Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight. And, lo, has caught the sultan’s turret in a noose of light!

Spanish life is not always likeable but it is compellingly loveable – Christopher Howse: ‘A Pilgrim in Spain’

Still on my daughter’s Mac . . . .

Cosas de España

The new regional government in The Basque Country is more nationalist than ever.​ Just.

Bottlenecks in Spanish ports will surely drive up food prices even further.

The communist Ministress of Labour is driving for trade union reps on company boards.​ Well, they have them in Germany, don’t they?

The UK

On Sunday, a national newspaper ran an article ​from a teacher who claims that today’s teenagers openly loathe their country. “The other day,” he​/she wrote, “I asked a class of 13-year-olds to raise their hands if they hated Britain. Thirty hands shot up with immediate, absolute certainty.” The teacher was not surprised. At a previous school, he/she had found that pupils were “imbued with a sense that their country is particularly bad”. This antipathy, the teacher believes, is fostered by a modern curriculum “packed with hand-wringing about Western imperialism and institutional racism” and “designed to open minds to the evils of Western civilisation”. I guess It’s possible this has gone too far . . .

The EU & The UK

​The latest bulo? New border rules under the Entry/Exit System (EES) threaten to create chaos for Brits headed across the Channel this autumn. These will require people catching the ferry at Dover [or Plymouth or Portsmouth?] or travelling on Eurostar or Eurotunnel trains to have their fingerprints and a facial photo taken before they depart, something that could trigger hours of delays as border facilities creak under the strain.

The USA

A complicated place . . . Like American culture more broadly, politics fragmented in the last decade, sending people into smaller niches which make campaigning even
more challenging. What has been characterised as “wokeness” is the biggest fault line. The anti-establishment crowd finds common ground on corporate greed and Ukraine, but not on Palestine. Populists despis​e vaccine mandates, but clash on imperialism. Feminists who dislike Biden’s approach to transgenderism won’t help organise alongside “climate deniers” who detest the President’s green industrial policy.

China

After 2 Brits were arrested for spying for China, a  spokesman for the Chinese embassy in London issued a classic of the genre: “It was completely fabricated and nothing but malicious slander to suggest Beijing was stealing British intelligence. We urge the UK to stop anti-China political manipulation and stop putting on such a self-staged political farce”. I wonder if they believe anyone outside China believes their protestations.

Iran

‘Iran is broke’: How clerics crippled the Islamic Republic. Decades of sanctions and corruption put a limit on Tehran’s war posturing. Iran used to be a prosperous nation. In the years after the 1979 Revolution, it built up a large, well-educated, cosmopolitan middle class. Now, sanctions and high inflation mean much of this wealth has been wiped out. Behind all of Iran’s posturing, there seems to be a backstop. Iran cannot afford all out war because its economy is on its knees. Let’s hope so.

The Way of the World

Two articles on the aftermath of the Cass report on transgenderism, from the fiercest (female) critics of the ‘cult’:-
– The tide has turned but there’s a long way to go.

– People are in denial following the Cass report – it’s like deprogramming cult members. The reactions of gender zealots to their folly being exposed range from notably silent to dangerously delusional

Did You Know?

There is a Miss AI pageant . . . Just what the world was waiting for.

Finally . . .

My apologies to new subscriber, Juan. Who is a genuine reader and not just someone looking for a ‘quality’ link . . .

For new readers: If you’ve landed here looking for info on Galicia or Pontevedra, try here. If you’re passing through Pontevedra on the Camino, you’ll find a guide to the city there.

If  you’re thinking of moving to Spain, go to one of my early April posts to see a link to an excellent guide on this.