Missing Boy
Rescuers working against the clock to find a missing 2-year-old toddler say they have found hair of the boy in soil extracted from a narrow borehole that is 100 meters deep.
The discovery is giving them renewed confidence that the toddler could be at a deeper section than machinery and surveillance equipment has so far reached.
The government’s representative in the Malaga province says DNA tests have given rescuers “scientific evidence that the boy is there.”
Maria Gamez also said this morning that workers are aiming to dig a side tunnel to reach the shaft.
Adults can’t enter the waterhole, whose diameter is narrower than 25 centimeters. Authorities say the boy fell in the unmarked hole Sunday after walking away from his parents.
Anti Far Right Protests
Last Night Thousands of people marched across Spain against Vox, the far-right party whose support will today usher in a new conservative government in Andalusia.
Marching under the slogan “No step back in equality,” crowds demonstrated in Seville, the seat of the Andalusian parliament, but also in Madrid, Valencia, Barcelona, Málaga and Santiago de Compostela. Around 100 municipalities in total held some form of protest against a party that has made scrapping gender violence laws a signature issue.
Today the Andalusian parliament will vote in a new regional premier following an election that took away the Socialist PSOE’s absolute majority and gave 12 seats to the upstart Vox.
While Vox itself will not be part of the new government, it has pledged to support a coalition of the PP and Ciudadanos that will end 36 years of Socialist administrations in Spain’s most populated region.
Feminist groups have vowed to fight Vox every step of the way. Yesterday’s protests were organized by more than 140 associations.
Catalonia
CATALAN president Quim Torra has called for international mediation to settle the political stalemate between Catalonia and Spain over self-determination.
Speaking at a conference at the Stanford University, in California, he said Catalonia was at a crossroads with political prisoners jailed awaiting trial, others exiled and hundreds of Catalans being investigated following the 2017 independence referendum.
The president said rights had been curtailed in Spain and Only international mediation would convince Spain that a political solution would have to be based on the people’s democratic will.
Lawyers for the political prisoners, meanwhile, have revealed that they plan to call King Felipe and former Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy as witnesses in the forthcoming trials which have been called the Trial of the Century.
Villa Scam
TOURISTS have been warned about a villa scam that involves criminals tricking holidaymakers into transferring money in exchange for an oversea ‘villa holiday’.
British travelers could be at risk of losing thousands of pounds if they don’t watch out for this new scam.
According to Barclays’ data, over 37 per cent of villa scams have resulted in victims losing between £1,000 and £5,000, figures that have been uncovered after customers direct reports to the bank.
The scam entails fraudsters hijacking villas’ details or even using false information to try to con tourists into sending them money via bank transfer.
The British bank’s data shows that 36 per cent of victims were between 30 and 44 years of age.