New successes in the fight against cancer.
By Manuel Ansede
One of the reference centers in the scientific fight against cancer, the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute, launched a campaign to raise funds at the end of November, with an exciting message: “Beating cancer is a possible mission”.
His optimism is justified.
One of his groups, led by the biologist Eduard Batlle, announced a few days before the discovery of the malignant cells that break off from colon cancer, travel through the bloodstream and colonize other organs.
The find was momentous.
Metastasis causes 90% of cancer deaths.
Batlle stresses that a tumor is no longer a death sentence.
The survival of cancer patients has doubled in the last 40 years, according to data from the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology.
It already exceeds 55% in men and is close to 62% in women.
“Research advances have crystallized into new therapies.
Some tumors that were incurable, such as metastatic melanoma, can now be treated with excellent results.
The largest annual meeting devoted to cancer, organized by the American Society of Clinical Oncology, also generated excitement in 2022. Oncologist Shanu Modi, of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Center in New York, announced that a promising treatment (
trastuzumab deruxtecan
) increases the survival of women with highly aggressive metastatic breast cancer by almost 40%.
Modi proclaimed that the drug will change the way of treating this tumor.
Eduard Batlle believes that the victories will continue: "I am convinced that, in the next decade, we will see amazing advances and we will be able to offer effective treatments for the majority of patients."
Humanity tames space.
By Javier Salas
The moon of the Dimorphic asteroid, seen by the DART spacecraft 11 seconds before its impact. NASA (Reuters / Contact)
In September, for the first time in history, an asteroid was deflected.
The test, organized by NASA, involved the Dart probe hitting Dimorpho, a space rock that changed trajectory after impact.
And it deviated much more than expected.
Dimorph wasn't a threat (and still isn't), but we've transitioned to planetary active defense.
And now we will be able to see everything much better, because the sophisticated James Webb Space Telescope has also been launched.
DART and Webb are the icing on the cake of a record year of launches.
China has just finished assembling its space station and there are new nations in the space race (United Arab Emirates, Japan, Canada, South Korea, India...) and heavily muscled companies, such as Elon Musk's SpaceX.
The Artemis program managed to launch a ship in the direction of the Moon that, if all goes well, will land in 2025 manned by a woman.
And the European Space Agency has just selected, together with two Spaniards, the first disabled astronaut, John McFall.
The space begins to reflect diversity at ground level.
Feminist impulses from Iran to the US and Latin America.
By Isabel Valdes
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson at the US Supreme Court.Handout
The feminist movement has gained places that not so long ago were unfeasible.
From the rebellion of Iranian women following the arrest and murder of Mahsa Amini for misplaced hijab to Pakistan's first female Supreme Court seat, Ayesha Malik.
In the US, Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first black woman on the Supreme Court and Shalanda Young was appointed director of the Office of Management and Budget.
In Spain, the paradigm of sexual violence has changed with
the law of only yes is yes,
which places consent at the center and not resistance to aggression as up to now, despite the controversy generated by the reductions in sentences and releases.
In politics, it has been Latin American women who have seen historic conquests: the election of Xiomara Castro as the first president in Honduras, the feminist government in Chile, and the vice-presidency of Colombia under the command of Francia Márquez, a woman who came to power through the movement social to represent not only women, but the African American community.
A great year for Spanish cinema.
By Gregorio Belinchon
Carla Simón, with the Golden Bear.Stefanie Loos (AFP) (AFP)
On February 16, Carla Simón, together with her producer María Zamora, collected the Golden Bear for the best film at the Berlinale thanks to
Alcarràs
.
At 35, she became the first Spaniard to win at one of the four major world film festivals and broke decades of Spanish drought in Germany (when Mario Camus won the Berlinale in 1983 with
La colmena,
Simón had not been born) and it announced the enormous year that was coming for the cinema made in Spain and whose prologue had already been given weeks before at Sundance, with the premiere of
Cerdita.
It has been a spectacular season, with many other outstanding titles, such as
One year, one night, Five little wolves, The water, Pacificction, As bestas, Model 77, La Maternal, Suro, The Rite of Spring, On the margins, Wild Sunflowers, Irati, Manticore
or
Don't look into the eyes.
In addition, female filmmakers have achieved their space in Spanish film production: for the first time, at the next Goya Awards in the best film category there will be more films directed by women than by men.
A set of good news after the stoppage due to the covid that, however, contrasts with the reality in the theaters, which suffer from the desertion of the public.
A factory of the future in Sagunto.
By Ferran Bono
Volkswagen's decision to install a battery cell factory for electric cars in the Valencian city of Sagunto is undoubtedly one of the most important industrial news of the year in Spain.
The German multinational foresees an investment of 4,500 million euros for its construction, the generation of 8,900 direct jobs and 10,200 indirect jobs during it, and the creation of 4,200 direct once it comes into operation in 2026. It is a project of future in a sector whose survival depends on electrification.
It will be the reference battery plant in southern Europe for the world's second largest car manufacturer.
The choice of Sagunto is due to its location, communications, abundant industrial land and the commitment of the Generalitat Valenciana, completed with aid from the Government and European funds.
Sagunto will be at the forefront of the Spanish industry after being one of the first to undergo the iron and steel reconversion of democracy.
The renewed success of books (on paper).
By Jesus Ruiz Mantilla
The book 'After December', by Joana Marcus, at the Guadalajara Book Fair. Roberto Antillón
The confinement due to the pandemic prompted an increase in book sales, which has been maintained in subsequent years.
The crisis of the first decade of the century stung the publishing sector, even though 2011 was a year of record sales.
From there, the fall was traumatic.
Today, however, the figures are at levels similar to those of the first decade of the century and are optimistic about the future because young readers are growing.
According to the Publishers Guild, 2021 and 2022 have been, together with 2011, the years that have sold the most books in this century in Spain.
The trend this year is similar to last year.
In 2021, turnover grew by 5.6% to reach 2,577 million euros and 174 million copies sold.
Children's and youth books increased by 17.8%, and fiction for adults, by 8.2%.
79,373 titles were produced (55,197 on paper).
The jump to the digital environment has not yet taken place, since it barely represents around 5% of sales.
And 53.8% of readers buy in bookstores.
The soccer players continue to gain ground.
By Pablo de Llano
Vicky López, in the Under 17 Women's Soccer World Cup. Matthew Lewis (FIFA / Getty Images)
Women's football continues to make progress on its laborious but sustained path towards equality.
In 2022, the US Soccer Federation agreed that the men's and women's teams share the revenue they earn from the World Cups.
The inequality was such that men earned more just for qualifying than women for winning it.
From now on, the competition benefits will be distributed.
The achievement stems from the official claim made in 2016 by five players, including Megan Rapinoe, Ballon d'Or winner and an athlete with a special political conscience.
The institutional advances of women's soccer run parallel to its popular growth.
At Wembley in the summer, 87,192 spectators gathered to watch the Euro Cup final won by England, the highest number of attendance in this tournament including men's editions.
In this competition Spain fell in the quarterfinals, although Alexia Putellas once again gave the country a Ballon d'Or and their grassroots football comes like a shot: champions of the Under 20 and Under 17 World Cups and the Under 17 European Championship. The Champions League game FC Barcelona -Real Madrid brought together 91,533 spectators at the Camp Nou, a record in the history of women's football.
One cable for everything.
By Karelia Vazquez
It has taken a decade, but 2022 has been the year in which Europe has approved a single charger for all electronic devices sold in its territory.
The law, ratified by a large majority in the European Parliament, will require by the end of 2024 that all mobile phones, tablets and cameras come equipped with a USB Type C port. As of spring 2026, the obligation will also apply to laptops .
This will mean going lighter through life and we will be able to charge the phone anywhere without anyone asking: “iPhone?”.
Precisely Apple has been the one who has put up the most resistance to change and does not rule out taking the law to court.
His argument is that the rule slows down innovation and could increase e-waste.
The iPhone 16, which will theoretically be presented in September 2024, would be the last one without a USB-C port.
Apple already incorporates it in the
macbook
and
ipad,
but not in the
iphone.
Brussels calculates that the single charger could save 250 million euros a year and reduce electronic waste by 980 million tons.
Colombia decriminalizes abortion.
By Ines Santaeulalia
Pro-abortion protesters in Colombia.
Fernando Vergara (AP)
The feminist green tide, which was born in Argentina in 2018 to demand the legalization of abortion, gained momentum this year in Latin America.
The Constitutional Court of Colombia decriminalized in February the interruption of pregnancy until week 24, a decision that places the country at the head of the region in terms of social and reproductive rights.
Colombia left behind the criminalization of women to become one of the nations with the longest term for legal abortion, the same as the Netherlands or the United Kingdom.
In a conservative country with deep inequalities, in the last 15 years 5,000 Colombians have been brought to justice for terminating their pregnancies, most of them poor women.
The fight of the Latin Americans continues unstoppable.
Colombia represented the latest advance after having achieved the legalization of abortion in Argentina until week 14 and decriminalization in Mexico, although the crime persists in some States.
The Mar Menor already has its own rights.
By Esther Sanchez
Removal of algae in the Mar Menor, and a USB Type C cable. Marcial Guillén (Efe)
The Mar Menor became the first ecosystem in Europe with legal personality in September.
A novel approach that grants the Murcian lagoon its own rights —as if it were a person or a company— and defense tools.
The aquatic environment suffers serious eutrophication problems (excess nutrients, such as nitrogen and phosphorus) due to human action, especially through agriculture.
Achieving this was unimaginable two years ago, when Teresa Vicente, professor of Philosophy of Law at the University of Murcia, promoted a popular law initiative that had to obtain 600,000 signatures to be processed in Congress.
Now any citizen can go to the contentious-administrative and civil courts —without having to go to criminal proceedings— against attacks such as, for example, agricultural exploitation or a spill that violates the rights of the lagoon.
The plaintiff acts on behalf of the ecosystem: "You are the Mar Menor, it is like representing a minor or a disabled person", qualifies the lawyer Eduardo Salazar.
The promoters hope that the measure will be extended to other endangered natural environments.
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