decade

a lake in a neighborhood of Pamplona. A decade ago they found 300

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A few days ago, two environmental guards from Pamplona They went hunting at Lake Mendillorri and captured two specimens of Florida pond turtlea species that, as its name indicates, is not native to the area. According to Dani González, one of the guards in charge of the mission, right now in that lake in Pamplona “there could be about 100.” The figure is impressive, but it is far from what they saw a decade ago, when they emptied the lake and there was surprise: they found about 300 turtles, several carp and even a voracious catfish. What is happening. When Lake Mendillorri was completely emptied in October 2016 for the first time in two decades, technicians used electrofishing (stunning the lake’s inhabitants to capture them while minimizing the damage) and found that calico. With the proliferation of the species and its inclusion in the Spanish Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species at the state level (Royal Decree 630/2013), since 2021 in Navarra the Galapagos’ annual environmental control campaign, which begins in June: they take advantage of this turtle’s love of the sun to set traps for them every week. As explains Gonzálezit is “a square trap where they have two ramps on which they climb to sun themselves, and once they have warmed up and go down, they fall into the trap that contains a net in which they remain floating and swimming.” Afterwards, they go by canoe and collect them to take them to Wildlife Recovery Centers. In 2016 they did it all at once and now they do it little by little, but the trickle of freshwater turtles is incessant. Why is it important. Introducing an invasive species into an ecosystem is usually not a good idea, but here hunger meets the desire to eat. The European pond turtle (Emys orbicularis) is already a threatened species and the American is a direct competitor for available resources like the sun, necessary to regulate your body temperature. Furthermore, its reproductive capacity is noticeably higher. Thus, it lays larger eggs and while American males reach maturity at five years old, it takes Europeans until they are 16 years old. This study evidence that when both species coexist, the European pond turtle loses weight and suffers greater mortality, so much so that the authors recommend stopping any introduction of Florida turtles into European wetlands. Context. The Florida pond turtle (Trachemys scripta elegans) arrived in Spain as a pet and ended up, like so many other times, released into rivers and lakes when it grew too large. It is no longer that it is present in the Spanish Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species, it is that according to the IUCN list It is one of the hundred most harmful invasive species in the world. Mendillorri is not an isolated case: its normalization as a pet and its subsequent release has caused it to be present in most wetlands on the continent today. Only in Navarra, this control campaign has been expanded this year to other municipalities such as Tudela, Corella, Funes and Cintruénigo. Pets are not a toy. From the Ilundáin Wildlife Recovery Center they go to places like the Basabere School Farm or Sendaviva Park, which is increasingly populated with turtles for obvious reasons. Although its sale and trade are prohibited by law, if you have a turtle and you no longer want it, there is a free service to manage it properly, free of charge and without penalties, before releasing it in the park that is closest to home. As explains Ana Brittany de la Torregeneral director of the Environment of the Government of Navarra, “natural species are not a toy, the environment cannot allow these intrusions.” The director explains that “once a species is established in a territory, eradicating it is especially complex, especially in natural channels” because this scenario applies to the Florida pond turtle, but also applies to the American mink: it is a direct threat to the European mink and Navarra is, behind Croatia, the place that houses the largest colony in Europe. In Xataka | The boxwood moth has hatched in Pamplona en masse. The real problem is in its tracks. In Xataka | Pamplona is going to launch four radars with AI: they detect if you are wearing a seat belt, if you are on your cell phone or if you make illegal turns Cover | Pamplona City Council and Diego Delso

At the age of 15, he built an ocean generator with a PVC pipe and 10 euros. A decade later, it continues to spark interest in the sector

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It was 2015 when a high school student from Boca Raton, Florida, presented to a jury of scientists a prototype built with parts that anyone could find in a hardware store. Your project He was trying to solve how to generate electricity where power lines do not reach, taking advantage of the movement of the sea. There was no laboratory or company behind it, just 12 dollars in budget (about 10 euros at the current exchange rate). Interestingly, his idea is the principle on which an entire emerging marine energy industry is built. Who is he and what did he do?. Hannah Herbst was 15 years old when she devised BEACON (Bringing Electricity Access to Countries through Ocean Energy), a probe capable of transforming the movement of ocean currents into electricity. The device earned him the title of “America’s Top Young Scientist” and $25,000 in the 2015 Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge, after competing against eight other finalists at the 3M innovation center in Saint Paul, Minnesota. How it all started. As Herbst shared at the time, she maintained contact by postal mail with a nine-year-old girl in Ethiopia, who lived with almost no access to electricity. “I can’t even imagine a day without light,” came to declare Herbst herself told Business Insider when recalling their conversations. She wanted to build something that could bring energy to communities like her friend’s, without depending on expensive infrastructure or conventional electrical grids. This is how your invention works. The mechanism is easy to explain precisely because its beauty lies in its simplicity. A 3D-printed propeller is placed on one end of the device; When the water current makes it rotate, a system of pulleys transmits that movement to a Pelton wheel, a type of hydraulic turbine widely used in engineering, connected to a generator. All housed inside a PVC tube. This means that clean and continuous electricity can be obtained, without depending on the sun or the wind. Herbst tested the prototype on the Intracoastal Waterway of Boca Raton, where he managed to light LED bulbs. It is not that Herbst suddenly provided a new physical principle, but it is very interesting how his proposal took that physical principle to a much smaller and cheaper scale. It didn’t stop at a school fair model. With the help of Jeffrey Emslander, a 3M scientist who served as a mentor during the summer before the contest, Herbst wanted to take his idea to a larger scale version. According to picked up Business Insider’s calculations suggested that the expanded design could generate enough electricity to charge three car batteries in less than an hour, enough energy to power water desalination pumps, blood centrifuges in rural clinics, or coastal navigation beacons. Why does it matter? More than ten years later, this approach (small, autonomous and cheap devices for areas where installing a conventional electrical network does not pay off) is exactly the direction that the marine energy industry is taking. The United States Department of Energy estimates that the technical resource available in US waters equals approximately 57% of all the country’s current electricity generation, according to data from its Hydropower and Hydrokinetic Office, although it warns that the technology is still in an early stage of development. Between the lines. Turbine technology for marine currents already existed and was being researched on an industrial scale long before Herbst put it into practice. Although what is striking is that the direction in which the sector is now moving, with smaller, modular devices designed for areas without an electrical grid, instead of gigantic and centralized turbines, coincides with the idea that that teenager intuitively applied in her garage. In this sense, several companies already operate under this same approach, although on a very different scale. ORPC (Ocean Renewable Power Company) has deployed a hydrokinetic device in Igiugig, Alaska, since 2019 to supply that remote community, and is preparing new projects in rivers in Louisiana, Canada and France. Ocean Motion Technologies develops small wave generators controlled by artificial intelligence to power ocean sensors. and Hydrokinetic Energy Corp. works in turbines that take advantage of the Gulf of Mexico current. On the other hand, it should be noted that Herbst has never intended to patent his invention or keep it exclusive. “When I finish developing it, I’m going to release it openly… everyone in the world will be able to have access to the bill of materials and the data that I got, everything necessary to make this device,” explained Herbst to Fast Company magazine in 2015. And now what. Herbst has continued to broaden his horizons ever since. He trained in information systems at Florida Atlantic University, years later developed an antibacterial bandage inspired by shark skin and, now in the field of medical technology, created AutoTQan automatic tourniquet designed to save lives in severe bleeding situations. In fact, she is currently listed as founder and CEO of this medical initiative. Cover image | Medill News Service In Xataka | Europe has found an energy vein for the next decade: North Africa

The AVE to Extremadura has taken a key step in its connection with Madrid. It’s a small step that takes us back a decade.

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They say that things in the palace go slowly. We could say the same about high speed. Not only because “high-speed” trains are taking longer than ever, but also because the construction of each new line resembles a birth that lasts decades. For example, the AVE to Extremadura. A quarter of a century has now passed since the project was approved. 25 years. And what we continue to have are connections typical of the 70s until we enter Extremadura where, coincidentally, the pace is already accelerating past Cáceres. We don’t lie. In 1970whoever took a train to Extremadura would arrive at the current Monfragüe station in 181 minutes. Today if everything goes well it will only take 20 minutes less. More than half a century after passing times collected in this guideit still takes more than three hours to get from Madrid to Plasencia. And right now it is necessary to stop at the aforementioned station and take a bus because the train no longer goes there. At least, in Extremadura they can boast since last December of having Cáceres and Badajoz connected, now, by high speed. Since the last days of the year, it is possible to cover the journey in 50 minutes. It is the result of works that, although they have taken time, have ended up being completed. A milestone that they cannot boast of in Castilla-La Mancha. And, 25 years after beginning to study where the AVE will pass on its way to Lisbon, a new step forward has been taken. One that also takes us almost ten years back. One step forward, Toledo. One step back When it was planned that an AVE would connect Madrid with Extremadura, it was decided that the work would have two large, clearly differentiated sections. One of them would be Madrid-Oropesa, the second Talayuela-Cáceres. With its obvious delaysthat second section is close to completion and its completion past Cáceres is what has allowed the arrival of high speed in that interprovincial Extremaduran section. And, as they point out in this great review of the diary Today Despite all the dates that have occurred in this quarter of a century, the end of the project could have been very advanced if the La Mancha section had been built at the same speed. However, since 2008 the various parties involved have been discussing what to do with the passage through Toledo. Or, rather, whether or not the train should pass through Toledo. That year, with the environmental impact report of the Madrid-Oropesa section already approved, the final approval was given to the informative study that contemplated a connection with the Andalusian corridor next to the Toledo town of Pantoja. The idea was to take a branch of this line towards Extremadura and thus save costs. The works, however, were not carried out. The 2008 crisis wiped out the project and it was never launched. Without machines working, the environmental report expired and that was when the Ministry of Public Works indicated that the AVE would pass through Toledo. We are already in 2017. The Government’s proposal was that, by passing through Toledo, the line would attract a greater number of travelers since the line would connect with a city that is a World Heritage Site. Of course, this meant traveling more kilometers and increasing travel time because Toledo is located further south than the first proposal. The idea was rejected by local authorities from the first moment. And the passage through Toledo It’s delicate. The Executive’s proposal has always been to take the AVE to the current station, which is just two kilometers in a straight line from the city center. But that means building a viaduct to overcome the passage of the Tagus, which has received continued rejection from local governments and the neighborhood platforms that consider that the image of the city would be damaged. Their proposal was to build a new station in a nearby industrial estate. This is how the year 2020 was reached, with an informative study in which it was proposed to subdivide the section into four parts: Toledo, Torrijos, Talavera de la Reina and Oropesa. They also showed their rejection of this project in Torrijos, which led to more bureaucracy and carrying out a complementary study in 2022. This document was presented in 2024 and had the approval of this town the following year… but in Toledo, as we have said, they still do not view the project favorably. In order to streamline the project, finally The Ministry of Transport has finally approved a new informative study that would contemplate building two branches from the Andalusian corridor. They explain in Today that if the branch goes ahead it would have its origin in Pantoja (as planned from 2008 to 2017) and that it would allow passage in both directions with trains of Iberian width and international width. However, it would be necessary to use trains capable of making this jumpsince the rest of the route to Extremadura is built on Iberian gauge. That is, right now what is being studied is the same to the conclusion that It was arrived in 2008 and that remained on the agenda until 2017. At least, as an alternative until it is decided whether or not the AVE to Extremadura passes through Toledo. And, if it happens, where is it going to do it. Photo | Gunnar Ridderström, Jaime Lillo and Falk2 In Xataka | The theory said that the entry of the AVE into Galicia would plummet aircraft prices. Practice is something else

We paid for the most expensive tomato in the last decade and farmers claim that they can’t pay the bills. They are right

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“I’d rather throw away the harvest than pay us 80 cents per kilo of tomatoes.” Almost a year ago, Riojan farmer Clara Sarramián gave an interview to Jaime Gumiel that still kicking. Above all, because it explains in a simple and accessible way the last five years of tractor units. And yet, no matter how much it is repeated, Sarramián’s speech and that of other farmers never ceases to surprise: “they wanted to pay me half as much as the previous year. I preferred to throw it away. If we all go through the hoop, we are going against ourselves,” he says. We have heard it many times, yes; but does it make sense? Are they right in their complaint? That is the first thing to clarify and the truth is that if we look at the data, it is difficult to say no. The origin-destination commercial margin of tomato reached in 2025 81.1% (second highest in a decade)according to data from the Observatory of the Junta de Andalucía. In fact, without leaving aside the case of the tomato, a 2020 study by the Institut Cerdà on the value chain pointed out that the total cost of tomatoes is €0.61/kg (labor 0.258; seeds 0.081; structure 0.078; fertilizers 0.059; others) compared to the €0.57/kg paid to the producer. And this is data from 2017: the situation has only worsened since the war in Ukraine. It doesn’t seem like the best business in the world. In fact, it seems like a pretty bad one. Above all, because although we have been developing regulations for years that allow us to limit the impact of these problems, they all end up in a dead letter. Furthermore, the external pressure (especially from Morocco for the tomato issue) is enormous. And many of the main market players play “double agents” because they are conglomerates with investments on both sides of the Strait. Why should we care? I imagine that the simplest data to understand how this impacts the consumer is this: we are paying for fresh tomatoes. the highest price in the last decade and, at the same time, the farmer who grows it in Spain affirms that it does not pay him to harvest it. And, anyway, as we have just seen, he is right. And, under these circumstances, why would they want to throw away the harvest? That is to say, it is worth paying below cost; But something will always be better than nothing, right? And that idea makes sense, but it ignores some important things. To begin with, that between 25 and 30% of agricultural costs They occur in collection, packaging, transportation and wholesale sales (with possible associated losses). If they are not collected, the farmer loses what he has already invested, yes. But it does not incur more costs that it cannot recover. Furthermore, as we have seen in situations like lemon either the bananaletting part of the harvest be lost prevents prices from collapsing. It is not an easy strategy to implement (because there are always people with incentives to sell as the price rises), but it is a rational strategy. Tick ​​tock Tick ​​tock All this happens in a very specific context: in June it begins the negotiation of the post-2027 CAP and that is what makes the key question not “why does Clara Sarramián throw away her tomatoes?” but “how do we ensure that one of the central industries of the Spanish economy (the only one that supports the emptied Spain) does not die in a matter of a few years?” Image | Rachel Clark In Xataka | We have a problem with pesticides in agriculture. And a bigger one with the panic they generate

There are 3 fewer days of frost and 5 more days of summer each decade

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Mountains are one of the first thermometers on the planet: they respond earlier, do so intensely and more visibly than any other terrestrial ecosystem to global warming. What begins happening at its summits anticipates what will come later to the rest. The Pyrenees are no exception, in fact they work like a huge natural laboratoryone of the most documented in Europe. And the data they provide is anything but good. He Bulletin of Climate Change Indicators of the Pyrenees prepared annually by Meteocat and coordinated by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC) confirms it: the warming of the mountain range is not something punctual, but structural. What is happening in the Pyrenees. That they are warming asymmetrically and accelerated, with summers exploding at a rate that doubles the rest of the year, which has direct and different consequences on the ecosystem. Jordi Cunillera, head of the Meteocat climate change team, goes even more into detail: on the southern slope the trend is also drier, adding additional water pressure on the southern ecosystems. In data. The list of indicators and the 65 years of monitoring show clear and worrying trends. From 1959 to 2024: Increase in average annual temperature of 1.9 °C. By seasons: while in winter the increase has been 1.4 °C, in summer it has been almost double (+ 2.7 °C) Steady increase in tropical nights. There are 20 fewer days of frost and 32 more days of summer per year. Every decade: There are 3 fewer days of frost with colder winters There are 4.9 more days of summer (temperature above 25 ºC). The temperature increases +0.30 ºC. Why is it important. Firstly, because of the solidity of the research: it does not measure specific variability, but rather the structural and accumulated transformation of the Pyrenean climate over 65 years. The Pyrenees are a climatic island for alpine species that do not have the capacity to migrate further north or higher, a true gem in flora and fauna with endemisms particularly sensitive and vulnerable to changes in temperature. Thanks to its rugged terrain, it has been able to preserve certain spaces from direct human activity (from tourism to agriculture), but it cannot escape this indirect effect. On the other hand, the Pyrenees are also a tap for southern Europe: the accumulated snow and ice feed rivers such as the Ebro, the Segre or the Garonne during the dry season, on whose flow millions of people, irrigated hectares and river ecosystems depend. It is true that precipitation remains stable, but if it gets hotter, water stress increases: evapotranspiration skyrockets, the soil loses moisture faster and terrestrial ecosystems enter a situation of progressive summer water deficit. The system becomes less resilient to disturbances, such as fires. Context. The study is part of the work of the Pyrenees Working Community, which through the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory seeks to unify the data of the Spanish, French and Andorran states through the LIFE project Pyrenees4Climate. This international cooperation effort is essential as ecosystems do not understand political borders and climate change requires joint actions. In addition to climate monitoring, its objective is to implement the Pyrenean Climate Change Strategythe first European initiative of its kind designed specifically for a transboundary mountain bioregion. The project has established 16 key recommendations, including a “Pyrenean Forest Emergencies Protocol” to share cartography, meteorological data and crisis communication. The report highlights that differences in regulations between the three states slow down the response, which is why they urge the interoperability of physical means and improve protocols to be more resilient to climate change. How they measure it. The scientific robustness of these results is based on the analysis of 12 temperature series and 26 high-quality precipitation series, strategically distributed throughout the mountain range. The different research teams use the period 1961-1990 as a historical reference to calculate anomalies and ensure that the observed trends are statistically significant. The work team is led by Meteocat and has the collaboration of affected organizations such as AEMET, Météo-France, the Andorra Meteorological Service, IPE-CSIC or Euskalmet for a complete and unified view. Among the indicators studied are the average annual temperature, seasonal variation, frost days, summer days, tropical nights, warm and cold spells or water stress. These indicators respond to internationally standardized definitions by the World Meteorological Organization, which allows comparison with other European high mountain studies. The impact on the ecosystem. One of the most serious effects is anoxia in mountain lakes: as surface water warms and winter ice reduces, the natural water mixing cycle is broken, leaving the bottom without oxygen. This phenomenon puts at risk the survival of invertebrates and microorganisms that are the base of the trophic chain in these sensitive aquatic ecosystems, something that is happening, for example. in the Ibón de Marboréin the Aragonese Pyrenees. The Pyrenean glaciers have lost 96% of their glacial surface since the 15th century and the future looks even darker: 4% are will be extinct by 2050. On the other hand, the more intense heat is causing the snow to melt earlier due to the arrival of intrusions of Saharan dust associated with warm air masses from Africa: when dust particles are deposited on the surface of the snow, it absorbs more energy instead of reflecting it, thus accelerating its fusion, as explains Meteored. In addition to being a climatic indicator, the disappearance of the Pyrenean cryosphere means the irreversible destruction of a habitat and a hydrological function on which the entire chain of ecosystems rests, from high mountain lakes to wetlands many kilometers ahead. In Xataka | If we want to know how climate change will affect the Pyrenees, we do not have to look at the heat or the snow. You have to study the caves In Xataka | The Pyrenees have become a huge meteorological laboratory: torrential rains have multiplied by four in Spain Cover | jolumurcia and Myrabella

from spending a decade sowing ports and trains to reaping with their electric cars

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For more than a decade, Beijing has been building the infrastructure, alliances and agreements that allow it to gain an advantage in a continent that has just opened its doors wide. And after having conquered Europe, and in the process of doing the same in Canada With its new energy and industrial vehicles, Latin America has for years been a pending strategic point for China in which to transfer a good part of its technology in exchange for raw materials. A fertilized land. Although China has had an eye on Latin America for many years, its strategy is now entering a different phase. For years, his play has focused on ports, railways, loans and commodities. Today, to this is added an automobile industry that urgently need to exportand that finds in Latin America a terrain that has already been fertilized with patience. Infrastructure. The most visible example is the Chancay megaporton the central coast of Peru, operated by the Chinese state shipping company Cosco Shipping. With the capacity to receive the largest container ships in the world, its objective is to reduce transit times between South America and Asia from the current 40 days to just 28. Robert Evan Ellis of the US Army Institute for Strategic Studies. he described it to the BBC some time ago as the transition from a route that “previously made all the stops” to another that “goes directly to the destination.” Peru, with China as its main trading partner for more than a decade, is not the only country: 22 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean are already part of the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s great global connection project. Added to that are the railways. It is estimated that Latin America has more than 150 railway projects on the table with an estimated investment of 384 billion dollars until 2050, according to the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean. China plays a central role in its financing, from the 16 billion dollars in road modernization in Argentina to the Bioceánica Railway, the 3,700 kilometer corridor that It will connect the Atlantic with the Pacific, crossing Brazil, Bolivia and Peru.. A work that not only connects countries, but shortens China’s route to the continent’s raw materials. lthe cars chinese. While the country is building all this logistics operations, China has been facing a serious problem for some time: a chronically overproduced automobile industrymargins under pressure and a cooling domestic market. BYD, its best-known manufacturer, saw the state withdraw subsidies for plug-in vehicles, making it its sales suffered. The answer to preventing its economy from sinking has been foreign expansion. Europe knows this perfectly, and Latin America has also been at the center of the plan for some time. To continue with the example of BYD, despite being a privately held company, already produces in Brazilwhere it sold 113,000 cars last year, more than in any other market outside of China, with a plant with the capacity to reach 600,000 vehicles annually. As Bloomberg tells it, from there, it will export 50,000 units to Mexico and another 50,000 to Argentina, taking advantage of trade agreements that eliminate tariffs between these countries. The factory in Brazil will be the one that supplies vehicles to the rest of Latin America. It is not the only front. Manufacturers like Changan have been perfecting for years in Mexico a model reuse strategy (the same vehicle with different brands and prices over time) that allows them to maintain a constant presence with a minimum investment in development. On the other hand, Yutong, one of the largest bus manufacturers in the world, has just delivered the first 180 of the 600 buses planned for modernize public transportation in Nicaragua within the framework of an agreement with the country’s Government. Concern in Washington. Donald Trump’s administration has classified the case of the port of Chancay as an example of how “cheap Chinese money” can erode national control over critical infrastructure. His warning also points to something more serious: that China uses displaced labor from its country instead of local ones, something that does not catch us by surprise in Europe, and that ends up generating economic dependencies that are difficult to reverse. Ellis counted to the BBC that “with Chancay, Peru will become more dependent on China,” and recalled that in other relations between Latin America and Asia “China used predatory techniques and ended up taking natural resources.” Peru illustrates the tension well: it has China as its main trading partner and the United States as a strategic ally and military partner. Washington negotiates the construction of a naval base a few kilometers from the port that Beijing operates. The same enclave, two powers, and an uncomfortable decision. A paradise for Chinese technology. Latin America is not a homogeneous market, but it has several common features that make it attractive to China: aging transportation infrastructures, growing middle classes, low penetration of electric vehicles and tariffs that, in many cases, have not yet adjusted to the pace of China’s entry. Brazil, Mexico and Argentina concentrate the bulk of attention by market size, but the agreements with Nicaragua or the projects in Chile, Colombia and Peru show that the strategy is much broader. In Xataka | In 2022 it seemed impossible for China to close the US “gap” in AI in four years. In 2026 it is a fact

from sharing mobile data to paying again like a decade ago

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Saturday is a good day to have your internet cut off. At first you don’t notice, because you’re at home and you don’t use the computer (as much). But you end up finding out, and that’s what happened to me when I realized that I was without my O2 fiber connection, againfor the underground works from the A-5, again. Two days later I’m still the same, like many residents of the area, and this is becoming a small (but bearable) headache. The cuts are back. These works have already caused cuts in the past. They did it in July, August and November of 2025, and also in January 2026. Each time the affected areas and operators have occurred, they have varied, but for example on social networks there is data that indicate that this time the cut has been important and has affected to Movistar/O2 clients,Orange, VodafoneJazztel or Digi. Meanwhile, unlimited data. Spotting the problem on Saturday morning, I called my operator, O2, to find out what was happening. They confirmed to me that it was a fiber optic cable cut due to the works on the A-5, and they explained to me that they hoped to resolve the problem as soon as possible. And as in the previous outage, they told me that during this period I was offered unlimited mobile data on all the lines associated with my contract. It is something that operators usually offer in these cases and that certainly makes the problem mitigate… although it does not disappear. He tethering saves (quite a lot) the papers. Since then I have been using my computer with mobile data: I have shared the connection on my smartphone through tetheringwhich allows me to work normally and at decent speeds without problems. This weekend I have also used this connection, sharing it with the Chromecast on my TV to watch a series or movie without problems. Paying as before. Businesses in the area have also been affected by these service cuts, and the example is a supermarket near my house where this weekend there was no option to pay with a mobile phone. The POS did not accept contactless payments and you had to pay either in cash or with a physical debit/credit card, inserting it into the POS slot. Better to be proactive. Users have few options here beyond calling the operator to find out what happened and to have them activate that unlimited data if they had not already done so. Here it is advisable to be proactive and call because at least in my case until I called they did not activate those unlimited “bonuses”, and it makes sense: the operators may not know which users exactly are affected. If we want to have this option we will have to call and probably wait a few minutes until an agent answers us, something that may take time because these breakdowns affect many people. In my personal case the wait was about 5 or 6 minutes this time. It’s time to wait. As is often the case on these occasions, there is no clear estimate of when the problem can be resolved. In January the disconnection lasted approximately two days, and this time the outage is already on its way to lasting up to three days or more. Neither the operators nor the Community of Madrid offer much information in this regard, and in most cases the only thing that users can do is be patient. In Xataka | There is an extensive system to avoid being cut off in the 48 km underground of the M-30. It’s time to renew it

Lisa Ann retired from porn over a decade ago. AI has given him a second career without him having to act again

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In the porn industryfew careers last as long as Lisa Ann’s. He started in adult cinema in the mid-90s and retired in 2014, more than two decades later. However, what seemed like a permanent retirement has turned out not to be because Lisa Ann is back, or rather her AI avatar. Reincorporation. They tell it in Wired. The well-known porn actress Lisa Ann has returned to the adult entertainment industry, and she has done so through OhChat, a platform like OnlyFansbut in which, instead of with real people, users interact with AI avatars. Ann, who confesses to being an AI enthusiast, thought it was a good way to continue monetizing her image without having to return to porn. “It keeps my name alive and it will never get old,” he tells Wired. Lisa Ann is not the only former porn actress on the platform, there are also others like Cherie Deville, Tera Patrick or Brandi Love. The Onlyfans of AI. In OhChat, users pay an amount depending on the interaction they seek with the avatar. For $5 you can have unlimited text conversations, but if you want to have images and audio you have to go up to $10, although with limitations. To get all the unlimited content the cost is $30. Each creator has their own subscription, just like OnlyFans, and the company keeps 20%. There are other apps like Joi AI, SinfulX.AI and My.Club that offer similar content. Not just porn (but almost all porn). OhChat has already reached 400,000 users and has more than 350 creators (almost all women), although only 193 appear to us. Each avatar is marked with an icon indicating whether it offers explicit, topless, or ‘sexy’ content. The latter is what other types of profiles offer, such as the well-known actress Carmen Elektra or even influencers. However, the explicit content far exceeds the more restrained one; Doing a search we only found 35 avatars that offer sexy content and 109 that make explicit sexual content. Consensual deepfakes. The sexual deepfakes They have been making headlines for a long time now, there have been fines and even the government wants to regulate them. We recently witnessed the case of Grok and how filled X with photos of naked womenall without the consent of those affected, of course. Platforms like OhChat are presented as a way to create and monetize these deepfakes, without intermediaries. For creators, it is a way to generate passive income and, in the case of well-known profiles like Lisa Ann, continue exploiting their image without having to get in front of a camera. AI Relationships. This is just one more example of a trend that is increasingly gaining more presence, and that is People are making connections with AI. There are those who engage a friendly relationshipwho is looking for a romantic or, as in this case, simply sexual connection. Which In 2013 it was the plot of that great movietoday it is a reality for many people: AI has become an accompaniment and many companies have seen a business there. Image | Wikipedia, OhChat In Xataka | There are people cheating on their partners. Everything normal except because they are doing it with an AI

It has rained so much that Morocco has not looked so green for a decade

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That the first two months of 2026 it has rained a lot It is something that we can say because we have lived it in our flesh, but its impact is such that the Earth, or rather, the portions of it where rainfall has occurred almost continuously, has also suffered a before and after. You may notice that there is more vegetation or that the river is higher, but from space it looks better: this scar in the south of the peninsula It is magnificent proof of this. The European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel-3 continues to patrol the planet to record sea and land surface temperatures, sea level height and ocean color to study climate, oceans and terrestrial ecosystems. And in its sweep it has left a shocking image: the new and green Morocco. Precipitation in recent months in Morocco reached 360 millimeters at the beginning of February 2026, 54% above the average of the last 30 years and 215% more than in 2025, as reported by Swissinfothe international service of Swiss public radio and television. Torrential rains have given Morocco a respite With this rainy season, the Minister of Equipment and Water, Nizar Baraka, announced the end of a cycle of continuous seven-year drought that had wreaked havoc on agriculture and livestock. The situation was so critical that Morocco breathed a sigh of relief: the politician explained that with these rains the country was assured of up to three years of drinking water. Of course, like Spain, Morocco also suffered from floods like the one that occurred in the Loukkos basin (they reached maximum flows of almost 3200 cubic meters per second). From drought to orchard in the north of Morocco. Via: Copernicus Sentinel 3 As a picture says a thousand words, above these lines is the northeast of Morocco photographed by the Copernicus Sentinel-3 in mid-February 2025 in the middle of the drought and a year later. In 2025, the scarce vegetation was visible from space and now, after two months of intense rains, the terrain has been transformed into an expanse of green vegetation visible from space. The image on the left corresponds to February 20, 2025 and a generalized drought can be seen in practically the entire area. On the right, just a year later, you can see extensive vegetation. However, on February 20 of this year, available water resources reached 11.8 billion cubic meters, according to the data managed by the ESAwhich represents an increase of approximately 155% compared to the same period in 2025. These rains have also made it possible to fill the reservoirs, which has reached 70.7% of the total capacity of the dams. According to the Moroccan media Le Matinare figures that the North African country had not seen since 2018. Faced with this hydraulic pressure, the authorities have carried out various controlled preventive releases of water to protect the structures. But beyond ensuring its infrastructure, these rains have a direct impact on Morocco’s water economy: from consumption to the agricultural sector through hydroelectric plants. In Xataka | The brutal floods facing Portugal and western Spain, seen from space In Xataka | A 2.5 billion-year-old geological wonder: Zimbabwe’s Great Dam seen by NASA from space

Marc Murtra has been at the helm of Telefónica for a year and has done something that his predecessor did not achieve in a decade: slimming down the company

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Marc Murtra wears just over a year at the head of Telefónica and the 2025 numbers begin to validate its thesis: concentrate on four markets (Spain, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom) and avoid the rest. Group income have grown by 1.5%, up to 35,120 million eurosand the adjusted profit reaches 2,122 million. On paper, it works. Why is it important. Telefónica has done in two years what it was not able to do in a decade: get rid of Latin American ballasts (Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Ecuador…) and redraw its perimeter. The result is a smaller, but more predictable company. And in Spain, where it has not grown since 2008, it has once again shown signs of life: +1.7% in revenue, up to 13,012 million. The backdrop. The Álvarez-Pallete stage cut the debt of the Alierta stage by halfbut it was still a brutal debt and the company had a geographical dispersion that consumed a lot of management energy without a return that was far from proportional. Murtra has opted for surgery: sell assets, continue reducing debt (337 million less in 2025, it is already at 26,824 million) and bet on markets where Telefónica has real muscle. The logic is clear. And the execution, reasonably clean. Between the lines. Brazil is now the financial heart of the group, and that has implications that go beyond quarterly results. Vivo, Telefónica’s local brand in the country, has earned more than 1,000 million euros net in 2025, 11.2% morewith an Ebitda of 41.7% that would make any European telecom company blush. Its 5G network already covers two-thirds of the Brazilian population and leads the market by number of customers. Brazil should no longer be considered an emerging market with potential: right now it is the most mature and profitable asset that Telefónica has. There is also a background reading that the results do not make explicit but that the context does suggest: the demand for data in Latin America is accelerating precisely now due to the pull of AI: more consumption in the cloud, more traffic, more need for infrastructure. Telefónica has sold its Latin American subsidiaries just when that market may be entering a new phase of growth. It is the big question that presumably no one at Telefónica wants to answer openly. Main winner? Brazil, without a doubt, but also Spain. The domestic business has broken a curse of almost two decades and is beginning to generate cash in a stable manner. That debt goes down, albeit slowly, while income goes up, is the combination that the market has been waiting for for years. Main loser? The United Kingdom. Virgin Media O2 (VMO2), the joint venture in which Telefónica has 50%, has registered net losses of 1,852 million euros in 2025 (up from £19m the previous year) following a goodwill impairment charge of more than £1bn. Its income has fallen 5.3%. And by 2026, the company itself expects service revenue to drop between 3% and 5% more, dragged down by integration with Daisy Group in May 2025. The British telecommunications market is in a price war that has no easy winners, and VMO2 has been sailing against the tide for some time. The big question. Murtra has shown the ability to clean up the balance and simplify the map. What has not yet been demonstrated is that Telefónica can grow organically and sustainably in its four key markets. Spain and Brazil are making progress, but Germany continues to be a story of pending consolidation and the United Kingdom is getting complicated. The plan is well designed. Now it’s time to execute it. In Xataka | We need more and more data centers. And Telefónica is building them in its old telephone exchanges Featured image | Telephone

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