achieved

science has already achieved it

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The idea of ​​controlling what we dream or using downtime to solve complex problems may sound like science fiction in fairly iconic movies like Inception. However, the “dream engineering“has ceased to be a fantasy since science confirms that not only can we influence the content of our dreams, but doing so can improve our mental health and cognitive ability. The device that whispers. The technique is called Directed Dream Incubation (TDI) and the most recent results, published in 2025, suggest it could be the key to treat chronic nightmares and increase our sense of control over the subconscious. The key is that, unlike spontaneous lucid dreams, this technique uses technology to detect specific phases of sleep and send auditory stimuli. A recent study published in Sleep Advancesput this system to the test with surprising results. And using a device called Dormiothe researchers monitored the sleep phase N1that is, the transition stage between when we are awake and asleep and which lasts approximately between 1 and 7 minutes. How it was done. The experiment was simple but effective, since the participants only had to lie down and take a nap. At that moment, upon detecting the onset of sleep, the device the instruction whispered “Think of a tree,” and then the subject had to be awakened briefly to ask for a verbal report and then he was allowed to sleep. The result was overwhelming: 92% of the participants incorporated the “tree” theme in their dreams. Subjects reported everything from visions of forests and roots to more abstract transformations related to vegetation. Control as therapy. What was truly revolutionary about the 2025 study wasn’t just getting people to dream about trees, but what happened afterward. The researchers here discovered a significant increase in Dream Self-Efficacy (DSE), which is nothing more than an individual’s belief in their own ability to control or influence their dreams. Having this sense of being able to control your sleep is crucial for treating disorders such as trauma-related nightmares that are common in post-traumatic stress disorder. Solving problems. Although the study of Sleep Advances focuses on mental health, other parallel investigations explore the productive aspect. In these experiments, puzzles were used that are difficult for anyone to solve, and that is why while people were sleeping they were induced to dream about this puzzle. The result was that 42% of participants Those who were induced to dream about the puzzle managed to solve it when they woke up, compared to only 17% of those who did not dream about the problem. This suggests that the brain, when given the right stimulus, can continue to process logical and creative information in the background, a phenomenon that technology now allows us to systematize. Sleep therapy. Although the aforementioned study had a preliminary sample of 25 people (almost half of whom suffered from frequent nightmares), the data point to a paradigm shift. Until now, we slept “blind”, but tools like Dormio and protocols like TDI suggest a future where sleep is not a passive period, but an active state that we can program. Whether it is to overcome trauma, as they suggest, or to find the solution to a creative problem, technology is beginning to illuminate the darkness of our dreams. Images | iam_os In Xataka | If you fall asleep in less than five minutes, you don’t have a “superpower”: it’s a warning signal from your brain

Argentina has achieved something unprecedented since 1974: reforming its labor market

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After a session of more than 13 hours, the senators of Argentina they have given the go-ahead to the processing of the labor reform proposed by the government of Javier Milei. The call Labor Modernization Law It is Milei’s first major legislative victory in 2026 and rewrites pillars of the current labor system in force since the 1970s. In parallel, the union centers prepare new strikes and judicial actions to try to stop a rule that, in their opinion, makes dismissal cheaper, lengthens the working day and empties the right to strike of any content, while the Executive insists that without this type of reforms Argentina will remain trapped in a rigid labor marketwith a lot of underground economy and little investment. The Senate approves it, the street does not. The project of labor reform in Argentina has overcome its main obstacle by obtaining the necessary majority in the Senate, after more than 13 hours of session that ended with 42 votes in favor and 30 against, with no abstentions. The measure was approved while on the street Tear gas and police charges quelled the discontent of workers and union organizations. The balance of these protests is at least 15 injured and several dozen protesters detained. With the approval of the Senate, the Government is already maneuvering so that the labor regulations pass without major changes their approval by the Deputies, which is considered a mere procedure with supports already closed. Cheaper layoffs. The economic heart of the reform is in the calculation of severance pay. The law modifies what parameters are taken into account to calculate the settlement after dismissal. The bonus is left out of the compensation calculation (Supplementary Annual Salary), vacations and non-monthly bonuses, concepts that today many judges do take into account when calculating compensation. The practical result is that, in the event of an unfair dismissal, the worker will receive compensation lower than with the current scheme, although the norm incorporates a minimum limit of 67% of the usual salary. In addition, large companies can divide the payment of compensation to dismissed employees into up to six monthly installments, and up to 12 installments for SMEs. A common fund for compensation. To cushion the impact of compensation on companies, the new regulations contemplate the creation of the Labor Assistance Fund (FAL), a kind of common “piggy bank” for companies that is filled with mandatory monthly contributions. Large companies will contribute 1% monthly and SMEs 2.5% on the same basis that is used today for Social Security contributions. Therefore, Social Security will no longer have these resources and they will be administered under state supervision. When a worker is fired, a good part of the compensation that corresponds It will not be assumed by the company, but will come largely from that fund. Day up to 12 hours and bank of hours. The reform does not increase the working hours, which continue to be a maximum of 48 hours per week, but it does change how they are distributed. The key is in the “hour bank”. Company and worker may agree that, instead of paying for all hours worked beyond the eight hours per day established by law, they are counted as overtime hours and are later compensated with days off or reductions in working hours. This measure opens the door to some days that the day can be extended up to 12 hours, as long as it is then balanced within the agreed period. For the Executive, this new model gives flexibility to sectors with peaks of activity. For the unions, it gives rise to the continuation of the days without the economic bonus that today protects the worker. Unregulated overtime. Another of the changes approved in the new Argentine labor regulations is that compensation for overtime is no longer regulated almost exclusively by collective agreements, and is now negotiated individually between the employee and the company. Added to this is another relevant novelty in terms of salaries: the salary can be paid both in pesos and in foreign currency, or even in kind, food or accommodation. Salary payment must be made through a bank transaction, thus reducing the underground economy that encourages cash payments, and increasing fiscal control. Medical leave and vacations. Medical leaves due to illness or accidents other than work are limited in some cases. If the cause of the decline is considered a voluntary act or a health risk behavior, the employee will receive 50% of the basic salary for three months, as long as he or she does not have dependents, or six months if he or she does. In other cases, the percentage may reach up to 75% of the salary. The company also gains weight in the medical and control boards, which the unions interpret as a lack of protection for sick workers. Vacations also change logic. The new law allows vacation days to be divided into blocks of no less than seven consecutive days, which may be rotated throughout the year. In this way, it is no longer guaranteed to have all the summer vacationand it is only ensured that the worker will have at least a few days of vacation in the summer coinciding with school vacations once every three years. In practice, companies gain margin to organize the vacation calendar according to productive needs and distribute staff in different batches during the year without the employee having the power to decide on it. Limits on the right to strike. One of the most sensitive points for the labor movement are the restrictions on the right to strike and union organization. The reform significantly expands the list of “essential services“in which, even during a legal strike, at least 75% of the activity must be maintained. For the worker, this means that many stoppages will result in almost normal services and that the pressure capacity of the strikes is significantly reduced. Union meetings during working hours will require prior authorization from the companies and will not … Read more

with his latest Rosco, he has achieved audiences typical of the last century

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Rosa Rodríguez has entered the history of Spanish television, thanks to the 2,716 million euros she won in the legendary final rosco of ‘Pasapalabra’. The nightly special gathered 4.1 million viewers at its peak (a 45.3% share), figures that seem taken from another decade. But what is notable is not the prize or the specific audience, but rather that this contest, broadcast outside the prime timehas maintained for 25 years a capacity for convening that defies all logic. The fragmentation of audiences pulverizes formats each season, but ‘Pasapalabra’ grows. What happened. After 307 duel programs with Manu Pascual, Rodríguez, an Argentine teacher living in Galicia, completed the Rosco that gave her access to the largest jackpot ever awarded by ‘Pasapalabra’. Rodríguez and Pascual starred in the longest duel in the history of the program, 307 broadcasts faced in the final Rosco, a mark that far exceeds any other confrontation in the format. Pascual accumulated the absolute record for individual participations with 437 programs, and on six occasions he was one letter away from completing the rosco. On Thursday night, Rosa correctly resolved the 25 definitions (from “cruiser” to “Earl Morrall”, the American football player who closed her victory – not without controversy, since her pronunciation was not entirely correct, which triggered the inevitable on social networks. tongo accusations-) and dethroned Rafa Castañountil then holder of the largest jackpot with 2,272 million euros obtained in March 2023. Pascual left the contest with 270,600 euros accumulated, a considerable figure that does not mitigate the frustration of having touched the jackpot on half a dozen occasions. The audience. The data turns Pasapalabra into a statistical anomaly. This season, the contest registers a daily average of 1,928 million viewers with a 20.3% screen share. These figures correspond to its usual evening broadcast, in a time slot, eight in the afternoon, which the industry does not consider prime time and which competes with the end of work days, commuting and family routines. The tentacles of Pasapalabra. The impact of the program transcends its own broadcast. On Thursday Antena 3 reached 18.9% daily averagedouble its usual performance. ‘The Anthill’with Rosa and Manu before Rosco, scored a spectacular 23.5% of shareits best figure since March 2023. Vicente Vallés’ nightly news program reached close to 3.1 million viewers, its highest in three years thanks to the audience awaiting the outcome. The evening magazine ‘Y Ahora Sonsoles’ and the daily series ‘Sueños de Libertad’ also recorded season highs dragged by the ‘Pasapalabra’ effect. It was the day with highest television consumption of the entire seasonwith 10 million Spaniards in front of the television after 11:00 p.m., 20% more than the previous week. A revealing fact: the final Rosco segment alone reaches a 25% screen share and 2.6 million viewers on average, surpassing the global audience of the entire program. It is the moment of maximum tension, when the secondary screens turn off. 25 years. The permanence of ‘Pasapalabra’ in the Spanish television ecosystem for a quarter of a century is complex to explain. Since its debut on Antena 3 in July 2000, the contest has aired on three different networks, several judicial stoppages and presenter changes. It has not lost cultural relevance. Its format maintains a deliberately simple structure: two contestants accumulate seconds in verbal agility tests that they then invest in the final Rosco, 25 definitions whose answers correspond to the alphabet. That invariability is, paradoxically, one of its greatest attractions. An anomaly. The context in which Pasapalabra thrives makes its success even more surprising. At the end of 2024 63.3% of Spanish households with Internet access used at least one paid audiovisual platform. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+ and the rest of the on-demand services have radically reconfigured consumption patterns: viewers decide what to watch, when to watch it and on what device to play it. The rigidity of the traditional television schedule should be an obstacle, but it is not However, the numbers refute the supposed obsolescence of linear television. Digital platforms accumulate 16.7% of total audiovisual consumption in Spain, and traditional television maintains 83.3% according to a Kantar analysis from July 2024. Among those over 50, free-to-air television continues to be the dominant medium, with consumption exceeding three hours a day on weekends. ‘Pasapalabra’ capitalizes on that type of audience. The unique touch. What distinguishes ‘Pasapalabra’ from extinct formats like ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’? Its ability to generate events within the routine. Each Rosco is not just another episode: it is a potentially historic event, a unique opportunity to witness a record. The architecture of the growing jackpot transforms the daily broadcast into a series with no pre-established end. The suspense builds up for months until it explodes on nights like this Thursday. At prime time. Atresmedia’s decision to move the delivery of the boat to prime time generates a recurring debate among Pasapalabra’s loyal audience. Miguel Aparicio, director of the program, recognized that initially the team resisted this strategy: they preferred to “reward that follower who pays attention day after day” while maintaining the surprise factor. When Rosa completed the Rosco, Antena 3 built an entire programming architecture around the event, with a special prior to 8:00 p.m. in the program’s usual time slot, the appearance of the contestants on ‘El Hormiguero’ and finally the broadcast of the decisive Rosco after 11:00 p.m. This tactic has been repeated with the last big jackpots: Pablo Díaz in July 2021 (30.8% and 4.3 million), Rafa Castaño in March 2023 (37.4% and 4.5 million) and Óscar Díaz in May 2024 (30.1% and 3.2 million). They were all moved to nighttime hours after weeks of building expectations. The strategy works. Not only for the contest, which multiplies its usual audience, but for the entire grid. In Xataka | Telecinco’s crisis is so great that it is leading it to extreme measures: merging sets to save costs

What the war in Ukraine has not achieved, Greenland has done. Europe has taken out its “commercial bazooka” against the US: Ozempic

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For more than a year, Europe has become accustomed to living trapped in an uncomfortable balance where depends on the United States for its security through NATO, to sustain the Ukrainian effort and, ultimately, for the strategic architecture that has protected it since the Cold War. Now Greenland has done jump into the air part of the rhetoric. Europe and the counterattack. The crisis has erupted when Trump has returned to ignite a trade war using Greenland as an excuse and as an ultimatum: either some type of “agreement” that brings the island closer to the United States is accepted, or tariffs arrive first from 10% and after 25% a group of European countries designated by a minimal but symbolic gesture, to participate in Arctic maneuvers with Denmark. What until recently many in Europe preferred to interpret as bravado or negotiating tactics becomes an explicit message of political pressure that no longer leaves room for the fantasy of appeasement. And there appears the real change: what the Ukrainian war had not completely achieved (a frontal European response to American reprisals) Greenland is doing itbecause the coup is not against a geopolitical adversary but against alliesand because it puts Europe before a brutal choice: accept the blackmail and normalize it, or respond even if it hurts, even knowing that it continues to depend on Washington for its security and to contain Russia. The European bazooka. There is no doubt, the European reaction It is not born from enthusiasm, but from the feeling that there are no longer many other solutions: Greenland cannot be “handed over”, nor can Denmark sell an autonomous territory against the will of its population, and the very idea that an acquisition could be forced due to commercial threats opens a pandora’s box that affects the entire continent. In this context, Brussels dusts off for the first time his toughest tool, the so-called anti-coercion instrumentdesigned precisely to punish political pressures through rapid and forceful economic measures. on the table two paths appear that mark a leap in mentality: reactivate a package of tariffs worth of 93,000 million of euros already prepared and, if the escalation continues, go further of goods and target services, investment and even access to the European market for large American companies. The European message tries to be twofold, seeking a de-escalation that avoids an open clash, but making it clear that, if Trump turns trade into a method of extortion, Europe can also respond strongly. The crash that nobody wanted. The most disturbing thing about this episode is not only the economic impact of a tariff war, but the strategic fracture that it implies: Europe knows that a serious trade conflict with the United States will would infect NATOto Ukraine and the entire deterrence architecture against Russia. That is why the continent moves cautiouslycalling emergency meetings, preparing the ground for talks in Davos and even delaying previously agreed trade detente measures. But the core of the problem is that Trump is not negotiating a percentage or a clause: you are elevating a territorial objective to a national priority, presenting it as a requirement to “improve the security” of the Arctic, and implicitly denying that Europe can guarantee it. In this framework, Europe tries not to break the bridge, but assumes that it can no longer behave as if the bridge were indestructible. The sovereignty of Greenland. We’ve told it before: while Washington talks about “acquisition,” Greenland insists that its future belongs to them, that many they want more independencenot change flag. This point is essential because it explains why Europe doesn’t want to give in: it is not just about Danish pride or formalisms, but about sovereignty and democratic legitimacy, as well as an explosive precedent within the Union itself. The tariff threattherefore, works as an attempt to isolate Denmark and make it the weak link, although it has the opposite effect: it reinforces the idea that if you are attacked over a strategic issue, you will be respond as a block. And therein lies the paradox: instead of dividing, the pressure forces coordination, especially between Paris and Berlin, which push a harder line while others ask for time to see if Trump offers a “way out” before the punishment is activated. The “Ozempic bomb”. Amid the noise of bases, submarines and Arctic routes, the unexpected weapon appears: Denmark is not a commercial giant, but it exports products to the United States that directly affect the pocket and everyday lifeand that turns any tariff into a kind of political boomerang. The half of its sales Recent visits to Washington focus on medicines, vaccines, insulin and related products, because Novo Nordisk is there, the Danish economic engine and the factory of the global phenomenon Ozempic and Wegovy. That dependency converts Denmark in a kind of de facto “pharmaceutical state”: Your private growth and employment largely revolve around that industry, and any trade turbulence impacts both sides. If Trump makes these medicines more expensive, the blow will not stay in Europe: it enters the US market like health inflation and social unrest, just where the political margin is most fragile. And that is why Ozempic, more than a product, works as symbol of interdependence reality that makes a tariff war not just a lever, but rather a grenade. Lego and other reminders. The same effect is seen with Lego and other products Danes beloved in the United States, or with less visible but critical sectors such as hearing aids and certain medical equipment. In the real world, supply chains do not respect emotional boundaries: many parts are manufactured in different countries, assembled in others, and sold in markets that depend on global logistics. This means that tariffs punish not only the “enemy” exporter, but also companies, distributors and consumers. Trump can imagine squeezing Denmark to bend it, but the pressure leaks out in prices and disruptions in the US market itself, and also erodes the relationship with an ally that already offers military access in … Read more

It was the second worst value on the IBEX 35 in 2025, but it achieved its best portability data in history

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Telefónica has closed its busy 2025 with two opposite faces: in bag plummeted 11% and ended up as the second worst value on the IBEX 35, only ahead of Puig. But on the street he won the battle: captured almost 200,000 mobile lines of the competition, its best historical record in portability. Why it is important. This contradiction explains well how the market no longer rewards only commercial success. Investors demand financial visibility, robust cash flow and a clear roadmap. Telefónica has achieved the first, but with the change of presidency a year is still in process of the rest. The turning point. Everything changed on November 4th. At his Capital Market Day, in which he took the opportunity to Publish your five-year strategic planthe operator announced a dividend cut in half (from 0.30 to 0.15 euros per share) and cash projections lower than expected. Investors immediately punished it: less dividend, less cash and little clarity about some operations. The backdrop. The stock market punishment contrasts with Telefónica’s best commercial year in a long time. The sum of Movistar and O2 portability quintupled in 2024 and consolidated the leadership of the leading telecom in the premium segment of the Spanish mobile market. Digi led the total market with 783,000 net lines, dominating the low cost. MásOrange lost 513,000 mobile customers, its worst result. Vodafone Spain gave up 435,000 lines, even with the sum of Finetwork. Telefónica’s commercial success is explained by a pincer strategy: Digi sweeps through increasingly cheaper rates, so Movistar and O2 have entrenched themselves in the highest value segments, where customers pay more and remain loyal. But that victory has not translated into stock market metrics. Only Puig has had a worse 2025 on the IBEX than the telecom company. Yes, but. The theory of “IBEX dogs” suggests that 2026 should be a better year for Telefónica. The most punished values ​​usually recover the following year and the analyst consensus sets a target price of 4.04 euros per share, 16% above current levels. Besides, The IBEX 35 has closed its best year since 1993. The index closed with a revaluation of 49%, driven mainly by banks and their record results. And now what. Telefónica faces 2026 with a more austere discourse on balance sheet and debt. The key is no longer in the strategic announcement, but in its execution. The market has discounted the dividend cut and what remains is to demonstrate that the new remuneration policy, linked to cash flow, is sustainable over time. For now, the year starts with an ERE that will cost 2,500 million euros and will save about 600 annually starting in 2028. Will that be enough to convince investors without sacrificing the commercial capacity that has allowed them to gain customers again? In Xataka | Telefónica has gone from 67,000 workers in 1997 to 25,000 today. And his plan is clear: go even lower Featured image | Telephone

and has already achieved what only ASML had, according to Reuters

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Let’s continue with historical analogies. Ptolemy Vking of Egypt from 204 to 181 BC. C. —not to be confused with the astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy—, he was very delighted with the great Library of Alexandria. The legendary site brought together human knowledge of the time in hundreds of thousands of papyrus rolls. However, the king was restless: the Pergamon Library (in modern-day Türkiye) did not stop growing. They wanted to get on his back, so he took drastic measures. He prohibited the export of papyrus. The story sounds familiar to you, right? As if he were a modern Trump who wanted to stop innovation by vetoing the export of new technologies, Ptolemy V promised them very happily. “Let’s see how they manage now in Pergamon,” he surely thought. And then Pergamum did what China has also ended up doing: he looked for the chestnuts. Given the scarcity of papyrus, in Pergamon they were forced to perfect a technique that already existed in a rudimentary form: using animal skins to treat, stretch and polish them with the aim of writing on them. They called that new support charta pergamena (Pergamon paper), but its popular name is another much better known one: Parchment. The story, told in the fabulous essay ‘Infinity in a reed‘, by Irene Vallejo, is more than 2,000 years old, but as we see it is a faithful reflection of what is happening now in the United States trade war with China. Specifically, with photolithographic technology, which the US has tried by all means to prevent from reaching China. So China is inventing its own scroll. Been at it for quite some timebut until now it seemed to be totally stuck. At most, rumors tell us, he had managed to create a photolithographic machine with deep ultraviolet (UVP) technology, less advanced than UVE. And not even for those. China’s Manhattan Project The Dutch company ASML has managed to maintain the exclusive of this technology so far. If you wanted to make advanced chips, you needed to buy one of their very complex machines. China had a difficult time facing the US veto, but as has happened in other areas, the Asian giant has not stood by and has tried to find alternatives. And in this case, it seems to have a profile. This is what they indicate in Reuterswhere they indicate that a group of former ASML engineers have managed to decipher the secrets of the company’s EUV machines through reverse engineering. The prototype created by these engineers is already capable of generating light in the extreme ultraviolet range, but has not yet produced functional chipssay the sources cited in said medium. It is expected, however, that this machine will be used to build advanced chips starting in 2028, although some analysts are more conservative and believe that chips will not be manufactured in it until 2030. According to this report, to build said prototype, use was made of parts that were available from ASML machines in alternative markets. Sources consulted by Reuters described this development as the Chinese version of “the Manhattan Project” which led the United States to build the atomic bomb in World War II. The achievement challenges claims made by ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet in April. He then assured that China would need “many, many years” to develop such technology. However, the discovery of this prototype suggests that this period will be significantly reduced. There are of course important obstacles to overcome. One of them is access to high-precision optical systems, and here is another Western company with control of these elements: Zeiss. This project is so crucial to China’s interests that it is being carried out with great secrecy. A Chinese engineer with many years of experience at ASML was signed with a generous bonus, and when he started working He did it with an identification card with a false name. He soon realized that the team members, other former ASML engineers of Chinese nationality, also had fake names. At least two current ASML employees in the Netherlands with Chinese nationality have been contacted by Huawei recruiters since 2020. European laws limit ASML’s ability to know where its former employees have gone to work, but the company has already had disagreements over this issue. In fact, in 2019 they won a case in which a Chinese engineer was sentenced to pay 845 million dollars for stealing trade secrets. The defendant declared bankruptcy but continues operating in Beijing with the support of the Chinese government, according to court documents cited in Reuters. It is now appropriate to return to the lesson taught by the history of Ptolemy V. This king’s boycott had an effect opposite to what he desired. It did not stop Pergamum, it created a superior material – parchment was much more resistant – and it saved literature: many classic works managed to reach us thanks to having been written on parchment and not on papyrus, which would have fallen apart. Now, of course, it remains to be seen if China is indeed the Pergamon of this story. He has the strengths to achieve it, of course. In Xataka | Global tension cannot withstand ASML. He is going to build a huge campus equivalent to 50 football fields

The only thing that Europe’s AI Law has achieved is to leave us lame. The question is whether turning back will do any good.

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December 8 was a fateful day for the European Union, but not many realized it. And it was because that day the AI ​​Act was passedthe European regulation on artificial intelligence. Thierry Breton, European commissioner, he was pleased with a tweet that automatically became a meme. I was bragging about how Europe had tripped itself up. The responses to that tweet They made it clear that the reception of the regulations was very different from what the EU would have expected. The criticism was forceful and very clear: with these regulations the only thing the EU was achieving was to slow down innovation and make it even more difficult to compete in a segment that was defining the world. While the US and China joined the party without asking permission and without asking for forgiveness, Europe stayed at home happily crocheting. That regulation, which came into force in August 2024instantly caused the AI ​​segment out at two speeds: that of Europe, almost at a standstill, and that of the rest of the world, which stepped on the accelerator (without looking too closely at the consequences). We have seen the consequences of that in the last two years. Europe has been relegated to the second (or third) plane, and with honorable exceptions like the Spanish Freepik or the French Mistral, we have very little to talk about in this area. Meanwhile, the US dominates the commercial plane and China is a steamroller both at a training level as in your open model development. Europe wants to turn back: the question is whether it is too late Yesterday the European Commission presented a project for simplify various digital regulationsand the most important modifications actually affect the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPRor GRPD for its acronym in English). The changes proposed by the Commission will make it easier for companies to share sets of anonymised and pseudo-anonymised personal data. That will have a direct impact on the capacity of AI companies, which They will be able to legally use personal data to train their data models as long as that process meets the rest of the GDPR requirements. The proposal also softens one of the key elements of the AI ​​Act, which, as we say, came into force in August 2024 but included several elements that would come into force some time later. Thus, now the “grace period” for the regulations that regulate the high risk AI systems —those that pose a “serious risk” to health, safety or fundamental rights—is widespread. It was supposed to be activated in summer 2016, but now that regulation will only apply when it is confirmed that “the necessary standards and supporting tools are available” for AI companies… whatever those standards and tools are, yet to be defined. Other amendments in that new Digital Omnibus include simplified requirements for the documentation required of SMEsin addition to a unified interface so that companies can report cybersecurity incidents. Henna Virkkunen, vice president of technological sovereignty at the European Commission, explained that: “In the EU we have all the ingredients to be successful. However, our businesses, especially startups and small businesses, are often held back by a set of rigid rules. By reducing bureaucracy, simplifying EU legislation, opening access to data and introducing a common European business portfolio, we are creating space for innovation to be produced and commercialized in Europe. This is being done the European way: by ensuring that users’ fundamental rights remain fully protected.” These amendments to current digital regulations will now have to be approved by the European Parliament and the 27 member states of the European Union — which will need a qualified majority— to approve it. That process could last months, and during it the proposals themselves could see notable changes before being applied. As indicated in The Guardianthis “massive setback” of this regulation has caused concern among groups fighting to continue protecting privacy of European citizens. The European Digital Rights (EDRi), a pan-European network of NGOs, Indian that if the changes to the regulation are accepted, it will become easier for technology companies to collect and use personal data to train AI models without asking for consent. The European agenda seemed to change when former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi warned last fall of how Europe had fallen worryingly behind in the technology race. That speech was a breath of fresh air for Europeand European business groups have welcomed the proposal with optimism, but believe that they still fall short. A representative of the Computer and Communications Industry Association of which Amazon, Apple, Google and Meta are members indicated that “efforts to simplify digital and technology regulations should not stop there.” One click for cookies This simplification of regulation that affects all types of digital scenarios can have a positive effect. Accepting or rejecting cookies has become a daily torture for millions of Europeansbut the user experience may improve significantly in the coming months. And it may get better because the EU has proposed a modernization of policies related to cookies. To try to improve the browsing experience, it will limit the number of times cookie warning banners appear, but also will make it possible for us to accept or reject cookies with a single click. In fact, the future may be even more promising, because what is intended is that said consent (or denial) of cookies is integrated into our browser so that once we configure it, the websites are not constantly asking us if we accept cookies or not: the browser will know what we want and will answer for us at all times. In that “digital package” it is specified that once we accept or reject cookies with that “single-click“, websites must respect that choice of citizens for six months. Image | Christian Lue In Xataka | For the EU, our privacy has always been more important than AI. Until he understood that he was left behind

Regenerating tooth enamel is the holy grail of dentistry. And they have achieved it using a part of the sheep

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Cavities are a real nightmare for many because of the pain they cause and also because of the mandatory visit to the dentist, which for some It resembles hell itself. And it is no less a problem, since untreated tooth decay is one of the most common problems in the world, affecting some 2,000 million patients worldwide, such as point the Global Burden of Disease 2019. A serious problem. A cavity requires quick dental treatment, since it is impossible for them to cure on their own or with a simple pill. This is because mature tooth enamel, what we see of the tooth, is a hard tissue, without cells and, therefore, cannot regenerate itself once it is damaged by bacteria. In this way, if not treated, cavities progress, destroys the tooth and takes us straight to the dentist’s chair for a filling. This is where the dentist must remove all damaged enamel and replace it with some kind of putty that hardens to look like enamel, although it really isn’t. The objective. For years, science has been searching for the “holy grail” of dentistry: a method to regenerate enamel biologically. However, getting the enamel compound to grow in an aligned and orderly manner, as biology does, is a nearly impossible thing. The now. A team of researchers from King’s College London has achieved something radically new: using keratin, the protein found in our hair or even in the wool of sheep. With this project, the researchers, instead of betting on a “patch” as now, keratin self-assembles into a fibrous network and forms structures as if it were the perfect scaffold. This is where the magic happens. This keratin scaffold guides the ordered growth of the molecules that make up the tooth. The study discovered that the keratin structure itself is flexible and reorganizes itself during mineralization (changing from β-sheets to α-helices), actively orchestrating the formation of the new mineral layer. It has already been tested. To check If this new material worked, they took human teeth and artificially caused “white spot lesions,” which are the first visible stage of a cavity. With this base, the keratin film was applied and incubated in a mineralization solution, resulting in a comprehensive repair of the tooth with an adequate structure. The future. The most important thing is that this regeneration is not just aesthetic; It is functional. The study measured the mechanical properties of the repaired enamel and the results surpassed one of the current standard treatments: resin infiltration. Both in the hardness and mechanical properties tests, it was seen that the result was really positive when it came to being able to use the tooth as if it were the integral version. In this way, this study establishes a preclinical framework for using a platform based on keratin, a cheap, abundant and biocompatible material. The manufacturing process is simple and does not use solvents. This could represent a “paradigm shift” in the clinical management of early caries. Instead of just having to drill and fill them, the possibility of curing and regenerating them is offered to restore both aesthetics and mechanical properties. Images | Pierre Villedieu Ozkan Guner In Xataka | If you always brush your teeth after eating, science has something to tell you: you’re doing it wrong

How Spain has achieved that one in every four series reproduced is its own

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The impact of Spanish series on the streaming market it is indisputable. a few years ago’The Money Heist‘ was on everyone’s lips, but in the same way that Korean fictions are much more than ‘The squid game‘, the Spanish are beginning to go much further than ‘Bella Ciao’. The latest data supports this: it may be that the streaming is hitting where it hurts the most to Spanish cinema, but in other aspects it is doing very well for the Spanish fiction industry. 25%. One in four of the most watched series on streaming is Spanish, according to a study by Parrot Analytics. It is a fact that reflects the international boom and consolidation of audiovisual content produced in Spain. ‘La casa de papel’ not only revolutionized the public’s perception of fiction in Spanish, but also paved the way for new Spanish productions. will conquer global audiences. Titles such as “Elite” or “Manual para senoritas” reach prominent positions in global rankings, confirming that Spanish content not only competes for local attention, but is capable of influencing and attracting viewers from multiple countries. Increase in demand. There is more notable data in this study: Spanish content has experienced notable growth in availability and global demand on streaming platforms between 2021 and 2023, with a 22% increase in the number of titles available. More than 200 Spanish productions are among the 10% most in demand on the main platforms, showing that interest transcends beyond the Spanish-speaking markets. And that is the genuinely relevant leap. In money. The economic value of this growth is significant: in the last four years, Spanish productions have generated 5.1 billion dollars in global revenue for the main streaming platforms. streamingwhich represents almost 9% of the total income generated by non-English titles. If we compile a ranking, Spain is in fourth place in the world in terms of income generated by non-English content, ranking only behind Japan, South Korea and India, all Asian countries. The importance of Netflix. Netflix has been leader in the global expansion of Spanish content: The role played by ‘La casa de papel’ and ‘Elite’ is indisputable, to which are added Spanish films such as ‘Nowhere’, among those that have acquired and retained the most subscribers on the platform in recent years. But Netflix is ​​not the only one: Prime Video and Apple TV+ are also joining this trend with Spanish titles such as ‘Red Queen’ or ‘Land of Women’ respectively. In fact, we are turning 10 years of the arrival of Netflix in Spain, and the figures make it clear to what extent it was key in turning around the situation of Spanish series: already in 2017 it premiered its first Spanish series, ‘The cable girls’, and that year the production of series in Spain doubled (from 11 to 22, not counting new seasons). Since the pandemic, the number has been growing consistently: in 2020 52 series, in 2022 53, in 2023 55, and there was a record in 2024 with 68 series, which has not been equaled. Netflix has partly led this trend: in 2022 it launched 15 Spanish series, the platform’s most productive year, and in 2025 it has already released 10 titles, the second best record. Spanish fictions are going further. It is almost a decade that has served to leave behind a stigma that had partly marked Spanish television fiction: despite the popularity of titles such as ‘Pharmacy on duty’, ‘Family doctor’, ‘Los Serrano’, ‘Cuéntame’, ‘No one here lives’ or ‘Águila Roja’, to list a few, they were considered series of lower quality than those coming from abroad. In recent years that perspective has changed: Spanish series, and the audience makes it clear, can be measured in technical and artistic quality with productions from abroad. The importance of Latin America. The Hispanic market has become a fundamental pillar for the expansion and success of the streaming in Spanish. In the United States, Spanish-speaking consumers dedicate more than 55% of their television time to streaminga figure in which, for obvious reasons, the content in Spanish is of great importance. This trend also moves to the south of the American continent, where the increase in subscribers and the expansion of streaming are transforming audiovisual consumption habits. In Xataka | The golden age of Spanish series: more and more is produced thanks to platforms and pay TV

achieve the same thing that Google achieved with Android

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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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