Spain

Europe has a robot ready to clean the seabed. Spain has 8,000 kilometers of coast waiting

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Neither the proliferation of jellyfish neither lack of sand On the beaches, the great environmental problem of the oceans is marine litter. So within the European project SEACLEAR 2.0, a research team from the Technical University of Munich has developed an autonomous diving robot capable of detecting and recovering debris from the bottom. A kind of pool cleaning robot that plays in another league: the open sea. But is there really so much shit in the sea? An example: In Dubrovnik they counted more than a thousand pieces of garbage in an area of ​​only 100 square meters. In the Mediterranean, where there is tourism and ports, it is a real problem. The pool cleaning robot. The system is made up of the robot and a series of auxiliary elements necessary to fulfill the mission: an unmanned mother ship, an auxiliary boat, a drone, an explorer robot of about 50 centimeters and the robot in question. How does it work? The boat is what provides energy and data to the robots and is also responsible for mapping the bottom with camera and sonar, which allows objects to be identified even in murky waters. Afterwards, the small, agile scout robot quickly runs through it. With all this information, the pool cleaning robot descends with its eight miniturbines until it reaches that area where there is garbage. There, he picks up the objects and lifts them onto the auxiliary boat, which works as a container, using a winch. Why is it important. Because it reaches where divers cannot or does not allow them to reach: as explains dr. Stefan Sosnowskifrom the Information Technology Control Chair of the TUM, a cost-benefit analysis proves that this autonomous waste collection is profitable from 16 meters deep. That’s where human diving becomes more expensive, time-consuming and dangerous. That is to say, this robot does not replace diving, but rather complements it to offer a global cleaning solution. On the other hand, the system is not limited to extraction: it also constitutes a valuable tool for obtaining data since, thanks to the integrated sensors, it can generate maps of the bottom, identify types of waste and record its location, which can be useful in different fields, such as designing better environmental or port management policies. Context. He SEACLEAR project It is funded by the European Union through the Horizon 2020 program. The consortium is made up of eight European partners: the universities of Munich, Delft, Cluj-Napoca and Dubrovnik on the academic level, plus the Port Authority of Hamburg, the Dubrovnik-Neretva Regional Development Agency and the company Subsea Tech. That the port of Hamburg and a company are part of the group is important: it is not an academic laboratory project, but the idea is to put it into practice, to real use at sea. In detail. The intelligence of the system resides in four components: the identification of objects with camera and sonar, the manual labeling of more than 7,000 images of objects outside the seabed, the generation of 3D models through AI. From here, the system already knows where and how to grab those objects to extract them safely. The key to this extraction is a four-finger clamp capable of applying up to 4,000 N of force, enough to lift objects weighing up to 250 kilograms. However, how much with pressure sensors to regulate that force so as not to break fragile materials such as plastics or glass. If you broke a plastic object into smaller pieces, the cure would be worse than the disease. Yes, but. The first public demonstration of the system occurred in the port of Marseille, where the robot recovered, among other things, a wheel and a car seat. While it is true that it is a test in a real environment, it is a controlled demo under known conditions. The project has not yet made public data essential for its profitability and scalability, such as how many objects were recovered per hour, what is the error rate of the recognition system or the cost of operating the system in a real port for a year. On the other hand, extracting objects from the bottom has its drawback: if they are large and have been deposited there for years, they can suspend contaminated sediments and disturb fauna that has colonized them. That is, paradoxically, cleaning can also have environmental impact. In Xataka | It turns out that China’s new giant buoys are actually miniature data centers. Korea won’t like it In Xataka | Germany is installing giant concrete spheres under the sea. It has a good reason: to store renewable energy Cover | TUM

The Galaxy A27 debuts in Spain with six years of updates and what is necessary to be one of the best-selling mobile phones

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It was taking a while, but the Galaxy A27 it has become official just before July starts. It is the direct successor of the Galaxy A26one of Samsung’s best-selling phones. Is there much evolution between one or the other? Is it worth taking the leap? Let’s see it a little further down, but small spoiler: part of the 349 euros. Mobile – Samsung Galaxy A27 5G, Black, 128 GB, 6 GB RAM, 6.7″ FHD+ Super AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 3, 5000 mAh, Android 16 The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A continuous mobile with six years of updates As Samsung explained in its statement, the mobile will be available starting July 3. However, we can now buy it at MediaMarkt, both in its version with 6+128 GB (which costs 349 euros) and the one with 8+256 GB, available for 439 euros. There aren’t many changes between this phone and its predecessor, both good and bad. This means that, despite being an affordable mobile phone, it continues to maintain its six years of updates guaranteed. He Galaxy A27 It arrives with the Snapdragon 6 Gen 3 under the hood, a 4nm chip. This, together with the 6 or 8 GB of RAM memory (depending on the model we choose), will offer us more than enough performance for the most common apps. In addition, it has a 6.7-inch Super AMOLED screen with Full HD+ resolution, 120 Hz and a maximum brightness level of 800 nits. As for the battery, it comes with what is expected in this range: a 5,000 mAh battery with 25W fast charging. It is true that fast charging is fair, but Samsung optimizes its phones very well, so we can expect an autonomy of approximately a day and a half. Like all your current phones, we will also have many AI functions thanks to Galaxy AI and Gemini. At a photographic level, it has three cameras on the back, where its 50 MP main sensor with optical stabilization and an f/1.8 aperture stands out. And, finally, we cannot forget that is compatible with 5G networksBluetooth 5.1 and has a fingerprint sensor located on the side button. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Galaxy a27 ✅ THE BEST Six years of updates: It is one of the biggest assets of Samsung’s Galaxy A. It makes the phone last longer. Many AI tools: One UI brings many artificial intelligence tools and they work at a very high level, as is the case with the image eraser. ❌ THE WORST High launch price: The phone has increased in price compared to the previous generation, so it is a bit expensive at launch. Fair fast charging: A 25W fast charge is already starting to be very poor, especially if we take into account what other phones in the same price range have. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a Samsung phone because you like its ecosystem, you want it to have many years of updates and you don’t want to pay too much. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You are a user who needs their mobile phone to have more power, faster charging or a better camera. You can do very well there. Galaxy S25. You may also be interested Samsung Galaxy A26 5G 256GB Mobile Phone, Amazing Intelligence, 6GB RAM, 50MP Camera, Mint, 3 Year Manufacturer Warranty + 1 Extra Year The price could vary. We earn commission from these links XIAOMI POCO The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Samsung In Xataka | Best truly wireless earbuds (TWS) with noise cancellation. Which one to buy and seven recommended models In Xataka | Best mobile phones 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models

The legal shield of the wolf has been cracking for years. Now the majority of communities in Spain have opened the door to hunting them

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Maybe not at the level of the housing or corruption, but in the political chronicle of recent years there has been a topic of debate that has exacerbated tempers: the wolf. From 2022 The European and Spanish institutions are immersed in a thorny debate about the degree of protection of the Canis lupuswhether it should be allowed to be hunted or whether it remains vulnerable. The result of this tug of war has not been exactly positive for the species, whose legal shield It has been eroding little by little. Now just received a new setback in Spain, where the majority of communities have made it clear that they don’t look with evil eyes his hunting. What has happened? That the legal status of the wolf has just received a new setback in Spain, where it has become clear (for the umpteenth time) that everything related to the management of the herds is a matter of political dispute. To understand it, we have to go back to last Monday, when the majority of communities and the Ministry of Ecological Transition (Miteco) staged their difference of opinions around a report that, in practice, will influence the really relevant issue: whether or not wolf hunting is allowed in Spain. What exactly was discussed? He sexennial report about the situation of the wolf in Spain. Basically it is a study that shows how the country’s herds evolved between 2019 and 2024 and (importantly) concludes whether or not the current conservation status of the species can be considered ‘favorable’. Said like this, it may not seem like a big deal, but that label (‘favorable’ or ‘unfavorable’) in turn influences whether hunting should be allowed. Furthermore, it is a report required by the European Commission (EC) and which is already a year late: Spain should have sent it before July 31, 2025. Why has it taken so long? Because before the report had to go through the Sectoral Environment Conferencea body in which two parties sit with totally opposite positions: the ministry, in favor of considering the situation of the wolf in Spain as ‘unfavorable’, and therefore in need of high protection; and the majority of autonomous communities, who believe that after years of preservation the species is already in a ‘favorable’ situation. And what did they agree? The positions of each other are so far apart that at Monday’s meeting they were put on the table two reportsboth focused on the wolf but with different conclusions. One was made by Miteco and advocated protecting the herds. The other was presented by the Xunta de Galicia and basically concluded that the herds have increased so much since 2019 that we can now speak of an acceptable level of conservation in the Atlantic and Mediterranean. That last one was (by far) the position that received the most endorsements during the meeting. The autonomous governments of Galicia, Andalusia, Cantabria, La Rioja, Region of Murcia, Valencian Community, Aragon, Canary Islands, Extremadura, Balearic Islands, Madrid, Castilla y León and the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla supported the report that concludes that the situation of the wolf today in Spain is “favorable.” The only votes against were those of the Government and Catalonia, which delegated to Miteco. Basque Country and Castilla-La Mancha they abstained. What does the Government say? The Minister of Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, claimed on Tuesday that “technical and scientific rigor” prevailed and recalled that the objective of the report should be to show the state of conservation of the species in the last six years. Along similar lines, Jordi Sargatal, from the Government, judged “without scientific basis or value” the report of the communities led by the PP. Miteco has actually advanced that it will send to the European Commission “all the information” on the subject, which would include both studies. Just a year ago the ministry published a census which concluded that in Spain there are 333 herds, 12% more than in the previous census, carried out between 2012 and 2014. Although this data is positive, the Government itself accompanied it with a footnote: that 12% is still insufficient. “Scientists consider that, to ensure long-term genetic viability, 500 herds must be reached.” What do the communities say? They argue that the species has recovered ground, which would justify opening the door to hunters. “The current status of the book is favorable and there is no scientific basis to justify it having a special protection regime,” argues the Xunta. At stake are not the herds, but their impact, as remember Joaquín A. Pino, counselor of Castilla y León, who recalled that ranchers “suffer recurrently” attacks from wolves. “The management of the species must be based on the reality accredited by the six-year report to also protect extensive livestock farming and rural areas,” insist the regional government before remembering that damage to the primary sector has been increasing by more than 10% annually and, only in Castilla y León, was it recorded last year 4,474 attacks from wolves to livestock farms. The compensation for these damages (6,294 dead cattle) exceeded four million. Images | Arturo de Frias Marques (Wikipeda) and AR ® Higher School of the Environment (Flickr) and Mytec In Xataka | Mexico desperately needed Mexicans to care about axolotls. So he put them on the bills

While the heat ‘Spanishizes’ Europe at full speed, Spain begins to ask itself a key question: whether it will have to ‘saharize’ itself

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During recent summers, as heat waves have spread their tentacles across the continent, we Spaniards have seen ourselves vindicated. At last, Germany discovered the napFrance would fall in love with the blinds and England would have to admit that dining late has its benefits. It was seen, let’s face it, as a cultural victory. We did not have the other side of the coin: that climate change is a treacherous animal and, while Europe flirts with our habits, customs and solutions, we are being forced to abandon them. The question was not whether we will manage to ‘Spanishize’ Europe; It was whether we are going to have to ‘saharize’ Spain. What we are doing is not enough… In the midst of a heat wave, it becomes evident that many of the things we have been doing no longer work. But the truth is that the heat is no longer “an isolated episode.” According to the State of the Climate of Spain 2025 According to AEMET, the average temperature has risen 1.75 °C since 1961. In 2025, 25 records were broken for warm days and none for cold days (when one would expect five of each) and, as far as we know, summer lengthens by about nine days per decade. The consequences have changed radically and can be seen with a single piece of information: the The need for refrigeration in Spain has multiplied by 2.6 between 1982 and 2022. In this sense, Royal Decree-Law 4/2023 has already certified the obvious: the Spanish working day has to be legally subordinated to the thermometer and to the AEMET notices. In Xataka Experts agree that opening windows at night and closing them during the day is no longer the best strategy against heat. …and, in fact, we are stopping doing many things. The nap is a good example: only 16% do it daily and the 60% of Spaniards never sleep. It is due to the social evolution of the labor market, it is true; but also because at certain temperatures, the nap is no longer restorative and we can only turn on the air conditioning. When talking about ‘Saharanization’ there is a controversial component, of course; but there is also a grain of truth. There is extremely striking thingsfor an average Spaniard (like drinking hot drinks because they help regulate body temperature more efficiently than cold drinks) that make all the sense in the world in a very hot climate. And it is reasonable to think that there are many of those things that we will tend to adopt. It has always been said that Islamic culture tended to conceive houses ‘inwards’ and gave a lot of weight to internal domestic life, but do we really believe that it is a free decision and not a cultural adaptation to a very warm environment? {“videoId”:”x8006fc”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”How to sleep when it’s very hot and you don’t have air conditioning”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”217″} There is more, much more. Because the signs are there. Cities are reacting: Barcelona has gone from 197 climate shelters in 2021 to more than 500 this summerwith coverage of 99% of the population within less than ten minutes walk; Bilbao, for its part, has around 131 spaces. Leisure also changes and Summer bookings to Norway up 37% while the north of the peninsula gains tourists. That is, it is no longer whether we change “habits, customs and solutions” but how we do it. We should talk more about this because that is where a good part of our near future lies. Image | Sam Williams In Xataka |ENT doctors agree: “Sleeping with air conditioning forces the nose to work excessively” (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 While the heat ‘Spanishizes’ Europe at full speed, Spain begins to ask itself a key question: whether it will have to ‘saharize’ itself was originally published in Xataka by Javier Jimenez .

HBO Max brings to Spain an advertising system that identifies the clothes they are wearing on the screen to try to sell them to you

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You have already gotten used to paying a cheaper rate on your subscription in exchange for watching ads. That model is about to take a new turn: artificial intelligence to detect which objects are “saleable” from what appears in the series you watch, to try to sell it to you. Similar to Prime Video advertising that leads to the corresponding sale on Amazon, but a step further in terms of sophistication. What does it consist of? Warner Bros. Discovery announced on June 19 that HBO Max will launch in Spain and other European countries, such as the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and the Nordic countries (in addition to Brazil and Mexico in America), before the end of 2026, a new advertising format called Moments. The system uses artificial intelligence to detect the objects that appear on the screen during a series or movie and inserts advertisements linked to those objects in real time: if the protagonists use a bicycle, the advertisement can be for that bicycle, or an equivalent one. If the scene takes place on a flight, the following commercial break may carry an airline commercial. Those responsible. The system is developed by the American company KERV.aiwhose technology already works with different applications for Disney, Hulu, Paramount, NBCU, ESPN, Samsung Ads or Vevo. Its proposal is object-by-object analysis of audiovisual content: it not only identifies the general theme of a scene, but also the specific visual elements that appear in it, with sufficient precision to correlate them with specific advertiser products. 25,000 moments. According to Warner, the system has already identified 25,000 moments in the HBO Max catalog where these types of ads can be activated. Thematic categories available to advertisers include cooking, fashion, beauty, luxury goods, fitness or well-being. In the United States, where Moments is already active, Warner has recorded a 19% increase in viewer engagement and a 13% increase in purchase intent compared to conventional advertising formats. Juicier than product placement. The fact that a brand pays for its car to appear in a movie or its soft drink to be on the protagonists’ table requires a prior agreement between the brand and the production team, negotiated before filming. It is effective, but expensive (also at the organizational level). Moments, however, works on top of existing content. The AI ​​detects the item and makes it part of advertising inventory. It is very attractive for advertisers and the platform: content shot five years ago can generate advertising impacts today. All this theoretically, of course: no one has signed in blood that the series and films are not going to begin to modify their future content to try to get closer, precisely, to a 2.0 version of the product placement traditional, which worked with the same premise: what you see can be bought. Amazon arrived first. In May 2025, Amazon announced in its annual presentation to advertisers a format of pause ads contextual for Prime Video. Amazon’s AI analyze the scene at the exact moment the viewer presses pause and generates in real time an ad with dynamic copy adapted to what appears on the screen. The difference with HBO is obvious, and in favor of Prime Video’s business: jumping from an ad to Amazon does not pose any problem for the viewer: according to company data88% of Prime Video viewers in the United States have purchased from Amazon, allowing you to introduce purchasing habits data into the equation. No cookies. Warner, in fact, sells just the opposite. Moments’ press release highlights that the system uses “contextual signals instead of personal data”, meaning it uses a “privacy-first” design. Warner lacks the personal data that Amazon has, so it embraces this advantage for the user: it does not require tracking the user between sessions or building a profile. Moments doesn’t know who you are, only what you’re seeing at any given moment. Advertisements on platforms streaming It is, increasingly, a very juicy business. According to studies As of August 2025, 45% of Netflix’s consumption in its ad-supported markets was already occurring from the ad-supported plan, up from 34% a year earlier. HBO Max recorded an increase of ten percentage points in the same period. That is, the proportion of viewers who watch streaming with advertising it does not stop growing, and Moments arrives at a time when this advertising inventory is crying out for more sophisticated ways to cajole the viewer. In Xataka | All streaming platforms are including ads in their programming. And they reveal a great crisis in the sector

the AEMET rule to declare a heat wave in Spain

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We spent the summer talking about heat waves and extreme temperaturesbut sometimes it is difficult for us to differentiate exactly what they are. If we look back to the summer of 2025, we remember that there was constant talk of heat waves. We may have the feeling that July and August were a huge heat wave. However, if we look at the data from the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET)we will see that only 3 heat waves were recorded in the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands and 2 in the Canary Islands. The key is that they were long heat waves. Without going any further, the first of them extended from June 18 to July 4. The next one arrived on July 15, so we didn’t even have two weeks of respite. Be that as it may, the concept of a heat wave is somewhat diffuse. It is not described the same in some countries as in others, and even has variations in the same country. Of course, no matter what definition we stick to, it is clear that they are becoming more and more intense. That is why it is so important to take measures against global warming. What exactly is a heat wave: the scientific definition Actually, There is no single definition of what a heat wave is.. Broadly speaking, it can be considered a prolonged period of extreme temperatures for a specific region. As we have already seen, each country has its own definition, which usually follows historically selected criteria. Even institutions can have very specific definitions. For example, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) define a heat wave as an unusually hot and dry or hot and humid period in a specific place, with visible effects on nature and people’s health. Contrary to what usually happens with the definitions of different countries, these two institutions include the health of people and the effects on nature as important factors in the definition of a heat wave. The three requirements of the AEMET to declare a heat wave in Spain In the case of Spain, the criteria to describe a heat wave They are provided by the AEMET. According to this, three requirements must be met: Duration of at least 3 consecutive days Detection of extremely high temperatures in at least 10% of the reference observatories Maximums located above the 95th percentile of temperatures measured between July and August from 1971 to 2000. These criteria refer to mainland Spain and the Balearic Islands.. With the Canary Islands there is an exception, since they only have 6 observatories. If we obeyed the 10% rule, it would be enough to detect extreme temperatures above the guidelines in only one of them. It is too little, so there is a special requirement that at least two observatories detect temperatures above the 95th percentile. How long does a heat wave last? There is no defined duration for a heat wave. As we have seen, in Spain it must last at least 3 consecutive days to be considered as such. And from there to heaven. At the moment, the longest that has been recorded in Spain lasted 26 days and It was produced in 2015. It should be noted that in 2022 the heat waves were shorter, but it stands out for being the year with the most heat wave days added together. A total of 41, to which 2025 came dangerously close, with 33 days under a heat wave. Other countries, according to their criteria, have experienced heat waves that may be shorter, but very surprising due to their location. For example, in 2025, the subarctic regions of Norway, Sweden and Finland recorded their worst heat wave since records exist, with 21 consecutive days and temperatures that exceeded 30°C within the Arctic Circle itself. Why does the temperature threshold change depending on the province? As we have already seen, for the AEMET, one of its criteria when defining a heat wave is that the reference stations register temperatures above the 95th percentile measured in July and August from 1971 to 2000. Logically, each province will have different records. The records of Seville will not be the same as those of Oviedo. The 95th percentile temperature will be much higher in the Andalusian capital than in the Asturian capital. Be that as it may, it should be noted that there is no threshold per province, but rather per reference station. Each province may have several of these seasons, with slightly different temperatures. To give an example based on AEMET datain Jaén there are three seasons, whose thresholds are 39ºC, 40ºC and 42ºC. If we go to colder areas, in A Coruña there are three seasons and their thresholds are 29.2ºC, 30ºC and 31.6ºC. How to know if there is a heat wave alert in your autonomous community The best way to know if there is a heat wave in our autonomous community or an alert for intensely high temperatures is to stay up to date with AEMET updates. In any case, it should be noted that, individually, we are more interested in being up to date with the notices. We may not have a heat wave for a few days, because there are not enough stations in the region that meet the criteria, but there may be temperatures high enough in specific points to put people’s health at risk. Therefore, we must make a monitoring unusually high temperature alerts; which, as with rain or wind, follow a color code (green, yellow, orange or red) to indicate the level of risk and the measures to take. Real-time weather warning map: from yellow alert to red warning Unusually high temperature alerts are defined with three colors. Yellow refers to significant risk, orange to high risk and red to extreme risk.. If the area is colored green (or gray in the case of maps), there is no risk. Every day, the AEMET updates its color warning maps, so it is important … Read more

Spain has standardized a small trick to avoid rear-end accidents. The DGT is not very satisfied

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Emergency braking and emergency lights are words that, by pure common sense, we could understand that one always goes together with the other. So much so that not only in Spain have we assimilated that the way to act in a traffic jam is to activate them almost immediately, manufacturers have also been incorporating it into the latest models. However, the DGT through the General Traffic Regulations It continues to ask us to act in a slightly different way and that, directly, has become somewhat obsolete. better than the warning…with your hand? Rear-end accidents are one of the most common types of crashes on Spanish roads, especially now that summer is coming and trips are multiplying. Although there is no official data that segments this type of accident, claims and insurance experts estimate in 5% of total crashes those that occur by reach. These are usually accidents with low mortality rates but those who suffer them can be seriously injured. whiplash that usually causes problems over time if they do not heal well. Rear-end accidents are not usually a big problem in terms of mortality rates, but they can cause serious damage to our cars. And although without sufficient safety distance it is difficult to avoid them, drivers have assimilated a way of acting to reduce them. The most common thing in this type of situation in which we find a traffic jam in front of us is that we brake with a certain force and immediately the hand goes to the emergency button (a problem in cars where the emergency button warning is on the ceiling). That is, we activate the signal while braking. However, in the General Traffic Regulations, article 109 c) reads the following: “The intention to immobilize the vehicle or to brake its progress significantly, even when such events are imposed by traffic circumstances, must be warned, whenever possible, by repeatedly using the brake lights or by moving the arm alternately up and down with short and rapid movements.” And then it is pointed out that: When the immobilization takes place on a highway or highway, or in places or circumstances that significantly reduce visibility, the presence of the vehicle must be signaled by using the emergency light, if available, and, where appropriate, with the position lights. That is, according to the DGT we must issue warnings using the brake lights or by putting our hand out the window (less advisable if we have to make an unexpected dodging movement). And we will only turn on the emergency lights if we are immobilized. Colleagues explain Motorpassion that technically the DGT cannot fine us for using the emergency lights to signal a traffic jam before stopping and, in truth, it is difficult for us to think that a traffic officer would fine us for it in those circumstances. The wording made in the General Traffic Regulations is marked by the type of vehicle that was driven many years ago and it has no meaning since ABS (invented in 1978 by Mercedes and mandatory in every European car since 2004, although most already had it) is the norm. If a driver drives a car without ABS, the car will lock the wheels under heavy braking and it is easy to lose control. ABS prevents this from happening by relieving the brake pressure slightly even if we press it fully to allow the wheels to turn slightly and not lock. The only way to act emergency braking in a car without ABS is to do this same thing. You press the brake hard and then lift it very slightly and press it again. The action is repeated as many times as necessary, hence the wording of article 109 of the General Traffic Regulations. Since cars have this system, this way of acting is unnecessary and even dangerous because it will be the car that acts for us. But in addition, many of today’s cars already automatically activate the warning if we apply enough force on the brake pedal. This function is also deactivated if our intervention when the foot is lifted from the brake. Photo | Mark Stuckey and Samuel Girven In Xataka | There is no new rule that prevents driving in the left lane: the DGT already punishes it with a 200 euro fine

Spain had a master plan for the European fighter. The problem is that Germany just got a girlfriend with a lot of “money”

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In 1986, Spain, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom decided to join forces to build the Eurofighter Typhoon. It took almost two decades to turn it into realitybut that project left a key lesson: in Europe, fighters are not built with engineering alone, but with industrial and political balances that sometimes last longer than the technology itself. The collapse and plan B. It we count last week. He collapse of the Future Combat Air System has not only been the failure of a large European military program of 100,000 million euros, it has also been the moment in which Spain understood that he could not wait for France and Germany to resolve their industrial wars. For years, the FCAS It was sold as the large sixth-generation European fighter, but tensions between Airbus and Dassault Aviation they ended up blocking the distribution of work, leadership and technological architecture. When Berlin withdrew, Madrid lost more than just a partner: it lost the pillar that supported its own bet. FCAS concept The Spanish exit. Spain had been moving in silence for some time. With Indra gaining weight in defense and with growing conversations with Saab, the idea was clear: if FCAS sank, there was room to build an alternative axle with Germany and Sweden around satellite technologies such as sensors, combat cloud, accompanying drones and command systems. It was not yet a “new fighter” as such, but it was a survival platform industrial so as not to be tied to Paris. It was a lateral route to keep the Spanish option alive within the sixth European generation. Italy changes the board. And then Italy has appeared. Leonardo’s new management has made it clear that it would be delighted to open the door of the Global Combat Air Program to Germany. On paper, that is a logical invitation: Berlin brings money, industry and experience accumulated with the Eurofighter Typhoon. But strategically it is a bomb for Spain. Because the centerpiece of your plan B (Germany) could stop looking towards the Swedish axis and turn towards Rome, London and Tokyo. In a matter of weeks, the Spanish escape route could become a dead end. Germany is looking for a leading role. The German movement also has internal logic. Berlin does not want to be a secondary partner. He made it clear within the FCAS and he is repeating it now: if he enters another program, he wants a role proportional to your investment and its industrial weight. That sits poorly with France, where Dassault Aviation never wanted to let go control, but it fits much better with Italian flexibility. Furthermore, BAE Systems and the German branch of Airbus already they cooperated successfully on the Eurofighter. For Berlin, GCAP is starting to look less like an alternative and more like a logical continuation. The Spanish dilemma. And here is the big crack for Spain. If Germany joins GCAP, Madrid stays trapped between two worlds: a mortally wounded FCAS and an alternative plan that loses its most important partner before consolidating. Spain can try to continue punch to France, but that would mean accepting a (much) more subordinate role. You could also look for a direct approach to Italy or even Japan and the United Kingdom, but arriving late to an already structured program reduces a lot the negotiation margin. The risk is brutal: being left out of the table where the next great European air combat ecosystem is decided. Europe repeats its old problem. All this once again reveals the great industrial drama European: too many projects, too many egos and, above all, too much overlap. While the United States and China move forward with centralized programs, Europe continues to fragment its resources between rival blocs. In that sense, Spain believed it had found a safety net after the FCAS. The problem is that this network depended on Germany… and now Germany has a new dance couple. Image | Picryl In Xataka | Spain, France and Germany had joined together to illuminate the “European fighter” of the future: now that path is dead In Xataka | The European fighter has died, but Europe still has one last bullet to avoid the F-35: the alliance of Spain and Sweden

Spain has 15 million pets that cannot set foot on a good part of its beaches. That’s something that’s starting to change.

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It comes with going to a park or taking a walk through any city in the country, but in case there were still any doubts, the Government recently provided definitive proof that Spain is a land of pets. The first official census has counted neither more nor less than 15.2 millionof which 7.6 are dogs. With such figures it is better understood that, as summer approaches, more and more people are asking themselves a question: Can we go to the beach with our four-legged friends? The answer is: it depends. Reviewing the figures. We mentioned it before: in Spain there are many (many) pets. It is something that we intuited thanks to the censuses carried out by feed manufacturers, companies dedicated to the care of pets or the Companion Animal Identification Network (REIAC), but which has been confirmed by the first official study of the State. It details that in Spain there are 15,171,569 pets, of which 7,562,893 are dogs. They represent, respectively, 14.1 and 9.6% more than in 2021. Beyond the raw data, the census confirm that in Spain there are now more pets than people under 30 years of age or who live in the country almost double of dogs than small children. Hence the pet economy this awakening the appetite of more and more companies (from feed manufacturers to insurance companies and venture capital) or that, when planning their summer vacations, they have already many families looking for accommodation (or even destinations) pet friendly. To the beach with the dog. Proof of this enormous interest is that every year the blogs specialized in pets (and also some other generalist) publish maps and online guides to dog-friendly beaches during the bathing season, which usually runs from June to September. Their ‘photograph’ does not always coincide, but usually includes more than a hundred sandy beaches. Some place the total count around 130 beaches. Others raise it to more than 150. That disparity is not surprising because the list can change from one year to the next and not all sandy beaches that accept dogs do so in the same way. Fine spinning. Last year, in fact, RTVE published a map in which he differentiated between three main types of beach, depending on the freedom that the dogs had on each one. The most comfortable for pets would be the ‘complete’ beaches, those to which they can freely access all year round. In second place would be the ‘partial’ sandbanks, which tolerate pets, although with small print. For example, the presence of dogs can be restricted to only a defined stretch or a certain time slot, such as at night, when the number of bathers is reduced on the beaches. Finally there would be what RTVE calls ‘nearby’ beachesstretches of coast close to urban areas in which access is allowed in at least part of the sandy area. Why so much complication? Basically, because the Coastal Lawthe framework standard that regulates the maritime-terrestrial public domain, leaves a wide gap that have been covered by the regional and local administrations. And that challenge has not been faced in the same way everywhere. What’s more, sometimes the topic has generated intense social, political and institutional debates. One of the latest examples has been left by Gijón on account of his new ordinance municipal on animal welfare: in March, during the allegations phase, the Principality he was reluctant to the presence of dogs on the city’s beaches, although later nuanced that the decision depends on the City Council. From the beaches to Change.org. Another interesting case is found in A Coruña, where it has been activated a collection of signatures in Change so that the Consistory allows dogs on the beaches in summer in night timefrom 9:30 p.m. to 10:00 a.m. Right now the local ordinance prohibits pets on beaches between June 1 and September 30, with the only exception of the Bens sandy area, which is considered a “dog beach”. Along the Spanish coast there are many more With these characteristics, which are added to other sandy areas where dogs are allowed during the summer, although at night. One figure, two conclusions. let there be between 100 and 150 beaches that can be considered (to a greater or lesser extent) dog-friendly) leaves several conclusions. The first, as recently reported on the Sr.Perro blog, is that the number of sandy areas in which there is a clear regulation that allows enjoyment with dogs is very small. In general, it is estimated that Spain has somewhat more 3,500 beaches. That the proportion is so low is explained, in part, by the requirements that all those sandy areas must comply with opt for the badge of ‘Blue Flag’. The “Guide to Blue Flag criteria” of 2025 states that “the prohibition of domestic animals on the beach must cover the entire area of ​​the candidate beach, including the bathing area.” “Local regulations must prohibit the presence of domestic animals on the beach during bathing season, even outside bathing hours,” the document insistswhich cites WHO studies on “microbiological risks” associated with the presence of excrement on beaches. Gaining weight (little by little). That is the second conclusion that the sandbank map leaves. dog-friendly. Although they remain a minority, some sources they specify that their number has been increasing due to the increase in the pet census and citizen pressure, which sometimes results in campaigns like the one activated this year (also in 2025) in A Coruña. A quick check on Google shows that Sanlucar de Barrameda, Marin, Vila-seca, Cadiz, Punta Umbria either Almeriaamong other populations, have taken steps in recent years (or months) to make it easier for people to enjoy the places of a dip. Image | Nathalie Anfuso (Unsplash) In Xataka | Your cat asks you to cuddle and then bites you. It’s not evil, it’s that you don’t understand its signs

One would expect that finding a meteorite crater in Spain would be easy, but it has taken more than 20 years to confirm the first one. And it is in Almería

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It is estimated that on Earth About 17,000 meteorites fall a year. However, some break down into unrecoverable fragments and others are mistaken for ordinary rocks. Many may be abandoned at the back of some closet. In fact, to date, only 80,000 meteorites have been located worldwide. But if finding meteorites is complicated, finding their impact craters is much more difficult. The figures speak for themselves. Today, only 196 of these structures have been documented. In Spain, for example, none had been found until very recently. There were two footprints suspected of having been left by a meteorite, one in Azuaranear Zaragoza, and another in the Tabernas basin, between the Almeria towns of Alhama de Almería and Alhabia. The first has been deflating as it has been investigated, but the second has finally been recognized as such by the international scientific community. It’s now official: the first meteorite impact crater has been found in Spain. It wasn’t an earthquake, it was a meteorite. The discovery and description of this crater is the result of research carried out by the University of Almería, the Astrobiology Center and the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA). It all started in 2005, when two scientists from the University of Almería, Juan Antonio Sánchez Garrido and Sebastián Sánchez, set out to study Fat Megabeda much studied rock, which for many years was considered to have seismic origin. However, they found some characteristics that did not fit with what is known as an earthquake. There was an anomaly with platinum group elements, such as iridium, which has been located in many impact craters of meteorites detected in other parts of the Earth and even on other planets. They also tried to search shocked quartz. That is, a form of quartz that, when observed under a microscope, shows a structure displaced along crystallographic planes. It is something that can only happen at exorbitantly high pressures, such as those generated by the impact of a meteorite. Suspicions were becoming clearer. The Gordo Megabed was formed by a seismic movement, it is true, but said movement was caused by a meteorite impacting our planet. The tests continue. Since that discovery was made, the area has been and continues to be excavated and this possible impact crater analyzed. Thus, they have also been found shatter conesknown in Spanish as splintered cones. These are striated and conical fracture surfaces found in rocks that have undergone very high pressure. This pressure is only related to the impact of a meteorite or a nuclear explosion. Since the calculations carried out indicate that this structure is 8 million years old, a nuclear explosion is ruled out. Rock cores extracted in the excavation But that’s not all. Magnetic evidence has also been detected. When a rock is subjected to very high temperatures, it acquires something known as a negative magnetic anomaly. With the impact of a large meteorite, great pressure is generated, which in turn gives rise to an enormous increase in temperature. They can reach more than 2,000ºC. Therefore, it is more than normal for these anomalies to be detected, the monitoring of which has allowed the crater to be delimited in the case of Almería. Or, at least, it allowed us to define where the crater was suspected to be. The Swedes enter the scene. The fact that an impact crater has never been detected in Spain means that Spanish scientists are logically not familiar with this type of anomaly in the rock. For this reason, these scientists from the University of Almería partnered with the rest of the aforementioned institutions, but they also consulted Swedish researchers. In Nordic countries, such as Sweden, Norway and Finland, there are older geological materials, in which several impact craters have been detected. When these scientists joined the investigation, they confirmed the suspicions that had gradually taken over Spanish scientists. They had found the impact crater of a meteorite. The first in Spain. The characteristics of the crater. When we think of a crater we imagine it as a hole clearly drilled into the Earth. Like the typical craters of the Moon. However, we must keep in mind that on Earth there are winds and geological movements, absent on our satellite, that do not leave the craters visible over the years. What these scientists have found is close to the surface in some points, but in others it is buried with a sediment pressure of 800, 900 and even 1,000 meters. Even so, with all of the above, we know that it is a crater with a radius of 5 kilometers, along with a fragmented area that reaches a radius of 24 kilometers. That is, in a way we have the “hole” left by the meteorite and, around it, all the ground that is fractured as a result of the impact. The very edges of the crater are what we see today as mountains. In the video below it can be seen perfectly. And what about the meteorite? There are very well-studied impact craters that have made it possible to calculate the relationship between the size of a meteorite and the radius of the crater it leaves. Taking this and some other factors into account, it is estimated that the meteorite must have measured around 800 meters. All this is what is known so far. The excavations are not over yet. Rock cores are being extracted with them. That is, cylinders of material excavated for subsequent analysis. With this they hope to find even more crushed quartz and new evidence that will allow them to describe more concisely what happened in that area of ​​the Tabernas desert, then submerged under the sea, when a huge meteorite hit it 8 million years ago. Images | SEA In Xataka | In 1724 a meteorite fell in Germany: we have just discovered that it contained a material ‘impossible’ for physics

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