answer

The MacBook Neo is the biggest existential threat to the Windows laptop market. And the manufacturers have no answer

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Catacrac. This is how the announcement that Apple made with the MacBook Neo. They are modest in specifications, yes, but they have a surprising price/performance ratio if we take into account that it comes from Apple. The company, which seemed like it would never “humiliate itself” with a “cheap” product, has ended up doing just that. And in the process, it has posed an extraordinary threat to Windows laptops with a product that is a missile to the waterline of many manufacturers. A perfect team for many people. We’re all looking for the best product at the best price, and the MacBook Neo is a fantastic balancing act. It is not by far the best laptop one can find, but it is a device with a very reasonable configuration for many people. And it is because many people use the laptop for tasks that do not need more power or features. Apple has also hit the nail on the head with the price: being an Apple product, those 700 euros almost seem like a bargain. A textbook masterstroke. While Windows laptop manufacturers get tangled up in justifying why a laptop It should cost 1,500 euros to do everything you want (not to mention the AI ​​options), Apple has on its hands a product that overturns the perception of value. The MacBook Neo does not seek to win performance races, but rather to be the equipment that any student, administrator or home user buys without looking at another alternative. In 2026, true innovation is not to include an incredible NPU, but to offer a product that solves a need and do so at a price that previously seemed an insult by Apple’s standards. Remembering netbooks. Almost 20 years ago the industry tried to move in this direction with netbooks. These Windows laptops were (very) modest, crude and cheap and generated a lot of expectation, but realities soon arrived. Its limitations were so obvious that they were not worth it, and the concept of the “modest, cheap and functional laptop” was perhaps ahead of its time. Cupertino has arrived on time. Apple seems to have arrived at the right time, because we have been saying for years that mobile chips were already extraordinarily powerful and were wasted both in our smartphones and (especially) in iPads. The MacBook Neo is what netbooks should always be—well, maybe a little expensive for a netbook—with the difference that here the features promise to be much more adequate. Slap for Windows on ARM. The appearance of this team is also a very hard blow for all those teams that have tried to Windows on ARM it made sense. We have seen several throughout these years and everything seemed to indicate that Microsoft and the manufacturers they had a chancebut they have ended up making computers that were basically clones of their variants with Intel/AMD in almost everything. With more autonomy and many AI functionsYes, but with often high prices and with some software limitations because the Windows ecosystem on ARM architecture is not nearly as prepared as Apple’s with macOS, which completed that transition after the launch of the M1 in 2020. There is hope for Microsoft and its users. Manufacturers of Windows equipment will now have to react and come up with competitive options. And they certainly have the potential to do so. Qualcomm has its Snapdragon Meanwhile, NVIDIA already has its SoCs for laptops almost ready —we saw them at CES— so we may be looking at a “second era of netbooks” in which the MacBook Neo competes with Windows/ARM machines on price and features. Of course, it remains to be seen what the real performance, autonomy and reliability of these future devices, including Apple’s, are. Suddenly Apple has a catalog of “affordable” products that puts its competitors in trouble. Beyond the Chromebook. The MacBook Neo could be seen as a “Chromebook killer”, but Google has stopped promoting them and manufacturers no longer lend them either so much attention. In fact, the future of Google laptops It seems to go through Android, not ChromeOS. While the MacBook Neo can certainly be a very reasonable device for students, it is actually an attack on the conventional “home laptop” with which HP, Dell or ASUS have always triumphed. Apple’s prestige plays a lot in its favor here, and it may win over not only young people, but also many other users who saw Apple as an aspirational brand that was too exclusive for their budgets. Memory makes everything more expensive… except the MacBook Neo. Furthermore, this launch moment could not be more cruel for Windows laptop manufacturers. All of them have already been warning that they will have to raise prices due to the RAM memory crisis, but Apple has done just the opposite: instead of presenting more expensive products—well, has also done it—, the firm has uncovered a functional and affordable bet that does not punish consumers. Sacrifices must be made, yes, but they are reasonable, especially in view of events. Apple has shown that you can be “humble” in price without losing your identity, and now it remains to be seen what the response of Windows equipment manufacturers is. Because what is clear is that that answer will come. And it is likely that after all this launch it will end up being very good news for us, the users. In Xataka | Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play

If the question is how much of Europe is within range of Iran’s missiles, the answer is simple: a fairly large

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In recent decades, the missile range It has become a silent measure of a country’s strategic power. Every few hundred kilometers added to their radius of action change not only technical maps, but also political calculations, alliances and perceptions of security. In this game of distances, Europe already it doesn’t appear that far away as before. From 1,300 to 3,000 km. It we count yesterday. Iran has built its deterrence on a missile family medium range (the Shahab-3, Sejjil, GhadrEmad or Khorramshahr) with ranges that start at 1,300 kilometers and are around 2,000–2,500 kilometers in most configurations, although certain variants of the Khorramshahr could approach 3,000 if they reduce payload. That threshold is what changes the European map, and the reason is very simple. With 2,000 kilometers, the eastern Mediterranean and southeastern Europe are clearly within the radiusand with 3,000, the arc of threat extends into the heart of the continent. The difference, therefore, is not technical, it is strategic. The eastern Mediterranean. Cyprus has been the clearest sign that the border is no longer theoretical. British bases of Akrotiri and Dhekeliaused as logistics and aerial projection nodes, are fully within range of both ballistic missiles and long-range drones such as the Shahed-136. In fact, Greece enters in the same arch, with Souda Bay in Crete within 2,300–2,400 kilometers from Iran. Athens, Sofia and Bucharest are among the capitals that fit comfortably within the 2,000 kilometer radius. Türkiye and Iraq: the exposed belt. Türkiye is located in the first critical strip. Incirlik, just over 1,000 kilometers from Tehran, is high value target for its role in allied architecture and its link to the nuclear sharing scheme. Kürecik, with its AN/TPY-2 radar, is the forward “eye” of the anti-missile shield and therefore a logical target in any prior suppression scenario. In Iraq, bases like Ain al-Asad or Erbil, in addition to the NATO mission in Baghdad, are not only within ballistic range, but also in the radius of drones and networks of militias supported by Tehran. Central Europe: the gray area. When the second and third arcs of the map are projected, cities appear like Budapest, Vienna or Bratislava on the periphery of the estimated range. Bucharest clearly enters the range of 2,000–2,500 kilometers, which places the base Aegis Ashore of Deveselu in a sensitive position within the maximum Iranian perimeter. If Khorramshahr really reached 3,000 kilometers, and that remains to be seen, the threat contour would touch cities like Berlin and Rome. Of course, just another hypothesis, but the pressure is expanding from the eastern flank towards the political center of Europe. The pieces of the shield and their limits. The Aegis Ashore system in Romaniathe one located in Poland and the Arleigh Burke destroyers in the Mediterranean they form the backbone of defense against Middle Eastern vectors. Germany, furthermore, has added the Arrow 3 system to reinforce its upper interception layer. However, any attack would have to fly over monitored airspace. like Türkiye, Iraq or Syriawhich adds operational complexity and interception windows. The shield exists, there is no doubt, but it does not eliminate the risk equation. Drones and saturation. Impossible to ignore it. Beyond ballistic missiles, Iran has turned attack drones into strategic multipliers. With ranges of up to 2,000–2,500 kilometers and costs much lower than missiles, they can be launched in waves to wear down defenses. Its previous use against British facilities in Cyprus demonstrates that the geographical barrier is no longer an automatic shield. The combination of expensive and cheap systems complicates defense. Underground and asymmetrical doctrine. As we count yesterday, the construction of “underground cities” to store and manufacture missiles is part of a strategy designed to compensate for the absence of a modern air force in Iran. Since 1979, sanctions pushed Tehran to invest in rockets, tunnels and technological alliances with other states, turning the missile into your main tool of deterrence. This asymmetric logic does not seek to equal the West in air and sea, but rather to impose cost and vulnerability from land. What changes strategically. As long as the effective range remains around 2,000 kilometers, the threat is mainly concentrated in the eastern Mediterranean and southeast Europe. If the actual ceiling is close to 3,000 km, the european political map enters the calculation. The difference between 2,400 and 3,000 kilometers is not a technical nuance, because it is the line that separates the periphery of the continental core. In that margin, a priori, the perception of risk for European capitals and the credibility of allied deterrence are at stake. Image | Mahdi Marizad, Defense Intelligence Agency, Mehr News Agency In Xataka | The arrival of the B-2s to Iran can only mean one thing: the search for the greatest threat to the United States has begun In Xataka | Iran has just attacked a base in Europe: the paradox of Spain is that it condemns the war, but the US does not need to ask to use its bases

If the question is “how did I meet your mother,” this graph reveals how much the answer has changed since 1930

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Allow me an indiscreet question if you have a partner: how did you meet? A quick review around me gives me some answers like “class”, also others like “common friends” and in many cases Tinder would come to the fore. Well, and I also know of some cases of Twitter or even forum sharing. I am a millennial and so is the majority of my environment. If I asked this same question to my mother or if I asked it to my grandmother (if she were alive), I might find the same answers, but the proportions would change. However, for 20 years there has been one way of dating that overwhelmingly prevails over the rest, considering “success” as having a partner: internet wins by a landslide. Although like me you can do that quick review of your environment, there is someone who has done it more and better (statistically speaking): a team from Stanford University has repeated this study titled “How the couples meet and stay together” for several years that, although you can read, James Eagle has turned it into a visual resource to analyze how this modus operandi of flirting has changed over time: a very revealing one minute video. This video covers almost a century of dating habits: from 1930 to 2024 and it includes classic options such as friends, family, in a bar, at work, neighbors, at university or school, at church and of course, on the internet. Obviously, in the 1930s and subsequent decades, the Online option was a huge zero. But be careful because in 1981 it started timidly with 0.01%. In the 30s, the best way to flirt was for your cousin to introduce you to your future partner (followed by friends and school): the family as a matchmaker which lasted until 1944, at which time it was superseded by Friendships. As leisure options begin to become popular and women enter the workforce, we see how “at work” or “in a bar” gain ground until they are able to share the podium with your friends back in the 80s. How the democratization of the internet changed dating The 90s is a critical moment: online begins a meteoric rise that consolidates it as the most infallible method to find a partner in 2011, displacing those eternal friendships that have been helping us flirt since time immemorial. As striking as the rise and total consolidation of the internet is the drastic fall of all other options: in the last 10 years we have gone from only friendships holding the type with a 20% share to that in 2024, the year of the end of video, flirting online is consolidated as the quintessential method with more than 60% of the pie. Being introduced to your partner by your colleagues happens in only one in 10 cases, something that makes sense in an increasingly individualistic society, which complicates even making new friends. If you are a single person, it is clear that apps are the place to find dates, according to this study. However, dating apps are no longer as convincing, especially to new generations: this Evenbrite report dating back to 2024 reveals how Gen Z and millennials are starting to get tired of the format. Because although they continue to flirt online, it’s not like before: They prefer to ask for Instagram than to ask for a date by Tinder. Fear of “public failure” is killing traditional flirting. However, the Internet as a dating method remains stronger than ever: because before apps existed, we were already dating in the most unexpected places. Without going any further, in the mythical Terra chat. In Xataka | Tinder has understood something uncomfortable: young people are alone and no longer want to flirt like before In Xataka | The world is experiencing a matchmaking crisis. 5,000 students and an algorithm are experimenting to fix it Cover | James Eagle

We have been wondering for decades if being vegetarian prevents cancer. We already have a very clear answer

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There is a endless diets in different parts of the world, conditioned largely by local society and culture, such as in Spain, where the Mediterranean dietwhich is varied. But the focus of the debate is on what is the best diet to maintain good health in the long term. And here the vegetarian diet has a lot to say. Giving answers. For years, we have known that reducing our consumption of processed meat is beneficial for our health, but a new macro study led by the University of Oxford has put compelling data on the table about how dietary choice directly impacts the risk of developing different types of cancer. The work published in the magazine British Journal of Cancer is consolidated as the further analysis performed to date on this topic. And it is no wonder, since researchers have been able to analyze the histories of 1.8 million women and men who participated in nine prospective studies across three continents. A shield. Until now, previous studies they were already pointing that vegetarians had a lower oncological risk, but there was not the necessary statistical power to refine the data and make this categorical statement. But this study has come to change this, since researchers reveal that vegetarians have a significantly lower risk of suffering from five types of cancer compared to people who eat meat regularly. Results. Obviously, there are many other factors that influence this matter such as weight or lifestyle, but even adjusting the data, a clear result has been seen, which is summarized in the following risk reductions: 31% lower risk of suffering from multiple myeloma. 28% lower risk of kidney cancer. 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 12% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 9% lower risk of breast cancer. But the curious thing about these data is that for ten other types of cancer studied, such as lung cancer in non-smokers, science has not found a significant difference. And this opens the door to seeing why this diet is so specific for specific cancers. The small print. Not everything is so positive with this diet, since the study has shown that vegetarians have almost double the risk of developing esophageal cancer compared to people who eat meat in their diet. Because? According to researchers, the benefits of a vegetarian diet in cancer are explained by the greater intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber and the absence of processed meats. But the fact that they have a higher risk of having esophageal cancer is related to the nutritional deficiencies that vegetarians may have. And the lack of certain exclusive or more present nutrients in foods of animal origin could be weakening the natural defenses of this tissue. The rest of the diets. In addition to the war that may exist between meat and vegetables, researchers wanted to go further to look at the rest of the diet. In this case, the pescetarianswho do not consume meat, but do consume fish and seafood, had a lower risk of developing breast, kidney and colon cancer. But when we talk about vegansis where there are certain important nuances, since it has been seen that they have a higher risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. However, the researchers themselves point out that there are still not enough statistical cases to accurately evaluate the impact of veganism on rarer cancers. The recommendations. Given this study, everything that had been done in oncology is maintained, since the norm is to prioritize whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in the diet, limiting the consumption of red and processed meats. Although logically always ensuring that all nutritional needs are met and following medical advice. Images | amin ramezani In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to the contrary.

Huawei has had half the West against it for six years. Your answer is the Mate 80 Pro

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The market had been warning for some time: Huawei was going to return. Google’s veto United States ostracized to a Chinese company that was taken as a scapegoat at the dawn of the current trade war. What was initially a blow has ended in a big comeback leading he domestic market with more than 18% share. and he Huawei Mate 80 Pro It is another example that the brand does not want us to forget about its mobile phones outside of China. There are a couple of very important asterisks. In short. We told it a few days ago: Huawei’s best feature has been neither its technological innovation nor its investment to give wings to the Chinese foundry. His best quality has been resilience. That translates to 880 billion yuan (about $127 billion). registered in 2025. Put in context, it is the company’s second best year after the glorious 2020 in which it hugged Samsung and Apple and in which it achieved 891,000 million yuan (129,000 million dollars). And it has achieved this by looking at the local market, building an ecosystem under the name of HarmonyOS (something that is very popular in China, and Xiaomi is an example of this) and managing to be in all parts of the business. Huawei was no longer just consumer technology: it was home automation and even cars. The Western blow pushed not the reinvention of a company that was already on that path, but rather to seek that goal more ardently. And it seems that they are moving, again, outside their borders. Mate 80 Pro. In Spain we have continued receiving Huawei devices. For example, smart watches are some of the best you can buy – we just published our review of the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2-, in headphones they have models as interesting as the FreeClip 2 and we have continued receiving tablets and some mobile phones like the Huawei Pure 80 or the Mate X7a foldable. However, not all of them arrived and the Mate 80 Pro, the company’s spearhead, seemed trapped in China. In a recent presentation that we were able to attend in Madrid, Huawei has shown a slide in which it confirms the price in euros of the Huawei Mate 80 Pro, a mobile phone with a 6.75-inch OLED screen, with 8,000 nits of brightnesswith its own Kirin 9030 processor and a triplet of cameras made up of: 50 Mpx main with variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/4.0. 40 Mpx wide angle. 48 Mpx 4x telephoto with an impressive f/2.1 aperture. They have not talked about markets, yes. No concessions. The price? 1,299 euros that are a declaration of intentions. In the analysis of the Huawei Mate X7 we have seen that the performance of that chip is more similar to that of a mid-range than that of a TOP range. It is commendable that they have managed to develop it without being able to access the resources of the West – of ASMLmainly-, but it is not a processor for a 1,300 euro mobile. It also doesn’t have 5G at this point. However, in the rest of the sections in which they can innovate and grow as they did before the veto, they are doing so. 100 W charging, cameras that promise a lot, good storage speed and screens to match. It’s a “here we are, we continue making high-end mobile phones”, a declaration of intent and a kind of “because I can”. The reality: it’s complicated. However, there is no denying the elephant in the room: the Huawei Mate 80 Pro, no matter how good it looks, still cannot natively access Google mobile services. It is no longer not being able to install your apps, but others that depend on those GMS They won’t work on the phone. It’s a huge concession for many users, but it may not sound so bad to others. We are in a time in which many Europeans are beginning to resonate with the idea of ​​abandoning American technology and softwareand that’s where Google comes in. In hardware there are proposals such as Fairphone 6 and every time more alternatives appear of software so as not to have to depend on those American programs. Who had… retained? As I say, it is undeniable that Huawei’s position by sneaking a mobile phone for 1,300 euros with so many concessions is complex and optimistic, but it is still an interesting approach: they are gaining confidence thanks to rising like foam in the local market and they know that they have good foundations and, at least, a name that continues to sound good in the heads of many who have good memories of beasts like the P30 Pro. At the moment, we don’t know where this Mate 80 Pro will end up being released. Perhaps that announcement of the price of 1,299 euros is putting its foot in to test the temperature of the water, but although they know that they are competing at a disadvantage, a mobile phone of that price is a better thermometer of how the European market vibrates than a 2,100 euro foldable like the X7. In Xataka | Chinese mobile phones conquered the market by dividing into a thousand different brands. Now they are doing just the opposite.

If the question is who is going to illuminate part of the new A-5 tunnel, the answer is simple: the sun

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He burial of the A5 continues its course. It is one of the most ambitious works in the recent history of the Spanish capital and, after months of headaches, you can see the light at the end of the tunnel. There is still a way to go, but the light thing is quite literal if we take into account that, in the surface park, there will be enormous pergolas that will not only serve to provide shade. They will be the battery of the tunnel. The pergolas. From the beginning The project took into account the installation of an infrastructure that would allow the use of sunlight to power the tunnel through which the vehicles will circulate. The idea with this burial is to create a large green area of ​​80,000 m2 that, in addition to trees, will have another solution to shelter pedestrians: eight pergolas to combat the sun and rain. They won’t be the only thing they will do. As the Urban Planning, Environment and Mobility area of ​​the Madrid City Council has commented to ABCall of them will have photovoltaic panels that will total 1,055 panels for a nominal power of 437 kW and an annual production of 561 MWh. It is the equivalent of the annual consumption of 200 homes in Spain and the energy that will power the installations of the underground section. We will see when the works are completed, since the Madrid City Council already calculation a production of 1,158 MWh per year. Geothermal. All the pergolas will not be the same and the panels will be installed in the most optimal way possible to meet this estimated production, but it is not the only system planned to supply the park facilities with electricity from renewable sources. An example is the Ángel González Municipal Public Library, located at one end of the project. Currently, and as detailed the town hall, the thermal installation compose of a 285 kW boiler and a 220 kW chiller. In their place, two 150 kW heat pumps will be installed and will employ low temperature geothermal energy to create a water circuit tempered at a constant 25 degrees. It is a form of renewable energy that takes advantage of the constant heat of the shallow subsoil to air condition buildings and produce hot water. Undertaking work to switch to low-temperature geothermal is a complex and expensive process, but on the scale of the A5 underground, it makes a lot of sense. In this way, a pump will exchange heat with the ground to extract ground temperature in winter and, in summer, transfer heat from the building to the subsoil and, thus, cool the library. All this without local combustion. Mountains in the capital. And since we’re talking about renewables and reusing, it’s curious what they will do with some of the land they are excavating. Instead of having to manage it as waste, in part of the walk will be created three artificial hills. It is a good way to take advantage of surplus land, but it will also have a useful function. They will house thousands of trees that must be relocated due to current works, but, in addition, each of the hills will have a purpose. One will be a park with picnic areas and biodiversity areas, another will house a skatepark and another will become a viewpoint. Let them finish now…That is the feeling of the neighbors who have been enduring headaches from noisebut also an urban ‘Mario Kart’. Because it is very good to undertake works that use renewable energy to solve specific problems, but it is normal that there are those who are choking on these works. In the end, it is not easy to cut one of the access arteries to the city for almost two years to bury 3.2 kilometers of a highway on which 80,000 vehicles circulate a day. There is less left until the end of 2026… Images | MadridMadrid City Council In Xataka | Madrid wants to put 110,000 tons of weight on the M-30. And the challenge is not technical: it is not to collapse the road

If the question is whether they forgot the elevator shaft in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain, the answer is simple: it was much worse

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For many years, the Mediterranean horizon was the canvas on which Spain projected its most audacious ambitions, including some extremely difficult to catalog. In times of prosperity, the sky seemed limitless. Then, each silhouette in height began to count a different story about risk, pride and collective memory. The vertical dream born of euphoria. He Intempo building started to get up in 2006at the exact moment when credit was flowing without brakes and Benidorm continued to feed its obsession with growing towards the sky as if there were no tomorrow. We are talking about two tower-shaped monsters of almost 200 meters joined by a golden diamond, a hyperbolic architecture that promised mark an era and become the new icon of the Mediterranean “Beniyork”. The project was born with generous financing from a Galician box and with a ridiculous social capital compared to the magnitude of the work, a disproportion (and a nonsense) that today sums up better than anything the climate of that Spain that believed that the cranes would never stop turning. From the symbol of the future to the monument to the bubble. But the crisis of 2008 changed the script suddenly. The loan skyrocketed above 100 million, the financial institution went bankrupt and the debt ended in hands of the Sarebthe bad bank. The works were paralyzed, the developer entered into internal conflict and the building was left with its structure practically finished but trapped in a legal and financial limbo. For years, his shadow threatened to add to that long list of phantom monsters, in fact, it was the golden skeleton that dominated the Poniente beach, a mass visible for kilometers that summarized the collapse of a model economical based on brick and easy financing. The reality was worse than the myth. Then came the stories and legends, one turned into a meme and repeated a hundred times even in media reference. It happens that, it is not that in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain they forgot the elevator shaft, it is that the reality it was much worse. The work accumulated erratic decisions, changes in construction, salary delays, serious accidents and chaotic management in which floors were concreted without having definitive plans for the upper ones. The project was at 93% with 100% of the loan consumed, there was physical risk due to the deterioration of the structure and a bankruptcy of creditors that left the fate of the giant in the hands of judicial administrators and investment funds. The problem was not a cartoonish technical detail, but rather a chain of incompetence, financial strain and poor planning that jeopardized the building’s entire viability. The elevator hoax that went around the world. Impossible to ignore it. The story that the architects “forgot the elevator shaft” was born of an ambiguous phrase and it became the perfect headline summer 2013. The image was irresistible: a skyscraper of almost 200 meters incapable of climbing its own neighbors. However, elevators existed, of course, and They worked and were planned in the plans. The photographs and subsequent media visits clearly demonstrated. It didn’t matter, the hoax was amplified in international media that they added layers fiction, from cables that didn’t fit to impossible redesigns. That anecdote overshadowed what was truly relevant: the problem was never technical, it was structural in business and financial terms. Rescue, redesign and change of owners. Years passed, and the bad bank promoted the necessary competition to prevent the tower from deteriorating and facilitated liquidity to complete the work. Later, an investment fund acquired the assetremodeled interiors that had become obsolete and corrected questionable decisions, such as hideous finishes that obscured the homes or layouts that did not take advantage of the sea views. Finally, the top diamond was reconfigured to offer more attractive apartments and the complex was relaunched, now as a luxury residential with thousands of square meters of common areas, hotel services and international marketing. From ghost to icon. Thus, and after more than a decade of delays, the Intempo residential skyscraper finally opened its doors and began to hand out the keys to his first clients. In total, 256 homes, 11 elevatorscomplete technical plants and a structure that rested on piles designed to support both towers. From that moment on, the colossus stopped being a simple media skeleton and became a building with neighbors and real activity. Its golden silhouette left behind the stories to keep you awake, it no longer represented only the bubble and failure, but also the resilience of a city that had made verticality its hallmark. That is why it is worth saying it once again: Intempo was not the skyscraper that forgot the elevator, it was the skyscraper that survived its own time. Image | Enrique Domingo, Diego Delso, Tim Rawle In Xataka | Matalascañas is an example of a major architectural failure: thinking that the beach of your childhood was going to be how you remember it. In Xataka | Parking lots were the goose that laid the golden eggs for bricks in Spain. Until someone created the tomb of Las Teresitas

If the question is how much money Ryanair can ask you for for messing up on a flight, the answer is: a lot.

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Making a mess on a plane is expensive, very expensive. At the beginning of the week, Ryanair fined one of its passengers a fine of 15,000 euros as compensation for damages and losses on a flight. The decision comes at the hands of the Dublin Court, and although the amount is one of the highest in recent years, it is far from being an exception. what has happened. According to Ryanair in his statementone of its passengers forced the plane he was traveling on to divert to Porto, after attacking passengers and crew on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote. No specific details about the attack itself have emerged, but the Dublin Court has imposed a penalty of 15,000 in damages on the accused. The lawsuit was filed in January 2025, Ryanair is not fooling around. In this case, it was Dublin that imposed the amount of the penalty, but the airline has a rigid policy of sanctions for non-exemplary passengers. In June 2025, the company warned about fixed fines of 500 euros for any passenger expelled for misconduct before the flight. In the event that the flight has already started and results in a forced diversion, the policy is clear: legal persecution. It is not the first fine very high. Ryanair has been able to ban passengers for five years and obtain compensation for damages due to value of 3,000 euros on recent Berlin-Marrakech flights. He also managed to get sanctioned 2,000 euros to a passenger who decided to smoke on the plane. The measure fits within the framework of a company with a clear policy: squeeze every penny out of each clientwith a solid margin thanks to its aggressive strategies. The finer, fined. Ryanair has just received one of the highest fines in recent years (not the largest, estimated at more than 100,000 dollars and a lifetime ban by Jet2), but it is also the one that has the record of having suffered the highest fine to an airline by the Government of Spain. A profitable business model, focused on squeezing every penny from its passengers, and a clear policy regarding inappropriate behavior: pay. In Xataka | Spain and Ryanair are in a legal battle over the charge for hand luggage. Ryanair’s best ally: Europe

The answer was at the Torrejón Air Base

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An unexpected roar altered the nocturnal silence of Alcalá de Henares on the nights of February 9 and 10 and opened a small enigma among those who heard it. Without a clear cause at that first moment, the noise began to be commented on social networksaccompanied by recordings of neighbors trying to find an explanation. That initial confusion marked the starting point of a story that, as the hours passed, began to receive answers from the institutional level. The official explanation. The uncertainty began to dissipate when the Consistory announced that He had contacted the Torrejón de Ardoz Air Base to clarify the origin of the noise. According to municipal sources after that consultation, this came from fuel tests carried out on an airplane. Eurofighter on the ground, motionless on the track during the test. Why outdoors and at night? The explanation also goes through the place and time chosen for the rehearsals. According to the Air and Space Armythe measurements require the absence of solar radiation so as not to alter the infrared records, which is why they are carried out at night. At the same time, the tests are carried out outdoors, since the hangars available for engine tests are not sized for this model and this type of tests. With these conditions, it is coherent that its perception reached areas close to the base in certain circumstances. The objective of the tests. Beyond the acoustic episode, the checks pursue a specific technical purpose: to evaluate whether the SAF biofuel has an infrared signature lower than that of the conventional fuel commonly used. This test is part of a verification campaign developed throughout the week, which is influenced by both the measurement procedure and the environmental conditions. looking back. The Air and Space Army has been developing the BACSI project since 2020aimed at combining energy sustainability and operational digitalization within its air bases. Within this framework, different milestones have occurred, from the first tests with biojet mixtures in 2022 to the presentation of results at FEINDEF 2023 and the supersonic flights with SAF carried out in 2024, with fuel produced in Spain by Repsol and mixed at 30% with conventional fuel. One more test. The last test is scheduled for the night of this Wednesday, February 11. This implies that the noise that surprised many residents could once again be perceived in the area near the base, although this time with an important difference: we now know where it comes from. What was a shared mystery for two nights is thus transformed into a concrete explanation, also linked to a technical process that points towards more sustainable fuels within military aviation. Images | Air Force In Xataka | France and Germany have agreed to give Spain the worst news: one in which the F-35 and its “button” are the winners

We believed Amazon was already spending too much on AI. Your answer to Wall Street: spend even more

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The honeymoon between AI and Wall Street is over. Amazon knows this very well, having just received that dreaded “we have to talk” message from investors with a drop of more than 10% in its shares yesterday. It seemed that the stock markets rewarded the fact that companies They invested absurd amounts of money in AI. It is just what Amazon announced yesterday, but that strategy has had a totally negative response in the markets. what has happened. Amazon presented yesterday financial results for the last quarter of 2025. Revenue grew by 14% and net profit by 6%, modest figures that were not very popular. But above all, I did not like that Amazon announced that it estimated a capex (capital expenditure) of $200 billion in 2026 in AI. Amazing. Wall Street used to reward, now it punishes. In 2025, that capex was $131 billion, and Amazon is determined to continue betting everything on AI. Before, investors rewarded that audacity. Now they are punishing her: the shares plummeted 11% “after hours“, and it will be today when those actions start with that reflected fall. We want return on investment. That market reaction is not an isolated event. Amazon’s fall comes just hours after Microsoft or Google suffered similar falls. The market before valued the potential of AIbut now he demands return on investment more than ever and has become impatient. Big Tech had operated with a blank check, but when revenue forecasts fall short of estimates, optimism evaporates. Income grows, yes, but not that much. The real problem is the imbalance between capex and revenue growth. AWS grew a spectacular 24% in revenue, but spending is growing at an even greater rate. Google, Amazon and Microsoft are trapped in a kind of infrastructure “arms race”: the first one to stop spending loses, and that is a big problem. He who does not risk, does not gain. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy explained that “this is an extraordinarily rare opportunity to forever change the size of AWS and Amazon as a whole. (…) We are going to invest aggressively to be the leaders.” It is a speech identical to that Mark Zuckerberg said a few months ago when he said he was willing to lose hundreds of billions on AI: not investing them would be worse for Meta. But Amazon is much more than AI. There is another disturbing element in this huge bet by Amazon. The reality is that the company has many expensive fronts. From the Kuiper satellite network to compete with Starlink to the robotization of its Whole Foods logistics and other areas. When adding AI to the equation, the math doesn’t seem to work out. Optimism ends. Historically, large technology companies have taken advantage of the optimism of the market and investors to justify spending forecasts completely unrelated to their income. In 2026, with the macroeconomic situation of “we no longer like risk” —tell it to bitcoin— and the pressure for profitability, “free optimism” has disappeared. If you are going to spend like crazy, you have to raise like crazy too. Amazon is doing well, AI is not. This total commitment to AI is preventing us from seeing that the rest of Amazon’s businesses are doing very well. Online sales grew by 10% and advertising grew by a notable 23%. E-commerce, the cornerstone on which Amazon was built and operates, is funding the AI ​​party, but it is turning into a bottomless pit. Like Qatar’s GDP. According to the world bankQatar’s GDP in 2024 was $219 billion. That Amazon invests almost the same in AI data centers alone is dizzying. It is the same thing that we said yesterday about Google, which also projected a capex of 135 billion dollars by 2026. The figures are no longer dizzying: they are crazy. Beware, obsolescence. And all that investment can end up wasted, especially because there is an implicit risk in the data centers that are built: in three or five years they could become obsolete if the architecture of AI chips changes radically. It is bread for today, and hunger for tomorrow… without counting the energy factor or the water consumption. Xataka | While Silicon Valley seeks electricity, China subsidizes it: this is how it wants to win the AI ​​war

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