Currently, approximately 90,000 properties across the Balearic Islands are owned by foreign nationals
The move has been suggested amid anger about over-tourism(Image: Getty)
British purchasers could find themselves locked out of some of Spain’s most desirable locations under proposals to prohibit non-residents from buying properties.
Lawmakers in Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, the Balearic Islands, are set to consider legislation that would prevent property acquisitions by anyone who hasn’t resided on the islands for at least five years. The measure, put forward by Left-wing party Més per Mallorca, is directly targeting overseas purchasers – including thousands of Britons who acquire holiday homes in the Mediterranean sunshine.
Currently, approximately 90,000 properties across the Balearic Islands are owned by foreign nationals – representing 16% of all housing stock. Additionally, nearly 12,000 Spanish properties were purchased by British buyers in 2024, according to property portal Idealista.
Activists argue that the extent of foreign ownership is eroding local communities and making housing unaffordable for residents. The islands attracted 19 million tourists last year, intensifying frustration about excessive tourism and the transformation of residential properties into holiday rentals and second homes.
Lluís Apesteguia, MP for Més per Mallorca, said “extraordinary measures were necessary” to tackle the pressures. He said: “We have to prioritise the houses that are for living in – not for those who want to speculate and continue with this game of Monopoly.”
If given the green light, the measure could serve as a template for similar restrictions across other parts of Spain. Advocates highlight Denmark’s regulations, which require UK-born buyers to have resided in the country for at least five consecutive years before purchasing property.
Opposition parties remain doubtful the plan would withstand legal challenge. Sebastià Sagreras, spokesman for Centre-Right party People’s Party (PP), said EU regulations meant the plans “cannot be fulfilled” and confirmed his party would vote against them.
Marc Pons of Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) said that whilst the policy could ease price rises, the regional government could “not rely solely on this solution to the problems”.
The debate comes against a backdrop of soaring property values. The average price of a 90-square-metre home in the Balearics has climbed to €461,269 (£403,265) up from €283,825 (£248142) in 2020 – a rise of more than 62%. Foreign buyers accounted for 13.8% of all Spanish property sales last year, totalling almost 97,300 transactions – a record for non-Spanish nationals, according to Idealista.
Ferran Rosa, MP in the Balearic parliament, said: “Housing is certainly the largest problem for Mallorcans, as prices have been rising for years and more and more houses are devoted to non-residential uses.
“Our plan is to ensure that houses are used for living, rather than ‘tourist’ uses, considering second homes for non-residents a tourist use. In this respect, we base our bill in similar regulations existing across the EU that intend to guarantee the right to housing.”
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Last year, the U.S. government was able to reverse engineer a critical subcomponent for the 30,000-pound GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) bunker buster bomb. Leveraging technology from the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) short-range ballistic missile saved years of work that would have otherwise been necessary to “eliminate obsolescence issues and meet operational demands.” The reverse-engineering effort also highlights the impacts of being locked into a single vendor, and underscores why the Pentagon is now pushing to make changes to, if not end this practice.
Details about the reverse-engineered component and other aspects of the MOP program were contained in a recent U.S. Air Force contracting announcement regarding efforts to replenish stocks of those bombs following Operation Midnight Hammer. During that operation, B-2 Spirit stealth bombers dropped 14 GBU-57/Bs on Iranian nuclear facilities. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center (AFLCMC) had to produce a detailed justification for awarding a sole-source contract to Boeing for the production of new MOPs and the sustainment of the existing inventory. Boeing is the bomb’s current prime contractor. A redacted copy of that document is available online.
A B-2 Spirit stealth bomber drops GBU-57/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) during a test. USAF
“The Government has a follow-on need for additional production of [redacted] MOP Tail Kits with projected delivery starting 10 January 2028 to replace expended units and reach the United States Air Force’s [redacted],” the so-called Justification & Approval (J&A) document explains. “The Government has a need for replenishment production of GBU-57 MOP weapon system components.”
It is unclear what the total size of the GBU-57/B inventory was before or after Operation Midnight Hammer. As of 2015, prime contractor Boeing had delivered at least 20 of the bombs, according to the Air Force. However, additional orders have been reported over the years. In 2024, a story from Bloomberg had also said that a facility in Oklahoma was being expanded to help triple or even quadruple the annual output of these bombs.
The MOP’s tail kit, also designated KMU-612/B, contains the bomb’s GPS-assisted inertial navigation system (INS) guidance package and other systems. It is combined with a BLU-127/B penetrating “warhead” and other components, including advanced fuzes designed to help produce the maximum destructive effect on a target after burrowing deep down into the ground, to create a complete GBU-57/B bomb, or all-up-round (AUR).
GBU-57 MOP test
“In August of 2025, the Government successfully reverse engineered a critical subcomponent of the MOP weapon system saving 4-years of design work and enabling the utilization of existing Army ATACMS technology to eliminate obsolescence issues and meet operational demands,” according to the J&A document. “However, the time to reverse engineer all MOP components would result in unacceptable delays in meeting mission requirements.”
The MOP J&A does not elaborate on the ATACMS technology in question, or what company or companies may now be in line to produce the resulting subcomponent for the bombs. Lockheed Martin is the current prime contractor for ATACMS, a family of short-range ballistic missiles that you can read more about here. It should also be noted that the U.S. military’s reverse-engineering parts of key weapon systems is not entirely uncommon, especially if the original source of the components in question has gone out of business or otherwise no longer exists.
An ATACMS short-range ballistic missile. US Army
The J&A document says it would take an estimated 60 months, or five years, to create an entirely new MOP tail kit design and then go through the required processes to certify it for operational use. It also explains why the KMU-612/B tail kit, specifically, is so central to the need to award a new sole-source contract to Boeing.
“With regards to IP [intellectual property] rights, The [Redacted] Company is the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of the MOP weapon system and retains ownership of the intellectual property data associated with the munition’s tail kit,” it explains. “In particular, [redacted] owns the technical data package and manufacturing process methodologies of the tailkit unit entirely. [Redacted] has uniquely acquired expertise over a period of ~18 years of adapting this specialized weapon to meet evolving mission needs as MOP transitioned from proof-of-concept to full operational capability. This expertise pertains, but is not limited to, knowledge of the guidance algorithms, navigation systems, hardware components, specialized test equipment, and software critical to producing and sustaining the MOP weapon system.”
“The other components and sub-components, as noted above, have been proprietary to [redacted] from the inception of this weapon system. The USG [U.S. government] does not own or control, via license or by other IP rights, any computer software, methodologies, or technical drawings,” the document adds. “[Redacted] was queried in August 2025 as to the potential of selling IP rights to the USG for the MOP weapon system and the USG was denied.”
That being said, “over the course of the ~18 years of MOP development to the AURs acquired today the USG has, at certain junctures, been able to separate from the sole-source environment for this weapon with Boeing,” the J&A notes. “The USG was able to break away the Warhead Cases for the MOP under a weapon design agent effort, thereby giving the USG complete IP control over the Warhead TDP. Based on the IP ownership of this TDP the USG awards contracts competitively.”
A GBU-57/B seen right before impact during a test. DOD
The huge bunker busters are otherwise the definition of high-value, low-density munitions. At present, they can only be employed operationally by B-2 bombers. Each B-2 can also only carry two of the bombs at once. MOP is expected to be an important part of the arsenal of the future B-21 Raider, which is smaller than the B-2 and is expected to be able to carry a single one of these bunker busters.
The details in the MOP J&A document also underscore broader issues surrounding IP rights and ‘vendor lock’ in the U.S. defense contracting space that have increasingly been coming to the forefront in recent years. Competition inherently creates opportunities to lower costs and diversify supply chains. A broader supplier base also offers benefits when it comes to scaling up production of key subcomponents and complete systems.
The continued extent of Lockheed Martin’s control over the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program is perhaps the most widely known example of the negative impacts of vendor lock. U.S. officials have been outspoken about the maintenance and sustenance challenges this has created, especially when it comes to the timely sourcing of spare parts, and the operational risks this creates. TWZ previously explored the particular issues surrounding the F-35 in an in-depth feature.
Foreign F-35 operators, especially in Europe, are now also facing regular questions about what could happen to the jets if the U.S. were to cut off access to various sustainment pipelines in light of new diplomatic strains with Washington. Just this past weekend, Dutch State Secretary for Defense Gijs Tuinman caused a stir when he asserted it would be possible to “jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone” if necessary, as you can read more about here.
BIG: Dutch Defence Minister Gijs Tuinman hints that software independence is possible for F-35 jets.
He literally said you can “jailbreak” an F-35.
When asked if Europe can modify it without US approval:
In recent years, successive U.S. administrations have made securing greater IP rights and ensuring opportunities for competition key elements in negotiating new defense contractors. As an example, the Air Force previously made clear that avoiding the F-35 program’s vendor lock was a top priority for the acquisition of the F-47 sixth-generation stealth fighter. President Donald Trump’s administration is now pursuing a host of new contracting reforms, in part to further break up the locks that private companies have on programs like the Joint Strike Fighter.
“We will enable third-party integration without prime contractor bottlenecks. Success will be measured by the ability of qualified vendors to independently develop, test and integrate replaceable — excuse me, replacement modules at the component level throughout the system life cycle,” War Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a speech last November. “There’s no more complacency and no more monopolies.”
At that time, Hegseth had also acknowledged Byzantine processes and other contracting hurdles that the U.S. military had created for itself over the years.
How “the sole-source environment” surrounding the GBU-57/B continues to evolve now remains to be seen. A successor to that bomb, called the Next Generation Penetrator (NGP), is also now in development, and Boeing is involved in that effort, too. The Pentagon’s experiences with MOP, together with the new contracting reform push, are likely to inform how the replacement weapons are acquired.
In the meantime, U.S. authorities continue to try to free elements of the MOP program from vendor lock, including now by repurposing technology originally designed for the ATACMS short-range ballistic missile.
The railway operates on tracks dating back to 1725 and 1621, making it the world’s oldest. Heritage steam trains run every Sunday along the three-mile route, kept alive by dedicated volunteers
The railway is still in use(Image: Graeme J Baty via Getty Images)
Britain boasts a remarkable industrial heritage, with its railway network standing as a particular point of pride. Through decades of ingenuity and hard graft, tracks were laid across the country, linking villages, towns and cities together.
While many of these lines remain operational today, only one can claim the distinction of being the world’s oldest. Sections of this historic route stretch back to 1725 and continue to operate as a heritage railway.
A passenger service travels along the three-mile stretch every Sunday.
The Tanfield Railway winds its way through Gateshead and County Durham. Its origins began as a horse-drawn colliery wooden waggonway, then evolved into a rope-and-horse railway, and eventually into a rope-and-loco railway.
Preserved industrial steam locomotives still traverse the route between East Tanfield, Durham, and Sunniside, Gateshead. The railway holds the distinction of being the world’s oldest, with track sections dating to 1725 and other portions in service since 1621, reports the Express.
The Tanfield Railway was constructed for transporting coal, not people, to the River Tyne for shipping to London and further afield. It employed cutting-edge technology for its era, with wooden wagons running on wooden rails, hauled by horses.
This predated the arrival of iron rails and steam power on the railway by a century. Today, dedicated volunteers have shouldered the responsibility of maintaining Tanfield Railway’s remarkable heritage.
Last year marked the railway’s 300th anniversary, with celebrations featured in the BBC documentary, The World’s Oldest Railway. Tom Hartley joined as a volunteer in 2004 after being captivated by the North Polar Express train during a childhood trip with his parents.
At 19, Tom and three fellow volunteers set out to restore their own steam engine. They purchased the National Coal Board No. 38 from veteran volunteer Peter Weightman for just £1, working out at 25p each.
The group has invested countless hours and considerable funds into the restoration project, with hopes that the locomotive will soon be operational again.
Peter reflected: “It was frightening to see so many lovely machines that were getting scrapped in the 1960s, and that was my motivation really. Somebody had to do it before we lost our history, our local history.
“It has taken a lifetime to do it all, but I have confidence knowing that the next generation is going to repair it and get it working.”
Around 170 volunteers contribute to Tanfield’s operations, alongside three full-time employees.
General manager David Watchman expressed his pride: “I am really proud of our railway; we have a fantastic bunch of volunteers. Everyone has their own skill set. It is all about the people, and we have volunteers aged 12 through to 92. The railway wouldn’t exist without them.”
Heavy flooding has forced more than 50,000 people to evacuate northern Morocco. Residents say the floods followed weeks of heavy rain after years of drought.
