Euronews (July 20)
Spain’s economy looks set to receive a boost from its World Cup win. “FIFA pays the champion federation a record $50 million (€43.7m)… out of a $655 million (€572m) prize pool spread across the expanded 48-team tournament.” Though beneficial, the prize winnings and a surge in celebration spending are negligible at the macroeconomic level. Instead the real driver appears to be “exports, which grow five to six percentage points faster as the title acts as a global advertising campaign for the country’s goods and services.” A 2024 study suggests “winning the World Cup lifts a champion’s year-on-year GDP growth by at least 0.48% over the two quarters after the final, before the effect fades.”
Tags: 50 million, Advertising campaign, Celebration spending, Champion, Driver, Economy, Exports, FIFA, GDP growth, Macroeconomic, Prize winnings, Spain, Surge, World Cup
Financial Times (July 23)
“The squirts heard around the world” were fired as “anti-tourism protesters doused visitors to Barcelona with water pistols.” They resonated so broadly because the “backlash against tourism” isn’t confined to Spain. In other countries as well “the mass of pleasure seekers has grown so great that, from Venice and Amsterdam to Lisbon and the Greek island of Santorini, the patience of locals has snapped.”
Tags: Amsterdam, Anti-tourism, Backlash, Barcelona, Lisbon, Locals, Patience, Pleasure seekers, Protesters, Santorini, Snapped, Spain, Venice, Water pistols
Washington Post (June 20)
“A punishing early-season heat wave… tormented large swaths of Europe over the weekend,” setting hundreds of record highs. “Temperatures between 104 and 110 degrees (40 to 43 Celsius) were common from Spain to Germany,” but France was hit hardest by extreme temperatures that peaked on Saturday “when more than a dozen all-time records were set.”
Tags: Early, Europe, Extreme, France, Germany, Heat wave, Punishing, Record highs, Spain, Temperatures, Tormented
The Irish Times (September 7)
With nearly 50,000 new cases last week, “Spain passed a grim milestone of recording more than half a million coronavirus cases on Monday, becoming the first western European country to do so amid a steep upward trend that is mirrored in neighbouring France.” Moreover, there is “significant concern” that the UK is moving down the same path to resurgence. All this comes as wet pubs look poised to reopen in Ireland on September 21.
Wall Street Journal (August 19)
“Coronavirus infections are surging again across much of Europe and governments are racing to prevent a full-fledged second wave of the pandemic.” Infection levels still “remain far lower in Europe than in much of the U.S. The seven-day average of new daily U.S. cases is running at nearly 150 cases per million people, about five times the number across Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the U.K.”
Tags: Coronavirus, Europe, France, Germany, Governments, Infections, Italy, Pandemic, Prevent, Second wave, Spain, Surging, U.S.
Bloomberg (July 26)
“Countries around the Mediterranean Sea were praying that a glimpse of tourism would get them through the summer before the cold snap drives people indoors and ushers in a second chapter to the pandemic. Now,” with resurgence in Spain and France, “it appears the spread of the virus may not wait for the winter months.”
Tags: Cold, France, Indoors, Mediterranean, Pandemic, Resurgence, Spain, Summer, Tourism, Virus
BBC (July 25)
“Barely a month after Spain ended its state of emergency, cities including Barcelona, Zaragoza and the capital Madrid have seen a surge in new infections, prompting the government to warn that a second wave could be imminent.” The UK has imposed a 14-day quarantine period for travelers from Spain.
Tags: Barcelona, Emergency, Government, Infections, Madrid, Second wave, Spain, Surge, UK, Zaragoza
Foreign Policy (June 22)
“India has crossed two bleak landmarks in its battle against the coronavirus. The country has now reached over 400,000 infections, making it the fourth-worst-hit country in the world, overtaking Britain, Spain, and Italy. But it’s also lifted its 76-day lockdown.” In order “to stave off economic disaster,” the country is now “walking head-on into a pandemic at its peak.”
Tags: Battle, Bleak, Coronavirus, Disaster, India, Infections, Italy, Landmarks, Lockdown, Pandemic, Peak, Spain, UK
The Guardian (March 26)
“How did Spain get its coronavirus response so wrong? Spain saw what happened in Iran and Italy – and yet it just overtook China’s death toll in one of the darkest moments in recent Spanish history.”
Financial Times (August 12)
“It’s the calm before the storm…. As any number of indicators now show—from weak purchasing managers’ indices in the US, Spain, Italy, France and Germany, to rising corporate bankruptcies and a spike in US lay-offs—the global downturn has already begun.”
Tags: Calm, Corporate bankruptcies, France, Germany, Indicators, Italy, Lay-offs, PMI, Spain, Storm, U.S., Weak
