Axarquia 20 – 26 April 2023 Issue 1972

TROPICAL

SWEDISH SENSATIONS

THE Swedish rock band, Man‐do Diao will headline the clos‐ing event at this July’s Week‐end Beach Festival in Torre del Mar. The announcement was made on Wednesday, April 19, adding the rock per‐formers to a high profile line‐up.

The Swedish band joins a lineup boasting an incredible array of 26 artists including Andy C, Young Miko, Recy‐cled J, Los Chikos del Maíz, Green Valley, and Flux Pavil‐ion.

The festival will also fea‐ture international stars in‐cluding Maluma, Editors, Carl Craig, Dellafuente, Fangoria, Sidecars, and many more.

The 20th‐anniversary cele‐bration of Mando Diao’s lat‐est album will take centre‐

WEEKEND BEACH FESTIVAL: Some of last years revellers.

stage at the band’s appear‐ance in Torre del Mar.

The band is expected to give one of the powerful live performances they’re known for. This edition of the festival promises to showcase more female artists, such as Sofía

AVIATION enthusiasts recently headed to Velez‐Malaga for a unique event. Plane lovers come together for a four‐day extravaganza at the Festival Andes Jets de Chile which took place from Thursday, April 13 until Sunday, April 16.

The event was the perfect prelude to the Aguacate Model Airshow which will return to fill Velez Malaga’s skies from Friday, April 21. While most peo‐ple might expect small model aero ‐planes, this festival will feature models over three metres long which can hit flight speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour!

Elite aeromodellers from across Spain will come together with other en‐thusiasts from Portugal, the UK and France to show off their unique cre‐ations and feats of engineering. The en‐thusiasts will gather at the La Axarquia‐Leoni Benabu airfield in Velez‐Malaga

Creative skills blossom

Gabbana, FLACA, and more.

The Sunrise Stage, the festi‐val’s electronic music hub, will feature Arodes, Denis Ferrer, Karretero, and Korolo‐va, among others.

Weekend Beach Festival

Torre del Mar, held on the

beautiful and environmental‐ly‐friendly beaches of Mála‐ga, promises to be one of the most popular festivals of the summer.

More information about the line‐up will be released on Monday, April 24.

Preparing for take off

NERJA residents are getting into the spirit for several lo‐cal festivals, Día de la Cruz y San Isidro thanks to an excit‐ing art opportunity. The lo‐cal council is collaborating with artist Rocio Delgado to offer an exciting workshop to paint and decorate tradi‐tional plant pots.

The council is offering the workshop as a fun and cre‐ative activity to add a splash of colour to the streets of the town during the month of May when one of the most important local festi‐vals takes place. The work‐shop will be held on Friday, April 28, at 5pm in the Sala

Mercado. All materials will be provided, including the plant pots to decorate. Local councillor, Elena Galvez, in‐vites all interested residents to sign up for this exciting event and to decorate and display vibrant plant pots during the upcoming historic festivals. Sign‐ups for the event have already opened, and guests are advised to act quickly as there are only 30 spaces available on the course. To sign up, guests are asked to visit the Munici‐pal Office for Senior Resi‐dents, located in the base‐ment of the town hall from 8am‐2pm on weekdays.

Gómez, the current aeromodelling world champion. Visitors can also check out the Vampir Fliers’ static dis‐play, a semi‐aerobatic flying team that raises funds for Asafilap, the Andalu‐cian Association of Cleft Lip and Palate.

Weekend Beach Festival (via Instagram)

MODEL AIRSHOW: Participants enjoyed a scenic runway.

Photo credit: Aguacate Model Airshow (via Facebook)

Residents can get creative at a plant pot decoration masterclass.

Photo credit: Ayuntamiento de Nerja

Algarrobo’s cultural explosion

ALGARROBO has brought all things culture to a wide audience with its Cultural Week which began on Monday, April 17.

Throughout the week, the town has hosted a vari‐

ety of exciting events and activities including music, exhibitions, theatre, litera‐ture, a theatrical tour, and even an escape room.

The mayor of Algarrobo, Alberto Pérez, and the

Farm-to-table feast

ONE Axarquia town is celebrating its rich culinary history with an exciting food fair. Benamargosa is hosting its 18th annual Campo Festival on Sunday, April 23. The event cele‐brates local agriculture, with visitors invited to sample tradi‐tional dishes and products from the region’s farmers.

The festival showcases the best of Benamargosa, includ‐ing the diverse range of crops and the people who grow them. It’s a chance for locals and visitors alike to try new recipes and dishes, accompanied by local wines and beers. With stalls located throughout the town’s historic centre, there’s something for everyone to enjoy tasting.

This year’s festival promises to be one of the best yet, with a range of exciting activities on offer. Visitors can look forward to performances by traditional music group Panda de Verdiales De Arroyo Conca, as well as a karate display and children’s dance performances.

Later in the day, festival‐goers can enjoy live music from popular local artists, including Triana, Mavel Jiménez and DJ Mustang.

The festival is an unmissable event for anyone looking to experience the vibrant traditions of this beautiful town in Axarquia’s countryside.

Spring in your step

vouncillor for Culture and Heritage, José Luis Ruiz Cabezas, launched the town’s Cultural Week with a presentation of the exhi‐bition ‘Women with Art’, featuring works by local artists. The week aims to bring a broader range of cultural opportunities and activities closer to the local community.

The initiative runs until Sunday, April 23, with events throughout the weekend. On Saturday, April 22 a musical perfor ‐mance by the ‘El Argonau‐ta’ quartet will delight an audience.

The Cultural Week will conclude with a thrilling escape room based on the globally ‐ renowned Harry Potter saga. The ‘Sacred Book of Severus Snape’ es‐cape room is designed for groups of five to seven people and will be open on Saturday, April 22, and Sunday, April 23, in the Casa de la Juventud de Mezquitilla y Algarrobo.

MORE than 50 older peo ‐ple in Nerja are putting their best foot forward and have signed up for an exciting Nordic Walk ‐ing event set to take place next week.

The Provincial Council of Malaga have organ ‐ised the event and are encouraging all out ‐doors ‐ loving older peo ‐ple in Nerja and Maro to get involved in the ac ‐tion.

Taking place on Tues ‐day, April 25 along the Penas de Cabrera trail in Casabermeja, this excit ‐ing outdoor exercise in ‐volves walking with the aid of specially designed poles.

Nordic Walking is not only a fun and social ac ‐tivity but also a low ‐ im ‐pact exercise that is easy on the joints. It is a full ‐body workout that can improve cardiovascular health, balance, and co ‐ordination, while also re ‐

ducing the risk of falls. Its social and physical benefits are sure to put a spring in your step.

The walk has been or ‐ganised as part of an ‘Ac ‐tive Ageing Programme’ which has been designed to keep local older peo ‐

ple healthy and happy. Anyone interested in signing up for the walk or more information about the programme can visit the local Munic ‐ipal Office for Senior Residents located in Ner ‐ja Town Hall.

Walkers will get to take in the sights of the countryside in Casabermeja.

Photo credit: Ayuntamiento de Nerja

Caved in

AFTER a long legal battle dat‐ing back to 2009, Rincon de la Victoria Council has finally acquired ownership of the Cueva del Tesoro cave, a na‐tional ‘Property of Cultural Interest’ and one of the town’s most significant tourist attractions.

Craft community

DISCOVER your inner artist at the Art Cafe craft group!

The group meets in Mollina at the Pensionista on Tues‐days and Saydo Hotel on Thursdays from 11am, of‐fering varied activities. Par‐ticipants are asked to bring €5 to cover art supply costs.

Stepping up

WALKING FOOTBALL Co‐mares held their first training session on Wednesday, April 19 at Benemargossa football ground with experienced coaches on hand. Players en‐joyed the fun, low‐impact al‐ternative to traditional foot‐ball. Newcomers are welcome to join Wednesday sessions at 6pm for €1.

Housing hope

THE Junta de Andalucia has put a contract out to tender, offering one company a chance to build 48 affordable rental homes in Algarrobo. The project is part of an ef‐fort to build more than 1,000 affordable homes in Axar‐quia.

Cycling uphill

TWELVE cyclists from Nerja/ Torrox Coasters met on Tuesday, April 18, eager to conquer a 1,200m ascent!

The cyclists faced an incredi‐ble challenge up and through Frigiliana and onto Competa for a well‐deserved break‐fast.

Bar luck

NERJA Council is opening the application period for appli‐cations to run 10 bars at the town’s renowned San Isidro festival in May. Seven of the bars will serve drinks while three will also offer food. Ap‐plications open on April 24.

Happy Earth Day

AS we celebrate Earth Day 2023 on Saturday, April 22, we are reminded of the impor‐tance of our collective respon‐sibility in safeguarding our planet.

Earth Day is a global event celebrated annually by more than one billion people to raise awareness about environmen‐tal issues and encourage action to protect the planet. The pur‐pose of Earth Day is simple: to promote a greener, more sus‐tainable future for the planet we call home.

This year, we rally behind the theme of ‘Invest in Our Planet’, which reminds us of the impor‐

STANDING for re‐election later this year, two councillors representing the Ciu‐dadanos Party of Salobreña, Plácido Ley‐va and Carmen González, have demand‐ed that the local council do something about greedy parking meters.

They argue that even when it is not, for one reason or another, necessary to pay

tance of dedicating our time, re‐sources, and energy to solving the climate crisis.

The EWN suggest four ways you can make a difference:

1. Plant a tree.

2. Reduce your plastic con‐sumption. Try the plastic calcu‐lator at: www.earthday.org

3. Plan your own event. Organise a community cleanup, march,or workshop using the Earth Day 2023 Action Toolkit and register your event on the official Earth Day Map.

4. Donate. Support envi‐ronmental campaigns.

Happy Earth Day to all our readers!

Greedy machines

for parking in blue zones, the machines still accept payment which means that visitors to the town in particular can be confused and make payment even though it is not necessary. They contend

that this is bad for the town’s image and want to see the council arrange with the company operating the machines to make sure that they will not accept mon‐ey when the blue zone is not operative.

Prestigious potato

EL TRAPICHE in Velez‐Mala‐ga hosted its epic ‘VII Jornada de la papa temprana’ or Sev‐enth Early Potato Festival on Saturday, April 15. The festival celebrates a local potato which is harvested early in the growing season.

Bookmark the date

Betty Henderson

BOOKWORMS rejoice! Almuñecar is preparing to host its very own Book Fair in the Plaza de Marruecos on Saturday, April 22. This event is the first of its kind in the town and promises to be filled with book readings, presentations by authors and activities for young readers. The fair’s aim is to encourage reading and to welcome more people into the wonderful world of books, espe‐cially for children. The fair will be a hub of community bonding, bringing together local authors and writers. The inaugural Al‐muñecar Book Fair will kick off at noon and run until the evening.

Exciting activities include a puppet show by Bambino Teatro, thrilling storytelling sessions by local authors Verónica Callejón Jiménez and Nuria Alonso, and a poetry recital by local poets. The icing on the cake will be the 39th Literary Contest awards ceremo‐ny, which is open to all educational centres in the town. The direc‐tor of the Municipal Library, Susana Garcia, expressed her grati‐tude to all the authors, writers, and contributors for making the event possible and bringing the joy of reading into more lives.

This incredible event was a mix of tradition, art, culture, and food, with musical enter‐tainment provided by local performers Luis de Llave, Lau‐ra Gallego, and Grupo DelPa‐so. The festival aimed to showcase the potato growing process and its uses, one of the most important aspects of the local economy, while giv‐ing visitors a chance to experi‐ence El Trapiche’s friendly community vibe.

The festival also boasted an art exhibition featuring works by Rafael Jurado Lorca and Manuel García ‘the peasant painter’ and food stands which showcased local delica‐cies.

There was also a traditional auction of fresh produce, reminiscent of how fruits and vegetables were sold in old markets. Visitors relived this experience from days gone by while sampling the famous ‘trapicheño’ dish, a traditional local delicacy, paired with deli‐cious sauces.

STORIES IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION

Oil Festival

THE pretty town of Peri‐ana celebrated its 22nd Olive Oil Festival which took place around the town from April 14 to 16.

Organised by the local council, it attracted nu‐merous visitors who had the chance to learn more about its production as well as taste some of the high‐quality oil produced locally.

There was music both traditional and from DJs as well as plenty of options to enjoy a range of food where olive oil was the main ingredient.

Visitors were invited to tour the grove of ancient olive trees at Cortijo Las Monjas with local guide Al‐mudena Martín who was able to explain the differ‐ence between good and not so good olive oil.

Organisers are excited for Almuñecar’s first Book Fair.

Photo credit: Ayuntamiento de Almuñécar

Millions of people take environmental action on Earth Day.

Enjoying

Credit:

All fired up

TORRE DEL MAR is preparing to host a fiery event this week‐end with its first ever ‘Con fuego’ Biennial, the town’s first‐ever craft fair, featuring 13 professionals who will show off their crafty creations made with the aid of flames.

From ceramics to enamel on metal and glasswork, these tal‐ented artisans will light up the Centro Cultural Nuestra Señora del Carmen‐Antigua Azucarera with their masterpieces from today, Thursday, April 21 when the opening ceremony takes place. The fair will open its doors to the public Friday to Sunday, from 10am until 8pm.

Spring cleaning

In

The

PROVERB OF THE WEEK

The deputy mayor, Jesús Pérez Atencia announced the event, and shared his own ex‐citement saying, “This is unlike anything Torre del Mar has seen before. It will break the seasonal monotony and bring creativity to our town all year round.”

Fair organiser and director of D’Art Art School, José Manuel Molina Castro Molina said the fair will display various types of handmade crafts, including ce‐ramics, metal, and glass. He in‐vited all locals to check out the unique creations.

This is a medieval Spanish saying and is used ironically when someone boasts about his own qualities.

More police Basketball and bites

WANTING to ensure that residents of Nerja are safe and can rely on an efficient Local Police force, the council intends to increase staffing levels by appointing nine new candidates.

Of these, five will be treated as trainees and once employed will attend the entry course at the Institute of Emergencies and Public Security of Andalucia (IESPA), where they will receive spe‐cialised training according to their new police work.

The other four places will be filled by career civil servants who once they pass the selection board will offer support to both new and existing officers.

Ruling the pool

THE Almuñecar International School and Virgen de la An‐tigua emerged victorious in the highly competitive fifth Schools Swimming Tourna‐ment in Almuñecar held on Friday, April 14.

The event saw more than 100 enthusiastic swimmers from Almuñecar’s primary schools showcasing their tal‐ent in the swimming pool.

The International School’s male team clinched the top spot, while the Virgen de la Antigua team proved their skills in the female category.

The event was organised by the local Department for Sports, in collaboration with the staff of the Municipal Swimming Pool.

The swimmers competed

in a range of races, including 25‐metre freestyle, breast‐stroke, and crawl, after beat‐ing off competition in qualify‐ing rounds.

An awards ceremony fol‐lowed the competition in the swimming pool’s sports hall, where the councillor for Sports, Luis Aragón, handed out trophies and medals. The International School bagged second place in the male cate‐gory, with CEIP San Miguel taking home the bronze medal.

Meanwhile, the Virgen de la Antigua team secured the top position in the female cat‐egory, with CEIP Las Gaviotas from La Herradura and CEIP La Noria taking the second and third spots.

IT was a lucky day for the Malaga‐based bas‐ketball team, Unicaja, as they won against Obradoiro on Saturday, April 15 with a score of 99 ‐ 89. The game was dedicated to Torrox as part of the ‘Our Province Plays’ cam ‐paign, which was also the site of the match.

The team attributed their victory to the tradi‐tional Torrox rice dish, ‘migas’, which was served to more than 2,000 fans in the Martin Carpena stadium. It seems the dish, which dates back hundreds of years, was a lucky charm for the team and their fans who were fu‐elled by the delicious rice.

The match was an im‐portant one, with a full house of over 10,000 people, including more than 200 children from Torrox who were invit‐ed to watch the game for free.

Before the match, the Coros y Danzas de Lidia y Lucia dance school al‐so performed tradition‐al dances in the Fan Zone. Children got to enjoy sports work ‐shops, while fans shopped for sports mer‐chandise.

During the game, Tor‐rox was also featured on the scoreboards and screens, showing the town’s top quality sports facilities.

Organisers shared their excitement for the craft fair.

Photo credit: Tenencia de Alcaldía de Torre del Mar (via Facebook)

“Each peddler praises his own needles.”

47% of British holidaymakers use sun cream with a factor higher than 10.

THE town of Velez‐Malaga is the largest centre of population in the Axarquia and also incorporates a number of popular holiday destinations such as Almayate, Benjarafe, Triana and Torre del Mar.

PREPARE for a mouth‐wa‐tering weekend in Canillas de Aceituno as the town celebrates the 33rd Day of Morcilla on Sunday, April 30. This year’s edition of the unique festival will see more than 5,500 servings of the famous Spanish blood sausage offered to visitors.

The local mayor, Vicente Campos proudly an ‐nounced that “We have acquired 350 kilograms of morcilla and will be serv ‐ing up 5,500 delicious por‐tions paired with more

Morcilla magic

than 100 litres of local wine and 1,200 litres of beer. In addition, our bars and restaurants will be of‐fering various dishes made with morcilla, such as baked goat, fennel stew, and oil cakes to showcase our rich gastronomy.”

This year’s celebration promises to be extra spe ‐cial, as the beloved Virgen de la Cabeza will be named the honorary may‐or of the town during a

A FINANCIAL relief initiative introduced by Almuñecar Town Hall has received an over‐whelming response from small businesses and self‐employed individuals. The initiative offered financial aid due to the economic impact of the energy crisis.

According to data released on Tuesday, April 18, the council received a total of 440 requests which are now being reviewed and processed. Applicants could receive grants of up to €500, thanks to a €250,000 invest‐ment in the scheme from the council.

The aid is part of a larger initiative by the

special religious ceremo ‐ny.

Celebrations begin on Saturday, April 29 with more than 700 servings of paella and lively perfor ‐mances by renowned An ‐dalucian artists. On Sun ‐day, the day will kick off with the patron saint’s mass, followed by a pro ‐cession before the highly‐anticipated morcilla tast ‐ing at 2.15pm in the Plaza de la Constitución.

Powering up

by helping small businesses to maintain their income and protect jobs amidst rising energy costs.

The local councillor for Finance, Rafael Ca‐ballero, stated that the applications are be‐ing reviewed in accordance with the ap ‐proved procedures to cater to the needs of the small businesses and self‐employed indi‐viduals who have been hit hardest by the energy crisis.

Spam in Spain

ARE you fed up of receiv ‐ing unwanted spam calls?

To avoid receiving ad ‐vertising from entities or companies in Spain to which you have not given your express consent, you can register on the Robinson list at: https://www.listarobin son.es/ If an entity or business wishes to send you per ‐sonalised advertising and you have not given your express consent to do so, it is legally obliged to consult the Robinson List and, if you have regis ‐

tered, it will not be able to send you the advertis ‐ing.

The Robinson List Ser ‐vice allows you, easily and free of charge, to avoid advertising from companies to which you have not given your con ‐sent to receive advertis ‐ing. It works for tele ‐phone, postal mail, email and SMS/MMS advertis ‐ing.

Anyone may register for the Robinson List ser ‐vice, voluntarily and free of charge. In the case of children under 14 years

of age, parents or guardians must register on their behalf.

This service is protect ‐ed by the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD) and allows for quick and free registra ‐tion with the aim of re ‐ducing the reception of commercial communica ‐tions (calls, SMS, post and e‐mail).

Two months after reg ‐istration, if you continue to receive advertising, you can file a complaint with the Spanish Data Protection Agency.

Free registration.

Image: Aspe Town Hall

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Legendary musician talks to Euro Weekly News

IT was some 60 years ago that a young Paul Jones hit the limelight as the singer for the hugely successful Manfred Mann group and he is still singing today.

Things have changed in one partic ular way for Paul and his wife of 38 years, singer and actress Fiona Hendley ‐ Jones and the pair, who are now committed Christians are travelling to Denia in Costa Blanca to entertain and share their Christian testi ‐mony.

Entitled Story and Song ‐Hear how faith in God has changed our lives they will be appearing at 7pm on Saturday April 29 at the Evangelical Church Bautista de Denia, Calle Erminta de Santa Maria 13, Denia Montgo.

The event will see the couple performing a num ‐ber of songs, some of which are from their album Personal and they will of course speak about how they came to Christianity and how it has guided their way of life.

Paul is not a regular visi‐tor to Spain and was last over when the Manfreds (a band made up of some close friends and former

band mates) performed a spectacular concert at Benidorm Palace last year and he received a hand ‐written note from Brenda Muckley asking him about his faith.

It was after several ex ‐changes that Paul and Fiona agreed to come over and not only entertain but promote their view of Christianity.

Many years ago, the then atheist Paul, who formed the Blues Band (which released some 20 albums) and also became an actor, songwriter and BBC DJ appeared on a TV discussion show with Cliff Richard who was encourag‐ing people to welcome evangelist Billy Graham to the UK.

In his own words Paul ex‐plained “Looking back I was quite unkind to Cliff about

his religious be‐liefs and I wasn’t a fan of his music but he was very generous and never turned his back on me.”

Several years later, Paul received a call from Cliff asking him and Fiona to attend a presentation at the White City Stadium in London be‐ing hosted by Argentine evangelist Luis Palau with the promise of a good meal afterwards if they attend ‐ed. Attend they did and during the event “we both shed tears of joy at the positivity of the entire evening and it was then that we both gave our lives to Jesus!”

Now 81, Paul who now admits to being a fan of Sir Cliff, doesn’t believe that age should ever be a barri‐er and said “I intend to live to at least 120.”

His first musical love, the Blues, attracted many young musicians in the 60s because it came from a poor working class African American centre and many saw the Blues as a major artistic achievement.

Whilst not accepting for a moment that Robert

Johnson sold his soul to the devil in order to become a great guitar player, he now recognises that there can be a darker side to some

parts of the music which should not be ignored.

Whatever happens, Paul still relishes being a musi ‐cian and recently played

with the Manfreds on a Caribbean Cruise and con ‐tinues to sing and play his harmonica with the band as regularly as possible.

Paul and Fiona will visit Denia.

PRESS EUROPEAN

DENMARK

Staying home

QUEEN MARGRETHE of Denmark, 82, who recently underwent major back surgery, will not attend her grandson’s Confirmation in Paris next month. She will also miss the coronation of her distant relative King Charles III on May 6, but will be represented by Crown Prince Frederik and Princess Mary.

THE NETHERLANDS

Their choice

ACCORDING to Statistics Netherlands, (CBS) 8,720 requests for euthanasia were approved last year, revealing that 5 per cent of recorded deaths were the result of legally assisted dying 2022. Euthanasia in the Netherlands is allowed only when requested by the patient, not their family or friends.

BELGIUM

Flying high

FIVE US paratroopers were stuck in a tree during a training exercise at the Hechtel-Eksel military base in Limburg province. Two were soon freed using a ladder lorry, but three others who were too high up in the tree had to wait for firefighters using specialist treeclimbing equipment.

GERMANY

Shut down

GERMANY has abandoned nuclear power, taking the last three plants off its national grid after the government decided not to keep them operative. Two thirds of the population opposed the shutdown and advocates of nuclear technology argued that abandoning it was “premature.”

FRANCE

On watch

A 2013-2017 survey by France’s public health service found that two-year-olds spent 56 minutes a day in front of a screen, increasing to 80 minutes by the time they were threeand-a-half. The survey also found that 13.7 per cent of parents admitted ignoring recommendations restricting screen time.

NORWAY

On their way

MORE than 30 Norwegian billionaires and multimillionaires left Norway in 2022 after the wealth tax rose by 1.1 per cent, the Dagens Naeringsliv newspaper reported. This was more than the total number of super-rich people who left Norway during the previous 13 years, the newspaper said.

FINLAND

Name-calling

AS in 2021, Olivia and Leo were the first names most often chosen for the country’s Finnish-speaking children in 2022. “There has been little variation in names in recent years, and traditional names continue to be the most popular,” Finland’s Digital and Population Data Services Agency said.

IRELAND

Bard on display

THE only copy in Ireland of the first edition of William Shakespeare’s collected plays has been put on public display, 400 years after it was published, at Trinity College Dublin. The exhibition can be visited in the Long Room of the Old Library at the college until June.

ITALY

Deadly attack

A BEAR that killed 26-year-old Andrea Papi earlier this month while jogging in woods close to his home in Caldes in northern Italy, has been identified as a 17-year-old female that had previously attacked two people. Papi was the first person to die in a bear attack in modern times.

PORTUGAL Money spinners

A TOTAL of 59,470 Portuguese families declared incomes of more than €100,000 a year in 2021, a 14 per cent increase on 2020, the country’s tax authority (IRS) revealed. These households declared a combined income of €9.4 billion, amounting to approximately 8.8 per cent of the taxman’s gross 2021 income.

UKRAINE

Ikea helps

UKRAINE has received household supplies worth €9 million from Ikea, the Swedish home furnishing chain, and Ingka, the group’s largest retailer. Approximately 200 lorries have now delivered 850,000 items to UN’s Refugee Agency to assist relief efforts in Kyiv and Lviv.

SWEDEN

Wrong choice

SWEDEN’S biggest pension fund, Alecta, sacked chief executive Magnus Billing after his confidence in failed US lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank left the fund with losses of almost $2 billion.(€1.8 billion). Alecta, said on April 11 that these losses had “seriously damaged confidence” in its investment strategy.

Spend big

THE TUC, which represents 48 UK unions, called for a “radical increase” in investment in public transport. More spend‐ing on the trains, trams and buses that are needed to cut down on car use could give the economy an annual boost of £50 billion (€58.6 billion) a union report claimed.

Scant interest

SPAIN’S banks save an annual €1.5 billion by paying lower in‐terest on savings accounts than their Eurozone counter‐parts, according to the Euro‐pean Central Bank (ECB). As a result, Spanish families lose €924.16 million on their sav‐ings accounts, while non‐ fi ‐nancial bodies lose €548 mil‐lion, the ECB found.

Never-never

YOUNG Britons and Millenni‐als aged up to 42 are four times more likely to take on debt to meet rising costs this year, credit broker Credit Kar‐ma found. Unlike those aged between 59 and 69 who use credit cards, the young tend to choose an overdraft or a pay now, pay later arrange‐ment.

IT blip

COMPUTER sales are at their lowest in 10 years, falling worldwide by 29 per cent to 56.9 million systems during the year’s first quarter. “De‐mand has slowed but we ex‐pect it to overtake pre‐ pan‐demic levels in the second half,” said Alberto Ruano, Lenovo’s director general in Spain.

Co-op hiccup

CUSTOMERS threatened to leave the Co‐operative Bank after its mobile app stopped working for three consecutive Fridays recently. After the lat‐est incident a Co ‐ operative spokesperson apologised and said the bank “would put right” any problems clients might have encountered when making payments.

Linda Hall

ACCOUNTANCY firm Ernst & Young (EY), which is London‐ based, has abandoned proposals to restructure its global operations.

Plans to separate the consultancy and audit divisions were scuppered by EY’s New York office following dis‐putes over the future structure of the new businesses.

Spadework for what was code‐named Project Everest began last year, as the big four accounting firms ‐Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers

KPMG and EY ‐ faced increasing criti‐cism regarding conflicts of interest be‐tween their two divisions.

Politicians and regulators, particu‐larly those in the UK, questioned whether EY’s ability to challenge audit clients could be conditioned by the possibility of securing juicy consulting, tax and deal‐advisory contracts from

THE International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicted that the UK would be one of the world’s worst‐performing major economies this year.

Popularly known as the G20, these 20 countries in‐clude sanctions‐hit Russia.

The IMF expects the UK economy to shrink by 0.3 per cent in 2023 and to grow by 1 per cent in 2024, ac‐cording to the World Eco‐nomic Outlook report pre‐sented on Tuesday April 11 in Washington.

The IMF had already fore‐cast that the UK would ex‐perience a downturn in 2023, descending to the bot‐tom of the G7 group of

Padua exit

ANTONIO CATALAN, chair‐man of AC Hotels by Mar ‐riott, continues to reduce commitments in destinations he does not view as priorities.

Sources close to Catalan confirmed to the Spanish me‐dia that he is negotiating the sale of a hotel in Padua (Italy).

This will be his second Italian disinvestment following the 2008 sale of an hotel in Rome to the Spanish chain H10.

The same sources empha‐sised that the AC Hotels by Marriott sale was not linked to asset rotation but to the strategy of relinquish owner‐ship of a hotel while continu‐ing to run it after reaching agreement with the new owner.

STAT OF WEEK €38 billion

is the amount that Europe’s telecommunications companies have recovered via improved business, a series of mergers and, prompting operators to foresee a slight increase in revenue and new dividends.

BUSINESS EXTRA Chain sold FINANCE

No change at EY

and advisory divisions worldwide.

But, bearing in mind the strategic importance of the now‐unhappy US member firm to Project Everest, EY halted the project.

FULHAM SHORE, owner of the Franco Manca and The Real Greek restaurant chains, is selling them for £93.4 mil ‐lion (€106 million).

the same companies whose books they were scrutinising.

The UK’s accounting and audit reg‐ulator, the Financial Reporting Coun‐cil, said that auditing operations should be isolated from the rest of EY’s businesses. In the event, EY went further still with a restructuring opera‐tion that would have separated audit

“The global executive remains committed to moving forward with creating two world‐class organisa‐tions that further advance audit quali‐ty, independence and client choice,” explained a note to staff from EY’s global executive committee.

“We will begin taking actions based on what we have learned from the work done over the past year, actions that will both benefit our businesses today and better prepare us for a new transaction,” the executive commit‐tee added.

Ups and downs

ic recovery in 2022.

Despite the sobering out‐look for UK economy, this latest prediction is rather better than the IMF’s Jan‐uary prediction of a 0.6 per cent contraction.

Buyer is the Japanese giant Toridoll which is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange, owns 5,500 restaurants and has worldwide sales of £1 billion (€1.13 billion).

Toridoll already runs the Marugame Udon, Shoryu and Wok to Walk chains in the UK and is teaming up with Capdesia, the private equity company behind Wasabi Sushi & Bento, for the Ful ‐ham Shore deal.

Shares in Fulham Shore soared by a third to 15p (ap ‐proximately 16 cents) when the deal was announced.

Shared out

countries regarded as the world’s seven most ad‐vanced economies. The UK topped this group, which dominates global trade and the international financial system, during the pandem‐

Could

Meanwhile the IMF has raised Spain’s 2023 growth forecast by four‐tenths of a percentage point to 1.5 per cent but lowered next year’s prediction by another four‐tenths, to 2 per cent.

This year’s improved fore‐cast matches those of other organisations, especially af‐

do better

LADBIBLE GROUP, part of LBG Media, made light of a disappointing financial performance.

The group, which is based in Manch ‐ester, pointed out that it is now the lead‐ing news publisher on TikTok, and by De‐cember 31 last year the number of its followers had grown by 72 per cent com‐pared with 2021.

LadBible’s global audience grew by 39 per cent year‐on‐year to 366 million, with 98 billion content views, 56 per cent more than the previous year.

Nevertheless, pre ‐ tax profits dropped 10 per cent to £7.3 million (€8.3 million) over the same 12‐month period, while a 15 per cent revenue increase to £62.8 mil‐lion (€71.3 million) missed forecasts.

The year’s adjusted earnings before in‐terest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) was also down 6 per cent at £15.7 million (€17.8 million).

ter Spain’s 2022’s strong 5.5 per cent growth. Two months ago the Organisa‐tion for Economic Co‐opera‐tion and Development (OECD) raised its 2023 fore‐cast to 1.7 per cent, while the Bank of Spain upgraded its own from 1.3 per cent to 1.6 per cent.

Despite these reasonably encouraging figures, they fall short of the Spanish govern‐ment’s overestimate of a predicted 2.1 per cent growth announced in its Budget.

Stepping stone

MULTINATIONAL natural stone company Cosentino continues to diversify production beyond its Sile‐stone brand.

After launching Dekton in 2013, the company has now opened a new €120 million factory covering 40,000 square metres in Cantoria (Almeria).

This brings up to 140,000 square metres the area allocated to Dek‐ton, with everything in place for a fourth production line in the near future.

Despite announcing plans to float the company in the first quarter of 2023, Cosentino said that its board had not made a firm decision.

“All options are on the table but it is not true that this has delayed until next year,” a statement insist‐ed.

ELEVEN top executives at Inditex received 202,500 shares that are worth more than €6 million.

This corresponds to the sec‐ond and last phase of the compa‐ny’s 2019‐2023 incentive plan, which makes up part of the vari‐able salary for senior executives and other personnel and is linked to meeting specified targets.

The volume of this year’s shares was 21 per cent lower than that distributed during the incentive plan’s first phase which ended in April 2022, although each share is worth €30.39, a 20 per cent increase on their 2022 value.

More to go

BARCLAYS announced that it intends to close 15 more branches across the UK this summer.

The high street bank re ‐vealed that it will be pulling down the shutters on two lo‐cations in Northern Ireland, one in Wales and 12 in Eng ‐land next July.

These latest closures bring a total of 73 Barclays branch‐es that have closed, or will close, this year.

The industry routinely jus ‐tifies closures by pointing out that fewer people now use branches after learning how to bank from home during the pandemic.

EY LONDON: Headquarters are located near the Thames.

TOBIAS ADRIAN: IMF’s Financial Counsellor and director of the Monetary and Capital Markets department.

Photo credit: CC/Arpingstone

Photo credit: Allison Shelley, copyright IMF

DOW JONES

Stretching it

DISCOUNT shopping

chain Poundstretcher has reportedly hired ad‐visers to look into the possibility of a stock market float after sales boomed during Covid. The group, created in 1981, now has around 350 outlets and an ‐nounced in February that it would open another 50 stores across the UK in 2023.

Sea change

BANCA is preparing to sell a majority stake in frozen food company Nueva Pescanova. The fi‐nancial institution, which owns 97 per cent of the fishing group’s capital, is negotiating the transfer of 80 per cent of its shares to Canadian com‐pany Cooke Inc, which also specialises in seafood products.

Simply the best

THE Good Money Guide re‐cently held its annual awards ceremony, celebrating the best in financial service organisa‐tions.

This year the UK‐based guide to trading, investment and currency accounts, wel‐comed more than 160 guests at Plaisterers’ Hall in the City of London for a black‐tie, 20‐table gala dinner.

Currencies Direct won Best Currency Broker in recognition of their commitment to a five‐star experience for all their clients. This includes great rates, exceptional services, and

swift, simple transfer solutions. What are the Good Money Guide Awards?

For the last six years, the Good Money Guide has been running an annual awards

Bank branches lopped

BANKS in Spain’s rural areas are becoming hard to find.

Over the past year, Spain’s high street banks left another 121 municipalities with‐out branches despite agreeing to provide fi‐nancial inclusion for vulnerable groups.

According to the Bank of Spain, 4,618 of the country’s 8,131 municipalities ‐ 57 per cent ‐ no longer have a bank branch al ‐

though in practice, a few still have banking facilities.

Following the Unicaja‐Liberbank merger, the Andalucia‐based bank has maintained offices under its own name through a fran‐chise system which did not show up in the Bank of Spain statistics.

Meanwhile, the province of Palencia in Castilla‐Leon is Spain’s worst‐hit province.

event to highlight outstanding firms in the financial services sector.

It its own words, “The Good Money Guide Awards aim to champion financial services firms that excel in innovation, product, and customer service.

“Each year thousands of clients tell us what they think to help others make smarter decisions about who to invest, trade and transfer currency with. They also provide valu‐able feedback to improve the online investing, trading, and currency transfer industry.”

Deciding the winners is based on professional testing, data and pricing analysis, to‐gether with customer feed‐back survey results. This year, 17,000 votes were cast to pick the final winners from the 62 companies that took part.

Currencies Direct is also up for the Business Moneyfacts Awards in April, where they’ve been shortlisted for two more accolades. Will the winning streak continue?

TESCO’S profits halved to £753 million (€852 million) in 2022.

The year was “incredibly tough for customers,” Tesco admitted as it dealt with “sig‐nificant operating‐cost infla‐tion” and wrote down the val‐ue of some properties.

The UK’s biggest retailer said sales rose 7.2 per cent to £65.7 billion (€74.3 billion) in the year to February 25. This included a 3.3 per cent increase at Tesco’s UK supermarkets, although it sold fewer items as shoppers chose their products carefully.

UK food sales rose by 4.6 per cent over the last year, led by the group’s own‐label ranges, while sales of its premi‐um Finest products increased by 7 per cent and its cheapest ‘Exclusively at Tesco’ items grew by 6 per cent.

The chain said the volume of items sold had fallen, partly be‐cause customers wasted less and used up leftovers but once Covid restrictions were eased, they were visiting restaurants and cafes more often, buying less to eat at home.

GALA EVENING: Award-winning Currencies Direct.

BUSINESS EXTRA

Time to read

WATERSTONES managing director James Daunt, a for‐mer JP Morgan banker, said the pandemic was both neg‐ative and positive for many retailers although it was “fantastic” for booksellers worldwide. “It made people pick up books again,” said Daunt, who has 1,000 book‐shops under his control.

Jobs boost

SPAIN’S Cabinet approved a €2.8 billion allocation for the country’s autonomous regions this year to imple‐ment employment policies that promote hiring the long‐term unemployed. This would be the largest investment of public funds to improve employability since 2011, said Minister of Labour, Yolanda Diaz.

Switchback

ALMOST one million peo‐ple in the UK switched their current account in 2022, as banks competed to offer the best perks, cashbacks and bonuses. Last year’s 985,000 switches were 20 per cent up on 2021, said the Current Account Switching Service, which simplifies the process of moving to another bank.

Situations vacant

RECORD Easter occupancy

accentuated difficulties in finding qualified staff to at‐tend to the needs of Spain’s tourists. The problem, wors‐ened by the pandemic and still unresolved, would be‐come more noticeable as tourists returned en masse, warned Gabriel Escarrer, CEO of Melia hotel chain.

Nectar deal

SAINSBURY’S has taken on Tesco’s Clubcard with key changes to its Nectar loyalty card which include dis‐counts on 300 products. The supermarket chain has introduced ‘Nectar Prices’ in major stores and online although discounts are not available in Sainsbury’s lo‐cal stores or petrol stations.

SSE goes deep

Linda Hall

THE world’s deepest wind turbine foundation has been installed off the Angus coast.

The Scottish energy company SSE in‐stalled the 2,000‐ton foundation ‐ or jacket to use the industry term ‐ that will support Seagreen’s 112th turbine at a depth of more than 58 metres.

The record‐breaking turbine is part of SSE’s £3 billion (€3.4 billion) project in partnership with French energy company Total. Due to be completed this summer, the windfarm’s 114 tur‐bines will be able to power the equiva‐lent of 1.6 million homes.

This latest installation was a signifi‐cant step towards completing a project

The Seagreen windfarm is included in SSE’s plan to invest £12.5 billion (€14.1 billion) by 2026 in projects that have been designed to speed up the UK’s target of becoming a net zero economy.

By the end of the decade, SSE, which is also developing the world’s largest offshore windfarm at Dogger Bank in the North Sea, intends to invest a total of £24 billion (€27.2 billion) in the UK alone.

London plans

BUSINESSMAN and socialite

Bruce Colley, whose family owns multiple McDonald’s franchises in the US, now plans to open lux‐ury hotels and restaurants in Lon‐don.

The 69 ‐ year ‐ old who is co ‐chairman of Park Lane, the com‐pany that is leading the project, is joining forces with New Zealand financier Rayo Withanage to raise an initial $200 million (€181.6 mil‐lion).

that demonstrated how the company was able to innovate and push the boundaries of the technology of change in power production, SSE’s chief executive Alistair Phillips‐Davies, said.

SSE, one of the UK’s biggest renew‐able energy producers, has increased its full‐year profit forecast for the finan‐cial year ending on March 31 on two occasions, thanks to its money‐making gas power plants.

Juan Roig lowers prices

MERCADONA, Spain’s largest supermarket chain, is cutting the price of 500 items by 10 cents to ease the cost‐ of ‐ living crisis.

The initiative should bring an annual saving of €150 for each client, Mer‐cadona said.

The family‐owned com‐pany would remain faith‐ful to its commitment to lower retail prices as cost prices fell, Mercadona sources added. These were already falling but because it was a slow pro‐cess, they explained that the company had decided to get ahead by lowering the price of 500 staple products, which would be singled out in the shops.

The chain also plans to take advantage of market opportunities to lower the price of fresh pro ‐duce.

The initiative will cost the company around €200 million with a 0.6 percentage point effect on its profit margin, which Mercadona calculates has shrunk by 1.1 percentage points since 2020.

Presenting last year’s accounts and announcing net profits of €718 mil ‐lion, Mercadona presi ‐dent Juan Roig admitted that prices had increased “tremendously” but pointed out that these

AMAZON’S proposed takeover of iRobot, makers of Roomba vacuum cleaner, is under scrutiny from the UK’s Competition and Mar‐kets authority (CMA).

Amazon is keen to ex‐pand its smart home appli‐ances operation, but the CMA is looking into whether the deal could lead to what it described as a “substantial lessening of competition.”

rose by 10 per cent while the company’s overheads increased by 14 per cent.

The discounts were not a temporary measure, Mercadona said. Nor were they a “shopping basket” of products with fixed prices like those of French supermarkets but were permanent reduc ‐tions.

Checking out

Amazon announced that it was buying Mas‐sachusetts‐based iRobot last August in a $1.7 billion (€1.5 billion) takeover agreement but a month later the US au‐thorities announced that they would review the deal.

In February 2023, the Fi‐nancial Times revealed that European competition au‐

thorities also planned to ex‐amine the takeover.

Both Amazon and iRobot said they were “working co‐operatively” with the regu‐lators over the merger.

The CMA is also investi‐gating Amazon’s fake online reviews while another probe centres on anti‐com‐petitive practices.

Striking a balance

WHEN anti‐Covid restrictions were at their strictest in Spain, three million people be‐gan working at home.

They accounted for 16.2 per cent of the working population, compared with 4.8 per cent in 2019, according to Eurostat, the Eu‐ropean Union’s official statistics office.

By late 2020 the number of teleworkers had decreased and fell to 9.5 per cent throughout 2021, Eurostat said.

At the same time, the digital transforma‐

tion brought work‐life balance and co‐re‐sponsibility to the forefront, with the op‐tion of remote working creating a new gen‐eration gap.

“The younger generation has embraced the idea that teleworking is a must,” Josep Capell, a lecturer in Human Resources at the Autonomous University of Madrid. Reconciling work and family life is now recognised as crucial by employees and re‐cruitment experts alike, he said.

They also intend to raise fur‐ther funds to finance investments in London and elsewhere world‐wide over the next two years. Colley and Withanage have al‐ready earmarked two London sites, UK media sources revealed. “The goal is to capitalise on de‐velopment and consolidation op‐portunities in the luxury sector,” Colley said.

Scent success

PZ CUSSONS, which owns the iconic Imperial Leather brand, achieved its sixth successive quarter of revenue growth.

Like‐for‐like sales rose by 6.2 per cent to £166 million (€188.4 million) for the quar‐ter that ended on March 4, boosted by growth in Europe and the Americas thanks to more demand and higher prices.

Despite higher raw material, labour and logistics costs, turnover rose by 13 per cent thanks to favourable currency movements and sales from Childs Farm, the skincare brand that Cussons bought for £36.8 million (€41.8 million) in March 2022.

Power shock

ITALY’S government announced that Francesco Starace, president of Enel, is to be replaced.

The company will now have Flavio Cattaneo as chief executive, while Paolao Scaroni was named president. Enel is the country’s principal electricity producer and also owns Endesa, which is Spain’s biggest electricity supplier. These substitutions were al‐ready being discussed in the sector in a change that is expected to have a direct impact on the Span‐ish company.

Starace had been in charge since 2014 and Endesa has until now played a significant role in the group’s strategy.

SEAGREEN WINDFARM: Jackets waiting at Dundee harbour’s quayside.

Photo credit: Flick/Tobias Verfuss

MERCADONA: Spain’s largest supermarket chain.

Photo credit: mercadona.es

LEAPY LEE SAYS IT

OTHERS THINK IT

LAST week I had a post removed from my FB pages. The short video was indeed distasteful, but one I felt deserved as much publicity as it could get. The film showed a naked white man being kicked and stoned to death by a number of black youths on a busy street in South Africa. This horrific act was taking place in broad daylight with no assis‐tance whatsoever from any law en‐forcement or indeed passers‐by.

The whole incident made me sick to my stomach and in normal cir ‐cumstances I would never have dreamt of passing it on to friends and pursuers of my Facebook page, but these are not ‘normal’ times, are they?

Not only did the piece make me wonder how the public, particularly the ‘diversity’ brigade, would have reacted had it been a black man be‐ing kicked to death by a gang of whites, but it made me seriously wonder where the priorities of the faceless individuals who control the social media actually lay.

At any given time, on many of

Truly horrified

these outlets you can see women stoned to death and if you delve deep enough the goriest executions imaginable, so why, can anyone en‐lighten me, do they find the murder of a white man by blacks so abhor ‐rent they deem it necessary to take down?

Would it, I wonder have anything to do with the fact that South Africa has been a democratic disaster and a place of danger and injustices for white people for years, far worse in fact than it was for the black resi ‐dents during apartheid? I have regu‐lar contact with a number of friends, who are among the dwindling num‐bers of those whites who still try to exist in this most dangerous and bla‐tantly anti‐white racist country.

Basically, the terrorists are now in charge and, like Saudi Arabia, which is also run by an undemocratic bunch of cruel dictators, control so many of the world’s natural rich re‐sources, they literally get away with murder on a grand scale and are never brought to book.

I am subsequently truly horrified but not too surprised, by the news

GRUMPY OLD MAN OUR VIEW

that the new series of ‘I’m a Celebri‐ty’ is also coming from that disgrace‐fully run country. No doubt the hier‐archy running the TV and advertising will be delighted to show their huge‐ly biased brainwashing diversity pro‐paganda and will gain a wonderful reception from the crooked SA au ‐thorities and the relatively small numbers of the British public who are in agreement with their policies, including participants in a show; which will undoubtedly be crammed with diversity.

Personally I think presenters Ant and Dec should have refused to par‐take at all. Sandy Shaw and I only agreed to an SA tour during apartheid if we could work to mixed audiences. We too were supporting the black citizens, but would never have even contemplated doing so had they been attacking and mur ‐dering the white population!

Leapylee2002@euroweeklynews.

WITH the Coronation of King Charles III just a few days away, it does seem that the new monarch is do‐ing his best not to heal rifts within the family but in‐stead is relying upon protocol to act like a grumpy old man.

First and foremost, whilst Harry has announced that he will be attending his father’s coronation, he will be kept very much on the periphery, is not likely to wear any ceremonial costumes and will be expect‐ed to keep a low profile.

It appears that his wife and children will remain in the USA and he will simply make a token appearance before jetting back for son Archie’s fourth birthday.

Prince Andrew who has made a total fool of him‐self over the past few years (although has not been convicted of any criminal offence) may or may not attend, but if he does, he will be precluded from any official role and although his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie will attend, they may not take part in any of‐ficial capacity as they are non‐working royals.

Sarah Ferguson is not invited although it has been suggested that she, like Prince Andrew was a favourite of the late Queen Elizabeth II.

When one considers that apart from Prince Ed‐ward, every other member of the Queen’s immedi‐ate family has been divorced or involved in some scandal or other, surely now would be the time to try to bring the family together and present a united front to the world at large rather than continue to highlight the rifts?

We are what we eatand what we think

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DAVID WORBOYS THINKING ALOUD

PHYSICALLY we are literally what we eat, and mentally we become what we think.

Our bodies are composed of what we eat ‐ the fuel necessary to keep us alive.

When eaten, an apple or a carrot is ‘mirac‐ulously’ converted into a living part of our body. As every kind of plant, fruit or veg‐etable has a different composition of min‐erals, vitamins, proteins and energy, each has a different role to play. Nature pro‐vides the necessary nutrition for all of us and for every living creature. Each food can prevent or heal specific ailments to our vital organs in all their variety ‐ in asso‐ciation with the mind.

The nutritional composition of our food and drink determines the quality of our immune system, the cells in our organs, bones and blood, and thus the health of our bodies. The developing embryo de‐pends on the food consumed by the mother, as does the resulting baby on her milk.

Then it is up to us. Is our food free of chemicals, artificial additives and pollu‐tion? Have the fruit and vegetables been sprayed with insecticide or herbicide? Has the fish been farmed or is it from a pollut‐ed river or sea? Is the meat factory ‐farmed?

Naturally, once the apple has delivered the minerals, vitamins, proteins etc into the cells through the digestive system, its waste will be eliminated (evacuated) and replenishments (perhaps a potato, a kip‐per or another apple) will be ingested in

David

order to continue the cycle. The composi‐tion of the body changes accordingly, as it does unceasingly throughout life. Our eyes and liver, the skin on our throat and the joints in our knees are not the same as they were a month ago.

‘As a man thinks, so is he’ (Proverbs 23/6). This means that who we are essen‐tially is determined by our thinking ‐ and it is why we potentially have so much con‐trol over mind and body ‐ over mental and physical health. In most parts of the world, we choose what we eat and what we think.

The way we think is the way we feel and is therefore the way we are. If our minds are cluttered with negative thoughts, depending on the nature of those thoughts, we feel unhappy, worried, afraid, angry or jealous. If we think posi‐tively, we become happy, optimistic, con‐fident, relaxed or generous.

This is why our bodies can be controlled by the mind. There are numerous cases of illnesses diagnosed by the medical profes‐sion that have been cured not by medicine or surgery but by the mind. We have wit‐nessed a few cases personally. A life ‐threatening breast tumour mysteriously disappeared without further trace, baf‐fling the oncologists who had proposed treatment.

The mind must, of course, believe the condition will be cured and preferably vi‐sualise that it has already been cured.

For more from our columnists please scan this QR Code

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Worboys’s opinions are his own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.

Photo Credits: wallpapercave and wecareonlineclasses

Physically we are literally what we eat, and mentally we become what we think.

Wrong context LETTERS

IN your Issue No 1970 (6‐12 April) in Euro‐pean Press, you carried a piece on Ireland, with a caption of Welcome Home, which as an Irishman I was very pleased to see.

However we would never use the Gaelic word, Eíre in this context. Instead we would say, Ballina, situated in County Sligo.

Moreover, most people, particularly Irish would not use Eíre, only because most other nationalities wouldn’t recognise it!

On the other hand the name, Ireland, in the caption is very acceptable.

Always enjoy your paper.

Hi Linda,

Regards

Bernard Butler

Many thanks for your speedy reply. Actually whilst on the subject of Ireland. In Mijas Pueblo, on the building beside the Council Offices, wall plaques have been erected to acknowledge various nationali‐ties’ presence in the area.

I recall some years ago, Ireland was one of the first countries to be honoured in this way, however on a recent visit to the Peublo I noticed that someone has removed the plaque. Vandalism no doubt?

Perhaps you might consider following up this matter?

Thank you for you time and attention to this matter.

Kind regards Bernard

Dear Leapy

I take objection to the letter printed re Jed‐dah. I worked in the King Fahad Hospital there in those years and found the Saudi people nothing but respectful. Please don’t use that term r s for those people Mr Kite. Have you not been to British beaches over the last 50 years? You can hardly sit down without all the rubbish left by selfish people of all nations.

Carole Burton

Dog park

While it is good to see the Euro Weekly News back, I would like to point out an incor‐rect statement in the news about the dog park. It was not built on waste land, but on a park area that the garden group had spent a lot of time, effort and money to gravel and maintain for the last 20 years. But no one thought fit to liaise with the garden group about where would be the best place for it. Perhaps not near the medical centre and the play park. It will be also interesting to know who is going to maintain it and empty the bins?

Yours sincerely, Marion

Hi Leapy

I am not sure you get to glance through the Sun newspaper where you are situated but I have been following this guy for some time now. His name is Lee Anderson and I am sure what he says in this article (page 16/17 Sunday 16/04/2023) is just what we have been trying to tell people for ages, but do they listen NO!! Because they are all too steeped in woke and human rights etc etc to see the wood for the trees. Now I know you can’t reply because so many people contact you, be it agreeing or disagreeing with your views, but if you can get it up on your screen see what you think. Keep up the good work trying to educate the uneducated.

Joe

Mixed up

Four words used in Loopy Lee’s latest col‐umn but used inappropriately in conflicting ways in the wrong order. Firstly he calls the Johnson partying as Mere Bagatelle words meaning petty triviality and unimportance, does he really think that the charlatan who was eventually ousted from office through his law breaking and continuous lies is petty, trivial and unimportant? Try telling that one to the thousands who stayed at home unable to hold the hand of loved ones suffering in hospitals and care homes. Secondly in his continuous weekly bias towards the opposi‐tion party he calls, simply because they have more female members, an armoury of Schemes and Skullduggery against the Tories, words of course meaning artful and sharp practice, as I have pointed out he has got the words mixed up and used in the wrong order.

Ramon Osborne, Los Alcázares.

No benefit

Brexit, the gift that just keeps on giving. Still no benefits to Brexit. If you voted for it, you’re part of the problem called, Brexit Bro‐ken Britain. The whole world is laughing at the UK!

Andrew Cremona

Big brother

How sad that big brother is bringing such a wonderful historic way of travelling to an end. As for providing education details when travelling ‐ what on EARTH has your educa‐tional history have to do with travelling to an‐other country. It’s time people stood up to this BS and told the so called authorities what they can do with all this unnecessary data harvesting. It’s just spying on people for no good reason.

Naimah Yianni

PETS

EMERGENCY NUMBERS

Most popular pets

THE Spanish have shown the world how devoted they are to their animals by creating a law that states animals are not things but sentient beings and your pet should be considered a member of your family. Not only that they have recently re‐leased a new animal welfare law, reported in last week’s Eu‐roWeekly News. With that in mind let’s have a look at the most popular pets in Spain.

Top of the list are dogs, with the most popular breeds being the Yorkshire Terrier, the Labrador, the German Shep‐ard, and the Bulldog.

Next up are cats, the pre‐ferred pet for people living in apartments. After cats, anoth‐er good option for apartment living is birds with most Span‐ish pet owners opting for ca‐naries and parrots. Other ani‐mals high in the ranking are turtles, a very popular option for kids. Notable mentions go to hamsters, rabbits, and lizards, all great pet choices.

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If you are planning a trip later this year, reg‐ister now to find pet‐sitters in time. Even if it’s just a short trip, you’ll know that sometimes you just have to leave pets at home. Young and senior pets in particular benefit from staying in their own home, so they can follow their routines undisturbed. Let us help. Choose Housesitmatch.com for affordable travel, home and pet care. These are the steps to take:

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4. Post an advert for the dates when you want to go away. Sitters apply and you choose. How does it work?

HouseSitMatch can help you find suitable sitters. Join our network for a small annual

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Puffin loves playing on the beach, the pet minders take her every day.

CLASSIFIEDS

worship and experience the presence of our God. Our teaching is Bible based as we honour God and obey His Word. During this time of uncertainty, God’s Word reminds us that the Gospel shines brightest in times of darkness. Our service lasts for about 1 hour and 30 mins. With Tea and Coffee afterwards. Sunday Service 11.00am; Prayer Meetings Wednesdays 11.00am; Pasaje San Miguel, Nerja, 29780

Email: info@nlcnerja.com

Thomas. Tel: Church House951 815 736, Mobile: 608 695 756, e-mail: cofenerja@ gmail.com

GOLD & SILVER Bought & Sold, Rolex & Patek Philippe Watches Tel - 678 716 693 (288662)

FOR SALE

SOLAR BLINDS ES Ideal for large glazed areas to reflect heat / glare and stop furniture fading and still keep the view.

SAVE HEAT IN THE WINTER to improve your living environment. ian@solarshadetinting. com Tel Ian 958 496 571 / 644 546 176 (287972)

PRIVATE collector will buy your Gold, Rolex & Patek Philippe Watches Tel – 678 716 693 (288662)

New Life Church Whether you live in Nerja or are visiting our area, you are very welcome to come and join us at our Sunday gathering. Join us for a time of Holy Spirit led

Website: www.nlcnerja. com Facebook: www.face book.com/nlcnerj

CHARITY Shop Pocapecunia we need things for the house/kitchen, decoration, vases, plates, cups, saucers, kitchen tools, paintings, pottery pots and pans etc. Prolongacion Avd. Rodgriguez Acosta, Nr the Parador Roundabout, opposite café Trébol, Nerja (294373)

THE ANGLICAN Chaplaincy of Nerja & Almunecar. Every Sunday there is a Holy Communion service at midday in San Miguel church in Nerja. Every Wednesday morning at 9.30 we have an online ‘Zoom’ HC service - please contact Fr Nigel with an e-mail address if you would like to join us. Priest in Charge, Father Nigel

WANTED Gold, Silver, Rolex & Patek Philippe Watches Tel678 716 693 (288662)

STAY SAFE! Abbeygate Insurance Call 971 277 455 For your security www.abbeygateinsure.com (2887610)

WE ARE currently the market leader in our country in the sale of direct car, motorbike, home and company fleet insurance. Since we started out in 1995, our philosophy has always been to offer an excellent service with the best prices in the market. For the most competitive quotes in English, call Linea Directa on 952 147 834. (200726)

INTERNATIONAL SKIPPER LICENCE: Courses held in English and starts soon. VHF and Radar Courses. 626 245 098 (303137)

MALE /Female viagra, cialis, kamagra jelly all areas. Mixed trial packs available. Delivery or mail order available 604 385 476. viagra4you19@ gmail.com

DISTRIBUTION DRIVERS wanted for Costa del Sol and Costa Tropical. One day per week. Must be legal to work in Spain, have own transport, know the areas and be reliable. Please send CV with covering letter to Martyn by email distribution@demon -distribution.com

SOLAR BLINDS ES Ideal for Large Glazed Areas to Reflect Heat / Glare and Stop Furni -

ture Fading and Still Keep The View. Save Heat in the Winter to Improve Your Living Environment. ian@solarshadetint ing.com Tel Ian 958 496 571 / 644 546 176 (258409)

FED UP PAYING TOO MUCH FOR YOUR MOBILE PHONE CALLS? THEN CONTACT TELITEC TODAY. CALLS TO SPAIN 7C PER MINUTE INCLUDING MOBILES. CALLS TO UK 5.3C PER MINUTE. NO MONTHLY FEES, NO CONTRACT. WWW.TELITEC.COM TEL: 902 889 070 (2001)

MOBILE SERVICE. ITV Legal. Solar Reflective tint for glass curtains, balconies, yachts. Stop fading, heat & glare. 958 496 571 - 644 546 176 ian@solarshadetinting. com (287972)

A Walking Football Photo Finish?

EWN Over 50S League

Malaga 7 v 0 Nerja Utd

Malaga continued the fine form they have re ‐cently shown and raced into the lead within the first minute. More goals followed, including a penalty for a goalkeeping offence and the hosts were 4‐0 up by half time.

They carried on in the same vein in the second period, scoring three more goals to win 7 ‐ 0, two of their forwards bag‐ging a hat‐trick each.

The scoreline should not detract from the fact that Nerja stuck doggedly to their task, defended courageously, tried to play flowing football, and made things difficult for the home side. However, the Malaga defence stood strong throughout amid another complete team performance, even the home goalie saving bril ‐liantly from a running of fences penalty!

exciting last few matches with Malaga needing to win their last two games to catch AC Benahavis, but the latter only need ‐ing a point from their final game against The Walking Dead to ensure that the league title is theirs.

EWN Over 60s League

Torrox Tornadoes 0 v 4

AC Benahavis

The game was played in an excellent spirit! This tight, well organised Be

open play and, unusually for this season, no run ‐ning offence penalties were awarded! For the most part, the visitors re ‐mained in charge, staying creative throughout and, although Tornadoes tried hard to get into the game, Benahavis held on com ‐fortably to win 0 ‐ 4, a fair result in a decent game. Eurocopa 2023, Al ‐bufeira, Portugal

Over 50s and Over 60s

Paul Ince contract terminated

have travelled to this lovely seaside resort to compete in this presti ‐gious competition by the time of this publication.

Forty teams are taking part in total, with many of the participating clubs coming from locations in the UK, such as Bolton, Cardiff, West Hartlepool and Glasgow, to name but a few. You can find out how well our Costa del Sol teams fared next week!

And Remember……

……to access Facebook walkingfooty.com for fur ‐ther information about our sport.

READING football club an‐nounced on Tuesday, April 11, it has terminated the contract of manager Paul Ince. The former Manch‐ester United and England legend will leave the Cham‐pionship strugglers with im‐mediate effect.

A statement released by the club read: “Reading Football Club can confirm that the contract of first‐team manager Paul Ince has been terminated with immediate effect.

“Ince was appointed ini‐tially on an interim basis with his assistant Alex Rae in February 2022 and, alongside the likes of Academy Manager Michael Gilkes and Under‐18s manager Mikele Leigertwood in the dugout, he did an admirable job in helping the club stave off the threat of relegation with four wins from the fi‐nal 14 fixtures last season.

“Ince took the reins on a permanent basis in the summer and, having to

cope with strict transfer embargo restrictions, he helped to piece together a new squad on a much‐re‐duced wage budget ‐ and with five wins from our first seven home games, the season began brightly.

“However, without a win in our last eight match‐es and with a relegation battle to fight following a six‐point deduction im‐posed last week, owner Mr Dai Yongge has decided that a change is needed.

“Assistant Manager Alex Rae has also departed the club. Our Under‐21s Man‐ager and former Royals striker, Noel Hunt, has been installed as Interim First Team Manager until the end of the season.”

Head of Football Opera‐tions, Mark Bowen, said: “I would like to thank Paul and Alex for their efforts through a frustrating and exceptionally challenging season so far. We would like to wish them well in their future endeavours.”

EUROCOPA 2023: Forty teams are taking part in total.

83.22% wins is the figure for tennis pro Novak Djokovic.