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Renfe is achieving 96% punctuality in its service. But not in Spain, but in Mecca

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

While AVE customers in Spain are very familiar with the wave of service delays, especially during this last summerRenfe boasts in Saudi Arabia of figures that seem from another world: more than 96% punctuality and “anecdotal” cancellations in the high-speed service that operates between Mecca and Medina, according to the company. The truth is that the Haramain High-Speed Railway numbers contrast with what we have here in Spain. The Saudi showcase of Renfe. The Spanish company leads the consortium that manages this pioneering high-speed train in Saudi Arabia, responsible for the complete operation: from driving to ticket sales. Álvaro Fernández Heredia, president of Renfe, presented these data at the Saudi International Rail in Riyadh, where he assured that the project is “one of the most successful in the world.” The figures that Renfe displays outside the home. The Haramain connects Mecca and Medina over 453 kilometers, with stops at Jeddah and the international airport. According to Renfe, since its inauguration in October 2018, the service has transported 29.2 million passengers, with a year-on-year growth of 20%. In the last year, the operator claims to have achieved more than 96% punctuality, measured with a margin of up to five minutes late, and operated 70,000 consecutive services without a single cancellation. The litmus test of Ramadan. Just like show According to its figures, during the March 2025 campaign, the service mobilized 1.35 million pilgrims, 40% more than the previous year. 3,410 trips were made with up to 132 trains running on the same day. The average punctuality reached 98.5% in this case, says Renfe, without recording cancellations. These are figures that are hardly seen in the company’s Spanish reports. The contrast with Spain. Last summer four out of ten high-speed trains They arrived late in Spain. Between June and August, 6,554 long-distance and AVE trains suffered delays of more than 15 minutes, according to pointed out El Mundoaffecting 2.5 million passengers. However, only three out of every hundred were able to claim compensation after tightening reimbursement conditions that Renfe applied in July 2024. Now it takes an hour of delay to obtain 50% of the ticket, when before 15 minutes were enough. Minister Óscar Puente recognized in September that the system will continue to have incidents “for at least two more years.” What’s coming now. Renfe has reaffirmed its commitment to Saudi Arabia and its ambitious Vision 2030 plan, which includes new railway projects. Among them, a high-speed line between Riyadh and Qiddiya, whose tender could be launched in the first half of 2026. Cover image | Tim Adams In Xataka | Renfe has found a scapegoat for its problems on the Madrid-Barcelona line: Talgo and its AVRIL trains

is falling silently since 2022

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

After escalating during the pandemic to higher levels of its history, the price of rent in the United States started to retreat for the first time in years. The shift is neither punctual nor local: it is now observed on a sustained basis in most large cities and has lasted long enough to be considered a phase change in the market, not a seasonal blip. The question seems clear: why on earth did the rent begin to be transferred precisely now and not before? An unusual twist. After two years of historic increases driven by the pandemic shockrents in the United States have almost three consecutive years correcting National data places the average rent 3-3.5% below from the maximum of August 2022, with interannual decreases chained in the 50 largest markets. That correction is striking for a reason. very simple: It occurs in a country with a chronic housing deficit and with a still stressed cost of living. It is not a collapse, but a normalization after an extreme phase: because even with the decrease, the typical rent is still 20-22% above 2021. Austin as a laboratory. It we count a few months ago. Austin possibly offers the compressed version of what has happened on a national scale: after a boom in demand (internal migration, arrival of companies, cheap credit), the market responded with an expansion of unprecedented offer (an increase of more than 8% in the housing stock in a few years, with permits at rates that surpassed other comparable cities) and a subsequent slowdown due to the rapid rise in interest rates. The combined effect has led to rent drops of 22% from highs and sales price declines of 10-18%. The Austin case demonstrates that when the bottleneck is attacked on the supply side, the price falls before demand is destroyed due to poverty: it cools due to saturation, not due to collapse. National evidence. The pattern is common: in 2024 they were delivered more than 600,000 homes multifamily, the largest flow since 1986. There are still 686,000 under construction (well above the historical average) and 7.1% vacancymaximum of the series. A greater number of competing units forces prices to be lowered or free weeks to be granted to accelerate occupancy. The time that passes from when a home is published on the market until the contract is signed with a tenant now takes longer: 31 days on average compared to 19-20 days at the peak of tightness in 2021. The macro result is the loss of owners’ ability to raise prices in a market where the tenant has regained the margin of choice. Fall mechanics. The 2020-2022 phase combined demand shock (sudden migration + very low rates + change in preferences) with insufficient supply After a decade of under-construction post-2008, the price rose. In 2023-2025 reverse the asymmetry: the pipeline (the set of homes in the process of entering the market, but that have not yet become available) during the boom is delivered just when demand is cools due to high rates and the return of some migratory flows. What happens then? That the excess of units leads to greater vacancy, and vacancy is the nuclear variable that sets the price: after a certain threshold the expected income per empty unit falls more than it is worth keeping the rent high, and the owner adjust the price before than empty time. The fall is not structural but cyclical: if the supply were to stop completely, the pressure would return, as analysts already warn in the same Austin case. Uneven geography. The most intense decreases are concentrated in the Sun Belt markets (Austin, Phoenix, Denver, San Antonio, Orlando, Dallas), where production was faster and vacancy was higher. Markets with expensive land and regulatory barriers (cities such as San Francisco, New York, the NE coast and some Midwest nodes) show even rises because there the supply adjustment arrived late or simply did not arrive. This also confirms the direct relationship between the pace of permits/construction and price moderation: where construction was allowed, the rent fell, and where it was not, it continued to rise. It’s a correction. Most analysts agree on the same explanation. Despite the “rents are falling” narrative, the benchmark matters: the current absolute level is still well above pre-COVID, and the rent-to-income ratio has only returned to “manageable” zone (~23%) in a section of cities, and in areas like Miami or the NE coast it is still overflowing. That is why the experts they underline That anyone who expects to return to 2019 prices does not understand the basis: the new housing built is higher because the cost factors (land, insurance, construction, structural inflation) have not reversed, which suggests that the downward phase has a ceiling. Exportable lesson. The factor that can be copied is not the United States Federal Reserve or migration, but rather the supply elasticity: Austin proves, with an example empirical and measurablethat by authorizing and delivering new housing in large and sustained volumes, the rent stops being a fatalistic variable and begins to behave as an acceptable price due to competition. The rest of the country reproduces the same pattern where supply entered on a scale, and where it did not enter, the price simply did not weaken. Image | Pexels, Eric R. Bechtold, Apartment List In Xataka | Austin has managed to see its rents drop 22% in a year and a half. And there is a word that explains it: overconstruction In Xataka | Brussels has thousands of empty homes. So he’s going to start confiscating them and renting them at a social price

For the first time in many months, there is a chance to see a truly strange event: real rain

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

This story begins with a pinch of hope. In recent days, the main meteorological models were beginning to agree: the interaction of a deep trough and a subtropical low that would generate a fairly active front. In other words, for the first time in a long time, real rain could make its way to Spain. Not even Danasnor summer storms: real water. The problem? That, actually, that They were just a handful of exits. deterministic and considering that autumn has always been (and will be increasingly) infernally difficult to model, that was very little. It doesn’t mean, of course, that it won’t rain. It’s going to rain, but the doubts are enormous. Although, as the cards are dealt, it all starts to make sense. But what is going to happen? According to AEMETFrom Monday to Wednesday, the rain will be concentrated in the northwest of the peninsula. However, only in Galicia will it be persistent and there will be significant accumulations. On Thursday the situation will become more “democratic” and the rains will reach a good part of the northwest, the center of the Peninsula and the Pyrenees. The wind can be very strong. However, real rain (as “real” as it can be in this situation) in the center will have to wait until Friday. Beyond Friday everything becomes more diffuse, some rain is expected in the interior, in the south and in the Balearic Islands. And, almost certainly, a small drop in temperatures followed by another rebound. One that will leave us better than we were, yes; but with temperatures above normal. And then? In reality, everything seems to indicate that these meteorological skirmishes will be little. And, given this, many experts already they begin to put their hopes in December. That’s bad, yes. It is true that the country’s reservoirs they are much better not just last year, but the average of the last ten years. But this “water cushion” will not last forever and, although we tend to forget, autumn is a particularly important season for reserves. “in general terms, autumn usually registers higher accumulations than winter in our country as a whole”, said Yurima Celdrán. If we lose it, we will be facing the next drought with one hand tied behind our back. And going to December to wait for a ‘miracle’ is not positive at all. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | The Mayan idea with which this researcher wants to revolutionize the way we treat drinking water: artificial gardens

dominate the entire value chain

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

The race for control of the energy of the 21st century already has a provisional winner. While Europe stumbles over his own debates and United States try to rebuild an aging nuclear industry, China step on the accelerator. In April, approved the construction of ten reactors worth 200 billion yuan (24 billion euros). It is just one step in a much broader project: the return of the atom as a pillar of global power. New conquests. China has been competing for years to lead all possible technological transitions: from renewable energy to storage, and now also nuclear. In the words of energy analyst John Kempthe country has 59 operational reactors and more than 30 under construction. No other nation has such a program. In fact, half of all the reactors being built in the world are in Chinese territory. Beyond talk about a “nuclear renaissance,” only China is turning it into state policy. A bet on nuclear. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA)security and reliability of supply have become critical priorities for Beijing after years of expansion of electricity supply. However, the push towards nuclear has another dimension of technological independence. Under the Made in China strategy, the country sought to dominate all the links in its energy chain, and today it produces 100% of its nuclear equipment in national territory. according to China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA). In parallel, China promotes its technology abroad. According to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)the export of the Hualong One reactor is a national priority, with reactors in Pakistan, projects in Argentina and expansion plans throughout Asia and Africa. Nuclear energy is both a tool for decarbonization and energy diplomacy: a way to secure supply, reduce emissions and project technological power. The renewable paradox. China leads the global green transition, but its energy matrix still marked for coal. According to Ember data38% of the country’s electricity already comes from low-carbon sources. Even so, 62% continue to depend on fossil fuels, a proportion that reveals how far they still are from total decarbonization. Their challenge is monumental: leave coal behind without turning off the country. That is why the atom does not replace renewable energy: it sustains them. Nuclear acts as “firm energy”, the basis that keeps the electrical system stable when there is no sun or wind. Coal continues to be the great point of friction—it guarantees supply and employment, but clashes with the ambition to be a renewable leader. In more geopolitical terms, renewable energy is a form of sovereignty. Any country can generate its own electricity. But China wants something more: full control of the electrical system. The muscle of the atom. China is building reactors at a rate no one else can match: between ten and eleven per year. According to the IAEAthe country already has 58 operational reactors and 27 under construction, totaling more than 86 GW of capacity. Nuclear represents 4.47% of its electricity, a small but increasing share. According to Global Energy Monitorthe operational park amounts to 58.1 GW, with forecasts of 63 GW at the end of 2025 and 71 GW in 2026, the year in which China will surpass France as the second nuclear power. Projections from the China Nuclear Energy Association foresee more than 100 GW in operation by 2030 and nearly 200 GW in 2040, double current US capacity. In 2024, nuclear investment reached an all-time high of 146.9 billion yuan. Although its participation in the electricity mix is around 5%, the magnitude of the Chinese system converts that percentage into a volume comparable to all of France’s nuclear production. Technological ambition. After decades of dependence on foreign designs such as the American AP1000, Beijing has developed their own models. Hualong One, a third-generation reactor, is already operating in four national units and thirteen more are under construction. And it doesn’t stop there. China also leads the fourth generation of reactors, safer and more efficient. In 2023, the HTR-PM came into operationthe world’s first modular high-temperature reactor, in Shidao Bay: the prelude to a new stage where nuclear becomes flexible, scalable and commercially viable. In parallel, the Xinghuo-1 project—a hybrid fusion-fission reactor— seeks to achieve a Q factor > 30enough to generate more energy than it consumes. China hopes to have it connected to the grid by 2035, which could put it decades ahead of the rest of the world in the race for commercial fusion. Such ambition requires fuel. China has uranium reserves, but not enough for its expansion. Last year it produced just 1,700 tons, 4% of the world, and imported more than 22,000. Your solution: “fish” uranium from the sea. Researchers at the Frontiers Science Center for Rare Isotopes at Lanzhou University have developed a material called DAE-MOF, capable of absorbing uranium 40 times more efficiently than previous methods. The goal is to have pilot plants by 2035 and large-scale production in 2050. The ocean, with its 4.5 billion tons of dissolved uranium (a thousand times more than land reserves), could ensure centuries of energy autonomy. Another step towards total independence. Forecasts. If plans are met, China will surpass France in 2026 and the United States in 2030 in installed nuclear capacity. By 2040, its 200 GW operating will represent close to 10% of its electricity mix, according to the CNEA. At the same time, the country will maintain its dominance in renewables: the IEA estimates that it will reach 2,460 GW of clean energy in 2030, double that of 2022. And it is not just about energy. Nuclear expansion is reshaping the economy, industry and diplomacy. China positions itself as a global supplier of civil nuclear technology for countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America: an energy diplomacy that combines technological prestige, state financing and its own safety standards. This expansion not only redefines its electrical matrix, but also its international influence: energy has become a diplomatic instrument and a brand of industrial prestige. The century of electrons. China has not stopped burning coal, but it … Read more

After China’s stick, the US already has a new partner to obtain rare earths

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have signed a critical minerals deal with the potential to create projects worth up to $8.5 billion, according to says the NYT. The pact responds directly to the recent restrictions that China has imposed on its exports of rare eartha movement that Trump rated as “sinister and hostile.” Why it is important. Critical minerals and rare earths are essential materials for manufacturing everything from semiconductors to engines, brakes and military fighters. China currently dominates global supply of these resources, which makes any restriction on their part a direct threat to Western production chains. And therefore, diversifying the sources of these types of elements has become a strategic priority for both the Trump administration and the previous Biden administration. Agreement with Australia. According to the summary provided by the White House, the agreement contemplate that the United States and Australia jointly invest $3 billion in critical minerals projects over the next six months. For its part, Australia is committed to investing billions in American defense companies. The US Department of Defense will also participate in the construction of a new refinery in Australia capable of extracting 100 tons of gallium metal per year. “In about a year, we will have so many critical minerals and rare earths that we won’t know what to do with them,” claimed Trump optimistically during the meeting with Albanese. The Australian Prime Minister, for his part, stressed that this agreement on critical minerals takes the economic and security relationship between both countries “to the next level.” Plan of action. Albanese’s office has made clear that the agreement functions as an “action plan” that “does not constitute or create legally binding obligations.” This contrasts with the public statements of both leaders, who seemed very enthusiastic on camera about the agreement, according to point the middle. The Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, already had advanced in August that Australia was “ready and able to help” diversify US supply chains, recalling that manufacturing a single Virginia-class submarine requires approximately 4.5 short tons of critical minerals and rare earth elements. This agreement also confirms Trump’s support for the AUKUS pactthe trilateral defense alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia announced in 2021 under the Biden administration. Trump, who had undergone a thorough review of AUKUS since July, said plans to deliver US-made submarines to Canberra were “moving forward very quickly.” However, he acknowledged that the project had progressed “too slowly” so far. US Navy Secretary John Phelan declared that the goal is to “improve the original AUKUS framework for all three parties and clarify some of the ambiguity that was in the previous agreement.” China’s door is not closed yet. With this move, the United States is closer to having access to these critical minerals from different parts of the world, reducing its dependence on China. In recent months, the US government has committed 75 million dollars to invest in Ukraine’s mineral reserves and has backed railway projects in Angola that will facilitate access to minerals in central Africa. Despite tensions with Beijing, Trump stated on Monday that he believes it is possible to reach a trade deal with China during his upcoming trip to Asia this month, where he is expected to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Cover image | Paul-Alain Hunt and Brandon Mowinkel In Xataka | China was the great polluter of the planet: now it is emerging as the first “electrostate” in history

and that is helping us understand DNA

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

Can a person end consuming cannabis in your life according to your DNA? This is the question asked by a research team from UC San Diego and the genetics company 23andMeand the response has been incredible: they have found a direct connection between our genome and cannabis consumption. The study. After analyzing the genetic data of 130,000 people, have managed to identify two specific genes like CADM2 and the GRM3which are not only linked to the probability of trying the substance, but also to the frequency of its consumption. But the most important revelation is how these genes correlate with more than 100 mental and physical health traits, including schizophrenia, impulsivity, diabetes and chronic pain. The ultimate goal: to finally find a way to prevent and treat cannabis use disorder by ‘attacking’ the DNA itself. Genetics of addiction. Cannabis is one of the most used substances in the world, but its long-term effects and the biological mechanisms that lead to cannabis use disorder remain largely unknown to science. The lead author of the study points out in this case that “although the majority of people who try cannabis do not develop a cannabis use disorder, some studies estimate that almost 30% will.” And in order to make a more correct estimate, the most powerful genetic tool available today was used: a genome-wide association study GWAS. The method. Using genetic data and surveys from 131,895 participants from the company 23andMe, the researchers looked for patterns. These were based on the premise that there are different genetic factors that influence people whether or not a person will try drugs, how often they will use them, and the risk of becoming addicted. But now they wanted to specifically identify the molecular systems that were connecting cannabis use to brain function and behavior. Two genes. The analysis identified two genes significantly associated with lifetime cannabis use. The first of them is CADM2, which includes how neurons connect and communicate in the brain. Previous research already pointed to a relationship between this gene and impulsivity, obesity and cancer metastasis. This new study confirms that it is also linked to both prove cannabis ever like frequency with which it is consumed. The second gene affected is GRM3, which influences neuronal communication and brain adaptation. Its involvement is notable, as it has previously been connected to serious psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Beyond cannabis. This is where the study becomes more complex. The researchers did not stop at those two genes, since a secondary analysis revealed another 40 genes associated with the use of this drug. But the most revealing thing was when they cross-referenced these genetic findings with two huge independent health databases (from the program All of Us from the NIH and the Vanderbilt Biobank). In this case, it was discovered that the genetic predisposition to cannabis consumption was correlated with more than 100 different traits such as: Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia. Cognitive traits such as having low executive function. Have diabetes or chronic pain. Greater likelihood of using tobacco. Increased risk of having infectious diseases such as HIV. Treatment? This study is one of the first to genetically analyze behaviors previous to the development of a cannabis use disorder. In this way, before an addiction to this type of substance occurs, a genetic prediction can be made of how having specific genetics will directly affect the consumption of addictive substances. Currently, there are no FDA-approved drug therapies to treat cannabis use disorder. Although with these discoveries it is expected in the future to have treatments that can inhibit or attenuate this type of genes that reduce the behaviors that may arise from having this genetic predisposition. Images | Rick Proctor In Xataka | We believed that there was no drug more addictive and destructive than fentanyl. Until the nitazenos returned

Cookies will continue to dominate everything

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

Google has announced the end of most of its technologies Privacy Sandbox. These systems began to be developed six years ago with the intention of getting rid of cookies, but that initiative now almost completely disappears after suffering severe problems and delays. The decision affects developers, advertisers, media and Chrome users on both mobile phones and computers. Living without cookies seemed possible. The dream was that the Chrome browser would end up having a system in which the data used to personalize the advertising that we see in the browser would reside on our devices. From there, these systems would have used algorithms to offer targeted advertising, and we would all win: advertisers could continue sending “personalized” advertising, but without specifically and individually tracking each user. Many systems disappear. On the official blog of this technology, its head, Anthony Chavez, explained that it will withdraw the vast majority of technologies that it had developed for that purpose. According to this manager, the abandonment of these systems is due to their “low adoption rate.” It will keep some of the technologies: CHIPS (“partitioned” cookies), FedCM (to provide a federated identity) and Private State Tokens (anti-fraud) will remain active. We want a universal standard. In addition to the low adoption rate, Google added that the ecosystem of advertisers, developers and media requested advertising and performance measurement solutions capable of operating broadly. This is exactly what many sectors were protesting about, accusing Google of favoring Chrome and its advertising platform with this type of system. Google precisely adds in its announcement that they will work on an interoperable standard that meets the requirements requested by the W3C organization. Plummeting income. The tools that Google was testing with Privacy Sandbox were failing in key aspects. Above all, in the decrease in income: those who tested these systems detected a 30% drop in income, and also latency problems that increased it by 200%. Their technical complexity and lack of trust were other factors: the systems simply did not fulfill their purpose. A setback for the industry and users. He Google initial announcement almost six years ago it was promising: they wanted to eliminate cookies from Chrome. His first attempt, FLoC technologysoon was criticized by all kinds of sectors that described it as “a terrible idea.” Then they came other attempts and proposals like Topicsbut the theoretical end of cookies in Chrome it kept getting late. Many wasted resources. As they point out in PPC.Landthis surrender by Google means that the work of companies, developers and media has come to nothing. Those who tried to adapt to these technologies and prepare for that hypothetical future without cookies now find that all those efforts were in vain. Cookies will continue with us. So Google (and its billions of users) are back to square one. Cookies have proven to be overly important to the internet economy, but their impact on privacy and user experience—including cookie notices—remains dire. W3C open standards as an alternative. The W3C consortium is working on solutions through its Private Advertising Technology Working Group (PAT WG). One of the systems developed is the so-called Privacy-Preserving Attribution: Level 1which measures advertising conversions avoiding user re-identification. Now it remains to be seen if it can become an interoperable standard adopted by browsers. In Xataka | “Accept or reject” cookies has become the daily torture of millions of Europeans. And the EU finally wants to fix it

The question is not if there will be another AWS outage, but when and how the next one will catch us

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

Yesterday there was a fall in Amazon Web Services infrastructure which affected a multitude of services. Many AI tools did not work, nor did games like Fortnite or Roblox, streaming platforms, applications and much more. Additionally, at the same time there was a failure in the Redsys system (according to the company, unrelated) that left all payment services in Spain out of play. It’s not the first time this has happened and it doesn’t look like it will be the last. How can we prepare? Amazon falls. The failure occurred around 9 a.m. (Spanish time) at the AWS data center in Northern Virginia and caused a global butterfly effect. The DownDetector home screen showed a Dantesque panorama; Dozens of well-known services were experiencing downtime around the world. AWS reacted quickly and a couple of hours later they were already up and running their systems. And Redsys. Around 11 in the morning, the dataphones, Bizum payments and even the ATMs also began to fail. At first we attributed it to the AWS failure, but according to Redsys it had nothing to do with the Amazon Web Services failure. Regardless of whether it was a coincidence or not, for a few hours many people were left without access to their money and Redsys is the main payment service provider in Spain and one of the most important worldwide. Cash. In the case of failure of ATMs and dataphones, the solution is obvious: carry cash for what may happen, a habit that many of us do not have. In addition, it is also advisable not to keep all the money in the same bank, for example having a savings account separate from the rest for emergencies. Yesterday wouldn’t have been of much use, but if only our regular bank’s system had failed, we could access the other one. Diversify. As with money, it is not advisable to put all your eggs in the same basket in the case of the apps and services we use. The biggest problem may be if one of these outages affects communication services as happened with WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook in 2021. In this case, it is best to have an account in other apps through which we can stay in touch. In fact, that time Telegram was the big winneradding no less than 70 million users. Dependence. The fall of Amazon Web Services is an example of the enormous dependence on the cloud, a sector in which Amazon is the undisputed leader with a 31% market share. It is followed by Microsoft Azure with 20%, Google Cloud with 12% and Alibaba Cloud with 4%. The pie is shared among very few companies and, if one fails, the impact is very great. It’s happened before. In September 2015, Amazon Web Services suffered another “blackout”” that affected many services such as Netflix, Reddit, Medium, Tinder and more. Already then the enormous dependence on Amazon’s cloud was evident and what happened yesterday makes it clear that the situation remains the same and even worse. Redsys also experienced a drop two years ago it affected bank payment systems. The dataphones, some ATMs and other services such as Bizum did not work. The situation was quite similar to what occurred yesterday. There have been more cases, such as last year’s Crowdstrike crash. Microsoft’s cloud-based cybersecurity platform knocked out the systems of airports, hospitals, and many more companies. And it will happen again. Fortunately it is not common, but errors of this type they happen all the time. The problem is when they occur in such large infrastructures on which so many services depend. Yesterday’s error on AWS occurred in the service that is responsible for distributing traffic among its servers, but also may come from other causes such as faulty updates or incompatibilities. Image | Markus Spiske, Pexels In Xataka | Red Eléctrica still has not stabilized the voltage half a year after the blackout. It is not a technical failure, it is a geographical mismatch

Rosalía paralyzed the center of Madrid yesterday by surprise because she is no longer promoting an album: she is selling a great event

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

Beyond her music, which in these cases always takes a backseat, it is clear that when we talk about Rosalía’s ability to sell her stuff, we are dealing with an artist who is one step ahead of her compatriots. In fact, in a certain sense Rosalía plays in a league of teasers, previews and management of expectations that places her closer to Taylor Swift either bts that together with Van Gogh’s Ear. What happened. Rosalia paralyzed the center of Madrid last night with a presentation as brief as it was chaotic of their new album ‘Lux’, turned into an unexpected act of performance urban: at 8:45 p.m., Rosalía began a live on TikTok in which he announced that something would happen at 10:00 p.m. in the Plaza de Callao. Thousands of fans turned out within minutes, drawn by the promise of a performance. The artist, who was personally driving a white car through Madrid while it was being recorded live, briefly appeared running along Gran Vía before taking refuge in the Capitol Hotel. Make yourself Lux. Shortly after, all the screens in Callao and the theaters in the area faded to black to finally show the cover of ‘Lux’: Rosalía dressed in white, with a kind of straitjacket and veil, golden lips and a blue background with the title of the album in the center, and with visual reminiscences (the posture of a certain serenity, the headdress, the title of the album) that clearly recall a nun. The album will be officially released on November 7, it is the artist’s fourth studio after ‘Motomami’ and comes preceded by some visual clues in recent days, such as the artist’s presence in Times Square or the enigmatic presentation a few days ago of a score. Not Kings, but a queen. The launch of Rosalía’s new album, Lux, began with a great promotional action in Times Squarein New York, on October 19, 2025, where his image and the title of the album occupied the iconic light screens of the place. There the images that we ended up seeing in Callao were shown for the first time in the chaotic (but very studied) presentation yesterday. About the sheet music. More enigmatic was the publication in your newsletter of some scores apparently titled ‘Berghain’ (which suggested a musical turn towards string arrangements, apparently opposed to the electronic spirit of the Berlin club with the same name as the scores). Thousands of fans began to interpret the score with different instruments and upload their versions to TikTok and X, turning the enigma into a collective experience of musical creation. This phenomenon is reminiscent of the way in which, before the release of ‘Desphá’Rosalía already showed for the first time her ability to play with expectations and not follow the hitherto immovable rules of marketing, all based on leaks and direct and apparently improvised communication with fans. New narratives. Rosalía is a good example of a new way of promoting albums, which have ceased to be isolated musical works and have become a constant call for attention. Taylor Swift is the ultimate example: months before the launch of her ‘The Life of a Showgirl’ we have had promotion on social networks, a wedding announcement and a successful documentary. Rosalía already is giving interviews in which he talks about a personal turn in recent years that will be reflected, of course, in the new album. The personal and the professional blur, with clues that the album could have religious content, anticipating an intimate and profound transformation. And very profitable. In Xataka | Rosalía released a statement to avoid the controversy about Gaza. There are those who think that it has not been clear enough

achieve the same thing that Google achieved with Android

October 21, 2025 by usatoday24

In two years, Alibaba has gone from e-commerce giant in regulatory crisis a global powerhouse in open source AI. Its family of Qwen models has accumulated 400 million downloads and 140,000 derived models arising from it, figures that surpass any Western competitor, except one: Llama, from Meta. Why is it important. Eddie Wu, CEO of Alibaba, has openly said that Qwen aspires to be “the Android of the AI era.” It’s not marketing: the company has released 357 models in less than two years, a pace that neither OpenAI nor Google maintain nor want to maintain in their public version. The strategy copies Google’s manual with Android: giving away the operating system to dominate the infrastructure that supports it. Only this time the dominant player doesn’t come from Silicon Valley. The context: Alibaba poured more than $800 million into the country’s top four AI startups —Moonshot, Baichuan, Zhipu, MiniMax— before realizing its own technology could lead the market. Now those investments have stopped because the bet is on home. The road has been brutal. Between 2020 and 2022, Alibaba lost half of its stock market value due to the Chinese government’s regulatory offensive. DAMO Academy, its research arm, fired 30% of his staff. Some key scientists such as Yang Hongxiacreator of M6; either Zhou Changtechnical leader of Qwen, left for other companies such as ByteDance. The brain drain left a crater. Even so, Alibaba has managed to get back on its feet. The unexpected turn. In January 2025, DeepSeek launched R1an open source reasoning model that rivaled the o1 by OpenAI then. It had rapid and global adoption, and Alibaba seemed to lose steam. Joe Tsai, president of Alibaba, admitted the hit: “We said, ‘How is it possible that they got ahead of us?’” The response was drastic. On the first day of the Chinese New Year—a sacred holiday in China—the AI team canceled his vacation and launched Qwen 2.5 Maxsurpassing DeepSeek V3. The war was not over. In figures. Alibaba has promised to invest 380 billion yuan ($53 billion) over three years in AI and cloud infrastructure. It’s more than it spent in the entire previous decade. In the second quarter of 2025, AI-related revenue grew by triple digits for the seventh consecutive quarter. Alibaba Cloud increased sales 26% year-on-year. The stock is up more than 90% so far this year. a rocket. The strategy. Free models generate demand for GPUs and training. That demand is monetized on Alibaba Cloud. It is the Microsoft-OpenAI model for Azurebut here Alibaba is an investor and beneficiary. Unlike Amazon (without competitive open source models), Google (closed models) or Meta (without its own cloud), Alibaba unites open model, cloud and developer ecosystem. And it’s already the fourth world in cloud behind the Amazon-Microsoft-Google trident. Of course, Alibaba opted for the wrong architecture while OpenAI scaled with GPT. When ChatGPT took off in December 2022, it had to admit the mistake. In August 2023 he opened the Qwen code just as Llama 2 crashed in Chinese. He filled that space immediately. In February 2025, Apple chose Alibaba as a partner for Apple Intelligence in China. Beastly validation of the then most valuable company in the world. Months later, Wu detailed the roadmap: expand the context, from 1 million to 100 million tokensand scale from one billion to ten billion parameters. Quantifiable bets with assigned budget. ByteDance is the only rival that keeps the pulse. Missing. The western market. Qwen dominates Asia but has not penetrated Europe or America like Llama has (and it is not like it has swept mobile phones like Android). Besides… The big question. Can a Chinese company that has endured regulatory purges and talent drains become the global standard for open source AI? What remains to be seen is whether the West agrees to rely on an AI operating system designed in Hangzhou. In Xataka | ‘World models’ aim to be the next great revolution in AI: this is what robotics needs to look like movies Featured image | Xataka

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