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SPAIN

The butane bottle drops by 4.94%, to €14.43: {Translation, summary}
– The maximum retail price of the butane bottle will fall by 4.94% from this Tuesday, September 19, to €14.43, thus standing at the lowest price recorded in the last year, according to the resolution published this Monday in the Official State Gazette (BOE). This price for the butane bottle from this Tuesday will thus be 26% lower than the maximum price last registered 12 months ago. Source, Spanish: https://andaluciainformacion.es/andalucia/1357317/por-fin-algo-mas-barato-la-bombona-de-butano-baja-un-494-hasta-los-1443-euros/

ANDALUCIA

A new ‘dana’ will likely bring heavy rainfall and thunderstorms to Andalucía this week:
– According to the forecast, the arrival on Tuesday of a ‘dana’ (isolated high level depression) will be responsible for an increase in cloudiness and it is possible that locally heavy downpours and thunderstorms may occur during the afternoon and evening in the south of Andalusia.
– According to Aemet, “clouds will also increase in the rest of the southern half of the country with light cloud in the rest of the mainland,” as well as a “‘calima’ (Saharan dust in suspension in the atmosphere) in the southeast of the mainland and Melilla”.
– Looking ahead to Wednesday, there is still a wide margin of uncertainty, although Aemet forecasts “it is likely that the ‘dana’ will move in a northeasterly direction, leaving abundant precipitation, which may be locally heavy and persistent and accompanied by storms, in the Mediterranean area of Andalucía, in Murcia and the south of the Valencia region”. With less probability, occasional showers and thunderstorms could be recorded in the rest of Andalucía. Full article: https://www.surinenglish.com/andalucia/new-dana-will-likely-bring-heavy-rainfall-20230918093305-nt.html

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Empty Promises- UGT warns that more than 17,000 young Andalusians are still waiting for the Rental Bonus: {Translation, summary}
– UGT Andalucía (General Union of Workers of Andalucia) demands answers and explanations from the Junta de Andalucía because “more than 17,000 young people have not yet received the aid for young citizen’s rent assistance”. The union says the central government provided the Junta de Andalucía with 68 million euros in January 2022, yet we are still waiting for the aid to arrive. (Hmmm, 20 months interest on €68mil of undispursed funds is a significant sum! Where did that interest money go and how is it related to the delay? -Ed.)
– Therefore, the union denounces “the lack of interest and action of the Government of the Junta de Andalucía for young Andalusians, for the situation they are experiencing of not being able to emancipate themselves due to lack of help from the administrations and lack of agility in the calls and subsequent resolutions of the same”.
– It should be remembered that most of the young people who have applied for the rental bonus are young people with part-time or temporary contracts, “who suffer from the rise in rents and who often cannot afford to rent a home and have to settle for a room in a shared apartment, in the best of cases, or continue living with their parents, without the possibility of being able to emancipate themselves”, so from UGT Andalucía, “we demand the payment of these aids to the beneficiaries, as well as the implementation of other types of agile and effective aid that allow access to decent housing for Andalusian youth”.
– The union recalls that the Junta de Andalucía “committed to grant the first aid between February and March, a period that was not met, as well as the maximum six months contemplated by the call itself to resolve, and that were exhausted last May. In mid-May, what the Board did is send SMS messages en masse to the applicants of these aids to avoid that the applications were understood as rejected by administrative silence. Source, Spanish: https://www.granadadigital.es/ugt-alerta-17-000-jovenes-andaluces-siguen-espera-bono-alquiler-joven/

TORROX

Torrox hosts the most extensive Oktoberfest yet, with new location: {Translation, summary}
– The Oktoberfest of Torrox continues to grow and for this edition changes location. It will be on Esperanto Avenue, next to the Iberostar Hotel in Torrox Costa, where this traditional German festival will take place from September 21 to 24.
– In this edition 40 stands will be installed to house the 25 companies that offer their products, in addition to three foodtrucks. The children’s area they will have a dozen attractions.
– On Thursday they will begin at six in the afternoon with ambient music, being the inauguration at 20.30 hours. Dj Nando, Dance & Dreams, Buddy Holly Tribute and Dj Worzel will be the performances of the first day. From Friday to Sunday the opening will take place at 12 noon. Source, Spanish: https://www.axarquiaplus.es/torrox-acoge-el-oktoberfest-mas-extenso-y-con-mayor-oferta-gastronomica-y-de-ocio-de-las-ultimas-ediciones/ 

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Torrox to complete its first mortuary before the end of the year: {Translation, summary}
– Work on the new building, which began last November, is already 65% complete and is expected to be finished before the end of the year after four years of paperwork, setbacks, neighbourhood protests and administrative problems. It will be then when the more than 20,000 registered residents of the Axarquia town will no longer have to go to other neighbouring municipalities, such as Vélez-Málaga or Nerja, to say goodbye to their loved ones. Source, Spanish: https://www.axarquiaplus.es/torrox-terminara-su-primer-tanatorio-antes-de-final-de-ano/ 

VÉLEZ-MÁLAGA

San Francisco Market will host this weekend the ‘Retro Anime Festival’, with the best of the decades of the 80s and 90 + Cosplay & K-Pop: {Translation, summary}
– The Retro Anime Festival is a festival organised by La Máquina Imaginaria that brings together the best of the 80s/90s and the latest from 2010 onwards. K-pop fans will meet here, along with those who long for the music of the past.
– This festival will take place in the Mercado de San Francisco in Velez Malaga between the 23rd and 24th of September. Young and old will be able to have a great time during the weekend and share time together enjoying board games, game consoles, music and much more. Each day the timetable will be from 12 to 20 hours.
– A series of retro consoles will delight everyone, especially the “oldies” while they enjoy the display of characters from the iconic Star Wars saga.
– The younger ones will be able to show off their latest cosplay creations and test their knowledge of anime. There will also be an area with board games, from the oldest ones such as Monopoly or Cobra Empire, to the most current ones such as Virus or Dobble, which will bring together fathers, mothers, daughters and sons to enjoy and share, each one being able to show their tastes to the other.
– Finally, there will be a flea market area where you can take home Pelé or Mágico González stickers, along with the latest T-shirts, board games and Asian products in demand by all young lovers of this culture. The entrance fee is only €1, which makes the Retro Anime Festival an even better plan for children and adults to enjoy together. Cosplayers and the first 200 people to arrive will be able to enter the event for free.
Source, Spanish: https://ladiversiva.com/festival-retro-anime-en-velez-malaga-para-que-toda-la-familia-disfrute-de-musica-consola-juegos-de-mesa-y-mucho-mas-con-la-maquina-imaginaria/ 

USA

U.S. Military Loses Aircraft near Charleston, SC- Asks the Public for Help Finding Missing F-35 Fighter Jet:
– The United States’ military is on the hunt for an F-35 fighter jet that has gone missing following an incident that forced the pilot to eject from the advanced stealth aircraft over South Carolina. Emergency response teams are trying to find what’s left of the F-35B Lightning II jet, which suffered what the military called a “mishap” on Sunday afternoon, according to social media posts by Joint Base Charleston, an air base in South Carolina. The unidentified pilot ejected safely and was taken to a local hospital in a stable condition.
– The missing aircraft in the US swiftly drew online mockery, from postings with Missing-Jet fliers on lamp posts and notices on milk cartons, to mashed up Dude, Where’s My F-35 movie posters.
– “…how in the hell do you lose an F-35?” South Carolina Republican Representative Nancy Mace said on social media. “How is there not a tracking device? And we’re asking the public to what, find a jet and turn it in?” Full article: https://time.com/6315261/missing-military-f35-jet/

SPORTS

Pushing A Protest Too Far Has A Price- 39 Protesting Spanish Female Footballers To Be Left Off Roster: {Translation}
– The mess continues in the Spanish women’s football team. The 39 players who signed a demands statement last Friday will not be on coach Montse Tomé’s list for the next two Nations League matches against Sweden (September 22) and Switzerland (September 26).
– The federation on Sunday asked the 39 players to draw up a list with specific names and their reasons, promising to study each case and take appropriate measures over the next month. This request came so that the situation is unblocked and the coach, Montse Tomé, can give a list of the selected players for the team. But according to Onda Cero, the players have not answered, and have chosed to remain silent, so now the Federation is waiting for the announcement from the coach. In it, unless the 39 players answer before that moment, the coach plans to give the call without including them.
Source, Spanish: https://www.diariosur.es/deportes/futbol-femenino/jugadoras-responden-ultimatum-lista-20230918100628-ntrc.html

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Golf News- Costa del Sol gets ready to host Solheim Cup next week: The women’s equivalent of the Ryder Cup takes place in Casares between 22 and 24 September, with practice sessions open to the public from Tuesday. The main matches take place from Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th. Tickets for these competition days are still available as well as for three practice days at Finca Cortesin on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Full article: https://www.surinenglish.com/sport/costa-sol-gets-ready-host-solheim-cup-20230915144937-nt.html

ARTIFICIAL INTELLEGENCE (AI)

Article + Editorial: A score of mothers in Spain denounce the spread of false nudes of their daughters made with artificial intelligence: {Translation, summary}
– At least twenty families in Almendralejo (Badajoz) have denounced the publication and dissemination of photographs of their daughters’ fake nudes created with artificial intelligence. These are images of the heads of the victims, aged between 12 and 17, attached to a naked body that is not theirs, a display that has victimized underage girls and which is being investigated by the police.
– Well-known gynaecologist Miriam Al Adib has reported this on her Instagram account after finding out that her daughters, aged 14 and 17, had been victims of this crime. According to the doctor, the photographs, which are “very realistic”, may even have been published on web-portals such as OnlyFans or pornographic websites. “They are circulating in Almendralejo and perhaps also in the surrounding villages, but we don’t know how far-reaching they could be”, she admits.
– There are penalties for adults spreading these “deep-fakes”, and if the perpetrator is a minor, the families of the perpetrators could face fines of up to 6,000 euros as compensation for moral damages.
– {Editor’s Note: This is just one of the many problems the premature release of AI onto the public has created. Celebrity deep-fake porn is now ubiquitous on the Internet. Every celeb you can name has had their head attached to a nude body, often performing some acrobatic sex act. A DuckDuckGo photo search for “deep fake”, with the Safe Search turned off, returns an endless stream of examples. WARNING: These contain highly explicit, disturbing photos, not for the timid! (To give credit where it is due, Google Search does a very good job of removing deep-fake nudes from their search results.) Many popular social media sites have pages specifically hosting these deep fake photos, and even take requests. Some photos are obvious patch-jobs, but many appear convincingly real, the quality will only get better with time, and this has now spread to deep-fake videos. Too late to put the genie back in the bottle. The damage is done and there’s no going back. I can’t help but wonder- the big-tech developers must have anticipated this inevitable abusive application of these AI tools; yet this technology was dumped, as free and easy to use tools, onto the public. What was their motivation? Was big-tech willing to allow the sick damage that ensued as long as it drove fresh clients to these new AI services, where the user would be encouraged to buy a premium version of the tools to attain better results? And this is the same big-tech that we trust with all our finances and deepest secrets? It is time to give that a re-think. -Ed.)
Source, Spanish: https://www.20minutos.es/noticia/5173378/0/una-veintena-madres-denuncia-difusion-falso-desnudo-sus-hijas-realizado-con-con-inteligencia-artificial/

CULTURE

Sixty year old cancer patient from Granada asks to go to prison because he’s afraid of being alone:
– Justo Márquez Sánchez, 60, revealed on his social media accounts that he wants to go to Albolote prison, despite not committing any criminal offence. The Motril resident is suffering from cancer and heart problems, and said he is lonely and has been abandoned by his family.
– “I volunteer to go to prison,” he said from the living room of his house while holding a sign that relayed the same message. “I am 60 years old and have suffered from heart problems for 15 years. When I lived with my wife, sometimes I would go into cardiac arrest and I would be practically dead. She called the emergency services and managed to revive me before they arrived. Now she is no longer here and I’m afraid it will happen to me alone. Nobody will help me,” Justo Márquez told the local Granada newspaper, Ideal.
– Justo got married in 1999 to “the shop assistant of a grocery store he ran”. After nearly 24 years of love and five children, the couple is on the verge of divorce. Last June he had no choice but to move out of his family home. “My wife doesn’t want me to go back home. I try not to lose contact with my children, but I never see them. I have recently become a grandfather and my daughter has not introduced me to my grandson. I am lonely and not very cheerful. I have suffered from depression and anxiety. That’s why prison doesn’t seem such a bad fate for me,” he said.
– This is not the first time that Justo Márquez has appeared in the media. In the past three decades, he went on pilgrimages to the villages of the Costa Tropical, the Alpujarra and even outside Andalucía asking for justice for various causes. But it was how he did it that sparked headlines, carrying a large wooden cross on his back along the way. His causes were the end of violence against women and the end of world hunger.
– But now, in his time of need, he is alone. “Rather than being on the street without a family and isolated, I prefer prison. I’ve already been to social services and they haven’t helped me,” he said. Full article: https://www.surinenglish.com/andalucia/man-from-granada-asks-prison-because-hes-20230915172906-nt.html 

CANCEL CULTURE

Russell Brand’s Agents Drop Star Amid Recent Sexual Assault Claims Of Events Alleged To Have Occurred In 2006 to 2008, And Say They Were ‘Horribly Misled’:
– Russell Brand’s management agency terminated all professional ties to the actor and comedian after sexual assault allegations were published Saturday following a joint investigation by the Times of London, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 Dispatches. Four women have come forward with allegations against Brand that include rape, sexual assault and emotional abuse. In a statement published on Sunday, Tavistock Wood Management Agency said they believe they “were horribly misled by him.”
– “Russell Brand categorically and vehemently denied the allegation made in 2020, but we now believe we were horribly misled by him,” the agency said. “TW has terminated all professional ties to Brand.”
– Brand has denied the allegations. “But amidst this litany of astonishing, rather baroque attacks are some very serious allegations that I absolutely refute,” Brand said on a social media post.
– One of the women who alleges she was groomed and raped by Brand at 16, told The Times that she went to Brand’s literary agent at Tavistock Wood in 2020 with the allegations. Three years later, Brand has been taken down from Tavistock Wood’s website.
– Channel 4, The Times and The Sunday Times aired a special on Saturday entitled “Russel Brand: In Plain Sight.” The documentary features five women who allege that Brand has raped, sexually assaulted or abused them. Some of the allegations made against Brand happened while he was working as a host and presenter for the BBC from 2006 to 2008. In a statement, the BBC said they “are urgently looking into the issues raised” by the documentary. Full article: https://newsfinale.com/us/russell-brands-management-agency-terminates-ties-sexual-assault-allega-rcna105476/ 

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Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner removed from Rock Hall leadership after controversial comments:
– Jann Wenner, who co-founded Rolling Stone magazine and also was a co-founder of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, has been removed from the hall’s board of directors after making disparaging comments toward Black and female musicians. He apologized within hours. “Jann Wenner has been removed from the Board of Directors of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation,” the hall said Saturday, a day after Wenner’s comments were published in a New York Times interview.
– Wenner created a firestorm doing publicity for his new book “The Masters,” which features interviews with musicians Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia, Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Bruce Springsteen, Pete Townshend and U2’s Bono – all white and male.
– Asked why he didn’t interview women or Black musicians, Wenner responded: “It’s not that they’re inarticulate, although, go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis Joplin. Please, be my guest. You know, Joni (Mitchell) was not a philosopher of rock ’n’ roll. She didn’t, in my mind, meet that test,” he told the Times. “Of Black artists – you know, Stevie Wonder, genius, right? I suppose when you use a word as broad as ‘masters,’ the fault is using that word. Maybe Marvin Gaye, or Curtis Mayfield? I mean, they just didn’t articulate at that level,” Wenner said.
– In the interview, Wenner seemed to acknowledge he would face a backlash. “Just for public relations sake, maybe I should have gone and found one Black and one woman artist to include here that didn’t measure up to that same historical standard, just to avert this kind of criticism.” Photo: Evan Agostini. Full article: https://apnews.com/article/jann-wenner-rolling-stone-rock-hall-4052a04c35ce13cc2b17b5455ebe6883