Here is The Leader daily briefing with the news from around Spain, things to do locally, the forecast for the day, and other notable events Today in Spain.
News Around Spain
On Wednesday, will know the data on inflation in the United Kingdom and the Eurozone. At the same time, the UK production price indices will be known. Macroeconomic references that will show the evolution of prices in the last month of the year and will help to indicate the degree of dynamism of the European economies.
The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the Royal Decree that regulates certain aspects related to the manufacture, presentation and marketing of tobacco and related products. In such a way that the sale of heated tobacco (such as some vapes) that contains aromas is prohibited and those others which can still be sold will require labelling to include warnings that it is harmful to health, assigning those products that can still be sold with traditional smoking items such as cigarettes. The ban will enter into force three months after the publication in the BOE, state bulletin. The regulation only affects heated tobacco products and not all vaping devices.
The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla y León, in a pioneering ruling in Spain, has condemned Sacyl, the regional health body, to compensate the relatives of a patient who died after contracting Covid-19 at the Río Carrión Hospital (Palencia). The deceased was admitted for a pathology unrelated to Covid-19 and was infected in the health centre itself when she was admitted with a Covid patient. The family do not want to disclose the compensation amount, but wish to make the matter public to avoid a situation reoccurring.
The first section of the Provincial Court on the island of Ibiza will begin to hear evidence from today, Wednesday, against two men, both in prison since December 2022, when the events occurred, for alleged crimes against public health. They are a Spaniard and a Paraguayan who were caught with 5 hashish tablets that totalled more than 470 grams of weight, a bag with more than 180 grams of cocaine and another with almost 10 grams of marijuana, worth more than 10,500 euro. They face prison sentences of 4 and 5 years, respectively, as well as fines of 33,000 and 22,000 euro. In the case of the Paraguayan citizen, the Prosecutor’s Office accepts that the prison sentence be replaced by his expulsion from the national territory for a period of 7 years.
The Fifth Section of the Provincial Court of Valencia will begin to hear evidence from today, Wednesday, against a man and a woman accused of having defrauded 42,995 euro from a company interested in the purchase of nitrile gloves in May 2020, in the midst of the covid pandemic. The Public Ministry demands for both one year and three months in prison for the crime of forgery and two years and six months for fraud, in addition to a fine of 2,700 euro and the return of the aforementioned amount, plus legal interest.
Representatives from the EU will meet the press today to explain new rules aim to improve product labelling, fight greenwashing and help consumers make informed choices while shopping. The new directive bans the use of general environmental claims without proof, regulates the use of sustainability labels and creates a new harmonised label to allow goods with a longer guarantee to stand out more. Following the plenary green light and afterwards the formal adoption by the Council, the text will become a law and member states will have 24 months to transpose it into national legislation.
To read these articles in full, visit SpainToday.news
Things to Do Today
Today is a local holiday in San Fulgencio for their patron saint festivities, and talking of patron saints, today is the Catholic feast of San Anton de Abad.
Those of a religious or belief persuasion may already be aware that in those circles Anthony the Great was a Christian monk from Egypt, revered since his death on this day in 365 AD as a saint.
He is buried in France. The significance of this day is that in the Catholic church you can take your pet to be blessed, although in many churches animals are not allowed inside, so the blessings take place outdoors.
As today is Wednesday, some of the blessings took place last weekend, and some will take place this coming weekend, but many more will take place today.
In Torrevieja, the blessings take place today in the Sacred Heart church at 17:45, and the Immaculate Conception at 18:00, then on Sunday at the church in La Mata at 10:15.
The Pascual Flores pilot boat is open for visitors in Torrevieja on Wednesdays through to Sundays until 29 January.
The Youth Orchestra of Torrevieja will be performing in the Real Club Nautico in Torrevieja tomorrow evening, and there is a show in the municipal theatre tomorrow, El novio de España.
In the Casa de Cultura in Guardamar del Segura a collective exhibition of the works of young creators in different fields of plastic arts, photography, fashion design, and drawing is on until Saturday 20 January. A second collection, featuring “new perspectives” is also on in the same venue until February 4.
For more local events, pick up The Leader newspaper every Monday, and This is Torrevieja for Torrevieja events.
Local Markets
Midweek markets can be found today at Guardamar del Segura, La Mata (Torrevieja), San Isidro, and San Miguel de Salinas.
The roads will of course be busy around those locations.
Traffic and Travel
There is nothing significant planned or expected on the roads of Spain all week, although weekends are expected to be busy, just remember if you´re going inland to higher ground that there is a chance of snow.
Flight wise, not such a smooth day is expected in the air. Although the number of scheduled flights is lower than it has been all week, with around 19,900 flights across Europe, widespread disruption is expected due to snow and freezing rain with high delays and flight reduction programs in force across the Euro Control Network all day today. Managers are continuing to coordinate with the impacted areas, airports and airlines, with a widespread potential diversion protocol already established. As always, check with your airline and subscribe to alerts, if they provide them.
Low pressure covering most of Europe bringing moderate to strong winds, snow, and freezing rain across Scandinavia, Northern France, Benelux, Germany, the Alpine region and East Europe with a risk of reduced visibility and ceilings.
We still have the Air Traffic Control equipment testing in Paris affecting French air space, and the World Economic Forum in Davos, mainly affecting the Zurich area by a range of military restrictions in force.
Industrial action continues in Bordeaux until 17:00 today, but as has been the case, it is not expected to have an impact due to minimum service guarantees.
A military test flight will take place this morning in Turkiye.
We will look at the history of Spain shortly with On This Day, but locally, it was 4 years ago today that there was widespread disruption at Alicante airport due to a fire last night in the roof of the VIP lounge. As a result, Corvera experienced what it was like to be busy.
For information and updates about driving in Spain, visit N332.es
Weather
Things are going to get cooler again towards the weekend, for the next 10 days, the forecast is for today to have the highest temperature at 22°c, whereas the lowest will be back down to 9°c on Monday. The windiest day is expected to see wind of up to 47 kmph this Friday. There´s also a possibility of patchy rain on Friday and into Saturday, which is a bit of a shame because Torrevieja Carnival starts on Friday.
Notable Events
1966 two American planes collided near the coast of Spain. Four atomic bombs fall, three in the vicinity of Palomares and another in the vicinity of Almería.
1980 a Spanish destroyer is machine-gunned in Sahrawi waters by a Moroccan fighter.
1986 the protocol establishing diplomatic relations between Israel and Spain is signed in The Hague.
1997 tens of thousands of people demonstrate throughout Spain to demand the freedom of Cosme Delclaux and prison official Ortega Lara, kidnapped by the terrorist group ETA. The demonstration marked a year to the day that Lara was kidnapped.
2001 the so-called “Barcelona commando” of the terrorist group ETA tries to kill radio host Luis del Olmo with a car bomb.
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