Europe

A Chinese driver bought a spectacular electric SUV to travel to Europe. Everything was perfect until he reached the border

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Fabio Belmone is Volata di Peluca. At the beginning of last year he went viral when he posted that he was going to Tokyo. So far, everything is normal. Another millennial going to Japan. What made Fabio Belmone’s trip special is that he planned to reach the Japanese capital by car. 25,000 kilometers and 80 days later, the account Volata di Peluca confirmed that it had arrived in Japan. But perhaps the most curious thing about the trip is that, in addition to crossing all of Europe and Asia, the car chosen was a Fiat Marea. The only thing he could afford with 900 euros, he explained to The Vanguard. “I have crossed two continents, but my car can’t enter Barcelona,” he said in the interview. And perhaps, precisely because of that, because the car was tremendously analog, the adventure was able to reach its destination. Because in any country they could fix it. And, above all, because it wasn’t a car that was going to stop for crossing a border. The owner of this Zeekr 9X cannot say the same, explain our French colleagues from L’Automobile. At least he’s not standing still That transcontinental journey is having its particular replica from China. Mr. Liu is a Chinese driver who wants to repeat Fabio Belmone’s adventure in reverse. From Europe to China. Of course, aboard a Zeekr 9X, one of the most luxurious SUVs in the country. He Zeekr 9X It is a car that costs, in direct exchange, just over 61,000 euros. That means that in the Asian country it is one of the most luxurious options you can buy since manufacturers have filled their cars with technology at ridiculous prices. In this case we are talking about an extended range electric vehicle (a particular version of a plug-in hybrid) that in China it reaches 1,300 HP of power. The car, in fact, has just arrived in Europe although reduced in power, with an 897 HP version. But beyond the power figures, what is truly interesting about this car is inside, with six seats (or rather six seats), this huge SUV can become a rolling living room. Heated, ventilated and massaged seats that can be faced until they become a kind of hammock, 32 speakers spread throughout the cabin, two consecutive 16-inch screens to manage the infotainment system and even a third 17-inch screen that slides from the roof so that the rear passengers can enjoy it while they are driving. Inside the Zeekr 9X The experience of traveling in the car goes far beyond traveling through countries because, unlike with the Marea, the beauty is on the inside. Mr. Liu must have been thinking something similar when he began the trip. But a few thousand kilometers later, upon crossing the first border, the dream turned into a nightmare. Suddenly, your Zeekr 9X hood a multitude of functions. All software functions fell apart when it crossed the border into Kazakhstan. The loading ports and access to the warehouse also did the same. The reason was simple: the car, using GPS, had detected that the border had been crossed. They explain in CarNewsChina that the driver could not find a way to continue his journey for 30 hours. The reason, they explain from the specialized media, is in the vehicle’s anti-theft system. Automatically, the car detects through GPS positioning whether it is in China or beyond the borders. In the latter case, the vehicle repeatedly sends warnings but if it continues moving it blocks the vast majority of the functions. The system is activated by default in the car. The company has recognized in the Chinese media National Business Daily that, indeed, most of the car’s systems were blocked but that the vehicle can continue moving. To unlock the gas tank and charging socket you have to press and hold some specific buttons. This information, according to the company, should be known to the owner. What they explain however in CarNewsChina is that Mr. Liu knew about the blocking system before leaving China so went to a dealer. To avoid theft or illegal exports, what they do at the point of sale is certify the validity of some documents such as the driving license or the purchase contract. At that moment and after knowing the client’s intentions, they should have deactivated the anti-theft system with GPS positioning but they did not do so and it was not clear to the driver what he should do if this situation arose. But this time, what the software takes away from you, the software gives you. With an activation code, the brand was able to update the car via OTA and unlock the anti-theft systems, leaving the car ready to be used again. Photo | In Xataka | China wants to throw the door on the European electric car. Zeekr is your argument in the premium segment

Europe wants to pay without depending on Visa or Mastercard, and Lidl has just taken a key step to achieve this: with Wero

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Lidl has started to accept werothe payment system promoted by banking in Europe, in its German online store. Even at first it may not tell us much, but a supermarket of the stature of Lidl that adds one more payment method is part of a much broader movement: an attempt by Europe to stop depending on Visa and Mastercard for something as everyday as online payments. We tell you all the details. Wero, “the European bizum”. According to the chain itself has confirmedLidl is the first large supermarket in Germany to integrate Wero into its online payments. Lidl.de customers who have an account in one of the 18 banks that already support the system will be able to pay directly from their current account, in real time, and without the card or any US payment network intervening in the operation. How it works in practice. The process is simple, since it is enough to activate the Wero function once in the bank’s app, similar to the way Bizum works in Spain. From there, when completing the purchase on Lidl.de, the customer can confirm the payment from their own bank (the website automatically redirects them to the app) or scan a QR code with their mobile phone. The money comes directly from the bank account, and in case of return, it returns the same way. There are no card intermediaries involved. Why Lidl and why now. According to collect According to The Paypers, the deployment begins in Germany, but Lidl and the European Payments Initiative (EPI), the entity that manages Wero, already plan to extend its adoption to online stores in Belgium and France throughout 2026, and also incorporate payment in physical stores before the end of the year. Nicola Bracht, head of Schwarz Payment Solutions (the payments division of the Schwarz group, parent of Lidl), explained to the media that the decision responds “to the search for a fluid customer experience” and “data protection and security criteria aligned with European standards”, and has announced that the group expects Wero to continue growing as a transversal payment method across different channels. A European alternative to Visa and Mastercard. wero born in 2023 as a trademark of the EPI, an initiative founded in 2020 by fifteen European banks (including BBVA, Santander, Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas) with the aim of building their own payment alternative that reduces dependence on Visa, Mastercard and PayPal, all of them of American origin. Its name plays on the words “we” (us) and “euro.” The system was first launched for transfers between individuals in Germany, France and Belgium, and has since expanded its scope, first to payments between individuals and companies, and now to electronic commerce. Between the lines. What makes Lidl’s incorporation relevant is not so much the gesture itself as what it represents, since Wero’s arrival in high-volume e-commerce is, precisely, the land where Visa and Mastercard get a good part of their business most profitable in Europe. Until now, Wero moved mainly in the field of transfers between individuals, something similar to what Bizum offers in Spain. That a chain with the scale of Lidl begins to accept it in its online store is a step towards that other field, that of commercial payments, where the dispute with the card networks is really played out. Lidl has not been the only one to announce a similar move. And Decathlon will also accept payments through Wero in Germany on its website, as has confirmed the chain. Economic sovereignty. This advance by Wero also comes at a time when the European payments ecosystem itself is reorganizing to another level. Bizum, together with the Italian Bancomat Pay, the Portuguese SIBS, the Polish Blik and the Nordic Vipps MobilePay, has promoted the creation of a joint company based in Madrid that seeks to make all these national systems interoperable under a common infrastructure with Wero. The president of the Spanish Banking Association, Alejandra Kindelán, counted A few months ago “when we talk about payments, we talk about economic sovereignty, competitiveness and Europe’s ability to decide its future”, and payments have gone from being a simple infrastructure to becoming a question of sovereignty. And now what. The calendar managed by EPI points to Wero reaching more online stores in France and Belgium throughout 2026, and payments in physical stores (via QR and NFC) before the end of the year. We will have to wait to know if with so much alliance and momentum from the banking sector, Wero can end up becoming a real alternative to Visa and Mastercard in Europe. Cover image | Jonas Leupe and VLADISLAV BOGUTSKI In Xataka | Mistral is very far in the AI ​​race. Samsung doesn’t care about that and plans to invest a fortune in it

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

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