Month: November 2025

overcrowded homes have skyrocketed

by

In full housing crisis and with the registry growing thanks basically to immigration pushSpain has encountered a problem: it has more and more overcrowded homessomething that is usually considered an indicator of poverty and that basically tells us about housing “overcrowded”. The Eurostat data show that the Spanish ratio is still far from that of the EU or neighboring countries such as Italy, Germany or France, but even so the trend is revealing. Overcrowded homes? Correct. EITHER “overcrowded”another way to identify them. Basically both labels refer to the same thing: homes in which so many people live that their inhabitants exceed the capacity for which they were ideally designed, at least for comfortable coexistence. Said like this it may sound abstract, but both the INE as Eurostat They use some agreed criteria to recognize them. An “overcrowded home” is one that does not have a room per couple, for each tenant over 18 years of age or for each two young people of the same sex between 12 and 17 years old. There are more guidelines but they all point in the same direction. Thanks to them, technicians can then calculate their impact on society as a whole, the “overcrowding rate”. Year Spain France Portugal Italy Germany EU 2010 5 9.2 14.6 24.3 7.1 19.1 2015 5.5 7.4 10.3 27.8 7 18.1 2020 7.6 9.6 9 26.1 10.2 17.4 2024 9.1 10.4 11.2 23.9 11.5 16.9 And what do the statistics say? That in Spain this rate (the percentage of the population that lives in overcrowded homes) has not stopped growing in recent years. In fact the data from Eurostat show that in 2024 the indicator reached its highest level since 2004. If in 2010 the Spanish overcrowding rate was 5%, in 2020 it had risen to 7.6% and last year it stood at 9.1%. It may not seem like a high figure, but as remember The Confidential It is equivalent to millions of people (4.4) living in saturated environments. Why is it important data? More than because of the data itself (which is not especially high), because of the trend. Spain is far from being one of the European countries with the most overcrowded homes. The rate is considerably higher in Italy (23.9%), Germany (11.5%), Portugal (11.2%) or France (10.4%). Even the average of the 27 EU countries (16.9%) clearly exceeds the Spanish figure; but our country does stands out for its evolution recent. And not for the better. Between 2009 and 2024 the Spanish overcrowding rate increased by 75%, while in the EU as a whole and many other surrounding nations this same indicator decreased. What’s more, if we take into account the set of countries analyzed by Eurostat there is only one that has experienced an increase in the overcrowding rate greater than Spain: Netherlands, where it went from 1.7% to 4.6%. The palm in terms of volume goes to the Baltic countries. Eurostat map with data from 2023. Can it go further? Yes. Eurostat allows us to go further and that reveals to us that the rate of overcrowding does not affect the entire population equally nor does it have the same footprint throughout the country. As precise The Confidentialits incidence seems higher among those who live in rented houses (at market rents) than among those who live in their own homes, whether with or without a mortgage. If we go down to detail we also see that it is easier to find foreigners (especially non-EU) living in overcrowded homes than people born in Spain and who, therefore, have a family support network. Among the latter (Spanish) the worst part goes to the young people. A few months ago Foessa Foundation I already warned in a report on “households that are forced to share apartments with more people, return to parents’ or relatives’ homes to live with them, resort to so-called ‘nano apartments’ or that are unable to look for another home when the family increases.” According to their data, 3.4 million people (7%) live in “crowded conditions.” What are the causes? That the footprint of overcrowded homes has increased in Spain responds to several factors, but it is undeniable that the phenomenon has coincided above all with two clear trends. The first is the gradual increase in price of the home. According to the Idealista portal, on average rents have increased by 10.9% in the last year, which places the residential square meter (m2) at the highest values ​​since at least 2006. If we talk about the purchase and sale market, photography It’s not very different. This translates into stressed markets, fast pace and in which access is complicated to housing, especially among young people. In fact, for many, the only way to achieve home ownership is through a paternal donation. And the other factor? Population growth. At the end of the first half of 2025, 49.3 million people lived in our country, “the maximum value in the historical series,” as recognizes the INEwhich also remembers that this increase has a clearly identified demographic driver: immigration. The INE data does not leave room for many doubts. The number of people born in Spain has decreased, so the increase was mainly based on residents arriving from abroad. A revealing case is that of the Community of Madrid, which at the end of 2024 reached a historical milestone: surpassed one million people born in Hispanic America. 25 years ago there were not even 82,000. Is it the only reality? No. Paradoxical as it may be, in recent years not only has the rate of overcrowded homes grown. Those on the opposite pole have also done so: single-person householdspeople who live alone. This is clearly reflected in the Continuous Population Statistics published in July by the INE, which shows that in our country there are 5.54 million homes in which only one person resides. The data is already close to that of the most common household format, those made up of two people. Today they still remain … Read more

Galapagos tomatoes are ‘evolving in reverse’. And that is spectacular news.

by

The Galapagos Islands They are the living laboratory of evolution. It was there that Charles Darwin observed the differences in finches that cemented his famous theory of natural selection and that laid new foundations for the evolution of the human species. Now, almost 200 years later, these islands are back in the news, but for a surprising reason: a species of wild tomato seems to be turning the evolutionary clock. But the most important thing of all is that this involution in vegetation opens the door for us to understand how small changes can give us a wide range of possibilities in human pharmacology. The discovery. A new study published in Nature Communications has discovered that, while evolution followed its “normal” course on the oldest islands of the archipelago, the tomatoes on the younger, more hostile islands have “devolved.” And they are actively recovering a chemical trait that their ancestors lost millions of years ago, something that doesn’t seem too logical. And it is not logical because we all have in mind that changes are always for the better to adapt to a specific environment. But these plants are giving us a completely different perspective than what Darwin saidalthough it has important applications especially in pharmacology. A chemical twist. The study of ‘involution’ focuses on the steroidal alkaloids (SGAs), powerful compounds that plants of the Solanaceae family (such as tomatoes, potatoes and eggplants) use as a natural defense. These compounds have a key characteristic: chirality. This means that a molecule can exist in two forms which are mirror images each other, as if it were our left and right hand, or even a reflection of ourselves in a mirror. The two ways are the following: The modern “tomato type”: mainly produces the 25S isomer. The ancestral “eggplant type”: produces the 25R isomer. In this way, the study is seeing that although years ago it was normal to produce 25R, it was later changed to producing 25S. Now, evolution is taking off again to return to the most ancient. Behind this is an enzyme called GAME8 that has dictated what type of chemical defense each plant produces. In fact, the researchers showed that by modifying just eight amino acids of the tomato GAME8 enzyme, they could stop it from producing its 25S compound and make exclusively the ancestral 25R. It is literally an evolutionary switch. Evolution in ‘reverse’. This is where the plot thickens. The researchers analyzed the Solanum cheesmaniaea wild tomato endemic to the Galapagos. And what they found challenges the idea of ​​linear evolution: On older islands, such as St. Kitts, tomatoes almost exclusively produce the ‘modern’ 25S isomer. On more modern islands like Isabela, tomatoes have changed and accumulate high levels of the ‘ancestral’ 25R isomer. It’s not that these plants were “left behind.” The data suggest that their immediate ancestors produced 25S, but the unique environmental pressures of younger islands have favored mutations in their enzyme. GAME8 that they have made it return to produce the ancestral compound 25R. It is a clear case of reverse evolution. Because. Younger islands are more arid and hostile environments, and science suggests that this ‘ancient’ chemical cocktail could offer better protection against pathogens or herbivores specific to that inhospitable environment, or even help the plant in different soil conditions. The important thing. Beyond being a botanical curiosity, chirality is a fundamental concept in pharmacy. One isomer of a drug may be therapeutic, while its mirror ‘twin’ may be harmless or, in infamous cases such as thalidomide, tragically toxic. Understanding how nature has managed to make a single enzyme (GAME8) change its product from 25S to 25R through a few mutations is a great advance for biotechnology. We could, in theory, use this knowledge to engineer crops with specific alkaloid profiles, creating more resistant plants or, conversely, eliminating anti-nutritional compounds. Images | Airplane CP In Xataka | The skull that changes everything: a million-year-old fossil suggests that ‘Homo sapiens’ did not come from Africa

Yes, next year I am going to carry the V-16 beacon because they force me to. It doesn’t even occur to me to throw away the triangles

by

January 1, 2026 we will say goodbye to the triangles. Or maybe I would have to say that “we should say goodbye to triangles.” Because that is what the DGT wants. Traffic has decided that in just over two months, the V-16 beacon will be the one that signals breakdowns or accidents that occur on the road. And by the way, it prohibits the use of triangles. And I will say that, when I need them, I will continue using them. It’s not a tantrum. It is not a question of simple rebellion because I have to spend 30, 40 or 50 euros on a new accessory for my car. It is as simple a question as deciding what is best for my safety, that of my passengers and that of my car. A good (but improvable) idea I am not one of those who rant about the V-16 light for the simple fact that the DGT forces us to spend money on a new accessory for our car. I think it has its good parts but I also think it has some things that could be very improved. And, above all, I don’t understand why both devices cannot be combined. According to the DGT, we are experiencing a kind of epidemic of abuses when it comes to put emergency triangles in our country. Well, there are reasons to be skeptical. Between the years 2018 and 2022 (that is, a period that includes before and during the COVID-19 pandemic), an annual average of between 18 and 26 people died in accidents “after getting off the vehicle” on high-capacity roads, as reflected in the document itself which explains why the regulations and technical requirements of this connected V-16 beacon are changed. The DGT highlights the year 2019, the year in which 58 pedestrians lost their lives on high-capacity roads, of which 18 people were run over “after getting off the vehicle” by a particular group. In those five years, there were 108 pedestrian deaths on our roads that can be classified in that particular group. According to data collected by Statista8,615 people died on our roads between 2018 and 2022. That is, 1.25% of those killed on Spanish roads died from a collision under these circumstances. But the most problematic thing about the matter is that these very particular circumstances do not reflect the abuses that occurred while a person placed a triangle. Are you looking for that number? The DGT does not offer it. It talks about accidents on high-capacity roads but does not pay attention to the number of accidents when putting the triangles. That is, the organization is putting a patch on a problem for which we do not have clear or verifiable data. Yet, I break a spear for of the connected V-16 beacon. It seems like a good idea to have a system in the car that warns of an obstacle on the road and that can be installed on the roof of our car without having to get out of the vehicle. And all this despite the fact that it is already mandatory to start the car flashing. It also doesn’t seem like a bad idea to me that the beacon connects with the DGT in its platform 3.0 and so from Traffic they can give notice through the road panels that there is an obstacle on the road. Of course, notifying the emergency services is the responsibility of the driver and passengers. It would be appreciated if, since there is connectivity with DGT 3.0, Traffic would study fluid communication with these emergency services. Not to mention that in all new cars sold there is already the function eCall to sound the first alarm. I will continue wearing the triangles That said, I will continue to carry emergency triangles in my car. And I threaten to use them! (Insert image of Abraham Simpson yelling at the clouds here) No jokes. I have already seen the V-16 beacon in operation connected to the DGT in operation and I am sorry to say that its visibility level during the day and in good light tends to zero. I fully agree with what A few days ago José Lagunar expressedroad safety expert Auto FMin the article in which we asked three voices to give us their opinion. In broad daylight, the differences between setting the DGT V-16 beacon and activating the car’s flashing are: none. In fact, it should give us a clue about this that Netun Solutions, the creators of the invention and the first beacon approved by the DGT, are already selling us “more powerful” lights than the minimum required by Traffic. Will I put the beacon on the roof of my car? Well yes, because it is of no use to me to buy it and carry it in the glove compartment. Furthermore, the connection with DGT 3.0 to alert by the lights is welcome. But I will also put the triangles. With great care and with all the caution in the world but I consider that it improves visibility in case of breakdown. And we’re talking about a highway in broad daylight. But, What happens on a secondary road with a sharp curve? And with a pronounced change in gradient? Not putting emergency triangles in those situations, especially during the day where the light beam from the V-16 beacon is diluted, seems at least dangerous to me. In those cases, it is essential for me to place the emergency triangles. I am firmly in favor of the fact that both systems can coexist. The connected V-16 light doesn’t seem like a bad invention to me. At night, for example, the visibility of the triangles improves and even in a secondary vehicle in the above conditions it is likely to alert the rest of the vehicles sooner than the triangles. But if you use a battery, you are only forced to run it for 30 minutes. What happens if I am left stranded with … Read more

This is how forced ventilation works

by

The cold arrives and the first bills scary heating. In many homes, the question is repeated every year: how to keep the house warm without skyrocketing costs? And, among neighborhood conversations, a technical term has emerged that generates curiosity (and some confusion): forced ventilation. What exactly is it? Is it mandatory? And why is there so much talk about her lately? When the cold reveals weak points. With the first freezing nights, the Association of Spanish Insulating Mineral Wool Manufacturers (AFELMA) has issued a warning: poor insulation takes its toll. According to their data, a third of final energy consumption in Spain – and CO₂ emissions – comes from buildings, mainly due to heating and cooling needs. “Every winter we see how many homes are not prepared to conserve heat,” says its president, Miguel Ángel Gallardo. But energy savings no longer depend only of good heating either to put weather stripping on the windows. In recent years, Spanish and European regulations have gone further: they are pushing towards a hermetic and efficient housing model, where ventilation stops being about opening a window “when necessary” and becomes a technical and health requirement. According to the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO)the Regulation of Thermal Installations in Buildings (RITE) establishes that all thermal installations must guarantee thermal well-being, hygiene and energy efficiency. In parallel, the Technical Building Code (CTE), in its section HS3 “Indoor air quality”requires homes to have a system that guarantees air renewal. That is, the law no longer understands ventilation as something optional. What changes is how it is done. So what is forced ventilation? Also known as mechanical ventilation, it consists of a system that automatically renews the air inside using electric fans and ducts. Unlike opening the windows, these devices guarantee a constant flow of fresh air and expel stale air without losing the accumulated heat. As explained by the specialized portal Heat and Coldthe current CTE regulations require ensuring a minimum indoor air quality, and there are two possible methods: Hybrid ventilation: It combines mechanical extraction and natural circulation when outdoor conditions allow it. Forced mechanical ventilation: Renews the air in a fully controlled manner using electrical equipment. In both cases, the goal is the same: ensure healthy indoor air without wasting energy. The key question: is it mandatory? In practice, all new or completely renovated homes must include one of these systems. If your house is old, you are not obliged to install it unless you do an energy renovation or seek an advanced efficiency certification. On the other hand, commercial premises, offices and other non-residential buildings are governed by the RITE, which also requires mechanical ventilation systems to maintain minimum levels of air quality, classified from IDA 1 to IDA 4, according to Certicalia. In other words, if you are going to renovate or build, you will have to include forced ventilation; If your apartment is old and you do not do any work, there is no immediate obligation. The other even more important question: price? Here comes the part that worries the most. Prices depend on the size of the apartment, the type of system and whether it includes a heat recovery, a device that uses the energy of the leaving air to temper the new air that enters. According to Certicaliaan efficient air conditioning and ventilation project can cost around 3,700 euros, although a basic installation with a heat recovery in a small apartment can be more affordable. However, experts emphasize that the investment pays off quickly thanks to energy savings. AFELMA estimates that improving insulation and ventilation can reduce heating consumption by up to 80%, in addition to avoiding humidity and condensation problems that can lead to costly repairs. As you remember from another specialized portalventilating in winter does not mean giving up thermal comfort. With a good system or simple habits—opening opposite windows for five minutes in the morning, using extractor fans in kitchens or installing heat recovery—you can keep the air clean without heat escaping. Towards a more efficient future. Forced ventilation with heat recovery is already one of the pillars of the Passivhaus standard, which defines almost zero consumption homes. Examples such as the Bolueta Tower in Bilbao or Casa 135 in Madrid show that these systems are not a fad, but rather a mature technology that allows you to save energy, improve comfort and breathe cleaner air. In the words of Siber Ventilationin just over a year, all new constructions must be Almost Zero Consumption Buildings. Mechanical ventilation, along with insulation and renewable energy, will be essential to achieve this. In a winter where every degree counts, knowing how the air enters and leaves our homes can make the difference between a cold home and a really comfortable one. “The real change begins with the materials that make up the home,” concludes the president of AFELMA. Because good thermal insulation—and adequate ventilation—not only saves energy: it turns a house into a healthier, more comfortable and winter-ready space. Image | FreePik Xataka | The patch to avoid another massive blackout is going to cost us 731 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

How to use your old hard drive on Android TV or Chromecast to give it new life

by

If you have an old hard drive at home, there are several ways you can use it. For example, you can use it on your Android TV devicewhether it is an HDD or an SSD. You will always need some type of adapter to connect it via USB, but when you do, the possibilities are many. In this article we are going to summarize the things you are going to need, and everything you need to take into account for this, to convert an HDD or SSD to an external hard drive that you can connect and add photos or videos to your Android TV, be able to play them on the TV, device connected to it or Chromecast, and much more. Know your hard drive, buy an enclosure If what you have is an old external hard drive, everything will be easy, and at most you will need to buy a cable that connects it via USB type C, or that converts USB-A to USB-C to adapt it to an Android TV if it does not have a large USB connector. But If it is a computer hard driveone of those wireless ones where you have the disk and that’s it, then you are going to need to buy a kind of case that has the necessary internal components and programs to be able to connect it to a device like Android TV. Come on, to turn it into a portable drive. But before looking for a case, you should know a couple of things. First you have to know if it is a HDD or SSDa large mechanical disc in the first case or one of the finest in the second. You also need to check if the connection is IDE as in the older ones, or SATA. You also have to know the size of your hard drive, which can normally be 2.5 or 3.5 inches depending on whether it is an SSD or HDD. These are data that you need to check on your own, since you will need all of them to later get the external adapter casing that suits you. Once you have everything clear, for non-external hard drives you only have to buy the case with the features you need. They are very cheapand depending on what you need, they can cost you from 8 to 20 euros depending on how you want them to be, although it is advisable to buy them in stores with free returns in case you make a mistake about something. Once you buy the one you want, you will only have to connect the hard drive into the caseand then connect this to your Android TV or your Chromecast. These are our recommendations: BENFEI 2.5″ Hard Drive Enclosure, USB C/A to Sata for 2.5 Inch USB 3.0 to SATA SSD (Optimized for SSD, Compatible with UASP SATA III) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Hard Drive Enclosure – 2.5 Inch IDE Parallel Port Mobile Hard Drive Enclosure High Speed ​​Hard Drive Enclosure Screwless External Storage The price could vary. We earn commission from these links AISENS USB 3.1 GEN1 EXTERNAL 3.5 BOX FOR SATA III HARD DRIVES BLACK ASE-3530B The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Tooq TQE-3520B – Enclosure for 3.5″ HDD Hard Drives, (IDE, SATA I/II/III, USB 2.0), Aluminum with plastic support, LED indicator, Black, 350 g. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Format your hard drive When you connect your hard drive directly to your Android TV or Chromecast, the first thing you see is a message asking you to format it to be able to use it. This is something that is important to do, and if the device does not allow you to do it you will have to go by hand by connecting it to the PC and doing it there. When formatting it, it is advisable to choose the formats FAT32, NTFS or exFATwhich are the most popular. exFAT may not be compatible with some televisions, so if you want to watch large files such as movies it is best to opt for NTFS. What can you do with this hard drive Now you just need to start taking advantage of this disk to use it. To start, you can use it to store series, movies or music. You can save files directly to disk, and then access them from the native Android TV player or any player application you install. You can also do the same with photographs. Some set-top boxes or Android TV devices allow you record programs or broadcasts directly. In these cases, one of these hard drives will considerably increase the space you have available to do so. On Android TV you can also find the option to format this hard drive as internal storage. It is not an option always available, but when you have it, its storage will become like the internal one to install more applications or games inside, although these will go more slowly. Some apps will also allow you use the disk as a drive for downloads. This can happen to you in download managers or emulators, and in these cases you can take advantage of this disk. In fact, if you are going to use emulators it will be useful to save the ROMs to disk. In Xataka Basics | The computer does not recognize an external hard drive: what to do and how to solve it

This is how an AI made an impossible pregnancy possible

by

For couples facing a diagnosis of male infertility severe, like azoospermia (the absence of sperm in the ejaculate), the path is usually bleak. The solution goes through different very expensive techniques and in many cases invasive that can become inaccessible and leave a couple without options to have a biological child. But science has found a way to provide a solution to this problem, and artificial intelligence is the protagonist. The milestone. Columbia University has achieved the first clinical confirmation of a pregnancy using technology based on artificial intelligence to recover a sperm in a sample where there was none a priori. Now, this breakthrough offers hope for couples who are affected by severe male infertility. This success was reported in an especially difficult case: a couple with a 19-year history of infertility and many failed attempts to conceive a child. In total, the couple faced 19 cycles of egg retrieval and two testicular removal procedures that were not producing any results. But finally AI achieved something that traditional methods could not. Sperm hunter. The system used for this case is called STAR, which is the English acronym for Sperm Tracking and Recovery and it has three elements: A microfluidic chip: a small disposable plate through which the semen sample flows. High-speed imaging: A system that captures 300 frames per second as the sample progresses. A deep learning AI: the brain of the operation that will analyze all the images in search of the sperm that will give a new life along with the egg. The system with all these elements has the capacity to analyze the sample at a rate of 400 microliters per hour, processing up to one million images during this time. AI, which is based on architecture “You Only Look Once“, scans each frame in real time in search of sperm candidates so that they can later be extracted from the sample. But logically something so important cannot be entrusted to a single frame. That is why the AI, to be sure that it has seen a sperm, will use at least three frames where it is seen before giving the good news. Although there is one detail to resolve: a sperm is like a needle in a haystack (or even worse). This means that the moment there is a confirmed positive there is no time for a human to ‘catch’ it, but rather the system has a microfluidic mechanism that is activated and isolates the specific sperm in a volume of 300 nanoliters that can now be used by an embryologist. A success story. The couple in the studio was a major challenge. The man, 39, had azoospermia and had already gone through multiple manual searches and failed surgical extractions. The 37-year-old woman had a very low ovarian reserve. At first, embryologists began to look for some type of sperm in the semen, but there were no good results. That is when STAR was chosen to analyze 2.5 million images in approximately 2 hours, giving a result of seven sperm and two of them being mobile. Those two sperm, which would have gone completely unnoticed by the human eye (unless one was very lucky), were recovered and injected into two eggs. Both eggs fertilized and developed into embryos, which were transferred. Thirteen days later the good news arrived, as the patient had her first positive pregnancy test. A new path. As we mentioned at the beginning, this new AI-based identification system gives a lot of hope to couples who may have many problems getting fertilized due to problems finding any sperm in the ejaculate. Something that is currently in the research phase and is in the United States, so its landing in Europe may take some time. In Xataka | Having many children sounds great as a way to preserve the species. Until you start passing genetic mutations

there are parking lots full of abandoned luxury supercars

by

In the middle of the Dubai desert, where luxury and excess seem to be part of the urban landscape, a legion of supercars that cost hundreds of thousands of dollars but now lie silent. they are abandoned as if they were scrap metal. As you can see in some videos On the subject, those machines are in perfect condition, with intact bodies, unburned tires, but their owners they have abandoned them without looking back. The magnitude of the abandonment. According to a recent statement According to Dubai authorities, between January and June 2025 alone, 1,387 abandoned high-end cars were seized. According to published data by Gulf News2023 resulted in 2,053 vehicles confiscated for this reason. In 2018, this figure was exceeded with 3,577 recalls of high-end cars abandoned to the rigors of the desert. In addition, Dubai City Council has issued 6,187 additional recall notices for other cars that it has detected with clear signs of abandonment in parking lots, streets or areas bordering the airport. Paradoxically, behind the abandonment of these supercars that cost real fortunes, there are economic problems. Why is the city council removing them? The Dubai Municipalitythe competent authority in the urban management of the city, has established protocols for the removal of abandoned vehicles: When a car is parked for a long time without a valid license plate, with flat tires or visibly neglected, a notice is placed on the owner and, if he does not act within the period (between 3 and 15 days), the vehicle is towed to the depot. The purpose is twofold. On the one hand, prevent these vehicles from becoming a source of waste, wildlife or vandalism. But, on the other hand, the authorities want to preserve the image of the city as a clean metropolismodern and orderly and having cars in a clear state of abandonment, no matter how Ferrari, Porsche and even Bugatti, does not give a very good impression. Tap on the photo to go to the original message Living in full luxury…even if it is temporary. Have a tax system very lax and permissive with capital has turned Dubai into a very attractive place for big fortunes and expatriates looking to make their financial breakthrough. This means that the country has become a magnet for workers and investors foreigners who settle temporarily your residence in the United Arab Emirates. As and how they counted in Mojogripsome of these investors and new rich come to the country with the intention of living fast and large, but when their stay ends or their investments do not turn out as expected, selling or exporting a supercar may not be viable. In these cases, the most practical (although therefore less painful) is to abandon them in an open field. at the mercy of the implacable desert. The price of the supercar is the least important. Buying a luxury car in Dubai is almost the least of the problems. In this part of the world, the costs of insurance, maintenance, registration and extreme conditions (sand, heat, seasonal use) mean that the simple fact of having a car in perfect condition is already a huge cost. When these expenses exceed what was expected, some owners who begin to suffer financial problems abandon the idea of ​​​​keeping the vehicle, which is why it is not strange to see a Lamborghini, a Ferrari or a Bentley gathering dust in parking lots of the city’s shopping centers. Dream turns into nightmare. The phenomenon of luxury cars being abandoned in vacant lots and parking lots in Dubai is not something new. But it has intensified when there have been major financial shocks: drops in oil prices, falls in the stock market or, as has been happening lately, the economic uncertainty caused by tariffs that the United States imposes or withdraws for no apparent reason. When this scenario occurs, large investments fluctuate with great intensity, turning many into millionaires, but ruining others. Those supercars covered in desert sand are silent testimony to those fluctuations. Debts, loans and legal consequences. When the economic situation becomes complicated, incurring non-payments or delays is the order of the day. However, in the UAE, defaulting on loan payments or issuing bad checks can lead to serious criminal penalties. That is why, for some owners of those supercars, taking that risk is more expensive than abandoning the vehicle and leaving the country. And why don’t they sell the car to pay off their debts? That is one more condition to leave them behind. The second-hand market for these models does not always compensate for the initial investment: finding a buyer, obtaining the required documentation and transferring ownership. can be complicatedespecially when debts and time are against you. In addition, one of the requirements to execute the sale is that the car be free of financial charges or pending fines. This scenario makes it easy for very high-value cars to become wasteland fodder. In Xataka | Sleeping in the most luxurious room in the world comes at a price. Specifically $100,000 and a flight to Dubai Image | Xataka (Nano Banana)

Five of the best offers on technology and entertainment from El Corte Inglés, today November 8 before Black Friday

by

Some stores have given a small preview of what we can see during Black Friday. El Corte Inglés, for its part, has launched its campaign Get ahead of Black Friday with numerous discounts on technology and entertainment, so in this article we are going to review five of the best deals that will be available during the weekend. Sony Bravia 3 by 999 eurosa gem for the television in its 75-inch configuration. Xiaomi 15T by 499.90 eurosa very tight price for the Xiaomi mobile that was launched recently. risk by 37.95 eurosan ideal board game to play with family or friends at Christmas. LG gram by 699 eurosa laptop with theoretical autonomy of up to 24.5 hours. LEGO Sorting Hat by 79.99 eurosthe iconic Harry Potter hat in LEGO format. Sony Bravia 3 Sony televisions are usually quite expensive, but very occasionally they drop in price with specific offers. The Sony Bravia 3 It is a smart TV that has now fallen to the 999 euros in your settings 75 inchesbut it also stands out for its compatibility with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos and in your operating system Google TV. In addition, it includes PS Remote Play for PlayStation 5. Sony Bravia 3 (75 inches) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 15T He Xiaomi 15T It was launched very recently and since then it has not stopped receiving offers. El Corte Inglés considers it 499.90 euros and if you are interested, it stands out mainly for its screen with 1.5K resolution, for its cameras that are signed by Leicaand that offer excellent results, or for its powerful MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultra processor. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links risk There is very little left until Christmas, so it is a good time to go shopping for gifts. If you want to give (or as a self-gift) a board game, be very careful with the risk which in El Corte Inglés has dropped to 37.95 eurosalthough Amazon has it for 28.99 euros. Risk is a good strategy game in which we will have to conquer and dominate territories. Includes elements of betrayal, alliances and surprise attacks and includes five armies. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG gram Some LG computers offer autonomy interesting enough to take them into account if we want to take them to school, university or work. He LG gram (14Z90RU) is on sale right now for 699 euros and comes with a 14-inch screen, 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD, an i5-1334U processor and a battery that theoretically offers up to 24.5 hours of autonomy. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LEGO Sorting Hat El Corte Inglés has also launched a good assortment of offers on LEGO sets and the Sorting Hat of Harry Potter has fallen to the 79.99 euros. It includes a block that plays up to 31 sounds if we place the hat on our head, comes with a display base and includes a Harry Potter minifigure with another mini hat. LEGO Sorting Hat – Harry Potter 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 | El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), Sony, Xiaomi, Hasbro, LG, LEGO In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2025), we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

Five years ago, Airbus promised a zero-emission aircraft. Now it’s not so clear

by

The transport sector has been fighting for some years against a great enemy: its own CO₂ emissions. According to the European Environment Agency, this sector was the responsible of approximately 30% of emissions. And, of the total of these emissions, civil aviation represented 13.4%. The answer? The electrification in the case of land transportsomething that has been evolving at a good pace. In the case of commercial aviation, electricity was not opted for, but for hydrogen. The European Airbus was one of the companies that first jumped into the pool with a commitment to achieve the decarbonization goals with which the European Union seems to be very committed. Your proposal: hydrogen-powered zero-emission aircraft. That was the proposal in 2020 with a view to being achieved by 2035, and the prototypes of some companies they seemed hopeful. However, hydrogen has not done as well as many expected and the consequences are there: where it said “I say”, it says “Diego”, and now Airbus is not so clear that your zero-emission plane arrives on schedule. Airbus, its “green” plane and the turnaround of the industry Airbus’s proposal was extremely ambitious, since its hydrogen-powered aircraft would mark the greatest aeronautical revolution since the appearance of the jet engine. The idea was have hydrogen planes in the air by 2035for which presented three concepts: A turbofan for 200 passengers and 3,704 kilometers of range. A turbofan mixed wing model also for 200 passengers and 3,704 autonomy. A turboprop for 100 passengers and 1,852 kilometers of range. Its roadmap included the design of gas turbines with fuel injectors for hydrogen combustion to occur, but also models with completely electric systems powered by hydrogen fuel cells. They invested 1.7 billion dollars in the projectbut things began to go wrong both for Airbus and for the hydrogen industry as a vehicle “engine.” Germany is a good example of the difficulties of hydrogen as a fuel, at least for private vehicles. By the end of 2024, the main hydrogen station operator began to close facilities because there was no demand. The German Association of Energy and Water Industries itself revealed in a report that planned storage projects were significantly behind projected demand. For the private car, it seems that electrification has won the game, but in other types of vehicles such as trucks, buses or airplanes themselves, this fuel seemed to continue to be a valid option. At the beginning of this year, however, Reuters reported that Airbus was having problems obtaining green hydrogen. There is many types of hydrogen and their colors indicate how they have been obtained. What the sector needs is the so-called green hydrogen, which is produced thanks to renewable energies such as solar or wind. It is a process that needs a lot of investment and the company’s CEO doubted that enough could be produced to make commercial flights with hydrogen aircraft profitable. They did not shelve the project and, in fact, at the Airbus 2025 Summit reaffirmed their engagement, but soon after it seems they thought better of it. As we read in The Wall Street Journalthe company cut the budget allocated to green hydrogen airplane research by a quarter. Citing “technical challenges,” the company has reassigned staff other departments and the engineers responsible for the project appear to have gone back to the planning table. It is not a “never will arrive”, but it does seem to represent a slowdown in the plans that would imply that they would not arrive with that plane by 2035. In fact, in TWSJ they comment that Airbus defends that the money has not been thrown away and that delaying the project will allow the technology to be perfected. “Our destiny has not changed, but we need to adjust to reality to get there,” commented Bruno Fichefeux, head of future aeronautics programs. But it is not only Airbus that has taken a turn in its green policy. At the beginning of this year we saw that large oil companies began to stop or cut investment in their renewable energy programs to refocus on fossil fuel production. In this case it is not because the technology is green, but because there is an entity that has appeared on the board that requires large amounts of energy immediately: the data centers for AI training. Returning to hydrogen aircraft, although Airbus has put the brakes on its strategy, assuming a delay of five yearsthere are other companies that had a similar roadmap. For example, ZeroAviawhat’s next committed with hydrogen-powered flight and that has several models programmed in its roadmap, with 200-seat aircraft by 2040. Images | ZeroAviaAirbus In Xataka | The plan to clean the air by capturing CO₂ has just received a blow of reality: the Earth does not have as much space as we thought

which cars can circulate and which rest on November 8

by

The second Saturday of the month of November arrives. Once again we face the restrictive measures of Hoy No Circula on Saturday. As happens periodically, the obligations to keep certain vehicles parked remain in force to avoid financial penalties if yours is affected by these provisions. What is the reason behind this system? This is the Hoy No Circula program, an initiative promoted by the CDMX Environment Secretariat. (SEDEMA) aimed at improving the quality of the air that the capital’s residents breathe. How exactly does it operate? What points are essential for any vehicle owner? The fundamental principle is that by reducing the number of vehicles traveling on the roads, air pollution levels in the region are inevitably reduced. Although these measures may be uncomfortable for drivers, the objective is clear: parking the car as a measure of collective environmental protection. Naturally, this restriction applies only in specific areas. In which places does this regulation apply? In all of the 16 municipalities that make up Mexico City, added to the peripheral municipalities of the State of Mexico that appear in this list: • Atizapan of Zaragoza • Coacalco de Berriozábal • Cuautitlan • Cuautitlán Izcalli • Chalco • Chicoloapan • Chimalhuacan • Ecatepec de Morelos • Huixquilucan • Ixtapaluca • Peace • Naucalpan de Juárez • Nezahualcoyotl • Nicolas Romero • Tecámac • Tlalnepantla de Baz • Tultitlan • Chalco Valley What cars and license plates does Hoy No Circula Saturday affect? Considering the above, what are the specific limitations? Why do Saturdays involve specific additional considerations? Indeed, different restrictions are implemented on weekend days. To determine the restrictive measures and their application mechanism, these are based on the hologram assigned to each vehicle, an element that determines its travel capacity. There are cars that must remain idle every Saturday, while others rotate their restriction. In conclusion, these restriction modalities are presented: • Cars that enjoy free circulation every Saturday • Cars forced to rest on all Saturdays • Cars that alternate restrictions, resting alternate weeks It should be noted that these limitations do not apply 24 hours a day. Its validity is limited between 5:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m.. That is, after dusk it is possible to circulate without any restrictions. What happens if your car is in this restricted category? So the alternative is to stay at home if you want to avoid economic consequences. To do this, it is essential to clearly identify which vehicles can move and which remain immobile. In this way, the owners of Hologram 2 are forced to leave their units at rest every Saturday, without the possibility of movement. The situation is different for those with hologram 0 and 00, who enjoy total freedom of movement during any Saturday, without restriction. On the contrary, those who have hologram 1 must carefully evaluate whether they can travel. The answer depends entirely on the phase of the month we are in. Since we are on the fourth Saturday of the month of November, in the Saturday November 8, 2025 Drivers of cars with hologram 1 whose license plates have an even number ending are prevented from driving. In the next week, corresponding to the first day of May, owners of vehicles with hologram 1 whose license plate ends in an odd number will be forced to keep their vehicles parked. However, there are certain categories of vehicles that are completely exempt from these restrictions: • Those that operate using electric propulsion, gaseous fuel or hybrid technology • Those who carry accreditation for people with reduced mobility • All those linked to the provision of urban passenger transport services (including the funeral branch) • Those intended for the transport of minors of school age or passengers in general • Those assigned to public safety and emergency management duties In case of violation of these regulations, a penalty equivalent to 20 and 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA) is imposed, a figure that ranges between 1,924.40 pesos and 2,886.60 pesos. Photo | Sebastian Olivos In Xataka | Pollution is not only making you live less and worse. It’s also making you dumber

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.