Month: June 2026

“Do you see horses today? Remove all barriers and over time people will be convinced”

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Volkswagen needs to sell electric cars. Many. As many as I can. Next year, European Union emissions regulations threaten significant fines for the company if they do not lower their CO2 records. And that is leading the company to push hard for the client to adopt this new technology. With all kinds of strategies. The horses. This is what Martin Sander has compared, Head of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales at Volkswagen from 2024, the combustion car in an interview given to the British media Auto Express. He has done so to exemplify why he believes that bad decisions are being made when it comes to pressuring the adoption of electric cars. “Do you know when horses were banned? Since when has it been banned to buy horses? You can buy a horse today. But over time, more and more people realized that a vehicle was much better to get from A to B than a horse. Now I look out the window and I don’t see many horses, I mostly see cars.” With these words, Sander wanted to make it clear that he considers that electric cars are better than combustion cars, but that forcing the customer to switch to electric cars may not be the best option. Remove the barriers. In his interview, Sander is clear about what Europe should do: “How can you convince the customer of a new technology if you only talk about the date when it will no longer be allowed to use those vehicles – vehicles that you have been using for the last decades (referring to combustion cars) – anymore? Remove all barriers. Let’s talk about what we need to convince customers: charging infrastructure, talking positively about the advantages of electric cars and the price of energy… over time, more and more customers will be convinced.” That is to say, Volkswagen’s sales chief is committed to letting the product do the talking and rejects the idea of ​​putting a deadline on combustion engines because, according to him, it should be the market that chooses without political pressures involved. This position of Sander is not new. Last March he already made statements very similar to Autogazzetean Italian media outlet to which he stressed that prohibiting the technology already present does not help customers view electric cars favorably. A theory that is not new. How our colleagues collect L’AutomobileFor the German manager, the debate on whether or not brands should jump to electric cars is adulterated since the European Union forces them to change the roadmap they would have followed if the new emissions regulations did not exist. This position has been repeated by the industry on numerous occasions. Already in 2023, when it seemed that the European Union was moving towards a complete ban on combustion engines, Carlos Tavares, who then directed Stellantis, pointed out that “The electric car by law is not the solution”. Even within the Volkswagen Group itself, those who only sold electric cars have defended it. Mate Rimac, owner of the company that bears his name that sells electric supercars and that for a few weeks It is no longer under the German umbrellahe assured a long time ago that Their cars were not selling because their customers felt attacked due to the pressure to jump into the combustion car. Yes, but. Although Sander’s words suggest that the electric car should and can convince yourself to the customer of a combustion car without the political pressures, one would have to wonder if Volkswagen would have invested billions of euros in new platforms, electric cars and factories if the European Union had not previously proposed a ban on combustion engines. And in the automobile industry, technology has rarely been imposed without political pressure. The truth is that If today we use unleaded gasoline It is because the manufacturers were forced to use catalysts and it ended up being ban the sale of leaded fuel for being too harmful. The Clean Air Act in the United States is now more than 50 years old and if Tesla is still alive it is because there Manufacturers like Toyota were forced to register a minimum of electric cars more than 20 years ago. They need to sell. However, the fact that the head of Volkswagen sales compares the combustion vehicle with a horse to demonstrate how outdated the proposal is compared to the electric car is not coincidental either. Last year, the European Union delayed the fines to be applied to all manufacturers that exceeded the limit of 93.6 gr/km of CO2, taking into account the average number of cars sold. For every gram exceeded and car sold, 95 euros were added. This led to fines of around 1,500 million euros for the company.. With the flexibility of the normthe EU will take into account the average emissions per car sold in the 2025-2027 period. That is, the manufacturers were able to pass the first year but they need to compensate it between 2026 and 2027 if they do not want to pay the fines. This forces Volkswagen to sell many more electric vehicles in the remainder until December 2027, which explains its offensive with electric cars under 25,000 euros. Photo | Volkswagen In Xataka | European car manufacturers faced billion-dollar fines in 2025. They have postponed them thanks to fear

We have turned probiotics into the miracle pill of the 21st century. Science has something to say about it

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They are in pharmacies, along with vitamins C and multivitamin complexes. They are on the shelves of organic supermarkets, between adaptogens and turmeric shots. They occupy the reels of TikTok with the same enthusiasm with which before detox juices populated. Probiotics – supplements with live microorganisms that supposedly strengthen the intestinal flora – have become the health amulet of the 21st century. The promise is simple and seductive: take these “good” bacteria in a capsule and your gut, your brain, your immune system, and your skin will function better. The business accompanies the promise. According to different estimates from the sectorthe global probiotics market was valued at around $114 billion in 2025 and is projected to continue growing at a sustained rate over the next decade. However, there is a problem that science has been contemplating for years: taken massively and indiscriminately, probiotic supplements not only do not improve the microbiome in the majority of healthy people. In some cases, they can actively block it. A forgotten organ that regulates almost everything. The human intestine is home to trillions of microorganisms—bacteria, fungi, viruses—that form an ecosystem as complex and personal as a fingerprint. According to gastroenterologist Chris Dammanfrom the University of Washington, who has been studying the microbiome for 20 years, this ecosystem acts as “the gateway to the body’s overall health.” Diets with more fiber, fruit and vegetables are those that generate the greatest variety and richness of bacteria in the intestine, and healthy bacteria produce short-chain fatty acids that support the health of the intestinal lining, according to the clinical documents of the Whole Health from the US Veterans Administration. The microbiota is not just digestion. A review published in the journal Nutrients by researchers at the University of Cassino in Italy, details how the gut microbiota modulates neurochemical pathways involving serotonin, dopamine, GABA and glutamate, as well as the immune and endocrine axes. Microbial imbalance—what scientists call dysbiosis—contributes to low-grade systemic inflammation, impaired neuroplasticity, and altered stress responses, all of which are linked to mood disorders and cognitive decline. However, the most striking fact is that Approximately 95% of the body’s serotonin is synthesized in the intestinenot in the brain. Whether the intestine is good or bad is no small matter. Take care of the microbiota is key to healthbut to make good use of probiotics it is important to first understand their real mechanism. And that’s where things get complicated. Years of warning. The problem with probiotics is not that they never work. The thing is that we have turned them into a general use resource, something that is taken preventively and continuously, without diagnosis, without medical indication and without understanding what is really happening in each person’s intestine. A product with real and very specific benefits that social networks have turned into a universal solution. Dammam explains it clearly: Probiotic supplements purchased without a prescription are not sufficiently regulated. You don’t really know what you’re taking. Products vary greatly in labeling accuracy, presence of adulterants, and legitimacy of their claims, according to VA Program documents. Prescribing probiotics is difficult even for doctors: there are thousands of products on the market, each claiming superiority over the other. Many have “special recipes,” proprietary strains or combinations of multiple organisms that the VA wryly describes as “a microbiological shotgun approach.” The problem, ultimately, is not just the lack of regulation. It’s that we start from a wrong premise. The science behind. Dr. De la Puerta, an expert in microbiota, sums it up with a phrase that does not leave much room for interpretation: “If you want a healthy microbiota, you probably don’t need to live taking probiotics.” He said it in podcast by Dr. José Abellán in one of the most shared analyzes of intestinal health in recent weeks. Her central argument is not that probiotics are useless—in fact, she herself admits that she uses and prescribes them frequently—but that they are becoming a permanent habit when they are designed to be a one-time tool. “You have to take them to get you out of a place,” he explains. And he gives his own case as an example: “My microbiota is fairly good, but I have a lot of stress. So I take probiotics from time to time.” The key is in those two words: seasons. Deeper investigations. The latest science backs up exactly this nuance. A review published in Trends in Microbiology concludes that the composition of the microbiome varies greatly depending on geography, age and lifestyle, which directly calls into question the efficacy of universal probiotic treatments and requires that the design of any effective probiotic takes into account microbial diversity and specific adaptation to the context of each host. The Probiota 2025 conference, held in Copenhagen, confirmed this same idea: Geographic and demographic variations reveal microbiome profiles so different among healthy populations that it is impossible to define a universal standard of a “healthy microbiome.” There is another equally serious problem, which Dr. De la Puerta points out precisely: not all probiotics are the same, even if we sell them as if they were. “Take a probiotic, stabilizer, immunomodulator, neuroactive, high load, low load, monostrain, multistrain…”, he lists. Some have more to do with the immune system, others with digestive health, others with mood. The most successful interventions are those informed by a microbial profile prior to treatment, which allows predicting therapeutic efficacy. “That’s why it doesn’t make much sense to buy them at random simply because someone has recommended them on social networks,” the expert details. The garden already planted. There is a conceptual error that lies at the bottom of this entire debate. We take probiotics as if the intestine were empty land waiting to be repopulated. But in the vast majority of healthy adults, the intestinal ecosystem is already established and has its own defenses. According to the VA Programcontinuing to take them once a healthy intestinal ecosystem is formed would be like planting an already planted garden. The real problem, … Read more

This European alternative to Google Drive has up to 5TB of storage at a 90% discount

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We live in a time where having a lot of subscriptions at the same time has become the most normal thing in the world. Streaming platforms, Spotify or even VPN may be some of those you have in your portfolio. What’s more, it is very possible that, if you like football, You have already subscribed to DAZN to watch the World Cup which starts in a few days. For this reason, when it comes to adding one more subscription to the ones we already have, it costs. If you are looking for cloud storage, there are options that you can pay once and forget about monthly subscriptions or price increases. One of the most interesting right now is Internxt, which is on sale: Using the code ‘XATAKA’ you get a 90% discount. So, you can have 1 TB of storage for life per 190 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Lifetime cloud storage that includes even a VPN This company of Spanish origin is a European alternative to US clouds like Google Drive or iCloud. This plan with 1 TB, called Essential, is the most basic that Internxt has (we will talk about the other two a little further down). In this way, you pay only once and you ensure service for life without having to pay every month. Beyond the price and being a European cloud, Internxt is an option that has several interesting assets. The first thing is that it is a secure option that has end-to-end encryption, as well as zero-knowledge encryption. This means that both the company and any third party will not be able to access or intercept your data, so it meets a high level of privacy. Internxt is also open source and transparent. That cloud storage meets this characteristic is important, because it means that anyone can audit and review it. This prevents possible back doors through which our data ends up in the hands of third parties. In addition, the interface and application that Internxt has are quite simple and intuitive to use. Not only can you do well to store photos or videos to free up your phone’s storage, but also to make a backup from your teams directly. In addition, any of the plans that Internxt has comes with VPN and antivirus, so if you have a subscription to either of these two services, you can save money. This Internxt Essential plan includes, as we say above, 1 TB of cloud storage. If you want or need more, then perhaps one of the other plans that this company has available will suit you better. We detail them below, although remember that the code ‘XATAKA‘ also allows you to get them with a 90% discount: Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and other additional features per 290 euros lifelong. Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner, meet and other additional features per 390 euros lifelong. 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 | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | 61 European alternatives to Google, X, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, DropBox, Google Drive, WhatsApp and other popular services

Xbox anticipates changes beyond Project Helix

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Yesterday Nintendo closed non-E3. The video game fair as we knew it died a few years agobut its spirit lives on in the form of conferences that take place in the first half of June and in which companies show the news that will arrive on their platforms over the coming months. PlayStation, the aforementioned Nintendo, the Summer Game Fest or the PC Game Show have been some of them, but If there is one that is attracting attention, it is Xbox. And it turns out that he is not talking about his games (many old acquaintances that are now simply dated), but rather because of the change in strategy after the arrival of Asha Sharma as new CEO from Microsoft’s video game division. Because where before there were own games that would even come out for PlayStation, now there are a return to console exclusives. And within those consoles is a Project Helix which, supposedly, will be the new Microsoft machine and that it will not be easy. To the point that they are rethinking what Project Helix should be, how much it should cost or if we are prepared for such expensive consoles. And Asha Sharma adds one more question: a business model we would never have expected and that could start this year. We are going little by little because there is a lot to unpack. From the “can Xbox be fixed?” to a Project Helix that arrives at the worst possible time After a conference like the one we saw on Sunday, it is logical that questions will arise. The entire conversation is revolving around the issue of the return to exclusives, implying that a Microsoft that finds it difficult to maintain stock of its own consoles is abandoning a fleet of Sony consoles that exceeds, by several tens of millions of units, the installed Xbox. Microsoft games on PS5 They operate on a commercial levelwith notable examples such as ‘Forza Horizon 5‘and, above all, ‘Sea of ​​Thieves‘. But Sharma wants Xbox to become number one in gaming and believes that that path passes through the return of the exclusives. It is a somewhat strange maneuver because those first chosen will be ‘Gears of War E-Day‘ (which we later learned was planned for PS5 until a few days ago) and ‘Clockwork Revolution‘. Others like ‘Halo: Campaign Evolved‘for this July 28 or future ones’State of Decay 3‘, ‘Fables‘ and ‘Senua‘yes they will see the light on the Sony console. If nothing changes again, of course. Matt Booty, head of the Xbox games division, warned at the conference that each case will be reviewed individually, implying that they are also not very clear about which games will reach other consoles and which will not. “Do you think Xbox can be fixed?” – Asha Sharma asked Matthew Ball But, in any case and beyond the video games themselves, there is something else floating in the air. We know that Xbox is working on its new console, the aforementioned Helix. It will be a kind of hybrid between console and PC, something that makes a lot of sense if we take into account Microsoft’s business and, above all, that Steam is preparing exactly the same thing with its Steam Machine. A few weeks ago, Asha Sharma commented that the hardware existed and they are closing the details to be able to send the development kits (necessary to start developing the games) to the video game studios at the beginning of next year. He also ‘threatened’ the price, pointing out that Project Helix will not be a cheap machine because the situation with the components is what it is. Hardware that will have a good amount of memory and storage will be very, very expensive. We are seeing it on mobilesrouters and even on the Raspberry Pibut what has scared many of us is the relaunch of a Steam Machine with a premium of almost 300 euros. After being out of stock for months due to out-of-stock due to the supply of components, the machine returned with several hundred euros extra price. This situation did not bode well either for a Steam Machine that, supposedly, will arrive this summer… or for a PS6 and Project Helix that we should see sometime in 2027. Given all the necessary context, let’s go with Matthew Ball. Ball is Xbox’s new head of strategy. He responds to a Sharma who asked him one thing before signing him: Can Xbox be fixed? Ball believes so, rewarding players who have stayed on Xbox with this return of exclusives as a way to “validate the historical investment” of those players. It must be remembered that someone who buys a ‘Forza Horizon 6‘on PS5 he is also an Xbox player, for example, but oh well. About Helix, Ball points out in a interview that it would not make sense for the company to get out of the hardware business and that they are making this return to exclusives, precisely, to strengthen their platform. Now, it also supports what Sharma already said: the next Xbox will arrive in a context in which the AI ​​boom has skyrocketed the cost of components. “I think we will start to see radically different business models that we would never have expected to come into being later this year” – Asha Sharma In addition to pointing out that they cannot produce consoles at the same rate as they are demanded (hence the stock outage in many markets, with Xbox Series X showing a premium because they are not units that Xbox sells directly), points out something interesting: They are fighting to make the console design not be compromised by the situation, but at the same time trying to make it affordable in a context of high costs that are expected to continue for at least the next two and a half years. That is to say: they need to launch a new machine, but one that is not as expensive as the original … Read more

The Netherlands has become the warehouse of European logistics. Amancio Ortega has proposed to get the keys

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There are countries that have become gold mines for large investors. The Netherlands is one of them and Amancio Ortega he knows it very wellso he doesn’t seem willing to let someone else eat his piece of cake. The founder of Inditex has just closed a new purchase in the Netherlands: a huge logistics center near the border with Germany for 132 million euros. In less than three years, Pontegadea has invested almost 390 million euros in logistics infrastructure in that country. The reason: controlling Holland is control European logistics. A logistics center in the heart of Europe. As and as I advanced the dutch environment PropertynNLPontegadea has purchased a logistics center in Sevenum, a city in the southeast of the Netherlands next to the border with Germany. That location is key for the interest of the Ortega real estate agencysince it makes it a strategic point for moving merchandise between northern Europe and the German market, the largest on the continent. The logistics facility has an area of ​​about 94,000 m2 in total, of which 85,000 m2 correspond to industrial space and another 8,500 m2 are used for offices. Calvin Klein pays the rent. As is now common, one of the variables that distinguish Pontegadea’s investments is that its properties already have solvent tenants tied to long-term rental contracts. This has historically been the case with all real estate purchases, making Ortega the landlord of large companies like AmazonApple, Google, Spotify and even some Inditex rivals like Primark. This strategy allows Pontegadea to obtain income from the property from day one. In the case of the new logistics center, its main tenants are the brands Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, two of the best-known brands in the textile sector, and both under the umbrella of the American parent company PVH (Phillips-Van-Heusen). They are brands with financial muscle, which turns the rental into a stable and low-risk income for Pontegadea. Amancio Ortega insists on logistics. This is not the first time that Pontegadea has set its sights (and its investments) on logistics in the Netherlands. In 2025, the group already purchased a logistics center in Hoofddorp for 145 million euros, leased to the operator GXO and with an area of ​​67,000 m2, in which it was considered the largest logistics operation closed in 2025. In 2023, Pontegadea will also acquired a logistics warehouse of 103,000 m3 in Venlo, which had the logistics and transport firm DSV as a tenant. In that case, the deal was closed for 105 million euros. It is a strategic enclave. According to the DHL Global Connectivity IndexThe Netherlands is the third best connected country in the world in terms of logistics. The port of Rotterdam is the largest on the continent and the gateway for much of the merchandise from Asia and America. Its infrastructure network, its central geographical position in Europe and its legal framework make it a particularly attractive place for those who want to store and move goods on a European scale. What the new purchase of Pontegadea denotes is that the Dutch logistics market seems to have gone from being a one-time bet for Ortega, to becoming an investment line recurring for the millionaire. In Xataka | With his profits from Inditex, Amancio Ortega has become something: the biggest real estate magnate on the planet Image | GTRES, Unsplash (Isaac Maffeis)

This is what changes and what doesn’t

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If we think about it coldly, the operation of traffic lights has not changed much for decades. It is still based on a programmed timer that changes from red to green regardless of whether there are ten cars waiting or none. Perhaps it has not changed because it is still just as effective for the use to which it is given, but the truth is that we are about to see a fairly important evolution in how traffic is organized in our country, and the Royal Decree 450/2026published in the BOE a few days ago, lays the regulatory foundations for this change. And from this document, Spain establishes the legal framework to implement Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) on the country’s highways and urban roads. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What are SITs? Intelligent Transportation Systems are basically the technological layer that turns any traditional road infrastructure into something capable of communicating, processing data and adapting in real time. This can be achieved through sensors, radars, lidar technologyor artificial intelligence. And all these types of technologies can be implemented, for example, in a traffic light, in a section of road or in a sign. And the moment this is done, they are no longer static elements. The objective of the decree is to coordinate the implementation of these systems in a coherent and interoperable manner in Spain, systems that aim to more accurately manage traffic on our roads, improve road safety and provide useful information to the user. Europe forces Spain to move. With the publication of this Royal Decree, Spain incorporates into its legal system the Directive (EU) 2023/2661 of the European Parliament and of the Council, of November 22, 2023, which “updates the European framework for intelligent transport systems to respond to the new mobility, digitalization and sustainability challenges identified by the European Union.” The deadline to integrate this directive in the country expired on December 21, 2025, so Spain arrives several months behind schedule. The new standard replaces the previous Royal Decree 662/2012, which transposed the original directive on SIT. lThe data becomes mandatory. Until now, administrations had a more or less diffuse obligation to make traffic information available to the user. The decree takes a leap here, as it makes the availability of mobility data in real time, such as incidents, works or adverse weather conditions, mandatory through the so-called National Access Points. The royal decree configures these “National Access Points for Traffic and Mobility, Multimodal Transport and Safe Parking Zones” through critical nodes, with the aim of guaranteeing this real and efficient flow of data and services. The idea is that this information is open and interoperable, accessible both to administrations and to the connected vehicles themselves. That means for traffic lights in practice. A connected traffic light This data network can do things that are generally impossible today, such as detecting an approaching ambulance and chaining itself in green to create an automatic emergency corridor, analyzing the traffic density in a neighborhood and adjusting the cycles of an entire network of intersections to avoid a traffic jam before it happens, or reacting to a pedestrian crossing suddenly. The technology for all this already exists and is being tested in some cities. In fact, we were already able to tell how it works here. of the one in Córdoba. However, what was missing until now was a regulatory framework that would standardize how these infrastructures should communicate with each other and with vehicles. Not a Big Brother. The Royal Decree guarantees that the processing of personal data will be carried out exclusively when necessary for the provision of intelligent transport services and always in accordance with European and national data protection regulations. In other words, the objective of the decree is not mass surveillance of drivers or a remote sanction system. In fact, the current obligation of these systems right now is for the administrations, not for the drivers, so no driver today is obliged to carry any SIT device in their vehicle (And no, the V16 beacon It is not a SIT device, even though it has IoT connectivity). The previous step to the autonomous vehicle. What is intended is to standardize how Spanish infrastructures communicate in such a way that they speak the same language as those of the rest of Europe. And in the near future, the role of the SIT will be fundamental to enhance the functioning of the autonomous vehiclessince the aim is to improve connectivity and the digitalization of mobility. Without this standardization, communication between autonomous vehicles and road infrastructure ends up being impossible, or at least not as precise as required. What remains to be done. The decree establishes the framework, but does not set specific calendars or budget for the deployment of SITs in Spanish cities and roads. The standard enables the Ministries of the Interior and of Transport and Sustainable Mobility to develop it through future orders. So it is still early to see smart traffic lights, but it is not too early to talk about it now. In Xataka | Starting in July, all new cars manufactured will incorporate an annoying novelty: many more beeps

The world is running out of data to continue training AI. China has an ace up its sleeve

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The models of artificial intelligence (AI) have a problem that more powerful chips cannot solve: they are running out of data. Epoch AI, a nonprofit research organization specializing in scaling AI models, warns with 80% certainty that the high-quality text available on the Internet will be exhausted sometime between 2026 and 2032. The reason is very simple: AI laboratories have been extracting everything the web has to offer for many years, and current models already train on data sets that approach the theoretical limit of the information available. When that gold mine empties, data volume scaling will stop working. And if this scenario occurs, AI development will most likely slow down. We still do not know what strategy US companies are developing to solve this problem, but we already know what is China preparing. His biggest rival. In fact, Xi Jinping’s government has decided that this shortage is an opportunity. This week the China National Data Administration published a draft outlining its action plan with a clear objective: to build an ecosystem of validated data by 2028 that will fuel the next generation of AI models. China’s bet is already on the table The document prepared by the National Data Administration identifies which specific sectors are priority objectives for information generation and certification. Some of them are scientific research, manufacturing, agriculture, energy, transportation, finance, healthcare, education and e-commerce. However, his plan does not stop at traditional sectors. China has a structural advantage that no Western laboratory can easily replicate And it also plans to cover cutting-edge fields with quality data, such as AI applied to robots, autonomous driving, low-altitude aviation or biomanufacturing. These are, precisely, domains whose data is not on the internet because they come from sensors, actuators and physical environments. Achieving them requires having industrial infrastructure, and in this scenario China has a structural advantage that no Western laboratory can easily replicate. However, this is not all. The document prepared by the National Data Administration explicitly encourages the expansion of the supply of text, code, images, audio and video necessary to train systems capable of complex reasoning, agentic behavior and control of intelligent robots. In fact, it’s an almost exact description of what the industry calls next-generation models. They are not just systems capable of answering questions; They will also be able to plan, act and operate in the physical world. The availability of high-quality multimodal data, especially that coming from real industrial environments, is today one of the least discussed and most determining bottlenecks in the AI ​​career. In a scenario where access to cutting-edge chips is restricted by US export controlsdata becomes a competitive advantage. If China can’t win the hardware race, it can try to win the fuel race that that hardware needs to be truly useful. Image | Daoducquan More information | SCMP In Xataka | The condemnation that afflicts China: after decades of manufacturing a competitive desktop processor, it is six years behind

It’s something that is everywhere

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The war of the ‘supers’ it worsens in Spain. Although Mercadona continues dominating clearlyaccounting for almost a third of all business nationwide, the latest data from Wordpanel by Numerator show that at least during the first months of 2026 its ‘footprint’ has stabilized while competitors such as Lidl, DIA or Aldi surpassed it in growth. The report further confirms another trend that has been taking shape for some time retail homeland: the ‘white label’ gain weight among the main chains. What has happened? We already have the photo of how the country’s large supermarket chains have started the year. Food Retail has advanced the report for the first quarter of 2026 prepared by Worldpanel, which basically allows us to know what weight each company has in the market, whether it has gained or lost ground and how much it depends on the white label. The study should be taken for what it is (a simple study, with data that they don’t always match with those of other consultancies), but it still leaves some interesting ideas. What ideas? The first is that Mercadona continues to be the queen and lady of the sector. At least if we talk about market share value. Between January and April the Valencian firm accounted for 27.2% of the national business, which keeps it far from its direct competitors: in second place is Carrefour, with 9%, followed by Lidl (7.3%), Eroski (4.2%), DIA (4%) and Consum (3.8%). The ”TOP 10” is closed by Alcampo (2.8%), Aldi (2.1%), AhorraMas (1.9%) and Bonpreu (1.6%). It’s nothing new. Mercadona takes time dominating the sector thanks largely to its commitment to the short assortment, the white label (with brands of the chain itself), the sale of cooked food and ready to consume, packaged food and a new approach of establishments that he has named ‘T9’. Last year Worldpanel already attributed a market share of 27% and there are other consultancies that raise your footprint in the sector at 37%, also well above that estimated for direct rivals such as Carrefour (1.9%), Lidl (8.2%) or Grupo Consum (4.8%). Does only Mercadona stand out? No. If we focus on market share, the weight of Juan Roig’s chain is overwhelming, but things change when talking about growth. In that case the latest report from Worldpanel shows a different ‘photo’: Mercadona maintains its stable share at around 27%, while other competitors have stepped on the accelerator to widen the gap they occupy in the sector. The latter is the case of Lidl, which has gone from the 6.8% share it had during the first quarter of 2025 to 7.3% in the equivalent period of 2026, or Total Dia, which has also increased its weight from 3.7% to 4%. Consum (from 3.5 to 3.8%) and Aldi (from 1.9 to 2.1%) also grew while Eroski, Alcampo and Brompreu stagnated. The worst balance goes to Carrefour and AhorraMas, with slight declines. Chain Fee 1st quarter of 2025 Fee 1st quarter of 2026 Mercadona 27.2% 27.2% Carrefour 9.2% 9.0% Lidl 6.8% 7.3% Eroski Group 4.2% 4.2% Total Day 3.7% 4.0% consumption 3.5% 3.8% Alcampo 2.8% 2.8% aldi 1.9% 2.1% You save 2.0% 1.9% Bonpreu Esclat 1.6% 1.6% Does the report say anything else? Yes. It confirms another trend that has been taking shape for some time in the food distribution business: the increasing weight of the white label in the sector, especially among certain chains that are committed to short assortment. According to the data advanced by Food Retailthe distribution brand has reinforced its already extensive footprint in Mercadona. From the 77.6% value share in 2025 it has gone to 78.6%. One more percentage point that confirms that schools like Hacendado or Bosque Verde play a fundamental role in the turnover of the Valencian company. ¿And in other chains? The private label has also gained weight in Carrefour (33.3%), Lidl (82.6%), Eroski (32.2%), Dia (66.7%), Consum (37.3%), Alcampo (25.7%), Aldi (77.5%) and AhorraMas (30.7). In fact, among the companies analyzed by Worldpanel it has only lost some ground in Bonpreu Esclat, where it has fallen almost two percentage points to stand at 28.2%. That the private label has accelerated is not at all surprising in a scenario marked by the increase in the price of the shopping basket (in recent years the prices they have risen much more than salaries) and in which the brands have become a differentiating factor between competitors. In fact, the private label has grown so much that it is already a pillar of the Spanish diet. Can the focus be expanded? Yes. Worldpanel has not been the only one to put the ‘thermometer’ to the sector. In recent months Algori has also done the same, which confirms that Lidl and Aldi have managed to grow at higher speed that Mercadona, or the employers’ association itself retailwhich insists that the network of establishments has grown clearly in recent months. Asedas calculate that 2025 closed with 26,068 self-service, supermarkets and hypermarkets, which translates into a “net growth” of 600 stores, well above the 250 registered during fiscal year 2024. Images | CCOO Services (Flickr) and Eroski S.Coop Group (Flickr) Via | Food Retail In Xataka | The new crusade of “Save the Hospitality Industry” is Mercadona: its prepared food is gaining ground

Schwarzenegger was the absolute king of the box office in the 80s and 90s. His next two films will go directly to streaming

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Let Schwarzenegger’s next thing go straight to streamingcoming from the actor who dominated the global box office for fifteen years (from ‘Terminator’ to ‘The End of Days’, passing through ‘Predator’, ‘Total Challenge’ and a ‘Dangerous Lies’ that raised almost 400 million dollars and it was the first film in history to exceed a budget of 100 million), it may seem like a step backwards. But yes: while those two projects land, he is also working on what he considers the definitive project of his career, and that one is going to theaters. First movie. The first of these productions is titled ‘The Man with the Bag’ and arrives on December 2, 2026 on Prime Video. Adam Shankman (‘Modern Family’, ‘Only Murders in the Building’) directs a Christmas action comedy in which Schwarzenegger plays Santa Claus, whose magic bag of gifts is stolen and is forced to turn to an ex-thief recently released from prison and signed off his own list of naughty children to recover it. Alan Ritchson (‘Reacher’), Awkwafina and Ken Jeong complete the cast of this action-packed family entertainment. Second movie. ‘The Kellys’ has a different register: it is a police thriller directed by Brad Peyton (‘San Andrés’), also for Prime Video. Liam Hemsworth is a New York cop whose wife is taken hostage by terrorists inside an abandoned military building. To rescue her he will have to team up with his own family. Among them is Schwarzenegger, although his exact role has not been detailed. The premiere is scheduled for 2027. How we got here. We are not talking about a career exactly in decline: since his greatest hits triumphed in cinema, Schwarzenegger’s career has gone through unusual interruptions, such as his political career. When he returned to the (other) showbiz, in 2023, he made his television debut with ‘FUBAR’, a spy comedy for Netflix that started with 11 million views in its first two days. The second season, however, barely lasted a week in the Top 10, and was canceled. However, his eternal rival and business partner Sylvester Stallone has gone in another direction. In ‘Tulsa King’, Stallone has found solid television continuity for his career, which has already been going on for two seasons and counting. One possible cause is that Stallone built a new image from scratch on television, while Schwarzenegger tried to export his action image to streaming, and it didn’t quite stick. Conan King. Meanwhile, the actor is working on what he describes as the central project of this last phase of his career. ‘King Conan’ is scheduled to begin filming in 2027, with Christopher McQuarrie (director of the last four ‘Mission: Impossible’) at the helm, for 20th Century Studios and with distribution planned in theaters. Schwarzenegger described the project with a reference that says a lot about the tone and intentions of the project: ‘Unforgiven’ by Clint Eastwood. The idea is to portray a Conan who has been king for forty years, who has aged, who no longer has the physique of his glory years and who is beginning to be vulnerable. An action hero in decline as dramatic material: very far from what he is going to try now for streaming. In Xataka | Romantic series continue to arouse passions and Amazon has 25 million viewers to corroborate it

now you can get an additional 5% discount in the official OPPO online store

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Xataka Xtra It continues to grow and improve day after day. If just a few weeks ago we brought an exclusive discount on Intermundial insurance, today we are very excited to share a new advantage. From today, all members of the Xtra Community will be able to enjoy an additional 5% discount on the official OPPO online store. What does that mean? That if an OPPO product does not have a discount, you can get it 5% cheaper; but if it has a discount, thanks to the exclusive code available in the subscriber area, you can get it at an even lower price. And yes, it can be used with any product in the store: cell phones, watches, tablets, headphones, etc. OPPO technology, at a better price OPPO Find X9 Ultra | Image: Xataka OPPO is one of the Chinese technology brands that is doing the best job when it comes to mobile phones and wearables. The company has devices such as the Find X9 Ultrawhose camera we have loved in each and every one of its aspects, and the OPPO Watch X3, which is also one of our favorite smartwatches. The firm has made a strong commitment to photography joining Hasselbladas well as a technology that never ceases to give us joy: silicon-carbon batteries. Their latest phones have jumped straight to the high-end podium based on camera, screen, autonomy and fast charging, while their watches have shown that you can have Wear OS and a good battery. Using the discount code that is now available in the subscriber area, Xtra members will be able to get any product available in the OPPO online store cheaper. To give some examples: OPPO Find X9 Ultra: 1,699 euros 1,614.05 euros OPPO Find X9 Pro: 1,299 euros, although right now it is reduced to 1,199 euros and with Enco X3s headphones as a gift. Using the Xataka Xtra code it would remain at 1,139.05 euros. OPPO Watch X3: 379 euros 360.05 euros OPPO Enco Clip2 Open Earbuds: 179 euros 170.05 euros Join Xataka Xtra and save The Xataka Xtra subscription includes this and many other exclusive benefits, from a Discord server for subscribers to a direct line with editors through El Consultorio, a monthly meeting with the editors of the house, exclusive giveaways and a growing list of discounts and advantages on digital services. You can join from just 30 euros per year and take advantage of this discount, in addition to all those already available and everything that is to come: In Xataka | Subscribe to Xataka Xtra

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