usatoday24

in being profitable

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The battle to lead the artificial intelligence sector has many frontsand among its greatest exponents are the startups OpenAI and Anthropic. While the first grabs headlines with ChatGPT and continues to expand its product ecosystem, its rival Anthropic has chosen a different path around its chatbot Claudeone that seems to be leaving him with greater profitability. AND the numbers show that this strategy could prove him right. Figures. According to documents to which The Wall Street Journal has had access, Anthropic plans to reach break-even in 2028, the year in which the company would begin to be profitable. OpenAI, for its part, He does not expect to achieve it until 2030and for that year projects operating losses of about $74 billion, roughly three-quarters of its revenue. Two opposing philosophies. There is a clear strategic difference. OpenAI is betting on massive investment in infrastructure: data centers, chips and reserve computing capacity. In fact, Sam Altman, its CEO, has already announced spending commitments of about 1.4 trillion dollars for the next eight years. Their goal is to turn OpenAI into a multibillion-dollar tech giant, even if that means burning through cash at a breakneck pace for years. Anthropic, founded by Dario Amodei after leaving OpenAI, has opted for a more conservative approach. The company is focusing its efforts on enterprise customers, which They represent 80% of your incomeand has all this time avoided entering into higher cost areas such as image and video generation, which require exponentially greater computing capacity. Efficiency. Just like affirms WSJ, this year, both companies have burned money in similar proportions: OpenAI will spend 9 billion after generating 13 billion in sales, while Anthropic will burn close to 3 billion with revenues of 4.2 billion. In both cases, around 70% of revenue evaporates into costs. But starting in 2026, everything indicates that the trajectories would begin to diverge. Anthropic projects reduce its spending rate to just 9% of its income in 2027, while OpenAI will remain at 57%. The difference is abysmal. The Claude Factor. The Anthropic chatbot has found a gap especially promising among developers and technical teams, thanks to its capabilities in programming and analysis. That they have specialized in this has allowed them to build a solid base of paying customers without needing to compete directly on all the fronts that OpenAI is opening up. Altman’s risk. OpenAI’s bet is risky but consistent with Altman’s personality and his vision of setting the pace of the AI ​​revolution. Recently, OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar declared that the company could break even if it wanted to, highlighting the growth of its corporate business. However, the current strategy requires constant funding rounds and could falter if the market cools or investors lose patience. Asymmetrical valuations. Despite their different approaches, the market continues to value OpenAI very highly: 500 billion dollars compared to Anthropic’s 183 billion. Almost all the big investors in Silicon Valley have stakes in one or the other, hoping that both will star in historic IPOs. Cover image | Anthropic and OpenAI In Xataka | DeepSeek has broken its silence after months without appearing: its chief researcher has warned about the impact of AI on employment

It is proof that China has won the robot vacuum war

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Already it was seen coming for a long time: iRobot is sinking and bankruptcy is knocking on the door. The one that pioneered robot vacuum cleaners has been going through difficulties for years and their current situation is critical: they have admitted that they barely have cash to operate and there are no more ways to earn income. It looks very bad. what has happened. iRobot has published the third quarter results of the year and paint a very gloomy scenario. Revenue was $145.8 million, down 33% in the United States, 13% in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and 9% in Japan compared to the same period last year. The serious thing, according to its CEO, is that due to “market difficulties, production delays and unforeseen interruptions in shipments” the use of cash increased and right now they only have 24.8 million dollars and no additional source of income in sight. Why is it important. iRobot was the one who started the robot vacuum cleaner market in 2002 with the first Roomba model. In 2016 They were market leaders. with a share of 64%, but the emergence of more competitors meant that the pie began to be shared more and more, reducing its portion. iRobot reached its peak valuation in 2021 and from there it was downhill and without brakes. In 2022 Amazon threw her a lifeline and tried to buy herbut regulatory problems in the European Union they caused the agreement to end up being diluted. Its fall is not only important because it was the company that inaugurated the sector, which made us call robot vacuum cleaners ‘Roomba’, it is also confirmation that Chinese companies have conquered the sector. Possible bankruptcy. In a document addressed to the Securities and Exchange Commission Last October, the company warned of its critical situation and opened the door to bankruptcy as soon as December 1st. The reason is that it has a credit agreement with The Carlyle Group and has two key requirements: to demonstrate that the company can continue to operate and to maintain a minimum of core assets, something they cannot currently meet. The problem is that they have already received two extensions and the deadline is December 1. They need another extension or sell the company, but they have no buyer. What’s wrong with my Roomba. In statements to The VergeiRobot says the company continues its daily operations, including support for its products. However, if the company closes and the cloud stops working, it will mean that the Roombas will lose their online connectivity. That is, they cannot be controlled from the mobile phone with the app, but they will continue to work using the buttons. It’s already happened. Even if iRobot goes bankrupt, its cloud services may continue for a while, the question is for how long. This is what has happened with Neato vacuum cleaners. The company closed in 2023 and their cloud continued to function, until a couple of weeks ago when they announced that they turned it off permanently. Neato vacuum cleaners only work in manual mode and it is no longer possible to use the app to control the robot or create cleaning routines. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Dyson is late to the robot vacuum party. Your ace in the hole is an AI that identifies and removes difficult stains

The two most important weather models in the world are discussing whether Santander is going to freeze next week. And the cold is winning

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Where has all the cold gone? So far this fall (with the sole exception of Siberia), temperatures have been relatively mild on all continents. And it seems that the situation is going to continue like this: it is true that the forecasts speak of a progressive decrease in temperatures in the southeast of Canada, the eastern United States and northern Europe; but no model paints a scenario that is particularly cold (except some very long term prediction). However, all eyes are on the polar vortex. If the models are right, it is very possible that the vortex will experience an unprecedented disturbance in November, leading to an interesting weather period starting in December. “There is no way this is fulfilled.” While November continues with its strange meteorology, the models draw increasingly strange scenarios. At this point in the week, we cannot rule out that on the 18th and 19th we have a more than considerable winter storm with the ‘beast from the east‘looming over Western Europe. In the next few hours we will have a war between models: The American marks a cold entry on Santander, the European said no. Little by little, the two seem to be converging towards a cold scene. It’s too early to say, but in a very few hours the daisy will be shedding its leaves. Anyway, the central issue is that all of this is minute sin. The breaking of the vortex. Except for that event in the middle of next week, autumn will continue to be very warm and mild on almost all continents. However, this could change if sudden stratospheric warming appears. That is, the vortex breaks. Sudden stratospheric warming? To understand it simply, we have to remember that the atmosphere is a kind of “lasagna of air layers” and each of them follows its own logic. That is, they work quite differently and independently. As far as it affects us: the circulation of air in the troposphere (the one closest to the surface) and the circulation in the stratosphere (the layer directly above) are related, yes; But, in general terms, they each do their own thing. During the “sudden stratospheric warming“, a part of the troposphere warms rapidly and, as a consequence, invades the stratosphere, causing a profound alteration of the circulation at high altitude. That is, for a few days, everything turns upside down. And what happens? The most common consequence of this is that the polar vortex weakens and may break down. The polar (arctic) vortex is a current of air that runs from west to east around the north pole and contains cold air at high latitudes. When this current is strong and stable, preventing it from flowing towards places like Spain. If the vortex It destabilizes and its winds lose strength (due to, for example, “sudden warming”), it is relatively common for cold air masses to escape on their way south. What if it doesn’t break? In reality, the vortex does not even need to break. It only needs to move from the Arctic region to lower latitudes. By moving a huge mass of cold air with it, the result is always very similar: an icy cold that can turn any country upside down (even the best prepared ones). And that seems to be what we are going to see. It’s hard to know if it will affect us or not, but there’s no doubt that the late fall weather is getting “interesting.” Image | Meteociel In Xataka | The last hope of winter in Spain is desperate, but increasingly possible: the breaking of the polar vortex

The EU is considering banning the installation of mobile network equipment from Huawei or ZTE. It is a dangerous strategy

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The European Commission (EC) is exploring ways to get member states stop using telecommunications equipment from Chinese sellers like Huawei or ZTE. Tension between Europe and China is escalating once again, and it is not at all clear that this decision will be beneficial for European companies. Huawei in Europe no, thanks. On Bloomberg cite sources close to these plans and talk about how the vice president of this organization, Henna Virkkunen, has adopted a very forceful position. Virkkunen apparently wants to completely stop the use of Huawei telecommunications equipment with an eye-catching argument: making that a legal requirement. It wouldn’t matter what each country thought.. Years ago the EU has already recommended avoiding Chinese telecommunications equipment as far as possible, but it was a suggestion without a mandatory nature and the member states were the ones to decide in this area. Spain, for example, has continued using this equipment. The Commission’s theoretical proposal would legally force EU countries to break commercial ties with these companies. Failure to comply with the requirement could expose these countries to economic sanctions. Before they were suggestions. At the beginning of 2020 the European Union announced those recommendations under the name “5G Toolbox”. At that time they warned of the risks but left room for maneuver to the member states. Now we go from a soft recommendation to a legal imposition, because that “Toolbox” was voluntary. The national security argument. The argument is the same as that used in the past: Euro officials fear the risks associated with using communications equipment from companies (such as Huawei) so closely linked to the Chinese government. Maintaining these teams, this strategy suggests, could compromise national security. And be careful with countries outside the EU. The EU’s plan is not only for member countries to abandon these teams, but to pressure countries outside the EU to do so as well. Thus, it would try to block the use of program funds Global Gateway if those who use them spend them buying Huawei equipment. The operators, harmed. European telecommunications companies also appear to oppose this plan. First of all, they indicate in Bloomberg, because Huawei technology is often cheaper and even superior to Western alternatives from Nokia or Ericsson. And second, because replacing existing equipment is extremely expensive and can delay current and future deployments. internal division. In the absence of confirmation of the EC plan, there is another key element: there is internal division among EU members. Germany and Finland continue to deliberate on what restrictions to impose, while Spain and Greece continue to purchase telephone equipment from these manufacturers. What they say in China. Lin Jian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Minister, has indicated that when certain countries forcibly eliminate telecommunications equipment from Chinese firms like Huawei, they not only slow down their technological progress, but also suffer economic losses. He further added that “We urge the #EU to provide a fair, transparent and non-discriminatory business environment for Chinese companies and avoid undermining business confidence in investing in Europe.” Let’s remember Sweden. In 2020, Sweden decided to ban the use of telecommunications equipment from Chinese manufacturers with the same argument that we already know about national security. That theoretically favored the local company, Ericsson, but its CEO criticized the Swedish government’s decision precisely because he knew what was going to happen. Revenge is served on a cold plate. And what happened is that China retaliated. A few months later, China Mobile announced budgets and contracts to boost the country’s telecommunications infrastructure, and Ericsson was the biggest loser. The company had almost 11% market share before the government’s decision: today its share does not reach 2%. Dangerous veto. If confirmed and made effective, the veto on being able to use telecommunications equipment in the European Union is dangerous precisely for the same reason that happened with Sweden. China continues to be a great commercial ally of China despite being more aligned with the US in areas such as semiconductors. With these types of actions, Europe positions itself even more closely with the Trump government, something that is somewhat surprising because Europe already came out badly after the agreement with tariffs. In Xataka | Huawei has a plan to deal the final blow to NVIDIA in China: a supernode of 15,000 processors

the strange inhabitants of the Antarctic abyss

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In the frozen, forgotten depths of the South Atlantic, an international team of scientists has achieved the unexpected: confirming the existence of thirty completely new marine species for science. Among them, a creature stands out that challenges what we know about life in the deep ocean: a spherical sponge covered in hooks, capable of catching its prey with such forceful efficiency that the team itself baptized it as “death ball”. We don’t know everything. With this type of news, science places our feet in reality, since although we have been populating this planet for many years, there are still things that we do not know. An example are these new species that show us that in the depths of the ocean we have a great mystery for humans and that there is still a way to surprise us with our planet. A predator. Most marine sponges They are considered “peaceful”filter feeding and causing no further harm to anyone. But the Chondrocladia sp. novfound more than three kilometers below the surface near Montagu Island, uses microhooks that act as a kind of “deadly Velcro” on crabs and other invertebrates, which it slowly absorbs. Visually, this is a sponge that is actually quite surprising, since it is white and has appendages ending in small balls. In this way, it managed to gain the attention of specialists who have described it as one of the strangest animals of the entire expedition. This is something that breaks with what a traditional sponge does that we all have in mind, which simply feeds on particles and remains in the water itself. But this new species is committed to feeding on other living beings and on those that are above the food chainas the study researchers point out. Technology has been key. Right now, accessing the seabed is a real challenge for humans. One of the great impediments is the great pressure that exists in that environment that becomes really hostile. But thanks to technological advances it has been achieved. This specific investigation has had a underwater robot named SuBastian and high definition cameras. The result of the expedition was thousands of hours of video and nearly 2,000 specimens among the images that had to be analyzed. But the species were not the most notable part of this research, since new hydrothermal springs, coral gardens with volcanic structures were also discovered, and a juvenile colossal squid was recorded for the first time. ​ Not just sponges. It is a fact that on the seabed there are many species that are truly strange, including the so-called ‘death balls’, but they were not alone in this rarity. Other species that surprised the researchers were the following: Zombie worms (Osedax sp.), capable of feeding exclusively on the bone tissue of whales and large vertebrates. ​ Rare mollusks, bivalves and black corals adapted to hydrothermal and volcanic environments.​ A complicated process. Verifying that these findings are true is not something easy to achieve. In this case, the findings were made this August at the University of Magallanes in Chile where specialists from eight countries applied accelerated identification techniques: from in situ imaging to genetic comparison, in a process that seeks to reduce the years of waiting to catalog new species.​ Images | @TuCpakoa In Xataka | We are clogging the ocean’s carbon toilet and it is something that is only going to cause us problems

Broncano has broken the only unwritten rule of ‘La Revuelta’ with Rosalía. And thanks to that he has managed to overwhelm ‘El Hormiguero’

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In a season that is being characterized by the comfortable and placid victory of ‘El Hormiguero’ in practically every night in which he faces ‘La Resistencia’, it is a real surprise that Broncano’s program ahead of his rival in a clear and indisputable way. What is not at all surprising is how he has achieved it. He has resorted to the number one obsession currently in Spain as a whole: Rosalia. The data. Rosalía has helped Broncano achieve nothing less than his historical maximum quotawith 20.4% share and peaks of 27% in its final stretch. It is also their largest victory against ‘El hormiguero’, with a 5.2 point advantage in strict coincidence. La 1, thus, leads on Monday with one tenth ahead of Antena 3. It is the first time, in addition, that the program reaches 20% of share. ‘El Hormiguero’, of course, has not done badly: Andy (of Andy and Lucas) makes 15.3 of shareand both leave behind Temptation Island 9′, which with 1,344,000 also marks its own season high. Why has he achieved it? Rosalía’s participation in the program was partially out of the ordinary in the program, although at this point the Broncano team has become accustomed to surprise the publicespecially with the most relevant guests. First, Rosalía arrived at the theater with a spectacular reception, integrated into an original fictitious “neighbors’ meeting” scene with figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, Manuela Carmena and La Zowi. During the interview he improvised acapella a fragment of her song ‘La perla’ and shared with the audience a cake that she baked herself the night before. (But above all) why he has achieved it. since last week It was known that Rosalía would attend the Broncano program. The expectation was such that RTVE made an exceptional decision: to promote the interview on news programs and other programs on its schedule. This is an unusual decision for ‘La Revuelta’, which has sometimes started its program without a clear guest (as happened with the controversy by Jorge Martín), something that Motos, thatAnnounces all the guests of each week in advance, it cannot be allowed. But after some hearing results manifestly inferior to those on the Antena 3 program throughout 2025, TVE knew that it had the most important guest of the year on its hands, and it could not stop announcing it. Grow without stepping. Since its premiere a little over a year ago, ‘La Revuelta’ stood out for standing up to ‘El Hormiguero’ without needing to steal your audience. A new audience that usually does not watch television at that time joined the Access to watch Broncano’s program, which is a very notable phenomenon on television, where the public moves from one program to another, usually to the detriment of rivals. This time, Broncano unleashed this strange phenomenon again: neither Motos nor ‘Temptation Island’ made numbers lower than usual (in fact, they were pretty good), but he won the game handily. Rosalía, the definitive cultural artifact. Rosalía has managed to be a transversal phenomenon that unites different generations and social strata. From the teenage audience to older fans, which has undoubtedly benefited ‘La Revuelta’. With that ‘Lux’ that achieved 42 million views in 24 hours despite the previous leak, Rosalía not only reveals herself as a singer, but as a cultural event. The surprise presentation in Callao brought together thousands of fans who overwhelmed the center of Madrid: no other Spanish artist generates this level of unanimous media attention, nor the ability to paralyze the country when they announce something new. In a fragmented cultural panorama, divided into dozens of niches, Rosalía’s merit is doubly striking. In Xataka | The exception of ‘El Hormiguero’: no ​​successful program in the history of Spanish TV has lasted so long

the made-in-China business of the DGT’s V-16 beacons

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82 days. That is the time that has passed since the DGT approved for the first time a connected V-16 beacon on December 22, 2022 until March 14, 2023. Less than three months later from that December 22, Distribuciones Escudero Fijo SL You could now put your own connected device on the market. The Valencia-based company was the first to put a V-16 beacon connected and approved by the DGT on the market. made in china. The company specializes in the import and distribution of consumer products in our country, so it must have seen clearly that it was time to manufacture its own devices in the Asian country to reduce costs. The certificate confirming the approval and who is behind the manufacturing of the product is easily accessible. Both that of this Valencian company and that of any other approved product can be found on the DGT website. And with that list it is very easy to verify that the vast majority of connected V-16 beacons are being manufactured in China. Spanish approval, Chinese business Photo printers, a Philips car radio, activity bracelets or a Tesla Smart TV. They are all products that You can find it on the Distribuciones Escudero Fijo website. next to the connected V-16 beacon. The company, as we said, is by no means the only one that produces its beacons in China to approve them in Spain and sell them in our country. In fact, the DGT collects 29 companies with certifications to distribute its approved products in Spain. Only seven are Spanish. and the weight of products made in Spain It is reduced much more if we look at the total volume of registered beacons. Of 239 approved products, only 29 are produced in Spain, just over 10%. This company sells, under different names, up to five connected V-16 beacons, four of which have slight modifications to sell them as different products on the market. But this is almost a rarity because some Chinese brands have made it an art to sell the same licensed product under different names. The latter is the case of Limbur Technology, a company that manufactures these connected V-16 beacons in China and puts them on the Spanish market, highlighting the same product with different names. At this moment it has 99 active approvals despite having only seven different models on the market. The process is always the same. The Ningbo Chakesi Electronic company, based in Zhejiang (China), produces the connected V-16 beacons that are then sold under brands with names as diverse as Soslight, Orflect either Don Happy. The approvals are carried out in the Idiada laboratories (there are only two laboratories with permission to carry out these approvals) and in some cases the same device is approved repeatedly (up to 25 identical devices on June 30, 2025) to be sold under different names. Manufacturers have little room to play with approvals and put different products on the market. In some cases, for example, the new approval only corresponds to the addition of a new suction cup to facilitate installation or that the product is now brighter. The pattern repeats with other distributors. Ledel Solutions has 30 active approvals. Of them, up to 24 different brands sell the same product. Four of them repeat with a variation of the connected V16 beacon and only one of them sells an approved product such as EmergLight X, which has the same name as the company that puts it on the market. The manufacturing, as with any other product approved by Ledel Solutions, comes from China. And the connected V-16 beacon has all the conditions to be a product that China can easily supply. We are talking about a very low-cost technological product. A casing, some resistance to dust and water, active battery for 30 minutes and a space for a SIM card. It is the perfect product for mass produce at very low cost. With the approvals registered by the DGT, right now there are 239 products on the market but only 70 are, really, different products. Most of the time we are talking about the same product repeated and approved repeatedly by the same distributor and then sold under different brands in different channels. Photo | DGT and Escudero Fixed Distributions In Xataka | “Dangerous situations have already occurred”: three road safety experts respond to the imposition of the DGT’s V-16 beacon

They have some of the best noise cancellation out there.

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I don’t know about you, but for me it is vital to have good wireless headphones. When it comes to going to the gym, I prefer to use truly wireless onessince they are more compact and comfortable when exercising. Now, in terms of sound quality, autonomy, noise cancellation and comfort in long sessions, nothing is better than a headband. and just That is precisely where the Sony WH-1000XM6: They are one of the best options on the market and cost 469 euros. Wireless Headphones – Sony WH-1000XM6, Noise Cancellation, 30h Autonomy, Hi-Res, Fast Charging, Comfortable, Foldable, iOS/Android, Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links They have some of the best noise cancellation out there. The WH-1000XM family headphones have been standing out for years, especially considering that Sony has been polishing them generation after generation. As we already told you in your analysisthese headphones are a fantasy in many ways. Where they perhaps stand out the most is in their active noise cancellation, the best we have been able to try to date. This will allow us to have a very interesting experience that is rounded off by six microphones that will allow us to have great call quality. In fact, it has a multidirectional system based on AI that allows us to capture our voice accurately, greatly reducing background noise even if there is a lot of commotion around us. Of course, very much in line with what this family of headphones offers, the WH-1000XM6 offer outstanding sound qualitywhich is also versatile and ideal for any type of sound. This will allow us to have sessions where we can mix genres and different types of songs, always maintaining a powerful and balanced sound that we can modify as we wish from our mobile. Two more details. The first is its design, very ergonomic and designed to make it very comfortable to wear them on the head. In addition, they are foldable and come with a case so that we can store them when we are not using them. It is also worth highlighting its autonomy, which revolves around 30 or 32 hours if we use active noise cancellation. One of the best options in stores, without a doubt. We have a cheaper option that also performs great If we are looking for headphones like the ones before, but we have a tighter budget, then perhaps the model fits us better. Sony WH-1000XM5SA. This, which we also analyze in Xatakaoffers a quality experience at a price that is much more attractive. In fact, right now we can buy them for 299 euros at MediaMarkt and includes a soft case so that we can transport them comfortably. Wireless headphones – Sony WH-1000XM5SA, Soft case, Noise cancellation, 30h, Hi-Res, Fast charging, Bluetooth, Headband, iOS/Android, Black The price could vary. We earn commission from these links It is true that these headphones do not fold like the previous model, but despite this they have an adjustable headband and a design that is also designed to offer comfort even during long sessions. Its active noise cancellation also gives a great result and its autonomy is around 30 hours. 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 | Sony, Xataka In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros In Xataka | Best truly wireless earbuds (TWS) with noise cancellation. Which one to buy and ten recommended models

They are the tree of golden eggs

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A question: What unites Venus, Steve Jobs’ 78-meter-long superyacht, and a remote forestry farm in León? There were many ways to start this article, but I couldn’t resist doing it because of the most unexpected fact: what unites those two things is the poplar. The story is known: before he died, Jobs designed a spectacular boat that he couldn’t have ready before he died. Well, the wood for the kitchen of that luxurious floating mansion came from León. And this, although it does not explain why Spain is being filled with poplars, does give an idea of ​​why. The poplar boom. In Europe the hectares of poplar have grown at 2% annually during the last few years. But Spain is not Europe as far as poplar fields are concerned. With its epicenter in the province of León, the country has some 81,000 hectares of poplar dedicated to production. And it has been that way for a long time. That is, there have been no substantial changes in the cultivated land. However, genetic improvement and more efficient cultivation practices have meant that production has continued to grow. In that sense, the poplar seemed a calm, safe and powerful sector. But things have changed… for the better. The high industrial demand for its wood (and the environmental benefits associated with its cultivation) have revived interest in this tree. Like the forestry engineer Flor Álvarez Taboada explained in the Voice of Galicia“poplar is paid twice as much as pine and three times more than eucalyptus.” That sums it up. And what is the problem? It is not the profitability of the farms (which, as we see, is skyrocketing), but the capacity of the Spanish forest to produce wood on the scale that the industry needs. Alvarez made it clear that “a plantation where there are only about fifty poplar trees is not viable for companies that work with this wood”, that plantations of “at least two or three hectares in size” are needed. The country needs to “create homeowner associations that coordinate and plant poplar trees simultaneously on their land.” That is to say, it is not just a job for ‘lone wolves’; If we want Spain to take advantage of the populculture boom, a structured effort is needed that integrates the industry, administrations and farmers. Against the eucalyptus. This is perhaps its greatest asset. We have been listening for years years speak ill of eucalyptus. It is usually unjustified fame, but it opens up a whole world of possibilities. And the poplar is one of them. Because due to its rapid growth, the high profitability of its quality wood, its adaptability to riverine terrain and its important environmental (and social) value, it is an excellent forestry alternative. So the question is twofold: will Spain manage to enter the table of the majors in the timber industry? Are we prepared to see the landscape change — again –? Image | Garnica In Xataka | Converting Portugal to eucalyptus monoculture was a disaster. And the latest fires only remind us of this.

that of the towns converted into hubs of organized crime

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TO beginning of 2025the province of Toledo began to appear with unusual frequency in police reports. From then until a few hours ago, the escalation of violence and crime that has been splashed across the country’s newspapers has made one thing crystal clear: the dangerous conversion of many towns in Spain such as hub of criminal gangs. From local clans to industrial cultivation. In March, the National Police dismantled a network of indoor marijuana crops spread across several municipalities (Illescas, El Viso de San Juan, Yeles, Lucillos and Ugena) managed by a family clan with the structure of a criminal group. The investigations began following anomalies detected by an electrical company that warned of illegal connections to the network. Upon entering the homes, the agents they found more than 5,800 plants, 3,600 cuttings, firearms such as assault rifles and cash. The simultaneous records revealed complex logistics and a high level of specialization: germination rooms, differentiated cultivation cycles and distribution to other networks that exported production outside of Spain. The mafia. That operation, framed in the National Plan against cannabis trafficking, confirmed what the authorities they already sensed: Toledo, due to its proximity to Madrid, was establishing itself as a preferred area for marijuana mafias, with warehouses and homes transformed into agricultural laboratories at the service of European drug trafficking. In fact, counted A few weeks later, the newspaper El País reported that the organizations, in a twist, were looking for empty apartments on social networks or even they consulted the obituaries to squat the houses. Fuensalida: the violent mutation. Three months later, the violence moved from the field of cultivation to that of theft and intimidation. In June, the Civil Guard dismantled the Ángel CM gang, a group of criminals that for months spread fear in Fuensalida and other towns in La Sagra. Based in a neighborhood nicknamed “the Bronx,” its leader organized assaults serial attacks on vulnerable people, vehicle thefts, falsification of license plates and thefts from shops and warehouses. Not only that. They acted with brutality: Victims were dragged or hit during the pulling, and some elderly people suffered fractures and serious injuries. The Civil Guard and the Local Police managed to arrest nine people (all residents of Fuensalida) after weeks of surveillance and chases in broad daylight. Toledo as a hub. In one of those chases, an accomplice fled cross-country after stealing a car. The arrest of Ángel and his collaborators brought relief to the area, but it also showed that Toledo was no longer just home to cultivation networks, but also crime groups organized with its own structures and hierarchies, capable of operating between several provinces. The international leap. After the summer, the National Police dismantled in Yuncos, Palomeque and Méntrida an organization that represented a qualitative leap: a drug trafficking network with direct links with the Mexican Sinaloa cartel. Sixteen people were arrested, including a chemist from the cartel itself who had traveled from Mexico to direct production of cocaine and methamphetamine. Clandestine laboratories. The agents located two camouflaged laboratories in rural areas, equipped with industrial materials, chemical reagents and security systems designed to hide the activity. More than 160 kilos of drugs were seized, including cocaine, base, ephedrine and methamphetamine, along with 7,500 liters of precursors and 21,000 euros in cash. Fifteen of those arrested were placed in provisional prison. The operation confirmed that Toledo had ceased to be just a logistical territory: it had become a production and refining enclave of high-value drugs, which implied the arrival of foreign technicians, international financing and a level of sophistication unprecedented in the region. A shooting as a turning point. On November 9, the municipality of El Casar de Escalona (barely two thousand inhabitants) was the scene of a shooting between agents of the Special Operations Group (GEO) and a group of drug traffickers of Dominican origin. The suspects, from Asturias, they planned to kidnap to members of another local network to settle a drug debt. When intercepted by the Police, they opened fire and the geos responded. One of the alleged drug traffickers died on the spot and two others were injured. No officers were hurt, but vehicles were riddled by gunfire. The operation, directed by Udyco, revealed the existence of groups dedicated to violent debt collection between gangs, a phenomenon typical of urban drug trafficking environments transferred to rural Spain. The drift. The shooting also coincided with another armed confrontation in Seville, where a police officer was seriously injured by an assault rifle during a hashish raid. Both episodes led police unions to demand more media and bulletproof vests in the face of the “qualitative leap” in crime, which no longer hesitates to confront with weapons of war. Toledo as a mirror of a phenomenon. The Ministry of the Interior he responded remembering the budget reinforcement and the purchase of new ballistic equipment, while the anti-drug prosecutor of the National Court, Rosa Ana Morán, warned of the risk that Spain would follow the path of Belgium and the Netherlands, where drug trafficking networks have derived in shootings, threats to judges and institutional corruption. If you like, Toledo, converted into marijuana laboratoryenclave methamphetamine and scene of reckoningsymbolizes that dangerous transition: from a quiet province to the epicenter of globalized crime that mixes Latin American drug trafficking, local crime and European infrastructure. A geography that reflects the displacement of organized crime towards the interior of the peninsula and the birth of a new silent frontier in the heart of Castilla-La Mancha. Image | Civil Guard In Xataka | First they kidnap you, then they put you to work in online scams: the drama of thousands of people in Asia In Xataka | The fake sex ads that ruined lives. The Valencian criminal gang of online fraud and extortion falls

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