Sailors rescued by coastguard after orcas attack yacht
Two French sailors were rescued by the Spanish coastguard on Monday after their yacht was attacked by killer whales near Deba, close to Bilbao.
While rare in the Basque Country, similar incidents are more common further south in the Strait of Gibraltar, known as "orca alley".
Experts recommend specific actions if encountering orcas, including turning off boat engines, lowering sails, and avoiding loud noises, especially after Iberian orcas were sighted in Cornish waters.
Despite being called killer whales, orcas are dolphins, and experts suggest their behaviour of ramming rudders is likely due to boredom rather than aggression.
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Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Spanish minister sparks anti-Semitism row with France after labelling dozens of French Jewish children 'Israeli brats' after they were kicked off flight in Valencia for 'unruly behaviour'
A Spanish minister has sparked an anti-Semitism row with France after labelling dozens of French Jewish children ' Israeli brats' after they were expelled from a jet in Spain for 'unruly behaviour'. French government ministers Aurore Bergé and Benjamin Haddad have condemned Spain's transport minister Óscar Puente for his comments, as well as the actions of the Spanish police who handcuffed the group leader of the Jewish passengers. Some 44 French-Jewish students aged between 10 and 15 and several adults were escorted off Vueling flight V8166 as it waited on the tarmac at Valencia airport on July 23 ahead of its return to Paris. The holiday camp the children were flying with accused Vueling of 'brutality' and filed a complaint against the airline, who claimed the passengers had been endangering the safety of the flight with 'disruptive behaviour'. Spanish law enforcement and the airline carrier have come under fire for alleged anti-Semitism in the wake of the incident - accusations which they have both vehemently rejected. Footage shared to social media appeared to show one adult member of the group being detained by Spanish civil guard officers in the walkway shortly after she was removed from the jet. The passengers were members of the Kineret Club, a Jewish summer camp group, and were returning to France after a week-long excursion in Spain. The two French ministers, who have reportedly spoken to the female counsellor, said she had been signed off work for 15 days because of 'temporary incapacity'. 'No act justifies the disembarkation and the excessive and brutal use of force by the Guardia Civil against the young woman,' said Bergé and Haddad. Transport minister Puente has since deleted his post describing the children as 'Israeli brats', but the French politicians condemned his statement for 'equating French children who were Jewish with Israeli citizens, as if this in any way justified the treatment they were subjected to'. 'We will never accept the trivialisation of anti-Semitism,' Bergé and Haddad added. France's foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, contacted Vueling's chief executive, Carolina Martinoli, over the weekend to express his 'deep concern' at what had happened. A statement released by the club alleged that the captain of the flight ordered the removal of the group 'without a valid explanation', adding: 'The use of a few words in Hebrew was clearly enough to trigger an extremely serious, collective, humiliating, and discriminatory measure. 'No other circumstance could explain the treatment inflicted on this group of children.' The statement, signed by the club's lawyer Julie Jacob, went on to say it would launch a formal complaint and legal action, claiming that the passengers 'were seated, respecting the rules and the staff... they did not pose any disturbance to public order or flight safety'. This triggered an outcry in Israel, with Minister of Diaspora Amichai Chikli accusing Vueling and Spanish law enforcement of antisemitism, saying the kids were removed after 'singing Hebrew songs on the plane' and accusing Vueling staff of declaring Israel a 'terrorist state', without providing evidence. One of the minors on the flight told AFP: 'One of my friends shouted a word in Hebrew because he was still a bit in holiday-camp mood.' He added: 'Perhaps he said it too loudly.' A mother whose 17-year-old son was on the flight is said to have told AFP that the she 'could not see what could have justified' the incident and claimed the children 'were disembarked like dogs'. The club says it has now filed an official complaint against the airline. It also says it denies allegations by Vueling that 'incidents were caused by the minors' and has accused the company of 'brutality. A statement released by the club read: 'The facts are clear, serious, established and corroborated by multiple testimonies. They describe a scene of rare, unjustified, and clearly biased brutality: 44 children were removed from the aircraft, without a valid explanation, on the orders of the captain. 'These children, supervised by 7 adults, had just finished a cultural stay; they were seated in their seats, respecting the rules and the staff. No incident, no threat, no inappropriate behaviour was reported. 'On the contrary, several independent passengers on the plane wrote statements confirming that the children did not pose any threat to public order or flight safety. 'In this context, the attitude of the crew and the brutality of the intervention of the Spanish law enforcement, which led to the disembarkation without accompaniment, without care, without accommodation or food, arouse legitimate indignation.' In response to the backlash, a Vueling spokesperson said the passengers were removed after the minors repeatedly tampered with the plane's emergency equipment and interrupted the crew's safety demonstration. Vueling shared a lengthy statement rejecting allegations of anti-Semitism 'A group of passengers engaged in highly disruptive behaviour and adopted a very confrontational attitude, putting at risk the safe conduct of the flight. 'We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew's behaviour was related to the religion of the passengers involved.' 'This group mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration, repeatedly ignoring instructions from cabin crew. 'Despite multiple warnings, this inappropriate behaviour persisted, which forced the crew to activate established security protocols,' the statement read, adding that Spain's civil guard took the decision to remove the passengers after being notified by the captain. 'We categorically deny any suggestion that our crew's decision related to the religion of the passengers involved. This decision was taken solely to ensure the safety of all passengers,' it said. The airline said it had taken witness statements as part of its internal inquiry into the incident, and went on to accuse the children of 'attempting to loosen life jackets, tampering with overhead oxygen masks and removing a high-pressure oxygen cylinder', thereby violating air safety laws. A lawyer for the summer camp group told French TV that some of the children on the jet wore a kippah, and that she had no other explanation for what transpired other than the fact that they were Jewish. But Vueling has categorically denied that the crew's behaviour was a response to the passengers' religion. Spain's Civil Guard confirmed all the passengers removed from the plane were French nationals. A Civil Guard spokesperson said the agents involved in the removal operation and the arrest of one member of the party were not aware of the group's religious affiliation. It also said that the group was expelled from the flight 'without care, escort, accommodation or food'. The Civil Guard said 23 minors and two adults from the group boarded a flight belonging to another airline, while the rest spent Wednesday night at a hotel. A spokesperson said arrangements were being made for them to leave Valencia later on Thursday. The Federation for Jewish Communities of Spain today expressed concern about the incident, calling on Vueling to provide documentary evidence of what happened on the plane. 'The various accounts circulating on social media and in the media to which we have had access do not clarify the cause of the incident,' the organisation said. 'We are particularly interested in clarifying whether there were any possible religiously discriminatory motives toward the minors.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Brit woman is forced to sell her dream holiday home in Spain after a squatter moved in and refused to leave
A British woman has been forced to sell her dream Spanish holiday villa after a squatter moved in and refused to leave. Joanne Venet, 61, says her ordeal began when a tenant refused to pay his €1,400 a month rent for the €450,000 three-bedroom luxury villa near Benidorm earlier this year. Joanne was then faced with Spain 's tough tenancy laws which could have seen her spend years and thousands of pounds to evict the tenant, who was a Spanish citizen. In the end the wedding celebrant and actress from Radcliffe, Greater Manchester, was forced to pay an eviction agency - or 'de-squatters' - £4,000 to evict the tenant who owed €5,600 (£4,800) for four months unpaid rent and bills. When she finally obtained possession of the property, it was trashed and covered in cocaine and cannabis paraphernalia, and debris. It comes as a number of Brits have decided to sell up and move out of the country due to issues with squatters. Joanne says the whole ordeal has left her exhausted, unable to work and so traumatised that she is selling up her dream villa which she had successfully rented out for years. Joanne said: 'We couldn't get him out - we were advised 'you can't even knock on the door'. We couldn't even go and see him unless we had an appointment with him. 'He wouldn't leave - he decided to blackmail us and said 'I'm not leaving, I'm going to stay in your house'. 'He said 'I can stay in here, I can do what I want, I have my rights'. 'I'm an actress and I'm a wedding celebrant. I'm normally on social media, I'm normally at wedding fairs. 'The mental strain of it stopped me advertising myself, I've not got enough weddings for next year because I didn't work. 'All that happening in Spain, it makes you feel so down that you can't just get on with normal life, knowing that somebody's living in your house.' In November, the couple rented out their three-bed home, located in a small town just a few miles outside Benidorm, to a local resident for €1,400 a month. Joanne says the seaside town has some 'magical parts to it', but what happened next was anything but. After just two months, the tenant stopped paying his rent and even his bills - meaning electricity at the home was cut off. Frustrated, the couple tried to take their home back when they discovered that Spanish laws meant they could only evict the squatter immediately if he had moved in within the last 48 hours. Joanne and her husband, who asked not to be named, missed out on four months of rent and had to pay £4,000 to a specialised eviction agency, to finally get back possession of their Spanish villa last month. But only because the squatter finally signed a voluntary eviction agreement. The eviction company says it involved the local police after discovering that the home had cocaine and cannabis in it. The eviction process took the couple around five weeks The mum-of-three said: 'It would have normally taken two years if it was just left to us. It's only because I had spare money from an inheritance that I could afford to do that.' Joanne and her husband found the process of evicting their squatters even more difficult due to post-Brexit rules limiting the amount of time Brits can stay in Spain. Those travelling on a British passport can only stay in the Schengen area, which includes Spain, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Those who wish to stay longer must apply for a visa or could face a ban from the Schengen area. She said: 'We can't stay there together at the moment. We've got to make sure we've got X amount of days. 'That's why my husband's there, we didn't want to leave the house. We're scared of squatters going in. 'This guy was a tenant, but if we leave it empty we're scared of squatters going in.' Now, Joanne wants to see the Spanish laws changed to provide greater protection for landlords. She added: 'We do want to sell it now, yes. We just can't have this stress.' It comes after the Daily Mail revealed Britons are being kicked out of their holiday homes in Spain after falling prey to 'shameless' squatters who act with impunity thanks to the country's lacklustre laws. Homeowners this week said they have sold up or are planning to do so after spending years trying to remove illegal occupiers with 'no help' from police. The problem has become so pervasive that the profile of the squatters, once mostly limited to Spaniards and Moroccans, now includes British expats themselves - who have cottoned on to how easy it is to take over homes for months or even years at a time. The process to kick squatters out is mired by red tape and courtroom backlogs, placing a 'traumatic' strain on victims, many of them elderly. One 75-year-old Brit has developed severe anxiety and high blood pressure over her ordeal, while another 84-year-old is battling cancer as he tries to get his home back. 'It's getting worse and worse,' claims Liverpudlian estate agent Paul Stuart, 44, of Marbella-based Palm Estates. 'It's a ticking time bomb, there is so much anger that I fear we are going to see a lot more cases ending in violence. 'Since Covid there's been a perfect storm of surging rents, stagnant wages and lack of new housing; it's caused a noticeable increase in squatting.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- BBC News
French ministers escalate Spain row over Jewish teens removed from flight
The removal of a French group of Jewish teenagers from a flight in Spain last week has prompted a diplomatic row, after their group leader was handcuffed by police and a Spanish minister called them "Israeli brats".French government ministers Aurore Bergé and Benjamin Haddad have given a strongly worded statement condemning Spain's transport minister Óscar Puente's remarks and the actions of teenagers and their counsellor were among the group of 44 children and eight adults who were taken off Vueling flight V8166 from Valencia to Paris on 23 July while on their way home from a summer camp. Vueling says the French group was removed from the flight because of "disruptive behaviour". The airline has said it aims "to provide a rigorous and transparent account of the facts".However, accounts of what happened before the incident differ dramatically, and have led to allegations of antisemitism, which have been vehemently rejected by both the airline and Spanish on social media showed police holding the female counsellor down on the ground in a corridor while they handcuffed two French ministers, who have both since spoken to the woman, said she had been signed off work for 15 days because of "temporary incapacity"."No act justifies the disembarkation and the excessive and brutal use of force by the Guardia Civil against the young woman," said Bergé and Óscar Puente later deleted his post describing the teenagers as "Israeli brats", the French ministers said they strongly condemned his statement for "equating French children who were Jewish with Israeli citizens, as if this in any way justified the treatment they were subjected to"."We will never accept the trivialisation of anti-Semitism," the ministers said the captain had ordered the removal of the group from the Vueling plane after they had ignored instructions from the airline has given two statements since the events unfolded a week alleged that the group had "mishandled emergency equipment and actively disrupted the mandatory safety demonstration, repeatedly ignoring instructions from cabin crew".Vueling said that as part of its internal inquiry it had taken witness statements from other passengers who had backed up its account and that of the police. It accused some of the children of adopting "confrontational behaviour"... such as "attempting to loosen life jackets, tampering with overhead oxygen masks and removing a high-pressure oxygen cylinder", violating air safety laws. An anonymous passenger gave a statement to Spain's La Sexta TV appearing to back up Vueling's statement, saying that some of the children had pulled life jackets out and pressed the crew-call other accounts have disputed the airline's version of passenger called Damien, who was at the front of the plane and not part of the young group, told Europe 1 radio that the children had been "very calm, especially for teenagers... there was one who called to his friend for two seconds but everything was perfectly fine".Karine Lamy, the mother of a teenage boy in the group, told i24 TV that "one child sang a song in Hebrew, then he began shouting and the staff on board came up to him and the group leader and warned him immediately that if he carried on singing or making a noise they'd call the police". She said the children then calmed down and five minutes later the police boarded the plane and told the leader and the whole group to to Damien, a flight attendant said during the safety demonstration that there was a security issue and that they were going to call police."There was no shouting, no violence," he insisted, adding that he had no idea whether there had been any interruption to the safety demonstration as everyone was paying attention to it at the time.A lawyer for the Club Kineret summer camp group, Murielle Ouknine-Melki, told French TV that some of the children wore a kippah (Jewish skullcap) and she had no other explanation for what happened other than that they were said it categorically denied that its crew's behaviour related to the religion of the passengers. The Guardia Civil said its officers too were not aware they were the weekend, France's foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, contacted Vueling's chief executive, Carolina Martinoli, to express his "deep concern" at what had happened.
