The Spanish national anthem was loudly booed this weekend in Gernika, a small town in the province of Biscay, in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country.

And it wasn’t a football match. It happened during the medal ceremony of a pelota vasca final, after Spain’s women’s team beat the Basque Country.

But the noise in the stands wasn’t just about sport. It reflected the deeper issue of political and cultural tug-of-war between Spain and the Basque Country over identity and autonomy.

Pelota vasca gets political

Pelota vasca is a traditional Basque sport, played with a ball hit against a wall, sometimes by hand, sometimes with a racket. Locally, it’s seen as more than a game: it’s like a cultural heritage, some regional pride.

In addition, pelota vasca was once an official Olympic sport, featured in the 1900 Paris Games, and later returned as a demonstration sport — most recently at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

So when the Basque Country was officially allowed to compete internationally under its own flag, it was a big deal. Politicians in the region celebrated, while the Spanish federation not so much.

Spain challenged the Basque team’s recognition

In fact, Spanish officials challenged the Basque team’s recognition at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne, saying the move broke the rules. They claim they were sidelined in the process and pressured some Basque players not to leave the Spanish national team..

“It’s essential to emphasize that this is not an issue against the Basque Country, but rather a matter of legality,” the Spanish federation claimed in one of its statements.

The crowd in Gernika whistled the Spanish anthem

This weekend’s Nations League showdown made everything more intense.

The Basque men won their final. The Spanish women won theirs. But the loudest moment came not from a match, but from the crowd, as the Spanish anthem played and whistles echoed through the venue.

Spain says the event wasn’t even official, arguing that the Nations League wasn’t officially valid because it lacked proper approval from Spanish authorities. They said they only took part to support their athletes, fearing the event might count toward qualifying for the 2025 World Championships.

The Basque side says it was a breakthrough, while the CAS ruling is still pending. But if this weekend proved anything, it’s that this is much more than sport, it’s about who gets to be seen and heard.

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HUMANS were crafting tools out of whale bones as far back as 20,000 years ago, a new study by Spanish and French researchers has found.

More than 80 bone tools excavated from sites around the Bay of Biscay and 90 bones from nearby Santa Catalina Cave were analysed by a team led by Jean-Marc Pétillon and Krista McGrath.

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“Our study reveals that the bones came from at least five species of large whales, the oldest of which date to approximately 19,000–20,000 years ago. These represent some of the earliest known evidence of humans using whale remains as tools,” Pétillon said.

The researchers used mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to identify the whale species and age of the samples, strengthening knowledge on how early humans used whale remains. 

“ZooMS is a powerful technique for investigating past sea mammal diversity, particularly when diagnostic morphometric elements are missing from bone remains and objects, which is often the case for bone artefacts,” McGrath said. 

Species still present in the Bay of Biscay were discovered, including sperm whales, fin whales and blue whales. They also discovered that some tools were made from grey whales, a species which now only lives in the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans.

Chemical data from the whales has shown feeding habits of the ancient whales were different to what they eat today, revealing the whales’ role in historic ecosystems.

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