usatoday24

PlayStation caused a tsunami killing games in physical format. If you wait for a reverse, the final enemy is mathematics

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

It’s been just over a week since Sony, PlayStation, will announce the death of the physical format for its consoles. Starting in January 2028, no physical games will be released for PlayStation consoles. This is a hard blow for the video game as an art, for preservation and for the consumer, since there are few more anti-consumer measures that make us players depend on a physical format that does not belong to us. The reaction of these players has not been good and there are those who point to a possible retreat on the part of PlayStation. There is a problem: there is no nail to hold on to other than that of hope. It makes… sense. From the company’s point of view, the move to 100% digital format is perfect. If you have ever wondered these days what drives them to anger so many players and turn part of their own community against it, it is because, although it may not seem like it, commercially it makes a lot of sense. Yes, the digital market is enormous and bigger than the physical one, but when statistics are published and it is said that only 20% (approximately) of the market is physical, it is because the digital part includes digital games, games that do not have a physical version, DLC and microtransactions. The ‘FIFA’ envelopes, for example, come into play in those statistics. That is the argument, but when you seek to eliminate the physical, you seek to control all the gains. You don’t have to make records, you don’t have to transport records, you don’t have to pay stores to sell those records. That margin that you didn’t earn before, with the digital game you start to control. You also get rid of second-hand and lending games, something that companies have been pursuing for years. Math. And, facing a new generation of consoles that everything indicates will be more expensive than the current one (for example, the price increases for both PS5 as of Xbox Series Xbut also machines like Steam Deck and the more than 1,000 euros from Steam Machine), there Sony may fear that there are users who do not want, or cannot, pay 1,000 euros for a new console. If there are fewer players who buy hardware, there will also be fewer who buy software, but what they are looking for is to maximize profits per user. As? Controlling prices. An example: on PS5 I buy all the games published by Sony in physical form and for 80 euros. Of those 80 euros, remove 30 that go to those expenses associated with the physical format and the stores themselves. Sony sees 50 euros. With PS6I would buy the same games digitally for 80 euros and Sony would not have any of the expenses associated with either the physical format or payments to stores. Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier addresses this very well in this video and I was making up the numbers in the previous example, but he points out that, for a $70 first party game, Sony sees about $45. For a $70 first party digital game, Sony sees $70. If we talk about a third party game (Electronic Arts, Ubisoft or whoever publishes for Sony) that is physical, of the 70 dollars, whoever makes the game takes about 35, the store that sells it about 20-25 and Sony takes about 10-15. If that third party game is digital, whoever makes the game gets about 49 and Sony gets about 21. It’s a win-win for both. Maximize profits. Hideaki Nishino himself, CEO of PlayStation, has made it clear that the company must prioritize performance per client compared to the gross sales volume. They want more average income per user, in short, a model less dependent on selling hardware and more focused on extracting more value from each user. This is where the games themselves come into play, but also microtransactions and subscriptions. Leave the forum. After days without publishing anything on networks like Bluesky, although they have continued to make announcements on their official blog, Sony remembered the password and announced what no one was expecting: an arcade stick for fighting games. It makes sense because they have a fighting game right around the corner, the ‘Marvel Tokon‘, but the players took that announcement even more harshly. As a follower of all the fuss, it is almost better that they announced a command in their first communication. The reason? Had they taught the game they would have taught, the amount of negative comments that game would have received would be to study it and, for example, if the first thing is a video of the game of ‘wolverine‘, all the rage these days at PlayStation’s inaction would have been poured out on the game and on a developer studio that does not deserve that treatment. ¿Kicked back? There is, as I said at the beginning, the hope of some users that so much negativity will affect the company’s decision and they will back down. Obviously, no one outside of Sony can know what will happen, but I am not so sure that the company will back down from this decision. The main reason is that something like this is not taken lightly and reports are already appearing indicating that it is something very studied and they knew perfectly well how part of the community was going to do it. What’s more, there are already reports that indicate that the company’s main Blu-Ray factory, located in Austria, is already beginning the training of some employees who will go on to dedicate themselves to another type of production. bitter hope. If there is one thing to hold on to, it is that, at the same time that PlayStation announced the death of physical games for its consoles, it also set a date for the closure of the PS3 and PS Vita digital stores (wow timinghuh?), and it wasn’t the first time. In March 2021 we already broke … Read more

the biggest bet in its history to national chip manufacturers

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

China has defined a series of steps to become the first world power. Technological sovereignty falls within this roadmap and, to achieve the objective, a greater investment in local technology is necessary. The current battlefield is that of AI chips, a segment that Nvidia dominates with an iron fist, but if there is a way to change the trend it is with technology and money, a lot of money. And China has found its three winning horses. In short. China is a giant market for Nvidia. With Western Big Tech in his pocket (although Anthropic and Meta are looking favorably at Samsung for inference chips for the age of agentic AI), Nvidia was missing the other big pie. China is a market valued in 50,000 million dollars for whoever manages to position itself as a leader in the AI chip segment, but the problem for Nvidia is that it is not easy at all. Due to bureaucratic problems on the part of the US and China itself, Nvidia is a bit in no man’s land. Meanwhile, national companies have been positioning themselves, presenting their alternatives and GPUs for training this technology. And with the order to bet on the national product, Chinese companies are clear about it. As we read in Business TimesChinese Big Tech currently invests 30% annually of its budget in national AI accelerators, but that spending will increase to 46% over the next twelve months. The horses. Some of these Big Techs are creating their own chips, or already have them. This is the case of Alibaba or Tencent, which would be a kind of Meta or Google: they offer a product to the user, to other companies and, in addition, they have their own data centers with their home-made chips. However, there are other companies that are more focused on creating the hardware to power the internal data centers of those other large companies. This is the case of Hygon Information Technology or Cambricon Technologies, but also of Huawei. All three offer AI platforms that are becoming increasingly important in a context in which Nvidia H20 chips designed specifically for China They are increasingly difficult to find due to that national order to prioritize homemade hardware. The advantage of these companies is that it is no longer about raw power, which is one of the advantages that Nvidia had (although Nvidia is much more, since it also has a complete software suite and so on), but about speed and low latency. For agentic AI, high bandwidth for fast data transfer is essential, and that seems to be a point that Chinese hardware companies are focusing on. The Ascend. The interesting thing is that this strategy is not a future plan and is already being put into practice. Zhipu AI, for example, is a company that has already trained its GLM-5 model on more than 740 billion parameters entirely with the Huawei Ascend 910C. In addition, the Chinese company is working on the development of the Ascend 950 and 960 chips that promise to achieve parity with Nvidia’s most modern architectures. And the supernodes. On the other hand, Huawei continues to push the Atlas 950 supernode. Presented a few months ago, it is a cluster of up to 9,192 Ascend 950DT NPUs per system with up to 1,152 TB of unified memory. It is, according to the company, a direct competitor to Nvidia’s NVL144 rack, achieving 6.7 times more computing power than that of the American company. It is designed for both training and inference and, although it raises doubts about the energy efficiency per computing unit compared to that of Nvidia, what is clear is that it is a product that Chinese Big Tech They will be able to ‘shoot’ for their future models. Huawei is taking the platform around the world and its next appointment is at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 in Shanghai. Whether Nvidia solutions are used or not, what is clear is that the intention is to prioritize national hardware. China is going to invest nearly $300 billion to build data centers over the next five years to boost AI across all sectors of society. For its part, at least 80% of the basic technologywhere the chips come in, will be supplied by national companies. As several have already pointed out (Jensen Huang among them), the US veto of China It was the worst move they could make. because they only achieved one thing: give wings to their accelerated technological development. In Xataka | Huawei is very close to a great technological milestone. And he is very clear about what has allowed him to do so: the US veto

“When I go from Zaragoza to Barcelona, I go by car”

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

This is how forceful this Wednesday was Salvador Galve, dean of the Official College of Industrial Engineers of Aragon and La Rioja and president of the Railway Commission of the Council of Colleges of Industrial Engineers of Spain. And during his appearance at the commission of inquiry into the state of the railway network, Galve admits who prefers the car to the train. Distrust. Galve is one of the country’s leading specialists in railway infrastructure. The fact that he is precisely the one who admits that he avoids the train to avoid the risk of being late for a work meeting portrays, better than any statistic, the mistrust generated today delays and incidents on the AVE. In detail. Galve himself has explained the reason for this custom: “When I go to Barcelona from Zaragoza and have a meeting, I go by car. When I go to Madrid I try to go by train because it usually arrives, but the majority of managers who go from Zaragoza go by car because they don’t know when they are going to arrive,” he declared before the Upper House. According to the expert, this way of acting has become normalized among professionals who need to keep schedules. “We are getting used to” the incidents, he acknowledged, although he also maintains that “it is a fact, we should not tear our clothes.” No security guarantees. Despite this confession, Galve has avoided raising alarm about the security of the system. Asked if the network can be considered reliable despite the failures, has insisted in which zero risk does not exist in any transportation system. “You minimize the risk but you cannot guarantee 100% security,” he continued. What’s behind. Galve’s testimony comes in the midst of an examination of the railway system after the Adamuz derailments (Cordoba) and Gelida (Barcelona). In his appearance, which lasted almost four hours, according to Telemadridthe engineer has pointed out as one of the underlying causes the separation between Adif, infrastructure manager, and Renfe, train operator, decided in Spain in 2005 due to European demand. In his opinion, that division was taken too far. “It makes no sense to separate so much, no country has done it,” he stated. That is why he has demanded the creation of a single technical body that coordinates both companies before the decisions reach the political level of the Ministry of Transport, a figure that he himself has described, according to Diario Córdobaas “a kind of conductor of the railway system, who would make Renfe and Adif sound good and who would not be subject to political ups and downs.” Investment, in the spotlight. Galve has also questioned how the money allocated to the railway is distributed. Asked if Spain invests well in its network, answered directly “no”, according to Diario Córdoba, pointing out that the political weight of each autonomous community determines which lines receive more budget. As an example, he cited the 3.5 billion euros allocated to the new High Speed line between Murcia and Almería, an investment that, in his opinion, could yield more if it were dedicated to reinforcing the existing network in the country. Regarding maintenance, he has warned that the lack of resources is reflected in the constant increase in temporary speed limitations (LTV), a mechanism that line managers activate as a preventive measure when they detect incidents that do not require a total closure. And now what. Galve has asked that the Senate commission request a “proper audit” on the real state of the network, similar to the one commissioned in 2014 after the Angrois accident, to determine with objective data whether the system needs a structural review. The request also coincides with that demanded by the Adamuz Derailment Victims Association, which this Wednesday has claimed to the Ministry of Transport and Adif the immediate paralysis of all railway traffic until the detection of track breaks in real time is guaranteed, as reported by Telemadrid. Galve, however, has qualified that this instant detection technology “does not exist right now” in any railway system. In Xataka | Switzerland installed the first railway solar plant in the world: a year later, it has been such a success that its neighbors are already asking about it

Making a robotic hand is “100 times more difficult” than building the entire robot. These Chinese companies are determined to solve it

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

China has achieved let your humanoid robots run, they fight and even that execute choreographies with astonishing precision. That was the easy part. The key for a humanoid to stop being a fairground attraction and become a useful product is not in its legs, balance or its “brain”, but in something much smaller and much more complicated than it seems: the hands. The challenge of the hands. The human hand has 27 bones, 34 muscles and countless nerve endings. Replicating this in metal and circuits is the biggest bottleneck facing modern robotics. sums it up well Guardian Zhou Yong, founder of LinkerBot, one of the most advanced Chinese startups in this field: manufacturing a robotic hand is “a hundred times more difficult” than manufacturing an entire humanoid. “The dexterity required by a hand is ten times greater than that of any other part of the body, but its volume is only one-tenth the volume,” Zhou says. That is, not only is it the most technically complex element, it is also the smallest. The Chinese advantage. Pan Yunzhe, founder of Wuji Technology, studied in the United States and considered setting up his robotic hands company there, but soon saw that it was unviable. He tells The Guardian that “It was practically impossible to manufacture hardware in the United States due to the enormous limitations of the supply chain.” And China has an unmatched supply chain: it is agile, it is sophisticated and, above all, it is cheaper. This gives them a key advantage in hardware and allows companies like Linkerbot to already manufacture 5,000 robotic hands per month, a figure impossible to match anywhere else in the world. The problem is the software. Making the hand is only half the job, you also have to make it move like a human hand and there is still a long way to go here. Nathan Lepora, professor of robotics and AI at the University of Bristol, sums it up: “the challenge of making these hands is already being solved,” but controlling them “is a completely different game… no one knows how to do it yet.” The scarcity of data is one of the big problems and it is that, while LLMs have been trained with the enormous amounts of data on the Internet, there is hardly any data on how a human hand moves and, above all, what it feels like when touching something. To try to overcome this obstacle, Wuji Technology is testing a glove packed with sensors that captures all the movements of the human hand in everyday tasks. Its founder admits that being able to capture “how a person moves and what they touch or feel” is an “extremely complex and unsolved” task. The robotics market. The Chinese robotic hands sector had a turnover of $7.4 billion last year, almost four times more than in 2024. LinkerBot, one of the leading startups, aspires to a valuation of $6 billion. The case of this startup is just one example of the robotics boom in China, where more than a million companies are already registered, 40% more than last year. This translates into brutal dominance: China already manufactures 90% of the world’s humanoid robots and it is the country with the most industrial robotsby much difference with the rest. Yes, but. Robotics is advancing by leaps and bounds, but there are voices calling for calm, and not just any voice, but that of the International Federation of Robotics. In your report published in September last year were clear: “True multipurpose humanoids are still far away.” We are going to continue seeing more and more amazing demonstrations, but from there until they are sold en masse and we can all have one at home that is truly capable, there is a way to go. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | We still don’t know if humanoid robots will be the next great technological revolution. Yes we know that China will lead it

“Microsoft built the concept of office work because they wanted to sell more software”

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

For many, the office work and spending eight hours a day in front of a screen is little less than a unnatural torture for the human being. In fact, this type of “knowledge work” is a relatively recent inventionwhich has been evolving as an adaptation of technology to the world of work. Aravind SrinivasCEO of Perplexity has gone a little further by ensuring that office work is an invention by Bill Gates to carry out his plan to bring a PC to every desk. Srinivas developed his hypothesis during his interview at the Joe Rogan Podcast and even left the presenter confused. “Microsoft built the concept of office work because they wanted to sell more software.” Gates’ dream Srinivas links the creation of office jobs directly to the Microsoft founder’s historical obsession with putting a computer in every house and on every desk. “That idea of putting a PC on every desk and making you glued to it was Bill Gates’ vision,” explained the Perplexity CEO. It’s no secret. Gates himself has repeated that same idea for decades: he wanted a computer in every house and on every desk. In fact, his vision of the future of computers was published in the specialized press of the time even before Microsoft sold its first BASIC. Rogan, in his direct style, summed up the merit of Gates’ plan with a powerful phrase: “Wow, genius. What an achievement, because they certainly nailed it.” The truth is that it is difficult to contradict him. Few business strategies have changed the daily routine of billions of people as much as the arrival of computers and office automation in the world of work. A masterstroke from Microsoft Srinivas’s thesis is that the 9 to 5 job in front of a screen was not a natural evolution of employment, but a Microsoft business plan so that people used computers all day. The more hours and more people worked in front of a screen, the more software licenses were sold. According to the manager, the office routine was designed to create a daily dependence on Word and Excel, starting in schools, so that companies would then pay for these licenses. The juiciest part of the interview is the contrast between the two founders. According to Srinivas, Microsoft’s goal was never design. “It was not about making computing beautiful, as Steve Jobs conceived it,” he said verbatim, marking the difference with Apple. Jobs was pursuing something else: machines almost obsessive in their aesthetic care, which he himself defined as ‘insanely great‘. Microsoft, on the other hand, sold hardware to put software on top of. The more time you spent in front of the screen, the more licenses you needed. Microsoft’s business was not about creating a beautiful product, it was about generating dependency of your tools to sell licenses. Microsoft invented Office, not the office Despite Srinivas’ shocking statements, Bill Gates did not invent the eight-hour day nor office work. Its history comes from long before, from workers’ struggles of the 19th century and laws like Fair Labor Standards 1938 in the United States. What is true is that, as Rogan pointed out, “this type of lifestyle is something very recent that we have come to accept as normal.” The scientific evidence testifies that, with the arrival of computers and technology, the productivity at work skyrocketed. That Microsoft won that game by contributing to the increase in that productivity It is undeniable. Word, Excel or PowerPoint have been training entire generations since school. When these students arrive at their first job, they already know how to use those tools and companies pay for the license without thinking twice. In Xataka | Companies have returned to the office to improve productivity: a McKinsey study is not so clear Image | Unsplash (Jan Baborak), Flickr (European Parliament), Xataka

what it is, how it works, how to verify yourself and what options and functions it offers

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Let’s explain to you What is it and what does W Social offer?the European microblogging social network. It is an alternative to X and Threads that uses the same protocol as Bluesky to have its functions and users, something that may be a little complicated to understand and that we are going to explain to you. We will tell you what it is and what it is not, but we will also explain its own particularities, such as the verified system. Only people who verify their identity can use it.sacrificing your privacy in exchange for an environment without bots, trolls, without abuse and with better behaviors. What is W Social W Social is a European social network. Specifically, it is a micromessage network, the same as Twitter/X, Threads or Bluesky. In fact, what is sought is to create a European alternative to American social networks, where all data is stored on European servers subject to stricter privacy laws. W Social is not a closed and independent social network, but uses Bluesky’s AT Protocol. This means that it is like a European body of Blueskythe technology is the same, and from each of them you can access, follow and talk to the users of the other. Come on, from W Social you can follow the account without problems xataka.bsky.social. Think of all this as two networks that speak the same language and they are interconnected with each other. It is the same as the instances of Mastodonbut with another technology. You will be able to access Bluesky accounts and read posts and all content, and users of this network will also be able to follow you. Bluesky has more than 45 million usersalthough there is no figure for how many of them are active. In any case, this will mean that W Social will join forces with this alternative network, all of those users are accessible from it. This means two things. On the one hand, W Social will not start from scratch or be a deserted social network. And the second is that It is not necessary for you to opt for Rella If there is something that doesn’t convince you, you can always use Bluesky or other European alternatives with the same protocol as Eurosky. W Social plans to allow you to migrate your Bluesky account to make it easier for your followers to follow you, but this is something that is not working yet. Finally, W Social wants to be a network based on verified humans, transparency, privacy and freedom of expression as its fundamental objectives. This translates to you need to verify your identity to be able to use it, something that we will explain to you later. In the end, W Social assures that its reason for existence is the certainty that we need a global and reliable social network, and that it is European managed, hosted and ownedwith all the benefits this entails for privacy due to the strictest European regulations in this regard. What W Social is NOT W Social It is not a social network created by the European Unionbut by a European company. Yes, a company like Meta or X, but based in the EU and with our rules. This also means that It is not a decentralized or open network like those that are part of the Mastodon ecosystem. It will be a network belonging to a company, which will be the one that makes the decisions. Come on, just like Instagram, Facebook, Threads or X. Main features Using W Social is the same as using Bluesky. First of all, you have the feeds, which are personalized algorithms that you can add and order as you like. W Social comes with several of its own Feeds pre-linked to your account, but by default on the main screen you only read messages from users you have followed, whether from Bluesky or W. As for W Socia’s own feeds, you have to read all network users independently of Bluesky, to read the media registered in W, to read organizations, to read featured users, and Discover feeds and trends that use content from W and Bluesky. But in addition to this, you have a search engine to use any Bluesky feed created by its own users. Come on, unique algorithms that can be thematic, by language, or whatever you want to create on your own. But the main feature of W Social is that Your users must have a verified identity. You have two different ways to do it, and without this procedure you will not be able to use the network. This measure has something positive as a clear way to end bots, trolls and online abuse and threatssince the user can be identified to expel him or his actions have criminal consequences just as in life outside the Internet. This will promote a less toxic environment without fake profiles, but you have to sacrifice your anonymity in exchange for these advantages. The other fundamental pillar of W Social will be moderation. Just as X is a free, wild space where abuse, misinformation and toxicity are common, W Social seeks to be a more controlled network with clear rulessuch as not being able to insult, avoid coordinated campaigns or the creation of permanent noise. Moderation is always a delicate topic, although the platform promises neutrality. We will have to wait to see how they carry out these tasks, how much is done by algorithm and how much is done by people. Moderation is important for creating a healthy digital environment, but it can also be dangerous For the rest, W Social has the rest of Bluesky’s features. You can send private messages to any user on any network using the Bluesky protocol, create user lists, save and pin topics, see trends and share all content. In essence, using W Social is identical to using Blueskywith the same functions and access to the same user base. What changes are the internal rules: strict … Read more

880 million and Formula 1 in the spotlight of the great Metro expansion

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

When Madrid announced that it will be a Formula 1 World Cup event until next year 2035 the focus was on good connection that you would have by public transportation. Just a few days ago, the Community of Madrid once again stressed this with a controversial video starring Carlos Sainz (Williams driver) in which he claimed that you can get to the circuit from “the city center” in nine minutes when in reality he left a station almost four kilometers from the emblematic Puerta del Sol. Now, the Community of Madrid once again mentions the Madringthe name of the Madrid circuit, in another promotional video. In this case to announce the definitive layout of Metro Line 11, which was not completely confirmed despite the fact that The expansion works in the southern area had already begun. Now, the project is final. The problem is that the “Gran Diagonal” has nothing to do with the original project. And that has raised many blisters in a northern area of Madrid where many have been left out of the project. 880 million euros for a historic expansion Since the project was presented, Madrid was clear that it wanted to completely change the appearance of Line 11. This line only has seven stops spread over about 8 kilometers. With the expansion, the line is expected to measure more than 30 kilometers and will have 20 stops. The Great Diagonal will have a final cost of about 1,100 million euros but it has not been until now when the region has unlocked an expenditure of 880 million euros dedicated mainly to the northern end of the expansion. And here comes the trouble. With the announcement it is confirmed that the line will use two already operational stations such as Mar de Cristal and Terminal 4 of the airport as supports. The rest of the stations are new: IFEMA-Cárcavas, Ciudad de la Justicia, Hospital Isabel Zendal and Valdebebas Norte. In the promotional video, the Community of Madrid highlights that the new Line 11 will connect with the Formula 1 circuit, the Isabel Zendal Nursing Hospital and the future City of Justice. All of them are projects created or defined recently and that have raised controversy over their convenience or not. The health center was built as a “pandemic hospital”in the words of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, president of the Community of Madrid. Since the crisis eased, its activity has been very low and it has been studied for a long time how take advantage of it for other medical areas. It was said about Formula 1 that it wouldn’t cost a euro of public money. And the city of Justice is a frozen megaproject that In 2015 it had already cost Madrid residents 105 million euros but what has not yet seen the light. Line 11 aims to be a new handle to bring people to these spaces and events, in addition to the surrounding homes that until now have to deal with the inconveniences of a PAU: gigantic streets that discourage the walk and the use of public transport. But the criticism is especially harsh for those who saw it possible for a new Metro line to reach their homes. Neighbors to the north of Madrid but who are a few kilometers from where the new section of Line 11 will run. And it is that the original design It involved turning off at Arturo Soria (before reaching Mar de Cristal) and heading northwest. Crossing the city to the left and passing under Paseo de la Castellana, one of the main arteries of the city, the new link was projected to the Barrio del Pilar, with its final destination on Avenida de la Illustration. However, In 2020, the detour to the east was already proposedwith destination Valdebebas as it finally happened. Since then, the neighborhood associations They have asked that, at least, the line not stay in Valdebebas and return westwards past the last station currently contemplated to link with the Barrio del Pilar. These associations defend that the initial project would improve the connection of more than 120,000 residents compared to the 30,000 who currently live in the Valdebebas neighborhood. And although the northern zone has focused attention because the modification of the project was substantial, the residents of the southern zone demand new stations that improve their connection with the Metro. And in the southern section, between the current La Fortuna station and Cuatro Vientos, where the line will end connecting with Line 10, new stations will not be excavated either, everything will be a continuous link of more than two kilometers. Photo | Madrid Metro In Xataka | 1,500 tons in weight, 100 meters long and one objective: excavate Metro Line 11 in Carabanchel

science confirms the exact dosage of strength training

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades, when we thought about exercise for health, the image that came to mind was that of someone running or pedaling. Cardio exercise was the undisputed king of medical recommendations, but now a growing number of sports and medical professionals are raising their voices to give prominence to strength training as something practically mandatory if you want to reach an advanced age with a good quality of life. There is still evidence. It is not a gym exaggeration, but in recent years, scientific literature has taken a spectacular turn, demonstrating that lifting weights, using resistance bands or training with our own body weight is not just an aesthetic issue, but the true protective shield against aging and mortality. The tests. Until recently, we knew that being strong was good for preventing falls in old age, but current data goes much further. Muscle is a living endocrine organ that regulates our metabolism, and exercising it has a direct impact on the main causes of death worldwide. Without going any further, a review published in 2022 associated muscle-strengthening activities with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, but also with specific drops in the incidence of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and various types of cancer. That same year, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine put precise numbers on the table by pointing out that any amount of strength training is associated with a 15% reduction in all-cause mortality, a 19% lower cardiovascular risk, and a 14% lower cancer risk. The most recent. If we go to this same year, a Harvard megastudy has finished closing the debate after following 147,000 adults for 30 years. Their findings are an instruction manual for longevity, discovering that performing between 90 and 119 minutes of strength training per week was associated with a 13% lower risk of all-cause mortality and a dramatic 27% reduction in mortality from neurological diseases. The quantity. One of the big myths of strength training is believing that to get medical benefits, you have to train like a bodybuilder or lift extreme loads every day. Science shows that the dose-response relationship is not linear, but rather that most of the benefits are concentrated in surprisingly moderate training volumes. Specifically, the optimal range is found in this study between 30 and 120 minutes a week. That is why going from zero to 45 minutes a week represents a brutal improvement in life expectancy. However, doing 5 hours of weight training per week does not multiply those benefits by five; In fact, the data suggests that a plateau occurs where the additional benefit is minor, and even exaggeratedly high volumes may not be optimal for overall longevity. The combination. If strength training is incredible on its own, when combined with aerobic exercise, the results skyrocket. Already in 2019, the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology reported that combining both types of training produced an additive effect, reducing general mortality by up to 40%. But the recent Harvard megastudy has raised that figure and points out that people who combine an aerobic routine with their optimal minutes of strength manage to reduce their risk of mortality between 45% and 58%. Images | Anastase Maragos In Xataka | Experts agree: “People who lift weights 2 hours a week and walk daily live longer”

after the “infernal” heat comes the fire

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

On the night of July 7 to 8, a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter died when a rock fell while trying to put out a forest fire in the commune of Planay, in the Tour du Merle massif. “Everything must burn”, said Ignacio Villaverdeinactive forest firefighter. And he is right, however, until very recently that point in the French Alps did not appear on fire danger maps. It is true that France is not yet experiencing its worst year of fires, but the flames have already devastated almost three times as much as in 2025 at this time of the year and we are at the beginning of July. With another heat wave knocking on the doors. What is happening? To put things in context, the modern record for fires in France occurred in 2022. It was about 66,000 hectares. Now the counter is at about 14,500 hectares. However, it wouldn’t be fair to compare a full season with a nascent one. Above all, because this year France (and thanks to the three heat waves that are almost in a chain) has started to burn much earlier than normal. As explained the Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, That they are not in record global numbers does not mean that there are precedents for what they are experiencing. France is learning what heat is. We already know that on July 7, the 41.5 °C in Dordogne and Aude; that on the 8th, 67 departments were on orange alert and that Météo-France placed 47 at high fire risk. The French also know this (and better than anyone). What they don’t know and are starting to learn is that “a few days of heat wave” is not the same as a hot summer. In the second case, things change and what was not dangerous before becomes a bomb box. What was foliage last year is fuel today. And in fact, it affects us all.. Because, although it is easy to draw a parallel between what is happening here and what is happening in France, the truth is that the fires are already affecting us: the closure of the A9 hitchhiker, the evacuated campsites in Catalonia and Castellón and until the Tour de France (which banned the public in its third stage) They are clear signs of a problem that is affecting us in real time. The future that knocks at the door. Unexpectedly, France has become the great laboratory of how climate change can make life impossible for Europe with hardly any effort and in a very short time. It’s not just the blinds, chalk or yogurt: France is exposed to a good number of problems for which it is not prepared. The heat, they say, will last until the middle of the month, with a possible peak around the 14th of this month. So everything points to a long season. And the problems in France have only just begun. Image | Guillaume Jauseau In Xataka | “There they also reach 40 degrees and the trains are not cancelled”: Germany and France need to imitate Spain to survive the heat

“Check the insurance coverage carefully. You don’t always need the most expensive one”

July 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Summer is coming, the heat, trips to the beach and doubts in front of the rental car counter. Restrictions, company policies that you had not considered and insurance clauses that you did not imagine and that, of course, you can fix with a few more euros. But the latter is not always the best option. At least, that is what experts consider who are clear about what you should do: read the fine print and sign only if you are convinced. Rastreator, OCU and AXA agree on the latter. The first thing. “The first thing is to check what coverage the insurance offered by the rental company really includes, since, although all cars have mandatory insurance, it does not always protect against all unforeseen events,” he points out. Patricia Carrilspecialist Tracker. The insurance and rental car comparison company is clear that “it is not always necessary to hire the most expensive option to travel with peace of mind. A balanced insurance should cover damage to the vehicle, theft and civil liability, in addition to having an acceptable deductible. The franchise. The excess is the money that we will have to put out of our pocket if the car suffers an unforeseen event. Imagine that you rent a car and that the insurance has a deductible of 150 euros. This means that if the repair costs 80 euros, we will pay the 80 euros. But if the fix costs 1,000 euros, we will only have to face 150 euros. According to the OCU“companies offer Premium insurance by default, making it difficult for customers to find cheaper options” but, even so, there are many occasions in which they “require users to disproportionate bail (and they do not inform about the deadlines and conditions for returning that money)”. The restrictions. Another thing that is solved by reading carefully what we are hiring is being aware of the restrictions to which we submit as drivers. Francisco Olmedodirector of P&C Private Offering AXA Spain is clear that the most frequent are: The age and years of service of the driver: we must know if there are restrictions based on age or years of driving license since we run the risk that the insurance will not cover the damages. Road coverage: it is important to know well what the insurance covers if we have a problem on the road and if there is any type of mileage limitation. Know the criteria for the deductibles: Olmedo assures that “in the event of a blow to the front and another graze on the side, two accidents with two deductibles can be considered” so the driver would have to pay twice Do I add anything? For Rastreator, the most interesting thing is to add window and tire coverage because they are the most common, especially if you are going to drive for a long time, park on the street or travel on secondary roads. “The objective is to find the balance between protection and price; a policy that is too basic can be expensive if an unforeseen event arises,” they explain. In addition, we must be very clear about all the details that may affect our trip. If we are going to cross the border we must point it out because in some contracts you have to pay extra money. We can also add accessories such as children’s seats. An essential. What they are clear about at Rastreator is that theft coverage cannot be missing. “If the car disappears during the rental, the driver may have to bear a very high cost,” they explain. From OCU they point to another essential: knowing what we sign. They remember that in no case should a contract be signed without being clear about what is being signed and that the documents must be clear about details such as when a deposit is returned, how long the money can be withheld and in what amount to pay a deposit or the mandatory requirements to be met when returning the car such as maximum mileage or the level of the gasoline tank. Photo | Sixt In Xataka | $500 for a barely visible mark when handing over a rental car: companies are making a killing with AI scanners

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