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A teenager in Mexico created a Hombres G fan website in 1998, with the band already separated. 9 years later they filled Las Ventas

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In 1998, Mexican Francisco Romero was 15 years old, had a new computer and a school assignment to complete. Looking for the best grade, he created a website about his favorite group: Hombres G, a Spanish band that by then was already dissolved. What began as an academic exercise ended up becoming the band’s first digital fan community, with thousands of members spread around the world. And it was also the trigger that convinced David Summers and his team to return to the stage. How it all started. In 1998, having internet at home in Mexico was not common: just a marginal fraction (2-3%) of the Mexican population had access to the network under these conditions. Even so, Francisco Romero, a teenager who had just gotten his first computer, embarked on completing a school project in which students were asked to create a web page. Romero chose the Hombres G as the subject of his project. He had arrived at the Madrid group, which had already been dissolved for five years, through friends from high school. And since finding documentation about the band was difficult (there were only two pages about Hombres G on the internet), he decided to create a community. Meeting point. The web, as Romero himself explainswas titled Club ‘We’re still crazy… so what?’, in reference to ‘We’re crazy… or what?’ title of one of the group’s first albums. The success was immediate: in its first five months, it received hundreds of requests from Mexico, Spain, Colombia, Peru and Japan (in times before algorithms and search engines crashed). They wrote to him, above all, from fans who had not had a space to talk about the band for years, to which they had not stopped listening since the last album they had released in 1993, ‘Bikini history‘. The contact. At the end of 2000an anonymous user left him a complimentary message on the page, to which Romero responded politely. Three days later, another message arrived from the same sender, who turned out to be one of the band’s two guitarists: “Please don’t give out my email, I’m Dani Mezquita.” Later they established telephone contact, which ended up leading to more frequent conversations. The significant fact: Mezquita was then working as marketing director at DRO East West, the Warner Music label that released almost all of the band’s albums. From his position he had noticed something: at the end of 2000, a compilation of Hombres G was the third best-selling album in Mexico at that time. A group without activity, without tour, without active label, without a single public appearance in years. That is, they had an active and completely underserved fan base. With these data on the table, and as told in the documentary ‘The Best Years of Our Life’ (released in theaters scheduled for April 30), the members met and proposed a modest return, with three or four concerts in Mexico. It gets out of hand. From there the expectation skyrockets. The reunification tour ended adding 70 performances during 2002 and 2003including a concert in Las Ventas before 20,000 people and several cities in Latin America and the United States. The album that accompanied the comeback, ‘Dangerous Together’, was initially released only in America, which says a lot about where the weight of the comeback was leaning. When he arrived in Spain he ended up obtaining the Platinum Record. In gratitude for Romero’s importance in this return, he has continued working continuously with the band from Mexico. And so we come to the present: on April 25, 2025, Men G performed before more than 60,000 people at the GNP Seguros Stadium in Mexico City. All within the framework of a tour titled ‘Thank you, Mexico Tour’. A name that makes it clear to what extent the very survival of the group is owed to a modest student from the city. In Xataka | Three millennia of pop: the oldest song in the world is 3,400 years old and we can still hear it

Someone dumped three cubic meters of asbestos in Las Palmas. They caught him because he advertised on the internet as an unlicensed manager

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In the age of digital immediacy, it seems that any problem has a solution just a click away. “Economic debris removal”, “Rapid waste management”. These ads flood shopping portals and social networks. However, behind some of these profiles there are no authorized companies, but rather a network of illegal activities that end with carcinogenic materials abandoned on the corner lot. The latest case detected in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is the perfect reflection of this problem. The Local Police have managed to identify an individual who not only operated clandestinely, but also converted the surroundings of the Mirador de Las Torres at a hazardous materials landfill. The alarm voice. The events date back to December 19, when a citizen’s notice alerted the authorities about a van that was unloading debris in a suspicious manner on an embankment in the Díaz Casanova urbanization. Upon arriving at the scene, agents from the Environmental Group of the Mediation and Coexistence Unit (UMEC) of the Local Police found an alarming sight: approximately three cubic meters of asbestos-containing fiber cement sheets. In other words, it was not common debris, but a cataloged material as hazardous waste due to its high toxicity if the fibers fracture and are inhaled. An investigation connected to the network. The investigation did not stop at the spill. Upon tracking the vehicle, officers discovered a pattern of professional deception. As reported by local mediathe suspect actively advertised on internet portals, offering to manage all types of waste, including asbestos. However, when cross-referencing data with the Registry of Waste Managers of the Government of the Canary Islands, the reality came to light: the individual was neither listed as a manager nor as an authorized transporter. He did not have the equipment, training, or permits required by law to manipulate “uralite.” After being located, the investigated person had no escape. According to Canarian sourcesthe man acknowledged being the author of the spill and admitted that he charged his clients for a service he provided illegally. Instead of taking the asbestos to an authorized treatment plant – where he would have to pay for its correct disposal – he simply dumped it in open fields to keep the full benefit. The legal framework: Law 7/2022. This behavior is not just incivility; It is a serious violation of public health and the environment. According to Law 7/2022of waste and contaminated soils for a circular economy, the abandonment of hazardous waste is strongly penalized. This law seeks precisely to end the underground economy in the waste sector. The regulations are clear: whoever generates the waste (the owner of a home who is renovating, for example) has the responsibility of ensuring that his garbage ends up in the hands of an authorized manager. If it is delivered to a “fake manager” of the Internet, the producer of the waste could also find himself involved in legal problems. Asbestos, an invisible enemy. The City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, through its waste guide, reminds that asbestos requires special handling. It is classified under specific codes like LER 170605. When these planks break when thrown down an embankment, they release microscopic fibers that, when they enter the lungs, can cause serious respiratory diseases and long-term cancer. Therefore, its withdrawal must be carried out by companies registered with RERA (Registry of Companies with Asbestos Risk), something that the accused was completely unaware of. How to act correctly? The case of Las Torres is a warning for all citizens. The City Council and the Cabildo of Gran Canaria offer legal alternatives To avoid these crimes: Clean Points for domestic debris from small works (minor renovations). Asbestos Census: the Cabildo usually opens calls for the orderly removal of elements with asbestos in homes (drums, sheets, pipes). Authorized Managers: the authorized manager number should always be required before contracting any service. Closure against impunity. The person responsible for the spill in Las Torres now faces economic sanctions that, according to Law 7/2022can reach very high amounts for serious infringement. This case serves as a reminder that the city’s natural environment is no one’s backyard, and that the digital trail of offenders, sooner or later, ends up reaching the hands of justice. What began as a “cheap” advertisement on a website has ended in a criminal complaint and environmental damage that now all taxpayers must, in one way or another, help to remedy. Image | Las Palmas Local Police Xataka | These days Tenerife is experiencing a phenomenon that only occurs every 60 years: the “blooming of death” of the Ceylon palm trees

Parking lots were the goose that laid the golden eggs for bricks in Spain. Until someone created the tomb of Las Teresitas

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The history of the mamotreto The Theresies in Tenerife is not an exception, but one more chapter of a long tradition of shot attempts on the Spanish coastwhere for decades the brick advanced on beaches, marshes and cliffs in the heat of express reclassifications, opaque agreements and the promise of a tourist development that almost never arrived as had been announced. This was his story. Great balls with sea views. From Marbella to The Algarrobicopassing through ghost housing estates, illegal hotels and maritime fronts converted into political currency, the coast has been one of the great scenes of speculation, and each new case reminds us of the extent to which the conflict between public interest and private ambition has marked the transformation (and often the degradation) of the coastal landscape in Spain. A symbol that was born crooked. He mamotreto of Las Teresitas It began to raise suspicions long before it became a court case on the island of Tenerife because it appeared where it shouldn’t and how it shouldn’t, emerging without explanation in full maritime-terrestrial public domain, without visible signs and without anyone clearly knowing what was being built in front of the beach or under what legal protection. It was the persistent gaze of neighbors as Lola Schneider the one that set off the first alarms and turned that concrete skeleton into something more than an ugly work: into physical proof that a project was being carried out on the beach front that seemed to be ahead of the law and urban planning logic. Change the beach. Behind the mamotreto was the ambition to transform Las Teresitas into a large urban beach of European reference, with a plan signed by Dominique Perrault which promised to bury parking lots, create open squares and reorganize access to the sea. On paper, the visible mass was supposed to be buried and become an invisible infrastructure at the service of public space, but the partial execution and the breakdown of the balance between administrations turned that promise into an abandoned, gray and dominant structure that ended up being just the opposite of what the project claimed to pursue. The ball The construction of the parking lot was inserted in the heart of the so-called great ball from Las Teresitasoccupying easements and land in the public domain without the mandatory authorizations from Costas and with substantial modifications to the original project. Subsequent rulings made it clear that this was not a minor defect or a forgotten procedure, but rather a a global breach of the urban planning regulations, with works started without legal support while, in parallel, the City Council had purchased the beach front land for more than 52 million of euros in an operation that was already under judicial scrutiny. Justice arrives. The stoppage of works in 2007 marked the point of no return and paved the way to the investigation of the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office, prompted by environmental and neighborhood complaints. The judicial process ended with sentences for urban prevarication and crimes against territorial planning, confirmed by the Court, which established unambiguously that the mamotreto was built without valid authorization and on protected land, dismantling any subsequent attempt to reduce the problem to a simple question of partial legalization. The political and criminal cost. Not only that. The sentences reached to former councilors, technicians and senior officials, some of whom have already fully served their prison and disqualification sentences, while others remain banned from holding public office until the end of the decade. The case was thus established as another branch of the great Las Teresitas scandal, with clear criminal responsibilities and an express obligation to restitute the damage caused, which included the demolition of the building at the expense of the convicted. The demolition In 2017, a horrible mass that had remained in front of the beach for years was physically put to an end. The arrival of heavy machinery to the beach and the visible start of the demolition They marked the material end of a story that had continued for more than a decade. The destruction of concrete, carried out in compliance with a final sentence and after years of delays, it symbolized the closing of a cycle in which the mamotreto went from urban promise to abandoned ruin and, finally, to rubble, returning to the landscape a beach that had been kidnapped by the failure of a “plotazo.” One more. If you like, even though the mamotreto physically disappeared and the sentences were fulfilled, its history remains as permanent warning (one more) about the limits of uncontrolled urbanism, the fragility of the public domain in the face of political and economic interests and the price that a city can pay when projects are imposed on legality. The Theresies of Tenerife recovered space and horizon, but the mamotreto was placed in that monstrous row that is part of the collective memory of the Canary Islands and Spain: that of the emblems of how one should not build a city or, of course, manage its natural heritage. Image | CARLOS TEIXIDOR CADENAS In Xataka | Añaza’s mamotreto: the megahotel abandoned on the coast of Tenerife for 40 years that was never finished In Xataka | The Canary Islands face the irremediable dilemma of limiting tourism. Starting by charging to climb Teide

The city of Las Vegas bet everything on mass entertainment. Now he only lacks the most important: tourists

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In the summer of 2023 it seemed clear that something had changed in Las Vegas. The data They corroborated it: the “city of sin” had fewer clients than in 2019, but in return Much more money squeezing your visitors as never before. Since then until now, drifting towards exorbitant prices for anything has done nothing but grow. The problem is that he has done it at the same pace that lost the most important thing: the tourists who supported her. Neons cemetery. I told the weekend in A report The New York Times. A few steps from the strip, in a plot where old marques rest, the condensed history of Las Vegas can be read: pink feathers of the Flamingo, the red martini of the Red Barn, or the dancing shirt of a dye frequented by Liberace. This Neon Museum Remember that the city has managed to reinvent itself again and again, from that to the game, of gastronomy to the sports show. However, the present does not distill so many “vibes” as turbulence. The imitation elvis, almost empty coffees and European tourists who are surprised to pay one hundred dollars for a breakfast They feed the feeling that the world capital of excess goes through a stage of uncertainty. A descent as a warning of something worse. Recent figures from the Convention and Visitors Authority talk about a 11% setback In the volume of visitors in a single year. What happens in Las Vegas resonates beyond: experts like Andrew Woods They warn that the city works as an advanced barometer of the US economy. In other words, if the Vegas cools, the country could be at the gates of a broader brake. The fall is perceived In details: nightclubs without queues, gondolas sailing empty in artificial channels and half -filled card tables. The Canadian facor. One of the most sensitive blows comes from the north. Canada, which contributes 1.4 million visitors a year, has reduced In almost 20% His trips, dragged by commercial and diplomatic tension with the Trump administration. He Canadian boycott Threat to subtract hundreds of thousands of tourists from the final numbers of 2025. For a city where the international clientele represents the oxygen of hotels, restaurants and shows, that absence translates into less busy rooms and revenues that evaporate. Price bubble. The other great wound is in The traveler’s pocket. Room prices have gone from an average of $ 120 in 2019 to more than 160 this year, with peaks of more than 1,000 in luxury hotels, to which are added resort rates of 50 dollars daily and tickets to shows that exceed 300. After The “Revenge Travel” From postpania, the industry got used to it To collect expensive. Now, in a context of uncertainty, that strategy is perceived as greed and dissuades the average visitor. The buffets of 29 dollars gave way to banquets of 90, and even a simple bottle of water or a parking lot have become Symbols of increation. The crossroads of identity. The city had always maintained a balance between luxury and accessibility. But today the balance leans towards the exclusiveleaving behind that tourist who once found in Vegas an affordable destination. The risk is clear: lose the essence of “theme park for all” and become An unsustainable bubble. Voices such as Guy Martin, veteran contractor, defend that prices respond to mathematics and not to greed, remembering that structures Like Sphere or the Allegiant Stadium cost more than 2,000 million each. Others, as Caesars executives, admit that the industry “went from enthusiasm” after the pandemic. Global comparative. The Las Vegas dilemma is not unique. Macao, who in the last two decades displaced Las Vegas as the world’s world capital in terms of income, A collapse in 2014 When Beijing imposed restrictions on capitals from the Chinese continent. The city then turned to diversify with family tourism, conventions and shows, and although it recovered muscle after the pandemic, the dependence of the visitor of high purchasing power remains an Achilles heel. Dubaifor his part, he opted for a radically different model: Instead of lowering, it has consolidated a premium destination with massive infrastructure and a global luxury story. But even there, price inflation and event saturation generate similar tensions. Both examples show that raising indiscriminate prices can turn the destination exclusive, but also fragile and vulnerable to geopolitical or economic changes. Persistence, nostalgia and uncertainty. Despite the storm, andn the Times remembered That there are faithful visitors who are still considering the city of their ritual refuge, such as Mary Reyes and her husband, who have returned twice a year for decades and barely notice the difference. He neons museum It symbolizes that duality: the city of a thousand reinventions that never ends, but that today hesitated before him Dilemma of your future. Will you be able to recover the vibrant and affordable destination image, or will it become a prohibitive enclave for majorities? The outcome will mark whether the Las Vegas brightness continues to dazzle the world, or if the bullshit signs of the museum cease to be a relic to become an omen of so many other cities with the same bet. Image | PxhereStefan Wagener In Xataka | Las Vegas now has fewer customers than in 2019, but earns much more money. Is squeezing its visitors like never before In Xataka | Las Vegas changed entertainment with The Sphere: now its creators want to carry the innovative concept much further

The world’s largest hotel is not in Las Vegas or Dubai. It is in Malaysia and has 7,351 rooms

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He is at the top of a mountain, does not presume luxury and does not even reach four stars. But the First World Hotel It has something that no other hotel can say: 7,351 operational rooms. It is officially the major of the planet in this regard. This was certified by the Guinness book of records In 2015, and it is claimed by the website of the First World Hotel. The complex is in the heart of Resorts World Gentingin Malaysia, and today it is organized in three towers: Tower 1, Tower 2 and Tower 3/Y5. From there you access direct nodes such as First World Plaza, Skyovenuethe covered park Skytopolis Indoor Theme Park or the Genting International Convention Center. A city inside a building: how a hotel with more than 7,000 rooms is managed Sometimes, stars deceive. One would expect the world’s largest hotel to be also one of the most luxurious. But the First World Hotel is not sold like this. In Malaysia, The stars are assigned by the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture (Motac). There are no butlers, but strict cleaning and automated check-in, in addition to an accreditation “Clean & Safe Malaysia” with 100%score. Once inside, the logical question is: And now what? In those mentioned First World Plaza And Skyovenue there are stores, restaurants, an attraction park covered And even a convention center, all under ceiling. We also find the Skytopolis Indoor Theme Parkwhich is one of the jewels: more than 20 attractions in 400,000 square feet, open all year without depending on the weather. To eat fast and cheap are the Coffee lobby and The Junctionwhere the Nasi Lemak wrapped in banana leaves It is announced as “probably the best of Genting.” Managing something like that does not have more staff, it will have a system. The First World Hotel works as a machinery: check-in in kiosks, digital keys from the app, strict rules on furniture and non -transferable reserves. Everything is specified by the hotel itself: you cannot move furniture or enter with appliances. When you manage more than 7,000 rooms, any exception can discourage the gear. Spa and gym? They exist, but are not in the First World Hotel. They are in him Genting Grandanother of the resort hotels, and the access is paid for the guests of the First World. Why in Malaysia and not in a large tourist capital? Because this is not an isolated hotel: it is a piece of a project born in the sixties. The founder of the group, Lim Goh Tong, imagined in 1965 a resort on the mountainfresher than Kuala Lumpur and with entertainment for families. The company itself tells it in its corporate profile and in the official history of the group. From there came resorts World Genting, with casinos, shopping centers, parks and hotels for all pockets. The First World fulfills the strategic function of hosting in mass. He does not need to be in a capital, because the resort is already a city. Since Guinness recognized himthe data of the 7,351 rooms has attracted even more curious. Continues ahead of colossi like the MGM Grand of Las Vegaswith “almost 5,000 rooms” According to the chain itself. The striking thing is that he succeeds without luxury suites or premium services: he does it with compact rooms and an operation designed to function as a gigantic gear. No one has yet taken the title. And that says a lot, not only the size, but of the viability of a model that, despite it seems impossible, continues to work every day. Images | Genting Group In Xataka | In Madrid there were no economic hotels left, but there was a “virgin” space for tourists: polygons

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