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.
SPORTS

Bellingham and Valverde put the two diamonds in a Madrid for all audiences

Leave a comment

The Real Madrid system debuted and also its star signing. While the team was still torn between the pause of the past and the speed of the future, Jude Bellingham marked the pace of the white team with star gestures. Valverde, who must be a key piece in that coming Madrid, was the other spicy touch of Carlo Ancelotti's squad without detriment to Vinicius, who begins the season as the other ended, showing off and facing off. All in all, Real Madrid managed to overcome an initial two-goal deficit to end up beating Milan 3-2.

The 40th minute arrived and Jude Bellingham gave a heel shot to nowhere that was cut off by the Milan defense. It was the first mistake made by the Englishman and almost the only one in his debut with Ancelotti's team. The first half of Real Madrid-Milan was coming to an end and between Militao, Nacho, Lucas and, above all, Mendy, they had already accumulated two goals against, and an even longer list of failures behind.

Real Madrid began their preseason at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena (California) and people expected to see a Hollywood blockbuster, but they found a sweetened version of Bambi with spicy touches from the English medium in the first part and Valverde in the second. The rhombus was released on the white board, and Bellingham and Valverde were players of two rhombuses.

The first part was even between two great Europeans, semifinalists of the last edition of the Champions League. Milan sought to steal up front with high pressure and Real Madrid forgot about the touch of other campaigns and began its new era with quick transitions, more typical of the youth they have signed. Only Kroos maintained those remnants of a past Madrid, with more pause and less vertigo.

The first chances fell for the white team, thanks also to the return of a Brahim Díaz who moves well between the lines. However, Milan responded well, taking advantage of the cons and, especially, the rude errors of a defense that, except for Militao, seems to have few minutes next season. Mendy had several passes to the contrary that may not be transcendent due to the importance of this Champions Tour, but surely Ancelotti has taken good note of them.

However, and unfortunately for him, Nacho is the one who appears in the photos of the two Milan goals. In the first he does not finish closing the small area in a corner and Tomori finishes off without opposition to the back of the net. The second comes due to his error at the start that Romero collects and culminates from outside the area with a shot adjusted to Lunin's squad. Perhaps the Ukrainian goalkeeper could have done something more in the first, but the second was a real goal. Nacho so serious, sober and necessary last season to the point of earning the renewal, does not start well in this first test.

Uruguayan explosion

The second part began with a more bossy Madrid and with a completely renewed 11, eight changes compared to the first half. Vinicius and Rodrygo came out on top, replacing an absolutely invisible Joselu in the first half. Benzema is not the former Espanyol striker and Madrid would be wrong to expect a game similar to that of the Frenchman. Very few balls reached the striker of Galician origin.

The Brazilian duo was much more incisive in a slower and more rigid Milan defense, especially after Pioli waited until the 70th minute to make the changes. An internship by Rodrygo was the first Real Madrid warning until madness arrived at the Italian defense, taken advantage of by Valverde, MVP of the match. Special mention for goalkeeper Portiello. Nobody knows what Madrid has to cause these temporary madness in the rival goalkeepers.

In the 56th minute, Valverde took advantage of an initial error in the ball coming out of the Milan team to shoot from outside the area. It was not a very strong or tight shot, but Portiello slipped through his hands. Barely a minute later, the Uruguayan anticipated a pass from Tomori and, also from outside the area, beat Portiello again, this time with a powerful shot close to the post.

Milan, with the score tied, improved with the changes and matched a second half that had clear white overtones. However, Valverde reappeared to recover a ball, yield to Modric, and the Croatian would already take out his top hat to give a deep pass to Vinicius, who ate a soft Kjaer and defined low against Maignan, a substitute for the ill-fated Portiello.

Few conclusions can be drawn from a game that marks the start of the white season and from a new system that will mark the future of the game for Ancelotti's team. A rhombus with which the team had some problems to reach from the outside and to maintain a high pressure that Ancelotti wants to be one of the pillars of this new Madrid.

SPORTS

75 seconds in 70 laps: How has Alonso's Aston Martin lost so much pace?

Leave a comment

The worst result of the year, with three points for its drivers, was not the only bad news for Aston Martin at the Hungaroring, where for the third consecutive race there was not even enough pace to fight for podium places.. Because even worse than that meager baggage was the distance that Fernando Alonso gave up against Max Verstappen and Lando Norris, the two fittest drivers in the World Cup: 75 seconds against the next world champion and 42 seconds with the young Briton..

In a 70-lap race, with two pit stops for all the favourites, the gap between the AMR23 and the two cars that set the standard is more than worrying.. That, not to mention Mercedes, which pushed George Russell from eighteenth on the grid to sixth at the finish.. “We had the second fastest car, although the result does not show it,” concluded Toto Wolff, still pointing without mentioning it, to Lewis Hamilton. “In theory, only Red Bull surpassed us, despite the fact that today we did not know how to monetize it,” added the Austrian.

Therefore, leaving aside some Red Bulls that are listed on another market, the landscape of Aston Martin is dyed every day in darker tones.. For the first time, after babbling some excuses at the Red Bull Ring or Silverstone, the team's main team admitted what everyone took for granted.. “It's disappointing, but also a reality check. We thought it was something specific to the previous two circuits and that we could be fast here.. But we haven't been,” admitted Mike Krack.

Too far from McLaren

And a look at the time tables is enough to understand Aston Martin's inability to find those three or four tenths that would have allowed Alonso to fight for position with Carlos Sainz or Russell. During the 20 laps of his first stint, with the medium tyre, the Spaniard was never able to drop below 1:25, a border regularly surpassed by the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Norris. And even worse were Lance Stroll's records in his 10 laps on soft rubber. Already with the hard compound, Alonso was able to ride regularly in 1:22 and 1:23 during the final stretch, in sections comparable to those of Mercedes or Sergio Pérez, despite the fact that by then he no longer had any option to get close to the lead.

In fact, the only moment of fun for the two-time world champion came on lap 22, with an overtake on Valtteri Bottas. After their astonishing performance on Saturday, the Alfa Romeos went backwards during the race, just as Alonso had predicted in the previous. And that was perhaps the only positive news for Aston Martin all weekend.

When asked about the most immediate need for the next race, on Sunday at Spa-Francorchamps, Alonso responded emphatically: “More grip”. Which is not without amazement, given the fabulous downforce that Aston Martin had during the first rounds of the World Cup.. At the Hungaroring, with almost 50ºC on the asphalt and a very slow passage through the curve, the AMR23 should have set the tone. And did not do it. “My ninth place reflects our pace, behind Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren, which is more or less what we saw on Saturday,” conceded the Spaniard..

“We're suffering”

At the moment, not only the third place of the Spaniard is in danger, with a scant cushion against Hamilton (169-163), but also the third place in the Constructors' World Championship, where Ferrari appears to 17 points (184-167). So work is piling up at the futuristic Silverstone factory to try to make up the ground lost in the second half of the championship. “I already said that we compete against very strong rivals when it comes to developing their cars and we are not fast enough,” added Krack on the DAZN microphones.

Conditions will vary completely this weekend at Spa, a motor track and pure power. With his feet on the ground, Alonso concedes that “it will also be difficult”, since he would need “more free practice sessions to test things and clear up doubts about whether something works or not”. Although he did not want to reiterate it, the man from Oviedo remains convinced that the change introduced by the FIA in Pirelli tires has not favored his options at all. And his final message should not leave anyone indifferent either: “There is no doubt that we are suffering.”

SPORTS

X-ray of David Popovici, the new swimming star: "He had a hard time finding the balance between fun and discipline"

Leave a comment

David Popovici, a phenomenon, a wonder, the new swimming star. Last summer, at just 17 years old, he broke the record of all records, the 100-meter freestyle, and the world opened up before him.

Half a dozen universities in the United States offered him a blank check. Michigan, Stanford, Berkeley…. The possibility of training alongside the best swimmers in the world; of living with Michael Phelps, his idol; to study Psychology, the career that most attracts him due to the inheritance of his mother Georgeta, a psychologist.

All the technicians studied his technique. As it does? His position, propelled out of the water, riding his own wave. Your stroke rate, unchangeable, always unchangeable. His very strong kick, especially the left. His recoveries, his roll, his turns.

And his country, Romania, went out of his way to pamper him.. What I wanted, what I needed. Since Nadia Comaneci and Ecaterina Szabo, gymnasts from the communist era, they have not had a world reference and in the last Games they only won four medals, three in rowing and one in fencing.

one more teenager

David Popovici, a phenomenon, a wonder, the new swimming star. But also one more teenager, a boy who goes out with his girlfriend Taisia Niuleasa -make-up artist apprentice-, who listens to Romanian hip-hop -Subcarpati, Kazi Ploae or Specii-, who rides his bike around Budapest and who is trying to get his driver's license.

“Many things have changed around David, but for him this has been a special year because he has finished high school [with an 8.65 in the Romanian Selectividad] and has chosen a university in Bucharest to continue his studies. The goal is to be as competitive as possible, but also to learn, to live,” explains Adrian Radulescu, in conversation with EL MUNDO, from Fukuoka, where Popovici will try to re-proclaim himself world champion of the 100-meter freestyle (on Thursday, around 1:30 p.m., on Teledeporte) and the 200-meter freestyle (on Tuesday, at 1:00 p.m., on TDP).

Swimmer David Popovici WORLD

In just one answer, Radulescu, who is called Mr.. Adi, summarize your way of directing the trajectory of talent. Others would have muscled Popovici, a guy of 1.91 meters, 2.05 in wingspan and weighing just 79 kilos. Others would have demanded discipline and rectitude, more with the Romanian sports tradition. Others would have crushed him to do kilometers and would have multiplied his specialties so that he wins three, four or five golds in each World Cup. Radulescu, no. Ever since he met a 9-year-old Popovici at Aqua Team Bucuresti, he let him do it, tolerated some mischief and, little by little, educated him to be the best swimmer in the world and, at the same time, a good guy.. For example, it introduced him to Philosophy, of which the coach is a lover, to Seneca, to Plato.

Was he as rebellious as they say? No, I wouldn't say he was rebellious, he just wanted to play and have a good time. To learn, I needed to understand things, not take orders.. Obviously in his beginnings he did not have the best attitude to develop as a swimmer, but he was willing to listen. It took a while to find the balance between fun and discipline, but we did it.

“A lot of people exaggerate about David. For example, about his physique, about his conditions. He has a good build for a swimmer, but other swimmers have it too. It is not a reincarnation of Adonis or Apollo, that is not the reality. The technique is always more important than the physique”, proclaims Radulescu who wants to keep Popovici on the right path. He has obtained sufficient financial support -from the Romanian government, from various companies in the country and from Arena- so that the swimmer does not have to go to the United States to study, he has agreed with him to restrict the swimmer's public appearances “so that no one dreams about him” and has kept the focus focused on only two tests, the 100 and 200-meter freestyle. There have been a lot of rumors about Popovici's jump to the 400-meter freestyle and in the last Romanian Championships he competed in various butterfly and relay distances, but it is not the time yet.

Why not swim five or six events like most stars do? We are focused on the 100-meter freestyle and the 200-meter freestyle. David enjoys as a child when he improves his personal best in other distances and in other specialties, but our goals on the road to the Paris 2024 Games have not changed.

The world is another for Popovici. Rivals who did not know him before now challenge him, especially the Hungarian Kristof Milak, who changed the butterfly for the crawl to measure himself against him.. His parents, Mihai and Georgeta, no longer wear those t-shirts that said 'Parents of Kahuna' to competitions – a Kahuna is a magician, a childish complicity within the family – and they have even changed jobs: Mihai is now director of Dinamo Bucharest's swimming school. And the fans recognize him wherever he is, like these days in Fukuoka, where he has tired of taking selfies. But Popovici is still just another teenager.

“The pressure is great, that is undeniable, but we try not to change him. David is a sensitive, humble, calm boy. He is a better person than a swimmer,” concludes his coach, Adrian Radulescu, about the phenomenon, the wonder, the new swimming star.

INTERNATIONAL

The approval of the first Judicial Reform Law aggravates the crisis in Israel

Leave a comment

After almost 30 weeks of protests in an Israel more divided than ever, the announcement of thousands of reservists to resign from their voluntary service, the warnings from the business community, the union and US President Joe Biden, a general strike, adverse polls, the fall in the value of the shekel and the rise in tension, the Government voted in the Knesset the first law included in its judicial reform plan. The controversial project launched in January by the ultra-conservative coalition has uncovered an identity war that fractures the country at one of its most tense moments, as was confirmed this Monday night, hours after the vote on the law, with protests in several cities and the massive blockade of the main access road to Tel Aviv that led to the most violent clashes between protesters and police in recent months.

By giving in to the most militant wing of his government in favor of limiting the power of the Supreme Court (TS), Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu avoids a political crisis that would have shaken the chair he has held again for seven months, but aggravates a broader and even historic one at the national, economic, social and diplomatic level with already tangible effects on the army.

“Bibi has a coalition, but she lost her people,” says the former head of internal security (Shabak), Nadav Argaman, about who was her direct boss (2016-2021) after the approval of the law that annuls the “reasonableness criterion” with which the Supreme Court could, among other instruments, intervene in decisions, appointments and dismissals of the Government.

Minutes after the vote (64 against due to the boycott of the opposition deputies who left the plenary session shouting “shame” after presenting a record of 27,676 reservations to the amendment), tens of thousands of Israelis renewed the wave of protests, especially in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa while the Stock Exchange suffered losses and several appeals were sent to the Supreme Court to be knocked down.. The opposition promises to annul it if it returns to the Government.

“We took a necessary democratic action. Fulfilling the will of the voter is not the end of democracy, but the essence of democracy,” Netanyahu declared in a television intervention in which he pointed out that for three months they agreed to stop the legislation and offered dialogue to the opposition about the reform.

Under the shadow of the security threat posed by the announced abandonment of more than 11,000 reservists (including 550 pilots) if the law is not agreed upon and the fear that the internal fracture is irreparable, President Isaac Herzog sought a pact that would calm both the coalition's ambition to “reduce the excessive power of judges” and the equally deep fear of the opposition in the Knesset and on the street about “the loss of judicial independence “. The former senior Justice official, Raz Nizri, tried it, revealing two obstacles that frustrated the magical legal and political formula: “A deep mistrust between the parties and the fear of what their respective bases will say.”

The day began with news worthy of the dramatic times in Israel. Netanyahu left Sheba Hospital after having a pacemaker implanted in an emergency surgical procedure and headed straight for the Knesset where thousands were demonstrating on its doorsteps.. “Our sit-in is a peaceful protest against the start of the plan to end democracy,” said Ziv armed with an Israeli flag and near the park where those who completed the march on foot from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Saturday set up tents.

Inside Parliament, there were moments of tension before the eyes of the entire country. “Give me something!” Defense Minister Yoav Gallant asked Justice Minister Yariv Levin during the vote in an in extremis negotiation to achieve a consensus. Netanyahu, sitting between the two, opted for Levin and the more radical wing and not for Gallant worried about the damage to the cohesion and capacity of the army.. The former Defense Minister, the opposition Benny Gantz, got the impression that “the security situation is very worrying” after meeting with the head of the army, Herzi Halevi, who explained to him the regional threats and the situation in the army hit by the crisis.. In a meeting with opposition leader Yair Lapid, the head of Shabak, Ronen Bar expressed concern at the “great risk of violence and chaos in society.”

“Netanyahu is not really the prime minister, but is a hostage of Levin and Itamar Ben Gvir (controversial minister of National Security). It is the most irresponsible government in the history of Israel. He wants to dismantle democracy and the unity of the State”, accused Lapid who will challenge the law before the TS. For Levin, however, it is the “first step in the important historical process of correcting the judicial system and restoring the powers that were taken from the Government and the Knesset for many years.”. Ben Gvir, whose mere presence in the government, including his statements, provokes the anger of the protesters, calls for the advance of the remains of proposals: “It is only the beginning. With this law, the country is more democratic and Jewish.”

Biden had asked Netanyahu not to carry out the law unilaterally and due to the security challenges and threats facing Israel, warned that reforms without consensus “only widen divisions and do not reduce them.”. After the approval, the White House considered it “unfortunate” that the norm was approved “with the smallest possible majority” and urged the Israeli leadership to dialogue because “big democratic changes require consensus.”

But what is at stake in Israel is not only Levin's plan and not even the more or less reasonable text against the principle of reasonableness, but, as the two large sectors agree, the identity of the country in the sensitive balance between its Jewish and democratic character.

INTERNATIONAL

Macron's motto three weeks after the riots: "order, order, order"

Leave a comment

Just landed in Nouméa (New Caledonia) for an official trip in which he will examine the status of the territory after the three self-determination referendums that resulted in a “no” to independence, French President Emmanuel Macron has sat down for an interview with the French television channels TF1 and France 2.

The meeting, unusual in the middle of the summer holidays, and ten days after a July 14 without a speech, has given the French head of state the opportunity to defend the results of the “hundred days” period.. On April 17, this deadline was granted to appease the country after the controversial pension reform. Specifically, he declared that the Government had “advanced, made decisions, legislated and been effective.”

In particular, he congratulated his Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, for his management of the riots that shook the country in early July after the brutal death of Nahel, the young man killed by a police officer at a roadblock.

Emmanuel Macron has advocated “order, order, order”, and has underlined his desire to restore “authority at all levels, in schools, the authority of elected representatives, of the security forces”, but also, and above all, the authority of parents.

He has stated that he wants to “start this work” at the end of the summer, and while he has expressed his desire to “make families more responsible”, he has also indicated that he wants to “support [those] who are in difficulty and […] reinvest massively in [the] young people to give them a framework again”, to prevent new “difficulties”.

He has also declared that he wants to start restoring order “on social networks”, which, in his opinion, played a crucial role in organizing the riots.. On July 4, he had mentioned the possibility of cutting off access to these platforms, a statement that was widely criticized even within his own party.

Macron has also addressed the growing controversy surrounding comments by Frédéric Veaux, head of the French National Police, who claimed that a police officer “does not belong in jail” ahead of his possible trial.. Last Thursday, four police officers were charged with assault in Marseille, and one of them entered preventive detention.

“I understand the emotion […] felt by our police officers, who faced violence during the riots,” he said. But he clarified that “no one in the Republic” is “above the law.”

INTERNATIONAL

Guatemala celebrates a National Strike to defend democracy against the "coup plotters"

Leave a comment

The citizens of Guatemala have said enough to the attempts of justice to leave the Seed Movement out of the electoral contest. The Constitutional Court (CC) itself made it clear that the legal personality of Semilla cannot be suspended, whose candidate, Bernardo Arévalo de León, aspires to the Presidency of the Central American country on August 20, when he will face the candidate of the National Unity of Hope, Sandra Torres.. Despite this, the judge of the Seventh Court, Fredy Orellana, and the prosecutor of the Special Prosecutor's Office Against Impunity, Rafael Curruchiche, have continued with their offensive against Semilla, which has caused several organizations to call a National Strike this Monday in defense of democracy.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the raid that the Prosecutor's Office carried out last Friday at the headquarters of Semilla for the investigation that maintains that “there are indications that possibly more than 5,000 citizens were illegally adhered” to this party “falsifying their handwriting and signature”. The tension in the country has reached such a point that the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE) itself filed an amparo before the CC to demand that seven State agencies, including the Prosecutor's Office and the Supreme Court of Justice, guarantee the holding of the second round of elections.. Thus, the TSE considers that there is a “certain, future, and imminent threat” that the denounced authorities, which also include the Ministries of Defense, the Interior, and Public Finance, “violate the democratic rule of law for the development of an electoral process in an environment of freedom.”

However, the CC rejected the appeal, recalling that on July 13 it already protected the Seed Movement, guaranteeing that this party could not be legally suspended and that the second round between Bernardo Arévalo de León and Sandra Torres should be held normally.. However, in that resolution, the Court left the Prosecutor's Office free to continue investigating Semilla. This has caused the judge to order the arrest of two Semilla militants, as well as the arrest of the acting director of the TSE Citizens' Registry, Eleonora Castillo for disobeying the order to legally suspend the political formation.

In this context, thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of Guatemala City this Sunday, prior to celebrating the National Strike to which the students of the public University of San Carlos joined.. The mobilizations ended in front of the Prosecutor's Office, where the demonstrators put up posters that read 'Gone with the coup'. They also pasted the photos of the attorney general, Consuelo Porras, the head of the FECI, Rafael Curruchiche, and the judge of the Seventh Court, Fredy Orellana, whom they accuse of orchestrating a “technical coup” to prevent Bernardo Arévalo de León from becoming the next president of the country.

Brenda Hernández led the 2015 protests against corruption that led to the imprisonment of then-President of Guatemala Otto Pérez Molina. Eight years after these historic demonstrations, Hernández has once again taken to the streets with his inseparable drum with which he chants slogans such as “Consuelo coup, you are the terrorist.” She was one of the first to mobilize this Monday in front of the National Palace, where she stressed that “the faces we saw during the 2015 mobilizations are back on the streets and that gives us a lot of hope and motivation because we know that they are peaceful people who defend the sovereignty of the people expressed democratically in the vote.”

INTERNATIONAL

War Ukraine – Russia, last minute | The UN detects "some anti-personnel mines" at the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant

Leave a comment

Sixth day of Russian drone attacks on kyiv marking 517 days of war in Ukraine. In addition to air alerts being activated in the Ukrainian capital, where Kievites were invited to take shelter, in the southern regions of Odesa and Mikolaiv, on the Black Sea coast, they were also sounded.

Russia, which decided not to extend the agreement on the export of grain, has been on a repeated offensive to destroy all kinds of port and agricultural infrastructure that could facilitate the exit of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) continues to demand access to the roofs of the reactors and turbine halls of the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. Ukraine accused Russia, which has controlled the plant since March 2022, of having placed “objects similar to explosive devices” on the roofs of reactors 3 and 4.

The Russian operator of Ukraine's occupied Zaporizhia nuclear power plant today justified its hot shutdown of reactor number 4 by needing to carry out a scheduled technical inspection of another unit, while maintaining steam supply for the plant.

An inspection by the body led by the Argentine Rafael Grossi has concluded that there are “some anti-personnel mines” in the nuclear power plant but ruled out that they posed a danger. “A detonation of these mines should not affect the security systems of the place,” said this UN agency in a statement.

“In an inspection on July 23, the IAEA team saw some mines located in a buffer zone between the inner and outer perimeter barriers of the site,” it added.

update narration
08.29
Energoatom denounced before the Prosecutor's Office the illegality of putting reactor 4 on a “hot shutdown”

The Ukrainian state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, has denounced before the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office the illegality of having “hot stopped” reactor number 4 of the Zaporizhia atomic power plant, in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, which, according to the company, contravenes Ukrainian nuclear legislation, reports Efe.

Energoatom has called on the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to take steps to put pressure on Russia to put all the Zaporizhia reactors on a cold shutdown.

After one of its periodic inspections of Zaporizhia, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a report yesterday in which it reports the presence of explosive mines near and even within the perimeter of the Russian-occupied plant, something that contravenes the nuclear safety regulations of this UN agency.

The report also mentions that some of the reactors have been put on a hot shutdown for maintenance and inspections.

Share on Twitter
08.26
Energoatom recalls the risk to nuclear safety after the rupture of the Kajovka dam

The Ukrainian state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, recalls in a statement that the destruction on June 6 of the New Kakhovka hydroelectric power station – located in Russian-occupied Ukrainian territory – put at risk the supply of water for cooling the reactors at the Zaporizhia power plant.

“It is undeniable that the risk for nuclear and radioactive safety due to the long stoppages of activity of the reactor equipment, the lack of proper regular maintenance and repair of equipment,” warned Energoatom, according to Efe.

Share on Twitter
08.23
Ukraine denounces that Russia again violates safety rules at the Zaporizhia plant

The Ukrainian state nuclear energy company, Energoatom, denounced last night that the Russian authorities have put reactor number 4 of the Zaporizhia atomic power station on hot shutdown, in Ukrainian territory occupied by Russia, which, according to the company, contravenes Ukrainian nuclear legislation.

“On July 24, 2023, despite the demands of the National Regulatory Commission for Atomic Energy and Energoatom, reactor number 4 of the occupied Zaporizhia nuclear plant was put into a hot shutdown,” says the company's note collected by Efe.

Energoatom adds that “these actions are a flagrant violation of the license requirements to operate this nuclear facility.”. “Currently, unit number 4 of the plant must be operated exclusively in cold shutdown,” the statement states.

According to the Spanish Nuclear Society, hot shutdown is the “operating state of a nuclear power plant after a reactor shutdown, keeping the reactor subcritical and the pressure and temperature of the coolant close to those of operation at power.”

This favors “favors a rapid restoration of its operation at power.”

Share on Twitter
08.13
Today's photos of Odessa, the Heritage city hit by Russian missiles

A priest saves objects from the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa. JAE C. HONG | PA

The Ukrainian flag painted on a door in the city of Odessa. JAE C. HONG | PA

A man walks through rubble in Odessa. JAE C. “According to current information, there are neither victims nor destruction in the capital,” he added.

During the night, the authorities activated the anti-aircraft alert in the kyiv region and invited the inhabitants to stay under cover.

According to Popko, it is “already the sixth drone attack in the capital this month.”

The air forces also raised the alarm for air strikes in the southern regions of Odessa and Mykolaiv, on the Black Sea coast.

These regions have important port infrastructure that Moscow has attacked repeatedly since the end of the agreement last week that facilitated the export of Ukrainian grain by this sea.

Share on Twitter
SPAIN

Third victory of the PP of Juanma Moreno after a sorpasso by the minimum in Andalusia

Leave a comment

The PP has obtained this July 23 an unquestionable victory in Andalusia in number of seats and in votes, although below the expectations generated after the success of the regional elections of 2022, when it obtained a resounding absolute majority, and of the municipal ones of last May, when the PP managed to wrest the government of the eight Andalusian capitals and six of the eight councils from the PSOE.

The electoral cycle closes, therefore, with a new popular triumph that confirms the supremacy of the PP in what had historically been considered one of the most solid socialist barns. But, given the expectations created around the Juanma Moreno effect, the surprise of election night has been that the Andalusian PSOE has managed to resist better than expected at a time of tremendous organic weakness due to the loss of territorial power.

At the close of this edition, the PP would have obtained 25 of the 61 deputies to Congress that are elected from Andalusia, that is, 10 more than in the November 2019 elections, with around 1,560,000 votes. The PSOE, for its part, is left with 21 deputies, which are 4 less than those achieved in the previous general elections, with 1,438,000 votes. The difference is about 122,000 supports, a much smaller gap than the one that resulted from the last municipal elections (185,000 votes difference) or the one that opened in the regional elections of June 2022 (almost 700,000 votes).

In any case, the Andalusian map is painted blue in the regional calculation and is consolidated as one of the territories with the most specific weight for the PP, after winning seven of the eight provinces.

But the PSOE of Juan Espadas has contained in some way the bleeding of support that it had been suffering in the last calls, despite having left four deputies along the way. And what will undoubtedly be celebrated as a partial success of the socialists, of high symbolic value, is having managed to maintain first place in the province of Seville, cradle of the old PSOE of Felipe González and Alfonso Guerra and a true talisman for Andalusian socialism.. In these general elections, the head of the PSOE list for Seville has been the Minister of Finance (now in office), María Jesús Montero, Deputy Secretary General of the PSOE, who has played a leading role throughout the campaign and who is considered one of the unquestionable references for the future of the PSOE, as he demonstrated by going out yesterday on Ferraz's balcony with Pedro Sánchez and his wife.

The PSOE-A will have to refine a lot to correctly interpret the electoral results. Because, although it is true that it has been able to resist the popular wave better than expected, its results (four deputies less than in 2019) are worse than those achieved in the country as a whole (two more deputies).

The current general secretary of the PSOE-A, Juan Espadas, does not come out stronger than ever from this electoral event, but the atmosphere of relief that exists in Ferraz after having managed to stop any option for the right to govern, could serve as a balm when it comes to demanding accounts.. In addition, in the face of a hypothetical scenario of electoral repetition, logic would invite us to postpone any process of internal reflection.

The third party in number of votes in Andalusia has been Vox, which has obtained 657,450 votes and has lost three of the twelve deputies it had in Congress.

And in fourth place Sumar has been placed, which achieved 512,284 votes and six deputies, which are the same as United We Can already achieved in 2019.

Neither Adelante Andalucía (the party of Teresa Rodríguez and Kichi headed by Pilar González and who only ran for Cádiz) nor Jaén Merece Más (the revelation party of the municipal elections in the capital of the province) have obtained representation in Congress. Macarena Olona, who became the leader of Vox in Andalusia and was running in these elections as the head of the list for Granada of her new party, Caminando Juntos, has also been left out.

The PP was convinced that Andalusia would be key to the triumph of Alberto Núñez Feijóo in these general elections and this has been the case. But getting a majority in the voluminous Andalusian vote barn (6.7 million voters) has been insufficient for this victory to allow Alberto Núñez Feijóo to be sworn in as Prime Minister. Definitely, Feijóo has remained far from “marking a Juanma Moreno”, if we use the formula that the president of the Board used on several occasions during the electoral campaign, when in the PP they even dared to speculate with a “sufficient” majority to govern without the need for Vox.

The Andalusian PP has put the finishing touch to the electoral cycle and has consummated the third Andalusian political turnaround, but Feijóo's pyrrhic victory will not allow him to celebrate success as he expected. In any case, Juanma Moreno has established himself as one of the most powerful barons in Feijóo's PP.

With 99.01% of the count, participation in Andalusia stood at 68.97%, which is 3.06 points more than that registered in the last general elections, when it reached 65.91 percent.. Voting by mail has been included in this data, which has reached historical figures, with 377,000 Andalusian voters choosing to go ahead when voting. Participation in Andalusia has been slightly lower than that of Spain as a whole, at 70.32%.

HEALTH

Heat and pollution: a deadly combination that triggers the risk of heart attack

Leave a comment

Although there are various factors that can double the risk of heart attack, there is a combination that is especially deadly: heat and high levels of pollution by fine particles, two elements that trigger the risk of death, especially in the elderly and women.

This is the main conclusion of a study published this Monday in Circulation – the journal of the American Heart Association – based on the analysis of more than 202,000 deaths from myocardial infarction between 2015-2020 in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, a region with four distinct seasons and a wide range of temperatures and levels of pollution by fine particles.

Fine particles less than 2.5 microns in size come from car exhaust, factories or fires, and inhalation causes heart disease and stroke among other problems.

These particles “can interact synergistically with temperature extremes and adversely affect cardiovascular health,” said lead author Yuewei Liu, a researcher at Sun Yat-sen University's School of Public Health in Guangzhou, China.

To find out if joint exposure to extreme temperatures and pollution affects health, the team analyzed 202,678 heart attack deaths between 2015-2020 recorded in Jiangsu.. The study confirmed that the days that combined extreme heat and high levels of air pollution by fine particles increased the risk of death by heart attack, more in women than in men and in older adults more than in young people.

Specifically, the deaths occurred among adults with a mean age of 77.6 years, 52% were over 80 years of age and 52% were men.

Temperature extremes were measured based on an area's daily heat index that includes the combined effect of heat and humidity.. And both the duration and intensity of heat waves and cold waves were assessed.

Myocardial infarction deaths, or 'case-days', during these periods were compared to control dates on the same weekday of the same month, i.e. if a death occurred on a Wednesday, all other Wednesdays of the same month would be considered control days.

Increased risk of fatal heart attack in heat waves lasting several days

Particle levels were considered high on any day with a mean level of fine particles greater than 37.5 micrograms per cubic meter. Compared with control days, the risk of fatal heart attack increased by 18% in 2-day heat waves with heat indices at or above the 90th percentile (28.1 to 36.6 degrees Celsius), and up to 74% more in 4-day heat waves with heat indices at or above the 97.5th percentile (34.8 to 43 degrees C).

Cold-related infarcts were 4% more frequent during 2-day cold waves with temperatures at or below the 10th percentile (between 0.7 and 4.7 degrees Celsius), and 12% more frequent during 3-day cold waves with temperatures at or below the 2.5th percentile (between -2.7 and 2.7 degrees Celsius).

However, with contamination greater than 37.5 micrograms per cubic meter, deaths increased in 4-day heat waves but not in cold ones.

By sex and age, more deaths were detected among women than among men during heat waves and among people aged 80 and over. The median age of all individuals who died of a heart attack in Jiangsu between 2015 and 2020, even during non-extreme temperature events, was 77.6 years; 52.1% of these individuals were over 80 years of age.

“Our findings demonstrate that reducing exposure to both extreme temperatures and fine particle pollution may be helpful in preventing premature death from heart attack, especially for women and older adults,” Liu said.

HEALTH

Possible cases of botulism from packaged tortillas increase to nine

Leave a comment

The Ministry of Health has detected two new probable cases of botulism associated with the consumption of packaged potato tortillas, one in Madrid and the other in Andalusia, bringing the number of people affected by this outbreak to nine, of which five have been confirmed.

Thus, in Andalusia there are two suspected cases, a 27-year-old man from Malaga, who is now joined by a 63-year-old person who began his first symptoms on July 14, while the 48-year-old from Madrid started them on Saturday the 22nd after consuming the food three days before, as reflected by the Health Alerts and Emergencies Coordination Center (CCAES) in the report that has just been updated today Monday.

To know more
Health. What is botulism? These are your symptoms
  • Writing: THE WORLD

What is botulism? These are your symptoms

The four probable cases – these three and another person from the Valencian Community -, still unconfirmed, present “compatible symptoms and a history of consumption of suspicious food from the brand involved.”

The document does not mention brands or companies, but last week the Palacios Group asked all people who have purchased any of these products (Palacios, Chef Select, Auchan, Eroski, Unide, Consum, DIA, Ametller, Condis, El Corte Inglés, Carrefour, Alipende, Grupo IFA and Rikissimo) to refrain from consuming it and return it to the point of sale, while at the same time several supermarkets withdrew them from their shelves.

Meanwhile, there are still five confirmed cases: two Italian citizens who bought one of these tortillas in Valladolid on June 30, another from Madrid, another from Asturias and a last one from Galicia; the three residents in Spain have required treatment in the ICU.

In this way, those affected amount to nine and, according to the CCAES, all of them had a history of having consumed pre-cooked potato tortilla, packaged and purchased in different supermarkets in various communities and with different brands; According to information from the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (Aesan), in at least four, the producing company is the same.