history

“Any planet that has developed intelligence should have noosignatures, a physical history of cognitive activity”

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¿We are looking for evil extraterrestrial life Or are we alone in the Universe? Some experts opt for the former. They believe that it would be quite egocentric to think that we are the only ones who inhabit the immensity of the cosmos. The problem is that we are busy searching for alien intelligence, but perhaps we are not smart enough to find it. Or, toning things down a bit, we haven’t found the best strategies. Normally we look for biosignatures or technosignatures. That is, biological traces or radio signals from some extraterrestrial technology. Now, astrobiologist Julia De Marines, from the University of California, Berkeley, has devised a new term that focuses right in the middle: noosignatures. Smart, but not that advanced. If an extraterrestrial had landed its radio telescopes on Earth during the stone age I wouldn’t have found anything. I would have concluded that, in that direction, there are no planets with intelligent extraterrestrial life. The failure would have been in thinking that any planet with intelligent life must be at the same point of technological development. Seen this way, it is a pretty big mistake. But the reality is that we are doing just that. For this reason, De Marines believes that technofirms are not the best options. As to biosignaturesdo not always point to biological processes. The history of space exploration is full of examples in which it cannot be ruled out that the biosignature has a geological origin. In fact, it is most likely. For this reason, this astrobiologist proposes that intermediate point in which life is not sought, but rather intelligent activity at an intermediate point before developing advanced technologies. Because it may not have been sought at the right time or, simply, that civilization may not have advanced that much. To be able to detect it correctly, the key is in Assembly Theory. Too many pieces to put together alone. Assembly Theory is based on the assembly index of an object. That is, the number of pieces that had to be joined to form it. Sometimes pieces can be assembled by natural processes. However, above a certain threshold, a complexity is denoted that can only have certain intelligent activity behind it. Stone age tools are a good example. No need to look for stone axes. Although we take prehistoric tools as an example, this cannot be sought by launching telescopes and sensors into space. However, there are activities that can be measured from the outside. For example, agriculture left a measurable trace of nitrogen in our atmosphere. Even food manufacturing, such as fermented products, can be detected in waste chemistry thousands of years later. It is not necessary to understand it. Something important about this method of searching for extraterrestrial life is that it is not necessary to understand noosignatures. Returning to examples from our own history, in Phys point out the case of the Indus Valley writing. At the moment, no one has been able to decipher it, but we know that it was not written alone. There was an intelligent mind behind it. In this case the same thing happens. We must look for traces that do not fit with the natural behavior of the planet, even if it is not understood how they could have arisen. The limitations. This method of searching for extraterrestrial life has a major limitation. And noosignatures are ephemeral. If they are not measured at the right time, they can disappear. Additionally, they can be quite complex to decipher. To all this we must add that the study published by De Marines is a preprint. This means that it has not yet undergone review by an independent research team. Therefore, we must take their approaches with a grain of salt. Anyway, the reality is that, since the beginnings of SETIthe search for intelligent extraterrestrial life is not bearing good fruit. Not even the search for life, in general. The twists in methodology can be interesting, so this one deserves, at the very least, the attention of other astrobiologists. Image | Brooke Denevan (Unsplash) In Xataka | What is the Fermi paradox and why the architect of the atomic bomb gave a twist to the search for extraterrestrial life

The highest-grossing superhero movie in history returns to theaters to repeat its success with a longer version

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In 2019, Marvel re-released ‘Avengers: Endgame’ with unreleased footage to take the title of highest-grossing film in history from ‘Avatar’. The crown lasted a year and a half. In 2026 the maneuver is activated again, this time linked to ‘Avengers: Doomsday’. It is the jewel in the crown of the Marvel team and Disney is not going to stop squeezing it. The return Marvel has confirmed that ‘Avengers: Endgame’ returns to theaters on September 25, 2026 under the title ‘Avengers Endgame Encore’. The new version includes a special introduction, additional scenes and a final scene that, for now, will only be seen in IMAX and Infinity Vision screenings, the premium screen system that Disney presented a few months ago. ‘Endgame’ continues to be the ceiling that Marvel Studios has not touched again, neither at the box office nor in the feeling of collective event that surrounded it, and that spirit is what the studio wants to evoke for ‘Avengers: Doomsday’. What’s new? Joe Russo has confirmed that the scenes filmed for this re-release are set in ‘Doomsday’, and describes them as a fundamental piece to build a bridge to the new film. Marvel already used this re-release formula, almost identical, with ‘Endgame’ itself: in June 2019, just two months after its premiere, the film would return to theaters with seven minutes of extra footage and an explicit objective: to surpass ‘Avatar’ at the box office before the premiere of ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’. That maneuver worked. On July 20, 2019, during the Marvel panel at San Diego Comic-Con, the studio confirmed that ‘Endgame’ had surpassed the $2.789 million accumulated by ‘Avatar’ until then, thus becoming the highest-grossing film in history. The celebration was short-lived: in March 2021, ‘Avatar’ was released again in China and regained the title in a single weekend. Since then, the distance between both films has not stopped growing: today ‘Avengers: Endgame’ accumulates 2,799 million dollars compared to 2,923 million for ‘Avatar’. There is almost 124 million difference, much more than what separated both films in 2019. Fall without Avengers. The collections of the ‘Endgame’ films have suffered a constant decline. Let’s remember some cases: ‘Eternals’ raised 402 million dollars with a budget of between 200 and 250 million. ‘Black Widow’ stood at 379 million, weighed down by its simultaneous premiere on Disney+. ‘Quantumania’ suffered the worst second weekend drop in Marvel Studios history. ‘The Marvels’ closed that streak without achieving the financial success that the studio expected. The real goal of ‘Avengers Endgame Encore’ is no longer to recover a record that today seems unattainable, but to rebuild the feeling of an event that Marvel lost years ago: to remind the public, just before December and the premiere of ‘Doomsday’, why they cared about this story. What is played in December. ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ hits theaters on December 18, 2026, the same day as ‘Dune: Part Three’, a coincidence that already has generated friction for the distribution of IMAX screens. Ticket sales for Infinity Vision screenings of ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ start right now, on July 20. Five days later, at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel will show the first official trailer for the film. Depending on how both events are received, we will see if Marvel is in a position to bottle again that seemingly unrepeatable lightning bolt that was ‘Endgame’ In Xataka | In just one month in office and with 1,000 layoffs, Disney’s new CEO dismantles the art department that built the MCU

Warren Buffett is ending one of the largest philanthropic relationships in history for a reason: Jeffrey Epstein

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For almost twenty years, Warren Buffett took advantage of the summer break to convert part of his Berkshire Hathaway shares and donate them for philanthropic purposes. For much of those two decades of giving, the Gates Foundation had been the main recipient of the billions distributed by the veteran investor. However, last year something changed and the 2026 cast confirms it: Warren Buffett no longer trusts the foundation of his former friend Bill Gates. Like every year, the “Oracle of Omaha” has made his annual donation and, for the second consecutive year, the Foundation of his old friend Bill Gates has been left without a single dollar. The reason has a first and last name: Jeffrey Epstein. A promise for life. In 2006, Buffett signed a commitment that he himself described as irrevocable. In your original letter To Bill and Melinda Gates, the millionaire investor promised to donate shares with several conditions. As Pulitzer-nominated journalist Tim Schwab relates in his book ‘The Bill Gates problem‘those conditions were: The funds had to be spent within the year they were received, discounting the 5% of assets that foundations must donate by law. Bill, Melinda or someone from the Gates family he had to remain active at the head of the foundation. The donations had to be counted as charitable contributions, which for tax purposes taxed differently to gifts and donations. Those conditions made Buffett the foundation’s largest individual donor. According to the official statement of Berkshire Hathaway, this year has converted 8,000 Class A shares into 12 million Class B shares, but with a totally different destination than usual. Epstein changed everything. The first cracks in the relationship between Gates and Buffett began with the Bill and Melinda divorce in 2021. The veteran Omaha investor was very close to Melinda’s values ​​and her management skills. Those cracks soon they became a breakup when the Department of Justice declassified documents that revived doubts about the Gates contacts with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier convicted of sexual crimes. In their statements to Congressadmitted that meeting with Epstein put his reputation and job at risk. Buffett, for his part, described that relationship as “unpleasant” in an interview with CNBCalthough he clarified that he has also made a mistake when choosing friends. His children take over from Gates. Buffett insists the decision is not just about Epstein. According to what he told Reutershis three children Susie, Howard and Peter already they have instructions to manage the distribution of his fortune. This year the distribution has gone to four family foundations. The bulk, 9 million shares, went to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, in honor of his late wife. The rest has been divided between the Sherwood Foundation, which Susie runs, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which her middle son runs, and the NoVo Foundation, run by her youngest son, Peter. Goal: spend $140 billion by 2034. The most striking thing about the distribution of donations this year has not only been the confirmation of the break with the Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett has advanced the schedule to divest his entire stake in Berkshire Hathaway, some $140 billion. In previous communicationsthe millionaire claimed to have planned to distribute it ten years after his death. According to your own releasenow “My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within approximately eight years… I am hopeful that all three of them will be able to complete the distribution of my shares by December 31, 2034.” Buffett himself acknowledged that “Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to all four foundations in one form or another by December 31, 2034.” His children will gradually sell his remaining shares, some 188,290 Class A shares, until they exhaust a fortune that for almost twenty years was linked to the projects of the Gates Foundation. In Xataka | The True Legacy of the Duty Free Founder: How Chuck Feeney Inspired Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Image | Flickr (Statsministerens kontor, Fortune Live Media)

the five million dollar birthday party of a millionaire who went down in history

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It was February 2007 and in a former military barracks on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, nearly 600 guests toasted with champagne while Rod Stewart sang at a private concert marking the 60th birthday of one of the most powerful men on Wall Street. That man was Stephen SchwarzmanCEO and founder of Blackstone. Nobody at the party knew that, months later, that same night would go down in history as the symbol of everything that was going to go wrong on Wall Street. A party that marked an era. That was not just any birthday party. Almost two decades later, there are still many who remember her as one of the most ostentatious. Schwarzman, founder of Blackstone, rented the Park Avenue Armory in Manhattan, filled it with orchids, palm trees, and a life-size portrait of himself. According to the book ‘Davos Man‘ by Peter S. Goodman, comedian Martin Short entertained the evening, singer Patti LaBelle sang happy birthday and even Rod Stewart gave a private concert. Among the almost 600 attendees were bankers, politicians and even a certain Donald Trump, then just another New York businessman. An unforgettable party. HE esteem that the party cost between three and five million dollars. Today that figure seems modest next to other waste the kind that millionaires boast about, but in those years it was a significant waste. Schwarzman later justified it as “a celebration with six hundred people we cared about.” Peccadillo for someone who had just pocketed $398.3 million in the 2006 fiscal year. The expensive thing was not the party. However, the party came just four days after a key announcement. Blackstone had just closed the biggest real estate purchase in history until that moment, for 39,000 million dollars. Months later, the company went public. Schwarzman he pocketed nearly 700 million in cash, and was awarded a stake valued at about 9,000 million. That cocktail of luxury and easy money caught the attention of the Senate. Legislators Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley presented what the press dubbed the “Blackstone Bill”. A regulations tailor-made for Schwarzman’s company that sought to raise taxes on private capital. With the subprime crisis already upon us, Schwarzman ended up admitting that that party was “a little exaggerated”. He assured that he never wanted to become the symbol of the opulence of an era. “I’m not rich,” he only had a net worth of 8 billion. With such a fortune, anyone would expect a certain comfort with the label of rich. But that wasn’t the case with Schwarzman. As and how I collected The Wall Street JournalEven after the millionaire’s ostentatious birthday party, when asked about his lifestyle, the Blackstone CEO responded without hesitation: “I don’t feel like a rich person. Others see me as such, but I don’t. I feel the same as when I was a fifth-year associate and aspired to be a partner at Lehman. I haven’t changed… I’m still trying.” The old excesses that no longer return the same. Perhaps displaying a certain nostalgia, ten years after that memorable party, Schwarzman celebrated his 70th. On this occasion, he did not skimp either. There were camels, trapeze artists and a private concert by singer Gwen Stefani in Palm Beach, near Mar-a-Lago. The party almost happened without noise from the front pages of the newspapers. It was the Trump era and luxury no longer shocked anyone like before. Their neighbors Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner were among the guests. The king of parties at 79. Today, with a fortune of 48 billion dollars, Schwarzman prepares a Halloween party at his English estate in Conholt Park. No camels or temples: just fireworks and two days of private meeting. Something quiet. chill. The excesses of yesteryear, those that made Congress tremble, they no longer scare so much today. The billionaires of this decade are more discreet with their forms, although their wealth has increased tenfold. Today’s billionaires they spend the same or more than Schwarzman in 2007, they just don’t do the same ostentation. The difference is in the noise, not the money. In Xataka | A Swedish millionaire lent money to European governments in exchange for matches. Nobody suspected that his finances were pure smoke Image | Unsplash (Ophélie Bonavita), Flickr (World Economic Forum)

The first “social network” in history is 57,000 years old, it was made up of hunters and gatherers and served to avoid extinction

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The survival of prehistoric hunter-gatherers has historically been explained by two things: climate and available natural resources. And although in general terms it is true, a new study proposes that the social relations between human groups at that time were as decisive as the physical environment. The discovery. The research team focuses on small groups of hunter-gatherers who lived in the South Caucasus between 57,000 and 27,000 years ago. Apparently, these small groups traveled long distances and shared tools and techniques with other groups. Initially they thought that due to their size and distance they would live almost isolated from each other, but no. The key evidence is in obsidian objects, a volcanic rock used to make cutting tools, present in deposits located between 40 and 200 km from the quarry of origin. Why it is important. Because it forces us to rethink the classical models of human evolution that attributed the success or failure of a population almost exclusively to its capacity for climatic adaptation. Now we see that cooperation and the circulation of information was an essential survival factorwhich has implications for understand human resilience in the face of environmental change. Context. The study area is the south of the Caucasus, the natural bridge between Europe and Asia where mountains, valleys and very different climates come together in a small space, so it is a key place to understand How ancient humans moved. At the time in which the study is framed, Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted in other parts of the world and also when stone tools changed style. That is why the Caucasus is a magnificent place to verify if these changes were a sudden replacement of one population by another or there was coexistence between both cultures. In detail. Each obsidian quarry has a unique chemical composition, which allows us to determine exactly the origin of each tool located. According to the research team, the distance over which these tools are dispersed is too great for a single group to travel in search of food: the most plausible explanation is that different groups were in contact and exchanged materials. But there is another clue: the way of carving the stone is repeated in sites very far from each other, which suggests that some groups learned from others, not that they reached the same conclusion by chance. Furthermore, when dating the layers of earth from different sites, it is seen that the cultures of the Middle Paleolithic and the Upper Paleolithic coexisted for thousands of years in the same area, that is, one did not replace the other. Three powerful reasons to maintain that social networks helped these groups survive. Yes, but. The inference of “social networks” or alliances from carved stone is still an interpretation, not a direct observation: there are no written, oral or testimonial records from the Paleolithic, so any conclusion about social relations is constructed indirectly, from material patterns. In fact, the fact that obsidian travels between 40 and 200 km does not in itself prove social exchange between groups: it could also be explained by a single group with a very large territory or by reuse of tools for generations. In Xataka | A remote cave in Africa has revealed something about humans from 200,000 years ago: they already changed the clothes on their beds In Xataka | 77 skeletons, a single head: the mystery of the Slovak mass grave that torments archaeologists Cover | Gemini with AI

the biggest bet in its history to national chip manufacturers

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China has defined a series of steps to become the first world power. Technological sovereignty falls within this roadmap and, to achieve the objective, a greater investment in local technology is necessary. The current battlefield is that of AI chips, a segment that Nvidia dominates with an iron fist, but if there is a way to change the trend it is with technology and money, a lot of money. And China has found its three winning horses. In short. China is a giant market for Nvidia. With Western Big Tech in his pocket (although Anthropic and Meta are looking favorably at Samsung for inference chips for the age of agentic AI), Nvidia was missing the other big pie. China is a market valued in 50,000 million dollars for whoever manages to position itself as a leader in the AI ​​chip segment, but the problem for Nvidia is that it is not easy at all. Due to bureaucratic problems on the part of the US and China itself, Nvidia is a bit in no man’s land. Meanwhile, national companies have been positioning themselves, presenting their alternatives and GPUs for training this technology. And with the order to bet on the national product, Chinese companies are clear about it. As we read in Business TimesChinese Big Tech currently invests 30% annually of its budget in national AI accelerators, but that spending will increase to 46% over the next twelve months. The horses. Some of these Big Techs are creating their own chips, or already have them. This is the case of Alibaba or Tencent, which would be a kind of Meta or Google: they offer a product to the user, to other companies and, in addition, they have their own data centers with their home-made chips. However, there are other companies that are more focused on creating the hardware to power the internal data centers of those other large companies. This is the case of Hygon Information Technology or Cambricon Technologies, but also of Huawei. All three offer AI platforms that are becoming increasingly important in a context in which Nvidia H20 chips designed specifically for China They are increasingly difficult to find due to that national order to prioritize homemade hardware. The advantage of these companies is that it is no longer about raw power, which is one of the advantages that Nvidia had (although Nvidia is much more, since it also has a complete software suite and so on), but about speed and low latency. For agentic AI, high bandwidth for fast data transfer is essential, and that seems to be a point that Chinese hardware companies are focusing on. The Ascend. The interesting thing is that this strategy is not a future plan and is already being put into practice. Zhipu AI, for example, is a company that has already trained its GLM-5 model on more than 740 billion parameters entirely with the Huawei Ascend 910C. In addition, the Chinese company is working on the development of the Ascend 950 and 960 chips that promise to achieve parity with Nvidia’s most modern architectures. And the supernodes. On the other hand, Huawei continues to push the Atlas 950 supernode. Presented a few months ago, it is a cluster of up to 9,192 Ascend 950DT NPUs per system with up to 1,152 TB of unified memory. It is, according to the company, a direct competitor to Nvidia’s NVL144 rack, achieving 6.7 times more computing power than that of the American company. It is designed for both training and inference and, although it raises doubts about the energy efficiency per computing unit compared to that of Nvidia, what is clear is that it is a product that Chinese Big Tech They will be able to ‘shoot’ for their future models. Huawei is taking the platform around the world and its next appointment is at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 in Shanghai. Whether Nvidia solutions are used or not, what is clear is that the intention is to prioritize national hardware. China is going to invest nearly $300 billion to build data centers over the next five years to boost AI across all sectors of society. For its part, at least 80% of the basic technologywhere the chips come in, will be supplied by national companies. As several have already pointed out (Jensen Huang among them), the US veto of China It was the worst move they could make. because they only achieved one thing: give wings to their accelerated technological development. In Xataka | Huawei is very close to a great technological milestone. And he is very clear about what has allowed him to do so: the US veto

Today “a masterpiece that will go down in history” arrives on Netflix, thanks to an original approach to a unique science fiction story

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Netflix just released ‘Glimpses of tomorrow’the first series that Kyoto Animation produces exclusively for the platform, and it does so with a certainly tragic background: almost eight years have passed since the studio confirmed the adaptation. A year after the announcement, a man entered the studio offices with gasoline and set the building on fire. 36 people died and another 32 were injured. The author was sentenced to death in 2024, and the attack destroyed much of the studio’s materials and equipment, and with them, any progress that existed on the project. In any case, the series has survived the tragedy, and it imagines a Kyoto of 1907 where electricity was never developed and steam became the dominant technology, leaving the city permanently covered in smoke. As a child, the protagonist invented projects that he captured in a notebook called the Electrical Catalog of the 20th Century, together with his older brother. He took that notebook to the war and never returned. The protagonist, now an adult and in the company of a young woman who is trying to escape an arranged marriage, will embark on a search for the treasure of his childhood. Minoru Ōta directs the series in his first project as a director. He had previously worked as a key animator on ‘Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions!’ and ‘Liz and the Blue Bird’, and as episode director on ‘Kobayashi-san’s Dragon Maid’. It is he himself who said that “‘Flashes of Tomorrow’ is a work that will remain engraved in the history of anime“. An unusual statement coming from someone directing his first project. But the truth is that the series is raising expectations: before reaching Netflix, a tour of cinema screenings was held in Japan, the United Kingdom, Thailand and North America that started on June 14, in addition to a screening at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival. All of this is part of the effort that Netflix is ​​making to include more anime in its programming: it has announced eight series and three movies for 2026 in Japan. In Xataka | Today the best science fiction series of the moment returns, with a twist in its story that has given it a perfect score

Telecinco hits rock bottom in the most spectacular way in a black summer, and signs the day with the lowest audience in its history

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Thursday, July 2, should have been just another day of the summer after-dinner meal. And like a domestic thriller TV movie, it became the worst in Telecinco’s 36-year history. The stars have aligned in the negative to reach the disastrous milestone, since not only is it the icing on the cake of a collapse in audiences that has been brewing for years, but the stratospheric audiences of the World Cup mean that, for the moment, Telecinco is going to have a very difficult time raising its head. Not six. Telecinco closed on July 2 with 5.97% screen share: the worst daily data in the chain since records exist. That same afternoon, Spain beat Austria 3-0 in the round of 32 of the World Cup 2026 and brought more than nine million viewers to La 1, which closed the day with 26.7% share and 63.7% during the match itself. The golden minute arrived at 10:51 p.m., with 10,447,000 people watching Spain advance to the round of 16. Not just football. As we said a few days ago, not only football is to blame: it is that Mediaset’s entire summer plan to recover audience is leaking: that same day ‘Love… or whatever arises!’ it signed a minimum with 5.1% and 439,000 viewers; ‘Summer moves’ fell to 5.8% and 431,000; and that collapse also dragged down ‘El Diario de Jorge’ (7.4%) and ‘Allá tú’ (7.6%). Even the prime time suffered the blow: the series ‘She, damn soul’ scored its minimum number of viewers in its third episode. However, ‘First Dates’ surpassed a repeat of ‘El Hormiguero’, which corroborates Carlos Sobera’s dating show as one of Mediaset’s most reliable assets. Because it was already coming off an ominous June: the month closed with an 8.3% share, the worst June in the history of the network and also the worst month in the regular season, even ahead of the previous negative record, 8.4% in December 2025. Not even heavyweights like the final of ‘Survivors’ or the outcome of ‘Temptation Island’ managed to reverse the figure. Downhill and without brakes. Since the chain he let Paolo Vasile go to reinvent himselfdid not find a substitute for the formats that sustained its leadership, such as ‘save me‘, which also went through its own via crucis. The 2025-2026 season closed with an 8.9% average quota, the worst in its history and the fifth consecutive record to set a new low. He contrast with La 1 It is especially striking: in five years, the public channel has gone from 8.8% to 12.1%, while Telecinco has done the opposite, from 13.1% to 8.9%. Great summer plan. ‘Love…or whatever comes up!’ It debuted on June 22 with 6.8% and 632,000 viewers. ‘The Peace Show’ started with 7.8% and 638,000. ‘Summer moves’ premiered with 7%. None of the three has exceeded 8% since then. Meanwhile, Antena 3 maintains the after-dinner atmosphere with ‘Sueños de libertad’ above 14% on average and La 1 exploits the World Cup to lead a month of June that had been belonging to Atresmedia for 22 months. The figures are unequivocal: it is not that people have stopped watching traditional television. It is a specific problem for Mediaset. The last puff. The fourth piece of the plan remains: ‘From Monday to Friday’, presented by Santi Acosta and Beatriz Archidona, two faces that already lead ‘From Friday’ in prime time on Fridays for three seasons. The program inherits the slot from ‘Jorge’s Diary’ from 6:15 p.m. adds a team of 16 collaborators in which faces from the extinct ‘Sálvame’ coexist (Lydia Lozano, Karmele Marchante, Rosa Benito, Terelu Campos, Antonio Rossi), which points to a timid attempt to recover what was the last great success of Mediaset’s afternoons. His only problem: he faces, in his debut, nothing less than an afternoon of warming up for a game in Spain. In Xataka | Telecinco has ‘El Rosco’ but does not have ‘Pasapalabra’. Antena 3 has ‘Pasapalabra’ but does not have ‘El Rosco’

Today on Netflix, the exciting third installment of one of the most viewed sagas in the history of the platform

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‘Enola Holmes 3’ comes to Netflix almost six years after the platform rescued the young detective from what would have been a very lackluster theatrical release. With it, Millie Bobby Brown returns to the role that made her famous outside of Hawkins, just six months after ‘Stranger Things’ closed its final season. Malta replaces London as the setting, and a kidnapping replaces a wedding as the driving force of the plot. The wedding, of course, is still there waiting its turn. Legendary had developed the first film for theatrical release, but the 2020 distribution halt led Netflix to purchase the distribution rights. The film, co-starring Henry Cavill as the legendary Sherlock Holmes, signed the best opening week for an original film up to that point. In its balance sheet for the third quarter of 2020, Netflix assured that 76 million accounts had seen the film in its first month. Two years later, ‘Enola Holmes 2’ repeated the hit: 64.08 million hours viewed in its first three days of broadcast. The origin of all this is Nancy Springer’s books, published between 2006 and 2023 and starring the little sister of Sherlock Holmes, a character invented by the author. The saga, made up of ten titles, had its corresponding dose of controversy: Conan Doyle’s heirs sued Springer, Legendary and Netflix in 2020 for alleged infringement of rights over the detective’s last ten original stories. On this occasion Enola Holmes travels to Malta to marry Lord Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge), but the ceremony is cut short when Dr. Watson (Himesh Patel) warns her that Sherlock (Henry Cavill) has been kidnapped. The investigation entangles her in a plot that mixes the British colonial past on the island (which includes a subplot about gold stolen by the English army in Afghanistan) with the tensions of a local group demanding independence from the Crown, while Moriarty (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) continues to pull strings from the shadows. In Xataka | ‘Torrente, Presidente’ has broken records at the box office, and now you can check on Netflix if the scandal was a big deal

The fourth highest-grossing Spanish film in history lands on Netflix full of political incorrectness

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28 years ago, Santiago Segura shot the first film in the highest-grossing saga in the history of Spanish cinema in eight weeks and with 1.7 million euros. Now, the sixth part of the series, ‘Torrente President’lands on Netflix with a history of records that speaks for itself: the best first weekend of a Spanish film in the last 15 years, more than 3.7 million spectators in cinemas, the fourth highest grossing of a Spanish film of all time, and a budget that Segura estimated at just under six million euros. Twelve years after ‘Torrente 5: Operation Eurovegas’, José Luis Torrente, the former fascist and Atleti police officer, returns, always convinced that Spain is going through its most critical moment and that only he can save national dignity. This time he discovers that politics may be his best opportunity to thrive and after a series of entanglements he ends up leading the populist NOX party thanks to his unmistakable and demagogic style, so similar to current political reality. It was clear that Spain was thirsty for Torrente, and Segura, who can be accused of many things but not of not having a commercial nose, has been able to take advantage of a very specific social moment to return Torrente to the billboards. Right now, ‘Torrente, Presidente’ has already grossed more than half of all Spanish cinema released in 2026, and will surely become one of the most viewed films of the moment on Netflix, which helped co-finance the production and which has the rest of the saga exclusively in its catalog. The notable thing about all this is that ‘Torrente Presidente’ is not a rarity for Segura’s commercial career. Beyond the fact that the series has already raised more than one hundred million euros, Bowfinger International Pictures is behind the film, the production company directed by Segura together with María Luisa Gutiérrez. The company has more than forty titles and a history that includes ‘The Infiltrator’ (Goya for Best Film) and the sagas ‘Padre no hay más que uno’ and ‘La familia Benetón’. Between 2025 and 2026, its productions accounted for 30% of the Spanish box office. And between its traditional production agreement with Atresmedia and now the entry of Netflix into the company’s finances, the production company has a muscle with little to envy of much larger traditional production companies. In Xataka | Today on Disney+, the film that, despite exceeding one billion at the box office, has left the continuity of its franchise up in the air

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