All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.
ECONOMY

These are some of the best companies to work for in Spain

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It is often said that people come to a company, but leave a boss.. And the truth is that this expression quite well summarizes the key role that middle managers (or managers, as experts in the management of human resources of organizations prefer to call them) currently play in achieving a pleasant work environment.

A company's talent policies may be very advanced and aimed at placing its professionals at the center of the entire business strategy, but their effectiveness will be minimal or even null if the transmission belt with employees fails.. And that link between the human resources department and the workforce are the bosses or managers, whose role was widely analyzed during the first Observatory of The Best Companies to Work For, recently organized by ACTUALIDAD ECONÓMICA.

Five companies that operate in very different sectors participated in this colloquium, but they agree on the idea that a good work environment, with satisfied employees, is synonymous with better results.. These five organizations were represented by Ana Valdivielso, HR director at the pharmaceutical company GSK; Sonia Colino, Director of People, Brand and Sustainability at Banca March; Patricia Cabal Briso-Montiano, head of Employee Experience & PMO at Generali Seguros; Encarna Maroño, Director of People and Culture at The Adecco Group, and Gemma Moral, Human Capital leader and partner at PwC.

THE TOXIC BOSS, GREAT ENEMY

These companies fight the classic toxic boss by all means, who not only is not capable of motivating his subordinates but is responsible for them becoming increasingly burned out.. To avoid these profiles, at Generali Seguros they schedule several virtual sessions a year with their middle managers to give them, in the simplest and most summarized way possible, some basic guidelines that they must be able to internalize and transmit to the members of their teams.. At Banca March they do something similar, in addition to measuring the work environment of their departments: this has allowed them to verify that a bad work environment is usually synonymous with the boss not correctly conveying the company's culture.

Similar are the evaluations carried out at The Adecco Group, where they have also detected that a good work environment usually translates into more satisfactory economic results.. “We try to make our managers see that, when you have a satisfied and committed team, the results in their business unit are better,” explained Maroño.. Following a similar strategy, at PwC they offer their middle managers specific training in people management. If, despite receiving these guidelines, they do not internalize that “people management is key for the company, they end up leaving,” Moral acknowledged.

FLEXIBILITY AND WELL-BEING

But the task of the bosses is not only crucial for the good or bad climate that they are capable of generating among their teams.. Furthermore, the best companies to work for entrust the management of the working hours of those who make up their departments to them.. “At Banca March we appeal to the individual responsibility of professionals and their commitment to work, but, from there, the work done by people managers is essential, as they must always know where their teams are and what their availability is. , as well as ensuring that they are able to collaborate with each other,” Colino explained.

Because the debate is no longer limited to the suitability or otherwise of teleworking, but rather to the management of flexibility in its broadest sense.. “At Generali we are committed to a hybrid model, because we understand that the key is balance and doing things with purpose,” said Cabal Briso-Montiano.. Along the same lines, Moral recalled that personal treatment at PwC is essential for the training of young people or the transmission of corporate culture.. For this reason, he did not hesitate to conclude that, in his opinion, “the rigidity of teleworking is difficult, but responsible flexibility is easy.”

Maroño agreed with the diagnosis, who also recalled that the objective of companies like The Adecco Group is for their offices “to be places where people want to go to work, as they are open, collaborative and training spaces in which it is easy to interact.” with other people”. In fact, companies such as the pharmaceutical company GSK have detected that, far from what is usually thought, “young people want to go to the office and have a space to sit in every day”, as Valdivielso stated.

GLOBAL CARE

Concern for the well-being of professionals was another of the issues discussed in the ECONOMIC NEWS forum. And all participating companies agreed that physical and mental health care is increasingly important and requires increasingly ambitious strategies.

For example, Colino explained, “at Banca March we try not to differentiate health care from daily work, but rather we try to make everything go together.”. Along the same lines, Maroño recognized that concern for well-being should not only encompass the specific actions that companies can implement at a given time, but should also pursue “that workers are satisfied because their companies look out for them, as professionals and also as people”.

One of the positive consequences of placing health care at the center of companies' talent strategies is that this practice can eliminate certain taboos that are harmful to society as a whole.. For example, Cabal Briso-Montiano highlighted the growing participation of Generali staff in workshops or sessions on mental health whose holding would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.

On the other hand, Moral pointed out, being close to the teams generates “social well-being that people also value highly, because it helps them know what is happening to them and have listening channels.”. In the case of PwC, as explained, this task falls once again on the middle managers or managers, who have the responsibility of meeting with the members of their departments several times a year to listen to them.

THE VALUE OF THE RANKINGS

The first Observatory of the Best Companies to Work for was held after the publication of the latest edition of the ranking that ACTUALIDAD ECONÓMICA has been preparing for a quarter of a century.. As Maroño explained, these classifications help us “to inspire ourselves and organize what we do.”

For his part, Cabal Briso-Montiano highlighted the internal value of this ranking, “because it encourages us to work on issues that perhaps would not have occurred to us.”. Externally, “it is of great help to publicize our corporate culture and attract talent,” as Colina acknowledged. Finally, Moral highlighted the great exposure of this ranking, “which makes us not conformist.”

ECONOMY

Goldman CEO David Solomon leaves the dance floor

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The world of DJs loses, if not its greatest figure, yes one of the wealthiest, D Sol, the stage name of David Solomon, who has earned 119 million dollars (113 million euros) in the last four years , figures around those of David Guetta or Tiësto. Of course, Solomon didn't earn his income from festivals or raves, but from something more prosaic: running the Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs.. So his departure from the techno scene is, more than anything, to get deeper into the Wall Street scene.

It is a decision that institutional investors, who control 69.17% of Goldman's capital, had been demanding of him practically since he became president and CEO of the bank in 2019, and that had practically become a demand for as his management of the entity frustrated shareholders and allowed the bank's eternal rival, Morgan Stanley, to take advantage.

The highlight has been the results of the third quarter, which have shown a drop in profit by a third, and which adds to the departure of a series of senior managers of the entity and the growing doubts about the bank's strategy.. The need to strengthen the lobby in the face of the possibility of imposing stricter banking regulation known as Basel 3, the fall in income from the wealth management activity and the failure of its entry into retail banking explain the reasons that have that Solomon leaves, at least for now, the mixing desk.

Many of Goldman's problems are not unique to that financial institution. This is a problematic year for investment banking, due to rising interest rates, the fallout from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March, and the tightening of the regulatory environment.. However, the large American financial entities – JP Morgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman itself – have presented results in the second quarter that were higher than those expected by the market.

But Goldman Sachs has a problem of its own, which is its entry into the retail banking sector, initiated by Solomon's predecessor, Lloyd Blankfein – who is still honorary president of the bank – and continued by him.. The strategy has proven to be much less successful than planned, and the bank has decided to exit that segment at the cost of considerable losses.. Last week, Goldman sold its Bluesky subsidiary, which specializes in offering loans for home renovations, solar panel installations, and health plans with losses of 73% compared to what it paid for it just a year and a half ago.

Goldman has also shed most of its personal credit, and is now trying to unwind its two biggest alliances in retail banking: the credit card with General Motors and the credit card and savings account with Apple, which offers an annual return of 4.15%.

This situation has caused the main shareholders of Goldman Sachs to invite Solomon to put D Sol to rest and focus on the bank, not so much, according to the American press, because of the distraction that his activity as a DJ represented but because of the problem of image and reputation that it represented at a time when the bank is going through a reformulation of its strategy.

In fact, the pressure had been on for some time.. It had been years since D Sol had gone down in History, replaced by the more sober David Solomon, who in turn stopped performing at public events more than a year ago, since he said goodbye to the stages at the festival in July 2022. Lollapalooza, in Chicago. This has translated into his fall in popularity on the streaming website Spotify, where David Solomon has gone from having 550,000 followers to 350,000.

HEALTH

Excessive heat caused the deaths of 2,155 people this summer

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This summer has been the third with the highest mortality attributable to excessive heat, with 2,155 deaths, after the heat wave of 2003 and the summer of 2022, which accumulated 3,012 deaths. This is one of the conclusions that emerge from a new digital tool, a web application still in the development phase, created by scientists from the Institute of Environmental Diagnostics and Water Studies (Idaea-CSIC) of Barcelona, the University of Valencia and the Climate Research Foundation.

The web application called Mortality Attributable to Heat in Spain (MACE) is based on data from the Daily Mortality Monitoring system (MOMO) of the Carlos III Health Institute and the temperatures recorded by the State Meteorological Agency (Aemet) to be able to calculate the mortality attributable to moderate heat, extreme heat and excessive heat in the period of the year from June to August.

It is updated daily but, like the MOMO and Aemet data, it is two days late. Its authors are working so that, in addition to national data, the tool provides information about differences by province and vulnerable population groups (age and gender).. They also propose to extend data collection from May to October for the next version of the application, scheduled for 2024.

To know more
Health. The heat seriously harms your work health
  • Editor: CRISTINA G. LUCIO Madrid
  • Editorial: INFOGRAPHIC: MAITE VAQUERO

The heat seriously harms your work health

Health. Asturias at 26º can be just as dangerous as Córdoba at 41.5º. At what temperature does the risk increase in each CCAA?
  • Editor: ANA SOUSA
  • Editor: ESTRELLA LÓPEZ
  • Editor: ELSA MARTÍN (GRAPHICS)

Asturias at 26º can be just as dangerous as Córdoba at 41.5º. At what temperature does the risk increase in each CCAA?

Since January, the MoMo has recorded 329,462 deaths, 6,834 attributable to temperature, according to the latest published report. Thus, Galicia with 1,704 is the most affected community, followed by Andalusia with 1,276 and Castilla y León with 683..

The INE takes time to purge causes

Aurelio Tobías, researcher at Idaea and author of the work, explains to this newspaper that Aemet and the Ministry of Health give notice of the arrival of a heat wave but do not report the potential impact on health or the impact on the isolated days of extreme heat. In his opinion, the MOMO is a “very good system for monitoring daily mortality from all causes, which is something that requires a very great effort”, but with regard to mortality due to heat it could be improved “from environmental epidemiology.” “. Remember, also, that it takes about two years until the National Institute of Statistics (INE) “defines the causes of mortality and the age groups”, so in real time what is known is the trend.

It also clarifies that, for now, MACE, by offering a national image of what is happening and not discriminating by geographic areas, may be offering an overestimated mortality.. That is to say, a heat wave causing excess mortality does not affect the entire country at the same time and equally, contrary to what the application reflects.

Tobías also indicates that excess mortality due to heat, something that occurs more in older people and people with cardiovascular and respiratory pathologies, is usually related to deaths from heat stroke, which would be much fewer: 285 cases registered in Spain between 1990 and 2016. , according to an article published this month in Epidemiology.

The new application, according to the researcher, has been well received among scientists in his field, who consider it necessary in a context of climate change and progressive increase in temperatures and also very useful due to the possibility it offers of being able to take into account the historical evolution.

How is mortality calculated in the new app?

In the application, the mortality attributable to moderate heat “is calculated as the sum of the contributions of the days of the summer of 2023 with temperatures between the temperature of minimum mortality as a counterfactual reference and the 95th percentile of the temperature distribution between June and September for the last ten years”.

Extreme heat attributable mortality, “as the sum of contributions from days above the 95th percentile”. And mortality attributable to excessive heat, which is considered as a part of extreme heat, “as the sum of the contributions of days above the 95th percentile as a counterfactual reference.”

The definition of the extreme heat threshold as the 95th percentile of the temperature distribution between June and September during the last ten years is based “on the similarity with the definition of the reference thresholds of health impact due to high temperatures of the National Plan of Preventive Actions of the Effects of Excess Temperatures of the Ministry of Health”.

HEALTH

Rhett Butler, founder of the environmental website Mongabay: "People prefer to believe what fits their vision of the world"

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In times of climate emergency, with scientists evoking the sixth great extinction of species and the entry into the era of the Anthropocene, environmental information and dissemination is emerging as a crucial element to understand today's world.. That is why the BBVA Foundation has awarded the Biophilia Award – which since 2019 has recognized the work of professionals who contribute to improving understanding and awareness of environmental challenges – to the digital medium Mongabay, a conservation news portal that reports on tropical ecosystems, thanks to its network of journalists and local experts in more than 80 countries.

Founded in 1999 by American journalist Rhett A.. Butler, the non-profit environmental information website (all its content has a Creative Commons license, so other media can publish its reports for free) disseminates its articles and reports in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hindi and Indonesian.

The jury's minutes indicate how Mongabay has managed to “establish the connection between science and journalism through the dissemination of research on environmental protection with the dissemination of studies with maximum accessibility criteria.”. A formula that has allowed them to “publicize specific situations or serious environmental problems suffered by communities usually neglected by conventional information flows,” adds the ruling.

Two of the personal experiences of its founder would mark the course of Mongabay. Butler had traveled to Ecuador during his childhood. There he came into contact with an indigenous community that lived in the Amazon jungle.. A few months later he learned that an oil spill had occurred in the area that caused serious damage to the ecosystem.. A few years later, a similar experience in Borneo further defined his professional orientation towards environmental journalism: a region he had visited as a teenager had become a logging operation and then a palm oil plantation.

That is why one of the central elements of Mongabay is the work of local reporters and their connection with the communities affected by the current biodiversity crisis.. “We focus on areas where we can have the greatest impact; the tropics are the richest places in biodiversity and also the most threatened, so they have the most to lose,” he explains.. Thus, throughout its history of more than two decades of existence, the medium that he founded has opened offices in Indonesia, India, Brazil and Peru, and its first newsroom will soon be inaugurated in Africa.

Butler points out as an example an article about a primary forest in Gabon, preserved for generations thanks to the work of local communities, which was about to become a logging operation after being granted a concession to a Chinese company.. The news managed to attract the attention of the authorities, who ended up revoking the license and recognizing the area as a priority conservation area.

The journalist also highlights the importance of putting changes in nature in a context that explains their causes through narratives capable of transmitting scientific evidence to the audience.. “We are a translation service that allows us to connect the data collected by scientists with what people are already observing with their own eyes,” he summarizes.

Political polarization and 'Fake news'

If society's interest and sensitivity towards the environmental crisis have increased in recent decades, new forms of consumption create new challenges when it comes to informing. The impacts of the environmental crisis coincide with the “degradation of the information ecosystem, due to the phenomenon of fake news and its expansion through social networks, which leads people to not be able to distinguish between what is real or not”. Mongabay responds to this scenario of growing misinformation by providing links to the original sources of our information, “to show the scientific data on which we base our articles so that any reader can verify it,” he assures.

Another complex challenge at the current time is the problem of politicization and polarization of the debate on climate and biodiversity.. A context in which “people prefer to believe what fits their vision of the world, rather than what the facts show” and that “leads people to stop trusting scientists, because they believe they hide a bias or ideological prejudice.”

Faced with this challenge, the Mongabay team responds by preparing its information with the intention that it may be relevant and interesting to the greatest number of readers, trying to reach even those who usually reject environmental information for ideological reasons.

However, from Mongabay they avoid excessively pessimistic tones – which Butler describes as “apocalyptic narratives” – since they consider that they can lead to apathy, by creating the feeling that environmental degradation is inevitable.. “There is a risk of driving people to despair, but as reflected in a recent study on media consumption by the Reuters Institute, there is one type of information that people do not avoid, and they are positive stories that propose solutions.”

The communicator believes that, despite the seriousness of the environmental crisis, there are reasons for optimism. “It is true that there are ecological tipping points (critical points of no return), but there can also be tipping points for positive change, such as the transition to renewable energy and electric vehicles. “The question is whether we can achieve these changes in time to solve the enormous problems we face.”

HEALTH

Europe and Africa are the new epicenter of the new strains of H5N1 bird flu

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Bird flu outbreaks are becoming more common. A year ago, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) confirmed that Europe was suffering the largest epidemic due to this virus, both due to the number of outbreaks in birds and the geographical extent “are unprecedented,” the European organization noted.. The situation has not changed.

According to the latest ECDC bulletin, between June 24 and September 1, 2023, outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), the so-called A(H5,) in domestic birds were reported (25 ) and wild (482) in 21 European countries. They highlight that the current epidemic in wild birds has already surpassed that of the previous epidemiological year in terms of total number of detections of the most pathogenic virus..

Today a study published in Nature certifies these facts. At the same time, it reveals important changes in the ecology and evolution of highly pathogenic H5 avian influenza viruses, including a significant change in global distribution. The findings suggest that the epicenter of these viruses has spread beyond Asia to new regions, including parts of Africa and Europe.

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Health. “A few years ago we could have solved H5 [one of the strains of bird flu], but now it is very difficult to solve”
  • Editorial: PILAR PÉREZ Toledo
  • Editor: JAVIER MARTÍNEZ (graphic report)

“A few years ago we could have solved H5 [one of the strains of bird flu], but now it is very difficult to solve”

Health. The EU is considering vaccinating birds after the worst season of infections on livestock farms
  • Editor: TERESA GUERRERO
  • Editor: CRISTINA G. LUCIO Madrid
  • Editorial: ÁNGEL NAVARRETE Photos

The EU is considering vaccinating birds after the worst season of infections on livestock farms

The activity of the highly pathogenic avian H5N1 virus has intensified globally since 2021, infecting and killing increasing numbers of wild birds and poultry, as well as posing a risk to mammals (including humans).. This is because the feared 'species jump' from birds to mammals has occurred, proven through incidental infections in mink and also in gray seals in New England in the United States.

Gustavo del Real, researcher at the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Research and Technology (INIA-CSIC), recalls, as reported by SMC, that “although the H5N1 viruses initially emerged in China in 1996, the appearance of outbreaks with evolved strains of the H5 subtype has not stopped since then, mainly in Asia. “This study clarifies the origin and underlying evolution of the highly pathogenic H5N1 viruses responsible for the avian influenza panzootic that emerged in 2021.”

From the University of Hong Kong, Vijaykrishna Dhanasekaran and his team examined the changing origins and trends of H5 outbreaks in highly pathogenic birds using epidemiological data collected by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Organization for Animal Health between 2005. and 2022, along with the analysis of more than 10,000 complete viral genomes.

They explain that “using epidemiological, spatial and genomic approaches, we demonstrate changes in the origins of HPAI H5 resurgence and reveal significant changes in the ecology and evolution of the virus.”

During the 2016-17 season, major outbreaks were identified and genome analysis revealed that the viral lineages originated in Asia, specifically China. In contrast, two new H5 viruses identified between 2020 and 2022 that emerged from African and European bird populations indicate a notable shift in the epicenter of H5 away from Asian lands and moving toward other continents.

“Outbreak data show key resurgent events in 2016-2017 and 2020-2021, which contributed to the emergence and panzootic spread of H5N1 in 2021-2022,” they point out.. Genomic analysis reveals that “the 2016-2017 epizootics originated in Asia, where HPAI H5 reservoirs are endemic. In 2020-2021, 2.3.4.4b H5N8 viruses emerged in African poultry, with mutations that altered HA structure and receptor binding. In 2021-2022, a new H5N1 virus evolved by recombination in wild birds in Europe, and underwent new recombination with low-pathogenic avian influenza in wild and domestic birds during global dissemination,” they explain in the article.

In this way, they determined that these strains had evolved through genetic rearrangement with low pathogenic viral variants as they spread.. Therefore, they conclude that “these results highlight a shift in the epicenter of HPAI H5 beyond Asia and indicate that the increasing persistence of HPAI H5 in wild birds is facilitating geographic and host range expansion, accelerating the rate of dispersal and increasing rearrangement potential. “As previous outbreaks of H5N1 and H5N8 were caused by more stable genomic constellations, these recent changes reflect adaptation at the interface between domestic birds and wild birds.”

The researchers suggest through their analysis that the increasing persistence of avian flu in wild bird populations is driving the evolution and spread of new strains.. “Elimination strategies in domestic birds remain a high priority to limit future epizootics”. They therefore urge greater surveillance of viral spread and monitoring the prevalence of highly pathogenic avian influenza within global bird populations, as well as the importance of understanding viral evolution to mitigate and react to new strains.

SPAIN

Dignity and Justice denounces Otegi before the Prosecutor's Office of the National Court and asks to question him about the kidnappings and murder revealed by EL MUNDO

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The Dignity and Justice victims' association has denounced in the National Court the kidnappings and murder in which, according to police investigations, Arnaldo Otegi was involved and which have been revealed by this newspaper in recent days.

The letter transfers the information from EL MUNDO to the Prosecutor's Office of the National Court, which asks it to open an investigation into the activities of the leader of EH Bildu during the decade in which he was a member of ETA.. “From the events narrated and the documents provided,” the complaint indicates, “it is evident that Arnaldo Otegi Mondragón, El Gordo, participated in six kidnappings [he has already been tried for three others] and one murder, in addition to multiple thefts of explosives, ammunition and explosives and other terrorist attacks against property that caused various damages, for which it would not have been investigated and, therefore, prosecuted. “This is what a total of twelve members of the terrorist organization ETA declared before the State Security Forces and Bodies when they were detained.”

In the letter sent on Tuesday afternoon, Dignity and Justice makes several requests to the Public Ministry. The main one, to request the reopening of all the cases that were opened at the time for the kidnappings and the murder in which Otegi could be involved and that his statement be taken as an investigation.. To do this, the association wants to rely on previous reports from the National Police and the Civil Guard on the terrorist activity of the nationalist leader.

Finally, he asks that the Court verify whether he was able to pay the compensation of 100,000 pesetas (600 euros) that was imposed on him for one of the kidnappings and that he had evaded by declaring himself insolvent.. “If not, activate the necessary mechanisms to activate the collection procedure through administrative means for said convicted person.

The Prosecutor's Office headed by Jesús Alonso will now have to review the complaint and, after opening some proceedings, decide whether to file them immediately or if it makes inquiries that could lead to a request to a court to open a new judicial case or reopen the case. some that were archived. A recent complaint from the same association about former terrorists who were running in the last elections was settled with a devastating file that contained errors and had to be corrected.

The main obstacle to activating investigations is the statute of limitations of the alleged crimes, which have already exceeded 20 years.. However, the National Court maintains open investigations for crimes that also exceeded those deadlines.. In favor of the thesis of investigating what happened in the 70s and 80s, the complaint uses the Mission Report of the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament, of March 4, 2022, regarding the 379 cases of still unsolved murders committed by the terrorist organization ETA.

One of the recommendations is to “request the continuation of an updated, detailed and exhaustive investigation procedure for unresolved cases, from the Prosecutor's Office and with the participation of the State Security Forces and Bodies, without entering into prior assessment of the possible legal prescription of the case, in order to respond to the families who continue waiting for justice. “This consideration should be made at the end of the investigation, the outcome of which should be informed to victims who request it.”

“This is why,” continues the association led by Daniel Portero, “that this complaint is admitted for processing and investigation proceedings initiated by this prosecutor's office of the National Court in view of the fact that the European institutions recommend that Spanish judicial authorities the investigation of the crimes committed by the terrorist organization ETA in its more than fifty years of history, without assessing in advance whether they are statute-barred or not.

SPAIN

The TC's draft sentence agrees with former Podemos leader Alberto Rodríguez by seeing his sentence as disproportionate

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The draft of the ruling of the Constitutional Court (TC) on the appeal for protection presented by former Unidas Podemos deputy Alberto Rodríguez agrees with the leader when he sees the sentence imposed on him by the Supreme Court as disproportionate for kicking a police officer during a demonstration that took place in 2014 in La Laguna (Tenerife).

As published by La Razón, Judge María Luisa Segoviano will take her presentation to the next plenary session of the guarantee court, where she will defend that the prison sentence that led to the then deputy losing his seat in Congress was disproportionate.

Rodríguez appealed the Supreme Court ruling considering that his fundamental rights were violated during the judicial process.. The TC Prosecutor's Office supported protecting the Canarian politician for the withdrawal of the seat, but not in the challenge against the TS ruling.

The former deputy has also been waiting since January 2022 for the TC to respond to a precautionary measure, with which he sought the return of his deputy record, which he raised at the same time that he requested protection from the Constitutional Court.

Rodríguez challenged the agreement adopted on October 22, 2021 by the president of the Lower House, Meritxell Batet, to remove his seat after the Supreme Court convicted him for kicking a police officer during a demonstration that took place in 2014 in La Laguna (Tenerife).

The Supreme Court sentenced Rodríguez to a prison sentence of one month and fifteen days as the perpetrator of a crime of attacking an agent of authority with the accessory penalty of special disqualification for the right to stand for election during the time of the sentence.

The high court replaced the prison sentence with a 90-day fine with a daily fee of 6 euros (in total, 540 euros), although it clarified that this replacement of the main penalty did not affect the accessory penalty, which was the one finally It resulted in Rodríguez losing his seat in the Congress of Deputies.

SPORTS

Two Israeli flags and effective shielding: Maccabi leaves Valencia safe but defeated

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Two Israeli flags, one behind the bench and another in the stands, a minute of silence and a black t-shirt with the motto: Bring them home now.. The Euroleague match between Maccabi Tel Aviv and Valencia Basket was almost normal. Brilliant on the field, with the locals dominating in the third and last quarter until taking the victory, in the stands he was weak. I had to be. The conflict between Israel and Hamas turns all Jewish teams into targets and Valencia experienced it. La Fonteta was shielded and that dissuaded fans from attending one of the games that raised the most expectations. In an entrance room was the pavilion that tried to be a cauldron and, at times, as they saw their team getting closer to victory. [Narrative and statistics (75-66)]

It was not easy not to give in to prudence and let the grief pass.. Four hours before the meeting, more than 700 police officers took over the area. Perimeter closure, canine units, uniformed and plainclothes police and even anti-terrorist patrols that accompanied Maccabi flew over their arrival to the city from the Parador Nacional del Saler, the bunker where they were held and where they had the scare during the match: a fire nearby, which was controlled.

The Israeli players needed to come into contact with a reality that has become a nightmare. Settled in Cyprus, they continue playing even though their minds are somewhere else. The T-shirt was a sign of where: with the Israelis kidnapped by Hamas, with their families. Some also wore the protest in Hebrew on their wrist and everyone on the bench held two flags of their country while, in the central circle, everyone, including those from Valencia Basket, showed respect for the victims.

There were no more gestures and no hint of conflict emerged, but it was impossible to ignore an atmosphere that forced people to pass metal control arches at the entrances to the pavilion, reduced mobility around the perimeter of the field and prevented any attempt to approach the players. Maccabi players. Not even in the mixed zone. The fear of an attack is atrocious. In Valencia, the device prepared by the National Police worked and, even without victory, Maccabi returned to Cyprus safely.

SPORTS

The judge in the Negreira case assumes that there was at least a "group of corrupt referees"

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Judge Joaquín Aguirre has taken a quality step, by charging Joan Laporta in the Negreira case, something logical when accusing Barcelona and its leaders of bribery, a crime whose statute of limitations increases and reaches periods of the current president's first term.. The instructor's conclusions go much further, assuming that Barcelona must have allegedly benefited from the arbitrations and that, although it cannot be said that “each and every one of the referees were corrupt, a group of them were.”

Laporta thus becomes accused, along with the former presidents of the Barça club Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, the former directors Oscar Grau and Albert Soler, as well as José María Enríquez Negreira himself, former vice president of the Technical Committee of Referees ( CTA), and his son Javier, for payments of more than seven million euros made over 18 years.

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Joan Laporta. Charged with Barça bribery to the former vice president of the referees
  • Editor: GERMÁN GONZÁLEZ Barcelona

Charged with Barça bribery to the former vice president of the referees

A week ago, the judge already made it clear that there were “more than ample indications that Laporta committed the same acts as subsequent presidents.”. That is why it disgraced the leader who urged the club's legal services to request to be accused in the procedure.

PRESCRIPTION INCREASES

The Mossos d'Esquadra yesterday delivered the summons to Laporta, after the judge understood that the prescription of the crime of bribery in the case of the directors can be extended until 2008, just under the first term of the current president of the club.. Although payments to Enríquez Negreira began in 2001, until 2007 it would be statute-barred for the directors. For the rest, no.

The limitation period must be counted from “the day on which the last infringement was carried out” or the “date of the last punishable act”, which would be the payments from Barça to Negreira that took place in June and July 2018.. Furthermore, he continues to maintain that the former number two of the arbitrators, due to his position in the CTA, would be equivalent to a public official.. The statute of limitations for a public official for the crime of continued bribery is 15 years, according to the court, and that is why it calls for an investigation into the payments to Enríquez Negreira and his son since 2003.. However, for Laporta and the former Barça managers this period is 10 years. As a consequence, the period to be investigated begins on July 17, 2008, 10 years before the last payment.

In this way, he considers that “the crimes” of bribery, corruption in sports and unfair administration have not expired with respect to Laporta, as well as “nor with respect to those people who were members of the Barcelona board of directors during his mandate or who were integrated in the organizational chart” and had responsibilities in the way of making payments to Enríquez Negreira and his son Javier through the companies DASNIL 95 SL, NILSAD, SCP and SOCCERCAM SL.

NEGREIRA'S THREATS

The Civil Guard, based on the documentation requested by the Federation, must determine their exact functions in office.. «It is proven that the payments were made over about 18 years and that they increased year after year. It is proven that Enríquez Negreira stopped receiving emoluments from Barcelona once he ceased his position as vice president of the CTA in 2018.. It is proven that the investigated Enríquez Negreira sent a burofax to Barcelona referring to the dissemination of possible irregularities of which he was aware and that would seriously affect the club,” recalls the judge.

Given these indications, he suspects that since Enríquez Negreira was “in the second step of authority within the CTA-RFEF, the scope of his influence was very broad,” and that Barça's payments can “be considered made in response to the position he held.” , since they lasted about 18 years and increased from the initial 70,000 euros to 700,000 annually until his resignation as vice president of the CTA.

“They achieved the desired effects”

«By logical deduction, the payments made by Barcelona satisfied the interests of the club in view of their duration and the annual increase.. From this it is also deduced that the payments produced the arbitration effects desired by Barcelona, in such a way that there must have been inequality in the treatment with other teams and the consequent systemic corruption in the Spanish arbitration as a whole, which does not mean that all and each of the referees were corrupt, but a group of them were,” says the judge.

Furthermore, it details that “the acts carried out by the investigated Enríquez Negreira had to benefit Barcelona to the detriment of the rest of the clubs.”. These acts could only refer to biased arbitral appointments or to admonitions made to the normally designated arbitrators.. To this end, it should not be forgotten, according to what the press has published, that the son of the investigated Negreira accompanied the referees during their stay in Barcelona.”