POLICE in Madrid managed to stop an apparent suicide attempt in a city centre hotel that is being used to quarantine Covid-19 sufferers. The 57-year-old woman had locked herself in a room in the Hotel Colon, based on the cities main shopping street, and the police were alerted by staff. They managed to break down the door, which the woman had jammed shut, and found her with a broken glass, apparently as...
THE vital hospitality and retail sectors in Spain face losses of up to €80 billion this year and the possibility of over 200,000 job losses in bars and restaurants. According to data just published by Anged, an employer’s association. Director Javier Millan-Astary said that they faced the largest loss across Spain’s various work sectors as they were the first to close and will likely be among the...
FAR right political party Vox is in trouble again for having misused social media, this time an image of a deserted Gran Via in Madrid. The Spanish equivalent of Oxford Street, Gran Via is usually packed with tourists and locals, doing everything from shopping to theatre visits on the famous 7k long road. The Vox image shows an images of the street with just a solitary delivery driver on it. They have...
THE Spanish Traffic Directorate (DGT) have said that police patrols and other measures will be significantly increased over Easter to stop people travelling to their holiday homes. Overall, road use is down by 95% and most are staying at home but there has still been a steady stream of people travelling from places such as Madrid to the Costas and elsewhere, defying the law and bringing the threat of...
A travel agency that has been in business for over half a century has become the first major Spanish travel firm to declare bankruptcy as a direct or indirect result of the current health crisis. Viajes Urbis has its HQ in Palma de Mallorca and nine others across Spain including Benidorm, Malaga and the Canary Islands. They have specialised in sun and beach holidays since the 1960s and have an...
A “well-known businessman” in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia) has been arrested on suspicion of stealing five million euros worth of vital medical supplies, including two million face masks, something which are in desperately short supply across Spain. The goods were in a warehouse in Santiago and belonged to a company that had gone bankrupt prior to the current crisis. The health authorities were...
THE Spanish Ministry of Agriculture has said that farmers desperately need between 100,000 and 150,000 temporary workers to harvest crops before they go to waste. It is coming up to the season for stoned fruit such as cherries and peaches, which only have a short window when they can be harvested, but the current health crisis has added to an ongoing labour shortage in recent years. This means that pickers...
Spain says it is close to passing the peak of infections as the number of coronavirus deaths fell for the second day in a row. The toll of 809 deaths in one day is the lowest in Spain for a week. It is said that government officials are trying to get masks for all citizens as part of plans to eventually ease restrictions. Currently face masks are almost impossible to get hold of , and previosly said they...
ARGUABLY Spain’s most celebrated chef, Ferran Adria of multi-award winning restaurant El Bulli, has been online showing people how to cook and prepare takes on his food at home while many of them have a little more time for this sort of thing. He has focused on affordable, classic and simple cooking that, of course, tastes good. Mr Adria posted on his Twitter account “the best way to face difficult...
MARCH saw a record rise in unemployment in Spain, increasing by just over 300,000 to 3,548,312 according to data released today (2 April) by the Ministry of Social Security. The “true” out of work figure may be higher than this as the actual amount of registered jobs fell by 830,000 although less than half of these actually signed on as unemployed for whatever reason. As almost all lay-offs are due to...