PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, September 24: The Spanish press express outrage after the forced eviction of an elderly woman from her Madrid residence. Unrest in the Tigray region sparks fears of a new war between rebels and Ethiopia's central government. Australian authorities reveal that the national health insurance system Medicare was hacked by an AI agent. Finally, we look at Britain's rudest-sounding street names!
The eviction of Maricarmen, an 87-year-old pensioner, amid Spain's housing crisis has shocked the nation. El Mundo documents the eviction of Maricarmen in photos. She lived in the upmarket Madrid neighbourhood of Retiro for 70 years until Wednesday night. The elderly woman, who uses a wheelchair, was evicted in a stretcher from her home as hundreds of protesters gathered outside and some tried to prevent police from entering. Maricarmen spent years in a legal battle against a real estate firm that has raised her monthly rent 275 percent to €2,750, which she could no longer afford. La Vanguardia sees Maricarmen as a symbol of Spain's crippling housing shortage, for which Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has been accused of not doing enough. El Pais evokes the social and political shock sparked by this eviction. Right-wing daily ABC accepts that her case is a tragedy but notes that the law applies equally to everyone and cannot be adapted to individual cases. El Mundo, the conservative paper, laments the political exploitation of Maricarmen's case – and accuses Sanchez of ignoring the gravity of Spain's housing crisis.
