Olive Press Costa Blanca North - Issue 94

GIVE IT BACK!

Brits taking

Twist in Levi hunt

By Anthony Piovesan

AN X-Factor star who went missing in strange circumstances in Spain three weeks ago may have been spotted.

Rugby player Levi Davis’ mother told the Olive Press he may have been seen as recently as Monday, this week, in Barcelona.

Julie Davis revealed she received information from an alleged eye witness that her son, 24, had ‘been sighted’ at Placa de Sant Agusti looking ‘lost and confused’.

The woman claimed she had also seen Levi the previous weekend in the same area.

The square is just off Barcelona’s La Rambla, where he was last officially photographed leaving The Old Irish Pub, at 10pm, on October 29. The information has now been passed on to officers investigating the high-profile case.

Suitcase

It has become a real mystery as Levi, who played for Bath, vanished after taking an unscheduled boat trip to Barcelona from a holiday with a pal in Ibiza.

He had flown to Ibiza to spend time with expat Richard Squire, who lives on the party island.

Marketing boss Squire revealed he had traveled to the Catalan capital to ‘visit someone, but he didn’t tell me who’. He added he had left his suitcase in Ibiza.

In 2020, Levi made history when he

Continues on Page 4

A BRITISH couple are going to court over the 2009 repos session of their dream home in Spain.

Tina and Steve Poole are fight ing Santander Bank for being turfed out after they could not keep pace with their mortgage repayments.

Their lawyer says the repos session should be scrapped as clauses to validate it in the mortgage contract were illegal.

The 240-year-old farmhouse in Manises-Ribarroja was repos sessed in 2009, but has been lived in by squatters ever since, resulting in a lot of damage.

The Pooles have now launched legal action against Santander (formerly Banco Popular) to get their four-bedroom house back. They are also claiming rent from the time they were evicted. And if successful, it would be an ‘al

most unique’ victory in revers ing a bank seizure - especially after so many years.

The Pooles, who are currently based in Morocco where Steve is an engineer, say their case has been strengthened by spe cial courts set up in Spain over recent years to specifically deal with 'bank disputes’ like theirs.

The couple had first moved to Spain in 2000 with their three

children, firstly living in Javea, before moving to the large rural ‘ masia ’ in inland Valencia.

“We spent a lot of money reno vating it and yes, we did get be hind with the mortgage, which we believe we were unfairly treated over,” Tina told the Ol ive Press.

“The bank simply refused to dis cuss the debt, especially as we were charged an interest rate of 8%, while they were advertising 2.5% rates at the time,” she con tinued.

Debts

“They lent us enough to pay the original mortgage for a year, but that landed us with two debts, and a subsequent repossession which we’ve been told was ille gally executed.”

So bad was the situation, they were forced to return to the UK and their children had to leave their schools after nine happy years in Spain.

Ever since then, the couple have worked continually on a legal challenge which will be heard in Santander’s High Court, in Can

tabria, next February, after an initial hearing was adjourned in September.

One major concern has been Santander Bank trying to sell off the house, while legal proceed ings are active.

“Our lawyer had to rush to Santander this year to get an injunction after I found out the property had been reserved for a potential buyer,” explained Tina.

Since then any agents market ing the property, must explain clearly online and in print that it is ‘under litigation’.

While the couple are convinced they will win their case next year, they expect the case to go to the European Courts, as Santander ‘will probably appeal’.

Squatters

“We will certainly also have to take more action to force them to pay for the damage made by the squatters,” Tina added. Santander has been approached for comment, but we had re ceived no reply as we went to press.

on Santander Bank 13 YEARS after their dream house was ‘illegally’ repossessed

CHARMING: Pooles raised three kids in the four-bed villa

HAPPIER TIMES: The Pooles before losing Valencia home

EXCLUSIVE

By Alex Trelinski

NEWS IN BRIEF

Tyre slasher

A SILLA man has been arrested for slashing tyres and scratching paintwork of at least 50 vehicles in the town. The vandal is being psy chiatrically assessed.

Bad dad

A BENIDORM fa ther, 52, has been given a 21-month jail term for sexually assaulting his chil dren’s nanny, 61, in an elevator by pat ting her buttocks and trying to kiss her.

Home ordeal

A DEHYDRATED Javea man, 86, was rescued af ter he fell and lay on the floor of his home for two days. A friend phoned the police after he could not contact him.

Toy story

POLICE have nabbed three underage teenage boys who stole imita tion guns from a Burjas sot toy shop and an hour later took a €1,400 mo bile phone from a cou ple walking in the street.

End of the line

SHE was the Rolls Royce of cocaine smuggling since the 1990s and looked every inch the part in her €700 blouses and €1,000 high heels.

But finally the Queen of Co caine’s 25-year reign has hit a bump in the road, which police expect will write off her crime career for good.

Dubbed the ‘Reina de Cocaine’, we can today reveal her iden tity as Maria Teresa Jaimes Caicedo, a glamorous Marbella expat, who lived a life of luxu ry in a giant mansion with two swimming pools, a tennis court and ‘a garden that resembles the rainforest’.

Now under arrest and await ing trial, she has been fingered as the ringleader of a gang of 16, behind a European-wide cocaine smuggling operation. Arrests have been made across Spain, including Alicante and Murcia.

Speaking exclusively to the Ol ive Press, a lead investigator revealed how she had managed to ‘live the high life’ for nearly three decades, while quietly

pulling the strings behind one of Spain’s biggest drug smug gling operations.

Describing her as ‘a real black widow’ - who has already seen two previous husbands put be hind bars for smuggling - the undercover officer added it was ‘remarkable’ she had somehow flown under the radar.

The policeman from Greco, part of the National Police’s Udyco organised crime and drug unit, revealed how his colleagues were ‘amazed’ when they started investigating her opulent life.

City

“From the street her house didn’t look anything special, but when we entered it was like a city, with interlinking paths and numerous outbuildings where all her family lived,” he said.

“I’ve seen many homes of criminals, but this was some thing else. Some 3,000-metres squared in size and with a gar den like the selva with a tennis court and two pools.”

He added: “If she needed a plane ticket, someone got it. A hotel, it was always five stars, a restaurant, always the best. A boat, her friends had them. The cars, always changing, but

By Jon Clarke & Anthony Piovesan

nothing too flash. Think BMW or Audi.”

He continued that the €3m villa in central Marbella was ‘like a fortress’ with numerous CCTV cameras, high walls and incred ible security.

“She actually slept in her own panic room bedroom, which was only reached via a false door from a library.”

He added it could only be ac cessed by pushing a button that, like a Hollywood movie, opened to a staircase up to Maria Tere sa’s suite.

The suite itself featured an ele vated marble jacuzzi, support ed by marble columns, while a giant mirror was placed on the ceiling above the bed.

Inside a giant walk-in ward robe amid racks of Prada shoes, Dsquared2 jackets and Gucci bags was a packet of cocaine. Adorned with, appropriately, a Rolls Royce logo - the kilo of cocaine had clearly been used to show off the quality her family in Colombia could supply.

“A corner was missing that had clearly been syphoned off for potential clients and friends to try,” explained the Greco oper

ative. “It was a big mistake for her.”

While she claimed to work as a ‘commercial mediator’ and regularly travelled between Madrid and Barcelona, as well as Colombia, police began to probe her after a tip off two years ago.

Tied

Called Operation Dryad (after the nymphs in Greek mythol ogy, who lived supernaturally long lives and were tied to their homes) the probe found her to be the ‘brains’ behind a big Pol ish/Danish gang, which smug gled drugs around Europe.

Opinion Page 6

Blood hounds

A CHIHUAHUA puppy has been reunited with its owner after police spent two weeks on its trail.

The pooch had been stolen from outside a Valencia shop when its owner went in to browse.

The distraught owner discov ered the puppy was missing when he went to retrieve it and immediately called police.

Officers started a long process to identify and locate the do gnapper, who they finally a fort night later. Happily the Chihua hua was found in good health.

The 25-year-old thief has been charged with theft.

Plane crazy

A DRUNK British man, 66, sexually assaulted a Jet2 stewardess, forcing an Ali cante-bound flight into an emergency landing in France.

The pensioner, clocked at nearly three times the UK drink-drive alcohol limit, had thrust his hand up the stew ardess’ skirt to touch her in appropriately.

The captain immediately di verted the 7am flight from Leeds-Bradford to Nantes, with the victim filing a com plaint to French police.

The man - who admitted his guilt to a French court - was bailed.

EXCLUSIVE: Expat’s 25-year ‘Rolls Royce drug ring’ has finally flatlined

BRANDED: Cocaine brick

RING OF FURY

Half a million engagement ring and the corruption levels that lie behind UK trial of ex Spanish king

SPAIN’S former king gave his ex-mistress a giant engage ment ring worth more than half a million euros as an an niversary gift.

Corinna Larsen, 57, has revealed the emerald ring was inscribed ‘22-1-10’, repre senting the five years the German businesswoman and Juan Carlos I had been together.

“He was very proud of it and showed it to all his friends,” she explained. “It's an emerald, diamonds on the side, the classic en gagement ring.”

The revelation comes in the third episode of a sensational

eight-part podcast detailing her decade-long affair with the ex-monarch, 84, who abdicated in 2014 after a series of scandals.

Larsen - who visit ed the king at Ma drid’s palace and took many busi ness trips with him - provides shock ing details about his dodgy business deal

These include a kickback of €65 million he had received after a trip to Saudi Arabia, as well as other times he came home with ‘bags of cash’.

CLAIMS: Ex-King and lover Corinna

Other revelations concern his promiscuity and how she was confronted by his long-suffer ing wife during a private tour of Zarzuela palace.

“Suddenly, Queen Sofia burst into the room with a face like thunder,” she told the epi sode, produced by US jour nalists Tom Wright and Brad ley Hope.

The podcast comes at a sensi tive time for the royals, as the ex-king is facing a trial at the High Court in London over the relationship in 2024.

Larsen alleges the king caused her ‘great mental pain’ after he got the Spanish secret ser vice (CNI) to spy on her and harass her after their split.

Unfaithful

He denies any wrongdoing and his lawyers argue he is ‘entitled to immunity’ being from the Spanish royal fam ily, although this has been denied so far given his abdi cation.

Corinna met the ex-king at a dinner party at the Duke of Westminster's giant La Gar ganta estate, in Cordoba. From that moment, the moth er-of-two started receiving flowers and love letters, while he phoned her ‘10 times a day’ at work under the name ‘Mr Sumer’, an acronym of ‘Su Majestad el Rey’, meaning His Majesty the King.

The most shocking claims however, are linked to the huge sums he had been paid in cash on foreign business trips.

When she asked him about the ‘bags of cash’, he replied:

“Oh this is from my friend so and so, and this is from so and so’.

It seemed like a very habitual situation.”

She added the king, now liv ing in exile in Abu Dhabi, would brush off further ques tions telling her she ‘didn't understand Spain’.

In March, all investigations into Juan Carlos were shelved by the Supreme Court, on the basis that any tax fraud or money laundering offences were either committed when he enjoyed immunity as head of state, or had exceeded the statute of limitations.

Investigations by a Swiss prosecutor into his business dealings were also shelved for similar reasons.

But a different case in London involves Larsen’s claims the harassment she was subject ed to was aimed at getting her to return a €65 million ‘gift’ that Juan Carlos had trans ferred into her bank accounts in 2012.

The money is alleged to have come from a Saudi kickback he received due to his media tion in the awarding of a giant contract to build a high-speed rail link to Mecca to a Spanish business consortium.

Embroiled

But she ended up closely linked to it when he trans ferred money to her bank accounts to hide it during a string of money-laundering investigations in Switzerland and Spain.

World stage

SPAIN will host the Davis Cup finals later this month, where eight countries will face-off in the famous knock-out format.

After playing the group stages at four different cities around Europe in September, the losers were weeded out and the top two teams in each group progressed: Italy, Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Croatia, Cana da, Australia and the United States.

Spain is looking to capture its seventh Davis Cup vic tory at the tournament which starts on November 22 in Malaga, but they’ll be without World number one Carlos Alcaraz (pictured).

The 19-year-old, the youngest ever men’s world number one player, suffered a stomach muscle injury in his last match against Holger Rune in the quarter finals of the Paris Masters.

Rafael Nadal, current world number two, was also not named in the side.

BAD WEEK

IT was a bad week for former Barcelona play er Gerard Pique and pop-star ex Shakira.

While the famous duo managed to hammer out a custody deal over their children, Milan, 9, and Sasha, 7, after a mammoth 12-hour negotiation session, other things did not go according to plan.

A court committed Colombian singer Shakira for trial in a tax evasion case after she refused to take a deal.

Prosecu tors are

calling for an eightyear jail sentence and a €23.8 million fine if she is found guilty.

And days later Pique was sent off against Osasuna in his final ever match without even making it onto the field. He was on the bench when he launched an expletive-laden rant at the referee following a teammate’s red card, and was promptly shown one him self.

EXPLOSIVE

GLAMOUR:

The looks that turned the King’s head

TICKETS for the Benidorm Fest’s grand final in February were sold out ‘within minutes’.

Over 1,000 tickets went for the event at the Palau Munici pal d'Esports Illa.

Anyone who missed out will at least get a chance to go to the semi-finals being staged on January 31 and February 2.

The new live concert-style way of choosing Spain’s Eurovi sion Song Contest entry was first used in Benidorm this year.

It reaped an immediate divi dend after years of poor con tenders, with Chanel’s entry Slo Mo coming third in Turin.

Four singers from the Valen cia region will be hoping to be come Spain’s standard bearer for the final in Liverpool next May.

They are Aritz Anen from Valencia City, Elche’s Blan ca Paloma, Fusa Nocta from Gandia, and Sofia Martin, who lives in Alicante.

GREEN campaigners have organised a protest against a controversial seafront development near Benissa this weekend.

The Patmore Resort includes a hotel and nine luxury villas in virgin pine forest, close to the sea.

The 45,000 sq/m development between La Llobella and Els Pinets is to be built on land already classified as urban and available to develop.

The Salvem La Lobella platform has announced a rally in Benissa’s Plaza del Rey Jaime I this Saturday at 7.30 pm.

The group opposes the council’s urban planning agreement with de veloper Benissa Natura and alterations to the local urban plan to ac commodate it.

A Salvem La Lobella statement said: “If the agreement is approved, it will destroy a green lung of the coast and no matter how environmen tally-friendly construction there is, it is better not to destroy the forest.”

A BRITISH expat is going out of her mind over a high-pitched shrill that’s been plaguing her for two months and interrupt ing her sleep.

She believes the noise could be linked to an Iberdrola electricity substation around 100 metres away from her country home near Moraira.

Jenny Ward, 56, who has lived in her Benimeit hamlet villa for two years without any prob lems, first heard the noise in early October.

The high-frequency pitch - sim ilar to the noise people hear if they have tinnitus - is being

A better view

A VIEWPOINT destroyed by storms in 2017 and further shat tered by Storm Gloria three years later, has been restored.

Breakwater stones weighing 4.5 tons have been placed in the Javea port area featuring a restaurant overlooking Tango cove and the rugged Cape Sant Antoni coastline.

There is no access to Tango cove itself due to the potential of rock slides from the cliffs above.

Feasibility studies to reopen access have shown that any projects would be detrimental to the environment of the Sant Antoni area.

Deaf ears!

Expat calls in lawyers over high-pitch noise from Iberdrola substation that’s sending her mad

By Alex Trelinski

heard by at least two other peo ple in the rural inland area.

And when workers recent ly switched off the electricity generator for maintenance, the noise went away, she told the Olive Press

“This is driving me round the bend,” said Jenny. “I've spent around €700 on getting private hearing tests and - as expectedhave been told that my hearing is fine.

“I'm now having to use special hearing aids to partially block out the shrill and am resorting to pills to help me sleep,” she added.

The situation has got so bad

for Jenny at times that she’s booked into hotels to give her a much-needed break.

“I needed to get away as it has been driving me mad for nearly seven weeks” lamented Jenny. An electrician friend looked over her property and could find nothing in her villa that could be causing the shrill.

She was delighted when an other expat resident, Timothy Clifton, used the local ‘Moraira Noticeboard’ to ask: “Can any one tell me what the loud shrill noise is in Benimeit?”

After contacting Clifton, she discovered that not just he, but other members of his family could also hear the noise.

She has now called in her law yer to contact Iberdrola, with

technicians promising to look into the matter.

“While they say they will be in touch, I’ve heard nothing yet,” she said.

If anybody else in the area is suffering from the same prob lem, or other similar noises, pls contact the Olive Press at news desk@theolivepress.es

From front

Song rush Green-lung protest GREEN GANDIA

Star search

became the first rugby union player to come out as bisexual.

He went on to take part in the UK talent show The X Factor: Celebrity.

Being in the public eye affect ed Levi, who confessed in an interview that he suffered from ‘depression, anxiety and alco holism’ after the show.

A few months ago Levi told his mother he was being black mailed over compromising photos.

The day before he disappeared, his Only Fans account posted its first fully nude pictures.

A GoFundMe page, set up by pal Squire, has so far raised €1,620 towards a target of €3,000.

GANDIA will be home to Eu rope's first energy-sufficient port once a new solar energy plant opens.

Electromur has been given a €1.7 million contract to con struct and maintain the new facility by the Valencia Port Au thority.

Jointly-funded by the Europe an Union and Madrid, the plant will have the capacity to pro duce 990 megawatts of energy and take eight months to build. A budget of €130 million has been allocated to make all Va lencian ports 'zero emission' zones by 2030.

LOUD: The substation in question

Help for ‘hotspot’ migrants

THE SPANISH government is planning to assign €20 mil lion to the regions to support the reception of unaccompa nied migrant minors.

The youngsters will be trans ferred from hotspots, includ ing the Canary Islands and the enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta to new homes spread around the country.

The plan by the Social Rights Ministry is set to be taken to the Cabinet in the coming days.

The Canary Islands and Ceuta have been calling on Madrid for more support to take care of unaccompanied migrant minors for many years.

In July, the central govern ment agreed to transfer 400 unaccompanied minors to the peninsula.

According to El Diario, a fur ther 374 youngsters will be sent to the mainland in 2023 given the saturation of mi grant centres in the hotspots.

Missing man

Lest we forget

ARMISTICE Day and Remembrance Day were commemorated in services and ceremonies across the region last weekend.

Benidorm's Royal British Legion branch held their Armistice Day service by the ‘Pop py Tree’ close to Poniente beach. There were also commemorations in Gandia, Javea, and L’Alcudia.

Flying forward

Spain sees first test flight of the three-metre high aerotaxi

TAXI travel has taken to the skies in Spain with an initial trial described as ‘a success’.

A 640-kilo flying aerotaxi, designed for two people, completed its first flight in Jaen.

The three metre-high air craft was sent out in Vil lacarillo as part of Europe

By Anthony Piovesan

an initiative USPACE 4AM to make aerotaxis a viable alternative by 2028.

The ATLAS Experimen tal Flight Centre said the aerotaxi, dubbed Concept Integrity, comes with a built-in GPS navigation system.

‘FAKE NEWS’ RACIST CONVICTED

A POLICEMAN has become the first person in Spain convicted of spreading 'fake news'.

The Guardia Civil officer used social media to falsely claim a group of Moroccan mi grants had attacked a Barcelona woman. The unnamed cop posted a video of the al leged ‘brutal attack’ claiming it had been

perpetrated by a gang of migrant children based in Canet de Mar.

The post, seen by 22,000 people, was in fact an unrelated assault in China.

He received a 15-month suspended sen tence by a Barcelona court and must attend a 're-education' course.

EXCITING: A new aerotaxi has been piloted

The aircraft takes off verti cally and is remotely con trolled and has four arms with multiple propellers.

The aerotaxi’s first Span ish flight was a ten-me tre journey and travelled about 15 km/h.

But it is designed to even tually travel at speeds of 80km/h and could reach 120 km/h, according to technicians.

The aerotaxi will have a

range of about 15 minutes, in which it can travel 15 km. “It is a sufficient distance to travel from one side of a city to the other,” ex plained a spokesman.

Economical

The aerotaxi will next be flown over Lugo, in Galicia. The air taxi is completely electric, making it a more economical transport op tion for cities in the future.

Corridor chaos

EMERGENCY conditions at Valencia's General Hos pital have been slammed as ‘chaotic’, with patients left in corridors for up to four days waiting for a bed.

The SAE nurses union said that instead of making things better, building works were making things worse due to long delays.

On one day last week over 30 patients were in this situation as diagnostic areas and corri dors were being turned into hospital rooms.

“Since family members are not allowed into emergency areas, older people remain on their own for days,” added a spokesman.

Valencia’s Ministry of Health refuted the access claim say ing that relatives can visit at certain times and are fully in formed of the care a patient is getting.

Open arms

MADRID is the second most LGBTQ+ friendly city in Eu rope, according to a new study. The Spanish capital comes sixth in the world for ‘how ac cepting’ it is, while Barcelona came in 13th.

Only Brighton beats Madrid in Europe, according to the research conducted by Big 7 Travel ranked ‘how accepting’ each city was of the LGBTQ+ community.

THE family of an Irishman who has been miss ing for more than a month on the Costa Blanca has put out a plea for any sightings.

Ken Moore was last known to be in Alicante on holiday on the weekend of October 7 to 9.

The 54-year-old from Cork was due home on October 7, but he never returned. Contact newsdesk@theolivepress.es if you can help.

Behind the curtains

ANOTHER week another massive drugs bust.

The tales of traffickers being brought to book by Spanish police are seemingly endless, but dig a little deeper and some surprising in sights can be made.

Too often it seems that, despite the massive hauls of narcotics and cash, luxury cars and property, the people arrested are not the shadowy figures running the show. Or, all too often not so shadowy. Many lead the high life in the full glare of publicity for years, even decades, without ever being brought to account for their criminal actions.

Usually huge amounts of cash are all you need to stay out of jail in Spain, with corrupt police and judicial authorities always on the payroll of most leading mafia gangs. But hopefully the days are numbered.

The Olive Press has had exclusive access to a highly secret police unit that hunts down some of the biggest criminals in Spain. Greco, part of the National Police’s Udyco organised crime and drug unit, operates from nondescript offices and brings in elite officers unknown to the costa crime syndicates from their Madrid HQ. They are rotated regularly to preserve the officers’ anonymity and to avoid them getting corrupted.

Working quietly in the background and out of the public eye, they have been relentlessly bringing the crime lords to book since 2005. Our front page story offers a fascinating glimpse behind the curtains of the work of Greco. It is a team of highly motivated, highly skilled and highly principled officers. And they get results. We are sure our readers will join the Olive Press in thanking them.

King of sleaze

WHILE Greco is working tirelessly to catch criminal Kingpins, more embarrassing revelations about former King Juan Carlos are emerging.

A new podcast series shows how the tentacles of corruption in Spain reached the very highest levels of society - you can’t get high er than the king!

The outcome of a British High Court case brought by his former lover Corinna Larsen is still undecided, but the allegations of corruption and sleaze will now follow him until the day he dies. Fortunately for the Spanish Royal family, his son King Felipe seems to be cut from a different cloth. Let us hope that, like the officers of Greco, he remains incorruptible too.

Better luck this time!

THIS Sunday - November 20 - marks the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

While rightly surrounded in contro versy for many reasons, Spain will make their debut against Costa Rica in Group E next Wednesday, while England play on Monday.

The betting odds are in and the experts have given football fans a list of clear favourites to win the trophy. Brazil is a strong favour ite, but look out for Argentina, Belgium, France (the 2018 winners), England and Spain to field strong, com petitive teams.

Of course, there are al ways unpredictable sur prises. But few have been more vivid than Spain’s experience during the tourna ment co-hosted by South Korea and Japan in 2002.

Here is how it unfolded…

The 2002 Spanish team was a favourite to go deep into the World Cup competition and the players were determined to rectify their disappointing early elimination from the previous 1998 competition.

The Spanish team was not made of many big individual

egos but rather one unit with a single-minded destiny - that of bringing the cup to Spain for the first time.

Although Spanish teams had always had a strong record in international competi tion (including the Europe an Championships and the Olympics) the ultimate prize had continually eluded them.

The 2002 team was led by a 33-year-old goalie named Santiago Cañizares (left). He was no stranger to international competition having represented Spain in two previous World Cups and three European Championships.

Peter Schmeichel, the legendary Manchester United goalie and part of the BBC TV team that year, regarded Santiago as ‘the finest goalkeeper in world football’.

Strong praise indeed. However, on the last day of training while shower ing Cañizares slipped, dropped a bot tle of aftershave and severed a ten don in his foot with the glass shards.

Spain would enter the 2002 World Cup without the best goalkeeper on the plane.

This proved to be a prelude to a string of bad luck - or perhaps something else, as we shall see - that would follow this Spanish team over the next few weeks. The strange events really began with

KICKSTARTER

multiple controversies in the Round of 16 clash between host nation South Korea and Italy.

The European press described it as ‘a steady flow of unpunished fouls’ by the Koreans coupled with ‘an unbelievable litany of refereeing errors’.

Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno (more about him later) somehow tolerated the over-aggressive pressing game by Korea, while sending Italian superstar Frances co Totti off for a questionable ‘diving’ call.

Later, Moreno wrongly disallowed the po tential winning goal for offside and the Koreans’ eventual 2-1 victory did not sit well and the Italian team and press went rightly apoplectic!

TODAY the Spanish and Scots may appear to be operating in different footballing spheres. But did you know that it was a Scotsman who got the ball rolling, literally, for football in Spain?

Dr William Alexander Mackay, born the youngest of nine children in Lybster, near Ab erdeen, in 1860, has long been credited as the man who introduced football to Spain. Mackay’s contribution to Spanish football is little-known in the UK, but in a tiny corner of Andalucia, he remains a much venerated figure.

A year after graduating from Edinburgh Uni versity with a degree in medicine, Mackay was sent to Huelva to work as a doctor for the Rio Tinto mining company, in Minas de Riotinto.

He was clearly cut from different cloth to

most: While Sangria and a siesta were the favoured afternoon pastimes for his friends and colleagues, Mackay, who had played for Edinburgh University when they won the East of Scotland Shield in 1883, set about converting them to the beautiful game.

Aside from his official duties, Mackay would work for free on Thursdays treating all the sick and injured who arrived at the nearby port city.

In order to keep the Rio Tinto workforce physically fit, as well as provide quality lei sure time, Mackay organised football and cricket events.

The sports club was originally for Rio Tinto workers only, but by 1889, it had grown to become Spain’s very first amateur football club. Today’s team lineup is filled with suit

In 1909, King Alfonso XIII awarded him the so-called Great White Cross for his services to medicine.

Some six years later, Mackay returned the honour by offering the king the title of hon orary president of the club.

HOME: The Velodrome stadium where Rio Tinto played

ably hispanic surnames but in 1890, when the club played their first away game in Sevilla, the XI was largely a British affair: Al cock, Yates, Wakelin, Du clos, Coto, Kirk, Daniels, Curtis, Gibbon and Smith. Mackay, who was also helping to build a new hos pital for the city, was laud ed as the founder of foot ball in Spain, and locals praised him for helping to put the small port city, with its population of just 150,000, on the map.

Today the club is known as RC Recreativo de Huelva and for the last 130 years has nurtured the talents of many major players, including Antonio Valencia, Santi Cazorla, Antonio Núñez, Daniel Guiza and Florent Sinama Pongolle.

Mackay was an idealist who believed in the pure amateur form of sport. Unfortunately for his club, other teams in Spain were be coming professional outfits and Recreativo could not keep up with the big spenders.

But in a surprising twist of fate, Recreati vo de Huelva rose far above the amateur ranks of its past to achieve one of the great est – and most surprising – moments of football history.

In December 2006, the team crushed Real Madrid with a 3-0 win at the Bernabeu.

How a Scottish doctor, some miners and a kickabout in a field ignited Spain’s passion for the beautiful game in 1880

As the World Cup looms, Jack Gaioni recalls the misfortunes of the 2002 Spanish team - and how a crooked ref later went to prison for heroin smuggling!

AFTERSHAVE: Knocked goalie Cañizares out, while Totti (above) was sent off

The headlines were brutal. “Italy thrown out of a dirty World Cup where referees and linesmen are used as hitmen,” report ed The Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Eventually FIFA agreed to a probe admit ting: “As a result of a number of controver sies, FIFA has decided to launch an inves tigation.” Four days later that plot would only thicken…

The record shows that South Korea would go on to knock out Spain, 5-3, during a penalty shootout in the quarter finals. If only it was that simple. Egyptian refer

ee

Bizarrely, when Javi De Pedro floated a free kick off a South Korean defender into the net it was mysteriously disallowed.

A second disallowed goal, a decision even more shocking than the first, came two minutes into extra time.

The linesmen flagged that the ball had gone out of bounds though the replays clearly proved otherwise.

Spain’s Ivan Helguera, who had to be physically pulled away from the referee, claimed: “What happened was robbery…everyone saw two perfectly good goals. If Spain didn’t win it is because they didn’t want us to win.”

The Spanish press was be yond indignant. ‘ROBBED’ was the Marca headline. ‘The officials are the thieves of dreams’.

Meanwhile Diario AS , claimed: “We did not deserve this - not the Spanish - nor any lovers of football”.

The European press once again was liv id. Respected pundit Paul Hayward at the Telegraph wrote: “This tournament has descended into a farce.”

He went on to rail against FIFA’s decision to select referees from minor footballing na tions unaccustomed to the highest level of competition, labelling it ‘anti-meritocratic’.

The Argentinian daily La Nation called the tournament the ‘biggest scandal in World Cup history’ and wanted the tournament declared ‘null and void’.

In both Italy and Spain, the prevailing opinion was that the match was ‘rigged or fixed’ in order to keep the host nation in the tournament.

Favouritism would justify FIFA’s grand ambition of expanding the sport into Asia (China being the biggest prize).

But that was 20 years ago. Going into this year’s Cup, we must remember that some of this year’s 2022 squad were just infants (or were not even born).

Blaming the refereeing offi cials has never been a good strategy. As the saying goes: “When you blame others, you give up your power to change.”

Thankfully, the 2002 deba cle was the exception rather than the rule. It is anticipated that this year’s World Cup will draw over one million spectators in at tendance to the 64 matches.

The competition will reach a global inhome television audience of over three billion (yes billion!) people.

The World Cup is a much-anticipated occa sion for fans everywhere to gather and cel ebrate community, culture and competition. My only advice to players and fans might be to avoid showering with a glass bottle of af tershave next to you!

Back to the future

THE Olive Press team has decades of news experi ence under their belts.

Some even started in the days of ‘hot metal’, bashing out stories via ancient typewriters (be low) on flimsy paper with a carbon sheet to get a copy for the sub editors (ED: note to youngsters: that’s what a ‘carbon copy’ means!)

It is fair to say the world of news has moved on since then!

First came computers, which helped speed up the pro duction process, then came the internet revolution.

Now we can offer our readers many more stories on our website than we ever could in our printed papers.

Yes, 20-plus a day, with over 30,000 of you already regis tered to receive them.

And we are not stopping there. We are con stantly embrac ing change, always looking to the latest forms of media to get our stories out to new readers.

Be it Facebook, Instagram or TikTok, we have tens of thousands of followers on social media - and - like it or not - these platforms are a big part of our future.

One young man, teenager Alfie Clarke, is helping us make a name for ourselves in the ‘kids’ world’ of TikTok videos.

For us old hacks it seems remarkable that in just a couple of months his TikTok posts have got well over a quarter of a million views.

But his videos are not just informative, they take on board the good old fashioned news values we learned back in the day.

Hence, his maps of recent snowfalls around Spain at the weekend, have had 70,000 views, while his post on nationwide energy use, has had 16,000 so far.

It is a stunning achievement and doesn’t just help our global reach, but also gets youngsters engaged with a range of interesting topics and news each week.

It also shows the Olive Press is continually looking to the future with new tech nology - and with the young blood we have on board, that future looks good.

Want to engage with our million-plus visitors a month?

Please get in touch at sales@theolivepress.es

As for Mackay, he moved back to the UK just three years after Huelva city council appointed him as an Adopted Son of the City in July 1923.

In poor health at the time, Mackay chose to retire to Heathmount Farm, near Tain, in Scotland where he lived until his death in 1927.

It’s not the most exciting of Andalucian cities, but if you are ever kicking about in Huelva, you can actually stay at the Ho tel Colon in the centre of the city, where Mackay once lived.

Make sure to rummage in the minibar and make a toast to Señor Mackay, the British Don of Spanish football.

● Ultimately, Brazil would win the 2002 World Cup making them the first and only country to have won the World Cup five times.

● Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno (right) was arrested in 2010 in New York for trying to smuggle six kilograms of heroin hidden in his underwear. He would serve two-and-a-half years in prison.

David Beckham, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ronaldo were part of a Madrid line-up humbled by Recreativo in the shock tri umph.

WINNERS: The early Huelva teams where multiple cup holders including the Seamen’s trophy

Gamal Al-Gandhour wrongly disallowed two goals and had a litany of incorrect off side calls - some called from just 15 me tres away.

FURY: At two Spanish disallowed goals, leading to corruption claims of match fixing

● Santiago Cañizares would recover from his severed tendon enough to play a few more years with Valencia CF.By 2010 Cañizares, the great competitor, suc cessfully changed sports. He competed for the first time in a scoring event for the Spanish Rally Championship driving a Suzuki. In 2017, he earned his first victory winning The Rally de Ceramica driving a Porsche 997.

DID YOU KNOW?

Pundit Hayward wrote: “This tournament has descended into a farce.”

BARCELONA, the glittering jewel of the western Mediter ranean, could be enshrouded in clouds of thick toxic smog, have its green spaces wither away and lose some of its most beau tiful beaches by the year 2100.

A new AI-powered model of future climate change shows a computer generated image of the city’s iconic Eixample neighbourhood and its grid layout ringed by a thick and oppressive cloud of smog as the skyline is lost in the pollution.

The home of FC Barca is fa mous for its seafront setting and mountain views, but these could all be lost to the pollution that would also clog the spires of the Sagrada Familia and the upper floors of the distinctive ly-shaped Torre Glories.

In addition, over the coming century the city could face pro longed periods of heatwaves that result in desertification of the coastal area.

Other threats include rising sea levels and flooding, which would wipe out beaces, wild fires in the surrounding hills, and degradation of the infra structure, health and living standards of the city’s predicted

Power on

ENERGY giant Iberdrola will invest €17 billion in renewable energy over the next two years as it aims to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Nearly half of the amount will be spent on offshore projects in Europe and the US.

Iberdrola is pushing to remain one of the leaders in global renewable pow er at a time when utilities are facing a challenging transition away from fos sil fuels.

By Walter Finch

six million inhabitants by 2100. While AI suggests extreme smog due to air pollution, floods and desertification,

Uswitch, which sponsored the report, also tasked the tool to envision a best-case scenario for the future should the goals

DANGEROUSLY close to the point of no return were the words used by UN Secretary Gen eral Antonio Guterres last week at the COP 27 conference in Egypt. AND HE’S RIGHT.

Seven years ago at the Paris Summit all nations agreed to a target of re stricting global warming to 1.5 degrees by the end of this century.

He then went on to say: “The 1.5 degree goal is on life support and the machines are rattling.”

Why? It’s very simple.

Developed countries around the world are not putting money where their mouths are.

It’s not rocket science. We all know the solution. Yet still inaction is the order of the day.

In the 22 years that have elapsed this century, we have seen temperatures rise by 1·1 degrees al ready. This century we have already witnessed new levels of climate induced disasters.

The United Nations Environment Programme an nounced last week that we are heading for an in crease of 2.8 degrees by the end of the century.

If actions verbally committed to do in fact materi alise, then this would result in an increase of 2·4 degrees.

Do the maths……we are nowhere near.

An increase of 2 degrees globally results in:

● 90% of all coral dying

● A rise in sea levels of 10 centimetres

Difficult decisions have to be made. The public at large understands that we will leave a shameful leg acy if we allow politicians to prioritise popularity at the voting booths over saving the planet for future generations.

of Net Zero be achieved.

The more positive results show cased clear skies and the return of wildlife to populated cities.

Big green deal

DANISH shipping com pany Maersk will build two major wind and solar powered hydrogen pro duction centres in Spain as it looks to decarbonise its fleet.

The freight transporter has signed a deal with the Spanish government for large-scale green fuel produc tion in the country.

The company will invest €10 billion in Andalucia and Galicia to develop two of the ‘five or six’ production centres it needs to produce carbon-neutral fuel to serve its international energy needs.

NO RETURN

Richer nations became rich off decades of using fossil fuels.

Now is the time to pay the climate bill. Developing nations are trapped in a crisis of public financing fuelled by debt, and yet have to fund climate disas ters on their own.

This is simply unfair and unjust.

ARE THERE SIGNS OF HOPE ?

The signs are mixed. On the negative side, look at the share of electricity from coal in these coun tries:

● INDIA 79%

● CHINA 69%

● AUSTRALIA 51%

● US 20%

● EU 15%

While these figures remain high little progress can be made.

On the positive side:

● The US has passed sweeping laws to confront climate change

● The war in Ukraine has accelerated European focus on renewable solutions

● India has declared it will get to 50% of its ener gy requirements from renewables. (An obstacle to that could be India’s plan to reopen 100 coal mines)

● Brazil has a new President, Luis Inacio da Silva, who has stated his wish to fight the climate cri sis. (Unlike the nutcase Bolsonaro who champi oned more mining in the Amazon)

● Australia also has a new Prime Minister, Anthony

●

LOBBYING CONCERNS

We all know that smoking causes death. Tobacco is still on sale because of the millions spent on political lobbying and the immoral governmen tal dilemma of losing tax revenue versus saving lives.

And so it is with the environment.

The COP 27 conference has fossil fuel lobbyists from more than 30 countries attending. The cam paign group Global Witness has found more than 600 people at the talks in Egypt linked to fossil fuels.

To me, COP 27 looks more like a fossil fuel industry trade show.

Surprise surprise….the biggest single delegation is from the United Arab Emirates, who will host COP 28 next year.

SHAMEFUL.

Barcelona forecast to become a beachless, smog-enshrouded hell hole by 2100 under worstcase climate predictions

Albanese, who is accelerating climate positive plans

China, not responsible for historical greenhouse gas emissions, but still an enormous polluter, has become the biggest investor in renewable energy

Green Matters By Martin Tye

FILTH: City will be engulfed in smog

Shoppers be warned

CLOTHING retailer associa tion Acotex has warned cus tomers to expect few major Black Friday bargains as their members feel the economic pinch.

Acotex president, Eduardo Zamacola said: “We don’t expect any aggressive Black Friday discounts as rising costs like electricity, trans portation and raw materials mean that businesses don’t have the margin to offer big reductions.”

He added that some discount ing will happen on November 25 for Black Friday because customers expect them, but he described them as ‘light’.

Wayne’s electric world

Huge boost as SEAT plans battery plant for Valencia

CAR maker SEAT has confirmed that it will site Spain’s first electric car bat tery plant in the Valencia area.

SEAT President, Wayne Griffiths reaffirmed the new Sagunto plant will be part of the compa ny’s €10 billion electric car invest ment in Spain. A pro visional

STATE rail company Renfe is going to take fur ther action to crack down on so-called ‘phan tom reservations’.

This is where passengers make multiple book ings thanks to the government’s free-tickets scheme and then only take the journey that is most convenient for them.

The result of the practice has been fully booked trains that end up with dozens of empty seats, leaving other passengers stranded despite the carriages not running at capacity.

Renfe implemented a limit on the number of

By Alex Trelinski

deal for the Sagunto site was announced in March, but confirmation was re quired over taking €339 million of EU subsidies via the Spanish govern ment.

Existing SEAT car

Phantom menace

reservations passengers can make, but this failed to stop the problem entirely. Now it is willing to go further and take away the travel cards from anyone who abuses the system.

plants in the Pamplona and Barcelona areas will be turned over to making elec tric vehicles.

Griffiths said the company would produce electric cars for both the Spanish market and for export across Eu rope.

“This project will democ ratise access to sustainable mobility in Europe with electric cars made in Spain,” Griffiths proclaimed.

The Sagunto battery site will cost €7 billion to set up and will employ 3,000 staff.

It puts the Valencia area in the forefront of electric car production, with the nearby Ford plant at Almussafes

set to manufacture a new line up of electric vehicles from 2025.

Earlier this year SEAT opened a new €7 million battery research and devel opment centre for electric and plug-in hybrid cars in Martorell.

It is part of the Volkswa gen Group’s global R&D network and is the group’s first such centre in Europe outside Germany, along side those already running in China and the United States.

Both moves are part of the VW group’s drive to electri fy Spanish car production as well as its factories.

Big phone heists

POLICE are searching for a gang that stole iPhones worth €2 million from Tele fonica’s main logistics cen tre in the Madrid area.

Just days later, a second phone heist - valued at €700,000 - also occurred in the same region.

The first robbery happened at the headquarters of Zel eris, which is the telecom giant’s warehouse and lo gistics centre located on a Torrejon de Ardoz industri al estate.

Police said several men wearing balaclavas struck at the centre at around 2am. They made a hole to access the building and helped themselves to iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 units which on average retail at around €1,500 each.

A few days later, a new phone heist also happened in the Madrid area on a Fuenlabra da industrial estate.

GBP/EUR exchange rate slumps as BoE forecasts a two-year UK recession

THE pound euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate fell sharply through the first two weeks of November as it became increasingly apparent that the UK economy has entered a recession. Over the last fortnight, GBP/EUR traded between highs of €1.166 and lows of €1.131. The pair ended up wavering below €1.14, posting significant losses.

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?

The pound euro exchange rate took a tumble as we moved into November as the afterglow of Rishi Sunak’s appointment as Prime Minister faded away. Instead, GBP investors became increasingly focused on the UK’s dire economic outlook. On Halloween, declines in both mortgage approvals and credit card borrowing added to fears of a downturn in the UK.

The euro’s gains against the pound were capped, however, amid similar concerns about the Eurozone economy. The bloc’s final man ufacturing PMI revealed a larger-than-expected contraction. Sterling then nosedived on Thursday after the Bank of England (BoE) delivered a grim analysis of the UK economy. According to the British central bank, the UK has already entered a recession which could last two years – the longest period of negative growth on record. Meanwhile, the euro enjoyed its negative correlation to a weaken ing US dollar and hawkish comments from European Central Bank (ECB) President Christine Lagarde.

The following week, the pound euro exchange rate initially bounced back. GBP attracted some dip-buying while Russia-Ukraine worries weighed on EUR.

Alas, Sterling’s recovery was short-lived. Downbeat news from large UK business – falling profits, asset sales, and insolvencies – once again raised fears for the country’s economy.

Meanwhile, the ECB’s downbeat assessment of the Eurozone econ omy in its latest Economic Bulletin weighed on EUR.

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR?

Looking ahead, some high-impact data for both the Eurozone and the UK could cause significant movement in the pound euro pair. In mid-November we have the latest UK labour market report. Although Britain is likely now

in recession, the jobs market remains strong. If the unemployment rate remains close to a near 50-year low, Sterling could catch a tail wind.

UK and Eurozone inflation will also be in focus. If price pressures continue to rise, expectations of more interest rate hikes could boost their respective currencies.

The UK government’s fiscal statement also promises to be a huge event on the economic calendar. With PM Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt set to impose more austerity measures on the country to fill a fiscal hole blown into the budget by Liz Truss, worries about a worsening recession outlook could hurt Sterling.

That said, if the PM and Chancellor are able to restore the UK’s fi nancial stability and deliver a plan for growth, GBP could rally. Either way, we could witness some volatility.

The next day, an expected decline in UK retail sales could see Ster ling fall further.

The following week brings the flash PMI surveys for November, both for the Eurozone and the UK. GBP and EUR investors will be watch ing the results closely. Any evidence of recession could infuse more volatility into the pairing.

PROTECTING AGAINST VOLATILITY

This kind of volatility can cause some nasty surprises if you need to transfer money overseas. On a £200,000 transfer, that three-cent gap between €1.16 and €1.13 translates to a €6,000 difference. And the larger the sum, the higher the discrepancy.

Fortunately, there are ways that you can protect against volatility. Specialist currency brokers, such as Currencies Direct, offer differ ent tools to help you navigate the ups and downs of the currency market.

For instance, you can use a forward contract to secure an exchange rate for up to a year. This way, you won’t lose out if the market moves against you.

Services like rate alerts and daily updates make it easy to keep track of what’s going on in the forex world so that you can make informed decisions. And with Currencies Direct you’ll have a dedicat ed account manager there to provide guidance and support when ever you need them.

At Currencies Direct we’re here to talk currency whenever you need us, so get in touch if you want to know more about the latest news or how it could impact your currency transfers.

Since 1996 we’ve helped more than 325,000 customers with their currency transfers, just pop into your local Currencies Direct branch or give us a call to find out more.

PLANS: SEAT President Wayne Griffiths

Immersive Picasso

Little Spain?

A UK TV and film produc tion company co-founded by comedy performer and children’s book writer Da vid Walliams is looking into using Alicante’s recently reopened Ciudad de la Luz studios.

The studios are regarded as one of the best in Europe both for their facilities and for their geographical location and transport connections. They were closed by the EU in 2012 over illegal public funding but allowed to re open this summer after an operating ban running until 2027 was revoked.

Visit

On a visit to London for the World Travel Mar ket, Valencian president Ximo Puig met with Adam Browne from King Bert pro ductions.

The company was set up in 2014 and specialises in mak ing family and children's entertainment for both the big and small screens. Cli ents have included the BBC, Channel 4, Sky, and Disney.

Adam Browne said a King Bert delegation would pay a fact-finding visit to the Ciudad de la Luz studios shortly - adding that they needed new locations and to explore possibilities.

‘Imagine Picasso’ is being displayed at the capital’s IFEMA centre. Not only is it the largest immersive exhibition ever staged in Spain, but it is the first dedi cated to Malaga-born Picasso, who died in 1973.

It arrived after touring around the world with the latest stops being in North America.

Some 217 of Picasso's most famous paintings, including Guernica and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, are beamed on the walls, the floor and some gigantic polyhedral structures inspired by the origami pieces that Picasso made for his children.

Fakes seized

SPANISH police have seized two fake paintings that had been sold for €33 million as well as a third item which was on the market for €12 million.

They were all originally owned by a Santander man who said the works came from a family inheritance and were always regarded as genuine.

The recovered fakes in cluded a self-portrait of Diego Velazquez, which was sold for €30 million and another Velazquez work for €3 million.

Ecce Homo, supposed

By Alex Trelinski

ly painted by Titian, had gone onto the market for €12 million.

Officers from the Histor ical Heritage division of the Valencia region po lice were alerted in March about the paintings being sold online.

The initial concern was that paintings considered to have National Heritage value should not be sold to somebody living outside Spain.

The paintings were re

moved by Cantabria police and taken to Valencia where experts at the city’s Muse um of Fine Arts

that the works were fakes.

HORRORS OF WAR

A LEADING film director is devel oping a movie exploring the theme of atrocities committed during the Spanish Civil War.

J.A. Bayona, who directed Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and helmed two episodes of the Lord of the Rings TV series for Amazon , will shoot Manuel Chaves Nogales’ short story collection A sangre y fuego (Blood and Fire) which is regarded as one of the best fiction books about the Civil War.

He’s working with writer-director

Agustin Diaz Yanes to develop a script. Speaking at the Sevilla Euro pean Film Festival, Bayona said he had been developing the project for several years and is ‘especially in terested in the humanist vision’ that Chaves Nogales showed in his novel. A sangre y fueg o is a work of fiction featuring nine stories ranging from an account of Republican executions in a Madrid bombarded by Franco’s forces through to an Andalucian mar quess who sets out to hunt commu nists with his personal death squad.

The three forgeries are being held at the Pont de Fusta police station in Valencia. No details have been disclosed about pos sible legal action against their owner.

Investigation

Last year the Olive Press reported how police broke up a gang trying to sell forgeries of paintings by Spanish masters like Goya via the internet.

The Valencian Historical Heritage police seized the works of art in the Castel lon area, with 27 paintings removed, which were be ing sold for a total of €1.7 million.

Experts deduced that 18 of the collection were fakes.

Jurassic find

RESEARCHERS have dug up the fossilised bones of a large dinosaur about 150 million years old.

The excavations by the Teruel Dinopolis United Paleonto logical Foundation at the El Carrillejo site in Riodeva un earthed the remains of a di plodocid sauropod dinosaur. They are from Upper Jurassic deposits and have charac teristics very different from those of other sauropods of the same geological age found in Teruel, such as the Euro pean giant Turiasaurus or the first dinosaur described in Spain, Aragosaurus.

These dinosaurs are char acterised by having a small head relative to body size and longer necks than other sau rischians.

Scientists estimate the dino saur just discovered would have been about 25 metres long.

Art attack

TWO climate activists glued their hands to the frames of Goya’s Las Majas paintings in Madrid’s Prado Museum, in the latest of a series of pro tests in art galleries around the world.

The female protesters also daubed ‘1.5ºC’ in black paint on the wall between the two works of art.

Via a Twitter account called FuturoVegetal (Vegetable Future), a video of the protest was shared, accompanied by a message that read: “Last week the UN recognised the im possibility of keeping below the Paris Accord limit of av erage 1.5ºC temperature rise compared to pre-industrial levels.”

Police confiscate three forged paintings worth €45 million

confirmed

FORGERIES: Three fake artworks held in Valencia

EXPOSE: Bayona is on a mission

A NEW ‘immersive’ exhibition dedicated to the revolutionary Spanish artist Pablo Picasso has opened its doors in Madrid.

BOLD: Protestors filmed

ONLY one village made it into Spain’s Most Beautiful list this year.

Puentedey, in Burgos, was the only place selected for the prestigious network, which counts 105 villages around Spain and its islands.

While 22 applied, only Pu entedey met the strict crite ria to join the association, Los Pueblos Mas Bonitos de España, which was set up in 2011.

The village, which dates back to the 14th century, is built on a natural 15-metre high stone bridge, formed over millions of years and with the river Nela running through it.

It got its name, Puentedey, meaning ‘Bridge of God’ from this natural formation.

Divine Intervention

By Jon Clarke

The settlement, an hour from Burgos city, has a pop ulation of just 48, and is known for its nearly intact Romantic architecture.

Its San Pelayo church (on top of the bridge, above) is a charming mix of Romantic and Gothic styles, while the nearby Palacio de Brizuela (left) dates back to the 14th century with two towers add ed in the 15th century.

The 105 villages in the Los Pueblos Bonitos group, all are under 15,000 in popula tion and have perfectly pre served historic cores, as well as an ‘architectural or natu ral heritage’.

THE coldest village in Spain is in sunny An dalucia. While the icy waters around Gali cia’s Cies Islands make Pontevedra decidedly chilly and the so-called ‘cold triangle’ in Ter uel brings the temperatures right down in Calamocha, the iciest place in Spain is Dilar, in Granada.

While the province becomes a veritable fry ing pan in summer, when the winter sets in, sub-zero temperatures become the norm around Dilar just south of Granada. Sitting on the western slopes of the Sierra Ne

While only one village made it in 2022, a record 11 plac es, including Genalguacil, in

Get your fur coats

vada, at an altitude of 878 metres above sea level, it positively shivers come Christmas.

But no worries for its 2,000 residents who al ways have warm coasts at the ready, for when the mercury regularly drops to between -9ºC and -12ºC.

And they don’t mind, with their direct access to the nearby Natural Park it is an ideal place for rural tourism.

Malaga and Banos de la En cina, in Jaen, made the list in 2021.

Tourism

The potential rewards for the villages are huge, with the promotion they get global ly from being members and the huge growth in tourism it brings.

Some of the Olive Press fa vourites include Setenil de las Bodegas, in Cadiz, El Castell de Guadalest, on the Costa Blanca and Alcudia in Mallorca.

Only Puentedey - ‘Bridge of God’ - made it into this year’s list of Spain’s Most Beautiful villages

NATURAL SELECTION: The village is built over the River Nela arch

BUILT into cliff faces, perched on pla teaus and hidden in woods, each of these properties posed its own challenges to the architects involved in their creation.

After the BBC included two homes in Spain in a series on extraordinary proper ties, the Olive Press takes a look at some other unusual homes found in Spain, and the solutions their desig ners came up with to meet the needs of their clients.

HOW DO THEY DO THAT?

1. HOUSE ON THE CLIFF

2. HOUSE HEMERCOSCOPIUM

Location:

Project

Featured on the BBC’s World’s Most Extraordinary homes, the House on the Cliff is built into a cliff face with a 42 degree slope. Every room has superb sea views with the architects making the most of the location for this family home over looking the Mediterranean.

Project architects: KGDVS

It could also be called the Round House, as it offers 360-degree panoramic views from a plateau setting that overlooks wooded wilder ness. It is designed in a modular fashion with units accessed from the 1,000m2 interior pa tio complete with a pool carved into the rock. Modules can be shifted to alter living space. It is intended to make residents feel alone in the woods as part of a small project of unique ho mes set in 100 hectares.

Project

Another property featured on the show is this stunning creation of concrete and glass. The architects made full use of a U-shaped beam to ‘hang’ the house from, with its interior filled with water to create an unusual first-floor swimming pool. The weight of the beam and are somehow coun terbalanced by a massive rock.

4. SATELLITE SUBURBIA, HOUSE WITH COLOUR MOOD

It may be (interestingly) brutal from the outside, but the great feature of this house is the inspired use of colours. These bring warmth and light into the interior in a unique and highly imaginative way.

Salobreña, Granada

architects: Bartolome Gil Arquitectos

Location: Madrid

architects: Ensamble Studio

EXTRAORDINARY: The whole home is counterbalanced by this rock

Location: Matarranya, Teruel

3. THE SOLO HOUSE

Location: Mar Menor, Murcia

Architect: Javier Peña of Xpiral Arquitectura

BE SECURE

insurance

AS a company, Liberty Seguros, one of Spain’s largest in surance companies, offers two excellent types of policies, National and Expat, for two very different markets

Jennifer Cunningham Insurances is an Expat agent and I am very proud to work with Liberty with policies that have been designed specifically for the expat living in Spain – so the policies provided are more in line with what we are used to and give us a wider range of benefits than provided on the national policies. Yes, of course they can be a little more expensive, as there are so many add-on options and additional benefits. These policies are available in various languages, including En glish and Liberty provide English speaking services, wherever possible. This stops you struggling to understand and purchase an insurance policy in Spanish. My company provides further support for you with a Claims Administrator to assist you with the claims process and I also have a Renewals Department, unlike many other companies who just do automatic renewals.

My Renewals ladies will contact you each year with details and costs of your policy and should you need any amendments or updates to the policy, Renewals will be able to assist.

Liberty provides a comprehensive range of insurance products including, car, house, pet, commercial, community, life, accident and marine.

The house policy in particular is extremely special and can be tailor-made for your particular requirements, with a selection of add-ons, one of which is accidental damage covering both your home and your garden, with a certain amount allocated for your garden and much more.

My company policy, with regards to vehicles, is to ensure all the seats have adequate cover. Should the worst happen, this gives more help and support to everyone in the vehicle and protects the driver/owner against claims from the passengers, which could go on for years if a passenger is badly injured.

The life policies are available and can be adapted for your own needs, from small policies to cover funeral costs, to full life poli cies and mortgage protection policies.

And don’t forget Jennifer Cunningham Insurances can also offer health insurance, travel insurance, and both funeral insurance and prepaid funeral plans.

FOOD, DRINK & TRAVEL

SPAIN will ask the European Union to change its 90-day rule which is restrict ing stays by UK residents with property in the country.

Post-Brexit, the UK had to fall in line with other non-EU countries where Brits can only stay for up to 90 days ev ery 180 days in Schengen Zone countries like Spain.

That's cut down British winter visitor numbers as homeowners opt to use their stay allowance during warmer times of the year.

It’s also reduced the potential for UK ‘digital nomads’ and has reduced off

90-day plea

season takings at expat bars and restau rants.

Tourism Secretary, Fernando Valdes said: “It is in Spain’s interest to get rid of the rule but we cannot do so unilaterally.” He added that Spain will now ask the EU to make changes, including a possible exemption for UK residents.

“It is in our interest to convince the EU that we can try to work out something but the solution must come from them,” said Valdes.

Que Syrah, Syrah

THIEVES have managed to pull off another wine heist, this time targeting Miche lin-starred restaurant Co que.

The exclusive eatery was re lieved of 132 bottles by the criminals, with a total value of more than €200,000. The sommelier at the Ma drid restaurant, Rafael San doval, explained that the thieves tried to enter the restaurant via a hole they made in the neighbouring property.

By Simon Hunter

But when they were unable to gain access that way, they entered a courtyard shared with a pharmacy next door, and broke in via a window.

“More than anything it’s an emotional thing,” re vealed Sandoval, whose brother Mario is the chef at the two-Michelin starred restaurant.

“We’ve been working for 40 years to get some of those bottles, they are vintage bottles that even some of the wineries themselves don’t have.

“It was a high-precision

robbery, these people could have robbed the bank of Spain,” he added.

Sandoval also raised the alarm among his colleagues, ‘because this is happening in a lot of restaurants in Eu rope’.

The robbery comes in the wake of a high-profile case

Lying labels

A BORDEAUX court will rule in the New Year over a massive scam where 4.6 million bottles of cheap Spanish plonk was falsely labelled as French-pro duced table wine.

A group of wine merchants face fines as well as prison time.

Authorities have identified 34,587 hectolitres of imported wine that was used in the deception. The scam started in 2013 when adverse weather condi tions affected French vineyards which were forced to scale down wine production.

Prosecutors say that between 2013 and 2016,

over 130 tanker trucks shipped in Spanish wine to France. It was then bottled with bogus labels claiming to be French table wine, with some bottles claiming to con tain wine made in Bordeaux.

OP Puzzle solutions

Quick Crossword

Across: 7 Inertia, 8 Opera, 9 Nun, 10 Chin-wag, 11 Tired, 12 Renew, 14 Rancher, 16 Volcano, 17 Error, 19 Yearn, 21 Opposed, 23 Emu, 24 Grabs, 25 Reunite

Down: 1 Regional, 2 Stew, 3 Kangaroo court, 4 Continue, 5 Peer, 6 Gander, 7 Incur, 13 Weakness, 15 Hardship, 16 Voyage, 18 Ridge, 20 Adam, 22 Plum

in Caceres.

In 2021, a couple managed to walk out of the hotel and restaurant Atrio with 45 bottles of wine stolen from the cellar, with a value of €1.6 million.

The alleged culprits were eventually tracked down by police and are being held in custody until their trial. The wine has never been re covered.

Crew case

THE High Court has ruled that Iberia will have to take action to ensure that its cabin crew don’t injure themselves when closing overhead lockers. The case was brought by the company’s works committee due to the in corporation of the Airbus A350 into its fleet. The aeroplane has high-ca pacity overhead lockers, the doors of which sup port the weight of the cas es contained inside. As such, they require greater effort to close compared to other designs with a hinged door.

Tailor-made

policies ensure you have the right cover

SOMMELIER: Rafael Sandoval at work

FRAUD: Wine not French

Dressed to kill

THE scourge of mosquito bites could become a thing of the past thanks to the creation of a new clothing range by a Barcelona busi nesswoman.

Silvia Oviedo’s StingBye products include an adult t-shirt at €25 plus trousers and leggings as well as clothes for children. The range is impregnated with an insect repellant, which is effective against mosquitoes as well as lice, bed ticks, fleas, and mites.

Clever

The repellent effect lasts for more than 100 wash es. StingBye has also pro duced an additive that can be put into a washing ma chine to offer protection for existing cloth ing and will stay effective for at least 20 wash es.

Despite 20% of busi ness com ing from Spain, the main de mand for the clothes and ad ditives is coming from South America.

THE new Covid variant that is taking over in Spain has unofficially been given the delightful moniker of ‘hell hound’ by social media users. It is certainly easier to re member than its official des ignation - technically refer ring to two separate Omicron subvariants - as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1.

Spanish health minister Car olina Darias said that while ‘Hellhound’ currently only ac counts for 2.7% of Covid cases in Spain, it is expected to be come the dominant strain in the coming weeks.

Hellhound’ already accounts for 25% of cases in France, 10% of new infections in Bel gium and has ticked up to 5% in Italy.

The European Centre of Dis ease Control (ECDC) issued a report on October 20 claiming

Drag me to hell

Lactosefree victory

A MADRID nursing home resi dent has won a court case which forces centre managers to give her lactose-free food.

Beatriz Cano, 72, has been in the home in the Usera district home since 2010 but was diagnosed with lactose intolerance the following year, “There was no way they gave me a menu that my condition demanded,” said Beatrix. She had several meetings with the centre’s bosses but, as the court said, she ‘was given a completely inadequate diet’.

Hives

Her only concession, after a long battle, was to have her own fridge containing lactose-free products. Beatrix recounted that staff assured her that some meals would be fine for her but that wasn't the case as she broke out in hives and other ailments.

By Walter Finch

that the two sub variants will account for more than 50% of cases in Europe at the onset of

HOME OF DIABETES

OUT of five million people in Spain who have diabe tes, 1.5 million of them are unaware they have the con dition, according to alarming new data.

Research from the IDF Diabetes Atlas 2021 showed Spain was the second country in Europe with the high est prevalence of diabetes.

About 14.8% of the population between 20 and 79 years old suffered from the pathology, according to the figures, compared to a European average of 9.2%. Turkey was the only country with more concerning data than Spain, recording 15.9% of the population with diabetes.

winter due to its resistance to the existing vaccines.

The subvariants garnered their terrifying name from German Twitter users who named it ‘Cerberus’, based on expert forecasts of how it would spread across the continent. They likened it to the ma ny-headed guard dog of hell who stops the denizens of the underworld from escaping.

Warning

Symptoms include a sore throat, a cough, general mal aise, voice loss, diarrhoea, and a runny nose.

Preliminary data suggests that ‘Hellhound’ is 10% more contagious than previous in carnations of the virus, but no more severe.

A Madrid government spokesman said they would ‘abide by the court’s decision’.

‘Hellhound’: The ‘delightfullynamed’ new Covid variant

Cops and geckos

A NEIGHBOUR called police on a man in Elda (Alicante) because a gecko had taken up res idence on his balcony. He has complained of a waste of police resourc es after cops sent in ani mal protection.

Wrong trip

A TRAVEL agency got Spain’s capital and a Turkish city mixed up, leading to a group of Russian tourists ending up in Mardin as opposed to Madrid when the wrong flight was booked.

Kick starter

MAYOR of Madrid Jose Luis Martínez-Almeida managed to boot a ball into the face of a pho tographer - the third time he has hit people at an honorary kick off.

Schlong arm of the law

THE days of dressing up like a giant penis and walking down the streets of a Spanish city could be doomed under new proposals put forward by the local council.

Other public activities to be banned in Malaga’s draft legis lation include walking around in just underwear, going com pletely naked, and wielding giant inflatable sex dolls.

It is part of a drive to tame un ruly stag and hen parties that have come to dominate the city’s nightlife scene.

By Walter Finch

The proposals will comple ment already-existing laws that prohibit anti-social be haviour, such as peeing in public, impromptu boozy street gatherings and shouting or using megaphones at night. The moves are part of a drive to encourage a ‘high quality’ form of tourism to Malaga, which saw over three million visitors to its airport in the third quarter of 2022 alone.

A MAN who hid an illegal gun from the po lice by stuffing it down his boxer shorts end ed up in hospital after he shot his penis.

The wounded Alicante man, 22, had a crim inal record for various crimes and spotted police officers waving down cars in the town. In his haste to hide his gun, he inadvertent ly blasted a point-blank shot into his penis.

Rather than seeking immediate medical at tention, he eluded a patrol car and headed

As the gateway to much of the south of Spain for internation al travellers, the convenience

DICK MOVE

home.

As he continued to bleed out and suffer in tense pain, his family took him to Elda Hos pital. A four-hour reconstructive surgery was performed on what was left of his penis. As soon as he was wheeled out of the operat ing room, police arrested him.

of accessibility tends to attract the stag party crowd.

This is especially so since fel low Andalucian cities such as Granada and Sevilla are far less friendly to this form of tourism and already have sim ilar statutes on the books.

Those who violate the pro posed legislation would first be warned that they are break ing the law by being dressed as a penis.

And if they carry on regard less, they are liable to be slapped with a €750 fine.

ANIMAL rights party PACMA has shared a bizarre video of a naked hunter with a dead partridge dangling from his privates.

The man is shown wearing just boots, socks and gloves, and brandishing a shotgun. From the weapon are hung a number of dead partridges, as well as one hanging from his err, other weapon.

The man goes on a rant shout ing: “Don’t ever stop this, let the system continue, so we can catch partridges!”

What’s in a name

A COURT has banned a couple from naming their child Hazia, which in Basque means ‘seed’ but has the double meaning of ‘semen’.

The family has pledged to ‘fight to the last’ to see their daugh ter’s name on official docu ments as Hazia rather than the court ordered name of Zia.

Some 96 citizens in Spain have the first name Semen. They are Ukrainians and the name is a phonetic translation.

Dressing up as a giant member could lead to a €750 fine

MALAGA: Slams giant penis costumes