French

It took eight months for the French Academy to bring Jim Carrey to Paris. It took the Internet eight hours to decide that it wasn’t him

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On February 26, Jim Carrey received a prestigious Honorary César for his entire career in Paris, after years of semi-retirement. But what was born as a touching emotional tribute at the center of a conspiracy theory: was it really him who took the stage, or an impersonator with prosthetics? The story of how an Instagram post unleashed chaos (and how it ended up being denied). A tribute. Jim Carrey has received this year’s Honorary César: the French Oscars rewarded his “exceptional versatility” with an award that Julia Roberts, Christopher Nolan and David Fincher had already received. It also arrived at a time when Carrey’s career was at a peculiar point: in 2022, at the press conference for ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2’ he announced that he retired. But he came back three years later. with brutal honesty: “I have bought many things and I need the money“Frankly.” Therefore, Carrey arrived in Paris after a false retirement that had made him partially disappear, yes, from the red carpets and premieres. And now he was on the most elegant stage in European cinema. He had not disappeared from the public light, however: in November, had been seen at Soundgarden’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Los Angeles. But his appearances have always been, in recent years, spaced out in time and without warning. The delivery. The first unexpected moment of the night came when Carrey, after being introduced by Michel Gondry, and with an aesthetic that left behind the lush beard of recent years, gave the acceptance speech completely in French. The accent was unmistakably American, but it was very worked. As Gregory Caulier, general delegate of the Caesars, would later reveal, I had prepared it for months. In it revealed a connection with France that no one knew: his ancestor Marc-François Carré (the family’s original surname before Anglicization) was born in Saint-Malo and, from there, emigrated to Canada The change. In fact, already at the aforementioned Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony its appearance It had aroused some surprise: it already had the aesthetic that it repeated at the Césars, with shoulder-length hair and slightly different facial features than usual. The first speculations pointed to the cosmetic surgery as a possible reason and some experts on the subject speculated about what those interventions could have been. Dr. Millicent Rovelo speak of an upper blepharoplasty (to remove excess skin from the upper eyelids) and a significant volume of Botox on the forehead. Another surgeon, Dr. John Diaz pointed out to a possible cervical tightening procedure. The very media Dr. Tony Youn pointed out signs of an endoscopic brow lift that would explain the slight displacement of the hairline. and joined the hypothesis of blepharoplasty and Botox. Finally, Dr. Raffi Hovsepian, dissented: The changes in the forehead and eye area seemed compatible with natural male aging, without surgical evidence. Let’s not forget that in 2003, Carrey appeared at the Teen Choice Awards completely blindfolded, wearing sunglasses, pretending to come out of surgery. By then rumors arose about the tweaks to his physique. The mask artist. Four days after the ceremony, Alexis Stone posted a carousel of three images on Instagram. The first two featured Jim Carrey. The third was a latex mask, false teeth, a dark wig, and various makeup materials arranged on a table with the Eiffel Tower out of focus in the background. The caption was simply “Alexis Stone as Jim Carrey in Paris.” Stone is a self-taught effects designer who has built a career on hyperrealistic transformations that have allowed her to pass herself off as Madonna, Jack NicholsonLana Del Rey, Robin Williams’ Ms. Doubtfire or Glenn Close’s Cruella de Vil. Stone usually documents his process in detail, but this was not the case: we only saw a mask that even had details that some users saw themselves as belonging to an AI generationwith excessively perfect contours and a blurry background typical of synthetic images. but when famous like Megan Fox or Katy Perry spread Stone’s posts, the rumor germinated all over the internet: the Césars were not Jim Carrey, but an imposter. Because. The arguments that the conspiracy theorists maintained They appeared almost at the same time as the gala. For example, the color of the eyes, usually dark brown, here a more greenish tone. More: Carrey is left-handed, and several short videos showed him in Paris using his right hand to sign autographs. The third argument was the speech itself: that someone who was theoretically retired and had no active ties to France spoke for ten minutes in French with very elaborate pronunciation, it was, for a part of the public, tremendously suspicious. The interviews that prove it. Of course, this is the moment that conspiracy theorists have been waiting for to bring up interviews from Carrey’s past with ambiguous, philosophical or downright incomprehensible answers. In 2017 declared that he did not believe in personalities, that the fashion party he had gone to and at which he was being interviewed seemed to him “absolutely meaningless” (from a metaphysical point of view) and that “there is no self, there are only things happening” (later the actor himself I would rate the interview “existential experiment”). In a previous interview, he calmly said “I’m dead“, but it was in the context of a conversation about spirituality and ego. We recommend fans of the most disconcerting Carrey to check out the incredible documentary ‘Jim and Andy’, which documents his literal transformation into Andy Kaufman for the filming of ‘Man on the Moon’. Official confirmation. The first official statements came from Marleah Leslie, Jim Carrey’s publicist for decades, with a brief message and that left no room for doubt: “Jim Carrey attended the César Awards, where he accepted his Honorary César Award.” That same day, the aforementioned Gregory Caulier told Variety what the eight months of preparatory conversations had been like and the months that the actor dedicated to working on his French. Carrey went to Paris accompanied by … Read more

Spain agreed with Germany and France to bypass the US. And it will end with a fleet of F-35s because of a French name

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Since the end of the Cold War, Europe has tried several times to build large joint military programs capable of rivaling those of the United States, almost always clashing with national interests, different industrial cultures and, of course, technological egos that are difficult to fit into. Each generation of fighters has promised more integration and less external dependence. Few have managed to fulfill it, and now it was not going to be less. The surprise that was not. He FCAS was born as a high-caliber strategic ambition: France, Germany and Spain agreed to promote a new generation combat air system to get ahead of the United States and reduce European dependence of American fighters, with the ubiquitous F-35 in all pools. It was an explicit attempt to surprise technological, industrial and political in front of Washington. Today, that project more than 100,000 million of euros staggers to the point of threatening the opposite result: that Europe will continue buying F-35s and that Spain will end up reinforcing a US fleet just when it had opted for its own alternative. Dassault, the constant. Here comes an actor with a name of his own who has turned everything upside down. The main blockade does not come from Berlin or Madrid, but from a historical constant in the French military industry: Dassault Aviation. The Financial Times recalled this morning that the company, controlled by the Dassault family for generations, has demonstrated time and time again that its priority is maintain absolute control of the design and production of French fighters. He already did it in the eighties abandoning the Eurofighterand today he repeats the pattern at the FCAS, refusing to give up technical leadership or accept a shared governance with Airbus. Dassault Rafale A project broken from within. Furthermore, the FCAS was designed as an integrated system: a manned fighter, drone swarms, advanced weapons and communication networks, with Dassault leading the aircraft and Airbus the rest. That balance was blown up when disputes began on specifications, distribution of work and industrial control. France wanted a plane lighter and navalizableGermany another heavier and more versatile one. The technical differences masked a possibly deeper clash: who is really in charge at the heart of the system. France does not rule as much as it seems. Here another crux appears to understand the mess: although the French State is Dassault’s main client and controls exports, its real capacity to impose decisions is limited. Yes, the company has survived nationalization attempts, political pressures and merger projects for decades, always prioritizing independence and control. Hence, presidents have passed and ministers have changed, but Dassault remains the same. President Emmanuel Macron has tried rescue the FCAS in multiple diplomatic rounds, but his room for maneuver has narrowed as he nears the end of his term. Spain, trapped in collateral damage. The Spanish nation entered the FCAS as a partner convinced that the project would allow it break the dependency technology of the United States. That agreement with Germany and France meant resigning in the short term to the American F-35 in exchange for their own European future. If now the FCAS ends up failing as it seems and Spain ends up resorting again to American fighters, the irony is bitter: because the fault would not be in Washington, but in “home” of an ally. The outcome that no one wanted to admit. As we counted yesterdaywith the project running aground, Germany is already slipping that it could go on your own or look for other partners, while France protects to their national champion. From that perspective, the FCAS has become the closest thing to a failed test of European credibility in common defense. For Spain, the risk is now double: losing years betting on a blocked program of billions of euros and being forced to knock on Washington’s door again, although now with less political margin and worse conditions. He surprise European will have to wait and for now it is diluted, and the old Atlantic balance is imposed again, this time not due to lack of ambition, but because of excess control. Image | José Luis Celada Euba In Xataka | Spain, France and Germany could not depend on the “button” of the F-35. So the future European fighter aims for something else In Xataka | If the question is where is the 100 billion European fighter, the answer is simple: stuck on a dead-end runway

One of the biggest wine critics is French and has toured China. There is no good news for French wine

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TO Michel Bettane he likes wine. In fact, it is more than a hobby: he has developed a career around it, until it became one of the wine critics most influential in the world. For two decades he worked at ‘La Revue du vin de France’, a prestigious magazine that covers current events in the wine industry, until he decided to become independent and, together with a colleague from the magazine, founded the Betanne and Desseauve Guide. Bettane is one of the most authoritative voices worldwide in terms of wines and one with weight within the sector. He recently completed a tour of China in which has tasted more than 300 premium Chinese wines and its conclusion is as resounding as it is hurtful to French pride. The chinese wines They are superior to many of those found in France. And this guy doesn’t try cheap wines, but rather high-end ones. Chinese wines >> French wines These incendiary statements came after the sixth edition of the Bettane + Desseauve Wine Tasting in China. Held in Beijing and Shangri-La (Yunnan), the critic and five other international wine experts tasted more than 300 premium wines produced in China. Bettane has indicated that China is experimenting an “amazing awakening of the terroir”, and it is something that is not out of place if we take into account the international position of the country’s industry. If just 15 years ago it was a desert, now They are sneaking into the conversation like a power. The strategy of the Chinese industry is not to attack in quantity, but in quality, and for this there are wineries that have studied in the most powerful wine and wine regions in Europe to learn and then apply that knowledge to their field. Taking advantage of the particularities of each of its regions, there are wines that are becoming some of the most sought-after without having a French surname. Bettane stated that what has impressed him most is the technical precision when controlling the grape ripening and fermentation processes. “We found almost no wine with serious defects”he assured, adding that “the overall strength of the production standard is, in fact, higher than what we often find in our annual tastings in France.” It looks like a Scottish castle, but it’s a Chinese winery Above all, he highlighted two wine regions: Ningxia and Yunnan. We have already talked about Ningxia recently in Xatakaa very complicated area in winter for which they have developed a technique that consists of burying the vines so that the snow does not affect them. Those responsible have “copied” Bordeauxand it is something that catches the critic’s attention. The other is Yunnan, one that, he says, left him speechless. Especially for a white wine, a ‘Shangri-La Chardonnay‘ which, for Bettane, “can play in the league of the world’s great whites”. A wine strategy modeled on that of smartphones The interesting thing is something that the critic comments about the change in strategy of the Chinese producers, and it is something similar to what has happened in the technological world, especially with the smartphone industry. At first, as happened with Ningxia producers, they dedicated themselves to “copying” Bordeaux, but now Bettane has seen how are beginning to experiment and discover synergies between the grapes, the land and its climatic conditions instead of simply continuing to imitate the European model. As I say, it is similar to what happens with the mobile phone industry and, specifically, with an Apple with which all Chinese brands are compared at any given time. When Apple presents a new feature for the iPhone, we begin to see a rapid adaptation of Chinese mobile phones to include those features, while adding some new functions. The iPhone dynamic island and his twin in other brandsvisual elements in the operating system or the photo button (which existed long before Apple integrated it, but the influence of the apple brand is what it is) are three examples. For Bettane, the possibilities that China’s vast territory offers when it comes to creating and perfecting grape varieties are “unlimited.” And if you read me from France or are a lover of La Mancha wine and right now your fist is clenched… at least we have the cheese left. That, at the moment, has no Asian rival. Images | WBC, Treaty Port In Xataka | If the question is what is the future of wine, more and more Bordeaux wineries are clear about it: non-alcoholic wine

There is nothing more French than a baguette. And even the French have gotten tired of them

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That in France the baguette is a symbol, an icon, an institution (almost), is beyond any doubt. Just three years ago UNESCO included it on its list of intangible cultural heritage and together with the Eiffel Tower, Notre-Dame and a handful of other symbols (not many) it is part of the iconic heritage of Paris. Despite all this, the French seem less and less interested in taking baguettes home, which coincides with a general drop in bread consumption. There are those who already warn that the popular bar is presented with a “uncertain future” or even, going further, he wonders: Can French baguette die? France, less and less panera. France may have turned baguettes into a national symbol, but even that has not prevented bread from facing a complex crisis there. The demand data shows this clearly, as CNN recalled this week in an analysis on the topic. If after the Second World War the French consumed an average of 25 ounces of bread per person per day (about 700 grams), in 2015 that figure had already dropped to four ounces (113 g). The trend does not seem to have reversed in the last decade and today this average consumption indicator is even lower, standing at 3.5 ounces (almost 100 g). In practice, that amounts to less than half a baguette. Is there more data? Yes. And most of them are not what they say are encouraging for the sector. In 2023 the Confederation of French Bakeries and Pastry Shops published a survey which reveals that, of the thousand consumers interviewed, more than a third (36%) acknowledged having reduced their bread consumption during the previous five years. The decline was also especially pronounced among middle-aged people (35 to 49 years old). In his case the ‘puncture’ reached 43%. In the lower cohort, young people between 25 and 34 years old, one in four interviewed (26%) declared that they had increased their consumption of bread, although this trend has some important nuances. Young people are beginning to see bread as part of the meals they eat outside the home and are banishing it from their breakfasts, a time of day when it was previously common to consume baguette bread with butter, jam or chocolate and hazelnut cream. Among those under 24 years of age, 57% maintain this habit. It is a considerable percentage, but it is far from the 83% that reaches among the population group of 55 to 65 years. “Coucou, tu as pris le pain?” The decline of bread in France is nothing new. In 2013 the trend was already clear enough for French bakers to launch a campaign to encourage its consumption. His slogan was “Coucou, tu as pris le pain?” (“Hey, did you pick up the bread?”) and was plastered on billboards, bus shelters and shop windows across the country with a clear purpose: to get French families to buy baguettes on the way home. They didn’t have it easy. The change of scenario facing the sector responds to a cocktail in which both internal factors and changes at a social and cultural level are combined. And what factors are those? To begin with, the offer has changed (a lot). It is not the same bread that the French found in the 50s or 60s as those of 2025. CNN remember how there are new professionals (“neo-bakers”) who are choosing to remove baguettes from their shelves and opt for other products, aromatic sourdough and whole-grain breads, made with cereals, organic flour and sold by weight. The reason, beyond their flavor: they stay fresh longer, an important factor for a generation that has lost the habit (or simply does not have time) of going to the bakery every day. Added to this is the popularity of other competitors, such as processed sliced ​​bread from the US. The data is once again incontestable. A study by the Federation of Bakery Entrepreneurs reveals that nine out of ten French (86%) admit to consuming industrial white plan bought in supermarkets. In May the Sirhafood medium I remembered that the market for packaged industrial sliced ​​bread moves more than 500 million euros annually, which has meant that the format (soft bread) has even aroused the interest of artisan workshops. Beyond the industry. The drop in bread consumption is also linked to something more complex: changes at a social, cultural and demand level. Simply the young they cook less and they eat more outside the home, where they also find a greater gastronomic offer, with alternatives in which bread is not a central piece. It’s not a coincidence. Yes in 2005 88% of French people Respondents saw bread as the basis of a balanced diet, in 2023 that percentage was already 66%. In its day, the baguette also offered a series of advantages (an easy-to-store format, availability, price and flavor) that may be less appreciated in the market today. The bar must be consumed the same day it is purchased, which requires going to the bakery daily. In a society in which time is scarce, this is a handicap and explains the implementation that supermarket bread has achieved. Beyond France. The phenomenon is not in any case exclusive to France. In Spain it happens something similar. Data from the Ministry of Food show that per capita consumption has plummeted in recent decades: from 56.4 kilos per year in 1990 we have gone to 27.4. The most curious thing is that the fall is once again focused on fresh bread, which (although it remains the most popular) is the one that has suffered the greatest ‘puncture’. The consumption of industrial bread has grown, although not enough to compensate for the collapse of traditional loaves. Images | Sergio Arze (Unsplash), Mohamed Jamil Latrach (Unsplash) and Shalev Cohen (Unsplash) In Xataka | We knew that freezing bread was convenient, cheap and fashionable. What we are not clear about is that it is “so good” for health

The French Revolution proposed dividing the day into ten hours. It didn’t catch on, but an artist has created watches that respect that idea

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Apparently it is a normal clock: its division by hours, its two hands (yes, we already know that if you are from Generation Z it is very possible that you do not know how to read time in this device, but let’s start from the fact that it seems to all of us that this looks like a traditional watch)… However, as soon as you look closely you will see that there is an extraordinary difference: the dial is divided into ten spaces instead of the usual twelve. In the name of Lewis Carroll, what the hell is this. Ruth Evans, provoking. The clock is the work of artist Ruth Ewan and is part of a series of similar creations, called ‘We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted To Be’, originally presented at Folkestone Artworks in 2011. It is a triennial of urban art works that, in its latest edition, includes 91 works by 52 artists. Ewan, a Scottish artist whose works always contain a social message, has retouched for the occasion some of the watches she created almost fifteen years ago for the contest. How they work. The strange arrangement of the numbers is not an aesthetic decision, but rather we are looking at clocks that divide each day into ten hours, each hour into one hundred minutes and each minute into one hundred seconds. Midnight takes place at ten and noon at five. Currently, you already know: a day has 24 hours, each of which has 60 minutes, each with 60 seconds. From there we also use decimals: a second has ten tenths of a second, one hundred hundredths or one thousand thousandths. But Ewan’s is an absolutely rational division of time that is not capricious: it has a historical basis. Making history. As we already said in its day, The ten-hour system was officially implemented in 1793 as part of the radical reforms spurred by the French Revolution. This decimal system was intended to simplify calculations and break with the past, aligning itself with other revolutionary aspects such as the republican calendar that divided the year into 12 identical months, of 30 days each and 10 days per week. The use of decimal time was mandatory from the end of 1793 until April 1795, when its use was suspended after only 500 days, due to great popular resistance and the difficulty of adapting daily life and existing clocks to this new system. Some watchmakers attempted to create watches with dual numbering (decimal and traditional) to help the transition, but the change clashed with customs and business needs that depended on the traditional system. What does it mean? Ewan’s intention with this watch is to show how changes in the organization of time can also symbolize profound social transformations, and proposes a new way of perceiving the world and questioning current systems. Let us remember that revolutionary France sought to introduce reason, equality and efficiency in all aspects of social life, including the measurement of time. With something as simple as reminding us that time can be perceived very differently with a simple change in the artifacts with which we measure it, Ewan proposes a possible new social order, and an invitation to imagine alternative futures. The work questions the rigidity of capitalist chronological time, and that is why Ewan prepared and distributed some pamphlets that spoke of the utopian concept of time in the Revolution. In Xataka | Physicists do not know precisely what time is. Still, they suspect it’s just an illusion.

Two years ago, an asteroid exploded over France with unusual violence. What saved the French was their size

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February 13, 2023. It was 4:59 in the morning when a violent explosion illuminated the skies of Normandynorth of France. It was not a ray, nor a missile. It was the end of a travel of millions of kilometers for a small asteroid called 2023 Cx1. Seven hours of notice. The 650 -kilogram rock had just a meter in diameter, so it had been detected only seven hours before impact. But the most disturbing thing was not his surprise arrival, but his behavior when entering the earth’s atmosphere. An exhaustive analysis published two and a half years later in Nature Astronomy He has revealed that, if the asteroid had been larger, the consequences of his extraordinary explosion could have been devastating. A high -risk meteor. Most meteorites are fragmenting as they descend through the atmosphere, but 2023 CX1 endured intact until it reached a distance to the ground of only 28 kilometers. At that point, the pressure made it explode like a pump. After traveling through space for about 30 million years, the asteroid released 98% of all its kinetic energy in a second fraction. And in a very concentrated region of the atmosphere, when it reached a dynamic pressure of 4 megapascal. It does not compare with Cheliábinsk. The 2023 CX1 behavior was radically different from that of the car whose explosion of 500 kilotons He broke windows and caused hundreds of injured in Russia in 2013. The one in France generated a spherical shock wave instead of cylindrical, concentrating much more energy and greatly increasing the area of ​​soil affected by overpressure. According to researchers, this type of abrupt fragmentation could cause much more damage than the progressive fragmentations of similar size bodies. The French were lucky that it was so small. More firewood for planetary defense. The analysis was based on an unprecedented number of observations after mobilizing the scientific and citizen community in those seven hours of margin. The prediction of the fall by ESA and NASA had a margin of error of less than 20 meters between the planned and observed trajectory, which in turn facilitated the recovery of more than one hundred fragments of the meteorite in the commune of Saint-Pierre-Le Viger. According to the CSICwhich participated in the investigation, this event confirms the existence of a new population of asteroids, type L chondrites, capable of these violent explosions. “These asteroids must be taken into account in the Planetary Defense Strategiessince they represent a higher risk for populated areas, “says Auriane Egal, first author of the study. With what we know today, perhaps the authorities activate evacuation plans the next time an asteroid of this type threatens us. Provided that detection systems do not fail, and detect the threat in time. Image | THAT In Xataka | Tunguska: the explosion of 12 megatones that reminds us that space is full of wonders, but also of horrors

Tourism of juice and sandwich expands through the Basque Country French

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“I had never seen so many people doing picnic on the beach!” The phrase is from Sébastien Meric, manager of the Taverne Basque, a restaurant of Saint-Jean-de-Luzin Nueva Aquitaine (France), and although a priori it may seem a positive comment hides a feeling that worries the hoteliers of this village of the Atlantic Pyrenees as well as those of Other destinations From Spain: they arrive (almost) as many tourists as in 2024, but they think about it much more when it comes to their portfolios. And that is a problem. What happened? That with the summer campaign already advanced, the hoteliers of San Juan de Luz, a small commune of France famous for its traditional beaches, port and architecture, recognize having a bittersweet taste. It is not so much that tourists have stopped visiting the town and that they no longer do it with the same joy. So I know They recognized A few professionals recently to the newspaper Sud Ouestto which they admit their concern about what is promised a “mediocre” summer. Why’s that? To start because Julio has left a puncture in the influx of tourists. According to the Departmental Tourism Agency of the Atlantic Pyrenees, last month the flow of visitors in the Basque Country French descended -1%a fall that was even more pronounced if we talk about overnight (-4%). In the whole of the Atlantic Pyrenees the demand remained stable (+1%) thanks in part to a warmer and dry meteorology of the usual. Sud Ouest Precise That, according to the Julio Tourist Barometer, San Juan de Luz lost about 55,000 visitors, a fall that is largely related to the lower influx of visitors from other parts of Europe with respect to last year (Dutch, Spanish or Germans) but also from travelers from other regions of the country itself, such as Paris or the department of Hauts-de-Seine. From the City of San Juan de Luz, this decline in visitors, which relate to circumstantial factors, reduces importance in any case. “Time has been unpredictable and beaches have been closed by jellyfish,” Clarify The organism, “it is better to wait at the end of summer to draw conclusions.” Is there anything else? Yes. And that is perhaps the most interesting idea than comment The hoteliers of the region A Sud Ouest. Beyond the fluctuations in the influx of travelers, the really curious thing is that businesses perceive a contraction in spending. “Before we made a lobster barbecue per 100 euros, now we make chuletones with blue cheese sauce for three times,” confesses a restaurant, recalling that this is the second summer that does not meet expectations. “Last year we thought it was for the Olympic Games or Bayonne partieswhich coincide with those of Pamplona, ​​but this year is the same. ” detects New habits among veraneantes. “I had never seen so many people doing picnic on the beach!” A third place specifies that this year has encountered an “excess template.” And what is the reason? The big question. The Agite Du Tourism 64 perceive “For the first time in many years” a decrease in the influx of customers with a high level of income (-2%) in the French Basque Country, a trend that the organism believes compensated by an increase in equal extent of the middle-class clientele. The regional press points out other hypotheses, such as a decrease in the purchasing power of tourists or the changes in the legislation that regulates tourist floors. The New standard It puts certain limits to holiday rentals of second residences, which limits their offer and forces tourists to use hotels in which the average price per night in high season, slides Sud Ouestcan perfectly be around 170 euros. A higher expense in the accommodation would leave visitors (especially families) with less margin when it comes to allowing other extras during their vacations, such as meals or dinners in restaurants. Why is it important? Although Saint-Jean-de-Luz is located in France his data and especially the testimony of his hoteliers are interesting because they show us another perspective of tourism. One that is not exclusive to Atlantic Pyrenees. He last balance The INE reveals a considerable rise in the total spending of international tourists (+5.5%) and the average daily expenditure, but in some regions there are also hoteliers who have alerted a billing drop. They did recently in Diario de Mallorcathe hoteliers of Port de Sóller, in Mallorca, where they have detected a puncture of the demand in full high season. “We have gone from not having workers to overcome us,” admits the owner of two restaurants that he has had to do without employees. “This is a rebound effect after the madness after Covid. We return to the situation we had before the pandemic, but with much narrower margins.” Images | Tourisme Pays Basque Office (Flickr) and Cylk34 (Flickr) In Xataka | The north of Spain has been complaining about mass tourism for years. Asturias has discovered the bitter consequences of losing it

It comes from the Andalusian mountain and burns in French thermal

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While Europe profile new sanctions Against Russia in the energy sector, the clock runs to fill the reserves for winter. In this context, France has decided to look south to supply its thermal plants and reduce its gas dependence: Andalusian biomass is placed in the center of the solution. Short. From the port of Seville a new export operation of forest biomass has come out to an electricity generation plant in the French region of Provence and Costa Azul. As reported by the Junta de Andalucía through a press release4,200 tons of biomass have been loaded, from jungle treatments made in Andalusian mountains and managed by the Novalis company. This operation is part of a public-private collaboration model that seeks to value the forest resources of Andalusia and position biomass as an exportable energy alternative. A paradigm shift. This type of exports shows a deep transformation in territory management: what was previously a residue or a fire risk, today becomes a clean energy resource with international demand. Andalusian woody biomass not only generates renewable energy, but does it with a neutral fingerprint in carbon, contributing to the decarbonization objectives of the European Union. In addition, active jungle improves the structure of forests and reduces plant load, which helps prevent forest fires. “For years conservation was confused with inaction and that has led to the abandonment of many mountains,” has pointed out in Europa Press The general director of Forestry Policy and Biodiversity, Juan Ramón Pérez Valenzuela. The process. The model is based on the tender for forest exploits on public land, especially in areas of high ecological value and risk of depopulation. Cleaning tasks, clareos and jungle treatments are carried out by specialized companies. Once classified and shipyard, biomass is exported through logistics infrastructure to energy facilities in France, Italy, Denmark and Sweden. Since the operation started in 2019, the port of Seville You have seen come out More than 400,000 tons of biomass: wood, cork and even olive bone that now serve to generate clean energy in Europe. Only the Sevillana Novalis company has moved more than 100,000 tons. If the exports also carried out from Huelva, Puerto Real or Almería are added, the total already exceeds 640,000 tons to countries of the north and east of the continent. Now there is no bottleneck. Spain has been seen as a Cul-de-Sac energetic: With limited infrastructures and with hardly any interconnections with central Europe. But when he is interestedas this operation demonstrates from Seville, it can be removed to the sea and what was only gas in gas pipelines, now they are mountains converted into heat. It is not the only case, since companies like Burpellet, in the small bourgeois town of Doña Santos, They consolidate this idea. With a production of up to 150,000 tons per year, its plant demonstrates that biomass can be a viable industrial solution for rural areas, without losing its local scale. The mountain as the energy of the future. The Junta de Andalucía does not hide your bet. The operation in the port of Seville is a sample of the deployment of the Andalusian Forest Plan Horizon 2030, which mobilizes 300 million euros per year to promote the multifunctional management of the mountain. And it will also be the basis for a future mountain law that consolidates the productive and sustainable use of the territory. At a time when Europe fears the cold of winter and heat of energy crises, Andalusia sends more than splinters: exports clean energy, active forest management and future for their peoples. The mountain, finally, is again the protagonist. Image | Port of Seville Xataka | Sea water to heat the streets: the idea of a German city to have more sustainable heating

In his plan to put Europe against the strings, China has a master plan: attack the French alcohol

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China has imposed tariffs of up to 34.9% for five years to Brandy from the European Union, exempting the punishment of the main producers of French Coñac (Hennesy, Rémy Martin and Pernod Ricard, among others), under condition that they sell at a minimum agreed price. The measure It emerges a year after Antidumping research which China launched in early 2024. What happened. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce reported on Saturday of “anti -dumping” tariffs between 27.7% and 34.9% to Brandy imports from the EU. The new rates apply to all distributors, except for those companies with which minimum prices will be agreed. As long as the products of these companies are exported to China, fulfilling the agreed conditions, they will not be subject to anti -dumping rights. Why it is important. With this movement, China has ensured the commitment of 34 Brandy producers of the European Union. The country led by Xi Jinping is using French alcohol as a geopolitical control strategy, a pressure game in which it shows its ability to retaliate against European tariff policy. The context. New tariff rates to Brandy are no accident. China initiated its anti -dumping research at the beginning of 2024, three months after the European Union began a procedure on The influx of Chinese electric cars in Europe. It was investigated how the policy of “huge state subsidies” was translating into “artificially low prices.” Shaun Reingeneral director of the China Market Research Group based in Shanghai to Reuters, explained on those dates how the measures of the Asian country “are a shot to let Europe know that China can also plan hard measures against its growing protectionism.” The largest market in the world for brandy. China has occupied a historic role in European brandy imports. Before the growing tensions, the country was the second largest destination for world exports of French Coñac, only behind the United States. It is a market for which they earn by market value, not by volume, if not paying more for bottle. Why attack Brandy? Because France is, however much, The largest exporter of alcoholic beverage to China. Putting the focus on your product is the best way to attack Europe. China and European alcohol. Chinese predilection for European alcohol does not have brandy as the only pillar. Chinese investors have been with predilection for wines like Frenchhaving come to buy entire warehouses that years later they went on sale. Chinese groups found in European alcohol a diversification for their portfolio of assets in addition to that, as a country, China is one of the main wine consumers in the world. Despite this, this consumption has suffered an accelerated fall for about a decade. The truce. The tariff to alcohol arrives in full uncertainty about what will end up happening with the rates imposed by Europe in the Chinese car. Europe is opening the door to the elimination of themwith the aim of looking for a land price depending on the type of vehicle. The EU wants to prevent China from playing with a practically inevitable competitive advantage. With tariff or without it, The Chinese car is eating the European in front of our eyesand the destiny of the industry passes through Asia. In Xataka | The great alcohol crisis in Spain: how young people are changing their relationship with radically drink Image | Ambitious Studio | Rick BarrettABODI VESAKARAN

There are already French asking for back the money they paid for their teslas. And the reason has a name and surname

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“Some customers no longer dare or do not want to use their vehicle.” With this phrase summarizes Patrick Klugman, lawyer for a future demand against Tesla in France, the feeling of his represented. A group of Tesla owners accuse the company that its public image has directly affected its vehicles and, of course, themselves. This is what they argue. Enjoy. That is, exactly, what the 10 Tesla owners who plan to denounce the company for the possible damage caused by the damage to the public image … of the company itself can not do with their vehicles. They ensure that Elon Musk’s political approach to the extreme right prevents them from circulating with tranquility, as explained to Le Parisien. Among the future plaintiffs are stories of all kinds. There is the one who says that one day he reached his car and found that he had been vandalized with the graffiti of a swastika. In other cases, they point to moral damage because they are owners who feel “betrayed”, in the words of lawyer Patrick Klugman, who is behind the defense of these consumers. “A Responsible Eco -Ciudadean approach”. Thus, they ensure this dozen owners, who received the company when they were made with one of their vehicles. “It was a 100% electric brand (…) buyers were willing to pay more money for their car to participate in the ecological transition … This vehicle (Tesla) became a sample of commitment,” explains the lawyer. They claim that with Elon Musk’s approach to the extreme right and the brand’s image degradation they cannot have a “peaceful possession” of the vehicle. A detail that is key to the demand that they want to present that, they point out in the middle, it cannot be defined as “collective” for the moment. Despite this, the lawyer encourages every owner who wants to add to the cause to accompany them. What are they based on? As we said, that “peaceful possession” is key. This is collected in the Article 1625 of the Civil Code In France. It specifies: “The guarantee that the seller owes to the buyer has two objects: the first is the peaceful possession of the thing sold; the second, the hidden defects of this thing or the prohibitive vices” To this “peaceful possession” is to which the owners of the Tesla grab ensuring that given the attacks against the vehicles that extended a few months ago and the reputational loss of the company, they do not dare to take the car out to the street or, to do so, they cannot enjoy it with the same conditions that were sold. What do they claim? The ultimate intention of these owners is simply that they return the purchase money or that the loan they maintain with the company is canceled if they are paying the car in installments. Bad image. What is clear is that Elon Musk’s passage through the United States government has seriously damaged the public image of the company. From the protests before your company’s concessionaires to direct attacks against their vehicles. But, above all, the company has seen how its sales have sunk into what we have been for the year. The problem is especially serious in Europe. In its two main markets (Germany and France) their sales are on the floor. Right where issues related to extreme right and the Nazism are more sensitive among public opinion. To this is added the increase in the second -hand market of Tesla cars. Beyond that some influencers have shown publicly How they got rid of their carsIn France the volume of ads selling second -hand Tesla cars shot in the first months of 2025, to the point that increased 30% Regarding the ads published in the first half of 2024. Photo | The White House and Felipe Tofani In Xataka | There is a shopping center that is becoming famous for one thing: Tesla is piling up the cybertruck that does not sell

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