Live News From Spain As It Happens

PILOTS working for the Spanish carrier Air Europa have asked bosses not to force them to sleep over in Venezuela if they find themselves there when they finish their shifts, in light of escalating violence in the streets following a disputed government takeover.

The airline is one of the few European flight firms which still expects its crew, including cabin staff, to spend the night in Venezuela, which pilots' union SEPLA says 'puts their safety at risk', both in their hotels and during the journeys between these and the airport.

In fact, Spain's foreign office website advises against all but essential travel to the South American country since its leader Nicolás Maduro was overthrown by self-proclaimed president Juan Guaidó in what the former considers a coup d'état and the majority of Venezuelans have championed, hopeful of a return to freedom and democracy after years of what they describe as a dictatorship.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PASSENGERS on a train across snow-covered Aragón had to be evacuated last night when the line became blocked barely half a kilometre from their station of origin.

The convoy left Canfranc in the Pyrénéen province of Huesca some time after 20.00, but within 300 metres, was unable to go any further because of a snowdrift on the line.

Workers spent nearly an hour trying to clear the track with spades, to no avail.

In the end, they decided to reverse the train into the original station and take the 58 passengers by coach to their destinations, between Canfranc and the terminus at Zaragoza.

Read mor at thinkSPAIN.com

TRAFFIC on the AP-1 motorway has rocketed by 58% since the government scrapped the tolls on December 1, giving an idea of what is yet to come when the next batch of pay-per-use highway franchises come up for renewal.

Public works minister José Luis Ábalos opted to continue with the previous government's plans not to renew any of the toll contracts on Spain's motorways once they expired, and a sub-commission in Parliament has been set up to work out how they will fund their maintenance in future.

The AP-1 was the first, and another nine followed a fortnight ago – the AP-7 between Cartagena (Murcia) and Vera (Almería) and the Alicante ringroad on the same motorway; the AP-36 between Ocaña (Toledo province) and La Roda (Albacete province); the AP-41 from Madrid to Toledo; the M-12 Madrid airport link road, and three Madrid outer-suburban 'radial' highways, the R-2, R-3, R-4 and R-5.

These nine, however, are only toll-free overnight from midnight to 06.00, but fees for their use during the day have been slashed by 30% to encourage users.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE BANK of Spain officially stopped minting €500 notes yesterday (Sunday) in line with a decision taken by the European Union in May 2016, but those still in circulation remain legal tender.

They are expected to continue to be so indefinitely, and private individuals, shops, banks, offices, exchange bureaux and transport companies, among other entities, are still permitted to use the ones they have in their possession.

But everyone, professional or individual, is recommended to return any they still have to a high-street bank and swap them for notes of a lower denomination, or pay them into an account.

The European Central Bank (BCE) opted to stop producing €500 notes in light of increasing public concerns that they were largely being used for criminal activity, including corruption, financing terrorism, drug-dealing and human trafficking.

Also, individuals have long said just having one in their possession was extremely stressful, as it is a huge sum of money to misplace or drop on the pavement, and they feared these made them a greater target for thieves.

Whilst fairly commonplace in Spain until about a decade ago, the €500 note became widely known as the 'Bin Laden' across the Eurozone, since it was known that they existed, but they were practically never seen – at least, outside of Spain.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EX-FORMULA 1 driver Fernando Alonso has scooped up the Daytona 24-Hour race on his second attempt, showing there is life in the legend beyond the Grand Prix circuit.

The Asturias-born former McLaren racer had been hopeful of a Daytona International Speedway win in 2018, but brake failure on his United Autosports car scuppered his chances, leaving him finishing 38th.

Showing he could have done it in the absence of last year's breakdown, Alonso stormed to victory yesterday (Sunday) at the end of the round-the-clock challenge along with his team-mates Jordan Taylor, Renger van der Zande and Kamui Kobayashi.

His spectacular performance started when he took over the wheel from Taylor in ninth position and shot straight to first, despite torrential rain which had at one point forced organisers to postpone the race for two hours.

Team Wayne Taylor Racing had opted for Alonso to drive the last leg to make up for any ground lost, which turned out to be the right tactic – his eleventh-hour neck-and-neck battle with Felipe Nasr ended when the latter aquaplaned two laps from the end.

Alonso is now only the third ex-Formual 1 driver in the history of the Daytona 24-Hour race to win it, after Phil Hill in 1964 and Mario Andretti in 1972.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NOW may not be the best moment to think about heading for a day's kicking back on the beach and catching a tan; the temperature in Spain at present is more in keeping with fleecy pyjamas than factor 30. (Maybe ski slopes are a better option, in fact).

Although perhaps the thought of rippling, crystalline seas, velvety sands and shimmering sunlight are what got you through Blue Monday last week, and perhaps you like to plan ahead for balmier climes in the months to come.

If so, you might be lucky enough to live near one of the eight beaches in Spain voted 'best in Europe' – and, quite possibly, didn't realise it.

If not, they might inspire you when picking this summer's holiday destination.

This said, these eight beaches are not the end of the story: for anyone within striking distance of a coast, you'll almost certainly have one locally that comes pretty close, but hadn't made the list because the reviewers didn't know it was there.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PARENTS who bring their children up vegetarian or vegan are fighting for schools to cater for their kids in the canteen – often, only meat options are available or, at best, meat or fish, and families who choose not to include one or both of these in their daily diets say their rights are being ignored.

Children with allergies or intolerances, including diabetic or coeliac kids, are always offered lunch options suitable for them, as long as they show a doctor's note, and pupils whose religious background affects their diet such as Hindu families, where beef is off the menu or, more commonly in Spain, Muslims who do not eat pork, ham or bacon, have an automatic legal right to school meals free from these products. Indeed, with Moroccans being Spain's largest foreign resident community due to the historical and cultural ties between the two countries, and their geographical nearness, this has been automatic for decades.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TAXI drivers in Barcelona returned to work at 06.00 this morning (Thursday) after the city's 5,000 drivers voted on proposals by Catalunya's regional government to restrict Uber and Cabify services in the city.

A majority of the 5,000 who dropped their ballots into a box outside in the Plaza de Catalunya in an eleventh-hour vote that ended at 23.20 last night agreed to measures that include a compulsory minimum of one hour for contracting an Uber or Cabify car before its arrival, and for geo-tagging of these vehicles to be eliminated so potential passengers would not be able to locate their nearest one, and would have to wait for the one they had booked at least an hour earlier.

Regional government officials initially proposed a minimum booking time of 15 minutes, and threatened to enshrine it in law if taxi drivers did not end their strike, but eventually relented and increased it to one hour.

Madrid's mayor Ángel Garrido says he is not prepared to issue the same type of bye-law, nor include these measures in regional law, since he has no desire to 'legislate against the presence' of Uber and Cabify cars in the city.

As a result, the taxi strike in Madrid remains in place, causing upheaval for many of the quarter of a million visitors to the massive international tourism trade fair FITUR which opened yesterday.

Uber and Cabify spokespersons say they are not happy with Barcelona's new ruling, and Uber has announced plans to stop operating in the city – and although Cabify may follow suit, it has not made any firm decisions.

Uber's representative Eduardo Martín says a minimum of an hour's pre-booking would 'effectively mean the end' of the service, and that it was 'a stupid idea'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S government is on the fence over whether or not to officially recognise Juan Galdó as president of Venezuela after his surprise coup knocked Nicolás Maduro from power, with foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell saying his cabinet is reluctant to 'take impulse decisions'.

Borrell says Spain will wait to see what the European Union's verdict is before making an official statement, in the interests of 'unity' across the continent, or at least the 28-country bloc.

Foreign ministers from the EU-28 are set for an urgent meeting in the next few hours to 'evaluate the situation', Borrell reveals.

He has recently come out of the so-called Ágora Europa convention in Madrid's Casa de América, which his Portuguese counterpart Augusto Santos Silva also attended, but left just before the end to attend to a call from Spanish president Pedro Sánchez from the Davos International Forum, and another from the US embassy in Spain to find out its stance vis à vis Guaidó.

According to Borrell, during the last few EU foreign ministers' meetings, members had 'continually warned' of the possibility of a major political crossroads in Venezuela and how the 'determining power', once it happened, would 'lie in the hands of the Armed Forces' – but that, at that point, Europe was unsure 'where it was'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FORMER Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo has been sentenced to 23 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine in the sum of €18.8 million over discrepancies with his tax affairs during his time in the Spanish capital.

As the custodial term is less than two years and for a first offence, the Portuguese team captain will not have to serve it.

Tax evasion, deliberate or not, is considered a civil offence and normally only carries a fine if sufficiently high until the amount unpaid reaches €120,000, when it is automatically considered a crime.

This means that by default, celebrities who fail to meet their tax obligations will be facing criminal charges almost from the first non-payment, given the size of their ordinary earnings.

In Ronaldo's case, the dad-of-four had left his affairs in the hands of his accountants, who created a front-company structure with the player's permission in his days of playing for Manchester United - a structure that was legal at the time in the UK.

The five-times Ballon d'Or winner retained this taxation framework when he moved to Madrid, since he assumed it was also legal in Spain.

This turned out not to be the case, and for four tax years between 2010 and 2014, avoided paying €5.7m in tax.

He refunded this as soon as he became aware of the problem, plus interest, but has now had to pay a fine on top of 3.3 times the amount subject to his 'evasion'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TRANSPORT authorities in Spain are on stand-by for snow forecast across northern and inland areas today (Tuesday) and Wednesday, with 846 snow-ploughs ready to hit the roads.

The State meteorological agency, AEMET, has issued an orange weather warning for Asturias, Cantabria and Castilla y León for today, which will extend to include Aragón, Catalunya and La Rioja tomorrow.

Automatic traffic diversion routes have been set up in advance, whether or not they will be needed, as a pilot operation on the A-1 motorway heading west out of Madrid, and eight General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) emergency response centres will be in operation 24 hours a day to coordinate road layouts and warnings.

With 12 helicopters, 1,690 CCTVs, 2,466 real-time data centres, 2,310 digital overhead traffic information boards on continually-updated alerts on its website, DGT.es, the transport authority – part of the central government's ministry of public works – hopes to avert scenarios such as those experienced a year ago on the AP-61 motorway in the centre-northern provinces.

Back then, thick snow blocking the carriageway left thousands of motorists stranded overnight and triggered a flood of complaints on social media about how authorities had not prepared for the chaos or warned drivers what to expect.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TAXI drivers are on strike in Barcelona for the fourth day running and, in Madrid, every single cabbie has now downed tools.

Drivers in Spain's largest two cities say their industrial action is 'indefinite' until their regional governments reach a mutually-satisfying solution over the presence of alternative road-based transport firms, such as Über and Cabify, on their streets.

They claim these cheaper modern methods are taking away trade and creating unfair competition, and want them to be placed under much stiffer regulation.

Protesting taxi drivers are currently filling the streets on foot, carrying placards, or in their cars, blocking major roads in both cities.

Madrid cabbies are due to meet with their regional transport minister Rosalía Gonzalo and president Ángel Garrido tomorrow (Tuesday) in an attempt to resolve the issue.

Garrido has proposed city councils dictate the length of time required to book an Über or Cabify ride in advance, so passengers cannot just hail them on the street or call them immediately via a mobile phone App – this being one of the mainstream taxi drivers' associations' complaints, since the majority of their business comes from passing trade.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BRITISH nationals living in Spain will be allowed to vote in their local council elections this May and continue to stand as candidates, with existing councillors permitted to keep their seats.

A deal between the UK and Spanish governments signed in Madrid today (Monday) comes as light relief for the estimated 300,000 Brits in Spain – according to UK government statistics, although Spain puts this figure at closer to 750,000 – who believed that after Brexit, they would no longer have a say in who spent their municipal taxes and what decisions were made in their home towns that could affect their daily lives.

More worrying still was the position for Brits who already hold a council seat – especially those high enough up candidate lists in ruling parties to be earning a partial or even full wage from their role – and who feared that they would automatically be forced to stand down.

Anyone not eligible to vote is not eligible to stand for election or hold a council or government seat, which is why foreign nationals, unless they hold joint citizenship, are not present on any government in Spain or the rest of the world.

In Spain, all EU citizens are automatically entitled to vote in local elections, but only Spaniards, either native or naturalised, are permitted to vote for their regional and national government representatives.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN once again leads the field in the number of organ transplants carried out – for the 27th year running – and donors are becoming more and more frequent.

In 2018 alone, donors rose in number by 37%, from 2,183 to 2,243, allowing surgeons in Spain to carry out a total of 5,314 transplant operations – up from 5,259 in 2017.

The National Transplant Organisation (ONT) aims to break the 5,500 barrier by the year 2022.

Spain's donation rate now sits at 48 per million inhabitants, having gone up in the past five years by more than ever before, from 35.1 per million, says Beatriz Domínguez-Gil of the ONT, which marks its 30th anniversary in 2019.

Transplant numbers now come in at 114 per million inhabitants – the highest proportion in the world – breaking records with kidney and lung transplants.

Out of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed regions, a total of 10 have surpassed the 50-per-million milestone, seven have broken the 60-per-million barrier and two of them are at over 80 per million – Cantabria (86.2) and La Rioja (80.6).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BUYING a home in Spain remains very affordable, and comes with the added bonus of providing a pied à terre for sunny holidays. But why stop at one house when you could pick up a whole village? After all, there are literally hundreds to choose from in practically every region. And you get the church thrown in as a free gift.

Admittedly, this isn't an option for anyone on a strictly-limited budget or who wants to avoid risk; turning your newly-purchased village into a habitable residential hotspot may well cost the same amount as the original price tag and plenty more besides, plus you'll need planning permission – even though you're the owner, this doesn't mean you automatically become the mayor and can do what you please once you've moved in. Many of the villages for sale fall under the jurisdiction of a larger town council...

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANYONE who's followed UK TV comedy in the last 25-odd years may remember that scene from The Vicar of Dibley where the Revd Geraldine Granger (aka Dawn French) fills her local church with cats and dogs. Quite amusing, wasn't it?

Well, if you've lived in Spain for more than a year, chances are you've actually seen it in the flesh.

If you haven't, you may get the opportunity to witness it tomorrow (Sunday).

One might argue that there's no creature on earth more blessed than a domestic cat or dog. Who wouldn't want to come back as either? No bills to pay, no work to go to, parents to clean up after you (including when you go to the loo) and feed you and hug you on demand. Okay, dogs have to ask permission to go outside for a number one or two, cats have to bath themselves with their tongues (why doesn't it give them jaw-ache?) but they both get to spend all day sleeping if they feel like it, everyone loves them and thinks they're gorgeous just because they exist. And even if they ate too much at Christmas and piled on weight, they still look gorgeous. Without makeup.

One might also argue it's cat- and dog-owners themselves who are blessed. They think we're gorgeous, even without makeup and if we've piled on weight over Christmas; they're excited to see us when we come home, just because it's us; they treble up as hot-water bottles, cushions and counsellors, and they'll never, ever mention Brexit in your presence and spoil your day.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

VALENCIA'S main station and city centre will be linked by metro to the iconic and futuristic City of Arts and Sciences within a year or two – work is ready to start this coming April on the long-awaited Line 10.

The plans had been gathering dust since 2011 due to lack of funding to carry them out, but a budget of €50 million has finally been set aside and the diggers will be moving in within three months.

Of this, some €20m will come from the European Union's FEDER regional development fund.

Once built, Line 10 will run from the Avenida de Alicante, south of the city centre and close to the main València Nord station, through the picturesque Russafa neighbourhood and onto the future Amado Granell station, after which it will run above ground, calling at five stops – Hermanos Maristas, City of Arts and Sciences, Oceanogràfic, Moreras, and terminating in the Nazaret neighbourhood.

Mayor Joan Ribó (Compromís) says this will respond to the decades-long campaigning on the part of Nazaret residents, who have long been cut off from the rest of the city due to lack of funds for public transport – these having been spent on extending the port southwards.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S world-famous 'super-surgeon' Dr Pedro Cavadas has successfully reimplanted a four-year-old boy's toes ripped off when he became trapped in a fairground ride.

The child's foot end up wedged into the traction of a mobile staircase at the Christmas fair in he Rabasa neighbourhood of Alicante and, despite attempts by four adults to free him, continued to be jammed in the contraption until it was taken apart with a screwdriver.

Two of his toes were literally hanging off and, knowing of Dr Cavadas' prowess with refitting severed limbs and transplanting new ones, the child's father immediately took him to the hospital in Manises, near Valencia airport, a trip of over two hours by road.

Dr Cavadas (pictured) and his team successfully reimplanted the toes and repaired the tendons and veins of these and other parts of his foot damaged in the horrific accident.

According to Manises hospital, the operation went well and the little boy remains in observation.

The fairground ride in Rabasa was initially cordoned off and inspected, but passed all mechanical checks, and has now reopened to the public.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A JUDGE in Barcelona has upheld a nursery school's decision not to enrol a child whose parents opted not to vaccinate him in line with a dangerous new trend sweeping the USA and gradually creeping into Spain and the UK.

The playschool, based in an undisclosed location in the Maresme district of the province, was hit with legal action at the end of May after the family claimed its right to freedom of ideology was being violated by their son's being barred from nursery school due to their beliefs.

According to the council, which runs the Kindergarten, the parents claimed their values should be respected in the same way that no public service or business is permitted to discriminate against any citizen on the grounds of their religion, even though the decision not to give their child the essential infant innoculations is not based upon faith grounds.

Judge Laura Mestres Estruch said no violation of ideology was present, since nobody had 'forced' the parents to vaccinate their child – although stressed that these innoculations are obligatory in 'certain neighbouring democratic countries' on pain of civil or even criminal action being taken against the caregivers.

She added that those parents who decide not to vaccinate their children nevertheless benefit from the protection against potentially fatal childhood diseases afforded by the 'remaining 95% of the population' who do take up these free jabs for their kids.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOME prices in Spain are rising at the fastest rate in a decade, according to a leading quantity surveyor – although they still remain far more affordable than at the height of the housing boom in 2007.

According to figures by valuers Tinsa, the average residential property rose in price by 5.8% in the final quarter of 2018 – the highest increase seen per three-month period since 2007, a time when a typical home in Spain was worth €2,044 per square metre.

Prices are lower now by around a third – at €1,337 per square metre – although regional variations are vast, with per-square-metre prices differing by several hundred per cent just a few streets apart.

Home values reached rock bottom in the first quarter of 2015, Tinsa reveals, but have since gone up by an average of 11.7% and are now worth around the same as in the first three months of 2013.

Although 11 provinces in Spain registered a drop in price year on year between the final quarter of 2017 and that of 2018, these falls were in general less than 5%.

Madrid has seen the greatest percentage increase in the last quarter, at 10.8%, followed by the Comunidad Valenciana at 7.8%, Asturias and Castilla y León at 7.4%, and Aragón at 7.3%.

And the Greater Madrid region also boasts the highest prices in Spain as at the end of 2018, although these vary across towns and, in the capital itself, across neighbourhoods.

Read more at thihkSPAIN.com

GOVERNMENT-BAILED out toll motorways will be free of charge to use from midnight tomorrow (Monday) every night until 06.00 in the morning, as the ministry of public works confirmed towards the end of 2018.

From 06.01 on Tuesday morning (January 15), toll prices on these motorways will be 30% lower.

Spain's previous government began the process of 'buying back' motorways run by ailing toll companies, and the new socialist cabinet, which came into power in June, continued to see the plan through.

Both governments had announced buy-backs and non-renewals when toll company franchises on most of Spain's pay-per-use motorways expired, with the next ready for de-privatisation being the AP-7 between Silla, just south of Valencia, and San Juan, a few kilometres north of Alicante, on January 1, 2020.

From midnight on Monday, the AP-7 Alicante ring-road and, a few kilometres further south, between Cartagena (Murcia) and Vera (Almería) will be free of charge overnight and 30% cheaper by day, along with the AP-36 through Castilla-La Mancha, between Ocaña (Toledo province) and La Roda (Albacete province), the M-12 between Madrid city and the airport, and four of the outer Madrid link roads or 'radial' highways.

The 'radial' roads connect the capital city to motorways heading in all directions across the country – the R-3 joins the A-3 Valencia trunk road at Arganda del Rey; the R-4 connects to the A-4 Cádiz motorway at Ocaña; the R-5 links to the westbound A-5 referred to as the 'Extremadura motorway', at Navalcarnero, and the R-2 merges into the A-2 Zaragoza motorway at Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MEDITERRANEAN diet has long been hailed as one of the most healthy on earth, even though it is said to be in decline in Spain and is far less likely to be the régime of choice in inland areas, where red meat – including all the fatty bits, and even tripe – are more likely to be served up for the family dinner than grilled fish and salad. But Spaniards are still, statistically, the European race which eats best – in fact, fewer people in Spain die from conditions caused by a poor diet than anywhere else on the continent.

Yet another great reason to up sticks and move to the land of Cervantes and cerveza, along with its beautiful countryside, stunning monuments and mild, sunny climate – albeit the latter seems a distant memory at the moment, with an Arctic front sending temperatures down to around -12ºC inland and an early-morning 4ºC on the coast.

It's no myth – Spain's diet is the best if you want to live long and healthily, and that's a scientific fact; at least, according to extensive research by the Martin-Luther Universität in Halle-Wittenberg and Friedrich Schiller Universität in Jena, both in Germany, carried out over more than a quarter of a century between 1990 and 2016 in every country in Europe recognised as such by the World Health Organisation (WHO), 51 in total.

Over this time, diet, lifestyle, preferences and availability of foodstuffs, along with trends for more international, hitherto lesser-known ingredients and 'superfoods', have changed dramatically, but the results of the research – published in Science Daily – remain constant, according to the team.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SNOW has blocked several 'B-roads' across the country as Spain shivers in the grip of an Arctic front which has forced temperatures down to low single figures on the Mediterranean and double figures below zero inland.

Last night (Thursday) was the coldest so far this winter, with the record low for Spain being registered in Molina de Aragón (Guadalajara province, Castilla-La Mancha) at -12ºC.

The Aran Valley in the Pyrénées, part of the Catalunya province of Lleida, registered -10ºC in the early hours of Friday.

On the east and south coasts, traditionally the mainland areas with the mildest winters, late-night temperatures hovered around 8ºC to 10ºC, but the coldest part of the day this week has been at around 07.00 or 08.00 – just as most commuters are heading for, or getting up for work – when the mercury has been falling to between 3ºC and 5ºC.

Traffic authorities in Mallorca have warned drivers to put their snow chains on if they plan to travel along the Ma-10 in the Sierra Tramontana mountain range, since the 15-kilometre stretch between Mirador de Ses Barques and Sa Calobra is coated in a thick blanket of white.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ANDALUCÍA'S regional presidential candidate has struck a deal with far-right outfit Vox to enable him to govern in coalition with centre-right Ciudadanos, signalling a complete about-turn in strategy for the southern territory.

Juanma Moreno of the right-wing PP is joining forces with Ciudadanos, given that no party obtained an outright majority in the recent regional elections, ending the socialist reign with Susana Díaz as Andalucía's president for two terms of office.

To ensure he is voted in during the in-house elections, Moreno needed a guaranteed 'yes' from Vox who, with 12 seats out of 110, has become the first far-right party to gain a foothold in government anywhere in Spain since General Franco's fascist dictatorship.

Although apparently a cause for concern, it is not thought Spain will feel much influence from the alt-right movement, given the very small number of seats Vox holds in just one of 19 regional Parliaments – those of each of the 17 self-governing territories, plus the two city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast.

Ciudadanos has been harshly criticised by its newest member at national level, former French prime minister Manuel Valls – who was born in Barcelona – for agreeing to a governing pact with the far right, but Ciudadanos Andalucía insists that of Vox' 37 proposed measures, 23 were already in its own manifesto.

Vox sparked outrage among women's groups when its list of conditions for supporting the PP and Ciudadanos included abolishing regional domestic violence and equality laws and legislation banning discrimination on the grounds of sex, sexual orientation or gender identity, but after a round of meetings with Moreno and his team, has agreed not to uphold this aspect.

The party also agreed to ditch its proposal to deport 52,000 immigrants and to 'celebrate' the Christian reconquest in the late Mediaeval era which saw the Moors thrown out of the country after 500 years of residence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CENTRAL banks in Eurozone countries will start to withdraw €500 notes from circulation from January 27, except in Germany and Austria.

They will remain legal tender, even though the Central European Bank (BCE) stopped minting them from the end of 2018, but if banks on the high street receive any, they are required to send them to the main bank of the country wwhich will return them to base.

Until a few years ago, Spain was the country with the most €500 notes in circulation in the Eurozone, but they have become extremely rare – in fact, they now only represent 2.4% of all the banknotes in use worldwide.

The €500 note was colloquially known as the 'Bin Laden' – meaning everyone knew they existed, but very few had ever seen them – albeit in Spain, sightings until around a decade ago were very frequent indeed.

€100 and €200 notes – green and yellow respectively – were also a regular sight in Spain and often even handed over by bank branches when ordinary residents plundered their savings accounts.

But these have also become rare, partly because it has always been extremely difficult to use them except when buying goods or services of at least their denomination, given that shops and petrol stations often put up signs warning they could not guarantee being able to give change for payments made with them.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASS of Arctic air is set to bring night temperatures down to as low as -10ºC across the country between today (Wednesday) and Saturday at least, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

Even on the Mediterranean and south coasts, traditionally the parts of the mainland with the mildest winter temperatures, the mercury is expected to plunge to 1ºC or even to freezing in the early hours.

Inland parts of the warmer east and south are bracing themselves for nights dropping to -4ºC, and many town halls are already setting up temporary shelters for the homeless.

North winds will firstly hit the Catalunya area and gradually spread to the rest of the mainland and Balearic Islands, initially bringing relatively high humidity with it, but which will transform into a much drier climate.

Night and early-morning frost and ice are expected in inland areas, especially in the north and centre of the country, with thermometers plummeting to -5ºC in the central plains and areas of high altitude – even falling into double figures below zero in isolated pockets.

Daytime temperatures are not expected to rise above 5ºC in the northern half of the mainland, and will peak only briefly at between 12ºC and 14ºC on the Mediterranean.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HEALTH authorities in Spain have warned of an 'undeclared presence of nuts' in strawberry ice-cream cones from the UK distributed in shops in the Comunidad Valenciana.

According to the Spanish Consumer, Food Safety and Nutrition Agency (AECOSAN), part of the ministry of health, the product – branded Ice King – does not carry a warning label that it 'may contain nuts', but traces have since been picked up.

AECOSAN has urged anyone with a peanut allergy to avoid consuming it, and if they have it in their house, to return it to the point of sale.

Manufactured in Britain and sold in the UK, Ireland and the eastern region of Spain, among other locations, the Ice King strawberry ice-cream batch in question carries a sell-by date of November 2020.

British consumer authorities raised the alarm, which was immediately passed onto their counterparts across the European Union thanks to its rapid-alert system, RASFF, covering human and animal foodstuffs.

Once AECOSAN received the alert, it triggered Spain's inter-regional version, the National Food Alert Network (SCIRI), sending an immediate warning to all health and consumer authorities in every one of the country's 17 autonomously-governed regions.

The ice-cream is safe to eat for anyone who does not have a peanut or general nut allergy, but those who do should avoid doing so.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BRITISH pensioner who does not speak Spanish found out almost be accident that he had won €75,000 on the El Niño lottery, which was drawn on Sunday, January 6.

Gary, in his late 60s and living on the urbanisation Ciudad Quesada in Benijófar (southern Alicante province), was reportedly waiting patiently in the queue to find out if his most recent lottery ticket had won anything – as he often did – and started seeing that the number 61.776 appeared on several posters.

Shop owner Inmaculada Giménez Ortega says: “He went yellow, then white...then nearly fainted!”

“He didn't know when the draw was, and had no idea whether he'd won anything,” Inmaculada reveals.

To help him out, as he does not speak the language, Inmaculada took Gary to the nearest bank, a branch of Banco Sabadell.

Once there, she left him with the woman in charge, who speaks fluent English, so she could explain it all to him.

Ciudad Quesada and other urbanisations in Benijófar are extremely popular with tourists, holiday home owners and expatriates, the vast majority of whom are British or Irish.

And its nearest lottery shop in the town has sold winning tickets before, so Gary is not the first: exactly a year ago in the last El Niño draw, Inmaculada sold a full ticket, or 10 décimos, which won the second prize of €750,000 – a décimo, such as Gary bought, being worth €75,000 for the second prize.

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CHRISTMAS isn't over yet in Spain – far from it. Don't forget there are a full 12 days of the festivities, not just December 25 (and Boxing Day isn't even a bank holiday in Spain, so they need to squeeze another one in somewhere).

Anyone who has never been to Spain in early January may only remember the Three Wise Men from the East if they watch a Nativity play, but for Spanish children, it is these heavily-adapted biblical figures who bring them their presents.

Santa Claus was a relatively unknown quantity in Spain until around 10 years ago, and was seen as little more than a commercial mascot for the holidays; nowadays, children receive small gifts from Father Christmas, but the night of January 5 is when they get their new bikes, PlayStations and Ella-from-Frozen outfits.

They may find these waiting at home after they return from the evening parade of the Three Kings, or they may get them directly from Balthazar, Melchior and Casper in their town square as these are unloaded by the Pages in public.

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Retired Formula 1 ace Fernando Alonso will continue to work with his old team, McLaren, in 2019, according to his compatriot and successor Carlos Sainz Junior.

The outgoing twice-world champion, who is now focusing on the World Endurance Championships (WEC) and on becoming only the second driver in history – after the UK's Graham Hill – to net the motorsport 'triple crown', will continue working on developing McLaren's new F1 racing cars for the forthcoming season.

Sainz, whose dad – also called Carlos Sainz – raced in F1, along with Lando Norris, will be driving for McLaren this year.

Carlos spoke to German sports magazine SpeedWeek, which reports: “Carlos Sainz has revealed how his compatriot Fernando Alonso is working behind the scenes helping McLaren become a competitive team once again.”

And, according to Carlos himself in the interview: “We have exchanged a series of voice messages to enable us to analyse the car's balance. We want to register what we like about the way the car behaves when it is driven, and what we should improve. I'll be meeting Fernando in Spain in a couple of weeks to discuss details.”

The meeting was due to take place before Christmas.

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STAFF at the Amazon logistics centre in San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) staged the last of eight days of strikes today (Friday) designed to clash with the busiest delivery times of the year, and the company has warned of ‘major delays’ likely in orders being received.

One of Spain’s main unions, the Labourers’ Commissions (CCOO) said seven in 10 workers on the daytime shift took part in the industrial action yesterday (Thursday) and six in 10 on the night shift, although Amazon says these figures are overestimated and the ‘vast majority’ of employees turned up to work as usual.

The online shopping giant has been diverting orders to its other logistics centres in Spain, mainly to the one in Barcelona, to ensure parcels hit the road within the standard time frame in light of the traditional gift-giving celebration of the Three Kings, on the night of January 5.

Today brings the last of eight strike days, the first two of which – on November 23 and 24 – were scheduled to clash with Black Friday, followed by another two on December 7 and 9 to coincide with the bank holidays for Constitution Day (December 6) and the Immaculate Conception (December 8).

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THE last two remaining inhabitants in a Teruel-province village are the stars of the show in a new TV advert.

Martín and Sinforosa have lived in La Estrella, a Hamlet with a population of two, all their lives, and have had no neighbours for 35 years.

“It’s quite a lot, isn’t it?” Martín says in the new Land Rover advert.

The couple was interviewed by the regional newspaper, El Heraldo de Aragón, four years ago and the surprising features of their day-to-day revealed in the story are now shown on the television commercial.

“Our son doesn’t want us to live here, but at the moment we’re in good health and we don’t want to move,” Sinforosa explains.

Now in their late 80s, Sinforosa and Martín have watched their friends, neighbours and family gradually leaving the village, where they live without running water or electricity.

They have to go to a pump every day and carry vats of water home – but this does not bother them.

For power, they rely on a generator, and they do not even have a clock – to find out the time, they use a sundial.

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ASTRONAUT-TURNED-SCIENCE minister Pedro Duque has donned his space suit in public again for the first time since 2003, when he went on his last mission into orbit.

Duque was visited in his offices by a group of children for a question-and-answer session – and, predictably, almost every one of their queries was about his life as an astronaut rather than his current role as head of universities and scientific research.

He wore his all-in-one European Space Agency (ESA) outfit and posed with a laser-beam, which thrilled the kids, and answered them patiently and with plenty of humour, say the adults with them.

Pedro Duque is known for being quiet, reserved and preferring a behind-the-scenes rather than a public-facing role, but was said to be very relaxed with the little ones and clearly enjoying himself.

His two trips to the International Space Station meant he was able to give clear explanations about what it felt like to be in zero gravity, how much fuel is used on a space voyage, and what his feelings were when he saw the Earth from outside it.

Speaking to a packed room of children, Duque said: “Seeing Earth from 220 kilometres above it is really amazing. You see the sun rise every hour and a half. But it’s at its most beautiful at night – when you can perfectly see all the lights of the cities, and thunder storms. It’s stunning.”

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ONE of coastal Spain’s most gruelling traditions, this morning brought crowds of hardy – or foolhardy – swimmers onto the beach for their annual icy New Year’s Day dip.

The January 1 sea swim takes place all along the shores of the Comunidad Valenciana, Catalunya, Andalucía, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands, and typically raises cash for charity through entry fees and donations on the day.

Some are organised by British expats, who may seek sponsors among friends and family to boost their charity pot, although ‘sponsorship forms’ are not a well-known tradition among Spaniards.

For the British community on the Costa Blanca, one of the most famous New Year’s Day dips has historically been off Jávea’s Arenal beach, organised by the Lancashire Bruja bar.

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A BRITISH supermarket chain is set to open in Valencia city in the New Year and a local job agency has taken on four supervisors and 28 sales assistants.

The council-run recruitment centre València Activa has struck an agreement with Dealz, which already has a small number of stores in the south of the region, including Benidorm.

Training and career progression are included in the roles, which València Activa will coordinate for the 32 future employees.

Dealz is a budget chain along the same lines as Poundland, although with varying prices, unlike the latter.

Once it began advertising vacancies, València Activa received 963 applications for the 32 jobs.

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