Smokers in Spain savored the last hours in which they could legally light up in public places before a tough new law took effect yesterday, as anti-smoking campaigners rejoiced.
As of yesterday, it is illegal to light up in bars, restaurants and cafes under the new legislation.
Spain has had an anti-smoking law since January 2006. It banned smoking in the workplace, on public transport and in shops, but had been less restrictive than similar legislation in many European countries.
It allowed owners of bars, restaurants and cafes to decide whether to ban smoking or not. Most, faced with a drop in business, naturally chose to permit their customers to light up.
The new law now means Spain, a country with a strong cafe culture where many consider a cigarette along with a drink and some tapas in their local bar as an inalienable right, will have one of the strictest anti-smoking laws in Europe.
Asked what he thought of the new measures, Esteban Calderon Torres, a 59-year-old lawyer and long-time smoker, put his index finger to his temple and made the sound of gun going off.
“It’s stupid,” he said as he enjoyed a cigarette and red wine in a crowded bar in central Madrid.
However, Jose Munez, a 58-year-old businessman and non-smoker, described the new law as “very civilized.”
“It’s good for the health of people in general, for workers, for waiters,” he said in a smokey Madrid sandwich bar.
He predicted many “will protest,” but “people in Spain slowly adjust to new laws.”
Anti-smoking campaigners are predictably overjoyed.
“This year, 2011, I can say the Three Wise Men have brought a great gift for Spain: the publication of this new law,” said Jose Luis Diaz-Maroto Munoz, a family doctor and expert on the effects of smoking.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in