France and Spain race to control fires as new heatwave hits

Fire crews across Spain and France are battling to contain some of the worst wildfires Europe has ever experienced. Firefighters in Spain managed to stabilize several of the blazes, and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez says there is a "light at the end of the tunnel" in their fight to contain the flames. But another heatwave is predicted for later this week, threatening to worsen an already desperate situation across the region.

 

Spain - Water scarcity in a vacation paradise

Water shortages in southern Europe are becoming an increasingly ominous problem. In Spain, the situation in 2023 is so acute that the worst-hit region of Catalonia had to introduce drastic water-saving measures back in April.
 

Has the Rubiales affair forced a reckoning with sexism in Spain‘s football and society?

 

The controversy around the Spanish Football Federation President Luis Rubiales shows no signs of dying down. Prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether his action amount to criminal sexual assault. Rubiales had kissed Spanish player Jenni Hermoso on the lips at the medals ceremony following their victory in the Women's World Cup final.

Ibiza: The birth of the 'party island'

 

In June 1973, the nightclub Pacha opened in Ibiza and started Ibiza's 'party island' reputation

Other clubs with the capacity to fit thousands of people on the dance floor opened in the years after, turning Ibiza into a destination for music and party lovers from around the world.

Carlos Martorell tells BBC Witness History how he came to the island in the 1960s and spotted its potential. He then went on to organise Pacha’s opening night party.

Calls for probe into migrants deaths in Spanish enclave of Melilla | DW News

 

International organizations and rights groups are calling for an independent investigation into the deaths of migrants who were trying to enter from Morocco into Spain's enclave of Melilla to get to Europe.

Peru in dispute with oil company over massive spill | DW News

 

The government of Peru says an off-shore oil spill is twice as big as previously reported. It's now confirmed that 12,000 barrels of oil leaked into the sea two weeks ago at a refinery owned by the Spanish oil company Repsol. Peru's government has demanded compensation but Repsol says it was an act of nature.

Migrant Who Saved Drowning Man in Spain Fights for Citizenship

 

This 26-year-old undocumented Senegalese migrant in Spain saved an elderly man from drowning — now thousands are fighting for his citizenship.

The Evictors: In the Name of the Law? | DW Documentary

 

In Barcelona, housing prices have been rising for years and the Corona crisis has only made things worse. Many residents can no longer pay their rent or make the payments on their mortgages. Then it’s up to Paco, the bailiff, to evict them.

Canary Islands become migration crisis' latest refugee hotspot

While the struggle continues for a European solution for the migrants on Lesbos, the next refugee drama is unfolding at another European external border, the Canary Islands. More than 4,000 African migrants have arrived on Spain's Canary Islands since the beginning of the year.
 

What would a coronavirus second wave look like?

Covid-19 cases are climbing – in Germany and beyond. The attempt to return to normalcy has thwarted social distancing measures. Authorities fear holidaymakers will bring the virus with them. So there are now tests at airports to help curb that risk. No one wants a second wave of the coronavirus or another wave of pandemic lockdowns.

Second wave of pandemic may be underway in Europe warns Boris Johnson

There are signs of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic in parts of Europe according to Boris Johnson, who's been defending his government's handling of the crisis and the sudden imposition of quarantine on travellers from every part of Spain. The Spanish prime minister is among those criticising the decision. Pedro Sánchez said tourists in most regions of Spain are less at risk from coronavirus than in the UK.

Travel and migration: Latest news from the COVID-19 pandemic

The Spanish government says the country is safe to visit, despite a surge in coronavirus cases. The statement comes after the UK reimposed a quarantine on travellers returning from Spain. With a cluster of new outbreaks in Barcelona, residents there fear tighter restrictions.

Spain lets kids out to play after 6 weeks of coronavirus lockdown | DW News

Spain imposed strict lockdown rules in March to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Now the sound of children playing has returned to the country's streets. They've emerged from six weeks of home isolation after the government allowed them to go outside again. If the nation continues to reduce the infection rate, authorities have promised to give citizens more freedom in the coming weeks.

Ex-soldier's death casts light on Spaniards who helped liberate Paris

Rafael Gómez Nieto, who has died from coronavirus, was last survivor of WW2 La Nueve force

The death from coronavirus of a 99-year-old former soldier who was the last surviving member of a company of predominantly Spanish troops who helped liberate Paris from Nazi occupation has thrown a spotlight on one of the lesser-known events in French history.

Rafael Gómez Nieto, who fought against Franco in the Spanish civil war before joining the allied war effort, died after contracting Covid-19 in a nursing home in Strasbourg.

Gómez Nieto grew up in a town in the Almería region of Andalucía, the son of a career soldier who had been part of the royal guard to the Spanish king Alfonso XIII.

After fighting as part of the republican forces in the civil war – and seeing action in the four-month Battle of the Ebro, considered to be the conflict’s longest and bloodiest battle – he crossed the border into France along with about 500,000 of his compatriots.

Spanish soldiers discover abandoned retirement homes China to ease restrictions | Corona Update

In Spain, the defence ministry says soldiers helping to fight the Coronavirus pandemic have found elderly patients in retirement homes abandoned and, in some cases, dead in their beds. Prosecutors have launched an investigation. Our correspondent Jan-Philipp Scholz has been listening to how Spanish people have been coping with more than a week in lockdown. Meanwhile Hubei, the province at the centre of China's coronavirus outbreak is to lift travel restrictions on Wednesday.

What's behind the seizure of the Iranian oil tanker in Gibraltar?

Iran condemned 'illegal' seizure of oil tanker in Gibraltar and demanded its immediate release.

An Iranian oil tanker is at the centre of a growing international dispute.

British marines boarded and seized the ship on Thursday as it was sailing near Gibraltar, a British territory on Spain's south coast.

The UK believes it was violating European Union sanctions by carrying Iranian oil to Syria.

Spain said it was the United States that ordered the vessel be stopped.

Iran condemned what it called an illegal interception.

Europe’s most fortified border is in Africa

The sixth and last Vox Borders episode deals with a border between Morocco and Spain. The journey to asylum is never easy. And perhaps no one knows this better than would-be African migrants to the European Union. In North Africa, on the border of Morocco, there's a Spanish town called Melilla. It's technically Europe. So undocumented migrants and refugees, asylum seekers, wait in limbo for a chance to scale the fence and apply for asylum in Europe. It's the first of many, many hurdles. And it's a tall one.

Catalan parliament declares independence from Spain

Catalonia: tracking independence movements across Europe

The Catalan parliament has voted to declare independence from Spain.

Seventy lawmakers voted in favour, 10 voted against, while two cast blank ballots. 

The decision was made during a secret vote in Barcelona on Friday afternoon.

The names of those who voted for independence was withheld, as the Spanish attorney general promised to charge those who voted in favour of independence with “rebellion”.

The declaration comes as the Spanish government is set to vote on the application of Article 155 of the Constitution, which allows Madrid to directly administer the breakaway region.

Dozens of members of the Catalan Socialist party (PSC) walked out of the chamber before the vote, as did MPs from the centrist Ciutadans party and the conservative People’s party. Some left Spanish and Catalan flags on their empty seats.

Opponents of independence accused the regional president, Carles Puigdemont, and his allies of ignoring the views of the majority of Catalans who wish to remain part of Spain.

Catalonia referendum: One country, two stories

As Catalans head to the polls, what does independence mean for both sides? Plus, Mexico's diverse community radio.

Catalonia referendum: One country, two stories

As Catalans go to the polls in an unofficial referendum on independence this weekend, Spain's media landscape approaches peak polarisation. Much of the coverage of the referendum by Spanish and Catalan media has looked like one part journalism and one part propaganda.

On the one hand, much of the national, Madrid-based media - notably Spain's public broadcaster TVE, stand accused of denying pro-independence voices a fair hearing. On the other, critics charge Catalan outlets like the widely watched TV3 with indoctrinating Catalans rather than informing them.

Meanwhile, Catalonia's pro-independence President Carles Puigdemont, himself a former journalist, has been busy courting international media in an attempt to bend the global narrative towards the independence agenda.

Spanish police 'stop second attack'

Spanish police say they have killed several people in Cambrils to stop what they say was a second attempted attack after a car attack in Barcelona.

Police warned people to stay off the streets, with shots reported in the port of Cambrils.

Thirteen people died and dozens were injured when a van ploughed into crowds in Barcelona's Las Ramblas area on Thursday afternoon.

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said it was a "jihadist attack".

Las Ramblas van driver remains at large

The hunt continues for the driver of the van who killed 13 people in Las Ramblas and injured 100 more.

The Catalan interior minister, Joaquim Forn, said on Friday morning that the Barcelonaattacker remains at large.

Police shot dead five other suspects in Cambrils after a second terror attack in the early hours of Friday morning. Authorities say the two attacks are linked.

Forn told local radio RAC1 early Friday:

[It] follows the same trail. There is a connection.

Both are also being linked to an explosion in Alcanar, around 200km from Barcelona and 90km from Cambrils, which destroyed a house, killing one person. Police say the property was being used to prepare explosives.

What we know about those killed and injured

Barcelona

• 13 people are confirmed to have died after a van was driven into pedestrians in Las Ramblas.
• Around 100 people were injured, at least 15 of them seriously.
• Two men have been arrested – including Driss Oukabir, who was initially suspected of being the driver – but police have now said neither man was behind the wheel. They remain in custody.
• Police are still searching for the driver.

Cambrils

• Six bystanders were wounded, one critically and another seriously, in a second terror attack in which a vehicle was driven at pedestrians in an echo of the Barcelona attack.
• Police shot dead four suspects in the coastal town, around 120kms from Barcelona. A fifth, who was injured and arrested, has since died. Some were wearing what appeared to be explosive belts.
• A police officer was also slightly injured in the counter-terror operation.

Alcanar

• Before the attack in Las Ramblas, one person was killed and at least one other wounded in an explosion that destroyed a house in Alcanar, around 200km from Barcelona and 90km from Cambrils.
• The cause was initially thought to be a gas leak but police now say they are linking it to the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils.