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There are people using AI to plan murders. The question is what AI companies are doing about it

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On February 10, an 18-year-old girl shot and killed her mother and brother. Then he went to the institute and murdered seven more people, finally committing suicide. The disturbing thing is that the author had talked about it with ChatGPT and OpenAI had the opportunity to notify the police, but chose not to. What has happened? They count in the Wall Street Journal that, in June of last year, OpenAI’s automated system detected several messages that a user had sent to ChatGPT describing scenarios of armed violence. For some employees they were very worrying because they could end in real violence, so there was an internal debate about whether to notify the Canadian authorities. They finally closed his account, but they didn’t notify anyone. Now Canadian authorities have summoned them to ask for explanations. There is more. He Tumbler Ridge shooting It is not the only case in which AI has been used to plan a crime. At the beginning of 2025, a man parked a Cybertruck full of explosives in front of a hotel in Las Vegas with the intention of detonating it (although in the end the only victim was himself). Days before, the author I had asked ChatGPT how to do it. In this case, the chatbot did not detect any concerning messages, but we know this because OpenAI searched through its messages after the fact. In Seoul, a woman was jailed for the alleged murder of two people due to benzodiazepine poisoning. The investigation revealed that the accused had gone to ChatGPT to find out what the dangerous dose was and what happened if it was mixed with alcohol. The messages in this case are not that alarming and could arise out of genuine doubt, but it is another example of ChatGPT being used in the commission of a crime. Why is it important. Artificial intelligences have become a kind of confessional to which we tell all kinds of secrets, even the darkest. There are those who consider that AI is a friendhis psychologist or even his lover. In this sense, it is not strange for someone to tell ChatGPT that they are going to kill their family or want to detonate a car full of explosives. What is worrying, and where we should focus, is what companies are doing about it. At the moment, it seems not enough. Are they obligated? Confessing to your psychologist or psychiatrist that you want to hurt someone is one of the reasons why you not only can, but should break your relationship. professional secret and alert the authorities. However, no matter how much we use chatbots as psychologists, at the moment there is no law that forces AI companies to report these types of interactions, but it is an internal decision. The obligation, therefore, is not legal, but ethical. How to make a homemade bomb. Cases like that of the Tumbler Ridge shooter are not something that has begun to happen with the arrival of AI chatbots. Instructions for creating homemade bombs have been around for decades. bringing the authorities to their heads, Even before the use of the Internet became popular, manuals of this type were circulating. The same thing happens with the suicide cases; You don’t need to ask ChatGPT, we can Google it or write in a forum. In statements to New York Timesa former OpenAI employee highlights an important nuance: with a chatbot you don’t usually do a simple search, but rather you can have a longer conversation where the intentions are clearer. In this sense, it may be easier to detect cases like the Tumbler Ridge shooter, but there may also be many false positives due to users who are writing fictional stories or using AI as role-playing. Complicated. In Xataka | Investing in data centers for AI is insane, and it’s going to get worse. much worse Cover image | Pexels, Unsplash

In Madrid they sell an apartment for 20.9 million euros. The question is not whether it is the most expensive in history, but what that means

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He has earned the unofficial title “most expensive apartment in Madrid” and, although it is difficult to confirm it because in the luxury sector there are operations that never reach transcendence, it certainly has the potential to be so. To start with its price. The apartment that Property Partners announces in Jerónimos, in the heart of the capital, it costs a whopping 20.9 million euros. Beyond that figure, the home’s size (1,008 m2), display of luxuries and extras is striking. For example, it has no decoration. It has “works of art.” Not a typical main room, but a “social area” that covers about 200 m2. In any other advertisement that vocabulary might sound like an exaggeration. Not here. The most expensive apartment in all of Madrid? So suggests it Property Partners, which claims to have in its portfolio what is “considered” the “most expensive property in Madrid.” The same unofficial title has been recognized in recent days several economic means, premises and generalistsincluding Tele Madrid that refers to the luxurious apartment as “the most expensive in the history” of the city. In reality, it is very difficult to confirm whether this is the case or not because discretion prevails in the luxury market. Many operations are closed with hardly any publicity, almost with their backs to the market. Others don’t. Last year, without going any further, John Taylor, a French real estate company specializing in luxury, brokered the sale of a home that was valued at 20 million. The property in question was located near Retiro Park and measured about 1,100 m2. The 20.9 million flat announced by Property has been announced for several months, although the agency assures that “there are offer processes” underway and interested people who have already made several visits. Click on the image to go to the tweet. What is the housing like? Enormous. And that’s an understatement. According to the token Published by the real estate agency itself, the apartment has a constructed area of ​​1,008 m2, although it identifies 812 m2 as “housing area”. Seven bedrooms (five en suite), six bathrooms and three toilets are distributed throughout this vast space, as well as amenities such as a gym, wine cellar and large living rooms. A reporter from EPE was able to visit the apartment and says that one of the first things that catches your attention is a 200 m2 room named “social area”. Do we know more? Yes. And it points in the same direction: that of exclusive luxury. The house, located in Los Jerónimos, has five parking spaces and two storage rooms, terraces with views of the Botanical Garden and furniture in line with the profile of its market. Tele Madrid assures Its renovation alone cost two million, to which is added another for the furniture. As a finishing touch, it incorporates works of art. That the apartment (the agency dates it back to the 70s) is so spacious in the heart of the center is explained by its past: in reality it is made up of three independent homes that a former owner bought and mergedoccupying an entire floor. Why is it interesting? Because beyond how striking the price or the characteristics of the apartment are, the advertisement connects with a larger trend: the increase in price of the home. That the price per square meter has been rising for years (in Madrid and the rest of Spain) is nothing new. Idealistic sample that in the last year the m2 has skyrocketed by 14.8% in the capital, reaching a maximum of almost €5,900/m2, although there are certain areas where this value is much higher. In Retiro there are more than 7,800 and in Salamanca they are close to 10,000. The announcement of the Los Jerónimos apartment reminds us, however, that the price increase is not exclusive to the conventional residential market. It also affects luxury. At the end of 2025 Diza Market published a report which shows that the cost of prime housing in the region rose by 95% in a matter of a decade, between 2014 and 2025. The analysis focused, however, on the luxury sector in which houses worth several million are moved, without reaching stratospheric figures. Are there more indicators? Yes. Savills has published another report in which it points out that the price of prime housing in the capital “triples the rate of global growth expected for 2026.” “If we focus the analysis on the first consolidated, the average prices in Madrid are around €16,000-17,000/m2, reaching peaks of between €25,000 and €30,000/m2”, details Santiago de Miguel, director. “The forecast is that the market will continue slightly bullish, but with sustained demand. The international buyer continues to have his sights set on Madrid.” “The Madrid market super luxury has reached a degree of maturity that allows operations of this caliber,” agrees an interview with Five Days Felipe Reuse, from Property Partner. Data from the Notarial Statistical Portal show In fact, the dynamism of the market in the heart of Madrid, with the m2 above 11,000 m2, and where foreign buyers have a relevant weight, representing a third of the total. There are those who already points out that the demand is going outside the city, towards La Moraleja or La Finca. Image | Chris Curry (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a Europe that is suffocating to pay for housing and another that lives in peace. And this map shows the differences

If the question is whether they forgot the elevator shaft in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain, the answer is simple: it was much worse

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For many years, the Mediterranean horizon was the canvas on which Spain projected its most audacious ambitions, including some extremely difficult to catalog. In times of prosperity, the sky seemed limitless. Then, each silhouette in height began to count a different story about risk, pride and collective memory. The vertical dream born of euphoria. He Intempo building started to get up in 2006at the exact moment when credit was flowing without brakes and Benidorm continued to feed its obsession with growing towards the sky as if there were no tomorrow. We are talking about two tower-shaped monsters of almost 200 meters joined by a golden diamond, a hyperbolic architecture that promised mark an era and become the new icon of the Mediterranean “Beniyork”. The project was born with generous financing from a Galician box and with a ridiculous social capital compared to the magnitude of the work, a disproportion (and a nonsense) that today sums up better than anything the climate of that Spain that believed that the cranes would never stop turning. From the symbol of the future to the monument to the bubble. But the crisis of 2008 changed the script suddenly. The loan skyrocketed above 100 million, the financial institution went bankrupt and the debt ended in hands of the Sarebthe bad bank. The works were paralyzed, the developer entered into internal conflict and the building was left with its structure practically finished but trapped in a legal and financial limbo. For years, his shadow threatened to add to that long list of phantom monsters, in fact, it was the golden skeleton that dominated the Poniente beach, a mass visible for kilometers that summarized the collapse of a model economical based on brick and easy financing. The reality was worse than the myth. Then came the stories and legends, one turned into a meme and repeated a hundred times even in media reference. It happens that, it is not that in the tallest residential skyscraper in Spain they forgot the elevator shaft, it is that the reality it was much worse. The work accumulated erratic decisions, changes in construction, salary delays, serious accidents and chaotic management in which floors were concreted without having definitive plans for the upper ones. The project was at 93% with 100% of the loan consumed, there was physical risk due to the deterioration of the structure and a bankruptcy of creditors that left the fate of the giant in the hands of judicial administrators and investment funds. The problem was not a cartoonish technical detail, but rather a chain of incompetence, financial strain and poor planning that jeopardized the building’s entire viability. The elevator hoax that went around the world. Impossible to ignore it. The story that the architects “forgot the elevator shaft” was born of an ambiguous phrase and it became the perfect headline summer 2013. The image was irresistible: a skyscraper of almost 200 meters incapable of climbing its own neighbors. However, elevators existed, of course, and They worked and were planned in the plans. The photographs and subsequent media visits clearly demonstrated. It didn’t matter, the hoax was amplified in international media that they added layers fiction, from cables that didn’t fit to impossible redesigns. That anecdote overshadowed what was truly relevant: the problem was never technical, it was structural in business and financial terms. Rescue, redesign and change of owners. Years passed, and the bad bank promoted the necessary competition to prevent the tower from deteriorating and facilitated liquidity to complete the work. Later, an investment fund acquired the assetremodeled interiors that had become obsolete and corrected questionable decisions, such as hideous finishes that obscured the homes or layouts that did not take advantage of the sea views. Finally, the top diamond was reconfigured to offer more attractive apartments and the complex was relaunched, now as a luxury residential with thousands of square meters of common areas, hotel services and international marketing. From ghost to icon. Thus, and after more than a decade of delays, the Intempo residential skyscraper finally opened its doors and began to hand out the keys to his first clients. In total, 256 homes, 11 elevatorscomplete technical plants and a structure that rested on piles designed to support both towers. From that moment on, the colossus stopped being a simple media skeleton and became a building with neighbors and real activity. Its golden silhouette left behind the stories to keep you awake, it no longer represented only the bubble and failure, but also the resilience of a city that had made verticality its hallmark. That is why it is worth saying it once again: Intempo was not the skyscraper that forgot the elevator, it was the skyscraper that survived its own time. Image | Enrique Domingo, Diego Delso, Tim Rawle In Xataka | Matalascañas is an example of a major architectural failure: thinking that the beach of your childhood was going to be how you remember it. In Xataka | Parking lots were the goose that laid the golden eggs for bricks in Spain. Until someone created the tomb of Las Teresitas

If the question is whether there was life on Mars, NASA has a new explanation: it depends

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NASA’s Curiosity rover has been shedding light on Mars since August 2011, making authentic discoveries on its surface, in your clouds and of course, about its potential habitability. And if its younger brother Perseverance found a few months ago “the clearest sign of life we ​​have seen on Mars”, one of Curiosity’s latest discoveries is not so clear. What Curiosity found. Since 2012, Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater, a place where there was a lake billions of years ago. In March 2025, while the rover’s integrated laboratory was analyzing a clay rock there, they found the presence of decan, undecan and dodecan. What’s that? Alkanes, that is, long chain hydrocarbons formed by hydrogen and carbon atoms. Why is it important. Because Curiosity’s discovery is the largest organic compounds ever found on the red planet and its size is such that its existence can hardly be explained by simple chemistry. On Earth, these types of hydrocarbons are usually fragments of fatty acids produced by living beings. However, on Mars, its origin is not so clear: it is reasonable to think of a biological origin, but with current evidence there is no confirmation. Biology or geology? The degradation of fatty acids causes the appearance of these hydrocarbons one way or another, but their presence does not imply that they necessarily come from a living organism. In fact, on Earth they can also be generated by geological processes. In short: detecting organic molecules on Mars does not mean finding life. Correlation does not imply causation. A “reasonable” hypothesis. So they analyzed the known non-biological sources of these organic molecules looking for an explanation for these quantities found. Since none of them fully explained this abundance, in this recent study published in Astrobiology that the research includes have raised a “reasonable” hypothesis: that living beings could have formed them. Among the known sources are molecules from meteorites that crash into the surface of Mars, cosmic dust, geological chemistry such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plausible on early Mars or ultraviolet radiation, which in addition to destroying organic components can also form them, are some of the candidates. The method. To reach these conclusions, the team of scientists combined laboratory experiments, mathematical models and data from the rover, which allowed them to go back in time 80 million years to estimate how much organic matter existed at the beginning, before cosmic radiation destroyed it. The amount they were able to reconstruct far exceeds what unknown non-biological processes can generate. Of course, it does not affirm that there was life, nor are there fossils or biomarkers of course. In fact, their conclusion is clear: more studies are needed to conclude on the absence or presence of life on Mars. In Xataka | There are those who believe that 50 years ago we found life on Mars (and then accidentally destroyed it) In Xataka | China is getting closer to surpassing NASA in its Martian mission. And just invited other countries to join Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

If the question is how much money Ryanair can ask you for for messing up on a flight, the answer is: a lot.

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Making a mess on a plane is expensive, very expensive. At the beginning of the week, Ryanair fined one of its passengers a fine of 15,000 euros as compensation for damages and losses on a flight. The decision comes at the hands of the Dublin Court, and although the amount is one of the highest in recent years, it is far from being an exception. what has happened. According to Ryanair in his statementone of its passengers forced the plane he was traveling on to divert to Porto, after attacking passengers and crew on a flight from Dublin to Lanzarote. No specific details about the attack itself have emerged, but the Dublin Court has imposed a penalty of 15,000 in damages on the accused. The lawsuit was filed in January 2025, Ryanair is not fooling around. In this case, it was Dublin that imposed the amount of the penalty, but the airline has a rigid policy of sanctions for non-exemplary passengers. In June 2025, the company warned about fixed fines of 500 euros for any passenger expelled for misconduct before the flight. In the event that the flight has already started and results in a forced diversion, the policy is clear: legal persecution. It is not the first fine very high. Ryanair has been able to ban passengers for five years and obtain compensation for damages due to value of 3,000 euros on recent Berlin-Marrakech flights. He also managed to get sanctioned 2,000 euros to a passenger who decided to smoke on the plane. The measure fits within the framework of a company with a clear policy: squeeze every penny out of each clientwith a solid margin thanks to its aggressive strategies. The finer, fined. Ryanair has just received one of the highest fines in recent years (not the largest, estimated at more than 100,000 dollars and a lifetime ban by Jet2), but it is also the one that has the record of having suffered the highest fine to an airline by the Government of Spain. A profitable business model, focused on squeezing every penny from its passengers, and a clear policy regarding inappropriate behavior: pay. In Xataka | Spain and Ryanair are in a legal battle over the charge for hand luggage. Ryanair’s best ally: Europe

The question is not how many will you buy, but why do you want us to know?

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The news comes from Mercadona itself: During 2026, it will market “more than 14 million kilos of avocados of Spanish origin.” That is 18% more than last year and, in addition, it represents 95% of all avocados that will be sold until April. And yes, this seems good news for Trops, Surfruit or Avocoop (agri-food cooperatives in the sector); But the relevant question is why is Mercadona interested in making all this clear? Clarifying the data. Mercadona’s statement comes now that the avocado campaign begins in Spain and its 95% commitment extends until April, when the campaign ends. That is, in part, it is a defensive advertisement. For years, large distributors have been criticized for not selling national products and sometimes it is true: it is often cheaper to buy outside than inside and many customers do not show any preference for national products. However, it is not always a fair complaint: if we want to have avocados all year round in supermarkets, most of it has to come from outside. With these types of adsthe Valencian chain (and the rest) tries to “minimize” the reputational damage linked to the sale of Moroccan, Peruvian or Chilean avocados. “But they are going to buy 18% more.” It’s true. And the company explains that it is due to the rise in demand and its commitment to the national product. However, we cannot ignore that we are coming from campaigns very affected by the lack of water in the main producing areas of the country. Only in Andalusia the production fell in 2023/24 34% compared to 2019/20. It is true that in 24/25 production recovered (it went from 56,000 tons to 75,000) and that in 2025/26, thanks to water and the entry of new plantations, it is expected a growth of 25% with respect to the previous year. That is to say, Mercadona’s 18% is worthy, of course; but it is not particularly striking: there is now avocado to cover demand and at a lower price than in recent years. The problem of “national origin.” Mercadona’s move is also dovetailed with another underlying movement. Spain has realized that the hyperdependence of the national market on Andalusia is a problem. After the droughts of recent years, Valencia has gained weight and even Asturias (that already leads the production of kiwis) is considering betting on “green gold”. That restructuring of the agricultural sector is key. Because Spain is a great agri-food producer, yes; but even more so, it is a giant in the international distribution of imported products. And, although it may not seem like it, both things They are more related than it seems: They are communicating vessels and if one fails the other suffers. What we can expect. This is, without a doubt, the biggest problem: that in the midst of this climate chaos, regulatory and sociopolitical It is very difficult to make long-term estimates. And yet, there is no worse time to not make decisions. Therefore, the fact that large distribution chains have the Spanish agricultural fabric in mind is excellent news even if we take into account that, well, there is a ton of marketing in all of this. Image | Ankit Karnany | Eddie Pipocas In Xataka | The Mercadona of the future is already being tested in Valencia: it is the death blow to traditional delicatessens and fishmongers

Now OpenAI lets you share your friends’ phones with ChatGPT. The question is why would anyone want to do that?

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ChatGPT is changing in leaps and bounds: we already know that announcements will arrive sooner rather than later and how will they work and in recent days OpenAI has sent its users an email like the one you see above informing about an update to your privacy policy. The first aspect that changes: the appearance of the mythical “Find friends in OpenAI services” in a step to become a more social platform synchronizing contacts. The message in question: “You can now choose to sync your contacts to see who else is using our services. This is completely optional.” Finding friends in OpenAI apps. The OpenAI privacy policy page allows you to consult the current version and the previous onewhere we see that there is a section that was not there before: in addition to account information, user content, communication information and other information you provide, another one appears: “Contact Data” is new. What it literally says: “If you choose to connect your device contacts, we upload information from your device’s address books and check which of your contacts also use our Services. If any of your contacts are not already using our Services, we will inform you if they sign up for our Services later.” What does it mean. That is, OpenAI wants to access and store the information from your phone’s phonebook to divide your contacts’ phone numbers into two: those who already have an account and those who don’t. The idea is to find contacts that you know who use tools like Sora or the group chats through suggestions. But also take note of those who don’t use their services as they let you know if they sign up later. The option is not yet operational and OpenAI has not yet explained how it will be implemented in the app. What we do know is that it is optional (that is, you can refuse) and that what the company led by Sam Altman will save are the phone numbers in your device’s address book. Neither the names nor the details of the entire notebook. How it will work. OpenAI has detailed that the phones are hashed to later compare them with existing OpenAI accounts, from which the suggestions appear. The next question is: how long do you store them? OpenAI itself has that question in its help sheet, but the answer is not clear at all. After this process of searching for matches between your agenda and its database, contact lists are half deletedbecause it also ensures that “encrypted phones could be kept on OpenAI servers to facilitate connection functions.” Everything indicates that OpenAI will periodically check if anyone of your contacts has noticed. In any case, we still don’t know the answer. Of course, you will have the option to revoke the permissions. Why do you want to know that haha ​​salu2. The company has not offered images of what the experience will be like or what functionalities it will unlock for those who agree to share this information. So why would you want to accept this option? For now, to see suggestions from users in your calendar, like Manolo the plumber or your cousin Pili from Utebo, with whom you may not talk too much about your projects in group chats or your experiments in Sora. If you decide to connect with that person, that person may receive a notification to follow you. He follow back of a lifetime, come on. The small print. With what we know and taking into account the use we make of OpenAI services, perhaps the option of becoming friends with the plumber via Sora is not essential. However, even if you do not agree to participate, anyone who has your number and agrees to synchronize their contacts will be giving your number to OpenAI. Even if you don’t have an account. It’s all advantages (for OpenAI). Finding advantages for users of this optional feature costs, just the opposite of seeing the benefits of OpenAI. To start, weave a network that invites you to use OpenAI tools because your environment uses it (I stay because everyone uses it). Likewise, by seeing who is not on the platform, OpenAI can also incentivize you to invite them to encourage their organic growth at a critical time where competition is fierce. Connecting contacts also has a potentially interesting side: that OpenAI develops more collaborative tools that invite you to use and spend more time in the app. Finally, with this function the company behind ChatGPT can establish a social graph on interests, educational levels and professional environments, cinnamon sticks to improve personalization or simply to help them validate identity and security in the case of minors. In Xataka | We already know how ads will work on ChatGPT. We have bad and not so bad news In Xataka | Anthropic is growing so fast that OpenAI’s problem is growing at the same speed: losing the market that matters Cover | OpenAI communication with Mockuphone and Codioful (Formerly Gradient)

We have been dreaming of stopping aging for centuries. The question is if we are finally achieving it: Crossover 1×37

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Myths such as that of the fountain of eternal youth have helped human beings through the ages. let’s dream of not aging and living forever. Reality is still cruel: Although life expectancy has increased, we age without seeming to slow it down. But there are those who argue that there may be. In this episode we have spoken with Dr. José Hernández, longevity expert and founder of a clinic specialized in Age Reversal, to understand what aging really is, why it is considered a disease today, and what technologies could allow us to go back biologically. In this debate we talk about information theory and epigenetic damage, cellular reprogramming, or how there are already large companies —and some billionaires— investing significantly in this. In fact, the most advanced science is accompanied by methods that seem much more effective not so much in slowing down aging but in ensuring that our physical condition is much better when this process affects us: Physical exercise is an absolute pillar of longevityassures this expert. Of course there are other factors that influence – diet and genetics, of course, do – but we are dealing with a question that has opened numerous avenues of research, some of which are promising. Who knows what can happen. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | Don’t tell me your age, tell me your grip strength: how simple gestures tell us how well we are aging

The big question is what happens if this is the new normal?

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There is only one piece of information that summarizes what has happened in this country since January 1: that the accumulated rains since January 1 exceed three times the normal value (for the average of the years 1991-2020). What’s more, most of this rainfall has not been concentrated in the north (there are areas of the Cantabrian coast that they have hardly received water), but in the center, the south and some areas of the northeast. No one can be taken by surprise by all this. It has rained unspeakably in Spain and that is being noticed in things like there are 96 reservoirs above 90%. But the most interesting thing is not that, the most interesting thing is why all this is happening. Let’s talk about atmospheric circulation. “It’s outrageous how (…) he’s been behaving in recent weeks,” said meteorologist González Alemán a few days ago. And he is right to such an extent that “although there seems to be a tendency toward change, the pieces still fit together to continue bringing atmospheric rivers with abundant precipitation to the Iberian Peninsula.” But what is interesting is not so much this anomaly as that “the global causes that cause this state of circulation (with the succession of many storms and atmospheric rivers) are unknown.” And, when the AEMET scientist says ‘unknown’, he is not referring to possible mechanisms or teleconnections; It doesn’t even talk about specific gears. It talks about the culprits of causing such mechanisms and gears. And all this comes about a runrun: that people are beginning to wonder if this is a symptom of the changes in the Atlantic Ocean over the ones we carry years talking. We already know that climate change increases extreme phenomena. The data of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) they are clear and they show that, indeed, they have increased since the 1970s. Specifically, they have multiplied by five over the last five decades. According to your calculationsin the 1980s, 1,400 incidents were recorded – its tables include extreme weather, climate and water phenomena – and in the 1990s, just over 2,200. In the first decade of the 21st century, 3,500 were reached and the trend continued. Questions, questions and more questions. In this sense, It is logical to ask us whether climate change is updating the probabilities so that extreme events, like these rains, become more frequent. What if we have been years obsessed with desertification and what we find, suddenly, is a disproportionate amount of rain in the most (climatically) fragile areas of the peninsula? It seems like good news, but it is full of problems. And, as I often repeat, we tend to have a stereotyped view of global warming and we forget where it makes a real difference: in the ability to put our infrastructures in check more criticism. More rain, not just more rain, is (as we have seen these days) a terrible threat that can force the displacement of thousands of people. Are we going there? That’s the big question, of course. And González Alemán is right that we should not write causal checks that science is not able to pay. You have to study everything in detail to see what is really happening. But that cannot be a justification for doing nothing. Our water system has just suffered the biggest stress test in recent history and if we don’t analyze what has happened, anything could happen next time. Image | AliciaMBentley In Xataka | Desertification is devouring southern Spain: Extremadura and Murcia face a completely dry future

For experts the question is whether we are in uncharted territory

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For hours, the state of the Fresnillo dam was subject of rumors, hoaxes and concern. The reservoir, extremely close to the urban area of ​​Grazalema, was being monitored by the UME and preventive evictions had been carried out in the homes near the Gaidóvar riverbank. Finally, the mayor had to come out to deny that the rip of the dam was a scenario that was on the table. But the day was not over. 229 kilometers from there, around twelve at night, the Civil Guard began the complete eviction of Dúdara town in Granada at the foot of the Quéntar dam. The swamp It was at 101.46% of its capacity and I had to start pumping out water at full speed. A few kilometers from there, the Genil destroyed the Fabriquilla bridge and part of the old electrical installations of Hazallanas Other neighbors in the area, too They were relocated due to the rise of the river Aguas Blancas and, in Poniente Granada, hundreds of people slept in sports centers before the overflow del Genil, Colomera, Cubillas and the problems around the Frailes and Cacín rivers. In Córdoba, Navallana has been forced to unload and, as a consequence, the Guadalquivir channel receives more pressure. Back in Cádiz, the Bornos reservoir too is approaching its maximum capacity and, according to the local pressthe dam has dawned with two backhoes in case the floodgates had to be opened even more. That is to say, the lamination capacity of the Andalusian containment system is reaching its limit. The UME is taking control of entire municipalities and there are more than twenty roads blocked in several southern provinces. And the worst is not that. The worst thing is that it is going to continue raining. An overflowing community At this time, 14 rivers are under red warning today and another 31 are under orange warning. Rivers such as the Guadalete, the Genil, the Guadiaro and the Guadalhorce They are not just responding to today’s rain.but to the inability of the basin to drain what has accumulated in the last 48 hours. The best example is called Huétor Tájar (in Granada). There the Genil River – the largest tributary of the Guadalquivir – completely overflowed and the chaos has been so enormous that The army has had to take control of the entire area. Above all, because this occurred before the discharges from the headwaters of the river (still contained by the Canales reservoir) reached the area. But the key data is that of Grazalema. Although the official figures will obscure the record (because they are measured by hydrological days), the truth is that that corner of Cádiz has received more than 600 liters per square meter in 24 hours. Today, in addition, there are more than 100. And that is key because every dam (every river engineering work) is made with one key piece of information: the return to 500 years. That is, the risk of flooding at 50, 100 and 500 years. What if what is happening in Grazalema is not something specific? What if climate change is updating the chances that extreme events of this type will happen much more often? We tend to have a stereotypical view of global warming, but these are the things where it really makes a real difference: in the ability to put our infrastructures in check more criticism. In this sense, when the worst of this crisis is over, when the rain and floods give us a break, we will have to understand all this as a great stress test for our water system. And more importantly, we will have to act accordingly. Image | Dream Flower In Xataka | 180 liters where 60 were expected: why the high-resolution models have “crashed” against the Grazalema wall

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