The State of California

Low inertia and reactive power imbalances emerge as key factors in April 28 system collapse that plunged 60 million people into darkness On 28 April 2025, at 12:33 CEST, a catastrophic power failure swept across the Iberian Peninsula, plunging Spain and Portugal into their worst blackout in history. The system collapse, which left approximately 60 million people without electricity for up to 24 hours, has intensified debates about grid stability in an era of rapidly expanding renewable energy deployment. The blackout began with a dramatic 15-gigawatt drop in Spanish electricity generation—equivalent to 60% of the country's demand at the time—that triggered a cascade of failures across the interconnected European grid. Within seconds, the Iberian electrical system became isolated from the broader European network, leading to a complete collapse that extended beyond Spain's borders to affect Portugal and portions of southwestern France. A Perfect Storm of Technical Facto...

Interactive Graphic The Algorithm Behind the Academy: Decoding US News Global College Rankings How a complex mathematical formula shapes global higher education—and what prospective students really need to know Every June, a carefully orchestrated data ballet unfolds across the global higher education landscape. Universities from more than 100 countries submit their most impressive statistics to Clarivate Analytics, where algorithms process everything from faculty publications to international collaborations. The result? The US News & World Report Best Global Universities Rankings—a list that in 2025-2026 evaluates 2,250 institutions across 105 countries, wielding unprecedented influence over how students, parents, and institutions themselves perceive academic excellence. But beneath the seemingly objective veneer of numerical rankings lies a complex web of methodological choices, inherent biases, and unintended consequences that fundamentally reshape what we value in highe...