Galicia

Portugal had to choose where to take its AVE first. And between Madrid and Galicia, it is very clear

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It was October 2025 when the news broke. Then we learned that Madrid and Lisbon would be linked by a high-speed train in 2034. The objective set by Spain, Portugal and the European Commission is that both capitals are connected by a train that covers the journey in about three hours of travel. The first step to recover that connection is to have a line ready in 2030 with conventional trains that reopen traffic between both cities without having to change trains. The project rescues a line that It already existed in the 19th century but that time has erased. Furthermore, it follows the designs of a European Union that opts for the train over the plane and is that being able to cover this journey in 180 minutes would be a blow against air traffic, which is much more polluting. If the schedule is met, the AVE between both cities will be available almost three decades later than planned. The news, furthermore, seemed to indicate that Galicia was being relegated to the background. And the region has been fighting alongside Portugal for years to have a high-speed rail connection that structures the Atlantic axis. We now know that Portugal will prioritize Galicia over Madrid. First Galicia, then Madrid The confirmation came from the Portuguese Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, during the XXXVI Spanish-Portuguese Summit held in La Rábida (Huelva) who has indicated that he trusts that the Lisbon-Oporto-Vigo line will be completed in 2033 and, therefore, the deadlines prior to the agreement are met with Europe and Spain on Madrid-Lisbon. The words were collected in The Newspaper and it is confirmation that between Madrid and Galicia, The first place Portugal looks to is Galicia. The latest agreements to carry out trains between both cities seemed to put this connection between the Galician city and the two large Portuguese cities at risk. It must be taken into account that the first objective was for Madrid and Lisbon to already have a high-speed connection ready by 2030, the year in which Spain and Portugal (along with Morocco) will organize the Soccer World Cup. However, given the impossibility of meeting the deadlines, a delay until 2034 was agreed upon. This delay has not put at risk the Atlantic corridor in which The European Union has already invested 250 million euros (more than 750 million euros of European funds have already been spent on Madrid-Lisbon) and up to 3,000 million euros delivered by the European Investment Bank (EIB) in the form of soft loans. In Portugal they defend that the connection between their cities and the north of Spain is much more important than the link with Madrid. The high-speed project between Lisbon, Porto and Vigo had already consumed 11,000 million euros as of 2023 and, in the words of Carlos Fernandes, vice president of Infrastructure in Portugal, collected by The reason “develops our country and the centrality of our cities, and not the centrality of other Iberian cities (in relation to Madrid).” For the project to go ahead, it is necessary for Portugal to comply with the plans but also for Spain to have a high-speed exit between Vigo and Tui. From the Portuguese side, they have never denied that they prefer to prioritize the corridor towards Galicia. Pedro Nuno Santos, then Minister of Infrastructure, criticized Renfe in 2022 in an interview with The Countryensuring that they had maintained the night train between Vigo and Portugal but that on the Spanish side no one towed the trains. Right now, the trip between Vigo and Porto takes two hours and 20 minutes. That is, 140 minutes that would become only 50 minutes once the high-speed connection between both cities is consolidated. In fact, those 140 minutes are what is expected to take between Vigo and Lisbon, a huge leap by current standards. The big loser of the dispute is Extremadura. The region has been hearing for years about a Madrid-Lisbon connection that never seems to come. After years where trains have been a real headache, everything indicates that high speed should be completely ready in the region by 2030 but the delay to 2034 has been marked by the deadlines on the Portuguese side. The step forward in high speed is also key in Extremaduran mobility because, for example, it will allow connecting Madrid with Cáceres in one hour (right now it takes more than three hours) and Madrid with Mérida or Badajoz in just over an hour and a half when to reach the latter from Madrid you have to spend more than four and a half hours. Photo | Pedro Correia, Joaoalves0217 and Mstyslav Chernov In Xataka | Madrid and Lisbon will be linked by the AVE. It will only arrive (if it arrives) 24 years late

Shepherds have become the great weapon against fires. So Galicia has created a shepherding school

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“We have to put an end to that thought, when you say that you are a pastor, of ‘poorlook what he has to do.’” Speaks María Jesús Crespo, a 58-year-old Galician who has been working for more than a decade caring for a flock of sheep in Aranga, in the Betanzos region. It is not his only occupation. María Jesús also leads the Association of Sheep and Goat Breeders Ovicaone of the entities that has just activated a school for shepherds in Galicia. The objective, as Crespo insists, is to break stigmas, modernize the sector and demonstrate that in 2026, pastoring is still a completely viable profession. career pastor. If there are faculties dedicated to training doctors, pharmacists, engineers or architects, why wouldn’t there be specific classrooms for new pastors? To such a conclusion that they have just reached in Galicia, where the sector has launched a school focused on pastoralism. The initiative has the Galician Government and the sector itself behind it through Ovica and has the support of Fundación La Caixa. Its purpose: to instruct future pastors in the necessary skills to carry out their work in the 21st century, which involves not only knowing how to take care of flocks. To achieve the degree, students also need to assimilate knowledge about management and technology. 570 hours… and a lot of work. To demonstrate how ambitious the initiative is, the Xunta specifies that in total the training will cover 570 hours: 250 of theoretical training, designed above all so that the new pastors adopt an “agrarian business” approach; and 230 hours of eminently practical nature. Upon leaving the classroom, the students will apply their knowledge on farms spread across almost twenty rural towns in the province of Ourense. There they will soak up the knowledge of hard-working shepherds, like María Jesús, who explains that throughout his years of work he has even had to deal with wolf attacks. The idea is that during their weeks of practice the students prepare to know how to act when a cow goes into labor or limps. “There is a cycle of technical-economic management of a farm, issues of traceability and marketing, occupational risk, environmental awareness, agrotechnology, animal health, management, production, forage and feeding…”, explains the president from Ovica in Vigo Lighthouse. “When we talk about shepherds we tend to think of a person with a stick and a flock, but today they are agricultural businessmen. We have to change the chip and transfer that change in profile.” “It is very necessary”. María Jesús defends that the launch of the school is not a whim. On the contrary. With it, they hope to help vocations like theirs emerge and, above all, professionalize a profession that, they insist, cannot be practiced today as in the time of our grandparents. “School was necessary,” underlines. “It’s about preparing people to work in the 21st century.” Is it that important? Yes. And not only because of the economic impact of the sector. Grazing is directly related to some of the great challenges facing the country, such as rural depopulation, the sustainability of “emptied Spain” or even the fight against forest fires. Given that Galicia is one of the regions most affected by fire, the Xunta itself insisted on that idea a few days ago, during the presentation of the shepherding school. “The promotion of this training offer, in addition to encouraging the incorporation of professionals dedicated to grazing, contributes to promoting this type of extensive breeding that creates a natural barrier against forest fires and promotes a managed and productive forest,” claims. Beyond Galicia. The new grazing school in Galicia has generated expectations (a week after its presentation it already had 25 registered), but the truth is that it is not the first of its kind in Spain. In Aragón they have, for example, the shepherding school The Estiva and in Catalonia the School of Pastors and Pastorscreated in 2009 to “guarantee generational change” and promote the creation of sustainable and profitable livestock farms. Not long ago we told you how in the Valencian Community there are also a similar initiative to “empower” pastors. Images | José Antonio Serra (Flickr) and Xavier (Flickr) In Xataka | “Depopulation causes problems, urban overpopulation too”: Kike Collada, the twenty-something mayor and tiktoker of emptied Spain

The Canary Islands and Galicia have set off the Navy’s alarm bells. Russia’s ghost fleet has arrived in Spain with warships

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Since the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and, above all, after the invasion large-scale ukrainian In 2022, Russia has been perfecting a form of confrontation that avoids direct clashes and moves in the shadows of international law: hybrid war. Sabotage, energy pressure, disinformation and opaque commercial fleets have become tools as strategic as tanks or missiles, and among them the called “ghost fleet”. Now everything indicates that they have found a new route: Spain. The “fleet” arrives from the south. At the end of January 2026, a Russian tanker sanctioned by the European Union was left adrift off the coast of Almería and was escorted by Spanish Maritime Rescue to a port in Morocco without being detained. He did it despite transporting more than 425,000 barrels of refined products of Russian origin. The episode, starring a ship integrated the ghost fleet (old ships, with frequent changes of name and flag and opaque structures of ownership) showed how Spain has become a key point of passage and incident management of a system designed to circumvent Western sanctions. Something happens. In the heart of the western Mediterranean, the Russian hybrid war was beginning to materialize not with missiles, but with timely breakdowns, gray areas of maritime law and routes connecting Russian ports with North Africa under the attentive, but limited, action of the European authorities. Morocco as a hinge, the Canary Islands as an entrance. A few days later, the arrival in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria of a oil tanker from Tangier set off alarms about a possible indirect entry of Russian fuel into Spain, using Morocco as an intermediate platform. Maritime security experts stressed that it was not an illegal operation in itself, but it was an unusual route which fits with the patterns of the ghost fleet, given that Morocco lacks sufficient refining capacity and has become a common destination for oil tankers linked to Russia. The Severomorsk Destroyer in 2023 The crux. The key, they insisted, is in the loading documentation, because the origin of the product remains Russian even if there are intermediate stops. In this context, the Canary Islands appear as a vulnerable link: a lightly guarded Exclusive Economic Zone, located in the transit axis of opaque oil tankers, which reinforces the idea that Spain offers the perfect combination of geography, infrastructure and control loopholes for this new phase of the Russian economic war. Silent pressure. Finally, and in parallel to these commercial and logistical movements, the most classic dimension of Russian naval power has ended up becoming visible in Spanish waters, forcing the Navy Spanish to intensify its surveillance operations. Within a week, Spanish units have followed the transit of several Russian vessels (including the destroyer Severomorsk and a mixed military-merchant convoy) from the Strait of Gibraltar to the Atlantic, with monitoring relays off the Galician coast and constant coordination with the command centers. Hybrid war. These missions, framed in the permanent surveillance of waters of national interest, show that the phenomenon is by no means isolated: while the ghost fleet operates on the economic and logistical level, the Russian naval presence reinforces the strategic pressure about key runners such as the Alboran Sea, Gibraltar and the Atlantic coast. Spain, the perfect route. The sum of these episodes draws a coherent pattern: the russia hybrid war has left the Baltic and the North Sea to settle in the Mediterranean and the eastern Atlantic, and Spain has become one of your most effective routes. It seems clear that all those breakdowns managed without detention, indirect discharges via Morocco, fuels of dubious traceability entering through the Canary Islands and Russian military ships crossing runners strategic are part of the same logic of attrition, ambiguity and saturation that we had already seen in other parts of Europe. And as in those cases, it is not a frontal attack, but rather a constant pressure that exploits the gray areas of trade, energy and maritime security, now placing Spain at the center of a board where war is not declared, it is navigated. Image | US Navy, Mil.ru In Xataka | Russia’s ghost fleet has changed its business model. Oil has given way to a much bigger target: Europe In Xataka | For years Europe has wondered how to stop the Russian ghost fleet. Ukraine just showed you the way: with AI

Fewer and fewer teachers want to go on trips with their students. So in Galicia they are entrusting it to companies

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For students it is usually the best moment of the course, but if we talk about teachers, excursions are something else: a extra burden of responsibility and headaches. So much responsibility and so many headaches in fact that there are teachers who directly renounce participating in them. At the end of the day, a trip to the Prado, a few days visiting Barcelona or even a week in Rome is experienced differently if you are a kid willing to burn the night away than a teacher with the mission of taking care of twenty teenagers. For some faculty, this panorama is so demotivating that are turning to companies specialized. The objective: ‘outsource’ school trips. One trip, two ways to live it. Each student is a world. There are those in science and literature, extroverted and shy, responsible and brainless… but what the vast majority agree on is what is the best moment of the course: the excursions. Especially those that culminate ESO or high school, getaways of several days that involve spending nights away from home, leaving your region (maybe even the country) and savoring a dose of freedom that you normally don’t have in your daily life. It sounds exciting… unless you are not the student, but the teacher. Not given away. A few years ago Laura Gómez (Lauri Math Teacher), teacher and tiktoker, published a video which accumulates almost 145,000 likes and 2,000 comments in which he told what it is like to go on a school trip when you have to do it from the other side, that of the teachers who for a few days act as tutors-night watchmen. And its message is curious to say the least: these getaways are usually free for teachers, but even so, despite the opportunity to spend a few days of tourism in another country, many flee from that responsibility as from fire. “We’re going on a free trip” You know what? There are no teachers who want to go on study trips. In fact, many trips have had to be canceled because there were no teachers who wanted to go with them and, of course, if there are no teachers there is no trip,” the teacher reveals. The next question is obvious: Why? Why are there teachers who prefer to continue with the classroom routine rather than spend a few days in Paris, Tenerife, London, Rome… with a group of students? “You sleep between little and none.” The answer Laura’s story is quite simple: where kids see days and days of fun, freedom and more or less supervised revelry, teachers often see something else: “It’s a tremendous responsibility to go abroad with a group of teenagers, each with their father and mother. They get sick, anything happens to them… You sleep little to nothing and on top of that you have to be running around all day from one place to another.” The influencer She is not the only one who has spoken publicly about the issue. In 2024 I did it too through the pages of The Voice of Galicia José Ramón Alonso de la Torre, retired teacher from Vilagarcía de Arousa. In an article on the subject, he explained that it is one thing to accompany students on one-day cultural trips and quite another to go with them on trips of several days, often hundreds of kilometers from their homes. “The teachers back down, as has happened in some Arousa high schools, because they know they are at risk,” recognize. @laurimathteacher Would you go on a study trip?👩🏼‍🏫✌🏼🥵 ♬ original sound – ➗LauriMathTeacher➗ “What are they going to do?” “In the press there are often news stories about teachers legally accused of abandonment and abandonment because a student, while going down a slide into a pool, twisted his arm. Or because another was mugged on Paseo de Palma and had his phone stolen. And what are the poor teachers going to do, prohibit them from bathing, accompany each walker?” he was wondering Alonzo. “No, it is not easy to go on an excursion in front of 50 boys and girls ready to take on the world, especially the world at night.” Alcohol, scares, unforeseen events, nights guarding nightclubs and hotel hallways, run-ins with students from other schools… Seen that way, who would want to shoulder that enormous burden of extra responsibility? Outsourcing trips. So far nothing surprising. What is curious is what I revealed yesterday Vigo Lighthouse in a chronicle that explains how some teachers in the region are refusing to go on trips with their students. Given this scenario and to prevent kids from being left without the experience, there are centers in which the function is being outsourced directly. What does that mean? That trips are celebrated, but with teachers, but with other professionals. “Two years ago we had to call a company to travel with the children because no teacher wanted to go. This year we preferred to keep only the 4th year ESO excursions. In third year we would have to count on the company and we decided to stop doing it,” comment to Lighthouse Malores Villanueva, director of an institute in Vigo. Yours is not the only center that has covered the lack of volunteer teachers by resorting to a specialized company. “Pretty strict rules”. One of these businesses, Divertos, assures that it is not an exceptional practice, especially since the pandemic. “There are years when the same center calls us for several outings and other courses for nothing; and they call us again years later. There are promotions that are more complex than others,” comment to Lighthouse its manager, Marivíc García. The service provided not only relieves teachers of responsibility. It also marks the focus of travel. “We have quite strict rules and although at first they protest, they later get along well. They know that if they don’t comply the consequence is losing the trip,” explains Garcia before citing some guidelines they give to young people, such as not … Read more

Galicia has proposed to put an end to the “zamburiñas fraud” once and for all. So he’s already issuing fines

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The Spanish proverb warns about not being given a “cat in a hare”, but the most common deception when we talk about Spanish gastronomy of the 21st century is that they serve you a plate of volandeiras or Pacific scallops as if they were exclusive (and much more expensive) Galician zamburiñas. To an untrained eye the three bilvaves (volandeiras, scallops and scallops) are more or less similar to each other. The problem is that they are not the same and mixing their names violates regulations, represents unfair competition and (most seriously) deceives the client. That’s why in Galicia they have said enough. What has happened? That the Galician authorities they have gotten tired that in the community’s restaurants and bars they play with names, selling as “zamburiñas” dishes that actually contain two other species: volandeiras or Pacific scallops. It’s not just about passing off one thing as another. It is that, beyond the fact that the three are similar bivalves, their consideration it’s not the same. They do not match their prices. Nor its origin. Nor is its flavor exactly the same. Volandeiras and zamburiñas are shellfished in Galician banks (although with certain differences) and are usually sold fresh. The Pacific scallop is normally a frozen product that comes from aquaculture and arrives from Peru and Chile. Photos showing the exterior and interior of the right valve. Image A) corresponds to the “Mimachlamys varia” (zamburiña); B with Argopecten Purpuratus (Pacific scallop) and C with Aequipecten Opercularis (volandeira). And what have they done? Basically what the Galician authorities have done is investigate Yes, when a customer orders a portion of seafood in a bar in A Coruña, Vilagarcía, Ourense, Lugo… or any other Galician town, they are being served what they have ordered and not another product of more or less similar appearance. It’s not exactly something new. In September the local press has already advanced that the Xunta was carrying out an inspection campaign and that during the control they had found bars in which the menus advertised scallops when in reality what was served on the table were scallops or (sometimes) volandeiras. Has it stayed there? No. And that is the great news. The Voice just revealed that the controls carried out by the Resource Inspection and Control Service (SICOR) and Consumer Affairs officials have not been mere slaps on the wrist. They have also resulted in sanctions and fines. To be more precise, the newspaper speaks of the processing of just over 100 disciplinary proceedings since last summer for the use of incorrect commercial names: 53 to hospitality businesses in the province of A Coruña, 46 from Pontevedra, 14 from Lugo and 6 from Ourense. Among the ‘hunted’ there are not only bars, taverns and restaurants. There are also a few intermediaries. How much did it cost you? The Voice appointment at least one case in which the hotelier received a fine of 300 euros for advertising volandeiras and then serving scallops. The Xunta claims that before resorting to fines, a campaign was launched to remind professionals that they cannot mix terms and that a “deterrent effect” was even perceived, with hoteliers correcting their letters. Not even that has prevented there from being a hundred businesses with files. What is the problem? Basically, passing off one seafood as another (mixing commercial names) “violates traceability standards and can mislead the consumer,” the Xunta specifies. Not only does it confuse data related to traceability, but it goes against sales regulations and represents unfair competition against businesses that do respect the regulations. In fact, the problem is not limited to the zamburiñas alone. Are there more cases? That’s how it is. The majority of the files processed in Galicia are related to scallops, scallops and volanderias, but the inspectors also hunted down infractions that affect other merchandise. For example, passing off octopuses and barnacles as Galician seafood when in reality it comes from Moroccan waters. Agents also found cases in the food chain where farmed salmon and turbot were sold as wild. The Department of the Sea assures that there is no specific campaign and that the files are the result of “ordinary control work.” Regarding the sanctions, since these are minor infractions, the fines can reach 300 euros, although they remain at half (150 euros) if the offender meets certain requirements. Is there that much difference? Yes. Although in the hospitality industry we usually talk about “zamburiñas” in general, that word is reserved for a very specific species: Mimachlamys variaa sought-after bivalve appreciated for its flavor. The ‘Pesca de Galicia’ platform detailed on Monday the 26th that the kilo was priced in the markets at an average of 13.4 eurosfar above the volandeira (Aequipecten opercularis), which is also collected in Galicia, although it is more abundant. Things change when we talk about the Pacific scallop (Argopecten purpuratus), which is usually the result of aquaculture, is frozen and arrives from the coasts of Peru and Chile. The problem is that all three (scallops, scallops and scallops) are relatively similar, at least if you don’t have a trained eye. If the characteristics of their shells are known, it is easier to identify them. Does it only happen in Galicia? In 2020, a team from the University of Oviedo carried out a study which proved two things. First, the frequency with which the word Zamburiña is used “incorrectly” to refer to other species. Second, that “there exists widespread fraud in its commercialization in Asturias”. Your data is certainly compelling. After analyzing 148 different samples, they found that in 49% of the cases (73) the seafood was incorrectly labeled, presenting other bivalves, usually volandeiras, as scallops. How common is it? To complete their analysis, researchers from the University of Oviedo went to 20 restaurants and ordered dishes that were identified on the menu as “zamburiñas.” They were left wanting to taste them. “In 100% of the cases the species offered was the Pacific scallop,” reveals. The organization remembers that although there may not … Read more

In Galicia, shellfish harvesters are capturing clams and then returning them to the sea. There is a reason and it is in Canada

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The normal thing when shellfish harvesters collect clams is that this product then ends up in the fish markets and goes from these to the fishmongers, supermarkets and finally to the tables. That’s normal. Over the last few weeks in the brotherhoods of Vilanova and Rianxo, in the Rías Baixas, things have been something different: The bivalves arrived at the market, but from there they returned to the sea, a frustrating round trip for professionals that reveals a lot about the market. To understand it you have to cross the Atlantic. What has happened? The news spread a few days ago the newspaper Vigo Lighthouse. Over the last few weeks, some brotherhoods in the Arousa estuary have been forced to withdraw lots of clams from the auctions to return the catches to the sea. It happened on at least one occasion in Rianxo and two others in Vilanova, where the professionals also decided to give up two days of work. In reality, there is little mystery about it: the merchandise was quoted at prices so low that it did not even cover the minimum cost. In order not to undersell it, the shellfish collectors choose to withdraw the lots from the auctions and return the bivalves to the estuary. Was it quoted that low? It seems so. Óscar Fernández, president of the group of shellfish harvesters of Vilanova, remember that at the end of 2024 the group decided to update its prices to prevent its professionals from continuing to lose purchasing power. To be more precise, what was agreed is that the minimum rate for japonica clams would rise by two euros/kilo, going from seven to nine, and the fine clam would remain at 30 euros/kilo, ten more than before. Any quote that fell below that minimum would be discarded. Or in other words, the seafood would be removed from the market to be returned to the sea, which is exactly what they have done in Arousa. “The decision was made a year ago, but until now there had been no need to remove lots of clams from the fish market,” Fernández told Lighthouse. Among the discarded merchandise there was so much japonica clam as fine. Not only that. Faced with the prospect that the rates would not exceed the minimum, in Vilanova they chose to give up two days of work. Better that than underselling. Can it go further? That seafood moves in ‘discrete’ figures at this time of year is nothing exceptional. Summer is behind us and there are still several weeks until Christmas, so the sector is accustomed to November not being exactly a buoyant month. This fall, however, is out of the ordinary. The Galician Fishing platform sample that the average price (market) in Arousa so far this year is €15.05/kilo. They are 50 cents less than the average for 2024 and are far from the 16.38 that were reached in 2023. The figures (yes) must be handled with caution. To begin with, because they show annual averages, so those of the last two years include December. If we look at the monthly data, in October the kilo was quoted at €13.1, its lowest level since March. In November the average has risen again to 17.54. Another key is that the indicators include slimy clams, bicudasfine, blonde and Japanese. However, professionals in the area do not hide their misgivings. “When Noia opened we noticed a big drop in prices. This week they rose a little, but they are still below those of 2024,” comments Fernandez. And what are the causes? More important than prices are the factors that influence them. And the sector clearly points out two: the effect of Noia opening and the arrival of foreign products. “Seafood is coming in from other places,” says Miguel Ángel Iglesias, Rianxo’s senior boss, who warns that the problem is not so much the pressure it exerts on the native merchandise but rather certain questionable practices. “There are people who sell it as if it were from here.” Hence, a greater effort by the Xunta is missing to avoid fraud and mislabelling. “There is a consumer who is willing to pay a little more for our product and we have to prevent them from taking clams from other sources because the labeling is ambiguous,” Iglesias claims in statements to Lighthouse. Just like other branches In the primary sector, shellfish harvesters demand that the authorities demand the same standards for imported products as local products, with the same “sanitary guarantees” and transparent traceability. In the union, of course, not everyone seems to be having the same bad time: in Vilaxoán they have also noticed a drop in the price of, for example, the japonica clam, but in Cambados they have seen a rise in prices in recent days. Is it something new? Not quite. Before the production crisis suffered by the shellfish banks of Galicia, part of the industry has chosen to look for gender abroadin countries like Canada, Italy, Portugal or Morocco. I explained it a few months ago The Voice of Galicia in a comprehensive analysis in which he recalls that, although the competition from the Dutch, Portuguese or Irish bivalve comes from afar, it seems to have intensified since 2023, when (on the eve of Christmas and after strong erasures) the Galician shellfish harvesters found themselves with a challenging scenario: an increase in clam and cockle mortality. Where does the merchandise come from? Now professionals work in a market that has been forced to look for alternatives to cover the demand for seafood, which, in practice, means that the local genus must compete with bivalves from Bulgaria, Ireland, Sweden, Morocco, Portugal, Holland or Canada. “It comes from many places,” recognized in summer to The Voice Trini Lois, a good connoisseur of the Arousa fish markets. “Galicia is the only place where shellfish harvesting did not rebound. In Portugal it was at a low point, but they once again have high production and are selling.” Regarding … Read more

The week starts with rains in Galicia. It is just the beginning of a change in the pattern throughout and we are going to notice it

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We have had a truce, but we already knew that: The first half of November was going to be mild, with some rain and occasional thermal drops. And, generally speaking, that’s how it has been. Now the good thing began. And “good” right now means “rain.” Specifically, as we speak, a very active Atlantic storm (which, if all goes according to plan, will probably be named ‘Claudia’) is opening a corridor of southerly winds that will bring heavy rain in the west of the peninsula, an unusual warm advection for the month of November and, incidentally, a more than considerable episode of haze. The worst part, however, will be the Canary Islands. Are we facing the third named storm of the season? Well, as I say, everything seems to indicate yes. But it is still too early to take it for granted: the peak will be between Wednesday and Thursday, to progress in the coming days in the form of fronts. What happens is that the low will suffer the ‘push’ of a warm flow from the south that will raise temperatures and introduce a stream of Saharan dust in the country. Why is this important? In Galicia and the Canary Islands it is important because almost 200 liters per square meter can fall. And, in some areas, the problems can be enormous. However, it is something that also matters for the rest of the country. And not only because the strong winds and rains can affect large areas of the northern half of the Peninsula. Above all, because it is an example of what is going to be one of the great challenges facing meteorology in the coming years: deciding what is a problem. When should a storm have a name? A few days ago, while a storm with subtropical characteristics It caused problems (many problems) In Huelva and Seville, meteorologists discussed whether that storm should have been named. In the end, the official list of named storms seeks to improve public perception and response; and that is not something as easy as giving a name when the notices go from orange to red. What we are going to see these days is something relatively common: omega blocks, undulating jets, storm trains and atmospheric rivers. The only new thing is that They are going to grow, they are going to get stronger and they are going to do it little by little. Almost imperceptibly. What is going to happen this week is a warning to sailors: it is a trailer of the future we are going into. Image | AEMET In Xataka | The “tropicalization” of the atmosphere is going to change Spain and not exactly for the better

In Galicia some parents educated their young son at home. Now they are condemned for “irresponsible unschooling”

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He homeschooling It’s news. And it is on account of a sentence issued by a court in Vigo that has decided to impose a fine of just over 2,000 euros (with severe reproach included) on parents who decided to educate their nine-year-old son at home, removing the little one from the school in which he was enrolled for the 2024-2025 academic year. The ruling is interesting not so much for its consequences (the penalty is not high: 1,080 euros per parent) as for its arguments and because it differs from other rulings on the same topic that yes they were acquittal. One moment,homeschooling? The term may seem strange, but it is not new. In fact, it connects with a movement that started in the US in the 70s. He homeschooling It is neither more nor less than an educational option that advocates educating children at home, far from conventional classrooms and schools. Often focusing educational responsibility on parents and those who practice it stand out above all its ability to adapt to the needs of each child, its personalization and flexibility of schedules, content and spaces. How many people practice it? Hard to know. In Spain it is estimated that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 families unschoolers. If we talk about the United States, there are calculations that indicate that 3% of students between five and 17 years old receive training at home. The variety of data is explained by the lack of censuses (case of Spain) and above all because the practice does not have the same lace in all countries. To better understand the regulatory differences, it is good to take a look at the web of Homeschooling. There are nations that clearly prohibit it, others that protect it and then there are cases like Spain, where there are those who consider that home education moves in “a legal ‘gray area’”. Swampy terrain. That is why sentences like the one just handed down by a judge in Galicia arouse so much interest, especially because not all cases end in the same way. What have they judged in Vigo? What the Criminal Court number 1 of Vigo has ruled on is a very specific case: some parents from Gondomar (in Pontevedra) who decided to take their nine-year-old son out of the public school in which he was enrolled last year to educate him at home. The ruling recalls that, despite the Educational Inspection’s resolution denying deschooling and the warning from the Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office, the parents continued with their plans, betting on homeschooling and a personal itinerary. The boy attended an academy for two hours a week, but the bulk of his education depended on the program decided by his parents. And what does the sentence say? The fundamental and key of the sentence, as precise Vigo Lighthouseis the educational bet chosen by parents. The ruling speaks of “flagrant deficiencies”, an educational project that “does not meet the minimum requirements” and “irresponsible unschooling” that compromises the child’s “academic progress” and, ultimately, will condition his life. “In this case, the education provided directly and almost exclusively by the parents, basically based on their own personal criteria and ideas, without an alternative educational method to the minimally solvent official one and without some evaluative objectivity, represents irresponsible unschooling,” the judge warns in his sentence, disclosed by Lighthouse and with a resounding tone. “There is negligence in education and failures in basic care duties.” Why is it important? Where you put the focus. The sentence focuses mainly on these shortcomings and the “irresponsibility” of the child’s family. In fact the ruling insists in which the parents did not even resort to an “alternative external educational system to the official one” and selected the subjects based on “their own criteria”, without any other reference. In practice this translated into training that, in the judge’s opinion“does not meet the minimum requirements established in the regulatory framework of compulsory education.” The minor participated in activities such as bicycle outings, excursions to the forest, sailing with a jet ski, collecting chestnuts or cooking, but he received “basic” skills in fields such as mathematics or language. For example, his parents did not teach him geometry. The expert who was in charge of examining the case in fact noted a “confusion” between the family routine and the school routine and also pointed out the “privatization of socialization” of the child. Does it explain anything else? Yes. The ruling conveys an interesting message. He explains that “home education may not be criminally reprehensible,” but it must meet a series of requirements, guaranteeing that the child will receive “sufficient” training thanks to an educational system that must be “responsible and competent.” In fact, this is not the first ruling issued by the Vigo court on the subject: at the beginning of 2024 spoke about another case involving parents who educated their son at home throughout the 2021-22 academic year. The Prosecutor’s Office found a crime of “family abandonment” (the same one that has been tried now) and requested five months in prison for the parents and six months of disqualification for parental authority. What was the result? On that occasion the judge acquitted them. Although he homeschooling was underlying in both cases, the judge noted clear differences in both cases. In the 2021-2022 report, it concluded that the parents did not show “carelessness” or “carelessness” and carried out “responsible unschooling.” The little boy continued to be educated with official books, he attended various extracurricular activities and the homeschooling It only really lasted one course. In fact, a year later the minor was already attending another center again, where he continued training “with absolute regularity” and obtained good grades. Is it legal or not legal? Europa Press assures that the ruling of the Court of Vigo warns that the homeschooling It is not a legal option in our country and it is “unquestionable” that parents who do not send their children to school violate an obligation contained in the … Read more

The official story says that Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. Conspiracy theory says he escaped through Galicia

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There is nothing simpler, more fruitful and irreversible than lighting the fuse of conspiracy theories. This is demonstrated wonderfully by the fact that perhaps, and with the permission of the Neil Armstrong moon walkbe the mother of them all: the death of Adolf Hitler. Although there are recent research which show that the Fuehrer He passed away in 1945 with the help of a sip of cyanide and a bullet. Throughout the last three quarters of a century, stories have circulated, each one more outlandish than the other, placing him after May 1945 as—watch the list—a hermit in a remote italian cave, pastor in the Swiss Alps, croupier in a french casino, family man in Argentina or wandering around Ireland or Colombia. One of these theories, however, is much closer to us. And it aims for an escape worthy of Hollywood with a stop in Galicia. A well studied death. In 2018 the coroner Philippe Charlier published in European Journal of Internal Medicine a study which aroused almost as much interest among historians and conspiracy theorists as among his own pathological colleagues. The reason: corroborated that Adolf Hitler died in 1945. The conclusion is valuable because between March and July 2017 Charlier and his colleagues achieved a milestone: the Russian secret services allowed them to analyze the supposed remains of the Fuehrer which are preserved in Moscow for independent examination. Their study concludes, first, that the teeth are real because they could be identified thanks to complicated dental history of Hitler. Second, the remains show blue stains that indicate that their owner may have ingested cyanide to end his life. The researchers did not find traces of gunpowder, but they did analyze a skull fragment attributed to the Fuehrer with a hole in the left side, probably made by a bullet. Both data confirm the most accepted version about the death of the Nazi leader: Hitler died on April 30, 1945 in his bunker with Eva Braun after consuming cyanide and shooting himself. End of the speculations, then? This is certainly true for Professor Charlier, who he even guaranteed to the AFP agency that he has no doubts about the authenticity of the teeth and that his study puts an end to any conspiracy theory. “Now we can stop them all. Hitler did not go to Argentina on a submarine, he is not hiding in a base in Antarctica or on the dark side of the Moon,” the coroner insisted: “Our study proves that he died in 1945.” Of course, not everyone shares his conviction. Over the decades, theories have circulated that the Nazi leader managed to escape the bunker and the Soviet siege and started a new life in places as remote as northern Italy, the Swiss Alps, eastern France and of course Argentina, perhaps the version that has achieved the most popularity among conspiracy theorists. Why’s that? Such conspiratorial fecundity is largely explained by the circumstances in which Hitler died and date back to 1945, practically the same day of his death. On May 1, 1945, Hamburg radio broadcast without going any further a version which is quite far from what is considered official today: the chain claimed that Hitler had fallen “fighting until his last breath” and with “the death of a hero.” Little to do with a suicide with cyanide and a gun. It didn’t take long for stories to spread about an alleged murder, a brain hemorrhage, euthanasia and of course a successful escape. The end of Fuehrer did not help extinguish those stories. As the BBC remindshistory tells us that Hitler’s body was burned and ended up in a ditch in the Chancellery garden opened by a bomb. Soviet counter-surveillance agents found his body there shortly after, on May 5. The state of Fuehrer It was such at that time that, to identify him clearly, they decided to use his jaw. During the process they had the help Käthe Heusermannwho had served as Hitler’s dentist’s assistant. The remains were moved from one point to another until in 1970 it was decided to cremate them and throw their ashes. Hitler on a walk through Galicia? At the root of the conspiracy theories surrounding the end of Hitler there is a lot of geostrategy and politics, such as explains to the BBC Luke Daly-Groves, a historian at the University of Leeds, who remembers that Stalin weakened his opponents every time he claimed that Hitler could have escaped to Spain or Argentina. “Their strategy was to associate the West with Nazism and make it appear that the British or Americans must be hiding it,” agrees Anthony Beevorauthor of ‘Berlin: the fall of 1945’. With that backdrop, one of the versions that is closest to us emerged: that the Fuehrer ended up in Galicia. What it tells us such a theory is that after simulating his suicide Hitler managed to escape from the bunker, get on board a plane in the templehof airport and fly to Barcelona, ​​from where he went to Galicia. Once in Vigo he managed to board a submarine and flee to Argentina, where he lived until 1960 and started a new life with Eva Braun. another version talks about how shortly after the episode of FührerbunkerIn May 1945, a German plane arrived in Lugo with Hitler on board. There are those who even goes further and places it in the monastery of Samos. Worthy of Hollywood… and History Channel. True, the story may seem like something out of a book Dan Brown or the script of a Hollywood thriller with uchronic overtones, but Vigo’s theory has more preaching than it may seem a priori. Good proof is that a few years ago he starred in a History Channel documentary that was based, in turn, on 700 documents declassified by the FBI shortly before. There are variants about the supposed stay of the Fuehrer in Galician lands, but it is usually pointed out that he ended up getting on a submarine with which he … Read more

whether Galicia is in its zone or not

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When on Monday, October 20, Pedro Sánchez advertisement that “the Government of Spain will propose to the EU to end the seasonal time change”, he did not suspect that he was about to reopen a much more arcane and unmanageable debate: that of Galicia and its time zone. And the Galicians are good when the subject is brought up to them. A historical claim. Internet is full of examples of this proverbial Galician anger. As they say, until 1940, Galicia (and, by extension, peninsular Spain) was in the zone of the United Kingdom and Portugal. It was a “temporary” measure that became permanent. And the consequences are more noticeable in Galicia because due to its geographical position it has very late sunrises in winter and extremely late sunsets in summer. “A scientific aberration.” In what we have been doing for centuries, the Galician Nationalist Bloc has promoted again and again the proposal of place Galicia in the same zone as Portugal. What’s more, in 2016, all the Galician parties asked that Spain returned to Greenwich zone. Without much success, really. And, despite the fact that it has been defended and studied a lot, the national response It’s been a permanent no. Because? Let’s go in parts, because this has a nutshell: during the Second World War, practically all of the countries of Western Europe changed time zone. In some cases, it was because of the invasion of Nazi Germany, yes; In others, it was a (more or less) voluntary decision by the different countries. Be that as it may, one after the other, they all switched to Berlin time. However, that is not what is striking. After all, in war situations, exceptional measures are taken. What is really striking is that, after the War, none of those countries returned to their previous zone. Not just Franco’s Spain, no: everyone. And the explanation, although it may not seem like it, is much more solid than it seems. But let’s talk about time zones… When in 1912 is celebrated the ‘Conférence internationale de l’heure radiotélégraphique’ and the 24 time zone system was approved, the lecturers turned to a very specific (and very useful) astronomical phenomenon: the fact that noon is stable throughout the year. That is, noon occurs almost every exact twenty-four hours and, therefore, establishing the time of each place in the world (adopting the time zone) turned out to be something really simple and revolutionary. Satisfied, they returned to their countries aware that they were making history. The whys were very clear… Although the First World War meant that the international time convention was not ratified by its members until 1919, everyone seemed convinced. After Versaillesthe different countries began to progressively unify their schedules. It didn’t really affect us. Spain was on the Greenwich meridian since January 1, 1901, like most European countries, under the Meridian conference of 1884. But there were many countries that did have to make important changes. After all, having a different schedule for each city (as was the case until then) made everything much more complex than necessary. “Normalizing” and “standardizing” the time was a key element for the desired ‘boom’ in rail transport, airships and incipient aviation: coordination costs were beginning to be unaffordable. Martin Olalla Martin Olalla …but people had other ideas. Despite rationalist optimism, the greatest experts knew that none of this was a magic solution. In 1844, the “father of spindles” Sandford Fleming had already said that, “The adoption of correct principles of time reckoning will not change or seriously alter the habits to which they are accustomed. They will not lose anything of value. The Sun will rise and set and regulate all social usages. (…) People will get up and go to bed, start and stop working, have breakfast or dinner at the same current time intervals, and our social habits and customs will not change.” And, indeed, people continued doing their thing. The problem is that this “his” consisted of something strange: suddenly, we began to realize that societies did not establish their schedules around noon, but around dawn. The most curious thing that almost all the countries in Europe discovered when changing to the Berlin time zone is that, in reality, what they were doing was adapting the civil time to the one that citizens actually had. That’s why no one went back to the old spindle: because it works better. Martin Olalla How does it work better? The best way to summarize it is with a phrase: “in winter, when it is daytime in Ourense, in Madrid, or in Barcelona; it is not daytime in London.” In fact, it is even daytime in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This does not depend on the time zone, it depends on the fact that the sun illuminates the spherical surface of the Earth. Does it work better for all of Spain? During autumn and winter, yes. Without any doubt. In spring and summer, things are not so clear. During these seasons, the sun hits much less obliquely and this means that the sunset fits much better with the time zones. The result is that the imbalance that we carry causes nightfall in Galicia much later than would be “normal” or desirable. This is a real problem, of course. But since the central issue is the variability with which the sun affects these areas, it is also not clear that introducing an extra time zone for Galicia (in the portuguese way) or for the Balearic Islands (as has also been claimed) will solve all the problems. I would trade one problem for another — let’s remember that Portugal has been one of the countries least open to eliminating the time change. But in addition, it would generate many coordination problems and very few comparative advantages. Image | MrMingsz (Wikimedia Commons) In Xataka | The war that ended at two different times: the time change has been giving Spaniards headaches for almost a century

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