Here is The Leader daily briefing with the news from around Spain, things to do locally, the forecast for the day, and other notable events Today in Spain.
News Around Spain
Tuesday the 9th will continue with the publication of France’s trade balance and Italy’s unemployment rate. We will also know this indicator of the Eurozone, which last month registered an unemployment rate of 6.5%. Likewise, industrial production data in Germany will be published, which will show us the evolution of manufacturing activity in the main European power.
The Ministry of Health held an urgent meeting on Monday to address the sharp increase in respiratory infections, and the subsequent stress on the health system, with the Minister, Mónica García, and the counsellors of the Autonomous Communities, meeting to analyse the respiratory virus epidemic that is affecting the majority of territories and draw conclusions in the interest of public health. However, despite some regions already mandating methods to control the spread, such as the wearing of masks in healthcare centres, the meeting on Monday ended without agreement, with some areas wanting to extend the mandate to cover pharmacies, and the autonomous community representatives will instead send, in the next 48 hours, their allegations to the document presented by the ministry.
The Guardia Civil has arrested four people, two men and two women, believed responsible for several crimes linked to the irregular marketing of canned tuna from a company based in La Rioja. During the investigation in which Europol and the Italian Carabinieri have collaborated, some 120,000 tins of tuna and 45,000 litres of oil have been seized. Most of the items seized were destined to supply small businesses and large food chains in Spain and Italy imminently, mainly during the Christmas holidays. Some of the items had been returned to the company, relabelled, and sent back out, others had been opened and topped up, and many of the items, such as the oil, didn´t contain what the label stated.
Following months of negotiation, Telefónica will open the registration period for the Employment Regulation File (ERE) today, that will affect the redundancy of up to a total of 3,421 workers, representing 21% of the nearly 16,000 employees of the three affected companies of Telefónica Spain. The final number of those included in the ERE that management and unions have agreed on is 33% less than the 5,124 departures that the company initially proposed. Telefónica has set aside 1,3 billion euro for the layoffs and calculates that the file will mean average annual savings in direct expenses of 285 million euro from 2025.
A 29-year-old citizen of Dominican nationality will sit in the dock in the Provincial Court of Lugo today accused of sexually assaulting a friend of his with whom he had gone out for drinks the night before, attacking her the following morning when she was initially sleeping and in a state of intoxication. The prosecutor’s office requests that the defendant be sentenced to eight years in prison and another seven years of supervised release. He also demands that he compensate the victim with 15,000 euro, and a restraining order for 15 years.
The Valencia Court resumes the trial today against a man accused of stabbing his 11-year-old son up to 24 times on April 3, 2022 in his home on the child’s 11th birthday, and letting the child’s mother hear the child’s pleas as he was brutally killed on the telephone. The intention was with the purpose of “causing as much harm as possible” to the mother. The trial should have begun on December 18 and should have been over as the father was set to admit the facts, but taking exception to the permanent, reviewable prison sentence, he changed his mind at the last minute, and so the judge postponed the case so as not to clash with Christmas.
To read these articles in full, visit SpainToday.news.
Things to Do Today
There´s still not a lot going on at the moment after the Christmas rush.
In Guardamar, from the weekend, you can sign up for yoga on the beach.
Torrevieja’s municipal swimming pool is closed today whilst the venue has been taken over for the recording of a feature film starring the actress Macarena Gómez.
For more local events, pick up The Leader newspaper every Monday, and This is Torrevieja for Torrevieja events.
Local Markets
Local markets on a Tuesday can be found at Benijofar, Daya Nueva, La Marina (Elche), Orihuela, San Bartalome (Orihuela), and San Fulgencio.
The roads will of course be busy around those locations.
Traffic and Travel
With 21,000 flights scheduled across the Euro Control area on Tuesday, the testing of new equipment in the Paris Air Traffic Control centre is expected to cause capacity issues, which could last for the duration of the test, starting today and lasting for 4 weeks.
Flights between the UK and Spain sometimes avoid French air space by diverting over the Bay of Biscay, which is an alternative scenario available to minimise capacity, but those flights then take longer and can lead to subsequent delays as the day progresses.
Capacity issues are also expected in the airspace in the south of Spain, and weather conditions might impact flights around the island of Tenerife.
There are weather warning in place, which we´ll look at in a second, but on the roads, in wet weather remember to take things slow and gently, allowing much more room between you and the vehicle in front, and in poor visibility, use your headlights, not just daytime running lights. In the event of you coming across a flooded area, it´s never a good idea to drive through it, as it only takes a small amount of water to damage your engine.
In the event of snow, take things even slower, and if you come across a blue circular sign with a picture of snow chains on a wheel, it means that snow chains are obligatory, and you must not go beyond the sign unless your vehicle is equipped with them.
The DGT traffic department offers more advice and traffic forecasts on their website, dgt.es.
Weather
Nationally, we still have the threat of very cold weather leading to snow in the second half of this week, but before then, we now have weather warnings in place in various areas for rain, which could be particularly heavy in places on Tuesday and Wednesday. In fact, the Spanish met office, Aemet, has issued a DANA warning for various areas, so it´s a good idea to keep an eye on the local weather forecasts where you are, which you can do on the official Aemet website or download the app.
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