Month: November 2025

The EU is considering banning the installation of mobile network equipment from Huawei or ZTE. It is a dangerous strategy

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The European Commission (EC) is exploring ways to get member states stop using telecommunications equipment from Chinese sellers like Huawei or ZTE. Tension between Europe and China is escalating once again, and it is not at all clear that this decision will be beneficial for European companies. Huawei in Europe no, thanks. On Bloomberg cite sources close to these plans and talk about how the vice president of this organization, Henna Virkkunen, has adopted a very forceful position. Virkkunen apparently wants to completely stop the use of Huawei telecommunications equipment with an eye-catching argument: making that a legal requirement. It wouldn’t matter what each country thought.. Years ago the EU has already recommended avoiding Chinese telecommunications equipment as far as possible, but it was a suggestion without a mandatory nature and the member states were the ones to decide in this area. Spain, for example, has continued using this equipment. The Commission’s theoretical proposal would legally force EU countries to break commercial ties with these companies. Failure to comply with the requirement could expose these countries to economic sanctions. Before they were suggestions. At the beginning of 2020 the European Union announced those recommendations under the name “5G Toolbox”. At that time they warned of the risks but left room for maneuver to the member states. Now we go from a soft recommendation to a legal imposition, because that “Toolbox” was voluntary. The national security argument. The argument is the same as that used in the past: Euro officials fear the risks associated with using communications equipment from companies (such as Huawei) so closely linked to the Chinese government. Maintaining these teams, this strategy suggests, could compromise national security. And be careful with countries outside the EU. The EU’s plan is not only for member countries to abandon these teams, but to pressure countries outside the EU to do so as well. Thus, it would try to block the use of program funds Global Gateway if those who use them spend them buying Huawei equipment. The operators, harmed. European telecommunications companies also appear to oppose this plan. First of all, they indicate in Bloomberg, because Huawei technology is often cheaper and even superior to Western alternatives from Nokia or Ericsson. And second, because replacing existing equipment is extremely expensive and can delay current and future deployments. internal division. In the absence of confirmation of the EC plan, there is another key element: there is internal division among EU members. Germany and Finland continue to deliberate on what restrictions to impose, while Spain and Greece continue to purchase telephone equipment from these manufacturers. What they say in China. Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Minister, has indicated that when certain countries forcibly eliminate telecommunications equipment from Chinese firms like Huawei, they not only slow down their technological progress, but also suffer economic losses. He further added that “We urge the #EU to provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies and avoid undermining business confidence in investing in Europe.” Let’s remember Sweden. In 2020, Sweden decided to ban the use of telecommunications equipment from Chinese manufacturers with the same argument that we already know about national security. That theoretically favored the local company, Ericsson, but its CEO criticized the Swedish government’s decision precisely because he knew what was going to happen. Revenge is served on a cold plate. And what happened is that China retaliated. A few months later, China Mobile announced budgets and contracts to boost the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, and Ericsson was the biggest loser. The company had almost 11% market share before the government’s decision: today its share does not reach 2%. Dangerous veto. If confirmed and made effective, the veto on being able to use telecommunications equipment in the European Union is dangerous precisely for the same reason that happened with Sweden. China continues to be a great commercial ally of China despite being more aligned with the US in areas such as semiconductors. With these types of actions, Europe positions itself even more closely with the Trump government, something that is somewhat surprising because Europe already came out badly after the agreement with tariffs. In Xataka | Huawei has a plan to deal the final blow to NVIDIA in China: a supernode of 15,000 processors

the strange inhabitants of the Antarctic abyss

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In the frozen, forgotten depths of the South Atlantic, an international team of scientists has achieved the unexpected: confirming the existence of thirty completely new marine species for science. Among them, a creature stands out that challenges what we know about life in the deep ocean: a spherical sponge covered in hooks, capable of catching its prey with such forceful efficiency that the team itself baptized it as “death ball”. We don’t know everything. With this type of news, science places our feet in reality, since although we have been populating this planet for many years, there are still things that we do not know. An example are these new species that show us that in the depths of the ocean we have a great mystery for humans and that there is still a way to surprise us with our planet. A predator. Most marine sponges They are considered “peaceful”filter feeding and causing no further harm to anyone. But the Chondrocladia sp. novfound more than three kilometers below the surface near Montagu Island, uses microhooks that act as a kind of “deadly Velcro” on crabs and other invertebrates, which it slowly absorbs. Visually, this is a sponge that is actually quite surprising, since it is white and has appendages ending in small balls. In this way, it managed to gain the attention of specialists who have described it as one of the strangest animals of the entire expedition. This is something that breaks with what a traditional sponge does that we all have in mind, which simply feeds on particles and remains in the water itself. But this new species is committed to feeding on other living beings and on those that are above the food chainas the study researchers point out. Technology has been key. Right now, accessing the seabed is a real challenge for humans. One of the great impediments is the great pressure that exists in that environment that becomes really hostile. But thanks to technological advances it has been achieved. This specific investigation has had a underwater robot named SuBastian and high definition cameras. The result of the expedition was thousands of hours of video and nearly 2,000 specimens among the images that had to be analyzed. But the species were not the most notable part of this research, since new hydrothermal springs, coral gardens with volcanic structures were also discovered, and a juvenile colossal squid was recorded for the first time. ​ Not just sponges. It is a fact that on the seabed there are many species that are truly strange, including the so-called ‘death balls’, but they were not alone in this rarity. Other species that surprised the researchers were the following: Zombie worms (Osedax sp.), capable of feeding exclusively on the bone tissue of whales and large vertebrates. ​ Rare mollusks, bivalves and black corals adapted to hydrothermal and volcanic environments.​ A complicated process. Verifying that these findings are true is not something easy to achieve. In this case, the findings were made this August at the University of Magallanes in Chile where specialists from eight countries applied accelerated identification techniques: from in situ imaging to genetic comparison, in a process that seeks to reduce the years of waiting to catalog new species.​ Images | @TuCpakoa In Xataka | We are clogging the ocean’s carbon toilet and it is something that is only going to cause us problems

Broncano has broken the only unwritten rule of ‘La Revuelta’ with Rosalía. And thanks to that he has managed to overwhelm ‘El Hormiguero’

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In a season that is being characterized by the comfortable and placid victory of ‘El Hormiguero’ in practically every night in which he faces ‘La Resistencia’, it is a real surprise that Broncano’s program ahead of his rival in a clear and indisputable way. What is not at all surprising is how he has achieved it. He has resorted to the number one obsession currently in Spain as a whole: Rosalia. The data. Rosalía has helped Broncano achieve nothing less than his historical maximum quotawith 20.4% share and peaks of 27% in its final stretch. It is also their largest victory against ‘El hormiguero’, with a 5.2 point advantage in strict coincidence. La 1, thus, leads on Monday with one tenth ahead of Antena 3. It is the first time, in addition, that the program reaches 20% of share. ‘El Hormiguero’, of course, has not done badly: Andy (of Andy and Lucas) makes 15.3 of shareand both leave behind Temptation Island 9′, which with 1,344,000 also marks its own season high. Why has he achieved it? Rosalía’s participation in the program was partially out of the ordinary in the program, although at this point the Broncano team has become accustomed to surprise the publicespecially with the most relevant guests. First, Rosalía arrived at the theater with a spectacular reception, integrated into an original fictitious “neighbors’ meeting” scene with figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, Manuela Carmena and La Zowi. During the interview he improvised acapella a fragment of her song ‘La perla’ and shared with the audience a cake that she baked herself the night before. (But above all) why he has achieved it. since last week It was known that Rosalía would attend the Broncano program. The expectation was such that RTVE made an exceptional decision: to promote the interview on news programs and other programs on its schedule. This is an unusual decision for ‘La Revuelta’, which has sometimes started its program without a clear guest (as happened with the controversy by Jorge Martín), something that Motos, thatAnnounces all the guests of each week in advance, it cannot be allowed. But after some hearing results manifestly inferior to those on the Antena 3 program throughout 2025, TVE knew that it had the most important guest of the year on its hands, and it could not stop announcing it. Grow without stepping. Since its premiere a little over a year ago, ‘La Revuelta’ stood out for standing up to ‘El Hormiguero’ without needing to steal your audience. A new audience that usually does not watch television at that time joined the Access to watch Broncano’s program, which is a very notable phenomenon on television, where the public moves from one program to another, usually to the detriment of rivals. This time, Broncano unleashed this strange phenomenon again: neither Motos nor ‘Temptation Island’ made numbers lower than usual (in fact, they were pretty good), but he won the game handily. Rosalía, the definitive cultural artifact. Rosalía has managed to be a transversal phenomenon that unites different generations and social strata. From the teenage audience to older fans, which has undoubtedly benefited ‘La Revuelta’. With that ‘Lux’ that achieved 42 million views in 24 hours despite the previous leak, Rosalía not only reveals herself as a singer, but as a cultural event. The surprise presentation in Callao brought together thousands of fans who overwhelmed the center of Madrid: no other Spanish artist generates this level of unanimous media attention, nor the ability to paralyze the country when they announce something new. In a fragmented cultural panorama, divided into dozens of niches, Rosalía’s merit is doubly striking. In Xataka | The exception of ‘El Hormiguero’: no ​​successful program in the history of Spanish TV has lasted so long

the made-in-China business of the DGT’s V-16 beacons

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82 days. That is the time that has passed since the DGT approved for the first time a connected V-16 beacon on December 22, 2022 until March 14, 2023. Less than three months later from that December 22, Distribuciones Escudero Fijo SL You could now put your own connected device on the market. The Valencia-based company was the first to put a V-16 beacon connected and approved by the DGT on the market. made in china. The company specializes in the import and distribution of consumer products in our country, so it must have seen clearly that it was time to manufacture its own devices in the Asian country to reduce costs. The certificate confirming the approval and who is behind the manufacturing of the product is easily accessible. Both that of this Valencian company and that of any other approved product can be found on the DGT website. And with that list it is very easy to verify that the vast majority of connected V-16 beacons are being manufactured in China. Spanish approval, Chinese business Photo printers, a Philips car radio, activity bracelets or a Tesla Smart TV. They are all products that You can find it on the Distribuciones Escudero Fijo website. next to the connected V-16 beacon. The company, as we said, is by no means the only one that produces its beacons in China to approve them in Spain and sell them in our country. In fact, the DGT collects 29 companies with certifications to distribute its approved products in Spain. Only seven are Spanish. and the weight of products made in Spain It is reduced much more if we look at the total volume of registered beacons. Of 239 approved products, only 29 are produced in Spain, just over 10%. This company sells, under different names, up to five connected V-16 beacons, four of which have slight modifications to sell them as different products on the market. But this is almost a rarity because some Chinese brands have made it an art to sell the same licensed product under different names. The latter is the case of Limbur Technology, a company that manufactures these connected V-16 beacons in China and puts them on the Spanish market, highlighting the same product with different names. At this moment it has 99 active approvals despite having only seven different models on the market. The process is always the same. The Ningbo Chakesi Electronic company, based in Zhejiang (China), produces the connected V-16 beacons that are then sold under brands with names as diverse as Soslight, Orflect either Don Happy. The approvals are carried out in the Idiada laboratories (there are only two laboratories with permission to carry out these approvals) and in some cases the same device is approved repeatedly (up to 25 identical devices on June 30, 2025) to be sold under different names. Manufacturers have little room to play with approvals and put different products on the market. In some cases, for example, the new approval only corresponds to the addition of a new suction cup to facilitate installation or that the product is now brighter. The pattern repeats with other distributors. Ledel Solutions has 30 active approvals. Of them, up to 24 different brands sell the same product. Four of them repeat with a variation of the connected V16 beacon and only one of them sells an approved product such as EmergLight X, which has the same name as the company that puts it on the market. The manufacturing, as with any other product approved by Ledel Solutions, comes from China. And the connected V-16 beacon has all the conditions to be a product that China can easily supply. We are talking about a very low-cost technological product. A casing, some resistance to dust and water, active battery for 30 minutes and a space for a SIM card. It is the perfect product for mass produce at very low cost. With the approvals registered by the DGT, right now there are 239 products on the market but only 70 are, really, different products. Most of the time we are talking about the same product repeated and approved repeatedly by the same distributor and then sold under different brands in different channels. Photo | DGT and Escudero Fixed Distributions In Xataka | “Dangerous situations have already occurred”: three road safety experts respond to the imposition of the DGT’s V-16 beacon

They have some of the best noise cancellation out there.

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I don’t know about you, but for me it is vital to have good wireless headphones. When it comes to going to the gym, I prefer to use truly wireless onessince they are more compact and comfortable when exercising. Now, in terms of sound quality, autonomy, noise cancellation and comfort in long sessions, nothing is better than a headband. and just That is precisely where the Sony WH-1000XM6: They are one of the best options on the market and cost 469 euros. Wireless Headphones – Sony WH-1000XM6, Noise Cancellation, 30h Autonomy, Hi-Res, Fast Charging, Comfortable, Foldable, iOS/Android, Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links They have some of the best noise cancellation out there. The WH-1000XM family headphones have been standing out for years, especially considering that Sony has been polishing them generation after generation. As we already told you in your analysisthese headphones are a fantasy in many ways. Where they perhaps stand out the most is in their active noise cancellation, the best we have been able to try to date. This will allow us to have a very interesting experience that is rounded off by six microphones that will allow us to have great call quality. In fact, it has a multidirectional system based on AI that allows us to capture our voice accurately, greatly reducing background noise even if there is a lot of commotion around us. Of course, very much in line with what this family of headphones offers, the WH-1000XM6 offer outstanding sound qualitywhich is also versatile and ideal for any type of sound. This will allow us to have sessions where we can mix genres and different types of songs, always maintaining a powerful and balanced sound that we can modify as we wish from our mobile. Two more details. The first is its design, very ergonomic and designed to make it very comfortable to wear them on the head. In addition, they are foldable and come with a case so that we can store them when we are not using them. It is also worth highlighting its autonomy, which revolves around 30 or 32 hours if we use active noise cancellation. One of the best options in stores, without a doubt. We have a cheaper option that also performs great If we are looking for headphones like the ones before, but we have a tighter budget, then perhaps the model fits us better. Sony WH-1000XM5SA. This, which we also analyze in Xatakaoffers a quality experience at a price that is much more attractive. In fact, right now we can buy them for 299 euros at MediaMarkt and includes a soft case so that we can transport them comfortably. Wireless headphones – Sony WH-1000XM5SA, Soft case, Noise cancellation, 30h, Hi-Res, Fast charging, Bluetooth, Headband, iOS/Android, Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links It is true that these headphones do not fold like the previous model, but despite this they have an adjustable headband and a design that is also designed to offer comfort even during long sessions. Its active noise cancellation also gives a great result and its autonomy is around 30 hours. 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 | Sony, Xataka In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros In Xataka | Best truly wireless earbuds (TWS) with noise cancellation. Which one to buy and ten recommended models

They are the tree of golden eggs

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A question: What unites Venus, Steve Jobs’ 78-meter-long superyacht, and a remote forestry farm in León? There were many ways to start this article, but I couldn’t resist doing it because of the most unexpected fact: what unites those two things is the poplar. The story is known: before he died, Jobs designed a spectacular boat that he couldn’t have ready before he died. Well, the wood for the kitchen of that luxurious floating mansion came from León. And this, although it does not explain why Spain is being filled with poplars, does give an idea of ​​why. The poplar boom. In Europe the hectares of poplar have grown at 2% annually during the last few years. But Spain is not Europe as far as poplar fields are concerned. With its epicenter in the province of León, the country has some 81,000 hectares of poplar dedicated to production. And it has been that way for a long time. That is, there have been no substantial changes in the cultivated land. However, genetic improvement and more efficient cultivation practices have meant that production has continued to grow. In that sense, the poplar seemed a calm, safe and powerful sector. But things have changed… for the better. The high industrial demand for its wood (and the environmental benefits associated with its cultivation) have revived interest in this tree. Like the forestry engineer Flor Álvarez Taboada explained in the Voice of Galicia“poplar is paid twice as much as pine and three times more than eucalyptus.” That sums it up. And what is the problem? It is not the profitability of the farms (which, as we see, is skyrocketing), but the capacity of the Spanish forest to produce wood on the scale that the industry needs. Alvarez made it clear that “a plantation where there are only about fifty poplar trees is not viable for companies that work with this wood”, that plantations of “at least two or three hectares in size” are needed. The country needs to “create homeowner associations that coordinate and plant poplar trees simultaneously on their land.” That is to say, it is not just a job for ‘lone wolves’; If we want Spain to take advantage of the populculture boom, a structured effort is needed that integrates the industry, administrations and farmers. Against the eucalyptus. This is perhaps its greatest asset. We have been listening for years years speak ill of eucalyptus. It is usually unjustified fame, but it opens up a whole world of possibilities. And the poplar is one of them. Because due to its rapid growth, the high profitability of its quality wood, its adaptability to riverine terrain and its important environmental (and social) value, it is an excellent forestry alternative. So the question is twofold: will Spain manage to enter the table of the majors in the timber industry? Are we prepared to see the landscape change — again –? Image | Garnica In Xataka | Converting Portugal to eucalyptus monoculture was a disaster. And the latest fires only remind us of this.

that of the towns converted into hubs of organized crime

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TO beginning of 2025the province of Toledo began to appear with unusual frequency in police reports. From then until a few hours ago, the escalation of violence and crime that has been splashed across the country’s newspapers has made one thing crystal clear: the dangerous conversion of many towns in Spain such as hub of criminal gangs. From local clans to industrial cultivation. In March, the National Police dismantled a network of indoor marijuana crops spread across several municipalities (Illescas, El Viso de San Juan, Yeles, Lucillos and Ugena) managed by a family clan with the structure of a criminal group. The investigations began following anomalies detected by an electrical company that warned of illegal connections to the network. Upon entering the homes, the agents they found more than 5,800 plants, 3,600 cuttings, firearms such as assault rifles and cash. The simultaneous records revealed complex logistics and a high level of specialization: germination rooms, differentiated cultivation cycles and distribution to other networks that exported production outside of Spain. The mafia. That operation, framed in the National Plan against cannabis trafficking, confirmed what the authorities they already sensed: Toledo, due to its proximity to Madrid, was establishing itself as a preferred area for marijuana mafias, with warehouses and homes transformed into agricultural laboratories at the service of European drug trafficking. In fact, counted A few weeks later, the newspaper El País reported that the organizations, in a twist, were looking for empty apartments on social networks or even they consulted the obituaries to squat the houses. Fuensalida: the violent mutation. Three months later, the violence moved from the field of cultivation to that of theft and intimidation. In June, the Civil Guard dismantled the Ángel CM gang, a group of criminals that for months spread fear in Fuensalida and other towns in La Sagra. Based in a neighborhood nicknamed “the Bronx,” its leader organized assaults serial attacks on vulnerable people, vehicle thefts, falsification of license plates and thefts from shops and warehouses. Not only that. They acted with brutality: Victims were dragged or hit during the pulling, and some elderly people suffered fractures and serious injuries. The Civil Guard and the Local Police managed to arrest nine people (all residents of Fuensalida) after weeks of surveillance and chases in broad daylight. Toledo as a hub. In one of those chases, an accomplice fled cross-country after stealing a car. The arrest of Ángel and his collaborators brought relief to the area, but it also showed that Toledo was no longer just home to cultivation networks, but also crime groups organized with its own structures and hierarchies, capable of operating between several provinces. The international leap. After the summer, the National Police dismantled in Yuncos, Palomeque and Méntrida an organization that represented a qualitative leap: a drug trafficking network with direct links with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. Sixteen people were arrested, including a chemist from the cartel itself who had traveled from Mexico to direct production of cocaine and methamphetamine. Clandestine laboratories. The agents located two camouflaged laboratories in rural areas, equipped with industrial materials, chemical reagents and security systems designed to hide the activity. More than 160 kilos of drugs were seized, including cocaine, base, ephedrine and methamphetamine, along with 7,500 liters of precursors and 21,000 euros in cash. Fifteen of those arrested were placed in provisional prison. The operation confirmed that Toledo had ceased to be just a logistical territory: it had become a production and refining enclave of high-value drugs, which implied the arrival of foreign technicians, international financing and a level of sophistication unprecedented in the region. A shooting as a turning point. On November 9, the municipality of El Casar de Escalona (barely two thousand inhabitants) was the scene of a shooting between agents of the Special Operations Group (GEO) and a group of drug traffickers of Dominican origin. The suspects, from Asturias, they planned to kidnap to members of another local network to settle a drug debt. When intercepted by the Police, they opened fire and the geos responded. One of the alleged drug traffickers died on the spot and two others were injured. No officers were hurt, but vehicles were riddled by gunfire. The operation, directed by Udyco, revealed the existence of groups dedicated to violent debt collection between gangs, a phenomenon typical of urban drug trafficking environments transferred to rural Spain. The drift. The shooting also coincided with another armed confrontation in Seville, where a police officer was seriously injured by an assault rifle during a hashish raid. Both episodes led police unions to demand more media and bulletproof vests in the face of the “qualitative leap” in crime, which no longer hesitates to confront with weapons of war. Toledo as a mirror of a phenomenon. The Ministry of the Interior he responded remembering the budget reinforcement and the purchase of new ballistic equipment, while the anti-drug prosecutor of the National Court, Rosa Ana Morán, warned of the risk that Spain would follow the path of Belgium and the Netherlands, where drug trafficking networks have derived in shootings, threats to judges and institutional corruption. If you like, Toledo, converted into marijuana laboratoryenclave methamphetamine and scene of reckoningsymbolizes that dangerous transition: from a quiet province to the epicenter of globalized crime that mixes Latin American drug trafficking, local crime and European infrastructure. A geography that reflects the displacement of organized crime towards the interior of the peninsula and the birth of a new silent frontier in the heart of Castilla-La Mancha. Image | Civil Guard In Xataka | First they kidnap you, then they put you to work in online scams: the drama of thousands of people in Asia In Xataka | The fake sex ads that ruined lives. The Valencian criminal gang of online fraud and extortion falls

neither saves money nor saves resources

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The rejection of the new Coca-Cola’s AI Christmas ad It has been basically unanimous: although their bet has technically and visually improved the very promising 2024 bet, the complaints are no longer about the theoretical as much as about something more intangible. An advertisement that appeals to traditional and artisanal things should not be made with a tool that ignores human creativity. Or has it not been like that? Some recent data that has come to light after the first negative reactions casts doubt on whether it was just a matter of pressing a button for an ad to appear. The announcements so far. In November 2024, Coca-Cola became the internet’s quintessential corporate villain. Its Christmas ad was recreated with artificial intelligence the iconic ‘Holidays Are Coming’ spot from 1995and was received with a wave of criticism, especially for its multiple errors: rigid truck wheels, faces of people frozen in an inhuman rictus… Artists such as Alex Hirsch, creator of Gravity Falls, dedicated to the corporation such strong phrases like “Coca-Cola is ‘red’ because it’s made with the blood of out-of-work artists.” A year later, Coca-Cola does not back down, but launches a new version of the advertisement, more technically advanced and starring less risky entities: anthropomorphized animals. Pratik Thakar’s quoteglobal vice president and head of generative AI at Coca-Cola, “the genie is out of the bottle and no one is going to put it back in,” has become a symbol of these new times. No matter how much these types of decisions are criticized, the savings in energy and personnel are so significant that these types of changes are here to stay. Or not? Less effort? There are some figures, made public by Coca Cola itself and by Jason Zada ​​of Secret Level (the company that developed the ad) that cast doubt on the effectiveness of the entire effort. For example, it took approximately 70,000 AI-generated video clips before arriving at the final result of 60 seconds. Behind them, an army of professionals: approximately 100 people distributed between Coca-Cola, the WPP agency, and the Silverside AI and Secret Level studios. And among them, at least 5 AI specialists worked specifically on technical refinement and content generation. Zada talks about a direct team of 20 people dedicated to this announcement. It is not a revolution in efficiency, but an amount comparable to that of any traditional animation spot. The difference: no physical equipment, locations or cameras were needed, but all the usual production apparatus in this type of ads: creative direction, design, narrative construction, artistic supervision… Zada ​​states that there is “a lot of human craftsmanship involved. Hand-drawn character designs, world-building… it’s not just about writing words and pressing buttons.” The paradox of money. If we talk about video generation tools like Sora, Runway or similar, each clip has an associated cost. Multiplied by 70,000 generations, the expenditure on server infrastructure, processing and rendering time reaches considerable figures. To this we must add the cost of a hundred people working for approximately a month (this is what Coca-Cola claims is an advantage in terms of time, compared to the several months that traditional production would require). We don’t know how much the ad cost, but Manolo Arroyo, the company’s marketing director, is limited to stating which was “cheaper and faster than traditional methods” But the important thing here, perhaps, is not how much we save in money, but… is that saving worth the reputational cost? What is the difference. The type of work, not the amount. Where a traditional studio would spend weeks on 3D modeling and animation, this project invested that time in a process of mass video generation, selection and refinement. Instead of building a 3D model of a herd of seals and animating them, the team generated thousands of different versions of seals until they found the ones that worked. And then, and here is the key, it is able to multiply the result. Zada says, “We could create a 90-second version in addition to the 60-second spot, and a custom version. We couldn’t do that without the efficiencies of AI.” That’s the secret: not to do the same thing cheaper, but to do more things with the same budget. Coca-Cola doesn’t save money, it redistributes it. Instead of one definitive version of the ad, they got multiple versions tailored to different markets. Instead of investing in filming equipment and physical locations, they invested in management capacity and immediate multiplication: the industrialization of factories that we experienced at the beginning of the last century is now the industrialization of content. The genie in the bottle. Generative artificial intelligence is already part of the daily life of audiovisual production. And the controversial Coca-Cola ad exemplifies what companies want to get out of this new situation: it is not just about greater speed, or saving money, something that we already see is not being achieved, but rather a commitment to the future, perhaps to a different economic model, perhaps to some spots that are still to come, indistinguishable from those made in a traditional way, and that do not unleash the pejorative comments that, for the moment, these ads made with AI are collecting. In Xataka | The “divorce” between Coca-Cola and Nestlé leaves a big question: who owns the “formula” of the soft drink

For years the white label was the ugly duckling of the super Spanish. Now it is slowly eating up the market

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The white marks continue to get stronger in the retail Spanish. And clearly, with resounding growth both in the ‘short assortment’ chains that have traditionally opted for them (Mercadona, Lidl or Aldi) and among others that have chosen to adapt their offer and give them greater prominence, in the case of Alcampo, Eroski or Carrefour. The trend as such has been seen since some time agobut the latest data published by Worlpanel by Numerator (advanced today by elEconomista.es) are especially forceful. What does the data say? That in recent years the weight of its own brands has clearly grown in the country’s main supermarkets, including Mercadona, the chain that owns higher quota of market in the sector. If in 2023 Mercadona’s white brands (with Hacendado at the head) represented 72.9% of its sales, the latest data from Worldpanel show that this percentage now stands at 77.8%. It is a high figure, but not the highest in the sector. It is surpassed by Lidl, where private labels account for 80.7% of sales. In your case, yes, a slight drop has been recorded: the percentage improves on that of 2023 (79.7%), but reveals a slight decline when compared to that of 2024. Chain % of white label sales 2023 % of white label sales 2024 % of white label sales 2025 Lidl 79.7% 81.9% 89.7% Mercadona 72.9% 74.5% 77.8% aldi 68.8% 69.1% 74.5% Day 54.2% 56.3% 65.1% consumption 33% 35.9% 37.4% Carrefour 29.3% 31.4% 33.3% Eroski 25.6% 28.4% 31.2% Alcampo 21.5% 24.3% 23.8% And the rest of the chains? They have also seen the white label imprint grow. Let’s see. In Aldi it has gone from 68.8% in 2023 to the current 74.5%, in Dia from 54.2% to 65.1%, in Consum from 33% to 37.4%, in Carrefour from 29.3% to 33.3%, in Eroski from 25.6% to 31.2% and in Alcampo from 21.5% to 23.8%. Its quota has not only expanded, it has also done so in a practically sustained manner. The only chains that have recorded a decline or stagnation between 2024 and 2025 are Lidl and Alcampo. The latter is also the only one that remains below 25%. Is there data from the entire sector? Yes. The latest data from Worldpannel by Numerator allows us to go into detail about the main chains, but the picture is not very different if we analyze the sector as a whole. another report Recent research by the consulting firm NIQ shows that, if we talk about food, the market share of distribution brands is around 54%. That was the data at least for September. That of the annual accumulated (first nine months of the year) marks 53.5%. The percentage is interesting because it shows a clear growth trend and is at values ​​never seen before. What is the reason? As is usually the case, the rise in private labels does not respond to a single factor. Multiple causes come into play, although there are two particularly interesting ones. The first is the growth of those known as short assortment chainssupermarkets with a limited selection of products and a strong commitment to their own items. The clearest example is Mercadona, which has managed to achieve a market share of more than 27%but there are others, such as Lidl or Aldi, which according to Worldpanel bring together a 6.9% and 1.9% of quota. And the other reason? The commercial strategy. Supermarkets have been laying the groundwork for years to promote their brands. This is what I suggested in 2024 a Kantar study. Their data must be handled with caution because they are presented by Promarca, a representative of manufacturers and therefore an interested party, but they are curious: according to the report, between 2018 and 2023 the supply of private label products increased by 13% on shelves while that of external items decreased by 23%. That is the general data, if we go down to detail and analyze chain by chain, noticeable variations are observed. In the case of Mercadona for example the study reveals that the presence of manufacturer brands was reduced by 45% in just five years. In the case of Dia the collapse was 42% and in that of Eroski it was almost 31%. An analysis by Kantar and The Battle Group also shows that this loss of footprint was accompanied by an increase in rates: third-party items are sold at prices between 5 and 160% higher than those of private labels. Are there more factors at play? Yes, there are. The prices, the offer and especially a cultural change which has favored private label brands, stripping them of the stigma that weighed on them for years. Mercadona once again sets a good example: Hacendado competes with premium brands and has some products that customers demand, prioritizing even other brands. The big question is how far brands like Hacendado, Auchan or Seleqtia (to name three examples) will be able to expand their share, as they find it very difficult to compete in certain niches in which traditional brands succeed. It is something that Worldpanel already warned about in one of your latest reportsin which he pointed out a certain “slowdown” in the growth of the value share of own brands. Images | Eroski Group (Flickr) Via | elEconomista.es In Xataka | Action supermarkets have gone from being unknown to conquering half of Europe. In Spain they will not have it easy

Facebook loads ‘Likes’ and comments on external websites. The surveillance tool par excellence is no longer necessary

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Meta announced this week that Starting in February 2026, the “like” and “comment” buttons will be removed of Facebook on external websites. The official explanation is so polite it almost hurts: its use “has naturally declined with the evolution of the digital landscape.” But that phrase hides two implicit admissions: The first is known: we barely leave the platforms anymore. The second, more subtle, is devastating: Meta no longer needs to follow us to know us. Let’s think about what that button really was. like external. It was not an innocent social accessory. It was distributed surveillance: Every time you gave like to an article about vintage guitars in a lost blog, Facebook took note: this guy likes guitar playing. Every comment on a recipe website, every interaction outside your garden, fed your profile. Meta built the perfect panopticon: millions of websites working for free as sensors, reporting your interests, your obsessions, your clicks. And in exchange, those websites received crumbs of viral traffic that It stopped coming a long time ago. But today, almost in 2026, that spy system is obsolete. Why track yourself on the Internet when you spend three hours a day on Instagram? Why deduce your tastes when Instagram knows which videos make you stay to watch them until the end, and which videos you send away after two seconds? AI has made extensive surveillance unnecessary. Now it is enough to observe you in its territory. It is more efficient, more precise and cheaper. He like external was Big Brother. AI is a confessor that listens to you voluntarily, interprets and codifies your tastes (the declared and the inferred) and with that it has more than enough to know who you really are, above who you say you are on social networks. And there is something else. These buttons not only gave data to Meta: they also gave certain power to external websites. An item with 50,000 likes Facebook had authority, reach, and negotiating capacity. It was validation. Small media could go viral, specialized blogs found audiences, there were cracks to slip through. Meta is closing those cracks. And not out of malice, but out of business logic: why fertilize a foreign ecosystem when you can focus all your attention—and all your money—on your own land? The “natural evolution of the digital landscape” that Meta mentions is real. Only it has not happened in a vacuum or in a foreign way: they were the ones who designed it, they were the ones who executed it and they are the ones who now certify it. First they locked us in there. Now they know us so well that they no longer need to look at what we do outside their domains. The button like He dies because he has already won everything he could win. And there is nothing left to watch beyond the walls. In Xataka | The new Ray-Bans from Meta will allow you to cross a line: seem present while you are completely absent Featured image | Mariia Shalabaieva

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