Spain

In Spain we have glorified the long nap. In scientific studies they have a different opinion on the matter.

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The siesta is, for many, a fundamental pillar of the Mediterranean lifestyle and an essential pleasure during the afternoon to be able to endure the rest of the day. However, scientific evidence has put this habit under the microscope, especially when naps last several hours and even give you time to dream several times. And the duration, frequency and especially age have a lot to say about the impact on health. The border of time. The current scientific consensus draws a fairly clear line between the classic power nap and the nap of putting on your pajamas and getting into bed for several hours. Because the barrier is marked precisely at the half hour mark, meaning that whoever passes it may begin to notice changes in their health. Here, a recent study from the University of Murcia analyzed to more than 3,000 adults in a Mediterranean environment to analyze the effect of naps. And the reality is that spending more than these 30 minutes was associated with having a higher BMI, a higher incidence of obesity and also being more likely to have a metabolic syndrome such as, for example, diabetes or hypertension. And there is more. When it comes to cardiovascular health, the reality is that the heart can suffer. Here the European Society of Cardiology presented In 2023, different data associated naps longer than 30 minutes with almost double the risk of developing atrial fibrillation. But also the American Heart Association took data who supported this point by pointing out that naps lasting longer than an hour increased the rate of cardiovascular disease by 1.82 times. The age factor. In this sense, one of the most important studies published is found in JAMA, that after following 1,338 older adults for 19 years and objectively measuring their sleep, they were able to see the effect it had. Here it was seen that sleeping more during the day, doing so more frequently or concentrating the nap in the morning was associated with with higher mortality from any cause. Specifically, each extra hour of daytime sleep increased the risk of mortality by 13%. There is much left to investigate. Among the studies that are currently available, no clear correlation has been found, that is, that someone who takes a three-hour nap a day should not have any problems. The only thing that is pointed out is that having the need to sleep excessively during the day can be a consequence of a poor night’s rest because there is a disease that is beginning to see the light, such as sleep apnea. You can take a nap. Although it may seem that we are demonizing the nap, the reality is that it has an important beneficial component when it comes to naps. less than 30 minutes. Here we are achieving an improvement in cognitive performance and it is also a way to recharge our energy a little for the rest of the day. But from here to actively planning a nap that can last for hours, there is a long way that should undoubtedly be avoided. Images | Unsplash In Xataka | Sleeping four hours a day and performing at your best is not a myth, it is a genetic rarity of 1% of the population

Spain continues refining oil and, once again, is once again Europe’s energy lifeline

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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused panic in Asia and set off all the alarms in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Energy Agency (IEA). Faced with this global shortage, the Spanish system has done its homework. According to Agency EFEour country’s refineries have made their operations more flexible to maximize the production of petroleum derivatives, backed by a supply of crude oil that, for now, remains secure. Gonzalo Escribano, principal researcher at the Elcano Royal Institute, explains in statements to EFE that Spain has “specialized and better adapted refineries” than most of its neighbors. The contrast is blatant: Italy or Germany made the strategic mistake of closing 20% ​​of their refining capacity in recent years, outsourcing production to the Persian Gulf or to chinese refineries. Today, that decision is taking a historic toll on them. The real crisis is in the derivatives. It is easy to look out the window and think that the energy apocalypse has not arrived because there is still fuel at the gas stations. But it is a logistical mirage, maritime supply lines they move at the speed of a bicycle by the sheer inertia of the gigantic supertankers (VLCC) that were already sailing before the closure. The jam of more than 800 ships in the Gulf has already erased hundreds of millions of barrels from the market, and the real problem facing the world is not the lack of crude oil, but of already processed products. The first sector to suffocate has been aviation, which acts like the canary in the mine. global airlines They are canceling thousands of flights in the face of kerosene that has soared above 170 euros per barrel. At this point, the Spanish Fuel Industry Association (ACIE) corroborates EFE that the current bottleneck is in distillates such as diesel and kerosene. The Spanish lifeguard. By keeping its refineries at maximum performance, our country not only covers its demand, but also establishes itself as a logistics node capable of helping its neighbors. The contrast is abysmal: while the United Kingdom is forced to import 80% of the kerosene that its planes burn, Spain is capable of producing 80% of what it consumes. This not only protects the internal market from shortages, but also positions the peninsula to export the surplus to a thirsty Europe. In a scenario where the barrel maintains a “war premium” that inflates prices, having the final product already processed makes the Spanish plants the great emergency supplier. Those countries that decided to outsource their production of derivatives to Asia today depend on Spanish capacity so that their carriers and airlines do not remain grounded. The strategic “bunker”: the ace up CORES’ sleeve. How is it possible for Spain to hold its own if it imports practically 100% of the crude oil it consumes? The answer lies in our emergency reserves. Spain counts with an autonomy of about 105 dayswell above the 92 required by international law, managed through a mixed system between the industry and the Strategic Reserves Corporation (CORES). But the real “trick” of this bunker is not the quantity, but the quality: more than half (54.4%) of CORES’ reserves are already refined diesel fuel. Even if Saudi Arabia manages to bypass the Hormuz blockade by sending crude oil through its pipelines to the Red Sea, Europe has a serious problem if it does not have enough factories to distill it. By having the refining duties done in advance, the Spanish tanks buy the country more than three months of logistical peace to prevent the trucks from stopping. There is another safe passage: the “green shield” exception. Added to this fossil shielding is the electrical part, a front where Spain plays with a structural advantage. More than 60% of our generation mix It is already renewable, supported by massive solar and wind deployment and a solid hydraulic cushion. In the European electricity system—where the most expensive technology, usually gas, dictates the final price of all electricity—this green park acts as a retaining wall. During the central hours of the day, the massive injection of clean energy manages to sink wholesale market prices, reaching zero or even negative values. This protects us from the brutal gas increases that are suffocating bills in Germany or Italy. In practice, it allows the national industry to maintain a vital respite and a huge competitive advantage during sunny hours, cushioning an economic blow that is devastating manufacturers in the rest of the continent. A life preserver that floats, but is not immune. Spain has become a fortunate energy island, but not by chance. It is the result of not having succumbed to the temptation to dismantle its hydrocarbon infrastructure while, in parallel, investing massively in the transition towards sun and wind. However, it would be a mistake to become complacent. The life jacket floats, but the sea is rougher than ever. Fatih Birol, director of the IEA, has warned that this crisis exceeds those of 1973, 1979 and 2022 combined. And our country is not without cracks: we still lack massive batteries to store our renewable energy (which makes us vulnerable to gas every time it gets dark) and our external dependence on crude oil remains almost absolute. We have gained precious time, but the hyper-connected economy of the 21st century reminds us that when the world slows down, no one is completely unscathed. Image | Gregorio Puga Bailón Xataka | First it was the automotive industry, now Europe is going to lose another of its star industries to China

The landing of the first OPPO Ultra in Spain begins with a huge camera

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Sometimes it is enough to look at a device for a few seconds to understand where a brand is going, and that is exactly what happened to me with the OPPO Find X9 Ultra. On paper, its size and the volume of the photographic module could make you think of a cumbersome mobile phone, and it is, but in the hand it also feels light, comfortable and clearly premium. Furthermore, it is a device that does not try to hide its photographic ambition, but rather makes it a central part of its identity. OPPO summoned us to a meeting to calmly explain a product to which it gives special weight within its catalogue, and it is not difficult to understand why. This is the first Ultra that the brand officially puts on the table in Spain and Europe, a move with which it wants to reinforce its position in the highest range. In fact, we will go into more depth about this topic in an interview we had with Kevin Cho, CEO of OPPO in Spain. Oppo Find X9 Ultra technical sheet oppo find x9 ULTRA Dimensions and weight Tundra Umber: 163.16 × 76.97 × 9.10 mm 236g Canyon Orange: 163.16 × 76.97 × 8.65mm 235g screen 6.82 inch AMOLED QHD+ 2K resolution Screen-to-body ratio: 94.60% Refresh Rate: Maximum 144 Hz Brightness: HBM 1800 nits processor Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 memory 12GB storage 512GB battery 7,500 mAh (silicon-carbon) 100W SUPERVOOC 50W AIRVOOC rear cameras 200 MP f/1.5 main, OIS 50 MP f/2.0 Ultra Wide Angle 200 MP f/3.5 3x telephoto, OIS 50 MP f/2.2 10x telephoto, OIS front camera 50MP f/2.0 connectivity 5G Dual SIM NFC Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 6.0 GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BDS operating system ColorOS 16 others IP69 certification Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor price 1,699 euros The camera is not an addition, it is the starting point Where this intention is most noticeable is in the design language itself. OPPO explained to us that it has been inspired by the Hasselblad X2Dand that reference is not just an aesthetic wink, but in a very specific way of building the terminal. The camera module, with that Master Lens design on a hexagonal piece, dominates the rear and does not try to go unnoticed. On the contrary, what we see here is a deliberate decision: to take that protuberance as part of the product’s character and turn it into a way of telling us that the camera is not an add-on, but the center of everything. That idea is also transferred to the materials and the way the phone seeks to fit in the hand. We have seen two very different finishes. Tundra Umber is committed to ecological vegan leather, with dark tones and brown nuances, and it is the one that best expresses that search for a firmer grip and a feeling closer to that of a camera. Canyon Orange, on the other hand, offers a more striking proposal, with a matte finish and the use of aeronautical fiber to reinforce resistance. If we go down from the brand narrative to the terrain of the technical sheet, the Find X9 Ultra also wants to make it clear where it is placed. OPPO equips it with a 6.8-inch 144 Hz screen, a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 accompanied by a steam chamber to improve cooling and a 7,050 mAh carbon silicon battery. The company also ups the ante on charging, with 100 W wired SuperVOOC and 50 W wireless AirVOOC, and tops off the set with IP69 certification. It is a very serious technical basis for a phone that aspires to compete without complexes at the top. As we have been seeing from the beginning, the discourse of the Find X9 Ultra revolves again and again around photography. At this point, it is reasonable to look at the whole before going down to detail. And what the brand proposes is a rear system made up of four main cameras and a new True Color Camera, with which it aspires to cover everything from ultra-wide angle to long-distance optical zoom without giving up a clearly ambitious proposal. In this section there is one fact that immediately stands out: here we do not have a single 200 MP sensor, but two. The first occupies the 200 MP main camera, with 23 mm equivalent; The second appears in the 3x telephoto lens, also 200 MP and designed for portrait and distance. Added to this is a 50 MP ultra wide angle that reinforces the base of the set. And then there is the piece with which OPPO finishes stretching its proposal into unusual territory for a mobile phone. The Find X9 Ultra adds a 50 MP 10x optical telephoto lens, with a 230 mm equivalent focal length, and the brand also talks about optical quality up to 20xa figure that helps to understand how far he wants to push the scope of the set. Added to this block is a 300 mm teleconverter that reminds us of the strategy of Live with your X300 Ultra. Here’s an interesting fact: both Vivo and OPPO are part of the Chinese conglomerate BBK Electronics. The partnership with Hasselblad enters its fifth year and continues to take center stage in the product narrative, especially around Master Mode. There, one of the most striking messages they gave us was that there is no generative AI, “zero AI in Master Mode”, an idea designed for those looking for a more faithful image of what is in front of them. Added to this are options such as JPG Max and 16-bit RAW Max, clearly aimed at users who want more margin for work. The alliance with Hasselblad enters its fifth year and continues to occupy a central place in the product discourse. Although photography monopolizes almost all the focus, OPPO also wanted to extend this proposal in video and in the general user experience. The Find X9 Ultra promises 4K recording at 60 fps with Dolby Vision in all … Read more

It doesn’t cure anything and your business is diluted in Spain

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The homeopathy has received a hard blow today from the Spanish health authorities, and more specifically the AEMPS itself, by pointing out in a devastating report that homeopathy has no effectiveness proven when it comes to treating different ailments, despite the fact that they promise something completely different. Something that can mean a great fall for a business that has invoiced millions of euros and all thanks to the scientific evidence that is increasingly clear regarding the null effects that these ‘treatments’ have. A lot of weight behind. The history of homeopathy in Spain has been written for years based on regulatory purges, but the latest Health analysis leaves no room for doubt. Based on 64 systematic reviews From scientific studies published since 2009, the national body has ruled that these products They provide no real benefitdifferent diseases such as, for example, depression, autoimmune diseases or even dermatological diseases. And as we see, it is not something new, since the scientific community has been warning for years that the supposed improvements reported by some patients with homeopathy are explained by three factors: the placebo effect, the evolution of the disease itself and the unreliability of the studies on which its operation was based. A tug of war. In fact, science tells us that, when clinical trials are carried out with great rigor and with the appropriate research methods, the difference between administering a homeopathic product and a simple sugar cube is statistically null. But the mental effect of taking a pill that promises an almost miraculous effect when it comes to curing an illness plays an important role in making us think that it really improves us. The real danger. A priori, taking a homeopathic product does not have too many dangers for the patient, since they do almost nothing in the body. But the problem is that the use of homeopathy encourages the abandonment or delay of medical treatments with proven evidence, such as, for example, an antidepressant in major depression. Failure to follow the most appropriate treatment has fatal consequences, especially if we are talking about serious diseases where time is a super important factor. Furthermore, the AEMPS and various medical reviews have documented very serious adverse effects due to this lack of real medical care, such as abortions or deaths. Although the most serious may be in the field of oncology, where the use of these alternative therapies such as seawater has been shown to directly increase the risk of mortality as patients reject conventional chemotherapy or radiotherapy. A free fall. Today, this market moves around 30 million euros annually in our country, representing 0.5% of total pharmaceutical sales. Here the great giant of the sector is Boiron, which controls 90% of the market and is seeing its empire falter, since, although its products are still present in thousands of pharmacies, sales they haven’t stopped fallinggoing from billing 20.6 million euros in 2016 to only 14.6 million in 2024. Recalls from the market. The purge in pharmacies has been relentless, since following EU directives that require efficiency tests to authorize medications, the AEMPS has already withdrawn 66 injectable products in 2019 and another 314 in 2024. But as of today the Ministry of Health has recalled more than 1,000 homeopathic products. The 976 that have managed to survive and remain registered have done so under a “simplified registry.” This is an ‘escape system’ in the law, since here they are considered harmless products, but they are strictly prohibited from including any therapeutic indication or promise of cure on their packaging. In this way, no homeopathic product can have the promise of curing a disease in Spain. In Xataka | Millions of Spaniards consume benzodiazepines to sleep at night. They don’t know it’s poisoned candy

Clint Eastwood filmed in Spain for the first time in 1964 and the impact was lifelong

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In 1964, Clint Eastwood agreed to travel to Spain to shoot a low-budget film that, in his own diagnosis, “was probably going to be a total failure.” What he found when he arrived (an international team in perpetual chaos, actors and director unable to understand each other without an interpreter, a tree stolen through deception and a crane obtained thanks to a bishop) only confirmed his worst suspicions. Several decades later, he still remembered it. For a handful of pesetas. ‘A Fistful of Dollars was not a high-risk project, but quite the opposite: it cost around $200,000, co-financed by Italy, Germany and Spain, and Eastwood (then a television actor with no relevant film credits) was paid $15,000. Sergio Leone did not even sign his name: in the credits he appears as “Bob Robertson.” Ennio Morricone, as “Dan Savio.” Why Spain. The choice of Spain was not an aesthetic whim. The Franco regime had been facilitating the presence of foreign productions in Spanish territorypartly because of the economic benefits and partly because the presence of international stars served to soften the external image of the dictatorship. And for the production companies it was a bargain: the costs were much lower than those in the United States, the army provided extras when necessary and the landscape of Almería (one of the poorest provinces in the country, with very high unemployment) functioned as a perfect substitute for the American West. A single hat. Conditions on the set were, to put it mildly, spartan. There was no electricity or trailers with basic services and Leone and Eastwood did not speak the same language (one Italian, the other English), so they communicated through specialist Benito Stefanelli. Filming was done completely without sound: this was added in post-production, and Eastwood did not dub his own voice into English until the film was released in the United States in 1967. Your own clothes. Eastwood himself explained in 2007 who arrived with his own wardrobe to the filming: the black jeans he had bought on Hollywood Boulevard, the boots he brought from the series ‘Rawhide’ and the hat he got in Santa Monica. They bought the poncho in Spain. And that hat, unique and irreplaceable, sums up the project’s production philosophy well: “If I lost it, it was finished. There was no way to replace it.” They don’t shut up, they don’t shut up. What caught the most attention, however, was not the material precariousness but the atmosphere: off-screen people were playing frisbeetold jokes, talked non-stop. “They were not used to the silence of a shoot, where sound is important,” he recalled. He ended up using the need to play his part in the middle of that revelry as an exercise in concentration. There is no tree. Decades after filming wrapped, Eastwood still remembered two anecdotes as if they had happened weeks before. The first happened when they needed a specific tree for a hanging scene, they couldn’t find a suitable one and the only one available was on private property. Leone counted that the technicians convinced the owner that the tree was dangerous. In the version that Eastwood told in 2007, the alibi was different: they introduced themselves as highway department workers. There is no crane. The second anecdote that Eastwood remembers is from the filming of another film, ‘Death Had a Price’. The team needed a crane that they couldn’t afford. A company near the filming location had one, but it was a religious holiday and that company could not work. Leone went to see the local bishop and explained that his company was Jewish and therefore not subject to the Catholic holiday, so the bishop gave him permission to work. With that permit in hand, he went to the company with the crane: they couldn’t use it that day, but the Italians could, and they lent them the material. In Xataka | The 25 best movies on HBO Max: a selection of masterpieces and modern classics brimming with the best cinema

the map that divides Spain in two through its two large hydrographic basins

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This curious map that divides the Spanish state into blue and red could represent political or administrative borders, but the partition is much more curious and striking: it shows the final destination of each drop of rain that falls in Spain. Each line you see is one of the many rivers that run through this part of the Iberian Peninsula and its color reveals where it will end: in the Mediterranean Sea or in the Atlantic Ocean. The result is one of the most beautiful and revealing hydrological portraits of the Iberian Peninsula. Based on data from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, the cartographer and GIS consultant Joe Davies has put together This map of watersheds that reveals the invisible spine that runs through the state, the continental watershed. The result is surprising to say the least. In addition to the colors, the route is more or less marked depending on the flow of the river, thus revealing which rivers are the largest. That invisible line slides approximately through the Iberian System and the Pyrenean foothills, dividing the territory into two water worlds. There are several things that draw attention to the image: the first thing is the proportion. The Atlantic takes up about two thirds of the territory. But also that although Spain “looks” towards the Mediterranean, its rivers flow mostly to the west. There is a geological reason that explains it: the Central Plateau It tilts slightly towards the Atlantic, a legacy of the Hercynian tectonics that shaped the Iberian base 300 million years ago. The curious layout of the continental watershed in Spain He Ebro river is the great traitor: Born in Cantabria, just 20 kilometers from the Cantabrian Sea. By geographical logic one would expect it to be Atlantic, but no: its entire large basin is painted the color of the Mediterranean, where it empties after traveling almost a thousand kilometers. The Pyrenees functioned as a barrier and the Iberian and Catalan Systems as a funnel, so the river was forced to flow westwards. A striking example of how the orography is capable of hijacking a river and taking it to another sea different from the one where it would belong. Another river that constitutes a curious case is the Segura: it originates in the Sierra de Segura in Jaen, more than 300 kilometers from the sea. Afterwards, it travels an enormous distance to empty into Alicante with a low flow, something that can be seen in comparison with neighboring Gualquivir. The explanation lies in the extreme aridity of its basin and the intense agricultural pressure. Where does each drop of rain that falls in Spain go. Joe Davies with data from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge As one might expect, Galicia is very red on Davies’ map: it is a truly dense tangle that contrasts with the rest, especially if we move away from the Cantabrian coast. Galicia receive between 1,500 and 2,000 mm of annual precipitation, on a substrate of practically impermeable granites and slates, so the water does not filter, it drains. The result is that density of rivers and streams, all Atlantic, short and mighty. It is the region that best illustrates the direct relationship between geology, climate and river network. If the map were of all of Europe, Galicia would still stand out. The map also gives us unthinkable colorslike Pamplona being colored in Blue despite being a northern city extremely close to the Cantabrian Sea: its waters go to the Mediterranean through the Ebro and its tributaries. Madrid is red: the Manzanares-Jarama-Tajo takes it to the Atlantic. It has the continental divide very close, less than 80 kilometers away. On either side of that barrier, the water that falls in the same downpour ends up in seas separated by thousands of kilometers. 3D version with inverted colors. Joe Davies with data from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge In Xataka | The definitive tool for a historic year of astronomy in Spain: the light pollution map In Xataka | Much more than tourism, cars and oil: the entire industry that Spain exports to the world, gathered in one graph Cover | Joe Davies

One piece of information perfectly summarizes the book bubble in Spain: 95% of those published do not recover costs

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The Spanish publishing sector closed 2025 with historic figures: 76 million printed books sold and a turnover that was close to 1,250 million euros. A record. The cold water came a few weeks later, at the annual booksellers’ conference, where it was certified that almost half of the titles available on the shelves had sold absolutely nothing. Who says so. The data was presented by CEGAL, the Spanish Confederation of Guilds and Associations of Booksellers, in theXXVII Congress of Bookstores held in Valencia in February 2026and has been extracted from LibriRed, the confederation’s own tool, which monitors in real time the final sales in more than 1,000 independent bookstores and chains throughout the country. The figure includes novels, essays and comics, both new releases and catalog contents, but (importantly, we are talking about physical bookstores) Amazon and school textbooks are excluded. The specific data. They are that revealing: 13.2% of the titles sell a copy throughout the year. 19.4% do not exceed ten. Only 4.5% of the books that reach bookstores reach 100 copies sold, a threshold that often does not even cover the costs of a launch. In other words, 95.5% of the books available in Spanish bookstores do not have the slightest economic impact on the publishing industry, not to mention that they are directly deficient. In Xataka If you hate justified text, we have good news: you’re most likely right You bill more, you sell the same. This is the paradox that the CgK consultancy put on the table with its Book Market Data 2025 report: The sector reached close to €1,250 million in turnover in 2025, 4% more than the previous year, which represents a historical record. However, total units sold rose just 0.2%, and novelty units sold on average 2% less per title than in 2024. Further analysis of the report They spoke of a statistical illusion typical of inflationary markets, because what has actually grown is the average price of the book. And this benefits the large groups, with catalogs in high rotation. Why is this happening? In its analysis of the Cedal report, El País collected statements from editors such as Enrique Redel, from Impedimenta, who affirms that there are titles that are not published to sell, but to take up space on the shelves, especially by large groups. The strategy is to publish many titles assuming that most will fail, hoping that one or two best sellers compensate for the losses of the rest. More than 90,000 books are published each year in Spain, about 240 newspapers, and theReturn rates range between 30% and 40%. It is a feverish cycle of full-speed rotation, paradoxically inconsistent with the calmest of cultural activities. {“videoId”:”x7zmsee”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”11 WEBSITES to DOWNLOAD FREE EBOOKS for your KINDLE Xataka TV”, “tag”:”Kindle”, “duration”:”321″} Who can afford it. The two large publishing groups, Penguin Random House and Planeta, in whose shadow it has been for decades the Spanish industry, and which account for more than 40% of the copies sold in bookstores. Fleeing this suffocating single direction are independent bookstores, which offer more than twice the variety of titles than the large chains: more than 525,000 titles compared to 229,633. In this way, visibility is concentrated in a few titles that rotate for a longer period of time, while the rest are buried in excessive catalogs. Some reasons. When looking for factors that exacerbate this situation (the two large groups can suffocate the market with their continuous rotation, but there must be more compelling reasons for so few sales of so many titles), CEGAL points to self-publishing: publishing has been democratized, but the reader’s attention has not. A book without a publisher behind it, without distribution, without promotion and without prior prescription is born practically invisible to the market, and it is normal that many of these launches do not sell anything. ¿AI provides tools to multiply these throws effortlessly? The percentages skyrocket exponentially. In Xataka They are not your imagination: the best-selling books are increasingly simpler and contain less elaborate sentences The difference with other cultural media is in the abundance of second chances. A film that does not perform in theaters can recover the investment in streaming, where consumption already rivals that of theaters. The book that does not sell in its first weeks on the shelf returns to the publisher, returns to bookstores in negligible quantities and is often physically destroyed after months languishing in warehouses. Perhaps finding new ways of dissemination and renewed lives for books would be the solution to this veritable overdose of books without readers. Header | Photo ofBree AnneinUnsplash (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 One piece of information perfectly summarizes the book bubble in Spain: 95% of those published do not recover costs was originally published in Xataka by John Tones .

Europe has been committed to digitizing our identity and the first piece of the puzzle is provided by Spain: the driving license

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Europe wants gather all your documentation on your mobile. IDs, medical history, academic titles, bank card. A single digital wallet for any management in each of the member countries. From Brussels they want to standardize the use of their digital application for everyone and the first document that will officially cross borders will be the driver’s license. Something that in Spain, precisely, It doesn’t catch us by surprise. The European Union approved in May 2024 the eIDAS 2.0 regulationthe rule that obliges all member states to make a digital identity wallet available to their citizens before the end of 2026. The legal framework establishes that each country must have at least one digital wallet solution available before the end of that year. The long-term goal is that by 2030, around 80% of European citizens are expected to use the digital identity wallet. But what exactly is this wallet? Called EUDI Wallet, andIn practice, it is an application that we will have to install on the phone and where the citizen can store and share their credentials: from the DNI to the passport, driving license, medical prescriptions or university degrees. The idea is that we can do it in any EU country and without the need to create additional accounts or depend on private platforms. driving license, the first piece Of all the documents that will fit in this European wallet, driving license is the first to move. In the end, it is a document that tens of millions of people use every day, which is already digitized in several countries and which has an immediate practical application, beyond being able to identify ourselves. Several countries have announced that they will launch their version of the EUDI Wallet with limited functionalities, including digital driving license for use in face-to-face controls. The idea is to expand the system in layers: start with what already works, and build on that. From Biometric Update they point out that wallet interoperability between different countries is the most complex technical challenge, as it requires constant standardization and cross-testing between national systems. Surprisingly, Spain takes the lead While a good part of Europe is still studying how to articulate its solution, Spain is already underway myDGTthe app of the General Directorate of Traffic that has been operational since 2020. Spain was the first EU country to launch a digital card, and today the application serves six million users with 14 different procedures without having to go to any traffic headquarters. The miDGT digital driving license has full legal validity before any authority within the national territory. If you already use it, you will have noticed that the card incorporates a dynamic QR code that changes every few minutes to avoid impersonations and allows you to check in real time that the data is updated. The main limitation is that the miDGT digital permit It is only valid in Spain. If you travel abroad, it is still mandatory to carry a physical card, because other countries have not yet officially recognized this digital format. And that is precisely what the EUDI Wallet comes to solve. In addition to miDGT, Spain’s digital ecosystem goes further. Here we also have the app My Citizen Folderwhich helps us centralize a multitude of procedures with the public administration in a single point. And on the other hand, relatively recently we also have the app MIDNIwhich is simply a digital version of our identity document so that we can show it directly from our mobile phone. Germany accelerates from behind Each member state finds itself at a very different starting point. In the case of Germany, its government approved a legislative reform in November 2025 that lays the foundations for the digital driving license, and the Bundestag ratified the bill just last month. For the country, the goal is to have the national digital card available before the end of 2026. Thus, in Germany drivers can now carry their vehicle’s registration certificate in digital format. They do this through the i-Kfz app, developed by the German Federal Printing Office and the Federal Traffic Agency. The driving license itself is integrated into that same application. It will start as a volunteer One of the most relevant aspects of the EUDI Wallet design is that its use is voluntary. In principle no one is obliged to have it. But history repeats itself, and seeing what we have already experienced with the great digital transitions (online banking, contactless payments, making an appointment online…), it is possibly the first step so that something that begins as something optional ends up being the norm and whoever does not use it in the coming decades has the risk of being at a disadvantage for certain procedures. In Mexico they have a similar messalthough there they are going through a bigger problem that involves several fronts. On the other hand, it should be noted that the system also incorporates quite complete security and privacy measures. An example: if someone needs to prove that they are of legal age to buy alcohol, the wallet could confirm only that information without revealing name, address or any other personal information, something that in computing is known as Zero-Knowledge (an architecture to verify one piece of information without revealing other more sensitive ones). Bad business for a minor who wants to buy alcohol, but a return to ‘excuse me sir, could you buy me beer?’ The regulation establishes that citizens will have full control over what data they share with third parties, and that wallets will have to publish their code under an open source license to ensure transparency and independent audits. The outlook is green in several countries With the December 2026 deadline upon us, the reality is that not all countries will arrive at the same time or with the same level of functionality. Netherlands, for example, already has pointed out that will probably not meet the deadline, and several member states are starting from digital identity infrastructures that are still … Read more

The map of Spain where you can see how healthy the tap water in your town is

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Water management in the Spanish state has several fronts: from the purely hydrological to the increasingly frequent shortage scenarios to the quality of this. Yes, the water that reaches the tap has passed through a water treatment plant and is therefore suitable for consumption, but there is a pollutant to keep an eye on: nitrates. The filtration of nutrients from the industrial agricultural activity so widespread in Spain brings about the degradation of ecosystems and also jeopardizes the security of public supply by saturating the self-cleaning capacity of aquifers and exceeding, in many cases, the treatment capacity of local water treatment plants. Although checking the quality of the water that reaches your tap is a resource accessible to citizens through platforms such as the National Consumer Water Information System (SINAC), the reality is that sometimes databases are too technical and dense, so someone has thought of converting the information from the Ministry of Health into an interactive map that is understandable to everyone. Is “the water of your town“and is a public consultation tool so that anyone who wants to know the quality of tap water of your municipality regarding nitrates, you can do so without needing technical knowledge through an interactive map that is easy to interpret. The map in question has been developed by DATADISTA based on official data from SINAC, which depends on the Ministry of Health and collects the analytical results of all drinking water supply networks in Spain. It is important to highlight that the last reading dates from April 2026 and does not contain real-time measurements, but rather the frequency varies depending on the supply area. Thus, while those networks that distribute more than 10 cubic meters per day have to report, those that are smaller the report is voluntary. Hence, some small rural towns appear without data. To make it easier, it comes with a direct search engine. Datadista The map shows the Spanish state with an OpenStreetMap map and points distributed throughout the territory on a color scale that goes from red for those who do not comply with the regulations to green for those who comply, passing through intermediate tones for risk or surveillance situations. In addition to being able to zoom and move the map or the Canary Islands having its own button to center the image on its archipelago, in the upper area are the layers that we can activate to view information such as the Nitrate Vulnerable Zones declared by the autonomous communities or the chemical state of the underground aquifers. In the lower left corner, the legend that explains the limits. If you prefer not to search on the map, at the top of the website there is a search box that speeds up everything and a brief summary of those critical areas. How good (or not) is the water in your town? Municipalities that fail to comply, critical points and control points. Datadista At first glance, a clear correlation is obtained: the most affected areas are concentrated in areas of intensive irrigated agriculture, especially in the interior of the peninsula. If you also activate the aquifer layer, transparent white and in the bottle: there is one direct relationship between agricultural intensity and water pollution underground with which the population is supplied. The categories in which the municipalities are classified are four: It fails to comply when any network registers 50 mg/L or more of nitrates, which is the parametric value set by European regulations and the Royal Decree 3/2023. Critical point: nitrates consistently exceed 30 mg/L. It is 60% of the legal limit and obliges the operator to develop a Water Health Plan with corrective measures. Control point, for those municipalities where high episodes have been detected but on a punctual and non-sustained basis. Complies, for municipalities that do not present a relevant risk due to nitrates. Be careful because there are 201 municipalities and almost 91,000 people supplied within that “non-compliant” range and 885 municipalities and more than a million people who drink tap water in critical areas. It is important to consider that the final state of a municipality is always determined by the worst state of all its supply networks. The nitrate problem. Nitrates reach the water due to the excess of nitrogen fertilizers and livestock manure, which, applied to the field (whether directly or not), are oxidized by bacterial action, transforming into nitrate, a very soluble anion that the soil does not retain and that easily infiltrates into the aquifers and rivers from which the population is supplied. The 50 mg/L limit was set by the WHO between the decades of the 50s and 60s to prevent acquired methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome) in infants due to high levels of nitrates in well water, the use of uncontrolled groundwater for infant formulas is not recommended. But science has shown that the problem is more serious than that legal limit. Without going any further, a Danish study from 2018 showed that there is a greater risk of colorectal cancer from just 3.87 mg/L, the MCC-Spain project found links to aggressive prostate tumors even below that current limit. In fact, in 2025 an international group of science professionals recommended lower this safety threshold to 6 mg/L, a figure that is very far from what comes out of the taps of numerous municipalities in the state. In Xataka | Much more than tourism, cars and oil: the entire industry that Spain exports to the world, gathered in one graph In Xataka | Someone has created a simulator where you can see if sea level rise is going to reach your house or not. Cover | Infowater

A gasoline engine that uses 3L per 100km is a dream come true. And only Spain could manufacture it.

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With gasoline and absolutely shot dieselsreduce a few tenths (or liters) to 100 It is the wish of practically every Spaniard. Although the efficiency of current engines is increasing, and gasoline consumption is not as high as it was two decades ago, giants like Repsol are struggling to develop ultra-efficient engines that run on renewable fuel. And they have achieved it. They are not alone. Repsol has the fuel, but needs a partner to develop the engines. That partner is horse powertrain, a Joint Venture between Renault and the Chinese group Geely. This is dedicated to designing, manufacturing and selling thermal and hybrid propulsion systems, something that allows both Renault and Geely to continue exploring the combustion vehicle of the future without abandoning their electrification plans. Horse H12 Concept. This is an engine that promises less than 3.3 liters per 100km in the WLTP cycle, with a reduction in consumption according to the company of 40% compared to the average of new gasoline vehicles registered in the last two years. The best of all? The engine has been developed in Spain, and runs on 100% renewable Repsol gasoline. Horse has its operational headquarters in Madrid, engine factories in Valladolid and gearbox factories in Seville. Why is it important. The Horse H12 Concept is not a shot in the dark. It is an evolution of an already existing engine: the HR12. It is a 1.2-liter three-cylinder produced in Romania, and used in models such as the Dacia Duster. What makes this Concept version special is its exhaust gas recirculation system, a specially optimized ignition system and a hybrid gearbox. This Concept version, in alliance with Repsol, shows how far these engines can go with the help of synthetic fuel. It is not an experiment with an engine designed from scratch, it is the refinement of something that already exists. The other 50%. Repsol is now capable of producing gasoline of 100% renewable origin on an industrial scale at its Tarragona plant. According to what it indicates, it is compatible with all current gasoline vehicles, without requiring any type of modification. It’s your Nexa fuelcurrently available at 30 of Repsol’s stations. The same happens with its diesel, which promises to reduce net CO₂ emissions by up to 90%. And if you’re wondering how much the joke costs, approximately 10 euro cents more per liter compared to conventional fuels. Combustion is not dead. The comings and goings of Europe with combustion cars in 2035 They make it clear that the future will involve electrification. But the plans of giants like Geely and Repsol to try to keep more environmentally responsible combustion solutions alive are a clear indication that gasoline and diesel still have life ahead of them. In Xataka | The question is no longer whether diesel will continue to rise: it is whether it will become an expensive fuel forever.

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