Awake, for morning in the bowl of night has flung the stone that puts the stars to flight

And, lo, the hunter of the east 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/Galiza

Spain is no longer a pariah, says Trump. So, the trade that was never going to stop can continue unstopped.

A big Gib development: The dissolution of the land frontier will be the biggest change to a British Overseas Territory since Britain handed back governance of Hong Kong to China in 1997 and will end hundreds of years of border disputes between Gibraltar and Spain. It also apparently opens up a loophole for Brits wanting to evade the 80/190 days rule. Buy property there and cross the border when and for as long as you like. Illegally but without repercussions.

It’s the week of bull-running up in Pamplona. The 4 so far this week have all been short – c. 2mins 50s – and ‘uneventful’. Meaning that no one in the reckless horde was gored.

There was chaos in Galicia’s train stations on both Wednesday and yesterday, after the latest in a series of breakdowns affected many train services. Despite paying the highest (monopoly driven) prices in Spain, we are clearly short-changed as regards maintenance of the line and the trains. Not to mention the terrible Talgo Avril S106 train, I’ve written about. [The main complaints have been about operational reliability. Issues include electrical faults, door problems, software bugs, power-supply failures, noise and uncomfortable vibration levels].

A piece of advice for those new to Spain – After you’ve been served in a shop, make eye contact, smile and say the appropriate goodbye, depending on the time of day. Always recalling that ‘morning’ in Spain extends until lunchtime – 2-3pm.

Europe/The EU

The far right is said here to be winning the culture war among Europe’s young folk.

Brussels rules out suspending the troublesome new EES border controls at Spain’s airports – and blames local mismanagement for the bottlenecks

Is the EU prepared for hotter temperatures?

The World Cup

France’s match with Morocco sums up this diverse, multicultural World Cup.

A nice article on Argentina’s ‘Messi strategy’.

The Middle East War

The latest update from Naked Capitalism. Confusing signals. Predictably, there are new and not-convincingly sourced reports on negotiations with Iran being back on. 

The United States of Trump America

Trump Quotes

• I predicted everything. I’ve been right about everything.
• And I have been for a long time. That’s how I got to be president three[sic] times. That’s how I won three[sic] elections.  [It’s quite possible he’s madder than George III and believes all this.]
• Communism is easy to sell. I’d be the world’s greatest communist. [Being idiotic is also easy. so . . . ].

Others’ Quotes.

• The USA’s carefully crafted diplomatic statements are increasingly a relic and what Trump says at one meeting might not represent his views at the next.
• Trump relishes his own unpredictability.

Nice piece by David Rothkopf: Trump’s Unhinged NATO Stunts Turned a World Summit Into a Zoo. His trip to the NATO summit was not just the latest fiasco in his all-fiasco-all-the-time agenda for his second term. It was a shocking display of his ever more egregious unfitness to be president. Or walking around in public.

The: WSJ: How Trump’s tariffs really ‘work’. Trump is grasping for good economic news to rescue his underwater job approval rating. So it’s not surprising that he’s hailing Toyota’s announcement Tuesday that it will expand truck production in Texas. This is a deflection from the dismal reality that his border taxes are raising costs and have failed to usher in a manufacturing renaissance. . . . The President is right that his tariffs are at work—in destroying U.S. jobs and raising prices.

Spanish

• Baldeo: Washdown, hosing down, sluicing
• Engalanar: Decorate, spruce up, deck
• Escoría: Scum, slag, dross.

Did you know?

Pop culture fun facts.

Finally . . . You Have to Laugh. Or Cry.

My thanks to those readers who take the trouble to Like my posts..

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. If you do this but don’t read the posts, I will delete your subscription. So perhaps don’t bother if you have other reasons for subscribing . . .

I can also be read on X at Thoughts from Galicia. And on Substack here. I no longer post on Facebook.

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, this link should be useful to you.