Aldama: eight hours of “confession” to bring down Ábalos and Koldo

Aldama: eight hours of “confession” to bring down Ábalos and Koldo

Víctor de Aldama had to prove before the Supreme Court that he is telling the truth; it is his lifeline to have his collaboration with justice and repentance recognized and to achieve a considerable reduction of the sentence. To do this, he had to betray former minister José Luis Ábalos and his loyal squire Koldo García. And he did. Eight hours of testimony in which he recounted how he was paying them a kind of salary of 10,000 euros per month, in addition to other gifts including rents, vacations, apartments, motorcycles, cars, and even medical treatments, totaling between three and a half and four million. These amounts were qualified, but the estimate of what the former minister and his advisor received would be that, according to the commission agent’s version. The money did not all come out of his pocket. Aldama put in part, and other companies seeking contracts – with which he acted as a link – paid the rest. Part went to the minister and the advisor and another part to the PSOE, always according to his version.

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The three witnesses who can open a gap in David Sánchez's defense

The three witnesses who can open a gap in David Sánchez’s defense

In the long and intense third session of the trial against David Sánchez, a dozen witnesses addressed the three vertices of the case. The first refers to the allegedly nepotistic hiring of the brother of President Pedro Sánchez as coordinator of the conservatories of the Diputación de Badajoz in 2017. The second focuses on the alleged irregularities surrounding a modification of David Sánchez’s position when in 2022 he became director of the Office of Performing Arts. The third addresses the alleged favoritism of Luis Carrero, a friend of David Sánchez, as coordinator of centers and cross-border activities also by the Diputación de Badajoz in 2024.

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One less debt with Samaranch

One less debt with Samaranch

Juan Antonio Samaranch said of the 1992 Olympic Games that they had managed to change the mentality of the people of Barcelona. “Now they are more optimistic, less whiny,” he defended, in an interview with La Vanguardia in March 1996. The social – almost Olympic – sport of overseeing each and every one of the 73 neighborhoods of Barcelona has not been lost, but if that summer achieved anything, everyone who made it possible agrees, it was to establish a confidence that never left. At the forefront of the metamorphosis, with permission from Maragall, was precisely the now deceased president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who passed away in 2010, a figure who was honored yesterday just in the year that marks 40 years since his “a la ville de… Barcelona.”

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Hotels before the tourism boom in Lloret de Mar: reservations by letter and candles in the room

Hotels before the tourism boom in Lloret de Mar: reservations by letter and candles in the room

It is hard to imagine today that Just Marlès Avenue in Lloret de Mar, popularly known as “la riera” and which concentrates much of the nightlife and an important hotel offer, was decades ago a wild place. In the sixties, the riverbed had not yet been paved and the sand reached the doors of the first hotels that were located there. Back then, that space which today is the core, was the outskirts.

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Cones, beach balls and Lamine's promise: "Soon a parade for the Champions"

Cones, beach balls and Lamine’s promise: “Soon a parade for the Champions”

Kilos of confetti and tons of excitement were thrown and collected throughout the city. Hundreds of thousands of people came out to accompany the parade, which confirms that Barcelona excites, that it has touched a chord and reaffirms its connection with the people and especially with the young culés. The streets embraced the League champions, the footballers who crushed Madrid in 35 matches. The most uninhibited fans identify with the fun spirit that this team exudes on and off the field. It is a champion with a lot of charisma. Or with aura, as they say now.

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Sánchez declares in Barcelona: “The ultras and the subservient right-wing are shouting because their time is running out”

Sánchez declares in Barcelona: “The ultras and the subservient right-wing are shouting because their time is running out”

“It all started in Barcelona!”, Pedro Sánchez has assured will be remembered in the future. While a far-right international has been operating freely around the world for years, accelerated after Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January 2025, this Saturday a progressive international, convened by the head of the Spanish Executive and the president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has started in the capital of Catalonia, as an alternative to the global reactionary wave and the new geopolitical and ideological order encouraged by the President of the United States.

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When chaos rules

When chaos rules

Xi Jinping has received Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in less than a week at his palaces in Beijing. It is normal for the official Chinese press to boast and consider that their country “is at the epicenter of world diplomacy.” More distant with the former and more affable with the…

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