Gold

In 1994 archaeologists discovered a sunken 17th century ship with more than 400 gold coins. They have finally solved their great mystery

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The surprise came in the mid 90s. A group of British divers explored the waters of the salcombe bayin Devon, when they came across the remains of a 17th century boat. At first glance, the wreck was very degraded by the passage of time, but it hid a real treasure: hundreds of coins of gold, jewelry and ceramics, among other pieces, most preserved today in the British Museum. Once the initial surprise was overcome, a mystery remained: What was the name of the boat? Where did it start from and where was it going? We already have the answer. What has happened? That archaeologists have finally solved a mystery that had gone unanswered for three decades: the identity of the merchant ship located in 1994 facing Salcombe Bay, England. We knew it hid valuable treasures, including 400 gold coinsbut until now no one had been able to clarify what the ship was called, its voyage and why its remains have spent centuries rotting in the English Channel. There, resting on the seabed, was the culmination of a story; the beginning was missing. Do we already have an answer? Yes. In a publication launched by the British Museum, a group of researchers has finally revealed the identity of the ship: it is the Dom van Keulena Dutch merchant ship that set sail from Morocco around the fall of 1633. Its destination was the Netherlands, but the trip became complicated when it was sailing with its valuable cargo off the southern coast of England. The weather was not favorable, the ship suffered a fatal leak and ended up capsizing. How did they find out? Diving. Although in this case the researchers have not immersed themselves in the cold waters of the Atlantic. The exploration has been carried out by historian Ian Frield among files from the British National Archives. There he located a series of documents that tell us about the voyage of the Dom van Keulen at the beginning of the 17th century, the storms it had to face and its unfortunate end, which ended with the ship at the bottom of the sea. The story of the merchant, however, was not as tragic as it could have been. We know that his crew managed to survive the shipwreck, and experts like Dave Parham, a professor at Boston University and one of the book’s editors, believe that “most of the load” He ended up recovering around the same time. “Most of it”? Exact. If Parham and his colleagues are correct, the treasures that the ship carried inside were recovered long ago; but neither the shipowners of the Dom van Keulen nor the generations that followed them were able to remove all the traveling items stacked in the holds. There they stayed for centuries, among the mud and oblivion, until in 1994 SWMAG divers located what remained of the wreck. The rest is the history of marine archeology: when exploring the site, the divers found a part of the cargo. Most are preserved in the British Museum. Did you transport that much? Yes. Parham is pretty clear in this regard: “Among their cargo were 150 bags of gum arabic, 64 bags of saltpeter, 320 goat skins and 9,000 Barbary ducats, Moroccan gold coins.” Its considerable value explains why the majority of this cargo ended up being extracted from the merchant ship’s holds, but for one reason or another more than 400 coins remained hidden until the SWMAG divers arrived in the 1990s. Did you find anything else? Those hundreds and hundreds of gold coins from Africa probably represent the largest treasure extracted from the shipwreck, but they are not the only thing that archaeologists have found. During your research They have also recovered a bowl, a pewter spoon, gold jewelry, a fish-shaped weight, a seal, ceramics and a piece of cast gold like a finger. Regarding the Dutch merchant ship, although no portraits of the period are preserved (or at least known), Parham explains that the wreck measures 30 meters long, includes cannons and anchors and rests about 18 meters deep. Why is it important? There are several reasons. The main one is that we finally know the identity of the merchant. Not only do we know that he was Dutch and transported valuable cargo. Now we know his name, career and complete history. As remember the SWMAGIn the area, remains of wood, rope, lead, dishes and other pieces were also found that tell us about life aboard the Dutch ships that covered that route at the beginning of the 17th century. If that were not enough, the wreck tells us about the traffic between North Africa and Europe and the trade in precious metals. “It provides an important context for the richness and architecture of the sharif Saadian trade, the African gold trade, and tangible evidence of the flourishing 17th-century maritime trade connecting Morocco, the Netherlands, and Britain,” Dave comments.. What was your relationship like? Intense. Bournemouth University (BU) remember that between the 16th and 17th centuries the Dutch traded actively, exchanging manufactures for pure gold from West Africa. In fact, some of the Berber ducats that were imported ended up being melted down to make Dutch gold coins with their metal, which was widely accepted at the time. The Dom van Keulen has given maritime archaeologists something else: the opportunity to examine 16th and 17th century Moroccan jewelry in a dateable contexta historical clue that is not often found. Images | Bournemouth University In Xataka | We finally know what sailors ate on the high seas in the 16th century. Thanks to the CSIC and a sunken galleon

China had been chasing “black gold” for years. Now it has started to turn it into something much bigger

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An almost invisible fiber can end up supporting part of a gigantic wind blade, forming part of the main loading structures of a metro train or protecting several satellites during the ascent of a rocket. That is what we have seen with the carbon fiber: a material that seems modest when we look at it as a simple filament, but that takes on another dimension when thousands of strands become a piece capable of reducing weight without giving up high resistance. Behind these products there is not only advanced chemistry, but a technology that China has been trying to industrialize for decades with its own means. The change is not that the country has now discovered this material, but that it is managing to take it far beyond the laboratory. For years, some of its research centers managed to obtain advanced fibers, but China continued to encounter difficulties to industrialize certain grades with the required stability, uniformity and scale. That barrier began to break with new production lines and today the expansion covers the entire chain, from the precursor to the composite materials and finished parts. That is the real leap: converting a technology pursued for decades into an industry capable of feeding other sectors. To understand why all this matters, it’s worth first looking at what’s inside that black coil. Carbon fiber is not a sheet or a solid piece, but a set of extremely fine filaments grouped in bundles. When we read 3K, 12K or 48K, we talk about of 3,000, 12,000 or 48,000 filaments per bundle. Afterwards, these threads are normally combined with a resin to form a composite: the fiber provides strength and rigidity in the chosen directions, while the matrix holds the whole together, protects it and transmits the forces. From filament to the development of a key industry The advantage appears when we relate its performance to weight. A structure made of a carbon fiber composite can offer high resistance and rigidity using less mass than certain metallic solutions, something that can translate into lower consumption, more autonomy, greater payload or larger components. The Airbus A350 incorporates CFRP in 53% of its structurewhile composite materials represent around 50% of the primary structure of the Boeing 787measured by weight. But it is not a universal solution: the material is still expensive and requires complex processes, while composite structures can suffer internal damage that is difficult to detect and repair. To find the origin of this advance we have to go back several decades. China was researching carbon fiber since the sixties and seventiesbut the obstacle was not only to produce it once, but to repeat the result within a factory. In 2005, the Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry received a national mission to industrialize a fiber equivalent to aerospace T300. Three years later, on June 30, 2008, a line in Yangzhou produced the first stable roll of aerospace fiber with performance equivalent to the T300. Since that advance, China has been developing higher performance fibers, first with references equivalent to T700 and T800 and later with T1000. In Datong, a line with about 200 tons per year capacity had completed in November 2025 verification of continuous operation. Numbers, however, can fool us if we read them as a simple ladder. T300, T700, T800 or T1000 come from commercial names developed by Toray and are used as references for certain performances, but they do not form a universal international classification nor do they alone summarize the quality, reliability or final use of the material. The magnitude of the change can also be measured in tons. According to the ATA world reportChina concentrated in 2025 an operational capacity of 171,080 tons annuallys, 52.5% of the 326,080 counted worldwide. The data places the country in the lead by scale, but it does not mean that it produced exactly that percentage or that it dominated all segments. In other words, available capacity does not equate to effective manufacturing, and an industrial fiber intended for wind blades does not require the same controls, intermediate materials and certifications as a product prepared to be incorporated into an airplane. In 2025, China had an operating capacity of 171,080 tons per year, 52.5% of those recorded worldwide. What is truly relevant begins when we stop counting reels and observe everything that happens before and after. To obtain the fiber, the precursor must be prepared, oxidized and carbonized; Then come the fabrics, the prepregs, the compounds and the shaping of the pieces. In Jilin, this sequence already coexists within the same industrial hub. Provincial authorities speak of 190,000 tons of precursor capacity, 70,000 of fiber and 50,000 of composites, in addition to pultrusion, machining and product manufacturing lines. That chain already ends in objects that we can identify. In Jilin, 230 lines make structural plates for wind blades, and the company says its products are used in 95% of the blades on the Chinese market. The CETROVO train entered commercial service in Qingdao in January 2025 with carbon compounds in main load elementswhile the fairings manufactured by Tianjin Aisida had contributed, according to local authorities, to 46 commercial launches that reached orbit until June 2026. On a global scale, the material is also used in hydrogen tanks and systems intended to reinforce bridges. China already leads the way in added capacity, and domestic manufacturers such as Jilin Chemical Fiber and Zhongfu Shenying are expanding their capacity and offering higher-performance fibers. Compared to them, the Japanese company Toray maintains a leading position due to its catalogue, its international presence and its industrial integration; The American Hexcel stands out especially in the aerospace market, while the Japanese Teijin and Mitsubishi Chemical continue to be relevant technological players. What China is building is not just more fiber: it is the ecosystem that allows it to become an industry. Images | Lawless Capture | Vong Vathanak In Xataka | “We chose the wrong technology”: Jensen Huang returns to Japan to acknowledge his debt to Sega 30 years … Read more

The United Kingdom has found energy gold with geothermal energy

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If there’s one thing Cornwall is known for (apart from the surprising boom of romantic TV movies tabletop) is due to its long mining tradition. Now, the Cornish industry is reinventing itself with a revolutionary deep geothermal project that, in addition to joining the national grid and generating energy for 10,000 homes English, is also capable of extracting lithium by taking advantage of this same geothermal resource. A pioneer plant. Last February it was launched in the town of Redruth in Cornwall the first geothermal power station in the United Kingdom with the hottest and deepest well in the country. It is about the United Downs projectfrom the energy company Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL), an innovative initiative whose objective is to generate electricity and heat using hot granite rocks among the abundant underground resources hidden in this English county. As GEL CEO Ryan Law told The Guardian, “It’s like someone built a huge nuclear power plant underground“We are simply taking advantage of the heat that is generated.” Clean energy 24/7. Furthermore, this plant, like all geothermal plants, has the potential to provide constant electricity and heat from a minimal land area compared to other renewable installations. According to data on the company websitea project of this type can produce 5 MW with only a carbon footprint of between 5 and 15 g of CO2 per kW. But this is not just about energy.. In addition to supplying energy, this plant will also be able to extract high concentrations of lithium from the mineral-rich water it uses. And, curiously, as The Guardian explains, during the process the heat of the used water drops to 50º C, a perfect temperature to be able to separate it from this resource that today is highly sought after for electric vehicle batteries and renewable energy storage. This method is called direct extraction of lithium and it is a physicochemical process that avoids evaporation ponds or open pit miningsignificantly reducing the environmental impact of conventional extraction. Therefore, we would be facing a revolutionary technology that would boost United Kingdom towards a greener and more sustainable horizon (and, of course, less dependent on imports). And how does it work? The geothermal is a renewable energy that takes advantage of the heat that the Earth produces naturally. As the GEL company itself explains, whether through volcanic environments or natural faults under the ground, Geothermal plants access these high temperature areas through drilling of different lengths that create natural hot water wells. On the one hand, the production well pumps that resource to the surface, where the pressurized steam that is created drives a turbine that is used to generate electricity, just like nuclear energy doesbut without the risks or residues of this. It is at this moment when the temperature of the water allows the extraction of lithium. On the other hand, a second injection well, somewhat shallower, is responsible for returning the water already used to the fault and reintroducing it into the geothermal reservoir so that it can be used again and the cycle can begin again, as GEL points out on its website. The rest of the world (and Spain) also looks underground. In a context as fluctuating as the current one, in which enclaves such as Europe seeks its energy independencegeothermal energy with lithium extraction is a more than interesting option for the world. Some countries are already following in the UK’s footsteps, as shown by the UK’s geothermal lithium projects. Vulcan Energy Resources in Germany and Eramet and Strasbourg Electricity in France, classified as strategic by the European Union. However, in our country we will have to wait. In places like the old mining town of Villasrubias in Salamanca or the deposit in the rural area of ​​Cañaveral in Cáceres, managed by the company Lithium Iberiaa high presence of this is hidden white goldbut the extraction projects contemplate conventional mining. Furthermore, although Spain has some geothermal resources, especially in the Canary Islandsfor now there is no project that combines this renewable energy with the direct extraction of lithium. Therefore, it remains to be seen if geothermal lithium plants like the one in Cornwall manage to demonstrate their viability and become a reference for our energy model to advance in this direction. Nothing new under the Cornish sun. For this small coastal county, the mineral extraction industry, especially tin and copperhas been an indisputable part of its identity for centuries. After the decline of its mining, which came to dominate the world market in the 19th century, today companies like GEL are reactivating the sector in the area thanks to the global demand for such elements. crucial in the energy transition like lithium. “People here are proud of their mining tradition,” Greg Foxwell, a member of Gwennap parish council, near Redruth, told The Guardian. According to data accessed by the British newspaper, so far the Cornish geothermal plant has created 100 jobs, including engineers, chemists and geologists, and has hired suppliers, contractors and raw materials, betting especially on local talent and resources. Image | GEL Xataka | The Earth has been providing heat for millions of years and now Google wants it for something very different from heating

In 2019 we discovered fungi that metabolize gold. There are already those who want to turn them into the key to space mining

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The story started more than five years ago in Boddington, south of the Australian city of Perth. Over there, among killer animals and gold mines, a team of researchers from the Australian CSIRO discovered something really strange: that certain strains of the fungus Fusarium oxysporum Not only could they extract gold from their surroundings and integrate it into their structure, but by doing so they managed to spread faster than the rest. It seemed like a curiosity, but in recent years the situation has begun to change. But wait, why is this something so “weird”? Good question. After all, we know for a fact that fungi “play an essential role in the degradation and recycling of all types of organic material (like leaves or bark), but also in the cycle of certain metals such as aluminum, iron, manganese and calcium.” Why would it be different with gold? Because, as Tsing Bohu, researcher in charge of the project, explained, “gold is so inactive (chemically speaking) that these types of interactions are unusual and surprising, I had to see it to believe it.” And he saw it. In fact, it published in Nature Communications. It was the first solid evidence that fungi could play a relevant role in the gold cycle in the Earth’s crust. The “mushroom” of the golden eggs. The mining industry quickly turned its attention to the investigation. Especially right there in Australia. The island continent is the world’s third largest gold producer, but the consensus among analysts was that without new deposits production was going to fall (a lot) in a short time. The direct consequence is that this has made marginal deposits profitable. Initially, the industry thought that the CSIRO investigation could be used to locate these new deposits. As we explained years agoIn Australia it is relatively common to prospect in forests of the aucalyptus family or near termite areas because they have a close relationship with the precious metal. Why not test the soil for those strains of Fusarium oxysporum? But there is one more possibility. As Eduardo Bazo explained to Eugenio Fernández in a very interesting interviewin recent years companies have appeared that work in what we could call “metabolic mining“That is, using organisms to extract gold. “And why do they want that?”, you might ask. “Isn’t it easier to identify where the gold is and extract it with industrial methods?” Yes, here on Earth, yes. But these companies have their sights set a little further: on space mining. For years we have talked about the existence of huge mineral deposits in the Solar System and, during almost the same period, we have fantasized about being able to exploit them. The problem is that, beyond current technological limitationss, to the danger of normal mining, is added the fact that we are talking about processing metal in space. But what if we use ‘metabolic mining’? The idea of ​​sending modified strains of these fungi (or other types of microorganisms) that They will process the mineral for useverything would become simpler. I don’t know if it’s more viable, but it is simpler. It is much less rare than it seems (we use this type of approach to countless products we use regularly), however taking it to the world of mining seems a little more complex for pure efficiency. However, that is ‘now’. Because there are already experiments in this sense generating platinum in microgravity conditions and ‘metabolic’ copper is moving a lot of money. What’s more, while I write (and while the era of cheap materials is over) several research groups They are growing all kinds of microorganisms with the idea of ​​being able to grow gold sooner rather than later. They are getting it. Image | Dominic Vanyi | Jaap Straydo In Xataka | The next richest person in the world will come from space: the future millionaire of space mining

In Spain, eating has become a procedure that must be quick and easy. And that is making gold for the supermarkets that prepare dishes

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When it comes to eating, we Spaniards no longer want only tasty dishes. We want time. We want flexibility. We want an assortment that allows us to choose. And if possible, we want all of the above at a good price. Whoever can square the circle will have the keys to a billion-dollar business. For now, the data from Worldpanel by Numerator reveal that more and more people are finding this offer in the prepared foods section of the supermarket, which in just four years has seen its sales increased by 55%. The curious thing is that this percentage reveals much more about us as consumers than about the business itself. The figure: 55%. The food sector has been around for a long time emitting signals about what the business of prepared food is growing in Spain, but few (or none) have been as clear as the one just shared by Worldpanel by Numerator. In your report ‘Convenience, the super power that changes everything’, the platform specialized in data and market analysis, has revealed that sales of ready-to-eat dishes have skyrocketed 55% from 2022. A name: Mercadona. Worldpanel has not provided more detailed data on demand, net consumption or per capita intake, but the percentage is still revealing. Above all because it helps us better understand how the demand for this type of product works, how the market behaves and who its protagonists are. As a reference, Worldpanel calculates that Mercadona monopolizes “one third” of the growth recorded in the category since 2020. It is not at all surprising if you take into account the commitment that the Valencian chain has made for its ‘Ready to eat’ section. Since its launch in 2018, it has been expanding it through its network of stores in Spain and Portugal until closing in 2025. almost 1,500 points selling and conquering much of it of the demand. If both prepared food and pre-cooked foods (creams, packaged chicken or refrigerated pizza, for example) are taken into account, last year Mercadona entered 3 billion of euros between both countries. Habit changes. That the prepared food business is growing so quickly is just a reflection of our own changes as consumers. We buy differently than our parents did because our priorities are also different. In the same study Worldpanel reveals two data that prove it. First, the time we spend cooking has been reducing until it remains at 24.5 minutes a day. Second, that 41% of consumers (5% more than in 2020) admits that he usually eats in a hurry, without time to relax. They are dynamics that fit well with what the prepared food sections of Mercadona or other chains offer, such as Alcampo, Carrefour or Lidland they give them a clear competitive advantage compared to traditional restaurants. As if that were not enough, our way of eating seems to be simplifying little by little: the occasions in which we have lunch with a single dish have increased about 5.5% since 2020. If we talk about dinners, that percentage is 3.3%. Is it that important? Yes a lot. So much so, in fact, that what is catapulting the sale of prepared dishes is not their greater or lesser attractiveness, the variety of the offering or their healthy appearance. When Worldpanel technicians asked customers what was the deciding factor that led them to buy convenience food instead of going to a bar or restaurant, about a third (28.4%) responded that the price. That is the factor that most often tips the balance on the side of Mercadona and other similar supermarket chains. The second is convenience. 13.4% stated that what they value most is speed, 10.4% the possibility of taking advantage of visits to the supermarket to make other purchases and 10.1% the flexibility of being able to consume food when and where it suits them best. That last piece of information is key. Although in recent years several chains of supermarkets have begun to enable spaces in their premises so that people can eat there, most of the customers take the dishes home. It occurs in 78% of cases. If we talk about large consumption in general (not just food) the percentage of intra-domestic spending is around 71%. Image | Carrefour In Xataka | Madrid is encountering a growing problem in its metro stations: the illegal sale of street food

40 million dollars in gold bars

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Sometimes an investigation leaves an image so powerful that it threatens to cover up the most important detail. In this case, the image is that of FBI agents entering a house in Virginia and finding more than 300 one-kilo gold bars (about $40 million), along with about $2 million in cash and about 35 luxury watches. The immediate question is obvious: what was all that doing there? The answer, for now, is not in the formal accusation. According to NPRDavid J. Rush faces, for now, a much more limited charge: alleged theft of public money for military leave payments allegedly obtained through false statements. It all started within the CIA itself. According to a joint statement from the CIA and FBI, an internal investigation by the agency identified possible legal violations and led its director, John Ratcliffe, to refer the matter to the FBI. The search of Rush’s home occurred on May 18 and the arrest came on the 19th. The key to the case. The discovery suggests a huge cause, but the accusation presented so far is much more limited. The New York Times points out that Rush is only accused of having inflated his academic credentials and collecting tens of thousands of dollars in military leave payments. He also falsely claimed that he was still in the Navy Reserve after being discharged. And here is the curious part: these assets are part of the investigation, but they are not yet the formal core of the accusation. An important piece. NPR describes him as a former CIA employee at the Senior Executive Service level, a category associated with high-ranking positions within the federal Administration. We are not talking, therefore, about a minor name within the story that the sources draw. We are talking about someone located at a level that does not go unnoticed. The unexplained hole. The big question is not only how those goods ended up in a private home, but why they had been requested in the first place. Rush began demanding foreign currency and tens of millions of dollars in bullion, arguing that it was needed for labor issues. The CIA later searched a storage space associated with it and only located some of the cash. Added to this is that the agency had not yet found records that justified the need to handle such an extraordinary sum. A resume in question. The FBI also looks back, long before the funding requests and registration in Virginia. The man would have included studies at Clemson University and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in several CIA applications, in addition to military merits that are now under suspicion. The two universities, according to the affidavit cited by US Public Radio, found no records that he had attended class. Something similar occurs with his profile as a supposed pilot: the documents reviewed would not support that he had passed evaluations or that he had a license. The case. Rush remains in the custody of the US Marshals Service after his bail request was rejected, and has yet to make a formal statement. Court records cited indicate that he waived a preliminary hearing and that the detention hearing was postponed until June 5. At the moment, one question still has no public answer: whether the gold was requested for an operation, for an internal project or for another purpose that we do not yet know. Images | Xataka with Grok In Xataka | Against all odds, Madrid has committed itself to building the largest Ferris wheel on the planet: 260 m high and worth 300 million euros

The Boeing 747 that the Emir of Dubai uses as a private plane is so luxurious that even the pilot’s controls are made of gold

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When we talk about private jetsluxury is already inferred in that same concept, but even within something as exclusive as that, there are airplanes and then there is he Boeing 747 of the emir of dubaia separate category that makes a normal Gulfstream look like a regular bus. Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, emir of dubaidid not limit itself to converting one of the largest airplanes in the world into a flying mansion, it also extended the luxury to the pilot cabin, with the engine control knobs, flaps and brakes covered in gold. Aviation youtuber Sam Chui had access to the interior and documented in detail everything he found aboard this flying palace that has all the luxury and comforts of a five star hotel designed both to satisfy the government needs of its owner, as well as those of the entire entourage that accompanies him. A jumbo jet with a double identity The base of this mobile mansion is a Boeing 747-400 Combi, a variant of the commercial jumbo jet that combines a large passenger area in the front, with cargo capacity in the rear. This duality allows it to transport the head of state, his team and the cargo (luggage, vehicles, etc.) they need on the same flight, something that clearly differentiates it from other private jets. more “modest.” The most striking element of the interior is the majlis, the traditional Arab reception room, adapted in the form of a huge open space in the central part of the plane in which there are a series of very comfortable seats for the president and his governing council. At the front, just below the cockpit, is the master bedroom, which looks more like a the luxury hotel suite than to a cabin at 10,000 meters above sea level. The lighting is warm, the bathroom and faucets are goldand it has a shower that you don’t expect to find on a plane. In the rear, a large dining room serves as a meeting room with capacity for 26 people, turning the plane into a valid space for negotiations or state dinners. On the upper deck there are eight minisuites with large reclining seats for VIP passengers, and a section with business class seats for the staff who accompany the emir on each trip. When luxury reaches the cockpit Most private jets reserve luxury for the passenger and limiting the cockpit to a more practical and austere function. That doesn’t happen on the emir of Dubai’s plane. Just like published LuxuryLaunchesin this private jet right down to the throttle levers, aerodynamic brake controls and flaps They have a gold finishturning each maneuver into a symbolic gesture and reminding pilots what type of aircraft they are flying. The Combi configuration of the aircraft allows cargo to be carried in the rear, including specific containers for the emir’s horsessomething consistent with the sheikh’s well-known love of horse riding. The plane has a range of about 13,500 kilometers, enough to connect Dubai with any part of the world without stops. The sheikh has at least two Boeing 747s like this one. According to Mallorca DiaryIn March 2026, one of them landed in Palma de Mallorca, generating all kinds of speculation about its destination. In Xataka | The Emir of Dubai bought a 500 million superyacht but discovered that it had a serious problem: there was no mobile coverage inside Image | Wikimedia Commons (Ukrainian Government), Sam Chui

France has taken all its gold from the US: it has gained from the transfer

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The Bank of France confirmed yesterday something that had been brewing in silence for a long time: he has withdrawn every last gold bar he had stored in the vaults of the New York Federal Reserve. An operation that normally could have lasted two decades but has suddenly accelerated. The trigger has its own name: Donald Trump. What initially began as a technical operation to update its gold reserves, with the latest movements of the US against its European allies, including France, has become the first major geopolitical movement that has left half of Europe looking at each other. Furthermore, the play has left them with more money than they had. The key is to sell at the right time and place. The first thing to understand is that France did not charter any plane loaded with gold to bring it back to Europe. Instead of physically moving the bullion, the Bank of France made a smarter decision. As the bank explained in a statementbetween July 2025 and January 2026, they have been selling the 129 tons of old gold that was stored in the New York Federal Reserve in the North American gold market. In Xataka The gold of discord: why 14 municipalities of Guadalajara have rebelled against the plan "mineral sovereignty" from Europe In this way, the French have taken advantage of higher gold prices at historic highs. With these income, France has been purchasing gold bars that met the new higher quality standard in the European market, which registered more contained prices, to store those bars directly in its vaults in Paris. The operation was completed in 26 different transactions and generated extraordinary income of 11 billion euros for the French central bank. A result that transformed the 7.7 billion euros in losses that it registered in 2024, into a net profit of 8.1 billion of euros in 2025. Why was there European gold in the US? The history of this gold in New York goes back at the end of World War II. After the conflict, the dollar became the axis of international trade and having reserves in New York allowed countries to sell them quickly and obtain currency to facilitate payments in global trade. Furthermore, with the Cold War raging and the USSR looming, many European governments preferred their gold reserves to be kept in distant New York rather than in Paris or London, protecting their treasury from hypothetical invasions Russian. A first major reduction of that gold reserve came in the sixties, when De Gaulle made the decision to repatriate part of the reserves French and other countries imitated it. But they didn’t take everything. France still maintained 5% of its total reserves on the other side of the Atlantic, a figure that may seem small but is equivalent to a mountain of ingots. With the latest move, France now concentrates all of its 2,437 tons in Paris, becoming the world’s fourth largest holder of gold. In Xataka The safest and most profitable investment you can make today is the same as 3,000 years ago: buy gold The spark that has ignited Europe. This same year It has been known that India has already repatriated 274 tons of gold since 2023, and currently around two-thirds of its total 880.8 tons are in national territory, driven by geopolitical risks and the need for greater control and liquidity. From OMFIF they point out that the location of gold storage has once again become a priority for central banks, especially since Russian assets deposited in third countries were seized following the invasion of Ukraine. However, the spark that has ignited the machinery of repatriation of European gold has been the erratic attitude of Donald Trump. His attacks public to Jerome Powell and its repeated attempts to interfere in monetary policy have generated a growing concern between European central banks over who really controls the institutions that custody their gold. {“videoId”:”x90yx2y”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”THE LARGEST GOLD MINE IN EUROPE IS IN SPAIN AND NO ONE DARES TOUCH IT”, “tag”:”WEBEDIA-PROD”, “duration”:”483″} Germany and Italy: the next ones in the spotlight. Following France’s move, attention has turned to the central banks of Germany and Italy, the two countries with larger gold reserves on American soil. Germany preserves 1,236 tons in the vaults of New York, 37% of its total reserves, while Italy has 1,053 tons there, 43% of the total. Together, both countries accumulate the equivalent of $245 billion in bullion in New York. Michael Jäger, Vice President of the German Taxpayers’ Federation (Bund der Steuerzahler) and President of the European Taxpayers Association (TAE) declared that “Trump’s unpredictability and his relentless pursuit of revenue means our gold is no longer safe in the Federal Reserve vaults. What happens if the provocation over Greenland continues? The risk that the Bundesbank will not be able to access its gold is increasing. That is why it should repatriate its reserves.” For now, neither country has announced an official decision on the future of its gold in the US. In Xataka | They don’t call him the “gold tycoon” for nothing: he is 82 years old and has won 746% betting on a mine that doesn’t even work Image | Unsplash (Samuel Regan-Asante, Scottsdale Mint) (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news France has taken all its gold from the US: it has gained from the transfer was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

After 10 years in prison for not revealing where 500 gold coins are, the world’s greatest treasure hunter is now free to go after them

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Right off the bat, the name of Tommy Thompson It may not sound familiar to you at all. Besides ocean engineer and inventor, he is one of the greatest treasure hunters in the world, a profession that inevitably evokes Indiana Jones and a life of cinema. And well, Thompson has it: a few days ago he was released from prison after serving 10 years of his sentence. The crime? Do not reveal where 500 gold coins from a famous sunken ship are (among other things). The discovery. In 1988 Tommy Thompson and his team, the Columbus-America Discovery Group, they found the remains of the steamboat SS Central America at a depth of 8,000 feet in the Atlantic, about 200 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. To achieve this, they used Bayesian search theory and a remotely operated vehicle. The SS Central America was known as the “Gold Ship” for something: how much gold it transported. How much? good question. The gold ship. To give some context, it was the time of the gold rush and the mission of the ship was to transport that valuable metal from the new San Francisco Mint to increase the reserves for the banks of the eastern United States. He never did. On September 3, 1857, while operating on the Panama route, it sank off the coast of South Carolina when it was involved in a category 2 hurricane. The ship carried 477 passengers, 101 crew members and much, much gold. In fact, its sinking was one of the triggers for the panic of 1857. I don’t have the accounts. Gary Kinder spent a decade studying the event to write his “Ship of Gold”, where details which was carrying 3 tons of gold and possibly a similar amount of passengers (undisclosed and therefore unquantifiable) and it was also rumored that there was another 15 tons of gold in a secret army shipment. However, a US Department of Defense document declassified in 1971 reported that the official cargo was 11.2 tons of gold (not including personal or secret gold). The American naval history magazine, the closest source to the discovery, It does not give a figure in weight but a value: The gold consigned to New York banks was equivalent to 40 million dollars at the time. In general, the figure of 30,000 pounds of gold (about 14,000 kg) is also relatively widespread. But what was on the boat is one thing and what they found is another. Or they said find. Bob Evans, chief scientist of the expedition (and another one that followed in 2014). from the hand of Odyssey), account for the Seattle Times that in 1988 they found two tons of gold. The legal conflict. Much of that gold was later sold to a trading company for about $50 million. as reported by Reuters. But according to those 161 investors who financed $12.7 million for the expedition, they never reaped the benefits. So In 2005 they filed a lawsuit for breach of contract and concealment of assets. Thompson first secluded himself in Florida, then disappeared and lived under a false identity. He was finally arrested in 2015. The case reached a dead end: the judge in the case ordered him to reveal the whereabouts of 500 missing gold coins, but the engineer He claimed not to know where they are. He was declared in contempt, which is why he has served a decade in prison. The liberation. Today Tommy Thompson is 73 years old and a few days ago regained his freedom because, according to the judge, keeping him imprisoned does not work. CBS News picks up the opinion of civil law experts who explain that it is very unusual for a sentence for civil contempt to last so long. He has neither revealed where the coins are nor has he settled the debt with his investors. Meanwhile, the treasure of the SS Central America continues to feed the myth: in 2022 was auctioned one of the largest bars on the ship, 866 ounces (almost 27 kg), reaching a price of 2.16 million dollars. In Xataka | I dedicate myself to digging with a metal detector and I have more than 4 million followers on YouTube In Xataka | A man from Osaka left 21 gold bars at the doors of City Hall. I only had one requirement: renew the pipes Cover | Olga ga and Zlaťáky.cz

In the cemeteries of Galicia, the Christs have begun to disappear from the tombstones. There is a suspect: “red gold”

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The surprise was capital. And sad. Mostly sad. A few days ago, when she went to the pantheon where her relatives are buried, a neighbor from Celanova (Galicia) found that the figure of crucified Christ that decorated the tomb was missing. The curious thing is that not only was his own missing. Taking a look at the rest of the cemetery he found that the same thing was happening in five other tombs. In one, in fact, the Christ had been torn off and only preserved part of one arm, as if someone had burst it by using force with a lever. The case would not have made it out of the local press if it were not for the fact that it was not the only cemetery in Ourense in which the neighbors found that image. What has happened? That in the rural cemeteries of Galicia, more specifically in Ourense, dozens and dozens of Christs are disappearing. It takes a look at the regional press to see that it is more than a simple anecdote: March 16 Vigo Lighthouse informed of the disappearance of figures in two cemeteries in Celanova, days after The Voice of Galicia spoke already of 40 Christs torn from graves and Europa Press raised the total count to more than 50 crucifixes. One of the last media outlets to take stock has been Galicia Press, which on Wednesday the 18th reported the lack of more than 70 Christs in at least five different cemeteries. But… And why is that? Cemeteries are spaces of mourning and meditation, so it is not common (at least not in Spain of the 21st century) encounter cases of missing Christs like the one that shakes rural Ourense. There are a few theories to explain it. It could be acts of vandalism. Or some practice related to esoteric rituals. The Galician authorities are not inclined towards one or the other. For them the mystery is much simpler: the Civil Guard is investigating it like robberies, beatings carried out by criminals who are not interested in crucifixes and their artistic or spiritual value, but in something much more prosaic. What interests them is brass, stainless steel and above all copper with which these pieces were manufactured, a metal that recently reached a record price. ‘Red gold’ thieves? Exact. Recently the Civil Guard recognized to Europa Press who works “without ruling out” any possibility, but the starting hypothesis is quite simple: criminals sneak into cemeteries at night, especially in winter, steal figures that are often made of metal and then melt them down and sell them. Its objective focuses above all on copper, ‘red gold’whose price has been shot after the revaluation of recent years. The idea is that the material reaches the scrap market without raising suspicions and is reused in the industry. The Region even talks about the “band of the christs” and slips that they could be traveling professional criminals. Where have they stolen? The thefts seem to focus on a specific area, in the province of Ourense. Galicia Press point basically to rural cemeteries in the Celanova region and nearby towns, which includes cemeteries such as Santa María de Pontefechas, San Xoán de Viveiro, San Breixo de Celanova or Santo Eusebio de A Peroxa. There are those who expand the affected area in the province and speaks of assaults in cemeteries in the towns of Maside, Verea or Allariz. Thieves do not hesitate either take rings or resorting to force to extract the metal pieces, which has already led them to break crosses or some Christ, as in Pontefechas, where in one of the attacked tombs only part of an arm remained fixed to the stone head. Some parish priests of the archpriest have put on alert to their parishioners to be alert to theft. Why copper? For its value. It’s nothing new. Although its price has fallen slightly in recent days, the price of ‘red gold’ has escalated notably during the last year, reaching spikes historic at the beginning of 2026. The Region specifies that a kilo of this metal can be sold at between eight and ten euroswhich explains why it has been on the bands’ radar for some time now. The interest of criminals is not limited to cemeteries. Not long ago the Civil Guard dismantled a group that was dedicated to stealing copper cables in part of Asturias and the province of Lugo. The authorities estimate that a total of 24,000 kilos valued at 115,000 euros. In 2025 it has already fallen a similar band in Ourense and at the end of 2023 the arrest of other criminals dedicated to the same activity in the border area with Portugal. Does it only happen in Galicia? No. A quick Google search arrives to find news about copper theft in other communities in Spain. Since the bands are interested in the material, it is worth as much wind farm wiring and industrial coils as telephone infrastructure, rail transport either lighting. Proof of how juicy the business is is that at the end of 2025, the Interior reported the arrest of 18 people accused of more than thirty copper thefts worth 1.7 million euros. And what happens in cemeteries? Galicia is not the only place where cemeteries (and their metallic decoration) have whetted the appetite of criminal gangs. Last fall the National Police counted around 200 tombstones from the Torrero de Zaragoza cemetery that had suffered damage. Most for the same reason: tearing off bronze figures and other ornaments. More or less similar episodes have been experienced in the Community of Madrid, Castile and León or the Region of Murcia, where in 2023 the authorities arrested several people for allegedly carrying out more than 80 robberies in a municipal cemetery. The objective is the same: to loot copper, bronze and brass for resale. Images | M. Peinado (Flickr) and Home Office In Xataka | Twenty years ago, 45% of Galician families saved money thanks to the garden: … Read more

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