What seemed like just another eccentric character on social media has ended up alerting the authorities of a country for taking advantage of a legal loophole to become “king.” Jona Lauwiner (31) is a young technician who in 2019 proclaimed himself king of Switzerland and organized a coronation in a church for it. With cape, crown, and all.
“Just because it has never happened does not mean we are not prepared when it does.” The phrase, from a Vox spokesperson, does not refer to the prevention of a health or climate emergency, but to the possibility of a woman dressed in a burka or niqab entering public offices. Specifically, in the Diputación de Valencia, the latest institution to join, this very week, the several dozen town halls, half of the regional parliaments, and even the Congress itself, which have voted on initiatives promoted by the far right against the use of the full Islamic veil (burka or niqab) in public buildings. The texts – only half of which have succeeded – mostly urge the Government to legislate on the matter, as it is a state competence. But the left refuses to ban the veil, for reasons of religious freedom and because there are no burkas in Spain and the niqab is a minority.
Sant Jordi kicks off in Barcelona a day early with the traditional literary festival that La Vanguardia celebrates every year —for 13 years now— at the Alma hotel. Famous writers and personalities from the editorial, political, and business spheres attend today the preamble to the diada to warm up for tomorrow’s day, when many of the invited authors will be signing in the city’s streets.
When summer arrives many people share the same habit: comparing the price of beer on the beach with what we would pay in another destination and drawing hasty conclusions about whether “everything is sky-high” or if, in reality, we live in an oasis of reasonable prices.
Los Mossos d’Esquadra have opened an investigation to clarify the facts of a new shooting without injuries in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. This time, the firearm incident occurred this Wednesday at around 9:30 p.m. on Siglo XXI Avenue in Viladecans. According to sources from the Generalitat of Catalonia Police, there are no reported injuries. Other sources aware of the events claim that everything happened after an argument on the terrace of a bar.
The most forgotten war in the world fits into an alleyway of a historic souk in Dubai. Far from the vertical ostentation of skyscrapers in other neighborhoods of the Emirati city, the passages covered with wooden pergolas of the Deira Gold Souk, in northern Dubai, house another type of more discreet display: more than 300 shops buying and selling jewelry and gold. The Dubai souk is a bustling hive of luxury and vibrant peace.
The French government bureaucracy has experienced two years of great stress since the controversial dissolution of the National Assembly in June 2024. However, this should not justify the fact that there have been two suicides and two attempts – in a period of seven months – among the officials working for the current Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu. Hence, the Paris prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation, supported by another internal one at the Matignon Palace.
The Civil Guard arrested in the early hours of this Thursday in the Murcian town of Puerto Lumbreras the man who allegedly stabbed to death his partner, a 44-year-old woman, in a shopping center in Murcia, police sources have reported.
In the last decade, Catalonia has become one of the main laboratories for housing regulation in Spain. The puzzle of the housing emergency has left behind a trail of measures promoted by the administrations to protect the most vulnerable households, expand the stock of social housing, or contain rents amid the unstoppable rise in prices, while new rules have been introduced to define who is a major holder or to limit the use of seasonal contracts. The latest of these laws promoted by the Generalitat, against the “speculative purchase” of properties, did not pass the examination of the Consell de Garanties Estatutàries this summer. The Catalan government has committed to modifying the regulation, which has been strongly criticized by employers’ associations and real estate sector entities, as they consider it will worsen the supply crisis. While property owners warn that overregulation has generated even more legal uncertainty, the movement for the right to decent housing alerts to the loopholes in these regulations.
Italian authorities have arrested seven people in the southern province of Foggia, accused of being part of a criminal network dedicated to robbing ATMs using explosives at several banks.