English in Madrid

Source:   Jonny Gios  en  Unsplash Sycamore Gap: Man in his 60s held after Hadrian's Wall tree cut down A man in his 60s has been arrested by police investigating the cutting-down of the world-famous Sycamore Gap tree in Northumberland. The landmark , beside Hadrian's Wall, was cut down overnight on Wednesday. Northumbria Police said the man was arrested on Friday evening and remains in custody assisting with inquiries . A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of criminal damage on Thursday and has since been released on bail , police said. Det Ch Insp Rebecca Fenney-Menzies said: "The senseless destruction of what is undoubtedly a world- renowned landmark - and a local treasure - has quite rightly resulted in an outpouring of shock, horror and anger throughout the North East and further afield . "I hope this second arrest demonstrates just how seriously we're taking this situation, and our ongoing commitment to find those responsible and bring th...

Spain elections: Feijóo launches doomed bid to lead country Despite Feijóo’s party winn ing July’s snap poll , his rival Pedro Sánchez remains best placed to form a government Two months after winning July’s general election but failing to secure a parliamentary majority, the leader of Spain’s conservative People’s party (PP) is launching an almost certainly doomed bid to become the country’s next prime minister. Although the PP, led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, finished first in the snap election , it failed to win enough votes to form a government, taking 137 seats in Spain’s 350-seat congress. Despite the arithmetical challenge, King Felipe has asked the party to try to form a government during this week’s investiture session, which begins with a day of debate on Tuesday. Even with the support of the far-right Vox party, which won 33 seats, and one vote each from the small Navarrese People’s Union and Canaries Coalition parties, Feijóo can muster only 172 votes. To become p...

Drop antisemitic descriptions from Spanish lexicon, urge Jewish groups Two entries in official Spanish dictionary rooted in centuries-old prejudice, say campaigners More than 20 Jewish groups from Spanish-speaking countries and beyond have written to Spain’s leading linguistic authority asking it to remove antisemitic definitions from its dictionary that describe a judío (Jew) as “a greedy or money-lending person” and the related term judiada as a synonym for “ dirty trick ”. In a letter to the 300-year-old Spanish Royal Academy (RAE), which chronicles and oversees the evolution of the Spanish language, the groups urge the institution to rethink the two entries in its official Dictionary of the Spanish Language on the grounds that they are outdated , “ utterly antisemitic” and contrary to the Spanish constitution. The fifth definition of judío that appears in the dictionary – flagged as a pejorative term – is “in relation to a person – greedy or money-lending”. The first defin...