Iberian lynx seen for first time in a century in the Basque Country, man arrested at Barcelona airport for throwing bag and shouting “Allahu Akbar” and more news on Wednesday July 22nd.
Iberian lynx seen for first time in a century in the Basque Country
Camera traps set up by a livestock farmer in the Álava town of Campezo have captured an Iberian lynx, the first sighting in the Basque Country in more than 100 years.
According to the Hontza Natura Elkartea association, which released the images, the lynx is a member of the Lynx pardinus species, the Iberian lynx, which is different from the Eurasian lynx (Lynx lynx), a species with a larger population and more frequently sighted.
The Iberian lynx was critically endangered 20 years ago with only 90 individuals left.
But by 2025, more than 2,660 had been counted. It is still a threatened species, but it’s experiencing a historic recovery thanks to conservation efforts.
El lince ibérico lives primarily in Andalusia, Castile-La Mancha, Extremadura, and Portugal.
Reintroduction projects have also been underway in areas near the Basque Country, such as Zaragoza and Palencia.
Man arrested at Barcelona airport for throwing bag and shouting “Allahu Akbar”
A man was arrested on Monday by Spanish Civil Guard police after throwing a backpack to the ground and shouting, among other slogans, “Allahu Akbar”.
The incident, which occurred in Terminal 2 of Barcelona-El Prat Airport , caused quite a stir as many people were present, but in the end, it was just a scare.
As the aforementioned media outlet explains, several people ran after hearing the detainee’s shouts, and two of them had to be treated for anxiety attacks.
The Civil Guard managed to detain the man, a Dominican national, and bomb disposal experts later confirmed that the backpack contained no explosives.
Four women murdered by men in five days in Spain
In just five days, from July 17th to the 21st, four women have been murdered at the hands of partners.
On Tuesday alone, we learned of the deaths of two women, one in Alameda de la Sagra (Toledo) and the other in Benahavís (Málaga).
In Toledo, a 48-year-old man has been arrested for murdering his partner with a knife.
In Benahavís, a 45-year-old woman has been found dead with signs of violence in a house in the luxury development Los Arqueros. A neighbour alerted authorities after hearing screams and seeing a man leaving the house in a car. The body had a knife wound to the neck.
On Monday, another women was murdered in Málaga province in the town of Antequera, a 29-year-old who suffered multiple stab wounds.
And on July 17th in the Madrid town of Sevilla la Nueva, it was a 31-year-old Moroccan woman who died after being hospitalised for almost six months with severe burns covering 50 percent of her body. The young woman was attacked by two men, who were allegedly hired by her partner to set her on fire.
Spanish hotel chain Meliá says to cease operations in Cuba
Spanish hotel chain Melia said Tuesday it would cease all operations in Cuba at the end of the week due to “major difficulties” in doing business on the island under growing pressure from the United States.
The latest US sanctions make it “impossible, de facto and de jure, to maintain even minimal operational stability” in its activities, the group explained in a statement submitted to the Spanish stock market regulator.
Meliá already announced at the beginning of June that it would cease operating 15 out of its 34 hotels in Cuba, joining other foreign firms that have cut ties with the island’s military conglomerate GAESA under pressure from Washington.
At the time, Meliá, one of the largest foreign hotel operators in Cuba with some 14,000 rooms, did not refer to the other 19 hotels it operates in Cuba in partnership with the Tourism Ministry.
Meliá’s move comes after US President Donald Trump ordered in May new sanctions against Cuba, targeting a broad set of people in the communist-run country and threatening foreign banks and companies that work with them.
