Announcement on Friday follows report hours earlier from Brazil of first such death outside Africa
Spain has reported what is thought to be Europe’s first monkeypox-related death in the current outbreak of the disease.
Brazil reported earlier on Friday the first monkeypox-related death outside Africa in the current wave.
Continue reading...Killing of doorman in Andalucían town triggered rampage in which houses were burned and looted
Spanish Gypsy groups are calling for urgent action and protection after dozens of people were forced to abandon their homes in a small Andalucían town when a killing triggered a wave of racist violence.
In the early hours of Sunday 17 July, a 29-year-old pub doorman called Álvaro Soto was stabbed to death in Peal de Becerro after an argument with four members of the local Gypsy community. The alleged attackers were later arrested.
Continue reading...Council-supported project beginning on roof of school in Poblenou could grow across the city
A secondary school and a residents’ association have teamed up with Barcelona city council to create a solar energy community with the capacity to grow – rooftop by rooftop – across large areas of the city.
The solar panels on the roof of Quatre Cantons secondary school in the former industrial district of Poblenou supply power to the school and 30 households in the surrounding area.
Continue reading...Blaze, estimated to have damaged 14,000 hectares, started after spark escaped from soil excavator
An international reforestation company has said it is “devastated” after one of its contractors accidentally caused a massive fire in Spain, where dozens of calamitous wildfires have raged this week.
Land Life, a Netherlands-based company with offices in Spain and the US, said the fire broke out on Monday at one of its reforestation projects in Ateca in the north-eastern region of Aragón.
Continue reading...Man in 50s emerges from blaze with clothes burned to rags and flames flickering around him
A Spanish man in his 50s is being treated for serious burns after escaping the flames that engulfed his excavator as he tried to fight one of the wildfires raging in the north-western region of Castilla y León.
Video of the incident, which took place near the town of Tábara in Zamora province on Monday afternoon, shows the vehicle and its driver, Ángel Martín Arjona, being swallowed by the fire and disappearing behind drifts of smoke.
Continue reading...Analysis: Vladimir Putin claims time is on his side, but he will have only one shot at making a gas cutoff count
Desperate efforts in Italy to prevent the fall of Mario Draghi’s government are only the latest political firestorm in Europe tied to Vladimir Putin’s tests of the west’s powers of endurance. Draghi’s foreign minister, Luigi di Maio, suggested it will be Putin who celebrated the fall of another western government if Draghi does not survive a confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday.
“A boat without a rudder goes adrift,” said Ferruccio Resta, the president of the Conference of Italian University Rectors – a metaphor that could apply, to Putin’s satisfaction, to much of Europe as governments come under growing pressure over the perceived domestic cost of the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...In need of repair, futuristic yet surreal complex built by artist Xavier Corberó is to become public space
Like a three-dimensional De Chirico painting or an Escher staircase to nowhere, the labyrinthine Espai Corberó near Barcelona defies architectural logic, being designed “without plans, obeying only space and poetry”.
“It’s not my home, it’s a place I made with the help of patrons and buyers as a home for my sculptures,” the artist Xavier Corberó told the art magazine AD shortly before his death at 81 in 2017.
Continue reading...Thousands evacuated as above 40C forecast for some French regions on Monday and more lives lost in soaring heat in Spain
France was bracing on Monday for the peak of the heatwave gripping the country, with crushing temperatures expected from the Mediterranean, as wildfires continued to rage across Europe.
Forecasters have put 15 departments in France on the highest state of alert for extreme temperatures, including Gironde in the south-west, where wildfires have already wrought havoc.
Continue reading...Civil defence authorities battle blazes that have forced evacuation of thousands of people across continent
Firefighters in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and Morocco are battling forest fires raging across tens of thousands of hectares as this week’s heatwave continues to bring extreme temperatures and cause hundreds of deaths across south-western Europe.
The second heatwave of the summer – with temperatures hitting 47C (116F) in Portugal and 45C in Spain – has triggered wildfires that have forced the evacuation of thousands of people.
Continue reading...Portugal and Spain among countries affected as rescue forces from Greece help battle blazes in southern France
Firefighters are working tirelessly to tackle wildfires raging in parts of southern Europe as a result of soaring temperatures linked to the climate crisis.
France, Portugal and Spain are among the European countries particularly affected, with temperatures of more than 45C (113F) recorded during a heatwave that is also sweeping the UK.
Continue reading...From Europe to India and the US, the revelations have fuelled anger from across the spectrum, from the drivers to politicians
The release of the Uber files has prompted a frenzy of reaction around the world, piling pressure on senior politicians, fuelling calls for a crackdown on corporate lobbying and drawing outrage from groups including traditional taxi drivers.
The fuse was lit with the publication of revelations from a trove of more than 124,000 documents about Uber spanning from 2013 to 2017, leaked to the Guardian and shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and international media.
Continue reading...Temperatures of over 40C cause red alert in the city and test records as heatwave ravages parts of Europe
China’s most populous city, Shanghai, has issued its highest alert for extreme heat for the third time this summer as sweltering temperatures repeatedly tested records this week.
The commercial and industrial hub of 25 million people declared a red alert on Thursday, warning of expected temperatures of at least 40C (104F) in the next 24 hours. Temperatures soared as high as 40.6 C in the afternoon but fell short of Wednesday’s 40.9 C, which matched a 2017 record.
Continue reading...At least 86 Chinese cities issue alerts, while temperatures soar in south-west and central US and Iberian peninsula
Dangerous heatwaves are engulfing parts of China, Europe, south-west and central US this week, as dozens of cities have found themselves dealing with soaring summer temperatures.
By Tuesday afternoon, at least 86 Chinese cities in eastern and southern parts of the country had issued heat alerts. Chinese meteorologists forecast temperatures in some cities would top 40C (104F) in the next 24 hours.
Continue reading...Parts of France and Germany likely to experience temperatures above 40C this week, while highs in Iberia could touch 47C
Europe is once again entering a period of significant heatwave conditions this week, with the possibility of some record-breaking temperatures.
Sweltering heat has already been affecting Iberia over the past few days, with temperatures 4-5C above the seasonal norm, leading to highs above 40C (104F). Through the rest of this week, the heat is likely to build even more intensely to about 7C above average, with maximum temperatures touching 46-47C in Seville, for instance.
Continue reading...The Eta group’s kidnap and murder of a young councillor in 1997 united a country in revulsion and the wounds are still open today
The place where it happened is out past the hotel, the roundabout, the pharmacy and the blocks of flats hung with washing and geraniums, out where the small Basque town of Lasarte-Oria gives way to a narrow road fringed with trees and ferns.
Today, little carries on the humid coastal air save for birdsong, the barking of a distant dog and the growl of a cultivator. But, 25 years ago this week, two shots from a .22 calibre Beretta pistol rang out beneath the trees and echoed across the length and breadth of Spain.
Continue reading...Dos Santos’s near-four-decade rule was marked by brutal civil war lasting almost three decades
Angola’s former president José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled Africa’s second biggest oil producer for nearly four decades, has died aged 79.
Dos Santos died at the Teknon clinic in Barcelona, Spain, where he was being treated following a prolonged illness, the presidency said.
Continue reading...Spanish auteur behind the 1973 arthouse hit will direct a new film, Cerrar los Ojos, due for release in 2023
Veteran Spanish director Víctor Erice, best known for 1973 classic The Spirit of the Beehive, is making his first feature film in 30 years, it has been revealed.
El Diario reports that the new project, titled Cerrar los Ojos (Close Your Eyes), is being funded by Canal Sur, the public broadcaster for the Andalusia region of Spain. No information has been divulged as to its content, other than that José Coronado and María León have been cast in the lead roles, and that it is due for release in 2023.
Continue reading...Increases reported in countries including Greece, Spain, France and Germany as Omicron variant BA.5 spreads
Holidaymakers heading to and from the European mainland are being warned of a growing incidence of coronavirus, especially in tourist hotspots, which risks hampering travel plans.
Health officials are calling in some cases for a reintroduction of face masks and other measures, and are urging travellers to exercise personal responsibility, warning that an escalation of the virus could lead to the swift return of restrictions.
Continue reading...Complex in Alicante, sanctioned for breaking competition rules, to begin productions later this year
One of Spain’s most notorious and costly white elephants, the Ciudad de la Luz (City of Light) film studios in Alicante, is to get a new lease of life 10 years after it was forced to shut by the EU on grounds of unfair competition.
The Valencian regional government has announced that the studios will reopen, with productions expected to begin later this year. Brussels had banned it from operating until 2027 after production companies, including Pinewood Studios in London, complained that government subsidies broke EU competition rules.
Continue reading...Planned action by the airline’s Spain-based cabin crew over working conditions will increase disruption for holidaymakers
British holidaymakers are braced for fresh travel chaos across Europe this summer with staff at Ryanair on Saturday becoming the latest to threaten strike action.
As striking airport workers in Paris forced the cancellation of dozens of flights on Saturday and promised more industrial action later in July, Spain-based cabin crew at Ryanair revealed they now plan to strike for 12 days in July.
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