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 lion escapes from a circus in Italy and walks through the streets: they ask people not to leave their homes

A lion escaped this Saturday from a circus in the Italian city of Ladispoli (center) and unleashed fear among the neighbors, who recorded it walking through the streets, although the authorities have already located it and are now trying to capture it.

The mayor of the town, Alessandro Grando, asked on social networks for “maximum attention” to the neighbors and to avoid leaving the house until he is captured.

The animal had escaped this afternoon from a circus and had been seen walking between the houses on Viale Mediterráneo, in the center of this city on the Roman coast, in the Lazio region.

Some neighbors actually recorded it with their mobile phones from the windows of their houses.

The councilor explained that he was immediately located in a nearby stream and the circus staff is trying to recover him with the help of the Law Enforcement Forces.

The mayor responded to those who criticized him for the presence of a circus with this type of animals in the city by explaining that he has not hired it, but rather that it arrived independently.

Hezbollah leader calls for a second front of war against Israel and announces the use of new weapons

The general secretary of the Lebanese party-militia Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, has committed to maintaining the “pressure” of the group's forces on the border with Israel in order to keep this second front open for the Israeli military forces, focused on their offensive on the Gaza Strip, and has highlighted the use of new weapons.

“The Lebanese front will continue to be a pressure front,” Nasrallah declared in a televised speech reported by the newspaper L'Orient le Jour, the second since the start of the current escalation of the conflict in Gaza, on October 7.

Nasrallah has thus referred to the use during the last week of new drones and Burkan missiles, which carry an explosive charge of between 300 and 500 kilograms.. “Imagine half a ton of explosives falling on the enemy's head,” he stated in his speech.

“Daily operations have continued despite all preventive measures taken by the enemy. The resistance continues. Despite the enemy's armed drones. This is a new factor, but it does not prevent us from continuing operations,” Nasrallah highlighted.

The leader of Hezbollah has focused on the United States as the main person responsible for the Israeli offensive on Gaza and has recognized American pressure to avoid an escalation of the conflict in other parts of the region.. “I tell the Americans: if you want the secondary fronts to stop, you must stop the aggression against Gaza,” he noted.

Regarding the fighting in Gaza, Nasrallah stressed that “combatants lose their loved ones and their homes.”. “Despite this, they fight bravely. They face battle tanks, armored vehicles, soldiers,…. Today, the strongest Israeli battalions are fighting in Gaza, and this demonstrates Israel's inability,” he argued.

Nasrallah has also mentioned the increase in violence against US forces in Syria and Iraq.. “Ongoing operations are certainly helping to liberate Iraq and Syria from US occupation. But the immediate objective is to stop the aggression against Gaza,” he highlighted.

All this with the support of Iran: “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 material, military and financial support of Iran,” he stressed.

For Hezbollah the objective now is to achieve the support of world public opinion against Israel, “which is killing thousands of children and women.” “Time is on the side of the resistance movements. Time helps to inflict defeat on the occupiers,” he said before citing the pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Washington, New York and London.

At least 92 counter-protesters arrested during massive pro-Palestinian demonstration in London

At least 92 counter-protesters have been arrested during the pro-Palestinian demonstration this Saturday in London, in which some 300,000 people have participated, according to the estimate of the Metropolitan Police of the British capital.

The vast majority of participants have demonstrated peacefully, although several hundred counterprotesters, including far-rightists, have protested against the march.. At the beginning of it, hundreds of far-rightists forced their way to the Cenotaph, which commemorates the fallen in London, precisely on Armistice Day, which is celebrated this Saturday.

The majority of those detained have been arrested for possession of offensive weapons, brawls or possession of narcotics, according to the British channel Sky News.

A police spokesman, Matt Twist, explained that the counter-protesters arrived at the Cenotaph around 9:00 a.m. “with the apparent intention of confrontation and with violent intentions.”. A knife, a baton, class A drugs and assault on an emergency services worker have been seized from them.

The main pro-Palestinian protest began at 12:00 p.m. and has passed “without incident” despite being one of the largest in London's recent history, according to Twist.

The Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, has described the pro-Palestinian concentration as “disrespectful” and the head of the Interior, Suella Braverman, directly accused the London Metropolitan Police for authorizing it, in a controversial article in which she accuses it of bias and which has ended up causing political cracks within the Government.

Maximum alert in Iceland: the eruption of a volcano is imminent after more than 20,000 earthquakes in one month

Iceland's Civil Protection authority has declared a state of emergency in the country after a series of 20,000 earthquakes in approximately one month, which presage an imminent volcanic eruption.

“Significant changes” have been recorded in the accumulation of underground magma near the town of Grindavík, home to almost 4,000 people, according to the Meteorological Office (IMO).. Given this, the local Police and the Civil Protection authority decided to evacuate Grindavik and declare a state of emergency.

“At this time, it is not possible to determine exactly if and where the magma could reach the surface.”. “There are indications that a considerable amount of magma is moving in an area extending from Sundhnjukagigum in the north towards Grindavik,” an IMO statement said.

They added that “the amount of magma involved is significantly greater than that observed in the largest magma intrusions associated with the eruptions at Fagradalsfjall.”. “More data is being collected to calculate models that provide a more accurate picture of magma intrusion,” they clarified.

Thousands of tremors began to shake the Reykjanes peninsula, where the Fagradalsfjall volcano is located, at the end of October. Fagradalsfjall is located about 40 kilometers from the capital Reykjavík and last erupted in 2021.

On Thursday, the popular Blue Lagoon geothermal pool was closed due to the risk posed to guests by tremors and staff stress.

Israel besieges Gaza's main hospitals, where deaths exceed 11,000

The deaths of more than 100 UNRWA colleagues have been confirmed in one month. Parents, teachers, nurses, doctors, support staff,” said the commissioner general of the United Nations agency, Philippe Lazzarini, on X (formerly Twitter).

According to UNRWA, this represents the highest number of United Nations humanitarian workers killed in conflict in the organization's history.

The future of the British Interior Minister, in the air due to a new controversy

The Minister of the Interior of the United Kingdom, Suella Braverman, has generated a new controversy for the publication of an article in which she has openly accused the Police of “favoring” the protesters in favor of the rights of the Palestinians in the face of the protests this Saturday, a text from which the Government has distanced itself and which leaves its future up in the air, despite the fact that the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, theoretically has full confidence in it.

In an article in The Times, Braverman criticized the Police's decision not to ban the pro-Palestine march despite criticism from the Government for risking possible acts of vandalism, pointing out that the officers are “more lenient” with these protesters than “with other groups”.

In an unusual attack against the agents by a senior Interior official, he also stated that the Metropolitan Police has “ignored the infractions committed by pro-Palestinian mobs” in the context of the protests that have taken place during in recent weeks against Israel's bombing of the Gaza Strip.

Downing Street has opened an investigation into this text, although formally it prefers to call it an “internal process” to make it clear that it is not a formal investigation to examine whether Braverman incurred any type of violation of the code of conduct that is assumed. a member of the Government.

A spokesperson for Sunak has avoided giving more details in this regard, although she has responded affirmatively to doubts about whether the 'premier' still trusts his Home Secretary.. Downing Street usually uses this formula, which in practical terms implies assuming that the designated person has not been dismissed, beyond intuiting future support.

Among those who have publicly distanced themselves from Braverman are Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt.. “These are not the words I would have used,” Hunt said, then went on to say that he maintains a “productive relationship” with his partner and that he does not hesitate to approve key funds in the area of security and immigration.

The British media assume that there will be no movement this weekend, given that it coincides with Armistice Day, which commemorates the end of the First World War, but they avoid getting their fingers caught on what may happen from Monday, given realize that Braverman seems increasingly determined to mark her own profile within the Executive.

In recent days, her words about people who, according to her, choose to live on the streets “as a lifestyle” have also been controversial.. He has also used terms such as “invasion” or “hurricane” when talking about the arrival of migrants and refugees, with constant calls to stop the flow of boats in the English Channel and speed up deportations.

Braverman had already been part of previous cabinets and resigned from Liz Truss's cabinet after acknowledging that he had breached security protocols.. However, just a few days later Sunak recovered her for that same portfolio, entrusting her with one of the policies, immigration, that the current prime minister has most fervently advocated for reform.

The eruption of an underwater volcano in Japan causes the appearance of a small island

An underwater volcano in the Pacific Ocean, one kilometer from the Vulcano Islands (Japan), has formed a new islet near its territory. The explosion of the underwater crater 1,000 kilometers from Tokyo has caused a large accumulation of ash and, with it, the birth of an island about 100 meters in diameter and 20 meters high. The island's emergence was documented in photographs and videos by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force on November 1.

The Japan Meteorological Agency has pointed out that the island, being formed by ash and volcanic rocks instead of lava flows, does not believe it will resist erosion by sea waves when the eruption stops.

The underwater volcano began spitting rocks and ash on October 30, but already began its series of eruptions on October 21. In 10 days the volcanic ash and rocks have created a new island-shaped surface.

Fukashi Maeno, an associate earthquake researcher at the University of Tokyo, explained to the Kyodo agency that phreatomagmatic eruptions, which result from the interaction of magma with water, were occurring one kilometer from Iwo Jama.

Setsuya Nakada, professor emeritus of volcanology at the University of Tokyo, told The Japan Time that, after flying around Iwo Jima, he concluded that the magma has been erupting under the ocean for a few weeks.. This solidification of the magma below the surface has caused the small island to be born. Although the Japanese archipelago is made up of more than 14,000 islands, these volcanologist experts describe the emergence of “the youngest island in the world” as “surprising.”

Ingenuity, imagination and garbage, the engine that keeps Gazans alive

The Palestinians besieged in the south of Gaza, without water, electricity or fuel due to the fierce offensive of the Israeli Army, use ingenuity, imagination and the remains of garbage to try to make their miserable daily life shine with some mirages. of normality.

In a narrow alley in Rafah, a long line of about twenty women, surrounded by their children, smoke and baby cries, prepare the traditional Palestinian shrak bread, which is heated on an oval metal griddle placed directly over the fire: It's like a huge pizza dough, but very thin and malleable.

But they do not do it for pleasure, but because many bakeries have closed due to lack of fuel due to the siege imposed by Israel and, for this reason, women are forced to use all types of flammable waste to cook bread: from papers, magazines and cardboard, even plastic bottles, bags or shreds that cause dense smoke and an unhealthy smell.

“We have nothing, we don't have cardboard or tahini, we don't find food or bread in the bakeries,” one of the women complains to EFE while kneading a shrak surrounded by several children.

The commissioner general of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, denounced yesterday from Paris that with Israel's military action “collective punishment is being imposed on the entire population of Gaza” and reiterated his demand for “a humanitarian ceasefire.”

“Where is the mercy of the world, we are hungry,” says the same Palestinian woman, who insists that she spends the day making bread because the children are hungry and do not have any money. He also complains that they live there, surrounded by dirt, threatened by diseases and with their children dirty without being able to wash them, because water is also scarce.

Vegetable oil to fuel car engines

Ramzi Rashuan works as a driver with one of the few cars still circulating in Rafah. He does this because the fuel he uses is from the Al Jial brand, the company that sells vegetable oil for cooking and that Rashuan uses to fuel his Mercedes-Benz 240 D, a classic model of the German brand that began manufacturing in the 1990s. from the 70s of the last century, start walking.

“We put oil in the cars because we don't have fuel, there is nothing,” says the driver, who explains that the only non-horse-drawn vehicles that work are those that accept vegetable oil. Rashuan has changed the tank and placed it in the front, where he empties a bottle of Al Jial before returning to his car and continuing on his way.

Carts pulled by donkeys or the donkeys themselves are now the only alternative, he tells EFE before warning that the newest cars do not accept oil or other products other than gasoline in their engines.

Solar energy provided to charge mobile phones

“We are here, in an area full of displaced people and everyone is in need. There is no electricity, nor do the generators work,” Anás explains to EFE, sitting in front of a labyrinth of cables, an army of plugs and extension cords and a mountain of mobile phones and chargers.

He says that the energy they use to charge the phones of people in the area comes from the solar panels of a pharmacy, which he is grateful for providing a cable to assemble all the equipment with which they recharge the phones.

“Every hour, we charge between one hundred and one hundred and fifty phones,” says Anán, before specifying that there is no alternative and that this is the only way that the displaced and the people of the neighborhood have to charge their phones “somewhat.”

At least 50 dead in an Israeli attack on a school in Gaza

At least 50 people died this Friday in an Israeli bombing against a public school in Gaza City, according to medical sources and the Government of the Strip, in an incident of which all the circumstances have not yet been clarified and in which a granddaughter died. of the political head of Hamas, Ismael Haniyeh.

The deaths in the attack on the school in the Al Naser neighborhood of Gaza where internally displaced people were taking refuge could reach 50, while the director of the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza said that there were at least 25 deaths who arrived at that medical center, he detailed to EFE a source from the Gaza Government.

In turn, sources from the political wing of Hamas announced that Roaa Haniye, granddaughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniye, died in the attack at the same school.

The Islamist group Hamas, which de facto controls the enclave, condemned “the atrocious massacre” at the school, which it considered “a shame for the international community and humanity.”

Likewise, the organization assured that Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli attacks when they tried to flee south along Salahedin Avenue, one of the main arteries of the Strip and where Israel has kept a corridor open intermittently since last Sunday.

All of this occurs while Israeli troops continue their land advance through the Strip, where they have surrounded and attacked several hospitals that are on the verge of collapse, including the Al Shifa Hospital itself – the largest in the enclave -, where this Friday bombings occurred. Israelis in the compound killed 20 people.

“A war against hospitals”

In turn, attacks against the Al Quds medical center and its surroundings caused at least one death and 28 injuries among the displaced people taking refuge in the facility, “the majority of whom were children,” reported the Crescent medical service. Palestinian red.

“Two of them were critically wounded by occupation (Israel) snipers who aimed at the hospital and shot directly at those present in the building,” in addition to launching “artillery projectiles at the western part” of the medical center,” added the Red Crescent.

This health organization also reported that Israeli forces shot at the Intensive Care Unit of this same hospital, without offering more details.

On the other hand, the director of the Al Shifa Hospital assured that today Israel waged “a war against the hospitals” of Gaza, and stressed that in his health center “the sick and wounded occupy all the corridors”, without operations and with a lack of food and water to care for patients and displaced people who take refuge in the center.

Since the war broke out on October 7, more than 11,000 people have died in Gaza due to Israeli bombing, including more than 4,500 children and more than 3,000 women.

Rebelo de Sousa calls early elections in Portugal for March 10, 2024 after Costa's resignation

The president of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, announced this Thursday that he is dissolving the Assembly and calling early elections for March 10, 2024, after the political crisis arising from the resignation of António Costa as prime minister, in the midst of a corruption scandal affecting his Government.

Rebelo de Sousa has finally opted for the option that had been most popular these days and which the leaders of the parties with parliamentary representation advocated during the meeting he held with them this Wednesday.

The president made the announcement when leaving a meeting of the Council of State that lasted almost four hours. In his speech, he thanked Costa for the “high gesture” he had in presenting his resignation so quickly and pointed out that the socialists' proposal to maintain the current government with a new interim prime minister was not the best solution to resolve this political crisis.

Thus, he explained that this option would mean putting in charge “another prime minister not politically and personally legitimized by the popular vote”, there being also “the risk that this weakness will translate into a mere postponement of the dissolution until a worse time, with a more critical and unpredictable situation.

“That is the form of democracy, not to be afraid of the people,” he said, clarifying that Costa will not be formally dismissed until early December, in order to be able to approve, before the project expires, the general budgets for 2024, in pursuit of “the indispensable economic and social stability” of the country.

Finally, Rebelo de Sousa has opted for the option that had been most popular these days and which the leaders of the parties with parliamentary representation advocated during the meeting he held with them this Wednesday.

The Portuguese president has indicated that he has tried to “shorten as much as possible” the date to schedule the call for new elections, but this has not been possible partly because the Socialist Party needs time to elect a new leadership.

On Tuesday, the Prosecutor's Office searched the headquarters of the Ministries of Infrastructure and the Environment, as well as some of the offices of Costa's official residence for alleged irregularities in the granting of public contracts for the exploitation of lithium deposits and the production of clean energy. with hydrogen.