Month: March 2026

Six chapters of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ have been waiting for an adaptation since Jackson’s films. The wait is over

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Warner Bros. has announced that Stephen Colbert, host of ‘The Late Show’ and one of the most recognizable and relevant faces of entertainment in the United States (and also one of the greatest Tolkien experts in the world of entertainment), will co-write ‘The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past’, the second of two new films in development for the franchise. He does it with his son, screenwriter Peter McGee, and veteran Philippa Boyens. The Middle Earth franchise is picking up speed again. A special partner. The announcement was made on March 25, traditionally known among fans as the Tolkien Reading Daywith Peter Jackson looking at the camera from what looked like a home video and promising “a very special partner”. That partner is Stephen Colbert, well-known presenter of the talk show ‘The Daily Show’ (which this year faces its final season). Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema have thus communicated that Colbert will co-write ‘The Lord of the Rings: Shadow of the Past’, the second of two new films in the franchise currently in development. What will count? Colbert identified years ago a hole in Jackson’s trilogy: the third to eighth chapters of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, from ‘Three’s Company’ to ‘Fog in the Barrows’, pages that the director never transferred to the screen in 2001. Within those chapters is Tom Bombadil, the Tolkien character whose absence in the original films became one of the fandom’s most persistent complaints. “I found myself reading those six chapters over and over again,” Colbert explained to Jackson in the video“thinking that maybe it could be his own story that fits into the larger one.” The official synopsis places the action fourteen years after Frodo’s death: Sam, Merry and Pippin retrace their steps, reliving the first moments of their adventure. Meanwhile, Sam’s daughter, Elanor, discovers a buried secret that nearly derailed the War of the Ring before it even began. It is a story that unites the past and present of the franchise and that, according to the synopsis, opens the door for actors from the original cast to reprise their roles with a narratively coherent age. More fronts. ‘Shadow of the Past’ will arrive after ‘The Hunt for Gollum‘, the film directed by Andy Serkis (player of Gollum in the original trilogy) and whose premiere is scheduled for December 17, 2027. Serkis returns to the character in a story located between the events of ‘The Hobbit’ and those of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’, and filming has not yet started. It is not the only adaptation underway: Amazon continues with the third season of ‘The Rings of Power‘, and periodic re-releases are planned to celebrate anniversaries such as the 25 years of ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’. The corporate context. Another layer in the succession of ingredients that season this new adaptation. Paramount is acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery in a merger valued at approximately $111 billion, which is expected to take place before the fourth quarter of 2026. Colbert, ironically, leaves CBS (owned by Paramount) with his ‘The Daily Show’ to work with Warner Bros., the studio that that same corporate group will end up controlling. Colbert’s talent. Colbert’s participation in the script is not an empty promotional nod. The presenter’s relationship with Tolkien dates back decades: when he was a teenager he abandoned sports and schoolwork to read Tolkien systematically: not only ‘The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’, but all of the author’s work. jackson said of him in 2012 that “I have never met a bigger Tolkienian fan in my life.” One of the many pieces of evidence he treasures: when Colbert visited the set of ‘The Hobbit’, Jackson organized a question and answer contest between him and Philippa Boyens, the screenwriter of the trilogy who will now co-write ‘Shadow of the Past’ with him. Colbert won. In 2013 he had a cameo in ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ as a Lake City spy, along with his wife and children (including Peter McGee, co-writer of the new film). The following year he moderated the ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’ panel at the San Diego Comic-Con. completely disguised as the same character. In 2019 he directed the short film ‘Darrylgorn’, starring Ian McKellen, Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood. A stop as a start. The cancellation of ‘The Daily Show’ is what made the project possible. C.B.S. announced in July 2025 the closure of the programin the midst of tensions between Colbert and Paramount after the network’s agreement with Donald Trump to settle a lawsuit by the president with the program ’60 Minutes’, of which the presenter has always been very critical. The last episode is scheduled for May 21, 2026, closing eleven years at the helm of the title. Colbert acknowledged in the ad from the movie that “turns out I’m going to be free starting this summer.” In Xataka | A demographer has spent weeks solving a very important question: how many people lived in Tolkien’s Middle Earth

The solution is to ejaculate every day

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For decades we have had a very clear idea in our minds about male fertility: to have a good semen sample, it is necessary that there is a period of abstinence in which the man should not ejaculate. Now this idea has completely changed with a new review published in which this idea is now completely eliminated, recommending having to ejaculate at least once a day. What we thought. The guidelines that were conditioning a good part of human reproduction did not come from anywhere, but from the WHO itself, which today recommends between 2 and 7 days without ejaculating before undergoing a seminogram. A fundamental test to be able to see the quality of semen with the number of sperm and their movements. The new paradigm. The key research It was published at the end of this month of March and its conclusions leave no room for doubt that the protocols of fertility clinics must change sharply. To reach these conclusions, Oxford researchers They have not fallen short with the data, since they have integrated no less than 115 studies in humans, covering more than 54,800 men, and 56 studies in 30 animal species. This enormous amount of information, whose open data is available on the Dryad platform, has served to demonstrate a fundamental biological phenomenon: post-meiotic senescence. What does it mean. This term refers, in very extreme terms, to the fact that sperm ages and ‘spoils’ if it is stored for a long time. If we develop it a little further, the researchers point out that prolonged storage in men’s reproductive tracts causes greater DNA damage, triggers oxidative stress and drastically reduces sperm motility. But the most important thing is that this occurs regardless of the age of the man, or the male in the case of animals. In this way, the problem is not how old a man is to be able to have offspring, but rather how long that sperm has been ‘saved’. A paradigm shift. The Oxford findings, supported by different previous studies, clash head-on with the current guidelines that the WHO has and that are followed in many parts of the planet. In this way, if the sperm begins to suffer damage from oxidation and DNA fragmentation after a few days, asking fertility patients to wait up to a week of abstinence is counterproductive, since we would be obtaining a sample of poorer quality. Previous studies had already seen that abstinence longer than 3 days increases sperm DNA fragmentation by up to 50%, but when daily ejaculations are made, sperm vitality improves significantly. The conclusion. With all this information, Oxford points out that regular ejaculation, whether with sexual intercourse or masturbation, is the best way to guarantee high-quality sperm. This is data that is crucial not only for humans, but also for captive breeding programs for animals. But where this is going to mark a before and after is in fertility clinics, whether with couples who have problems having a child or even for those men who they donate their semenwhere you would also be getting a sample of lower quality than the real one. Cover | Generated with Gemini In Xataka | ‘Children of Men’ is ceasing to be a dystopia: the global sperm count has been sinking for years

The best alternatives to Sora to create videos with artificial intelligence

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Now that OpenAI has decided to close Sorathe door opens to find alternatives to create videos with AI Let them try to live up to it. It is not easy, because models like Sora 2 They were offering amazing results. We are going to offer you a list with the best 7 alternatives to Soraso you can still use artificial intelligence to create small clips. It will be a combination of popular alternatives and others that offer amazing AI engines. We will tell you the prices of their payment plans and if they have any free ones. Google I Spy Let’s start with the most popular alternativewhich is the Google DeepMind video generation. Together with Sora, it had been fighting for leadership in cinematographic quality, and Google is investing a lot to be able to maintain a good pace in the development of new versions of I see. To be able to access Google video creation you will have to use the AI ​​payment plans. These start with the 7.99 euros per month of the Google AI Plus for limited access to the Veo 3.1 Fast model, and followed by the 21.99 euros per month of the Google AI Studio for greater access to the full model. Of course, it is very easy to use because it is integrated into Gemini, and also into the Flow tool. Kling Although he is not usually talked about much, Kling is right now one of the strongest alternatives for create videos from text or images. It is one of the most balanced alternatives, with a good capacity to generate videos with realistic humans and quite natural movements. Kling is also quite affordable. It has a free plan that gives you several monthly credits to be able to do tests, and its standard plan starts at only $6.99 per month, with FullHD videos, and other options such as image creation or scaling. runway Runway had been there for more than a year rubbing shoulders with Sora with key improvements to visual coherence and motion realism. That consistency is maintained in both characters and environments between different scenes, and offers cinematic controls with precise camera movements, as well as advanced editing tools. It has a free demo plan with only 125 unique credits that are not recharged. Then, the price of their payment plans starts at $15 per month for 625 monthly credits and $35 per month for 2,250 credits, which can be used for both videos and creating images. freepik Freepik is a Spanish company that allows you to create images, video and audio with artificial intelligence, which includes the best third-party models to be able to generate them. In each creation you can choose the model to use, and you can even train an AI to create styles, characters and products. Freepik plans start at 8 euros per month with 8,000 credits per month, or 16 per month for 20,000 credits. Then, its most ambitious plan costs 36 euros per month, although in it you can use the best image creation models without limits or credit consumption. Prices go down with annual plans. Seedance Seedance has started the year strongly, being the greatest brutality we have seen in video generation by AI in a long time with the arrival of its model Seedance 2.0. It is simply at the top of its game today, with a multimodal approach that allows combine images, videos, audio and text at the same time when giving the prompt to generate the video. The own consumer platform where you can officially use Seedance is Capcut’s Dreamina, and has a free plan which offers about 225 daily credits for all the utilities of its platform. This gives you 2 or 3 videos a day. Then, you have plans of 14, 20 and 40 euros per month. pika Pika is a pretty fun alternative, specialized in creating content for social networks. It has curious options such as the creative transformation of elements, visual effects or transitions between keyframes. All this in an environment with a small learning curve. This AI has a free plan with watermarks and just 80 credits per month. Then, you have $10, $35, and $95/month plans, all with more credits and faster generations. Grok Grok is also making a meteoric space for itself in the sector, especially encouraged by the creation of video without blocks and less censorship. Supports the creation of videos using text, images or video, creating short clips. The big problem is that Grok only allows you to create videos with its paid plan. It has a free plan, but this only allows you to create images. If you want to create videos you will have to go to your $30 a month plan. In Xataka Basics | The best applications to have local artificial intelligence on your mobile or PC, without needing a connection and with greater privacy

just bombed the “Uber of shahed drones” between Russia and Iran

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Although more than 90% of world trade travels by sea, there are routes that do not even appear on common trade maps and yet concentrate all types of critical flows of goods and technology. In some of these corridors, it is enough to turn off a simple transponder to disappear from the radar and turn an ordinary journey into something much more difficult to track. And one of them directly “connects” the war in Ukraine with that in Iran. The “Uber of the shahed.” Israel has found and beaten much more than a port: it has attacked the invisible highway that connected two apparently separate wars, that of Ukraine and the Middle East. As? For months, the Caspian Sea functioned as a discreet runner where Russia and Iran exchanged Shahed drones, ammunition and technology far from Western reach, a true “Uber of the Shahed” that moved weapons silently while the ships they turned off their transponders. This logistical system allowed the same drones that fell on kyiv or Kharkiv to also fuel attacks in the Gulf, and its partial destruction It not only aims to disrupt supplies, but also reveals the extent to which both conflicts are intertwined. A key route for two simultaneous wars. Because the Caspian corridor was not a secondary route, but a centerpiece of the Russian and Iranian military equipment, used to transport hundreds of thousands of projectiles and millions of ammunition, in addition to drones that both countries they already produce jointly. They remembered in the Wall Street Journal that Russia depended on this route to sustain its war effort in Ukraine, while Iran used it to project power in the Middle East, turning maritime traffic between Bandar Anzali and Russian ports into a critical logistics artery. Its hybrid nature, mixing civil commerce with military shipments, made its detection and blocking even more difficult. Technological and total war partners. I was counting this morning the financial times that the relationship between Moscow and Tehran has evolved from one-off cooperation to integration ever deeperone in which Russia provides intelligence, satellite images and technological improvements, while Iran provides expertise in cheap drones and mass production. However, that relationship is no longer one-way: Russia has perfected the Shahed in Ukraine (improving navigation, payload and jam resistance) and is now in a position to return Iran vmore advanced versionscapable of increasing the effectiveness of their attacks or serving as a basis for new generations of weapons. The Israeli coup and its effect. Apparently the attack against Bandar Anzali It has destroyed key infrastructure, from ships to command and maintenance centers, with the explicit aim of demonstrating that not even the Caspian is a safe space for Iran. Beyond the physical damage, the operation also seeks to disorganize temporarily the flow of weapons and send a strategic message: Israel can reach critical logistical nodes even in areas considered outside of direct conflict. Plus: By affecting a route that also transports civilian goods such as wheat or energy, the coup places additional pressure on Iranian internal stability. A system also vulnerable. Despite the impact, neither Russia nor Iran depend on a single path, and it is likely that redirect your shipments to other ports or routes, maintaining the flow, although with greater costs and delays. That said, the attack has exposed a structural weaknessThere is no doubt: the need to maintain discreet but concentrated logistics corridors, susceptible to being identified and hit. Put another way, modern war is not only fought on the front lines, but in these invisible networks that sustain production and supply. Strategic message. If you also want, what has happened in the Caspian redefines the map of the conflict, because it shows that wars are no longer a kind of watertight compartments, but rather interconnected systems where a logistics chain can feed multiple fronts. By bombing this route, Israel has not only hit Iran, but also indirectly the russian military machinery in Ukraine, showing that the battle for drones (and the chains that transport them) is a global conflict. From that prism, the “Uber of the Shahed” was not just another route: it was the symbol of a new form of war, one that is now also a priority objective. Image | Alma, Wikimedia, Kyiv City State Administration In Xataka | Drones and ballistic missiles have revolutionized warfare. Iran suspects there is another weapon: rain theft In Xataka | Iran has sent a message with a ballistic missile 4,000 km away: Europe is within reach, including Spain

The thinnest iPhone is also now shrinking in price and you can get it at a historic low

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A few months ago, Apple launched the iPhone Airwhose hallmark is being Apple’s thinnest mobile phone to date. Its recommended price is 1,219 euros but, now, on Amazon, it has reached its all-time low price: 899 euros. This makes it a perfect opportunity to get one of the latest releases from the bitten apple brand. If Amazon sells out, MediaMarkt you have it at the same price. Apple iPhone Air 256 GB: The Thinnest iPhone Ever Created The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An iPhone that fits in any pocket In September 2025, Apple presented this new iPhone Airalong with the new family of iPhone 17. Its technical specifications are good, but if there is something that has become its hallmark, it is its thickness of only 0.56 cmthus becoming the company’s thinnest smartphone. The chip that acts as a brain is A19 Prowhich is the same one that mounts the iPhone 17 Pro Max and offers extraordinary power. In addition, the internal storage it comes with is 256 GB, more than enough for most users. Even if you think that because it is an ultra-thin mobile, the battery it has will not offer you good autonomy, the company assures that it reaches 27 hours of video playback. On the other hand, its photographic section also deserves mention, with a 48MP Fusion camera and an 18 MP Center Stage front. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: offer for the iphone air today ✅ THE BEST Its thickness: It is only 5.6 mm and it is also a very light mobile (165 grams), so the feeling when holding it is very different from any other current phone, since it seems like you are holding a sheet of glass and titanium. 6.5-inch ProMotion display: The screen is not one of the sections in which Apple has skimped. It is OLED type, with 120 Hz and reaches up to 3,000 nits of brightness. ❌ THE WORST Single rear camera: It is, perhaps, the most controversial point. Due to lack of physical space, it only has a 48 MP lens. Although it offers good results, you lose the wide angle and optical zoom of the Pro models. Mono Sound: There’s also no room for a powerful stereo speaker system. The sound comes mainly through the earpiece and, although it is clear, it can sound more “noisy” and with less bass than an iPhone 17 Pro. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are a design enthusiast and hate heavy phones that bulge in your pocket. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You are a mobile photographer, you play a lot of demanding titles or you need the battery to last two days. Some accessories that may interest you for this mobile Apple AirPods 4, Wireless headphones The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Otterbox Commuter Series MagSafe Case for iPhone Air The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Jose García (Xataka) and Apple In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | iPhone 17 vs iPhone 17 Pro vs iPhone Air. Which Apple mobile to choose based on your tastes and needs

only for Xataka Xtra subscribers

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The day has arrived, the last day specifically, to participate in the second exclusive draw for Xataka Xtra subscribers. As we mentioned last weekit is a Nothing Phone (3a) Community Editiona terminal of which only 1,000 units exist. Participating is as simple as being part of the Xtra community, something you can do from only two euros a month and that included not only access to exclusive raffles, but also a good handful of additional benefits. Giveaway will end today, March 26, at 11:59 p.m. Spanish peninsular timeand the winner will be revealed tomorrow, March 27, at 9:00. The winner will be notified by email and will be published in both the original article and our exclusive server for subscribers on Discord. How to participate in the giveaway This giveaway is reserved for subscribers of Xataka Xtra. If you’re already part of the community, participating is easy – just make sure the box in the image below is checked. You can access directly from this link, or also by displaying the side menu and selecting “Manage subscription”. Make sure you check that box to automatically participate in the exclusive Xataka Xtra draws | Image: Xataka And that’s it! By checking that box, you will automatically be entered not only in this giveaway, but also in all the ones to come. That includes the one we’ll announce next Monday, wink wink, nudge, nudge. The winner will be chosen at random from all participating subscribers, along with two alternates. If the winner does not respond within the period indicated in the legal bases, the first substitute will be contacted, and if he/she does not respond either, the second will be contacted. Winning a giveaway does not exclude you from participating in the following ones. You can consult the complete legal bases here. In Xataka | Subscribe now to Xataka Xtra

Neuroscience is debunking the myth of “crazing” the night before

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Given the need to want to study a specific topic efficiently, we can do numerous searches for the best technique to achieve itespecially those of us who are students. At first, science and education have maintained an almost unbreakable dogma: for a brain to associate two events and learn, constant repetition is the key. but now nuances have been added. What we do. Nowadays, it can be a study technique to stay up all night with coffee in hand trying to cram an entire syllabus intensely in a short period of time. This way, we only see the syllabus once and never again. But this is not the best study, reading or productivity technique in general. An evolution. For decades, classical learning models, such as those based on traditional reinforcement learning, assumed that the more times you are exposed to a stimulus followed by a reward (or hit), the faster you learn. However, a revolutionary study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), led by researcher and published recently in Nature Neuroscience has shown that we were looking at the problem backwards. And we saw it the other way around because the important thing in study is not how many times we expose ourselves to new knowledge, but the time that has passed between two temporal moments in which we have begun to study a concept. And this is precisely what tools such as the famous flashcards that appear in the educational field with increasing force take advantage of. What has been seen? The research team in this case carried out experiments with mice where dopamine was measured that freed your brain, pointing to the fact that the learning rate scales proportionally with the time interval between rewards, and not with the number of trials. To understand it easily, if a mouse has a long interval between two stimuli, it needs much fewer repetitions for its brain to release the dopamine necessary to consolidate what it has learned. This is why we see how the brain optimizes learning based on the total time invested in a spaced manner, making quick and repetitive bursts of study very ineffective. Because? We already know that spacing out study is best for our memory, but… Why does this happen? Here science tells us that dopamine acts as a very specific teaching signal in our brain circuits. In this way, when learning something new, dopamine updates our “predictions” retrospectively. When we try to understand why our memory works this way, we see that too much dopamine during intensive initial learning can even impair early memory consolidation, causing us to be so overwhelmed that we retain nothing. But when it has time to act, it has the ability to strengthen the synapses to establish knowledge in our long-term memory. Simply put, if we don’t let the brain rest between repetitions, the neurochemical consolidation processes are not allowed to do their job. In real life. As we have been repeating, this is the scientific basis that establishes the bases of the study focused on flashcards or even in well-known applications such as Duolingo to learn languages. These systems take advantage of spaced repetition to maximize the retention in memory of the new knowledge they are faced with. And in case evidence is missing, a study done on medical students has shown that using double-spaced repetition techniques compared to single-spaced or traditional intensive study increases long-term knowledge retention drastically, since 62% retention is achieved, while before the study 52% was retained. Images | sq lim In Xataka | People who go to the library to study do not do it for show: science is clear that it is very productive

A 4.6 billion-year-old “recorder” was hidden in asteroid dust: what it said changes what we knew

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We think of memory as something linked to memories that fade or transform over time. But there is another form of memory that is much more precise and stubborn, one that does not depend on people or technology and still preserves information with extraordinary fidelity. Some rocks are capable of recording the magnetic environment in which they were formed. That is what happens with the dust of a very particular asteroid: small particles that have preserved a magnetic signal for billions of years that today allows us to reconstruct what the solar system was like in its early stages. That “record” is not a metaphor. It comes from particles collected on the asteroid Ryugu and brought to Earth in 2020 by Japan’s Hayabusa2 mission. As Eurekalert points outa team led by Masahiko Sato has analyzed their magnetic behavior and has found signals that suggest that these particles retained information from the environment in which they were formed. This opens the door to reconstructing what the magnetic fields present in the protoplanetary diskthat is, the “nursery” where the planets were formed. {“videoId”:”x86bfqj”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”JAMES WEBB: A TIME MACHINE and a SPACE TELESCOPE”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”504″} A trace that cannot be erased. The key is how some minerals react to the magnetic field when they form. Its internal structures, formed by small magnetic domains, are oriented following that field and remain “locked” when the material solidifies. That process leaves a lasting mark that scientists can measure today with highly sensitive instruments. This phenomenon, known as natural remanent magnetization, turns these particles into physical witnesses of the past. The challenge. The first analyzes of these samples offered very different conclusions: some studies suggested that they preserved a stable magnetic signal from the early solar system, while others argued that they had formed in a region with practically no magnetic field. There were also those who suggested that the signals detected could be due to contamination during analysis on Earth. Part of the problem was based on these works, which were based on a very limited number of particles, just seven, which made it difficult to obtain solid conclusions. New samples. To resolve these discrepancies, The team significantly expanded the number of particles analyzedgoing from seven to 28, which allowed us to work with a much more solid statistical base. After applying demagnetization techniques to eliminate possible modern signals, the results showed a clearer pattern: 23 of the 28 particles retained a stable magnetic signal. Of these particles, eight showed two stable components and one presented spatially inhomogeneous magnetization directions, something difficult to explain if the signal had been introduced later on Earth. In Xataka We have a serious problem in our plans to colonize Mars: the astronauts’ blood is mutating Why is it important. The detected signals suggest that these materials originated in an early phase of the solar system, approximately between 3 and 7 million years after its formation. They also point to water alteration processes in the asteroid’s parent body. So we can say with great confidence that Ryugu is not just a pile of rocks: it is a valuable archive of the early solar system that has allowed us to better understand the magnetic environment of those times. Images | JAXA In Xataka | NASA is on its heels, so it has made a decision: advance its return to the Moon to 2030 (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news A 4.6 billion-year-old “recorder” was hidden in asteroid dust: what it said changes what we knew was originally published in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

The bill is 45,000 euros and two lost trials

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When a traffic light stops working there are road rules that we must follow until it is repaired. The worst thing is when this repair takes several days, causing chaos in traffic. That was what happened in 2023 in Valencia, and the dispute between the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) and the maintenance company remained unresolved until a few days ago. What happened. For five days in November 2023, the pedestrian traffic light located on Doctor Manuel Candela Avenue with Santos Justo y Pastor Street showed the red light and the green light at the same time. According to they count From El Motor, the first alert was registered on November 14 at 6:45 in the morning. Four days later, a municipal inspection confirmed that the problem remained unresolved. Why did it take so long? The origin of the failure, according to the Valencia City Council, was that the company that had to take charge replaced the burned out halogen lamps. for other LED types with E27 socket. Municipal services described them as “glaringly unsuitable for traffic light networks.” The problem, furthermore, was not only the type of bulb that was used, but the technical procedure they followed to install them. A procedure that municipal reports described as “technically inappropriate.” blegal attack. The City Council imposed a penalty of 45,000 euros on Electronic Trafic SA, the company awarded the contract. The company appealed, arguing that it had resolved two different breakdowns, both in less than two hours, and that the council had “deliberately” confused the terms breakdown and incident, which would entail different economic implications depending on the contract. He also alleged “animosity” from the head of the Mobility Service towards the company. The courts did not see it that way. What the judges said. The TSJCV confirmed the sanction on February 26, supporting the City Council’s thesis. The sentence highlights “the seriousness of the behavior followed by the contractor”, which left the incident unresolved for more than four days at an intersection where there is special traffic. The court highlighted that the municipal reports were “highly precise and exhaustive” and that the company did not provide sufficient technical evidence to refute them. According to point The Motor, in addition to the 45,000 euros, the company must pay 2,500 euros in procedural costs. What this sentence implies. The issue here is that the company notified of the problem but the traffic light continued not to work correctly during those days. Therefore, the city council insist in which the responsibility falls on the company, from notification to solution. The failure being a traffic light, a critical road safety device, all the more so the urgency of finding a solution. More and more cities are outsourcing intelligent traffic management to private companies, and the ruling certainly sets a precedent. What happens now? The crossing operates normally. The ruling still allows for an appeal, although the fact that two different courts have endorsed the city council’s position means that the company has little room for maneuver. Cover image | Georgi Zvezdov In Xataka | We already have the VAT discount at the pump: now the battle begins to prevent gas stations from absorbing it

Spending a night at one of LVMH’s most exclusive vacation spots isn’t cheap: $70,000 a night

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There are luxury resorts. And then there are places for which there is still no category that does justice to what they offer. He Cheval Blanc Randheli Private Island, located in the Maldives, cobra $70,000 for a single night stay in its facilities. And no, we didn’t miss any extra zeros when writing it. The property belongs to the LVMH hotel divisionthe same group behind luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon or Tiffany & Co, and what it offers for that price goes far beyond a bed overlooking the Indian Ocean: an island just for you. A resort that was already unattainable for most Cheval Blanc Randheli is located on Noonu Atoll and can only be reached by seaplane from Malé, capital of the Maldives. He LVMH luxury hotel It is divided into two islands: one where the main resort is located and a second island, separate from the main one, whose price can reach $70,000 per night. That is to say, for that price you are not renting accommodation in a villa, nor a presidential suite. It is literally a private island, with its own beaches, its pier, its dedicated staff and more than 8,000 square meters of total area. A proposal for which the word “exclusive” falls short. The luxury resort opened its doors in November 2013 as part of the Maisons collection of the brand. The main complexlocated on the largest island, is the one that welcomes the most guests, with 45 loft-style villas distributed between overwater, garden and beachfront options. Each of them is equipped with private pool infinite edge. The experience offered by this resort begins even before arriving, as guests They travel on the private seaplane by Cheval Blanc after a stay in an exclusive waiting room in Malé. Common facilities include five select restaurants, a Guerlain spagym, water activities and even the only surf simulator with artificial waves in the Maldives. Conventional villa rates at the main resort are now out of reach of most pockets. According to the accommodation portals in the areatheir prices range between $2,268 and $7,688 per night depending on the type of accommodation. The island of millionaires Cheval Blanc Randheli Private Island is an independent island separated by just 50 meters of deep turquoise sea from the main island. It has a surface area of ​​one hectare and is only accessible through a private pier. The island houses an exclusive mansion four bedrooms with approximately 2,200 square meters built, with capacity for up to eight guests. The master bedroom has panoramic views of the ocean, double bathroom, dressing room, office and its own living room. The residence also includes two family rooms on the ground floor and a separate villa for companions who prefer more privacy, making it an ideal option for families or groups of friends. This paradisiacal mansion also has three connected living rooms, a piano lounge, a private bar and a 25-meter-long pool complete the set, creating the feeling of living in a luxury tropical residence in the middle of the Indian Ocean. Beyond the luxury accommodations and equipment for the exclusive inhabitants of this island, it also includes a private spa with treatmentsgym, movie theater, tropical gardens, private beaches, pergola for outdoor dining and meditation pavilions. So that you do not lack anything during your stay, the service It is run by a resident team dedicated exclusively to the island’s guests, available 24 hours a day. A private boat connects the island with the rest of the resort, so that guests can change islands whenever they wish and eat in the restaurants, bars, kids club and diving center of the main complex, without sacrificing an ounce of their privacy. All for the modest price of 70,000 a night. In Xataka | Hotel chains no longer just offer luxury rooms: Ritz-Carlton dives into the superyacht business Image | Cheval Blanc Randheli

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