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A family wanted to live with only solar panels, well water and a garden. Until Italy took away her children

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High in a forest in Abruzzo, Italy, a stone house fell completely silent in November last year. Until then, that place was the self-sufficient refuge of Nathan Trevallion, Catherine Birmingham and their three children. However, on November 20, 2025, a judge decided to remove them of family custody for living disconnected from the grid, without schooling and in an environment that he considered unhealthy. The resolution started a fire political and social in Italy. What for the family was a self-sufficient life project—solar panels, well water, compostable toilet, garden—became a court case with enormous international repercussions. The story, however, goes beyond an Italian court order. It is the symptom of something bigger: a growing movement in Europe—and also in Spain—of families and communities seeking to get out of the urban grind, disconnect from the electrical grid and live self-sufficiently. How far does the freedom to choose that lifestyle go? And where does the State’s intervention begin, especially when minors are involved? The case that divided Italy. The family, of Australian and British origin, had been living in a forest in Palmoli since 2021. The house was precarious but, according to themenough: electricity with solar panels, well water and an outdoor composting area as a toilet. In autumn 2024, all were hospitalized due to accidental mushroom poisoning. That episode was the one that activated the alarms of social services. As collected Corriere della Seraa technical report described the home as “ruin” and “without adequate conditions for minors.” That’s when social services intervened. The lack of schooling of the minors, the absence of pediatric follow-up and the almost total isolation in which the family lived set off all the alarms. Following these reports, a court in L’Aquila ordered in November of 2025 the withdrawal of parental authority and the transfer of the children to a center, where the mother could stay with them temporarily. The decision has caused a real political earthquakewhere political leaders and several judicial associations denounced pressure from the Government. At the same time, more than 150,000 people signed online petitions demanding that minors return to their parents. The family breakup and tensions in Vasto. The litigation is still in full swing. The development of the case during the first months of 2026 has been marked by institutional complexity, friction and the desperate search for reunification. The deepest wound of this process is, without a doubt, separation. According to Il Messaggerothe situation reached a critical point on March 6, when Catherine, the mother of the minors, was removed from the Vasto family home. In her only in-person visit after the expulsion, social services reports indicated that the woman showed “hostile” attitudes and incited other residents to rebel against the educators. This episode led to the drastic decision to cancel subsequent meetings, limiting maternal contact to video calls, in an attempt to preserve the children’s serenity. However, distance is taking its toll. A forceful technical report presented on April 3, 2026 before the L’Aquila Court, signed by the psychiatrist Tonino Cantelmi and the psychologist Martina Aiello, set off alarm bells. The experts They noticed that children show obvious “signs of psychological distress” and deep trauma resulting from the separation. The document is clear: there is no evidence of abuse or mistreatment by the mother. For this reason, specialists have asked the court for the “urgent and unavoidable” reconstitution of the family, warning that prolonging this fracture will only aggravate the damage to the mental health of the children. An institutional clash in the middle of the crossfire. The family drama has transcended the walls of the reception center to become a political and institutional powder keg. The management of the case provoked an open and public confrontation, collected by RaiNews. On the one hand, the Ombudsman for Children of Abruzzo, Marina Terragni, visited the minors in March and publicly reported having found some children with “notable psychomotor agitation” and obvious trauma due to the repeated changes. The response from social services was immediate. They flatly accused Terragni of exposing the professionals to a “public pillory” based on statements that, according to them, did not correspond to reality, ensuring that the climate in the family home had returned to being “serene.” Polarization and media pressure have escalated to worrying levels: The tension even manifested itself with screams inside the court itself, and the judge of the Juvenile Court, Cecilia Angrisano, had to receive a police escort after being the target of continuous threats on social networks. The countdown. While the courts decide, the family tries to put the pieces back together and comply with the State’s demands. Nathan, assuming a conciliatory role, has moved to regularize his situation. As detailed Il Messaggerothe father delivered to the City Council of Palmoli a personalized study plan, supported by the Libera Schola Foundation of Milan and inspired by the Waldorf-Steiner method. In addition, the family has begun to comply with the vaccination schedule and the children have been receiving in-person classes with a tutor since January, as pointed out by Corriere della Sera. The most tangible progress has come from the municipality itself. In a gesture of support, the Palmoli City Council has given the family, free of charge and for an initial period of two years, a newly renovated 70 square meter house. As detailed Il Giornale, The house, financed with European PNRR funds, has solar panels, heating and all health guarantees, thus solving the judge’s main claim. At the moment the house remains empty until the family is complete, as detailed by Nathan. Everyone’s eyes are now on the Court of Appeal, which has a key hearing set for April 21, 2026. Off-grid: from bucolic dream to global phenomenon. To understand the background of this trend, just open Instagram. As the magazine explains Ethicsit is enough for the algorithm to detect a certain interest in self-sufficiency to fill the feed of videos of families drying their own food, women showing their renovated campers or couples who live half a year off … Read more

A Nutella jar sneaked into Artemis II’s live stream from Orion, so many thought the same thing: covert advertising

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There are images that, even on a lunar mission, completely take us away from what we believe is possible. During the official Artemis II livestreamas the Orion spacecraft advanced toward a key moment in the flight, a Nutella jar appeared floating inside the cabin. We’ve all seen it and the scene works almost as a small dissonance within an extremely controlled environment. At a time when technology makes it possible to generate hyperrealistic scenes with easethe question arises immediately: is it real or are we facing a recreation? And if it is, what exactly is it doing there? The Nutella jar. The scene was not an isolated clipping or an image taken out of context. He appeared in the official NASA video titled “NASA’s Artemis II Crew Flies Around the Moon (Official Broadcast)“, specifically at minute 54:44 of the broadcast. According to that signal, the boat was floating inside the capsule just a few minutes before the crew reached the furthest point from Earth, surpassing the mark established by Apollo 13 in 1970. We are not talking about just any anecdote, but about a moment that coincided with one of the most symbolic milestones of the mission. Capture of the moment in which the Nutella jar appears in the streaming It wasn’t AI, it was real. As we have pointed out, the first suspicion fits with the moment in which we live, in which it is possible to recreate complex scenes with great realism. But there is no room for that doubt here. The image is part of the official NASA live stream and appears integrated into the mission broadcast. The boat was there, floating inside the Orion capsule, in the same microgravity conditions as any other object on board. It is not a reenactment or a manipulation: it is exactly what happened during the mission. It wasn’t advertising either. Once manipulation is ruled out, the second reading emerges almost by itself: think that we are facing a covert promotional action. The presence of such a recognizable brand in such a symbolic moment invites this. However, according to FuturismNASA itself has explicitly denied it. “NASA does not select crew meals or food in association with brand deals,” said spokeswoman Bethany Stevens. And he finished with a clear phrase: “This was not covert advertising.” That is, the boat was there, but not as part of any commercial agreement. space food. When we think about space food, the first thing that comes to mind is usually not something particularly appetizing. Quite the opposite. However, what they have on board in Orion is not that far from something recognizable, although it has its limitations. The crew has 58 tortillasfive types of hot sauce, plenty of coffee and prepared dishes such as barbecued meat or scrambled eggs. Everything designed to be able to be eaten in microgravity and in a very small space. In that context, that boat we saw floating fits quite well. In fact, Futurism points to the 58 tortillas as a possible way to accompany something like Nutella inside the capsule. Nutella has responded with this post on Instagram (click to see the original post) Nutella’s reaction. Although NASA has been clear in ruling out any agreement, the scene did not go unnoticed outside the capsule. And that’s where another actor comes in: the brand itself. Nutella was quick to react and posted on Instagram taking advantage of the moment.. We are not facing an action planned from the mission, but we are facing a fairly clear example of how an unexpected image can become an opportunity for almost immediate visibility. While that image continues to circulate online, the mission has already changed phases. According to NASAthe Orion spacecraft has left the lunar sphere of influence, that point at which the Moon’s gravity stops dominating, and the crew is returning to Earth. The landing is scheduled for Friday, April 10. What we saw occurred at the key moment of the trip, but now everything points towards the end of the mission. The boat remains one of those unexpected scenes that accompany a much greater milestone. Images | NASA | Nutella In Xataka | Artemis II is apparently a great space triumph for the US: if we look inside, it is also a triumph for Europe

China’s factories are learning to live with Donald Trump and his tariffs

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Donald Trump’s return to the White House on January 20, 2025 and the massive deployment of a very aggressive tariff package put many Chinese companies on the ropes. The US Administration attacked most of the countries with whom it maintains commercial relations, but, as Trump had anticipated, he attacked China. Xi Jinping’s government responded activating export controls very strict on their critical minerals and rare earths, and it worked. Donald Trump and Xi Jinping They met in October and agreed to relax the aggressive exchange of tariffs that they had during the first months of the year, but many Chinese companies had already been forced to react. Some of them chose to develop new plants in countries close to China that were not initially subject to such aggressive tariffs by the US, such as India or Malaysia. However, this solution was partial. It allowed them to avoid tariffs to a certain extent, but it did not solve their structural problems. China’s infrastructure is irreplaceable Agilian Technology is a Chinese company based in Dongguan that specializes in manufacturing products for third parties. Most of its clients are Western companies that need to produce their products in China, but do not have the necessary business volume to support the manufacturing of a huge number of products. Like many other Chinese companies, Agilian suffered a lot due to the tariffs that the US deployed at the beginning of 2025. Agilian Technology has emerged victorious. In fact, it hopes to increase its income by 30% over the next three years. In fact, their problems actually began before Donald Trump returned to the White House. The threats from the current US president put a good part of Agilian’s clients on notice, so the latter chose to anticipate and asked it to send large quantities of products to North America. before the tariffs went into effect. Other Agilian clients suggested that he set up manufacturing and assembly plants in other countries that presumably were not going to be as affected as China by US tariffs. Agilian, like many other Chinese companies, accepted its customers’ conditions, although some of them canceled their orders. After carefully weighing which would be the ideal places to which they could divert part of their production, Agilian managers opted to launch a factory in Dharwad (India) and another in Penang (Malaysia). However, they soon realized that their Dongguan plant would remain indispensable. The slow pace of bureaucracy in India greatly slowed the start-up of the Dharwad plant, and pre-production testing in Penang took months to begin because everything in Malaysia is much slower than in China. Dongguan continues to be the engine of Agilian, but thanks to the expansion of its infrastructure in response to pressure from the US this company is now much better prepared to withstand future clashes that the Chinese and American Administrations may have. Agilian Technology has emerged victorious. In fact, trust increase your income by 30% for the next three years. And its model is identical to the one that many other Chinese companies that are dedicated to manufacturing products have embraced. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

so you can follow its lunar flyby live

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What we are seeing today is not just another space mission, but the return of humanity to a type of journey that had not been repeated for decades. Artemis II It is in full approach to the Moon and, for the first time since the Apollo era, a human crew is flying over it again. The difference is that today we can follow this moment almost in real time via NASA YouTube channelaccompanying the astronauts in one of the most symbolic sections of the entire mission. On the way. Orion has already crossed the limit in which the Moon’s gravity prevails over that of the Earth, something that happened in the Spanish early morning, at 06:37, according to NASA data. That step marks a before and after: from that moment, the ship and its crew not only approach the Moon, but also enter its gravitational domain. What comes next is one of the most anticipated moments of the mission, the turn around our satellite before heading back. Record distance. There is a specific moment on this day that goes beyond the maneuver itself and that has enormous symbolic weight within the history of space exploration. At 7:56 p.m. Spanish peninsular time, the Artemis II crew has surpassed the Apollo 13 mark as the humans who have been the furthest from Earth, a record that has remained intact since 1970. This is not just a technical fact: it is the confirmation that we are going beyond what had been achieved until now with human presence. The key moment, step by step. From here, the mission enters its most anticipated section, and it does so with a very precise schedule that has already begun to be fulfilled. At the time of publication of this article, several milestones have already taken place, while others are about to occur overnight. These schedules are adjusted to Spanish peninsular time. The milestones after midnight already correspond to the early morning of April 7 in Spain. Screenshot showing the countdown before breaking the Apollo 13 distance record 06:37: entry into the lunar sphere of influence, the gravity of the Moon begins to dominate (already concluded) 19:30: scientific briefing to the crew from the control center (already concluded) 19:56: the crew surpasses the distance record of Apollo 13 (already completed) 20:45: start of lunar observations 00:44: loss of communication when passing behind the Moon 00:45: “Earthset”, the Earth hides behind the Moon from the perspective of Orion 01:02: closest approach to the lunar surface, about 6,550 km 01:07: maximum distance from Earth 01:25: “Earthrise”, the Earth appears again on the other side of the Moon 01:25: Communication with the crew is recovered 02:35 – 03:32: solar eclipse seen from the ship 03:20: end of lunar observations What we see live. Beyond the technical milestones and schedules, there is a logical question that we all ask ourselves: what exactly are we going to be able to see during this flyby. NASA explains that The coverage includes live images of the Moon captured by cameras installed on Orion’s solar panels, which will allow us to follow the ship’s passage alongside our satellite for several hours. Now, the agency itself warns that the quality of these images may vary depending on distance, system limitations and communications bandwidth. That is, we will not always see a perfect signal, but it will be representative enough to follow the moment. The story is not over yet. While we continue to monitor what is happening hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Artemis II continues to advance through a sequence of maneuvers that still has several key moments ahead during the early hours of the morning. We are not facing a mission that we can already consider closed, but rather we are facing an ongoing process that we are experiencing almost directly. Images | POT In Xataka | Artemis II is not just a victory for NASA: without the support of Europe it would have been impossible, literally

You can live without paying Google for more storage. The problem is not space, but Gmail

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I know firsthand that the offers that Google launches for your One plan cheaper are attractive. Paying a couple of euros a month so that the company does not bother you with warnings that you have little storage left is perfectly valid and you immediately get 100 GB so you can use it however you want. However, although it may not seem like a big deal, it ends up being a small “phantom expense” that we can easily avoid if we change our spending habits a little. cloud storage. In the vast majority of cases, the main culprit that causes us to have consumed almost all of the 15 GB that Google makes available to us for free is email. And the good thing is that they exist ways to almost immediately empty our inbox and have that free storage back. Below these lines we indicate some recommendations that will help you. 10 GOOGLE APPS THAT COULD HAVE SUCCESSFUL The problem is in your inbox If you check what takes up the most space in your Google account, it is quite likely that you will be surprised: Gmail is usually the biggest storage hog. Other times, it is also Google Photos that gives the most trouble with this, but in the case of Gmail, emails with attachments accumulate for years, and most of them are perfectly expendable: automatic notifications, old invoices, newsletters that you never read, etc. If your work depends to a certain extent on being very aware of the email, as happens to me, you find thousands of emails of press releases, presentations and, in short, material that arrives, takes up space and you don’t open it again. The good thing is that Google gives you very specific tools to locate those emails that we do not need and delete them in bulk. Between that and some tips to filter your inbox, you will be able to empty a very important part of the free storage that Google gives you in a simple way. The starting point: Google’s storage manager Before you get to work with Gmail, there’s one place worth going first: Google’s storage manager, accessible directly from this website. You can also get to it by clicking on the storage tab in Drive and clicking on “Free up space”, an option included in the Drive, Photos or Gmail app. This page shows how much space you have occupied and offers two key sections: one with personalized suggestions to free up space (such as deleting spam emails, large files or heavy attachments, indicating how much can be gained in each case) and another with shortcuts to the specific management of Drive, Gmail and Google Photos. It’s a good way to get a general idea of ​​the picture before acting: at a glance you can see which service is consuming the most and where to start cleaning. How to find and delete what matters most in Gmail If you’ve noticed that Gmail is taking up quite a bit of your cloud storage, the next step is to take action. After having deleted the emails that the Google One system itself suggested in the previous step, you can continue on your own using advanced filters that Gmail offers you, going for the heaviest emails first. To do this you can start by writing in the Gmail search engine ‘larger:15MB‘ (without the quotes) and so you will see all the emails that exceed that size. You can adjust the number depending on what you want to find: larger:5MB, larger:10MBor whatever value you prefer. It is a quick way to identify the messages that take up the most space with minimal effort. It is one thing to identify them, and quite another to know if they are really important to you or not. Going one by one is a bit of a hassle, but for example it helps me a lot to know if the email is from a long time ago or not. That’s why I also use date filters. This way, if what you want is to go also old, the command before:YYYY/MM/DD shows messages sent or received before a certain date. You can even combine both commands to locate old and heavy emails at the same time. Another very practical option is to search directly by attachments. Wearing has:attachment larger:10M All emails with attachments larger than 10 MB appear in the search bar. If you want to tune more, filename:.pdf larger:5M specifically locates emails with PDF attachments that weigh more than that amount, and older_than:2y has:attachment Filter out those that have attachments and have been in your tray for more than two years. Attached files (photos, PDFs, videos, documents) are usually responsible for the storage filling up much faster than expected. Search your keywords Beyond the commands that Gmail offers you, you can also use searches that serve you personally. In my case, for example, when I have a long list of press releases that I have already read, I simply type ‘ndp’ or ‘press release’ in the search engine and I will easily have a whole long list of press releases waiting to be deleted. Then you just need to pull the trigger. Once you have identified all the emails you want to delete, click on the selection square in the upper left corner to mark them all, click on ‘Select all conversations that match this search‘ so you can mark them all and not just the first 50, and then pull the trigger. If you know exactly what you DON’T want to delete, you can move it to its own label or mark it as featured before mass deleting the rest. That way you don’t risk losing anything important. Don’t forget to empty the trash When you have identified and deleted all the emails, you will have to pay a visit to the trash. And the emails that you have deleted do not disappear immediately: they are sent to the trash, where stay for 30 … Read more

what time is it and how to follow it live

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Let’s tell you how you can see the launch of the Artemis II livethe space mission that will take NASA to the Moon again. This is a manned mission in the direction of our satellite, although the crew will not descend to it. After months of delays and uncertaintiesthis next morning a new attempt will be made. The new lunar landing will not happen until the Artemis IV mission, although this Artemis II is the mission with which NASA will know if it has the technological capacity to carry out a future lunar landing without setbacks. The mission will fly over the Moon between 6,000 and 9,000 kilometers above its far side, and will be launched this morning. Now we are going to give you all the data to see the launch. When is the Artemis II launched? Space mission launches are carried out in time windows in which the meteorology and climatic conditions are favorable so that everything goes well. And the next launch window is Wednesday, April 1 at 6:24 p.m. ET, and will last for two hours. This is at 0:24 on April 2 in Spain mainland, one hour less in the Canary Islands. In Mexico the time is 16:24, 19:24 in Argentina, and 17:24 in Colombia. As the window is two hours, the launch in Spanish time will be sometime between 0:24 and 2:24 in the morning. Where can you watch the launch? The launch of Artemis II will be broadcast live to the entire world through NASA’s official YouTube channel, whose address is youtube.com/@NASA. This will allow you to watch it from the browser, from any mobile phone, or on any smart television where you have the YouTube app. When you enter the NASA channel; you will see that there is a section of Upcoming live broadcasts. In it you will be able to see two for the next morning, that of the launch itself and that of the views of the launch from space. You will even have the option to click on the Receive notice so that the YouTube app notifies you and you don’t forget. Cover image | POT In Xataka | We already know what we will eat on the moon: Madrid stew. An American team manages to grow chickpeas in lunar regolith

Follow the presentation in Europe of Vivo’s photographic flagship live

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Today is an important day for Vivo: the Chinese company is going to present its new premium high-end terminal, the Vivo X300 Ultra. It might seem like just another launch, a typical presentation, but no. No, for a simple reason: it will be the first time that the Ultra model leaves China and arrives in Europe. And as it could not be otherwise, you will be able to follow the conference live and direct with us. The presentation of the Vivo X300 Ultra will be today, March 30, at 1:20 p.m. Spanish peninsular time. You can follow it via our YouTube channel in a streaming led by Ángela Blanco and Francisco Franconi. The schedules according to regions are as follows: Spain: 13:20 (12:20 in the Canary Islands). Mexico: 5:20 AM Colombia: 6:20 AM. Venezuela : 7:20 AM. Argentina, Chile: 8:20 AM. We are live What we expect from the Vivo X300 Ultra It is not the first time that the Vivo X300 Ultra walks on European territory. Vivo brought it to MWC 2026where he had it displayed and where we already had the opportunity to see it up close. The key to this terminal, beyond its technical sheet, is on camera and in the ecosystem of accessories that it will bring, just because, the physical teleconverter seems like it will make an appearance again. This converter, whose name is Zeiss Telephoto Extender Gen 2 Ultra, is a hardware solution to extend the native focal length of the telephoto, being able to reach 400 mm equivalent or what is the same, a 17x optical zoom. With digital cropping, we can reach 1,600 millimeters. It is expected that there will also be improvements in the hardware and that, inside, it will be a fully fledged high-end device. We still don’t know much about him, but we will clear up doubts in just a few hours. What we do know is that the Vivo X300 Pro We liked it a lot and that its camera left us with an exceptional taste in our mouths, so this Ultra model promises strong emotions. We remember: the presentation will be today, March 30, at 1:20 p.m. Spanish peninsular time. You can follow it through our YouTube channel. Images | Live edited by Xataka In Xataka | Follow the presentation of the Vivo X300 Ultra

We haven’t colonized Mars yet and we already know how to build bricks to live there: with urine and bacteria

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Humanity has between an eyebrow and an eyebrow to reach Mars and eventually plant a colony there. Missions like NASA’s Curiosity rover have been scanning its surface for years for signs of past habitability (with promising findings that leave big unknowns) and the program Artemis II It is the technological springboard towards the first manned mission to Mars. Sooner or later there will come a day when humanity sets foot on Mars and the conditions to inhabit it are met (or manufactured). So the next question will be: how do we make a house there? It’s not so much a question of design, but of survival. A research team is already working on it and believes they have the solution, which they have published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology. The concept. The research work from Politecnico di Milano, the University of Central Florida and Jiangsu University consists of using two bacteria that work together: one is capable of surviving in extreme conditions and produces oxygen and the other that turns human urine into stone. This promising duo is capable of manufacturing bricks directly from the Martian soil, without the need for kilns, factories or bringing materials from Earth. Why it is important. Because from an engineering point of view, moving materials and machinery over long distances (as long as going to Mars) makes the cost skyrocket and becomes technically unfeasible. Furthermore, building them with the materials available on Mars is not (yet) an option. So this concept solves those two problems and some others, such as energy consumption. According to the paperbiocementation consumes up to 7 times less energy than melting soil with microwaves and almost 50 times less than thermal sintering. Finally, because it is convenient: it converts human metabolic waste into construction material, thus solving the logistical problem of what to do with that waste. Context. Because the different space agencies have the arrival to Mars in the 2030-2040 decade on their roadmap. Biocementation (microbiologically induced calcium carbonate precipitation) has been under study for two decades for uses such as stabilize soils, stop desertification either build with less carbon dioxide. This research transfers this knowledge to space and has its applications on Earth in the form of more sustainable construction, soil repair or self-healing concrete. chow they did it. This point is essential because the research team has neither built anything on Mars nor in the laboratory, using real regolith. This is a perspective paper, reviewing the known knowledge about this technique to provide a concept analyzing the Martian regolith from data from robotic missions. From that point and after identifying the deficiency of calcium oxide with respect to terrestrial cement, they have studied what biological routes can compensate for it. That’s where your proposal comes from, with the combination of Chroococcidiopsis + Sporosarcina pasteurii as the most promising, which is accompanied by a conceptual design of a bioreactor and 3D printing nozzle integrated with autonomous robotics. Yes, but. The previous point makes the first handicap clear: this combination of batteries has never been tested, neither on Mars nor in the laboratory. And on Mars the scenario is tricky: the reduced gravity weakens the microstructure of the resulting material (at least, conventional cement) and the perchlorates in the Martian soil are toxic to organisms. As if that were not enough, the temperature range in which bacteria can operate is narrow. Additionally, the water required may not be suitable. There is also no long-term stability data for this crop. If we talk about technological maturity, this project is in a primitive phase: a concept on paper financed with a long road ahead. In Xataka | China has found a “vital” element to colonize Mars: it resists in lethal conditions for other forms of life In Xataka | We have a serious problem in our plans to colonize Mars: the astronauts’ blood is mutating Cover | Rain Morales and Planet Volumes

live in one city and work in another

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Leaving home at five in the morning to travel 200 kilometers before arriving at work and repeating the same route back is, in fact, the daily routine of thousands of Spaniards who live and work not already in different citiesbut in different autonomous communities. The housing market has turned cities like Madrid or Barcelona into places where living is economically unviable for many working families. This phenomenon already has a name: pendulum travelers. And their number does not stop growing. Housing as a driving force of the exodus. According to data From the Tax Agency’s Labor Market Mobility survey, in 2019, 166,000 workers changed autonomous communities or provinces. In 2024, there were 236,848, which represents an increase of 30%. The reason why so many people choose to move between communities every day fits into one fact. In 2024 alone, 54,500 employees left the province of Madrid and 30,475 did the same from Barcelona. The sociologist Sara Porras, doctor in Applied Sociology at the Complutense University, confirmed in statements to The Newspaper What was the reason for that migration? outside the big cities. These are “expulsion processes caused by the overheating of housing prices, which have made rents unpayable,” said the sociologist. A life of early mornings and packed trains. As and how I collected The Spanish NewspaperMiguel Ángel García has spent years with one foot in Valladolid and another in Madrid, where he works in the financial sector. Miguel Ángel leaves the Campo Grande station at 6:45 and returns at 3:40 p.m. “Distance is not measured in kilometers, but in time: it is 170 kilometers, but it took an hour“, just as if I lived in Leganés,” he says. In his company there are 55 people who travel daily from Valladolid or Segovia, and they attribute their situation to the flexibility it has provided. the arrival of teleworking and hybrid days, which have reduced the days of mandatory presence in the office. The economic key is given by Elena Parreño, a journalist who moved from Barcelona to a town ten minutes from Gerona, that declared to The Newspaperthat “before, a round-trip ticket Gerona-Barcelona cost 27 euros; now, with the discounted passes, it is just over eight.” Begoña, a 40-year-old civil servant, made the same calculation on the other side of the map, and bought a house in Valladolid (something she describes as “impossible in Madrid”) and makes the daily journey to the capital in just over an hour on Avant trains. How much does it cost to leave and how much does it cost to stay?. The numbers explain a good part of the exodus that Madrid or Barcelona suffer towards other provinces with more affordable housing prices. The gap between housing prices in large urban centers and nearby provinces largely explains this exodus. Madrid closed 2025 with an average purchase price of 5,914 euros/m2while in Valladolid the average was around at 2,006 euros/m2. The contrast of the example in Catalonia is just as striking. Barcelona reached prices of 5,144 euros/m2in front of 2,667 euros/m2 which the province of Gerona recorded on average. The AVE factor. Another decisive factor in this migratory movement towards territories with a more affordable housing price is railway vertebrationwhich makes it possible to connect cities far enough away to reduce real estate tension, but not so far away that covering that distance requires investing a good part of the day. At that point, the train has become the only possible alternative. He Renfe Single Passvalid since January 2025, allows unlimited use of Cercanías and medium-distance trains throughout Spain for 60 euros per month (30 for those under 26 years of age). This savings has caused an increase in the use of the train to reach the big cities that, according to data From the last Railway Observatory in Spain in 2023, the Gerona-Barcelona line will register a total of 2,436,098 passengers, 44.7% more than the previous year, while the Madrid-Valladolid line reached 2,264,882, an increase of 64% compared to 2022. In 2024, the trend continued to rise, and only on the line Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid exceeded 2.7 million annual travelers. In Xataka | A silent phenomenon is brewing in Madrid: people who go to live in Valladolid and return to work by train Image | Unsplash (Yunming Wang)

Loop Infinito, Xataka’s daily podcast, will record live in Seville on March 19: this is how you can come

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The next March 19, Infinite Loop leaves the usual studio. Within the framework of CTx Techthe great technology event that It is celebrated in Seville on the 19th and 20thI will record a special live episode with Antonio Ortizone of the founders of Xataka and current podcast co-host Stochastic Monkeys. It will be at 8:40 p.m. at the ADA Auditorium. The topic: AI without hype. What is real, what is noise and why it is so difficult to distinguish one from the other. If you are going to be in Seville those days – or if the event itself is reason enough to come – we will be there. CTx Tech brings together more than 400 hours of content and 15,000 expected attendees. Tickets are available at ctx-tech.com. Featured image | Transfers

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