Live News From Spain As It Happens

SPAIN'S future Queen is likely to be experiencing a rollercoaster of nerves and excitement today as she gets ready to start a new adventure: Still only 15 years old, Crown Princess Leonor will not only be living away from home for the first time, but will be doing so in another country altogether.

The Royal youngster, who turns 16 on Hallowe'en, can probably now consider herself an honorary Princess of Wales: She won a place at a prestigious, forward-thinking private sixth-form college in the Vale of Glamorgan by taking two extremely tough exam sessions – the first of which is completely anonymous, so none of the board or staff has any idea who the candidate may be.

United World College of the Atlantic (UWC Atlantic) sets up the entrance exams this way so as to avoid any possible 'screening out', especially as it likes to attract intelligent, potentially gifted students from all cultures, countries and walks of life as part of its 'liberal, progressive and radical' educational policy, its 'global ethos' and 'strong focus on local and global sustainability'.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MORE motorways are set to become toll-free starting from September, now that their franchises have expired and the State has taken on funding and maintenance.

Tolls are charged by private companies which maintain and repair the highways using the fees paid by users, but have tended to run at a loss since the start of the financial crisis in 2008 as even long-distance lorry drivers would use alternative, even far less convenient, routes to avoid paying.

The latest to become free of charge to use total 477 kilometres – more than the distance from Madrid to most of Spain's coasts.

A stretch of the AP-2 (first picture) through Aragón, which runs from the region's largest city, Zaragoza, to El Vendrell in the province of Tarragona and serves as a direct connection from the former to Barcelona will cease to attract a charge from September 1 – a total of 215 kilometres.

The AP-7 in the east, which forms part of the E-15 from northern France to the Costa del Sol, will be free to use along two of its northern stretches, totalling 262 kilometres.

From Tarragona, the southernmost provincial capital city in Catalunya, through to La Jonquera (Girona province), the last town before the French border, along the AP-7 will no longer carry a fee.

Neither will the stretch from Montmeló to El Papiol in the province of Barcelona.

Massive savings for motorists: Catalunya's 52% of toll roads drop to 0%

Spain's ministry of transport calculates that, based upon the current volume of traffic on all three of these chunks of motorway – 13 million vehicles annually - drivers will save a total of €515 million a year.

But given that the absence of the tolls is likely to mean more motorists using these roads, the actual saving per annum to the general public could be as high as €752m.

Three years ago, Catalunya was the region with the highest percentage of toll roads – 52% of its total – and, from September 1, will not have a single one left.

As for Aragón, the 102 kilometres of the AP-2 that cross the land-locked north-eastern region – not counting the part which runs into Catalunya – will now be €90m per year cheaper to use.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CLINICAL trials are now well under way with the new 'made-in-Spain' Covid vaccine - 30 participants have been recruited and at least six of them now jabbed in a crucial step closer to a home-grown inoculation being on the shelves.

Hipra Laboratories in Girona (shown above) is developing a formula which uses two different Coronavirus strains, to increase immunity across the board and also to newer, more contagious and more aggressive types.

The first doses have been administered this week at Girona's Josep Trueta Hospital (third picture) and Barcelona's Hospital Clínic, according to Dr Marga Nadal, head of the Girona Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBGI) and Dr Àlex Soriano, head of the infectious diseases unit at Hospital Clínic.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MORTGAGE contracts signed for buying new residential property have risen by 41.2%, according to the most recent figures – the highest increase since December 2019, three months before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Europe, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

At present, home loan figures for the last full month only go up to the end of June, with July not yet released and August still to conclude.

But in June alone, a total of 37,961 new mortgages were signed for – not including remortgages or extensions to existing ones – being a rise of well over a third and not far off half the figure in the same month in 2020.

The amount of capital borrowed also increased, by 49%, with the average loan rising to €140,456 – the biggest since February 2020.

June 2021 was the fourth consecutive month where the total amount borrowed was more than 40% above that of the same months in 2020.

Year on year, the number of mortgages taken out in the first half of 2021 was 11.2% higher than in the first six months of 2020, and the total capital borrowed was 12% more than over the same period last year.

Variable-rate mortgages were the most requested in June, although fixed rates were mainly sought between January to April inclusive.

Low Eurozone interest brings hike in variable-rate loans

Spanish mortgages are linked to the Eurozone interest rate, or Euribor, which has been in negative figures since February 2016 – a deliberate strategy on the part of the Central European Bank (BCE) to stimulate growth and cashflow across the common currency area, and make it easier and cheaper to obtain finance.

Almost every since that month, five-and-a-half years ago, analysts have been predicting interest rate rises and the end of the 'honeymoon' that has seen monthly mortgage repayments halve, on average, since the worst years of the financial crises.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOLIDAYMAKERS on 'staycation' in Spain are now back to pre-pandemic levels – or even higher – in many regions, although foreign tourist numbers still have some catching up to do.

National Statistics Institute (INE) figures have just revealed that July tourism – among residents in Spain visiting other parts of the country – was slightly higher than in the same month in 2019, the last 'normal' summer for the holiday industry, particularly in the Balearic Islands, Catalunya and Madrid, and with increases of over 100% on July 2020 figures in the Balearics, the Canary Islands and the capital.

International visitors remain below numbers from 2019 – which was, in itself, a record year – but are still dramatically higher than for July 2020, according to the INE.

The biggest increases on last year in holidaymakers from abroad have been seen in Madrid, climbing 268%, and the Balearic Islands, rising by 223%.

Hotel bosses were quoted in the INE report as saying recovery is very slow, but constant and moving in the right direction.

Regions whose tourist numbers among residents in Spain have increased beyond figures seen in July 2019, before the pandemic, are the Balearics (15.6%), Catalunya (12%), Andalucía (10.3%), the Basque Country (9.6%), Asturias (7.7%), the Comunidad Valenciana (5.3%), Galicia (4.2%), the Canary Islands (1.7%), and Murcia (1%).

Effectively, 'staycation' tourists have been more numerous since before the pandemic in all of Spain's coastal regions – except Cantabria (with a drop of 9.7%), Ceuta (falling 16.7%), and Melilla (down by 22.8%) - to the detriment of inland regions.

Although Madrid has seen a record rise in international tourism since 2020, it is still down 30.4% on national tourism from 2019; reductions since before the Covid crisis in Spanish resident holidaymakers were also seen for July this year in Castilla y León (down by 8.6%), La Rioja (falling 7.9%), Navarra (a reduction of 7.3%), Extremadura (falling 5%), Aragón (down by 4.5%), and Castilla-La Mancha (shrinking 3%).

In addition to the soaring numbers of foreign tourists in the Balearic Islands and Madrid in July 2021 compared with July 2020, massive increases have been reported in a handful of coastal regions.

The Canary Islands has seen a rise of 154.8% in tourists from abroad this July compared with last July; Catalunya, by 133.7%; Galicia, by 133%; Andalucía, by 120.8%; Asturias, by 112.8%, and the Comunidad Valenciana by 101%.

Regions still showing the highest reductions in foreign holidaymakers since the last pre-pandemic July are Madrid, down by 69.4% - despite numbers having rocketed since the pandemic year itself – Catalunya, down by 63.1%; the Canary Islands, down by 59.9%; Extremadura, falling by 59.6%, and Andalucía, by 59%.

The sum total of international and national tourists means the northern coastal region of Asturias is only 3.7% behind its full holidaymaker quota from 2019, or that it has more or less completely recovered from the impact of the pandemic on its incoming travel industry.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A VILLAGE in the province of Teruel is calling for a family with school-aged children to go and live there, offering guaranteed employment, three months' free rent and a heavily discounted price thereafter.

The land-locked north-eastern region of Aragón is one of several in Spain struggling to keep its population up and fighting complete extinction, as rural isolation leads to adults of working age leaving for larger towns to be able to get jobs, and parents with children moving out due to lack of schooling facilities.

Villages in what has lately been dubbed 'Empty Spain' are trapped in a vicious circle: The only real employment is agriculture, they are too far to commute to bigger towns for other types of job and, even though the idea of working from home whilst living in an idyllic rural haven and close-knit community is proving highly attractive to an increasing number of office staff, this can only function if reliable, good-quality internet and mobile phone coverage is guaranteed.

And the dwindling rural population, with villages often up to 20 kilometres apart and separated by mountains, means telecommunications operators are not willing to invest in the infrastructure as it is not economically viable with such a small customer base; even less so when considering that those who are not forced to move away for practical reasons tend to be the elderly, who are less likely to feel the need for a mobile phone, WiFi or broadband.

Although Spain's government is working on a serious overhaul of State support for remote rural villages, which will include subsidising telecommunications installations, tax breaks and other incentives for companies that invest in these areas or set up operations there, these initiatives will, necessarily, take time – so the villages themselves are seeking quicker ways to keep their headcount up.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

OVER half of all secondary school-aged students have now had at least their first dose of the Covid vaccine, with two weeks to go before the new term starts.

According to national health authorities, a total of 55.4% of the country's population aged between 12 and 19 – irrespective of whether they are still at school or college in the case of the upper end of this range – have had one or both doses, and just under 13% are fully immunised.

Also, practically all their teachers will now have had their full quota of vaccine doses – even the youngest, since they would have been among the key workers summoned for their jab much earlier in the year.

The last region to start Moderna vaccines – an ARN-messenger version, like the Pfizer – for children aged 12 and 13 is Galicia.

Those summoned must have an 'informed consent' form signed by a parent or legal guardian, as they are underage, and those who are not yet 12 will be shelved until their next birthday.

As yet, neither the Pfizer nor the Moderna jabs have been approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for children under 12, due to a hitherto lack of sufficient evidence concerning their safety and effectiveness.

All other regions besides Galicia had already started giving appointments for teens to get their jab – in fact, many have already fully vaccinated between one and two in five.

Read mroe at thinkSPAIN.com

ROAD traffic rules such as the meaning of signs and markings and use of lanes are similar in the majority of countries, but some minor elements differ as we cross borders and, in practice, a lot of native or resident drivers in a given country may not be clear on a few aspects.

One of these is where overtaking – on single carriageways – is prohibited, and where the exceptions to these prohibitions are, so Spain's General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), part of the ministry of transport, has issued some guidelines.

When overtaking is not allowed

Overtaking on roads with one lane only in either direction is against the law on a bend or other elements that render visibility poor, or where the road surface changes – something that can often be the case on inter-provincial highways, especially where they cover more than one region, as investment in infrastructure repairs and maintenance in one province or region and lack of in another means a new spread of tarmac can abruptly stop at a border.

Also, overtaking is forbidden on marked pedestrian crossings, in intersections, at level crossings or close to them, and inside tunnels – except, in all cases, where the road is a dual carriageway or has three or more lanes.

In many cases, the ban on passing drivers in front is made visible with 'no overtaking' signs or by an unbroken white line down the middle of the road, but on smaller lanes these are not always in place, so motorists need to know when they are required to stay behind the car in front even if no indications tell them so.

Whilst most drivers are broadly aware of the above, and common sense kicks in where they are not sure, road traffic laws change relatively quickly – not exactly every couple of years, but certainly a handful of times since the average adult passed his or her driving test, after which they no longer have any mandatory instruction sessions or theory lessons to keep them up to date.

To this end, when many of today's motorists first got their licences, speed limits on national non-motorway highways were 100 kilometres per hour (62mph) as opposed to 90 kilometres per hour (56mph), town roads had a 50-kilometre (31mph) limit rather than 30 kilometres (18.6mph) and there were no specific rules about distance that should be left when passing vulnerable road users.

This means many may not be aware of those exceptions when the 'no overtaking' rule can, and even should, be discarded.

When 'forbidden' overtaking manoeuvres are allowed

According to the DGT, overtaking is permitted on an intersection where the driver passing has priority – this will be indicated via road markings.

Level crossings where lateral visibility is not an issue are another exception – for example, motorists are permitted to overtake a two-wheeled vehicle which does not impede the side view or that of a safe distance up ahead in the opposite lane.

Overtaking is permitted on roundabouts, except where these are intersections, provided 'the circumstances allow this manoeuvre to be effected safely', the DGT explains.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

FOR the second time in less than four years, Spain is home to the world's oldest man – Saturnino, who is 112-and-a-half, now holds the title after Emilio Flores from Puerto Rico passed away just over a week ago.

Saturnino de la Fuente García, from León, may already have been officially the earliest-born surviving male on the planet, since there has been some dispute over whether Emilio Flores could be legally considered as such.

Flores had given his date of birth as being a few months before Saturnino's, but did not have a proper birth certificate since, at the time, in many countries, either these were not automatic, did not exist at all, or contained errors.

In fact, although Saturnino's national ID card gives his date of birth as February 12, 1909, his son-in-law Bernardo Marcos explains he was actually born on February 8, 1909.

This is because it was habitual in the early years of the last century to wait about four days before registering a birth – at a time when infant mortality was very high all over the world, it was often considered that there was no point in going through the paperwork until you were fairly confident the newborn was going to live.

Briefly, Spain was once home to the oldest man and the oldest woman in Europe – Ana María Vela Rubio, from Barcelona, turned 116 in October 2017, but passed away in December that year; from August 11, 2017, Francisco Núñez Olivera, from Extremadura, became the oldest man on earth, turning 113 on December 13 that year, but passed away on January 29, 2018.

It is much harder to live long enough to be the planet's oldest woman – for men, this title can reach them within months of their 112th birthdays, but women normally have to live to be over 117. 

Ana Vela became the world's third-oldest, but at present, the longest-living woman on earth who is still alive is Kane Tanaka, from Japan, who will be exactly 118 and nine months if she survives until September 2, having been born the day after New Year in 1903.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A FRENCH astronaut who orbits Earth 16 times a day takes a photo of his favourite city from space every 24 hours and greets its residents on Twitter.

Thomas Pesquet has a special fondness for Madrid, since the Spanish capital was where he got his first job as an aerospace engineer.

At just 23 years old, he was employed at the headquarters of GMW – one of the key corporations in Europe's aerospace industry - in the commuter town of Tres Cantos, working as a space vessel dynamics engineer.

Although he often photographs his home country, Thomas tells followers on his social media sites that he feels a close connection with Madrid, and has often returned there to give conferences and talks on space in general and the research being conducted at the International Space Station (ISS), where he is based.

During his shifts on the ISS, Thomas developed the new hobby of taking pictures of cities from space in his breaks and off-duty periods.

This partly began because he was conscious that he was enjoying privileged views of his home planet which very, very few will ever get to see in person, and decided it was only fair to share them with his fellow earthlings.

He sees multiple sunrises and sunsets, storms, lightning and other weather phenomena from a different angle and in a much shorter time than the overwhelming majority of the human race – especially as he travels the full circumference of the globe 16 times in every 24 hours, or effectively, goes round the world every 90 minutes.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

Customs duties levied on Spain's olive oil exporters by former US president Donald Trump have been lifted by new leader Joe Biden – and business between the two countries has soared.

In the first six months of this year, olive oil exports from Spain shot up by 37.5%, to 57,402 tonnes, valued at €152 million.

Spanish olive-farmers largely had to close the door on their North American market when Trump imposed trade barriers that made it unprofitable to sell across the pond, but they have now recovered a large chunk of that market since Biden took up office.

Up to and including June 2020, Spanish trade accounted for 27.66% of olive oil sales in the United States, ahead of Tunisia, which had been the second-largest supplier in 2020 after the domestic market.

Now, Spain's oil is the second-most frequently sold in the USA after the home-produced varieties.

Spanish exporters were the number one supplier until Trump imposed customs fees, claiming the Mediterranean country supposed unfair competition to olive-growers in California.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

CELEBRITY chef José Andrés landed in Port-au-Prince about 20 hours ago with a full set of kitchen equipment to feed survivors of the devastating earthquake which has left 1,419 dead.

Born in Asturias on Spain's northern coast, José Andrés has lived in the New York area for around 27 years and, in addition to his up-market eateries, runs soup kitchens and a global charity which feeds people struck by natural or man-made disasters.

World Central Kitchen has cooked meals and given food parcels to victims of Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas, the massive blast in Beirut, the forest fires in Greece, civil servants unpaid after Donald Trump's administration shutdown, and is now setting up an aid centre in India after joining forces with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.

Now, he and his team are in the heart of the ruins of Haïti, struck by a quake reaching 7.2 on the Richter scale and exacerbated by a replica of 4, providing much-needed nourishment to the tens of thousands who are injured, homeless and evacuated.

On arrival in the early hours of Monday, José Andrés tweeted: “We just landed with more cooking equipment to expand operations.”

He also confirmed that the western hemisphere's poorest country is about to be hit by yet another natural disaster.

“Rain is starting from tropical storm Grace, adding to the difficult situation for everyone after the earthquake,” José Andrés tweeted.

Just a month and a half ago, the Caribbean country – which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic – was thrust into political turmoil when its president, Jovenel Moïse, 53, was assassinated in what was thought to have been an organised attack involving Colombian hitmen.

Wracked by poverty and political instability, the densely-populated Haïti, home to around 11.3 million, is still recovering from the last huge earthquake, a magnitude 7 tremor with its epicentre in the capital, over 11 years ago.

The January 2010 quake left over 300,000 dead and more than a million lost everything, in what was said to have been the most devastating in 200 years.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

A WEEKEND heatwave that coloured most of the map of Spain deep burgundy on the weather channels brought a new record temperature high – the top figure ever registered since records began over 101 years ago.

Until Saturday, August 14, the highest 'official' temperature ever found in Spain was 46.9ºC, registered at Córdoba airport on July 13, 2017.

In the same province, but this time in the town of Montoro, this has now been smashed – the State meteorological agency, AEMET, says its weather station showed a figure of 47.2ºC at exactly 17.10.

And the Córdoba airport weather station, 40 minutes later, exactly equalled its 2017 record of 46.9ºC.

Although anecdotal evidence – and local pharmacy thermometers – have often shown temperatures in the shade of at least these figures in past years, for the purposes of record-setting, only official AEMET weather station numbers count.

This is because they are the only thermometers guaranteed to be functioning under conditions that eliminate all confounding variables – others not controlled and monitored by AEMET and other meteorological agencies may be affected by unnoticed outside influences.

For example, even a thermometer known to be highly-sophisticated and accurate will show a much higher temperature than it really is if it is placed too close to the tarmac, which absorbs and reflects heat because of being black, and will have been 'pumping' hot air at the device all day.

Also, thermometers used for 'official' temperatures are placed in the shade; those in direct sunlight would normally show between 5ºC and 10ºC higher, which would account for those that show figures above 50ºC during a heatwave.

This, then, means that in Montoro, anyone standing in direct sunlight at 17.10 on Saturday would have been experiencing temperatures of between 52.2ºC and 57.2ºC.

Córdoba, Jaén and Sevilla – the three land-locked provinces in mainland Spain's southernmost region of Andalucía – are typically the hottest parts of the country in summer; on the south and east coast and the Mediterranean area in general, the mercury normally reads around 10ºC to 15ºC lower than in these inland strips.

To this end, the highest temperatures in Spain were found in inland Andalucía over the weekend – Écija (Sevilla province) reached 46.6ºC at 16.00 on Saturday, and Aguilar de la Frontera (Córdoba province) hit 46.5ºC at 17.20.

At precisely the moment Córdoba airport broke more than a century's worth of temperature records, another town in its wider province – Fuente Palmera – reached 46.4ºC, and in Fuentes de Andalucía (Sevilla province), the thermometer was reading 46.3ºC at the same time.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TRYING to cram in all of Spain's top monuments in one lifetime means being constantly on the go, even if you start your road-trips in playschool and live to be over 100. Perhaps what we really need is the equivalent of Las Vegas, where you can tour everywhere from the canals of Venice to the Eiffel Tower on one complex, then say afterwards that you've 'done' them and don't need to bother with the real thing – the Vegas versions are exactly the same, surely?

To a certain extent, Spain has one of those already – the Poble Espanyol ('Spanish Village') in Barcelona. Rather than monuments, though, this surreal and fascinating complex shows typical, life-sized buildings and streets from every province, carefully labelled and within separate quadrangles for each region, so by following the indicated route you can tour the country on foot in a couple of hours. 

And, it turns out, we also have our own micro-Andalucía; it's been around for nearly two decades, yet somehow we've all managed to miss it.

At Villasudores, exact replicas of famous tourism and heritage sites, as well as 'generic' and 'trademark' buildings seen in southern Spain, are created in microscopic, intricate and faithful detail, but in much smaller, more manageable sizes. 

So if you've been to the Alhambra Palace in Granada or the Great Mosque of Córdoba already, and would really quite like to see them again but can't be bothered with the queues, crowds or booking tickets online, head down to this open-air 'model village' in Gibraleón, Huelva province, and you can walk around each in minutes without missing any part of the original.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

SIX million doses of Covid vaccines will be donated this summer to various Caribbean and Latin American countries by Spain's government, the health ministry has announced.

President Pedro Sánchez had pledged to give away 22.5 million vaccines via the Covax programme, run by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and which aims to prevent a 'rich-poor divide' in the global battle against the pandemic by appealing to wealthier nations to donate to developing or third-world countries.

Sánchez said during this year's Ibero-American Summit in April, held in Andorra, that a third of Spain's donated vaccines would go to the Latin America and Caribbean region.

He promised to start the donations abroad as soon as 50% of Spain's population was fully immunised.

Even though Spain has very close ties with the bulk of this area, through historical, linguistic and cultural links, the countries earmarked for receiving donations are chosen by the Covax committee, so will be the same for all donor nations.

Covax uses criteria laid down by the Pan-American Health Organisation when working out which nations are most in need, based upon epidemiological necessities, general wealth, and population, among other factors.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO-THIRDS of Spanish residents now pay for everything they can by card or mobile phone, and seven in 10 carry less than €5 in their purses, according to the most recent Bank of Spain survey.

Already, as a result of the pandemic, by July last year, card and mobile phone payments had overtaken cash for first time ever, with the latter relegated to 45.5% of transactions – and yet, seven months previously, around 87% of the population used notes and coins as their default method.

With physical money being discouraged when Covid-19 hit Spain for the first time and the entire nation went into full lockdown on March 16, 2020, the way people pay in shops and bars is yet another dramatic about-turn in everyday culture the virus has caused, along with working from home, Zoom meetings with family and friends, and companies and public sector offices no longer insisting customers attend in person to be able to serve them.

The Bank of Spain's 'national survey on use of cash in 2020' differs from previous market research conducted, insofar as it asked traders as well as the general public about their attitudes to different payment methods.

Traders now prefer cards – even small retailers

In keeping with the study last July, over 54% - the same number as back then – say they preferred to pay with a debit card, although the actual figure of those whose cash transactions are only a minority is much higher: A total of 36.6% used notes and coins wherever and whenever they could.

Similar research by the Bank of Spain in 2014 put this figure at nearly 80%.

Large retailers, department stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets have been accepting non-cash payments now for 20 years or more, and smaller businesses taking cards for high amounts, but it is only recently, according to the report, that traders of all sizes have been expressing a preference for card transactions, even for very low amounts of money. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

EVEN if it did not reach the top 10 in medals at Tokyo 2020, Spain gets the gold in a more tangible, long-lasting competition – that of nature, given that over 50% of Europe's species of animals are found in the country and more than 5% of those worldwide.

It's no secret that Spain is a countryside-lover's paradise, with 16 National Parks, more mountainous than anywhere else in the EU and second only to Switzerland on the European continent, with almost every town being minutes away from an officially-protected nature reserve.

But exactly to what extent has appeared in black and white, via the environment ministry's natural heritage and biodiversity report, drawn up by independent experts.

It tells us that 56% of the EU's protected flora and fauna habitats live here, and over 85,000 species of both together – and praises the people of Spain as a whole for their 'heightened awareness' of their country's biodiversity in recent years.

A third of Spain's land is under conservation order

Conservation zones, under protection orders that mean they cannot be built on and rules are in place to allow them to thrive, have 'increased exponentially' in just over a decade: Back in 2009, an already-impressive 31% of Spain's land and 1% of its seas were under conservation orders, and the latter has multiplied to 12.3%.

By 2020, a total of 36.2% of Spain's land was under official protection, as National Parks, nature reserves or other ring-fenced green-belt areas; more than a third of the country.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

MORE than Sydney, fewer than Athens, London or Peking, Spain has matched its Olympic medal haul from Rio 2016 and Atlanta 1996, with fewer golds than at the last Games but more diplomas, with 179 of Spain's 322 competitors – 56% in total – netting top eight positions. 

Sporting achievements are always more than the colour of the award – in Tokyo 2020, competitors such as Pablo Carreño (men's tennis) and David Valero (mountain-biking) earned bronzes that represent more blood, sweat and tears than the easily-won golds of others; an eighth-place diploma in a huge field of some of the best players in their discipline of far more personal value than a medal gained against a small number of rivals where the standard was relatively low.

It's all relative, and whilst Spain always hopes to top its record of 22, with 13 golds and ranking sixth in the world, from its hitherto sole home-turf Games – Barcelona 1992 – those who flew back from Japan with decorations are justifiably delighted.

From medal 10 to medal 17 inclusive

We revealed the first nine medal-winners in our article here, but since then, Spain upped its gold reserves by 200% - from one to three – and nearly doubled its collection overall, to 17.

Number 10 went to Nico Rodríguez and Jordi Xammar, who earned a bronze in men's 470 sailing, behind Sweden's Dahlberg and Bergström who took the silver, and successfully fighting off their nearest threat, New Zealand, the only rival near enough to put their podium position in jeopardy – they finished on 45 points to Sweden's 41, but none of the field had a hope of catching Australian duo Belcher and Ryan, who got the gold with 21 points. 

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AFTER long months of playing behind closed doors, sports teams will once again be spurred on by cheering fans in the stands – from next Friday (August 13), basketball and football stadia will be open to the public.

Restrictions will remain in place, including limits on numbers, staggered entry and exit, masks compulsory and a blanket ban on eating and drinking at the venue, but no requirements are in place for spectators to show a negative Covid test result or proof of vaccination as a condition of access.

Spain's government is against the idea of showing these documents for entry to bars or nightclubs, as has been proposed by some regions, since it would effectively discriminate based upon age: Vaccines are being administered in descending order from the oldest to the youngest, meaning teens and younger adults could be left out if they do not yet have an immunisation certificate, unless they can afford to pay for a test every time they want to go to a bar.

For sports matches, fan-club members or season-ticket holders will be given priority when a game is oversubscribed, according to the papers drawn up by health minister Carolina Darías during a series of government discussions.

At first, these spectators were going to be the only ones allowed in, but Sra Darías realised this could result in a larger number of people travelling between regions as they follow their teams throughout the season.

To prevent a level of en masse inter-regional migration which would not otherwise occur, matches are open to the general public if seats are left unfilled once season-ticket holders and fan-club members have snapped theirs up.

A maximum of 40% of places can be taken up in outside seating, such as at football matches in the stands, or 30% for indoor areas, meaning all basketball matches and the VIP boxes or hospitality units at both.

Smoking, eating and drinking are not permitted even in outside venues, other than bottles of water as this is essential to prevent fans collapsing with heatstroke and dehydration in the full summer sun.

In keeping with all other activities at present, masks must be worn even in outside areas at sports events – these are otherwise only mandatory outdoors in public places where there are a high number of people; whilst not necessary when walking down a deserted street, they are indeed required in crowded open-air areas.

Organisers are expected to ensure everyone present keeps at least 1.5 metres apart

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

AFTER the second-hottest July this century and August lurching from extreme temperatures on one day – around 40ºC in the southern two-thirds of the country – to refreshing thunder storms the next, and September being one of the hottest months of the year, too, heading to the beach is not just indulgence; it's a necessity. 

But one very occasional downside of swimming in the sea is that you may come across the odd jellyfish.

They are not as common as the headlines would make you think – if there are lots of them, lifeguards will 'shut' the sea by hoisting a red flag, as they do when strong currents make bathing unsafe – so the risk of getting stung is actually very low, since you shouldn't be in the water with a red flag flying anyway. 

In fact, you can get fined up to €1,500 if you do, and lifeguards are not obliged to rescue you if you ignore the flag and go swimming; but human nature is that if you've got the skills and you see someone in trouble, you'll dive in without thinking about it, so beach lifeguards will normally put their own safety in jeopardy for you.

This said, jellyfish stings are statistically far more common on Spanish beaches than they are walking down a city-centre street in the UK, so it's good to know what to do if you or someone else suffers from one.

Naturally, urban myths abound – no doubt you've heard about how you should urinate on the sting or squirt vinegar on it – so Spanish scientists have been working on these in order to help us sort the fake news from the genuinely therapeutic.

Depends upon type of jellyfish, and how to tell them apart

The National Research Council-affiliated Sea Sciences Institute in Barcelona (ICM-CSIC) says whether or not the old wives' tales are true depends upon the type of jellyfish: Some, it seems, can be treated with vinegar, but in other cases, it could make them much worse.

Jellyfish stings are not just a painful sensation – they're actually a tangible object and body part, which is left behind in your skin when they've attacked.

And it's crucial to remove all traces of the sting, all cells and tissue residue, from your skin, according to the report in the magazine Toxins.

You probably can't do this yourself, or not entirely, so you'll need someone who's trained – at least a first-aider whose course has included units on jellyfish stings.

Experts recommend rinsing the area with a solution which, in the case of the species known as Pelagia Noctiluca – the one that causes the most incidents on Mediterranean beaches, for example, and which is typically known as the Luminescent or Luminous Jellyfish, or the 'Mauve Stinger' in Australian English – this should never be vinegar.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

RESEARCHERS from Spain have joined an international study which could predict the lifespan of women's fertility, and even prolong it.

The findings could be equally helpful for women who do not want to have children, since increasing egg reserves delays the menopause and the health and wellbeing issues that come with it.

A 'map' has identified 290 gene variants – 56 of which were already known – which enable scientists to work out more precisely when a woman may hit the menopause.

The team, made up of Barcelona Autonomous University (UAB), Copenhagen University (Denmark), and the British universities of Cambridge and Exeter recalls that, although life expectancy has increased dramatically in the last 150 years and is already around 86 for women in Spain, with living to 100 or beyond no longer as ground-breaking as it was even in the mid-to-late 20th century, reproductive life expectancy has not moved; women continue to be at their most fertile between 17 and 25, when the majority are still at school or college or have not yet 'found their feet' with a career, own home and steady relationship, and the menopause still comes at an average age of 50.

Even before then, the 'perimenopause' can start as young as the early 30s, by which time fertility is already in freefall; from about 27 to 30, the chances of a live birth – not even a pregnancy – are lower than those of a non-pregnancy or a miscarriage; by around 40, they are roughly 20% and by the mid-40s, lower than 5% - typically just as women become 'settled' into life and in a position where having a baby might be feasible.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

TWO 'Queens' - or, in theory, three - met on the same island and one gave the other an award this week: HRH Letizia rounded off the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest by presenting multiple on-screen ‘Royal’ Judi Dench with the Masters of Cinema prize.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia spend their summers at the family estate, Marivent, in Mallorca – usually joined by their daughters Leonor, 15 and Sofía, 14, although in past years they have split the holidays between the largest of the Balearics and summer camp in the USA to improve their already near-perfect English – and veteran actress Dame Judi Dench was there this time for the festival.

This summer is already overshadowed for Queen Letizia, who lost her grandmother a week ago – long-running and pioneering radio DJ and on-air reporter Menchu Álvarez del Valle, 93; in fact, Letizia was so distraught that she did not go to the funeral in Menchu's home town of Ribadesella (Asturias).

Whether Queen Letizia's dark-coloured dress was coincidental or a sign of mourning is not clear, but her attendance at the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest certainly gave her something to take her mind off her loss, and gave her the chance to meet some of Europe's top silver-screen stars in person.

Being royalty takes nothing away from the thrill of meeting celebrities in other fields, and Letizia was evidently delighted to be able to chat briefly to British film director Stephen Frears, 80, the brains behind major productions such as Les Liaisons Dangereuses and The Queen.

Frears also picked up a Masters of Cinema award, which was actually for 2020 but which he was unable to collect at the time due to the pandemic.

Dame Judi, who appeared vibrant and much younger than her 86 years, talked enthusiastically to Queen Letizia and answered questions about the highlights from her long career, which launched in 1964.

The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel star said: “It was 1950 when I first came to this island, and fell completely in love with it and everything in it. And I never imagined I'd be back here 70 years later. I'm profoundly overwhelmed!”

As well as key rôles in James Bond films – playing M in GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, Die Another Day and Casino Royale – in the Shakespearean productions Hamlet and Macbeth, and starring alongside Cate Blanchett in Notes on a Scandal and Kevin Spacey in the screen adaptation of Annie Proulx's The Shipping News, Dame Judi Dench is no stranger to the job of being Queen, even if only for the benefit of the camera.

She has fleshed not just one, but two different monarchs – even though she has yet to play the UK's current Queen, Her Majesty Elizabeth II – and in three separate productions, taking the part of Elizabeth I in Shakespeare in Love, for which she won an Oscar in 1999, and Queen Victoria in Mrs Brown and Victoria and Abdul.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

THREE of Spain's islands have made it into the top five in Europe according to a leading travel search engine, and another two are hot on their heels, based upon criteria ranging from weather to availability of entertainment, ease of flying, and prices in destination.

According to KAYAK, searches for flights to Europe's islands as a whole are now 11% higher than in 2019 – the last year before the pandemic – and 13% higher than 2019 for Spanish islands.

KAYAK collated data for 70 islands across the whole of Europe, classifying them under seven headings: Weather, accessibility by aeroplane, prices – hotels, car hire, restaurants, and general costs on location for food and transport – things to do, activities for children, Covid-safety measures, and sustainability, including environmental care.

These were further broken down into 19 areas relating to the across-the-board holiday experience and suitability for different tourist profiles, such as families with children, budget breaks, best low-season destinations, off-the-beaten-track locations, and so on.

The Greek island of Crete tops the list, with plus points highlighted including warm weather in high season, blue-flag sand beaches, and low rainfall.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

HOLLYWOOD legend Antonio Banderas reportedly plans to move back to his home city of Málaga permanently, and has put his luxury mansion in Surrey, UK on the market.

The actor, 61, has been living in the Home Counties in the south of England for several years with his partner, Dutch-German financial consultant Nicole Kimpel, 40, for some years, where he was reputedly studying an art and design course at London's prestigious Saint Martin's College.

His time in Surrey, seeking the quiet life after a long spell living in Hollywood, was partly marred by his heart attack a few years back – which he recovered from in full after being admitted to a hospital in Switzerland for observation – and by his 60th birthday last year being far from the celebration the long-running 'Almodóvar Boy' had envisaged: Aside from most of Europe being in lockdown at the time, Banderas was diagnosed with Covid, although he did not have to be hospitalised and his only symptoms were extreme tiredness.

The pop-up, minimalist, bespoke villa he and Nicole have been living in was designed by the German firm Huf Haus, which specialises in 'eco-efficient' living.

It has five bedrooms, three storeys, a gym and spa, double- and triple-glazed windows – floor to ceiling, in some cases, offering a high level of natural light and sun-generated heating, and the building itself is 500 square metres.

Four terraces and a huge garden, with panoramic views across the Surrey countryside, the mansion is just outside the town of Cobham and is up for sale for around €3.5 million with Savills estate agents.

Although Antonio Banderas describes the location as 'magical', the pull of 'home' is proving even stronger.

“I go out on my bike in the woods, and I'm surrounded by nature,” he says.

“I love seeing the deer and foxes that pop into my garden.”

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

BARCELONA'S El Prat airport is about to get bigger: Expansion plans costing €1.7 billion are afoot, turning it into a major long-haul international terminal with a high-speed rail connection.

The express AVE service will link up to the airport in Spain's second-largest city and also to those of Reus (Tarragona province, on the Costa Daurada) and Girona in northern Catalunya, which serves the Costa Brava.

Ambitious plans currently still at the discussion stage will, additionally, involve expanding Madrid's Adolfo Suárez-Barajas airport at a cost of €1.6 million – already the largest in the country and the main gateway to Latin America via direct flights, the extra capacity may well mean it can operate other long-haul routes without requiring connections at other European terminals.

Government spokeswoman and territorial policy minister Isabel Rodríguez says the El Prat (pictured above) extension will create 85,000 jobs directly linked to the plans and 365,000 indirect jobs, although it is not clear whether this is merely during the construction phase or whether they will be permanent positions that a much larger airport would require to be filled.

She stresses that all the necessary environmental considerations for the expansion have been covered, although the last word will need to come from the European Commission.

This is because the plans, drafted by airport governing board AENA, will involve building a satellite terminal and extending the third runway by half a kilometre, and which might encroach on the La Ricarda lake in the Llobregat delta – a protected conservation area that falls within the European Union's Natura 2000 network.

But deputy president of Catalunya's regional government, Jordi Puigneró – also head of digital and territorial policy – stresses that the impact, if any, will be 'minimal'.

“We'll be keeping watch to ensure the effects are the minimum possible,” he assures, “and that if possible, these effects are nil.”

'Round-table discussion' to heal the rift

Isabel Rodríguez says this is the first face-to-face meeting between the regional and national government, and that it was very positive and 'a good start'.

She has agreed timescales with Catalunya's leaders for transferring funds, due to start next month, a time when the central government will also be joining regional Parliament members in a round-table discussion in an attempt to calm the ongoing political disputes between Spain and the north-eastern region, which came to a head in October 2017 after an unlawful referendum was held over Catalunya's independence.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

KNOWN for its late surges but rarely near the top, often standing out in minority disciplines, Spain has generally been successful enough in Olympic Games to be proud of itself but in a discreet, behind-the-scenes fashion, and this year is no exception.

The stories behind the nation's medals and diplomas often unmask far greater achievements than their colours seem to bear out – as has certainly been the case with its first two bronzes, David Valero's starting out nearly last in mountain-biking and then steaming ahead to take a very hard-fought third place, and Pablo Carreño's knocking out world tennis number one Novak Djoković enabling him to squeeze onto the podium – or, in past Games, weightlifter Lydia Valentín being justly pleased with herself for getting a fourth, fifth and a bronze in three consecutive Olympics only to find out up to a decade later that she actually had a medal in each colour after those who had seemingly beaten her to it at the time were disqualified for doping.

Now, in the 32nd Olympic Games of the modern era and the 29th to actually be held – after Berlin 1916, Helsinki 1940 and London 1944 were cancelled due to the World Wars – and the only one to have been shelved in peacetime, at Tokyo 2020, taking place in 2021, Spain currently ranks a modest 24th in the medal count with one gold, three silvers and three bronzes; not a shameful result, though, given that 76 nations currently feature, with the five jointly at number 72 with one bronze each being Argentina, Côte d'Ivoire (formerly also known by its English translation of Ivory Coast), Finland, Kuwait and Malaysia.

Spain currently has the second-largest medal collection of all Spanish-speaking countries in the modern-era history of the Games, after Cuba.

Read full article at thinkSPAIN.com

TRIUMPH at last for Spain at Tokyo 2020 has come at the steady and unflinching hands of its mixed team trap shooting pair after they fought off their counterparts from San Marino.

Fátima, 34, from Baena (Córdoba province) started out hesitantly in the final, causing Spain to bite its nails in the face of the confident, self-assured début the couple's rivals displayed, but she and Alberto, 38, from Madrid, kept their heads and came back swiftly to win 41-40.

As theirs is a minority sport, both have day jobs – Fátima is a nurse and Alberto is a musician – but with their first Olympic gold under their belts, they now have every chance of attracting sponsorship to allow them to further their career in trap shooting.

Neither had managed to leave the last three Olympics with medals in the singles category, but decided they were stronger as a team and that if they were planning to go for gold, it had to be as a united front.

Fátima was first drawn to trap shooting when she watched the Barcelona 1992 Olympics on TV, aged five, although her father did not start to teach her until she was 11.

Alberto was also taught by his dad, whom he used to accompany to training sessions and competitions as a child, pestering to be able to 'have a go'.

Had it not been for his father finally giving in, Alberto may have opted to plough 100% of his energies into becoming a rock star, rather than just 50% - he founded the group Los Geyperman, a tribute band to legendary Spanish act Hombres G, and so far, his biggest audience has been in region of 3,000 people.

Off-stage, he won the world and European championships in 2010, whilst Fátima became world champion in 2015, having won the world junior championships in 2005, aged 18.

They have never before been able to compete together in the Olympics, since the mixed team category did not exist before 2017 when it was approved in time for Tokyo 2020 – back when everyone thought the Tokyo Games would, in fact, be in 2020 – although in that short time, Fátima and Alberto managed to pack in some serious achievements.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com

STARTING a company may only need as little as €1 in capital once a planned new law comes into effect and which is seeking to encourage entrepreneurs and provide greater protection against insolvency through non-payment by corporate clients.

The forthcoming Law of Business Creation and Growth, currently being discussed and worked on in the Council of Ministers, seeks to 'remove obstacles' in the 'establishment and economic viability' of companies.

One issue that most threatens this 'viability', the government recognises, is lack of cashflow and solvency where firms are not paid by their clients within the legal maximum of 60 days – which reduces to 30 days in some circumstances.

This is a particularly serious problem for the self-employed, sole traders and small businesses, where they are owed money by big companies they do work for and effectively allow these to fail to pay up on time – or even at all – since they fear losing a major customer or ruining their relationship with the corporation, the Council of Ministers argues.

For this reason, the unpaid worker 'does not tend to demand the compensation they are legally entitled to' in these situations, such as the costs of chasing up the debt and interest payments, 'even though it puts pressure on their profit margins'.

Given that this imbalance of power renders penalties and punishments pointless in most cases, the government intends to introduce incentives for prompt payment in the new legislation.

Another aid to early payment will be the launch of the so-called 'digital invoice', the form and structure of which has not been detailed as yet, but will make settlements more transparent, as it will be much easier to see when a company has paid a trader who has carried out work for it.

Even if the trader does not use this as clear proof of a corporate client's late payment or non-payment, the figures will be accessible by public authorities.

This will come accompanied by a general rule that firms which pay their workers', suppliers' or contractors' invoices late, or fail to do so, will not be eligible for any public funding they may otherwise be entitled to.

Read more at thinkSPAIN.com