Driving forward

A BRAND­NEW study has revealed that Spain has the eighth­safest drivers in the world. The report by Compare The Market price comparison site was released on Friday, February 10, and had some surprising results.

The report assessed indicators of safety including speed limits, alcohol regulations, quality of motorways and annual deaths from traffic accidents to come up with an overall rating out of five.

ally provided 11.17 per cent less gas than this time last year. Meanwhile, the USA took a huge cut in natural gas sales, providing nearly 46 per cent less natural gas to Spain than in January 2022. Nigeria provided 37 per cent more natural gas than in January last year.

A BRAND ­ NEW study completed by global financial service, Remitly, has revealed the most sought­after job in each country. And Spain’s most popular dream job might be a surprise to some.

Spain imported less natural gas this year than last, partially due to warmer weather, as well as sanctions on the former biggest gas provider, Russia.

Dream jobs

influencer’ being the top pick. By contrast, traditional jobs like ‘lawyer’, ‘firefighter’ or ‘teacher’ were the most popular dream jobs in most European countries.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Japan topped the list for driving safety partially thanks to the country’s low alcohol tolerance for drivers.

RUSSIA’S invasion of Ukraine has caused many Western countries to issue broad packages of sanctions against the rogue nation. But one panel of experts has expressed their concern that in looking for new trading options, Russia is using the Spanish enclave, Ceuta, to dodge sanctions.

In the report, Spain was the only European country to record an online role as the most popular dream job, with ‘online

The most popular dream job worldwide was ‘pilot’ with more than a million searches, followed by writer which saw more than 800,000 searches.

Oil industry experts spoke out on Friday, February 10, saying that Russia is using international waters around 20

The Asian country came away with the top score of 4.57 out of five. However, aside from Japan, eight of the countries in the top 10 list were European countries.

Japan was followed by the Netherlands who similarly scored highly with 4.02 points and Norway with 3.99 points. The other countries to make the top 10 were Estonia, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore and Portugal.

Spain made eighth place on the list with an impressive score of 3.72 thanks to a low rate of fatalities in car accidents and a good quality road network.

Dodging sanctions

kilometres from Ceuta as a strategic location to load and transfer oil cargos to transport onwards to China. In the past, these transfers were completed in ports in the United States or Denmark, but both countries have now imposed sanctions on Russia.

The experts believe that Russia has transferred between 600,000 and one million barrels of crude oil between ships in the ocean off Spain’s North African enclave.

Spain does not allow these ship­to­ship transactions in its waters, but it is believed that the transfers are taking place outside of Spain’s jurisdiction. Spain is not permitted to act unless the ships cross into national water.

Pensions is a topic dear to all our hearts. It represents a lifetime of professional effort, but also the rewards should be the fulfilment of that hard work to see us comfortably through our retirement years.

But it can be complicated, can’t it?

1) UK State Pension

To qualify for the full UK state pension you must have paid UK national insurance contributions for 35 years. Otherwise, provided you contributed for 10 years, the amount you receive is based prorata on how many years you secured. It is possible to make voluntary contributions to buy back six years to reach the 10.

If you are resident in Spain, your UK state pension is paid gross and taxed in Spain.

2) Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution pensions

People who worked for UK companies long term often have traditional company pensions called ‘defined benefits’ or ‘final salary’, where the accrual of benefits is based on the number of years worked for the company and your final salary.

However, since they created a massive ongoing liability for com-