Euro Weekly News - Costa de Almeria 31 March - 6 April 2022 Issue 1917

Issue No. 1917 31 March - 6 April 2022

MONTHS of drought in Almeria Province were brought to an end by the torrential rain that began on Friday March 25.

Rivers and watercourses are no longer dry and when the downpour was at its height between midnight and noon on March 26, the 112 Emergency Services number received 40 calls for assistance.

The 70 employees as‐ signed to the Diputacion provincial council’s Winter Roads Plan were out in force and until the down‐ pour began to ease off late on March 26, the province was on constant alert.

The consequences were felt in practically all of Alme‐ ria’s 103 municipalities from Levante to Poniente and from north to south, with more than 10 roads tem‐ porarily closed due to flood‐ ing, landslides and rockfalls.

JUST WHAT’S NEEDED! Photo credit: Bill White

Drought is over

COSTA DE ALMERIA • WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM

Turn to page 2 » INDALO PLAYERS: Promise of songs, laughter and colour in their next production.

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31 March - 6 April 2022

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New Indalo Players production

THE Indalo Players are pleased to an‐ nounce their new production, Murder in the Panto. After a long absence from the stage, they will be performing in Shea’s Bar Mojacar, which some will remember as The Kimrick, on Thursday April 21 and Fri‐ day April 22.

Tickets, which cost €18 per person and include the show and a two‐course meal, will be available from the bar very soon.

To avoid disappointment, book early.

“You can expect songs, laughter and a jolly good murder,” said the play’s author, Bill White. “So come along and just enjoy the show or, for those who take it serious‐ ly, study the clues, guess who did it and win a prize into the bargain.”

As usual the play will go on a short tour around the Mojacar area, so watch this

space. “We could be coming to a bar near you,” Bill said. Murder in the Panto, his lat‐ est murder mystery, is based on an idea by fellow Indalo Players member, Jane Jordan Read, and tells the story of a dreadful mur‐ der that is committed during the pan‐ tomime, Jack and the Beanstalk.

As in all Indalo Players’ productions, and especially as this is set in a panto, there will be lots of humour, songs and colour to cheer up the audience at a time when cheer has been in short supply The group describe themselves as a “mixed crowd of all ages who sometimes perform comedy, sometimes drama, sometimes pantomime.”

For more information contact Bill at williamwhite9552@aol.com or on his mo‐ bile, 671 810 819.

The sound of silence

ON April 10, Palm Sunday, part of the La Estrella brotherhood’s Alme‐ ria City procession will take place in silence.

The bands accompanying the reli‐ gious tableau through the city streets, but will fall silent in the sec‐ tion between Calle San Leonardo and Rambla Obispo Orbera, a

spokesman announced.

“The brotherhood wishes to con‐ tinue complying with our social commitments,” he said. “We want to ensure that spectators on the autism spectrum or those with noise sensitivity can enjoy the procession without having to endure the usual clamour.”

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More sand for beaches ROQUETAS Town Hall is re‐ distributing the sand on its beaches.

Mayor Gabriel Amat, Councillors Jose Luis Llamas, Susi Ibañez and Francisco Bar‐ rionuevo, together with Jose Ramos, president of the Beaches Business Owners as‐ sociation, recently visited Playa Serena to watch work in progress.

The pioneering scheme first removes the seaweed that has been washed up on Roquetas’ beaches, Amat ex‐ plained. As considerable amounts of sand are scooped up at the same time, this is then sifted and retained in or‐ der to replenish zones affect‐ ed by erosion.

Amat emphasised that it was the first time this method had been used in the municipality as regeneration is usually carried out with

Photo credit: Roquetas town hall

REGENERATION PLAN: Gabriel Amat, councillors, and Jose Ramos.

sand from other beaches.

The town hall has also kept the Diputacion provincial council in the picture as well as the coastal authority, Costas, he added.

“It is our responsibility to keep the beaches in perfect condition so that we can pro‐ vide a quality service for resi‐ dents and tourists,” Amat said.

Two thousand tons of sand

TripAdvisor overlooks Almeria TRIPADVISOR omitted Almeria Province beach‐ es from its Travellers’ Choice 2022 awards.

Ea c h y e a r , m e m b e r s of the public choose the travel guidance plat‐ form’s Best of the Best in various categories that include food, out‐ door activities, skiing, cities and sun seeker destinations.

There was also a list

of Europe’s 25 best beaches but although Mallorca, Fuerteventu‐ ra, Formentera and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria made the cut, Almeria was excluded.

Like Spain, Italy, the UK and Greece had four Best of the Best beaches apiece, with two each for Portugal, France, Cyprus and Turkey and one for Iceland.

recovered in this way are cur‐ rently being relocated in front of Roquetas’ Santa Ana castle as well as at the Playa Serena Playa and Buena Vista beach‐ es.

Expolevante back on the agenda THE 15th Expolevante takes place between April 27 and 29 at Nijar’s Centro de Exposiciones and Campohermoso.

Twice postponed ow‐ ing to the pandemic, the exhibition which covers all aspects of agriculture will occupy an area of 17,000 square metres, 35 per cent more than in previous editions, said Mayor Esperanza Perez Felices.

“Expolevante Nijar dis‐ plays to the world that quality and sustainability take precedence in what we do here, guaranteed by what we now know as Agriculture 2.0.

“This enables us to produce more food on less land with less input while integrating with the other sectors like tourism that it must co‐ exist with,” she said.

Agricultural growers were the true and indis‐ putable protagonists of this Nijar exhibition, she explained.

“It has been created by and for them, the men and women who are there during society’s most difficult periods, as we could see during the health crisis which con‐ verted a primary sector into a strategic sector,” she added.

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NIBS EXTRA Safer walking VICAR Town Hall installed bollards along a section of pavement between Puerta Corazon del Ponente in La Gangosa and El Parador.

The bollards will increase safety along 950 metres of the road that provides ac‐ cess to private properties as well as agricultural ware‐ houses, factories and vehicle repair shops.

False claims THE Guardia Civil arrested a person in Alhama de Alme‐ ria who allegedly made six false robbery claims to an in‐ surance company. Investiga‐ tors’ suspicions were aroused following inconsis‐ tencies in a statement from the supposed victim who had been compensated with €1,600 on five previous occasions between 2016 and 2021.

Further afield THE small Virgen del Saliente statue, popularly known as La Pequenica, will travel outside Albox’s boundaries for only the third time in three centuries on June 24. The statue goes to Los Cerricos in Oria before continuing in pilgrimage to Velez‐Rubio and Chirivel, re‐ turning on July 2.

Brief stay CRUISE ship, Spirit of Discov‐ ery, put in to Almeria port on Saturday March 26 fol‐ lowing an earlier visit in November last year. More than 700 passengers, the majority of whom were British, disembarked in the persistent rain at 8am to spend eight hours ashore before setting sail for Cadiz.

Tapas trail THE fifth edition of Gar‐ rucha’s Tapas route began on March 25 and continues until April 3. Announcing the event, Mayor Maria Lopez, accompanied by local coun‐ cillors, said that the 25,000 Spanish‐English forms where participants name their favourites would enter a draw for a holiday for two in Thailand.

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Equinac turns nursemaid FIVE loggerhead sea turtles which hatched on Mojacar’s Granatilla beach last August will be released this sum‐ mer.

The Junta originally an‐ nounced that the hatchlings would be transferred to the Andalucia Marine Environ‐ ment Management Centre (Cegma) in Algeciras, but they are now at the Almeria‐ based Equinac centre.

Equinac volunteers are authorised to assist in rescu‐ ing beached and stranded turtles and cetaceans along the province’s 220 kilome‐ tres of coastline. The non‐ profitmaking organisation also attends to exotic and

Photo credit: Almeria Junta

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EQUINAC VISIT: Junta delegate Raquel Espin is introduced to the five hatchlings.

domestic animals.

Raquel Espin, the Junta’s Sustainable Development delegate to Almeria, recently visited the Equinac centre where she asked about the turtles’ progress.

Halting inland depopulation THE Diputacion provincial council recently hosted an on‐ line meeting of Almeria’s 90 European Union‐funded Guadalinfo offices.

Carmen Navarro, an MP in the regional parliament who is responsible for European Initiatives and was also pre‐ sent, stressed Guadalinfo’s importance in combatting in‐ land depopulation.

Guadalinfo, set up by the Junta’s Innovation, Science and Enterprise department, offers public broadband ac‐ cess to the whole region in‐ cluding the remotest areas.

It targets, in particular, towns with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants, especially in re‐ mote areas. A prime objective is promoting the uptake of IT services to assist social cohe‐ sion and regional develop‐ ment.

In particular, the Guadalinfo network aims to minimise the urban‐rural digital divide and avert exclusion from moderni‐ sation processes. Navarro had special praise for the Guadalin‐ fo coordinators responsible for the centres and their contribu‐ tion to the Diputacion’s efforts to halt depopulation.

The regional MP also high‐ lighted their commitment dur‐ ing the pandemic, handling sit‐ uations that made day‐to‐day living easier for the thousands of residents in the province’s

smallest municipalities.

“The coordinators are key to taking IT literacy to rural en‐ claves, instructing, informing and accompanying users who want to learn or to clarify their doubts,” Navarro said.

“They are our greatest allies in promoting equal opportu‐ nities amongst Almeria resi‐ dents by providing access to the telematic services that are essential if we are to stabilise the populations of the munici‐ palities with fewest re‐ sources.”

The turtles will return to the sea once they were big enough and sufficiently strong to have a good chance of survival, Equinac coordinator Eva Maria Mo‐ ron told the delegate.

“Each week, Equinac sends a report to Cegma, with details of the turtles’ weight and seize,” she said.

During her Equinac visit, the Junta delegate also em‐ phasised the need to protect the marine environment.

“The seas absorb an im‐ portant amount of carbon dioxide, reducing the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere,” she said.

“What we do affects the planet either positively or negatively and we really should start thinking about how we can change the world, protecting human be‐ ings but also animals. Every‐ thing is connected.”

Higher prices, lower profits BY the end of March, prices paid for tomatoes and pep‐ pers had risen by 60 per cent compared with early January.

It is during the first quar‐ ter of the year when Alme‐ ria Province’s agricultural growers have little compe‐ tition from their central Eu‐ ropean counterparts, but these latest prices do not translate into increased earnings, sources in the agri‐foods sector explained.

“Overheads have soared

Plans for a Spring Fiesta CAMPOHERMOSO, Nijar, is holding its second Fiesta de la Pri‐ mavera between April 8 and 10 in Plaza Juan Antonio Lozano.

The first Spring Fiesta was held in 2019, but there could be no repetition until now, owing to the Covid‐19 pandemic.

“Activities like these can always count on town hall backing.

They invigorate our municipality and provide residents with more leisure options,” said Mayor Esperanza Perez Felices.

At her recent meeting with the president and members of the Asociacion Cultural Campoiris, which is organising the cele‐ brations, Perez Felices highlighted the importance of involving the local population. “Collaboration is essential for improving our towns. We know that times have been hard, as the health situation brought everything to a halt, but now we can resume activities like fiestas and Expolevante, while being careful and always complying with any health and safety regulations,” she said.

Presenting the Fiesta de la Primavera poster, the Asociacion Cultural Campoiris president, Maria Jose Berenguel, an‐ nounced that the association was preparing a full programme.

Events include installing a marquee for the three‐day festivi‐ ties, activities for children as well as “several surprises” which Berenguel said she did not want to reveal at present.

since last autumn,” said Antonio Navarro, president of the Asaja Almeria grow‐ ers’ association.

“We are emerging from a campaign, especially since January, with prices that are quite acceptable, that’s true. But profits are less acceptable, above all for peppers and cucumbers despite the increase,” he added.

This would be even more apparent once growers had balanced their books, as water, fertiliser and all supplies were costing more, while the hauliers’ strike had also helped to in‐ crease overheads, he pre‐ dicted.

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An expensive commodity VERA’S domestic wa‐ ter tariffs are the low‐ est in Almeria Province.

The municipality’s householders pay €1.16 for a cubic me‐ tre of water compared with the €2.01 they would be charged if they lived in Almeria City.

Cuevas and Mojacar are not far behind at €1.85 per cubic metre, while Roquetas resi‐ dents are charged €1.52.

Mayors and engi‐ neers from municipali‐ ties in the Poniente area, together with representatives from water management companies, met earli‐ er in March to analyse the increased price of desalinated water that has now been ap‐ proved by the public sector company, Aguas de las Cuencas Mediterraneas (Acuamed).

The hike means that the cost of desalinated water will triple, in‐ evitably affecting wa‐ ter bills. Meanwhile, Vera’s town hall re‐ cently met Acuamed officials to negotiate a system allowing costs to be spread over five years to minimise the effects of the increase and avoid a sudden rise like that of Roque‐ tas.

and finally...

WESTERN LEONE in Tabernas, where Sergio Leone filmed Once Upon a Time in the West in 1968, is up for sale. Although less popular with tourists than nearby Mini Hollywood or Fort Bravo, production companies still use Western Leone for location shooting.

The eight‐hectare site has its own access road off the motorway, covered storage units, several build‐ ings and stables, said the Roquetas‐based estate agency that is handling the €2.8 million sale.

Describing the installation as ideal for an interna‐ tional film studio, the company also said that the iconic ranch, belonging to Claudia Cardinale in Once Upon a Time in the West, “is still in good condition.”

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Fishing aid

Deal brokered Still bowling

FOLLOWING an agreement with the rep‐ resentatives of the Freight and Passenger Departments of the National Road Trans‐ port Committee, the Minister for Trans‐ port, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Raquel Sanchez, has announced that the govern‐ ment will give a subsidy to hauliers of €20 per litre or kilo of fuel, of which 15 cents will come from the public budget and 15 cents will be borne by the oil product op‐ erators, and will be applied to diesel, petrol, gas and adblue.

This benefit will mean more than €600 million for the transport sector.

Savings of around €700 per lorry per month are estimated and which will be in force from April 1 to June 30, extendable depending on the evolution of the mar‐ kets.

The measure, together with direct aid to the sector of €450 million, will inject more than €1 billion into the sector, the government said on Friday March 25 as part of an immediate aid plan to alleviate the consequences of the conflict in Ukraine.

DESPITE suffering a serious stroke back in October 2021, Terry Lyons, a popular member of Zurgena Bowls Club, main‐ tains his enthusiasm for a game of bowls.

It came as a great shock to all con‐ cerned when the ex‐army veteran was struck down, but Terry, never one to let things get on top of him, was deter‐ mined from the outset to do his damn‐ dest to make as best a recovery as he could. During his stay in hospital it wasn’t long before the nurses were nagging him for trying to do too much too soon, but Terry was having none of that and today his efforts are bearing fruit.

Physiotherapy sessions both at hos‐ pital and privately, gym sessions and support from wife Lin and his friends has got Terry on his feet again, albeit with the help of a walking frame.

Whilst Terry can manage a few steps he is much more comfortable in his

NEWS

BOWLS: Terry is still enthusiastic.

wheelchair, especially on Saturday mornings when Lin drops him off at Zurgena Bowls Club and he plays a full match with no quarter asked nor giv‐ en. His determination and cussed com‐ petitiveness is evident for all to see.

The internet may have been a great innovator for keeping people in touch but as wife Lin says “There’s nothing better than for Terry to get out in the fresh air, play a game of bowls and have a natter with friends.”

THE Junta de Andalucia has an‐ nounced support measures for the fishing industry.

Carmen Crespo, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries said the measures are designed to “contribute to the viability of the An‐ dalucian fishing sector, and cushion the impact of the escalation of oper‐ ating costs,” especially the “unaf‐ fordable” increase in energy and fu‐ els.

“It is time to help our fishermen get ahead. More than 20,000 An‐ dalucian families depend on fishing,” she said on Sunday March 27.

Earlier, the Junta decided to ex‐ empt Andalucian fishermen from paying port and fishing fees for three months.

“The Board is very clear that the vi‐ ability of an activity that is essential for the economy and employment of the community must be facilitated,” Crespo added.

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Living in Spain made easier!

A WEEK‐LONG campaign aimed at English speakers who live in Spain, own a second home in Spain, or are thinking of moving here either to work or retire, has been launched by Age in Spain.

The ‘Living in Spain’ cam‐ paign makes available free of charge a major resource of more than 40 guides pro‐ duced by Age in Spain and covering all aspects of life in Spain from how to get mar‐ ried, learn Spanish, and reg‐ ister your car, to getting health care, accessing em‐ ployment and benefits, and applying to live permanently in Spain. The organisation’s website will be updated each day with new features.

Age in Spain has been ad‐ vising and guiding English‐ speaking residents and new‐ comers for 30 years. With a volunteer management

Chief Executive, Helen Weir.

board and a small core staff, it has a country‐wide net‐ work of volunteers who de‐ liver information and addi‐ tional support via its infoline, while a befriending service puts socially isolated and vulnerable people in touch with others for sup‐ port.

Age in Spain’s chief execu‐ tive, Helen Weir, said the campaign will make people more aware of what’s on of‐ fer and attract new users to their website.

“Apart from the huge bank of information people can access on our website, the campaign will feature stories from people who have made the move suc‐ cessfully and have fitted comfortably into the Span‐ ish way of life. People can hear how they dealt with the challenges they encoun‐ tered as well as the pitfalls they might have avoided,” she said.

“We are also launching a survey so we can learn more about the issues people face when they decide to make the move. In this way we will continue to improve our service.

“We’re inviting people to visit our website this week, www.ageinspain.org/living inspain, go to our Facebook page, or call our infoline on +34 932 209 741,” she added.

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Israel-Arab meeting Carbon-free future

THE US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, has been lauded for bringing together Israel and four Arab states, in what was an unprece‐ dented meeting to bring countries in the Mid‐ dle East closer together.

The significance of the meeting held on Monday March 28 is hugely important for re‐ lations and the future of peace in the Middle East, particularly in light of the current geopo‐ litical climate.

The four countries, the United Arab Emi‐ rates, Bahrain, Morocco and Egypt, all have a common interest in that they wish to see the Palestinian situation resolved as they do Iran as the enemy. All the countries are threat‐ ened either directly or indirectly by Iran’s sup‐ port of terrorist organisations that seek to THE Minister for the Presi‐ dency, Parliamentary Rela‐ tions and Democratic Memo‐ ry, Felix Bolanos, chaired the seventh meeting of the Na‐ tional Security Situation Committee, which is analysing the situation be‐ tween Russia and Ukraine on Thursday March 24.

The Situation Committee discussed the work of the var‐ ious groups set up to deal with cyber‐security, the im‐ plementation of sanctions

Bringing countries closer together.

overthrow moderate governments in the area.

At the end of the meeting the six ministers hailed it as a breakthrough, saying they were determined to repeat the meeting in the Is‐ raeli desert every year. They did however mention one caveat, and that is the need for progress in the negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.

Situation Committee against Russia and the recep‐ tion of refugees. Regarding the latter, it was reported that more than 24,000 people have been assisted by the re‐ ception system and 15,706 applications for temporary protection have been for‐ malised, of which 1,969 were processed by March 23 alone.

An estimated 3,605 dis‐ placed Ukrainian students are

estimated to be enrolled in school in Spain.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the min‐ istries of Foreign Affairs, De‐ fence, Interior, Transport, Labour, Economic Affairs, Eco‐ logical Transition, Industry, Fi‐ nance, Agriculture, Territorial Policy and Inclusion, as well as representatives of the Nation‐ al Intelligence Centre.

SPAIN supports the new di‐ rection taken by the Inter‐ national Energy Agency (IEA) which aims to decar‐ bonise the global energy system.

“It is time to speed up the transformation of the ener‐ gy model and take advan‐ tage of its great economic opportunities and environ‐ mental benefits, while at the same time solving our energy security problems,” said Teresa Ribera, Vice‐ President of the Govern‐ ment of Spain and Minister for Ecological Transition and Demographic Chal‐ lenge, during the IEA Minis‐ terial Meeting held in Paris on Thursday March 24 to approve the organisation’s new strategic orientation.

“We need to lift the barri‐ ers that prevent the deploy‐ ment of affordable, safe and sustainable technolo‐ gies to achieve the climate goals set by the Paris Treaty,” she added during her speech at the Plenary

Session of the Ministerial Meeting.

Ribera also outlined her current priorities, starting with “tackling the ‘conta‐ gion effect’ from gas prices to electricity prices” and re‐

ducing European demand for Russian supplies, with a particular impact on inter‐ national trade in liquefied natural gas and the optimi‐ sation of storage infrastruc‐ tures in the EU.

Suspected poisoning RUSSIAN billionaire Roman Abramovich showed symptoms of suspected poisoning following his involvement in peace talks but has since recovered, a source close to him said on March 28.

Abramovich, along with two Ukrainian peace negotiators, were allegedly ill earlier in March following a round of negotiations with their Russian counterparts in Kyiv.

Symptoms included peeling skin on their hands and faces, constant running tears, and red eyes.

Abramovich has longstanding ties with President Vladimir Putin and had apparently offered to act as a mediator to broker peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

With an estimated fortune worth around £10 billion, the Chelsea owner has been hit by sanctions from the UK Govern‐ ment. He is also banned from entering Britain, where he owns homes, as well as the London football club, which is now up for sale.

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Name and shame THE British government will ‘name and shame’ failing social housing landlords as part of major reforms to give residents a stronger voice and drive‐up standards, it claimed on Tuesday March 29. The move means social landlords providing sub‐standard housing and services would be publicly called out on the government’s website and across social media channels. Minister for Social Housing Eddie Hughes MP said: “Every‐ one in this country de‐ serves to live in a safe and decent home. It is un‐ acceptable that anyone should have mould cover‐ ing their walls, risk slip‐ ping on a wet floor or have water dripping from the ceiling.

“We have published draft legislation today to toughen up regulation of social housing landlords.

This includes naming and shaming those landlords who fail to meet accept‐ able living standards and giving tenants a direct channel to raise their con‐ cerns with government.

“This package will help to deliver on our commit‐ ment in the Levelling Up White Paper to halve the number of non‐decent rented homes by 2030,” he added.

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Stepdaughter sanctioned THE London‐based step‐ daughter of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is up in arms after being sanctioned by the UK government. Poli‐ na Kovaleva, 26, lives in a multi‐million pound home af‐ ter gaining degrees from two British universities.

The measures come in the latest round of economic sanctions against those peo‐ ple with close ties to the Kremlin, Kovaleva being one of 65 individuals and compa‐ nies who were added to the list on March 24.

Supporters of opposition politician Alexei Navalny, who has just been sentenced to a further nine years in prison, named Kovaleva’s mother as the long‐time lover of the for‐ eign secretary.

TWO DEGREES: Polina Kovaleva studied at university.

They also raised questions as to how she could fund her lavish lifestyle in London. Oth‐ ers added to the list include billionaire oil tycoon Eugene Shvidler, drone manufacturer Kronshtadt, the Russian paramilitary group Wagner and Alrosa, the world’s biggest

diamond manufacturer. Re‐ ferring to the sanctions, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “We’ve got to step up, we’ve got to increase our support, and we’ve got to tighten the economic vice around Putin, sanctioning more people to‐ day.”

New Covid rules NEW EU‐wide rules exempt minors from the acceptance period of 270 days for Covid‐19 vaccination certificates following the primary vaccination series.

The standard acceptance period will be limited to persons aged 18 and above.

While a booster from 12 years of age has been authorised following a recommenda‐ tion from the European Medicines Agency, not all member states are currently recom‐ mending to administer boosters to minors.

Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reyn‐ ders, said: “One of the biggest benefits of the EU Digital Covid Certificate is its flexibili‐ ty to adapt to new circumstances. Follow‐

ing discussions with Member States’ public health experts, we have decided that the vaccination certificates of minors should not expire. When travelling, they will be able to continue using the certificate re‐ ceived after the primary series of vaccina‐ tion.”

Commissioner for Health and Food Safe‐ ty, Stella Kyriakides, the Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, added on Tuesday March 29: “The pandemic is still with us, and vaccination remains crucial. Our mes‐ sage has not changed: get vaccinated and boosted as soon as possible. Vaccination saves lives and is key for all of us.”

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Security threat list THE US has added a number of high‐profile companies to its na‐ tional security threat list including a popular anti‐virus software company.

Kaspersky and China Telecom are now communications equipment and service providers deemed to be threats to the country’s national security, the Federal Communications Com‐ mission (FCC) announced on Friday March 25.

Both companies join Huawei Technologies Co, ZTE Corp and others on the list, which was mandated under a 2019 law.

Kaspersky is the first Russian company to be listed. Announcing the additions to the list FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said the new designations “will help secure our networks from threats posed by Chinese and Russian state‐backed entities seeking to engage in espionage and otherwise harm America’s interests.”

The addition of Kaspersky to the list is no surprise with the US having previously warned that running the company’s software could result in maligned activity. Although Kaspersky has denied being a puppet of the Russian government, the war in Ukraine has added fuel to the rumours and assertions.

Responding to the FCC decision, Kaspersky said it was disap‐ pointed that a decision was “made on political grounds.”

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Pilot charged A 52-YEAR-OLD pilot has been charged with at‐ tempting to fly illegal im‐ migrants into the UK in his aircraft.

Richard Styles, of no fixed abode, was detained during an operation led by the National Crime Agency (NCA) on March 24 at Deenethorpe Airfield near Corby, in Northampton‐ shire.

He had just flown his twin‐engine plane to the airfield from Belgium.

Northants Police officers, who were working with the NCA, stopped a taxi which had left the airfield on the Phoenix Parkway in Corby, arresting the driver and four Albanian nation‐ als.

The operation was also supported by Border Force and Immigration Enforce‐ ment.

Both Styles and the taxi driver, a 42‐year‐old man from Tooting in South Lon‐ don, were questioned by NCA investigators.

Styles has now been charged with facilitating a breach of immigration law.

The taxi driver has been bailed pending further en‐ quiries.

The Albanian nationals, three men and a woman all aged between 21 and 64, remain detained under immigration powers.

TWIN-ENGINE: The pilot flew from an airfield in Belgium.

NCA Regional Head of In‐ vestigations Jacque Beer said: “We know people smugglers use a range of

methods to try and breach UK border controls and we remain alive to the threats.”

Weigh in MORE than 1,000 parents in Scotland were asked their views on whether children should be weighed in school as part of its fight on the growing problem of obesity. Just over half the parents expressed sup‐ port for the idea, while a third expressed opposition citing mental health and well‐being concerns.

The government in Scotland has said it wants to halve the level of childhood obesity by 2030, and al‐ though height and weight measurements are taken in the first year of school no further measurements are taken throughout the child’s school years.

Parents of younger children were according to the study more likely to support weight measurement in schools, with two thirds of the parents of five to eight‐year‐olds supporting the idea. By comparison only half of the parents of 15 to 17‐year‐olds thought it would be acceptable.

Those that expressed opposition to the idea, 23 per cent, also felt that it was not the government’s place to weigh children, while a further 10 per cent felt that it would lead to unsociable behaviours like bullying.

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Ukrainian volunteers make urgent plea

DESPITE serious risks to their lives, Ukrainian volunteers re‐ lentlessly persist in their efforts to protect the animals under their care. However, wider awareness in the global com‐ munity is essential if a real dif‐ ference is to be made.

Since the war erupted on February 24, thousands of vol‐ unteer‐led animal shelters locat‐ ed in the middle of war zones have been fully cut off from sup‐ plies. Russian forces are refusing to establish humanitarian corri‐ dors to give volunteers safe ac‐ cess making it impossible to de‐ liver food and supplies. Two volunteers were shot dead by Russian snipers near Kharkiv when attempting to feed ani‐ mals at a zoo, and animal shel‐ ters across the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Mykolaiv regions have been un‐ der attack.

Over 3,000 animals and vol‐ unteers are trapped in the country’s largest shelter, Sirius, located in Dymer, 60km north of Kyiv. Iryna Lozova, the Sirius coordinator, said: “For 26 days we have not been able to bring

WAR ZONE: Volunteers are persistent in their efforts to protect the animals under their care.

food and medicine to the peo‐ ple and animals. 3,165 dogs and 218 cats have become hostages. There will only be enough food for the animals for a few more days and there has been no fuel for the generator for two days. We are currently

looking for organisations to help evacuate the animals abroad after the green corridor is created. They need to find a safe home.”

At the Hostomel shelter, one of the oldest shelters in the country, more than 700 animals

and four people have been stranded since the start of the war. The shelter has been hit by shells three times and attacked by a tank. The Hostomel shelter team recently said: “We need at least one green corridor to bring food, medicine, fuel and

water. From the first day of the war, all the employees of the Hostomel animal shelter have remained at their workplace.

We are feeding not only the an‐ imals in the shelter but also those that have been aban‐ doned by people.”

The Feldman‐Eco‐park in Der‐ gachiv, Kharkiv, has also suf‐ fered devastating conse‐ quences. The zoo at the eco‐park had about 2,000 ani‐ mals, and they managed to evacuate four orangutans, nine chimpanzees and 22 alpacas.

The press secretary of the park said: “Unfortunately, in ex‐ treme conditions, animals die not only from injuries but also from the heart rupturing. Ani‐ mals who are constantly in the line of fire experience constant stress, which has a great nega‐ tive impact on their mental state and behaviour.”

The volunteers are urging lo‐ cal and international animal rights organisations to inter‐ vene and facilitate the estab‐ lishment of safe passage to save the animals’ lives.

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RECORD sums of money are being withdrawn from banks in Russia amid soaring inflation and shortages of products from medicines to food.

According to the Cen‐ tral Bank, the personal savings of Russians plunged 3.5 per cent (£8.7 billion) last month, in what is believed to be the largest withdrawal in a month since the Soviet Union collapsed.

Western sanctions have stopped the central bank from being able to access around half of its $640 bil‐ lion in gold and foreign currency reserves.

The rouble has fallen to a record low and weekly inflation has hit 2.2 per cent, with analysts at

Russia hit hard Goldman Sachs saying the economy in Russia is set to shrink by a huge 10 per cent and with announce‐ ments that the cost of liv‐ ing in Russia has in‐ creased by 14 per cent.

Shelves in shops are be‐ ing emptied of personal hygiene products amid panic buying, bringing back memories of the late Soviet era when short‐ ages were rife. Supermar‐ kets are rationing sales of staple foods such as flour and sugar and videos are

circulating on social me‐ dia of shoppers scrapping over items.

Medicine shortages in chemists is increasing, with doctors reporting shortages of 80 medicines including essential insulin and pain killers, while sales of anti‐depressants have multiplied by four.

Around 400 companies, including McDonald’s and Coca‐Cola have stopped or suspended sales in Rus‐ sia in protest of the inva‐ sion of Ukraine. This is ex‐

pected to leave around 200,000 people without a job. Apple suspended the sale of its products in Rus‐ sia last month, with Ukraine urging it to block

Russian users from access to its app.

Pro‐Kremlin figures have started posting lists of so‐called enemies on social media while Putin,

NEWS

69, has called critics of the invasion he is leading “traitors and scum.”

Even with this econom‐ ic strain, Russian polls show that 70 per cent of people say they support what has been called a “special operation” to “denazify and demili‐ tarise” Ukraine. Some of those who were around during the Soviet Union still support Putin.

SUPERMARKETS: Shelves are being emptied as people panic buy.

NEWS

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Dancing on Ice

PROFESSIONAL dancer Regan Gascoine has won Dancing on Ice 2022 after a three‐way skate‐off involving Gascoine, former Strictly star Brendan Cole and Pussycat Dolls singer Kimberly Wyatt.

Gascoine and partner Karina Manta took the title after the public vote, with many taking to social media to express their joy with their winning perfor‐ mance on Sunday March 28. Clearly happy with the performance and the win, Gascoine broke down in tears be‐ fore hugging his partner tightly.

It was an emotional night for Gas‐ coine whose father was not there to

PRESIDENT Pedro Sanchez has met with the CEO of Google and Alphabet, Sundar Pichai, at the Moncloa Palace, Madrid.

Sanchez stressed at the meeting on Monday March 28 that the digital transformation of the economy is a priority for the government and Spain will allocate almost €20 billion in the coming

see his son’s proud performance.

The final had to be postponed this year after an ITV schedule rejig and the subsequent clash of events, after it was originally scheduled for the same time as the FA Cup quarter‐final match be‐ tween Nottingham Forest and Liver‐ pool.

In the show’s semi‐final earlier this month, Olympic athlete Kye Whyte and Vamps singer Connor Ball were both sent home in a dramatic double elimi‐ nation after giving it their all in the skate‐off, where Kimberly emerged vic‐ torious, taking her place in the final.

Google meet years to accelerate the digitalisation process.

Sanchez also thanked Pichai for Google’s “great commitment to Spain.”

The technology company has plans to investment in the Cybersecurity Cen‐ tre of Excellence in Mala‐

ga, the Grace Hopper sub‐ marine cable, which will connect Bilbao to New York, and the creation of a cloud region in Madrid.

In addition, Google is collaborating with Spain in promoting digital skills among citizens.

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NEWS

Treasure chest

A NORFOLK woman has found a real‐life trea‐ sure chest during a beach clean‐up event.

Jennie Fitzgerald, a 38‐year‐old medical sec‐ retary at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, made the dis‐ covery on Sunday March 20.

While taking part in a beach clearing event be‐ tween Cart Gap and Happisburgh, she uncov‐ ered a wooden treasure chest.

The amazing find came as Mrs Fitzgerald was about to leave the beach after her day spent clearing the sand.

Spotting a piece of wood that ‘had an unusual shape to it’, she went to take a closer look. “As I moved over to it, I re‐ alised it was quite firmly in the sand,” she said.

When she finally man‐ aged to open the sand‐ encrusted chest, “coins

WOODEN CHEST: Contained coins, gems and a watch.

started dropping out, then the gems and the pocket watch, the last thing to come out was a

big perfume bottle. I was in shock. I was just sitting there staring at everyone,” she added.

P&O scandal

BRITISH MPs have urged the government to remove P&O’s operating licence and disqualify its CEO. In a letter presented to Transport Minister Grant Schapps and Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, MPs said the government had “not moved sufficiently quickly” to protect sacked crews from P&O’s “noxious business practices.”

“P&O Ferries broke the law, it or other companies may do so again. The government should prosecute P&O Ferries and remove its licence to operate in the UK,” the letter stated on Monday March 28.

Andy McDonald MP, a member of the Business Ener‐ gy and Industrial Strategy committee, called P&O’s ac‐ tions a “disgrace,” and said, “I want to make sure that P&O suffer the consequences of their illegality, and that the chief executive suffers the consequences.”

Neighbours no more

THE longest‐running drama series on Australian television, Neighbours, is to end in June.

Neighbours initially launched on the country’s Seven network in 1985, but the channel axed it before Ten picked it up the following year and it became an international hit.

“We are so sorry to say that after nearly 37 years and almost 9,000 episodes broadcast we have to confirm that Neighbours will cease production in June,” the show’s official Twitter account posted on March 24.

“Following the loss of our key broadcast partner in the UK and despite an extensive search for alternative funding, we simply have no option but to rest the show.

“To our amazing, loyal fans, we know this is a huge disappoint‐ ment, as it is to all of us on the team. We thank you for all your messages and support and promise to end the show on an incred‐ ible high. From here on, we are celebrating Neighbours,” it added.

Kylie Minogue, who joined in 1986 to play the role of Charlene Robinson, tweeted: “I’ll be forever grateful for the experience and the friends I made on @neighbours. We had no idea how big the show would become and how passionately viewers would take it to heart.”

NEWS

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THE Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has confirmed that Brexit has hit overseas trade.

“We are still trying to work through what all the impacts are. It was always inevitable that there would be a change in our trade in‐ tensity with Europe as a result of the change in the trade relationship,” he said on Monday

31 March - 6 April 2022

Brexit hit

March 28.

“Without doubt we are changing our trading relationship with the EU and that means a differ‐ ent set of controls and things people will have to do and that will obvi‐ ously have an impact.

That is, I am sure, a big part of the reason why

this is happening.”

“I think it is maybe a bit early to be definitive about which bits are do‐ ing what. The benefit of new trading relation‐ ships takes time. They don’t happen overnight.

Of course, that will hap‐ pen over a period of time,” he added.

Email scam

A NEW email scam is doing the rounds, this time purporting to be sent from the Ministry of Health, Spain’s Internet Security Office (OSI) warned on Monday March 28.

The scam emails try to deceive in‐ ternet users by pretending to be sent from the Ministry of Health, offering an ‘extra dose of the Covid‐19 vac‐ cine’ as a way of trapping them.

The email urges the recipient to download a file with details of how

DURING a tour of the Caribbean, Prince William suggested the royal family would sup‐ port the Bahamas’ deci‐ sion to cut ties with the monarchy.

Speaking at a dinner hosted by the Governor General of the Bahamas, the Duke of Cambridge said on Friday March 25: “Next year, I know you are all looking forward to celebrating 50 years of independence, your gold‐ en anniversary. And with Jamaica celebrating 60 years of independence this year, and Belize cele‐ brating 40 years of inde‐ pendence last year, I want to say this, we sup‐ port with pride and re‐ spect your decisions about your future. Rela‐ tionships evolve. Friend‐ ship endures.”

Prince William, the sec‐ ond in line to the throne, was on a week‐long tour of Caribbean Common‐ wealth countries with the Duchess of Cambridge in honour of his grandmoth‐ er Queen Elizabeth’s Plat‐ inum Jubilee.

“It is touching to see

to receive a new dose of the vaccine as soon as possible. But doing so in‐ stalls malware on the recipient’s de‐ vice.

The OSI cautioned: “If you receive this email, try not to open it, instead, delete it and do not download the files that it suggests. In case you did somehow open it then you will need to check your system for the virus a n d t r y t o e l i m i n a t e i t w i t h a n a n‐ tivirus program.”

Cutting ties Toured the Caribbean.

your deep admiration for the Queen and her 70 years of dedicated ser‐ vice to the Common‐

wealth. I know as well that my grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh, had a soft spot for the Ba‐ hamas. Catherine and I were thinking about him today as we celebrated the return of sloop sailing here by racing off Mon‐ tagu Beach. He would have been in his ele‐ ment,” he added.

and finally...

EXPERTS said the Cumbre Vieja volcano will not erupt again after 60 seismic events were registered on Thursday March 24.

The seismic network, managed by Involcan, the Volcanological Institute of the Canary Islands, detect‐ ed a ‘seismic swarm’ in the area of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on La Palma.

More than 60 events located at depths of between 10km and 13km were registered. However, Involcan said that these movements are called ‘long periods’ when gases and fluids inside the volcano move about but do not reach the surface.

According to a spokesman for Involcan, the move‐ ments are “normal” at the end of an eruptive pro‐ cess.

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Shanghai lockdown Spanish film wins THE largest‐ever city‐wide lockdown in China was an‐ nounced on Sunday, March 27, as Shanghai is being lined up for Covid‐19 testing. Authorities will re‐ portedly lock the huge fi‐

nancial hub city down over a period of nine days, in two stages, while they conduct mass experimen‐ tal testing.

Shanghai has been struggling for almost one

month to contain an out‐ break of coronavirus, al‐ though the number of in‐ fections is low in comparison to many coun‐ tries worldwide. It is a massive city with a popu‐ lation of around 25 mil‐ lion, and concern over destabilising the economy has so far prevented the authorities from locking it down.

This policy appeared to have changed though on Saturday March 26, when the highest daily number of Covid infections was registered in the city. From Monday, March 28, the eastern half of Shanghai had restrictions imposed, lasting until April 1. Then from April 1 to 5, the west‐ ern side will follow.

By locking down only half of this giant city at a time, the authorities hope to maintain some sort of economic activity. It is the commercial capital of Chi‐ na.

SPANISH production, The Windsheild Wiper, has won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film at the awards cere‐ mony held on March 27.

Director Alberto Miel‐ go, and producer Leo Sanchez, took to the stage of the Dolby The‐ atre in Los Angeles to collect the first Oscar ever awarded for a Spanish short film.

Mielgo’s Oscar will join the long list of awards received by the director and screenwrit‐ er for works such as Dis‐ ney’s 2103 film, Tron’s Uprising.

He made his debut work as a director with the animated short film The Witness in 2019, and the Netflix antholo‐ gy Love, Death & Robots.

The Windshield Wiper is set inside a cafe. After lunch, while smoking an entire pack of cigarettes,

a middle‐aged man asks himself and the audi‐ ence an ambitious ques‐ tion: what is love? A col‐

lection of vignettes and situations lead the man to the desired conclu‐ sion.

Queen Vic BOOKMAKERS William Hill have claimed that Adam Woodyatt’s character, Ian Beale, will make a return to EastEnders as the landlord of the Queen Vic. Albert Square favourite Danny Dyer, who plays current land‐ lord Mick Carter, is leaving the BBC soap later this year.

According to the bookmaker, 53‐year‐old Adam Woodyatt’s odds have been slashed to 6‐1 to become the next Queen Vic landlord. The actor appeared in the very first episode of the iconic soap and stayed on the show for an incredible 36 years before leaving in January 2021.

While taking part in ITV’s ‘I’m A Celebrity’ last year, Adam dropped several hints about his desire to return to Walford. He has since been touring with stage play, Looking Good Dead, which comes to an end this April.

This may leave him available for an EastEnders come‐ back.

STATS

11%

The left-handed comprise 11% of the world’s population.

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NEWS

Farewell Phil Covid decline

ROCK star Phil Collins sparked health fears as he bade fans farewell at his final Genesis concert on March 26 at the O2 Arena in London.

“It’s the last stop of our tour, and it’s the last show for Genesis. After tonight we all have to get real jobs,” Collins joked with the audience.

The Last Domino? Tour featured what is probably the band’s most iconic line up with guitarist‐bassist Mike Rutherford, and keyboard ge‐ nius Tony Banks joining Phil Collins on stage each night, along with Phil’s son Nic on drums.

Collins was not able to per‐ form on the drums due to nerve damage in his back, in‐ stead, he took to a chair, belt‐ ing out the classic hits from the band’s huge repertoire.

The legendary musician has been struggling with his health for about 15 years and uses a walking stick.

“Somehow, during the last Genesis tour, I dislocated some vertebrae in my upper

COLLINS: Belted out all the band’s classic hits.

neck, and that affected my hands. After a successful op‐ eration on my neck, my hands still can’t function nor‐

mally. Maybe in a year or so it will change, but for now it is impossible for me to play drums or piano,” he said.

HALF of all US states saw their population de‐ cline between June 2020 to June 2021, accord‐ ing to the US Census Bureau.

More than 73 per cent of US counties saw more deaths than births, up from the previous year’s 55 per cent. The only two states to buck the trend were Hawaii and West Virginia who both had more counties reporting a natural in‐ crease in population than a decrease.

“Fewer births, an ageing population and in‐ creased mortality, intensified by the Covid‐19 pandemic, contributed to a rise in natural de‐ crease,” the Census Bureau said in a statement on Thursday March 24.

“The 2020‐2021 period was unique because it was the first time the Covid‐19 pandemic af‐ fected both births and deaths,” it added.

Of those states that did report a natural in‐ crease in population, the percentage was very small with single counties accounting for the change.

In addition to the natural decrease in popula‐ tion, some states experienced a decline due to migration, or people moving out of the county to another place within the US. The states most affected by this trend were Alaska, Louisiana and Illinois.

Mercadona denies

MERCADONA has denied accusations circulating on social networks claiming the supermarket chain is inflating prices as “completely false.”

A social media post, allegedly from a company worker, claimed Mercadona was hiking up prices us‐ ing the transport strike as an excuse to create a false sense of shortages on its shelves.

Posted on March 22, the tweet said: “We have ev‐ erything, but those at the top tell us to take the product out of the warehouse little by little and con‐ tinue to give an image of scarcity, to gradually raise

prices every day and get more. This is for oil, milk, etc.”

Mercadona quickly responded with a Facebook post: “The information that we are regulating the sale of products, and that we do it to raise prices, is completely false. We have taken action against these sources. Every day, we open our stores giving the best service, and for this reason we recommend our clients not hoard unnecessary products. We ap‐ preciate the collaboration of our clients. Share this information among your contacts.”

US STATES: Covid contributed to decrease.

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NEWS

Seasonal base Retail sales dip Base opened March 27.

EASYJET has reopened its seasonal base at the Malaga‐Costa del Sol airport.

Javier Gandara, easy‐ Jet’s General Manager for Southern Europe, said the seasonal base

Banned for life

A DISORDERLY woman who attempted to open a Jet2 aircraft door whilst in mid‐flight, has been banned from the airline for life. Named as Catherine Bush from Bradford, West York‐ shire, she was also fined £5,000.

She was filmed by other passengers shout‐ ing in the faces of Jet2 staff as they tried to calm her down. She also allegedly slapped some of her fellow passengers on March 21, on board flight LS895 from Manchester to Antalya

in Turkey. The flight di‐ verted to Vienna air‐ port, where the police were waiting to escort her from the plane.

A spokesperson for Austrian police said on Thursday March 24: “We can confirm that a passenger had been stopped and controlled by the police after the emergency landing at Vienna International Airport. The British citi‐ zen was subsequently presented to a psychi‐ atric hospital. Surveys on possible criminal of‐ fences are still ongoing.”

has “a key role in the airline’s global strategy, which expects to be at levels close to those of 2019 for the summer.

“As we continue to put the impact of Covid‐ 19 behind us and cus‐ tomer confidence begins to grow again, we are preparing for what we believe will be a very strong summer,” he said.

“When we opened the base in Malaga in June 2021, we did so knowing that it was the most popular destination in our network that did not yet have a base.

One year later, the more than 500,000 passengers transported during the summer months in which it was operational reconfirms the potential of this region, which in 2022 presents very good prospects,” he added.

The seasonal base re‐ opened on March 27.

CONSUMER confidence in the UK has fallen with high energy and petrol prices taking their toll, along with the war in Ukraine, resulting in an unexpected drop in retail sales in February.

According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), online shopping lev‐ els sank and high street sales also fell during the month with the bad weather to blame as the UK was battered by storm after storm.

Actual sales volumes were down by 0.3 per cent from January. Earlier, economists polled by Reuters had predicted a 0.6 per cent monthly rise in retail sales.

Sales volumes were 3.7 per cent above their pre‐ coronavirus levels of February 2020, but the share of online sales in val‐ ue terms was its lowest since March 2020 at 27.8 per cent, the ONS revealed

February saw a drop.

on Friday March 25.

Although UK consumer confidence is not expected to rise in the short term with the war in Ukraine playing heavily on Euro‐ pean economies, retail sales fall are expected to be up in March due in part to the warmer weather.

Boozy buys A NEW poll of 2,000 British adults has revealed that over half, 54 per cent, of late‐night online shoppers said they had done so while drinking alcohol and more than eight in 10 shopped while distracted watching TV, leaving them vulnerable to misleading sales tactics.

As the cost of living continues to increase, and with al‐ most one‐third of all retail purchases now taking place online, the Competition and Markets Authority has be‐ come increasingly concerned about the impact of ‘sneaky’ sales practices on consumers.

George Lusty, Senior Director for Consumer Protec‐ tion, said: “Every penny we spend must count.

“We’re increasingly concerned about online business‐ es using sales tactics to push people into parting with their cash. And the time of day or mindset you’re in when shopping can make you more vulnerable to being unwittingly misled,” he added on Friday March 25.

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EUROPEAN PRESS

EUROPEAN PRESS DENMARK

Interpreters needed

Wooden office

WHILST Denmark is happy to receive Ukrainian refugees, it is facing a crisis concerning lack of interpreters and after calling for volunteers who speak Ukrainian on social media it is also asking for help from English speakers as many Ukrainians may be proficient in that language.

ON March 21, Copenhagen saw the start of work on its largest building constructed from wood. The eight storey Marmormolen covers 28,000 sqm and although initially thought to be a potential fire hazard, is actually environmentally friendly as timber stores carbon as opposed to emitting CO2.

THE NETHERLANDS Book withdrawn

Amsterdam expands

A CONTROVERSIAL book accusing Jewish notary Arnold van den Bergh of betraying Anne Frank and other Jewish people in hiding has been withdrawn from sale by the publishers in Holland after a group of experts said that there was no evidence to support the claims.

HAVING been granted city rights in 1355, in a 2018 referendum the majority of the 20,000 residents of Weesp voted to become assimilated into Amsterdam and this finally occurred officially on Thursday March 24 making it the eighth borough of Amsterdam.

BELGIUM Acrobatic protest

New coin

THERE was excitement in Brussels square, the Flageyplein on March 21 when a man scaled a 15-metre-high art installation as a peace protest, performing acrobatics and playing a trumpet to the crowd below before agreeing to be brought down by the local fire brigade.

THE Belgian Government is to issue a €2 circulating coin to thank the healthcare sector for its actions during the pandemic. The design will feature a cross, stethoscope, heart, syringe, wheelchair and a chemical symbol with the words thank you in three languages.

GERMANY Green Health

Fashion support

TESLA founder Elon Musk travelled to Germany to hand over the first electric vehicles produced at the company’s new factory just outside of Berlin in Grünheide (Green Health in English) as part of the opening ceremony attended by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday March 22.

DUE to the Russian invasion, Ukrainian fashion designer Jean Gritsfeld, who was due to take part in Berlin Fashion Week was unable to attend or send samples, but in order to bring the collection to the catwalk, volunteers in Berlin retailored it and the show went ahead.

FRANCE Michelin Guide

Festival partner

FOR the first time in its 122 years, on Tuesday March 22, the Michelin Guide for France was unveiled in Cognac rather than Paris and this time there are 627 starred restaurants with two new three star establishments, six two star restaurants and 41 single star newcomers.

AIMING at a younger audience, the Cannes Film Festival due to start on May 17, has teamed up with Chinese owned global App TikTok as one of its partners, so expect to see live back stage action and competitions with winners attending the festival.

NORWAY Royal Covid

Refugee flights

KING HARALD, Norway’s 85-year-old monarch tested positive for corona virus on Tuesday March 22 and although the symptoms were said to be mild, the king has not enjoyed good health recently and was therefore in isolation whilst Crown Prince Haakon, stepped in as regent.

NOT every country that is accepting Ukrainian refugees can afford to support them for long and one of the poorer former USSR states Moldova has reached agreement with Norway for more than 5,000 refugees to be picked up and flown to Norway for resettlement.

EUROPEAN PRESS

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EUROPEAN PRESS FINLAND

Yachts seized

Newsprint shortage

ALTHOUGH the number may appear surprising, Finland hosts the winter berths of a number of superyachts and Finnish Customs have announced that some 21 vessels may not be moved from their berths due to suspicion that they are owned by Russian entities now under EU sanctions.

PRIOR to the invasion of Ukraine, around 20 per cent of Finland’s newspapers were printed using Russian paper, but this has now stopped and because there has been a long running strike which includes Finnish pulp makers, the cost of newsprint has almost doubled.

IRELAND Royal Visit

Safe haven

THE Prince of Wales and Camilla received a warm welcome in Cookstown in Northern Ireland before travelling to the Republic with very tight security and visiting Waterford and Tipperary as part of the celebrations surrounding the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year and to repair Brexit fallout.

AN Irish business man who currently lives in Madrid was so moved by the plight of Ukrainian refugees that he has opened up 15th century Ballindooley Castle near Galway (which he purchased in 2016 to rent on Airbnb) as a safe haven for a number of women and children.

ITALY The Birds

Easing restrictions

BEGGING pigeons in Venice have been replaced by much more vicious seagulls with an eye for the main chance and because so many have been attacking tourists eating in the open air, some hotels are issuing water pistols to allow them to fight back.

WITH effect from April 1 those consuming food or drinks in outdoor areas of bars and restaurants will no longer need to present a green pass, but the public will still need to wear masks in enclosed public spaces, including schools and public transport, until April 30.

PORTUGAL Charging points

Foreign residents

THE Portuguese Government has allocated €10 million to support the purchase and installation of chargers for electric cars in communal garages in blocks of flats. Those applying for this support can expect to receive €1,800 towards costs and electricity charges will be identified by space.

FIGURES released by Portugal’s Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) confirm that the number of foreigners living in Portugal has increased for the sixth year in a row with Britons making up the second largest group of foreign residents (after Brazilians), with 42,071 Britons now living there.

UKRAINE Super hero

Dragon’s home

NEAR to a hospital in the American city of Fresno is a mural depicting superheroes such as Spider-Man and Batman, but right in the centre is an image of a Ukrainian nurse whose elderly mother is trapped in the Ukrainian city of Kherson.

NEWEST Dragon on TV’s Dragons’ Den 29year-old Steven Bartlett has announced that he will sign up to the UK Government’s sponsorship scheme to house Ukrainian refugees. In addition, his £350 per month being paid to hosts will be donated to the Disasters Emergency Committee.

SWEDEN ABBA award

ID checks

IN recognition of their services to the Swedish music industry and promotion of the country worldwide, legendary group ABBA were awarded a music export prize on Wednesday March 23 to mark the success of their latest album Voyage which topped the charts in 18 countries.

DUE to the large number of refugees now travelling, the Swedish Government has decided to ensure that identity checks are carried out on all passengers arriving by sea, so that the information registered in the passenger lists must be preceded by valid identity checks.

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FINANCE BUSINESS EXTRA Cheaper fuel COMMERCIAL interests have led to Spain’s two largest distributors of diesel and petrol Cepsa and Repsol to drop their prices by 10c a litre in order to try to compete with no‐ nonsense, low‐cost fuel suppliers who by reducing margins are at‐ tracting price conscious drivers.

World champions MOVE over Real Madrid, Manch‐ ester United and Barcelona as for the first time, Manchester City has been declared the football club with the highest turnover in the world in the annual Deloittes Foot‐ ball Money report with an esti‐ mated revenue of €645 million.

TransPerfect MULTINATIONAL language services company TransPerfect has its eyes set firmly on the Spanish market and after purchasing the dubbing studios of the Catalan company Polford (which supplies voiceovers for such stars as Johnny Depp and Tom Hanks) in 2021, is now looking to increase its 350 staff.

Fill your Boots ANOTHER British heritage group, Boots the Chemist looks set to be taken over by an American based investment company, Apollo. Al‐ though rumoured for some time, Sky News said that funding for a £6 billion pound buyout is now being sought from major banks.

Santander Green IN keeping with the Spanish Gov‐ ernment’s campaign to increase ‘green’ projects, Banco Santander announced on March 24 that it has created Santander Green Invest‐ ment, a platform to invest in renew‐ able energy projects that are under development or construction. It confirmed it has made its first in‐ vestment by acquiring stakes in nine solar and wind projects in Spain with a combined capacity of around 500 MW. Under its self‐gov‐ ernance model, a special commit‐ tee approves investments, giving the platform the flexibility it needs to make decisions and can grant green projects the bank guarantees they require and partner with de‐ velopers with proven experience in renewable energy ventures.

www.euroweeklynews.com • 31 March - 6 April 2022

24

STAT OF WEEK

€600 million

is the amount that El Corte Inglés has managed to reduce its indebtedness, by early settlement of a bond due to mature in 2024.

Chancellor’s Spring Statement SINCE 2017 the UK budget has been announced to Parliament in October to allow for tax amendments to be implement‐ ed in time for the new tax year.

This is the responsibility of the Chancellor of the Exche‐ quer and many will remember the old days of Ken Clarke sup‐ ping a glass of whisky during his budget deliveries, as this is the only time that alcohol may be consumed in the House of Commons.

Nowadays, there is also a Spring Statement (a bit like the January transfer window in football) where the Chancellor will review the economy and introduce any new legislation

that may be pertinent at the time.

This is what happened on Wednesday March 23 when Rishi Sunak in fairly sombre terms set out new measures for fighting the constant rise of energy, food and fuel prices.

Importantly he reduced fuel duty by 5p per litre and raised the threshold at which workers start paying National Insurance from £9,600 to £12,570, but would not be moved on his plan to introduce a rise of 1.25p in the pound from April for those workers paying into the fund.

Explaining that the economy is still fragile and has been hit by the war in Ukraine he made

it clear the funding has to be found for the NHS, but con‐ firmed his belief that it could be possible to reduce income tax by 2024 when the economy should be stronger.

VAT and business rates were reduced on some green tech‐ nology and an extra £500 mil‐ lion was made available to councils for the Household Support Fund to assist vulnera‐ ble families suffering from in‐ creased prices.

Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves said he was mistaken with his decision to increase National Insurance and didn’t appreciate how badly off low paid workers and pensioners are at the moment.

Why choose a pre-paid funeral plan?

WHILE planning a funeral can be a difficult task, from choosing the type of service you would like to the music, a funeral plan with Golden Leaves will make sure your funeral is organised the way you would like.

Not only does this save your loved ones from the difficult task of planning your service, but a pre‐paid funeral plan will also help with the red tape, strict regulations and language barrier involved in organis‐ ing a funeral in Spain.

Having a pre‐paid plan will also ensure that your service is paid for, sparing your loved ones from pay‐ ing for your funeral.

The experts at Golden Leaves will ensure that your preferences are followed and respected ‐ without in‐ curring additional charges.

Not only this, you can also take comfort in the knowledge that your family and loved ones are

FOLLOWING an investigation in‐ to the proposed takeover of Morrisons, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has said that that it could see fuel prices at the pump rise as a re‐ sult.

Private equity firm Clayton Du‐ bilier & Rice (CD&R) wants to ac‐ quire the supermarket chain, with its 339 petrol forecourts.

Should the deal go through, prices could rise in line with some 900 petrol stations already owned by CD&R through their subsidiary petrol station giant Motor Fuel Group.

The two sides were given five days on Wednesday March 23 to offer proposals to ease the con‐ cerns, after which the CMA has five days to decide whether to accept them or pursue a deeper probe if these concerns are not addressed.

Colin Raftery at the CMA said: “Prices for petrol and diesel have recently hit record highs, which makes it even more important that we don’t allow a lack of competition at the pump to make the situation worse.”

Morrisons had said it would lower prices by 5p per litre on Wednesday March 23 in line with the reduction in fuel duty announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

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P&O admits sacking illegal MPs were stunned as P&O Ferries ad‐ mitted that the company had broken the law when its CEO appeared before the Transport Committee on Thursday March 24 to explain the sacking of 800 seamen.

When questioned, Peter Hebbleth‐ waite said there was “absolutely no doubt” that under UK employment law the firm was required to consult unions before making the mass cuts.

The justification was that as it con‐

Morrisons petrol costs

sidered it highly unlikely that unions would agree to the plan, it was easier to just go ahead, get rid of them and offer full compensation.

The following day, Transport Secre‐ tary Grant Shapps told Sky News: “I thought what the boss of P&O said yesterday about knowingly breaking the law was brazen and breathtaking, and showed incredible arrogance.”

He then went on to agree that he believed that having broken the law

and used a ‘loophole’ to get round it meant that he should resign immedi‐ ately, joining similar calls from MPs, unions and sacked staff.

The whole matter boils down to money as UK workers were entitled to receive the minimum wage for those 23 or over of £9.50 per hour whilst Heb‐ blethwaite told the committee that for‐ eign agency workers would be paid £5.50 per hour, which is in line with in‐ ternational maritime standards.

GDP reviewed SLIGHTLY better news for the Spanish economy as the National Statistics Office (INE) has in‐ creased its GDP review of the 2021 fourth quarter by 0.2 per cent it announced on March 25.

The initial forecast was 2 per cent but the final result is 2.2 per cent over the previous quarter and suggests that the eurozone’s fourth largest economy still man‐ aged to grow despite the set back due to the increase in the spread of coronavirus in the latter part of the year.

Overall, during 2021, the econ‐ omy bounced back with a 5.1 per cent growth, although in 2020 it fell by 10.8 per cent so there is a long way to go.

26 EWN

www.euroweeklynews.com

31 March - 6 April 2022

LONDON - FTSE 100

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C LOSING P RICES M ARCH 28

COMPANY PRICE(P) CHANGE(P) 3I Group 1.348,00 1.365,50 Abrdn 205,20 205,90 Admiral Group 2.548,0 2.560,0 Anglo American 3.980,5 4.023,5 Antofagasta 1.740,00 1.750,00 Ashtead Group 5.106,0 5.148,0 Associated British Foods 1.716,0 1.731,0 AstraZeneca 9.884,3 9.925,0 Auto Trader Group Plc 635,80 647,00 Avast 572,00 574,80 Aveva 2.399,0 2.447,0 Aviva 445,30 446,30 B&M European Value Retail SA558,80 565,20 BAE Systems 744,40 760,60 Bank VTB DRC 0,010 0,010 Barclays 162,67 166,18 Barratt Developments 520,80 522,40 Berkeley 3.858,0 3.884,0 BHP Billiton Ltd 2.899,50 2.920,00 BP 388,95 390,90 British American Tobacco 3.320,0 3.324,0 British Land Company 530,20 533,60 BT Group 187,35 187,50 Bunzl 2.893,0 2.914,0 Burberry Group 1.685,5 1.695,5 Carnival 1.266,2 1.283,8 Centrica 84,09 84,36 Coca Cola HBC AG 1.594,0 1.625,5 Compass 1.652,00 1.662,00 CRH 3.166,0 3.214,0 Croda Intl 7.452,0 7.510,0 DCC 5.872,0 5.874,0 Diageo 3.827,5 3.844,0 DS Smith 324,20 325,00 EasyJet 535,20 538,60 Experian 2.964,0 3.002,0 Ferguson 10.405,0 10.600,0 Flutter Entertainment 8.754,0 8.858,0 Fresnillo 743,00 751,40 GlaxoSmithKline 1.634,80 1.638,00 Glencore 508,80 512,40 Halma 2.450,0 2.492,0 Hargreaves Lansdown 1.029,50 1.046,50 Hikma Pharma 2.071,00 2.111,00 HSBC 523,30 523,90 IAG 140,62 141,82 Imperial Brands 1.667,71 1.675,50 Informa 590,40 597,20 InterContinental 5.229,2 5.280,0

% CHG. 1.345,00 204,20 2.528,0 3.976,5 1.738,50 5.068,0 1.708,0 9.844,1 634,00 571,20 2.398,0 440,20 553,00 744,20 0,010 161,96 510,40 3.832,0 2.897,00 383,40 3.269,0 526,80 185,80 2.893,0 1.671,5 1.252,4 83,76 1.584,0 1.649,00 3.142,0 7.442,9 5.844,0 3.813,0 320,00 520,60 2.962,0 10.405,0 8.706,0 736,80 1.622,40 505,70 2.450,0 1.027,50 2.068,00 520,30 137,16 1.654,00 590,40 5.184,0

NET VOL 71,02K 228,25K 33,56K 243,37K 60,83K 64,76K 148,26K 10,60K 184,93K 26,74K 32,49K 1,33M 291,20K 885,26K 0 4,05M 612,47K 8,26K 1,10M 4,09M 277,45K 208,24K 851,27K 28,46K 58,83K 66,91K 2,07M 71,89K 1,21M 174,44K 3,64K 4,07K 394,84K 221,69K 1,06M 33,22K 41,75K 23,42K 88,06K 622,63K 2,75M 22,16K 40,97K 80,12K 2,14M 6,92M 128,07K 190,44K 4,02K

COMPANY

PRICE(P)

Intermediate Capital Intertek ITV 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 Sage Samsung Electronics DRC Sberbank Schroders Scottish Mortgage Segro Severn Trent Shell Smith & Nephew Smiths Group Spirax-Sarco Engineering SSE St. James’s Place Standard Chartered Taylor Wimpey Tesco Tui Unilever United Utilities Vodafone Group PLC Whitbread WPP

1.689,00 5.102,0 81,80 262,10 1.829,5 789,60 271,50 48,96 7.910,0 761,60 125,10 1.518,50 1.117,60 223,90 6.349,6 1,89 1.073,20 2.116,0 634,80 1.078,00 5.560,5 2.321,00 525,20 645,40 5.946,0 98,39 0,60 685,60 1.419,00 0,5000 3.141,0 1.003,00 1.329,00 2.954,0 2.103,0 1.229,53 1.475,00 12.120,0 1.676,47 1.452,00 515,00 134,38 278,60 229,90 3.410,0 1.074,00 126,31 2.809,0 1.046,50

CHANGE(P)

% CHG.

NET VOL

1.702,74 5.152,0 82,70 262,90 1.843,0 792,60 272,20 49,33 7.940,0 763,20 126,35 1.520,55 1.135,40 224,90 6.370,0 1,89 1.089,00 2.135,0 636,40 1.081,63 5.561,0 2.330,00 528,80 661,80 5.991,0 103,54 0,60 694,40 1.419,50 0,5000 3.154,0 1.010,00 1.329,00 2.958,0 2.107,0 1.235,50 1.502,50 12.355,0 1.698,00 1.460,00 515,40 135,30 278,60 231,70 3.427,0 1.082,00 126,58 2.830,0 1.047,00

1.685,50 5.088,0 81,68 260,10 1.826,0 785,80 269,30 48,70 7.834,0 760,40 124,75 1.510,47 1.116,20 222,30 6.296,0 1,89 1.065,11 2.106,0 631,60 1.070,50 5.473,0 2.308,00 524,40 644,20 5.927,0 98,12 0,60 684,60 1.412,50 0,5000 3.117,0 995,80 1.315,00 2.939,0 2.066,5 1.226,00 1.473,50 12.120,0 1.673,00 1.447,00 508,80 132,40 276,45 225,60 3.400,0 1.072,47 125,30 2.789,0 1.036,00

2,27K 7,84K 858,31K 157,81K 68,03K 103,32K 1,57M 28,43M 29,34K 49,72K 367,86K 1,28K 623,08K 1,24M 28,66K 0 11,53K 93,72K 248,50K 25,36K 98,75K 254,09K 264,46K 65,91K 241,85K 32,84M 0 86,38K 0,94K 0 5,88K 387,26K 146,98K 17,29K 1,59M 99,53K 58,19K 3,87K 186,96K 40,14K 806,84K 2,94M 431,34K 490,66K 443,79K 18,68K 5,58M 27,33K 282,14K

1.20027

0.83306

Units per €

US dollar (USD) ........................................1.0954 Japan yen (JPY)........................................135.75 Switzerland franc (CHF) ...........................1.0247 Denmark kroner (DKK) .............................7.4406 Norway kroner (NOK) ...............................9.4824

currenciesdirect.com/mojacar • Tel: +34 950 478 914 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 28

COMPANY 3M American Express Amgen Apple Boeing Caterpillar Chevron Cisco Coca-Cola Dow Goldman Sachs Home Depot Honeywell IBM Intel J&J JPMorgan McDonald’s Merck&Co Microsoft Nike Procter&Gamble Salesforce.com The Travelers UnitedHealth Verizon Visa A Walgreens Boots Walmart Walt Disney

PRICE 150,46 190,28 238,79 174,72 188,95 223,36 169,31 54,97 61,53 64,70 337,49 310,68 197,79 131,35 51,83 176,92 141,92 241,58 81,34 303,68 133,70 152,83 211,03 187,75 513,03 51,28 218,43 47,12 143,45 139,14

CHANGE 151,18 191,26 239,49 175,28 191,70 223,80 169,69 55,18 61,61 64,73 341,83 318,80 198,36 131,40 51,98 177,70 143,18 241,85 81,38 305,50 133,87 153,92 215,86 187,78 516,53 51,46 218,93 47,78 143,93 140,38

CHANGE% VOLUME(M) 148,91 2,24M 189,00 1,85M 236,21 1,42M 172,75 80,18M 186,93 6,23M 221,14 1,57M 165,16 10,15M 54,40 17,92M 61,05 12,06M 63,84 3,94M 335,48 1,57M 308,30 5,12M 195,32 2,53M 129,31 3,52M 50,45 33,13M 175,22 4,72M 140,80 8,19M 239,43 2,13M 80,45 6,71M 299,29 22,10M 131,71 6,24M 151,51 5,02M 208,48 3,39M 184,04 851,94K 509,24 2,49M 50,97 18,73M 215,69 4,99M 46,91 4,67M 142,26 4,59M 138,12 5,86M M - MILLION DOLLARS

NASDAQ C LOSING P RICES M ARCH 28

COMPANY

CHANGE NET / %

VOLUME

+143.04% +89.73% +54.00% +50.20% +33.65% +32.22% +25.95% +25.54% +23.12% +22.81% +22.54%

130.88M 2.18M 1.39M 9.59M 321.31K 17.25M 17.69M 3.82M 1.42M 302.81M 39.41M

-65.15% -64.55% -22.52% -21.67% -20.83% -19.81% -19.13% -18.95% -17.93% -17.78% -17.77%

46.24M 3.62M 22.62M 180.46M 4.02M 3.11M 2.69M 14.01M 482.96K 400.39K 6.83K

Most Advanced Clever Leaves Holdings Clever Leaves Holdings AN2 Therapeutics Forge Global Holdings Fresh Grapes LLC Nextdecade Clarus Therapeutics Holdings Aileron Therapeutics Neximmune Tilray Kidpik

Most Declined MEI Pharma Icosavax Honest Company Mullen Automotive iClick Interactive Asia Oneconnect Fin Curiositystream TMC the metals company Cerberus Cyber Sentinel Arts-Way Regional Health Pref A

FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL

www.euroweeklynews.com

Credit: The Presidential Press and Information Office

Introducing the gasrouble

NEW PAYMENT: Vladimir Putin recent made the announcement.

MANY have heard of the petrodollar but Russia is in‐ troducing the gasrouble af‐ ter Vladimir Putin an‐ nounced on March 23 that some countries would have to pay for gas in roubles.

A number of countries who oppose the Russian in‐ vasion of Ukraine have been declared unfriendly to Moscow and as they have frozen Russian overseas as‐ sets, it no longer makes sense to accept payment in dollars or euros.

Each of the 27 European Union States alongside the USA, Australia, Canada, Sin‐ gapore and the United Kingdom (including Gibral‐ tar) are included in the list of more than 45 countries who will be required to pay in roubles if they import Russian gas.

Putin said “Russia will continue, of course, to sup‐ ply natural gas in accor‐ dance with volumes and prices ... fixed in previously

concluded contracts.

“The changes will only af‐ fect the currency of pay‐ ment, which will be changed to Russian rou‐ bles.”

State‐controlled energy giant Gazprom which has in the past accepted a huge proportion of payments in euros and dollars was given just one week to amend ex‐ isting contracts.

This decision has helped strengthen the value of the rouble against the euro and dollar particularly and is thought to have caught ma‐ jor importers of Russian gas by surprise.

According to one Russian newspaper, experts inter‐ viewed by the paper are confident that it is in fact the only way to overcome the dominant role of the dollar.

Countries like Germany who depend on large vol‐ umes of Russian gas will now find themselves in a

Libyan cooperation ON Thursday March 24, the Spanish Ambassador to Libya, Javier Larachi met with members of the Libyan Inion of Chambers of Commerce and Government Ministers to discuss ways of upgrading economic co‐ operation between the two countries.

The meeting focused on investment, especially in the field of solar energy, in addition to opening chan‐ nels of communication between economic dealers in both countries.

They also addressed the memorandum of under‐ standing between the Union and the Spanish Cham‐ ber of Commerce, and the importance of activating it, because of its role in promoting cooperation and overcoming economic difficulties.

With an election due in June 2022 and the hope that oil production will increase, the country could be an attractive partner for the Spanish Government.

dilemma as the imposed sanctions appear to have backfired on them.

BUSINESS EXTRA Jade Tower CORDIA INTERNATIONAL, Hungary’s leading residen‐ tial property developer is promoting the sale of a new luxury apartment de‐ velopment Jade Tower, (its first in Spain), close to the beach in Fuengirola to po‐ tential clients in Romania who are looking to invest in second homes or simply move to Spain.

Whites go black TO celebrate the 120th an‐ niversary of Real Madrid and the 20th anniversary of collaboration between the Japanese fashion de‐ signer Yohji Yamamoto and the German sports gi‐ ant Adidas, there is a new all black strip being pro‐ duced which will be more of a fashion statement than just kit.

VW investment EUROPE’S largest vehicle manufacturer Volkswagen which owns the Seat brand announced on Wednesday March 23 that it plans to create its first battery manufacturing fac‐ tory outside of Germany in Valencia, which will em‐ ploy around 3,000 workers and will also start making electric vehicles in its Span‐ ish plants.

31 March - 6 April 2022

EWN 27

30 EWN

www.euroweeklynews.com

31 March - 6 April 2022

LEAPY LEE SAYS IT OTHERS THINK IT SO now they want to drop Shakespeare from the curriculum of British schools?

Yet another assault on British heritage and culture, which is slowly but surely being eroded by an ill‐intentioned bunch who, assisted by the PC and snowflake brigade, are hell bent on destroying the very fabric of everything our ancestors fought and died for. “It’s too difficult for our students,” they bleat. Aw, well it would be, wouldn’t it? Particularly to youngsters who are too lazy to put their tongues between their teeth, and subsequently pronounce, think as fink, Nothing as nuffink and something as summink.

“We should make it easier and more up to date,” they wail. Oh yes that’s a good idea ‐ let’s see. How shall we rephrase this beautiful quote from Romeo and Juliet?

“When he shall die. Take him and cut him out in little stars. And he will make the face of heaven so fine that all the world will be in love with the night and pay no worship to the garish sun.” What about “When he kicks off, blade him up a bit; and when it gets dark the dude will be lookin’ so good you won’t wanna see the sun come up.”

Mmm, doesn’t somehow have the same

Lingo

ring, does it? Give us a break.

These so‐called teachers are not interested in British culture. They want to destroy the monarchy, introduce their left‐ wing ideals and drag the whole country down to their level. As far as curriculums are concerned, rather than attacking British heritage, perhaps it would be more constructive to make sure some truthful and unbiased British history is taught to their vulnerable and propaganda‐exposed students.

Does President Biden truly inspire confidence as a strong and reliable ally in these dangerous times? Not to me he doesn’t. From his carefully contrived efforts to look buoyant and frisky as he descends the steps of Air Force One, to his heavily scripted speeches, which he peers at through Mr Magoo contact lenses, and reads with all the acumen of an eight‐year‐ old asked to read aloud in the class, I would be hesitant to take his advice on how I should cross the road. His appearance at a press conference in Brussels last week was truly quite laughable.

At the end of his speech, he managed to drop all his paraphernalia on the floor and disappear altogether. We were subsequently treated to an empty podium accompanied by banging and shuffling, as he groped out of sight to retrieve the offending items. There was then a moment of true hiatus as, with bated breath, we waited to see if he would actually appear again. You could almost hear the sighs of relief when he finally popped back up and we then watched as he bemusedly followed the direction of the EU president to where he should now stand. And this bumbler, with an administration stuffed full of wokes, is the saviour of the Western world? Heaven help us all.

Keep the faith Love Leapy leapylee2002@gmail.com.

Expatradioscotland.com Mon. Fri. 1pm till 4.

To read more articles from our columnists and to have your say in the comments go to www.euroweeklynews.com

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

FEATURE

TV & Film Review by Laura Kemp

Emotions run high in Mass

MASS, released late last year and now available on Hulu, is a sensitive and emotional look at the aftermath of a mass shooting at a school in America. With an impres‐ sive 95 per cent critic rat‐ ing and a 91 per cent au‐ dience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, this film comes highly recom‐ mended.

Mass requires a lot from its audience. The movie is mostly shot in one room and with four actors. This intimate and simple location lets the di‐ alogue and acting shine, emotions run high and it is easy for the audience to forget they are watching a fictional film.

Two couples meet at an Episcopalian church, where the thoughtful script unfolds. We learn that one of the couples are the parents of a school shooter and the other couple are the par‐ ents of one of the victims.

The four‐character piece

includes a powerhouse of actors such as Ann Dowd (The Handmaid’s Tale), Ja‐ son Isaacs (Harry Potter), Martha Plimpton (The Good Wife), and Reed Bir‐ ney (House of Cards).

The script forces the au‐ dience to consider the parents left behind after such tragedies ‐ particu‐ larly the parents of the perpetrator ‐ who, in this case, was a depressed and lonely young man. The unspeakable is confronted in these four walls, which gives the feeling of a stage play or live TV dra‐ ma. Something that struck me was the question of whether people are born bad or whether it is some‐ thing that is learnt.

There is no political dis‐ cussion here, something that is essential to ad‐ dress when looking at the issue of American gun laws and the huge amounts of school shoot‐ ings in the country.

Mass is now available to stream on Hulu.

THURSDAY 31/03 FRIDAY 01/04 SATURDAY 02/04

4:00pm 4:45pm 5:30pm 6:15pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:30pm 9:00pm 10:00pm 5:00pm 5:45pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:30pm 9:00pm 9:30pm 10:00pm 5:00pm 6:30pm 7:15pm 7:20pm 7:25pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:45pm 9:35pm 10:15pm

WEDNESDAY 06/04

TUESDAY 05/04

MONDAY 04/04

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Escape to the Country The Repair Shop Bridge of Lies Pointless BBC News at Six; Weather BBC London News; Weather The One Show EastEnders Dragons' Den The Apprentice

4:30pm 5:15pm

The Repair Shop FIFA World Cup 2022 Draw BBC News at Six; Weather BBC London News; Weather The One Show A Question of Sport Would I Lie to You? MasterChef Have I Got News for You

5:45pm 6:15pm 7:00pm

Final Score Superman & Lois BBC News BBC London News; Weather Weather Celebrity Mastermind The Wall Pointless Celebrities Casualty Killing Eve

1:00pm

Good Morning Sports Fans My Icon: Kadeen Corbin Live Super Rugby My Icon: Maggie Alphonsi Live EFL Gillette Soccer Saturday Live: SNF Live Fight Night

1:15pm

Pointless BBC News at Six; Weather BBC London News; Weather The One Show EastEnders Obesity: Who Cares If I'm Bigger? Panorama We Are England The Split

4:30pm

The Repair Shop Bridge of Lies Pointless BBC News at Six; Weather BBC London News; Weather Party Election Broadcast The One Show EastEnders MasterChef

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Bridge of Lies Pointless BBC News at Six; Weather BBC London News; Weather Party Election Broadcast EastEnders MasterChef Interior Design Masters with Alan Carr

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The Customer is Always Right The Monkey Eating Eagle of the Orinoco Flog It! Richard Osman's House of Games Lightning Doctors Rick Stein's Cornwall Great British Menu How to Sleep Well with Michael Mosley

8:30pm 9:00pm

Flog It! Pointless Celebrities FIFA World Cup 2022 Draw Richard Osman's House of Games Lightning Great British Menu: Banquet Special Gardeners' World Earth's Great Rivers II

8:00pm 8:30pm 8:50pm 9:00pm 9:30pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 12:00am 12:30am

Great British Menu: Banquet Special The Best Dishes Ever Calamity Jane Florida: America's Animal Paradise Live Women's Six Nations Grand Tours of Scotland's Lochs TOTP: The Story of 1993 TOTP: Big Hits 1993 Take That at the BBC

8:00pm 9:00pm

MOTD Live: Women's Super League Move Over, Darling Perfect Partners: Talking Pictures Inside the Factory Britain's Ancient Capital: Secrets of Orkney Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy The Speedshop Thatcher & Reagan

8:00pm 9:00pm

The Customer is Always Right Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve Flog It! Richard Osman's House of Games Lightning Doctors Rick Stein's Cornwall Mastermind University Challenge

8:00pm

The Heights The Customer is Always Right Indian Ocean with Simon Reeve Flog It! Richard Osman's House of Games Lightning Doctors Rick Stein's Cornwall Saving Lives at Sea

8:00pm

Golf: The Masters 2021 Review Flog It! Richard Osman's House of Games Lightning Doctors Rick Stein's Cornwall Your Body Uncovered with Kate Garraway Stan & Ollie

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Villages by the Sea Michael Wood's Story of England La La Land Pride and Prejudice Skint: Heart of Glass Skint: The Taking of Balgrayhill Street Skint: Unicorn Villages by the Sea Michael Wood's Story of England

3:00pm 4:00pm 4:59pm 5:00pm 6:00pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:30pm 9:30pm

Dickinson's Real Deal Lingo ITV London Weather Tipping Point The Chase ITV News London ITV Evening News Emmerdale Cost of Living: What You Need to Know - Tonight Joanna Lumley's Great Cities of the World

1:30pm 3:10pm 4:00pm 5:00pm 6:00pm 6:30pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 9:00pm

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Steph's Packed Lunch Countdown A Place in the Sun A New Life in the Sun Four in a Bed Fame in the Family The Simpsons Hollyoaks Channel 4 News Perfect House, Secret Location Extraordinary Escapes

Dusty Dusty Sounds of the Sixties TOTP: 1992 TOTP: 1992 Neil Diamond at the BBC Neil Diamond Sings Neil Diamond How Do Pop Songs Work?

TOTP: 1992 TOTP: 1992

2:30pm 2:55pm 3:00pm 4:00pm 4:59pm 5:00pm 6:00pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:30pm 9:00pm 10:00pm

ITV Lunchtime News ITV News London Dickinson's Real Deal Lingo ITV London Weather Tipping Point The Chase ITV News London ITV Evening News Emmerdale Coronation Street Grantchester

1:30pm 3:10pm 4:00pm 5:00pm 6:00pm 6:30pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm 8:30pm 9:00pm 10:00pm

Steph's Packed Lunch Countdown A Place in the Sun A New Life in the Sun Four in a Bed Fame in the Family The Simpsons Hollyoaks Channel 4 News Unreported World Grayson's Art Club Gogglebox

5:00pm 6:00pm 7:00pm 7:30pm 8:00pm

The Normans Rick Stein's Long Weekends Hidden Hidden Wales with Will Millard Wogan: The Best Of Yes, Prime Minister Keeping Up Appearances A Slow Odyssey: A Turtle's Journey

2:00pm

2:25pm 4:35pm 5:20pm 7:30pm 8:00pm

The Next Karate Kid A Place in the Sun Grease Channel 4 News Matt Baker: Our Farm in the Dales Chernobyl: The New Evidence The Hitman's Bodyguard Assassin's Creed

9:30pm 10:40pm

ITV Racing: Live from Doncaster Tipping Point The Chase: Celebrity Special ITV News and Weather ITV News London Celebrity Catchphrase Ant and Dec's Saturday Night Take Away Starstruck ITV News and Weather

The Piano: A Love Affair Much Ado About Nothing Arena: All the World's a Screen - Shakespeare on Film Imagine - Becoming Cary Grant The Beauty of Maps The Beauty of Maps The Piano: A Love Affair

2:00pm 2:09pm 2:10pm 3:05pm 5:05pm 7:00pm 7:15pm 7:30pm 8:30pm 10:00pm 11:00pm 11:19pm

ITV News and Weather ITV London Weather The Masked Singer US Midsomer Murders Evan Almighty ITV News and Weather ITV News London Tipping Point: Lucky Stars All Star Musicals The Ipcress File ITV News and Weather ITV London Weather

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Pubs, Ponds and Power: The Story of the Village The Story of Slate: Inside Museums Neanderthals: Meet Your Ancestors Ian Hislop's Fake News: A True Story The Challenger Tomorrow's Worlds: The Unearthly History of Science Fiction

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EW YOUR PAPER - YOUR VOICE - YOUR OPINION Letters should be emailed to yoursay@euroweeklynews.com or make your comments on our website: www.euroweeklynews.com Views expressed and opinions given are not necessarily those of the EWN publishers. No responsibility is accepted for accuracy of information, errors, omissions or statements.

WHAT HAPPENED TO COMMON SENSE?

From our Facebook

EQUALITY: However, in sport, women cannot compete ‘equally’ with males?

Sir/madam I trust Suzanne Manners... Explaining Mansplaining... feels very strongly that all those male Ukrainian soldiers and civilians currently fighting and dying should have accepted her conclusion that as they stand there, legs apart holding their weapons that they are, in her words ‘spoiled, self-obsessed little boys who should shut up and share’ ...and hand their weapons to their womenfolk and head for Poland with their children?

Why not... in her words, ‘this is why equality is so important’?

Reality is also important? For example, in sport, women cannot compete ‘equally’ with males? Or are such world class athletes as Martina Navratilova wrong? The unqualified obsession with ‘equality’ has led to the absurd acceptance of a fully intact male currently winning medals in women’s swimming

competitions in USA. Those who object are, again in Ms Manners’ words, told to ‘shut up and share’.

Whatever happened to common sense?

Yours faithfully , AR

A sad world Dear Euro Weekly, It makes me so sad to see what is happening in the world. This war, and now all the prices going up. I don’t go anywhere because of petrol, and I can now barely afford my cigarettes.

It’s nice to read the paper and see that at least there’s a sense of community here in Spain. I like reading about all the different charities and to see there’s still people who care. So thank you Euro Weekly. I can at least afford

REMEMBERING PHILIP POIGNANT images of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II sitting alone at the funeral of her husband of 73 years touched hearts around the world.

Whilst his service of thanksgiving, conducted on Tuesday March 29 at Westminster Abbey, could not have been a joyous occasion, it must have given the Queen some comfort in the fact that she was able to give him a more fitting farewell.

Clearly, now aged 95 and having recently suffered from Covid-19, she is frail and little has been seen of her this year, so there were fears that she either wouldn’t be able to make it, or would need to be in a wheelchair.

In the event, the Queen travelled from Windsor with son Prince Andrew who walked her to her seat whilst the ceremony was kept to 45 minutes in length in order to make it as easy and stress free as possible.

CORRECTIONS

the free paper and a coffee.

Cheers, Nick

From 90 year-old Armed Services Veteran

FAMOUS SLAP: Did it really happen - what do you think?

Sheila Haynes

Leapy, I would like to speak to you on the telephone No --- --- ---.

Regarding freedom of speech, as per your Euro Weekly article, you are spot on. I have been shut down by Giles Brown, on RTE Radio and personally insulted because I mentioned ‘why are Brit troops in Latvia preventing immigrants from crossing, when we can’t even control our own borders’. Let’s have a chat?

John

OUR VIEW

Large crowds gathered outside of the Abbey, not just to try to catch a glimpse of Her Majesty and other members of the Royal Family (with the notable exception of Prince Harry) but also politicians and foreign royals, including the King and Queen of Spain and all other major European royal families.

There was a significant involvement from members of the armed forces with much of the music played during the ceremony being performed by the Band of the Royal Marines as well as a number of the charities which the Duke of Edinburgh held close to his heart over the years.

Although a public ceremony, this was without doubt a very private affair for the Queen, left with her memories of a long and eventful relationship in the same place where she was married in 1947 and we wish her well at this difficult time.

No. Remove him from our screens. That’s what he deserves.

Simon Freebrey A massive overreaction to a poorly thought out joke. I would hope both Chris and Will are reflecting a little today. Move on, it’s chip paper already.

Suzi Mann He was protecting his wife, fair play, I don’t like violence, but at the end of day he did what he thought best.

Dee Rafferty He was protecting his wife. Chris Rock had no right whatsoever to tease about something like that. I would’ve kicked him off the stage.

Gail DM I’m not a violent person at all, neither is my husband. BUT if someone had made derogatory comments about me in such a public place and upset me, I know my husband would have defended me. Family matters. Also I thought the ‘jokes’ etc were monitored! Obviously not. Always two sides to every story!

Gary McGregor Well done Will Smith. Chris Rock thinks it’s OK to slander someone in the name of comedy... Well done Will for standing up for your wife.

Gerard O’Brien Nope. A violent act displaying a violent character.

At the EWN, we pride ourselves that reports are accurate and fair. If we do slip up, we promise to set the record straight in a clear, no-nonsense manner. To ask for an inaccuracy to be corrected. Email: editorial@euroweeklynews.com

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IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK GO TO WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM FOR THIS WEEK’S ANSWERS

40 EWN

31 March - 6 April 2022

www.euroweeklynews.com

FEATURE

How do you solve a problem like Putin?

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

WHEN Ukrainian families are being shelled as they flee for safety and Europe teeters on the edge of the end of everything, who wants to read more about it? If you don’t, turn the page, otherwise read on!

We read of peace talks but if these even‐ tually succeed, what’s the likely outcome?

The deal will probably be an assurance of Ukrainian neutrality and ‘self‐determination’ for Crimea and Donbas, and Putin boasting he ‘got what he wanted’. But actually, he’ll have lost. Badly.

The cost of a ruined economy and being an international outcast for the foreseeable future. A West more united than since the Cold War. Neighbouring states despising Russia. Europe, and especially Germany, ending their devastating dependence on Russian energy. The world ending its devas‐ tating dependence on Russian mineral

PUTIN: Nothing more than a playground bully who understands one language, force.

wealth and, most significantly, finally seeing Putin for the loathsome dictator he is.

This, though, won’t help the brave Ukrainians much in the short term, but hopefully later on. But Putin, and the world, will have seen how inferior the overhyped Russian armed forces have turned out to be

versus a smaller but professional, dedicated and determined foe. Having committed a large part of his ground armed forces to this campaign, Putin should be in no doubt what would happen if he came into conflict with the far more competent NATO. But all this fails to answer the crucial ques‐

tion, can Putin be trusted? He failed to hon‐ our the 2012 deal to end civil war in Syria.

Days before this invasion he said he’d never invade Ukraine.

Sooner or later, we need to confront him.

Not now, and not in a manner that would end up in nuclear warfare. However, he is a playground bully who understands only one language, force. If Ukraine ceded Crimea and Donbas and agreed to ‘demilitarise’ Ukraine now, he’d agree to that provisional‐ ly, but then his brutal war machine would soon afterwards reinvade a weaker Ukraine.

He needs to be stopped. Like the Nazis in the 1930s, some regimes cannot be trusted with keeping their word.

Nora Johnson’s psychological crime thrillers ‘The Sentinel’, ‘No Safe Place’, ‘Be‐ trayal’, ‘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.nora‐johnson. net) are available online as eBooks (€0.99; £0.99), Apple Books, paperback and audio‐ books. All profits to Costa del Sol Cudeca cancer charity.

To read more articles from our columnists and to have your say in the comments go to www.euroweeklynews.com

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

NEWS

www.euroweeklynews.com

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT TONY NOBLE I SHOULD imagine, like me, you are watching the events unfolding in the Ukraine at the moment, appalled by the sense‐ less loss of life and the destruction of a beautiful country. Mothers, fathers and children living in constant fear for their lives and homes, fear of be‐ ing caught in a bomb blast or missile attack. For some it must bring back memories of the Second World War. For many of us the world has be‐ come a very frightening place, we are afraid to leave our homes unlocked, go out after dark and walk alone. It’s understandable to feel this way. when we watch the news or read a paper, there seems to be nothing but violence. The world is becoming an increasingly more violent place.

We all know that the fighting will stop in the end and there will be a kind of peace between Russia and the Ukraine, but there will be conditions, both sides will have to compromise

and if one side breaks those condi‐ tions the fighting will start again.

However with the peace of Jesus Christ there are no conditions, there is a wonderful promise that it will last forever. Peace in the New Testament sense; means salvation, foregiveness and reconciliation between God and humanity. The sin that stands be‐ tween God and us has been done away with by the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection. Jesus reconciles us with God and each oth‐ er, he restores friendship and love.

At times we may feel that God has deserted us, that is the time when prayer becomes so important. These are the times when we ask God to in‐ tervene in our troubles and the feat they bring. Pray for faith, boldness and courage when we are afraid and we will hear the voice of God telling us things will be good in the end.

Amen To read more articles from our columnists and to have your say in the comments go to www.euroweeklynews.com

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

It’s now official, I am old!

MIKE SENKER IN MY OPINION

Views of a Grumpy Old Man WELL, that’s it, it’s official, I’m old. The reason I know that is what looked like a 12year-old child in a white coat with a stethoscope round her neck told me. Of course she wasn’t 12. She was a qualified doctor, a dermatologist, and I had a few marks I wanted her to look at. Her reply to all of them, and I’m sure it was because we were talking in English, “Nothing to worry about it, just because you are old.” I mean I had a sneaky suspicion because we have mirrors in our house, but now it’s official. I’m glad I got a quickish appointment otherwise I would have been ancient.

I bought some glasses from Specsavers here and, to be honest, I wasn’t too impressed with them. So, when I received a text from them telling me I needed to make an appointment for a check-up I ignored it.

They sent me another reminder and this time I decided to reply and said, “Sorry I can’t read this message as my glasses are no good and the font is too small”. I haven’t

heard any more from them. Sorted.

We have had, over the last few days, this browny-orange rain from the Sahara called ‘la calima’ and everyone got very excited and posted pictures of it all over the internet. But then the reality set in. This stuff stains and how the heck do we clean it up?

I mean I’m looking at buildings that were white and are now orange. It is going to cost absolute fortunes to get rid of. So if anyone has any ideas I would appreciate some tips.

The other thing is what it’s done to the air quality, especially if you have any chest problems. I knew those wretched masks would come in handy again one day.

Message to all restaurant owners. Lose the table next to the toilets. I, unfortunately, sat at one today and it’s terrible watching people trying the same door two or three times because someone is in there longer than they think they should be.

Then there is the line of two or three people looking very uncomfortable that you don’t want to make eye contact with and then when the door makes the loud unlocking noise and you glance up you inadvertently do make eye contact. Just get rid of that table.

Email: mikesenker@gmail.com

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

31 March - 6 April 2022

EWN 41

42 EWN

www.euroweeklynews.com

31 March - 6 April 2022

FEATURE

What story are you telling yourself?

ROBERT SHALLIS WHAT would you choose if you were promised guaranteed success in anything you decided to do?

What story would you want to write about yourself in years to come looking back on life’s journey?

Well, you can most certainly be the author of your life and begin writing and creating your own story right now.

Many of us instead of allowing things to happen ‘for’ us, we simply allow things to happen ‘to’ us with the sentiment of ‘well, that’s just life, I guess’.

To allow things to happen for us it’s important to understand that we are more in control of our lives than we think. Our outcomes in life are often a consequence of what we think we are capable of achiev‐ ing and can therefore project us for‐ ward or for the most part, hold us back.

It is all too easy to blame external circumstances to justify why we are not where we want to be in life

which for many gives a certain level of acceptance, albeit, coupled with a sense of discomfort and dissatis‐ faction and can leave us with that all too familiar thought of ‘what if?’

When we understand that we have more power and influ‐ ence over our lives than we think, it becomes exciting as we then we begin to under‐ stand that we can create our own story and let go of the belief that it’s everyone else’s fault or something further stopping us from getting from where we are to where we want to be.

When you begin to change one area or aspect in your life, other areas start to shift too which is uplifting and creates the momentum you need So, how do you start to rewrite

your story?

Firstly, let go of all previous nega‐ tive assumptions you may have had before, turn the page and start a fresh chapter of your book. Get your pen ready!

YOUR STORY: Be creative, but above all, be true to yourself.

Secondly, it’s helpful to under‐ stand that when we face an in‐ evitable challenge or problem, it can be productive to simply reframe it.

Deciding that it’s not a dead end, it’s just part of the journey and by ask‐ ing ourselves what lessons can be learnt from it will enable progress by seeing it for what it really is. Elevat‐ ing ourselves and fo‐ cusing on the vision and outcome we desire rather than the per‐ ceived problems in get‐ ting there gives us more focus and drive.

Thirdly, having a plan. Plans will help close the gap from the dream to the reality by way of taking action steps towards it. Rather than

feeling overwhelmed, taking some small steps will help create the path and generate a steady progressive realisation toward the end result.

Focusing less on the how and more on the amazing possibilities that lie ahead is a more engaging way to think.

So, what story will you create, what action will you take to get there. You are your own author, what will you write?

One of my fondest quotes is; “When writing the story of your life, don’t let anyone else hold the pen.”

There will of course be people who will influence, help and sup‐ port you but ultimately, it is your story, it is your journey, it is your pen, so, be creative but above all, be true to yourself. www.robshallis.com (Certified professional life coach)

To read more articles from our columnists and to have your say in the comments go to www.euroweeklynews.com

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

Advertising Feature

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FEATURE

www.euroweeklynews.com

31 March - 6 April 2022

EWN 43

Advertising Feature

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44 EWN

31 March - 6 April 2022

SUZANNE MANNERS THERE is nothing so exasperating as being told how to do something by someone with less experience than yourself. Male or female, young or old, but mostly male (this is not an equal opportunity rant). Once or 20 times I have listened to a male col‐ league explain to me how to correctly apply an initiative I myself have intro‐ duced into the workplace or talk me through a process I can follow fast asleep and with both hands full (wine glass and chocolate of course).

Mansplaining is a symptom of a con‐ trolling personality along with a sense of entitlement , an over inflated sense of self worth and deafness to other opinions. Manspreading on the other hand is just down right rude and an‐ noying. Whenever I see a man sitting wide legged on a bus or train en‐ croaching on the seat adjacent I want to batter them with an umbrella. Even worse are those fellows who sit with one ankle resting on the other thigh showing their next seat neighbour the sole of a dirty shoe (and don’t get me

www.euroweeklynews.com

FEATURE

Explaining Mansplaining

HENRY VIII: A large man puffed with pride.

started on teenagers on buses with their feet on the seats). Taking up space in the world has been the abso‐ lute right of men for centuries,spurred on by evolution. Look at the size of a peacock’s feathers! While women shrink into themselves, sit demurely on half a seat, arms in, legs shut tight (and above the age of 50 just disappear), men will fill the space they inhabit with little regard for anyone else (exactly like a cat).

Take Henry VIII (“Please take him!” uttered Christina of Denmark who wished nothing more than to keep her‐ self and her head in Denmark). Holbein painted him as a large man puffed with pride, legs wide apart as if straddling the world, thrusting his bejewelled codpiece into the eye of the beholder.

His unfortunate wives had to suffer hours of mansplaining from the tyran‐ nical monarch who believed himself expert in all things political.

Today when reviewing the horrors in the world (past and present) and the extremes to which manspreading can evolve if left unchecked. Men who

mourn the past and whose dearest wish is to be viewed with the same fear as dictators and kings. Puffed up and prideful with their over inflated sense of entitlement, desirous of strad‐ dling the world. Nothing more than frustrated tyrants.

It may be a simplistic point of view but I believe that behind the bombast and the rhetoric are spoiled, self ob‐ sessed little boys who have never been told to “shut up and share.”

History is littered with the ashes cre‐ ated by the lengths to which men will go to puff up and increase the space they take up in the world. Man the pumps make me bigger and scarier and just a little bit ridiculous… like the thrusting codpiece of old, the tiny black moustache and death’s head in‐ signia, jack boot and red badge little bunched up fists crying “Me, me, me.”

This is why equality is so important.

To read more articles from our columnists and to have your say in the comments go to www.euroweeklynews.com

Suzanne Manners’ opinions are her own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.

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31 March - 6 April 2022

Mistakes with medication

T A K I N G medication regularly is not uncommon, for all sorts of reasons, whether for keeping chronic conditions under control or for dealing with temporary conditions. Although the vast ma‐ jority believe that taking medica‐ tion is simply taking a pill at the right time, the truth is that peo‐ ple make many mistakes. Here are some of the most common.

Can tablets be taken on an empty stomach?

It completely depends. Some medicines should be taken with meals and others should be taken on an empty stomach. All this in‐ formation can be found on the prescription.

Can tablets be chewed?

Generally, no, unless they are chewable tablets. Doing so may alter the composition of the med‐ ication, which is designed to reach the stomach in one piece and be activated there via what is known as delayed‐release.

Can tablets be split?

Ideally, the dosage should not be altered. It is very difficult to split a pill into two perfectly iden‐ tical quantities. If you have diffi‐

PHARMACIST: Will be able to advise you on what’s best.

culties swallowing tablets, it is best to ask your doctor or phar‐ macist if there is a liquid form of the same active compound.

Better to set an alarm There are medicines that need to be taken within specific peri‐

ods of time, so it is best to set an alarm on your mobile phone to remind you. It is also essential to take the medication for as long as the doctor tells you to, even if you feel better before completing the whole course.

HEALTH & BEAUTY

Make your manicure last

WHETHER you prefer a French manicure, bold colours or classic red, your hands speak vol‐ umes. Here we give you five tips to help you make your manicure last longer. Take note!

Always use a base coat If you do your nails at home, always use a base coat before apply‐ ing colour. This will pro‐ tect your nails, prevent yellowing and damage and smooth the surface of your nails.

Use a good product When applying nail polish, quality matters.

Always choose quality polishes. Apply them in thin layers, without us‐ ing too much. Let the first coat dry well, then apply again.

Use a top coat This step is essential for making your mani‐ cure last longer when you do it at home.

There are gel‐effect top

coats, which not only keep your nail polish perfect for a week, but also give it the shine of a professional mani‐ cure.

Use a drying oil If you ever have to go to bed or leave the house just after doing your nails, use a drop of drying oil on each nail to speed up the drying process. However, if possible you should make sure you have plenty of time to allow all layers to dry proper‐ ly.

Go for a permanent or semi‐permanent manicure If you want to forget about manicures for a while, you can visit a specialised beauty salon for a permanent or se‐ mi‐permanent mani‐ cure, which can last sev‐ eral weeks intact ‐ the perfect solution when you have a special event or trip.

HEALTH & BEAUTY

www.euroweeklynews.com

Improve your posture ONE of the main causes of neck and lower back pain is poor posture. It is all‐ too‐common to spend endless hours hunched over a phone, computer or even a book, and these habits can sometimes have painful conse‐ quences in the long term.

You may need to seek help from a medical pro‐ fessional in more serious cases. In mild cases, however, making a few simple changes will do wonders when it comes to improving your posture and you will notice that your stability, bal‐ ance and agility also improve.

Shoul‐ ders back Trying to keep your shoulders slightly back at all times will help keep your back from

curving. Sitting hunched over for hours is not only bad for your spine, but it can also affect breathing.

Strong core Strengthening your core will help you to stand up straighter and keep your trunk stabilised at all times, whether during ex‐ ercise or as you go about your daily activities. Yoga and Pilates can be great for improving posture.

Hips aligned Bad posture is not just caused by sitting. When we walk, we sometimes slouch with our hips pushed forward. Try to keep your head upright and your hips aligned with your shoulders.

Sleeping position If you wake up sore after a night’s rest, something is wrong. Choose a mattress and pillow that are suited to your needs and do your best to keep your spine aligned from your neck to your tailbone.

EXERCISE: Yoga and Pilates are great for posture.

31 March - 6 April 2022

EWN 47

48 EWN

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DAVID WORBOYS THERE is nothing as remarkable as the hu‐ man body. It is estimated that the average body contains 37 trillion cells, 60 trillion bacteria and 380 trillion viruses. It contains about 40 litres of water and both the brain and the heart are composed of about 80 per cent water. The heart beats 100,000 times each day, 36.5 million times per year.

Variations of the body are also astonish‐ ing. Robert Wadlow, the tallest man ever at 2.675 metres (8’11’’), died in 1940, aged 22.

The heaviest, Jon Brower Minnoch, weighed in at 442kg (69 stone 9lb) in 1974.

He died aged 41. Both, of course, were Americans.

On the subject of large beings, the aver‐ age African elephant weighs 5,500 kg, eats over 200 kg of food and drinks up to 200 litres of water each day. At birth, it can weigh as much as Lennox Lewis in his prime. There are 450,000 elephants re‐ maining, of which 92 per cent are African, there were more than 11 million in 1930. In comparison, a blue whale, 30 metres in length, can weigh 180,000 kg, the equiva‐ lent of 33 elephants.

Destruction of our environment is also

FEATURE

Incredible statistics

These two Americans have something in common apart from their nationality. beyond belief. Some 100,000 tons of plastic is dumped into the oceans every day. Of this, 7 per cent goes into the Mediter‐ ranean which has just 1 per cent of the world’s sea water. This is apart from all the other detritus. Globally, 300 million tons of plastic is wasted annually, almost the weight of the entire human population. In the UK, 22 tons of cigarette butts are dropped every day.

We can’t leave home without knowing the following further fascinating facts.

There are one million species of fungus in the rainforests. Tahiti’s currency is the French franc. The best palindrome is ‘never odd or even’. In 2015 there were 13,338 gun‐related deaths in the USA compared with just 50 in the UK. The hottest day recorded on earth was 56.7 degrees in Death Valley, California in

1913. The coldest was ‐89.2 in Antarctica in 1983. At the Oktoberfest, seven million litres are drunk and waiters walk, or stag‐ ger, an average of 20 kilometres per day. In India they are vaccinating one million every day. At this rate, it would take 3.5 years to cover the entire population.

And so, to sport. Bayern Munich were Eu‐ ropean champions in 2020, becoming the only side to win all 11 matches in the com‐ petition. During this run they won 24 con‐ secutive matches in all competitions. No team from Yorkshire has won at Chelsea since 1999. In 2019 Rafael Nadal achieved 47 consecutive holds of service in the Aus‐ tralian Open.

Some people like to define themselves by their knowledge and hate to admit to being wrong. As some of these statistics are unashamedly purloined from Google, I have noticed discrepancies between different sources. Nevertheless, whether lies, damn lies or statistics, I find them amazing.

To read more articles from our columnists and to have your say in the comments go to www.euroweeklynews.com

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

Travel Feature

Discover Benidorm

O N C E a small fishing village, Benidorm is now one of the most popular all-year-round destinations for Spanish and foreign holidaymakers.

Benidorm has plenty of hours of daily sunshine and rainy days are few and far between, making it the perfect destination for any time of year with plenty of things to do for single people, couples, families and retirees.

Whether you are looking to get involved in the local Spanish culture, make friends with fellow expats, relax on the beautiful Mediterranean beaches or bring out your adventurous side in one of the warmest areas in Spain, there’s something for everyone!

Catch a show at Benidorm Palace, wander through the beautiful and historic E l C asco A ntiguo de Benidorm, soak up the sun on one of the stunning beaches, try the incredible variety of cuisines in Benidorm’s many restaurants or spend a hot summer’s day at Aqualandia Water Park - the list is endless.

The perfect destination for any time of year.

With the huge range of accommodation and hotels in Benidorm, you are sure to find the perfect place to stay, from family orientated hotels with plenty of activities for the children, couple and adult only luxurious hotels, somewhere close to all of the local amenities and shops or an all inclusive hotel to relax by the pool with a sangria.

Benidorm is also incredibly easy to get to from the closest airport which is Alicante Airport. From there, you can catch a direct bus to the centre of Benidorm in less than an hour!

50 EWN

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31 March - 6 April 2022

FEATURE

GO LOCAL THE EURO WEEKLY NEWS has urged its readers to support local businesses in the com‐ munity by shopping local‐ ly in recent times. Now things are heading back to normal, we challenge you to maintain that habit by supporting local high streets, markets, butchers, greengrocers and all of the wonderfully quirky inde‐ pendent businesses in your area.

Local businesses make our villages, towns and cities what they are. They add unique character. They are convenient. And they offer excellent produce from known suppliers. The joy of shopping locally means that independent businesses can support the local community. You may find something a euro or two cheaper online but

BUY LOCAL: By shopping locally, independent businesses can help support the local community.

have you considered where your money is actu‐ ally going?

By shopping locally you’re putting food on a local family’s table and there is nothing better than giving back to the communities that have giv‐ en us so much. Local stores support charities and they sponsor local sports teams.

In many cases, they are much more than just a business, they’re a legacy.

They may have supported generations of the same family. Likewise, brand new local stores and bars may help the generations of the future fulfil their

dreams and ambitions.

Remember, your local store is going up against multinationals and chains.

They can’t win that battle on their own. So give them your support.

Spending your money lo‐ cally will make a real differ‐ ence to the local economy.

Local businesses recircu‐ late a greater share of ev‐ ery euro they receive at lo‐ cal level. They create locally owned supply chains and they invest in their employees.

So remember.

When you go shopping ‐ go local!

PETS

52

www.euroweeklynews.com • 31 March - 6 April 2022

SPONSORED BY

Are you planning pet care? Don’t delay IF you are planning a trip later this year you still need to plan early for pet and house‐sitters. Perhaps you are already making plans for a staycation get away.

Even if you are planning just a short trip, you’ll know that you simply can’t travel with some pets. Young pets in particular may benefit from staying behind so they can follow their routines at home. So, plan ahead.

Take a moment to plan ahead for pet and house‐ sitters, if you have trips planned later this year.

Now is the time to get ready. We will help you as much as we can. Our phi‐ losophy is that we are all in this together. These are the steps to take: 1. Register as a home‐

owner on HouseSitMatch. com 2. Choose a Premium account (£89 per year) to ensure you can help online when needed 3. Create a profile with photos of your pet and the house 4. Post a house‐sit ad‐ vert stating your plans for next year’s holiday Covid permitting Do you need a pet‐sitter in 2022? Then get started right now.

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HouseSitMatch can help you find suitable sit‐ ters. Join our network for a small annual fee. You get ID checked for safety and then build your ad‐ vert saying when you are going on holiday. House‐

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Do you need a house-sitter? Get in touch. House-sitting can be a win-win for both parties, free house and pet-sitting, and the experienced and checked sitters get free accommodation! Register as either house-sitter or homeowner with a 50 per cent discount using coupon code SUPER50 - an exclusive offer for readers.

To find a house or pet-sitter go to www.HouseSitMatch.com DOGS’ brains understand not only what we say, but also how we say it and are able to distinguish the words and tones we use when speaking to them, a new study has revealed.

Led by Attila Andics, pro‐ fessor at the University of Lorand in Budapest, the study, the results of which were published by Science

Understanding what we say and how we say it magazine, played record‐ ings of their trainers using different words and tones to 13 different dogs while using magnetic resonance

scanners to study how their brains reacted.

The dogs were found to use the left hemispheres of their brains, just like hu‐ mans, and to recognise each word separately re‐ gardless of tone.

“This study is the first step towards understanding how dogs interpret human speech and can help us un‐ derstand communication between the two and make it more effi‐ cient,” Andics ex‐ plained.

Words are the main element of language and communication, while tone is another way of transmitting information.

Humans use both to un‐ derstand what they’re hear‐ ing, and the aim of the study, Andics said, was to

discover whether dogs were also able to separate the two.

In effect, they were found to process vocabulary and tone separately. Therefore, the team concluded, dogs are indeed able to distin‐ guish between the words we say to them and the tone we use.

DOGS: Recognise the words we say to them.

31 March - 6 April 2022 • www.euroweeklynews.com SPONSORED BY

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TURRE EVANGELICAL CHURCH We meet every Sunday at 10.30. For worship. We believe you’ll find us ‘relaxed’, welcoming’ and ‘informal’. Find us on Turre’s main street, towards the motorway at the far end on the left. To know more contact 617 614 156 (10021) ROYAL BRITISH LEGION - Why not make this year the year you volunteer? Call and see how you can help either as a caseworker (with full training) or as a Telephone Buddy. We also visit beneficiaries who are housebound or in hospital. If you feel you could support us here in Spain, and you have a Spanish phone number then why not email us for more info tbuddyhhvisits@gmail.com. If you or your partner served or are serving, and you feel you need help or support then contact us using the details on the card, we are here for the small things as well as the big, sometimes talking to someone is the first step to feeling more in control. It can be a personal need or some help with your home or information on what or who to speak to on a medical issue, we help with signposting if we cannot help directly, just call and have a chat with Pam who will try to guide you to where you need to be. If you would like to go to a branch meeting then find your nearest one at, www.britishle gion.org.uk/counties/spa in-north ZURGENA Branch meeting on the first Thursday, Coffee Morning on the third Thursday and Buffet & Quiz Night on the last Tuesday of the month all at Bar Trinidad, Arboleas, for further details please email zurgenarblchair man@gmail.com - (253989)

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53

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MISCELLANEOUS

LOCAL ANGLICAN (C of E) church services at Mojacar Los Llanos Del Peral and Alhambra. Communion every Sunday in Mojacar at 11am. Communion at Los Llanos every Sunday except the last Sunday in the month when there will be Prayer and Praise all at 11am.

The services that were being held in the South American church Albox have now returned to the chapel and Communion is held on the second Thursday of the month at 11am. Priest in charge rev canon Alan Bennet telephone number 680 243 436. For further information, please go to The Anglican Chaplaincy of Costa Almeria and Costa Calida web page. Or contact Tony Noble 950 069 103. (10002)

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54 EWN

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31 March - 6 April 2022

ROAD TEST

by Mark Slack AS estates go VW’s Arteon Shooting Brake has a pres‐ ence, the wide frontal look, muscular rear and sleek lines makes for a stylish driveway addition. Based on the Passat, the Ar‐ teon shooting brake is aimed at being a mix of the practical with added style. It cer‐ tainly turns heads and usu‐ ally for all the right reasons.

The term shooting brake is a delightfully old fashioned one harking back to a time when cars had little space and upper class shooting parties needed transport for all their kit. This German in‐ terpretation of the shooting brake, although not without compromises, is a particular‐ ly appealing one.

Prices start at €45,670 (£38,230) and peak at €65,029 (£54,435) for the top‐line version with all‐

VW Arteon a shooting brake for a modern generation

(£8,000) worth of extra cost options.

Although the test car was not my favourite in terms of colour, dark grey with black interior, a much brighter and classier colour palette is available and makes the car look much more than its

der petrol engine passes the benchmark 100 kph in 7.8 seconds and a 233 kph max‐ imum speed while return‐ ing, during my week of mostly local driving, 8.3 litres/100 km. There’s even the option of a plug‐in hy‐ brid.

The Arteon Shooting Brake isn’t a small car, in fact it looks even larger thanks to its design, and inside it feels spacious. Standard kit is good with such fare as key‐ less entry and start and tail‐ gate, a superb panoramic sunroof and much, much more. There’s the usual VW solid, quality feel, it’s a car that combines the very best of practical SUVs and tradi‐ tional estates without their bulk and boxiness. It’s a car that’s a very class act.

Facts at a Glance

SHOOTING BRAKE: It’s a car that’s a very class act.

wheel‐drive. As with all Ger‐ man automotive machines the prices can reach even headier financial heights if you make a start on the op‐ tions list. My R‐Line with 2.0‐ litre TSI petrol power, was listed at €48,322 (£40,450) but had a whopping €9,212

isn’t the point of the Arteon.

Your walking gear, picnic paraphernalia, children’s travel accoutrements or other outdoor activity kit can easily be accommodat‐ ed.

Manufacturers have be‐ come expert at smaller ca‐ pacity, more efficient en‐ gines that still possess decent performance. My Ar‐ teon’s 2.0‐litre, four‐cylin‐

MOTORING

€48k (£40k) price tag.

If you’re looking for a ca‐ pacious load carrier then the Arteon Shooting Brake is not for you. Its striking lines means that the load practi‐ cality, while better than an equivalent saloon, is not the best, but then that really

Model: VW Arteon Shooting Brake R-Line Engine: 2.0-litre TSI 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol Gears: 7-speed DSG Automatic Performance: 0-100 kph (62 mph) 7.8 seconds/Maximum Speed 233 kmh (145 mph) Economy: 7.3 L/per 100 km (38.6 mpg) Emissions: 166 g/km WLTP Model tested was UK-specification and equipment levels and prices may vary in other markets.

MOTORING

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31 March - 6 April 2022

EWN 55

DGT warning on pets Fine for a dirty car THE General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) can issue fines for excessive dirt on a vehicle, especially if the windshields and win‐ dows are covered with mud.

If a traffic officer con‐

siders that a driver is not able to see the road well because of dirt, mo‐ torists can be fined be‐ tween €80 and €200.

According to DGT reg‐ ulations: “The glass sur‐ face of the vehicle must

CARRYING ANIMALS: It is recommended pet carriers be placed on the floor in the rear.

THE General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), in addition to highlighting new sanctions that came into force on March 21, has reminded motorists about the impor‐ tance of carrying animals correctly in their vehicles.

Non‐compliance can re‐ sult in fines ranging from €80 to €500, because it is considered not only a dan‐ ger to the safety of the driver, but also to other

road users.

Although the DGT does not have specific regula‐ tions for the transportation of pets, Article 18.1 of the rules of the road states: “Particular care must be taken to ensure that he maintains the appropriate position, that other passen‐ gers maintain the same po‐ sition and that objects or animals carried are properly positioned, so that there is

no interference between the driver and any of them.”

Even if non‐compliance does not mean loss of points on the driver’s li‐ cence, motorists can still be fined €80 if the animal is loose on the floor of the ve‐ hicle or from €200 to €500 if it is on the driver’s seat.

The DGT recommends that pet carriers be placed on the floor in the rear.

DIRTY CARS: Licence plates must also be kept clean.

allow, in any case, the driver clear visibility on all the road on which it is driving.”

Licence plates must al‐ so be kept clean and leg‐ ible. If not, that could be another €200 fine.

SPORT ONE of the biggest shocks in World Cup history took place in Palermo on the evening of Thursday, March 24. Reign‐ ing European champions Italy were playing at home against North Macedonia in the play‐off for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

What happened can only be described as one of the most sensational last‐gasp victories ever to occur. In the dying seconds of the match, with the score at 0‐0, a shot smashed from outside the penalty area by Aleksandar Trajkovski hit the back of the Italian net to give the visitors the most unexpected of wins.

Ironically, Trajkovski used to play for Palermo. There followed scenes of Italian coaching staff and players falling on their knees in total disbelief, while chaotic cele‐ brations ensued among the North Macedonians.

A World Cup without Italy seems almost impossible, yet remarkably, this is the sec‐ ond consecutive campaign that the Azzurri have failed to

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31 March - 6 April 2022

to read more visit www.euroweeklynews.com

ITALY OUT!

TOTAL DISBELIEF: One of the most sensational last-gasp victories ever to occur. qualify for. Only last Sum‐ mer, Roberto Mancini’s men were hoisting the Euro 2020 trophy into the air at Wemb‐ ley stadium.

They ended up in this set of play‐offs after coming a very unconvincing second in their qualifying group behind

Switzerland, after drawing four of their matches. What appeared on paper to be a foregone conclusion ‐ against a team ranked 67th in world football ‐ has turned into a nightmare.

North Macedonia man‐ aged only four attempts on

goal throughout the game, and had just 34 per cent of the possession. They will now meet Portugal in the play‐off final, who beat Turkey 3‐1 in the other play‐ off semi‐final, thanks to the usual inspirational effort from Cristiano Ronaldo.

F1 drivers feel ‘bullied’ LEWIS HAMILTON is reportedly believed to be among five F1 drivers who feel they were ‘bullied’ into agreeing to al‐ low the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix to continue. A four‐hour meeting had taken place on Friday, March 25, attended by all the drivers, team principals, and the race organisers.

During the first practice session on Friday, Houthi rebels had launched a missile attack on the Aramco petrol refinery just 15km from the Jeddah Corniche circuit. Concerns were immediately raised about the safety of all involved in Sun‐ day’s race, with the FIA being given assurances by local au‐ thorities that they were not in danger.

At least five of the drivers voiced their concerns and dis‐ approval of continuing with the race. It is believed that the five were Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Carlos Sainz, Kevin Magnussen, and Sergio Perez.

This group allegedly claimed it was ‘unsafe and irrespon‐ sible’ to let the race go ahead. They also felt that they were bullied into accepting the decision after being put under pressure by FIA bosses who pointed out the possible reper‐ cussions were they not to compete.

It has also been reported that part of the conversation in‐ cluded an unsettling discussion on how easy it would be for the teams to leave the country should they decide to aban‐ don Sunday’s race.

Saudi intelligence sources assured the assembled drivers and teams that despite more warnings from the Houthi rebels, the Corniche race circuit was under no risk of attack.