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In the middle of the heat wave, there are trains in Extremadura that are running out of air conditioning. For Renfe there is only one culprit: the heat

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It is July 13 and it seems that we have settled into a perennial heat wave. And the forecasts for the coming days are not particularly promising. For this reason, it is still very important to avoid the central hours of the day and those of maximum heat to carry out outdoor activities… and other indoor activities, such as traveling by train. At least, that is what they are denouncing from CCOO, who assure that the Madrid-Extremadura trains travel without air conditioning on a regular basis. a complaint. This is what they have done at CCOO, who assure that “very frequently” the Alvia trains that travel between Madrid and Extremadura are registering failures in the air conditioning systems during heat waves. Miguel Fuentes, Secretary of Mobility of the union, assures in this statement that “this is not a one-off incident, but rather it is something systematic that is occurring in the heat waves of recent years and is creating a painful spectacle that is detrimental to the health of train users and the workers themselves.” Roasts. According to CCOO, these failures are being recorded in the Alvia S730 series trains when “outside temperatures are higher than 35 or 36 degrees.” In that case, they point out, “the air conditioning of several or all of the cars stops working and turns the trains into an oven.” The situation, despite the union’s complaint, is not new. a few days ago, The Extremadura Newspaper I already reported this incident on one of the Alvias that connect Madrid with Badajoz. That day, they point out, the passengers of the affected car were relocated to the free seats of the cars where the air conditioning did work. “In Madrid it was very hot, in Atocha, more of the same, we were looking forward to getting on the train, especially because of the concern of heat stroke and it turns out that the car runs out of air, it was the finishing touch,” said one of those affected by the Extremaduran media. What does Renfe say? In Xataka We have contacted the company who point out that “the trains undergo periodic inspections and are prepared to withstand temperatures between -10° and 40ºC” and that they understand the situation expressed by CCOO. However, they accept the following: “In exceptional circumstances, when outside temperatures exceed 40ºC as in the current heat wave, the train systems can activate automatic protection mechanisms to avoid major breakdowns. This happens because the pressure of the refrigerant gas shoots to critical levels, causing a temporary stop of the equipment until the system stabilizes. During that time, it is not possible to restart the air conditioning, which can generate incidents in the interior temperature of the train” That is, it is so hot outside that the train needs to protect itself to continue running. And when this happens, the train itself has to choose between continuing to move forward despite limiting or eliminating some functions (such as the air conditioning of one or more cars) or moving forward. Have measures been taken? Renfe assures that, without the possibility of modifying the trains, measures are being taken to safeguard the comfort and health of passengers. However, they assure that they are studying new measures that respond to the union’s requests. These measures would, therefore, be an addition to those already applied. According to the company: When these weather conditions occur, the sale of tickets is stopped to leave places free and to be able to relocate passengers. If conditions do not allow safe travel, alternatives are sought such as transferring to a fully air-conditioned train or even traveling by road. A real problem. In Xataka We have explained that heat can generate a real problem for people’s health because “kidnaps the blood”. And when we face very high heat on a sustained basis without barely moving, we are buying many tickets to faint and, if necessary, suffer heat stroke. That is why traveling refrigerated on a train is especially important. They collect in Today that between May and July there are already 15 incidents with the air conditioners that have caused Renfe trains to be left partially or completely without refrigeration. They look at Spain. The news comes just when Spain has been set as an example in countries that live above the Pyrenees. And in Germany, France or Denmark they have observed what Spain, Portugal or Italy are doing in the face of heat waves and What can they apply so that trains are not canceled?. And in these countries the railway service has been suspended because the companies were not able to ensure the health of the passengers. In the region of Bavaria (Germany), 40 degrees were recorded inside some trains. We now know that our trains, at least in part, are also not guaranteed to operate at full capacity. Photo | Falk2 and windy In Xataka | “We have six kilometers that have melted due to the heat”: in the face of extreme temperatures, France needs to Spanishize its roads

60% of what we spend on food already goes to them

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Markets are not immutable spaces. They change. They transform. They reinvent themselves due to trends that are born, grow and die. In recent years, however, few sectors have experienced as many ups and downs as supermarkets. He Mercadona boomthe push of the regional chains and the merchants They are revolutionizing the business, although there is another phenomenon that is even clearer: white label success. From being the ‘ugly ducklings’ of the stores, the cheap option and of dubious quality, brands like Hacendado or Auchan have come to dominate more than 60% of what households spend on food. The reason is very simple: today’s ‘white label’ is not yesterday’s white label and everything indicates that it will not be the same one we will see in a few years. A pillar of the sector. The white label is doing well in Spain. Very good, in fact. For some time now the sector manages studies which demonstrate that the distributors’ brands have expanded their weight in the market, taking an increasingly larger portion of the food and drugstore business. What’s more, there are supermarket chains that can no longer be understood without their brands. The latest data show that almost 79% of Mercadona’s sales are made up of items that carry their own labels, such as Bosque Verde. And the percentage is not very different in Aldi, Dia or Lidl, where it rises to 82.6%. The percentage: 61.2%. The above is not new. What is new is the study by the consulting firm Circana, advanced by Efe, which shows that the private label is becoming the undisputed queen of the food business in Spain. According to your latest datafrom the first semester, you teach like Bosque Verde, Hacendado or Deliplus, they monopolize 61.2% of spending total in food. In practice, this means that six out of every ten euros that were moved in Spain within the food sector and branch went to brands controlled directly by the supermarket chains, not by the manufacturers. But… Has it grown? Yes. And quite clearly, too, what take to the experts to wonder if the expansion of private label will peak at some point. Circana’s report shows that during the first half of 2026 its food footprint has increased by 5.3% in terms of sales value and 3.1% in volume. This difference in percentages is largely explained by the increase in prices, which these months have risen on average by 2.2%. There are business niches in which the expansion has been even clearer. On the shelves of drugstores and cleaning supplies, the white label has grown by 3.4% until achieving a 65% quota. At the opposite extreme is the beverage business, in which brands from manufacturers other than supermarkets (Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Bezoya, Font-Vella…) continue to dominate with an iron fist. In that case the picture is the opposite: external manufacturers account for 65.5% of the total expenditure, so private labels must be content with only a third of the pie. Other percentage: 47.2%. Circana is not the only one that has recorded the growing success of private label. So has Worldpanel by Numerator, which has focused primarily on the demand for packaged products. Its estimate for the first five months of 2026 shows that around 47.2% of products packages that households purchased carried labels from supermarket chains, a percentage that rises to 48.6% in the specific case of food and 56.3% if we talk about drugstores. And what is the reason? Better to talk about reasons, in the plural. One of the key factors that explain the success of private labels is cost. In 2025 Shopdavizor published a report that found that for 90% of consumers Price continues to be a determining factor when purchasing items from brands such as Hacendado. And that is not a minor issue in a context clearly marked by inflation and with the Bank of Spain worsening your outlook. There are studies that they assure that the supermarkets themselves are taking charge of penalizing the cost of external items on the shelves precisely to encourage the purchase of their brands. This explains why there are chains in which the white flags already represent more than 80% of sales in value quota. Beyond the price. White label has always been associated with cheaper prices. That’s nothing new. The curious thing is that in recent years it has managed to shake off the ‘toll’ that this entailed: the low quality image. It’s not just that the brands of Mercadona, Eroski, Consum, Alcampo… are growing, it’s that they have managed to change the perception that customers have of them and even aspire to put their heads into a business that was unimaginable until recently: premium items. Buying white label is no longer equivalent to comparing ‘cheap and bad’. Now people buy out of loyalty, trust, familiarity. “Innovation, premium proposals, health and well-being or sustainability are expanding the role of the private label,” confirm Circana. The same idea is underlined by its managing director, Antonio Khalaf, who explains in the Efe agency that the chains themselves have changed the way they approach private label. “It is no longer just a tool to gain share, it behaves like a brand in itself, capable of generating loyalty to the brand.” Changing image. In its 2025 report, Shopadvizor highlighted this by pointing out that for 80% of consumers there are no longer big differences between private labels and those sold under the names of their manufacturers. In fact, although customers continue to focus on price tags, more and more factors enter the equation, such as emotional connection, variety, trust, quality or the degree of familiarization with the products. “The private label has surpassed its traditional role as an economic alternative to consolidate itself as a value option,” concluded the Shopdavizor report. Images | Eroski Group (Flickr), Wikipedia and CCOO Services (Flickr) In Xataka | In Barcelona, ​​hoteliers have grown tired of the competition from Mercadona’s ‘mercaurantes’. So they are denouncing them

We no longer want to see “artists” but shows

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Sphere sells movies and concerts in a way that neither streaming nor traditional theaters can replicate, a unique experience that risked becoming stale. such a Las Vegas extravagancethe place where the space is housed. However, the revenue data for the first quarter of 2026 not only speaks of healthy accounts, but also of the confirmation that live entertainment is mutating irreversibly. The aforementioned. Sphere Entertainment closed the first quarter of its fiscal 2026 year with $386.4 million in revenue, 38% more than what it earned in the previous twelve months. For the second time, the business of also the owner of Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, closes a positive quarter, with an operating profit of 7.2 million dollars compared to the 78.6 million losses (for the company as a whole) a year ago. The segment managed directly by Sphere almost doubled its turnover, up to 266 million dollars (69% more), driven above all by the controversial screening of ‘The Wizard of Oz’. Not everything is great news (first and last time we make the joke): the shares have risen 400% in the last year, but They fell by more than 5% on the same day of the announcement, because investors were comparing the quarter with an even better fourth quarter of 2025. The ups and downs of the stock market aside, what this data reflects is that the business is not stable, but depends on the show calendar. That is why he has already announced the residencies of Metallica (24 concerts from October 2026) or Backstreet Boys (56 nights this summer) well in advance. The magician’s bombshell. In 2025, Google and Sphere announced a collaboration to reconstruct ‘The Wizard of Oz’ from 1939 with artificial intelligence, using Gemini, I Spy and Image models to expand the frame and generate characters that were out of shot in the original film, but that did enter the monstrous screen of the venue. The project cost $100 million, as much as a medium-high budget film, and cut the footage to just over an hour. Between that and the radical visual change, which destroyed the original planning, they intensified the criticism. However, the reduction in duration allowed more passes to be scheduled per day. Tickets cost at least $104 and easily exceeded $200, depending on the seating in the stands. Result: more than two million tickets sold and $260 million in revenue since its premiere almost a year ago now, in August 2025. Dolan has clearly said that the numbers “demonstrate that Sphere’s business model works.” It is still striking that what comes from this success is a version of a classic film that does not resemble the hitherto untouchable original. Cinema, down. Meanwhile, the traditional film business continues without raising its head. In Spain, attendance fell by 8% in 2025, to 65 million viewers, the second consecutive year of decline. In the United States tobarely half of the adults set foot in a room throughout the year, with 769 million tickets sold compared to the record of 1.6 billion in 2002. And yet… premium formats are better than ever. IMAX closed 2025 with record revenue of 410 million dollars (+16%) and a global box office of 1,280 million dollars (+40%), with titles such as ‘Sinners’ or ‘F1’ contributing more than 20% of its debut collection in the United States. The concert industry is not far behind: for example, Live Nation closed 2025 with $25.2 billion in revenue (+9%). And in that part of concerts, Sphere is already among the venues with the most tickets sold on the planet, only behind the South Korean K-Arena Yokohama and the Movistar Arena in Madrid in the third quarter of 2025. The conclusions are clear: the public does not go out in search of generic offers, but rather unrepeatable experiences. Clearly, the ball is in the court of the movie theaters. The icing on the cake: the exterior. Sphere doesn’t live on tickets alone. Its exterior façade, the Exosphere, is the largest LED screen on the planet and works as an advertising medium which bills between 450,000 dollars for one day and 650,000 for a week of campaigning. Evian, for example, signed a multi-year sponsorship as the venue’s official water supplier in April, and analysts estimate that advertising could exceed 10% of the company’s total revenue in the coming years. Meanwhile, the spherical business does not stop: while the city of Las Vegas is falling in the number of visits (in 2025 it received 7.5% fewer visitors than the previous yearthe largest annual drop outside of the pandemic and since records exist, since 1970) Sphere Entertainment is already thinking about new venues. The second headquarters is being negotiated in National Harbor, in the state of Maryland but also very close to Washington DC Of course, we will have to wait: its opening is not scheduled until 2030. Header | Even Better

“They’re damn smart.” Marine chief believes Gen Z has just the advantage the modern military needs

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The same idea has been repeated for years. about generation Z: who lives glued to a screen, who has less capacity for sacrifice and who is less prepared to face great challenges. However, the commander of the United States Marine Corps maintains just the opposite. In his opinion, the biggest change is not in the young people, but in the war. The big mistake. Few generations have accumulated so many stereotypes like Z. They are accused of depending on cell phones, social networks or video games and, by extension, of being less resilient than their parents and grandparents. Eric M. SmithCommander of the United States Marine Corps, counted in Military who believes that this reading is based on a wrong premise: different life experiences are being confused with a supposed lack of character. After almost four decades of service and thousands of recruits seen passing through training centers, his conclusion is blunt: “their surnames have changed, but their character and commitment have not.” Like in WW2. “They are made of the same wood as the Marines of World War II,” explains. The comparison is not accidental. Smith equates today’s young people with those who fought in historical scenarios such as Iwo Jima, the Chosin Reservoir or, more recently, Fallujah. He also rejects the idea that the Corps has lowered its standards to attract volunteers. “We have not lowered standards. We never will,” affirms. Their argument is simple: the Marines continue to demand that the applicants adapt to the institution and not the other way around, maintaining a training process that continues to be the longest in the US armed forces. Eric M. Smith It’s not the character, it’s the tools. Where Smith does see a break with previous generations is in the relationship with technology. He himself remembers that he was already a captain when he had his first mobile phone, while the new recruits have grown up surrounded by mobile phones, video games and the Internet. What for years has been interpreted as a distraction can be, according to the generala strategic advantage. “They’re damn smart,” summarizedbefore adding a sentence that explains his reasoning: just give them a device and five minutes for them to discover on their own how to use a drone, while officers from previous generations would need specific training. Skills that barely counted before. The Smith’s statements They come at a time when the battlefield is undergoing accelerated transformation. The war in Ukraine has become protagonists to FPV drones, artificial intelligencesensors, electronic warfare and connected systems, displacing part of the traditional prominence of the large armored or artillery. In this context, understanding digital interfaces, quickly adapting to new tools or intuitively learning how complex systems work begins to be as important as physical resistance or aim. Each military revolution has changed the profile. History shows that armies have always had to adapt to the technologies of their time. There was a time when know how to ride a horse made the difference, then came radio, radar, cryptography or the guided missilesforcing the incorporation of increasingly more technical profiles. The digitalization of combat represents another similar jump. The skills that many identify with a generation raised on screens can now become a first-rate military asset. The real advantage. He Smith’s message transcends the debate about generation Z. It does not maintain that young people are better than their predecessors, but rather that they have a natural familiarity with technology that fits the needs of the modern army. For him, the core values ​​remain exactly the same as 250 years ago (honor, courage and commitment), but the tools have changed. And in a war where a drone operator can influence so much As an infantry unit, the ability to quickly master a new system may become one of the most valuable qualities of the soldier of the future. Image | CEPA, ACMCphotousmc In Xataka | The US had a ship with 2,000 marines ready to invade Iran. Now he has sent it right to the place where China worries the most In Xataka | The same day that the US sent its marines to Iran, Taiwan woke up with déjà vu: China has surrounded it with 26 planes and 7 warships

This is the new MacBook Neo offer

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More than 20 Apple devices rose in price very recentlyamong them the MacBook Neo. What is considered Apple’s budget laptop does not have the same quality-price ratio, but we have finally started to see its first offers after the price increase. MediaMarkt, for example, right now has it as 799 euros (before 899 euros) in its 512 GB configuration, which is the highest. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Offer returns after price increase Although we are not facing the best price that we have seen so far in the MacBook Neothe offer is indeed attractive enough to consider buying it if its specifications fit us, especially in view of the back to school in September. It is a computer oriented towards study and some work, since it is designed to be used in office tasks, Internet browsing and some image editing. It is also a compact laptop with a 13-inch screen and weighs 1.23 kg, making it quite comfortable to carry in your backpack. Internally it incorporates the A18 Pro chip, an iPhone processor that, despite not being as powerful as those in the “M” range, offers good performance. In addition, its battery offers a theoretical autonomy of up to 11 hours of web browsinga quite interesting figure to not depend so much on the charger. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: macbook neo offer today ✅ THE BEST Your performance It is notable thanks to the A18 Pro processor. Your format: It is small and very light. Your battery: offers good autonomy. ❌ THE WORST Does not come with a backlit keyboard. Your USB-C ports: If you charge your computer, you will only be able to use one of its USB-C ports. 💡 BUY IT IF… You want an affordable computer that performs very well in office tasks and web browsing. Especially if you also want a model that is light and compact. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You need a computer that is very powerful to perform demanding tasks. Within the Apple catalog, the MacBook Air or MacBook Pro are good purchase options, although they are also much more expensive computers. You may also be interested tomtoc 360° Case for 13 Inch New MacBook Neo Chip A18 Pro / A3404 2026, Waterproof, Protection Bag Case for Laptop and Accessories, for 12–13″ Surface Pro Copilot+ PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Spigen Glas.tR Slim Screen Protector for MacBook Neo 13 Inch, 1 Unit, High Definition, 9H Hardness, Tempered Glass 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 | Javier PastorApple In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2026 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | Best mice in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models

Meta thought it was a good idea for its AI to generate images from your Instagram photos. Days later he has already turned back

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Last week Meta launched Muse Image and Muse Video, its new AI models integrated into the Meta AI app. However, the launch was quickly overshadowed by the criticism he received one of the functions of the image generator. Within Muse Image, in addition to writing the normal prompt, Meta thought it was a good idea to let us tag other Instagram users to Generate images from your photos. All you have to do is type the at sign with your username and Muse Image can access your profile to create any image you can think of. The problem with all this is that Meta activated it by default for all public Instagram accounts, without warning or of course asking for permission. If you wanted to prevent anyone from tagging youyou had to manually disable it from your account settings. Meta backs off: they will no longer be able to tag us in Muse Image Muse Image was announced last Tuesday, July 7, and in the following days the criticism of this decision began to accumulate. Four days later, on Saturday the 11th, Meta issued a statement in which They responded to the controversy. According to Meta, their intention with the tagging feature was to “offer a useful creative tool” and “give users control over whether their public content could be mentioned.” The best way to give control to users would have been to let us activate it if we wanted to be tagged and not the other way around. Meta has confirmed that The labeling function has been removed. This is the full statement: Earlier this week, we announced that one of the ways users can generate images in Meta AI is by @-tagging the public Instagram accounts they want to reference. Our intention was to offer a useful creative tool and give users control over whether their public content could be mentioned in this way. We’ve received feedback that this feature missed the mark and is no longer available. Image | Meta, edited with Magnific In Xataka | Meta has a long history of privacy scandals. We can add one more to the list

Which cinemas meet the requirements designed by Christopher Nolan

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Let’s tell you what is the best way to see The OdysseyChristopher Nolan’s new film. It is his particular adaptation of Homer’s poem, which with the director’s filmography and its spectacular cast has already become one of the film events of the year before its premiere. Nolan is known for having very particular tastes when it comes to recording his films, and ‘The Odyssey‘has not been an exception. Therefore, if you want to experience his film as he intended it, you’re going to need to seek out cinemas with particular characteristics. And this is what we are going to talk to you about. See The Odyssey as it was intended by Nolan In order to see The Odyssey as it was designed by its director, we will need a cinema with specific technologies and characteristics. Cinema should be IMAX and in 70mmsince that is how the film was shot. But now comes the bad news, because No cinema in Spain meets these two characteristics at the same time.. We have cinemas that allow you to watch movies in IMAX and others that support 70mm, but no theater in our country combines both. Best cinemas to see The Odyssey in Spain Taking into account what we just told you, you have two options: go to IMAX theaters or theaters that support 70mm with a 2.20:1 aspect ratio. These are the theaters that support each of these features. IMAX cinemas in Spain: Palafox Cinemas, in Zaragoza Kinépolis Valencia, in Paterna, Valencia Kinépolis City of the Image, in Madrid Cinesa Parquesur, in Leganés, Madrid Cinesa Heron City, in Las Rozas, Madrid Cinesa Diagonal Mar, in Barcelona Cinesa Festival Park, in Mallorca 70mm cinemas in Spain: Aragonia Cinemas, in Zaragoza Palafox Cinemas, in Zaragoza mk2 Cine Paz, in Madrid Phenomena Experience, in Barcelona If you have any of these cinemas nearby, you will be able to see The Odyssey in the best possible way in Spainalthough without getting to experience the film as it has been conceived by its director. In Xataka | There are people very angry about the inaccuracies in Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’. But not because of the uniforms: because of the diversity

This is the sad story behind La Atalaya de Ciudad Real, the most perverted Franco sanatorium

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Any Carles Porta fans in the room? If you have seen ‘Crims’ or some of his other documentary series, you already know the enormous impact that Catalan true crime has. But Ciudad Real has his own black chronicle. And it is perhaps one of the darkest and most unknown stories of our country. And, therefore, more interesting to unravel. If every city has its cursed hill, on the outskirts of Ciudad Real La Atalaya stands out, with privileged views and a legend that has been feeding itself for decades. We have it all: lady in white, psychophonies and there is something much more prosaic and sadder, which is nothing other than a building that never served its purpose and houses a tragedy that mythology ended up devouring. With tuberculosis tea, not terror. In 1943, the Ciudad Real city council bought those lands. At the request of the Patronage of Tuberculosis Patients, La Atalaya was part of a Franco plan of thirty-five anti-tuberculosis sanatoriums spread throughout Spain. The hill met the condition required by the national competition: sufficient isolation to avoid contagion, but not so much as to make access difficult. In 1954, work began and in February 1955, the first floor was ready, with capacity for three hundred beds. The problem is that medicine moved faster than brick: by the time the building could be opened, antibiotics had already drastically reduced cases of tuberculosis in Spain. Before housing a single patient, the sanatorium was born obsolete. Without job or benefit. Good location and good brick, but it was time to reform. In 1961, ownership of the building passed to the National Psychiatric Trust. The works are even slower and are not completed until 1970. A year later, in 1971, the building finally opens its doors as a regional center for people with mental disabilities. Or that’s how it was defined. And it operated like this for twenty-five years, until its final closure in 1996. From then on it was abandoned. Cobwebs, thefts, noises and a black legend that is gaining strength: rumors of mistreatment of inmates, screams of torture that can still be heard and a three-meter figure walking through the empty hallways. I would like Slender Man or the monster from ‘Backrooms‘ have so much presence. The real tragedy occurred. Easter 1987, early morning of April 20. It’s not a song. That morning, a 33-year-old police officer, Isidro Mejías, unloads his service weapon at a Citroën Visa where a young couple, María del Mar Perales Serrano and Alfredo Lozano Galán, ages 19 and 21, are. He then got into the victims’ own car and shot himself in the temple. What just happened? The Lanza newspaper titled the April 22 cover: “A police officer, alleged perpetrator of the death of two young people in La Atalaya.” The door locks were locked, suggesting the couple saw danger coming and tried to protect themselves by locking themselves inside. According to those close to the agent, married and father of two children, he led a normal life and had no known serious problems; The victims’ family did not know him at all either. Without a motive, the urban legend was later filled with crimes of passion, sects and curses. Today a plaque at the site remembers the young people who died. The lady in the white nightgown. The thing doesn’t end here. Because the ghostly woman, dressed in whitewhose figure proverbially appears on the curve leading to the old sanatorium, has been seen by motorcyclists and drivers for decades. several people interviewed for Misterios Conquenses They assure the same. It is not uncommon to find someone who has seen someone and confirms that yes, this folklore motif is repeated here more than anywhere else. The photos of silhouettes difficult to explain taken by Carlos Torrijos, the lights in the sky recorded by witnesses and collected by TVE in 2004… until Iker Jiménez echoed and turned La Atalaya into the territory of reference of the La Mancha mystery. Where does it come from? The theory says that she was a patient at the children’s psychiatric hospital who jumped out of a window, or that she was a girl kidnapped and murdered on the spot—there is no police record of this kidnapping. It even links to a previous appearance from 1939, weeks before the end of the Civil War, when several witnesses claimed to see a woman in white on successive nights who radiated her own light. Demolition and end of the curse. In 2007, the building was officially condemned; unofficially, to “end evil.” The abandonment left structures in dangerous conditions. But even that didn’t quite work: months after the demolition, the burned body of the doorman of a nearby nightclub was found near the scene. And the legend immediately incorporated it into its story. The pain comes from behind, as always. In the Manchego Studies Notebooks (#49) the prolonged inquisitorial persecution of witchcraft and witchcraft in the current province of Ciudad Real is documented, where cases of torture such as that of María de Lao are identified. Today the hill is a municipal forest park, with hiking trails, a children’s area and picnic areas. The Ciudad Real resident who goes out to play sports and the one who goes up at night looking for the lady’s curve coexist there, without much conflict. Your own video game. Local studio Sonrisilla Games—formed by designer Marta Ruiz (‘Waxipola’) and developer Samuel Sanjuan (‘SamKnight’)—is finishing ‘Stories from the Watchtower – The Witcher‘, a graphic horror adventure set on the hill. The project was born after the developers event Guadalindiein Malaga. And, apparently, it has required a lot of journalistic work from its creators: collection of oral testimonies, comparison of real events and interviews with those who experienced the history of the sanatorium up close. The game will be released in months and will mix the black chronicle of 1987, the myth of the witch of The Watchtower and the popular witchcraft documented in the area. Behind it … Read more

Huawei is building a semiconductor empire. And in the middle of the crisis, now it is going for its own DRAM factory

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If Huawei has a message for the United States that tried to ostracize it with the five-year-old vetothat message is “thank you.” It was the same president of the Chinese company who commented a few days ago that, without the pressure from the westChina and Huawei could not have developed their technology at the speed they have. Because Huawei is developing an empire, and the latest reports suggest that they are going for the missing piece: DRAM memory. And they are creating a megafactory so as not to depend on anyone in a market that is far from improving. DRAM factory. It is estimated that SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron have more than 90% of the global DRAM market. With the big three focusing all their production on AI platforms, neither consumers nor companies of consumer products can access components at competitive prices, so they look for alternatives. It is said that Apple would be looking at the Chinese CXMTbut now there are those point that Huawei is creating a DRAM factory with government support. The company Swaysure, from Shenzhen, one of the technological hearts of the country, would be building with Huawei a factory with the capacity to create 12-inch wafers. The planned production would be 140,000 wafers per month and, in charge of all this, would be a former director of TSMC. chip empire. China has one goal: that at least 80% of basic technology that their companies use is supplied by national companies, and Huawei plays a fundamental role there. It is no longer about the huge campuses that they have to promote their own business, but also their presence in all the technological sectors of the country and the importance that they are gaining by becoming one of the pivots of semiconductors in China. With the help of SMIC, they have managed to develop chips with an advanced architecture in record time and, in addition, it is estimated that at least 11 factories throughout the country operate it with the help of allied companies. They create logic chips, have foundry services, and also operate in the DRAM chip segment. With the new company led by Swaysure, they would take another step to achieve greater independence from the big players in the memory and NAND chip sector. In the end, it is about creating an industrial network that allows us to achieve that 80% goal and, above all, be more independent from foreign technology. Images from Planet Labs and Financial Times in which you can see the evolution in the construction of a Huawei and SwaySure plant between 2022 and 2025. parallel reality. To achieve this, Huawei has some of the most impressive technological and R&D campuses on the planet, which has allowed them in a very short time to not only rise from the ashes, but create a parallel reality. In terms of software, HarmonyOS is on more than 1 billion devices, the Huawei Clouyd service is growing outside of China in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and then there are the chips. They have the Ascend and Kunpeng optimized for both AI and edge computingrecently introduced a supercluster for advanced AI tasks and intend to change the paradigm of the evolution and development of processors with a ‘Tau Law’ under which they will begin to create their new Kirin consumer chips that we can see in devices such as mobile phones and tablets. And that they have the Chinese government support It is a guarantee. Chinese lever. Returning to Huawei’s RAM, this movement is not designed to compete against the big three in the sector, but rather to not depend on them. That is, Huawei should not want to be Samsung in such a short time, but having the capacity to make its DRAM, it could stop depending on Samsung or SK Hynix, for example. Furthermore, these types of movements are part of a more long-term strategy, one in which Huawei has gone from being a large company in China to being one of the lungs of the country’s technological developmentdriving the AI ​​platforms of other companies with its hardware and being the heart of some of the data centers in which China is going to invest 300 billion dollars over the next five years. HE esteemIn fact, Huawei will take over 60% of the Chinese AI chip market in 2026. Now, no matter how much they invest and create new foundries, they still have a hot potato: no one manufactures advanced lithography machines like ASML’s to which Chinese companies have restricted access. They are advancing through alternative techniques and reverse engineeringbut if China wants to be the first technological nation in the short term (an objective that they have marked themselves), at some point they will need those huge, next-generation “printers.” Image | ASML In Xataka | US adds Netherlands to Pax Silica alliance: ASML host nation enters anti-Chinese bloc

In Alicante they are experts making works with ancient art. Until they found a Roman sphinx embedded in a staircase

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Recycling in the architecture of Antiquity (or the Middle Ages) was neither an ecological sensitivity nor an aesthetic trend. Rather, it was pure and simple economic survival. If you had good quality square stone, go ahead and build. It mattered little whether that stone had been part of a temple dedicated to Jupiter, whether it was the statue of a disgraced emperor or, as in this case, a mythological creature. It has a name: architectural cannibalism is known in the art world as spolia. And thanks (or because) of it, Spanish archeology has just solved a mystery that had been gathering dust in a warehouse for decades. In the archaeological site of El Monastil, located in the town of Elda (Alicante), researchers have “decrypted” a piece who had been camouflaged under a false identity for too long. The rain acting as an archaeologist. It all started in the year 2000, during the arduous excavation work of a late Roman wall located in El Monastil. Workers unearthed a three-step ladder that looked like a typical routine structural find. The following year, the Levantine climate worked its magic: torrential rains swept the area and caused the ashlars to collapse, exposing new features. Upon inspecting the damage, the team led by archaeologist Antonio M. Poveda discovered that one of the blocks was not conventionally quarried stone. The deliberate marks betrayed a previous history. Which? That someone, during the Visigoth or Byzantine occupation in the 5th or 6th centuries, mutilated a monumental sculpture, cutting it down with a sledgehammer to turn it into a simple step. Twenty years of confusion. Carved from local beige limestone, it was barely 31 centimeters high and 55 centimeters wide; what remains is a tiny fraction of its original volume. This sphinx was missing its head, wings and legs, with a surface so eroded by blows that its identification became a headache: an Iberian female figure or a random goddess? It wasn’t until last year, when the Archaeological Museum of Elda A thorough cleaning was undertaken when, in collaboration with Professor Ferrán Arasa i Gil, one of the greatest experts in Roman sculpture in Spain, remains were compared. And the shape matched too well with other sphinxes found in limes Germanic, from Romania and northern Italy. The verdict was unanimous: a Roman funerary sphinx from the 1st century AD The sophisticated security system for the afterlife. This creature of Egyptian origin and Greek traces is no ornament. And here is the key: it is a psychopomp, the guide in charge of collecting the soul of the deceased and transporting it. Its presence in the tomb fulfills an apotropaic function: the fierce gaze and hybrid posture, with the body of a lion and the torso of a woman, exist to scare away looters and protect the eternal sleep of those who rested beneath it. Have you seen ‘The Neverending Story’? His famous fulminating sphinxes are inspired by the same. Apparently, the owner of this piece was part of the rural elite of Ilici Augusta (current Elche). They were landowners who, in a time of great prosperity under Augustus and the Julio-Claudians, competed to display social status through monumental mausoleums. Built next to the Via Augusta. So the figure was another banner of power and prestige in full Romanization. He plunders well without looking at who. For the Visigoths, the sphinx was no longer a sacred symbol. The case of Elda, with this disdain for the artistic past in favor of pragmatism, rhymes quite well with other recycling imposed in Baetulo (Badalona), Segóbriga (Cuenca), Obulco (Jaén) or Carissa Aurelia (Cádiz). The most canonical example is found in the mosque of Córdoba: Abd al-Rahman I reused Roman and Visigoth columns and capitals, from the temple of Janus, from previous Christian villas and basilicas, to raise the forest of columns in the prayer room. In Toledo, the Christ of Light is the ancient Bab al-Mardum mosque. San Pedro de la Nave, in Zamora, was a 7th century Visigoth church dismantled and reassembled like a collage. And the same with the Basilica of Santa Eulalia, in Mérida, built on a Roman temple dedicated to Mars. Even the Almohad minaret of the Giralda in Seville was converted into a Christian bell tower by the braves. What makes special Monastil is that it is an inexhaustible “matryoshka” of civilizations. This Alicante site is a time capsule where the Bronze Age, the Punic presence, the Roman military base from the time of Pompey, the Byzantine monastery and the later Visigoth church overlap. In this immense network of strata it is easy to find history cut up and relocated, outside the contexts for which it was created. Many now lie in the warehouse of the Elda museum, treasures waiting to be reclassified and archaeological history rewritten. Images | FoxR for Wikipedia, Flickr (Santiago López-Pastor) In Xataka | If the question is how the Egyptian pyramids were made, science has an idea: hydraulic systems In Xataka | In a display of technical superiority, France has just invented traditional white towns. We, however, have forgotten about them

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