Alicante-Madrid fast trains, low fares

frequent travellers from europe and elsewhere who do not currently need pre-approval. applications will be made online or via an app. those with biometric passports will scan them using their phone and may also need to take a “dynamic selfie” and answer a set of questions. their application will be automatically processed, with a decision given within three days.

anyone arriving at the UK border by air or rail without an eta will be turned away, including if they arrive via ireland but are not irish or British citizens. the government has previously said it expects to handle 30 million eta applications a year.

renFe, Spain’s national rail company, has announced that its new high-speed avlo train will connect Madrid and alicante from 27th March, with tickets priced as low as €7. two other low-cost, high-speed rail operators, iryo and ouigo, will also soon be offering the same route. the avlo train service will initially offer four daily trips (two in each direction) between Madrid and alicante, with a total of 1,436 seats available per day, renFe announced in a statement.the four services will stop in the city of albacete (castilla-La Mancha), and two trains, one in each direction, will stop in cuenca (also castilla-La Mancha) and the Valencian town of Villena. children under the age of 14 will be able to benefit from a basic ticket price costing €5, as long as it is bought with one adult ticket. a maximum of two discounted child tickets with each adult ticket is allowed. Large families can also get a 20 percent discount on top of the price, or a 50percent discount for those who qualify for special circumstances. new low-cost train operator iryo aims to launch its own Madrid-alicante service on 2 June, with the same number of daily services as avlo. Meanwhile, ouigo will start its Madrid-alicante (via albacete) route in May. tickets are now available for as little as €9 if bought in advance but will cost around €30 one way if bought last minute.

Passengers can already buy tickets for the new low-cost route, which will start at just €7. on top of the basic price, clients can purchase a selected seat, as well as pay extra changes or cancellations and additional luggage. renFe said that the basic ticket includes one free cabin suitcase and a handbag.

Man ordered to pay ex-wife for housework

a Spanish court ordered a man to pay his ex-wife 200,000 euros for 25 years of unpaid domestic labour, based on the minimum wage throughout their marriage. the man was ordered to pay her “204,624.86 euros, calculating the figure based on the annual minimum wage” throughout their marriage, said the ruling by a court in the southern andalusia region.

the couple had two daughters, with their marriage governed by a separation of property regime, which specified that whatever each party earned was theirs alone, which in this case would have left the wife with no access to any of the wealth acquired through years of the partnership. the ex-husband was also ordered to pay her a monthly childcare allowance for the daughters, one of whom is a minor while the other is over 18. Speaking to cadena Ser radio, the woman, who was not named, said her husband did not “want her to work” outside the home although he let her work at the gyms he owned, where she handled “public relations and acted as a supervisor”. apart from that, “i have dedicated myself exclusively to housework, looking after my husband and the house,” she said.“he made me take on the specific role” of doing domestic chores, to the extent that “i was in a place where i couldn’t really do much else,” she added.

Since marrying, the wife had dedicated herself “to essentially working in the home, which meant looking after the home and the family and all that involves,” the ruling said.

Legal papers showed a breakdown of what she would have earned annually for the years between June 1995 and december 2020.