Editorial:
I’m not certain about the attractions of electric cars, but the fact is – they are getting better every day. Now the Chinese are coming to Europe and usurping the leadership of Tesla (with all its disagreeable political baggage).
Still, in an accident, a fire, it’s not much good if the doors won’t open.
My father-in-law would tell of the demise of the steam-car a hundred years ago. They were slow to start, but evidently cheap to run. The regular petrol car manufacturers put out a series of adverts – ‘our cars never explode’ – giving one the impression that the Stanley Steamers often did.
Well sure, if you forget to loosen the steam-valve.
They had electric cars a century ago as well, we see them on the social media – top speed: 10kph. Just the thing for city use.
If I wasn’t so set in my ways (and had enough money) maybe I would buy an electric car. They charge up quickly now (the reason no one would buy a second-hand Tesla today is because of the progress in re-chargeable batteries), and I could run a long cable from the plug by my bed down into the orange-orchard below which doubles as the parking lot.
The European Commission wants to end new petrol and diesel cars by 2035, leaving us with zero-emission vehicles, which will be fast and efficient and no doubt feature a special knob to pull when they catch fire and the doors won’t open. Driverless cars too.
Not all of the car manufacturers are pleased. They talk of ‘stubbornly sluggish consumer demand’. Put it another way: vroom vroom!
They are probably the ones who put out those stories on social media about the electric cars blowing up at the drop of a hat. Competition being a many-edged sword.
Luckily, and despite the occasional hiccup – somebody getting into the Jaguar and Range Rover company computer this summer, or Volkswagen and others making false claims about their emissions control – we still trust our automobile manufacturers, and ‘built-in obsolescence’ is now just a bad dream – or maybe not with that Lada that I once owned.
Then, along come the visionaries, who will save the world, clean up the environment, and annoy a lot of people involved in either pumping oil, making dirty cars and trucks, or even running a petrol station or an overpriced parking garage.
Burning fuel is bad for the environment, and ordinary gas-guzzlers cost more to repair at the mechanics (they have more bits to go wrong than an electric car), but what if the fuel was dirt common and had no emissions whatsoever?
I’m not talking here about a solar-powered vehicle, shut down on the motorway in the middle of a rainstorm.
Or a bicycle – handy as it is for short journeys.
Two inventors showed us the way forward many years ago. One was Stanley Meyer and his Water Powered Car which – he claimed – ran on tap-water and an electrolysis producing fuel-cell. There’s a red beach-buggy with ‘Jesus Christ is Lord’ on the side, which was his.
We read, ‘…Then, on March 20, 1998, Meyer met with Belgian investors interested in his invention. Stanley Mayer didn't know it, but that would be his last meeting.
In the middle of dinner, a toast was proposed, after which Stanley quickly left the table, clutching his throat. He reached the parking lot and collapsed to the ground. His last words are said to have been: "They poisoned me"’. Poor chap. His car and papers disappeared too.
Wiki is uncharacteristically unkind: ‘The water fuel cell is a non-functional design for a "perpetual motion machine" created by Stanley Allen Meyer (August 24, 1940 – March 20, 1998). Meyer claimed that a car retrofitted with the device could use water as fuel instead of gasoline…’
Another interesting inventor was a Spaniard called Arturo Estévez Varela, who, says the National Geographic, was ‘a modest inventor from Extremadura who, in the midst of Franco's Spain, was the protagonist of one of the most fascinating and at the same time conspiratorial stories of the time: Arturo claimed to have developed an engine capable of running solely on water…’
In front of some startled journalists, Arturo drank some water from a jug and then poured the rest of it – four litres of tap water – into the tank of his special 49cc motorcycle and took off for a journey of 900 kilometres. All very odd, and the Franco regime soon scuppered any more stories about the eccentric inventor – perhaps to appease the Americans. The motor, possibly, was tricked with a piece of boron: in other words, it wasn't a water engine, but a hydrogen engine generated using an expensive and non-renewable material.
Although he registered over a hundred patents, Arturo died in obscurity in Seville in the nineties.
As for me, I’m working on a system whereby my car runs for free, by putting a modest sign on the rear: ‘Give us a push, mate!’
Housing:
‘Families or investors: who buys homes in Spain with the current skyrocketing prices? A study by real estate agents indicates that 40% of homes purchased are for families with children, while one in four homes are for investors and 18% are for second homes’. elDiario.es says ‘…For Javier Gil, a housing expert at the Spanish National Research Council, "the fact that almost a quarter of acquisitions are speculative is alarming." This trend has been occurring since 2013 and 2014, "when the buying and selling market began to revive, annual transactions increased, and non-residential demand boosted the market," he explains, encouraged by "the profitability of buying a home to rent out." According to data from the Bank of Spain, in the second quarter of this year, the profitability of housing as an alternative investment stood at 15.9%, compared to 3% for 10-year government bonds or 2.4% for household deposits…’
‘Brits and other non-EU citizens are still hoovering up property in Spain’ – here’s where they are buying says The Olive Press here.
‘Selling in Spain as a Non-Resident: 10 Things You’ll Want to Know’ from Eye on Spain here.
Tourism:
From Eye on Spain here: ‘The summer of 2025 will be etched into Spain’s history not only as a season of sun-drenched beaches and cultural vibrancy but as the year the nation’s tourism sector delivered a monumental statistical paradox. Despite a concerted national effort to introduce "overtourism measures" aimed at managing visitor numbers and mitigating local discontent, Spain smashed all previous visitor records. The sheer volume of international arrivals has thrown the government's balanced approach into question, sparking a renewed debate over whether current policies are merely token gestures against an unstoppable wave of global demand…’
Finance:
From elDiario.es here: ‘An overview of teleworking in Spain five years after the law was passed: on the rise to record levels above the pandemic. More than 3.3 million people work from home occasionally or frequently, representing 15.4% of the employed. This percentage has increased by 2024, although it is still low compared to the rest of Europe’.
20Minutos brings good news for the autónomos – ‘Social Security takes a step backwards: it will freeze contributions for the lowest-earning self-employed workers and limit increases to a maximum of 2.5%’.
Politics:
Speaking at the congress of the Party of the European Socialists held on Saturday in Amsterdam, Pedro Sánchez blamed the conservative parties for the rise of the far right in Europe: "Spain is no exception." The Prime Minister accused the traditional European right of naiveté for becoming a "satellite" of the far right’. Público covered the event.
Catalonia:
From The Guardian here: ‘Catalonia’s Socialist president: tackling inequality can blunt separatist and far-right voices. In an interview, Salvador Illa tells of his ‘pragmatic approach’ as he seeks to persuade voters about benefits of coexistence with Madrid’.
Costa del Sol:
"There is no more fear, only impunity." A local police officer in Marbella utters this phrase with the resignation of someone who has watched the city change before his eyes for too long. He speaks of shootings in broad daylight, of young people with military weapons from the conflict in Ukraine, and of a sense of insecurity that has become part of the landscape. This isn't a movie about Miami in the 1980s or media hype: it's the reality that officers patrol every night on the Costa del Sol. Area Costa del Sol headlines its piece: ‘The Mocro Maffia, Ukrainian weapons, and young hitmen: the harsh reality experienced by a local police officer in Marbella’. Another article from the same source (February 2025) leads with ‘The Costa del Sol, also known as the "UN of organized crime," is home to 113 mafias of 59 nationalities, according to a report by the Centre for Intelligence against Terrorism and Organized Crime (CITCO). Among them, the Mocro Maffia stands out, a powerful drug trafficking network founded in the Netherlands and of Moroccan origin with extensive international connections in Latin America, Africa, and Asia’.
Europe:
El Mundo has ‘The EU presents its roadmap for "modern warfare": "Russia does not have the capacity to attack the EU today, but it could prepare in the coming years"’.
A piece at Gulf Stream Blues praises Pedro Sánchez (the odd-man-out in European politics). ‘…If you’re looking for Europe’s independence moment, you’ll be hard pressed to find it in the actions of von der Leyen or any of Europe’s main leaders at the moment. The only European leader who has been refusing to surrender to Trump’s extortion is Spain’s Pedro Sánchez. He was the only Nato leader who refused to acquiesce to the non-sensical spending target of 5% GDP in June (a level even the US doesn’t come close to)…’
Health:
From Sur in English here: ‘The Junta de Andalucía allocates record amount to health care in next year's regional budget. Of the nearly 51,000 million euros of the total budget, at least 16,000 million euros will go to improve the public health service in the region’. Good news, because it needs improvement.
From Cadena Ser, the picture is less rosy: ‘The Andalusian Regional Government now acknowledges that evidence has disappeared from patient health records websites. AMAMA (the breast cancer association) has reported to the Seville Prosecutor's Office the disappearance of mammograms from the apps following the announcement of legal measures against delays in breast cancer screening.
Meanwhile, says elDiario.es here, other PP-run regions ‘…will not send the Ministry of Health their data on cancer screenings it requested following the failures detected in the Andalusian Ministry of Health. This is because, in addition to these programs being the exclusive responsibility of the autonomous regions, they believe they were asked to do so due to "political confrontation"’. They aren’t hiding the information from the Government, says the Heath Minister, they’re hiding it from the people.
Corruption:
Following the Valencia floods late October last year, money was sent in small popular donations to help. Around twelve million euros was collected. Now, we wonder what happened to it. From elDiario.es here: ‘Carlos Mazón avoids clarifying what he did with the twelve million euros donated by citizens and companies for the Dana victims. The Valencian Government opened a solidarity account that it promised would be used for those affected, but it hasn't detailed how it spent it. Sources leaked in March said that it would be managed by four entities that, when contacted by elDiario.es, claimed to have no knowledge of the money’.
From Soy Madrid here – ‘The cost of PP corruption: a multi-million-dollar burden on the Spanish economy’. Following a long and dispiriting list of scams, the article ends with ‘A hole of more than a thousand million. The financial balance of the main corruption cases linked to the PP reflects colossal damage: • Púnica: ~€250 million in rigged contracts. • Palma Arena: ~€100 million in cost overruns. • Lezo: ~€23 million in proven misappropriations. • Kitchen: diverted reserved funds, ~€54,000 direct, but with an incalculable institutional impact. • Gürtel, Taula, and Brugal: tens of millions additional in commissions and inflated contracts. Overall, the direct damage to the State and taxpayers easily exceeds €400 million in documented figures, but if cost overruns, irregular awards, and the indirect impact are added, calculations raise the real cost to more than €1,000 million’. A headline from El Plural: ‘Figures from the Caso Gürtel: 750 years in prison, 200 million euros defrauded, and 94 people convicted. The epilogue of a massive scheme that operated for a decade rigging public contracts’.
Courts:
Before Judge Peinado got his teeth into Begoña Gómez, three other judges had previously said that there was no case to try.
Perhaps of more import, the Gürtel Case begins it latest (and last) session. ‘Francisco Correa and Pablo Crespo plead guilty to tax fraud in the judicial closure of the Gürtel scandal. "the Caja B," fake invoices, and hidden millions: the scheme that shook Spain comes to an end’ says Público here. We read of ‘More than 30 million euros hidden amid a network of fake invoices. The judicial investigation claims that Correa amassed tens of millions of euros in irregular commissions thanks to his intermediation in rigged public procurement contracts. These profits were hidden through a network of shell companies and international financial structures, with the aim of evading taxes…’ Wiki says of the Caso Gürtel ‘This was a major political corruption scandal in Spain that implicated hundreds of officers of the Partido Popular, some of whom were subsequently forced to resign or were suspended. Gürtel is one of the largest corruption scandals in recent European history and was linked to related scandals, including the Bárcenas case. The scandal came to public attention in early 2009, but for the most part, the suspects were not put on trial until October 2016…’
Media:
How could a Spanish right-wing newspaper rile up Donald Trump? By asking him a leading question of course. From El Plural here: ‘A surprising element has recently crept into US President Donald Trump's press conferences and appearances: leading questions about Spain and its refusal to pay 5% of its GDP in defence spending for Nato. A journalist baits the US president about the Spanish government's actions in this regard, and Trump bites, pointing out that Madrid should be reprimanded for refusing to contribute the same amount as the other members of the alliance. The person responsible is a journalist called David Alandete, the White House correspondent for the ABC’.
An article in El Común in favour of leaving Nato (with Donald Trump’s help): ‘Donald Trump, president of the United States and eternally frustrated contender for the Nobel Peace Prize—an award he apparently considers his birthright—has once again lashed out at one of his European vassals: Spain. In one of those interventions that blend insult with comedy, Trump suggested that “maybe you should expel Spain from Nato” for failing to meet the 5% defence spending target. Five percent, no less. It's no longer enough to simply double military budgets: now it's about ruining education and healthcare to buy more “patriotic” missiles, drones, frigates, and smart bombs that will one day be used—of course—to “defend freedom”…’
From Público here: ‘The far-right media agitators harassing left-wing politicians and journalists and chasing them down the street is exceeding all limits of tolerability. Their strategy is to assault them by invading their personal space and asking rude questions to see if they lose their patience. And it doesn't matter what they answer because they'll cut it off at will. Of course, their objectives are always the same, because they haven't been seen bothering Mazón, for example…’
Ecology:
‘Climate change is no longer fashionable. Spaniards rank it 36th among the problems facing the country, despite this summer's massive wave of wildfires and the fateful Valencia flooding disaster just a year ago’. An item from InfoLibre here.
Following the terrible fires in Spain’s western and north-western areas this summer, the governments of Extremadura and Castilla y León have dismissed a large portion of the firefighters who worked tirelessly during the summer conflagrations.
Various:
Eye on Spain has: ‘The price tag on used cars seems surprisingly high, often more so than in one’s home country or other major European markets like Germany. You're not imagining things. The Spanish second-hand car market operates under a unique set of circumstances that drives prices up…’
Madrid (city and region both) being conservative, the private universities are receiving the funding. Spain’s Complutense on the other hand is going broke says El País here.
Not only in Andalucía, but throughout almost all of Spain, there are numerous tangible and intangible features of the Andalusí civilization. El Legado Andalusí magazine is the place for this. A beautiful page to visit.
‘Climate change is causing increasingly extreme meteorological phenomena, including heatwaves, intense storms, and prolonged droughts. These are things that we who reside in Andalucía must learn to live with, but there is one consequence of climate change that may threaten people and the natural environment more than anything else. In recent years, the frequency and spread of forest fires have increased significantly…’ From an interesting article about the Plan Infoca – the Andalusian fire-fighting service at Eye on Spain here.
‘…In his book "Papeles que atrapan" (Comares Historia), Professor Alejandro Pérez-Olivares dissects the entire archival machinery of the Franco regime and, for the first time, explores the link between these archives and the actions of the police of the time in social surveillance and persecution of the "red" enemy (‘Los Rojos’). It is a fascinating work that recounts the research carried out through various archives by this historian specializing in political violence from the perspective of social control…’ An interesting article from Público here on the State Repression during the Franco regime.
See Spain:
Visiting a most untouristy city: ‘Situated in Campo de Calatrava, its landscape dominated by many hills, Ciudad Real offers a modern layout that has been able to maintain all the flavour of La Mancha. Better communicated thanks to the Madrid-Seville high speed train, this city offers us exceptional cuisine centred on game, cheese and wine. In addition, the Cabañeros and Las Tablas de Daimiel natural parks tell us of its rich ecosystems…’ From Spain.info.
Finally:
An oddity: Spanish Ladies (Sea Shanty) feat. Sean Dagher & Nils Brown on YouTube.
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