Live News From Spain As It Happens

AS MOST of Europe melts in temperatures of over 40ºC, for those who live in Spain, sweltering summer climes are not exactly something that catches them by surprise. But with this weekend and the early part of next week at least seeing the mercury rise to 43ºC in large parts of the country – 38 provinces are on weather alerts, and a handful in the land-locked northeast on 'red' – a reminder of the usual advice about how to keep yourself and your pets safe does not go amiss.

The Red Cross has released its top eight recommendations, and animal experts have issued their own to keep dogs, cats and other creatures that form part of our families healthy.

Keep hydrated

Spaniards are reported to be eating more fresh fruit and vegetables when the mercury rises – which is good, because of the water content and cooling nature of these delicious foodstuffs, and is also a positive sign that household wealth is improving, since fresh produce and in particular fruit and veg are the first to go when you're struggling to make ends meet. But the same figures show Spaniards are tending to drink more alcohol in summer, which is a bad move. Alcohol dehydrates, as does caffeine of course, and the former causes stupor and headaches, exacerbating what the hot weather does anyway.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A SPANISH dad who successfully gained shared custody of his children in his home city of Dubai – the first case ever in an Arab country – will be granted the Princess of Asturias Award for Concordance this November.

Borja Brañanova has lived in the United Arab Emirates for 15 years and his children, Sebastián and Olaya, were born there five and three years ago respectively.

Their mother, who is South African, wanted sole custody once their divorce was finalised, but Borja wanted them to share the children's upbringing equally.

This has never yet been agreed in an Arab country, where custody always goes 100% to one parent or the other, meaning the verdict is a pioneer in the Northern and Southern Africa and Middle Eastern region, home to two billion people of whom the majority are practising Muslims – in fact, a quarter of the world's population follow the Islamic religion.

Women in the Arab world still take a back seat, so 'it had to be a man' who changed things concerning the rights of children to grow up equally with both parents after a divorce, said the Confederation for Children's Best Interests (CEMIN), which put forward Borja's name for the award.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESEARCH carried out in Madrid involving scientists from several parts of the country claims a certain brand of alcohol-free beer is beneficial to patients with Type II diabetes.

Ámbar 0,0 improves insulin absorption, and also encourages eating less, helping reduce excess body weight which, in some cases, is one of the causes of acquired diabetes.

The use of isomaltose instead of maltose – the latter being a conventional source of the sugar content in beer – and the addition of maltodextrin, a fibre found in starch, turned out to be 'the final piece of the carbohydrates jigsaw', according to Dr Rocío Mateo Gallego from the Aragón Health Research Institute.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has decided to take part in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest once again – for the first time since 2006.

National radio and television company RTVE is responsible for selecting and entering candidates, who must be aged between nine and 14, and Spain's entry in the next contest on November 24 this year will be one of 18 from as many countries.

The forthcoming Junior Eurovision will be hosted by Poland, in Gliwice in the Silesia region after the 2018 edition was won by Polish candidate Roksana Wegiel.

Since the contest was launched in 2003, Spain has entered four times and – unlike in the mainstream Eurovision – has always achieved excellent results, with the lowest position being a highly-creditable fourth place, netted by Dani in 2006 with Te Doy Mi Voz ('I Give You My Voice').

Spain came second in 2003 and 2005, with Sergio and Desde el Cielo ('From Heaven') and Antonio José with Te Traigo Flores ('I Bring You Flowers'), respectively.

Few Spanish pop fans of any age will forget the catchy Antes Muerta Que Sencilla ('Rather Dead Than Simple') sung by María Isabel in 2004, which won Spain the Junior Eurovision for the first and only time and almost immediately became a number one hit in the national charts.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A BRAND-NEW high-speed AVE train has finally opened after over 20 years of delays, and acting president Pedro Sánchez cut the red tape on it today (Tuesday).

The AVE links up Granada with Madrid, about a seven-hour journey by car, but which takes just three hours on the express train.

It will also stop off in Antequera (Málaga province) en route.

The first-ever Madrid-Granada AVE left the former's Atocha station at 09.15 today and reached Antequera's Santa Ana station at 11.27 as scheduled, then was due to arrive in Granada, 122 kilometres further east, at 12.36.

This means a time saving of 50 minutes on the current system, which involves a s30lower, regional train followed by a bus link.

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BADMINTON ace Carolina Marín is not sure whether she will be ready for the World Championships in August after collapsing with a knee injury at the Indonesia Masters final in late January – but she says when she does get back on the court, she will be 'better than ever'.

The Olympic gold medallist had already been seen training a week after surgery, albeit from a sitting position – but this has really brought her game on, the 26-year-old says.

Although she does not have a firm idea of when she will be playing professionally again, Carolina fully intends to try for her fourth world championship if her knee does not let her down – but says recovering from her injury is 'the most important thing'.

The four-times European champion admits that she became very low after her injury, fearing it would cost her a place in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but that her down time has actually helped her improve.

“I've never been out of action for this long, and it's done me good because we've used that time to work on techniques we've never had time to focus on before,” Carolina reveals.

“Normally, it's nearly impossible to find time to train on the finer details of the game, but I've been able to now, and I feel as though I've improved a great deal.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SUMMER sales are gradually starting in high-street stores and boutiques across the country, beginning with the Greater Madrid region on Saturday (June 21) and spreading to other regions between now and July 1.

Big names are typically the first to slash their prices – Spanish chain Mango and Swedish store H&M began in Madrid this weekend and are expected to start this week elsewhere in the country, whilst the Inditex chain – Zara, Bershka, Stradivarius, Massimo Dutti, Uterqüe, Pull&Bear, Oysho and Zara Home – plus El Corte Inglés department store will begin their summer sale season this coming Saturday, June 28.

Leading national consumer organisation, the OCU, has published a raft of recommendations to ensure shoppers keep safe and are not blinded by low prices – which, from an average of 30% off at the beginning of the sales, can drop to up to 80% off by the end.

Firstly, and most obviously, is to avoid impulse buys; customers are advised to make a list before they set off of what they really need or want, set a budget and stick to it, and to take a walk and some time out before committing to a purchase, to allow them to think about it in full.

Secondly, retailers are obliged to comply with a series of legal requirements, and consumers should make sure they do so.

All goods in the sales must have their original price tag displayed on them, so shoppers know how much they are saving.

Nothing should change about the goods or the offers, except the price – the same guarantees apply, which is a minimum of two years for electrical items, and the quality must not be in any way diminished.

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SUMMER solstice celebrations are nothing uniquely Spanish; in fact, they're a Celtic tradition, meaning they stretch across the mass of regions this ancient cultural movement is thought to have pervaded, from Scotland to Scandinavia and from Galicia to Cantabria. Sweden's is particularly famous, with its Celtic crosses coated in yellow flowers set up on beaches, and folk songs, mainly about alcohol, sung with increasingly (deliberately) slurred speech.

But for Spain the main festivities happen two days after the longest night, on the day of the Catholic calendar which coincides with Saint John, or San Juan, and in no two provinces is it the same. In the aforementioned northern regions, plus their joint neighbour Asturias, the Celtic element is alive and well, whilst on the Costa del Sol it resembles Guy Fawkes' Night on the beach (without actually being about the man who reportedly tried to blow up London's Houses of Parliament), on the east coast, revellers take their lives into their hands (or at least their physical integrity from the ankles down) by leaping over bonfires on the sands, whilst inland, processions, Mediaeval craft markets, live music, food fairs, foam parties and even, in at least one case, blasting everyone with water are part of the schedule.

Wherever you are tonight (Sunday, June 23), there'll be something happening to start off your summer with a bang – literally as well as metaphorically.

On the coast

In most parts of the country blessed with a beach, San Juan Night involves bonfires, or hogueras, of some description; these are simple piles of junk wood set alight in the provinces of Valencia and Castellón and the northern parts of that of Alicante, as well as Barcelona, among others, but in most of the province of Alicante they take the form of gigantic, colourful papier mâché statues satirising celebrities and current affairs, which are then burnt down, in a very similar festival to that of the Fallas across the rest of the Comunidad Valenciana in March.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

WEATHER experts are forecasting a hotter-than-usual summer in Spain this year, just over 24 hours before the most-awaited season begins.

Officially, summer starts in Spain at 17.54 mainland time (16.54 in the Canary Islands) exactly on Friday (June 21), the longest day of the year, and its temperatures will average around 0.5ºC higher than typical for the coming three months, with a 'real feel' of 0.6ºC more.

To the west of the mainland, temperatures are expected to average 1ºC higher than normal, according to the State meteorological agency, AEMET – particularly in the provinces of Cáceres and Badajoz (Extremadura), Huelva (Andalucía), León and Zamora (Castilla y León), and Ourense (Galicia).

The first few days of summer 2019 will bring rain and a drop in temperatures in the northern half of the mainland, and see the mercury climb to at least 33ºC in the rest.

As yet, forecasts cannot be accurately made about whether there will be more, or less, rainfall than usual this summer.

AEMET's findings show that summer 2019 will be similar to that of 2018, which was also around 0.6ºC hotter than usual, but not as hot as those of 2015 or 2017 – and certainly not as much as what the agency calls 'the famous summer of '03', when thermometers typically read 1.9ºC more than the average on record since 1981.

This spring, which ends tomorrow, has had one of the warmest endings of late, and has been the sixth-driest this century with 15% less rainfall between March and May.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPANISH and German scientists have discovered two exo-planets which may hold water and have a mild, Earth-like climate, meaning potentially, the conditions are right for extra-terrestrial life.

Both planets orbit the star known as Teegarden, a red dwarf  around 12.5 light years from the Solar System, and both have a mass similar to Earth, according to co-researcher of the CARMENES Consortium, Pedro J. Amado.

“If there's water in liquid form, this greatly improves the probabilities of a planet's housing life as we know it on Earth,” says Amado.

“We already know that for life to develop on our own planet, oceans and liquid water have played a really important role.”

Teegarden is much smaller and less bright than the sun which the Earth goes around, and is only about half as hot – 2,600ºC compared with the 5,500ºC of the sun at the centre of the Solar System – and is 1,500 times weaker with 10 times less mass.

Because of these factors, the two exo-planets found orbit their sun at a much closer distance than that between the Earth and the brightest star in the Solar System.

Teegarden B, the closest planet to the Teegarden star, completes its orbit every 4.9 Earth days, whilst the more distant planet, Teegarden C, orbits the star in 11.4 days – meaning each planet's year is less than a week and less than a fortnight respectively.

a href="SPANISH and German scientists have discovered two exo-planets which may hold water and have a mild, Earth-like climate, meaning potentially, the conditions are right for extra-terrestrial life. Both planets orbit the star known as Teegarden, a red dwarf around 12.5 light years from the Solar System, and both have a mass similar to Earth, according to co-researcher of the CARMENES Consortium, Pedro J. Amado. “If there's water in liquid form, this greatly improves the probabilities of a planet's housing life as we know it on Earth,” says Amado. “We already know that for life to develop on our own planet, oceans and liquid water have played a really important role.” Teegarden is much smaller and less bright than the sun which the Earth goes around, and is only about half as hot – 2,600ºC compared with the 5,500ºC of the sun at the centre of the Solar System – and is 1,500 times weaker with 10 times less mass. Because of these factors, the two exo-planets found orbit their sun at a much closer distance than that between the Earth and the brightest star in the Solar System. Teegarden B, the closest planet to the Teegarden star, completes its orbit every 4.9 Earth days, whilst the more distant planet, Teegarden C, orbits the star in 11.4 days – meaning each planet's year is less than a week and less than a fortnight respectively.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CO-FOUNDER of one of the world's largest names in porcelain figurine collectibles, José Lladró, passed away on Monday aged 91, meaning his two daughters now own his 15% share of the company.

It was set up by the three Lladró brothers – Juan, who died in December 2017; José, and Vicente, who is still living - in 1953.

They created the Lladró brand in their tiny, humble workshop in their native village of Almàssera (Valencia province), but within less than a decade, their beautiful, intricate and delicate figurines were being sold in bespoke shops and concessions, and in collections in independent boutiques, on all five continents.

By then, the company had set up its head office and factory in the Valencia-province town of Tavernes Blanques, where it remains today.

In 2003, the brothers – who owned a third of the company each – decided to distribute their shares to their children.

The late Juan Lladró and his four daughters held 70% of the firm, whilst the remaining 30% was split equally between José and his two daughters and Vicente and his three children.

Vicente is now the only surviving original founder, and the company is in the hands of its second generation.

Lladró figurines are sought-after worldwide, highly-treasured, and even the cheapest and most basic come with a three-figure price tag, given that they are all made entirely by hand.

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OVER 178,000 students have signed a petition calling for the university entrance exam to be the same across the country.

Five candidates aged between 17 and 19 handed the petition in today to the ministry of education.

Started by Roberto Castrillo, 19, from León – who was accompanied by four others from León, Madrid and Alicante – the campaign is calling for the Evaluación de Bachillerato para el Accesso a la Universidad ('A-level evaluation for university access'), known as the EvAU or EBAU to follow the same curriculum, structure and questions throughout Spain rather than being different for each of its 17 autonomously-governed regions.

Whilst the Bachillerato – Spain's answer to A-levels – is marked internally by the pupil's school or college, the EvAU, formerly known as Selectividad, is independently-graded.

It is a summary of the material studied in Bachillerato and is necessary for university entrance.

But regional differences can mean qualifying for a higher education place and for grants to cover tuition fees and towards cost of living becomes a postcode lottery.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MAINSTREAM package trips to Spain inevitably seem to take you to the most built-up, rammed-full beaches, so infrequent visitors could be forgiven for believing the country's coasts are synonymous with mass tourism, fighting for towel space and general overcrowding.

Luckily we know this is not true – and whilst the Telegraph has attempted to reconfigure the misconceptions with its list of the top 10 'hidden' beaches in Spain, calling on a panel of holiday industry experts, we still think they've missed a few out – so we've decided to add a few of our own number one choices.

Some of the Telegraph's beaches are in regions that rarely feature in travel agency windows, but you'll be surprised at how many more are out there in the parts of the country you always thought were full of British pubs, chip shops and concrete jungles.

And you don't even need to look very hard.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THEY'RE the Meghan Markle and Prince Harry of Spain – Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos, 33 and television reporter Pilar Rubio, 41, will marry today at 17.00 in Sevilla cathedral, the largest in Spain and at the heart of the groom's native city – and millions of Spaniards will be surfing the net hoping to catch sight of the first official photos.

Set to be the biggest nuptials of 2019 and the most eagerly-awaited, with a star-studded guest list, strict dress code and top performers providing the music, Sergio and Pilar will seal their union after seven years and three children together.

Where?

The celebrity couple will recite their vows in front of the altarpiece of the Virgen de los Reyes, patron saint of Spain's fourth-largest city, inside its iconic cathedral – a massive tourist attraction and one where King Felipe III, later known as Saint Fernando, lies.

The beautiful temple (second picture) is not only the biggest in Spain but also in the world – 11,520 square metres in size and a UNESCO heritage site since 1987 – and tourists will not be able to enter today because of the ceremony.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

PRINCESS Leonor of Asturias will help present the awards named after her – Spain's national 'Nobel' prizes – for this first time this year at the October ceremony, just before she turns 14.

The heir to the throne, whose father is King Felipe VI, will have some of her earliest official Royal engagements either side of her birthday on October 31 – she will also present the Princess of Girona Foundation Awards in November this year in Barcelona.

Her parents, King Felipe and Queen Letizia, will be helping her, and her younger sister Sofía, who turned 12 in May, will also be making her Royal début at the Princess of Asturias Awards – what used to be the Prince of Asturias Awards before their dad became monarch in 2014, since they are always named after the first in line to the Crown.

Leonor (pictured left) has already premièred as a Royal in official engagements – her first was on September 8, 2018 in her eponymous region, Asturias, for the 300th anniversary of the Covadonga Basilica and the 150-year anniversary of the Altamira Caves' discovery.

She was also awarded the prestigious Golden Fleece on January 30 in a public ceremony on her father's 50thbirthday in a symbolic gesture of the start of her 'career' as a Royal.

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FAMILY and friends of missing 32-year-old Mark Palmer say they are 'getting desperate' after several trips to the Ontinyent (Valencia province) area and are continuing to crowdfund expenses so as many as them as possible can go out searching for him.

Mark, who is suffering from depression, decided to move to Spain in search of a new life and happiness, but disappeared on April 27 in the inland Vall d'Albaida district.

He had previously sent a WhatsApp message to a friend saying he was 'sick of life' and 'had a rope, drugs and alcohol', and bidding farewell.

Mark may have been carrying a yellow rope at the time he vanished.

His dad and his uncle Steve have visited the area twice, but say the process of examining his phone records and CCTV footage on and around the time he disappeared is a very slow process – albeit the Lucie Blackman Trust, a missing persons charity in the UK, says this is 'normal'.

Mark, from Dunstable (Bedfordshire, UK) is described as being of slim build with very short ginger hair and a red beard.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MOBILE phone and internet operator Vodafone has announced a 5G roll-out starting this Saturday (June 15) in a total of 15 cities in Spain.

According to chief executive António Coimbra, Vodafone is he first network provider to offer 5G in Spain, and Spain is now one of the first countries in Europe to do so.

Vodafone's 5G network means 10 times the capacity, the ability to connect 100 times as many devices, and a download speed of 1 gigabyte per second (Gps).

The firm expects to be able to increase its 5G coverage across the country, outside of major cities, and to double its download speed to 2Gps, within a year.

It is operated through Huawei as core provider and, to a lesser extent and over fewer areas, Ericsson.

No additional cost will apply to mobile phone users, who will be automatically upgraded if they are already on the Vodafone Illimitada Total or Vodafone One Ilimitada Total ('unlimited') packages, although those on cheaper tariffs will need to increase to one of these to enjoy the extra speed and capacity.

At present, the devices Vodafone sells in Spain with 5G automatically included are the Samsung Galaxy S10 5G, the LG V50 ThinQ 5G, and the Xiaomi Mi MIX 3 5G.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

VALENCIAN social media users are incensed once again after the latest offence of 'taking paella in vain' – a Twitter post showing a colander of boiled rice with a slice of processed meat on top has brought forth a volley of swearing online.

User 'Glifo' (@Interm1t3nt3) posted the unappetising picture with the caption, “Hey guys! Look at this Spanish paella I just made.”

One comment in reply said: “Not even my dog would eat this.”

Another made reference to an earlier paella-related 'blasphemy' – when Jamie Oliver's recipe for the typical eastern-region rice dish with spicy sausage was hammered on social media.

“Where is the chorizo?” asked Semper Nata (@mateo_84).

Others posted photographs of people with disgusted-looking faces, and another responded with a GIF of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and the caption, “At least the war has started, so I'll leave it there.”

Oliver, in his defence, claimed at the time – in October 2016 – that a 'Spanish grandmother had told him' to add chorizo.

His was not the only 'culinary blasphemy' to set social media steaming: a 'banoffee paella' hit the shelves of Dominique Ansel's eponymous London and New York restaurants two months later.

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THE EUROPEAN Central Bank's (BCE's) decision to postpone interest rate increases across the board means mortgages and credit in general in Spain and other common currency countries are likely to remain stable for some time.

According to the BCE's board of governors during a recent meeting in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, interest charged to high-street banks across the Eurozone for excess of reserves would remain at its current 0.4% until at least the middle of 2020.

This is the second time since 2011 that the BCE has postponed an interest rate rise, having previously said that they would start to climb by summer 2019 or, at the latest, the end of this year.

Although the interest charge on excess of reserves is different from the Euribor, or consumer interest across the Eurozone charged on mortgages, credit cards, for late payment, and other general finance, the decision announced by the BCE is part of a general policy of keeping rates down in order to encourage the flow of funding throughout bloc of countries which use the euro.

The BCE wants to aim for a rate of inflation of about or just below 2%, but no higher, and despite rock-bottom interest, it was still only at 1.2% in May and 1.7% in April.

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NATIONAL Police 'offices' are now patrolling seven of Spain's metropolitan areas, allowing detectives to carry out work they would normally have to do back at the station.

The new hybrid iZ patrol cars – pronounced as 'ee-zeta', as their full title is i-ZETA, rather than as 'e-zee' – carry fingerprint readers for immediate identification, and equipment for scanning ID and other documents and analysing and receiving images, even in areas of little or no lighting.

Connected to Cloud technology and linked to a central database, they are able to read up to 400 car registration plates a minute and can work out who someone is, where they live and their history within microseconds.

Front and rear dashcams mean high-speed police chases such as those normally only seen on cop action films will become a reality as the cars the officers are in pursuit of can be traced and followed much more easily.

A central console with a 10” touch screen and an external keyboard in the passenger seat means police can carry out manual checks from their cars.

The Toyota Prius+ 'smart' cars mean a large amount of work normally carried out at desks in police station admin departments can be conducted on the road, so more officers can be out on the beat, helping increase security for the public.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KING of Clay Rafael Nadal stunned fans yesterday (Sunday) when he broke all records and scooped up his 12th French Open title after a four-set victory against Austria's Dominic Thiem.

Mallorca-born Rafa's 18th major singles title and his third on the trot at Paris' Roland Garros stadium, the Spanish ace only dropped one set to fourth-seeded Thiem – to whom Nadal apologised for beating afterwards.

“I want to say congratulations to Dominic – I feel sorry, because he deserves it. I really hope he has a chance to win in the future,” Rafa told reporters after the three-hour, four-minute match.

It is the second time he has beaten Thiem in a Roland Garros final, but this time he looked to have a battle on his hands – by the end of the second set, on 6-3 5-7, it appeared the match could go either way.

But after sets three and four ended on 6-1 6-1 thanks to Thiem's last forehand going long, an exhausted and triumphant Rafa fell to the ground, knowing he had now netted his dozen at the Paris stadium, meaning two-thirds of his major singles titles have been at his favourite venue.

Thiem, 25, had vastly improved since they last faced each other across the court at Roland Garros, having taken on new coach, Chile's Nicolás Massu, an Olympic gold medallist, and his efforts were described as 'super-human' – in fact, this is the first time he had ever taken a set off Rafa in the four matches they have played to date at the French Open.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE Spanish Consul in Edinburgh has been struck off after publicly stating that his home country 'would not veto' an independent Scotland's joining the European Union.

Miguel Ángel Vecino (pictured) was 'acting outside his jurisdiction' when he wrote to The Herald in response to MEP Esteban González Pons, of the right-wing PP, who had said his party would veto any attempt by Scotland to leapfrog to pole position in its bid to become an EU member State if it voted to become a separate country as a result of Brexit.

González Pons stated, in his Herald article, that Scotland would have to 'join the back of the queue behind Turkey and Serbia' if it wanted to attempt to become a part of the EU after severing ties with the UK.

Vecino wrote to The Herald insisting that González Pons' view 'in no way represented' the position of the Spanish government, that the country's foreign affairs minister Josep Borrell had 'recently declared Spain would not block Scotland's entry to the EU 'if its independence had been acquired legally', and that this 'had always been the intention of Spain's government'.

He added that Spain had 'never intervened and never would intervene' in 'home issues' in the UK 'or in any other EU member State', and that he would 'hope for a reciprocal attitude'.

“Entering the EU does not depend at all on waiting in a queue, like waiting your turn in a shop,” Vecino's letter said.

“It depends upon whether a State meets the economic and political conditions required by the Treaties.”

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WE KNOW the statistics, we've seen the pictures, we've signed the petitions and pressured the supermarkets – but the plastic waste problem persists, and it seems it's bigger than any of us.

Bringing our own bags to shops – or hoarding carriers in the cupboard under the sink – asking for water in glasses in bars instead of bottles, opting for products wrapped in paper rather than plastic, and many more great intentions are making a dent on the issue, but only a tiny one. Charges for carrier bags Charges for carrier bags have reduced their consumption, EU rules banning certain disposable plastics will help even more, but the sad fact remains that it costs less to make new plastic than it does to recycle, so there's little incentive for firms who use it to cut down, even when customers lay it on thick and threaten to go elsewhere.

But every little helps, and hopefully, the grim prognosis about how there will be more plastic in the sea than fish by the year 2050 will fail to be realised.

Corporate decisions are crucial to this aim, and one of the most novel to come out of Spain – and Sweden – is that of buying up waste to make into new products to sell in store.

Budget furniture chain Ikea has engaged the help of 1,500 fishermen in Spain and a Comunidad Valenciana-based interior designer, Inma Bermúdez. The former are paid to collect plastic waste from the sea and deliver it to the Ikea factories in Alicante and Valencia, and Inma turns it into brilliant household items that you couldn't help snapping up on a shopping trip even if it wasn't for the impending environmental disaster of this non-biodegradable rubbish floating around in our oceans and rivers.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FORMER Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas' wife Sara Carbonero says she has received 'positive news' during her post-op check-up after undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer.

The reporter, 35, was diagnosed during a routine gynaecological visit towards the end of May, a few days before Iker's 38th birthday and only a month after he collapsed with a heart attack during training.

Fresh from a stent implant operation in Oporto, where he now plays, Iker is resting at home and is able to be with Sara (pictured) through her ordeal, and both are said to have moved temporarily to Madrid to be near the Clínica Ruber where she is being treated.

But both are able to breathe a little more easily now Sara has been told that her operation went 'according to plan and without complications'.

She is still in treatment, although what form this takes has not been confirmed, although it is likely to involve chemotherapy, radiotherapy and hormone therapy, despite the tumour's having been discovered at a very early stage.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

'HURRICANE Miguel' is on its way to mainland Spain, although the Met office expects most of the east and south will escape its effects.

The State weather office AEMET said an 'explosive cyclogenesis' was beginning to form in the mid-Atlantic yesterday (Wednesday), due to hit Galicia at some point today.

Despite its apocalyptic-sounding name, an 'explosive cyclogenesis' is merely an atmospheric depression which brings high winds and downpours.

Force 7 to 9 gales are expected today and tomorrow in Asturias and along the coastal provinces of Galicia, with gusts of up to 100 kilometres per hour (62mph) across those of Pontevedra and A Coruña.

Waves of between four and seven metres in height (13 feet to 22'9”) are forecast along the coasts of both regions, which have been placed under an 'orange' weather warning until at least tomorrow.

'Yellow' warnings have been issued ahead of forecast winds of between 70 and 90 kilometres per hour (43 to 56mph) in the provinces of Zaragoza (Aragón), León, Palencia, Zamora and Salamanca (Castilla y León), Lleida (Catalunya) and the northern coastal region of Cantabria.

Heavy rain, ranging from 20 litres per square metre (two centimetres, or just under an inch) within an hour to 60 litres per square metre (six centimetres, or nearly two-and-a-half inches) in 12 hours, are expected to remain entirely in Galicia.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

NEXT time you're stuck in a traffic jam anywhere in Spain, count your blessings: none of the country's towns or cities are in the world's top 100 gridlocked locations, nor even in Europe's top 60.

In fact, the Spanish city with the longest traffic queues – Barcelona – is only 118th in the world out of 403 metropolitan areas in 57 countries and 61st in Europe.

Cádiz is the city with Europe's fewest traffic jams and, worldwide, is only beaten by Greensboro-High Point in the USA, which is at number 403.

According to the recently-released TomTom Traffic Index 2018, drivers in the central hub of Barcelona take an average of 29% more time to get to their destination than they would on an empty road or one where cars were flowing freely.

Surprisingly, Madrid is only joint fourth-most gridlocked city in Spain along with Santa Cruz de Tenerife, although this is perhaps less newsworthy when taking into account how acting mayoress Manuela Carmena has been working hard to reduce cars in the central 'almond' of the capital.

The TomTom Index figures were taken for the whole year, meaning the fact that only residents, residents' visitors, public transport, delivery vehicles, emissions-free vehicles and those merely seeking an underground parking space are allowed in the city has made little difference as the restrictions have not been in place long.

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A DRUG which keeps metastatic breast cancer in check and provides patients with nearly two-and-a-half years grace before resistance sets in has been developed in Spain, and is now on the market.

Until now, women with breast cancer with positive hormone receptors which had spread were given a hormonal treatment which would keep the disease controlled for an average of a year, after which

the tumour would become immune to it, normally with fatal results.

But 400 Spanish women with an HER-positive strain of breast cancer which had come back and spread have been taking Abemaciclib along with the standard hormonal treatment, via clinical trials, and are responding well, says the research team.

Sold under the brand name of Verzenios, the drug stops the cancer progressing for an average of 28.2 months, according to the Lilly Foundation who developed it with the help of the GEICAM Group of cancer researchers and Madrid's Gregorio Marañón hospital oncology department.

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WHEN local elections lead to a draw and inconclusive results – as is often the case – highly-technical negotiations are usually necessary to work out which party or parties will govern and who will become mayor.

Or, in some town councils, they just flip a coin.

This was what happened in the Barcelona-province village of Santa Fe del Penedès yesterday (Monday) morning to decide whether one independent party, Alternativa per Santa Fe, or the other, Junts per Santa Fe, would take over running affairs for the next four years.

The former's leader Jordi Rius was mayor until the municipal elections on May 26, where he netted 124 votes – exactly the same number of ballot papers as Jordi Bosch, leader of the latter.

With a population of just 379 residents, this means each of the Jordis secured the backing of a third of the village – the other 131 either did not vote or were not eligible.

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SPAIN has become a 'role model' for other parts of the world thanks to its medications disposal system which helps prevent water contamination and other environmental hazards, according to the non-profit association which collects pharmaceutical waste.

SIGRE's managing director Juan Carlos Mampaso says 'medicine banks' provided by the organisation are set up in practically every chemist's in the country for customers or patients to drop off pills that they no longer need or which have passed their use-by date.

Other healthcare waste such as needles, gauze, disposable or broken thermometers and X-ray plates should not be dropped off in SIGRE banks.

In 2018 – the last complete year – deposits of medications surplus to requirements went up by 12.5%, and the system has inspired other countries in and outside Europe, specifically in Latin America, which are now beginning to create their own medicine deposits.

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ACTING president Pedro Sánchez has rejected the idea of a PSOE-Podemos coalition, but has opened the door to the latter's holding ministerial roles on an 'independent' basis.

Podemos' leader Pablo Iglesias has set out a battery of requests which he will set as a condition of his support for Sánchez, including abolishing the 2012 Labour Reform in order to 'create a job market based upon permanent employment positions', a minimum income for everyone, working or not, of €600 a month, and the working week cut from 40 to 34 hours, without any reduction in salary.

Iglesias proposed these measures in a meeting with business owners in Catalunya, arguing that they would be 'good for Spain, for companies and for Catalunya'.

He detailed all his party's proposals in the fields of economy and tax, which include a reduction on company profit tax for firms with a turnover of less than €1 million from 25% down to 23%, increasing income tax for those earning €100,000 a year or more, a wealth tax, a tax on the banks, and several environmental policies.

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EXACTLY half a century ago – minus a couple of months – the world didn't know where to look first: at the TV, where a fellow human was shown on screen walking on the moon, or up at the moon itself, trying to imagine him there.

In Spain on that day, just as everywhere else on Planet Earth, there was only one topic of conversation – and here in the western Mediterranean, on July 20, 1969, one man became a household name overnight.

Jesús Hermidia.

You thought we were going to say 'Neil Armstrong'.

Well, he was pretty famous in Spain from that moment on, too, but Jesús Hermidia was the TV reporter whose job it was to recount, small step by small step, giant leap by giant leap, what was going on up there in the sky, voicing the words of the Apollo 11 team in the national language so millions of viewers could understand them.

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ELECTRICITY bills went down by 5% this month, making them a total of 8.7% cheaper than a year ago and saving the average household €5.17.

According to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC), which regulates price-setting of public and private sector utilities and essential services, the typical household is on a 4.4 kilowatt (kW) supply with an annual consumption of 3,000kW per hour, or 250kWh per month, meaning May's electricity bill would be €53.74, a saving of €2.82 on that of April and of €5.17 on that of May 2018.

The wholesale energy market has also seen a reduction, with the average daily price for May being €48.40 per megawatt per hour (MWh), being 13.5% lower than in May last year and 4.2% cheaper than in April this year.

Price forecasts for the year 2020 show a guideline price of €56.08 per MWh.

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