Gipuzkoa is the smallest of Spain’s 50 provinces, a rich, hilly stretch of land in the Basque country between the Bay of Biscay and the French border. Most of its 720,000 inhabitants live in the San Sebastian urban area, one of the most beautiful in Europe.
The province’s leading football team is Real Sociedad, whose manager Imanol Alguacil is from Gipuzkoa, just like his predecessor Asier Garitano. They worked with Xabi Alonso when he was manager of Real Sociedad B. Former Liverpool and Real Madrid midfielder Alonso is now in charge of Bayer Leverkusen and often linked with a move to England’s Premier League.
If he does move, he will be in familiar company: 20 per cent of the Premier League’s managers are from Gipuzkoa. Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta started out at Antiguoko, a junior club who often practised on San Sebastian’s famous La Concha beach. Alonso also started out there where he played with legendary striker Aritz Aduriz.
Aston Villa’s Unai Emery is also from Gipuzkoa. He too started out at Real Sociedad, as did Wolves manager Julen Lopetegui, who rose to become Spain, and, briefly, Real Madrid manager. The latest Premier League manager from Gipuzkoa is Andoni Iraola, who was announced as the new Bournemouth coach following the parting of ways with Gary O’Neil, who had done an excellent job leading Bournemouth to survival.
Iraola also played for the Antiguoko youth club before joining Athletic Club in Bilbao, where he was in the first team for 12 years. Leeds United tried to sign him in January but he was refused permission from his then club Rayo Vallecano, which he steered to promotion in 2021 before two highly creditable mid-table finishes in La Liga.
All are excellent coaches with testimonies to prove it. They come from an area where, to quote the Catalan coach Manolo Marquez, “Football is a religion”.
“Iraola is very calm during the week and passionate during the game,” says Marquez. “Lopetegui and Unai Emery are absolutely obsessed with football. Obsessed. And I recall visiting Pep Guardiola in Manchester as long ago as 2018 when he told me that both Arteta and Xabi Alonso would become top coaches.”
The Basque area will have four La Liga teams next season in Real Sociedad, Athletic Club, Alaves and Osasuna. Only Madrid, with over twice as many people, can match it.
Tiny Eibar, from a town of just 27,000 in Gipuzkoa, stunned football by establishing themselves as a top-flight team between 2014 and 2021.
They almost made it back for next season but will stay in the second tier where they’ve been joined by another Basque team, Amorebieta-Echano, whose stadium only holds 1,500 and is so small they’ll have to leave to play in the new division. Their coach? He’s from Gipuzkoa, of course.
The Basques have traits for being hard working but Marquez says it’s impossible to suggest there’s such a thing as a Basque style.
“You could say that 30 years ago,” he says. “Physically strong teams, fast. Taking advantage of the tough weather compared to the rest of Spain. The style was almost English. Now, each of those coaches works to very high technical levels. They have all done very well.”
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
The%20specs
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Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
- 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
- 2nd Test India won by innings and 53 runs at Colombo
- 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
COMPANY PROFILE
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Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Specs
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If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
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%3Cp%3EAverage%20amount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20at%20DIC%20factory%20every%20month%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EApproximately%20106%2C000%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EAmount%20of%20biofuel%20produced%20from%201%20litre%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%20%3Cstrong%3E920ml%20(92%25)%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3ETime%20required%20for%20one%20full%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%20used%20cooking%20oil%20to%20biofuel%3A%20%3Cstrong%3EOne%20day%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3EEnergy%20requirements%20for%20one%20cycle%20of%20production%20from%201%2C000%20litres%20of%20used%20cooking%20oil%3A%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E%E2%96%AA%20Electricity%20-%201.1904%20units%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Water-%2031%20litres%3Cbr%3E%E2%96%AA%20Diesel%20%E2%80%93%2026.275%20litres%3C%2Fstrong%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
