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Toxic Processionary caterpillars are becoming more and more present in Spain, posing a deadly threat to pets. Keep dogs safe as authorities warn of the toxic Processionary caterpillar, a growing concern in places like Axarquia, Costa del Sol, Ibiza, Menorca, and Murcia. Pet owners soaking up the sun in Spain might want to take a break from tanning and keep a close eye on their four-legged friends – a hairy toxic menace is slithering through the streets, and it could spell disaster for some unlucky pooches. The deadly Processionary caterpillar – a name that sounds more suited to a circus...

"Israel will continue to defend its citizens and uphold its national dignity, with or without António Guterres," he concluded. Israel's foreign minister declared UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres 'persona non grata' and was henceforth banning him from entering Israel, according to a post on X/Twitter on Wednesday. The ban on entry, said FM Israel Katz, was due to Guterres's failure to "unequivocally condemn" Iran's massive missile attack on Israel. "Anyone who cannot unequivocally condemn Iran's heinous attack on Israel, as almost every country in the world has done, does not deserve to step foot on Israeli soil," Katz wrote. He...

The necropolis of Panoría is located at the easternmost end of Sierra Harana, in the town of Darro (Granada). It consists of at least 19 graves, 9 of which have been excavated between 2015 and 2019. They are collective burials from which more than 55,000 human skeletal remains were recovered. The dating of these remains shows that the first burials took place 5600 years ago with a discontinuous funerary use until 4100 years ago.Bioarchaeological AdvancesIn a recent study published in the prestigious journal Scientific Reports, the use of new bioarchaeological methods has allowed the identification of chromosomal sex from the...

In June, the two most important heads of state in the Western Hemisphere met in San Salvador. Merco Press reported at the time, “On his way back from California, Argentine President Javier Milei stopped in El Salvador for Nayib Bukele's new inauguration ceremony, which was also attended by other heads of state and government, such as King Felipe VI of Spain with whom he exchanged a brief moment that caught the eye given the recent diplomatic crisis with the Socialist administration of Pedro Sánchez.” The two men have emerged as reformers of sloppy governments in their country. They threw down...

Opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia had no choice but to flee Venezuela for exile in Spain to save his own life amid a “brutal wave of repression” after disputed presidential elections, the leader of the opposition Maria Corina Machado said Sunday. Gonzalez Urrutia, who the opposition says it can prove won July 28 elections in which strongman Nicolas Maduro claimed a widely questioned victory, arrived in Spain Sunday after a month in hiding in the crisis-hit South American country. The choice for him to leave was made as “his life was in danger,” Machado said on X. Gonzalez Urrutia had...

Mark Saxby, 56, says he’s been left in limbo due to Spanish authorities’ ‘petty’ concerns about his medical insurance. A British teacher has expressed deep anxiety about returning to his Spanish home amid a three-year struggle to secure post-Brexit residency. Despite the EU-UK withdrawal agreement guaranteeing residency rights for those in the country before Brexit, Mark Saxby, 56, feels trapped in a bureaucratic nightmare. Saxby moved to Valencia and purchased a property in early 2020, but a missing month of medical insurance during the first year after the UK left the EU has led to repeated denials of his residency...

International Bat Night is global celebration of bats, organised by Eurobats. Normally it would take place at the end of August, but with the holiday season in full swing and noisy nights in Casares, they decided to shift it to mid-September this year. Casares will experience the ‘Night of the Bats’ on Friday, September 13. The batty organisation ‘Euro Bats’, as every year at this time, is hosting talks, exhibitions and an evening workshop on bat locations using radio frequency-location devices. Beginning at dusk, they give talks about the important role these mammals play in nature, their benefits and problems....

Woke is not what it used to be. For some years, the term was used to describe those who are sensitive and involved in the struggle against social injustice, especially in U.S. politics, but also in the politics of other countries following suit perhaps to a lesser degree. Woke was a label proudly worn by activists in pursuit of social and climate justice: from Black Lives Matter to the #MeToo movement and the fight against global warming. Woke seemed to advocate a new era of equality and justice Now, however, the concept is being turned on its head by a...

Until now, experts wondered how it was possible that in the middle of the Neolithic period, more than a thousand years before the first pyramids of Egypt were built, these enormous stones could be moved and placed with millimetric precision, orienting them towards the sunrise for astronomical purposes. The 32 stones that make it up weigh about 1,140 tons. Of these, the largest — and the one that covers the back of the chamber — weighs 150 tons. This is the largest slab that was moved during the megalithic phenomenon in the Iberian Peninsula and the second-largest in Europe.

A team of researchers from Sweden and Spain have conducted a comprehensive archaeogenetic study on a community that lived on the border between the northern Christian kingdoms and Al-Andalus during the early Medieval period. This dynamic era, especially in the Iberian Peninsula, was marked by religious competition, power struggles, and significant human mobility—factors that shaped the foundation of modern Europe.In the study, published in the journal Science Advances, the researchers focused on Las Gobas, a rural site in northern Spain's Burgos province, near the village of Laño. The community existed from the mid-6th to the 11th century and is notable...

After analyzing a submerged bridge found in a Spanish cave, researchers have determined that humans inhabited the area earlier than previously thought.A submerged, human-constructed limestone bridge found inside a cave on a Spanish island is much older than previously thought, pushing back the record of when humans inhabited the location, a new study finds.Researchers discovered the limestone bridge in 2000 during a scuba-diving expedition inside the flooded cave in Mallorca, a Mediterranean island located off the eastern shore of Spain's mainland. At the time, researchers determined that the 25-foot-long (7.6 meters) bridge, which consists of large limestone blocks stacked on...

According to a Phys.org report, a team of archaeologists, historians, geologists, and physicists led by José Antonio Lozano Rodríguez of the Canary Islands Oceanographic Center and the University of Alcalá examined the Menga dolmen, a megalithic monument built in what is now southern Spain some 6,000 years ago, to learn more about how it was constructed. The structure consists of stone walls topped with a stone ceiling supported by stone pillars. Some of these stones weigh more than 160 tons. The researchers suggest that the stones were quarried about one-half mile away and transported to the site on sledges dragged...

Maria del Carmen Garcia was sentenced to nine-and-a-half years in jail for the killing, which was later reduced to five-and-a-half years on appealA mother was overcome with devastation as she received a jail term for setting her daughter's rapist on fire and burning him to death after his release from prison. Maria del Carmen Garcia couldn't bear the sight of her daughter Veronica's attacker, Antonio Cosme, after he was freed. At the tender age of 13 in 1998, Veronica suffered a brutal rape at knifepoint by Cosme, their neighbour, who was originally given a nine-year sentence. However, during a day...

The wine in the glass urn. Credit: Juan Manuel Román The oldest wine ever discovered, originating from Andalusia, is a white wine over 2,000 years old. A 2019 excavation in Carmona revealed the oldest wine ever discovered, preserved in a man’s tomb for 2,000 years, highlighting significant aspects of Roman funerary rituals and societal gender norms. In 2019, a Roman tomb in Carmona was uncovered, revealing the remains of six individuals—Hispana, Senicio, two other men, and two women, whose names remain unknown. These inhabitants from 2,000 years ago likely never envisioned their funerary rituals gaining significance in the modern era....

An Italian man has simultaneously tested positive for monkeypox, HIV and COVID-19 after returning home from a holiday, according to a paper published in the Journal of Infection. The 36-year-old reported having intercourse with men without a condom during a five-day Spanish holiday from June 16 to 20. Nine days after his trip, he developed a fever, sore throat, fatigue and headache before testing positive for COVID-19 on July 2.

Ah, olive oil. The golden elixir that has graced everything from the most luxurious Mediterranean feasts to the humble kitchen counters of suburban America. It’s been hailed as the heart-healthy darling of the culinary world, the so-called “nectar of the gods,” worshipped almost as fervently as the wine it accompanies. But is this liquid gold as divine as we’ve been led to believe, or is there something more nefarious lurking beneath its glossy surface? Let’s start with the basics. Olive oil is one of those pantry staples that’s been given an almost holy status. We’re told it can do no...

The world’s oldest known person has died aged 117, her family have announced. Maria Branyas Morera died peacefully in her sleep, having survived two pandemics, two world wars and Spain’s civil war. Her family wrote on X: “Maria Branyas has left us. She died as she wished: in her sleep, peacefully and without pain. We will always remember her for her advice and her kindness.” Branyas, who lived for the past 20 years in a nursing home in Olot, north-eastern Spain, had said that she was feeling “weak” before passing away. “The time is near. Don’t cry, I don’t like...

...at the Casas de Turuñuelo archeological site in Guareña, Badajoz — where a huge 2,500-year-old two-floor building is being unearthed — ...the Tartessian culture... between the 9th and 5th centuries B.C... In addition to fabulous material riches — gold, bronzes and ivories — and constructive elements that were of the caliber of the most sophisticated of the time in the Mediterranean region, five unusual sculptures were recently uncovered.The find constitutes the remains of five almost life-sized stone busts that not only provide a new twist in the investigation of the Tartessos, but also reveal for the first time faces that...

When archaeologists on a dig in southern Portugal last year flipped over a heavy chunk of slate and saw writing not used for more than 2,500 years, they were elated. The enigmatic pattern of inscribed symbols curled symmetrically around the upper part of the rough-edged, yellowish stone tablet and coiled into the middle in a decorative style typical of an extinct Iberian language called Southwest Script. "We didn't break into applause, but almost," says Amilcar Guerra, a University of Lisbon lecturer overseeing the excavation. "It's an extraordinary thing."

Spaniards search for legendary Tartessos in a marsh By Sinikka Tarvainen May 11, 2007, 11:28 GMT Madrid - Where was the capital of Tartessos, the legendary pre-Roman civilization which once existed on the Iberian Peninsula? The culture which flourished from around 800 to 500 BC is believed to have been located mainly around the present-day cities of Cadiz, Seville and Huelva in southern Spain, but no traces of a major urban settlement have been found. Now, however, scientists have discovered surprising clues to where a major Tartessian city may have been, the daily El Pais reported. Its ruins could lie...