impossible

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

there is a type of attack that is impossible to block

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The browser is no longer just a window to the Internet and is becoming a tool that also operates within the web. In the case of Agent Mode in ChatGPT AtlasOpenAI explains that its agent views pages and can perform actions, clicks, and keystrokes within the browser, just as a person would. The promise is clear, to help in everyday flows with the same context and the same data. The consequence is also, the more power we concentrate in an agent, the more attractive he becomes to whoever seeks to manipulate him. What is a prompt injection. In simple terms, a prompt injection is a technique that seeks to sneak malicious instructions into apparently normal content so that an artificial intelligence system interprets them as legitimate orders. IBM describes it as a type of cyber attack against language models in which malicious inputs are camouflaged as valid prompts to manipulate the behavior of the system. The objective can range from forcing inappropriate responses to causing information leaks or diverting a task, without the need to exploit classic software vulnerabilities. The root of the problem is less “magical” than it seems and more structural. Many language model applications combine developer instructions and user input as natural language text strings, without rigid separation by data type. The model decides what to prioritize based on learned patterns and the context of the text itself, not because there is an infallible boundary between “order” and “content.” If an external instruction is formulated convincingly, it may gain weight even though it should not. When the context becomes unfathomable. The risk is amplified when the agent does not process a single message, but rather goes through very different sources within the same order. OpenAI warns of a practically unlimited surface, emails and attachments, calendar invitations, shared documents, forums, social networks and arbitrary web pages. In that journey, the agent may encounter unreliable instructions mixed with legitimate content. The user doesn’t always see every step, but the system does consume it, and that’s where manipulation can creep in. The disturbing thing is that this can fit into ordinary workflows without raising any obvious alarm. The AI ​​signature describes an example where an attacker “seeds” an inbox with a malicious email, and later, when the user requests a harmless task, the agent reads that message during normal execution. In one case, the result is intentionally extreme, the agent ends up sending a resignation email instead of composing an automatic response. All this thanks to an external attack. Why there is no perfect shielding. In cybersecurity there is a widely assumed idea, no system is completely secure, and OpenAI frames prompt injection as a persistent problem. In his text he formulates it like this: “We hope that attackers continue to adapt. The injection of prompts, such as scams and social engineering on the web, will hardly be completely resolved.” The objective, therefore, is not to promise invulnerability, but to raise the cost of the attack and reduce the impact when something fails. In this context, those led by Sam Altman explain that it has deployed a security update for the Atlas agent motivated by a new class of attacks discovered through network teaming automated internal. The company says the delivery includes an adversarially trained agent model and strengthened safeguards around the system, intended to improve its resistance to unwanted instructions during navigation. What we do still matters. OpenAI recommends using the offline agent when you don’t need to access sites with an account, and calmly review confirmation requests for sensitive actions, such as sending an email or completing a purchase. He also advises giving explicit and limited instructions, avoiding overly broad assignments that force the agent to go through large volumes of content. It does not eliminate risk, but it reduces opportunities for manipulation and helps existing controls work as designed. Images | OpenAI In Xataka | How often should we change ALL our passwords according to three cybersecurity experts

The nougat promised them happiness in their search for impossible flavors. Until almonds and eggs skyrocketed in price

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If you like to celebrate Christmas with nougat, bad news: this year it will be your turn scratch your pocket more. Quite a bit more, in fact. It doesn’t matter if you prefer soft or hard bars, you love chocolate, you have a favorite manufacturer or you don’t mind trying the white label of your supermarket. You will almost certainly have to pay more. This is concluded by several studies of Facua and the OCUwhich show that Christmas sweets are not immune to the ups and downs of the market. Although it is not the general trend, in their reports they warn of some specific cases in which prices have skyrocketed. above 50%threatening to sour one of the great pleasures of the holidays. The sweet, less sweet. There is no Christmas without nougat, but this year it will be much more expensive to bring it to the table. It reflects it clearly a recent report of the OCU that warns that, on average, the classic almond nougat has become more expensive by 16%. To be more precise, the organization detected an increase of 15.8% in the price of hard tablets and 16.1% in soft tablets. The variants that dispense with added sugars also increased (although to a lesser extent), in which honey or sugar is replaced by sweeteners: in those cases the price has increased, although somewhat less, by 13.6%. One piece of information: €23/kg. The calculations start from an OCU studywhich has dedicated itself to analyzing the prices of more than a hundred nougats. The study focused specifically on the most classic varieties, the almonds, both Alicante (hard) and Jijona (soft). Then their technicians dedicated themselves to purchasing the prices of each tablet with the records they stored from 2024. With the new prices, the average kilo of nougat is in €23/kgalthough if we talk about “brand nougat” that indicator rises to €33/kg. Same photo, different details. Although the report shows a general increase in price, the rise has not been equally intense in all tablets. It influences (a lot) what brand we talk about. The best ones are white label nougat, those sold under the distributor’s labels. In that case the increase has been close to 9.4%. It is a considerable increase, but it pales when compared to the 24.3% increase in the average price of manufacturer brand nougat. Within this category, notable differences are also seen depending on the company and product. Can it go further? Yeah. According to the OCUthe nougats from El Almendro’s “Own Harvest” line cost 37% more than in 2024. The cake, however, goes to El Lobo, which has products in its catalog that cost 57% more today. The organization recognizes in any case that this percentage has an explanation: in its 2024 analysis it appeared as the cheapest, which explains why it has experienced such a pronounced price update. “These increases have turned the price of traditional branded nougat into a luxury item. Manufacturer’s nougat now costs €33/kg on average, compared to €15/kg for supermarket white label nougat,” they explain from the consumer organization. The average value of almond nougat is around €23/kg. Far beyond nougat. The OCU has not been the only one that has taken out the calculator to study how much more we will have to pay for sweets these holidays. FACUA has carried out a similar exercise, which in November I already warned that Christmas desserts had become 15.4% more expensive in large distribution chains. That was at least the average, and the organization was able to detect specific cases with exorbitant “peaks of rise”, of up to 65.3%. The study It analyzed 185 items, including nougat, but also chocolates, mantecados and Polvorones available in several supermarket chains, such as Mercadona, Dia, Hipercor, Alcampo, Eroski and Carrefour. “Only three have gone down”. “Of the total prices analyzed in the months of October 2024 and 2025, only three have decreased compared to last year and eight remain the same. The rest, 174 out of 185, are more expensive,” FACUA warnswhich warns of increases in Hipercor, Alcampo, Carrefour, Eroski, Dia and Mercadona. The clearest case was detected in a Supreme Quality toasted yolk nougat El Corte Inglés Selection from Hipercor: from 2.39 euros in 2024 it went to 3.95 euros, which represents an increase of just over 65%. In general, the organization detected an average increase in the price of sweets of 22.6% since October 2023. Searching for the causes. That nougat is experiencing such a steep price rise is no coincidence. Although there are several factors that come into play, to the OCU and CaixaBank There is one that stands out: the drift in the price of one of its main raw materials, almonds. In fact, the OCU recalls that in higher category tablets it represents more than 60% of the weight, which explains why fluctuations in its price are felt in the rates. Has it risen that much? “Its price has increased significantly: from 90-95 euros per 100 kg of shelled almonds between January and August 2024 to about 120 euros in 2025, with peaks of 138 euros in June,” argues the organizationwhich ensures that varieties such as Marcona, Largueta and Comuna have seen their prices rise from 15 to 25%. It’s not no surprise if we take into account that the almond has reached values ​​not seen since 2019. CaixaBank remember that frosts and droughts have marked the harvest of recent campaigns, affecting prices. If in the 2024-2025 season farmers received an average of 5.6 euros per kilo of communal almonds (the cheapest), in previous seasons that same value hovered around 4.09 or 2.95 euros per kilo. The change in weather conditions has improved the prospects for the campaign that began in September, but this effect has not yet been noticeable in the 2025/26 Christmas nougat campaign. Almonds… and something else. To be fair, almonds are not the only ingredient that has become more expensive in the last year. He has done it too (and not … Read more

Taking a train to go to work in Barcelona or Girona has become an impossible mission

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Finding an AVANT train ticket to move around Catalonia has become quite a risky mission. Thousands of people who travel daily from Girona and Lleida to Barcelona face the impossibility of finding this type of ticket less than two weeks in advance. The high demand has overwhelmed the supply of places on high-speed services, forcing users to plan their trips weeks in advance or risk being left without transportation. The problem in figures. Demand for AVANT services has skyrocketed in recent years. According to Renfe data that share elDiario, in 2024 the Figueres-Barcelona line transported 1.52 million passengers, 43% more than in 2022. From Lleida, the increase was even more pronounced: 488,000 travelers in 2024, 65% more than two years before. This exponential growth has exceeded the capacity of the current infrastructure, creating a bottleneck that especially affects peak demand times. Why are AVANTs collapsed? The phenomenon has several causes. The main one is 50% bonus in the price of the passes implemented in 2022, which has turned these trains into an accessible alternative to the private vehicle. Added to this is the deterioration of the Rodalies and Media Distancia service, plagued by incidents and delayswhich has pushed many users towards high speed. Travel times are also a more attractive factor: 40 minutes from Girona to Barcelona compared to an hour and a half by conventional train, or an hour and a quarter from Lleida compared to more than three hours by Rodalies. The odyssey of getting a ticket. Daniel Blay, who usually takes the Girona-Barcelona train, account to elDiario that “on Monday of each week I try to reserve all the tickets for the following week, because if not you will run out.” For some critical schedules, such as the 7:25 train from Girona, there are no places available “within ten days or two weeks.” From Lleida, the situation is similar. Kevin Bruque, spokesperson for the Avant Catalunya Users platform, explained to the media that “you only find 15 days in advance to get a ticket if you are lucky.” Delays exacerbate chaos. In addition to the shortage of places, users report a significant increase in delays. More than 550 users have a Telegram group for the Girona line, coordinated by Blay, in which they already They have documented 292 delays longer than four minutes only in November 2025. Many of these delays occur on return journeys in the afternoon, when trains accumulate delays from long-distance services from Seville, Valencia or Madrid, according to the media. To solve this problem, many travelers demand shuttle trains that do not depend on connections with other routes, they assured from elDiario. The official response is insufficient. Renfe recognizes that the offer has grown from 1.4 million seats annually in 2022 to 2.4 million in 2024, but users maintain that frequencies have not been added during peak hours, where they are most needed. The operator attributes the delays to the improvement works on the Catalan railway network, especially in the future Sagrera station. However, passengers consider that these explanations do not solve the underlying problem: the need for more trains and more seats. More solutions. Among the urgent measures proposed by several of the traveler platforms, the 50% bonus should be maintained beyond 2025, since its disappearance would make the cost unaffordable for many workers and students. On the other hand, they demand an increase in frequencies and available seats. CCOO has proposed reusing Avlo service trains that are out of use to double the capacity of AVANT, an initiative that the Generalitat has included in its railway strategy under the name Catav, according to share the ARA Newspaper. In the case of Lleida, users also claim to be able to access the empty seats on the Madrid-Barcelona AVE trains that stop in their city, something that is currently only possible on four frequencies. What happens now? The Minister of Territory, Silvia Paneque, advertisement last week that the Government is working with the Ministry of Transport to improve AVANT services in Girona and Lleida. CCOO confirms that the ministry has agreed to study the proposal to reuse Avlo trains. It remains to be seen if the proposals end up reaching a solution that clarifies all this chaos. Cover image | Zarateman (Wikipedia) In Xataka | Renfe has three AVRIL trains lost and an even more serious problem: it still does not know when it will receive them

Breaking the console market seemed impossible. The Steam Machine has the potential to do it: Crossover 1×31

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The arrival of the Steam Machine It took us all by surprise a few days ago. The console and PC hybrid developed by Valve may become a real meteorite for traditional consolesbut be careful because not everything has been said. Valve, which became famous after the development of the mythical ‘Half-Life’ended up becoming the great PC video game distributor of our time thanks to Steam. Although they already tried to attack the gaming PC market with their Steam Machines a decade ago, now the approach is very different. That first attempt came too soon, but things have changed a lot since then. Valve has made its Steam OS operating system (based on Linux) an excellent alternative to the one offered by Windows on PCs. Above all thanks to Proton, the layer that allows you to play Windows games on Steam OS as well as on Windows… or even better. We have seen the first clear example of the experience that Valve could offer in this sense in the Steam Deckwhich have been a modest success (about 6 million consoles sold), but which have sparked interest in portable consoles that even Microsoft has decided to manufacture with partners like ASUS. Now the Steam Machine proposes to be a promising alternative to the Xbox Series S/X and the PlayStation 5 and combine the best of both worlds: a console-type experience and almost the entire catalog of video games available in the world of Windows PCs. The only question is whether he will make it, and that’s where enters the price factor. It is a fact that we will know at the beginning of 2026, and it will be from then on that we will know if this machine works or not. We are talking about all of this precisely in this Crossover 1×31we hope you enjoy it! On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | The question is not whether Tim Cook will soon stop being CEO of Apple, but who will succeed him: Crossover 1×30

TCL has entered the television market by doing what seemed impossible: democratizing the Mini-LED

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TCL has become one of the big revelations of 2025 in the television market thanks to its commitment to screens Mini-LED in the mid-range segment. This commitment to bringing high-end technology to the mid-range has caused the Chinese brand’s sales to skyrocket and has made it one of the main rivals to beat for manufacturers such as Samsung or LG, which have seen how his quota was reduced of sales among mid-range televisions. Good proof of this is that our readers have chosen the TCL C6K Premium QD-MiniLED as the best entry and mid-range television in the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025. What is TCL’s recipe for success? The keys to TCL’s takeoff For years, TCL was seen as a secondary Chinese brand in the smartphone segment. cheap televisions in Spain. However, its real position is far from that perception: it is one of the three largest television manufacturers in the world, only behind Samsung and very close to LG in annual shipment volume. According to Omdia data and Counterpointboth TCL and Hisense have surpassed LG in the number of shipments in key segments such as advanced televisions (Mini-LED, large diagonals and higher ranges). In this segment, TCL already has a 19% global share and its revenue share has increased from 13% in 2024 to 16% in 2025, illustrating its growth in the mid-range television market and the increase in its sales volume. He starting point of TCL expansion we find it in the local Chinese market, encouraged for government subsidieswhich served as a launching platform to finance the expansion of the brand to the rest of the world’s markets. Premium TV (mini-LED) shipping data from 2023-2024 Source: Counterpoint As pointed out the analysis from Omdia, the great turning point for TCL comes when the local Chinese market, until then its main driving force, slows its growth. In 2025, domestic sales fell 12.2% year-on-year, partly due to the end of the incentive and subsidy programs that boosted demand. This slowdown catches TCL with its homework done in the international market, so, with China slowing downTCL has had no choice but to turn to other markets. And that is where its change of scale begins. Europe, North America and Latin America have become its new growth scenario. In a global context where global shipments of televisions fell 0.6% In the third quarter of 2025, TCL managed to grow 2%, and not because of a stroke of luck, but because of a very fine-tuned strategy that mixes price, technology and brand visibility. Year-on-year growth in the different global markets Source: Omdia Spain has become a strategic commercial laboratory for TCL, where it offers a powerful mid-range, marketing highly focused on sports in general and soccer in particular (with sponsorships for the Spanish team) and an aggressive presence in stores. The result is that TCL already competes in practice with brands that traditionally dominated the mid-range offering such as Samsung, LG and Xiaomi. Especially on the annual sales podium in several large format categories with models from 77″ onwards. The secret of TCL’s success The explanation for TCL’s growth in the mid-range television market in Spain does not have a single person responsible, but it has a common thread: TCL understood before anyone else what the European consumer was looking for after the pandemic. One of those keys is offered Mini-LED panels. Until two years ago, Mini-LED was an almost exclusive territory of the high ranges of Samsung, Sony or LG. But TCL (just like Hisense), has taken it to the mid-range. This has been possible because its costs were reduced and it became an affordable option. Suddenly, a television with spectacular brightness, good contrast and more dimming zones than traditional LEDs stopped costing thousands of euros. That has given TCL the ability to build a catalog that no longer only competes on price, but also does it in terms of quality and, most importantly, without the size limitations imposed by OLED technology. TCL is one of the few manufacturers that, for example, has 98 and 115 inch screens and They are leaders in that segment. This variety of diagonals allows it to reach both those who want a television with more inches for less money, and those looking for a better image quality without paying the extra cost of OLEDs. Maintaining low prices for a technology such as Mini-LED, which provides a very noticeable leap in terms of image quality, is essential in TCL’s trajectory. While brands like Samsung, LG or Sony differentiate themselves through their own processors and algorithms, TCL has opted for another way: controlling everything from the factory, but focusing on the hardware (panels) which is what it really controls. For this reason, TCL televisions do not have image processing or algorithms as refined as those of Samsung, LG or Sony, which have dedicated their efforts to developing them. For now, that is not your battlefield. Their focus is on the mid-range and volume, where good “high enough” quality outsells any AI algorithm. This strategy eliminates intermediaries and significantly reduces the cost of each panel. Their production of Mini-LED screens increased in 2024 and 2025, which has allowed them to amortize the technology faster by applying very tight margins and making it cheaper even when the competition still reserves it for its premium models. TCL sponsorship of the Spanish team TCL’s strategy regarding its prices is very reminiscent of Xiaomi’s in mobile phones from a few years ago. That strategy consisted of selling units with almost no margin until they gained market share, consolidated the brand and, from there, went up a notch towards more profitable premium products with investments in their own R&D. In that sense, TCL would already be on the second step: consolidating the market. All this happens just before the 2026 World Cup, an event that historically boosts sales of large televisions. And there TCL has an ideal product: Large format mini-LED at prices well below the competition and with a brand image close to … Read more

This is how the “impossible” photo of the man falling into the Sun was made

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It seems like a montage, but it is so real that it has gone around the world just when AI was making surreal images stop impressing us. Andrew McCarthy’s “The Fall of Icarus” has shown that there are still ways to outdo the machine with technical precision and months of planning. Logistical madness. In the photo, a backlit silhouette appears to have launched itself in free fall over the Sun. It is the skydiver Gabriel C. Brown transiting in front of a particularly active solar disk. On the other side of the telescope, the famous astrophotographer Andrew McCarthywhich had begun planning the capture at the beginning of the year. It is, quite possibly, the first photo of this type, since the list of variables to control was insane. They needed the optimal sun angle, a safe height for Brown to launch from, and a perfectly calculated glide path between the sun and the camera. Three-way communication. It was 9 in the morning in the Arizona desert. McCarthy had his telescopes ready and was in constant communication with both Gabriel Brown, the skydiver, and Jim Hamberlin, the pilot of the paramotor from which he would launch. McCarthy followed the aircraft with his telescope and, once it was aligned with the Sun, gave the order. “Okay, I’ll see you,” he said over the radio. “Jump, jump, jump!” Brown jumped at about 1,070 meters above sea level with the engine idling to ensure a perfect angle. “I got it, man!” he heard him say on the radio. The sixth time was the charm. McCarthy told Live Science that the biggest challenge had been finding the paramotor in the sky. Although it was about 2.4 km from its position, the point of the shot was to capture in detail the Sun, which was 50 million times the same distance. It took the team six attempts to correctly align the aircraft with the photographer’s position on the ground. When push came to shove, they could only make one jump, as folding the parachute for a second attempt would have taken too long. Is it really not a setup? It is not, and the secret is in the telescope. As explained PetaPixelcarried a hydrogen-alpha filter to block all sunlight except for a very specific red wavelength that emits incandescent hydrogen. This is how those infernal images of the solar chromosphere are taken: the layer of active “fire” on the surface of the Sun, with its filaments and protuberances especially visible during times of greater solar activity. It is not very different from how other photos of rockets and space stations passing in front of the Sun are taken, but with extra planning and audacity so that the protagonist of the image is, for the first time, a tiny person. Images | Andrew McCarthy In Xataka | We are used to seeing the Perseids looking up. This is what they look like from space, looking down

Faced with impossible housing prices, an alternative is gaining weight: living in a motorhome

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If you consult the online dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy you will see that, at least for academics, a mobile home It is a “vehicle with its own engine conditioned to make life in it.” In the Spain of 2025, that of the housing crisishe floor deficit and the price escalationcaravans increasingly have more of the latter and less of the former. They are still vehicles, but above all they are spaces in which their tenants live: they sleep, have breakfast, cook, wash, study or spend time reading or watching movies. They do not do it out of vocation (at least not in all cases), but out of necessity. Although they work, have a stable job and a salary, the money is not enough to access an increasingly tight real estate market, so they choose to do their daily lives in the few square meters of a motorhome. Housing, impossible. that the housing is getting more expensive (a lot) is nothing new. In fact, its price is one of the issues that most take away sleep to the Spaniards and has already motivated massive protests, some with a hint of tenant strike included. However, it is good to review a few data to understand the scope of the housing crisis that the country is experiencing. According to Idealista, rents have skyrocketed 96% in just a decade, a percentage that falls short if markets such as that of Palm, Tenerife either Malaga. The situation in the purchase and sale market is not much more buoyant. The increase in the price of the square meter, which fool around now with the values ​​prior to the brick bubble, have complicated access to the market, forcing families to dedicate years of salary to pay for housing. Result: homes that exceed the “effort rate” recommended economic and young people who only have one option left if they want to become owners: inheritances or donations. What if I move to a caravan? In view of all of the above, more and more people are asking themselves the question: if the market has become so draconian, if it prevents any ability to save and requires assuming exorbitant prices, why not change apartments for caravans? There is no data to help follow the trend, but a search on Google or diving on YouTube to check that abound the news of people who moves into mobile homes. It occurs in Balearics and Canary Islandsvery places touristifiedbut also in cities like Madrid. By necessity, by strategy. Although the price of housing is (almost) always the backdrop, not everyone who moves into a caravan does so for the same reason. There are those who take the step pure necessitybecause their salary does not allow them to rent a regular home, and those who decide to spend a stage of their life living in a caravan in order to gain savings capacity and make the jump at some point (without pressure or rush) into the buying and selling market. That is the case of Antonio, a 37-year-old civil servant who I counted these days to The Country What is it like to live in a caravan in Madrid. Although he has a stable job with a salary of about 1,900 euros per month, Antonio, a native of Alcoy, has lived in a motorhome since 2020. The formula gives him flexibility when he has to travel for work, allows him to have more private space than he enjoyed when he shared a flat and, above all, it seems like the smartest option today. “I live in a motorhome right now because I want to, not out of necessity. Although obviously if housing prices were different I would move to a house, my future project. What happens is that after this satisfactory experience I have become more demanding and I am not willing to be drowned like I did for 10 years,” relates. His mobile home, a second-hand 2003 Fiat Ducato Carioca, cost him 22,000 euros and by living in it, utility costs have been significantly reduced. Right now they don’t reach 100 euros a month. Are there more cases? Of course. The profiles vary greatly from one case to another. Also from one region to another. There are those who live in motorhomes because it is “the only solution” that finds itself in a market of skyrocketing prices, who are forced to opt for that exit while they work temporarily in tourist destinations and those who prefer to enjoy “their” handful of square meters before sharing a conventional and larger apartment with other colleagues. “I have everything in four meters, but it is mine and I don’t have to share a flat,” confessed in April to The Vanguard Begoña, a 61-year-old woman who lives in a motorhome in the Balearic Islands. “Here I have my kitchen, next to it I have the oven and the refrigerator and the field. I pay for parking, but it is infinitely cheaper than renting,” agreed in 2023 during a talk with La Sexta Carlos, a 23-year-old engineer from Murcia who had a job opportunity in Madrid. When he started looking at apartments he decided that the best thing was a caravan. Is there data? One of the big problems in tracking the trend is that it lacks official data as such. The INE census shows that in Spain there are 7,200 people registered in shacks and caravans, but that category does not have to fit exactly with that of people who choose to live in motorhomes and the statistical institute itself recognizes that when preparing the census it encountered “a certain limitation”, so the overall figure is probably higher. As a reference, in 2024 the local press pointed out that in Ibiza alone there were almost about thirty of caravan settlements. Even was spoken of locals with houses who chose to move into caravans in the high season to rent their houses to tourists. The goal: get some extra income in the summer. More registrations. … Read more

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