Europe

There is a Russian bomb floating in the Mediterranean coming from Ukraine. And Europe trembles because it can explode at any moment

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It is a fact that most of the world’s trade moves by sea. This means that every day thousands of ships cross key routes very close to European coasts. In this constant traffic, a single out-of-control incident is enough to put entire ecosystems in check and force several countries to react at the same time. The war in Ukraine has just ended activate one of them. A bomb adrift in the heart of Europe. The situation is the following: in the Mediterranean right now there is more than just a damaged ship, the Arctic Metagaz is a latent threat that mixes war, energy and environmental risk in a single point. We are talking about a loaded Russian tanker with gas, fuel and diesela ship hit by a drone attack from Ukraine that sails uncontrollably, with structural damage and a real risk of explosion. Not only that. It appears to have no crew, is leaking and catching fire, and is moving slowly between European waters and North Africa. What makes it especially disturbing is not only its condition, but its origin: It is one more piece of the war being fought in Eastern Europe that has ended up floating in the Mediterranean, moving the conflict directly to the doors of the entire continent. It’s not just the front anymore. The episode confirms something that was already intuited for some time: that the war between Russia and Ukraine is no longer confined to the Black Sea or the land front. Ukraine has expanded its radius of action by attacking Russian ships on much more distant routes, including those that are part of the called “ghost fleet”key to avoiding sanctions and financing the Kremlin’s war effort. These increasingly frequent attacks turn ships into de facto military targets, even if they are sailing through international waters or near European territories. The result is an extension of the conflict that blurs borders and places Europe in an uncomfortable position, because it is not a direct part of these attacks, but its potential scenario. Arctic Metagaz Ecological risk and implications. The immediate danger right now it’s pretty obvious: an explosion or massive spill in an area of ​​high ecological value could cause lasting damage in the Mediterranean, affecting protected ecosystems and coastal economies. But the problem goes beyond the environmental impact. These types of incidents also reveal to us the fragility of the maritime system in times of hybrid war, where poorly maintained, aging ships, with opaque structures and no safety guarantees, They circulate on key routes. The combination of sanctions, evasion and attacks turns these ships into risk vectors that can trigger crises at any moment. Europe and the threat. The European reactionwith Italy and France along with several EU members warning of the imminent risk, reflects a growing concern: countries have asked a coordinated response facing a problem that is not only specific, but structural. The difficulty in intervening (whether due to weather conditions, the location of the vessel or legal issues) also represents a capacity and governance vacuum in nearby waters. While Russia he ignores of incident management and points to coastal states as responsibleEurope faces a rather complex dilemma: managing the consequences of a war in which it neither controls the origin nor the evolution. Symbol of a new phase. If you also want, the derived from the Arctic Metagaz summarizes like few elements the evolution of the current conflict: a war that no longer only dynamits infrastructure on land, but is capable of turning the sea into a space constant riskwhere each asset can become a threat. It is not just, therefore, an accident or an isolated episode, but the proof (one more) that the conflict has acquired an unpredictable dimensionwhere an action in Ukraine can end up generating a crisis thousands of kilometers away. And that is precisely what it has of the nerves to Europe: not knowing when or where the next impact may materialize. Image | war-sanctions.gur.gov.ua In Xataka | While we all look at Iran, in Ukraine they continue doing their thing: robot against robot battles where humans only watch In Xataka | Ukraine has become the world’s leading specialist against Iranian drones. And he won’t share his antidote

Spain has the cheapest wholesale energy in Europe in the midst of the Hormuz crisis

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The outbreak of war in Iran on February 28 and the subsequent closure of the Strait of Hormuz have plunged the world, overnight, into an energy crisis of alarming proportions. In the midst of this global chaos, a European country is resisting the challenge much better than its neighbors: Spain. A shield in front of the market. To understand why electricity in Spain has not become more expensive at the same rate as in the rest of the continent, it is essential to look at how the electricity market works. The European system is “marginalist”meaning that the most expensive technology needed to meet the demand for a given day (usually gas) is what dictates the final price of all electricity. The day after the start of the conflict in the Middle East, the price of gas rose by 55%, according to Euronews. However, the impact on Spanish bills is being cushioned, thanks to the fact that the share of clean energy in the country’s generation mix already exceeds 60%. Since 2019, Spain has added more than 40 GW of renewable capacity, doubling its wind and solar farms. Added to this structural deployment is a key seasonal factor: a solid spring “hydraulic cushion”, with the reservoirs located at 82.6% of their capacity. The data of the Iberian exception. The x-ray of the European wholesale markets, reflected in the records of Energy-chartsconfirms this gap in a very visual way: The Spanish daytime miracle: Spain’s graphics during February and March They show almost absolute dominance of renewable generation and hydraulic pumping. This massive injection sinks prices from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., becoming free, or even registering negative prices, because many plants find it more profitable to bid at zero price than to assume the very high costs of stopping and restarting their machines. The fossil condemnation of Germany and Italy: The European contrast is devastating and explains the asymmetric impact of the war. German market data for the same period reveal a heavy dependence on non-renewable sources, illustrated by a thick gray strip of fossil generation that sustains their system. The case of Italy is even more illustrative about the dangers of depending on foreign gas: its graphs show a huge constant load of non-renewable generation, which condemns the transalpine country to maintain a systematically high and flat price curve throughout the day. The “green shield” night fissure: However, we are not invulnerable. As analyst Antonio Aceituno, from the consulting firm Tempos Energía, warns, in Europa Pressthe Spanish balance is broken when evening falls. When the sun disappears, gas combined cycles begin to cover demand, returning tension to prices. This explains why in March the monthly average It woke up abruptly to 64.05 euros/MWh, with nighttime peaks of up to 247.15 euros/MWh. It is empirical proof that, no massive batteries to save the sunat eight in the afternoon we are still at the mercy of what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. Furthermore, time is against us. Antonio The Tempos Energía analyst warns that our precious “hydraulic shield” could begin to give way at the beginning of summer if the conflict becomes entrenched. In the worst case scenario, the June bill could jump above 100 euros per MWh, reaching the feared 120 euros between July and August. A halfway transition. The current energy crisis has left an irrefutable lesson: renewables are our best social shield. The deployment of recent years has prevented Spain from suffering the same financial drowning as its neighbors. As energy financing expert Gerard Reid reflects, in Euronewsit is preferable to depend on China to import a solar panel once every 25 years, than to depend on oil and gas from the Persian Gulf every day. But the transition is painfully incomplete. As long as lack of storage forces us to turn on gas plants when the sun sets, our pockets will continue to be hostage to global volatility. Whether due to a military drone over the Strait of Hormuz or due to political retaliation in the Oval Office, Spain’s true energy independence will not come until we are able to massively save the sun and wind that we have left over. Image | Photo by Alexis Presa on Unsplash and Photo by Jakub Zerdzicki on Unsplash Xataka | Skyscrapers are full of glass, so some Spanish researchers have had an idea: let them serve as “solar panels”

Europe has just measured how much wind potential Spain has left. The answer is an overwhelming first place

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If we look at the sky and our plains, the country is an undisputed giant. According to official data from the Wind Business Association (AEE)wind energy is already the first source of electricity generation in our country, covering an impressive 24% of national demand. With more than 31,600 megawatts (MW) of accumulated power distributed in 1,412 wind farms, Spain has consolidated itself as the second country in Europe (only behind Germany) and the sixth in the world in installed power. However, behind this success of “emptied Spain” a broken bridge hides. The wind blows and the blades turn, but we lack the cables to bring that clean energy to the cities and factories where it is actually consumed. And right now, when bureaucracy threatens to suffocate the sector, Europe has just put on the table a report that shows that what we have built to date is just the tip of the iceberg: the margin for growth that Spain has left is not only large, it is overwhelmingly higher than that of the rest of the continent. An overwhelming first place. The confirmation has come directly from Brussels. The Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission has just published the second edition of the report ENPRESSO 2. This scientific document does not make estimates on the fly: it measures the feasible technical potential of onshore wind energy in Europe with a very high geographical resolution of 1 square kilometer. The results position Spain as the leader of the entire EU by a very wide margin. As the expert Joaquín Coronado explains:the figures are stratospheric. In the reference scenario, Spain reaches a technical potential of 183.9 gigawatts (GW) of installable capacity and 415.4 TWh/year of generation. More than double that of Romania and Sweden, the next in the ranking. If we cross this with our current capacity, the conclusion is stunning: the ceiling is very far away. How do we lead with such advantage? The merit of this first place is even greater if we understand how it has been calculated. The European Commission report has applied very strict filters For an area to be considered suitable: the mills cannot be more than 5 kilometers from a road, nor more than 3 kilometers from the electrical grid, and must respect minimum distances from population centers (1 km) and protected areas such as Natura 2000. After passing all these demanding filters, 5.8% of the Spanish territory is available and suitable to house wind turbines. As Coronado explainsour low relative population density in those areas where it is windier gives us a brutal competitive advantage. We are much less sensitive to changes in separation distances (so-called “setbacks”) than densely populated countries such as Germany, France or Poland. Even if Europe forced us to move 2 kilometers away from towns (the most restrictive scenario), Spain would still retain 52.8 GW of potential. It’s not all lights. The energy expert warns of a purely internal problem: “regulatory heterogeneity.” While national regulations establish a separation distance of 500 meters for populations, there are autonomous communities such as the Balearic Islands, Navarra or Valencia that require 1,000 meters, and others such as the Basque Country or the Canary Islands that request 400. This regulatory fragmentation means that the real potential varies drastically depending on which side of the autonomous border the wind blows. The bureaucratic infarction of a “full” network. At this point in the x-ray, it is time to address the elephant in the room. As we have explained in Xatakathe Spanish electrical system suffers a serious administrative “thrombosis”. The network is not physically collapsed, but administratively “full” and underused. Panic broke out when the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) was forced to delay the capacity maps until May because 90% of the nodes appeared in red. Faced with this bottleneckthe CEO of Red Eléctrica, Roberto García Merino, defends himself by remembering that they have 1.5 billion ready to invest, but the paperwork delays works that barely require a year of physical work for up to a decade. As if the internal traffic jam were not enough, we come across France’s external plug, whose pyrrhic interconnection (2.8%) isolates us and forces us to throw away cheap energy to protect its nuclear industry. The risk of dying of success. Spain finds itself at a historical crossroads. We have the climate, the soil, the wind and the endorsement of the EU. If we add to this wind potential the 19 GW of reversible hydraulics already in the pipeline, Spain has in its power to develop the most competitive emissions-free electricity mix in all of Europe. But to achieve that future, heat maps and reports from Brussels are not enough. It is necessary, as experts point out, to homogenize legislation between communities, compensate local populations and, above all, urgently expedite permits to build the network. As a summary from the sector: “The plans are very nice, but they have to be built.” Image | Carlos Teixidor Cadenas Xataka | Macron believes that Spain has “a problem” with renewables. What it really means is that they are “competition”

Data centers have run out of “plugs” in central Europe, so they are migrating north and south

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The insatiable appetite of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is redrawing the map of Europe. Historically, the European data center market has been dominated by a handful of metropolitan areas known in the industry as the “FLAP-D” markets: Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin. The main attraction of these cities was their proximity to large demand centers, which allowed extraordinarily fast data transmission. However, current forecasts indicate that this historical dominance is beginning to crumble. Technology developers are packing their bags and the reason is purely physical: there is not enough energy. The collapse of the giants. The driving force behind this technological exodus is the sheer congestion of the electrical grid in the traditional epicenters. Unlike a conventional factory, data centers present a brutal challenge for any infrastructure: they are huge, hyper-localized loads that operate tirelessly and have the ability to skyrocket their consumption faster than almost any other industry. The local impact of these installations is astonishing. According to Greenpeacein 2023 data centers consumed between 33% and 42% of all electricity in cities such as Amsterdam, London and Frankfurt. The most extreme case is that of Dublin, where they accounted for almost 80% of electricity consumption. The situation became so critical that Ireland was forced to impose a moratorium de facto to new data centers in its capital until 2028. The exodus to the North and South. As a direct consequence of this bottleneck, the proportion of installed capacity in FLAP-D markets will fall from the current 62% to just 51% by 2035. according to a report by Ember. This drop marks the beginning of a new era in which developers flee from bottlenecks. The new map would look like this: The big winners: The Nordic countries top the expansion list. They offer some of the least congested networks in Europe, low electricity prices, minimal carbon intensity and cold climates that reduce the need for cooling. Demand is expected to increase 4 or 5 times in this region. The awakening of the South: On the other side of the continent, countries such as Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain also project explosive growth, driven by their potential in renewable energy. The laggards: There are nations that, despite having strong economies and plenty of IT talent, are falling behind. Poland and Czechia are the best example. As detailed by Paweł CzyżakDirector of the Europe Program at the analysis center Embertheir electrical systems are still tied to coal and gas (Poland emits about 600 gCO2/kWh and the Czech Republic about 400 gCO2/kWh). With no clean energy to offer, investors prefer to look to their greener neighbors. Don’t underestimate the south. While the north squeezes the Scandinavian cold, Spain faces this exodus from a privileged position, breaking daily renewable generation records. However, its electrical network suffers a serious administrative “thrombosis”: There is plenty of clean energy, but there is a lack of cables to transport it, leaving 130 GW trapped in a bottleneck. Faced with the avalanche of data centers that threatened to collapse the system, the Government and the CNMC They have applied emergency surgery. The solution involves pioneering “flexible access permits” – which allow these plants to use residual capacity by accepting outages in emergencies – and the non-negotiable requirement that they withstand “voltage gaps” to shield the electrical stability of the entire peninsula. Planning and more planning. None of this happens by chance. In places where the network flows smoothly, there are years of work behind it. The Norwegian operator, Statnett, has been preparing the ground for some time to assume three times the electricity demand from data centers by 2030. In Denmark, Energinet began building high-voltage substations in 2017 in anticipation of precisely this scenario. Beyond the cables, the internal technology dictates the sentence. The key indicator is the PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness), which measures the technical efficiency of each installation. Paweł Czyżak points out in your newsletter that the difference is abysmal: the leading centers consume 24% less electricity and emit four times less CO2 than an average plant. Google has the best student in the class in Fredericia (Denmark): it averages a spectacular PUE of 1.07 and runs on 91% clean energy. The technological paradox. There is, however, a fascinating irony in the background: the same Artificial Intelligence that today saturates the cables could be the salvation of the electrical system. According to calculations by the consulting firm Deloittethe efficiency improvements that this technology will bring will save more than 3,700 TWh globally by 2030. Put into perspective, the deployment of these algorithms will save almost 4 times the energy consumed by all the data centers on the planet combined. Examples from other latitudes support this theory: in Southeast Asia (ASEAN), It is estimated that integrating AI in the management of its electrical systems it will save more than 67 billion dollars and avoid the emission of almost 400 million tons of CO2 between now and 2035. Infrastructure decides the future. At the bottom of this complex puzzle of cables and algorithms, what is at stake is pure and simple economic competitiveness. They are not minor figures. In the Netherlands, the data and cloud sector already attracts 20% of all foreign direct investment. In Germany, estimates calculate that the contribution of these centers to GDP will jump from the current 10.4 billion euros to more than 23 billion in 2029. The warning for legislators and regulators is clear: the technology giants have no patience to wait for new cables to be buried. They will move their billions to where the network already has space. As Czyżak saysthe country that wants to seduce the industry must guarantee clean energy in abundance and plugs ready to use. In the frenetic race to dominate the technological future, having a ready electrical grid is no longer an advantage; It is the only entry ticket. Image | İsmail Enes Ayhan on Unsplash and IRENA Xataka | Iran is directing its attacks where it knows it hurts the West: energy and data centers

Europe has found a hole that has been sending sensitive material to Russia for years: a “Mercadona” from Germany

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More than 400 billion packages circulate around the world every year, and the international postal system is designed to move them as quickly as possible. To achieve this, many shipments cross borders with simplified controls and risk-based reviews, not full inspections. That logistical efficiency, designed to speed up commerce and everyday correspondence, sometimes generates unexpected cracks in much larger systems. An unexpected hole. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union has lifted one of the sanctions regimes wider of its history with the aim of economically isolating Russia and hindering access to technology that can feed his military machine. Advanced electronics, sensitive components or certain industrial equipment are theoretically blocked to prevent them from reinforcing the Kremlin’s war economy. However, the practical application of these restrictions faces a constant problem: the more complex the sanctions system, the more ingenious They become the routes to avoid it. And in this case the weak point has appeared in a place so everyday that it is difficult to believe. A clandestine channel in the supermarket. The story was told in a report in Politico. Apparently, in several Russian chain supermarkets throughout Germany, among shelves of sweets or freezers, advertisements have appeared that promote a logistics service specialized in sending packages from Germany directly to Russia. What at first glance seems like a postal service for the Russian diaspora has become an unexpected crack within the European sanctions system. Customers may drop off boxes that supposedly contain clothing, books or small personal items. No one inspects the contents and, for a few euros per kilo, the package begins a journey that ends in Moscow or St. Petersburg. In this apparently innocent flow, even sensitive electronic components whose export is prohibited. The inherited logistics network. The middle counted that behind this circuit is LS Logistics Solution GmbH, a German company created by former employees by RusPostthe subsidiary that the Russian state postal service had established in Germany before sanctions forced it to close. After the invasion of Ukraine, that structure did not completely disappear. It was reorganized under a new namekept part of its staff and continued to operate from Germany with a similar system. The result is a kind of parallel postal network that collects packages throughout Europe and concentrates them in a warehouse near the Berlin airport, from where shipments to Russia are organized. The seal trick. The key to the system is an apparently bureaucratic detail. The packages do not have labels from the Russian Post, but from the state postal service of uzbekistan. Since that country is not subject to European sanctions, the shipment can take advantage of special rules that protect international postal traffic. In practice, this means that packets move with lighter controls than traditional commercial shipments. This administrative difference, designed to facilitate mail between citizens, becomes a back door for sensitive goods to cross borders without raising too many suspicions. A kilometer trip through Europe. The route of the packages illustrates chow it works the system. After being picked up from supermarkets or delivery points, they spend a day or two in Germany before moving to a large logistics warehouse near Berlin airport. From there they are loaded onto trucks that cross Poland on the A2 highway and continue to Belarus. Even though this country is also sanctioned for its support to Moscow, the packages continue to advance thanks to your status international postal mail. After traveling more than 2,000 km, they end up arriving at addresses in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. The problem of sanctions. Plus: the episode also reflects a challenge that those who design economic sanctions are well aware of. Officially blocking trade is relatively simple, but preventing alternative routes appear It is much more complicated, and that is already we have told it in the drone war in Ukraine. Each new restriction forces the creation of more complex control systems, while those who try to circumvent them constantly search new legal cracks or logistics. The result is an endless game of adaptation in which authorities try to close holes just as new ones begin to appear. Always one step behind. They finished the report explaining that European authorities are already reviewing the case and have strengthened the rules to pursue sanctions violations. Be that as it may, the discovery of the network itself demonstrates to what extent the system can make fun. As governments design increasingly strict legal frameworks, makeshift logistics networks continue to find ways to move sensitive goods across of unexpected routes. And in this case, the blind spot that allowed this channel to Russia to be kept open was not in an industrial port or a large cargo terminal, but in something as everyday as the check-in counter. a supermarket. Image | flowcomm, RawPixel In Xataka | In 2022, the war in Ukraine sent supermarket prices soaring. Iran threatens to make it child’s play In Xataka | The EU has a perfect plan to suffocate Russia. The problem is that now it needs its oil to survive

We thought that the rearmament of Europe was about recruiting soldiers. In reality what Defense needs are welders

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After the excesses of the Trump Administration in matters of international politics, Europe and, especially Spainhas decided recover your industry of armaments, allocating millions to its rearmament policy. He Rearm Europe Planendowed with 800,000 million euros, has skyrocketed orders to the Spanish defense industry. However, although money is already flowing to manufacturers and orders accumulateproduction chains cannot be accelerated if there are not enough technicians to operate the machinery. The defense sector has been trying to fill vacancies without achieving it, and the problem is getting worse. The hope for this rearmament comes from the hand of the Vocational Training as a quarry for the new talent that the main companies in the sector are already raffling off. A new labor market. The rearmament of Europe is changing the labor market in Spain, and it is doing so faster than many imagined. Defense companies have been looking for technicians for months without finding them, and the problem is not going to be solved only with university engineers. According to the report ‘Metal in Figures’ published by the Spanish Confederation of Metal Business Organizations (Confemetal), the average affiliation to Social Security in the sector reached 828,446 people in January 2026, which represents an interannual increase of 1.2%. The average affiliation during 2025 stood at 826,061 workers, 1.6% more than the previous year. These data outline a rising sector that still does not reflect the impact of the European rearmament plan. European rearmament triggers demand for technicians. According to data of the Spanish Association of Defense, Security, Aeronautics and Space Technology Companies (Tedae), the Spanish defense industry It is made up of about 580 companies and generates around 75,100 direct jobs, with Madrid, Andalusia and the Basque Country concentrating close to 80% of national turnover. All companies in the sector share the same problem: there are not enough technicians to cover their production lines and qualified professionals already have a job in one of them. For those who have put the view of recent graduates of Vocational Training, and in improving the conditions for young people to acquire the training that they will then put into practice in the defense industry. Currently, large companies in the sector they already count with a high percentage of staff coming from FP, exceeding 30% and in some cases even more than half of its workers. ​The profiles most sought after by the sector. The Metal Foundation for Training, made up of Confemetal, CCOO Industria and UGT FICA, participated in the Aula 2026 fair identifying the two FP degrees that concentrate the greatest demand: Senior Technician in Electrotechnical and Automated Systems and Machining Technician. The first deals with the installation, programming and maintenance of electrical and control systems on land, naval and industrial platforms, while the second is key in the manufacturing of precision components for armored vehicles, weapons systems and drones. ​These degrees already train young people every year, but the problem is that there are not enough students choosing them, despite the demand of the sector. Héctor Aguirre, managing coordinator of the Metal Foundation for Training, explained this disconnection: “Young people do not associate certain sectors with the metal industry, such as defense or space, when in reality they are cutting-edge fields where they work with cutting-edge technology.” ​More than 350,000 jobs and competitive working conditions. Beyond the segment dedicated to the defense industry, the problem of the shortage of qualified labor extends to the entire metal industry, which includes automotive, steel, aeronautics and machinery manufacturing. According to Confemetal, companies will need fill more than 350,000 positions of work in the coming years, a figure that turns the technical talent gap into one of Spain’s main industrial challenges for the next decade. The salary conditions of the sector are a solid argument to attract candidates. The average salary of a metal worker exceeds 2,000 euros net per month, with salary review clauses linked to the CPI. In 2025, contract salaries grew by an average of 2.6%, and the sector’s collective agreements also include life insurance, disability coverage and retirement benefits. These are conditions that young people do not yet associate with making a component for a submarinean armored vehicle or an anti-aircraft defense system, but they are there, waiting for those who choose that professional career. In Xataka | The talent shortage has become chronic to an extreme point: 75% of companies cannot find what they are looking for Image | Flickr (copsadmirer@yahoo.es), Unsplash (Jimmy Nilsson Masth)

Europe has just taken a 180-degree turn in its nuclear policy and has left Spain completely out of the game

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The backdrop couldn’t be more tense. According to an official statement of the International Energy Agency (IEA)the crisis in the Middle East and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have deteriorated crude oil markets to the point of forcing the release of emergency reserves. In the midst of this climate of urgency, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has broken a historical taboo. During the Nuclear Energy Summit held in Paris, Von der Leyen has intoned the continental ‘mea culpa’: “Europe made a strategic mistake by moving away from a reliable and affordable source of low-emission energy.” The Brussels diagnosis. According to German Wellepoints out that electricity prices in Europe are “structurally too high” and hamper competitiveness. In 1990, a third of European electricity came from the atom; today it is only 15%. In fact, the former Energy Commissioner, Kadri Simson, warned of “serious problem” What it will mean for Europe to disconnect 98 nuclear reactors in the short term without solid support. 200 million euros for the atom. To correct this “error”, Von der Leyen has put 200 million euros on the table from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. But here we must make a fundamental stop to understand the debate: this money is not destined to build traditional macro nuclear power plants like the ones we know, but to the Small Modular Reactors (SMR). It is not nuclear as we know it. As detailed Spanish Radio Television (RTVE), the new strategy seeks to reduce risks for private investors and create “regulatory sandboxes” for these SMRs to be operational in the early 2030s. This nuance dismantles much of the current noise: Spain is closing traditional first and second generation reactors that have exhausted their design life. The EU is not betting on reviving that old model, but rather on financing SMR technology that is not yet commercially viable on a large scale. France: sovereignty on the lectern, protectionism on the border. The great winner of this turn is Emmanuel Macron. Coinciding with the 15th anniversary of Fukushima, the French president defended in Paris that nuclear power is Europe’s shield against hydrocarbon blackmail. However, behind this speech lies a fierce protectionist strategy, since France acts as an electrical “plug”. While Germany pays more than €100/MWh for electricity and Spain or Portugal register zero or negative prices due to their enormous wind and solar production, France blocks the Pyrenean interconnections. Paris needs to make profitable at all costs an investment of 300 billion euros in its nuclear park. Passing up Iberian solar energy would put downward pressure on its prices. Thanks to this wall, France has broken his record exporting 92.3 TWh to its northern neighbors, pocketing 5.4 billion euros, while criticizing the Spanish model as “unstable.” And the situation in Spain. On the one hand, the Peninsula is the continent’s gas lifeline. The country owns 35% of the LNG storage capacity of the EU thanks to its seven regasification plants. But this fortress has run into a diplomatic obstacle. Following President Pedro Sánchez’s refusal to support the military offensive in Iran (under the slogan “No to war”), the United States has threatened Spain with a trade embargo. Taking into account that the US supplied 44.4% of Spanish gas in January 2026, the consequences could be notable: analysts predict increases of up to 18% in the gas bill and 17% in electricity bills. To escape this fossil dependence and not waste renewable energy when prices fall to zero, Spain has activated a shock plan silent. In a single month (January 2026), Spain connected 57 megawatts worth of batteries to the electrical grid, more than in the previous three years combined, preparing to store its cheaper energy. The decline of the green agenda? Von der Leyen’s turn is not only energetic, it also has deep political significance. In an opinion column in The Countryjournalist Claudi Pérez accuses the president of the Commission of inoculating a “Trumpist virus” in the EU. By stating that Europe “can no longer be the guardian of the old world order”, Brussels relegates the green agenda and the rules-based international order to the background, moving towards a more militaristic and deregulatory vision. This discontent was highlighted with the protest of Greenpeace activists breaking into the Paris summit shouting “Nuclear energy fuels war.” Europe finds itself trapped in an unsustainable contradiction: it showers public money on nuclear promises for the next decade, assuming the risks of foreign uranium, while blocking its borders from the sun and southern winds that already produce cheap energy today. Image | Audiovisual Service and Clickgauche Xataka | Spain and Portugal would love to share the “free” energy they are generating these days. The problem is called France

Antwerp is the great gateway for cocaine in Europe. Now Belgium risks becoming a “narco-state”

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Belgium is the heart of Europe, home of the main institutions community, part of one of the regions more industrialized of the planet… and also a ‘narco-state’ in the making. It may sound exaggerated, but that is the warning that a judge from Antwerp has issued. In an open letter disclosed by the city’s own court at the end of 2025, a magistrate puts his finger on the issue by denouncing the high cost for Belgium that the Flemish port has become one of the big doors entry of coca into Europe. In fact, its author does not hesitate to use the cursed word: ‘narco-state’. Message for Belgium. It is not usual for a magistrate to publicly denounce that his country is succumbing to drug trafficking networks. Even less so that this happens in the heart of Europe, in the nation that hosts the headquarters of the EU Council and Commission. However, that is exactly what happened on October 27, when the Belgian Justice published a judge’s letter of Antwerp that warns of the extent to which the mafias are “undermining” the institutions. The letter, anonymous and addressed to the Justice Committee, was launched a few months ago, but its tone is so emphatic that it has continued to stir up the debate. In fact a few days ago the president of the Antwerp Court of Appeal and the general prosecutor of Antwerp and Limburg they sat with Guardian to insist on the same idea: the drug trafficking that is channeled through Belgium poses a real danger to both the judicial system and the rule of law. What does the letter say? “Large mafia structures have been consolidated and have become a parallel power that challenges not only the police, but also the judiciary. The consequences are serious: Are we becoming a narco-state? Don’t you think it’s possible? Does it seem exaggerated? According to our anti-drug commissioner, that evolution has already begun. My colleagues and I share that feeling,” start the writing before remembering that narco-states are defined by their reliance on an illegal economy and their levels of corruption and violence. Does Antwerp meet those requirements? And Belgium? The magistrate begins by remembering what the authorities discovered when accessing Sky ECCcourier network used for smuggling. “The investigation has uncovered a parallel economy in our port, a multi-million dollar economy that operates outside official channels,” the magistrate insists flamenco. His investigations, he recalls, have discovered money laundering networks and a flow of black money that (among other consequences) raises prices in the real estate sector. Corruption and violence. That is just one of the criticisms that it collects the letter. Its author denounces that corruption has managed to infiltrate the port and “permeates” the institutions “from the base”, reaching customs officials, judicial officials, prisons, city councils and even the police. The gangs, alert, operate through blackmail, coercion and large bribes. “Moving a container, a 10-minute job, generates income of 100,000 euros, and a bag costs 50,000.” The mafias also do not hesitate to resort to violence, including kidnappings, torture and murder. “An attack on a house with bombs or weapons, a raid or a kidnapping can be easily ordered. You don’t even need to resort to the dark web. Just use Snapchat. Plus, it’s not expensive.” The author of the letter goes further and states that several investigating judges have had no choice but to live for long periods with an escort or even move house. The risk? Let this intimidation work and fewer and fewer judges and prosecutors in Antwerp are willing to hand down sentences in these cases. “A danger to stability”. The October letter focused the focus in drug trafficking in the heart of Europe, but despite its forcefulness (and the fact that the letter ended with a series of ‘duties’ for the Government) the problem is still far from being resolved. confirmed it a few days ago Bart Willocx, president of the Antwerp Court of Appeal, in an interview with Guardian. “The amount of money involved is so large that it poses a danger to the stability of our society,” ditch. “We are becoming a state with a lot of corruption and threats,” agrees Guido Vermeiren, attorney general. 250,000 euros for an order. The magnitude of the challenge is better understood by knowing certain data. For example, how mafias operate to gain influence in ports. Vermeiren cite a case in which criminals paid more than 250,000 euros to a worker in exchange for moving a single container. When the checkbook doesn’t work, gangs can resort to coercion, sending letters with photos of relatives or even launching attacks with homemade explosives. The Antwerp prosecutor remember another incident from two years ago, when police thwarted an attempt to steal 1,500 tons of confiscated cocaine. There are even suspicions that in 2022 a criminal network tried to kidnap to a Belgian minister. Do you move so many drugs? Yes. Although It is not the only border of the continent plagued by drug trafficking, Guardian assures (citing Europol) that more than 70% of the coca that entered Europe in 2024 passed through Antwerp and Rotterdam. It’s nothing new. For years Antwerp has been identified by something more than its diamond trade: it is often noted as the favorite port of Latin American drug traffickers when they want to send drugs to Europe. Police control would be leading the gangs to go to smaller ports, but even so the data is compelling. In the report June 2025 on surveillance of seaports and drug trafficking, the European Union Drugs Agency reports on the importance of the Flemish terminal: “Seventeen EU ports seized more than 10 tons of drugs in this period (2019-2024), with Antwerp seizing the largest amount, 483 tons.” What the data reveals. The same report recalls that in 2023 the authorities intercepted around 121 tons of cocaine in Antwerp, a figure that dropped to 44 tons the following year. A similar trend was experienced in Rotterdam: from 45 t … Read more

Europe is looking for a place to put its AI gigafactory. Spain and Portugal are showing all their renewable plumage

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There is a concept that should be familiar with: technological sovereignty. The United States is looking for her in terms of semiconductors so as not to depend on Taiwan. China wants her with the same goal and with the intention of strengthen your industry. And Europe is also pursuing it. Within this search is the idea of ​​strengthening European sovereignty in artificial intelligence by building AI gigafactories. And Spain and Portugal are clear about one thing: they want to be that node of European AI. InvestAI. Within this search for independence, the truth is that Europe has a long way to go. On the world stage, they depend on the Dutch ASML to create cutting-edge chipsbut Taiwan and China are the world’s factory and the United States has been a key partner both in software as in space matter. Seeing the recent course of the United StatesEurope has realized that it cannot depend so much on foreign alliances and that its key systems are not European, and it is going to dig deep into its pockets. 200 billion euros is what the European Commission’s InvestAI initiative has to invest in programs focused on the development of artificial intelligence. Within it, there are another 20,000 million saved to build gigafactories. GigafactorIA. Its name is quite revealing and it is about huge data centers with capacity for hundreds of thousands of chips with the objective of both training and inferring artificial intelligence models. The plan was launched a few months ago with the reconversion of seven European data centers in data centers for AI and with one objective: that European companies stop turning to foreign ones. For example, the French Mistral signed with Microsoft to be able to use its systems to train Le Chat. The idea is that this be done ‘at home’. It is estimated that one of these gigafactories may have more than 100,000 state-of-the-art AI processors and they are expected to be optimized to have low consumption, reuse of resources such as water and be a strategic node close to other companies, universities and serve to attract talent. Strategy. Spain has been for a few months tempting American companies to build their data centers in the national territory. Aragon has become one of those strategic pointsbut also Madrid either Tarragona. Now, there are other municipalities that oppose it (something that not only happens in Spain). Within this strategy of European technological sovereignty, Spain has two aces up your sleeve: Mora la Nova in Tarragona and San Fernando de Henares in Madrid. They are the two municipalities that could host one of these AI gigafactories and that would take advantage of the technological and energy infrastructure in the area to accelerate the projects. The information is not new, but now Portugal joins in. As detail From Moncloa, both countries are going to carry out a series of bilateral efforts to be at the energy and technological head of Europe, doing emphasis on the coordination of artificial intelligence projects. Because Spain wants the European gigafactory and Portugal too. The neighboring country is already developing a data center in Sines, and the two countries are playing their cards. Energy. Portugal plays the card that Sines has a good connection with the Atlantic submarine cables. Spain also has a powerful argument: if Europe wants AI gigafactories to be energy efficient, the country has a renewable infrastructure that can help make AI independent of gas or coal. Through the agreement between the two, the intention to collaborate to take advantage of the complementary capabilities and synergies between both countries is put on the table. Problem. There are several. On the one hand, the energy ones. Although Spain is one of the Europe’s powers in terms of renewable energyartificial intelligence demands a lot, a lot of energy at peak times. So much so that not only Big Tech have private projects to open nuclear power plantsbut it has been shown that it is necessary turn to coal to meet demand. Because AI needs sustained energy, but above all fast and immediately accessible in the most stressful moments. And there renewables only comply if there are huge batteries involved. On the other hand, Europe is now building its infrastructure… and it is the worst time. If you want gigafactories to have the latest generation chips, it means buying NVIDIA’s H200s. The problem is that these chips, which are currently leading the way, will be surpassed in the short term by a new generation. NVIDIA is already working at full capacity on Vera Rubinand it is not a more powerful chip, but a paradigm shift. This game of being at the cutting edge of AI is slow because the infrastructure has to be built. But, above all, it is expensive. In any case, the results on which countries will host the gigafactories are expected to be published this spring, and we will see if the Spain-Portugal candidacy convinces the Commission. Images | Moncloa, chaddavis In Xataka | Spain has a plan to capture more data centers than anyone else: “shield” them from energy costs

Europe has reached the end of winter with depleted gas reserves. A country has a model to save it: Spain

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This winter, which is coming to an end, is being colder than expected, something that as we have seen has caused havoc. Without going any further, there have been planes that have not been able to fly due to lack of antifreeze. If we talk about gas for heating, storage has also reached red numbers: the Netherlands has a reserve of approximately 12%, Germany and France are around 21%, according to AGSI data. In this low-minimum scenario, there are two countries that deviate from the norm: Spain and Portugal, with reserves of 56.87% and 76.7%, respectively. Of course, the difference in capacity is abysmal: 3.57 TWh for the first and 35.9 TWh for the second. It is not a coincidence: it is that the Spanish state has a particular infrastructure that has led it to this point. The context. The conflict between Ukraine and Russia that began in 2022 accelerated the independence of the old continent from Russian gas. Among the measures from Brussels, an emergency rule by which all EU member states had to start the winter with their gas reserves at 90% to ensure supply. However, in 2025 the EU decided to maintain that 90% target. but relaxing the norm to optimize costs. This greater flexibility together with a harsher than expected winter has brought an end to winter with reserves that are at their lowest in the last five years. The harsh European winter. In mid-January, deposits fell below 50%. If the winter ends with a capacity of 30%, Europe will have to inject 60 billion cubic meters of gas. To get an idea, approximately the annual gas consumption of all of Germany. In short, Europe has to refill its tanks in the summer and it will need a lot of imported gas to do so, which means go out into the market and face other competitors and the logistics of bringing it here in an increasingly complicated geopolitical scenario. The Spanish strategy. The Spanish gas storage system is based on two pillars: underground storage and LNG regasification. The second leg is providential, insofar as it is where Spain makes the difference and, furthermore, It is a powerhouse. In fact, Spain owns 35% of all LNG storage capacity in the EU, how Sedigas collects. Its enormous regasification capacity enables diversification of origin, with USA as first supplier with 44.4% of the total gas and another 15 different countries later, according to Enagás data. Spain has an infrastructure of seven plants that makes it possible to receive LNG ships from different sources, thus ensuring supply in case any mishap (technical problems, conflicts, political decisions) fails. Spain started the winter making decisions. Although the previous strategy gives it an advantage over other member states, Spain adopted a conservative strategy When facing this winter 25/26, adjusting to concentrate reserves in January and February, the coldest and with the most demand. A management decision to not waste that cushion prematurely. He was absolutely right: in January gas consumption rose 10.2% compared to the previous year, with a 30% increase in that destined to generate electricity because renewables contributed less than expected. Spain plays in another league. Thanks to its infrastructure, Spain no longer only consumes gas: it re-exports it. It has become a hub for redistributing gas to Europe as a kind of energy logistics platform, providing geopolitical and economic value to a state that, due to its geographical location, is isolated (which, for example, in the electrical field plays tricks on him) Is there real risk? While it is true that widespread shortages are not expected, there are localized risks in Europe. As summarizes El Economista, Spain has precedents of similar levels, such as 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, where supply was not compromised. Of course, we will have to see what happens with the demand for LNG in summer globally, because it could make European replenishment significantly more expensive. In any case, Spain will get to that moment better than most. The scenario is not very rosy at the moment, precisely, with the Strait of Hormuz closed and the diplomatic crisis between Spain and the US, its main supplier. In Xataka | Europe believed it had won the gas war against Russia. Now it faces a much more uncomfortable reality: its dependence on the United States. In Xataka | The gas market becomes unpredictable: we have tanks full and ships on the way, but the price remains an enigma Cover | Pronor

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