Live News From Spain As It Happens

SPAIN’S richest man Amancio Ortega - founder of the global high-street clothing empire Inditex – has just bought a chunk of Amazon’s headquarters, his second-largest purchase ever after buying the London Adelphi building from Blackstone.

Ortega, who started up his huge textile business with his late wife Rosalía Mera from a small shop premises in his native Ourense, Galicia, has purchased a large share of the building used by online retailer Amazon in Seattle for US$740 million (about €655m) through the estate agency he owns, Pontegadea.

The Inditex owner’s acquisition of the Troy Block – two of the 40 towers on the Amazon campus, owned by USAA Real Estate, the property arm of the insurance company linked to the US Armed Forces – is the biggest in the city’s history, according to The Seattle Times.

Until now, the large purchase in Seattle was that of the Columbia Center for US$711m (€630m) in 2015.

Pontegadea has now made its two biggest acquisitions in Ortega’s career history in the space of one year – the first being the Adelphi Tower in London for £600m (currently €702m).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A NON-PROFIT car-pooling initiative modelled on BlaBlaCar has won the HackforGood 2019 Award in Cáceres, presented by the University of Extremadura (UEX).

YayoCar is an application that allows the elderly to contract shared transport to get themselves to medical appointments, and has won its developer, Francisco Javier Rojo Martín, the €1,000 prize pot.

The system, whose name translates as ‘GrandpaCar’, allows users from different locations to synchronise their trips in line with their scheduled appointment times, and is provided by volunteers.

As well as covering a growing social need, YayoCar aims to help the elderly meet other people of their age group to combat the isolation and feelings of loneliness that senior citizens, especially those living in rural areas, often suffer if they live alone.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A PICASSO painting stolen 20 years ago has been found in Amsterdam by Dutch art investigator Arthur Brand, who says its disappearance means the thieves were ‘unable to sell it’.

Busto de Mujer (‘Bust of a Woman’) was owned by Saudi Sheikh Abdul Mohsen Abdulmalik, who bought it from Pace Gallery in New York in the 1980s for an undisclosed sum.

When it was stolen from his yacht in France in 1999, it was reported to be worth €4 million.

As time went on and the painting failed to appear, French authorities were forced to close the case since, in

the majority of cases – according to Brand – when a major work of such high value vanishes into thin air, it is usually because the thieves were unable to sell it as they could not prove its authenticity or its origin, meaning they end up simply destroying it to avoid being caught.

The owner had offered a €400,000 reward for its safe return – 10% of its estimated value at the time of its loss – but after giving up all hope of its ever being recovered, received a €4m payout from his insurance company.

As a result of the claim, the now-recovered painting legally belongs to the insurance company, which is due to put it up for auction.

A United States-based art expert is currently in the Dutch capital analysing the picture to verify its condition before offering it for sale again to Abdulmalik.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of Spain’s main consumer protection organisations has warned about a website which charges €59 to renew a European health card used to cover emergency medical treatment when travelling within the EU, and which gives the impression of being the official platform for doing so.

Although the company’s activity is not, technically, illegal, it is highly misleading, because there is no charge for applying for or replacing an EU health card – the €59 fee is merely that which the firm charges for doing so on applicants’ behalf.

And there is no need to pay someone else to do so, since the process via the official channel – the Social Security office – is just as simple.

FACUA-Consumers in Action says the website uses different addresses, and in the small print of each, explains that they are the property of a company named Servione Servicios Generales, S.L.

This has since changed its name to Momentum Euroconsulting, S.L.

Both are domiciled in the Greater Madrid region satellite town of Alcobendas.

The site – for which one of the addresses is tsetarjetasanitariaeuropea.online and another is tarjetasanitariaeuropeaonline.com – uses the same colours and font as the web page for the European Commission, and includes the European flag symbol, meaning it is easy for internet users to assume they are using an official channel and to pay for a service which is, in fact, free of charge.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EVEN though most of Spain is basking in unseasonably-high temperatures and ski slopes are melting over a fortnight ahead of their usual closing dates, one of the country’s warmest regions has issued warnings over snow and ice.

The Canary Islands typically enjoys milder winter climates than the mainland and the Balearic Islands, meaning March often already brings sunbathing weather – but the Teide National Park is currently cut off at two of its main entrance roads due to sleet, sheet-ice and pockets of snow.

Tenerife traffic authorities reported this morning that kilometres 32 to 43 on the TF-21, the Teide entrance from El Portillo via La Orotava, and kilometres 24 to 43 on the TF-24, via La Esperanza, were shut due to snow and slush on the carriageways.

Carreteras Tenerife (‘Tenerife Highways’), via its Twitter site @carreterasTF, urged motorists not to go up to the Teide today (Monday) due to wet, icy and snowy conditions that presented accident risks.

And the Teide cable-car has been shut all day, not expected to open until at least tomorrow – or later if conditions persist.

Conversely, the snow has made even more visitors than usual want to go up the Teide, given that this is only the second incident of its type in 2019 – the previous being in January – and the fact that the white stuff on Spain’s highest mountain is incredibly rare due to its latitude close to the tropics.

Footage has been shared, and gone viral, on social media.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EUROPEAN Members of Parliament are set to vote tomorrow (Tuesday) on what to do about the bi-annual hour change, with a view to ending its compulsory nature from March 2021.

Those member States which want to remain on winter hours year-round will not have to change their clocks in the year 2021 until October, MEPs explain.

A continent-wide survey last July and August sought to find out the views of the European Union’s 510 million residents.

This was answered by 4.6 million citizens, and revealed that 84% of European residents, rising to 93% of people based in Spain, want to keep summer hours year-round.

This would mean that in Spain, in the deep winter, it would not start to get dark until just before 19.00 and daylight would not begin in the mornings until nearly 09.00, but that the usual summertime daylight hours of about 06.30 to 21.30 would continue.

This goes completely against the views of those who have long advocated Spain return to GMT, which is its natural geographical time zone – in line with the UK, Morocco and Portugal and which is observed in the Canary Islands.

Spain moved forward an hour during the Civil War as dictator General Franco wanted to be in the same time zone as his allies in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, but after the end of World War II, France’s leader Général de Gaulle sought to keep the whole of mainland western Europe on the same time in order to promote peace and harmony.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LET’S be honest: how many of you could name one single Spanish Impressionist painter? Monet, Sargent, Rénoir, Délacroix immediately spring to mind when you picture the pastel-coloured, light-reflecting landscapes of post-Enlightenment Europe; classical, Renaissance, cubist and surrealist artists from Spain are not hard to list (Goya, El Greco, Dalí, Picasso, Velázquez, and so on). But Impressionists?

Benlliure and Sorolla are two of the greatest masters of this era and both are from the Valencia area, and were considered some of the most iconic artists of the so-called Generation of ’98, a cultural movement which emerged during a time of financial, political and social crisis at the end of the 19thcentury. The former’s house, complete with the whole family’s works on display, is in Valencia city, and the latter’s eponymous museum is in Madrid, the capital of the region where he died at just 60 years of age in 1923.

Despite his short time on our planet, Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida spent it wisely – in less time than it takes a modern-day human to be born, educated, work and retire, he’d churned out over 2,200 paintings, meaning that the newly-opened exhibition at the London Tate Gallery, sizeable though it is with 58 of his works on the walls, is only a fraction of what he produced over the turn of two centuries.

And although Sorolla was as famous as his French contemporaries, you’ll be hard-pushed to find anything of his on show in any public exhibition in the UK – until now.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESEARCHERS in Barcelona have developed a drug which inhibits the key gene in most types of cancerous tumour and which is very active in generating the most aggressive form of lung cancer.

The team at the Vall d’Hebron Oncology Institute (VHIO) has tested the medication, Omomyc, successfully on mice and are hoping to start the first phase of clinical trials on humans in 2020.

Taken in the form of a nasal spray but also suitable for intravenous administration – via drip or injection - Omomyc is ‘well-tolerated’, reduces the size and severity of tumours and blocks their growth, according to the team.

It is suitable for use in non-microcytic lung cancer, the subtype which is most aggressive and has the highest mortality rate, both in men and women.

Led by Dr Laura Soucek, researcher at the Anti-Tumour Therapy in Mice Modelling Group within the VHIO and co-founder and executive director of Peptomyc, S.L., the team says the key gene in the development of most tumours and specifically in the worst form of lung cancer is known as Myc, but that until now, no gene-inhibitor had been found which worked effectively against it.

Dr Soucek has been developing her idea of creating a Myc-inhibitor for 20 years, and has now helped to develop Omomyc, a transgene which does not cause adverse effects and has now been turned into a pharmaceutical drug suitable for administration.

Her team has managed to produce Omomyc in mini-protein form, and in injecting it into the veins of mice or administering it via the nose, they found it stopped tumour growth – a discovery that could allow the researchers to extend it to treat other types of cancer, including those which have metastasised.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DUCHESS of York Sarah Ferguson gave a surprise interview to a Spanish reporter during a visit to Madrid in which she talked frankly about her relationship with the late Lady Diana, Princess of Wales.

The ex-wife of Queen Elizabeth II’s son Prince Andrew and mother of Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie – eighth and ninth in line to the British throne respectively – was in Spain for an event linked to the fight against obesity organised by one of the many charities she supports, is ambassador for, or has founded.

Whilst there, she spoke to presenter Emma García on her programme Viva la Vida.

Lady Diana, Princess of Wales was Sarah Ferguson’s ‘best friend’ and ‘a sister’, she revealed, despite the press having claimed prior to Diana’s death in August 1997 that the sisters-in-law got along ‘very badly’ and had ‘only minimal contact’ with each other.

‘Fergie’ insists this could not be farther from the truth, and that she misses her ‘soul sister’ now ‘every single day’.

At her daughter, Princess Eugenie of York’s wedding in 2018, one of Lady Di’s favourite songs, I Vow To Thee My Country, was played in her memory.

“We were two women who had fallen in love with two incredible princes,” Sarah revealed to Emma García.

She and Prince Andrew have always got along well after their amicable divorce, and Eugenie and Princess Beatrice continue to spend regular time with both of them.

In her autobiography, Sarah Ferguson revealed that Prince Andrew’s constantly being away on duty with the Royal Navy was what put a strain on their marriage and eventually ended it after 10 years.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PREHISTORIC cave art has been found at the highest-known altitude in Spain so far – at 2,200 metres (7,218 feet) above sea-level.

Also the northernmost cave drawings ever discovered in the country, they were unearthed inside two niches in the mountains of the Góriz Valley – part of the Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park in the province of Huesca, Aragón, in the Spanish Pyrénées.

Co-director of the archaeological project, Javier Rey, says the coloured carvings date back to the Neolithic era, meaning they are about 7,000 years old.

They would have been created between the years 4,000 and 5,000 BC.

Rey says the drawings are in keeping with what is known as ‘schematic Iberian art’, which typically features very simple symbols depicting typical scenes from the authors’ life and economic activity.

In these, the human figure and animals are the main subjects, and are shown in hunting and livestock-herding scenes.

According to the details of the paintings studied by the archaeological team – which includes members of the High Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and Barcelona Autonomous University (UAB) – the original artists were probably shepherds who were in the cave area in summer when they could take advantage of the lush grass for grazing.

Given the altitude, permanent year-round settlements in Pyrénéen caves would have been impossible, as it was too cold and the grass was too sparse for animals to feed off.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

’SMART’ inner soles for shoes that correct the foot position and prevent serious limb problems have been invented by a company in Aragón, and are likely to be on the market within less than six months.

Podoactiva, a firm that specialises in podiatry and digital engineering, says this pioneering invention generates ‘big data’ about how the foot ‘behaves’ in ‘thousands of patients in real life’, through the way they move and the pressure of their step, and the relationship between these aspects and a long list of injuries affecting the feet, legs, hips and back.

According to Zaragoza University’s engineering professor Roberto Casas, who was a member of the design and development team, the ‘Smart Insole Podoactiva’ is capable of measuring ‘500 datum per second in real time’ whilst the wearer goes about his or her daily life, thanks to the Force Sensor Resistor (FSR) implants, an electronic motherboard, a battery with an IMU module, and Bluetooth technology which allows the information gathered to be sent to a mobile phone.

They are recommended for literally anyone who wears shoes – not just sportspeople or those with existing foot conditions, says head of engineering at Podoactiva, Ángel Peguero, who calls them a ‘real challenge’ in his profession.

“Knowing what is going on with a patient’s foot in between podiatrist visits is a real revolution in the field of biomechanics, since it allows us to learn about how our patients walk and step in a real-life environment,” said technical director of Podoactiva, Javier Alfaro, during a conference at the Global Sports Innovation Centre at Madrid’s Microsoft headquarters.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESEARCHERS at Valencia’s La Fe Hospital have discovered the gene behind the most common hereditary heart condition – one which causes ‘sudden death’ and often affects children and teenagers as they are playing sports.

After sequencing the DNA of 7,000 individuals and selecting a number of families with a history of hypertrophic myocardiopathy via 40 different hospitals, and tracking them over a three-year period, the Institute of Health Research (IIS) at La Fe pinpointed a link between the gene FH0D3 and the condition.

Published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), the report details how patients with a family history of hypertrophic myocardiopathy were able to benefit from more accurate diagnoses allowing them to manage and monitor their conditions.

The discovery of the link between the disorder and gene FH0D3 also opens the door to potential new treatments which could suppress the action of the gene in question.

Hypertrophic myocardiopathy is the most frequent inherited heart condition, affecting one in 500 people, and is associated with a greater risk of ‘sudden death’ and chronic heart failure, as well as a reduction in quality of life for patients because of the symptoms it generates, says the Family Cardiopathies Research Group (CaFaMuSMe) of the IIS.

It occurs when mutations – or changes in DNA levels – in the genes responsible for developing heart muscle are present, meaning the heart becomes enlarged, a condition known as left ventricular hypertrophy.

Read mor at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH president Pedro Sánchez has warned his British counterpart Theresa May that if she wants to extend the deadline for Brexit, she needs to have a clear plan.

“You can’t go forward by going around in circles; that’s not the solution,” Sánchez said.

He stressed that Mrs May’s deal is the ‘best possible’ and the ‘only viable option’ if the UK wants to leave the European Union and that no better deal is available if Brexit proceeds, but stressed that Spain will ‘always provide constructive solutions’ to promote ‘an orderly exit’ from the EU.

If the deal, which has been voted down twice, does not get through Parliament within the next nine days, the UK wants an extension to Article 50 so as to avoid crashing out without a deal, which experts say would be disastrous for Britain and cause financial loss to its trading partners in the EU.

Spain will ‘listen to the UK’s proposals’, says Sánchez, but has made it clear that if Mrs May wants an extension, she ‘needs to make it clear what it is for and for how long’.

She was expecting to ask the Council of Europe – made up of the national leaders of all 28 countries, including herself – for a three-month ‘technical extension’ if her deal had been approved by UK Parliament, or longer if it had not.

The British prime minister wanted a third vote on her deal before the European Union leaders’ summit, due this Thursday, but Parliament will not agree to a further vote unless there are changes in the deal.

And the EU has refused to agree any changes.

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VIBRATIONS and noise generated by the mascletà during the Fallas in Valencia city are even greater than those felt when you are about to take off for outer space – it’s official.

Science minister Pedro Duque – Spain’s first man on the moon, a seasoned space traveller and national hero among kids born in the 1990s – joined the fiesta queens or falleras mayores and regional president Ximo Puig on the city hall balcony for one of the mascletaes, the last of which for this year was let off at 14.00 today (Tuesday).

His facial expression in the above photograph says it all – the ground-trembling experience and earth-shattering roar go above and beyond what Duque remembers from his days as an astronaut.

This is not the first time he has watched the spectacle from the city hall balcony, however – he did so many years ago, and has noticed how the ‘complexity’ of Valencia’s mascletaes has improved ‘considerably’, especially now computerised and electronic equipment is used.

Mascletaes normally just produce grey smoke, especially in other towns in the region which celebrate the Fallas, but the ones in Valencia include clouds of red, yellow and blue, in the colours of the Senyera, as the regional flag is known.

Duque said he found the experience ‘emotional’ and ‘exciting’, and that ‘everyone feels it’.

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POLICE in Spain are working with British authorities to trace an eight-year-old boy believed to have been abducted by his father, who is originally from Puente Genil (Córdoba province).

The child, Angelo Jurado-Marmolejo, lives with his mother in Bristol, UK, and his father Rafael Cabello, 43, did not bring him home after a scheduled access visit on March 2.

Avon and Somerset Police, who produced the above photograph, are concerned Cabello may have taken his son to Córdoba.

The last time the boy was seen, he was wearing a red coat and carrying a blue rucksack.

His father is described as thin with dark hair.

Cabello’s family filed a missing persons report after he did not return to his home in Córdoba after leaving Bristol with his son.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOOFING it round the fallas this week in the Valencia region is sure to help you work up an appetite – and luckily, these three Mediterranean provinces are not short of restaurants serving traditional dishes bursting with flavour.

It doesn’t matter whether you’re in Valencia city itself – the third-largest in Spain and home to over 750,000 people – or in a smaller town in its eponymous province or those of Castellón or Alicante; eating out is never expensive, the food is of excellent quality, and you’ll find everything from a low-key corner bar to a Michelin-starred restaurant within walking distance of the nearest falla monument.

If you’re visiting the area, you’ll want to eat like a local – so here are a few ideas of what you shouldn’t leave the area without trying.

Paella

When thinking of Spanish food in general, paella is what tends to spring to mind unless you’re familiar with the huge variety of local and regional dishes that are incredibly diverse and, in some cases, even vary from town to town. But paella was invented in the Valencia region and is, probably, one of its best-known exports, other than oranges. It helps that the provinces of Valencia and Alicante grow their own rice, too – the marshland in Pego (Alicante) and between Xeraco (Valencia) and Valencia city are home to vast swathes of paddy fields.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RED triangles currently required by law to be carried in cars in case of an accident or breakdown may be replaced by the year 2025 due to the high risk posed to drivers of getting out of their vehicles on main roads.

Spain’s General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), part of the ministry of public works and transport infrastructure, is considering a substitution in the form of a flashing light, although it has not yet confirmed how this would work.

According to the assistant deputy director Ana Blanco, at least 20 people were killed on motorways last year by getting out of their cars and being run over, many of whom had done so in order to set up their reflective red triangles behind and in front of their vehicles to give other, approaching road users warning.

Of the 303 people who lost their lives on Spain’s motorways last year, around 20% were pedestrians, Ana Blanco says.

She also points out that in the UK, it is illegal to set up red warning triangles on motorways and dual carriageways – whilst in Spain, it is compulsory to carry two of them in the car.

A new draft road traffic regulation framework under construction will include advice on how to act in the event of an accident or breakdown, which will serve to bridge the gap whilst an alternative warning system is developed, given that this will have to be highly-adaptable as motoring technology evolves so quickly, explains chief prosecutor for road safety, Bartolomé Vargas.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SIX Boeing 737 MAX 8 are stranded on the runway at airports in the Canary Islands now that the European Union has joined China, India, Mongolia, Ethiopia and Australia in grounding them all.

Five at Gran Canaria airport and one at Tenerife South have been taken out of use – the latter being a Thomson craft and the others including a TUI and a Travel Service.

Of the Gran Canaria Boeings, three are operated by the low-cost carrier Norwegian, which runs regular flights from several Spanish airports to and from the UK and is a relatively new service, having launched around seven years ago, and whose facilities include free-of-charge on-board WiFi.

The European Air Safety Agency (EASA) issued an emergency announcement yesterday (Tuesday) calling for all Boeing 737 MAX aircraft to be grounded.

Spain’s airport governing body AENA says two Norwegian flights had to be cancelled at the last minute, although passengers were placed on other aircraft run by the same company and reached their destination with minimal delay.

Also, says AENA, a TUI flight between Banjul (Gambia) and Amsterdam (The Netherlands) was given the order in mid-air to land immediately at the nearest airport, which turned out to be Gran Canaria.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FOSSIL of a whale’s head dating back approximately 5.7 million years has been found in a limestone quarry in Santanyí on the island of Mallorca.

The first of its type ever to be found in the so-called ‘chalk strip’ across the Mediterranean, the skull was discovered inside a chunk of stone weighing three-quarters of a metric tonne in a mine near s’Horta, part of the town of Felanitx.

Members of the archaeological team, from the University of the Balearic Islands’ (UIB’s) Earth Sciences Research Group – part of the Faculty of Biology – say there is absolutely no doubt the fossil is that of a skull of a sea creature of the Mysticeti sub-order, which refers to baleen whales, so-named because of the series of baleen plates along their upper jaws which act as a filter system.

This sub-order is also known as ‘whalebone whales’ or ‘great whales’ and, in the case of the head found, shares features typical of the Balaenopteridae family – referred to as ‘rorquals’ and covering the fine whale, humpback whale and the blue whale, which is the largest species on earth and grows to 25 metres (82 feet) in length.

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Spaniards firmly believe ‘fake news’ influences public opinion and harms democracy, leading people to take decisions, adopt opinions and cast votes in a certain way based upon what they have read and shared – 83% of those interviewed in the latest Eurobarometer survey say so, compared with 76% across the rest of Europe.

And 78% of Spaniards say they often come across

'fake news' although only just over half believe they would be able to tell straight away whether a post on social media or a headline was not true.

The European Union set up a ‘Myth-Busters’ group in 2015 to combat ‘fake news’, which is becoming more difficult in the digital age where a story or post can find its way to millions of computer screens worldwide in fractions of a second.

It has stepped up the game sharply ahead of the elections in May, when it suspects outside influences will attempt to sway voters’ views in a given direction.

What is ‘fake news’?

‘Fake news’ does not refer to spoof stories on satirical reporting sites, which are purely for entertainment and written in a way that it is unlikely they would be believed; these pages are immensely popular because they force readers to look at the funny side of current affairs. Instead, it refers to deliberate campaigns aimed to create hatred – for example, myths about immigration and certain cultures or religions – to steer public opinion in a certain way ahead of a crucial

vote, and to tarnish reputations.

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SHAPE of You singer Ed Sheeran has caused a furore on London’s Portobello Road after buying the now-defunct tapas restaurant Galicia to turn it into a nightclub which locals believe will be ‘for exclusive use only’.

Founded in 1989 by Galicia-born chefs José Nieto and Eduardo Lage, Galicia Spanish Restaurant & Tapas Bar in the city centre – not to be confused with Fernando Alexandre’s Galicia Restaurant on Croydon High Street - is described as ‘just like being back in Spain’ and has long been a hang-out for the UK capital’s growing number of Spanish expats, as well as locals.

Its clientèle, before it shut in April last year, varied from ordinary workers and residents through to tourists and even, discreetly, celebrities, such as rocker John Mayall, indie singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor, former UK prime minister David Cameron, and his ex-coalition partner from the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg, whose wife is Spanish.

Galicia was said to be ‘unique and bohemian’ and ‘one of the most authentic Spanish eateries in London’, with regulars saying it was ‘like going back 70 years in time’ when stepping inside.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

INTERNATIONAL Women’s Day on Friday was more than just a global strike and protest calling for equal rights – every year, it’s essentially a celebration of the brilliance and talent of 50% of the population (men get their turn on November 19), of what girls and ladies can do if they dare to dream, put humanity and hope before self-doubt, and make a conscious decision to be the best version of themselves they can be. This may be in sports, arts, their work; perhaps in caring for their children, animals or relatives; it could be in changing the world for the better in tiny steps or in big leaps; or maybe in being the best friend or partner they can – or perhaps just in having the most fun. Celebrating women on March 8 doesn’t mean trashing men, just as celebrating Father’s Day doesn’t mean trashing mothers, or vice versa: it’s merely a day for focusing on all that’s great about those born with XX genes, or who identify as female.

It’s also a day for remembering those women who should have graced whole chapters of history books but who, given that ladies were considered an inferior species until recent decades both socially and legally, have never found their fame.

Spain is as guilty as every other country in the world; pioneers, saviours and female talent in major artistic and literary movements have often remained in oblivion until now, and are only just finding their voices, some of them centuries after their deaths.

The name on the lips of everyone who mentioned women in history on Friday was Clara Campoamor (first picture), (1888-1972), a lawyer and feminist activist who fought fiercely for female rights; arguably, she’s the most famous of all Spain’s historical ladies. But scratch the surface and you’ll find plenty more who precede and follow her – and here is just a smattering of a small handful of those who should be household names.

Golden girls

Mention Spain’s Siglo de Oro (‘Golden Age’, or literally ‘century of gold’) and a flood of literary and artistic greats pop up: Miguel ‘Don Quijote’ de Cervantes, obviously; Lope de Vega, Quevedo, Calderón de la Barca and Tirso de Molina, whose works are still on the literature curriculum today; Zurbarán, Murillo, Velázquez, Ribalta, Ribera and, naturally, El Greco, whose paintings take pride of place in galleries and churches across the country…but have you noticed they’re all men?

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANIARDS are the most pro-European and least nationalist of all EU citizens according to the latest Eurobarometer study.

Nearly nine in 10 agree with European migration policies and over eight in 10 believe ‘fake news’ is a big problem for democracy.

Whilst on average, 71% of EU nationals identify more as ‘European’ than as purely citizens of their own country, in Spain this rises to 83%.

A total of 66% of Spaniards say they feel very much a part of the European Union, compared to an average of 56% across the bloc, and 86% feel closer to Spain than to Europe – a number that rises to 91% over the rest of the continent in relation to their own countries.

Spaniards are more likely to feel emotional ties to, or identify with, their town or village; this is the case with 92% of those interviewed, compared with 89% on average for the EU-28; largely, it is thought, because of the autonomously-governed region system, since each region is effectively a ‘country within a country’ with a very different culture, landscape, microclimate and, in some cases, co-official language.

The European Union, for Spaniards, signifies freedom to travel, study and work, and secondly, the convenience of a common currency, whilst they also appreciate the huge diversity of culture and language across the continent.

Spanish nationals are not as confident as other Europeans at their ability to detect ‘fake news’, or false claims that affect public thinking – nearly eight in 10 Spaniards believe they have stumbled across these cases fairly frequently, although the European average is 68%; but whilst an EU average of 58% says they find it easy to detect false stories, only 52% of Spaniards do so.

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HUNDREDS of thousands of ladies and a fair few men hit the streets across Spain today (Friday) as part of the International Women’s Day demonstration – and a high number went on strike.

Now a global phenomenon, the Women’s Day strike is not limited to Spain – Greece held its first-ever today – and the idea is for users of public services, including private-sector industries, to experience what would happen if female workers literally disappeared from the planet.

This meant only 76% of trains, including the metro, were running in Madrid, but in practice very few women in the care and medical professions downed tools due to the vital nature of their jobs.

Spain’s calls for equality relate to women’s safety, especially in light of the recent final prosecution report relating to the disappearance of Madrid teenager Diana Quer, who was kidnapped, raped and murdered by a complete stranger whilst walking back from the local fiestas in A Pobra do Caramiñal to her family holiday home in August 2016.

Women’s safety in public, their right to be free from sexual harassment, along with domestic and gender violence – which also affects men but, statistically, in Spain at least, is overwhelmingly committed by males against females – were the crucial issues the demonstrations focused on, although other issues such as care duties falling mainly on female shoulders, the gender pay gap which is calculated to be around 30%, and female under-representation in leadership roles, sports and history were also on the agenda.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Late February’s and early March’s exceptional weather is about to subside for a while – bright sunshine, cloudless skies and temperatures of up to 26ºC are starting to give way to rain and gale-force winds pushing 150 kilometres per hour.

‘Hurricane Laura’ has just entered Spain via Galicia in the far north-west, bringing with it four centimetres (nearly two inches) of rain and leading to over 100 emergency call-outs last night (Tuesday), although fortunately, nobody has been hurt.

Strong winds have now spread to the Mediterranean, but the full impact of ‘Hurricane Laura’ is due to strike over the next few days as it makes its way across the mainland.

Peak wind speeds were registered in Viveiro (Lugo province, Galicia) last night, at 149.3 kilometres per hour (93mph), and across the region’s other three provinces of A Coruña, Ourense and Pontevedra, ranged between 117 and 122 kilometres per hour (73-76mph).

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BANKS will be forced to cap current account commission or ‘admin charges’ to just €3 a month by March 25 in a welcome move introduced this week by Spain’s national government.

Depending upon where you bank, charges can vary from €1.50 to over €12 a month on each and every account, meaning it is not worthwhile setting up separate ones for bills, holidays, car expenses and so on.

Even at €3 a month, banks will still be netting €36 per year per account, but with the high-street finance industry being forced more and more to become competitive and offer customers good reasons to stay, some are opting to reduce or even axe commission altogether.

Unfortunately, many banks continue to demand a minimum average balance of around €2,000 to €3,000 a month to waive commission – amounts unlikely to be maintained by the ordinary wage-earner and high enough that €36 a year in admin fees would not make much of a dent.

The difference now is that the €3 a month maximum must cover credit and debit cards, meaning charges for renewing expired ones must be included, and up to 120 annual withdrawal or payment operations within the entire European Union, not just Spain, to include direct debits, standing orders and transfers.

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Valencia regional president Ximo Puig has dissolved Parliament and called an election for April 28, to coincide with the country’s going to the polls to vote on their national government.

Regional elections for Spain’s 17 federal territories, plus its two city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast, are due to take place on May 26, at the same time as the local council elections.

Certain regions hold theirs separately from the rest, including Catalunya and Andalucía.

Puig’s five socialist ministers voted in favour of his holding elections a month early, but the five representatives of his coalition partners, the left-wing regional party Compromís, voted against.

Compromís’ leader Mònica Oltra (pictured) says she ‘cannot see any political reason’ for bringing the regional election forward to coincide with the general.

This is the first time the Comunidad Valenciana has broken away from the standard regional electoral calendar.

Among Puig’s reasons are that his team, who have been in power for four years – after 20 years of continuous governing by the right-wing PP – have reached a ‘natural break’ in their work and that this is the ideal time to stop and reflect ahead of their next leg of plans to overhaul the region after its two decades of stagnation.

He also points out that the Comunidad’s biggest challenge, which is its considerable underfunding and underinvestment at State level that it has suffered from for decades, should be highlighted and pushed to the forefront nationally, making the general election a good time to give the issue ‘visibility’.

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PRESCRIPTIONS can be purchased from any pharmacy in Spain from this week and are no longer just limited to the region in which the patient lives, explains health minister María Luisa Carcedo.

This system had already gone live in the Greater Madrid region, but has now been extended to the other 16 plus the Spanish-owned city-provinces of Ceuta and Melilla on the northern Moroccan coast.

Additionally, doctors anywhere in the country can access a patient’s medical history, meaning national travel no longer means being ‘cut off’ in terms of healthcare.

Already, the new-style red SIP cards allow for treatment anywhere in the country, rather than solely in the patient’s own region, but it is not compulsory to replace existing, earlier SIP or public healthcare cards unless and until these become lost or damaged, or suffer wear and tear that does not allow them to be ‘swiped’.

Catalunya had followed Madrid in ‘nationalising’ prescription collection and medical history access – both being ‘output’ regions for a high number of national tourists, many of whom head for Spain’s coastal areas in summer.

Each patient registered on the national system, and who is in possession of a SIP card with their name and medical ID, will be assigned a code that appears on their records and links up to regional computer networks, which are now centralised.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NOTHING newly-invented in the world of technology is ever missing from the Mobile World Congress, the biggest and most bang-up-to-date trade fair on the planet.

Hosted annually by Barcelona, the 2019 edition of the prestigious MWC ended on Wednesday after welcoming tens of thousands of mostly corporate visitors from every square inch of the globe.

Each year brings a heap of gadgets and concepts designed to make our lives easier and more efficient, to embarrass the living daylights out of those who still use fax machines and tape the music charts on a Sunday, and to show us what the near future of everyday living and working is likely to hold.

Not a single corner of life is missing from the technological revolution: farming, education, healthcare, entertainment, cooking and cleaning, and communication are just a handful of the activities pervaded by digital progress, and it’s all seen under one roof in Spain’s second-largest city every February.

Here’s what’s new from the MWC 2019, and you’ll wonder how you coped before they were invented.

Surgical streaming

Using 5G technology, the world’s top surgeons can talk local hospitals through complex operations without even having to board a plane. Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic gave a real-time demonstration of how a top doctor on another continent can oversee the process when you go under knife.

All we need now is a home version for DIY surgery to cut waiting lists – or a direct 5G streaming service to Obstetrics in case your wife goes into labour at home and it’s too late to get her to the maternity ward.

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Spanish airports will change the way they address the public over the tannoy in line with a new ‘anti-sexist language’ policy: they are set to drop the famous opening, “Señores Pasajeros.”

As the Spanish language defaults to the masculine when referring to people or objects collectively – unless all of them are female – the English ‘ladies and gentlemen’ address is only directed at males.

The literal translation for Señores is ‘Misters’, meaning the usual announcement refers to ‘Mr Passengers’, but is understood also to include Señoras, or ‘Mrs’, in plural.

Spanish women do not change their title of address from ‘Miss’ to ‘Mrs’, or Señorita to Señora, upon marriage – this is dictated more by age, although Señorita is thought to be a diminutive and considered rather patronising, so rarely used.

In this way, and given that Spanish women do not change their surnames when they marry, it is impossible to ascertain from their full names including titles whether or not they are wedded.

Some public services, when addressing people collectively, have begun to open with ‘Señores y Señoras’, even though the former, ‘Señores’, on its own, works for both genders, in order to ‘neutralise’ the language in sex terms.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com