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Monistrol de Calders is a town of 700 residents. Now someone wants to turn it into the first Chinese cemetery in Spain

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Monistrol de Calders is a town in the Moyanés region, in the province of Barcelona. He last census The INE places just under 800 registered residents there, a small community without the slightest trace Chinese immigration. Despite that, the lack of ties with the Asian giant or the specter of depopulation, Monistrol is about to become a prominent place on the map of the European Chinese diaspora. And for a very special reason, too. A group of investors wants to build there, in an old farmhouse, the first cemetery feng shui of Spain and one of the few that exist in Europe. The ideal candidate. Monistrol de Calders may not be a very populous municipality, but it enjoys a privileged location in the heart of the Catalan countryside, between the Pla de Bages and the Sierra de San Lorenzo. Mountain. Streams. Sources. Pine forests. ç The town is not only idyllic. Some time ago a group of Chinese investors living in Catalonia saw in it Anything else: an ideal place to give shape to a project that they had been meditating on for some time, to build a feng shui cemetery, a space in which the growing chinese immigration could watch over their dead. In Moyanés as in Qingtian. They were not only convinced by the setting, the atmosphere and the location of Monistrol. The mayor of the town, Arturo Argelaguer, explains to The National that the promoters liked something else: “Orographically it is very similar to the part of the country where they originate, the region of Qingtian“. The area also has a special symbolic value, since it is the place of origin of much of it of the around 350,000 people of Chinese origin who reside in Spain. That in Monistrol as such there are no neighbors from the Asian giant matters little. After all, the town is half an hour by car from Manresa and less than an hour and a half from the center of Barcelona, ​​where there is a large immigrant community. The idea of ​​building a cemetery there in which to lay vigil for their dead pleased the investors so much that in june They even invited Quingtian to a delegation led by Argelaguer. The visit culminated with a Monistrol-Dongyuan twinning. And what do they want to do? The idea is to build a multi-denominational cemetery, “open to all”, although following the guidelines of feng shui so that the Chinese community can say goodbye and mourn their deceased while respecting their own traditions. There they can leave offerings, burn incense or hold long celebrations, practices that in other Spanish cemeteries can cause problems. “In Monistrol we have found a calm natural environment. There are no factories or pylons and positive energy can flow,” recognize to The Country Carlos, businessman and vice president of the Qingtian Association in Catalonia. The idea is to create a cemetery with capacity for around 80,000 graves of different types, which includes everything from niches to pantheons and columbariums. The cemetery will also have an extensive area of ​​trees. From farmhouse to necropolis. Proof that the cemetery promoters are serious is that they have already made a move. The National assures who have bought a farm of almost 59 hectares in Monistrol de Calders and presented a project on which the Generalitat must now rule. For now, the investors have managed to arouse enthusiasm in the City Council, which boasts of having achieved three commitments of the company: the construction of sports facilities in the town, prioritizing residents when hiring personnel for the works and contributing between 20,000 and 40,000 euros annually to local entities. If it goes ahead, the cemetery will also serve to rehabilitate a relevant piece of Monistrol’s heritage: the Païssa farmhouse, the land on which the promoters have set their eyes. The farm would be investor ownershipbut right now she is busy and with a judicial process underway. The ultimate objective is that of its more than 587,400 m2, more than half (56%) are dedicated to the cemetery. The rest will be used for general services and a large area of ​​around 223,900 m2 will be reserved for a forest area, with pine forests. A unique project? Although the project still has to clear the processing that remains ahead, it starts with an interesting business card: it would be the first cemetery designed based on the principles of feng shui in Spain and one of the few that exist in the whole of Europe. The Country only appointment in fact one, in Zwolle, Netherlands, which opened its doors just over 10 years ago. In Spain, the new cemetery will arrive at the height of the expansion of Chinese immigration, which has been increasing for decades to surpass the 200,000 people in 2022. Not only is their number increasing. Over time, the community has been nourished by third, fourth or fifth generation Spaniards with Chinese roots, people who do not consider returning to Asia and want to be buried and mourn their dead in Spain. Until now, the perspectives were different: either the mortal remains were repatriated to China, with the cost (and distance) that this entailed, or the families were resigned to saying goodbye to their loved ones in traditional Western cemeteries. Images | Jayde Keroi (Unsplash), Maximus Beaumont (Unsplash) and Google Earth In Xataka | Chinese immigrants have always been a mystery for Spain. The podcast ‘A Chinese and a half’ is solving it from within

Fed up with excessive luxury, social media users turn to normality: creators with everyday lives

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A recent television controversy with the content creator @supaa97 has put on the table a series of issues that are perhaps at the opposite end of the topics we always talk about in reference to the influencers (fortunesluxuries, excesses): can content be created from absolute normality? Is that close to normalizing precariousness? And if it does, is it a problem? The Suyapa case. The controversy started, just as Suyapa says (which is his real name), when he agreed to do an interview for ‘Public Mirror’ to comment a video of your profile in which she told how she lived in a single room with her husband and son, and was classified as a “Poverty Influencer”, along with users who make videos with unboxings of government aid. Suyapa has stated that she is far from that type of content, and although it is true that she lives in very modest conditions in a single room, she earns her living by working as a cleaner and without resorting to aid, so she could not be included in a category of poverty. The appeal of normality. Suyapa makes a type of content closer to normcore (which is still a label created from top to bottom): these types of profiles share ordinary activities (from choosing simple and functional clothing to routines such as making a coffee, taking care of a pet or sharing morning tasks) moving away from the cult of luxury or drama that predominates in other digital spheres. They embrace simplicity and naturalness in both fashion and lifestyle: basic garments, discreet brands, homey environments and a staging that is not aspirational but friendly and accessible. He normcore as a label. This type of content is sometimes, as we say, a reaction to more luxurious and frivolous creators. If it arises spontaneously, because the creator does not ascend the social scale even if he wants to (as happens with Suyapa), or as a voluntary limitation, it is another question where you can talk about posture. That is to say, sometimes normcore is a false normality that arises as a reaction to luxury saturation. A more relaxed visual narrative is artificially sought, where the emotional connection is based on trust, identification and everyday honesty, but sometimes it is also a pose that seeks, paradoxically, to convey an image of coherence and credibility. What did they think it was? What ‘Espejo Público’ alluded to and where it mistakenly included @suyapaa97 was in a different type of phenomenon that we know as “pornomiseria” or “poverty porn”, which has two aspects: on the one hand, influencers on social networks that viralize acts of charity towards people in poverty to monetize these contents through likes, views and donations. One of the best known cases is that of Jimmy Dartswho with more than 12 million followers on TikTok, makes videos with homeless people, testing their honesty or proposing challenges. It is a controversial format that has a large number of ethical implications, even though influencers reward the people they portray with a large amount of money, as detailed this article. Something similar happens with amateur journalists who, under the pretext of portraying poverty and misery, create sensationalist content, a format whose origins date back to the seventies and that again has very complex moral connotations. Yonfluencers: from normality to luxury, and back again. Recentlythe rejection of social media consumers to the exaggerated and elitist display of luxury into which many have fallen influencers has made me think in how the perception we have of this type of content creators has changed. Many of them began as a daily reflection of our lives and as they earned money and followers, they distanced themselves from reality, generating a certain aversion from those who followed them for being a close and identifiable replica. That’s why content creators like Suyapa work, who have to overcome obstacles that are easy to identify with: tightening their belts to make ends meet, juggling time off from work or looking for affordable forms of leisure are some of the problems that the vast majority of people face. In Xataka | The influencer María Pombo defends her right not to read. And by the way, it raises an interesting controversy about habits

How to turn your photos into video game scenarios like Nintendo with Nano Banana

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Let’s tell you how to turn a landscape photo into a video game screen. For example, you can turn a photo into a Super Mario or cell screen, all with a few prompts quite simple that you can use in Gemini, the artificial intelligence from Google. And why in Gemini and not in another AI like ChatGPT? Well, because Google has Free Nano Banana, a photo editing model. This model allows you to make modifications to photos while maintaining the content, and although we have already told you how to use it for photos of yourself, there are also curious things you can do with landscapes. Turn a photo into a video game landscape The first thing you have to do is choose a photo of a landscape or a building to transform. I think the result will always be better if it is a wide photo where not only the building appears, but also the surroundings, so that the video game screen you are going to create has more content. Now, you have to attach the photo to Gemini and add a prompt with the request of what you want to do with it. For example, you can use a prompt like this, but specifying the game you want: “Transform this image into a scene from the Nintendo video game Zelda” Can continue transforming the original photo without having to upload it again. To do this, you will have to continue repeating almost the entire prompt, but mentioning that you are referring to the original photo. For example, you can say, “Now transform the original photo into a scene from the video game Skyrim.” And with this, you can play with your photos and transform them into settings for the video game that you like the most. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and remember that you can ask me to add specific details like a dragon, a dinosaur, or whatever you can think of. In Xataka Basics | Gemini Image Editor: 16 Ways and Tricks to Squeeze Nano-banana with Google’s AI

If it consumes more, turn on the oven or air fryer

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Every time the electricity bill arrives, we look at it with more attention than before. It is no longer enough to turn off the lights or unplug the cell phone charger: now cooking has also become an energy decision. Between hobs, ovens and air fryers, the kitchen has become the new battleground for savings. In recent years, the air fryer has come to staypromising lighter and faster meals. But the question remains in the air: does it consume more or less than the traditional oven? The modern dilemma. They may both cook with hot air, but their way of doing it makes the difference. The air fryer, Endesa explainsit works more like a miniature oven than a classic fryer. Its trick is to circulate hot air at high speed within a small compartment, achieving fast and uniform cooking. The traditional oven, for its part, heats a much larger space and needs to maintain the temperature for longer.And that’s the crux of the matter: the larger the volume, the more energy is expended. According to Naturgy, Although the oven is not the device that consumes the most electricity per year – barely 4% of the total – its specific power is one of the highest, and this can be noticed when the light goes up. Data and euros on the table. The power figures help to understand it better. An average air fryer has a power of between 1,000 and 1,800 watts, which is equivalent to a consumption of 0.8 to 1.5 kilowatt hours (kWh) per time of use, depending on the model and time. Meanwhile, a conventional oven has a higher power of between 2,000 and 5,000 watts, and with an average consumption of 1 to 1.5 kWh per use, although it may be higher for long cooking times or high temperatures. To understand it better, it is worth looking at how much it costs for our pocket. According to TotalEnergiesusing an air fryer for half an hour costs between 11 and 23 cents, depending on the model and the electricity rate. On the other hand, an electric oven can double that amount, especially if used at high temperatures or for more than an hour. Cooking a kilo and a half chicken at 220°C for just over an hour, for example, can cost around 30 or 40 cents. depending on the time zone. And although it may seem like little, consumption multiplies when it is used frequently or long preheats are performed. In addition, the oven requires preheating – between 10 and 15 minutes – and loses up to 25% of heat each time the door is opened, according to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU). Small gestures that increase consumption without us realizing it. The CNMC remember that the real cost It depends on the price of the kilowatt hour (kWh) at any given time. In 2025, the average domestic price in Spain is around €0.14/kWh, although it varies significantly between peak and off-peak hours. Therefore, rather than focusing only on the appliance, it is advisable to cook in the cheapest sections or take advantage of the residual heat, small gestures that can reduce final expenditure by up to 20%. Does size matter? That’s it the secret of the air fryer: a compact compartment that concentrates heat and reduces cooking time. The hermetic design and constant circulation of hot air allow it to reach temperatures of up to 200 °C in just a few minutes, which shortens times and prevents heat leaks. Therefore, for small portions or individual dishes, the air fryer wins by a landslide in efficiency. Of course, the most modern ovens have also learned to save. Those with energy class A or B and convection models with internal fan can consume up to 60% less than the old ones, and if their full capacity is used – cooking several dishes at the same time or using duo trays – the cost per serving can be very competitive. Beyond appliances. Efficiency not only depends on the appliance, but small gestures – such as not opening the oven while cooking, taking advantage of residual heat or planning several recipes at the same time – can reduce energy consumption. up to 30% annually. Unplugging small appliances when not in use avoids “phantom consumption”, and choosing appliances with an A or B energy label is an investment that pays for itself in a few months. In the words of the CNMCadapting use to the most economical schedules can mean savings of between 9% and 15% on the annual bill. The future is served. The air fryer has democratized energy efficiency in the kitchen. It is compact, clean, fast and economical. But the oven, far from disappearing, retains its throne as a versatile and robust tool for lovers of traditional cuisine. Ultimately, the savings do not depend so much on the device as on the use we make of it. Image | FreePik and Pixabay Xataka | Dreame no longer wants to be just the vacuum cleaner brand. Your order to conquer the home: washing machines, refrigerators and even ovens

They have found a way to turn tall buildings into batteries. And that makes Benidorm our best asset

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The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow, what do we do if there is no renewable energy when we need to turn on the lights? Normally, pulling lithium batteries either pumped hydroelectric plants. But cities that build vertically like Benidorm have another untapped option. In short. A comprehensive University of Waterloo study has shown that the height of buildings can be used to create a system of gravity energy storage. An idea that transforms cities built in height into a huge device to store and release energy at will. Mechanical batteries. The concept is, in essence, very simple. It is made up of a heavy mass (concrete or steel blocks), a system of pulleys and cables similar to that of an elevator, and a motor that also works as a generator. The operation is as follows. When there is a surplus of energy, for example at midday, when the building’s solar panels are at full capacity, the motor uses that electricity to lift heavy dough along a vertical gaplike that of an elevator. Electrical energy is converted into potential energy. When electricity is needed and renewables are not producing, at night or on a day without wind, the mass is dropped in a controlled manner. The force of gravity does the rest: the descending weight moves the generator, which converts the potential energy back into electricity ready to use. Tested successfully. The researchers propose this system as the heart of a hybrid energy ecosystem integrated into the building itself, which includes photovoltaic panels on facades, small wind turbines on the roof and backup lithium-ion batteries. As pointed out PV Magazinecompanies such as the Scottish Gravitricity have already demonstrated the viability of this technology with functional prototypes and have full-scale commercial projects of 4 and 8 MW underway. Energy is generated with the sun and the wind. Gravity acts as the main battery for daily storage, managing large charge and discharge cycles. Is it viable? To test whether their idea was more than just an interesting theory, the University of Waterloo team ran a massive simulation. They analyzed 625 different building designs, varying parameters such as height, the shape of the floor plan (more square or more elongated) and the energy efficiency of the building. The results are very promising. The system (facade solar panels + small wind power + gravity storage + a battery support) achieved a levelized cost of electricity of between 0.051 and 0.111 dollars per kWh. This figure is very competitive, and even improves the costs of other renewable energy systems integrated into buildings located in areas with moderate solar or wind resources. And taller buildings with larger floor plans benefit the most, so Benidorm It is our best asset. Image | Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 3.0) In Xataka | Finland has found a cheap way to store energy all winter: a tower of 2,000 tons of sand

insurers have started to turn their backs on them

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Since the end of 2022 we have witnessed, live, the artificial intelligence revolution. The launch of ChatGPT opened a stage of investment and expectations that has elevated actors like NVIDIA and has placed OpenAI among the most influential startups. But every revolution has a reverse. As AI advances, so does the list of demands and the question that no one can avoid: who bears the risk when something goes wrong. In the United States, every technological advance comes accompanied by an avalanche of lawsuits. It’s not just a habit: it’s part of the system. If a company does something that generates profits but can also cause harm, sooner or later someone will take it to court. And that’s why insurance exists, to convert a future risk into a present cost. The model has worked for decades, but artificial intelligence is starting to test it like no other sector before. Cases that are pressing now. OpenAI and Anthropic have been the first to see how far the risk bill can go. The first faces lawsuits for the use of protected works to train models and for a civil liability case after the suicide of a teenager. In both cases, the costs are not only in the millions: they set the tone for a litigation that threatens to spread throughout the sector. What policies cover today. For now, the AI ​​majors are operating with conventional policies, similar to those of any technology company. According to the Financial TimesOpenAI has hired Aon to design coverage that would be around $300 million, although not everyone involved confirms that figure. It is a significant amount, but insignificant compared to possible claims of billions. In practice, insurers recognize that the sector does not yet have “sufficient capacity” to protect providers of large-scale models. Why do they back down? The aforementioned newspaper points out that Aon did not want to comment on specific companies, although its head of cybersecurity, Kevin Kalinich, admitted that they do not have sufficient capacity to cover model providers. He further explained that what insurers fear is that a failure by an AI company will become a “systemic, correlated and aggregate risk.” Plan B: Self-insure. With insurers folding, AI companies are seeking refuge in themselves. OpenAI is apparently considering setting aside funds from investors or even creating a captive —a kind of own insurer that serves to cover internal risks when the market does not want to do so. Anthropic has already done it: it allocated part of its capital to a $1.5 billion deal with writers. They are solutions that buy time, but do not guarantee stability if the next court ruling triggers compensation. What changes for the rest of the sector. The impact goes beyond OpenAI or Anthropic. Startups and smaller providers are already noticing how premiums are rising, coverage is reduced, and launch times are lengthening due to legal requirements. Legal uncertainty has become another fixed cost. In the absence of a clear formula to measure AI risks, insurers treat them as potentially catastrophic. And that makes each experiment, each new model and each line of code more expensive. What to watch from now on. The coming months will be decisive to see if the insurance sector manages to adapt. Financial Times points to new formulas that cover chatbot errors and AI-generated content, although for now they are limited trials. Companies, meanwhile, are preparing their next defense: diversifying funds and protecting internal structures. The artificial intelligence industry has not stopped nor does it seem like it will. But its expansion is beginning to touch the limits of a system that does not yet know how to measure these risks. Insurers tread carefully, regulators watch from the sidelines, and companies are forced to improvise in certain cases. Images | vecstock (Freepik) | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 In Xataka | “These are things that a university student would get in trouble for”: Deloitte delivered a report made with AI to Australia

Sora’s AI is resurrecting dead celebrities to turn them into cheap viral content: it’s technological nonsense

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What of digitally resurrect deceased public figures It’s not new, but Sora 2 by OpenAI is crossing the line from homage to pure morbid entertainment, with videos ranging from harmless humor to the most explicit cruelty. This phenomenon, which has provoked the indignation of relatives of the daughter of actor Robin Williams, raises serious ethical and legal questions. What is happening. Michael Jackson shows up at a KFC and steals a man’s fried chicken while dancing away. Pope John Paul II does some skate tricks. Albert Einstein gives an interview after a UFC fight. These are just a few examples of what people are doing with Sora 2. There’s more: Martin Luther King, Kennedy, Nixon…many videos have a humorous and seemingly harmless tone. Others, however, are in very bad taste, such as those that show a Stephen Hawking being abused brutally. And the worst thing is that no one seems to be stopping it. The Robin Williams case. Zelda Williams, daughter of the late actor, has used her Instagram account to show her rejection of this trend. “Please stop sending me AI-generated videos of dad. Stop believing that I want to see them or that I will understand them. I don’t want them and I won’t understand them,” he said in his message. Although he does not give details about whether the videos he has received are made with Sora 2, his complaint comes just a few days after its release. The cameos. They are the great novelty of Sora 2 and one of the reasons for its popularity. In fact, the app was launched with a cameo by Sam Altman that has already generated all kinds of memes. With cameos you can create funny videos of yourself or a friend, but Sora won’t let you make videos of real people unless they have given their consent. Except if those people are dead. Blurred boundaries. In it Sora security document 2OpenAI states that “only you can decide who can use your cameo, and you can revoke access at any time. We also take steps to block depictions of public figures.” However, they don’t say anything about public figures who have died, and from what we’re seeing, it doesn’t seem like these guidelines apply in the same way. According to the TechCrunch teststhe app does not allow you to create videos of Jimmy Carter or Michael Jackson (although there are published videos), but it does not cause problems when doing so with Robin Williams or Richard Nixon. defaming the dead. Although it is ethically questionable, at a legal level things change. In the United States, where OpenAI operates, legally it is not possible to open a process for defaming a deceased personso the company would not have any responsibility. In Spain it is similar; the Organic Law 1/1982 includes the right to honor, personal and family privacy and one’s own image. However, according to the article 32 of the civil codecivil personality is extinguished after death. Yes, it could be the case that heirs claim the right to honor of the deceasedbut it is a complex process and full of nuances. The new AI dump. At the beginning of the year we talked about how Junk AI or ‘AI Slop’ had flooded the networks. Were most disturbing videosof very bad tastebut they were clearly made with AI. With Sora 2 a dangerous door opens and it is that of a new AI dump more realistic than ever. If we add to this the use of the image of deceased people as if they were toys with which we can do whatever we want, no matter how legal it may be, it sets a very worrying precedent. Image | tiktok In Xataka | OpenAI and AMD have just signed more than just an AI agreement: it’s the barter of desperation

Chatgpt began as a simple assistant of AI. OpenAI wants to turn it into your future operating system

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OpenAi wants to change everything with chatgpt. The chatbot of AI He no longer wants to be a chatbot of AI with whom we talk: he wants to do everything for us. And to do so the idea is to turn ChatgPT into something surprising: an operating system with which you will talk and talk to ask for things. Why is it important. The developer event held yesterday by OpenAI allowed reveal a new application platform that wants to have ChatgPT as a central axis. The new philosophy makes all types of third -party services work directly within Chatgpt, which connects them and converts them in part of a promising user experience. Surprising examples. During the presentation they were shown various cases of use in which a user simply planned a chatgpt trip and it connected to Booking or needed a training course and the chatbot served it with extra comments connecting to Coursera. OpenAI already has a preliminary version of the SDK that will allow developers create applications that can then interconnect with chatgpt As those first examples already do among those that are Spotify, Canva, Zillow, or the aforementioned Booking and Coursera. It is not a “superapp”, it is something more. The search for a new surface has been for example a particular obsession of Elon Musk. Its objective was to convert X (formerly Twitter) into a surface similar to Wechat, which is that “tool to do everything” that triumphs in China. This SUPERAPP integrates a lot of own services, but also to minialyucations with which the user must operate quite manually. With chatgpt the intention is another. Machine, do everything for me. With operating systems such as Windows or MacOS what we normally ask when doing something is “What app I need to perform this task?” With this apparent chatgpt transformation into an operating system we can simply tell the chatbot “I want to do this task” to complete it. Second attempt. Openai already really tried something like that with the GPT store that launched in January 2024 and allowed to create “personalized GPTS”. Although the company presumed that they had been created More than three million of these GPTSthese “widgets” were nothing more than slight modifications of the Traditional Chatgpt assistant. Although the idea was promising That did not curdle, but this attempt is much more ambitious, especially because now Chatgpt wants to become a kind of orchestra director that connects to all kinds of services to do what the user needs at all times with simple prompts written or spoken. A de facto operating system. Openai’s proposal resembles – at least, conceptually – to what we usually conceive as a modern operating system. Its fundamental function is to serve as an interface between the user and the machine, and here Chatgpt wants to be something similar. It doesn’t matter the hardware and application, because it is Chatgpt that interprets the user’s intention and then connects with the most appropriate applications for each task. Monetization. In Openai they also mentioned that they are preparing the integration of His new agentic commerce protocol to allow payments between services and users. There was no talk of what kind of economic agreement signs Booking or Spotify when they interact with chatgpt, but it is evident that for these services the traffic that comes from chatgpt can be very valuable, and it is reasonable to think that Openai takes a commission if economic transactions are completed. OpenAI VE Chatgpt as an operating system. Nick Turley, head of the Product of Chatgpt in Openai, explained In a subsequent conversation with means what was the vision of the company: “What you will see during the next six months is an evolution of Chatgpt, which will go from being a really very useful application to become something that will look a little more to an operating system.” Developers, come to me. For your idea to succeed, OpenAi needs be available globally. This tool now offers additional characteristics To, for example, connect it to Slack or use it as an SDK to integrate into other workflows. Of the mouse and the keyboard to the conversation. Chatgpt raises that future we have been talking about: one in which instead of using mouse and keyboard to handle our computer We will use text and voice prompts. The interaction theoretically will have to think about how we want to do things – that will already be in charge of chatgpt and the services to which it connects – and more what things we want to do. It is a radical change that promises to get closer even more to do everything with machines … to depend more than ever on them. In Xataka | Openai and AMD have just signed more than an AI agreement: it is the bartering of despair

In 48 hours the Gaza conflict will take a 360 degree turn. And some options were science fiction just a few days ago

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Trump, accompanied by Netanyahu, has presented An ambitious plan of peace that seeks to end almost two years of war in Gaza, releasing Israeli hostages and opening a reconstruction process under international supervision. Its scheme demands the surrender of Hamas, the total disarmament and its political exclusion, offering in return the release of about 2,000 Palestinian prisoners and the massive entry of humanitarian aid. TO Your ultimatum He has hours left for the conflict of a 360 degree turn. An unexpected plan. Unlike previous proposals that were limited to partial truces, the one now intends a definitive cessation of hostilities, with a period of just 72 hours (now about 48) so that Hamas delivers all captives. Israel would keep troops in A safety corridor Within Gaza and in damping areas, but it would commit to partial replication, while a Palestinian Technical Committee Under the tutelage of A “Board of Peace” chaired by Trump and with Tony Blair in a prominent role. The project, prepared in consultations with Israel, Qatar, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has been qualified by the White House as the most realistic route to close the war and redraw the future of the strip. The concessions to Netanyahu. Netanyahu achieved, to a large extent, Impose your conditions: Hamas would be out of any future administration, the Palestinian authority would only have a hypothetical role subject to drastic reforms, and the creation of a Palestinian state would be deferred to an indefinite horizon. If you want, for the Israeli prime minister, internationally cornered after European recognitions of a Palestinian State and after the Boicot in the United Nationsit was a kind of Rare Diplomatic Victoria: together with Trump he was able to show that he still controls the times and that Washington supports his “total victory” strategy. The right. However, this same position opens cracks within Israel, where the radical right accuses the government of Claudicar by accepting a plan with Symbolic concessions to the Palestinian cause and with the introduction of foreign forces in Gaza. Smotrich and Ben-Gvir They have warned that could demolish the coalition if the agreement becomes a definitive peace that freezes the military offensive, which predicts political turbulence that Netanyahu tries to dodge with procedure maneuvers, such as avoiding taking the entire plan to the vote of the security cabinet. The pressure on Hamas. For Hamas, The proposal is lethal In political terms: he would mean the end of his domain in Gaza after almost two decades, the disarmament of his brigades and the delivery of his last hostages without guarantees of future influence. Even so, the group faces an unpublished pressure: Türkiye, Qatar and Egypt have expressed support for the plan and warn that Hamas’s time runs out. Many analysts They point that the direction of the militia seeks a “decent landing” that saves part of its paintings and avoid total annihilation, but any acceptance of the agreement would mean cross the red lines He has always proclaimed, especially the maintenance of his armed arm. In that context, Trump launched that public ultimatum: “Three or four days” to answer, accompanied by the threat that Hamas will “pay in hell” if he rejects the offer. The dilemma for Islamist leaders is clear: giving and surviving politically in exile or resisting and risking that Israel resumes an even more devastating offensive. The Arab mediators. In this case, Arab countries have gone from rhetoric to direct involvement. Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and Qatar have transmitted to Washington and Israel A list of conditions: No to the annexation of Gaza, not to the forced displacement of Palestinians, not to new settlements, and yes to a horizon of Palestinian self -determination. Although Trump’s plan does not fully satisfy these demands, he has incorporated concessions as the mention of a possible “credible route towards Palestinian self -determination” if the Palestinian authority undertakes reforms. The paradox is that the authority itself, weakened and discredited, has Backed the plan With enthusiasm, accepting to review your textbooks, eliminate payments to prisoners and open to international scrutiny in order not to be excluded. For Arab states, the priority is close the war frontcontain humanitarian drift and keep the prospects for the solution of two states alive, even in a rhetorical framework. Internal risks in Israel. We said it before, the agreement threatens to fracture The Israeli coalition. While the centrist opposition supports him as a realistic basis to recover hostages and stop the war, the ultra -nationalist parties perceive it as an inadmissible assignment. The fear of Smotrich and Ben-Gvir is that to accept international forces and a Palestinian administration, even if it is technocratic, EROSIONE ISRAELI CONTROL and leave the door open to a future Palestinian state. Netanyahu tries to keep the Delicate balance: Present the agreement as a triumph in Washington and before the international community, but reassuring its right -wing base ensuring that Israel will retain military presence in Gaza and will never allow a sovereign Palestinian state. This double discourse reflects the fragility of your government, increasingly dependent on maintaining the security narrative against external demands. Trump’s disappointment. The change in tone of Trump himself to Israel does not cease to be striking. In private And in recent statements, the US president has shown An unusual anger with Netanyahu for unilateral attacks that have put the mediation of Washington, such as the bombardment in Doha against Hamas leaders when a fire was discussed. Trump se Feel disappointed So consider a lack of reciprocity: while he has sustained Israel in the international arena, Netanyahu has acted so that weakens the strategy North American diplomatic. This disenchantment, also applicable To the “Russian friend” In the Ukraine War, explains the Plan turnwhich is no longer just a blank check for Israel, but a frame with commitments and deadlines, in which it is even mentioned, even if it is vaguely, the perspective of a Palestinian state. Gaza under international administration. Thus, things, the plan also opens the … Read more

This is the recipe with which they want to turn around the energy map

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Against all forecast –And in the middle of Trump was in the White House– California is demonstrating that the sun can with the night. The recipe has no technological mystery: a lot of photovoltaic, many batteries and an increasingly fine demand management. The result is that natural gas, for decades the king of the evening peak, yields ground quickly. The key is in batteries. And the state of California is more than clear. The solar generation has increased in this half year by 18% compared to the same period last year and the discharge of batteries grew by 63%, allowing to cover up to a third of the maximum night demand, According to Ember. That cocktail allowed to cover the maximum night demand, a space that until nothing dominated the combined cycles of gas. The impact has been fulminant: the production of gas plants fell 25% in one year and 43% in just two. During the summer, in 41 of the last 49 days, the Californian network was able to meet the entire demand exclusively with solar, wind and hydro, sometimes for more than nine consecutive hours. In several days, the renewable supply exceeded 140% of the demand, with surpluses exported to neighboring states, As explained by Professor Mark Jacobson in an interview with Bruce McCabe. The kitchen of success. The key to the Californian turn can be summarized in a word: capacity. In just four years the state went from having 0.6 GW of batteries at a network scale (2020) to 11.7 GW in 2024, almost half of the entire National Park. That year it installed more storage (3.8 GW) than large -scale solar (2.5 GW), a milestone that reflects the change of priorities, as they have detailed in an Ember report. However, we are not talking only about the hardware of the matter. The Caiso operator He opened the door that the batteries arbitrate intra -diagram prices – cargar when the energy is abundant and cheap, sell in expensive hours – participate in regulation services and reserve part of their capacity for the so -called “critical hours” in the afternoon. In 2024, even with more moderate price peaks, its role in the Net-Peak was consolidated, displacing the gas turbines that used to dominate that section. Two factors that have helped. On the one hand, solar roofs already produce the equivalent of 13% of the electricity sold in the state, reducing the daytime demand of the network and, when combined with domestic batteries, also the nocturnal. On the other hand, the Demand-Side Grid-Sport (DSGS) program has given rise to one of the world’s largest power plants in the world, with more than 200 MW operations and 720 MW of customer batteries. In the summer of 2024 it was activated 16 times during heat waves and tested its stabilizer effect. However, its future is uncertain: the state budget deficit and a cut of 18 million dollars put both DSGS and the Microredes Deba program at risk, warns PV Magazine. The impact on prices. The most immediate result for consumers is that prices have relaxed. The renewables sank the wholesale cost: the spot fell 53 % year -on -year and many noon sections recorded negative prices, damping thanks to the fact that the batteries already absorb 15 % of the demand in those hours. According to Jacobsoncomplete electrification can save between 60% and 65% of the annual energy invoice compared to the current fossil -based model. All pink color? No, California still faces challenges. Demand response programs depend on public budgets that are not guaranteed. As Jacobson has pointed out In a study published in Standfordthe network needs to continue improving its flexibility: move hydroelectric to the night, accelerate marine wind and strengthen demand management are essential steps. Spain: The other face of the currency. While California wins the gas battle, Spain lives the opposite paradox: it produces more renewable than ever, but cannot only trust them. After the blackout of April 28, 2025, Red Eléctrica activated a reinforced operational mode which prioritizes combined cycles. The problem is not the lack of sun or wind, but storage and flexibility. Without enough batteries or hydraulic pumping, the network lacks mattress to transfer the noon surplus at night peak. The Government knows and has reacted with an “antiaps insurance”: Royal Decree-Law 7/2025 He opened the door to capacity markets that remunerate firm technologies for being available. The objective is to maintain 9,000 MW of combined cycles that were at risk of closing. But those are temporary crutches. Structural solutions – batteries, hydraulic storage, micro -redes and demand management – will take at least until 2026 to deploy. Two roads, the same lesson. Mark Jacobson He foresees California will reach 80% renewable between 2026 and 2028 and 100% between 2030 and 2033. Ember He estimates that in 2025 A batteria GW will be installed for every 1.7 GW of solar, further accelerating gas replacement. The moral is clear: California demonstrates that miracles or futuristic technologies are not needed: with solar, wind, hydro and batteries enough to bend gas. Spain, on the other hand, remembers that the transition is not improvised: without sufficient storage or management, renewables cannot sustain the network alone. The road is clear; The question is who will travel faster. Image | Rawpixel Xataka | 99% of the Internet travels through submarine cables. Now there is a much more ambitious plan in progress: join the electricity grid

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