Announcing that she “wants it all” before these championships, Hunt, even in these early stages of her senior career, has demonstrated a propensity to thrive on major stages, and under ever-increasing expectation.
“Four golds was the dream and perhaps dreams do come true,” said Hunt.
“It’s so beyond the bounds of my dreams that I’m just euphoric. I can’t believe it’s happening.
“I think it will sink in later, maybe on the podium. I’m just so proud of myself and the way I’ve handled this week.”
The Briton has already spoken about the big goal: repeating her sweep of the sprint golds at the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
Her playlist – she creates one for every major event – is already being built as she begins to visualise how that might feel.
She will be well aware how much work there is to do. So far this year, she ranks 14th-fastest worldwide in the 200m, and 25th in the 100m. Asher-Smith’s British records, at 21.88 and 10.83 seconds respectively, remain untouched since 2019.
The next opportunity for global honours, beyond the inaugural World Ultimate Championships in September, will arrive at next year’s World Championships in Beijing.
And, once the dust has settled on a momentous week, Hunt will set about translating continental domination to glory on the sport’s biggest stages – just as British team-mate Asher-Smith achieved following her European treble in 2018.
“Amy has already won world silver, but she was not a favourite then,” Jackson said.
“Now, it’s a big change. She is a champion and she has to go and take on the best in the world.
“Is it going to be easy? No. But this will fill Amy with confidence. She will be on start lines trusting her ability is great, and I’m hoping that she will go from strength and strength.”
Jeremiah Azu, Dina-Asher Smith, Zharnel Hughes and Amy Hunt combine to win gold for Great Britain in the first mixed 4x100m relay at the European Athletics Championships.
Hunt became the first athlete to win four European golds at one championships while Dina Asher-Smith secured a record eighth European career title.
Ireland’s Kate O’Connor speaks after winning gold in the women’s heptathlon at the European Athletics Championships, just weeks after winning the same event at the Commonwealth Games.
Mark English wins gold in the 800m to earn Ireland’s first men’s gold at a European Athletics Championships, capitalising after Great Britain’s Max Burgin was forced to withdraw from the final through injury.
Oil prices climbed and world stocks were mixed on Wednesday, with Asian shares mostly higher even as Wall Street slipped further from last week’s record highs, as investors awaited a crucial US inflation reading and watched for any breakthrough in the stalled Iran war talks.
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The price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, was up 0.9% at $89.67 early on Wednesday. US benchmark crude picked up 0.9% to $83.98.
Gold edged up 0.8% to $4,400.44 an ounce, while silver gained 1% to $65.30 an ounce.
Iran has rejected a comment by US President Donald Trump suggesting that, since Tehran is seeking compensation as part of any talks to end the war, Washington would demand the same.
The United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February, a strike that led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and kept much of the world’s oil pent up in the Middle East. Last month alone, Brent’s price swung between $72 and $102 a barrel.
Meanwhile, an attack by Iran-backed Houthi rebels on a vessel in the Bab el-Mandeb strait, off Yemen’s southern tip, has raised concerns that the violence could reignite civil war and further threaten regional shipping routes.
Higher oil prices worsen inflation, and they have pushed the average cost of a gallon of regular petrol in the US to $4.01, according to AAA — up from less than $3.14 a year ago.
That has Wall Street’s attention fixed on Wednesday, when the US government releases its latest monthly inflation reading. Economists expect it to show inflation slipped to 3.4% in July from 3.5% in June.
On Tuesday, the S&P 500 fell 0.3% for a second modest drop since setting its all-time high on Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 184 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite sank 0.6%.
Cooler inflation could ease pressure on the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates to tamp down price increases.
Higher rates could curb inflation, but they would also drag on the wider US economy by making it more expensive for households and businesses to borrow, while undercutting prices for stocks and other investments.
Treasury yields have jumped since the war with Iran began, driven by higher oil prices and inflation worries, sending long-term US mortgage rates to their highest levels in a year.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 gained 0.6% to 67,334.94.
In South Korea, the Kospi jumped more than 4% to 6,597.90 on renewed buying of computer chipmakers. Samsung Electronics gained 7.7% and memory chipmaker SK Hynix rose 7.1%.
Taiwan’s Taiex advanced 0.8%.
The Shanghai Composite index added 0.3% to 3,946.51, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipped 1.2% to 25,352.13.
In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.6% to 9,197.00.
In other early Wednesday dealings, the dollar rose to 159.41 yen from 159.30 yen. The euro slipped to $1.1535 from $1.1544.
Hunt could have as many as three opportunities to add to her tally this week, as se competes in the 200m and both the women’s and mixed 4x100m relay events.
Typically not the quickest off the blocks at almost six-foot tall, Hunt was seventh in the eight-athlete final after the first 10m.
But she held her form superbly to overhaul her rivals and end her wait for gold, just two years after finishing seventh in the previous European final in Rome.
“I just had such a magical feeling,” Hunt said.
“I’ve won English Schools here, raced here as a 13, 14-year-old. I just had a feeling that this was going to be my night.
“My first gold. I think it was definitely time for an upgrade, and I’m now kind of fully established.”
British record holder Asher-Smith lined up in Birmingham as the defending champion – but the 30-year-old could not force her way into medal contention.
Asher-Smith, bidding to win a historic seventh gold and become the joint-most successful athlete in the history of the championships, finished fifth in 11.10, as Poland’s Ewa Swoboda (11.02) and Belgian Delphine Nkansa (11.06) completed the podium.
Like Hunt, Asher-Smith will have further opportunities to draw level with Croatian discus thrower Sandra Elkasevic and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who earlier won a superb 5,000m gold on his comeback from injury.
Both will return to action on Wednesday, when attention turns to the women’s 200m medals before the weekend’s relays.
TGreat Britain win gold in both the women’s and men’s 4x200m freestyle relay finals at the European Acquatics Championships in Paris, with the men doing so in a new championship record time of 7:01.52.
On 23 July, the EU adopted its 21st and largest sanctions package against Russia — 218 listings, asset freezes on 94 banks, the first-ever threat of blanket third-country crypto bans. Within 24 hours Beijing retaliated with export controls on 14 European firms, including Germany’s Rheinmetall. The same day, five of China’s largest state banks quietly stopped retail investors trading paper gold and pushed them toward physical bars instead. Four days later the US Senate voted 86-12 to advance a bill authorising tariffs of up to 100% on the top buyers of Russian energy — a list headed by China and India. And on 30 July, the World Gold Council confirmed central banks had bought a record 289 tonnes of gold in the second quarter, up 74% year on year. Nobody reported these five events as one story. They are one story.
De-dollarization is the shorthand for a genuine structural shift: the dollar’s share of global central bank reserves fell below 57% last year, the lowest since 1995 and down 15 points from its 2001 peak, while gold’s share of reserves has climbed from roughly 13% to 30% over the same stretch. The proximate cause is well documented — when Washington and Brussels froze roughly $300 billion of Russian central bank reserves in 2022, every finance ministry outside the Western alliance drew the same lesson: dollar and euro reserves are conditional assets, seizable by political decision, while gold sitting in a domestic vault is not. Since then Russia and China have pushed bilateral trade settlement into rubles and yuan to 99.1%, built out China’s CIPS payment network as a working SWIFT alternative, and are preparing to unveil BRICS Pay — linking Russian, Chinese, Indian and Brazilian domestic payment rails — at September’s summit in New Delhi. That is the infrastructure this week is testing.
After reaching the final with some tiebreak heroics in the semi-final win over Malaysia, it seemed only fitting that the final would go the same way.
McKeown and Kelly were out of the traps fast in the first set as they took four shots in the third end on route to a 6-2 win.
The English pair fought back in a tight second set to build a 3-0 lead, and they held on to win 4-2 and send the final to a one-end shootout.
It was Kelly who came closest to the jack and Walker was unable to respond with his final bowl, which started the celebrations for a well-deserved gold medal.
“We wish it wasn’t always an extra end but we played really well,” added McKeown.
“We got a huge four shots early on and kicked on from there in the first set.
“In the second set we lost a three early on in probably the worst end of the game, and then clawed our way back into it.
“Gary had a chance to win the game with his last bowl and unfortunately just missed, but he played an absolute bomb on the tiebreak end to secure the win.”
Kelly said he had to grab the chance “with both hands” with the decisive bowl of the match.
“Obviously there’s nerves and there’s pressure, but you’ve just got to have belief and trust.
“I’ve been lucky enough n my career that I’ve done it before, so you’ve just got to reach into those moments and believe.
“You have to enjoy and embrace those moments as well, and thankfully I delivered.”
England’s Jazmin Sawyers was finally able to put previous disappointments at major championships behind her by winning the women’s long jump at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
The 32-year-old bounced back from serious injury to celebrate a gold medal on a night when there was a silver for England’s mixed 4x400m relay team and a bronze for pole vaulter Owen Heard.
Sawyers finished just outside the medals in fourth place at the previous games in Birmingham four years ago, failed to qualify for the final of the 2023 World Championships and was then forced to miss the 2024 Olympics.
She had to undergo surgery after rupturing her Achilles tendon on her take-off leg and so, rather than competing in Paris ended up commentating for the BBC.
But the Stoke-on-Trent born athlete put all those setbacks behind her on a memorable evening at Scotstoun with her fourth jump of 6.93m proving to be enough to claim the gold medal ahead of Nigeria’s Ruth Usoro (6.87m) and Brooke BuschKuehl of Australia (6.80m).
“It hasn’t properly hit me how this is the thing I’ve been telling myself all the horrible bits are for,” she said.
“The feeling is overwhelming. I will do the horrible bits 100 times over, I’ll do it and do it and do it. This is amazing.”
Sawyers will now turn her attention to competing for Great Britain at the European Championships in Birmingham, which start on 10 August, but is keen to hang on to the memories Glasgow has given her.
“Twelve years ago almost to the day, I won a silver here in Glasgow (2014 Commonwealth Games) at my first major championships. It was a shock silver and I’ve held Glasgow close to my heart ever since,” she added.
“It was the start of my career and so sensational and I had the time of my life. I take that as one of the best moments of my entire career, but when you’ve done that there’s only one thing to do which is to upgrade.”
Scotland’s Melanie Woods has won the Commonwealth Games women’s 1500m T54 for the second time in under 40 hours after streaking to victory in the restaged final – however England’s Ellis Kottas could not replicate her silver medal.
Woods set a new Games record to triumph in Glasgow on Wednesday evening, but it emerged on Thursday morning that Para-athletics authorities had decided the race should be held again following appeals surrounding a first-lap crash.
However, the Scot kept her composure in her home city to replicate her initial success, break the record again, and reclaim the gold that was already hers – in mind if not around her neck.
Kottas, though, finished fourth, having said she was “low-key traumatised” when the race result was overturned.
Woods led from the start in her home city, although Noemi Alphonse of Mauritius and Australia’s Eliza Ault-Connell kept her honest over the first couple of laps.
The latter had fallen away by the final 200m, though, and the Scot held off the Mauritian as she was roared by down the home straight by the crowd.
“It was in my mind ‘what have I got left?’ and you do question what you’ve got in your arms,” Woods said.
“But I just needed to be confident I could stay out in front and it was nice coming down the home straight and not seeing her wheel moving in front of me.”
Woods – who has used a wheelchair since being hit by a car while riding her bike in 2018 – will also compete in the 400m later on Friday morning.
The heats of that will start a little more than 90 minutes after the replayed final.
Given that impressive 2025 she had, the pressure was on O’Connor to at least win a medal in Glasgow and it only ramped up after Katerina Johnson-Thompson, who had won gold ahead of her in 2022, pulled out.
The Englishwoman’s withdrawal paved the way for a good shot at that coveted gold, but she still had to go out and deliver.
O’Connor ended on 6,569 points, 291 ahead of her nearest challenger, England’s Jade O’Dowda, but it wasn’t all straightforward.
Resilience is a key trait for any sportsperson, but particularly a heptathlete.
Fortunes can fluctuate across the seven events so it is needed in ample supply to come out on top at the end of two days of competition.
It was particularly pertinent for O’Connor in a rain-soaked second session of the event on Tuesday evening.
After a good start in the morning, that brought a third-place finish in the 100m hurdles and a season’s best 1.82m in the high jump, O’Connor struggled in the shot put and dipped well below her high standards by throwing just 12.85m as the torrential rain hammered down.
She said trying to grip the shot put in that rain was akin to trying to lift a bar of soap and that she was “gutted” as she “made it a lot easier for the rest of them to beat me”.
Her resilience was shown in abundance in the 200m that followed as she defied the elements to easily win her heat in a time of 24.14.
The Newry-born athlete added she had to “work really hard” on Wednesday and that she did, finishing with a flourish.
First came a big leap of 6.37m in the long jump, then another season’s best, this time in the javelin, of 52.85m that far exceeded those around her.
It will be particularly satisfying as that was an event she had worked hard at improving heading into 2026.
All that was left was to hold her nerve in the 800m and she did that and more, cruising to victory in a time of 2:10.46 just as the sun broke through for the celebrations at Scotstoun.
“I came here expecting a lot from myself and I really wanted to score like 6,600 or 6,700 and open up my season because that’s the shape I felt I was in,” she added.
“After day one I had to raincheck myself a bit, it’s not always about getting huge big scores but competing and getting the best out of yourself with the elements and challenges.
“I tried to navigate it as best as I could. The shot put didn’t go to plan, it needs work in those conditions, but I’m happy overall with how I did.
“There’s a lot of positives to take from it. I’ve got a gold medal round my neck so I can’t say much more.”
Kate O’Connor has won Northern Ireland’s first gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in the heptathlon at Scotstoun Stadium.
O’Connor, a World indoor and outdoor silver medal, finished top of the standings with 6569points and is the first new heptathlon champion at the Games in eight years.
England’s Jade O’Dowda claimed silver while Australia’s Tori West won the battle for bronze.
It is O’Connor’s first senior outdoor gold and her first gold at her third Games after she finished eighth in 2018 and claimed silver in 2022.
The 25-year-old becomes NI’s 12th medal winner in Glasgow, claiming the country’s first gold at the Games in athletics since 1986.
O’Connor was favourite heading into the event after the late withdrawal of England’s Katrina Johnson-Thompson, who beat her to gold in 2022 and she certainly lived up to the billing.
The Newry-born athlete led after the first two events on Tuesday. She ran the 100m hurdles in 13.54 seconds and produced a season’s best 1.82m in the high jump.
In a rain-soaked evening session, she dipped in the shot put, throwing just 12.85 in difficult conditions.
While she said she was “gutted” with that performance, she rallied and she bounced back well to run the 200m in a season’s best time of 24.14, which was just 0.07 off her personal best as she strolled to victory in her heat.
She earned 3731 points across the four events to top the standings heading into Wednesday’s second day of the competition and, with a 49-point advantage over O’Dowda, looked to be in pole position for gold.
O’Connor further increased that lead on Wednesday morning as she recorded a leap of 1.82m in the long jump and a season’s best 52.85m in the javelin to move 258 points ahead.
In the 800m, she finished first as she ran 2:10.45 to take home NI’s first multi-class gold medal since Dame Mary Peters won the pentathlon in 1974.
NI team-mate Anna McCauley finished eighth in the standings despite being second-fastest in the 800m behind O’Connor.
O’Connor will receive her gold medal on Thursday evening at 18:30 BST.
Yet 12 weeks later, Rogers was back in the pool doing rehab. And by summer 2024 she was in Paris winning Paralympic gold. But perhaps the most remarkable thing of all is that she is quicker now than she was pre-accident.
“I never in a million years thought that I could be faster,” Rogers, who is unable to straighten her right arm, tells BBC Sport. “Yes, it looks a bit different and there is definitely an impairment there. But I’ve worked harder, I’m fitter, I’m stronger.
“My message is just ‘don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do’. We’re all different. We’ve all got our own stuff. But I think anything is totally doable if you put your mind to it.”
Not many Para-athletes have done what Rogers has.
It was last year that she resolved to put her “big girl pants on” and act upon a notion she’d had for a while to test where she was in the 200m fly. And the first time she did swim it, she realised she was only just a fraction shy of her pre-accident best.
With that, her mind was made up. She spoke to the selectors and it was agreed that, as long as three other athletes did not post faster times, she could compete at the Commonwealths. They didn’t, and Rogers was in.
“I found out a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been so, so excited ever since,” said the Edinburgh University student before the heats.
“There’s no pressure. I think it’s such a privilege to have the opportunity to stand up there and and to show other people with impairments that, no matter what you are told, and no matter what gets thrown at you, like there’s a way through it.
“We quite often get told we can’t. And this is my way of proving that we can.”
Clegg added: “My coach said something a bit silly earlier, which was that [footballer] Lionel Messi only shows up for the World Cup, and he meant that my experience allows me to step up for these big moments when all season I’ve been swimming a bit crap.
“He will hopefully agree that I’ve done that tonight.”
And how. Clegg attacked the second 50m of the race with relish and pulled away from his rivals to post a time of 24.73 seconds, half a second quicker than he has gone all year.
It also upgraded the silver he won in Birmingham over the distance – achieved when he was not only four years younger, but in much better shape physically.
All that was playing through his mind as he stood on the podium, lip trembling and trying hard to keep his shape, as Flower of Scotland played.
“I was really struggling to keep it together,” said Clegg, who had missed his sister’s wedding amid the preparations for these Games. “Once the anthem started playing, I just started shaking and started to tear up a little bit.
“I’m a very emotional person, but I don’t really let them out very often. And for me to show that emotion kind of, I think, speaks louder than words for me.
“Every time I tried to articulate it, I’ve fallen short of the actual feeling. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I think nothing in my career can really beat that moment. Even winning gold at Paris.”
Brock Whiston was already Paralympic champion, world champion and world record holder before these Commonwealth Games.
There were two things missing, however.
First, a Commonwealth gold medal. Second, it had been 17 years since her father Gel was poolside to watch her race.
“He doesn’t like swimming,” England’s Whiston, 29, told the BBC.
“He finds it too hot – doesn’t like the smell of chlorine.”
The last time Gel came to watch was when Whiston’s mother had cancer. She has since recovered.
Since then he has been a big “sideline supporter” from home – Whiston says he worked “so hard to get me to where I am today” – but has recently received a Parkinson’s diagnosis.
This time he was keen to make the trip.
“I just wanted to make him proud,” Whiston told TNT Sports.
“I just wanted to win this race for him. I didn’t care about the time.”
And win the race Whiston did – in a new Games record for the women’s 100m breaststroke SB8.
This month Whiston, who works in a primary school, spoke about wanting to keep her emotions in check, having missed out on gold in the same event at the Paris Paralympics after being overawed by the crowd.
“I didn’t spot him until I was doing my lap with my medal,” Whiston said.
“He gave me a kiss on the head and said ‘love you’. I think he was shellshocked.”
So will he be back? Whiston’s Games in Glasgow are finished but there are more meets to come.
“He said he’s done it now. He’s not coming back,” she said.
“He is very happy to support from home.
“Just to have him there that once was a special moment.”
It was a glimpse of an old couple sharing a tender moment in the bustling horchatería that drew me into one of Valencia’s most storied culinary traditions. As he sipped his milky horchata de chufa and a white crescent moon appeared on his coiffed moustache, they shared a soft laugh and she dabbed it away from his upper lip.
“There’s no fixed time to drink horchata,” the lady said. “As long we have at least one every day.”
In Valencia, this refreshing, creamy, non-alcoholic drink is so beloved it is nicknamed “white gold”, and grand parlours dedicated to making it are still going strong in the city’s most sought-after locations. These often historic, traditional places are called horchaterías (or orxateriasin Valencian) and there are dozens dotted around the region.
Production is authorised in 16 towns in the Valencia region, with the quaint town of Alboraya (Alboraia in Valencian), about 45 minutes’ walk from Valencia old town, acknowledged as its birthplace and global capital. Here, buried in the low-lying, fertile fields around the town, you’ll find the drink’s principal ingredient: the chufa.
Chufas, known as tiger nuts in English, have been cultivated in Valencia for more than 1,000 years. They look like wooden raisins but taste nutty and slightly sweet when eaten raw. Tiger nuts are not actually nuts, but tubers of a grass-like plant from the sedge family. Valencia’s agricultural zone north of the city produces 5.3m to 8m kilograms of dried tiger nuts a year. Most of the harvesting takes place in spring to ensure ample supply for the balmy summer months.
‘The horchata is darker, creamier and richer than most’ … a table at Horchatería De Santa Catalina in Valencia.
To turn the wrinkly tubers into horchata, chufas are cleaned, soaked and crushed, then mixed with water. Nowadays, cinnamon, lemon or orange zest and sugar are added to boost the flavour.
Alboraya is also the birthplace of horchata’s companion: the farton, a long, cigar-shaped pastry glazed with sugar, created in the 1960s by the Polo family to dip in and mop up every last drop of horchata from the bottom of the glass. Some stay loyal to its humble predecessor, rosquilletas (breadsticks), which are less absorbent but an intriguingly salty, anise-flavoured counterpart to horchata’s sweetness nonetheless.
Leaving Alboraya with a bellyful of the indulgent combination, I weighed the task of finding the perfect horchatería. It felt wrong to split up horchata from its farton, so I would consider both. Horchaterías tend to offer three versions of horchata: líquida (liquid), granizada (semi-frozen slush) or mixta (a blend of liquid and slush). It would be the traditional classic líquida for me.
In Valencia, there are hundreds of places serving horchata and fartons, but I wanted tradition and old-world charm – places that exist only to make horchata, not as an afterthought to spiced lattes or ice-cream. After sifting out the cafes, coffeehouses and ice-cream parlours, a handwritten list on a single sheet of A4 remained.
Horchatería Fabián
It’s early evening in the old town, and the narrow shopping alley leading to my first stop, family-run Horchatería Fabián, is filled with tourists and an after-work crowd. Past bustling taverns and restaurant terraces, I glimpse its entrance and the date it was founded: 1975. Sounds promising, but something is missing. Where are the customers?
Although the place is empty, the staff are distracted and cold. The horchata they unwillingly produce is over-sweet, almost artificial tasting, and the farton is parched and crumbles on to the plate. Horchata seeps into its pores nicely when I dip it into the glass, but the overriding sensation is a numbing sweetness.
I slink out of the unwelcoming room, back on to the busy street and into a local tavern, fearing my high expectations for this jaunt are misplaced. Horchata €3, 4/10 Farton €1, 3/10
Horchatería Daniel
The next day, I spy the queue spilling out of the glass-panelled room at Horchatería Daniel. This is arguably the most well-known horchatería company in Valencia, founded in 1949 and still a family business, with three locations in Valencia.
I visit all three. The original, and the largest, is in Alboraya, decked with wooden tables and a constant flow of regulars. In its basement, production of horchata and fartons begins at 5am for here and its other locations – one in the famous Mercado de Colón and the third in a grand parlour in the centre of the old town, near to Plaza de la Reina.
That’s where I wait now, warmed by the evening sun, before I’m shuffled into a grand, airy room and handed a glass from a cluttered tray.
I can barely hear myself think over the noise of chatter and glasses clinking. The horchata is creamy and only moderately sweet. Together with the traditional farton, it’s easy to see why this is still one of the most popular horchaterías in town. Giddy, I order its newest farton creation – coated in a layer of chocolate, raspberries and crushed pistachios. Its dry interior and disjointed melange of flavours bring me back down to earth. Stick with the old favourites here and you can’t go wrong. Horchata €1.95, 6.5/10 Farton 85 cents, 6/10
Horchatería Santabárbara
South from the old town the streets widen out into sun-filled, palm-lined avenues leading to the suburb of Montolivet, where neighbourhood favourite Horchatería Santabárbara has been in situ for four years.
Most tables are busy, but this does not deter the manager, Rafa, from skipping between them to pat regulars on the back and run through each step of horchata production with wide-eyed tourists. By the time he reaches our table, my glass – which is refreshing but a little too sweet – is empty.
“Try this,” Rafa commands, passing me a new glass. “This is the original horchata, no sugar, no nothing. Just chufa and water.” It’s a revelation. The overburdening sugary aftertaste is gone, and what’s left is a clean, refreshing natural drink that sings above the mediocrity of the sweetened version. Pair it with its spongy, glazed farton and you’ll want to join the sea of smiling regulars coming back for more. Horchata €2.50, 7/10 Farton 80 cents, 6.5/10
Horchatería de Santa Catalina
In the shadow of the stunning 17th-century baroque bell tower of the Santa Catalina Church in the old town, Horchatería de Santa Catalina is the grandest of them all.
A tight entrance decorated with ceramic tiles from Manises opens into a grand dining room packed with marble tables. A curved wooden staircase leads into an equally beautiful room upstairs – both are heaving when I arrive in the evening.
A chilled white glass and a longer farton dusted with icing sugar arrives on the table. Like the locals around me, I don’t hesitate. The farton melts in my mouth, while the horchata is darker, creamier and richer than most. It is a delightful combination. The place itself is a class act in one of the city’s most beautiful neighbourhoods. Horchata €4, 8/10 Farton €1.55, 6.5/10
Horchatería Mari Toñi
North of the river in residential La Saïdia is another neighbourhood favourite, Horchatería Mari Toñi. It’s just a few minutes from artsy Benimaclet and on the way to Alboraya, if you’re leaving from the old town.
Opening at 6.15am, it’s the first place in town to get a horchata and stays busy until it closes 15 hours later. Fartons are freshly made each morning and initially they look dry. The sugar glazing seems to wilt rather than crack. But the first bite proves looks aren’t everything – they are light and fluffy, perfectly porous to the creamy horchata produced in this charming, authentic location. Horchata €3, 6/10 Farton 80 cents, 7.5/10
On the move? The takeaway alternative
Horchatería Mon Orxata.
In more than 20 visits to different Valencian horchaterías, I watched as horchata was decanted into unbranded buckets and large flasks, conducted away from the main floor. In Alboraya, at both Horchatería Panach and Horchatería El Sariers, at least 10 litres of horchata were transported out by three families in under 10 minutes.
In the city, two standout takeaway alternatives emerged. Across most central plazas in Valencia, Món Orxata is bringing back a lost 400-year-old tradition of selling unpasteurised horchata from street carts. Its horchata is clean, crisp and one of the most refreshing on the hottest of days.
Pair it with the orange-infused farton, made with fermented dough by award-winning Valencia-born pastry chef Migue Señorís at Gelática Ice Concept near the coast, and enjoy both during a sunset walk along the city’s beach. Món Orxata horchata €3.30, 7/10 Gelática Ice Concept farton €1.90, 8.5/10
Central banks are scaling back on the dollar as institutional bullion buying climbs to record highs.
In the World Gold Council’s (WGC) latest annual survey of central banks, 83% of respondents expect to increase their gold holdings over the next year. That’s up from 76% in 2025. This surge in demand is due to the U.S. dollar’s waning preeminence in global reserves and the growing number of international crises.
Almost three-quarters of central banks predict a lower share of global reserves held in greenbacks over the next five years, and a record 45% say they plan to increase their institutional bullion reserves over the next 12 months, up from 43% last year.
Gold Overtakes Bonds as Ultimate Safe Haven
Gold recently overtook U.S. government bonds as the world’s top reserve asset, according to the June 16 report. The survey polled 76 central banks between February and May; most responses were received after the recent Mideast hostilities began. Greenbacks accounted for 42% of total reported reserves, including gold and foreign exchange, in the third quarter of last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.
A record 90% of those polled by the WGC say gold’s performance during volatile periods is a key reason for acquiring more of it. Similarly, 82% say they value gold for portfolio diversification, and 84% value it as a long-term store of value.
The metal’s role in hedging geopolitical risk is especially important among central bankers in developing and emerging markets, with 85% citing this factor.
Half of respondents seeking to procure more gold say they will finance such purchases through domestic purchase programs denominated in local currency, while 38% say they would buy more gold by selling existing reserve assets.
Global Shift in Gold Storage Strategy
Central banks also appear to be rethinking their gold storage strategy. The survey found that 9% of central banks increased domestic storage over the past year, while 10% say they diversified their overseas storage locations.
The Bank of England remains the most popular gold storage location, cited by 57% of respondents, while the Swiss National Bank saw a sharp drop in preference, from 12% to 6% in 2025.
In the past four years, central banks have, on average, acquired 1,000 tonnes of gold annually, double the 500-tonne average of the previous decade. Mainland China’s bullion stores totaled 74.96 million troy ounces in late May, up 320,000 from April, marking the 19th consecutive month of increase, according to the People’s Bank of China.
Ajay Shamdasani is a contributing writer based in Hong Kong.
