English in Madrid

Source:  Pixels (Tom Fisk) Amazon fires: Brazil sends army to help tackle blazes   Brazil's president has ordered the armed forces to fight record forest fires in the Amazon, amid international outrage over rising deforestation. President Jair Bolsonaro deployed soldiers in nature reserves, indigenous lands, and border areas beset by fires. The move is an apparent reversal from Mr Bolsonaro, who has been accused of emboldening miners and loggers . Other countries had threatened to target Brazil's economy if it did not act to stop the fires. France and Ireland had said they would not ratify a large trade deal with South American nations, and Finland's finance minister had called on the EU to consider banning Brazilian beef imports. In a televised address to the nation on Friday, Mr Bolsonaro said forest fires "exist in the whole world" and "cannot serve as a pretext for possible international sanctions". Many of the fires are th...

Source:  Markus Winkler on Unsplash ‘Gastronomic terrorism!’ How the cucumber has sliced Spain in two  Spain is gripped by the question of whether or not the vegetable is a vital ingredient of gazpacho soup  Wounds Jamie Oliver inflicted three years ago when he added chorizo to rice and called it paella remain raw , while hopes of an end to the war over whether onions belong in a tortilla de patatas seem as forlorn as ever . But as Spain endures a particularly sweltering summer, the debate has turned to the country’s best-known antidote to the heat and, specifically, the question of whether cucumber has any place in a deliciously cooling bowl of gazpacho. The row began, not unpredictably, on Twitter. At the end of July the Spanish comedian known as El Monaguillo (the altar boy ; real name Sergio Fernández Meléndez) conducted his own poll . “Really important survey,” he wrote. “Gazpacho with cucumber or without cucumber?” Of the 3,809 people who repli...