Weekend temperatures above 35C in many parts of Spain, EU in favour of airline hand luggage charges that Spain opposes and more news on Friday June 6th.
Spain snubs US’s call for 5% Nato spend
The US continues to demand that European allies increase their defence spending to 5 percent of GDP, “including” Spain, Washington warned this week.
But the Spanish government sees it differently as Defence Minister Margarita Robles asserted on Thursday that 2 percent is “sufficient” to meet Nato’s capabilities.
As things stand, Spain is the outlier among Nato allies for not bowing to the US’s spending demands.
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EU in favour of airline hand luggage charges that Spain opposes
The European Union on Thursday voted in favour of the regulation that will continue to allow airlines to charge for carry-on baggage.
Spain, Portugal, Germany, and Slovenia voted against the measure, while Austria and Estonia abstained.
This decision is not binding and still needs to be voted on by the European Parliament.
“The airline lobby has achieved in Europe what it failed to achieve in Spain. The EC has adopted a new regulation for air passengers that ends free hand luggage in the cabin and reduces the right to claim for airline delays,” Spanish Consumer Affairs Minister Pablo Bustinduy denounced on social media.
Last November, Spain’s leftist government fined five budget airlines including Ryanair and EasyJet €179 million ($187 million) for “abusive practices” such as charging passengers for hand luggage.
Weekend temperatures above 35C in many parts of Spain
On Saturday, temperatures will exceed 34 or 35 degrees Celsius in Aragón, the south of the Valencian region, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, and large areas of Andalusia.
“These temperatures, in these areas, will be between 5 and 10 degrees above normal. So, once again, midsummer heat,” says Rubén del Campo, spokesperson for Spain’s Aemet national weather agency.
On Sunday, temperatures will drop in the eastern part of the peninsula and continue to rise in the west. Temperatures will exceed 35C across most of the southern half. And in Córdoba and Seville, the mercury is likely to hit 40C.
The heat is set to continue into the start of next week.
Female Irish tourist arrested for molesting Swede in Magaluf
A 37-year-old Irish tourist has been arrested for touching a 20-year-old male Swede’s genitals at a sauna in the Mallorca party town of Magaluf.
According to the young man’s police account, the pair had been speaking at the hotel spa before the woman lunged out at his privates in the Turkish baths and refused to stop when he told her he wasn’t interested.
The Swedish holidaymaker proceeded to contact Civil Guard police, who arrested the woman before being freed, but not before setting a court date for her.
