Europe

AI is not a product, it is a weapon. And Europe has none

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A few days ago the Government of Spain showed its chest announcing that the EU AI Regulatory Sandbox project had been a success. It is difficult to understand why, but while these efforts to regulate require notable investments (in this particular project, 4.3 million euros), there is a stark and forceful reality: Spain and the EU are light years ahead of the US and China in terms of innovation in AI. And in this situation, how will the EU survive? Chronology of events. That was already a problem before, but each new advance of the US or Chinese frontier models makes that hole seem bigger and bigger. We have seen it with what happened to Claude Fable 5which has been vetoed following the order of the US Government. The recent chronology allows us to explain what happened: April 8, 2026: Anthropic releases Claude Mythos Previewa model that according to them is so powerful in terms of cybersecurity that they avoid releasing it publicly. Your capacity is being confirmed by companies like Mozilla, which is one of the privileged to be able to use it. June 10, 2026: Anthropic launches Claude Fable 5a kind of layered version of Claude Mythos Preview. According to the benchmarks, the model is a qualitative leap, but it has several security measures to avoid being used maliciously. Its availability was initially public in the different plans (free and paid) of Claude.ai. As of June 22, it would only be possible to access it through the API. That was the plan, at least. June 12, 2026: The US Government forces Anthropic to turn off the tap and not allow anyone who is not a US citizen to access Fable 5. Anthropic then decides cut off access to absolutely everyone to this model. AI is already a weapon. All this development of events, still in full effervescencedemonstrates something important: AI has stopped being just a tool and has become a technological weapon. It is the confirmation of that Oppenheimer moment which we already alluded to in the past. Oppenheimer Moment. What happened with the atomic bomb – a technology that the US Government ended up appropriating – is partly happening now with models like Fable 5: it is the state that ends up having the power, whether we like it or not, so that the world can use it. Its creators, Anthropic, have practically no say even though they have already tried to defend their position. with the scandal of the Pentagon and the Department of Defense. I’ll see who I let use the AI. The US decision to cut off access to a commercial AI model is unprecedented. Hiding behind the protection of National Security, the Government of this country has decided that Fable 5 was simply too dangerous for other countries to use. He has exerted absolute control over a disturbing technology, and he has done it without anyone being able to do anything. That access to AI can be vetoed overnight due to government imposition once again makes it clear that those who invest in these models have a strategic advantage that can be definitive. China takes another stance. In fact, China is currently proposing a radically opposite strategy: open weight AI models are the norm among its large companies and its startups. DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi or Xiaomi Mimo are some of the clear examples of how it is possible to develop advanced AI models with another approach. At the moment China has not vetoed any of these models, and all of them have become a great resource for companies around the world to improve and use. Even North American companies do it: Cursor’s Composer 2.5 model It is nothing more than a derived version of Kimi 2.5. AI as a commercial weapon. What we are seeing is another episode of the great trade war that both the US and China are maintaining at a technological level. Both play with their resources to put pressure on the other party—or the entire world. But before, the pressure was exerted with things like advanced AI chips or rare earths. Now the US has also decided that the AI ​​software itself (the models) can be used in the same way. And the companies that develop them don’t seem to be able to do much about it. Spain boasts about what it shouldn’t. But as we said, in Spain what we have are announcements of regulatory efforts. It is true that the intention is surely good and that the idea is reasonable (to develop the technology responsibly), but that focus has proven to be a problem: while Spain boasts of being a pioneer in the application of AI regulation in Europe, our country barely has its own tools in this area. ALIAthe model focused on co-official languages, remains in a surprising background, and what is We have an agency, AESIAwhich once again demonstrates that ambition to regulate while neglecting the other part: that of innovating. Europe is not much better. What is happening in Spain is almost a reflection of what we are seeing in Europe. Only the French company Mistral is trying to advance with its own AI models, but for now its developments They are very far from the frontier models of the US or China. In Spain we have Magnificbut this startup is not so much a developer of its own models as an aggregator of those already existing in the creative field. Atomic bombs on one hand, forks on the other. It is probably an exaggeration to compare Fable 5 with the atomic bomb, but one thing is clear: the US has AI models that are effectively far above any European development. It is in a sense as if they had a bomb and Europe was trying to compete with a fork. What experts have been saying for almost three years is that the path chosen by the EU is a mistake. What is needed is investment in innovation, and not with government projects, … Read more

leave all of Europe without GPS

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Three researchers have discovered that Russian satellites were the cause of multi-second interference in GPS coverage in Europe. The discovery sparks suspicions about whether this is a Russian test to prepare for electronic warfare… or if it is using such experiments as a hidden communication channel. What is happening to GPS? Professor Todd Humphreys and his student Zach Clements, from the University of Texas at Austin, and Argyris Kriezis from Stanford University published a few days ago a preliminary version of a disturbing study. They collected and analyzed data from public navigation receiving stations (GNSS) and then isolated high-power pulses of less than 10 seconds that affected receivers at various points around the globe at the same time. After triangulating the signals, they now have the culprit: the Russian military early warning constellation, called Edinaya Kosmicheskaya System (EKS). Triangulating what is a gerund. The trace of these mysterious electromagnetic phenomena was initially detected in records collected by several ground stations between January 2019 and April 2026. There, at least 75 days were detected in which interference occurred in the L1 band of GPS. When analyzing the problem, they calculated that the jammer was operating at a minimum altitude of 1,200 km. After adding raw data from February 11, 2026 collected in Trondheim (Norway) and Amsterdam (Netherlands), they managed to reach the likely culprit with a minimal margin of error. Hello, Kosmos 2546. With this data, the researchers “crossed” the orbits that corresponded to all the previous results and everything ended up pointing to a single suspect: the Russian military satellite. Cosmos 256. This satellite is part of the EKS network, a constellation of six satellites theoretically designed to detect the launch of intercontinental missiles. The network operates in Molniya-type elliptical orbitswhich keeps them at high altitudes for long periods of time over the northern hemisphere, and ensuring that at least one of them is visible above the horizon of all the European stations affected during the interference. The frequency dilemma. There is a detail that makes researchers doubt. The detected pulse is not right in the center of the main GPS frequency, but occurs with a slight offset. Humphreys maintains that Moscow can be running calibration tests to check the coverage of its electronic warfare systems from space without causing a major diplomatic incident. If their hypothesis is true, the Russian satellite network operators would simply have to adjust their transmitters to launch an attack that would neutralize GPS navigation across the entire European continent. Accident, nothing. Russia may have claimed that this is simply an accident, but researchers discovered that the EKS satellites not only emitted this pulse to “attack” the US GPS system, but also launched a parallel burst of interference in a frequency band that is precisely used in the Chinese positioning system, BeiDou. Theoretically, we are therefore faced with clear evidence of the generation of interference to “knock down” the positioning systems of rival powers. Another possibility. Richard Bowden, head of the positioning division at GMV, explains that there may be another alternative: that these short and powerful pulses are actually communication messages for military purposes and that they could be sent to Russian bases or submarines. By using frequencies close to those used by civilian receivers, Russia would be able to guarantee that these signals penetrate the atmosphere and are received without problems on already existing antennas… although the side effect is to cause small drops in the GPS of vehicles traveling through Europe. In Xataka | The largest and most expensive landfill on Earth is located 400 kilometers from the atmosphere, orbiting without interruption

Spain produces so much solar energy that it is the envy of Europe. And even so, 70% of what you consume matters

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In June, when the sun hits hardest, the Spanish electricity grid registers demand peaks greater than 36,800 MW that renewables comfortably cover. We are, in electricity generation, the envy of Europe. And yet, at this very moment, 70% of the energy our economy consumes comes from abroad. That is the Spanish paradox in a single sentence: a country that exudes sun and wind but is still 70% dependent on the outside world. This contradiction, which in normal times would be just another energetic debate, has become an open wound since The Third Gulf War closed the Strait of Hormuzthe artery through which approximately a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited. Is the second major energy shock in just four years and, according to the International Energy Agency, the largest in the history of the oil market. We have the best sun in Europe. And we continue to pay for the war. The report From Fossil Shock to Energy Sovereigntyprepared by the Renovables Foundation and the Meridian Institute, explains why. And the answer is uncomfortable: it is not that we lack resources. It’s just that we are ignoring them. The underlying problem. Here is the key that many overlook. Electricity consumption in Spain represents only 22% of the country’s total energy demand. The rest—78%—is covered by burning things: petroleum products (54%) and fossil gas (16%). It doesn’t matter how many solar panels we put on the roofs if cars continue to pump gasoline, boilers continue to burn gas and factories continue to throw away fossils. We are a country that has learned to produce clean electricity extraordinarily well. And then he uses it for a minimal fraction of what he needs. The three “black holes”. The study identifies three sectors where this disconnection between what we produce and what we consume is most flagrant: Mobility: the biggest hole. Transportation consumes 43% of final energy and accounts for 33% of emissions. The sector is responsible for 71.1% of the final consumption of petroleum products in Spainwith diesel as the undisputed king. By the end of 2025, the share of purely electric cars in sales was 8.85%. Of the total fleet in circulation, only 0.8% is electric. The rest continues to fill the tank. Homes: heating from the last century. Domestic consumption accounts for 30% of final energy use. Only 24% of the heating in our homes is electric; the rest continue to burn mainly fossil fuels. Gas boilers continue to be the majority in Spain while in the Nordic countries they are already history. We are the country in Europe with the most hours of sunshine and one of the countries that installs the least aerothermal energy. The industry: the silent hole. It represents the remaining 27% of final energy use. Its level of electrification has been stuck at around 35% for years, which means that almost two-thirds of the energy that drives our factories is still fossil fuel. It is the least visible sector in public debate and, possibly, the most difficult to transform. Also the one that needs the most time to do it: that is why it is urgent to start now. The Scandinavian mirror (with nuances). Norway leads the way: by the end of 2025, almost 98% of its new passenger cars sold were pure electric. They have more than 600 heat pumps for every 1,000 homes. Spain is located below 90 aerothermal units per 1,000 homes. The difference is more than 6 to 1. In the sunniest country in continental Europe. It is worth being honest: Norway finances its transition precisely with the income from the oil it exports. Spain does not have that cushion. But that does not invalidate the direction, but rather forces us to look for our own mechanisms—tax incentives, collective purchasing, European funds—to follow the same path. So why are we going so slow? The obstacles are real: the entry price of electric vehicles remains high for the average Spanish income, the charging infrastructure unfolds very unevenly throughout the territory, and the housing stock—with many old and poorly insulated buildings—cannot always accommodate a heat pump without major work. Naming these obstacles is not an excuse. It is the condition to overcome them. What it costs us every year to do nothing. If Spain matched the Norwegian pace for a single year—registering some 950,000 electric cars and installing 820,000 heat pumps—the immediate savings in fossil fuel imports would be between 1,300 and 1,700 million euros. With 100% electrification of mobility sustained for a decade, the reduction would reach 36% in oil and gas imports: 16.4 billion euros per year that would no longer go abroad. To understand the scale: Spain has strategic reserves for about 92 days of consumption regardless of a single barrel. Three months of autonomy in the face of a crisis that is already lasting longer. Every year that we do not electrify is one more year of fragility that we consciously choose. And the European irony completes the picture: the EU allocates nearly 88 billion euros annually to subsidize fossil fuels for transport, heating and industry. According to the Meridian Institute, this money would be enough to install more than 10.2 million heat pumps or finance 2.5 million electric cars annually across the continent. Europe has been paying for decades to remain vulnerable. Same trap, different provider. Four years ago we learned the hard way about the danger of depending on Russian gas and we exchanged it for liquefied gas ships from the United States and Qatar. Today we discovered that we have only replaced one vulnerability with another. As long as we need to burn gas to turn on the light, our pockets will continue to be hostage to geopolitics. The name of the country that supplies does not matter. In storage, the gap is also striking. Germany and Italy lead European battery deployment, with 6.6 GWh and 4.9 GWh installed by 2025 respectively. Achieving that capacity would allow Spain to eliminate between 5% and 10% … Read more

the graph that proves that Europe plays something else

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Today the rich are richer than ever and there are more of them than ever in the history of humanity. However, their distribution throughout the planet is very different from how they did a decade ago because, quite simply, there are countries where the ultra-rich grow more. Only in this last five years, 162,191 new ultra-rich “appeared”, that is, 89 people crossing the economic threshold of 30 million dollars a day (the barrier of high net worth individuals, or HNWI for short). Understanding where money is concentrated is the first step in anticipating investments, influences and geopolitical tensions. The club of the very rich. The graph you see below these lines has been prepared by Visual Capitalist and orders the states of the world according to two parameters: how many new ultra-rich people gain and how fast that club of very rich people grows. Combining the two makes sense: a high number may not be that high in a broad-based country like the United States, and a high percentage increase implies that something new is making people rich there. The data comes from the real estate consultancy and wealth manager Knight Frank through its report “The Wealth Report 2026“, which uses its own economic growth model including variables such as GDP growth, inflation, interest rates or the behavior of financial markets. Where there are more and more rich people. Visual Capitalist Why is it important. In a sentence: because money calls money. Where the ultra-rich live, capital also comes: buyers of luxury properties, investors in startups, investment funds, demand for high-level services… On the other hand, these people who concentrate wealth are also the subject of regulations in order to reduce economic and fiscal inequalities in a kind of tug-of-war of attracting and retaining capital in the face of economic imbalances in welfare economies. The United States is a factory of the rich: It is home to almost 40% of all the world’s rich people with more than 10 million dollars, almost double that of China (second). In the segment of 100 million or more, it also exceeds 40% of the world total. The explanation for this accumulation of wealth lies in a mix of a highly developed stock market, low tax pressure on capital, a mature and solid entrepreneurial ecosystem, and a legal system that firmly protects private property. Between 2021 and 2026, the US has added almost 67,000 new ultra-rich people, triple that of China. It is the largest manufacturer of great fortunes on the planet, notably compared to the second. That economic phenomenon called India. India is the most interesting case on the entire list because it combines speed and scale. In the last five years, its population of ultra-rich grew by 63.4% thanks to technological entrepreneurship, the digitalization of the economy and the development of its capital markets. It is not inherited or extractive wealth: it is wealth created by entrepreneurs and companies. Thus, the Asian giant has already taken bronze after the United States and China and is imposing a ferocious pace: India already has 207 billionaires and by 2031 the projection points to 313, 51% more. It is, in short, the only country that simultaneously appears in the top positions in both percentage growth and absolute volume of new great fortunes, thus becoming the economy with the greatest potential for private wealth creation in the next two decades. Europe is on another roll. Europe grows piano piano and not without internal tensions. Germany, Switzerland and France occupy third, fifth and seventh place respectively in terms of increase in ultra-rich people, but if we look at the speed of growth, they almost disappear from the ranking in favor of unexpected ones like Romania or Greece. The problem is not so much the numbers but the fiscal pressure, and stricter regulation where private property collides head-on with the welfare state. However, within the continent itself there are tremendously unequal policies, from the Swiss tax haven to France and your plan to tax the richest. Those covered: Poland, Qatar, Indonesia and Vietnam. Just a decade ago these countries did not appear in any pool of private wealth, but there is Poland as the outstanding leader in percentage growth of ultra-rich people between 2021 and 2026 with 109.2%, which has meant going from 1,442 to 3,017 individuals. Qatar follows with an increase of 106.9% and then Türkiye, with 93.6%. It is, in any case, double or triple the average. Of course, there is an essential nuance: they start from very small bases, hence in absolute terms they are still small groups compared to Germany or France. In the next five years the ranking is completed with other emerging countries: Indonesia leads the projections with an expected growth of 82%, followed by Saudi Arabia and Poland with 63% each. Just behind, Vietnam with 59%. What do they all have in common? Improve the scenario for private capital: more legal certainty, accelerated industrialization and in the case of Middle Eastern countries, almost zero taxation accompanied by residency programs for large assets. In Xataka | The countries with the highest number of billionaires among their population, brought together in a very revealing graph In Xataka | Seven of the ten largest fortunes in the world in 2026 are due to AI: this illustrative graph makes it very clear Cover | Visual Capitalist

France has been determined to rob Spain of its position as a data center power in Europe

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The French country has hit the table in its ambition to become a technological benchmark in Europe. He agreement reached between Emmanuel Macron and Masayoshi Son (CEO of SoftBank) aims to deploy up to 5 GW of computing capacity for AI data centers in northern France. This movement competes with all the projects that are underway in Spain, one of the countries that until now had attracted the greatest interest from hyperscalers. The problem is that neither France nor Spain will gain much from these initiatives. Nuclear counterattack. France has taken advantage your energy network —with a clear prominence of its nuclear power plants— to attract AI supercomputing projects. The SoftBank project will start in the Hauts-de-France region with an initial phase of 45 billion euros to build data centers in regions such as Dunkirk. In this first phase we want to achieve that the total capacity rise to 3.1 GW in 2031followed by a second phase that could reach 5 GW. Spain, data center paradise. Faced with this French movement, Spain has been closing agreements in that same area for months. It totals more than 22,000 million euros in recently announced projects. Giants like AWS (15.7 billion in Aragon), Microsoft (more than 7,000 million) and Blackstone have chosen our country to create these data centers. The Spanish advantage is its renewable energy productionwhich has attracted that type of investment. The harsh reality: Europe (probably) loses. Although both this announcement and those made in Spain are very striking, the reality for the Old Continent is quite stark. The data centers in Spain are not Spanish, and those in France are not French either. Europe is becoming the powerhouse for foreign multinationals that invest here because it suits them strategically. Energy resources are great for Microsoft, Amazon, Meta or Softbank, but the real benefit of this computing does not remain in Europe. The accounts. There is a clear difference between the strategies of Spain and France. Spanish soil is filled with hyperscalers like AWS or Microsoft that build, operate their own clouds and then control the flow completely. In the case of France, the initiative depends on a Japanese conglomerate allied with sovereign funds from the Middle East. SoftBank operates here more like a real estate developer– Create the data center and then rent it to third parties. Source: FT. Sovereignty, little. Emmanuel Macron and Pedro Sánchez can sell the message that these projects promote this ambition to have sovereign AI. The problem is that these data centers are simply delegations of big technology companies taking advantage of the advantages offered by their European partners. There may be options in the French project for the country to boost its AI companies —Mistral is the clear example—, but the truth is that these movements do little to help this objective of avoiding the independence of foreign technology companies. Rather they make the situation worse. The other European rivals. Europe’s traditional technology markets, grouped under the acronym FLAP-D (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin) are giving way to projects in other countries like France or Spain. There are also other protagonists in this new map of decentralized infrastructures: the Nordic countries are also interesting for their cold climates, ideal for helping to cool these centers. The real bottleneck. Beyond the billions of euros that are on the table, the big battle in the coming years will be access to hardware components, especially now that the memory crisis has made everything significantly more expensive. Demand far exceeds supply and it does not seem that this imbalance will be resolved soon, so all of these initiatives could suffer delays and changes in their final costs. In Xataka | Mistral does not generate hype, it is a discreet AI, it does not boost the shares of any company, but it already makes more money than Grok

One of the most feared airports in Europe faces a new problem. And it comes from the Atlantic

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There are airports that seem designed to remind us how complex flying is. It also depends on the exact place where you are trying to land. In Madeirathat reality is understood very quickly: Cristiano Ronaldo airport It coexists with the Atlantic, with difficult terrain and with winds capable of altering operations. The novelty is not that it is a demanding airport, something well known, but that Portugal has put figures to a problem that seems to have worsened. The data. He put the information on the table Hugo Espírito SantoSecretary of State for Infrastructure of Portugal, during a parliamentary hearing held at the end of May. According to DNOTICIAS.PTweather records show an “abnormal variation” in wind speed starting in 2015 at Madeira airport. The average climb is around three knots, approximately 5.5 km/h, a figure that may seem small from the outside, but which in an infrastructure so sensitive to the wind has very concrete operational consequences. In the words of the president himself, this increase “makes a large part of the operations unviable.” An airport conditioned by its geography. To understand why three knots matters so much, you have to look at where the runway is. Euronews describes the airport as one of the most demanding in the world due to an unpleasant combination: one end built on concrete pillars, terrain that rises quickly in the vicinity, cliffs near the other end and winds generated by the nearby mountains. This mix can translate into local turbulence, waiting in the air, detours or cancellations when the weather is not good. Looking for an explanation. After recognizing the average increase of three knots, Espírito Santo explained that the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and Atmosphere and the National Civil Engineering Laboratory are analyzing the phenomenon to determine its causes. That caution is relevant: we know that the records show an abnormal variation in wind speed, but not why. In an airport so exposed to local conditions, this difference between confirming the problem and explaining its origin is key to not taking for granted what is still being investigated. New system. The MAWINDS system combines LIDAR and X-band radar to analyze weather conditions in almost real time around Cristiano Ronaldo Airport. The project was presented by the Portuguese Government in December 2024 with an investment of 3.5 million euros assumed by NAV Portugal, although its technical incorporation was not yet fully closed in May 2026. Its purpose is to better detect episodes of turbulence and adverse wind before they affect the operation. Technology still in development. Everything seems to indicate that installing such a system is not equivalent to fully incorporating it into operations from one day to the next. The Portuguese infrastructure manager acknowledged that there were still no preliminary reports on MAD Winds and attributed the delay in its certification to the complexity of an unusual technology. As he explained, before being installed in Madeira this technology had only been deployed in four airports. That is to say, the airport already has a more advanced tool for observing the wind, but its full use still depends on technical work that cannot be simply accelerated. The roadmap. When MAWINDS was presented in December 2024, it was explained that a one-year pre-operation phase was opening to generate data and give ANAC the necessary information before considering, in the future, a possible revision of the wind operating limits. The system is not only designed to better look at the weather, but to build a sufficiently solid database to allow regulatory decisions to be made without lowering the priority of safety. Images | Madeira Airports In Xataka | The biggest move in history will be in Dubai: 35 billion dollars to build the largest airport in the world

The US has had an idea to reassure Europe. Instead of soldiers, he is going to bring his nuclear weapons very close to Russia

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In 1983, tens of thousands of women surrounded a British air base to protest the deployment of American nuclear missiles. That mobilization, known in time as Greenham Commonbecame one of the major antinuclear symbols of the Cold War and showed the extent to which the location of these weapons could alter European politics. Less soldiers, more “nuclear”. Europe has been trying to figure out what it really means for months the strategic turn of the United States. The reduction of troops, the withdrawal of some military systems and the increasing priority given to the Indo-Pacific have fueled fears that Washington is progressively moving away from the continent. However, conversations within NATO point to a very different response than expected. Instead of reinforcing the conventional presence, the United States would be willing to expand the deployment of nuclear capabilities in Europe to demonstrate that its commitment to the defense of the continent remains intact. The idea is simple but powerful: if there are fewer American uniforms on the ground, the nuclear umbrella must remain visible and credibleeven “closer.” The closer the interest is to Russia. There is no doubt, the allies most interested in this possibility are precisely those who observe Russia from the first line. Poland has been leading for years the list of candidates to host US nuclear capabilities and some Baltic countries have also shown interest in participating in future deterrence formulas. The invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s continued references to its nuclear arsenal have profoundly changed the perception of security in Eastern Europe. I remembered the financial times that, for these countries, hosting aircraft capable of using US nuclear weapons would have enormous political and military value, since it would turn any threat against them into an issue directly linked to Washington’s strategic credibility. The legacy of the Cold War. The proposal does not involve creating a new system, but rather expanding a mechanism that has existed for decades. Currently Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Türkiye and the United Kingdom participate in the program nuclear delivery of NATO, through which they store American nuclear weapons under exclusive control of Washington and train their air forces to operate within that scheme. This model was born during the Cold War to guarantee that European allies could participate in the Alliance’s nuclear strategy without having to develop their own atomic weapons. More than half a century later, the formula is once again gaining prominence in a continent that watches with concern the deterioration of the relationship with Moscow. Europe seeks to replace some capabilities, but not others. European capitals have assumed that they will have to spend more in defense and rebuild conventional capabilities that for decades were delegated to the United States. From anti-missile systems to strategic transportation to military intelligence, much of the current conversation revolves around how to fill those gaps. However, there is one area that many governments they consider it impossible to replace in the short term: the American nuclear deterrent. Although France and the United Kingdom have their own arsenals, Washington’s umbrella continues to be perceived as the central element of the European security architecture and as the ultimate guarantee against any military escalation. The signal that Washington wants to send. They told in the Times that for now there is no final decision and the conversations remain highly confidential. Still, the mere fact that the possibility is on the table reveals how Western strategy toward Russia is changing. For years the US military presence in Europe was measured in bases, brigades and deployed troops. Now the discussion increasingly revolves around another type of message. While Washington concentrates resources in Asia and requires its allies to assume a greater share of the defensive effortthe signal it seeks to convey is that nuclear protection remains intact. In a way, the new formula to reassure Europe is not to bring more soldiers closer to the Russian borders, but to bring closer what for decades has served as a last guarantee of security: American nuclear weapons. Image | Air Force, SJOERD HILCKMANN In Xataka | Spain’s great fear is not an invasion: it is a slow hybrid war with Morocco against its two most vulnerable cities In Xataka | To become technologically “independent” from the US, the European Union already has a plan: four desperate measures

The Chinese brand that sells the most cars in Europe decides on Spain

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MG will manufacture cars in Spain. It is official after weeks of rumors in which we had been hearing that the Spanish region was one of the best positioned to produce cars from the Chinese firm of British origin. It is its first major investment outside China in almost a decade and, without a doubt, an endorsement of its European plans. The advertisement. MG has confirmed it: Galicia is the region chosen for the return to MG manufacturing in Europe. The announcement had been advanced by Alfonso Ruedapresident of the Xunta, this morning but it was not until this afternoon when the MG herself confirmed the news. For months it has been known that the Xunta de Galicia has been in talks with the Chinese brand to settle on Spanish soil for its new arrival in Europe. And in April, Rueda himself held a series of meetings with representatives of the brand between April 23 and 25 in China, according to The Automotive Tribune. The project. The company assures that, from the outset, the project has an investment of 200 million euros and that it will create “more than 2,000 jobs in Europe, establishing a strategic center for the next phase of MG’s growth.” That is, the press release provided by the company does not specify how many of these jobs will be in Spain and how many will be created by the increase in cars in the European market. The company assures that this new plant is scheduled to come into operation in 2028 and that it will have an annual capacity to manufacture up to 120,000 vehicles. At the moment, it has not been confirmed what types of vehicles will be manufactured (pure combustion, hybrid or electric) nor have the models been specified. For its part, in information collected by The Worldthe Xunta raises the figure to 2,300 jobs, of which 1,000 would be direct, another 1,000 indirect and 300 would be related to the company’s activity in As Pontes (a town near Ferrol). In this location, the company is expected to build a components plant. Some doubts. For now, what is known is that the company will establish itself in Ferrol and build an auxiliary plant in As Pontes. The choice of Ferrol is determined by its port, which has already served as a gateway for other Chinese manufacturers for sale in Spain or subsequent distribution throughout Europe. What has not been confirmed, in addition to the type of vehicle used, is what manufacturing method will be carried out. The Chery Group in Barcelona uses the DKD method where the local impact is minimal. The companies (Omoda/Jaecoo/Ebro) have repeated that they will increase the number of operations that will be carried out in Barcelona but, for the moment, the cars arrive semi-assembled in containers and on Spanish soil only the last pieces of the puzzle are being put together. At the moment, in its information SAIC (owner of MG) does not refer to whether the cars will arrive more or less assembled on Spanish soil. The more processes that need to be carried out in the Spanish plant, the more direct jobs and the more work will be given to auxiliary companies in the area. “In Europe, for Europe”. That is, according to MG, the maximum of this landing in Galicia. And the company has found a vein in our continent with the sale of cars with all kinds of technologies at very low prices. In Europe it is the Chinese brand that sells the most carsplacing in 2025 a total of 211,014 units in the European Union and 305,717 units if we put the Nordic countries and the United Kingdom into the equation. These sales are understood because the SAIC Group has found in MG a vein to sell cheaply in Europe. The brand, previously British, is not unknown to the public and both its hybrids and electric ones are cheap compared to traditional European proposals. In Spain, so far this year, the MG ZS is among the 10 best-selling non-plug-in hybrids and is the sixth best-selling car in the sum of all technologies, according to ANFAC data. Furthermore, the brand is the tenth best-selling company in our country. Duty. It remains to be known, as we said, what the bet is in terms of specific models but it is clear that the landing of Chinese brands such as BYD in Hungary and Turkey or the Chery Group in Barcelona is directly associated with the implementation of European tariffs on Chinese electric cars. SAIC, which owns MG, is the company facing the highest tariffs. Manufacturing in Europe may allow them to compete, even more, on price, but the European Union has already made it clear that it will be necessary to make a minimum number of investments to consider that the car is European. This does not mean that the car is electric. Although cars with combustion engines do not have tariffs, rumors point to greater European shielding of their economy. And producing in Europe for Europe can help, even more, to lower the price of cars with combustion engines, partially alleviating the economic effort that the company has to make with electric cars. Photo | MG and Counting Stars In Xataka | Spain has a new brand of Chinese cars and it arrives with an ambitious plan: “Five million units by 2030”

China has found a giant “tunnel” to introduce its cars into Europe without Europe. And it is facing Spain

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In 2007, when Morocco inaugurated the port from Tangier Med off the Spanish coast, many saw it as an ambitious logistical gamble. Less than two decades later, that port has not only become the largest of the Mediterranean and Africabut has begun to surpass historic European giants like Algeciras in traffic. What seemed like a regional infrastructure ended up becoming one of the main commercial gateways to Europe. A half-open door to Europe. Europe has been trying for years reduce your dependency China’s industrial sector and, more recently, protect its manufacturers against the avalanche of electric vehicles from the Asian giant. The tariffs imposed by Brussels, in fact, respond precisely to that objective. However, I remembered the weekend the financial times that, while attention was focused on Chinese ports and factories in the country’s interior, Beijing began to build a much closer alternative: an industrial network located on the other side of the Strait of Gibraltar. The growing concern in Brussels does not arise because China is exporting more cars from its territory, but because it is transferring part of its production capacity to a country that enjoys privileged access to the European market. Map of the surroundings of Tangier, with Tanger Tech City (to the south), Tanger Automotive City and the port of Tangier Med Morocco as an industrial platform. It explained the means that the transformation is visible around Tangier and Kenitrawhere Chinese investments in tires, brakes, electronic components, battery materials and future gigafactories are multiplying. What is emerging are not simple isolated plants, but a supply chain increasingly complete capable of feeding the European electric car industry. Morocco offers practically everything you are looking for manufacturers: geographical proximity to Europe, competitive labor costs, renewable energy, tax advantages and an extensive network of trade agreements. For many Chinese companies, producing there is more attractive to continue manufacturing in China and then face the growing European trade barriers. The fear of Brussels. European concern does not lie solely in foreign investment. What is worrying is the possibility that Morocco will become in an indirect way so that products backed by Chinese capital, technology and subsidies enter Europe with much more favorable conditions. The European Commission already has detected cases in which components manufactured with Chinese financial support end up benefiting from preferential agreements. The challenge is to distinguish where it ends an authentic Moroccan industrialization and where a strategy designed to circumvent tariffs begins. Put another way, the more complex supply chains become, the more difficult it becomes to answer that question. Beijing’s geographical advantage. If you like, China too. has understood that geography can be as important as technology. Off the Spanish coast is a country connected by trade agreements with Europe and the United States, equipped of modern ports and increasingly integrated into global production chains. From the Chinese perspective, installing factories in Morocco does not mean abandoning Europe, but rather get even closer to her. Instead of shipping finished products from thousands of miles away, companies can manufacture components and vehicles a few hours of the main European markets. The strategy reduces costs, limits commercial risks and makes the application of protectionist measures difficult. A battle for European industry. What happens in Morocco reflects much broader economic competition. Europe tries to protect an industrial base that consider strategicas China looks for new ways to keep its huge manufacturing capacity running despite increasing Western restrictions. The result is that North Africa is becoming a space increasingly disputedwhere the interests of Brussels, Rabat and Beijing intersect. For Morocco, investments mean jobs, infrastructure and growth. For China, they represent a privileged platform next to the gateway to the European market. And for the European Union they constitute a uncomfortable question: If Chinese production can be installed just on the other side of the Mediterranean, to what extent are tariffs really capable of slowing its advance? Image | Adam Cle, The Spanish Monkey In Xataka | China and Europe do not trust each other when it comes to electric cars. And someone is taking advantage of it: Türkiye In Xataka | The Chinese auto industry is moving to colonize Africa and Latin America. Also to be your springboard

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