for the euro zone.

The estimated 61 euro annual saving for mortgage holders is based on the fact that in May last year the indicator sat at -0.013%, meaning that a mortgage of 100,000 euros across 25 years with a differential of Euribor plus 1% had a monthly cost of 376.28 euros. Monthly payments on a mortgage of these characteristics under the May 2017 conditions however, will drop to 371.20 euros, equating to a monthly saving of 5.08 euros or 60.96 euros across the year.

In addition, new residential mortgage lending rose by 20.2% in March compared to the previous year, according to the latest figures from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

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A LEAST one Spaniard is among the injured in last night's terrorist attack in London, which happened just minutes after the end of the Champions' League final in Cardiff, won by Real Madrid.

As yet, the identities of the seven who were killed and the 48 wounded when a white van ploughed through 20 pedestrians on London Bridge before heading to Borough Market and stabbing several restaurant customers have not been revealed.

Spanish foreign affairs minister Alfonso Dastis says a person with a Spanish passport – although it is not known whether they are an expat or a tourist – is being treated in a London hospital, although the patient's injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.

Witnesses on London Bridge said they saw 'people flying through the air' and 'throwing themselves into the Thames', and at least six people lying on the ground.

A young woman was seen staggering into a pub near the bridge with blood pouring from her neck and mouth.

So far, 12 people have been arrested and the three main attackers – all men – have been shot dead by police.

They were wearing what appeared to be suicide bomber vests, but which turned out to be waistcoats with tin plates stuck to them and no explosives inside.

The attackers were said to be carrying huge knives and stabbed bystanders at random in an attack that was over in the space of 10 minutes.

Many injured parties were seen being given mouth-to-mouth and CPR on the bridge and in the Borough Market area, a popular pub and restaurant zone which attracts hundreds of tourists and locals round the clock.

In less than three months, 34 people have been killed in terrorist attacks in the UK – five in Westminster at the hands of Kent-born Brit Adrian Elms, a self-proclaimed 'Muslim convert' who changed his name to Khalid Masood, then 22 revellers at Ariana Grande's Manchester Arena concert a fortnight ago, six of whom were children and the majority of whom were under 21.

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VOTING in elections in Spain via digital means is 'less of a possibility now than a decade ago', says the ministry for the interior, due to the 'risk of hacking'.

An increase in the threat of cyber-crime means Secretary of State for security José Antonio Nieto says there is no chance of doing away with paper ballot slips in the near future, despite the technology already being in place and ready to go.

“For the moment paper voting slips are the only guaranteed method,” says Nieto, who admits that the State electoral board advised seven years ago that voting should go digital.

“Very few countries would dare to do so these days with the rising danger of hacking,” he explains.

“There's no guarantee voting papers would not be tampered with if they were submitted online.

“Nowadays, electronic voting is even less of a possibility than it was 10 years ago – it's a risk we cannot and must not take.”

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AIR pollution caused by carbon monoxide leads to significant changes in children's brain structure, even when levels of contamination are below the European Union's recommended maximum, says a worrying report by a Barcelona research team.

Aromatic Polyclinical Hydrocarburates (APHs), found in exhaust fumes, cigarette smoke, burning fossil fuels, smoke from burning food, and other pollutants such as industrial fumes and burning rubber and chemicals are associated with a higher incidence of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), according to the study published in Environment International.

The main culprit is traffic pollution, reveals the team at Barcelona's Global Health Institute (ISGlobal), whose BREATHE Project studied 242 male and female children aged between eight and 12 from 39 schools in the metropolitan area.

Air contamination levels were tested, and the participant pupils' brain structure examined via MRI scans.

Results showed that high exposure to APHs, particularly Benzopyrene, correlated with a reduction in the caudate nucleus, a component of the basal ganglia.

The caudate nuclei are located near the central part of the brain, straddling the thalamus – which controls basic functions such as feeling hungry, thirsty, hot or cold – and play a major role in motor processes, or movement and organ function.

These nuclei have also been associated with non-motor functions such as procedural learning – or skills that are exercised automatically once acquired, such as walking or writing – associative learning, and inhibitory control, or the 'moral brake' on instinctive behaviour which falls within the brain's 'reward system'.

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