impossible

Sleeping in tourist class has been an impossible mission. Some airlines are testing three seats that convert into beds

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Traveling in economy class on a long-haul flight usually means accepting a fairly clear toll: sleeping poorly or, at all, not sleeping at all. We have all experienced it, narrow seats, little space to stretch our legs and a posture that rarely invites rest. That discomfort is not a minor detail, it is part of the experience of flying in this segment. And yet, it is precisely there, in this very everyday problem, where some airlines are beginning to explore solutions within the economy cabin itself. If we go to the opposite extreme, we have seen the reference to what it would be like to fly in absolute comfort many times in airline campaigns. The Emirates ad with Jennifer Aniston illustrates this wellgoing from a cabin without notable services to a private suite with a completely flat bed, that is, to the premium end of the experience. The proposal is not limited to improving comfort, it completely redefines life on board. An attempt to make tourist class habitable And at that point is where we begin to see concrete movements. United just announced a proposal of this type with its call Relax Rowan option within its own economic class that seeks precisely to alleviate that problem. The company presents it as a specific row that, once in flight, can be adapted to stretch out or rest with a little more space. The airline plans to launch it in 2027, place it between United Economy and United Premium Plus and progressively deploy it on more than 200 Boeing 787s and Boeing 777 from now to 2030. But the truth is that this idea is not completely new. Air New Zealand has been exploring this concept for some time with his well-known Skycoucha proposal that also starts with a row of seats in economy class. In its case, the system allows the legrests to be raised until they form a continuous surface on which we can stretch. It is not equivalent to a premium cabin bed, but it does offer more versatile space than the conventional seat and the airline itself presents it as a way to gain comfort without paying for a superior cabin. If we go down to detail, the interesting thing is not so much the configuration itself, but what it allows once we are in flight. Both proposals seek to expand the available surface so that we can really stretch out, something that is not usually common for tourists. Air New Zealand specifies that area in about 1.55 meters long and 74 centimeters wideaccompanied by additional bedding, a seat cover and specific belts or restraint systems to use it safely. United, for its part, adds an adapted mattress, blankets, extra pillows and kits designed to make rest more bearable. With all this, the logical question is who is really compensated by this type of option. United’s promotional video gives us an idea. If we travel alone, having all that space gives us a much more usable surface to stretch out. In the case of couples, the idea is to share it in a more flexible way, alternating positions or using it to rest better during the flight. And if we think about families, especially with small children, Air New Zealand considers different configurations. Now, before imagining a perfect rest, it is worth taking into account some conditions. In the case of Air New Zealand, as we have seen, availability depends on the aircraftroute and operational or regulatory factors, and not all configurations are always accessible. In addition, the price is not fixed, since each passenger’s ticket is paid plus an additional cost for this option, while United has not yet detailed prices, although it has indicated that its deployment will be progressive. Taken together, these proposals don’t completely change what it means to fly economy class, but they do introduce an interesting nuance. The idea is not to replicate a first-class suite, but to offer a little more room to rest within the usual limitations. That balance between cost and convenience is what seems to be guiding these developments. Images | United Airlines In Xataka | Luxury superyachts have a new enemy in Monaco: a “low emissions zone” that will penalize those who pollute the most

Elon Musk often promises impossible things like Terafab. The problem is that sometimes he manages to turn them into reality.

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It was up to Elon Musk to revolutionize the automotive industry with Tesla and the electric car. Probably no one believed he could do it. Then he did the same with the aerospace industry with SpaceX, and that was more of the same: it seemed impossible. It may be many things, but the truth is that although Elon Musk promises many things and does not always fulfill them when he says (hello autonomous car), has achieved unimaginable things. That’s why when you talk about Terafab, maybe we should give it a chance. Because this seems almost as impossible as his other feats. Terafab and Musk’s master plan. On Saturday night, from a power plant that has not been used for a long time, Elon Musk advertisement the last of the components of its master plan: Terafab. The objective is to create a chip factory in which Tesla, SpaceX and xAI will collaborate. According to Musk, this plant will be capable of manufacturing between 100 and 200 GW of computing capacity per year on earth, but it will reach 1 TW in space. The problem, as always with Musk, is distinguishing what part of the plan is engineering and what part is theater and fireworks. He doesn’t do it just because. At that event, the magnate explained that semiconductor manufacturers do not produce enough chips for their AI and robotics needs. And since TSMC and the rest of the manufacturers cannot meet Musk’s demand, he has proposed manufacturing them directly. You need them for your robotaxis and your humanoid robots, Optimuswhich he hopes will end up multiplying by 10 or 100 the production rate of his cars. But it also needs chips so that xAI can compete in the field of AI, and SpaceX needs them for its satellites. That is, it actually needs a lot of chips. Many. Chips from space. At Terafab they intend to create two types of chips. On the one hand, there will be those intended for autonomous vehicles or Optimus robots. On the other, the chips that already have their own name, D3, and that will be designed specifically for space, with products that use them that work in low Earth orbit and are powered by solar energy. For Musk, the idea “becomes an obvious decision”: there will come a point where putting payload into orbit is so cheap that host data centers in space It is cheaper than doing it on land because solar energy is practically unlimited there. Too many unknowns. Everything was very nice and promising, but once the speech and promises were over, the questions began. Building a state-of-the-art semiconductor factory is a colossal challenge. It’s not just a matter of money: it’s that advanced chip manufacturing is in the hands of three companies around the world (TSMC, Samsung and Intel), and requires photolithography with UVE technology which is only manufactured by the well-known Dutch company ASML. And here’s the thing, that Musk: Did not announce any agreement with ASML It has not shown orders that demonstrate that it will have these equipment He has not named a technological partner for the project No estimated dates or calendar have been given. And he hasn’t talked about the budget either. It’s all a gigantic unknown. The most ambitious vertical integration in tech history. On several occasions Musk repeated how at Terafab they intend to cover the entire development, manufacturing, packagingtesting and improvement in the same facilities. If we fulfill that promise, we would be facing another unprecedented achievement, because the semiconductor industry has been doing just the opposite for decades: hyperspecialization by different suppliers: some design, others manufacture, others package… Musk wants to do it all, and if he succeeds he will become a direct rival for Samsung or TSMC, which a priori he would no longer need. Promises and realities. This project seems especially diffuse, but with Musk anything is possible, as we have said. In recent years, yes, we have seen how several of his ideas or they have failedor they have been delayed, or they have been left in no man’s land. The robotaxis still haven’t arrived, the Cybertruck arrived late and it’s not settingand companies like The Boring Company or products like Solar Roof have had less reach than they promised, at least for now. Terafab seems like another impossible project from Musk. We’ll see if it ends up not being so. Image | tesla In Xataka | 8 years ago Elon Musk launched a Tesla Roadster into space: it continues to orbit and was mistaken for an asteroid

Predicting dementia seven years in advance seemed impossible. An AI with Spanish participation has just achieved it

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The diagnosis of the neurodegenerative diseases You face a problem at the time the diagnosis is made, since in many cases it is diagnosed when the symptoms are already evident and this makes the brain damage irreversible. But… What if we could peer into the future of the brain years before the disease shows its face? This is precisely what a Spanish team has done with a new biomarker. The study. The future of medicine involves making increasingly earlier diagnoses so that the success of treatments is much greater, and now in a recent published article in Science Report The door opens for this to be a reality in dementia. To get here, what the researchers propose, where have you participated Rubén Armañanzas, from the DATAI Institute of the University of Navarra, is the use of a test such as the electroencephalogram together with artificial intelligence to develop a biomarker capable of predicting the risk of dementia with up to seven years in advance. Your methodology. To understand the magnitude of this advance, we must look at the population on which the study was carried out, which are people with subjective cognitive impairment. These are patients who go to the doctor because they notice that their memory is failing, but when they undergo standard cognitive tests, the results are completely normal, so they cannot be given a clear diagnosis even though it seems that something is not right. Until now, medicine found a blind spot in this phase as there was no way to know if these ‘complaints’ in memory were the prelude to Alzheimer’s or simply confusion. But now, the study with 88 older adults with this situation has shown that the brain emits alarm signals long before psychological tests detected them. You just had to know how to ‘read’ them. A new method. Here the research has unified different metrics to be able to read these warning signs. The first thing of all is to use an electroencephalogram to measure brain activity, which is a cheap, quick and non-invasive test. From here, the BrainScope technology platform analyzes this data by looking for 14 specific features related to neuronal connectivity and brain wave behavior. Once these characteristics are ‘found’, an AI algorithm comes in that processes the patterns and determines whether the patient analyzed can progress towards mild cognitive impairment or dementia such as Alzheimer’s. And the results are spectacular, since it has demonstrated outstanding precision when separating patients who develop the disease from those who do not. The future. The great value of this biomarker is not only technological, but also clinical, since the most reliable current tests to predict pathologies such as Alzheimer’s require painful lumbar punctures or scans that are not cheap. A system based on EEG and AI could be easily integrated into primary care clinical protocols or routine neurological consultations as it does not have a very high cost and, above all, is not invasive. The important thing here is to detect neurodegeneration in the earliest phases in order to gain golden time so that new drugs can act at the beginning of the disease and gain years of quality of life. Images | Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | We have a new “theory of everything” to understand Alzheimer’s. Its key is in some small granules

The Balearic Islands welcome an invasive plant that until now was impossible in its waters

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In October 2023, a group of divers were fully immersed in the Bay of La Palma when they found something that should not be there: a tropical marine plant rooted in the bed, where we usually find either sandy bottoms or Posidonia meadows. The notice from the Balearic Center for Applied Biology was confirmed through dives by the CSIC-UIB and CEAB-CSIC teams and the discovery was published in Mediterranean Marine Science. The presentations. The name of tropical marine plant is Halophila stipulacea and it is a seagrass and not an algae (unlike algae, it has roots, stems and leaves), much smaller than the native Posidonia Oceanica, with which it now shares spaces. And although it has appeared about 3 kilometers from the port of Palma, on a sandy bottom, it is foreign: its origin comes from the Indian Ocean, Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, although as a good tropical came to the Caribbean. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 was its one-way ticket to the Mediterranean, however in these 150 years its expansion was only recorded in the eastern area, never as far west as the Balearic Islands. It is already a total colonization. Context. The waters of the Mediterranean Sea are warming more than the global average: between 1982 and 2019, its surface temperature increased by 1.3 °C compared to a global average of 0.6 °C, according to MedECC data. In summer, the temperatures of the Mediterranean Sea recorded in the Balearic Islands They are around 30 °C. This point is important because it marks a milestone: the conditions of the Mediterranean are changing. That is, Halophila may have reached this far west before, but it did not have favorable conditions to survive and now it does. As explains Andrés Arona, first author of the study and Imedea researcher, is “a clear indication of the ‘tropicalization’ of the Mediterranean.” Why is it important. To begin with, because Halophila Stipulacea acts as a biological thermometer of real change in the Mediterranean. A tropicalization that opens the doors to some species and closes them to otherslike Posidonia or corals. But it also matters because the worrying precedent of the Caribbeanwhere its rapid colonization of large areas reduced biodiversity, altering the ecosystem. Something that is already happening in the eastern Mediterranean. Potential environmental impact. Given its presence in degraded sandy bottoms, its effect is ambivalent: it can increase structural complexity, although it can also displace the fauna typical of these bottoms. The greatest risk, however, would be if it came to compete with native phanerogams such as Posidonia oceanicasomething it has already done with other species in the Caribbean, where it colonized large areas in less than 20 years. The difference between both plants is not trivial. in words from Imedea researcher, Fiona Tomàs, “Posidonia is like a sequoia, Halophila is much smaller”: Posidonia generates a structural complexity that supports breeding habitats for hundreds of species and accumulates carbon in another order of magnitude. Halophila It does not generate anywhere near that architecture or that carbon storage. A change in species dominance would profoundly alter the ecosystem. What can be done. The good news is that this detection has been early and the sooner the warning comes, the more room there is to take action. The not so good thing is that it is a plant with its seeds and that the most definitive thing would be for the Mediterranean to reverse its tropicalization, but that means stopping the global warming. Little joke. In Xataka | The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates. In Xataka | The US has such a big problem with Asian carp in its rivers that it has decided something extreme: electrocute them Cover | Benjamin Guichard and Mariya Oliynyk

Mexico has placed impossible tariffs on Chinese cars. What they didn’t imagine was that the cars were already there.

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Export to buckets. That was China’s goal in 2025 towards Mexico. Alerted by the enormous tariffs that the country was going to impose, as it has been, Chinese manufacturers have done everything possible to be faster than the Government. Now, exporting a car to Mexico from China is unfeasible. But the Chinese cars arrived months ago. taxes. Was a 20% tariff on Chinese cars too little? Mexico believes so and that is why, since January 2026, it has been applying a new 50% tariff on imports of products arriving from countries with which it does not have trade agreements. Come on, what Chinese cars now have to pay 50% tariffs to enter Mexico. The measure, explained in Motorpasión Mexico has a bit of a protectionist flavor compared to China or India (the latter country has Mexico as the third country to which it sends the most cars). But, above all, It has a lot of nods to the United Stateswith whom Mexico has a special trade agreement that has been at risk since Donald Trump returned to the White House. when you go. I will tell an anecdote from the writing of Xataka. In our Slack we have a reaction from Chenoa to point out to someone that we were already contemplating writing on a topic that he now proposes to us again. You know: “when you go…”. And that is what has happened to Mexico with China. Manufacturers, alarmed by the possibility of tariffs being raised in their country of origin (as has finally happened) began to send all the cars they could to Mexico. The result: 625,187 cars exported to Mexico in one year. They have done “a Chenoa” to Mexico. one in three. To understand the magnitude of exports, according to data from the China Passenger Car AssociationMexico is the country to which China exported the most cars in 2025. These more than 625,000 vehicles surpassed those purchased by Russia (582,738 units), which has serious difficulties in obtaining vehicles from abroad. The United Arab Emirates, with 571,937 cars imported from China, was the third country that received the most cars. The figure is enormous. And in Mexico around 1.5 million cars are bought a year. That is, if in 2026 each and every one of the cars exported by China were sold, in 2025 we would be talking about one in every three sales in the country being from Chinese manufacturers. How many are available? Those exports, of course, leave a pool of cheap cars in stock so the impact of Chinese cars on the market will continue to be felt for some time. It must be taken into account that it is calculated that China had already taken 15% market share. The storage of these cars, everything indicates, guarantees that Chinese brands continue selling at the same rate throughout the year. They point out in Motorpasión Mexico In 2025, it is estimated that Mexicans will buy just over 400,000 cars of Chinese origin. The only question is how many of them belong to the more than 630,000 cars imported last year and how much is the stock since a part of them must have been imported into the country in 2024. Photo | aboodi vesakaran and BYD In Xataka | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.

The Chinese side has a weapon that is impossible for the European side.

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Talk about technological and commercial war leads us to look at United States and China. They are the two who star in the great conflict between vetoes and a race for technological independence. But between the Netherlands and China there is a bunch of look at me and don’t touch me. In the eye of the storm is Nexperia, a Chinese semiconductor company, but based in the Netherlands. After a public breakup and a civil war between the two headquarters, Nexperia China has just threatened something very big: they are capable of manufacturing wafers 12 inches… and the unit in Europe no. And it is something that adds to that technological sovereignty that China pursues. Summary of the sauce. Before getting into the matter, it is worth reviewing because history has gone from 0 to 100 in just a few months. Nexperia is a manufacturer that originated from the split of the Dutch company NXP Semiconductors. They are, as their name indicates, a semiconductor company, the material with which the chips that all our devices contain are created. China has been wanting to consolidate its semiconductor industry for years, even before Trump’s veto, and bought Nexperia in 2017 for $2.75 billion. The headquarters were in the Netherlands, but the owner was a Chinese consortium backed by the country’s government. In October 2025, the surprise arrived: Netherlands confiscated Nexperia by surpriseallowing the country full control of its operations. Aim? Protect Europe’s chips. Consequence? Very risky move in relations with China that were already deteriorating. The next move was breakup of the Chinese part of Nexperia with the European onethe stoppage of chip shipping which threatened world automobile production for a time and totally broken communications between both parties. It is not that the company was divided into two separate entities: it was that it was one body with two brains. And they didn’t speak. Be careful what a mess. With this said, we return to the present. Although relations were still very tense, they seemed to have eased somewhat until, a few days ago, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce warned that tensions between Nexperia Netherlands and Nexperia China were flourishing again. It seems that the Dutch side had disabled the professional accounts of all your employees in China (we are talking about key work systems such as Office 365 and similar) and China said “yes? Well, I’m not sending you materials to make wafers.” From China, this action was classified as unforgivable as it “seriously disrupted the company’s normal production and operations.” And the threat came: “if a new crisis arises in global semiconductor production and supply chains, the Netherlands will be to blame.” This is something that would affect, above all, to the automotive industryand we already have enough with the RAM crisis. Shortly after, on March 6, Nexperia China reported that many operations had already resumed and Nexperia Netherlands, without denying the action, questioned whether it had really been as serious for the Chinese side as they were making it out to be. 12 inch wafers. The Dutch side was very well positioned in wafer manufacturing and was supplying them to Nexperia China before they stopped talking to each other. Since then, the Chinese side has secured suppliers and improved its technology on its own. And they are not doing badly. In a statement published by Nexperia China, the company stated have started small-scale production of 12-inch wafers. In them, it “prints” the same components that are also manufactured in the Dutch part, but with a nuance: the Chinese wafers are larger. The larger the wafer, the more you can “print” on it and the easier it is to develop large-scale production. This means more chips at lower prices due to economies of scale. According to the Chinese side, Nexperia Netherlands cannot manufacture 12-inch wafers in European facilities, so they now have the advantage. a wafer And in detail. The larger the wafer, the more it can be “printed” and the more chips can come off a single wafer. Local supply. This has two implications. On the one hand, what we talked about: economies of scale and the ability for automakers to buy from China instead of the Netherlands. On the other hand, the demonstration that they can manage on their own with other suppliers. Now, it esteem that the Shanghai plant has a production capacity of 30,000 wafers per month compared to Nexperia’s 83,000 in Hamburg, but of course, if they have found the key to producing larger wafers, in the end fewer wafers can yield more. And beyond all, it is a demonstration of the extent to which the two sides are going their separate ways and, in recent communicationsnone of them have any intention of fixing things. And, in the end, it is one more example of something bigger: it is currently impossible to separate global technology from geopolitics. Images | Steve JurvetsonJohn McMaster In Xataka | Spain is betting its future in the semiconductor industry on a single card: gallium chips

In Spain, getting a house has become an impossible mission. There are those who are receiving them as a donation in exchange for taking care of dogs

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It happened in Madrid. ‘Subject A’ barely has contact with his children but feels enormous affection for his dogs, so he decides to reach an agreement with ‘subject B’: he will donate his home in usufruct if he agrees to take care of his pets. If ‘Subject B’ complies, no problem. If the animals end up unattended, you risk having the donation revoked. That of ‘A’ and ‘B’ is just one case commented a few days ago to The Newspaper (EPE) by a lawyer with an office in the capital, but it reflects a larger phenomenon: the increase in donationsincluding conditional ones. And it makes sense. What has happened? that in full housing crisiswith rental prices and m2 climbing to levels that remember to those of the brick ‘boom’, each time is more common meet donation signatures in notarial offices. Money is donated. And homes are donated. It’s nothing new. The trend has been going on for some time now. some time and it is part of a broader phenomenon that we have been talking about for some time, the ‘Great transfer’. What is striking is that just revealed EPE: not only do donations in general skyrocket, so do ‘conditional’ donations, those in which the agreement is subject to a series of previously agreed upon requirements. Donations with conditions? Exactly. Tax authorities defines them as agreements by which the donation is conditioned to certain requirements. “For it to be valid, the donee must be able to execute the condition or it must be an event with a high probability of occurring,” clarify the Treasury, which thus differentiates it from other types such as ‘pure’ or ‘remunerative donation’. Its dynamic is therefore simple: donor and donee reach an agreement on which the donation is conditional. It is fulfilled, perfect. If not fulfilled, the good returns to the donor. That is the logic, although in practice there are certain nuances. For example, the donation does not always have to take place at the same time. The donated property can be delivered when the agreement is signed or left in suspense waiting for the agreed conditions to be met. What do people agree? EPE has spoken with several offices in the Community of Madrid and has come across agreements of all kinds. For example, a grandmother who donates her house to her granddaughter in exchange for her finishing her degree and studying a master’s degree, donations to caregivers or (probably the most striking of all) transfers that are conditional on the care of animals. “There are cases in which the house is donated with the condition that the recipient takes care of their pet for as long as it is alive,” clarifies Manuel Hernándezby Vilches Abogados. “This guarantees (the donor) that if they die, their pet will be taken care of. It can also be done by inheritance, with a conditional legacy.” Is it just theory? No. As an example, Hernández cites the case with which this report began: a man from Madrid decided to donate his home to a friend in exchange for her taking care of his three dogs. “She had little connection with her children and was very fond of animals, so she donated her house in usufruct to a younger friend, if she would take care of her dogs. If this condition was not met, the revocation procedure could be initiated,” says the expert. The phenomenon is increasingly common and part of the “humanization” of pets. Is that easy? In practice, the agreements have fine print. It I remembered recently in COPE the lawyer Carolina Florez de Quiñones, who recognizes this type of conditional transfers, just like those directed to caregivers of the elderly; but he warns: “No one can leave alive what he cannot leave dead.” What does that mean? That the will of the person who donates is one of the key factors to take into account, but not the only one. Another is forced heirs. A living donation that damages your ‘legitimate status’ may end up being considered ‘unhelpful’. Are there more formulas? Yes. Another formula that has become popular is the donation of housing in bare propertywhich basically consists of transferring ownership of an asset without the rights of use and enjoyment. If we are talking about an apartment, that means that the donor can pass it on to his children, grandchildren, nephews or whoever he considers, but without giving up the usufruct of the home for the rest of his life. That is, the donor continues to enjoy the apartment as if nothing had changed, which implies that he or she can live in it or even rent it. Have they increased that much? The donations, definitely. In October the General Council of Notaries (CGN) published a report which shows that between 2017 and 2024 housing donations skyrocketed by almost 68%: from 32,623 they went to 54,735. During the first half of 2025 alone, it counted 27,000 donations. At the same time, notaries recorded an increase in inherited homes. The backdrop is the rising cost of housing and the difficulties of access for young people, which partly explains why grandparents, parents, uncles… come to the ‘rescue’ of the new generations, facilitating their access to the market. What do the notaries say? “The data show a clear increase in donations and inheritances of homes from older people to the following generations,” confirms the CGN. In case there were any doubts about its growing weight, the group also remembers that the number of inherited and donated homes in 2024 would be equivalent, overall, at 64% of purchase and sale operations. Not only housing is donated. Money is also transferred from the pockets of grandparents or parents to grandchildren/children to make it easier for them to get a mortgage. The question remains as to how many of these donations come with conditions. Images | Pam Mene (Unsplash), Yen Vu (Unsplash) and General Council of Notaries In Xataka | There are rich people so bored with their … Read more

Verdeliss’s latest challenge reminds us that impossible challenges are huge business

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Before we get into the matter, let me ask you an indiscreet question: What did you do between seven in the afternoon on Wednesday and the same time on Thursday? Most likely several things, including eating, sleeping, and stretching your legs. Of all of them Estefanía Unzu, better known by her alias ‘Verdeliss’he only did the last one. And in an unorthodox way. During 24 hours the influencer He dedicated himself to running on a treadmill installed behind a shop window in Madrid. It is the umpteenth proof of two trends that they walk run hand in hand: business and the fever generated by impossible challenges, a field that Verdeliss know well. What has happened? If in the last few hours you have stopped by the Decathlon store in Nuevos Ministerios (Orense Street, Madrid) it is quite likely that you have been surprised. On Wednesday the 25th at 7:01 p.m. in its window you could see a treadmill with a runner taking strides. At 2:00 a.m. the image was identical. And at 6:59 p.m. on Thursday the 26th, the same thing happened. The surprising thing is that during all that time (the 24 hours from 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday) the person who ran on the treadmill was always the same: Verdeliss. His balance: 24 hours of walking and more than 250 km. Why did he do it? Advertising. The challenge is part of the campaign orchestrated by Decathlon to promote the sneakers Kipride Maxof Kiprunthe brand with which the French chain aspires to expand its space in the growing business athletics and amateur running. In fact, the company has been in charge of giving visibility to the Verdeliss challenge on its networks, with videos, photos, interviews with passers-by and of course to the influencer herselfwho before starting to run assured that his objective is to test his limits. The underlying purpose: to take advantage of the challenge to give notoriety to the new Decathlin sneakers and provide them with a place in a hypercompetitive market, in which large multinationals such as Adidas or Nike work in different price ranges and frequently launch promotions. Kiprin introduced the Kipride Max ago just a monthpromote them as daily training shoes “designed to offer the brand’s most cushioned and comfortable ride.” Why Verdeliss? Because of his public profile. Runners there are many. Influencers, too. Estefanía Unizo Ripoll (‘Verdeliss’) has however managed to gain notable fame. And it has done so with two ingredients: an unconventional profile and a commitment to extreme challenges like Decathlon. The influencer Navarre has 40 years, eight children and combines his love for extreme sports with his businesswoman facet and media figure (he reached go through Big Brother). Since he joined YouTube in 2008, his profile has also changed: from basically publishing family content he has turned towards extreme sports. If his name sounds familiar to you even if you don’t follow current events running maybe it’s because in 2025 he went for it World Marathon Challengea test that consists of seven marathons in seven days and different continents. And that is just one of the challenges he has conquered. Another is the national championship 100 km on the road. Why is it important? Because Decathlon’s challenge not only tells us about it. It also tells us a lot about the fever (and business) generated around impossible challenges. People like to explore (or see how others explore) physical limits, whether climbing skyscrapersjumping from heart attack distances either swimming and running enormous distances with hardly any breaks. Behind many of these initiatives there are sponsorships (also campaigns with a more or less solidarity approach) and above all a huge media exposure for those who star in them. Verdeliss, for example, adds some 1.6 million of followers on Instagram and others 2.1 million on YouTube. The organization of extreme events also opens a business avenue: without going any further, participating in the World Marathon Challenge requires paying tens of thousands of euros. With yesterday’s campaign, Decathlon manages to position itself in a hypercompetitive market and the influencer (beyond the promotional agreement itself) feeds her image as an athlete capable of conquering extraordinary challenges, traveling 255 km in 24 hours. In the background there is another debate: to what extent facing challenges like this pushes the body to its limits. In the past Unzu herself has recognized having done “savages” and who does not seek to be “exemplary.” In fact, he even warns his followers: “Don’t do this in your house.” Images |Decathlon (IG) and Verdeliss In Xataka | The Winter Olympics leave Italy with a debt of 7.8 million dollars. Not to organize them, to win them

Catching an offender on a scooter on foot is impossible. So the Valencia police are going to chase them on scooters

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Yes, electric scooter users have to respect traffic rules. In fact, in recent years specific regulations have been created for them. But there is a problem: “catching” an offender on a scooter is almost impossible. And that is why in Valencia they have gotten to work creating a new unit. One who rides a scooter. on scooter. “We are convinced that this unit is going to be a success and will be a benchmark. There are already town councils from all over Spain that have asked us and want to know how it works,” The words are from María José Catalámayor of Valencia, at the presentation of the city’s new municipal police unit. The objective will be to ensure that users of scooters and other personal mobility vehicles circulate in compliance with traffic regulations on the city’s bike lanes. Their powers range from fining those who circulate incorrectly to those who do so with tricked out scooters or under the influence of alcohol. The scooter in Valencia. The information presented by the Valencia City Council specifies that the city has 200 kilometers of bicycle lanes and that between 2019 and 2023 the use of this means of transport skyrocketed, growing by 186% in those years. Creating a specific group with 12 officers to control traffic while patrolling on scooters is the latest decision by a city that is trying to bring non-compliant users into line. In 2024 they already presented their own machine to control which scooters complied or did not comply with the regulations in a kind of mobile MOT. According to data from the City Council collected by elDiario.esaccidents involving scooters have skyrocketed. In 2019, 346 incidents were recorded where they were present but in 2025 they will already reach 1,192. That is, at least three incidents daily throughout the year. Escapism. The press release that the Valencia City Council has published to confirm this information makes it clear what one of the problems they are facing in the city is: The use of the VMP allows a patrol integrated into the urban mobility network, with greater capacity for direct observation and precise detection of infractions such as inappropriate speed, improper circulation or dangerous maneuvers. Its small size and great maneuverability facilitate rapid approach to conflict points and inspection of the state of the lane, signage and safety elements. In interventions with offending users, VMPs offer the necessary agility to safely reach and detain those who try to evade police action. This unit efficiently and sustainably reinforces the police presence in spaces where traditional citizen security vehicles show operational limitations. And the agility and speed with which an electric scooter moves makes it very difficult for an agent to stop it unless, at that very moment, it is riding a bicycle. Even by car, a patrol can have problems if, for example, an offender steps onto a sidewalk or travels on a segregated bike lane. good money. It must be taken into account that, although you do not need a driving license of any kind as is the case with a bicycle, using an electric scooter requires compliance with basic traffic rules. For example: The user must wear a helmet Only one person can circulate per scooter Driving on sidewalks and pedestrian crossings is prohibited. Driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs is prohibited Mobile phone use prohibited It is prohibited to wear headphones It must be taken into account that some of the above infractions are classified as serious or very serious within the Traffic Law and, therefore, a user who drives under the influence of alcohol cannot have points removed from his or her driving license but can be fined 500 euros. More watched. In recent years we have seen how electric scooter users are beginning to be more vigilant. It must be taken into account that we are talking about a device that, almost by default, can circulate at a maximum speed of 25 km/h, which is obliged to move on asphalt and bike lanes but which on many occasions we find them on the sidewalk. This has led the DGT to create a record of all scooters soldwith a type of license plate that must be present on the chassis of the vehicle to demonstrate that it complies with the legal technical characteristics. In addition, users will have to have civil liability insurance for their use. Photo | Valencia City Council In Xataka | Arrested for driving an electric scooter capable of going 111 km/h: more than four times the permitted speed

The problem is how to prove something that is not impossible

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The capture of Nicolás Maduro by the US special forces has generated one of those stories that, due to its form and timing, seem designed to colonize the collective imagination even before a verifiable version of the events can be established. The rumor: Washington has been able to use its own secret weapon from a Marvel movie. It’s not impossible, and that’s the catch. The perfect rumor. We are not talking about something completely new, because this theory already sounded strongly with Washington and Cuba as protagonists years ago. The return of the “sonic weapon” now appears as a perfect story to explain a humiliating defeat. Also to elevate the operation to the category of a technological demonstration: a group of special forces captures Maduro and, according to a guard, leaves the defenders bleeding, dizzy and lying on the ground unable to get up. It is a type of narration that automatically has gone viral because it does not require nuances: it converts a confusing fight in a clear scene of absolute superiority and ends with a deterrent conclusion (“no one should confront the United States”), which is exactly the phrase that an intimidation campaign would want to put in the mouth of the enemy. From TikTok to institutional speaker. The origin of everything is quite flimsy: it appears in a TikTok videoa testimony impossible to verify (an alleged member of the Venezuelan security forces as a witness), then translated and later amplified by commentators with the clear intention of dramatizing it and making it viral. Then something happens that changes everything: the White House spokesperson share it and promote it as required reading. Without confirming anything, this gesture gives it authority and creates the most certain ambiguity: it is not official, but it is no longer a simple hoax, and in that gray area it fuels conversation, fear and propaganda. The Pentagon and SOUTHCOM take shelter in operational securitywhich leaves the ideal void for the myth to grow without the need for evidence. @franklinvarela09 loser of January 23 recognizing the surrender of Diosdado Cabello eschunlo friend s #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound – Varela News What we know about the assault. He described operational framework was already, in itself, that of a high-risk mission with specialized means: nighttime heliborne insertion, armed support helicopters, shooting, American injuries and a high number of casualties on the defending side, including foreign military allies of the regime. With surprise, local air superiority, electronic warfare, cyber support, and precise fire, a defensive collapse can occur without the need for mysterious “lightning strikes.” That is why the rumor that has gone viral is not essential to explain the result: it is, in any case, an embellishment that transforms a complex tactical victory into a fable of technological domination. But there is something else. Technology that exists. What really means that the rumor does not die instantly and that many specialized media have remembered, is that it relies on a real background: Washington takes decades researching non-kinetic capabilities and “less lethal” to incapacitate without killing, from the called Active Denial System (millimeter microwaves that cause severe pain) to long-range acoustic devices LRAD type scope and dazzling lasers to deny vision. It has also been explored combine sensory effects (pain, disorientation, temporary blindness, confusion) to break an adversary’s coordination without resorting to immediate lethal fire. There is no doubt that programs exist of this type does not prove that they were used in Caracas, but it does provide veracity: “it may exist” is enough for the story to survive. A briefing slide from about a decade ago describing the “Non-Lethal Weapons Demonstrators” available to the US military at the time, including the Active Denial System and Acoustic Call-type systems “Sonic” as a label. They remembered in Forbes that sound as a weapon has physical limits and is riddled with historical exaggerations: it is easy to promise “paralysis” or “panic” over frequencies, but much more difficult to demonstrate consistent effects beyond hearing damage or disorientation from extreme volume. Furthermore, the TWZ analysts explained that a witness under stress can describe as a “sound wave” any devastating sensory experience: close explosions, flashbangs, overpressure, daze, and trauma. The language of the victim in this scenario does not identify the mechanism, it only transmits an experience, and that difference is crucial when the story travels through networks as if it were a technical report. An ADS prototype loaded into the back of a heavy truck EPIC, the hypothesis. Forbes too emphasized in a more “coherent” alternative with certain symptoms: EPICa concept that would use radiofrequency pulses to interfere with the inner ear and balance, causing extreme vertigo, inability to stand, and visual disorientation. The idea would be tactical and attractive because, unlike sound, radio waves cross obstacles and may feel like pressure or “popping” in the head as it affects the vestibular system. The problem is that there is no public evidence that this program went beyond early phases nor that it exists as an operational capacity, so here it functions more as a credible anchor than as proof. Havana Syndrome. It we count a few years ago. The debate over anomalous health incidents associated with the so-called Havana Syndrome prepared the ground: there was already a conversation about possible invisible mechanisms (acoustic, radioelectric or other) capable of producing real symptoms without an obvious explosion. The official evaluations have oscillated between skepticism about foreign authorship and the caution of not ruling out that a small number of cases could fit with known scientific principles used for harassment or incapacitation. In this scenario, any “invisible weapon” story is feasible because it leads one to think that the strange is not impossible, just classified. The most plausible explanation. If the strongest hypothesis is to be chosen, it is likely to be a combination of actual combat, explosions, distraction devices, smoke, shock and disorganization, amplified by testimony that has every incentive to exaggerate and convert defeat into technological inevitability. Details like “vomiting blood” or … Read more

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