Spanish News Today Editors Roundup Weekly Bulletin Sept 15
FEATURED ARTICLES: "Covid infections skyrocket and vaccinations begin again" and "Pair of Brits caught on video having sex in plane toilet on Ibiza flight"
It’s Judgment Day. It’s been six months since the UK and Spain finally reached their agreement to allow any British residents in Spain who hadn’t previously done so to swap their UK driving licences for Spanish ones.
If you managed to change your licence okay with no problems, congratulations. If you’re not a resident in Spain, you’re okay with your British licence still. If you only became a resident less than 6 months ago, you’ve got until 6 months from the date of your residency to make the swap.
And if you just plum forgot to do it but still want to drive, you’ll now have to sit a Spanish driving test.
In other news, it seems like the number of coronavirus cases are increasing, not only in Spain but all over Europe, and some places are even starting to roll out more Covid vaccinations for the autumn.
Meanwhile, there are others who might be feeling a slight prick of embarrassment after a pair of lusty holidaymakers from the UK went viral this week for the mile-high antics on an easyJet flight to Ibiza.
Ready for take-off…
Coronavirus
For the past couple of months we’ve been keeping you updated on how the Covid-19 situation is evolving in Spain. We say ‘situation’ since, according to the experts all across the EU, the actual pandemic is in the rear-view mirror, but unfortunately cases of coronavirus have continued to grow all summer. Now, with winter just around the corner, the health services have the double whammy of Covid and flu to contend with.
A study carried out by consultancy firm IQVIA on 6,500 pharmacies across Spain has revealed that the sale of antigen tests to detect Covid-19 has increased by 556% between August 28 and September 3 compared to the last week in June. During this small stretch, more than half a million tests were sold, coinciding with a substantial rise in the number of hospitalisations due to coronavirus.
But while these increased admissions have been mirrored all over Europe, the World Health Organisation (WHO) isn’t unduly worried and insists that the high vaccination rate should keep the worst of the illness at bay. The main concern is the new variant, known as eg.5 or Eris, which is currently sweeping through more than 45 countries and behaves in a curiously similar way to a bad dose of the flu.
Although this variant hasn’t been linked to increased mortality so far, it is known to be far more transmissible than previous strains.
As a result, the European Commission has just given the green light to a new vaccination designed to tackle the sub-variants.
Spain lifted the last of its restrictions on July 28, so it is no longer mandatory to wear masks in hospitals and pharmacies. However, given the increase in cases, some hospitals in the country have chosen to reintroduce face shields in recent weeks. One of the areas where masks are once again required in health setting is Valencia, so it comes as no surprise that the Community is one of the first to announce its autumn/winter combined flu and Covid jab campaign.
In recent days, Valencia regional health minister, Marciano Gómez, confirmed that the authorities will begin by offering the double inoculation to vulnerable patients in the week of October 16 to 23.
“We have already done our homework and we are going to start vaccinating against Covid and flu in the week of October 16 to 23 and, as it should be from a health and epidemiological point of view, with vulnerable, immunocompromised and high risk,” he explained.
Getting animated pt. I
Have you ever wondered where Walt Disney was from? No, probably not. Why would you? But it turns out there might be some link there with Spain…
In blatant disregard of the received wisdom that states the legendary animator was born and raised in the USA, the Almería town of Mojácar is embracing a tenuous claim to fame as the “possible” birthplace of Walt Disney.
According to long-standing local legend, Disney was the illegitimate son of an Andalucía-born washerwoman and doctor, and then immigrated to the United States when he was just a child.
More than just a fun little tale, this theory is being taken seriously by folks at the town hall, who have apparently been tracing documents in their archives and in the American media going back 35 years to support such a claim.
Not only that, but they also plan to launch several initiatives in collaboration with the ‘Walt Was Here Association’ to cement the celebrity’s connections with the area, including a large mural painted on the side of a local school, complete with a QR code that tells, in four different languages, “the entire journey made by this illustrious character and his mother, to emigrate from the locality to the United States.”
The council also has plans to rename the central plaza ‘Walt Disney Square’ and fill both it and the surrounding streets with decorations dedicated to Disney, with the aim of creating an official tour of the town aimed at movie buffs of all ages.
Sticking with beloved cartoons, and a curious link has also emerged between The Simpsons and Spain’s Region of Murcia. It turns out that this quiet, unassuming corner of Spain has been featured on the hit American series not once but twice!
We’ve all heard the stories of The Simpsons predicting Donald Trump’s presidency years before it happened or referencing the tragic Titanic submersible disaster which happened earlier this summer.
Well, while the creators of The Simpsons might appear to be time travellers, they are also well-known for taking inspiration from all over the globe, and viewers in Murcia were stunned last year when Homer himself not only described his favourite paella recipe, but specified that aspiring cooks should only use the world-famous Calasparra rice.
And that’s not The Simpsons’ only link to Murcia.
It turns out that a telecoms company in Alcantarilla has been receiving dozen of joke calls and messages from fans over the years after featuring in a classic Simpsons episode as the phone number for ‘SpringShield’.In what is probably an unlikely coincidence, the phone number for telecommunications company InnaTic appeared on screen in the episode ‘Poppa’s Got a Brand New Badge’, filmed 21 years ago, and the business has been receiving joke calls and texts ever since.
The phone number 636 555 347 2 pops up during one of the TV commercials, a number that is identical, with the exception of the 2 at the end, to the Murcia business.
InnaTic employee Alicia Manzanares explained that when the first messages asking for ‘SpringShield’ began flooding in, she had no idea what they meant and simply ignored them. It wasn’t until January 2022 that the penny finally dropped when an unknown caller let the Alcantarilla company know that it shared its digits with a famous fictional firm.
This same caller wisely advised the business to hold on to the number “as if it were gold because it appears in the best television series in history.”
Getting animated pt. II
On to animation of a different sort now, with a rather hilarious happening that involves British tourists who were literally caught with their pants down on an easyJet flight from London Luton to Ibiza.
In a hysterical video that has gone viral on social media, one of the easyJet crew members throws open the toilet door to raucous encouragement from other passengers and the entire plane can see the two Britons in a rather compromising position.
The man, whose pants are down, immediately slams the cubicle door with a cheeky grin on his face but not before giving the packed plane an eye-full.
Although there is no specific regulation that prohibits having sex on a plane, it could be seen as an administrative offence, a violation against local laws on exhibitionism or even a violation of the airline’s safety regulations.
Check out the video below but be warned – it’s not for the squeamish!
2 of the latest members to join the Mile High Club 😂 pic.twitter.com/WV3kttwusX
— Around Liverpool (@aroundliv) September 10, 2023
Murcia
You may be aware that the Spanish government is still – even almost two months after the general election – in limbo, with no clear winner able to emerge from the mêlée.
Well, the Region of Murcia has had its own hold up in political affairs for even longer. Since the local and regional elections that preceded the national ones by about a month, the PP party in Murcia, who won the most votes but not a majority, have been trying to wangle a deal that would allow their candidate and incumbent president, Fernando López Miras, to remain in power.
To do so, however, they had to concede some points to far-right pretenders to the throne, VOX. This week, though, and right at the last minute, the two political entities were able to overcome the blockage – which just goes to show that it was all just mere strongmanship and political bluff all along, and that they had the ability to solve the issue much sooner but didn’t want to.
López Miras has now been officially invested as Regional President once again this week, a role he has held since 2017. This next legislature, however, he will have to rule with VOX as minor coalition partner, rather than having a standalone mandate as he has up until now.
In his investiture speech, López Miras assured that education, employment and the environmental care of the Mar Menor would be the cornerstones of his legislature for the next 4 years.
Sadly, there are parts of the Region of Murcia which are no stranger to having mounds of dead fish wash up on the beaches. In the past, such incidents have happened in the Mar Menor, with thousands of specimens becoming beached on the sand, dead or dying, as a result of the high nitrate levels in the closed ecosystem of that protected lagoon essentially ‘suffocating’ the animals.
Well, while there hasn’t been anything quite so dramatic happen this week, there was a small-scale version of it on the Playa del Rihuete in Mazarrón on Tuesday when dozens of dead fish washed up on the shore, even as families and children were playing in the sand and swimming in the sea.
Eyewitnesses reported a foul stench emerge as the dead – but not rotting – fish gathered on the sand. As yet there has been no explanation as to where the fish came from and why they were washing up en masse on the beach.
The variation in size of the fish suggests they weren’t dumped by a fishing trawler out at sea, and it’s unlikely that a lack of oxygen such as happened in the Mar Menor is the cause because that habitat is notorious for its environmental problems and a similar situation hasn’t been developing in Mazarrón and the Mediterranean Sea over the last decade.One possible explanation is that the fish washing up dead in Mazarrón are linked to the heavy rainstorms experienced by some parts of the Costa Cálida that Tuesday. Whatever the case, an official from the town hall soon arrived and arranged for a cleanup crew to pick up the fish.
Unperturbed by this minor setback, the mayors, business leaders and tourism councillors from all the major Mar Menor towns, as well as Cartagena and Mazarrón, came together in a historical meeting this week to study how best they can promote the ‘Costa Cálida’ brand as a unit.
Perhaps the most interesting and exciting proposal to come out of the discussion was the agreement by all parties present to commission a technical and environmental feasibility study of a new railway link that would join the municipalities of the Mar Menor, from San Pedro del Pinatar and La Manga in the northeast, right down to Mazarrón and Águilas in the southwest.
Obviously, if it’s only just in the phase of studying the feasibility of such a project, we are still a long way off making such a train track a reality, but if it did materialise several years from now it would be a massive boon for all the coastal towns in Murcia and a potentially fantastic new public transport link.
Love tennis? Looking for something to do this weekend in Murcia? Get yourself down to the Racquets Club on La Manga Club resort to watch amateur teams from Belgium and the British Isles battle it out for the title of top player at the inaugural Micasamo Nations Cup.
The tournament is being held on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 10am, and spectators are invited down to watch, free of charge. Organisers say that if this first such event proves a success, there could be another at the end of October featuring Norwegian/Scandinavian teams! Watch this space…
Meanwhile, the wildly popular Fiestas de Cartagineses y Romanos in Cartagena is just kicking off, a colourful and enjoyable festival that celebrates the Roman roots of the city and involves lots of people dressing up in period costumes, marching, performing mock battles and enjoying the artisan fair. An absolute must if you’ve never been!
Don’t forget to check out our EVENTS DIARY for more events and activities coming up in the Region of Murcia:
Spain
Anyone who has been feeling the pinch of inflated prices this summer will be glad to know that the powers that be in Brussels have reviewed their figures and announced that Spain’s economy should grow more than expected this year.
On Monday September 11, the European Commission confirmed that the country’s GDP (gross domestic product) should advance by 2.2% before the year is out.
In general, and assuming that inflation is somewhat under control, when a nation’s GDP is increasing it means that both individuals and businesses can expect to be better off.
Now of course, we all know that inflation can’t exactly be described as ‘under control’ but it is stabilising somewhat, and if the EC’s forecasts hold fast, Spain will be the European economy that grows the most during 2023, blitzing past the eurozone average of 0.8%.
What’s more, the country’s financial recovery will more than double that of France (1%) and Italy (0.9%) and would far exceed the projected growth for the likes of the Netherlands (0.5%), Poland (0.5%) and Germany, which would close the year negatively with a decline in its GDP of 0.4%.
In an effort to double down on the potential for European economic growth the financial experts at the European Central Bank have decided to increase interest rates by another 0.25 points this Thursday, the ECB’s tenth rate rise.
What that means is that paying back a variable mortgage may become even more expensive than it already is for the four million households in Spain that have this type of loan, as well as those who have other sorts of loans, including those for cars, household appliances and more.
This summer Spain has seen its fair share of holiday tragedies but the season almost at its end, sadly the death toll keeps rising.
On Monday, much of northern Spain had been issued with weather warnings for torrential rains and storms and it was in just such conditions that a British couple visiting Asturias lost their lives. The man and woman, in their 60s, were riding a motorcycle along the A8 motorway in the municipality of Llanes when they lost control of the vehicle and were thrown into the road.
According to witnesses of the tragic event, the woman (65) was hit by another car after being spilled onto the tarmac and firefighters had to cut her body free from the underneath of the vehicle. Her 68-year-old partner was reportedly hit by a passing lorry.
Officials believe the British couple was holidaying in the northern town of Llanes, which is a popular tourist destination and widely considered to be one of the most picturesque coastal municipalities in Spain.
Staying in the north of Spain and this time we’re in the Pyrenees at the famous Santa Cilla aerodrome in Jaca, where 75-year-old experienced English pilot Mike Evans died when he crashed his glider upon landing. Known affectionately as ‘Little Mike’ because of his small stature, the flyer careened off the runway and slammed into a tree, according to witnesses.
Little Mike remained conscious for around 40 minutes after the crash before he went into cardiac arrest and passed away at the scene.
Alicante
The popular coastal city of Torrevieja was the scene of a horror head-on crash this week that resulted in the death or one driver and the arrest of another. The fatal accident occurred a single-lane stretch of the N-332 in the early hours of last Sunday morning.
According to the Guardia Civil, a young man fled the scene on foot shortly before 5am. The victim was a 44-year-old man of Peruvian nationality living in Guardamar.
Although the driver was long gone when police arrived at the scene, it was quickly established that his vehicle was a rental and car and the contract led officers to a 29-year-old Irish holidaymaker.
His passport was immediately flagged at the airport to prevent him from leaving the country and the young man was soon tracked down and arrested.
While he’s since been released from police custody, the tourist is being investigated for the crime of reckless homicide, which carries a prison sentence of between one and four years, and fleeing the scene of an accident, which could lead to three to six months behind bars.
If convicted, his driving licence will also be suspended.
Elsewhere in Europe, an expat-run company that has its base on the Costa Blanca has actually been called to Germany to carry out a massive project for the Heikendorf Town Hall there.
Ecosolarspain is a solar panel installation and energy efficiency company that has been on the Costa Blanca for more than 15 years now, and they’ve built up such a reputation that they’re used to getting work from as far afield as Germany.The project they just finished there was a massive industrial photovoltaic installation at the Heikendorf City Hall, where they put in 164 separate 66kwp solar panels on the roof of the local government building as part of an important push for greater energy efficiency.
In Alfaz del Pi this weekend, if you fancy one last hoopla then the Marina Baixa town is the place to be. From 10am on Saturday September 16 at the local sports centre, residents and visitors will be able to enjoy the traditional beach snack grilled sardines at the Sardinada a la Brasa.
For the less adventurous, there will be plenty of bread with tomato and ham to choose from. All proceeds from the event will go towards paying for November’s Fiestas Mayores del Cristo.
Check out the Costa Blanca What’s On and Where to Go Facebook group to see more things to do around Alicante province!
Andalucía
This summer that is just coming to an end has been one of the best on record for Malaga-Costa del Sol Airport, which closed out the tourist high season with an August in which it received more passengers than ever before.Specifically, an impressive 2.5 million travellers passed through the doors of the airport last month, around 78,000 every single day, which is 17.8% more than the same month in 2022.
It was the Brits who retained the top stop as the nationality that flew most to the Costa del Sol this August, with 615,754 holidaymakers from the UK landing at or flying out from the Andalucía airport. The next most frequent visitors, although a long way behind, were the Germans (187,250 flyers), followed by tourists from France (120,567), Ireland (115,610) and Italy (112,884).
In fact, these great growth statistics for the airport, which show the popularity of the Costa del Sol as a vacation destination continues to flourish, are reflected in the stats for 2023 as a whole. So far this year, a whopping 14,921,595 people passed through the airport terminal, 21.5% more than in same period of 2022.
Not all is love and light on the Costa del Sol, though, as an American man has been found dead, presumed murdered, in one of the inhabited caves in Nerja’s Barranco de Maro ravine.
The body of the middle-aged American man appears to have suffered from severe head injuries in the cave house where he had reportedly been living for several months.
That’s not all, as the man had previously foretold his own death publicly, having posted online that “an organised group of criminals is planning to kill me and get rid of my body”.
“If I disappear, they murdered me. If I am found at the bottom of a cliff, I was pushed and thrown. If I am found dead under any normal or unusual circumstances, I was definitely murdered,” he wrote on Facebook on August 28.
A foreigner has been arrested in connection with the death after the American identified his supposed soon-to-be-killer as a man known by the initials W.H. “from the former Soviet Union” who was “a convicted criminal who has been investigated by Europol and has served a considerable amount of time in prison. He has all the gang tattoos to prove it. He is an alcoholic, a sociopath and a pathological liar.”
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We’ve reached the end of the bulletin for this week. Thanks, as always, for reading and we’ll be back with another next week.
See ya!
