Apocalypse now

Traffic lights are out in Lisbon, planes are stuck at airports and tennis was suspended at the Madrid Open today as an unexplained and widespread power outage caused chaos across the Iberian Peninsula, plunging much of Spain and Portugal into darkness.

Spanish public service broadcaster RTVE reported that the outage hit just after midday local time (6 a.m. ET), leaving its own newsroom in the dark as well as Madrid's subway stations and the Spanish parliament building.

Spanish electricity grid operator Red Electrica said in a statement that it was working with energy companies to restore power and was gradually beginning to recover power in the north and south of the peninsula.

The two countries have a combined population of 50 million and it is unclear how many people are affected.

[...]

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said today that there is no "conclusive information" on the cause of the power blackout.

"It is better not to speculate. We will know the causes. We do not rule out any hypothesis, but now we must focus on the most important thing, which is to restore electricity to our homes," he added.

Sánchez emphasized that there is no evidence of civil protection issues or national insecurity. He urged the public to use their cellphones responsibly, only for short calls, and to use the emergency phone line, 112, only when necessary.

  NBC

I don't know. This seems nationally insecure to me.

Live updates here.

UPDATE 05/01/2025:

Trump 2.0 - Tariffs are beautiful, trade wars are easy

Poder Aereo reports: “Portugal’s Minister of National Defence, Nuno Melo, announced that the country will not acquire F-35 fighters from the United States, considering the current geopolitical context and the unpredictability of US policy.”

“The minister emphasized that … allied predictability is a crucial factor in deciding on the replacement of combat aircraft.”

[...]

In an interview with Publico, Melo also commented: “And this ally of ours, which for decades has always been predictable, may bring limitations in use, maintenance, components, everything that has to do with ensuring that aircraft will be operational and will be used in all kinds of scenarios.”

[...]

About a month ago, CBC reported: “The government’s facing calls to reconsider or cancel major Canadian contracts with the U.S. including a more than $19-billion deal to buy 88 F-35 fighter jets with U.S. defence company Lockheed-Martin.”

[...]

[New Liberal leader Mark] Carney has not commented specifically on the planned F-35 purchase yet, but in early-February, CBC reported that: “Carney said 80 per cent of defence purchases made by this country involve the U.S. and that has to change.”

  PBI

Who will win the war between Trump and American "defense" contractors?

Trump's idiotic trade war is not going to bring back manufacturing to the US - we don't have any fucking factories! - he's destroying the only industry we have.

Got him with a taste of his own medicine

Oooh, nice one, Marcelo.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

How will he feel about Norweigians now?

Norway’s Parliament is set to decriminalize illicit drugs and divert people found with small quantities into treatment options rather than pursuing criminal prosecution.

  HuffPo

Smart move.

The parliamentary result, however, does not automatically decriminalize illicit drugs in Norway. The vote directs the government to begin pursuing changes to laws to reflect the outcome of the vote. There is no draft legislation yet that actually would enact the change, according to Parliament.

“The majority in the parliament has asked the government to prepare for reform,” a Storting spokesperson told Newsweek. “It has started a political process… it’s just the starting point.”

[...]

Portugal decriminalized drugs in 2001 after years of harsh policy failed to have a significant effect on drug usage or deaths. Instead of fining or jailing drug users found with small quantities of drugs, the government started placing them in treatment and counseling programs.

A 2014 report from Transform Drug Policy Foundation found the total number of people in Portugal who had used drugs at any point in their lives rose after decriminalization in 2001 through 2012, but the numbers of people who had used drugs at any point in the year or month before they were surveyed actually decreased, meaning fewer were using drugs on a regular basis.

Drug-related deaths, cases of HIV and AIDS among drug users and general rates of drug use all sharply declined from 2001 to 2012 in Portugal, the report found.

Not to mention the relief on the justice system, no doubt.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Meanwhile, in Portugal

Another Round of Austerity Fail

[Portugal] will become the second [...] country to leave the [euorozone] bailout after Ireland. Portugal underwent three years of painful austerity, in order to receive a 78-billion euro loan (106 billion US dollars), to help a nation that was on the verge of bankruptcy.

[...]

“There is a great need in Brussels and Berlin and other capitals to present Portugal and Ireland as success stories. They will claim that their reforms in Portugal have been a success- well, they haven’t, they have destroyed the society and economy,” Rui Tavares, an independent Portuguese MEP told RT in April.

  RT

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Okay, NOW You Can Call the French Cowards

Or at least the French government. And don't forget Portugal.  Or Italy. Or Spain.

It began as a seemingly offhand remark by the president of Bolivia, who suggested during a visit to Moscow that he might be happy to host Edward J. Snowden, the fugitive former security contractor who is desperate to find asylum. It escalated into a major diplomatic scramble in which the Bolivian president’s plane was rerouted on Tuesday, apparently because of suspicions that Mr. Snowden was aboard.

[...]

By day’s end, outraged Bolivian officials, insisting that Mr. Snowden was not on the plane, were accusing France and Portugal of acting under American pressure to rescind permission for President Evo Morales’s plane to traverse their airspace on the way back to Bolivia. Low on fuel, the plane’s crew won permission to land in Vienna.

[...]

Mr. Saavedra said that Italy had also refused to give permission for the plane to fly over its airspace. Later he said that France and Portugal had reversed course and offered to allow the plane to fly through their airspace after all.

[...]

The problems began even before Mr. Morales left Moscow, Mr. Choquehuanca said. On Monday, Portugal, without explanation, had withdrawn permission for Mr. Morales’s plane to stop in Lisbon to refuel, the foreign minister said. That required Bolivian officials to get permission from Spain to refuel in the Canary Islands.

The next day, after taking off from Moscow, Mr. Morales’s plane was just minutes from entering French airspace, according to Mr. Saavedra, when the French authorities informed the pilot that the plane could not fly over France.

[...]

In an interview with the television station Russia Today, Mr. Maduro said he would consider any request by Mr. Snowden. Then, ending the interview with a dash of humor, he said, “It’s time for me to go; Snowden is waiting for me.”

  NYT

We don't think that's funny.

“An act of aggression and violation of international law” is how Bolivia’s UN envoy described Austria’s decision to search the Bolivian presidential jet for NSA leaker Edward Snowden. The envoy has pledged to make an official complaint to the UN.

  RT

And this doesn’t make up for it.

France wants a temporary two week suspension of EU-US free trade talks in the light of the looming scandal over the US National Security Agency’s alleged spying on 38 embassies, including America’s NATO European allies. "It's not a question of halting the negotiations," French government spokeswoman Najat Vallaud-Belkacem noted, but “On the other hand, it would seem wise to us to suspend them for a couple of weeks to avoid any controversy and have the time to obtain the information we've asked for,” he said.

  RT

I have no doubt the US was behind it in one fashion or another.  But I hope it outrages all of South America, because this disrespect would not be given to "First World" or non-socialist presidents.