From The Digital Editor
Walter Finch
Dear Olive Press readers,
We are back with another week of news in Spain and it’s been a mixed bag of politics, property news, the usual horror crimes and Ryanair.
But we’ll start with the perennial hot topic of migration, as an olive growing coop in Cordoba has started a scheme to fly in foreigners – mainly from Morocco – to work the fields. Hardly a new phenomenon, but it triggers the usual crowd – especially when the people-trafficking trade from Algeria to Almeria is going so strong. The Strait’s narco scourge have turned their hands to smuggling humans into Spain and the Guardia Civil seem powerless to stop it – as you can read up on in our in-depth report.
Not coincidentally, a band of Algerian teenagers landed in Ibiza this week. But it wasn’t your usual tale – the group of seven friends stole a pleasure boat and piloted it 300km through busy shipping lanes without any navigational skills or gadgets – a remarkable feat. And they filmed themselves laughing and hollering the whole way.
Speaking of narcos, rather grim news emerged this week that revealed one of the key ways the criminals smuggle drugs – but with a bit too much information. One poor guy was tortured in Sevilla for three days in a very horrible way – read on if you wish to know the gory details.
Not far away in Umbrique, a bull run went horribly wrong when a spectator failed to climb to safety in time. Shocking video captured the moment the beast caught the man. Again, only for those with a strong stomach.
There’s been an update on the Scottish mafia slayings in Fuengirola – it seems a team of female spotters were used to track the location of Ross Monaghan and Eddie Lyons Jr, two feared mob bosses shot dead on May 31.
Pedro Sanchez has been busy standing up to Israel, first by branding their war in Gaza a genocide and secondly by formally embargoing all weapons sales to the country. Washington hit back that Sanchez was ‘emboldening terrorists‘ in a diplomatic clash that is only escalating. Arms will still be sent from US bases in Andalucia, it seems.
Here at the Olive Press we’re well-known for our extensive and in-depth property news and coverage. This week we’ve brought you where different nationalities are buying in Spain, predictions that the country’s soaring housing market is nowhere near peaking, and an explainer on why prices are rising twice as fast as the EU average. Don’t say we don’t spoil you.
Ryanair has stepped up its war on Aena, the Spanish airport operator. Fresh from hacking around two million seats to Spain, Ryanair chief executive Michael O’Leary has said he’ll slash a million more if Aena doesn’t back down on airport taxes. But it could backfire on the Irishman – Vueling has already stepped offering to replace Ryanair.
For those who travel between the UK and Spain on a frequent basis, we have created a very useful explainer on the key takeaways of the recent landmark agreement reached between Keir Starmer and Sanchez at a London summit last week.
And Costa del Sol residents should be pleased to know that another glaring gap in the coastal footpath from Manilva to Malaga is set to be completed. This time near San Pedro. We have helpfully explained where all the gaps are on the magnificent walk and what the status is with fixing them.
I’ll leave you this week with the heartening tale of beachgoers in Mijas who gathered together to form a human chain to rescue a child in danger of being swept out to sea when the waves turned rough.
Best,
Walt
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