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13th April 2020

By Jose Elías Rodríguez and Nathan Allen Spain, one of the countries worst hit by the global coronavirus epidemic, on Monday started to ease tough lockdown restrictions that have kept people confined to their homes for more than a month and put a brake on economic activity. Spain's cumulative death toll from the coronavirus rose...

12th April 2020

By Nick Pyle, Governor of Gibraltar As we all know this Easter is, unfortunately, a rather  different  Easter than others  due  to  the pandemic  that  is  Covid-19,  and  whilst  it  is  correct  that  all  of  our  efforts must  be  on  facing  its  challenges, we  should  not  forget  that  Passover,  Easter  and Ramadan are being celebrated...

12th April 2020

EARLY ON in this crisis, the daily 4pm press conferences at No.6 Convent Place had a calming effect on growing collective unease. Ministers and officials offered information and guidance on how Gibraltar was preparing to cope with the nightmarish scenes unfolding in hospitals across much of the world. With a lump in the throat, we...

12th April 2020

Gibraltar’s sports community waits for that moment in which the lockdown is relaxed and sports people can return to the field, tracks and courts. Although the signs continue to show it could still be some time before it happens. However, it is far from inactive. Although sports might not be actively practiced, with many of...

11th April 2020

By Fabian Picardo, Chief Minister Good afternoon And especially a good afternoon to our senior citizens and those of you with particular vulnerabilities. I can report to you that as at today we have taken 1,558 swabs for COVID-19. 18 are pending and 1,540 results have been received. Of those 1,392 were negative. 129 were...

9th April 2020

By Jemma Crew and Max McLean, PA Carers of autistic people with a limited understanding of social distancing have said they are being judged by the public and challenged by police when helping them with their daily exercise. Some autistic people are struggling to understand social distancing advice and have been overlooked during the coronavirus...

9th April 2020

The first day that really struck me as unusual and slightly sinister was 13 March. It was a seemingly normal workday in New York, with unseasonably warm weather. The seriousness of the spread of the virus became evident in the world of American sports as professional leagues like the NBA (National Basketball Association) and NHL...

9th April 2020

Artist Lorraine Buhagiar, always tries to make time to be creative and that is usually at home, on her own, basically in isolation. Fortunately, she says, she does not get bored very easily but when working from home it is easy to be distracted by all that surrounds you. “Since finding myself with all this...

9th April 2020

In the 1960s, Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase ‘global village’ to denote the world of high technology and international communications, through which events throughout the world may be experienced simultaneously by everyone, thereby shrinking the world communities to a single village or tribe. If we recall how the coronavirus outbreak started in Wuhan and then...

9th April 2020

By Dean Designate of Gibraltar Canon Ian Tarrant As a child I used to think that Christmas was more important than Easter; doubtless because of the presents! But as I matured in years, and in my faith, I came to realise that this annual re-engagement with sadness and joy, separation and restoration, was vital to...

9th April 2020

By Luke Rix-Standing It wasn’t quite the day the music died, but for Beatles fans the world over, it must have felt pretty close. On April 10, 1970, Paul McCartney issued a press release alongside advance copies of his solo album, which seemed to announce the Beatles’ demise. Framed as the transcript to a Q&A,...

8th April 2020

On a quiet morning yesterday, children who would normally be on a week-long Easter break instead silently coloured in their worksheets in St Anne’s School. A far cry from a bustling school, just some 50 middle school children were in attendance, and in each classroom a handful of children. The children from all middle schools...

8th April 2020

Those in the over 70 age bracket and, therefore, most vulnerable to the effects of Covid-19 still face only an 8% chance that they will come to harm from the virus, Acting Medical Director Dr Krishna Rawal said yesterday, as he urged the community not to dwell on negative statistics.  Statistics show that those in...

8th April 2020

More than £1m has already been donated to the Gibraltar Health Authority to fund its fight against the spread of Covid-19, Health Minister Paul Balban revealed yesterday. 
 “The generosity of the community has no bounds,” Mr Balban said adding: “I have no words to express how proud we should all be of a community that...

8th April 2020

Couple Rose and Dennis Bear described what life is like in Western Australia during the current Covid-19 pandemic. Mr and Mrs Bear emigrated to Australia from Gibraltar 37 years ago in 1982 and now live in Australind, Western Australia. The prognosis for their experience is clearly positive when Mr Bear, 68, said: “Happy times, I...

7th April 2020

In their fourth week of lockdown, the residents of Mount Alvernia were treated to some traditional Mexican songs and music courtesy of Karina Ortiz who performed outside the building. Dressed in traditional Mexican dress, with red embroidery and wearing a large colourful floral headpiece, Ms Ortiz wowed the residents, who cheered, sung along and danced...

7th April 2020

Friday Night Safe Edition is gathering momentum. It is a far more structured affair and everyone is well prepared – and despite the hitches of modern-day technology – it was well worth staying in for and staying safe at home. There was another great assortment of well-known and not so well-known musicians – young musicians...

7th April 2020

Maribel Matthews has travelled the world taking her art beyond our shores and recently found success in New York. She is the perfect example that things can happen at any age and she has never been as artistically productive. Now in the age group being asked to stay safe at home in this COVID 19...

6th April 2020

Musician extraordinaire and one of the Rock’s most popular performers Philip Valverde died on Sunday at the age of 64. He was born into a musical and theatrical family so it was only a matter of time before he followed in his father’s and brother’s - Frank and Hubert - footsteps into a musical career...

6th April 2020

By Michael McHugh and Rebecca Black, PA Northern Ireland’s loyalist Twelfth of July parades this summer have been cancelled for the first time since the Second World War due to coronavirus, the Orange Order said. Social distancing rules and restrictions on the gathering of people during the pandemic were to blame. The Twelfth marks the...

6th April 2020

Tim Benson has raised £2,000 for the Gibraltar Health Authority after he decided to shave off his hair while in isolation. For Mr Benson, like many others living on the Rock and across the globe, life has changed dramatically and he decided to do what he could be raise money for the GHA. After days...

4th April 2020

By Harriet Line, PA Deputy Political Editor Sir Keir Starmer has won the leadership of the Labour Party by a landslide, taking 56% of the votes cast. The human rights lawyer beat rivals Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy after the first round of counting. It marks a significant change of direction for the party, with...

4th April 2020

When we went into lockdown, I soon realised I had to think fast to work out how I was going to get my column written every week. That same week (17 March) I had to put on hold some of my already arranged table chats. Unable to meet my guests face to face – I...

3rd April 2020

Local artist Paul Cosquieri, president of the Gibraltar Fine Arts Association, says this confinement has stimulated his “creative juices”. The Association meanwhile ensuring everyone stays at home and stays safe has taken its Life Drawing Sessions onto social media and still meets every Thursday evening. Paul now finds himself painting virtually every afternoon and painting...

3rd April 2020

Louis Baldachino, a pancreatic cancer survivor for the past four and a half years, has been featured in the Clinica de Navarra (CUN) quarterly issued news magazine. It highlights his success story to date. Mr Baldachino was diagnosed with the disease in July 2015, and the article is an extensive 16 page report on the...

3rd April 2020

For nearly a decade Bart Van Thienen has volunteered many hours, weeks and months clearing away the Europa Foreshore. All of these works carried out by Mr Van Thienen were done so before the Covid-19 lockdown. “Nine years ago this area of Europa Foreshore below Harding's Battery was a barren wasteland full of rubble,” said...

2nd April 2020

The Gibraltar Government is drafting legislation setting out protocols under which patients will be prioritised for the use of life saving equipment such as ventilators should the number of patients exceed availability.  The Gibraltar Health Authority currently has a stock of around 50 ventilators and the legislation, should it be passed into law, will allow...

2nd April 2020

By Martyn Landi, PA Technology Correspondent Visits to the NHS website were the highest ever recorded in March, according to figures from the health service, as people search for guidance on the coronavirus outbreak. The official NHS app also reported a surge in usage, with registrations to use the app more than doubling. In March,...

2nd April 2020

Twenty-two year old Gibraltarian physiotherapist Leon Payas was hailed as a “hero” by his family as the young man continued to be at the front line in the UK’s fight against the Covid-19 virus. Mr Payas, only just having graduated to become a physiotherapist in London, has these past weeks been among the front-line staff...

2nd April 2020

As we enter the third week of lockdown, we may find that the walls of our homes are reflecting ‘the shades of the prison house’ and what started as an experiment in a new style of living, is beginning to pall. This is the moment when we come to a realisation that we are in...