Making further inroads into markets in Central and Eastern Europe and beyond, Studiocanal, one of Europe’s top production-distribution-international sales powerhouses, has clinched further sales on premium daily drama “The Vow” (“La Promesa”), closing Poland and two Baltic States, as well as France.

Produced by Spain’s Bambú Producciones (“Velvet,” “Cable Girls”), a Studiocanal company, Studiocanal and national Spanish public broadcaster RTVE, “The Vow” has been acquired by Polish pubcaster TVP Poland, state-backed network ERR Estonia and state-owned LTV Latvia.

In additional new sales, Dubai TV has closed rights to MENA territories. French free-to-air channel  C8, owned like Studiocanal by the Canal+ Group, will begin airing the series in July. 

Mediaset Italy has now acquired all three seasons of “The Vow,” as has Dori Media Israel and Finnish state network YLE. 

HRT Croatia and LTV Lithuania and commercial network KTV Kosovo, which have broadcast Season 1, have signed up for further seasons. 

Created by Josep Cister Rubio (“Acacias 38,” “Dos Vidas”) and written by Cister Rubio, Susana Prieto, Ruth García and Carmen Llano, “The Vow” begins in 1913 as Jana, a maid at the declining but still ruthless house of Luján seeks revenge for the murder of her mother. What Jana doesn’t anticipate, however, is that she will fall in love with Manuel, son of the Count of Lujan, who swears his love for her but cannot publicly commit to her, given the class gulf. 

Deals are announced on the first day of NATPE Budapest, and just after the conclusion of Spain’s Conecta Fiction.

They also come after “The Vow” has punched sterling ratings performance across the world. In Spain, where it launched on Jan. 12, 2023 on RTVE’s La1, its 14.2% share on June 5 this month was the second best in the series’ history and 5.1 percentage points over La1’s channel average in May.

In Latin America, where RTVE sold “The Vow” to HBO Max, thanks to No. 1 or No. 2 performances in near all territories, the series ranked No. 4 among all Max series worldwide on June 23. 

Headed by Ramón Campos, Bambú Producciones has launched multiple milestone revolutions in Spanish TV: the introduction of a U.S. pace iton free-to-air Spanish primetime shows (“Desaparecida,” 2007); direct sale of a Spanish original to Latin America without need for dubbing into neutral Spanish (“Gran Hotel,” 2011-13); the creation of free-to-air series which channel the constant twists and turns and surprises of melodrama in shows of premium production values of cable TV (“Velvet,” 2014-16 ).

In “The Vow,” empowered by muscular financing from RTVE and Studiocanal, Bambú has produced a premium daily drama not only often shot on location but very recently including scenes set in WW1.

Production of “The Vow” Season 3 is in progress, starring Ana Garcés, Arturo Sancho (“Heirs to the Land)”, Eva Martín (“Amar es para siempre”), Manuel Regueiro (“Acacias 38”) María Castro (“Seis Hermanas”) and Antonio Velázquez (“Cable Girls,” “Tierra de lobos”).

“Central & Eastern Europe continues to be a vibrant market for daily series, with ‘The Vow’ appealing to many and attracting loyal audiences across the region,” said Sarah Mottershead, VP sales, Studiocanal. 

“It’s a compelling, high quality production embracing romance, mystery and family relationships all set against a beautiful backdrop with glossy period details,” she added. “These qualities, combined with exceptional writing and acting skills, make it a real ratings winner with viewers. We are thrilled to have a third season in production ready to deliver even more irresistible storylines for this captivating long-running drama.”

“‘The Vow’ is showing very consistent and positive rating dynamics and it’s becoming one of the most popular telenovelas that’s been broadcast on LTV in recent years,” enthused Zane Valeniece, head of acquisitions at LTV Latvia. 

She continued: “LTV broadcasts high quality telenovelas at 10:30 am from Monday until Friday and it’s also an important content on the LTV digital platform. The show, which offers a rich storyline with amazing actors and filming locations, gives an exciting and strong daily habit for the audience.” 

A recently-published study challenges the popular myth that Easter Islanders’ ancient rock gardening practices caused their own downfall.

The journal article, which is titled “Island-wide characterization of agricultural production challenges the demographic collapse hypothesis for Rapa Nui,” was published in Science Advances on Friday. The study explains that Rapa Nui, also known as Easter Island, “is often used as an example of how overexploitation of limited resources resulted in a catastrophic population collapse.”

Hundreds of years ago, farmers on the island – located in the South Pacific – practiced “slash and burn” agriculture by tearing down palm trees and setting them on fire. Farmers would then practice rock gardening to help enrich their soil.

According to a popular myth, islanders were so focused on their rock farming – and erecting hundreds of gigantic stone statues – that their civilization collapsed. When Europeans discovered Easter Island in 1722, the island’s population was allegedly smaller than it once was.

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“A vital component of this narrative is that the rapid rise and fall of pre-contact Rapanui population growth rates was driven by the construction and overexploitation of once extensive rock gardens,” the article’s abstract section explains. “However, the extent of island-wide rock gardening, while key for understanding food systems and demography, must be better understood.”

Contrary to popular belief that rock gardening was bad for soil, the study says that the practice “enhanced plant productivity by increasing available soil nutrients and maintaining soil moisture.”

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“Given the benefits rock gardening has for increasing soil productivity and, thus, plant growth, its practice was a vital part of pre-contact Rapanui subsistence,” the article states. “Nearly half of the Rapanui diet consisted of terrestrial foods.”

This photo taken on April 5, 2024, shows Moai stone statues on Easter Island of Chile. Easter Island, known for its giant stone-carved heads facing out to sea, is located at the southernmost point of the Polynesian Triangle in the South Pacific, and is considered one of the world’s most remote inhabited regions.  (Zhu Yubo/Xinhua via Getty Images)

“In this regard, measuring the extent of rock gardens is critical for understanding the island’s pre-contact environmental carrying capacity.”

Researchers also used shortwave infrared (SWIR) satellite imagery and machine learning to determine that Easter Island’s population was likely smaller than previously claimed – challenging the myth that the island’s 1722 population was substantially smaller than it was hundreds of years earlier.

“Our estimates suggest that the maximum population supported by rock gardening is not ~17,000 as claimed through Ladefoged et al.’s rock gardening calculations but just 3901 using our measurements,” the study states.

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Despite research suggesting otherwise, the study’s authors acknowledge that the myth still remains popular outside of academia. 

Moais seen on the outer slopes of Rano Raraku volcanic crater. (John Milner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Despite recent archaeological literature debunking ideas about Malthusian population overshoot, the premise that Rapanui society caused its own demise from unsustainable resource use and uncontrolled population increases has been widely popularized,” the article states. 

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“While many researchers working on the island have shifted their narratives away from the assumptions of a pre-European collapse, the story remains prominent in disciplines such as ecology, paleoecology, and mathematics.”

Israel has accepted in principle to attend a key council on its bilateral relations with the European Union, but has dismissed top diplomat Josep Borrell’s suggestion the meeting should be convened specifically to address the situation in Gaza, an Israeli official told Euronews. 

However, the official reply letter by Israel to the EU seen by Euronews, does not refer to any specific agenda discussions nor a period or a date of when the association could take place.

Borrell announced in late May he would convene Israel “as soon as possible” to discuss “the situation in Gaza” and the “respect of human rights” to which Israel is bound under the so-called Association Agreement of 2000, which lays out the legal basis for trade and cooperation between the EU and Israel.

He also said the meeting would provide the opportunity to confront Netanyahu’s government about its compliance with the recent ruling of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which ordered Israel to halt its intended military offensive in the southern city of Rafah. On June 5, Borrell officially extended the invitation to Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz.

Israel replied on 20 June with a letter by the Israeli ambassador to the EU and NATO Haim Regev, according to the document seen by Euronews, saying that “there exists both a need and an opportunity to convene a full, regular meeting of the Association Council”. 

However, “the agenda for this meeting should be mutually agreed upon by both parties. Foreign Minister Katz proposes that the discussion on the content and timing of the Association Council will be initiated through the established diplomatic channels,” the document states.

The letter makes no reference to a possible date or point of agenda discussion.

An Israeli official however told Euronews that although the country has agreed in principle to attend such a meeting, it rejects Borrell’s notionthat the Council should be an “ad hoc” one in response to the humanitarian crisis gripping Gaza.

The source said that any Association Council must be a “normal one” in line with previous occurrences, and that this format would allow parties to discuss the war in Gaza and compliance with human rights.

Israel has rejected any attempts to use the Council as “leverage” to bring the long-standing conflict between Israel and the Palestinians to the table as they say the Association Council would not be the right forum.

Bloc struggles to up pressure on Israel

It comes days after Israel Katz – the outspoken foreign minister – claimed on social media platform X he had struck an agreement with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó to hold the Association Council during Budapest’s six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, which kicks off in July.

But the Council presidency has no power to define the date of the Council and a limited role in the discussions as the EU delegation would be represented by the bloc’s top diplomat, a post currently held by Josep Borrell.

An EU official criticised what he described as a “huge misunderstanding in some quarters of the Israeli government” about what an Association Council is and by whom it is chaired, insisting that it is only the High Representative at the table and that it’s “completely irrelevant” who holds the rotating presidency.

Hungary is one of Israel’s staunchest European allies and has consistently held back EU decisions in response to the war in Gaza – including sanctions on violent Israeli settlers and an appeal on Israel not to strike Rafah – by wielding its veto power. 

Katz has also previously got himself into hot diplomatic waters with his provocative responses to the decision taken by a handful of EU countries to recognise the state of Palestine.

The decision to convene the Council came months after Ireland and Spain first pressed on the EU executive to renegotiate its Association Agreement with Israel.

Article 2 of that agreement, struck in 2000, stipulates that the deal is “based on respect for human rights and democratic principles.”

The EU is Israel’s main trading partner, accounting for just under a third of all commerce, meaning the Agreement is seen as a powerful tool for the bloc to exert pressure on Netanyahu’s war cabinet to refrain from its offensive in the war-torn Gaza Strip.