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Reuters
18-07-2025
- Health
- Reuters
Spain reports bird flu outbreak on turkey farm
PARIS, July 18 (Reuters) - Spain has reported an outbreak of highly pathogenic H5N1 bird flu on a fattening turkey farm in the southwestern region of Extremadura, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said, citing Spanish authorities. The spread of avian influenza, commonly called bird flu, has ravaged flocks around the world, disrupting supply and fuelling higher food prices. Its spread to mammals, including dairy cows in the United States, has raised concerns among governments about a risk of human transmission. The outbreak killed almost the entire flock of 6,895 turkeys, with the 10 surviving birds slaughtered as a precaution, the report said.
The Independent
16-07-2025
- The Independent
The 10 shoddy holiday behaviours that should be banned – but aren't
This may go down in history as the summer of tourist hate. We've had the residents of Soller and the Venetians waving placards saying ' tourists go home', and now the Spanish authorities have banned visitors from walking barefoot, having picnics and drinking booze in the street. Are they mad? Is that all? It's taken them this long to crack (by some miracle) and now they're focusing on getting people to wear flip flops? This new so-called crackdown doesn't even scratch the surface of offences (mostly British) tourists commit without even thinking about it. Fortunately, some of us have been keeping a mental list of things that should be banned on holiday for a while. This is the short version. 1. Shoddy shorts behaviour Never mind bare feet, what about bum cracks on show and buttock cheeks lolling out of the bottom of teeny tiny cut-off shorts? Also, just as offensive, are those board shorts that double as swimming trunks for use in your hotel pool, when you know the owner travelled in them, lives in them, sleeps in them, and will be back on easyJet wearing them damp from a night stretched out on the edge of the fountain in the piazza. 2. General unpreparedness This is a broad umbrella offence encompassing the following standard tourist offences: getting third degree burns from the sun because you fell asleep on a lilo while wearing a litre of baby oil; getting swept out to sea on a lilo because you have no concept of tide; getting four negronis and a bottle of cava drunk and having to be transported home in a luggage cart; going for a walk in 40C wearing flip flops and a vest. 3. Instruction blindness Aka ignoring all the signs saying treacherous paths and turn back now etc. British tourists seem to suffer from instruction blindness more than others – we always know better, bring on the skull and cross bones (we're not phased) and if we end up lodged in a cactus at the bottom of a ravine it will make a cracking story in the pub back home. 4. Insisting on taking out a boat Even when you are not confident riding a bicycle and have zero idea about wind direction or what you do with an anchor. But there you are heading off-grid without any bottled water. You do you. 5. Assuming there will always be somewhere open... ...the way Tesco and Sainsbury's are always open in the UK, and then discovering that it really is not possible to find petrol or flip flops anywhere in the south of France at 1pm and especially on Sunday. 6. Booze in the street Yes, very boring if there's a drunk crowd under your pensione window all night – but what about the music blasting out of their portable speaker thingy? The sound on those things is an outdoor concert for 65,000 people-type quality. Unbelievable. And is urinating in public on the banned list? Because we all know where there's a lot of booze going down, and you're outdoors, you're only ever half an hour away from deciding it's OK to relieve yourself in an alleyway/restaurant doorway plant pot/behind the bins. 7. Pool PDA Kissing/making out in the shallows. Has anyone ever thought 'Ah, look how in love that sweet couple are?' when witnessing Geoff bouncing Jill on his knee (we think) in the shallow end? No, they have not. We all want it to stop and go away so we can get back to reading our holiday book. 8. Very loud talking/facetiming around the pool Some of us have asked people (one having a conversation from the shallow end with her friend on the sun lounger near the deep end) to please keep it down, and it doesn't always go well. Legislation along the lines of 'respect that not everyone wants to hear what you did last night' would do the trick. As for facetiming, they need to just ban it outright in hotels and restaurants. It's horribly invasive at home, but factor in the disinhibition tourists suffer from, and you're in a fresh hell situation. 9. Assuming the locals are deaf There should be a ban on people who insist on talking in their own language and simply raise their voices and pointing if it doesn't get the message across. If they refuse, that's money for local interpreters/guides; if they use Google Translate, that'll keep them busy and stop them patronising the locals, and if they pick up some useful phrases, it's so much the better for everyone. 10. Sightmobbing Not sightseeing because who's looking, really? Mostly, they're reversing into priceless artworks while trying to get comedy pictures. So, no groups over 10. No cameras. No selfie sticks. No selfies. Aren't we already feeling more like braving the Uffizi? What are your holiday icks? Tell us below...
Telegraph
20-06-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Spain given power over Gibraltar visas in Brexit deal
Spain was granted new powers over visas and residency permits in Gibraltar in secret UK-EU talks over the Rock's new Brexit deal. UK and Gibraltarian ministers claimed there was no threat to British sovereignty after announcing the agreement to keep the border on the isthmus open last week. But Spanish authorities will be able to carry out checks on people moving to the British Overseas Territory and play a joint role with Gibraltar on immigration and asylum cases. That means a UK subject hoping to move to Gibraltar will be vetted by Spanish authorities working on behalf of the EU. Gibraltar's government told Bloomberg, which first reported the concession, that it retained the final decision on asylum and whether or not to grant residency permits. A spokesman said the deal 'does not compromise sovereignty in any respect, and provides huge opportunities for traders in Gibraltar'. He added that the deal protected the 'fluidity of people necessary for the continued success and expansion of our services industries, especially the online gaming, insurance and financial services sectors'. Gibraltar would be allowed to issue a limited number of visas on humanitarian grounds, which would only be valid on the Rock, an EU official said. There would be strong cooperation between police in Spain and Gibraltar, which Madrid still views as a colony that should be Spanish. The deal ensures that Gibraltar's border with Spain remains open after Brexit, and means the 15,000 Spanish workers who cross into the disputed territory every day will not have to have their passports stamped. Failure to do the deal would have meant those workers using up their quota of visa-free travel to Gibraltar, and risked long delays at the border, which would be damaging to the economies on both sides of the frontier. Border checks will be moved to Gibraltar's nearby airport after the Rock effectively becomes an entry point to the EU's Schengen zone of passport-free movement. The EU demanded the new visa powers in the long-running behind-closed doors talks to protect the Schengen Area, which includes Spain. Once inside Schengen, it is possible to cross borders within the free movement zone without showing your passport. The deal also removes physical checks on goods at the frontier with Spain. After The Telegraph revealed details of how Spanish guards would police Gibraltar's airport last week, Fabian Picardo, the chief minister, said: 'We have not ceded any control of Gibraltar to any authority.' A day later, David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, was forced to admit that Spanish border guards would be able to stop Britons entering the Rock through its airport because of the deal. Spain's government announced last week after the deal was agreed that Spanish national police 'will carry out full Schengen controls' in Gibraltar's port as well as the airport. Mr Picardo, however, claimed Madrid had agreed that its police officers could only operate within the dual-use security space in the airport, which he calls the 'Schengen shack', straddling the border between the British territory and Spain. During an interview on Gibraltar's GBC television station, he denied he had compromised on his promise to not allow Spanish 'boots on the ground' with Spanish officers being able to visit the port. He said people arriving in Gibraltar from the sea would be driven from the port to the Schengen shack in the airport, but admitted that Spanish officers could accompany Gibraltarian police in these trips to and from the marina. 'They will not be in uniform and unarmed, merely observing that we are bringing an individual to the place where the immigration checks will take place and the only place where Spain can act, which is in the Schengen shack,' said Mr Picardo. The chief minister said he was satisfied that he had 'managed to stave off Spain having a presence in Gibraltar' without the need for the EU's Frontex border security force being deployed for a four-year period, as was envisaged in the in-principle agreement that kicked off the four-year negotiations. Negotiations over a post-Brexit deal for Gibraltar dragged on for more than five years after the end of the transition period until last week's breakthrough. Talks were mired over sovereignty concerns in Gibraltar, which has been British since 1713, but were helped by warmer UK-EU relations under the Labour government. In May, Sir Keir Starmer agreed a Brexit reset deal that included a defence pact and gave the EU 12 years' access to British fishing waters. It also included a commitment to align with EU plant and animal health rules to boost trade, which critics warned was an acceptable compromise on sovereignty that would make Britain a 'ruletaker' from Brussels.
