The house of Open Source is collapsing because of vibecoding

by

When it arrived, GitHub was miraculous for Open Source developers. Not only did it allow you to have a platform on which to host your code and always have it updated thanks to the version control software on which it was based (Git), but it did so with a social network component that definitively boosted its growth. Everything was wonderful, but suddenly it wasn’t. When GitHub didn’t exist. Developer Armin Ronacher I remembered GitHub before GitHub. When your Open Source software was on SourceForge, you had Trac running and that segment was filled with decentralized and anarchic Subversion repositories. It is a good way to remember how important the arrival of GitHub was, which solved almost all the problems that existed for these developers and became the backbone of the Open Source community. The Ghostty Earthquake. Although there had already been criticism and complaints in recent months, there has been a before and after in this situation. It happened this week, when Mitchell Hashimoto, developer of ghosttyannounced that left GitHub. This terminal emulator is a project with notable popularity on GitHub (more than 52,000 stars), but its creator has become fed up with the platform’s unreliability and has declared that “this is no longer a serious place to work.” GitHub acknowledges the problems. Last March, GitHub CTO, Vlad Fedorov, admitted in an article on the company’s official blog that the platform was indeed suffering availability problems. Hashimoto’s post seemed to set off even more alarm bells, because the same engineer published an article shortly after titled “An update on GitHub availability.” In it he apologized again, but also explained that the problems have a culprit. At GitHub they wanted to explain that the availability problems are due to the brutal growth they have had in software creation in recent months. Source: GitHub. Damn AI agents. This engineer indicated how in recent months they have realized that they need a redesign of GitHub that can scale by multiplying its capacity by 30. “The main reason for this rapid change is in how the software is being developed. Since the second half of December 2025, agentic development workflows have accelerated significantly.” The vibecoding phenomenon and the rise of Claude Code and other agentic development tools have caused companies and new users to develop more and more software, and that has caused reliability problems in a platform that was not prepared for this avalanche of code. They promise to fix the problem. At GitHub they know what to do: “Our priorities are clear: first availability, then capacity, then new features.” They are going to focus entirely on that to improve the behavior of critical services and optimize availability that in April has fallen to 85%, something unacceptable for a service on which millions of developers depend. The official history of its availability makes it clear: too many yellow and red updates. GitHub has no CEO. There is one more element that worries in the future of the company. In August 2025 Thomas Dohmke left office CEO and Microsoft did not replace him. Instead of that distributed management functions among several executives and integrated GitHub into the CoreAI division. Meanwhile, Dohmke announced in February the creation of his new startup, called Entire, which is precisely intended as an evolved successor to GitHub that proposes solutions for the new flow of software development that has emerged with AI. The alternatives are fine, but. There are, of course, very valid alternative platforms. Among them is including Plastic SCM, from the Spanish Códice Softwarewhich in turn was purchased by Unity in 2020. There are others like CodeBerg or GitLab even more popular among the community, and even OpenAI seems want to create your own platform. Whether you do it or not, the problem with all of them is the same: GitHub had become a social network for developers, and it showed that in this case centralization provided more advantages than disadvantages. If the community now spreads out, project discovery and contributions will become fragmented. Image | Rubaitul Azad In Xataka | AI came into our lives under a “freemium” model: GitHub and Claude are clear that the future is paying for it

Every year Renfe dedicates millions and millions of euros to something that has little to do with transportation: cleaning graffiti

by

In March 2023 Renfe did something very rare in the world of communication: he sent a press release full of graffiti to newsrooms across the country. Literally. The text was so smudged that you could barely read its content, beyond the headline, in which the operator lamented that “the graffiti vandalism” that occurs on trains generated a cost of 25 million of euros, in addition to affecting the flow of traffic with delays and cancellations of services. That marketing campaign served to arouse curiosity and raise awareness about the issue, but it does not seem to have solved the problem. In fact, the bill for graffiti removal just came a considerable jumpjoining others related to vandalism, such as wiring theft. What has happened? That despite all your attempts to tackle the problem, the campaigns awareness, the control of the authorities and the complaints launched by the workers, Renfe has not managed to free itself from a very special type of vandalism: that which is perpetrated with sprays and that attacks its wagons and locomotives. The operator already had warned in several occasions that graffiti on trains cost him 25 million euros annually, but the bill seems to have increased in recent years. at least like this has advanced it elEconomista.eswhich ensures that in 2025 spending will skyrocket to exceed 32.2 million euros. Has it increased that much? The economic newspaper assures that the railway operator has had to increase the efforts it dedicates to keeping its trains clean, going from around 25 million annually invested in recent years (the sum includes direct and indirect costs) to just over 32 million in 2025. The largest expense would be located in Catalonia, where recently The socialists presented a bill to increase fines for acts of vandalism that affect public transportation. According to The NewspaperIn 2023, cleaning trains in the region cost 11.6 million, about 32,000 euros per day. Is it something new? No. And that is precisely one of the keys to the problem. Three years ago, in his famous statement defaced, Renfe already denounced that “graffiti vandalism” on the trains was generating a cost of more than 25 million euros per year, a bill that, it warned, falls directly on citizens. It may seem like an exorbitant figure, but Renfe recalled that graffiti not only requires cleaning machinery, it also has less visible consequences that are equally (or even more) burdensome. “This figure includes, in addition to the cleaning itself, the indirect expenses derived from this scourge, such as investment in security, both for personnel and other technological systems,” scored Renfe in 2024. Graffiti also affects railway operations, so passengers suffer directly. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Does it affect that much? Yes. In her day the operator already warned that sometimes graffiti directly affects the service they provide, causing delays and leaving trains unusable. The reason? The company spoke of “lack of visibility or graffiti on safety elements that impede circulation”, in addition to “emergency braking to paint in the middle of a journey” or even the smell generated by aerosol paints. “It is very annoying to travelers.” The truth is that Renfe has not been the only one to report the problem. He has also done it by example the Government in Catalonia or the CGT union in Galicia, which in February regretted in X that the graffiti on a train was preventing Renfe from using it to resolve the saturation of the service between Vigo and A Coruña. How much is vandalized? Renfe calculates that if the entire area of ​​vandalized wagons and locomotives is added, in 2023 there will be around 80,000 m2. And not because that was a particularly bad year. It is an estimate very similar to that of 2022 and theEconomist points out that one year the 90,000 m2. To give a clearer idea of ​​what these levels of vandalism mean, in 2023 the operator I remembered that cleaning such a quantity of paint had required 15,000 hours of work and that the railway network had also been affected to the same extent. “The trains were stopped for 15,000 hours unscheduled due to graffiti removal,” insisted the company, which reminds that the damage could be even greater if surveillance were relaxed: in 2023 alone its security personnel thwarted almost 1,200 incursions by vandals to create graffiti. Is there no way to avoid it? If there is, in Spain we have not yet managed to find the key. And not for lack of efforts. In addition to toughen sanctions and carry out controls that not long ago allowed ‘hunting’ in Catalonia about a dozen of those involved in 115 graffiti on FGC, Renfe and Barcelona Metro machinery, Renfe has resorted to new forms of surveillance. Renfe already employs for example, drones to hunt down vandals who paint wagons or break into their facilities, which has led to a notable investment. Images | Renfe 1, 2 and Alvaro Galve (Flickr) Via | elEconomista.es In Xataka | Japan has a secret weapon to end vandalism in its streets that only affects teenagers: “The Mosquito”

15 minutes of work a week and then warm up the chair. Leyla Kazim spent a year without giving a damn and no one noticed

by

Leyla Kazim has taken chair warming very far. Writer and presenter for the BBC, a few weeks ago she told it on her Substack A Day Well Spent his experiment, a sort of ‘The Fiaca‘ by Talesnik applied to the world of work as Marisa executed with mastery in ‘The discontent‘the sharp debut feature of the brilliant Beatriz Serrano, but elevated to maximum power: a year without hitting the water in a London technology company. Nothing happened. Neither conflict nor dismissal nor discovery, unlike the ghost official of Cádiz who spent six years without going to work: it was the worker herself who took her knives things and closed the door from the outside, evidencing in a crude and documented way the structural cracks of large corporations and office positions. A real experiment on bullshit jobs and face-to-face work. Let Rita work. In 2013, Kazim spent an entire year doing absolutely no work for the London-based tech company where she was employed. Nobody noticed. In 2014 he left the office permanently voluntarily: neither reprimands nor dismissals were appropriate. His trick? He spent as little time as possible fulfilling his contractual obligations, doing so at a level competent enough not to raise suspicions. The mechanism was quite simple: he spent 15 minutes a week preparing for meetings where he showed fictitious progress and meanwhile spent the hours with an open Excel sheet. Neither budgets nor calculations for projects: he planned his personal trips. She made her efforts, but in other tasks, the most important: those dedicated to herself. Why is it important. The case of Leyla Kazim is not an isolated anecdote: this YouGov poll put on the table that 37% of British adult workers believe that their work contributes nothing to the world. And this has consequences: there are investigations from the universities of Cambridge and Birmingham who point out a relationship between the sense of purpose in employment and psychological well-being. Come on, if you think that your work is useless, you’ll burn out sooner. On the other hand, it exposes business control systems: if a corporation is unable to detect that one of its employees has not worked for twelve months, something is wrong: the performance metrics it uses, whatever they may be, do not work. Context. Kazim’s experiment is a practical application of bullshit jobs, or shit jobsa concept coined by anthropologist David Graeber. His thesis is as simple as it is uncomfortable: between 37% and 40% of workers in rich countries feel that their work is worthless. In this sense, automation has been part of the problem: according to Graeber, instead of freeing us from repetitive tasks, it has led to the creation of empty jobs. The consequences are twofold. For the person who works, psychological deterioration: it is difficult to get up every morning knowing that what you are going to do does not matter. For the company and the economy it represents a waste of talent and money. But the most revealing thing about Graeber’s theory is precisely what the writer has done: those who occupy these positions know it perfectly well and yet they pretend that they don’t. They keep up appearances because the system demands it. Added to this phenomenon is the in-personismthat cultural mechanism that allows shitty jobs to go unnoticed: it doesn’t matter about productivity, the important thing is to be in your chair all the hours that your workday marks. Since 1998, it has been studied and defined as “the tendency to remain at work beyond the time necessary for effective performance.” When a company measures visibility instead of results, in-person attendance becomes the norm: just what protected and masked Leyla Kazim for a year. In detail. Kazim masterfully exploited both phenomena: on the one hand, a job with functions so diffuse that reducing it to the minimum essential did not generate any imbalance (what Graeber calls box ticker tasks) and on the other, he took advantage of the company’s face-to-face culture. It is worth remembering that there are work environments that consciously or unconsciously perceive better and reward those who arrive earlier and leave later. In fact, has been proven that there are managers who show a predilection for in-person workers compared to remote ones due to proximity bias. As long as she had Excel open, kept her schedule, and attended meetings, the lack of effort went unnoticed. What he learned. The now BBC presenter’s conclusion is that modern office work is something of a play. Once you accept that your work has no real purpose and understand the rules of the game, you have a better chance of winning, which in this context means spending as little time as possible on contractual obligations. Of course, he issues a warning: his experiment is neither universal nor does he recommend it. Having a shitty job with diffuse tasks and wrong performance metrics is not the same as having someone whose job, even if it is shit, consumes their health or their room for maneuver is tight. On the other hand, let’s remember that even this perception of having a shitty job ends up taking its toll on psychological well-being. In Xataka | We believed that AI was going to take our jobs. At the moment he has started whispering to your boss who he should fire In Xataka | Spain has become accustomed to something abnormal in the rest of Europe: working with unsustainable stress levels Cover | Vitaly Gariev

May begins loaded with offers on the MacBook Neo, the perfect eReader for traveling, sales on TVs and much more. Hunting Bargains

by

We welcome the month of May that has begun with several very attractive campaigns and loose offers. Do you need a new television to watch the Soccer World Cup? Do you want to read more and are you looking for your first eReader? Well pay attention because today We’re back with a new Bargain Hunting. MacBook Neo by 749.95 eurosa perfect laptop to make the leap into the Apple ecosystem. nintendo switch 2 by 449 eurosone of the best prices MediaMarkt has had to date (there is also a pack available). Woxter Scriba 195 by 59.90 eurosan e-book reader that is ideal for casual readers. Xiaomi Buds 5 by 44.99 eurosthe brand’s headphones at half the official price. Samsung TQ65Q7F5AUXXC by 494 eurosa good QLED TV with a 65-inch screen. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links MacBook Neo He MacBook Neo It is one of Apple’s most popular laptops, and it has been one of the last to arrive. The version of 512GB It is the best seller in the “Traditional Laptops” section of Amazon and it is the one that is on sale, for 749.95 euros (previously 799 euros) in this case. It is a light computer of 1.23 kg, its chip is the A18 Pro of the iPhone 16 Pro and it is, in short, perfect for everyday tasks of writing text, web browsing, playing multimedia content and even image editing. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 MediaMarkt and other stores have lowered the price of the nintendo switch 2. You can now buy it again for 449 euros (before 469 euros). However, if you do not have the first Nintendo Switch and want to receive the current generation with a video game, MediaMarkt also has a pack available for 479 euros from the console along with ‘Super Mario Bros. Wonder‘ and a keychain. To buy the pack you must select it with the “buy pack” button in the store. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Woxter Scriba 195 If you want to read a little more and are looking to make the jump to digital format because it is more comfortable for you, the Woxter Scriba 195 It is the perfect model for two reasons: it is economical because right now in El Corte Inglés it costs 59.90 euros (before 79.90 euros) and because it is small as it has a six-inch screen. In addition, it includes buttons to turn the pages and not dirty the screen so much and includes a microSD card slot in case you want to store many digital books. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi Buds 5 On the other hand, if you are looking for good headphones to enjoy your favorite music anywhere, be careful because the Xiaomi Buds 5 They are on MediaMarkt for 44.99 euros (before 59.99 euros, although its official price is 99.99 euros). They are headphones with audio adjustments signed by Harman, they are resistant to water and dust (IP54) and offer a good theoretical autonomy of up to 39 hours of use according to Xiaomi. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ65Q7F5AUXXC There is little left until the Soccer World Cup, so if you have decided to take the opportunity to change TV, the Samsung TQ65Q7F5AUXXC has dropped to 494 euros at MediaMarkt (previously 689 euros). It is a QLED smart TV with a 65-inch screen that supports the HDR10+ to have a good image experience on compatible content. It also includes Filmmaker mode for cinema and comes with both voice assistants Alexa and Google Assistant. Samsung TQ65Q7F5AUXXC (65 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Apple, Nintendo, Woxter, Xiaomi, Samsung In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 21 models from 15 euros to 470 euros

This is how your AI camera system works

by

The new DéporTienda, the same as Deportivo de la Coruña, is not a simple store merchandising with a facelift. It is a case study of how spatial analytics, computer vision and predictive models can impact the retail sports. And a club from, for now, the Second Division has done it. RC Deportivo celebrates its 120th anniversary immersed in a modernization operation that goes beyond what happens on the pitch: museum, hospitalitysports city… But there is a project that says more about the direction the club wants to take than any signing or renovation of the stands. It’s your store. La DéporTienda has just reopened in its historic location next to the Abanca-Riazor stadium after two months of works. And more than just the furniture or decoration has changed. The nervous system of space has changed: it is now monitored, analyzed and, according to those responsible, it is capable of anticipating decisions before they are made. The cameras watch The project started with an observation phase of at least four months in the old store. The company responsible for the technological layer is Noumena Group, a Barcelona company founded in 2011 and specialized in spatial analytics with computer vision and Machine Learning. Its CEO, Aldo Sollazzoexplains that the system they have implemented in Riazor has the same DNA as the one they developed for Barcelona City Council in the analysis of Superapples and the green axles: cameras that process images to understand how people move through a space. Material for sale, and in the background, the wave made of PETG. Image provided. “It works through cameras connected to a brain based on edge computing“explains Sollazzo. “Each camera converts the input visual in a string text that guarantees anonymity and complies with the GDPR and the European AI law. We do not store images: we store spatial data,” he explains to Xataka by phone call. The system maps movement flows within the store, segments visitors by estimated age ranges and gender, generates heat maps and cross-references all this with product distribution and sales data. So far, descriptive analytics. What Noumena proposes as differential is the predictive layer. Predict before moving a shelf “The difference with other systems is that our data are not numbers disconnected from space,” says Sollazzo. “They are linked to the built environment. And that allows us to train models to predict what would happen if we redistribute the product, move the furniture or relocate the payment points.” In practice, this translates into decisions such as estimating whether an alternative display arrangement maximizes product exposure. Or whether relocating cash registers based on traffic reduces queues on busy days. Or calculate how many staff the store will need for a specific event. All this without the need for trial and error in the field. Heat maps on the store floor (top-down view). They represent the distribution of visitor flows in three different scenarios or moments, probably different furniture configurations or different temporal moments (normal day, match day, special event…). The most intense areas indicate a greater concentration of people, the dark areas are cold areas where few people pass through. It is clearly seen how the traffic distribution changes depending on the scenario: in some configurations there are obvious bottlenecks at the entrance and next to certain exhibitors, while in others the flow is distributed more homogeneously. The numbered white elements are the furniture and display modules. Image provided. Three-dimensional visualization of the same flow data as in the previous image. Instead of a flat heat map, occupancy data is represented as volumetric columns that “grow” from the floor: the higher the column height, the higher the traffic density at that point. The isometric perspective allows you to see the store as a built space (you can sense the walls, the modules) with superimposed spatial data. It is the representation that connects analytics with architecture, which is the point that Sollazzo emphasizes as differential: the data is not abstract, it is anchored to the physical environment. Image provided. Panel with a comparison of key indicators: net sales, visitors, items sold, conversion rate, average ticket… All within the framework of an event day, with a specific anniversary that drives attendance and purchase. Image provided. This tab crosses spatial data with sales data by product. The graphs show the ranking of suppliers, where Kappa logically dominates as it is the technical brand of the club; the interactions by exhibitor or the comparison of interest versus sales by supplier, where it is seen that Kappa generates a lot of interest and many sales, while Soricastel and Texprint (merchandising, not technical clothing) generate interest but convert less. This type of data is what allows us to decide if a supplier needs a better location, better price or less space. Image provided. Thanks to this research, the club has increased its working square meters by 10% and enhanced product exposure by 15%. For a football club store next to a stadium, where on match days the footfall can multiply by twenty (a figure declared by the club), those margins matter a lot. The system, furthermore, cross internal data with external variables: weather forecast, events in the city or at the stadium, mobility data in the surrounding area… “In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the League We had 250% more occupancy compared to a normal day,” recalls Sollazzo. “Without this technology it would be impossible to anticipate how much stocks “Do you need, how much workforce, how to redistribute the points of sale so that the queue does not block the flow of the store.” What is measured and what must be demonstrated The KPIs that the club will monitor are those expected in any serious operation of retail: average ticket, conversion rate, average stay time, number of visits, distribution of flows by module and visitor profile. The return on investment, according to Sollazzo, is expected in one year. The idea, in theory, is to sell more, of course, but also to make better, … Read more

Although there are scientists saying the opposite, it is time to recognize it: continents do not exist

by

For a couple of years and from time to time, a very specific type of article has gone viral: one that repeats that there is a group of researchers from the University of Derby has found a new (micro)continent in Davis Strait. That is, between Greenland and North America. And yes, it sounds a little Martian. How could we have lost an entire continent in the 1,143 kilometers that that strait measures? It has its explanation What the hell is a continent? The most intuitive answer is “a large area of ​​land surrounded by water”; But the truth is that it only works in theory and, when we tackle the problem, everything gets complicated. Therefore, if the question is “how many continents are there in the world?”, the only logical answer is this: “it depends.” What do you mean “it depends”? The reasons behind many of the divisions we handle are “purely historical and cultural.” In fact, as Miguel García explains“the educational systems of different countries establish different continental divisions”: In Anglo-Saxon countries, it is most common to say that there are seven continents (Europe, Africa, North America, South America, Asia, Antarctica and Oceania); On the other hand, in Romance language countries, the most common answer is that there are six continents (uniting the Americas into one); Six continents are also explained in the countries of the ex-Soviet orbit (although they keep America separate and what they unite is Europe and Asia). There are more options, of course. For example, we could unite Asia, Africa and Europe on a single continent and, together with America, Australia and Antarctica, there would be four. By proxy, we could even remove Antarctica because, well, without its snow cover it would become an archipelago (whose largest island would be smaller than Australia). It’s time to admit that continents do not exist. They are social constructs, like municipalities or provinces. Hence, as García explainsFrom a geological point of view, it can be concluded that continents do not constitute a scientific concept. In any case, we can talk about tectonic plates (and, although defining their number is also a hassle, we would not talk about less than 15). So what are the Derby researchers talking about? Now it’s time to get into the matter: what researchers have used is something elsethe thickness of the Earth’s crust. In general, there are two types of Earth’s crust: continental (about 35 kilometers thick) and oceanic (between 8 and 10). Of what they have realized is that as the tectonic plates between Canada and Greenland have shifted, the Earth’s crust has been reconfigured. The result has been a protocontinental (i.e. extremely thick) crust on what should be an oceanic crust. And what is all this for? It must be admitted that, once we get the matter down, everything seems more boring. However, the finding is very interesting: we actually don’t know very well how tectonic dynamics work. We have very developed ideas and models, yes; But when it comes down to it, there are more questions than answers. Being able to study in detail the formation of a protomicrocontinent is a unique opportunity to understand phenomena such as the one that is dividing Africa in two. And we have already seen that, unlike what we tend to believe, this has a real impact on daily life of millions of people. Image | Kate Ter Haar In Xataka | A huge crack has opened in Kenya’s Rift Valley and it seems it’s just the beginning This article was originally published in 2025. We have updated its content.

The oil reserves of the main powers, in a graph that summarizes how well China is doing

by

Since the Strait of Hormuz was closed On February 28, after the offensive by the United States and Israel, the world as we know it hangs by a thread: going to a gas station to refuel, catching a flight or simply filling the refrigerator are mundane actions at risk, although at the moment what we have noticed the most is that prices go up and flight cancellations. The threat of running out of oil is getting closer. Oil is not just energy: having oil means having more time in the face of an energy crisis. The question is: how many days can an economy function without a single new barrel entering its borders? Well, it depends on two factors: how much you have stored and how you manage it. A few days ago the United States Energy Information Administration answered that question in the form of graphic for some of the world’s major powers. The result is uncomfortable and summarizes very well that China has done its homework. The EIA analysis shows oil inventories in December 2025, that is, just before the game began. We insist: it is not just the barrels that remain, it is a map that reveals who has room to hold out. That the Strait of Hormuz is closed It doesn’t affect everyone the same.. In March 2026, the United States and other IEA members they agreed a coordinated emergency release of reserves after the closure because approximately 20% of the world’s oil passes through that redoubt of a few kilometers. But the exposure to the shock is totally asymmetrical: while Europe and East Asia import massively from the Persian Gulf, the United States has record domestic production (13.6 million barrels per day) that drastically reduces your dependency. Although China appears at the top as the outstanding leader, paradoxically it is the most exposed in volume, but also the best prepared in reserves: it has room to withstand months of supply cuts. On the other side of the coin is Europe, the most vulnerable to this situation: its reserves are noticeably smaller and its own production is residual. Which countries are most and least prepared for the closure of Hormuz Inventory of crude oil reserves in some specific countries. EIA. December 2025 During 2025, China accumulated an average of 1.1 million barrels per day, reaching almost 1.4 billion barrels. To put it on scale, it is more than triple what the United States stores in its strategic oil reserve (1,397 compared to 413). And it has done so quietly: China does not publish official data on its inventories, so the EIA estimates them by crossing imports, exports and data from third parties such as Vortexa, Kpler and Kayrros. As collects Reuterssince 2024, Chinese national companies add emergency oil to commercial reserves following government instructions. In short: they have a second strategic layer, logistics deliberately designed to endure in situations of blockade, sanctions or conflicts. China has made good use of cheap sanctioned Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan oil to fill its deposits at bargain prices, according to a report from the US Congressional Committee. Estimated crude oil inventories of China and the United States in December 2025. EIA Although the United States strategic reserve has capacity for 714 million barrels, at the end of last year it barely had just over 400, its lowest level in decades, after large sales in 2022 and 2023. The explanation is that the United States used its reserve to mitigate inflation after the war in Ukraine and has not yet recovered. That is to say, America’s room for maneuver has been reduced and with reserves at 58% and the Strait of Hormuz closed, it is at its lowest levels since the early 1980s, when the SPR was still in the process of filling. If there is a phrase to define the situation of the old continent, it is that Europe is hanging by a thread. OECD Europe held just 179 million barrels in government inventories as of December 2025, a structurally weak figure for a bloc that imports more than 97% of the oil it consumes. That Europe is dependent on oil is not a surprise, but with the closure of Hormuz the need to change this reality is urgent. He underlying problem in Europe is fragmentation: each member state manages its own reserves under the minimum framework of 90 days of demand required by the IEA, but without a common European strategic reserve. So in the face of a severe crisis, the response comes disseminated and not unified. Japan takes bronze, with 263 million barrels accumulated in government reserves. However, what is most striking is its legal architecture: the Petroleum Storage Law Japan forces private industry to maintain 70 days of demand (about 220 million additional barrels) over the government’s 90 days. A public and private double layer system that makes Japan the most robust system per capita. Finally, Japan participates in the international joint storage system: the EIA excludes from its calculation the international joint storage inventories that Japan maintains outside its borders. That is to say, the real figure of Japanese access to crude oil in an emergency scenario is higher than what the graph says. In Xataka | After gasification plants and renewables, Spain has another energy lifeline for Europe: oil refineries In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country Cover | EIA

features, price and technical sheet

by

March 2023. It has been more than three years since Volkswagen will show us the ID for the first time. 2all. That car has finally been called ID.Polo. It is a subtlety without much importance that perfectly summarizes the path that the company has taken in recent years and what steps the electric car has been taking. Be that as it may, we already know all the technical and mechanical details and the price of a car that It will be manufactured in Martorell. Volkswagen ID technical sheet. Pole VOLKSWAGEN ID. Pole Body type Five-seater urban Measurements and weight 4,053 mm long, 1,816 mm wide and 1,530 mm high. Wheelbase of 2,600 mm. 1,576 kg weight. Trunk 441 liters. Maximum power 155 kW (211 hp) WLTP consumption 13.5 kWh/100 km and 449 km of autonomy. DGT environmental distinctive Zero emissions. Driving aids (ADAS) Mandatory by the European Union. Adaptive cruise control with parking assistant. Others 10-inch screen for the instrument panel and 13-inch screen for the infotainment. Possibility of including matrix lights, 480-watt Harman Kardon premium sound system with ten speakers, including a central one and subwoofer, and seats with electric adjustments and a massage function. electric hybrid No. Plug-in hybrid No. Electric Yeah. Version with LFP battery of 37 kWh net (autonomy to be confirmed) with powers of 85 kW (116 HP) and 99 kW (135 HP). Version with NCM battery of 52 kWh (449 km of autonomy) and 155 kW (211 HP of power) Price and release Now available in its 52 kWh battery version. Without aid: from 35,070 euros With discounts and aid: from 24,330 euros “Typically Volkswagen” When Volkswagen presented the ID. 2all said it was a car “typically Volkswagen”. By this they meant that it was a car that should fit into most families. That “2all” didn’t leave much room for doubt either. Those days we thought that the electric car was going to advance faster than what we have seen since. The “cheap” electric car has a problem. Right now, its batteries are short and its main obstacle is its autonomy on the road. With a Volkswagen Polo you traveled anywhere with more or less discomfort in terms of space. The ID. 2all It promised those same inconveniences but, in addition, added another that many clients do not seem to be willing to assume: lengthen travel times. In the three years that have passed since then, the brands have verified that the customer has certain reluctance to make the leap to this technology if they do not have a guaranteed autonomy large enough to Do not turn trips into a small ordealno matter how few they are per year. And they have also discovered that they do not want something disruptive, that they do not care if the car is electric if it maintains the essences that we already knew. Volkswagen has remained firm in its commitment to offer an electric car for less than 25,000 euros but it has changed some decisions that were not liked. The most obvious, the name. The car will eventually be called Volkswagen ID. Polo, writing a new page in the history of the model. The second thing is the physical buttons, which the German company is returning to its models after poor usability decisions and certainly erratic functioning on its touch surfaces. The most urban Volkswagen Polo in history Current technical limitations, until higher energy density batteries arrive and their popularity lowers manufacturing prices, forces this Volkswagen ID. Polo is the most urban version of its history. And the small electric from the Germans arrives with a size of 4,053 mm long, 1,816 mm wide and 1,530 mm high. Measurements more than solvent for the city that, with a wheelbase of 2,600 mm, promise a lot of interior space. The point is that your starting battery to get below 25,000 euros is very short, barely 37 kWh net which will be combined with powers of 85 kW (116 HP) and 99 kW (135 HP). With that size, the car will be limited to the urban environment and the periphery. With a highway consumption of 20 kWh/100 km, these versions of the ID. Polo would not reach 200 kilometers of real autonomy. Above, a 155 kW (211 HP) version can be ordered and 52 kWh NCM battery which approves a maximum of 449 kilometers but anticipates a real road autonomy of 250 kilometers if consumption is 20 kWh/100 km on the road. Without proving it, going below that figure would be extraordinary news for those looking for a car with a minimum cost to their pocket on a day-to-day basis and who does not sacrifice the ability to go out on weekends without the trip taking forever. As long as, of course, the trip is less than 350 kilometers. Volkswagen promises fast charges from 10 to 80% of battery capacity in “approximately 24 minutes.” Inside, the car comes with a Digital Cockpit that is built on a 10-inch screen to serve as an instrument panel. The infotainment is mounted on a 13-inch central screen compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. This screen is accompanied by a lower button panel and touch controls on the steering wheel. A decision that is marked by the latest controversies caused for the jump to “everything touch” and that we have tried to correct here. At the moment, the car only arrives with its most powerful version and larger battery, but the brand announces that in summer we will see its most basic versions. These will already have an adaptive cruise function, LED headlights with automatic high-low beam activation and a multifunction steering wheel. In its higher versions, keyless opening and starting, rear view cameras with parking aids, inductive charging for the mobile phone or voice control of the infotainment system can be added. In the top-of-the-range versions, matrix headlights, IQ.LIGHT LED Matrix headlights, can be added, and as an option, a 480-watt Harman Kardon premium sound system with ten speakers, … Read more

let humanoid robots work

by

An airport can seem like a highly automated machine: screens, boarding gates, belts, controls and processes that advance almost without us realizing it. But it is enough to look a little beyond the passenger journey to find another reality: planes that must be prepared, luggage that must be moved, merchandise that must be loaded and operations that continue to depend on human hands. What we have seen now in Japan starts precisely from that less visible area of ​​the trip, where automating is not as simple as it seems. The test. According to the statement published by Japan AirlinesJAL Ground Service, the group company in charge of ground handling operations at large national airports, and GMO AI & Robotics will begin a demonstration with humanoid robots at Haneda airport in May of this year. The plan includes phased verifications until 2028 and the companies present it as the first demonstration of its kind in Japan. A key point. The commitment is not only to automate a task, but to test machines capable of moving in an environment already designed for people. The airline explains that ground operations are carried out in limited spaces around the planes and with support equipment of very different shapes, something that makes the use of fixed automated installations or single-function robots difficult. The advantage of the humanoid robot, according to the companies, is that it can adapt better without requiring major modifications to airport facilities or aircraft. What robots will do. The first phase does not aim to replace all ground operations at once, but rather to measure very limited use cases. So to begin with, the robots will be deployed in tasks of loading and unloading freight containers. Other possible uses are also contemplated within the project, from baggage and cargo handling to cabin cleaning and the operation of ground handling equipment. The key is in that nuance: these are scenarios that we want to test, not capacities already implemented on a large scale. The bottleneck is on land. We are not facing an isolated test because an airport wants to exhibit technology, but rather a tentative response to a very specific problem. Japan Airlines links the project to a lack of ground handling personnel, a pressure it attributes to the growth of inbound tourism and the decline in the working-age population. Furthermore, these tasks are not just repetitive: the company remembers that they require qualified personnel, involve safety requirements and can involve a considerable physical burden. Testing doesn’t solve everything. The design of the project itself invites you to read it with caution. As we say, the demonstration will advance in phases: first, operations at the airport will be observed, mapped and analyzed to identify where the robots can act safely, and then repeated verifications will be carried out that simulate real environments. The ultimate goal is to build a more sustainable operation through less dependence on manual labor and a reduction in physical workload, but not completely eliminate the human role. Images | Japan Airlines In Xataka | Anthropic is one step away from being worth as much as Samsung. And what the market is buying is not Claude

We know that all things are in crisis due to the closure of Hormuz, but the aluminum thing is truly worrying

by

The world economy has come face to face with a scenario that no one wanted to foresee. The global aluminum market is facing what analysts and experts already classify as a “black swan” event. The Third Gulf War has caused a drastic closure in shipping routes, triggering a supply crisis of historic proportions. An unprecedented crisis. “The magnitude of the supply crisis that we are seeing in the aluminum market is probably the largest single supply crisis that a base metals market has suffered in the post-2000 era,” Nick Snowdon, head of metals and mining research at the trading firm Mercuria, summarized it forcefully. in statements collected by the agency Reuters. And the numbers support the alarm: the Persian Gulf region has a smelting capacity of 7 million metric tons annually. That is, almost 9% of this year’s global supply is at the epicenter of a war conflict. A logistical bottleneck. The implications of this blockage go far beyond financial speculation, as aluminum is the backbone of vital industries such as transportation, construction and packaging. Natalie Scott-Gray, Senior Metals Demand Analyst in StoneXfocuses on logistical asphyxiation. According to the expert, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz does not have an easy solution, since “there are no other maritime routes that have a similar capacity.” This disruption, Scott-Gray explains, has the potential to eliminate up to 50% of the Middle East’s aluminum supply, equivalent to a direct 5% hit to global production. In Europe, the impact has already jumped from offices to factories. According to the specialized portal Miningconsumers in the construction and transportation sector are being squeezed. In Rotterdam, the physical premium (the extra cost paid above the market price to ensure delivery) for aluminum extrusion ingots has more than doubled since the start of the war, rising from $530 to $1,100 per metric ton. And the perfect storm arrives. The market has reacted with panic. According to data from Reutersfear of shortages triggered prices on the London Metal Exchange (LME) to a four-year high, reaching $3,672 per ton in mid-April. Since the start of hostilities, the reference price has risen by 14%, how it complements Financial Times. What follows this crisis is an imminent structural deficit. Mercuria estimates that the market will face a minimum deficit of 2 million tons by the end of the year, an alarming figure if we consider that visible global inventories are barely around one and a half million tons. The West is particularly vulnerable. The United States imported almost 22% of its aluminum from the Middle East last year, while Europe relied on the region for 18.5% of its imports. Safety nets are failing: Emirates Global Aluminum (EGA) has been forced to declare status of “force majeure” in several European contracts after suffering an Iranian attack on its foundry in the United Arab Emirates. Simultaneously, Kubal, the only Swedish foundry (owned by the Russian Rusal), has mysteriously stopped its deliveries in Europefurther straining short-term availability. The “kings” of chaos. This aluminum shock does not occur in a vacuum; It is the symptom of a greater illness. Daniel Yergin, vice president of S&P Global, warned in Bloomberg that we are facing “the biggest energy disruption we have ever seen.” The impact transcends oil, affecting natural gas, fertilizers and metals. Aluminum production is extremely energy intensive, so rising fuel prices are driving up the costs of foundries around the world. However, in a troubled river, fishermen gain. While manufacturers suffer, the giants of commodity trading are making a move. He Financial Times reveals that the Swiss firm Mercuria has begun aggressive expansion, investing more than $3 billion in base metals. In a strategic shift, they have gone from simply financing shipments to purchasing real assets, acquiring 25% of an aluminum smelter in Indonesia. “We have both the appetite and the capacity to do more,” he assured the British newspaper Kostas Bintashead of metals at Mercuria, confirming that the company is firmly committed to this metal in the midst of the chaos. The clock is ticking. The current crisis has mutated, In the words of Yergin to Bloombergin a clash between two blockades: American economic pressure versus Tehran’s ability to “wage war on the world economy”. The paradox is that this energy and logistics bottleneck will end up accelerating the transition to electric vehicles and will force countries to redesign their energy security. But in the short term, reality is stubborn. As the analysis concludes ReutersMiddle Eastern aluminum simply cannot be replaced overnight. China, the world’s largest producer, has a strict legal annual production limit of 45 million tonnes, and neither the United States nor Europe have enough idle capacity they can turn on to salvage the situation. The “black swan” has landed, and the global industry will have to learn to survive in a scenario where aluminum, once abundant, has become a treasure caught in the crossfire. Image | Magnificent Xataka | Iran has pulled out a “trick” to sell to China while avoiding the US: turning the ocean into its secret gas station

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.