Bob James’ Spanish News Headlines – Visual format – Dateline: 29/03/23
A 27-year-old worker at a Madrid hotel hosting the Morocco football team was arrested for an alleged hate crime after posting derogatory comments on Islam and racist slurs against the players on social media.
Local police said a waiter at the capital’s Eurostars Hotel asked players to take photographs with him. He then uploaded the images to Instagram with xenophobic insults and tagged the Moroccan team’s account, with the post quickly receiving over 70,000 views.
The man is due to appear before a judge shortly, police said.
The waiter was an external worker hired on an occasional basis and not part of the hotel’s regular staff, the group said.
The government will meet with food retailers and producers today to address stubborn inflation in food prices, so the Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said yesterday.
The government, business associations representing supermarkets and farming and food processing groups will discuss evolving prices and margins to determine when consumers will be likely to feel the impact of government aid to industry, such as direct and indirect energy and fertilizer subsidies, Calvino told a press conference.
“As has happened in other sectors, sooner or later this drop in costs has to be transferred to final prices and our interest is that this transfer and this drop in food prices become a reality as soon as possible,” she said.
Jose Manuel Alvarez the head of a grain producers association said last week that falling wholesale prices should already be reflected on supermarket shelves.
Juan Roig, chief executive of Mercadona, this month said the supermarket was simply passing on higher prices reflected in the supply chain even as the company posted near-record profits.
Year-on-year consumer prices in Spain rose 6% in February, up from 5.9% in January, driven by food prices which rose 16.6%. Processed food registered the highest increase with a 16.8% rise.
Sixteen arrests have taken place in Murcia for robbery with violence and intimidation .. vehicle theft, human trafficking, drug trafficking and receiving.
Seventeen house searches were carried out in Torre Pacheco. As a result a revolver with ammunition, 28 vehicles, bladed weapons, €26,000, 600 packs of tobacco, jewellery, tools, marijuana, ecstasy, gloves and balaclavas have been seized.
The investigation is still open and could involve a total of 80 crimes
Despite the record number of international tourists heading for Spain as their favourite travel destination there’s a significant labour shortage in the hospitality industry.
In addition, human resources company Randstad, says that Spain needs at least 60,000 additional workers in order to deal with the current situation.
The National Institute of Statistics revealed that in January alone, Spain welcomed 4.1 million international tourists, accounting for an increase of 65.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.
That’s the latest from TRE, I’m Bob James.
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