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The United Kingdom has opened the kamikaze drone that exploded at the European base. The surprise is capital: it is not from Iran, it is "made in Russia"

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In Ukraine, the drone remains knocked down have converted in one unexpected source of strategic information: Engineers and analysts often rebuild their interior piece by piece to trace their origin, their electronics, and the supply networks that make them. IF you want, a kind of “military archeology” or “war unboxing” that has become common practice in modern conflicts, where a single microchip or a navigation module can reveal geopolitical connections much broader than a simple attack appears. The same thing just happened, but in Iran. A drone and a new unknown. When a kamikaze drone hit against the British air base of RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus, seemed like another episode within the increasing escalation of drone attacks in the Middle East. However, analysis of the remains of the device by British intelligence has revealed an unexpected detail: inside there was a Russian military navigation system Kometa-Ba sophisticated component designed to resist electronic interference and improve the precision of attacks. The discovery surprised British researchers because the device had been launched by a Iran-aligned group from Lebanon, making the incident the first tangible evidence of Russian military technology used in an attack within the regional conflict. In Xataka Satellite images have revealed that Iran knocked down four of the US’s eight unique defense systems. If they reach zero a new war begins The track that connects two wars. The Kometa-B system is not just any component. It is about of a module which had already been detected in drones intercepted on the Ukrainian front, where Russia uses it to improve the navigation of its weapons against Western electronic warfare systems. Finding it inside a drone that ended up exploding in a European military base suggests that some of that technology has come out from the Ukrainian theater of war and has reached the military ecosystem surrounding Iran. That technical detail has opened a new line of concern among Western intelligence services: the possibility that Moscow is providing equipment, electronics or technical knowledge that is increasing the effectiveness of Iranian attacks and those of its regional allies. An alliance that is becoming closer. The discovery fits within a strategic relationship which has been deepening since the start of the war in Ukraine. During the early years of the conflict, Iran provided Russia with technology to make drones of Iranian design (especially variants of the Shahed model) that Moscow has used massively against Ukrainian infrastructure. Over time, Russia began to produce their own versions already introduce improvements electronics and navigation. Now the indications are that some of that cooperation could have been invested: Components or systems developed in the Russian military industry would appear in weapons used by militias aligned with Tehran on other fronts. {“videoId”:”x89xg5y”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford – CVN 78″, “tag”:”Ships”, “duration”:”145″} Russian intelligence in the shadows. He discovery of the drone It also coincides with information from Western officials who claim that Moscow has been providing Iran with intelligence information on US military positions in the Middle East, including the location of warships and aircraft. I counted the weekend in an exclusive the Washington Post that such support could explain the increasing precision of some recent attacks against Western military infrastructure and radar systems. Iran has limited space capabilities, with very few of its own satellites, so access to data from Russian observation systems would be a significant advantage for planning more selective attacks. In 3D Games Children under 5 years old in 2026 will never have to work, according to Vinod Khosla. This is what the great era of AI abundance has in store for us Regional conflict with echoes of global war. If you also want, the appearance Russian technology in an attack against a British base suggests that the war in the Middle East could be becoming increasingly intertwined with the strategic confrontation that already exists between Russia and the West since 2022. For Moscow, an escalation that keeps the United States and Europe focused on another front may have strategic advantagesfrom the distraction over Ukraine to the rise in oil prices. Although the Kremlin has avoided getting directly involved in the war, and even Trump maintained in the last hours a first conversation telephone with Putin, the presence of your technology on the battlefield and suspicions about intelligence sharing point to a familiar pattern of indirect conflict: a scenario in which great powers do not fight each other openly, but their weapons, their data and their influence begin to appear in increasingly unexpected places and uncomfortable. Image | National Police of UkraineRAF/MOD In Xataka | The US has begun to take on one last suicidal mission: enter Iran to remove a 441 kg buried “treasure” that gives meaning to the war In Xataka | The war in Iran has confirmed what was sensed in Ukraine: battles are won long before the first missile is launched (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news The United Kingdom has opened the kamikaze drone that exploded at the European base. The surprise is capital: it is not from Iran, it is “made in Russia” was originally published in Xataka by Miguel Jorge .

The European Commission has just opened an investigation into several worrying risks

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For years, in Europe, when opening Shein We have found an almost infinite showcase of products at very low prices, constant discounts and points systems that turn the purchase into an experience that invites repetition. This model, based on the continuous rotation of the catalog and incentives that invite people to return to the application, explains a good part of its popularity. But it also helps to understand why European authorities have begun to look at it more closely. What seemed like a simple way to buy cheap has ended up entering the European regulatory radar. Formal investigation. The European Commission opened today February 17, 2026 formal proceedings against Shein under the Digital Services Lawwhich establishes the obligations of digital platforms that operate in the community bloc. From this moment on, the investigation enters a more structured phase, with the capacity to demand additional information and evaluate possible non-compliance. Brussels emphasizes, however, that this decision does not prejudge the outcome of the case, so we will have to wait to draw conclusions. What is under examination. The investigation focuses on three specific fronts related to the operation of the platform. On the one hand, it analyzes the systems that Shein has in place to limit the sale of illegal products, including content that could constitute child sexual abuse material, and expressly mentions examples such as child-like sex dolls. It also studies the risks associated with a possible addictive design of the service, such as rewards for interaction that could affect the well-being of users. And, in addition, it reviews the transparency of the recommendation systems that determine what products and content we see, an obligation that in the EU includes explaining the main parameters of these recommenders and offering at least one accessible option that is not based on profiles. behind the scenes. For nearly two years, Brussels repeatedly requested data from Shein to evaluate its compliance with European rules on product safety, user protection and transparency, with requirements dated June 28, 2024, February 6, 2025 and November 26, 2025. Added to that supervision the impact of the known case in France. Let us remember that last November the marketing of child-like dolls was detected through external sellers on the platform, which caused protests and measures by the Government. This chain of events helps to understand why the matter has escalated to a formal procedure. The next steps. With the procedure already underway, the Commission enters a phase of collecting evidence aimed at contrasting the real functioning of the service. This may require additional information, carry out specific controls or maintain direct contact with the company and other actors involved. The legal framework also opens the door to imposing temporary measures, declaring a possible non-compliance or accepting solutions proposed by the company itself to correct the issues that are the subject of the file. What changes for users. For now, the opening of the procedure does not immediately change how we use the platform. The outcome will depend on what the investigation reveals and the response that the company offers to the Commission’s demands. It should be noted that all this occurs without a fixed calendar: European regulations do not establish a time limit to conclude this type of investigation, which can be prolonged depending on its complexity and development. From Xataka we have written to Shein to find out their position and we will update this information when we receive a response. Images | appshunter.io In Xataka | LaLiga’s massive IP blocks are going to go further: they will now require VPN providers to also block IPs

has just opened a school to train its future “explorers”

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There was a time when talking about putting the Moon back on the calendar sounded like nostalgia, like distant echoes of another era. Today, that language has returned. The United States continues to push its return to the satelliteand China, meanwhile, is building its own path with an increasingly explicit ambitionalso in the human. In that context, the news is not just a new school in Beijing, but what it suggests: that space exploration is also becoming a talent problem. What exactly has been announced. The University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) just announced the creation of its Space Exploration School, defined as the first of its kind in China. It is not a space agency or a manned flight program, but rather an academic center oriented toward training and research. According to CGTN and CAS itself, the objective is to cultivate interdisciplinary professionals in fields such as interstellar propulsion, deep space communication and navigation, and space science, with a direct fit into large national projects. In detail. The school will offer an interdisciplinary curriculum that covers 14 fields, from aeronautics to planetary science, and will expand the current catalog with 22 new core subjects on a previous base of 97 courses. The idea is not only to add subjects, but to mix science, technology and real applications to form profiles capable of moving between theory and problem solving. Global Times points out an explicit objective: that students leave with a solid foundation in mathematics and physics, but with the ability to innovate and transform that innovation into engineering. Where and how. Students will have access to three major platforms and six training systems in Huairou Science Citywith examples ranging from simulation of unmanned space patrols to a circuit for developing end-to-end satellites and experimenting with collaborative space-ground innovation. New teaching platforms oriented towards internships and project work will also be launched, in an attempt to bring students closer to the mission logic. The admission. A double admission system is contemplated: choosing students already enrolled in the first year of the master’s degree and recruiting final year students for direct doctorate. In addition, a “dual mentor” scheme will be promoted with scientists and engineering managers, designed so that the student not only understands concepts, but also learns to convert them into solutions. This mix between research and engineering development is, in fact, one of the great promises of the project. “Explorers”, but not astronauts. The term attracts attention, and it is no coincidence that it appears repeated in the coverage. Now, we are not looking at a school to train crews, but rather to form scientific and technical profiles that make this leap possible, even for interstellar missions. They are asked to not only understand engineering to design vehicles or stations, but to have scientific literacy to investigate space science problems. The “explorer”, here, is the one who constructs and understands the exploration. Images | aboodi vesakaran | CAS In Xataka | Four astronauts are going to undertake an unprecedented journey to the Moon. They have no intention of stepping on it

Canada has opened the door to Chinese electric cars. The US warns: “they are going to regret it”

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Canada has reopened the doors of electric vehicles from China, giving a radical turn to its trade policy. Last Friday, Prime Minister Mark Carney reduced tariffs by 100% to 6.1%, which could take the Canadian automobile market to a new horizon. Below these lines we tell you what this may imply. Change. The move comes a year after Canada impose massive tariffs to Chinese electric vehicles, following in the footsteps of the United States under the Biden administration. The argument, as describe from the BBC, was that they considered China to be carrying out ‘a policy of deliberate overproduction’. Now, with relations between Canada and the United States on somewhat delicate ground under the Trump administration, the Canadian government has chosen to diversify its trade alliances. “We take the world as it is, not as we would like it to be,” counted Carney. Quantities. The initial agreement allows the entry of up to 49,000 electric vehicles annually from China with the reduced tariff of 6.1%. This figure represents approximately 3% of the total Canadian market, which is around two million vehicles per year, according to account the Driving medium. According to the prime minister, the quota could increase to 70,000 vehicles within five years. Furthermore, the agreement stipulates that, in that period, more than 50% of these vehicles must be affordable models with an import price of less than 35,000 Canadian dollars (about 21,569 euros at the exchange rate). Date. Although there is no exact confirmed date, several media predict its arrival in the coming weeks. Addisu Lashitew, associate professor at the DeGroote School of Business at McMaster University, counted to the CBC that Chinese manufacturers have the capacity to accelerate production and ship quickly. BYD, the largest Chinese manufacturer of electric vehicles, even operates its own cargo ships, which could shorten shipping times even further. Brands that will arrive first. Curiously, the first brands to benefit from this opening will not necessarily be the purely Chinese ones. Tesla is in a prime position to take advantage of the deal immediately, according to they count from Reuters. Elon Musk’s company had already equipped its Shanghai plant in 2023 to manufacture a specific version of the Model Y destined for Canada, exporting more than 44,000 vehicles that year before the 100% tariffs came into effect. Other brands with a previous presence include Volvo and Polestar, both owned by the Chinese group Geely. For purely Chinese brands like BYD or Nio, the process will be somewhat slower, as they will have to establish dealer networks, service chains and spare parts markets from scratch. Disparate political reaction. The Premier of Saskatchewan (province of Canada), Scott Moe, celebrated the agreement as “very good news,” especially since China has committed to reducing tariffs on Canadian agricultural products such as rapeseed. However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford critical harshly criticized the move, calling Chinese electric vehicles “subsidized spy cars” and warning that the deal would “damage our economy and lead to job losses.” To put it in context, Ontario is the province where the Canadian automobile industry is concentrated. The US response. United States Trade Representative Jamieson Greer qualified the agreement “problematic” and warned that Canada might regret it. However, President Trump declared that it was “a good thing” and that “if you can get a deal with China, you should do it.” The reflection of Japan. In 1981, Canada reached a similar agreement with Japan, allocating unit quotas instead of prices. The result was that Japanese manufacturers simply moved up the range: Civics became Accords, Corollas became Camrys. In two or three years, the average price of an imported Japanese car went from $8,000 to $14,000, as remember Greig Mordue, director of the Master of Engineering and Public Policy program at McMaster University, told Driving. However, that agreement also led to Honda and Toyota establishing production plants in Canada, today becoming the two largest vehicle manufacturers in the country. In fact, according to revealed A senior Canadian official told the CBC, the government wants to explore the idea of ​​​​creating joint ventures and investments with Chinese companies in the next three years to build a Canadian electric vehicle with Chinese know-how. More competition. Lashitew emphasize that the entry of cheaper Chinese vehicles will force other manufacturers to lower their prices, which would make electric vehicles more accessible to consumers and help Canada move toward its emissions reduction goals. “With electric vehicles still 30% to 50% more expensive than comparable gasoline cars, reducing trade barriers would significantly ease the affordability constraint,” he noted. Cover image | aboodi vesakaran and Xataka In Xataka | Cars are so absurdly expensive that FIAT already has a plan to solve it: limit them to 117km/h

Saudi Arabia just opened a $1 billion theme park with a 4.2 km roller coaster and 160 m drop

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The Formula Rossa of the Ferrari World Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, has just been dethroned a few days ago. podium of the most spectacular roller coasters in the worldand with a drop of 127 meters and up to 240 kilometers/hour as top speed, these were shocking figures. But you don’t have to go far to find the new queen: it’s called Falcon’s Flight and it’s the jewel in the crown of the astronomical amusement park in Qiddiya City, in Saudi Arabia, which has just opened its doors. The first Six Flags outside North America. Six Flags Qiddiya City is a massive 320,000 square meter amusement park located on a mountainous desert cliff just outside Riyadh. It has 28 attractions, of which five break records as we will see. Likewise, it is the first of the franchise outside the United States, Canada and Mexico, but despite the distance from the parent company, it is a full-fledged Six Flags respect to brand standards. The person who has provided the more than one billion dollars necessary to pay for the project is the Public Investment Fund (PIF), the kingdom’s sovereign investment fund. Behind him, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, with a very specific goal: diversify the country’s economy, thus reducing the weight of oil. The park It is one of the five gigaprojects of Saudi Vision 2030its roadmap for diversification into emerging sectors such as tourism and entertainment. Falcon’s Flight shatters all records. The technical sheet of the Six Flags attractions in Riyadh leaves milestones such as the Sirocco Tower, the tallest free fall tower (145 meters); the Gyrospin, which by rising 53 meters has become the highest pendulum in the world or the Iron Rattler, the type roller coaster. tilt highest on the planet (63.4 meters), but if there is one that leaves your mouth open, it is Falcon’s Flight. We are facing the highest, fastest and longest roller coaster in the world. It is capable of reaching 250 km/h, rises up to 195 meters high and uses the edge of the Tuwaiq cliff to achieve a vertical drop of 158 meters. 4.2 kilometers long to trigger the adrenaline during the almost four minutes it lasts. This is the awesome Falcon’s Flight. Grantime, Wikimedia The impressive figures of Six Flags Qiddiya City. As Abdullah al-Dawood, CEO of Qiddiya Investment Company, explained, in a local programthey expect the project to generate 7,000 jobs and provide some $686 million to the kingdom’s GDP this year. According to its forecasts, these figures will increase to 85,000 employees and 11,733 million US dollars (at the exchange rate) and will attract 48 million visitors a year by 2030, as the project moves through phases. Much more than an amusement park. Literal. The Six Flags Qiddiya City opened on December 31, 2025 for the New Year, at which time it opened its doors to the general public who came and shelled out the $87 adult admission fee. Although the park is already open, from now until 2030 the project will expand to the environment by building transport infrastructure, the imminent Aquarabia water park, large-scale sports facilities such as a Formula 1 circuit, a stadium for the World Cup, cultural areas such as a performing arts center and residential areas. The amusement park is just the tip of the iceberg. With the fall in oil prices in recent years, the Saudi authorities have had to recalibrate plans and review their budgetary priorities, with unavoidable events on the horizon such as the Expo 2030 or the 2034 FIFA World Cup. In addition, several gigaprojects such as the futuristic city of Neom have suffered delays and cost overruns. Qiddiya has also suffered delays, but with the Six Flags Qiddiya City as the first operational asset in the macrocity, those responsible they are optimistic in its objective of attracting tourists. In Xataka | Saudi Arabia wants to become a world tourism power. First you have to fix something: the alcohol In Xataka | Saudi Arabia’s impossible bridge to join Africa and Asia: a 32-kilometer megastructure over the Red Sea Cover | Quiddiya

LEGO was one of the last refuges of analog play. You have just opened the door to sensors, lights and sound in your bricks

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LEGO has flirted with electronics before, but its most stable promise was always something else: that the classic brick needed nothing to become anything. For decades, this principle maintained an almost intact refuge from the digitalization of children’s play, without screens or sensors, with imagination as the only driving force. That is why the step that the company has just taken is not minor. Introducing motion, light and sound detection into the brick itself strikes at the heart of the system. The announcement occurred at CES 2026, in Las Vegas, where LEGO officially presented its new SMART Play System. The company explained that it is a platform that introduces new electronic components into its construction system so that the creations react with lights and sounds in response to movement and interaction. It was not presented as a prototype, but as a product with a launch date and with a platform vocation. The system, by pieces. The SMART Play System is based on three elements that work together. The core is the so-called SMART Brick, a 2×4 brick that acts as a response center. Around it, the SMART Tags come into play, pieces that indicate to the brick what type of object or scenario it represents, and the SMART Minifigures, figures capable of activating different behaviors. LEGO insists that they are not independent accessories, but parts of the same system designed to fit with the rest of the traditional pieces. Sensors, lights and sound. Unlike previous approaches based on recognizable modules, here the electronics live within the brick itself. The SMART Brick integrates motion detection using an accelerometer, lights capable of reacting to the environment and a sound system that is activated according to physical interaction. There are no external screens or controls – it’s all down to how you turn, pan or tap the build. In its official description, LEGO also talks about a color recognition scanner and a game engine that generates reactions with lights and sounds. The CES demos show a birthday cake capable of recognizing when its candles go out and reacting with an audible celebration, as well as a helicopter that responds to movement with flight effects and changes behavior when turning or falling. In these cases, the interaction does not start from a button or a screen, but from a physical gesture. Release date. The commercial deployment of the system already has a first date set. The premiere will arrive in the United States in March, with a set based on Star Wars as the spearhead. The choice does not seem accidental: starting with such a recognizable license allows you to immediately show the possibilities of the system and see how it fits into real use before taking new steps. It’s not the first time. Although the SMART Play System introduces electronics to a place hitherto untouchable, LEGO has been exploring hybrid formulas for years. From robotics kits with sensors, like LEGO Mindstormsuntil augmented reality experiencesthe company has been testing how to combine physical construction and digital responses. The difference now is one of focus: the technology stops being a recognizable addition and becomes integrated into the language of the parts system itself. What some experts say. The announcement has not been received with unanimous enthusiasm. Josh Golin, CEO of Fairplay Group, warned the BBC that Smart Bricks “undermine what was once great about Legos” by shifting initiative from the child to the sensors. Along the same lines, Professor Andrew Manches, from the University of Edinburgh, recalled that the historical value of the brand has been in “the freedom to create, recreate and adapt simple blocks to create infinite stories.”, and warned that technology can condition how it is played if it is not designed carefully. Faced with these criticisms, LEGO defends that technology does not replace physical play, but rather expands it. Julia Goldin, head of product and marketing, explained to the British media that they do not see the digital world as a threat, but as an opportunity to “expand physical play and physical construction.” An important nuance. The SMART Play System does not mean that all LEGO sets will incorporate electronics from now on. For now, the company has presented a concrete proposal, with a first launch without announcing an immediate expansion to the rest of its catalog. What path this technology will have and in what lines it will end up appearing is something that is not yet defined. For now, this is a limited deployment that will serve to test how far this approach fits within the traditional game system. Images | LEGO In Xataka | What happened to Technicolor: evolution and death of the company that changed cinema and was overwhelmed by its ambition

James Webb has opened the door to a fascinating world

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Until not so long ago, the word “exoplanet” seemed more typical of speculation than astronomy. Isaac Newton already dropped in the ‘Scholium Generale‘ of the Principia Mathematica that fixed stars could be the center of systems similar to ours, but science needed centuries to prove it. It was not until the late 1980s that the first signs of planets outside the Solar Systemalthough we had to wait until 1992 to confirm for the first time the existence of worlds beyond the Sun, around the pulsar PSR B1257+12. In recent decades, the pace of discoveries has skyrocketed thanks to increasingly precise instruments, which have allowed us to locate worlds that are as strange as they are fascinating. The Kepler space telescopefor example, identified more than a decade ago Kepler-16ba planet with “two suns” reminiscent of Tatooine from Star Wars. Since then we have cataloged a huge variety of exoplanets, but now the James Webb telescope presents an especially striking find: a world of boiling lava that, to the surprise of astronomers, is colder than theoretical models predict. An extreme world that questions what we know With a radius approximately 1.4 times that of Earth, TOI-561b It is an extreme super-Earth that orbits a star located about 280 light years away, in the constellation Sextans. NASA describes it as the innermost planet of a system made up of four worlds, with an immediate peculiarity: it completes an orbit in less than eleven hours. Its proximity is so extreme, barely 0.01 astronomical units, that the daytime hemisphere must greatly exceed the melting point of rocks. Everything points to a planet trapped by its star in a tidal lock, with eternal day on one side and perpetual night on the other. One of the peculiarities that most puzzles researchers is the low density of TOI-561 b. Astronomer Johanna Teske, lead author of the study, explains that “it is not a super-puff, but it is less dense than one would expect with a composition similar to that of the Earth.” The team envisioned the planet having a small iron core and a mantle made up of less compact minerals, a possibility that would fit the chemistry of its star. As it is a very old G-type star, about 10 billion years old and poor in iron, located in the thick disk of the Milky Way, it is plausible that the planet emerged in a primordial environment different from that of the Solar System. Still, the exotic composition did not resolve all the unknowns, and the team began to consider another possibility: that TOI-561 b was involved through a thick atmosphere. The idea is striking because the models indicate that small planets subjected to such intense irradiation for billions of years should have lost their gases long ago. NASA reminds us, however, that some worlds of this type show signs that they are not simple bare rocks. That nuance opened the door to thinking that the low density could be due, in part, to a volume inflated by a substantial layer of gases. To test the idea of ​​a dense atmosphere, the team turned to a technique that James Webb has used on other rocky worlds: measuring the disappearance of some of the infrared glow as the planet passes behind its star. Using the NIRSpec spectrograph, the researchers estimated the temperature of the illuminated hemisphere and compared it to what would be expected for a surface without heat-distributing gases. If TOI-561 b were a bare rock, its temperature would be around 2,700 ºC. However, observations placed that value close to 1,800°C, a difference too large to ignore. The unexpectedly low temperature makes sense if TOI-561 b is enveloped by a dense, volatile-filled atmosphere. In that case, the winds would transport heat from the illuminated hemisphere to less hot areas, which would reduce the infrared emission received by the telescope. Gases capable of absorbing part of the radiation before it escapes into space also come into play, something that coincides with the models evaluated by the team. YoIt is even possible that silicate clouds exist that reflect the light of the star and contribute to cooling the upper layers of the atmosphere. To explain how TOI-561 b maintains such a resilient atmosphere, the researchers propose a mechanism in which magma and gases are in constant exchange. Tim Lichtenberg points out that as the interior releases volatile compounds into the atmosphere, the ocean of molten rock recaptures some of them, reducing the loss to space. This process requires a planet exceptionally rich in volatile substances, very different from Earth in its initial composition. In Lichtenberg’s words, it would be “like a ball of wet lava,” a description that well sums up the extreme nature of the find. The observations that have allowed us to reconstruct this scenario are part of James Webb’s General Observers 3860 program. For more than 37 hours, the telescope continuously tracked the system as TOI-561 b completed nearly four full orbits, a record that offers a rare glimpse of how its brightness varies along the way. With that volume of data, the team is now analyzing how the temperature changes around the planet and what clues it provides about the composition of its atmosphere. This set of data, still being analyzed, points to a more complex world than was intuited in the first observations. The case of TOI-561 b shows that even the most extreme worlds can hold surprises. Far from just a scorched rock, Webb’s observations describe a dynamic system in which magma, atmosphere, and stellar radiation interact in ways we don’t yet fully understand. As Johanna Teske points out, “What’s really exciting is that this new data set It’s opening even more questions than it’s answering.“The research continues, and each new analysis seems to confirm that this planet belongs to a category that we are only beginning to know. Artistic images | POT In Xataka | We already know when the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS will be closest to Earth and what’s … Read more

The mansions of the most exclusive urbanization in Spain are usually a mystery. Marc Márquez has opened it up a little

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The MotoGP rider has had no shame in reveal the value of his mansion in La Finca, along with other details about how he manages an asset that exceeds 80 million euros. Far from the clichés of the millionaire athlete, Márquez talks about fiscal responsibility, professional advice and a clear philosophy: money has not changed his lifestyle (or at least not in everyday things). The mansion as an investment, not as a whim. Marc Márquez has resided since 2022 in La Finca, the most exclusive urbanization in Pozuelo de Alarcón, where he has neighbors such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Cristina Pedroche. His property, valued at around 10 million euros, has 1,300 square meters distributed in seven rooms, a gym, a two-story swimming pool and a minimalist aesthetic with straight lines and light tones. When asked about the price, the pilot responds: “10 million? Around there. That area is around there. But it is an investment,” according to declared on Imagin’s ‘The End of the Month Podcast’. He also states that “the house is paid for.” This case, in fact, It was owned by Mariano Díazformer Real Madrid player and current Deportivo Alavés forward. The jump to Madrid. The move from Cervera to the capital was not just a matter of comfort. According to revealed to ‘Todo Circuit’the decision was motivated by medical reasons, being close to his doctors after the injuries that have marked his career, and by logistical efficiency. “I save hours on the train, with events and commitments,” he explained. The Finca also offers you the privacy you are looking for, being a refuge where you can disconnect from the circuit without fanfare. The lesson of the first million. The path to economic stability began in 2013, when Márquez won his first MotoGP title at just 20 years old. That bonus of more than a million euros opened his eyes about money management. “More than 50%, bam!, Treasury. 10% for the manager, training motorcycles…”, remembered in that same interview. It was then that he met the lawyer who still advises him and learned the importance of not losing his mind: “They told me: ‘it seems like a lot, but it’s little, leave it in the bank.’” Since then, he assures that his advice is provided by a lawyer and an accounting manager, without limited companies. “I am self-employed, I am not a company, I do not have a SL,” he says. An empire beyond motorcycles. In addition to his residence, Márquez has diversified his assets with investments in the audiovisual sector with his brother Álex. They participate in companies such as Fast Brothers Productions, dedicated to film and series production, and Café Para Muy Cafeteros, focused on podcasts. They also founded Vertical Management SL, specialized in representation and advice of athletes and content creators, together with Vertical Content Creators SL and Bamboleo Events SL, the latter focused on organizing sporting events. With this network of companies, he not only manages his image, but also builds a professional future that will be very good for him once he retires from his profession. 2025, year of 10. His season with Ducati has been historic: he has won his ninth world title, achieved 11 victories in grand prix and 14 in sprint. This, according to Forbes, has reported him extraordinary income that totals more than 5 million euros in bonuses, in addition to his base salary of 12 million. Added to this are sponsorships with brands such as Estrella Galicia, Alpinestars, Shoei or Audi, which represent a substantial part of a total assets that exceeds 80 million euros. Money without posturing. “I’m lucky that money hasn’t changed my lifestyle,” says Márquez. “I have the same time with my friends anywhere, I don’t need to show off.” He has no debts, declares himself self-employed and maintains a low profile. “I don’t want to be in the newspapers or anything like that,” he confesses. It is the same solvency with which he rides a Ducati: a cool head, long-term vision and feet on the ground. In Xataka | An atoll in the South Pacific has become a magnet for millionaires. Its great attraction is not its beaches, it is its banks

The lack of generational change has opened a job opportunity for thousands of young people in Spain: bus driver

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The driver shortage In Spain and Europe it has generated an opportunity for those looking for a stable and well-paid job. Municipal companies are fighting to hire new talents who want to train as drivers of their city buses. The lack of generational change in passenger transportation is a problem that affects many local companies, which cannot fill the vacancies left by retiring drivers. The shortage of drivers in Spain and Europe. According to published data According to the European employment body EURES, in 2023 there were 105,000 vacancies for bus and coach drivers in Europe, which represents 10% of all positions in the sector and an increase in vacancies of 54% compared to the previous year. In Spain the situation is not better. The driver shortage already an officially recognized structural problem. The deficit affects both the freight and passenger transport sectors, and contrasts with the surplus in other professions such as administrative or technical personnel. The forecasts of the transport sector is that, by 2026, 37,000 new bus drivers and about 126,000 truck drivers will be needed. Why are there drivers missing? Among the structural factors that aggravate the shortage of drivers, the absence of a generational change. According to a report According to the Spanish Bus Transport Confederation (CONFEBUS), the aging of the workforce is one of the main reasons for this shortage. Data recorded by the International Road Transport Union (IRU) included in the EURES report indicated that, in many European countries, less than 5% of drivers are under 25 years old. Furthermore, the incorporation of women to the sector is very low, since only 12% of drivers in the EU are women. He sector It estimates that it will need about 24,000 new drivers per year to compensate for the rate of retirement of current staff. CONFEBUS also recognizes that working conditions in the sector Nor have they helped to attract young people: long hours, irregular shifts, temporary contracts and poor family conciliation. Access to training and certification is another obstacle, since the obtaining the CAP or the D permit entails a high cost, especially for young people or migrants who do not have sufficient economic resources and find there a barrier to accessing these jobs. Government aid for training. Precisely to alleviate this economic obstacle when obtaining permission to transport goods and passengers, the Government has promoted a Royal Decree which gives the green light to the Reconduce Plan, which offers aid of up to 3,000 euros to cover the costs of training and obtaining a bus or truck driver’s license. This helps is directed to people who want to train in the road transport sector and is available to cover the costs of the necessary courses and exams. The conditions to access this aid include being registered in the National Youth Guarantee System and meeting the age and training requirements demanded by the Ministry of Transport. Driverless buses. Faced with a prospect of constant staff shortages due to the progressive aging of the population, more and more city councils are deciding to start pilot tests with autonomous buses on their streets, not without some reluctance among the current driver templates. For example, in August the first test of this style was launched in Barcelona, ​​allowing a driverless bus to cover a short 10-minute stretch in open traffic. Our colleague Iván Linares tried it in first person. Madrid has just started a similar test autonomous bus, although in this case its scope of circulation is limited to Mercamadrid. These projects seek to modernize urban transportation and guarantee mobility, although they are still in the experimental phase, so they do not represent a short-term solution to the problem of driver shortages. In Xataka | Barcelona has grown tired of fining 80 cars a day for invading the bus lane. So he’s going to start monitoring them with AI Image | Wikimedia Commons (KingValid04)

Shein has opened its first store in Europe in Paris. Paris has reacted as always: staging a revolt

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The heart of Le Marais The morning of November 5th was troubled. In front of the old Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville (BHV), that art deco building that overlooks the City Hall, Shein opened its first physical store in Europe. But consumer enthusiasm soon mixed with cries of indignation. French-style protests. At the doors of the BHV, the tension was immediate. A group of protesters shouted “C’est honteux!” (“This is a shame!”) and carried signs with slogans such as “Protégez les enfants, pas Shein” (“Protect the children, not Shein”). Both unions and environmental associations joined the protest denouncing the chain’s working conditions and its environmental impact, according to France24. Outside, slogans were chanted; Inside, lines snaked between shelves. Riot police guarded the entrances while the smell of a stinking aerosol – released by a protester – permeated the air. The rest of the day, the store continued to operate normally. Thousands of consumers lined up in front of the fitting rooms. The Observer estimated that more than 50,000 people They visited the new premises in its first days, and Le Monde It is estimated that about 8,000 people They passed only during the inauguration. In the words of the British newspaper, “behind the protesters who shouted shame, lines of shoppers stretched out with bags full of polyester.” Why so much fuss? The Parisian revolt was not born out of nowhere, nor is it just an environmental problem. Days before, the General Directorate of Competition, Consumption and Fraud Repression (DGCCRF) had revealed that Shein France sold child-like sex dolls, as revealed by Le Parisien. The institution stated that the descriptions “left little doubt about the pedopornographic nature” of the product. The discovery led to the opening of four judicial investigations by the Paris prosecutor’s office against Shein, AliExpress, Temu and Wish, for the dissemination of violent or pornographic content accessible to minors. In parallel, the conservative deputy Antoine Vermorel-Marques reported that on the platform Machetes and brass knuckles, category A weapons, prohibited in France, were also sold. Under pressure, Shein reacted. According to BBCone day before the opening, the company announced a global ban on all sales of sex dolls, the closure of the accounts of the sellers involved and the elimination of the adult products category. “The fight against child exploitation is non-negotiable,” CEO Donald Tang told Time. Shein spokesperson in France, Quentin Ruffat, stated exclusively for French radio RMC: “What happened is serious, unacceptable and intolerable. It was an internal failure in our processes. We will cooperate 100% with justice and we will reveal the identity of the buyers.” Two days later, according to Reutersthe Ministry of Finance temporarily stopped the suspension procedure, upon verifying that Shein had removed all illicit products, but stressed that “the company will remain under close surveillance.” The French crusade against fast-fashion. The Executive’s offensive is not only moral: it is also legal and economic. According to Politicothe French Government has activated two parallel procedures to suspend the Shein website. The first, based on the Consumer Code, would allow the domain to be blocked if the company disobeys an order to remove illegal content. The second, protected by the Digital Economy Trust Act of 2004, seeks to demonstrate that there is a risk of recidivism. Both processes could lead to a ban on access to the site and its applications in France. Le Parisien announced that a court hearing will be held on November 26, where a judge will decide the future of the platform. Meanwhile, the Minister of Public Finance, Amélie de Montchalin, led an unprecedented operation at Charles de Gaulle airport: more than 200,000 Shein packages from China were inspected in a single day. According to the ministrythree out of four did not comply with European regulations. But the pulse goes beyond customs. As The Guardian recallsFrance has been questioning the ultra-fast fashion model for years: in 2023 and 2024 it approved laws and fines of almost 200 million euros against Shein for misleading advertising and environmental violations. The arrival of the brand at BHV, details Times“contradicts the ecological and high-end vision that Paris wants to project.” Even iconic designers, such as Agnès B, announced their withdrawal from BHV. “I am completely against this fast fashion, there are jobs in danger,” told BBC. Despite the scandal, Shein has not stepped on the brakes. According to Le Mondethe company will open new stores in Dijon and Reims on November 18, and in Grenoble on the 21st, with additional plans in Angers and Limoges. Frédéric Merlin, president of the Société des Grands Magasins (SGM) – owner of BHV – defended his alliance with Shein in statements to Le Monde: “The products we sell here do not exploit workers or children. We are convinced of their quality.” However, parent Galeries Lafayette broke ties with SGM over “strategic divergence,” according to Timesrefusing to associate his name with the Chinese brand. Meanwhile, more than 100,000 French people have signed a petition against Shein’s expansion, according to The Guardianand numerous brands have left BHV in protest. Despite this, the plans continue. The battle for the soul of fashion. The story of Shein in France is no longer just that of an investigated company, but that of a country that refuses to surrender to the dizzying pace of global consumption. However, it opens up a paradox: while the authorities are preparing laws and blockades, thousands of young people are lining up to buy 5-euro t-shirts. France is waging a symbolic — and perhaps lost — war against fast fashion: that of the country that invented haute couture facing the phenomenon that turns it into waste. On November 26, French justice will speak. But fast fashion has already won a part of the most difficult trial: that of consumption. Image | Flickr and DMCGN Xataka | Years ago buying “white label” was synonymous with poor quality: today it is the number one priority of Spaniards

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