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The Olive Press Podcast Ep 4 - street vendors, Gib deal, animal cruelty and is Spain as hot as ever?
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Jul 3, 2025
The Olive Press gang return for the fourth episode of the podcast, in association with Staysure Insurance. On the agenda this week the team get deep under the surface of a number of timely topics, including the morals and ethics of buying from street sellers in Spain, the intricacies of Gibraltar's new deal - and what it means for us. They also tackle Spain's housing crisis and what can possible be done about it, Spain's record on animal cruelty and Mijas' infamous donkey taxis, and is Spain actually getting hotter, or is it the same heat as always?
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0:00
Animal welfare in Spain doesn't always go hand inhand, does it? Because there's so many stories and there's so much
0:05
tradition with bull fighting. People are buying homes, particularly here in Marbaya, because they might come here
0:10
three, four times a year, but they think they can rent them out. Yeah. And they actually can't get licenses. We always
0:17
get a comment saying Spain's always hot in the summer. And like, you know, we don't People go a bit crazy about this
0:23
stuff, but the rest is Spain.
0:29
Don't forget to subscribe to the Rest is Spain on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple
0:35
podcasts. Welcome to the Rest is Spain podcast by the Olive Press brought to you by
0:41
Stacial Expat Travel Insurance. I'm here with Walt Finch and John Clark. Welcome,
0:46
guys. Hello. Good afternoon. How are you? I see you've been out in the sun with the sunglasses on your head, John.
0:52
I've been away on holiday. And have I got Yes, I always have my sunglasses on my head indeed. I hope you haven't been
0:57
buying them on the on the street corner. I generally try and get proper sunglasses as a rule. I think I think my
1:04
eyes deserve it. But no, I'm they're definitely not for you think could be from a lookie man by basically. Well,
1:10
one of the stories I've seen this week was somebody got fined. I think it was in Morca for buying sunglasses from a
1:17
street vendor. Did you do that story? Well, our journalist Alex Trillinsky did
1:22
this one. But um it's it's a classic warning for for tourists, for anyone really, but especially tourists because
1:29
anyone who comes to Spain, as you know, you're going to get these guys selling stuff in the street, especially in the tourist areas. It could be handbags or
1:36
glasses. They've got various names. Lookie man is one. Generally, they're African guys. And it's quite tempting.
1:43
you might want to pick up a nice little handbag that looks very very realistic legit, you know, like a I don't know
1:49
what kind of brands you have like you got Prada, all the top brands, you can spend 2030
1:54
and get a Gucci handbag. People seem to like that kind of stuff. And you also get these sunglasses and whatever else
2:00
they sell. But one particular dude, and we don't actually know who received the fine, if
2:05
it was a tourist or a local or whoever it was, what nationality, but um in Palmer, they got fined for buying
2:12
sunglasses from one of these guys in the street. How much was the fine? We know. Again, we don't know, but it's between
2:17
€75 and 700 depending. Not that cheap then, are they? Well, actually that that
2:23
rule came in in January the 1st, didn't it? So that I think we reported on the rule coming in that you these guys are
2:30
selling illegal stuff and it's not just finding them for having that illegal stuff. Now you're getting fined if you
2:35
buy it from them and that came in but I I think this is the first person that's tangibly being fined. Yeah. So this new
2:41
ordinance came in like John said at the start of the year um and basically it's the first example because I think people
2:46
just got very comfortable doing buying these things and I mean maybe we've all done it as well. And so this is the
2:52
first morning but this was in Palma. I don't know how how much they're going to enforce it in Mar or do you feel sorry
2:58
for them? For these guys, these look men who are just trying to sort of live their lives. Well, yeah. I mean, I think
3:03
that they're it's not just them independently selling. I believe it's organized rings of this and they're not
3:10
really in control of their own. That's what I don't like so much when they sort of drop them off somewhere in a car, you
3:15
know, and they've got all this they actually have to buy the goods from these supposedly these Chinese kind of mafia groups that produce all this
3:22
stuff. And it's obviously, you know, if you if you run Gucci or you run, you know, Leev, you're going to be pretty upset if suddenly you're selling bags at
3:29
30. I get that. But equally, these guys got to live somehow, haven't they? And you know, sometimes they're doing a
3:35
reasonable service, I think. You know, well, it's very sad because these guys are at the bottom of the the pyramid, so to speak. So the Yeah, like Jordan said,
3:41
they got to buy with their own money. They buy the stuff they sell, and then I guess they can keep the profit. I don't know. But the um the money goes up to
3:48
criminal organizations. It doesn't, you know, right? No one pays taxes on this. allegedly. That's what I what I've read
3:54
or heard. I'm not I'm not 100% sure that's I think it must I'm sure the money goes to to dirty dodgy dodgy kind
4:00
of corners of the economy. But the main sad thing is that this guy who got fined for buying the sunglasses um the seller
4:05
also gets fined and they get fined more and they get their goods confiscated. Right. So I mean it is um illegal
4:12
activity. It is it is contributing to organized crime but at the same time there's a lot worse legal activities
4:17
going on in Spain than than these guys selling their stuff on the street. But still though, like I mean you've got a brand, you make something, you build
4:23
your brand up over years, whatever it is, sunglasses or handbags or or a newspaper. Look, we're 20 years next
4:29
year. What people nick your content and put it out and and you know, you've got every right. Look at, you know, Spain
4:35
for many years was the was the bandit in Europe, you know, for films, for kind of
4:40
music. They were just stealing everything. And like when England and and Germany and France stopped 10, 15
4:46
years ago from, you know, bootlegging, the Spanish were continuing to do it. And it got to the point where Hollywood
4:52
uh stopped sending films over here that you couldn't see all the latest films in the cinema here because they were
4:57
saying, "Well, hold on a minute. We're not going to give you our films because we know that you're just going to like bootleg it and they're going to you're not going to enforce it." Wow. So, so I
5:04
think that, you know, I kind of get the point, right, that, you know, these guys are selling counterfeoot
5:10
stuff and, you know, is it good or bad for the brand? Because it could be, it might be that actually it's quite good
5:15
for the brand in some ways, you know, seeing a Gucci out there, the brand out there. Yeah, it's like you know you've arrived when people want to copy you,
5:22
but your your one is obviously going to be better than the fake and only the
5:27
more affluent customers can afford the real one, so there's more prestige maybe. But yeah, I totally get it. Like
5:33
you can't go around counterfeiting things and think it's okay. Um I just wonder if they were trying to make a
5:38
statement to tourists with that. Probably making an example of this guy and they probably the police contacted
5:45
the local journalist saying look we've done this to this guy. Please go and promote and possibly story. It was probably a police press release out in
5:50
Madrid, wasn't it? It must have been. We don't know. But um these these things
5:56
they they go on. But I don't know if you remember when Donald Trump brought his
6:01
uh tariffs in against China. I was talking about this like three months ago. And the um mega hat made in China.
6:06
Yeah. Yeah. And all the Chinese manufacturers, they did this incredible thing on Chinese Tik Tok. They started showing in the Chinese factories how
6:13
they manufacture these luxury goods, how cheap they are and how the same luxury goods will go to the luxury brands, you
6:19
know, to sell for $5,000 a pop and that same product or something very similar made by the same hand the same factory
6:25
will go to the um the discount bargain basement store and they basically
6:31
revealed like pull back the curtain on this. It's a kind of a globalized same goods effectively. Same good. you're
6:36
paying 20 or 100 times the price as this and it's the same good. And this is what
6:42
they they exposed in order to um how do you say to like put the wind up Donald
6:47
Trump when he's trying to put America first. Yeah. All the tariffs. Yeah. And I think it's the same thing these guys
6:53
selling on the streets. We've done stories where when they raid these illegal markets, especially ones in Marbaya, police went in. It's a few this
7:00
might be last year. They went in and raided it and they had photos of all these handbags lined up, all the com
7:06
merchandise they stole and they had to bring in professional experts from the the brands themselves to identify.
7:12
Really? Yeah. There was But you can't tell the difference. Yeah. I mean, it's great. Yeah. Imagine buying something
7:17
for $30 from one of these guys or euros, I should say. Well, what you're saying is they aren't different. No, really.
7:23
Because the ones I've seen on the beach, they don't look that realistic to Yeah. You couldn't say that's for all of them, but we've done stories in the past where
7:29
they had to bring in experts. Interesting. Okay. Well, big warning then everyone. Don't buy this stuff from
7:37
street vendors unless you want a fine. Oh, that's that's a bit harsh. Or if you know, if if they're polite and they're nice to come along, have a chat and they
7:43
enhance your evening, then I think, you know, do buy an elephant from them or what if you got a fine you do?
7:51
Yeah. If I got a fine, I would from buying an elephant, an African elephant. I I would be a little bit disappointed
7:58
if I was buying ele African elephant for my daughter or a trinket. I I would be a little gut. I don't think they can't
8:03
find you for buying trinkets. That's only when it's a counterfeit good, right? They find someone for Oh, I see. Yeah. Okay. I suppose though these guys
8:10
probably don't pay taxes, but I mean that's not you know, not everyone pays the taxes all the time. Tax and Well,
8:17
that's true. It's a big part of the black economy, isn't it? Yeah, talking of economies and tax, why don't we move
8:23
on to talk about the Gibralta story because this is big news. There's finally been an agreement. I just want
8:30
to know if you can just explain well a bit more front page, isn't it? Yeah.
8:35
Surrender or I've been away for a week. Triumph. We weren't sure what was the sort of big story of the week and and
8:41
Walt sensibly look he said come on this is this is the big story and it kind of is, isn't it? This this is a his in many
8:46
ways a historic story. It's got this lovely beautiful picture of Fabian Picardo, the chief minister of Gibralar
8:52
and and David Lammy, the British foreign secretary, doing a kind of a predator handshake, you know, with like an arm
8:58
wrestle handshake in front of the rock. Beautiful most cringy picture you can PR
9:03
picture you can imagine, but iconically cringey, but it it is a huge big deal. I
9:09
mean, it's been going on for for years and years and years. This these these talks to try five five years. No. Yeah.
9:16
since New Year's Eve 2020. So 4 and a half they had this deal in place and then for some reason it's taken this
9:22
much time to to get it over the line. Um but it's a huge deal for Gibraltar. It's
9:28
like the final piece of the Brexit puzzle is now we hope resolved. Um but
9:35
people can't decide now that the deal's been announced after all this all this time and anticipation and rumors and
9:41
gossip. People are very undecided if this is a good deal or a bad deal. Have
9:46
you seen the the deal John that they've got? Yes. I've got a question various questions for you. One is can we now effectively walk into Gibraltar without
9:53
showing our passports? Can we go can we go in? Can we drive in and buy things and come out? I mean, what's going to
9:58
happen? Are we going to get because it's Shenhen, right? They're joining Shenhen. So, are there going to be checks on our on what we bring, you know, buy in
10:03
Gibralt and bring out? This is the flagship benefit. This is the positive. The the probably the biggest single positive is that now well not now when
10:10
it's all finalized. They'll take a year or two to get these things done, but when it's done, yeah, you'll be able to
10:16
drive over to Jibralta or walk over or cycle over, go to Morrison's, go to Morrison's, get your, you know, Easter
10:21
eggs or whatever. You can't get here. PG tips bags. Well, that's a good question. We'll come back to that one. But um the
10:27
principle you can go over, do what you want, come back as if you're going to um Mikas or or anywhere or or Portugal, you
10:33
mean? So the idea of Shenhen, the board, there's no border. So you can drive to France, you drive to Germany, you can drive to Portugal. Okay. And there'll be
10:39
no I mean I think there'll still be some kind of border infrastructure there cuz you normally have that but you'll just drive straight through and under normal
10:45
circumstances no one will stop you. So that's the positive. I mean once you're there you still got to pay in pounds and workers right or what about people who
10:51
want to go and work there. I mean yeah same same deal. Same deal. So at the minute they have this thing where they
10:56
they just I mean to be honest the actual current situation is pretty positive. You just flash your ID whatever it is.
11:02
No one even looks. People normally read the newspaper. you go through and um most of the time it's very frictionless
11:07
and actually the this kind of interim deal was actually a really good deal but it wasn't wasn't sustainable. So the new
11:14
deal yeah the workers will be able to just hop across as well is they're they're one of the other biggest beneficiaries. It's all the cross cross
11:21
frontier workers 15,000 of them who go every day. So they benefit all the um
11:27
everyone anyone who wants to go to Gibralta not you should do but if you're living in the Costa del Soul or anywhere
11:32
around you can now just go there if you want. Does Nigel Farage like it then? So yeah, the um the negative and this one I
11:40
don't know how bad it is. It maybe depends on kind of your level of nationalism, but once Jibralta once the deal is sort
11:46
of ratified, Jibralta will enter the Shenhen zone. I think technically it isn't a full member of the Shenen zone
11:52
if you want to be completely accurate, but in effect it will be. What that means is if you're a UK citizen and you
11:58
want to pop over to Gibralta, UK territory and you know wave a UK flag at the top of the rock and play with the
12:04
monkeys now you'll be flying in the it's equivalent of flying to Spain. So then you'll need to stamp your passport when
12:10
you go in and 3 months 90 days. Yeah. So that rule will now apply to Brits who want to go visit a British territory.
12:16
But the real kind of kicker that um all the nationalists and the Farage types can't stomach is that there'll be dual
12:23
checks from the Gibralta, you know, customs immigration people as normal. And then once you've done your checks
12:29
with them, you then go to the Spanish section and Spanish policy national will stamp your passport and check your
12:35
documents when you're entering Jibralta and they will have the power to um stop
12:40
British citizens from entering Jibralta if you know. But I mean, is this a sort of first sign that Brexit's sort of
12:47
slowly coming to an end? I mean, is Northern Ireland and Ireland now going is that border now going to become more fluid is in Northern Ireland? Yeah. I
12:54
mean, I can't no clue about Northern Ireland, but it's sort of to me it feels like it's the first tangible unpicking
13:00
of Brexit. Like this idea of having under 30s coming backwards and forwards living, that's one thing. Another thing
13:06
about this Jibralta border flu being entering Shenhen, surely Northern Ireland's going to enter Shen, right? They want all their goods to come in and
13:12
out of Ireland, right? Slowly. Yes. Slowly but surely, these things um Okay, I'm picked. Yes, it's a good way to phrase it. But the problem with without
13:18
Northern Ireland, I'm no expert in this topic, but you do have um a lot of people who are very prit, very British
13:25
nationalist, and they wouldn't be happy to join the Shenans. So, I don't know. I'm no expert on you. You live near
13:30
Gibraltar, so do you know the word on the street? So, how are Gibralarians reacting to this news? I think they
13:38
don't know what to make of it either because it's also very complicated. It's not just what we've talked about.
13:44
There's a thousand other things and some of the little things that you don't think about now will actually have the biggest impacts you know in five or 10
13:50
years time to do with um tax harmonization and and all these things. So one of the things you mentioned John
13:56
about going to Jibralta to buy your cigarettes because it's cheaper there. Cigarettes are cheaper, petrol is cheaper and I go across the border to
14:02
fill up my car in Jibralta. It's so cheap. It's like a euro uh a liter. So
14:07
it's it's beautiful when you when you fill it up and the the liters and the euros go off at the same rate and you're just like so pricey. I think all this is
14:14
going to come to an end. I think Gibralta has had to give up a lot of its tax advantages in order to join the to
14:20
have 15,000 workers come in and get tourism in and out easily. So it's all the the prices they've had to pay to get
14:26
this border taken away so that people can come and go and goods can come and go because otherwise the economy will be
14:31
strangled. They got small place 40,000 people. If they had a hard border where everyone's got to do biometric checks and all that stuff, it would have killed
14:38
off the economy. So, they've got this big prize of no border, but the the
14:44
prices to pay are Spanish Spanish boots bossing them around, which is the one thing they hate more than anything. And
14:50
um they have to give up a lot of the tax advantages, which was inevitable, I believe. But, I mean, that's going to
14:56
create a lot of losers. A lot of people make money in sectors and businesses that take advantage of these tax. I
15:01
think I think it generally it's going to be worth it. And you make the point that there's a lot of nationalists in Northern Ireland. I mean, you've seen
15:08
National Day in Gibraltar, right? I mean, they are fullon like pro- England.
15:13
I've never seen so many Union Jacks. It's remarkable. St. George's Day. I mean, they are so patriotically British.
15:21
Even though they're half Maltese, half Spanish, the mixture, wherever they come
15:26
from, they they are so pro, aren't they? That's why I've not met anyone who said, "Yeah, I love this deal." Not met a
15:32
single person. But most people are like, "Ah." When you ask them, what do you think? What do people think? You don't get a straight reply. I think most
15:38
people at the minute, they're still digesting it. Still waiting to see what happens. That's interesting. Yeah. Now,
15:44
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16:18
Good. Well, segueing nicely now into the next story which is donkeys. Um, you know what?
16:26
What is there not to talk about with donkeys? So, donkeys. So, Mikas has been known
16:34
for a long time for its donkeys and donkey rides, people riding donkeys. And
16:39
now that stopped. Great. And they're actually building a giant donkey sanctuary. Has it stopped? I don't think
16:45
it has stopped actually. I think this donkey sanctuary is like a self like um Okay. Kind of contained a little less.
16:51
Look, we've done some nice things for the donkeys, but um we're still doing the donkeys. I thought it was stopping. No, I think I think look, you know, you
16:57
get a big fat sort of American arriving at the airport in Malaga and going to Mickas and sticking 30 stone on top of
17:03
one of these poor donkeys. I I don't think I think that's kind of frowned upon. I think that's coming to an end. I
17:10
think but the kid putting kids on the back of donkeys, that's still going to happen. I think the difference is they're going to really look after
17:16
donkeys. There's been so much pressure on them that they're now got this they're they're going to give them shade. They're going to make their lives
17:21
a lot easier. They're going to feed them better. I mean, we've all seen these poor donkeys being whipped and how they're treated and how they scars and
17:28
scabs on them. So, one of they have brought in new regulations to try and kind of assuage the uh the protesters
17:34
and one of them is uh no donkey rides for anyone over 80 kg. Okay. So, I don't
17:40
know how much we That's Yeah,
17:46
technician Keith under 80. He's a look at he's quite a thin healthy man. Yeah, I'd say probably under 80.
17:53
He can get a donkey. So, we can send Why don't we 10 Keith and a donkey for the olive but I think the welfare is important,
18:00
isn't it? And animal welfare in Spain, animal welfare in Spain doesn't always go hand in hand, does it? Because
18:06
there's so many stories and there's so much tradition with bull fighting, that kind of thing. Do you think attitudes
18:12
are changing to animal welfare? I mean all the complaints that we get and as the olive press whenever we do a story about uh donkeys bull fighting or or
18:19
animals the we get thousands of comments from the I don't know like the pro-an
18:25
animal anti-an animal abuse lobby animal rights lobby. Yeah. And there's a lot of people but they're generally they're expats and foreigners. I mean Spanish
18:32
people don't read the olive press but it's definitely um a pet pet you know
18:37
pet peeve and and caused to for foreign people living in Spain and Actually,
18:45
if you look at Caroline, her point is quite interesting one because I think I think attitudes are changing. I mean, so
18:51
many Spanish now have pets and cats and animals and you know, we live where we live in the mountains in in near Rhonda.
18:59
10, 15 years ago, we had barking dogs all around us all the time. And you know, none of these dogs weren't registered. They didn't have chips. They
19:06
didn't get their jabs. And we were writing every issue. We could have written a story about dogs on chains.
19:11
And it's it's definitely better now. But because they because they've made it illegal to have a dog in a chain because
19:16
every dog has to be chipped, microchipped, every donkey, every horse. The Spanish like they're not doing this
19:23
finding as they as much as they should. But the Spanish has slowly been into think, you know, I don't really want to get fined. There was this animal welfare
19:30
welfare law as it came in last year. That does mean you can't leave a dog alone for more than 24 hours. You can't
19:35
leave them on the I mean, I'm not sure if anyone does that. You can't leave it on a terrace. you know, you do have to chip them. Enforcement is the other
19:41
question. Like if enforcement is the big deal. That's the thing. They're not necessarily enforcing it that much, but
19:47
the idea is the laws that comes first and then you have to slowly enforce it. But you have to educate people. And I
19:52
think the Spanish oddly the the question is bull fighting because everything I read suggests that youngsters are
19:59
getting more not less interested in bull fighting, are going more, not less. And so I would have thought and I keep
20:05
thinking that and I'd actually thought about writing a book about it and I was going to call it No Bull because I actually think that bull fighting is
20:11
dying out and it's going to die in my lifetime but it's actually seemingly getting more popular. They're getting
20:17
full of the bull rings and I'm like I don't really understand it. It's subsidized, isn't it? I guess it was but
20:23
I think they've just ended that subsidy rule, haven't they? That they're going to stop subsidizing it. I remember the one I went to which was in Marba last
20:30
year. That was the first one they did in nine years. Oh, really? So, yeah, I mean the trend isn't going down. I don't know
20:36
where it's going, but it's coming back. They say it's going up. And if you look, I think bull fighting on telly. Did we
20:42
not have a report recently that said there were how many hundreds of thousands of people watched the Madrid
20:48
bull fighting? No. Yeah, it was the Madrid Aventus bull fighting festival on television. Michael Koy, who's our sort
20:53
of bull fighting correspondent, he wrote a piece about how many people watched uh
20:58
watched the television during that those 10 days in Madrid, right? Um I don't know how many people watched that
21:04
particular show, but there's definitely a show on every Saturday at 2 p.m. called um
21:09
Toro To or something like toy or something like that. Some Toro and Toro. Um it's not pleasant to watch. I if you
21:15
watch it on telly, it's really not nice to see unless you unless you really can stomach blood. I never watched it, but it's on at 2:00 in the afternoon. Thing
21:21
is, it's like which is old for kids, isn't it? Yeah. Such a part of the culture, isn't it? So, you know, where's
21:27
that argument between culture and animal welfare, you know? Yeah. I mean,
21:34
fox hunting in the Yeah, it's like fox hunting and is it over because there's meant to be drag hunting, isn't it? But
21:40
actually, if you talk to people living in the country, they are still fox hunting, aren't they? Sort of quietly getting on with it. Yeah. I mean it's
21:45
also a question of um economics like going back to the donkey taxis the the families who make their living from the
21:51
donkeys they've been doing it for generations and they have a lot of power in just in terms of the I think the the
21:58
town hall in Mikas they don't dare ban it because they know they'll they'll a have unemployed people and b there's
22:05
just all them and their families who are probably some of the most hard hardcore but like go back generations and
22:11
generations in the area they know they'll antagonize these people They're afraid of them to be honest. They have a lot of influence and the same with bull
22:17
fighting. It's a huge industry and that's a factor. You know, you're going to lose jobs. You're going to on the
22:23
establishment, isn't it really? I mean, there's also there are lots of lots of arguments for and against. One of I always think one of the good arguments
22:29
for it was that the bulls that are bred for bull fighting, they first of all,
22:34
they live for three years out in the fields, free range, and they live like kind of kings really and treated
22:41
amazingly well. And then those areas that they're they're brought up in which is sort of in Extremadura or the north
22:47
of Anderuthia. These are these big huge fingers of kind of oak and cork trees where agriculture is no good because the
22:54
land's not very good. And so therefore the they protect effectively the cork trees. These are the sort of the lungs
23:00
if you like of of Spain, southern Spain. And because these bulls are allowed to kind of roam around, it gives the a
23:07
livelihood to the owners, the people who breed them. Okay, they are they do tend to be more aristocratic I guess um
23:14
that's another argument but there are people plenty of people who work in the industry and you know over the years we've looked as a journalist for the
23:20
olive press and for other newspapers in the UK and television I've explored it and going to watch and you get involved
23:28
in it there are lots and lots of people who who work in it who do survive off it and it's incredibly deep culture it's
23:34
very much part of the culture very uh it's a fascinating pastime but then ultimately
23:41
These little animals are slaughtered quite violently. So it's, you know, it's
23:46
pretty cruel. Yeah. It's not pleasant. You wouldn't justify, well, it's okay to kill someone if you treat them really
23:52
nicely before. I mean, it's it's a bitter pill to swallow, but I mean, it's like going back to the coliseum, right?
23:57
Isn't it? I mean, but if if I mean, the idea is and and I'm and I'm sure you all hear these stories about how they blunt
24:03
their horns and you know, and how they they they drug them and but if it's done well, it has to be done within 10
24:09
minutes and it has to be done cleanly and quickly. And I guess if if you know, I'm someone tells me you can live really
24:14
well for three years and then you we're going to put you out of your misery quickly in 10 minutes and your body's going to go to be all these people are
24:20
going to eat your your meat. Would you take that? It' be a difficult one. And when you say
24:26
correctly, they're going to stab you to death in front of in front of spectators who are going to clap or boo depending
24:31
on how well you do. No, I mean it's a very strange I mean doesn't exist anywhere else, does it? It's in Mexico,
24:36
I think, and probably Mexico and a couple of other countries in South America, which is why I say I'm I'm amazed that it's still it's still going.
24:43
But as long as it's still legal and still going, I think we have to slightly sit on the fence and report on it
24:49
objectively. Yeah. As as the Olive Press, I've said, we don't have a position. We just report. Um, sometimes we'll cover it positively, sometimes,
24:55
you know, whatever the mostly negative, isn't it? I mean, mostly we support protests against the bulls. We cover the
25:00
protest, but since we've had Michael Koy on on the team, we've been quite pro bull fighting. Well, Michael Koy, a
25:06
curious story. Michael, who who's he's actually a barristister by trade, who then retrained as a journalist, and he
25:11
was married to I have to be careful what I say, but I think I'm going to call a gypsy queen from Ronda. And they are
25:16
very much connected to the bull fighting world. I mean, well connected. So he he's ended up being immersed in this
25:22
kind of bull fighting culture much more than I've ever been. And it's great that we can write that in English. An English person can convey this this aspect of
25:30
Spanish culture like Ernest Hemingway or some Wells. Yeah. You know, they really got really, you know, involved in it.
25:36
Very fascinated by it. I just wonder if 50 years from now, 100 years from now, it will still be well, it's legal, you
25:42
know, and they have a good life or whether things will move on. We'll have to wait to see, I guess. I mean, I'm
25:47
sure things will not be the same, but I imagine things will not go the way we expect them to because there they never
25:53
do really. If I if I was a gambling man, I would have said it would have died out by now. But now I'm beginning to think
25:59
maybe it's going to be allowed to survive because if the European Union hasn't outright said, "Sorry, we're going to ban it. You want to be part of
26:05
the European Union. You want to get grants from us, then you have to ban bull fighting." And they haven't. Yeah, good point. When is it going to end?
26:11
Good point. Yeah. Okay. So, bull fighting, sunglasses, and jibras. We've got a
26:18
really varied topic based today, but one thing that really stood out for me in this week's news was a shocking scenes
26:26
from you, John, in Ether. So tell us about this that what you saw when you
26:31
went to a beach. I mean there should have been I two should have been two days off relaxing but I I just caught
26:36
this video in the Spanish press about these people living effective in shanty towns in Athera that looked to all sense
26:44
and purposes like you know they were you know homeless people but turns out they
26:49
were actually working in hotels in restaurants at the airport. I thought this this can't be true. So I was in a
26:55
bea town and I decided to go for a walk and after about 10 minutes of walking
27:01
out of a bea town still on the outskirts I looked on my map and I found two or three areas which look like sort of
27:07
rough areas of scrubland. Thought I'm going to head there and so I walked into scrubland and I suddenly found like
27:13
three or four sort of tent encampments groups of people who uh you know I
27:18
thought you know I was a bit nervous I thought you know how they going to how they going to feel about me going up to talk to them and taking films. And the
27:24
first person I spoke to was on this like trampoline bed that he'd made. And if he
27:29
said, "I work at the I work at the airport. I work in park in a car parking company at the airport." He showed me his hat, showed me his t-shirt from the
27:36
company. I won't name the company because we don't want to get him sacked or anything. Not that he should do. He said, "Last year I worked here. The boss
27:43
had a flat for us. We had to pay him a basic rent and everything was great and I was really happy. This year I arrived
27:49
for six month contract and he said, "Sorry, I haven't got anywhere for you to live." He said, "I spent," he said,
27:54
"I spent weeks and weeks and weeks trying to find somewhere. I couldn't find anything at all." He said, "I found
28:00
one place." He said, "It was um" He said, "I was offered uh I think it was a place of 12 to 13 people living in a
28:07
flat, all of them paying €400 each." So, it was something like 5,000 a month or
28:12
something for, you know, shared three-bedroom place where you're just sleeping on the floor or three in a bedroom, four in a bedroom. He said, "I
28:19
don't want to do that." Yeah. So, that place the boss was renting out. Do we know what happens to that? Is he doing that on Airbnb or something? I think
28:25
almost certainly he's ending up doing on Airbnb and of course that's now illegal and I think I think is the first place
28:31
where Airbnb officially withdrew 300 properties in March around anywhere in
28:36
the world. Yeah. With an agreement because or the Balierc authority said look if you don't we're going to start a lawsuit. It's going to get expensive.
28:43
It's going to get costly. Said you know there's nowhere there's literally nowhere to there's nowhere for people to
28:48
stay. And you know apparently police are arriving on the island in the summer. They they've got nowhere to stay. Lawyers are arriving to do work. They
28:54
have got they they're saying they can't afford to find lawyers. Lawyers say they can't they can't find a way to stay. And
29:00
a lot of the hotels are owned by the local family, the Matut family. People who work there. One guy said he was a
29:05
hotel restaurant manager in one of his hotels. Last year he done it for 17 years and he just packed up to become a
29:10
taxi driver. So because you know in the hotel restaurant there meant to be nine staff. He said last year there were
29:17
four. Yeah. And he said like, you know, and so they just they couldn't get they couldn't get the start. This is the
29:22
ticking time bomb, isn't it? Because people say, "Oh, well, there's a housing crisis that people can't find a home, which is obviously a huge problem." But
29:29
the other side of it is that the island will collapse. There'll be no one running the hospitals, no one running
29:34
the the restaurants, the bars. Literally, it'll be like a ghost island. It will not be able to function, and the
29:40
economy will collapse. It's Why would you? You just go somewhere else. like if I had to live on the street to do a job,
29:46
I'd just go somewhere else to do a job. This guy just said, he said, "I'm I'm going to go," he said, "I'm going to go to Morca. That's it. I'm leaving." He
29:53
said, "I I've heard it's much better there. You know, I can work at the airport in Morca, but I can find
29:58
somewhere to live." But like, why would you work so that you can live on the street? That's terrible. Terrible. It's
30:04
It's inhumane. It's inhumane. But actually quite interesting that one of the hotels there, Nou Hotel that opened
30:10
a couple of years ago, the owner of the hotel is the same guy that owns the Marba Club Pentto Romano here. And when
30:17
he when he opened the hotel, he bought a block of flats or a block of I'm not
30:22
quite sure exactly what he bought, but he has confirmed this is true actually. Guy called Daniel Shimoon. You may have come across him, heard of him. He
30:28
confirmed that he bought this block so that anyone who works at Nou, whether they're, you know, working as chambermaids or in reception or in the
30:34
restaurants, they're guaranteed somewhere to live. And that makes such logical sense, doesn't it? As a but he
30:40
said it was obviously hard. It's going to be tough because he had to buy this. Yeah. You know, or I don't know, it's a long-term lease or he's bought out. It's
30:45
an asset then for him and it means that his workers are safe. Yeah. It means he can run his normal business without
30:51
going out of business. You know, it's it's business sense. It's logic. It's absolutely logical, isn't it? We go back
30:56
to the boss who who had that apartment for the worker that you said now we didn't no longer had it. So that guy,
31:01
he's put it on Airbnb, he's probably making thousands a week, but you think if he's already the boss of whatever the
31:07
airport company, the taxi or car parking company was, it's just even more money for an already rich person, you know,
31:13
but he could he could get fined because the fines are bigger and bigger and bigger now. I think they start at 5,000, they go up to sort of 500. I've known
31:20
people do Airbnb, get caught, get a 30,000 euro fine and just pay it and carry on because they make so much. Is
31:26
that in Barcel you lived in Barcelona for Barcelona? That was a long time ago. This problem's been going on for 15
31:31
years now probably. And what's the solution? Well, so we say ban it and I mean I honestly can't believe that they
31:37
still are wrestling with this problem because I was I'm talking in 2012 13 when I first became aware of it. And you
31:43
talk about banning Airbnb, but I think most Airbnbs or at least a lot of them are illegal anyway. And you know, I read
31:50
a report well we did a report this week that Malaga is still handing out permits
31:56
for tourist flats. I thought I thought it stopped. It just doesn't make any sense. It's like what is going on? Why
32:02
why do that? There there's not even they need the money cuz they char they How much they charging for those? I guess
32:07
they Yeah, someone pays for the uh the permit. But it's um either the one hand doesn't know what the other hand's
32:12
doing, but it's just you need to put a stop to it. But weren't there criteria? Like you can have it if there's certain
32:18
things, you know, it's in certain areas. So they've made separate front doors and people if a group of owners don't like
32:24
it, then tough [ __ ] They've created all these rules to make it almost impossible to actually have a tourist flat even
32:30
even if you do everything legally. But I don't know this for a fact, but I wouldn't be surprised if those rules have been talked about but not actually
32:36
legislated. You know, this happens a lot. they get announced, the media say this is going to happen and then when no
32:43
one's looking the rule isn't actually the law isn't passed or it's not enforced. Do you think that that kind of
32:48
like hotel owners or people who own businesses should effectively be
32:53
expected to to pay or find accommodation for their staff? I mean is there a point where you know maybe the local town
33:00
halls should create sites like a brownfield site you know there used to be an industrial estate and no longer there. You say right as a part of that
33:06
industrial estate we will give you this land you can build basic housing simple housing quite cheaply on the basis that
33:14
you know you are going to give it to workers who earn under a certain amount of money it makes business sense because
33:19
in the end if you have a hotel and you can't get the staff you this makes you're incentivized to do that actually it's quite a smart way to make the
33:26
private sector pay for the social housing if you just give them the permissions I'm sure these businesses
33:32
they got their confederations and associations they can band together and build the housing for the staff that and
33:37
you have to you have if you earn under 2,000 a month say then you can apply to get that accommodation. I mean like a be
33:44
sort of like a a ceiling though I think even the market itself would regulate it like if I mean if you make these these
33:50
these buildings the homes to accommodate your workers and then you price your workers out of it it doesn't make any sense. So I think the market would take
33:58
care of it itself. would it have a knock-on effect, won't it, on property values if you can no longer rent them out? All of these things in the economy,
34:05
you know, it's it's not an easy solution, but I think you're right. Things need to be done. I mean, the
34:10
demand from abroad is is the the kind of the that's what's driving out of um out of whack because it's not like an a
34:17
coherent market. It's always external forces. Yeah. And and people are buying homes particularly here in Marbaya
34:23
because they they buy these luxury homes. They might come here three, four times a year, but they think they can rent them out.
34:28
Yeah. And they actually can't get licenses. They're not allowed to do it. So, they then have to go somewhere
34:34
somehow they do it through mates or through these dodgy sites, you know, and they've got to someone's got to clamp
34:40
down on them, right? Someone's got to investigate it. Well, they leave them empty. I mean, if you're in the car store, you see empty houses all the
34:45
time. And it's very dangerous as well because then you get squatters. So, what do you do? It's the other side of the
34:50
coin, isn't it? Everyone everyone loathes the squatters. But it's it's on the whole Some ways they're doing a
34:56
service, aren't they? Well, it's two sides of the same coin. Obviously, you do get some awful squatters who are just
35:02
the worst human beings on the planet. But without housing crisis, you wouldn't have so much squatting, I would imagine.
35:07
Although the laws do incentivize it. Sure. Wow. Okay. Well, you know, we'll
35:14
have to sort of wait and see what happens with this story because it just sounds like it's going to get worse and worse. I I think it is and I think we've
35:21
already been reporting a lot on this and you know, we've had a lot of the protests, haven't we, already? and the water pistols were out again last week
35:27
when I was away. I mean, I thought I don't know how I'd feel about if I was sort of sitting in a restaurant. I'd come from Manchester and it rainy and it
35:33
was cold and someone suddenly some protester came and spray me with the water pistol. I probably quite like it. I think
35:39
is are they going to get nasty? Have they turned nasty? They are quite nasty. They have these um housing protests in
35:44
Mayor and various towns actually Barcelona as well. I think was it two weeks ago now and there was video of um
35:50
a mob that surrounded a terrace full of tourists and they were screaming and shouting at them and the police formed like a little cord in to sort of protect
35:57
these these tourists and it's ugly scenes really. You wouldn't want to sit there and eat with that, would you?
36:02
Apparently, so the video it's quite funny. Some some people like scured away and then a couple of people just sat and
36:07
kind of stubbornly ate ate their dinner with everyone screaming in the background and they're kind of like smiling to each other. We can imagine a
36:13
couple of likely lads from Newcastle or Manchester sitting there and these Spanish protesters come up like could be
36:18
fun mixing be interesting. And do you think that could ever happen here? Because obviously we've still got this
36:23
disparity between the tourist income and people coming from abroad and people
36:29
that work here, but it's not as bad. But you I'm a bit worried because my my I'm renting and my contract ends in October
36:36
or November and I'm not super happy with my flats. I've been looking around for something better and I've come to realize that for the price I'm paying
36:43
now there's nothing could be the time of year maybe if I look again in the it's a good time to look but it is worrying
36:48
that I've so far I've been immune more or less to the housing crisis living and renting in Spain not you know not being
36:55
one of these wealthy foreigners but it could catch up with me pretty soon I mean we're seeing it I mean definitely
37:01
locally in Malaga we're seeing it in Valencia we're seeing it in Morca where we've got papers and readers and
37:07
Barcelona Increasingly we're driving into Barcelona. We got a lot of readers online. So I think with a lot of our
37:13
readers and tourists and people who visit are seeing this. Yeah. And are kind of wondering, you know, where is this going to end? What what's the sort
37:19
of how's it going to play out? That's and yeah, how it ends or where it plays out. No one knows. But no one's got a
37:25
solution and things are going to get worse to the point where services collapse. You have to drive people to rent their I
37:31
mean it's a simple thing. You just have to make it easier people to rent. You have to make the squatting laws tighter
37:36
so that you can get squatters out within three months or two months like you can in England or even quicker. That's
37:41
that's surely number one. So people then feel secure about renting their flats long term. Yeah. I mean it all coincides
37:47
all not all these issues but a lot of the issues coincide with the housing law that came in in 2023 and May 2023 and
37:54
you know Pedro Sanchez's leftwing government brought it in and he's very much for the people. So the the housing laws favored tenants and tenants rights.
38:01
Yeah. But in reality, it's meant you can't get squatters out. And there's different kinds of squatters. Like if you break into a house, okay, fair
38:07
enough. You're a squatter. But if you're renting legally and then you just stop paying your rent, you're not classed as a squatter. It's not legally. So there's
38:14
different ways. Or if you have young kids, there's various things. Yeah. Different loopholes. And so you can't get these people out and and so the
38:21
landlords instead of thinking and you can't also raise rent as well. And it all sounds quite good if you're a tenant, but the re result is that
38:28
private homeowners are just taking their houses off the market. But if you could get them out, like if you could get a
38:33
lot of them out and then started, then a lot more people there'd be a lot more place available to rent and so therefore the price of renting would come down,
38:38
wouldn't it? It's basic supply and demand. And but they've got to tackle the basics, the fundamentals. And
38:44
Sanchez says, "Oh yeah, we're going to put 100% tax on people who buy properties." These sort of crazy ideas
38:50
that are never going to wash, are they? Never pass that law. It's never going to happen. And he should be tackling some of the really basic basic laws. They
38:56
need more just to build houses because the population of Spain is now like I think 12 million more than the time when
39:03
I moved to Spain. 12 million. It's crazy. Wow. It's grown like a hell of a lot then. It was 40 million or under. It
39:10
was 37 million when I came or something like that. Is that immigration or is that? Yeah. Almost all immigration. And so if you got more people but then you
39:16
got to build more houses, you know, and not only Spain, it's all immigration because their birth rates really drop,
39:22
right? So I think their birth rate is under 2. It's under 2.2, isn't it? on this one. It's technically 1.4 I
39:28
think. So it's one of the lowest. I mean that's Japan's the lowest I think isn't in the world but that's like almost as
39:34
low as Korea is really like 0.6. That means what you wiped out. Two
39:39
generations everyone's gone. But Spain is 1.4 which is I think the lowest in the EU apart from Malta. Malta is 1.7
39:46
something. I don't know. So so basically it's the migrants and this is something that I in our editorial meeting today I thought we want to look into this
39:52
because it's become a bit of a hot potato. A lot of northern European media groups are looking at Spain and saying,
39:57
"Well, how come Spain's predicted growth is 3% this year?" And meanwhile, so many immigrants and migrants coming in.
40:03
Apparently, 1 million people applied last year to be to become migrants in Spain. And the biggest rejection rate in
40:08
all of Europe, 18.7% made it in. But that's still, I don't know, 200,000 migrants came in. And somehow they're c
40:16
they're finding work and it's creating business and the economy is growing. But so the economy is growing but it's not
40:23
growing per capita which means it's not people aren't getting richer. That's also true. People aren't feeling on the
40:28
ground. There's more people and there's a bigger economy because there's more people but it's not that people are getting wealthier. It's just everyone
40:33
seems those those migrants who coming in some of them and I'm hoping a lot of
40:39
them are going into those sort of empty areas in the middle of Spain where where the villages are dying out. Well where the birth rate is down. If it's 1.4
40:45
average it's probably 0.6 in some of these places. That's where you want these migrants to go and live and reopen
40:51
the shops and the bars. I mean, in the end, it is also, like you say, supply and demand. Everyone wants to live in Malaga and Barcelona and Madrid. But,
40:56
um, if you do drive an hour, you'll probably find a house for 20,000 30,000,
41:02
you know, it's completely true. Wow. It's it is supply and demand. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. If you want to live in
41:07
like a lot of builders and people who work on the coast now come from the Seren. If you lived half an hour inside
41:13
the ceremony of the Ronda, let's say in not Setinil because it's quite fashionable, let's say Alkala Elva, you
41:19
would be able to find yourself a two-bedroom flat for about 20 25,000 really. And then then if the road's
41:25
working well and on the road's working well and you have a good run and you got the right time, you could be working in Marbaya in about an hour, hour and 10
41:32
minutes. Yeah. Which is sort of doable, right? You know, 10 minutes is fine. Malaga which is so so much in demand.
41:39
There's all these little villages in the mountains around in and um how do you say a
41:49
you go around there even 30 minutes from Malaga and you can get a bargain you know we first settled actually in a
41:54
place called Kamarz and we looked on the map and it was like it was looked like it was literally
42:00
right next to Malaga city. We thought great we'll be in Malaga all the time going to you know theater and you know cinema and bars and restaurants and then
42:06
we didn't what we hadn't noticed is on the ordinance survey map the road that goes up into the Montes de Malaga where Kamaras is actually loops so you got
42:13
this little loop like that and we thought what what does it actually mean what it actually means is it it goes around the mountain into a tunnel and
42:19
comes all the way around the non like that all the way through skeleton so it actually took like 45 minutes to drive
42:25
down to Malaga and it's only right at the top of the hill I've driven past it and seen it beautiful right it's amazing
42:30
is in Camaras, but it's so inaccessible. Like anywhere you go is 45 minutes. Yeah. You know, and we got there and
42:35
it's it's quite a funny story cuz we arrived and we rented this house from a guy who was a Fenco guitarist English teacher and we thought it looks amazing,
42:41
really authentic. We got there and as we pulled up there was a white Ford Transit van with an English number plate. We're
42:48
thinking it's parked in our space. So we kind of went up and what's going on? Where are we going to park? We parked
42:53
down here and then went realized that the house was semi- detached. went next door and there was this guy with
42:59
shocking blonde shocking long blonde hair, blue eyes. I said, "Hola." He
43:05
said, "Hello, mate." There's a guy from Greater Manchester. That's terrible accent. But it turned out that our six
43:12
nearest neighbors were all from Greater Manchester. Wow. And they sort of ended up in this and we were like, "Um, did we
43:17
come all the way to it?" It's very random, actually. Interesting. And I bet it was hot up
43:23
there as well. It's hot everywhere at this at the moment, isn't it? Well, at the moment. Yeah. So, there's a heat wave, right? Yes. Hot and sweaty. And
43:30
one of your stories was about the fact that this year by the 2nd of June, was it or by June?
43:38
Yeah. So, yeah, if we one of the um one of our most common themes obviously is the hot weather. But this is kind of
43:44
ironic as well because we always get a comment saying Spain's always hot in the summer. And like, you know, we don't
43:51
people go a bit crazy about this stuff. Yeah. You don't need to report on it being hot in Spain cuz it's it's Spain,
43:56
you know. But I mean, we would normally report when it gets like 40° and there's orange. Sensible reporting, isn't it?
44:03
Yeah. I mean, things we don't say like this is because of climate change. We don't we just write the weather's going to be a bit hot. But people, you got all
44:09
these climate change deniers. People, there's a lot of crazy people out there. But um it is um an argument that we
44:16
can't easily dismiss. You know, is Spain hotter now or is has Spain always been
44:21
hot? Well, wasn't it the point that you were making was it was record temperatures. There were hottest days
44:26
ever in the beginning of June, right? Ever before. So, this is Yeah, this is what's interesting. So, we're still in only June and June, normally if you live
44:33
in Spain, you know, it's it's a it's it's a bit nicer than July and August. And we in s of Spain, it set had the
44:43
record for a number of days over 40° C in June or by the June the 8th. And that's I mean, that's a horrible
44:49
temperature, isn't it? I mean, I always think about if you double it, add 30, what's that? Fahrenheit. It's 110, isn't it? It's like humid. That's crazy heat.
44:57
But I think um so we had the the statistic was we by the 8th of June, we
45:03
had eight days of over 40° in some parts of Spain, not every obviously. This is
45:09
mainly in Sevilla area, which is always hot. But if you look at the uh statistics, it was all the um other days
45:17
over 14 every year combined, not just one year was only came to four. So there's like one one day over 40 in
45:25
2017, another in 2022, but nothing even combined was half of what it was this
45:31
year. That's how crazy. And what advice should we be giving people? I mean, you know, our readers and people who come over here, we need to to explain that
45:38
you don't want to be walking around between sort of 2 and 5 in the afternoon. Oh, yeah. You can't go out. It's it's inhuman heat. This is what we
45:44
said. This is inhuman temperatures coming to these these parts of Spain, which triggered a lot of people in the
45:50
comments. But I mean, this is what the the other forecasters had said. And it is it was 42.9 in um [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ]
45:59
Yeah. Which is where the ironically where the American air base is in [ __ ] these self bombers fly over. So that was
46:06
42. And I mean that's the kind of temperature where you you're going to you can't go out and I don't think everywhere automatically has air con.
46:13
But the the kind of the saving grace is that if you along the coast, which is where a lot of people like to go if they're on holiday, it's not so bad. Of
46:20
course, you got the sea air. Yeah. You have five or 10 degrees a bit. But if if you go to towns like Carmona or Ethica,
46:26
Ethica, I probably don't even I said that right. It's a very difficult one to pronounce. Mention that in the comments. Ethica. Etha. Well, um, when you go
46:32
there, they're obviously built by the Arabs or Romans and then certainly the Arabs, the Moors, and the streets are so
46:39
narrow. So, you can go there in July and August and somehow they're north south facing. They're not east west or
46:44
whatever or the other way round. They're east west. So, you get the early sun and the late sun, but you don't get some in the middle of the day. They're narrow
46:50
streets. It's kind of like an old medina, and it's designed in a way so the heat doesn't get in. So, actually,
46:55
it's quite shady. And you know, they were doing those guys. They knew what they were doing. and the and the
47:00
movement of water. There's a lot of fountains and you go to the Alhhamra, right? You see the movement of water, how it cools things down, right? It just
47:07
naturally brings a breeze in and you know, it looks like we're going to need it this summer. You know, this I have
47:12
seen a recent report. We haven't done a story on this because I haven't confirmed it, but um that the the long
47:17
range forecasts for July and August are extreme really for the I've seen a map
47:24
well this is the controversial thing as well. There's a map sort of forecast for um July, August and it has the colors
47:31
representing the temperatures and there's a plume of bright purple almost white purple covering Spain and a bit of
47:38
France. And one of the controversies is if these weather forecast agencies have
47:43
started um amping up the colors to make temperatures that aren't that hot seem hotter. This is a question I want to
47:50
ask. I asked one of my journalists to look into it because today if you look at a map if something's 25° C which
47:56
isn't very hot really it's red but it shouldn't be red should be orange
48:01
I would think and I' some maps depends depends on the service but the question to ask is 10 years ago did they have the
48:07
same color scheme or have they what's their incentive to to scare us though?
48:12
Um well obviously the the certain class of people would say they're trying to push
48:17
a climate change agenda. May maybe it's good for their business like they they people more take more notice of them if
48:23
they can sort of they look at these these sites more and get more clicks. So it could be it's a question worth
48:29
asking. We haven't got the answers to this question but it's an interesting question. Yeah. And yet the year started sort of in my way in lots of ways so
48:36
well didn't it? It was such a nice temperature at the beginning of the year. It rained a lot in March. wasn't great, but it was nice and cool in April
48:42
and May was actually a really really lovely month. Yeah. It just sort of hit like, didn't it? Beginning of June, it
48:48
was like slam. The other the other um factor that people are talking about is the sea temperatures because apparently,
48:54
and it's hard to say if it's like chicken or or egg, what's provoking it? But today, um the sea temperatures,
49:00
especially around the balerics, 26, 27, the record's 28. It doesn't it's not
49:06
cooling down then. And that means it doesn't cool down at night. It means you get jellyfish, you sort of you get jellyfish. This is the August
49:12
temperatures in June and that that feeds back into other not an expert on these things. Another meteorological phenomena
49:18
which creates so you also getting storms in land and you get these huge hail chunks. Don't know if you've seen these videos online. Amazing. Hail the size of
49:25
golf balls and even tennis balls like Donna this kind of Donna effect is it? Yeah. Comes from the Donna but this the
49:31
hail's new I've never seen that so big. And this they're saying has been a byproduct of the hot seas that are I
49:37
wouldn't like to sound scientific but I don't know it but but the jellyfish is a big problem because if you get a lot of jellyfish that's going to put tourists
49:43
off right. Well yeah I love to swim in the sea and lately where I live they've been getting these giant jellyfish the
49:49
size of like you know carrier bags with the Portuguese men of war. I think they're not that one, but they they're
49:54
just as bad and they huge, you know, and you don't want to someone said like they
50:00
they clasp your arm on your hand, you know, they get they really sting and they sting. Yeah, they give electric
50:06
kind of sting and that's that's a big turn off that is if you get caught, you don't you don't pee in it, right? That's
50:11
kind of established now this kind of famous thing. Pee in my arm, please. If
50:17
you can pee, I think why not do it? But there I mean I've been very lucky. I've been stung once by the jellyfish, but
50:22
one one thing I got caught by once. Have you ever been Have you ever stepped on a weaver fish? No. That sounds painful. My
50:29
god. Yeah. Apparently there there's a few around and they they sit underneath the sand and they have a little point
50:34
and they're sort of waiting for I don't know whatever they eat. Humans and you Yeah. And you step on it and they've got
50:39
this electric shock. So it actually gives you a little if you step on it and you just It's like a jolt. Yeah. We've
50:45
done this actually now. Have we? Yeah. They've got those here. Well, I I stepped on one in in Bantham in Devon in
50:51
England, but I do I have heard they've got they have them here. I think it's more in the north of Spain, Galysia, but they they are also the Mediterranean
50:58
side. Oh, what about sharks? Because there was something recently about a shark. Sharks. Yeah. So, they had this this must be like some of our rivals.
51:04
Oh, go but they had um some footage of a a giant
51:11
I don't know how big like 12 m shark just off the coast of Mara and you someone's in a boat. So you can see the
51:16
fin and you can see my bear, you know, unmistakable. And this is um this is
51:21
bigger than Jaws. You know, this is the biggest great white though. But of course, it's not a great white cuz it's a basking shark, which is a basking
51:27
shark. Do you think we'd be ready? Let's say there was a shark and it attacked, you know, do you imagine that Malba or
51:36
Kos be ready for that? in in terms of you mean what they would do to try and
51:41
pretend it didn't happen when they tried to get out the water. People would go insane. I'm sure I don't think they were
51:47
handled very well. I can't see that. I think cuz I mean even this one video we did with the shark and there's a basking
51:53
shark and we said very clearly it's a basking shark would be alarmist. We got 3 million views on that video which is
51:59
the best we've ever had. Is that right? Yeah. And people just love sharks. But I
52:05
love the ch It's not the Chinese don't like them because they do that fish fin soup, don't they? Where they just cut
52:10
their fins off and leave them to But by by say like I mean it's like a fear fascination. It's not like like as they
52:16
want to cuddle them. It's like as in they're fascinated by them because they're so scary. And the thing is you
52:21
get you've had sharks forever in the Mediterranean. Great white sharks. We did an article on this. They swim around. They're out there. And how many
52:27
die how many die from from sharks? Never. So the Mediterranean just no one never gets attacked. I don't know why or
52:32
what the difference is. But if you go to the Red Sea, we've had a few people get munched over the last but not but not
52:38
many. If there's like more than 150 people killed by sharks every year, I'd be amazed. No, it's like five five
52:44
people. Yes. That's it. But when they do get killed, it's spectacularly bad. Yeah. Like in the It's not a nice way to
52:50
go. But it's a bit like a plane crash, isn't it? Exactly. Yeah. Is, you know, it's horrible and everyone freaks out,
52:55
but actually the chance of Oh, no. Absolutely minuscule. You get the bites that the the deaths don't count
53:01
obviously the bites. So in total with the bites that's people survive. I don't know what the stats are but the deaths is nothing. Mhm. Great. Okay. Well
53:07
thanks for that. It's very exciting as usual and look forward to the next news. Yep. News never stops. Great. Thanks
53:14
very much Caroline. Go on.
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