Month: March 2026

Sony and Honda have canceled Afeela, their first electric car. One more example of China’s triumph where others fail

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Honda has encountered a wall called the electric car. One that has carried out the development of three of its own electric cars, another that was underway with Sony and that will have an impact on its accounts of about 22.5 billion dollars. The situation, it seems, is not the best. Honda’s jump to the electric car It seemed like an immutable reality just seven years ago. Seven years may seem like a long time but in automotive industry terms it is just the usual jump between two generations of cars. Perhaps that is why the plans, in addition to being immovable, seemed risky. In October 2019, the company announced that From 2022 it would only sell electric cars in Europe. Our continent seemed to be moving towards the electric car under pressure from regulations. Tesla was booming and the companies thought that this was the best path for our market. Today, Honda’s catalog for our country does not have a single electric car. In these years, the Honda e has obtained a very discreet result, victim of a very high price. He e:Ny1, a sort of electric HR-V, is also no longer available after selling an almost negligible number of cars in our country. Along the way, they announced the development of three new electric cars for the US market, all with a groundbreaking and futuristic aesthetic. Also a car that would arrive together with a collaboration with Sony. All of this has been cancelled. The Chinese surprise Much has changed in recent years so that Honda has gone from targeting only the electric market in Europe, developing three new cars with this technology for the United States and another with Sony, to canceling everything. And the company confirmed a few days ago that he reversed his electrical project. First with the cancellation of cars designed only for the American public. The move almost seems logical. The country still does not clearly embrace the electric car and Donald Trump is giving wings to keep every combustion car alive and without any effort. With a country of enormous distances and a charging network that remains insufficientthe electric car continues to have significant pitfalls. This cancellation has had two clear consequences. The first is an impact on Honda’s accounts of more than 20,000 million dollars. How we have the case of Stellantisthis money is not a direct loss, it is the sum of the investments already made, the fines to be paid to suppliers for unfulfilled agreements and the money that is not received from the sales that had been estimated, among other items. The second impact is that Afeela 1 has also been cancelled. This car was born from a collaboration between Sony and Honda. At CES 2023 It was already announced that it would arrive in 2026. Last year, at the same fair, the car was priced for the US market: $89,900 for the “cheap” version and more than $100,000 for the “face.” This year, at CES, we had no news. Less than three months later we know that the project has been canceled because, among other things, it rode the same platform as Honda’s other three electric cars. Once this was cancelled, producing a single car with a single platform was economically unviable. Sony’s car was sold as a leap forward for Hondaa preview of where the market was going to go. The intention was that Honda would provide the hardware and its knowledge making cars, Sony would provide the software and its experience getting the most out of elements such as cameras or sensors. Qualcomm and Epic Games were also supporting the project, the latter company creating an on-demand mobility service for the vehicle. The evolution of the automobile industry has attracted various technology companies. First it was Dyson the company that surprised us by announcing its own electric car. We know that Apple has tried to bring its own car forward and along the way he has left 10,000 million dollars. Microsoft was an investor in Cruise before its closure. Google is making efforts with autonomous cars. This company also wants Android Automotive be an essential part of the future of the electric car. Of all these companies that have been involved in the development of electric cars, all of them have failed. Only Google with Android Automotive seems to be building a long-term ecosystem, which Apple doesn’t seem to be getting it with CarPlay either. We are not talking about companies that supply hardware to automotive companies like Qualcomm or Nvidia, we are talking about companies that also they get involved in the development of a car through their software services or their knowledge to take advantage of that hardware. And, here, China is leading the market. What Sony and Honda intended was to demonstrate that two leading Japanese companies still had enough muscle and knowledge to produce a ground-breaking and competitive electric car. At that time, Xiaomi has built it itself. And Huawei is giving a lesson in China on how to take advantage of these collaborations. Right now, this last company collaborates with Toyota on the latest electric vehicles they have launched for the Chinese market. Its cars have their own ecosystem developed by Huawei that relies on, among other things, the electric motors that Huawei also develops. That is, the Chinese company is in charge of providing its parts and its software knowledge for the ultimate control of them. Huawei and Xiaomi are taking over the operating systems of Chinese electric cars with HarmonyOS and HyperOS. Both companies have extensive experience designing interfaces and digital experiences for the user, an essential service in China to sell electric cars and where Europe, Japan and the United States are still in their infancy, if we compare ourselves to what we see there. Specifically, Huawei has spread its tentacles in the industry until getting its hands on Toyota developments and having cars on the street that will rival Porsche, like the Aistaland GT7sedans that … Read more

Campo de Montiel has rare earths to cover 33% of European demand, according to a mining company. The Board has said “no, thank you”

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Oil may be the resource that makes most of the headlines today, but the rare earthare “the cover” of the technology industry: they are decisive practically in any sector and also set the geopolitical agenda at a time of tariffs and vetoes. And if there is a country that cuts cod into rare earths (spoiler: They are neither earth nor are they rarebut 17 metals) that is China: there is no one to cough or in reserves neither in production. There was a time when The United States dominated this sectorbut that time passed away. And Europe? Well, at the moment rare earths are not produced, but we are working on it: has stepped on the accelerator at the Per Geijer superminein Kiruna (Sweden), where you could get 18% of what you need. Meanwhile, in a place in La Mancha whose name I don’t want to remember, there is who points that could obtain 2,100 tons per year of lanthanides, enough to cover 33% of European needs. There is only one little problem: the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha has said that they are not interested. And they are not alone. Campo de Montiel is a (potential) mine. Back in 2013 the Spanish company Quantum Mining put under his magnifying glass the region of Campo de Montiel, in Ciudad Real. Next to Torrenueva is that promising site that is the object of your desires: Matamulas. According to their analysis, it is full of monazite (along with bastnasite, the main rare earth ore) gray. But really loaded: the company assures that in Campo de Montiel more than 2,100 tons could be produced per year. Is that a lot or a little? According to the company, it is approximately a third of European consumption needs, although Eurostat figure in 12,900 annual tons imported by 2024, which would leave the percentage around 16% (the company does not publicly detail with what reference it calculates that third). The firm lands it with applications such as the construction of 350,000 electric cars or 10,000 wind turbines. Quantum Mining Production Estimates “We’re not interested.” A month ago Quantum Minería tried again and you already have an answer of the autonomous government: Mercedes Gómez, the Minister of Sustainable Development, explains that they are not interested in holding a competition so that tastings can be carried out at the Matamulas site. Not again: in 2013 the Board granted the mining company (and two other companies) exploitation permits, which was rejected in 2017. In 2024 came back to request permits, this time framed within the Neodimio project, again encountering a no. The EU also left them outside of their strategic projects. What Quantum wants to do. The mining plan It involves temporarily removing a half-meter layer of vegetation (mainly cereal) so that, once the process is finished, it can be reused in the restoration. Afterwards, backhoes extract two meters deep to reach the gray monazite. That material is taken to a concentration plant to be screened using physical processes, without chemical additives, so that the soil can be returned to its site later. Then the land is leveled and the crop is replaced. These works are carried out hectare by hectare, so that it does not interrupt the agricultural processes in the surroundings. According to the company, when the land is restored it can be cultivated “even in better conditions than the original ones.” Why not. Given the insistent interest of Quantum, the citizen platform ‘Yes to the Living Land‘ and other citizen activism movements once again opposed, in addition to one of the wineries in the region. A decade ago Ecologists in Action detailed that the environmental impact of this operation on the 27,500 hectares included in the project would be severe. One of the bottlenecks is water: for this operation they estimate that between 310,000 and 500,000 cubic meters of water would be needed annually during the estimated ten years of exploitation (washing and processing are two processes that consume a lot of water). In that area the water pressure is high, with droughts, reservoirs in states of emergency, overexploited aquifers and intense grassroots agricultural activity as icing on the cake. In addition, in the region there are two Special Protection Areas for Birds and it is the habitat of the lynx. In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country In Xataka | Europe seeks its sovereignty in rare earths and knows how to achieve it the fast way: with a supermine in Sweden Cover | ダモリ and Karen Paredes Carabantes

China is producing fighter jets beyond its capabilities

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Washington is facing two dilemmas right now. The first: during the Cold War it produced hundreds of planes of combat per year, with factories capable of maintaining industrial rhythms typical of a war economy. Today, those production levels are the exception rather than the norm. The second dilemma It’s called China. A structural problem. The United States faces a growing challenge in its combat aviation. The reason: its fighter fleet has been reduced more than 60% since the end of the Cold War and many of its aircraft have decades of accumulated service. There is no doubt, although it remains a dominant air power, the combination of aging, operational wear and global demand is leaving to the system to the limitin the red and with a force that no longer has enough margin to respond to multiple simultaneous conflicts. China and another scale. But the real problem is not only internal, but comparative: because Beijing is producing fighters at a rhythm that clearly exceeds current American capability. With massive industrial expansion and projections of up to 300 planes a year Before the decade is out, Beijing is not only closing the gap, it is threatening with overcoming it both in volume and modernization, altering the global balance of air power for the first time in decades. The F-35, insufficient pillar. The F-35 is the centerpiece of American air strategy, and not only as a fighter, but also as an information node capable of coordinating complex operations in real time. However, its importance also exposes the core problem: there are too much dependency of a platform that is not being produced in sufficient quantities, which limits its strategic impact despite its technological superiority. He can’t keep up. Under this scenario, while China doesn’t stop acceleratingthe United States maintains a rather irregular and insufficientwell below the minimum necessary to maintain the size of its fleet. Annual purchases do not compensate for retirements of older aircraft, which progressively reduces operational capacity and generates gaps in key strategic areas, showing that the problem is not technological, but industrial and budgetary. Modern warfare requires more than technology. Recent conflicts have demonstrated that air superiority does not depend solely on having better aircraft, but on have enough. The ability to sustain operations, cover multiple theaters and absorb losses is as important as the quality of the system, and in this area the United States is beginning to fall behind a rival that is betting by the scale. The strategic decision for 10 years. In short, the global air balance is entering a different and critical phase in which the historical advantage of the United States is no longer guaranteed. In fact, if production is not accelerated, the industry stabilized and the fleet reinforced with more F-35s and other systems on the way, the country risks losing its deterrence capacity. against China. In other words, the question is no longer whether the F-35 is sufficient as a platform, but whether there will be enough F-35s to sustain that superiority. Image | US Air Force, LG Images In Xataka | The US has just achieved the “holy grail” of air combat: an F-35 not only detects the enemy, but also gets rid of it on its own. In Xataka | Europe has asked its military experts how to become independent from the US for the next war. The answer is déjà vu: the F-35

How to ask for European aid that almost no one takes advantage of and ends in June 2026

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There are still a few months left for the stifling heat, but to insulate ourselves from both the cold of winter and the high temperatures of summer, it is vital to have efficient windows. We know it is not a small investment. However, there is a lifeline: an EU-funded Next Generation EU grant program that pays you up to 40% of the bill for changing your old windows. The problem is that perhaps you had not heard about this and the general deadline to execute the works sets a non-negotiable limit of June 30, 2026. What are the conditions? At the state level, aid is framed in the Aid program for actions to improve energy efficiency in homes. As explained by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agendathe objective is to reactivate rehabilitation in a country where more than 81% of buildings have a poor energy rating (letters E, F or G). The program’s numbers are resounding and go straight to your pocket: The subsidy covers 40% of the cost of the action, with a maximum limit of 3,000 euros per home. The minimum investment must be equal to or greater than 1,000 euros. The requirement is that the home must be the habitual and permanent domicile of the applicant (owner, usufructuary or tenant), which is accredited through the registry. The technical objective is to achieve a reduction of at least 7% in the energy demand for heating and cooling, reduce the consumption of non-renewable primary energy by 30%, or replace elements of the façade in compliance with the Technical Building Code (CTE). The good news is that simply replacing old windows with PVC or aluminum models with thermal break and low-emissivity glass is usually enough to comply with the CTE route without having to undergo a comprehensive renovation. But is it as simple as it seems? Here come the problems. The main obstacle to this aid is purely bureaucratic. The most common and tragic mistake that users make is starting the work blindly. The usual process is usually: the owner calls the installer, changes the windows and, with the work already finished, calls a technician to do the energy certificate, thinking that that is enough. Big mistake. The guidelines are non-negotiable: to justify the subsidy it is mandatory to have an energy efficiency certificate prior to the work and another one afterwards. Both must be signed by a competent technician and carried out with the same official program. Without this documentary demonstration of the “before and after”, help is lost suddenly. The aid map in 2026. The distribution of this program works under the “simple competition” model: whoever arrives first and meets the requirements gets it, until the funds are exhausted. Being managed by the Autonomous Communities, the map is a puzzle. According to the data collected by the regional resolutions, this is the scenario of the main windows that remain open: Aragon: Keep your call active until June 29, 2026but with a specific provision aimed at municipalities of up to 5,000 inhabitants and for buildings prior to the year 2000. Canary Islands: They keep direct aid and tax deductions in force, remembering that the action must be completed before June 30, 2026. Estremadura: They have a specific regional program for rural areas (municipalities with up to 10,000 inhabitants) open from March 1 to June 1, 2026. They cover 50% (extendable to 70% due to vulnerability or young/large families) with limits of up to 14,000 euros for single-family homes. Rioja: Its call opened on February 17 and will last until June 29 2026. Pay attention to the information: here the actions must already be completed at the time of requesting help. The Basque Country: Play in another league. It has its own aid for particular works unrelated to the Next Generation framework, with deadline open until December 31, 2030. For their part, the communities of Andalusia, BalearicsCastilla-La Mancha, Valencian Community, Galicia, Madrid, Murcia and Navarrethe windows are already closed. The perfect move: how to combine aid with personal income tax. For those who arrive on time, the operation is round. According to the Royal Decree-Law Approved by the Government, these direct subsidies are fully compatible with tax deductions in the income tax return (IRPF), valid until December 31, 2026. How does this double advantage work? Imagine that changing the windows costs you 8,000 euros and you receive the maximum subsidy of 3,000 euros. When filing your income tax return, you can apply a deduction (20% or 40%, depending on the energy savings achieved) on the remaining 5,000 euros that you have paid out of pocket. The only legal limit is logical: you cannot deduct from the Treasury the money that Europe has already financed you. From insulation to forced ventilation. Taking advantage of this injection of funds is a golden opportunity, but isolating as much as possible has consequences. By installing ultra-efficient windows, the home becomes so airtight that The regulations already require mechanical ventilation systems to renew the air without losing the accumulated heat. In short, the bureaucracy is clear and the clock is ticking. Changing your windows before the funds run out is not just spending 3,000 euros, it is the definitive step to turn your house into a thermal shelter Image | freepik Xataka | The US has resurrected a part of the Manhattan Project that had been abandoned for decades: purified enriched uranium

China has invented the coldest helium-free alloy in the world. The American DARPA is not going to like it

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In addition to having an extremely high voice, filling balloons or scuba diving, the most widespread use of helium is in refrigeration, a crucial task in countless tasks ranging from magnets for magnetic resonance imaging to particle accelerators (with conventional helium or Helium-4) to cryogenic cooling for quantum computing or neutron detectors (Helium -3). Critical industries. Because yes, everything is helium, but the circumstances change depending on the isotope. Thus, while Helium-4 is abundant in the atmosphere but difficult to retain (it escapes into the atmosphere due to its lightness), Helium-3 is scarce on Earth and is also difficult to obtain: it is a byproduct of the aging of tritium nuclear warheads. Simply put: the helium needed to cool quantum computers and cutting-edge physics acts as a bottleneck to research. A Chinese research team has published in Nature a solution: a metal alloy that cools almost to absolute zero without needing helium. The invention. It is a metallic alloy, EuCo₂Al₉ (ECA), a rare earth intermetallic compound capable of reaching 106 millikelvin (–273.05 °C), thus establishing a record: it is the lowest temperature achieved by a metallic magnetocaloric material without using helium-3. Another peculiarity is that it combines two seemingly antagonistic properties: it acts like a sponge that absorbs heat from the environment and its thermal conduction is between 50 and 100 times greater than other similar materials. A combination that postulates it to be the definitive supercoolant. The network structure, its interactions and the resulting supersolid spin state. Chinese Academy of Sciences Why is it important. We have already seen that helium-3 is a rare commodity and its usefulness in advanced physics and quantum computing. Finding an alternative opens the door to alleviating that bottleneck, although it is still in an early stage. Historically the largest global suppliers of helium-3 They have been the United States and Russiaas a byproduct of its nuclear programs. With this invention, China is one step closer to achieving independence of this strategic resource because it currently imports almost all of the helium-3 it consumes (95%, according to this paper 2024). But the United States is also interested: at the end of January, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a call to develop a modular helium-3-free cooling system for quantum and defense technologies. In less than two weeks I had the solution, yes, from China. Context. The superconducting quantum computers They require working below 1 Kelvin and in that scenario the standard for decades has been dilution refrigeration technology. In a few words and in a simplified way: expensive refrigeration contraptions that occupy cubic meters and need helium-3 continuously. This limits its scalability, practically limiting it to specialized laboratories. Adiabatic demagnetization cooling on which the ECA is based is not new, in fact the concept is a century oldbut its features have never been up to par. As explains the CASthe endemic problem was its poor thermal conductivity. According to the South China Morning PostPeking University already built two refrigerators using this principle in 2024, which have been operational for several months. How have they done it. The cooling technique is called adiabatic demagnetization (ADR): a magnetic field is applied to the cold material, so that the internal “magnets” of the material align and release heat to the outside. When the magnetic field is removed, they return to their natural disordered state, absorbing heat from the surroundings, thereby lowering the temperature. To solve the historical problem of low conductivity, ECA enters an unusual “metallic spin supersolid” physical state, which combines high heat absorption capacity with thermal conductivity similar to a conventional metal. Yes, but. Being able to drop the temperature to 106 mK is remarkable, but the reality is that classic dilution systems in their most advanced version are capable of reaching 10 mK or less. And this is where much of quantum computing operates. In short: there is still a thermal gap to overcome. On the other hand, it is a first step: going from laboratory material and even a prototype to the industrial or military environment is a long road. Scalability and costs will be decisive. Finally, it should be noted that the composition of the ECA includes Europium (in addition to cobalt and aluminum), a rare earth that makes the operation difficult and expensive. Nevertheless, China starts from a privileged positionas long as it is the absolute leader in this industry. In Xataka | Spiderman’s web is no longer science fiction: China has just created something very similar after years of vetoes In Xataka | Japan has a rare earth megadeposit: 700 years of consumption to challenge China Cover | VALGO, ASML

After 10 years in prison for not revealing where 500 gold coins are, the world’s greatest treasure hunter is now free to go after them

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Right off the bat, the name of Tommy Thompson It may not sound familiar to you at all. Besides ocean engineer and inventor, he is one of the greatest treasure hunters in the world, a profession that inevitably evokes Indiana Jones and a life of cinema. And well, Thompson has it: a few days ago he was released from prison after serving 10 years of his sentence. The crime? Do not reveal where 500 gold coins from a famous sunken ship are (among other things). The discovery. In 1988 Tommy Thompson and his team, the Columbus-America Discovery Group, they found the remains of the steamboat SS Central America at a depth of 8,000 feet in the Atlantic, about 200 miles east of Charleston, South Carolina. To achieve this, they used Bayesian search theory and a remotely operated vehicle. The SS Central America was known as the “Gold Ship” for something: how much gold it transported. How much? good question. The gold ship. To give some context, it was the time of the gold rush and the mission of the ship was to transport that valuable metal from the new San Francisco Mint to increase the reserves for the banks of the eastern United States. He never did. On September 3, 1857, while operating on the Panama route, it sank off the coast of South Carolina when it was involved in a category 2 hurricane. The ship carried 477 passengers, 101 crew members and much, much gold. In fact, its sinking was one of the triggers for the panic of 1857. I don’t have the accounts. Gary Kinder spent a decade studying the event to write his “Ship of Gold”, where details which was carrying 3 tons of gold and possibly a similar amount of passengers (undisclosed and therefore unquantifiable) and it was also rumored that there was another 15 tons of gold in a secret army shipment. However, a US Department of Defense document declassified in 1971 reported that the official cargo was 11.2 tons of gold (not including personal or secret gold). The American naval history magazine, the closest source to the discovery, It does not give a figure in weight but a value: The gold consigned to New York banks was equivalent to 40 million dollars at the time. In general, the figure of 30,000 pounds of gold (about 14,000 kg) is also relatively widespread. But what was on the boat is one thing and what they found is another. Or they said find. Bob Evans, chief scientist of the expedition (and another one that followed in 2014). from the hand of Odyssey), account for the Seattle Times that in 1988 they found two tons of gold. The legal conflict. Much of that gold was later sold to a trading company for about $50 million. as reported by Reuters. But according to those 161 investors who financed $12.7 million for the expedition, they never reaped the benefits. So In 2005 they filed a lawsuit for breach of contract and concealment of assets. Thompson first secluded himself in Florida, then disappeared and lived under a false identity. He was finally arrested in 2015. The case reached a dead end: the judge in the case ordered him to reveal the whereabouts of 500 missing gold coins, but the engineer He claimed not to know where they are. He was declared in contempt, which is why he has served a decade in prison. The liberation. Today Tommy Thompson is 73 years old and a few days ago regained his freedom because, according to the judge, keeping him imprisoned does not work. CBS News picks up the opinion of civil law experts who explain that it is very unusual for a sentence for civil contempt to last so long. He has neither revealed where the coins are nor has he settled the debt with his investors. Meanwhile, the treasure of the SS Central America continues to feed the myth: in 2022 was auctioned one of the largest bars on the ship, 866 ounces (almost 27 kg), reaching a price of 2.16 million dollars. In Xataka | I dedicate myself to digging with a metal detector and I have more than 4 million followers on YouTube In Xataka | A man from Osaka left 21 gold bars at the doors of City Hall. I only had one requirement: renew the pipes Cover | Olga ga and Zlaťáky.cz

How to use artificial intelligence at Easter to help you organize your trip or your long weekend vacation

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We are going to tell you several things in which AI can help you during Easter. This can range from prior preparations to some help once you are there. You already have at your disposal a large number of apps and websites to organize yourself during Holy Weekbut so much Claude as ChatGPT either Gemini They can also help you by fulfilling several of the functions of these apps, and having them all in one. You should know that these are just ideas on how to apply the artificial intelligence in travel planning, but You should not blindly trust anything they tell you.because they can make mistakes. However, there are some applications that are quite useful, and I must even tell you that I keep a couple of them to myself after having discovered them researching for the article. Ask me to help you choose your destination If you still don’t know where to go At Easter, even knowing that accommodation may already be full in many destinations, you can also ask the AI ​​to give you suggestions on where to go. Thus, depending on the parameters you give it, it will make suggestions that adapt to what you have in mind. To do this, you have to create a prompt in which you give him some notions of what9 you want. You can tell it if you want the beach, mountains or city, if you are traveling alone, as a couple or as a family, and how many days you have available. You can also give him ideas about your budget.and ask him to give you several suggestions explaining the reason for each one. You can use a prompt like this: “I want to go on an Easter vacation from April 3 to 6, we are two adults, we like cities with history but that are not overcrowded, we have a medium-low budget and we leave from Valencia. What destinations would you recommend?” Create a day-by-day itinerary Once you have chosen the destination you want to go to, artificial intelligence can also help you create a complete day-by-day itinerarysuggesting and organizing the most recommended visits in a logical manner, and with more or less adjusted times. This is something that can always take a lot of time to do by hand, and even if you don’t want to trust 100% of what the AI ​​tells you, it can serve as a starting point that you can later adapt. You can use a prompt like this: “I’m going to spend 4 days in Seville from April 3 to 6. We are two people, we are interested in architecture, gastronomy and historic neighborhoods, but we want to avoid long lines and the most touristy sites. Can you make me a day-by-day itinerary with morning, afternoon and night?” Claude has a route planner Some AIs have their own route planning system. For example, you can plan routes with Claude with an internal mechanism that asks you several questions to find out what you want. This mechanism works for you to plan new routes and create a map module from an already created one. For example, if you have created a four-day route, then you only have to write the following: “Group everything in one map module” When you do this, a map module will be generated within Claude, with tabs for each of the days and a list of places you plan to go. These sites will be linked on the map so you know where to go from, and you can open the route in Google Maps. Create specialized AI You have two very good alternatives to create an AI specialized in the destination using only the documents that you give him as a knowledge base. The best of them is use NotebookLMbecause in addition to uploading PDFs and other files you can also add YouTube videos or websites as sources from which you will get the information. You can also use Claude. The advantage in both cases is that have control of the fonts you usebeing able to add travel guides that you trust to the sources, or official websites where all the first-hand information is available. Ask him to make your suitcase list I must admit that I am terrible at organizing my suitcase, and this is something that AI can also help you with. You can ask him to creates a list of things to take which will be personalized depending on your destination, the duration of the trip and the activities you are going to do. You can use a prompt like this: “I’m going to spend 5 days on the Costa Brava during Easter. There will be some hiking, trips to the beach if the weather is good and some dinner at a restaurant. Can you make me a complete packing list, including clothes, shoes, toiletries and various items?” In case you decide to use Claude, since he can make you a interactive packing list with a check list so that you can complete all the items you have included and know which ones you are missing. If you prefer you can also dictate to the AI ​​the things you want to have on your list of luggage, so that it is personalized. Then, when something else occurs to you, you can go to the chat you have with the AI ​​for this and ask it to add or remove items, or even ask it if you are missing something considering when and where you are going. Gemini finds flights for you and compares prices Although all AI chatbots can help you search for flights, Gemini integrates Google Flights along with the rest of Google tools. That makes the search engine company’s AI the best alternative to search for flights and give you all the information about prices and availability. To use this function you can ask directly for flight options from your city of origin to your destination by specifying the dates, and the … Read more

the European recipe to save the wine crisis

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Touring La Rioja in autumn is to enter an impressive sea of ​​color in the form of small yellow, orange and red trees. However, this characteristic bucolic landscape will change in the coming years following Europe’s plan: uproot vineyards. Paradoxically, from the same place from which they have been receiving funds for decades to promote the expansion of the sector. The EU Wine package. It is Europe’s roadmap to manage the crisis that the sector is going through and was agreed in December 2025. How? Going from expansion to contraction of supply administratively. Thus, it favors the destruction of productive vineyards definitively and voluntarily with incentives. In addition, the plantation system is made more flexible, extending deadlines and exempting from fines those who decide not to use their plantation authorizations. On a commercial level, Brussels is committed to modernization and added value over volume, consolidating alternatives such as non-alcoholic wines and digital labeling with QR codes. Why it is important. To begin with, due to the economic magnitude of the sector in the EU and what these definitive goodbyes imply: it supports 2.9 million jobs and contributes more than 130,000 million euros to the community GDP, according to the report “Economic, social and environmental importance of the wine sector in the EU” by the European Wine Business Committee prepared by PwC. Rioja has recently opened the aid application deadline and offers between 2,300-2,600 euros per hectare. But also because the EU plan involves applying the same measures for different realities. By not distinguishing between regions with large surpluses (Bordeaux) and areas with more balanced markets (such as Rioja or Duero), there is a risk of destroying agricultural capital of incalculable value. The drama is not that about “bad wine”, but that the market can no longer absorb even wines with Designation of Origin. Context. For decadesthe Common Agricultural Policy subsidized vineyards by protecting minimum prices, which distanced the farmer from a market reality in which supply exceeded demand. This approach generated large structural surpluses: since the 80s There is the term “wine lake” to refer to that overproduction derived from central planning that ignored the change in consumer habits. We drink less and less wine and The new generations are not so interested. Nevertheless, Spain more or less holds the type although it is not immune to changing habits: people drink less frequently and more selectively and the alcohol-free options. Europe tried some patchesbut the wine package is the current and most drastic response to the problem that the agrarian policy itself created. Evolution of global wine consumption. Source: International Organization of Wine and Vine La Rioja, ground zero. La Rioja has already made a move opening the aid period for the green harvesta first step that this year seeks to identify those who are willing, in the near future, to say goodbye definitively to their vines. What is “Green Harvest”? Destroy the grapes before they ripen. There is a key nuance: 15 extra points are awarded to those who commit to uprooting their vines forever in the future. The impact of the measure. The consequences of this plan are measured in terms of feasibility and territory: On an economic level, while the green harvest is paid between 2,300 and 2,600 euros per hectare, the definitive grubbing is estimated between 4,000 and 6,000 euros/hectare (in France). In any case, the basis of the aid seeks to reach the professional whose income depends exclusively on the countryside, trying to avoid the collapse of the rural economy (for example, in Rioja). Loss of assets. The uprooting destroys irreversible agricultural capital. In areas where there is no alternative or the sector’s roots are deep, such as La Rioja (honoring the slogan: the land with a wine name), it can be a catalyst for the abandonment of the territory and a change in its landscape. Towards a luxury wine. Or a wine without. The sector is moving towards a model of less and more, a shift towards adding value to the product. In short, the wine that remains on the market is scarcer and can defend higher prices. Likewise, its survival depends on accepting that wine is no longer a mass consumption product, but rather a value-added good adapted to new trends. In Xataka | For the first time in history the possibility of a Mediterranean without wine is beginning to appear on the horizon In Xataka | Green squares in the middle of the desert: Namibia’s “miracle” to fill Europe’s supermarkets with grapes Cover | Shaury

is ceasing to be the ‘Chinese Samsung’ to be something more similar to ‘the Chinese Apple with a car’

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Xiaomi’s 2025 has been a record in several aspects, but also the certification of something that we had been seeing coming for a long time: the end of the Xiaomi that we knew. And it gives way to a new, much more interesting Xiaomi. Why is it important. For years, Xiaomi was the company that made the margins of Apple and Samsung a war to fight. His promise was, above all, the price. Now, for the first time in its history, the smartphone segment has decreased by 2.8% in revenue while the electric car and AI segment has grown by 224%. The company that built its identity on bargain He has started talking about something else. The panoramic. Total revenue in 2025 exceeded 450 billion yuan (about 57.7 billion euros), 25% more than the previous year and the first time that the company has surpassed the 400 billion barrier. Adjusted net profit reached 39.2 billion yuan (about 4.95 billion euros), an all-time high. But the real headline is in the composition of that revenue: a year ago, the smartphone and IoT device business represented 91% of the total. It has now fallen to 76.8%. Fourteen percentage points in a single year is too abrupt a drop not to assume that we are facing a different scenario. Between the lines. The segment that Xiaomi calls “smart electric vehicle, AI and other new initiatives” has achieved its first year with positive operating profit: 900 million yuan (about 114 million euros). The figure seems modest, but in reality it hides an intentionally opaque financial architecture. That same segment has increased its operating expenses by 87.7% year-on-year, to 24.8 billion yuan. Included are the costs of the car, but also the billion-parameter MiMo language modela robotics program, the development of own chips and the AI ​​agent platform Xiaomi miclaw. That is to say: the profits from the car are financing the company’s AI bet. And in 2026 that balance could be broken: Xiaomi has committed 16,000 million yuan (about 2,020 million euros) only in AI and “embodied intelligence” this year, part of a three-year plan of 60,000 million. The contrast. While the car moves forward, the phone moves backwards. The gross margin of the smartphone segment has fallen from 12.6% in 2024 to 10.9% in 2025, and in the fourth quarter it plummeted to 8.3%. The reason is the memory crisis: the demand for AI data centers has generated a bullish supercycle in DRAM and NAND prices which is swallowing the profitability of any mobile manufacturer. In the end, the same AI boom that Xiaomi is trying to capitalize on is what is eroding its core business. The company that financed its expansion based on tight margins in mobile phones now discovers that those margins are unsustainable precisely because of the trend it wants to lead. For years, the label that best defined Xiaomi was “the Chinese Samsung”: a company with a very wide range of products, presence in all price segments and a business model built on volume. Now the accounts point in another direction. The growing weight of the ecosystem of services on a base of premium hardware, the car as an aspirational extension of the brand and the own AI models integrated into all devices draw something more similar to Apple: a closed ecosystem where the hardware is the gateway and the services are the margin. The CEO of Ford already drew this parallel. With the difference that Xiaomi also makes the car. Apple doesn’t do that. The context. This shift has not come overnight. We have been seeing for years how Xiaomi patiently built its premium jump, first with Leica cameras, then with a SU7 that aimed directly at Tesla and Porsche. What the 2025 results confirm is that this repositioning is no longer a declaration of future intentions: it is the present financial reality of the company. One detail: 60% of buyers of the SU7 They are iPhone users, a sign that Xiaomi is capturing the consumer who pays for ecosystems, not specifications. The big question. Can a single company simultaneously maintain an under-pressure smartphone business, scale an electric car operation with some fiscal uncertainty, and fund an AI program with indefinite to delayed returns? The 754 million monthly active users and the 1,080 million connected IoT devices that Xiaomi has are an argument for optimism, but maintaining three demanding fronts at the same time, with the business that finances them under siege, is the great challenge that Xiaomi has ahead of it for this new stage. In Xataka | Leica is teaching Xiaomi everything it knows: when the student no longer needs the teacher, the agreement will have fulfilled its function Featured image | Xiaomi

We know its price and even its name from the most expensive mansion in Spain. The only thing we don’t know is who sells it.

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In Sierra Blanca, the urbanization most exclusive in Marbellawalls do not only delimit properties. They are also silent. It is the unwritten rule of Spanish luxury. The most expensive mansion of the country has just gone on sale with 5,600 square meters of luxuries and opulencewhich does not lack a fountain inspired by the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas. His sale price It is 70 million euros and has absolutely everything, except the answer to the most obvious question: who is selling it? ELON MUSK VS JEFF BEZOS: STAR WARS An oasis of luxury overlooking the Mediterranean As and as highlighted ForbesSierra Blanca is one of the most exclusive urbanizations in Spain and a natural fortress for privacy. Nestled on the slope of the mountain range that gives it its name is Villa Bellagio. The impressive mansion sits on a plot of 14,000 m2 300 meters above sea level. Its gardens mix palm trees, cypresses and native species in a setting designed both for beauty and to keep its tenants out of reach. of curious looks. The 22-meter infinity pool seems to extend to the horizon, with spectacular views over the Mediterranean. A fountain, a replica of the one at the Bellagio hotel-casino in Las Vegas, greets visitors before they even cross the door. The façade, designed by the Spanish architect Jesús del Valle, is impressive with a double staircase flanked by 20 columns up to eight meters high. Engel & Völkers In fact, the house is so ostentatious that it even caught the attention of YouTuber Ibai Llanos, who dedicated it to one of his videos in which he went through it it already showed its details. The mansion was built by Joe Ricotta, founder of a logistics company in the United Kingdom and a luxury real estate developer in Spain. According to the local pressRicotta sold the property (at that time called Villa Ricotta) in 2021. for 40 million euros. However, no one knows the identity of the current owner, faithful to the tradition of discretion that prevails among the residents of the most exclusive urbanization in Spain. Thirteen suites and no random details The interior of the mansion does not disappoint those who arrive expecting opulence and luxury in abundance. The 5,600 m2 built of the mansion are distributed in thirteen suites between its two floors: four of 40 m2 each on the ground floor and eight of up to 50 m2 each on the upper floor. Engel & Völkers Each of the suites has large windows with direct views of the Mediterranean and its own marble-clad bathroom. In total, no less than 24 bathrooms spread throughout the house. The main living room exceeds 200 m2 and connects with a dining room for 14 people and an impressive 60 m2 kitchen with state-of-the-art appliances. Engel & Völkers During his visit to the spectacular mansion, Ibai discovered that the entire house had a centralized home automation system from which the lighting, climate, blinds and sound are controlled in every corner of the house. An in-house electricity generator and several independent water tanks ensure that nothing ever fails, turning the lavish mansion into a self-sustaining bunker. The lower floor is the best example that Villa Bellagio is not a conventional luxury mansion and falls into another category. The spa area includes a heated indoor pool, haman, Finnish sauna, massage room and full gym. Engel & Völkers The leisure offer of the mansion includes a private cinema with capacity for 22 spectators, a double bowling alley of professional sizes, a billiard room with its own bar and a hairdressing and manicure salon for exclusive use. For motor lovers, the mansion reserves its most extravagant chapter: an air-conditioned gallery where to exhibit a collection of up to 12 vehicles as if they were museum pieces, with lighting designed to highlight every detail of their bodies. Underground, a second garage accommodates 40 more cars. In total, 52 places of parking for a collection which, in this context, no one would consider excessive. Engel & Völkers Concierge, cleaning and maintenance services with five-star hotel standards complete the proposal that, more than a home, functions as a private resort. All this behind walls that, as tradition dictates in Sierra Blanca, they reveal nothing about who lives (or has lived) on the other side of the luxurious entrance gate. In Xataka | The most expensive mansion in the world costs 1 billion dollars: the CEO of Citadel is building it in Florida Image | Engel & Völkers

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