brutal

The brutal crisis of ViñaRock in one year is explained in an empty venue

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The ViñaRock audience debacle is no longer a secret: the clear highlight of the edition, the Sex Pistols (or the group that today bears that name, without the band’s classic vocalist, Johnny Rotten, at the helm), played in front of around 100,000 people. A year earlier, the same event had brought together 240,000 attendees. ViñaRock is the main victim of the crisis unleashed by the financing of several Spanish festivals by Israeli investment funds. The vindication, part of its DNA. ViñaRock was born in Villarrobledo in 1996 with a very specific profile: combative rock, affordable prices and alternative spirit. This differentiated it from other macro events and also favored the approach of the public and bands with very explicit political positions leaning to the left. It did not take long for it to grow until it became one of the main festivals in Spain under the motto ‘Neither God, nor country, nor king’, becoming the largest of its kind. In 2025 it brought together 240,000 people and generated 22 million euros economic impact in the region. The numbers of 2026. The public number of attendees was 100,000 in three days, less than half that in 2025. The organization presented it as a relative successalthough the economic impact falls: of the 22 million generated in 2025, around 11 million will remain. To compensate for the lower external influx, the festival allowed access by the residents of Villarrobledo through its registration program, a formula that for years reserve tickets at starting price for residents of the municipality before the general sale. In the 2026 edition, this preferential access had more weight than ever, and the result was something that in networks It has been closer to the classic image of a patron saint festival, more than a classic rock festival. How it started. In May 2025. El Salto published an investigationrevealing that Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), an American venture capital fund, had acquired in 2024 the promoter Superstruct Entertainment for around 1,400 million euros. Superstruct manages nearly 80 festivals around the world and, in Spain, it has more than twenty events under its umbrella, such as Sónar, Arenal Sound, FIB, Resurrection Fest, O Son do Camiño, Monegros Desert Festival or ViñaRock. The crisis came when it became known that KKR maintains positions in Israeli cybersecurity companiesis the main investor of the German media group Axel Springer (which has real estate activity in occupied Palestinian territoriessomething contrary to international law) and its president for the Middle East moved in May 2025 to the Civil-Military Coordination Center run by US army officials in Israel. For many regular bands on the circuit, it was a very difficult issue to ignore. Cancellations begin. The rap-metal group Sons of Aguirre & Scila was among the first to formalize the boycott: in a statement announced that he would not participate in any festival in the KKR orbit again until the owners changed. They were soon joined by Fermín Muguruza, Los de Marras, Sinkope, No Konforme, Residente, Judeline and Samantha Hudson, among others. The ViñaRock tried to do damage controlreaffirming their artistic independence, condemning the situation in Palestine and announcing legal action against what they considered a smear campaign. New poster. In February 2026 It was made public that the festival had been acquired by Orange Alive, and an attempt was made to rebuild the 2026 edition practically from scratch. It didn’t help much, because that same month it was made public that They were still linked to Superconstruct. The poster featured groups such as the Sex Pistols with Frank Carter, Turbonegro, Skindred, Celtas Cortos, Medina Azahara, Kiko Veneno and Barón Rojo. The tickets started at 39.99 euros, notably lower than previous editions, and the videos on social networks left images of the events for posterity. half empty stages. He’s not the only one. The ViñaRock crisis is far from being the only one: the concentration of festivals in the hands of large financial groups is a consolidated trend in the live entertainment industry. Other festivals in the Superstruct orbit may face similar reactions from the public and groups, although Resurrection Fest, similar in nature to ViñaRock, broke attendance record shortly after the controversy broke out. Quite possibly, ViñaRock has been affected by both the boycott and the little time it had to restructure its lineup after the defections. Header | Vinarock In Xataka | If your favorite band has left Spotify, don’t be surprised: they are boycotting their CEO’s warring investments

In 1944, the Nazi occupation of Holland caused a brutal famine. And thanks to her we discovered celiac disease

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The history of wheat is the history of civilization. To be more precise, this cereal is linked to the change from Paleolithic to Neolithic societies, the first complex societies, in 8,500 BC. C. The flowering of our species came thanks to its golden seeds. We had to wait almost 10,000 years to verify that this manna, which for many is synonymous with life, for some of us, is synonymous with death. And, in part, We have the Nazis to thank.. We are in Holland in 1944, in the throes of World War II, and the Wermachtwhich has occupied the country, is fed up with the sporadic rebellions of its native population. The railroad strike carried out by the drivers was reason enough to implement an embargo on food transportation to the northern areas. Survivors interviewed half a century later mentioned how the Hongerwinter or “hunger winter” still sparked flashes of anguish in their minds. According to reports from the time, in areas such as Amsterdam or Rotterdam the shortage caused rationing of 580 kilocalories per adult per day. Faced with this situation, and when a crust of bread could be more precious than the family watch, the Dutch began to eat anything. Your tulips also fell into that category.which in addition to being disgusting and having a negligible energy value, were a food source highly discouraged by doctors, since its toxicity was very high. Would the tulip diet be the beginning of poisoning and indigestion for the population? Yes for the majority, but not for one notable group: the patients at the Juliana Children’s Hospital in The Hague. Discovering celiac disease A child during Hongerwinter. Willem Karel Dicke, a pediatrician, had been investigating these “malnutrition” problems that mysteriously attacked the little ones for some time. In the 1940s, the world average Infant mortality for children under five years old was 15%so, although it was a misfortune, the population was more used to losing children than we are now. Many parents would not have the time or the resources to investigate what caused their children’s weakness, nor would they have the considerations to experiment with their diet, much less if that meant removing the most widespread, convenient and cheap product of all, bread. Although some, the richest, could afford it. For them, the theory of intransigence towards complex nutrients ran at that time, which led to the popularization of the so-called “banana diet”. A regimen that worked, given that this fruit does not contain gluten, but with which adverse effects reappeared in the subjects in their adulthood, as soon as they returned to eating wheat derivatives. As any celiac or person who has lived with one knows, the ubiquity of this product in our pantries is scandalous. Pediatrician Willem Karel Dicke with one of his patients. But in the Netherlands of 1944 there were no bananas. Because there wasn’t there was practically nothing. And yet, despite the lower caloric intake in which society was imbued and the toxic effects of tulips, a good percentage of the children in his hospital felt better than months before. While people were dying in the streets, some children saw how their limbs were getting fatter, their bellies were deflating, and their skin was glowing. If before that episode one in three children with suspected celiac disease died at that time in the Netherlands, the winter of hunger meant that that percentage would fall to zero. What came next is the mere work of field observation. Dicke spent the next few years testing on selected patients. different cerealsmeasuring the weight, growth, general health of the subjects as well as the levels of fat absorption from their feces. By 1950 he was able to publish his findings, which had determined that the cause of “celiac symptoms” came from wheat and rye flour. And no, it had nothing to do with complex nutrients, as had been assumed until then. “Koiliakos,” that mysterious condition that humans had identified in some children since Ancient Greek times and that intrigued pediatricians for millennia, finally had a name and diagnosis. His research earned him a candidacy for Nobel Prize in 1962, but died weeks before the ceremony could take place. Since it is an award that is not offered posthumously, Dr. Dicke missed his chance to go down in the history books in this way. Celiac disease continues to be one of the conditions with the most complex diagnosis, since it is confused with other types of digestive pathologies and its effects manifest in the strangest ways. Without going any further, neurogluten studies How gluten intolerance is behind autism, Parkinson’s or depression. We also do not know how many people suffer from it, and although its existence was known in the 1950s, its diagnosis rate may continue to be lower than the real rate. Today in developed countries there is talk of between 1 and 2% of people with celiac disease and recent epidemiological studies suggest that the disease is possibly ten times more common than it is diagnosed. The percentage of celiacs continues to grow at 15% every year. In Xataka | When the Black Death devastated the continent, Europe became obsessed with a reflex action of the body: sneezing. In Xataka | What we see in Petra is a city “carved in stone”: what it really hides is an amazing water system

the brutal ESA image that summarizes the geological violence of Mars in a single photo

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The noticeable changes in the mars landscape They are very slow. It is estimated that they may take up to millions of years to occur, as it is considered a fairly static planet in that regard. However, scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) have detected a change that occurred much more quickly. So much so that humans of the same generation have been conscious. From Viking to Mars Express. The High Resolution Stereoscopic Camera (HRSC) The Mars Express has taken some images that have caught the attention of the ESA scientists in charge of analyzing them. In them you can see a large area covered in ashes. These ashes already appeared in other photos taken by NASA’s Viking orbiters in 1976. However, there were much fewer of them then. It is surprising how much they have proliferated in just 50 years. volcanic origin. The origin of these ashes is quite clear. The volcanic material is known to be rich in ‘mafic’ minerals, which form at high temperatures. Olivine and pyroxene are two good examples. These minerals have a dark appearance, very similar to the ashes that appear in the photos. Therefore, it must have a volcanic origin. In addition, Mars is characterized by having great volcanic activity and by hosting the largest volcano in the Solar System: Olympic Mons. All clues lead to the volcanic origin. The wind spread or uncovered them. What is not so clear is how so many ashes have appeared in such a short time. ESA researchers believe it must be because of the wind. It may be that the Martian winds moved them, spreading them over a wider space, or that they uncovered them. Perhaps they were already there, but the wind moved the ocher dust characteristic of the surface of Mars that would be covering them. Comparison of Viking (left) and Mars Express (right) images A crater among the ashes. Something curious about the photo is that in it you can see many signs of the changes that the Martian surface has experienced over time. On the one hand, we see the aforementioned ashes. And, on the other, the 15 kilometer wide crater that appears in the photo between them. This is surrounded by a striking ring of apparently lighter material, known as an ‘ejector blanket’. It is a structure that is formed from the material thrown by the impact that formed the crater itself. In the photo you can also see some wavy lines inside the crater that mark where the icy material known to be under Mars has been spreading. Changes and more changes. This photograph, which in turn is located in an impact basin called Utopia Planitia, is the living image of how the Martian surface has been modified by impacts, volcanoes and ice that tries to escape between the cracks. Now, at least, we know that not all of these changes are as slow as we thought. Some occur in the blink of a spatial eye. Images | THAT In Xataka | In 2011, a collector bought a meteorite in Morocco. It has turned out to be direct evidence of thermal water on Mars

TSMC and SK Hynix are suffocating Samsung. To defend itself, it is already preparing a brutal weapon: 1 nm chips

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Samsung Electronics has two major competitors in the semiconductor industry: TSMC and SK Hynix. The Taiwanese company TSMC leads the market for manufacturing integrated circuits for third parties with a share close to 70%, according to the consulting firm. TrendForce. Samsung is the second largest chip producer for third parties, although with a market share of 7.2% It is positioned very far from the leader of this industry. And the Chinese company SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) is hot on his heels in third position with a share of 5.32%. Samsung’s other big business is memory chips. In this market it competes with the American company Micron Technology, but its biggest rival is the also South Korean company SK Hynix. In recent years, Samsung has led the DRAM memory integrated circuit manufacturing market with an approximate 40% share, while SK Hynix defended a very worthy 29%. Behind both was Micron Technology, with 26% approximately. However, during the first quarter of 2025 a very important setback occurred. SK Hynix controls none other than 70% of the market of HBM memory ICs (High Bandwidth Memory), so its leadership in this sector is overwhelming. If we look at the DRAM memory chips the figures are much more even, although SK Hynix also leads. TSMC and SK Hynix. SK Hynix and TSMC. These two competitors are two big headaches for Samsung, but the latter company seems unwilling to throw in the towel. Samsung plans to have its 1nm photolithography ready in 2030 In February 2025 the Taiwan Economic Daily published a report in which he assured that TSMC plans to develop a cutting-edge semiconductor plant that will be expressly designed to produce 1nm chips. It will be housed in the Taiwanese town of Tainan, and will be called ‘Fab 25’. It will work with 12-inch wafers, have six production lines and will begin large-scale manufacturing in 2030. It may seem like there is still a lot of time, but that is not the case. In fact, according to the newspaper Korea Economic DailySamsung is making efforts to step on the heels of TSMC. And, incidentally, surpass SK Hynix. Samsung’s future 1nm production lines will benefit from the refinements that the company is going to introduce to its 2nm nodes And Samsung engineers have already been working on their 1 nm photolithography for many months with the aim of concluding the research and development phase in 2030 to be able to start mass manufacturing in 2031. There is a lot at stakebut the development of this technology is by no means a piece of cake. In fact, this company is currently trying to optimize the performance of its 2nm nodes because its Exynos 2600 processor in smartphones Galaxy S26 and S26+ suffers when we compare its performance and energy efficiency with those of comparable chips manufactured by TSMC in its 3nm nodes. Be that as it may, Samsung’s future 1nm semiconductor production lines will benefit from the refinements that this company is going to introduce in its 2nm nodes. And, above all, they will take advantage of Fork Sheet technology with which its engineers seek to leave behind the limitations of Gate-All-Around technology (GAA). Fork Sheet It will allow them, roughly speaking, to dramatically optimize the space on 1nm chips by adding a non-conductive element between the transistors with one purpose: to eliminate empty spaces and pack a higher density of transistors on the same surface. It sounds really good. We will tell you more as soon as we have detailed information about this innovation. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Korea Economic Daily In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

Stanley Kubrick’s brutal trick to film one of the most terrifying scenes in ‘A Clockwork Orange’: making it real

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In the 70s, the world of cinema experienced a period in which some directors pursued realism in ways that are unthinkable today: scenes were filmed without doubles, with extreme practical effects and with days that dozens could be repeated (or even more than a hundred) times until the desired result is achieved. That obsession with authenticity left unrepeatable moments… and also stories that are difficult to believe today. Real pain. At that time in history, the sector was going through a period of radical experimentation where some directors were willing to take its actors to the limit in order to capture something authentic on the screen. In that context, one of the most disturbing scenes of modern cinema, a sequence that not only sought to make the viewer uncomfortable, but ended up transferring that suffering directly to the body of the leading actor. Thus, what should be a representation of control and violence ended up becoming a extreme physical experience that would forever mark the person who played it. Along the way, he would extend the legend of a director: Stanley Kubrick. When perfectionism is risk. Stanley Kubrick was already known for his obsession with detail, but in this case he crossed an extremely dangerous line. As? Instead of simulating the most famous scene of Clockwork Orangedecided to make it as real as possible: the devices that kept Alex’s character’s eyes open They were not propsand the medical procedure wasn’t a cinematic illusion either. In other words, the search for absolute authenticity led to a situation in which actor Malcolm McDowell’s security was compromised. in the background compared to the final image, reflecting a way of directing where the result justified practically any means. The impossible scene: hours of open eyes. Yes, McDowell was literally tied to a chair with his eyelids forced to remain open while he watched violent images during long days of filming, exactly as happened to the character he played. a real doctorin charge of keeping his eyes hydrated, had to constantly apply drops to avoid irreversible damage. However, the situation became complicated when that same doctor received instructions to act on the scenedividing his attention between his medical function and his improvised role. The result was a disastrous environment where control was diluted just when it was needed most. An avoidable injury. The failure was as simple as it was disturbing: while the instruments kept the actor’s eyes open, the eyelids began to slide out of their position. directly scrape the cornea. Plus: under anesthesia, the actor could not feel the damage at that moment, which made the situation even more dangerous. When the effect wore off, the pain was immediate and extremeto the point of requiring urgent treatment with morphine. The most shocking thing was not the injury itself, that too, but its character completely avoidable: it was enough that the doctor had been focused on his role or that the scene had been filmed with simulated effects. The price of perfection. Far from stopping, filming continued. The director, dissatisfied with some plans, demanded to repeat the sceneforcing the actor to once again face an experience that he already knew was painful. That decision turned an accident into a conscious process of sufferingone where the anticipation of pain was as harsh as the physical damage itself. In short, if the scene that the viewer perceives was uncomfortable, it was because, to a large extent, he was not alone in front of a sublime performance (which also, of course), he was in front of a real reaction in an extreme situation. Kubrick and his actors. The truth is that the episode was not an exception, but part of a pattern. Kubrick’s method was based on countless occasions in repeating takes until the actor’s emotional defenses are broken and more authentic reactions are obtained, as also happened in another case famous with actress Shelley Duvall in The Shining. His way of working has been celebrated for the results, but also questioned for the human cost which it implied. In this case, the line between demanding management and unnecessary risk became especially blurred. The final paradox. For years, McDowell himself came to resent the film for what it had cost him, physically and emotionally. Over time, however, ended up accepting that had been part of an unrepeatable work. The great irony here is that one of the most iconic scenes in modern cinema owes part of its force to a suffering that should never have happened. If you will, it is also an uncomfortable reminder that, sometimes, behind cinematic perfection there is not only talent, but also errorsrisks and decisions that today would be difficult to justify. Image | Warner In Xataka | The wildest race on the Olympic tracks in Cortina was in 1981. A man launched himself dodging bullets and assassins on a motorcycle In Xataka | One of the best comedies in history turned this simple scene into the most expensive. 9/11 and a highway were to blame

We had a perfect plan to decarbonize the electrical grid. The brutal consumption of data centers has dynamited it

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The daily headlines multi-million dollar investments announced in new language models and cutting-edge chips. Venture capital investors have pumped more than half a billion dollars into AI startups over the last five years. But, as a revealing analysis warns of TechCrunchthe smart money has begun to change sides: today, the best investment in Artificial Intelligence is no longer software. The reality on the ground has become extremely arid. Putting up walls and stacking servers in a giant data center has become the easy part of the equation. The real wall the tech sector is crashing into is finding the electrons needed to power it. According to a report by the analysis firm Sightline Climateup to 50% of data center projects announced for 2026 could face delays. Of the 190 gigawatts (GW) of capacity the company tracks globally, just 5 GW are under actual construction today. The bottleneck is no longer the microchips. It is access to the electrical network. The tyranny of 24/7. Consumption has run amok at a pace that 20th century infrastructure cannot process. A Goldman Sachs analysis projects that AI will shoot energy consumption of data centers by 175% by 2030. The figures all point in the same direction: the Open Energy Outlook predicts that electricity demand combined data centers and crypto mining will grow by 350% this decade. As a result, the pristine image of the technological cloud is evaporating. Google’s emissions have increased by 48% in the last five years, and Microsoft’s by 31% since 2020. The reason? What is known in the industry as the “tyranny of 24/7”. The algorithms do not sleep and require a continuous and steady power supply; They cannot be turned off simply because the wind stops blowing or the sun sets. Given the lack of mass storage systems globally, the fuel that is covering this urgent gap is not green. It is natural gas, which has returned from retirement as the great structural support of the sector. A global collapse with two faces. The pressure has already broken the market balances. In the PJM region—which supplies 13 eastern US states and has the highest density of data centers in the world—capacity prices went from $30 to $270 in a single auction at the end of last year. As John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, noted, we are facing a “golden era of energy demand”, but with an insurmountable physical limit: “the new electrons cannot reach the network quickly enough.” This electrical asphyxiation is redrawing the global map, and Europe is the best example. Historically, the European market was dominated by the “FLAP-D” markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin). But the network of these cities is no longer going strong. According to data from Greenpeacedata centers accounted for almost 80% of electricity consumption in Dublin, forcing Ireland to impose a moratorium. The market share of these traditional capitals will fall sharply by 2035causing a mass exodus to the Nordic countries (with unburdened networks and cold climates) and to southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece and Italy, in search of green megawatts. The hardware and network problem. When we scratch beneath the surface of this collapse, we discover that the physical problem splits into two large gaps. First, the machine to generate the energy is missing. Since intermittent renewables are not enough, companies turn to gas. However, gas turbines have become a rare commodity. Three years ago, Siemens Energy executives considered this market “dead”; Today, the factories are so overwhelmed that the delivery times for these turbines can extend up to seven years. Second, the “plumbing” is missing. Once the electricity is generated, the task of taming it within the building falls to the transformers. It is an iron and copper block technology that has barely changed in 140 years. As explained TechCrunchAs servers demand more power, traditional electrical equipment will take up twice as much space as the servers themselves. It is mathematically unsustainable. ‘Smart Money’ changes sides. Against this backdrop, venture capital is pivoting. Big tech companies (Amazon, Google, Oracle) are starting to behave like energy giants, devising alternatives to minimize their dependence on an outdated public grid through hybrid or generation approaches. on site. The solutions are divided into several fronts: The nuclear resurgence: Google has signed a pioneering agreement with Kairos Power to develop seven small modular reactors (SMR) by 2030, and Amazon tried (although regulators temporarily blocked it) connecting a data center directly to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Super batteries: Google is collaborating in Minnesota with the company Xcel Energy and the startup Form Energy to install batteries capable of discharging energy for 100 hours, thus stabilizing the peaks of renewables. Hardware innovation: Dozens of startups (such as Amperesand or DG Matrix) backed by investment funds are developing silicon-based “solid state” transformers, seeking to finally retire old iron and copper to save vital space in facilities. Regulatory surgery: In southern Europe, organizations such as the CNMC in Spain are applying “flexible access permits”, forcing centers to accept cuts in emergencies so as not to collapse the entire country. The paradox: AI as savior of the electrical system. However, the story has a fascinating twist. The same technology that today threatens to burn the cables of half the world could be the one that ends up saving the electrical system. According to the consultant’s estimates Deloittethe application of artificial intelligence to optimize industrial systems and electrical networks will save more than 3,700 TWh globally by 2030. That is, AI will save almost four times the energy consumed by all the data centers on the planet combined. A report of Ember over Southeast Asia (ASEAN) support thiscalculating that integrating AI into the management of its networks will save more than 67 billion dollars and avoid the emission of almost 400 million tons of CO2. But to get to that future of efficiency, you first have to turn on the machines today. And what is at stake is the world economic map. Hosting these centers is … Read more

This is how the most brutal engineering work in urban history was born

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London Underground, known in our language as the London Undergroundis one of the most famous public transportation networks in the world. With more than 543 units, 408 kilometers long and 274 stations, this precious piece of the United Kingdom capital is capable of handling up to five million passengers a day. Now, this service did not become what it is today overnight. London Underground has a fascinating history, a history that, by the way, began more than 160 years ago with a completely innovative project for the time: the construction of an underground railway. Let’s go back in time. In the 1830s, London was the largest city in the world. It was a rapidly growing global economic epicenter that needed to decongest its streetsso the idea arose that trains They will begin to move underground. The problem was that until then nothing similar had been implemented. After many years of being just a proposal on paper, a test tunnel was built in 1855 at Kibblesworth. After this step, which turned out to be a success, work began on the world’s first underground railway, a circuit between Paddington (then Bishop’s Road) and Farringdon that entered service on January 10, 1863. The locomotives ran on steam engines and the carriages were lit with gas. It was basically like putting up a traditional railway system in a closed placewhich translated into inconvenience for passengers, who often had to travel in a polluted environment with high temperatures. In any case, the metropolis continued to grow and there were more and more transportation initiatives with private investment. Therefore, in 1868 the first section of the Metropolitan District Railway was inaugurated. This was a service that ran between South Kensington and Westminster (now part of the District and Circle lines). Electricity reaches trains Both services continued to expand as tunnel construction techniques improved. On December 18, 1890, The City and South London Railway launched the first electric railway. This was a very important advance because it allowed us to solve some of the main drawbacks of the service. In 1905, electrification came to the District and Circle lines, but the London Underground network operated as separate systems. This changed after 1906, when companies began to make their way deep into the city to unify. In all this, the name ‘Underground’ did not yet exist. Artist’s representation of a platform on Baker Street London in 1906 The companies that had come together for the project proposed different names, including ‘Tube,’ ‘Electric,’ and ‘Underground,’ but the latter was the winner. In this way, in 1908 it appeared for the first time the name ‘Underground’ in the seasons, and he did it with the roundel symbol that we know today. The technological progress of the London Underground seemed unstoppable. That same year, electronic ticket-issuing machines arrived and in 1911 the first escalators were installed. In 1929, manually operated doors began to become extinct. These were updated with pneumatic systems. Until this point, the service was operated by the Underground Electric Railways Company of London (UERL). In 1933, however, underground transportation services merged with the railroads and bus services under the London Transport brand, which was overseen by the London Passenger Transport Board. That same year Harry Beck’s map appearedan element intended to guide users. The system had grown so large that some stations were just meters away, while others were kilometers away. It is a cartography that was received with skepticism, but ended up triumphing. Aldwych tube station, in 1940 For the first time, decisions about London’s public transport services were perfectly coordinated. This allowed us to improve the service and outline an ambitious improvement plan. However, the outbreak of World War II in 1939 meant that the plan could not be completed as originally envisioned. The underground transport service was converted into a huge air raid shelter between September 1940 and May 1945. Some stations were also used during the war as a warehouse to keep valuable historical items safe, for example pieces from the British Museum. After the war, in 1948, the London Passenger Transport Board acquired a public role. HE nationalized and became the London Transport Executive, years later being renamed the London Transport Board and operating under the orbit of the Ministry of Transport. The system also suffered several tragedies. In 1975 a train heading south did not stop at the final terminal and crashed at the end of the shift. 43 people died and 74 were injured. In 1987, a fire claimed 31 lives at King’s Cross station. Later, in 2005, an attack on the London transport system It caused 52 people to lose their lives. Nails contactless cards called Oyster They were implemented on the London Underground in 2003, but by 2014 you could already pay directly with contactless bank cards. By 2016, some lines provided evening service on weekends. Currently the service is run by an organization called Transport for London (TfL) which comprehensively manages the city’s state transportation strategy. Images | Joel de Vriend | Nelson Ndongala | Tomas Anton Escobar | Tom Parsons | Will H McMahan | The Graphic (Wikimedia Commons) | John Jackson In Xataka | The unfinished dream of the Roman Empire: a 125-kilometer train to link Europe and Asia over the Bosphorus In Xataka | France has been torpedoing the possibility of AVE reaching Paris for years: Renfe’s plan is now regional ones In Xataka | In 2007, Japan made a cat the station master of a dying train line. Today that line is saved

It costs 700 euros less and is a TV with a brutal 55-inch OLED screen and Ambilight

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When setting up a home theater, if you want to enjoy a quality experience, the ideal is that you should opt for a TV with an OLED panel. It is true that it is the most expensive technology but, sometimes, you can find good offers like this one from PcComponentes. Now you can take this smart tv Philips Ambilight 55OLED820 with a discount of 700 euros, for 999 euros. Philips Ambilight 55OLED820 4K OLED Smart TV The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A TV with a beastly panel and a very competitive price Although the quality of OLED panel of this Philips TV is one of its main claims, for me, the Ambilight It’s what catches my attention the most. I am a staunch fan of this immersive lighting system from Philips as it allows you to enjoy a totally immersive experience with LEDs that adapt to the content you are watching on the screen. Its 55-inch size makes it a perfect option for standard-sized rooms. In addition, the image quality is good since it offers 4K UHD resolution and is compatible with Dolby Vision and HDR10+. In the audio section, its four speakers and subwoofer offer a power of 70 W and are compatible with Dolby Atmos. The operating system under which it works is Titan OS and is compatible with Alexa and Google Assistant. When it comes to connectivity, the options are multiple, since it comes with Wi-Fi 6Bluetooth 5.2, Ethernet, four HDMI, two USB 2.0 ports and headphone output. And if what you want is to use the TV to enjoy your console PS5 either Xboxyou will be able to exploit it to the fullest thanks to its 120Hz. Although this does not stop there, since it has HDMI 2.1, VRR, FreeSync Premium, ALLM and G-SYNC. ⚡ IN BRIEF: offer for Philips Ambilight 55OLED820 smart TV today ✅ THE BEST Very top screen: Being OLED, this TV offers a totally realistic viewing experience. It offers deep blacks, realistic colors and great contrast. The Ambilight: If you want to enjoy total immersion when watching series and movies, I can’t help but recommend the Ambilight system on this TV. ❌ THE WORST The operating system: Titan OS is not the most intuitive operating system for TVs on the market; In this, webOS and Google TV beat it. But don’t worry, you can always add an external dongle to enjoy another operating system. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are a lover of series and movies and are looking to set up your own home theater with an OLED TV without spending a fortune. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… If you are only going to watch DTT and do not need to enjoy an immersive experience, since paying 1,000 euros for this TV could be excessive for you. Some accessories that might interest you for this TV Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Plus The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG S40T – Smart Sound Bar, 300W, 2.1 Channels The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Philips In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Mega-guide to set up a home theater: projector, screen, sound system and more

China’s brutal dominance in rare earth production in the last 30 years, in a revealing graph

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There are few strategic natural resources as important as gas, gold or oil, but there is one that is less known and that is decisive in practically any industry and therefore, also in geopolitics: the rare earthwhich are neither earths nor rare (in fact, they are a list of 17 metals). The state that has enough rare earths in its territory and the capacity to extract them will have much to gain to become a power. Well, if you can cough China, the absolute leader in rare earths so much in reserves as in production. A picture is worth a thousand words. But today the power of China is discussed is one thing and another if the Asian giant started by winning the game. Spoiler: no. The United States Geological Survey It has a very complete database where to visualize production by country from 1994 to the present (among other information), but more than a table, it is better seen with images. Thus, at a glance you can see its beastly hegemony in this chart from Visual Capitalist from 1994 to 2024. 30 years of rare earth production. Visual Capitalist An animation still counts more. The Visual Capitalist illustration shows Chinese superiority, but the evolution of rare earth production by country is better seen with an animation showing its meteoric rise because yes, the global rare earth industry has been profoundly transformed in the last 30 years. In just three decades, China has gone from having a 47% quota to almost 70% of the 400,000 metric tons produced today (by the end of 2024). Or what is the same, going from manufacturing 31,000 metric tons to 270,000 metric tons, something that can be seen in this animation by Global Times and Valiant Panda: Tap to see the animation. Production by country of rare earths from 1994 to 2024, Global Times How America Lost Control. It’s worth stopping the animation at the beginning, because in the 90s the United States was the world’s largest producer of rare earths and Mountain Pass was its main plant for obtaining them. Its average extraction was around 20,000 – 22,000 tons. And then, in 1997, came the Mountain Pass environmental disaster: a burst pipe in the eponymous mine that contaminated the Movaje Desert with toxic radioactive waste. Between the disaster and the subsequent lawsuits, production suddenly fell to 5,000 tons between 1998 and 2002. It would then fall to 0 in the 2000s. It would be in the 2010s when it began to recover: now the United States is around 46,000 metric tons. As Rocío Jurado sang, now it’s too late, lady: it was also in the 90s when China went into steamroller mode. The unstoppable rise of China. That China has come to dominate world production hides several keys. The first, the ability of its suppliers to offer lower prices Thanks to state aid, laxer environmental standards and cheaper labor made possible costs that the West could not cope with. China had the resources, but its victory came because it was able to build an entire industry while the rest of the world watched. Producing the raw mineral is only the first step, then it must be separated to achieve a high degree of purity (between 95 and 99%, depending on the application) in a complex, expensive hydrometallurgical process that, as we have seen, leaves radioactive waste along the way. Where it still dominates more: refining. Because although China has a share of almost 70% of world production, its dominance is even more overwhelming in refining: it produces around 90% of world refining. In fact, other countries such as Australia or the United States extract minerals, they turn to China for refining. If there is no refining industry at the level of extraction, there is no sovereignty. Other faces. Trump wants to step on the accelerator of national mining and expedite permits, the EU also seeks its strategic sovereignty with laws such as the Critical Raw Materials law and its application in places like Per Geijer’s Swedish megamine. We have already talked about Australia, which at least until this year It will depend on China for refining those 16,000 metric tons that have been around in recent years, but there are other countries that have joined the race. But while the Global Times animation focuses on great powers, the Visual Capitalist graph reveals new players in the industry such as Myanmar, Thailand or Nigeria, especially focused on more scarce and valuable elements. However, their supply chains are unstable and have their own regulatory and geopolitical risks. In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country In Xataka | Europe seeks its sovereignty in rare earths and knows how to achieve it the fast way: with a supermine in Sweden

The most brutal rains in the history of Andalusia have already ended. Now the real problems begin

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The storm Leonardo little by little begins to fade from the maps, leaving in its wake mainly alerts for strong gusts of wind in certain regions of Andalusia. The problem is that its footprint on the ground is just beginning to show its true dimension, since the main danger is that even if rainfall begins to decrease, the water continues to rise in the rivers. And this gives rise to the feared floods that are already has caused numerous evictions. Extreme saturation. To understand why authorities and the AEMET maintain the emergency level 2 and red warnings despite lulls in rainfall, we have to look under our feet. The soil functions, under normal conditions, like a sponge capable of retaining large volumes of water. However, after weeks of constant rainfall, Andalusia has reached its saturation point. In this way, the land does not support any more water, which increases the runoff coefficient throughout the territory. This means that each new liter that falls, no matter how small, will barely filter through the ground. The result is that it will run on the surface, turning slopes and mountains into giant slides towards the rivers. Increase of the channel. This is the reason why 14 rivers are under red notice today and another 31 under orange. Rivers such as the Guadalete, the Genil, the Guadiaro and the Guadalhorce They are not just responding to today’s rain.but to the inability of the basin to drain what has accumulated in the last 48 hours. We have an example in Huétor Tájar in Granadawhere the Genil River overflowed, making the entire town become a large lake. And this is the main risk we face despite the fact that rainfall is beginning to reduce its intensity. The reservoirs. The other major front of this crisis is hydraulic engineering. The reservoirs act as buffers during floodsretaining the water to prevent it from devastating the towns downstream. But Leonardo has managed to finish filling these reservoirs to their maximum limits. This has forced us to initiate technical releases with increasing amounts of water to avoid breakages or uncontrolled overflows of the dams. The problem is that doing so injects more flow into rivers that are already at the limit of their capacity, keeping towns like Ubrique or the lower areas of the Guadalquivir in suspense. Sierra Nevada. Gravity in the Genil basin is not based solely on precipitation, but on thermodynamics. Leonardo is not a cold storm of polar origin, but rather an Atlantic storm loaded with humidity that is causing snow accumulated in previous weeks melts at a high speed. The result here is clear: a greater flow in the rivers that drain the Sierra that joins all the factors that we have mentioned before. Landslides. For the next few hours, in addition to the increase in the riverbed, we must also keep in mind the risk of hillslide. In these cases, water saturation increases the weight of the soil and reduces its internal friction. This translates into a greater risk of landslides on roads and slopes, something that can especially occur in mountain areas such as Cádiz or Axarquía in Malaga. More rain on Saturday. Faced with overflowing soil, the last thing you want is to receive more rain. But the reality is that this same Saturday a new storm comes in that has already activated an orange alert in a region that has been greatly punished by Leonardo such as Grazalema. In this case, accumulations of up to 80 liters per square meter are again expected, which may further aggravate the situation that is being experienced. Images | Ted Balmer In Xataka | We have always believed that London is very rainy and that Barcelona is not. The only problem is that it’s a lie

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