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In Almería they thought they had seen a drug boat. It turned out to be the solar yacht of a Finn who has traveled 6,000 km without refueling

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The bathers who tried to suffocate the high temperatures of the latest heat waves swimming around Cabo de Gata last sundaythey watched in astonishment the passage of a very unusual boat. It sailed close to the shore, with a lower hull than usual and an extremely quiet engine. It had no mast or visible bridge. Some thought it was a drug boat. Others, directly, in a submarine. It was nothing like that. According to collected Hybrids and Electricswhat was crossing Las Salinas was the Helios 11. When a Civil Guard patrol boat, equally surprised by the appearance of the boat, came to closely inspect that boat on El Zapillo beach, it only found solar panels and batteries. The dream of a Finn who wanted to sail cheap The person that the Civil Guard found on board the boat is Lukas Sjöman, Finnish adventurer, designer and builder of the most sustainable yacht that the Andalusian coasts will see this summer. He built it alone, without a shipyard, in a shed at his house and its price has not exceeded that of a modest car. As Sjöman himself tells in the videos from his YouTube channel, it took about 200 days to have the hull ready, made with a structure of marine plywood and fiberglass. The result is a yacht 11 meters long and 2.4 meters wide, weighing close to 1.5 tons. Inside there is space for some amenities including an electric stove, a light refrigerator and a bathroom with cisternjust enough to live on board, but without the luxuries that millionaires’ yachts usually equip. However, Sjöman’s obsession is not sailing through the most exclusive ports of the Mediterranean. emulating Koru of Jeff Bezos or the superyachts of Arab sheikhs. Their goal was to create a boat that was as sustainable as possible. To achieve this he only had to do one thing: look at the sky. The entire roof of the Helios 11 is covered with solar panels, and as it says on your channelreaches a power close to 6 kW and an expansion to 40 kW is already planned. The system runs on 48 volts and charges the batteries while the boat is underway. The electric motor supported by solar panels allows almost infinite navigation since it does not need to stop to refuel like alternatives with diesel or hybrid engines. Sjöman assures that the boat consumes less while sailing than a domestic blender. On a normal day it travels about 145 miles, about 270 kilometers. In bad weather, the decrease in the charging capacity of its batteries and the greater demand for power during navigation to overcome storms, the figure can drop to 40 miles (about 70 km per day). Helios 11 sailing near the coast A 6,000 kilometer trip to put it to the test And what’s the best way to test that a boat really works? Effectively taking to the sea. Sjöman began a journey of thousands of kilometers to demonstrate that the Helios 11 is a viable alternative to build cheap yachts and with propulsion systems that do not depend on fossil fuels. The Helios 11 route started in Finland and went down rivers and canals, crossing several European countries until reaching the Mediterranean. Sjöman arrived in Ibiza after going through some 5,700 kilometers without refueling. From there he continued his particular Mediterranean cruise approaching the Andalusian coast: Mazarrón, Cabo de Gata and now Almería. Helios 11 anchored in Ibiza The trip has not been perfect. According to collected Supercarblondiewhen he was anchored on the coast of San Carles de la Rápita (Tarragona) his auxiliary boat was stolen. So he had to build another one to continue because the Helios 11 cannot anchor on shallow beaches or in small docks to resupply with supplies, so without the boat the Finn was left “incommunicado” on board. Solar energy solves fuel. It does not solve the logistics or unforeseen events of sailing alone. A clean alternative to the most polluting yachts Current superyachts take more into account comfort and nautical luxury than the emissions from their engines. The few hybrid alternatives that alternate electric and diesel engines are aimed at obtaining quieter navigation and anchoring, not to reduce emissions. According to the report ‘Carbon emissions inequality kills Elaborated by Oxfam International, the yachts of the richest billionaires generated in a single year a carbon footprint which is equivalent to 860 years of emissions from the average person. The problem with these boats is that, as the seized superyachts to the Russian millionaires for the war in Ukraine, they must keep their engines running to feed the air conditioning that prevents the noble materials inside from deteriorating, generating fuel consumption of several thousand dollars a day. In Xataka | If the question is why only the rich can afford to buy a yacht, the answer is more than obvious: the 10% rule Image | TRUE NORTH

‘The Odyssey’ has turned scarcity into a virtue

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Only a film that can boast of having raised unprecedented expectations can sell tickets without showing hardly any images of its footage, and of course not even half a trailer that allows viewers to get an idea of ​​what the production looks like. But Nolan is a special case. The first fans of ‘The Odyssey’ bought their tickets a year ago, blindly, with only Nolan’s word that they had to trust his Trojan Horse and his Odysseus journey. That gesture of trust from their fans has become the best possible marketing campaign. The numbers. ‘The Odyssey’ has collected 124.5 million dollars in its opening weekend in the United States and 264.1 million globally: the best global opening of Nolan’s entire career. Universal invested 250 million dollars in producing it and another 125 million in promoting it around the world. And yet, almost no one who has paid for a ticket has seen it as Nolan conceived it. Advance sale. Universal opened the sale of the first tickets in July 2025, twelve months before the premiere. In less than an hour, the premiere screenings in IMAX 70mm format were sold out in half the world. Almost a year later, in June 2026, Universal released a second batch of tickets for the sessions closest to the premiere, and the AMC and Fandango websites, belonging to the most important theater chains in the US, collapsed again with virtual queues of more than an hour. Fandango would end up calling “The Odyssey” your number one pre-sale of 2026with about $40 million sold in advance. 34 rooms. Why such a hurry? There are only 34 theaters in the entire planet that can project in the format 70mm IMAX that Nolan filmed. Deadline also breaks down where the premiere’s revenue came from: 25% from digital IMAX formats, another 25% from screens premium property of the exhibitors, 5% of sessions in 70mm IMAX and an additional 3% in conventional 70mm. In sum, almost six out of every ten opening dollars came from formats that required, at a minimum, planning the session well in advance. Enter resale. With such a narrow offer, the secondary market did not take long to make an appearance. They started seeing each other pairs of tickets for $2,000 in New York, and advertisements asking for $10,000 for a batch of twelve seats for a single session. Universal does not organize this resale nor does it take a cent from it, but it is interested: every queue, every image on social networks of a ticket for hundreds of dollars means that the film does not leave the conversation. The ‘Oppenheimer’ precedent. Nolan already tested this formula, although on a smaller scale, in 2023. The 70mm screenings of ‘Oppenheimer’ also sold out in days and generated their own resale market, a pattern that has been repeated three years later. IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond summed it up bluntly: The film already had enough cast and director to work, but the format ended up turning it into a global phenomenon. The opening numbers support that reading. For example, in New York, the only theater with 70mm IMAX is the AMC Lincoln Square 13. All its sessions, including the two in the morning ones, are sold out until August 12, and AMC has not yet confirmed if it will expand the number of passes. Spain, off the map. In Spain the correct room does not exist directly. No cinema in the country projects the full 70mm IMAX, and the closest one with that format is outside of Spain and Latin America. Anyone who wants to get closer to the experience without leaving the country has two substitutes: seven cinemas with digital laser IMAX, including Kinépolis in Madrid and Valencia, and four additional theaters with standard 70mm photochemical. Of course, resale is also working at full speed: entries have been seen for up to 1,000 euros. In Xataka | The definitive map of Ulysses’ journey in ‘The Odyssey:’ Christopher Nolan’s film, explained interactively

the trial that shocked Spain and that, 30 years later, we do not know what it turned out to be

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Florentino Fernández testified from Madrid, Chiquito de la Calzada from Málaga, and a judge had to ask if he had literally pronounced “black lake, white lake.” Thirty years after that sight, almost as surreal as the character himself, not even its protagonists agree on how the subject ended. The clone. On September 18, 1995, Telecinco premiered ‘Tonight we crossed the Mississippi’, a late night presented by Pepe Navarro that combined interviews, social chronicle and sketches. It was in this hodgepodge of excesses that Lucas Grijander, played by Florentino Fernández, appeared: an imitator who reproduced the invented language, gestures and cadence of Chiquito de la Calzada, then at the height of his popularity after becoming famous as a comedian after turning 60. The man from Malaga did not take long to take the matter to court. That sinful fistro. Grijander It was not a disguised imitation: He lived in the fictitious republic of Chiquitistan and repeated jokes and phrases modeled after those of Chiquito. He said “See you later Lucas” and “For the glory of my mother”, he wore Chiquito’s characteristic printed shirts and filled his speech with little screams and small heel-toe-heel jumps. The success of Florentino Fernández’s character accelerated Chiquito’s transformation into a pop icon to the same extent or more than the activity of the original Chiquito himself. In fact, his fame was so enormous that he generated his own exploitation, Crispín Klander. The documentary. All of this is told by Javier Morales and Juan Zavala in the upcoming Movistar+ documentary ‘The Other Chiquito’, which also contextualizes how the original phenomenon cannot be understood without the context of a Spain that was emerging from the hangover of 1992 and that found in the humorist’s absurd language a kind of collective refuge. In parallel, the private networks, newborn and still without established rules, competed for formulas capable of hooking the midnight audience. Diego San José, creator of the original idea of ​​the documentary, wonders if Grijander was plagiarized or Fernández literally created “another Chiquito.” What Florentino Fernández says. In 2017, on the occasion of Chiquito’s 85th birthday, Florentino Fernández recalled the litigation in the program ‘Dani & Flo‘. The comedian from Madrid avoided the word “plagiarism” and spoke of a complaint for impersonation, which affected not only Lucas Grijander but also Crispín Klander. The process had moments that bordered on involuntary comedy, such as the judge’s famous question about whether he had pronounced “black lake, white lake.” Fernández expressed his admiration for the comedian at all times and assured that the conflict was resolved amicably. There is some personal blogs about television who contradict him, and say that Chiquito lost the lawsuit without taking any compensation, but officially, it is not known. In fact, this documentary void is what the production itself promises to explain. Morales and Zavala have described the litigation as something that transcends the anecdote and define the case as “a wound that Chiquito carried until his death,” from which it is understood that the lawsuit did not have a satisfactory conclusion for the comedian. In the end, one of the great judicial mysteries of modern Spain comes from one of the most excessive and brilliant comedians that our television has ever produced, the original Chiquito. Pure Celtiberia Show. In Xataka | 13 geniuses of Chiquito that made him the most wonderful comedian of his time

Meta thought it was a good idea for its AI to generate images from your Instagram photos. Days later he has already turned back

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Last week Meta launched Muse Image and Muse Video, its new AI models integrated into the Meta AI app. However, the launch was quickly overshadowed by the criticism he received one of the functions of the image generator. Within Muse Image, in addition to writing the normal prompt, Meta thought it was a good idea to let us tag other Instagram users to Generate images from your photos. All you have to do is type the at sign with your username and Muse Image can access your profile to create any image you can think of. The problem with all this is that Meta activated it by default for all public Instagram accounts, without warning or of course asking for permission. If you wanted to prevent anyone from tagging youyou had to manually disable it from your account settings. Meta backs off: they will no longer be able to tag us in Muse Image Muse Image was announced last Tuesday, July 7, and in the following days the criticism of this decision began to accumulate. Four days later, on Saturday the 11th, Meta issued a statement in which They responded to the controversy. According to Meta, their intention with the tagging feature was to “offer a useful creative tool” and “give users control over whether their public content could be mentioned.” The best way to give control to users would have been to let us activate it if we wanted to be tagged and not the other way around. Meta has confirmed that The labeling function has been removed. This is the full statement: Earlier this week, we announced that one of the ways users can generate images in Meta AI is by @-tagging the public Instagram accounts they want to reference. Our intention was to offer a useful creative tool and give users control over whether their public content could be mentioned in this way. We’ve received feedback that this feature missed the mark and is no longer available. Image | Meta, edited with Magnific In Xataka | Meta has a long history of privacy scandals. We can add one more to the list

Meta just turned your Instagram photos into raw material for its AI without asking your permission: how to disable it

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Meta is not exactly known for being a company that takes care of the privacy of its users, rather the opposite. With their latest release they have made it even clearer if possible: an image generator in which Anyone can tag your Instagram account and generate deepfakes with your facelike the one you can see on these lines. The serious thing is that this option has been activated by default for all public Instagram accounts, without asking permission or warning anythingvery much like Meta. The only ones who are spared (for legal reasons, not ethical ones, don’t believe it) are those under 18 years old, but the rest of us have been put in the bag without asking. If you don’t want anyone to be able to create AI images with your photos, you have to disable it manually. How creating user images with Meta AI works Meta has launched Muse Image, its new image generator to compete with Nano Banana and ChatGPT Images. This generator lives inside the Meta AI app and, in addition to being able to generate images from nothing, you can also do it from the photos that people upload to Instagram. Left, an image generated with Meta AI from a user’s image. Right: What appears in Meta AI when the user has disabled that option If your account is public and you are over 18 years old, you can be tagged in Meta AI to create images, as you can see in the image on the left. It should be noted that the model has safeguards against creating sensitive contentso they will not be able to create nudes with your photos. What less. In the image on the right I tried to tag my account after deactivating this option and a message appears saying that you do not have permissions to access the photos. It is still possible for someone to download your images to create a new one from them, but as with any image that circulates on the internet. How to prevent Meta AI from using your Instagram photos If your account is private you will not have to do anything since it is excluded by default from Meta AI. However, if your account is public you have to disable the option manually. The steps to follow to deactivate it In your profile, click on the three lines button horizontal lines that appear in the upper right. Scroll to option “Share and reuse.” Here, there is a block called “Allow people to reuse your content on Instagram and with AI features” (for some reason, it came out in English) Uncheck the boxes for posts and Reels. Additionally, just below you have a box that allows you to limit other people from using the original audio from your Reels to create other videos and use it in Meta AI. Many people on social networks have criticized Meta’s decision to activate this by default for millions of accounts without asking permission or warning. In statements to New York Timesa company spokesperson recalled that it can be disabled “with just a couple of clicks” and that “We will take action against any content that violates our Community Guidelines.” Images | Xataka In Xataka | Meta shoehorned its AI chatbot into WhatsApp. Now Europe issues an order: they have five days to open themselves to rivals

We have turned the absence of demands into the most expensive good on the market. And we call it silence

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Rolls-Royce has an engineering department dedicated exclusively to calibrating how much silence should enter the cabin of a Phantomand what exact type. Not absolute silence, which they found creates nausea and disorientation, but a specific silence: an almost imperceptible residue of engine sound that confirms to the occupant that the power is still there. Only he has decided not to bother him. They call him “engineering silence“and costs almost more than the engine. This gives us a clue as to where the shots are going: silence has never come free. The mansions have walls of one and a half meters, the gardens served as an acoustic barrier and the operas are built so that not even half a creak reaches the neighboring box. The fact that silence is a luxury is not new, it is history, what is new is that it is no longer necessary to buy land to achieve it. Now silence is manufactured. And like any manufactured product, it can be sold, packaged and improved in the next version. Silence has been a side effect of privilege: the rich living away from the noise because they could afford the land and the distance. Now we move to silence as a product designed by sound engineers. The active cancellation headphonesone more simile xatakerothey do not eliminate noise but rather shape it. They generate the reverse wave calculated exactly to cancel out the frequencies of the airplane or the noise in the cafeteria. It is the same logic, but in reverse, that Volkswagen and other manufacturers use when They pump through the speakers a synthetic engine roar so that a stealthy electric car sounds like it has another engine. We make fake noise for those who want to feel powerful and fake silence for those who want to feel safe. In both cases, what you pay for is not the sound or its absence, but the feeling of having control over it. But the silence of a Rolls-Royce and the silence of an unanswered call have something in common that goes beyond sound: they are both, in reality, absence of demand. And control, not silence, is what has become a premium item. The most expensive version of acoustic disconnection is not not hearing the noise on the street, but not even having to respond. The assistant that filters calls, the agenda that decides who deserves your attention and who doesn’t, the possibility of sending someone off with a “my team will contact you” without it sounding like an excuse. This is not sold by Apple, Bose or Sennheiser. It is bought with power. The noise, meanwhile, has stayed exactly where it was: in those who cannot afford to avoid it. The silent carriage of the AVE because the rest is not and no one expects it to be, the neighbor messing around with the drill at odd hours, the bank notifications that you cannot silence in case a danger signal appears at some point, the hum of work WhatsApp groups (another epidemic) who assume that you are available on a Tuesday night, because answering quickly is an obligation for those who do not have the margin not to do so. The silence has been gentrified. Even something else: it has been converted into a subscription. And like any subscription, as soon as you stop paying, the noise returns. In Xataka | There is a generation working for free as a documentarian of their own life: they are not influencers but they act as if they were. Featured image | Xataka

The World Cup has turned bar terraces into the big business of the summer. In Asturias this has opened a thorny debate

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The World Cup is much more than football. Each ‘La Roja’ match is also an event capable of paralyzing the country and a lifeline (wink, wink) for a sector, the hospitality sector, that deals with changes in consumption of alcohol and the growing competition from the merchants. However, bars do not have it equally easy in all cities when it comes to exploiting the World Cup gold medal. Although in much of Spain it is allowed to take TVs out to terraces to broadcast matches, the requirements of the town councils do not always coincide. In fact there are consistories that prohibit the use of screens outdoors. One figure: 30%. Spain is a football country. That is not debatable. When we talk about hospitality, however, football is much more than a sport or a passion: it is above all a powerful economic lever. The employers’ association of the sector calculates that the businesses that broadcast the World Cup will skyrocket their cash between 25 and 30% on match days. What’s more, Hospitality of Spain estimates that if ‘la Roja’ reaches the final it will inject 130 million extra to your billing. Terrace slopes. In view of these figures and in the midst of the dog days, it is easier to understand why bars in a good part of Spain have asked for permission to, exceptionally, put televisions on their terraces. Their proposal is very simple: given the interest aroused by the tournament and how overwhelming crowds in closed venues can be, they want to install screens outside to broadcast ‘La Roja’ matches. More comfort, more income. It’s nothing exceptional. What is striking is that this request has not received the same response in all city councils in Spain. While some councils They have given the green light to the installation of TVs on terraces, imposing only some restrictions, others they have closed in band to that possibility arguing that it would go against noise regulations. There are also town councils that allow the installation of screens outside the bars, but require that all matches be broadcast. no sound. The case of Asturias. Although the topic has generated headlines throughout the country, probably the most interesting case is that of Asturias. There the hotel management association OTEA headed to the town councils requesting permission so that customers of bars and restaurants could follow the World Cup matches from the terraces, through TVs. In cities like Oviedo either Gijon The restaurateurs received the green light (with certain conditions), but other councils have told them no. It is the case of Aviles and Langreowho have decided that the bars’ request clashes with other prioritiessuch as the “right to rest” of the neighbors. “It is not possible to authorize non-compliance with the Law 37/2003of November 17, of noise, since the exemption from compliance with the acoustic emission and reception indicators on terraces (…) would be an action null and void,” states a resolution published by the town of the Nalón region. Click on the image to go to the tweet. The law is made… cheated, as the saying goes. That the local authorities are not convinced by the installation of screens on the terraces does not mean that the hoteliers of Langreo or Avilés have not looked for a way for their clientele to enjoy the games from the terraces without breaking the regulations. So reveals it The New Spainwhich tells how yesterday in Avilés there were bars that placed their screens strategically, next to their windows and facing the street, so that customers sitting on the terraces could follow the game. “We always meet at this bar. What seems incredible to me is the City Council’s rule of not playing loudly,” commented one of the clients who followed the meeting of Spain and Saudi Arabia from outside a bar in Avilés. It is not the first time that an international football tournament is accompanied by controversy in the Asturian hospitality industry. It happened two years agowhen OTEA disgraced the Avilés and Gijón City Councils for their decision to install giant screens in public spaces to follow the Euro Cup final. Beyond the criticism for the loss of customers, in the case of Avilés the hoteliers recalled that shortly before the City Council had prohibited them from doing something similar on their terraces. One dilemma, several answers. The most curious thing is that, although the laws on noise pollution are common to the entire country, not all councils have responded in the same way to the hoteliers’ request. In Toledo, for example, they has given the green lightbut on condition that the equipment works without sound. The only exception is venues licensed for music installations. In Albacete, the City Council has also authorized outdoor screens during ‘la Roja’ matches, the semi-finals and the final on July 19, but with an important fine print: whether or not the matches have ended, the TVs must be silent at midnight and in the Special Acoustic Protection Zone (ZPAE) the devices will not be able to emit sound even in the afternoons. Something similar happens in Salamanca. In any case, for hoteliers these are better conditions than those imposed by Teruel. Over there, COPE chain advancesrestaurants have found a response similar to that of Avilés. World yes, but with control. In general, even the most permissive city councils impose limits on match broadcasts: screens on terraces are usually allowed only for ‘special’ events, such as matches played by Spain, the semi-finals or the final in July, and even in those cases limits on noise and time restrictions apply. In the case of the capital, Hostelería Madrid assures that article 11 of the evening terrace ordinance prevents the installation of televisions outside the premises, which makes it difficult for bars and cafes to make the tournament profitable. Image | Jorge Franganillo-Flickr (Image taken in Lisbon in 2024) In Xataka | 24 years ago Oliver Kahn sued EA and won. Then a new goalkeeper appeared in football games: Jens … Read more

Satellite images revealed that Russia covered a building with an anti-drone cage. Ukraine turned it into an action movie set

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In World War II, the United Kingdom became camouflage entire factories with nets, fake structures and even fictitious neighborhoods built on rooftops to fool German bombers. The idea it was simple– If you can’t stop the attack, make the target disappear from the air. Eight decades later, that logic has returned. Only now the enemy is no longer looking from a bomber, but from a drone. The giant cage. Satellite images made it clear: Russia had done something that until recently seemed unthinkable, wrapping an entire building in a gigantic anti-drone structure. We are not talking about a tank or an armored vehicle, where “cope cages” are already common, but rather about a strategic factory more than 900 kilometers from the front. The facility, part of the VNIIR Progress plant in Cheboksary, had been protected with that kind of metal skeleton for at least a year. Was the test of the extent to which Moscow assumes that Ukraine can strike very deep inside Russia. But it was also a silent admission: the drone threat has already changed even the industrial architecture of warfare. Shield the rear. VNIIR Progress is not just any factory. Produces essential navigation components for a good part of the Russian arsenal: Shahed-136 type drones, Kalibr cruise missiles, Iskander ballistic missiles and gliding bombs. It is, in essence, a critical piece of the Russian military gear. Protecting it with a cage of that size reveals something important: it is no longer enough to move factories away from the front. Russian strategic depth has been eroded and the war has meant that once safe places now need permanent physical defenses. Ukraine changed the rules (again). The problem for Russia is that Ukraine no longer only strikes with drones. In the most recent attack, kyiv used its new cruise missiles FP-5 Flamingoa nationally manufactured weapon with more than 2,800 kilometers of range and an explosive warhead weighing more than one ton. That detail completely changes the equation. The anti-drone cage could make sense against small kamikaze drones or light munitions. But faced with a missile of that size, the structure becomes practically in decoration. Ukraine, in essence, demonstrated that the Russian solution was designed for yesterday’s war. What the defense gives away. The most interesting thing is not only the damage caused, but what it means the very existence of that cage. Every new anti-drone net, mesh or cover that appears over Russian refineries, air bases or factories is a sign of vulnerability. For decades, the industrial rearguard was a sanctuary. Now Russia is spending resources to fortify even its production centers. In other words, what you see is a clear symptom that the Ukrainian deep strike campaign is working at least on a psychological and operational level, forcing Moscow to redistribute protection and assume additional costs. The invisible climb. The episode also reflects a broader evolution: the industrial war is becoming a war constant adaptation. Ukraine began using long-range drones to overwhelm defenses and hit critical infrastructure. Russia, like we have been countingresponded with networks, interference and physical structures. Now kyiv goes up a notch with missiles heavier and more precise. Each defensive layer generates a higher offensive layer. And that turns the conflict into a technological race where no solution lasts too long. The lesson of the attack. The image is very powerful because summarizes all the logic of modern warfare: an entire building wrapped in steel to protect electronic parts that then guide precision weapons… and still reached. The conclusion is inevitably uncomfortable for Moscow. If a facility hundreds of miles from the front needs a giant cage and not even that guarantees your safetythen the real frontier of war is no longer in the trenches. It is anywhere on the map where the military industry continues to function. Image | Ventor In Xataka | Ukraine has found Russia’s weak point in Crimea. And now there is a line of Russian trucks that cannot move forward In Xataka | The drone war has left a clear lesson for Ukraine: you can’t leave home without a 100-year-old machine gun

Claude Guillemot, the co-founder of Ubisoft who turned a store in Brittany into a video game empire, dies

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Claude Guillemot, one of the five brothers who founded Ubisoft in 1986 and until now current executive vice president of operations of the company, died yesterday, June 19, 2026 at the age of 69 when his Cessna 421 plane crashed in a field near the La Baule airfield, in the department of Loire-Atlantique, as reported by France 3. The other fatality is a flight instructor from Rennes whose identity has not yet been confirmed. Ubisoft’s silent architect. Although his brother Yves Guillemot is the most visible face of the company as CEO, Claude’s role in the birth of Ubisoft was essential: according to 3DJuegoswas the one who opened Guillemot Informatique in Carentoir in 1984, the original computer store that served as the base for Ubisoft that would be born just a couple of years later. Until his death he was an active member of the Board of Directors and, according to your company filebrought to the board his international experience in Asia and his in-depth knowledge of video game hardware and distribution technologies. He was also CEO of Guillemot Corporation since 1997, a company specialized in video game peripherals under the Thrustmaster and Hercules brands, present in more than 140 countries. At Ubisoft’s worst moment. Guillemot’s death hits a company that is going through a difficult time: Ubisoft has recorded record losses of 1.3 billion euros in the 2025-26 fiscal year, with a drop in income of 17.4%. The crisis has specific causes: has canceled six gamesincluding the remake of ‘Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time‘, and delayed another seven, assuming as lost the 650 million already spent on development. To achieve liquidity, has transferred 25% of Vantage Studios to Tencent for 1,160 million euros. The company foresees that the next year will also be in the red, with an additional estimated drop in sales of between 8% and 9% and does not expect to return to profitability until the 2027-28 financial year. Yves Guillemot himself advertisement in January 2026 a large-scale “reset”, describing the company’s momentum as an opportunity to return to sustainable growth. The end of an era. In the absence of the Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses completing the investigation into the accident, what is already definitive is the loss of one of the five architects of the only major European video game multinational capable of competing with the major North American and Japanese studios for four decades. The Guillemot family controls around 14% of Ubisoft’s capital through Guillemot Brothers SE (according to data from Euronext Paris), and the reorganization of that control structure will be one of the first issues that the market will monitor in the coming weeks. In Xataka | What’s happening with Ubisoft: after canceling six games and adjusting its structure, this is the plan of the great French studio In Xataka | A single programmer, simple mechanics, crappy graphics and Paint interface. And he has earned ten million in a week Cover | Shuichi Aizawa

Hydration breaks have turned football into a new sport

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It was the 21st minute when Liviano Comenencia shot a ball that was left without an owner on the edge of the Germany area. The shot is poisoned between the legs of one of the defenders and Manuel Neuer is surprised under the goal. As surprised as all of us who were in front of the television watching Curacao’s first goal in the final phase of a Soccer World Cup were. The game, by then, was beginning to go crazy. Germany was driving but the German team looked uncomfortable. The top favorite suit was not fitting him at all, it was obvious that the shirt was a little small and that the collar was too tight. The public began to dream of one of those historical feats. But five minutes were enough to wake us up from our reverie. Stop to take a breath. Cooling Breaksays on the television sign. And on the way back, there was Germany. Now he had replaced his shirt, already tucked well inside his pants. Before the usual break came, the Germans had already settled into the game and were winning 3-1. Curacao can boast of having tied Germany for a few minutes. And he will also regret being one of those great victims of a new football that is played in four quarters. From player protection to the advertising business In FIFA World Cup 2026™ matches, players will enjoy three-minute rehydration breaks midway through each half. With this measure, FIFA prioritizes the well-being of the players during the edition of the competition that will be held next summer in Canada, Mexico and the United States. When FIFA introduced hydration breaks for the first time 12 years ago he did it due to pressure from the players themselves. Faced with the extreme heat and humidity of Brazil, the footballers pressed until the highest body of world football agreed to temporarily stop the match in the 30th and 60th minutes, as long as the certified temperature exceeded 32 degrees. Two minutes and continue running chasing the ball. Since then, the measure has been extended to all types of competitions, as long as the temperatures and the weather conditions were extreme. But FIFA, as stated on its own websitehas decided that in this World Cup the match will be paused in the 22nd minute of each half. A measure, they say, that “gives priority to the well-being of the players” and that is applied “in all matches, regardless of the weather and prevailing temperaturesto grant equal conditions to all teams in all matches”. That is, the match stops even when it is played below the aforementioned 32 degrees. In fact, it stops even when the match is played in a stadium with the roof closed and the air conditioning on. When Germany-Curaçao stopped, the thermometer read just over 20 degrees. The Caribbeans were the perfect victim. The break, without exhausted players, was the perfect time to take the short break as a time-out, take a deep breath and reorganize ideas. Before the break, Germany had put ground in the middle and had crushed all Curaçao resistance. It is the best example that football, as FIFA wants in this World Cup, is a new sport that is played in four 22-minute quarters. And, incidentally, a new formula to put a new advertising break into the viewers’ eyes. More available screen time, more business, more millions. There was little doubt about the true purpose of these advertising spaces breaks for hydration but a cell phone is enough in the stadium to dismantle the FIFA discourse: the players waiting for the order of the referee who observes on a tablet if the announcements have ended on the television signal offered by the players. “These three minutes stop everything. We have to adapt. The televisions are happy, right?“, ironically said Didier Deschamps, France coach, in words collected by The Wall Street Journal. “I don’t like it. I only want them when the conditions are extreme but if the weather is good, it’s unnecessary,” lamented Mauricio Pochetino, United States coach. The most ridiculous situations have been seen when Germany players asked the referee to restart the match against Curacao after 90 seconds. It is logical that the meeting remained stopped. They explain in the American newspaper that advertisers pay around $200,000 for 30 seconds in these pauses but that the figure rises to $750,000 if the United States plays. They explain in that same article The Wall Street Journal that those responsible for the media do not hide from the true purpose either. Before the World Cup, Zac Kenworthy, one of Fox’s vice presidents, already pointed out that “FIFA is always looking for ways to innovate. They are very interested in the American market, in how sports are done here.” The implications of a new football “I’ve been watching all the games and when there’s a hydration break… well, I don’t really like it. I think they’re necessary if it’s really hot but you should treat each game separately.” With these words Virgil Van Dijk, captain of the Netherlands, was referring to the obligatory break to hydrate. “I’ve already talked too much,” he said to the camera with a face of obvious discomfort. Jürgen Klopp has been much less uncomfortable, who was the coach of Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund, believing that the pauses are “a golden cage built for advertisers. Football is being hijacked by managers entrenched in air-conditioned offices,” they report in Basque newspaper. And the problem is that these breaks completely change the nature of the sport. The three-minute pause decreed for each and every match breaks the rhythm and offers an advantage to those who run in all directions without finding the water with which to put out the fire. The unforeseeable in football, the temporary madness unleashed on the playing field paralyzed in favor of the umpteenth potato chip advertisement on television. EITHER, how they collect in elDiario.esthe official mayonnaise of the National Team. Necessary genuflections to … Read more

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