usatoday24, Author at usatoday24

stopped cars that cannot leave their ports

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

China has taken positions in Europe. The European automobile industry is witnessing a rampant arrival of Chinese manufacturers trying to sell as much as possible at the fastest possible pace. Chinese manufacturers looking for factorieswho reach new countries and try to build the necessary infrastructure to place their cars on our roads. A rampant landing that has its consequences in European ports. Overwhelmed. This is what the colleagues of Motorpassion. The large European ports have been filled with Chinese cars that no one can let out. Satellite images show that the large number of these cars is turning what was previously a transit area into authentic fields of Chinese cars. The large European ports are the ones that are most noticing this landing of Chinese cars. Antwerp-Zeebrugge in Belgium, Bremerhaven in Germany or Barcelona in Spain are those that have to deal with higher volumes of vehicles packaged in China and discovered in Europe. What does the data say? Exactly this. They rescue in GFM Review that the large ports mentioned above have found themselves with the problem of managing a huge stock of vehicles for which there is no outlet. So much so that there are vehicles, they say, that have not moved for 18 months. According to data collected by elDiario.esBarcelona is positioning itself as one of the great poles of attraction in Europe. Last year, cars arriving at the Catalan port increased by 5% but imports from China grew by more than 40%. In the month of January alone, the volume of cars received increased by 80% compared to the same month in 2025. In The Mercantile They report that the excess of vehicles in the port has forced unscheduled trains to be mobilized to distribute cars to Madrid, especially Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo, which have their large operations center in Barcelona. But they point out elDiario.es that other Chinese manufacturers that have recently arrived in Europe, such as Changan or Great Wall Motors (GWM) do not stop adding cars to the Catalan port. Converted into fields. This massive arrival of cars has turned European ports into massive fields for Chinese manufacturers. So much so that Barcelona (which in 2025 it will receive 80% of Chinese cars purchased in Spain and 14% of those purchased in Europe) has underway a project to expand its capacity to assimilate cars, with the NYK shipping company willing to invest 75 million euros in a new terminal that could accommodate 180,000 cars a year. The problem is that these spaces are at their limit because, as we say, cars are not allowed out at the expected rate. It is a story that It has been repeating for two years. Back then, the companies did not have a sufficient distribution network to assimilate the cars that were brought to Europe, but now the problems are different. The problem now is that the manufacturers They are not finding enough truckers to move the cars to their destinations but, in addition, There are more Chinese brands fighting for ports Europeans and a country willing to get all the cars it can out of there. We send them to Europe. For a few months we have been saying that China is determined to send all the cars it can to our continent. Actually, Europe is not its only target market, but the growth in electric sales (in May almost the same electric cars were sold as gasoline cars) and the absence of tariffs on plug-in hybrids make the European market ideal. Chinese companies are encountering problems selling their cars in the local market but their factories continue to produce at full capacity. This has boosted exports to the point that they have taken almost 50% more electric vehicles out of the country than last year and 100% more plug-in hybrids. Brad Setseran export specialist, shows how domestic sales are falling but exports are increasing at a devilish rate and that car production continues to grow. China seems determined to flood the market with the expansion of its brands and the shipment of more and more models even though the ports themselves act as a funnel. It repeats. The situation experienced by European ports is similar to what is being experienced in other markets. As we counted a few weeks ago in XatakaMexico has wanted to impose tariffs on Chinese cars. Its problem is that when it wanted to collect the new taxes, the Chinese manufacturers had already landed thousands of cars there and had them available for distribution. This strategy is accompanied by the commitment that China is making to what is known as the Global South. There, the manufacturers They are dethroning Japan as their priority customerexporting more and more cars that are sold at a more attractive price below the equator line where They already ship more cars than Europe and the United States combined. Photo | Omoda and BYD In Xataka | Japan had dominated total car sales for more than 20 years, until China knocked on the door

stopped cars that cannot leave their ports

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

We believed that pets were replacing children. One study suggests just the opposite

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

The first time I saw a dog in a stroller It was in a shopping center. It passed me like any child’s stroller: wheels, hood, a small package inside. I looked twice because it seemed too small for a baby, and it wasn’t. Inside there was a dog. I remember well that he was a french bulldog and her name was Chanel. Over time, the scene stopped seeming exceptional to me. I started seeing dog strollers in downtown neighborhoods, parks or even on public transportation. An image that has become a symbol of something deeper: the feeling that, in aging societies, pets are occupying a place that children once had. But what if that reading was incomplete, or outright wrong? What if, far from replacing children, pets were playing another role in family life? An academic study questioned a widely held belief a few months ago. To begin with, the numbers help to understand why suspicion has established itself in the public debate. In Spain, according to the Spanish Network for the Identification of Pet Animals (REIAC)in 2023 there were more than ten million dogs registered compared to less than two million children between 0 and 4 years old. A difference so wide that it invites, almost automatically, to think about a change within homes. The scenes that come from outside reinforce that impression. South Korea has crossed a symbolic threshold: More strollers are sold for dogs than for babies. It is not an exaggeration, it is the statistical reflection of a country in demographic emergency. The trend has caught on so much that even faith has adapted. In Japanese temples such as Ichigaya Kamegaoka, the ancient ritual of Shichi-Go-San —previously exclusive for children— has filled with snouts and straps. In the absence of infants, sanctuaries bless pets to prevent their liturgies from being left without protagonists. Against this backdrop, political and moral interpretations have proliferated. In 2022, Pope Francis described as “selfish” to those who prefer to have animals rather than children. In South Korea, then Labor Minister Kim Moon-soo He even stated that young people They “love their dogs” instead of starting families. A resounding diagnosis that, until now, had relied more on cultural symbols and perceptions than on contrasted data. Disassembling the narratio But the idea that pets replace children received a serious corrective from academic research. The study Cats, Dogs, and Babiesled by researchers Kuan-Ming Chen and Ming-Jen Lin from National Taiwan University, analyzed for more than a decade the behavior of millions of homes. The research concluded that people who adopt a dog are up to 33% more likely to have a child later than those who do not. Far from displacing paternity, the animal seems to act as a preliminary step. This is what the authors call the “practice child effect”. As Chen and Lin explainmany couples use the experience of caring for a dog to evaluate their willingness to take on responsibilities: routines, expenses, and emotional bonds. If the experience is positive, it increases confidence to take the next step towards human parenthood. However, there is no change in sight. Neither the Taiwanese study nor the experts who analyze the demographic winter maintain that the increase in pets will translate, by itself, into a rebound in birth rates. The academic work itself warns that this is a country-specific analysis and that patterns may vary depending on the cultural, economic and social context. Furthermore, it is not yet a peer-reviewed article to verify the data either. The cart as a metaphor The study does not propose pets as response to demographic declinebut as a clue about how care decisions are postponed today in a context of economic and vital uncertainty. This reading fits with what sociologists and demographers point out in Spain. As reflected in the analysis of my colleague in Xatakathe drop in the birth rate responds to widely documented structural factors: job insecurity, rising housing costs, difficulties in conciliation, delay in emancipation and increasingly later motherhood. In this scenario, pets do not displace children; They occupy the space left by a postponed vital project. For this reason, the image of the dog in a stroller summarizes this ambiguity well. As Dr. Jerry Klein explainschief veterinarian of the American Kennel Club, these strollers can have a practical function in certain cases: “They offer elderly dogs, dogs with arthritis or mobility problems a way to enjoy the outdoors without straining themselves.” Veterinary platforms such as Dialvet either ToeGrips They agree that they can help protect paws from hot asphalt or help small dogs who cannot keep up with long walks. However, other experts urge caution. Carlos Carrasco, from DOS Training, warns in La Voz de Galicia that “a dog is not a child with hair” and that carrying a healthy animal in a stroller can be a “humiliation” that denaturalizes it. Along the same lines, ethologist Isabel Jiménez, director of La Manada de Iris, points out in IM Veterinaria that excessive humanization “nullifies the dog as a species and makes it emotionally ill.” a study published in Animals (MDPI) reinforces this idea, warning that anthropomorphism can generate anxiety and stress in the animal by not respecting its basic biological needs, such as smelling and walking. Finally, the rise of pets does not alone explain the demographic winter, but it does reveal how forms of affection and responsibility are reconfigured in societies where having children has become more complex. The Taiwanese study does not offer miracle solutionsbut there is a clear warning: facing pets and children as if they were exclusive options oversimplifies a much more nuanced reality. Perhaps, when we see a dog in a stroller, we are not looking at the symbol of renunciation, but rather at the reflection of a generation that postpones irreversible decisions while looking for possible forms of care. Before blaming the puppies, it might be worth looking at the system surrounding those who are hesitant to become parents. Image | Unsplash Xataka | As Japan runs out … Read more

the company has been chosen to modernize the Washington DC metro

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

Among all the projects it is in charge of, the Spanish technology company has also won the contract to renew the ticket terminals in the 98 Washington DC metro stations, in an agreement that could reach 75 million dollars. Below these lines we tell you all the details. Contract. Just like account The company in its official press release, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), the body that manages the Washington DC metro, has selected Indra to replace all the ticket sales machines in its network. The starting amount is 38.9 million dollars (about 33 million euros), but the contract includes additional options that could raise it to 75 million dollars (about 65 million euros). At stake are 450 new terminals spread across the five lines and 98 stations of a network that moves more than 500,000 travelers every day. What’s included exactly the order. In addition to manufacturing and delivering the equipment, Indra will also have to be responsible for the design, installation and maintenance for the next 15 years. The new machines will replace the current Fare Vending Machines, the terminals that have been in service on the network for years. According to affirms company, the new devices will have high-resolution touch screens with an interface very similar to that of mobile phones, will support payments by card, mobile phone and digital wallets (EMV and ABT technology), and will be available in up to 15 languages. The design must also comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), including assisted audio and tactile elements for people with reduced mobility or vision. According to the company, part of the assembly will be carried out in the new plant that Indra has just inaugurated in Olathe, within the Kansas City metropolitan area. Indra puts its foot in North America. In recent months, Indra has been accumulating positions in the North American market. At the beginning of this year it was awarded a contract of nearly 300 million dollars to modernize FAA air traffic control, and more recently signed another agreement with Nav Canada to integrate drones and commercial aviation into Canadian airspace. It also has previous experience in railway ticketing in the US, since it was the company that installed the last two generations of self-sales machines in the St. Louis (Missouri) metro. Winning a contract in Washington DC is at another level in terms of visibility, since WMATA is one of the largest public transportation agencies in the country, and consolidates Indra as a reference in a highly contested market. What each part says. Raúl Ripio, general director of Mobility & Technology at Indra Group, assures that the company has been betting decisively on the United States for some time, where in addition to this project it develops traffic, connected vehicle and communications initiatives. For his part, Randy Clarke, CEO of Washington Metro, said in a statement that the investment “modernizes a critical part” of the system and that the new terminals incorporate payment technologies that users increasingly demand. International expansion. This move comes months after Indra won the contract to modernize access to public transport in Londonvalued at around 1,000 million euros, one of the largest in its recent history. The one in Washington is more modest in numbers, but strategically it is just as relevant, since the company is fully integrated into the mobility infrastructure of the US capital, a country that is increasingly taking center stage among its expansion plans. Cover image | Matthew Bornhorst In Xataka | Seville has had serious traffic problems on the SE-30 for decades: a 3.5 kilometer megabridge aims to solve them

Teams will be able to know if you are in the office via WiFi

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

Presence at work long ago stopped depending only on sitting at a table. Now it also lives in shared calendars, statuses Teamsscheduled meetings and small signals that we use every day almost without thinking about it. Microsoft wants to add one more layer to that invisible map of hybrid work. We’re not just talking about knowing if someone is busy or available, but about bringing physical location closer to the tools we use to coordinate. And that’s where a seemingly practical feature starts to strike a much deeper chord. The concrete novelty. The idea is that this change of “today I work from the office” does not always depend on us marking it by hand. The function is called workplace check-in via WiFi and is designed for Teams and Microsoft Places. The scene is easy to imagine: you arrive at the office, open your laptop, connect to a corporate network set up by the company and the system can update your work location during the day. Microsoft proposes it as a way to keep that information up to date without forcing the employee to touch their status every time they change plans. How it works. Microsoft is not talking about following the employee’s cell phone around the city as if it were a GPS, but rather a signal generated within a specific work environment. The company must previously register its office networks in Microsoft Places, with its SSID and, to associate them with specific buildings, the BSSIDs of the WiFi access points. Microsoft’s documentation adds another important limit: this detection requires the Teams desktop app on Windows or macOS, not the web or mobile versions. If the device is not connected to a network configured as a work location, Microsoft notes that the person will appear as “Remote.” A coordination tool. It’s not just about putting an “office” label next to someone’s name, but about making that information serve to better coordinate the team, according to Microsoft. The company gives very everyday examples: knowing who is there to have a coffee, reserving a table near colleagues or converting a meeting planned as remote into a face-to-face meeting. You can also keep your work plan up to date and check-in an existing desk reservation. The nuance of control. Microsoft insists that this feature is not enabled by default for the entire workforce. Check-in is disabled initially for each tenant and must be enabled by administrators, who can configure the experience as opt-in or opt-out. The company says that each employee retains control over whether and how their device works, and that location permissions are required at the operating system level. It also points out that the user can modify their settings at any time, manually define their work location or overwrite it if necessary. And in practice? Microsoft says the employee retains decision-making power, but corporate work rarely occurs in a neutral environment. Many companies, especially on Windows, manage laptops, Teams policies, operating system permissions, and Microsoft 365 settings from administrative layers that the user does not fully control. This does not allow us to conclude that this function can be imposed ignoring the employee, because Microsoft itself insists otherwise. It does force us, however, to read the promise of control with obvious caution: it will depend on the actual deployment. Why it matters. Microsoft’s announcement is not accompanied by a public list of countries or a closed date for each organization. The company talks about an enterprise rollout with Microsoft Places later this year, while its technical documentation still describes wireless check-in as a feature in preview. To use it, each company will have to prepare its tenant, which in practice is the Microsoft 365 environment that each company manages, configure buildings and add approved corporate networks. The bottom line is in scale: Teams is not a minor tool within the corporate desktop, but a platform with more than 320 million monthly active users. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Knowing how to use AI is not a simple advantage: it is the difference between being in a labor market that is growing or one that is stagnating.

Airbus is testing AI in one of the most delicate maneuvers of a flight: landing

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

Landing a commercial plane seems, seen from the window, to be an almost routine sequence, but in reality, it is one of the most demanding phases of the flight, a maneuver in which pilots, navigation systems, weather conditions and airport infrastructure have to fit together with enormous precision. What Airbus is investigating now is whether the artificial intelligence can help with that fit. Their proposal involves cameras installed on the plane itself and artificial vision to analyze the runway references during landing in real time. What the company has put on the table is called Vision Landing Application. Airbus has presented it in the context of VivaTech 2026 as a technology still in the research phase, so we are not looking at something that will reach commercial aircraft tomorrow. However, the idea it leaves behind is quite simple to understand: saving all the distances with aviation, it is conceptually reminiscent of what we have already seen in autonomous terrestrial vehicles. Autoland is not new, but aims to evolve Here you have to separate two things that may seem the same, but are not. commercial airplanes They can now land automatically under certain conditions, but that does not mean that the system is always available, at any airport and regardless of the crew. They are needed certified aircraft, adequate infrastructure, authorized procedures and pilots trained to operate within that framework. As we can sense, the novelty that Airbus is exploring does not eliminate that reality: it tries to add another form of guidance, born within the plane itself, to an ecosystem where the pilot continues to be a central piece. Regarding the demonstration at VivaTech, it should be noted that we are not talking about a plane landing in the middle of the event or a commercial test carried out in front of the public. The exhibit was intended to explain how computer vision can improve automated landing procedures. It is less spectacular than imagining an A350 landing at a fair, but much more important to understand where the technology really is. Now, all this does not come from nothing. Airbus places it within an automation roadmap that began to take shape years ago with ATTOLa project launched in 2018 to explore autonomous taxiing, takeoff and landing using image recognition, without relying on conventional ground systems such as ILS or GBAS. Then other programs arrived: DragonFlyfocused on pilot assistance, automatic emergency operations and workload reduction during taxiing; and Auto’Matewith a different objective, in-flight refueling, but with very close technological bricks, such as cameras, LiDAR, high-precision positioning and AI algorithms. The next name in that chain is Optimizean Airbus UpNext demonstrator that the company describes as a kind of A350 cabin on wheels. It is not an airplane, but a test vehicle designed to bring sensors, systems and automation to the real environment of an airport without converting each test into a flight. This includes cameras, 4D radar, LiDAR, trajectory protection models, functions against runway incursions and even a virtual assistant to interpret air control authorizations. Vision Landing Application aims to be useful in at least two especially sensitive cases: remote airfields with little or no advanced infrastructure and environments where GNSS, the satellite navigation that many systems use as a reference, may be degraded, interfered with or directly unavailable. In these cases, the aircraft being able to visually interpret what is in front of it does not replace operational safety, but it does add a potential support network. The expression Airbus uses is “embedded AI”, but we can translate it more clearly as embedded AI. The difference matters: it is not an AI supported by external servers, but a capability integrated into the aircraft systems. In an airplane there is no excess energy, there is no excess calculation capacity and it is not enough for an algorithm to work well in a demonstration. To get closer to certification, the European manufacturer needs the behavior of the hardware and software to be controllable, traceable and compatible with the safety requirements of commercial aviation. This is one of the reasons why it is wise to avoid the easy jump to pilotless aircraft. What Airbus describes is much closer to a cabin with better aids than an empty cabin. Its systems seek to alleviate repetitive tasks, improve crew attention and add layers of information. If onboard AI ends up entering commercial aircraft, its first reasonable function will not be to replace the pilot, but rather to give it better tools. From there to the commercial plane there is still a long way. Airbus will have to demonstrate that this technology works reliably in very different scenarios, integrate it with the rest of the aircraft systems and go through a certification process designed precisely to prevent a promising innovation from reaching real operation prematurely. The Vision Landing Application does not change the way of landing tomorrow, but it does show a very specific direction of where at least part of the industry is heading. Images | Airbus In Xataka | Spain had a master plan for the European fighter. The problem is that Germany just got a girlfriend with a lot of “money”

NASA and video games use it more than a century after its discovery

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

It had rained heavily that morning of October 16, 1943, so when it cleared Sir William Rowan Hamilton He finished his whiskey (no whiskey, that’s why it was Irish) and asked his fragile wife if they would go out for a walk around Dublin. He had been working on a mathematical problem involving complex numbers for years without success, and decided it was a good idea to get some air. That’s what he did. They walked, talked about their children’s future and as they crossed Broom Bridge Sir William’s light bulb suddenly went on. “Helen!” he exclaimed, “I don’t need to multiply triplets: I can use quadruples!” Helen didn’t know anything, of course, but at that moment quaternions were born, an extension of real numbers that more than a century or a half later are critical for NASA’s space missions and also for the video game industry. Good for Sir William. Worthy successor to Sir Isaac Newton Sir William Rowan Hamilton (Dublin, 1805-1865) stood out since childhood. At the age of thirteen he already spoke several European languages, but also Persian, Arabic, Sanskrit and Malay. When he was 8 years old, his fame was already notable, and the tour of the American calculus prodigy, Zerah Colburn, gave him the opportunity to prove his brilliance. That 9-year-old American boy crushed him on a mental arithmetic test, and that showed little Hamilton the way. He would continue studying languages, but what he wanted to do was dedicate himself to mathematics. In 1823 that young man achieved first place among 100 candidates in the Trinity College exams. The prestigious Irish university soon discovered the brilliance of Hamilton, who already in his student days wrote part of his treatise on optics, the well-known “Theory of Ray Systems“. That was key so that in 1827 he ended up occupying the position of Royal Astronomer of Ireland, a well-paid chair that was unheard of for it to end up in the hands of an undergraduate. Not only that: it gave Hamilton the opportunity to research freely, something he would not have been able to do in a hypothetical position as a professor at Trinity College. His work in the field of optics would end up mixing with that of dynamics and algebra in the 1830s. His work with several colleagues led him to pursue a very special objective: to try to generalize complex numbers in order to represent rotations and movements of vectors in space. three-dimensional. If he succeeded, he would have a very powerful tool to formulate the basic laws of physics and describe the movement of rigid bodies in space. In 1833 he presented a paper to the Royal Irish Academy in which he defined addition and maltiplication operations on pairs of real numbers. He was the first mathematician to treat complex numbers as ordered pairs (Gauss had done so before, but without publishing his discoveries) and his vision was closely related to physics. To try to advance in that field, Hamilton tried to study what he called the “Triplet Theory”, hypercomplex numbers referred to three-dimensional space in the same way that complex numbers referred to two-dimensional space. It was that that led him to the discovery of the quaternions. The triplets did not have the common properties of complex numbers when trying to multiply them and his obsession with the problem was such that even his children ended up asking him the same thing every morning: “Well dad, can you multiply triplets now?”, to which he replied: “no, for now I can only add and subtract them.” And then came that ride. Hamilton would describe that happy moment of sudden discovery in a letter to one of his sons fifteen years after it occurred: “Tomorrow will be the fifteenth birthday of the quaternions. They came into life, or into the light, fully grown, on October 16, 1843, when I was walking with Mrs. Hamilton towards Dublin, and we arrived at Broughman’s Bridge. That is, then and there, I closed the galvanic circuit of thought and the sparks that fell were the fundamental equations between i, j, k; exactly as I have used them ever since. I took out, at that moment, a pocket notebook, which still exists, and made a note, on which, at that very moment, I felt that it would possibly be valuable to extend my work for at least the ten (or it could be fifteen) years to come. It is fair to say that this happened because I felt, at that moment, that a problem had been solved, an intellectual desire relieved, a desire that had haunted me for at least the previous fifteen years. I could not resist the impulse to take my knife and engrave on a stone of Brougham Bridge the fundamental formula with the symbols i, j, k: i2=j2=k2=ijk=−1 which contained the solution to the Problem, which has since survived as an inscription. Hamilton called a quadruple with those multiplication rules a quaternion, and he dedicated the rest of his life to studying them, developing them, and teaching them to students and academics. Quaternions in space, quaternions in video games The study of quaternions has led to many other mathematical discoveries, but their application has been amazing more than a century and a half after that walk. In fact, quaternions are used in flight computers or in simulation studies in which large changes in angle are involved when monitoring the altitude of the spacecraft. The use of quaternions eliminate problems like Euler singularity and allows the use of only four parameters, in addition to being ideal for digital error control. In fact the so-called unitary quaternions allow counting with a mathematical notation to represent the orientations and rotations of objects in three dimensions, and therefore are widely used in robotics or navigation satellite orbital mechanics and are used in NASA missions for decades. That same ability to represent rotations in space is key for the development of 3D video games … Read more

the AEMET rule to declare a heat wave in Spain

June 24, 2026 by usatoday24

We spent the summer talking about heat waves and extreme temperaturesbut sometimes it is difficult for us to differentiate exactly what they are. If we look back to the summer of 2025, we remember that there was constant talk of heat waves. We may have the feeling that July and August were a huge heat wave. However, if we look at the data from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET)we will see that only 3 heat waves were recorded in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands and 2 in the Canary Islands. The key is that they were long heat waves. Without going any further, the first of them extended from June 18 to July 4. The next one arrived on July 15, so we didn’t even have two weeks of respite. Be that as it may, the concept of a heat wave is somewhat diffuse. It is not described the same in some countries as in others, and even has variations in the same country. Of course, no matter what definition we stick to, it is clear that they are becoming more and more intense. That is why it is so important to take measures against global warming. What exactly is a heat wave: the scientific definition Actually, There is no single definition of what a heat wave is.. Broadly speaking, it can be considered a prolonged period of extreme temperatures for a specific region. As we have already seen, each country has its own definition, which usually follows historically selected criteria. Even institutions can have very specific definitions. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) define a heat wave as an unusually hot and dry or hot and humid period in a specific place, with visible effects on nature and people’s health. Contrary to what usually happens with the definitions of different countries, these two institutions include the health of people and the effects on nature as important factors in the definition of a heat wave. The three requirements of the AEMET to declare a heat wave in Spain In the case of Spain, the criteria to describe a heat wave They are provided by the AEMET. According to this, three requirements must be met: Duration of at least 3 consecutive days Detection of extremely high temperatures in at least 10% of the reference observatories Maximums located above the 95th percentile of temperatures measured between July and August from 1971 to 2000. These criteria refer to mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands.. With the Canary Islands there is an exception, since they only have 6 observatories. If we obeyed the 10% rule, it would be enough to detect extreme temperatures above the guidelines in only one of them. It is too little, so there is a special requirement that at least two observatories detect temperatures above the 95th percentile. How long does a heat wave last? There is no defined duration for a heat wave. As we have seen, in Spain it must last at least 3 consecutive days to be considered as such. And from there to heaven. At the moment, the longest that has been recorded in Spain lasted 26 days and It was produced in 2015. It should be noted that in 2022 the heat waves were shorter, but it stands out for being the year with the most heat wave days added together. A total of 41, to which 2025 came dangerously close, with 33 days under a heat wave. Other countries, according to their criteria, have experienced heat waves that may be shorter, but very surprising due to their location. For example, in 2025, the subarctic regions of Norway, Sweden and Finland recorded their worst heat wave since records exist, with 21 consecutive days and temperatures that exceeded 30°C within the Arctic Circle itself. Why does the temperature threshold change depending on the province? As we have already seen, for the AEMET, one of its criteria when defining a heat wave is that the reference stations register temperatures above the 95th percentile measured in July and August from 1971 to 2000. Logically, each province will have different records. The records of Seville will not be the same as those of Oviedo. The 95th percentile temperature will be much higher in the Andalusian capital than in the Asturian capital. Be that as it may, it should be noted that there is no threshold per province, but rather per reference station. Each province may have several of these seasons, with slightly different temperatures. To give an example based on AEMET datain Jaén there are three seasons, whose thresholds are 39ºC, 40ºC and 42ºC. If we go to colder areas, in A Coruña there are three seasons and their thresholds are 29.2ºC, 30ºC and 31.6ºC. How to know if there is a heat wave alert in your autonomous community The best way to know if there is a heat wave in our autonomous community or an alert for intensely high temperatures is to stay up to date with AEMET updates. In any case, it should be noted that, individually, we are more interested in being up to date with the notices. We may not have a heat wave for a few days, because there are not enough stations in the region that meet the criteria, but there may be temperatures high enough in specific points to put people’s health at risk. Therefore, we must make a monitoring unusually high temperature alerts; which, as with rain or wind, follow a color code (green, yellow, orange or red) to indicate the level of risk and the measures to take. Real-time weather warning map: from yellow alert to red warning Unusually high temperature alerts are defined with three colors. Yellow refers to significant risk, orange to high risk and red to extreme risk.. If the area is colored green (or gray in the case of maps), there is no risk. Every day, the AEMET updates its color warning maps, so it is important … Read more

Madrid’s plan to renew its roads this summer

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

Madrid Calle 30 has launched its annual renewal campaign of the pavement on the roads under its management. This year, the operation has started on the A-6 highway and will also reach sections of the M-30 tunnel, as well as several critical points on the capital’s roads. The investment amounts to around 6.2 million euros and the work will continue throughout the summer. Asphalt renewal campaign. In order to adapt the pavement in its road network, Madrid City Council expanded last January the actions of Madrid Calle 30. And in addition to the M-30 roads itself, the municipal company now adds the management of all the access roads to the capital, that is, the A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4, A-5, A-6, A-42, M-11, M-23, M-500 and M-607. In total, Madrid Calle 30 is responsible for the maintenance of 2.7 million square meters of road. And this summer’s campaign will act on 9% of that surface. What exactly do the jobs consist of? The performances are divided into three phases. First, milling is carried out, which consists of removing the surface layer of the damaged or worn pavement. The new asphalt agglomerate is then applied. Finally, the road markings are repainted. For the entire campaign, the use of about 19,000 tons of asphalt mixtures is estimated. The works will be carried out at night to minimize the impact on traffic. Four fronts of action. The campaign is deployed in four different areas: A-6 and its Bus-HOV lane (160,000 m²): these are the largest works. They span from Calle de la Princesa, at the confluence with the Moncloa interchange, to the Hipódromo de la Zarzuela. Work on the Bus-HOV lane began on June 19 and will continue on June 26 and 27. The A-6 in the inbound direction will be paved from July 15 to 28, and in the outbound direction, from July 26 to August 17. M-30 tunnel (50,000 m²): the interior section between the south junction-legazpi plaza and the Marqués de Vadillo-Prámides roundabout, in both directions of circulation. Vallecas Bridge (12,500 m²): the action will be carried out once the waterproofing work is completed, works that are integrated as part of the rehabilitation of the bridge and are still in progress. O’Donnell board with the M-23 (20,000 m²): in the outward direction, completing the campaign for this summer. And all at night. As we have mentioned, the reason is simply to reduce traffic impacts to a minimum on a network that is already congested every day. Alternative routes will be enabled on each section, which can be consulted through the website. Signage will also be reinforced at the affected points. Extension. This Madrid Calle 30 campaign is part of Operation Asphalt 2026 that is being prepared by the Works and Equipment Area of the Madrid City Council, and which in the coming weeks will extend similar actions to the 21 districts of the city. So the works that have started with the M-30 and its accesses are just the tip of the iceberg of the entire maintenance plan that is expected for this summer. In Xataka | In February, historic rains broke the roads. Málaga has just received the go-ahead to repair the A-7 and A-45

In Galicia there is a town that every summer recreates a Viking landing with ‘drakkars’. And it makes perfect sense

June 23, 2026 by usatoday24

If you want to experience a Viking landing in your flesh, a historical representation that includes longships like those used by Nordic people in the 9th century to sail the seas, warriors with axes and medieval fortresses, you don’t need to travel to Scandinavia. In Catoira, a Galician town of just over 3,000 inhabitants, they celebrate every summer a pilgrimage that for a few hours turns the Ría de Arousa into the scene of an epic battle. The most interesting thing is its background: it is not a whimsical festival, but rather a tribute to the role that the town played centuries ago in the defense of Galicia. Vikings in Galicia? When you think of Vikings, the first thing that comes to mind is Scandinavia and the Nordic navigators who centuries ago, between the 8th and 11th AD, dedicated themselves to sailing, trading and plundering across Europe. However, every summer Catoira, a small town in the province of Pontevedra, celebrates a pilgrimage focused precisely on the Vikings. It has been doing so for more than six decades and with such success that its celebration has achieved the seal of international tourist interest and, in just one week, attracts more than 100,000 people. Not bad if we take into account that in the town they live 3,300. An old connection. Catoira celebrating a Viking party makes all the sense in the world. The town may be more than 2,000 kilometers from Norway, but centuries ago it played a crucial role in repelling raids by the normative pirates (also Saracens) who came to Galician lands in search of loot and, above all, an easy access route to Santiago de Compostela. To understand it, you must first understand the strategic geographical role of Catoira, a town located at the inland end of the Arousa estuary, near the mouth of the Ulla. If the pirates wanted to reach Santiago, where the 9th century The tomb of Saint James the Greater was located, it offered them an ideal access door. “The key and seal of Galicia”. The local rulers soon understood the role that the Catoira area played and that is why they fortified it with the West Towersa medieval defensive system located at the head of the estuary. Today we preserve two of the seven original towers that between the 9th and 10th centuries They allowed the locals to stand up to Norman raids. “The Vikings who arrived in Galicia in the 9th and 10th centuries with the intention of plundering our lands encountered resistance from the troops of the Castellum Honestiwhich during that time prevented the Norman armies and Saracen pirates from ascending the river, to the point of this fortress being considered the ‘Key and seal of Galicia’”, remember the Catoira Town Hall. A party… and a tribute. A few decades ago, in 1960the members of the Ateneo do Ullán decided to remember the heroic past of the town with an act that basically commemorated the landings in the lands of Ullá. As the City Council explains, it began as “a meeting of friends with cultural concerns”, a celebration without major pretensions. Over time, however, the party gained strength. In 1965 a company took over the organization and during the next quarter of a century the pilgrimage continued to grow and increase its impact beyond Catoira, Pontevedra and even Galicia. It grew so much, in fact, that between the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s the City Council decided take charge of the organization. What had started as an improvised act gained the status of international holiday. There are no Vikings without longships. Proof of how much the pilgrimage expanded (and of its vocation to continue doing so) is that the event incorporated several longshipsthe characteristic warships used by the Norse and Germanic tribes. In 1993, the first one was built, named ‘Torres de Oeste’, and over time two others were added: ‘Frederikssund’ and ‘Ardglass-Catoira’. These are not more or less approximate copies. To make the first, a group of expert Catoirense craftsmen traveled to Denmark, where they studied Viking boat-building methods and were inspired by the Skuldelev 5a longship found in Denmark. The ‘Frederikssund’ is also an adaptation of an authentic 11th century ship, the Gokstadlocated in Norway. Ironies of history, today Catoira’s heroic past is celebrated with a pilgrimage in which the protagonists are the Vikings and in which (of course) there is no shortage of medieval markets, shows, seafood and red wine from Ulla. Images | Council of Catoira, Spain tourism and Xunta de Galicia In Xataka | When the Romans arrived in Galicia, they encountered the enemy they feared most: a river that stole their memory.

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