SubscriptionOffers Give a Gift Subscribe the Treaty of Tordesillas split the world between Spain and Portugal Was it a grand refutation of papal authority or an extension of it Though it is now most famous for the treaty that bears its name the town of Tordesillas in the province of Valladolid had been a place of great significance for centuries before the events of 1494 An important defensive outpost on the River Duero during the ‘Reconquista’ of Castile and León from the Moors in the tenth century the palace built by Alfonso XI in 1325 became a popular location for the monarchs of Castile to hold meetings of the Cortes during the 15th century and was the home of Joanna I of Castile for almost 50 years until her death in 1555 It was there on 7 June 1494 that the Treaty of Tordesillas was created before being ratified by the ‘Catholic monarchs’ Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon a month later on 2 July and signed by King John II of Portugal in Setúbal on 5 September 1494 Spain and Portugal agreed to carve up the world To continue reading this article you need to purchase a subscription If you have already purchased access, or are a print & archive subscriber, please ensure you are logged in Please email digital@historytoday.com if you have any problems They provide a rare opportunity to admire exceptional masterpieces of religious sculpture ShareSaveLifestyleDiningOff the Tourist Beat, Tordesillas Is One Of Spain's Very Special Small Cities With Great FoodByJohn Mariani The small city of Tordesillas in Central Spain is quiet Tordesillas is not likely to show up as a prime destination for most tourists in Spain it is a calm waystop between larger towns like Valladolid and Burgos With only 9,000 residents Tordesillas is a pleasantly quiet place that gets some tourists on weekends and market days draws a crowd to the center You can walk for blocks through the narrow streets and not meet more than a few people along the way The Romans built a bulwark here along the Duero River and Alfonso XI built a palace on the site in 1325; it was here that The Catholic Monarchs signed the Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 that set the Line of Demarcation dividing the globe between Spain and Portugal for future colonization The city's Grand Plaza is central as a gathering place for locals shopping and promenading You enter Tordesillas over a Gothic arch stone bridge park your car wherever you can find a spot and then just begin to wander its lovely streets The farther in you go towards the beautiful Plaza Mayor with its 17th century colonnade and arcade the more local people you’ll find shopping in the old food and clothing shops The small 16th-century Church of Santa Maria is but a few steps away now holding a museum of religious artwork of the area is a striking example of 14th century royal architecture daughter of Queen Isabella and Queen of Castile and Aragon was imprisoned by her father Ferdinand II in 1509 and kept in the convent by her own son El Parador is a historic building with elegant rooms and.. The streets leading to the river are lined with new cafés and bakeries and at every turn you’ll meet a saint’s statue or crucifix There is also a statue of a raging bull the animal central to the controversial annual Torneo del Toro de la Vega in which horsemen drove a bull to a meadow across the Douro cut off its testicles and paraded them on a spear through the town I have neither seen nor wish to see something as senseless as this and am happy the town’s mayor banned it in May of 2016 The welcoming hands of salt are a sign of hospitality at El Torreon not least the sprawling El Parador across the river (Ctra set within woods whose pines trees slant gracefully toward the sun Its Castilian architecture and Doric columns are distinguished The quiet rooms are very spacious and done up in rich fabrics with poster beds and view of the woods and gardens I hadn’t the chance to dine at the award-winning restaurant but it is as lovely as the rest of the property El Torreón is a series of dramatic dining rooms The two best restaurants in the area are El Torreón (at number 11; +34-679-155-046) and two doors away Alquira (Av is a flamboyant place with an equally flamboyant chef-owner ever smiling exponent of the good life as he sees it from the fiery open grill kitchen to the padded armchairs to the portions of food; tablecloths are thick the ceiling gold; there are heraldic motifs everywhere and cow’s hides hung about; and there is a carving of giant wooden hands holding a mound of sea salt Everything is created to make the guest a little giddy a toasted piece of bread with tomato spread on top There are also freshly cooked potato chips warm mixed vegetables and cheese patties with peppercorns (6€) Next came translucent carpaccio of beef with foie gras shavings of cheese and chopped pickles (16.50€) this time with a reduction of raisins as a sweet foil (28.50€) The table filled up with portions of well marbled very rare beef (23.50€) served with perfectly ripened tomatoes and onions; and tender lamb riblets with red peppers and tiny nubbins of garlic (23.50€) For dessert was a simple dish of vanilla ice cream with a cinnamon wafer (6€) The wine list is a paean to modern Iberian viticulture with prices for every budget Superb Spanish beef is the specialty at El Torreón And he’ll probably tell you your next meal should be at his sons’ place next door Alquira is run by three brothers who specialize in seafood in a modern dining room quietly passionate but no less devoted to their guest’s pleasures at Alquira The dining room and brightly lighted open kitchen are as restrained as El Torreón’s is dramatic the wine cellar downstairs is ancient and well worth a visit I left our meal in the young men’s hands and began with luscious barely cooked sea scallops with their coral in their shells (20€) then simply grilled calamari with a verdant mayonnaise and dusted with plankton powder (19€) Flakey merluza (hake) was grilled juicy with a judicious amount of garlic (21.50€) Sea scallops at Alquira are served in their shells with the coral attached For dessert there was a flan make without milk and a dish of puff pastry filled with whipped cream it is every bit as delicious as the meats here and the brothers are obviously very proud of that kind of balance Portugual and Spain divided lands they had yet to find (Credit: Franz Marc Frei/LOOK-foto/Getty Images)It was here that the stage was set for Brazil to become the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas a small city on the banks of the Duero River in the Valladolid Province of Spain It has an old quarter with a well-preserved Plaza Mayor and churches that date back to medieval times or any other Central or South American city and many will immediately recognise its name It was here in 1494 that Spain (then the Kingdom of Castile) and Portugal divided lands they had yet to find – and thus set the stage for Brazil to become the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas The town’s location was probably what made it the perfect seat for the negotiations of the historic Treaty of Tordesillas. “It [was at the] crossroads of a knot of roads [that were] very important,” said Miguel Angel Zalama, professor of Art History at the University of Valladolid and the Director of Tordesillas Center of Ibero-American Relations “There was [also] a palace [and] everything indicates that [the treaty] was signed there.” But the presence of royal quarters and the town’s geographical advantage may not have been the only reasons that the Catholic monarchs loyal and noble villa’ [given in the Middle Ages] this Castilian town was linked by historical tradition to Portugal,” explained Ricardo Piqueras Céspedes professor of History at the University of Barcelona Queen Mary of Portugal and [then] infant Beatriz of Portugal lived there It’s possible this was a political gesture so that the Portuguese were more comfortable on a kind of neutral ground.” Isabella and Ferdinand had good reason to appease Portugal Although deliberated during May and June 1494 the Treaty of Tordesillas was a year-long process replete with uncertainty with the high potential of war between two countries and Spain’s anxiety over its role in the Atlantic conquests The road to negotiating the treaty began when on return from his maiden voyage to what he thought was India explorer Christopher Columbus ran into a storm and although his voyage was sponsored by Spanish monarchs Ferdinand II and Isabella I he was forced to share the news of his discoveries first with John II Convinced that the new islands fell under the 1479 Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo which gave lands south of the Canary Islands to Portugal the Spanish navigator who accompanied Colón and immediately sent word of newly found lands to Barcelona where the Catholic monarchs were holding court while Ferdinand recovered from a wound the monarchs dispatched their emissaries to Pope Alexander VI with a claim on Colón’s discoveries Originally from Valencia (then part of the Kingdom of Aragon) and thus partial to the interests of the Catholic monarchs One of them – the 4 May 1493 Inter Caetera– effectively cancelled the Treaty of Alcáçovas-Toledo which per that treaty divided the Atlantic between Portugal and Spain along a horizontal line a vertical demarcation border was drawn from pole to pole across the Atlantic Ocean they now had no room to manoeuver when embarking on their voyages to Africa as the line ran only 100 leagues (about 320 miles) west of Cape Verde “The Portuguese wanted to preserve their colonies in Africa [and] their islands in the Atlantic,” Zalama said “The line was a shock because they couldn’t navigate at all To navigate [they] needed favorable winds and to have those winds it was sometimes necessary to make a great circle With this bull they couldn’t because [they would have found themselves] in Castilian territory.” A flurry of diplomatic exchanges followed between Portugal and Spain yet both organised and maintained armadas during the talks In the midst of discussions in September 1493 Colón left on his second voyage promising his sovereigns information to help with negotiations He delivered on this vow in April 1494 when he sent back a map of his discoveries But because he didn’t know whether John II had agreed to forego the horizontal division He lifted the latitude of Hispaniola (now Haiti/the Dominican Republic) ­– the island his expedition encountered on the first voyage – north several degrees placing it on the same parallel as the Canary Islands and thus ensuring the Spanish dominion as per the Alcáçovas-Toledo Treaty the Portuguese had already conceded to the vertical partition Mostly concerned with being able to sail to Africa John II only requested the line to be moved to 370 leagues (1,185 miles) west of Cape Verde Under that agreement Portugal would get everything to the east of the line – the already known Cape Verde Islands and the African coast – while Spain’s territory would extend west of it and include Colón’s recent finds Because Colón’s new map didn’t show any new lands on the Portuguese side of the demarcation None of them knew yet that the new line crossed the tip of Brazil thus placed the eastern coast of that country within the dominion of Portugal the Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral encountered it on his voyage and claimed it for his king Portugal expanded its influence inland and Brazil became the only Portuguese-speaking nation on the American continent “For the vast majority of the Brazilian people [today] the Treaty of Tordesillas means a declaration that the Portuguese crown could take possession of the ‘unknown’ West lands,” said Ana Paula Torres Megiani professor of Iberian History at the University of São Paulo “[But it’s also] a key historical moment to understand the relations of domination and hegemony between Europe and the world.” CORRECTION: A previous version of this article said Christopher Columbus was Spanish Places That Changed the World is a BBC Travel series looking into how a destination has made a significant impact on the entire planet Join over three million BBC Travel fans by liking us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram If you liked this story, sign up for the weekly bbc.com features newsletter called "If You Only Read 6 Things This Week". 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Welcome back to The Advocate’s Monthly Book Review I’m recommending a stellar work of historical fiction by local author Marjorie Sandor The Secret Music at Tordesillas is all at once a gripping love story a daring look into the world of the Spanish Inquisition Set against the backdrop of the Spanish and French Courts in the 16th century, the novel follows the life and adventures of Juan de Granada, a once Jewish man, saved by the Princess who would become Queen Juana I of Castile, otherwise known as “Juana la loca.” Upon her death in 1555 Juan refuses to leave the palace that was the queen’s prison for the last 47 years of her life forcing the Holy Office of the Inquisition to interrogate him within the empty walls of Tordesillas His story weaves its way across continents and through myriads of people but always protects that which he comes to hold most dear a converso lurking even within the Queen’s own household and the story of a Queen placed in exile by those she held most dear It’s one of those books that you read long into the night because you care so deeply about the characters that you just can’t wait until morning The author leads you gently down paths little explored in most literature while letting your imagination to do its finest work The Secret Music at Tordesillas was published in April of 2020 by Hidden Rivers. Signed copies are available at Grass Roots Bookstore.     Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com Beyond Tordesillas: New Approaches to Comparative Luso-Hispanic Studies co-edited by Robert Patrick Newcomb of UC Davis and Richard A Gordon of the University of Georgia, is the first volume of its kind to be published in English and is dedicated to the comparative study of the literatures and cultures of the Portuguese- and Spanish-speaking worlds Bringing together young and established scholars the volume builds from an understanding that Iberian and Latin American cultures are inherently transoceanic — having engaged in earlier eras in parallel colonization projects around the world and more recently in postcolonial evaluations of these practices and their legacies The jumping-off point for Beyond Tordesillas is the critic Jorge Schwartz’s evocative call to arms “Down with Tordesillas!” In this groundbreaking essay Schwartz looks to the imaginary line created by the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) which divided the known world into Spanish and Portuguese spheres of influence to stand in for generations of literary and cultural noncommunication between the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking spheres This volume’s contributions range topically across continents from the Iberian Peninsula to Latin American countries with studies that analyze fictional narrative and visual culture. Beyond Tordesillas forcefully challenges the disciplinary — and indeed arbitrary — boundaries that for too long have separated Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian studies speaks three languages and uses all of them in his teaching: Portuguese for Luso-Brazilian literature and culture Spanish for Hispanic/Latin American literature and culture and English (“Brazilian Literature in Translation”) The texts he uses in Luso-Brazilian literature and culture are in Portuguese in teaching Hispanic/Latin American literature and culture he does not limit himself to Spanish-language texts “I also include some Brazilian literary texts (written in Portuguese taught in this case in translation) and Latino/Chicano literary texts (written in English) because one of the priorities of my research and teaching is to challenge conventional definitions of ‘Latin America,’ which tend to imply that the region is a series of more-or-less interchangeable Spanish-speaking countries.” he is excited to be teaching in three languages all in one quarter: Latin America is a much more complex and contradictory space particularly in the Caribbean that are French- and it is also home to numerous indigenous cultures given the close ties and migration patterns between Latin America and the U.S. I think that it’s important to include texts like Brazilian or Latino/Chicano novels and short stories that expand and challenge our ideas of what ‘Latin American literature’ is.” Newcomb did his undergraduate and graduate work at Brown University He joined UC Davis the same year he earned his doctorate His areas of expertise are: comparative Luso-Hispanic studies; Luso-Brazilian and Hispanic/Latin American literature and culture (primarily 19th and 20th centuries); Iberianism and Iberian studies; the essay poetics and translation; theory and methodology of comparative literature; and literature and philosophy This fall he’s teaching “Smells Like Teen Spirit: Grunge and the Seattle Sound” as a First-Year Seminar for the third time “My interest in grunge predates my academic career by a number of years!” he said “I became interested in Seattle bands like Nirvana Soundgarden and Pearl Jam as a teenage music fan Grunge led me to get into other forms of punk-inspired and underground rock music and also got me to think critically about culture in general “I decided to teach this seminar as a way to share my enthusiasm with students whether from today or from previous generations explores whether Brazil is part of Latin America this question has been debated by Brazilian and Spanish American intellectuals alike since the early 19th century though it has received limited scholarly attention and its answer is less obvious than you might think Newcomb published his translation — the first in English — of Dialética da colonização by Alfredo Bosi one of Brazil’s preeminent living literary and cultural scholars it has gone through several editions and reprints and has also been translated to French and Spanish his translation of the first chapter of Bosi's book Dave Jones is a senior public information representative and editor of Dateline UC Davis University of California, Davis Copyright © The Regents of the University of California The University of Melbourne researchers are helping villagers in Nepal predict when treacherous landslides will overwhelm their homes About 59 percent of Nepal is prone to landslides and has one of the world’s highest deaths per capita due to landslides said University of Melbourne scientist Professor Antoinette Tordesillas KATHMANDU – Scientists from Australia and Nepal have teamed up with the Nepal government and Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to deliver a new state-of-the-art artificial intelligence system that can analyse the significant amount of data needed to identify when the rain-soaked ground is about to give way continuously analyses satellite images of Earth taken by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) the European Space Agency and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Feeding SAFE-RISCCS forecasts into Landslide Early Warning Systems will protect people living in the shadow of landslides ensuring far more accurate alerts days or even weeks in advance University of Melbourne scientist Professor Antoinette Tordesillas said about 59 per cent of Nepal was prone to landslides and had one of the world’s highest deaths per capita due to landslides “More than 80 per cent of the land in Nepal is on a slope and much of the country was destabilised during the 2015 Gorkha earthquake we are helping policymakers and risk managers better prepare for future monsoons when increasingly frequent and heavy rains are expected to trigger more devastating landslides,” said Professor Tordesillas “Climate change and growing human activities pose a significant threat to communities in Nepal.” and the disabled are especially vulnerable during disasters Early warning systems are crucial because they give public officials more lead time to better plan prepare and protect communities before the hazard strikes “It’s like watching the water wash away sandcastles at the beach; one minute a village is there and the next it is gone Ground motion holds clues to when a slope is about to slide Our job is to help develop reliable early warning systems through better forecasting tools that can read these clues and predict landslide hazards as early as possible,” said Tordesillas The SAFE-RISCCS platform uses images from space combined with a new open-access artificial intelligence tool invented at the University of Melbourne to combine rain measurements and ever-changing ground motion data to continuously monitor and forecast the risk of a landslide at any one time in any one place SAFE-RISCCS will be rolled out in two high-risk regions in partnership with Nepal’s National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority as part of a new Landslide Early Warning System being developed in Nepal the 7.8 magnitude Gorkha earthquake struck Nepal near the capital Kathmandu triggering avalanches on Mt Everest and in the Langtang Valley and about 45,000 other landslides that destroyed parts of the city and wiped out thousands of villages Professor Basanta Adhikari from Tribhuvan University said continuous monitoring of surface deformations is vital in protecting the people of Nepal “The increasing occurrences of landslides in the Nepal Himalayas driven by the coupling effect of seismotectonic activities and climate change alongside human-made factors such as haphazard road construction highlight the vulnerability of mountain communities,” said Adhikari Professor Emanuele Intrieri from Florence University of Italy said raising awareness was the most effective way to reduce risk “Recent developments in remote sensing allow us to monitor ground displacements from satellites with increasing sensitivity Raising awareness about the risks affecting the area they are living in remains the most cost-effective solution to reduce the exposure,” said Intrieri “Nepal is only one of several regions in the Asia-Pacific at risk of worsening natural disasters associated with climate change By improving early landslide prediction globally we reduce the risk of catastrophic events and so protect human life critical infrastructure and the environment,” Tordesillas added Spanish animal rights activists clash with supporters but ban on spearing bull to death respected at bull-running festival the town of Tordesillas in Valladolid province broke with centuries of history by allowing a five-year-old bull called Pelado to run through its streets and out into a meadow without being lanced by horse riders In an attempt to mark the break from the event’s bloody past, the name was changed from Toro de la Vega (bull of the meadow) to Toro de la Peña But while the prohibition on lancing was observed the decision by the regional government of Castile and León has proved deeply unpopular among local people demonstrators marched through the town carrying a large banner that read: “Tordesillas isn’t giving in.” View image in fullscreenPro-bullfighting residents demonstrate in the streets of Tordesillas Photograph: Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty ImagesThe town’s mayor said the ban had robbed its people of one of the strongest symbols of their identity “ripped out our spine” and “left us orphaned” Animal rights groups had been concerned that the ban would be ignored The Humane Society International said it was also worried the bull would “still endure great distress for public entertainment” despite minor altercations between some supporters and animal rights activists rain and a heavy police presence ensured the fiesta passed off without significant trouble was taken to a local corral after the chase The festival took place three days after thousands of people took the streets of central Madrid to demand a total ban on bullfighting and what the Party Against the Ill-Treatment of Animals calls “all other bloody spectacles” When colorblind people look at a piece of art Students in Binghamton University Professor of Anthropology Joshua Reno’s Disability in Culture and Society course tackle complex questions such as these and find creative ways to illustrate their findings — literally, in some cases. Evie Tordesillas, a senior majoring in philosophy, politics and law, drew on her own experiences to create a short film animated by her fraternal twin sister Ely, a freelance artist, while Victoria Cherichetti, a senior chemistry major, produced original artwork that depicts the different vision patterns of color-blindness. “Disability is often thought of as a purely medical issue. In this class, students are encouraged to look beyond that to imagine it as a more complicated form of difference,” Reno said. “The projects they choose to do are one way they can help other people understand that as well.” “I find that people with disabilities or categorized as ‘disabled’ are a minority that needs more support and legal individuals to voice their opinions and stories,” she reflected. While not considered disabled, twins face stigma in some societies or are considered exceptional in a way that leads to differential treatment, Tordesillas explained. Many cultural stories involving twins consider each to be a part of a whole or tied to a particular destiny; they may possess “opposite” traits and fight each other to prove dominance. In fact, that’s exactly what happens in Tordesillas’ animated poem, although it doesn’t reflect her own experience as a twin. Evie created the story, character designs and the poem for the project, while Ely created the visuals. “In a way, I found the twin project brought me closer to my own twin, since we collaborated on a creative project and had fun doing it. But if I think about it, a lot of people are known to their friends or family just as ‘the twins,’” she reflected. “I experienced this when I was younger, but that’s barely the case anymore as we both formed our identities and lives.” Colorblindness is not uncommon; during her research, Cherichetti discovered that about 300 million people globally have some form of the condition, although it’s most common in Caucasians and males, the latter because it’s a recessive trait carried on the X chromosome. Initially, she assumed that there were only three types of colorblindness — red-green, blue-yellow and total — but it turns out there are multiple types, most often based on the type and configuration of cone cells in the eye. In her art project, Cherichetti rendered a photo with different colors to show the impact of the most common forms of colorblindness on perception. Now on display in the Fine Arts Building, the modified image features an individual of unspecified gender or race with rods and cones coming out of their eyes; the rods are in the shape of factory smokestacks. “It’s a hyper-visualization of colorblindness,” she said. “The rods in the shape of smokestacks are meant to show the constant production of color processing, and the different versions show the variations of how colors would be perceived by that individual.” While the poster was created with the non-colorblind eye in mind, it’s just as effective for people with colorblindness. They will be able to perceive the changes in other people’s perceptions, even if they can’t see them in quite the same way. “You’ll see it shift based on the stimuli you’re able to perceive, but it still gets that idea across,” Cherichetti explained. Anthropology class sparks creative exploration of human difference Print Reporting from Tordesillas Spain — With a salvo of rockets fired from a bridge over the River Duero and a 1,200-pound bull bolts out through the smoke He careens through this cobblestone warren on Spain’s central meseta plateau pursued by thousands of flag-draped revelers flees into a dusty field dotted with junipers only to face a phalanx of horsemen armed with spears This spectacle has played out in the town of Tordesillas at a festival on the second Tuesday of September nearly every year since medieval times Tradition calls for the bull to be stabbed to death as he staggers around the field alternately trying to charge at the law called for the bull to survive — and the people of Tordesillas “It’s not that we’re against animals,” said retiree Trinidad Vazquez “It’s that we’re in favor of our local traditions The regional government of Castile and León in May outlawed the final bloody act — the killing of the bull — at what has been known as Toro de la Vega one of Spain’s most emblematic and controversial festivals Everything else was to stay the same — the rockets which applies only to this one local festival officially renamed Toro de la Peña came after years of protests and lobbying by animal rights groups Bulls are still killed at hundreds of other small-town festivals across Spain but this one gained notoriety as being particularly cruel and thus became an early flashpoint for the animal rights debate Francisco Franco prohibited Tordesillas from holding its annual festival for four years in the 1960s Bullfighting — in which bulls also are stabbed and bled slowly then killed — is still legal in all but two of Spain’s 17 regions (Catalonia and the Canary Islands) though turnout at bull rings nationwide has dwindled since the 2008 economic crisis as the left-wing party Podemos has gained seats in municipal and regional legislatures at least 17 Spanish cities have cut funding for bullfights Several other countries that practice bullfighting also are seeing changes three states have banned bullfighting in recent years Some animal rights activists said they see the change at Toro de la Vega as a small but significant step toward banning blood sport in Spain altogether it reflects a change in Spanish public opinion a generation after Spaniards embraced democracy joined the European Union and began to cast off traditions associated with their poor An Ipsos Mori poll this year found that 19% of adults in Spain support bullfighting I felt like Spain was two countries living in the same moment a Spanish animal rights political party established in 2003 the political party sent activists undercover to film another festival in Toledo where a baby bull was tortured and stabbed to death by drunken revelers You can hear children cheering “Olé!” off-camera with 20 million views on social media in the first 24 hours The party encouraged anyone angry about what they saw in the Toledo video to attend an anti-bullfighting march Sept It was the largest such demonstration in years Thousands of people took to the streets of Madrid on Sept 10 for the largest anti-bullfighting march the city has seen in years school of cruelty” and “Torture — neither art nor culture.” (Lauren Frayer / For The Times ) “Torture is not culture!” protesters chanted school of cruelty” while others showed illustrations of a wounded bull But not everyone has agreed with the animal rights activists Spain’s conservative government passed a measure declaring bullfighting part of Spain’s “cultural heritage worthy of protection.” It allows public funds to be used to promote and protect bullfighting and other bull-related festivals like the Running of the Bulls each July at the San Fermin festival in Pamplona Many lawmakers vowed to overturn the measure but a political deadlock has prevented any action Acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy calls himself an aficionado of bullfighting About an hour before this year’s festival in Tordesillas — the first since the bull-killing ban took effect — Vazquez joined thousands marching along the bull’s roughly half-mile route carrying a banner that read: “Tordesillas will not surrender.” a loudspeaker affixed to the town hall piped out a romantic ballad about killing “brave bulls.” People shooed away reporters Many said they’re disgusted with politicians the media — and political correctness altogether the moment arrived when the bull normally would have been stabbed to death Outnumbered by thousands of festival-goers the sky opened up — drowning out all the rival insults and dousing everyone with the first rain in several months The dusty field turned into a big mud puddle Loyalists from both sides ran for cover and found themselves shivering handlers escorted the bull — a husky black 5-year-old named Pelado — to a nearby corral without any interference He was the first animal in centuries to survive this spectacle Dare to be dull. Vibrant Berlin seems ready to reelect its plodding mayor ‘A massacre is inevitable’: Punishing siege drags on for two Shiite villages in Syria A Cervantes tour of Spain: Real places from the fictional world of ‘Don Quixote’ World & Nation California Hollywood Inc. Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. TORDESILLAS, Spain (AP) — Hundreds of people took part Tuesday in a centuries-old Spanish bull-chasing festival, but under orders once again that the animal — which is eventually killed in any case — should not be harmed with spears or darts. The Toro de La Vega (The Bull in the Meadow) festival in the northcentral town of Tordesillas traditionally saw the bull speared to death by revelers who chased it from the town to outlying fields on horseback or on foot before thousands of onlookers, in what was one of Spain’s goriest spectacles. Organizers say the tradition dates from the 14th century. Animal rights protests over the years have led to changes in the spectacle and in 2016 it was prohibited to kill the bull in public during the festival — although it was still permitted to put the animal to death out of the public eye afterwards. That year saw scuffles between animal rights activists and locals. After a two-year hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic, the town tried to allow darts to be thrown at the bull this year but the government and animal rights groups intervened. The town has long accused animal rights activists, the media and outsiders of meddling in an event that’s part of their local culture. Tuesday’s Toro de La Vega festival was held with greatly reduced crowds. The rules were adhered to, there were no scuffles with activists and the bull was discreetly killed after the event — with its flesh sold as prime beef. MADRID (AP) — Spanish lawmakers have voted to ban the spearing to death of bulls at one of the country’s goriest spectacles. Wednesday’s decision by lawmakers in the Castile and Leon region confirms an earlier government decree to prohibit bull killing at September’s annual Toro de la Vega festival in the town of Tordesillas 200 kilometers (120 miles) northwest of Madrid. The vote does not affect traditional bullfighting in the region. During the centuries-old festival, men on horseback traditionally have chased a bull and speared it in front of onlookers. The event has attracted increasing protests in recent years by animal rights activists. Bullfight and bull spectacle supporters who demonstrated Wednesday outside the regional parliament argued that the ban would violate the cultural heritage of Tordesillas and Spain. Stay secure and make sure you have the best reading experience possible by upgrading your browser! Notifications can be managed in browser preferences. in which a bull is pursued by men on horseback and speared to death I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice The posters for this week’s carnival are up. A large travelling funfair has erected long lines of go-karts and bouncy castles. But, given the controversy around one of the highlights of the festival, how much conviviality will there be in the town of Tordesillas, Spain? On 15 September, as happens every year during the part of the carnival known as El Toro de la Vega, a bull is pursued by men on horseback and speared to death. And, as has also become a tradition, thousands of protesters gathered in Madrid to symbolically break spears and protest against what they say is extreme animal abuse. The supporters of Tordesillas’s bull “spectacle”, of whom 40,000 turned out last year and 37 have signed up in 2015 as spear-bearers, argue it is a centuries-old tradition – and one that can inspire intense pride. In 2011, for example, the man whose spear apparently proved fatal for a 608kg bull named Afligido (Heartbroken) said he felt “like [footballer] Christian Ronaldo”. The violence, controversy and tension are not limited to the bullspearing itself. There are invariably scuffles as supporters and protesters clash, with up to 30 people injured last year as stones were thrown during the killing of El Elegido (The Chosen One). This September, 150 police will be bussed in to keep the peace. More recently, Spanish band La Union cancelled its gig during the festivities, alleging “pressure” from animal rights activists. Last week, the mayor, José Antonio González Parcela, was surrounded by about 20 activists shouting “Toro de la Vega abolición” and had to be escorted to his car by police. Mr González Parcela’s Socialist Party leader, Pedro Sánchez, is less sympathetic, however, saying that, if he gains power in upcoming elections, he will ban the “shameful” event. This year, an online petition calling for the Socialists to expel the mayor of Tordesillas from their party gained 120,000 signatures. “Nationally and internationally, the pressure is rising against these sorts of abusive activities,” says Antonio Moreno, president of the animal rights association CACMA. Hundreds of millions of euros are spent each year on bullfighting spectacles, he claims, “and that’s public money that could be used to subsidise family businesses hit by the recession”. Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Celebrating the 525th anniversary of the agreement is until 9 June exhibiting this key document in the history of Spain which embodied the agreements between the Catholic Monarchs and John II of Portugal that established the limits of each monarchy in the newly discovered territories This is the first time since the treaty was signed on 7 June 1494 that it has been moved from the General Archive of the Indies in Seville where it is stored opened the exhibition and launched the commemorative events that have been organised over three days in Tordesillas They include an international conference on the Treaty of Tordesillas (Tratado de Tordesillas) and Atlantic policy guided evening visits to the nearby General Archive of Simancas concerts and a historical recreation of the signing of the treaty put an end to the disputes between the two kingdoms by establishing a new dividing line running from pole to pole The Fisheries Treaty (Tratado de Pesquerías) was also signed on the same day setting out the boundaries of the Kingdom of Fez and fishing rights off the coast of West Africa Minister José Guirao noted the transcendent importance of the agreement and the process that led to its signing "For the first time two European states divided territories and oceans through dialogue and pacts and without recourse to arms," he said Ministerio de Cultura y DeporteAs well as the original treaty in Portuguese and the copy translated into Spanish the exhibition displays two letters dated 1493 sent by King John II to Ferdinand the Catholic the first known written testimony of the discovery of America the Portuguese king announces the arrival of Columbus in Lisbon and the sending of an ambassador to the Castilian court to negotiate Atlantic expansion the Portuguese king undertakes to stop any further caravels from sailing until two months after the Portuguese emissaries inform the Catholic Monarchs The two unpublished documents belong to the Maldonado family and have been entrusted for safekeeping to the Historic Archive of the Nobility (Archivo Histórico de la Nobleza) Visitors to the exhibit will also see two letters from Christopher Columbus: one of them written in his own hand and addressed to Isabella the Catholic dealing with matters related to the Indies; and the other informing a royal scribe of the details of his first visit to the Indies Both are stored in the General Archive of Simancas (Archivo General de Simancas) Two other documents complete the exhibition: the Fisheries Treaty which is in the National Historical Archive (Archivo Histórico Nacional) and the matrimonial agreements between Emperor Maximilian and the Catholic Monarchs for the marriage of Infanta Joanna and Archduke Philip They provide an example of foreign policy arranged by the Catholic Monarchs through marriage alliances the city of Tordesillas will also host the international conference The Treaty of Tordesillas and the Atlantic policy of the Castilian and Portuguese crowns It will for two days bring together Spanish and Portuguese specialists and researchers in a dozen presentations and discussions to analyse the importance of the treaty for the foreign policy of the two monarchies The commemorative acts of the 525th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas organised together with the city's local council will be supplemented with numerous activities programmed locally in the Fairs Museum (Museo de las Ferias) of Medina del Campo and the nearby General Archive of Simancas They include guided evening visits to the archive on Friday the 7th and a historical recreation of the signing of the treaty which will begin on Saturday the 8th in the evening curated by Antonio Fernández Torres is arriving at Tordesillas as a decisive location for the organisation and launching of this great journey in the history of exploration The acts commemorating the signing of the Treaty of Tordesillas coincide with the International Archives Day held on 9 June with the theme "Designing the Archives of the 21st Century" This website uses its own and third-party cookies to maintain the session, offer a better user experience and obtain statistical data on user navigation. For more information see Cookies policy Activists and festival’s supporters clash in Tordesillas before bull is set loose but the way it is killed is in breach of the rules Men on horseback in a Spanish town chased down a bull and speared it to death on Tuesday during the annual Toro de la Vega festival – a tradition reviled by animal rights activists who turned out in their hundreds to protest Scuffles broke out between activists and the festival’s more numerous supporters before the bull was set loose in the north-central town of Tordesillas The activists staged a sit-down protest but scattered when the bull was released and headed towards them before being driven to a field The bull-spearing event has been held for centuries The person credited with killing the bull usually gets a medal and on Tuesday a young man was initially hailed as the winner View image in fullscreenProtesters at the Toro de la Vega festival Photograph: Oscar del Pozo/APBut the Tordesillas mayor later said judges observing the event had decided no one would get the award this year The judges found three violations of the event’s rules: the bull was killed by more than one person it was speared from behind and it died outside the designated area where it was supposed to be killed Rules specify that the person who spears the bull first must finish it off there was no winner because the bull was killed outside the designated area Spain’s opposition Socialist party said it planned to introduce an animal cruelty bill to parliament next year that would prohibit the bull-spearing event said Spain already had animal cruelty laws and defended the Tordesillas event as a “historic and cultural tradition” Catala is a member of the governing Popular party which holds a majority in parliament but faces a general election in December View image in fullscreenThe bull chase. Rules specify that the person who spears it first must finish it off. Photograph: Cesar Manso/AFP/GettyIn Tordesillas, Beatriz Álvarez, 42, a wine maker, said the festival generated jobs serving the thousands who attend the event, and blamed a small group of opponents for bad publicity. “If you don’t like it, don’t come,” she said. Yolanda Brezos, a protester from Barcelona who had made herself up with fake blood streaming from her eyes and was carrying a toy bull, said: “I have the words taken away from me seeing that human beings the same as you living in the same age as you can enjoy the suffering of a living being.” A new software tool predicts landslide boundaries two weeks before they happen In open pit mines, they are particularly common. In 2013 a 20 metre towering wall of dirt and rocks, deep enough to bury New York City’s Central Park, came crashing down when Bingham Canyon one of the largest copper producing mines in the United States you might think that all landslides happen in an instant but they are subtle and no-one can accurately predict when and where a landslide will happen And warnings tend to be issued only a matter of hours beforehand Professor Antoinette Tordesillas from the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of Melbourne and Professor Robin Batterham from the Melbourne School of Engineering are determined to extend the early warning time from hours to weeks “We want as much lead time as possible to try and stop the landslide if we can remove equipment and prepare for recovery,” says Professor Batterham The researchers developed a software tool that uses applied mathematics and big data analytics to predict the boundary of where a landslide will occur, two weeks in advance. “We can now predict when a rubbish landfill might break in a developing country, when a building will crack or the foundation will move, when a dam could break or a mudslide occur. This software could really make a difference,” says Professor Batterham. Professor Tordesillas says there are always warning signs in the lead up to a collapse or ‘failure’, the tricky part is identifying what they are. “These warnings can be subtle. Identifying them requires fundamental knowledge of failure at the microstructure level – the movement of individual grains of earth,” she says. “Of course, we cannot possibly see the movement of individual grains in a landslide or earthquake that stretches for kilometres, but if we can identify the properties that characterise failure in the small-scale, we can shed light on how failure evolves in time, no matter the size of the area we are observing.” These early clues include patterns of motion that change over time and become synchronised, says Professor Tordesillas. The limits of modelling: Knowing we don’t know “In the beginning, the movement is highly disordered. But as we get closer to the point of failure – the collapse of a sand castle, a crack in the pavement or a slip in an open pit mine – motion becomes ordered as different locations suddenly move in similar ways. Currently mining companies use radar technologies to produce data, every six minutes, on the surface movement of slopes at very high resolution – sub-millimetre precision. That’s a lot of data. “We take this information and turn the numbers into a network that allows us to extract the hidden patterns on motion and how they are changing in space and time,” says Professor Tordesillas. With such high-density information, this is a challenging task. “First, we need to decide which dots, that is locations on the surface of the mountain or mine, are moving. For each pair of dots, we ask whether their surface movements are similar. If so, the dots are linked. We do this for every pair of dots until we get a network.” The stable locations will barely move, while unstable areas will move quite a lot. “As we get closer and closer to failure, this pattern of division in movement is quite clear in the network,” says Professor Tordesillas. “The trick though is to detect the ordered motions in the network as early as possible, when differences in movements are very subtle.” There’s an overwhelming amount of data available in risk monitoring platforms for natural hazards like landslides. Professor Batterham says their new algorithm is all about turning these numbers into risk assessment and management actions that can save lives. “People have gone somewhat overboard on so-called data analytics, machine learning and so on,” he says. “While we’ve been doing this sort of stuff for 40 years, this software harnesses the computer power and memory available to look not just at the surface movement, but extract the relevant data patterns. “We’re able to do things that were just unimaginable in a mathematical sense 30 years ago.” Banner image: A 2009 landslide at a former brown coal mining site in Germany / Getty Images Professor of Applied Mathematics, Mathematics and Statistics, Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne Kernot Professor of Engineering, Melbourne School of Engineering, University of Melbourne Find out more about research in this faculty By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy. News, analysis, research and insights from world-leading minds We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the Traditional Owners of the unceded lands on which we work, learn and live. We pay respect to Elders past, present and future, and acknowledge the importance of Indigenous knowledge in the Academy. Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker Senior Teacher Dino Tordesillas, PhD, a faculty member of the Senior High School’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) strand and an academic researcher of the Research Center for the Natural Applied Sciences, was elected to a yearlong term as President of the Philippine Society for Development Biology (PSDB). In the past, PSDB included in its board of trustees Biological Sciences faculty members Alicia Ely J. Pagulayan, MSc and Emerita Simeon, PhD (retired). The University of Santo Tomas is one of the leading private research universities in the Philippines and is consistently ranked among the top 1000 universities in the whole world. With academic degrees and research thrusts in the natural, health, applied, social, and sacred sciences, as well as business and management, the University continuously strives to make a positive impact on the society. Visit Us:Espana Blvd., Sampaloc, Manila, Philippines 1008 © Copyright 2019. University of Santo Tomas. All Rights reserved. | Powered by Communications Bureau Play Duration: 4 minutes 56 seconds4m 56sPresented by It's still not known how many people have been killed by last month's massive landslide in Papua New Guinea's Enga province. But it's hoped similar tragedies can be prevented with advanced warning. Australian scientists have today revealed they've developed a new artificial intelligence system that'll be used in Nepal to predict landslides. Featured: Prof Antoinette Tordesillas, University of Melbourne Prof Jon Whittle, CSIRO Landslides and other damaging weather events physically prevent students from attending school in Nepal.(AP: Niranjan Shrestha) Download the ABC listen app to hear more of your favourite podcasts The TimesA festival in which a bull is chased through the streets of a Spanish town and speared by lancers on horseback is set to be revived as local politicians and organisers ignore activist and government attempts to stop it up to 50 lancers and thousands of spectators will pursue a half-tonne beast through the town of Tordesillas It is due to go ahead despite the ministry for social rights ordering the public prosecutor to ensure that it does not Animal rights activists plan to stage protests The public killing of the bull in festivals was banned in 2016 by the regional government of Castilla and Leon Spain has upheld its ban of the torture of bulls for the Toro de la Vega a medieval bull festival celebrated in the town of Tordesillas The move has been praised by animal rights groups and the public The Toro de la Vega takes place every September people riding horses wield spears and chase bulls out of the town into surrounding areas many of whom try to stab the bull to death once it has reached the open fields The event has received criticism in recent times; research from 2015 found that nearly three quarters – 74 percent – of Spanish citizens aged between 16 and 65 oppose the fiesta In 2016, the Castilla y León government banned the stabbing to death of bulls at the festival. The Tordesillas City Council worked to the revoke the ruling, however, Spain’s Supreme Court rejected the appeal putting an end to more than 500 years of animal cruelty against bulls The Europe division of the Humane Society International (HSI) has praised the Supreme Court’s decision said, “This is an important victory in the fight against the torture and killing of sentient animals for public entertainment.” “The Spanish Supreme Court has recognised that the medieval ‘tradition’ of allowing a terrified bull to be chased to exhaustion and then stabbed to death by a spear-wielding mob has no place in modern society,” Swabe commented “We salute our Spanish colleagues who have fought against the backward attempts of Tordesillas Council to reverse an earlier decision to prohibit the public killing of the bull during the annual Toro de la Vega fiesta.” In place of bullfighting events, citizens are celebrating in cruelty-free ways. In Mataelpino in central Spain, locals introduced the Running of the Balls whereby a giant 125kg polystyrene ball – painted to look like a bull – is rolled through the town Sign up for updates and membership opportunities Biology faculty members were sworn in as officers and members of the Board of Directors of the Biology Teachers Association of the Philippines (BIOTA) during the 55th BIOTA National Convention and Scientific Sessions Tordesillas and Dasas are faculty members of the Senior High School – Science The Biology Teachers Association (BIOTA) is one of the oldest existing pedagogy-oriented associations in the country with members spanning the different parts of the archipelago The association annually holds conventions and scientific sessions to update members with the latest trends in teaching as well as the latest studies in the field The University of Santo Tomas is one of the leading private research universities in the Philippines and is consistently ranked among the top 1000 universities in the whole world With academic degrees and research thrusts in the natural the University continuously strives to make a positive impact on the society This article was published more than 13 years ago Charlie Chaplin's Great Dictator plays in his office with a beachball-sized balloon representing the globe – and his own insane pretension envoys of Spain and Portugal met in the dusty Castilian town of Tordesillas and agreed on a division of the world between them – and them alone Thus was born the far-reaching Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 a Renaissance beachball bounced about by the squabbling ruling families of Iberia And when the "known" world had expanded in the generation following the treaty's signing is said to have greeted the haughty Portuguese delegation on a bridge by mooning them and saying The book's subtitle describes only the first chapters in which Bown deftly presents the pageant of exuberant piety and abject acquisitiveness that characterized 15th-century Iberia but too complex for accurate thumb-nailing here Executive summary: When the young lovers Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile performed the equivalent of a shotgun elopement in 1469 – and in so doing united Spain – their relatives among the royals of Portugal were not at all amused and the resulting rivalry played out on the high seas a rivalry that touched almost all points of the globe within a century Bown goes well beyond the clannish back story of Tordesillas and embarks on a kaleidoscopic treatment of its effects culminating in the genesis of international law governing the seas Each facet of the fallout from Tordesillas is examined in turn held up to the light long enough to edify and entertain The ports of call include the sybaritic Vatican court of the Borgia pope and the strange almost Saudi-like economy of 16th-century Spain living off the gold of the New World and producing nothing else The men to uncover these new worlds come under review: the daring Bartolomeu Dias the fairly unpleasant Christopher Columbus (Genoese the near-feral Hernán Cortés and the unflinching Ferdinand Magellan a Portuguese turncoat in the service of Spain the Spanish Armada and the Dutch East India Company where apoplectic merchants implore a Dutch delegation to read a revolutionary pamphlet on freedom of the seas demolishes the pamphlet in argument – even though It is a fitting conclusion to a story of head-spinning variety and reliably appalling behaviour Bown argues against measuring the principals of this tale of blood boldness and suffering with a modern yardstick preferring to let his neutral account of their actions stick the shiv in Western civ Stephen O'Shea's most recent book of medieval history is The Friar of Carcassonne: Revolt Against the Inquisition in the Last Days of the Cathars Report an editorial error Report a technical issue Editorial code of conduct Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community. This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff. Non-subscribers can read and sort comments but will not be able to engage with them in any way. Click here to subscribe If you would like to write a letter to the editor, please forward it to letters@globeandmail.com. Readers can also interact with The Globe on Facebook and Twitter Welcome to The Globe and Mail’s comment community This is a space where subscribers can engage with each other and Globe staff We aim to create a safe and valuable space for discussion and debate If you do not see your comment posted immediately it is being reviewed by the moderation team and may appear shortly We aim to have all comments reviewed in a timely manner Comments that violate our community guidelines will not be posted UPDATED: Read our community guidelines here We have closed comments on this story for legal reasons or for abuse. For more information on our commenting policies and how our community-based moderation works, please read our Community Guidelines and our Terms and Conditions Sign in to listen to groundbreaking journalism Philippines – News heads Maria Ressa of Rappler and Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files on Monday slammed the government over a matrix linking them and other journalists to an alleged plot to oust President Rodrigo Duterte the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) was also implicated in the matrix Malacañang had revealed that the “Oust-Duterte” matrix published in The Manila Times was based on the same questionable intelligence report received by Duterte and the same information that the Palace was supposed to reveal on Monday which contained a web-like matrix implicating journalists and lawyers “garbage” and said it is “another Palace ploy to harass journalists.” “It’s embarrassing for supposed ‘intelligence’ using i2 analyst notebook software to make fantasies look plausible I’ve worked with many good folks in PH intelligence Yet another Palace ploy to harass journalists,” Ressa tweeted Ressa denied receiving an e-mail from Vera Files’ Tordesillas “It’s bad when the government lies through its paid PR to manipulate its people They should also get it through their heads that I do not run day-to-day editorial It’s been years since Ellen and I have even emailed each other Tordesillas denied all allegations and said these were “downright false.” if this is the kind of intelligence report that the President gets and bases his actions and policies on the country is in big trouble,” Tordesillas said saying the report is “wrong on many points.” PCIJ said it has never received any email from Tordesillas on the so-called narco list video of Bikoy the anonymous witness in a viral video that linked Duterte’s family to illegal drugs “The video was posted on YouTube from where the news media and citizens got to watch it That is where the so-called ‘cybercrime experts’ of the unnamed ‘highly placed source in the Office of the President’ should look instead,” PCIJ said The news agency also questioned how the supposed information was obtained saying The Manila Times story “offers tacit admission that these ‘experts,’ apparently working with the Office of the President had invaded the privacy of the emails and correspondence of journalists now being singled out.” PCIJ said the matrix implicated 5 persons who are no longer working for them saying it is an example of “how not to write an investigative report or even straight news.” “The Manila Times under Dante Ang, appointed special envoy for international public relations by President Rodrigo Duterte is the reason why journalism schools and newsrooms in the country should be actively educating the youth and communities on what truthful responsible and ethical journalism is,” Rappler said in a statement Aside from the 3 news groups, the National Union of People’s Lawyers (NUPL) was likewise included in the matrix, which the human rights law group also slammed as “putrid rubbish.” These organizations were critical of President Duterte’s policies especially his brutal campaign against illegal drugs that has resulted in thousands of extrajudicial killings Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte spewed most of the fake news in the country a veteran journalist alleged Tuesday during a Senate committee probing the proliferation of propaganda and deliberate spread of misinformation online a longtime newspaper columnist who founded the nonprofit website Vera Files claimed that her independent online news portal had been fact-checking Duterte’s statements and found that much of what the Philippine leader said in public speeches was false “The number one source of fake news is President Duterte himself,” Tordesillas told a Senate hearing on fake news He invited the journalist to the presidential palace to discuss the topic further but Tordesillas urged Andanar to check her website which lists alleged falsehoods from Duterte “Fake news are lies concocted to deceive the public,” she said “They confuse the people and disempower them from making informed decisions.” it can inflict enormous harm to the people and to the country,” Tordesillas said She warned the lawmakers against coming up with legislation that would “undermine freedom of expression” and accused unnamed government officials of using taxpayers’ money to spread disinformation Andanar touched on the issue of enacting legislation to guard against fake news “While we understand that it is the prerogative of the legislature to enact new laws or amend existing ones we humbly offer the proposition that in such cases fake news be clearly defined with the assurance that the basic constitutional right to free speech and expression will not be curtailed,” he said emphasized that bloggers had the right to criticize but not to “misinform.” “Opinions passed off as news are as deadly as lies,” she said as she vowed to subpoena the Philippine representatives of Facebook and search engine Google to explore the roles played by social media giants in the distribution of fake stories “With fake news threatening our daily realities I believe that legislative solutions exist,” she said who recommended a social media literacy campaign “We need to look into setting parameters for official government platforms so that these can’t be used as tools of hateful propaganda and misinformation,” Poe said A recent study released by Universal McCann described the Philippines as “the social-networking capital of the world” with almost 83 percent of 103 million Filipinos claiming to have social-media accounts Duterte has turned social media platforms such as Facebook into a tool backed by their army of supporters and followers The “trolls” have become so effective that those who criticize the president or have opposing views become targets of vicious online threats Those who have methodically attacked Duterte’s opponents have become so popular that the president had appointed one of them as an assistant secretary in the presidential media office a blogger known for posting her “sexy” dance videos on social media has more than five million followers on Facebook and was appointed precisely for this reason But Andanar said he had told Uson to separate her public persona from her official functions as a government official The Senate held the hearing after Philippine media groups came together to denounce what they had described as a crackdown on the country’s free press following the government’s closure-order two weeks ago against Rappler with various media groups in the Philippines and in Asia as well as the independent Philippine Commission on Human Rights criticizing the move as an apparent attempt to muzzle the press The government has denied the allegation and said the closure order was slapped by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) because Rappler had violated a constitutional provision calling for all Philippine-based media companies to be owned by Filipinos Officials said Rappler had issued Philippine depository receipts (PDRs) allowing two U.S.-based groups to hold shares in the firm Rappler has protested the corporate regulator’s decision saying that issuing PDRs did not mean that the American groups – the U.S.-based Omidyar Network and North Base Media – were allowed to dictate the website’s editorial policies The website remains open while the order is on appeal Senator Poe explained that it was convened after Jover Laurio revealed that she was behind the popular anti-Duterte Pinoy Ako Blog has emerged as one of Duterte’s most-popular critics online by using easily understood street language in debunking wrong information peddled by pro-Duterte trolls She now has about 130,000 unique online followers and has become a strong voice for the opposition by correcting what she calls “distortion” of truths from government officials,” Laurio testified on Tuesday “Those criticizing the government are subjected to fake news – the women politicians who disagree with the government She said she would continue to debunk fake news and offer commentaries through her blog despite online threats against her I had to still deal with death threats and hate messages every day,” she said “It is difficult for an ordinary person like me Add your comment by filling out the form below in plain text Comments are approved by a moderator and can be edited in accordance with RFAs Terms of Use RFA is not responsible for the content of the postings be respectful of others' point of view and stick to the facts Registration has been successfully completed Make a new account if you don't have one yet Puedes ver la versión Española de BeSoccer.com You can see the English version of BeSoccer.com Vous pouvez voir la version French de BeSoccer.com Puoi vedere la versione Italian su BeSoccer.com Você pode ver a versão Brasileira de BeSoccer.com Philippines – A veteran journalist and a former solicitor general said the problem of fake news is caused by government officials spreading lies using public funds Veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas and lawyer Florin Hilbay said the country’s libel laws are already enough to discipline the media and address the problem of fake news “May sapat naman tayong batas para madisiplina kung may pagkukulang man o may pagkakamali ang media Ang nakikita kong problema ay ang mga opisyal ng pamahalaan na siyang nagsasabog ng kasinungalingan,” Tordesillas said on Wednesday (We have enough laws to displine the media when it has lapses or commits mistakes The problem is government officials are the ones spreading lies themselves.) politicians tend to play fast and loose with the facts What is deplorable is that they are doing this with taxpayers’ money,” she said Asked to specify public officials spreading lies Tordesillas pointed to President Rodrigo Duterte for admitting he “invented” opposition Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s offshore bank accounts “In the case of President Duterte on the bank accounts ni Trillanes Inamin niya later on na fake but it was reported (he admitted it was fake but it was reported),” Tordesillas said lamented the government’s “dishonesty” and spread of fake news “The problem is not private citizens on Facebook or Twitter exposing government incompetence It is worrisome for government to engage in witchunt to expose private speakers on claims these citizens are being too critical or dishonest,” Hilbay said “What I consider a threat to our democratic values and a danger to the market place of ideas is the prevalence of false information provided by public officials – whether deliberately or out of sheer incompetence,” he added saying the spread of wrong information is being paid with public funds and that public officials have access to government facilities making that information “widely distributed.” Present during the hearing were bloggers RJ Nieto of ThinkingPinoy and Assistant Secretary Mocha Uson, who claimed she is a “victim” of fake news despite spreading erroneous information on her own blog Uson said she is not required to be fair in her blogs because unlike journalists, bloggers have no such obligation. (READ: Mocha Uson says rules on fairness don’t apply to her) Senator Risa Hontiveros then pointed out that bloggers want the same “stature” as mainstream media but do not want the same accountability and “limitations” applied to them SaveLog in, register or subscribe to save recipes for later.You have reached your maximum number of saved items Remove items from your saved list to add more Add articles to your saved list and come back to them anytime Even as Sydney restaurateurs complain about shorter "honeymoon periods" for new venues The Resident's closure after just five months is getting into record territory for a restaurant casualty The restaurant had a parkside location on College Street award-winning chef Pablo Tordesillas in the kitchen good reviews and the backing of the successful Lotus Group The head chef is Pablo Tordesillas.Jess BelnickAdvertisement"We're still agonising over why it didn't work But the number of covers we were doing didn't add up," says owner Michael Jiang yet-to-be-named restaurant at the site early in 2016 "We're better known in the market for Modern Chinese Like some of the places in Hong Kong and Shanghai,"Jiang adds Jiang spoke with Tortillas about staying on to tackle a new 'fusion' menu "Another big name will come on [for the opening]," Jiang adds news and the hottest openings served to your inbox ShareLicense this articleMore: ShareChef Pablo Tordesillas will be on the pans at The Resident.SuppliedDuring his stint as head chef at Ortiga in Brisbane Pablo Tordesillas won critics' attention and national awards Now Sydney has nabbed Tordesillas with the chef joining an upcoming restaurant project backed by the expansive team behind Lotus Dining sliding into College Street next to Hyde Park – a strip better known for hotels and museums than restaurants who studied law before turning to the professional kitchen (working in Europe and for a spell at Otto in Woolloomooloo) stresses The Resident won't follow the upmarket dining model he believes contributed to the eventual closure of Ortiga "Fine dining can be dangerous," he says "We'll do sophisticated Mediterranean The people behind Lotus restaurants got in touch with me there wasn't really anything interesting in Brisbane and they have big plans." Designer Paul ​Papadopoulos (Alpha) will craft The Resident's interior "Grace Lee sees herself marrying P-Noy." The article was published on the front pages of the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star a journalism collective that has broken stories on the Arroyos' US properties GMA News Online pulled down the Grace Lee story Sunday night as soon as she tweeted a denial of the quotes attributed to her Tordesillas is also a blogger on GMA News Online VERA Files said Lee informed them that it was her co-anchor DJ Suzy who said the relationship between her (Lee) and Aquino was headed for the altar “The only points about your article I want to clarify is that I never uttered the words ‘altar’ or anything that might hint of desiring marriage.”   “Lee later said in a phone interview with Tordesillas that the issue about she and the President ending up at the altar was part of the banter between hosts of the program ‘Good Times in the Morning’ which airs on radio station 89.9,” the VERA Files statement read   It added that Lee also said it was Suzy who replied “the full length” when asked by New York-based Mo Twister how long the relationship would last She also clarified that she did not say “I’m praying for this,” referring to her relationship     “What I said is that I pray everything will go well,” the statement quoted Lee as saying                VERA Files also said that in the phone interview Lee also denied revealing that the President had offered to provide her a team from the Presidential Security Group.  “It’s not true There was no security issue that I ever discussed with anyone,” Lee said   VERA Files sources had earlier quoted Lee telling a TV talk show host off-camera that the President had offered to provide her with PSG escorts {{gallery.imageDetails.images.0.description}} Philippines – President Rodrigo Duterte is the number one source of fake news a veteran journalist told a Senate panel probing the proliferation of fake news in the country on Tuesday “Fake lies are concocted to deceive the public. They confuse the public, disempower them from making informed decisions,” Ellen Tordesillas of Vera Files said at the second Senate hearing on fake news on Tuesday Tordesillas also lamented how government officials use taxpayers’ money to spread wrong information “The worrisome part of this is that most of the sources of disinformation is being perpetrated by government officials on taxpayers’ money And the number 1 source of fake news is President Duterte himself,” she said say [there’s] more than one falsehood,” she added Duterte has claimed that there are 4 million drug addicts in the country The board did not classify them as addicts Duterte also alleged that the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) wants to oust and kill him La Guardia Civil ha desmantelado en Valladolid una banda especializada en el asalto de viviendas y que está acusada de secuestrar en febrero del pasado año a un empresario de Tordesillas y a su mujer cuando se dirigían a su domicilio Los asaltantes se hicieron pasar por guardias civiles y procedieron a dar el alto al coche en el que viajaban las víctimas retuvieron a todos los miembros de una familia hasta que se llevaron el dinero y las joyas que había en una caja fuerte de los que cuatro ya han ingresado en prisión un histórico delincuente vallisoletano y cabecilla de esta organización criminal esta banda esta acusada de una docena de robos con fuerza en domicilios incluidos los cometidos en Ataquines y Velliza atentando contra la agente de la autoridad y falsedad documental según confirmó el jefe de la Comandancia de Valladolid se han incautado trece vehículos de gran cilindrada inhibidores de frecuencias y cámaras de ocultación Parte de este material lo empleaban para vigilar y seguir a sus víctimas antes de cometer el asalto La investigación permitió identificar en primer lugar a ‘Pirri’ para posteriormente localizar en Cantabria y Galicia a los integrantes que adquirieron el vehículo para el secuestro de Tordesillas Sobre otro de los integrantes de la banda pesaba una orden de detención e ingreso en prisión los investigadores llegaron hasta un sexto detenido que fue la personas que proporcionó la información inicial necesaria para la comisión del secuestro del empresario de Tordesillas y su familia que no descarta que se puedan producir más detenciones también destacó el modus operandi del grupo ya que antes de cometer cualquier asalto espiaban a su víctimas para después decantarse por las de un mayor poder adquisitivo En la presentación de la operación también participó la delegada del Gobierno que felicitó al Instituto Armado por una operación en la que han participado un centenar de agentes y que suma a otros éxitos policiales recientes como las desarticulaciones de bandas especializadas en robos de catalizadores y de paneles solares.