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The same day that the US threatened Spain and said it did not need the Rota base, the US invested 13 million in expanding the Rota base

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More than 7,000 kilometers from Washington, on the coast of Cádiz, is one of the military enclaves most important of the United States outside its territory. NATO missile shield destroyers operate from there and dozens of military ships and aircraft pass each year heading to Africa, the Middle East or the eastern Mediterranean. In the midst of international escalation, that place returns to position in the center of the geopolitical board. And it reminds us again that everything has a price. Political noise and military reality. The diplomatic crisis between the United States and Spain in the wake of the war against Iran has been marked by harsh statements, veiled threats and rhetoric that suggested a strategic rupture between both countries. Washington openly criticized the refusal of the Spanish Government to allow the use of the Rota and Morón bases for operations against Iran, while Madrid defended that this war lacked legal coverage and it did not have international support. However, under this political clash a much more prosaic reality remains intact: the daily functioning of military cooperation between both countries. has barely changed. Bilateral agreements remain in force, facilities continue to operate normally and collaboration between the armed forces runs through technical channels that, although it may not seem like it, are completely separate from diplomatic noise. A threat with millions under his arm. Yes, the most revealing paradox of this situation occurred on the same day that the United States raised its tone against Spain and dropped that I didn’t need the naval base of Rota. While the political rhetoric spoke of distancing, the US Department of Defense simultaneously awarded a contract of about 13 million of euros to renew various infrastructures within the Cádiz base, from paving and parking lots to structural repairs and painting of facilities. It we count last week. The contract, awarded to a spanish company and with an execution period of five years, it was not an isolated investment but part of a broader program of modernization that will last until the next decade. In practice, while public discourse hinted at a strategic cooldown, the Pentagon was reaffirming with money and works that Rota remains a centerpiece of its military architecture in Europe. Rota as a logistical pillar. Investments are not limited to maintenance work. Washington has also approved projects much more ambitioussuch as the construction of enormous fuel depots capable of storing tens of thousands of barrels to supply naval aviation and ships of the 6th Fleet. Added to this are new missile warehousesammunition maintenance facilities, hangars for strategic transport aircraft and improvements to docks and landing strips. All this logistical reinforcement has a clear recipient: the US destroyers permanently deployed in Rota, which will soon pass five to six unitsin addition to the numerous ships and aircraft that use the base as a support point for operations in Africa, the Mediterranean and NATO’s southern flank. Thus, far from losing relevance compared to other locations such as Morocco, Rota is thus consolidating itself as one of the most important logistical nodes of the US naval strategy. Spain also expands its base. As we write A few days ago, the reinforcement of Rota is not just an American bet. The Spanish Navy has also launched its own expansion plan to solve an increasingly evident problem: the base has become too small for the number of ships it houses. Currently, American destroyers, a large part of the Spanish fleet, amphibious units and naval aircraft coexist there, in addition to ships participating in international exercises. Solution? To absorb this growing traffic, the Ministry of Defense is preparing a profound transformation of the facilities valued at more than 300 million eurosone that will practically double the port’s capacity with new docks, fuel tanks and logistical expansions. The project even contemplates modify the mouth of a nearby river and reclaim dozens of hectares from the sea to build new port infrastructure for the future F-110 frigates and to the Spanish amphibious ships. Morón and cooperation. Meanwhile, the Morón air base also continues to be part of the joint military plans. US command reports new facilities are planned ammunition storage and improvements in critical infrastructure within the Sevillian facility, with investments that could reach tens of millions of dollars. At the same time, air operations continue developing normally: American tanker planes continue to use Spanish bases for their logistics missions and, when the Spanish Government limited their use for certain operations related to Iran, the aircraft simply they moved temporarily to other European bases without altering global military cooperation. The Frigate and Iran. In fact, Spain’s own military performance in the conflict illustrates well this duality between political discourse and strategic reality. While Madrid insists that it is not participating in the offensive against Iran nor does it allow the use of its bases for that purpose, Spain has at the same time deployed one of its most advanced units in the eastern Mediterranean. The Frigate Christopher Columbusequipped with the Aegis combat system and anti-aircraft missiles capable of intercepting threats at more than 150 kilometers, has been integrated into the air-naval group of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle next to Greek ships to protect Cyprus against attacks with missiles or drones. Its mission is defensive and framed within the support of European partners, but its presence demonstrates that Spain remains fully involved in regional security in the midst of the escalation of the conflict. The diplomatic “show” and the military machinery. In short, the sum of all these movements paints a peculiar scenario, to say the least. On the surface, the declaration war between Washington and Madrid suggests deep tensions and strategic disagreements over intervention in Iran. But under this political spectacle, the joint military machine continues working normally. United States iinvest hundreds of millions in reinforcing its bases in Spanish territory, Spain expands them facilities to accommodate more ships and aircraft, armies they continue to coordinate within NATO and Spanish forces participate in military … Read more

Mercadona suppliers have invested 1.7 billion euros. That gives you an idea of ​​what a huge business it has become.

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when you want present your model Mercadona’s business strategy usually cites five pillars: “the boss” (the word used to refer to customers), its staff, society and capital. The fifth is his wide network of suppliers. That the Valencian chain includes them on that list is no coincidence. If it has managed to lead the sector until it has gained a business share that is already close to 30%, it is thanks largely to its bet on white labela wide catalog of articles impossible to articulate without a “industrial cluster” with 2,100 suppliers. As Mercadona grows they do it too, but that link is not free. In order not to lose step, they are forced to invest millions. One figure: 1.7 billion. The data has revealed it Expansion. Last year, Mercadona suppliers made investments in Spain and Portugal worth 1.7 billion euros. The figure is not only interesting for its volume, it is also interesting when put into perspective: it represents 31% more than the previous year, when the sum of investments amounted to 1,300 million. If compared to 2023, when ‘only’ 500 million euros were mobilized, the increase in investment is much greater, close to 240%. Of course, not all suppliers have spent the same nor do all the projects in which they have invested have to be 100% focused on Mercadona, although it is true that the chain is the main client of some of its suppliers. Who has invested the most? Mercadona has not yet presented its 2025 report, but we do have that of the previous yearwhich details the suppliers that mobilized the most investment and generated the most employment. At the head was Casa Tarradellas, which supplies Mercadona with ready-made pizzas and fuets for the Hacendado brand. In 2024 the Catalan company invested 104 million to build two new factories, dryers and production lines. The published data by Expansion show that in 2025 it once again led investment in the Mercadona supplier ecosystem, with the mobilization of 117.6 million. At the beginning of last year the firm presented a new mill for wheat flour in Gurb (Barcelona) that required 25 million of euros and throughout the year it also promoted a storage center of species. In 2024 Casa Tarradellas achieved increase 12% its profits to reach 38.4 million euros, consolidating the positive trend already registered in 2023. The result was largely possible due to the increase in income. An investment cluster. The list The greatest investment effort is completed by companies such as Vall Companys (70 million euros), Incarlopsa, Avinatur, Essity and Cañigueral, all four with investments close to 60 million, Covap (42.5 million) and Entrepinares (27 million). Names such as Familia Martínez, Huevos Guillén (50) and Elaborados Naturales (40) also stand out. Not all of that money has had to be allocated to projects focused on supplying Mercadona, but a review of the reports deposited in the Commercial Registry reveals that the supermarket chain has become the main client of its suppliers. In some cases the company founded by Roig actually represents more than 50% of all his income. “Joint planning”. The data is interesting because it does not only tell us about the resources that Mercadona suppliers have dedicated to strengthening their infrastructure and productivity. It also suggests that these companies are forced to make this effort to keep up with the Valencian chain, which in 2024 increased its turnover by 9%, to exceed the 38.8 billion euros. Looking ahead to 2025, it expected to continue growing and reach 40.1 billion. Although Mercadona has not yet presented its report for the past year, we do have studies that show that it has achieved increase your quota of business, moving away from rivals such as Carrefour or Lidl. As its sales grow and its catalog of private labels and ready-to-eat foods triumphs, the Valencian firm needs to rely on its “industrial cluster” of suppliers. Hence the urgency for them to strengthen their production capacity. “These investments are possible thanks to trust and joint planning,” they explain from Mercadona when remembering the 1.7 billion mobilized. Investment… and something more. That these companies are willing to dedicate millions and millions of euros to modernize their facilities, gain production capacity or expand is explained by a very simple reason: keeping up with the Valencian chain has become quite a lucrative business. Recently Five Days he wondered how the companies that supply it with products are doing and, after investigating the Commercial Registry, it found out that in 2024 the 20 main suppliers of the chain increased their sales figures by 18% to exceed 12,000 million euros. In total, aggregate profits grew by 5%, exceeding 360 million. Curiously (or not) at the top in billing volume were Casa Tarradellas, Incarlopsa, J García Carrión and Covap, with sales increases ranging from 12 to 29% between 2022 and 2024. Images | Mercadona and Wikipedia In Xataka | Mercadona and the rest of the supermarkets have realized something worrying: they spend a million dollars on printing paper

There was a day when Spain was a reference on the roads of Europe. 13.4 billion need to be invested to recover its splendor

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Floods, landslides, fractures, potholes or, directly, sinkholes. What is happening with Spanish roads? Are we facing a real maintenance problem or are we simply facing an avalanche of information or viral videos fueled by railway accidents and doubts about their maintenance? These are the answers we have. The controversy. The roads are bad. Very badly. At least that is the popular sentiment on social networks and in much of the media. The potholes (or directly sinkholes) They are the main ones accused of an alleged lack of investment in the maintenance of Spanish roads. Since the Adamuz train accident (Córdoba) in which 46 people died on January 18, the state of infrastructure in Spain is in the spotlight. The Adamuz railway accident was followed by new accident in Rodalies (Catalonia) in which a trainee train driver died and 37 people were injured just 48 hours later. The focus was then placed on the condition of the roads and their maintenance But, as the weeks have passed, the controversy has moved to the roads. And in recent days there have been videos in which cars are counted that have suffered blowouts due to going over a large pothole and statements on social networks. Is there data?. According to the Association of Infrastructure Conservation and Exploitation Companies (ACEX)Spain has a deficit of 5 billion euros of investment in its roads, distributed as follows: Highways under the responsibility of the State: 2,000 million euros. Highways of the Autonomous Communities: 2,000 million euros. Provincial roads: 1,000 million euros. According to ACEX, Spain invested half that of neighboring countries between 2009 and 2017, with a clear impact of the economic crisis of 2008. Since 2022, the deficit with Germany, France, Italy and the United Kingdom has been reduced to 30% with the arrival of European funds. It must be noted, however, that ACEX is made up of large construction companies. Source: AEC Officials? More or less. It must be taken into account that the budget items for road maintenance are not only presented in the General State Budgets, they must then be executed by the corresponding administrations. However, the DGT validates the data provided by the Spanish Road Association (AEC). And they say that half of the road surface in Spain is in poor condition. The data is even long before the last rains and a winter that is especially punishing the pavement. In fact, although the report was presented in 2025, the information was collected in 2024 so there is no data after the first months of last year either. which were also especially rainy. The AEC is an association created in 1949 and is non-profit. In 1998, it was also declared a Public Utility Entity and has international recognition. According to their evaluations, Spanish roads are “at the worst moment in its history” and that 13,491 million euros are needed to repair all the roads that need some type of intervention and they are distributed as follows: 4,721 million euros in 26,000 km managed by the State. 8,770 million euros in 75,300 km managed by the regional and provincial governments. A creeping problem. The problem of investments in road maintenance in Spain is not new. According to data from the Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) in a 2019 studyroads had absorbed the majority of infrastructure investments between 1985 and 2018, surpassed only by train investments between 2008 and 2012. Those days, from Europe it was supported that the quality of Spanish roads was much higher than average and among the best in Europe. However, investments had been declining for years and although they exceeded 1% of GDP in the 1990s, in 2018 they were below 0.5% of GDP. Of the total money invested, the AIReF report indicates, 35.98% corresponded to the State, 19.96% to the Autonomous Communities and 8.41% to local entities. Money received, for example, with European funds, is not taken into account. European entities, however, attributed this decline in investments to an infrastructure that was already established and in good condition. The OECD pointed out that Spanish roads were above average in quality and connectivity and were only behind in density. Are there solutions? European aid is what once again boosts investments in roads. From the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agency they collected that between 2022 and 2024 2,460 million euros would be mobilized, placing special emphasis on the maintenance of the roads but announcing that they foresee a study to analyze the financing channels, which once again gives rise to the constant background noise about the implementation of tolls. Furthermore, with the impetus of Europe, a project has been created to adapt Spanish infrastructures to the new climate reality, analyzing the interventions that must be carried out to readapt them to more extreme climates where aggressive weather episodes occur more frequently. Photo | Feranza In Xataka | Spain has dozens of unique abandoned roads. Now he wants to save them by turning them into “historic roads”

An 80-year-old retiree won 2.7 million euros in the lottery and invested it in something unexpected: creating a drug trafficking network

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That a chemistry professor sick with cancer becomes one of the largest manufacturers of methamphetamine is something that gave us hours of entertainment with Breaking Bad. What we didn’t see coming is that a retiree from the United Kingdom could serve as inspiration for a sequel to the popular series. As detailed police sourcesan 80-year-old man won a small fortune in the lottery and, instead of investing it in Nvidia stock either in Hermès bags, He displayed an unexpected entrepreneurial spirit by setting up a fake pill factory that generated hundreds of millions of euros. The stroke of luck that changed everything. John Eric Spiby, from Wigan in Greater Manchester, won €2.77 million in the British Lotto in 2010. With that money he bought a rural property in Astley (west of Manchester) and started his new business venture there: manufacturing pills. The detail is that the pills he was manufacturing were etizolama thienodiazepine six to ten times more powerful than diazepam, and mixed it with other ingredients to make perfect imitations of legal anxiolytics. In Xataka Millions of Spaniards consume benzodiazepines to sleep at night. They don’t know it’s poisoned candy The Retiree’s Band. John’s son, John Colin Spiby, 37, was responsible for managing daily production in a rented container next to the house. A friend, Callum Dorian, was responsible for distributing the pills through encrypted chats on platforms such as EncroChat. For his part, Lee Ryan Drury, 45, helped with logistics. Each member of the band had an assigned role so that the entire production and distribution infrastructure functioned on an industrial scale. They sold the pills to 65 pence each (the equivalent of 75 cents) but the total estimated value reached 332 million euros on the black market. The raid that uncovered him. Spiby’s “pharmaceutical” scheme was uncovered in April 2022. Police stopped a vehicle at a hotel in Manchester and found 2.5 million fake pills valued at 77 million euros. The investigation took them to the Spiby farm, where they found hydraulic presses, automatic packaging machines, firearms, ammunition and enough equipment to produce million pills a month. The etizolam they manufactured reached a magnitude that, in the previous months, 58% of the opioid-related deaths in 2021 in Scotland, they were because of pills like those manufactured by Spiby. Dorian, the distribution manager, boasted in messages comparing Spiby’s business to drug trafficking empires, while the gang armed its distributors to protect the companies. key distribution routes. {“videoId”:”x8px49v”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”ANTIBIOTICS are CEASING TO BE EFFECTIVE and the PROBLEM is SUPERBACTERIA”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”327″} The judge has just sentenced the band. The case came to Bolton court in November 2025. According to published The Timesduring the trial Spiby denied any knowledge of the organization that manufactured etizolam pills, claiming that he only rented his property to make some extra money. However, the chats, bank transfers and machinery pointed to him as the main financier, in addition to having found a Lotus and a Porsche that he had hidden in his garage next to the pill manufacturing machines, and the testimony of some neighbors who claimed to have seen him driving around in a Lamborghini, as he collected the BBC. The judge sentenced Spiby and his henchmen in January 2026. “Despite winning the lottery, he decided to continue a life dedicated to crime, far from what would have been normal years of retirement,” the court noted in its ruling. John Eric Spiby was sentenced to 16 years and one month in prison; his son at 9 years old. Drury, the logistics manager, was sentenced to 9 years in prison and Dorian, who already had a 12-year sentence pending, received more time. In total, 47 years in prison for the retiree’s gang. In Xataka | 13% of Spaniards have tried cocaine once in their lives. If we ask the dogs of Madrid the percentage will be higher Image | AMC, Unsplash (Candace Mathers) (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news An 80-year-old retiree won 2.7 million euros in the lottery and invested it in something unexpected: creating a drug trafficking network was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

This year more will be invested in data centers than what the US spent to reach the Moon

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We are witnessing live a technological race that is no longer measured only in announcements or demonstrations, but in tangible investments that grow at a speed that is difficult to ignore. In the United States, and also in other regions, large companies are allocating increasing amounts of money to build and expand the infrastructure that supports the current deployment of artificial intelligence services and the expansion of computing capacity that these companies pursue. Some speak of excessive enthusiasm and even a possible bubblebut the money already invested is part of the economic reality of the sector, while the projected figures point to an even larger scale. The question, therefore, is not whether the bet exists, but how big it really is. The numbers. If the first step is to assume that the investment exists, the second is to quantify it precisely. Data collected by The Wall Street Journal They suggest that Meta, Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet (Google) could concentrate a joint expenditure of up to $670 billion in 2026 aimed at artificial intelligence infrastructure. We are talking about capital outlays associated with data centers, hardware and capacity expansion, not just “brick”. When a single annuity reaches that order of magnitude, the conversation shifts from expectations to measurable economic consequences. Dollars are not compared. What the analysis proposes is not a direct equivalence between amounts spent in different times, but rather a way of measuring the economic weight of each effort in its own historical context. Instead of adjusting old figures to current prices for inflation, the article uses the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) as a common reference for separate projects over time. That shift in focus shifts the conversation from absolute money to relative magnitude within the U.S. economy. And it is precisely there where the investment associated with artificial intelligence acquires a historical dimension that is difficult to ignore. The investments. Among the great economic milestones that are often used as historical references in the United States, there are episodes as different as the Louisiana Purchase, the railroad expansion of the 19th century or the construction of the interstate highway system, all of them with different relative weights within the economy of their time. Using that same metric, this effort has been estimated around the following magnitudes: Louisiana Purchase: 3% of GDP Railway expansion: 2% of GDP Interstate highways: 0.4% of GDP Apollo Program: 0.2% of GDP As we can see, the planned investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure is around 2.1% of GDP. It’s not the same, but. Historical parallelism functions as a scaling tool, not as institutional equivalence. The large projects with which the current moment is compared were, in many cases, public initiatives financed directly or indirectly by the federal State, while investment in AI infrastructure corresponds mainly to corporate spending. That distinction is important, however, from a strictly economic perspective, the relative size of the effort remains comparable. The State does not pay the main bill. That the bulk of investment is private does not mean that the public sector remains on the sidelines. It’s no secret that the U.S. government influences the pace and shape of deployment through regulatory decisions, permitting, energy planning, and federal land use for new data center infrastructure. This set of levers is not a substitute for corporate capital, and at the same time it fits with a broader strategy aimed at preserving American leadership in the global race for AI. Historical comparison. This ends up pointing out something deeper than a simple number: it indicates the type of priority that a society decides to give to certain technologies at a specific time. When investment in AI infrastructure reaches a relative weight comparable to that of major American economic milestones, reading transcends the technology sector and enters the strategic realm. Images | POT | freepik In Xataka | Daniela Amodei, co-founder of Anthropic: “studying humanities will be more important than ever”

has just invested them in the second largest purchase in its history

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Pontegadea was born as an investment instrument for Amancio Ortega to channel the billionaire dividends that the millionaire obtained for your Inditex shares. These successful investments have turned Pontegadea into the second empire billionaire fashion mogul (and now also from brick). In this dynamic, Ortega has just received the second distribution of Inditex dividends in 2025, for a total amount of 1,552 million euros. This payment has served to cover the second largest purchase in the history of Pontegadea: “The Post” in Vancouver (Canada). Again, homemade from Amazon. Amancio Ortega’s last big purchase has been an enclave in the center of Vancouver. According to published Bloomberg, it is a complete block of offices in which the city’s old post office is joined with two imposing glass and steel buildings of 22 and 19 floors respectively. The name of the complex arises precisely from this historical origin of the Canada Post post office: The Post. The complex is made up of two office towers occupied by Amazon. In this way, once again, Amancio Ortega becomes Jeff Bezos’ landlord by purchasing another office building from which the ecommerce giant operates. In addition to Amazon, Ortega will be the homemade from other multinationals such as Starbucks, Oakberry or Loblaws City Market. 680 million dollars. The purchase of The Post is one of the greater investments of Pontegadea in its history, only surpassed by the purchase of the Royal Bank Plaza office complex (in Toronto), in which the Ortega real estate investor was left about 800 million euros in 2022. According to advanced Green Street Newsthe purchase of The Post has been closed for 1.1 billion Canadian dollars, which in exchange is equivalent to about 680 million euros. Its previous owner had remodeled the property into about 102,193 square meters of offices and about 17,200 square meters of commercial space. 2,000 million invested in one year. So far this year, Pontegadea and its subsidiaries They have completed 13 purchase operations and investmentwith just over a month left until the end of the year. According what was published by The Newspaperin the 13 operations that Pontegadea has closed in 2025, the real estate company has invested a total of 2,119 million euros. This amount makes 2025 the third year with the highest investment in the company’s history, only behind 2022 (with an investment of 2,783 million euros) and 2019, with 2,320 million euros. There are plenty of dividends. Amancio Ortega, as majority shareholder, controls 1,848 million Inditex shares or, which is the same, 59.294% of the company, through his companies Pontegadea Inversiones and Partler 2006. For this participation, Ortega has received around 3,104 million euros in two payments in 2025. The last of them, of around 1,552 million euros, was received just before this latest purchase became official. That means that although 2025 could be considered one of the busiest years Pontegadea investorwould still have a surplus of 985 million in its cash. He still has a month left and Black Friday in between. In Xataka | How much money Amancio Ortega has: how the fortune of the richest man in Spain is distributed Image | The Post, GTRES

Toyota was determined to make hydrogen the perfect alternative to the electric car. Hyundai has just invested 563,800,000 euros

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Time passes and the hydrogen car continues to be the great promise of clean mobility. The problem is that, little by little, time passes and hydrogen seems to be at the same point: challenges that seem impossible to solve and the eternal promise of revolutionizing transportation. Along the way, a good handful of companies said they were joining the hydrogen wave. Toyota has been one of those that has bet the most but, in the midst of a decline, it has been Hyundai that takes a new step. Reconversion. Hyundai has confirmed which has already laid the first stone of its new fuel cell and electrolyzer production plant in Ulsan (South Korea). The company has invested 930 billion won. That is, 563.8 million euros to convert the space and give it a new industrial use. According to the company, starting in 2027 they will be able to manufacture 30,000 fuel cell units per year in a space that extends across 43,000 m2. The intention is to produce systems for hydrogen-powered passenger cars but also for heavy transport services. a bet. Hyundai’s commitment to hydrogen is not new. The company has on the market the Nexusone of the few hydrogen cars that can be purchased and that has no competition since the Toyota Miraithe other great hydrogen car, is a sedan with a totally different approach. At the end of last year, Hyundai also presented Initiumthe preview of what should be a new hydrogen car that will arrive in 2025. However, the company has not launched the new model on the market. The Nexo has not been the first car powered by a Hyundai fuel cell but, for now, it is the last despite the fact that in 2021 they announced that we would have the entire range on the street with hydrogen versions in 2028. The promise. For years now, hydrogen has been proposed as the great alternative to the electric car. Although, really, it is an electric car. In its operation, a fuel cell car is a vehicle that carries out the electrolysis process inside to generate electricity that is stored in the batteries. In this process, the car does not generate CO2 and only expels water vapor through the exhaust pipe. The great advantage is that its carbon emissions are non-existent while it recharges the tanks in a few minutes to travel hundreds and hundreds of kilometers. The problems. There are many and they are difficult to remedy. When it comes to bringing hydrogen to a street car, the technical difficulties are enormous. First, because hydrogen occupies a large volume for the energy it can later generate. That’s why the Toyota Mirai is, almost everything, huge tanks. The latter is solved by turning the hydrogen into a liquid state but requires keeping it at -30ºC. It is a solution that has been designed to be used as fuel in a combustion engine and to remember the sensations of a combustion engine but generates very polluting particles such as NOx. That is, hydrogen requires huge tanks or a good amount of energy to keep it at a very low temperature. When this is achieved, it requires a complex system to carry out electrolysis or burn it in the engine itself (which generates very polluting particles). And all this without counting the complexity of producing and transporting it to the service station on duty. Non-viable. What happens at this point? That hydrogen is, at the moment, very expensive. As expensive as in Germany the cost of filling the tank was as expensive as filling it with diesel. It does not seem so strange that service stations are being dismantled in Germany and that although Stellantis offered to convert electric vans to hydrogen to gain autonomy, has ended up abandoning his plans. For now, on the way BMW too says it is developing hydrogen cars. Renault says to do the same. And Toyota continues investigating with burn hydrogen in combustion engines while turning his back on his Toyota Mirai in the United States where he faces a class action lawsuit from owners who they feel cheated. a light. In addition to light transportation, Hyundai says it wants to focus fuel cell production on heavy transportation. The company has its hopes that this type of transportation can find a true use for hydrogen. Heavy transport can find some advantages over electric transport. To charge an electric truck in a short time, enormous infrastructure is needed with chargers as fast and powerful as those from BYD. If hydrogen poles are created in dry ports or large distribution centers, it could make sense with less dispersed and therefore less costly distribution. Also the cost of filling the truck with huge tanks is lower because in percentage terms it would not eat up as much space as in a car. And, at the same time, recharging would be faster for less clean transportation than purely electric but much cleaner than current diesel engines. Photo | Hydrogen In Xataka | Renault is clear that the electric car is not the only way. Your proposal for the future: a hydrogen plug-in hybrid

Amancio Ortega has once again invested where very few were looking: in the ports

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Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex, has expanded his fortune by building a second real estate empire based on the generous dividends that he provides the textile giant that now his daughter directs. Through your investment company PontegadeaOrtega has not only invested in the best buildings in luxury apartmentshotels or commercial premises on the best streets in the world, but has now diversified its investments in a strategic sector: logistics and ports. Pontegadea enters the port business. This is not the first time that Pontegadea has tested the logistics sector, given that it already has several strategic facilities in Ireland and the Netherlands. However, the great bet of Ortega’s investment arm in the port sector has been the purchase of 49% of PD Ports last July, one of the most important port operators in the United Kingdom. Unlike its previous investments, PD Ports It is not a real estate asset, but rather it operates in a dozen ports in the east of the United Kingdom, generating more than 1.4 billion pounds a year and more than 22,000 indirect jobs, as the company claimed. in a statement. The jewel in the crown of PD Ports is the port of Teesport. Located in the northeast of the country, it is the sixth largest port in the United Kingdom and one of the 10 largest in Europe. Disembarkation of executives. Unlike other Pontegadea operations, the acquisition of PD Ports, whose investment cost figures have not been disclosed, is that Pontegadea has not limited itself to an investor role, but has taken action by assigning different “strong men” of Ortega to the company’s board of directors. As and how did he count Galicia Digital Economyone of these directors who becomes part of the board of directors of the port company is Roberto Cibeira, CEO of Pontegadea, advisor to Inditex and man of Amancio Ortega’s greatest confidence. This one didn’t come alone. Next to him sit Andrés Moreno Fernández and Ignacio Iglesias Botas, both important managers in Pontegadea, who now extend their influence to the port business. Low profile and dividends. As pointed out the economic ExpansionAmancio Ortega has chosen to enter the port sector with an approach very similar to the one he adopted with renewable energies. In none of these sectors does it have a majority in the capital of the projects, but its presence is influential enough to obtain important dividends for its operations, which maintains the philosophy focused on stable and profitable assets from Pontegadea. Coast to coast shopping. Since I was in the area, the Pontegadea negotiators they have gone shopping around Liverpool, on the west coast of the United Kingdom, to acquire PLP Knowsleya logistics center of 80,000 square meters. However, the key to this acquisition is that it is one of the largest operations centers in the United Kingdom of its tenant: Amazon. With this acquisition, Ortega adds new income from Jeff Bezos’ company, to which in addition to logistics centers, has rented its headquarters from Seattle. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega is the landlord of Amazon, Primark and Zara: he has charged them almost 1,000 million euros in rent Image | Unsplash (Marius Niveri), GTRES

Airlines have invested millions in entertainment. Passengers use it to see an plane icon slowly moving

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In an episode of the mythical Seinfeld seriesElaine is exasperating from her boyfriend Puddy, who passes a whole flight looking fixed to the seat back. That image, a custom joke of the nineties, today makes sense again with a technological nuance: and we do not look at the vacuum, but yes – and I include myself – we can get hypnotized with a point on the screen, the flight map. Of rarity to viral tendency. It is not an isolated mania. In a report by The Washington Post They have portrayed the phenomenon Through the story of Nicole Sunderland, creator of content that divides her time between Washington DC and Phoenix. Sunderland admits that on a 14 -hour flight Catar keeps the map on “all the time”, although the flight assistants try to turn it off. His custom went viral in Tiktok along with dozens of passenger videos They presumed to “endure” without films, without music and without wifi, looking only at the progression of the plane on the digital globe. Others, like Manu, seminated, turned the practice into a public hobbie: while the screens showed the screens showed films and series, she recorded the route map For social networks. The map as king content. Beyond the meme, the numbers suggest that this obsession has mass backup. FlightPath3D, leading flight maps provider in more than 90 airlines, states that 68% of passengers Open the map at some point and that 20% sees it exclusively. On average, users spend 52 minutes in front of the map on backup screens and 18 minutes on synchronized mobile devices. In total, about 400 million passengers used the product last year. The airlines themselves reinforce the idea. Last year, Delta Air Lines launched a new flight map designed for people with low vision. In the statementthe company was categorical: the map is its number one content in Delta Studio, ahead of films, series and games. According to their figures, 45% of customers interact with it on each flight. Also, media specialized in aviation, as paxex.aerothey emphasize that the map is “the most popular content of the IFE (entertainment on board) for a reason”, and that the airlines already experiment with integrating it into other formats: from a persistent side tape on the screen to brief overlays at the end of a movie. Why hook so much? Testimonies point to several keys. For some, the map is a control instrument in the midst of aerial uncertainty: Sunderland, for example, monitors it especially during turbulence to check altitude and speed. For others, it is a light meditation form: seeing slowly advance the plane icon produces calm in an environment saturated with stimuli. “There are map fans,” says Duncan Jackson, president of FlightPath3D. “They love to see where they are, how much is missing, observe the progress of the flight plan. For some it is almost meditative,” duck. An academic study of the University of Lund (Sweden), made in collaboration with Etihad Airwaysreinforces the explanation from the design perspective. In interaction tests with 3D maps prototypes, passengers valued more those interfaces that offered clear signs of navigation and sensation of control, and reported greater orientation with three -dimensional views. Even the choice of command influenced: some users developed better with gyroscope than with tactile controls. In other words: the map experience responds to deep psychological and cognitive needs. Simple map to travel assistant. The fascination is not limited to the luminous point that advances on an ocean. The industry is expanding the concept. FlightPath3D has transformed The map on an interactive platform: now shows previous views of destinations, animated global routes, children’s maps with animals, tourist suggestions and even Uber prices to reach the center once landed. In addition, Cathay Pacific He launched in 2024 “My Journey”an experience that combines an animated journey of the journey with information on services on board and points of interest. For its part, Panasonic Avionics has developed ARCthat integrates data on different plane screens so that the progress of the flight accompanies the passenger even when watching a movie. And in the field of accessibility, Delta has marked a milestone With its high contrast map, extended iconography and suitable palettes for Daltonics, which in the future will incorporate voice narrative with real -time updates. What began as a simple line chart in the eighties has become a sophisticated product that aspires to be inclusive, personalized and profitable for airlines. An obsession with future. The attractiveness of the map is not a passenger fashion. It is explained by the combination of three tendencies: the search for calm in overloaded environments of stimuli, the desire for spatial control and orientation, and the technological evolution of the product itself. In times of excess options – hundred hours of cinema and television in each seat – the map offers something more basic and powerful: the certainty of knowing where we are. As the Washington Post points outfor some travelers looking at the map is as necessary as tieding your belt. And as Delta acknowledgesit is already the star content of your digital offer. Puddy may seem eccentric in Seinfeld, but three decades later, it turns out that he simply advanced to the trend. Image | Freepik Xataka | Ryanair is abandoning small airports in France. There is an unexpected beneficiary: a Spanish airline

Microsoft prefers its own 7 that a 10 of OpenAi. The 13,000 million invested in Openai have just gosses meaning

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Microsoft has launched Mai-1his first model of the fully developed at home. This In the 13th position of Lmarenabelow those of Anthropic, Depseek, Google and, of course, OpenAi. It is not the best model and is not even close, but that could be exactly what Satya Nadella had in mind. Why is it important. Technological do not need absolute excellence to master markets. They need control, integration and margins. Microsoft has understood it since the time of MS-DOS: it is better to have a sufficiently good product than to depend on the excellence of others. Windows was never the best operating system. Internet Explorer was not the best browser. Excel is the best, but it took years to overcome Lotus 1-2-3. All, in any case, ended up dominating their markets because Microsoft controlled development, distribution and, above all, integration with the rest of their ecosystem. The money trail. The 13,000 million that Microsoft has invested in Openai They begin to seem less one bet and more a university enrollment. Microsoft has paid for: Early access to GPT technology while building its own infrastructure. Time to learn what works in the pressure of being pioneers. Instant credibility of offering “the best model” through COPILOT. A perfect excuse to build large gpus clusters that now uses for Mai-1. Suleyman has made it clear: they have trained Mai-1 with 15,000 gpus H100 (Grok uses 100,000, to compare) and have a new generation GB200 cluster operational. This infrastructure was not built to run OpenAi models. It was built for this. The current situation. Mai-1 does not compete in gross abilities. But it has advantages that Openai can never offer: Microsoft completely controls development. They can optimize it specifically for Windows, Office and Azure without asking anyone permission. They can adjust costs, latency and capabilities according to their exact needs. The voice is important. Mai-Voice-1 generates a minute of audio in less than a second with a single GPU. They do not need to be the best in text processing if they dominate The interface they believe of the future: The voice. Yes, but. A model in the 13th position remains a model in the 13th position. Business users who pay thousands of dollars for co -pilot surely expect the best, not “good enough.” Microsoft knows it and that’s why they are not replacing GPT-5 immediately. Mai-1 is gradually introduced in “specific use cases” while improving. This is its 1.0 version. GPT-5 is the fifth great iteration of OpenAI. They have room to grow. The decisive moment. The true test will come when Microsoft has to choose: renew the agreement with OpenAi or bet on their own models? With Mai-1, Microsoft has shown that it has a viable alternative. It does not need to be better than GPT-4. You just need to be good enough for the 250,000 million annual revenues of Microsoft not depending on Sam Altman’s whims. In a negotiation, the best position is to be able to get up from the table. Microsoft has just bought the chair. In Xataka | China’s self -sufficiency test in chips for AI is already here: it has not bought Nvidia or a single H20 GPU in the last quarter Outstanding image | Microsoft

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