A roundup of the latest news on Thursday

Spain aims to resume Madrid-Andalusia train line on February 7th

Spain aims to restart within 10 days full service on a key high-speed railway line where a collision between two trains killed 45 people, the transport minister said on Wednesday.

The January 18th disaster in the southern region of Andalusia – one of Europe’s deadliest such accidents this century – partially shut the line linking Madrid and the city of Seville as investigators cleared the wreckage and collected evidence.

“Today we have received legal permission to proceed with the replacement of the infrastructure in the section of the accident,” Transport Minister Óscar Puente wrote on X.

“Our aim is that it is completed in a timeframe of approximately 10 calendar days. After the replacement, the whole of the Madrid-Seville line will resume service,” he added.

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The line was Spain’s first high-speed rail connection when it opened in 1992, with the network expanding to become the world’s second-largest after China’s and a source of national pride.

But the accident has raised doubts about the safety of rail travel in the country.

A preliminary report released last week suggested the track was cracked before a train run by private firm Iryo derailed and smashed into an oncoming service operated by state company Renfe.

Susan Sarandon to be honoured at Spain’s top film awards

Veteran Hollywood star Susan Sarandon will receive the international prize at Spain’s top film awards next month for her “extraordinary” career and “brave political and social commitment”, the Spanish Cinema Academy announced on Wednesday.

The Oscar-winning US actor, 79, will be honoured at the 40th Goya awards in Barcelona on February 28 for representing “the perfect combination of talent and professional success, glamour, and social and political commitment”, the Academy said in a statement.

Her career includes “unquestionable masterpieces, iconic films that have entered popular culture, and cult gems”, the Academy said, listing “The Witches of Eastwick”, “The Client” and “Atlantic City” among her “legendary titles”.

The Academy also highlighted Sarandon’s “versatility, her voice in numerous causes and her taste for risk and experimental cinema”, such as her role in feminist classic “Thelma and Louise”.

Sarandon won the 1996 Best Actress Oscar for “Dead Man Walking”, where she played a nun who supports a man sentenced to death.

The Academy also called her a “staunch defender of human rights”. Sarandon was a vocal critic of what she called “genocide” in Gaza and waded into debates about free speech and the death penalty in the United States.

She will join Cate Blanchett, Juliette Binoche, Sigourney Weaver and Richard Gere among  foreign stars to win the international prize at the Goyas.

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Elderly sailor survives 11 days adrift in Mediterranean

Spanish maritime rescuers on Wednesday said an elderly man had been saved in the Mediterranean after miraculously surviving at least 11 days adrift alone in a sailboat.

The 69-year-old had left the eastern Spanish port of Gandia for the town of Guardamar del Segura, a journey of around 150 kilometres (93 miles), a spokesman for the maritime rescue service told AFP.

Boats and planes were deployed in a rescue mission with “numerous resources” on January 17. But the fruitless search ended on January 22nd and appeals were sent to vessels navigating in the area.

As hopes faded, on Tuesday a plane belonging to EU border agency Frontex “spotted the sailboat and a person who was making signs and calling for help” around 53 nautical miles northeast of Bejaia in Algeria.

A nearby ship, the Singapore-flagged bulk carrier “Thor Confidence”, rescued him and is set to take him to the southern Spanish port city of Algeciras on Thursday.

The elderly sailor was “in good condition”.

The maritime rescue service published pictures on social media showing a small, white sailboat bobbing in the sea and attached to the larger ship.

It was unclear how the sailboat ended up drifting hundreds of kilometres from its intended route nor how the man survived for so long on the high seas.