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.
HEALTH

Gordon, Bassler and Greenberg: "We will improve health through knowledge of the relationships between humans and microbes"

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At this moment, as you read these lines, the universe of microorganisms that inhabit your intestine is immersed in frenetic activity.. You are not aware, but the relationships maintained by that billion-dollar set of bacteria, viruses and fungi that live in your gut interest you.. Because their health depends, to a large extent, on the outcome of their interactions, battles and coexistence pacts.

The state of the microbiota influences our metabolism or the functioning of our immune system, but it also has a lot to say in how we respond to some therapies or our risk of developing some chronic diseases, as recent studies are demonstrating.

We know their role better and better. And this is thanks to researchers like Jeffrey Gordon, Bonnie L. Bassler and Peter Greenberg, pioneers in the study of these microorganisms with which we live. Gordon was the first to demonstrate the importance of nutrient exchange relationships between the microbiota and the host and Bassler and Greenberg highlighted, among other findings, the key role played by bacterial communication. This joint vision earned them the 2023 Princess of Asturias Prize for Scientific and Technical Research last June.

“Their discoveries are allowing innovative therapeutic applications and the search for new effective treatments against antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” highlighted the jury, chaired by Pedro Miguel Echenique.

Just a few days before they go to Oviedo to collect the award, EL MUNDO chats with them.

From left to right, Bonnie L. Bassler, E. Peter Greenberg and Jeffrey Gordon.

The three scientists are excited, “honored” to receive this award that “is a recognition of all the talented students and colleagues with whom we have had the privilege of working over the years,” in the words of Jeffrey Gordon (New Orleans , USA, 1947), biologist and director of the Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology at the University of Washington in St. Louis.

“We have all built a wonderful community around the shared belief that innovation and discovery are born from environments of respectful, empathetic and mutually supportive collaboration, where we can all freely share ideas without fear of saying 'I don't know.'. This award is a recognition of that environment of collaboration and empathy that we hope can contribute in the long term to improving human health through a deep understanding of the relationships between humans and the microbial communities that live in and with us,” he summarizes. the researcher, who in 2019 received the Frontiers of Knowledge award from the BBVA Foundation in the Biology and Biomedicine category.

“This award validates the creativity, dedication and ingenuity of my team members and the importance of their discoveries. It recognizes the entire community of scientists in this field and realizes that what we do is important,” agrees Bonnie L.. Bassler (Chicago, USA).. USA, 1962), biochemist and director of the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University.

“It's a great honor. “It is incredible to receive this recognition,” adds Peter Greenberg (New York, USA, 1948), professor of Microbiology at the University of Washington, who emphasizes that, in addition to personal satisfaction, he feels a special joy because the award It will also represent an important collective boost for the area of research to which it has been dedicated for decades.

It gives us the opportunity to reach children, to learn about the wonders of the microbial world and why it is so important to study microbes.

Peter Greenberg

“I am 74 years old. I continue working because I love what I do, but at this point in my career the award is not going to be a special boost for me.. We are the face of an active and vibrant scientific field and this award brings attention to this area, putting it in the focus of young aspiring microbiologists.. And the more young minds that come to our research area, the better it will be,” he remarks.

In addition, Greenberg continues, this award also attracts the attention of biologists from other areas and even scientists from fields other than biology.. “Our work, in many ways, is generalizable and is helping us understand the biology of communication and cooperation.”

“Our work can be instructive for scientists from other disciplines,” adds the researcher, who does not want to fail to remember that the award “gives us the opportunity to reach children, schools, and for them to learn about the wonders of the microbial world and “why it is so important to study microbes.”

Greenberg says he was not a bright student in high school. “I barely graduated. But one class caught my attention, biology.. We went on an excursion to the coast to study the pools left by the tide. And I was fascinated by marine creatures and their ability to survive in inhospitable environments.”. From there, he remembers, he decided that he wanted to be a biologist, and during his university training, a microbiology course excited him.. He never lost interest in understanding the particularities of the tiny world we live with.

At this point, Bassler highlights the fact that the award recognizes the importance of basic science, research that seeks to know the keys to what happens in our body or in nature without a predetermined clinical purpose.

“We had a hunch and we followed it, starting with what might seem like an unimportant curiosity, the glow produced by bacteria in the dark,” he recalls.. That path, however, “led to a whole new understanding of microbes and the profound importance of their interactions, which had tremendous ramifications for human health,” he details.

Bassler refers to the studies that she and Greenberg independently carried out with the bioluminescent bacteria Vibrio fischeri and Vibrio harveyi, which, as they were able to determine, only produce light when they form large groups, thanks to communication through chemical signals.

Collective action is what bacteria need to successfully trigger an infection

Bonnie L. Bassler

These scientists demonstrated that the behavior of bacteria is different when they are in large groups, they act under what is called quorum sensing, a phenomenon that allows them to communicate and carry out collective behaviors, as if they were 'working' in a group.. Furthermore, the work of these researchers also revealed that bacteria of different species can also communicate through different signals, a key interaction for many processes.

“We know that this mechanism is the norm in the bacterial world,” emphasizes Bassler.. His research, for example, has shown that quorum sensing is essential for pathogenic bacteria, because “a collective action is what bacteria need to be able to successfully trigger an infection,” he exemplifies.

“Our group discovered signals almost identical to the light control signals we were studying in a pathogenic bacteria called Pseudomonas. This bacteria is capable of causing infections that are very difficult to treat in burned people, patients with immune disorders or people with a genetic disorder, cystic fibrosis, as well as in patients who have suffered an infection after the implantation of a medical device.. We now know that these signaling systems are very common in bacteria and there is intense interest in targeting them with the goal of being able to manipulate bacteria for the benefit of humans.. The potential for applications is countless,” says Greenberg, who states that a great achievement would be to be able to “develop drugs that interfere with bacterial communication.”

The microbiome offers exciting new opportunities to identify disease-related mechanisms, find targets, and discover new therapeutic agents.

Jeffrey Gordon

Bassler's group, in fact, has shown that it is possible to interrupt bacterial communication circuits through therapies based on small molecules that inhibit the virulence of some infections.. “Given that these compounds target bacterial behavior, not the growth of bacteria, these types of therapies are much less vulnerable to the development of resistance mechanisms such as those that occur against antibiotics,” indicates the researcher, who emphasizes that their work “provides surprising new avenues to combat pathogenic bacteria.”

The three award-winning researchers who will collect their Princess of Asturias Award in Oviedo next Friday agree that the future of this field of studies is more than promising.. Many of the answers that explain why we get sick, what risk we have of suffering complications or what are the reasons why our body sometimes does not respond to therapies are hidden in our intestine.. We have begun to know the importance of the microbiome, but without a doubt in the coming years, we will know much better the role it plays in our health and how we can use it to our benefit.

Jeffrey Gordon accurately summarizes this hopeful horizon: “The microbiome offers fascinating new opportunities to identify disease-related mechanisms, find new targets for treatments, and discover new therapeutic agents.”

He adds that “working in this area of study crosses traditional boundaries of scientific disciplines and is providing important advances in our understanding of how human physiology is shaped by microbial communities.”. Furthermore, our understanding of the microbial contribution to non-communicable diseases is also changing.”

HEALTH

They reconstruct the face of Pau, a great ape that lived in Catalonia 12 million years ago

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They found it by chance in 2002 during construction work on a landfill in the town of Els Hostalets de Pierola, in Barcelona, and it turned out to be a valuable fossil in the history of human evolution.. Formally named Pierolapithecus catalaunicus and popularly known as Pau, this extinct great ape that lived in Catalonia about 12 million years ago rose to fame on November 18, 2004, when this species was described in the prestigious magazine Science.

Only fossils of one individual were found, remains of a partial skeleton with which they were able to assemble a good part of the skull of a great ape that lived in the current Vallès-Penedès Basin, at that time a dense and humid tropical forest.. According to the analysis of the team led by Salvador Moyà-Solá, from the Miquel Crusafont Catalan Institute of Paleontology (ICP), it could be the common ancestor of humans and the current great apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans).. From that crucial time to understand where we come from, the middle Miocene, few fossils have been found, hence the great importance that Pierolapithecus catalaunicus acquired.

Two decades after their discovery at the Can Mata site, Pau's remains, which were in relatively good condition for their age but fragmented and deteriorated, have been subjected to a technological facelift to reveal in detail what his true face looked like.. To do this, the fossils have gone through modern scanners that have allowed their appearance to be reconstructed in three dimensions, within the framework of research carried out jointly by scientists from the Miquel Crusafont Institute, the American Museum of Natural History and Brooklyn College.. The results are published this Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

To know more
Paleontology. The skull that has given a face to 'Australopithecus anamensis'
  • Editor: TERESA GUERRERO Madrid

The skull that has given a face to 'Australopithecus anamensis'

Palentology. Lucy, the 'mother of humanity' who had no children and revolutionized what we knew about our origin
  • Editor: TERESA GUERRERO Madrid

Lucy, the 'mother of humanity' who had no children and revolutionized what we knew about our origin

Pau belongs to a group of individuals known as hominoid primates, he weighed about 35 kilograms, was between one and 1.2 meters tall and was probably a male, according to estimates by paleontologists, who believe he came from Africa.. His canines are prominent and large and the wear on his teeth reveals that he died young.. Although the cause is unknown, they have been able to find out that carnivorous scavengers from his environment either killed him or took advantage of his remains when he had died, since his long bones were crumbled.

Its discoverers considered it the oldest known representative of the Hominidae family (the group that includes humans, chimpanzees, orangutans, gorillas and bonobos), with modern body characteristics: a wide and narrow thorax between the shoulder and chest, the shoulder blades located on the back, a long clavicle, the shorter vertebrae in the lumbar area and a characteristic arrangement of the joint between the forearm and the wrist, as detailed by the ICP scientists on their website.

Scientific debate

Previous studies also suggested that it had a relatively long thumb in relation to the length of the hand, as also happens in humans.. That is, it brings together the basic features of modern body design that identify the members of our family and considering that it lived about 11.9 million years ago, it was described as the oldest evidence of that body design that gave rise to our group.

But despite what has been found out, there is no scientific consensus on where to place this great ape, whether as one of the most primitive hominids (which includes all the great apes), or as one of the first hominins (a subfamily which includes humans).

With the new reconstruction published this Monday, which they have compared with the skulls of other species, they have seen that Pau shares similarities in the shape and general size of the face with both extinct and living great apes, but also has distinct facial features that They are not found in other Middle Miocene apes, results that would support the idea that this species represents one of the first members of the great ape family and humans.

“An interesting result of the study's evolutionary modeling is that the Pierolapithecus skull has a shape and size closer to the ancestor from which great apes and humans evolved,” explained Sergio Almécija, co-author of the study.. The desire of palentologists is to find remains of other individuals of this same species that can clarify their place in the evolutionary tree.

SPAIN

The PP denounces that Armengol "has kidnapped" the legislative power and demands Sánchez's appearance in Congress

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“The government in office does not want to be controlled. And the rest of his partners care very little.”. The PP explodes against Francina Armengol. The spokesperson for the popular parties, Cuca Gamarra, accused the president of Congress this Tuesday of “kidnapping” the Chamber for the benefit of the PSOE. For Gamarra, Armengol “prevents Congress from functioning, causing it to remain firmly closed by the work and grace of Pedro Sánchez, so that parliamentary procedures are not carried out”.

Furthermore, the popular leader has revealed that her party is going to request two more appearances before the Plenary Session of the Chamber: that of the acting Minister of the Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, to report on the migration crisis in the Canary Islands; and, above all, that of the acting President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to report to the European Council. “A government in office must fulfill its obligation to inform Congress,” this request has been justified..

“Armengol has stopped the clock”

In a press conference in Congress, Alberto Núñez Feijóo's number two has harshly criticized that the president of the Lower House has not brought together the parliamentary control body and, in this way, has paralyzed the deadlines of the initiatives pending qualification: “The ordinary thing is that a Board and a Board of spokespersons are held, that is what should happen, but Congress is being prevented from functioning and nothing is called today.”

“If the Board does not function, the parliamentary initiatives are not qualified, and if the Board of Spokespersons is not convened, it cannot be agreed on what is legally the responsibility of the Board of Spokespersons, and hinder and obstruct the normal functioning, generating the hijacking of Congress. “emphasized Gamarra, who gave as an example the request that the PP presented last week for an appearance for the acting Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, to explain the Executive's position on the escalation in Gaza.

By virtue of the Congress Regulations, which allow one-fifth of the spokespersons to force a Meeting to debate specific issues, the PP has registered a document demanding that said body be convened immediately.. “Armengol has stopped the clock of the Cortes and has handed it over to Sánchez,” he denounced..

“Pedro Sánchez gave the order so that political life does not happen normally, parliamentary procedures are not carried out and a more or less normal functioning of Congress is not activated,” insisted the spokesperson for the Popular Parliamentary Group.. “We demand that Congress be opened now, that it function, that it resume normal functioning, the first thing we demand is that a date be set once and for all for the investiture debate. That we find ourselves in the investiture process,” he stressed. .

SPAIN

González asks to "consult the Spanish" about the amnesty and Page criticizes: "The amnesty could be called a necessity"

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Felipe González has reiterated his well-known position against judicial relief for those involved in the illegal 1-O referendum, adding the request that citizens be given the option to speak out on the matter.. “What do they want to do a [Carles] Puigdemont model amnesty, because I don't know the other one? Consult the Spaniards,” the former president of the Government launched in an interview on Antena 3.

For the person who led the refoundation of the PSOE – a party for which he assures that he continues to vote -, the fact that Pedro Sánchez denied in the electoral campaign that he was going to bow to this demand of the Catalan independentists and is now negotiating it discreetly with them “is more “closer to stupidity than to fraud”. To which he added: “Can you change your mind? Yes. Can it be done every day and for the reasons we see people changing their minds? No”.

“Would we be talking about amnesty if those seven votes were not essential for an investiture of a progressive Government?” González asked rhetorically in reference to the deputies of Junts per Catalunya (JxCat) on whom the re-election of the acting president depends.. “It is wise to rectify, it is true, and it is foolish to have to do it daily,” he added.

In a position contrary to that of former president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who came out this Monday to publicly defend forgiveness for those responsible for the process, who was in charge of La Moncloa between 1982 and 1996, he believes that the approach is “not reasonable.” what is being done about the promoters of 1-O: “What they are asking us is to recognize that what they did is the right thing and that what the Spanish State did, and therefore the institutions, was repressive, incorrect, did not respect freedoms.”

Without once mentioning Sánchez by name, González has also criticized the inflexibility shown by Puigdemont in the conditions he has proposed to support the investiture, which include, in addition to the amnesty, a self-determination referendum in Catalonia.. “Democracy consists of respecting minorities, starting from the basis that minorities respect majorities.”. If the minorities despise the majorities and say 'since he needs my vote, I'm going to make him urinate blood'…”, he slipped.

In this sense, the former president, 81 years old, also wanted to leave a message of concern of “old, old, old”: “Let us preserve the coexistence of the Spanish. Let's not bring the tension from top to bottom, the tension of the elites altering the coexistence of citizens (…). I ask the political leaders of all parties, those who have the ability to hear, listen and analyze, which is not all, I ask them not to induce polarization and confrontation, whatever they think, discuss whatever they discuss, and that in “The big issues will always need majority agreements, not half of society against the other half.”

“Need”

Also very critical of the negotiations of his own party, the president of Castilla-La Mancha has once again been regarding the possible demands of the independence movement that Sánchez could be willing to comply with to ensure his re-election. “There are some who now call the amnesty an amnesty. Others of us may end up thinking that the amnesty could perfectly be called a necessity, they are different things,” said Emiliano García-Page.

Regarding the consultation that Puigdemont will make about the investiture to the Consell of the Republic – the para-institutional entity that he himself created in 2018 to keep the process alive since Waterloo -, the socialist baron has warned that “those who propose referendums to break up Spain or to have privileges they have to have one thing very clear”: “Neither in Catalonia nor in Spain as a whole can one vote for something that openly goes against unity and the Constitution itself”, which “is not voteable”.

Page has also considered that “what amnesty should never be is amnesia”. “If we forget what happened, amnesia can only bring about its repetition,” he stressed during his speech at the presentation of an employment plan in Castilla-La Mancha, which he has agreed with the PP, an agreement of which has highlighted its value taking into account that it governs with an absolute majority. “People want the big parties to disagree on many things, because it follows democratic logic, but not on everything due to obligation and system,” he added.

SPORTS

Valencia Basket-Maccabi Tel Aviv: an armored match that generates doubts in the players

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Playing basketball in an armored pavilion, with access under exhaustive control and under a “high risk” nickname that has raised doubts in the players themselves. The Euroleague made the decision to move the match between Valencia Basket and Maccabi Tel Aviv, which should have been held in the Israeli capital, to the San Luis Fountain pavilion and the Ministry of the Interior has implemented a maximum security device in the surroundings of the sports venue and the strategic infrastructure of the city. Although the design of the operation, which shrouds the movement of the Israeli team in secrecy, has been underway for several days, the murder of two Swedish fans in Brussels before the match between the Belgian and Swedish national teams has caused all measures to be reinforced.

The duel has been declared “high risk” by the Anti-Violence Commission and more than 700 agents will ensure access and security inside in a “global arrangement” of the State security forces and bodies and the National Police, according to assured the Government delegate in the Valencian Community, Pilar Bernabé.

The security perimeter will be increased as well as the checks on fans attending the game, so the club and the Delegation have called for “patience” and ask that they arrive at the pavilion earlier.. What has not been considered is the suspension of the duel. “We know that there are other organizations that have suspended matches in which Israeli teams were playing, but in this case it is up to the organizer, which is the Euroleague,” he said.. Valencia Basket confirmed to EL MUNDO that this option has not been put on the table.

Maccabi will arrive in Valencia from Cyprus surrounded by reinforced security measures, but those provided by the National Police will be added to those provided by the club.. In fact. The municipal facilities attached to the pavilion (an indoor pool and weight rooms) will remain closed to the public throughout Wednesday and Thursday morning as well..

Everything that will surround the duel has generated doubts in the players of the Taronja squad, who have turned to the club to find out how it will affect them.. According to sources consulted by EL MUNDO, the main doubt was knowing what the “high risk” declaration meant and whether there was a risk, something that they have clarified that it is a security formalism, that it is not due to the war conflict and that it is He also usually decrees when visiting, for example, conflicting hobbies.. “Some had more doubts, but after speaking people understood the situation. We have to do our thing,” said Víctor Claver, captain of Valencia Basket, who acknowledged his concern about the personal situation that Maccabi players are going through, such as his former teammates James Webb III and Jasiel Rivero, with whom he has been in contact.

The main relief for Valencia Basket is that the Euroleague has accepted the transfer of the match, since in 2003 and after attacks in Tel Aviv, it forced the team to travel to Israel and, when it refused, it was considered defeated.

Villarreal, pending

The conflict also affects Villarreal, which must host Maccabi Haifa in the Conference League at La Cerámica on October 26. However, the Israeli club has formally requested UEFA to postpone the duel.. “This is the least that the European football community can do for us in these difficult times, when our country is under a war in which our best sons are on the front,” argued in a statement the general director of the Israeli club, Itzik Ovadia.

SPORTS

Roberto Martínez's 'fado' in Portugal: a visit to Cristiano, AI control, an hour and a half of Portuguese daily and "a healed locker room"

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When he first appeared in the Cidade do Futebol of the Portuguese Federation, Roberto Martínez barely knew how to say “bom dia” and “obrigado”. On January 9, the Spanish coach became the first non-Portuguese-speaking coach to be named coach of the Portuguese team.. During its century of life, the Portuguese national team had never put a man on its bench who did not speak the country's language.. 50 natives and 2 Brazilians, Otto Glória and Luiz Felipe Scolari, before Martínez broke all the molds of his football. Nine months after his presentation, the Spaniard is already walking around the facilities of Oeiras, a municipality next to Lisbon, as if he had been in the capital all his life. He speaks fluent Portuguese, his wife and two daughters have found stability after moving from Belgium and he has made history with a locker room that came out torn from the World Cup in Qatar.

Portugal has achieved the fastest qualification for a European Championship in its entire life. The team, which before 1996 had only participated in one World Cup and one Euro, has lived in the last decade in the constant suffering of the play-offs, needing an extra playoff to attend an international event.. He suffered it to reach the 2010 World Cup, the Euro 2012, the 2014 World Cup, the 2022 World Cup…. After the disaster in Qatar and the bad relationship of many footballers with the coach Fernando Santos, the management of the Portuguese Federation surveyed the market, ignored the prejudices on the part of society and handed the team to Roberto Martínez.

Cristiano Ronaldo's situation appeared from the first moment as the main media and internal management focus. The former Real Madrid player had been a substitute in a World Cup match and his arrival in Saudi Arabia seemed to indicate a friendly ending with the national team, but nothing could be further from the truth.. Martínez's first trip as Portugal coach was precisely to Riyadh, taking advantage of the celebration of the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia.

“Can he still be a starter?”

He met Cristiano and began to manage a key situation in the locker room. The reflection abandoned all prejudice due to the forward's age and focused the decisions on the sporting part: “Can he still be a starter?” The answer has been given by Cristiano himself, who is the second top scorer in the qualifying phase with 7 goals, only surpassed by the Belgian Lukaku.

Portugal has accumulated eight victories in eight games and despite the theoretical weakness of a group with Slovakia, Luxembourg, Bosnia, Iceland and Liechtenstein, it has shown the unity and play that did not appear in Qatar. It is the highest scoring European team and Martínez has now played 37 qualifying matches without losing. With Belgium he never had the prize of a title, but he achieved a historic World Cup bronze in 2018.

“The Portuguese dressing room has healed, the team arrived very frustrated from Qatar,” say sources close to the Portuguese team.. This union with the players is based on two things: the experience with Belgium and Martínez's rapid adaptation to the language and customs of the country.. During his first months, he has dedicated an hour and a half a day to teaching Portuguese, learning not only general vocabulary, but also using football to integrate more with his players..

“close from day one”

He sang the Portuguese anthem in his first match, something that surprised those who did not want a Spaniard on the bench. “They have seen him close from the first day,” they admit in the neighboring country. Speaking perfect English also helped him in the beginning, when he was not as fluent in the language.

After visiting Cristiano in Riyadh, he met with the other 25 players from Qatar. I wanted to know first-hand his feelings. He first made a list of 200 footballers who could go to the national team and then left it in a table of 52 with which he works daily through an Artificial Intelligence tool.

In his office he has several panels with the names, the minutes, the team, the tactical system in which they play, the physical condition, the position, the calendar… “From there we use AI to draw conclusions,” he explains. . “Here they are very interested in applying AI. In football, everything is measured, training sessions, matches… Then the question is to see what is done with it. The data never makes decisions, but it does provide information,” he adds.

INTERNATIONAL

Bad times for the Scottish independence movement

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These are bad times for the Scottish independence movement. The fall of former chief minister Nicola Sturgeon, due to the irregular financing scandal, has plunged the Scottish National Party (SNP) into the biggest crisis in the last two decades, consummated in recent weeks with the loss of a seat in elections specials before the Labor Party and the flight of an MP, Lisa Cameron, to the ranks of the Conservative Party.

The new nationalist leader and chief minister, Humza Yousaf, has barely managed to weather the storm with the party backing his new strategy at the party's national conference just held in Aberdeen. If the SNP wins a majority in Scotland at the next general election, scheduled for 2024, then it will claim the powers for a second referendum.. That will be the renewed independence struggle, which may once again end in a dead end like the one this year, when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in his battle with the regional government.

The polls show a technical tie between the SNP and the Labor Party, which has ostensibly recovered the ground lost in Scotland under the leadership of Keir Starmer. The Labor leader has also already anticipated his refusal to hold a new sovereignty consultation in Scotland if he becomes prime minister.

Support for independence (47% compared to 53%) has fallen as a result of the serious internal crisis of the SNP, according to the average of Statista polls. Even so, the difference is smaller than at the time of the 2014 referendum (45% to 55%) and the base of support for nationalism is greater than expected after the stunning fall of Nicola Sturgeon, who led the party by hand. of iron for almost a decade.

“A majority of seats is a victory, straight and simple,” proclaimed Humza Yousaf at the SNP's recent national conference in Aberdeen. “If we win that majority, that will be our mandate to open negotiations with the British Government.”

Yousaf, 38, the son of Pakistani immigrants and married to a woman of Palestinian origin (Nadia El-Nakla), had fewer problems than expected in achieving majority support for his new strategy, distancing himself from Nicola Sturgeon's previous proposal to consider the 2024 elections as a de facto referendum.

The SNP leader acknowledged having arrived in Aberdeen in the middle of “a nightmare” political and personal, with the background drama of seeing his in-laws trapped in Gaza. Yousaf has been the only leader of a major British party to dare to criticize Israel for “going too far” and implementing “collective punishment” on the Palestinian population.

“We are going to work together like we have never done before for a better future for our country,” he declared at the time of gaining support for his new strategy.. “Vote SNP if you want Scotland to be an independent country, it will say that on the first line of our manifesto.”

The SNP therefore has the challenge of achieving 29 of the 57 seats up for grabs in Scotland if it wants to keep the flame of independence alive, knowing that it will be very difficult for it to emulate the 43 achieved in the 2019 elections.. In the special election held two weeks ago in Rutherglen, Labor's Michael Shanks managed to turn the polls around and capture more than 20% of the nationalist vote.

The escape to the Conservative Party of MP Lisa Cameron, in the run-up to the Aberdeen conference, was another hard blow. Cameron justified his departure by harassment against the moderate faction of the party and claimed to have received all kinds of personal threats before and after making his decision public: “That is where the political debate in Scotland has taken us, towards aggression, violence and anger.”

SPAIN

Zapatero repeats with the amnesty the strategy against 'let Txapote vote for you': pedagogy against the wear and tear that they fear within the PSOE

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“Discretion”, “patience” and “prudence”. These are the maxims that guide the PSOE in the negotiation on the amnesty with the Catalan independentists of Junts and ERC. The agreement is not yet closed, “we have to work”, there is not even complete certainty that there will finally be an agreement. “The negotiation is complex,” say those who are in the know, and this prevents the socialist leaders from undertaking the pedagogy campaign they had planned to digest, both internally and socially, the forgiveness of the process.. In this scenario, as happened in the last two electoral campaigns, in the face of the attacks and the attrition campaign of the PP, the figure of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero emerges, as the spearhead and shield of the PSOE and Pedro Sánchez.

The former president of the Government acts as a rodela, once again, in a difficult situation for the PSOE. He already did it in the regional and general campaign, defending the political action of the PSOE, its measures; drawing Feijóo as “a lie with legs”; and countering the “Let Txapote vote for you!” brandishing the end of ETA as a socialist achievement. He rolled up his sleeves and went down into the mud, something that served to spur the spirit of the party and mobilize its bases, as seen in the many rallies he participated in.. His figure acquired such prominence that he even piloted a kind of parallel campaign. Now he is once again on the front line, arguing that the amnesty “is not unconstitutional,” as declared this Monday on Carlos Alsina's Más de uno program on Onda Cero, despite the great legal debate open on the matter, and that “if we have to change “You change your mind,” alluding to the fact that until three months ago the PSOE considered the amnesty unconstitutional.

«Zapatero is a very important figure. “It has been, it is and it will be,” government sources concede.. And it is not only for the socialists, but also for the Catalan independentists who hold him in very high regard and consider him an important actor to take into account in this process.. However, sources familiar with the amnesty negotiation state that, at least as of today, he has not intervened in that dialogue.

Zapatero versus González

“He is a key asset”, “he is a reference”, “he is in a state of grace”, describe socialist leaders consulted by EL MUNDO, who contrast his “loyalty” with the attitude of another former president like Felipe González.. “It's an example”.

The delay in the agreement with Junts and ERC on the amnesty, added to the fact that there are no full guarantees regarding an agreement, has created concern in sectors of the PSOE due to the wear and tear of these weeks. Not having closed the pact, the lack of a black on white proposal, prevents the socialists from a campaign to counteract criticism and censorship from the opposition. A void that Alberto Núñez Feijóo seeks to take advantage of. In the socialist formation they knew that “very noisy” weeks were coming and that is why there are leaders who believe that it would have been appropriate “for everyone to talk much more.”. It happens that only a few people who report directly to Sánchez have information. Therefore, even if they wanted to, many could not. Hence, in the party they believe what Zapatero does is important: saying and doing what many cannot.

There have been attempts, without this work of explanation and pedagogy having been fully developed.. Because, to begin with, both the ministers and Sánchez avoid the word amnesty. Yes, it was pronounced once by the acting President of the Government, within the framework of the European summit in Granada and escorted by the representatives of the European institutions.. To date, the largest didactic exercise carried out: “It is still a way of trying to overcome the judicial consequences of the situation that occurred in Spain with one of the worst territorial crises we have experienced.”

Socialist officials and leaders consulted by this newspaper admit that this waiting period and silence entail a “risk at the media and social level” for not contrasting precise arguments and, above all, expressing that everything is done “within the framework of the Constitution.”. The one who is clear about his position is Emiliano García-Page. The president of Castilla-La warned yesterday that an amnesty law as a bargaining chip for a Sánchez investiture will bring in Spain “inequalities” whose bill will be paid by “next generations”, a scenario in which he asked “not to trivialize.”

SPAIN

PP-Vox war in large capitals: from being a 'coalition' to being an opposition in four months

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Vox emerged from the May 28 elections with notable autonomous power by becoming the only possible support for the Popular Party to gain majorities.. That guaranteed them vice presidencies, presidencies of parliaments and councils.. Furthermore, the results also made them decisive in the city councils of up to four of the ten large capitals of the country.. However, none of them have their municipal government boards entered..

Four months after the constitution of the City Councils, the votes of Vox councilors are decisive in Valencia, Seville, Zaragoza and Palma de Mallorca, but far from having reached coalition agreements, they have become opposition. Only in the Balearic capital was a programmatic agreement agreed without this implying government work.. In the rest, Vox wants but the PP, for the moment, does not give in. That has led them to increase the pressure.

In Valencia, María José Catalá (PP) recognized Vox as a “preferred partner” because it needs to add those four votes to its 14 councilors. He granted them exclusive dedication, with the salary that entails, but formed his governing board only with the popular councilors once the general elections in July were held.. It is now that Vox raises its voice and aligns itself with the opposition to overthrow the mayor's measures. First he renounced two of those dedications granted and this Wednesday he will say no to the tax ordinance that represents a reduction in municipal taxes. He already voted against, like Compromís and PSOE, the appointment of directors of the Municipal Transport Company (EMT) and once again refused to support the appointment of the manager of the public urban management company AUMSA. Catalá needed the support of the socialists in the face of another 'no' from who was destined to be his “preferred partner”.

The group led by Juanma Badenas has even refused to celebrate civil weddings by the Mayor's delegation.. “They may encounter a problem of coherence with their voters,” they warn at the Valencia City Council.. The escalation of tension has deadlines: the plenary session that must approve the tax ordinances on October 24 and December 31 when the 2024 budget must be approved.

In Seville, the position is the same. Mayor José Luis Sanz formed a government without Vox and since the formation of Abascal they have already reminded him in some plenary sessions, with abstentions and refusals, that his support involves integrating them. In Zaragoza, and despite the agreement reached in the autonomous government, Natalia Chueca (PP) also divided the government action into eight large areas without the participation of Vox and will have to negotiate its support. The same will happen to Luis Barcala in Alicante, although he has encountered less belligerence, for now,

Where coalitions were formed quickly was in Valladolid, Toledo or Elche. The reason is that the Popular Party was not the most voted party and they needed to guarantee votes for their mayoral candidates.. The same thing happened in Gijón, where they have just been expelled by the mayor of Foro, who broke the agreement and has remained in the minority despite the support of PP.