soldiers who save lives don’t have medals, they unlock the deadliest weapons

At the beginning of November Ukraine updated the bloodiest game of the nation, that kind of “Amazon of war” where it borrowed the idea of ​​video games and their reward systems, granting points to its soldiers for eliminating enemy troops. Those points later could be exchanged for weapons and systems. Now, in a twist, the greatest reward does not come from an accurate shot, it comes from saving lives. War innovation. The war in Ukraine has entered a phase in which the technologythe incentive systems and management human resources they intertwine. The scenario is no longer defined only by the clash of armies, but by the ability of a country to transform its internal processes, accelerate the arrival of equipment to the front and keep together a military force subjected to extreme wear and tear. In this framework, the appearance of digital platforms capable of rewarding tactical actions, prioritizing the protection of lives and compressing the logistics chain in a matter of days reveals a country that is trying to compensate for numerical inferiority with structural innovation (ethics are more debatable). The morality. At the same time, this development occurs in a military theater where Russian pressure It’s intensewhere entire cities risk being isolated and where the political leadership is forced to decide between holding symbolic positions or preserve your soldiers for more sustainable lines. The convergence of both phenomena defines a war dynamic in which technology not only shapes the offense and defense, but also the moral and strategic considerations that determine each retreat, each advance and each sacrifice. Amazon and its new incentives. We told it at the beginning, the digitization of the war effort Ukrainian has crystallized into a system of rewards and acquisitions capable of altering the way units obtain weapons, electronic systems and tactical material. The platform Brave1 Market It allows any unit, from drone brigades to mechanized infantry battalions, to directly request equipment from manufacturers that previously depended on slow bureaucratic chains, with deadlines incompatible with the urgency of the front. Their catalogues, which cover weapons more expensive and deadly of the nation, have everything from drones to UGVs, electronic warfare systems, cameras, batteries, motors and satellite communications, devices that are constantly renewed as companies and volunteers integrate new technologies. The result is an almost instantaneous shopping environment, financed by the state but guided by the immediate needs of those who fight. The speed of the model, added to the monitoring of points accumulated by units throughout the country, has generated an internal competition that accelerates the incorporation of innovations and creates incentives to execute missions of high tactical impact. Some of the weapons and robots that can be redeemed in Brave1 Unlock save lives. Thus, on a front where medical evacuations have become one of the most lethal tasks due to the proliferation of reconnaissance and attack drones, unmanned ground vehicles have acquired a decisive relevance. These robots are capable of enter beaten areas by artillery or monitored by kamikaze drones, towing wounded from exposed positions, transporting ammunition and carrying out demolition missions against vehicles and fortified points. Expansion of the reward system to privilege the rescue Companionship introduces a change in focus: saving lives takes a central place in the incentive structure, generating not only practical effects on survival, but also psychological effects on troops fighting in an increasingly automated environment. This priority is reinforced with unit testimonials which have already experienced successful rescues, although not exempt from risks derived from the loss of signal or the need to operate in complex terrain. The strategic dilemma. And as innovation advances, the country faces repeated decisions about the fate of its most contested urban positions. Cities like Bakhmut either Avdiivka demonstrated that holding out for months can inflict severe losses on Russian forces, but also that prolonging the defense after losing supply routes leads to unsustainable attrition. With Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad threatened by Russian advances that seek progressive encirclement, the dilemma resurfaces between resisting to delay the enemy push or withdrawing to preserve essential units in a war of attrition. The difference between holding a position and losing an entire contingent of soldiers is measured in corridors increasingly narrowersubjected to continuous bombings and assaults by Russian groups that take advantage of the staff shortage Ukrainian to infiltrate weakened lines. This pattern has already been repeated in several scenarios where late withdrawal has led to captures, massive losses and the rapid fall of deep fortifications. The fragility of the defenses. The recent Russian advance in different sectors shows Moscow’s ability to exploit gaps that have emerged after months of continuous pressure. The reduction of troops Due to the prolonged defense of urban areas, it can result in an unexpected weakening of subsequent lines, which, if they do not receive reinforcements in time, are exposed to deeper ruptures. In areas such as southwest Donetsk and parts of Zaporizhzhia, Russian forces have captured several settlements in a short periodtaking advantage of both the Ukrainian wear and tear like weather conditions that limit the use of surveillance drones. The possibility that units trapped in cities under siege cannot withdraw affects not only the local balance, but also the entire defensive architecture of the eastern front, where the loss of trained personnel outweighs the loss of territory in a long-term war. A war of technological adaptation. If you like, the combination of a digitized incentive systemthe rise of ground robots and the relentless pressure about strategic cities draws a war in which innovation and survival are closely linked. The accelerated adoption of technologies distributed among brigades, the ability to purchase material in hours and the rescue prioritization Through multiplied rewards they form a network war model that attempts to compensate for resource asymmetry with organizational agility. It happens that this modernization develops in parallel to a front where the territorial decisions They involve the possibility of losing hundreds of soldiers in weeks, where the lack of trained personnel limits each counterattack and where withdrawal or prolonged resistance … Read more

If you don’t want to delete photos, videos or files, these cloud storage services can give you extra space

Horror: you go to take a photo and discover that your mobile phone already has the storage full. There is always the option of deleting applications or files from it, but we don’t always want to get rid of information from our phone. The best solution is to opt for a cloud storage service: They are safe and there are some with very interesting extras. For this reason, we are going to talk to you about some options that may fit you if you are looking for one of these storages. pCloud The first option we bring you is pCloudone that may not be as popular as others on this list, but that works very well. It is a service that we can use on both MacOS, Windows and Linux as well as on mobile phones. In fact, its app allows you to automatically synchronize images or videos to upload them without doing anything else. It also allows you to make backup copies with pCloud and it even has a new photo editor included in all its plans. Another very interesting point about pCloud is the enormous variety of plans and modalities that we have available. The most economical way to get this service is its Premium subscription, which gives 500 GB storage for alone 4.99 euros per month. We can opt, if we prefer, for annual modalities or even for ones that are for life, more economical in the long run. pCloud monthly subscription The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Drive Almost all of us, for one reason or another, have a Google account. That is already an argument in favor of us using Google Drivethis company’s cloud storage service. It is a service that is characterized by being secure and very convenient to use, regardless of whether we want to store photos or videos. In addition, it is also perfect if we are looking to have collaborative documents. For free, we have 15 GB that we can use however we want. It is a small figure if we are photography lovers or we usually record video in 4K resolution, so we can get one of their payment plans. In that case, we can have 100 GB storage by 0.49 euros per month (for three months, then it costs 1.99 euros per month). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Dropbox When looking for cloud storage, it’s impossible not to consider Dropbox. Depending on the plan we choose from all the ones it has, it allows you to restore deleted files (up to 1 year for its Advanced plan). Furthermore, its interface is very fast and easy to use, also allowing you to transfer files up to 100 GB. This service also allows you to choose whether you want annual or monthly billing. Focusing on its prices, the cheapest thing we can hire Dropbox is for 11.99 euros per month. In exchange, we will have 2 TB of storagea figure that is not bad at all. There are also modalities that allow you to share the subscription with other users. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OneDrive If, in addition to sending photos or videos with your mobile phone, you plan to use the cloud with a Windows PC, OneDrive may interest you. One of its best features is being able to access your files from the same Explorer of this operating system. Besides, integrates with Microsoft 365 to be able to collaboratively edit Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents in real time. This service has a free option, one that only offers 5 GB of cloud storage. If we want more, we have your Microsoft 365 Basic plan available for 20 euros a year, thanks to which we will have 100 GB storage. It is a good option that is also available for iOS and Android. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iCloud If we have one or more Apple devices at home, then we may be interested in having iCloud with us (although we can also use it with other operating systems). It is a very interesting platform that stands out for offering a simple, minimalist and very intuitive user experience. In addition, it allows you to store backup copies of Apple devices. For free, we only have 5 GB of storage. If we want more, then we should upgrade to one of the iCloud+ plans. The cheapest version that this platform has comes out for 0.99 euros per month and offers in exchange 50GB storage. If we want more, we have two others that offer 200 GB and 2 TB, respectively. 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 | Etienne Girardet on UnsplashpCloud, Dropbox, iCloud, Google Drive, OneDrive In Xataka | How I organize my life in the “cloud”: the platforms and organization methods used by Xataka editors In Xataka | Google One, Dropbox, OneDrive, iCloud and all the options, face to face

30,000 lightning strikes, orange warnings and severe events: don’t call it ‘squall line’, call it ‘new normal’

During the early morning and early hours of this Wednesday, November 5, the arrival of a cold front to the Peninsula has caused a very active squall line throughout the southwest. And, in this case, saying “very active” is not an exaggeration: the images that they come to us from Portugal they are incredible and at the moment, he is heading to Extremadura and Western Andalusia. The interesting thing is that we no longer talk about meteorological information, we begin to enter the field of Okay, but what is a squall line? This is an organized storm system that, often ahead of a cold front, forms in a line. Due to its structure, this phenomenon causes strong and destructive winds, torrential rains, hail and lightning. In addition, they are characterized by advancing very quickly and being able to cause significant damage. In Xataka The "tropicalization" of the atmosphere is going to change Spain and not exactly for the better And so it has been. Portugal’s Civil Protection recorded more than 150 nighttime incidents and, as the Portuguese press explainedit is not just the problems caused by the rain and wind; is that tens of thousands of electric shocks have been recorded. About 30,000 in a few hours. Given this, AEMET activated orange noticesin Galicia, Extremadura and Andalusia. In addition, 122 Extremadura is prepared for rains of 5–20 l/m² in very short periods of time. It’s not a lot of water, but in these circumstances it can cause a lot of problems. Aren’t we talking about autumn showers? No, we are not talking about loose showers: it is an organized convection capable of producing severe gusts, hail and wet blowouts. They are formations that trigger the risk on urban areas, electrical networks and mobility. It’s another episode of “This is not just an Atlantic storm” that has been with us for weeks now. It is true that November is a typical month for hallways in the southwest; but the data suggests that we are facing something more. {“videoId”:”x89b35l”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”PROFESSIONAL STORM CHASERS_ this is their daily life”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”400″} What is really happening? In technical terms, we are talking about the arrival of an Atlantic trough and cold front with sufficient shear to organize convection and force a quasi-linear system. Ambient humidity does the rest and that is the key. As we said a few days agothat area of ​​the peninsula is prone to low convergences that, with adequate shear and sufficient humidity,They organize convectively very easily. As connections with the Gulf of Mexico (the famous ‘rivers of moisture’) become more common and, with them, the available humidity grows: these systems will become more frequent and more intense. It is the same as occurs in the Mediterranean with DANAs: It doesn’t matter if climate change causes more or not, the amount of “available fuel” makes any spark turn into a fire. Meteorologically speaking, of course. Image | Carlos Virazón (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news 30,000 lightning strikes, orange warnings and severe events: don’t call it ‘squall line’, call it ‘new normal’ was originally published in Xataka by Javier Jimenez .

Memes have become so self-referential and I don’t understand that anyone has had an idea: a Great Reset

Have you ever felt like you don’t understand memes like you used to? What the hell is that thing Italian Brainrot? No, wait, that’s already out of fashion and has been replaced by another even more cryptic and incomprehensible trend. If you have been on the internet for a few years, you undoubtedly miss the times of some sillier and simpler memes. Those who defend a Great Reset of Memes by 2026 also believe that. And return to the times of epistemological simplicity in memetics. The GMR is coming. In January 2026, an internet cultural phenomenon known as ‘The Great Meme Reset of 2026’ is planned. This viral phenomenon, originating mainly on TikTok, proposes that the online community reboot humor and memes, returning to the memorable classics of the 2010s, in particular the iconic memes of the second half. This is a reaction to the saturation and wear and tear of recent memes, which are perceived by many users as forced, uncreative and unfunny. What we know lately as “brainrot”, and which has a lot to do with automatic and somewhat artificial creativity of AIs. What is intended? The idea of ​​this restart is to leave behind the current landscape of “niche” memes that dominate platforms like TikTok and that, according to their critics, accelerate the lifespan of memes too quickly, which last only a few days. The reset advocates a return to memes considered “dank” or “pure”, such as shrek things, Big Chungushe Trospid Knuckles either the legendary Sanicthe Rage Comics (unequivocal symbol that you are of an age) or the so-called Montage Parodiespure angst generational in terms of image and sound, and that marked meme culture in its first digital years. How it started. The origin of the “Great Meme Reset of 2026” is in March 2025, within an increasingly frustrated digital community. The first and involuntary starting signal was given on TikTok, when @joebro909 posted a video which addressed a sort of meme “drought”, proposing a “great reset” to save meme culture. Although it did not specify the date of 2026 or a complete renewal towards classic memes, it introduced the idea to the community of meme creators as a Trojan Horse. This concept took shape and gained popularity on social networks throughout 2025. In April, on Reddit They began to allude to the need to make this reset a reality in meme culture, specifically citing the idea of ​​returning to old memes. In September the campaign took off in a more clear and organized waywith several videos on TikTok proposing December 31, 2025 as the deadline for modern memes, and hoping that classic memes from the early years of the internet would return in 2026. This launch was reaffirmed by a viral video by @golden._vr, which accumulated almost 370,000 likesin which it was announced that upon December 31, 2025, memes would “return from the grave” and meme culture would be restarted from scratch in 2026. It’s all a huge joke, of course, but it reveals a point of view and a generational conflict. Memetics as culture shock. There is a clear generational gap in the way humor is conceived and consumed on the internet: on the one hand, classic memes played with conciseness and standardized formats, templates; On the other hand, the current phenomenon of brainrot It is an uncontrolled torrent of self-referential content that devours itself, and that has a total disconnection from the previous humor. They are two ways of understanding not the digital, but directly the observation of reality. The millennials come the brainrot like the degeneration of humor: noise, worthless content, a sign of the damage that perverse overexposure to the Internet has done, and they demand meaning and coherence. Generation Z and Alpha find 2010s memes dated, slow, and too literal. He brainrot It is his way of reflecting the chaotic, fragmented and accelerated reality of the Internet, where logic is an obsolete concept. The joke is that there is no joke. And we are not going to agree on that, not even with a reset. In Xataka | Neither left nor right: Charlie Kirk’s murderer did so motivated by a labyrinthine subculture of memes

If we don’t see aliens it is because of our “epistemological limitations”

What if aliens are everywhere, but we are cognitively unable to perceive them? A Serbian philosopher has proposed a disturbing solution to the Fermi paradox: The answer is not in the universe, but in the limits of our own brain. Where is everyone? The Fermi Paradox is one of the most famous questions in modern science. The universe is immense and very ancient. The lights we see in the sky are billions of galaxies and trillions of planets. By mere statistics, intelligent life should be common. If this is so, why haven’t we found the slightest evidence of it? Why haven’t we seen its megastructures, caught its signals or received visitors? “Where is everyone?” physicist Enrico Fermi asked in 1950. The Great Filter. There are many brilliant minds who have dared to use the Fermi Paradox. Many of the answers fall under what has come to be known as “The Great Filter”: something that prevents the development of a higher level civilization in the Kardashev scale. Perhaps advanced civilizations tend to annihilate themselves in nuclear wars, or perish in the face of lethal climate change before they can colonize the galaxy. Perhaps the conditions that allowed life here are an unrepeatable cosmic coincidence. We are alone because we are a rare bird. The ego can get us. All of these solutions have a root problem: they are deeply anthropocentric. They assume that other intelligent life forms are like us, that they use technology that we can detect. What if the great silence of the cosmos was nothing more than the result of searching for radio signals when the intelligent life we ​​seek communicates across dimensions we cannot even imagine? We are dumb as worms. This is where the proposal of the Serbian philosopher Vojin Rakić, published in the International Journal of Astrobiology. Rakić calls it the “solution to enduring human epistemological limitations.” The key is in the term “epistemological”, which in the theory of knowledge is how we know what we know and what the limits of our perception are. Extraterrestrial life could be so radically different from us that it simply our brain is not equipped to recognize it. We are to aliens what worms are to us. So? Well, if Rakić is right, there isn’t much to do. We look for little green men in flying saucers, but intelligent life could exist as a form of non-physical consciousness, an interdimensional energy network, or an intelligence based on dark matter. Rakić uses very powerful terrestrial analogies. We know that octopuses are incredibly intelligent, but their nervous system is completely foreign to ours. Fungal networks demonstrate a complexity that goes unnoticed by us. And few would have imagined that a handful of silicon chips would give rise to AI. How can we explain to someone from a couple of centuries ago that we have taught stones to speak? SETI is already at it. This idea, which might seem like pure philosophy, is catching on in the scientific community. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute (SETI) itself has made an appeal to “abandon the anthropocentric perspective” in their exploratory work. It is not about stopping searching, but about expanding our definition of life and intelligence, thinking that “other minds” might have nothing to do with terrestrial biology. For now, our best weapon to stop being dumb as worms is to advance our own science and improve our own cognition. Image | NSF/NSF NRAO/AUI/B.Foott

Renfe has its AVRIL trains ready to put them back on the tracks. You just have to show that they don’t split

It seems that the soap opera of Renfe’s AVRIL trains is beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The company has already received the completely repaired trains from Talgo, according to The Economistwho claim that the company has confirmed this point to them. The first question is what will be the new destination of these trains. The second is whether they will pass the litmus test: proving that they do not split. Back. Renfe already has the S106 trains affected by the cracks suffered in the Madrid-Barcelona corridor while providing AVLO service. That is what the company itself has confirmed to us, which, when asked by Xataka has confirmed that the replacement of the bogies has now “been successfully completed”. The trains have returned three months after being sent for repairs to the railway company’s facilities. They have done so after having completely replaced the affected bogies. Instead of being repaired, they have been completely changed to avoid greater evils. What happened? At the end of July, Renfe began to receive signals that something was wrong with its AVRIL trains that provided the AVLO service (Renfe’s low cost line) on the Madrid-Barcelona route. Those signs were, directly, cracks in trains. Although first there was talk of one train, we finally know that there were five that ended up affected by cracks of different magnitudes. After a tug of war between The Economist (which advanced the news) and the company itselfRenfe ended up suspending the sale of AVLO tickets on the Madrid-Barcelona route and ended up redistributing the AVE service to customers. Now the company recovers those affected trains but it does not seem that Madrid-Barcelona will be their destination. Whose fault is it? It is one of the great unknowns. Renfe has pointed out Talgo as the culprit of the cracks, reminding him that the trains are under warranty and that, therefore, they were not going to pay for the repairs. Talgo, for its part, blames Adifensuring that the maintenance of the line is insufficient and that this has caused excessive vibrations that have led to the famous cracks. Everything indicates that the problem is in the section between Madrid and Calatayud. In fact, the company even considered that it would continue operating with its AVLO service in the corridor but at a reduced speed which, it is assumed, did not generate the vibrations and therefore should not have an impact on structural damage to the train. Ultimately, this option was discarded. Fire test. The return of the affected AVRIL trains is a litmus test for Renfe… but above all for Talgo. And it is that Renfe has already been looking for trains in Germany to look for an alternative to the S106, known as AVRIL, which only Talgo manufactures. Giving a good image with a unique train in the world is essential to a company that is in financial trouble. The S106 trains were to be a leap forward for the company. They are the only ones who, given the railway peculiarities of Spainthey can “jump” from Iberian gauge to international gauge. For Renfe they are key because this allows them to position themselves ahead of Ouigo and Iryo facing a future opening to competition in the Galician corridor. However, the S106 have arrived late and They have garnered numerous bad reviews. And where are they going? It is another of the doubts that remain to be cleared up. According to Alberto Puivecinoresponsible for infrastructure and mobility at CCOO in Catalonia, it is possible that these trains will be used for AVANT (medium distance high speed) services in the region. A line that joins Lleida, Tarragona, Barcelona, ​​Girona and Figueres. The information was made public after a meeting between CCOO and the Generalitat of Catalonia. In Xataka We have asked Renfe in this regard but they assure that “the service that the currently immobilized units 106 will provide has not yet been determined. In any case, wherever they are finally going to operate they will do so with full safety guarantees.” For now, the fate of these units remains to be revealed. What we do know is that it is a litmus test for Talgo that must demonstrate that its S106 trains are once again reliable and, above all, are safe enough. Photo | Miguel In Xataka | The countries with the most kilometers of high-speed train, displayed in a graph with a brutal dominator: China

A giant wave is sweeping across the Milky Way. Scientists currently don’t know why.

Our galaxy, Milky Wayis far from a quiet place. It spins, it wobbles and, as a new study just revealed, it also undulates. New ESA data have discovered a colossal wave, baptized as “the great wave” that propagates through the galactic disk in a very similar way to the waves that we have in a pond when we throw a stone. The study. This phenomenon, which has been identified by the team led by Eloisa Poggio of the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy, is a “corrugation “large-scale vertical” that is superimposed on the already known deformation that our galaxy constantly suffers. In essence, we are facing a wave that causes entire stripes of stars to move “up” and “down.” Great proportions. It is nothing like the waves that we see on our beaches, of course, since we are talking about something on a galactic level. In this case, astronomers know since the 50’s that the disk of the Milky Way it’s not flatbut rather it is deformed (or “warped”) at its edges. Now this study adds an additional structure that no one knew was there. Thanks to Gaia’s incredibly precise measurements, which map the 3D position and 3D motion of stars, the team was able to analyze two populations of young stars: giant stars and classical Cepheids. These maps revealed a gigantic wave that is now coming to light. The figures. In order to understand the magnitude of this phenomenon, we can take into account the following parameters of this phenomenon: Height: the movement of the stars is about 150-200 parsecs, which is up to 650 light years above and below the galactic plane. Length: The structure spans at least 10,000 light years and possibly up to 20,000. Location: affects a vast section of the outer disk, in regions located tens of thousands of light years from the galactic center. The test. The most fascinating thing about the discovery is not just the shape of the wave, but the evidence that it is moving. “What makes this even more compelling is our ability, thanks to Gaia, to also measure the motions of stars within the galactic disk,” explains Poggio. To understand it, the team used a perfect analogue: the wave of a stadium. If we were to freeze the wave that is made in the stands of a stadium, we would see some people standing (the crest), others who have just sat down (the back part) and others who are about to get up (the front part). Something similar happens in the galaxy. The astronomers discovered that the stars with the highest vertical position (the crest) were not the same as the stars with the highest vertical velocity. The maximum speed point was displaced, with a 90º approach phase difference. This phase difference is irrefutable proof that it is a propagating wave. And not only that: the stars inside the corrugation also show a systematic radial motion of 10-15 km/s outward. The conclusion is clear: it is a wave that travels from the interior of the galaxy to its furthest reaches. There is a mystery. Researchers have measured the wave, but don’t know what caused it. The main hypothesis is that the Milky Way suffered an encounter or collision with a smaller dwarf galaxy, but it is not 100% certain. Previous simulations have shown that interaction with a satellite galaxy, such as Sagittarius, can excite exactly these types of vertical waves and corrugations in the galactic disk. This “big wave” is much larger and located much further away than the famous Radcliffe wavea filament of gas about 9,000 light years long located near our Sun. Although both are undulations, scientists believe that they are two different characteristics, although they do not rule out that they may be related in some way. Since the young stars studied (giants and Cepheids) were born from galactic gas, the team suspects that the wave not only carries the stars, but also the gas itself from the disk. The stars would have simply inherited the motion of the gas from which they formed, preserving a “memory” of the wave. Now the investigation must continue. Astronomers are looking forward to Gaia’s fourth data release, which will provide even more precise measurements and help create detailed maps to perhaps finally reveal the origin of our galaxy’s undulating heart. Images | Dns Dgn In Xataka | When stars formed has always been one of the greatest mysteries of the universe. And we are closer to solving it

that they do not pay tolls. And (almost) all countries don’t care

The European Union is determined that transport drastically reduces its emissions. In Xataka We have discussed at length the plan to jump to the electric car, with new emissions limits from 2030 that will force the pure gasoline car to be almost testimonial and the intention to ban combustion engines by 2035. And, hand in hand, we also want to drastically reduce emissions from heavy road transport. Here, the electric truck should be key. To promote it, the European Union wants them not to pay tolls. No tolls. It’s what has approved the European Union. Right now, countries that want to apply it can free electric trucks from tolls on their roads. Applying this possibility, which is decided by each Member State, expired on December 31, 2025 but has been extended until December 31, 2030. The European Commission’s proposal arrived in summer and a few days ago, with 458 votes in favor, 182 against and 11 abstentions, the European Parliament confirmed its expansion. Electric trucks will not have to pay tolls on European roads… if a Member State decides so. almost no one. The problem is that almost no one fully applies this rule. Right now, only Germany and Austria offer their roads completely free of charge to purely electric trucks. These vehicles do not have to pay to use their toll roads. In addition to Germany and Austria, 10 countries offer discounts for electric trucks when using their highways. And another 15 countries do not apply any type of discount. Among them, indeed, is Spain, which charges the same for a polluting truck as for a zero-emission truck. The plans. Although the countries that apply these exemptions completely are testimonial and more than half do not apply any type of discount, European enlargement reopens this possibility so that more States join in to favor the arrival of electric trucks on their roads. Europe’s ultimate intention is to drastically reduce its emissions from heavy transport. The objectives vary depending on the size of the vehicle but, for trucks, the intention is to reduce emissions by 45% by 2035 and that in 2040 the presence of combustion engines in the trucks sold will be almost negligible, with a 90% reduction in emissions. The comparison is made with data from 1990. These plans also include passenger transport buses, which will also not have to pay tolls as long as each State allows it. Viable? Given this measure, manufacturer associations such as ACEA have shown their enthusiasm for the decision but… to what extent is it viable to electrify heavy transport? Its impact is important (barely 2% of the vehicles that move but produce more than 25% of road transport emissions) so jumping to electric trucks is a priority for Europe. The problem is that the electric truck continues to require a really expensive purchase although, over time, the savings promises are consistent. According to the consulting firm Commercial Vehicle World, the savings when operating with this type of vehicle is between 10 and 20% compared to a diesel truck. One of the problems, of course, continues to be autonomy. For now, the most ambitious electric trucks They move in runs of between 500 and 600 kilometers but the key is in the recharging times, which with a 150 kW pole can take up to two hours to fill their batteries. Beyond the tolls. In. its objective to promote the jump to the electric truck, the European Union is forcing countries to Fill your roads with charging points. Of these, large charging islands are planned that should serve these enormous vehicles. The intention is to have very powerful plugs but, until now, they have focused on plugs of, at most, 350 kW, which is clearly insufficient. It must be taken into account that BYD has already given approval for the installation in Europe of its 1MW chargerswhich is clearly focused on this type of transportation. But electric trucks are also beginning to gain ground. While in Europe they are negligible, with less than 1% of sales, in China they already exceed 20%. Many of them have gained traction due to the possibility of changing batteries at appropriate stations, which guarantees that, in just a few minutes, the vehicle can continue its journey. Photo | In Xataka | BYD has shown us that charging 400 kilometers in five minutes is very real. And they have managed to change my mind

The latest trend among the rich is exclusive writing retreats. Experts don’t think anything too good will come of it.

The bubble of the luxury retreats It continues to grow by pairing itself with all kinds of hobbies. Painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography or jewelry classes we already have increasingly wealthy clients with higher and higher goals. The phenomenon of wellness luxury It continues to expand and the last sphere to receive its corresponding practical courses for very well-off people has been that of writing. In other words: if you are starving as a writer it is because you want to, it is a waste of time to make a living from writing (as long as you already had a lot of money beforehand, of course). Luxury retreats for writers. Luxury retreats for writers come under scrutiny in articles like this one from Slatewhich although it guarantees that the cost of the experience it describes is very high, also makes it clear that strictly literary results are not guaranteed. They are exclusive experiences that combine writing with activities such as massages, yoga, horseback riding, gourmet gastronomy and cultural tours in destinations such as Guatemalaon board a luxury cruise with all kinds of classes and tutorials, France either Tuscany. The only thing you need to participate in them is to have sufficient financial resources and available free time, not talent or experience in the world of writing. ‘Call me Ismael’, version wellness luxury. That is, more than the writing workshop in your neighborhood bookstore, these retreats have to do with the trend of wellness luxury that we mentioned: retreats that combine popular hobbies with exclusive holistic practices such as guided meditations, pranayamaspecialized massages, spa with ancestral therapies and gourmet organic gastronomy (sic). This exists but if you haven’t heard of it, perhaps it is because it is outside your sphere of possibilities. Visit websites with these types of experiences, such as Sansara Resort on the Pacific coast, and you decide if it is designed for your pocket or continue taking your drafts to your neighborhood bookstore. Emotional scam. Richard Z. Santos, author of the article, speaks directly of an emotional and financial “scam”: in the last 15 years, the duration of his literary career, he has observed how this market of workshops, sessions, and retreats to improve writing has grown, but the recent wave of touristy and expensive destinations for writers does not guarantee anything. These luxury retreats are accessible with direct payment and without a quality filter, they are more of a luxury product and a tourist experience than a serious training space. What’s more, some writers have reported that these retreats can be emotionally draining or counterproductive if you are working on sensitive or traumatic material without adequate psychological support. The barriers. Santos talks about the fact that the participants in this type of retreat are mostly white women with good economic stability, which creates an important socioeconomic and racial diversity barrier. Quite the opposite of what happens with “real”, prestigious and traditional retreats, such as Yaddo either Bread Loafwhich work with rigorous selection processes based on literary merits and offer scholarships for those who cannot afford them, and thus add social and ethnic diversity. Pay and you will receive. The luxury tourism industry and wellness They try to cover themselves with experiences that sell skills or training, and thus stop transmitting an image of indolence or little commitment to other social levels. But the name “pay-to-play” that is usually given to these withdrawals is for a reason: the fact of paying does not guarantee anything. And much less in something that requires a certain commitment, like artistic creation. Photo of Darius Bashar in Unsplash

If you don’t know what to visit when you go through Zamora, Palencia or Ciudad Real, this map is the solution to your problems

More than half a century after mass tourism began in Spain, the country is among the most visited of the world. Around of 80 million people They arrive in Spain annually, a figure only surpassed by France (+89,000,000). The number is impressive, especially if we compare the scale of its two immediate pursuers, the United States and China. And the reason is simple: 8,000 kilometers of coastline, a wonderful climate and years and years of tourist tradition behind it, with all that this implies in terms of infrastructure. The international nature of the average tourist has caused numerous breakdowns of heads to the authorities during the last years. Spain has tried to attract as many European, Asian or American travelers as possible in a context of tourism recession. During the pandemic parenthesis this was a complicated mission. It was then time to raise the flag of “national tourism”, one that has been flying for two consecutive summers. But what to see in Spain beyond the beaches once crowded by Germans or English? The question has crossed the minds of millions of Spaniards in recent seasons. To answer it, Musement has elaborated this map in which it analyzes the number and quality of scores received by more than 4,500 “points of interest“, that is, attractions and monuments, spread throughout the country. And from this data they have chosen one for each province. An advantage and a problem of this approach: it is useful to know what image the average Spaniard produces when he thinks of places like Palencia or Jaén; but at the same time it summarizes the many positive attributes of each province in a popularity contest. The attractions or monuments numbered here are not necessarily the most interesting, satisfying or beautiful in each place. They are the most famous. It is a personal matter to assess its degree of recommendability. (Musement) If we look at the palette of colors and categories, the north stands out for its large volume of “cathedrals, churches and basilicas.” From the ubiquitous Sagrada Familia of Barcelona to the Santiago de Compostela Cathedralvisiting other highlights of the Camino, be it the Cathedral of León, the Sanctuary of Covadonga, the Cathedral of Burgos, the Co-Cathedral of Santa María de la Redonda or the Basilica del Pilar. Other unique architectural elements sneak in through there, such as Gaudí’s Capricho (Comillas), the Royal Palace of Olite or the Seu Vella. There are also outstanding landscapes: from the La Florida Park in Vitoria to the imposing Ordesa and Monte Perdido National Park, surrounding the Sil Canyons, the Sanabria Lake or the Palentina Mountain Natural Park in between (some of them in the center of what has come to be called Empty Spain). The natural or national parks are the protagonists of Andalusia, starting with Doñana, continuing through Sierra Nevada and ending with Sierra de Cazorla (in Jaén). Otherwise, a little of everything. From urban monuments of very historical rank (the main squares of Salamanca, Trujillo, Seville or Teruel, although in this case “del Torico”; the Hanging Houses of Cuenca) to heritages of civilizations that thousands of years ago forged the present character of Spain (the Roman theater of Mérida, the wall of Ávila, the Aqueduct of Segovia, the New Bridge of Ronda). Also, not surprisingly, there are a lot of fortresses and palaces fortified: from the Peñarroya Castle in Ciudad Real to the famous Alhambra in Granada, passing through the Alcázar of the Christian Monarchs, a surprising winner in the province of Córdoba, also home to the mosque. There is even room for modernity: whether in the form of the City of Arts and Sciences, Dalí’s Theatre-Museum, the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Portaventura or of Loro Parque in Tenerife. A little bit of everything. Not always the most notable thing about each province, but a good way to discover corners of the geography that are still hidden for the Spaniards themselves. In Xataka | The most beautiful towns in each province of Spain, gathered in this revealing map *An earlier version of this article was published in September 2021

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.