OECD puts Valencia region first: aid reached 53 countries

Today's essentials (5 key points)

• Riot police charged housing protesters at the Palau de Les Arts, where a real estate investment congress was being held, elDiario.es reports.
• Valencia city has a cloudy Sunday 4 October ahead, with highs of 26 degrees and a 13% chance of rain, according to Open-Meteo.
• Renfe has reopened all Cercanías commuter lines in the Comunitat Valenciana and restored the rail link with Catalonia after a preventive suspension.
• Saturday's housing march in Valencia called for a general strike after state housing decrees were rejected, as several local outlets report.
• The Generalitat's Bono Hostelería 2026 will offer up to 50 euros to spend in bars, cafés and restaurants in towns hit by the DANA floods.

Today's essentials

OECD puts Valencia region first: aid reached 53 countries. According to Valencia Extra on Sunday 4 October, an OECD report ranks the Comunitat Valenciana first among all the regions it analysed worldwide for development cooperation, ahead of Flanders, Catalonia and Scotland.

The report, titled 'The Impact of Decentralised Development Cooperation: Driving Local Governance and the SDGs', also puts the region ahead of the Basque Country and the canton of Geneva. Última Hora gives the same order of regions. Neither outlet publishes a score or a percentage gap between the regions, so for now 'first' is the most precise claim the ranking supports.

The figures behind the ranking are large for a regional government. Over the past four years, Valencian cooperation has reached 11.3 million people in 53 countries, working through 429 social organisations and 121 field workers, and more than half of the people helped were women and children, Valencia Extra reports. Pedro Carceller, the Generalitat Valenciana's director general for Inclusion and Development Cooperation, called the results a recognition of the Valencian cooperation system as a whole.

Emergency aid is a separate budget line. In an official release, the Generalitat Valenciana's Department of Social Services, Family and Children says it has set aside 12,388,444 euros for humanitarian aid abroad in 2026. Earlier releases gave a lower total of 11.5 million euros, probably because the figure was updated after successive funding calls. The money has gone to Hurricane Melissa in Haiti, flooding in Mozambique, refugees from Sudan and South Sudan, vulnerable communities in Burkina Faso and Honduras, displaced people in Lebanon and Ukraine, and earthquake victims in Venezuela and Colombia.

For the Venezuelan earthquake alone, the Generalitat says it put around 1 million euros into 16 projects through the Comité d'Acció Humanitària de la Comunitat Valenciana (CAHE). It also sent 534,307 euros of direct humanitarian aid to Venezuela and 250,000 euros to Colombia.

What this means for you: part of the regional budget you contribute to as a resident goes to this work, and it now has an international benchmark to be judged against. If you work or volunteer in the NGO sector, the 429 organisations behind these projects show how many local groups the region funds. The OECD also holds a summit on regional resilience after the DANA floods in Valencia on Monday 5 October, according to Moncloa.com. That is a separate event from this report.

Weather today

Grey, mild Sunday in Valencia. Valencia city has an overcast Sunday 4 October, with lows of 20 and highs of 26 degrees, a 13% chance of rain and winds of up to 9 km/h, according to Open-Meteo.

Inland, Buñol is cooler, between 17 and 23 degrees, with thunderstorms forecast, a 50% chance of rain and winds of up to 11 km/h, so pack a waterproof if you're heading into the hills. On the southern coast, Cullera ranges from 20 to 25 degrees with scattered showers and a 28% chance of rain. A light layer is enough in the city, and the beach is still an option if you don't mind a few clouds.

Transport & traffic

• Weather warnings lifted in Castellón and Tarragona. The highest-level weather warnings in the provinces of Castellón and Tarragona have been lifted after a night of torrential rain in which more than 250 litres per square metre fell, Libertad Digital reports. If you're driving or taking the train north towards Castellón or Catalonia this weekend, the worst of the storm has passed. Ground saturated by that much rain can still leave local roads and services disrupted, so check the state of your route before you leave rather than assuming everything is back to normal.
• Renfe restores every Cercanías line. All Cercanías lines in the Comunitat Valenciana are running again, together with the rail link to Catalonia, after Renfe's preventive suspension from 6pm on Thursday 1 October, according to Noticias CV. Commuters into Valencia from the suburbs can use their usual trains again, and long-distance travellers can once more go north to Catalonia by rail. After a suspension like this, timetables can take a little while to settle, so check the Renfe app before setting off on Sunday 4 October and Monday 5 October.

What's changing for you

• Housing march calls for a general strike. A huge crowd marched through central Valencia on Saturday 3 October against soaring rents and the housing crisis, and called for a general strike after the state housing decrees were rejected, as reported by Valencia Plaza, elDiario.es and Valencia Extra. If you rent in Valencia, this movement is about your contract and your monthly bill. No strike date has been announced yet, so keep an eye on the local press over the coming weeks. If a general strike is called, expect disruption to public transport and services on the day, and plan travel and appointments around it.

Local news to know

• Housing protest ends in police charges at Les Arts. Riot police charged protesters and fired smoke canisters when the housing march reached the Palau de Les Arts, where a real estate investment congress was being held, elDiario.es reports.
• Pérez Llorca accuses Sánchez of drifting. Generalitat Valenciana president Pérez Llorca has said that Pedro Sánchez is 'more focused on resisting than governing', and accuses Madrid of neglecting housing and water, according to Libertad Digital.
• Up to 50 euros in the DANA zone's Bono Hostelería. The Generalitat is launching a new Bono Hostelería for 2026 worth up to 50 euros to spend in bars, cafés and restaurants in towns affected by the DANA floods, report Valencia Plaza and Valencia Extra.
• New rain warning for Valencia on Monday. According to Las Provincias, AEMET has issued a new rain warning for Valencia for Monday 5 October and expects the rain to last until at least Thursday 8 October.

Tonight and tomorrow, Valencia

• 131 green businesses at the Mercado de Colón. La Voz de Alzira reports that the Generalitat has opened the 12th Mostra de la Marca Parcs Naturals at Valencia's Mercado de Colón, where 131 companies committed to sustainability are taking part.

See the full agenda, tonight and tomorrow