Month: February 2026

Social networks are a problem for teenagers. Taking them away as the Government wants will also be

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As father of two teenagershe Pedro Sánchez announcement It touches me closely. It has also done so in recent months the conversation and the measures that They have already been activated in other countries. For all parents in a similar situation, and for all those who are going to experience it – if indeed those measures end up being activated—, the conclusion is clear. For those under 16 years of age, the smartphone is two things at the same time. The first, a black hole that devours your attention and that also conditions that basic structure on which they build their own social identity. It is not just that the cell phone is a disturbing dopamine instrument in which they spend hours and hours: it is that it is there where they socialize. In fact, in 2026, leaving a teenager without a cell phone not only prevents them from accessing the entire viral world: it means leaving them in a situation of social ostracism. You make him more or less a pariah. WhatsApp—at least, in Spain—is the main and primary communication channel for adolescents, even more than that of adults. There they organize class work, meet to go out and manage their own group dynamics. If this measure is activated, couldn’t that significantly influence your ability to connect with your friends and acquaintances? Nowadays, relationships for them are already totally hybrid, and removing their access to social networks, no matter how well-intentioned the measure, can have a terrible impact for many of them. Banning social media seems like a good idea until it doesn’t. All this debate has brought back the buzz of dumb phones, dumbphones. They are those mobile phones with aesthetics from the 2000s that recover shell-type designs or even physical keyboards and small screensbut rather than being limited in form, they are limited in substance. The idea is to reduce this dependence on the smartphone and turn that device into something minimal to call, send SMS and little else with the idea of ​​not being glued to the screen all day. The idea is nostalgic, again well-intentioned and even romantic, but impractical. Those dumbphones They are postulated as a tool for digital detoxification, but this movement faces an overwhelming technological and social reality. In the short term the concept may be nice and praiseworthy. In the long term it is, above all, an obstacle. And it is because the modern world has been designed by and for be lived with the smartphone at your side. Not using it means returning to a more uncomfortable and less practical life. On the one hand, that FOMO which can be beneficial (not everything we miss will be important, and probably most of it will not be), but on the other hand, there are real advantages in that total access to today’s world that the mobile phone gives us. We actually don’t even need a stupid cell phone. There have long been ways to limit the use of applications and those dedicated to social networks—the settings of digital well-being from Android or iOS—as well as tone up our mobile so that its home screen does not encourage us to use the mobile, but precisely the opposite. Parents also have access to parental control solutions, and at home, for example, we use Family Link with some success, although recognizing that it is virtually impossible to control everything. Trying to solve the current problem – which there is – with these types of measures is like putting doors on the countryside. It is a technical challenge that is almost impossible to solve and that follow in the wake of the famous pajaporte. Beyond the other gigantic debate that arises from this, that of privacy, here this control of minors seems unfeasible. The solution is probably not in the device or the apps it runs, but in re-educating the kids. The mobile phone should be a functional tool, not an object of constant validation. Parents there all have a difficult role, and I always say that if I had had a cell phone at their age I would probably be as trapped by it as they are, or more so. Do we have a problem with young people, cell phones and social networks? Definitely. Is this measure the solution? It seems hard to believe. I, of course, have serious doubts that it is. Image | Miguel Angel Perez In Xataka | The life of those of us who change our mobile phone almost every week (for work)

They owe you a day of rest

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The Supreme Court has made it clear that holidays are not days of rest. They are different rights. Therefore, if a holiday coincides with your day of restthe company has to give you another additional day off. For years it has been common that, if a holiday coincided with, for example, a Saturday, that day of rest was lost. A Supreme Court ruling has considered that loss of a holiday “does not conform to the law.” Therefore, the employee must be able to enjoy both rights: to weekly rest and to enjoy official holidays. The injustice: that holidays coincide with your rest. The High Court ruled in this sense in a ruling from July 2024which establishes that workers who work from Monday to Sunday and have a fixed day of rest during the week have the right to an additional day when that rest coincides with a work holiday. This resolution corrects the previous criteria of the Social Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid in response to the demand of the workers of a business that opened from Monday to Sunday with rotating shifts, in which the staff’s breaks did not always coincide with the weekend. This meant that, if an employee was assigned, for example, Mondays as a day of rest, and it coincided with one of the 14 holidays recognized by law, that employee would lose either a holiday or a holiday, while his colleagues (with other days of rest) did enjoy both. On holidays you also rest. The usual practice to date was that, if the holiday coincided with the assigned day of rest during the week, the employee “lost” that day since, in reality, that rest was also occurring. However, the Supreme Court ruling reinforces that the 14 annual holidays recognized by law must be enjoyed in their entirety, without overlapping with the minimum weekly rest to which workers are also entitled, thus separating both rights and forcing the company to compensate the employee with another additional day off. Weekly and holiday rest are not the same. The doctrine of the Supreme Court is based on article 37.2 of the Workers Statutewhich indicates that “work holidays will be paid and non-recoverable.” That is, they cannot replace or be a replacement for any other type of rest. In practice, the court considers that allowing a holiday to overlap with the day of rest creates comparative grievances between people with different calendars within the same company. While some enjoy the 14 legally recognized holidays plus their weekly rest, others end up with fewer days off per year just because their day of rest coincides with the holiday. If both coincide, another day must be assigned. Based on this doctrine, if a national, regional or local holiday coincides with the assigned day of rest, the company must grant you an additional day off on another date. This compensatory day does not have to be the one immediately following the holiday, but rather must be set by mutual agreement, respecting the work calendar and ensuring that the holiday is not lost. For companies, this forces them to review quadrants and calendars in sectors that open every day, such as commerce, hospitality or certain essential services, where it is common to work on Sundays and holidays. How it affects you if the holiday falls on a weekend. In a classic weekday from Monday to Friday, if a holiday falls on a Saturday, the new jurisprudence prevents that holiday from simply “disappearing.” The company has to compensate with an additional day of rest. According to the article 47 of Royal Decree 2001/1983 that regulates the effective enjoyment of days of rest, when for organizational reasons the day of rest cannot be enjoyed, the company “will be forced to pay the worker for the hours worked” or to grant an alternative compensatory rest. That is, since the holiday must be taken because it is not recoverable, the day of rest is not “lost”, but must be compensated with another day or paid with a 75% increase if not enjoyed. In Xataka | If you can’t stand your boss anymore, you can resign, but you need to give advance notice of voluntary resignation: how and when to give it Image | Pexels (Leeloo The First)

Pedro Sánchez has only detected that the social conversation has already moved

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Pedro Sanchez From Dubai, he has promised five measures against digital platforms: criminal liability for managers, prohibition of access to minors under 16 years of age and criminalizing the manipulation of algorithms. The package sounds grandiose, but the most relevant thing is not in the technical details or its parliamentary viability. The panoramic. We are seeing the beginning of the “smoking” of the smartphone even at an institutional level. In society it started a few years ago. Social media is the stated goal, but the gateway is the device. The pattern. We have seen it before. There was a time when smoking on a plane was normal, getting tipsy during pregnancy did not cause social alarm, it was acceptable to travel with four children crammed behind in the car, and sugar was simply an innocent pleasure. In all cases, the change followed a similar sequence: First, scientific studies that point to a course of action. Then, a critical mass of citizens begins to “feel” that there is a problem. Next, governments move toward regulation. Finally, what was normal becomes unacceptable. Where are we. Right now, in phase 2 and approaching phase 3. The evidence on The impact of mobile phones on the attention and performance of minors they are growing. But that doesn’t matter much anymore. What matters is that a growing majority of parents, educators and citizens have come to the conviction that something is wrong. When you ask if children spend too much time on their cell phones, almost no one says no. Between the lines. Politicians do not usually lead these changes in consciousness, they simply detect and amplify them. Sánchez has not invented concern about social networks, he has only smelled that the wind is blowing in that direction and has placed himself in front of the current. This is what governments do when they sense that a cause has more support than detractors: fertile ground to announce something that will generate sympathy. The contrast. Just a decade ago, criticizing social networks placed you in the camp of technophobes, boomers disconnected, those who did not understand progress. Today that position has been almost completely reversed. Defending that a 12-year-old child have unlimited access to TikTok is beginning to be the cause of almost unanimous bad looks. The one that was before mainstream Now he has to explain himself. See a child today (or not so child) spend dinner making scroll to chain videos provokes a different reaction than doing it seven years ago. In another seven years it will surely be even more different. Yes, but. The analogy with tobacco has its limits because the cell phone is not only a vector of addiction, it is also a tool for communication, learning and socialization. Prohibiting access to minors under 16 years of age sounds reasonable until you think about how a 15-year-old teenager today coordinates his or her class work or meets up with friends. The upcoming regulation will have to be somewhat more surgical than that of tobacco, which was simply prohibited in closed spaces. The big question. Or big questions. Will we remember this time as we now remember the photos of doctors smoking in hospitals? Will our children stare in disbelief at images of entire families staring at screens in a restaurant, each absorbed in their own feed? If the pattern repeats itself, probably yes. Whether the measures that Sánchez has just anticipated succeed or not is the least important thing. What matters is that you have correctly read where the conversation is moving. In Xataka | Meta, Google and TikTok have condemned an entire generation to “doomscrolling.” And now they are going to be judged for it Featured image | Xataka

Tesla has revolutionized the industry with a 9,000-ton Giga Press. China has responded with the world’s largest

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Tesla has revolutionized car production. He has done it with the help of his Giga Press, a huge assembler capable of producing huge parts of the chassis to save time and money. In their race to lower costs, numerous brands have ordered their own. And a Chinese manufacturer has the largest in the world. What is a Giga Press? A Giga Press It is a machine capable of producing huge parts of a car chassis in a single process. Until now, those huge pieces have been (and continue to be for most manufacturers) assembled separately, slowly taking shape like a 10,000-piece puzzle. What is achieved with a Giga Press is to reduce the number of those pieces that have to be assembled. That is to say, simplify the puzzle. This is achieved with a huge press into which the material is injected to produce the part and the mold is pressed with great force to obtain the desired final part. Why is it so important? With the Giga Press, Tesla has managed to save time and money in the production of their vehicles. By simplifying the process, you can produce much more in less time and, therefore, amortize the investment more quickly. In fact, one’s own Tesla trusts in new evolutions to be able to reduce hypotheticals but also there are not a few companies that have ordered theirs with a view to achieving these same results. The largest in the world, of course, is in China. 16,000 tons. This is the figure that the Giga Press that Dongfeng has in its facilities in Wuhan (China) manages to apply, as reported in Car News China. This company has been working since last January with a new machine capable of casting parts with a pressure never before seen in the industry. The machine, they explain in the middle, has been designed, developed and produced entirely in China by LK Machinery which also provides these machines to other companies like XPeng. To give us an idea, Tesla’s Giga Press are capable of assembling parts with 9,000 tons of pressure. In this case, Dongfeng will dedicate the pressing to parts of battery casings of their electric cars. They assure that the machine will improve the rigidity of the assembly and the protection of the energy accumulator. Each piece moves forward every 135 seconds. And it’s not the only one. In parallel, Dongfeng will also have another press, this one capable of applying 10,000 tons of pressure. In this case it has a moving part and a stationary mold. The latter is filled with molten steel at a temperature of 720ºC and the moving part is placed on it. From there, pressure is applied until the new piece is shaped. The objective between both presses is to produce up to 600,000 pieces annually to incorporate into your cars. For now, in the first phase, up to 200,000 pieces will be counted and the objective is to gradually scale production until reaching the desired cruising speed. Both machines are the result of a clear commitment to this type of machines in China in recent years. Already in 2021, InsideEVs It stated that local manufacturers were looking for their own and, above all, that Tesla had managed to locate the supply of its suppliers in China so the materials used in the Shanghai machine did not have to be imported from third countries. It has its problems. Although the mass pressing of parts has revolutionized the industry and many manufacturers have sought their own machines, the truth is that this type of production It also has its negative side. And millions of copies are needed to amortize the set and get economic return on a very important investment. This also requires maintaining a design for a long time because any variation in the part forces the production line to stop for too long until the desired original mold is found. That “slave” design of the brand itself is one of the problems that Tesla has encountered, which is that it cannot launch cars on the market with new variations beyond small aesthetic touches. Photo | LK Machinery In Xataka | Tesla was supposed to be a company that sold cars. And the problem is that it is stopping selling them at full speed

charge to see the Trevi Fountain

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Since the mass tourism was consolidated, many historic enclaves and emblematic landscapes have gone from being lived spaces to become scenes Subjected to constant pressure, first by the popularization of travel and then by the amplification of social networks. Over time, this accumulation of visitors has forced cities and towns around the world to test solutions every time more diverse (taxes, quotas, access restrictions or changes in the uses of space) in an attempt to preserve places designed to last centuries in the face of an increasingly intense form of tourist consumption. The selfie as a payment entry. And it is precisely at this point where the latest movement of the authorities in Rome appears, who have begun to put a price not on the contemplation of their monuments, but on the concrete act of standing in front of them and producing content, turning the selfie into a checkout experience. The most symbolic case is that of the Trevi Fountain, where viewing the monument is still free from the square, but going down to its level, occupying the iconic frame, throwing the coin and taking a photo now requires pay two euros. In other words, the fee does not buy history or heritage, but rather time, space and proximity in a saturated scenario, explicitly assuming that the true tourist value is no longer in looking, but in appearing in the image. La Fontana as a permanent filming set. For years, the Trevi Fountain had become a human funnel where thousands of daily visitors competed for a few seconds in front of the marble, the water and the cell phone camera, until the experience became an almost impracticable horror. If you like, the new limited access system works as if it were a set locker: Whoever pays can go down, pose, repeat the photo and stay as long as they want, while gestures that break the illusion of the stage, such as eating or drinking, are prohibited. Rome thus assumes that the contemporary ritual is no longer tossing the coin to return to the city, but rather certifying on networks that one has been there, and that this gesture has an economic and management cost. Between normalization and controversy. There is no doubt, such a measure has divided visitorsbetween those who see it as reasonable to pay “what a coffee costs” for an orderly experience, and those who consider inadmissible put economic barriers to a historical symbol. However, the debate hides a broader reality: paid access does not arise so much from the need to collect money as from filter flows, reduce masses and monetize a pressure that already exists, or so they say in the administration. With more than ten million people a year coming to the Fontana, the payment acts as a regulator of the desire for proximity, not of cultural interest. Throwing coins, new risky sport. CNN counted that on the first day of the new system, not everyone was convinced. Apparently, a group of Spanish tourists, reluctant to pay, stood outside the barriers and threw coins into the fountain from above. In fact, several failed completely and did not reach the water, while below, paying visitors ducked as the coins they were raining from above. A municipal official said that in the coming days they would introduce patrols to prevent injuries from incorrect throws. Same problem, different solution. Also in Italy, in the small alpine village of Santa Maddalena, at the foot of the Dolomitesthe response has been different, but part of the same diagnosis: the express selfie is emptying the places that it makes viral of meaning. In his case, the enclave church. There is no charge for downloading a photo, but rather directly limits access For those who do not stay overnight, parking becomes more expensive and they are forced to walk a long way to get to the church that has become an Instagram icon. The objective: to discourage the visitor who arrives, takes the photo and leaves, leaving saturation, but little value for the community. From seeing to consuming the frame. In short, both in Rome as in the Dolomitesthe underlying message is the same: mass tourism no longer revolves around discovering places, but rather consuming images, and administrations are beginning to manage this phenomenon as a product with limits. From this perspective, the Trevi Fountain symbolizes the definitive step, by clearly separating free contemplation from access to the “filming set”, while Santa Maddalena is committed to brake directly to the passing tourist. Two different approaches to the same contemporary problem: when the trip is reduced to a selfie, heritage ends up becoming a stage and access, inevitably, a regulated good. Image | Benson Kua In Xataka | In its fight against mass tourism, Italy has entered uncharted territory: a tax on tourist dogs In Xataka | Italy has had an idea so that mass tourism does not choke it: higher rates and in more places for travelers

The Nintendo DS was the best-selling console in the history of the Japanese manufacturer until now. It’s easy to guess who has surpassed her

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The Nintendo Switch has become the best-selling console in the history of the Japanese company, as revealed by Nintendo in its financial report of February 3, 2026. With 155.37 million units sold until the end of December 2025, the hybrid system has surpassed the 154.02 million of the Nintendo DS, which held the record since its discontinuation in 2013. Two proposals. The data gain more weight considering that the Switch debuted in 2017 with a price of $299.99 (exactly double the $149.99 of the DS in 2004) and not has officially dropped in price in its eight years of commercial life. The concept of the DS (two screens, one of them touch) represented a risky bet when the industry prioritized graphical power. The console found its audience in sectors outside of traditional video games, with titles such as ‘Brain Training’ and ‘Nintendogs’ that attracted users with the same casual profile that the Wii had conquered. Added to this was the DS Lite, launched in 2006, which represented 61% of the system’s total sales: 93.86 million units. The Switch arrives. In 2017, the Switch was double the price of its portable predecessor. Its hybrid concept (functioning as a desktop console connected to the television and as a portable device) eliminated Nintendo’s traditional division between home and mobile platforms. And without price cuts: the OLED model, launched in 2021 at $349.99, meant a net increase in the market positioning of the system. Different pricing policies. The pricing strategy of both consoles differs significantly. Adjusted for inflation, the $149.99 DS in 2004 andThey would be equivalent to approximately $240 in 2024. The DS also experienced reductions during its life cycle, reaching $99.99 in 2011. The Switch, in contrast, has maintained its base price for eight years, something unusual in the consumer electronics industry. The accumulated inflation since 2017 has reduced the real value of the price by approximately 20%. For comparison, the PlayStation 2 dropped its price from $300 to $100 in less than a decade. But the Switch unifies two segments: while the DS competed exclusively as a portable platform (coexisting with the Wii and Wii U as home consoles), each Switch unit captures both the traditional home console and handheld audiences. The difference: the software. Beyond hardware, software performance reveals a gap between both systems. According to data from November 2025the Switch has sold 1,452.79 million software units throughout its life cycle, compared to the 948.76 million that the DS reached at the end of its production. A difference of 53% in favor of the Switch that indicates a greater commitment on the part of its user base. Put another way: each Switch owner has purchased an average of approximately 9.4 games, compared to 6.2 for DS users. The Switch catalog, which includes ports and remasters of titles previously exclusive to other platforms, has reached an audience that goes beyond the traditional Nintendo. PS2 objective. The Switch is still below the absolute industry record: Sony’s PlayStation 2 maintains the position of best-selling console of all time with figures that exceed 160 million units. This brand has generated some controversy after Sony updated its historical data including sales that were not previously listed in its public records. To reach that figure, the Switch would need to sell approximately 4.63 million additional units. However, Nintendo’s current projections contemplate only 750,000 more units until the end of the fiscal year. Besides, Switch 2 It has already sold 17.37 million units. The coexistence of both models on the market could accelerate the withdrawal of the original hardware. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The most recurring criticism of Nintendo Switch 2 is that “it does not innovate.” We have tried it and we have something to say about it

It is a parks company that also makes movies

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The Walt Disney Company just announced that Josh D’Amaro, 54, will assume the position of CEO on March 18, thus closing almost three years of speculation about who would succeed Robert A. Iger. The board of directors voted unanimously in his favor, appointing the 28-year veteran to the company he currently leads. Disney Experiencesthe division that generated 36 billion dollars during fiscal year 2025 and contributes approximately 60% of corporate profits. The experience. D’Amaro comes to the position with deep experience in the physical operation of the Disney business (logistics, hotel management, multimodal transportation systems, customer satisfaction) but without significant experience in the film or television production that has historically defined the company. It is a commitment to profitability over glamour. Since 1998. D’Amaro’s career at Disney began in 1998 in Disneyland Resort. For more than a quarter of a century, he rose through various positions: CFO of consumer product licensing, overseer of the most ambitious expansion in the history of Disney’s Animal Kingdom (which included the attraction Pandora – The World of Avatar), president of Disneyland Resort in California and, finally, president of Walt Disney World in Florida, where he coordinated 75,000 employees. The Chapek stage. When Bob Chapek was promoted to CEO in 2020D’Amaro assumed his position at the helm of what was then called Disney Parks, Experiences and Products. The division, renamed Disney Experiencesjust reported quarterly revenue exceeding $10 billion for the first time in the company’s century-old history. With 185,000 employees worldwide, it operates twelve theme parks, 57 resort hotels, an expanding fleet of cruise ships and the consumer products business, including video games. Bet on experience. Disney Experiences generated 71% of the company’s operating income during the fiscal first quarter of 2026, despite representing only 38% of total revenue. While streaming barely broke even in 2024 after years of multibillion-dollar losses, theme parks maintained solid margins even during the pandemic. In 2023, Disney announced a plan to invest 60 billion dollars in a decade to expand this division. Turn towards the experiential. This shift responds to broader transformations in cultural consumption, not just at Disney. He theme park tourism grew at a compound annual rate of 9.2% between 2020 and 2024, driven by a generational preference for experiences over material possessions, something we have already talked about with the live entertainment boom. A theme park offers something that streaming can’t replicate, and Disney knows it. What’s up with Dana Walden. The other candidate for the CEO chair has been named president and creative director, becoming the first executive to hold this position in Disney’s 103-year history. The position unifies the company’s creative strategy under one leadership. From ABC and ESPN to Disney+ and Hulu, everything falls under Walden’s mandate, who will report directly to D’Amaro. With more than three decades in the television industry, Walden spent 25 years at 21st Century Fox, where as CEO of Fox Television Group he transformed the network into a ratings leader. Under his supervision, series such as ’24’, ‘Glee’, ‘Modern Family’, ‘This Is Us’, ‘Homeland’ were produced… When Disney acquired Fox in 2019Walden became head of Disney Television Studios and later, co-president of Disney Entertainment. The teams under his direction have accumulated more than 1,200 awards, including 400 Emmys, and recent series such as ‘The Bear’, ‘Shōgun’ or ‘Only Murders in the Building’ have consolidated Disney’s prestige on television. Immediate challenges. D’Amaro will need to quickly articulate a strategic vision that balances continued investment in parks (where his expertise lies) with strengthening the entertainment business. Streaming, although now profitable, shows some stagnation. And then there is the precedent of Bob Chapekalso hailing from the parks division, who lasted just two years before being ousted amid public conflicts with Iger. This time the consensus has been greater, but… is it what Disney needs? Header | Disney – Matt H. Wade In Xataka | Disney Adults: how the parks are filling up with childless adults who leave their salaries in nostalgia

The world had been in love with US technology for 25 years. We are finally unhooking

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We have been living within a digital ecosystem designed in the United States for more than two decades. Big technology companies not only built the dominant social networks, but also built a network of services around them without real substitutes. From Europe we have been talking for years about technological sovereignty and a possible disengagement – even if it is partial. There are more and more proposals, but at the moment it is more of a wish than reality. Difficult, but not impossible. Become completely independent from American technology In software it is complicated, but feasible. Our colleague Jose told it just a few days ago, leaving aside giants like Google, WhatsAppAmazon, or Instagram. The changes made something very clear: the United States has taken over the great pillars of daily technological life: Internet searches Sending messages online shopping Social networks Email accounts Operating systems The dependence is total, and assuming it is uncomfortable. Countries like France have banned to its officials the use of American platforms such as Zoom and Teamsto promote a video conferencing platform developed in France and under the name Visio. The objective is clear: reduce dependence on foreign technology, minimize costs and achieve a communication standard under European legal control. The UpScrolled case. Behind him TikTok ownership changewhich went from being mainly in Chinese hands to being under the lap of large American companies, the use of social networks like Upscrolledan app founded by the Palestinian Issam Hijazi as a challenge to big technology companies. During the last week of January, Upscrolled was the most downloaded social network above Threads, WhatsApp and TikTok in the United States App Store. A paradigmatic case in which Americans themselves opt for alternatives outside their country. The Proton case. Although less recent, the proton case It is one of the most ambitious in the last five years. From being protagonists only for ProtonMail (end-to-end encryption by default, European jurisdiction and independence from the Big Tech model), to a whole suite with calendar, VPN and storage alternatives. According to the company, its apps already have more than 100 million users. Good number, but far from more than 100 thousand millions of users who have Google services. The distance remains enormous, and explains why technological disengagement continues to be, for the moment, more of a political and cultural gesture than an everyday reality. Prepared for the worst. At the end of January, the Wall Street Journal reported a scenario starring even more tension. The Greenland case has been the flame necessary to finish lighting the fuseand the main managers of European strategic sectors want to move both their systems and data to local centers. Thinking about a 100% European software ecosystem does not seem entirely realistic. But imagining a scenario in which the dependency is not complete sounds a little better. Image | Xataka In Xataka | We criticize the EU a lot with its obsession with regulating Big Tech. There are at least two examples that justify this obsession

Critical dress rehearsal leak forces NASA to delay Artemis II

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If we learned something with Artemis I in 2022 is that liquid hydrogen is possibly the biggest enemy of NASA’s patience in its missions. And in the last few hours the US space agency has confirmed what many of us feared after a difficult weekend: the launch of Artemis IIthe mission that must take astronauts around the Moon, officially delayed until March. An accumulation of errors. These days NASA had on its agenda to do a ‘general rehearsal’ for the launch of this new mission that aims to test its equipment to take the final leap: put man on Mars in the future. And everything seemed to be ready, with the astronauts in strict quarantine since January 23. But in the end, Florida’s weather reminded us again that it reigns supreme with freezing temperatures and strong winds that forced these plans to stop. Some specific limits. A priori, these adverse conditions should not be a problem for cutting-edge operation, but the reality is that the SLS rocket has very strict operating limits: it cannot safely load fuel if the temperature drops below 4.4ºC for more than 30 minutes. Something that eliminated the launch window that It was scheduled between February 6 and 7moving hope to February 8. The coup de grace. But if the weather was already a big problem, in the last few hours the last major inconvenience has arrived while retrying to refuel under more favorable conditions. It was none other than a leak of liquid hydrogen that was detected at the umbilical interface of the rear service mast while the test was being carried out. Something that has forced everything that was being done to stop, and logically to make decisions that are very hard. Safety first. Although the agency managed to complete many of the test objectives, the hydrogen concentration exceeded safety limits, forcing the rocket to be drained. Administrator Jared Isaacman has been blunt– Crew and vehicle safety is the top priority, so no launch window will be forced. A ‘dejà vu’. For fans of the Artemis show, this sounds painfully familiar. The situation is almost a carbon copy of what was experienced with Artemis I in 2022and although at that time it was not the weather, there were recurring technical failures such as propellant leaks and problems with the pressure fans that caused multiple cancellations of the general rehearsal. Because of those technical problems, they were forced to return the rocket to the Vehicle Assembly Building for much more thorough checks, pushing the April launch to the end of August. Now the similarity lies in the complexity of liquid hydrogen, an ultracold and extremely difficult to contain fuel that remains the Achilles heel of these missions. What will happen now? For now, with all these problems behind us, the launch window that lasted until February 11 has been completely ruled out. This forces us to look for a new date that NASA aims for sometime in March 2026although without specifying a specific day. To do this, they must still analyze data and above all have a successful general rehearsal to validate the safety of the operation. As far as the astronauts are concerned, it no longer makes sense for them to remain quarantined at the Kennedy Space Center, so they will return to Houston until there is a new firm launch date. Images | POT In Xataka | Claude begins to seem unstoppable: NASA has already used him to plan routes for the Perseverance rover on Mars

The European Bizum will soon be a reality. It is very bad news for VISA and Matercard

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Europe will have its pan-European mobile payment system. Although we all thought that we would have a unique and universal Bizum For EU countries, what will happen will be a little different, but just as effective and probably better: long live interoperability. European Bizums connect. As indicated in CincoDíasBizum and the rest of the European platforms that imitated those free transfer functions easily accessible from mobile phones have finally joined forces. all friends. That was the last obstaclebecause all of them wanted to become the unique and universal Bizum. That would have forced the rest of the platforms to say goodbye to make way for that single platform, but instead what will happen is that the different platforms will be interoperable. The agreement includes 130 million connected users. Thanks to this interoperability project, 130 million EU (and Norwegian) citizens will be able to use this system. Not only that: the interoperable platform will be prepared to accept those from other European countries such as Switzerland or even others from markets not belonging to the euro zone. The key is in SPL. This interoperability can be achieved thanks to the so-called Standard Proxy Lookup (SPL), a “directory” service at the European level managed by the European Payments Council (EPC). This service allows banks to check which IBAN corresponds to each telephone number. Everything runs on the SEPA Instant Transfer infrastructureand thanks to new EU regulations, these transfers will soon be mandatory free or will have the same cost as a standard transfer, eliminating the traditional abusive commissions for immediate transfers. In 2026, personal payments. The technical implementation will begin in the coming months, and it is expected that before the end of the year a Spaniard with Bizum will be able to send money to a German with Wero and vice versa in a transparent and simple way. In theory, the operation of the system will not change for users, who will simply have to enter the recipient’s mobile number, regardless of the EU country, so that the transfer is carried out instantly. Shops in 2027. These personal payments with the European Bizum will end up giving rise to the other great option of the system: payments in electronic stores and points of sale. This option will arrive a little later, in 2027, and will undoubtedly be the great spearhead of these platforms against the two fierce competitors that dominated this segment. Setback for Visa and Mastercard. This agreement allows the European Union to have an internal payment system that will allow it to reduce its dependence on the systems that have been the de facto industry standard for decades, those offered by Visa and Mastercard. And a measure of the banks for the banks. European banks are also strengthening their position regarding the digital euro project that the European Central Bank (ECB) is preparing. This currency will in the future allow European citizens to have deposits in central banks without intervention by private banks. That, of course, took power away from these entities, but with this European Bizum they reinforce their role. Another step towards European digital sovereignty. For decades Europe has delegated all its digital systems to companies, especially from the US, and this project confirms an increasingly strong trend: that of European digital sovereignty. When processing payments within a European banking network, citizens’ consumption data does not go to US servers (as happens when using Visa, Mastercard, Apple or Google). And you can use Bizum without a bank card. This agreement does not prevent the platforms from continuing to evolve and improve on their own. This is what Bizum intends to do, which will launch Bizum Pay this year to pay directly in stores with the current account and without the need for a bank card. This will allow us to avoid dependence on Google Pay or Apple Pay, for example, on our mobile phones. It will first offer this option in shops in Spain, and in 2027, in line with the objective of that interoperable European Bizum, in shops in the EU. In Xataka | The Treasury confirms it: payments for dinner and gifts to your friends through Bizum do not go to the Tax Agency

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