With an unemployment rate of 3.5%, the Netherlands has become a European laboratory for the creation of flexible jobs for young workers. But the shadow of exploitation looms over its ability to attract temporary foreign workers, especially the unskilled ones. Spain is the healthiest country in the world, according to a study of 169 nations by Bloomberg. After climbing six rungs from 2017 and pushing Italy from first spot, Spain now ranks at the top of the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index, whic...
Feb 27, 2019
Terry Whitehead joins Vince for today's podcast... Officials at Spain’s conservative Popular Party (PP) are criticizing the prime minister’s choice of date for the snap general election, saying it shows little sensitivity for religious observance. The European Union, just like the markets, is ruling out a financial or budget meltdown as a result of the snap election announced in Spain for April 28. The risk of seeing Spain follow in Italy’s footsteps is creating apprehension among EU institution...
Feb 20, 2019
The leaders of three of Spain’s right-wing parties managed to bring out tens of thousands of people on Sunday to Madrid’s central Colón square, to protest against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and demand that the Socialist Party (PSOE) politician call elections as soon as possible. The latest plan to control immigration comes from Berlin and Paris involves a temporary solution, based on a mechanism for sharing out the migrants arriving from Libya. AN EMERGENCY plan to deal with accidents ...
Feb 13, 2019
Feb 06, 2019
European member states have been trying to hammer out a temporary solution that will prevent critical situations like the ones produced by Italy and Malta’s reiterated refusals to take in humanitarian ships. Interior ministers are scheduled to meet in Romania in early February to discuss the matter further, but there is little hope that an agreement will be reached that makes everyone happy. SPAIN will on January 29 officially lower the speed limit on secondary roads from 100kph to 90kph. The Co...
Jan 30, 2019
Angela Merkel has hailed a new Franco-German friendship treaty as being a step towards the creation of a future joint European army.The German Chancellor said the pact, inked in the ancient western German city of Aachen today, aims to build a 'common military culture' between the two countries. Spanish tennis star Pablo Carreno Busta has spectacularly blown up at the chair umpire as he crashed out of the Australian Open after an epic five-hour clash with Kei Nishikori. SPAIN’S Ministry of Public...
Jan 23, 2019
As the British House of Commons prepared to vote on Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal , the Spanish government has launched an information website listing the various issues that citizens and businesses will face after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union.... Air travel In the air travel section, one of the questions involves flying to Britain with a Spanish airline “that could lose its license, according to media reports.” This is an indirect reference to former Spanish flag carr...
Jan 16, 2019
Terry Whitehead joins Neil and Vince for this edition of our weekly podcast. Madrid is currently drawing up contingency plans for its relationship with Britain. Citizens. Spain counts on the largest community of British residents in the EU (around 300,000), and a high number of Spaniards living in the UK (116,000). Aviation. Air traffic is a much more complex issue. Beyond the general uncertainty related to a key area for tourism, Spain is faced with the specific problem of Iberia – the former f...
Jan 09, 2019
Spanish politicians from all sides of the political spectrum have reacted to King Felipe VI’s Christmas message, which was broadcast on December 24 and was dedicated in large part to the challenges facing the country’s young people. “You have talent, you believe in peace, you are open to the world because you are, and you feel, European, you are humanitarian, you are committed to social causes, to the fight against climate change and the defense of the environment,” the monarch said in his addre...
Jan 02, 2019
ONLY 1,489 of the 10,816 Moroccans who arrived in Spain irregularly this year were afterwards expelled from the country. ........ The Spanish government is this week taking to Congress a new strategy for Africa that focuses on investment, peace missions, a greater business presence, and what it terms “orderly mobility” between the continent and Spain. There are notable differences between bilingual education in each of Spain’s regions, especially when it comes to the English skills required of t...
Dec 19, 2018
TRAIN union CC.OO. has announced two additional strikes for December 21 and January 7. There was an existing train strike planned for this Friday 14, which at present is still set to go ahead.Renfe and Adif announced in a press release this morning (Tuesday), the main reason for the industrial action is not having enough staff to cover train routes during the busy Christmas season. TERRORIST group Daesh have issued a video threatening future terror attacks on Spain, allegedly citing a return to ...
Dec 12, 2018
French President Emmanuel Macron caved in and suspended hated fuel tax hikes in a victory for the Yellow Vest protesters. In a humiliating U-turn, the government said it was planning to freeze upcoming increases on regulated electricity and gas prices following emergency talks at the Elysee Palace. Vox has swept its way into the Andalusian regional parliament on a national platform that includes no specific plans for the region. The far-right party rejects Spain’s highly decentralized system gra...
Dec 05, 2018
British Prime Minister Theresa May has denied she ceded to Spanish demands over Gibraltar in the negotiations over the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the EU, a process commonly referred to as Brexit. Speaking to the House of Commons on Monday, May said: “We are proud that Gibraltar is British and our position on sovereignty has not and will not change.” Her comments came after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said the political agreement reached over Gibraltar – a disputed British Overseas...
Nov 28, 2018
POLITICIANS across Spain jumped on comments from a senior official this week in which he let slip that the date of the next general election may be brought forward.Jose Luis Abalos, the left-leaning Partido Socialista’s (PSOE) Organisational Secretary, said the party had not ruled out holding a ‘Super Sunday’ on May 26. .............. A national vote has to be held no later than Sunday July 26 2020. THE Spanish government and authorities in Gibraltar have made a series of agreements which cover ...
Nov 21, 2018
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will step down as German Chancellor, a position she has held since 2005, when her current term ends in 2021, a source inside her CDU party has said. Two seven-year-old children have died in the Mediterranean as hundreds of migrants sought to reach Spain from Morocco, a Spanish NGO said Saturday. Meanwhile 16 Moroccan migrants were reported missing after another boat capsized off the coast of north Morocco. According to the International Organization for Migration ...
Oct 30, 2018
Spain has not joined the group of European countries most critical of the death of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who went missing on October 2 after walking into Saudi Arabia’s consulate in Istanbul................... A Spanish-Saudi consortium has built the high-speed train to Mecca, a €6.7-billion project that began in 2011 and was inaugurated this month. SPAIN’S ruling political party has reportedly watered down plans to reform laws which have seen protests banned after the Prime Mini...
Oct 24, 2018
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Podemos leader Pablo Iglesias on Thursday sealed a deal to reinforce the former’s minority government and avoid early elections. THE SUPREME COURT in Madrid has ordered two children of an elderly woman to serve a 17-year sentence in prison for leaving their mother to die “in a cruel way”. The defendants were condemned by the judge for their “absolute laziness” in caring for their sick mother, 76, neglecting her “most basic needs” of food and hygiene. Prio...
Oct 17, 2018
Thousands joined a rally of the fledging VOX party on Sunday, a far-right political party that vows to “defend Spain” from immigration, independence movements and political correctness. Spain's newest party, that was founded in 2013 and has struggled to gain traction on Spain’s political stage, held the rally at Madrid’s Vistalegre stadium where it claimed to be a sellout with 10,000 attendees and a further 3,000 waiting at the doors. MADRID’S High Court today found 85-year-old retired doctor Ed...
Oct 09, 2018
Supporters of Catalan independence on Monday cut off major roads, blocked the AVE high-speed rail link and organized street marches on the first anniversary of an unauthorized independence referendum and a police crackdown that made headlines across the world last year. Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Thursday, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez defended multilateralism, diversity and legal immigration, underscoring that Spain is one of the few European coun...
Oct 03, 2018
A new study by the Pew Research Center has found that 86% of Spaniards support welcoming refugees – the highest percentage of 18 nations surveyed, including 10 EU countries. According to the survey, only 13% of Spaniards said they would “oppose accepting refugees fleeing violence and war.”........The survey shows that Italy, Poland and Hungary were the least-welcoming countries for refugees in Europe. SPECTATORS watched in horror during Barcelona’s annual La Mercè festival when a human tower or ...
Sep 26, 2018
Two British tourists remained in a 'very serious condition' in a Paris hospital after being stabbed repeatedly by an illegal Afghan immigrant who tried to use them as human shields. Sweden is facing weeks - if not months - of political uncertainty and complex coalition talks after neither of the country's two main blocs were able to secure a majority in yesterday's general election. Several mainstream parties lost support in favour of the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), who won 17.6 per cent of...
Sep 12, 2018
French and British fishermen have clashed in the English Channel over a hoard of scallops - the latest flare-up in a years-long war over the prized shellfish. SPANISH police are trying to round up the 116 sub-Saharan migrants who stormed a border crossing using force and return them to Morocco. The migrants allegedly threw quicklime and battery acid at border officers as they stormed into the Spanish territory of Ceuta. The Spanish government of Socialist Party (PSOE) Prime Minister Pedro Sánche...
Aug 29, 2018
PASSENGERS were left in tears after their flight to the Spanish holiday island of Mallorca was cancelled because the ‘crew was too tired’. The easyJet flight from Belfast to Palma was called off at the last minute, leaving 146 passengers home and dry. .AN easyJet flight from Manchester Airport to Gibraltar diverted to Portugal last Sunday due to a 'disruptive' passenger onboard. AN IRISH father who was travelling from Spain with his five-year-old daughter claims he was told he would be arrested ...
Aug 22, 2018
.AN ENORMOUS span of a road bridge in Genoa, Italy has collapsed killing scores of motorists and trapping many more in the rubble. It is believed that the occupants of ten vehicles were in the vicinity of the Morandi bridge when a 200- metre stretch of the structure collapsed during a heavy storm on Tuesday. The Polizia di Stato have shared footage of parts of the bridge crumbling into the water Dozens of vehicles burned in Sweden's four major cities - Stockholm, Malmo, Gothenburg and Uppsala - ...
Aug 14, 2018
The heat wave which hit Spain last Wednesday has claimed eight lives, ..Spain’s national weather service Aemet on Monday announced the end of the heat wave and forecast a gradual drop in temperatures. Italy’s interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has accused Spain of “encouraging out-of-control immigration.” SPAIN’S National Police force has arrested seven people suspected of large-scale migrant smuggling. The organised crime gang would smuggle the migrants from French-speaking African countries to...
Aug 07, 2018
SPAIN’S national Met Office has issued its first heatwave warning of 2018 and experts are warning tourists that they may struggle to acclimatise to the extreme heat. Temperatures are expected to hit at least 40ºC in some parts of the country. ..... night time ‘lows’ are expected to be 20ºC or above. ........ The regions worst hit by the heat will be Andalucia, Madrid, the Balearic Islands, Extremadura and Castilla La-Mancha. Hundreds of taxi drivers on Tuesday blocked one of Madrid’s main thorou...
Jul 31, 2018
Officials have asked for US drones 'to observe and detect any suspicious activity' as it emerged 15 fires had started at the same time in three different areas near Athens - possibly by criminals intending to ransack homes once they were abandoned by fleeing residents The Tour de France was thrown into chaos on Tuesday after a farmers' strike spilled into the middle of the road....British cyclist Geraint Thomas was caught up in the worst of the protest, as police fired pepper spray at the farmer...
Jul 25, 2018
A BRITISH holidaymaker has survived after plummeting seven floors from a balcony at a Mallorca hotel and landing on a car bonnet following a row with his partner........... A five-foot tsunami has hit tourist beaches in parts of Majorca and Menorca. A wave measuring almost five feet hit Ciutadella on the west coast of Menorca in the early hours of Monday morning. ...... Meteotsunami have been recorded reaching heights of 6ft (1.8m) or more. Undocumented migrants will have access to public health...
Jul 18, 2018
In the World Cup Spain go home losing on penalties to Russia and England go through beating Colombia on penalties. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Tuesday told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that a country’s contribution to global security cannot be measured simply by a spending percentage, ........... A FOUR-YEAR-OLD boy has drowned in a hotel swimming pool in Ibiza. The Dutch national was on holiday with his family in Sant Antoni when he fell in to the pool at around 2.30pm on...
Jul 04, 2018
Three weeks after becoming Spanish prime minister in a successful no- confidence motion that brought down the conservative government of Mariano Rajoy, Pedro Sánchez knows what he wants to do – but also what he doesn’t want to do. ............. SPAIN’S government is planning to reform a law that gives police the power to hand out sanctions which have been used to ban demonstrations outside parliament among other measures. ............ AN 85-YEAR-OLD doctor is to become the first person to stand ...
Jun 27, 2018
