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In the middle of the heat wave, there are trains in Extremadura that are running out of air conditioning. For Renfe there is only one culprit: the heat

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It is July 13 and it seems that we have settled into a perennial heat wave. And the forecasts for the coming days are not particularly promising. For this reason, it is still very important to avoid the central hours of the day and those of maximum heat to carry out outdoor activities… and other indoor activities, such as traveling by train. At least, that is what they are denouncing from CCOO, who assure that the Madrid-Extremadura trains travel without air conditioning on a regular basis. a complaint. This is what they have done at CCOO, who assure that “very frequently” the Alvia trains that travel between Madrid and Extremadura are registering failures in the air conditioning systems during heat waves. Miguel Fuentes, Secretary of Mobility of the union, assures in this statement that “this is not a one-off incident, but rather it is something systematic that is occurring in the heat waves of recent years and is creating a painful spectacle that is detrimental to the health of train users and the workers themselves.” Roasts. According to CCOO, these failures are being recorded in the Alvia S730 series trains when “outside temperatures are higher than 35 or 36 degrees.” In that case, they point out, “the air conditioning of several or all of the cars stops working and turns the trains into an oven.” The situation, despite the union’s complaint, is not new. a few days ago, The Extremadura Newspaper I already reported this incident on one of the Alvias that connect Madrid with Badajoz. That day, they point out, the passengers of the affected car were relocated to the free seats of the cars where the air conditioning did work. “In Madrid it was very hot, in Atocha, more of the same, we were looking forward to getting on the train, especially because of the concern of heat stroke and it turns out that the car runs out of air, it was the finishing touch,” said one of those affected by the Extremaduran media. What does Renfe say? In Xataka We have contacted the company who point out that “the trains undergo periodic inspections and are prepared to withstand temperatures between -10° and 40ºC” and that they understand the situation expressed by CCOO. However, they accept the following: “In exceptional circumstances, when outside temperatures exceed 40ºC as in the current heat wave, the train systems can activate automatic protection mechanisms to avoid major breakdowns. This happens because the pressure of the refrigerant gas shoots to critical levels, causing a temporary stop of the equipment until the system stabilizes. During that time, it is not possible to restart the air conditioning, which can generate incidents in the interior temperature of the train” That is, it is so hot outside that the train needs to protect itself to continue running. And when this happens, the train itself has to choose between continuing to move forward despite limiting or eliminating some functions (such as the air conditioning of one or more cars) or moving forward. Have measures been taken? Renfe assures that, without the possibility of modifying the trains, measures are being taken to safeguard the comfort and health of passengers. However, they assure that they are studying new measures that respond to the union’s requests. These measures would, therefore, be an addition to those already applied. According to the company: When these weather conditions occur, the sale of tickets is stopped to leave places free and to be able to relocate passengers. If conditions do not allow safe travel, alternatives are sought such as transferring to a fully air-conditioned train or even traveling by road. A real problem. In Xataka We have explained that heat can generate a real problem for people’s health because “kidnaps the blood”. And when we face very high heat on a sustained basis without barely moving, we are buying many tickets to faint and, if necessary, suffer heat stroke. That is why traveling refrigerated on a train is especially important. They collect in Today that between May and July there are already 15 incidents with the air conditioners that have caused Renfe trains to be left partially or completely without refrigeration. They look at Spain. The news comes just when Spain has been set as an example in countries that live above the Pyrenees. And in Germany, France or Denmark they have observed what Spain, Portugal or Italy are doing in the face of heat waves and What can they apply so that trains are not canceled?. And in these countries the railway service has been suspended because the companies were not able to ensure the health of the passengers. In the region of Bavaria (Germany), 40 degrees were recorded inside some trains. We now know that our trains, at least in part, are also not guaranteed to operate at full capacity. Photo | Falk2 and windy In Xataka | “We have six kilometers that have melted due to the heat”: in the face of extreme temperatures, France needs to Spanishize its roads

Huawei is building a semiconductor empire. And in the middle of the crisis, now it is going for its own DRAM factory

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If Huawei has a message for the United States that tried to ostracize it with the five-year-old vetothat message is “thank you.” It was the same president of the Chinese company who commented a few days ago that, without the pressure from the westChina and Huawei could not have developed their technology at the speed they have. Because Huawei is developing an empire, and the latest reports suggest that they are going for the missing piece: DRAM memory. And they are creating a megafactory so as not to depend on anyone in a market that is far from improving. DRAM factory. It is estimated that SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron have more than 90% of the global DRAM market. With the big three focusing all their production on AI platforms, neither consumers nor companies of consumer products can access components at competitive prices, so they look for alternatives. It is said that Apple would be looking at the Chinese CXMTbut now there are those point that Huawei is creating a DRAM factory with government support. The company Swaysure, from Shenzhen, one of the technological hearts of the country, would be building with Huawei a factory with the capacity to create 12-inch wafers. The planned production would be 140,000 wafers per month and, in charge of all this, would be a former director of TSMC. chip empire. China has one goal: that at least 80% of basic technology that their companies use is supplied by national companies, and Huawei plays a fundamental role there. It is no longer about the huge campuses that they have to promote their own business, but also their presence in all the technological sectors of the country and the importance that they are gaining by becoming one of the pivots of semiconductors in China. With the help of SMIC, they have managed to develop chips with an advanced architecture in record time and, in addition, it is estimated that at least 11 factories throughout the country operate it with the help of allied companies. They create logic chips, have foundry services, and also operate in the DRAM chip segment. With the new company led by Swaysure, they would take another step to achieve greater independence from the big players in the memory and NAND chip sector. In the end, it is about creating an industrial network that allows us to achieve that 80% goal and, above all, be more independent from foreign technology. Images from Planet Labs and Financial Times in which you can see the evolution in the construction of a Huawei and SwaySure plant between 2022 and 2025. parallel reality. To achieve this, Huawei has some of the most impressive technological and R&D campuses on the planet, which has allowed them in a very short time to not only rise from the ashes, but create a parallel reality. In terms of software, HarmonyOS is on more than 1 billion devices, the Huawei Clouyd service is growing outside of China in countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and then there are the chips. They have the Ascend and Kunpeng optimized for both AI and edge computingrecently introduced a supercluster for advanced AI tasks and intend to change the paradigm of the evolution and development of processors with a ‘Tau Law’ under which they will begin to create their new Kirin consumer chips that we can see in devices such as mobile phones and tablets. And that they have the Chinese government support It is a guarantee. Chinese lever. Returning to Huawei’s RAM, this movement is not designed to compete against the big three in the sector, but rather to not depend on them. That is, Huawei should not want to be Samsung in such a short time, but having the capacity to make its DRAM, it could stop depending on Samsung or SK Hynix, for example. Furthermore, these types of movements are part of a more long-term strategy, one in which Huawei has gone from being a large company in China to being one of the lungs of the country’s technological developmentdriving the AI ​​platforms of other companies with its hardware and being the heart of some of the data centers in which China is going to invest 300 billion dollars over the next five years. HE esteemIn fact, Huawei will take over 60% of the Chinese AI chip market in 2026. Now, no matter how much they invest and create new foundries, they still have a hot potato: no one manufactures advanced lithography machines like ASML’s to which Chinese companies have restricted access. They are advancing through alternative techniques and reverse engineeringbut if China wants to be the first technological nation in the short term (an objective that they have marked themselves), at some point they will need those huge, next-generation “printers.” Image | ASML In Xataka | US adds Netherlands to Pax Silica alliance: ASML host nation enters anti-Chinese bloc

In the middle of the heatwave, Italy is debating whether it is “idiotic” to pay €95 for an ice cream cone

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would you pay 95 euros for a cone ice cream? It may seem like a far-fetched question, but in Italy a thorny debate is heating up that has among its protagonists: Flavio Briatorethe Piedmontese businessman famous for his connection with the Alpine F-1 team. In recent days, the tycoon has heated up the networks by calling “cretin” (idiot) who spends dozens and dozens (and dozens) of euros on a cone ice cream, a comment that was not liked in a shop in Apulia known precisely for that: selling ice cream with gold for €95. As we said, the debate is served. What has happened? To understand the controversy we have to go back a few days, when a story began to circulate in the Italian press. explosive statement from Briatore that has little to do with his usual business: ice cream. Although the businessman is known above all for his connection with Formula 1, years ago he promoted a chain of exclusive pizzerias call Crazy Pizza. Perhaps that is why the ‘Pomeriggio Cinque’ program contacted him to talk about summer and food. Everything was perfect, until Briatore harshly criticized those who buy cone ice cream for 70 eurosenough to enjoy a good seafood dinner. What exactly did he say? He assured that anyone who spends so much money on a cookie and cream cone is a “cretin”a word that in Spanish could be translated as “idiot.” In recent days this outburst has been repeated again and again on Italian networks and media such as Daily of Puglia, Il Messaggero either Leggoamong many (many) other newspapers, fueling the debate about whether, matters of tone aside, Briatore is right: Is it crazy to spend 70 euros on an ice cream cone, no matter how luxurious and tasty it may be? Before continuing, one detail must be clarified. On Monday the newspaper The Republicone of the most read in Italy, accurate that in reality Briatore’s words are not new and his controversial video dates back to 2024. In any case, it doesn’t matter. His statements have now gone viral, the debate has permeated the country and, above all, it is now that the other interested party has responded: a business in the Puglia region that effectively sells ice cream at seafood prices. Of course, now its star product, the one that Briatore criticized, is no longer sold at 70 euros. That was his launch price. Now it costs a whopping €95an increase supposedly forced by the increase in the price of its ingredients. What business is that? Mokambo Gelateriaan artisanal ice cream shop located in Ruvo di Pugliaa city in Apulia of around 25,500 inhabitants. Although it is not a particularly populous town and is far from moving the hordes of tourists who visit Rome, Florence or Venice every year, Mokambo has managed to become a popular reference in its sector. And one of the reasons is its most exclusive product: Lo Scettro del Re (King’s Scepter), an ice cream launched in 2018 for 70 euros. Since then he has given a lot of talk. @nick_radogna Ho Mangiato il Gelato D’oro is €70 🍦Second is it worth it? #gelato ♬ suono originale – Nick Radogna What have their owners said? Basically they have taken advantage of their renewed media pull to show off their chest. Both since your profile on Instagram, where they accumulate 24,000 followers, as in interviews with Italian media. For example, a few days ago one of the business owners, Vincenzo Paparella, chatted with Corriere della Sera to respond to Flavio Briatore. “I think he simply hasn’t understood who we are. He probably imagined that we are one of those who take a normal cream ice cream, put a gold leaf on top and sell it at an exorbitant price. If that were the case, he would be absolutely right to criticize it. But our project is totally different,” claims. What the famous ‘King’s Scepter’ offers, claims the Italian ice cream maker, is not a simple cone with cream, but “a gastronomic experience” with “a journey, a history, a work of research and experimentation.” But… What is the ice cream like? A gourmet product in every rule. The ‘Scepter’ incorporates a sheet of 24-karat edible gold, Iranian saffron, Bronte pistachio and fresh whipped cream. In theory, its ingredients include freshly milked milk from the Murgia area and free-range eggs. Of all these products, the one that makes it most expensive is Sargol saffron of Mashhad, in theory the reason why right now it is charged 95 euros. The ice cream parlor of course offers cheaper items, such as cones for five euros. And is it sold? Although not everyone can spend 95 euros on a cone that can be enjoyed in a matter of minutes, Paparella claims that the ‘Scepter’ has achieved surprising success. “In this time we have received more than 2,000 people who have come from all over the world just to enjoy this experience,” presume the ice cream man In fact, they have 148 people with reservations to try it between now and September. It is not a negligible figure if we take into account that, beyond the price, Ruvo di Puglia is not exactly a well-known destination. What is the underlying debate? “The numbers speak clearer than any controversy,” ditch Paparella. And he is right. We may consider it expensive or not, but the undeniable thing is that the ‘Cetro’ has a market and there are people willing to travel to a remote town and spend almost 100 euros to taste a cone. At its core, the debate is old and quite simple: does the gourmetization? Is it demand that determines prices? Curiously, as was remembered these days in the Italian press, the controversy has now arisen from the hand of a businessman (Briatore) who is no stranger to the world of luxury. Images | Mokambo Gelateria In Xataka | Spain’s favorite ice creams are from Mercadona and have no “brand”. And there is a … Read more

Earning $180,000 a year is no longer enough to live in San Francisco. The AI ​​boom has eaten up the technological middle class

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In San Francisco you can earn $180,000 a year and not make ends meet easily. The AI ​​boom It is making what would be a huge salary anywhere else become mere pocket change, preventing entry into an impossible real estate market and a standard of living unattainable for the majority. Silicon Valley’s dream is to move. In it New York Times They tell the story of Katrine Razniak, a LinkedIn recruiter, and her partner Adam Woodbury, a software engineer. They have been in the city for five years and earn 180,000 and 185,000 dollars respectively, but despite this they are not able to get something as basic as an apartment for two. They spent months looking for a one-bedroom apartment to move in together on a budget of $5,000 a month, but it was impossible. They say they saw one for $5,200 and the waiting list already had 30 interested parties an hour after the open house. Buying a house is not an option either: The median home price is $1.7 million.. Given this situation, the couple is considering moving to another state where their salaries would allow them to live as an upper class. The new elite. While Katrine Razniak and her partner have to continue living in shared apartments, there is a new technological upper class that can afford to live comfortably in the city. They are the new millionaires of the AI ​​boom, employees of companies like OpenAI and Anthropic, with stratospheric valuations and stock options. In October of last year, when OpenAI was worth $500 billionwe already talked about that the city’s real estate market was exploding. Employees began selling stocks and buying homes like there was no tomorrow, causing prices to skyrocket. There is no improvement in sight. Not even a year has passed and Sam Altman’s company worth 852 billion dollars and Anthropic aims for 900 billion. To put it in context, when Uber went public in 2019 it was worth 82 billion, we are talking about ten times that amount. The imminent IPO of the two companies, added to the recent IPO of SpaceX, aims to create new fortunes, until 20 new billionairesaccording to estimates. Working in technology is no longer a guarantee of success in San Francisco, now you have to work in AI (and own stocks). It’s not just the rent. The median salary in San Francisco is also higher than the rest of the country and has been growing over the past six years, going from $153,000 to $196,000 today. However, everything else has also gone up. Aside from housing, life in general isn’t exactly cheap either. According to data from Cost of Living Indexthe cost of living in San Francisco is 65.6% higher than the rest of the United States. Katrine Razniak says her monthly spending has grown by $1,000 without changing her lifestyle, causing her and her friends to replace restaurant outings with home-cooked dinners. The housing problem in San Francisco. Spain is going through a housing crisis unprecedented, but we are not the only country facing this situation; Canada, Germany, Mexico, China o The United States are also suffering from it. In San Francisco specifically, the housing market is absolutely broken. As we said, the average price of a home is 1.7 million dollars, more than triple the national average of $450,000, and the rent is already the most expensive in the entire country, even ahead of New York. The demand is very high and the construction of new buildings is stagnant and the little that there is at a decent price ($5,000 a month is decent) flies in a matter of seconds. Image | photoholgic in Unsplash In Xataka | Sleeping capsules for 800 euros a month: the housing shortage in San Francisco is reaching the extreme

China has erected two mysterious “rectangles” in the middle of the desert that point to Taiwan

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Aerial photographs played a decisive role during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It was the images taken by American spy planes that revealed the installation of launch ramps Soviet forces on the island and unleashed one of the most dangerous moments of the Cold War. Since then, many of the great military advances have begun as a handful of strange shapes detected from the air long before there was official confirmation. Two rectangles that don’t fit. The latest images from the Chinese base of Jilantai, in Inner Mongolia, have focused on two mysterious structures Hardened rectangular with retractable roofs. The facility is not just any base: since the late 2010s it has been one of the main centers testing and expansion of China’s new ICBM silos. Precisely for this reason, the appearance of two constructions that do not resemble the known silos has aroused enormous interest among military analysts. The dimensions point to another very different mission. He prepared report by analyst Eli Tirk argues that these structures are too small and shallow to house intercontinental ballistic missiles like the DF-31 either DF-41. “These structures appear to be shallower than the silos intended for intercontinental ballistic missiles,” explains. Its dimensions, therefore, fit better with smaller weapons, such as short and medium range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles or even hypersonic systems. like the DF-17. Although there is still no official confirmation about their function, the measurements, the design of the roofs and their configuration clearly differentiate them from the nuclear silos that China has built during the last few years. Satellite image of the site in question The great hypothesis looks at Taiwan. They remembered the TWZ analysts that the explanation that is gaining the most weight is that Beijing is developing a new rapid conventional attack capability. Instead of serving as a nuclear deterrent, these facilities would allow launching large quantities of missiles during the early stages of a crisis to saturate enemy defenses. According to the tirk reporta massive deployment of this type of launchers could facilitate a rapid escalation from a naval blockade to a campaign of attacks against targets in Taiwan, US bases located in the first island chain or even naval groups deployed in the region. Close-up of one of the new reinforced structures with a retractable roof, as seen on January 28, 2026 An infrastructure designed to survive. Regardless of the type of missile they can house, the design reflects a trend that is spreading through the Chinese armed forces. The retractable roofs They allow launch systems to be kept hidden until the last moment and protected against precision attacks or drones. Researchers believe they could be part of a vertical launch system capable of using different types of ammunition from the same platform, increasing flexibility and reducing the time needed to execute consecutive attacks. A satellite image shows what appears to have been a new air defense emplacement pattern, with reinforced structures and retractable roofs It is not an isolated case. These new structures add to a much broader process of hardening of the chinese military facilities that we have been counting. During the last years have appeared hundreds of new silos for nuclear missiles, reinforced shelters for aircraft, completely closed hangars and protected facilities both inside the country and in strategic areas near the border with India or the South China Sea. The war in Ukraine and the growing prominence of drones have reinforced the need to protect any fixed infrastructure against increasingly cheaper and more precise attacks. A mystery far from being solved. The own authors of the report They recognize that there are still many unknowns. It is possible that these structures have a different function, that they are related to testing of new systems or even that they hide underground facilities deeper than the available images show. However, satellite photographs have been enough to put on the table an idea that is difficult to ignore: China appears to be building a new generation of military facilities that do not seek only to increase its arsenal, but to accelerate the speed with which it could use it in a hypothetical conflict. As Tirk ditch at work“if built in sufficient numbers, these systems would allow the Chinese military to quickly move from a quarantine or blockade of Taiwan to a massive campaign of preparatory strikes against targets on the island, US bases in the first island chain, or US naval groups.” Image | Google, China Aerospace Studies Institute In Xataka | Satellite images leave no doubt: China has launched an underwater creature into the sea that defies naval engineering In Xataka | The US Navy warns Congress: China is erecting the largest nuclear barrier in its history under the sea

Some millionaires wanted to build a city in the middle of a desert that did not convince anyone. They have had another idea: a shipyard

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Residents of Solano County, northwest of the San Francisco Bay Area, realized that someone had been secretly shopping a large amount of farmland. In fact, even the army He asked who had been purchasing all the land around one of his military bases located in that county. After much investigation, it was learned that behind these purchases there was a group of Silicon Valley billionaires with a plan as utopian as it is controversial: build an entire city from scratch, in the middle of dry fields. A secret land purchase. It all started in 2018, when a company called Flannery Associates was acquiringlittle by little, agricultural plots throughout the county. The owners received figures well above the market value, but no one knew who was behind the purchase. The county itself detected that a single company was purchasing large amounts of land and asked for an explanation. It wasn’t until 2023 when it came to light that Flannery was actually the real estate arm of California Foreverand that investors had been secretly buying land in Solano since 2018, until finally announcing their true purpose: to build there a new city. By then they already had some 24,281 hectares and between 800 and 900 million dollars invested. Who puts the money. The name that shows the face is Jan Srameka former Goldman Sachs trader of Czech origin. But behind the project there are Silicon Valley investors like Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell JobsLinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, as well as Michael Moritz, former partner at Sequoia Capital. His initial idea was to build a walkable city in the style of New York’s West Village, designed to attract high-net-worth employees driven by housing shortage in Silicon Valley. The plan stood on paper, but I needed something to only county voters of Solano could grant: change the law Solano County’s “Orderly Growth Initiative” of 1984, known as Measure A, which protects agricultural soil. Without that permission from the citizens there was no city possible. Water, the great obstacle. That’s where the problems started. Solano It is not an area with water leftover, and the neighbors immediately saw the risk of shortage to build a new city and increase consumption. Congressman John Garamendi, one of the most critical voices of the project, assured that “From the beginning, I have maintained that the proposed project was just a pipe dream, not a real plan. Accelerating the process without a comprehensive environmental and community review would have been disastrous for the current residents of Solano County”, criticizing that the project did not take into account that it was a site without water, without sanitation and without roads. The company tried to promote a campaign to win the vote of the citizens in 2024, which became one of the most expensive in the history of the county, and even then it was not enough. The vote was withdrawn and the project was, for the moment, frozen. The turn towards the shipyard. After that blow to the continuity of the project, California Forever changed its arguments. Instead of first selling a city in the middle of nowhere, he now sells a plan of industrialization with connections to the military: a shipyard in which to build ships equipped with the latest technology in naval defense, and close to the Travis military base. The new plan pivots on two axes. On the one hand, the Solano Foundryan industrial park of about 850 hectares located just over an hour from San Francisco that aims to become the factory for robotics projects and materialize all the R&D of Silicon Valley. On the other hand, the Solano Shipyarda complex of about 3,035 hectares designed to house several shipyards dedicated to military and civil naval construction. The idea with this turn is clearly to first attract the industrial fabric and employment, and then cover the housing needs of its workers by building the city that had been projected from the beginning. Unions, Trump and what remains to be decided. To win over Solano this time, California Forever has played another card: unions. The company signed with the construction union council and the carpenters union a labor agreement for the next 40 years on the 28,328 hectares of land it owns, in which it undertakes to hire your affiliates in the construction of that city. The speech is also supported by national politics and from California Forever they defend that building shipyards on the west coast is necessary to stand up to Chinaand has sought to fit the project into the SHIPS Actthe law that Trump has promoted to reindustrialize the US naval industry. A report Commissioned by the Bay Area Council, it estimates some $215 billion in private investment and the generation of 530,000 jobs in this industrialization plan for the area. However, the shipyard remains without a permit from the county, and the chosen land is next to the Suisun Marsh protected areaone of the largest brackish water wetlands on the West Coast. Water, again, will decide if this project remains a promise or becomes something real. In Xataka | The other war between the US and China is in the shipyards Image | Unsplash (Daniel J. Schwarz, Charlie Huston)

an alien-looking observatory in the middle of the desert

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Life is what happens while Saudi Arabia builds mega constructions. Or plans them, rathersince in that particular competition against the United Arab Emiratesright now there is more on the plane of ideas than on the sand of the desert. With the disaster of The Line still kickingthe country has another mega construction in mind: an observatory called AlUla Manara that seeks to become a unique tourist destination while serving as a beastly tool for astronomers. Its location is privileged, but what stands out most at first is, obviously, that design that seems more like an AI hallucination than a real building. AlUla Manara. When we talk about mega constructions in Saudi Arabia, we immediately think of Neom. The pharaonic project was not only going to house The Line, but another series of ambitious facilities, but there are other areas and projects in which the country has been injecting money for years. AlUla is a region of contrasts in which they mix World Heritage wonders with buildings that they seem from another planet. In that bag we have to put AlUla Manaraan astronomical complex that will become one of the largest optical observatories in the world. This is a project of the Royal Commission for AlUla to reinforce the role of Saudi Arabia in the international scientific community, but also seeking to position it as a new tourist pillar in the area. Peculiar design (with meaning). The images (conceptual, of course) reveal a building that is totally contrary to what we usually identify as an observatory. Instead of a huge dome that rotates and allows the telescope to be oriented, the observatory will have several more or less fixed telescopes. The main will count with four meters in diameter and will be accompanied by two others of two meters in diameter. It will not only have optical observation systems, but advanced systems such as LaserSETI that will allow monitoring the sky for flares, several observation platforms, tracking technologies and equipment for astrophotography. Integration. But, as we say, beyond the equipment, what stands out is a design signed by Heatherwick Studio, responsible for projects such as Little Island in New York or Azabudai Hills in Tokyo. The inspiration for the observatory is the spiral shapes of galaxies, as well as patterns present in fossils, although you have to use your imagination. Like the Maraya Concert Hall auditorium, full of mirrors in the middle of the desert to blend in with it, the observatory will seek not to break with the aesthetics of the region. This “flower”-shaped structure will be covered with local stone to integrate into that environment. Privileged. The AlUla Manara will be built on a plateau about 70 kilometers north of the city of AlUla and, like themselves they boastthe location is spectacular. This plateau is located in an area that is within what is known as a ‘Dark Sky Park’, a certification that makes it clear that the skies are exceptionally dark because light pollution is minimal. In fact, it is one of the best places on the planet to observe both the Milky Way and a few million other stars, which is why it will seek to exploit both the observatory’s capacity in scientific matters and monetization thanks to tourism. The visitor area will count with exhibitions, workshops and experiences designed to harness the potential of the facility and the area. But, in addition to the areas focused on tourism, there will be spaces where visitors can see scientists during their work day. Stuart Wood is the director of Heatherwick Studio and pointed out who saw an opportunity to dissolve the barriers that usually exist in this type of facilities. Let’s see what happens. All this sounds very nice and with the failure of The Line it is already difficult to believe certain things that come from Saudi Arabia, but AlUla Manara is a much more limited project that will be located in a region that already has real tourist interest and where it has been shown that this type of buildings have an outlet. Furthermore, it is a conjunction between science and tourism that is interesting and that, precisely, can make the project more viable. Now, there is still time to see that flower of the AlUla desert. The project was launched in 2023, but it was now that it was approved the final design of the complex, the scientific configuration and everything that Heatherwick Studio has in mind. It doesn’t look bad, but yes, there are still no dates on the table. In Xataka | China has no rival in megaconstructions: it even has the tallest abandoned skyscraper in the world

The big question in the middle of this terrible heat is whether we leave the air conditioning on or turn it off and turn it on again.

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In Spain, there are about 7.3 million homes with air conditioning and most of them don’t know what kind of voracious and carefree critter they have on their hands. They sense it, of course; They have heard rumors, it is true. But only when summer comes and it is eaten around 30% of the electricity bill It is when they understand the reality behind the ‘fresquito’. That’s when the moral debates also begin. And just when he is going to leave through the door, our protagonist takes control of the air conditioning, directs it towards the split and asks himself… should I turn it off or not? Is it better to turn it off even if when you return the house has become an oven and you have to cool it down again? Or is it true that turning on the device is so expensive that it is better to leave it running all the time? This is the story of how an old piece of advice has become so embedded in people’s consciousness that it continues to operate even though HVAC technology has changed. It is an answer, also, to one of the big questions of the summer. From “don’t turn it off” to inverter… As I say, air conditioners have changed a lot. Old compressors had very high consumption peaks and this is the origin of the idea that turning it off is expensive. But current investors They work in a different way and their speed is modulated so that the starts are smooth. However, this is more of a technical issue. The most important reason to turn off the air is another. Inside and outside. What really rules in all this is the heat outside the house, the heat inside and the insulation that separates it. The first two factors are important because heat enters the house at a rate proportional to that difference. That means, roughly speaking, that if the house is warm, the heat enters more slowly. In this sense, if we are going to go out for a few hours, it is best to turn off the air (or raise the thermostat a lot). He US Department of Energy He says it bluntly: the starting peak lasts seconds and you also have to pay for the machine hours. Is it a good idea to turn it on and off while we are inside? As the OCU recognized, An inverter should be left to regulate only while you are at home. (without constantly turning it on and off by hand) and turning it off “when leaving the room permanently.” In any case, the question that can save us is not so much whether we turn it off or not as how many degrees and how many hours we have it on. The world of air conditioning is full of myths: from those who think that setting the thermostat lower will cool the room faster to those who confuse the legal minimum for public spaces (27 degrees) with what experts recommend (about 24). The last thing to keep in mind is humidity… cooling may have become relatively trivial thanks to inverter technologybut dehumidifying is not so much. So in very humid climates it pays more not to turn off the air because recovering a comfortable environment costs more. But do we turn off or not? It depends on the situation. For a short getaway like picking up bread or running a quick errand, we can leave the air on. The difference is almost non-existent. If we are going to be away for a long time, it is better to turn it off or, at the very least, raise the thermostat. Image | Kien Nguyen In Xataka | Air conditioning in summer has a double standard of measurement: it cools us but gives us torticollis

Chile approved a direct submarine cable to China. The decision unleashed a diplomatic scandal with the US in the middle of everything

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For decades, Chile has tried to reduce its digital dependence on North America. The arrival of China Mobile as an alternative seemed like a solution to all their problems with the laying of a submarine cable from Valparaíso to Hong Kong. However, the issue has led to a tremendous geopolitical mess that is difficult to deal with. All because the United States had not liked the move one bit. Dependent independence. Almost all of the submarine cable infrastructure that connects Chile with the rest of the world passes through US territory or is in the hands of North American technology companies such as Google, Meta or Amazon. When Chile sought a direct route to Asia, it found that the only viable option passed through China. And of course, that set off all the alarms in Washington. What was being negotiated. China Mobile, a Chinese state telecommunications company, presented a $500 million proposal to lay an underwater cable of about 20,000 kilometers between the Chilean city of Concón and Hong Kong. The project, called Chile-China Express, would have been the first transpacific data connection from Latin America to Asia without passing through North America. The Chilean Ministry of Telecommunications approved the proposal last January. Washington’s response. Just like share Rest of World, two days after Chile signed the concession decree, the ministry annulled it, alleging “a technical error.” According to the mediumChilean officials had been urgently summoned to the US embassy in Santiago. And on February 20, the State Department revoked the visas of the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, along with two other senior officials in the sector. The official notification was that their actions had “compromised critical telecommunications infrastructure and undermined regional security.” Munoz explained to Rest of World that the sanction prevented him from visiting a key country for his work and that it had damaged his reputation. What Chile defended. From Chile’s perspective, the evaluation of the project was an ordinary procedure. Jorge Heine, former Chilean diplomat, pointed out to the environment that diversifying digital communication sources is essential to avoid outages caused by geopolitical tensions. “The State Department entered uncharted territory,” he said, by sanctioning officials for doing their jobs legally. The new president inherits the problem. The change of government on March 11 complicated the scenario even more. The previous president, Gabriel Boric, acknowledged having ordered the withdrawal of approval after threats from the United States about long-term consequences. His successor, the right-wing José Antonio Kast, came to power with the poisoned task of maintaining relations with China, his main trading partner, without raising blisters to the United States (which is his main foreign investor). Complicated. The US ambassador to Chile made it clear shortly after the inauguration that the Chinese cable was “ruled out.” The official position has become more nuanced. The Kast government initially counted on Google’s Humboldt cable, that will connect Chile with Australia in 2027made the China project unnecessary. But more recently, executive sources have acknowledged that the China Mobile project “continues to be evaluated.” Pedro Huichalaf, cybersecurity researcher and former secretary of telecommunications, explained to Rest of World that for Chile “it still makes sense to create redundancy” with a main and a secondary route to Asia. The geopolitical trap. The Google cable does not completely solve the problem. And according to point Heine, intelligence agreements between the United States and Australia mean that South American data trafficking to the Asia-Pacific will continue under American supervision. And there is already precedent for this, since after Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s global surveillance programs, Brazil and the European Union accelerated the deployment of the EllaLink cable to connect directly and avoid passing through North America. How the board looks. China has been expanding its digital presence in Latin America. And the country operates 5G networks and data centers in Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina through companies such as China Telecom, Huawei, ZTE and Alibaba Cloud. Brazil, for its part, is promoting its own 35,000-kilometer cable that would connect with China, India, Russia and South Africa. Washington views each of these moves as a threat to its influence in the hemisphere. In fact, just as stands out In the middle, the so-called Donroe Doctrine of the Trump administration formalizes that position by not allowing “foreign adversaries” to use trade as a lever to control critical infrastructure in the region. And in the long term. Just like point Rest of World, the most solid solution for Chile is not to choose between Washington and Beijing, but to reduce dependence on both. Aisén Etcheverry, former Minister of Science and Technology in the Boric government and a technology consultant, told the media that “Latin America has built lasting relationships with a wide variety of partners. Although this provides resilience, it is not enough. Developing its own capabilities must be a priority.” Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and AI generation with Gemini In Xataka | An unexpected salvation for the end user emerges from the memory market debacle: Chinese chips

The problem is not that middle managers are retiring en masse. Generation Z doesn’t want their job.

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The inverted population pyramid that we have in Spain means that hundreds of thousands of professionals with decades of experience behind them retire every year. Area directors, zone managers, team leaders and other intermediate and management positions that have sustained the structures for decades. The problem is not their exit, which should be a normal and expected process, the real challenge for companies is that now no one wants to take your place. The situation even has a technical name “succession crisis” and the data confirm it. According to data collected in the report ‘Human value: global trends on the future of work‘ Prepared by Manpower Group, 57% of companies globally recognize that their aging workforce is already affecting their human resources strategy. Key management positions are retiring and Generation Z does not seem willing to fill them. Reasons are not lacking. Retirements skyrocket. The first to reach retirement age have been the generation of baby boomersbut the first members of generation Only in Spain, in 2024 they registered 368,065 new retirements, 12.6% more than the previous year, while the 345,000 retirements registered in 2025 show a sustained rhythm for the following years. As pointed out to ExpansionAccording to Óscar Berumen, CEO of Grupo Viraal, what is lost with these departures is not just a vacant position: “When a company lets these profiles go, it loses technical knowledge, strategic memory and a deep way of understanding the business.” It is a type of knowledge that is not contracted with a typical job offer. Generation Z is very clear that they do not want to ascend. The phenomenon even has a name: conscious unbossingor the total disengagement from decision-making positions that generation Z is putting into practice. According to a survey From recruiting firm Robert Walters, 52% of Gen Z professionals actively avoid middle management positions throughout their career. 69% describe them as roles in which a high level of stress is required, in exchange for low financial reward. In other words, the salary improvement that companies offer does not compensate for the additional mental load that promotion entails, which is why young people from Generation Z are not willing to give up mental health or reconciling their personal life. According to the latest data for 2024 from the INEthe average salary of those under 25 years of age in Spain was 1,372.8 euros. Take on more responsibilities without real compensationGraphic is not the most attractive proposal, which is why many young people prefer to fulfill their current positions and maintain conditions compatible with their personal life. AI accelerates the problem from another side. As if the refusal to promote was not enough, the emergence of AI in the workplace has added another reason to stay away from promotions. According the data collected by Revelio Labs for Business Insiderjob offers for middle managers in the US were 42% lower than the maximum recorded in April 2022. The consulting firm Gartner calculated that by 2026 one in five companies will use AI to eliminate more than half of their middle management positions. The last ones layoffs in big technology such as Amazon, Google or Meta have not occurred in a context of financial crisis, but have been carried out with the intention of flattening internal structures. This flattening has especially affected to middle management who were dedicated to transferring the objectives to the rest of the staff and managing their execution. Now that job AI is going to automate itwhich is why young people do not want to play those roles and put a target on their back in the next round of layoffs. A perfect storm. According to estimates of the report According to ManPower Group, by 2030, more than one in four workers in advanced economies will be over 55 years old. Generation Among millennials, that figure rises somewhat more, to 56%, but it is still a minority. Companies that operate with structures designed for linear upward trajectories face the major problem that that model no longer fits the way young people understand work today. The gap left by boomers and generation X will not disappear just because of the passage of time. Organizations will have to decide whether to redesign the role of middle managers to make it attractive again, or they learn to function without them. In Xataka | Finding a job had always been a good way to escape poverty: in Spain it is no longer true Image | Unsplash (tommao wang)

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