February 2026 - Page 4 of 87

Supplements, medications and Silicon Valley vampires: the promise of living (well) over 100 years: Crossover 1×40

February 28, 2026 by usatoday24

A few weeks ago we brought Dr. José Hernández, an expert in longevity and rejuvenation, who told us about what it really means to get older And what technologies allow us to stop this curse? biological. Well, the thing did not stop there, because in the pipeline we had this second installment of an interview that now goes even further. Thus, on this occasion we focus especially on the drugs and medications that try to extend our longevity and let’s also do it with quality of life. There are some here usual suspectsand there has long been talk about how certain supplements can contribute to human longevity. We took the opportunity to talk about Mounjaro and Ozempic and how these medications “reprogram” the brain and what impact that strategy can have. But in addition, Jaume de la Hoz —who is “deep inside” this segment, as he says— reviews many other drugs and supplements in addition to taking the conversation to another fascinating terrain: that of the vampires of Silicon Valley and that of millionaires like Brian Johnsonwhich has become famous for its unique methods of rejuvenation. Without a doubt, an exciting topic in which, of course, AI can also play a fundamental role. Platforms like AlphaFold and their implications when it comes to proposing a potential revolution in biology are certainly promising, but here we have to be cautious: There are many expectations and, at the moment, few certainties. On YouTube | Crossover

After 16 years, Mexico has managed to get a millionaire to pay his taxes. And they are going to use them to help young people

February 28, 2026 by usatoday24

One of the richest men in Mexico has been litigating for two decades to avoid paying what he owes to the treasury. In an unexpected turn of events, that money that was owed has ended up financing scholarships, soccer fields and cultural centers for young people at risk of falling into drug trafficking violenceat least that is what the Mexican Government has assured. President Claudia Sheinbaum has presented the social program “Young People Transforming Mexico” aimed at distancing young people from the influence of drug trafficking networks. During the explanation of the measures that includes the program, the president was very direct about the origin of the project’s financing: “Where does this resource come from? All this resource for young people, well, from the payment of a person who finally paid his taxes.” Sheinbaum was not referring to just any citizen, it was a direct reference to businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, Elektra and Banco Azteca, who at the end of January settled the largest individual tax debt in the history of Mexico. The largest payment in Mexican tax history The conflict between Salinas Pliego and the Tax Administration Service (SAT) dates back to 2009, when the Treasury concluded that the Elektra Group, owned by Mexican millionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, with a estimated fortune at $5.8 billion, it had declared non-existent tax losses to artificially reduce its bill between 2008 and 2013. As explained in the specialized medium LexLatinFor 16 years, the businessman used a strategy of systematic delay, filing appeals in multiple judicial instances and requesting recusals of judges in order to prolong the lawsuits that demanded payment of his tax debt. In the Supreme Court alone, the seven main trials generated 100 secondary processes, the majority at the initiative of the Salinas Group. The turning point came in October 2025, when Congress approved a reform of the Amparo Lawwhich limited the possibility of challenging already final tax rulings. In November, the Supreme Court used this new law to resolve the seven trials, confirming sanctions of more than 48,000 million pesos (about 2,367 million euros), including one of more than 33,000 million pesos (about 1,627 million euros) from the 2013 fiscal year. What began in 2009 as the claim of a tax debt of about 38,000 million pesos (around 1,874 million euros) had already exceeded 74,000 million pesos (about 3,649 million euros) due to accumulated interests, surcharges and penalties. On January 29, 2026, Salinas Pliego made a first disbursement of its tax debt with a payment of 10,400 million pesos (about 513 million euros), which were deposited that same day into the Treasury. The total debt finally recognized has amounted to 32,132 million pesos (the equivalent of 1,584 million euros), with the remaining balance to be settled in 18 monthly payments. This final amount represents a discount with respect to the 51,000 million pesos (about 2,515 million euros) that the Mexican treasury had initially set, since Salinas Pliego took advantage of the benefits of the Tax Code, which in this case represented a 37% reduction of the debt through voluntary payment. As and how I collected The CountrySheinbaum He did not hide his satisfaction after knowing the sentence. “It is the largest payment that has ever been made for a case of this type. And it is really good that he decided to pay it!” The president recalled that “for many years, based on negotiations and agreements, taxes were not paid. When President Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived, the remission of taxes was prohibited in the Constitution.” A plan against youth violence As Sheinbaum pointed out at the presentation event, the money collected from taxes owed for years by one of the largest fortunes in Mexico was going to be used to finance the program “Young People Transforming Mexico“. This project includes the construction of new educational facilities, more places in secondary and higher education, as well as the expansion of the Gertrudis Bocanegra Scholarship for one million students. In the sports field, 4,208 football fields will be rehabilitated, 100 community centers will be created in high violence areas with capacity for 1,000 young people each, offering sports, cultural workshops, mental health and addiction prevention. The objective of all these measures is to offer educational opportunities, social support and leisure to prevent young people at risk of social exclusion and without professional opportunities from falling into the networks of the Mexican drug cartels. “That young people stop any activity that has to do with criminal groups,” the president stated Mexican. In Xataka | The chances of two superyachts colliding are few, but never zero: “You won’t believe it, but our yacht was hit” Image | Wikimedia Commons (JGTorresH), Unsplash (Jesus Herrera)

Ryanair proposes burying the hatchet with Aena and negotiating the new rates until 2031

February 28, 2026 by usatoday24

There are many signs that define a toxic relationship. Ryanair and Aena seem to have fully entered into one of them. The Irish company is playing the good cop, bad cop game with the airport manager. But, unlike what usually happens, there is only one player here. One that unfolds and that attacks as soon as it reaches out. What happens? That Ryanair “would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Aena and agree on competitive incentive programs, available to all airlines, that would stimulate traffic.” That is, a hand extended after continued attacks on Aena, the company in charge of managing the vast majority of Spanish airports. There is only one problem, that proposal must be found in the fifth paragraph of a statement that repeats over and over again the position that the airline has taken regarding airport taxes in our country: “Aena’s excessive rates are diverting that traffic towards more competitive airports in other parts of Europe.” What is Ryanair talking about? In its latest publication, Ryanair points to a Aena statement of February 25, 2025 in which the company noted that “passenger traffic at Aena airports in Spain grew by 3.9% in 2025, with 321.6 million passengers.” And not only that, the company assures that in 2026 it will grow another 1.3% to reach around 326 million passengers. But the true origin of the last exchange of statements was found a few days ago. On February 18Aena presented its proposal for the coming years with an average annual increase in airport taxes of 3.8% between 2027 and 2031. The increase will result in an increase of 0.43 euros per passenger, according to Aena. The company assures that these increases are essential to undertake an investment wave of 12,888 million euros with a great boost from the Canarian airports that should receive investments worth 1.8 billion euros. very hard. “The Aena monopoly statement of Wednesday, February 25, is astonishing for its inability to understand how to take advantage of Spain’s airport infrastructure to boost traffic, tourism and employment,” is how the press release that Ryanair has distributed begins to explain its position regarding Aena’s latest communication. And once again, the company focuses on airport taxes in regional enclaves. “Aena’s DORA III proposal (where investments are collected in the coming years) It is exactly what you would expect from a protected monopoly: defending itself, blaming others and ignoring the damage caused by its own pricing policy. With the DORA III proposals, Aena plans to increase airport taxes by 21% without taking inflation into account. “This will be another nail in the coffin of regional connectivity in Spain for the next five years, unless the CNMC and the Government of Spain intervene and reject this failed monopolistic strategy.” an open door. However, the Irish company opens the door to a new negotiation with Aena despite the fact that this company “has closed the door”, in the words of Ryanair. The airline assures that it intends for part of the 300 new aircraft that will arrive in its fleet to be destined for one of the Spanish airports. And the company is once again focusing on smaller airports. In 2025 they carried out a restructuring that has left some of them, such as Valladolid, completely empty. They claim that their traffic has increased by 11% in Morocco, 9% in Italy and 60% in Albania. Despite this, they do not point out that even with their partial withdrawal have increased their presence in Spain by 100,000 places. And although its 0.5% growth is small, it is also misleading. It has moved more passengers than ever in our country and some withdrawals are understood only by commercial agreements that, in reality, are flights subsidized by local entities. Something that Morocco applies but that also have been using some town halls in Spain. Interested. What seems evident is that Spain continues to be one of the main airport markets in Europe. Last year, our country reached a new tourist record: 97 million. And the great objective is to achieve break the barrier of 100 million tourists this same year. Aena is aware that tourism is a powerful weapon when it comes to putting pressure on airlines with annual increases. Maurici Lucena, president of Aena, pointed to a lack of responsibility on the part of the airlines and to acting “in bad faith” when they criticize the increases, in words reported by EFE. For its part, the Association of Airlines (ALA) presses for the CNMC to reduce Aena’s proposal which they call a “high rate” while they have presented a proposal that advocates lowering rates by 4.8%. The gap between both proposals is 4,950 million euros. Photo | Xataka In Xataka |

It’s a clue to your strategy for the hardware of the future

February 28, 2026 by usatoday24

Apple has acquired Invrs.io, a small AI-guided photonics and optical research company. It is one of those purchases that almost goes unnoticed, but that reveals a lot about where Apple is aiming in the hardware and AI race. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What has happened. According to a notification published by the European Commission, Apple announced in October 2025 that it was acquiring certain assets of Invrs.io LLC and hiring its only employee and founder, Martin Schubert. The information was made public this week, after the regulatory waiting period of four months, according to counted MacRumors. Who is Schubert and what he did. Schubert founded Invrs.io in 2023 after spending more than a decade working on advanced display, chip and optics technologies at companies including Google, Alphabet, X and Meta. According to your LinkedIn profileaccumulates nearly a hundred patents. At Invrs.io his goal was to develop AI-guided design tools focused on optics and photonics, with direct applications in augmented and virtual reality, data centers and autonomous vehicles. The company, according to its page on GitHubbuilt open source frameworks for photonics research, with standardized simulations and a public ranking to compare design results. Why does this matter? Photonics is the science that studies how to generate, control and detect photons, that is, light particles. In practical terms, it is the basis for optical components such as cameras, sensors, displays, LiDAR scanners, and lenses for mixed reality devices. Apple has been integrating this type of technology into its products for years, from the iPhone’s camera system to the Apple Vision Pro. Bringing in someone specialized in designing those components with the help of AI allows you to speed up that process and do it with greater precision. The Apple pattern. This acquisition fits perfectly into Apple’s usual way of moving: small, silent purchases highly oriented toward specific capabilities, generally months before introducing a new product. In January of this year it bought Q.aian Israeli AI startup applied to audio, in what is considered its second largest historical acquisition with nearly $2 billion. Invrs.io is much more modest in size (it literally has one person in charge), but it gives us small clues as to how the company’s movements regarding its products will be in the following years. The hardware that accompanies AI. Although we are now witnessing a great technological battle to see who launches the most powerful AI model, there is a race in the background that will decide who stays on top, and that race involves hardware. Specifically, the hardware that AI will use to perceive the physical world: sensors, lenses, optical systems, computer vision technology, etc. Google now has Nano Bananaa model with which it works so that AI can generate images with knowledge of the real world. Apple, with moves like this, could bet on integrating ultra-precise optics into its wearables and future devices. They are different strategies, but with a common objective: to be the eyes of the AI. And now what. Apple has not confirmed which projects Schubert will work on internally, something completely common for the company. But everything indicates that the company will intend with this purchase to improve the optical components of future models of the Apple Vision Pro, the iPhone or devices yet to be announced. Cover image | Junseong Lee and Xataka In Xataka | Apple is not yet ready to manufacture the iPhone in the US, but it has given in something: part of the Mac Mini is

the great paradox of Spanish energy

February 27, 2026 by usatoday24

The Spanish energy market has broken into two halves that seem to have no relationship with each other. On the one hand, the trench of the retail market—direct sales to consumers—has become a scenario of continuous attrition where historical giants are bleeding customers at an unprecedented rate. On the other hand, the boardrooms of these same corporations celebrate the highest profits in their entire history. How is it possible to make more money than ever by losing hundreds of thousands of customers? The answer defines the new paradigm of the sector: large electricity companies are ceasing to be “light sellers” to consolidate themselves as managers of colossal infrastructures. The real business is no longer in fighting the average citizen’s monthly bill, but in controlling the cables, regulated assets and energy demanded by the new technological giants. The bleeding of the 1.3 million contracts. The closing figures for 2025 draw a historic leak. As detailed The IndependentIberdrola and Endesa suffered an “unprecedented fall”, jointly losing almost 1.3 million customers (1,279 million exactly) in the electricity and gas markets. Endesa left 645,000 contracts behind, while Iberdrola lost 634,000. The attitude of companies towards this flight of users is radically different. The president of Iberdrola, Ignacio Sánchez Galán, downplayed to the matter during the presentation of results, calling it “normal rotation” and boasting of the “enormous loyalty” of its hard core of users. On the other side of the coin, Endesa yes it has set off the alarms: has announced an injection of 900 million euros until 2028 with the urgent objective of recovering half a million customers, even relying on strategic alliances such as the recent purchase of Masorange’s energy business. The feast of alternative firms. In the last year, an absolute mobility record was broken, more than 7.25 million changes of marketer. In other words, almost one in four Spaniards decided to change their rate. The big winners of this stampede have been companies like Octopus Energy, the MásMóvil group and, most especially, Repsol. The oil company has already established itself as the fourth electricity operator in the country, exceeding 2.1 million customers and taking market share directly from traditional electricity companies. The model breaks, but the box is full. Any traditional economics textbook would say that losing more than a million customers is a financial catastrophe. However, the balance sheets say the opposite. How to publish Five DaysIberdrola pulverized its brands by earning 6,285 million euros in 2025 (12% more than the previous year), while Endesa reached 2,351 million (18% more). The secret of this paradox explains it perfectly The Mail When analyzing Iberdrola’s accounts: the net benefits that come from the management of distribution networks skyrocketed by a brutal 77%, while the contribution of the energy generation business fell by 27%. In simple words, they earn less by selling electricity to the end customer, but they earn much more by charging the regulated “toll” for using their cables, especially in markets with very attractive legislation such as the United States and the United Kingdom, which already account for 60% of their investments. The future runs through the cables. Electricity companies are going to stop obsessing about installing solar panels at any price to focus on the sockets and transmission highways. Endesa will invest a record figure of 10.6 billion until 2028, allocating more than half (52%) exclusively to electricity networks. Simultaneously, it will put the brakes on renewable energy, cutting its investment by 20% due to the “cannibalization” (plunging prices) that solar energy suffers during peak production hours. Iberdrola follows the same path: 62% of its gigantic investments last year went to the networks. The other great vector: data centers. Endesa already has some 3,000 MW of capacity ready to feed these insatiable technological infrastructures, highlighting its hybrid macroproject in Pego (Portugal). All of this will require a much more robust national backbone; Therefore, Redeia (parent company of Red Eléctrica) will skyrocket your investments 70%, injecting 6,000 million into the high-voltage transmission network to support this technological boom and the electrification of the country. Furthermore, this scenario comes with strong pressure of both companies for extending the useful life of Spanish nuclear plants, such as Almaraz, defending that they can operate safely up to 80 years to guarantee cheap and stable base energy that the system urgently needs. Network saturation and market clearing. The regulatory context explains many of these operational decisions. Spain faces a monumental bureaucratic funnel: 83.4% of electricity distribution nodes They are administratively saturatedwhich keeps 130 GW of renewable energy locked in, even though the grid is physically underutilized. To avoid the collapse of reindustrialization, the CNMC is designing new “flexible access permits” that will change the rules of the game. At the same time, the bottom of the market pyramid is undergoing a silent purge. The Government started a few months ago a historic cleanup of the “ghost marketers.” Of the more than 900 firms registered in Spain, only 416 had real activity. The Ministry for the Ecological Transition has already begun to disable inactive or delinquent companies, transferring their clients to avoid systemic risks and clean up a hypertrophied market. The definitive metamorphosis. The traditional electricity bill is no longer the main battlefield for the great energy totems. While they gladly cede – or out of pure wear and tear – the exhausting hand-to-hand combat of the retail market to independent marketers and oil companies in the midst of a green conversion, Iberdrola and Endesa have ascended to a much safer, more profitable and macroscopic ecosystem. They have understood that the future does not belong to whoever sells electricity to the final consumer, but to whoever owns the highways on which, inevitably, all that energy will have to circulate. Image | freepik and Alex Quezada Xataka | Spain has a giant problem: its electrical network claims to be “full” when in reality it is underused

Spain is not one of them

February 27, 2026 by usatoday24

Compare the salary you earn with that of a worker in Luxembourg and it is likely that the difference left you speechless. Europe is a continent that shares a currency, a single market and open borders, but where salaries tell very different stories depending on the country. where you live and work. Visual Capitalist has prepared a graph that represents the weighted salaries of different countries in Europe based on the most recent data from Eurostat and the oecd. The graph shows an uncomfortable reality. Despite sharing many common regulatory elements, within the European Union, the average annual salary can be multiplied by more than five depending on the country in which you live. A simple graph, but it reflects a reality sculpted by decades of economic, historical and geopolitical differences. A stocking that is not what it seems Before going into figures, it is worth understanding what exactly Eurostat measures when talking about salary in this map. The indicator used by Eurostat and the OECD to compile this statistic is called “adjusted average full-time salary per employee” and does not reflect what most workers earn. In reality, what it represents is a weighted average that takes the total salaries paid in a country and divides it by the number of full-time equivalent employees. In other words, if many workers in a country work part-time, those hours are converted to their full-time equivalent before calculating the average. That means that the resulting number tends to be higher than the most common salary in that country, the one received by the real majority of workers. Although it is not a “literal” representation of what the majority of the country’s workers earn, this data is a useful tool for comparing countries with each other. However, it must be taken for what it is: a statistical photograph, not the exact reflection of the salary you receive at the end of the month. The countries in which they charge the most In 2024, the adjusted average annual full-time salary in the European Union stood at 39,800 euros. That represents an increase of 5.2% compared to 37,800 euros registered in 2023. Above that average the same names as always stand out clearly. Luxembourg tops the European ranking with an average annual full-time salary of almost 83,000 euros, driven by its powerful financial and technology sector. In fact, the Grand Duchy not only has the highest salaries in Europe, they are also from the world. Iceland occupies second place with just over 77,000 euros annually, and Switzerland is in third with 75,100 euros, also being the country with the largest population among the first three. Next, the Scandinavians Denmark and Norway appear with 71,600 euros and 64,025 euros respectively, completing the leading group. A simple glance is enough to realize that the Nordic and Western European countries clearly dominate the top of the table. Belgium, Austria, Germany and Finland also exceed the European average of 39,800 euros, while the Scandinavian countries maintain a constant presence among the best paid thanks to its collective bargaining models and its robust welfare states. The gap between East and West The graph of Visual Capitalist A fracture that separates the west and north from the east and south of the continent is evident, at least as far as salaries are concerned. At the lower end of the ranking are Bulgaria, with salaries of just 15,387 euros per year, Greece with 17,954 euros and Hungary with 18,461 euros. Poland, another large economy in the Eastern European bloc, records an average of 21,246 euros per year. The salary gap between Luxembourg and Bulgaria exceeds 67,500 euros annually, a gap that is no coincidence. The legacy of the Soviet bloc left weakened economies decades behind in investment, productivity and industrial infrastructure. Although countries such as Poland and the Baltic States have closed the gap by modernizing their economies in recent years, the Actual convergence with the west remains a slow process. Spain: above average… in the south Spain occupies an intermediate salary position, although it remains below the EU salary average. In 2024, the adjusted average full-time salary reached 33,700 euros gross per year, which represents an increase of 4.6% compared to the 32,216 euros recorded in 2023. Still, that number is 6,100 euros below the European average of 39,800 euros, and a considerable distance from Germany, which reaches 53,751 euros, or France with 43,790 euros annually. Where Spain does maintain a relatively comfortable position is in comparison with its southern European neighbors. For example, it surpasses Italy (33,523 euros), Portugal (24,818 euros) and clearly distances itself from Greece and Bulgaria. The sustained growth of Minimum Interprofessional Wage In recent years it has contributed to raise the salary floor since Spain will not remain in the rear of the eurozone economies, although the distance with the countries of the north and west is still notable. In Xataka | Good news, salaries in Spain are rising: the problem is that if you are young you probably don’t know it Image | Visual Capitalist

We have been wondering for decades if being vegetarian prevents cancer. We already have a very clear answer

February 27, 2026 by usatoday24

There is a endless diets in different parts of the world, conditioned largely by local society and culture, such as in Spain, where the Mediterranean dietwhich is varied. But the focus of the debate is on what is the best diet to maintain good health in the long term. And here the vegetarian diet has a lot to say. Giving answers. For years, we have known that reducing our consumption of processed meat is beneficial for our health, but a new macro study led by the University of Oxford has put compelling data on the table about how dietary choice directly impacts the risk of developing different types of cancer. The work published in the magazine British Journal of Cancer is consolidated as the further analysis performed to date on this topic. And it is no wonder, since researchers have been able to analyze the histories of 1.8 million women and men who participated in nine prospective studies across three continents. A shield. Until now, previous studies they were already pointing that vegetarians had a lower oncological risk, but there was not the necessary statistical power to refine the data and make this categorical statement. But this study has come to change this, since researchers reveal that vegetarians have a significantly lower risk of suffering from five types of cancer compared to people who eat meat regularly. Results. Obviously, there are many other factors that influence this matter such as weight or lifestyle, but even adjusting the data, a clear result has been seen, which is summarized in the following risk reductions: 31% lower risk of suffering from multiple myeloma. 28% lower risk of kidney cancer. 21% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 12% lower risk of pancreatic cancer. 9% lower risk of breast cancer. But the curious thing about these data is that for ten other types of cancer studied, such as lung cancer in non-smokers, science has not found a significant difference. And this opens the door to seeing why this diet is so specific for specific cancers. The small print. Not everything is so positive with this diet, since the study has shown that vegetarians have almost double the risk of developing esophageal cancer compared to people who eat meat in their diet. Because? According to researchers, the benefits of a vegetarian diet in cancer are explained by the greater intake of fruits, vegetables, fiber and the absence of processed meats. But the fact that they have a higher risk of having esophageal cancer is related to the nutritional deficiencies that vegetarians may have. And the lack of certain exclusive or more present nutrients in foods of animal origin could be weakening the natural defenses of this tissue. The rest of the diets. In addition to the war that may exist between meat and vegetables, researchers wanted to go further to look at the rest of the diet. In this case, the pescetarianswho do not consume meat, but do consume fish and seafood, had a lower risk of developing breast, kidney and colon cancer. But when we talk about vegansis where there are certain important nuances, since it has been seen that they have a higher risk of suffering from colorectal cancer. However, the researchers themselves point out that there are still not enough statistical cases to accurately evaluate the impact of veganism on rarer cancers. The recommendations. Given this study, everything that had been done in oncology is maintained, since the norm is to prioritize whole grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables in the diet, limiting the consumption of red and processed meats. Although logically always ensuring that all nutritional needs are met and following medical advice. Images | amin ramezani In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to the contrary.

There are alternatives if you don’t want to depend on Google Drive or other US clouds. Internxt is one of them and it only costs 16 euros per year

February 27, 2026 by usatoday24

Having cloud storage is ideal for giving your cell phone or laptop a break. You upload your photos, your videos or your files there and you always have them at hand. Most people tend to go directly to the most popular clouds like Google Drive or iCloud, services that have nothing wrong, but there is something in common: They are owned by US companies. There is a trend that increasingly attracts more people than Try to depend as little as possible on services from this country. If you are one of those people or this is something you have been thinking about for some time, then you might be interested in betting on a European cloud service like Internxt Drive: if you use the code ‘XATAKA‘ you have 1 TB of storage per 16 euros per year. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A cloud of Spanish origin that includes VPN and antivirus Internxt is a company of Spanish origin and is ideal if, as we said above, you are looking for a cloud service that is not from the large US tech companies. The cheapest option costs 16 euros per year and includes 1 TB as we said a little above, but includes VPN and antivirusmaking it a very complete package at a very attractive price. What can we highlight about this cloud? Internxt uses what is known as ‘Zero-Nowledge’ or ‘Zero Knowledge’. This means that their servers store your photos or files, but they cannot access these files in any way. In fact, Because they don’t store, they don’t even save your password. You will not lack privacy. Then there is the issue of end-to-end encryption. This company encrypts your files before uploading them to the cloud. This way, even if someone intercepts your data while you are sending it to the cloud, they will not be able to access it. In fact, its service is already prepared to even combat against quantum computers when these arrive in a few years. If you are concerned about the whole issue of privacy, it is also worth noting that Internxt is open and transparent sourceso anyone can access it through GitHub. What does this mean? That its entire architecture is transparent, so it cannot hide any type of function or secret way so that your data ends up in the hands of third parties. Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus and cleaner per 31 euros per year (or 377 euros for life) Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and meet per 47 euros per year (or 507 euros for life) 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 | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | Best VPNs 2025: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy

the invisible leak that locked a town in an industrial dystopia

February 27, 2026 by usatoday24

This afternoon, the Basque authorities restrictions have been lifted in Muskizbut the fear still remains. Living in the shadow of the largest refinery in the Basque Country, Petronor, has turned this Biscayan municipality into a scene straight out of England at the end of the 19th century. Its streets have been empty, schools with minimal activity and neighbors equipped with masks. The mist that covered the town on Thursday and part of Friday was not fog, but a toxic cloud. The invisible escape. It all started on Thursday morning due to a technical incident in a gasoline tank at the petrochemical plant, which caused the evaporation and emission into the atmosphere of the volatile fraction of the fuel. According to the Muskiz city councilbetween 10:15 and 11:00 a.m., stations such as the one in the San Julián neighborhood recorded peaks of between 100 and 200 micrograms per cubic meter (µg/m³) of benzene. To put the figure in perspective, the regulatory limit value for the annual average is just 5 µg/m³, meaning that emissions far exceeded the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). In addition, the chemist Néstor Etxebarria (UPV/EHU) warned that not only benzene escapedbut also toluene and xylene, completing the dangerous chemical cocktail known as BTEX, very volatile and toxic substances. The real danger of hydrocarbons. To understand the severity of the leak, it is necessary to explain what benzene is. Simply put, it is a colorless, volatile liquid with a sweet smell. that penetrates very easily into the bloodstream through the lungs. In the short term, acute inhalation causes poisoning similar to that of solvents: drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, tremors and, in severe levels, loss of consciousness. However, the real danger lies in its long-term effects. International health and environmental agencies (IARC, ATSDR, EPA) classify benzene as a confirmed human carcinogen (Group 1). This substance directly attacks the bone marrow, depressing the formation of blood cells, which can trigger aplastic anemia and acute myeloid leukemia. The WHO itself assumes in its guidelines that, being a genotoxic agent, there is no exposure threshold that the human body can safely tolerate. Any dose, no matter how small, increases the risk. Communication chaos, dizziness and fear. Despite the obvious chemical danger, the management of the crisis has outraged those affected. Although the escape occurred on Thursday morning, The Mail denounced that the Basque Government It did not issue preventive confinement recommendations until 8:17 p.m., ten hours after the incident. The usual Petronor emergency sirens, which sound every Thursday as a drill, remained silent yesterday, and neither mass alert was sent (ES-Alert) to cell phones because Public Health considered that “it was not an emergency.” While the Local Police patrolled with megaphones asking residents to lock themselves in, the director of Public Health, Guillermo Herrero, minimized the crisis in Radio Euskadiensuring that there was no “risk for the population” and that a “normal life” could be led. This vision contrasted head-on with that of the mayor of Muskiz, Eduardo Briones, who to the microphones Chain Being, He recommended not going out because “it is better to sin by excess.” The human impact was immediate. In statements to The MailItxaso Etxegarai recounted how her asthmatic daughter lost her appetite and suffered severe headaches, while her eyes stung. For his part, retiree José Taboada had to go look for his wife at work because, after inhaling the air, “he had gotten dizzy” and “had lost consciousness a little.” Panic also crossed the walls of the refinery. chow to detail The Jumpdozens of contract workers abandoned their jobs on Friday morning. “No one has told us anything clearly. While we are waiting, we are at the site of toxicity,” an operator reported to the BEsuffering from a sore throat. Unions such as LAB and CCOO demanded the paralysis of the plant. Impunity and legal loopholes. This episode is not an isolated event, but rather the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a population accustomed to living with industrial pollution. In fact, it is the third incident in just two months (in December there was another leak, and this same Sunday an electrical failure caused immense flames and black smoke) As detailed by the chemist and environmental disseminator Julen Rekondo in COPE chainthe problem lies in a flagrant legal vacuum: Spanish regulations sanction companies if they exceed the annual average of benzene, but does not contemplate punitive limits for sharp point peaks. This allows serious episodes not to count as an infraction. Neighborhood fatigue. Petronor’s shadow is long. The refinery is responsible of more than 10% of greenhouse gas emissions and Public Health data show that the Muskiz area registers mortality rates from lung cancer between 11% and 45% higher than the Basque average. Added to this is citizen distrust due to “revolving doors.” The residents gathered this week remembered that former senior officials of the Basque Government, such as Josu Jon Imaz or Iñaki Zudaire, ended up occupying positions of maximum power in Petronor and Repsol, which raises doubts about the rigor of institutional control. To channel this satiety, the neighborhood platform “Las Karreras Variant Stop“has called a protest demonstration for this Sunday, March 1, at 12:00 p.m., demanding real solutions. The air clears, but the indignation remains. The sirens never sounded, but the silence in Muskiz has been deafening. Although at two in the afternoon on Friday, February 27, the authorities lifted the preventive confinement when benzene stabilized at 2 µg/m³, normality here is a fragile concept. The gas will dissipate with the wind currents, but the uncertainty of living in a chemical Russian roulette remains entrenched in the lungs of a people who demand to stop being the collateral damage of industrial progress. Image | Zarateman and Gustavo Fring Xataka | The United Kingdom has found lithium under its feet, but extracting it is going to be a billion-dollar logistical nightmare

Huawei has had half the West against it for six years. Your answer is the Mate 80 Pro

February 27, 2026 by usatoday24

The market had been warning for some time: Huawei was going to return. Google’s veto United States ostracized to a Chinese company that was taken as a scapegoat at the dawn of the current trade war. What was initially a blow has ended in a big comeback leading he domestic market with more than 18% share. and he Huawei Mate 80 Pro It is another example that the brand does not want us to forget about its mobile phones outside of China. There are a couple of very important asterisks. In short. We told it a few days ago: Huawei’s best feature has been neither its technological innovation nor its investment to give wings to the Chinese foundry. His best quality has been resilience. That translates to 880 billion yuan (about $127 billion). registered in 2025. Put in context, it is the company’s second best year after the glorious 2020 in which it hugged Samsung and Apple and in which it achieved 891,000 million yuan (129,000 million dollars). And it has achieved this by looking at the local market, building an ecosystem under the name of HarmonyOS (something that is very popular in China, and Xiaomi is an example of this) and managing to be in all parts of the business. Huawei was no longer just consumer technology: it was home automation and even cars. The Western blow pushed not the reinvention of a company that was already on that path, but rather to seek that goal more ardently. And it seems that they are moving, again, outside their borders. Mate 80 Pro. In Spain we have continued receiving Huawei devices. For example, smart watches are some of the best you can buy – we just published our review of the Huawei Watch GT Runner 2-, in headphones they have models as interesting as the FreeClip 2 and we have continued receiving tablets and some mobile phones like the Huawei Pure 80 or the Mate X7a foldable. However, not all of them arrived and the Mate 80 Pro, the company’s spearhead, seemed trapped in China. In a recent presentation that we were able to attend in Madrid, Huawei has shown a slide in which it confirms the price in euros of the Huawei Mate 80 Pro, a mobile phone with a 6.75-inch OLED screen, with 8,000 nits of brightnesswith its own Kirin 9030 processor and a triplet of cameras made up of: 50 Mpx main with variable aperture from f/1.4 to f/4.0. 40 Mpx wide angle. 48 Mpx 4x telephoto with an impressive f/2.1 aperture. They have not talked about markets, yes. No concessions. The price? 1,299 euros that are a declaration of intentions. In the analysis of the Huawei Mate X7 we have seen that the performance of that chip is more similar to that of a mid-range than that of a TOP range. It is commendable that they have managed to develop it without being able to access the resources of the West – of ASMLmainly-, but it is not a processor for a 1,300 euro mobile. It also doesn’t have 5G at this point. However, in the rest of the sections in which they can innovate and grow as they did before the veto, they are doing so. 100 W charging, cameras that promise a lot, good storage speed and screens to match. It’s a “here we are, we continue making high-end mobile phones”, a declaration of intent and a kind of “because I can”. The reality: it’s complicated. However, there is no denying the elephant in the room: the Huawei Mate 80 Pro, no matter how good it looks, still cannot natively access Google mobile services. It is no longer not being able to install your apps, but others that depend on those GMS They won’t work on the phone. It’s a huge concession for many users, but it may not sound so bad to others. We are in a time in which many Europeans are beginning to resonate with the idea of abandoning American technology and softwareand that’s where Google comes in. In hardware there are proposals such as Fairphone 6 and every time more alternatives appear of software so as not to have to depend on those American programs. Who had… retained? As I say, it is undeniable that Huawei’s position by sneaking a mobile phone for 1,300 euros with so many concessions is complex and optimistic, but it is still an interesting approach: they are gaining confidence thanks to rising like foam in the local market and they know that they have good foundations and, at least, a name that continues to sound good in the heads of many who have good memories of beasts like the P30 Pro. At the moment, we don’t know where this Mate 80 Pro will end up being released. Perhaps that announcement of the price of 1,299 euros is putting its foot in to test the temperature of the water, but although they know that they are competing at a disadvantage, a mobile phone of that price is a better thermometer of how the European market vibrates than a 2,100 euro foldable like the X7. In Xataka | Chinese mobile phones conquered the market by dividing into a thousand different brands. Now they are doing just the opposite.

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