city

an intact Celtic city 2,000 years old

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It seemed like the perfect location to build a highway. One of those in which the citizens of the Czech Republic want drive at 150 km/h. But when the bulldozers arrived, the workers realized something: someone was already there. Specifically, some citizens who had built their houses and businesses there 2,000 years before. What has happened? He East Bohemian Museum next to the University of Hradec Kralovehave found a 2,000-year-old city where a highway was planned. This has been confirmed by the museum itself, which in a statement also explains that the settlement was especially rich, taking into account the enormous amount of jewels and coins found. The road is the D35 highwaywhich is under construction in the east of the country. When completed, the road will add two milestones to the history of Czech infrastructure. The highway will be the second longest in the country and will contain the longest tunnel in the Czech Republic. The intention is to provide relief to the current D1 highway, which is currently saturated with cars and trucks. They were already there. 2,000 years ago, specifically. In the preliminary phase of excavating the land through which the road was to pass, archaeologists have found a “unique site in Bohemia”, according to the museum itself. This is a key city in the area. It is believed that its commercial and economic impact reached other nearby regions since it was located in the famous Amber Route. According to their calculations, the city would extend 25 hectares and they believe that its maximum splendor was reached in the 2nd century BC. Data that they have been able to extract from the enormous amount of metal objects such as coins, ceramics and remains of homes that have been found in the excavation. What was the city like? According to experts, such as those consulted by Live Sciencethe city developed in the La Tène era, that is, the final phase of the Iron Age. It must have been one of the most important cities in the area since productive structures and evidence that luxury ceramics were manufactured there have also been found at the site. Experts say that the city had to be a place of passage on long-distance journeys, which is why it was very important for all the settlements in the Middle Danube region and southern Germany. Two structures have also been found that could be one or two sanctuaries. Intact. One of the good news, they assure from the museumis that archaeologists have highlighted the good condition of the findings found. In fact, they point out that these have not been victims of illegal irrigation or those who search for treasures with metal detectors. This has made it possible to find a first layer with an unusually high density of objects. This has allowed the recovery of 22,000 bags with all types of finds, which places it as one of the most important excavations in the area. And now? Now in the Czech Republic they will have to look for an alternative to the road. The city found is located within the Litomyšl–Janov section, a particularly delicate section due to the number of urban agglomerations in the area. In fact, state entities point out that it has been difficult to reach an agreement with nearby cities. Finally, the section will have numerous bridges and a ring road has been designed next to the city of Litomyšl with the aim of reducing the traffic that currently circulates through this city. If there are no new surprises, the highway should be completed in 2029. Photo | Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic and East Bohemian Museum In Xataka | Until 2020, Spain had the most praised roads in Europe. Now it has something else: a hole of 13,000 million euros

live in one city and work in another

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Leaving home at five in the morning to travel 200 kilometers before arriving at work and repeating the same route back is, in fact, the daily routine of thousands of Spaniards who live and work not already in different citiesbut in different autonomous communities. The housing market has turned cities like Madrid or Barcelona into places where living is economically unviable for many working families. This phenomenon already has a name: pendulum travelers. And their number does not stop growing. Housing as a driving force of the exodus. According to data From the Tax Agency’s Labor Market Mobility survey, in 2019, 166,000 workers changed autonomous communities or provinces. In 2024, there were 236,848, which represents an increase of 30%. The reason why so many people choose to move between communities every day fits into one fact. In 2024 alone, 54,500 employees left the province of Madrid and 30,475 did the same from Barcelona. The sociologist Sara Porras, doctor in Applied Sociology at the Complutense University, confirmed in statements to The Newspaper What was the reason for that migration? outside the big cities. These are “expulsion processes caused by the overheating of housing prices, which have made rents unpayable,” said the sociologist. A life of early mornings and packed trains. As and how I collected The Spanish NewspaperMiguel Ángel García has spent years with one foot in Valladolid and another in Madrid, where he works in the financial sector. Miguel Ángel leaves the Campo Grande station at 6:45 and returns at 3:40 p.m. “Distance is not measured in kilometers, but in time: it is 170 kilometers, but it took an hour“, just as if I lived in Leganés,” he says. In his company there are 55 people who travel daily from Valladolid or Segovia, and they attribute their situation to the flexibility it has provided. the arrival of teleworking and hybrid days, which have reduced the days of mandatory presence in the office. The economic key is given by Elena Parreño, a journalist who moved from Barcelona to a town ten minutes from Gerona, that declared to The Newspaperthat “before, a round-trip ticket Gerona-Barcelona cost 27 euros; now, with the discounted passes, it is just over eight.” Begoña, a 40-year-old civil servant, made the same calculation on the other side of the map, and bought a house in Valladolid (something she describes as “impossible in Madrid”) and makes the daily journey to the capital in just over an hour on Avant trains. How much does it cost to leave and how much does it cost to stay?. The numbers explain a good part of the exodus that Madrid or Barcelona suffer towards other provinces with more affordable housing prices. The gap between housing prices in large urban centers and nearby provinces largely explains this exodus. Madrid closed 2025 with an average purchase price of 5,914 euros/m2while in Valladolid the average was around at 2,006 euros/m2. The contrast of the example in Catalonia is just as striking. Barcelona reached prices of 5,144 euros/m2in front of 2,667 euros/m2 which the province of Gerona recorded on average. The AVE factor. Another decisive factor in this migratory movement towards territories with a more affordable housing price is railway vertebrationwhich makes it possible to connect cities far enough away to reduce real estate tension, but not so far away that covering that distance requires investing a good part of the day. At that point, the train has become the only possible alternative. He Renfe Single Passvalid since January 2025, allows unlimited use of Cercanías and medium-distance trains throughout Spain for 60 euros per month (30 for those under 26 years of age). This savings has caused an increase in the use of the train to reach the big cities that, according to data From the last Railway Observatory in Spain in 2023, the Gerona-Barcelona line will register a total of 2,436,098 passengers, 44.7% more than the previous year, while the Madrid-Valladolid line reached 2,264,882, an increase of 64% compared to 2022. In 2024, the trend continued to rise, and only on the line Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid exceeded 2.7 million annual travelers. In Xataka | A silent phenomenon is brewing in Madrid: people who go to live in Valladolid and return to work by train Image | Unsplash (Yunming Wang)

This is the US city that does not exist on Google Street View

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Of the more than 9.8 billion square kilometers of the United States, only a small area of ​​just over 22 square kilometers does not appear in Google Street View. Welcome to North Oaks, where the streets are private property and no, we are not talking about the typical gated community, but rather open streets, although with a big ‘but’. North Oaks. Located northwest of Minneapolis, North Oaks is a small residential town with a population of 5,212 inhabitantsthe vast majority upper class. The average household income is more than $230,000 per year, which places it between the richest cities in the entire country. In North Oaks there is no barrier that prevents access to people who do not reside there, but if you access you are committing trespass. How is it possible? There are signs like this at every entrance to North Oaks. Everything is private property. In North Oaks, homeowners not only own their plot, but the property extends to half the road (the other half is owned by the neighbor across the street). This means that there is hardly any public land, but everything is private property and is managed by the homeowners association or NOHOA. The streets of North Oaks are open, but they are lined with “no trespassing” signs and there are automatic license plate readers at the entrances. The unmappable city. In 2008, North Oaks could normally be visited via Google Street View. However, the homeowners association threatened Google with a lawsuit because his Street View cars had trespassed on his property. As a consequence, Google removed all the images and it remained that way for years, until someone tried to map it again with a curious trick. Remapping North Oaks. They count in 404media that a couple of months ago Chris Parr, documentary filmmakerit was proposed to correct this anomaly. The streets are private property, but in the sky this rule does not apply, so armed with a drone and a 360 camera, he dedicated himself to photographing all the streets, as shown in your video on YouTube. For a few days, North Oaks was back on the map, but it suddenly disappeared and Parr received a letter from a law firm on behalf of NOHOA basically telling him to never come back. Image | Google Maps In Xataka | The rich neighborhoods of Madrid and Barcelona have changed their accent: millionaires from the US and Mexico invest their fortunes in Spain

Mitsubishi built a remote, car-free city in the middle of the sea with one goal: mining coal

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About 15 kilometers off the coast of Nagasaki, in the East China Sea, there is a small island that houses blocks of concrete and semi-ruined buildings, surrounded by a retaining wall that protects them from the Pacific. The island is called Hashimaalthough it is also known as “Gunkanjima”which in Japanese means “battleship island.” and its history It is fascinating and dark in equal parts.. An island that was born from coal. All infrastructure was built for one reason: coal. The mineral was detected on the seabed beneath the island around 1810, but its systematic exploitation did not begin until 1887. In 1890, the Mitsubishi Goshi Kaisha company purchased the island and took control of the underwater mines. Extracting coal from the bottom of the sea was extraordinarily complicated, as the miners worked in tunnels that went up to a kilometer below the surface, with temperatures of 30 degrees and very high humidity. Between 1891 and 1974, the island produced some 15.7 million tons of coal. A decision that changed everything. Moving workers daily from Nagasaki was expensive and inefficient, which is why Mitsubishi made the decision to build an entire city on the island. In 1916, the company erected the first concrete building armed of large dimensions in the history of Japan, and it was precisely on this same island. These types of buildings were the only way for the buildings to withstand the typhoons that hit the region every autumn. A compressed city. During the following decades, Hashima grew upwards because he could not grow sideways. The island measures just 480 meters long and 160 meters wide. And yet, at its peak, in 1959, It housed 5,259 peoplemaking it the most densely populated place on the planet at that time. On that small piece of land there were apartments, schools, a hospital, shops, a cinema, public baths, a swimming pool, rooftop gardens, a pachinko parlor and even a cemetery. Of course, there were no cars, since there was neither space for them nor did it make much sense. a hidden face. Hashima’s story has, however, a deep shadow that for decades tried to ignore. From the 1930s until the end of World War II, Mitsubishi used forced labor at its facilities on the island. There, both Korean conscript civilians and Chinese prisoners of war were forced to work in extreme conditions. According to an academic article published on Tandfonline, around 1,000 Koreans were taken to Hashima between 1939 and 1945. Estimates of the death toll vary. On the one hand, in the book “Life in Gunkanjima 1952-1970: Report of the investigation into the Hashima homes”, by academic Uzō Nishiyama, the death toll is estimated at 137; other non-Japanese sources raise that figure to more than 1,300. The workers descended into the mines during extreme hours, and any resistance was punished brutally. They were not workers, they were slaves, and escape was practically impossible, since the nearest coast was more than 18 kilometers away by open swim. Abandonment. In the 1960s, oil began to displace coal as an energy source in Japan. Mines across the country were closing one after another. Hashima’s was no exception. Mitsubishi officially closed the mine in January 1974. and the residents left the island on April 20 of that same year. The exodus was so rapid that many left behind furniture, clothing, photographs and all kinds of personal belongings. In a matter of weeks, a city of more than five thousand people was turned into a ghost scene. For the next thirty years, Hashima remained closed to the public and was slowly devoured by typhoons and sea salt. movie set. In 2002, Swedish filmmaker Thomas Nordanstad visited the island accompanied by Doutoku Sakamoto, a man who had grown up there as a child, and filmed a short documentary. Years later, Nordanstad met Daniel Craig in Stockholm, while he was filming ‘The men who didn’t love women‘. He told him the story of Hashima. According to collect world, Nordanstad thought for a time that the actor wanted to buy the rights to the documentary, but that was not the case. Two years later it was released skyfall (2012). In the film, the abandoned island serves as the lair of the villain Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem. The producers traveled to Hashima to consider filming there, but concluded that the buildings were too unstable and dangerous. Therefore, they ended up building a replica at Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom. The exterior images of the island that appear in the film are the only ones shot on location. World Heritage with controversy. In 2015, the island It was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, within the category “Sites of Japan’s Meiji Industrial Revolution”. However, this designation came accompanied by diplomatic problems. South Korea initially objected because Japan did not recognize the use of forced labor on the island. In the end they reached an agreement: Japan agreed to include that part of the story in its materials, but they didn’t do their part. In 2021, the UNESCO Committee issued a resolution in which they expressed regret that Japan had not provided sufficient information on forced laborers. In fact, the Industrial Heritage Information Center, opened in Tokyo in 2020 to lend credibility to that narrative, was criticized for including testimonies that denied the existence of slavery conditions on the island. As of today, the debate has not yet been closed. A tourist destination with scars. Since 2009, Hashima can be visited in small groups organized from the port of Nagasaki. The tour lasts approximately one hour and is strictly delimited for safety reasons. In fact, 95% of the island remains restricted to visitors. Images | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | The most extreme symbol of the touristification of Madrid are the TukTuk. And there is already an initiative to ban them

How can you know at what time the 2026 solar eclipse can be seen in each neighborhood or city?

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Let’s tell you at what time will your neighborhood or city go dark due to solar eclipse of 2026. We know that this event will take place on August 12, and that it will begin to be seen in Spain at 7:30 p.m. in A Coruña, which is when the sky will begin to darken. However, since the earth is not flat, it will not be seen equally everywhere, and the route that total darkness will take will be at different times depending on where you live. What we are going to tell you is how to know how much can be seen in your city and the exact hours. All the eclipse data in your neighborhood or city To obtain this data, we are going to use an official website of the National Geographic Institute created for this eclipse. You have to enter visualizers.ign.es/eclipses/2026and at the top write your zip code or location name in the box that appears. You can also search for the site by putting a pin on the map. When you do, you will go to a page where On the left you have an informative column. In it you will be told things such as whether the total eclipse is going to arrive or it will only be partial, as well as the start times of the partial eclipse and the total or annular eclipse wherever you have chosen. On this website, what you have to do is move the temporary bar that appears belowwhere it says Evolution of the eclipse. So, when the sky is going to be completely covered the map will turn blackand you will be able to see from the beginning of the total eclipse to how long it will last. This tool can be very useful, because it will allow you to organize yourself to see the eclipse correctly. If you are going to travel somewhere or if it will be in your city, you will be able to know the exact times, as well as the differences between where you are and nearby areas. In Xataka Basics | Solar eclipses visible in Spain: these are the three astronomical events of 2026, 2027 and 2028

The metro has been splitting Rivas in two for decades. The city council has a plan to cover it up and has already presented it to Madrid

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The Rivas Vaciamadrid City Council has registered before the General Directorate of Infrastructure of the Community of Madrid its project to cover 2.5 kilometers of Metro Line 9B. This is a project that aims to transform part of the town’s urban layout, and the deadline for issuing its technical report has already opened. We tell you all the details. What exactly is this about? Just like they count From the town hall itself, the project consists of burying or covering the section of road that runs above ground through Rivas Vaciamadrid between the Cerro del Telégrafo Sports Center and the Rivas Futura station. They are 2.5 kilometers long and 30 meters wide which, if covered, would stop acting as a physical barrier that divides the municipality in two. On the surface, it is planned to extend the Linear Park, creating a corridor with green spaces for public use. The project also includes the construction of a fourth Metro station in Rivas, located on José Saramago street. Deadlines. The City Council had a technical meeting on February 27 with the General Directorate of Infrastructure, where it presented the solution. A week later, on March 4, it was officially registered, and now the Community of Madrid has three months to decide whether to move forward at a technical level. According to collect El Diario, the council has expressly requested “agility” from the regional administration. Tpolitical background. The fourth season brings them. And it is that according to Diario de Rivas, the Community of Madrid has already pointed out on more than one occasion that this infrastructure “is not justified on a technical level.” The City Council, for its part, insists that the project “is the result of months of rigorous and reliable technical work and that it meets the necessary requirements to move forward towards its execution.” The General Directorate of Infrastructure, for now, has limited itself to confirming that there was a meeting. What the data say. The City Council supports its position to move forward with the project through a survey in which they say that 78% of Rivas residents recognize the importance of this project. The organization frames it within its Rivas 2030 Urban Agenda, where it appears as one of its most notable projects to reconfigure its urban model. What happens now? The ball is in the court of the Community of Madrid. Before the end of June, the technical response from the General Directorate of Infrastructure should arrive. This report will determine if the project can move forward as planned, if it needs modifications or if the proposal (especially the new station) encounters obstacles from the regional administration. The Town Hall has expressed his confidence that the Community “facilitates the progress of an action long awaited by the citizens of Rivas”, but it seems that we will have to wait to find out if it finally materializes as the city council wants. Cover image | Google Maps In Xataka | BYD is already studying entering Formula 1, according to Bloomberg. And it is not a whim, it is a necessary step

Mexico wants to shield the ancient Mayan city of Toniná at all costs. So he has expropriated more than nine hectares

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Maybe not as well known as Teotihuacan, Chichen Itza or even the neighbor Palenquebut Toniná It is one of the great archaeological treasures of Mexico. The necropolis experienced its heyday between 600 and 900 AD and today it is preserved as one of the most fascinating complexes of the Mayan area and pre-Hispanic urbanism. In fact, it is crowned by a unique pyramidal structure in the region that is taller than the famous pyramid of the sun of Teotihuacan. Therefore, to guarantee its conservation, the Mexican Government has just made a radical decision: expropriate 9.2 hectares of the environment so that they become directly dependent on the National Institute of Anthropology (INAH). What has happened? That Mexico has just shown that it is willing to pull expropriation decree to protect your assets. And he has also done it in a practical way. The Executive led by Claudia Sheinbaum has announced that the National Institute of Anthropology and History has “taken possession” of a 9.22-h property in the vicinity of the Toniná site, in the state of Chiapas. The curious thing is how that land has been obtained, until recently in private hands. The transfer has been possible thanks to a decree that gave the green light to the sale in favor of the INAH. “The action arises from a cause of public utility, promoted in December 2025 by Culture,” clarify the authorities. Why have they done it? The Executive’s objective is twofold: to facilitate the conservation and research of the environment. In the words of INAH itself, the idea is to “guarantee the optimal conditions” of the site. “Toniná is an essential part of the living history of Chiapas and Mexico. This decree protects an asset of the nation and contributes to the exercise of cultural rights through access to knowledge and historical memory,” reasons Claudia Curiel de Icaza, Secretary of Culture. The leader insists that with the measure the State reinforces its capacity to “preserve heritage, ensure its management with technical criteria and sustain conservation, restoration and research tasks.” From now on, the INAH will expand its capacity to monitor, care for and study the ancient Mayan city. Why is it important? For several reasons. Beyond the legal formula used or its advantages to protect, conserve and study the site, the measure is interesting because Mexico wants to take advantage of it to promote Toniná. “In the archaeological zone, a comprehensive reactivation program will be implemented that will create a structured route for its eventual reopening,” keep it up the INAH. In fact, one of the objectives is to promote “responsible tourism.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. Is Toniná so important? Yes. And that is another reason why the recovery of the nine hectares has generated so much expectation. Located on the border between the Mayan highlands and the lowlands, the inhabitants of ancient Toniná left a fascinating acropolis, with overlapping platforms and a pyramidal structure that archaeologists considered “unique” in the Mayan world. In fact, it surpasses in height the famous Pyramid of the Sun of Teotihuacán, 65 meters. “The richness of this archaeological zone makes it comparable to other large sites in Chiapas, such as Palenque. Its heyday goes from the year 600 to 900, within the Classic period, and it was the last witness to the decline of the so-called Old Mayan Empire,” explains the INAH. The most famous governor in its history was Tzots Choj (‘Tiger-Bat’) and its greatest archaeological treasure is offered by its acropolis and central plaza. In it we find a staircase of 260 steps, the enormous pyramidal structure and a labyrinth of temples, palaces and roads. Experts have also located an altar for sacrifices and spaces to play ball. How long have we known her? The first to tell us about Toniná was Brother Jacinto Garridoin the 17th century, but the site has continued to fascinate experts since then. During the 19th century, expeditions continued and throughout the 20th century (especially between the 1970s and 1980s) excavations intensified. It was then when the studies and conservation work carried out by the INAH were launched, which has allowed its secrets to be discovered. Despite years of study, the archaeological institute trust in which there are still surprises: “Toniná still keeps many secrets that will have to be known.” Images | Wikipedia and SC (INAH) In Xataka | The Mayan Train has become a nightmare for Mexico: what seemed like a great plan has run into justice

The obsession with Mars disappears and the priority is now a “self-sustaining city” on the Moon

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For nearly two decades, SpaceX’s mantra has been unequivocal: colonize Mars. The red planet was not just a destination, it was the reason for being of the company and one of the clearest objectives in Elon Musk’s mind. But this has completely changed, since Musk himself has confirmed what had been rumored among investors: priorities have changed to focus on something simpler. A new city. SpaceX has put the handbrake on immediate Martian colonization to focus all its efforts on a closer and more pragmatic objective: building a “self-sustaining city” on the Moon in less than 10 years. And the reason is not just economic, it is a question of pure and simple orbital physics. The window problem. The change of focus, as explained by Elon Musk himselfresponds to the need for quick results. In the case of aerospace engineering, the speed of development depends on how many times you can test, fail, and test again. And this is where Mars is a real logistical nightmare. As detailed, to travel to Mars efficiently you have to wait for the orbital alignment of the planets to occur, which happens once every 26 months. Something to which we must add a trip of approximately six months, so it is not easy to have missions in a row, but rather they would have to be spaced almost three years apart. The windows of the Moon. While Mars needs a large amount of time to deliver results, the Moon is much easier, since Elon Musk himself recognizes that the launch window is constant. Specifically, every 10 days approximately A new mission can be launched that has a travel time of just a few days. Musk summarizes it with industrial logic: the Moon allows us to iterate much faster. If the goal is to secure the future of civilization with a colony outside Earth, the lunar path is the fast track. A lunar city. The goal is not to put a flag back on the lunar surface, but to establish a city that is capable of growing on its own autonomously. According to ABC Newsthe plan involves prioritizing lunar missions with a possible first unmanned lunar landing around 2027, with a view to having that permanent presence in less than a decade. This finally aligns Musk’s personal interests with government contracts. Let’s not forget that SpaceX has a multi-million dollar contract with NASA to the Artemis programwhere the Starship HLS will be the vehicle in charge of lowering the astronauts to the lunar surface. By making the Moon SpaceX’s “civilization” priority, Musk ensures that the development of its giant rocket serves both its customers (NASA) and its new private roadmap. Among investors. Like any good company of this type, behind it is a large number of people who must be accountable and, above all, offer immediate benefits. In this case, SpaceX formally notified its investors last Friday about this change of course: unmanned missions to Mars, initially planned for the end of 2026, are postponed indefinitely. For Wall Street and the big funds, this turnaround is music to their ears for two key reasons. The first of them is that the Moon offers a modelable revenue narrative and deadlines that depend on signed contracts, as is the case with Artemis and NASA. The second is that investors need security so that they continue investing money in the company. In this case, this change of course protects the company’s astronomical valuationwhich seeks to consolidate itself in the billion-dollar club after the boost of xAIeliminating the immediate risk of a failed mission to Mars. What about Mars? This decision does not mean goodbye to the original dream of the company and of Musk himself, but rather it is a reality check. For now, Musk maintains the goal of trying to build a city on Mars within 5 to 7 years, but the narrative has changed: Mars is no longer the first critical step, but the second. In this way, the Moon will serve as a testing ground, a spaceport and, above all, as the place where humanity will learn to live outside of Earth without having to wait two years for supplies if something goes wrong. Images | SpaceX In Xataka | SpaceX is known for its rockets. What is less known is its growing and striking fleet of aircraft

In this city in Ukraine, going outside is not an option because of the drones. So they have found a solution: live underground

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For decades war was thought of as a recognizable front line, with more or less secure soldiers, trenches and rearguards. The massive emergence of drones has dynamited that scheme: the sky has become a permanent hunting ground, the distinction between combatant and civilian has been blurred and entire cities now live under the constant threat of cheap and lethal machines that can attack at any moment. In Ukraine they have forced everyday life to hide underground to continue existing. Kherson and the threat behind the windows. The key Ukrainian city has become the most extreme example of how drones have transformed war and civil lifeto the point that going outside has become the closest thing to a “death sport”, with Russian quadcopters operating from the other bank of the Dnieper that they hunt random people in what the Ukrainians themselves describe as a “human safari.” In a city of wide avenues and tsarist architecture, today the sky is the true enemy, responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries in a single year, in what the United Nations and human rights organizations describe as war crimes and the world’s most intensive use of drones against a civilian population. Live underground. Faced with the impossibility of completely protecting the surface, life in Kherson has declined literally underground. There is no rhetoric, since they literally live underground with hospitals, maternity wards, public offices, theaters and cultural spaces moved to basements and former Soviet shelters, while playgrounds have been replaced. through underground game rooms and all schools in the city operate only online. This forced displacement has created a strange and oppressive routine in which day-to-day life passes between corridors, bunkers and improvised roomsbecause any exposure to the open sky can end in seconds with a guided explosion from a remote camera. It is the real version of any scenario that science fiction cinema or literature ever staged. Improvised defenses. Faced with this omnipresent threat, the authorities have deployed a combination of solutions that illustrate the extent to which the city lives in an almost post-apocalyptic future, with kilometers of anti-drone networks covering entire streets, mesh tunnels over the main access roads, electronic interference walls next to the river and hundreds of concrete capsules spread along the sidewalks to offer immediate shelter. Even so, those responsible themselves admit that nothing is completely effectivebecause drones evolve, dodge defenses, throw grenades or mines and turn any daily journey into a desperate race in which you cannot run faster than the machine you are chasing from the air. Live, not just survive. In this extreme context, the effort is not limited to keeping the population alive, but rather to preserving a minimum feeling of normalityespecially for the little ones, children, who grow up under constant stress and fear of going outside. In fact, there is a whole network of psychologists, educators and volunteers who organize dance, art or biology classes in basements, install sandboxes so that the little ones can touch the ground and even create spaces where choosing, playing and learning is a form of emotional resistance in the face of a war that invades everything. The idea is clear in Kherson: it is not enough to hide, you have to keep livingeven under layers of cement. The laboratory of a disturbing future. If you like, Kherson is not just a devastated city, but an advance which many fear will become the norm in many other conflicts of the future, one where cheap and precise drones democratize the ability to attack civilians with an ease that was unthinkable just a few years ago. Thus, after a Russian occupation, a liberation celebrated and an immediate return of horror from a distance, the city has been trapped a kilometer from the front, with a population reduced to a fraction of the original that, despite everything, refuses to leave. Underground, between networks, shelters and constant alarms, Kherson survives like a brutal warning of how the war of the future can empty the streets and push human life to simply hide to exist. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | A drone takes aim and blows up a Russian penguin in front. It is the result of an increasingly absurd war In Xataka | Three Russians surrender on camera: what was previously a “normal” scene in the war in Ukraine is science fiction

consumes more light than the city of San Francisco during rush hour

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Being late to the AI ​​race means being left behind. We have the case of Apple that has just knelt and will use Google models to improve Siri. However, there is another opposite case with xAI, a company that was born in 2023when ChatGPT was already more than grown, and today it has made a place for itself among the largest, even overtaking them. what has happened. xAI has just inaugurated Colossus 2, its new data center located in Memphis, Tennessee. For an AI company to open a data center is not surprising, given the pace at which they are being built, but in this case we are talking about the first AI training cluster of 1 gigawatt of power. To put it in context, it is more electricity than peak hour demand in the city of San Francisco. Elon Musk has boasted in X and has assured that by April they want to expand to 1.5 gigawatts. Colossus 2, in figures. Colossus 1 has 230,000 GPUs and the new cluster has upped the ante with more than half a million GPUs and it is also one of the most expensive ever built. According to the report of EpochAIthe investment has reached 44,000 million dollars. The Microsoft Fairwater center is expected to surpass it in both investment and power, but is still in the construction phase. Infrastructure yes, thank you. xAI may not have the best chatbot, but they want to have it and that means creating infrastructure faster than their rivals. With Colossus 1the company completed its construction in just 122 days, a milestone. Colossus 2 took a little longer (the project started in March 2025), but In just six months it already had 200MW of cooling capacity installedwhich according to Semianalysis is much faster than other megaprojects from Oracle and OpenAI. Stepping on the accelerator. As we said, xAI was born in 2023, a time when there were already established companies in the sector. In the Semianalysis graph, you can see perfectly the acceleration they have given in training capacity. At the beginning of 2024 they were last in capacity and by September 2025 they had placed second behind OpenAI. Apart from the Grok controversies (that there have not been few) it has become clear that betting on infrastructure has been key for xAI catches up of his rivals. Controversies. Feeding these mastodons is not an easy task and for this Musk’s company deployed up to 35 gas turbines with a capacity of more than 400 megawatts. The problem is that they pollute a lot and Memphis already has terrible air quality, so much so that it’s known as the “asthma capital.” Plus, he didn’t have permission to have that many turbines, so Musk had an idea: Colossus is next to the border with Mississippi, another state where emissions laws are more lax, so moved part of the turbines there. Image | xAI In Xataka | Elon Musk wants to turn xAI into an ultra-valuable company and he knows how to do it: using the SpaceX vault

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