Olive Press Costa Blanca North and Valencia Issue 112

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HORROR CRASH

A BRITISH tradesman fears it will be years before he can walk again after his legs were crushed by a drink driver in Spain, causing one to be amputated below the knee.

Gary Doggett, 55, was working in Torrevieja on the Costa Blanca with his son and another employee when a Spanish driver ploughed into him from behind, pinning him against the back of his van.

Gary was rushed to hospital where he endured eight hours of surgery, however neither he nor his family members were warned that his right leg was being amputated. The father-of-two has been forced to close his glass curtains business, telling the Olive Press that he believes it will be up to two years before he will be ‘back on my feet’. He said: “It’s terrible really, my job is very physical and I was always busy doing something, like pottering in the garden or walking the dogs, he’s really f····ed me up, is one

way of putting it.”

The much-loved businessman, originally from Brecon, in Wales, said it was a shock to his wife, Carol, to see him with one leg, after she had simply been told he had ‘made it out of surgery alive’.

He added: “I woke up and saw one leg was missing, but to be honest I just thought ‘at least it’s only one of them’.”

The life-changing injuries have left Gary, who moved to Spain 16 years ago, with no option but to close his glass curtain business, leaving him and his own son out of work.

Heart

His daughter Chloe has started a GoFundMe page to help out with rehabilitation costs, which has received more than €30,000 so far. She said: “My one year old twins are learning to walk, and it breaks my heart that my strong, amazing dad has to one day learn to walk all over again.

“But I know with his unbelievable inner strength and determination, he will one day walk me down the aisle on my wedding day.”

Gary continued: “To be honest I

Expat drink drive victim forced to close business after leg amputated

By Laurence Dollimore

knew it was bad when I saw bits of my own bones underneath the van after the crash.”

“My son and colleague tried to cover me with blankets but I really thought I was going to lose both of my legs.” Gary said he was loading materials into his van while working on a golf resort on June 30 this year, when the vehicle smashed into the back of him.

“It was 11am, he had been drinking and had no insurance, my legs took the full impact,’ he recalled, adding that he was conscious until he arrived at hospital.

“I remember being taken in for X-rays but that’s the last thing I remember until I came around for surgery.”

The driver had not been wearing a seatbelt and was ‘semi-conscious’ following the crash, having hit his head against the windscreen, Gary said.

“Police said he would appear in

court for driving without a licence and no insurance but we haven’t had any updates since.

“We think they may be waiting to see how my injuries develop before deciding what criminal charges to bring.”

TRAGIC: Gary and Carol’s lives were shattered by the car smash

Gary has complete knee recon-

struction surgery in around four weeks time, and believes it will be another 18 months to two years before he is back on his feet. In the GoFundMe appeal, daughter Chloe said: “When my dad finally came around he was alone and had to find out himself by looking down at the bed, there was no one there to explain!

“The day after, he had pain in his chest and shoulder, but we were told that all had been checked and it was just bruising from the impact.

“Day 3, dad underwent surgery again. When he woke, he could not breathe. They rushed him to x-ray and found he had air in his left lung, fractured ribs, and scapula, he had an emergen-

cy drain inserted into his lung!’

Chloe said that after 13 days in the local hospital, her father was taken to Valencia Hospital some two-anda-half hours away from his home. She added: “A further two fractured vertebrae in the lower back were found, two weeks after the accident.”

Chloe launched the appeal to help the family get through the next year or so, which will see Gary endure more surgeries and extensive recovery treatment. He spent more than a month in hospital due to a serious infection in his left leg, which delayed the realignment of his foot and tibia.

A further surgery discovered significant damage to his left knee, meaning a ‘total reconstruction’ is need-

HORROR: Gary woke up to find his leg amputated

ed, Chloe said. She explained: ‘It is estimated that the tibia will take approximately 12 months to heal before he can even look at having a prosthetic leg fitted - let alone the physiotherapy to use it.

“He will need to have many more surgeries within this time including a number of skin grafts on both his stump and left leg.

“The road to recovery will be long and tough for my dad, leaving him with financial worries on top of everything else. He will need medical equipment and the house will need major alterations before he can even come home. Due to the driver being uninsured, there will also be lawyer fees.”

Cowardly robber

A VIOLENT Gandia street thief, 35, who pushed two women in their 80s to the ground and stole their belongings has been jailed after being arrested by the Policia Nacional

Beach toll

NON-RESIDENTS of Javea will have to pay a €9 charge until the end of October for daytime car park access tot Granadella and Portitxol beaches.

Bathing ban

VALENCIA council has introduced fines of up to €750 for bathing in the Central park fountains following a recent outbreak of poisoning that affected young children.

Top town

BENITATXELL has been voted as the most popular Spanish town with a population of under 5,000 for foreign house buyers and renters to live according to Idealista.

Turtle battle

A MAN has been arrested at Valencia's Malvarosa beach after finding an exotic turtle while bathing, which he told police he planned to feed to his dogs.

The man refused to hand the Jicotea turtle - classed as an invasive species - over and started fighting with one of the officers, resulting in him being arrested for assault. The reptile, aged around 20 years, was taken to the La Granja Wildlife Recovery Centre at El Saler.

PONZI PROBE

Criminal investigation launched into Globix director

ROYAL Gibraltar Police have finally opened a criminal investigation into the activities of Globix director Damian Carreras after his company lost €40 million in a suspected Ponzi scheme.

By Walter Finch

The police said the move forms part of a wider investigation into the operation of Globix and the alleged

Despatching con

A 33-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested for pretending to have a logistics firm that despatched items internationally but kept the goods to sell them off.

The fraudster from Equatorial Guinea operated in the Horta Nord area of Valencia province and advertised as a well-known company on social media to attract victims.

One victim handed over items worth €6,000 and a €1,200 fee to the conman, while a second person entrusted the man to send a shipment valued at €12,000. A significant amount of goods belonging to the two complainants were recovered with authorities warning people not to solely trust social media adverts for shipments of valuables.

losses to investors.

The RGP called it ‘a very complex matter’ and refused to comment on queries by the Olive Press as to whether they are liaising with Spanish police.

Carreras is known to be ‘hiding out’ in Barcelona, while his co-suspects, Russian nationals Pavel Sidorov and Alla Babenko, reside in Alicante.

News that Carreras

is finally facing a criminal investigation will come as music to the ears of long-suffering investors, some of whom stand to lose six or seven figure sums from the scam.

Gibraltarian Carreras, 39, stands accused of running a Ponzi scheme after taking in €25 million in investor capital – from some of the most powerful individuals in Gibraltar.

GRAFFITI VANDALS

THREE teenagers have been arrested in Benidorm after daubing a tram with graffiti causing damage valued at over €8,500.

The men aged 18 and 19 sprayed a tram wagon when it stopped close to the Terra Mitica park quarry.

One of the people who saw what happened was a tram service security officer who gave the police a video of the youths vandalising a carriage. He revealed they had painted trams for several consecutive days and had even pulled an emergency lever to stop a tram and put rocks on the line to stop it resuming its journey.

FUGITIVES

FOUND

The list of investors includes former Chief Minister Sir Peter Caruana, current Leader of the Opposition Keith Azzopardi, and wife of the current Chief Minister, Justine Picardo. The giant crypto exchange went into liquidation in March one week after the Olive Press first broke the scandal, leading to legal proceedings to recover the missing funds.

THREE of Europe's ‘Most Wanted’ criminals have been arrested in Calpe. The Hungarian men were members of a drug operation in their native country focusing on growing cannabis and distributing it. The fugitives were listed in Europol’s ‘Game Over’ campaign, ranking the 54 most wanted criminals in Europe. The Guardia Civil made the arrests after a tip off from their Hungarian counterparts.

INVESTIGATION: Damian Carreras

What’s the beef?

IT is dubbed the oldest treaty in Europe, signed in 1375 and its terms have been met nearly every year since. The people of the Baretous valley in France have paid a tribute of three cows to their neighbors in Spain’s Roncal valley every July.

The Tratado de las Tres Vacas (Treaty of the Three Cows) was signed to settle a dispute over grazing rights, although it is thought the ‘arrangement’ may date back 1,200 years.

In 2011 it was recognised as an Intangible Cultural Heritage by the government of the Navarre region. It is thought the tribute has only been missed twice - in 1794 during the War of the Convention and in 1944 because of World War II. The cows are handed over during a ceremony at the Piedra de San Martin stone marker involving the mayors of towns in the two valleys who wear traditional garb.

WOLVES DEMISE

Predator declared extinct in Andalucia but may soon return to Valencia

AS experts predict that wolves may soon return to Valencia, the animal has been officially declared extinct in Andalucia.

The Junta de Andalucia’s environment department has been carrying out a wolf census for 20 years and, despite it being a protected species, they’ve admitted ‘there has been no sign of its presence since 2010’.

Until 13 years ago, it was believed that there were up to eight wolfpacks in Andalucia consisting of as many as 56 wolves principally in the Sierra Morena.

Luis Suarez from the WWF in Spain said: “This confirms the negative trend for the few existing wolf packs in southern Spain, which are threatened through being physically and genetically isolated from wolves in the rest of Spain, by loss of habitat, poaching and illegal hunting.”

But leading biologists believe that the combination of dwindling human population figures in rural areas and the increasing abandonment of agricultural land will encourage the arrival of the predator to Valencia in the coming years.

Castellon Province is predicted to be the main entry point, as several specimens have already been located in the Los Monegros area in neighbouring Aragon after travelling

By Alex Trelinski

down from the Pyrenees. Another possible gateway is the Rincon de Ademuz in Valencia Province.

Opinions on the legendary animal vary greatly. The Spanish government’s decision to ban hunting the Iberian Wolf was met with an outcry on behalf of farmers and hunters, who see the Canis lupus as a dangerous predator that severely threatens their livelihood.

Just a few hundred wolves remained in Spain by the 1970’s due to a policy of eradication through poi-

ALVES INDICTED

THE former Barcelona and Brazil footballer Dani Alves has been formally indicted by a judge in a sexual assault case. The judge said that she had found evidence of wrongdoing by the 40-year-old player and if convicted he faces jail time of between four and 15 years.

Alves has denied sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub last December and says they had consensual sex. The footballer was arrested in January and has been in prison since then amidst claims that he poses a flight risk. His lawyer, Cristobal Martell said that Alves would not appeal the judge's decision because he wants the legal process to be concluded as soon as possible.

EXTINCT: Wolves have disappeared from Andalucia

soning, but since that was outlawed numbers have crept up.

In the most recent 2021 national census there were

up to 2,500 wolves in 297 packs - 90% of which were in the north-west, mainly in Castilla y Leon, Galicia and Asturias.

Naughty return

SPAIN’S former king Juan Carlos I has announced he will ‘soon’ be back in Spain for more stays in Galicia.

Juan Carlos, who went into self-imposed exile in the United Arab Emirates in August 2020 after a number of scandals involving his finances emerged, made his third return visit to Spain last month.

The father of Felipe VI participated in two sailing regattas in Galicia’s Sanxenxo with his boat El Bribon (The Naughty one), winning one of them.

The former monarch has told the Spanish press that he intends to pay ‘many more’ visits in the near future.

HE has only been in business three years but Spanish designer Arturo Obegero has scored a major publicity coup.

Beyoncé took to the stage for the Boston leg of her ‘ Renaissance World Tour’ wearing an ensemble designed by the emerging fashion talent that embraces the current ‘sheer trend’.

The Grammy-winning star wore a black corset bodysuit-style dress complete with opera-glove style arms, fishnet stockings and an embroidered lace train.

The dress was designed in collaboration with Atelier Sara Couture in Paris, who worked 318 hours on the outfit, including hand stitching all the lace from Sophie Hallette.

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Examination center, Preparation and registration UNEDasiss/PCE Preparation course for University Accessing Exam for

A NEW agreement between Spain and the UK allowing students to access universities and other higher education institutions in both countries has come into force.

Following the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, the accord enables students with UK qualifications (including A-levels and equivalent) to access universities in Spain without the requirement of additional entrance exams. Entry exams will only be required for certain competitive courses, as was the case prior to Brexit.

Students from the Spanish education system are able to continue to access UK universities and other higher education institutions with additional legal certainty.

Transfer of trans prisoner into

female wing sparks pregnancy scandal in Alicante prison

ONE of Spain’s toughest prisons has been forced to implement ‘shower watch’ shifts due to a female prisoner falling pregnant after a trans inmate was transferred to the women’s wing. The reports of various sexual encounters during shower time have caused a scandal at Fontcalent Prison in Alicante. It comes after the female section of the prison received a prisoner of Bulgarian origin who had spent several years in the men’s section, primarily for crimes of theft and kidnapping. The inmate would have rubbed shoulders with a number of killers, rapists and drug bar-

Banged up knocked up

By Walter Finch

ons, potentially including Irish crime boss John Gilligan, who was there in 2019.

During this period, the randy inmate apparently underwent a gender transition process, self-identified as a woman and adopted a female name. However, the prisoner did not undergo hormonal treatments or surgeries to finish the process and retained the original male genitalia.

A request was then put in to transfer the prisoner to the female population - which was granted.

Education deal Terrace smoking returns

SMOKERS are able to light up again on bar and restaurant terraces in the Valencian Community after regional president Carlos Mazon scrapped the restriction.

The measure was introduced in the region over three years ago as part of a package of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and was maintained despite the Spanish government last month removing remaining pandemic rules like mask-wearing

In hot water

THE Mediterranean Sea will register the highest August temperature ever recorded on the Valencian coastline. Experts believe that the sea temperature will be warmer than 29.94C, the record high to date, which was registered in August last year.

The prediction comes after the warmest sea temperature ever recorded in the month of July in Valencia (28.7C) was reached last month.

Like a rag doll

Prison sources have disclosed that once in the female wing, the prisoner came out as a lesbian, and quickly struck up

in hospitals and health centres. The previous Valencian government did not rescind the smoking restriction - meaning that the region was the only one in the country to keep the smoking ban. Hospitality associations lobbied Mazon for a repeal when he was standing for the presidency - pointing out that virtually all other areas of Spain had got rid of the ban or never had it in the first place.

a relationship with a fellow inmate.

A series of steamy shower romps ensued, according to prison sources, and a little time later a female inmate informed prison authorities she was pregnant. She was permitted to leave the prison to visit an abortion specialist, but in the end elected to keep the child. It has been reported that the trans prisoner has been removed from the women’s wing and returned to the male population. Fontcalent Prison declined to comment, stating that it is ‘a personal matter that concerns an inmate.’

A 16-year-old boy is in intensive care after being savagely gored by a bull during a traditional ‘running of the bulls’ festival, sparking calls for tougher controls.

Video footage shared online shows the teenager being ferociously thrashed by the animal’s horns against a metal fence.

The horror incident took place at the annual ‘Bous al carrer’ event in Calpe.

In the footage, the boy is seen being thrown around like a rag doll as spectators behind the fence scream in terror. He was taken to Denia Hospital, where doctors say he remains in intensive care but is ‘recovering favourably’.

The young man had climbed through the protective fence and did not see the bull coming towards him, witnesses said.

TOUGH: Scandal at Fontcalent Prison

DEAD MAN LIVES

A VALENCIA man rose from the dead as he lay on a coroner’s table just as he was about to become subjected to an autopsy.

A neighbour living on Calle Palau in the city centre called emergency services as he was concerned about the man’s welfare after not seeing him for a number of days.

Fire, police, and ambulance crews went to the man’s home and found him lying with no sign of consciousness.

As is mandatory, they notified the coroner to certify the death and transferred the body to the city’s Institute of Legal Medicine for an autopsy to be performed.

On arrival at the facility and as the coroner was about to begin his examination, the ‘deceased’ started to show signs of life much to the shock of everybody present.

No further details have been released about the modern-day Lazarus and what medical condition he was suffering from and what his current state of health is.

Handreared

A Thomson's gazelle born at BIOPARC Valencia in late July is doing well after rejecting her mother’s attempts to breastfeed her.

It was decided to feed the youngster by human hand via a bottle but it took a bit

of time and patience for her to accept it, which she eventually did.

The calf is weighed every day before her first feed and the amount of food with mixtures of fresh and evaporated milk is steadily increased. She will be gradually reintegrated with the rest of the gazelles to continue her development.

Sunbed turnoff

Peak summer means peak lounger madness on the Costa Blanca

BENIDORM has found itself at the epicentre of Spain’s outbreak of sunbed violence as tourists have been filmed screeching out of the gates to bag a plum poolside position.

The sun-bedlam has become so bad that some resorts have been forced to hire bouncers to stop tourists tussling during the morning stampede for sunbeds.

One British mother said her holiday at Magic Aqua Rock Gardens in Benidorm was ruined after her fellow holidaymakers ‘swarmed like ants’ to claim sunbeds, leaving her close to tears.

The ruthless tourists forced Cayleigh Tuffs, 34, to sit under a water slide with her husband Andrew and their eight-year-old daughter on the first day of their holiday. “We’ve seen people throw

By Alberto Lejarraga

towels across the pool to get beds and people are running even though it's massively slippery,” she said.

“We go on holiday five times a year and this is the first time we've ever seen anything like this.”

Such ‘horrible’ experiences have been turning tourists off from Spanish holiday resorts, with Cayleigh vowing she will never return to Benidorm.

Katherine Green, a 35-yearold mum from Yorkshire told the Olive Press she had a similar experience at Sunset Beach Club on the Costa del Sol.

“There is literally a queue of over 100 people waiting to access the pool in the morning and, at 9am, when the gate

opens,” the holidaymaker said. “And some people even just jump over the fence to get the best beds,” she added, before admitting her family had been forced to join the scrum or face losing out.

“We’ve had to get down there shortly after 8am to guarantee a spot as there are just not enough pool chairs

Hot news

ALICANTE province will experience extremely hot temperatures of up to 43 from today (Thursday, August 10).

The heatwave will affect the south of Spain, presenting a ‘significant risk’ to people in Alicante, according to the Spanish State Meteorological Agency (Aemet).

The overall highest temperatures in the region will be recorded inland, with most municipalities experiencing temperatures of over 40C. British expat hotspot Orihuela will be reaching 43C, while the hottest temperatures in the province will be in the municipalities of Pinoso and Villena, where thermometers will record 44C.

FOOTY FRAUD

SPANISH football has been hit by another match-fixing scandal that has seen a number of arrests allegedly including a club president.

952 147 834

and beds.

“Incredibly, as soon as the door opens people start pushing as well as running and jumping over the sunbeds to get to the best spots.”

However, not everyone seems bothered by the situation, as Belfast man Kev Armstrong told the Olive Press the morning routine is ‘part of the holiday experience’.

Police swooped on 17 individuals, with 11 detained in the Melilla and six more in the province of Granada.

Multiple wagers raised red flags, leading to suspicions over the involvement of a local team in betting fraud.

The team in question has been unofficially reported as Huracan Melilla, an underperforming club in the fourth tier of Spanish football.

*Data extracted from process closure surveys after using our roadside assistance and breakdown services.

RESERVED: Towels block sunbeds by the pool

Voted top expat paper in Spain

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.

OPINION

Sunbed wars make beast of man

THIS summer, when you reserve a sunbed and then walk away, it seems that you scrape away the thin veneer of civilisation which separates us from the savages we once were.

In fact, just the prospect of being deprived of a plum spot by the pool on a beach - err pool - holiday is enough to reduce some of us to a more primitive state.

It is shocking that if grown adults are willing to shove children and fight one another just to get hold of a sunbed - as we have seen in Benidorm this week - how will we act when real deprivation strikes?

After a punishing couple of years suffering under Covid restrictions, it might be natural that we all wish for that perfect sunshine getaway, poolside sipping pina coladas.

And we might have less tolerance for anything that could interfere with it than in past periods of unadulterated good times.

But people are losing their heads and really making beasts of themselves when they engage in this everyman-for-himself behaviour.

As much as we all need to get a grip when confronted with behaviour from strangers that we find unacceptable, the authorities do too.

On a basic level, hotels need to clearly establish norms of conduct, so that there is no misunderstanding or culture clash in these situations - everyone should know what is unacceptable.

But higher authorities need to take note too. With temperatures in Spain forecast to continue to gradually bake the country drier and drier each summer, we are facing the prospect of shortages of commodities far more precious than sunbeds.

And in that light, the conduct we are seeing this summer is a stark indicator of what we can expect when household water is rationed and farmers are unable to water their crops.

In times of scarcity and deprivation, as people we need to rise to our better nature and lift everyone up - not sink down to barbarity and drag everyone else down.

PUBLISHER / EDITOR

Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es

Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es

Alberto Lejarraga alberto@theolivepress.es

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John Culatto

ADMIN

Victoria Humenyuk Makarova (+34) 951 273 575 admin@theolivepress.es

DIGITAL DYSTOPIA

How will Artificial Intelligence affect our lives in Spain?

By Jo Chipchase

ARTIFICIAL intelligence (AI) is being hailed by some people as the next industrial revolution. Others say it’s a danger to humanity and will soon get out of control.

American commentator, Joe Rogan, is currently voicing concern over a fake AI-generated podcast featuring an interview between him and the CEO of a company called OpenAI, Sam Altman.

On a similar theme, Berlin-based photographer, Boris Eldagsen, recently fooled the Sony World Photography Awards with an AI-generated photo. He won first prize in the creative category but did not accept the award, saying he has shown how even top professionals are unprepared for AI. If you are new to AI, you won’t be for long. Some large investors are developing it, such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and IBM. If you use social media, Meta is developing AI elements for Facebook and Instagram, and Snapchat is launching an AI feature for paying users.

If you use streaming services, you’re already seen the hand of AI when it suggests films or other content you might enjoy.

So, with 2023 being the year of AI, how could its growing use affect our lives in Spain?

HERE NOW: CHAT BOTS AND IMAGE GENERATORS

Many people are signing up for the new chatbot AI apps, such as Chat GPT from OpenAI. A chatbot is an AI app where you give it prompts, or asks it questions, and it draws on a large data set to answer with the content you want (this process usually needs some refining).

The idea is that the bots can instantly ‘research’ and explain any topic in detail, and it only takes a few minutes.

The current chatbots can write articles, essays, devise book plots, and generate computer code. You can easily save yourself several hours’ work.

With image AI, the popular apps - such as DALL-E and Midjourney - use written prompts from the user to produce images. They will render anything you can describe (such as ‘Pedro Sanchez riding a Spanish bull’). And, unlike human designers using Photoshop, they do it in seconds. Seeing this speed and efficiency of these existing apps, some people fear that AI will eventually overtake or dominate humans, plunging us into a plot worthy of Netflix’s popular series, ‘Black Mirror’.

DEMOCRATIC DANGERS

The recently held general election might be the last campaign period unaffected by AI. The main worry is: how will voters distinguishing real content from AI-generated propaganda? Some voters already find it difficult to identify fake news on the ‘old’ social networks, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. As for YouTube, “I saw a video, so it must be true” has been a long-standing problem.

Now, there are AI voiceover apps, AI face generators, and you could ‘skin’ video content with someone else’s face – such as a politician.

Using a simple prompt on Midjourney, the reporter created a convincing image of “Boris Johnson DJ-ing at a rave in a dry, dusty riverbed in southern Spain”. OK, we know this would never happen but would your 80-year-old granny be so sure?

For the experienced user, generating AI deepfakes is easy. These are videos or audio recordings that show someone saying or doing something that isn’t real. Think of the old ‘mashup’ videos, where snippets of a politician’s voice were blended to make a funny song (such as Nigel Farage saying he loves Europe), only more sophisticated.

EMPLOYMENT – LOSSES AND GAINS

In the next few years, AI is likely to automate many jobs, particularly those involving repetitive tasks that rely on data sets – such as coding, paralegal research, analysis, etc. Warehousing is another affected field, with Amazon already deploying robots called Proteus.

AI will impact art and design, as it is cheap-

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Concerns rise over the ChatGPT app that is threatening Spain’s privacy laws

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SPAIN’S data-protection agency is investigating the ChatGPT artificial intelligence application fearing it breaches the country’s privacy laws.

There are suspicions that the platform that can write essays to realistically converse with humans, could be illegally harvesting the data it gleans from conversations with us ers and which is the basis of training the application’s algorithms.

ChatGTP, which was created by a company called OpenAI, may also be storing payment information of subscribers, have weaknesses against possible hacks and lack an effective age filter.

A working group at the AEPD will also be created so that infor mation about the app can be ex changed between the different agencies that form the European Data Protection Board.

Italy briefly blocked Chat GPT over data protection concerns until Open AI added privacy controls to comply with Italian regulations.

ChatGPT gathers masses of human-created data from the internet and then uses it to make computer predictions

to answer questions and requests that are inputted by users.

Since it was made available to the public, users have been trying it out for writing anything from computer code and blog posts, to translating texts and even writing songs. 75-year-old British scientist and former Vice President of Engineering at Google Geoffrey Hinton played a key role in the development of the techniques ChatGPT uses.

But now Hinton is warning the world of the dangers related to AI after leaving the company.

“I used to think AI attempted to imitate the human brain without being able to match its capacities. However, I have changed my mind in the last few months as I now believe we can develop something much more efficient than the human brain,” he said.

Hinton added: “This can lead to the elimination of a number of jobs, which will increase the gap between rich and poor. There will also be leaders like Putin that would want to create robot soldiers for war”. “We need to learn how to control AI before it becomes too intelligent,” he concluded.

Olive Press online

Thinking of you

ALOOK at our top-ranking web stories over the past two weeks is revealing.

Page hits statistics are a crude but reasonably accurate way of seeing what our readers are interested in.

Then why don’t we simply slavishly follow the online stats when laying out the newspaper?

The answer is that we do use them as a guide, but they do not give the complete picture.

For an interesting read – and a newspaper that people look forward to picking up as soon as it’s out – there has to be a little of something for everyone.

And this is where good old-fashioned journalism comes in.

It is a judgment call and our team of experienced reporters and writers is well placed to make that call.

We all work hard and strive to put together the complete package.

er to use Image AI to visualise an idea than pay a human worker.

However, for now, AI is more likely to enhance than replace jobs, as humans need to oversee the processes and check the accuracy of the content - whether it’s code for an e-commerce system or a travel guide about Andalucia. Errors are widely reported.

AI will also create new jobs. These might include data scientists, AI hardware engineers, AI programmers, and people employed to input prompts to make content.

EDUCATION ENHANCEMENTS?

AI could be used to create ‘personalised learning experiences’ for students. This is, presumably, instead of a teacher lecturing from the front of the class. It is intended to be more engaging.

However, the use of AI in education could cause a ‘digital divide’ – according to how computer technology is provided. Some people (of all ages) already struggle to use existing mobile phone apps or can’t afford the gadgets.

A teen told the Olive Press that some ‘instituto’ students already use Chat GPT and other essay chatbots for their homework, as well as AI apps to solve maths equations. Even the teacher used an AI app on a complex maths challenge, he said.

However, savvy teachers can install their own apps to detect if homework is AI-generated. This is easy to spot, as the apps look for the the GPT-3 (or more recent GPT-4) protocol, and flag this up in submitted homework. Schools tend to hate plagiarism, so don’t abandon your traditional research methods just yet.

CHAT

GPT – THE NEW OFFICE COPYWRITER?

While Chat GPT is being hailed as an all-singing, all-dancing writing tool, the tone of its output is easily spotted. If a newspaper used it instead of humans, every article would sound the same - without the personality or charm of individual writers.

The reporter asked Chat GPT to summarise several seaside towns on the Costa Tropical. The results contained serious errors, muddling up the important historical events and landmarks. Someone without local knowledge might miss these mistakes. Furthermore, Chat GPT’s knowledge cut-off point is September 2021, which means that some content is naturally outdated. Despite the shortcomings, many companies already use Chat GPT to write their website content, product descriptions, blogs, and more. Although the chat-

bot is handy for ‘boring’ content, it isn’t a replacement for seasoned copywriters with a lively style - just yet.

PHOTOGRAPHY ADVANCES – OR REPLACEMENT?

AI is creeping into every area of photography – from apps that enhance your cameraphone snaps to professional-level programs that creates images from scratch, like Midjourney and DALL-E.

While colourful, fantastical images are modish these days, and the AI ‘engines’ are constantly learning and improving their accuracy, they currently don’t render text correctly. So, you can’t enter “passengers boarding Ryanair plane” and have a correct logo returned.

AND… ARE THE RESULTS A BIT SOULLESS? SOME CRITICS THINK SO.

Professional photographer, Graham Knipe, of Granada, says: “Cameras have been slowly taking over the image creation process for years. I embrace technology, but not to the point where it completely removes any artistic interpretation – all images will end up looking the same.”

“However, I don’t think that AI will completely take over photography, just as digital never completely replaced film.”

The most obvious problem with AI image generation is that many people will think the

end-result is real, leading to unanticipated situations.

WHERE’S IT ALL HEADING?

The interest in Chat GPT has been phenomenal. Since launching in November 2022, it has attracted 100 million users. This is much faster than the growth of the ‘old style’ social networks.

The rapid spread of, and investment in, AI raises ethical, privacy, and security concerns.

BUT ARE PEOPLE MAKING TOO MUCH FUSS?

Remember when we were terrified of the ‘Millennium Bug’, thinking that computer systems would roll over to 0000 and destroy the world?

There was also a time when people didn’t want music to turn digital. We were eventually happy to carry around CDs, rather than bulky vinyl records, with the formats becoming smaller and more portable over the years. Pendrives, Bluetooth… life has become more convenient with progress.

Overall, the impact of AI on Spain – and the rest of the world - will depend on how it is developed and deployed. While it brings some risks, it can also make many daily tasks quicker and easier.

We might end up working more closely with machines that help us with our personalised daily tasks, and speeding up dull chores is never a bad thing.

The main AI apps in our daily lives

● Virtual assistants

● Chatbots

● Social media algorithms

Of course, news comes top of the agenda and we certainly print more than our fair share of hardnosed news reports.

This is where website stats can help - for example, the story announcing this week’s heatwave with temperatures of 47C and the Spanish Government moving against low-cost airlines for charging travellers for hand luggage proved a big hit.

But when it comes down to it, it would be an extremely dull paper if that’s all we put in.

This is why we always leave plenty of space for interesting in-depth features and articles. These not only allow our reporters and writers to stretch their wings but more importantly, they provide you with a fascinating and informative read.

IN DEPTH: Fascinating features

But it comes at a price. While the paper is free, the Olive Press still has to pay for the staff to keep producing a quality newspaper and popular website. While the paper can survive thanks to our advertising clients who recognise a good read when they see one, the website needs to be funded too.

This is why we ask readers to pay a modest subscription for full access. For less than a fiver a month they can get access to the best investigative news site in English to be found in Spain.

Help us to provide the best news service targeted at expats in Spain and sign up now!

The top five most read stories on www.theolivepress.es in the past two weeks are:

1- WATCH: Mallorca locals struggle to get their heads around disgusting video of Dutch tourist

● Personalised recommendations online

● Language translation, such as Google Translate

● Healthcare applications

● Smart home devices

● Navigation and ride-sharing apps, including Google Maps

● Fraud detection by banks, etc.

HOW DOES CHAT GPT WORK?

The chat AI apps are machine learning Natural Lan- guage Processing models known as Large Language Models (LLMs). They digest massive quantities of text data and infer relationships between words.

HOW DOES IMAGE AI WORK?

Image AI text-to-image generators use a machine learning technique called artificial neural networks. These receive input in the form of words and pro- cesses them to form images.

2- WATCH: Moment man opens fire with automatic gun in Marbella

3- Seagull control campaign starts in Spain´s Malaga

4- Family ties forging the way for Costa Blanca business built on traditional values

5-Spanish insults that will make you sound like a native

AUTO GENERATED: All pictures were made with AI

It is cheaper to use Image AI to visualise an idea than pay a human worker

SANDRA O’Connor, 58, had watched her son, Joseph grow more and more withdrawn and isolated in his bedroom with his computer. But the English criminal lawyer at least thought he was ‘safe in his room’, away from the normal dangers that teenagers face on the Costa del Sol.

So when an army of riot police kicked down their front door in Estepona, she could have had no idea that he was one of the world’s most wanted cyber hackers. Sought by the US authorities for a string of serious cyber crimes committed when just 19 years old - including hacking into the private Twitter accounts of President Biden and Elon Musk - he was also a serious fraudster who stole $794,000 from a Manhattan cryptocurrency firm. And perhaps most disappointingly for his mother, he also stole naked photos of young women and then tried to extort them.

Now, Joseph, 24, also known as PlugWalkJoe, has just been hand ed a five year stretch in one of New York’s toughest prisons. But it could have been a lot worse… and if it wasn’t for a series of moving pleas from his mother and wider family he could have faced 70 years in jail, the Olive Press can reveal. In a series of remarkably emotional letters addressed to Judge Rakoff at the famous Southern District of New York, they helped to explain how a kind-hearted expat who struggled to understand normal social interactions became the world’s online public enemy number one. Unearthed via requests to the US court service, they paint a tragic picture of violence, neglect and isolation that saw the bright youngster failing to receive the guidance and support he was obviously in need of.

Born to a violent and absent father, it emerges Joseph was raised by a single mother who was also traumatised by the same man.

EVERY PARENT’S

He was a quiet expat kid whose mother moved him to Spain to avoid his abusive father and violent bullying at school… but when he became withdrawn and locked himself in his room, she had no idea he would become a globally infamous hacker. Walter Finch unravels the tragic, complicated story

His teenage years in Liverpool were fraught, as he suffered from bullying by other kids that he could not understand.

Sandra confessed that she had not been ‘emotionally available and nurturing’ to her youngest child (with his other two brothers born to different fathers). She described herself as ‘effectively broken’ by the violence she had suffered at the hands of Joseph’s father, who had not wanted the child and at one time inflicted such a severe beating on her she required 17 stitches to her head.

“I just went to work on autopilot,”

she recalled.

“But it's the children who suffer the most as those crucial early years of loving nurturing are absent and damage results.”

Unwelcome efforts by Joseph’s father to come back into his life in secondary school reopened unhealed wounds.

“Joseph was always saying how sad it was that his father had ruined my life, and that it would have been better if he had not been born,” Sandra told the judge in one heartbreaking missive.

“I reassured him that he was worth it, and I would not change the situation if it meant he was not born.

“He told me I was rubbish at choosing men,” she continued, “and that he hoped one day I met someone who was kind and would treat me well.”

Sandra’s father, who had been an excellent father figure for Joseph’s two older brothers, died unexpectedly while she was pregnant with him.

“Not a day goes by that I do not think about him and miss him and feel saddened that Joseph never got to receive the love and care his grandfather provided to his siblings.”

Sandra would constantly tell Joseph of his grandfather, and in turn Joseph would speak about him as if he had known him himself.

“He would tell me lovely things about his deceased grandfather,” his grandmother Agnes reminisced in another letter.

“When you're bereaved, it is very comforting. It was as if he knew I almost needed this to help me cope.

“He would tell stories with so much love and add funny anecdotes about what his grandfather would say if he were here.

“He was such a sweet, funny boy and so kind to others,” she added.

As his mother explained: “When younger, he would try to encourage me to meet someone who could be his dad, which is so sad.

“He saw his young friends with their loving families and he effectively only had me.”

Having moved Joseph back to Estepona at the age of 17, Sandra

watched him retreat from the perplexing world that had treated him so cruelly into an online one. One where his anxieties and peculiarities vanished and he made friends and found respect.

But so obsessed did he become with his gaming and his computers that in turn he became oblivious to the real world around him.

Conversations and constant nagging had little effect as he withdrew almost entirely to his room, even refusing to eat meals with his mother and instead ‘eating himself fat’ and snacking on processed foods.

When she flew to Liverpool for work trips, the lawyer would have to leave pre-prepared foods and snacks that just needed heating in the microwave.

And upon her return, she would be faced with a chaotic pigsty of dirty dishes and cups piling up, which he noticed not one iota.

When Covid struck, Sandra found herself stuck in England and unable to get back to look after Joseph. Instead she hired a housekeeper. It was during this period Joseph finally managed to find friendship, albeit with a community online.

how his life had gone so wrong. In another sad knock-on effect, the enormous costs of the proceedings have depleted Sandra’s financial resources and imperilled her retirement.

“There will be no inheritance for Joseph and his brothers,” she wrote, adding her own inheritance from her father is gone, and Agnes only has enough to pay for her own funeral.

Joseph has so far been spared this tragic full understanding of the long-term impact his deeds will have on his family.

His cousin, Niamh, 23, told of an anecdote during one visit to Joseph in prison that summed up the difficulty he has dealing with life.

“He told Sandra his mum, she looked pretty,” she wrote. “She thanked him. Then he said, ‘well you are, even with your wrinkles and you being old, you should try and get Botox before you start looking as wrinkly as nan.’”

The people he was chatting with were not gamers but, in fact, hackers

Sandra would get back to hear him laughing loudly with his online friends - ‘something he rarely did.’

“For me, this was comforting and a good sign,” she wrote.

It was preferable he was laughing in his bedroom rather than exposed to ‘a world on the outside where he was ill-equipped to navigate.’

“I believed he was safe from this world, where he was not in touch with any dangers [such as] alcohol, drugs, bullying and the worst aspects of society,” Sandra told the judge. But she had no idea the people he was chatting with were not gamers but, in fact, hackers. And it would be they who led Joseph down the path that would finally find him languishing in a New York jail, struggling to understand

They all burst out laughing.

“He was just being how we all know him to be, honest without realising that it can be too much to hear sometimes,” Niamh went on.

“He had no idea why we were laughing and there is little point in explaining it to him.”

For his mother’s birthday in June, Joseph arranged through a friend to send her a personalised card with a huge beautiful bouquet of flowers, a gift-wrapped perfume, and a box of gold decorated cupcakes with messages on the cakes.

Attached was a personalised card. Inside, it read: "Happy birthday to the one who has loved, cared, helped, worried and been there for me through it all.

“Thank you for always being there for me, you're a great mother and I love you a lot.

“You are the smartest woman I know and will ever know and very kind and beautiful. “Everyone who meets you, or their families, always say you are their favourite

HACKER: Joseph was badly abused and bullied at school

NIGHTMARE

person and extremely rare and for that I am very proud of you and not have a bad word to say about you.” Having spent two and a half years

in jail waiting to be sentenced, Joseph is already half way through his five year sentence. Awaiting him when he gets out is a

job offer: A UK-based energy firm is willing to take him on as a Web Developer Apprentice. For his part, Joseph told the judge:

“I want to lead a productive life. I now look back at what an empty life I led. A solitary life alone with gaming and online friends in an

SNARED: Estepona police picked up Joseph while mum Sandy (inset) was at home downstairs

unreal, unhealthy world, the only life that mattered.

“I neglected my family, my future, I was without plans or any aims in life.” Gabschidgey@gmail.com

BOILING ERA

July was the hottest month on Earth in the last 120,000 years

JULY was the hottest month on the planet in the last 120,000 years, according to a Leipzig University study.

The research confirmed that it was the hottest month since records started in 1880.

And shockingly, Karsten Haustein, leader of the research, said it may have been the hottest month in 120,000 years, when there were forests in the Arctic Circle and hippopotamuses and elephants roamed where London is today.

The average worldwide temperature last month was 1.5C hotter than it was before the Second Industrial Revolution.

The average temperature in July 2023 was 0.2C higher than in July 2019, which had been the hottest month on Earth until now.

North America, Asia and Europe have suffered from extreme heatwaves, leading to large fires in countries including Greece and Canada.

“The era of global warming has ended, now we are in the global boiling era,” said UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres.

Oil woe

OLIVE OIL price rises are showing no sign of slowing down in Spain with the cost of a litre doubling over a year due to droughts destroying olive crops.

Known as ‘liquid gold’, the lowest price for a litre of ‘basic’ olive oil comes in at around €6.45 with prices set to rise still further.

In the Murcia region, Antonia Cruz from the Jumilla branch of the COAG farmers organisation said: “The drought is subjecting olive trees to a lot of water stress and if the weather continues as it is, next year the trees will suffer because they will eliminate the fruit to save themselves,” she added.

By Alberto Lejarraga

He insisted: “Climate change is here, it is terrifying and it is only the start.”

July 6 was the hottest day ever recorded on the planet with an average temperature of over 17C, surpassing the previous record established in August 2016.

In Spain, there have already been three heatwaves this summer, with extreme weather warnings on the Costa del Sol.

And on the Costa Blanca, the province of Alicante experienced the hottest July nights in 100 years.

THE HEAT WILL KILL YOU FIRST

JULY was the hottest month on record since records began.

The record was previously held by June.

Prolonged heat waves have been experienced around the world, the water in the North Atlantic is unusually warm, and Antarctica (currently in the middle of winter) has had sea ice extensions well below normal.

The climate change deniers have no credibility .

I recently read about a Danish critic of climate alarmism, Bjorn Lomborg, declaring that rising temperatures will reduce the number of deaths from the cold. What a narrow minded nutter.

Historically we labeled changes happening as ‘climate change’.

We then adopted ‘global warming’ as our go to term.

Make no mistake…..PLANET

EARTH IS WARMING.

The human race has not experienced this type of heat before. We are not prepared to

VERTICAL SOLAR

THE PORT of Valencia could become the home of Spain's first large-scale vertical solar energy park. Tests are being carried out for two months on part of a wall at the North Dock with the aim of exploring the feasibility to install a much larger unit.

A Valencian start-up firm called SunnerBOX has created a special matrix system named IT3 for the tests. It consists of solar panels arranged on tensioned mesh stretched with cables, and the array is said to be easy to install and cuts costs.

21 panels of 410 watts each have been erected for the pilot project and the amount of energy generated and the behaviour of the structure will be measured in real time.

cope with it.

Currently there are 30 million people living in areas of extreme heat. Scientists estimate that by 2070 there will be 2 billion people suffering these conditions. That’s not far off.

As hot areas expand, health and quality of life are impacted. Agricultural production is compromised. This affects us all.

WE ARE CREATURES OF HABIT

For example - everyday we flush the toilet (with

the exception of my 12 year old son), we start the car, moan about the weather.

Yet we know very little about the detail behind most functions.

Our knowledge is largely superficial.

To illustrate this fact, look at nuclear energy. Most people have formed a view on whether this is a good thing or morally wrong.

Very few of us (me included) can actually describe the economic processes, or what happens in a nuclear reactor, or the phenomena of atomic physics.

Our opinions are formed by the media, politicians, and conversations within our peer and friend groups.

We have an illusion of understanding. One fact we need to understand is that the scientists are right, and we are not listening hard enough, nor are we acting with an adequate response.

(The Heat Will Kill You First: Life and Death on a Scorched Planet written by Jeff Goodell will get you looking for your Valium!)

The human race has not experienced this type of heat before

Green Matters By Martin Tye

CRITIC: Bjorn Lomborg

A resident of Chite, Lecrin, Gym, combines wit, irony, angst, and a ‘touch of anarchy’ for her life drawings and large paintings on canvas. She has recently completed a portrait of music producer, Youth – famous owner of the Space Mountain recording studio in Lecrin. She likes to observe the ‘human condition’ and ‘individual fragility’. She says: “My Godmother's faultless ink and watercolour sketches for fashion catalogues during the 50s and 60s influenced my desire to make art. Norman Rockwell’s lyrical caricatures and then the Pre Raphaelites stole my attention as a teenager. Life drawing became addictive to me.”

Gym ofHalama Lecrin

GETTING ARTY

By Jo Chipchase

GRANADA has a long history of art and self-expression, with the most famous luminary being Frederico Garcia Lorca. Since then, many creatives have been drawn to this beautiful area -

The Spanish region that is becoming a magnet for modern female artists

including poets, painters and, later, digital nomads. Living amongst the mountains surrounding the Sierra Nevada are many talented female artists, who document their personal experiences using media ranging from paintbrushes to pixels.

Jo Chipchase speaks to five local artists about the inspiration behind their work.

Mix Amylo of Granada

Mix Amylo is an English artist, musician, writer, and composer. She hails from London but is usually found in Órgiva, or a cave house in Granada. Having always drawn and created as a child, she returned to it later, studying in London, Accademia d'Arte in Florence, Cyprus School of Art, and Metàfora in Barcelona.

Described as ‘beautiful chaos’, her artwork weaves ‘the strength and

Andalucia has attracted Gym since 1970. She says: “I moved into Chite in the early 90s. Over a 10-year period, I fixed my eye on an abandoned flour mill, created my space to live, paint, and show my work downstairs at The Sandpit Gallery.”

“In 2021, I rented a warehouse near Lanjarón for three months as a challenge to myself, with absolutely no idea of what I would paint. Ten weeks later, 12 large canvases were hung for a 'one night only' exhibition called ‘TERMINAL’.”

● TERMINAL is on show at the Instituto de America in Santa Fe, Granada, from 21-22 September.

Armelle Boussidan of La Alpujarra Meg Robinson of the Contraviesa

Meg Robinson moved to Alcázar in the Sierra de Contraviesa because she was drawn by “the wisdom of the country people, the richness of the ancient culture, the blue sky, and summer starry nights”. She creates art from personal experiences and describes her work as ‘autobiographical’, but she also has some themes. One prominent theme was based on tracing her Jewish roots from Sephardic Spain to Lithuania, with five years travelling to explore countries including Alaska. In 2018, having found her

Jewish roots and grandparents’ village of ori- gin, a strong theme in her art was the inherited trauma passed down from generations of Baltic Jewish individuals and communities. She says: “Discovering the identity of my Jewish father after 50 years searching was traumatic. It unleashed a tsunami of grief I couldn’t explain.

So, I drew it.” Meg is now creating art around a new theme, with a new palette of colours celebrating the three cultures she lost thought adoption - Irish, Dutch, and Lithuanian.

www.megrobinsonart.com

Armelle Boussidan, a resident of Lanjarón, is a French born painter and multidisciplinary artist working with acrylics, posca, ink, watercolour, pigments, and sand. She has roots in Morocco and, for the last 12 years, she has exhibited her work in various places throughout Europe.

Armelle explores ‘invisible energetic states channelled into an intimate, intuitive and sensitive language’, sometimes used for art therapy. Her work can take different directions, according to personal experiences.

Armelle is inspired by: “Me, you, all of us, the seen and unseen, nature and natural patterns, everything we feel, dream and can't describe, the visible and invisible, portals of high energy, beauty in details and mud, pain, pleasure, grief and joy, the healing path, the vibration of a colour under a ray of light, a crystal glistening in the riverbed, all of it…”

She first arrived in Andalucia in 2016. A year later, she strolled around the spa town of Lanjarón with her ex-partner and ended up staying there.

Since then, she has been in and out of La Alpujarra, which keeps “calling me back like a magnet”. After spending time in Egypt and France, she returned to seek a home and studio for the winter.

www.armelleboussidan.com/art/

fem inine

ing a highly detailed black and white surrealism’. She creates personal dreamscapes, tries to capture the subconscious, and find quirky ways to reveal the ‘dark beauty hidden in the ordinary world’. Her artistic language uses recurring themes, such as circles, doorways, chessboards, female figures, eyes, mountains, and ladders.

The resulting works have been shown in different countries.

Since living in rural Spain, Mix joined the art group, Artists Network Alpujarra (ANA), and has participated in many exhibitions. She organised an Open House exhibition in Órgiva, where other artists could exhibit their work alongside hers.

www.mixamylo.com

Lunita Loca of La Alpujarra

Lunita Loca is a digital illustrator living on an olive farm. She has a passion for creating healing art full of colour, symbolism, and magic.

After 30 years away from art, she started drawing again during lockdown. She was trying to make sense of what was happening around the world through creativity. She could share her work instantly over social media and connect with others.

She explains: “The concept of ‘art is for everyone’ really appeals to me. Before moving to Spain, I lived in Bristol, where street art transformed the city into a walking gallery. From the rich to poor areas, the art spoke for itself and was inspirational, lifting your spirits and making you think or laugh out loud.”

“When my family moved to Spain, the landscape changed drastically. Now it was a time for reflection and healing. The mountains held me as I became a mother for the second time and found my way in the community.”

“During the summer of 2022, I was

stung by a scorpion. What followed was a dark night of the soul. After 24 hours of pain, I awoke to find myself charged with a new spark of energy and confidence.”

Instagram: @_lunitaloca_

FOOD,DRINK & TRAVEL

The Terra Mítica Amusement Park

For

It

nightlife

IT’S best known for its stag parties and excessive boozing - not to mention its own TV pro -

gramme.

But there is a lot more going on in Benidorm than most people realise.

Spain’ biggest tourist resort - which receives between 10 to 15 million tourists a year - is surprisingly popular with Spanish visitors and has a distinctly middle class feel in many parts.

The giant skyscraper resort, which is considered the ‘birthplace of package tourism’, was first launched as a holiday destination in 1925, but didn’t become popular until the 1950s and 1960s.

While in the 1980s and 90s, it garnered a reputation as being the preferred destination of British and German lager louts, it has massively cleaned up its

The church of San Jaime y Santa Ana

is a statue of the Virgen del Sufragio and the saint’s chapel. Unlike the rest of the city that boasts skyscrapers, the courtyard around the church speaks to the city’s past architecture.

Balcony over the mediterranean

This lookout point with views over both Benidorm and the Med is one of its most popular landmarks. Although most people have no idea of its important historical significance, between the 14th and 17th centuries, a castle stood on the headland to protect the city from pirates. However, when the French took over the castle in the 19th century, the English navy destroyed it. Now, only leftover stone from the castle is visible on the balcony along with a small monument with cannons as a nod to its history.

The Serra Gelada Natural Park

L’Aigüera Park

There are many ways to connect with nature during your time in Benidorm, and this natural park is an ideal option for those looking to hike or catch scenic views. On the trail, visitors can see the La Escaleta watchtower ruins and get a great view of the sea from the La Cruz lookout. This portion of the sea has a diverse marine environment, making it a great place to snorkel or scuba dive.

thrill seekers, this amusement park has a range of roller coasters and water rides.

is only open during the summer season but offers activities that people of all ages can enjoy. Ticket prices and hours can be found here: www.terramiticapark.com

Adding to the blossoming environmental side to Benidorm, this man-made park offers an oasis from the fast-paced buzz of the resort. Its large walkway is lined with trees that give way to gardens and two auditoriums that host city events.

Located on the top of Benidorm’s old town, this 18th century church is dedicated to Benidorm’s patron saint. Inside there

Beaches,

and skyscrapers… but there is a lot more going on in Spain’s biggest tourist resort, writes

Regina Roberts

THE HIDDEN SIDE OF BENIDORM

act today.

Best known for its excellent beaches, it has a permanent population of 71,000 people, more than Ronda or Cuenca, and was the first place in Spain where women could wear a bikini.

Around 30 buildings reach 100 metres in height, while the Intempo building truly scrapes the sky at 187 m. The fifth most visited place in Spain (after Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla and Palma), its first nightclub, Penelope

opened in 1968, while in 1970, CAP 3000 opened with a concert from Led Zeppelin. Today, the city boasts of being one of the most sustainable places in Spain. It has many green spaces (see photo) and the resort has recently kick started a ‘green initiative’ to improve the environment. More than 200 trees were planted earlier this year to help with offsetting carbon dioxide absorption. Town hall officials currently have oth -

OP QUICK CROSSWORD

er plans underway to improve cleanliness and the environment, including installing new underground bins and energy-efficient lighting. As the resort makes efforts to showcase how important the environment is to its tourism, a new side of Benidorm is being uncovered that moves away from its stereotypical elements. Here the Olive Press offers half a dozen interesting sites worth seeking out on a visit to Benidorm:

Across

1 Frown (5)

4 Grey (5)

10 “Raising ---” (1987 Nicolas Cage film) (7)

11 Hibernian (5)

12 Outer covering (4)

13 Final course sounds dry (7)

15 Stalwart in the lead, or out of sorts (11)

19 Implore urgently (7)

21 Emperor of Rome, 5468 AD (4)

23 Throw out (5)

24 Angers (7)

25 Inheritors (5)

26 Rounds up (5)

Down

2 Dry red Italian table wine (7)

3 Horse-stopping command (4)

5 Gymnastic pommel horse exercise (8)

6 Banish (5)

7 Bears out cavalryman’s sidearm (5)

8 Obsolete form of marine propulsion (6,5)

9 Snap (5)

14 Forebear (8)

16 Appeared (7)

17 Grew less (5)

18 Pinch in the fundament (5)

20 Filch (5)

22 It’s made of wood in the woods (4)

All solutions are on page 14

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Dear Jennifer:

READ THE SMALL PRINT I

Make sure you have the right home cover to meet your needs

REGULARLY have extolled the virtues of Liberty’s fully comprehensive house policy. When asking the right questions, you will discover that many house insurance policies are inadequate.

You do need to read the small print on your house policy, including checking that you have the correct policy with Liberty Seguros.

One of the very important issues when discussing house insurance is the amount of contents cover, always remembering that with Spanish Home insurance the kitchen is included in the contents, not the buildings.

Also there is a wonderful extra you can add to your policy and that is accidental damage, which is unique to Liberty Seguros and covers many breakages and claims within the home.

Therefore can I please ask you all to double check the coverage of your home policies, whether you are with Jennifer Cunningham Insurance and Liberty, or another company, to understand the cover you actually have. Finding out you have the incorrect and insufficient coverage when you want to make a claim is far too late.

My consultants are currently working on assessing the home policies, and if they feel you would benefit with increased, additional coverage, they will contact you at renewal.

In the meantime, if you have any concerns or questions, please contact one of my offices and we will be able to give you the advice you require and answer any questions.

Just remember that your property is likely to be your most valuable asset, and needs the right protection.

We also have optional guarantees available, which include dangerous dog liability, public liability for mobility vehicles, cover for electric vehicle chargers, and illegal occupation and unpaid rent if you are a landlord renting your property.

If you have expensive garden furniture, we can increase the cover for these. We can also offer increased cover for valuable objects and jewellery in event of theft with violence.

We can tailor your house policy to suit your own individual needs.

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A perfect nap

TAKING a 20 minute afternoon nap after lunch is beneficial according to an expert who warns that a long siesta sleep brings little reward. With the warm weather making everybody feel a bit more sleepy, Dr. Nohemi Rodriquez head of neurophysiology at Elche's Vinalopo Hospital suggests that a post-lunch snooze should be '20 minutes or less' and is 'better in the early afternoon in a quiet dark area with

a low temperature'.

The specialist says that a short sleep can bring health benefits: “It reduces fatigue, increases energy and performance and boosts a person's mood, alertness, memory, and reaction capacity.”

Dr. Rodriquez adds that sleeping longer creates 'sleep inertia' which gives the body 'enough time to enter a deeper slowwake sleep' which makes people feel groggy when they wake up.

DRINK UP

Take in fluids to avoid urinary stones

URINARY tract stones are one of the most frequent issues treated by urologists in Spain with hot temperatures forcing reported cases up by 30% over the summer months.

Simple changes in daily diets can reduce the risk of a stone being formed according to Dr. Bartolome Lloret, a urologist at Alicante's Vithas Medimar Hospital.

“Environmental heat is one of the most recognised causes of stone formation which is more frequent in hot climates and in Spain at this time of the year.”

By Alex Trelinski

“High temperatures in the workplace cause big water losses due to high perspiration while vigorous physical exercise, especially in summer, can cause periodic dehydration and increased concentration of crystals in the urine which form stones,” he added.

Cases of urinary tract stones are also more frequent in patients who have a parent who has had kidney stones. Dietary factors that promote the development of kidney stones and others that exert a protective effect have been identified so diet should be considered as an integral part of treating stone sufferers.

Dr Lloret said: “There are a number of dietary factors that encourage stones to be formed like a high consumption of animal protein. a low intake of fluids, a high intake of sodium and eating of oxalate- a substance present in some foods of plant origin.” Oxalate foods include walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, spinach, and chocolate. The specialist recommends everybody especially at this time of the year to drink more than three litres of wa-

NEW VARIANT

THE European Medicines Agency (EMA) has warned about a spike of a new Covid-19 subvariant known as BA.5.

Increased cases have been reported across the country including the Valencian Community, but the EMA has described the subvariant as ‘highly contagious but not lethal’ as most vulnerable people received vaccine boosters last winter.

The Valencia region has boosted purchases of antigen tests three-fold over the last fortnight as consumer demand has risen, but nowhere close to the levels of a year ago when four million test kits were sold in Spain.

ter per day backed up by eating healthier foods like cereals, fruit, and vegetables. He also suggests reducing the consumption of butter, sausages, preserves, soups, dehydrated creams, cheeses and ham, as well as avoiding adding extra salt to meals.

Life-saving results

ANTI-OBESITY drugs like Ozempic have been proven to reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes by up to 20% in overweight people.

International studies have shown a positive effect for diabetics but now their impact has been proven with a wider group following research that started in 2018.

“This is revolutionary,” says Sevilla-based endocrinoligist Cristobal Morales - Spain’s coordinator of the study, which took place in 41 countries.

“We have seen a 20% reduction in cases in a short period of time which leaves no room for doubt,” he commented.

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Playground justice

A QUEUE for a child’s swing turned violent in Valladolid when two fathers started trading blows - with a baseball bat. It is unknown if the children managed to get their turn on the swing.

Unlucky rescue

AN elderly woman nearly croaked her last when vapours from the huge stash of drugs she was storing in her home began to overwhelm her. Thankfully - or not - passing police heard her cries for help and saved her.

No cigar

A BRIT who ran out on his €1,500 hotel bill almost got away scott free, until police intercepted him boarding a ferry in Santander.

O P LIVE RESS

SEX CRIME

IF you are going to gossip about a neighbour's noisy sex life, do it quietly. And definitely don’t do it live on national television.

A woman in Salamanca who did just that has been hit with a €10,000 fine for besmirching her passionate neighbour’s honour.

The facts date back to 2017, when the defendant appeared in a television report complaining about how she couldn’t sleep due to the noise made by her neighbour during sex.

The woman, identified by her initials LMI, referred to the ‘ardour’ of her fellow resident.

FOR THE FANS

Gossip ordered to pay €10,000 after discussing neighbour’s ‘ardour’ live on TV

By Simon Hunter

She also explained how the woman had been reported to the authorities and fined for excess decibels and ‘noises from her bed’. LMI added that the neighbour had even caused cracks in her ceiling and that her radiator vibrated due to the young woman’s activities. Asked if she might be a prostitute, the defendant said that

she did not know but that she had ‘seen a number of different people’ go up to the apartment.

The comments were broadcast on a TV show called La Mañana on state broadcaster RTVE, prompting the neighbour, identified as JVG, to file a lawsuit both against the defendant and the TV channel itself.

A lower court first threw out the case on the basis that JVG had not been identified in the

A FOOTBALLER has quit professional football to star on sex site Onlyfans Miguel Angel Guerrero, goalkeeper of Velez CF, has left the fourth tier of Spanish football for what he believes is a much more profitable career.

The 29-year-old became well-known

broadcast, and that LMI was protected by freedom of expression. But an appeal at the Provincial Court was upheld, slapping LMI with a €10,000 fine. The Supreme Court has now also upheld the sentence, meaning the compensation will have to be paid.

after taking part in La Isla de las Tentaciones, the Spanish version of Love Island, earlier this year. The former goalie explained that he made the decision to start an Onlyfans account after receiving several erotic messages during his time on the reality show.

The ex keeper may no longer be

A MAMMOTH iceberg weighing over 15,000 kilos is set to make its grand appearance in Malaga at the start of September. The iceberg is being hauled all the way from Greenland in a refrigerated container and will be placed on swanky shopping street Calle Larios. It will be left there until it melts naturally, serving as a ‘poignant’ visual reminder of the pressing issue of climate change. The Arctic Challenge 2023 team, led by Manuel Calvo has just returned from Greenland and managed to get an export licence for the iceberg ‘for scientific research’.

making saves but he will surely start saving more money, as the platform users can pay between €5 and €50 a month for a subscription. “If you want to show non-sexual content you will not make money as Onlyfans is porn. I have a big gay public and I am open to do things that they would enjoy,” he added.