Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Jan 27

FEATURE ARTICLES: "Facemasks no longer needed on Spanish public transport" and "Your once in a lifetime chance to see Green Comet from the south of Spain"

There are some moments that only come around once in a lifetime, uniquely defining occurrences that we never expected to witness in this life. One is the spectacular ‘Green Comet’ that has stargazers and romantics on the edge of their seats and which we can expect to cross our skies any day now.

But no less momentous is the day we were all hoping would soon come but never thought would actually arrive – the Spanish government has finally decided it’s a good time to remove the need to wear a face mask on public transport, nearly ten months after we were allowed to stop wearing them in all other indoor public spaces.

On a serious note, it’s been a tragic week in Spain in other ways, with various episodes related to terror attacks leaving several communities shaken.

Let’s begin.

Unmasking

Spain celebrated a real red-letter moment this week when the Ministry of Health finally decided to scrap one of the last vestiges of the coronavirus pandemic: facemasks. The cabinet has said it will approve the measure on February 7 and from the day afterwards, masks will no longer be mandatory on public transport, including buses, trains, taxis and planes.

The move has been hailed as long overdue by the majority of travellers, although the scientific community, who they government promised to consult before taking any such steps, are predictably still saying that it opens up the floodgates to a potential backsliding in Covid numbers.

In practice, however, it’s been ages since anyone took the facemask rules seriously. If you’ve been on a plane to or from Spain recently, you’ll know just how few people wear the mask properly – covering the nose and mouth – if at all. True, some bus drivers and ticket conductors on trains are more sticklers for the rules than others, but most have given up calling out passengers for not wearing their masks.

And the fact that a date has already been set for the definitive removal of masks will only make people more likely not to wear them over the next two weeks. After all, if it’s alright to go without one from Wednesday onwards, what’s the sense in wearing one on Tuesday?

While the facemasks are being made optional on public transport, they will still understandably be required in all healthcare facilities like hospitals, pharmacies and nursing homes for the time being.

And though the government has celebrated this latest move towards “recovering normality”, officials still encourage vulnerable groups and those with underlying health conditions to wear masks in crowded places, and have also asked anyone showing coronavirus symptoms to do the same.

Comet the hour, comet the plan

Make a note in your diary: astronomers are promising that we’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime treat next week as comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF), popularly known as the ‘Green Comet’ because of its green coloured tail stretching back behind it for thousands of miles, will be visible in the skies from the northern hemisphere.

Discovered less than a year ago by scientists in California, this will be the first time in 50,000 years that this comet has crossed our skies, meaning the last people to see it were the Homo Sapiens and Neanderthals.

They’re even saying it’ll be visible to the naked eye as it whizzes through our solar system 42 million kilometres away from us, although obviously it’s best to go somewhere high up with as little light pollution as possible if you want to see it. And even then you’d be better off using a telescope, otherwise you “will only see a greenish spot in the sky,” according to National Geographic.

In the south of Spain, the best time to see the Green Comet will be right at the end of January and the beginning of February, specifically on Wednesday February 1 and Thursday 2, which is when C/2022 E3 (ZTF) will be closest to our planet: around 42 million kilometers away.

Experts recommend looking in a northwesterly direction just before dawn for the best chance of seeing the comet streak by. Clearly, this is a unique opportunity, but we may also be the last humans to ever lay eyes on the Green Comet. Not even our descendants will be likely to see the comet in another 50,000 years’ time as astronomers from the California Institute of Technology predict that it will either die out before it comes back around to our solar system again or its orbit simply means it won’t ever pass this close to us again.

Will you be watching the skies?

Terror attacks

Spain was shocked this week by a gruesome and violent terror attack in the town of Algeciras in southern Spain’s Cádiz province when a lone Moroccan attacker went on a machete-wielding rampage.

The onslaught took place on Wednesday evening at the Santa María Auxiliadora church, when the man burst through the doors shouting “Allah” and stabbed the 74-year-old Salesian vicar Antonio Rodríguez, who was celebrating the 7pm Eucharist. The victim was transferred to Punta de Europa hospital in Algeciras, where he is still being treated for his serious injuries.

The assailant was then filmed making his way to three other churches and, in the central Plaza Alta, stabbed a church official to death and injured several other people.

Warning: the following footage is graphic and may be upsetting for some.

Este es el momento en el que el yihadista mata al sacristán y a continuación presume de su acción. #Algeciras #Cádiz
Un joven grabó el momento en vídeo. ADVERTENCIA, imágenes sensibles.https://t.co/dSBeqqbSRV pic.twitter.com/3bsNYMCS2q
— POLICÍA H50 (@h50_policia) January 27, 2023

The assailant has been named as Yasin Kanza, a Moroccan man in his 20s, who had previously been kicked out of Gibraltar for entering illegally and was also allegedly facing deportation from Spain at the time of the attacks. While officials have not ruled out a jihadist motive for the attacks, they are currently working on the assumption that he was operating as a lone wolf.

The National Court has opened an investigation for an alleged terrorist attack.

In a separate event on the same day, a man was arrested in the neighbouring province of Huelva after he barricaded himself in his house with his elderly mother and threatened to blow up the neighbourhood using a bombona butane canister.

After a tense standoff with police and hours of negotiations, the man, who already had a criminal record, eventually surrendered himself into custody. He reportedly began making the dangerous threats after an argument with one of his neighbours.

Shortly beforehand, an arrest was made in a sensational case which began last November that saw various letter bombs mailed to targets with links to Ukraine, such as the headquarters of the Spanish President and Ministry of Defence, the Ukrainian and US embassies. Several of the potentially lethal letters also contained animal entrails.

The unlikely suspect is actually a 74-year-old pensioner from the northern province of Burgos who retired from the Vitoria City Council in 2013.

Bizarrely, just the day before US and European officials were postulating that the letter bombs, which thankfully only resulted in one minor injury, were sent by a Russian-based white supremacist group on the orders of Russian intelligence officers.

In recent weeks, Spanish and foreign investigators have focused their inquiries on the Russian Imperial Movement, a radical group that has members and associates across Europe and military-style training centres in St Petersburg.

It’s currently unclear whether the elderly suspect has any links to this group but if he does, it could have far-reaching consequences, as could signal further terrorist attacks by Russia and its proxies across Europe.

The obvious targets would be the capitals of NATO member states, which is helping Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion.

Murcia

The cold snap sweeping across southern Spain is leaving beautiful scenes in parts of the Murcia Region as the north and other high-altitude areas wake up to frosty grounds and snowy landscapes. For others it’s a mild nuisance, but for some it presents a real danger.

There’s no shortage of homeless people sleeping rough and in vulnerable housing situations, especially in large urban centres like Murcia capital and Cartagena, and the cold weather can be deadly for those without adequate shelter or who can’t afford to heat their homes.

That’s why the work of charities like the Murcia Red Cross – the Cruz Roja – is so important. This week, they’ve been increasing the number of blankets, warm clothes and necessary provisions they’re handing out to vulnerable people, and the City Councils are doing their part by increasing the number of places available at local homeless shelters to make sure that everyone has a safe place to stay for the night as temperatures drop below zero.

It has also been hard for the Region’s farmers as the frosts endanger their crops, with staples of the local economy such as artichokes, lettuce and lemons being particularly hard hit. When freezing night-time temperatures lave a layer of ice blanketing the sensitive crops, farmers have to take measures like bringing forward the harvesting period or stripping back the frost-bitten outer layers of their produce and it often has a serious impact on the yield for the year. However, the full economic repercussions of the current chill for the agricultural sector and the Regional economy that relies so heavily on it won’t be known for several weeks.

The cold was also predicted to bring with it a rise in the number of people infected with the common flu, Covid-19 and other respiratory illnesses. And while there was a rush on emergency rooms and intensive care in Murcia hospitals a couple of weeks ago, the expected surge in infections hasn’t come to pass and health centre workers are actually breathing a sigh of relief (as are patients!).

Flu infections have decreased by 36%, bronchitis and bronchiolitis are down by 20% and the number of new recorded Covid infections has halved in the last week. Barring a dramatic new variant of any of these viral diseases, the forecasts are that they will keep going down.

Also projected to go down are house prices over the next year or three, and a new study has revealed that one Murcia town has slipped into the top 25 list of the most affordable places to buy property in Spain.

Bullas, a charming wine-producing municipality in the north of the Region, is officially one of the 25 cheapest places to buy a home in Spain, with average property prices there not exceeding 443 euros per square metre.

Meanwhile, property prices on La Manga Club further south in the Region are expected to enjoy a nice little boost, contrary to the general direction of the Spanish housing market, thanks to the luxury Grand Hyatt Hotel that’s due to open there before the start of the 2023 summer season.

Local real estate agent Darren Brown says that the hotel, which will have a spa area, two adult-only pools and loads of other dining, wellness and leisure facilities, could lead to price increases per square metre of around 20% for homes on the La Manga Club Resort.

Meanwhile, there has been a spate of petrol station robberies around Mazarrón and Lorca recently. The Repsol garage at the Avenida del Alamillo service station in the Port of Mazarrón was robbed just this Monday, with the thieves stealing not only the cash in the register but also making their getaway in the gas station attendant’s blue Peugeot 107.

The very next night, thieves using the same modus operandi – very likely the same people – held up the BP Garrobo garage, this time taking the cigarette machine as well as the money and the employee’s car. The crimes follow the recent resurgence in bank raids and home robberies on the Camposol urbanisation, and police are warning people to be vigilant and stay away from anyone acting suspiciously.

Lastly, as we inch towards February, tickets have gone on sale for seats to watch the main parades of the 2023 Águilas Carnival, the biggest and best-known Carnival celebration in the Region of Murcia, which takes place between February 16 and 25.

For more events coming up soon in the Murcia and Alicante areas, check out our EVENTS DIARY:

Spain

There was some good news for homeowners this week as the Spanish government has announced a series of substantial grants for people willing to convert their current heating systems to the greener and more economical aerothermal systems.

Aerothermal systems are specifically designed to heat your home in winter, cool it in summer and provide hot water all year round by extracting the ambient energy already contained in the air using heat pumps.

Its main environmental benefit is that it’s a completely natural and inexhaustible energy that doesn’t use fossil fuels. For the consumer, savings on bills could be substantial with an aerothermal system, since it generates around 3kWh of heat energy for every kilowatt that it uses.

According to the experts, aerothermal heating is roughly 30% cheaper than gas.

To promote this alternative energy use, the government is offering aid of several thousands of euros to homeowners, but there are a few stipulations: the grants are only available for residential properties and applicants must remain the owner of the home for a minimum of five years after its installation. In addition, homeowners must be up to date with payments with Social Security and the Tax Agency.

It’s been an unusual few years to say the least, and the coronavirus pandemic has left no life completely untouched. A very quantifiable effect is the health crisis’s impact on populations, and the number of residents across Europe dropped dramatically in 2020 due to Covid-related fatalities.

But this trend certainly seems to be in reverse in Spain, where number of inhabitants has reached its highest figure of all time, with 47,475,420 people officially calling the country home as of January 1 last year.

What’s more, the country’s appeal for foreign migrants is also on the up and up, and the population of non-nationals skyrocketed by 102,784 people to a staggering 5,542,932 in 2022. Today, foreign inhabitants make up 11.7% of the total number of residents in Spain, a figure that hasn’t been seen since 2013.

The region with the highest number of foreigners is Andalucía (741,378 non-Spanish inhabitants) and it’s also the most populated community in Spain overall, and the majority of migrants living in Spain still come from within the EU – Russian, Italian and German citizens are the most prevalent.

From outside of the European Union, Moroccan citizens make up the majority of Spanish foreign inhabitants (883,243 registered people), followed at quite a distance by Columbians (314,679) and British nationals (293,171).

Given the popularity of Spain for British retirees, it stands to reason that UK citizens tend to be the oldest of all foreigners, with an average age of 54.1 years. This is compared to the EU average of just 39.6 years.

Alicante

This week, Alicante province has ranked highly in two different studies, one significantly more favourable than the other. The Spaniards are a renowned for being passionate and expressive, but are they always friendly and charming?

UK-based research company Censuswide has conducted a study through the e-learning Preply Platform to find out which are the most polite and which are the rudest cities in Spain.

More than 1,500 Spain residents in 19 different areas of the country were interviewed and asked how often they encounter rude behaviour and where, responding on a scale of 1 to 10.

And the survey showed that Alicante and Elche are among the top four most ill-mannered and uncivil cities (3 and 4 respectively), although on the flip-side, Valencia makes the top three polite locations in the country.

The list of bad behaviour includes: being preoccupied with your mobile phone in public, not letting people past, being noisy in public, not paying attention to strangers, talking on a phone on loudspeaker in public, closed body language, not respecting personal space, being rude to employees, not tipping and jumping queues.

In a different study altogether, Alicante has again made it to the top 10, on this occasion as one of the most expensive places to buy a house in Spain.

A rise in interest rates, hiked prices per square metre and the loss of purchase power have done nothing to slow down house sales in Alicante province which has seen a recent boom.

And in fact, during the last quarter of 2022, the province saw record sales, despite the region being home to some of the priciest towns in Spain when it comes to the property market.

Sixteen Alicante towns have made an appearance in the ranking of the 100 most expensive and most sought-after places to buy a house in the country: Javea (aka Xàbia) appears in 6th place with a total average price of 793,895 euros, and in 8th position is Altea where average price tag is 743,244 euros. Also present are the likes of Calpe, Finestrat, Alfaz del Pi, Denia, Orihuela and Pilar de la Horadada, to name but a few.

Benidorm, which came 53rd in the ranking, was the site of a tragedy this week when a dog sadly died in a blaze that ripped through a five-storey block of flats in the city’s Foietes-Colonia Madrid neighbourhood.

A clip shared by Alicante Provincial Firefighters shows fierce flames ravaging a corner façade and clearly affecting a second room. One apartment was gutted in the fire, and a probe into the cause was launched.

Os compartimos interesante video del incendio de vivienda en una 2ª planta de un edificio de 5 alturas que hemos extinguido esta mañana en Benidorm. Se confinaron unas 14 viviendas y desalojamos por la fachada a 2 personas.Agradecemos colaboración @POLICIALOCAL y @policia #cpba pic.twitter.com/YDMQhWyKb1
— Consorcio Provincial Bomberos Alicante (@BomberosDipuALC) January 23, 2023

Residents in 14 flats were ordered to stay indoors and two people were evacuated as firefighters tackled the flames. Aside from the pet dog that sadly lost its life, there were no other reports of injuries.

Andalucía

Spain has a bit of an inexplicable fixation on The Rolling Stones (‘Los Rolling’) and Queen (‘Queen’). And also The Beatles (‘Los Beatles’). Granted, they’re arguably the best, and unarguably the most iconic, rock band in history, but they only ever did one concert in Spain, in Madrid back in 1965. And it wasn’t even a full house.

John Lennon has a bit of a link with the country, having spent a few months in Almería for the filming of the movie ‘How I Won the War’, for which there’s actually a statue of him in the provincial capital. Seville, meanwhile, has basically nothing to do with The Beatles. Which is why it’s so confusing to hear the announcement of the first ever ‘Beatlefest’ festival to be held in Seville capital city this October.

Speaking at the FITUR tourism fair in Madrid, festival organiser Marta G. Navarro said the event, which is to take place on the weekend of October 26-29, will include non-stop concerts of Beatles music, live talks with Pattie Boyd (George Harrison’s first wife) and Klaus Voormann (a close friend of the band), as well as lots of other ‘Beatles experts’ and an exhibition featuring George Harrison’s front door.

The event is unlikely to provide much new information about the Fab Four that fans didn’t already know, it’s a bizarre choice of destination for it and the organisers’ assertion that Liverpool and Seville “are going to be united forever through this idea” of a festival that emulates the UK city’s Beatleweek might be a bit over the top. And the fact they’re launching it on the 63rd anniversary of the founding of the band rather than when they’re 64 is surely a missed marketing opportunity. But it should still be quite a fun event for any Beatles fans in the area, and any chance to renew a bit of that Beatlemania spirit is surely to be celebrated.

One place The Beatles do have a genuine link to is Hamburg, Germany, where they honed their live set over the course of an intense year and a half. And anyone hoping to visit Andalucia from Germany should have plenty more options this year, and all year round, as TUIfly has promised to put on more flights in both winter and summer between Jerez de la Frontera and five German cities.

The plan is to increase the number of flight routes by 33%, with connections to Jerez from Düsseldorf, Hanover, Munich, Stuttgart and Frankfurt (but not Hamburg). Jerez airport is the main one for tourists coming to visit Cadiz province, along with Gibraltar airport, and it’s also worth noting that Seville is just over an hour away by train.

You may have missed…

Price of diesel in Spain set to shoot up following Russian oil embargo.
From February 5, EU countries will be banned from buying Russian oil products, a measure aimed at further strangling its finances and hampering the war effort in Ukraine.
Driving licence medical test: What does it involve, how much is it & should I get one?
The UK Embassy has advised Brits in Spain to do their psychotechnical test now ready to exchange their licences, but where can you get one, how much does it cost and is it really worth it yet?
Millions of sea snails invade the Mar Menor.
The highly adaptable 'cerithium scabridum' snail has migrated to the Mar Menor from the Red Sea and may pose a serious threat to native marine species, according to marine biologists.
Alicante farmer faces 3,000 euro fine for illegally capturing finches with homemade trap.
A 78-year-old Mutxamel farmer is being investigated for illegally capturing finches to breed for singing contests.
Brit arrested in Spain for helping Russian tycoon conceal €90 million megayacht.
A UK national has been detained at Madrid airport for his part in preventing a Russian yacht from being seized by US investigators. His company Master Yachts, based in Palma de Mallorca, registered the yacht under a false name in order to provide nearly half a million dollars’ worth of goods and services under the radar.

That’s all for another week. As always, thanks for reading and we’ll see you next week.

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye!

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