Here is The Leader daily briefing with the news from around Spain, things to do locally, the forecast for the day, and other notable events Today in Spain.
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News Around Spain
5,861 organ transplants were performed in Spain last year, which It represents a rate of 122.1 transplants per million population (pmp). This high level of activity was achieved thanks to the 2,346 people who donated their organs after death, which places the donation rate at 48.9 donors pmp, and the 435 people who donated a kidney (433) or part of their liver (2) in life. These data represent a growth of 9% in transplantation and 7% in donation compared to 2022. Furthermore, the transplant rate exceeds the historical maximum recorded in 2019 by 8%, before the COVID-19 pandemic. The average number of daily donors last year was 8 and the average number of transplants performed each day was 16.
The first section of the Provincial Court on the island of Ibiza will begin to hear evidence from today, Thursday, against a man, of Moroccan nationality, who had several T-shirts impregnated with ketamine seized at Ibiza Airport, coming from a flight from London. He is accused of an alleged crime against public health, facing 4 years in prison and a fine of 14,000 euro, for smuggling twenty shirts that weighed more than 3 kilos, impregnated with 7,000 euro worth of Ketamine.
In 2023, the Ministry of Culture has invested a total of 13,965,142.87 euro in the acquisition of cultural assets for public collections, which represents an increase of 110% compared to 2022, when the investment was 6.62 million. In total, more than 200 purchase operations have been carried out. Although a percentage of these acquisitions correspond to individual pieces, in other cases they are sets, archives and collections with dozens or hundreds of goods such as paintings, sculptures, drawings, furniture, clothing, ceramics and photo albums, in addition to documentary collections and bibliographical and contemporary artistic installations.
Social Security affiliation in seasonally adjusted terms has increased by 538,000 people from January 15, 2023, to January 15, 2024, according to biweekly data statistics. Since the beginning of this year, more than 30,000 jobs have been created, in line with pre-pandemic data. With data up to January 15, the total number of affiliates has grown by 1.45 million people since the start of the pandemic. The daily membership figure recorded as of January 15 amounts to 20,610,630 people.
Self-employed workers who, after retiring, continue to exercise a role as administrators of the company linked to their business, will not lose their right to receive the pension. This has been established by a ruling by the Social Court of Granada, which ruled in favour of a self-employed person who was in this situation and did not receive any payment for continuing in the role. Employment lawyers state that the situation must be looked at now on a case by case basis, as there are conditions attached, but it will now be possible for retirees to retain control of their business and receive a pension.
To read these articles in full, visit SpainToday.news
Things to Do Today
The Pascual Flores pilot boat is open for visitors in Torrevieja on Wednesdays through to Sundays until 29 January.
We will talk about it in more detail tomorrow, but Torrevieja Carnival begins on Friday with the inauguration. Notable events coming up over the next coupe of weeks are the Drag Queen Gala, the grand day and night parades, and the children’s and animal parades. Full details are on the website, theleader.info.
In the Casa de Cultura in Guardamar del Segura a collective exhibition of the works of young creators in different fields of plastic arts, photography, fashion design, and drawing is on until Saturday 20 January. A second collection, featuring “new perspectives” is also on in the same venue until February 4.
For more local events, pick up The Leader newspaper every Monday, and This is Torrevieja for Torrevieja events.
Local Markets
Thursday markets are held in Alicante, Bigastro, Campoamor (Orihuela Costa), El Altet (Elche), Gran Alacant, Lo Pagan (San Pedro del Pinatar), Rojales, and San Fulgencio (La Marina).
The roads will of course be busy around those locations.
Traffic and Travel
The same as last week, the weekend is going to be busy on the roads particularly around winter leisure areas, which includes second homes, but mostly the mountainous regions for winter sports. We will have the full details of the busiest times in tomorrow’s bulletin.
In the air, things are looking set to be more stable than yesterday, when there were a number of cancellations and delays, and although there are more flights scheduled across Europe, some 23,000, anticipated problems are far fewer.
We still have the equipment testing in Paris, but problems have been minimal and reducing, and the World Economic Forum in Davos is ongoing. Mainly the Zurich area is affected by a range of military restrictions in force. There´s also another military test flight scheduled for the next couple of days in Turkiye.
Industrial action in Lanzarote continues, with moderate delays expected.
Weather related restrictions could affect Scandinavian, Swiss & Austrian Aerodromes due to the Snow and freezing rain conditions.
As always, although not directly impacting flights between the UK and Spain, the knock-on effect could result in delays later in the day in some cases.
For information and updates about driving in Spain, visit N332.es
Weather
In general weather terms along the Mediterranean, today will be partly sunny and mild, feeling around 21 degrees, Friday is expected to be breezy with clouds clearing as the day continues, chilly though with a 16 degree reel feel temperature, Saturday sees clouds giving way to some sun, and slightly cooler again at 15, and Sunday mixing clouds and sunshine though slightly warmer with a reel feel of 16. All of that means, in general terms, the threat of rain has receded and so Torrevieja Carnival, the highlight of which might be the animal carnival in La Mata on Sunday, should be dry, though a little chilly, and remember, Sunday is also the day for pet blessings also in La Mata, so it´s a full schedule for pets on Sunday, just make sure you all wrap up warm.
Notable Events
1610 the Moors are expelled from Murcia.
1924 the Spanish Government pardons the murderers of Eduardo Dato, president of the Government.
1938 the new one peseta banknotes enter circulation in Spain.
1941 the Barcelona Maritime Museum is inaugurated.
1997 three Spanish aid workers from the NGO Médicos del Mundo, Luis Valtueña , Flors Sirera and Manuel Madrazo, are murdered in Rwanda.
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