Category Archives: Spain

European leaders hail ‘new dawn’ for ties with US under Biden

Posted on by

Leaders say Europe again has a friend in the White House but differences with US will not disappear

European leaders have voiced relief at Joe Biden’s inauguration, hailing a “new dawn” for Europe and the US, but warned that the world has changed after four years of Donald Trump’s presidency and that transatlantic ties will be different in future.

“This new dawn in America is the moment we’ve been awaiting for so long,” Ursula von der Leyen, the European commission president, told MEPs. “Once again, after four long years, Europe has a friend in the White House.”

Continue reading...

Former Spanish king’s ex-lover says she was threatened by spy chief

Posted on by

Corinna Larsen tells court ‘chilling’ warning to her and her children came on the orders of King Juan Carlos

The ex-lover of Spain’s former king Juan Carlos has told a court in Madrid of the “chilling” moment when she claimed the head of the country’s intelligence services threatened her and her children on the monarch’s orders.

Corinna Larsen told the court Félix Sanz Roldán met her in London after her relationship with the king had ended to warn her that if she did not follow his instructions he could not guarantee her safety. She claimed she later returned to her home in Switzerland where she discovered a book about the death of Princess Diana and subsequently received a cryptic phone call about tunnels, which she took to be an allusion to the princess’s fatal accident in 1997.

Continue reading...

Madrid hospital staff walk for hours to relieve colleagues after snow storm

Posted on by

With roads blocked and trains cancelled healthcare staff decide to make the trip to work on foot

Healthcare workers in Madrid have gone to extreme lengths – some walking for hours – to relieve their exhausted colleagues as Spain grapples with the double whammy of a deadly storm and the coronavirus pandemic.

Storm Filomena hit Spain on Friday, blanketing large parts of the country in snow and bringing Madrid to a standstill as the city saw its heaviest snowfall in 50 years. Across the country the storm claimed at least four lives, affected around 20,000km of roads and left thousands trapped in their cars for as many as 12 hours without food and water.

Continue reading...

At least three people die in Spain’s worst snowstorm in 50 years

Posted on by

Public urged to stay at home as Storm Filomena traps motorists and brings Madrid to standstill

The Spanish government has urged people to stay at home after at least three people died as the worst snowstorm in 50 years struck the country, bringing Madrid and the surrounding region to a frozen standstill and leaving hundreds of motorists trapped in their cars.

Storm Filomena hit Spain on Friday, bringing snowfalls not seen in Madrid since 1971, according to the state meteorological office, Aemet. The snow continued overnight and into Saturday, by which time 50cm had fallen in parts of the Madrid region.

Continue reading...

As parts of UK enter third Covid lockdown, how does rest of Europe compare?

Posted on by

Rules vary from country to country but many European nations face severe restrictions

After a brief and partial relaxation of the rules over Christmas and New Year, many continental European countries have returned to the tough anti-Covid regimes that were imposed this autumn – with some tightening measures further.

According to the latest update from the World Health Organization, in the final week of 2020 the UK had a 14-day new-case notification rate of 720 for every 100,000 people, more than double that in France, Germany, Italy and Spain but lower than the Czech Republic, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark.

Continue reading...

Britons living in Spain barred from Madrid flight in post-Brexit travel row

Posted on by

British embassy says ‘this should not be happening’ after airline staff claim pre-Brexit ID documents are invalid

British residents flying home to Spain have been prevented from boarding a joint BA-Iberia flight to Madrid because the airline claimed their pre-Brexit residency papers were no longer valid, while others were deported back to Britain from Barcelona for the same reason.

Max Duncan said the Iberia desk had refused to recognise his green card as proof of residence despite assurances by the British and Spanish governments that both the old foreign national identification (NIE) document and the new foreign ID card (TIE) remained valid.

Continue reading...

Spain says it will have last word on Gibraltar border entries

Posted on by

Agreement in principle will allow territory to join the Schengen free movement area

Spain will have the last word on who can enter Gibraltar under the terms of the preliminary post-Brexit deal announced this week, Spain’s foreign minister has said, in an assertion that was swiftly challenged by Gibraltar’s chief minister.

The agreement in principle – struck just hours before Gibraltar was poised to become the only frontier marked by a hard Brexit – will allow the British overseas territory to join the Schengen free movement area with Spain acting as a guarantor.

Continue reading...

‘A day for hope’: UK and Spain agree draft deal on post-Brexit status of Gibraltar – video

Posted on by

British and Spanish negotiators have reached a draft agreement on the future of Gibraltar after Brexit. Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, welcomed the deal which she said meant the British Overseas Territory on the southern tip of the Iberian peninsula would be able to join EU programmes and policies such as Schengen

Continue reading...

Spain and UK reach draft deal on post-Brexit status of Gibraltar

Posted on by

British overseas territory had been left out of deal announced on Christmas Eve

A last-minute deal between the UK and Spain – agreed just hours before Gibraltar was poised to become the only frontier marked by a hard Brexit – will allow for free movement between the British overseas territory and much of the EU.

“Today is a day for hope,” Spain’s foreign minister, Arancha González Laya, said on Thursday as she announced that an agreement in principle had been reached. “In the long history of our relations with the UK, related to Gibraltar, today we’re facing a turning point.”

Continue reading...

Global report: India finds six cases of new UK variant; South Africa bans alcohol sales

Posted on by

Germany says infectious variant has been present since November; Spain sets up Covid vaccine register

India has found six cases of a more infectious variant of the coronavirus in people arriving from Britain, while South Africa reimposed a ban on alcohol sales and ordered the closure of all bars as it battles a resurgence of the virus, including another new variant.

All six of the infected people in India are in isolation and their fellow travellers are being traced, the health ministry said.

Continue reading...

Spain, Sweden and Canada report cases of UK Covid variant

Posted on by

Four people recently arrived from UK test positive for variant in Madrid, one in Sweden and two in Canada

Spain, Sweden and Canada have joined the growing list of countries to have reported cases of the more contagious coronavirus variant first identified in Britain.

Four cases of the variant have been confirmed in Madrid. All involve people who recently arrived from the UK, the Madrid regional government’s deputy health chief, Antonio Zapatero, told a news conference on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Anger of 10,000 lorry drivers ‘held hostage’ in Covid Christmas standoff

Posted on by

Hauliers stranded in their cabs on UK roads say they are being used as political pawns

Juan Andrés had braced himself for what promised to be an atypical holiday season. But the lorry driver from southern Spain never imagined that Christmas Day would be spent in his cab tucking into a ham and cheese sandwich – among provisions handed out by the British military – as he inched towards the Channel.

“I would describe it as a kidnapping,” said the 52-year-old when asked about the diplomatic impasse that left him stranded on British roads for nearly a week. As many as 10,000 lorries from across Europe were stuck after France temporarily closed its border over fears of a fast-spreading coronavirus variant, reopening only to those drivers who could show a negative coronavirus test.

Continue reading...

A good vintage: science suggests appreciation of wine grows with age

Posted on by

Changes in composition and production of saliva as people grow older appears to intensify perception of aromas

Just as a bottle of wine improves with age, so may our ability to pick out the subtleties of its scent. Changes in the composition of our saliva and how much of it we produce appears to intensify our perception of smokey and peppery aromas in red wine, new research suggests.

The findings could lead to the development of wines that are more tailored toward specific groups of consumers. “We could diversify winemaking production to make more enjoyable wines based on consumers’ physiologies,” said Maria Ángeles del Pozo Bayón, of the Spanish Research Council’s Institute of Food Science and Research in Madrid, who led the research.

Continue reading...

Spanish republicans aim to drown out king’s Christmas speech

Posted on by

People urged to turn off TVs and make noise during address, after rough year for royal family

Anti-monarchists in Spain are calling for noisy protests to drown out the king’s annual Christmas speech, urging people to turn off their televisions, bang on pots and pans or blast republican tunes, as the Spanish royal family seeks to turn the page on one of its most tumultuous years in recent history.

“There will be all sorts of protests by various collectives,” José Manuel García, of the republican group Encuentro Estatal por la República, told the news site Diario Público.

Continue reading...

Two-way street: how Barcelona is democratising public space

Posted on by

Citizens are finally getting the urban patios and parks promised when the cramped medieval city was extended in the 1900s

At the turn of the 20th century, the Catalan engineer Ildefons Cerdà had a revolutionary idea for extending Barcelona beyond the cramped confines of its medieval walls. In the grid system of the extension he planned, each city block would be built around a large open space or patio, designed to be a park for residents.

When he began his work, the old city was hemmed in physically and psychologically, desperately overcrowded and disease-ridden, with frequent outbreaks of cholera and a lower life expectancy than London or Paris.

Continue reading...

Early humans may have survived the harsh winters by hibernating

Posted on by

Seasonal damage in bone fossils in Spain suggests Neanderthals and their predecessors followed the same strategy as cave bears

Bears do it. Bats do it. Even European hedgehogs do it. And now it turns out that early human beings may also have been at it. They hibernated, according to fossil experts.

Evidence from bones found at one of the world’s most important fossil sites suggests that our hominid predecessors may have dealt with extreme cold hundreds of thousands of years ago by sleeping through the winter.

Continue reading...

No clues, no leads … now winter snows could cover last trace of missing hiker

Posted on by

As the police search for Esther Dingley winds down in the Pyrenees, the theories around her disappearance multiply

Police in Spain have begun scaling back the search for a British hiker missing in the Pyrenees, almost a month after she disappeared without a trace.

Sharing an update of their investigation into the puzzling disappearance of Esther Dingley, the Guardia Civil also said that they were no longer using helicopters to scan the vast mountain range for signs of the 37-year-old.

Continue reading...

Covid: Austrians who pass antigen test to be exempt from lockdown

Posted on by

Italy prepares for national lockdown over Christmas; Spanish minister warns of third wave

Austria is to enter a third lockdown from Boxing Day but will stage mass coronavirus tests in mid-January to determine who will be exempt from certain restrictions, the government announced on Friday.

Italy is preparing to outline new measures that could lead to a complete lockdown over the Christmas and new year period, while the Spanish government has warned of a possible “third wave” of infections.

Continue reading...

‘We have nothing’: police stumped by disappearance of Briton in Pyrenees

Posted on by

Esther Dingley has not been seen for nearly three weeks and officers say they have no answers

Almost three weeks have passed since Esther Dingley disappeared in the Pyrenees mountains on the French-Spanish border, and police in both countries admit they are no closer to finding her.

French gendarmerie captain Jean-Parc Bordinaro’s frustration was palpable. “Normally at the beginning of an inquiry we have something to go on, but we have nothing,” he said by phone. “Absolutely nothing.”

Continue reading...