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Spain is full of cables that “don’t belong to anyone”

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The Los Gallardos fire, in Almería, is already the deadliest of the century in Spain: a dozen dead, some 6,600 hectares and 1,405 evicted. Many of the victims They appeared inside their carstrapped on a dead end road. And while the Civil Guard works to identify everyone and the INFOCA teams work to completely put out the fire, the public debate becomes increasingly intense. There will be many topics to analyze, but there is one in particular whose importance will be capital: the one that started it all, the cable that could have turned it all on. The cable theory. Almost from the first moment, the theory that a broken electricity cable could be the cause of the tragedy spread like wildfire. At dawn on Friday, Endesa sent a technical team and concluded that the cable was not its own. RedEléctrica was quick to add that it was not part of its transportation network either. As they explained, it would be a private low voltage connection which served an abandoned restaurant (bar Anita) decommissioned since 2009. According to the technicians, in fact, the cable should not have tension. And, of course, without tension there are no sparks. That The judicial experts have already made it clear: If there is no electrical charge circulating through the copper, it is physically impossible for the fires to originate there as described. This has opened the debate: was it really “without tension” as it appears in Endesa’s files or was it being used (“underhand”) to supply scattered farmhouses? We still don’t know, but (beyond the specific case of Los Gallardos) the interesting thing is the question it raises: how many cables like these are loose in Spain? What exactly happens with the cables? The first thing is to realize that we are facing a serious problem. And not exactly because the fraction of fires caused by cables are many, but because they tend to be very destructive. In California, for example, the cables are behind approximately half of the most destructive fires in its history despite causing less than 10% of ignitions. In Spain we do not have clear statistics, but some studies say that the figures are around the same percentages: in Aragon the power lines caused this year around 10% of accidental firesand WWF reports already place them among the causes of large fires. And no one does anything? Well, after the Guadalajara fires of 2005, the State forced the network owners to keep the margins of your lines clear and review them from time to time. However, the case of Los Gallardos highlights something about which we have reflected little: there are many lines that, on a practical level, belong to no one. That is the big problem: An old connection to a ruin, without maintenance and perhaps with informal current, can be a huge source of problems. And now what? Once responsibilities are resolved, there will be more pressure to monitor private power lines in forest areas (something that is frequently debated in California). But the solutions are always the same: finance prevention It is boring and, for this reason, we are spending 400 million a year in Spain when it would take ten or fifteen times more. Image | Dina Lydia In Xataka | The fire in Los Gallardos (Almería) reminds us of the car trap: it is not a shelter, it is a lethal oven

don’t make important decisions in a heat wave

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Ted Mosby from ‘How I Met Your Mother’ said that nothing good happens after 2 in the morning and it makes sense because tiredness and sleep are not good advisors. And if you are out and have had a drink, even more so: it is better not to send messages that you will later regret. Well, there is another time when it is better not to make important decisions: when it is very hot. I’m not saying it, science says it. Given how hot it is being this summer that has just begun, it is better to take it easy. Take it easy. In a study carried out by a research team from Monash Business School, they analyzed how temperature affects the ability to make rational decisions. The most striking fact is that it is not the hot days that affect the most, but the nights. More specifically, those with temperatures above 25°C. As we are suffering in our flesh these days, those torrid nights worsen the quality of sleep and the deprivation of rest takes its toll on cognitive performance the next day, especially affecting mathematical tasks necessary to evaluate economic risks. This relationship between sleep and cognition is not new: sleep deprivation impairs executive function, working memory, and impulse control. Why it is important. First, because throughout the day we make many decisions (most of them small) that, accumulated over time, can generate lasting consequences over time. An example: a compulsive purchase instead of saving it. Furthermore, the study shows that this effect distinguishes between social classes: it hits households with lower incomes hardest, where air conditioning (having it or turning it on) is a luxury. Thermal discomfort is not something specific: it is a reality that summers are getting hotter and the heat waves follow one another with greater intensity and they arrive more frequently. Context. For the study they used the Indonesian Family Life Survey, which uses data from thousands of families in the Asian country over years, along with temperature data from NASA satellites. This way they were able to discern daytime temperatures from nighttime temperatures. The work is part of research on climate and economic behavior: there is already evidence that heat lowers our productivity, but aggressiveness and risk behavior also increase. In detail. The mechanism that explains these bad decisions is lack of sleep and/or low-quality sleep. That deprivation It disproportionately affects numerical and calculation skills, more than other cognitive abilities. These mathematical skills are precisely those that support decisions about risk or that have their consequences in different time frames. Yes, but. The study focuses on a single country, with a particular climate and socioeconomic conditions, so extrapolation to other places requires some caution. In addition, there are other factors like pollution, the right hand of heatwhich also affect cognitive performance In Xataka | Your body suppresses your hunger at more than 40 degrees for a reason of pure survival: to prevent you from being “cooked” inside. In Xataka | The silent effect of the extreme heat wave: your usual drugs turn against you Cover | Vladislav Babienko and Immo Wegmann

“Check the insurance coverage carefully. You don’t always need the most expensive one”

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Summer is coming, the heat, trips to the beach and doubts in front of the rental car counter. Restrictions, company policies that you had not considered and insurance clauses that you did not imagine and that, of course, you can fix with a few more euros. But the latter is not always the best option. At least, that is what experts consider who are clear about what you should do: read the fine print and sign only if you are convinced. Rastreator, OCU and AXA agree on the latter. The first thing. “The first thing is to check what coverage the insurance offered by the rental company really includes, since, although all cars have mandatory insurance, it does not always protect against all unforeseen events,” he points out. Patricia Carrilspecialist Tracker. The insurance and rental car comparison company is clear that “it is not always necessary to hire the most expensive option to travel with peace of mind. A balanced insurance should cover damage to the vehicle, theft and civil liability, in addition to having an acceptable deductible. The franchise. The excess is the money that we will have to put out of our pocket if the car suffers an unforeseen event. Imagine that you rent a car and that the insurance has a deductible of 150 euros. This means that if the repair costs 80 euros, we will pay the 80 euros. But if the fix costs 1,000 euros, we will only have to face 150 euros. According to the OCU“companies offer Premium insurance by default, making it difficult for customers to find cheaper options” but, even so, there are many occasions in which they “require users to disproportionate bail (and they do not inform about the deadlines and conditions for returning that money)”. The restrictions. Another thing that is solved by reading carefully what we are hiring is being aware of the restrictions to which we submit as drivers. Francisco Olmedodirector of P&C Private Offering AXA Spain is clear that the most frequent are: The age and years of service of the driver: we must know if there are restrictions based on age or years of driving license since we run the risk that the insurance will not cover the damages. Road coverage: it is important to know well what the insurance covers if we have a problem on the road and if there is any type of mileage limitation. Know the criteria for the deductibles: Olmedo assures that “in the event of a blow to the front and another graze on the side, two accidents with two deductibles can be considered” so the driver would have to pay twice Do I add anything? For Rastreator, the most interesting thing is to add window and tire coverage because they are the most common, especially if you are going to drive for a long time, park on the street or travel on secondary roads. “The objective is to find the balance between protection and price; a policy that is too basic can be expensive if an unforeseen event arises,” they explain. In addition, we must be very clear about all the details that may affect our trip. If we are going to cross the border we must point it out because in some contracts you have to pay extra money. We can also add accessories such as children’s seats. An essential. What they are clear about at Rastreator is that theft coverage cannot be missing. “If the car disappears during the rental, the driver may have to bear a very high cost,” they explain. From OCU they point to another essential: knowing what we sign. They remember that in no case should a contract be signed without being clear about what is being signed and that the documents must be clear about details such as when a deposit is returned, how long the money can be withheld and in what amount to pay a deposit or the mandatory requirements to be met when returning the car such as maximum mileage or the level of the gasoline tank. Photo | Sixt In Xataka | $500 for a barely visible mark when handing over a rental car: companies are making a killing with AI scanners

Alibaba’s Qwen AI model is the new crown jewel. The only problem is that they don’t make money from it.

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Jack Ma he returned like a prodigal son to the international scene in February of last year. He did so at an event with the president of China, Xi Jinping, and that represented an important support for the technological leader. Since then his company, Alibaba, has not stopped flooding us with its open AI models, Qwen, but that strategy is having the same lights and shadows as its competitors. Devastates downloads. Alibaba launched its Qwen family of models in 2023 and released them with open weights almost immediately. That made them a perfect alternative to be able to use them locally and to also be able to tune them in all types of scenarios. In January 2026, Qwen was already the open AI model most downloaded in the world with close to a million daily downloads according to data from Hugging Face. By the end of 2025, Qwen was already the most downloaded open weight model in the world by far. Source: AI Base. But popularity does not equal income. In the first quarter of 2026, Alibaba indicated that it had obtained revenue of $1.3 billion related to AI, just 4% of its total revenue. The figure is very short, especially if we take into account that Alibaba plan to invest $55 billion in AI infrastructure by the end of 2027. Investors want profits now. Company shares have fallen 37% on the Hong Kong stock market this year: investors are clearly concerned about the lack of return on this bet on AI, something that we have also been seeing for some time in the US market. Internal divisions. The pressure to turn these open models into a business seems to be dividing Qwen’s own team. In March its chief engineer, Lin Junyang, announced his departure from the companyand he was followed by several key engineers amidst internal disagreements on how to monetize the model. The company has already started move token in the field of proprietary models: in April already released three of them in a few days. War with the US and Anthropic. Meanwhile, the company also faces external pressures. The Pentagon has included it on a blacklist of companies that Washington says support the Chinese military, something Alibaba denies. Additionally, Anthropic recently sent a letter to US senators accusing Alibaba of try to copy their technology using 24,000 fraudulent accounts. Alibaba has declined to comment on the matter. Alibaba has the same problem as OpenAI. Richard Lin, vice president of the company Datastrato, has been involved in the panorama of open AI models in China for some time, and his message reminds us of a palpable reality not only for that market, but for all startups and AI companies: “At the moment there are no AI companies with a sustainable business model. It is not a healthy industry.” The message is as true as it is forceful, but all AI companies would surely respond with what Zuckerberg said: “Losing a couple hundred billion dollars would be a bummer, but that’s better than being left behind in the race for superintelligence.” The funny thing is that they are both (probably) right. Image | qwen In Xataka | China’s open AIs aren’t “beating” ChatGPT, they’re doing something more important: catapulting their industry

how they differ and why they don’t let you sleep

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It is often said that any time in the past was better. Normally this phrase is the fruit of our tendency to idealize what has already happened. However, with The heat and hot nights are beginning to be an indisputable reality.. If we think of our past summer nights, we remember the tropical nights, in which the temperature does not drop below 20ºCas something specific. In the case of Spain, at least, they were isolated nights in which sleeping was a challenge. Now, however, they have not only become a norm that makes us live hugging the fanbut we have unlocked two other types of nights: equatorial and infernal. The name of the latter gives what it promises. Because of global warmingour nights have become hell; which, unfortunately for us, has only just begun. This affects our rest and, as a consequence, our performance during the day and our long-term health. It is no small feat, so it is worth looking for methods to sleep despite the high nighttime temperatures. Of course, before seeing what those methods may be, it is important to start at the beginning and learn what each type of night consists of. The night thermometer: difference between tropical, equatorial and infernal night As we have seen, when we talk about hot nights, there are three different types. Tropical night: It is what we were more or less used to, although not with the frequency of today. It occurs when temperatures do not drop below 20ºC throughout the night. Equatorial (or torrid) night: In this case, the mercury does not drop below 25ºC. It may not seem like much, but 5ºC is very noticeable. Normally these high night temperatures are reached by heating the sea water, heat island effect in cities or hot, dry winds. hellish night: The name delivers what it promises. Temperatures do not drop below 30ºC between dusk and dawn, so rest is much more complicated and the effects of heat even more dangerous than during the day in some cases. Why is it physically impossible to sleep in these temperatures? Our dream is governed by circadian cycles. These are 24-hour cycles with which many of our physiological functions are regulated. In the case of sleep, we sleep once a day, usually during the night. Therefore, when our brain detects that it has gotten dark, it begins to release melatonin, the hormone that helps us fall asleep. On the other hand, as daylight sets in, the release of this hormone is inhibited. But melatonin doesn’t tell us to close our eyes and put our brains in rest mode until the next day. This sleep stimulation takes place on many levels. For example, in order for us to sleep, our body temperature must drop a little. It is something that occurs naturally, thanks precisely to that release of melatonin. But of course, if the ambient temperature is very high, it is too complicated to maintain that ideal temperature for rest. This is why we have such a hard time sleeping on hot nights. The entire process is affected, although the most susceptible is REM sleepessential for a good rest. What happens to your body when you try to sleep at more than 25ºC? We have seen that the brain detects when it is day and night, but how does it do it? There are actually several factors. The most intuitive is the entry of light through the retina. If there is light, it is interpreted as daytime and when it decreases it is associated with night. This is the reason why having rooms that are too lit at night, especially with blue light, makes it difficult for us to fall asleep. However, light is not the only indicator of day and night. The brain is also guided by temperatureswhich normally rise during the day and descend at night. It is not usual for the temperature to be above 25ºC at night. That’s why, circadian rhythms get out of whack and cannot fall asleep properly. If melatonin were released in adequate quantities, it would lower the temperature even further, but when it is very hot not enough is released, so everything becomes a vicious circle. In addition, the hypothalamus, which is our first center for regulating body temperature, continues to work at full capacity. It must continue working so that our body does not get too hot, so remains overactivated and we cannot rest. As you see, everything leads to the same thing. With the high night temperatures we cannot rest. The ideal temperature to fall asleep according to science With everything we have seen above, it is clear that there is an ideal temperature to fall asleep. If it is too high, circadian cycles become unbalanced, while excessive cold does not help us sleep either. That’s why, the sleep foundations recommendation is maintain the temperature of the rooms in which we sleep between 15.6ºC and 20ºC. The open window on hot nights does not help, since even tropical nights, the least severe, rise above that range. The map of sleepless nights in Spain: the most affected areas The areas most affected by hot nights are mainly the Mediterranean regions, the Guadalquivir basin, the community of Madrid and Extremadura. Also are becoming increasingly common in the Canary Islandswhere an increase in hellish nights is even beginning to be detected. The Mediterranean and the Guadalquivir Valley: the “hot spots” of summer In the Mediterranean highlights the case of the hellish nights in the province of Almeríawhere in June 2026 there have been four consecutive nights with temperatures above 30ºC. In the Guadalquivir Valley and regions close to its basin they are not far behind. Although there they are standing out more due to the maximum temperatures than the minimum ones, so far this summer tropical nights have already been recorded in places like Écija, belonging to the province of Seville. In any case, its particular hell occurs during the day, with maximum temperatures well above 40ºC. … Read more

If you don’t have glasses for the solar eclipse, this homemade box made with cardboard and aluminum foil works just as well.

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If you plan to see the solar eclipse on August 12, you will surely have already been researching methods to see it safely. To look directly at the Sun, x-rays, photographic negatives or any of the tricks that were recommended in the past are not useful. We can hurt our eyes a lot. Only approved glasses are valid. However, if you do not have or do not want to buy them, you can always resort to indirect methods, such as pinhole camera. It is an ideal method to use with children, since you can see the solar eclipse without risk And, what’s more, they have a good time making the box. Of course, it is a perfect plan to do as a family. We tell you everything you need to do it. Materials The materials to make the pinhole camera are very simple. First of all, you need a cardboard box. It may be worth an empty cereal container or shoe box. You also need a white piece of paper, a piece of aluminum foil, tape, a pencil, scissors and a thumbtack. How is the pinhole camera made? To make the pinhole camera, first we need to draw one of the shortest sides of the cardboard box on the sheet of paper. For example, the base of the cereal box. We place it on the sheet of paper, draw the outline and then cut it out. We must glue the resulting piece of paper inside, on the bottom of the box. Next, at the opposite end of the box, two square-shaped holes should be made. If we have a cereal box, which has that side open, we would have to glue a piece of cardboard in the middle, so that the two square openings on the sides can be seen. In this NASA publication there is a video that shows how it should look.. Then, cover one of the openings with aluminum foil secured with adhesive tape. Also, make a small hole in the center of the aluminum foil with a thumbtack. With this the pinhole camera would be ready. How to use it to view the solar eclipse? To use the pinhole camera we must position ourselves with our backs to the sun and look through the hole that doesn’t have aluminum foil. The sun’s rays enter through the small hole in the aluminum foil, which acts as if it were the lens of a camera, so that the image behind it is projected on the blank paper that we place at the bottom of the box. It should be noted that, logically, this device only works during partial solar eclipse. When totality is reached and the Moon completely covers the Sun, there is hardly any light that can enter through the hole, so there will be no projections to look at. The good thing is that, only during that totality, you can look at the sun directly, without glasses. Of course, you have to be very clear when the totality begins and when it ends, since with very little light we can damage our retinas. In short, this is a good way to indirectly see the partial solar eclipse without the need for approved glasses. If you are in one of the places within the band of totality, once it begins, you can look at the Sun directly, but be careful not to go too far. Unless you are in a town like Lerín, where The bells will ring to warn when totality begins and endsget away from the slightest ray that appears. Image | POT In Xataka | The trio of eclipses that await Spain on the horizon: an unprecedented and historic chain between 2026 and 2028

Fed up with AI, a programmer created a chat where 16,000 people pretend to be ChatGPT so they don’t have to use it

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I don’t need to tell you that the old internet is long dead: first, centralized in social networks and their respective algorithms. Then, with artificial intelligence: There is already more content generated by artificial intelligence than by humans. In fact, even the omnipresent Google search engine gives you the answer in its AI mode whenever it can. What times were those when the best of human wisdom was condensed in a forum thread in a disinterested way and how authentic content created by humans is missing in an internet increasingly dominated by material made by machines but, yesIf you can’t beat him, join himso if the AI ​​is stealing your work, why not become a ChatGPT with legs and steal it from it? This ChatGPT is very human. Is called “Your AI Slop Bores Me” (your AI garbage bores me) and it is a real call to quality, intention and human effort: a chat interface in Comic Sans, a box where you can ask your question or draw for the AI ​​and a “model” behind it that has the mission of answering you in less than 60 seconds. Except for one small detail: behind it there is a person who has decided to adopt that role because this is a parody of the many chatbots with AI that exist and we often use. Although hey, since you part with a couple of credits to ask and they run out quickly, sooner rather than later you will have to turn the tables and become a fast, responsive AI (Larp mode). Be careful, the answers receive evaluation. It’s a kind of reverse Touring test. This web game created by Mihir Maroju became a phenomenon: it was launched in March of this year and in its first week there were already 16,000 concurrent users in real time, like pick up Fast Company. In fact, its dev explains that the success was such that he had to update servers. The only thing missing is that you need your own data center. Your AI Slope Bores me interface Why is it important. Because if the internet brought us the word spam, AI has done the same with “slop”: that filth vomited without care. And boy do we complain: according to an analysis by TRG Datacentersmentions of the term ‘AI slop’ on networks grew to reach 2.4 million this year. The Merriam-Webster he chose it Word of the Year 2025. But this experiment is proof that the old internet is still alive: people who don’t gain followers, likes, or money for helping and still continue to respond. It is, in a way, a way to recover the dynamics of internet forums before the attention economy of networks: places where help was not measured by engagement. Context. The game has more to it than it seems because it gamifies a real problem on today’s internet. At the beginning of the year, Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, declared that reducing slop and detecting deepfakes were absolute priorities for the platform. And it is no wonder: a recent investigation by New York Times has uncovered that after watching popular children’s content on YouTube, 40% of the videos recommended below were AI slop. Low-quality content generated by artificial intelligence is already a reality that floods everything and not even the academic world is spared. Now, in AI mode. Your AI Slope Bores Me In detail. The tutorial on how to play It is a veiled criticism of AI and its ways of writing. Thus, he recommends starting the texts with the now mythical “As an AI language model”, the use of excessively polite phrases or directly hallucinating. The game turns the systemic flaws of LLMs into playable mechanics. The design of the website is deliberately minimalist and tacky, it does not require a download, it works on any browser and device and works in real time and multiplayer. But there is a phenomenon under this game that was unexpected and yet it is happening: that chat format and anonymity, because there is no need to create an account and there is no history, encourages people to ask more personal questions and on the other side there are people willing to answer just because, altruistically. Yes, but. The game has certain limitations: that credit mechanic creates some friction and imbalance, because if there are too many people running in AI mode and not enough people sending questions, you can be left fallow for a long time. On the other hand, and although it is done with humor, today it is increasingly difficult to distinguish what an AI has written and what not: looking for the tickling of the models is increasingly complicated due to their training and debugging. Finally, the experience is somewhat marred by ads. In Xataka | Sam Altman laments that the internet is full of AI and bots: the irony is that he is one of the most responsible In Xataka | 20 years later, if you want to find something on the Internet you search for it on Reddit Cover | Your AI Slop Bores me with Gemini

an ideal ergonomic chair if you don’t like those that are rigid like the Markus from Ikea

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This Prime Day we are seeing very good offers on all types of devices, such as mobile phones either fans and air conditioners. But what if you need a new chair? If you are looking an office chairthen it may suit you Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2a chair that has only been available for a few weeks and that we have on sale on Amazon until 449.99 euros. If you’d rather save a little more, it’s available in the Sihoo store for 429.99 euros. Now, using the code ‘SihooXa6’, its price remains at 404.19 euros. Keep in mind that the promo will be available only until next July 1. SIHOO Doro C300V2 Ergonomic Office Chair, Mesh Desk Chair with 8D Armrest, Lumbar Support, Computer Chair with 3D Headrest, Tilt for Home Office The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The best price for a chair that ‘follows’ you so you are well supported The RRP of this chair is 519.99 euros, so we have a quite interesting discount on this office chair. What it proposes is different from other very popular chairs, such as the Markus from Ikea. Share with her some points in common, but it’s not as static as this. We say this because this chair (and others of this type), when you move a little, you are no longer supported correctly. Its structure has four coordinated zones that are always in contact with your body. These are: head, back, lumbar and arms. This system, called DynaCore, is maintained even when we recline the back of the chair if we want to adopt a more comfortable position during a moment of rest, for example. It reclines, specifically, up to 135 degrees. Another point that characterizes this chair is that it adjusts to you, but automatically. It has a lever to raise the height or inclination of the backrest, like most chairs. However, the backrest slides to match the shape of the back and adjusts to it. This way, if several people use the same chair at home, you won’t have to configure this aspect all the time. The headrest is quite large and flexible, so it is not difficult for us to have this part of the body well supported. His seat, furthermore, can be adjusted in depthsomething we don’t usually see in office chairs like the Markus from Ikea. That’s key for people with very long or short legs. The Sihoo Doro C300 Pro V2 has very configurable armrests that the brand calls ‘8D armrests’. These move backwards, forwards, up and down. Most armrests already do this, but those of the Sihoo can also be configured a little more depending on the position we are going to take. For example: if we recline and have a book in our hand, we can adjust the armrest to support both the elbow and the forearm. Finally, mention the fabric of the chair. With how hot it is right now, it is important that our chair has a breathable fabric that does not stick to your skin. This Sihoo has breathable mesh, so we will not have any type of problem in that regard. Finally, it is a chair that has breathable mesh as the main fabric. It is not that it is the only chair on the market to use this, but it is what ideal in hot environments and now that it’s starting to get hot everywhere. In addition, we cannot forget that Sihoo offers a 30-day free trial and a three-year warranty. All this, added to the fact that the chair has a 30-day trial and three-year warranty, makes it a very interesting office chair for those looking for something different from other more popular options. And more, now that it has a discount. Other Sihoo chairs that may interest you SIHOO M57 Ergonomic Office Chair with 3D Armrests, Lumbar Support and Adjustable Headrest, Synchronized Tilt Function and High Backrest – Light Gray The price could vary. We earn commission from these links SIHOO Doro S300 Ergonomic Office Chair, Gaming Chair with Dual Dynamic Lumbar Support, 6D Coordinated Armrests, Adjustable Swivel Chair White(Ships in Two Separate Packages) 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 | Sihoo In Xataka | Buying guide on how to make your home workplace ergonomic In Xataka | How to set up your home office: buying guide for stands, monitors and other peripherals, cables, headphones and more

The Government is already debating whether or not to extend fuel aid. If you don’t do it we will pay 15 euros more to fill the tank

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Next Monday, June 29, the Council of Ministers will debate whether to extend the fuel tax reduction beyond June 30, which was the established deadline. If you don’t do it, filling the tank in the middle of a vacation trip is going to hurt us a lot more than it does now. Fuel aid. In March, the Government approved a package of urgent measures to stop the rise in energy prices caused by the war between the United States and Iran. The most visible for the driver was the reduction in VAT on fuel from 21% to 10%, accompanied by a reduction in the special tax on hydrocarbons. These measures expire on June 30 and the Government has to decide now what to do with them. What is being studied. According to share From ABC, the Ministry of Economy is considering maintaining VAT at 10% for at least three more months, that is, until September. A gradual withdrawal of aid is also being studied to avoid the so-called rocket effectthat is, a sudden increase in prices from one day to the next in the middle of the high travel season. What happens if it is not extended. According to the calculations of the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers (CEEES), the elimination of all aid would mean an increase in the price of 29 cents per liter for gasoline and 22 cents for diesel. With current prices (around 1.46 euros per liter for gasoline and 1.53 for diesel) both fuels would rise to 1.74 euros per liter. In this way, filling a 55-liter tank would go from costing around 70 euros to close to 90. And the blow would come right in the middle of the summer operation. The diesel thing is delicate. The Iran crisis has caused a liter of diesel to cost more than gasoline, something quite unusual taking into account the lower taxation of diesel in comparison. Although the price has fallen for four consecutive weeks, it still remains 5% above what it cost before the start of the conflict, according to collect ABC. If the reduction in the special tax on hydrocarbons is withdrawn, diesel has a good chance of once again overcoming the psychological barrier of 2 euros. Why it is not so easy to extend it. The Government cannot extend these measures on its own because it needs the support of Congress. That means negotiating with the investiture parties, including Junts and the PNV, something that already generated tension in March when the first decree was approved. On the other hand, there is also external pressure, since the Bank of Spain pointed out Just a few days ago, Spain has been the country in the European Union that has mobilized the most public resources in response to this crisis (0.25% of GDP), criticizing that 75% of the measures are not focused on the most affected, but are of a general nature, as is precisely the case with the VAT reduction. The European Commission and the Treasury technicians (GESTHA) also have recommended withdrawing these subsidies considering them contrary to the energy transition. What does the transportation sector ask for? The Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM) already has asked that any extension explicitly includes the transport of goods by road. In a statement, the organization warns that “leaving transportation outside of these measures would mean ignoring the sector on which a good part of the country’s economic activity is based.” In addition, the CETM demands that the commitment to pay 20 cents per liter of fuel promised to the sector be made effective. What does the president say? Pedro Sanchez has advanced that the new decree will be “to protect the productive fabric and also the citizens”, although without specifying the exact scope of the measures. The Government warns that, even with a peace agreement between the United States and Iran, the economic effects of the conflict will continue to pressure prices for weeks or months. Cover image | Roberto Rodríguez and engin akyurt In Xataka | In February, historic rains broke the roads. Málaga has just received the go-ahead to repair the A-7 and A-45

“We don’t want to reinvent space travel. What we have to do is make it profitable”

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Although AI gurus, former prime ministers of Italy and the United Kingdom and CEOs of giant companies are passing through the Vivatech stages, the figure that has attracted the most attention is Jeff Bezos. The main theater of the event was packed as has not happened with any other speaker. Even Yann LeCun, the so-called ‘godfather of AI‘, he had to speak to some empty seats. On that stage, alongside Bezos were David Limp, CEO of Blue Origin, and Mike Massiminoformer NASA astronaut and the one who asked the questions. The first was obvious: the feeling behind the explosion of the brand new New Glenn rocket of Bezos. The answer was not so obvious, with the tycoon pointing out that the team ‘celebrated’ it in a rather curious way. And the conversation soon focused on the main point of the talk: build the roads to go to space. Because Blue Origin is in the same race as SpaceXbut also in the same competition as Chinathe race to find a way to reduce launch costs so much that it is viable to constantly put things into orbit. And, apart from infinite money, you only need one thing that Rajoy already said at the time, finding a way to make more of those machines that make the machines that make rockets. And this is where Prometheus, Bezos’s new AI company, has to do. so much controversy is awakening. The Moon as a space gas station “People underestimate (whatever)” was a phrase that was repeated up to three times during the talk. Because Bezos and Limp came to Paris to make it clear that what they are doing is very difficult, but that it is a great leap for humanity. After talking about the New Glenn explosion, Massimino said “everyone wants to go to the Moon”, and there Bezos expanded because the phrase touches on one of the three key points of Blue Origin’s objective in space exploration (and the rest of the countries and companies that are on the same path). “We will go to Mars and do other things, but the Moon is the first step, the first base“he commented. There are several reasons. The first, according to the businessman, is that “it is close and we can go in three and a half days and also return in three and a half days. We do not have to wait for it to align with the Earth as happens with Mars. And the reason why we would want to go (and to stay, no less) is because, although he did not say it explicitly, it was printed in the message: the Moon is a space gas station. We have already said on several occasions that our satellite has a lot of resources that we can use, and the most recent missions have focused, in part, on collecting and studying samples of lunar soil to see what can be done with that material called regolith. “Now that we are going to go to the Moon to stay, not just to visit it, we need to build fuel with materials that are on the Moon. With electrolysis we can create liquid hydrogen and that is the goal: to create fuel from raw materials on the Moon“, commented Bezos. Because that is the first step to, from there, launch missions further away, such as to Mars. The reason is that it is ‘cheaper’ to launch rockets from the Moon than from the Earth due to gravity. The rocket does not need as much fuel to take off or as much force, so it is much easier and costs are greatly reduced. The problem is that loading the tanks with liquid hydrogen to go to Mars has the disadvantage that it is a fuel that takes up a lot of space and it is not feasible to leave so loaded from Earth. “If we want to explore space and make colonies on Mars, the Moon is the first step” That’s where the Moon comes into play again. Because that’s what this is all about: “We don’t want to reinvent space travel. These trips were surpassed 60 years ago. What we want to do is make them profitable. That’s what Blue Origin is focusing on.” Extracting the materials also comes into play. “The Moon’s gravity is much lower, so you can extract those materials using 28 times less energy per kilo than you would need on Earth.” What keeps a billionaire who wants to play with rockets up at night But we must not lose sight of something: this is a business, and Bezos points out that there are many players who want to go to space, but not all of them can make rockets. And there are companies like yours or Musk’s. “Neoconstellations of satellites, resources on the Moon and in low orbit – solar panels, space data centers -, missions on the Moon to stay… there is a lot of demand. I think people greatly underestimate the demand for space travel,” he said. Beyond the Moon and that Martian objective, he is right in pointing out that low orbit is looking like an electric station during Easter. United States and China are launching military and communication satellites, but Europe does not want to be left behind and Russia, India and Japan are in the same competition. The law of “who comes first, gets the spot” prevails here, and everyone wants to get there first. “We are in the golden age to achieve the objective. It already happened years ago with the US getting ahead of the Soviets. Now it is going to happen again” The point is that, as Bezos comments, “if the launches are very expensive, the satellites must have a very long life and remain behind technologically, but if we make upload is cheaperwe can speed up times. Limp went on to say that reusable rockets are the way to create these mega satellite constellations, but beyond the problem of fuel, … Read more

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