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It has taken us 30 years to find 6,000 exoplanets. TESS just found 10,000 candidates in one fell swoop

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Since the first exoplanet was detected in 1992, have been discovered 6,273 planets outside the solar system. However, detection methods have become so refined that that number is expected to skyrocket in the coming years. Just look at the list just presented by a team of scientists from Princeton University, which includes more than 10,000 new candidates. Many may not be exoplanets when they are reviewed, but the fact that so many candidates have been found is already a good sign. A very well spent first year. This new list It comes from the analysis of the first year of data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Exploration Satellite (TESS). In total 11,554 possible exoplanets have been found. However, 411 of them were only captured in one transit, so their orbital parameters could not be calculated. Another 1,052 had already been confirmed as exoplanets in the past. The remaining 10,091 do make up a list of possible exoplanets that had not been noted before. Transi what? Transit is one of the most useful methods of exoplanet detection. Typically, it is much easier to detect the star around which a planet orbits than the planet itself. After all, stars are bigger and brighter. However, observing the star itself can give us data on the existence of planets orbiting it. And when these pass between the star and the telescopes that observe it, their light is interrupted. Like when a cloud passes in front of the Sun or a very large moth flies in front of a light bulb. We know that planets revolve around their stars with a fixed period. For example, it takes the Earth 364 days to orbit the Sun. When these light interruptions are seen cyclically, it can be assumed that there is a planet orbiting the star. That’s what TESS detects. The advances of TESS. Until now, exoplanets have been searched around very bright stars. However, TESS has the ability to also study stars with weaker illumination. This allows us to do a much more complete analysis of the sky and find many more candidates for exoplanets. In fact, a lot of data is generated at once, so it has also been necessary to use a machine learning algorithm to analyze it all and find the real candidates. It must be confirmed. There are other reasons why a star’s light could be interrupted. For example, eclipsing binary stars either solar activity itself. That is why the next step, once a list of possible exoplanets is found, is to analyze them carefully to rule out those other possibilities and check which ones really are. It can still improve. These scientists are now ready to also begin analyzing data from the second year of TESS observation. In this case, some changes have been made in the study methodology, such as studying stars that are observed at different times of the year. This way, exoplanets with a long period can also be detected, which sometimes go unnoticed if they are not observed at the right time. When the period is very small, they pass many times between the star and the telescopes, so it is easier detect traffic. If the period is long, it is difficult to detect them if you do not look at the right time. With this in mind, the study’s authors hope to double the list of candidates. If this time there have been more than 10,000, the next time we have news about TESS there could be many more. Image | POT In Xataka | How the solar system was formed: for the Earth to be born, a star had to die first

It never grew that much outside of China but it never fell that much inside China.

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BYD finds itself facing a diatribe unimaginable just a year ago. While its sales skyrocket outside China, it manages to sell fewer and fewer cars in its own country. Whatever its future, we are experiencing a key moment in a company that aspired to be one of the five major car manufacturers worldwide. The data. 455,707 cars. These are how many BYD has sold outside of China so far in 2026. A spectacular growth of 59.8% year-on-year and a solid basis to reach the 1.5 million units that the company wants to sell outside its country this year. 1,003,039 cars. These are the ones that BYD has sold within China so far in 2026. A not inconsiderable drop of 26.4% year-on-year and a solid concern for a company that has already been declining in sales for eight consecutive months in its country, reaching in some cases a decline of up to 42%like last March. Both data are brought CarNewsChinawho collect data from companies inside and outside the Asian country. Why does it fall? That BYD has been falling for more than eight months in a row is no coincidence. The Chinese State has left aside extensive subsidies for the purchase of electric cars or plug-in hybrids, known as “new energy”. That has slowed down the market and, of course, who has hurt the most It is the leading company that, in addition, does not sell other types of cars either under the BYD name or under any other of its brands such as Denza either Yangwang. The company is by no means the only one that falls into the Chinese market. No subsidies, national sales have suffered but the context has been complicated for the company since companies like Geely (which have surpassed him in sales) They have a broader catalog of technologies and some cars like the BYD Dolphin Surf (Seagull in China) are much less competitive without aid since the market rewards large and technological cars at a low price. However, the great advantage of this model is in the price and not so much in what it offers in its infotainment systems. Why does it grow? The positive side for BYD is that its arrival in new countries and sales where it was recently established seem to be going at a very good pace. As we said, outside of China They have already sold more than 400,000 carswhich falls within the roadmap to sell 1.5 million cars outside of China this year. BYD has entered these countries with a formula that lays the foundations for continued growth: contained price (compared to its rivals) for medium and large-sized electric and plug-in hybrids. This is leading them to good numbers in Europe but also in Latin America. In both cases BYD is already working to produce locally and not bring your cars only from China. It must be remembered that their electric vehicles are still punished with tariffs in Europe but their plug-in hybrids do not have that problem. To this we must add that its capacity to update models is very high, as seen with the BYD Atto 2. And how is it going in Spain? Spain is one of the most important countries for BYD outside of China. It is strange because we are not a country with high levels of plug-ins but we are an interesting market because we value price a lot. And, there, the BYD Dolphin Surf It is priced low enough to be a bestseller in countries like Spain. So far this year, it is the third best-selling electric car and the first “non-Tesla.” But, in addition, BYD also has the Signal U and the Atto 2 to the two best-selling plug-in hybrids in our country. Why is it worrying? BYD faces a challenge: needs to continue growing. At least, that’s what they thought themselves. In 2025 they became the company that more electric cars sold worldwide. In 2024 they already touched it but they set a goal that was not met last year and that, barring any surprise, will not be met in 2025: manufacturing 5.5 million cars. Getting into the five million car club would mean positioning BYD as one of the five largest manufacturers in the world. In 2025, that position will be occupied by Stellantis with 5.6 million cars, a conglomerate that has 14 brands under its umbrella. By just 50,000 units, BYD failed to surpass Ford, but the most painful thing for the company is that it remained at 4.6 million cars sold. An insufficient figure for its prospects but unimaginable a few years ago. But it’s not alarming. Although the results within China are not good, the company has demonstrated the ability to adapt to new environments. The company has two great strengths: its businesses go beyond automobiles and its potential growth outside of China is enormous. The brand has the right product for markets where, like the Spanish market, price is valued above other incentives. In Latin America, Chinese cars are making their way for this reason. And in North America, Mexico and, above all, Canada has opened the door to companies arriving from China. In Europe, BYD’s growth continues. In countries like Spain it is obtaining great results but in others it is still establishing itself. But, in addition, they will soon be able to tighten the price of their cars when the assembly lines of Hungary and Türkiye start walking And everything indicates that the brand does not want to stay here, There are already rumors that they want to buy the Dresden Glass Factory for which Volkswagen is looking for a new owner. Photo | BYD and aboodi vesakaran In Xataka | It turns out that the “good, pretty and cheap” electric car does exist and is manufactured in China. So Citroën has stepped up

The AI ​​industry fell in love with OpenAI, but doesn’t trust its CEO one bit

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At OpenAI they see a future in which the work week should have four days. Not only that: every citizen should receive a share of the economic growth generated by AI. These are some of the proposals that the company has published yesterday with the aim of preparing us for the “age of intelligence.” And just the day they published that proposal full of good and reassuring intentions, a blow arrived for the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman. An investigation published in The New Yorker once again called into question his way of acting, highly criticized by experts and engineers who worked with him. The conclusion of all of them: better not trust Sam Altman. The arrival of the age of intelligence. What they call the “age of intelligence” will undoubtedly have a negative impact in some areas, but OpenAI proposes with their document to make changes that mitigate these problems. Among the most striking measures is the creation of a “public wealth fund” that will distribute dividends from AI directly among citizens, regardless of their employment status. Let the machines work (and pay us for it). They also suggest taxes on automated labor to finance social security, and also pilot projects of four-day work weeks without salary reduction. The proposal is striking and seeks, of course, to reassure citizens in the face of threats such as job loss that can be caused by the mass adoption of AI. The problem is that this proposal comes at a delicate moment for an OpenAI in the midst of a reputational crisis. Smokescreen? This optimistic proposal contrasts with the report published in The New Yorker and in which the authors interviewed more than 100 people “with first-hand knowledge of how Altman behaves in business.” And among them, rivals like Ilya Sutskever or above all Dario Amodei who founded their own startups. Both harshly criticized Altman. Sutskever accumulated internal documents and messages showing deception and manipulation. Amodei stated that the obstacle to AI security is Altman himself, who leaves that area in the background compared to the company’s ambition for personal power and excessive growth. For his former partners, Altman is not a visionary, but an actor with a calculated pose. Says one thing, does another. The scandal of dismissal and later return of Altman was due precisely to that attitude in which the council accused him of having “not been consistently frank in his communications.” It’s the same thing we’ve read on other occasions: Altman has a dual personality. In him, the pathological desire to be liked and accepted is mixed with a total lack of concern for the long-term consequences of his misdeeds. He tells his interlocutors what they want to hear, and then does what he really wanted from the beginning. It is something that, for example, Karen Hao narrates over and over again. in his book ‘Empire of AI’in which, it must be said, it erred in calculating the water consumption of data centers mentioned in its studies. In the report they mention how the well-known programmer Aaron Swartz met him before die in 2013 and commented about him even then that “he is a sociopath.” Public image is everything. The publication of the OpenAI document occurs at a particularly critical time for the company, which is involved in a reputational and strategic crisis. Anthropic has managed to become the darling of the AI ​​industry —without being much less perfect— and OpenAI has realized that it was experimenting with too many AI applications that were not profitable and now wants to refocus on what makes it profitable. The good intentions shown in the document try to get public opinion on their side just when the company plans its IPO. Learning from the past. Altman’s critics reveal that he is an expert at designing control mechanisms that go up in smoke. Support AI regulations (at least those that favor you) and publicly promotes ethics committees and alignment and security of the AI ​​that in reality later knocks down internally, at least according to those who work with it. It happened when he promised to allocate 20% of the computing capacity to the super-alignment team, and then actually gave up only between 1 and 2% of that capacity. Jan Leike, who was named co-leader of that team along with Sutskever, resigned in May 2024 indicating that “safety culture and processes have been relegated to the background compared to flashy products,” he explained in a thread in X. He ended up signing for Anthropic. Interested reviews. Although Altman’s career at the head of OpenAI –with what happened to the Pentagon as a recent example—reinforces the comments of those who criticize him, it must be remembered that competition in this industry is currently fierce. Many of those who participate in the report are direct rivals and therefore their criticism, veiled or not, is partly self-serving because it harms their competitor. In Xataka | There is a new generation of AI models at the doors and Anthropic has to sell them: “The biggest and smartest”

A half-ton metal ring fell from the sky in Kenya. More than a year later we still don’t know where it came from

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For years we have talked about the space debris as a distant problemalmost abstract, that occurs far above our heads. We know that, from time to time, some debris from launches or satellites re-enter the atmosphere, although we almost always perceive it as something remote. Until it isn’t. What happened at the end of 2024 In a Kenyan village it was precisely that: the moment when a technical discussion became a tangible fact. A metal object of large dimensions fell from the sky without warning. On December 30, 2024, in the rural area of ​​Mukuku, the object was left lying on the ground after the impact, with dimensions that soon caught the attention of technicians: around 2.5 meters in diameter and an estimated weight of about 500 kilograms. The intervention was quick. Police cordoned off the area and an inter-agency team, led by the Kenya Space Agency (KSA), recovered the remains for analysis. From that point, a complex question arose: what exactly was that piece and where did it come from? Open investigation, official promises and a mystery that remains unsolved Just 48 hours after collecting the remains, the Kenya Space Agency offered a first explanation. In its statement of January 1, 2025the agency indicated that, according to preliminary evaluations, the piece corresponded to a fragment of a space object, specifically a launch vehicle separation ring. It was a relevant conclusion, but partial. The agency did not link the object to any specific rocket and described the incident as isolated, while announcing the opening of an investigation under international legal frameworks that regulate activities in space. The statement from the Kenya Space Agency (click to see the original publication in X) As the days progressed, the case began to generate interpretations beyond the official statements. Some local media, including Nation Africa, They pointed out that the Government of Kenya would have initiated a compensation claim addressed to India, suggesting that the object could be linked to a specific mission. The reaction of the Kenya Space Agency was immediate. On January 3, 2025, The agency denied that information and he was clear in his message: “The alleged compensation claim presented by the Government of Kenya is false and should be ignored.” In that same update, he also stressed that the investigation was still ongoing. With the official investigation without a specific attribution, the case began to attract the attention of independent analysts. One of the most detailed was that of the astrodynamicist Marco Langbroek, from the Technical University of Delft, who explored the possibility that the fragment corresponded to an adapter SYLDA from an Ariane release 2008. Their analysis suggested that the location and timing of impact were compatible with re-entry of that particular object, but also made clear that this was not a conclusive identification. In fact, in a later update of its analysis, it included doubts attributed to Arianespace engineers about that hypothesis, considering that the dimensions did not fit. On paper, the case was not closed in those first days. The KSA assured on January 1, 2025 that its experts would analyze the piece, identify the owner and keep the public informed about next steps. Weeks later, Nation Africa collected Furthermore, the investigation was at an advanced stage and, once concluded, the case would be transferred to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to hold the owner of the object accountable. However, when following the public trail of that promise, there is no new data. A subsequent resolution on Mukuku does not appear on the agency’s official communications page, so more than a year later there is no official and definitive attribution of the fragment. There is also no new information in local media. If we look at the case with perspective, Mukuku leaves us two clear readings. The first is that space debris is no longer just an orbital phenomenon, but also an issue that, under certain circumstances, can have an impact on the surface. The second has to do with the limits of this type of research. Even when an object of these characteristics reaches land and activates international mechanismsa clear public conclusion is not always reached. We know how the agency described the piece in its preliminary evaluations and we know the main hypotheses that attempted to identify it, but no origin has been officially confirmed. And that void, more than a year later, is still open. Images | KSA In Xataka | Artemis II has a toilet that evacuates the astronauts’ urine into space. The problem is that it has frozen

Someone bet $30,000 that Maduro would fall the night before he fell. He has won $400,000

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Early on Saturday, January 3, a raid by the United States Delta Force broke into the Fuerte Tiuna military complex, located in the south of Caracas, to arrest Nicolás Maduro and Cilia Flores, the president of Venezuela and his wife. Shortly after, someone was looking at his account. Polymarket and he rubbed his hands: that same Friday he had invested $30,000 betting on Maduro’s departure. With his arrest on Saturday, he had obtained a profit of $436,759.61. How lucky. A new account and a lucrative “hunch”. Polymarket’s Burdensome-Mix account barely I was a week old on the PolyMarket platform, but in record time it became one of the most fervent and active in “predict”“ Maduro’s departure during the hours before the operation. In a few hours he had gone from injecting money when the bet investment was at bargain prices to skyrocket: his participation had obtained a total return of more than 1,333.33% and a profit of at least 1,233.33% more than what he bet in less than 24 hours. PolyMarket. Tyson Brody Many people may have been caught off guard by Maduro’s arrest, but it certainly wasn’t for everyone: there are people who anticipated events and earned thousands of dollars as a result. Whether for him pizzometer or looking at Polymarket and company, something was brewing. In fact, there are already those has developed a tool to track suspicious activity on Polymarket because yes, there are those who decide to invest in what Elon Musk will become president of the United States and throw away his money like that (spoiler: he is South African and the US Constitution vetoes the presidency to foreigners), but he has long since emerged as one of the best seers of immediate events. As explained one of the creatorsPolymarket API keys are available to everyone and from here, it’s a matter of analyzing new wallets, unusual sizes and repeat entries into certain market niches. Suspicious behavior like the one that took place on Friday, when his tracker flagged five different alerts hours before Operation Absolute Resolve happened. The market that was betting on Maduro’s departure rose strongly before 10 p.m. on Friday after being at very low figures during the previous weeks, as picks up The Wall Street Journal. Polymarket What has happened in Venezuela. Nicolás Maduro was captured by US special forces following Operation Absolute Resolve in an intervention that threatens international lawalthough the United States relies on its domestic jurisdiction. Yesterday he was transferred to Stewart Air National Guard Base, a military airport in New York, and later landed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where he will face trial for drug trafficking and weapons possession. Donald Trump gave the details of the operation at the relevant press conference ensuring that “We are going to govern Venezuela until there is a safe transition” and that after the operation, American energy companies will take care of Venezuela’s oil industry. The official White House rapid response support account published a video where Nicolás Maduro was seen detained, being escorted through a hallway while he congratulated the new year to the people who were in his path. Tap to go to the post The insider trading of the prediction market. The Polymarket user’s operation draws so much attention that it seems evident that he knew what was going to happen in some way, which closes the circle to spheres very close to the president insofar as neither Congress nor his Defense Committee knew about this operation (much less had they authorized it, as he complained the governor of New York State on Twitter). Needless to say, what is known in financial markets as insider trading (trafficking of privileged information) It also happens in prediction markets like Polymarket, Kalshi either PredictIt and it is not only that it is allowed, but it is an ecosystem that favors it: Polymarket accounts are anonymous, global and transparent using technology from the blockchainso from there it is not possible to pull the thread of that lucrative operation. Furthermore, they are decentralized systems and operations are in USDCa stablecoin linked to the US dollar to avoid volatility and with very low commissions. The Polymarket phenomenon returns to its old ways. This is not the first time we have talked about Polymarket in terms of striking movements linked to politics, so Maduro’s thing is not something that is new. Without going any further, these markets came to the fore when they were revealed announcing a clear discrepancy in the 2024 United States Presidency elections compared to traditional analyzes and in turn, most accurate with respect to reality. With that move, French investor Freddi9999 struck gold: betting Due to Trump’s victory, his profits amounted to 85 million dollars, according to Bloomberg. Polymarket and company are not a mere betting platform like those for sporting events, but they have changed the discourse from betting to investmentwhich affects both linguistics and regulation. Thus, they are defined as “event contracts”, which allows them to sneak into the traditional financial system with the approval of leading players in the sector. like the owners of the New York Stock Exchange. The idea on paper is simple: as a user, you can express your opinion by buying or selling shares in eventual outcomes of events in operations executed between peers using smart contracts. Markets grow as they have more participants and prices mirror the perceived probability of an event occurring. It is clear that a lot of money can be made by predicting major news events, although we will have to see how long. In Xataka | Five years ago he worked from his bathroom on the brink of ruin. Today he runs a company valued at 8 billion In Xataka | I don’t bet, I invest: Polymarket and company have sophisticated gambling addiction to the point of making it indistinguishable from “investing” Cover | Chancellery of Ecuador from Ecuador, CC BY-SA 2.0 and Hanna Pad

how two professionals fell after using ransomware

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He ransomware It usually presents itself as an external threat, diffuse and difficult to locate, associated with criminal groups that operate from other countries and to hidden infrastructures on the network. However, the case that has communicated the United States Department of Justice breaks that narrative. Here we are not talking about a specific surveillance failure, but about professionals from the sector itself who, according to the accusation, used their training and position to attack American companies. The conclusion is as simple as it is alarming: the threat does not always come from outside, even in such a specialized field. What is known about the case today is well defined in court documents and official statements. On December 30, 2025, the Department of Justice reported thatthe day before, a federal court in the Southern District of Florida accepted guilty pleas from two men for conspiring to extort in connection with ransomware attacks that occurred in 2023. Both pleaded guilty to a federal crime related to obstructing or affecting commerce by extortion. Sentencing was set for March 12, 2026 and they face a maximum sentence of up to 20 years in prison. Who they were and what role they played in the sector. According to the FBIthe accused are Ryan Goldberg, 40, and Kevin Martin, 36. Both worked in the field of cybersecurity and had experience in incident management and in processes linked to attacks with this type of malicious tool. Goldberg worked as an incident response manager in a multinational company in the sector, while Martin worked as a negotiator specialized in this type of extortion within a company dedicated to responding to cybercrime. This professional context placed them in an unusual place for this type of crime. A ransomware model turned into a service. The case documents describe that the attacks relied on ALPHV, also known as BlackCata ransomware operated under a service model. In this scheme, developers maintain the malware and extortion infrastructure, while affiliated third parties execute attacks against selected victims. In exchange for that access, the defendants agreed to give 20% of any ransom obtained to the administrators. The rest was distributed among the participants, after moving the funds through different digital wallets to make them difficult to trace. The investigation is not limited to a single incident. The documents include attacks and attempts directed against US companies between April and December 2023, with victims in sectors such as healthcare, pharmaceuticals, industrial and technological sectors. In the only successful case, the ransom paid was around $1.27 million in cryptocurrency at the time of payment, according to the file. In other episodes, the demands reflected in the case ranged from hundreds of thousands of dollars to around five million, always according to court documents. The evidence that supports the accusation. The case is supported by a combination of technical records, financial analysis and statements collected by US federal forces. Among the elements cited are access to tools linked to the extortion infrastructure and the monitoring of cryptocurrency movements after the payment of the ransom. The file also mentions searches carried out before some attacks, including an inquiry about one of the victims on May 4, 2023, days before a subsequent incident. Added to this is a recorded interview in which one of the accused acknowledged his involvement, in addition to searches and other actions incorporated into the case. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro In Xataka | Gonzalo is the Army’s ChatGPT. Its challenge is colossal: turning AI into the great military ally of the 21st century

When nuclear energy orbited the Earth. The day a Soviet satellite with a reactor fell in Canada and unleashed a crisis

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In the late 1970s, the idea that a nuclear reactor could fall from space ceased to be science fiction and became a real problem on the table of several governments. A Soviet satellite with a reactor on board It had lost control and was heading towards the Earth’s atmosphere, without anyone being able to specify where its remains would end up or what consequences the impact would have. In the midst of the Cold War, secrecy and urgency marked decisions. From there, questions arose that remain uncomfortable today: what was a nuclear reactor doing in orbit, why that risk was accepted, and what happens when technology escapes the script. As CBC points outOn January 24, 1978, the Soviet satellite Kosmos-954 re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere after weeks of tracking by American radars. No one knew with certainty where he would fall or in what state his remains would reach the ground. Eventually, fragments of the device were scattered over a vast region of northern Canada, from the Northwest Territories to areas that are now part of Nunavut and northern Alberta and Saskatchewan. What began as an orbital control problem suddenly became an international emergency with scientific, diplomatic and health implications. The day the Cold War left radioactive remains over Canada Kosmos-954 was neither a scientific satellite nor an isolated experimental mission, but one more piece of a Soviet military system designed to monitor the oceans. It was part of the US-A series, designed to locate large ships, especially American aircraft carriers, using radar. To power this system, which is very demanding in terms of energy consumption, the Soviet Union resorted to a compact nuclear reactor, a solution that allowed operate for long periods without depending on solar panels. That technical choice explains why the satellite had fissile material on board and why its loss generated so much concern. The technological heart of Kosmos-954 was a BES-5 reactor, known as “Buk”, developed specifically for Soviet military satellites. This type of reactor used uranium-235 and was designed to power the US-A system radar for the life of the satellite. The BBC estimates that 31 devices were launched with BES-5 for this family of satellites, and places the use of reactors in space until the end of the 1980s, with launches that continued until 1988. That history was not a clean line, according to the BBC: there were previous failures and accidents, including serious problems in one of the first flights in 1970 and the fall of another reactor into the Pacific Ocean after a launcher failure in 1973, in addition to the plan security plan contemplated moving the core into a waste orbit to prevent its return to Earth. Arctic Operational Histories explains that The signs that something was wrong came weeks before re-entry. Tracking systems detected that Kosmos-954 was progressively losing altitude, an anomaly that indicated a serious failure in its orbital control. The United States began to follow its trajectory with special attentionaware that the satellite had a nuclear reactor on board. The big unknown was not only when it would fall, but whether the Soviet security system would manage to separate the core and send it to a safe orbit before the device entered the atmosphere. When it was confirmed that the debris had fallen on Canadian territory, the problem took on a completely new dimension. Authorities knew the fragments were scattered over a vast, largely remote, snow-covered region, making any quick assessment difficult. The first measurements detected radiation in some points, although without a clear map of the contamination. Faced with this uncertainty, Canada had to quickly decide how to protect the population and how to locate potentially hazardous materials in an extreme environment. To confront an unprecedented situation, Canada turned to international cooperation. Operation Morning Light mobilized Canadian and American military personnel, scientists and technicians, many of them from units specialized in nuclear emergencies. From improvised bases in the north, flights equipped with sensors capable of detecting radiation from the air were organized. Each anomalous signal led to more detailed inspections, in a race against time marked by extreme cold and lack of infrastructure. As the search continued, it became clear that the contamination was more complex than expected. Not only visible fragments of the satellite appeared, but also much smaller radioactive particles, difficult to detect and remove. This forced the teams to take extreme precautions expand tracking areas. At the same time, delicate communication work began with the northern communities, who wanted to know what real risks existed for health, water and the fauna on which they depended. As the weeks passed, the operation narrowed its objectives. The official Morning Light phase lasted 84 days, although CBC describes the search effort as extending through most of 1978 and the search covering an area of ​​124,000 square kilometers. In this process, 66 kilograms of remains were recovered and Canada considered the immediate threat to the population and the environment contained. The economic cost was raised and Ottawa claimed 6.1 million dollars from the Soviet Union, which in 1981 agreed to pay half, opening an unusual diplomatic process for an incident of this type. The case of Kosmos-954 was not closed with the removal of the remains from the ground. In the months since, the incident reached international forums and fueled an uncomfortable debate about the use of nuclear power in space. Several countries demanded greater security guarantees and more transparency in programs that, until then, had been developed under strong secrecy. The episode served to reinforce the idea that space accidents do not understand borders and that their consequences could directly affect third countries. Images | Arctic Operational Histories In Xataka | Mars is left with one less line of coverage: NASA loses contact with its key orbital repeater

One of the most relevant actors in ‘Back to the Future’ fell so badly that we never got to see his face: it was a mask

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For decades, millions of viewers remembered George McFly as one of the most beloved characters from ‘Back to the Future’with his nervous gestures, his strange shyness and that peculiar way of inhabiting the screen. But what almost no one imagined is that, when the saga returned to the cinema, what we saw was no longer exactly him. Or, at least, not in the way we all thought. An impossible artist. Crispin Glover He burst into popular culture playing George McFly with a performance that made the character one of the most recognizable souls. from ‘Back to the Future’. His performance, at once clumsy, intense and physically expressive, became an essential counterpoint to Marty’s dynamism and Doc Brown’s eccentricity. However, behind that iconic role, Glover was already a unique artistobsessed by the limits of narrative, by art as an act of critical thinking and by the need to escape from the corporate machinery that, in his opinion, turned cinema into an instrument of ideological complacency. The fame that the film brought him did not bring him closer to Hollywood: it pushed him away from hertowards a life of his own projects, marginal filmographies, performative tours and experimental books that he himself read on stage in front of his followers. That mix of massive success and countercultural sensitivity would end up leading, a few years later, to one of the legal conflicts most influential in the history of commercial cinema. The ideological disagreement. Glover never hid his discomfort with the final message of the first film. It bothered him that the climax was an economic reward: a family becoming a symbol of the triumphant middle class, a new car as an emblem of happiness and a moral that, according to himhe unequivocally associated money with life success. He was barely twenty years old, but he was already openly questioning an element that he considered propaganda. For him, the real prize should have been emotional reconciliation between the parents, not wealth. That conversation with director Robert Zemeckis, who according to Glover It led to notable anger from the director, marking a point of friction that would later be amplified when negotiations for the sequel began. Silent war. The actor felt that he had done a decisive job in the first delivery and expected treatment equivalent to that of his colleagues. The studio, on the other hand, perceived his comments as an artistic and personal challenge. The financial offers reflected this rupture: figures much lower than the rest of the cast and, according to Glover, a deliberate feeling of punishment, especially seeing that the script from ‘Back to the Future II’ It included scenes in which George McFly appeared hanging upside down, a physically uncomfortable position that he interpreted as a hostile gesture. By then, the aesthetic tension had already been transformed into a contractual and human tension. Plot Twist: The mask. When negotiations failed, Universal did not opt ​​for the usual solution of replacing the actor and continuing as normal. No, he did something much more aggressive: used a mold Glover’s facial created for the first film and placed on a different actor, Jeffrey Weissmanadding prosthetics, makeup, hairpieces and a meticulous imitation of her voice and gestures. It was, in practice, putting an interpreter to play Crispin Glover playing George McFly. Weissman, initially informed that it would be a simple photographic double, discovered during filming that they were asking him to replicate a foreign personality, not a character. It was even called “Crispin” on the set, and even heard jokes from Steven Spielberg about a supposed “million” that Glover would have demanded. One more thing. Many scenes relegated him to the background, carefully out of focus, or showed him face down to make recognition difficult. The rest was composed by mixing Glover’s real shots with Weissman’s new shots to create the illusion of continuity. For the public it worked: millions of viewers thought that Glover had participated in the sequel. For Glover, that was an outrage: his identity, his interpretive essence, had been used without consent to support a multimillion-dollar production. George Mcfly (with Weissman inside) A historic litigation. In 1990 Glover filed a lawsuit that, without looking for it, became one of the first early warnings about the risks of digital recreation, impersonation through visual effects and image rights in the era of technological manipulation. He argued that Universal had used his face, his voice and his acting style without permission, hiding behind the idea that they were only prolonging the existence of the George McFly character. His lawyer, Doug Kari, built a strategy that sought to demonstrate that it was not about perpetuating the character, but about appropriating Glover’s artistic identity. He wanted to depose Spielberg, Zemeckis, Gale and Michael J. Fox, in addition to accessing the studio’s accounting books. What happened? That the case did not go to trial: the judge encouraged both parties to reach an agreement, one that was finally closed by about $760,000. Consequences. But the psychological, industrial and legal impact was enormous. The SAG-AFTRA union was forced to review your rules. Hollywood began to debate to what extent a performance belongs to an actor and whether a studio can, without consent, reconstruct it for new installments. Years later, every time there was talk of digitally resurrecting a deceased performer, Glover’s name reappeared as a warning. In a way, his case anticipated current debates about deepfakes, avatars generated by AI and digital replicas hyperrealistic. Personal consequences. The process left no one unscathed. Glover managed clear your name and establish a red line in the industry, but the experience marked him deeply. He refused to attend conventions or photo sessions related to the saga because, according to himthat would be supporting a lie: that he had participated in those sequels and that Weissman’s artificial interpretation belonged to him. He also suffered for years from the emotional burden of fans attributing to his work gestures or moments that he never interpreted, even receiving criticism for what he did. … Read more

In Asturias someone paid 37,000 euros for the most expensive cheese on the planet. Then he fell to the ground

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There are expensive cheeses, very expensive cheeses and then there are the cheeses that are sold by the whopping 14,800 euros per kiloas they just checked in Asturias. There, in the town of Arenas, they just proclaimed the most expensive cheese on the planet, a piece of 2.5 kilos with Denomination of Protected Origin of Cabrales that, after the Plant of the judges, has reached neither more nor less than 37,000 euros On a bid. Shortly after the auction was on the ground. Don’t say cheese, di cabrales. Asturias is known for many things. By Your cider, Your houndsits beaches, its mountainous places and also (and rightly) for its cheese. The Cabrales is one of the gastronomic icons of the Principality and to claim it Arenas de Cabrales has celebrated every summer, for decades, A contest which usually arouses interest both inside and outside the region. The appointment is not famous just by giving visibility to Dop Cabrales. The contest arrives accompanied by a bid for the best cheeses in which amounts of infarction are reached, assumable only by privileged pockets. Offer are so high in fact that they have managed to make a place several times in the pages of the Guinness book. It has happened Other editions. And it has happened again in this. A figure: 37,000 euros. The Arenas de Cabrales appointment is divided into several parts. First the jury decides which of the title aspiring cheeses is the best, it has a more attractive aspect and offers better flavor and aroma. Then that same piece goes to auction and businesses interested in taking her to her pantries pujo for her at the crossroads worthy of the Sotheby’s house. In this edition (the 53rd already) the starting price was € 3,000 and participated near a dozen hoteliers from different parts of Asturias (Gijón, Oviedo and Castrillón) and Madrid. The winner was Iván Suárez, owner of El Llagar de Colloto, in Oviedo. It didn’t have it easy. Last year Suarez had already taken home winning cheese by 36,000 eurosa figure that this year exceeded slaughtering. A Madrid cider house matched the figure, another Gijonesa rose the bid to 36,500 and the owner of El Llagar de Colloto ended up setting up the dispute when lifting his palette to offer the whopping of 37,000 for a piece of about 2.5 kg. Himself I calculated which came out at € 14,800/kg. Records at full speed. The truth is that Cabrales accumulates records at more speed than the Guinness organization is capable of digesting them. New Spain remember that this will be the fourth consecutive world plusmarca of Asturian cheese and if you consult The web From the Guinness World Records you will find the curious chance that just two months ago those responsible echoed that the most expensive cheese on the planet is a cabrales auctioned in Asturias for 36,000 euros. It is not a mistake. It is simply the brand that the DOP reached in 2024. It has already been outdated. Does Cabrales cheese have a roof? That is The question That some media have been made in recent days, especially if you take into account the speed with which the offers have grown by the winner of the Arenas contest. The Europa Press agency remember That the winner of this edition already disbursed 14,300 euros in 2018, 20,500 in 2019, 30,000 in 2023 and 36,000 last year, a figure that has been pulverized by the 37,000 of 2025. In the price, however it goes more than the value of the product. The bid is also a huge advertising showcase, both for the Dop Cabrales and for the winning hotelier. Of headlines and anecdotes. “The head of having the most expensive cheese in the world is what leads to this. In the end if the cheese had cost 20,000 euros instead of 37,000 because yes, it would have been the winning cheese of the contest, but we would not have worldwide news, we would not open the news, nor would we have international recognition, which is what we all look for, Suárez confesses to The voice of Asturias. Interestingly this year he has monopolized holders by Another reasonmore anecdotal … and juicy. After winning the bid the Ovetense hotelier rose to collect the piece proud and when he lifted his arms to show the tray the cheese drained and finished falling to the ground. An anecdote that the businessman was taken with humor. The cheese, he explained, will divide it into three parts: For his father, for him and his family and for his clients. In cave already 1,500 meters. Record prices and anecdotes apart, the main protagonist of the contest was the cheese that elaborated the winning piece: Ángel Díaz Herrero, by Tielve. Its representative, Encarna Bada, remembers that the cheese is made with cow’s milk and mature for several months at 1,500 meters of altitude in the Los Mazos cave. “It is the coldest cave, it has little cheese and matures more slowly. It is the caves that give the flavor to the cabrales, because factors such as moisture, temperature and height influence it,” Explain. The task is not simple. Bada acknowledges that going up and down with cheese pieces is arduous work because to the area “They don’t even get cars” To transport them in fact they have to resort to horses. What there is no doubt is that your technique and know how to do work: last year The same cheese managed to win the coveted first position of the contest and, incidentally, settle his name in the Guinness. Images | Wikipedia and Javier Lastras (Flickr) In Xataka | Russia is becoming a teacher in the elaboration of European cheeses. And it is due to the sanctions of the West

Spacex has asked Mexico to stop invading its property and returns the starship pieces that fell into the country

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The tension between Spacex and the Government of Mexico has climbed this week after explosion of a starship prototype of June 18. While the Mexican government investigates the remains that crossed the border as illegal pollution and studies possible demands, Elon Musk’s company says they are of its property and asks to stop hindering its recovery. Context. On the night of June 18, a stage of the Starship rocket suddenly exploded during a fuel load for a motor ignition test. The explosion destroyed the ship and spread fragments around Starbase. A few days later, the local media of Tamaulipas reported that part of the remains They had reached the beaches of La Burrita in Matamoroson the Mexican side of the border. There were gas tanks, steel sheets and aluminum parts. Civil Protection, the Federal Attorney for Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Environment of Mexico went to the place to remove the remains and take water, sand and vegetation samples for analysis. Mexican anger. The situation has ended up climbing this week until the president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, who described the remains of “pollution” and a possible violation of sovereignty and Mexican environmental legislation. According to Sheinbaum, his government will make “the necessary demands that have to be done” according to international laws. Spacex’s response. In one publication of xElon Musk’s company formally requested the Mexican government to return the remains of the rocket, arguing that they are of their property and that their attempts have been hindered. “Despite Spacex’s attempts to recover related remains (with the explosion), which are and remains tangible property of Spacex, these attempts have been hindered by unauthorized parts that invade (our) private property.” “They are not pollutants.” Spacex states that Starship materials do not represent “chemical, biological or toxicological risk.” And offers resources for cleaning. The company claims to be entitled to recover its property and asks Mexican authorities “local and federal assistance.” It is a shock of narratives. Mexico qualifies the incident as an environmental and security impact against Mexicans. Spacex frames it as a non -polluting private property recovery. Spacex embarked the ball into the neighbor’s house. The neighbor is angry and wants to sue. Image | D Wise, NSF

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