Vigo has shown that Christmas can be a million-dollar business. So northern Portugal has decided to take note

Christmas is a time of peace, reunion, carols, sweets and a lot of other positive things, but also (and increasingly) of ‘pique’ between cities. As the holidays have gained appeal as an economic engine, especially for attract tourists In the middle of the low season, town councils throughout Spain have launched a race to show off the tree with the most meters, the largest display of LED lights or simply be the first to debut the ornament. Vigo is perhaps the greatest exponent of that fever, which in recent years has led him to cross challenges (more or less casual) with Madrid either Badalona. However, its true rival appears from another corner: on the other side of the Miño. Christmas in November? Christmas in November. It’s nothing new. In Vigo they began to install their lights already at the end of July, when they were missing almost 150 days for the start of the festivities. It may seem extravagant (maybe it is), but it certainly has its logic: the Galician city boasts to deploy millions and millions of LEDs along hundreds of streets (12 million in 460 neighborhoods this year), which requires a notable logistical effort. Also a substantial investment. Other cities like Madrid, Badalona, Malaga either Cadiz (to cite a few examples), determined to stand out on the map of national Christmas decorations. In fact, a quick review of the newspaper archive comes to find cross challenges between the mayors of Madrid, Badalona or Vigo on account of the festivities. The objective: to claim itself as the city with the brightest offer (literally). Why’s that? For various reasons ranging from pure economics to politics. After all, Christmas offers a showcase of brilliance barbaric for municipal administrations. If there is one reason that has become more evident over the years, however, it is tourism promotion. It is no longer just a matter of decorations encouraging purchases or more or less boosting commerce. No. Having many lights, large XXXL trees, Ferris wheels, markets… has become an effective hook to attract visitors in the middle of winter. Vigo once again leaves a good example. In December 2012, before the lighting boom, its hotels recorded just 33,600 overnight stays, far from the 100,000 in August. In 2022, already in the midst of the Christmas frenzy, this figure exceeded 101,500 overnight stays. And that’s not just visits, it’s also hard euros. In July the mayor of the town, Abel Caballero, spoke that Christmas attracts some 6.3 million visitors to Vigo and generates an economic return for the city of “more than 800 million euros”. May or may not be suspicious of those figures, but something is undeniable: the city fills every year between November and January and merchants and hoteliers already they have made it clear your support for Christmas. Which city is ahead? The battle between cities is not just about seeing which one achieves the most spectacular display of lights or raises the tallest tree. Another detail that generates expectation are the dates: Which city turns on its lights first? Which one comes forward, in an attempt to be the first to catch the eager Christmas visitors? It may sound strange again, but little by little this struggle has brought forward the festivities until placing its ‘start’ (at least unofficially) in the first half of November, almost immediately after Halloween. In Estepa, a town in the province of Seville, they debuted their lights last friday. Yes, November 7th. This urgency theoretically makes it the first municipality in Spain to activate the Christmas lighting. It won’t take long for other cities to follow in their wake. In Vigo (rain permitting) a ceremony will be held this Friday (November 15) to mark the beginning of the festivities. In other cities you will have to wait longer: Madrid either Barcelona They will press their ‘red button’ the 22ndin Badajoz it will be the 27th and in Malaga the traditional light and music show on Larios Street will also be at the end of the month, on Friday the 28th. What happens in Portugal? The most curious thing is that Vigo’s competition will probably not come from other Spanish cities, but from the other side of the Miño: from the north of Portugal. The neighboring country shares an extensive Christmas tradition and seems determined not to give up the tourist wealth that its Galician neighbor is fighting for. reveals it Vigo Lighthouse in an article in which he explains that near Raia there are towns that this year will surpass Vigo both in dates and in ‘meters’. In Valongo they opened their lights on Friday the 7th. And the next day Ermesinde, one of their parishesalso activated a Christmas tree 55 meters high, the largest in Portugal. With that data it even surpasses that of Vigo, which reaches 45 m. Another early riser town in northern Portugal is Viana do Castelowhich has a light show on one of its main avenues. Viana do Castelo and Valongo share an interesting characteristic, in addition to their Christmas zeal: they are close to Vigo. From Ermesinde it takes about an hour and a half by car. Something less if visitors travel from Viana. Simple coincidence? The commitment of northern Portugal is better understood if one knows a fundamental fact: a large part of the tourists that Vigo receives during Christmas come precisely from Portugal. In fact, in December it is not unusual to find buses in the center loaded with visitors from the neighboring country. So much so that Vigo presume of being the main Christmas destination for the Portuguese, which in turn acts as the main foreign market of the campaign. Although the Galician city has advertised your Christmas United Kingdom, Italy or France, the proximity makes Portugal its great fishing ground for visitors. “Portugal discovered Christmas in Vigo. The city was Portugal’s favorite destination at Christmas. More than Madrid and Barcelona. In 2019 we were eighth, now the first. It is a very important qualitative leap,” … Read more

The trend of adding protein to coffee was born on TikTok. And capitalism has taken note of this “functional coffee”

Drinking coffee is a very personal thing. You can do it because you like its flavorbecause you want to take advantage of its health benefits or even because you want that caffeine ‘shot’. It is also a social drink with that classic “let’s have a coffee”, but in recent years, coffee has also become a functional drink. Reason? The need to add protein to everything. And coffee chains have not been slow to surf the trend. The ‘profess’. Proteins are one of the pillars of a balanced dietbut if we do intense and regular sports, its intake becomes essential. The ideal is to get it from food, but protein powder (whether vegetable or whey) It is a quick and easy way to increase daily grams. The “normal” thing is to have a smoothie, but in 2021 a trend appeared on TikTok: the ‘teacher‘. Basically, it is the combination between ‘protein’ and ‘coffee’ and it is what you are imagining: enrich a coffee with protein powder. Hacking coffee. Named As ‘broistas’, a term that can be somewhat derogatory and combines ‘gymbro’ with ‘barista’, there were those who went directly to a cafeteria, ordered a long coffee and mixed it with their protein shake. Here the search is to convert coffee into a strictly functional drink that provides caffeine that allows you to perform more during the training session, burn more fat if that training is going to be cardio and add a few more grams of protein to the daily count. Dutch Bros menu Dutch Bros.. Evidently, coffee shops have taken note. The entire food industryIn fact, she has been on the protein diet bandwagon for years, with very particular labeling and higher prices in foods that have one or two more grams of protein per 100 grams than the unenhanced version (which is a ridiculous amount). And, as we say, the coffee shops have not wanted to miss that train of body worship. If people come, order a coffee and add it to their proteins, why not offer the combination directly? Thus, at the beginning of 2024, the coffee chain Dutch Bros. -very direct competition from Starbucks, at least on US soil- launched a series of protein drinks. Coffees like the Salted Caramel Protein Latte or the Salted Caramel Protein Mocha have 20 grams of protein and no added sugar. The key is their reduced-fat protein milk to which they have added proteins -casein-, and little by little they have been opening the range of protein versions of their most popular coffees. starbucks. Also in the American West, but somewhat further north, this protein coffee thing resonated. Starbucks wasn’t going to stand by while customers demanded something the competition was already offering, and just a few weeks agothey launched a protein drink line within your menu. It depends on what you choose, but there are milk foam options that provide about 15 grams of protein per drink in a large size, to others that use milk with whey protein that provides between 30 and 35 grams of protein per drink. As is logical at Starbucks, there are plenty of drinks available to choose from and it doesn’t look like it’s going to be a fad: it’s here to stay. Tressie Lieberman is the company’s chief brand officer and commented that it is something that “responds to the growing demand for protein by consumers.” And other companies are preparing their strategies, like Peet’s Coffee with its ‘Vitality Menu‘ with protein lattes. Necessary? I know esteem that the market for this functional coffee is valued at 4,000 million dollars and that it will reach more than 14,700 million by 2034. It is the consequence of that aforementioned cult of the body, especially in younger consumers, because it is an aid to reach the necessary grams of protein in a simpler way. However, there are those who are skeptical. Eating protein, especially if you practice sports, is fine, but nutritionists already warn that, while an essential nutrient, protein “should not be treated like fairy dust that we sprinkle on everything.” In the end, it all depends on each person’s nutritional needs and how convenient a shake is… or the pleasure of getting that protein from food. Images | Xataka, In Xataka | In the 16th century it was believed that coffee was a satanic drink. So Pope Clement VIII decided to “baptize” him

Until recently the young people looked at their selectivity note to know what they could study. Now look at something else: idealistic

“They ask you to get a good note to enter the race. You do it, but you can’t afford to live in the city where the university is.” Reflection He is from Carlos, a 21 -year -old university student who studies law and fights with the complicated task of looking for a rental that does not swallow his entire budget of the month, something that is not easy in a residential market of Shot pricesconditions Draconians and marked by The “boom” of tourist rentals. His is an isolated case. On the contrary, it reflects an increasingly worrying reality: the price of housing is costing Spain for more than families savings capacityhe is also spending his talent. “It affects the right to study”. That the price of housing influences the place where one can study their career is nothing new. It happened years ago. And decades. Even before the brick bubble. However, as rentals climb up to approach to the bubble peaks of 2007 and Spain entered a “Social Emergency” Marked by the house, the problem has become more and more serious. Have a roof today comes out and force tenants to assume conditions Hardwhich directly conditions students. It I recognized In 2024 the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morantwhose department even signed A protocol with the Ministries of Economy and Housing precisely to promote “affordable” rental among university students. “The housing crisis is affecting the right to study a university career, Morant insisted. “Access to the university should only be limited by merit and personal effort, not for economic reasons.” “It’s a palmaria reality”. Morant is not the only one aware of the problem. The difficulties that young people find themselves when looking for accommodation worries to unions and even rectors, which They are not alien how the scale €/m2 of cities influences both or more in the future of students than selectivity. “The lack of accommodation is a Palmaria reality. We have 2,000 requests from place in residences for 1,000 squares,” I confessed recently to The country Ángel Arias, rector of the Carlos III University, who laments how difficult it is to solve the problem for the campus themselves. “Building a building is 25 million euros if you have the ground. It is 10% of the entire university budget.” Beyond Madrid and Barcelona. The problem is not exclusive to the great metropolis. “The issue of rates is not a great inconvenience to study at the university. What begins to be the limiting element? In some cities it is already the price of rental houses,” ditch Julián Garde, from the University of Castilla-La Mancha. Similarly, his Extremadura counterpart, Pedro Fernández, is expressed, convinced that the cost of registration no longer removes the dream of the students of the students. They do the rentals, the €/m2. “In Mérida and Cáceres there is a lot of accommodation availability that is used for tourism, and that makes the prices for the students have a lot.” How serious is the problem? Recently Live4lifea student specialized rental platform, launched A study which reveals that when deciding in which university 45% of young people are going to be formed are conditioned by a key factor: the rental price. Moreover, 58% rules out the most expensive cities and 64% indicate the cost of housing as its main obstacle, which conditions both their academic future and their way of looking for floors. “Young people delay as much as possible the search for a place to live during the university course. There are few offers and prices are rising, so they expect much more to see if they find any bargain,” assures The firm’s CEO, Alberto Añaños. The problem is aggravated if you take into account that more and more students They demand training outside their province of origin: in the 2022/2023 course they already exceeded 300,000 people, and many move to another autonomous community. Who do they do? Above all Students with parents with higher studies and good jobs, which suggests a social gap. “You have to pass some ‘hunger games’”. So far the perspective of politicians, rectors and researchers, but … how do the students themselves live? Eldiario.es published A report with testimonies of several university students who demonstrate how the high cost of the house (and the hardening of the requirements requested by the homemade) is conditioning their training. “There are people who are renouncing their university square for the impossibility of being able to pay a rental. If it is already difficult to access a place in the university, now the housing crisis adds one more lock,” Underline Coral Latorre, directive of the Student Union, before warning that this handicap does not affect everyone equally. It weighs mostly in the humblest homes. Idealist slopes. “My sister is 18 years old and has made selectivity. He wants confesses María Ángeles Guzmán, of the Coordinator of Representatives of Public University Students. Another young university student, Avril, 22, sees with impotence how the start date of his face -to -face master’s degree is approaching and does not yet have an apartment in which to stay. He had signed one and even paid to reserve it, but assures that the real estate company told her and her partner that the agreement could not be closed because they do not meet the conditions of “economic solvency study.” Is the house so expensive? The figures are eloquent again. According to Idealista, throughout the last decade (August 2015 to the same month of 2025), rentals have almost doubled in Spain: € 7.5/m2 have passed to 14.5. And that is the state average. In Madrid it went from € 11.9/m2 to 22.2 and in Barcelona from 12.3 to 23.1. They are relevant data because, in addition to being the largest cities in the country, they are also the ones that brings together greater concentration of universities. The newspaper It echoed last year of A report which highlights the power of attraction of both regions for university students: to differences from … Read more

There is already an autonomous community taking note of the blackout and putting measures to avoid it: Catalonia

The electrical invoice It has risen After the blackout for the reinforcement system, but the real challenge is not only in reinforcing the system, but in transforming it. Catalonia has understood and got to work. Short. The Government of Catalonia has approved by urgent a new decree-law with the aim of increasing the resilience of the electrical system. The standard introduces reforms both in energy legislation and urban regulations to facilitate energy transition. Specifically, it modifies Decree Law 16/2019, oriented to climate emergency, and adapts the regulatory framework to accommodate energy storage through batteries. A double purpose. On the one hand, it streamlines the administrative process of renewable energy projects. On the other hand, and pioneer, regulates the installation of high -power batteries, both independent (Stand Alone) as hybridized with solar and wind farms. In addition, the Catalan Government has decided to grant these infrastructure the condition of higher public interest, which allows them to be installed even on non -urbanizable land, by legally equating them with technical services of public utility. This measure responds to an old demand for the energy storage sector in Spain, As it took place in the AEPIBAL Day. Treading the accelerator. The Generalitat has processed 94 Energy storage projects through batteries. Of these, 87 are independent and add up to 920 MW, while the other 7 are hybridized with renewable facilities and provide additional 22 MW. Catalonia thus becomes one of the first communities to create a specific regulatory framework for these technologies. The rest trapped in an obsolete framework. As experts in the energy sector pointed out To Xatakathe storage problem is not only technical, but also regulatory and economic. Today, batteries that are not linked to self -consumption cannot participate in balance markets, which hinders their profitability and slows its mass implementation. However, beyond the regulations, the future of storage will also depend on technological and economic evolution. Technologies like him Grid formingwhich allows batteries to stabilize the network imitating the inertia of traditional centrals, or the development of local micro -redes Able to operate autonomously, they are already being successfully tested. Criticisms have jumped. Battery deployment has also aroused social and critical resistance resistance. According to publicsome groups have warned of the risk that the energy transition becomes a new form of extractivism, without rethinking the consumption model. Specifically they have accused the project of the Korean company Lotte in Mont-Roig of the Camp. In addition, organizations such as the Observatori del Deute in Globalització (ODG) have remembered the same medium as the extraction of materials such as lithium, tungsten or sodium depends on mines in countries such as Chile or Australia, which reinforces the dependence of external resources and raises environmental and geopolitical dilemmas. A map yet to define. Catalonia wanted to advance with a strategy that seeks to combine energy resilience, administrative agility and technological impulse. Storage by batteries is not just a technical solution: it is an essential piece to balance an increasingly decentralized, renewable and exposed crisis system. The road is drawn. The question is whether the rest of Spain will know – and want – follow it on time. Image | Unspash and Unienergy technologies Xataka | The surprising thing is that the light is still on 99% of the time: the blackouts of Spain and London are a good example

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