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on April 28th 2025 large sections of
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Spain Portugal and southern France were
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suddenly plunged into darkness The
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blackout began around 12:30 p.m local
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time Major cities Madrid Barcelona
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Lisbon Valencia Tulus and Marseilles
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experienced complete and immediate power
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loss Airports shut down Metros grown to
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a halt Internet and mobile networks
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collapsed Red Electrica Spain's national
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grid operator reported a catastrophic
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drop of 15 gawatt roughly 60% of the
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nation's electricity demand within just
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5 seconds This caused an emergency
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disconnection of Spain's grid from the
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wider European electrical network Power
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was gradually restored later that
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evening but the outage exposed deep
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vulnerabilities in Europe's
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interconnected energy systems Official
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explanations focused on a technical
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fault Portuguese authorities suggested
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that extreme atmospheric conditions
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sudden temperature shifts causing
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electrical vibrations damaged high
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voltage lines Spanish authorities ruled
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out a cyber attack stating it was a
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mechanical and atmospheric failure but
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not everyone is convinced Online
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investigators and independent
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journalists quickly pointed to unusual
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factors First the speed and scale of the
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outage were unprecedented even for an
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atmospheric event The grid failure was
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too synchronized affecting multiple
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countries in ways consistent with a
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coordinated disruption Some speculate
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that a cyber attack targeting the
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European energy infrastructure may have
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occurred potentially masked by the
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atmospheric fault narrative to prevent
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public panic Others point to failures in
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renewable energy management Spain and
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Portugal's heavy reliance on wind and
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solar energy some argue left the grid
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unstable and unable to withstand sudden
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load changes compared to traditional
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power plants Fueling conspiracy theories
1:45
further social media users circulated a
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2025 cover from asterisk the Economist
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asterisk titled The Darken City claiming
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it eerily predicted a massive blackout
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in Europe this year Some believe this
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points to a pre-planned stress test of
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the energy grid or a warning of
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vulnerabilities intentionally overlooked
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Meanwhile analysts note that no hard
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evidence of a cyber attack or sabotage
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has been publicly disclosed Still
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satellite tracking data reportedly
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showed unusual unexplained energy surges
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and minor disruptions in communication
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satellites above Western Europe just
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hours before the blackout At this time
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investigations continue but what is
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clear is that modern societies remain
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deeply vulnerable A few seconds of
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disruption cascaded into millions
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stranded hospitals without power and
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cities brought to a standstill Whether
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this was a natural failure human error
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or something far more deliberate remains
