France

the megatunnel that France and Italy are building under the Alps

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Under the Alps, between France and Italy, one of the largest railway tunnels in history is being excavated. After decades on the table, this mega-construction that involves heavy machinery and thousands of workers began five years ago to materialize the most ambitious cross-border infrastructure work that Europe has in its hands right now. Because it is not just connecting two states, it will be the heart of the Mediterranean Corridor of the trans-European transport network to link southern Europe from east to west. The tunnel. The centerpiece of that corridor is the Mont Cenis base tunnel, which will be one of the longest in the world: 115 kilometers but with small print. Thus, it is made up of two parallel single-track railway tubes, each of them 57.5 kilometers long. In the main tunnel there will be In addition, four access points, 204 security branches and an underground logistics network with ventilation shafts. When in operation, the trains will cross the Alps on a virtually flat track, eliminating the current gradients that require reductions in speed and load. These tunnels join the existing railway infrastructure in Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France and in Sousse for Italy. Currently there are more than 3,300 workers on site, with a predicted peak of 4,000 in the entire cross-border section. At the moment, in February of this year in the French part had already been excavated 29% of the total. Why is it important. That the train trip between both countries is going to be faster and more comfortable is a reality: as details the Quaderno 11 dell’Osservatorio: The Paris-Milan journey will go from the current seven hours to around four and a half hours, so the train wins points over the plane on a tremendously busy route. But the big advantage is in freight logistics: The Alps force a good part of the trade between northern and southern Europe to go by road, with all the environmental cost and congestion that this implies. Context. The history of this tunnel is long and eventful. The occurrence dates back to the 90s, but it has been delayed for decades due to political issues, especially from Italy. In 2021 was when the project was finally unlocked with the signing of the contracts on the French side. Of course, the European Court of Auditors warned at the beginning of the year that the goal of having it ready before 2030 will not happen. In fact, the project promoter points out to 2033 as the date of opening to traffic. More delays. In figures. Some of the data on which the project moves: Cost of the section: 11.1 billion euros, 30% more than the initial estimate of 2015. The financing is distributed: 40% European Union, 35% Italy, 25% France. Reduction in time: Milan-Paris in 4 hours 30 minutes, compared to the current almost seven hours. Turin-Lyon will go from 3h 47 minutes to 1h 47 minutes. Turin-Paris: about 4 hours, almost an hour and a half less. 700,000 fewer trucks on the road per year according to TELTwhich translates into 3 million tons of less carbon dioxide annually. In detail. The design, construction and management of the project is carried out by TELT (Tunnel Euralpin Lyon Turin), a company created expressly for this project and made up of 50% by the Italian State through Ferrovie dello Stato and 50% by the French State. Of course, in the execution there is a consortium of large European companies, among them the German Herrenknecht, an institution in tunnel boring machinery. For excavation, two methods are combined: for long sections, the huge TBMs of the German company180 meters long and 10.4 meters in diameter, 2,300 tons in weight and 8,100 kW in power. For access sections and sections with complex geology, the traditional drill and blast method is used. Yes, but. The first issue has already reared its head in the “In figures” section: the cost is skyrocketing and threatens to continue doing so (without going any further, the neighboring Brenner tunnel increase 40% compared to initial estimates). The environmental impact is also on the table: environmental groups They have been warning for years of damage to the alpine ecosystem and some springs in the area They have already started to dry for the works. Finally, the project has received criticism because rail and road traffic in the corridor was declining when it was approved, calling into question the future profitability of the investment. In Xataka | Spain and Morocco have been dreaming of a tunnel under the Strait for 40 years. The great enemy of the project is called Umbral de Camarinal In Xataka | Norway gives the green light to the construction of the world’s first tunnel for ships: a colossal engineering feat that has been waiting for 150 years Cover | TELT and Nellia Kurme

Foie gras was one of the last armored culinary symbols of France. They did not have a rival that measures it in tons: China

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In 1778, French Marshal Jean-Pierre de Clermont-Tonnerre gave foie gras to King Louis XVI and the monarch was so impressed that he rewarded the cook with lands and a pension. Since then, the product was sealed as one of the great gastronomic symbols from France. More than two centuries later, that culinary crown is beginning to find competition far from Europe. The gastronomic bastion that seemed untouchable. For decades, the Foie gras It was one of those symbols that France considered almost part of its national DNA. It was not just a luxury product or a profitable export, it was a centerpiece of your food sovereigntya cultural emblem protected by designations of origin, rural tradition and a political machinery willing to protect it. When the sector celebrated a trade surplus in 2025 of 35.6 million eurosthe message was clear: after years of bird flu and mass slaughter, French foie gras was still standing. The wound of bird flu. The blow of bird flu It was deep. In 2022, French production fell to historic lows, barely touching the 8,000 tonsan unthinkable figure for a country used to dominating this market. The mandatory vaccination of ducks starting in 2023 managed to stabilize the sector and return it to levels close to 17,000 tons in 2025. That recovery seemed to confirm that France had closed the crisis. What no one expected is that, while he was healing his wounds, another actor was growing at full speed. China enters the scene. that actor it was china. In just a decade, it went from producing about 2,000 tons to touch 14,000placing itself dangerously close to the French leadership. The quote by Fabien Chevalierpresident of CIFOG, summarizes the surprise of the sector: “We didn’t see them coming like this.” And that is perhaps the key to everything. France thought that foie gras remained one of its last armored culinary totems. What he did not have was a rival who does not measure his ambition in tradition, but in tons. Scale changes everything. The comparison is brutal. While an average French producer produces around 10 tons per year, Chinese farms like Li Fengshan’s They produce 300 and aim for 500. The contrast is almost industrial versus artisanal. Li, who grew up in poverty and today drives a Maserati Thanks to foie gras, it symbolizes the Chinese transformation: turning a Western luxury into a mass product. On their farms, each worker handles more than 400 geese and the livers can exceed a kilo, easily doubling the usual size in France. Where the French see terroir, the Chinese see scalability. From luxury to popular consumption. The great revolution is not only in producing more, but in changing the meaning of the product. In China, foie gras is no longer just an elite delicacy: mixed with fried riceserved in a hotpot or transformed into cherry or rose-shaped desserts bathed in red wine. This democratization has triggered internal demand and has allowed prices to be drastically lowered. A dish can cost between 4 and 10 dollarscompared to 15 or 40 euros in many French restaurants. That changes the global market: when luxury becomes cheaper, the symbolic monopoly begins to break down. The next step: export. Until now, most of Chinese production stayed at home. That barrier is beginning to break down. As? Reuters counted that Chinese producers are already preparing exports to South Korea, Japan, Russia and Southeast Asia, and some have already sent batches to the United Arab Emirates. For France, the threat is not so much in Europe, where denominations continue to carry a lot of weight, but in those emerging markets where the “foie gras” label is worth more than its origin. The battle between story and volume. France continues to rely on its main advantage: the prestige. Labels such as “foie gras du Sud-Ouest” continue to be a cultural and gastronomic guarantee that is difficult to replicate. The problem is that economic history is full of examples where scale ends up eroding the story. China has subsidies, intensive labor, low costs and a immense industrial capacity. In fact, even now start talking about robots to automate force feeding. French foie gras still retains its aura, no doubt, but for the first time in a long time its dominance no longer seems like a natural inheritance. It seems like a position that will have to be defended. Image | Annie Tu, Charles Haynes In Xataka | 3D printed meat was a utopia years ago. You can now buy it in the supermarket, for 3.5 euros and made in Navarra In Xataka | France has found a way to stand up to China: the first pilot line to recycle rare earth magnets

Faced with extreme temperatures, France needs to Spanishize its roads

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A few years ago I was telling a friend that in the legendary Quebrantahuesos cycle tour that is organized every year in the Aragonese Pyrenees, I had seen the asphalt melt. He told me that it was so hot that the animals looked for the nearest bush in sight to hide in the shade and that the bicycle frame had been marked by particles of asphalt that were jumping with the rolling of the runners. I had a hard time believing this last one. But cycling lovers will remember that 2003 Tour de France in which Joseba Beloki crashed in a bumpy corner and Lance Armstrong saw one of his strongest rivals disappear from the race to win the centenary edition. That day it was so hot that, they say The Countrythe asphalt was melting. Those days of July more than 20 years ago, Europe was suffering a heat wave for which France was not prepared. July was just a warning, the month of August was even worse with days and days of chained days of temperatures so high that it is estimated that Almost 15,000 people died in the neighboring country. But from France they warn: this year looks bad. The director of Metéo France, Sophie Voirin, has already warned that this same week the maximum temperatures ever recorded in the country could be exceeded. The consequences are already noticeable in the daily lives of the French. Schools that have closed, sixty departments on alert, 70 trains canceled… and roads that are melting. Six kilometers that melt Audrey Bardotvice-president of the Meurthe-et-Moselle Departmental Council in charge of Infrastructure and Mobility, confirmed to BFM that six kilometers of roads in his department were melting due to the high heat recorded. In actu They even point out that the problem with these roads melting is not only that cars throw tar in their path (which in some cases, they point out, extend it for more than a kilometer), but also that puddles of melted asphalt have formed. Meurthe-et-Moselle is located in the east of the country, almost bordering France, but in Normandy just at the other end they find themselves in the same situation. Over there, those responsible point out that the roads were repaired at the end of 2025 to alleviate the damage caused by the harsh winter rains but that the patches are melting because they are not prepared to withstand the 40ºC they are experiencing these days, instead of the usual 27-28ºC. Are extreme temperatures They represent a challenge for French infrastructure. This same year it was decided to pour a mixture of white gravel on the asphalt to reduce the temperature somewhat and prevent the heat from melting the asphalt. In 2022, the Tour de France had a tanker truck which was cooling the road to prevent the asphalt from being damaged by the passage of cyclists. This year there has been talk about how the heat will affect the most famous cycling event in the world since February. The problem for France is, as they pointed out about the roads of Normandy, that its asphalt is not prepared for such high temperatures but must also be ready to drain winter rains and face colder conditions. A more extreme climate, with more intense cold and unbearable heat, is very complicated to manage when designing roads. These roads prepared for greater porosity against rain use bitumens that perform worse when the temperature rises. They are more flexible but the point at which they melt comes sooner. On the contrary, we do not see this in Spain because We opt for asphalts that better withstand high temperatures. The problem is that they are also less flexible pathways that fracture more easily. Our problem has been just the opposite.. When we have suffered the most is when we have experienced heavy and constant rains for days. This has caused numerous damages that they continue to be repaired these days because our roads have been designed thinking about the extreme temperatures of summer and not the phenomena as humid as those we experienced last winter. Photo | In Xataka | If we already feared about the state of our roads, we have one more reason to worry: the price of asphalt is skyrocketing

A heat wave is about to “scorch” all of Europe. So France has been the first to open a melon: ban alcohol

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The summer of 2026 has started in a big way, with much of Europe charredthermometers climbing to record values and governments wondering how on earth to tackle the risks that the heatwave has for the health of the population. In France they have been clear: declaring war on alcohol. With dozens of regions On red alert due to extreme heat, the French authorities have decided to put limits on the consumption of beer, wine and cocktails. It may seem shocking in a world that usually goes for beers (or drinks) to cool off, but it makes all the sense in the world. And for several reasons. Europe is burning. It may sound exaggerated, but if at any time it is justified to talk about temperatures scorching in Europe it is now. In Spain the first heat wave of the summer has sent the mercury skyrocketing above 40º in several parts of the country and the situation is not much better in other parts of Europe, such as Germany, Italy, United Kingdom or Belgium, where thermometers have reached (or easily exceeded) 30 degrees. Beyond the weather reports, the heat has already forced sports events to be cancelled, interrupt rail services or launch alerts. The objective: avoid episodes like the one in the summer of 2023, when another extreme heat wave left more than 62,000 dead in Europe. This same Sunday, Madrid decided, for example, to suspend the broadcast of the match with Saudi Arabia on the XXL screen in the Plaza de Colón. The reason: the forecast before 39ºC was reached. Like a ‘frying pan’. Another country that has not been spared from the heatwave is France. Over there 53 million people They were yesterday in areas with first or second level heat alerts. In fact, the country left an unpublished image: 35 of its 96 continental departments were on red alert and another 45 on orange. Faced with such a panorama, the authorities have decided to close at least 845 schools and adapt the schedules of hundreds of other centers to avoid the hottest hours. And that is just one of the measures activated by the Government. In Paris, for example, the Prefecture asked to the organizers of outdoor sporting events to cancel their tests in order to avoid unnecessary risks. An “explosive” mix. In France the Government encountered more than just heat. The dog days coincided there, among other events, with the Fête de la Musiquea festive day during which open-air concerts are organized and thousands of people celebrate in style in the streets, squares and parks. “Heat wave and Music Festival: an explosive combination that worries law enforcement agencies,” titled yesterday one of his chronicles on the BFM channel before remembering that Météo-France has extended the red alert to 49 departments. Stop alcohol. That parks are opened, classes suspended or races postponed to combat the heat wave is hardly surprising. What is most striking is another of the measures adopted in France: restrict the alcohol. As reports the France24 networkthe French authorities decided to ban drinking in public spaces in certain departments of the country, especially affected by the extreme heat wave. The sales restrictions lasted between early Sunday and Mondaywith the sight set especially at the Fête de la Musique and other celebrations planned throughout the country. Closed bars. “The prefects will issue decrees prohibiting the consumption of alcohol in public spaces in the departments on red alert,” the Government warned in a statementin which it also warned that events organized by the State itself and its agencies would close their bars. As if the message were not strong enough, the mayor of Paris warned to his neighbors about the risks of excessive drinking: “The combination of alcohol, heat and proximity of water are three factors that do not mix.” But… Why? The decision may seem shocking, but it makes perfect sense. And for several reasons. To begin with, by restricting alcohol consumption, especially during a day marked by street parties and concerts, the Government has wanted “preserve emergency services and medical care” and that “health personnel focus on caring for the most vulnerable.” In short: fewer drinking-related emergencies (falls, drownings, comas, fights…) so as not to neglect the real priority: the heatwave. In Paris, where the alert was activated, consumption was banned of strong drinks, such as high-proof beers, liqueurs or fortified wines, on the banks of the Seine and the Canal Saint-Martin precisely to avoid ‘scares’. Those who wanted to drink had to go to licensed bars, pubs or cafes. “Without realizing it”. There is another reason why the decision of the French authorities is totally logical. As explained on Saturday in France Info the Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist, by drinking a beer or a glass of wine we may have the impression that we are cooling off, but we are really boycotting the mechanisms our body uses to self-regulate. “You become dehydrated three to four times faster without even realizing it.” Alcohol has a diuretic effect and blocks vasopressin, remember from RFIwhich means that the ‘normal’ functioning of our body is altered. We go to the bathroom more, we sweat less, our body temperature rises and we become dehydrated, something that is not particularly advisable when we live in a region on alert for high temperatures and the thermometer exceeds 35º. “The body’s internal thermostat stops reacting correctly to overheating signals; our body no longer knows when to sweat and dilate blood vessels,” insist the French Institute of Health (Inserm). Images | DAT VO (Unsplash) and Venus Major (Unsplash) In Xataka | We are at 44 degrees and AEMET says that the worst is yet to come. The good news is that we already know when thermal relief arrives.

France and Spain this weekend

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Western Europe is about to become a pressure cooker. With the peak expected on Sunday the 21st and Monday the 22nd, the first major episode of extreme heat of the summer will not only be “one of the worst heat waves in modern history for this region“; it will be an unprecedented shock beyond the Pyrenees. Because we cannot measure the magnitude of the event only in terms of absolute temperatures, but in terms of the anomaly between the usual climate and the degree of adaptation of each population. Thus, in Spain we are going to have a bad time, but within the usual maximums in the middle of summer. In France, on the other hand, all forecasts give temperatures completely outside of any reference in modern history. What is happening? In general terms, we can say that a powerful blocking anticyclonic ridge over the Gulf of Genoa (combined with the descent of a DANA to the west of the Peninsula) has pushed a dry and very warm Saharan air mass towards the north. However, the key element of the “dome” or “heat dome” is the quasi-stationary stability. The temperature will begin to rise rapidly on the 20th and will reach “very high and persistent temperatures” that could last for a good part of the week. We are talking about 36-38 °C in inland valleys and up to 40 °C in the eastern area and in parts of the southwest quadrant. In some areas local peaks of 42-43 °C will be reached. Will there be very high temperatures? In a, let’s say, basal way, yes. They will be very high. However, it must be taken into account that between the descent of DANA to the west and the convection that may occur (there is still humidity in the environment) in many areas the wind could alleviate the maximums. The real problem. It will be, as I say, a little further north. Much of France is indistinguishable (in geographical terms) from the Guadalquivir or Guadiana valleys. What made the weather good is the absence of stationary ridges like the one they are going to suffer: it is not unusual for them to suffer temperatures of 40 degrees or more between Sunday and Monday. They are anomalies of up to 20 degrees above normal. And with an infrastructure not prepared for the heat. We must not forget that heat is, by far, the meteorological phenomenon that kills the most in Europe. To size it up: the wave of 2003 left more than 70,000 deaths on the continent (about 15,000 in France, about 13,000 in Spain and another 20,000 in Italy); that of 2022, around 61,000. It is true that There is discussion about whether there are more factors in playbut the figures are terrible. It’s time to get used to the idea… that this is the world we have to live in. Image | Meteociel In Xataka | Along with the heat wave, Spain has something to worry about: “The Mediterranean is already too hot in June”

Xataka is Media Partner of VivaTech, the largest technology event in France with more than 14,000 startups

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VivaTech It is one of the largest technology events in Europe in general and France in particular. Its next installment, VivaTech 2026, will take place between June 17 and 20 in Paris, the French capital, and From Xataka we have the pleasure of being Media Partner of this edition. It is going to be an event full of technology, panels and interviews and, as it could not be otherwise, from Xataka we will be covering it and experiencing it in situ. If you want to join us, we invite you to pay attention to our Instagram profilewhere we will share live everything we find in this (huge) tech meeting. A big edition Image | VivaTech Since 2016, VivaTech has been bringing together an entire ecosystem of companies, startups, influencers, media and technology fans. It takes place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles and has not stopped growing. To give some figures, in the first edition there were 45,000 visitors and more than 5,000 companies and startups. In the previous edition there were 180,000 attendees, 450 speakers, 300 announcements and launches, 14,000 startups, 4,000 partners and 3,600 investors. It is a sensational opportunity to discover first-hand how the global and European technological landscape breathes. It is also an important year for the event, which turns ten years old. For this reason, on Sunday, June 14, they are going to turn the legendary Parisian Champs-Elysées into a huge free experience, so that anyone can enjoy technology in a spectacular environment. Image | VivaTech The event also has top level speakers. To mention a few, personalities such as Yann LeCun (AMI Labs), Peter Steinberg (founder of OpenClaw), Henna Virkkunen (European Commission), Joe Tsai (Alibaba), Elizabeth Stone (Netflix), Bernard Arnault (CEO of LVMH) or Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India) will attend VivaTech. Jensen Huang (Nvidia), Elon Musk (Tesla), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta) and Tim Cook (Apple), among many others, have also walked through its halls. The event, as we said, will take place in Paris between the days June 17 and 20. Tickets can be obtained now from the official website of the eventas well as the agenda with the presentations and the map with the stands. See you in Paris! Images | VivaTech

The future European fighter in which Spain participates has received the worst news. And it comes directly from France

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Europe wanted to build its great fighter of the future with three countries in the cockpit: France, Germany and Spain. It was not a minor project nor a simple renewal of aircraft, but one of the most ambitious commitments of European defense for the coming decades, with a view to replacing models such as the French Rafale and the Eurofighter used by Germany and Spain by 2040. But this plan, presented for years as a symbol of strategic cooperation, has just collided with a much less epic reality: the companies called to make it possible have not been able to reach an agreement. The blow. According to Reutersthe Elysée confirmed that France and Germany were no longer in a position to continue with the project after the German authorities considered the margin to pressure the companies involved exhausted. French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had discussed the matter the previous week in Montenegro, on the sidelines of a summit between the EU and the Western Balkans. The conclusion was difficult to conceal: after months of blocking, the program had been left without a clear exit in its current form. industrial shock. The program was stuck for months between Dassault Aviation, the French company linked to the Rafale, and Airbus, which represents the industrial interests of Germany and Spain. The dispute was not minor: who led the development, what technology was shared and how intellectual property was protected. Dassault would have defended a leading role to avoid losing control over its capabilities, while Airbus defended a more balanced relationship. It wasn’t just a fighter. The FCAS It was always something broader than a substitute for the French Rafale and the Eurofighter used by Germany and Spain. The plan aspired to build a connected combat system, with a manned aircraft at the center, drones, remote carriers and a military cloud, the Combat Cloudto coordinate secure communications between air, naval, land and space platforms. That is why the blow has more depth than the cancellation of a plane: it affects an architecture designed so that Europe would not only buy future capabilities, but could develop them itself. What is at stake in Spain?. The coup also hits Spain hard. Its participation is articulated through Indracalled to reinforce the Spanish role in areas such as connectivity, technological integration and some of the critical technologies of the system. Furthermore, Airbus not only defended German interests, but also Spanish ones within the program. That is why the blockade does not only affect the calendar of the future fighter: it can alter the industrial weight that Spain aspired to consolidate in one of the great European defense bets for the coming decades. Tension in the air. The Guardian points out that Paris and Berlin maintained differences over the type of aircraft they needed, because France was looking for a model capable of operating from aircraft carriers and carrying nuclear weapons, while Germany did not have exactly the same military priorities. Merz had also publicly questioned whether the development of a sixth-generation manned fighter still made sense for the German air force. The discussion, therefore, was not only who manufactured what, but for what specific needs the system should be created. What remains standing. The stopping of the fighter does not necessarily imply that the entire FCAS disappears completely. The program also includes drones and a high-security combat cloud, and European sources cited by Reuters saw it possible for these two elements to continue. A German government source even spoke of continuing the core of FCAS as a European system capable of connecting aircraft, drones and other components into an integrated whole. The big question is whether this architecture can survive without the airplane that was supposed to serve as its centerpiece. The initial plan and the current reality. The FCAS was on its way to being one of the great symbols of European defense for the coming decades. Today, however, it has become a direct test of the limits of that cooperation. We know that France and Germany have considered the current path exhausted, we know that Spain has industrial interests at stake and we also know that some pieces of the system could try to survive. What we don’t know yet is what form the project will take from now on. Images | Airbus In Xataka | Airbus has just made the most autonomous commercial aircraft in the world fly. Your goal: 22 hours straight without a stopover

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

In the battle for high speed in Italy, someone has passed Renfe on the right. Someone called France

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SNCF will compete for the Italian high speed network from September 2027. For a few weeks now, the French company has had the go-ahead to operate on the Italian network and stand up to the state company Trenitalia and the private company Italo. With this movement, France once again gets ahead of Renfe. Although it’s not all bad news. What do we know? The SCNF company, the public railway entity in France, will compete for high speed on Italian soil from September 2027. At least, those are the deadlines according to their latest announcement which specifies that the corridors they can use have already been assigned. In his statementSCNF explains that its trains will offer up to 13 round-trip services on the Turin – Naples and Turin – Venice corridors. The company boasts that this new activity on the lines will result in the creation of 4,000 jobs with the addition of direct and indirect workers. What does it offer? With its proposal, the French company ensures that the Italian railways 15 TGV M trains will be available. They are Alstom trains that the company has not yet been able to test because deliveries have been delayed in recent months. They hope to have them in operation first in France starting next July on the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line. The trains have had to be modified slightly since much of the Italian high speed It does not allow driving at more than 200 km/h. The company will offer four round trips on the Turin-Venice and nine on the Turin-Naples. This last corridor is key because it passes through cities like Milan, Florence and Rome, which is undoubtedly a very juicy cake for a company that intends to gain volume in the coming years. A tough battle. SCNF’s landing comes after a battle in the courts. They explain in the French media that Italy has tried to torpedo the company’s attempts to compete with Trenitalia and Italo. According to these media, the Italian subsidiary of the company has been in an open battle since 2021 with Italian Railway Rete (RFI) that manages the Italian roads, would be the Italian Adif. After numerous disagreements, the Italian subsidiary of the French company ended up denouncing RFI to AGCM, the body in charge of ensuring free competition in the transalpine country. Finally, this body has given the approval so that SCNF can compete with local companies on its roads. To compete, the French company will once again bet on offering lower prices and they assure that the medium-term objective is to gain 15% market share. In the French mediain fact, Spain is pointed out as the example model that SCNF wants to implement in the Italian country, trying to maximize trips on already consolidated routes. And Renfe? Renfe also has its own plans in Italy and although it has not been officially confirmed that it wants to make the leap to high speed, the truth is that the Spanish company has been taking positions that give us an idea of ​​the extent to which it wants to offer this service. And it is that Renfe bought 33% of Arenaways in 2024an Italian company that provides railway services. Of the rest of the shareholders, the Spanish Serena Industrial Partners It also has 33% so most of it is Spanish. This purchase has allowed Renfe to operate the Cuneo-Saluzzo-Savigliano regional line from 2025 and will do the same with the Ceva-Ormea line when the works are completed. But, furthermore, in Expansion They already pointed out then that the company has certifications to operate throughout the Italian network, which should facilitate the arrival of Renfe to the high-speed corridors. Spain-France-Italy. The triangle formed by Spain, Italy and France is leaving us with an intense battle for European high-speed services. In our country, the roads have been opened to Ouigo (SCNF) and Iryo (Trenitalia) and the battle has even reached the use of workshops. In Italy there has been an attempt to torpedo the entry of SCNF but after four years of fighting, the French company has ended up receiving the go-ahead to take its trains to compete on the Italian expressways. Renfe, at the moment, has not confirmed plans to take this step and only operates on regional trains. In France, Renfe has complained that the neighboring country is creating innumerable obstacles to reaching Paris, a key objective when it comes to offering a profitable high-speed service to the north of the Pyrenees. Trenitalia, however, Yes, it has managed to operate in France connecting Paris with its large local cities. Leisurely. All in all, it must be taken into account that Renfe’s forays abroad are not reaping bad results as far as its accounts are concerned. Last year he managed to invoice 20 million euros with the AVE of Meccawhere it moved 10 million passengers, like main promoter of Renfe International Projects. There, Renfe has high-speed services running but its projects outside our borders They are varied. It operates, for example, on the regional train network of the Czech Republic and on Rail Baltica (Latvia and Estonia) and It is also part of what is known as the Mayan Train. Photo | Fernando Meloni and Phil Richards In Xataka | There is a fight between the railway operators to get the best drivers and Renfe is winning it

In 1802 someone proposed to Napoleon to unite France with England. Today the Eurotunnel invoices more than 1,000 million a year

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“Bonjour mon ami,” said Graham Fagg. “Welcome to France”, replies Philippe Cozette. With these words an Englishman and a Frenchman greet each other. Both are operators of one of the most ambitious and spectacular infrastructures in the world. France and the United Kingdom have just been united by land. Specifically, the land lies 50 meters below the seabed. It is December 1, 1990 and the workers have found themselves in their excavation operations. Since work began in December 1987, it is the most exciting moment in the history of the Channel Tunnel. finally united The Eurotunnel is a 50.5 km excavation that since 1994 has connected buses and trains between the United Kingdom and France. The work runs for 38 kilometers under the sea and remains, to this day, the only land connection between the United Kingdom and Europe. More than 30 years after it was launched, the Channel Tunnel has a turnover of more than 1 billion euros a year. It is the magic figure that confirms why the investment has not only been profitable, but also why it is a project that has been talked about for hundreds of years. They explain in Reuters That the first time someone imagined a tunnel similar to the current one was 1751. The Frenchman Nicolas Desmarets, a French geologist, was the first to imagine the construction of a tunnel but no one bought the idea. Yes it would, they explain in MotorpassionNapoleon Bonaparte in 1802 when he gave his support to a project to dig a tunnel to the United Kingdom and launch a passage for horse-drawn carriages by the light of oil lamps. Evidently the project never went beyond paper because, in fact, throughout the 19th century projections were being made of what this step would be like to the point that, in 1866, the British engineer Henry Marc Brunel showed that the soil under water was composed of chalk (a type of limestone rock) that allowed drilling into the soil. In fact, these studies led him to create the gravity coring system, a working method that is still used today. However, it would not be until 1880 when the first steps on the ground would be taken. Progress that was initially successful but was completely suspended in 1883 when the works had already begun to enter the underwater zone. The reason given by the United Kingdom is that a tunnel could facilitate a potential invasion of the country from the continent. The argument carried so much weight that the project was frozen for almost a century. Winston Churchill advocated for it before the Second World War but no serious work was ever carried out to bring it forward. In fact, a system of hatches was proposed that, in the event of an emergency situation, would allow the tunnel to be flooded in case of fear of an invasion. This did not convince the military officials and the project remained suspended. It was not until the 1970s that the project was discussed again in much more serious terms. Along the way, all kinds of solutions had been proposed, including the possibility of creating an isthmus and that, through canals, allow ships to pass at the same time. In the end, the most logical solution was chosen: a railway tunnel between the United Kingdom and France. The agreement began to take shape in 1964 when technical studies began to make it viable. However, it would not be until 10 years later when work began. Some works that, in fact, barely lasted because the United Kingdom soon abandoned them due to the enormous cost of the project. Yet, The Eurotunnel had already started. And on January 20, 1986, François Mitterrand, on the French side, and Margaret Thatcher, for the British, announced the definitive construction of the tunnel. The decision maintained the idea of ​​previous decades of linking both countries with trains. Trains that, at the same time, allowed the transport of vehicles such as private cars. Thus, the tunnel now allows the transit of people with the one known as Eurostar, whose passengers travel by train, and a second train that allows the transfer of vehicles. It works through a system of three tunnels. Two of them perform round trip functions and the third is designed for their maintenance. The work, which began operating in 1994, now allows the passage of people and vehicles (including trucks) and is managed by Getlink (which was previously called Group Eurotunnel), a company that has the concession of exploitation by both countries as stated in the Treaty of Canterbury. This company benefits from the concession thanks to the passage of people and vehicles but also due to the interconnection of electrical energy on both sides of it. In fact, in 2025 turnover was close to 1.6 billion euros but almost 400 million euros came from Eleclink (the electrical interconnection between both countries) and Europorte (freight transport), the other two businesses that the company has associated with the exploitation of infrastructure. Photo | opihuck and Tambo on Wikimedia In Xataka | 125 kilometers of water separate 140 million inhabitants. China is going to solve it with a mega railway tunnel

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