A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Top AI player Anthropic to open office in Spain

Anthropic, creator of Claude and one of OpenAI’s main rivals, has announced the opening of its first office in Spain, which will be located in Madrid.

The Spanish capital thus becomes the company’s seventh European location, joining existing offices in London, Dublin, Paris, Zurich, Munich, and Milan.

Anthropic justifies its arrival by citing the growing demand for its tools in Spain and the increasing popularity of Claude among users and businesses.

The announcement comes just days after some of the main bosses of global AI companies (including Elon Musk and Sam Altman) said they would slow down development of their artificial intelligence models over growing fears about the risks the technology poses for humanity’s existence.

Spain’s property prices surpass highs of 2008 bubble

The imbalance between supply and demand in Spain is driving property prices to new highs.

According to data published this Thursday by Spain’s Ministry of Housing, in the second quarter of this year the average price per square metre reached €2,355 for privately owned homes.

This places it 12.1 percent above the peak reached during the housing bubble, €2,101 in early 2008.

It also represents a new record, although this statistic does not account for the effect of inflation, the fact that money buys less over time due to the general rise in prices.

According to data from the second quarter, the average price of an 80-square-metre home in Spain is around €188,000, although some areas significantly exceed this figure.

Madrid leads the way with €327,000 for an 80-square-metre apartment, followed by the Balearic Islands (€3,981/m²), the Basque Country (€3,102/m²), Barcelona (€3,204/m²) and Málaga (€3,084/m²).

Mbappé draws political fire in Spain over Ceuta t-shirt snub

Kylian Mbappé has come under mounting criticism from conservative and far-right politicians in Spain and France after the Real Madrid forward declined to fully wear a t-shirt supporting residents of Ceuta, Spain’s north African exclave grappling with a migration crisis.

Mbappé, Vinicius Junior and Ibrahima Konaté wore a tribute shirt with the words “we are all Ceutans” partially rolled up ahead of Madrid’s 3-2 win at Elche on Tuesday in La Liga.

Ceuta residents have complained about migrants from Morocco camping on beaches and sleeping in the streets, with the city overwhelmed amid a humanitarian crisis. Scores of people died while attempting the crossing in July.

A spokesperson for the mainstream conservative Popular Party (PP) said she felt “deep shame” over the incident, while a lawmaker from the far-right Vox party said Spaniards were “perfectly free to feel outraged by three millionaires who live in Spain and then do not support Spaniards”.

Ultras Sur, a Real Madrid supporters’ group linked to the far right and banned from the Santiago Bernabeu, described the players’ actions as “unacceptable” and called for public apologies.

Mbappé said that he wanted to make a gesture in support of those who had lost their lives.

“The first thing I want to say is that I have complete solidarity with Ceuta and all the victims,” he told Spanish daily AS.

“But I also wanted to make a gesture and express my thoughts for all the immigrants who have lost their lives and who are also living in difficult conditions.”

Mexico arrests suspect in Spanish student murder case

Mexican police on Thursday arrested a man over the murder of a Spanish student in a suspected case of femicide that sparked outrage in both countries.

Around ten women are murdered every day in Mexico, which has high rates of gender-based violence.

Claudia Tacoronte Aguilera, 21, was fatally stabbed on Saturday night in the central city of Cuautla.

She had arrived in August from the University of Granada to study at the Autonomous University of the State of Morelos, in the state capital Cuernavaca.

Dozens of students dressed in black demonstrated earlier this week in both Cuernavaca and Cuautla over her killing, shouting “Not one more” to protest killings of women because of their gender.

“The alleged perpetrator of this terrible crime is already in custody,” Security Secretary Omar Garcia Harfuch said Thursday on X, alongside a picture of a man with his hands bound, his eyes blacked out to protect his identity.

Video footage from the scene of the killing showed a man fleeing on foot after the attack, prompting a manhunt by local and federal security forces.

Morelos, the state where the crime occurred, is blighted by violence linked to organized crime.

The state regularly ranks among those with the highest homicide rates in the country.

With additional reporting by AFP.