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 fails to meet the deadline to transpose the directive that ends the exceptions for heated tobacco

Sunday July 23. That is the deadline that Spain had to transpose Directive 2022/2100 that regulates various aspects of heated tobacco and that ends with some exceptions that these products enjoyed. For this, it was expected that the last Council of Ministers before the general elections would meet the deadline set by Europe and give the green light to the relevant royal decree that modifies a previous regulation (Royal Decree 579/2017)..

The Ministry of Health, for the moment, has not given an explanation about the reason for this delay and the failure to meet the deadline to approve a rule that completed its claims process on July 6. A breach that occurs in the semester in which Spain presides over the Council of the European Union.

According to the latest draft prepared, the new regulation will establish what type of articles it is about -defines them- and will withdraw certain exceptions that they enjoyed up to now with respect to other products.

First, the text states that heated tobacco is a “novel tobacco product that is heated to produce an emission containing nicotine and other chemical substances, which is then inhaled by users and which, depending on its characteristics, is a smokeless tobacco product or a smoking tobacco product.

In addition, in the section that addresses the ingredients and additives, heated tobacco is included in the prohibition of containing characteristic aromas and “flavourings in its components, such as filters, rolling papers, containers, capsules, or any other technical characteristic that allows modifying the smell or taste of tobacco products, or intensifying smoke. Filters, papers and capsules may not contain tobacco or nicotine.”

Finally, once the royal decree has been approved, which would enter into force next October, heated tobacco items must include messages and images with health warnings in the same way as other tobacco products.. Thus, the draft states that only “tobacco products for smoking other than cigarettes, tobacco for rolling, waterpipe tobacco and heated tobacco products will be exempt from the obligation to include informative messages and from the color photographs that are part of health warnings”.

Under European law, Member States must transpose directives within the established period and, failing to do so, the Commission can initiate infringement proceedings, which can end in a fine, and bring proceedings against the country before the Court of Justice of the European Union.

For Andrés Zamorano, president of the National Committee for the Prevention of Smoking (CNPT), the pending royal decree has remained a “minimum” standard, since, as he explained to this medium, the Committee had requested, among other issues, that it include plain packaging and that electronic cigarettes, with and without nicotine, be equated to the classic fuels. In addition, they requested that these latest devices could not be sold anywhere.

Van Aert leaves the Tour due to the imminent birth of his son: "It is not a dilemma"

With the job done and the Tour sentenced for his teammate Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert decided this Thursday to abandon the race and go home. Will not start at Moutiers. The reason is more than justified: his wife, Sarah, is about to give birth to their second child.

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Tour de France. Vingegaard and the shadow of doping: “I would not take anything that I could not give to my daughter”

Vingegaard and the shadow of doping: “I would not take anything that I could not give to my daughter”

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Interview. Half an hour with Van Aert, the best cyclist in the world: “I feel that we are changing cycling”

Half an hour with Van Aert, the best cyclist in the world: “I feel that we are changing cycling”

The Belgian had already warned him and that question, the possible absence of a total rider like him alongside Vingegaard, was one of the handicaps that the Jumbo Visma faced in his attempt to revalidate the Tour with the Danish. “It was not a dilemma,” he stated on his team's social networks. “It's a strange feeling, but we have decided that my place is at home.”

It has not been a Tour as extraordinary for the Belgian as the past. He leaves without any partial victory and without so many exhibitions. Although he has left his mark with boasts such as that of the Gran Colombier stage and always with his usual offensive style. The previous edition added two online stages, in Calais and Lausanne (in addition to four second places) and the Rocamadour time trial. And he took the green jersey of regularity. This time he says goodbye having stayed very close to partial victory, especially in the San Sebastián stage, where he was surprised by Victor Lafay. He was also second in the mountain day that ended in Saint Gervais and third in the time trial.

His next goal will be the Glasgow World Cup on August 5.

"It's over, I'm dead": Pogacar bursts and Vingegaard sentences the Tour in Courchevel

He opened his jersey all the way down, bare chest, glasses on his helmet, he detached himself from the earpiece and handed over his weapons as he never did in his career. “It's over, I'm dead,” he managed to admit. Defeat and victory at the same time, as thunderous as the greatness of the opponents. At the same time that Tadej Pogacar said goodbye to the Tour, Jonas Vingegaard looked back, as if incredulous at the crisis of his Nemesis. They hadn't even reached Meribel, the key point of the day, the hardest part of the endless Col de la Loze ahead.. At the finish line it took 5:45 minutes (7:35 already overall), an unsuspected, enormous distance. Another exhibition by the Dane, who only Felix Gall also deprived of the victory of a stage forever remembered. [Narration and statistics]

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Tour de France. A recital to put out all of Pogacar's fires, to freeze his momentum, to knock him down on the canvas, knock out. And the sentence towards the second consecutive Tour of the Dane, a walk already until Sunday in Paris. When his rival fell off the hook, only with the help of Marc Soler, the Jumbo Visma also activated all its power and the leader was climbing towards the summit supported by his companions, each one a spring.

He was hindered by a car in the middle of the ascent, he could not reach Felix Gall (the Austrian climber makes his debut on the Tour) or Simon Yates, Pello Bilbao (his performance was also enormous) overtook him on the final ramp of the altiport. What difference does it make. If Pogacar harbored any hope of concocting a chaotic day, he soon received another blow, more moral than physical, with a fall shortly after the start. They hadn't even gone 20 kilometers when a 'sharpener' with Nans Peters ended the Slovenian on the asphalt, a strong blow to the hip and left knee. At his side, saving fatality, Vingegaard.

Gall, during the ascent to Courchevel. MARCO BERTORELLO AFP

“After Meribel”, the injured applicant had warned at the start of Saint Gervais, with an agonized face throughout the stage, at the yellow wheel of his rival who advanced with his joyful pedaling, without a feeling of effort, impeccable, straining both gregarious in the breakaway of the day, in which an ambitious Pello Bilbao was especially determined, who was going to star in a stupendous jump in the general classification. The calm of a day without surprises anticipated the storm, the explosion, the bird, who knows if affected by the fall or simply morally broken.

It was not going to be a pleasant day for Carlos Rodríguez either, who saw how the podium was too far away. The Ineos worked all day to control the leak, but when Sepp Kuss accelerated in the agony of Pogacar, Adam Yates held on. The British found the help of Majka later and led the Spaniard by 1:11 at the Courchevel finish line, where everyone entered as best they could, cycling from another era. A plethoric winner and a moving loser.

Jordi Alba joins his former teammates Messi and Busquets at Inter Miami

Inter Miami have announced the signing of Spanish left-back Jordi Alba, who will join his former Barcelona teammates Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets.

“We are going to sign Jordi Alba today,” said businessman Jorge Mas, co-owner of the team along with David Beckham, during a meeting with the press.

The Spanish international announced in May his departure from Barcelona where he spent 11 seasons. Now he will join two of his former teammates in the culé team: the Argentine Messi and his compatriot Busquets.

Alba, 34, won the League of Nations with the Spanish team last month, one more title for his enviable record.

The left-back has won, among other titles, a European Championship, a Champions League, six Spanish championships and a European Super Cup.

Inter Miami is confident that his new team, led by superstar Messi, can turn the tide in the American soccer league, MLS.. At the moment, it occupies the last place in the championship.

Concern in the PSOE because the absence of Feijóo means that Sánchez has "more to lose than win": "It seems like the debate of losers"

Real Madrid fans tend to cling to the mythical phrase pronounced by Juanito on the nights when he plays a comeback: “90 minutes at the Bernabéu are molto longo”. In the PSOE they also trust a comeback and that “90 minutes on RTVE are very long” -it will be the duration of the debate- and allow them to recover the ground they lost in the face-to-face with Alberto Núñez Feijóo a week ago. pick up spirits. Believe. But the appointment to three, although it is a key turning point in the final stretch of this campaign, is viewed with suspicion and concern in the formation. “We have more to lose than to win,” summarize party charges.

the scenario is different. A week ago, the PSOE came face to face with Feijóo with an ascending sensation, of growth, which was cut short abruptly and discouragement gave way. Now they're trying to get back on the optimistic bandwagon.. Want to continue trusting that it is possible to govern. And for that there can be no more failures. In Ferraz they consider that tonight's appointment is “another opportunity to contrast models and address large audiences”. From Sánchez's team they consider that the three-way debate “will allow us to contrast the model with the extreme right.”

This new “opportunity”, however, generates misgivings among many in the party. An idea is repeated in all corners: “A debate without the main opposition party”; “The problem is that the leader of the PP is not there”. And there is consensus that this conditions all actions and all results.. “It's a complex situation.. Without the PP it is difficult to know where that will come from.

The absence of Feijóo offers a compromised scenario for Sánchez. The PSOE candidate ordered the PP leader to celebrate up to seven face to face because, he understood, they were the only two candidates who could win. Now he is immersed in a date with two opponents who do not aspire to win, but fight for third place. There are those who already baptize, ironically, the meeting as “it seems like the losers' debate.”

In Ferraz, however, they do another analysis. They consider that the face-to-face meeting a week ago confirmed that “the lie is the model of the candidate Feijóo” and that “it is clear that it is a model that does not support two debates. That is why it will not appear on TVE ». In the socialist formation, they largely blamed the face-to-face format for Sánchez's stumble since, they understand, “it was very difficult to fight a lie when someone lies without blinking.”

“incomplete model”

The PP candidate rejected RTVE's proposal to participate in a four-person debate because he considered it an “incomplete model” and did not consider sending anyone to replace his candidate. The popular ones justified their refusal on the grounds that “the most honest thing” for the viewers is that Bildu, ERC and PNV were also present. What they wanted was to visualize Sánchez's dependence on the nationalists. That is, they wanted a seven-person debate with the leaders of each formation, a format that, however, was not proposed by any means of communication.. Public television did raise and have held a seven-person debate, but with the parliamentary spokespersons. An appointment in which the PP participated in the figure of Cuca Gamarra.

In Sánchez's team they believe that the staging allows them the strategy of presenting Santiago Abascal as the spokesman for the PP-Vox tandem, trying to visualize that his proposals are those that a future right-wing government coalition would undertake. “Feijóo will leave the representation to his de facto vice president, Santiago Abascal, and he will be the one who speaks for both of them,” they say from the socialist headquarters. “You are exposing yourself to the extreme right…”, they say in the party with a little more doubt.

Sánchez will face off with Abascal, but also with Yolanda Díaz, his current government partner and with whom he has already made it clear that he will form a tandem again if they find a loophole for it.. An also complex situation because, although both are rivals and compete for a common electorate, both also defend the government action carried out and are clear that, if arithmetic allows it, they will once again share a cabinet. Another of the keys will be in how to treat Díaz and how to measure the clash with her.

“We start from the conviction that many things unite us, in addition to the management of a Government that has made the country grow and generate employment after two world crises.. Obviously, we are different parties ”, they expose from Ferraz about this circumstance.

The debate will begin at 10:00 p.m., will last 90 minutes and is structured into three thematic blocks: economy, social policies and State and post-electoral pacts. There will also be a final turn of one minute for each participant (commonly called the golden minute).

The opening and closing shifts of each block and the positions of the candidates for the Presidency of the Government on the set have been established by lottery. The stopwatches to measure the times of the interventions will be managed by professional sports referees. The moderator will be Xabier Fortes.

The parliamentary spokesman of the Cantabrian PP, elected senator with the abstention of the PRC and Vox

The PP spokesman in the Parliament of Cantabria, Íñigo Fernández, has been elected regional senator this Wednesday with the abstention of the PRC and Vox.

Fernández has prevailed by a simple majority in the second round with the votes in favor of his group, which has 15 deputies out of the 35 that make up the regional Parliament, to the candidacies of Ana Belén Álvarez (PSOE) and Natividad Pérez (Vox).

The PRC (8 deputies) has abstained in both votes, the PSOE (8 deputies) has voted in favor of its candidate in both and Vox (4 deputies), after failing to achieve sufficient support for its candidate to reach the second round, has chosen to vote blank.

Íñigo Fernández, who thus replaces the regionalist José Miguel Fernández Viadero as regional senator, was the spokesman for the PP in the regional Chamber during the last legislature, in which the popular opposed the PRC-PSOE coalition.

Wave of death threats after a kiss between Pedro Sánchez and the King of Morocco: "A bullet for one euro will be in your ass"

The King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, and Pedro Sánchez share a passionate kiss on the mouth. A cartoon in which the Alawite wears an LGTBI patch on his djellaba. On the back of the monarch can be read: “That Mohamed VI vote for you”, while asking for the vote for the Workers' Front, the authors of the poster located in the Cármenes roundabout. According to its spokesman, Roberto Vaquero, the Workers' Front defines itself as a formation of “revolutionary patriots”.. “We do not believe in left or right,” he adds.

Unlike other banners hung in Madrid, that of the Workers' Front has caused a wave of threats of all kinds against the militants of this political formation after being a trending topic in Morocco. Country from which they say they have suffered “a campaign of harassment” in which they point out that politicians from the socialist party of the Alaouite kingdom would have participated.

“A one euro bullet will be in your ass”, “If that image is not removed, they will kill you”, “I am going to cut off your head and play soccer with it and in the end I am going to give your body to a monkey to fuck you, dirty dog», «Tomorrow we will share a corpse in the alleys of Madrid, son of a bitch…». These threats are some of those that appear in the complaint that the party has filed with the State Attorney General's Office.

“They are only the most serious, but we have received hundreds. Some from users linked to Morocco and others from bots,” says Vaquero, who denounces that the canvas has already been vandalized on at least “twice”. “The first time there were some Moroccans two days after we placed it,” he says.. The second, yesterday afternoon, by militants of the Carabanchel Anti-Fascist Coordinator.

“We will put the canvas up for the third time despite the threats against our party,” he says. “Threats that even,” they add, “has suffered the installation company repeatedly.”

Two arrested in Lleida and Nador (Morocco) for preparing jihadist operations in Europe

The Civil Guard and the Moroccan authorities have arrested two people possibly related to jihadists belonging to the Islamic State in Syria who were preparing terrorist operations in Europe in Lleida and the Moroccan city of Nador..

According to a statement released by 'Maroc.ma', the official news portal of the Moroccan government, this operation fits within the framework of the “continuous efforts” of Spain and Morocco to “neutralize” terrorist threats to the security of both countries..

The operation has resulted in the arrest of a person in Nador and his partner in Lleida. The two were allegedly preparing to carry out terrorist operations in Europe based on “the instructions of the leaders of this terrorist organization,” the statement from the General Directorate of National Territorial Surveillance of Morocco indicated.

The investigation has also confirmed that the detainees had contact with an illegal immigration network to obtain falsified identity documents with the aim of using them in their terrorist projects.

The Moroccan authorities have highlighted in the statement that this joint operation demonstrates the importance of cooperation in security and intelligence to fight terrorism in a world context marked by the “growing” terrorist threat.

They discover an enigmatic stellar object that defies the physics of neutron stars

Radio astronomy has made it possible to detect a new type of stellar object. A mysterious object that astronomers say “defies our understanding of the physics of neutron stars” (a neutron star is what is left behind when a massive supergiant star runs out of fuel, collapses, and explodes as a supernova).

This new source of radio waves has been named GPM J183910 and is located 15,000 light years from Earth, in the constellation Scutum.. Astronomers still do not know the nature of this intriguing object well, but this Wednesday they present in the journal Nature what they have been able to find out so far and their hypotheses.

As explained by this international team in which Spanish scientists from the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) participate, “the radio waves emitted by the object, the longest ever detected, suggest that it could be a magnetar or of a white dwarf star.

As detailed in a press release, an ultralong-period magnetar is a rare type of neutron star with extremely strong magnetic fields that can produce strong bursts of energy.. However, they have a second hypothesis: that it is actually a magnetic white dwarf, that is, an advanced stage in the life of a star similar to the Sun.. But none of the current scenarios for those objects, they add, can explain with certainty all the characteristics of this new source of radio waves: it emits radio waves every 21 minutes and, if interpreted as a pulsar, would be the longest-period radiomagnetar. long detected to date, put in place until recently, magnetars were observed to rotate in periods of a few seconds.

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Physical. They detect a new source of gravitational waves, the most powerful captured so far

They detect a new source of gravitational waves, the most powerful captured so far

Science. A telescope to decipher what dark matter and energy are: “There is something that causes the universe to be accelerating, but we have no idea why”

A telescope to decipher what dark matter and energy are: “There is something that causes the universe to be accelerating, but we have no idea why”

Hidden in plain sight, the object GPM J183910 was discovered thanks to the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) radio telescope, an astronomical facility located in the outback of Western Australia, in an aboriginal territory called Wajarri Yamaji.

They used the Gran Telescopio Canarias

The research has been led by Curtin University and the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).. Spaniards Nanda Rea and Francesco Coti Zelati, from the Institute of Space Sciences, led follow-up observations of this new object using the Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), which is on La Palma and is the world's largest optical telescope.. They also used ESA's XMM-Newton X-ray telescope, and coordinated the physical interpretation of the results.

As reported by the CSIC, “it is the second long periodicity radio object detected and observed, for the first time, at all wavelengths in 2022 by ICE-CSIC researchers. However, the first discovered long-period radio emitter was transient and only shone in the sky for a few months.. Instead, this new source can be located in observation files dating back to 1988.”

“Discovering two systems of this type in such a short time tells us that they are very common in the universe,” says Nanda Rea, second author of the study, professor at ICE-CSIC and member of the Institut d'Estudis Espacials de Catalunya (IEEC) and second author of the study. “This rare object could challenge our understanding of neutron stars and magnetars, which are some of the most exotic and extreme objects in the universe,” said study lead author Natasha Hurley-Walker.

In January 2022, they published a paper in Nature describing an enigmatic transient object that appeared and disappeared intermittently, emitting strong beams of energy three times an hour. Between July and September of that same year, the team scanned the sky using the MWA telescope. They soon found what they were looking for in the GPM J183910 signal, which emits bursts of energy lasting up to five minutes, five times longer than those of the first object.

Once the characteristics and celestial coordinates of the GPM J 1839-10 object were recapitulated, the astronomers delved into the observational archives of the world's leading radio telescopes.. Those of the Indian Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) and the American Very Large Array (VLA) had records of observations dating back to 1988.. That is, pulses from this object had been recorded for the first time 33 years ago, but no one noticed and they had remained hidden.

Not all pulsars produce radio waves. Some are thought to lie below the so-called 'death line', a critical threshold where a star's magnetic field becomes too weak to accelerate the particles responsible for radio waves.

Now this team of astronomers hopes to discover more periodic radio bursts in the future, which could help to finally understand the nature of these enigmatic objects.

BNE24