Live News From Spain As It Happens

SPAIN'S population swelled by 303,228 in 2018, according to figures that have just been released, with all bar four regions gaining inhabitants.

Census figures are only gathered, analysed and published for a given year when the following year is nearly, but not quite, over, meaning the numbers for 2018 are considered to be the most recent – those for 2019 will be released in the last few days of December 2020.

Only the northern coastal regions and Asturias and Galicia, the land-locked western region of Extremadura, and the centre-northern territory of Castilla y León saw a decline in their headcount.

During the worst of the financial crisis, Spain's population declined year upon year, but has started to climb again, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

The provinces, and single-province regions, which have gained the most inhabitants – over 12% - since 2010 are the Balearic Islands, Almería, Málaga, Madrid, and the southern Basque province of Álava, of which the capital is Vitoria.

Those whose headcount has remained approximately the same are Ciudad Real, Valencia, Tarragona, Lleida, Zaragoza, and La Rioja.

All the coastal provinces of Andalucía – or the entire region except Córdoba and Jaén – have seen a population increase since 2010, as have the provinces of Barcelona, Girona, all those in the Basque Country, Navarra, Toledo, the Canary Islands, and the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla, on the northern Moroccan coast.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONCE again, Spain has made its presence felt in the World Cheese Awards – widely known as the Oscars of dairy produce – with 18 chosen among the 84 best on earth.

But not all of them cost an arm and a leg – some of the winners come from mainstream supermarkets such as Mercadona and Lidl, with prices of around €3 for an average-sized package off the shelf, or no more than €10 a kilo.

Categories awarded were Gold, Silver and Bronze, with a 'special' ranking known as Super Gold, with entries considered to far outstrip all the others.

The Entrepinares label, sold in Mercadona, won prizes for six of its cheeses, one of which costs around €3 for a 300-gram chunk and which earned the Super Gold distinction.

Produced in Toledo, the Super Gold Entrepinares cheese is made from sheep's milk rather than cow's milk, is called El Atrio Manchego, is exported worldwide, and costs €3.41 in Mercadona, or in region of €10 a kilo (pictured above left).

The Entrepinares Oveja Viejo, or 'aged' cheese with sheep's milk, and the Mezcla Curado, cured cheese with a combination of sheep's and cow's milk, both won a bronze, and retail in Mercadona at €3.33 and €3.29 respectively.

Five cheeses sold in Lidl won medals – the Manchego El Roncero, which costs €2.99 for a 170-gram wedge, took a gold, whilst the Trufa Deluxe at €3.99, the Curado Mezcla Canario Volcania, a mixed-milk cured cheese, at €3.19, and the Curado Roncero, a cured cheese retailing at €2.49, all took the silver.

The Deluxe and the two Roncero varieties are manufactured in Castilla-La Mancha, whilst the Curado Mezcla Canario Volcania, as the name suggests, comes from Gran Canaria.

Another cheese sold in Lidl and made in Spain, by the label Sol&Mar, won the Super Gold, but it is only retailed abroad.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

 December 28 is the national equivalent of April Fool's, and you can expect all types of attempts to pull the wool over your eyes over the next 24 hours.

Yesterday was Holy Innocents' Day on the Catholic calendar, and actually, it's not funny at all. It's a day for remembering children who never made it to adulthood, and is usually marked by mass in their honour – in fact, in Tudor Britain and late-Mediaeval Spain, this was a big event, because infant mortality was so high that almost every family would have experienced the loss of a child at least once.

But to lighten the mood, Spain has long marked the occasion by honouring children in the second-best way possible: the first would be giving the living ones presents, but they get plenty of those on Christmas Eve night and the night of January 5 when the Three Kings visit; the second is acting as childishly as possible.

Playing practical jokes on people, making them look daft and having a laugh at their expense is a great way to find your inner child, and if you're a victim, the best reaction is to laugh at yourself for falling for it.

Clearly, in these days of 'fake news', the media has largely stopped the tradition of including spoof stories on December 28 – it's considered bad taste now, and one could argue that sometimes, what we've read in the press in the last few years has often been stranger than fiction, making Inocentadas, as these practical jokes are known, almost redundant.

A GALICIA mayor has 'thanked' a daily broadsheet in New York for criticising the city's Christmas lights as 'contributing to climate change', as its comments not only provided an opportunity to clarify the situation, but also put the brightly-illuminated streets on the international map.

Abel Caballero, who runs the city of Vigo (Pontevedra province), where the festive lighting was named by the travel website Holidayguru as the third-best in the whole of Spain, was slammed by The New York Times.

“Whilst a Spanish city lights up for Christmas, so does a debate,” the article is titled.

“The holiday light show in the industrial hub of Vigo is a draw for tourists. But some have begun to wonder: How much is too much?”

According to the article, Caballero joked that he was expecting a call from his counterpart across the pond, Bill de Blasio, 'telling him that New Yorkers were feeling envious' after promising that the Vigo illuminations would 'outshine' the Big Apple, which lies directly due east from Galicia.

It refers to Caballero, 73, having spent €1 million on Christmas lights 'at a time when environmentalists want mayors […] to reduce light pollution and the energy consumption required to fuel it'.

“One thing is clear: if [New York mayor] Mr de Blasio did not know about them before, he certainly knows about the Vigo lights now,” Caballero said in response, confirming he had experienced 'massive support' for them on Christmas Eve, the day after they were switched on.

He pointed out that all 10 million bulbs used in the Christmas lights were LED, 'energy efficient', and that their energy consumption was 'practically negligible'.

Also, plans are already afoot to gradually replace all bulbs in Vigo's street lights and those used in or on public buildings with LED versions, meaning the city's energy consumption would be 'green and renewable' by the end of 2020.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

STAR Wars and Indiana Jones star Harrison Ford spent Christmas partying hard in Spain's capital, but still managed to stay upright for long enough to pose for selfies with fans.

The 77-year-old, who shot to fame in the inter-galactic film saga as Hans Solo, started his celebrations on Christmas night in one of Madrid's most exclusive – but undisclosed – restaurants, where he spent several hours.

Dozens of fans kept a vigil by the door and spoke to him and posed with him as he left.

Next, the actor married to Ally McBeal star Calista Flockhart went on to a long night's partying, which went on until the early hours of Boxing Day morning.

By the time he had finished, he needed his companions to accompany him to his hotel and help him into his room.

A large handful of members of the public asked to take pictures with him, and even though he was not exactly – as the Spanish media described - 'at his best', Ford was said to be 'very friendly' to them.

'Mr McBeal' was not seen with his wife of nine-and-a-half years, or any of his children.

He lives with Calista, 55, and her adopted son Liam, 18, in Jackson Hole in the State of Wyoming, USA, and keeps a pied à terre in Los Angeles, California.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE BRITISH Royal Christmas family church service has seen a touch of Spain on the front-row pew on the last three occasions – Princess Charlotte's coats have been coming from Marae at Amaia Kids, based in Zamora (Castilla y León), since she was two.

Now four, she was wearing a bottle-green double-buttoned wool coat on Christmas Day when four generations of the Royals went to church, in accordance with tradition – although not including Prince Andrew who, due to the scandal that erupted due to his old friend Jeffrey Epstein's being found guilty of child abuse, has stepped out of the limelight and official duties.

Zamora-based brothers Manoli and Raúl Escudero received an order three weeks ago at their textiles workshop, Zaust, in Coreses, close to the eastern Portuguese border, for a made-to-measure coat for the young Princess.

The design is by Amaia Arrieta, from San Sebastián, who has a branch of her childrenswear collections in London which is one of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's favourites for dressing Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.

According to the Escudero brothers, the coat commissioned was exactly the same as the one the Duchess of Cambridge first chose from the shop at Christmas 2017 and is one of the Marae range's most-sold items.

That time, the coat came in maroon and Princess Charlotte's photograph wearing it on her first day at nursery school in January 2018 made the covers of fashion magazines all over the world.

Given how fast very small children grow, she has not, clearly, been able to wear the same coat for more than one winter at a time, so by Christmas 2018 she was seen at the annual service wearing a blue one – but not by the public, as not photographs were taken on that occasion.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONCE again, the King's Christmas Eve speech made strong references to the Spanish Constitution, although this time the monarch expressly referred to Catalunya on one occasion – something he has carefully avoided doing in the past.

King Felipe VI gave his sixth speech as reigning monarch last night – his first being on Christmas Eve 2014, six months after his father, King Juan Carlos I, abdicated.

In it, he called for 'willingness to understand each other and integrate our differences', but within the framework of, and respecting, the Magna Carta.

References to the Constitution when speaking of Catalunya's desire for independence from Spain – a wish that appears to be held by between a third and a half of the north-eastern region's inhabitants and by a sizeable portion of its politicians, including its leaders – are based upon the fact that the charter of rights, duties and remedies signed on December 6, 1978 contains a clause which prevents any action which 'may threaten the unity of Spain' as a country.

King Felipe recalled that the 'desire for concordance' had, 'at other times', led to 'walls of intolerance, grudges and misunderstanding being broken down' thanks to 'affection, generosity, dialogue and respect between people of very different ideologies'.

This may have been an allusion to the fact that 2019 was the 30^th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, a momentous occasion in Europe which saw the iron curtain being drawn aside and the end of communism in eastern Europe.

Even though the Catalunya secession issue has been brewing for some time and finally came to a head on October 1, 2017 when the region's politicians held a disputed referendum, leading to many of them having recently been sentenced to between nine and 13 years in jail, this is the first time HRH Felipe has mentioned, in his Christmas speech, that he had 'serious concerns' about the 'challenges' faced by Spain 'at the moment'.

He recalled that 'we do not live in easy times', although did not define these and was almost certainly not referring uniquely to Spain, and encouraged everyone to have 'firm confidence in themselves and in Spain' which, he feld sure, would allow the country to 'overcome the challenges ahead'.

“Let's trust in Spain and stay united in the democratic values we share in order to solve our problems,” he encouraged.

Felipe VI also referred to the current political situation nationally, since Spain has been without a fixed government since the fragmented elections in April – although the left-wing parties seem more willing to negotiate, given that its hold on Parliament following the November vote is uncomfortably similar to that of the far right, gathering sufficient support among the opposition for the socialists' (PSOE's) Pedro Sánchez to be invested as president is likely to involve very fine-tuned mathematics, and is in fact a political emergency.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MASS social media campaign is seeking someone called 'Rosy' whose Christmas present, bought from and wrapped by El Corte Inglés department store, was accidentally left behind on the Madrid metro.

Passenger Rocío Gil found it and posted the above photograph on Twitter, with the message: “Someone has left this present on the metro on Line 2. If this person is reading this (which is difficult, but hey) I've got it. I don't want Rosy to go without her present. Can we all share this with a bit of Christmas spirit?”

Twitter, its users and the Christmas spirit have done the rest – Rocío's tweet had been shared 18,600 times by late afternoon on Sunday, and had attracted 39,200 comments.

By the time of publication, shares had reached 39,000, 'likes' 19,000, and it had been retweeted by all the national news channels, both media websites and TV.

Madrid metro has confirmed on Twitter that the parcel has been received and logged at the lost property office and that 'we know now what's in it', but added, “What will happen if we don't find her?” meaning Rosy.

The hashtag #BuscandoaRosy ('Looking for Rosy') has gone viral, and the name is all Rocío and the lost property office has to go on – because the El Corte Inglés wrapping paper and gift tag are the same in all stores nationwide.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IT IS NO secret that turrón manufacturers make most of their annual profits in the month before Christmas, but few of us realised that not all of these profits come from sales in Spain – quite a hefty quantity is exported.

And the USA makes up 20% of the turrón industry's international market.

This year, according to the Spanish Confectionery Association, ProDulce, profits have risen by 4% in the last 12 months.

For every euro the industry makes, 60 cents are earned in December, ProDulce reveals.

“We're looking forward to Christmas with plenty of optimism,” said a ProDulce spokesperson.

“Spanish confectionery companies are focusing on quality, innovation and diversification, and have generated great expectations among consumers.”

Some of these 'innovations' sound utterly delicious, but others may well be an acquired taste – find ut all about these, and the traditional format this staple Christmas sugar-rush takes in our article here.

Look out for the new salted caramel, caramel and chocolate, and chocolate-coated turrón blando (the soft stuff that looks and tastes a bit like very sweet peanut butter, although is actually made with almonds and honey).

They have also been produced in stick format, and in smaller pieces in assorted tray selections – the latter of which has been a hit since 2016.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONLINE retail giant Amazon has created 2,200 jobs in Spain this year alone – and these are not expected to be the end of the story.

According to the firm, which has logistics centres in Madrid and Barcelona and which set up its Amazon.es branch in 2011, new positions created ranged from entry-level operations through to software developers.

Although many new employments were in packaging and processing, others included software engineering, data science and automatic learning, as well as Cloud experts for Amazon Web Services.

A new AWS Europe (Spain) Region will be in operation between the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, the firm reports.

Since the company launched in Spain, recruitment consultancy Keystone calculates it created 8,600 new jobs on national territory before the end of 2018, and paved the way for over 8,000 small and medium-sized businesses to sell their goods nationwide and abroad via Amazon Marketplace.

These firms employ around 10,000 people in total.

This means about 21,000 jobs in total have been created or secured thanks to Amazon's investment in Spain, which the corporation aims to continue building on and views as a great success.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CHRISTMAS hamper firms say they are now back up to full speed after the long financial crisis years – a time when companies were struggling to stay open, let alone give out free festive food baskets to staff, and the general public was not buying them as it needed to keep to a strict budget year-round.

And with its recovery – a clear sign of Spain's own economic recovery, for all the above reasons – the Christmas hamper industry has swiftly adapted with changing times to keep up with the ever-evolving whims, dietary needs, and long-overlooked preferences of its potential customers.

If you're stuck for present ideas this festive season, a hamper is a great choice – even for long-distance recipients, since many can now be ordered online and delivered to the giftee's door.

What's in a Spanish Christmas hamper?

Traditionally, you'll find the typical festive confectionery – turrón, marzipan, chocolate and polvorones, those biscuit-like sweets wrapped in paper and made with crushed almonds and which are powdery, but should be squashed in the hand before opening to give them a more pastry-ish consistency – plus spicy sausages such as chorizo, cheese, sweet filled pastries, and wine or cava, sometimes both; the more expensive ones might even include a leg of Serrano ham, although if yours is a work perk, don't expect your firm to splash out this far (you'd probably prefer its value in cash added to your Christmas pay packet instead, given that they range between €400 and €600 at this time of year). More pricey versions sometimes include bottles of rum, whisky or liqueur.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A MOSTLY-SPANISH satellite was due to go up into orbit yesterday (Wednesday) – the first in history destined for monitoring planets outside our Solar System.

Engineers from Torrejón de Ardoz (Greater Madrid region) have been waiting in apprehension these last few days until they saw the Soyuz rocket go up with CHEOPS – especially after its planned launch on Tuesday had to be put back due to possible software problems.

But it was confirmed at around 04.00 this morning mainland Spain time that CHEOPS was now, finally, in orbit.

A European Space Agency (ESA) project which Spain has been almost 100% responsible for building, the CHEOPS stands for 'Characterisation of Exo-Planets', or planets outside the solar system, and is designed to study stars which are known to 'serve' as suns for other planets in order to work out whether any of these may contain the elements necessary to house life.

Using 'ultra-precise transit photometry', CHEOPS will provide some of the most accurate footage of planets light-years away ever shown.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

YOU'RE probably already feeling it, but winter's not officially here yet – although it's coming this weekend, and is set to be the 11^th warmest in Spain since 1965.

That doesn't mean you'll be able to spend it on the beach topping up your tan (although residents in the islands, the south and on the Mediterranean often do experience freak warm days where they can do just that), but it does mean the average temperature will be 0.7ºC higher than the norm for the season.

Although the meteorological seasons do not necessarily follow the ex-tropic solstices – the UK considers 'winter' to start in November, whilst in Australia, the first day of summer is December 1 - Spain does not differentiate between the two, meaning 'winter' officially begins at the end of the shortest night.

This means Sunday, December 22 at 05.19 in the morning on the mainland is when the season changes, even though it will still be dark in the far west for more than an hour after daylight breaks in the Balearic Islands.

This winter in Spain will be very dry, the eighth-warmest of this century, with very little rainfall.

In Catalunya and the province of Teruel – the latter being typically one of the coldest in the country where nights of -12ºC are not unusual – the temperature will be around 1ºC higher than normal, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BABY Hugo is now not just famous for being Spain's Got Talent's youngest contestant – he has become its tiniest-ever winner.

And even the Pope wants to meet him.

The little chap left judges stunned in September when he appeared on the show, then aged two – he is now three – by his musical prowess.

In preparation for the toddler's overwhelming experience of walking onto a stage in front of a live audience, presenter Santi Millán told everyone not to clap or cheer when he appeared in case they scared him – and his dad, Manuel Jesús, was also apprehensive in case his son 'went all shy' and did not perform.

But although judges were expecting a heart-warming performance, they did not imagine they would witness a flawless grasp of beat or playing ability that would have impressed them in a much older child, or even an adult.

Once on set, Manuel Jesús asked his little boy, “How do we play the drums, Hugo?”

And Hugo began an almost perfect Semana Santa, or Easter parade marching rhythm with his sticks.

Another presenter, Spain's Eurovision 2015 entry and Manchester United player David de Gea's partner Edurne, said after Hugo had finished that her 'head was still spinning' with so much talent.

And, forgetting his own advice, Millán was among the judges who burst into spontaneous applause, whoops and cheers afterwards – causing Manuel Jesús, overcome by the moment, to burst into tears.

All five judges – even 'bad guy' Risto Mejide, who is notoriously hard to impress – gave Hugo an unqualified 'yes' to continuing in the show.

Between then and now, the little fellow has celebrated his third birthday, but is still the youngest-ever contestant to win the Got Talent competition in any country in the world where it is shown.

This time, in the final, Hugo played the beats for a Christmas carol sung by a choir – and, for the first time, entirely from memory.

He did not hesitate once or hit a single bad note, confirming the judges' view that his talent is innate.

In fact, Mejide said a gift of Hugo's magnitude is something that 'you've never seen before and will never see again', and told the tot he had 'made history' – although the mini-musician is too young to understand what that means as yet.

Fellow judge Paz Padilla joked, “Is it true he's also taking driving lessons?” And described baby Hugo as 'totally edible', whilst her co-judge Dani Martínez said he was 'utterly amazing'.

Percussion bands and drummers worldwide – including Scott Johnson and Kevin O - have sent in messages congratulating Hugo on his amazing playing, but the message which caused Hugo's mum and dad to burst into tears came from the Secretary-General of Spain's Episcopal Conference, Cardinal Luis Argüello, who said Pope Francisco had watched the toddler's performance and was so impressed he wanted to meet him, offering the family the chance of a personal 'audience with'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN,

BRITS in Murcia who miss their favourite products from home can now pop into 'Tesco' without catching a plane – a completely UK-style supermarket has just opened on the region's coast.

All staff at Food Co. in Mazarrón Port speak English, all produce labels and signs in the aisles are 100% in English, and all items on sale are imported from branches of Tesco.

Mindful of the fact that locals also use British-run supermarkets in Spain's expat and tourist belts – especially if they have British friends who have introduced them to produce they will not have found in mainstream stores – some staff in Food Co. will be Spanish-speakers, either Brits who are fluent in the language or Spaniards who are confident enough in English to attend to customers.

Those who speak Spanish will wear a badge displaying this.

Additionally, aisle signs are translated into Spanish in smaller font beneath the main English indications and, in accordance with national law, food items also bear labels in Spanish.

But the main language of the store is English, since it is aimed at serving tourists as much as expats, given that the latter – even if their Spanish is limited – have enough experience of mainstream supermarkets in Spain that they do not need translations of 'bread', 'fruit', 'ice-cream' and so on.

Food Co. is the latest brainchild of Wigan-based company Overseas Imports, whose Spanish head office is in Benissa (Alicante province), which already runs a series of supermarkets on the south and east coast and in the Canary Islands.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NOW officially the longest in history, the United Nations Climate Change Summit should have ended on Friday – but is still under way today due to the impossibility of reaching an agreement on strategy that will really make a difference with all countries present.

Swedish schoolgirl activist Greta Thunberg would already have been worn out when she arrived, after two weeks on a solar-powered yacht crossing the freezing north Atlantic and then a 10-hour journey by train from Lisbon to Madrid – and now, she says, she is 'tired' and 'needs a rest'.

The 16-year-old who started the Fridays For Future movement over a year ago as a one-girl protest outside Stockholm's national Parliament has done wonders for raising awareness of climate change worldwide, both among her supporters and dissenters – for many, this global phenomenon was about something happening in rainforests and polar regions thousands of kilometres away and which would not be noticed in most adults' lifetimes or, indeed, until their children were very elderly. But Greta's passionate campaigning and demonstration-leading has led to millions of members of the public googling 'climate change' out of curiosity – and being left stunned by what they found.

In the 12 solid days the COP25 Summit has been running in Madrid, leaving country representatives and young adult activists exhausted, solutions have been proposed and rejected, issues raised, unfairness aired, determination to make changes voiced and, in some cases, will become like a New Year's resolution – full of passionate in the moment, but forgotten before the month is out.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

You probably won't be surprised to hear the UK is the biggest household spender ahead of Christmas – if you've lived there or visited in December (or, some might argue, any time after August), it's pretty clear from the widespread pomp and promotions on the streets that this is the biggest (and, publicly, the only) collective celebration of the year. And after the UK, the countries which shell out the most on the festivities are likely to be in central and northern Europe, where they go in for this winter holiday in a big way.

Actually, no – it's Spain.

According to accountancy firm Deloitte, Spain will be, probably, by the end of 2020, the highest-spending country in the EU, is already the nation that parts with the most Christmas cash in continental Europe, and shifts the second-largest amount per household in Europe as a whole.

This is likely to be partly because Spain takes full advantage of the whole 12 days of Christmas and, in fact, traditionally, presents were given on the night of January 5 and children believed the 'Three Kings', or Wise Men from the East in Anglo-Saxon parlance, were the gift-bearers.

Santa Claus has only really become a 'thing' in Spain in the last 10 to 15 years, and many of those Spaniards who are resistant to change and 'modern' influences continue to believe Father Christmas was invented by Coca-Cola.

Nowadays, even when the children are old enough to stop believing in Father Christmas and the Three Kings, and even where families are non-practising Catholics or openly atheist, both occasions serve as gift-giving moments, meaning many Spaniards receive two lots of presents.

In practice, the €241 per family spent on Christmas presents – more than a third of the €600 each household will part with these holidays – still, largely, finds itself in children's hands; households without children nearly always have nieces or nephews or second or third cousins, who typically live close enough for everyone to be heavily involved in their lives. Adults do not spend much on each other, with maybe a small token gift given to closest family members.

In Spain, the crucial part of Christmas is the food rather than what's inside the wrapping paper. The main festive meal is on Christmas Eve night, or Nochebuena, when the King's speech is televised and the whole family gathers together. Christmas Day is more like Boxing Day for Spain, and actual Boxing Day is not a national holiday.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SUPERMARKETS and delicatessens have reported a sharp rise in thefts of legs of ham in the run-up to the Christmas period.

The festive season in Spain does not normally involve a set type of meal in the same way as Anglo-Saxon countries eat turkey, but tends to be a time when families eat food they would not normally be able to afford – or justify the cost of – the rest of the year.

These foods include top-of-the-range fresh seafood in coastal areas, expensive cuts of meat inland, and Serrano ham in both.

At any time of year, a leg of Serrano ham is expensive, largely because of the huge number of portions that can be cut from it – but near Christmas, even better-quality types go on sale and their prices rise.

For example, acorn-fed Serrano ham legs typically retail at between €400 and €600 during the Yuletide period.

This is a little too tempting for those with access to black markets and illicit profits, and can be for hard-pressed and less-honest individuals – although in practice, given their size of often up to a metre in length and their enormous weight, Serrano ham legs are not easy to steal.

Guardia Civil officers have reported cases of gangs sneaking into shops after closing time, by descending through skylights or even cutting holes in walls.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HANDMADE ceramic pottery from two Toledo province villages have been declared UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, along with those from the Mexican utowns of Puebla and Txalaca.

The decorative blue-patterned plates, jugs, pots and trays made in Puente del Arzobispo and Talavera de la Reina - but considered 'native' to the latter – were chosen at a United Nations meeting in Bogotá, Colombia based upon their 'manufacturing procedure, intricate design and enamelling' which are 'completely handmade' using 'identical techniques' to the first ones ever produced in the 16^th century, which have remained unchanged since.

According to UNESCO, the 'theoretical and practical knowledge and skill' employed in making the pottery covers the entire process including 'preparing the clay', 'moulding', 'decorating in relief', 'mixing and preparing the dyes and enamel' and 'kiln-firing'.

The complete procedure involves 'great skill', UNESCO explains.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S high-speed AVE rail link is about to launch a 'low-cost' version – as reported earlier this autumn – which will be called the 'AVLO', according to transport board RENFE.

Unlike the mainstream AVE trains, which are white, the 'AVLO' will be purple, and as tickets are much cheaper, will not have a buffet car or VIP coaches.

The first of these, says acting minister for public works José Luis Ábalos, will hit the track on April 6, coinciding with Easter, and operate what is currently the busiest rail – and road and air – route in Spain: the Madrid-Barcelona stretch.

It will also serve Zaragoza, Spain's fifth-largest city and the capital of the north-eastern region of Aragón.

Tickets will go on sale before the end of January.

Ábalos says the 'AVLO' will eventually roll out to the rest of the AVE network across Spain, which includes Sevilla-Madrid and Valencia-Madrid, but exact launch dates have not been revealed.

It will have 20% more seats than the AVE, and is aimed at 'families, young people and other groups who only use the high-speed rail link very occasionally'.

At present, a total of 511 million passenger seats are taken up on Spain's rail network every year – the equivalent of the entire population of the European Union or nearly 11 times that of Spain – and of these, 22 million, or the equivalent of nearly half Spain's headcount, are on the express AVE lines.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

 GROUP of students at Valencia Polytechnic have won the prestigious James Dyson Award for their planet-saving invention: a buoy which filters and traps micro-plastics in the sea.

Defined as pieces of plastic of less than half a centimetre in size (a fifth of an inch), micro-plastics are frequently swallowed by fish, birds and other sea creatures, and find their way into human stomachs through drinking water and eating seafood, fish and seaweed.

The 'Yuna' uses different-sized netting and an aerodynamic structure inspired by the physical makeup and anatomy of the ocean sunfish (Mola Mola) – the world's heaviest fish at an average of a tonne and which gets its name because it basks on the sea surface to allow sea birds to eat parasites from its skin.

The ocean sunfish changes shape to adapt to different currents in the sea, which the Yuna buoy is also designed to do, says one of the team, Alice Ville.

All 20 of the 'Yu Group', as the students are known, are studying degrees in design engineering and product development, and will share the €2,200 prize which comes with the James Dyson Award.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

The Kempinski Hotel Bahia in Estepona has put up what's alleged to be the world's most expensive Christmas tree.

The tree, decorated with 11.9 million euros worth of pink, red, white and black diamonds and other precious stones and a mixture of remastered, expertly upcycled jewellery from world-famous brands like Bvlgari, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels and Chanel, will remain on show in the hotel's reception area until January 6th.

Alongside the precious stones on the three-and-a-half-metre high tree are exclusive Martini glasses, feathers, perfume bottles and even 3D-printed chocolate peacocks, as well as traditional decorations like snowflakes, fairies and spectacular hand-decorated baubles, carefully curated with a mixture of materials, from diamond dust and 24 carat gold, to emu and ostrich eggs..

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

In a bid to clamp down on drink driving and driving under the infuence of drugs, traffic police will be carrying out over 25,000 controls every day this week in light of the number of Christmas lunches and dinners being celebrated.

During the whole of next week (December 9th to 15th) officers from the Guardia Civil will be setting up control points on all different types of roads at all different times of the day and night in order to limit the number of drivers under the influence of drugs or alcohol circulating on the country's roads.

Driving under the influence of either drugs or alcohol causes a third of all fatal road traffic accidents on Spanish roads. 

Specifically, 19% of road traffic deaths last year could be attributed to illegal drug consumption, and 66% of drivers killed on the roads were found to have three or more times the legal limit of alcohol in their blood. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Anyone who has ever spent Christmas in Spain will know that the Spaniards' go-to sweet treat at this time of year is turrón - a confection typically made with honey, sugar and egg whites, mixed with toasted almonds or other nuts.

Turrón comes in a variety of consistencies and appearances, and the final product may be either hard and crunchy, or soft and chewy. Thirty years ago, almost all turrón recipes followed the same specifications, but these days there are dozens of varieties: chocolate with puffed rice or whole almonds; all kinds of chocolate pralines, with or without liquor, candied fruits or whole nuts; fruit pralines; and even sugarless variations (sweetened with fructose or artificial sweeteners) and all are available in every supermarket up and down the country.

Traditional Spanish turrón is usually classified as either:

Hard (the Alicante variety): A compact block of whole almonds in a brittle mass of eggs, honey and sugar; 60% almonds. Often known as 'crystal turrón'.

Soft (the Jijona or Xixona variety): The almonds are reduced to a paste. The addition of oil makes the matrix more chewy and sticky; 64% almonds.

Every year, different varieties of turrón are launched. Many derive from commercial hook-ups with big brand confectionery companies and are often aimed at the children's market, like turrón with popular Oreo biscuits or Chips Ahoy cookies incorporated into it.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

This morning, in Madrid's Plaza de Colón, the Presidents of the Congress of Deputies and the Senate, Meritxell Batet and Pilar Llop respectively, presided over the traditional raising of the Spanish flag to mark the 41st anniversary of the Constitution.

The raising of the national flag is the preamble to the annual 'Día de la Consitución' ceremony held in parliament in the presence of members of the government, led by acting Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, members of both the Congress and the Senate, regional presidents and representatives from leading state institutions and civil society organisations.

Joining the two parliamentary presidents at the flag-raising ceremony were members of various political parties, the Chief of Defence Staff, Fernando Alejandre Martínez, the Secretary General for Defence Policy, Juan Francisco Martínez Núñez, and the Police Commissioner for Madrid, Teodoro Pérez García, amongst others.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

After many years of speculation and investigation, research scientists at the Bellvitge-IDIBELL Hospital and the University of Barcelona (UB) have finally demonstrated the involvement of glucose in the growth of tumour cells and have described how the availability of nutrients and oncogenic signal pathways link molecularly.

It is, according to the researchers, an "important step forward" in understanding the molecular mechanism that reprograms the cell in the formation of tumours.

The work, published by the journal 'Science', has deciphered the path through which glucose enhances the growth of cells, which must grow and reach a critical size in order to divide.

According to the researchers, promoting biosynthetic processes, such as the production of proteins and lipids, copying the genetic material and suppressing degradation pathways of biomolecules, the cells get ready to proliferate. These processes are regulated by a key protein: the so-called mTOR, which, according to the scientists, plays a crucial role in metabolic reprogramming.

The research team, led by Albert Tauler, a member of the Faculty of Pharmacy and Health Sciences of the UB, has demonstrated how this cell growth occurs and isolated the genetic signals of the E2F1 oncogene, which promotes uncontrolled division of the tumour cell.

Specifically, the work describes the activating interaction of two glycolytic enzymes (PFKFB3 and PFK1) with the mTOR complex, which converge on the surface of cellular organelles called lysosomes. Lysosomes are membrane-coated organelles, which contain a large number of enzymes capable of breaking down macromolecules.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Seven Celtiberian bronze helmets, stolen from the town of Aranda de Moncayo (Zaragoza) in the 1980s, were returned this Wednesday in excellent condition to Spain by their current owner in an official ceremony at the Unesco headquarters in Paris.

The pieces, dating from between the 6th and 3rd centuries B.C., come from the Celtiberian city of Arátikos, built during the Iron Age and destroyed by the Roman army in the 70's BC.

In the next few days they will travel to Spain to join a permanent collection at the Zaragoza Museum, where they will be studied by archaelogists before being put on public display.

The handover of this small collection brings a happy ending to a sorry story after two inhabitants of Aranda del Moncayo, Ricardo Bienvenido Granada and Mariano Florentino Ostale, were  last year found guilty by the Provincial Court of Zaragoza of having looted more than 5,000 celtiberian artifacts from Zaragoza and Soria over the past twenty years.

The helmets' current owner, Briton Christian Levett, a philanthropist, collector and creator of the Museum of Classical Art of Mougins (MACM), near Nice, personally delivered them to the Director General of Fine Arts of the Ministry of Culture, Román Fernández-Baca .

"The city and necropolis of Arátikos was subject to a slow, systematic and constant plundering that lasted for decades and that could unfortunately not be prevented at the time, despite the numerous warning flags raised," said Fernández-Baca.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Average prices for both new build and second-hand homes in the Balearic and Canary islands grew by 11.3% in November compared with the same month last year, according to Tinsa, one of the leading real estate valuation services.

House prices increased by an average of 3.7% across Spain as a whole last month, in line with the year-to-date increase of 3.8%. Only the island territories have seen an annual average increase of over 5% in 2019.

Average house prices in regional capitals and bigger cities have gone up by 4.6% and 2.5% respectively over the past year . The Mediterranean coast on the other hand has seen a year-on-year rise of only 0.3%, lower than that seen in smaller towns or "remaining municipalities" where prices have risen by 1.3% over the past 12 months.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

The city of Valencia is currently undergoing a major transformation, with the redevelopment and pedestrianisation of many of its squares (plazas) moving along at great speed. Ten squares have already been pedestrianised, two are currently in the process of being pedestrianised and another five projects are in the pipeline.

The architects of the ambitious city pedestrianisation project hope the project will tackle climate change from two angles: reducing emissions in the city by limiting traffic to certain areas, and creating a greener environment with more trees and more areas for peope to socialise in. The long-term plan is to "re-naturalise" the city and re-direct the city's growth towards a more sustainable model.

Deputy Mayor and Councilor for Urban Development, Sandra Gómez, says the way forward is to tackle climate change from within our cities. "The main aim of the project has been to study the city, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, reclaiming vital areas so as to improve people's quality of life and support sustainable development", she explained.

Valencia's urban planning, she said, is now geared towards "reclaiming te city's squares as places for people to build a stable and sustainable sense of community". Valencia's squares need to become places where neighbours can "grow, share, play, have fun and live together" she said, adding that before the pedestrianisation project was launched, these squares "were just congested concrete parking lots with barely passable pavements".

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Argentine ace Lionel Messi has won the 2019 Ballon d'Or. It is the sixth time he has walked away with football's most prestigious prize, breaking his five-title tie with Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo.

The Barça player, who was the bookies' favourite for the prize this year, beat Liverpool's Dutch midfielder Virgil van Dijk who came in second, Ronaldo, who had to make do with third and Liverpool's Senagalese forward Sadio Mané.

Messi, 32, received his first Ballon d'Or in 2009 and over the past decade has gone on to become the most celebrated player in football and perhaps the greatest to ever play the game.

"Ten years ago I won my first Ballon d'Or here in Paris. I was 22 years old and couldn't believe it. Ten years later I receive the prize again in a totally different moment in my life, with my wife and three children", said Messi after collecting the award voted for by 176 journalists from all over the world.

“As my wife says, it’s important to never stop dreaming and to always work to improve myself and continue to enjoy myself. I hope to continue to play for some time.

The Argentinian assured the audience that he was conscious of his age and recognised that retirement was creeping up on him. “I know I am very fortunate, even if, one day, I will have to retire. That will be difficult but I still have beautiful years in front of me.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

It has been shown that eating fruits and vegetables when they are in season is better all-round - for our health, our pockets and for the environment. One of the biggest advantages of eating produce which is in season locally is that production is much more ecological: transport costs are lower, local businesses and the local workforce benefit, boosting the local economy, and because the produce is at its optimum ripeness, it is tastier too.

In December, the first month of the winter season, there are not a lot of fruits in season, but the choice of vegetables is plentiful.

Avocados, kakis (persimmon), kiwis and grapefruits are some of the fruits that are at their best this month. 

Avocados are full of heart-healthy, unsaturated fat and numerous beneficial nutrients like vitamins E, C and A and minerals like calcium and potassium. Kakis are rich and sweet and full of beta-carotene and vitamin C, two powerful natural antioxidants that prevent premature ageing. Kiwis are well known for their natural laxative properties and are also rich in vitamin C and omega 3, one of the most beneficial oils for our bodies. Like other citric fruits, grapefruits are rich in vitamin C, but also contain other beneficial nutrients like folic acid and vitamin A. 

Lemons are also in abundance at this time of year and are one of the most useful fruits thanks to the large number of phytochemical compounds they contain. They can be used as an antioxidant, an astringent, an antacid... Mandarins are also widely available in December. Despite being part of the citrus family, they contain less vitamin C than other citric fruits but compensate by having not-insignificant levels of calcium, folic acid, betacarotene and a sweet flavour that kids love.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Marbella's popular coastal walkway looks set to get a revamp in the new year.

The town's Councillor for Works, Diego López, has held meetings with the provincial minister for the Environment, Cristóbal Ortega, and with the technical departments of both administrations to push forward five coastal footpath projects that would extend the current wooden walkway all the way from the Marbella Arch to Los Monteros beach.

In a statement to the press López explained that the idea is for work to begin in the first quarter of next year and that each section would be carried out "gradually" as and when permission was granted "so that many would be finished before the end of 2020".

He confirmed that the first section to be constructed would be a six-metre wide wooden walkway in the Funny Beach area. "It's a stretch that the Málaga provincial government is already working on in order to connect the two existing wooden walkways which are currently linked in a temporary fashion by concrete slabs on the sand", he added.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NOW THAT the days are getting shorter and night is falling earlier, hundreds of thousands of people on earth will be checking the daily forecast to see if they have a chance of catching the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights – just as residents in parts of Australia, New Zealand, Argentina and Chile were eagerly watching the evening skies six months ago in the hope of gaining a rare glimpse at the southern version, the Aurora Australis.

Even though they usually appear in the depths of winter, three years ago in September they were so bright one night over Iceland that the whole of Reykjavík turned off its street lamps and home lighting, because they didn't need them.

Hang on. Isn't this supposed to be a website about Spain?

So, why are we talking about Iceland, let alone New Zealand?

Just be patient and read on...

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A team of doctors at the Montecelo hospital in Pontevedra have carried out the first stem cell surgery in Spain to treat patients with Crohn's disease combined with complex perianal fistula.

Crohn's disease affects over a million people in the European Union, and perianal fistulas are one of the most debilitating complications of the disease.  It is estimated that for every 100,000 inhabitants of Galicia there are 250 people suffering from Crohn's disease.

The health authorities in Pontevedra have proudly announced the "leading role" their staff have assumed in this field and emphasised the importance of the investigative project - the fruit of "interdisciplinary work" that has been carried out since June 2012 with "continuous coordination" between specialists in the digestive system, general surgery, pharmacy and radiology.

The initiative is a joint project with the Japanese biopharmaceutical company Takeda, which signed a risk-sharing agreement with the Ministry of Health to finance the application of this stem cell therapy in the National Health System.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com