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’

Cosas de España . . .

Politics . . . The (exiled) Catalan separatist, Sr Puigdemont, has Sánchez-like ambitions . . .    

The VdG this morning: Inteligencia artificial a la española: Una de las críticas a la inteligencia artificial generativa es que es «demasiado anglosajona» en su forma de trabajar. España ha decidido tener su propia IA con dos requisitos esenciales: debe estar entrenada en castellano y en las lenguas cooficiales, y ha de ser transparente y abierta. El Gobierno ha creado para ello a Alia, la inteligencia artificial a la española, que estará en funcionamiento después del verano. Será una de las bases de la estrategia nacional en IA.

Those pesky new tourism rules come into force today.

Unai Emery is one Spaniard who’s very popular in the UK at the moment. And in the home of Tom Hanks, an ardent supporter of Aston Villa, it seems.

The UK

A nice hatchet job on the egregious Russel Brand and his new celebrity friend.

The USA

it’s certainly possible . . . Stormy Daniels can’t hurt Trump. Americans dislike him – but many will vote for him anyway.It’s not only Republicans who will see this trial as a witch hunt.

China

Beijing is exporting totalitarianism to the west, aimed primarily at her diaspora communities – Hong Kongers, Uyghurs, Tibetans and Chinese dissidents

The Way of the World

• A pretty shocking article
• Why Greta Thunberg  is wearing a Keffiyeh . .  The 20th-century model of pseudo-rebellious youthful self-definition via music and clothing was scuppered by the internet.  . . The locus has migrated from music and fashion to political opinions, as testified by the booming podcast and political influencer economies.

Quote of the Day

Identity is no longer seen as something grounded in the reality of our existence and shaped through our daily endeavours. Rather, it is something we can uncover by spitting into a test tube. This is not a self we create, but a self we get sent via a lab report. ‘Family’ has similarly been redefined. It is not people we are related to, who we build relationships with through rough and smooth over the course of our lives. Instead, it is the complete strangers we meet one day and will likely never see again. Think Mehghan and her homeplace, Nigeria.

Covid

The truth about Covid’s origins is finally coming out.

English

• Earnt: A variant of the past tense verb form of the word “earn”. It is commonly used in British English[??] and is considered a valid spelling of the word “earned”. According to the Wiktionary, “earnt” is correct but not common. In modern-day usage, the only accepted spelling is earned in all forms of English. As this happens with burned/burnt and learned/learnt, I wonder if it happened with all PPs ending ned. But see turn/turned. Never ‘turnt’. See also spelled/spelt and lighted/lit. Funny language
• Cuckooing: Where a person is targeted by criminals, who take over their home and use it for crime. These are then used to store drugs or weapons, or for other activities such as prostitution. It’s not a criminal offence per se but that is not to say that the police and local authorities are ignoring the problem; it’s just that they don’t have the laws at their disposal to deal with such a takeover of someone’s home.

Finally . . .

A cycling road junction in Cambridge is so confusing that council bosses have made a video guide explaining how to use it. The junction is based on Dutch intersections where there are far more cyclists than in the UK. A ver . . .

The Usual Links . . .

You can get my posts by email as soon as they’re published. With the added bonus that they’ll contain the typos I’ll discover later. I believe there’s a box for this at the bottom of each post. I guess it’s logical that this doesn’t appear on the version given to me . . .

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.

https://thoughtsfromgalicia.com

For those thinking of moving to Spain:- This is an extremely comprehensive and accurate guide to the challenge, written by a Brit who lives in both the North and the South and who’s very involved in helping Camino walkers. And this is something on the so-called Beckham Rule, which is beneficial – tax-wise – for folk who want to work here.