Star Archives - usatoday24

The star Movistar Plus promo returns to see the start of LaLiga, the Champions League and more

July 21, 2026 by usatoday24

When a streaming platform releases a new promo, it’s always worth checking out. Movistar Plus has started a few minutes ago one that, although it is true that it is not new, is its star promo: It’s three months at half price without any permanencemaking it the best time to try what it offers. During these three months, its price is 4.99 euros per month. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus (for three months) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Three months with many sporting events This promo lowers the price of the Movistar Plus Free Plan with movies, series, documentaries and sports from 9.99 euros to 4.99 euros per month for three months. The best of all is that, since it has no permanence, we can test the platform during this time and, if it does not convince us, unsubscribe. It is important to note that the offer is available for both new subscribers and old subscribers without an active subscription. Plus, you can share it with a friend or family member. If we sign up today, we will be subscribed until October 21, paying a total of only 14.97 euros. In exchange, we will be able to see how LaLiga EA Sports starts with great games like the Atlético de Madrid-Málaga, Elche-Barcelona or Real Madrid-Málaga. Also several Champions League matches and the entire LaLiga Hypermotion. Obviously, The platform lives not only on football. Without leaving the sport, we can also watch the 1,000 Masters in Canada and Cincinnati, as well as the US Open. In addition, also the start of the Endesa Basketball League or the Euroleague. To all this we can add an enormous number of movies, series and documentaries where, for example, there are several true crime very interesting to see. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Movistar Plus offer ✅ THE BEST Three months for less than 15 euros: It is a great price if we take into account that, in addition, we will be able to see the start of LaLiga and other competitions. Without permanence: Since we do not have permanence, we can take advantage of the promo and unsubscribe before it ends. ❌ THE WORST YesOnly for new or old customers without active subscription: If you already have an active Movistar Plus subscription, you will not be able to benefit from the promo. 💡 SUBSCRIBE IF… You want to try what Movistar Plus offers or watch a lot of sporting events taking advantage of the fact that several competitions start now in August. ⛔ DO NOT SUBSCRIBE IF… You already have many streaming platforms or you are not interested in football at all. You may also be interested XIAOMI TV F 65, 65 Inch (165 cm), 4K UHD, Smart TV, Fire OS8, Alexa Voice Control, HDR10, MEMC, 120Hz Game Boost Mode, Compatible with Apple AirPlay The price could vary. We earn commission from these links TCL TV 55Q7D Pro 55” SQD-Mini LED, 4K HDR 2000 nits, 480 Dimming Zones, Google TV, Dolby Vision IQ and Atmos, 2.1 Onkyo, 144Hz, Apple AirPlay 2 and Alexa 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 | Movistar Plus In Xataka | Movistar Plus+ activates its Free Plan with complete programs and a lot of content, regardless of which operator you are In Xataka | Movistar Plus for non-Movistar customers: what it is, how much it costs, channels, additional services and how to contract it

Internxt reactivates its star promo with a 90% discount

July 15, 2026 by usatoday24

When it comes to looking for cloud storage, there are certain things to look at before choosing. The number of GB, the price or the tools included matter, but also the security of our data. In that sense, the ideal is that it offers what is known as zero-knowledge encryption (or ‘Zero-Nowledge’). And that’s where Internxt comes in, which is also on sale: with the code ‘XATAKA’ their plans for life start from the 190 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cloud storage that you will only pay once Let’s go in parts: what does this zero-knowledge encryption mean? In many cloud services, the files we upload are encrypted once they reach the server. This can cause them to be intercepted before arrivingin addition to the possibility that the company itself can access them. With zero knowledge, those risks disappear. The reason is very simple: the files you upload to the cloud They will be encrypted before uploading and not after. In this way, we will only be the ones who can access this data. What’s more, not even Internxt itself will be able to access them, so we will have a very high degree of privacy. Additionally, Internxt is open source, so anyone can audit it. More things to keep in mind. Internxt is a European company, so the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will apply, which has much stricter rules on privacy. and gives more rights to users. Now, let’s talk about the promo. Internxt’s most basic plan (called Essential) has a regular price of 1,900 euros if we choose the lifetime plan, which we will only pay once and that’s it. However, with the code ‘XATAKA’, its price remains only 190 euros and, in exchange, we will have 1 TB of cloud storage plus a VPN and antivirus. Below we leave you, as a summary, what their other two plans include and what price they have: Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus and cleaner per 290 euros (instead of 2,900 euros). Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and meet per 390 euros (instead of 3,900 euros). 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 | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | Change Drive, iCloud or Dropbox for a European alternative: step to follow and what you should take into account

The new star signing of AI is neither an engineer nor a data scientist, but he masters stoicism: the philosophers

July 3, 2026 by usatoday24

A little less than a decade ago, studying philosophy implied a question: “And what are you going to live on?” Like many other races in the Humanities branchthe philosophy registered a low job insertion rate. According to published data in 2023 by EuropaPress, The unemployment rate for Philosophy graduates was 20 times higher than that of Electronic Engineering graduates. However, in the midst of the rise of AI, the companies that are training and evolving it have realized something: they do not need engineers to program, what they need is to hire philosophers who define how a model should think and how an AI that talks to millions of people every day should behave. Demand has reached a level where their salaries rival those of any senior engineer. From Socrates to defining AI. Studying philosophy was a risky bet due to its few professional opportunities (mainly teaching) and precarious salaries. But something has changed in the sector that was least expected: that of cutting-edge technology that was developing the AGI. According to collected In an article published in AtlanticIn 2013, only 1% of the offers published on PhilJobs, the academic job portal, mentioned artificial intelligence in the description of their offers. In 2025, that figure It was already close to 16%. And a good part of those positions were junior positions. That is, they join technology companies even with profiles with little experience. Why an AI company needs a philosopher. The reason for this change is that companies have made AI capable of processing data emulating the operation of a human neural network, but its interactions are with humansso their responses and decisions must be in tune with the ethical and moral values of humanity. Philosophers have been studying precisely that for centuries. Anthropic is perhaps the clearest case. Your philosopher Amanda Askell He leads the team that shapes the character of the model, and in January 2026 he published what the company itself calls the Claude constitutiona document of more than twenty thousand words that establishes the values that the system must follow. As the company itself explains, this text is used directly in the training of the model. Askell counted to the magazine time that his way of approaching this work is as if he were dealing with a highly gifted child: “you have to be honest, because a smart child immediately detects when someone is lying to him.” Google opened the season to sign thinkers. Anthropic is not the only one that has incorporated philosophers into its staff. Google DeepMind took a similar step in April 2026. As and how I collected the university newspaper Varsitythe company announced the incorporation of Henry Shevlin, a philosopher of mind from the University of Cambridge, for a position that the company itself baptized, literally, as “Philosopher.” His work at DeepMind was to focus on issues of artificial consciousness, human-AI relations, and preparation for AGI. OpenAI has also taken note. OpenAI has followed a similar path, although less transparent in the details. Sam Altman has come to affirm that ChatGPT’s current responses “are the result of a consultation with ‘hundreds of experts’”, specifying that they were philosophers who have reflected on the ethics of technology and systems. In fact, even universities have jumped on the bandwagon and the American Philosophical Association (APA) has been delivering since 2024 two annual awards of 10,000 dollars for philosophical investigations on AI. Profession of the future, but a future that is too fast. Not everything is good news for the union. Daniel Fogal, professor of bioethics at New York University, told The Atlantic that this boom has a real distorting effect on the discipline. According to Fogal, there are philosophers who deep down do not want to dedicate themselves to AI, but feel that they have no choice if they want to enter the job market. The risk, he warns, is that a lot of mediocre work is published just to fit into a passing fad. Good philosophy takes time, Fogal summarizes, and rarely emerges as a direct response to the market. AI companies, on the other hand, launch new models every few months. The philosopher may be the star signing of the sector, but he will continue to be the person least comfortable with the rush. And perhaps for that very reason it is the one that is most needed in this development. In Xataka | We thought that leaving university and starting to work “on your own” was impossible: the key is knowing what to study Image | Unsplash (Sarah Sheedy)

“The death of the star is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter”

July 2, 2026 by usatoday24

The future of the Sun it is written. Like any star its size, it is expected that there will come a time when it runs out of fuel, swelling and becoming a red giant. Then, later on, it will expel its outermost layers and its core will collapse under the effect of gravity, becoming a cold and dense white dwarf. It will be a process that will take about 5,000 million years to occur and that, logically, will influence the planets that revolve around it. Including Earth. That’s why scientists are so interested in studying exoplanets around white dwarfs. They want to “travel to the future” and see what will become of our own planet and its neighbors. The problem is that, while many of these exoplanets have been found, it is generally very difficult to delve into their atmosphere and study their history. Until now, it had been impossible, but the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived to change that trend. Colder than expected. A team of scientists from several American universities has used the James Webb to enter the atmosphere of WD 1856bsimilar to Jupiter in orbit and size, which is currently orbiting a white dwarf. James Webb is not capable of solving the reasons why it is so complicated to study these exoplanets. However, thanks to the development of new analysis models, these researchers have been able to analyze its atmosphere. The composition, in reality, has not caught their attention too much. On the other hand, its temperature has. If we compare it with Jupiter, a temperature of -113ºC would be expected. However, 126ºC was measured. It is too hot, both for an exoplanet around a white dwarf, and for an exoplanet with the characteristics of Jupiter. Chronicle of a death foretold. In its early stages of life, a star remains “on” while It fuses hydrogen nuclei and transforms them into helium. While this happens in the core, there are two forces that remain in balance. On the one hand, gravity, which pushes all the material inward. And, on the other hand, the radiation pressure, which is generated by the effect of fusion in the stellar core and pushes outward. So far so good. The problem is that hydrogen is not infinite. When spent in the core, the forces are no longer in balance. Gravity overcomes radiation pressure, so the core is pushed inward and compressed. It heats up so much that the helium that remained in the core acquires the ability to fuse, becoming a new fuel, which will be transformed into carbon and oxygen. All this heating also “ignites” the hydrogen in the outer layers, which until now remained inactive. It begins to merge as well and the star grows outward. We have a big, hot red giant. The process repeats itself, but there comes a time when these new layers that form are expelled by the stellar winds and only the core remains, now cold and very dense. We have a white dwarf. Logically, it is a process that has consequences on the planets that orbit the star. In the case of the solar system, it is known that Mercury and Venus would perish. With the Earth things are not so clear, but it does not look good. What exoplanets around a white dwarf tell us. Numerous cases of exoplanets have been detected around white dwarfs. Studying them is opening a window to the future of the Earth and its neighbors. However, it is not something easy to study. Generally, the atmosphere of exoplanets is studied during transits. That is, when the planet passes between its star and our telescopes. At this time, light from the star is filtered through the planet’s atmosphere, so the resulting spectra can be analyzed and its chemical composition understood. The problem is that, normally, exoplanets are much smaller than their star, but that is not the case with those that orbit a white dwarf. This exoplanet, for example, is seven times larger than its star. Therefore, if normally the atmosphere of a transiting planet is completely on the disk of its star, in this case only a small part is. It was necessary to refine the analysis methods with the James Webb to be able to analyze the atmosphere of WD 1856b. too hot. The wavelength at which objects emit light can also give us clues about their temperature. Therefore, this procedure was used to calculate the temperature of the exoplanet. As we have already seen, it turned out to be too hot. The hypothesis. It is not known for sure what causes these inconsistencies, but the study authors have some hypotheses. They consider that the planet possibly reached its maximum temperature billions of years after its star became a white dwarf. Then, far from cooling as it would normally have, it was affected by a nearby binary star, whose tidal influence not only warmed it. It also moved it away from its orbit. All this took him away from what was expected, but above all it kept him alive. As explained in Science Alert one of the authors of the studyRyan MacDonald, this planet, like all exoplanets around a white dwarf, demonstrates that the death of the star is not the end of the planet, but a new chapter. Earth may not be influenced by a binary star, but there are many factors that can keep it alive. There may no longer be humans to see it, but perhaps there will be a new form of life. If humanity has not destroyed the planet beforeneither may the collapse of the Sun. That’s good news. More or less. Image | NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI) In Xataka | What astronomers thought was going to be a boring supernova has revealed an enigma of galactic dust

Every 80 years, a new star appears in the sky. According to an astronomer, his new stellar appearance will be tonight

June 25, 2026 by usatoday24

The sky is as mysterious as it is fascinating. In case it wasn’t enough to have this week the most unpredictable meteor shower of the yeartonight a new star could also appear out of nowhere in the sky. Okay, it doesn’t really appear out of nowhere. It’s always there. The thing is that it is usually invisible to our eyes; But, if an astronomer’s predictions come true, a brutal explosion could make it visible for a few days from today. This is the white dwarf T. Coronae Borealis. This is a binary system composed of a red giant and a white dwarf, in which one of the few recurring novae also forms. of the Milky Way. Until now, only 5 of these explosions have been documented that are repeated from time to time, drawing a new bright point in the sky. The last time T. Coronae Borealis “exploded” was in 1946. It is clear that the next explosion must be soon, although few scientists dare to give a date. Astronomer Jean Schneider, from the Paris Observatory, did dare some time ago to provide 4 possible explosion dates. The first three were not fulfilled. The last one is tonight. Better to look at the sky in case the flies. Most scientists believe that the next explosion of this recurring nova must be soon, but they believe that there is no way to calculate an exact date. However, Schneider has a different hypothesis. Although T. Coronae Borealis has always been considered a binary system, he believes that, in order for the explosions that have already been documented to occur, a third astronomical object is necessary. This would not only increase the intensity of the explosion, but also makes calculations easier. Thanks to that, he estimated four dates. The first three have passed without pain or glory. The last one is the night of this June 25. Therefore, he recommends setting your sights on the constellation Corona Borealis and looking for a new bright point. As bright as the North Star. Companion stars that engulf each other. Beyond Schneider’s predictions, what is known at the moment is that in T. Coronae Borealis, located 3,000 light years from Earth, there are two stars: a red giant and a white dwarf. Both rotate around each other, with an orbit of 227 days, in a process in which, from time to time, the red giant becomes unstable due to an increase in pressure and temperature and begins to expel its outermost layers into space, forming an accretion disk around it. Little by little, the gravitational attraction of the white dwarf pushes the material from that accretion disk towards it. In a way, the white dwarf “feeds” on its companion. It is a process in which the atmosphere heats up, until a very intense thermonuclear reaction occurs in the form of an explosion. A change of brightness. Normally, T. Coronae Borealis is magnitude 10. This equates to a brightness that is minimally on the edge of what can be seen with binoculars. The brightness increases inversely proportional to the magnitude: if it decreases, the star appears brighter. When the explosion occurs, the magnitude drops abruptly to a figure between 2 and 3, making it look very very bright. For a few days, a little less than a week, it shines brightly. similar to that of the polar star. Blasts from the past. This phenomenon was observed in 1866when the magnitude fell to 2, and in 1946, when it was around 3. In the second case it was possible to study much more thoroughly and something interesting was seen. That the magnitude did not suddenly fall from 10 to 3, but rather, as the white dwarf warmed its atmosphere, signs began to be detected. Starting in 1938, the magnitude had begun to decrease to 9 and the star’s brightness was more bluish. He was getting ready. The constellation is located between Hercules and Bootes It’s happening. After the 1946 explosion, the magnitude of T. Coronae Borealis was fixed at 10.2. However, in February 2015 it dropped to 10. It was a striking figure, which became even more interesting just a year later, when in 2016 it dropped again to 9.2. The shine also began to look more blueish. The same thing was happening as in 1938 and since then there have continued to be fluctuations around 9. Since then it was 8 years until the explosion, it was calculated that there should be another explosion in 2024, but it never occurred. We are already in 2026 and at the moment nothing; But, for Schneider, the moment of truth could be today. You can track the brightness. There are websites where you can track the brightness of the stars. This is, for example, the case of the website of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. In it, when entering T CrB in the search engine, we see that the magnitude is currently 9.9. Most experts believe that Schneider does not have sufficient evidence of the existence of a third object to validate his observations. The shine does not seem to have fallen again. Still, at some point the explosion should occur. What if you don’t go out to look and you miss it? Image | NASA | E. Slawik/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/M. Zamani In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

There is only one person in Star Trek history who has played herself, and the scene remains legendary

June 19, 2026 by usatoday24

The android Data needed the three most brilliant scientists in history for a game of poker on the holodeck, and the chosen ones were Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The first two had been dead for decades (or centuries). The third was fifty-one years old and had amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, but he had expressed his desire to appear in the series to Paramount bosses. When was it? On June 21, 1993, the finale of the sixth season of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’. The first ninety seconds of the episode, titled ‘Descent, Part 1’, contain something that It hasn’t happened again. in more than fifty years of franchise: a real person, with a first and last name, playing himself. It was Stephen Hawking. How it started. Hawking visited the offices of Paramount Pictures in 1991 to present a documentary about his life directed by Errol Morris. Rick Berman, executive producer of the series, discovered during the visit that Hawking was a trekkie declared and offered him a tour of the sets of ‘The New Generation’. And once on the set, the scientist made an unusual request: that he be taken out of his wheelchair (something unusual) so he could sit in the captain’s chair. Once installed, he commented to his host Leonard Nimoy (Spock in the original series) that the seat was considerably more comfortable and powerful than his chair. He then asked if there was any chance of appearing on the show. The producers took note. Hawking would return to Los Angeles a few months later, and a filming window was available. All that was left was to know what the hell a theoretical physicist with ALS was going to do in an episode of a science fiction series without it coming off as parody, or even condescending. To do. The scriptwriters decided that the most appropriate thing was a scene in the holodeck, probably accompanied by the android Data. From there, it was time to build a scene that justified the presence of the most famous scientist in the world. Executive producer Michael Piller came up with the idea that solved it all: a poker game. The Enterprise holodeck allowed any historical figure to be recreated with precision, and the lucky ones were Newton, dead since 1727, and Einstein, since 1955. And Hawking, also dead in the fiction of the series, but capable of playing himself. To construct the physics joke that opens the scene, screenwriter Ronald D. Moore called his partner Naren Shankar, a doctor in applied physics and future showrunner of ‘CSI’. Shankar designed the Mercury perihelion joke (a phenomenon that Newtonian mechanics is unable to explain), and proposed the comic dynamic between the three scientists, with Hawking and Einstein mocking Newton. April 8. Hawking filmed his appearance April 8, 1993. Brent Spiner, who played Data and usually had no problem bringing the android’s emotional coldness to life, was nervous. The actor later described that moment as “probably my favorite moment in my entire experience doing Star Trek.” The scene that was filmed that day ended up lasting less than two minutes. In it, after joking about the possible apocryphal quality of the story of Newton and the apple, Hawking wins the hand, and Einstein argues that the odds of that victory could not have been improved even by quantum fluctuations. Hawking replies (with seconds): “Wrong again, Albert.” A historic cameo. It was not the first time that ‘Star Trek’ played with historical figures: we had even seen Abraham Lincoln fighting alongside Kirk and Spock. But Hawking is still, todaythe only real person to have played herself in any series or film in the ‘Star Trek’ universe. Furthermore, that cameo came at a particular time for the franchise: the audience for the sixth season of ‘The Next Generation’ was beginning to experience a gradual decline and ‘Deep Space Nine’ premiered that year. The franchise was expanding and the public was divided, but there was time for a cameo that was almost a declaration of intent. Moore claims that Hawking had helped build, with his work on black holes and cosmology, the type of scientific imaginary that ‘Star Trek’ had been playing with for decades. That he wanted to appear on the show, that he didn’t disdain science fiction but rather enjoyed it, functioned as a kind of circular validation. That’s why there is one last icing on the cake in the chapter: in the future that the episode imagines, it is revealed that Data holds the Lucasian Chair of Mathematics at the University of Cambridge. That same chair was held by Hawking between 1979 and 2009, and before him, Newton between 1669 and 1702. The three would end up sitting at a poker table in a future imagined in 1993. In Xataka | The complex? intergalactic politics: why there are those who say that Star Trek is communist and Star Wars is capitalist

After the failure of ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’, ‘Star Wars’ must follow the advice of ‘Andor’

June 16, 2026 by usatoday24

Memorial Day weekend 2026 should have been Dave Filoni’s and, by extension, ‘Star Wars‘. The first film in the franchise in seven years was released, starring the characters that he and Jon Favreau had turned into a global phenomenon, perhaps the only one that has transcended beyond fans of the series since Disney bought the saga. Instead, ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ has been the worst premiere in the history of the franchise under the aegis of Disney. And Filoni, who In January he took the reins of Lucasfilmnow has to decide what to do with the franchise. The figures. ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu opened on May 22 with $81 million at the domestic box office over the three-day weekend, below Disney’s previous franchise low of $84 million.Han Solo: A Star Wars Story‘ grossed on the same holiday weekend in 2018. If we add the fourth day of this weekend, including Memorial Day Monday, very important for the box office, the film reached 100 million domestic and 163–167 million worldwide. It is not a catastrophic figure, but in the second weekend the film fell 70%, dropping to third place. In the third he had already left the top 5. Unlike ‘Han Solo’, which came with a production bill of over $300 million and grossed $392 million worldwide (becoming the first film in ‘Star Wars’ history to lose money in theaters), ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ was the franchise’s cheapest production in the Disney era: about $165 million. With that cost, and looking at the numbers in the rest of the world, around 315 million for the moment, the balance is not that of a financial catastrophe. But it says a lot about the public’s current perception of the franchise. Terror arrives. Although it apparently doesn’t have much to do with it, it’s worth looking at who did sweep the box office that weekend: two horror films from very young directors trained on YouTube. ‘Backrooms‘, practically matching the opening of the ‘Star Wars’ movie, and ‘Obsession’, with three weeks in theaters with great numbers. But the important thing is the ages: 86% of the ‘Backrooms’ audience was under 35 years old, and 44% under 21. In ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’ the percentage of the 25-year-old audience was 27%. It is not just any detail: it is that audience that ensures that the films do not collapse at the box office in the second weekend, because they recommend the premieres to their friends and on networks. Dave Filoni: perfect imperfect. When Dave Filoni arrived at Lucasfilm, his first project was to direct the animated film ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ in 2008, kicking off the series. There he found a vein: rescuing second-rate characters from the expanded universe and giving them new depth. He did it, for example, with his most beloved recreation: the Jedi Ahsoka Tano. In the company of Jon Favreau, he applied that same method to live action with ‘The Mandalorian’, still today the most successful ‘Star Wars’ series on Disney+. However, the series worked because it hit the nostalgia of Generation Alpha and Baby Boomers, but that is not enough to sustain the film. What is now on the table. It is clear that Disney has to bet all its cards on revitalizing the franchise with ‘Star Wars: Starfighter‘, starring Ryan Gosling and directed by Shawn Levy, and scheduled for release in 2027. It is an original idea, approved by Kennedy before his departure, and is not linked to the MandoVerso. It will be the first real chance to see if ‘Star Wars’ can work with new faces, new history and without the burden of continuity. It was said that Filoni would direct a new MandoVerso film, featuring Ahsoka and Grand Admiral Thrawn, but obviously, with the box office disappointment of this first feature, those plans may have been foiled. Before leaving, Kennedy planned a new trilogy led by Simon Kinberg (‘Rebels’, ‘Logan’, ‘Deadpool and Wolverine’), and with clear guidelines: new characters and story, finally abandoning the burden of the Skywalker saga. Where is the solution. It is worth paying attention to an observation made by Tom Bissell, screenwriter of the acclaimed second season of ‘Andor’, on the Backstory Magazine podcast. There, Bissell remembered the advice of showrunner Tony Gilroy on joining the team: resist the urge to open the toy box and take them all out, and instead try to leave more toys than there were when you arrived, thinking as a storyteller instead of a child. ‘Andor’ followed the beginning to the letter, without cameos or characters rescued from oblivion. ‘Andor‘ used the ‘Star Wars’ perch to propose a vibrant story of fascism, surveillance and resistance that could have been filmed without ships or ray guns. Result: 22 Emmy nominations between the two seasons and 5 wins in 2025, including Best Writing in a Drama. According to The WrapFiloni would have privately expressed his disagreement with ‘Andor’ (something that was later denied), but given the failure of this last film, perhaps Bissell was closer to the key to the future of the franchise than Filoni himself. Maybe it’s time to put aside the toy box and create new toys. In Xataka | Before selling ‘Star Wars’, George Lucas imagined a megalomaniacal series: 10 times more expensive than a movie in the saga

a star with a black hole inside

June 12, 2026 by usatoday24

From 2022, the James Webb Space Telescope has detected hundreds of red dotspossibly formed about 600 million years after the Big Bang. Its origin has been an enigma for all this time. However, little by little the same telescope is managing to delve into some of them until making such interesting findings. like the black hole that formed before its galaxy. Now, furthermore, has done the most in-depth and detailed inspection so far one of these red dots, discovering in the process an object that until now was only considered theoretical: the black hole star. More precision than ever. Some of these red dots have the advantage of being close to a large galactic cluster that can function as a magnifying glass. Having a great mass, its gravitational attraction deforms space time, which curves, generating a kind of lens that magnifies what is behind. This has allowed the James Webb to delve much better into the GLIMPSE-17775 red dot, obtaining the equivalent of 80 hours of observation with 30 hours of observation. Its spectrograph has revealed 40 spectral lines, the most detailed analysis of one of these red dots, and with them a pretty good idea of its composition. black hole star. When a very massive star no longer has fuel to remain “on” it can reach a point where it collapses and becomes a black hole. Usually a complete conversion. The entire star is “replaced” by the black hole. However, there is a hypothesis that in some cases a part of the star does not disappear, so that the black hole remains embedded inside it. This theoretical phenomenon is known as quasi star or black hole star and it would basically be a stellar-sized black hole, surrounded by a dense cocoon of partially ionized gas. It could happen, but until now none had been detected. The 40 spectral lines. As explained by the authors of the studythe 40 spectral lines found by James Webb were like puzzle pieces lying on the ground. As they were taken and placed in their place, the black hole star appeared. For example, there were lines associated with hydrogen, oxygen and helium that do not fit the simple model of a rotating gas cloud, such as that found around a black hole. On the other hand, there were oxygen lines that could only be formed with a large amount of energy, such as that coming from a black hole. There were also lines of iron that would correspond to those that form in a star that is already fusing its last fuel reserves. Finally, there were lines that would correspond to a scattering of electrons like the one that would take place in that cocoon of dense gas. Everything fits. The spectrum also revealed the existence of fluorescence and helium absorption, both characteristics that fit with a dense medium that surrounds a powerful energy source. Everything fits with the black hole star. In fact, it is possible that other red dots are also red, since that would explain why they emit so few X-rays. The cocoons of star debris would be absorbing the black hole’s emissions, preventing them from being detected by telescopes. Other red dots will have to continue to be analyzed, but it seems that they are becoming less enigmatic than when they were discovered. All thanks to James Webb. Image | NASA, ESA, CSA, Vasily Kokorev (UT Austin); Image processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI) In Xataka | We have been studying the planets of TRAPPIST-1 for years with great hope. James Webb just knocked it down

They learned cinema on YouTube, they have raised 300 million with their films and they have achieved something: defeating Star Wars

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

Three horror movies. Budgets ranging from a ridiculous million dollars for one to ten million for another. Directors of 26, 34 and 20 years old trained on YouTube, not in schools for children of. So far in 2026, those three films have grossed more than $300 million in the North American market. Franchise cinema is not dead, of course, and we are going to prove it this year with the premiere of ‘Doomsday‘ (although, for once, surprises are no longer ruled out). But there are issues that seem to be changing in another sense. The ‘Backrooms’ explosion. Last weekend,’Backrooms‘ (directed by 20-year-old Kane Parsons) collection 81.4 million dollars in North America and 118 million worldwide in its first weekend (and it does not arrive in countries like Spain until the end of June), with a budget of only ten million. It is the biggest premiere in the history of A24surpassing the previous record held by ‘Civil War‘by Alex Garland. Parsons also becomes the youngest director to top the US domestic box office, taking that record from Josh Trank, who was 27 years old when ‘Chronicle’ topped the charts in 2012. Unstoppable obsession. At the same time, ‘Obsession’ (by Curry Barker, 26 years old) added 26.4 million in its third weekend, 54% more than the previous week, starting from a budget of one million dollars. Its domestic total already exceeds 104 million. Meanwhile, ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu‘, with a budget of 165 million, fell 69% compared to its opening week and was third on the list of box office receipts that week. We will see ‘Obsession’ this weekend in Spain. The precedent. January had already given the first sign. ‘Iron Lung’ (written, directed, starring and self-distributed by Mark Fischbach, Markiplier on YouTube, 34 years old), debuted with 17.8 million domestic dollars and reached 52 million at the global box office from a budget of three. Fischbach didn’t even go through a study: he self-financed and distributed the film himselfpocketing half of the world gross. Young audience. It is obvious where these collections come from: 86% of the opening audience for ‘Backrooms’ was under 35 years old, and 44% under 21. ‘The Mandalorian and Grogu’, not to get away from Disney’s setback with a financially similar debut the previous week, had a share of those under 25 years of age of 27%, although on paper, it should have attracted more viewers of that age (which corroborates that at this point ‘Star Wars’ is entirely a franchise for kids over forty.) These directors who came from YouTube did not summon a new audience, but rather the one they already brought from the internet. Warner Bros. Motion Pictures co-head Michael De Luca summed it up in a conference in which said that these directors “They are in dialogue with their audience from the first moment.” By the time movies like these hit theaters, he added, “they’ve already had a billion screenings.” Three directors, a common pattern. In 2022, Kane Parsons uploaded a nine-minute short film to YouTube titled ‘The Backrooms (Found Footage)’shot from his bedroom with the help of the 3D graphics software Blender. Over the next few years, episodes of the series They accumulated more than 197 million views. Curry Barker, on the other hand, came from the sketch comedy channel ‘That’s a Bad Idea’ which currently has over 700 million cumulative views across platforms. In 2024 he filmed ‘Milk & Serial’, a found footage horror with $800 budget, almost all of it spent on the camera. He spent a year trying to get mainstream distribution without success. He uploaded it for free to YouTube and accumulated 1.6 million views. Mark Fischbach, for his part, has been on YouTube since 2012. He had experimented with the film format in two of his own productions for YouTube (‘A Heist with Markiplier’ and ‘In Space with Markiplier’) before adapting ‘Iron Lung’, David Szymanski’s indie horror video game published in 2022. Why the terror. American terror has exceeded 800 million dollars worldwide so far this year, and these three films directed by YouTube creators account for a third of that figure. But… why this devotion to the genre, which goes hand in hand with the good state of health that enjoy in recent years? Horror operates well with low budgets, and the young audience that grew up with creepypasta and found footages on YouTube has a particular relationship with that aesthetic space. Testing ground. The video clips of the nineties were the laboratory where authors such as David Fincher or Michel Gondry developed their visual grammar before jumping into cinema. Now, YouTube serves as a testing ground for the new generation of filmmakers. That’s why studios and agents now scour YouTube for new names. Now what. Barker has already filmed his next film, a horror comedy titled ‘Anything but Ghosts’, and A24 has hired him for a remake of ‘The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’. Parsons wants to expand the ‘Backrooms’ universe, possibly in television format. Fischbach, for his part, has already made it clear that he would like to collaborate with a large studio on future projects, without giving up creative control. It is possibly the one with the most traditional discovery profile in the underground and jump to the big leagues. For now, ‘Backrooms’ could end its box office career between $140 and $160 million in the United States alone, which would make the film one of the biggest hits of the year. Not bad for an idea that started as just another meme on 4chan. In Xataka | Cinema can only survive by competing in the “experience” market. That’s why Madrid already has its 70 mm projector

Emilia Clarke talks about her work in Marvel, Star Wars and Terminator: “it should never have happened”

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

In one recent interviewEmilia Clarke reviewed her post-‘Game of Thrones’ career with unusual frankness. About ‘Secret Invasion’ he said: “I don’t think anyone liked the series.” On ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’: “The viewers were not happy either.” On ‘Terminator: Genisys’: “It should never have happened.” He adds: “But they were jobs I said yes to. I joined franchises that were already big and established. That’s why I don’t take it personally.” It is difficult to find a better summary of how the big franchise business works in Hollywood. Some collections. Let’s see if Clarke’s feeling that they were failures is accompanied by data. ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ cost between 275 and 300 million dollars and raised 393 million worldwide. According to is calculatedDisney lost about $77 million on the film, making it Star Wars’ first commercial failure. ‘Secret Invasion’ had a production cost of 211.6 million dollars, a figure known thanks to the transparency demands of the UK tax incentive program, where it was filmed. More than ‘Barbie’ or ‘Oppenheimer’ cost that same year. Viewership figures on Disney+ in its first five days were the second lowest of any MCU production, only above ‘Ms. Marvel’. Critical reception was equally poor. Regarding ‘Terminator: Genesis’, 155 million budget, collection insufficient to justify sequels that had already been announced, and weak reviews. It’s not the first. In 2021, with the MCU still dominating the box office, Anthony Hopkins summarized his experience in the ‘Thor’ trilogy, between 2011 and 2017: “They put armor on me and gave me a beard. Sit on the throne, shout a little. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s acting in front of nothing.” Chris Hemsworth came to similar conclusions: recognized that in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder‘ “I got stuck improvising and clowning around, and became a parody of myself.” This time, critics and the public accompanied him in doubts. Hemsworth has described the dynamic that he calls “the curse of the superhero,” which is simply that “you get pigeonholed.” But at the same time he rejects the attitude of actors like Clarke, who criticize Marvel when their projects don’t work: “They are successful movies: put me in one. Mine doesn’t work? Well, I attack them all.” What Clarke is really saying. The heart of Clarke’s complaint is that major franchises operate as hiring machines that offer global visibility and financial rewards that few independent productions match. In return, the actor’s creative control over the result is minimal. Clarke said in the same interview that in ‘Game of Thrones’ she received the scripts and did “everything in my power to understand and empathize with the decisions.” This was not the case in later franchises. Not just Marvel. The pattern is not exclusive to a single franchise. When actress Jamie Lee Curtis rejected in 2022 participate in Marvel projects, he did so with the same type of argument as Hopkins: “they will stick stitches in my body and force me to perform in some warehouse.” What does seem to be clear and Clarke demonstrates is that when there is a commercial failure, actors seem to feel freer to point out the obvious shortcomings of a system in which they are just more meat for the content grinder. In Xataka | I have detected the exact moment in which things at Marvel began to fail and that culminated in ‘Captain America’

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