From The Digital Editor
Walter Finch
Dear Olive Press readers,
Welcome to this week’s round up from the biggest stories in Spain.
You may not be surprised to learn that the news cycle was dominated by one particular story – and it’s not our second column from Britain’s richest plumber / Spain’s newest expat Charlie Mullins!
On Monday at around 12.30pm Spain and Portugal were struck by an unprecedented nationwide blackout that gave millions of people an inkling of what the apocalypse will feel like when it finally comes.
It is one of the few stories in which everyone can and always will be able to remember where they were and what they were doing when it struck.
The Olive Press was one of the few media outlets able to provide comprehensive, minute-by-minute and hour-by-hour reporting of the historic day as it unfolded.
Was it a cyberattack? Or a rare atmospheric phenomenon? Pedro Sanchez told us to behave responsibly and avoid speculation during a riveting day of tension.
While this hard-working journalist writing the newsletter you’re reading was able to get electricity in Gibraltar, thousands of unsuspecting people had it a lot harder.
There were tales of people trapped in lifts, a woman giving birth in a hotel lobby and window cleaners left dangling from the side of skyscrapers. And, tragically, there were deaths.
Our roving publisher Jon Clarke provided a gripping first-person account of the confusion and anxiety of ‘zero day’, as everyone – including the politicians – tried to understand what was happening.
The Olive Press was one of the first outlets worldwide to publish an account of what caused the fateful day, explaining what inertia was and identifying renewable energies as one of the suspected culprits.
And the fallout continues. Experts were sounding the alarm over Spain’s energy grid back in March, while the blackout has also triggered a renewed debate around nuclear power. And how to prepare for the next one…
What else happened this week? Spain’s most expensive property went on sale in Marbella for €70 million. It comes complete with its own wellness resort.
There was a shocking homophobic attack on a councillor in a Murcia kebab shop, and in keeping with the theme a grisly tale emerged from Oviedo of German parents who had kept their three children locked up in a ‘house of horrors’ since Covid.
That’s just about all for this week. I’ll leave you with the tantalising teaser that the Olive Press is going to attempt to record its first ever podcast next week. Wish us luck…
Enjoy the weekend.
Walt
Our mailing address is:
The Olive Press
Edificio Centro Comercial El Duque, first floor, Carretera N340, km 144.5
San Luis de Sabinillas, Malaga 29692, Spain
Copyright © 2025 The Olive Press, All rights reserved.
Click here to read more Spain News from The Olive Press.
