Live News From Spain As It Happens

BOTANISTS at Alicante University have identified two as-yet unknown carnivorous plants growing wild in different mountain ranges in Spain.

One of these, the Pinguicula Tejedensis, is native to the Tejeda and Almijara mountain ranges in the province of Granada, and the other, the Pinguicula Casperiana, is found in the central mountains between the provinces of Cuenca and Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha).

The pinguicula family is commonly known as the 'butterwort', and the first variety identified has been named after the Tejeda mountains, whilst the second has been baptised in homage to the German taxonomist Siegfried J. Casper, a world specialist in this type of carnivorous shrubs.

Alicante botanists have been researching the taxonomy and conservation of Iberian and northern African pinguiculae for some years, and say they usually grow out of rock faces, normally with a chalky surface, in water pockets or spongy calcium carbonate deposits and at a very specific altitude.

“These are very scarce environments, very localised and exclusive, and act as real islands where the processes of differentiation and species division are extremely active,” the university team explains.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A CITY councillor in Valencia who mimed on video-conference during a Europe-wide presentation whilst an interpreter did the talking has apologised and said this was 'not the most appropriate decision'.

Carlos Galiana, head of innovation in Spain's third-largest metropolis, had been working for months on entering Valencia as a candidate for the title of European Innovation Capital, or iCapital 2020.

Helped by the requirement to wear a mask due to the pandemic, Galiana appeared to be speaking and was gesticulating at the right moments of the script – which it is believed he had written or at least co-authored – but as he does not speak English, the person actually talking was an interpreter on 'playback'.

He had decided the presentation would be given in English as it is more widely-spoken within the European Commission than Spanish, and also gave an impression of Valencia's being a 'global city', able to communicate in several tongues.

Except it was not the Valencia councillor doing the communicating.

Those who recognised him in the TV broadcast of the presentation did a double take when they realised that, although it was Galiana's face, gestures and movements on their screen, the voice - which had a clear British accent - was someone else's.

He was hit by a barrage of criticism on social media – largely from Spanish users, but not so much from native English-speakers.

“I profoundly regret that a one-off action, a decision I took as an individual, is detracting from all the efforts we have spent years making in various departments to place ourselves as a pinnacle of recognisable innovation in Europe,” said Galiana in response.

But he added: “The decision I took...to deliver my presentation via an interpreter was with the sole intention of the message being transmitted as clearly as possible – although, in hindsight, I can see that it was not the most appropriate decision after all.”

“As head of department, my maximum priority has always been that of promoting Valencia as a landmark city in Europe in terms of innovation and entrepreneurial policies.

“For this reason, we've been working hard for months on presenting a serious and thorough project to the European Commision.”

Galiana says he does not believe his being dubbed into English and – deliberately or unwittingly – passing it for his own speech created any disadvantage for Valencia as a candidate.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RURAL tourism is the only real form of leisure travel that has not taken a dramatic hit from the pandemic – quite the opposite, in fact, if figures quoted by countryside hotels are anything to go by.

Keen to avoid crowds, more and more residents in Spain have stayed away from airports and beaches this year, meaning international travel plummeted drastically and, on the staycation front, the coast was less of a holiday magnet in July and August.

So, a casa rural, or a guesthouse in the country, was a popular way of socially-distancing, and in the middle of a year that has involved being confined at home, families and friends kept apart, fear of job loss and of loved ones getting seriously ill, or worse, the psychological need to 'get away from it all' has, collectively, been greater.

Again, psychologically, the burning urge to escape one's real life for a few days and de-stress tends to conjure up images of nature, greenery, fresh air, picturesque views, a slower pace of life, home cooking, animals, and a much lesser emphasis on technology, feeling busy, living the high life, and 'being modern'. Given that rural villages or being right out in the sticks can give the sensation of stepping off the express train of 21st-century existence and popping back to a time when life seemed so much less complicated (even if it wasn't), destinations deep in the country have proven to be the ideal 'Covid break' in 2020.

According to at least one booking site, over the two main summer tourism months, rural holidays accounted for 54% of the total – a whole 14 percentage points higher than over the same period in 2019.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HISTORIC Formula 1 great Michael Schumacher is now living permanently in Spain, according to the ex-wife of his old team manager.

Elisabeta Gregoraci, who used to be married to Flavio Briatore – Schumacher's boss during his Benetton Rénault days – says her former husband is one of just three people, other than medics or carers, who are allowed to visit the seven-times world champion racing driver.

Following his devastating off-piste skiing accident at the end of 2013, Michael Schumacher's condition has remained a mystery to his fans, and even most of his closest friends, since his wife Corinna closed ranks completely and has refused to give any information.

Serious head injuries left Schumacher, now 51, with irreversible brain damage and in an induced coma for some weeks – and a renowned neurologist has recently said he may be in a persistent vegetative state (PVS).

Although conscious, and able to sit up with help, it is not clear whether Schumacher is able to process information.

Elisabeta says: “He can't speak; he only communicates with his eyes.”

The ex-model spoke about the German motorsport legend during her recent spell on the Italian version of Big Brother, and confirmed that she knew through Briatore that the Schumacher family was now permanently based in Spain.

Having holidayed there frequently in happier times, Michael and Corinna are now reportedly living on the island of Mallorca, after the latter spent months arranging major renovations on the huge villa she had bought there in order to adapt it for her severely-disabled husband.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

IF YOU can prove you're a direct descendant of one of the members of the Civil War International Brigade, you may be automatically entitled to Spanish nationality – jointly with your own, and whether or not you have ever lived in Spain.

An amendment to the Law of Historic Memory – originally launched in 2007 – has been agreed, and is expected to become set in stone soon.

“Descendants of the International Brigades who fought for freedom and against fascism in Spain will be able to access Spanish citizenship,” says Unidos Podemos leader and first deputy president, Pablo Iglesias.

“It was about time for the government to tell these heroes and heroines of democracy, 'thank you for coming'.”

Brits included – and exiles from fascist régimes in Europe

Over 50 nationalities made up the International Brigades, including British – to gain first-hand testimonials of the UK citizens who travelled to Spain to help out during the Civil War, men and women alike, the most accessible and fascinating source is Max Arthur's book The Real Band of Brothers – and they were drafted in between 1936 and 1938 inclusive.

The Brigades were voluntary, and around 59,000 people joined up from all over the planet, including Latin America, the USA, Canada, and much of Europe, not just Spain's 'traditional' allies.

French, Italian, German, Polish, Yugoslav, Belgian, Czech, Hungarian, Dutch and British were just a handful of these; some of the nations involved had governments who supported Franco's fascist régime and became his allies after he gained power when the Republicans lost the War, showing that humanity and society stretch far beyond the actions of a country's leaders.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THE SAFEST large town in Spain for cyclists and pedestrians has been revealed – and it is one of 25 which fall below the European Union's yardstick for urban mobility security.

Of Spain's 88 towns and cities with 80,000 or more inhabitants, and based upon figures between 2014 and 2018 inclusive, the lowest mortality rate for those on foot or on wheels is the satellite municipality of Móstoles, just south of the city of Madrid.

It registered 0.1 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants during these five years.

In the research by MAPFRE insurance's social and humanitarian foundation, titled Horizon C3: Near-Zero Cities, the figure for Stockholm, Sweden was taken – 0.7 per 100,000 people – as it is considered a paragon of pedestrian and cyclist safety in Europe.

Over a quarter of Spain's biggest urban hubs are approximately level with, or below, Stockholm's mortality rate.

In five years, an average of 265 walkers and bikers lost their lives every year in these 88 municipalities, which the MAPFRE Foundation says is 'too high' and gives a national across-the-board figure of 1.27 per 100,000, but 25 towns and cities in nine of Spain's 17 autonomously-governed regions turned out to be safer than the Swedish capital.

The Galicia cathedral city of Santiago de Compostela (A Coruña province) had the second-lowest mortality rate at 0.21 per 100,000 residents, followed by two towns in the Greater Madrid region – San Sebastián de los Reyes (0.23) and Rivas-Vaciamadrid, which was joint third with 'Gwyneth Paltrow's town', Talavera de la Reina (Toledo province), at 0.24.

The next three were also in the Greater Madrid region, which arguably has a higher proportion of towns and cities of 80,000 or more inhabitants – Fuenlabrada, Alcalá de Henares and Torrejón de Ardoz, at 0.31 – and was followed by Elche, near Alicante airport, at 0.35, or half the figure of Stockholm, with Alcorcón (Madrid) at 0.36 concluding the top 10.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO Spanish pharmaceutical companies are working on at least one vaccine each against Covid-19 – the first known ones in the country to become involved.

Although clinical trials are under way in at least three hospitals in Spain – two in Madrid and one in Santander, Cantabria – these are preparing inoculations for the Belgian company Janssen, the European holding of US-based Johnson & Johnson.

And Spanish scientists and trial volunteers based in the UK are on the 'Oxford vaccine' team, meaning the country has been very involved from the start.

But Rovi Farma and Zendal are the first two manufacturers on home ground, and brief details of their work have been revealed by health minister Salvador Illa.

Rovi Farma, in Madrid, had already been confirmed as the manufacturer for the vaccine developed by the US company Moderna, and it has now been revealed that the inoculation under construction by Novavax is due to be mass-produced by the Spanish bio-pharmaceutical company Zendal.

Clearly, this does not mean the vaccines made in Spain will land in the country first, or as a priority, since development is global and quotas have been set aside for different nations or blocs of nations, such as the European Union, to ensure fair distribution.

Justice and equality reasons aside, it would not make sense for only a handful of countries to have full access to the immunisation, since these would still be at risk from people in territories that did not have it as international travel means any contagious condition can swiftly become a pandemic, as has already been seen with a virus that appeared to be confined to the Chinese city of Wuhan and, within less than two months, ended up affecting almost every town and village on earth.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ONE of the world's largest-known dinosaur 'nests' has been found in northern Aragón, containing unhatched eggs thought to be around 68 million years old.

And they may even still have embryos inside them, say historians.

Each of the 20 or so eggs is around 20 centimetres (eight inches) in diameter, and are thought to have been laid by titanosaurus sauropods – four-legged herbivores with long necks and long tails.

Given that '20' seems to be the key number, the shock discovery – made in 2020 after 14 years of searching and a year after stumbling upon the dig – it is no surprise that the eggs were probably laid by a species known to have been 20 metres long when fully grown.

The site was initially found at the end of last year by palaeontologist and off-road athlete José Manuel Gasca when he was out training with the Club Alpino Universitario, a college-based trail-running association, through the mountains just outside Loarre in the province of Huesca, the northern part of which borders onto the Pyrénées.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FRENCH national rail board SNCF will start to operate in Spain from March 15, 2021 – a year when, for the first time, train services in the country are due to open to competition.

Spanish public-sector transport company RENFE has held a monopoly on rail services for decades, but the government announced plans some years back to turn national trains into a competitive market and allow other companies to operate.

This means RENFE will have to work harder to attract and retain customers, since these will be able to 'shop around' for the best travel deals from next year.

And they may well find them once SNCF gets its wheels in the door: Through its budget service Ouigo, France's national rail body will be offering trips at 50% of the price of RENFE's.

Initially, the SNCF will operate along Spain's most heavily-frequented commuter corridor – between Barcelona and Madrid – with stops in Zaragoza, Aragón and Tarragona, Catalunya.

Later, the service will extend to lines linking Madrid with Valencia, Alicante, Córdoba, Sevilla and Málaga.

SNCF will use its Alstom Euroduplex double-decker trains (pictured above), and will be the first time in Spain's history that two-storey carriages serve the high-speed tracks, currently only covered by the AVE network.

The Alstom Euroduplex trains have seating for 509 passengers, a bar on board, and stewards to attend to customers.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CULT film director Pedro Almodóvar's first production in English is due to hit cinemas in Spain on October 21.

The Human Voice, a 30-minute short starring British-Australian actress Tilda Swinton, is based upon a story by French author Jean Cocteau – of Les Enfants Terribles fame, and who also provided the inspiration for one of Almodóvar's most famous early melodramas, Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios ('Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown').

But the director's first film in a foreign language is radically different from Mujeres al Borde – the 1988 hit was very much a product of its time, just 13 years after dictator General Franco's death and a decade after democracy was enshrined in law through Spain's Constitution, a period of rapid social change which brought with it the end of an iron-fisted censorship on the arts, media and education.

Back then, authors, painters, singers, songwriters, scriptwriters, screen and theatre directors and journalists, who could have been jailed in the past for any works that 'questioned' public authority or the Church or were considered 'indecent', had suddenly gone mad – released from their chains, they lurched in completely the opposite direction and all that had been banned came galloping to the forefront.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARCELONA'S Hospital Clínic has carried out the first-ever hip replacement that does not need the patient to stay in overnight, eliminating the need for blood transfusions and morphine-type painkillers.

Already, the Clínic had managed to reduce in-patient stays for hip replacements from seven days in 2013 to three-and-a-half in 2019 by performing gradually less-invasive surgery and by focusing more on a combination of analysis and reorganisation, therapeutic education, and optimising the operating theatre and overall medical process using 'the best scientific evidence available', hospital sources say.

In other words, ongoing testing and getting the patient on his or her feet quicker with physiotherapy and explaining what to do have been key – in fact, in some hospitals in Spain, patients attend group sessions ahead of hip and knee replacements, so they know what to expect and how to deal with pain and stiffness afterwards, and can plan for their future, temporarily-restricted mobility before going under knife.

Hospital Clínic says the 'key' to cutting overnight stays for hip-replacement patients lies in surgical techniques that eliminate the need for blood transfusions and cut down the amount of morphine or morphine-strength painkillers needed to deal with post-operative discomfort.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

LIFE in the Middle Ages has become quite fashionable lately, centuries after it all happened or – as some would say – didn't happen.

You probably think of jousting, jugglers, giant feasts in torchlit courts with massive cake-and-ale bowls being passed around the communal table (not recommended with the Covid pandemic), or maybe plagues, poor sanitation, witches being drowned and blood tests using leeches. Fairytale-like castles may pop into your head and, fairly uniquely in western Europe, a Spain where the majority of the population was of Arab origin and the predominant religion was Islam.

“I loved studying the Mediaeval era at school,” one Spanish lady told us.

“It was basically 1,000 years when nothing happened.”

But everything that makes 'Mediaeval' trendy in the 21^st century begs to differ: From the spectacular glittering Moors and Christians festivals, to the Middle Ages-themed craft markets in the early months of the year, to novelists such as Ildefonso Falcones, Spain's answer to Ken Follett of Pillars of the Earth fame (and he's always on the bestseller shelves, too – his latest tome and prequel to the former, Las Tinieblas del Alba in Spanish (The Evening and the Morning) has a whole display unit dedicated to it at the moment in hypermarkets and bookshops in Spain).

Then there's the architecture, of course. Moorish castles abound in the country; in fact, there are so many of them that a huge number only have about a paragraph of historical detail about them published anywhere – nobody's bothered to research every single one, or they'd be spending another 1,000 years on them. And even many small villages retain what was left of their 'city' walls, with their arched entrances; lots of these started out life as humble, Arab-owned farmsteads in the Middle Ages.

If you're hoping to live or spend your holidays somewhere within striking distance of a beach – even if it's not exactly on your doorstep – but find yourself seduced by the magic of all the good bits about the Mediaeval era (the parts that don't include plagues and leeches), you'll find plenty of towns and villages on Spain's coasts that feel as though you've stepped off a plane into the early years of the last Millennium.

Here are some of the most stunning Mediaeval towns in coastal provinces (of course, there are plenty others a long way inland, too, with their own unique charms – but we'll come back to you later on those).

Girona province

Close to the wonderful modern madness of the Costa Brava are towns that will take you back hundreds of years – some of them right on the beach, and some a short-ish drive away, but close enough for a day trip.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN'S longest-ever building project looks set to miss its deadline due to the pandemic, but work is still in progress and will not stop until the construction team has finished; they have already taken 134 years, so a few more are unlikely to breach planning permission terms and conditions.

Barcelona's Sagrada Família Cathedral, one of the country's top attractions – beautifully weird, tastefully wacky, beyond unique, and well worth the queues whether or not church architecture is your cup of tea (the longer you have to queue, the more time you get to spend admiring the outside free of charge) – began its journey in 1883, when the plans were rubber-stamped.

The first bricks of what was set to be the most global masterpiece of flamboyant modern architect Antoni Gaudí were laid in 1886.

Other high-profile works of Gaudí's – including Barcelona's psychedelic mosaïc-patterned Parc Güell, and the green-and-red restaurant in Comillas (Cantabria) – have long since been finished, but the Sagrada Família is still being built.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A YOUNG man from Valencia has become Spain's first-ever blind judge to qualify in the profession.

Héctor Melero Martí, 26, was born 100% blind – but this has not prevented him sitting his exams to qualify as a court judge, according to the General Judicial Power Council (CGPJ).

Until May 2014, Héctor would not have been able to do so – it was only then that the CGPJ brought an agreement into force that allowed the non-sighted the opportunity to qualify and practise as a judge in a court of law.

It was not so much that a blind candidate would be refused the opportunity to take the exams and enter the profession – more a case of nobody in that situation having tried.

But a blind student contacted the CGPJ just over six years ago to find out if it was possible, which led to procedures being brought into place to enable people with vision impairment to study the material, be assessed and examined, and also paved the way for any future non-sighted judge's workplace and employment to be adapted to accommodate them.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

DESPITE having only just unveiled its new strip for the forthcoming football season, premier league club FC Barcelona has already presented the design for its 2021-2022 shirt, and which has been met with mixed feelings by fans.

The pictures were released as an 'exclusive' to the sports world magazine Mundo Deportivo, which has run a poll on what supporters think of it.

For reasons that have not been specified, a whopping 77.41% say they do not like it 'at all', and only 14.22% like it 'very much'.

Of the remainder, 3.03% 'quite like it'; 2.38% are 'neither here nor there' about it; and 2.96% say they 'do not like it very much'.

In total, 9,913 fans have given their views.

The design, in the club's traditional colours, blue and maroon – which is what gives Barça its nickname of azulgrana – is based upon the team's coat of arms, featuring its Saint George's Cross, or Sant Jordi's, in catalán, in tribute to the patron saint of Catalunya whose 'day' is celebrated on April 23, as it is in England.

It also follows the coat-of-arms pattern by including four maroon stripes on a blue background, reflecting the senyera, or Catalunya regional flag, which is in yellow and red.

Otherwise, it has maroon sleeves and a mostly-blue background, with the standard coat of arms on the left-hand side of the breast and the logo for Nike, the designer, on the right-hand side.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

ALL night buses in the Greater Madrid region will provide à la carte stops for women and under-18s after a pilot scheme operating these on six lines proved successful.

The regional government launched 'on-demand' stops on a selection of bus connections in January, and as at the end of July, a total of 489 passengers – of whom 95% were female – had used the system.

It is likely this would have been much higher, but Spain was in lockdown for nearly three months, a situation at its most restrictive in Madrid, and only 'essential' workers or those who could not walk to the supermarket would have been using buses at all, especially after dark.

The other 5% who used the 'request-stop' facility were teens and children under 18, of both sexes.

Until now, these were only available on after-dark buses to and from the city centre and the suburbs and satellite towns of Pinto, Las Rozas, Fuenlabrada, Leganés, Parla, and Valdemoro, which – naturally – included all stop-off points within the city itself en route.

All the passenger has to do is tell the driver when they board where they want to get off, and sit as near to the front as possible.

They then use the front door of the bus to alight, rather than the 'usual' side door for scheduled stops.

At present, though, stops will only be made on request where there is a pavement available, of at least 1.5 metres (4'11”) wide, to prevent traffic accidents, and can only be made where they are actually along the route – drivers cannot make a detour to drop someone off at their front door.

But an à la carte stop means women, children and adolescents out after dark will be able to cut short their walk home after getting off, giving them greater safety.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SPAIN has created a test for diagnosing Covid-19 which produces accurate results in under 30 minutes, thanks to research funding into the virus from the European Commission.

According to project manager Laura Lechuga, the devices 'do not need technicians or laboratories' and can be used in local GP practices, in A&E, and even in high-street pharmacies.

At a time when cases of SARS-CoV-2 are rising rapidly in Spain's capital – over a third of 'positives' are in the Greater Madrid region – even though they are starting to tail off in coastal areas and out in the provinces, where they are being instantly contained and contacts quarantined, mass testing with quick results is set to be key in the battle against the pandemic.

Although Spain is immediately PCR-testing anyone who displays symptoms, anyone who has been within close proximity of a 'positive', and even, in many cases, everyone admitted to hospital or attending consultations or treatment for chronic health conditions, including where these are completely unrelated to Covid-19, it can take between 24 hours and five days for results to filter through.

This means those tested are forced to self-isolate at home until they get the all-clear, meaning they cannot go to work or school and, in the case of a household with several members, the whole family has to do likewise.

Whilst mass testing is largely responsible for soaring figures – seven in 10 of whom are asymptomatic and of whom the vast majority make a full recovery – being able to do so and obtain results within minutes is crucial to the population's being able to get on with their lives without putting others at risk.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A VACCINE created in Spain against tuberculosis is being tested to see whether it is effective against Covid-19, according to researchers who discovered it.

'Ruti', developed by the pharmaceutical company Archivel Farma after being 'found' by scientists at the Barcelona-based Germans Trias i Pujol Research Institute (IGTP) – led by Dr Pere Joan Cardona – is based upon exploiting the body's innate immune system, and could be used as a base for a wide spectrum of anti-viral preventive medication, as well as a first port of call when designing immunisation against new infections.

According to Dr Cardona's team, 'Ruti' stimulates the natural immune system and triggers its 'memory' – or 'trains' it to generate a faster and more effective response.

The innate immune system is the first line of response when unknown pathogens enter the body, meaning it does not act specifically against a given set of virii and does not generate antibodies to kill it off.

This means that although the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned against existing tuberculosis vaccines being used to inoculate against Covid-19 – due to a lack of scientific evidence that it has any real effect – the fact 'Ruti' is not specifically tailored to attack tuberculosis itself means it could be developed to 'become' a vaccine against other conditions.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A HANDFUL of witnesses swear they have spotted a black panther prowling around the Granada-province town of Ventas de Huelma – despite this predatory feline being native to the jungles of Central and South America.

The council and Guardia Civil's environmental and animal unit, SEPRONA, are taking the matter seriously, as a precaution – although it is just as likely to turn out to be a large dog or cat.

Thermo-cameras and helicopters have been out scouring the area, and authorities are urging the public to report any sightings – but not to approach the panther if, indeed, this is what the creature turns out to be.

As yet, no signs that any such animal has been present have been found since the official searches began.

Witnesses, however, are not 'just' members of the public – a Civil Protection volunteer was one of those who claimed to have seen the feline, saying it was strolling along the main highway in the direction of the town of Agrón.

If there is, indeed, a black panther on the loose in the eastern Andalucía province, it would only have got there in one of two scenarios: Either escaping from a zoo, or having been illegally bred in captivity and broken loose or been abandoned.

No zoos in the area have reported any animals missing, and it would appear unlikely that any member of the public could have got their hands on panthers to breed from – a theft from a safari park would have been noticed, and it would be impossible to transport a panther, even a baby one, into the country.

Breeding them outside a zoo or safari complex, or keeping them as pets, is completely illegal and would be difficult to achieve, given that the species is listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BEACHES: Not Spain's only attraction by far, but one of its most famous, and probably one of its most missed this year by anyone living outside the country who has not been able to travel here due to the pandemic.

Our ministry for industry and tourism is expecting you all to come rushing back next year or, at the latest, in 2022, and we look forward to seeing you, because we've missed you, too.

Just to rub it in even more, we're going to show you some of our most-photographed beaches nationwide and spur you on to planning yourself a trip as soon as the Covid-19 situation worldwide allows it.

That said, if it's safe to travel from whichever country you live in – or if you're already in Spain, but land-locked – why wait to book your suntan and sea-dip?

Yes, we know it's mid-September. But at least on the Mediterranean and south coasts, the islands and even, in parts, further north, September is still summer in Spain. Proper summer, not just 'no need to put the heating on yet' or 'perhaps I can take my jacket off' summer. Temperatures are lower than in July and August, but they feel higher as the sun is lower in the sky, although the humidity drops drastically in September, so the heat feels far less suffocating and exhausting.

Also, now that the kids have gone back to school and the youngsters back to university and college, and the big city firms and public-sector companies that shut for the whole of August are open again and their staff back at work, the beaches are practically empty.

Foreign tourists are fewer, especially those from countries where parents cannot legally take their children out of school in term-time, and those who use the beaches tend to be locals and mostly only at the weekends – other than a tiny handful working non-standard hours or taking advantage of long lunch breaks.

So you pretty much get the beach to yourself on weekdays.

Accommodation is much cheaper and more widely available, too, because – despite the thermometer pushing 30ºC – September is considered 'winter' in tourism industry terms.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BALEARIC-BASED carrier Air Europa has slashed its prices for the next 10 days for flights scheduled between now and June 17 next year.

National routes – between mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands – are up for grabs for €19 each way, whilst seats on European flights start at €25 each way.

Connections between Spanish airports and north African destinations cost €29 for a single ticket in either direction, and trips to the Canary Islands from the Balearics or mainland Spain cost €35 each way.

One-way tickets from Spain to the US cities of Miami and New York start from €99, and for destinations Air Europa serves in Latin America, from €219 each way.

Inter-island flights – from Palma de Mallorca or Ibiza to Menorca, for example – start at just €7 for each trip.

The cost-cut is a bid to get passengers back after the pandemic put paid to most international and some national travel this summer.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

More than de 60 baby loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) hatched in Cala Pilar (Ciutadella) this weekend from an egg lay that the local environmental authorities were completely unaware of. The turtles were born in the sand and a large proportion of them had already made it to the sea when the nest was found.

Representatives of the Balearic Islands' Consortium for the Recuperation of Fauna (Cofib) and members of the Environment Agency went to the beach and opened the nest to check for hatchlings trapped inside, as well as to calculate the size of the lay and to take samples for genetic studies.

They found 27 live baby turtles still inside the nest which had not yet emerged onto the sand, and which, according to specialists, probably wouldn't have been able to do so without Cofib's intervention.

They also found five dead hatchlings, six nonviable eggs and a further eight viable eggs, which have been transferred to an incubator for their own safety. In total, 62 hatched eggs were found, so they estimate around 30 turtles will have made it to the sea.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

By mid-October, the Spanish government plans to start testing the interoperability of their Radar Covid tracking app with similar apps currently being used in other countries.

The minister for Economic Affairs & Digital Conversion, Nadia Calviño, announced today that she hoped the app would soon be live across Spain and that it would help control the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Once it goes live in every region of Spain, which should be by the second half of October, the idea is to test its interoperability with existing apps in other countries.

Spain, she said, has wanted to be "at the forefront of this kind of experiment and testing", bearing in mind the country plays host to many tourists and it is therefore important to make sure that people from any other European Union country can use the app in their home country too.

The minister also mentioned the possibility of "lengthening" the control period of the tracking application, which is currently set at seven days. The app alerts you if you have been in contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19 during the past seven days, but their is talk of extending this tracking period.

How does the Radar Covid app work?
The app sends alerts to its users anonymously concerning the risk of exposure and any possible contact with anyone who subsequently tests positive for coronavirus. The app uses the mobile 'phone's Bluetooth technology to detect the risk of possible infection and gives advice as to how to proceed.

The tracking system has been developed jointly by Apple and Google and has two main functions: to inform people anonymously of your positive diagnosis and to communicate potential exposure, also anonymously, to anyone you have been in contact with.

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CUT-PRICE clothing chain Primark is set to open another 14 stores worldwide next year, of which four will be in Spain.

Associated British Foods, which owns the budget label, says its company financial year ends on September 12 and it expects its profits for the period to be in region of £300 to £350 million (about €334 to €390m) – a considerable drop on that of the previous year, when declared annual profits came to £913m (around €1.02 billion).

This is largely because Primark stores were closed due to lockdown and did not reopen in most countries until June.

But the shrinking turnover caused by the pandemic has not put the holding company off the decision to open another four branches in Spain, which will bring its national total up to 40.

As yet, the location of these new stores has not been revealed.

To date, the firm – which was originally founded in Ireland – has stores in the capital cities of the provinces of Alicante, Albacete, Almería, Badajoz, Barcelona, A Coruña, Cádiz, Castellón, Córdoba, Huelva, Murcia, Málaga, Sevilla, Tarragona, Valencia (where it has two – one in the city and one in Bonaire shopping centre), Valladolid, Zaragoza, Vizcaya province (Bilbao city), Guipúzcoa province (Vitoria-Gasteiz being the capital), Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (which also has two), as well as in the regional capitals of Asturias, La Rioja and Navarra – Oviedo, Logroño and Pamplona - plus Algeciras (Cádiz province), Armilla (Granada province), Camargo (Cantabria, near Santander), Churra (Murcia), Majadahonda (Madrid), Orihuela (Alicante), Roquetas de Mar (Almería), Palma de Mallorca, and Santiago de Compostela (Galicia).

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CONSUMER affairs minister Alberto Garzón intends to ban 901 and 902 phone numbers, as well as any others which carry a higher tariff than for a call to a regional landline.

Despite public pressure, many companies still use higher-rate or even premium-rate numbers for their customer service departments, which can give consumers quite a shock when they see their phone bills.

This is especially the case with 901 and 902 numbers, given that, at first glance, the caller may not register that they involve a charge at all – free-phone numbers start with 900, which looks a little too similar, and also means those who do not realise the former combinations are higher-rate lines may assume they are cheaper than a regional call or even free of charge.

Making a national call from a landline phone – to anywhere in the country – is normally free of charge, depending upon the telecommunications company involved, but ringing a 901 or 902 number from a landline is typically about 56 cents for a five-minute call plus IVA (value-added tax) at 21%.

Calling a 901 or 902 number from a mobile phone varies according to the network operator, but is on average about €2.82 plus IVA at 21% for a five-minute call.

But as most customers know, they will normally spend longer than five minutes on a call – even though 'hold queues' for Spanish companies in general are not very long, at busy times it can take up to five minutes to get through and then, if the call is a complaint, can take at least another 10 or 15 to resolve.

And yet calling a regional number from a mobile phone can cost just a few cents, or even be free of charge.

Alberto Garzón, from United Left – a party which merges with Podemos to become Unidos Podemos ahead of general elections and is therefore now part of the national government coalition – says having to pay a premium tariff to call a company's customer service department is 'a clear case of abuse' and is 'fairly generalised'.

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IN CONJUNCTION with the European Union and the World Health Organisation (WHO), Spain's government is now starting to put dates on when the first vaccines against Covid-19 will be administered, and how long it could be before inoculation spreads to the public as a whole.

These range from this coming autumn to summer 2021, but depend upon the source of the drug – several are being developed at once worldwide and some are farther ahead than others.

According to the WHO, only between six and nine volunteers are involved in the most advanced stages of clinical trials, and around 30,000 or more are needed to complete this in order for widespread information about efficiency and safety to be scientifically valid.

This said, volunteers from Spain have been keeping the phones ringing off the hook, wanting to participate – although only a small selection of those who put their names down will be considered suitable, since they need to fall into set criteria: Those aged 18 to 55 with no health problems and no history of SARS-CoV-2, and the higher-risk over-65 age group.

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JULIO Iglesias' 'secret son' appeared on a talk show this week and admitted he and his father had once come face to face when he was in his teens.

Javier Sánchez Santos, 44, from Valencia, obtained DNA from discarded tissues in a Miami bar through a private detective which proved to be a perfect match and showed Julio Iglesias was definitely his father, but he has been forced to defend his case again and again as the legendary crooner, 76, continues to appeal.

Iglesias has refused to provide a DNA sample and has never admitted paternity.

His lawyer argues that there was no 'relationship' between María Edite, Javier's mother, and Julio which could have possibly resulted in a pregnancy, claiming they only met briefly at a party and were never alone together.

At the time, Julio was married to Philippine-Spanish model and it-girl Isabel Preysler – mother of pop sensation Enrique Iglesias, and who is now married to Peruvian Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa - which means if there had been a relationship between Julio and María Edite, however brief, it would have been an extra-marital affair on the singer's part.

The paternity suit started in 1992, when Javier was 16.

Although Javier says he does not want to cash in on Iglesias' multi-million fortune and 'just wants closure' and 'maybe a future relationship' with Julio, he refers to him as 'my father' whenever he talks about him.

On the programme Deluxe – heavily-watched this week after habitual co-presenter Mila Ximénez reappeared on set in the middle of her battle with metastatic lung cancer – Javier Sánchez Santos said: “I'm worried about my father's health.”

ACTOR, television presenter and regional MP Toni Cantó saved the lives of three young women in a 'Baywatch-style rescue', according to his colleagues and witnesses to his heroic deed.

The spokesman for centre-right Ciudadanos in the regional government of Valencia was seen leaping into the sea off Les Platgetes beach in Oropesa de Mar (Castellón province) 'without thinking twice about it' after seeing three girls, who appear to be in their late teens, in serious difficulty.

All three were struggling against a current and rapidly losing the battle, constantly dipping under water and being thrown against the rocks beyond the pier, and the general consensus is that without Cantó's bravery and presence of mind, they would have all drowned within minutes.

Other members of the party at regional and national level have championed the MP's actions publicly via social media.

Spokesman for Ciudadanos in the northern region of Cantabria, Félix Álvarez, wrote: “How great you are!”

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N THE past few years, a 'blip' in the weather has brought rain and falling temperatures to Spain over the last week of August, a situation that is normally temporary and clears out the last of the humidity before September comes with intense, warm sun and a drier, more comfortable atmosphere.

But the habitual late-August dip in the mercury went to the extreme on Saturday: The Picos de Europa mountains, which spill across three northern regions, were coated in a dense blanket of snow.

Video footage showed the Diego Mella cabin guest house, also known as the Collado Jermoso, in the province of León, in a blizzard and with its roof and grounds bathed in white, as well as the Cabaña Verónica and Jou de los Cabrones cabin inns in Asturias with at least an inch or two (about two to five centimetres) of snow on top.

The Picos de Europa range spreads across Cantabria, Asturias and the province of León in Castilla y León, and although in places they are little more than 1,000 metres above sea-level, in most parts they exceed 2,000 metres, and the highest peak is the Torre Cerredo at 2,650 metres.

It is rare in Spain for snow to settle, or to remain for more than a few hours, at much below 1,000 metres – a light dusting which normally makes front-page headlines can sometimes be seen at between 600 and 800 metres during a cold snap in a harsh winter – although this is much more common in chillier, inland northern provinces where snow can even be found at sea level occasionally.

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LOVE the beach, but hate crowds? Seeking small-community life, but don't want to have to pass up on hearing the waves crash outside your window, or wandering down to the sands to catch the rays in summer?

Firstly, there's a peculiarity about some of Spain's best-loved coasts: Medium-sized and small towns which aren't on the package resort trail (but would be, if anyone found out about them) often have so many kilometres of beaches that it's perfectly possible to find at least one where you could park a caravan between you and the next bather, never mind a towel, and still be socially-distanced enough that you can barely hear their conversation. Also, many coastal towns, including those of quite a fair size, are effectively split into two, with the main hub or 'urban' area separated by a short distance (often walkable, or at least no more than a five- or 10-minute drive) from a residential beach 'nucleus' made up almost entirely of second homes that are only lived in during the high summer months. Year-round residents here are few enough that they all get to know each other, and these zones tend to be very peaceful out of season – a period which encompasses most of June and all of September, when the sun is still plenty warm enough to catch a tan and go for a swim in the sea.

Secondly, not every coastal town is particularly large. Whilst, clearly, being such popular locations, most have become built up (albeit tastefully in a lot of cases) over the years – to cater for locals, if not tourists, and for land-locked Spaniards seeking their fill of sea air – a significant minority remain small villages.

We found seven, just off the top of our heads, all with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants – although, of course, a 'village' is typically considered to be a municipality with fewer than around 6,000 inhabitants, so if you take the literal definition, it ups your choices dramatically.

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AS SPAIN and the rest of the world waits with bated breath for a widely-available and effective Covid-19 vaccine, health ministry figures may help to put some minds at rest: Even though the number of cases in the country has risen by 78% this summer since lockdown ended, only 4.43% have had to go to hospital, and only 7.1% of these have needed to be admitted to intensive care.

According to data released by minister Salvador Illa's department, as at Friday, the number of 'positives' registered in the previous two months was 193,014 – partly through more widespread PCR-testing and manual contact-tracing that enabled the medical service to get to people who had been near a Coronavirus patient before they displayed symptoms.

Of these, 8,557 have had to go to hospital, meaning admissions have only risen by 6.85% in two months, and the mortality rate is 688, having risen by 2.43%.

Effectively, 95.6% of diagnosed cases since the end of lockdown have not needed in-patient treatment and have been in self-isolation at home.

And 99.64% of those diagnosed in the last two months have survived, since the death rate has been just 0.36%.

The 193,014 cases registered in summer, after June 21 when the State of Alarm was declared over, represent 73.37% of the total all year – currently 439,286.

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