Category Archives: Spain

Five Valladolid fans given suspended prison sentences for Vinícius Júnior hate crime

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  • Insults were directed towards Brazilian in December 2022

  • La Liga hails judgment as ‘unprecedented milestone’

  • Luka Modric to leave Real Madrid after Club World Cup

Five Valladolid fans who abused the Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior have been given suspended prison sentences, in what La Liga described as a landmark ruling that condemned racist insults hurled in a football stadium as a hate crime.

The case goes back to Madrid’s 2-0 win in December 2022 at Real Valladolid’s José Zorrilla Stadium, during which several fans hurled racist abuse at the Brazilian. The individuals were later identified using images and videos published on social media.

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Gran Canaria migrant centre closed after allegations of child abuse

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Court asks police to raid centre on outskirts of Las Palmas after ‘extensive evidence and testimony’ of alleged crimes

A court in the Canary Islands has ordered the closure of a centre for unaccompanied migrant children, citing allegations that include physical abuse, hate crimes and threats.

Police entered the centre on the outskirts of Las Palmas on Monday where 43 children were being housed. A court on the island – the first in Spain to specialise in violence against children and adolescents – said it had asked police to carry out the raid “in light of the extensive evidence and testimony” of alleged crimes taking place in the centre.

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Centre-right party wins Portuguese election as far right makes record gains

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Incumbent Democratic Alliance, led by caretaker prime minister Luís Montenegro, falls well short of majority

Portugal’s incumbent, centre-right Democratic Alliance (AD) has won the country’s third snap general election in three years – but once again fallen well short of a majority – as the underperforming socialists were left vying for second place with the far-right Chega party, which took a record 22% of the vote.

By midnight on Sunday, with 99% of the votes counted, the AD – led by the prime minister, Luís Montenegro – had won 32.1% of the vote and taken 86 seats in Portugal’s 230-seat assembly, leaving it far shy of the 116 needed for a majority. The Socialist party (PS) had taken 23.4% of the vote t0 Chega’s 22.6%, and the two were tied on 58 seats each.

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Denmark rethinking 40-year nuclear power ban amid Europe-wide shift

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Government to analyse potential benefits of new generation of reactors

Denmark is reconsidering its 40-year ban on nuclear power in a major policy shift for the renewables-heavy country.

The Danish government will analyse the potential benefits of a new generation of nuclear power technologies after banning traditional nuclear reactors in 1985, its energy minister said.

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Toxic chlorine cloud near Barcelona confines more than 160,000 indoors

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Fire at warehouse storing pool cleaning products sends cloud over wide area around Vilanova i la Geltrú

Spanish authorities have told more than 160,000 people near Barcelona to stay indoors after a fire at an industrial warehouse released a toxic cloud of chlorine over a wide area.

The blaze, in the coastal city of Vilanova i la Geltrú, south of Barcelona, started at dawn on Saturday in a warehouse storing pool cleaning products, the regional fire service said.

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Israel committing genocide in Gaza, says EU’s former top diplomat

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Josep Borrell also criticises EU response to what he calls largest ethnic cleansing operation since second world war

The former EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has launched a blistering attack on Israel, accusing its government of committing genocide in Gaza and “carrying out the largest ethnic-cleansing operation since the end of the second world war in order to create a splendid holiday destination”.

Borrell, a former Spanish foreign minister who served as the EU’s top diplomat from 2019 to 2024, and president of the European parliament from 2004 to 2007, also criticised the bloc’s failure to use all the means at its disposal to influence Israel, saying expressions of regret were simply not enough.

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Many in US and western Europe think ‘third world war likely within five to 10 years’

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Exclusive: Poll before 80th anniversary of VE Day finds tensions with Russia seen as most probable cause

Eighty years after the second world war, polling shows many Americans and western Europeans believe an even more devastating third global conflict could break out within a decade, with tensions with Russia seen as the most probable cause.

As Europe prepares to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the YouGov polling also showed large majorities felt that events during and before the second world war were relevant today and must continue to be taught to younger generations.

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Spain: cable theft that caused rail chaos was ‘act of sabotage’, says minister

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Signalling cable taken from four locations, delaying high-speed services between Madrid and Seville, week after massive power cut

Spain’s transport minister has said the country’s rail network suffered “an act of serious sabotage” after vital signalling cable was stolen over the busy bank holiday weekend, bringing severe delays to high-speed services between Madrid and Seville that affected more than 10,000 travellers.

Government sources said the problems on the line between the capital and the southern region of Andalucía had been caused by the theft of copper cable from five different locations in the Toledo area, south of Madrid, late on Sunday.

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‘Blackouts can happen anywhere’: how power systems worldwide can collapse

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After Europe’s biggest blackout in over 20 years, experts warn that while such incidents are rare, no grid is infallible

Europe’s biggest blackout in over 20 years on the Iberian peninsula unleashed hours of chaos for people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France earlier this week. But in the aftermath it has raised a common question for governments across the continent: could the same happen here?

Europe’s political leaders and energy system operators have given assurances that such blackouts are extraordinarily rare, and that European power grids are some of the most stable in the world.

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Minister warns against blaming Spain’s blackout on renewable energy

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Spain’s environment minister Sara Aagesen promises ‘complete audit’ into causes of power outage

Spain’s environment minister has warned against attempts to blame Monday’s unprecedented blackout across the Iberian peninsula on the increasing use of renewable energy, defending the reliability of the national grid and promising a “complete audit” to establish the causes of the outage.

Speaking on Wednesday afternoon as a specially designated committee prepared to meet to investigate the blackout, Sara Aagesen pushed back at opposition parties’ claims that the socialist-led government’s drive to embrace renewable energy had compromised the grid’s stability.

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Spain and Portugal power outage: what caused it, and was there a cyber-attack?

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Several countries in Europe have been scrambling to restore electricity after a huge power cut caused blackouts

Spain, Portugal and some of south-west France suffered a massive power cut on Monday, with major cities including Madrid, Barcelona and Lisbon among those affected.

Houses, offices, trains, traffic lights and even the Madrid open tennis tournament were all hit, causing chaos for millions of people and prompting a scramble by the Spanish and Portuguese governments and network operators to understand the problem and race to fix it.

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Archaeologists find wreck of large medieval boat in Barcelona

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Experts hope vessel’s old timbers and nails will help shed light on how boats were built during medieval period

Archaeologists excavating the site of a former fish market in Barcelona have uncovered the remains of a large medieval boat that was swallowed by the waters off the Catalan capital 500 or 600 years ago.

The area, which is being dug up in order to build a new centre dedicated to biomedicine and biodiversity, has already yielded finds ranging from a Spanish civil war air-raid shelter to traces of the old market and of the city’s 18th-century history.

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Spain scraps €6.6m arms order from Israeli company after outcry

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Coalition allies of Pedro Sánchez said the purchase of millions of bullets jeopardised country’s efforts to hold Israel to account over war in Gaza

Spain has scrapped a €6.6m (£5.7m) order for millions of bullets from an Israeli company after the junior partners in its coalition government denounced it as a “flagrant breach” of the alliance agreement that jeopardised the country’s sustained efforts to hold Israel accountable for its actions in Gaza.

The country’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has been one of the most outspoken critics of Israel’s conduct during the war in Gaza, questioning whether it is following international humanitarian law and calling the number of Palestinian deaths “truly unbearable”.

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Spain unveils €11bn plan to reach long-delayed Nato defence spending target

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Spanish PM says ‘industrial and technological plan’ will ensure country commits to spending 2% of GDP on defence

Spain has announced a €10.5bn investment plan to ensure it will reach its long-delayed Nato commitment of spending 2% of its GDP on defence this year, saying it has become obvious “only Europe will know how to protect Europe” from now on.

The country – which lags well behind other western nations by dedicating about 1.3% of its GDP to defence spending – is one of the Nato members that has been pressured by the Trump administration to increase its spending, and had previously committed to hitting the 2% threshold by 2029.

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Grassroots activists who took on corruption and corporate power share 2025 Goldman prize

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Seven winners of environmental prize include Amazonian river campaigner and Tunisian who fought against organised waste trafficking

Grassroots activists who helped jail corrupt officials and obtain personhood rights for a sacred Amazonian river are among this year’s winners of the world’s most prestigious environmental prize.

The community campaigns led by the seven 2025 Goldman prize winners underscore the courage and tenacity of local activists willing to confront the toxic mix of corporate power, regulatory failures and political corruption that is fuelling biodiversity collapse, water shortages, deadly air pollution and the climate emergency.

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‘Their pursuits are the cigar and the siesta’: how two centuries of British writers helped forge our view of Spain

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Laurie Lee and Robert Graves among ‘English-speaking Quixotes’ in new book celebrating literary love for all things Spanish

Almost 200 years ago, the pioneering British travel writer Richard Ford offered an observation that has been happily ignored by the legions of authors who have traipsed in his dusty footsteps across Spain, toting notebooks, the odd violin or Bible, and, of course, their own particular prejudices.

“Nothing causes more pain to Spaniards”, Ford noted in his 1845 Handbook for Travellers in Spain, “than to see volume after volume written by foreigners about their country.”

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Harborough FC ‘surprised’ as 100 Spanish fans turn up to watch game

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Fans are subscribers to YouTube channel focused on English football whose founder wants to strengthen links with club

Football tourism is usually seen at Premier League stadiums such as Old Trafford, Anfield and the Emirates, so fans of Harborough Town, who compete in the seventh tier of the football pyramid, were stunned when 100 Spaniards arrived at Bowden Park to watch them take on St Ives Town.

The Spanish fans, who turned up last Saturday, were subscribers to a Spanish YouTube channel, La Media Inglesa (LMI), focused on English football, which has now started arranging overseas trips for its followers.

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Deadly floods and storms affected more than 400,000 people in Europe in 2024

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European State of the Climate report ‘lays bare’ impact of fossil fuels on continent during its hottest 12 months on record

The home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on record.

Dramatic scenes of cars piled up on inundated streets and bridges being ripped away by raging torrents were seen around the continent in 2024, with “high” floods on 30% of the European river network and 12% crossing the “severe” flood threshold, according to the European State of the Climate report.

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Vatican puts ‘God’s architect’ Antoni Gaudí on path to sainthood

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Pope Francis recognises the ‘heroic virtues’ of the creator of Barcelona’s Sagrada Família basilica in first step of process

He’s long been nicknamed “God’s architect” by those who point to his piety and the religious imagery woven through his soaring spires, colourful ceramics and undulating lines.

Now it seems the Vatican may be ready to make it official. It said on Monday that Antoni Gaudí, the Catalan architect behind Barcelona’s Sagrada Família basilica, had been put on the path to sainthood.

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Weather tracker: north-west Italy braces for thunderstorms and snow

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Turin and Genoa likely to be among worst hit, while central and eastern Europe could get early taste of summer

North-west Italy is braced for heavy rainfall and thunderstorms across the southern side of the Alps, particularly in Piedmont and Liguria.

Turin and Genoa are expected to be among the worst affected, with snowfall also likely on higher ground. The region has been forecast to receive 140-160mm of rainfall between Sunday and Friday this week.

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