Free speech protests have continued since the jailing of musician Pablo Hasél last week for exalting terrorism in his lyrics
Continue reading...Category Archives: Spain
Spain protests: violence and looting on fifth night of unrest over rapper’s jail sentence – video
Police and demonstrators in Barcelona clashed for a fifth night on Saturday, with thousands taking to the streets across Spain to protest against the jailing of a controversial rapper for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his music and on Twitter.
Angry demonstrations first erupted on Tuesday after police detained Pablo Hasél, 32, and took him to jail to start serving a nine-month sentence in a highly contentious free speech case
Continue reading...Spain braces for fifth nigth of protest over arrest of Pablo Hasél
Police and demonstrators clashed again in Barcelona during demonstrations over the jailing of Pablo Hasél
Police and demonstrators in Barcelona clashed for a fifth night on Saturday, with thousands taking to the streets across Spain to protest against the jailing of a controversial rapper for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his music and on Twitter.
Angry demonstrations first erupted on Tuesday after police detained Pablo Hasél, 32, and took him to jail to start serving a nine-month sentence in a highly contentious free speech case.
Continue reading...Violence over jailing of rapper rocks Spain for third night
Protesters burn barricades in centre of Barcelona as case of Pablo Hasél risks dividing ruling leftwing coalition
Spanish police and protesters have clashed for a third night as the backlash against the jailing of a rapper for controversial tweets continued.
Dozens of people have been arrested since Tuesday night when angry demonstrations erupted after police detained Pablo Hasél, 32, who had been holed up in a university in Catalonia to avoid going to jail in a highly contentious free speech case.
Continue reading...‘An eyesore’: thousands protest against Spanish cathedral’s new doors
Planned update to Burgos Cathedral prompts online petition signed by more than 31,000 people
Plans to mark the 800th anniversary of Burgos’s magnificent gothic cathedral with three enormous new bronze doors have ushered in an unholy row, with Unesco advising against the project and critics attacking the €1.2m portals as an “artistic outrage”.
Cathedral authorities in the northern Spanish city say the new doors, designed by the renowned, award-winning artist Antonio López, are a work of contemporary art that will complement “a monument already rendered in five artistic styles that are the fruit of each stage of its eight centuries”. They also point out that the current wooden doors are old and in a poor state of repair.
Continue reading...Spanish riot police clash with protesters after rapper arrested
Rubber bullets fired at crowds in Madrid day after Pablo Hasél was detained on charges of glorifying terrorism
Police fired teargas, rubber bullets, and sound bombs at thousands of protesters in Madrid, the day after a rapper was arrested on charges of glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty in his songs.
Protests in the capital’s central Plaza de Sol square were initially peaceful, with people clapping their hands in unison and chanting “No more police violence” and “Freedom for Pablo Hasél”, the rapper detained in the Catalan city of Lleida on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Free speech protests erupt in Spain after rapper’s arrest – video
Protesters clashed with police in several Spanish cities on Tuesday night after Pablo Rivadulla, known as Pablo Hasél, was arrested to serve a prison sentence for glorifying terrorism and insulting royalty and the police in his lyrics and on social media. Hasél had barricaded himself in Lleida University to highlight 'a hugely serious attack' on freedom, and his arrest has fuelled debate about freedom of speech in Spain and the country’s so-called 'gag law'
Continue reading...How a Spanish town pioneered dolls with Down’s syndrome
The town of Onil has changed the lives of children everywhere
The first time Kelle Hampton glimpsed a doll with Down’s syndrome, anger boiled up inside her. Its exaggerated features bore little resemblance to the sweet facial characteristics that she loved about her daughter Nella, who was born with the genetic disorder.
The experience set the US blogger and author firmly against such dolls. But to her surprise, years later she found herself smitten with another doll. This time it had been carefully crafted to subtly capture the characteristics that made Nella unique. “This one was simply a beautiful doll any child would want to play with,” she said.
Continue reading...Catalonia election poll suggests separatists will retain majority
Catalan Socialist party finishes first as secessionists win more than half the vote on turnout of only 53%
Catalan pro-independence parties have increased their parliamentary majority following a regional election in which the unionist Socialists took the largest share of the vote and the far-right Vox party outperformed its conservative rivals to win its first seats in the northeastern Spanish region.
Sunday’s election was overshadowed by the Covid pandemic and dominated by the continuing debate over independence that has shaped and divided Catalan politics for the past decade.
Continue reading...Catalan parties talk of separation, but for voters, health is the priority
In tomorrow’s election, public services are a huge concern for the people as politicians debate independence
Much has changed in Poblenou over the past four years – not least the arrival of a pandemic that has devastated tourism and employment – but the people of the traditional working-class barrio in the north of Barcelona are struggling with a nagging sense of deja vu over Sunday’s regional election.
“All the talk is about independence but what most of us want from politicians is to solve social problems,” says Nuria Vallejo, a doctor working in the public sector who has lived in the neighbourhood for 20 years. “Number one is the health crisis, and then there’s the education system and questions of sustainability.”
Continue reading...Spain’s Iberian pork producers see red over traffic-light labelling
Nutri-Score system fails to take account of health benefits of meats like jamón ibérico, say farmers
Spain’s Iberian pork producers are hoping their famous meats will follow in the wake of olive oil and be excused from a new traffic-light food labelling scheme, arguing it fails to take account of what they claim are the health benefits of jamón ibérico.
Spain is in the process of implementing the Nutri-Score system, which grades foods from a green A to a red E on packaging. The voluntary scheme has been billed as a way to help EU countries advance towards bloc-wide food labelling by the end of 2022 as part of the European commission’s “fair, healthy and environmentally friendly” Farm-to-Fork strategy.
Continue reading...Poet, pioneer… can family finally honour legacy of Franco victim?
DNA tests will confirm if exhumed body is Republican heroine, María Domínguez Remón, who overcame poverty to become the first female mayor
The hair that the clips and comb once held in place, probably in a bun, is long gone, as are the feet that filled the sandals, and the clothes to which the two buttons belong.
All that survives of the middle-aged woman who was murdered in 1936 and exhumed from the cemetery of the small Aragonese town of Fuendejalón last weekend is her skeleton, its split skull punched through by a bullet.
Continue reading...From lockdowns to pool parties: how Covid rules vary around the world
Countries have adopted different rules on business activity, education, socialising and travel
Curfews and lockdowns Restrictions have largely been relaxed in most of Brazil’s 26 states, although several continue to limit opening hours for bars, restaurants and shops. A round-the-clock curfew was imposed this week in Brazil’s biggest state, Amazonas, after hospitals were overwhelmed.
Continue reading...Madrid feminist mural saved from removal attempt by far right
Artwork celebrating pioneering women saved after city councillors step in to stop Vox party motion
A Madrid mural honouring the lives and achievements of 15 pioneering women, including Nina Simone, Rosa Parks and Frida Kahlo, has been saved from destruction after city councillors stepped in to thwart far-right attempts to have it removed.
The 60-metre (197ft) mural, emblazoned with the slogan: “Your ability doesn’t depend on your gender”, was commissioned by the local council in the Ciudad Lineal neighbourhood and painted on a sports centre wall in 2018.
Continue reading...Mural in Madrid that celebrates women pitched into Spain’s culture wars
Far-right Vox party leads efforts to erase 60-metre artwork it claims contains ‘political message’
A mural in Madrid celebrating a diverse array of women from Nina Simone and Rosa Parks to Frida Kahlo and the Red Army sniper Lyudmila Pavlichenko has become the latest front in Spain’s culture war after the far-right Vox party led efforts to have it removed because of its “political message”.
The 60-metre (197ft) mural, which bears the slogan “Your ability doesn’t depend on your gender”, was commissioned by the local council in the Ciudad Lineal neighbourhood and painted on the wall outside a sports centre in 2018.
Continue reading...As birth rates fall, animals prowl in our abandoned ‘ghost villages’
Human populations are set to decline in countries from Asia to Europe – and an unusual form of rewilding is taking place
For many years it seemed that overpopulation was the looming crisis of our age. Back in 1968, the Stanford biologists Paul and Anne Ehrlich infamously predicted that millions would soon starve to death in their bestselling, doom-saying book The Population Bomb; since then, neo-Malthusian rumblings of imminent disaster have been a continual refrain in certain sections of the environmental movement – fears that were recently given voice on David Attenborough’s documentary Life on our Planet.
At the time the Ehrlichs were publishing their dark prophecies, the world was at its peak of population growth, which at that point was increasing at a rate of 2.1% a year. Since then, the global population has ballooned from 3.5 billion to 7.67 billion.
Continue reading...A key, a casket and the hunt for Spanish dramatist Pedro Calderón’s bones
Dogged detective work and radar scans of a church wall may help find the last resting place of the great playwright
The death of Pedro Calderón de la Barca – soldier, priest and one of the finest dramatists Spain has produced – continues to prove almost as turbulent and unpredictable as his long and improbable life.
Four centuries after Calderón died in Madrid aged 81, researchers believe they could be close to finding his remains, thanks to the deathbed testament of a priest, a key long guarded by the playwright’s family and the latest in ground-penetrating radar.
Continue reading...Jesuit order in Spain apologises for decades of sexual abuse by members
Society of Jesus admits 81 children and 21 adults were sexually abused by 96 of its members since 1927
The Jesuit order in Spain has admitted that 81 children and 21 adults have been sexually abused by 96 of its members since 1927, and has apologised for the “painful, shameful and sorrowful” crimes.
In a report released on Thursday, the Society of Jesus, whose members often work as teachers, said most of the abuse had taken place in schools “or was related to schools”.
Continue reading...Madrid explosion leaves at least three dead
Several people injured in blast but nearby care home residents and school children unharmed
At least three people have been killed and several injured after a gas explosion tore through a parish building in the centre of Madrid, raining masonry on the street below.
Initial investigations suggested the blast, which happened just before 3pm on Wednesday, occurred during a boiler repair.
Continue reading...Madrid explosion: buildings destroyed and casualties reported in blast – video
Spanish emergency services say rescue teams, firefighters and police are working in a central area of Madrid after an explosion.
Footage shared on social media showed a tower of smoke ascending from a building and rubble strewn on the street.
Spanish media reports said the blast took place in a building near a nursing home and a school. There have been reports of casualties
Continue reading...