turning

“Do not increase the power at home. Turning it up and not taking advantage of it is wasting money”

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In the first six months of 2026, 63,201 electric cars have been purchased in Spain, according to ANFAC data. Its market share is already close to 10% and in June it exceeded one more point. The growth compared to 2025 is 36.69%. If we add plug-in hybrids to this data, 21.79% of the cars purchased in our country have a zero-emissions label. To understand what we need if we want to buy one of these cars and the cases that revolve around installing a plug, we have spoken with Antonio José Pérez, CEO and co-founder of My Car Charger. a boom. “Since 2023 we have no truce. Since the beginning of Moves II Planspecifically. When you set up the business you have to be knocking on all the doors and sowing the seed, insisting a lot when sending a budget; but now there is no time, the clients come to you. Since 2023 we are not in Christmas, nor in summer, nor anything. This doesn’t let up. Last year I was only able to take a week’s vacation in June,” explains Antonio José Pérez about the boom that the plug-in car is experiencing in our country. Also, they explain to us, “we offered training to salespeople because they know about the car, they have the information on the specifications, but when a client asks them: ‘Well, where do I charge this? Can I take advantage of my solar panel installation to charge the car?’, well, they didn’t know. The aids. From Mi Car Charger they explain that one of the reasons why the electric car seems to be taking off is the aid. Antonio José explains that the MOVES II Plan was a before and after. Later the third edition of the same project arrived and today the Auto+ Plan. “Waiting for it, many people are waiting for it. It was said that it was going to be in May, after the end of July… at the moment, nothing“, they remind us. And it was promised that the Auto+ Plan would be ready in January 2026 and that the aid discount would be applied at the time of purchase. At the moment it is announced but not active and it has been said that it will be retroactive to January 1. This implies that there are companies advancing aid with interest-free loans but It is money that the client has to return because, supposedly, at some point that help will come in. Of course, they are aid for the purchase of cars and this time a subsidy for the installation of the charger is not contemplated. “I always say that the aid has little help if you have to pay 100% at the beginning, receive it over time and, to make matters worse, pay it on income the following year. In the end, what was going to be 70% ends up being much less,” the company complains. And how much does it cost? The installation of a charger for an electric car varies greatly depending on whether we live in an individual house or store the car in a community garage. And the fact is that in a house it is very easy to reach the electrical network and pull the cable to where the charger is most convenient, not so in a garage where the square will be more or less far from the meter panel. “In a single-family home it usually takes about 3 or 4 hours of work. The charger has a more or less fixed price, but what varies is the meter of wiring, the labor and the amount of material. It usually ranges between 1,200 and 1,500 euros with VAT,” explains Antonio José Pérez. The difference with a community garage is “the hours of work and the meter of cable,” he emphasizes. And being more or less close to the meter panel varies a lot in the final bill. “We connect from there and we have to see the path to the garage.” The neighbors. “You have to see if the line passes over a neighbor’s square. If you have to drill a hole there, you have to ask for permission to work in their square for that time because logically there can’t be any cars,” they tell us from Mi Car Charger. That can be a problem. “Normally nothing happens, although in Seville we had the case of a neighbor who was an opponent of the electric car and did not want to see one near his square. We looked for an alternative on the route. We had to go around more and pull more meters of cable, which makes the installation more expensive because you always look for the shortest path, but in the end it was done,” he explains to us. Can I refuse to have them work on my garage space? The point is that in a community garage, the owner of the electric car You just have to inform the community of owners of the works but it cannot deny you the right to mount the charger. But a parking space, its space, is private. “We have even been presented with the Civil Guard in some installation. There is a figure that is the right of way. If your garage space falls in the way of the common services, such as the meter room, you are obliged to allow work to be done in your garage space. Although luckily we have never had to use that figure,” Antonio José Pérez explains to us. Essential. “What I recommend, and it almost comes from the factory, is that it has dynamic charging. It is what is called the ‘power balancer’. If you have 4 kW contracted, the system distributes those 4 kW between the consumption of the house and the charger. If less is consumed in the house, the more power the charger has. It is an intelligent load. And finally, another essential: “support is paramount. We have been testing many … Read more

turning Chinese air conditioners into a mass phenomenon in Europe

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Brussels has been trying for months to stop the avalanche of Chinese products entering the continent. A few weeks ago we wrote about excise tax on small value items in stores like AliExpress, Temu or Shein. The EU blames China for a trade deficit that continues to grow and has threatened new restrictions. What is impossible to stop is the heat. And this summer is being especially deadly for millions of Europeans. Some have even stood in lines, visited several cities and spent the day updating websites. in order to get an air conditioning unit. Most, by the way, made in China. European trade policy has failed to curb dependence on China. The thermometer, on the other hand, has achieved it in a matter of weeks. What has happened? A historic heat wave has hit numerous countries in Europe, including France, Germany, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Poland and the Czech Republic, countries where air conditioning has never been a real need. With temperatures soaring and a notable increase in heat deaths, the demand for air conditioners has been shot suddenly. The problem is that the supply has not been able to keep up, as many stores have run out of stock. How we got here. Although here in Spain we are more than used to having houses with air conditioning (at least in the farthest part of the north), In the rest of Europe it is not so common. In fact, according to dataAccording to the International Energy Agency, only about 20% of European homes have air conditioning, compared to about 90% in the United States. For decades, the continent has considered these devices noisy, unsightly for historic facades and, above all, unnecessary, because extreme summers were a one-off occurrence. This same logic has led to buildings designed to retain heat in winter. When heat waves are no longer an exception, Europe has found itself without infrastructure, without a culture of installation and without its own industry capable of covering that demand. And none of the five best-selling brands on the continent are European, according to data from Euromonitor International collected by CNBC. In detail. According to customs figures Chinese companies cited by The Wall Street Journal, exports of air conditioning units from China to France grew by 57% in May compared to the previous year, while to Spain they grew by 41%, and that before the worst days of June. The South China Morning Post, citing May estimatesplaced the year-on-year increase at 186% in France, 69.6% in Germany and 139.1% in the Netherlands. The Telegraph collected In addition, Chinese exports of air conditioners to the European Union have grown by 43% in the first half of the year, up to 3.8 billion dollars, with increases of between 20% and 97% in fan sales depending on the market. Midea, one of the largest manufacturers, assured to the Chinese state agency Xinhua that would send 100 containers of your PortaSplit model to Europe in just one month, and that its orders had already exceeded 200,000 units this year, double that of 2025, according to collected CNBC. Between the lines. All of this is happening at the worst possible time for the European trade narrative. Brussels and Beijing are holding talks to try to reduce a trade deficit that reached 360,000 million euros last year and that in the first quarter of this year it already amounted to 98,000 million, the highest level since 2022, according to Eurostat data. The European Trade Commissioner himself, Maros Sefcovic, recognized that the trend “is not sustainable.” Analysts such as Ding Chun, from the Center for European Studies at Fudan University, they counted to the SCMP that there is a growing disconnection between the political discourse of Brussels, focused on industrial protection, and the real needs of citizens, who are simply “seeking to survive the heat at the best possible price.” And now what. The European Union has set October as the deadline to achieve “tangible” progress in the trade relationship with China. But the problem of air conditioning is not going to disappear with the summer, because the European Commission itself calculated in 2024 that by 2030 up to 70 million new devices could be installed on the continent, which would cover around 35% of homes. This implies that, in addition to Chinese manufacturers, Europe will need a network of installers and regulation adapted to a reality that until recently was not contemplated. Cover image | TCL In Xataka | We have been cooling homes for decades with increasingly expensive machines. The Persian method has not consumed a single watt for 2,500 years

4.1 billion euros and no turning back

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The Court of Justice of the European Union has definitively closed one of Google’s longest antitrust litigations in Europe. And the organization confirmed this Thursday the fine of 4.1 billion euros imposed by the European Commission for the company’s use of Android to harm its rivals, as reported by the court itself in a statement. The sanction is final, so the company has no further opportunity to appeal. What has happened? The origin of this case dates back to 2018, when Brussels imposed Google a record fine of 4,340 million euros for forcing mobile phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search, the Chrome browser and the Google Play store if they wanted to have access to the rest of the Android ecosystem, in addition to preventing them from installing alternative versions of the operating system, according to collect Bloomberg. In 2022, a lower EU court slightly reduced the amount up to 4.1 billion euros, although it maintained many of the Commission’s arguments. Google appealed that decision to the Court of Justice of the EU, which has now rejected the appeal and has definitively ruled in favor of the regulator. The largest antitrust fine. For Brussels, Google abused its dominant position to shield its search engine and its applications from the competition. This is the largest antitrust fine that the company has received in Europe and, according to share To CNBC, lawyer Alex Haffner, partner at the Fladgate firm, represents the closing of what could be called the “first phase” of the Commission’s fight with big technology based on classic competition laws. In detail. The Commission detected three illegal practices in the Android deal: First: it forced manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome as a condition of being able to license the Google Play store. Second: it paid large manufacturers and operators in exchange for installing its search engine exclusively. And third: it prevented manufacturers from launching phones with versions of Android not approved by Google itself, according to details Bloomberg. Google has always defended that Android offers more options to users and supports thousands of businesses in Europe. A company spokesperson has assured CNBCthat the ruling “does not recognize the significant investment” made to keep Android open, interoperable and free, although it has stressed that the company has already adapted its contracts to comply with the original decision since 2018. Between the lines. This ruling comes at a particularly delicate time for Google in Europe. The company has already accumulated nearly 11,000 million euros in antitrust fines in the last two decades, according to Reutersand last year the Commission already imposed another sanction of 2,950 million euros for its practices in digital advertising. The ruling also opens the door for companies that consider themselves harmed by these practices to claim compensation on their own, an avenue that has already begun to be explored, since from Bloomberg remember that Google was condemned just a day before to pay nearly $2 billion to Klarna in other related antitrust litigation. On the other hand, the organization FairSearch, which submitted the original complaint to the Commission in 2013, has qualified the ruling as “an important victory against Google’s anti-competitive conduct in the mobile market.” And now what. The regulatory focus in Brussels is no longer so much on traditional competition laws as on Digital Markets Law (DMA) and the Digital Services Lawthe new legislative tools with which the EU monitors big technology companies. Google already faces other files opened under these rules, including one for favoring its own services in search results and another for its practices in the application store. Added to this is the open investigation into whether the company unfairly harms certain news results, notes Bloomberg. The current political background doesn’t help either. And the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has threatened tariffs 100% to countries that impose digital taxes on US technology companies, a measure that directly affects countries like France or Spain, CNBC points out. Everything indicates that regulatory pressure on Google in Europe will continue to intensify in the coming months. We’ll see what happens. Cover image | Guillaume Perigois and Alex Dudar on Unsplash In Xataka | “To say that it is a bubble is a blasphemy against AI”: a man who has invested a fortune in OpenAI

Arab Emirates has oil and desert in abundance. Now they have discovered how to take advantage of sand: turning it into brick

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Although transport or energy are the sectors that first come to mind when we talk about emissions, there is a third industry with a comparable share of responsibility: construction, responsible for 34% of global CO₂ emissions, according to the International Energy Agency. The problem is in the materials: manufacturing a ton of Portland cement emits between 0.6 and 0.8 tons of CO₂ both due to the energy consumed in the process and the chemical reaction that produces it. So any idea to replace classic construction materials such as concrete and brick is good to decarbonize the industry. We have already seen alternatives such as the shells on the beachbut to a company in Dubai Another idea has occurred to him: instead of importing materials, manufacture them with abundant resources in the area. More specifically, with sand and date seeds. The invention. The star product of ARDH Collective, which is the name of the Dubai company formed by Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Máximo Tettamanzi, is DuneCrete: An alternative to concrete made from locally sourced desert sand, which reduces cement content by 50%. From there they manufacture the DuneBlockthe building blocks. In their product catalog they also have the Dateforma material that reuses 1,000 date seeds per square meter. Why is it important. Because after water, sand is the second resource we consume the most. The United Nations Environment Program esteem that up to 50,000 million tons of sand and gravel are consumed annually worldwide. Removing sand from rivers and coastal ecosystems causes erosion, damages water supplies, harms biodiversity and reduces storm protection, so replacing it with underused desert sand would be a turning point. DuneCrete reduces cement content by 50%, which according to its founders represents approximately half the carbon dioxide emissions compared to conventional concrete. It makes sense: Portland cement alone is responsible for 8% of global emissions and its footprint does not disappear using renewable energy, since much of it comes from a chemical reaction, not from burning fuel. Context. Paradoxically, the UAE has to import sand even though it is basically a desert. The underlying problem is that desert sand particles are rounded due to wind erosion, which makes their adhesion in conventional concrete mixtures difficult, while river sand has more angular particles that favor compaction and resistance. In detail. This project arose during a master’s degree at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London. After obtaining a couple of grants totaling $8,000, they began research in a laboratory that they set up in the garage of one of their homes in Dubai during the pandemic. That was where they found the formula that stabilized the mixture with desert sand. Laboratory tests confirmed that the material met the resistance standards necessary for commercial development. The company start production in 2021. Yes, but. Once the problem of the geometry of desert sand has been solved, there is another obstacle to solve to scale the project: its morphology varies enormously by region and is not homogeneous. ARDHCollective affirms DuneCrete is “just as strong” as conventional concrete, but there are no academic publications or third-party test reports to support its mechanical properties. Simply put, the transformative potential of this DuneCrete remains to be seen. In Xataka | A young woman from Kenya has developed brick 2.0: the main ingredient is the plastic of the shampoo bottle In Xataka | We have just reinvented the brick. It is just as it was millennia ago Cover | ARDHCollective and Fredrik Öhlander

The result is clear, alarming and there is no turning back

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There is an unquestionable reality with the data in hand: In Spain it rains less now than 30 years ago. In fact, the climate has changed since the 90s: temperatures have risen, summers are longer and those rain patterns essential for activities such as agriculture or aquifer recharge are no longer what they used to be. The Spanish state is one of the regions of the planet where climate change is being seen more and better worse. In this climatic context, precipitation data tells a crystal clear story. Meteorologist Roberto Granda from Eltiempo.es has used AEMET Opendata records to draw maps that compare the average annual rainfall between the periods 1961–1990 and 1996–2025 in 71 stations with continuous data for more than 60 years. The first of these periods is not chosen at random: it is the reference climate norm fixed by the World Meteorological Organization, the global standard for detecting anomalies and trends. To distribute the values ​​between stations, Granda applied a geostatistical interpolation technique that incorporates the relief of the terrain, which makes it the most reliable method for mapping precipitation in a geography as irregular as the peninsula. The result is unequivocal: it rains less in Spain, and it is not something specific or local, but structural and widespread throughout almost the entire peninsula. In this climatic context, precipitation data tells a crystal clear story: meteorologist Roberto Granda of Eltiempo.es has used the records of the Spanish Meteorological Agency AEMET Opendata to draw maps that compare the average annual rainfall between the periods 1961 – 1990 and 1996 – 2025 in 71 stations, that is, with continuous data and for more than 60 years. It rains less in Spain and it is not something specific or local: but something structural and that affects almost the entire peninsula. Evolution of average annual precipitation in Spain. Roberto Granda with data from AEMET These first two maps collect the amount of precipitation in both time frames where it can be seen that he rain pattern continues: The north and northwest (Galicia, the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees) continue to concentrate the highest rainfall, above 1,500–2,500 millimeters annually, while on the other side of the scale is the southeast of Almería and Murcia, which does not reach 200 mm. But within that known pattern, absolute values ​​have fallen in practically all regions. With the data in hand, it rains less in Spain than it did 60 years ago Difference in precipitation from 1961 to 2025. Roberto Granda The most impressive map is exactly the one above these lines: the difference in rainfall between 1961 and 2025. At a glance it is clear that in almost the entire State the rain is in the red compared to 60 years ago, since the cartography is colored by beige and brown tones on almost the entire peninsular surface. The steepest falls, between 100 and 200 mm per year, are concentrated in inland Galicia, Extremadura and the central-western area. In this last area is Mediterranean aridification at its maximum splendor: the Mediterranean is one of the hot spots of climate change. Fortunately, there are some exceptionsbut they are localized: areas where the variation is practically zero or slightly positive. One of the most obvious is in the extreme northwest of Galicia, especially the Costa da Morte and the province of A Coruña, which maintains or slightly exceeds its historical records thanks to its direct exposure to Atlantic storms. Neutral or slightly greenish tones are also seen in some areas of the Navarrese and Aragonese Pyrenees, and in the corridor of southern Navarra and northern La Rioja, at the transition between the western Pyrenees and the Ebro valley. The meteorologist has also published year-by-year rainfall since the 1990s, allowing for a closer and more detailed analysis. Something that stands out considering the colors is that the variability has skyrocketed. The CSIC has an explanation: Oscillations between dry and humid extremes are precisely a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate under global warming. Precipitation per year. Roberto Granda Although the general trend is less rain, there is years that define the extremes. On the dry side, there are four years that stand out above the rest: the 94-95 biennium, devastating in the south and center of the peninsula, 2005 on the plateau or that 2012 that left reservoirs below minimum levels in half of Spain. At a quick glance, the 2017 orange draws attention: AEMET he rated it as one of the driest years since instrumental records exist. On the wet side, 96 – 97 stand out from what they had before and after, especially in the northwest and central. Also 2010 and 2013 show green and blue coverage well above the average. 2024 deserves special mention: it breaks a long streak and is the wettest year of the last decade in several basins. Of course, a wet year does not work miracles. The AEMET projections are not encouraging: this reduction in rainfall will worsen throughout the 20th century, with decreases of more than 20% in the south and southeast of the peninsula. With longer and more frequent rain events, the rain will be concentrated in more intense, concentrated and tragic events throughout the year. Because paradoxically, this pattern has consequences in both droughts and floods. In Xataka | The temperature your city will have in 2080, simulated on this disturbing interactive map In Xataka | How to see air quality and temperature with Google Maps Cover | Roberto Granda

turning smart glasses into instruments of war

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Anduril and Meta join forces. What began as a race to conquer the “metaverse” with devices like the Quest has transformed into something very different. Specifically, in a contract of 159 million dollars that Anduril and Meta have jointly signed to develop smart glasses that enhance the operational capacity of soldiers on the battlefield. This joint project is being developed in parallel with the Anduril helmet with assisted vision system, called EagleEye. War made video game. These augmented reality glasses provide the soldier with an integrated system that theoretically displays a map, identifies enemy vehicle profiles, calculates shooting distance, processes threats in real time and overlays tactical data on the wearer’s physical environment. The future vision of these companies is to add special functions, such as being able to order a drone attack thanks to eye tracking and voice commands. War made video game. From consumers to soldiers. It is ironic that a technology that was originally used for entertainment applications ends up having a military purpose. Anduril provides its software platform, called Lattice, which acts as the “brain” of the system, fusing the data captured by the glasses with that received from the rest of the battlefield network. The ethical challenge. If an AI decides what a target is and displays it prominently on the soldier’s glasses, is the room for human error reduced or are we simply automating violence? This gamification of war is increasing and the danger is evident: treating a combat environment almost as if it were a video game can make it difficult to distinguish between civilians and combatants, for example. If the metaverse doesn’t work… Meta has an opportunity here to recover part of the gigantic investment it has made in the field of virtual and augmented reality. After losing tens of billions of dollars with the metaverse, Mark Zuckerberg has decided leave these solutions in the background in the end-user market. And he has also seen clearly that his advances could have a very juicy military application. The geopolitical factor. There is no doubt that both in Silicon Valley and in the rest of the world there is one huge demand of new technological solutions applied to the battlefield. The conflicts that have occurred in recent years have caused skyrocket defense budgetsand here both Anduril and Meta wanted to take advantage of their opportunity. Microsoft missed its chance. In Redmond they had a fantastic product with Hololensbut its role in the end-user segment was never clear, and the company refocused it on first- and then to the military sector. Here the failure was enormous despite the investment of 22 billion dollars that the US Army carried out in this area. Meta and Anduril have wanted to take the baton, but they will not be alone: ​​companies like Rivet either Elbit They have projects that compete to become the new “weapons” of the soldier of the future. In Xataka | In its obsession with bringing technology to every corner of the country, China has equipped its army with augmented reality

Turning off notifications 24/7 is no longer rude, it’s the new technological self-care

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In 2026, hyperconnectivity has reached unprecedented levels. However, in the midst of this constant noise, a paradoxical cure has emerged: ignoring those we know and love has become the new secret to a happy and peaceful life. As the magazine details Wiredwe are witnessing the rise of a digital tribe known as the “maximalists of the Do not disturb“. They are users who have decided to keep their phone notifications silenced 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What was once considered a serious breach of the social contract—the tacit obligation to always be available—is now a viral trend. On platforms like TikTok, videos celebrating “monk mode” or the non-stop use of “Do Not Disturb” mode rack up millions of views. In the comments, the debate rages: while some applaud it as the definitive act of self-care, others criticize it as a terrible lack of respect for others. What has happened to our availability? The norms of social etiquette have changed drastically over the last fifteen years. If at the beginning of the last decade the golden rule was “don’t call anyone after 10 pm”, the current rule seems to be “don’t call anyone, ever”, as I already warned The New York Times. Telephone calls without prior notice by message or email have come to be considered intrusive, uncomfortable and even alarming; Nowadays, if the phone rings suddenly, we instinctively assume that a misfortune has occurred. To stop this intrusion, users have taken the tools of their own operating systems to the extreme. The technical difference that has facilitated this radicalization is key: while the traditional silent mode turns off the tones but allows the screen to continue lighting and vibrating, settings such as “Do Not Disturb” mode or “Sleep Mode” act at a deeper level of the system. These tools block vibration, dim the screen light, and hide visual alerts, eliminating any physical interruptions. According to account Wiredfor many this habit began as a survival mechanism during the 2020 pandemic, when their entire lives were reduced to the screen. After discovering the peace it brought them, they decided to never turn on the notifications again. Personal limits versus social cost. Living in a silent digital limbo has profound psychological implications. Turning off notifications is a declaration of autonomy; Those who do so are not building a wall to isolate themselves from the world, but rather installing a “door” that they only open when their schedule and mental health allow it. But this position requires paying a social toll. Announcing that you live in “Do Not Disturb” mode is almost like declaring that you were vegan in the 90s: it is often perceived by those around you as a self-righteous or rude attitude. Friends, partners, and family members often get frustrated when they don’t receive immediate answers. For this reason, the maximalists of silence have learned that preventive communication is key to explaining that this is not a personal attack, but a necessary barrier. Paradoxically, this digital isolation improves relationships in the physical world. By not paying attention to a bright screen that demands their attention, these people demonstrate an absolute presence in face-to-face conversations, generating bonds of greater depth and trust. Expert support. Science supports this need for disconnection. The cost of always being available is very high and directly affects our mental and cognitive health. The studies warn of three major impacts: Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity: An investigation, published in Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, has shown that constant interruptions caused by smartphones can cause symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity—associated with ADHD—even in the general population that does not suffer from this disorder. Simply having alerts on maximizes these interruptions and increases inattention levels. Stress due to job fragmentation: A study of University of California, Irvine revealed that when people are constantly interrupted in their tasks, they try to compensate by working faster. However, this accelerated pace comes at a severe price: one experiences increased workload, higher levels of stress, frustration, time pressure, and tremendous mental effort. Cognitive leaks: Adrian Ward, professor at the University of Texas, ensures that cognitive ability It is significantly reduced just by having the smartphone within reach, even if it is turned off. Added to this is that each notification causes “cognitive hiccups” of about seven seconds, splintering our attention. Once concentration is broken, it can take the brain more than 23 minutes to regain it. The digital paradox. Despite its benefits, silencing your cell phone is not a panacea for everyone. Previous research suggests that, for some people, turning off alerts can cause anxiety about missing something important (the well-known FOMO). This anxiety causes users to interrupt themselves more frequently to check the screen, resulting in a net increase in distractions. At the same time, the trend has been quickly absorbed by the market. An article from Guardian criticized how “productivity gurus” on TikTok they had commodified the #monkmode (monk mode), selling it as an isolated and somewhat melancholic self-optimization formula, forgetting that the human mind also fights against forced hyperconcentration. Finally, we come to a technological irony of our time. Recent clinical protocols, like the essay published in Frontiersevaluate the use of mobile applications mindfulness (like InMind) to combat work stress, burnout (burnout) and improve the engagement of office workers. In the middle of 2026 we depend on applications within our phones to cure the anxiety that that same device generates in us. The rebellion of silence. As we move into 2026, putting your phone on permanent silent has gone from being a simple setting in the settings menu to becoming a statement of intent. As they conclude in Earthis a reminder that human attention is a finite and extremely valuable resource, to be spent by conscious choice and not by the beep of an algorithm. In the end, as summarized by the testimony collected by Wiredgiving up immediate availability in the era of “always connected” is perhaps the most peaceful … Read more

literally turning Donbas into “Donnyland”

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For decades, one of the greatest obsessions of Soviet power was to convert certain cities in personal symbols of leadership, to the point that Stalingrad not only appeared on maps and speeches, but also in propaganda, in military reports and in the way millions of people understood the course of a war. Because sometimes the way a place is named can influence as much as what happens inside it. The Ukrainian war and names. In the midst of stalled negotiations and agonizing wear and tear on both sides, the New York Times had this morning that Ukraine has introduced an idea as striking as it is revealing: naming a disputed area of ​​Donbas nothing more and nothing less than like “Donnyland” in honor of Donald Trump. This is not an isolated occurrence, but a calculated attempt to influence Washington’s position at a time when its role fluctuates between ally and mediator. The proposal, which mixes irony and strategy, reflects the extent to which kyiv perceives that language, symbols and political psychology can be as important as territorial control on the ground. Donnyland as a pressure tool. Apparently, the concept arose in private conversations as a way to push the US administration to toughen its stance in the face of Vladimir Putin’s demands. The logic is quite simple: if a hypothetical demilitarized or economic zone carries the symbolic seal Under Trump, the United States would have more incentives to protect it and guarantee its stability. From that perspective, it is not just a name, but an attempt to convert a devastated and partially depopulated strip in a political assettransforming territory into a negotiating card designed to alter the balance of power at the table. Borodyanka Donbas as a key piece of the blockade. The region in question, still under ukrainian control but pressured by russian forceshas become one of the main friction points in the peace talks. kyiv fears that giving up that territory will facilitate future offensives, while Moscow insists on complete control, blocking any significant advance. In this context, ideas like that of a neutral zonea special economic model or even that of a shared administration have been explored without success, making it clear that the future of Donbas remains the hard core of the conflict. TOadopting the logic of “branding”. The hypothetical use of “Donnyland” fits into a broader trend in which countries try to attract the attention or favor of great powers through symbolic gestures hyperbolic, such as previous infrastructure proposals or agreements with the name of American leaders. Furthermore, this type of movement reveals a diplomacy increasingly personalizedone where perception, ego and narrative can influence as much as military facts. In this case, Ukraine seeks to turn a disputed territory into a political project with its own name, attempting to align strategic interests through a simple change of label. From Stalingrad to Donnyland. As we said at the beginning, history offers precedents for how names can become tools of power, as happened with Stalingradwhose symbolism during the Second World War reinforced the figure of Joseph Stalin and turned the battle into a global political icon, or more recently with the Polish proposal from Fort Trump There is no doubt, although the context is different, the underlying logic is quite similar: using a name to project power, mobilize support and condition decisions. In the current case, Ukraine recovers that historical intuition and adapts it to a modern diplomacy where influence also involves connecting with the personal motivations of the leaders. Between strategy and symbolism. Be that as it may, and despite the striking nature of the proposal, the truth is that the talks remain blocked, with rigid positions and little progress on key issues such as territorial control or security guarantees. Of course, the “Donnyland” idea It has not yet been formalized and coexists with other more technical proposals, but the simple fact of its mere existence reveals the level of improvisation and/or creativity that diplomacy has achieved in this conflict. In the end, more than a solution in itself, the initiative shows the extent to which Ukraine is willing to explore any avenue (even symbolic) to tilt a war that is no longer decided only on the battlefield. Image | Picryl, Pexels In Xataka | In 1914, submachine guns forever changed the way war was waged. In 2026, it’s algorithms’ turn In Xataka | Ukraine has captured a North Korean missile from Russia and opened it: the surprising thing is not its parts, but how they work

Turning plastic into fuel profitably was a pipe dream. A new process just made it possible

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A team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the United States, has achieved convert plastic bags and kitchen boards into gasoline and diesel without having to resort to high temperatures or expensive materials. The discovery, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, has raised some eyebrows and below we tell you all the details. The problem they are trying to solve. The plastic is one of the most difficult materials to recycle profitably. Specifically, polyethylene (the polymer that makes up supermarket bags, white plastic containers or kitchen cutting boards) accumulates millions of tons in landfills each year. Until now, the only technically viable way to turn it into fuel was through a process called pyrolysis, which requires heating the material to temperatures between 450 and 500 degrees Celsius. An expensive, energy inefficient process that is difficult to scale to an industrial level. What does the new method consist of?. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have opted for a different path: introduce the plastic into a mixture of molten salts with aluminum chloride, which acts both as a solvent and as a catalyst. These salts are inorganic compounds that remain stable even under demanding reaction conditions. The key is that the aluminum atoms in the mixture bind to the polymer and generate areas of high acidity that break the long molecular chains of the plastic into smaller fragments, which are transformed into molecules typical of gasoline or diesel. And all this at less than 200 degrees Celsius, a temperature comparable to that of a conventional domestic oven. Why it represents a relevant technical leap. Beyond the reduction in temperature, the process dispenses with three elements that make traditional methods more expensive and complicated: noble metal catalysts (such as platinum), organic solvents and external contribution of hydrogen. According to Zhenzhen Yanga scientist at ORNL and one of the lead authors of the study, “this is the first time that molten salts have been used as a means to produce high value-added chemicals from waste without any catalytic initiators or solvents, and at a temperature below 200 degrees Celsius.” Gasoline efficiency reaches approximately 60% in moderate conditions, a result that the researchers themselves describe as promising for its future industrial application. As they verified that worked. To understand exactly what happens during the reaction, the team used a combination of advanced analysis techniques, including soft X-ray spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, neutron scattering, and gas chromatography. Thanks to isotopic labeling, they were able to track how carbon behaves during the process and confirm that the simplest polymer chains produce gasoline-like fuel, while the more complex ones derive into diesel molecules. By having this level of detail, the process could be optimized depending on the type of fuel you want to obtain. What remains to be resolved. The system is not ready to scale immediately. The main obstacle is that the aluminum salts used are hygroscopic, that is, they absorb moisture from the environment, which compromises their long-term stability. The team working now on ways to confine or protect these saltspossibly using halides or carbon materials, to make them more durable under real industrial conditions. Mbeyond the laboratory. If the process manages to scale successfully, the implications are considerable. Polyethylene is the most produced plastic in the world, abundant and cheap to obtain as a raw material. Aluminum salts, for their part, are low-cost commercial materials. According to Liqi Qiua postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee, “the starting material is abundant in consumer waste, and our catalyst system, molten aluminum salts, is very cheap.” The result could be a cost-effective route to converting plastic waste into high-quality transportation and industrial fuels, while also clearing up our landfills. At the moment the patent is pending, so we will have to wait to find out if this remedy ends up coming to fruition. Cover image | Elbert Lora and Marek Studzinski In Xataka | An 11,000 km ring around the Moon: Japan’s incredible plan to light up the Earth

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