Euro Weekly News - Mallorca 11 - 17 March 2021 Issue 1862

News

The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1862 1857

4 - -10 11 17 February March 2021 2021

MALLORCA • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM

FREE • GRATIS

RESTRICTIONS EASED

BARS and restaurants in Mal‐ lorca will be able to open their interiors to customers from Monday March 15 as part of the gradual de‐escala‐ tion plans of the Balearic Gov‐ ernment.

This was announced by Government spokesman, Iago Negueruela who stressed that there would be a maximum capacity of 30 per cent al‐ lowed, but as yet he gave no confirmation of the opening hours allowed.

OPENING UP: Ready to welcome customers back.

Using Menorca as a compar‐ ison however it is likely that in‐ teriors will be required to close by 5pm, although terrace ca‐ pacity may increase from the current 50 per cent capacity and customers may be allowed to remain longer on the ter‐ races during weekdays.

In addition, shopping centres and large stores in Mallorca will be allowed to open on Sat‐ urdays from March 20, al‐ though capacity will be restrict‐ ed to 50 per cent from Monday

Welcome back

ON Monday March 8, the CEO of German tourist group TUI met with President, Francina Armengol and Minister of Tourism Iago Negueruela in Palma.

The TUI executive Sebastian Ebel confirmed that Mallorca will be one of the company’s priority destinations for its German customers, especially as it appeared that the German Government would soon be lifting certain travel restrictions.

Armengol updated the TUI CEO on all health and safety protocols implemented in the Balearic Islands since the begin-

ning of the pandemic and said that the Balearic Islands “is a safe destination” with extensive health infrastructure.

The speed of vaccination on Mallorca will to some extent influence the company as to its decision to send German customers to the island but Ebel said that “TUI is ready to respond to the expected demand and will take last minute reservations.”

He also announced that from March 20, the Robinson Club Cala Serena will open its doors in the southeast of Mallorca and one week later, on March

27, the company’s first planes will take off again for Mallorca from Germany.

On the same day, it was also announced that the Allsun hotels will open for their guests in good time for Easter, as they plan to offer accommodation in Playa de Palma, Alcudia and

Cala Millor from March 17.

At ITB travel fair CEO of Alltours which owns Allsun, Willi Verhuven made it clear that only people with a negative Coronavirus test will be allowed to travel to Mallorca and party tourism will be prohibited for the immediate future.

to Friday and reduced to 30 per cent on Saturdays with car park space remaining at the current 50 per cent.

This has come about due to the continued and rapid fall in Covid‐19 infections on the is‐ land, but the Government has made it clear that it will have no hesitation to re‐impose tighter restrictions in the

event that infections increase again.

For this reason, both Negueruela and President Francina Armengol have stressed the importance of ev‐ eryone in Mallorca continuing to act responsibly and if they do so and vaccine continues to be available, then further eas‐ ing of restrictions are likely.

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11 - 17 March 2021

THERE are still some ‘hangovers’ from the Civil War and when the Guardia Civil became aware of the possibility of the sale of some old military items, they went into action.

Whilst it is perfectly acceptable to collect and own antique weapons, the items that were on sale in a shop in Palma and through the internet were from an individual in Santa Maria.

Civil War artifacts Officers visited both premises accompanied by a weapons inspection team and explosives specialists and were surprised with what they found and seized.

In Santa Maria there was a 150mm shell as well as a number of old cartridges whilst in the

Palma shop, they discovered a 1930’s submachine gun, an old pistol and a mortar bomb, all in the possession of an individual who did not hold the necessary permits to own them.

Helping the young MONEY and furniture have been donated by La Caixa Foundation to the Amiticia As‐ sociation which is based in Mal‐ lorca and offers assistance to the vulnerable in society.

Focusing on children and their families as well as those with disabilities, the Association is a non‐profit entity that re‐ sponds to a social demand that promotes the social inclusion of groups and their families.

Employing qualified profes‐ sionals, they offer a wide range of services to respond to the needs of vulnerable groups and their families.

It also runs a day centre for the care of minors and adoles‐ cents referred from the ‘Caixa Proinfancia’ programme.

NEWS

Assistance to women THE Consell de Mallorca and the Inca Council signed an agreement on Tuesday March 9 to make space available to give advice to women in vulnerable situations.

The Consell will have access to the Inca Women’s offices (Espai de Dones), located in Plaça de Sant Domingo.

The Directorate for Equality and Diversi‐ ty will offer its Equality Office service, a Le‐ gal Information Point, Psychological Care Service, Comprehensive Care Service for the LGTBI Group and other services related to gender‐based violence.

This service is considered important due to the rise in difficulties due to the social effects of the pandemic that are manifest‐ ed more intensely in the lives of women, especially with regard to conditions for AN 18‐year‐old girl has been ar‐ rested in Palma for falsely claim‐ ing that two men attempted to kidnap her on Saturday, Febru‐ ary 27. The teen told the Na‐ tional Police that two men had tried to force her into the back of a car while she was walking along the Plaza del Tubo shortly before 10pm.

According to her version of events, the perpetrators grabbed her by the jacket and

Credit: Consell de Mallorca

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AGREEMENT: The signatories outside the Inca Women’s building. reconciling family and work life, or with re‐ gard to the increased risk of violence and also worries about working conditions

Fake Kidnap ordered her to get into the car, but she managed to break free and run away.

As a result of her complaint, a large manhunt was launched to locate the alleged kidnappers, however, as officers dug deep‐

er, they discovered the girl’s sto‐ ry didn’t add up. The teen even‐ tually relented and confessed that she had made the whole thing up to get attention.

She was formally arrested on March 3 for faking a crime and the National Police severely crit‐ icised her actions, which they say took up valuable resources and man‐hours that could have been spent prosecuting real criminals.

NEWS

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NIBS EXTRA Lady Moura ONE of the world’s most luxurious superyachts, the Lady Moura has returned to Palma for a few days after spending the winter in Alicante. Built in 1990 it is owned by 82-yearold Nasser Ibrahim Al-Rashid, a Saudi millionaire.

Social housing PALMA Council wants to see an extension of the Balearic Government programme which allows for the temporary takeover of empty properties owned by banks and corporate investors. The concept is that these properties are then rented to those with low incomes in need of social housing.

Boat blaze A SERIOUS fire broke out on a boat moored in the Can Picafort marina on March 10 which saw emergency services called out with the area closed by the Guardia Civil in order to allow firefighters to tackle the blaze and for the rescue of one person who fell into the water.

Mallorca 312 AFTER having to cancel completely in 2020, the popular Mallorca 312 bike race has had to postpone its planned April event, due to difficulties still being experienced by athletes and visitors in attending.

The new proposed date will be October 24, but this is subject to the state of the pandemic.

Plan opposed THE plan by the Palma Council to pedestrianise certain narrow streets in the city centre continues to receive objections and now seven neighbourhood associations have added their opposition by sending a joint letter to the council saying that this would be a pointless exercise that would not benefit residents.

Beach drones TESTS are now being undertaken to see whether it will be appropriate to use drones with cameras and infrared sensors over the beaches of Mallorca to measure compliance with social distancing and other pandemic restrictions.

11 - 17 March 2021

Environmental victory THE Balearic Government, working with the Blue Sea Alliance has obtained support from the Congress of Deputies in Madrid over protection for the Mediterranean.

A rather laborious title the ‘Bill of the Parliament of the Balearic Islands on the protection of the Mediterranean Sea under the Spanish jurisdiction of the damages that can produce the exploration, the investigation and the exploitation of hydrocarbons and other mineral substances’ hides an important decision.

First approved in the Balearic

Supporters outside the Congress Building.

Parliament in 2018, an earlier version of the Bill to protect the environment of the Mediterranean from exploitation was actually vetoed by the National Parliament in

2017 due to a report suggesting that if implemented, it would negatively impact the Spanish public deficit.

Now however it has passed

both Houses and will in due course become law, ensuring that no new concessions will be granted and only those explorations with a concession date already granted will remain in force, without the possibility of extension.

This is particularly welcome news for the Balearic Islands as they rely so heavily on an unpolluted sea for numerous reasons, not the least of which being nautical tourism, but it must be remembered that this decision will only affect Spanish waters and other Mediterranean countries will do as they wish.

Balearic vaccinations all organised IN order to ensure that everyone in the Balearic Islands is able to obtain the Covid‐ 19 vaccination, the Health Service will short‐ ly issue a telephone number to call for regis‐ tration.

This is aimed at anyone who is living on one of the islands but does not have a health card in order to guarantee access to the free public health service regardless of

17th Classic Rally RUNNING from today, Thurs‐ day, March 11 to Saturday, March 13, the 17th Annual Mallorca Classic Rally will take place with just 70 competitors.

It will be a different event to the usual hustle and bustle and noise of the classic vehi‐ cles due to the Covid‐19 pan‐ demic and the need to comply with safety regulations.

Jewels such as the legendary Jaguar E‐Type, a Porsche 356 as well as two Bentleys, an Old Number One from 1948 and 3⁄8 Racer from 1949 will roll on the roads of Mallorca alongside some innovative new vehicles such as the New Stratos which will make its de‐ but in the race.

Motor racing fans will be able to enjoy these automo‐ tive gems in Puerto Portals, but for security reasons, capac‐ ity will be limited and access will be controlled through a QR code system installed at the entrance.

The actual stages of the race will be closed to the public, but everyone can follow the com‐ petition through www.rallyis lamallorca.com.

the individual’s situation.

According to Director General of Public Health and Participation, Maria Antònia Font, and the Health Service Director of the Balearic Islands, Eugènia Carandell, on Mon‐ day March 8, the Germans Escalas sports centre in Palma, was opened for vaccina‐ tions with seven lines each with the capacity to attend to more than 100 people a day.

When added to Son Dureta as a mass vaccination centre, 5,600 people can be vac‐ cinated per week with 70 health profession‐ als working in shifts from 8am to 8pm Mon‐ day to Sunday, with some lines open until 10pm.

Much will depend upon the arrival of vac‐ cines rather than the ability of the health service to arrange inoculations.

Branson building Hotel RICHARD BRANSON has announced he will build “the most luxurious hotel in the Mediterranean” in Mallorca.

The businessman said his plans for the hotel in Mallorca can now go ahead after he has been al‐ lowed to turn a 19th century building in his Son Bunyola estate into a luxury resort.

Sir Richard Branson’s hotel will be located be‐ tween Esporles and Banyalbufar in the Tra‐ muntana mountains.

The news comes after years of legal wranglings over whether the hotel could be built on the 251‐ hectare estate, which is on protected land.

What will be “the most luxurious hotel in the Mediterranean,” according to Branson, will occupy what was the main building on the estate and built in 1880. The works to create the hotel are expect‐ ed to begin in late spring to open in 2023, offering a five‐star resort with 29 rooms and capacity for 58 guests.

Underwater exploration FOR six days, the vessel of the Spanish Institute of Oceanogra‐ phy (IEO) Ramón Margalef sailed through the waters of the Maritime‐Terrestrial National Park of the Cabrera Archipela‐ go.

On board were scientists from the oceanographic centres of the Balearic Islands, Malaga and Santander and engineers from the University of Cantabria.

Their purpose was to obtain high‐resolution images that will enable the generation of virtual 3D scenarios of the Park’s most appealing habitats.

In addition, the project allowed the divers to test very high‐ resolution underwater recording equipment, specifically adapted for use in vulnerable marine habitats and the informa‐ tion gathered will allow the equipment to be used in similar en‐ vironments in the future.

The long‐term aim is to turn the park into a laboratory of sustainability from where to export knowledge and new tech‐ nological advances to face climate change.

Grab a bargain at charity shop THE Calanova Cancer Charity shop situated at Avenida Joan Miro 354 San Agustin 07015 Pal‐ ma is having a massive €1 sale of clothes from Monday March 15.

This means that ladies and gentlemen can ex‐ pect to pick up a bargain in jackets, coats, shoes, scarves, hats, bags and much more so a visit to the shop is recommended so that you can see for yourself what is available.

Sadly, one of its much‐loved volunteers, known by all as ‘Scottish Maggie’ who was a flu‐ ent Spanish speaker passed away, herself the victim of cancer which she readily helped to try to fight and her friends at the charity will miss her. According to research, one in two people will be touched by some form of cancer during their lifetimes and despite the fact recovery rates are getting better all the time, research in‐ to this insidious disease and care for those who suffer is ongoing but needs financial support.

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International Women’s Day

Saluting International Women’s Day. THE mayor of Palma, Jose Hila, the council‐ lor for Social Justice, Feminism and LGTBI, Sonia Vivas, and rep‐ resentatives of the different municipal formations appeared o n t h e c i t y h a l l b a l‐ cony.

Standing above a large banner com‐ memorating Interna‐ tional Women’s Day, they applauded the concept of equality for all on Monday March 8.

This day has been commemorated by many women’s groups over the past century, but was adopted by the United Nations in 1952. The UN inaugu‐ rated the annual March celebration in memory of 130 wom‐ en who died on that date in 1908.

According to the mayor, “this is a day to highlight the strug‐ gle for equality be‐ tween men and wom‐ en. As a city council we join because we believe that Palma must be a space of equality. We must not suggest that this has already been achieved because we still have a lot of work to do.”

Later that day, vari‐ ous sites in Palma were highlighted with purple spotlights as historically, purple was a colour that de‐ noted justice and dig‐ nity and now it is used to represent women.

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First female president

THE Chamber of Barcelona has elected its first female president.

Mònica Roca has become the first woman to head the public law corporation, which has a 135 year history and has seen 32 presidents.

Roca was already acting president, but has secured her position with 32 of the 42 votes cast, with candidate José María Torres receiving just four. There were six blank votes.

Roca has been acting president since December 14, 2020, after Joan Canadell made the leap into politics to join the candidacy of JxCat in the Catalan elections of February 14, obtaining a seat in Parliament. In the extraordinary plenary session held on Monday, March 8 - International Women’s Day - in the Chamber of Commerce, Jaume Aragall was also elected as a member of the executive committee, with 31 votes in favour and four blank.

In her speech, Roca said her objective as president will be to “influence” public administrations to legislate in favour of companies.

Birth Rate Falls BIRTHS: Numbers down.

ACCORDING to new figures, Spain’s birth rate fell by 23 per cent in the year following the beginning of the pandemic.

In December and January, 13,141 fewer births were registered than in the same period the previous year, a drop of 22.6 per cent.

In total, 45,054 babies were

registered in December and January, according to information from 3,929 computerised civil registries in Spain, covering 93 per cent of the country’s population. The drop follows an ongoing decrease in the number of births in Spain, with the 360,617 births in 2019 being the lowest figure since records began at the

Spanish National Institute of Statistics in 1941.

Guillermo Antiñolo, director of the maternal-fetal unit at the Virgen del Rocio Hospital, in Sevilla, said he had seen a 40 per cent reduction in deliveries attended in the last 12 years, from 9,000 in 2008 to just over 5,000 in 2020.

Masked Summer

THE Minister of Health and Families of the Junta de Andalucía, Jesus Aguirre, has confirmed that “we will be wearing a mask in the summer” but added that “maybe there will be a little more relaxation.”

The minister added “The masks are going to make us change our habits, we have scientific evidence that respiratory infections, flu and pneumonia have fallen exponentially.”

NEWS

Bitcoin Could Replace All Currencies AS national currencies are already showing ex‐ treme signs of weakness, people will soon start measuring the price of things in terms of bitcoin, says Jesse Powell, CEO of cryptocurrency trading exchange Kraken.

He told Bloomberg that bitcoin will eventual‐ ly be a global currency because “you have to think it’s going to infini‐ ty.”

“I think true believers will tell you it’s going all the way to the moon, to Mars, and eventually it’ll be the world’s curren‐ cy,” Powell added.

According to Powell, “In the near term, people see it (bit‐ coin) surpassing gold as a store of value, so I think a million dollars as a price target within the next 10 years is very reasonable.

“Bitcoin believers ex‐ pect the cryptocurrency to replace fiat money and the market capitalisation of all national currencies combined could make up its worth,” he said.

TikTok campaign To Join The Force THE Guardia Civil has launched a campaign on its TikTok profile, on Sunday, March 7, in order to encourage more young women to join the force.

The campaign called ‘# ManyMás’ was run to tie in with International Women’s Day, which was celebrated on March 8, with a series of TikTok videos being published on the social media network, showing officers from the full range of services that the Guardia Civil offer, including Traffic, Maritime, Air Service, Seprona, and Criminalistics.

The current campaign is aimed at transmitting the message to its users, who are on average between 16 and 24 years of age, as potential recruits, to show them that ‘there are no limitations or barriers to being a Guardia Civil.’ At present, there are more than 6,000 women at all levels of the Guardia Civil, across all the different fields, with four of them holding the rank of lieutenant colonel, the highest-ranking so far for a female officer.

NEWS

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Gender Leroy Merlin Creates jobs Goya Awards Blunder Equality at home WITH the onset of the coronavirus pan‐ demic in early 2020, most people saw their lives altered beyond recognition, with one of the main changes being the amount of time spent in the home. A striking observation is that the health cri‐ sis seems to have had a very negative impact on the perception that Spanish women have of gender equality in the home.

According to a study conducted by DMY and published in Spanish daily 20 minutos, while 59 per cent of women felt that equality had been achieved at home in 2019, this figure dropped to just 45 per cent in 2020. The survey coincid‐ ed with the celebration of International Women’s Day on Monday, March 8, and on a positive note, 51 per cent of Span‐ ish women surveyed feel that equality in politics has improved in the past year, compared with 48 per cent in 2019.

The men questioned paint a more positive picture, with more than 60 per cent believing that equality in every area of life has improved over the last three years.

HOME decor giant Leroy Merlin has announced its plan to create 5,000 new jobs across its stores in Spain, reiterating its com‐ mitment to guarantee the immediate availability of products and an unbeat‐ able customer experience.

The company has said that the majority of job opportunities will be for staff working in their ter‐ race and garden depart‐

ments, an area which has seen increased demand since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and one which is certain to grow as the weather im‐ proves.

The Director of learning Development, Celia Cis‐ neros, explained the incor‐ poration of new workers.

“We want to continue offering the best customer service so that they can

continue creating environ‐ ments where they can live better.

“For this, our collabora‐ tors are the force that helps us to respond in real time to the demands of our customers,” she said.

New staff will receive specialised training de‐ pending on their depart‐ ment and will be offered contracts from March to August.

Catalonia Urged To Authorise Vaccine To The Over 55s

DUE to a lack of research into the effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine on the elderly, the Spanish government decided to make it unavailable to people over the age of 55.

Whilst this age group are still able to receive the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, many health professionals have expressed disagreement with the decision to limit the distribution of AstraZeneca.

On Friday February 5, the

association of doctors (Consell de Col·legis de Metges de Catalunya) and also pharmacists (Consell de Col·legis Farmacèutics), together with physiotherapists (Col·legi de Fisioterapeutes) publicly showed their opposition to the current limitations.

Jaume Padrós, the doctors’ association’s president, took to social media to say that Catalonia should administer the vaccine “to all age groups,” arguing

that “there is no scientific justification” to support not doing so.

Equally, pharmacists have demanded that the Catalan ministry of health widen the age range to 65, or at least to all professionals working in pharmacies. They highlighted that other European countries have extended the range to 65, France and Germany approving the vaccine even for over 65s, on March 2 and March 4 respectively.

IN an extremely embarrassing blunder for Spanish channel RTVE, several men could be heard making sexist comments about the celebrities arriving at the Goya awards on their live Facebook feed of the event on Saturday night, March 6.

As the stars were photographed walking the red carpet and RTVE streamed it live on social media, the unidentified ‘commentators’ laugh and joke while calling one woman a ‘wh**e’ while approving of another because she doesn’t look like a ‘skeleton.’

TV and radio presenter Sergio Lopez published the unfortunate incident on Twitter shortly before the station removed the video from Facebook, and it

quickly went viral. It is not known who the men are, but given their proximity to the microphone many media outlets have suggested that they could well have been working at the gala at the Soho Theatre in Malaga.

Speaking about one actress who was posing for a photo, one of the men said: “Introduce her to me, man! She is good right?

Well, I tell you one thing, she is the best of them. The others... they were all skeletons.”

Referring to singer Nancy Peluso, another commented that she looked like “a wh**e” because of her tattoos. “I’d say this one charges,” he added, before repeating the slur.

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Appeal for missing 17 yr old

A GIRL, 17, has been reported missing from her home in Barcelona since Monday, March 1.

Sandra Plazas Prados is described as 1.63 metres tall, 65 kilos, with long, straight, black hair and green eyes and wellbuilt.

She was wearing jeans, a military style jacket and white trainers with a turquoise stripe when she was last seen.

She was going to a course in the Raval area of Barcelona

when she was last seen, but according to her sister’s Facebook post regarding her disappearance, she did not arrive.

People have claimed to have seen her in the area.

Anyone with information can call 674 926 577, 112, the National Police, the Mossos d’Esquadra or the Guardia Urbana.

MISSING: In Barcelona.

Fines for no ITV

THE General Traffic Depart‐ ment (DGT) has confirmed that it will fine drivers whose vehicle has not passed its ITV (Technical In‐ spection of Vehicles, equiva‐ lent to the MOT).

In the past months, due to the pandemic and its mobility restrictions, many people are using their vehicles less and may have forgotten about the ITV. There is also a backlog caused by the first State of Alarm, during which ITV stations were closed, and drivers whose vehicles should have undergone the ITV test during lockdown have been given an extended deadline.

However, this may not get them out of being fined, even if they can prove they have got an ap‐ pointment for the ITV. Some Guardia Civil officers

from the Traffic Department may be understanding, but by law, they can fine you, although the fine can later be appealed.

What some drivers may be unaware of is the fact that you don’t have to be stopped while driving to get a fine.

Any registered vehicle in circulation must under‐ go the ITV test, so even if you’re not using it, if your ITV is out of date or you didn’t pass the test and have failed to get it checked again, you can be fined. If a vehicle has not been taken for its ITV within the deadline, the fine is €200 (€100 if paid quickly).

Driving with a vehicle which got a negative result at the ITV, a €500 fine.

Driving with a vehicle which got an unfavourable result at the ITV, a €200 fine (€100 if paid quickly).

NEWS

Tobacco Sales Fall

THE coronavirus affected many businesses as the State of Alarm forced many premises to close. Tobacconists though were among the shortlist of those allowed to remain open during the State of Alarm.

The government could have had multiple reasons for keeping them open including the avoidance of illegal sales, and the fact that closing them could have badly affected nicotine addicts. The fact that they remained open also would have prevented people from hoarding cigarettes and tobacco.

Even with the tobacco shops remaining open sales still fell.

Spain has registered a drop in sales in the last two decades and in Valladolid the trend was even more pronounced in 2020.

Data released by the Tobacco Market Commission which in turn reports to the Ministry of Finance revealed that sales in the province fell by 4.6 per cent last year. This means that 2020 saw a level of sales that was almost half that of the 51 million packs of cigarettes that

PANDEMIC: People are quitting or smoking less. were sold in 2002.

Many people have used their time during the pandemic to quit smoking or to smoke less, and according to the Ministry

of Health, “the decrease in frequency is more pronounced among younger people, students, people on ERTE and people living with family.”

Mercadona Face Masks SPANISH retail giant Mercadona has responded to the demand for masks which provide higher levels of protection than the reusable cloth ones they have provided to date, and have announced that FFP2-type self-filtering masks will go on sale this week. These masks are categorised as personal protective equipment (PPE) and according to the Ministry of Consumption, work by “filtering the air inhaled and avoiding the entry of polluting particles into our body.” They have already been rolled out in 1,600 stores across Spain.

The new model on sale in Mercadona is non-reusable and currently available for adults only, but it boasts a total of five layers and a bacterial filtration efficiency of more than 94 per cent, according to the packaging.

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Rollout ‘Could End Pandemic’ DR ANTONI CASTELLS: Proud hospital did not stop nonCovid treatments.

A SPANISH expert has claimed the vaccine rollout could end the pandemic.

Dr Antoni Castells, medical director of the Hospital Clinic de Barcelona, said: “If we manage to extend the vaccine, it is the end of the pandemic.”

Speaking about the situation, he said: “Like all health centres, we suffered from a shortage of protective equipment and respirators.

The avalanche of patients overflowed the healthcare structure around the world and we had to manage as best we could, the first months were really dramatic.

“In the first wave, the number of patients with non-Covid pathology dropped drastically. We were confined at home and patients were afraid of catching it if they came to the hospital. This was one of the concerns we had from the first moment.

“We are especially proud that the hospital never stopped treating non-Covid patients, although the total capacity was limited to a third.”

He added: “The favourable part of the pandemic is the appearance of the vaccine and the start of vaccinations.”

NEWS

5000 people concert MANY may consider the thought of a concert with 5,000 people scary, but the idea will be trialled on March 27. Barcelona will welcome 5,000 people to the Palau Sant Jordi for a concert of the Love Of Lesbian group.

During the concert there will be none of the normal Covid-19 prevention measures as we know them, as social distancing will not be required. Concert goers will be required though to wear an FFP2 mask and undergo certain requirements before the concert.

A series of preliminary checks will be carried out and this will include an antigen test SPAIN is the world’s 10th biggest market for organic products in terms of the total value of organic sales and the 11th when it comes to the percentage of organic consumption.

A report by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food shows how the organic farming sector continues with its strong growth process and is becoming an important differentiated food sector within the entire Spanish food system.

The estimated value of organic production at its origin surpassed €2.3 billion in 2019,

and also a temperature check before entering the concert. The announcement was made on Friday, March 5 at an event which was being held at Barcelona’s Estadi Olímpic.

The event was also attended by representatives of Health and Culture of the Generalitat, and Ada Colau, the mayor.

A smaller trial concert took place last December at the Sala Apolo, this time with around 500 people in attendance.

It is hoped that the concert will allow new protocols to be established and used in the future at other concerts.

Organic growth up 8.32 per cent on the previous year.

More than three quarters of this corresponds to organic production of plant origin and a quarter to that of animal origin.

The data shows that on average, each person in Spain spends €50.22 on organic products, with the most spent on fruit (15.5 per cent) and fresh

vegetables (13.9 per cent).

Exports reached €995 million while imports totalled just over €1.07 billion.

General Director of the Food Industry, Jose Miguel Herrero, said Spain is “moving towards a sustainable model that is committed to the environment,” adding that after the summer, the ministry will carry out its “most important campaign to promote organic production.”

Chef Jose Andres will be the face of the promotional campaign that will be launched under the slogan: ‘The richest country in the world.’

Sevilla Oranges to Queen of England THE Real Alcazar in Sevilla, Eu‐ rope’s oldest functioning royal palace, has brought back the tradition of sending a crate of oranges to the Queen of Eng‐ land, a tradition, which was lost early in the 20th century, with the fruit then being used for marmalade for the Queen.

Hugh Elliott, the British am‐ bassador to Spain, said the fruit would be made into the marmalade in his residence.

He wrote a letter of thanks to the Alcazar’s director, Isabel Rodriguez.

In it he said the oranges were “enormously appreciat‐ ed” and the result would be “a blend of our cultures.”

Built in the 12th century, the Real Alcazar is surrounded by around 7,000 square me‐ tres of gardens with 1,053 or‐ ange trees and 39 lemon trees.

A specialised firm has al‐ ready begun the 2021 harvest, with a budget of €17,837.

Rodriguez told one publica‐ tion another official had told her about the lost tradition of sending Sevilla oranges to the British royals in 2019.

She added: “Last year we

got in touch with the hon‐ orary consul in Sevilla, Joe Cooper, and we prepared a 20‐kilogram crate of oranges from our trees.

“This year, however, it was the consul in Sevilla who visit‐ ed us last week to pick them up and send them to Madrid once more.”

BA Plans Rapid Antigen Tests BRITISH AIRWAYS is offering discounted test kits from government-approved Covid-19 testing provider Qured, at an ‘exclusive’ price of £33 (€38.18).

Qured will deliver rapid antigen tests to travellers, who can take the kits with them to be used anywhere in the world. Following a video consultation with a health advisor, results will be available within 20 minutes and they will guide the customer through taking a nose and throat swab and processing the sample.

Verified results are available after 20 minutes, and the customer can download a ‘fit to fly’ certificate if the test is negative. Qured said its test kits “remove uncertainty for customers who may be unsure how to source a pre-departure test while in a foreign country.”

BA customers have access to preferential rates with several Covid-19 testing providers offering a range of PCR, lamp, antibody and antigen testing options. Before they fly, passengers due to fly on selected routes can upload their test results to the VeriFLY app a mobile travel health passport. This will certify their test certificates before departure.

The app is currently available to those who are eligible to travel between London and the US and Canada. It is also available on all inbound routes to the UK with BA.

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Electric first Vaccine Side Effects

SPAIN is set to see its first electric car factory in a publicprivate consortium with SEAT-Volkswagen and Iberdrola.

The Minister of Industry, Reyes Maroto, has announced the creation of the first electric car factory in Spain revealing the consortium is open to other partners.

During a speech at the 28th Federal Congress UGT-FICA, the Minister of Industry, Commerce and Tourism said the project aims to “transition towards the electric and connected vehicle” which she claims will guarantee that there are “the infrastructures and facilities necessary to manufacture autonomously and competitively.”

Maroto said the move is a government commitment to enable Spain to become a “leader in the automobile industry” at a global level, with a focus on sustainable mobility.

“We have worked together with three priorities: protecting the health of workers, protecting the productive fabric and employment and launching a Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan to promote a battery of investments,” she said.

The minister also spoke of a pact by the industry to diversify, balance and modernise the productive structure and promote strategic sectors.

For this, she said, the coalition government already has a “draft of the bases of the State Pact that must be approved by the High Level Industry Forum for submission to Congress.”

This is a “good moment,” she added, to approach a pact that will give “stability and reinforce productive capacities.”

SEVERAL members of the Na‐ tional Police in Sevilla called in sick or were forced to leave work early on Thursday, March 4 after receiving the Oxford‐As‐ traZeneca Covid vaccine the day before. The vaccination cam‐ paign for the Security Forces be‐ gan in Sevilla on Wednesday, March 3 with officers of the Na‐ tional Police in the mass vacci‐ nation centre at the Hispalense University in Los Bermejales.

The vaccinating of the staff should be completed within a couple of weeks, and officers of the Guardia Civil will follow.

Officials have insisted that the side effects being experienced by the officers are within the ex‐ pected range and should last no longer that 24 hours; however, the very nature of the illness makes carrying out police work very difficult. The majority of offi‐ cers are receiving the As‐ traZeneca jab which is well‐ known for producing unpleasant side effects such as fatigue, mus‐ cle pain and fever. The remaining officers aged over 55 will receive a different jab, most likely the Pfizer vaccine, at a later date.

NATIONAL POLICE: Have been receiving the vaccine.

Evictions In Spain Drop

A NEW report published by the General Council of the Judicial Power (CGPJ) on Thursday, March 4 showed that mortgage fore‐ closures and evictions plummeted by 45.6 per cent in Spain in 2020 compared with the previous year. The figures of course co‐ incide with the coronavirus pandemic; while the State of Alarm is decreed, the government has put a halt to such procedures.

According to the study, the number of renters evicted last year was down 42 per cent from 2019, while 51.3 per cent fewer peo‐ ple lost their homes due to foreclosures.

The latest ‘Report on the effect of the crisis on judicial bodies’ revealed, however, that there has been a marked upturn in exe‐ cutions or embargoes filed in this same period, which increased by 17.5 per cent to 20,460 proceedings. This is the first rise since 2012, although the records are still far lower than the 91,622 recorded that year.

NEWS

Workmen left hanging A CABLE connecting a mobile scaffolding snapped and two workers plummeted to the first floor where they were left hanging.

The two men who were working on the facade on the third floor, fell sharply but thankfully their safety har‐ nesses stopped them plung‐ ing to the ground and they were left hanging a few feet from the ground in a street in Torrente.

Dozens of passers‐by wit‐ nessed the terrifying moment at around 1pm on Wednes‐ day afternoon, March 3.

Witnesses alerted the emergency services.

But before firefighters ar‐ rived, a man who was passing by with a van and carrying a ladder inside his vehicle, stopped and helped the two workers to safety.

They were both taken by ambulance to the General Hospital of Valencia where they were treated for differ‐ ent cuts and bruises.

It’s not known what caused the cable to snap.

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11 - 17 March 2021

Buddhist Community THE ongoing global coron‐ avirus pandemic has caused a change in working habits for many as people have taken to working from home and using videoconferencing to carry out meetings. There are many

people though that are get‐ ting tired of the constant video calls over Zoom, Mi‐ crosoft teams and other soft‐ ware.

The Buddhist community in Barcelona though have made

the most of the issues and found a unique selling point for their retreats. In a bid to attract customers to spend time at their silent monastery they are trying to tempt them away from constant calls and ‘Zoom fatigue.’

They wrote, “Tired of so many Meet, Zoom and Teams meetings? If you need to dis‐ connect, breathe pure air and find your internal balance once more, give yourself the gift of an Inner Peace Retreat and recharge your batteries!”

Although not everyone will be tempted with a silent re‐ treat, scientists are backing the notion of ‘Zoom fatigue.’

Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab have published a study on the ef‐ fects of videoconferencing and the phenomenon they have called ‘Zoom fatigue.’

They have found that addi‐ tional stress can be created from calls where people con‐ stantly see a mosaic of faces and spend all day sat in a chair, rooted to the computer.

SILENT RETREAT: Disconnect and breathe pure air.

NEWS

Courtyards Festival THE regional government of Cordoba is hopeful that this year the famous Festival de los Patios ‐ or Courtyards Festival ‐ will be able to celebrate its 100th year on May 3 to 16 if the health situation continues to evolve favourably. One of the most popular destina‐ tions in the world, Cordoba depends heavily on tourism and is feeling the effects of already having Holy Week celebrations, the Cordoba Fair and Cruces de Mayo cancelled.

“We have to learn to live with the virus and continue working,” the Delegate of Tourism, Isabel Albas, told Traveler.es. “The good thing about this festival, and what differentiates it from other events, is that patios are outdoors.”

The Courtyards Festival is a tradition that began in 1918 and celebrates the art of elaborately decorating outdoor areas with hundreds of colourful plants and flowers, and about 50 court‐ yards participate every year.

New Delivery Company Scam SPANISH police are warning of the latest scam where fraudsters pose as a parcel delivery ser‐ vice in order to get their victims to click on a malicious link.

According to Spanish officials, it has emerged at the beginning of March that the new ‘SMSing’ scam is in play, which sees the perpetrators posing as companies such as Fedex, Correos or DHL and messaging people to tell them there is a package waiting. The fraudster’s message then directs the victim to follow an internet link, which automatically downloads an app to the mobile or computer which gives the scammers access to personal data. In addition, the malicious app can then

install a banking Trojan that allows the crimi‐ nals to access data from the most sensitive ac‐ counts.

In a statement, the National Police recom‐ mended paying particular attention when re‐ ceiving an electronic communication and not acting impulsively by clicking on the links. They added that there are usually some clues in the messages that indicate all may not be as it seems, such as unusual links which may have been shortened or have a different domain name to the company.

Officials also advised customers to only use the official websites of the delivery companies to track their packages or make enquiries.

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Student, 24, offered support

CARLOS ALEGRE, a 24‐year‐old student who was praised for his dedication after being snapped studying in the lamplight while he waited for an order for deliv‐ ery, has been offered at least three grants.

According to reports, he has been contacted by companies in Alicante, Toledo and Belgium, of‐ fering him grants and internships to reach his goals. He is currently studying mechanics at the EMA

CARLOS: Has been offered grants and internships.

Alligator For Sale

THE Alicante Guardia Civil have rescued a large 1.6-metre alligator living in terrible conditions from a farm in Sax. The animal rescue department of the police, Seprona de Monovar, became involved when they were notified that the reptile had been put up for sale on a buying and selling site for €2,000. When officials arrived at the property, they found that the dangerous animal could easily have escaped to the nearby Vinalopo river, where it would have posed a serious risk to the frequent walkers and people who play sport on the river bed.

Working in coordination with the College of Veterinarians and the Official Export Inspection,

Surveillance and Regulation Service (Soivre), the Seprona officers were eventually able to identify the property where the alligator was being kept and conducted a search on Monday, March 1, where in addition to the reptile, they discovered a Harris’s eagle.

The owner of the farm was unable to produce any legal documentation or licence for the alligator, but he did have transfer papers for the eagle.

The alligator, who appeared to be in reasonable health despite being kept in unsuitable conditions, was transferred to the Rio Safari Zoo in Elche, but the farmer was allowed to keep the eagle for the time being while officials continue to investigate.

Competicion school in Malaga, and will soon begin the practical side of his studies.

Meanwhile, he works as a de‐ livery rider for Uber Eats, but said that as he is forced to wait a lot of the time, he likes to take advan‐ tage of that situation to study, a view which was applauded by many after his photo went viral on social media.

His photo was taken by a Local Police officer who shared it, then it was shared on a Guardia Civil Facebook group by another offi‐ cer who said “while some are smashing windows, ransacking businesses and destroying the streets to support a repeat delin‐ quent, others find a way and make time whenever they can to build a promising future for themselves.”

Within hours, the image, which has become a symbol of dedication, was shared thou‐ sands of times.

While many have applauded him, others asked why he should be forced to study in such condi‐ tions or why he should have to accept a job like the one he has to make a future for himself.

NEWS

Impersonating a CNI officer leads to arrest NATIONAL POLICE offi‐ cers in Xàtiva, Valencia, have arrested four peo‐ ple, three women, and one man, aged between 19 and 36 years of age, on charges of shoplifting items from a commercial establishment, with one man charged with al‐ POLICE: Arrested four people. legedly posing as an un‐ dercover CNI officer.

The incident occurred in mid‐February, in a clothing store in Xà‐ tiva, when the man allegedly tried to pass himself off as a CNI of‐ ficer, explaining to the store’s security guard that he was there af‐ ter a tip‐off about a robbery that was going to take place .

The man allegedly showed the guard a plaque‐emblem fixed to his belt, so he automatically believed the man was an under‐ cover officer and accompanied him outside the store to talk, dis‐ tracing the guard, giving the women the freedom of the store to steal clothing to the value of €750.

Once the garments had been safely stolen, one of the women went to the fake CNI officer to inform him that she had received a message about the ‘robbers,’ who were apparently heading for Valencia, and that they should go quickly, in order to try and catch them.

As soon as the security guard realised what had happened, a check of the store’s camera footage quickly showed the modus operandi used by the four criminals, and police officers were able to identify and arrest the suspects, three of whom had previous police records.

NEWS

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Whiskey Winnings

PROPER NO. TWELVE: A popular whiskey brand.

UFC’S Conor McGregor looks set for a huge payout after his whiskey brand Proper No. Twelve was the subject of takeover talks from Mexican tequila company Becle ‐ who own Jose Cuervo Tequila.

The takeover of the brand the superstar helped create has been rumoured since last week, however, further de‐ tails have emerged with Becle reportedly taking full control of the company ‐ having already bought a 20 per cent share of the brand initially before upping their stake to 49 per cent last year.

This investment and potential takeover of Conor McGre‐ gor’s whiskey brand is set to give the 32‐year‐old Irishman and his manager Audie Attar, under parent company Eire Born Spirits, a split of £112m (€130 million) ‐ if Becle’s in‐ tentions of acquiring the remaining 51 per cent of the com‐ pany, which would give them total control, takes place.

If the deal goes through, Becle will have control of a very popular whiskey brand as the Proper No. Twelve drink, which was named after McGregor’s hometown Crumlin sit‐ uated in Dublin 12, has been selling extremely well since its launch in 2018.

11 - 17 March 2021

WhatsApp images will self-destruct

INSTANT messaging app WhatsApp is testing new features to allow messages with images to disappear after 24 hours.

Facebook-owned WhatsApp is testing whether it can allow these messages to disappear after 24 hours, as announced by WABetaInfo on Twitter.

They later clarified that the feature has been supported for a few months, and is enabled if selected by a user. Disappearing WhatsApp messages became available to everyone in November 2020 although screenshots can still be taken and the sender is not alerted about this.

If the features are finally included, they will be similar to the existing seven-day auto-delete feature. The aim is to improve user security and privacy, but with ongoing complaints regarding their new privacy rules, it has been met with mockery.

It would make it impossible for photos to be exported or copied from the chat, although

there is no function to detect screenshots. The exact release dates have not been mentioned.

The images will ‘self-destruct’ when the user exits the conversation.

It can be selected when sending an image with an icon on the bottom left, and if selected, will

alert the user that it will disappear.

Those who receive a ‘self-destructing’ image will receive a blurred miniature in the conversation, and before opening them, they are also alerted about the fact that they will disappear.

Victim faces fine A WOMAN from Lugo who was run over is facing a fine of €1,000 because she was drunk at the time at the time of the accident.

The victim was walking along the street with a blood alcohol level that was double the maximum allowed (0.58 milligrams per litre).

Local Police officers travelled to the scene of the accident, who verified that the vehicle had hit the woman on a pedestrian cross‐ ing. Breathalyzer tests were carried out on both the driver and the pedestrian, but only the latter was positive. She had to be tak‐ en by ambulance to a hospital in Lugo to be treated for her in‐ juries. The current road safety law establishes that, in addition to drivers, other users of public roads, such as pedestrians, are re‐ quired to undergo a breathalyzer test when they are involved in a traffic accident or commit a violation of traffic regulations.

Users of the roads can face fines of up to €1,000 even if they are not driving, if they are tested and the result is positive, or if they refused to undergo testing.

EWN 15

New Dad at 73 LEGENDARY news presenter Jon Snow and his wife Dr Precious Lunga 46, welcomed a baby boy on March 2 ‐ who was carried by a surrogate after ‘numerous medical setbacks and miscar‐ riages.’

The presenter, who has front‐ ed the Channel 4 news since 1989, spoke to PA news agency, stating: “In our desire to seal our now 11 years of marriage with a baby, my wife suffered numer‐ ous medical setbacks and mis‐ carriages.

“Consequently, we will al‐ ways be deeply grateful to our surrogate, who carried our em‐ bryo to term.

“Amid these challenging times, we feel doubly blessed to be able to celebrate our good fortune.”

This is the Channel 4 presen‐ ter’s first child with Precious, who he married in 2010, howev‐ er, he already has two daugh‐ ters with his former partner, hu‐ man rights lawyer Madeleine Colvin, who he was with for 35 years before they split.

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11 - 17 March 2021

FEATURE

GO LOCAL

THE EUROWEEKLY NEWS is urg‐ ing its readers to support local businesses in the community by going local through the lockdown and for your all your shopping this year, instead of feeding on‐ line giants and superstores.

This lockdown and with Moth‐ er’s Day and Easter upcoming, we challenge you to rediscover your local high streets, markets, butch‐ ers, greengrocers and all of the wonderfully quirky independent businesses in your area.

Due to the Covid‐19 pandemic, you may have to support many lo‐ cal businesses by ordering online and making use of any click and collect services they can operate if you are unable to get out due to health reasons or lockdown re‐ strictions.

The joy of shopping local means that independent businesses can help support the local community.

Although it may be a euro or two cheaper elsewhere or online, consider where your money is actually going.

By shopping at an independent store you’re putting food on a lo‐ cal family’s table, and there is no better time than now to give back to your community by making a small gesture and shopping in this way.

Many local stores support local charities, support and sponsor lo‐ cal sports teams and in many cas‐ es the small independent stores

are actually much more than just a small high street shop, they’re a family’s legacy, often passed down through numerous genera‐ tions and support not just the cur‐ rent owner but the generation be‐ fore.

For those stores which are new, that extra couple of euros spent there are supporting someone’s dream and ambition, and also the courage it took them to step out alone, which is no easy task. It takes quite a large chunk of mon‐ ey to set up an independent store and compete with the multina‐ tional and chains.

So be sure to pre‐order your meat from a local butcher and get your spuds from a local greengro‐ cer, let us revive that community spirit and get to know our neigh‐ bours again.

You could also consider pur‐ chasing gift vouchers from local businesses to help them over the

coming weeks, thinking outside the box can often lead to some fantastic ideas. Why not buy a meal for two, an hour’s tattoo time at a local studio, a hair cut at a local salon or an online study course for someone looking to change their career path.

As people are struggling with fi‐ nances thinking about what friends and family may actually need is important too. Whilst it’s nice to give a glamourous gift per‐ haps pre‐paying a family mem‐ ber’s phone bill for the month would actually be a better gift.

Helping people alleviate stress and worry , give the gift of peace of mind through these difficult times.

Choosing to spend your money locally will really make a difference in the recovery of the local econo‐ my. When we buy local, our mon‐ ey stays local, and it strengthens the local economy in two ways.

First, buying local keeps money cir‐

culating within the local economy.

Studies have shown that local businesses recirculate a greater share of every euro as they create locally owned supply chains and invest in their employees.

Data shows that local retailers return 52 per cent of their rev‐ enue back into the local economy, compared to just 14 per cent for national chain retailers.

Money circulating through the local economy benefits everyone who is a part of each transaction.

For example, let’s look at a local farmer growing produce.

First, they sell to a local restau‐ rant, which in turn prepares the fresh produce and sells it to local customers. The farmer pays its lo‐ cal employees and the restaurant uses revenue from sales to buy supplies from a neighbourhood hardware store. This example illus‐ trates how the recirculation of money in the local economy leads to a stronger financial foundation for our neighbours and communi‐ ties. Buying local also fuels new employment and job opportuni‐ ties for people within our commu‐ nity. Studies show, locally owned businesses employ more people per unit of sales and retain more employees over time.

A fantastic example of how to support your local community is with a Charity Gift certificate, why not donate to your loved one’s favourite cause.

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Royal Yacht Docks In Malaga

EUROPEAN NIBS DENMARK Sahara dust

FRANCE Brazilian beef

SIXTY-ONE years ago, the French Government detonated four nuclear bombs in the desert of Algeria and now, a cloud of Saharan nuclear dust has entered into Danish airspace making for some very attractive sunsets. Happily, the amount of radioactivity is not considered likely to be dangerous.

RELYING upon a 2017 law concerning loss of livelihood, indigenous people from Brazil and Colombia have sued retailer Casino in a French court claiming that it is selling beef linked to land grabbing and deforestation in the Amazon. Casino denies the allegations and insists that it is opposed to such activities.

NETHERLANDS Going Dutch

NORWAY Wolf packs

TWO years ago, the European Medicines Agency moved 83 per cent of its staff from London to Amsterdam due to Brexit, but the transition for mainly English speaking staff has not been as easy as expected due to the pandemic and many are finding it difficult to learn Dutch.

A CONTROVERSY concerning the culling of wild wolves in Norway has now found its way to the Supreme Court which must decide whether or not the decision to eradicate two packs in 2018, where farmers scared of the predators, allowed hunters to kill them was lawful or not.

BELGIUM Dr No WORRIED about social media comments on the effectiveness of the Covid-19 vaccinations, Belgium’s Order of Physicians has told doctors that if they have personal doubts, they should not share them as by doing so could contribute to the spread of conspiracy theories which would be bad for the vaccination campaign.

NEWS

FINLAND Sniffer dogs at airports AFTER spending around a year training dogs to sniff out coronavirus on passengers, the Customs department has discovered that they will not now be allowed to operate as a special clause was left out of legislation making the use legal.

GERMANY Under suspicion

SWEDEN Vegan Volvo

ACCORDING to German magazine Der Spiegel, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has placed the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the largest opposition party in parliament under surveillance prior to the elections. Whilst BfV refused to comment, its parent Interior Ministry would neither confirm nor deny the idea.

SWEDISH vehicle manufacturer Volvo has announced that not only will it stop producing any oil fuelled cars (including hybrids) by 2030, it also intends to remove leather from its new models and will also aim to use 25 per cent of recycled material by 2025.

PRINCE ABDULAZIZ: On its fourth visit to Malaga.

No to wolf being protected species NINE regions have joined forces to prevent the wolf from being a protected species throughout Spain.

Castilla y Leon, Asturias, Cantabria, Galicia, Aragon, Andalucia, Madrid, Murcia, the Basque Country and the autonomous city of Ceuta, together with agricultural organisations Asaja, COAG and UPA have promoted a common project to demand that the gov‐ ernment withdraw the approval procedure of the order that in‐ tends to include wolves on the List of Wild Species under the Spe‐ cial Protection Regime (LESPRE).

In an open letter, they defend managing the Iberian wolf from the point of view of respect for the rural world, social consensus and coexistence with livestock.

They ask that, once the process for changing the legal status of the wolf is suspended, a process of dialogue and consensus be opened by the Minister for Ecological Transition and Demograph‐ ic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, in which all parties are involved, with the aim of negotiating a global management plan for the Iberian wolf that guarantees its preservation as well as the future of ex‐ tensive livestock farming.

THE magnificent Prince Abdulaziz, the royal yacht of Saudi Arabia docked in the southern pier of Malaga port, just before midnight on Wednesday March 3, after sailing from Gibraltar.

This is the Prince Abdulaziz’s fourth visit to Malaga, and it is not known if any member of the Saudi royal family is on board.

This luxurious vessel is ranked number eight in the list of the largest private yachts in the world, being built in 1984 in the Danish shipyards Helsingor Vaerft. It underwent a reform in 2005, and then a second reform was carried out over an 11month period in the Cartagena Navantia in 2018.

The Prince Abdulaziz holds the record as the largest yacht built in the entire 20th century, having the distinction of being the largest pleasure boat in the world, and was reported to have been built at a cost of around €450m, with its original design carried out by Maierform Maritime Technology, a German company, with its interiors being signed by David Hicks, the designer of private boats.

FINANCE Bankers fight ITALIAN banker Andrea Orcel, who is due to take over as UniCredit CEO is expected to appear in court in Spain with his lawyers demanding that Santander Bank either installs him as its CEO or pays damages in the sum of €112 million for allegedly breaking a commitment made to him.

M&S Bank THE UK retailer Marks & Spencer is shutting current and saver accounts for its banking customers by this summer as well as closing all of its in-store bank branches. It will continue as a bank as it has three million customers, but only 150,000 hold current accounts, hence the decision.

New builds THE Catalan developer Jordi Llauradó Conejero has announced that he is purchasing 20 per cent of Extremaduran property company Civitas Pacensis, which is planning to create 8,000 new homes in the Badajoz area and has already revealed plans for its Campus Civitas development which puts people first.

London Stock Exchange UNDAUNTED by the fact that the London Stock Exchange (LSE) saw Amsterdam overtake it as Europe’s largest share trading centre, its latest report shows that the organisation saw an increase in pre-tax profits of 5 per cent to £685 million (€753 million) for 2020.

Ikea hub SWEDISH company Ikea has indicated that it will locate one of its four global digital hubs in Madrid where it is expected to employ at least 100 members of staff. The plan is for this office to develop new business concepts for Ikea Business (which targets companies and the self-employed), the Ikea Food division and its ‘customer experience’ sector. With the other three hubs based in Holland, India and the Philippines, the Madrid office will be looking at ways to improve online marketing and create an Ikea App

STAT OF WEEK

www.euroweeklynews.com • 11 - 17 March 2021

€1,480

is the price of a single loaf of bread from the Pan Piña de Algatocin bakery in Malaga which bakes edible gold and silver into the crusts for the very rich.

Blockchain Business Council

Amazon opens UK grocers HAVING started to com‐ pete with the supermar‐ kets in the UK with its on‐ line grocery business, Amazon on March 4 took things a step further by opening it’s first food store outside of the USA. Amazon Fresh offers a range of food in its Ealing Broadway store and cus‐ tomers simply use the Amazon App to enter, put all of their items into Amazon Fresh bags and walk out with no queue‐

ing and no stopping at a till to pay.

Thanks to the technolo‐ gy in use in the store, when customers scan in on arrival, their chosen method of payment is noted and as they place items in their bags, so the bill is prepared and once they leave, the charge is made directly via the App. Initially, there will be around 10,000 different items available to cus‐ tomers, either from Ama‐

LEGALLY SPEAKING

zon’s own ‘by Amazon’ brand or from items sup‐ plied by Morrisons and Booths and it is even pos‐ sible to buy hot food as well as special ready made meals.

It is not as big as an out‐of‐town superstore but should have every‐ thing available that high street shoppers would want to purchase.

Whilst there may be no long queues to check out, one of their safety mea‐

sures is that at certain times there will be a max‐ imum of 20 customers given admittance to the shop, which could mean queues outside or lost business as shoppers look elsewhere.

Certainly, this new ven‐ ture by tech savvy and very rich Amazon is bound to give competi‐ tors something to think about especially if they expand across the coun‐ try.

Supplying new technology Credit: El Corte Inglés

BUSINESS EXTRA

20

Can they cancel AGM? The Pandemic prohibition of large gather‐ ings has created many problems for com‐ munities and the AGM. The HPL specifies that the AGM must be held at least once a year and indicates the agenda. So our 2020 AGM was cancelled and we were asked to pay community fees based on a budget not agreed by the owners.

We have now been asked by the President and Ad‐ ministrator to pay for 2021 the same as last year.

We have not received a budget for this year or ac‐ counts for the year 2020. There is no provision in the HPA for postal voting or online meetings. Is the community of owners the supreme authority?

R P (Costa del Sol) The com‐ munity is not above the law YOU AND THE LAW but it must find a IN SPAIN way to obtain op‐ erating funds.

Some communities have decided to mail out the agenda and the accounts and others have used emails and voting by email. These are not ‘legal’ but if no one protests the results will stand. However, if the president and administrator simply take matters into their own hands with no attempt to consult or inform the members this can be challenged.

DAVID SEARL

Send your questions for David Searl through lawyers Ubeda-Retana and Associates in Fuengirola at Ask@lawtaxspain.com, or call 952 667 090.

ALERT to the fact that it needed to try to replace some of the income lost from tourism, in May of last year the Spanish Government introduced new tax breaks for foreign film producers.

With a relatively strong understanding of the techniques of filmmaking here in Spain, there are plenty of technicians

JOINT VENTURE: Signing of the new agreement.

THERE is a new player in the telecommunications sector in Spain as Más‐ Móvil and El Corte Inglés have signed an agreement to market mobile phone and fibre services to con‐ sumers.

This joint venture will be promoted under the Sweno banner and in a joint state‐ ment the two groups con‐ firmed that after several months of discussion an agreement which will be advantageous to both com‐ panies and customers has been signed.

The agreement, signed on March 4 by Víctor del

Pozo, CEO of El Corte In‐ glés, and Meinrad Spenger, CEO of MásMóvil Group, will allow El Corte Inglés to market these services in the confidence that clients will be secure in the knowl‐ edge that two strong and trusted organisations are involved.

Although full details of the services to be offered are awaited, it has been re‐ vealed that this agreement will be helpful for El Corte Inglés as it expands its of‐ fers aimed at options for the new generation of smart home products which continue to grow.

Spain attracts filmmakers and locations which make it attractive to film around Spain and filmmakers are very aware of the fact that there are an estimated 450 million Spanish speakers around the world.

Now, despite the lock-

downs and State of Alarm, foreign producers are attracted by the increased cap on tax credits and the fact that rebates for local spending have risen from €3.28 million to €10.8 million.

Netflix has been an impor-

tant purchaser of Spanish language films and TV series and not only supplies its Spanish speaking outlets, but also dubs into other languages hence the worldwide popularity of creations such as Money Heist now in its fifth season.

THE Government of Gibraltar has strengthened its ties with the Global Blockchain Business Council which has members from 76 different countries and territories.

Gibraltar Minister, Albert Isola has been appointed Ambas‐ sador of the GBBC for 2021 and participated as a speaker in the Virtual Summit for Members of the EMEA region.

Gibraltar joined the GBBC which was launched in Davos in 2017 in November 2020 as an observer and has now been ac‐ cepted as a full member.

Blockchain technology looks to decentralise the storage of data so that such data cannot be owned, controlled or manipulat‐ ed by a single entity and sup‐ ports cryptocurrency such as Bit‐ coin.

Female health workers WITH International Women’s Day on March 8 and the impor‐ tance of health services across Europe over the past 12 months, UK company Lenstore has anal‐ ysed the best countries for wom‐ en to work in.

According to the report which takes into account a number of different factors including aver‐ age annual salary, hours worked and holidays, France offers the best opportunities for women health professionals with the UK in sixth place and Spain in ninth.

There is a big disparity in pay between the sexes in Spain with the average male annual salary €37,400 and female salary at €28,270.

Almost every region in Spain is trying to attract filmmakers and the Canary Islands with a somewhat different tax regime has enticed big names like Apple TV and HBO to its shores.

Whilst movies won’t replace tourism, the industry is certainly helping to plug part of the hole in the economy.

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C LOSING P RICES M ARCH 8

COMPANY PRICE(P) CHANGE(P) 3I Group 1.143,50 1.145,50 Admiral Group 2.928,0 2.967,0 Anglo American 2.944,5 2.968,0 Antofagasta 1.728,50 1.753,50 Ashtead Group 3.927,0 3.940,0 Associated British Foods 2.377,0 2.399,0 AstraZeneca 6.906,0 6.927,0 Auto Trader Group Plc 553,40 555,00 Avast 436,60 445,40 Aveva 3.355,0 3.368,0 Aviva 394,19 395,00 B&M European Value Retail SA535,60 539,80 BAE Systems 493,55 495,46 Bank VTB DRC 0,952 0,967 Barclays 174,72 175,23 Barratt Developments 723,40 724,54 Berkeley 4.359,0 4.367,0 BHP Group 2.201,00 2.227,00 BP 322,05 324,56 British American Tobacco 2.594,0 2.630,0 British Land Company 510,80 514,60 BT Group 139,25 141,40 Bunzl 2.175,0 2.185,5 Burberry Group 1.866,0 1.888,5 Carnival 1.619,0 1.640,0 Centrica 52,34 52,50 Coca Cola HBC AG 2.350,0 2.362,5 Compass 1.576,21 1.584,00 CRH 3.319,0 3.335,3 Croda Intl 6.070,0 6.106,0 DCC 5.928,0 5.928,0 Diageo 2.918,5 2.944,7 DS Smith 405,70 405,70 EasyJet 1.013,24 1.013,24 Experian 2.355,5 2.366,2 Ferguson 8.464,0 8.506,0 Flutter Entertainment 14.610,0 14.895,0 Fresnillo 890,16 901,67 GlaxoSmithKline 1.233,44 1.248,20 Glencore 287,35 289,25 Halma 2.241,0 2.251,0 Hargreaves Lansdown 1.516,50 1.526,48 Hikma Pharma 2.197,00 2.201,02 HSBC 448,00 447,89 IAG 211,76 211,99 Imperial Brands 1.391,50 1.410,00 Informa 564,40 567,00 InterContinental 4.955,0 4.965,0 Intermediate Capital 1.825,00 1.825,00 Intertek 5.394,0 5.422,0 ITV 119,85 119,85

% CHG. 1.137,00 2.912,0 2.926,5 1.718,50 3.913,0 2.359,0 6.853,0 550,40 435,00 3.334,0 390,99 531,60 486,60 0,952 173,11 713,74 4.305,0 2.195,00 321,24 2.582,0 501,00 137,00 2.164,0 1.864,5 1.604,5 51,74 2.348,5 1.563,50 3.303,5 6.032,0 5.848,2 2.910,5 399,70 991,28 2.345,5 8.402,0 14.535,0 885,72 1.231,73 284,90 2.227,0 1.510,00 2.182,04 443,30 207,25 1.378,50 553,00 4.894,0 1.803,00 5.378,0 117,85

NET VOL 38,78K 39,03K 230,91K 80,02K 49,04K 28,99K 270,68K 150,71K 58,53K 11,02K 267,33K 215,29K 68,13K 52,05K 1,25M 21,87K 15,90K 334,30K 1,87M 361,70K 122,26K 3,49M 3,12K 52,30K 113,66K 1,05M 3,15K 13,17K 2,42K 15,11K 0,35K 31,41K 317,50K 121,45K 4,35K 46,34K 16,32K 23,36K 196,24K 2,58M 39,43K 13,67K 1,10K 196,93K 2,80M 182,73K 75,34K 24,33K 17,68K 24,20K 162,96K

COMPANY

PRICE(P)

J Sainsbury Johnson Matthey Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Banking London Stock Exchange Meggitt Melrose Industries Mondi National Grid NatWest Group Next Norilskiy Nikel ADR Ocado Persimmon Phoenix Prudential Reckitt Benckiser Relx Rentokil Rightmove Rio Tinto PLC Rolls-Royce Holdings Rosneft DRC Royal Dutch Shell A Royal Dutch Shell A Royal Dutch Shell B RSA Insurance Sage Samsung Electronics DRC Sberbank Schroders Scottish Mortgage Segro Severn Trent Smith & Nephew Smiths Group Spirax-Sarco Engineering SSE St. James’s Place Standard Chartered Standard Life Aberdeen Taylor Wimpey Tesco Tui Unilever United Utilities Vodafone Group PLC Whitbread WPP

228,50 3.205,0 680,06 282,00 41,17 7.940,0 430,70 175,10 1.768,00 821,60 190,80 7.476,0 29,48 2.048,00 2.968,0 746,00 1.485,49 6.166,0 1.699,00 474,70 558,61 5.906,0 112,39 7,46 1.566,31 1.564,6 1.507,8 677,60 588,62 1.792,00 14,99 3.345,0 1.019,94 877,75 2.214,0 1.362,00 1.509,00 10.780,0 1.306,50 1.230,00 509,40 312,50 173,18 221,46 432,10 3.845,7 885,80 125,58 3.497,0 895,60

CHANGE(P)

% CHG.

NET VOL

230,80 3.205,0 686,20 283,30 41,28 8.104,0 431,40 176,85 1.769,50 832,60 192,50 7.498,0 29,71 2.102,00 2.975,0 750,20 1.487,50 6.286,0 1.712,00 484,30 564,84 5.947,0 112,99 7,46 1.577,70 1.578,0 1.518,0 678,80 594,21 1.796,00 15,03 3.353,0 1.055,90 878,15 2.235,0 1.367,50 1.510,00 10.900,0 1.324,00 1.231,50 509,40 314,10 174,50 223,90 432,76 3.880,9 892,40 125,58 3.497,0 896,60

227,90 3.172,0 678,60 280,30 40,29 7.932,0 416,00 173,90 1.754,97 819,20 187,60 7.400,0 29,48 2.041,00 2.883,0 735,20 1.476,50 6.166,0 1.692,00 472,80 555,06 5.874,0 109,54 7,41 1.562,01 1.563,0 1.502,4 677,40 585,89 1.789,00 14,88 3.325,5 1.013,00 870,10 2.211,0 1.351,00 1.498,50 10.705,0 1.301,50 1.213,00 500,00 308,90 171,50 220,51 422,84 3.837,3 882,80 124,82 3.433,0 888,60

174,85K 22,83K 13,11K 906,62K 17,57M 100,13K 166,20K 435,73K 6,70K 377,95K 2,52M 13,32K 0,78K 76,95K 137,65K 136,21K 19,20K 103,51K 213,66K 236,29K 28,37K 237,28K 3,68M 43,62K 28,13K 36,73K 176,12K 205,77K 24,77K 1,81K 115,85K 1,88K 1,48M 27,71K 15,83K 119,98K 23,41K 4,01K 124,08K 45,45K 40,63K 476,67K 300,79K 433,33K 327,31K 30,29K 120,64K 433,53K 30,85K 111,95K

0.85992

1.16346 Units per €

US dollar (USD) ......................................1.18862 Japan yen (JPY)......................................128.911 Switzerland franc (CHF) ...........................1.1093 Denmark kroner (DKK) .............................7.4359 Norway kroner (NOK) ...............................10.190

currenciesdirect.com/mallorca • Tel: +34 687 906 226 THE ABOVE TABLE USES THE CURRENT INTERBANK EXCHANGE RATES, WHICH AREN’T REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RATE WE OFFER

DOW JONES C LOSING P RICES M ARCH 8

COMPANY 3M Alphabet C Amazon.com Amgen Apple Boeing Caterpillar Chevron Cisco Coca-Cola Facebook Goldman Sachs Home Depot Honeywell IBM Intel J&J JPMorgan McDonald’s Merck&Co Microsoft Nike Procter&Gamble Salesforce.com Tesla UnitedHealth Verizon Visa A Walmart Walt Disney

PRICE 180,80 2.108,54 3.000,46 227,73 121,42 223,22 220,16 109,00 46,25 50,79 264,28 327,37 253,52 206,58 122,83 60,74 156,10 150,91 207,37 73,13 231,60 133,35 125,98 210,76 597,95 347,10 56,00 215,41 129,12 189,99

CHANGE 181,56 2.118,11 3.009,00 228,15 121,94 229,92 220,78 109,13 46,74 50,95 265,45 335,58 254,20 207,46 123,75 61,18 156,69 153,49 208,23 73,41 233,27 133,68 126,33 212,35 627,84 348,29 56,20 216,10 129,75 190,57

CHANGE% VOLUME(M) 176,95 2,26M 2.046,42 2,20M 2.881,00 5,39M 221,45 3,02M 117,57 153,77M 213,80 20,03M 211,50 3,60M 106,15 23,64M 45,27 33,20M 49,90 21,31M 255,61 26,82M 316,47 3,74M 246,59 6,35M 201,78 2,86M 120,25 6,95M 58,51 39,51M 153,13 8,33M 147,97 18,47M 202,96 3,61M 72,01 11,68M 226,46 41,87M 129,19 5,96M 122,55 10,49M 203,22 11,41M 539,49 89,40M 335,02 4,56M 54,92 23,60M 209,63 7,58M 126,75 11,36M 183,34 10,27M M - MILLION DOLLARS

NASDAQ C LOSING P RICES M ARCH 8

COMPANY

CHANGE NET / %

VOLUME

+3.95% +3.10% +2.90% +5.30% +3.50% +0.77% +5.50% +4.01% +3.57% +3.19% +10.59%

435,602 2.65M 2.20M 1.31M 56,353 5.39M 128,078 612,890 2.22M 78,229 5.83M

-2.04% -3.94% -3.78% -6.13% -5.19% -20.40% -4.67% -15.51% -4.54% -5.11% -2.36%

18,461 1.35M 89.40M 1.88M 28,811 65,567 2.69M 464,042 6.90M 9.44M 4,394

Most Advanced Booking Holdings Inc. Alphabet Inc. Cl A Alphabet Inc. Cl C CoStar Group Inc. First Citizens Bancshares Inc. Cl A Amazon.com Inc. Credit Acceptance Corp.

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. Lam Research Corp.

Amerco Novavax Inc.

Most Declined Broadcom Inc. 8% Pfd. Series A MicroStrategy Inc. Tesla Inc. MongoDB Inc. II-VI Inc. 6% Pfd. Tian Ruixiang Holdings Ltd. Cl A Coupa Software Inc. ALX Oncology Holdings Inc. Okta Inc. Cl A CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. Cl A Daily Journal Corp.

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL

www.euroweeklynews.com

USA drop Scotch Whisky tariffs

WELCOME NEWS: Karen Betts of the Scotch Whisky Association.

ONE quickish concession following the election of Joe Biden as US President has seen a four‐month sus‐ pension of the 25 per cent tariffs imposed by Donald Trump on the import of Scotch Whisky.

Amongst other exports also now allowed into the US tariff free are cheese, pork, cashmere and ma‐ chinery.

It comes in response to the suspension of UK tariffs on certain goods effective from January 1, 2021 when Britain ceased to be part of the European Union.

The argument and tit for tat measures came about as the US Government was ac‐ cused of giving financial support to Boeing and Eu‐ rope of giving support to Airbus.

The matter will still have to be resolved between the UK and US in the long term, but in a joint statement the

UK and the US said that the suspension would “ease the burden on industry and take a bold, joint step to‐ wards resolving the longest running disputes at the World Trade Organisation.”

Karen Betts, head of the Scotch Whisky Association, said the industry has lost around £500 million (€550 million) in export sales to the US in the 16 months that the tariffs were in place and welcomed the news.

The USA in particular is worried about the possible emergence of new compa‐ nies producing aircraft from countries such as China which could cause serious competition to Boeing so therefore wants to resolve disputes with the UK to en‐ sure solidarity.

In the meantime, the Eu‐ ropean Union will have to consider its position, possi‐ bly with a view to helping

Record unemployment THE month of February is traditionally the transition between the fall in employment after the Christmas period and the increase in jobs ahead of Easter.

This year however is unusual in that the figures for unemployment have more than doubled compared to the same time last year.

The effects of the pandemic, the increase in restrictions and the lack of a reopening horizon for the holidays, has helped pushed unemployment to 4,008,789 - a level that Spain hasn’t seen since May 2016.

to find a settlement benefi‐ cial to both Airbus and Boe‐ ing.

BUSINESS EXTRA Apple App AFTER complaints from App developers that Apple’s terms and conditions are unfair and anti-competitive, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will undertake an investigation into the organisation’s dominant position in order to decide whether consumers have had to pay higher prices for apps.

Rato review FORMER Minister and President of Bankia, Rodrigo Rato may be in hot water again as a new investigation is taking place which has seen a court consider additional allegations of corruption, money laundering and tax evasion also connected with his role at Bankia.

Underpaid pensions THE UK Department of Works and Pensions has admitted that it has identified underpayments of pension to some older women which will cost around £3 billion (€3.3 billion) between now and 2026 with some of the underpayments going back to 1992.

11 - 17 March 2021

EWN 23

24 EWN

www.euroweeklynews.com

11 - 17 March 2021

FEATURE

Any chance we can now get a break?

LEAPY LEE SAYS IT

OTHERS THINK IT IF ever there was less of an exponent of the old adage ‘never a borrower or a lender be,’ it has to be the British Government. They have now managed to borrow and create a deficit of some £393 billion!

As a pure layman in these high financial dealings and with my curiosity well and truly aroused, I decided to try and discover where, or who on earth they turn to when they require these astronomical sums.

Actually it’s all pretty simple. What they do is print ‘Bonds’. Although this sounds very grand, all these bonds are is a rather posh IOU! The moneylenders who buy these ‘markers’ and charge the appropriate interest of course, are generally those who control the likes of pension funds, banks or insurance companies. There are however also a number of private individuals who also purchase bonds. Yes, I’ll bet there are.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out who those might be! It gets even more

BRITISH GOVERNMENT: Where does all the money come from?

complicated by the fact that deficit, although linked, should not be confused with debt. The government is actually in debt to the tune of £2.11 trillion! Have you nodded off yet? These astronomical sums seem to roll off the tongues of politicians so easily these days, that a mere million or

two now seems like so much chicken feed.

With this observation in mind, let me attempt to give you some idea of just how much a billion pounds actually is. If you earned one pound sterling a second, you would have a million in two weeks. If your aim is a billion, at the same rate of saving it

would take 32 years to reach your goal! If you’re Jim, a normal working person earning a respectable £16.50 an hour and doing 39 hours a week, it would take 60 million hours to earn a billion ‐ that’s nearly 7,000 years!

Just to give you some idea of ‘us and

them,’ Facebook founder Zuckerberg earns as much as Jim’s yearly income in one and a half minutes. Jeff Bezos, who created Amazon, earns it in 35 seconds!

Ever feel you’re in the wrong job!?

Well, at the time of writing I’ve only heard extracts from THAT interview. The only royal ambitions this young lady harboured was to be a member of Hollywood royalty. Well she has undoubtedly achieved this. She is now at the top of the LA celebrity pecking order and earning very nicely thank you.

With unfailing predictability the racism card soon popped out of the ‘Vuitton.’ The claims there were ‘concerns’ about the colour of the baby she was expecting can also be observed as speculation. Millions of people throughout the world, both black and white were following this train of thought. Most of it was not connected with racism, merely curiosity of something that, despite the rubbish in Bridgeton, had never been experienced in the royal household before. Is there any chance that this privileged couple of whingers can now give us a break? Somehow I doubt it.

Keep the faith.

Love Leapy leapylee2002@gmail.com

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

Advertising Feature

Somewhere beyond the sea

THE sea seems to go on forever, much as we feel about the memo‐ ries of our loved ones. This and the calming effect which it can have on people are among the reasons that for centuries people have chosen burials at sea.

For many people, looking at the sea when they are going through a difficult time can help them to feel at peace. Just listening to the sound of the waves and feeling the sea breeze can blow some of the pain away from the mind and soul. Add to this the knowledge that in a way their de‐ ceased loved one is part of that vast blue expanse, can make them feel close to them and seek guidance from them.

About 71 per cent of the surface of our planet is water, and we are deeply linked to it, not only because studies show that the first life forms most probably came from the water, but also because we are made up of

it too, about 60 per cent. So while we usually hear the sentence ‘ashes to ashes, dust to dust’, we could also say ‘water to water’, as our lives be‐ gin surrounded by water in the womb, so returning to the water af‐ ter death completes the circle of life.

While sending the bodies of the deceased out to sea is a well‐known practice of the seafaring people of the past, notably the Vikings, it may have been carried out in earlier stages of history. Of course, the same practices are not used nowa‐ days, but there are natural burials which include placing cremated re‐ mains inside concrete coral reef balls which are ceremoniously placed in the sea as part of a reef ecosystem.

These balls are used to repair dam‐ age to coral reefs, and to provide new habitat for fish and other sea life.

This option is kind of an urn, scat‐ tering of ashes and sea burial all

combined into a permanent and en‐ vironmentally friendly tribute to the life of a loved one.

A more literal interpretation of burial at sea is also used where it is permitted, which is also seen as nat‐ ural when no formaldehyde is used.

There are organisations which organ‐ ise such burials, where the deceased

is placed in a shroud and, where authorised, the body is placed in the sea where it will decompose naturally or be con‐ sumed by animals.

This can be done from a ship or aircraft, and is quite common amongst those who have been in the Navy.

However, the most common op‐ tion involving the sea as a place of rest is to take the cremated remains to a special and meaningful location in the water, and some families hire boat services to do so. A type of urn has been created which floats before disintegrating so that the loved one’s ashes enter the water in a gradual and graceful way. Another in‐ novative option is an ice urn, which contains the ashes and floats on the water be‐ fore obviously melting to spread the ashes.

Doing so may seem inof‐ fensive but remember that a permit may be needed to avoid any possible fines for environmental rea‐ sons. In Spain there are funeral homes which have the necessary permits or can advise relatives on where they can allow the remains of their loved one to become one with the sea.

www.goldenleavesinternational.com • info@goldenleavesinternational.com • Facebook: goldenleavesspain

26 EWN

www.euroweeklynews.com

11 - 17 March 2021

FEATURE

HOLIDAYGATE - ANOTHER OBE FOR ME? NORA JOHNSON BREAKING VIEWS Nora is the author of popular psychological suspense and crime thrillers and a freelance journalist.

To comment on any of the issues raised in her column, go to www.euroweeklynews.com/3.0.15/nora-johnson

RECENTLY, I wrote here that I risked being awarded an OBE. That’s not an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, but the dubious honour of being ‘overtaken by events.’ I was writing then about Covid‐19 that carries that risk in spades.

But this week I risk another OBE, mention‐ ing the fraught subject of holidays ‐ after UK ministers got themselves in a right summer holiday tangle not so long ago.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said don’t book anything. But his colleague, Health Sec‐ retary Matt Hancock, previously told everyone about the ‘Great British Summer’ and that he’d even booked his own holiday to Cornwall.

So what’s the answer? One former minister tried to translate what they meant, suggest‐ ing: “Bottom line on holidaygate: travel abroad this year is not impossible. Holidays within the UK *are* likely by the summer, but

HOLIDAYS: If you book one this year, you do so at your own risk. the government can’t make a hard and fast statement to this effect at this stage. If you book, you do so at your own risk.”

As for Boris Johnson’s recent press confer‐

ence, there will be no firm review before May as to when international travel can restart.

So, everything crystal clear now?

Incidentally, during the recent UK cold spell,

an igloo was listed on a leading property web‐ site for a cool £250,000. The advert, which was later removed, said the ‘one bedroom house’ was on the fictional ‘North Pole Road’ in Clacton‐on‐Sea, Essex.

According to the listing, it would be a ‘great first home’ but buyers had to ‘be quick’ as the property ‘won’t be for sale long’ and was ‘showing signs of damp.’

Well, in normal times I might have popped along to Clacton‐on‐Sea to check it out, but not at the moment. Obviously, I could have Googled it, but I thought I’d opt for getting a life. By the way, you never hear the expression ‘I must get out more’ these days. I wonder why?

But right now, going on holiday is illegal anyway. Another one of those extraordinary sentences a few years ago I’d never have imagined writing...

Nora Johnson’s psychological crime thrillers ‘No Safe Place’, ‘Betrayal’, ‘The Girl in the Woods’, ‘The Girl in the Red Dress’, ‘No Way Back’, ‘Landscape of Lies’, ‘Retribution’, ‘Soul Stealer’, ‘The De Clerambault Code’ (www.no ra‐johnson.net) available online as eBook (€0.99; £0.99), Apple Books, paperback and audiobook. All profits to Costa del Sol Cudeca cancer charity.

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

Which gear are you driving in?

ROBERT SHALLIS Which gear do you tend to find yourself WHICH gear do you tend to find your‐ self in the most? Forward, reverse or neutral?

All three gears of course have their uses but it’s important to se‐ lect them carefully in order to have a healthy balance and a smooth ride to get to where you need to be in life. Many of us tend to be in re‐ verse gear, living too much in the past, dwelling on previous events and experiences.

There is no doubt that dropping into reverse and revisiting the past from time to time can be a wonder‐ ful place to be as happy memories are priceless. However, negative memories are a place that we should move on from, to be used as life lessons in which to progress and grow. Resentment, guilt, anger or whatever it may be certainly do

REMEMBER: You are in the driving seat of your life, so enjoy. not deserve or need to come along for the journey forward. Leave it in your rear‐view mirror until it fades into the distance.

So how does being in neutral gear benefit us? Well, this is actually the most powerful and useful gear. Al‐ though, the assumption would be

that it has no real direction and is very much in a stationary position.

Being in neutral is stopping, relax‐ ing, taking a breath and taking note of where you actually are, it’s being in the present moment, a time to be mindful and really appreciate life and all it has to offer. It is giving yourself a break from the all‐con‐ suming challenges life throws at you and deciphering, what is most im‐ portant to you, what you ‘really’ want in life and ‘why.’

A helpful exercise is to give your‐ self a moment in the day where you can escape and just sit down, even if it’s just for 10 minutes. Let go and forget about frustration, annoyance, disappointment and worry ‐ any‐ thing that has been causing some kind of tension and simply relax. This will give you renewed energy to help drive you forward.

We all deserve a break so why not take a few moments each day for yourself. Mahatma Gandhi famously said: “The future depends on what we do in the present.” So slow down, park up and enjoy today as

that is all we really have.

Stepping up a gear and accelerat‐ ing into the future can be exhilarat‐ ing as we all need goals and dreams to aim for. Progressing towards a worthy goal is key as it drives us for‐ ward and keeps our hopes alive es‐ pecially if it has true purpose. If you know where you’re going, you know why you’re getting up in the morn‐ ing.

It is important however not to ‘de‐ fer’ but enjoy life in the now. Accel‐ erating too fast to a future goal, ob‐ jective or dream and believing that life will be so much better is when you need to remind yourself which gear you are driving in.

So, how are you going to allow yourself to be driven? Use all three gears to your benefit and accelerate into a new version of yourself to get to where you need to be whatever destination you choose.

But remember, you are in the driving seat of your life so don’t for‐ get to enjoy the journey along the way.

Rob Shallis / www.robshallis.com

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

THURSDAY 11/03 FRIDAY 12/03 SATURDAY 13/03

7:00pm 7:30pm 7:55pm 8:00pm 8:35pm 9:00pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:30pm 6:15pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:35pm 9:05pm 9:35pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:30pm 6:10pm 6:20pm 6:25pm 6:30pm 7:00pm 7:45pm 8:30pm 9:20pm 10:00pm 11:00pm

MONDAY 15/03

SUNDAY 14/03

3:20pm 6:30pm 6:50pm 6:55pm 7:00pm 8:00pm 9:00pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:20pm 11:25pm 6:15pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:35pm 9:05pm 9:30pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:30pm

WEDNESDAY 17/03

TUESDAY 16/03

11:40pm 6:15pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:35pm 8:55pm 9:20pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:30pm 6:15pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:30pm 9:00pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:30pm 11:40pm 11:45pm

BBC News at Six BBC London News Party Political Broadcast The One Show EastEnders MasterChef Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance BBC News at Ten Regional News and Weather

6:15pm 7:00pm

Pointless BBC News at Six BBC London News The One Show A Question of Sport MasterChef EastEnders Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance BBC News at Ten Regional News and Weather

6:15pm 7:00pm

BBC News BBC London News; Weather Weather Catchpoint Gordon Ramsay's Bank Balance The Wall Pointless Celebrities Casualty Line of Duty BBC News

3:15pm 5:00pm 6:00pm 7:00pm 8:00pm

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Live Six Nations Rugby Union BBC News BBC London News Weather Countryfile Antiques Roadshow NewTop Gear Bloodlands BBC News BBC London News Weather

6:00pm 7:00pm

Pointless BBC News at Six BBC London News The One Show Panorama EastEnders Fawlty Towers MasterChef BBC News at Ten Regional News and Weather Weather

6:15pm 7:00pm

Pointless BBC News at Six BBC London News The One Show EastEnders EastEnders Holby City Roman Kemp: Our Emergency BBC News at Ten Regional News and Weather

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Pointless BBC News at Six BBC London News The One Show Ready, Steady, Cook MasterChef Bill Bailey: Limboland BBC News at Ten Regional News and Weather Weather The Surrogates

7:00pm

8:00pm 9:00pm 10:00pm 10:45pm 11:15pm 12:35am

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Flog It! Richard Osman's House of Games My Unique B&B The Hairy Bikers' Northern Exposure Your Garden Made Perfect Amazing Hotels: Life Beyond the Lobby Funny Festival Live Harry Hill's Lonely Island Newsnight

8:10pm

Flog It! Richard Osman's House of Games My Unique B&B MOTDx River Walks Gardeners' World Hidden Treasure: The Comedy Vault Later - with Jools Holland Newsnight Weather

8:00pm

FilmUp Periscope Flog It! DNA Family Secrets Interior Design Masters The 80s with Dominic Sandbrook Top of the Pops QI XL Billie: In Search of Billie Holiday Whiplash Jazz Divas Gold

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Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam The Joy of Painting All Creatures Great and Small Hancock Mark Lawson Talks To Around the World in 80 Treasures The Joy of Painting Fred Dibnah's Age of Steam

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11 - 17 March 2021

FEATURE

Get vaccinated to be able to travel LETTERS FROM

CANARIES CANARIAN president Ángel Torres’ call for vaccination passports, prompted by his desire to save the summer season after losing a sec‐ ond winter season, is now echoed

by Angela Merkel and stands a good chance of success. Get vacci‐ nated if you’d like to travel again is the clear message.

Meanwhile, lay off illegal bingo.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria police, after a tip off, caught 32 bingo play‐ ers ‘in the middle of a game, ignoring social distancing and smoking.’ Fines and denuncias followed.

Risking it for bingo?? Although the game does, or did, enjoy a racier im‐ age in Spain. Years ago, in Alicante, in very ritzy company I was whisked off ‘to gamble in secret.’ The chauf‐ feur knocked once and we slipped in, to find Alicante’s rich and famous playing… bingo.

Still in the eastern province, wel‐

LANZAROTE: Work has been given the go-ahead. come news of approval for the pro‐ posed €31 million port extension in Fuerteventura’s capital Puerto del Rosario.

Work, over 17 months, will extend the southern end of the port’s outer jetty and provide a new jetty for pumping fuel ashore.

At nearby Lanzarote’s Mirador de Guinate, the construction of a

SIVE (Spanish capitals), an Inte‐ grated Exterior Vigilance System, has been given the go‐ahead after the Minister of the Interior’s call for… ‘an urgently needed means of guaranteeing the EU’s southern border.’ Use of small, unsafe boats to cross from Africa to Europe via the Canaries continues, to escalat‐ ing argument between the Ca‐

naries, Spain and the EU. Across the channel from Fuerteventura, on La Graciosa, Victo‐ riano Hernández moves into his fourth month tied to the railings of the municipal council office. He’s still waiting for the necessary licence to carry out the work necessary to di‐ vide the house he wishes to share with his ex‐wife.

Let’s save the summer season.

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

I don’t see a happy ending MIKE SENKER IN MY OPINION Views of a Grumpy Old Man IN a wide-ranging interview Harry and Meghan described painful discussions about the colour of their son’s skin, losing royal protection and the intense pressures that led the Duchess of Sussex to contemplate suicide. Of course, there has been a massive backlash. Obviously there are two sides, sometimes three to every story, but I actually believe Meghan and Harry’s side. Let’s be honest they can only lose in this situation. They have already lost financially, titles and security for their child, soon to be children, and themselves.

Their accusations aren’t that outrageous.

We have witnessed a lot of this before with Princess Diana. The Palace ‘Firm’ are notorious for being totally out of touch with the real world. Charles has plenty of previous, he was carrying on with Camilla through his courtship and marriage, so, for me, has absolutely no credibility and, according to Harry, Charles is not even taking his phone calls. The big difference here is that Meghan is mixed race and the racist element is a massive problem.

We have all read about Prince Phillip’s gaffs

over the years. Although Meghan and Harry both said that it was not the Queen or Phillip that made the outrageous comment about the possible skin tone of their baby. So it has to be another senior Royal. Meghan’s dad was interviewed by Piers Morgan and if it was a court drama it was obvious that Morgan was leading the witness. I can’t stand Piers Morgan’s way of just dismissing everything Meghan says because she dropped him as a mate.

He also is not in a position to discuss whether remarks are racist or not or argue with members of his own team, who are actually mixed race when they confirm what it’s like to be on the receiving end of those comments. You can’t make the comparison of saying, ‘I wonder if the baby will have your nose or your colour eyes or hair.’ It’s just not the same.

Harry and Meghan want to be in control of their own lives but The Firm once again don’t come out of it well. Royal interviews that aren’t tied to a specific topic are rare, and prior televised sessions have often proved problematic. Prince Andrew’s 2019 BBC interview about his links with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein led to his own departure from royal duties after he failed to show empathy for Epstein’s victims. This is just my view, and I’m sure you all have yours, but I don’t see a happy ending here.

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

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11 - 17 March 2021

EWN 35

PUBS AND THEIR SIGNS DAVID WORBOYS

A R E T I R E D comedian in our village opened a pub and tried to register its name as The Three Poofs. Even in the lib‐ eral swinging 60s, freedom of expression did not extend that far. Perhaps he would have got away with The Two Poofs. To‐ day, the very idea of anybody even sub‐ mitting such an application is about as likely as a pantomime horse winning the Grand National.

The identification of inns by their names and their signs goes back to the middle ages, when many houses displayed a sign, often denoting some heraldry, which indi‐ cated that the premises were under the special care and control of a nobleman or landowner. The sign would portray a vivid image that impressed the theme on the memory. Hence the names were taken from images incorporated in coats of arms, family crests etc.

PUB NAMES: Some of today’s alternatives make a refreshing change.

Alternatively, The Plough, The Harrow and The Stag all conjure up rural images of a bygone age. But many new pubs and signs which opened in the modern era are not tied by such traditions.

Why, in the last hundred years, has the more recent naming of pubs been so unad‐

venturous ‐ so repetitive? In the 60s there were hundreds of pubs in England called The Crown, The Bell and The Swan. Not so many were called The Stetson, The Foghorn or The Puffin. The Duke of Wellington is still proving far more popular than The Mayor of Huddersfield. The

George is preferred to The Cuthbert.

With a little imagination there could have been so many colourful alternatives.

The Purple Penguin (rather than the Red Lion), The Thrush and Manhole (for The Rose and Crown), The Twenty Bottles (The Three Tuns), The Cleaner’s Knees (The King’s Arms or The Queen’s Head).

Of course, there are an increasing num‐ ber of pubs which have broken ranks. The Old Monkey in Manchester for example and The Old Devil near Maidenhead are re‐ freshing changes from The New Inn. The Ape and Apple (Manchester) and The Queen’s Head and Artichoke (London) are two further innovative examples. In Cornwall there is a pub called The Bucket of Blood; this is also the name of a beer brewed in the area, marketed as “a spooki‐ ly spicy red classic ale which has become a feature of Halloween. It is full with a malty toffee palate and a good bitter skeletal backbone finish.” Hmm, thanks, but I’ll go for a pint of London Pride.

I have also seen a pub with an advertise‐ ment outside. “Seven‐course Irish meal ‐ six pints and a potato.” It sounds more inviting than six potatoes and a pint.

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

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36 EWN

www.euroweeklynews.com

11 - 17 March 2021

HEALTH & BEAUTY

I’m not a ‘ride or die’ kind of girl More children suffering MS BIPOLAR

UP AND DOWN WITH BALANCE UNEDITED

I SCROLL through social media and see others posting about their #rideordie and #squadgoals. It makes me feel empty, boring and self-defeated.

I mean, I’m pretty cool. I can be fun.

I’m nice. I’m a good listener. I would drop everything to help someone who needed me. I can be spontaneous (at times!)

But on Fridays you will find me at home. You can also find me there Saturdays through Thursdays.

It’s easier to be home than make plans. And besides, making plans risks it going wrong or having to cancel because I am not feeling well and who needs one more thing to stress about anyway?

So I sit at home, in my comfy clothes, and scroll through social media watching everyone else on these last minute unplanned adventures and wonder why can’t I be like that ?

It’s the ultimate vicious circle, it seems.

My whole energy goes on getting through a normal day with not having a wobble that actually doing something that isn’t usually in my routine can send me into a complete meltdown.

Will an hour date with a few friends fill

Worrying perception of obesity AS the number of those classed as obese is on the increase, perhaps even more worrying is the Spanish population’s perception of obesity.

A survey presented by the Spanish Society for the Study of Obesity (Seedo) said that 82.2 per cent of those who are obese do not recognise they have a problem and up to 12 per cent of them think they have a ‘normal weight.’

President of Seedo, Francisco Tinahones, warned this is

“tremendously worrying” with obesity now affecting more than 20 per cent of society, twice as much as 25 years ago.

With obesity being linked to other diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and osteoarthritis, he pointed out the importance of “identifying the problem” so that measures can be taken to alleviate it.

“It is important to change the perception, to see that this is a problem and address it as a disease,” said Tinahones.

The drug of love MEETING someone special and falling in love can give the same buzz as being high on drugs.

Findings have shown that those feelings of excitement, anticipation and butterflies in our stomach triggers certain brain cells and activates the ‘feel good’ hormone dopamine. T his chemical is also released after taking recreational drugs such as cocaine.

Researchers from Emory University in Atlanta, U S A , who carried out the study on prairie voles, which, like humans, are one of the few monogamous mammals, say they believe the findings give insight into how we can influence social interactions. They believe this may one day be used to benefit patients suffering from autism as by controlling the release of dopamine, it may help improve interactions in socially awkward people.

my happy bucket, or drain me with stories that I simply don’t get because it’s not part of my lifestyle? The adrenaline rush of knowing gossip, and the desire to check out new bars and passion for high heels is simply not a part of me anymore.

But then I deal with the guilt. Guilt at missing out on being young. Guilt at not being involved with my friends. Guilt on not going on those fun nights out.

I’d like to shake these feelings away but it’s hard, emotionally it hurts. I long for having fun stories to tell.

Maybe it will ease up in time or maybe, I am not #rideordie material. I am however lucky that my friends stick by me through the good, the bad and the ugly.

Their love for me is unconditional as is mine for them.

And isn’t that what they really mean by #rideordie?

Love Ms Bipolar x

B E I N G overweight, a poor diet and lack of exercise are all causing an increase in cases of hypertension in Spain, but not just in adults.

Figures from the Spanish Association of Paediatrics show that five out of every 100 children now have blood pressure higher than it should be for their age.

Although less than one in 100 have medically significant hypertension, if the situation continues in youngsters it significantly increases their risk of heart failure or stroke in adult life.

Long-term, it can also cause damage to the kidneys, eyes and other organs.

T he figures were released last week to mark W orld H ypertension D ay where the C ardiology D e p a r t m e n t o f t h e H o s p i t a l o f S a n t J o a n , A l icante, warned of the increase of the cases of high tension in all the ages, not just in youngsters.

Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a chronic problem that often does not present clear symptoms so without regular checks it can go undetected. for a long time, leading to more serious complications, such as a heart attacks, haemorrhages or cerebral thrombosis. Hypertension leads to a thickening and hardening of the arteries making it more difficult for blood to pass through them.

msbipolar@euroweeklynews.com

Housework workout NO time to exercise? Don’t worry, just do the housework.

Studies have found that doing the household chores burns more than 2,000 calories a week with cleaning the bath, doing the washing and hoovering the house able to amount to the equivalent of doing a gym session.

The findings also researched which chores are best for working out certain areas of the body.

So what jobs around the house are the most beneficial to burn calories and tone?

Scrubbing the bath Cleaning the bath with a bit of added elbow grease for 15 minutes can burn up to 100 calories, which is roughly the same as 30 jumping squats. This chore is great for toning arms and shoulder muscles.

Laundry Factoring in loading and unloading the washing machine, hanging up the clothes and putting them away, doing the laundry can burn 78 calories which is the same as doing 100 sit-ups.

Washing up Scrubbing away at the dishes can burn over 500 calories over a week if you spend 15 minutes doing it every night, around the same as swimming 2,500m.

Hoovering G iving your carpets a good clean can burn 90 calories in half an hour, which is

LAUNDRY: Can burn 78 calories. the same as 15 minutes of kick-boxing. Depending on the size of your house, hoovering can also get you nearer to the daily recommendation of walking 10,000 steps.

Mopping and sweeping Cleaning the floors for 30 minutes can burn 145 calories.

Gardening Half an hour of pottering in the garden can burn 213 calories, which is the same as 45 minutes of cycling on flat terrain. Digging also works your shoulder and abdominal muscles.

Who is to blame?

ARE you a doting grandparent?

Well try not to dote too much on the little darlings as you risk leading them into a life of obesity.

A new study claims that children who live closer to their grandparents are more likely to be obese as the older relatives shower their love in food.

The research was conducted by the University of Birmingham in England, as they examined the region of Guangzhou, in southern China and looked at those who left their rural homes where it is more common for grandparents to care for the children.

It is reported that around 15 per cent of Chinese youngsters and teenagers are overweight and the incidences were higher in those children who were left in the care of elders.

In China a chubby child is seen as a symbol of health, prosperity and success but the research said to prevent the rise of obesity there must be an understanding on the causes of childhood obesity.

PETS

38

www.euroweeklynews.com • 11 - 17 March 2021

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How fit is that doggy in the window?

SPRING is about new beginnings and brushing away the cobwebs, after being cooped up inside.

Dogs are out on the streets and in the parks with their owners, but are they protected enough?

The warmer weather could easily present issues for your dog’s health, including heartworm, so make sure the dog receives a year‐round monthly heartworm preventive.

This is also the time of year for mosquitos, fleas and ticks; so protect your dog well in advance and your dog will thank you for it. It is worth asking your vet about the latest products in flea protection.

Dogs, like their owners, need exercise, especially after living the sedentary lifestyle that winter encourages. How‐ ever, don’t rush your dog, as he needs to warm up before doing anything too strenu‐ ous, otherwise he’ll end up with an injury.

Therefore, it is wise to build up a fitness regime grad‐ ually, giving the dog time to adapt.

DON’T RUSH: Your dog needs to warm up before exercise.

One in 10 pets will develop a tumour in their lifetime CANCER is one of the biggest concerns for dog and cat owners. It is the leading cause of death in geriatric animals. For this

reason, owners and veteri‐ narians have been becoming aware of the need to pro‐ vide special care for their pets. There have been great

advances in veterinary medicine and surgery, espe‐ cially in the field of cancer treatment. Early diagnosis is essential. The checkup that is carried out on your pet every year should be more exhaustive from six years of age.

Any patient suspected of having a malignant process should be thoroughly inves‐ tigated by the veterinary team.

This information will help us to know which treatment to use and will inform us of the prognosis, time and cost necessary for the treatment.

We can only establish a complete therapeutic proto‐ col and with probability of success if we have informa‐ tion on the extent of the process. This way we can answer the pet owner’s questions about the progno‐ sis and quality of life. Specif‐ ic laboratory tests, ultra‐ sound, endoscopy, CT or MRI may be necessary.

11- 17 March 2021 • www.euroweeklynews.com

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SPORT

40

11 - 17 March 2021

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Sevilla Knocked Out THE young Norwegian star, Er‐ ling Haaland, scored twice on Tuesday March 9, one goal in each half, for Borussia Dort‐ mund, in their round of the 16 second‐leg tie at Signal Iduna Park, to send Spanish side Sevil‐ la out of the Champions League 5‐4 on aggregate.

With a 3‐2 deficit from the first‐leg in Spain, Sevilla came storming out of the blocks right from the start and had Dort‐ mund pinned back, with Ocam‐ pos, Oscar and Suso all having chances in the first 20 minutes, but nothing that managed to get past Marwin Hitz.

But then, as has happened so often in Europe, the youngster Haaland popped up to score left‐footed after 35 minutes, and then again on 54 minutes, putting a penalty away, at the second attempt, to give Dort‐ mund what looked like a com‐ fortable 5‐2 lead, four of those courtesy of the Norwegian.

Then on 68 minutes, Sevilla were given a glimmer of hope

DORTMUND: Sent Sevilla out of the Champions League. when former Liverpool player, Emre Can pushed De Jong in the area, earning the visitors a penalty. En‐Nesyri promptly banked the ball in off the under‐ side of the crossbar to give Sevil‐ la hope, at 2‐1 in the match and 5‐3 on aggregate.

Sevilla coach Julen Lopetegui then decided it was time to go for broke and sent on Oliver Torres for Oscar, followed by Ivan Rakitic and Munir El Had‐

dadi for Fernando and Suso, with Sevilla still in need of two goals.

A spectacular save from Sevil‐ la keeper Bono, from Mah‐ moud Dahoud, kept the match alive, and then, in the 95th minute, an En‐Nesyri goal pulled Sevilla level in the match 2‐2, but still 5‐4 down on aggre‐ gate, and sadly it’s the Andalu‐ cians who are out of this year’s Champions League.

Hammers Up WEST HAM’S wonderful season continues as sensational signing Jesse Lingard scores again to see off Leeds 2‐0 at the London Stadium ‐ a victory that sees the Hammers move up to fifth place.

Lingard, on loan from Manchester United, is enjoying life in London and was pivotal for West Ham on Monday, March 8, opening the scoring in the 21st minute when he con‐ verted the rebound from his own penal‐ ty.

The England midfielder was tripped by Luke Ayling and saw his penalty saved by Illan Meslier before making no mistake from the gifted opportunity.

Craig Dawson then doubled West Ham’s lead seven minutes later, capitalising on Leeds’ inability to defend set‐pieces, to bury a free header from a corner.

Patrick Bamford was guilty of missing some decent chances for the away side and substitute Rodrigo’s effort cleared off the line late on.

Interestingly, Dawson and Lingard have now been scorers of seven of West Ham’s last 13 Premier League goals ‐ to leapfrog Everton into fifth, two points off a top‐four spot.

LINGARD: Scored again.