All posts by Luis Moreno

Moreno Luis - is a business and economics reporter based in Barcelona. Prior to joining the BNE24 he was economics editor of the BBC Spaine and worked as an economics and political reporter for Murcia Tuday.

A 15-kilometer crack caused by the erupting volcano runs through the Icelandic city of Grindavik

Iceland has declared a state of emergency pending what could be the most destructive eruption in half a century of the same volcano that already erupted in 2021. In the aerial images distributed this Monday you can clearly see how the terrain of the most affected city and the surrounding roads have cracked significantly, forming a 15 km long fissure.

The Icelandic residents have abandoned their homes and geologists assure that under this town, just 50 kilometers southwest of the capital, Reykjavík, there is a network of craters more than 2,000 years old in which currently the magma tunnels exceed ten kilometres. The country has recorded 20,000 seismic tremors in recent weeks, 1,485 in the last 48 hours, and the 4,000 inhabitants of the city of Grindavik have been evacuated for safety.

The Police have set up several temporary shelters for evacuated citizens, although this Monday there were only several dozen people in them, since the majority have chosen to stay with family or friends. On Thursday, the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal pool was already closed due to the risk posed to guests by tremors and staff stress. Volcanologists from the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) warn of the presence of signs very similar to those recorded hours before the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano in 2021, when it had been dormant for almost 800 years.

According to an official statement from the IMO “at this time, it cannot be determined with certainty if and where the magma will reach the surface, but there are signs that a considerable amount is moving north towards Grindavik.”. Furthermore, they point out that “the amount of magma involved is considerably greater than that observed in intrusions associated with eruptions of the Fagradalsfjall volcano.” In fact, the apparent reduction in seismic activity in the area since Saturday is also an indicator that the magma is getting closer to the surface, according to the Bloomberg agency.

Although there are around 130 volcanoes in Iceland, only about 30 are currently active. Magma has already come to the surface in this area on several occasions in the last two years, but basically through small fissures that did not pose any threat.. The last time a major eruption threatened an inhabited area was in 1973, when lava buried part of a village in the Westman Islands.

Ukraine tries to advance on Kherson to force Russian withdrawal south of the Dnieper River

Ukrainian troops continue their advance in Jershon, in the south of the country. The Ukrainian Army has been trying in recent days to make progress in this region to force the Russian withdrawal from the left bank of the Dnieper River.. A situation that, however, occurs while resisting the Russian push on the eastern front, where troops have been attacking without pause for weeks.

Ukraine has thus managed to create several fronts on the left side of the river. It has done so through the deployment of troops, armored vehicles and the taking of some small towns.. Thus, according to the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW), which cites geolocated images and Russian military bloggers, Ukrainian troops have entered about three or four kilometers into the left bank of the Dnieper.

The ISW considers that the defensive and offensive combats that the Russian Army is waging in other sectors are limiting its ability to move reinforcements to the south of the region, located north of the already annexed Crimean peninsula.

This progress has also been picked up by the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who in a speech addressed to the entire nation thanked “all those who fight” in Kherson “for the good of Ukraine.”

Despite this situation, the Russian military report this Monday has not made any reference to these events and has limited itself to expressing that on this front the enemy had lost “up to 60 soldiers” in one day.. Additionally, Russian forces continue offensive operations in eastern Ukraine. According to the ISW, these attacks are taking place mainly in the towns of Kupiansk and Kreminna, as well as in the southern region of Zaporizhzhia.

Protect the sky

In turn, Ukraine is increasingly protecting its skies in an attempt to end Russian superiority in the air.. “The Ukrainian air shield is already stronger than last year,” Zelensky also assured in his speech.

In his words, the Ukrainian leader regretted that the shield “does not protect all Ukrainian territory” but he thanked Kiev's partners who have helped reinforce its anti-aircraft defense system, including the United States, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

Likewise, the center for training pilots of American-made F-16 fighters, which Ukraine hopes to receive in early 2024, has also been inaugurated in Romania these days.

A boy shoots his father to death for hitting his mother: "This guy doesn't hit you anymore"

An 11-year-old boy shot his 65-year-old father in the head after he hit his mother for not making him food.. The events occurred last Wednesday in the Argentine town of Morón, as reported by the newspaper La Nación.

As this newspaper reports, the man hit his wife after an argument when the food was not ready. The minor then grabbed a gun that was in the house, snapped at the mother “this one won't hit you anymore” and immediately shot his father, who was sleeping.

After the events, it was the mother herself who helped her husband and called the Police. The man was immediately transferred to the Haedo hospital, in Buenos Aires, where he ended up dying without anything being able to be done for his life.

In accordance with Argentine legislation, the minor has been left unimpeachable due to his young age and is reunited with his family.. For the moment, the Juvenile Criminal Responsibility prosecutor has already opened an investigation to clarify all the details of what happened.

Illegal possession of weapons

The first investigations have also confirmed that the gun used by the minor was a weapon that belonged to a family friend and did not have authorization, so in addition to homicide, actions for illegal possession of weapons are also being initiated.

According to La Nación, both the minor and his mother have confirmed that the man was very violent and that it was not the first time he had hit her, but they had never previously reported the situation.

David Cameron, the politician who plunged the United Kingdom into the waters of 'Brexit' and who now returns as Sunak's burning nail

“The British people have made the decision to take a different path”. That was one of David Cameron's last phrases as British Prime Minister. It was 2016 and the Brexit referendum, called by the Conservative leader from his Downing Street chair, had passed the sentence by a very narrow margin: the United Kingdom was leaving the European Union.. 52% compared to 48%. Enough for the country, through Cameron, to begin digging the hole into which most of its recent problems have ended up, wrapped in tremendous political instability.

Perhaps this uncertainty is the reason why David Cameron now returns to the Government as the new Foreign Minister – what a paradox -, seven years after leaving number 10 for the last time.. If he is included, the United Kingdom has six premiers in just seven years, and it is Sunak, now in office, who seeks a coup d'état in his Government in the face of a dramatic drop in the polls for the Conservatives. Cameron will therefore have the role of representing the country in part in relations with the European Union, which now seem much calmer waters than years ago, especially in the era of Boris Johnson.

There is one more key and that is that Cameron is not a deputy right now, an essential requirement to take office as the new Foreign Minister, but there is an alternative route that involves joining the House of Lords urgently, as he explained. the BBC after learning of Sunak's decision. His return is not a unique case, since the conservative Alec Douglas-Home, Prime Minister between 1963 and 1964, also returned to the Government as head of Health in the following decade.. On the other hand, Douglas-Home was a deputy when he returned to the Executive. However, Cameron would in fact be freed from the scrutiny of Parliament in his position as Foreign Secretary by being a Lord.

British diplomacy is also going through one of the most relevant moments in recent history, and the prime minister clings to the political experience of his predecessor.. London has to remain one of Ukraine's main supports in the face of the Russian invasion, as well as navigate the waters of the war between Israel and Hamas.. Cameron himself referred to this, who believes that his “experience” can help Sunak in the global context.

“We are facing a series of daunting international challenges, such as the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East,” reacted the former prime minister.. In addition, the path to closing bilateral trade agreements continues, since the Brexit pushed by Cameron himself has already been fully consummated.. During his tenure as prime minister, he was also known for his good relations with leaders such as Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Liberal since his beginnings as a politician, he began as a rank-and-file deputy in 2001, and had no experience in Government for a long time.. That did not prevent him from growing in the ranks of the Conservative Party. He was leader of the opposition from 2005 to 2010, during the terms of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, in the most golden times of Labor. Already in 2010, the ravages of the economic crisis pushed the conservatives to power and Cameron thus began six years sitting in 10 Downing Street full of decisions.. some of them prepared to mark the future of the country.

His times in power are seen in the European Union key, especially for two reasons.. Brexit, yes, but not only. The drift of the Tories was already seen when they left the European People's Party to found the group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), which currently brings together the main radical right and Eurosceptic formations in Parliament. European. That step was a warning for what was to come in 2016.

The United Kingdom had almost always been the black sheep of the EU, and confirmed this drift under the Tory mandate with the call for a referendum to leave the community bloc. The vote went towards yes by a narrow margin and with many territorial differences. Cameron, who had campaigned for permanence, had to accept the result and resigned to make way for Theresa May.. She and then Boris Johnson, one of the most relevant Brexiters, if not the most, were left in charge of finishing the job.

Cameron left the political front line through the back door and quickly fell silent. Some time later he assumed the commitment to the referendum as a mistake, caused by the hardest wing of the conservatives, historically in favor of moving away from the EU.. The figure of David Cameron will remain in the history books as the person who pressed the red button for one of the most relevant institutional and political crises in the recent history of the United Kingdom.. Now he returns, again in troubled times, to see if Rishi Sunak saves the day. Cameron has his work cut out for him.

The reactions to his appointment were immediate and precisely the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, assured that it is time for relations between the EU and the United Kingdom to be “strengthened”, especially given the current geopolitical situation.. “In times of profound change, we need to stand together in defense of shared values and a rules-based order,” the High Representative said on social media.

Life support is disconnected from Indi Gregory, the eight-month-old British girl with an incurable disease

Doctors at the Queen's Medical Center hospital in Nottingham (United Kingdom) have removed the life support from Indi Gregory, the eight-month-old British girl who suffers from an incurable disease and whose parents have launched a legal battle to continue her treatment and keep her alive, the organization Christian Concern, which supports the little girl's family, reported this Sunday.

Finally, according to The Guardian, the British justice system has rejected the appeals presented by the girl's parents, Dean Gregory and Claire Staniforth, for specialists to continue treating their daughter, so she has been transferred from that hospital to a hospice. for the terminally ill.

Specifically, the Superior Court ruled that limiting the girl's treatment would be legal, and that doing so would also benefit the minor.. Last Friday, three other judges of the Court of Appeals rejected the girl's transfer home, determining that life-sustaining treatment could only be removed in a hospital or palliative care center, not in the family home.

Little Indi was born on February 24 with mitochondrial disease, a genetic condition considered incurable.. Since then, specialists at Queen's Medical Center said the baby was dying, and that the treatment she was receiving was painful and useless, but her parents never agreed.

It has only been six days since the Government of Italy urgently granted Indi Italian nationality, precisely to prevent British doctors from disconnecting her, and thus allow her to be transferred to Rome to continue receiving treatment.

However, judges at the High Court in London denied her transfer, stating that moving to Italy was not in the girl's best interests and calling the intervention of Italian consular officials “completely wrong.”

The Pope asked to pray for Indi

The case of Indi Gregory also reached the ears of Pope Francis, who this Saturday asked to pray for her. “Pope Francis embraces the family of little Indi Gregory, her father and mother, prays for them and for her, and directs his thoughts to all the children who at these same hours around the world are living in pain or risk his life because of illness and war,” declared the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni.

The Pope has intervened several times in the past in similar cases. On April 15, 2018, he had entrusted to the prayers of all Vincent Lambert and little Alfie Evans and other people who live “in a state of serious illness, medically assisted for basic needs.”

Los Angeles firefighters mobilize to catch a valuable parrot that escaped from the Playboy Mansion

For decades, the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles has been synonymous with glamor and sensuality, but in addition to luxurious parties with scantily clad girls, the former home of the late Hugh Hefner also housed exotic animal species.

A few days ago, one of them, specifically a valuable parrot, escaped from the mansion, forcing the Los Angeles Fire Department to mobilize to try to catch it.

As reported by the TMZ.com portal, the bird was able to escape thanks to a gust of wind. It was the members of a nearby golf club who notified the firefighters.

The police arrived at the golf club and found that the parrot had been placed in a tall tree, and they tried to bring the parrot down with water.

The problem is that the parrot not only did not go down, but it went up higher. It was time to close the golf club and the Los Angeles firefighters gave up their attempt to recover the bird.

The Playboy Mansion was sold in 2016 to millionaire Daren Metropoulos for $100 million, and is currently used to host social events, exhibitions, and film and television shoots.

Hamas suspends hostage negotiations over Israel's attacks on Gaza's Al Shifa hospital

Hamas has suspended negotiations on the Israeli hostages captured on October 7 due to the siege by the Israeli Army on the Al Shifa hospital, located in Gaza City, a Palestinian source close to the talks confirmed to Reuters. the kidnapped

Moments before, the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, assured in an interview with the American network NBC that “there could be” an exchange for the release of the hostages held by the Palestinian militias in Gaza.

“I think that the less I say about it, the more I will increase the chances of it materializing,” said Netanyahu, who stressed that any agreement will be “the result of military pressure” from Israeli forces.. “If there is a possibility of an agreement, we will talk about it when it is there. We will announce it if it is achieved,” he said.

Hospital under siege

This Sunday, the press office of the government of the Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, has once again denounced that Israeli troops are keeping this hospital, Gaza's main medical center, under siege, where it has indicated that there are “stacked corpses.”

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, 40 displaced people taking refuge in the hospital were attacked by Israeli forces as they tried to evacuate the complex.. However, the Israeli Army indicated this Sunday that its troops are allowing the evacuation of civilians from the Al Shifa, Rantisi and Nasser hospitals.

The World Health Organization (WHO), for its part, lost communication with Al Shifa staff this Sunday.. “We assume that our contacts have joined tens of thousands of displaced people who had sought refuge on the hospital grounds and are fleeing the area,” they said.

The director of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has called the situation at this hospital “deeply worrying and terrifying.”

According to the latest reports received by WHO, the hospital was surrounded by tanks and staff reported a lack of clean water and the risk that the last remaining critical functions, including ICUs, ventilators and incubators, would stop working. soon due to lack of fuel, which would immediately endanger the lives of the patients.

Netanyahu believes there "could be" a hostage deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated this Sunday that there “could be” an exchange for the release of the hostages held by the Palestinian militias in Gaza.

“I think the less I say about it, the more I will increase the chances of it materializing,” Netanyahu said in statements to the American network NBC.

In any case, he stressed that any agreement will be “the result of military pressure” from the Israeli forces.. “If there is a possibility of an agreement we will talk about it when it is there. We will announce it if it is achieved,” he said.

In addition, Netanyahu has assured that Israel offered to deliver fuel to the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, which stopped working this Sunday after the fuel that powered its emergency electricity generators ran out.

The Israeli leader referred during the weekly Council of Ministers to the words of the Israeli Minister of Heritage, the far-right Amichai Eliyahu, who has proposed the launching of an atomic bomb on the Gaza Strip as one of the military options.

“Every word has a meaning when it comes to diplomacy. If you do not know do not speak. We have to be sensible,” Netanyahu said, according to the Israeli newspaper The Times of Israel in its digital edition.

Israel launches war on two fronts: besieges hospitals in Gaza in search of Hamas while Hezbollah attacks from the north

The war between Israel and Hamas does not abate: the attacks cause hospital closures and the tension intensifies, already crossing different fronts. Beyond the Islamic Resistance Movement, Israeli forces on the border with Lebanon maintain a crossfire with the Hezbollah group, which has become a key actor in this hectic conflict in the Middle East.

The humanitarian crisis is accentuated due to the situation with the hospitals in Gaza, which are being one of the most affected: at least three hospital centers have been hit by Israeli air strikes. In addition, the shortage of gasoline in health center generators has caused most of them to be almost non-functioning.

The most affected is the Al Shifa hospital, the most important in the Gaza Strip, which had to be closed this Sunday by the Palestinian authorities due to the catastrophic situation that prevailed in the center, which has been without supply since this Saturday. electric due to lack of fuel.

The attacks and lack of electricity in the hospital have made operations impossible and it is no longer viable to offer medical services, which is why the Gaza Ministry of Health, controlled by Hamas, has determined the closure of the center.. The decision has been made after the alleged death of several patients, three of them premature babies, due to the blackouts.

The authorities have stated that more than a hundred bodies are found in the center of Al Shifa without the possibility of being buried.. In fact, clashes between Israeli forces and Hamas continue in the vicinity, since Israel maintains that the hospital is a legitimate target: it claims that under the floors of the medical center is the “headquarters” of the Palestinian armed group.

In this sense, the Israeli Army reiterates that its troops have not attacked the Al Shifa hospital “or any of its parts” and, instead, have indicated that they were in contact with the director of the center to inform them about how to evacuate the area and help them. with the safe transportation of patients.

“Today there was a lot of misinformation from Gaza. That's why I want to clarify the facts. Yesterday they were quick to accuse us of an attack on Al Shifa. No siege of Al Shifa hospital. The eastern side of the hospital is open for the safe passage of Gazans who wish to leave the hospital,” Army spokesman Daniel Hagari said this Saturday.

Likewise, Hagari announced this Sunday her intention to evacuate premature babies from Al Shifa during the day: “The staff has asked us to help transfer the babies from the pediatric department to a safer hospital. We are going to give the help they have asked of us. “The Israel Defense Forces do not attack hospitals.”

Hezbollah threatens from the north

On the other hand, Hamas is not the only enemy that Israel has to face. The north of the country, on the border with Lebanon, is being attacked daily by the Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah, which opened a front one day after the war between Israel and Hamas began on October 7.

The escalation of tension in the area is the worst experienced in northern Israel and southern Lebanon since the war between both forces in 2006.. Tens of thousands of people in Israeli and Lebanese communities near the dividing line have been evacuated in recent weeks due to the fighting.

In his second public appearance since the war broke out in Gaza, Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah indicated this Saturday that the organization is using new weapons and tactics, such as sending “one or two reconnaissance drones” daily to the territory. Israeli, as well as Burkan missiles, which carry an explosive charge of between 300 and 500 kilograms, and the use of Katiusha-type rockets.

“The Lebanese front will continue to be a pressure front,” Nasrallah declared in a televised speech. Thus, it has guaranteed the maintenance of the “pressure” of its forces on the southern border of Lebanon to keep this second front open for the Israeli forces.

In the latest attacks this Sunday, several people have been injured, one of them seriously, in northern Israel by a missile attack launched from southern Lebanon, according to the Israeli Army, which has added that its troops They responded with artillery and attacked from the air two “terrorist cells” that were preparing to fire on their territory.

Hezbollah has confirmed responsibility for the attack and has indicated that among the wounded there are soldiers who were placing “surveillance equipment” in the area.. The Israel Electric Company, however, has pointed out that they were civilians, specifically, a group of workers who were carrying out repair work on high-voltage cables on the border.

In addition, a soldier from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) was injured at midnight on Saturday after being hit by a bullet near Al Qawzá, in southern Lebanon, where “an intense shootout” took place.. At the moment his nationality has not been revealed. More than 600 Spanish soldiers participate in the contingent.

The wounded UNIFIL soldier has undergone surgery and “is recovering and is stable,” the UN mission has highlighted, from which it has also indicated that “the origin of the shot is unknown at this time” and an investigation has been opened. research about it. “Attacks against civilians or UN personnel are a violation of International Law that could be considered war crimes,” they recalled.

Hezbollah also attacked northern Israel this Saturday, claiming to have caused casualties among the Israeli ranks with the use of guided missiles and rockets, although they have not specified the number of casualties. The Lebanese National News Agency reported that Israel carried out more than 20 attacks against southern Lebanon this Saturday.

Beyond Hezbollah, Israel has also clashed these weeks against Palestinian militias in Lebanon linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad. These groups, in addition to a myriad from Iraq and Syria, are part of the so-called Axis of Resistance and are allies of Iran, Israel's main enemy.

“Iran provides military, financial and diplomatic support. This is no longer a secret to anyone. If the Resistance is strong in Lebanon, Palestine and in the region it is thanks to the material, military and financial support of Iran,” Nasrallah stressed this Saturday.

Iran encourages arming of Palestinians

“The expansion of war is inevitable”. This is how the Iranian Foreign Minister, Hosein Amir Abdolahian, spoke this Friday. “Due to the increasing intensity of the war against the civilian population in Gaza, the expansion of the scope of the war has become inevitable,” Abdolahian said in a telephone conversation with his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani.

Iran has already warned on several occasions of the possibility that its allies will open other fronts if they do not stop the bombings of Gaza, in which more than 10,000 Palestinians have died. In fact, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisí called this Saturday for Muslim countries to arm the Palestinians if the attacks against Gaza continue, as well as to impose an economic and energy boycott on Israel.

“Muslim countries must arm the Palestinians if attacks against the people of Gaza continue,” Raisi said in a speech at the Arab-Islamic summit. “Trade and cooperation with the Zionist regime must be paralyzed and Israeli products must be embargoed,” said the Iranian politician, who described it as a “shame” that some Islamic countries provide oil to Israel.

In this way, he once again showed his support for the Palestinians fighting against the Israelis, which he described as “a liberation movement.”. “We kiss the hand and arm of the heroic Hamas and salute the iron will of the resistant people of Gaza,” Raisí said.

Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa apologizes and says he will not hold public office again

The resigned Prime Minister of Portugal, António Costa, apologized to the Portuguese this Saturday and stated that he will probably not hold any public office again, after he resigned due to an investigation against him for alleged corruption and prevarication.

“I have the duty to apologize,” Costa said in a speech to the nation, after resigning on Tuesday after being implicated in a corruption case, about which he noted that, “with the foreseeable duration of this judicial process, with great probability “, will “never again” hold public office.

The socialist does not want to “replace” Justice, but admitted that the seizure of envelopes with money in the office of his chief of staff, Vítor Escária, makes him feel “betrayed” in his trust and gives him “shame.”

Costa, who already assured on Tuesday that he has not committed any “illegal act”, reiterated this Saturday that he is willing to collaborate with Justice: “When someone wants to hear me in a judicial process, they know where I am,” he said.

In addition to Escária, another of the detainees is Diogo Lacerda Machado, who was Costa's best man at his wedding and whom the resigned prime minister had described as his “best friend.”

“A prime minister has no friends,” said the socialist this Saturday, who stressed that Lacerda Machado has not collaborated with his Cabinet for “many years” and that he did not speak with him at any time about the businesses now investigated.

“Whatever he may or may not have done in this process, he never did it with my authorization, my knowledge or my interference, and he never spoke to me about this matter,” he said.

Costa asked the Portuguese not to confuse the “individual responsibility of whoever” with “the exercise of government action.”

In that sense, he defended the policies developed by his Government to promote investments, specifically in the lithium and hydrogen businesses that are now under investigation.

“To justice what belongs to justice and to politics what belongs to politics.”. It also means that future governments of Portugal, whoever the prime minister and its members, must be guaranteed freedom of political action,” he insisted.

He specifically defended the simplification of bureaucracy implemented by his Government because it “promotes transparency.”

Costa assured that the lithium mine licenses in Montalegre and Boticas, investigated by the Prosecutor's Office, were required to comply with the conditions of the environmental impact study, such as guaranteeing the water supply or the protection of the Iberian wolf in the region.

Regarding the data center in Sines, another of the projects under investigation, Costa highlighted that it is the largest foreign investment in Portugal since the arrival of the Volkswagen factory and stressed that they were forced to respect the environmental protection conditions of the area. .

“Portugal cannot waste investments,” he reiterated.

After Costa's resignation, the president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, announced early elections for March 10.