Your residential antenna is large and expensive. The new generation arrives to correct it

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For years, connecting to Internet via satellite has meant accepting a fairly clear trade-off: getting where fiber doesn’t, but doing so with larger, heavier, and more energy-demanding equipment. It is something that we have seen both in isolated homes and in temporary installations, where each kilo and each watt counts for more than it seems. starlink He has been fine-tuning that formula generation after generation. Now, his next step is not to promise dazzling speed, but to correct just those physical limitations. The new residential kit. Starlink V5 It is the next generation of equipment that SpaceX offers to connect homes to its satellite constellation. The package retains the configuration intended for fixed installations, with an outdoor antenna and an independent router included to distribute the connection within the home. The redesign also does not seek to increase the peak speed announced for the previous generation. The renovation focuses, above all, on transforming the size, weight and efficiency of a fundamental part of the system. A more manageable antenna. The change is first seen in the figures. The Starlink V5 weighs 1.1 kg, compared to 2.9 kg for the Standard 4, an approximate reduction of 62% that leaves it at the same nominal weight as the Starlink Mini. It also goes from dimensions of 594 × 383 × 39.7 mm to 384 × 306 × 34 mm, although it retains a field of view of 110 degrees. For those who are going to install it on their own, transporting it, placing it on a stand or changing its location should be easier. Almost half of consumption. According to specifications published by Starlinkthe V5 operates with an average of between 35 and 50 W, compared to the 75-100 W of the Standard 4. The reduction becomes especially important in installations powered by batteries, generators or portable stations, where each hour of autonomy depends on the accumulated expenditure. It can also allow a backup source to maintain connection for longer when the mains fails. Less speed, but just barely. Starlink puts the V5’s advertised peak download at 375+ Mbps, compared to 400+ Mbps for the Standard 4 and 300+ Mbps for the Mini. There is a 25 Mbps difference between the baseline figures of the two residential devices, not a guaranteed loss on all connections. Although actual performance will also depend on the contracted plan, time of day, available capacity and local congestion. Prepared for the outdoors. Despite being much lighter, the Starlink V5 increases the supported operating wind speed when mounted from the 96 km/h of the Standard 4 to 265 km/h. It also maintains the IP67 Type 4 environmental classification and can operate in temperatures between -30 and 50 degrees Celsius. Its deicing system reaches 40 millimeters of snow per hour, the same figure as the previous generation. Two teams for different uses: Although the V5 is close to the Starlink Mini in weight, SpaceX orients them to different needs. The new terminal is part of a residential kit for permanent installations and works with a separate router that is included. The Mini, on the other hand, integrates its own Wi-Fi connection and can work without that additional device, an advantage when the user needs to move the equipment between locations. The V5 does not directly replace the portable model, but rather renews the alternative designed to remain installed in a home. A still limited release. The new Starlink residential antenna is not officially available in Spain. Its marketing has begun among residential customers in the United States and the company has only announced that it will reach other markets as production increases, without publishing a specific calendar. What the V5 does make clear is the direction chosen by SpaceX: a more compact antenna and much lower consumption, although it is not faster. Images | starlink In Xataka | “The idea of ​​making a cell phone makes me want to die,” said Musk. Two years later, it is very deep with its prototype of a mobile phone with AI

misconfigured routers all over the world

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The router is usually left out of our attention: we install it, check that there is a connection and let it continue working for months or years. However, that small piece of equipment that connects a home or office with the Internet can also become a useful piece for those seeking to hide their operations. The problem is not in what we see, but in what can happen in the background when the configuration is weak or the firmware becomes outdated. And there begins a story that no longer only affects security specialists. The hiding place was in the router. That possibility ceased to be an abstract warning on July 13, 2026. CISA, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, warned that Actors from Center 16 of the FSB, the Russian security service, continue to exploit vulnerable or misconfigured network devices in different countries. According to the notice, this activity has already allowed networks in several critical infrastructure sectors to be compromised. The warning was issued jointly with organizations in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. A borrowed identity. The goal is not to stay on the router, but to use it as an intermediary for other operations. When traffic passes through a device installed in a home or small office, the connection may appear to be that of any legitimate user. It is what is known as residential proxy– A domestic connection used as an intermediary to hide where the attacker is actually acting from. For an organization’s defenses, distinguishing at first glance between a normal connection and malicious activity is much more difficult. Tracking begins on the Internet. To find new devices, attackers scan IP address ranges looking for routers with SNMP agents assets, a protocol used to query and manage computers connected to a network. The risk appears when that service is exposed and accepts common credentials or those that were configured at the factory. In that scenario, the team may respond to someone who should not have access. The first step is, therefore, to locate which ones are still advertising on the Internet with a weak configuration. From objective to tool. Finding an exposed router is not enough to control it. According to CISA, the actors send malicious traffic with spoofed source IP addresses and leverage the misconfigured SNMP agent to execute malware on the device. They also do so from networks made up of other already compromised routers, so that the system feeds itself. The process has three phases: first they find the equipment, then they exploit its configuration and, finally, they incorporate it into the network from which they will continue searching for new targets. The attack comes from another house Once incorporated into this network, the router begins to act as an exit node, that is, as the last visible point before the traffic reaches the target. To the person receiving the connection, the activity does not appear to come from systems linked to the FSB, but rather from a legitimate-looking IP address. This coverage can reduce the chances of automatic blocking and complicates the work of those trying to reconstruct the route to those responsible for the operation. A chase that never ends: The usefulness of this network of intermediaries is better understood when we look at its possible destinations. CISA points to communications networks, defense, energy, financial services and public organizations, all sectors where an apparently legitimate connection can facilitate probes or subsequent attacks. The phenomenon, furthermore, did not begin with this warning: Russian and Chinese actors have been fighting and reusing compromised routers for years. Although governments and companies have managed to disinfect devices and dismantle botnets, their operators usually rebuild them by incorporating new equipment. Close the door. CISA recommends disabling SNMP 1 and 2, versions that do not encrypt passwords or incorporate current protections, and using SNMP 3 only when necessary. If we do not use this protocol to manage the network, the safest option is to turn it off completely. The agency also advises disabling Cisco Smart Install, replacing weak credentials, installing firmware updates, and limiting other unnecessary network protocols. The router can go unnoticed for years, but that does not mean that we should leave it running without maintenance. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Jordi Nebot, CEO of PaynoPain: “Accommodations are uploaded with stolen or AI photographs and an eye-catching price”

Tomorrow one of the most incredibly strange films of the late Nicolas Cage arrives on Prime Video

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There is a scene where Nicolas Cage fills a bottle with cloudy water from a public tap and tries to drink it. Shortly after he is about to eat a dead rat. Neither of them is the strangest image in the film, and that says enough about the terrain in which it moves.The Surfer‘, a psychological thriller that had a very discreet run in theaters in 2025 and now, a year and a half later and since July 17, it shines as one of the strangest pieces in the summer catalog of Prime Video. The film follows an unnamed man (Cage) who takes his teenage son to the Australian beach where he surfed as a child. He wants to buy the family house on the cliff, the same one he grew up in before his father died. The welcome is not what was expected: a group of local surfers, the Bay Boys, led by the charismatic Scally (Julian McMahon, whom we remember from ‘Nip and Tuck’ and The Fantastic Four – no, not that one, the other one… no, that one neither, the other one -), prevents him from entering the water with a mantra that is repeated throughout the film: “If you don’t live here, you don’t surf here.” And what starts as a one-time humiliation turns into a spiral of harassment with the heat of the Australian summer in the background. The Irishman Lorcan Finnegan, director of the film, is not a new name for fans of psychological tension films. Before this, he signed the magnificent ‘Vivarium’, with Jesse Eisenberg and Imogen Poots trapped in a residential neighborhood that repeats itself ad infinitum, and ‘Nocebo Effect’ (2022), with an Eva Green affected by a suffocating exotic disease. In all three titles he works with a closed and oppressive space that begins as everyday and ends up becoming a trap. And this time the film has an excellent plus: the Australian sun, which has given us so many magnificent works of extreme oppression, such as ‘Long Weekend’ or ‘Waking Up in Hell’. On this occasion, in addition, the disturbing desert of the country is contrasted with the beaches where Cage goes, allowing himself to give one of his best manic and out of character performances, for the first time in an environment that does him absolute justice. In Xataka | We won’t have any more ‘Stargate’: the perfect excuse to recover this peak of 90s science fiction

We think that the fan saves us from the heat, but above 35 degrees it achieves exactly the opposite effect.

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With the arrival of high temperatures, the fan becomes a great ally in many homes that cannot have the air conditioning on all day long. When you turn it on, it blows the air into your face and you feel almost immediate relief from the heat, but the reality is that we do not have this effect at any temperature, since there is a point beyond which it not only stops being useful, but can become our worst enemy. It doesn’t cool the air. To understand why a fan can be dangerous, you first have to understand how it works. Just like point out the guidelines of the According to the WHO on indoor temperatures, fans do not lower the temperature of the room even a single degree, since all they do is move the air. The relief we feel is due to a purely physiological mechanism which is the evaporation of sweat. By moving the air around us, the fan accelerates the evaporation of moisture from our skin, which “steals” heat from our body and cools us down. But the problem comes when the air in the room is hotter than our own body. The critical point. The normal temperature of human skin is around 35ºC and thermoregulation systems try to keep it that way. The problem arises when the ambient temperature of the room exceeds that figure, since the fan will begin to move air that is hotter than the temperature of our skin, and instead of dissipating body heat, it will be injecting heat from the environment directly. And it is something that is supported, for example, by the Basque Government’s Heat Plan, which point that fans stop being effective and useful when the air exceeds 35-36 °C. But in the United States they are even more demanding, since the CDC advise against its use above 32.2 ºC. Beyond temperature. Although the general rule says that above 35 ° C you should turn off the fan, science suggests that humidity matters as much or more than temperature. Thus, in dry heat conditions the fan is harmful, since if the air is hot and dry, the sweat evaporates on its own without needing help from the fan. But turning on the fan only pushes hot air against the skin. In the case of being in a humid environment, sweat does not evaporate as well, and that is why we feel ‘sticky’, especially in a coastal environment. In this scenario, the fan does help to break up that layer of humidity, and the Sydney studies showed that they can continue to be beneficial even up to 42°C. The most vulnerable. Despite these data, the highest authority in medical literature review, Cochrane, posted a review in which it points out that there is no high-quality evidence that unequivocally demonstrates that fans reduce the adverse impacts on heat waves. The reason is precisely in the mix of factors such as humidity, age and, above all, the state of health with which we face these high temperatures. But we must focus above all on age, which is a critical factor, since the body’s ability to sweat and thermoregulate decreases with age or with certain medications. This is why a fan can save a young person from trouble, but it can dehydrate and cause heat stroke in an older person under the same conditions. Images | Dương Nhân In Xataka | What science says about the “trick” of two crossed fans to cool the house: it works, but with limits

turning Chinese air conditioners into a mass phenomenon in Europe

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Brussels has been trying for months to stop the avalanche of Chinese products entering the continent. A few weeks ago we wrote about excise tax on small value items in stores like AliExpress, Temu or Shein. The EU blames China for a trade deficit that continues to grow and has threatened new restrictions. What is impossible to stop is the heat. And this summer is being especially deadly for millions of Europeans. Some have even stood in lines, visited several cities and spent the day updating websites. in order to get an air conditioning unit. Most, by the way, made in China. European trade policy has failed to curb dependence on China. The thermometer, on the other hand, has achieved it in a matter of weeks. What has happened? A historic heat wave has hit numerous countries in Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic, countries where air conditioning has never been a real need. With temperatures soaring and a notable increase in heat deaths, the demand for air conditioners has been shot suddenly. The problem is that the supply has not been able to keep up, as many stores have run out of stock. How we got here. Although here in Spain we are more than used to having houses with air conditioning (at least in the farthest part of the north), In the rest of Europe it is not so common. In fact, according to dataAccording to the International Energy Agency, only about 20% of European homes have air conditioning, compared to about 90% in the United States. For decades, the continent has considered these devices noisy, unsightly for historic facades and, above all, unnecessary, because extreme summers were a one-off occurrence. This same logic has led to buildings designed to retain heat in winter. When heat waves are no longer an exception, Europe has found itself without infrastructure, without a culture of installation and without its own industry capable of covering that demand. And none of the five best-selling brands on the continent are European, according to data from Euromonitor International collected by CNBC. In detail. According to customs figures Chinese companies cited by The Wall Street Journal, exports of air conditioning units from China to France grew by 57% in May compared to the previous year, while to Spain they grew by 41%, and that before the worst days of June. The South China Morning Post, citing May estimatesplaced the year-on-year increase at 186% in France, 69.6% in Germany and 139.1% in the Netherlands. The Telegraph collected In addition, Chinese exports of air conditioners to the European Union have grown by 43% in the first half of the year, up to 3.8 billion dollars, with increases of between 20% and 97% in fan sales depending on the market. Midea, one of the largest manufacturers, assured to the Chinese state agency Xinhua that would send 100 containers of your PortaSplit model to Europe in just one month, and that its orders had already exceeded 200,000 units this year, double that of 2025, according to collected CNBC. Between the lines. All of this is happening at the worst possible time for the European trade narrative. Brussels and Beijing are holding talks to try to reduce a trade deficit that reached 360,000 million euros last year and that in the first quarter of this year it already amounted to 98,000 million, the highest level since 2022, according to Eurostat data. The European Trade Commissioner himself, Maros Sefcovic, recognized that the trend “is not sustainable.” Analysts such as Ding Chun, from the Center for European Studies at Fudan University, they counted to the SCMP that there is a growing disconnection between the political discourse of Brussels, focused on industrial protection, and the real needs of citizens, who are simply “seeking to survive the heat at the best possible price.” And now what. The European Union has set October as the deadline to achieve “tangible” progress in the trade relationship with China. But the problem of air conditioning is not going to disappear with the summer, because the European Commission itself calculated in 2024 that by 2030 up to 70 million new devices could be installed on the continent, which would cover around 35% of homes. This implies that, in addition to Chinese manufacturers, Europe will need a network of installers and regulation adapted to a reality that until recently was not contemplated. Cover image | TCL In Xataka | We have been cooling homes for decades with increasingly expensive machines. The Persian method has not consumed a single watt for 2,500 years

NASA is looking for four people who want to live a year on Mars without leaving Earth

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Space travel can leave no room for improvisation. Especially if the destination is a place as inhospitable and unexplored as Mars. Or even the Moon. Therefore, before the first astronauts set foot on the red planet and a new batch of humans walk on our satellite, NASA has decided to carry out a dress rehearsal here on Earth. Of course, it will not be done with astronauts, but with a group of volunteers willing to spend a year in a simulated environment of both the confinement conditions of the trip and the subsistence with limited resources that will mean staying at a base in either of these two places. The mission is expected to begin in 2027, no earlier than August, so the search for volunteers is still underway. Two missions in one. The mission, named by NASA as Moon and Mars Exploration Analogis a mix of two other previous missions: HERA and CHAPEA. Both consist of the use of facilities that simulate the extreme conditions of a trip to Mars or the Moon. CHAPEA’s facilities are larger (158 m2), as they simulate what the installed base would be in either of these two locations. HERA, on the other hand, consists of a smaller environment (60 m2), which simulates the confinement conditions of space travel. Therefore, what will be done is to dock the vehicle, based on HERA, to a larger, but isolated environment, in which there is everything from private accommodation for the crew to a common work space, including a recreation room, cultivation area, medical room, food preparation area, airlock and two bathrooms. They are not astronauts, but almost. NASA has announced that it is looking for volunteers, possibly because its astronauts are busy with other tasks. However, not just anyone can apply. To start, they must be US citizens or green card holders, between 30 and 55 years old, with a good command of English and a height that does not exceed 1.88 meters. On the other hand, they must have a degree in engineering, biological sciences, physical sciences or mathematics. Basically, just like astronauts. In fact, it is preferable that they have these qualifications at an advanced level. Finally, they should not have special dietary needsnor require help to sleep. Furthermore, in relation to sleep, they should not be sleepwalkers either. Of course, added to all this is that they will have to pass a series of tests, both physical and psychological. Come on, they’re not astronauts, but almost. Training for a fake trip to Mars. The four selected volunteers will have a pre- and post-mission phase dedicated to data collection. Additionally, before embarking on this year-long simulation, they will have to train and prepare for what will come next. In total, all this will last two months. All simulations. For one year, these temporary astronauts will live and work in isolation and confinement while simulating both interplanetary travel and operations on the planetary surface, including spacewalk simulations. It is expected that the results will be useful for missions as imminent as those of the Artemis programbut also for future even more exotic trips, including the long-awaited Martian colonization. Image | Magnificent | POT In Xataka | We knew there was water on the Moon, but not why some craters were empty. Finally we have the answer

This is the new Motorola Edge 70 Max, a mobile phone with 7,100 mAh that promises up to 73 hours of autonomy per charge

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Habemus new Motorola phone. This new device, called Motorola Edge 70 Maxcomes with a very good processor and a screen that looks great. However, What is most striking about this device is its battery.which thanks to silicon carbon It has enormous capacity. The device can currently be purchased in Spain for 699 euros and we explain its main characteristics below. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A mobile phone that promises up to three days of autonomy This new Motorola phone comes with a 6.82-inch AMOLED panel with QHD+ resolution, a 144 Hz refresh rate (something we don’t usually see on too many phones yet) and a peak brightness of 7,000 nits. In addition, it is compatible with HDR10+, which already tells us that it will look very good with both multimedia content and text, even outdoors. At the hardware level, this 70 Edge Max comes with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 under the hood. This one is one step below its older brother (who bears the last name Elite), but it still has what it takes to deliver great performance. This processor is accompanied by 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage (no further memory configurations available). Now, it’s the battery’s turn. Motorola has put a 7,100 mAh battery inside this mobile, which promises to offer up to 73 hours of autonomy per load. This figure is not bad at all, to which we must add 90 W fast wired charging (the charger is included as a gift, along with Moto Buds Loop headphones), 25 W magnetic wireless charging type MagSafe and reverse charging. Finally, we must also talk about its camera system that, although it seems triple, in reality only has two sensors: a main 50-megapixel sensor and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide-angle one. Arrives with Android 16 as standard and you will receive two system updates (three years of updates in terms of security patches). ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Motorola edge 70 max ✅ THE BEST Battery over 7,000 mAh: Thanks to carbon silicon, this Motorola promises an autonomy of three days. Powerful and with a good screen: The Qualcomm processor it has, without being the best, offers very good performance. Its screen with 144 Hz and a good level of brightness also looks very good. Comes with charger and free headphones: Today’s cell phones carry less and less things in the box, so it is good news that this one comes with a free charger (and headphones). ❌ THE WORST Few years of updates: Motorola only offers two years of operating system updates, far from the six or seven of brands like Samsung and Google. The ultra wide angle is not up to par with the other camera. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for an Android mobile with a lot of autonomy, notable performance and you like or have had a Motorola mobile before. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… Do you prefer to wait for the price to drop after launch or do you want a mobile phone with more years of guaranteed updates. You may also be interested Google Pixel 10 – Free Android Smartphone with Gemini, Advanced Triple Rear Camera, 24+ Hour Battery and 6.3″ Current Screen – Obsidian, 128GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung Galaxy S26, 256GB, Mobile Phone with Galaxy AI, 50MP Camera, 12GB RAM, 4300mAh Battery, 3 Year Manufacturer’s Warranty + 1 Extra Year, Black Color (Spanish Version) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Motorola In Xataka | Best mobile phones in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and ten recommended models In Xataka | Best mobile phones 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

Earning more than 600,000 euros a year seemed like a rarity in Spain. The Treasury has already counted almost 19,000 cases

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Twenty years ago, coming across someone who earned more than 600,000 euros a year was like the girls in Galicia: there are there there arebut it is difficult to find them. That exclusive club existed, but its members could fit on a city bus. Today a few are needed. According to data provided by the Tax Agency on the salary ranges of taxpayers in Spain, the highest incomes grow much faster than the rest of salaries. The jump that breaks the historical series. According to consolidated data for 2024, 18,829 taxpayers declared income from work above 601,000 euros annually. This figure represents a jump of 27.8% in a single year, and is the highest figure since the history of this series exists. Although almost 19,000 people receiving that annual salary may seem like a good figure, it is enough to put it in context to determine that they barely represent 0.08% of the almost 25 million declarations submitted that year. Since 2007, when the financial crisis broke out, this group has grown from 10,580 people to almost 19,000 today. It is an increase of close to 78% in less than two decades. Madrid, the magnet of large incomes. If this Treasury statistic confirms anything, it is that wealth is not distributed the same between territories. 8,278 of those 18,829 taxpayers live in the Community of Madrid. Catalonia follows, and specifically Barcelona, ​​with 4,040 taxpayers with a salary of more than 601,000 euros per year. These figures far exceed those offered by Andalusia, the Valencian Community or Galicia, which are the next in number of employees in the highest percentile. This concentration has an explanation beyond the location of the headquarters of large companies. As and how they stood out In the tax consultancy TaxDown, Madrid maintains, by far, the lower rates of autonomous personal income tax of Spain. Its maximum aggregate rate reaches 43.5%, compared to the 54% that can be paid in Catalonia or Valencia. Added to this is a Wealth Tax that has been practically canceled for years. This combination of tax cuts has been pointed out as a clear case of tax competition between communities (dumping), which helps attract large assets from other regions. The rest of the tax pyramid. It is advisable not to lose sight of what salary ranges the majority of workers in Spain really fall into. He largest section continues to be that of those who earn between 30,000 and 60,000 euros per year, concentrating 5.8 million people, 23.5% of the total filers. Just behind are the immediately lower ranks, those who charge between 21,000 and 30,000 euros (4.6 million) and between 12,000 and 21,000 euros (4 million). They are the salary brackets that, in practice, support the bulk of the country’s salary income collection. Although it does not represent an increase as spectacular as that of employees in the range above 601,000 euros per year, the growth in the number of taxpayers in the range between 150,000 euros per year and 600,000 euros also stands out. This group is made up of 194,681 taxpayers, which represents 0.79% of the total, but has experienced an increase of 20.9% in just one year. Action, reaction. This rebound in high incomes explains some data that until now seemed unconnected. According to data of the “World Wealth Report 2026” prepared by Capgemini, the number of large assets in the country has also increased by 5.3% in the last year. That is, according to the data in that report, the 13,100 new millionaires that Spain added, could be the same ones that in recent years have been added to the highest salary range recorded by the Treasury. In Xataka | “I am a millionaire and I don’t know what to do with my life”: a millionaire is looking for ideas because money has not given him happiness Image | Unsplash (Ru Dur, Mads Eneqvist)

The Japanese technique to dry clothes in closed spaces in a more efficient and faster way

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It doesn’t matter that we are in winter, with short, cold and wet days, or in the middle of summer heatthere is a household task that is always complicated: dry clothes. If you don’t have a good outdoor clothesline, a balcony or a dryer can become a real nuisance. In winter they do not dry the sweaters. In summer, beach towels and swimsuits. Or at least that’s how it is in homes in most of the planet, where to get by, solutions are usually used that either require too much space or increase the electricity bill: dryers, radiators, dehumidifiers… In Tokyo they have another way to solve it. Learning from Japan There they have found a way to dry clothes in rainy seasons efficiently, quickly and without bad odors. In the Japanese capital, a city of climate humid subtropicalgenerous in rainfall and where there are also abundant small apartments —so many and so small that sometimes it is necessary to talk about “microhousing”— have developed a technique to keep their clothes clean and well ventilated all year round. And without the help of dryers. The system is called “hanging rainbow”, and while it sounds a bit poetic it is actually a graphic description of how the clothes should be arranged. The first step is to find a well-ventilated room in the home, through which the air circulates and, if possible, is warmed by the sun during part of the day. There we will install our clothesline, bar or rope, on which – and this is a key part of the technique – we will arrange the garments. in the shape of a rainbow. As? Trying to make the clothes draw an inverted “U”, so that the longest garments would be at the ends and the shortest ones would be distributed in a staggered manner towards the interior. In it Apts real estate portalaimed at leasing in Tokyo, even include a graph on how clothes should be arranged for efficient and quick drying. “When hanging clothes, leave enough room for air to circulate. Japan’s humidity can make the air seem heavier, which means clothes will take longer to dry —platform abounds—. A good trick is to hang the clothes in the shape of a rainbowhooking the longest ones at the ends and the shortest ones as you move inward. For towels, hang one side longer than the other for better air circulation.” According to their calculations, the technique allows considerable time savings. If drying a load by arranging the clothes in a V shape can take four and a half hours, arranging it as an inverted U can reduce that time to just four hours. It is not the only thing you should take into account. If you want a good drying and prevent your clothes from taking on a musty smell, Apts also advises not leaving them in the washing machine for longer than strictly necessary. And that means removing the clothes “immediately”, without waiting, once the washing cycle has concluded. “Even leaving clothes in the machine for 10 minutes can cause odor,” he warns. Other tricks involve placing the clothes perpendicular to air circulation and in opposite direction at the entrance of the room or use hangers to avoid that, once distributed on the clothesline, the fabrics are close to each other. Ideally, they should be as far apart as possible. For smaller socks or underwear, you can use an octopus. The goal: to make drying clothes in autumn and winter less of an ordeal… …without having to dedicate space and money to a dryer. A previous version of this article was published in November 2024. Images | Leroy Tan (Unsplash) and Atul Vinayak (Unsplash) In Xataka | Japan has reopened a nuclear reactor affected by the Fukushima accident. It is only the first of 33 in the entire country In Xataka | Japan has one of the youngest automobile fleets in the world. Their secret: an absurdly expensive ITV *An earlier version of this article was published in November 2023

“There are legal grounds that justify Renfe returning the money if you travel without air conditioning”

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Madrid-Extremadura without air conditioning. Not, at least, working at full capacity. That is what is being experienced on some Renfe trains. As confirmed by Renfe itself, the heat is being so intense these days that, in some cases and to protect the train itself, the air conditioning is turned off. And for this you can ask for your money back. Yes, grab a chair. an oven. This is what some of the train cars are becoming. Renfe Madrid-Extremadura trains that these days travel through the plains of Toledo and Extremadura before reaching Badajoz. And just as CCOO unions have denouncedin some of these trains the air conditioning is being turned off. According to Renfe, this is because the trains are being exposed to such high temperatures that the train itself has to protect itself because the cooling system is not enough to keep it running. Saving resources, trains turn off the air conditioning in some cars and continue to their destination. Controlled? At Renfe they assure that yes. The company accepts the union’s criticism but assures that the train crew is ordered to move passengers from cars without air conditioning and relocate them to where it does. In addition, they assure that when these extreme weather conditions occur, they stop selling tickets to ensure that there are enough free seats to relocate passengers. And your rights? Your right as a consumer allows you to file a complaint and even request a refund of the ticket money. This is what they point out from the OCU, an organization from which they tell us the following: “The relationship between the traveler and the railway company is articulated by a transport contract whose content is not exhausted by the obligation to transfer, but rather includes the conditions under which this must be provided. And although there is no legal rule that recognizes an express right to a full refund of the ticket for traveling on a train without air conditioning, there are legal bases that can justify said refund when the breakdown constitutes a serious breach of the transport contract” And it is also confirmed by Renfe itself who confirms that the traveler has the opportunity to file a claim if they consider that the conditions of the service do not meet expectations. And the European Union defends that if the consumer does not receive a service of a quality as expected, he will have the right to request a refund of the ticket when the company does not ensure the “cleanliness of the rolling stock and the station facilities (control of air quality and temperature in the carriages, hygiene of the sanitary facilities, etc.)”, as reflected in the Regulation on the rights and obligations of railway passengers. Some minimums. As stated in this document, all companies that offer public transport services must adhere to minimum quality standards to offer their journeys. The company states in the general contracting conditions that the client has the right “to receive the contracted service in adequate conditions of quality and safety.” If these minimums are not met, customers have the right to claim the money for the ticket and the company will be obliged to provide a response in less than three months. “The fundamental question of whether or not to obtain a refund will depend on whether the absence of this service is considered an essential breach of the contract or not, depending on the specific conditions of the case,” they specify in the OCU. And they emphasize: “It must be sufficiently argued, not in general, but in this case, that the lack of air conditioning cannot be equated to a simple annoyance or a minor incident on a high-speed train during the summer, but rather a direct breach of the essential conditions of the service. For example, if the train runs for several hours with very high temperatures and without cooling, it can be argued that there is defective performance of the contract, it is not an accessory service (like the Wi-Fi connection for example)” The cases already known. As Renfe and the Facua experts recognize, complaints about not offering air conditioning on the train are not entirely unrelated to the company. In 2018a user claimed from Renfe (and won) the return of his ticket because the air conditioning had broken down. But the most striking case is the one that Facua itself reported a few weeks ago. The consumer defense organization pointed out that one of its members had gotten the money back for a Zaragoza-Barcelona match for this same reason… but The claims spanned three years. in which they had to communicate with Renfe on various occasions. Is it a precedent? The most important thing here is that the facts known and defended by Facua do not generate any type of legal precedent because there is no judicial ruling involved. It is “a solution reached extrajudicially between a consumer and Renfe, with the collaboration of a consumer association (Facua), and therefore does not consolidate any rights. Traveling by train without air conditioning does not automatically generate the right to a full refund of the ticket,” they explain from the OCU. They emphasize, on the contrary, that “the relevance of the case lies in the fact that the railway company itself recognizes that a breakdown of this nature can justify, in itself, the full refund of the amount paid” and that if we find ourselves in this situation “it is advisable to complain to the company. If no response is obtained or it is not favorable, legal advice can be sought, such as that provided by consumer associations, as well as appeal to the Transport Arbitration Boards or the Courts.” Photo | Pablo Nieto Abad In Xataka | If the question is who is going to pay your compensation for taking five hours to Madrid-Barcelona, ​​the answer is clear: nobody

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