Month: March 2026

China has been pushing the boundaries of engineering for years. Its gigantic high-speed tunnel boring machine has just given another example

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China has been developing large infrastructures and its own machinery to execute them for years, with projects that tend to stand out for their size and the technical control they require. It is not just about building more, but about doing so under increasingly demanding conditions. This pattern is repeated in very different areas, from energy to scientific research, and also in transport infrastructure. Under this logic, the appearance of new machines and projects is not an exception, but rather the continuation of a clear trend that now adds a new chapter with the “Linghang” tunnel boring machine. The advance. “Linghang” has completed the section under the Yangtze Riverwith a continuous excavation of just over 11 kilometers, according to CCTV. The machine began its journey on April 29, 2024 from Chongming Island, in Shanghai, and after 23 months of work, it completed the underwater section of the river, surpassed the south dam and came ashore in Taicang, in Jiangsu province. The movement is not minor: it involves completing the section under the watercourse, one of the key points of the work, and leaving the project one step away from its next milestone. What’s behind. The operation is integrated into the tunnel Chongming-Taicanga key work within the Shanghai-Nanjing section of the Shanghai-Chongqing-Chengdu high-speed corridor. With a total length of 14.25 kilometers, this infrastructure brings together several technical milestones, including the world’s longest single head excavation distance in a high-speed tunnel, with 11.32 kilometers, and a maximum depth of 89 meters under the Yangtze. The design contemplates the passage of trains at 350 km/h even in the underground section. The machine inside. The tunnel boring machine used in this project has unusual dimensions even within this type of work: it measures about 148 meters in length and weighs around 4,000 tons. according to Global Times. It is equipped with an intelligent control system called I-TBM, designed to automatically manage a large part of the excavation process, from internal pressure to the forward position or the exit of the material. Added to this are elements such as high-pressure seals, a long-lasting main bearing and a cutting head prepared to withstand demanding conditions under the river. A project that is not an isolated case. In recent years, the country has built facilities such as the Three Gorges Dam, the FAST telescope either the EAST reactorprojects that, although they belong to different areas, share the same base: scale, technical control and own development. In this context, this type of machinery is best understood not as a specific milestone, but as one more piece within a sustained line of work. A close reference. In Spain, the Mayrit tunnel boring machine, currently in use in the expansion of line 11 of the Madrid Metrooffers a useful point of comparison to understand the magnitude of this type of machinery. Measuring about 98 meters in length, weighing around 1,500 tons and with a diameter close to 9 meters, it is a large piece of equipment within the European context. Images | CCTV In Xataka | Czechia wanted to build a highway and found a problem: an intact 2,000-year-old Celtic city

AI already dominated chess. Now it is forcing us to play in a different way to continue competing

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There is something almost universal in how we understand chess. We imagine it as a duel of pure intelligence, two players in front of a board, trying to anticipate, read the opponent and find the best response at all times. That image still holds true for most of us, whether playing at home or on an app, but in the elite the game has changed a lot. Not because chess has broken down, but because the emergence of increasingly powerful engines has altered the way it is studied, prepared and competed at the highest level. That change did not come suddenly, although it did leave a very clear scene in 2018. The world championship between Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana ended with the 12 classic games in drawssomething never seen in the history of the tournament, which dates back to 1886. That result was not an isolated rarity, but the visible sign of a trend that had been maturing for years. The more the best players relied on analysis engines to prepare their games, the narrower the margin to surprise from the start and the more difficult it became to break the balance. The trick was to stop playing like a machine To understand what has happened you have to look at how professional chess is studied today. The great masters have been working with engines, programs for years specifically designed to analyze positions and find the best continuations with precision well above the human level. We are not talking so much about conversational models as ChatGPT either Claude, who according to Bloomberg are pretty bad at chessbut from tools like Stockfish or the legacy it left AlphaZero. The underlying issue is that these tools have homogenized part of the knowledge in the elite: many players come to the board with a very similar preparation in the first plays, and that reduces the room for surprise. This shared preparation began to have a very concrete effect in practice. If both rivals know in advance the strongest lines and the most reliable answers, winning requires much more than avoiding gross errors. For years, the feeling grew that classical chess was becoming more closed at the top, not because of a lack of talent, but because each important detour was much more studied than before. Bloomberg also recalls that the fear of a “death by draw” was not new, but the arrival of engines superior to humans, since Deep Blue in 1997 and later with increasingly stronger domestic programs, gave that fear a different dimension. Carlsen’s career helps to understand to what extent this change has weighed on the elite. After the 2021 World Cup, an exhausting duel that included an eight-hour game and seven draws, The Norwegian decided not to defend the title again and cited a lack of motivation. He did not abandon classical chessin fact won Norway Chess in 2025 and is still the highest-rated player in the world, but he was showing more and more interest in faster formats such as rapid and blitz, and also in freestyle chess, which alters the initial position of the pieces to neutralize the preparation. The message that this evolution left was quite clear: even the best player on the planet seemed to look for spaces where previous study did not determine everything. The interesting thing is that the most powerful response came not only by changing the format, but also by changing the way of playing within the board itself. A new generation of grandmasters, already raised with motors, began to assume something that sounds counterintuitive: always following the computer’s first suggestion does not guarantee an advantage over another human. The aforementioned media gives a very concrete example in the 2024 Candidates Tournament, when Praggnanandhaa chose a play considered suboptimal by the engines against Ruy López, took his rival out of preparation and ended up winning. That’s the key to change. In elite chess it is no longer enough to ask what the best move is in the abstract, it is also important what it is. the most uncomfortable for the person in front of you. Engines may consider several nearly equivalent options, but not all of them create the same type of practical problem on the board. On the other hand, the engine can show you an optimal line, but that does not mean that it has taught you to understand it. Seen this way, what we are observing is a much more interesting transformation. The engines remain unbeatable and have been far ahead of humans for years, but precisely for this reason they have forced the grandmasters to move the battle to another terrain. Precision continues to be essential, but it is no longer enough on its own if it is not accompanied by judgment, understanding and the ability to adapt. Images | Florian Cordier | Pavel Danilyuk In Xataka | A study says that AIs are “cheating” at chess. That’s what we want to think

the one that the US and China are fighting 80 km away

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More than 80% of world trade It moves by sea and about 60% of that traffic passes through the Pacific Ocean, converted into the great economic highway of the planet. In this scenario, it does not seem a coincidence that the most modern ports are no longer only designed to move containers, but to influence entire global routes. A silent movement. In recent weeks, the United States has taken a key strategic step in Latin America by approving a investment of up to 1,500 million of dollars to redesign and relocate the Callao naval base, the main maritime enclave of Peru. The operation is not limited to improving infrastructure, but seeks to create an environment safer and more efficient separating military operations from civil traffic, while allowing the commercial port to expand. The project, executed under the framework of military cooperation and with US technical presence for years, consolidates Peru as a relevant partner in the regional security architecture. The shadow of the Chinese port. The element that gives true context to this decision is the growing Chinese presence in the area, especially with the development of Chancay megaportoperated by the state-owned COSCO and converted into a key part of the Silk Road. Located less than 80 kilometers from Callao, this port not only reinforces commercial links between South America and Asia, but also awakens concern in Washington for its possible dual use, civil and strategic. The proximity between both infrastructures turns the Peruvian coast into a silent point of friction between the two powers. Infrastructure as a political tool. Beyond its technical nature, the project reveals how global competition is moving to the port and logistics infrastructure. The United States is not deploying forces or weapons directly, but rather reinforcing its presence through investmentsengineering and cooperation, ensuring access, influence and future operational capacity in a key region of the Pacific. If you also want, the strategy allows you to consolidate positions without formally altering the military balance, but conditioning the long-term strategic environment. Peru as a key piece. For Peru, the initiative fits within a broader process of military and industrial modernization which includes submarines, fighters and land systems, with the participation of multiple international partners. The renovation of Callao not only improves its naval capacity, but also promotes a technological and industrial ecosystem own, reinforcing its maritime sovereignty and its role as a relevant actor in the region. This positioning turns the country into a connection point between global interests and local dynamics. The new competition. The case of Callao illustrates a deeper change in the rivalry between great powers: it is no longer just about traditional military bases, but about control logistics nodestrade routes and strategic points in the global chain. Seen this way, the United States and China are not colliding directly, but rather competing for influence through investments that, under economic appearance, have potential military implications. Because in that context, Latin America stops being a secondary scenario and becomes just another piece of the global board. Image | Creative Commons, Peru Presidency In Xataka | “Chinese money is expensive”: Peru gave the keys to a giant door to China that the US now wants to blow up In Xataka | China has been building a megaport in Peru for eight years. It has just been released to revolutionize South America

Artemis II will make the Apollo that took us to the Moon look like a space slum: it will even have a private toilet

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If all goes well, Artemis II It could be launched on April 1 towards the Moon. It will be the first time that a manned spacecraft travels to our satellite in more than 50 years and, although this time there will be no moon landing, the capsule with 4 astronauts on board will make a lunar flyby, which will be the highlight of a 10-day space trip. A week and a half during which, logically, the crew will have to clean up and relieve themselves. But how do you go to the bathroom in space? Luckily, the capsule will have a comfort that they didn’t have in the Apollo program. A toilet. The complicated mission of going to the bathroom. From Apollo 10, in 1969, until Apollo 17, in 1972there were a total of 12 astronauts who traveled to the Moon. At that time, her only toiletries were a few wet wipes. to urinate They used devices similar to condoms that were changed daily. When it was time to evacuate, they were connected to a bag, with a kind of hose. It was not a very efficient system and there were often leaks. There was also no system adapted to the female anatomy, since all the astronauts were men. The greater waters. As for feces, a bag was used that stuck to the buttocks. Something quite similar to a diaper, but with a compartment to put your hands in and use toilet paper. Again, there could be leaks. In fact, there is a transcript of an astronaut from Apollo 10 in which he asked for a napkin to pick up a fragment of feces that was floating in the air. Once caught (sometimes literally), the bags were saved and stored for analysis on land. Added to all this is that the astronauts did not have the slightest privacy to go to the bathroom in space. The experience, and especially the smell, could not have been pleasant at all. The urine collection system of the Apollo missions was very rudimentary. Opportunity cost. Whether it is for personal hygiene or for urinating or defecating, going to the bathroom in space involves two major complications. On the one hand, microgravity prevents what should fall under its own weight from doing so. We return to the problem of floating feces from Apollo 10. On the other hand, water is needed. Transporting sufficient quantities of water into space would place excess load on spacecraft. Furthermore, precisely because of microgravity, it would move freely, so that some of the many devices that exist in the small space of a capsule like the Orion of Artemis II could get wet and damaged. For this reason, the use of water is reduced to a minimum and methods are sought to overcome microgravity as much as possible. Artemis II’s toilet. In Artemis II the astronauts They will use liquid soap and leave-in shampooas well as very small amounts of water that can be dried immediately with towels. As for the most difficult part, the Orion capsule has a system similar to that used in the International Space Station. It is a container with a hose connected to a funnel through which urine descends thanks to an air suction system. Each astronaut will have their own hose and, since the crew has three men and one woman, it will adapt to both male and female anatomy, as necessary. Where does all that go?. Once the urine is collected, it is released into space. Regarding feces, they are also collected by suction and stored in sealed bags that will travel to Earth on the return trip. Best of all, this system is isolated, so astronauts can relieve themselves alone. There is a curtain that can be removed if they need more space and a door in the floor of the capsule that allows them the privacy they craved on the Apollo missions. Image | POT In Xataka | Artemis II will take NASA to the Moon half a century later. He will do it with the help of the University of Seville

expand the SER zone to Sundays and beyond 9 p.m.

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Parking on the streets of Madrid will be more complicated and more expensive. This is what can be deduced from the modifications introduced in the Sustainable Mobility Ordinance, which regulates traffic in the city. With the latest changes, the city government team has approved the extension of regulated parking services to new neighborhoods and the possibility of extending hours, including Sundays and holidays. What is the SER zone? He Regulated Parking Service (SER) is the measure applied by the city of Madrid to control surface parking in certain neighborhoods. The aim is to facilitate parking for residents and put certain obstacles in the way of outsiders to guarantee the rotation of the space. It is a system that we see in many cities in Spain for especially stressed areas where there is a high volume of cars parked on the street or where there is a large influx and residents have problems parking. In the case of Madridis characterized by: Green spaces: parking for up to two hours. It’s where you pay the most. Blue spaces: parking for up to four hours. Intermediate price. Blue and green spaces: long-term parking of up to 12 hours. Where you pay the least. Cars with an ECO label pay half and Zero emissions cars park for free with no time limit. Cars without a tag cannot park outside their neighborhood. The hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday to Friday and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. In August and on December 24 and 31, hours end at 3:00 p.m. On Sundays and holidays the service is not active and, therefore, you can park without a time limit and completely free of charge. What has been approved? On March 24, The Plenary Session of the Madrid City Council approved some modifications to the city’s Mobility Ordinance. It has been reflected that vehicles without a label (DGT badge A) They will be able to circulate through its streets (the initial plan went through ban its circulation already in 2025) and some changes in the SER zones of Madrid. These changes will make parking on the streets of the capital more difficult since the SER service will be extended to new neighborhoods in the coming years and the door opens for the hours to also be extended, including Saturdays and Sundays. According to the Madrid City Council“the initiative responds to the need to guarantee the availability of parking for residents in neighborhoods that concentrate intense commercial, cultural, sports, tourism and leisure activity, causing a high influx of visitors. With the extension of the Regulated Parking Area (AER), as established in article 49.1 of the current WHO, the aim is to balance the availability of parking for residents with the necessary rotation on public roads.” More neighborhoods. The changes in the regulatory text do not confirm the extension of the SER zone to more neighborhoods but do open this possibility “whenever the neighbors require it”, in the words of the council. In total, if the projects go ahead, the service would be extended to 18 new neighborhoods spread across six districts. Those responsible assure that 51,819 parking spaces would be created to be distributed among the districts of Fuencarral-El Pardo, Latina, Carabanchel, Usera, Ciudad Lineal and Puente de Vallecas. In order to expand the SER service, it will be necessary to have the agreement of the district board that will make the decision after consulting neighbors and associations. The calendar goes through the following extensions: Before December 31, 2029: neighborhoods of Peñagrande (Fuencarral-El Pardo), Valdezarza (Moncloa-Aravaca), Opañel and San Isidro (Carabanchel), and Costillares (Ciudad Lineal). Before December 31, 2035: Valverde (Fuencarral-El Pardo) Lucero, Aluche, Los Cármenes and Puerta del Ángel (Latina) Puerta Bonita, Abrantes, San Isidro, Opañel and Vista Alegre (Carabanchel) Zofío and Orcasur (Usera) Pueblo Nuevo, Quintana, Concepción (Ciudad Lineal) and San Diego, Palomeras Bajas and Numancia (Puente de Vallecas) The big exception will be Moratalaz, whose councilor has managed to get an amendment approved so that the SER service cannot be extended to this neighborhood. Longer. But, in addition to the fact that payment for parking will be extended to more neighborhoods if the district boards approve it, it will also be possible to extend the number of hours in which this service is active. Among the modifications, the possibility has been included that on days when a high demand for parking is expected or at specific times, the district Government Board may extend the hours beyond 9:00 p.m. from Monday to Friday and 3:00 p.m. on Sundays. They can even activate this regulated parking system on Sundays and holidays. The Madrid City Council points out that these extensions will be punctual and cannot be extended “in a fixed manner.” Therefore, “special situations that require temporary extension” will have to occur. However, there is no limit to the number of times in which this new protocol can be applied. Photo | Madrid City Council and Quique Olivar In Xataka | The secret of the perfect pedestrian neighborhood is more than half a century old and is hidden behind one word: Woonerf

A Japanese store begs its customers to sell it their used equipment.

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Building a computer today is more complicated and more expensive than it was just a few months ago. It is not just that some components are in short supply, but that the market balance has shifted and is directly affecting availability and prices. Memory is one of the best examples of that pressure, and what is happening in that market It’s starting to have knock-on effects.. What seemed like a problem limited to certain user profiles has been gaining scope and can no longer be understood as something isolated. The scene that explains everything. In Akihabara, one of the great electronics and computing centers in Tokyo, a store has decided to do something unusual: ask its own customers to sell it their used computers. Sofmap Gaming posted a message on his X account in which he openly acknowledged the situation: “Gaming PCs, even second-hand, are really out of stock right now.” Next, they launched a direct request: “Please, if you are going to buy a new one, sell us your gaming PC…”. The scene was completed with practically empty shelves and another revealing detail: the store itself assured that it is buying back quite expensively and that it buys practically any PC, whether gaming or not. Click to see the original message in X It is not an isolated case. We are facing the visible consequence of a tension that has been accumulating in the hardware market for some time. First it affected those who assembled their own equipment, with increasing difficulties in finding certain components or assuming their price. Then it began to be noticed in manufacturers and assemblerswho have had to adjust configurations and rely on previous stock to keep up. Now, that pressure has ended up being transferred to the point of sale, where it is no longer just about selling, but also about getting the product. What’s behind the shortage? To understand what we are seeing we have to look at a clear change in the industry’s priority. The explosion of AI has skyrocketed the demand for memory for chips and systems intended for that businessespecially in the data center environment, and that is altering how production is distributed. Part of the problem arises in the most advanced memory used for AI, but its impact ends up spreading to the rest of the market. From Micron they summarized it this way in statements to CNBC: “We have seen a very strong and significant increase in demand for memory, and it has far exceeded our ability to supply it.” Consequences. The pressure on memory ends up trickling down to the devices we buy, whether in the form of higher prices or less ambitious configurations. As we have said, it has already put in the computer industry, but it is also threatening the smartphone sector and the consoles. Without going any further, Sony recently announced an increase of 100 euros on the PlayStation 5. And everything seems to indicate thatCars are not going to escape this crisis either.. Old hardware that is revalued. In this context, what until recently we considered old hardware begins to have a different value. Not because its performance has changed, but because the market around it has. What we have seen in Akihabara is not an isolated anecdote, but a sign of the extent to which availability has become a real problem. When a store asks its customers to sell it their own equipment, what it is showing is that something does not fit into the usual supply chain. Images | Andrey Matveev In Xataka | The price of RAM has skyrocketed and the best example to see the debacle is a 100 euro PC: the Raspberry Pi

Cocoa is so expensive that some suspect that a shipment with 12 tons of Kitkat has been stolen

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There was a time when big robberies had their own Hollywood epic: the Bank of England goldthe diamonds of the Great Antwerp Raidthe tickets from the Federal Reserve or the assault on the Mint and Stamp House of The Money Heist. Well, in 2026, European organized crime has decided that the most valuable thing you can take with you in a truck is 413,793 chocolate bars. No, it’s not a joke. In a statement to the AFP agencyNestlé has reported the theft of a shipment of more than 12 tons of KitKat chocolates, an incident that the multinational warns could cause supply problems right in the middle of the Easter campaign. A blow to Easter. According to the company, one of its logistics trucks carrying 413,793 a batch of chocolates KitKat has disappeared while transferring between the production center and the distribution center. According to pointed Reutersthe vehicle had left a factory in central Italy bound for Poland, but its trace was lost somewhere along the way. Since then, neither the truck nor the merchandise have been located and the investigation remains open. Nestlé warns that the disappearance of more than 400,000 units could be noticed in stores in the coming weeks, just at one of the times of greatest chocolate consumption of the year with the arrival of Easter and coinciding with the preparation of traditional sweets and cakes during these days. Pay attention to the black market. The company assures that it is collaborating with local authorities and its logistics network to try to locate the sweet shipment, although for now there are no details about the exact point of the journey at which the truck disappeared. The brand also warned that the stolen bars could enter unofficial sales channels in European markets. To combat this, KitKat noted that it is possible to trace the origin of products by scanning the unique lot codes listed on each bar. If the traceability system detects a coincidence, an action manual has been put in place to alert the company. Make a KitKat. Despite the seriousness of having lost almost half a million chocolate bars, the company has found humor in the face of such an unusual situation. A spokesperson for the brand made fun of KitKat’s famous slogan about taking a break or, as they call it, “making a kitkat.” “We’ve always encouraged people to take a break from KitKat, but it seems thieves have taken it too seriously and made off with more than 12 tonnes of our chocolate.” The truth is that, joking aside, the thieves have taken a button so voluminous that it will hardly go unnoticed if they try to “place” it on the market. “While we appreciate the exceptional taste of criminals, the truth is that merchandise theft is a growing problem for businesses of all sizes,” KitKat stated in its statement. brown gold. The theft comes at a time when the cocoa market is experiencing its biggest correction in decades. After reaching all-time highs above $12,000 per ton in 2024, the price of cocoa at origin has fallen more than 60%, reaching around $3,165 per ton at the end of March 2026. However, that moderation has barely reached the consumer and the cocoa prices They rose by 18% in the EU during 2025. Despite the price of the raw material having moderated, European supermarkets keep prices rising because manufacturers passed on the increases when the market was skyrocketing, but they took it more calmly when it fell. In Xataka | Coffee and cocoa have become so expensive that they are drowning themselves: buyers do not have the money to send them Image | Unsplash (justin, Gabriel Santos)

CEO Toyota believes his extreme perfectionism is a problem

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Japan is an extremely peculiar country. It is for many reasons in the eyes of a European. One of them is the mixture of humility at work and absolute dedication to the company to achieve a common objective that materializes in designing and producing the best possible products. The contrast is more complicated to understand if possible in the automobile industry. Toyota is considered the mother of what we know today as “toyotism”. A formula to work in a chain with a very limited stock. That is, without a safety net that allows unforeseen events to be handled with a warehouse large enough to support production until the problem is solved. This is achieved, of course, by building a chain that is oiled with the precision of a Swiss watch. But also with the certainty that what goes on the market is the best version of what each worker has in hand. Toyota revolutionized automobile assembly line production by giving the workers themselves the power to stop production if any failure was detected. It is a way of working that can only be carried out when, when developing the parts and design of an entire car, you work with the firmness of philosophy Kaizen. This Japanese word defines the pursuit of perfection through continuous improvement. This allows each modified part in the process of producing a new car to have the support of years of experience behind it. This way of working has been a competitive advantage until now has made Toyota the largest car manufacturer of the world. The company was, in 2025, the world’s largest automobile producer, with more than 11 million units manufactured. Volkswagen is second and remained at 9 million units manufactured. It is the result of production measured to the millimeter and reliability earned by hard work. That philosophy kaizen which Mazda or Toyota boast has allowed the latter to always be at the top of the reliability rankings, a value when it comes to putting millions and millions of units on the market. But this way of working has its drawbacks when you have to make agile decisions. China is the train to follow “If things don’t change, we won’t survive.” The phrase is from Koij Sato, CEO of Toyota, and is especially relevant because, as we pointed out, it comes from the head of the world’s leading brand. The message was sent to 489 suppliers with the aim of making them understand the importance of improving competitiveness against Chinese companies, they state in Automotive News. According to AutoblogToyota’s quality standards have been so strict that parts have been returned with small resin wrinkles that had no impact on a vehicle’s dynamics or reliability. The same thing was happening with thousands of wire harnesses that would have been returned because they showed minor signs of discoloration. Small aesthetic defects that buyers did not even notice because they are hidden inside the vehicle itself. Now Sato has asked its suppliers to be more flexible to save money on production and be more agile. The message launched by the company’s CEO is not coincidental. Months ago, a consulting firm specialized in reverse engineering I already alerted Toyota that their electric cars were designed as combustion vehicles and that penalized them when producing them. The problem is that, according to this company, producing an electric car is so different from a combustion car that it is almost equivalent to two different products even though both have four wheels and a steering wheel. They pointed out, for example, that Toyota used steel bars and reinforcements in the steering column or to hold the dashboard, thinking about reducing vibrations. However, Chinese manufacturers and Tesla choose to increased use of plastics because those vibrations are almost non-existent in an electric car. This allows them to produce cheaper and faster. And get lighter cars. “The average customer doesn’t even see these parts,” explained Shoji Nishihara, purchasing manager for Toyota’s vehicle development department, in statements reported by forumelectriccars. The final goal is complicated. The company aims to improve competitiveness by reducing production times and making the final quality of its products more flexible. A complicated balance if we want to continue being the reference in terms of reliability. For now, Toyota believes that its perfectionism was already bordering on healthy. Photo | toyota In Xataka | The legend of the Toyota Supra, one of the legendary Japanese sports cars: the fusion of illegal racing and the Kaizen philosophy

AEMET points this year to the opposite

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We are already in Holy Week and the question that is asked a lot during all holy days is the same: is it going to rain? And it is no wonder, because practically every year during Holy Week there is some day that is quite bad and forces the much-loved processions to be suspended, causing sad scenes of people crying for not seeing the image to which they have devotion or for not being able to show off the work of an entire year. An exceptional year. But this year This does not seem to be the case, since, after the logical doubts of the previous weeks, the AEMET has confirmed that climatological stability will be the norm this Holy Week. The sun as the norm. The dominant note of this Holy Week will be thermal recovery, causing the cold fronts to be left behind and maximum temperatures to experience again. a general rise in most of the country, leaving us with a fully spring atmosphere. In the case of the regions of Andalusia and the Levant, they will be in luck as they will benefit most from this rise, causing the thermometers to be at a very pleasant 20-25 ºC. In the case of the center and north of the peninsula, they will also see mild weather, moving in a range of between 15 and 20 ºC. There is small print. Just because we are talking about general stability does not mean that the entire country will have clear skies. As is usual when Atlantic anticyclones dominate, the extreme north and some areas of the Mediterranean will bear the brunt, although without major storms in sight that are practically reduced to zero probability. In this way, the AEMET maintains active warnings in areas such as Empordà and the Balearic Islands due to strong winds from the north, which will alter the maritime situation. Something that has already resulted in the closure of the main port of Menorca. Some exception. Until Holy Thursday, the weather map will leave us with some weak rainfall on the Cantabrian coast, and there could also be scattered showers in the Balearic Islands and the southeast of the peninsula. Furthermore, the intense cold is relegated to the mountains, meaning that only weak frosts and some light snowfall are expected, but at altitudes above 1,500 meters, affecting the Pyrenees and the Iberian System. At the end of the week. Unfortunately, weather doesn’t mix well with long-term planning. This means that right now, for April 4 and 5, the predictive models point to possible instability that suggests some rain in the west and south of the peninsula, but nowhere near something widespread in a large area of ​​the region. But the a priori idea that we should have is that the sun will prevail in a good part of the peninsula, and will ensure that all devotees can enjoy a good Holy Week. In Xataka | The Polytechnic University of Valencia has fulfilled the ancient dream of farmers: predicting drought

There are two things I won’t go on a trip without. One is a powerbank and the other is a VPN

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Almost every year, I take advantage of Easter to escape outside. I am one of those manic people who prepares an endless list with pen and paper so as not to leave anything behind, whether it be clothes or tech things. In the latter, beyond the mobile phone or chargers, There are two things that I never lackas the title of this article says: one is a powerbank (I have a 20,000 mAh one) and the other, a VPN. The first thing is obvious: I want to prevent both my cell phone and my partner’s from running out of battery. The VPN, which I have installed on my mobile and laptop, is a tool that I carry to use, especially If I am going to use public WiFi like that of the airport or that of a hotel. Because? To increase my security. There are still a few days left and I haven’t chosen which one I will take, although a free one is not an option. Of those that I have on my radar, one of the most interesting is Surfshark: it is easy to use, I can install it on all my devices and it only costs 1.88 euros per month in its two-year modality. Surfshark Starter Subscription – monthly The price could vary. We earn commission from these links More security on public WiFi networks at the click of a button As we have already told you more than once, although there are free VPNs, Its security leaves something to be desired in most cases. For this reason, it makes a lot of sense to opt for a paid one like Surfshark if we are looking for an extra security in generalbut especially in those WiFi networks that we find when we travel abroad. Simply install and activate it to pass all our Internet traffic through a secure tunnel. This way you increase your privacymaking it more difficult for third parties to track your activity. Additionally, as I mentioned above, Surfshark has the added bonus that, with a single account, you can install it on all your devices. And if we talk about price, in the case of Surfshark, the truth is that it’s not that bad. Its 24-month modality costs 1.88 euros per month, which is a total of 50.76 euros. To this we must add that the company gives us 3 extra months, so we will enjoy the service for 27 months. It is an affordable price, but even more so if we take into account that we will have a VPN for a while, both at home and if we are going to travel again during all this time. 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 | Daniel Nelson, Phil Mosley In Xataka | Why it is dangerous to connect to public Wi-Fi and what you should do to protect yourself In Xataka | Best VPNs 2026: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy

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