Meteorological and environmental reasons cited as reasons for record low catches
Spanish fishing boats are landing only a tenth of their normal summer catch of octopus – an unheard-of drop.
To date, since 1 July they have caught 38 tonnes of octopus, compared with a normal average of 378 tonnes over the same period. Income has slumped by 84%. Catches vary from year to year but such a huge drop is unprecedented.
Continue reading...Businesses and psychologists say country is still reeling from its earlier confinement
As officials across Spain wrestle with a surge in the number of coronavirus cases, a chorus of voices is warning that another lockdown could have dire consequences for a country that just months ago emerged from one of Europe’s strictest confinements.
While cases of the virus have climbed across Europe, Spain has led the pack in recent days. More than 78,000 cases have been detected in the past two weeks, pushing the 14-day infection rate to 166 per 100,000, compared with 67 in France and 22 in the UK.
Continue reading...South Korea records most cases since early March; South Africa infections pass 600,000; Brazil on ‘downward trend’
The world should be able to rein in the coronavirus pandemic in less than two years, the World Health Organization has said, as South Korea reported the most daily infections since early March and expanded social distancing measures across the country.
The WHO’s chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, struck a partly optimistic note when he drew comparisons between the Covid-19 pandemic and the with the 1918 flu pandemic, saying technology could help end the spread.
Continue reading...WHO says European countries registering an average of 26,000 new cases a day; Germany records 1,707 new infections; South Korea has week of triple figure daily cases; India records highest daily infections yet
The coronavirus pandemic has reignited debate in Germany about cutting the working week to four days to help preserve jobs during and after the economic shock.
But the idea remains highly controversial.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be running the global coronavirus blog for the next few hours.
Please do get in touch with any story suggestions or personal experiences you’d like to share.
Continue reading...45 people – including five children – died off the coast of Libya, and a further 10 south of Canary Islands
The grim reality of the migration crisis unfolding off the coasts of north Africa has been underlined by two separate tragedies this week in which at least 55 people died.
45 people – including five children – perished when the engine on their boat exploded off Libya, in the country’s deadliest shipwreck this year, the UN said late on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Trump described NZ’s ‘terrible’ surge, despite 90 active cases in country; Ibiza to ban pool parties, as Spain infections surge. Follow the latest
These look like scenes of yesteryear but thousands of people packed out a water park in Wuhan, China, over the weekend as much of the rest of the world remained under lockdown restrictions.
VIDEO: Crowds packed out a water park over the weekend in the central Chinese city of #Wuhan, where the #coronavirus first emerged late last year, keen to party as the city edges back to normal life pic.twitter.com/SJFBmx5sU8
The Philippines’ health ministry confirmed 4,836 novel coronavirus infections, the seventh consecutive day of reporting more than 3,000 daily cases, Reuters reports.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 169,213, while there were seven additional deaths – bringing the total toll to 2,687.
Continue reading...Purists are angry with the Spanish government for failing to protect jamón’s integrity
For the purist – and there are many purists – top-class jamón ibérico de bellota (acorn-fed Iberian ham) must come from Iberian blackfoot pigs that spend the last months of their lives eating acorns on the dehesa, a traditional Spanish or Portuguese pasture shaded by mature oak trees.
After being hung and dry cured for at least 36 months, the meat produced is silky with fat, and, say experts, has a flavour that can only come from the acorns. Spaniards consider jamón ibérico their greatest gift to international gastronomy – the caviar of the Iberian peninsula.
Continue reading...WHO says virus has shown no seasonal pattern and tells western Europe to react fast
Face masks have become compulsory in more than 100 Paris streets and tourist areas, Greece is “formally” in a second wave and new outbreaks are causing alarm in Italy and Spain as coronavirus infections continue to pick up again across Europe.
The Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control called on member states that are seeing an increase in cases to reinstate control measures, warning of a “true resurgence” in several countries and a “risk of further escalation” across the continent.
Continue reading...A week after going into exile, the scandal-hit former monarch is said to be staying in a $12,000-a-night suite in the Emirates palace hotel
At first it was Portugal, then the Dominican Republic, but now Abu Dhabi is firming as the most likely place of residence for Spain’s scandal-hit former king Juan Carlos.
On Saturday, Spain’s NIUS media group published an image that showed a man with at least the likeness of Juan Carlos in a face mask, descending from a plane.
Continue reading...When the Guardian spoke to staff in March they had no time for reflection. So what do they think of the new surge now?
During the initial peak of Spain’s Covid-19 pandemic in the spring, the virus displayed an unexpected mercy. In its spread, ferocity and awful novelty, it left health workers too tired and overwhelmed to look beyond the next few hours.
“There’s no time to get angry or to wonder why things have been organised the way they have been,” Sara Gayoso, an A&E doctor at El Escorial hospital near Madrid, told the Guardian at the end of March.
Continue reading...Spain orders town of 32,000 back into confinement; Poland records highest daily case number so far
Germany has recorded its highest rate of infections in three months, France cannot keep up with demand for tests and Finland warned of an “extremely delicate” situation as Covid-19 case numbers continued to tick up across the continent.
New cases in Germany rose above 1,000 for the first time since early May, with the national disease control centre, the Robert Koch Institute, on Thursday reporting 1,045 infections in the previous 24 hours, bringing the total number of active cases to 8,700.
Continue reading...Palace refuses to reveal former monarch’s location one day after he announced exile
The whereabouts of Spain’s scandal-hit former king remained shrouded in mystery on Tuesday, one day after it was announced that Juan Carlos would be leaving the country in a bid to protect the crown from mounting scrutiny over his financial dealings.
On Monday, Spain’s royal house published a letter sent by Juan Carlos to his son, King Felipe VI, saying he would “move, at this time, outside of Spain” amid the “public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are generating”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: crisis has led to 500% increase in Britons taking up citizenship in an EU state
The number of British nationals emigrating to other EU countries has risen by 30% since the Brexit referendum, with half making their decision to leave in the first three months after the vote, research has found.
Analysis of data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat shows that migration from Britain to EU states averaged 56,832 people a year in 2008-15, growing to 73,642 a year in 2016-18.
Continue reading...The 82-year-old says he is moving abroad to help son ‘exercise his responsibilities’ as king
Spain’s former king Juan Carlos is to leave the country and go into exile abroad following a series of damaging allegations about his financial arrangements that have harmed the reputation of the monarchy and embarrassed his son, King Felipe.
In March Felipe stripped Juan Carlos of his annual stipend and renounced his own personal inheritance from his father after reports that he was in line to receive millions of euros from a secret offshore fund with ties to Saudi Arabia.
Continue reading...Many countries that believed they were past the worst are grappling with new outbreaks, says WHO
Mexico has recorded more than 9,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time, as the country overtook the UK with the world’s third-highest number of deaths from the pandemic after the US and Brazil.
The surging numbers were reported as the World Health Organization warned of “response fatigue” and a resurgence of cases in several countries that have lifted lockdowns.
Continue reading...At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the government failed to heed warnings from other countries, writes Giselle Green – it must not do so again. Plus letters from Phil Coughlin, Geoff Naylor, Heather Massie and David Wilkinson
Instead of waiting to see which countries experience a surge in coronavirus cases, I would hope that the government is actively looking into the reasons why. Among the factors being blamed for Spain’s spike are “a rush out of lockdown, opening the borders, patchy compliance with physical distancing, and inadequate contact tracing”, with outbreaks emerging from bars and clubs, and seasonal fruit and vegetable pickers (Why are travellers to the UK from Spain being asked to quarantine?, 28 July). With the exception of reopening nightclubs, it appears we are making the same mistakes as our Spanish neighbours. Right at the start of the pandemic we ignored the lessons of other countries, with devastating consequences. Let’s not do so again.
Giselle Green
London
• You report that scientists are “concerned” and “anxious” that a surge in Covid-19 infections in the coming winter months could be exacerbated by “normal winter illnesses” (Covid-19 new cases and deaths will remain high for weeks, warn UK health leaders, 29 July). I wonder if they have taken into account that the measures taken to control Covid-19, such as social distancing, hand washing and use of face masks, should be equally effective at reducing the spread of winter coughs, colds and flu, which hopefully may result in a less cataclysmic winter than they are forecasting.
Phil Coughlin
Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear
New cases jump to 292,500, Irish Cup final played in front of fans; global death toll passes 674,000; France confirms ‘marked increase’ in cases
Sanofi SA and GlaxoSmithKline Plc said they are in advanced discussions with the European Commission to supply up to 300 million doses of the drugmakers’s experimental Covid-19 vaccine.
The doses would be manufactured in European countries including France, Belgium, Germany and Italy.
Florida reported another record increase in Covid-19 deaths on Friday.
The state health department said Florida registered 257 fatalities, a record for the fourth straight day despite predictions that the U.S. coronavirus epicenter could be shifting to the Midwest.
Continue reading...New centre in Greek city will be lifeline for small community, mostly descendants of Iberian exiles
Five centuries after they were expelled from Spain and eight decades after they were almost annihilated in the Holocaust, the small community of Sephardic Jews that lives on in the Greek city of Thessaloniki is looking to its past to help safeguard its future.
On Tuesday, Thessaloniki’s Jewish community signed a deal with the Spanish government’s Instituto Cervantes to create a small centre where people will be taught modern Spanish while also learning about Sephardic culture and the exiles’ still-spoken language, Ladino.
Continue reading...Grant Shapps returned to the UK on Wednesday after curtailing his holiday in Spain to deal with the fallout from the government's decision to impose quarantine restrictions on travellers arriving from the country. The transport secretary said he felt sorry for people whose holidays had been affected, but defended the government's decision, saying Spain's rate of new infections was now as high as it had been at the peak of the crisis
Continue reading...Authorities warn of rise in cases after shocking footage of young revellers in Spain and Bulgaria
Young Germans partying abroad on Europe’s beaches and ignoring physical distancing rules are becoming an increasing cause of concern at home, as coronavirus cases continue to rise across the world.
Following widespread reports earlier this month of German tourists revelling on the Spanish island of Mallorca, bars and clubs on the infamous “Bier Straße” were forced by local authorities to close.
Continue reading...