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

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

the Quarterhorse is emerging as one of its great bets

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For decades, talking about extremely fast airplanes meant talking about the same name: the SR-71 Blackbird. This American reconnaissance plane, capable of flying at more than Mach 3, established in 1976 the absolute speed record for a manned aircraft with air-breathing engines. Since then, that bar has barely moved. However, in recent years, projects have begun to appear that seek to reactivate this race for speed, and one of the most visible is the one promoted by the American company Hermeus. The program does not seek to build a single revolutionary aircraft from the beginning. Its approach is different: develop a series of prototypes that solve, step by step, the challenges of very high-speed flight. In this context appears the quarterhorse Mk 2.1, an unmanned aircraft that has already begun flight testing and is part of a broader roadmap aimed at bringing the United States closer to new supersonic and, later, hypersonic flight capabilities. The prototype with which Hermeus wants to accelerate high-speed flight To put this flight in context you have to look at the Quarterhorse program as a whole. Hermeus presents this project as a prototype chain designed to address different aspects of high-speed flight. Each device is built with a specific technical objective and the results obtained are used to adjust the next step of the program. The company defends that this rapid and iterative development model, based on multiple prototypes, allows progress to be made with greater agility than the traditional cycles of experimental aviation. The flight carried out from Spaceport America, in New Mexico, is precisely part of that process. The test was carried out in the White Sands Missile Range airspace and the device was controlled from a flight station located on the ground. According to official information, the mission focused on checking the operation of different systems and starting a test campaign that will gradually expand the flight profile of the prototype. Beyond that context, Quarterhorse Mk 2.1 introduces important changes to the program’s architecture. The plane has dimensions comparable to those of an F-16 fighter and uses a delta wing configuration optimized for high-speed flight. The device also incorporates a variable air intake and is powered by a Pratt & Whitney F100 engine, a turbofan widely used in military aircraft such as the F-16 itself. The prototype is conceived as a remotely piloted unmanned aircraft. During the tests, the device is controlled from a flight station on the ground, from which operators monitor the systems and behavior of the vehicle in real time. According to Hermeus, this type of architecture makes it possible to carry out tests progressively and collect detailed data on aerodynamics, control and operation of the systems before expanding the flight profile of the device. The first flight of the device It is part of a larger test campaign aimed at checking how the aircraft performs in real conditions. In addition, the mission was designed to validate different systems of the device, evaluate its stability in flight and confirm that operating procedures are working as planned. During the test, the plane was controlled from a flight station on the ground while operating in the airspace of White Sands Missile Range, in New Mexico. This type of campaign is developed gradually. On the first sorties, engineering teams usually focus on verifying the general operation of the device and collecting data on its aerodynamic behavior and control in flight. With this information, the aircraft’s parameters are adjusted and new tests are planned that allow the flight envelope to be progressively expanded before attempting to reach higher speeds. Within the program’s roadmap, Mk 2.1 is not the last planned step. Hermeus places this device within a series of aircraft that are part of the Mk 2 phase, whose objective is move towards supersonic flight. Following initial testing, the company hopes to progressively expand the prototype’s flight conditions and use the data obtained to prepare the next vehicle in the program, the Quarterhorse Mk 2.2. Therefore, this future model will be in charge of trying to overcome the sound barrier. The strategy consists of distributing the technical challenges between different prototypes, which allows risks to be reduced as new capabilities are incorporated at each stage of the program. Reaching these levels means facing very complex aerodynamic forces and extremely high temperatures in the air. airframe. For this reason, the development of this type of aircraft is usually carried out gradually, expanding the flight profile step by step to prevent an experimental prototype from becoming a costly failure during testing. The development of aircraft capable of flying at very high speeds also responds to broader strategic interests. Some of the technologies being tested in the Quarterhorse program could be used in the future for missions such as rapid cargo transportation or reconnaissance tasks. It is important to note that the program is still in an early phase of development. The recent flight marks the beginning of a test campaign that will have to be progressively expanded before the project can demonstrate more ambitious capabilities. For now, The prototype has begun its tests and that the program continues to advance within the established roadmap. The next steps will allow us to verify to what extent this plan can materialize. Images | quarterhorse In Xataka | In 1988 Spain and the US signed an agreement. Thanks to him, today Spain can refuse to use its bases to attack Iran

The emptied rural Spain has been revealed as the great energy engine of the State

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Spain is a State full of contrasts. At a demographic level, the population density is concentrated in Madrid and coastal cities, that is, 30% of the territory concentrates 90% of the people. It is “tight Spain.” The rest, approximately five million people, occupy 70% of the territory, in the interior of the peninsula. More people consume more resources, which puts two realities on the table: Madrid consumes more and generates less energy than anyone else and that emptied Spain is the energy engine of the State, as the report summarizes “The energy transition in the Spanish rural environment” prepared by Monitor Deloitte. The most striking fact: 84% of renewable energy generation comes from rural environments. Context. In the collective imagination we associate energy production with large nuclear or fossil fuel installations, but nothing is further from current reality. Spain is carrying out an energy transition collected in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan with the objective of reaching 81% electricity generation from renewables. And it’s on the right track: the report of the Spanish Electrical System of Red Eléctrica for 2023 It showed that it had already exceeded the 50% quota. At specific moments, has reached 100% supply. Listing renewable sources by their importance, we find wind energy prominently, followed by photovoltaic and hydraulic energy. Where. In rural territory, in that sparsely populated place where natural resources and space abound. The report highlights regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Aragón as hubs precisely because of their availability of soil and climatic resources (radiation and wind). Why is it important. Because the State needs that emptied Spain and its resources to successfully carry out its energy transition. Without that territory or its available resources, there is no decarbonization or energy sovereignty. Obviously a paradox occurs: that the most populated places are those that produce the least energy and vice versa, which generates a territorial imbalance. However, this deployment of infrastructure can become an opportunity to promote local employment and thus establish the population. Finally, agrivoltaics is revealed as a way to modernize the agricultural sector, making it possible to make cultivation for food compatible with energy supply, all on the same soil. In figures. In addition to this substantial share of 84% of renewable energy from rural areas, the report reveals other interesting figures: There are 15 provinces with critical population density (

Huawei arrived at MWC as if the European blockade attempt had not happened. And he left as one of the great protagonists

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There are images that summarize geopolitical tension better than any official document. One of them occurred in Barcelona during the last Mobile World Congress. While several European capitals debate how to reduce the presence of suppliers considered high risk in telecommunications networks, Huawei appeared at the sector’s largest fair with a presence that is difficult to ignore. The Chinese company arrived at the event with one of the most visible spaces in the venue and left as one of the most notable presences at the congress, a scene that helps to understand the current relationship between Europe and the technology giant. The image. When touring the pavilions of the Barcelona exhibition center, it was quickly understood the weight that Huawei had decided to exhibit. As Politico tells itthe company installed one of the largest exhibition spaces at the event and located it in one of the busiest areas of the complex, a location usually reserved for the most powerful actors in the industry. During the days of the fair, that stand became a constant crossing point for executives, operators and analysts who toured the congress. Prominence also on the agenda. Beyond its deployment within the venue, Huawei also took up space in the official MWC programming. Company executives participated in different sessions of the congress and the company was among the actors present in the debates on network infrastructures and technological evolution of the sector. That role was reinforced with a recognition at the Global Mobile Awardsthe awards that are presented every year during the event. The award for one of its network infrastructure developments served as a reminder that, despite the political climate surrounding the company in part of Europe, its technological weight within the industry remains relevant. The European contrast. The scene left by the MWC contrasts with the political climate that has surrounded Huawei in part of Europe for several years. The European Commission has been toughening its discourse for some time on suppliers considered high risk in critical telecommunications infrastructure and has encouraged Member States to reduce their dependence on them. In parallel, several European countries have taken measures to limit or withdraw their technology from sensitive networks, especially in the deployment of 5G, with decisions in countries such as Germany, which has prompted the withdrawal of Chinese components in critical parts of the networkor Sweden, that banned Huawei from its 5G networks. The result is a fragmented map in which regulatory pressure coexists with a more complex industrial reality. Spain has not been immune to the European debate on Huawei either, although its evolution has followed a less abrupt path than in other countries. The Government has not decreed a formal ban, but the company’s role in critical infrastructure has been progressively decreasing. In the deployment of 5G, the large operators have been replacing their technology in the network corethe part that manages user communications and data. The result is an intermediate scenario: Huawei is still present in the technological ecosystem, but its weight in the most sensitive points of the networks has been significantly reduced. A resilience already known. The Barcelona scene fits a pattern that Huawei has been repeating for years. Following the sanctions imposed by the United States in 2019, many analysts assumed that the company would be relegated to a secondary role in the global technology industry. However, the company quickly refocused its strategy: strengthened its domestic market in China, developed its own chips and opted for an independent software ecosystem after losing access to Google services. This adaptation process allowed the company to remain present in numerous segments of the sector, even in markets where its position had been weakened. The image that Huawei left at the MWC. We can interpret it as a moment within a longer story. For years, different actors have tried to stop the advance of the Chinese giant in the global technology industry. However, the company has continued to reorganize its strategy and maintain a presence in the sector. What happened in Barcelona suggests that this process is far from over. Quite the opposite: we are watching a new stage unfold in real time. Images | Huawei In Xataka | The US has decided to shoot itself in the foot and destroy one of the best AI companies in the country

While everyone looks at Iran, China is building a nuclear “Great Wall”

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Under the surface of the oceans one of the technological competitions is taking place quieter and more decisive of the planet. The nuclear submarines They can remain submerged for months, travel halfway around the world undetected and launch missiles from thousands of kilometers away. Therefore, each new advance under the sea usually anticipates much bigger changes in the global strategic balance. Washington’s alarm. While much of international attention is focused on the immediate conflicts in the Middle Eastanother much deeper strategic concern is beginning to take shape in Washington. Apparently, the US Navy commanders have warned before Congress that the military balance under the sea is changing rapidly and that China is accelerating a transformation process that could alter the global nuclear deterrent in the coming decades. The underwater race. we have been counting in recent months. China already owns one of the largest submarine fleets in the world and is expanding it at high speed thanks to massive investments in its military shipyards. Production has gone from less than one nuclear submarine a year to significantly higher rateswith forecasts that the fleet will reach around 70 units by the end of this decade and close to 80 by 2035. Although the United States still maintains a technological and operational advantage in submarine warfare, the rapid growth of Chinese industrial capacity is reducing that distance and forcing Washington to rethink the strategic balance in the Pacific. The transition to a nuclear fleet. One of the most important changes is structural. For decades, the Chinese submarine fleet has been based on diesel-electric vessels, which are cheaper, but have less autonomy and must surface frequently. Now Beijing is promoting a strategic shift towards more and more construction focused on nuclear submarinescapable of remaining submerged for long periods and operating at great distances from their bases. This change will allow the Chinese navy to project a presence beyond its immediate environment and complicate US naval operations. in the Pacific and other oceans. The new submarines. The technological leap will come with new generations of submarines that will begin to enter service between the end of this decade and the 1930s. Among them stand out the Type 095 models and, above all, the Type 096designed to transport nuclear ballistic missiles long range. We are talking about equipped boats with JL-4 missilessubmarines that will be able to attack large areas of US territory even operating from waters near China, much more protected by its naval and air defenses. Such a capability would significantly bolster the credibility of China’s nuclear deterrent and reduce the need to patrol more exposed areas of the Pacific. A network to protect the nuclear deterrent. Plus: the Chinese project is not limited to building more submarines. American commanders said that Beijing is developing an extensive sensor network on the seabed, surveillance cables, satellite-connected buoys and unmanned underwater vehicles capable of detecting movements in nearby oceans. This system, described by many analysts as an “underwater Great Wall,” would allow China monitor strategic routestrack foreign submarines, and protect its own nuclear fleet while patrolling in relatively safe waters. The strategic horizon of 2025 and 2040. The result of this transformation should be seen clearly in the next decade. As the number of nuclear submarines grows and this undersea sensor network is deployed, China could greatly expand its underwater presence. beyond the first chain of western Pacific islands. US forecasts suggest that, around 2040Chinese submarines could operate more frequently in the Indian Ocean, the Arctic and even the Atlantic. If this evolution is confirmed, the global naval balance could enter a new phase marked by a fearsome underwater competition between the two greatest powers on the planet. Image | Google Earth, SteKrueBe In Xataka | The US has always been the largest nuclear power on the planet. China has already surpassed it in something: submarines In Xataka | The new fear of Western fleets is not nuclear. They are conventional submarines armed with surprise and a flag: China

The Earth turned on its great geological engine billions of years earlier than we estimate. We know it from a microscopic crystal

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For a long time, textbooks They have painted the primitive Earth like a ball of infernal and static magma, being a “lid” of inert rock where life or complex geological movement was impossible. Specifically, it was thought that the plate tectonicsthe engine that shapes the continents and recycles our planet’s nutrients, had taken much longer to start. However, we were wrong. How he did it. Science, in a recent article, has just put on the table the definitive evidence that indicates that the Earth began to move much earlier than we believed: at least 3.3 billion years ago, and most likely, more than 4 billion ago. And the key is not in the gigantic mountains under our feet, but in small fragments of glass smaller than a grain of sand. And if we want to travel in geological time, you have to go to jack hillsin Western Australia, where the oldest known fragments of terrestrial rock are found. The protagonists of this story are zircon crystals, extremely resistant minerals that act as authentic geological hard drives. The interesting thing is that, when they form, they trap isotopes and tiny amounts of other elements inside that tell us exactly what the environment was like at the time of their crystallization. The results. According to detailed analysis that collects Natureand supported by key works such as those published in the prestigious magazine PNASthese S-type zircons hide unmistakable geochemical signatures. Specifically, they reveal that, instead of a static and dead Earth’s crust, subduction processes already existed. That is, the oceanic crust was already colliding and sinking under other plates, melting back into the Earth’s mantle. A double life. But researchers have not limited themselves to looking at a specific era, but have traced the proportions of trace elements such as uranium, niobium or scandium in different zircons from Australia, Greenland and South Africa. Here they observed that during the Eoarchean, the Earth did not have a single geological behavior. Instead, it had two tectonic regimes. The first of these, known as a ‘stagnant lid’ with areas of crust dominated by plumes of oceanic magma that simply pushed upwards. On the other hand, it also had the ‘moving lid’ zone, which were active zones where volcanic arcs were already forming and there was subduction, very similar to modern plate tectonics, recycling the Earth’s crust. But there is more. As if that were not enough, other published studies in Science and Geology have contributed even more pieces to the puzzle, such as the transform faults in the Pilbara Craton of Australia that show horizontal movements 3,000 million years ago, and even inclusions of fresh water in zircons from more than 4,000 million years ago, which suggests that there were already emerging continents interacting with the atmosphere and the water cycle. It changes everything. Knowing that plate tectonics started so early is not a mere geological whim, since tectonics is the Earth’s thermostat: it regulates the carbon cycle, releases fundamental gases into the atmosphere and creates the necessary environments for the chemical breeding ground. In this way, if more than 4,000 million years ago our planet was already recycling its crust, having primitive continents and fresh water, it means that the conditions for life to emerge occurred much earlier than what science books dictated. Once again, the Earth shows us that, from its most remote beginnings, it has always been a living world. Images | Javier Miranda In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

2026 promised to be the great year for US tourism. Now it has found itself with a hole of 11 million visitors

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2026 looked good for US tourism. with the sector recovering of the pandemic on an international scale, the US started the year with three ‘hooks’ capable of attracting thousands of visitors: the world cup of FIFA, the centenary of Route 66 and the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Three milestones that under normal conditions would make agencies, airlines and hotels rub their hands. Instead of that voices sound that warn that curves are coming. There are those who warn that the American industry risks losing a fortune and it is even done a question: Are there millions of tourists missing in the country? What has happened? That in a year in which (theoretically) the United States has everything in its favor to reinforce its tourism, in the country voices arise that speak of the complete opposite: loss of tourists foreigners and dark clouds on the horizon that threaten to cost the sector billions and billions of dollars. a few days ago The New York Times public an analysis in which he already slipped several worrying data: in January the flow of foreign travelers fell 4.8%a percentage that is largely explained by the decline in Canadian tourism, 28% lower to that of 2024. It is not only that the data is bad, it is that it maintains the negative trend of 2025, the year in which the US suffered a 6% decline in foreign visitors while the industry grew globally. How does 2026 look? That same question Oxford Economics did it not long ago, especially because according to its records in 2025, international overnight stays were reduced by 5.7% in the US. His answer is interesting: the observatory estimates that in 2026 the influx of foreigners will increase by 3.9%, although this growth is accompanied by some fine print. Getting started Oxford Economics remember that the celebration of the FIA ​​World Cup, which the US hosts jointly with Mexico and Canada, should be enough to boost the arrival of tourists. However, the 3.9% forecast for the US is much lower than the increase in demand expected worldwide, which is around 8%. Its analysts already warn that the US risks “underperforming other international markets again this year.” Is there more data? Yeah. TNYT appointment some analyzes and sources that point to stagnation or even a drop in demand from Europe. The most revealing is a study by Cirium that reflects a year-on-year drop of 14.2% in July reservations made from the old continent. The data must be handled with caution in any case. First because 2026 has just begun. Second, because the analysis is based on external sources and travel agendas, which does not include reservations processed directly with airlines. Can the panorama change? Yes. A month ago World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) launched a resounding statement in which he warned of the impact they would have the new demands posed by Washington for travelers who want to use the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), including a in depth review of the applicant’s history on social networks. If the measure is finally applied, the organization warns, the sector could suffer a drop in demand with serious consequences. “34% of respondents say they are less likely to visit the US in the next two or three years if the changes are implemented. Only 12% say they would be more likely, which will translate into a significant net decrease in travel intentions,” explains. WTTC estimates point to a loss of 4.7 million international arrivals and $15.7 billion in visitor spending. In terms of employment, some 157,000 positions would be damaged. Are there more factors at play? Yes. The changes to the ESTA would explain the losses calculated by the WTTC for the future, but they do not the ‘prick’ that foreign tourism in the US already suffered in 2025, a year in which the sector grew in most destinations. In fact, the UN itself has highlighted the “weak results” of the US, especially during the third and fourth quarters. What is the reason for this trend? For the WTTC the answer seems clear: in 2025, with Trump in the White House, I already warned that “while other countries welcome (the traveler) the US Government hangs the ‘closed’ sign.” How is the sector doing? It is not the only warning he issues. The WTTC recently recalled that the US inbound tourism market has suffered the loss of 11 million visitors in just four years, between 2019 and 2025. The organization does not go into details or delve into the data. The one who does it is the UN, although for the whole of North America. According to your statisticsIn 2019, the region received 146.6 million foreign visitors. In 2025 there were 135.4. That period has coincided with the pandemic and its subsequent hangover, but in recent months it has been marked by international politics led by Trump, with threats of one kind or another to the EU, Mexico and above all Canada and Greenlandterritories that the Republican wants to annex to the United States. Why is it a problem? “When eleven million international visitors fail to show up, the result is billions of dollars in economic losses for the travel industry,” warns in The New York Times Erik Hansen, director of the United States Travel Association. As the New York media recalls, the Trump administration has not made it easy for travelers, restricting entry from a dozen countries and announcing measures that would make visas more expensive and would force tourists to undergo deep scrutiny to enter the country. With that backdrop, there are those who already has called for a boycott trips to the US, even during the world cupamong other reasons for protest due to the actions of ICE. Images | ANDilis Garvey (Unsplash), Gianandrea Villa (Unsplash) In Xataka | If you want to visit New York, go to the consulate first: the US has added a requirement for visas for Mexican children and elderly

Science suggests that it is a great shield against cognitive deterioration

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In our society, the fact that grandparents end up taking care of their grandchildren throughout the day or having to pick them up from school It is something quite normalboosted mainly by the problems of conciliation familiar. This is something that has been the subject of much controversy because, when you reach a certain age, carrying the burden of having a child under your responsibility can take its toll. But now science indicates that it has important benefits. New tests. A study published this year in the magazine Psychology and Aging points out that being involved in caring for grandchildren provides a benefit to cognitive health, although it has different important nuances related to sex and time dedicated. The science behind. This study focused on data from English Longitudinal Study of Aging where More than 1,700 grandparents over 50 years of age have been analyzed. In this case, to ensure maximum precision in the results, the researchers used a matching method, comparing grandparent caregivers with those who did not care for their grandchildren, but who did share demographic and health characteristics. What did they see? With this sample on the table, what was seen is that both grandmothers and grandfathers who are caregivers showed higher levels of verbal fluency compared to the control group. Furthermore, both genders had better episodic memory compared to matched controls. In this way, it can be concluded that grandparents who take care of their grandchildren tend to show better cognitive functioning than those who do not. Quality versus quantity. One of the most revealing conclusions of the study debunks a common myth: the amount of time spent is not the determining factor. In this way, spending more or fewer hours caring for one’s grandson or granddaughter does not predict the effect it may have on brain cognition. But what really affects brain health in this case is the diversity of tasks. What was seen is that grandparents who participated in a greater variety of activities experienced better cognitive outcomes. These activities include, for example, preparing food for your grandchildren, spending time playing with them, helping them with their homework, or picking them up from daycare or school. Gender difference. Although both grandfather and grandmother showed higher initial cognitive levels when caring for their grandchildren, with the passage of time it changed. In the case of both sexes, it was observed that both verbal fluency and episodic memory improved substantially over time. But the difference is precisely in the temporal decline, causing grandmothers who have cared for their grandchildren to have a slower cognitive loss over time than caring grandparents, who maintain the same speed of loss. Because? The researchers here suggest that these differences may be due to how they relate to different genders and how they collaborate on care tasks. In this case, grandmothers tend to become much more deeply involved in the physical and emotional care of children. If we turn to the grandparents, we find that they are involved in leisure activities and often carry out care tasks in the company of the grandmothers. This way, you are not as focused on care. The limit. Logically, Maintaining multiple productive roles, such as family caregiving, can promote a more active lifestyle that positively impacts people’s cognitive functions. However, research warns that adding care responsibilities to the usual activities of these grandparents can be stressful and leave our grandparents feeling overwhelmed and with little autonomy. Images | Vitaly Gariev In Xataka | Your grandmother is an evolutionary advantage: science already knows why they generate an indestructible bond with their grandchildren

the great paradox of Spanish energy

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The Spanish energy market has broken into two halves that seem to have no relationship with each other. On the one hand, the trench of the retail market—direct sales to consumers—has become a scenario of continuous attrition where historical giants are bleeding customers at an unprecedented rate. On the other hand, the boardrooms of these same corporations celebrate the highest profits in their entire history. How is it possible to make more money than ever by losing hundreds of thousands of customers? The answer defines the new paradigm of the sector: large electricity companies are ceasing to be “light sellers” to consolidate themselves as managers of colossal infrastructures. The real business is no longer in fighting the average citizen’s monthly bill, but in controlling the cables, regulated assets and energy demanded by the new technological giants. The bleeding of the 1.3 million contracts. The closing figures for 2025 draw a historic leak. As detailed The IndependentIberdrola and Endesa suffered an “unprecedented fall”, jointly losing almost 1.3 million customers (1,279 million exactly) in the electricity and gas markets. Endesa left 645,000 contracts behind, while Iberdrola lost 634,000. The attitude of companies towards this flight of users is radically different. The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, downplayed to the matter during the presentation of results, calling it “normal rotation” and boasting of the “enormous loyalty” of its hard core of users. On the other side of the coin, Endesa yes it has set off the alarms: has announced an injection of 900 million euros until 2028 with the urgent objective of recovering half a million customers, even relying on strategic alliances such as the recent purchase of Masorange’s energy business. The feast of alternative firms. In the last year, an absolute mobility record was broken, more than 7.25 million changes of marketer. In other words, almost one in four Spaniards decided to change their rate. The big winners of this stampede have been companies like Octopus Energy, the MásMóvil group and, most especially, Repsol. The oil company has already established itself as the fourth electricity operator in the country, exceeding 2.1 million customers and taking market share directly from traditional electricity companies. The model breaks, but the box is full. Any traditional economics textbook would say that losing more than a million customers is a financial catastrophe. However, the balance sheets say the opposite. How to publish Five DaysIberdrola pulverized its brands by earning 6,285 million euros in 2025 (12% more than the previous year), while Endesa reached 2,351 million (18% more). The secret of this paradox explains it perfectly The Mail When analyzing Iberdrola’s accounts: the net benefits that come from the management of distribution networks skyrocketed by a brutal 77%, while the contribution of the energy generation business fell by 27%. In simple words, they earn less by selling electricity to the end customer, but they earn much more by charging the regulated “toll” for using their cables, especially in markets with very attractive legislation such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which already account for 60% of their investments. The future runs through the cables. Electricity companies are going to stop obsessing about installing solar panels at any price to focus on the sockets and transmission highways. Endesa will invest a record figure of 10.6 billion until 2028, allocating more than half (52%) exclusively to electricity networks. Simultaneously, it will put the brakes on renewable energy, cutting its investment by 20% due to the “cannibalization” (plunging prices) that solar energy suffers during peak production hours. Iberdrola follows the same path: 62% of its gigantic investments last year went to the networks. The other great vector: data centers. Endesa already has some 3,000 MW of capacity ready to feed these insatiable technological infrastructures, highlighting its hybrid macroproject in Pego (Portugal). All of this will require a much more robust national backbone; Therefore, Redeia (parent company of Red Eléctrica) will skyrocket your investments 70%, injecting 6,000 million into the high-voltage transmission network to support this technological boom and the electrification of the country. Furthermore, this scenario comes with strong pressure of both companies for extending the useful life of Spanish nuclear plants, such as Almaraz, defending that they can operate safely up to 80 years to guarantee cheap and stable base energy that the system urgently needs. Network saturation and market clearing. The regulatory context explains many of these operational decisions. Spain faces a monumental bureaucratic funnel: 83.4% of electricity distribution nodes They are administratively saturatedwhich keeps 130 GW of renewable energy locked in, even though the grid is physically underutilized. To avoid the collapse of reindustrialization, the CNMC is designing new “flexible access permits” that will change the rules of the game. At the same time, the bottom of the market pyramid is undergoing a silent purge. The Government started a few months ago a historic cleanup of the “ghost marketers.” Of the more than 900 firms registered in Spain, only 416 had real activity. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has already begun to disable inactive or delinquent companies, transferring their clients to avoid systemic risks and clean up a hypertrophied market. The definitive metamorphosis. The traditional electricity bill is no longer the main battlefield for the great energy totems. While they gladly cede – or out of pure wear and tear – the exhausting hand-to-hand combat of the retail market to independent marketers and oil companies in the midst of a green conversion, Iberdrola and Endesa have ascended to a much safer, more profitable and macroscopic ecosystem. They have understood that the future does not belong to whoever sells electricity to the final consumer, but to whoever owns the highways on which, inevitably, all that energy will have to circulate. Image | freepik and Alex Quezada Xataka | Spain has a giant problem: its electrical network claims to be “full” when in reality it is underused

the great Spanish paradox of forest risk

by

It seems like a contradiction, but that’s how paradoxes work. And this one in particular is so problematic for Spain that in nine out of ten configurations the result is always the same: whatever happens is bad for fires. But why? I mean, how is it possible that whether it rains or not, this country always has a problem with flames? The world on two scales. If it doesn’t rain, if we endure weeks or months of drought, the humidity of the material accumulated in the mountains (grass, bushes, leaf litter) drops. In addition, the soil temperature rises and living vegetation begins to become stressed. Just one spark is missing and boom, we have a fire source that is very difficult to stop. That is, drought worsens the risk today. The rain makes it worse, but it will do so tomorrow. Because if it rains, the vegetation grows (especially what we call fine fuel) and the continuity of the scrub increases. It’s biomass, biomass and more biomass. If it rains there is no risk, if it doesn’t rain: it is material that sooner rather than later will become fodder for the flames. The hell of the summer of 2025, started in spring… Sometimes we don’t focus much on this: wet springs are wonderful, but in our case it is also a potential danger. Not only because of what I explained above, but because (also) no one manages it. And that means that, if the trend continues in the direction it is going, we have to start seeing rainy winters as more than just a way to save the season. We must begin to see them as a clear reminder that we must invest in prevention, plan devices, firewalls, fuel management and all types of extensive farms that help contain the problem. Because climate change is not just “warmer.” A few days ago, AEMET itself reflected on How rainfall records are changing. Changes in the landscape and rural abandonment are a permanent source of problems and the so-called “bullwhip effect” only increases them: growth phases and drying phases that never stop coming and going. So yes, the great Spanish paradox with rains and fires is this: no matter what happens, in the coming years, we will always have problems with fires. Image | Karsten Winegeart In Xataka | In China they are deploying metal firefighters. Maybe they are more useful than robo-waiters

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