Live News From Spain As It Happens

August marked the fifth month in a row that has seen an increase in the number of mortgages being signed in Spain.

6.8% more mortgages were signed in August this year than in 2017, and despite dropping back slightly on July's figures, the trend is still upwards.

According to data published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 40.2% were fixed-rate mortgages.

The five consecutive months of interannual growth in the sector show that the mortgage market is on a positive and stable track and everything points towards the trend continuing into September.

One of the key issues in recent months has been the Supreme Court's recent ruling that banks are liable to pay the taxes relating to registering new mortgages.

José Luis Martínez Campuzano, spokesperson for the Spanish Banking Association (AEB), warned of the necessity to "provide the market with legal protection, clear and predictable regulations, in order to preserve the smooth operation of the mortgage sector", but nevertheless welcomed today's figures as confirming the favourable conditions for financing property purchases with a mortgage loan.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Shares in pharmaceutical multinational Grifols skyrocketed on the Spanish stock exchange on Monday after the company announced the results of a clinical trial of a plasma replacement product that had succeeded in slowing the progress of cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer's.

Presenting the results at a conference in Barcelona, the company, a global producer of blood plasma derivatives, said trials of the product had shown a 61% deceleration in the progress of Alzheimer's in patients with moderate symptoms, offering the possibility of a new treatment channel for the neurodegenerative disease.

Ambar (Alzheimer Management By Albumin Replacement) was tested on 496 patients and combines the periodic extraction of plasma and its replacement with an albumen solution, a plasma protein.

The treatment is founded on the hypothesis that most amyloid beta, the main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer patients, circulates in plasma attached to the albumen. The extraction of this plasma could displace the amyloid beta from the brain to the plasma, limiting the impact of the illness on the cognitive function of the patient.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

American rock band Bon Jovi have announced that the upcoming European leg of their ‘This House is not For Sale Tour’ tour will include a stop at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid on Sunday July 7th next year.

Tickets for the band's only concert in Spain during this tour will go on sale on November 9th. People registered with Live Nation will have access to pre-sale tickets from 10am on November 8th.

Bon Jovi’s three-decade history has seen them sell more than 130 million records and become inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  The North American leg of the tour began in Greenville in February 2017 and concluded 63 concerts later in Montreal in May this year.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

The president of the Spanish Society of Clinical Allergology and Immunology (SEAIC), Dr Joaquín Sastre, revealed on Monday that biological therapy to treat serious cases of acute atopic dermatitis, which have already received EU approval and will be available in Spanish hospitals in two months' time, are going to "radically change the lives of patients".

As Sastre explained, the prevalence of acute atopic dermatitis is "fortunately" very low, affecting only between 0.2% and 0.55 of the population, and yet it "destroys" the lives of those affected because of the intense burning itchiness it causes on the skin. "Patients' quality of life is poor and distressing", said the doctor. What's more, it tends to appear on the face in young people during their twenties, causing physiological problems that can lead to insomnia, anxiety and depression, as well as a feeling of isolation. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SHOCK reports in the global media about how plastic has been found in human poo – and every one of us eats it – have turned the tides for those who thought pollution was just a 'fish problem': at every meal, we munch our way through 100 pieces of microplastic, and these take 1,000 years to break down. So, if we don't pass it, we'll have to wait until the year 3018 for the plastic we ate in our last meal to vanish.

Yuk.

Already, a million marine birds and 100,000 sea mammals die every year because of plastic pollution, with up to 700 species being on the verge of extinction and 90% of those still alive thought to have plastic inside them.

Recent harrowing footage on the BBC showed a Shearwater feeding plastic to her chicks, mistaking it for food, leaving the babies so weighed down by the substance that they were unable to fly.

Sports and entertainment stars in Spain say no to plastic

Now, Spanish celebrities have enlisted for the war on plastic, and their Twitter campaign is going viral.

National Geographic España has called upon big names in the sports and arts worlds to answer the question, “Planet or plastic?” and 'put themselves in the shoes of sea turtles', by tweeting a photograph of them eating plastic.

They then have to 'nominate' their friends, ideally other celebs, to do likewise, citing the hashtag #YoElijoPlaneta ('I choose planet').

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A TYPE of dolphin believed to be extinct in the Mediterranean has been seen seven times off the Costa del Sol in recent months, according to the marine protection charity OceanSea.

The Common or Harbour Porpoise, one of the smallest mammals found in the sea and a species that stays close to the coast, has long been thought to have been wiped out in southern Europe, but the sightings have shown that it is alive and well and that habitats continue to survive in the Alborán Sea, between Almería and eastern Morocco.

The Phocoena Phocoena is one of six species considered 'endangered' and which are subject to special conservation orders, says OceanSea's Juan Manuel Salazar.

And in the past three years, 651 sightings of these six have been reported – most of them, 542 in total, of bottlenose dolphins, and another 79 of the Common or Atlantic Dolphin.

Rarer still are rorqual or blue-fin whale sightings – just 12 in three years – although a much higher number has been spotted off the Cabo de la Nao cape on the cusp of Dénia and Jávea (northern Alicante province), mainland Spain's easternmost tip, which is said to be on the so-called 'Whale Way', or migration path.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EUROPEAN Parliament has outlawed all associations which exalt or glorify fascism in response to the rise of the alt-right and increasing incidences of racism and xenophobia across the continent.

This means the Francisco Franco Foundation is now illegal and must be wound up.

Five different political parties in Europe, including the PP and other right-wing or conservative groups, voted in favour, but the latter would only do so if no mention was made of any specific organisations.

The Francisco Franco Foundation, run by the family of the late dictator (pictured), was not cited as a main reason for the ban – it is principally in response to concerns about a rise in neo-fascist and neo-Nazi type attacks.

One of the most recent high-profile cases was an assault on Italian MEP Eleonora Forenza and her assistant by an alt-right group known as Casa Pound.

The 28 governments in the EU have been urged to condemn and take disciplinary action against fascist speech by politicians and other public figureheads amid worries that the trend of xenophobia and racism is becoming institutionalised.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WOMAN who went through an early menopause has just given birth to a baby girl – using her own eggs.

Pioneering day-surgery carried out by Barcelona's Hospital Clínic has so far enabled six post-menopausal women to become pregnant by stimulating egg production even after fertility has biologically ceased.

Clinical trials were carried out on 12 women who had all suffered a premature menopause – defined as under 40 years of age and affecting about 1% of Spain's population, or around 170,000 women.

Without using follicle-stimulant drugs, exactly half of them began to ovulate again following treatment, one of whom became pregnant and has just given birth.

María José Ortega was just 30 when she started the menopause – having tried to become pregnant and failed – and underwent five different types of IVF over the next two years, without success.

She was told that she had 'practically no eggs'.

As a last resort, she was referred to the hospital via the State health system for tests to see whether she would benefit from donor eggs, but gynaecologists suggested their new technique to her, which would – if successful – allow her to have a baby from one of her own eggs.

“The service the doctor gave me was excellent, so I trusted him and decided I had nothing to lose,” María José says.

She had surgery in October 2017 and gave birth to Daniela in August, aged 33.

Dr Francesc Fàbregues and Dr Francesc Carmona, who led the research project and carried out the operations, said theirs could be 'the technique of the future' and would 'open up many possibilities', but that it would need to be investigated further.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH paraglider missing for five days in the north Indian mountains has finally been rescued – in perfect health.

José Luis Bernal García, from Asturias, disappeared on Friday after jumping off a peak in Bir Billing, the village hosting an international paragliding championship this summer, in the Himalayan State of Himchal Pradesh.

He was found alive on Monday and, although his friends said he had 'sufficient material to survive a few nights', they had become very worried and José Luis' state of health was not known.

“The Spanish citizen is safe and well,” said magistrate of the subdivision of Baijnath, Vikas Shukla.

“It was a clean rescue with no incidents.”

José Luis' friend and fellow paraglider – one of the five who had accompanied him to India – Sento Córdoba met the resued Spaniard as he got off the helicopter.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WORLD number one tennis star Rafael Nadal has celebrated the second anniversary of his sports academy in Mallorca – by opening another one.

The Rafa Nadal Academy by Movístar started out life in the ATP ace's native town of Manacor, and trains up young talents with the aid of a technical team of coaches led by Rafa's uncle and former trainer, Toni Nadal, using the same techniques as those which catapaulted Rafa to stardom and have kept him there right up to press.

Along with sports coaching, future tennis prodigies are trained to be all-rounders and upstanding members of the community through their education at the American International School of Mallorca, aiming to instill in them values such as effort, patience, respect, humility, tolerance, integrity, discipline, order and commitment.

Students include Spanish Junior Champion in singles and doubls, Rosa Vicens, and ATP world number 79, Jaume Munar.

Now, two years on, another branch of the sports school is about to open on the Costa Mujeres area of eastern México, just north of the holiday hotspot of Cancún.

Forming part of the complexes of the TRS Coral Hotel and TRS Grand Palladium Costa Mujeres Resort & Spa, the new Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre will be ready to take in pupils by November, both holidaymakers and year-round residents.

Using the same techniques as the Manacor branch, the Costa Mujeres academy is ideal for tourists to hone their skills or learn from scratch as a complementary activity, or even to take a 'tennis holiday' in the Caribbean sun where the main focus is their game.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AFTER the weekend's record-breaking rainfall across the country – especially the east and south coast – winter is due to set in by the end of this week thanks to a mass of polar air sweeping Spain.

Temperatures are set to plummet, and mountains in the north will see snow falling, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

Flash floods in the province of Málaga caused a fireman's death, and here and in the east-coast province of Castellón, tens of thousands of properties had to be bailed out and numerous drivers rescued from their cars.

Over half a million children and teenagers in the province of Castellón were off school on Thursday and Friday.

Vinaròs (Castellón province) broke all records on Friday evening when 159.2 litres of rain per square metre (15.92 centimetres, or six-and-a-quarter inches) fell in the space of just one hour between 18.00 and 19.00.

Until now, the rainfall record has not been broken since March 2002, when Santa Cruz de Tenerife was hit by 129.9 litres of rain per square metre (nearly 13 centimetres, or just over five inches) in an hour.

Over two or three hours, between 192 and 234 litres per square metre (19.2 to 23.4 centimetres, or about 7.7 to 9.2 inches) was registered in the province of Málaga this weekend.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITS living in Spain are on their way home after joining the 670,000-strong People's Vote march in central London calling for the public to have a final say on any Brexit deal – and for this vote to include an option to remain in the European Union.

Bremain in Spain, a campaign group fighting Brexit with over 5,200 members on its Facebook site, joined the march with their slogan 'Brexit is Bonkers' and wore yellow baseball caps and blue T-shirts.

Many of Bremain in Spain's members and supporters have begun posting their own photographs of the day's march on social media, which show a wealth of imagination among remainers.

The most-liked so far reads: “My mother-in-law lives in Spain. Please don't make them send her back here!”, while other popular banners read: “Even Baldrick had a plan;” “Jacob's Crackers,” in the style of the popular water biscuits and referring to Tory hard-line Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg; “Ikea has better cabinets;” “Nice one, Dave,” referring to British prime minister David Cameron who held the referendum on leaving or remaining in the EU; “June 24, 2016: Worst hangover ever,” referring to the day after the referendum; “This is the worst trade negotiation since Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” and even, “This is like when Geri overestimated her viability as a solo artist and left the Spice Girls;” although the latter may not be the best analogy, given that Geri Halliwell had two number one singles and two best-selling albums within as many years of leaving the band.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FORMERLY the 'Prince of Asturias Awards', but renamed the 'Princess of Asturias Awards' in 2014 when said Prince became King, these Royal honours are often referred to as Spain's answer to the Nobel Prize – and are becoming more and more international.

In fact, this year, none of the recipients is Spanish – compared with previous years when practically all of them were.

Running since 1981, the prestigious prizegiving – which took place late on Friday in Oviedo, Asturias – comes in eight categories: Arts; Communication and Humanities; International Cooperation; Concordance; Sports; Letters; Social Sciences; and Science and Technology Research.

Probably the most famous face at the 2018 awards, after King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia, was legendary film director Martin Scorsese, the guest of honour

Arts Award: Martin Scorsese

Italian-American director Scorsese, 75, was lauded by the King for 'the greatness of his works', his 'constant search for truth and redemption', his 'passion for life' and his 'ability to flesh out...the ambivalence of human feelings'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NURSES are now permitted to prescribe medication 'under clinical guidelines' and in line with requirements set by their individual regional health authorities.

Until now, only doctors, podologists and odontologists have been allowed to prescribe medication, and nurses only permitted to administer drugs under the instructions of one of these.

A restricted law introduced in 2015 upset nurses, who felt they were being treated as second-class health professionals and that they were being hindered in their work, to the detriment of patients, although they admitted that the terms of the new legislation did offer them greater protection and better comfort for patients.

Back in 2015, thinkSPAIN spoke to a number of nurses who explained how far the new law enabled them to act in terms of medication – they would be permitted to give a paracetamol for a headache, but not, for example, morphine.

Until then, a patient in A&E who was in pain would not be able to get any relief unless a doctor was available to authorise it, and night nurses were not allowed to provide any drugs for pain which had not already been agreed by a doctor, meaning the patient may have to suffer until the doctor's rounds during the late morning, as on-call medics only attend to emergencies.

Giving an aspirin to a patient with a headache when there was no doctor available to prescribe it could mean a nurse being fired and struck off for 'practising without a licence', which is in fact a criminal offence that could even lead to a suspended custodial sentence.

Despite this, the nurses who spoke to thinkSPAIN said they studied the same amount of credits in pharmacology at university as doctors do, and that many nurses are even more highly-qualified than doctors – whilst a nursing degree is much shorter than a doctor's studies, many nurses go on to take a master's or PhD to specialise further.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PRACTICALLY the whole of Spain is on the qui vive after warnings from the Met office of the most severe storms in a decade hitting the mainland.

After catching the tail end of Hurricane Leslie – which had reduced to an 'ordinary' gale-force wind by the time it struck Portugal, Galicia and western Andalucía earlier this week – the country is now braced for a monsoon on a scale not seen since 2008.

Except on the Mediterranean coast, says Rubén del Campo from the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

“Episodes of seasonal torrential rain in the Mediterranean arc are common in our climate, but this is the first time since 2008 that they have been so generalised,” he explains.

Two cold fronts gripping the country – one from the Mediterranean and one from the Atlantic – guarantee that barely a single province will escape the weekend's downpours.

In the eastern coastal provinces, this type of deluge is a regular feature of autumn and is known as a gota fría, typically involving rainfall exceeding 40 litres per square metre (four centimetres, or just under two inches) in an hour, which is the usual benchmark for insurance companies when considering weather-related property claims.

But central Spain is much drier, albeit with much colder winters: on the Med, heating is only truly essential for a month or two a year, compared with four or five months in Madrid and surrounding areas.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TELEVISION in public hospitals throughout the eastern region of the Comunidad Valenciana will soon be free of charge for patients – and the government opposition wants to extend this to Wi-Fi coverage.

Until now, patients had to buy cards from hospital receptions to use in the public telephones and TVs on the wards, and keep replacing them when they ran out of credit.

The estimated cost is around €4 a day and, with the average hospital stay being six days, patients admitted spend around €24 on watching TV.

For those unable to read due to problems holding a book and turning pages, the TV is their only entertainment – especially as Wi-Fi is not normally available or, if it is, comes at a charge.

Television services in the region's hospitals, as in other parts of Spain, are provided by franchises, and the cost of the cards purchased to access these go straight to the private-sector firms in question, rather than to the health service.

But Valencia regional health minister Ana Barceló says her cabinet aims to 'humanise' hospitals and health centres, and part of this new patient focus will mean her department's budget funding TV and – possibly – internet for anyone admitted.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MORE than half of Spain's drivers do not use their indicators when they overtake and two-thirds fail to do so when they return to the inside lane, says the motorways safety centre.

Research by the toll firm Abertis says 53.1% of motorists overtake on dual carriageways without telling the driver behind what they are about to do, and 67.1% do not use their indicators when they have completed the manoeuvre and pull back into the right-hand lane.

And according to the study, commissioned by the centre in Granollers (Barcelona province), the number of drivers who fail to use their indicators in each scenario has risen by 13.5% and 17.4% respectively in the last year.

Chairwoman of the motorways safety centre Cristina Zamorano warns that failure to use indicators when overtaking, turning, entering or leaving a junction or lane puts other road users in danger – and is an offence which attracts a fine of €200.

She says the survey has revealed other driving data which may be a reflection of honesty rather than motoring standards, but are still a concern: 38.1% admit to driving 'slightly' over the speed limit.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH medic has been named the World's Best GP in the prestigious WONCA Global Family Doctor awards.

Dr Verónica Casado is based at the Parquesol health centre in Valladolid, Castilla y León, just to the north of Madrid and was chosen by unanimous vote at the WONCA Five-Stars European Conference in Prague.

The World Organisation of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners and Family Physicians, otherwise known as the World Organisation of Family Doctors, has never previously granted its top award to a Spanish medic – and this time, the winner represents two continents, not just one.

Dr Casado has been picked as top GP for Europe and Latin America combined, earning unanimous votes at the WONCA-CIMF Five-Stars conference in Cali, Colombia.

Previous female winners have included Dr Atai Omoruto, from Uganda; Dr Lucy Candib, from the USA, and jointly in 2010, Dr Sonia Roache from Trinidad & Tobago and Professor Ruth Wilson from Canada.

Dr Casado has been in practice for over 30 years and has extensive experience in medical teaching, contributing to and editing specialist textbooks, international cooperation, medical director, practice manager, and sub-director for healthcare planning for the national ministry of health.

She holds a PhD in medicine and surgery, completed in 1987 – two years after she started work at the Parquesol clinic, where she has been ever since.

In a post-award interview, Dr Casado admitted that life as a GP in Spain was made 'very difficult' during the financial crisis, and is still 'not easy'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S president Pedro Sánchez and leader of left-wing Podemos, Pablo Iglesias have finally shook hands on the details of next year's State budget after a long meeting following weeks of debate.

Iglesias' support is crucial for Sánchez to be able to get the budget through Parliament, given his minority government of just 84 seats out of 351, so the compromises reached between the two party heads are a major step forward.

If enough votes in favour allow the 2019 budget to become reality, this is what residents in Spain can expect from January 2019.

Minimum wage to rise to €900

Unlike the previous PP-led government, which planned to increase the minimum wage for a full-time 40-hour week to €850 a month by the year 2020, Pedro Sánchez and Pablo Iglesias have agreed to up it to €900 from the start of 2019. Minimum wages are referred to in 14-month years – with a double salary at Christmas and in August – so for the majority who earn 12 monthly salaries a year, this means they cannot be paid less than €1,050, or the pro-rata equivalent if they work part-time.

It is not clear if this figure is gross or net, but on a before-tax wage of €900 a month in 14 payments or €1,050 in 12, based upon an unmarried adult with no dependants and not registered disabled, the monthly take-home would be €964.50 in 12 payments or €884 in 14.

Podemos wanted the minimum wage to be €1,000 rather than €900, and the aim is to work towards this for 2020.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WHEN is a hotel not a hotel? When it's a bubble, a cave or a castle, naturally.

Or perhaps a prison.

Even though our priorities when picking a place to stay are usually along the themes of free wi-fi, central location, decent room service, and so on, a hotel doesn't have to be just a bed for the night, however luxurious.

If you want to add a touch of quirkiness to your holiday that the usual chains can't offer, Spain has a whole catalogue of options ranging from 'just wow' to just plain weird.

Capture the castle

If it's historic splendour you're after, look no further than Spain's nationwide network of Paradores – a State-owned chain of 97 unique, very individual hotels set in stunning, stately buildings. Hand-picked for their heritage value, historical significance and amazing architecture, very few make the grade but those which do are highly sought-after. The first Parador out of the 97 was the Gredos hotel in the centre-northern province of Ávila, in an ancient palace, and which triggered the whole thing 90 years ago. Many are set in castles – like the Parador de Cardona, built into the 9th-century fortress of the same name; the eponymous Parador in Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca province, in the 14th-century Enrique II Castle; the Carlos V Castle in Fuenterrabía in the Basque province of Guipúzcoa; the 9th-century Lorca Castle in the Region of Murcia; the Parador de Alarcón in an eight-century castle on top of a mountain in the province of Cuenca...and that's just a few picked at random.

Other Paradores are based in old convents, including the 17th-century Rosario Convent in Lleida, Catalunya and the huge San Marcos Convent in the city of León, which is a tourist attraction in itself. Two are built in monasteries - the San Pedro de Villanueva Monastery in Cangas de Onís and the San Juan Bautista Monastery in Corias, Asturias – plus a handful in palaces, and even one in a church. The Jesús Nazareno Order building in Mérida, Extremadura, started life as a convent in the early 18th century, but later became a parish church – until the State was forced to sell off huge swathes of its Holy assets to pay its debts in the grim 19th-century economic crisis known as the Desamortización.

And if you stay there, your check-out receipt upon leaving will literally be your get-out-of-jail card: after the church was sold off, it served as the local prison until 1933 when it took in its first paying 'inmates'.

Living in a bubble

Slap-bang in the centre of a field of wheat in the Bardenas nature reserve near Tudela in the northern region of Navarra, the Hotel Aire de Bardenas lets you spend your holiday on the moon. Literally. The lunar landscape of the reserve provides the perfect backdrop, the  patio adds authenticity, and you can choose between a box or a bubble as your 'space station'.

Here, you can actually stay in a self-contained, ball-shaped room with a glass roof that gives you the illusion of sleeping under the stars and which, by night from the outside, could easily be a spaceship on the moon. They're pretty large, too – you'd be amazed at how much 'space' a bubble's interior can provide you with...

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONCE again, Spain's healthcare system is the best in Europe – it's official.

And State medical services in the country are the third-most efficient on earth, beaten only by those of Hong Kong and Singapore respectively.

The annual ranking compiled by Bloomberg covers 56 national health services in total, and Bulgaria sits at the bottom with the USA, where medical treatment availability depends upon patients' insurance covering it, is second from bottom, below Azerbaijan.

Even some countries in the European Union fare very badly in the Bloomberg ranking: perhaps surprisingly, Germany is among the least efficient at number 45 out of 56, having fallen six places from last year and beaten by Kazakhstan and Ecuador, whilst Hungary sits at 42.

Denmark, a nation far ahead of the rest of the world in many aspects including quality of life and employment, and generally among the most modern countries on earth, comes 41st out of 56, climbing one place up from last year and beaten by Venezuela and Iran.

Belgium, at 38, ranks worse than Romania, and even Perú where crowded A&E departments and medical treatment coming at a cost to the patient mean even natives consider the service poor.

And if anyone was in any doubt about whether the NHS in the UK was as inefficient as mass media claims and was getting worse, its ranking of 35th out of 56, a fall of 14 places on last year's 21 putting it behind Slovakia and Algeria, appears to be confirmation – and professionals fear the slide will continue if European staff carry on leaving as a result of the uncertainty of their post-Brexit future, and EU citizens' emigration to Britain is restricted after the end of March 2019.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOPEFULLY, you'll have realised today (Friday) is a national public holiday before going out shopping and finding everywhere closed – although if you're in Catalunya, you'll probably still be able to pick up the weekly groceries without any problems.

Historically called Día de la Hispanidad, or 'Hispanic Day', and now more often referred to as the Fiesta Nacional de España ('National Festival of Spain'), the countrywide day off work has had its fair share of controversy as well as celebration.

In Aragón, as it coincides with the saint's day for the Virgen del Pilar – which is why you'll often see it referred to as the Puente del Pilar or 'Pilar Bank Holiday Weekend' – residents in the tongue-shaped region which stretches from the Pyrénées to about a third of the way down the mainland to the east of the centre will normally speak of October 12 in these terms, escaping any concerns about political correctness.

For the rest of the country, however, it's mainly just treated as a bonus day off to break up the working month – except by residents in and visitors to Madrid, who get to enjoy the pomp of a full military parade with paratroopers and aerobatics, as well as a close-up glimpse of the King and Queen.

Brave new world

It is said to be October 12 when, in the year 1492, Christopher Columbus' Crown-funded voyage from Cádiz ended on dry land, reputedly in what is now Santo Domingo, the capital city of the Dominican Republic.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LEFT-WING party Podemos wants to ban any type of physical violence against children or teenagers, starting with the most socially-acceptable forms: smacking hands or bottoms, shaking, or similar 'disciplinary contact'.

Spain's third-largest political force wants the government to agree to the new law proposal in the next few months, since otherwise it may not be able to come into force until after the next general elections.

According to the text of the motion, any 'use of physical force' which is 'aimed at causing a certain level of pain or at least discomfort, however mild' should be outlawed, and would include 'slapping, punching, smacking, kicking, shaking, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or ears, hitting with a rod or other object, forcing [children] into uncomfortable positions [such as standing in a corner with their hands on their heads for a prolonged period], producing burns, etc'.

Prior to the year 2005, parents or guardians had the right, by law, to use 'reasonable and moderate' physical methods of discipline, but the socialist government led by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero – in power from March 2004 until November 2011 – axed this from the Civil Code.

Zapatero was following Council of Europe recommendations which have cited scientific evidence to show smacking and other forms of physical punishment is harmful in the short and long term to children.

WORLD number one tennis star Rafa Nadal has thrown open his eponymous tennis academy in Manacor as emergency accommodation for Mallorca flood victims.

About 50 residents on the island spent last night at the Rafa Nadal Sports Centre in the pearl-factory town, and will continue to have beds if they need them from tonight onwards.

Nadal, who was born in Manacor, was desperate to help his home islanders after some of the worst torrential rain and flash floods in living memory hit the town of San Llorenç des Cardassar this week.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO cases of dengue fever have been confirmed in Spain for the first time ever – and experts say they are 'not surprised' it has put in an appearance in the country.

A tropical disease passed on by mosquitoes, dengue causes high fever, general body aches and pains, and vomiting.

There is no vaccine, and anyone who travels to rural areas in the tropics is normally advised to use strong fly repellent with DEET as one of its ingredients.

The confirmed cases are two Spaniards from the same family who live in Alhama (Murcia) and are said to be in their 50s or early 60s.

Neither had ever travelled to a high-risk area, and it is believed the disease may have been passed on by the so-called 'tiger mosquito', which has a sting that causes much greater irritation than 'mainstream' mosquitoes.

A third case, within the same family, has not been confirmed, but the patient is around the same age and has not travelled outside of Spain recently.

All three were in Cádiz when they contracted the infection.

Spanish health authorities say the two definite dengue cases are a man and a woman who live together in Alhama, but are not partners, and that the third possible patient lives in Madrid.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A DOG, a weaver, an eight-year-old girl and a landowner with a spade formed the cast.

The opening line was: “Look, daddy! Oxen!”

And the setting: a communal home, uninhabited and forgotten for over 13,000 years.

Cantabria, on Spain's blustery northern coast, was sitting on a future UNESCO heritage site that, half a century on, would start to accumulate queues of camera-clicking tourists from every continent.

If María Sanz de Sautuola y Escalante could have lived to the age of 148, she would have seen her oxen (which was actually a bison) in motion for the first time a week ago on Tuesday, galloping across the Google 'doodle of the day', to mark the anniversary of the discovery of the Altamira Caves, on September 25, 1868 – although, in practice, it is she who should take the credit for being the first person in the world to see the first prehistoric cave paintings on earth ever uncovered in the Anno Domini era.

Because when Modesto Cubillas, a weaver from Cantabria's western neighbour, Asturias, first clambered into an unremarkable hole in the ground to free his trapped dog, he just assumed it was yet another grotto in the hillside, of which there were hundreds near the coastal town of Santillana del Mar.

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FOR THE first time in its 150-year history, Madrid's famous Puerta del Sol clock will strike twice on New Year's Eve – once at midnight and once at 01.00 on New Year's Day.

Practically anyone who is in Spain and watching for the chimes on the TV on December 31 will be viewing the clock in the Puerta del Sol square in the centre of the capital – in fact, it serves as the Spanish answer to Big Ben on Old Year's Night.

And traditionally, people in Spain eat 12 grapes, one on every chime, supposedly to ensure 12 months of good luck in the year to come.

But residents in the Canary Islands have to rely on their watches or mobile phone clocks, as they are an hour behind and will still be in 2018 for an hour whilst the rest of the country is already in 2019.

This time, however, after Canary Island regional president Fernando Clavijo met with his Greater Madrid counterpart Ángel Garrido, it has been agreed that the archipelago's New Year will also be chimed in by the country's capital.

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DRIVERS in Madrid without traffic authority emissions stickers in a prominent place will be fined in six months' time, warns the city council.

Although residents will now have time to acquire their stickers, issued by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) from the post office, where this leaves visitors to the city is unclear.

Hire cars will already have them in place by the time the six months is up, but people from other parts of Spain spending the weekend in Madrid will have to be careful.

In principle, it is not thought that areas outside the central 'almond', or the metropolitan area within the M-30 ringroad,will be affected, meaning driving to the airport from elsewhere in Spain may not cause a problem.

Fines for not displaying the stickers will be set at €90, or reduced to €45 if paid within 20 days.

For the moment, the stickers are voluntary and it is recommended that they be fixed to the windscreen.

They come in yellow, blue, green or 'eco' – which is blue and green – with the blue carrying a 'zero' for 'emission-free', the yellow a B and the green a C.

'Eco' stickers are for hybrid vehicles with an autonomy – or battery life – of less than 40 kilometres, or those which run on compressed or liquid gas or liquid petroleum gas, whilst the 'zero' stickers are for those with no emissions at all, such as electrically-powered cars with an autonomy or battery life of more than 40 kilometres

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MOTORSPORT ace Fernando Alonso may continue with McLaren in 2019 – as a test-driver, according to a German magazine.

The twice-world champion from Oviedo, Asturias, who is set to give up his Formula 1 career at the end of this year after a long run of non-competitive cars that have prevented him from winning any races, is expected to forge ahead with his new-found passion for IndyCar.

Dovetailing the Toyota World Endurance Championship (WEC) with Formula 1 – with team McLaren's blessing – Alonso, 37, was mainly aiming to win the Le Mans 24-Hour race, which he did earlier this year on the first attempt.

With a double Monaco Grand Prix win in Formula 1, Alonso only needs to net the Indianapolis 500 to complete the so-called motorsport 'Triple Crown' – so far only achieved by one other racing driver in history, the UK's Graham Hill.

He attempted this last year, but engine failure a few laps from the end, after he had been in the lead for most of the race, forced him to retire.

The Spaniard, whom McLaren has replaced with compatriot Carlos Sainz Junior, had opted to leave Formula 1 after years of under-performing cars and poor results, saying he had 'bigger fish to fry', and it was assumed he would dedicate himself 100% to IndyCar.

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FREE alcohol deals could become illegal in the Greater Madrid region, and if the plan goes ahead, may stretch to other parts of Spain.

In a bid to improve public health in general, an overhaul of food and drink consumption will ban offers such as 'free bottle of wine with every meal for two', shots on the house after dinner, two-for-one drinks offers, and anything else that involves alcohol being used as a bait to draw in customers.

Open bars will also be banned if director-general of public health in the region, Juan Martínez Hernández, and Madrid's minister in charge of the area, Enrique Ruiz Escudero, bring their ideas to fruition.

They will also make it compulsory for anyone in the Madrid area who handles food professionally to be able to speak Spanish – including restaurants, bars selling snacks or meals, grocery shops and food stalls – so that they can answer any questions customers may pose, including allergy and nutritional content information.

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A WOMAN has won a motorcycling world championship for the first time in history – Ana Carrasco, 21, netted the World Supersport 300 title on Sunday by just one point.

The Murcia-born 'Pink Warrior', as she is nicknamed on the circuit, became the youngest woman ever to compete in the world speed championships in Moto3 when she was just 16, but missed out on the title.

She was also the first woman to earn points at MotoGP level since Katja Poensgen in 2001– three years ago, when she came 15th at the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang.

But she was unable to find sponsors for the 2017 season in Moto2, and opted to make the sideways move into Supersport 300.

She would very soon become the first woman to win a race in a world championship qualifier, being first past the checquered flag on the Algarve circuit in September 2017.

She reached the top of the standings in May this year, the first female ever to do so, at Donnington Park, where Ana also notched up another record: the first girl ever to take pole.

Just one single point separated Ana from her nearest rival when she scooped up the world championship title on Sunday – something she calls 'unbelievable' but admits she and her team have 'worked hard' to reach.

She dedicated her win to her late, great friend Luis Salom, who was killed in a crash during the practice round at the Catalunya Grand Prix in 2016.

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SPAIN'S Supreme Court has ruled that any and all physical contact of a sexual nature, where deliberate, and irrespective of how brief it is, counts as a criminal offence.

This ground-breaking and necessary verdict means grabbing someone's bottom, breast or legs in a pub, a crowd or on public transport, for example, is no longer simply a tort or civil offence but attracts criminal charges on the grounds of 'sexual abuse'.

This interpretation of Article 181 of the Penal Code clarifies the situation for many victims – the vast majority women, with the bulk of offenders being men – since verdicts in lower courts have varied between jailing the authors of this behaviour for sexual abuse and dismissing it as 'nothing'.

The latter verdict was particularly the case when groping was very brief and the court considered it had been too fleeting for the victim to suffer any psychological damage.

But now, however swiftly it happens, it is still considered a crime.

The severity of it dictates whether the offender is sentenced to the minimum of six months in jail or the maximum of two years – although a custodial term of less than two years does not have to be served if it is for a first offence – or a daily fine of between 18 and 24 months.

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SPAIN'S president Pedro Sánchez made his United Nations début appearance yesterday (Thursday), speaking publicly at the organisation's AGM to explain and defend his immigration policies.

Reports released today quote him as calling on all member nations to do their bit and saying nationalism had no place in modern society, especially when migrants' wellbeing and even lives were at risk. Assisting migrants stranded out to sea is a 'moral imperative' at a time when 'global challenges' were on the table, including refugees and what is often termed 'economic migration', specifically coined to cover those escaping third-world poverty and seeking a better life and work in the first world so they could support their families at home.

“And a time like this does not need nationalist messages, or those that exclude – it's time to forge a new cooperative leadership based upon the willingness not just to listen to others, but to understand their reasoning, to take on a profound feeling of empathy and to realise that no single party has a monopoly on the truth,” Sánchez said, very directly and strongly.

He called for all UN members to recognise the 'issues' that the 'migration drama' is causing in recipient countries, and commitment to those States, as well as 'above all, justice and fair distribution of responsibility' in which 'everyone has the obligation to help'. Referring to xenophobic and far-right sentiments in some countries – without naming them – Sánchez reminded everyone present that Spain had been 'battered by the financial crisis like few other nations in western Europe', yet, despite this, 'the immense majority of society' has 'never turned its back on the migration drama'.

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'MAN on the moon' Pedro Duque hogged this week's headlines about his Jávea holiday villa – in fact, the last time Spain's new-ish science minister drew so much media hype was when he followed in Neil Armstrong's small steps and giant leaps 15 years ago. But many residents on the northern Costa Blanca were unconcerned about his tax affairs; they were just excited to hear they had an astronaut as a neighbour. Many more were rather blasé about it: celebrities in Jávea and its orbit are fairly commonplace: plenty of stars are known to have holiday homes, or even to film Hollywood blockbusters nearby.

Silver screen and sporting stars

Jávea has never been a stranger to celebhood. Acclaimed 19th-century painter Joaquín Sorolla and global fashion designer Cristóbal Balenciaga holidayed and lived there; although its most famous living resident even has a seafront esplanade named after him. 

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