Month: November 2025

Telefónica is preparing a tough ERE, but for many veterans it will be like a prize

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Telefónica has informed the unions of an ERE that would affect 6,088 employees, 24% of its workforce in Spain. The initial proposal includes seven companies and will presumably replicate the pattern of the last adjustment: in the 2024 ERE there were more applications to take advantage of the available spaces. More than 200 people were left outside. Or rather: inside. In detail. The most affected divisions: Telefónica de España: 3,649 departures, 41% of the workforce. Mobile phones: 1,124 (31.3%) Solutions: 267 (23.9%). Movistar+: 279 employees, almost a third. The parent company (SA), Global Solutions and Digital Innovation: between 140 and 378 exits (from 22% to 32%). The backdrop. The adjustment is framed in the Marc Murtra’s strategic plan to save 3,000 million euros until 2030. The objective: to reduce overhead costs that grow faster than income in a fragmented Europe with almost 40 competing operators. The Ministry of Labor described as “indecent” that a company with the State as a shareholder (10% via SEPI) executes an ERE while in profits. But the Government itself endorsed this strategic plan, on the condition that there was a union agreement. Minister Óscar López made it clear: “It always has to be with the agreement of the unions.” Between the lines. Incentives explain the avalanches of applications: In the ERE of 2024, compensation was around 67% of the salary until age 63, with paid contributions, health insurance and a supplement of 38% until age 65. The average cost per departure was 380,000 euros. Less generous than in previous EREs (in 2021 it was 463,500 euros), but enough to pack your bags. The annual savings for the company, 285 million euros. For someone who turns 56-57 and has been in the house for decades, it is a difficult deal to refuse. Those affected earn until they retire without having to work. This ERE targets those born in 1969, 1970 and 1971, with departures staggered between 2026 and 2028. Yes, but. As in The Leftoversa good part of the story is that of those who remain. The veterans come out with the mattress on. Those who remain – especially the younger ones – will presumably inherit more burden, more uncertainty and a less clear professional future. The question that no one has answered yet: which Telefónica will be left after losing weight at the top? The unions already know this. UGT, CCOO and Fetico-Sumados They demand that departures be voluntary (as in 2024), but they also want to extend the agreement until 2030, tie in improvements in teleworking, working hours and salaries, and guarantee stability for the next five years. Without improvements for those who follow, there will be no agreement. The great unknown. Not all branches have the age pyramids to fill positions only with volunteers. The three main ones of the Related Companies Agreement (Spain, Mobile, Solutions) repeat the profile: aging staff, high seniority, juicy incentives. The unions predict that the excess of requests will be repeated. But at Telefónica SA (the corporate center), Global Solutions or Digital Innovation, the staff is younger. There the risk of forced dismissals is greater. CCOO has already warned that in these subsidiaries “the population pyramids are different.” In perspective. The “bargain” for those over 55 coexists with the concern of those who cannot benefit. A Telefónica that reduces costs, yes, but also a generational gap that widens with each ERE. And an unresolved question: how to prevent the next political or shareholder change from activating the guillotine again? The unions want shields until 2030. The company, room for maneuver. In Xataka | The great dilemma of Spanish telecos: either they become giants or China swallows them Featured image | Telephone

An investment of 2,350 million will make Extremadura a global supplier of diamonds for chips

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Trujillo will be a world center for the production of synthetic diamonds. A factory will be created there with a budget of 2.77 billion dollars (almost 2.4 billion euros) in which the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation will participate (SETT), with 753 million, and the American company Diamond Foundry (DF). And those diamonds will not be used for jewelry, but for especially powerful chips. The silicon problem. Current silicon chips have hit a “thermal wall.” By making them faster and more powerful, they get so hot that they lose efficiency or burn out. This slows down the progress of these chips and their application in fields such as artificial intelligence or automotive. Alternatives have been sought for a long timeand the diamond is precisely one of the most striking. The evolution of Trujillo. The Diamond Foundry factory will not make jewelry, but the synthetic diamond wafers it first produced two years ago. The diamond has a thermal conductivity much higher than that of silicon, with values ​​ranging between 1,000 to 2,200 W/mK compared to 153 W/mK for silicon. Or what is the same: it allows us to guarantee that, as they highlighted on IEE Spectrumthe chips of the future will remain “fresh.” The impact. By using diamond as the base or substrate for these chips, it is possible to run them at extreme speeds without overheating. This will position Spain as the world center of this critical technology. The North American company It already had two plants in Trujillo in which monocrystalline diamond (SCD) ingots were produced. The factories are also powered by solar energy, which is abundant in the Extremadura region. Zaragoza as a great ally. Those responsible for Diamond Foundry they explain in the official statement that the new factory is already underway with two construction shifts to accelerate the works. The ingots (the “raw” form of the material) will then go through a singling or cutting process that “slices” them into very thin sheets. These sheets, which are initially rough, are polished at a microscopic level and packaged in a sterile environment. Precisely this “post-processing” phase of production will be carried out in Zaragoza. The investment. The total budget they talk about in DF is 2,770 million dollars, about 2,392 million euros at the exchange rate. Of that amount, the SETT—which groups together previous investments such as PERTE Chip—, will contribute 753 million euros according to DF. It is expected that in the first ten years of the project the contribution to the Spanish GDP will be around 2,150 million euros, and it is expected to generate around 500 direct jobs and more than 1,600 indirect jobs. How to produce synthetic diamonds. While natural diamonds they take time to produce between 1,000 and 3,300 million years old, in Trujillo they are manufactured in approximately one month. To achieve this, DF uses 20 plasma reactors that exceed 1,000 degrees in temperature and generate conditions similar to those found in nature. The process starts with a 20.0 x 20.0 x 0.2 mm diamond “seed” that, when subjected to a combination of gases and a microwave process, grows until it reaches the optimal dimensions for use. Di Caprio, among investors. A curiosity: the San Francisco-based company was founded in 2012 by Martin Roscheisen and Jeremy Scholz, but what is surprising is its list of investors. Among them are iPod co-creator Tony Fadeel, Twitter founder Evan Williams and actor Leonardo di Caprio. The water problem. Diamond Foundry’s plants in Trujillo have faced significant problems related to their water supply. It is estimated that the plants need at least 730,000 cubic meters of water per year, which exceeds the annual drinking water consumption of the entire population of Trujillo. Various platforms such as Save El Berrocal and Ecologistas en Acción have warned of that danger, although Diamond Foundry has defended that its plan is based on the reuse of water from the Trujillo Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The Extremadura Government gave the green light to some modifications to the original DF project and considered that the factories would not produce significant adverse effects on the environment. In Xataka | China defies geology: it manufactures in a week what the Earth takes a billion years to do

his commitment to photography

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A few days ago we celebrated Xataka Awards 2025. As always, we reward the best devices of the year and, as almost always, talking about super high-end mobile phones is talking about the current Samsung Galaxy – the S25 Ultra this year – and the corresponding iPhone – the iPhone 17 Pro Max-. In this edition we did not see any surprises in this aspect, but we did see a third place that was won by a brand that had never been among the winners: I live with his Vivo X200 Pro. And much of the credit goes to a camera that my partner Ricardo described as “FUN, with capital letters.” ZEISS is the visible face, behind it there is much more Having placed himself as one of the best phones of the year It is not something that can be achieved overnight, especially in a range as competitive as that of mobile phones over 1,000 euros. Many factors come into play in a segment in which the competition is brutal, but much of the weight of that third place is carried by the camera. The beginning of the Spanish journey in the high range: the X51 5G | Photo: Xataka This is something they have been working on for five years. It was in 2020 when Vivo landed in Spain with the X51 5Ga model that did not stand out for its processor and other technical characteristics, but for itsa very ambitious camera. Angle, wide angle and two telephoto lenses: a 2x portrait lens and a longer one with 5x optical lenses. They have already started flirting with digital 60x. A year later they raised the bar with the Vivo X60 Pro. Better screen, better processor, more RAM and three cameras instead of two, but with something that has accompanied them until today: the collaboration with Zeiss. The alliance with this historic brand of objectives translated into photographic modes, but also into agreements to improve main camera lens (with an anti-reflective treatment, for example). With the X60 Pro the Zeiss label was introduced | Photo: Xataka With the X70 They returned to the four cameras (two of them telephoto lenses) and the big news was the personalized image chip, the Vivo Imaging Chip V1. Of the style of MariSilicon X by OPPOhelped with image processing and, although the marks they have ended up abandoning them because MediaTek and Qualcomm ISPs are enough, it is a sign of the ambition of the Chinese brand. We saw the change of nut with the Vivo X80 Pro. Here they answered the question of “How much technology do we put in this mobile” with a “yes”with a special emphasis on the photographic section. The play was repeated in the X90in it X100 and in this third place of the Xataka Awards, the Vivo X200 Pro. The X80 Pro with its four lenses is still a beast, despite the years | Photo: Xataka Something that all these models have in common is that the Chinese company has focused on photographic capabilities, but without destroying the advances of previous generations. Hardware and, above all, software, have evolved generation after generation. When other companies turn around every generation or two, Vivo has gone a little on his way being, in addition, one of those with the best shooting speed in the Android universe. They have also gone their own way when it comes to processing, a little exaggerated for our taste in certain scenarios, but remaining constant in something that, for many years, was the measuring stick of mobile photography: the portrait. Vivo X200 | Photo: Xataka In the analysis of the X200 Pro we commented that “it is a camera that you can trust to, In practically all situations, you have a good result”, and it is something that could be said of all the high-end Vivos since the brand’s arrival in Spain. Innovation and fun Curiously, the one that has won the award is not the last Vivo. Just after voting closed, two mobile phones with very similar characteristics appeared on the market: the OPPO Find X9 Pro and the Vivo X300 Pro. The two have a similar approach on camera and both will surely give a lot to talk about for next year. The Vivo X200 Ultra was a sign of the company’s emphasis on mobile photography innovation | Photo: Xataka The reason? Their telephoto kits. The one on the Vivo is better resolved because it allows you to use the main sensor – something that the OPPO does not – but the idea is the same: a camera that allows you to attach a telephoto lens that takes advantage of the smartphone’s tele sensor. To achieve a very long focal length, extremely wide camera modules would have to be created, but with this approach, we have a versatile camera always on us and an attachment that we can use whenever we want. “It is a camera that you can trust so that, in practically all situations, you will have a good result” It is an addition, a way to give the user more tools and that They already tried it with the Vivo X200 Ultrabecause the X300 builds on the same as the X200 and lor that Vivo has been building for five years: processed with personality, versatility, filters that really add up and a special focus on portraiture. And, above all, with a word that different editors have used to describe the camera in each of the analyzes of a mobile phone of this brand: Fun. It is what is truly special and differentiating. Because the technical characteristics are extremely similar in phones in the same price range, but it is in the cameras where they allow themselves to provide something that differentiates them from the others. Photos | Xataka In Xataka | We asked eight photographers what their secret is to taking better photos with their mobile. This has been answered

a polar Spain in the middle of a world above average

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The climatological autumn has its days numbered and is going to say goodbye in style. After a little rain and mild temperatures, the cold returns to our latitudes. And he is going to do it with force. However, that is not the worrying thing. The worrying thing is what comes next: that in the rain department, we are going to lose a good part of December. “Three days of pure cold.” That’s the summary of the rest of the week. And so says Roberto Granda, one of our greatest temperature experts. As explainedthe cold has already been noticeable in Tuesday’s lows. We have seen “drops of up to 4 and 6 degrees across the board.” Wednesday will be the coldest day of this episode with widespread frost and much of the interior of the country below 10 degrees. However, the coldest night will be Thursday and the minimum temperatures will be below five degrees in most of the peninsular territory. And after? Then we will have a reminder that we are still in autumn. One of those seasons in which the atmosphere casts lots for what is going to happen just before it happens. In this case, despite there being many scenarios on the table, the most likely is that at the end of the week a ridge will settle over Spain to collapse almost immediately, allowing a trough from the north to approach our positions. That would mean more rain: not a lot, but it’s something. Above all, because they may be the last for a long time. The European model has changed its forecast and everything seems to indicate that A NAO+ will be imposed during the first week of December. NAO positive? In general terms, the North Atlantic Oscillation It is the ‘dance’ between the Azores anticyclone and the Icelandic low, the two major atmospheric phenomena that govern the meteorology of the North Atlantic. When the index we use for “measure who is winning” is negative, the Azores anticyclone is weaker than normal and, for this reason, it cannot block the deep Atlantic storms. The direct consequence is that they circulate further south than usual: right at our latitude. yes how everything seems to indicate the NAO becomes positivenot a drop of moisture will enter from the west. The storms will move towards high latitudes (near Iceland and the Nordic countries) and, although stability will not be absolute, the situation will be very dry. Good news for tourism, I guess. Because as explains Samuel Biener“a predominant flow from the west or southwest, the temperatures could be between 1 and 3 ºC above the average in the center, northern third and on the shores of the Mediterranean” during the December long weekend. We do not have any quantification of what will happen in the south and in the Canary Islands, but we can get an idea. Image | TropicalTridBits In Xataka | The last hope of winter in Spain is desperate, but increasingly possible: the breaking of the polar vortex

He has just been fined 10 million euros

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The Spanish Data Protection Agency has imposed on Aena the largest technological sanction in Spain. This is not a security or data leak problem, but rather having deployed a “high-risk” technology for fundamental rights without demonstrating that it was really necessary. The supervisor has also ordered the immediate suspension of all facial recognition at airports until the deficiencies are corrected. What has happened. The fine of 10,043,002 euros specifically punishes the lack of a valid Impact Assessment before processing biometric data of more than 62,000 passengers. The resolution, dated November 6 but known now, details that Aena continued with the system despite having received two previous unfavorable reports from the Agency itself during the consultation phase. The core of the infringement. The problem is not using biometrics, but how the system architecture was designed: Aena opted for a “one-to-many identification” model with centralized storage. This means that the passenger’s face was not only checked against their documentation at the time of screening, but was stored in a central database for up to two years. The regulator considers that there were much less intrusive alternatives to achieve the same objective of speeding up boarding. For example, local biometric authentication or simply the traditional visual verification system that has worked for decades. Between the lines. The AEPD challenges the premise that the “user experience” justifies any technological deployment. In its resolution, the body headed by Lorenzo Cotino describes Aena’s lack of diligence as “serious” and emphasizes that the company was fully aware that its program involved special category and high-risk treatment. The system worked at eight airports: Madrid-Barajas. Barcelona-El Prat. Alicante. Gran Canaria. Tenerife-North. Palma de Mallorca. Minorca. Ibiza. Going through biometric controls was voluntary and coexisted with traditional documentary controls, which will continue to operate as before. Aena’s response. The airport manager has announced that it will appeal the sanction before the courtsexpressing his “respectful disagreement.” It maintains that the passengers gave their consent voluntarily and that the security of the data was never compromised. “There has been no security breach and, therefore, there has been no data leak,” the company stressed. Aena describes the sanction as “disproportionate” and argues that it is based on an “alleged violation of a formal obligation.” However, in the field of data protection, consent does not validate processing if it is disproportionate or unnecessary from its design. Yes, but. The suspension dictated by the AEPD will not affect flight operations. It will remain in place until Aena carries out a risk assessment that truly considers the dangers to the rights and freedoms of travelers. The company has assured that it will work to restart the program “as soon as possible.” In Xataka | “We have not done it well”: the DGT assumes that something has failed in the arrival of the V-16 beacons Featured image | Aena

China is sending drones to an island 100 km from Taiwan. The problem is that Japan and the US are filling it with missiles

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The small Japanese island by Yonagunilocated just over 100 kilometers away from Taiwan, has gone in a matter of months from being a remote enclave with a modest self-defense detachment to becoming one of the most sensitive points of the strategic balance in Asia. The United States, China and Japan itself are carrying their disputes to the small enclave. An island as a front. The intensification of chinese drone flights over the island and the strait, intercepted on two consecutive occasions by Japanese fighters, has reinforced the perception in Tokyo that the first island chain is entering a phase of chronic instability. Japan, aware of the real possibility of a conflict around Taiwan, has decided to turn Yonaguni into a defensive node fully integrated: a place where operates a FARP American that extends the range of Marine Corps helicopters, where capabilities are consolidated electronic surveillance and where the installation of air defense missiles is progressing like the Type 03 Chu-SAM. Weapons and more weapons. This system, capable of tracking one hundred simultaneous targets and shooting down twelve of them with Mach 2.5 missilesimplies that Japan is beginning to give teeth to a position whose mere proximity to the democratic island makes it an advanced platform to detect, deter or even respond to a possible Chinese attack. For Tokyo, reinforcing Yonaguni is not a provocation but a life policy national: any attack on Taiwan, as as stated the new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, would constitute an existential threat to the archipelago. Yonaguni Beijing’s reaction. China, which interprets any Japanese defensive measure as one more step in a strategic siege promoted by the United States, has reacted with increasing hardness. From historical comparisons to veiled threats, including the summoning of the Japanese ambassador and the suspension of economic exchanges, Beijing frames the installation of missiles in Yonaguni as an “offensive act” that violates the spirit of the bilateral normalization of 1972. The rhetoric has gone in crescendo after Takaichi’s words about the possibility of Japan intervening militarily in the event of an attack on Taiwan, something that China considers a space invasion diplomat reserved for Washington. The climate has deteriorated to such a level that a Chinese diplomat even published (and removed) a direct threat against the prime minister, while the central government canceled meetings, stopped imports and called for boycott trips to Japansinking the influx of Chinese tourists who represented almost a third of foreign visitors. In parallel, China has intensified its military demonstrations, spreading videos YKJ-1000 hypersonic missile destroying Japanese targets, a message designed to emphasize that any expansion of the Japanese military footprint will be met with a response. The strategic dilemma. Far from backing down, Japan has adopted a tone unusually firm. Under the leadership of Takaichi, the political heir to Shinzo Abe’s strategic nationalism, Tokyo has made Yonaguni the tangible manifestation of a doctrinal turn: accept that Japanese stability requires preventing China from dominating the Taiwan Strait. from there the proliferation of radar installations, electronic warfare capabilities and additional plans that contemplate systems such as US Patriots, US Army Typhon, HIMARS and the NMESIS equipped with NSM missiles, capable of denying access to Chinese ships around the Taiwanese eastern coast. USA discreetly supports this redesign: approved sales of NASAMS and spare parts to the Taiwan Air Force, deployed CH-53E helicopters in Yonaguni (an unprecedented milestone) and coordinates with Japan a doctrine that assumes that, in the event of an outbreak of hostilities, the Marines must operate from the lethality zone itself of Chinese missiles. All of this positions Yonaguni not only as an advanced observatory, but as a critical point whose defense and survival would determine the first stages of any crisis in the strait. Yonaguni Taiwan’s hardening. While Japan reinforces the front line, Taiwan assumes that time to prepare is running out. President Lai Ching-te has announced a massive increase in military spending, raising it by $40 billion until 2033, with a roadmap that will place it at 3.3% of GDP in 2026 and with the declared ambition of reaching 5% before 2030. What Taipei is proposing is not a simple rearmament, but a comprehensive redesign: new missiles and drones, integrating AI into existing systems, protecting against infiltration operations, dramatically improving procurement (often delayed in the United States), and measures against transnational Chinese repression targeting Taiwanese abroad. For Lai, the most dangerous threat is not a Chinese landing but internal erosion: that Taiwan “gives up” due to psychological or economic pressure. It flatly rejects the “one country, two systems” model and affirms that the only way to maintain peace is to make an invasion too costly for Beijing. The United States, through its de facto representation, has described the decision as a crucial step to strengthen deterrence. A strategic powder keg. The juxtaposition of Japanese military movements, Chinese threats and unprecedented rearmament of Taiwan produces a “traffic” that raises the risk of calculation errors. The experts warn that a poorly calibrated comment, a overflight unreported or a maritime incident could accelerate a spiral that is difficult to contain, especially when Beijing tries to use its contacts with Washington to simultaneously pressure Tokyo and Taipei. In this context, Yonaguni becomes symbol and detonator: too close to Taiwan to be irrelevant, too exposed to be invulnerable, and too strategic for either side to relinquish control or influence. Plus: the island is both within immediate range of Chinese missiles and within the American concept of advanced distributed operationsmeaning it could be both a multiplier of Allied defense and a priority objective in the first minute of a war. A fragile balance. In short, China hardens his stanceJapan resignation definitely to ambiguity, Taiwan accelerate the shielding of its sovereignty and the United States consolidates its role as operational guarantor. In the midst of all this, Yonaguni emerges as a microcosm where the resistance of that regional order is tested. An enclave of barely 1,700 inhabitants that, due to its geographical positionhas become a thermometer, border and barrier. Its immediate … Read more

Europe has been closing refineries for 10 years. Now even a fire in Nigeria raises the price of diesel

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Diesel prices in Europe have once again set off alarm bells. In a matter of days, the market has experienced a sharp rebound that cannot be interpreted as a one-off shock, but rather as the symptom of a fragile energy system that, in the face of a global chain of incidents, has left the continent without defenses. A chain of critical interruptions. The immediate origin is in a succession of stoppages in refineries and international tensions. According to the Financial TimesEuropean operators reacted with concern after several facilities in Kuwait, the United States and Nigeria were forced to stop or reduce production due to fires or technical problems. These interruptions coincided with already very low inventories and with demand that remains stronger than expected. Adding to this instability was the announcement that United States sanctions against the two largest Russian producers, Lukoil and Rosneft, will come into effect immediately. As the British media explains, these measures will block any operation related to the international assets of both companies, including refineries that still indirectly supply the European market. Only the Bulgarian Lukoil refinery has received a temporary exemption until 2026. The scenario is even more complicated with the fall of Russian crude oil. According to Bloombergits price has fallen to the lowest level in more than two years, just when large Asian buyers have paused purchases due to the entry into force of sanctions. In addition, the EU has also sanctioned Russian refined products that arrive re-exported from India or Türkiye, a flow that had served as an indirect way to compensate for the lack of European diesel. An extremely vulnerable market. Europe has lost refining capacity over the last decade. According to data cited by the Financial Timesthe continent has closed about 400,000 barrels per day since 2024. This reduction means that it is increasingly dependent on imported fuels and a global market that has become more volatile and unpredictable. The European industrial crisis amplifies this problem. Based on data from the petrochemical industry, high energy costs and Asian competition have caused massive closures of plants in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. This industrial deterioration also affects the infrastructure linked to fuel processing. For analyst Benedict Georgethe result is clear: “European prices are much more sensitive to any disruption because Europe has closed many refineries in recent years.” A tense world. Although the price of diesel has skyrocketed, the global crude oil market presents a paradox. The International Energy Agency foresees a record surplus in 2026powered by the increase in OPEC+ production and for the rebirth of the American offshore. However, this future abundance is not alleviating current tension. As Bloomberg points outthe market remains trapped between sanctions, fears of specific shortages and sudden changes in global flows. Added to this is a particularly delicate geopolitical context for Europe. The peace plan proposed by the United States for Ukraine has generated a “diplomatic storm” in Brussels and kyiv for their apparent alignment with pro-Moscow positions. This diplomatic uncertainty – which affects sanctions, energy and continental security – adds pressure to an EU that already depends on abroad to guarantee its diesel supply after two years of war. A direct hit. Europe faces a structural problem: it has little of its own refining capacity, low inventories and a growing dependence on imports. Every global incident reaches the European consumer almost unmuffled. And this directly affects Spain for three reasons: Spanish transport depends mainly on diesel. Trucks, logistics vans, buses and much of rural transport continue to use diesel. The escalation is transferred to the prices of goods. Food, imported products, construction materials… Everything that moves by road becomes more expensive when diesel does. Price spikes are amplified. Being a net importer, Spain especially suffers from international volatility. The rapidity with which diesel has risen shows that Europe “has no margin”: each shock becomes a direct blow for consumers and companies. For a standard 55 liter tank, filling a diesel car is already around 79 euros, while with 95 gasoline the cost is close to 82 euros, according to current average prices. Is there relief in sight? In the short term, analysts cited by Financial Times They believe the rebound could moderate during the winter months, when refineries avoid scheduled shutdowns to maximize production. But they warn that the market will remain “vulnerable to any disruption.” In the medium term, the perspective is contradictory. On the one hand, the International Energy Agency anticipates a global surplus in 2026 and an increase in production in both the United States and OPEC+. On the other hand, Chinawhich has purchased more than 150 million barrels for reserves— could stop its acquisitions at any time, releasing an excess capable of sinking global prices or further tightening the chains if it decides to continue accumulating. The warning of a weak system. Europe faces uncomfortable evidence: it has built a fragile energy system at a time of maximum global tension. The combination of refinery shutdowns, sanctions on Russia, diplomatic tensions and loss of industrial capacity has left the continent exposed. As the London media summarizes, “inventories are extremely low and demand is better than expected.” An explosive mixture. While the world navigates between a future surplus and constant geopolitical crises, the present shows that any spark – a fire, a sanction or a diplomatic disagreement – ​​can reignite the European diesel market. And Europe, for now, appears to have few tools to prevent the next shock from hitting even harder. Image | FreePik Xataka | The world is heading towards an oil surplus: the US responds by filling the Gulf of Mexico with platforms again

These are the final AliExpress Black Friday offers

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We are already on November 26, so we are about to enter the month of December. It has been an intense month of much Black FridayBut like all good things, it ends in the end. The good news is that in recent days we can still take advantage of some offers that are still available, including deals on technology that It will probably take us some time to see each other again.. Right there it comes in AliExpress. Discount minimum purchase coupon 1 COUPON 2 3 euros 18 euros BFES03 ESBF03 4 euros 26 euros BFES04 ESBF04 9 euros 59 euros BFES09 ESBF09 14 euros 89 euros ESBF14 – 15 euros 89 euros BFES15 – 20 euros 139 euros BFES20 ESBF20 30 euros 209 euros BFES30 – 35 euros 239 euros ESBF35 – 40 euros 279 euros BFES40 ESBF40 50 euros 329 euros BFES50 – 60 euros 379 euros ESBF60 – 70 euros 499 euros BFES70 ESBF70 The Black Friday of this marketplace still has very good discounts, even more so if we apply any of the discount coupons that are above these lines. We have a good opportunity to advance our Christmas shopping and save a pretty penny along the way. Of course: as we have said before, we do not have much time to take advantage of all these offers. Below we leave you some very powerful offers that are still available and that will end next December 3 (or sooner if stock runs out, of course). nintendo switch 2 by 407.29 euros with the coupon BFES40, this new version of Nintendo Switch along with the title ‘Mario Kart World’. Google Pixel 10 by 511.82 euros with the coupon ESBF70, a real gem for one of Google’s best phones. PS Portal by 163.98 euros With the coupon ESBF20, this accessory to play PS5 remotely at its all-time low price. Realme GT 7 Pro by 440.22 euros with the coupon ESBF70, powerful and with a huge 6,500 mAh battery. Xiaomi TV A by 99 euros with the coupon ESBF14, a great option if you are looking for a quality Smart TV without spending too much. nintendo switch 2 We start with what is being one of the stars of this Black Friday: nintendo switch 2. The new Nintendo console is a revision that the first Switch already needed, capable of moving games at 4K when we connect it to a television or monitor through its dock. All without losing its hybrid possibilities that allow us to pick up the console and play everywhere. Its pack with ‘Mario Kart World’ comes out 407.29 euros with the coupon BFES40. Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 If you like the purest Android experience and want a compact phone, you won’t find a better phone than the Pixel 10 from Google. It is a device loaded with artificial intelligence, with a very good 6.3-inch OLED screen and a camera system that performs well all day. The best thing without a doubt is the price it has right now on AliExpress: we can get it for 511.82 euros with the coupon ESBF70. Google Pixel 10 (12+128 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links PS Portal One of the best accessories you have PlayStation 5 is without a doubt this PlayStation Portal. It is a device that, thanks to a recent update, allows us to play our games without having to turn on the console if we have a PlayStation Plus Premium subscription. It offers a very good experience thanks to its eight-inch screen and the functions inherited from the DualSense that it has. We have it available for 163.98 euros with the coupon ESBF20. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Realme GT 7 Pro We have another phone now: the Realme GT 7 Pro. It is a device with high-end features, but now comes at a more mid-range price, since we have it available for 440.22 euros with the coupon ESBF70. Inside we will find the Snapdragon 8 Elite, one of the best processors there is. In addition, its 6.78-inch screen offers very good quality and is capable of offering autonomy for almost three days thanks to its 6,500 mAh battery. Realme GT 7 Pro (12 + 256 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi TV A We close this selection of offers with a television that is perfect to place in a bedroom or a second residence. This is the Xiaomi TV A in its 32-inch version, a 32-inch Smart TV, 4K resolution and Google operating system. It is compatible with HDR and Dolby Atmos, although without a doubt the best thing it has right now is its price: it costs just 99 euros with the coupon ESBF14. Xiaomi TV A 2025 32″ – Smart TV HD HDR, Google TV, Voice Control, Dolby, Black 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. Images | Xataka, Nintendo, Google, PlayStation, Realme, Xiaomi In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes

features, price and technical sheet

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POCO is back. The Xiaomi sub-brand returns to update its high-end, which this year features the flagship, the POCO F8 Ultra and the POCO F8 Pro, which is the terminal that concerns us in this article. It is not the most cutting-edge of the brand’s new line, but it is still a very complete mobile phone and a very interesting option for those looking for power at a good price. Let’s see what it offers us. POCO F8 Pro technical sheet LITTLE F8 PRO DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 157.49 x 75.25 x 8mm 199g SCREEN LITTLE HyperRGB AMOLED 6.59 inches, 2,510 x 1,156 px 120Hz Brightness up to 2,000 nits PROCESSOR Snapdragon 8 Elite RAM MEMORY 12GB LPDDR5X STORAGE 256/512GB UFS 4.1 REAR CAMERAS Main: 50MP, Light Fusion 800 1/1.55-inch sensor, f/1.88 aperture, OIS Telephoto: 50MP, f/2.2 aperture, 60mm equivalent Ultra wide: 8MP, f/2.2 FRONT CAMERA 20MP battery 6,210 mAh 100W fast charge Reverse charging up to 22.5W operating system HyperOS 3.0, based on Android 16 connectivity Dual SIM, 5G SA, Bluetooth 5.4, WiFi 7, NFC others Corning Gorilla Glass 7i IP68 water and dust resistance Ultrasonic fingerprint sensor Dual speakers with Hi-Res audio, Dolby Atmos, Sound by Bose price From 419.99 euros with offer Sober design and a huge module We start with appearance. POCO has opted for a design that is in line with what we are seeing lately: a flat design, with a metal frame with straight edges and a camera module that occupies the entire width of the mobile (although the cameras only occupy more or less half of the module). The back is covered in glass with a matte finish and comes in three colors: black, blue and titanium silver. POCO tells us that the F8 Pro is its first milled glass mobile and that the back has been sculpted from a 2mm thick block of glass, allowing the transition between the module and the camera to be smoother. And speaking of cameras, the POCO F8 Pro has a triple camera system, with a main sensor of 50 megapixels and 1/1.55 ​​inch diagonal. It is followed by a 50-megapixel telephoto and an 8-megapixel ultra-wide angle. The front camera is 20 megapixels. We go to the front, where we find a panel 6.59 inch AMOLED and brightness up to 2,000 nits. Of course, the 120Hz refresh rate and the protective glass, signed by Gorilla Glass, could not be missing. An ultrasonic fingerprint sensor is also mounted on the panel. Power and battery in abundance The POCO F8 Ultra has the most powerful Qualcomm chip, the Gen 5, but in this case POCO goes down a step and mounts the Snapdragon 8 Elite Simply put, presented last year. It is still a very high-level chip, with two Prime cores at 4.32Ghz and six performance cores up to 3.53Ghz. Regarding memory, it comes in two storage versions with 256 or 512GB, both with 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM. Furthermore, it has the LiquidCool cooling system and WildBoost optimization, focused on offering stable performance by avoiding frame drops in gaming sessions. It has a 6,210mAh battery that, according to POCO, offers up to 16 hours of continuous use. It supports fast charging of up to 100W and reaches 100% charge in just 37 minutes. Versions and prices of the POCO F8 Pro As we said, the POCO F8 Pro comes in a version with 256GB and another with 512GB of storage. At launch it arrives with a promotional discount and can be purchased from 419.99 euros. In Xataka | HyperOS 3 on Xiaomi phones: these are the 13 models that are already updated, and the other nine from Redmi and POCO that will update later

Chinese manufacturers are launching electric cars at a hellish pace. Toyota’s response: Kaizen philosophy

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Two years ago, Tesla was advancing at a dizzying pace. Their sales were growing and they were putting all their machinery in motion to maintain an advantage over competitors. Its production process allowed it to manage such high profit margins that later they could push hard on the price end. Part of his secret was machine called Giga Press. The we could see in their Berlin factory with our own eyes. Huge, imposing. With it, the company produces larger chassis parts more quickly. That allows you manufacture much faster than the competition because for rivals that same piece consists of many other smaller pieces that must be assembled. The revolution is such that large companies They seemed determined to get theirs own to be able to stand up. Tesla also announced that I was ready to create larger pieces and, therefore, further reduce times manufacturing with a larger Giga Press. Time has told us thatElon Musk’s are having problems to carry out this evolution of the Giga Press. And that the machine, no matter how much it can make copies at a great rate, also has its counterpart as very long machine breaks when you want to modify the part in question. But speed up development times seems to be the focus of large companies. Chery assured a long time ago that chinese rule It was kind of inevitable. For them, Europe has lost the battle because the development of their vehicles is much fasterresponding to public demands at a frenetic pace. And although we are talking about a Chinese brand defending its business formula, the industry does seems to be moving in that direction. Honda and Nissan explored a merger to save this second one from bankruptcy. One of the objectives to be exploited with this possible merger was to be more agile in the development of automobiles. Renault boasted just a few days ago that your Twingo has been developed in record time. In China, of course. But faced with the infernal pace and a frenetic launch number, Toyota seems to be opting for the complete opposite. Pause and perfectionism. In short: philosophy kaizen. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? Kaizen philosophy or how to perfect a product A good example of how the Chinese industry pushes to launch models on the market at a frenetic pace is that of BYD. The Chinese company is experiencing first-hand the dangers of following the devilish pace of less powerful startups when you aspire to manufacture more than five million cars a year. And 2025 has been marked by the announcement that they would incorporate their most advanced driving systems into all their cars in China. To all, without exception, including the BYD Seagull (BYD Dolphin Surf in Europe). A car that sells for less than 10,000 euros in the Asian market. This has become obsolete of their own cars and has had an immediate consequence, with customers waiting for the new and more advanced models, the units that do not incorporate this technology have accumulated in their dealerships waiting for a possible buyer. That strategy, that of launching a product on the market in the shortest possible time and fixing its possible defects on the fly, relying on a adaptive capacity Extraordinarily fast, it plays against what the Japanese philosophy has always been. In Japan they have made philosophy kaizen its greatest exponent. Guillermo García Alfonsín explains in this documentary on YouTube how Japan has built a car empire from nothing. One of the great secrets has always been to study to the point of exhaustion how to improve an existing product, paying obsessive attention to the smallest detail. The result is that Japanese companies are always at the top of the reliability tables. Chinese manufacturers are choosing to reduce development times to a minimum. Toyota bets on the opposite The culture shock is evident. Faced with companies that develop their products at a dizzying pace and apply all kinds of improvements in the shortest possible time, Japanese perfectionism prefers to play it safe, with lead feet but with the guarantee that what they put on the market is the best result they can achieve. a few months ago From Toyota itself it was implied that the rush had reached the heart of the company, that they felt they were missing the train of the technology of the future. To this narrative, it is now assured Nikkei, The conservative vision has prevailed: a generation of cars that will last up to nine years to safely face the leap to electric cars. Until now, each generation of Toyota lasted between five and seven years, moving at the same times as the rest of the industry. The Japanese newspaper assures, however, that Toyota is betting on renewals of the models that will approach the decade and that it will be the remote updates that keep the car up to date. Of course, in Nikkei They point out that the models for China will follow their own rhythm, with more constant launches. The decision also seems a response to a complicated regulatory market. Toyota is one of the few companies that has renounced the electric car As the only solution, he has been defending for some time that each market requires different cars and that it is necessary to adapt to them. And in that context, it is the automotive group that more cars sold by far. The Japanese are treading carefully before making the leap to electrification. He Toyota bZ4X It was a sales failure and aspires with its latest update to boost the units it has put on the market. High consumption, equally high price and an improvable production process They put an end to the company’s first electric model. The jump to the electric car is also a challenge for the company, according to the consultants employed by the same company. The reverse engineering company Caresoft Global It already alerted Toyota that its production process … Read more

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