200,000-year-old human skull fragment discovered in central Spain, Trump administration cites migrant rush in Spain’s Ceuta enclave to justify anti-immigration politics and more news on Friday July 31st.
200,000-year-old human skull fragment discovered in central Spain
Researchers have discovered a skull fragment over 200,000 years old at the Ruidera site (Ciudad Real), a find that makes it a promising paleoanthropological location for investigating human evolution during the Middle Pleistocene (between 126,000 and 780,000 years ago).
The fossil, named RVH-1, corresponds to a fragment of parietal bone with archaic characteristics different from other remains dated to the same period.
According to Madrid Complutense University researcher Daniel García Martínez: “This discovery provides information about the populations that inhabited the interior of the Iberian Peninsula during that period and places Ruidera in a privileged position on the European map for the study of human evolution during the Middle Pleistocene.”
“It is a thick cranial structure, similar to the morphologies associated with other skulls also considered archaic, such as the Ceprano skull in Italy, or the Caune de l’Arago skull in the French Pyrenees,” García-Martínez added.
Spain economy grows in second quarter
Spain’s economy continued to grow in the second quarter this year, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said Thursday in a provisional estimate.
Growth in economic output (GDP) hit 0.7 percent in the second quarter, INE said, compared with a figure of 0.6 percent in the first quarter.
“This is solid growth, driven by investment,” Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo said in a video statement, noting a “complex international context”.
The minister highlighted the impact of conflict in the Middle East on fuel prices, which he said had pushed inflation up.
Trump administration cites migrant rush in Spain’s Ceuta enclave to justify anti-immigration politics
Two top officials within US President Donald Trump’s White House on Thursday reiterated their anti-immigration politics using video of Spanish exclave Ceuta, where hundreds of migrants recently flocked from Morocco.
AFP reporters in Ceuta saw a stream of adults and children entering the town along Morocco’s northern coast after having swum there, with the president of Ceuta, Juan Vivas, saying Wednesday that 1,500 migrants had entered into the territory over the past few days, the most since 2021.
READ MORE: Thousands of migrants swim from Morocco to Spain’s Ceuta territory
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, a chief architect of Trump’s anti-migration crackdown, shared video of the migration and compared it with policies of the rival Democratic party.
“Democrats will see your home trampled and stolen by invaders and they will rejoice,” he wrote in a post on X accompanying the footage.
White House Communications Director Steven Cheung, another top Trump official, shared a Fox News clip of Ceuta on X and wrote: “This is what happened under (former president Joe) Biden. Thank goodness President Trump was elected so none of this would ever happen under his watch.”
Nineteen people die in Ceuta migrant crossing
Nineteen people have died as thousands of migrants tried to reach its territory of Ceuta, which borders Morocco, a Spanish government spokeswoman said Friday.
Around 400 undocumented migrants have also entered Melilla, Spain’s other tiny territory in northern Africa.
President Pedro Sánchez says his government is “fully committed to providing an immediate response to the situation.”
With additional reporting by AFP.
