red

In 2024 a package bomb arrived on a plane. It was the beginning of the great threat to Europe: that of a “ghost” crossing the red lines

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Europe lives a strategic transformation that few had imagined possible in such a short time. What began as a series of “flats” (intermittent blackouts, suspicious fires, minor incursions) has become a coherent pattern: a campaign of directed hybrid war that is no longer limited to destabilizing, but rather deliberately explore the thresholds of what it can inflict without provoking a direct military response. It all started a year ago. The silent climb. The plot is explained more clearly from July 2024when several DHL packages exploded in centers logistics from the United Kingdom, Poland and Germany, devices powerful enough to shoot down a plane if they had detonated in mid-flight. The episode, an infiltrated bomb at the heart of the European air system, marked a before and after, because it showed to what extent Moscow was willing to strain continental security and because it exposed the fragility of an Old Continent trapped between an increasingly aggressive Russia and a United States whose commitment has stopped being reliableand. Since then, Europe no longer sees hybrid warfare as a peripheral nuisance, but as a structural threat which targets critical infrastructures, social cohesion and the European institutional framework itself. In Xataka Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism The Russian laboratory. I counted this week the financial times that the Russian campaign has been refined in breadth and depth. European intelligence services have disabled plots to derail trains full of passengers, set fire to shopping malls, damage dams or contaminate water in urban areas. The attacks are not isolated improvisations: they respond to a “gig economy” model of sabotage in which young recruited by Telegramlocal criminals or foreigners with residence permits act as expendable pawns for unknown objectives. Plus: they are difficult to detect, impossible to anticipate and legally ambiguous, since they rarely there is a direct connection with Russian intelligence that allows them to be accused of espionage. The case of frustrated railway sabotage in Poland (an explosive planted on the Warsaw-Lublin line that came within seconds of causing a massacre) exposed that pattern in its clearest form: unimpeded entry and exit, cryptocurrency financingfalse identities issued by Moscow and a diffuse chain of command that leads to intermediaries as Mikhail Mirgorodsky or even networks managed by former Wagner members. And there is more. Yes, because each cell discovered suggests others not yet detected, and what is worrying is not the errors of saboteurs (sometimes incapable to delete videos of its own attacks) but the scale that this model offers to a Russia resentful of decades of diplomatic expulsions and doctrinally rearmed to a pre-war period. The doctrine that returns. The ISS analysts They recently reported that the archives of the KGB and the StB (Czechoslovak intelligence) reveal parallels disturbing differences between the sabotage manuals of the Cold War and what Europe witnesses today. The objectives listed decades ago (military bases, energy infrastructures, dams, communication systems, transportation) match almost exactly with the whites of the last two years. Equally revealing is the doctrinal sequencing: during times of peace, minor attacks with the appearance of accidents, in pre-war phases, massive sabotage, increased risk tolerated and increasing willingness to cause civilian casualties, and in open war, total activation of clandestine networks for lethal operations. The prelude to something more fat. It we count very recently. If you will, Europe seems to have entered fully into a intermediate stage: a pre-war phase where each incident also functions as offensive reconnaissance, a permanent exercise by razvedka boyem to measure Western reaction capacity, locate vulnerabilities and exploit any weaknesses. The episode of the unidentified drones airports and military bases European operations illustrate this dynamic: cheap raids, of uncertain origin, that revealed systemic failures in the continental air defense and that, due to their replicator effect (copies, jokes, hysteria, false alarms) multiply the psychological and financial wear and tear. A continent without a network. I remembered the new york times This morning an added problem for Europe: that if the Russian threat escalates, the other half of the problem is the growing disconnection with the United States. For the first time since 1945, Europe perceives that Washington is not unequivocally on your side in a matter of war and peace. The Trump administration is not only pressuring kyiv to accept an agreement In Moscow’s terms, it also redefines Europe as a suspicious actor, criticizes the democratic integrity of its governments and promises to openly support the European extreme right. The result is an unprecedented scenario: a Russia that intensifies its hybrid campaign, a Ukraine that depends almost entirely on continental support and a Europe that must finance your own safety while compensating for the withdrawal of US capabilities (satellites, long-range missiles, command and control) that it cannot replace before 2029the year that NATO considers the limit to have a credible deterrent. European leaders also face depleted budgets, electorates hostile to increased military spending, and a rising far-right that Moscow sees as a strategic multiplier. {“videoId”:”x8j6422″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Declassified video of the clash between Russian fighters and the American drone”, “tag”:”united states”, “duration”:”42″} The battle of money. The internal European debate on how to finance the resistance Ukrainian reflects the magnitude of the challenge. To support kyiv for the next two years, about $200 billion is needed, an unaffordable figure without activating the 210,000 million euros on Russian assets frozen in Europe. The problem? Right now it takes the name of Belgiumwhich guards the majority through Euroclear, and which fears retaliation from Moscow and the possible erosion of the credibility of the euro as a safe haven. Washington, despite its strategic ambiguity, is also pressing for these funds to be don’t touch each othersince its eventual return is part of the US scheme for a peace agreement favorable to Russia. One more thing. And yet, without that money, Europe would have to coordinate (outside the EU framework) a colossal loan and politically explosive. The crossroads are so profound that in Berlin and Paris they are … Read more

Google hit the red button when ChatGPT came upon it. Now it is OpenAI who has pressed it, according to WSJ

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Sam Altman has activated high alert on OpenAI. Just like share From Wall Street Journal, the company’s CEO announced this Monday in an internal memo that the company enters “code red” to improve ChatGPTthe tool that has catapulted the company to stardom but that now sees its rivals closing the gap at breakneck speed. what’s happening. OpenAI is postponing several important projects to focus all its resources on improving the daily ChatGPT experience, according to the internal memo to which WSJ has had access. According to Altman, the chatbot urgently needs advances in personalization, speed, reliability and the ability to answer a broader range of questions. Among the postponed projects are initiatives to include advertising in the free version of ChatGPT, AI agents for health and purchases (the latter was announced very recently), and Pressa personal assistant in development. why now. The pressure comes mainly from Google. Your model Gemini 3released last month, has outperformed OpenAI in industry benchmarks and sent the Mountain View giant’s stock soaring. Just like assures In the middle, Gemini’s monthly active users went from 450 million in July to 650 million in October, a meteoric growth that sets off all the alarms at OpenAI. Although ChatGPT maintains the lead with approximately more than 800 million weekly users, the speed at which Google is gaining ground is worrying. The underlying problem. OpenAI is in a delicate position. The company it is not profitable and it needs constant rounds of financing to survive, which puts it at a disadvantage compared to Google and other technology companies that can finance their investments with their own income. It’s also spending more aggressively than its main startup rival, Anthropic. According to their own financial projectionsOpenAI will need to reach revenues of approximately $200 billion to be profitable in 2030. All while being committed to investments of hundreds of billions in data centers. The last setbacks. The company has had a difficult time lately balancing the security of its chatbot with making it more attractive to users. The GPT-5 model Launched in August, it disappointed some users, who complained about its colder tone and problems answering simple math and geography questions. OpenAI had to update the model last month to make it warmer and better able to follow user instructions. OpenAI’s response. According to point In the middle, Altman has established daily calls for those responsible for improving ChatGPT and has encouraged temporary team transfers. WSJ assures that the company uses three color codes: yellow, orange and red, to describe the different levels of urgency necessary to address problems. According to the outlet, prior to this “code red”, OpenAI had declared a “code orange” in its effort to improve the chatbot. Nick Turley, Head of ChatGPT at OpenAI, stated in X that ChatGPT represents 70% of global AI-assisted activities and 10% of search activities. An unexpected script twist. This represents a radical change compared to three years ago, when it was Google who declared its own code red in response to the threat posed by ChatGPT. And after a groundbreaking Google I/O Last May, those from Mountain View have witnessed brutal growth in all the directions in which the AI ​​race is currently pointing, with improvements in their chatbot, the deployment of countless AI agents, improvements in their applications and more. Now it seems that it is OpenAI who must defend its position. And now what. Altman advertisement that next week OpenAI will launch a new reasoning model that, according to internal evaluations, surpasses Google’s Gemini 3. However, he acknowledges that there is still a lot of work to be done in the everyday chatbot experience. Cover image | OpenAI and Xataka Android In Xataka | China already has an army of 5.8 million engineers. His new plan involves accelerating doctorates

Half of Spain is on alert due to snow and yet AEMET has not issued a single red notice: what is happening here?

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“Historical Polar Beast“, “New Philomena“, “the polar storm that threatens Spain“: Much has been written about the intrusion of cold air that is causing drops in temperatures, snowfall and trouble throughout the north of the country. And not always without reason. In fact, the Junta de Castilla y León has declared the alert for snowfall in the provinces of Burgos, León, Palencia and Soria. And yet, AEMET has not issued a red weather warning. What is happening here? QTo start: everything is working normally. And we must not forget that AEMET and Civil Protection do not do the same work. The State Meteorological Agency is limited to issuing weather warnings that are based on physical and objective thresholds. Civil Protection, on the other hand, declares the alert based on the expected impact (on the population and/or infrastructure). In this sense, they are not things that can be linked directly. And what is happening these days is a textbook example. AEMET has not activated red warnings, simply because snowfall exceeding the highest thresholds is not expected. Yes, the snow level had dropped a lot… but in reality, no one expected a lot of snow to fall. This does not mean, as is evident, that it is not an important episode; Only it is not an extreme episode in purely meteorological terms. In social terms, it is different. Because as Víctor Gonzalez explained There are a series of factors that make this relatively small winter storm something to take into account. To begin with, it is the first episode of snowfall at low levels of the season. As with heat waves in summer, the first ‘episodes’ are always more dangerous because they ‘catch’ the population unprepared. Especially when (as is happening now) that episode comes earlier than usual, when winter hasn’t even started yet. In addition, it coincides with very busy days (because we are talking about a very busy weekend). An important lesson: When we talk about meteorology, it doesn’t just matter how much snow falls, how hot it is going to be, or how much water a storm will dump. What really matters is when, where and on whom it falls. As Víctor González said“If this same episode occurred on a Tuesday in February, perhaps the alert would not have been declared.” Image | ECMWF | Alev Takil In Xataka | AEMET is clear about what we can expect from the polar storm that threatens Spain: the question is whether we are prepared

The war in Ukraine has crossed a red line in Europe. They are no longer drones violating airspace, they are nuclear plants

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Ukraine has once again placed the nuclear alarm at the center of the European conflict after denouncing that Russia is deliberately attacking the electrical substations that feed the Khmelnitsky and Rivne power plants. According to Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, drone attacks are not isolated incidents, but planned operations to endanger continental nuclear security. It happens that drones are reaching European power plants. The drone offensive. Over the past weekend, Moscow launched more than 450 drones and 45 missiles against various regions of Ukraine, causing at least seven dead and damage to critical infrastructure. In Dnipro, a drone hit a residential building, killing three people, while other attacks occurred in Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia. kyiv accuses Russia of instrumentalizing the atomic risk as a psychological weapon and trying to cause an accident in plants that still depend on external electricity supply to avoid a collapse of the cooling system. Nuclear risk. In parallel, Moscow is advancing with its own nuclear agenda: the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, confirmed that the Kremlin is working on proposals for a possible nuclear test on the direct order of Vladimir Putin, a response to US President Donald Trump’s recent statement that Washington could resume their own tests. The atomic stress between both powers, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, has plunged Europe into a scenario of unprecedented vulnerability since the Cold War. The epicenter of the threat: Belgium. While Ukraine try to contain the Russian offensive on its own territory, Western Europe has begun to feel the echoes of a hybrid war that expands beyond the front. In Belgium, one of the countries with the highest density of critical infrastructure on the continent, there has been a wave of raids of drones over strategic installations. The most alarming took place at the Doel nuclear power plant, located next to the port of Antwerp, when three drones were initially detected at dusk on November 9, which were later confirmed as five different devices flying over the complex for almost an hour. The energy company Engie, which manages the plant, assured that operations were not affected, but authorities activated the National Crisis Center and reinforced security in the area. Belgium nuclear plant near Doel And more. Hours before, air traffic at Liège airport was had suspended briefly after multiple reports of drones, and in the previous days both Brussels airport and the Kleine Brogel air base (where NATO nuclear weapons are stored) had been targeted of similar sightings. Research points to a coordinated pattern affecting several northern European countries, including Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands, where unidentified aerial intrusions have also been reported. Suspicions of espionage. Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken has linked sightings with possible foreign espionage operations and pointed to Russia as the most plausible suspect, although without conclusive evidence. The country’s intelligence services consider that drones could be part of a recognition strategy aimed at evaluating the European response capacity to combined attacks on critical infrastructure. The accumulation of incidents led the Belgian government to convene a National Security Council, after which the Minister of the Interior, Bernard Quintin, assured that the situation was “under control”although he recognized the seriousness of the incursions. The United Kingdom, France and Germany announced sending specialized personnel and equipment to assist Belgium in the detection and neutralization of hostile drones, a gesture that underlines the shared fear that the border between visible war and covert war is becoming dangerously blurred. Technological epicenter. Faced with this new dimension of the conflict, Ukraine has positioned itself as a key actor in the technological response. President Volodymyr Zelensky advertisement the upcoming opening of defense production offices in Berlin and Copenhagen before the end of the year, with the aim of strengthening industrial cooperation on drones and electronic weapons. These “export capitals”, according to his wordsthey will finance the domestic production of scarce equipment and help European allies build their own defensive systems. kyiv, which has made the use of drones one of the pillars of its military strategy, now offers your experience to countries that are beginning to suffer firsthand the effects of the Russian hybrid war. Ukraine as a test. In parallel, Ukrainian creativity in the improvised field of defense is reflected even in unusual solutions: old fishing nets French drones, made from horse hair, are being reused to create tunnels where the propellers of Russian drones become trapped. In contemporary warfare, technology intersects with craftsmanship, and ingenuity has become a form of national survival. Nuclear vulnerability. The incidents in Belgium and Ukraine reveal the same constant: the European nuclear infrastructure (plant, wiring, energy, logistics) has become a target symbolic and strategic. The attacks on Ukrainian substations that feed power plants and the drones that fly over Belgian reactors expose the fragility of a continent that depends on complex systems where any sabotage can multiply its effects. The threat no longer comes only from missiles, but from invisible swarms of drones, of disinformation, of political and technological engineering that undermines stability from within. Russia, faced with isolation and with a still powerful military industry, seems willing to use this asymmetry as an instrument of prolonged pressure. The European responsestill fragmentary, is beginning to be articulated between military cooperation, technological innovation and civil defense. Plus: the lesson left by this sequence of attacks and suspicions seems clear. In the Europe of 2025, the border between energy security and military security has fadedand the future of continental stability could depend less on the size of armies than on how quickly a drone is detected on radar before reaching a nuclear power plant. Image | Trougnouf, Wwuyts In Xataka | The latest tactic of the Russians in Ukraine breaks with the previous one: they have gone from appearing “out of nowhere” to directly disappearing In Xataka | Orion was the Russian version of the US’s most lethal drone. Ukraine can’t believe it when it opens: it’s not a version, it’s the work of the US

If when you think of a farm you visualize a red building with white corners, it’s the Swedes’ fault.

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5040-Y80R. That is the approximate designation according to the Natural Color System chart for color ‘red falu‘. It is a registered trademark and It goes beyond being a simple color: implies that a very specific pigment comes into play in its production that gives it that reddish tone and has transcended to the point of being part of the identity of an entire country thanks to its properties. That country is Sweden, and it all started as a waste product from a copper mine. By-product. Dalarna is a region located in the heart of Sweden, and it is home to the Falun Great Copper Mountain. The Vikings They were already exploiting this mine in 850, but the history of color dates back to the 16th century. It was then that they discovered that one of the mining byproducts could be turned into a useful pigment. Leaf From the production of copper they obtained what they called Falu rödfärgor “red mulch,” and was basically a unique mixture of over 20 different minerals. The reddish color was thanks to iron oxide, silica, zinc and copper itself. They started to mix it up with water, but also with other elements such as oils, tar or rye flour, and they discovered that they could obtain a paint with very interesting properties. better than paint. This red mulch mixed with the appropriate ingredients not only gave color to the wood, primary raw material in Sweden for both ships and infrastructure, but also acted especially well as a material protector. It was like an insulating layer, a shield that protected against the elementsprolonging its useful life, making repairs less frequent and, in addition, it was cheaper than importing wood treatments from other countries. The industry soon exploded. HE esteem that, by mid-1760, production was about 25 tons, but by 1930, that annual production exceeded 2,000 tons. Status. Now, it wasn’t cheap. Everyone wanted to paint their house that copper red color, but it turns out that it was a luxury reserved for the highest classes. When the pigment was discovered, and perhaps motivated only by its color, King John III ordered paint the ceilings of his palace with ‘falu red’, imitating the copper of the ceilings of other European palaces. Since then, those with the most power who could get hold of the pigment began to paint their houses. However, as production began to scale and gain traction, the product became cheaper and more people were able to access it, painting, if not all of their houses, the façade that faced the roads (which was what everyone passing by could see). Swedish edges of the 19th century contributed to popularize the image of the red houses of Sweden, immortalizing the idea of ​​rural life in red houses with white corners. One of Carl Larsson’s works The color of a nation. The color 5040-Y80R became the symbol of Sweden to the point that migrants who sought better luck in North America after the dissolution of the norwegian swedish union In 1905 they began to build their farms using this color. The image that many of us have of the red farm was created there. And it became so important to Swedish popular culture that there is a saying that symbolizes that simple life and harmonious in contact with the earth: den röda stugan och potatislandet (the red house and the potato garden). Today, the ‘Falu rödfärg’ is not as vital as it was years ago if we talk about production. The same has descended a lot because there is greater competition and synthetic products for paint the facadesbut it is still an example of “banal nationalism”, a symbol that exists without the need for flags and anthems, since its mere presence evokes belonging. Images| Xauxa Håkan Svensson, FrDr, HCa, Wigulf~commonswiki In Xataka | The world’s technology industry practically depends on a single road: the one that leads to the Spruce Prine mine

Correos is desperate to find the business that will save it from the red numbers. And that has led her to selling insurance

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There was a time (not so long ago) when Correos was basically an intermediary, a company you went to to send letters, postcards or packages. That’s how it grew. And thus he strengthened his brand for decades. The changes in demand and fierce competition in the logistics sector have, however, forced the public company to reinvent yourselfan endeavor in which he has been engaged for years without this having allowed him to abandon the red numbers that weigh down their accounts. What has altered is its relationship with users. The last (and most revealing) example is left the decision of Correos to market insurance taking advantage of its vast network of offices and postmen, which has already earned it the union reproach. What has happened? That Correos has led a curious movement in its efforts to diversify income and leave behind the red numbers. a few months ago reached an agreement with the company AXA to market its private insurance. The alliance was announced in spring, when it was applied in 32 offices with a view to expanding to more than 800 branches throughout the country over the months. At that time, the Post Office detailed which would initially be dedicated to distributing policies for vehicles, homes, health and life and death insurance, although without closing the doors to expanding that offering to “any product” from AXA. Why is it news now? The agreement It closed in February and Correos began to market AXA insurance in mayupon registration as exclusive agent. The initiative has now made headlines again for a reason that has more to do with form than substance, although it gives an idea of ​​the extent to which the public company is committed to diversifying its services. CCOO has denounced that the company is entrusting postmen in rural areas with the task of selling policies, “a function completely unrelated to their traditional delivery work.” “Instead of strengthening the public service and hiring more staff, the management is dedicated to improvising and diverting work towards commercial tasks that have nothing to do with Correos’ mission,” ditch CCOO, which warns from its office in Castilla y León: “The viability of the company cannot be reduced to the sale of insurance by rural postmen. Correos cannot become a network of street vendors. Its function is to communicate, connect territories and guarantee rights, not do business with private insurance.” Why is it important? Because of the context, which is as or even more important than the measure itself. Insurance is not the public company’s first bet to strengthen its accounts in a challenging context, marked by the collapse in postal demand and an increasingly disputed parcel sector, in which it has to compete with multinationals and is losing market share. It’s nothing new. Years ago the company already launched one of its bets more ambitious: Post Marketa space of its own e-commerce who aspired to become ‘Amazon Post Office’. The objective: to take advantage of the boom in online commerce with a differentiated commitment to mark distances from giants such as Amazon or eBay, a “market for local products in which national producers and artisans (…) come together with online buyers.” In the presentation of the platform, in 2020, in fact focused on those two concepts, “local” and “artisan”. Today in Post Market It can be found from food and drinks to beauty, home, toys, fashion and pharmacy items. Have there been more initiatives? Yes. A few. In an attempt to find its place again, the company has opted for prepaid cardsthe telephony and fiber or the marketing of O2 servicesfrom Telefónica. In recent years he has also experimented with such ambitious projects as Correos Cargoan air parcel transport service in the Latin America-Europe-Asia axis, and even studied launching to commercial rail transport with the help of Renfe. Why this effort? Because Corres is very big. A lot. And the scenario in which he has to deal has changed. A lot too. With more than 50,000 employees and 2,000 offices it is usually said which is the largest public company in Spain. And how recently recognized to elDiario its strategy director, José Miguel Moreno, the company has been faced with the delicate situation of reinventing itself or disappearing. “Society is transforming and postal operators either do it or die.” It’s not just theory. According to the data revealed a few months ago by ABCLast year, Correos recorded losses worth 95 million euros, a hole that widens the carryover in previous years and that even has taken its toll to the accounts of the State Industrial Participation Company, to which it is linked. And how to turn it around? The million dollar question. That is what Correos has sought in part with its Strategic Plan 2024-2028, validated a little over a year ago by SEPI and that aspires to “transform, recover and reposition” the company to “change its business model.” With this purpose, it aims to reinforce its weight in the postal sector, give a boost to parcel delivery and “increase and diversify income” through “new activities, such as financial services, administrative procedures, insurance marketing or logistics services.” If in 2023 the postal business represented around 66% of income of the public company, followed by 24% from parcel delivery and 10% from “diversification” (“new lines of business”), the idea for 2028 is to turn the tables by making these quotas represent (respectively) 49, 35 and 16%. The goal: “Reverse the losses to end the period with an Ebitda margin of 6%, a consolidated profit situation and a healthy financial position.” Are they all challenges? No. The scenario may be complicated, as demonstrated by the fact that Correos can’t quite find the key to gain market share or the challenges it has encountered in its commitment to insurance marketing, but the company still has two good assets. Both closely interconnected. The first is its geographic penetration and vast network of operators and offices. The second, its focus as a “provider of essential services.” … Read more

why that bright red is pure marketing

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You are in front of the counter. On the left, a bright red, almost advertisement-like steak that screams “eat me, I’m fresh!” On the right, a piece of a duller tone, perhaps a little darker, but streaked with fine white lines. Which one do you choose? Most we launch ourselves into the vibrant red. It’s a reflex action. Although he is not always the smartest. It is something recognized by those who are in contact with this product all day, such as butchers. One of the examples is Mariano Sánchez who told La Vanguardia recognized that customers can pay a lot of attention to the color of the product, but he points out that the real key is in the fat of the fillet. This makes us have an almost obligatory question: is this a simple shopkeeper’s trick or does it have a real scientific basis? The short answer: you are absolutely right. They have been deceiving you, and a protein and a little oxygen are to blame. The myth of bright red. What we associate with “fresh meat” is nothing more than a superficial chemical reaction. The color of meat is determined by a protein called myoglobin.which stores oxygen in the muscle. In this way, when the meat is freshly cut or vacuum packed, the myoglobin is in its natural state (deoxymoglobin) and has a fairly dark purple-red color. And this is not something bad or something that should be despised. But when meat reacts with oxygen in the airthe myoglobin reacts and becomes oxymyoglobin. This compound has the bright cherry red color that attracts us so much. It is literally the ‘blooming’ that occurs on the surface. In short: the color bright red it only indicates that the meat has been in contact with airnot that it is of better quality, more tender or tastier. In fact, a vacuum-packed meat (purple in color) can be much fresher and less oxidized than the one glistening on the tray. The key is fat. This is where the butcher was completely right. What really defines the sensory experience of a good steak is not the color, but intramuscular fatpopularly known as “marbling” or “veining”. We talk about those fine streaks of white fat that infiltrate into the musclenot from the large layer of fat that surrounds it (which is also important to protect the piece, but that’s another story). And fat is responsible for the three most important virtues that we look for in a meat product. The first of them is the flavorsince fat is the vehicle for aromatic compounds, and during cooking this fat melts and releases these molecules, flooding the meat with flavor. A lean meat (without fat) It is, by definition, a meat with less flavor. Juiciness is the most obvious factor related to fat. As it melts, the intramuscular fat “waters” the steak from within, lubricating the muscle fibers and helping to retain water. It’s what makes the difference between a tender bite and a dry piece of cork. Studies on the sensory acceptability of beef show a direct and positive correlation: the more marbling, the higher consumer scores for flavor, juiciness and general acceptance. How to buy meat. So, the next time you go to a butcher shop, you don’t have to look at different points to have the best possible culinary and gustatory result. As summary points we can have the following checklist: Look for marbling: it is the number one quality indicator of a piece of meat. You should always look for pieces with a fine, well-distributed network of white fat veins. Color of fat: Intramuscular fat should be pearly white or, at most, slightly yellowish (something that indicates a step-based diet). What you have to avoid is pink, gray or reddish fats. The texture: a meat should have a firm, dense appearance and a dry surface (or slightly moist, but never sticky). If the mark disappears quickly when you press it with your finger, it is a good sign of freshness. If it is slimy or soft, that is a bad sign. Don’t focus on the color. When you see a piece with a dark, almost maroon color, you should not discard it immediately. This often indicates that it is an older animal or that it has gone through a dry-aging process. In these processes, the meat loses moisture and its own enzymes break down the fibers and increase the tenderness. In short, the color in the end, although it is the letter of presentation of a piece of meat, the reality is that it is not the only factor that directly influences the quality of the product that we are going to put in our mouths. Images | Sergey Kotenev In Xataka | Chicken meat printed in 3D and cooked with lasers: this is how these researchers see the future of meat

Red Eléctrica asked for calm. Immediately afterwards, thousands of Spaniards flocked to buy generators and camping gas.

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“The ghost of the great blackout has once again haunted Spain,” This is how my partner summed it up after learning that Red Eléctrica Española had detected new “sudden voltage variations” in the peninsular network. The news was enough to reactivate a recent fear: being left in the dark again. And with that fear, the fever for forecasts also ignited. In search of forecasts. Demand for products related to energy supply and survival has increased by 76%, according to data from the European price comparator Idealo. Among which stand out stoves and camping gas, with an increase of 253%, followed by power stations at 87%, radios at 56% and portable batteries at 49%. Interest in products such as water purification tablets has also skyrocketed by 20% and flashlights by 14%. An alert that set off the alarms. The alert issued by Red Eléctrica Española October 7 was enough to put the population on guard. Although the company assured that the voltage fluctuations “do not pose an imminent risk of a blackout,” the population reacted quickly. Many households, still with fresh memories of the April 28 blackout, began to reinforce their domestic emergency kits, as recommended the European Commission at the beginning of the year. The great precedent. The current prudence is not accidental. Half a year ago, the peninsula suffered a blackout that left the entire country without power for more than twelve hours. During that day, the chaos moved to the stores: endless lines and empty shelves in hardware stores and large stores. Servimedia data they confirm it: The demand for electric generators shot up by 639% and that for gas camping stoves by 547% in just 24 hours. Mass hysteria or rational prevention? The figures may suggest an emotional reaction, but the data rather points to a new culture of foresight. Before the blackout, only 5% of Spaniards had an emergency kit prepared. After the event, the figure doubled to 10%, and the intention to prepare for it went from 32% to 58%. as detailed on YouGov. The CIS adds that 78% of citizens did not feel afraid during the blackout, although 53.5% acknowledged that they remembered the kit recommended by the EU. Furthermore, 88.2% positively valued the civic and supportive behavior of their neighbors during those hours of darkness. The phenomenon has revived the debate: are we facing a “collective energy hysteria” or a modern form of domestic resilience? The business of self-supply. In a matter of months, concern about a possible power outage has created a new market niche: that of energy self-sufficiency. Sales of generators, solar panels and stoves they multiplied by five after the blackout in April. Large chains such as Leroy Merlin or Decathlon sold out their stocks in hours, while neighborhood hardware stores had their own special August selling flashlights, radios and batteries. The trend has not stopped. From Idealo confirm that the searches of these products continue to rise. In parallel, interest has grown in so-called portable power stations, small devices capable of charging everything from mobile phones to basic appliances, and which are already among the most consulted articles on the internet. “Prepper” culture is normalized. Added to this fever of prevention is the rise of the so-called prepperspeople who prepare for emergencies. In fact, two of them described how the blackout tested their preparedness: Their kits allowed them to cook and stay informed when most people lost power. A phenomenon that, far from eccentricity, reflects a growing search for domestic autonomy. A new energy consciousness? Electrical Network insists that “There is no imminent risk of a blackout,” but citizens—and the market—think differently. The culture of self-sufficiency is no longer a rarity and has become established in the collective mentality. There is no blackout in sight, but there is a change: many prefer to rely on their generator before the electrical system. In times of uncertainty, energy is no longer only measured in kilowatts, but also in peace of mind. Image | FreePik and FreePik Xataka | A ghost haunts Spain: the ghost of another massive blackout caused by network tension problems

Half a year after the blackout, Red Eléctrica still has problems stabilizing the voltage. And there is a geographical reason

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Just six months ago, Spain was left in the dark. The “electric zero” of April 28, 2025 was the most serious warning of a system that he believed himself invulnerable. Since then, Red Eléctrica (REE) operates in “reinforced mode”with dozens of gas plants turned on every day to prevent tension from skyrocketing. But, half a year later, the problem is still there: the Spanish grid is faltering not because of a lack of energy, but because the gas is in the north and the sun is in the south. How are the measurements now? At the beginning of October, the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) approved, at the request of REE, an emergency resolution to introduce exceptional measures “in the event of sudden voltage variations” detected in the system. The document details changes to several operating procedures that affect the way the electrical grid is programmed and regulated. In practice, the rules of the game were tightened for everyone: from solar producers to gas plants. Among the most significant measures is the obligation for renewable plants to carry out their power transitions in a minimum of 15 minutes, when before they did so in two. The intention, have explained from REEis to avoid sudden changes that could destabilize the system and give the thermal power plants time to react. As explained in Cinco Díasthis instruction allows gas plants to “absorb” excess renewable energy without causing power surges. But for many expertsthe underlying diagnosis is different: the problem is not speed, but geography. Two electric Spains. The country is experiencing a geographic imbalance that we already saw it coming. On the one hand, the north and the Mediterranean coast concentrate the majority of thermal power plants and combined cycle plants – the only ones capable of providing the so-called “rotating mass”, that is, inertia and reactive power that stabilize the network. On the other hand, the south of the peninsula—Andalusia, Extremadura and Castilla-La Mancha—has been filled with solar plants and domestic self-consumption, technologies based on power electronics that do not generate natural inertia. “During peak radiation hours, the south produces more electricity than it consumes, the lines are discharged and the grid becomes extremely sensitive,” explains in his column Joaquín Coronado, president of Build to Zero. Under these conditions, starting a thermal power plant in Asturias to stabilize a voltage problem in Seville is as useless as trying to put out a fire in Andalusia with water pumped from Galicia. The tension starts from the local. The error of approach is in confusing frequency with tension. The electrical frequency is a global magnitude: it is the same throughout the synchronous network. But the voltage is a local variable, which depends on the reactive power flows in each area. Coronado sums it up clearly: reactive power “does not travel well.” On 400 kV lines, its radius of action is 30 to 80 km. In 220 kV networks, from 15 to 40 km. And at 132 kV or lower, just 5 to 20 km. This means that a turbine in the north cannot stabilize the voltage in the south, no matter how much power it has. The CNMC, in its resolutionrecognizes precisely that “rapid voltage variations” appear in periods of low demand and high solar production, aggravated by the growth of self-consumption that “reduces the observability of the system” and leaves the operator without control over thousands of small installations. In summary and how we have explained in Xataka: we have more sun than cables. This shows in the pocket. REE’s response has been to maintain lit every day between 20 and 30 combined cycles to ensure stability. This “reinforced operation” has cost more than 1 billion additional euros since April and could add 3 billion more with the new measures. Adjustment services – energy that is paid outside the daily market to keep the network stable – have gone from 240 million in 2019 to 4 billion in 2025, according to Cinco Días. The result is paradoxical: Spain has one of the lowest wholesale prices in Europe, but one of the highest electricity bills. Ember’s report explains why: the market price only covers half of the bill; The other half are fixed network costs, tolls, taxes and system stability, which do not go down even if energy is cheap. Slowing down is not stabilizing. The decisions adopted by REE and temporarily endorsed by the CNMC are “a defensive strategy” for Coronado. Furthermore, he points out that instead of providing the system with rapid response capacity, it is chosen to slow it down to give time to the thermals. The result is maintaining “a 21st century system operated with a 20th century mentality.” Slowing down the renewable ramps does not provide voltage control where it is needed, because the problem occurs in seconds and in specific places, not in the 15 minutes that these ramps last. The measures, therefore, gain time, but they do not gain effectiveness: they mitigate the frequency, not the tension. Is there any future perspective? The solution is to bring the control capacity closer to where the energy is produced. In fact, we have already discussed in Xataka some of those possible solutions that agree with what Joaquín Coronado says. Grid-forming inverters in solar and wind plants, able to behave as synchronous generators and stabilize the network in milliseconds. Batteries strategically distributed in the southern nodes, which provide instantaneous active and reactive power. Devices FACTS and synchronous compensators in critical substations (Guillena, Mérida, Puertollano…) to dampen local voltage changes. Flexible demand from large industries to modulate consumption in real time. And predictive algorithms based on artificial intelligence that anticipate local instabilities. Some of these solutions are already underway. Spain prepare the installation of eight synchronous compensators and 2,600 MW of batteries, with 340 MW already approved. These devices could save 200 million euros annually by reducing the use of gas for network services. A model that is exhausted. Beyond the technique, there is a structural dilemma: how … Read more

You have to establish a “red lines” so that the AI ​​does not go out of hand

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On Monday more than 200 personalities and more than 70 organizations joined in a new initiative called Global Call for AI Red Lines (World call to establish red lines in AI). The objective: try to establish clear limits that AI should never cross. Why is it important. The advances in generative are frantic but once again what is prioritized is that development and the commercialization of these models without too many reserves when doing so. According to the signatories of the initiative, “Some advanced IA systems have already shown misleading and harmful behavior, and yet these systems are giving more autonomy to act and make decisions in the world. If not controlled, many experts, including those who are at the forefront of development, warn that it will be increasingly difficult to exercise significant human control in the coming years.” What is requested. The initiative, initiated during the 80th General Assembly of the United Nations, asks that governments act “with decision” and reach “an international agreement on clear and verifiable red lines to avoid universally unacceptable risks.” What are those red lines. What is proposed is specifically prohibit some uses and behaviors of AI that can end up being dangerous. Among them they would be for example prohibit: Those who are. In that group of more than 200 personalities are ten Nobel Prizes, AI experts, scientists, diplomats and even heads of state. Among them are well -known names as those of scientists Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Bengio who already They carry time warning of these dangers. The list is remarkable and they are also experts such as the OpenAi co -leaflet, Wojciech Zarama, or one of Deepmind’s main scientists, Ian Goodfellow. And those who do not. Although in this list of personalities there are very relevant names, it is also significant to verify that this initiative has not been signed by any CEO of one of the large technological companies involved in the field of AI. Although sometimes there have been speeches that pointed out that they were also worried about this issue and the AI ​​had to be regulatedin this case they have not participated in the initiative. Better prevent than cure. Charbel-Raphaël Segerie, responsible for a French agency called Safety Center in AI (CESIA), “the objective is not to react after an important incident occurs, but to avoid largely and potentially irreversible risks before they occur.” The European Act goes in that line. The European Union already created its regulation and launched it In August 2024, and the idea was to establish a series of restrictions based on Risk levels. At the moment the impact of this regulation has been negative, especially because has restricted the use and development of AI models in the EU. So much so that the EU has decided reverse and soften its regulations. And we already have a precedent. Just a few months after the chatgpt launch several experts made a similar request. Among them were Elon Musk – who has not signed this initiative – or Steve Wozniak, which They asked to pause for six months the training of AI models. That does not come anywhere, and without an explicit prohibition that development of AI models has continued unstoppable. In Xataka | “Estimated passengers: comply with the rules to avoid negative points,” China is implementing their social credit

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