APOCALYPSE
Blaze A number of passengers used the emergency hammer to break the glass and escaped through a window. But once outside they were scorched by the flames and returned to the carriage to seek “Oncerefuge.they saw that they were surrounded by fire they got back on the train and several of them had suffered burns,” confirmed state rail company Renfe. Two people had to be airlift ed to hospital to be treated for serious burns while more than a dozen others, includ ing a 10-year-old girl were taken to local hospitals. Our investigation into alarming late night craze Costa del Sol on alert
Train fire panic AROUND a dozen passengers on a train travelling through a wildfire suffered burns af ter they feared their carriage was about to be engulfed in flames and fled through a Thewindow.train was travelling be tween Sagunto in the east ern province of Valencia, to Zaragoza in Aragon when the driver stopped as he saw flames approaching the track Realisingahead. that it was too dan gerous to continue, he was attempting to put the engine in reverse and back off to the nearest station when panic broke out inside one of the carriages.
“We are facing a climate emer gency and these fires require us to rethink how we deal fighting them and how to deal with the recovery of theplaces affected by them,” said “ThisSanchez.isthehottest summer since such records began and future ones are going to get even hotter, “ he warned. So far this year Spain has suffered around 400 separate wildfires, during a summer marked by fe rocious heatwaves and long dry spells. Destroyed More than 286,000 hectares have been destroyed across Spain, ac cording to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) rep resenting four times the average figure for the last decade, and almost six times more than the 2021 total. A total of 15 of Spain’s autonomous regions have had serious fires this year and will qualify for ‘di saster zone’ support with only the north ern coastal regions of Cantabria and Astur ias spared.
NEEDLE OUTBREAKLEGIONNAIRESPROBE Page 4 Page 5 EXCLUSIVESNEWS
By Fiona Govan
Prime Minister Sanchez declares ‘disaster’ zones after fires sweep the region
OPRESSLIVEThe COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA FREE Vol. 3 Issue 72 www.theolivepress.es August 25th - September 7th 2022 Tel: 952 147 834 See page 15
Terrifying video footage livesningfirefightersshowedrunfortheirasatowering inferno roared behind them. Residents finally al lowed to return to their homes in the towns of Bejis and Teresa, Cas tellon province, on Monday did so to discover a blackened land scape, the smell of burning thick in the air and those buildings not destroyed by flames covered in a thick layer of ash. At the same time, further south along the coast in Alicante prov ince, a wildfire tore through the Vall D’Ebo, threatening homes and ravaging a further 12,000 hectares before it too was finally brought under control last Friday. Spain’s govern ment said Monday it would classify re gions struck by big wildfires this year as disaster zones, a move that will trigger measures.financialsubsidiesemergencyandothersupport Standing in front of the skeletons of charred trees in Bejis, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez (pictured inset) acknowledged the ‘psycho logical blow’ suffered by those who had lost their belongings to the flames, as well as the huge en vironmental damage.
TWO different areas of the Co munidad de Valencia have been declared ‘disaster zones’ following the worst wildfires to hit the re gion in at least a decade. Hot dry winds fuelled a blaze cen AWE: Firefighters tackle a blaze in Castellon while (right) PM Sanchez declares disaster zones and (below) an Olive Press reporter caught on camera a wall of flames as they raced towards the A-23 and the villages of Toras, Viver and Teresa tring around Bejis in eastern Va lencia forcing the evacuation of around 2,200 people and destroy ing close to 20,000 hectares before it was brought under control on Sunday. Flames For six days teams of firefighters battled a wall of flames that stretched across a perimeter of 138 ki lometres sending a smoke plume that was visible all the way to Ibiza.
Spanish police bust notorious drug trafficker known as the Reina de Ronda, who inspired best-selling book CRIMESOARING
Dog’s dinner of a row
Pitch perfect ARTIFICIAL soccer pitch es in 13 Alicante Prov ince municipalities will be renewed at a total cost of €2.3 million. Areas to benefit include Almoradi, Orihuela, Santa Pola, and Torrevieja.
CRIMEwww.theolivepress.es August 25th - September 7th 20222 NEWS IN BRIEF
A MAN was stabbed 10 times after going to his neighbour’s house to complain about his barking dogs. The two men from the Murcia town of Labrilla had a run ning battle for months over the issue and things turned ug lier during their latest confrontation. The neighbours started fighting during a midnight con frontation, with the dog owner grabbing a ham knife and stabbing the complainant multiple times. The injured man underwent emergency surgery while the aggressor has been arrested.
Vax Call AROUND 720 ‘at risk’ people in the Valencian Community are getting text messages calling them in for a monkeypox vacci nation. They are mainly men with existing HIV conditions.
A FORMER Alicante trans port company driver stole a fuel discount card to defraud his ex-employer of €60,000 in just two months. The man knew the firm’s shift patterns and made a copy of a key to his former Hetruck.nipped in when the ve hicle was parked and would grab the discount card for a few hours before returning it. ‘Clients’ used the card to re fuel, before returning the card to the man who they paid €1 a litre in cash .
fraudsterFuel
New look A €350,000 contract has been advertised to re vamp Formentera del Se gura’s main street. Work on improving Avenida de Los Pacios will include wider pavements and new car parking spots.
REPORTED crimes in Ali cante Province have gone up by 24.6% in the first half of 2022, compared to the same period last year. The total number of crim inal offences was 43,438 between January and June, compared to 34,857 in 2021. Eight killings took place in the first six months - three of them being the schoolboy shooting of his parents and brother in Elche. The overall figures are sim ilar to the first half of 2019 with the next two years see ing the Covid pandemic and various lockdown and late night travel restrictions.
Speedy haul A driver jumped a Guardamar stop sign on Sunday and sped off to Rojales at 180 kms an hour. Two police cars eventually caught him and found 244 items of fake branded clothing in his vehicle.
QUEEN OF THE SOUTH
By Fiona Govan NABBED: Maria del Mar Mellado A NOTORIOUS drug trafficker dubbed the Queen of Ronda has been busted by police in LegendaryMadrid. Maria del Mar Mellado, 38, ran a network of mules bringing in cocaine from the Caribbean, while leading a double life as an out-of-work Basedbeautician.outof sleepy Cuevas del Becerro, near Ronda, her drug trafficking empire recruited dozens of local unemployed people to smuggle from the Dominican Republic. The class A drugs, mostly imbibed in condoms, was then processed in Ron da and distributed across ToSpain.keep her cover and instill good feeling locally, she helped pay for local sports facilities as well as donating huge sums to pay for the town’s Three Kings parade at Christmas. She also distributed toys to needy children around the Ron da Knownarea. to police she was pre viously arrested in 2012, when she was handed an 11 year sen tence, getting out a couple of years ago. She is now back behind bars after police recently tracked a woman who had acted suspi ciously while on a commercial flight from Colombia. Believing her to be carrying cocaine, police followed the woman from Madrid airport to a contact in the city. From there she was given an address to make her delivery and it was there that police rec ognized the ‘well-known drug trafficker nicknamed the Queen of PoliceRonda’.said that in addition to the 11kilos of cocaine smuggled, they found a hidden compart ment in Maria’s car containing €23,000 in cash as well as six encrypted phones. Her earlier arrest in 2012 was the inspiration behind Arturo Perez Reverte’s bestselling book Reina del Sur - Queen of the South - which has been made into a hit TV series and movie.
ByEXCLUSIVEJonClarke earliest memories included his father speaking of his ha tred of Franco. “His tone was shocking be cause he was the most loving and gentle of humans. Yet loathing for Franco poured from him. He carried a debili tating wound, of the spirit not the “Mybody.father's life had been devastated by the Spanish conflict. As a supporter of the government in 1936, he had fought against the rebels. In January 1939, as the govern ment side was stumbling to defeat, he crossed the Pyre nees into exile.”
Luvee to see you Extra time autographs and photo selfies.Ashiscar window came down, a man grabbed his arm and snatched his watch before running away.The player ini tially tried to chase down the thief himself be fore thereturnedarrestmadepoliceanandwatch.
HOLLYWOOD superstar Richard Gere has brought a sprinkling of stardust to Spain this summer. The 72-year-old joined fellow Hollywood A-lister An tonio Banderas at Marbella’s Starlite Festival. They were the big names at the 13th edition of the fes tival’s charity gala - founded by Banderas and busi nesswoman Sandra García-Sanjuan - which raises cash for good causes. During the event, tenor Andrea Bocelli was awarded for his foundation’s work in helping the poor in Italy. Gere's wife, Alejandra Silva, was also awarded for collaborating with charities including Open Arms and the Rais Foundation.
Former UK minister celebrates his 40th wedding anniversary and retraces his father’s steps during his civil war escape from Spain
BARCELONA star Robert Lewandowski had a nasty welcome to his new life in Spain. The Polish star, who has just signed for the Catalan out fit, had a €70,000 watch ripped off his arm when arriving for a himproachedfanswhenhappenedcidentThesession.traininginaptoget
REVELLERS in Ibiza got a surprise when Brit ish star Robbie Williams got up on stage during aTheconcert.crooner joined his pals Flynn Francis and Tim Metcalfe, whose band Lufthaus were per forming at brand new venue 528 Ibiza. “It was a dream come true to have one of the world’s most successful artists at our new ven ue,” explained venue boss Andy McKay.
Dream come true
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FOOTSTEPS: Portillo following his father’s trail
“I feel delighted that the hard work that so many peo ple do is recognised,” said Silva.
momentsLandmark
Today, life has come full cir cle for the Portillos, with Mi chael spending a lot of time in Spain, where he chose to cele brate his 40th wedding anni versary recently with family and friends. He and his wife, recruitment consultant, Caroyln Eadie, have owned a charming townhouse in evocative Car mona, near Sevilla, for over a decade. Children “I’ve known my wife since we were small children, so the 40 years is only the married bit,” he Thesaid.couple were unable to have children after she de veloped cancer early in the Hismarriage.father died in 1993 in London, but was buried in Madrigal, in Avila, where he has a grave. The Pyrenees with Michael Portillo started on Channel 5 last week
TOGETHER: The Portillo family A TEAM of firefighters battling flames in Aragon have shared a vid eo of them giving water to a roe deer and soothing its burns, providing a heartwarming moment during the horror of yet another wildfire. The fawn was dehydrated and suf fering mild burns after running from the burning forest in a blaze in Mon cayo, in the province of Zaragoza. This summer has been the worst in terms of forest fires on record with more than 270,000 hectares already devastated by flames across Spain. Bambi saved
IT has been a landmark year for former British government minister Mi chael Portillo. As well as celebrating his 40th wedding anniversary in Andalucia, he has been trav elling around the Pyrenees learning about his father’s escape from Spain after the bloody civil war. In a four-part series, The Pyrenees, he revisits how his father Luis, a left-wing academic at Salamanca Uni versity, was forced to flee his homeland. Despite not fighting for the losing Republican side, he was a staunch supporter un like his six brothers, who all fought for the victor, dictator ItFranco.meant a long and tricky journey to escape the new regime that executed tens of thousands of Republicans af ter winning in 1939. His son, who served as a Tory minister, in the government of Margaret Thatcher and lat er John Major, has now paid tribute to his father walking stretches of the Pyrenees that he took. “I hope he might think that my coming here is a tribute to him and his sacrifice,” he ex plains in one episode. “The Spanish Civil War hung over us like a big, black cloud every day, and his sadness of a potential unrealised.” He revealed in 2009 that his
quences of the irresponsible ‘prank’ could be deadly. “We haven’t had any cases of drug-facilitated sexual assault. All of the tests of women who reported being needle spiked were nega Shetive.” added: “We are cur rently investigating what the perpetrators’ motivation is, but it always happens in crowded places. Drowsy “They are not an organised group. The perpetrators come from different back grounds and have different “Butmotivations.weare taking this very seriously and need to stress the dangers to people,” she Meanwhile,added. a Professor of Forensic Toxicology from Santiago de Compostela University, Angelines Cruz, warned that as the same needles are probably being used on different victims, there's a danger that serious
The President of the Associ ation of Nightclubs, Daniel Espasses, 33, told the Olive Press that a protocol has been put into place in order to stop this ‘viral challenge’. “When a case is detected, we immediately contact the po lice, they arrive at the club with an ambulance to carry out the first test and then another test is made at a hospital,” he said.
While a Guardia Civil inves tigator confirmed they are still searching for ‘definitive motives’, she revealed it ap pears to have started out as an online ‘challenge’. The Madrid investigator, Maria Luisa Calcerrada told the Olive Press that, incred ibly, none of the 96 cases in volved drugs. But, she added, the conse “Ten minutes later I col lapsed feeling drowsy and with a feeling that I would do whatever I was told.”
forPininghome
A HOMESICK teen age Ukrainian refugee was intercepted on a long-distance coach after his worried mother con tacted police in Valencia. The boy, 16, ran away from his new home and sent a text message tell ing her about his deci sion. His mother went to the police and told offi cers that he had boarded a coach at Valencia’s bus station to take him back to Ukraine. Identified Police identified the coach the boy was on and discovered that it was still in Spain. It was making a rest stop in northern Catalunya at La Junquera- close to the French border. A call was made to La Junquera police who boarded the coach and took the teenager into protective custody.
NEWSwww.theolivepress.es August 25th - September 7th 20224
Health boss warns that idiotic viral challenge attackers could spread HIV and hepatitis diseases like hepatitis and HIV can be transmitted. But she also does not be lieve that drugging or sexual abuse is the motive. “To drug someone with a needle, the perpetrator needs a lot of time to inject the drug,” she explained. “Also, the effect is not imme diate, so it makes no sense to me that this technique is used to override their will.” She concluded: “Now that the perpetrators know that they are committing a crime, they will think twice before doing it.”
WHO’S BEHIND YOU? Clubbers need to be aware EXCLUSIVE By Jorge Hinojosa
Needle pricks!
“I believe that clubs are still safe for women, our staff know what to do in case a woman is pricked or is spiked in a club, also there are a lot of cameras that are monitoring what’s going on the premises,” he added. Despite the police re ports that no one has been drugged, several victims have reported feeling woozy after being pricked, suggest ing Miriamotherwise.Alba, 20, wrote on Twitter that she was a victim of needle spiking in a Barce lona club. She said: “Someone pricked me in the thigh. As soon as I realised it, I ran to the bouncer who helped me and sat me on a sofa.
AN alarming summer craze for pricking unsuspecting partygoers with needles could spread Hepatitis and HIV, an expert has warned the Olive Press There is no official data on the number of victims spiked, but already it is into the Andaluciahundreds.alone has seen a shocking 96 possible cases of ‘hypodermic needle spik ing’ with dozens more re ported in Valencia and the Balearic Islands. The Spanish press has spec ulated that the spikings could be attempts to drug young women to later sexu ally assault them. However, an Olive Press in vestigation has found that this is unlikely, with police sources revealing that it ap pears to be part of a ‘danger ous prank that started in the UK’ last year.
Opinion Page 6
alarmLegionnaires
Good riddance
By Jorge Hinojosa
OLIVE growers in the Va lencian Community are set to forgo this year’s harvest as the costs of olive-picking and making olive oil are too Extremehigh. weather conditions in the last four months have caused a massive fall in the number of available olives.
VALENCIAN Community hos pitality businesses lead Spain’s coastal regions when it comes to sustainability. The findings come in a survey compiled by non-profit recy cling entity Ecovidrio. The overall sustainability index for the Valencian Communi ty was 70.8%. Seven out of 10 Valencian establishments are already applying measures in areas like waste management, energy consumption, and water Someusage. 3,469 businesses were surveyed in the region as part of the ‘I Barometer’ on hospitality sustainability on the coast.
Luis Julian Perez from the Va lencian Association of Farmers told the ABC newspaper: “In some inland regions of Valen cia such as Utiel-Requena there is no harvest, or there will be so little that it will not be feasible to collect it. “The wages of the pickers and oil mill charges would cost more than the price obtained for such a small quantity of olives,” he added.
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EXCLUSIVE: Possible outbreak of lethal disease in Spain after an expat is rushed to hospital
disasterHarvest
A HUGE pile of 45,000 dumped mattresses will finally be removed from Santa Pola’s eco-park for recycling. They are being taken away by the ecoAqua company, which runs Europe’ only mattress recycling plant 100km away at TheOntinyent.mattresses have been ac cumulating for 10 years and have been mostly picked up from roadside bins. The Olive Press previously reported that Santa Pola saw 13,000 dumped by refuse con tainers in just one year. And nearby Torrevieja coun cil revealed 9,000 mattresses were dumped around the city in just three months. Where the mattresses were coming from remained a mys tery, although the suspicion was that professional furniture companies from around the region were simply dumping them rather than pay for them to be recycled. It will take around eight months to recycle all of the Santa Pola mattresses.
A BRITISH expat is fighting for his life after contracting Le gionnaires Disease. Richard Dickman, 80, was rushed to Marbella’s Costa del Sol hospital after being diag nosed with the potentially le thal disease. At least two more people have also been affected by the out break, the hospital confirmed on Dickman’sTuesday.family believe he caught the bacterial infection near his home in La Cala de Mijas and have appealed to the Olive Press to try and identify the source. His daughter confirmed that at least one other patient is also being treated at the same hos pital, while a further outbreak happened in Almeria last week.
sustainableVery
“He started to feel sick on August 12 at home, and after collapsing he was admitted to hospital four days later,” she told the Olive Press this week. She added that her dad, who has lived in Spain for a decade, hadn’t ‘been to a lot of plac es’ before contracting it so it should be possible to trace the Sheoutbreak.knows one other neigh bour who also contracted the illness and is being treated at the same Legionnaires’hospital.disease is a se vere form of pneumonia - lung inflammation usually caused by infection. It’s caused by a bacteria known as legionella, often from stagnant water. She is particularly angry that he had received a visit from a doctor from a private medical service four times before being admitted to hospital. “I can’t see any improvements in my dad’s health, it’s very worrying,” she said. It is not the first case of Legion naires detected at the Hospital Costa del Sol over the last few weeks. Investigating “We have detected more cas es and the Spanish Ministry of Health is currently investi gating it.” a press officer con firmed to the Olive Press. The first outbreak in Europe took place in a Benidorm ho tel in 1980 - when half of the guests, around 150 people, got sick with four of them dying. The guests picked up the ill ness from piped water. One person died, a 68-year-old journalist, and 14 others were hospitalised after an outbreak at Benalmadena ice rink in 2007.
SPA TOWN: was once popular then flooded for reservoir fate when the valley was flooded in 1956 to create the Cijara Yetreservoir.nowits 16 mude jar arches stretch across a parched dust bowl having reemerged after one of the driest summers Itsever.buttresses rise from the cracked earth supporting a 225 metres pathway that crosses from nowhere to nothing, over little more than a few murky puddles after the reservoir lost some 90% of its Thewater.story is repeated across the Iberian peninsula where cli
2 - Too much fiesta Whether it’s your local town fiesta or a random late night concert, the party in August never stops! Sadly, this may result in a constant resaca’ (hangover), which tends to ‘calentar la cabeza’ (heat the head) and makes peo ple very unreasonable. Drinking in the sun doesn’t help.
NEWS FEATUREwww.theolivepress.es6 HEAD OFFICE Carretera Nacional 340, km 144.5, Calle Espinosa 1, Edificio cc El Duque, planta primera, 29692, Sabinillas, Manilva NEWSDESK: 0034 951 273 575 For all sales and advertising enquiries please contact 951 27 35 75 ADMIN Sandra Aviles Diaz (+34) 951 273 575 admin@ theolivepress.es OFFICE MANAGER Héctor Santaella (+34) 658 750 424 accounts@ theolivepress.es DISTRIBUTIONENQUIRIES (+34) 951 273 575 distribution@ theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain OPINION A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month. Deposito Legal MA 1650-2019 AWARDS Best expat paper in 2016Spain-2020 Best2020English language publication in Google2012Andalucia-2022NewsInitiativegivestheOlivePressasubstantialgrant. PUBLISHER / EDITOR Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es Alex Trelinski alex@theolivepress.es Jo SimonChipchaseWade simon@theolivepress.es Cristina Hodgson cristina@theolivepress.es Fiona Govan fiona@theolivepress.es Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es George Mathias george@theolivepress.es Jorge Hinojosa jorge@theolivepress.es Keep them safe THE huge surge in supposed needle-spiking cas es experienced in bars and nightclubs across Spain this summer is worrying on so many levels and is the latest in the long list of potential dan gers facing women when they go out to have a good Authoritiestime. appear to be taking it seriously but there is so much mystery surrounding the cases that it isn’t clear what the motives are or wheth er, in fact, there really is a new danger lurking. Experts seem to think it a highly unfeasible way to surreptitiously administer the volume of date rape drug required to render a victim helpless and to do it without being caught in the act, while police and hospital reports seem to back that up. Very few victims of suspected jabbings, not only in Spain, but in France and the UK where this sort of crimewave first emerged, have tested positive to any drugs. And no suspects have ever been However,arrested.there is anecdotal evidence of people experiencing drowsiness and even black-outs and memory loss accompanied by what appear to be puncture wounds to the skin.
4 - Bad driving Motorists hurtling to OVERLOADED: Cars bound for Morocco
5 - School’s out… seemingly forever Back in June, you couldn’t wait for the kids to break up for summer, imagining the family fun you could have! Now, after a few trips to the waterpark and some fraught days out at the beach, you can’t wait for school to restart. And why must we wait until the second week of September with the purse completely emp ty? Of course we mustn’t forget to mention the teens moaning endlessly, having crawled out of bed at 2pm.
6 - Rude waiting staff Cooking in the heat isn’t fun, so why not visit the local restaurant? Unfortunately, everyone else who didn’t decide to head north on July 15, for six weeks, had the same idea. So it’s hard to find a table, the waiters are rushed off their feet, and the prices have seemingly gone up by 20%. After that, it takes 30 minutes to get a drink and then, after forgetting your or der, the starters and main courses all turn up together. Of course, the bill has plenty of er rors and, when you point this out, the waiters are openly hostile.
FROM
MEDIEVAL: Arches at the Cijara reservoir have reappeared
BOILING OVER Feeling the heat? Hot under the collar? Jo Chipchase picks her Awful 8 things that make August Spain’s ‘mad month’ partying outside your house until the early hours, oblivious that you have work at 9am, is another. And then just when you finally drift off to sleep, some one throws a ‘petardo’ (banger) down your street.
WELL you’ve made it this far… and only a week to go. Be content that the majority of heatwaves are behind us and the so-called ‘mad month’ of August is nearly at an end. But beware; it’s usually now, during the final throes of the long hot summer, that the real ‘mala leche’ (or bad milk) starts to come to the boil. A month of extreme heat, traffic jams and pushy city dwellers demand ing perfect speedy service is when the locals’ tempers start to fray. And when the hot and humid days combine with a full moon - as happened on August 12 – the loco vibe is at its worst. Here are our eight forms of madness on the Costas.
Questions remain as to whether targeted victims are being dosed for nefarious motives or in some sort of sick craze designed to sow terror. Others consider that it’s all an urban myth, a so cial panic gripping an anxiety-ridden generation as they emerge from a pandemic. Whatever the truth, it is having the very real ef fect of promoting a climate of fear. Women already have to be wary of so many things on a night out, from unwanted attention to sexual predators spiking their drinks or following them home. Every case should be taken seriously and night clubs should step up efforts to promote a safe environment. As reservoirs dry up, long lost ancient sites are revealed, writes Fiona Govan ACROSS Spain archaeological trea sures are emerging from the deep as a prolonged drought causes res ervoir levels to drop to their lowest in Thedecades.severe drought parching Spain this summer is proving disastrous for farmers and has forced water restrictions on urban areas, but for those who enjoy seeking out historical sites there is a surprising silver Fromlining.a Roman fort in Galicia to the Stone henge of Extremadura and a medieval church in Catalunya, the Olive Press takes a closer look at long lost treasures exposed by receding waters. In Extremadura, a flock of sheep find shade from the sizzling glare of the midday sun beneath the arches of a medieval bridge, a 14th century structure lost to a watery mate change has left reservoirs at their driest in 1,200 years, and winter rains are expected to diminish further, a study pub lished last month by the Nature Geosci ence journal showed. Just outside the sleepy town of Peralêda de la Mata, a clutch of megalithic stones now rise up on a muddy shelf laid bare by the receding water; an archaeological site dubbed the ‘Stonehenge of Spain’. Dating back 5,000 years, the circle of granite menhirs are all that remains of a sun temple built by Bronze Age man on the banks of the Tagus River in Caceres prov Valuedince. as a site of interest by the Romans, the stones had been ignored until the 1920s, when a visiting German priest with a keen interest in amateur archaeology made detailed sketches and sent the most moveable material back to a museum in his home city of Munich. So undervalued were the stones, many of which had fallen from their upright position to lie forlornly in the mud, that in 1963, officials in the Franco regime thought little of flooding the area to create a vast water reserve.
OOPS: Road madness descends
SECRETS
3 - Lack of sleep Aside from the heat and humidity which is a key cause of insomnia, the amount of people wards you on your side of the road, people who refuse to reverse, motorway tailgaters, and tiny cars blocking the entrance to your property. And then, of course, you’ve got the Moroccan tourists returning home for the summer from England, France and Germany, loaded up with goods on the roof and exhaust ed after a steady 12 hours of driving non stop. Never take your eyes off them!
1 - Water disputes As water gets increasingly scarce and streams and taps dry up, neighbours can frequently be found screaming at each other, perhaps because someone took their ‘acequia’ (wa tercourse) water at the wrong time of day or inserted a pipe without permission.
8 - Vital businesses being closed Your car has developed an annoying fault that needs fixing right now, but your mechanic is obviously away or on the beach with his family. Meanwhile, your bank manager has gone hiking with his friends, and the town hall and public offices are basically shut for anything important you might need. You’ll just have to wait for Sep tember 1.
TIP OF THE ICEBERG
NOT one, not two, but three great in vestigations in this week’s paper. And then there are the exclusive leads on pages 2 and 3 and our doz en or more features on everything from the severe drought to the anniversary of Spain’s little-known explorer Elcano. Yes, the Olive Press is full of content. And known for it around the country and abroad.Butwhat you are reading here is just the tip of the Theseiceberg.are merely the main stories from the last few days. Looking for current, up-to-the-minute news ev ery day then you will need to use our website. Every day, our team of nearly 20 journalists and writers scattered around Spain are reporting on the things that matter here. Be it the terrifying, fast-moving fires, a new law passed or the arrival of a famous politician or sportsman, you can be sure to find out first in the Olive Press online. And there is much, much more content on museums to visit, exhi bitions launching and musical extravaganzas. Our archive alone is already tens of thou sands of articles published since we launched in 2006. We aim to ensure that anyone reading www. theolivepress.es will be the best informed expat or tourist visit ing TakeSpain.alook, you’ll definitely be inspired.
EXCLUSIVE
3 - 2,500 evacuated as wildfire hits Spain’s Zaragoza and Alicante
The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks are:
WATERY GRAVE: The Roman camp churchQuerquennisAquisand(below)thethatwasattheheartofSantRomadeSau
ANCIENT: Megalithic stones at Peraleda de la Mata
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7 - Queues for everything August means queues – whether it’s for a pop ular visitor attraction, a viewpoint to take that Instagram snap, or a visit to the public toilet. This doesn’t improve anyone’s mood, particularly as the Spanish aren’t very good at doing it and fre quently barge ahead of you.
4 - Map images from space show in real time where wildfires raging in Spain
The all but forgotten site made headlines during the exceptionally long hot summer of 2019 when the megalithic stone circle emerged for the first time since the valley was flooded. After garnering international press attention, Spain took steps to issue cultural protection status which was grant ed only after the menhirs had once again disappeared when the reservoir filled with the autumn rains. Now again they appear in what, with global warming, could become an annual occur
The remains of a vast Roman camp can now be viewed once more
5 - General weather forecast in Spain’s Anda lucia for the rest of the summer
2 - 1500 people evacuated as worst fire in a decade rages in Alicante province area of Spain
“We are in a particularly dry year, a very difficult year that confirms what climate change scenarios have been highlighting,” Energy Minister Teresa Ribera confirmed earlier this month. At the Buendia reservoir, just east of Ma drid in Guadalajara, the ruins of a spa town made popular for its restorative waters during the reign of Isabella II in the early 19th century have reappeared, caked in dried mud. For half a century, the once elegant resort on the banks of the Tagus served as a getaway for Madrid’s wealthy bourgeois, until it fell into neglect once trips to the beach became more popular. It too suffered a watery fate under the Fran co regime’s rampant reser voir Hundredsscheme.of villages across Spain were sent to a watery grave and their residents forcibily evicted during Fran co’s mass construction of a network of reservoirs. The projects brought not only the loss of towns, villages and sites of historical interests but also human trage dy with several disasters resulting in mass deaths, events which were covered up by the totalitarian regime. A reminder of such acts of destruction in the name of progress emerged earlier this month at a dam just north of Barcelona. Little by little, the bell tower of a ninth-cen tury Romanesque church appeared from the receeding waters revealing the fully intact building that was once at the heart of the community of Sant Roma de Sau be fore it was flooded in the 1960s. But nowhere has the reveal been quite so impressive as at a reservoir in Ourense province in Galicia. Here, the archaeological remains of a vast Roman camp can now be viewed in their entirety. Known as Aquis Querquennis, the vast site once served as a fort and military barracks for Roman legions during the building of the Via Nova road until it was abandoned around 120 AD. For nearly two millennia the once im portant military outpost lay forgotten until the 1920s when local archaeologist Florentino Lopez Cuevillas rediscovered the site and ex cavations began. But in 1949 the valley near Os Baños in Ourense province was earmarked as one of the first sites in the reservoir project and the area was flooded to form the As Con chas Reservoir. As a result only parts of the site, which measures 2,5 hectares in total, are usually visible depending on the water level at dif ferent times of year.
EURO MONTHLY NEWS
www.theolivepress.es 7August 25th - September 7th 2022 Get in touch today at sales@theolivepress.es or call us at 00 34 951273575 for more info
Arence.prolonged dry spell and extreme heat made July the hottest month in Spain since at least 1961 and August may well follow into the record books. Spanish reservoirs are at just 40% of ca pacity on average in early August, well be low the ten-year average of around 60%, official data shows.
THE DEEP
1 - Secrets from the deep as reservoirs dry up across Spain long lost ancient sites are revealed
LIGHTS PLANS
AN Asian Algae now declared an ‘invasive species’ is causing havoc on native biodiversity. In just a year it has spread 400 kilometres along Spanish coastlines, costing local coun cils millions in cleaning beach es and, even worse, destroying local sea meadows. These are crucial parts of the ecosystem that are a haven for marine life. Rugulopteryx Okamurae is a species of brown seaweed na tive to the Pacific Ocean that mainly inhabits the coasts of Japan, China and Korea. Experts suspect that it arrived on Spanish shores through the ballast that ships dump when they arrive in port. Its presence was detected in Spain for the first time off the Spanish enclave of Ceuta on the North African Coast. Its advance, at breakneck speed, has allowed it to cov er 400 kilometres in a single year from the Strait of Gibral tar – 200 km in the direction of Malaga and 200km in the direction of Portugal.
GREENwww.theolivepress.es August 25th - September 7th 20228 +34 951 120 830 | gogreen@mariposaenergia.es | www.mariposaenergia.es 100% Certified Green Energy Reduce your energy bill Switch to our 100% Green Energy Save even more money with our solar PV panel installations! Generate your own electricity Solar PV Panels Simply send us a recent bill & we will calculate how much you can save. Get a quote today Contact us today Martin Tye is the owner of energy switch company Mariposa Energy. +34 638 145 664 ( Spain Phone ) Email him at martin@mariposaenergia.es When will we see the elephant in the room removed? N O not the 1999 Stanley Kubrick film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kid Iman.refer to the inactivity of the world’s leaders who refuse to see something in plain Theview.effects of climate change are reported constantly in all the media. Not just here in EYES WIDE SHUT CAPTION the Olive Press, but in all newspapers, TV channels, and radio stations. Excuse the pun, but it really is a ‘hot topic’.
Asian algae taking over Spanish waters It has also been found in the Canary Islands where re searchers have warned of its danger to the marine ecosys tem of the archipelago. Now towns on the Costa del Sol are having to spend huge amounts of money in an effort to combat the species. Estepona, near Marbella has so far removed more than 3,000 tonnes of invasive algae from By Dilip Kuner beaches at a cost of €1 mil lion. The problem is spread ing rapidly along the Costa del Sol with fears that it will reach Murcia, Valencia and the Bale ares as soon as next year.
SPAIN’S cities are having to play catch-up with Valencia in trying to get people out of cars and onto two wheels. The city has seen a 21% rise in people using its cycle lanes between January and July this year compared to 2021. The Xativa to Russafa section is the busiest with a daily average of 7,996 users. Valencia has around 170 kilometres of bike lanes with a new 2.1 kilometre section being built on Avenida del Cid and another 5 kilo metres in the pipeline. The cycle network received praise from the OCU Consumer Organisation. A 2020 bicycle users study rated Valencia as the best city in Spain to get around by bike or scooter and this year, the OCU gave the city a five-star cy cling rating.
A report from Global Forest Watch last week stated that in the past 12 months, around 16 football pitches of trees PER MINUTE were lost to forest fires. This is twice the amount of tree cover burnt compared to 20 years ago. Last year alone a for ested area the size of Portugal was lost. Fires are becoming more frequent, and more severe, and as a consequence stored carbon is unlocked. Trees and soil store carbon dioxide. This is one of the key gas es warming our atmo Thesphere.United Nations says that the outlook for forest fires in the decades to come is Itgrim.forecasts an expect ed increase of 50% in extreme fires by the end of this century. Apart from fires, deforestation continues to increase. Last year in the Brazilian Amazon the losses caused by agricultural clearance and logging were the highest in the past de Deforestationcade. changes local and regional cli mates and removes a lot of the evapotranspi ration that helps keep temperatures low and more humid. So cutting down these forests is actually making them hotter and drier, and makes them more prone to fires. None of this is rocket science. The reality is staring us in the face. When will we see the elephant in the room removed? Sadly, I don’t think it will be in my lifetime.
CAPTION
ALIEN INVASION
A POPULAR Spanish city is hoping to save up to 79” of its power consumption by switching all its street light ing to BenidormLEDs.council has award ed a €2.5 million contract for phase two of an Energy Effi ciency project, which will see lights renewed in the Levante and Poniente areas. Some 3,512 light points and 55 control centres will be converted. The network will have the flexibility to change the power and intensity of the lights when needed. Phase one of the project cost over €2 million, and covered the Old Town area as well the Foietes-Colonia Madrid and Imalsa-Els Tolls districts. That phase saw 2,379 LED lights installed.
Green MattersBy Martin Tye
Pedal power
ANCIENT: Standing stones are impressive Vanguard visit valid for 12 months with the objective to inspire a new generation of art lov ers while also giving a much needed boost to artistic and cultural centres that are still recovering from the Covid Applicationspandemic.can be made through the bonoculturajoven.gob.es website.
The owner of the La Torre-La Janera farm in the province of Huelva had asked the Jun ta de Andalucia permission to grow the lucrative crop, which was given on the con dition a full archaeological survey was done on the site. Now this survey has borne fruit of a rather different sort envisaged by the farm er, including 526 menhirs (standing stones) plus nu merous dolmens, burial mounds, two ‘observatories’ and a wealth of other an cient andto-interpretationsurvey,necropolises.(tholoi),threemenhirs,onlyOriginally,material.archaeologistshadevidenceoftwofivedolmens,circularburialareasaquarryandfourButthenewwhichincludedphoofsatelliteaerialimages,aswell as the use of LiDAR (laser) data, revealed a much richer archaeological world. Experts from the universi ties of Huelva and Alcala de Henares describe this complex - which began to be erected at the end of the sixth millennium B.C. and was maintained for almost 3,000 years - as ‘unique’. The farm is located on the left bank of the Guadiana River, around the Monte Gordo hill. The article El sitio megalíti co de La Torre-La Janera (Huelva): monumentali dades prehistoricas del Bajo Guadiana outlines the finds. Most of the menhirs (up to 260) are concentrated in 26 alignments and two stone circles. The alignments, from one to six rows, can reach 250 metres in length. They were all built on slopes or Thesummits.stonecircles were built ‘on the tops of hills with a clear horizon towards the rising sun’ aligned during equinox and solstice, ac cording to the report. In addition, numerous dolmens, tumuli and cists (stone lined graves) have been detected. Isolated The dolmens have been found both isolated and grouped together. One of them has a chamber 3.50 metres long, almost a metre wide and a circular tumulus surrounding it with a diam eter of seven metres. The study was carried out as part of the general research project Menhigua. Menhirs and megaliths in the Lower Guadiana . The work began at the end of 2021 and will continue until 2027, when it is planned to conclude anal ysis of the site.
PROTECTING AGAINST VOLATILITY This kind of volatility can cause some nasty surprises if you need to transfer money overseas. On a £200,000 transfer, just a onecent gap translates to a €2,000 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 dif ferent tools to help you navigate the ups and downs of the cur rency market. For instance, you can use a forward contract to secure an ex change 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 ded icated account manager there to provide guidance and support whenever 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.
SOME 180,000 people have already applied for the €400 youth culture Thevoucher.Ministry of Culture is handing out the ‘bono’ to youths who turn 18 to spend on cultural activities and prod Theucts. application period opened on July 25 and ends on October 15, with around half a million people eligible. Called the Bono Cultural Joven, it is A SCHEME to plant a 600 hectare avocado plantation has led to the discovery of one of the biggest megalithic sites in Europe, dating back some 7,000 years.
LA CULTURA August 25th - September 7th 2022 9 Discover hassle-fre currency transfers WANT TO SAVE TIME AND MONEY ON YOUR CURRENCY TRANSFERS? CALL, EMAIL OR VISIT US IN BRANCH! LA CalleZENIASalvador Dalí, No 6, Playa Flamenca, Orihuela Costa, La Zenia, Alicante, 03189 AvenidaLA+34costablanca@currenciesdirect.com965994830MARINAdeLóndres1A,Local6,Urb La Marina San Fulgencio, La Marina, Alicante, 03177 CentroQUESADA+34costablanca@currenciesdirect.com965994830ComercialQuesadaCentro, Avda Las Naciones 24, Local 6A, Ciudad Quesada Rojales, Alicante, AvenidaMAZARRÓN+34quesada@currenciesdirect.com03170965994830losCovachos,Camposol B, Mazarrón, Murcia, AvenidaMOJÁCAR+34murcia@currenciesdirect.com30875968976383Mediterráneo341,Mojácar, Almería, +34mojacar@currenciesdirect.com04638950478914 Euro on the back foot GBP/EUR exchange rate firms on hawkish BoE rate hike bets THE past couple of weeks has seen the pound to euro (GBP/EUR) exchange rate fluctuate, before trending broadly higher in response to Bank of England (BoE) rate hike speculation. During this period we have seen GBP/EUR trade between a high of €1.1913 and a low of €1.1780.
returnColdplay
Cash for culture
me!
JAEN Cathedral has become the first church in Spain to of fer a 360º virtual visit The cathedral, considered by many to be one of the nation’s best, will be the first in the country to offer tourists a cul tural visit of the temple with 360º glasses, permitting a birds-eye view of the religious Thebuilding.virtual reality experience is the latest innovation from the Granada-based company artiSplendore. Images of the majestic cathedral have been recorded by different drone flights and merged into a spectacular audiovisual sim ulation experience, to be en joyed at the end of the tour of the cathedral.
Stone
MEGALITHIC SITE: One of the biggest in Europe
WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING? After taking a tumble at the start of the month as a result of the Bank of England’s (BoE) recession warning, the GBP/EUR ex change rate remained subdued through the second week of Au gust amid lingering concerns over the UK’s economic trajectory. Exacerbating these concerns was the publication of the UK’s latest GDP figures. While these reported a smaller-than-expect ed contraction in growth in the second quarter, they stoked fears the UK could slip into a recession in Q3. Meanwhile the euro traded in a wide range through this peri od. The single currency’s negative correlation with the US dollar prompting swings in the euro amid fluctuating USD exchange Therates.middle of August saw the pound mount a convincing recov ery with the publication of some high-impact UK data releases. The UK’s latest wage growth and inflation figures both printed above forecast, bolstering expectations the BoE will pursue a 50bps rate hike in September and strengthening Sterling sen Duringtiment. this time the euro was left on the back foot, in part due to Germany’s latest ZEW index, which reported sentiment in the Eurozone’s largest economy continued to deteriorate this Themonth.single currency’s upside potential also remained limited amid growing concerns that Europe will face a gas shortage this winter.
BRITISH band Coldplay will play the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona on May 24 and 23, after a seven year break from TicketsSpain. will be available from August 25 via Tick etmaster and Livenation websites costing from €50 to €150. The Music of the Spheres World Tour started in Costa Rica in March and includes six sold-out concerts at Wembley stadium in London.
One of Europe’s biggest megalithic sites discovered on planned avocado plantation
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO LOOK OUT FOR? Looking ahead, the immediate focus for GBP and EUR inves tors will be the publication of the latest UK and Eurozone PMI releases. If these report that private sector activity in the UK or Eurozone continued to weaken in August then their respective currencies could fall. In terms of data a key focus will also be the Eurozone’s upcoming consumer price index. August’s preliminary figures could propel the euro higher if they report inflation in the bloc continued to ac celerate this month. Another uptick in inflation is likely to increase the odds of another 50bps rate hike from the European Central Bank (ECB) at its next interest rate decision. However, any upside in EUR exchange rates may remain limited in the face of ongoing concerns over Europe’s energy security. Meanwhile, the final weeks of the Conservative leadership elec tion may infuse additional volatility into the pound. GBP investors will be paying particularly close attention to frontrunner Liz Truss for more clarity on how she will tackle the UK’s cost of living crisis as Prime Minister.
By Dilip Kuner
ning Shackets!breeze.This awful name means a combo of a shirt and jacket – it will be a top trend for autumn/winter. Choose a piece in neutral colours and a good cut for maximum combining possibili ties. On warm days, pair it with a classic t-shirt. As the weather cools, you can wear it with longer sleeves underneath, or a turtleneck, and finish with a soft scarf. Your shacket should be warm enough to be worn alone during au tumn, but also thin enough to be worn under a coat, making it a versatile op tion for winter layering. Leather jackets are also synonymous with autumn fashion and can give a cool (yet practical) twist to any outfit. Invest in one that has a nice fit with a tapered waist and some details such as chunky zippers or studding, and you can wear it for years. Paired with your favourite jeans and a t-shirt, or over a floaty dress, this is a winner for being trendy yet Footwearcomfortable.issomething to consider, as sandals will become redundant as the weather cools. A pair of fresh, white trainers remains a big trend for this year, so choose your favourites and wear them everywhere. White, however, is not ideal for those of us who live in the ‘ campo ’. For a harder-wearing option, choose Pal ladium, Doc Martens or Vans, which are funky and on-trend but also durable for walking on uneven terrain, without hurt ing your feet!
GeveRAB your broom stick, don your witches hat, it’s time to fly up to the bewitching mountain vil lage of Soportujar. The village, in the heart of the Alpujarra region, is rapidly get ting known as Spain’s village of spooky vibes. A sort of theme park based on ‘brujas’ (witches), the idea was cooked up by Soportujar’s coun cillors in 2006 to en courage tourism. Starting with a witch cave and fountain, they could never have imagined its run away success, now competing with the likes of Malaga’s smurf town, Juzcar, or the out door art destination of The name Soportujar means ‘place of arcades’ and refers to the over hanging passages and walkways (the tinaos) typical of La Alpujarra. But it also gained a reference to witchcraft during the 16th century, after the expulsion of the Moors, when King Felipe II repopulated the village with families from the north of Spain – mostly Asturias and Galicia. According to legend, these families brought their pagan customs, which included hold ing witches’ meetings, leading to them be ing branded ‘sorcerers’. It was out of this that the village, with a population of 270 souls, de cided to launch its first Feria del Embrujo (bewitching fair) in Celebrated2009. in August, it at tracts up to 20,000 visitors, while the village usually at tracts around 6,000 visitors weekly. Today they flock in to visit a serpent emerging from a wall, a Hansel & Gretel house, and an effigy of a female witch, Baba Yagá. The bizarre small house perched on huge chick en legs, is something special, for sure. “It has definitely created a real tourism hub, which saw us expanding from three busi How a small white village conjured up a wizard of an idea to pull in thousands of tourists each week, writes Jo Chipchase
BEWITCHING
AT HOME: Locals happy with scary neighbours
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‘Shackets’ will be the trend this season open knit cardigans for the evening - for a relaxed look - or a blazer to keep it Weardressy. your short summer dresses in the daytime over leggings or with an kle boots and cover your shoulders with a light denim jacket to combat the
AUTUMN
Fashion advice and styling can be found in The Armario de Freya, Calle Correo 1, Orgiva, 18418 Granada WITH the stifling summer heat and sauna-like humidity, it’s difficult to imagine that Au tumn is around the corner, but the leaves are already turning brown in the mountains so you need to think about Autumn. When it comes to dressing for success during the changing seasons in Spain, it’s all about layering. Yes! Layering is your best strategy to avoid dressing for the daytime, and being perfectly warm, then shivering during a night-time soiree and seeking a nearby beach towel or dog blanket to drape glamorous ly over yourself. It is the key for comfort for bridging day and Whennight! the nights cool down, don’t pack away your summer canimmediately.dressesYougainmorewearfromthembyteamingmaxidresseswithlong,chunky IS COMING!
Visitors flock to visit a serpent and witchfromemergingawall
Staying alive The initiative has encouraged 30 new peo ple to move to the village and combats an age ing population with fewLemos,Yolandachildren.schoolof La Cantina del Dragon restau rant, added: “My restau rant was born out of it. I start ed with a small store and ended up buying the house and expanding the business into a restaurant. “It’s great that the popu lation has stopped declin ing, many jobs have been created, and there’s now hope that the school won’t close. It has al lowed the village remaintoalive,andyoung people have decided to live and work Josehere.”Antonio Alvarez, who runs El Manjar Brujo souvenir shop, added: “It’s great for me, as I have a location where many peo ple walk past and there’s a lot of trade.” And now the town has even bigger plans for next year with some large, necessary infrastructure projects. “By 2023, big change is expected, with €1.7 million for infrastructure improve ments, such as better parking and better enhancement of the natural environment. Residents already enjoy a new gym and a swimming pool and more is to come. “Most residents are happy to see their vil lage full of people. Little by little, they are accepting that tourism is the new future of Soportujar.”
LA CULTURA Not just a gas station... Mini market • Café with pastries Cold drinks • Fresh bread daily Sweets • Ecological food Launderette • Gas bottles Amazon Locker • Carwash Telf. 958 785 125 C/. Fuente Mariano, 1 E.S. ÓRGIVA nesses in 2017 to 26 in 2022,” explained Jesus Martin of Soportujar town hall. The locals however are generally pleased that the project has helped stem a trend which had seen the village haemorrhaging its population for decades.
DRAWS:serpentWitches,anda‘gingerbread’house COVEN: A homewitchesfor
INFLATION in Spain rose to 10.8% in July - the high est rate since December Figures1984. from the Nation al Statistics Institute(INE) showed that despite signif icant falls in petrol prices, rising electricity and food costs led to a 0.6% increase over the June inflation rate. Some basic foods have risen by well over 20% in a year. Inflation has gone up for three consecutive months after a 1.5% fall in April. In May it climbed to 8.7% and reached 10.2% in June, de spite the introduction of a government price cap on gas and other initiatives to lower the rate. Core inflation (which does not include fresh food or en ergy) also went up by 0.6% in July to stand at 6.1% - the highest since January 1993. In regard to food, the INE said that basic products in the shopping basket such as oil have registered a rise of 28.6% in one year.
timetablePipeline
A NEW gas pipeline con necting Spain and France could be ready in ‘eight or nine months’, according to Ecological Transition Minister, Teresa Ribera. The pipeline is seen as a major way for European countries like France and Germany to counter ex pensive or disruptive sup plies from Russia. Emergency The line would run through the Catalunya region and the Pyrenees mountains. Ribera de scribed the situation as an ‘energy emergency’ for Europe as it looks to wean itself off Russian gas Sheflows.added that the pipe line plan would need ‘very important investment’ including the financial backing of the European Union.
READY: Teresa Ribera
By Alex Trelinski
ELECTRICITY usage in Spain fell by 3.7% in the first week of measures introduced by the government to reduce demand on gas generated energy. The European Union wants a 7% fall on gas demand in Spain to reduce energy dependency on Russia across the region. Spain’s target figure is over half of what most other EU mem ber states have to produce. The first week of the measures between August 8 and 14 saw a 3.7% fall compared to the pre vious week. That also coincided with an other major heatwave. Ecological Transition Minister, Teresa Ribera, said: “I thank everybody’s efforts as a whole to abide by the measures such as limiting air conditioning temperatures.”
Cash handoutTHE European Commission could give Morocco €500 mil lion to keep migrants out of the EU for the period of 2021 to The2027.two sides are set to reach an agreement that would be a 50% increase on the sum of €343 million for 2014 to 2020, according to a Commission Thesespokesman.funds will pay for inte gration and protection projects for refugees living in Morocco, forced returns and police coop eration to fight against organ
energySaving
Highest Euro zone annual inflation hit a new record high of 8.9% up from 8.6% in June, with the lowest rates seen in France, Malta (both 6.8%), and Finland (8.0%). The highest annual rates were recorded in Estonia (23.2%), Latvia (21.3%), and Lithuania (20.9%).
“While you have made some in roads, in particular with diet and exercise, you should be able to get that risk down to 2.9%,” insists MostlyHenrik.by giving up smoking, drink ing less and improving my good cholesterol, which would help me get there. He also gave me a help ful list of all the things I should be eating including beetroot, chick peas and fennel, as well as a tea spoon of vinegar every day. Well now summer is nearly over, I am going to give it a go.
Executive Health
BUSINESS August 25th - September 7th 202212
Eggs and milk are up by 22.5%; cereals 20%; and bread at almost 15%. Chick en is 16.3% more expensive than in July 2021, with other rises including fish (11.4%); beef (14.5%); fruit (15%); potatoes (13.5%); and coffee (12%).
Doctor Henrik, 47, is quick to offer improvements to your health, in particular with diet. The Dane, who moved to Spain with his wife Rikke and children a decade ago, is a big fan of a vegan, plant-based, wholefood diet, but accepts that most people will eat some meat and poultry. “But a mostly non-meat diet is the best way to tackle many issues, particularly digestive or stomach complaints,” he insists He claims that eating poultry in creases your risk of cancer (pan creatic cancer by 72%) and red meat is even worse for your health, with pork slightly better than lamb and beef.
READER HEALTH OFFER Executive Health clinic, which opened in Marbella in 2018, is offering the full body check up for €1,495, with a very special €500 discount for Olive Press readers, to make it just €995. “After all the COVID issues I am sure that many readers have not been getting their normal health checks at the local hospital,” says Henrik. “We want to encourage people not to ignore their health and we can do the same and a lot, lot more in a far safer environment.”
I HAD feared the worst after a trio of Covid vaccines and a week layed out with the virus in the Spring, following an Easter hol iday in London. A typical male hypochondriac, I was convinced I had picked up long Covid and was about to sink into a serious health slump. While my sense of smell and taste had come back, I still had a cough, a tight chest and had, strangely, lost some feeling in my arms. So I booked myself in for a full body MOT, a comprehensive med ical check to see how I had really weathered the pandemic and if there was anything untoward to worry about. The tests at Executive Health, in Marbella, included a detailed MRI exam of the pelvis, abdomen and thorax, as well as a detailed look at my heart and lungs and a full analysis of my urine, blood and poo to Comingboot.two years after my last full check-up at the clinic, I figured the results would be interesting. The main point, Dr Henrik Rein hard, a heart specialist, told me was to calm down and stop worry ing; I was not going to die. In actual fact, my health had im proved a little since I had taken a full check up in 2020. Partly due to the Danish doctor’s advice back then to eat less meat, cram in more vegetables and take more exercise, I was actually doing Inwell.particular, he cited my lung function which he found was 17% better than two years ago, while my blood pressure (at 112/70) was ‘like a young man in his twen Thatties’. said, there was plenty of room for improvement. I was still overweight (by an alarming five to six kilos, by his estimate) and my risk of developing cardiovascular disease over the next 10 years is 11.5% which is ‘too high’, in part thanks to the occasional cigarette.
A post Covid health check goes surprisingly well for Olive Press editor Jon Clarke at Marbella’s leading Executive Health clinic
FINE FETTLE: Jon’s blood pressure despite running a newspaper
HIGH-TECH: Dr. Reinhard uses state of the art equipment Contact Executive Health at info@executivehealth.es or www.executivehealth.esvisit
The significant annual health check needs to be booked in advance and depends on availability.
EAT YOUR WAY TO HEALTH
WHAT’S IN A TEST Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) combines a powerful mag netic field with radio frequencies to create detailed images of your internal organs and body structure. And this means checking all your organs, bones and tissues, with Henrik advising a five year check for the heart for anyone over 40, as well as an annual check for cancer. The tests only take a couple of hours and the results come back by the following week, including the lab results of the blood, urine and stool tests. The full body check is an excellent way to pick out abnormalities, in cluding damaged tissues, inflam mation, infection and, most impor tantly, “We’vecancer.found cancers, cardiovas cular disease and aneurysms in asymptomatic people, often young people who had no idea,” explains Henrik. “One of them recently was only 40 years old. “All the dangerous diseases have manifestations in the body and finding them is the concept of what we do here.”
Getting poorer
ON THE MEND!
ised criminals in the area. The European Commission is looking to sign similar deals with Algeria, the Gambia, Sen egal and Mauritania. With Rabat claiming it invests €435 million to stop the mi grant surge, it has pressed the EU hard for the €500 million figure. The sum is supplied by the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument of the EU (NDICI). The fund has a budget of €79.5 billion for 2021 to 2027, 13% more than the previous period.
Cost of food driving inflation up despite fall in petrol prices
Executive Essential Screening
In terms of drinking, a few glasses of wine are fine but try and have a couple of days of abstinence a week.
THE 024 national helpline to prevent suicides in Spain has saved 585 lives through direct interventions since opening in early May. Emergency teams went to see those very-high risk call ers who contacted the 24hour phone service. The Ministry of Health initia tive has so far taken 34,000 calls from people with sui cidal thoughts or behaviour, as well as from friends, rela tives, and neighbours want ing information or help. The service launched on May 10 with the slogan, ‘Call to Life’. After a massive volume of calls in the line’s early days, numbers now average around 300 per day. A Health Ministry spokes person said: “The volume of calls shows the need for such a service to deal with a silent and latent threat such as mental health problems and suicidal behaviour.”
HIVE INFO DOCTORS have observed a surge in the number of people suffering an outbreak of hives this summer thanks to the higher than usual temperatures and repeated heatwaves. Known as ‘heat urticaria’, the skin condition involving the sudden appearance of bumps or welts can be dangerous as it can cause a drop in blood pressure. “It’s caused by extreme temperatures in the street, beach es, swimming pools and in the workplace and produces welts and swelling along with a lot of itching,” explained Dr Ignacio Garcia Nuñez, the head of allergology of Quiri on’s hospital in Cordoba. He warned: “Patients can suffer low blood pressure which is dangerous because this can cause dizziness and even loss of consciousness,” he added. He advises those who suffer an outbreak of hives to try and bring down their body temperature by cooling off in a cold bath.
‘suicide’
La Rosa Blanca is ofÞcial distributor
The 024 line is in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year. It is free, accessible, imme diate, and confidential with trained experts able to deal with high-risk situations, in cluding access to emergency teams that rush to callers.
NEWGrupo
LIFELINE
OP QUICK CROSSWORD All solutions are on page 14 7Across The BBC (6) 8 They’re sniffed at (6) 9 Extinguishes (4,3) 10 Chinese dynasty at the time of Jesus Christ 11(3) Mountain-climbing aid (5) 12 Besmirch (7) 15 Body make-up? (7) 16 Baby transport? (5) 18 Sum charged (3) 19 Settings (7) 20 Wet cement mixture 21(6)Arranged like matry oshka 1Down(6) Horse sense (8) 2 Most technologicallysophisticated, (5-2-333)Andrea Bocelli, for ex ample (5) 4 Butler’s underling (7) 5 A zero-risk position 6(7,2,4) St. Paul’s’ architect 13(4)Underscores (8) 14 Engages (7) 17 Perfume (5) 18 Abrading tool (4)SUDOKUOP 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
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Nearly
MOST PROFESSIONAL
THE supply of shared flats in Spain’s provin cial capitals has fallen by 45% in just a year. This is in line with a sharp reduction in rental housing stock, according to a report by Idealista. The availability of flat shares has plunged the most in Palma (-78%), Barcelona (-73%) and San Sebastian (-71%). They are followed by reductions in Mal aga (-62%), Madrid (-59%), Guadalaja ra (-55%), Alicante (-54%), Tarragona (-53%) and Girona Just(-53%).eight capitals have more rooms available than a year ago - Albacete (plus 50%) Cordoba (20%), Castellon de la Plana (13%), Caceres (13%), Almeria (11%), Santa Cruz de Tenerife (8%), Palencia (7%) and Segovia (3%). While supply is drying up, rents are rising. Three capitals share the highest percent Boom time ESTATE agencies and prop erty consultants are boom ing, with revenues up 42% in 2021 to a massive €7.8 Accordingbillion to the DBK Infor ma Sector Observatory the estate agencies had a turn over of €7.4 billion, 43.1% higher than 2020, while businesses with a real estate consultancy profile took in €400 million, an increase of 21.2%. In terms of freehold res idential sales, 650,000 transactions worth €115 bil lion were made in 2021, an increase of 39.1%over 2020. The sector expects to main tain the upward trend in revenues this year, although in the short term the pace of growth is expected to slow with the worsening eco nomic situation and an up ward trend in interest rates.
WORK TILL YOU DROP
The team that now has a company in southern Spain has ana lysed the region and strategically placed our stands within the main supermarkets and major expat hangouts around the costas. This highly targeted process ensures that you can conveniently pick up your favourite read easily every two weeks. To keep in line with our green philosophy it also allows us to closely monitor our distri bution and how it ebbs and flows depending on tourism and trends. We receive detailed photo reports of each of the drops, timed as they happen, and the number of copies left over.
STAND BY ME!
The Olive Press has always invested heavily in ensuring that our copies are readily available for our growing legion of readers. We work hard to achieve our target of zero returns, en suring we do not waste money or paper, which is an ever important factor for our environmentally-conscious Sincereaders.2019 we have employed the services of Self Se lect Media, the UK market leader in charge of distribut ing hundreds of free papers and magazines, including the Evening Standard, Metro and Time Out!
SQUATTERS: are a controversial topic in Spain No room
Rents
THE DISTRIBUTION NETWORK ON THE COSTAS ENSURES AN EFFICIENT AND GREEN SERVICE FOR THE OLIVE PRESS StewartOWNER: Leece
PROPERTY14 August 25thSeptember 7th 2022 OP Puzzle solutions Quick Crossword Across: 7 Auntie, 8 Odours, 9 Puts out, 10 Han, 11 Piton, 12 Tarnish, 15 Anatomy, 16 Stork, 18 Fee, 19 Locales, 20 Slurry, 21 Nested. Down: 1 Gumption, 2 State-of-the-art, 3 Tenor, 4 Footman, 5 Nothing to lose, 6 Wren, 13 Stresses, 14 Employs, 17 Scent, 18 File. FREE Quotations and Design Service Specialists in Fitted Kitchens and Bedrooms Full Installation Service or Supply Only Wide Range of Doors and Worktops Laminate • Silestone • Granite Suppliers of Appliances Ovens, Hobs, Extractors tel: (+34) 965 077 555 mobile: (+34) 661 861 416 C/Alfredo Krauss 2, Local 11, Urb. La Marina Email:Visit:thekitchenshop@yahoo.co.uk thekitchenshop.es OTHER SERVICES INCLUDE: Baby Equipment Hire, Letters and Parcel Postage, Fax and Photocopy Service, Greetings Cards, UK Passport Renewal, Boarding Pass Printing GET OUT!toProposalallow evictionssquatters’in 24 hours
visit www.theolivepress.es or read our digital versions online. For more information on our fantastic ditribution partner, please visit www.selfselectmedia.es
THE PP opposition party has announced it will pro pose legislation to force squatters to be evicted in 24 Squattinghours. is a major prob lem, with estimates of 120,000 families in Spain having their second homeand sometimes their main residence - occupied ‘ille Thegally’. proposed legislation - which has a slim chance of becoming law - would reinstate the crime of usur pation of property, with jail terms of between three and five years. It would also al low the community of own ers to report squatters and start the eviction process. The problem is particular ly bad in Catalunya where nearly half of reported squatters live.
For up-to-date information on your nearest distribution point,
San Sebastian is the city with the most ex pensive room rents in Spain, reaching €460 per month on average. It is followed by Bar celona (€450), Madrid (€420), Palma (€400), Bilbao (€370), Malaga (€350) and Pamplona Ciudad(€350). Real is, on the other hand, the cheapest city (€175 per month), followed by Palencia (€200) and Jaen (€200). then please
Two months ago the Catalan European Democratic Party (PDeCAT) made similar pro posals that would see squat ters evicted within 48 hours. They argued for a change in the law to make it possible to remove people from prop erties if they are unable to produce property deeds or a rental contract to demon strate their right to remain. And the proposal also sought to give communities of owners the right to start proceedings. If neither the community or owner start ed the eviction process, then the town hall would be given the power to do so.
BUYING an average property in Spain now costs 11.1 years worth of wages compared to 8.2 years at the turn of the century. While this may sound bad, other countries are much worse off, according to the Organ isation for Economic Co-operation and De velopment (OECD). In New Zealand ot takes 18.7 years worth of salary to buy a 100m2 home, followed by South Korea (16.6), Ire land (16.1) and Luxembourg (15.8). Spaniards are in line with the Portuguese (11.4 years), Swedes (11.2 years) and almost on a par with the British (11 years). At the other end of the scale, US households only need the equivalent of 4.1 years of aver age gross annual income to finance housing. This is ahead of Lithuania (6.5 years) and Finland (6.7 years) and Japan (7.5 years). By Dilip Kuner age increase in Spain (20%): Tarragona, Almeria and Malaga. These are followed by increases in Valen cia (18%), Santander (16%), Alicante (15%), Guadalajara, Barce lona and Madrid (14% in all three cases), San Sebastian (13%), San ta Cruz de Tenerife (13%), Lleida (11%), Huelva (11%) and Tole do (10%).
Squatters
As Stewart Leece, the boss of Self Select explains: “We have 125 years of publishing and distribution experience and know Spain well having had a home here for three decades. “It is a pleasure to work with the Olive Press, one of the market leaders in Spain, to en sure that the company maintains and ex pands its reach around the country.” He continues: “The basis of our ser vice is that Every copy is taken by personal choice. We offer publish ers and advertisers a controlled fully quantifiable media distribution route to market. Via a network of displays placed within high footfall retail out lets, and targeted mis cellaneous distribution points across the North and South Costa Blan ca region, and now Va lencia.”
An estimated 49 properties are newly squatted each day. The proposals are in line with recent recommenda tions of a report on squat ting in Spain by thinktank Accion Liberal. Its author, Daniel Rodriguez Asensio, stated: “Allowing squatting is just one more step towards a communist and authoritarian regime in which the will and rights of individuals are subjugated to the random wishes of the government of the day.”
*Data extracted from process closure surveys after using our roadside assistance and breakdown services. 952 147 834 TheOlivePress-256x342-MP0622.indd 1 6/6/22 10:43
Points to order
2.
Love “I love the beautiful beach, the clean sea water, the good weather… the food,” said the interviewee on TVE as in the background the victim of the robbery shouts ‘my bag, my bag. Did some one see something?’. The video reveals one of the prevalent gripes from vis itors to the city that petty crime is rife and pick pock eting very common. Luckily, thanks to the vid eo, the perpetrator was soon identified by police and arrested.
1. JAY
ABAGGEDTHIEF
changeCarrion FARMERS are complain ing after a vulture killed a two-day-old calf on a farm in Salamanca in the second incident in a few days. They say the birds have changed behaviour because of food shortages caused by new health regulations.
Silly who25-year-oldcalledFIREFIGHTERSdronewereouttorescueadronepilothadclamberedup a steep cliff in Malaga to rescue his expensive crash landed toy only to get stuck himself Guns to order A MAN in A Coruña has been arrested for mak ing guns on 3D printers including an almost com pleted AR9 assault rifle after officers spotted his presence in online discus sions about firearms.
WORDSFINAL
By Dilip Kuner IT isn’t quite the publicity Barcelona was hoping for. A television interview with tourists about what they love about visiting the Catalan capital unwittingly revealed one of the major bugbears. While a holidaymaker shared what he saw as the delights of Barcelona, a man can be seen in the background picking up a rucksack and making off with it. Moments later an other man returns from a swim to discover his bag has been stolen.
A DISABLED Dutchman stalked two Ger man tourists then punched one in the face and stole his wallet, before racing away at high speed in a wheelchair. Joseff M. 56, didn’t let the fact he was in a wheelchair stop his criminal plan when he followed the tourists through the Plaza del Olivar in Palma. Without warning, the thief punched his 62-year-old victim in the face before making his getaway, with the Germans in hot pur suit as he bounced over the cobbles in the SIMPSON HOMER 3. 05-12-56 ESPANA4a. 05-12-12 4a. 05-12-22 5. C4043243 market square. A National Police patrol spotted the com motion and joined the chase, eventually catching and arresting the Dutchman. He now stands accused of an alleged crime of robbery with violence. His victim was taken to hospital by ambu lance bleeding profusely, while the attacker got a trip to the police station.
Fall guy ended up with MINUS 321 points on his driving licence
A MAN has been arrested after he lost 333 points from his driv ing licence after taking the fall for other motorists’ offences. Under Spain’s licensing system everyone has between 12 and 15 points on their licence (eight for new drivers), which are lost for certain driving offences. Once the total reaches zero, a ban kicks in. The 28-year-old Armenian resident of Valencia had MINUS 321 points on his Nowlicence.police are investigating 91 motorcyclists who had put the man’s name on paperwork to say that he was the rider. The ruse was uncovered by Guardia Civil in Mallorca after a motorcyclist sped through a checkpoint, almost hitting an officer. Police sent a notification of several serious road offences to the registered owner of the thatproblemThenianofthethewhomotorbike,returnedformwithdetailstheArmeonit.onlywasaspeed camera photo clearly identified the rider as a woman. Police dug deeper and found the Armenian had lost the huge number of points for driving offences. Investigations revealed that he used social media to advertise his service of taking the blame, charging between €75 and €200 per point. Ban He had long since been banned and his licence was not even valid for motorbikes - but that did not stop his lucrative scam. Police remain puzzled that the DGT had not taken action.
Wheeled marauder
FREE voiceYourinSpainOPRESSLIVEThe expat COSTA BLANCA SUR / MURCIA Vol. 3 Issue 72 www.theolivepress.es August 25th - September 7th 2022We use recycled paper REREREuseducecycle
