Month: February 2026

They have become human garbage cans

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Japan has spent decades elevating cleanliness to an almost competitive. It is not trivial, since even organize official championships garbage collection on the street, where teams compete to see who leaves the most impeccable environment. In a country where there are initiatives that turn civility into sport, the relationship with waste is not a minor detail, but a profound expression of how public space and individual responsibility are understood. And yet, the arrival of hordes of tourists has revealed a paradox. A clean country without trash cans. Yes, Japan has been surprising the world for decades with a paradox that baffles anyone who visits it for the first time: impeccable streets, sparkling stations and, at the same time, almost no garbage can in sight. This absence is not a system failure, but a direct consequence of a culture who avoids eating while walking, prioritizes taking waste home and individually assumes the responsibility of not littering public spaces. For local people, buy something in a konbini or in a vending machine already implies having a mental plan to manage the packaging, a routine so internalized that it makes trash cans on the street unnecessary. Garbage cans, but human. The problem appears when this cultural ecosystem collides with mass tourism. With dozens of million visitors a yearJapan has been filled with travelers who eat on the go, buy viral drinks and “Instagrammable” snacks and, when they finish, discover that there is nowhere to throw anything away. The result is an image as absurd as it is revealing: hordes of tourists turned into human trash canswalking kilometers with glasses, wrappers and bottles in their pockets, backpacks or improvised bags. The official surveys they confirm it: For visitors, the lack of trash cans is already the main logistical problem of the trip, above the language or the crowds. Local rules, foreign habits. The friction is not only due to the physical absence of cubes, but to a profound difference in habits. In Japan, eating while walking is frowned upon and, in some cities, it is outright prohibited. “Takeaway” food is effectively taken home or to work. Tourists, on the other hand, consume on the street and expect to find an infrastructure similar to that of their countries of origin. When there is not one, the system suffers: scarce trash cans that overflow, waste abandoned in discreet corners and a growing tension between traditional Japanese courtesy and the reality of tourism that does not always know how (or can) adapt. Safety, costs and trauma. Added to this equation is a less visible but decisive factor: security. After the sarin gas attack in the Aum Shinrikyo sect in the Tokyo subway in 1995, many trash cans were removed for fear that they were used to hide explosives, a logic that also explains why the few that exist usually have transparent bags. Added to this are the maintenance costs and strict municipal regulations on public space. The result has been an urban landscape deliberately devoid of cubeseven when the social context that supported it has changed radically. Cities that are beginning to give way. In any case, it counted the wall street journal in a report that the continued pressure of tourism is forcing some cities to rethink dogma. In especially saturated places, such as central Tokyo neighborhoods or busy historic parks, calls have begun to appear. “smart” binssometimes with messages in English, sensors or compaction systems. Other initiatives border on the surreal, especially for the “foreigner” without any context, such as students who they walk with garbage cans behind their backs to collect waste in exchange for donations or advertising. That said, these are more of creative patches to a deeper culture clash: Japan hasn’t really changed its idea of ​​cleanliness, but the world has arrived en masse and without warning, and now millions of visitors travel around the country carrying their garbage on them, discovering that in the most tidy place on the planet… the bucket is them. Image | PexelsCorpse Reviver In Xataka | Sushi was a sleeping giant of the fast food industry: in the US it has already begun to eat hamburgers In Xataka | Japan has been mired in a demographic debacle for years. Now it suffers a new crisis: that of coming of age

There is a Spaniard at the top of Silicon Valley. His name is Enrique Lores and he has just become CEO of PayPal

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The Spanish manager Enrique Lores has become the new CEO of PayPal. The company has announced it in his digital press room indicating that he will take office on March 1. This is a unique appointment that consolidates Lores’ career and places him in that select group of CEOs of large technology companies. And that is precisely its mission: to make PayPal really great again. At PayPal they knew him well. In the announcement, PayPal officials highlight that Lores had already been on the board of directors for five years, which makes it clear that the appointment is not entirely a surprise. The Spanish manager replaces Alex Chriss in the position, and for the adaptation stage the company’s current CFO, Jamie Miller, will act as interim CEO. The reason. From PayPal they explain that the signing comes from an evaluation of the business and how the company is in relation to its competition. “While some progress has been made in several areas over the past two years, the pace of change and execution has not lived up to the Board’s expectations. The Board is confident that the appointment of Lores, an executive with more than three decades of experience in technology and commerce, will provide the leadership necessary to lead PayPal into its next stage.” A life at HP. Lores had been CEO of HP Inc. for more than six years, where he led a series of strategic projects. During his tenure the firm has gone beyond PC and printers to expand its services and subscriptions business, in addition to starting the commitment to integration of AI in various business areas in the signature. He was also the main leader of the split between HP and HPE. Lores has spent much of his professional life at HP, where he achieved a leading role as vice president of the imaging and printing division for EMEA in 2001. Since then he has not stopped rising positions, but his time at HP ends now. There he will be replaced as CEO by Bruce Broussard, a member of the board since 2021. Remembering the ‘PayPal mafia’. The story of the founding and early years of PayPal is fascinating and an example of disruption. Among its founders are Elon Musk and Peter Thielbut in that team there were people who have ended up being the germ of a good part of the “internet 2.0”. He famous ‘PayPal Mafia’ phenomenon tells how after the purchase by eBay several members of the original team left the company to create their own projects. And among those projects are YouTube, LinkedIn or Yelp. PayPal continued to grow, without a doubt, but for today’s Internet what happened to it before the eBay purchase was more relevant than what happened after. difficult times. After separating from eBay in July 2015, PayPal carried out some strategic operations such as (the controversy) Honey in 2020. The pandemic caused e-commerce to skyrocket, which benefited it, and in October 2020 the company took a historic turn by allowing the purchase and sale of cryptocurrencies. The end of confinement and the rise in rates caused a stagnation and then a fall in its assets, and competition from Apple Pay or Shopify eroded its market share in the traditional payment button market. An increasingly fragmented market. Apple and Google have managed to impose their payment solutions thanks to their competitive advantage, but PayPal has also been overtaken by Strupe, which won over developers with a cleaner and more flexible API. In Spain, for example, the use of Bizum has cannibalized that of PayPal (the same with Mercado Pago in Latin America) for payments between individuals, and PayPal’s commission structure is complex and does not help to earn money and recover the relevance of the past. Quite a challenge for Enrique Lores. Thus, the Spanish manager faces a truly formidable challenge. PayPal is still a big tech company, but its current market capitalization (39,830 million dollars), even though it is greater than that of HP (17,750) is very far from the true “Big Tech”. In fact it is the company number 620 by market capitalization according to CompaniesMarketCap. It will be interesting to see what measures Lores takes to boost the business of one of Silicon Valley’s legendary companies. In Xataka | The highest paid Spanish manager in the world does not work in a large technology company: he sells “sugar water”

A global trucker crisis is on the horizon. China’s solution: autonomous truck caravans

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The global freight transport market is facing a labor crisis. This is what the data says, pointing to a shortage of goods in Europe, North America and China. But also in Australia or Argentina. In search of solutions, Chinese companies are already proposing a way out: autonomous truck caravans. Shortage. 75% of the goods They are transported by road. 85% of the transport of perishable products opt for the same type of route. Although the transport of goods by train increases, the truck continues to be the alternative that best combines flexibility with contained costs and high efficiency for most companies. But these contained costs aim to disappear. According to the International Road Transport Organization (IRU) there is a global shortage of 3.6 million truck drivers. It is more or less 7% of the total places that are active right now. And the prospects are even worse. Road to retirement. The sector has a problem: retirement. A significant number of truck drivers are very close to slamming the door on their cabins. In Europe alone it is estimated that, in this year 2026, there will be a gap between supply and demand of one million truck drivers. And the problem is that the increase in online commerce will only aggravate this situation. By 2030, they believe that there will be a lack of 11% of the places necessary to cover the volume of work that would be necessary to effectively transport all the goods that will be put on the road. This situation is, according to IRUespecially serious in China where they estimate that before the end of the decade 19% of the truck drivers who are currently working will have retired. Let them go alone. With these perspectives on the table, Pony AIa company specialized in artificial intelligence that has your own autonomous car service in China and that has reached a agreement with Stellantis to advance joint developments for Europe, has announced that it has an autonomous truck solution to advance in a caravan. The idea is that the trucks in advance in a 1+4 convoy. Thus, the first of the vehicles is driven by a human and the four remaining autonomous trucks travel completely autonomously, guided by the first but applying level 4 autonomy. That is, trucks can circulate without anyone at the wheel. 2026. The project has a date: this year. Pony AI announced a few weeks ago a collaboration agreement with Sany, a vehicle production company for industrial work or the transportation of goods that will provide the hardware. The digital brain is provided by Pony AI. Together they believe they can have these self-driving truck caravans ready this year. If they are mass produced, they would be the first in the world to manufacture 5G, completely autonomous and electric trucks, They boast from Sany. According to their accounts, it is a business that will reduce the cost per kilometer by 29% and that can boost the operating margin of companies by 195%. First tests. In BBC They report that China was already experimenting with autonomous trucks last year. “Of course, I was a little scared the first time I drove an autonomous truck. But, after spending a lot of time observing and testing these vehicles, I think they are actually quite good and safe,” said one of the truck drivers who have gotten behind the wheel in these tests to take control if necessary. In the video You can see how the trucks circulated alone between Beijing and Tianjin, a route of more than 100 kilometers. It explains that the driver takes control in the first stages of the journey and must be seated to take the wheel at specific times. However, most of the trip is made without making any decisions and with four trucks behind him. Experience. Sany is not inexperienced in this sector either. The company, in addition to electric trucks for Pony AI, has also worked with industrial use vehicles such as trucks to transport minerals. In this videoFor example, a mine is shown in which an operator controls an excavator remotely. With it, it fills trucks with the extracted materials and these, once full, move completely autonomously to transport these minerals and make room for a new vehicle that has already made the same journey previously. A way of working that is also being studied Huawei. Photo | Pony AI In Xataka | Spain and Europe have a problem: they move 85% of their products in trucks and they are missing 3 million truck drivers

Silver is completely out of control, so the solar panel industry has decided something: go independent

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Solar energy, promised as the cheapest and most abundant source of electricity in history, has hit a geological and financial roadblock of critical proportions. The photovoltaic industry is suffering what the Financial Times has baptized like a Silver Squeeze (silver strangulation), a suffocating pressure derived from the dizzying rise in the price of this metal. Manufacturers, who have been fighting for years against slim margins, are now “feeling the heat” of a raw material that has become unaffordable, forcing them into a frenetic technological race to eliminate it from their products. This is not a simple market rally. What we are witnessing is a “perfect storm” where real physical scarcity threatens to slow down the energy transition. According to Bloombergthe rise in silver has hit some solar panel manufacturers that were already burdened by losses after years of brutal competition. After five consecutive years of deficit, silver is no longer just a safe haven asset to become the bottleneck of the green economy. The figures are dizzying. According to the Financial Timesthe price of silver has risen 300% in the last year, breaking the psychological barrier of $100 and currently standing at $112 per ounce. This increase is fueled by three fires: geopolitical fear of possible US military intervention, the voracity of the industry and the massive entry of retail investors, for whom silver is “the poor man’s gold.” This speculative appetite has skyrocketed prices by 60% since the beginning of 2026 alone. The magnitude of the increase in prices is such that from investment portals such as Investing News have reported record prices of $93.77 in mid-January, but market reality has exceeded forecasts in just weeks. But there are geopolitical actors pulling the strings behind this scenario. China, the largest global refiner, has imposed strict controls to export by 2026-2027, shielding its strategic resources for its own renewable energy and Artificial Intelligence industry. Added to this is that India and Russia are aggressively buying physical silver, draining inventories in London and Asia and causing real shortages in Western markets. Financial drain and existential threat The impact on the cost structure of a solar panel has been devastating. According to data from BloombergNEFsilver has gone from representing 3.4% of the cost of a module in 2023, to 14% last year, to an unsustainable 29% today. Silver has dethroned polysilicon and become the most expensive component in manufacturing. For the giants of the sector, this is raining in the wet. Titans like JinkoSolar, Longi and Trina Solar They are posting quarterly losses consecutive in the midst of a “vicious price war.” Factories operate at just 50% of their capacity and, in many cases, sell modules below production cost. Jenny Chase analyst cited by Financial Timessummarizes the situation without hot towels: “It is very painful for solar module manufacturers, who are already having a terrible time and are expected to report losses by 2025.” The problem is that companies have their hands tied in passing on these costs. As explained in PV Magazinedue to excess capacity and weak demand, it is “almost impossible” to pass on the entire increase in the price of silver to the end customer. Although Chinese manufacturers have recently tried to raise prices between 1.4% and 3.8%, these increases are minuscule compared to the 180% or 300% increase in raw material prices. The long-term consequence is what experts call “demand destruction.” If prices remain at these levels, silver use in the PV industry could fall by 20% this year, not only due to efficiency, but because the industry simply cannot afford it. The great substitution Faced with financial asphyxiation, the industry has accelerated what they call “thrifting”, a race against time to replace silver with cheaper metals. The favorite candidate is copper. According to Investing Newscopper is trading 22,000% cheaper than silver and is much more abundant, making it the great hope for saving profit margins. Faced with suffocation, the industry has accelerated the thrifting (material savings) to replace silver with copper, which is 22,000% cheaper. The large Chinese manufacturers already they have made a move. Longi Green Energy will begin mass production of cells using base metals (such as copper and aluminum) in the second quarter of this year. Trina Solar is developing copper contacts to reduce its dependence, and Aiko Solar has already begun producing completely silver-free cells. The Chinese industry, which is more intensive in the use of silver than the European one, lead this forced transition. However, the change is not easy. As they warn in PV Magazine warns that not all solar technologies are equally suited: while heterojunction (HJT) and back contact (BC) cells facilitate the use of copper, the current dominant technology (TOPCon) requires high temperature processes that make copper vulnerable to oxidation. Here lies the greatest risk of this flight forward. Copper oxidizes and degrades faster than silver. Bloomberg alert about danger of launching copper panels on the market without sufficient longevity tests. Customers demand 20-year warranties; If new panels fail within 10 years due to copper corrosion, manufacturers could face massive liabilities that would put them out of business. As one precious metals expert points out: “Going too far too fast can be risky.” A future of scarcity and recycling The pressure on silver doesn’t just come from the sun. At this point we introduce in the equation Artificial Intelligence. The data centers necessary for AI consume enormous amounts of energy, which triggers demand for solar installations and, therefore, money. It is a vicious circle where technology devours physical resources. Furthermore, the electric vehicle (EV) enters like another big predator: An electric car consumes up to 50 grams of silver, almost twice as much as a combustion car. It is estimated that demand from the automotive sector could triple by 2030. In this context of shortages, some companies are taking desperate measures. He Financial Times reveals that Samsung Construction and Trading has skipped the middlemen and signed a two-year direct agreement with a mining company to secure its supply. … Read more

Its design will not go unnoticed from the air

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In Bishoftu, about 40-45 kilometers from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia is already moving earth for a project that aims high in every sense. Ethiopian Group has officially started work on a new airport that, according to Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Aliwill be “the largest aviation infrastructure project in African history” when completed. But size is not the only message: Zaha Hadid Architects It proposes a gigantic terminal with the approximate shape of an X, a visual signature that also responds to a functional idea, making the passenger’s journey more intuitive within a complex designed to grow in phases. Ambition is no longer counted only in renders. The difference here is that this is no longer an idea: the works have begun and the plan arrives with a budget, deadlines and a defined operational design. Reuters places the project at $12.5 billion and confirms that Ethiopian has officially started construction, with the idea of ​​completing it in 2030. The group behind the state airline is not only promoting the work: it will also be in charge of the design of a planned complex with four runways, a detail that anticipates the operational scale it seeks to achieve. When the form is also logistics. As we say, the terminal in X works as an aesthetic statement, yes, but the architecture studio insists in that it is also a circulation decision. The firm explains that the docks are connected to a central axis that runs through the building and that this organization aims to reduce transfer distances, something key in an airport that aspires to manage large volumes of passengers. This is inspired by Great Rift Valley and that each dock will have its own identity in materials and color palette to reflect the diversity of the country. The key figures. Reuters reports that the airport is designed with capacity for 110 million passengers per year and space to park 270 airplanes, a leap that multiplies by more than four the capacity of the country’s current main airport. In a first phase scheduled for 2030, there will be a 660,000 square meter terminal and two runways, designed to serve 60 million passengers per year. An airport on the limit. This plan is not only born from an ambition for image or regional leadership, but also from an operational need. It turns out that the country’s main airport will reach its limits with current traffic in the next two or three years. This information explains why Ethiopia is not talking about tweaks or expansions, but rather about building a new airport hub relatively close to the capital. For Ethiopian Airlines, considered the largest African operator, the equation is as simple as it is forceful: without physical capacity, there is no way to sustain the business. Architecture designed for the climate. Zaha Hadid Architects maintains that the project aims for LEED Gold certification and that part of the strategy involves passive resources: natural ventilation, shading and semi-open spaces that take advantage of the climatic conditions of the area. Added to this is a package of more industrial measures, from solar panels to produce energy on the premises itself to water management designed for an infrastructure of this size. Terrestrial connectivity. The project includes linking the new airport with Addis Ababa and Bole airport through a high-speed line, a key element if the infrastructure wants to operate as an integrated system and not as an isolated piece. We are looking at a design that has been designed for a high volume of connections, with the expectation that 80% of travelers will be in transit without leaving the airport. That is why specific services are contemplated for long stopovers, from a hotel in the air zone to restaurant offerings and outdoor spaces with local vegetation. Images | Zaha Hadid Architects In Xataka | Spain has been dreaming of a megatunnel with Morocco for decades. To no one’s surprise, he will not be there for the 2030 World Cup

Latin America is the next step

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If you have ever been traveling and, upon arriving at your destination, you have wanted to book an excursion in Spanish, a skip-the-line entry or a transfer without complications, it is quite possible that you have come across Civitatis. The company, based in Spain and founded in 2008, has made a name for itself as an online platform for booking activities, guided tours and destination experiences designed for Spanish-speaking audiences. Now he wants to play another game: look beyond Europe and grow strongly in Latin America. Look beyond Europe. After years consolidating its presence in Europe, Civitatis is preparing for a change of scale in its international expansion, with Latin America as a priority. The company frames it as a strategic step and also as a positioning adjustment: in an informative meeting prior to Fiturits CEO, Andrew Spitzerdefended that the focus is not only on growth, but on truly integrating into the market. The goal, at least in his story, is for this growth to stop being peripheral and become central. three levers. From there, the plan is based on three pillars. The first has to do with the United States: the company highlights the proximity to that market and the weight of the Spanish-speaking population as an opportunity for organic growth. The second is Brazil, where the company plans to grow by 30% in 2026, an objective that involves expanding the catalog also in Portuguese to better adapt to the country. And the third is more structural: in Latin America the wholesale channel, supported by distribution agreements with travel agencies, has more weight than in Europe, where direct sales to the end customer predominate. Operating muscle. According to the data provided by the company, Civitatis already works with three regional centers in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, which function as a base to coordinate its activity on the continent. Together, these hubs concentrate 70 employees out of a total workforce of 360, according to the figures shared at the meeting prior to Fitur. The reading is clear: it is not just about selling in the region, but about building structure and teams on the ground to sustain growth. The app as an inflection. The other major axis of the plan for 2026 does not have to do with the map, but with the product. The company is preparing the launch of a new mobile application with which it aims to stop behaving as a purely transactional platform and become a travel companion. Europa Press adds that the app would be designed to centralize reservations, itineraries and complementary services under a space called My Trips, with access even offline. The idea of ​​relying on artificial intelligence to promote greater personalization also appears in that roadmap. What exactly is Civitatis?. It is not a traditional tour operator, but a platform that connects travelers and local tour operators, acting as Online reservation channel for activities and visits at destination. Their proposal consists of bringing together this dispersed offer, presenting it in a digital catalog and managing the reservation from the same place, so that the user does not have to go supplier by supplier. This intermediation position also marks its limits and its opportunities: expansion does not depend only on opening the market, but on building a local catalog and making it accessible with the same product logic. Grow cautiously. The expansion into Latin America and the launch of the new application also have a business reading: Civitatis maintains that its roadmap is based on sustainable profitability. It should be noted that the company does not currently have an IPO among its priorities, despite being in the full acceleration phase. And El País places as a key piece the investment of Vitruvian Partners, with 100 million euros in 2022 and another 50 million in a second operation two years later. From here, the game consists of combining global ambition with measured growth, without losing the ability to adapt to each local market. Images | Laurentiu Morariu | Civitatis In Xataka | The “European Bizum” is on the verge of becoming a reality and there are two clear losers: Visa and Mastercard

Mexico needs the Mayan Train to work. And they are so desperate that they have put it in military hands

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There are many ambitious trains, but like the Mayan Train there are not as many. And it’s not because this train stands out for its speedby go through impossible tunnels either for luxurybut because few trains in the world must support a load as heavy as this one: being the backbone of the tourism in Mexico. Born with tremendous ambition, he started his engines with promises of wealth. AND is crashing resoundingly. So much so that Mexico has completed the transfer of control of the train to the Secretariat of National Defense. Army, to manage. FONATUR Tren Maya was the organization attached to the Ministry of Tourism that, since 2018was responsible for leading and managing the project. However, things did not work out, the plans were not fulfilled and, already in September 2023, when Obrador saw the arrival of the deadline to launch the train, he began to take steps for the Secretariat of National Defense to take control. After a series of steps, and as we read in Chroniclerit was at the end of 2025 when the process was finalized for Tourism to stop operating the train and Defense to take charge of it. Goals. The program has the following goals: Consolidate responsible transportation with the environment and society. Offer a safe and innovative transportation system. Ensure profitability through efficient management. That last point sounds like an ax to the previous management, but they are going to have a difficult time. Indifference. It was a few weeks ago when, in an article published by El País, the figure was revealed: the Mayan Train moved 5% of the expected demand. Neither tourists nor locals seem to have the slightest interest in a vehicle that was born to unite the different regions of the Yucatan Peninsula. Just because, It is the tourist jewel of Mexicobut also a tremendously unequal region in which Chichén Itzá brings together the majority of archaeological tourism, to the detriment of the others. And it seems that the train is not solving this. The report states that, during the first year, it transported about 3,200 passengers daily. Do we contextualize? The forecasts were for 74,000 passengers per day. Billionaire failure. It is a hard blow for a project that was already born on the wrong foot. It was the most ambitious project of the previous president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, one without private or foreign capital, 100% Mexican, which caused headaches practically from the beginning. Obrador took advantage of that public investment, but from an initial budget My dear between 120,000 and 150,000 million Mexican pesos -about 7,400 million euros-, it ended up costing more than 500,000 million pesos -about 24,500 million euros- for 1,500 kilometers of roads. Current itinerary Expansion. The change in management is not symbolic: a series of actions have been proposed to expand services. On the one hand, passing under military control implies that seeks to operate with greater security for passengers, especially in areas where conflicts with drug traffickers are a problem. Greater professionalization of management is also sought through an administration under military command, but in the background there is an expansion plan. The aim is to transport cargo such as food for isolated indigenous communities or medical goods. Also that the train serves as a humanitarian corridor in the face of misfortunes, and for this they will create more than 3,000 additional kilometerswith an extension to Puerto Progreso. Will anything change? It’s the million dollar question. On the one hand, the Sheinbaum Government has made it clear on more than one occasion that they want the railway to be the backbone of the country not only for the transportation of people, but also as a freight corridor. The goal By 2030, four million passengers per year and 4.7 million goods per year will be moved thanks to the integration with the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Thuantepec. Come on, turn the train into something that can compete against the Panama Canal. But of course, it can become a way to move goods, but we have to see if passengers use it to move. In statements to El País, it is more profitable for locals, and it is also more practical, to get around by bus. And tourists usually arrive in Yucatán with already established itineraries that do not require train services. And, on the other hand, there are the controversies associated with the military and the construction sections that they were in charge of in the past. Sections 5, 6 and 7 were commissioned directly to SEDENA, and there are not few cases of environmental violations, social conflictsviolation of human rights against indigenous Mayan communities and extra costs associated with those sections under military control. Images | Mayan Train, ProtoplasmaKid In Xataka | Urban transportation in Mexico City hangs by a thread. Literally: they will have the longest cable car in the world

Tesla popularized “invisible” car door handles. China has just handed down its death sentence

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In China they have been wanting for a long time ban retractable handles of the vehicles, a design commonly popularized by Tesla. It is no wonder, since over the last few years we have witnessed serious fatal and safety incidents involving this type of handles. The regulations will force many of the best-selling models on the market to be redesigned. what has happened. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China has approved a new safety regulation that will come into force on January 1, 2027. The regulation prohibits door handles recessed in the body and requires that all vehicles have visible handles and a mechanical opening system on each door, according to they count from Financial Times. Why is it important. The hidden handle design has become popular in recent years in electric cars. In China they had been following Tesla’s example for a long time, looking for a more minimalist aesthetic and small aerodynamic improvements. Virtually all of the major electric car manufacturers in China have models with retractable handles. However, these designs have proven to be dangerous in emergency situations. The trigger. A fatal accident in 2024 with Aito’s M7 SUV was one of the main triggers. Three people, including a two-year-old child, died after a crash. Videos shared on social media showed rescue teams breaking windows to try to save victims. As Aito explained in a statement, “the power and signal cables were immediately cut, preventing the handle controller from receiving the ejection signal.” The concern continued after two accidents with the Xiaomi SU7whose videos showed people struggling to open the vehicle doors to rescue those inside, without luck. What the regulations require. Just like they explain from CarNewsChina, the ‘GB 48001-2026’ standard states that each door must have a mechanical exterior handle located in specific areas of the door surface, with sufficient space for manual operation in emergencies such as deployment of restraint systems or battery problems. Electric handles must include independent mechanical mechanisms capable of withstanding forces of at least 500 N. On the other hand, inside, each side door must have at least one mechanical opening handle with graphic symbols of at least 100 mm × 70 mm and clearly visible instructions or pictographic symbols. Impact on the industry. The regulations will affect numerous models from manufacturers such as Xiaomi, BYD and others that have adopted designs similar to Tesla. Bill Russo, founder of Automobility, counted to FT that the standard will require changes to some models but not a complete redesign. “Many manufacturers already design alternative handle solutions for export markets with different regulations,” he explains. “With the new regulation, we will be ready to change any handle as the government wants,” Stella Li, executive vice president of BYD, told Bloomberg TV. Outside China. Perhaps the most notorious case is in the United States, where the issue of hidden handles is also being investigated. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration opened investigations on Tesla Model Y and Model 3 over concerns about the accessibility of their vehicles in emergencies. A particularly serious accident in California that caused the death of three teenagers in a Cybertruckwhere neither the occupants nor anyone close to the incident could open the doors through the hidden handles and reinforced glass, prompted Congress to take action and Tesla to announce a redesign of its handles. Cover image | Eyosias G In Xataka | Putting solar panels on an electric car sounds like a total win-win: the reality of extra autonomy is a bucket of cold water

The fascinating search for the oldest person ever photographed

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Have you ever wondered who the oldest person ever photographed was? We don’t talk about the first photograph in history that the human being was capable of doing, which is also a very interesting topic, but the one in which the person born appears before any other who has ever been immortalized in a photo. It is not an easy task to give a clear and emphatic answer, since it is difficult to trace people born at the end of the 18th century, but there is a certain consensus around some names. Who knows, maybe in a few years we will discover a new photograph that will surprise us again as the ones we have in our hands have done. Be that as it may, the topic is as exciting as it seems. Conrad Heyer and John Adams According to the information offered by the Maine Historical Societythe oldest person ever photographed was Conrad Heyer. He was a veteran of the American War of Independence whose date of birth dates back to 1749. The following photo of Heyer is estimated to have been taken in 1852, four years before his death. Yes, here he was 103 years old. And yes, it is amazing to be able to see a photograph of someone born in the mid-18th century. The photo is simply impressive, both in terms of composition and because of Heyer’s firm and almost defiant gaze. It was made using the daguerreotypea photographic procedure that was made publicly known in Paris in 1839 and was subsequently used for years throughout the planet. Also in Spain, of course, where daguerreotypes were made from 1839 to 1860. But back to the topic at hand, was Conrad Heyer the oldest person ever photographed? This is what appears in the data offered by the Maine Historical Society, as we have seen, but on the other hand the Susquehanna County Historical Society has a copy of a photograph of a certain John Adams. A shoemaker by profession, he was born in Worcester a few years before Heyer, specifically on January 22, 1745: Conrad Heyer, born in the 18th century, very happy to pose for posterity, as can be seen. John Adams, also very excited. Once again it is a daguerreotype, although in this case it is not known for sure what year the photo was taken (the original has not been found). With the data we have, what we do know is that it had to be taken sometime between 1839 and 1849, the year in which Adams died at 104 years. Heyer and Adams enjoyed lives of more than a century. And from what we see in the photos, it can be said that they were not in bad condition at all. There are at least a couple of other people who could dispute Heyer and Adams for the honor of having been the oldest person ever photographed, although the documentation is somewhat confusing and they are not as clear-cut cases as the previous ones. The first of them is Baltus Stoneanother Revolutionary War veteran like Heyer. His date of birth could have been 1744 according to the manuscript that accompanied a daguerreotype from 1846, but in other documents It is implied that he could have been born in 1743, 1747 or 1754. Too much dancing around dates. On the other hand, the New York Historical Society He has in his possession a daguerreotype taken in 1851 of a slave named Caesar which, judging by the information that appears on the back of the frame, born in 1737 in Bethlehem (New York), and died in 1852. If this were true, not only would we have a clear winner, but Caesar would be 114 years old in the photo. Yes, looking at the image it is a little difficult to accept these data as good: Baltus Stone himself. The New York Historical Society itself confirmed to Benjamin S. Beck in a private conversation that Caesar’s date of birth could not be fully confirmed. The only public record that may shed some light on this is an August 7, 1850 entry in the Bethlehem population census listing a 110-year-old Cesar Nicholls (he was born as a slave to a Van Rensselaer Nicoll). Veterans of the Napoleonic Wars arrive In addition to the daguerreotypes of John Adams and Conrad Heyer, who could well be the two oldest people ever photographed, we cannot forget the collection of photos about veterans of the Napoleonic Wars property of Anne Seddon Kinsolving Brown. Although it is not known for sure how Ms. Brown obtained these photographs, their story is fascinating. After Napoleon’s death in 1821, veterans of the Grande Armée and the Guard who survived the Napoleonic Wars marched in uniform every May 5 to the Place Vendôme in Paris to pay their respects to the fallen emperor. The photographs in Mrs. Brown’s collection were taken around the year 1858, as the veterans shown in them were wearing the St. Helena medal awarded to them all in August 1857. They are the only remaining photos of these soldiers wearing their original uniforms and insignia. All of these veterans were around 70 or 80 years old at the time they were photographed. That is, all of them were born at the end of the 18th century and, therefore, they are part of the group of people born before 1800 who were photographed. Images | Brown University Library In Xataka | What happened to Technicolor: evolution and death of the company that changed cinema and was overwhelmed by its ambition In Xataka | The first photographic meme in history was extremely macabre: posing as decapitated corpses

Europe wants to manufacture 20% of the world’s semiconductors by 2030. It has just taken the first step

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43,000 million euros. That is the figure that the European Commission set to achieve something that is currently out of reach: technological sovereignty regarding semiconductors. With the ‘Chips Act‘, Europe seeks to position itself as a power in a semiconductor production segment dominated by Asia with Taiwan at the head. Now, and after years of dreaming, Europe inaugurates the first installation: the FAMES Pilot Line. The objective is not conservative. By 2030, the Old Continent wants produce 20% of integrated circuits of the world. We have an ace up our sleeve called ASMLthe global spearhead in terms of manufacturing of advanced photolithography equipment refers. The Dutch are the ones who produce the machines that buy foundries like TSMC o Intel to manufacture the most advanced chips on the market. But there is a problem: we have the machine that makes the chips, but we don’t have someone to make chips. That is what the project wants to change, and with FAMESthe European Union Chip Law lays the first brick to be more relevant. It’s not going to be easy at all. FAMES, the spearhead of Europe’s Chips Law Unlike a private company, FAMES is something much more European: a collaboration between countries and institutions. It represents a new example of public-private collaboration like the one we are seeing in parallel in the european space race. And the pilot program is located at the CEA-Leti facilities in the French town of Grenoble. With an initiative of 830 million euros contributed by both the European Commission and the participating states, FAMES brings together 11 organizations belonging to eight countries and, after two years of preparation, has presented favorable technical results to begin developing advanced semiconductor technologies. The organizations and countries of the FAMES Consortium FAMES, with 830 million in financing, is the first of the five pilot lines that will be inaugurated under this Chips Law initiative, and the CEA-Leti plant has been expanded with about 2,000 new square meters destined to clean room. It is an extremely clean area isolated from the outside, with strictly controlled temperature and humidity conditions and optimal conditions for manufacturing semiconductors. CEA-Leti already had 12,000 square meters of clean room, so the expansion under the Chips Law is considerable. And the big question: what will they do in this pilot program? Well, something known as Fully Depleted Silicon-on-Insulator, or FD-SOI. This is a manufacturing process in which a thin insulating layer (less than 10 nanometers) is placed under the transistors so that the chips operate at lower voltages. And the goal is to create 10 and 7 nanometer processors. FD-SOI Thus, they consume between 30 and 40% less energy without losing performance, making them more efficient. That efficiency and delivery of energy to the chips is something that everyone is trying to improve, from an Intel that already has its most cutting-edge technologies ready in this sense to a TSMC that is preparing its response by the end of 2026. That Europe is developing its solution now seems demoralizing, but it must be taken into account that, for decades, the technology of the Old Continent has depended on external manufacturing, so advancing this manufacturing process at this time is not bad news. But well, in the end, FAMES represents the first platform in which some advanced technologies for the manufacture of semiconductors will begin to mature and, together with the rest of the pilot lines, the objective is to transfer these advances and knowledge to the industry and, obviously, to a final product. We will see if the 2030 goal is reached, but Europe itself is not very optimistic about the matter. Europe thinks that Europe will fail in its objective At the beginning of last year, we already said that the European Court of Auditors itself believed that the European Chip Law would be a failurepointing out unlikely which would be if they achieved the goal of building 20% ​​of the planet’s semiconductors by 2030. And… they are not misguided. Europe is seeking its technological independence while inviting entities like TSMC to its soil, but the two main technological centers are also moving. The United States is attracting talent to its territory, with TSMC buying more land to open a megafactory and Intel as a banner in the American foundry. China is not standing idly by and, following a Western veto, its semiconductor industry has made unthinkable advances with old ASML machines while companies like SMIC either Huawei develop your own solutions to create advanced chips and be able to shield itself from American technology. And beyond countries, private companies such as Intel itself, TSMC, Samsung, GlobalFoundries or Texas Instruments are also moving, installing new cutting-edge plants both inside and outside the United States, a country that is determined to invest what is necessary to achieve leadership. In the end, getting 20% ​​of the world’s chips is a tremendously ambitious goal and Europe is very far away in this industrybut you have to start somewhere and FAMES represents that first stone on the path of the European semiconductor initiative. Images | Intel (edited), FAMES In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

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