Spain’s PM and royals welcome Pope Leo, Spanish inhabitants retains rising, one other blackout hits Canaries, Alcampo to shut 25 shops and extra information from Spain on Friday Might ninth.
Spain’s PM and royals welcome Pope Leo
Spain’s left-wing Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Thursday mentioned he hoped newly elected Pope Leo XIV would “contribute to strengthening dialogue and the defence of human rights”.
“Might his hold forth contribute to strengthening dialogue and the defence of human rights in a world that wants hope and unity,” Sánchez wrote on X.
King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain additionally congratulated the newly chosen Pope.
“His name for peace conjures up us, encourages us, and displays the deep want and sentiment of the Spanish folks,” the royal palace mentioned on X.
Commercial
Inhabitants in Spain rises to 49.1 million
The inhabitants of Spain elevated by 75,865 folks through the first quarter of 2025, reaching 49,153,849 inhabitants, the best determine on report.
This was attributable to a rise within the variety of foreigners in Spain, whereas native born Spaniards proceed to lower.
In keeping with inhabitants stats printed by Spain’s nationwide statistics physique (INE) this week, the variety of foreigners elevated by 95,363 through the quarter of the yr, to six,947,711, whereas the inhabitants of Spanish nationals decreased by 19,498.
Donkey escapes from Seville’s Feria de Abril and causes chaos on motorway
On Wednesday a donkey escaped from the well-known Seville April Truthful and triggered chaos when it managed to get onto the A-49 motorway and introduced visitors to a standstill, inflicting miles of visitors jams.
The incident happened at round 8.40 a.m. on the exit of the capital within the route of Huelva, on the uphill slope in the direction of Castilleja de la Cuesta, in response to reporting from El Correo.
Blackout within the CanariesÂ
Following the nationwide blackout of final week, a smaller energy outage on Thursday morning left 19,526 folks within the Canary island of La Palma with out electrical energy attributable to a fault at {an electrical} substation. The facility reduce lasted between half an hour and simply over an hour and a half, relying on location.
The facility reduce was reportedly attributable to a fault on the Los Guinchos substation, which led to a mismatch between power provide and demand, leading to a disconnection to safeguard the producing tools, in response to the Director Basic of Vitality for the Canary Islands authorities, Alberto Hernández.
He additionally acknowledged that half-hour after the failure, which occurred at 9.47 a.m. Canary Islands time, 40 p.c of the availability had already been restored, with a gradual improve till full restoration at 11.34 a.m.
Commercial
Alcampo to shut 25 supermarkets and lay off 710 employees
The grocery store chain Alcampo will lay off as much as 710 staff following the closure of 25 of its outlets in Spain, the corporate knowledgeable unions on Thursday.
The corporate has despatched an inventory of the supermarkets and hypermarkets with employees affected by the collective redundancies. State broadcaster RTVE reviews that it will embody greater than 100 distributed throughout Madrid, La Rioja, Cantabria, Navarra, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, Galicia, Aragón, Asturias and the Basque Nation, however has not specified which outlets might be closed.Â
The hypermarkets affected are positioned in Alcorcón, La Vega, Majadahonda, Castellón, Albacete, Sanlúcar, Jerez and Sevilla Este.
With additional reporting from AFP.
