Spain rejects proposal to ban squatter eviction companies
Spain Congress has voted against a proposal to outlaw and dismantle companies that specialise in getting squatters out of people's properties.
The initiative proposed by far-left party Podemos and supported other left-wing Spanish parties Sumar, ERC and Bildu was rejected with the votes of PP and Vox , while the PSOE and Catalan separatist party Junts have preferred to abstain.
Podemos leader Ione Belarra referred to desokupa companies as "paramilitary and neo-Nazi commandos" that engage in violent coercion and extortion of people in vulnerable situations.
READ MORE: What you need to know about Spain's squatter eviction companies
Squatting has become an increasingly controversial and political topic in Spanish society in recent years. At the end of 2023, figures from the Interior Ministry reported that there were more than 15,000 illegally occupied flats in Spain.
Facebook's parent company Meta plans undersea cable linking Spain and US
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta has said it will lay an undersea cable stretching across five continents to carry data, including for developing artificial intelligence.
Meta's first cable, "Anjana" linking the US and Spain, is set to come online early this year.
The cables will run for more than 50,000 kilometres (31,000 miles) between the US, South Africa, India, Brazil and "other regions", Meta wrote in a blog on Friday.
Global digital communication relies on a vast network of undersea conduits, with roughly 1.2 million kilometres of cable already installed, according to a 2024 report by the US-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Data-hungry digital giants like Meta have in recent years muscled in to the world of subsea cables that was once the province of dedicated telecoms providers.
Canary police smash gang who gave foreigners fake work contracts
Seven people, including Spanish and foreign nationals, have been arrested in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria for selling fake work contracts to undocumented migrants in the Atlantic archipelago.
The main perpetrator used his disability to justify the apparent need for domestic and care workers, for which he drafted the bogus employment contracts, which he then sold to the irregular migrants so they could apply for Spanish residency.
These immigration scams are becoming increasingly common in Spain.
Drug trafficker dies in police boat chase
A suspected drug trafficker has died off the southern coast of Andalusia while being chased by a police boat, Spanish authorities said Tuesday, the latest such incident in the region.
The chase began shortly before 10:00 pm when Spain's Civil Guard spotted a suspicious boat loaded with packages with four people on board some 20 nautical miles from the mouth of the Guadalquivir River near the city of Cádiz, a spokesman for the police force told AFP.
One of the passengers, a 23-year-old Moroccan, fell into the water during the chase.
Police threw him a rope and a life preserver, and an officer jumped into the water to try to rescue the man but he "refused the help," the spokesman said.
The Moroccan man died despite attempts by Civil Guard officers to resuscitate him, the spokesman added.
Police arrested two other passengers of the suspected drug boat while a fourth was also injured during the chase and was hospitalised.
The authorities seized some 600-700 kilos (1,300- 1,500 pounds) of a yet-to-be determined type of drug from the boat.
The mouth of Guadalquivir River is frequently the scene of chases between police and drug traffickers.
It is considered one of the main points of entry for drugs into Europe, due to its proximity to Morocco, a top cannabis producer.
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