Cosas de España/Galiza  

The hunt for a Galician Rambo, in a forest I visited back in September.

The UK  

A 74-year-old man has died after crashing his e-scooter into two parked cars on on a public road in Manchester. It’s believed to be the 4th e-scooter-related death in the UK, with official figures suggesting that more than 500 people have been injured. Despite legal limitations on use, thousands of private e-scooters were given as Xmas gifts this year, leading to fears that there will be more accidents. Last year, the London Police seized more than 3,600 private e-scooters in London. Im contrast, I suspect the Spanish police have seized none, despite similar laws. Very ‘pragmatic’

It’s reported that a UK cabinet minister and her companions drank three €170 bottles of Pazo Barrantes Albariño. As far as I can see, this wine costs between 15 and 35 euros back home. I knew that UK restaurant mark-ups were routinely up to 300% on wine these days but this is surely pushing things a bit too far.

Germany

Perhaps things in the EU’s economic powerhouse are not as good as the world generally thinks they are. Says the writer of this article: The former chancellor leaves Germany weakened and divided. So . . .

Good riddance to the Merkel era

The EU

A turn-up for the books and an early sign of French ambitions after taking over the presidency of the Commission on Jan 1? . . . Germany and Austria have expressed their fury over a French victory on EU rules that would open the door to new investment in nuclear power. France and Germany are at odds over an EU proposal to classify nuclear and gas energy as ‘green’. The French Government is keen to pursue policy that the German Economy Minister has called ‘greenwashing’ and ‘wrong’  The draft plan says that gas and nuclear energies are essential for the transition to cleaner power. But the German Environment Minister says the proposal is “absolutely wrong”, while her Austrian counterpart says Vienna would sue the bloc if it passed. Interesting times.

France generates 70% of its energy from nuclear power and is leading the charge for it to be classified as sustainable. President Macron recently announced a billion-euro investment in nuclear energy expansion.

The Way of the World 

Quotes from this article:-

– How the game is played today. If you want someone silenced, you insist that their words wound, that they threaten your ‘emotional safety’. ‘I hurt, therefore I censor’ has become the motto of our age

– The would-be censors of today, who see practically anything as incitement to violence and whose sense of what constitutes harm is increasingly nebulous. ‘Harm is not always physical… It’s psychological, it’s emotional.’

– Freedom of speech simply cannot survive this notion. 

– If words are violence, then violence is a legitimate response to words.

– There is potentially no end to this. And a society that trades freedom of speech for emotional safety will soon find out it has neither.

A tyranny of hurt feelings

Spanish

Testadísimo: Tried and tested

Why do Brits use a short A for the first and third in mañana but a long A for the second?

Here’s how it should be said.

Finally . . . 

‘Different from’ is correct and ‘iconic’ is meaningless, it says here. Where there’s other good stuff.

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