Europe

Two years ago, Europe did everything possible to stop the Chinese car. Spain has become your best gateway

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“Honorary registration.” That was the note that Pedro Sánchez gave to the Chinese car that he had briefly tested during his visit to the Asian country in September 2024. The statement did not go unnoticed because while Europe tried to stop China’s entry into the European automobile market by all means, Spain distanced itself from this strategy. That declaration, however, had begun to take shape much earlier. In July, Europe had already activated what are known as “compensatory duties” to Chinese cars. It was a temporary measure before it was firmly decided whether to apply it or not duty to the companies, their amount and how they would be carried out. In October, the decision was made definitively and at the end of the month tariffs began to be charged to all Chinese electric cars. The fees that each brand must pay are specific for each of them depending, in the eyes of the European Union, on how many subsidies they have received from the Chinese Government and how much they have collaborated with European investigations. At first, Spain defended the lifting of tariffs against these vehicles, but as the months passed, little by little, its position changed. In April 2024, Chery had announced that it was purchasing the Nissan plant in Barcelona to produce Omoda and Jaecoo cars there. Along the way, Ebro was reborn, At the moment they are Chinese cars although the name is Spanish. The movement could have been key to eroding the Spanish position. The second push came from the Chinese Government: tariffs on Spanish pork. The threat of putting obstacles in a market that Spain dominates paid off. During the September visit, Pedro Sánchez already pointed out that “we need to reconsider our position”in relation to tariffs. And he stressed that “we do not need another war, in this case a trade war,” in words collected by The Country. Spain went from voting in favor of tariffs in 2023 to abstaining in the 2024 vote. A movement that said more about positioning itself against them than about granting with its silence. Two years later, Spain is the preferred gateway for Chinese manufacturers to reach Europe. Spain, land of Chinese cars At the beginning of October 2024, Chery announced a delay in car production in Barcelona. If Spain was missing a message to opt in favor of lifting tariffs on Chinese cars, there it was. Agencies like Reuters They began to point out that the Chinese State was pressuring its manufacturers to withdraw their investments from where the trade barrier against the country had been supported. Europe intended attract investments with tariffs and for months we thought that it could be such a big barrier that China would not be interested in bringing its manufacturing here. But little by little, in a constant trickle, Chinese investments have arrived. And Spain has done business with it. Since 2024, Chery has invested in Spain, taking over a factory that had been almost completely stopped for years. Now the latest news is that Geely and Ford have reached an agreement to produce cars at the Almussafes plant in Valencia. The American company maintained its facilities at half throttle but starting in 2028, up to four different cars should leave through its doors. Along the way, Geely and Renault, which own Horse, decided that the development and production of their combustion engines would leave the Valladolid plant. Stellantis and CATL reached an agreement to build a battery plant in Zaragoza and feed the automobile conglomerate’s small electric cars. As a consequence, Stellantis will also produce Leapmotor cars on Spanish soil. Besides, SAIC has announced an investment in Galicia to produce MG cars there. As is the case with Barcelona, ​​this last plant will nourish the market for cars assembled at destination through kits but will serve to give some life to the industrial environment from the north of Spain. At the same time, Spanish ports have been consolidated as a perfect space to unload Chinese cars in their previous distribution step through Europe. Spain has several advantages over its competitors. We are a powerhouse in car manufacturing. This had the counterpart that with an electric car that requires fewer employees, thousands of layoffs have swept over the Spanish labor market. But we also have a qualified workforce and facilities already built to do this work. This is a value for those companies that are looking for already installed facilities to produce as soon as possible, even if it is through kits. But in addition, we are also a country with more competitive production costs than other countries north of the Pyrenees because our salaries are cheaper but the price of energy is also less expensive. This positions us as a very interesting space. to produce small cars that offer narrower profit margins. And if those were few incentives, Spain is buying many Chinese cars. With a proposal to offer more equipment and technology than rivals for the same price or even less, Chinese cars have gained many followers. So far this year, the MG ZS and the BYD Atto 2 They are already two of the 10 best-selling cars in our country. Last year was a year of consolidation for Omoda and Jaecoo and an opportunity for MG and BYD to continue gaining ground. Without tariffs on cars with combustion engines, five of the 10 best-selling plug-in hybrid cars in Spain are already Chinese. The reception has been so great that Geely is also looking for its own niche. GWM announced a few weeks ago his arrival in Spain. Changan (which is the origin of Mazda electric cars) already operates in our country. Zeekr will try to make a raid in the field of premium electric and plug-in hybrid cars. BYD’s Denza has also recently arrived. In three years, Spain has gone from supporting tariffs on Chinese electric cars to completely embracing its cars. He has done it in a complicated game of balance but the fact is … Read more

The oldest reservoir in Europe is in Alicante. It is 400 years before Franco

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It starts raining and someone says: “We’ll need all this water for later.” Spain’s relationship with dams, reservoirs and swamps seems complicated, as if catching every drop of torrential rain were a simple requirement. The reality is that in our country there are 374 reservoirs with 56,000 cubic hectometers (hm³) of capacity. This involves trapping approximately 50% of the country’s river flow. Because Spain has always been a land of reservoirs. Before its official name existed, before the Enlightenment, before Velázquez was even born, there was already a 46-meter dam containing water in a town in Alicante. It still stands and, in fact, still works. And he continues watering gardens every summer. Commissioned by a king, not a dictator. The Tibi Reservoir rises above the Monnegre Riverbetween the municipalities of Tibi and Jijona. Philip II commissioned its construction in 1580 to the Italian engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli, following a proposal from two residents of Muchamiel, Miguel Alcaraz and Pere Izquierdo, who knew well the behavior of the river. After the first push, the works were stopped due to lack of money with only six meters of wall raised. They were resumed nine years later and finished in 1594. The result: a gravity dam with a curved plan, 46 meters high and 65 meters high, the highest in Europe at its time, a record that was not surpassed until the Enlightenment. Its arch design, with a radius of 107 meters, anticipated the technique of modern arch dams, those that transfer the force of water to their abutments and foundations. Broken, repaired, and still in use. The reservoir suffered a major break in 1697 and several generations were left unable to use it. In 1601, a flood opened a crack and left the reservoir dry. They repaired it, but badly. And the years continued to pass. Until 1697, where a serious breakage left several generations unable to use its water. In fact, the dam remained unavailable for 40 years. In those days a legend was born that well deserves its folk horror film: the Quarantamaula, a bug that was half cat, half rooster, half wolf, which hid among the reeds. No one knew where the cracks originated and they spoke of sabotage. Maybe it was the slope of the terrain, maybe it was an attack or something intentional using a drum of gunpowder. Or they simply used too cheap materials. In 1736 the repair began and lasted two years. And until today. The sediments accumulated over centuries reduced its original capacity, from between 4 and 5.4 million cubic meters, to the current 2 cubic hectometers. Even so, The Alicante Orchard Irrigation Union continues to manage it for the same purpose for which it was built: to water the Alicante orchard. In 1994, coinciding with the fourth centenary of its completion, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it an Asset of Cultural Interest. Why is it still standing?. The secret is not only in the stone, it is in the surrounding rock. The technicians chose a gorge barely nine meters wide between two almost vertical limestone walls, Mos del Bou and La Cresta, and laid out the wall in a curve, with a radius of 107 meters, so that the thrust of the water was transmitted laterally towards that rock instead of falling only on the dam. In practice they built less of a wall and more of an artificial extension of the mountain: from floor to ceiling, this was carved ashlar on the outside, filled masonry on the inside. That curved idea, so counterintuitive in 1580, did not come from any Crown engineer: it was proposed by Pere Esquerdo, a miller from Mutxamel whom local chronicles call “the first inventor of the swamp.” The royal technicians, the Antonellis, Jorge Palearo—and Juan de Herrera, the same architect of El Escorial, for the final revision of 1594— limited themselves to perfecting the idea of ​​a neighbor without a title. The result lasted two centuries as the highest dam in the world. In 1941, already in the midst of Franco’s regime, a new drainage tunnel was added. That is all that the regime touched on Tibi, when it had already been operating for almost 350 years. The wall that is seen today is still, in essence, that of 1594. There are even older dams. In fact, Tibi shares the podium with the Almansa reservoir, in Albacete, completed in 1584 and considered the first modern construction of this type in Europe. Between the two, Tibi is the one that has been operating the longest without interruption and the one that removed the most stone (more than 40,000 cubic meters). And neither of them is the oldest in the country: The official inventory of large dams starts with Cornalvo and Proserpinanear Mérida, built by the Romans in the first century. And any historian knows that already built in wet. On the Arroyo de la Albuhera (a tributary of the Aljucén and, in turn, the Guadiana), Mérida, the Roman capital of Lusitania, had this earth and concrete dam covered with older granite ashlars. More than one hundred of the large dams that still exist in Spain today already existed in 1915, two decades before the Civil War. The joke doesn’t fit the story.. The recurring joke that, when faced with any swamp, one says “Franco did it” is a pantomime. The regime itself fed that idea on purpose with the NO-DO, showing the dictator cutting ribbons and opening floodgates. And it is true that many reservoirs were built between 1939 and 1975: the WWF calculates 581 large dams alone between 1950 and 1980, with the labor of political prisoners in conditions of forced labor. But Spanish hydraulic policy was not invented by Francoism. It was born in 1902 with the Gasset Plan, and was institutionalized in 1926, under Primo de Rivera, with the creation of the Hydrographic Confederations. His Avengers version, the most ambitious, the National Plan for Hydraulic Works of 1933, was a project of the Second Republic, … Read more

Europe forces Google to open Android to ChatGPT and Claude, but the blow is that it will have to give up its search engine data to the competition

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The European Commission has ordered Google to open two of its greatest competitive advantages– Android’s access to rival AI assistants and the search data that feeds Gemini. They are two binding measures under the Digital Markets Act (DMA)adopted on July 16. Android must be open by July 2027, search data by January 2027, and no resources are stopping those deadlines. In detail. The first measure affects how a rival assistant can live inside Android. Right now, Gemini has privileges that no competitor shares: Keyword activation at the operating system level, not the application level. Access to the home button or navigation gesture as a gateway. Reading content on screen to respond with context. Executing tasks within other applications, such as sending an email or sharing a photo. Priority access to hardware and AI models built into the device. There are 11 points in total. Starting with the next major version of Android, ChatGPT, Claude or any other attendee will be able to claim the same treatment that only they have today Gemini. The second measure is the one that weighs the most for the business: the data of queries, clicks and results with which Google trains a good part of its LLM. From January 2027, rivals such as OpenAI will be able to access an anonymized version, under conditions that Brussels demands are fair and non-discriminatory. Google’s waterline. Between the lines. Google completed a few months ago the transition from Google Assistant to Gemini as Android’s default assistant, just before Brussels opened the file. The order arrived with Gemini already installed as a part of the system and not as just another application. Apple chose the opposite path: it negotiated before launching, proposed a monitored permit system and Brussels rejected it. Siri AI It still hasn’t reached the iPhone in the European Union. Google launched Gemini without asking permission and has discussed the conditions afterwards, with better results. Yes, but. Google, like Apple, alleges security and privacy reasons. Its head of global affairs, Kent Walker, has explained that opening screen reading and the execution of tasks between applications to any external service bypasses the filter that the manufacturers themselves apply today before granting these permissions. And now what. Google will appeal, but the appeal does not give it extra time: from the criteria established in the Apple case, the obligation is fulfilled while it is discussed whether it was legal to impose it. The United Kingdom and Japan, which are preparing their own digital competency frameworks, are presumably taking note of how “fair access” to a mobile is defined here. What Brussels sets about wake words or search data prices will not remain only in Europe. In Xataka | AI has destroyed traditional captchas. Google’s solution requires scanning a QR… and having its services installed Featured image | Xataka

Europe has a problem with the size of its cars: the "carspreading" threatens to devour thousands of parking lots

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New cars sold in Europe they are a little longer every yeartaller and wider. The phenomenon already has its own name, “carspreading”, and according to a new report from the environmental organizations Transport & Environment (T&E) and Clean Cities, if this trend is not stopped, it will have direct consequences both on road safety and on the parking available in our cities. We tell you the details. What is happening. The report, published by T&E and Clean Cities, has analyzed the evolution of the size of new cars sold in Europe from 2000 to today, and has projected two possible scenarios until 2040: one in which growth continues at the current rate, and another of “adequate resizing”, in which specific policies return the average size of vehicles to the levels they had in 2015. The difference between both scenarios is, according to the authors, alarming. In detail. The data show The average length of a new car increases by 1.2 centimeters each year, while its height and width grow by 0.5 centimeters each year. The height of the hood, which is precisely a key element that directly affects pedestrians and cyclists in the event of a collision, also rises at the same rate. If nothing changes, the study estimates that the average height of the hoods in the entire European vehicle fleet will reach 86.2 centimeters in 2040. All this despite the fact that, as the same report emphasizes, families are becoming smaller and cars transport fewer people on average than before. In Xataka Michael O’Leary, Ryanair: "Von der Leyen is very good at giving speeches, but he is useless in boosting competitiveness in Europe" Why it is important. As highlighted in the study, andThe size of cars has a direct impact on the chances of surviving a crash. The higher the hood of a vehicle, the greater the risk that the impact will occur on the victim’s torso or head rather than the legs. According to figures collected in the study, an increase of 10 centimeters in the height of the hood increases the risk of death for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists by 27%, and up to 81% in the case of children. If the current trend continues, the report estimates that in 2040, 40% more child pedestrians could die on European roads than in a scenario in which cars are limited in size. The key figure. Comparing both scenarios, T&E and Clean Cities they estimate that the difference in the number of deaths of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and people with mopeds) could reach 400 additional deaths per year in 2040 in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Adding the intervening years, between 2026 and 2040 this accumulated difference would amount to 2,500 adults and 79 additional children who died, according to the report. And parking is not spared either. The other major effect of “carspreading” is the loss of street parking spaces. The study predicts that European cities will lose between 8.5% and 14% of their surface parking capacity by 2040 if the size of cars continues to grow uncontrollably. London and Berlin could lose around 100,000 places each, while Rome would lose around 95,000. In the case of Madrid, the loss could reach 41,000 places, according to the report’s calculations. In Xataka Omoda and Jaecoo already sell more cars than Citroën, Nissan or Ford in Spain. And they are very clear that their secret is not the price Between the lines. “Many automakers have followed a strategy that prioritizes larger, more profitable vehicles over smaller models,” explains Isabell Büschel, director of T&E in Spain, pointing out that “our roads are increasingly dominated by huge off-road vehicles that pose a physical danger to other users.” From the United Kingdom, the T&E director in that country, Anna Krajinska, sums it up as a “market failure.” “The result is a double harm: city councils are forced to redesign streets around larger vehicles, sacrificing parking capacity, public space and safety,” he continued. Not everyone sees the problem the same way. Edmund King, president of the British Motor Association (AA), nuanced to the BBC that, depending on the design, some large cars can be safer for both occupants and pedestrians, so he considers it “too simplistic to assume that larger cars are always more dangerous.” For his part, Mike Hawes, head of the British manufacturers’ association SMMT, argued that it is the consumers themselves who, with their purchasing preferences, end up influencing the design of vehicles. What organizations ask for. T&E and Clean Cities they claim European regulators several measures to stop this trend: A limit of 85 centimeters of bonnet height and 192 centimeters of width for new cars, applicable to approvals from 2033 and to all sales from 2036. Tax reforms that penalize the purchase of large vehicles. An update to Euro NCAP protocols to assess the visibility of young children from the driver’s seat. Changes in municipal parking rates depending on the size and weight of the vehicle. In Xataka César Franco, engineer: “We have preferred to inaugurate over conserve. Nobody applauds that a bridge is still standing” Along these lines, Carmen Duce, coordinator of the Clean Cities campaign in Spain, point to experiences such as that of Paris, which “is already considering differentiated rates for parking”, as the type of measures that, in his opinion, “must be taken urgently to guarantee a fairer redistribution of public space.” And now what. The report comes precisely at a time when the European Union maintains as its objective its “Vision Zero” strategywith which it aims to eliminate road deaths by 2050. The distance between that objective and the current trend of growth in the size of cars is, according to T&E and Clean Cities, increasingly evident. Lucien Mathieu himself, a T&E analyst, poses it as an open question that regulators and manufacturers will have to answer in the coming years: “Where do we stop?” Cover image | Aditya Rathod In Xataka |Good news, Michelin has finally … Read more

Denmark is preparing a colossal artificial island where it wants to connect half of Europe to receive energy

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Europe depends on third parties for strategic resources as valuable as gas or oil, so the energy transition is an absolute priority. Among the essential renewables for this transition is wind energy and there is a place that is a vein: the North Sea. The question is to connect this enormous field of wind turbines with the rest of the continent and you know how: with a new island in Denmark. The Danish artificial island. Denmark wants to build an artificial island in the North Sea that functions as a kind of “giant plug” to connect hundreds of offshore wind turbines from several European countries at the same time. The North Sea Energy Island, as it will be called, will be built about 80 – 100 kilometers off the west coast of Jutland, and will cost about 28 billion euros. according to the International Energy Agency and the company in charge of its management will be the Danish operator Energinet. Although initially will have a capacity of 3 GWthe idea is to expand it to 10 GW by 2040, enough to supply about ten million European homes. The installation will combine electricity, the production of hydrogen is on the table and in the future it may incorporate energy storage. Why it is important. Because according to Energinet, it is the largest infrastructure project in the history of Denmark, but this is a multinational project to accelerate offshore wind deployment and strengthen energy infrastructure between the North Sea countries. Furthermore, grouping the connection of several wind farms at a single point allows us to distribute infrastructure costs and place the turbines further from the coast, where the wind is more constant. On the other hand, this island will produce green hydrogen for ships and airplanes, two industries with complex electrification. Context. This project was born fruit of Denmark’s 2020 climate agreement, when its parliament approved the creation of two energy islands: this one of artificial origin in the North Sea and another minor one of natural origin in Bornholm, in the Baltic Sea. In May 2022, the project was consolidated with the agreement between the energy ministries of Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and Denmark, which established the initial capacity and its connections. The project is part of the broader European strategy for marine renewable electrification, which the European Commission promotes since 2019 with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. In detail. Denmark has the majority participation in this critical infrastructure through Energinet, builder and owner of the network to the country. The rest of the international connections will be established with operators in each country, such as Elia (Belgium) or Amprion (Germany). The island will be connected to Denmark by Gammelgab, in the municipality of Varde, and the connection to the electrical grid will be made at a plant in Revsing, in the municipality of Vejen, as confirmed by Energinet. Yes, but. The production of hydrogen on the island is still a pending issue regarding technological advances in the segment over the next decade: everything is a question of economic viability, or in other words, whether it is more profitable to produce it on the island or on the coast. The decarbonization potential is enormous and so is the political support, but It is already experiencing delays and increased costs: It was originally planned for 2033 and we already know that it will not materialize until at least 2036. It also raises environmental concerns: the design contemplates converting protection structures into artificial reefs and monitoring marine biodiversity, but the relevant environmental permits are still pending. In short, this energy island today is more of a project than a reality. In Xataka | Something is happening with wind energy. Its deployment has slowed while solar energy grows unstoppable In Xataka | Offshore wind seemed to be Europe’s great energy hope: now it faces a murky future Cover | Vindo

There are people who think that Europe should recover the military. What happened in Germany offers them an unpleasant surprise

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It is still early to know whether or not Germany will be successful with its new volunteer ‘military’but one thing is clear: the German authorities have revived a figure that was in the doldrums for years, the conscientious objector. Although Berlin does not apply a mandatory recruitment system, thousands of young people in the country have wanted to improve their health by starting the procedures to benefit from their constitutional right to not have to hold a weapon. More requests have been registered during the first six months of the year alone than in all of 2025. It has even surpassed 2011, the year in which the mandatory military service ended. What has happened? That the Bundesrat has achieved something unexpected (or not) with your new law of voluntary military service. Its purpose was to give a boost to recruitment so that the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) would go from its current around 184,000 troops to between 255,000 and 270,000 in 2035, but everything indicates that they have activated a mechanism that pushes in the opposite direction: more and more young people declare themselves conscientious objectors, that is, they appeal to their constitutional right not to be forced by anyone to use weapons or be a soldier. That does not mean that the new German ‘military’ is not working (to affirm such a thing it would be necessary to handle updated recruitment data), but it does mean that its future will not be as peaceful as the Government of Friedrich Merz would like. Are there so many objectors? Yes. The data has advanced them Redaktions Netzwerk Deutschland (RND) and show that the figure of the objector is experiencing a real boom in Germany. During the first half of 2026 alone, the Federal Office for Family and Civil Society Affairs received 5,862 applications from citizens who wanted to declare themselves conscientious objectors. There are almost a thousand each month, but the data stands out above all when put into context. Throughout 2025 the Government noted 3,867 requests and in 2024 they were only 2,249. In 2011, the year in which the mandatory military service was suspended, 4,348 were registered. The balance of the first half of the year not only shows a clear rebound, it also suggests that young Germans are increasingly concerned about the issue: 60% of these applications were submitted between April and June, when the country was shaken by several controversies related to the new military law, as if men need authorization to leave the country for more than three months. But is there or isn’t there ‘mili’? Yes. And no. There is no mandatory service like the one that existed in Spain until 2001 or that applied in Germany until 2011, but there is a new legal framework with which Berlin aspires to gain voluntary recruits. To understand it you have to go back to December 2025when the Upper House of the German Parliament approved a military service bill that began to be applied on January 1, 2026. Its objective is very simple: add thousands of new soldiers to the country’s Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), although with a lot of pedagogy and initially appealing to voluntariness. In practice, this means that right now Germans who come of age are only required to go through two relatively harmless and simple procedures. “Men born in 2008 or later must participate in the military registration process. This includes filling out a questionnaire and passing a medical examination by medical personnel,” explains the Bundeswehr. Do we know anything else? Yes. The military explains in detail how it will implement the system. The idea is that all young Germans who come of age (some 650,000 each year) will receive an online questionnaire asking whether or not you are interested in military life. The men are obligated to respond. For women it is optional. If the answer is yes, the Armed Forces invite volunteers to a recruitment center to continue the process. The system is still being implemented, but at the end of last year the German press was talking aboutIn a second phase, late in 2027, 18-year-old men must also undergo a medical examination that will be mandatory whether they opt for voluntary military service or not. “No one forces you to do anything, except to fill out a questionnaire that reflects the recorded data and pass a medical examination that does no harm to anyone,” claims the German Defense Minister, the social democrat Boris Pistorius. “The State does not protect itself. That has to be done by people who are willing to defend it and not sit idly waiting for others to do so.” What is the objective? We pointed it out before: turning the German army into a European reference. And that happens by arriving in the mid-2030s with 460,000 troopsbetween active personnel (260,000) and reservists (200,000). Not bad if you take into account that in 2025 184,000 soldiers were serving. In Germany already throw out the idea that, if this objective is not achieved through voluntary recruitment, the Government could go further and opt for a mandatory model. In any case, that would require a new parliamentary procedure. For now, in view of the changes being promoted by the Merz Executive, the threat from Russia and the rearmament discourse fueled by Donald Trump, more and more young people are choosing to declare themselves objectors. Curiously, there are also people who take the opposite path, although less: the daily Neue Osnabrucker assures that during the first quarter 233 people waived their right to refuse military service. They join the 781 that did so in 2025. Images | Simon Infanger (Unsplash) and Filip Andrejevic (Unsplash) In Xataka | In Spain, 1,149 young people lost their lives in the same place between 1983 and 1989. All of these “accidents” could have been avoided.

Europe wants to put an end to the particular Iberian exception of the Spanish train. And Spain has a clear answer: no.

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There are investments and investments. More or less necessary. More or less large. But there are also more or less viable ones. And, of course, the Ministry of Transport considers that the European Commission’s proposal to change all roads from Iberian gauge to international gauge is anything but viable. And they have a good reason: 30,000 million euros. What does Europe want? In October 2025, The European Commission presented its project to cement, once and for all, the connection between Madrid and Lisbon with high-speed trains. After many delays, if the plans are fulfilled and both cities end up being united in 2030 with a single train, high speed will arrive on this line 20 years late. In the writing The bases that the routes must follow are reflected and there is an important paragraph in them: With the ambition to fully integrate the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed rail connection into the broader high-speed network in Spain and France, adopting the European standard nominal gauge of 1,435 mm is a key step. In this way, the competitiveness of long-distance passenger traffic will be strengthened. By connecting Portugal and Spain, and extending to France, the Lisbon–Madrid high-speed rail connection has a clear cross-border and Union dimension In it it is clear that we are talking about the Madrid-Lisbon line but on the occasion of this text, public entities must study the economic viability of migrating the railway network to the international gauge and definitively abandoning the Iberian gauge. The answer. No. Simple and concise. According to The Countrya medium that claims to have had access to internal documents of the Ministry of Transportation, the Government’s response to this migration is a resounding “no.” The reasons are as simple as that it would take 30 years of works and an investment of 30,000 million euros to reverse the Iberian exceptionalism of the Spanish and Portuguese train. In the documents that Spain will present to Brussels, it is specified that the matter is not viable in its entirety or in part since the possibility of installing “third threads or lanes to achieve mixed widths” was contemplated, they explain in the medium. No, no and no. They explain in The Country that the Ministry of Transportation rejects all the options that have been put on the table: Changing exclusively the lines of the European corridors: it would leave, according to Transport, more than 5,000 km of the network isolated. Implement a mixed width with third rails or threads: discarded due to the complexity of the work and the high maintenance cost Change all Iberian gauge roads: Transport considers it unapproachable although it has been the most studied option because it is ideal. What is this track width? Spain, since the 19th century it has lived in an Iberian exceptionality next to Portugal. Throughout this century, the railway was gaining followers all over the world. During its expansion, the lines were built with different track widths, taking into account the particularities of the terrain. In Europe, the number of tracks built with a width of 1,435 mm multiplied and ended up becoming established. Everything above it is considered “wide gauge” and below it as “narrow gauge” because those 1,435 mm were accepted as the standard. This is how the international gauge was born. In Spain, however, we chose to build our railway network on a track gauge of 1,672 millimeters, defended by three engineers who were entrusted with the task of projecting the future of the Spanish train. They argued that a wider track width allowed the use of more powerful locomotives and that this was essential in a mountainous country like ours. And the consequences? The consequences were immediate. Already in the middle of the 19th century From Portugal they asked Spain by letter to desist from building their roads with this new gauge because they would be isolated from Europe. And the problem, evidently, was greater for Portugal, which was dragged along by the Spanish decision. Spain, as you imagine, did not give up and now lives between three gauges of road: the international one (for about 4,000 km of high speed), the Iberian one (for 13,000 km of Cercanías) and the metric width (1,210 km for especially mountainous terrain). This is a problem for connectivity between tracks because trains cannot jump from one to another, except for the Talgo Avril. And it’s an advantage. At least for Renfe. And Renfe can take advantage of this particularity in some very specific points on the Peninsula. For example, in Madrid-Galicia, international gauge and Iberian gauge are used, already in the Galician part. Only Renfe has trains that can jump from one track gauge to another, so competition is eliminated. And the same will happen in Portugal. The connection between Madrid and Lisbon is being built on an international gauge but the Portuguese high-speed line between Lisbon and Porto will operate on an Iberian gauge. This leaves Renfe as the only company that could operate a Madrid-Porto train passing through Lisbon without the need to transfer. Now it is better understood why Renfe will invest in converting the Avrils fixed gauge on variable gauge trains and why Transportes believes that Portugal is a great market opportunity. Photo | Falk2 In Xataka | Renfe offers its juiciest contract: 4,000 million euros to buy trains. And everything indicates that he will not stay in Spain

turning Chinese air conditioners into a mass phenomenon in Europe

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Brussels has been trying for months to stop the avalanche of Chinese products entering the continent. A few weeks ago we wrote about excise tax on small value items in stores like AliExpress, Temu or Shein. The EU blames China for a trade deficit that continues to grow and has threatened new restrictions. What is impossible to stop is the heat. And this summer is being especially deadly for millions of Europeans. Some have even stood in lines, visited several cities and spent the day updating websites. in order to get an air conditioning unit. Most, by the way, made in China. European trade policy has failed to curb dependence on China. The thermometer, on the other hand, has achieved it in a matter of weeks. What has happened? A historic heat wave has hit numerous countries in Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic, countries where air conditioning has never been a real need. With temperatures soaring and a notable increase in heat deaths, the demand for air conditioners has been shot suddenly. The problem is that the supply has not been able to keep up, as many stores have run out of stock. How we got here. Although here in Spain we are more than used to having houses with air conditioning (at least in the farthest part of the north), In the rest of Europe it is not so common. In fact, according to dataAccording to the International Energy Agency, only about 20% of European homes have air conditioning, compared to about 90% in the United States. For decades, the continent has considered these devices noisy, unsightly for historic facades and, above all, unnecessary, because extreme summers were a one-off occurrence. This same logic has led to buildings designed to retain heat in winter. When heat waves are no longer an exception, Europe has found itself without infrastructure, without a culture of installation and without its own industry capable of covering that demand. And none of the five best-selling brands on the continent are European, according to data from Euromonitor International collected by CNBC. In detail. According to customs figures Chinese companies cited by The Wall Street Journal, exports of air conditioning units from China to France grew by 57% in May compared to the previous year, while to Spain they grew by 41%, and that before the worst days of June. The South China Morning Post, citing May estimatesplaced the year-on-year increase at 186% in France, 69.6% in Germany and 139.1% in the Netherlands. The Telegraph collected In addition, Chinese exports of air conditioners to the European Union have grown by 43% in the first half of the year, up to 3.8 billion dollars, with increases of between 20% and 97% in fan sales depending on the market. Midea, one of the largest manufacturers, assured to the Chinese state agency Xinhua that would send 100 containers of your PortaSplit model to Europe in just one month, and that its orders had already exceeded 200,000 units this year, double that of 2025, according to collected CNBC. Between the lines. All of this is happening at the worst possible time for the European trade narrative. Brussels and Beijing are holding talks to try to reduce a trade deficit that reached 360,000 million euros last year and that in the first quarter of this year it already amounted to 98,000 million, the highest level since 2022, according to Eurostat data. The European Trade Commissioner himself, Maros Sefcovic, recognized that the trend “is not sustainable.” Analysts such as Ding Chun, from the Center for European Studies at Fudan University, they counted to the SCMP that there is a growing disconnection between the political discourse of Brussels, focused on industrial protection, and the real needs of citizens, who are simply “seeking to survive the heat at the best possible price.” And now what. The European Union has set October as the deadline to achieve “tangible” progress in the trade relationship with China. But the problem of air conditioning is not going to disappear with the summer, because the European Commission itself calculated in 2024 that by 2030 up to 70 million new devices could be installed on the continent, which would cover around 35% of homes. This implies that, in addition to Chinese manufacturers, Europe will need a network of installers and regulation adapted to a reality that until recently was not contemplated. Cover image | TCL In Xataka | We have been cooling homes for decades with increasingly expensive machines. The Persian method has not consumed a single watt for 2,500 years

“Von der Leyen is very good at giving speeches, but he is useless in promoting competitiveness in Europe”

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Michael O’Leary does not hesitate. Aim and shoot. It seems that without giving much thought to the matter, although, it seems, he has thought long and hard about what he is going to say before going out in front of the microphones. This time the target of their criticism has been Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, for the air traffic control (ATC) service. “Useless”. Or “useless”, in Spanish. This is what Michael O’Leary called Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, in an event before the media where he criticized the delays that are occurring and air traffic charges (ATC). The insult is just the latest in a long list of grievances that Michael O’Leary has dedicated to politicians of all political stripes throughout the world. In Spain we have the attack against Pablo Bustinduy, Minister of Consumer Affairs, whom he called a “clown”. The European Parliament has defined it as “a club of charlatan idiots” and Donald Trump has been called a “liar”among other cases. What has happened? In his attack, Michael O’Leary had gone before the media to point out what, for his company, is cause for complaint: Europe does nothing about the increase in airport taxes, delays due to lack of controllers and the general increase in costs. In his statements, O’Leary stated the following: “It is time for ‘Useless’ Von der Leyen to stop talking about competitiveness and start doing something about it. For many years, European airlines have been calling for effective reform of Europe’s poor air traffic control (ATC) services. At a minimum, this requires the Commission to require European ATC providers to be fully staffed for the first wave of morning flights or face real and punishing fines. We have also called for the protection of overflights during national air traffic controller strikes. Despite these repeated requests, “Useless” Von der Leyen has done nothing. He is very good at giving speeches, but he is useless when it comes to carrying out real reforms or boosting competitiveness in Europe. What is all this about? What Ryanair assures is that flights are growing but, despite everything, they are still 5% below those registered before the Covid-19 crisis. And, even so, ATC delays (those due to air traffic management) have increased according to the company that points out Spain as the second country with the most delays for this reason (11% of all those registered in Europe). Ryanair complains that airlines are being punished twice. In its statement it points out that while operating costs and rates rise, the service is worse and more delays accumulate. And is it true? From Enaire, a public company dependent on the Ministry of Transportation that manages air traffic in the country, They questioned this story last year when they claim that ATC delays were reduced in the months of July and August despite the fact that the volume of flights had increased. According to the airline, delays will grow this summer 20% if the controller workforce was not increased. A similar position defend in the Independent Professional Union of Air Traffic Controllers (SPICA) who claim that since 2010, 116 fewer air traffic controllers have been working in Spain, which increases the pressure on employees and the risk of delays. One of the problems is that the training of an air traffic controller takes two years, so it is not a quickly replaceable position. Much more than a criticism. If Ryanair is putting a lot of emphasis on this problem, it is because it knows that a good part of its business is based on punctuality. The company demands that the European Commission force countries to have the greatest number of drivers available in the early and late afternoons, fetish time slots for the company. But, in addition, the margins between flights are so narrow for Ryanair that a small delay in a first flight leaves subsequent flights out of play throughout the day. One by one, the dominoes fall, the delays accumulate and the risk of having to refund customers’ money increases. Photo | Polish presidency of the Council of the EU 2025 and Stenbocki Maja In Xataka | The big secret of Ryanair’s success is that it doesn’t make money for flying: it does so by squeezing you out of everything else.

OnePlus closes in Europe and Realme closes in China. This is the logic that explains why it is not the other way around

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Oppo has confirmed the movements that had been circulating for weeks about the future of OnePlus and Realmein an official announcement that sheds light on the future of each brand. The result is almost a mirror image between China and Europe: where one brand disappears, the other stays. And vice versa. What Oppo has confirmed. The distribution is like this: in ChinaRealme closes. OnePlus and Oppo remain. In Europe and SpainOnePlus closes. Realme and Oppo remain. Realme UIRealme’s customization layer, disappears and merges with ColorOSthe one from Oppo. Realme users will be able to voluntarily update to ColorOS, although there is still no confirmation of which model range this update will reach. The commitment to support and updates for devices already sold is maintained in both cases. The important nuance. It doesn’t matter how it was told in China: Realme does not disappear in Europe. It is an easy distinction to lose if international coverage simplifies the headline as “Oppo closes Realme” without further context, because the announcement is born in a Chinese key. In Spain and the rest of Europe, Realme continues to sell normally. The brand that is leaving our market is OnePlus, something that has already been talked about for months and that we counted a few days ago as something imminent. Between the lines. That Oppo closes different brands in each region depending on the strength they have there says a lot about its strategy. Realme has been the most aggressive brand in terms of price for years in markets such as Spain, France, Italy and the United Kingdom, with a commercial pull especially among the young public. In China, on the other hand, it is Oppo that dominates the terrain and Realme weighs less: It is the third after Huawei and Apple. Closing where it does not pay off and maintaining where it does work is a purely pragmatic and accounting balance decision. There is a second reading that the announcement has not yet clarified: it would not be strange for Oppo to distribute its brands by range in addition to geography, leaving Realme the entry and mid-range and reserving the high range for Oppo. The CEO suggests something like this, whose statement sent by the brand includes the phrase “OPPO’s European business remains stable, with strong momentum in the premium flagship segment.” On the other hand, the Realme that arrive in Spain in the coming months could be the successors of the low and mid-range OnePlus that the brand continues to manufacture in China with another logo. And now what. The announcement closes, on paper, the months-long mystery about the future of OnePlus in Europe. What remains to be seen is the fine print: what happens with Realme outside of Spain, up to what range the migration to ColorOS reaches and if the price distribution between Realme and Oppo confirms the hypothesis of the low range disguised as Chinese OnePlus. In Xataka | OnePlus 15, analysis: if the question is how long the battery of a high-end device should last, this mobile is the answer we wanted Featured image | Xataka

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