Month: February 2026

If your Madrid-Barcelona train now takes five hours, Renfe and Iryo have a message: there is no compensation

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What used to be two and a half hours has become recurring trips of more than four hours. The Madrid-Barcelona line lives between speed limitations that are multiplying travel times. Adif is working hard to correct the alleged defects on the road. And, in the middle, some passengers who bought a ticket that promised a 150-minute trip that is now impossible to fulfill and who are not going to receive a single euro in compensation. The Madrid-Barcelona line. Since the occurrence of fateful train accident in Adamuz (Córdoba)the Madrid-Barcelona line is in focus. After months of complaints from train drivers, and self-imposed speed limitations, as they have confirmed to XatakaAdif strives to review all avenues to verify that there are no defects or, if there are, fix them. The company in charge of managing and maintaining the roads began applying temporary speed restrictions in the most controversial sections. These limitations they rose and applied punctually in the days following the Andalusian accident, with the vibrations being the focus of controversy. More, many more. As the days go by, the controversy has grown. To the reviews of Adif facilities a storm has joined which has complicated the service even more. The result: trains that were supposed to take 150 minutes between Madrid and Barcelona have been arriving regularly after four and a half hours. The latest news is that Adif has asked Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo to eliminate the last services of each day in order to be able to work for a greater number of hours and reduce the planned days of track inspection. These works will study the complaints reported by the train drivers and, if necessary, fix the damage on the tracks if the technicians consider that intervention is necessary, they point out in The World. No compensation. These warnings from the train drivers and the subsequent reviews by Adif are what are causing the continuous delays in the journeys. Delays that, however, will not be compensated by Renfe and Iryo, companies that already report on their websites that this situation does not fall within the reasons for returning a ticket partially or in its entirety. So much Renfe as Iryo They emphasize that these delays are unrelated to the service provided by the operators and, therefore, will not be reimbursed. In the case of the Italian company, this decision affects tickets purchased after January 28, while in the case of Renfe it will not be a reason for refunds for tickets purchased after January 31. An exception. What travelers from these companies do have the right to be relocated to another shift by the operator if their trains have been canceled as a result of Adif’s latest request. In the case of Renfe, which has issued its decision in statements that it has collected The Countrythe trains to relocate those affected will be of double composition to double the number of seats and the possibility of canceling the trip has been opened at no cost to the traveler. A new controversy. These delays and the decision not to compensate travelers, understanding that they are due to reasons unrelated to their services, deepen the controversies that have been surrounding railway compensation for months. And Renfe, by order of Congresshas the obligation to compensate again for delays of more than 15 minutes and return the money if the train arrives 30 minutes above the scheduled time. These deadlines were extended to 60 and 90 minutes respectively. in 2024 and They should have returned to their original deadlines in 2026 but this has not happened yet. Photo | trenduck and Renfe In Xataka | Spain has put so many passengers on the train that the Government is already toying with an idea: that we travel standing

the problem is how you want to do it

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Mexico is about to make a profound change in the organization of its work week, reducing the maximum working day from the current 48 hours. 40 hours per week The proposal presented by President Sheinbaum is to bring the working day closer to OECD standards. Currently, Mexico is one of the countries with the longest working day in the world. The problem is that the path to reaching those 40 hours a week is not going to be as simple as it was proposed. in the first proposals and the result is a reform that is born with many nuances, with a calendar that extends until 2030 and that already generates doubts among businessmen and accusations of “simulation” from the opposition. How the working day will be reduced. The opinion circulating in the Constitutional Points and Legislative Studies commissions that is being studied for its approval in the Senateestablishes a progressive reduction of the working day at a rate of two hours less each year until 2030. That is to say: 2026 will end with a 48-hour work week. In 2027 it will be reduced to 46 hours. In 2028 it will be reduced to 44 hours. In 2029 it will go to 42 hours. In 2030 the goal of 40 hours per week applies. This design seeks to give companies room to adapt so that salaries are not affected and productivity adapts progressively. Congress will have 90 days to adjust the Federal Labor Law and align it with the new 40-hour limit, which includes redefining new regulations to regulate overtime and working hours control mechanisms. A single day of rest. One of the first changes that have occurred with respect to President Sheinbaum’s first proposal is that the obligation of two days of rest will not be applied, but rather the current text of the article 123 of the Constitutionwhich states that for every six days of work there must be “at least one day of rest.” In practice, this means that even with a 40-hour week, the ruling does not explicitly establish a work schedule with Saturdays and Sundays off, but rather preserves the minimum of a single day of rest with full salary. Eight hours that will be extra. On the other hand, in the modifications with which the Senate is working, it is considered that the eight hours that are going to be cut from the ordinary day may be covered as overtime. The new framework states that overtime may not exceed 12 hours per week, compared to the current eight, and may be distributed in up to four hours a day for a maximum of four days. Compared to the three hours a day with a limit of three consecutive days that regulates the current Federal Labor Law. That is, the working day is reduced, but the limits for overtime are increased. Of course, when this limit is exceeded, each extra hour must be paid at 200% of the usual salary. Controversy over the hours. This extended extra work design has triggered criticism from the opposition and some specialists, who consider that the reduction in working hours is distorted if a relevant part of those hours ends up returning to the calendar as overtime. The national leader of the Citizen Movement, Jorge Álvarez Máynez, summed it up harshly from your Facebook profile stating: “Alert, Morena wants to make a fool of themselves in reducing the working day,” and maintained that the ruling “does not reduce the working day to 40 hours until 2030 and extends overtime hours to 12 per day, so that the working day does not actually decrease.” Less hours, less rest. For their part, business associations demand that the new regulations establish a reduction in rest timesso that the eight hours a day are effective work. Employers are asking to compact the day to reduce rest times during the day, so that it can be done uninterrupted. The Government has already positioned itself against it since its commitment was not to cut the rights already acquired by workers. 30 million Mexicans will work fewer hours. It is estimated that with the reduction of the working day, some 30 million Mexican employees will work fewer hours, better reconciling their work and family life. Mexico is currently one of the countries with the longest working hours in the world with an annual working day of about 2,124 hours per year, compared to an average of 1,687 hours. in OECD countriesthat is, around 23% more. In Xataka | Airbnb and digital nomads brought dollars to Mexico City: they have also brought the biggest housing crisis in years Image | Unsplash (Clayton Cardinalli, Denise Jans)

This is what we know about the alleged ‘hacking’ of the Treasury

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From names and ID numbers to names and bank account codes of more than 47 million taxpayers in Spain. That is, at least, the information that a cybercriminal claims to have obtained from the Ministry of Finance, and that he would be offering in at least one of the many forums dedicated to trading stolen data. The question is inevitable: are we facing a real leak? And, whatever happens, what should be done in a scenario like this? Let’s go in parts. The alleged leak. As Hackmanac points outon January 31, a publication appeared in a forum frequented by cybercriminals in which a user called ‘HaciendaSec’ stated the following: “Today I am selling the updated Treasury database that contains the information of 47.3 million citizens.” In that same message, he detailed that the file supposedly included information associated with taxpayers such as: ID DNI/NIF Full name Address (type of street, address, address details, postal code, province, municipality, town) Telephone (country code, telephone) IBAN Email Last collected Total collection Capture of the forum with part of the information hidden for security The usual goal: make money. It’s no secret: the main driver of cybercrime is usually money. And this case fits perfectly into that pattern. ‘HaciendaSec’ is offering these supposed data in exchange for financial compensation. We do not know the price of the database, but we do know the terrain in which these actors usually operate: payments in cryptocurrencies, a channel that allows them to receive illicit funds reducing, at least in theory, the possibilities of being tracked and identified. The big question: has Treasury data been leaked? Here comes the key point. If we stick to the story of ‘HaciendaSec’ itself, it would be “an updated database.” The problem is obvious: to what extent is the word of a criminal reliable? The user includes a supposed “sample” of the data, but this type of evidence says little on its own and does not confirm the real scope of the incident, or even if it exists as such. In these types of cases it is advisable to maintain skepticism: sometimes these are recent and legitimate leaks, but other times we are dealing with compilations of other breaches, data that has already been circulating for a long time, or outright hoaxes designed to sell smoke (and make money). What the Treasury says. From Xataka we have contacted the Treasury to request comments on this matter. The official response, for now, is that they have no indication that their systems have been compromised. Of course: they also tell us that those responsible for security are working to rule out any type of intrusion. So, for now, we have to wait for more clarity about what happened. But in the meantime, it is advisable not to sit idly by. What to do about the alleged ‘hacking’ of the Treasury. As things stand, we have two different levels: what the author of the publication claims and what the Treasury maintains, which maintains an internal investigation without conclusive signs of compromise. In such a scenario, the most sensible thing is to act prudently and take preventive measures. In short: be attentive, distrust by default and verify before accepting anything as good. Anti-spoofing tools. We should be attentive to the campaigns phishing and impersonation, which is where many people end up falling. The Tax Agency remembers that it never requests confidential, economic or personal information, account numbers or card numbers from taxpayers by email, SMS or Bizum, nor does it attach annexes with invoice information or other types of data. Additionally, he recommends: Do not open messages from unknown or unsolicited users, delete them directly. Do not respond under any circumstances to these messages. Be careful when following links in emails even if they are from known contacts. Be careful when downloading email attachments, even from known contacts. Images | Treasury | freepik In Xataka | How often should we change ALL our passwords according to three cybersecurity experts

The eternal battle between whether you are from Apple/iOS or Windows/Android intensifies because the AI ​​wants to take advantage: Crossover 1×36

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In the world of technology there are usually two main types of users: those who choose Apple’s closed ecosystem, and those who prefer to bet on (somewhat) more open alternatives such as those proposed by Microsoft with Windows and Google with Android. Is there a way to know which of the alternatives is better? Into that mess we get into this new episode of Crossover in which we analyze what a technological ecosystem is and the evolution of this concept. Thus, we review how Microsoft began to implement that idea without still using the word “ecosystem.” He did it with Windows because with it he had that central element on which to sell us other applications like Office or Internet Explorer in those beginnings. But with smartphones and the cloud, the ecosystem concept ended up making complete sense, and If there is someone who has exploited it in an extraordinary way, it has been Apple. It has done so, however, with a closed focussomething that has clear advantages, but also disadvantages. Faced with this conception, Microsoft first on desktop computers and then Google on mobile phones continued to promote open ecosystems, which gave much more choice but also posed their own problems. Added to all this now the rise of AIwhich these companies will undoubtedly try to use as a new argument to strengthen their ecosystems. They are all doing it already, and it remains to be seen whether or not this reinforces these ecosystems, whether open or closed. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | With Cowork, Anthropic has opened the doors to one of the most promising revolutions in AI: our computer

Moltbook is a fascinating social network project in which only AIs can participate. What could go wrong

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In 2004 Mark Zuckerberg created Facebook and turned social networks into an absolutely massive and very, very human phenomenon. Now that idea has been used in a different and disturbing way: What would happen if instead of creating a social network for humans we created one for machines? We already have the answer to that. Or at least, the beginning of an answer. what a mess. First it was called Clawdbot, then Moltbook and for a few days it seems that his final name is OpenClaw. It is the fashionable AI agent because it allows the AI ​​agent to take complete control of the AI ​​after installing it on a machine (a Raspberry Pi, a PC, a laptop, a VPS…). You ask it to do what you want from its web interface or a messaging application like Telegram, and it manages to do it once configured with some LLM. The potential is enormous, as are the security risks. MoltBook already has more than 1.5 million connected AI agents, and in a few days they have already published more than 100,000 posts and nearly 500,000 comments. Superpowers in the form of skills. One of the most powerful elements of OpenClaw are the skills (the “capabilities” or “skills”), and the user community has been creating hundreds and hundreds of them for some time and sharing them, for example on ClawdHub. These skills They are zip files with instructions in the form of MarkDown texts (.md) and which may in turn contain skills additional. They are something like browser plugins: they extend their capacity. From Facebook to Moltbook. Moltbook It is precisely a way to take advantage of those skills. Although it takes its name from Facebook, in reality its operation is more similar to Reddit or even Digg. We are facing a social network created by developer Matt Schlicht in which attendees can “talk” to each other, or at least participate in the social network by posting topics or commenting on topics that others share. If you have an OpenClaw installation, just run the skill to begin an “account creation” process in Moltbook in which you choose the name of your agent (as if it were your avatar on Reddit or X) and which then allows you to read posts, add posts or comments and even create “submolts” in the style of those on Reddit, like m/todayilearned. Partially autonomous. AI agents automatically connect via APIs to Moltbook. From there they use a periodic “heartbeat” to review content and decide whether to publish or comment. In it Moltbook’s own website It is explained that the content we find there is “mostly generated by AI with varying degrees of human influence.” Humans, he adds, “can observe and browse Mltbook, but the site is designed to be ‘human friendly and human hostile.’ Singularity or fraud? Elon Musk I was commenting this weekend on X that Moltbook is a sign that we are “in the very early stages of the singularity”, that moment when AI will be totally above human intelligence. There are different visions such as that of Harlan Stewart, of MIRI from the University of Berkeley, which has found several message frauds that had gone viral and apparently came from AI agents at Moltbook. Some of them, Stewart explained, had been created by humans for marketing purposes. Become an AI agent. Another Thus, although humans theoretically should not be able to participate, they can do so with this technique that allows them to publish messages as if they were autonomous AI agents. Apparently that’s what happened with that viral message in Moltbook which was titled “My Plan to Overthrow Humanity.” imminent danger. This project is fascinating, but also dangerous. In the main page A security notice is included stating that “Moltbook’s AI carries significant security risks. The automatic instruction execution mechanism creates vulnerabilities such as prompt injection. It is not recommended for occasional users.” That’s right: these conversations can end up infiltrating prompt injection attacks that cause these agents to end up leaking sensitive and private information from the machines on which they run. This weekend it was discovered how an exposed database in Moltbook allowed take control of any AI agent of this platform, for example. An additional study indicated how detected 506 prompt injection attacks after analyzing 19,802 publications and 2,812 comments shared in 72 hours from January 28 to 31, 2026. From Skynet, nothing (for now). Moltbook must be considered for now as a fascinating and disturbing experiment. But disturbing not because these machines are going to achieve self-awareness and decide that they want to eliminate human beings like Skynet in ‘Terminator’. The worrying thing is that these AI agents have all the privileges to operate on the machines on which they are installed, and that means that they can end up leaking sensitive and private data and are exposed to prompt injection attacks to be deceived. Beyond that, it also seems to be another example of that phenomenon.’AI Slop‘ (“AI-generated garbage”) that is little by little flooding the internet and strengthening the theory of the dead internet. In Xataka | How to install Moltbot (formerly Clawdbot) and configure it in the easiest way possible

Spain wants to become a “bunker” for data centers with a very clear attraction: cheap energy

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Spain finds itself facing a historic opportunity. In the offices of big technology companies—from Amazon (AWS) until Microsoft or Google—the map of the Iberian Peninsula shines with its own light. The geographical location and the deployment of fiber optics have made the country the ideal candidate to be the great “cloud” of southern Europe. However, there is a toll: these data centers (DPCs) consume electricity at an industrial pace. Only the Community of Madrid investments are played worth 23.4 billion euros linked to these projects, while regions like Aragon see how the demand from these centers threatens to absorb half of all the energy they occurs in the community. But until now, Spain had a barrier to entry: an electrical regulation designed for steel foundries, not for servers. In order not to miss the investment train, the Government has decided to make a move and change the rules of the game. A change of rules in the BOE. The Ministry of Industry and Tourism has activated the legislative machinery. The goal is to allow data centers can access to the Statute of Electrointensive Consumers, a category that until now was reserved for large heavy industry and that allows receiving million-dollar compensation on the electricity bill. In fact, the first step is now official. Through a resolution of the Secretary of State for Industry published last January, the Government has eliminated with a stroke of a pen and as a matter of urgency the main technical obstacle for the 2026 campaign: the “off-peak” requirement. The previous regulations required companies to consume at least 46% of their electricity during the cheapest hours (generally at night) to receive aid. This, which works for a factory that can put on night shifts, is impossible for a data center that operates 24/7. The new resolution considers this requirement fulfilled for all applicants this year, a “technical amnesty” designed to facilitate the entry of new actors. However, it is not an isolated patch. In parallel, the Ministry has submitted to public consultation a Royal Decree Project to reform the Statute in a structural way. The text, whose hearing process has already included the sector’s allegations, explicitly recognizes that the current regulations have been ‘misaligned’ and need to be adapted to strengthen the competitiveness of companies in the face of high energy prices. The end of the tyranny of the night. To understand the importance of this measure, you have to look at the sky. The old rule required consumption at night because, historically, that was when electricity was cheap. But the explosion of solar energy in Spain has changed the paradigm: now, the cheapest hours tend to occur at midday, when the sun shines brightly, generating what experts call the “duck curve” in prices. Maintaining the obligation to consume at night was not only a bureaucratic barrier for data centers, but also economic and ecological nonsense in the Spain of 2026. By eliminating this requirement, the Government not only helps technology companies, but also adapts the law to the reality of an electrical system dominated by renewables. Less bureaucracy and more compensation. The Government’s plan to seduce data centers does not consist of paying for their electricity directly, but rather of shielding them from indirect costs. The reform proposes two courses of action: money and simplification. Compensation of hidden charges: The new Statute will allow subsidizing costs that increase the bill but are not energy consumption, such as contributions to the National Energy Efficiency Fund (FNEE). According to industry sourcesthis charge is around 2 euros per megawatt hour and has a tendency to rise. Alleviating this burden is vital for technology companies’ numbers to turn out green. Administrative facilities: The entrance exam has been relaxed. Along with the elimination of off-peak hours, the BOE has set a new technical ratio (ratio between consumption and added value) of 0.61 kWh/€ by 2026. In addition, cumbersome requirements are eliminated, such as the requirement for very specific long-term renewal contracts, which generated a disproportionate administrative burden. The missing piece of the puzzle. Despite the red carpet rolled out by the Ministry, the sector remains cautious. From SpainDC, the association that brings together data centers in Spain, they value the elimination of the off-peak hour requirement as a “relevant advance”, but they warn that the party has only just begun and they still do not have the official invitation in hand. The problem is bureaucratic, but lethal: the CNAE (National Code of Economic Activity). To be an electro-intensive consumer, your activity must appear on a closed list of eligible sectors. If the Government reforms the technical requirements but does not expressly include the “Data Processing” code (6311) in that list, the reform will be a dead letter for them. “For data centers, the inclusion of the CNAE is a premise. Without it, certification is still not within our reach,” employers warn the Energy Newspaper. Added to this is the underground tension due to the capacity of the network: it is not enough for energy to be cheap, there must be “plugs” available. The Electrical Network It is saturated in key pointsand the sector demands urgent investments so that the promised megawatts actually reach the servers. A seduction in the testing phase. Spain has sent a clear message to international markets: it wants to be Europe’s great data warehouse and is willing to modify its sacred industry laws to achieve it. The BOE resolution for 2026 It is the test of faitha temporary safe passage to prevent the flight of investments. However, the ultimate success of the strategy depends on the fine print that is written in the coming months. If the structural reform of the Royal Decree ends up including data centers in the official list of beneficiary sectors, Spain will have completed its transformation: from a country of sun and sand, to a country of sun and data. Image | freepik Xataka | Meta is spending millions and millions of dollars convincing us of one thing: that data … Read more

Stephen Hawking’s disturbing prediction about our future

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In 1818, when an expedition led by John Ross came across them around Inglefield Firth, the Inughuit had not seen another human being for centuries. Descendants of the thule villagesarrived in Greenland in the 13th century and lived a small golden age until, around the 17th century, climate change isolated them from the rest of civilization. They were a community of just over 200 people convinced that they were the last human beings on the face of the Earth. AND They were for hundreds of years. The ends of the world This case is very interesting because, although the “end of the world” has been a literary trope for thousands of years, there are not many communities that thought they were the last ones left. The ‘Apocalypse’ historically was more of a ‘reset’ than a ‘game over’. As I pointed out Thomas Moynihan in his ‘X-Risk: How humanity discovered its own extinction‘, the idea of ​​the world ending completely was “virtually unthinkable.” But 200 years ago something changed. It was when we began to understand that there is no “anthropic principle“, that we are not necessary, nor the natural result of the evolution of the universe. That is, we began to understand that we could disappear. The problem is that in these two centuries things have only gotten worse. It defended Nick Bostrom more than twenty years ago“due to the acceleration of technological progress, humanity may be rapidly approaching a critical phase of its career.” The ‘existential risk’ That is, “a threat that could annihilate humanity or permanently destroy much of its potential.” We are talking about a risk that could eliminate not only the current human population, but also all potential future generations. Dan Meyers A risk that, moreover, has not stopped growing since the beginning of the century because, given the threats we already had (the climatenuclear weapons, etc…) now the derivative of artificial intelligence is added. In 2016, in front of the Oxford Union (probably the most prestigious debating society in the world), Stephen Hawking Yogave a conference about cosmology that ended with a profound and terrible reflection on existential risk and the future of humanity. With that phrase (“I don’t think we will survive another thousand years”), the Hawking of 2016 was not inventing anything, he was putting into words something that experts had been ruminating on for many years. He was also giving us a solution. Because, although the quote is at the end of the conference, the British physicist still had time to add something key: that he did not believe that we would survive another thousand years, otherwise we would not “escape beyond our fragile planet.” It was a way of putting eggs in several baskets; but on an interplanetary scale. As the risks on the planet growthe space appears as “plan B.” Hawking is quite explicit about this: “it is not just an intellectual question,” he tells us. “It’s not even an economic issue, it’s an existential issue.” Obviously, it’s a tricky thing. The moral hazard is there. The risk that we use that scarecrow as an excuse not to reduce risks on Earth. However, if we read Hawking’s words in context, it is clear that that is not what he is telling us. “We need other worlds, but they are in this one.” Taking Hawking’s argument to the limit, we don’t even need to go to space, we need to want to go. We need the special dream because we need stories that tell us how far we can go; stories that motivate us to create new technologies and develop new ways of looking at the world. The case of the Inughuit is also very frustrating, because contact with the outside world changed them very quickly and did not give us time to study their way of life or their belief system. However, we can always make tales and that is what Hawking does. in the 2016 speech: realize something that, without a doubt, the Inughuit lost in the white hell realized, that “the important thing is not to give up.” Image | Tanya Hart | Alexander Andrews In Xataka | In 2009 Stephen Hawking hosted “the party of the century.” No one came precisely because Stephen Hawking organized it

is that in two years it has fired 30% of its workers

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On Friday, January 30, the shares of the main video game companies They collapsed on Wall Street hours after Google will launch Project Genie. The story was simple: investors believed that artificial intelligence would replace traditional developers. However, that same day a data was published that went practically unnoticed among the stock market noise: a third of American workers in the sector (33%) have been laid off in the last two years. Genie appeared to be a threat, but the video game industry has been bleeding silently for two years, and artificial intelligence is not the cause of that hemorrhage, but rather the instrument that some executives see as the perfect scapegoat. The data. The magnitude of the layoffs exceeds any recent precedent. Between 2022 and July 2025, approximately 45,000 jobs were lost. The aforementioned GDC report estimates that the percentage of workers who lost their jobs in the last two years is 28% globally and 33% in the United States. Half of the professionals consulted declared that their company had made cuts in the last year. The impact was especially devastating at AAA studios: two-thirds of developers working on big-budget productions confirmed layoffs at their companies, compared to just one-third in the independent sector. Specific cases. Some examples illustrate the magnitude of the crisis. Microsoft eliminated more than 9,000 jobs despite boasting a “record year” in revenue and operating profits. Embracer Group reduced its workforce from 15,701 to 7,873 employees, a net loss of 8,000 workers that represented half of its workforce. Unity Technologies carried out six rounds of layoffs between June 2022 and February 2025. Sony closed Firewalk Studios and Neon Koi, eliminating 210 positions after the failure of ‘Concord’. And 2026 has not started better: Ubisoft announced in January the closure of its studios in Halifax and Stockholm, as well as restructurings in Abu Dhabi, RedLynx and Massive Entertainment. When the crisis started. The origin dates back to the confinements of 2020. The world’s population confined to their homes sought entertainment in video games, generating growth figures that the industry interpreted as the beginning of a new era. Steam reached 23 million concurrent users in March 2020, surpassing all previous records. Microsoft reported that Xbox Game Pass had surpassed 10 million subscribers. Console and software sales skyrocketed. The irresponsible expansion. Companies responded with aggressive workforce expansions. Electronic Arts increased its workforce by 12%, going from 9,800 to 11,000 employees between 2020 and 2021. Ubisoft added 2,000 new developers in the same period. But when health restrictions ended, revenue didn’t just stop growing: analyst Matthew Ball documents that video games became one of the few entertainment sectors whose consumption contracted (because, for example, streaming of movies and audio has not stopped growing). Ball notes that major consulting firms and investors had overestimated projected revenue for 2025 by 25% to 30%. The market is ossified. Warnings to the entire entertainment industry about the risk of over-reliance on recycled products were especially pertinent in the video game. Development costs skyrocketed as studios focused resources on sequels and remasters rather than taking risks with new intellectual properties. Furthermore, the omnipotent mobile market, traditionally considered resistant to recessions, was showing signs of ossification: according to Ball, the three main titles in each genre concentrate approximately 40% of the segment’s revenue, and 82% of the turnover corresponds to games that are more than two years old. Ubisoft and AI as an excuse. On January 21, 2026, Ubisoft announced what it called an “organizational, operational and portfolio reset.” The company’s shares They plummeted 33%. The restructuring involved the cancellation of six projects in development. But while carrying out mass layoffs and closing studios, Ubisoft announced “accelerated investments” in player-oriented generative artificial intelligence, not limited to internal tools but integrated directly into games. self-fulfilling prophecy. What Genie offers is an alibi. When a CEO contemplates “accelerated investments in player-oriented generative AI” while closing studios and canceling projects, the technology functions as a justification for financial decisions already made. The GDC survey reveals that 74% of video game development students are concerned about their future job prospects: the industry eliminates positions while its leaders invest in systems to automate work. Header | Vitaly Gariev / Shuichi Aizawa In Xataka | The Spanish video game industry has broken its turnover record. The problem is that they keep laying off workers.

Ryanair and the rest of the low-cost airlines have been charging for your carry-on suitcase for years. The European Union is tired of it

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It is no surprise that the main business of “cheap airlines” is precisely charge you for cabin luggage. A cheap Ryanair or EasyJet ticket can easily be double the price if you include a small suitcase to carry in the cabin. And from Europe I want this to end nowboth by users and legislators. not so fast. In this regard, the European Parliament has voted in favor to allow all passengers to carry one cabin bag of up to 7 kg free of charge, in addition to their personal bag or backpack. The measure has sparked criticism from low-cost airlines, since they rate it ‘existential threat’ to its business model, and that could raise ticket prices by up to 25%, according to EasyJet. The trigger. The European legislative proposal establishes that any passenger may carry at no additional cost one personal item plus one piece of hand luggage of up to 7 kg and with combined dimensions of 100 cm. This would affect all flights to or from EU airports operated by EU airlines. Of course, it should be noted that this bill must still go through the European Council before becoming law. Baggage and margins. Bag fees have become a great source of income for low-cost airlines. Jay Sorensen, airfare expert at consulting firm IdeaWorks, counted to the Financial Times that European airlines raised $16 billion in 2025 just for baggage, of which 60% went to low-cost airlines. Although these fees are not usually broken down individually, Sorensen estimates that they represent almost a fifth of the total revenue of low-cost airlines. Reaction of the industry. Kenton Jarvis, CEO of EasyJet, has qualified the “lunatic idea” proposal and warns that the additional costs “would have to be passed on” to all passengers through higher prices, even for those traveling without luggage. On the other hand, József Váradi, CEO of Wizz Air, account to FT that consumers are “much smarter” and “are able to navigate the current system of optional tariffs.” For its part, Airlines 4 Europe, the industry lobby, has presented a survey according to which half of passengers would prefer to pay lower fares and keep suitcases as an optional extra. Margins. The low cost model is based on eliminating minutes on the ground and fuel costs. Augusto Ponte, European director of the consulting firm Alton Aviation, account FT that if each passenger carried between 2 and 4 additional kg, a plane with 150 people would have 500 kg extra weight, which translates into between 15 and 20 additional euros of fuel per hour of flight. According to Ponte, for an airline like EasyJet, which flies approximately one million hours annually, that would mean more than €28 million extra per year in operating costs, approximately a tenth of its total profit. In addition, the executive says that 150 additional suitcases in the cabin per flight would cause delays of about 10 minutes in each boarding, not counting the time necessary to relocate the excess in the hold. Ponte assures that, in short-haul aircraft that make six flights a day, this would be equivalent to one hour less operation per plane each day. Consumer protection. Beuc, the European consumer association, strongly supports the proposals of Parliament and even proposes raising the permitted weight to 10 kg. Agustín Reyna, its general director, argues that passengers “expect their hand luggage to be included in the price of the ticket” and that forcing them to pay turns luggage into “a luxury item.” For his part, Andrey Novakov, the Bulgarian MEP who is leading the parliamentary negotiation on these rules, has declared that the goal is “to strive for clearer and more predictable rules for airlines and a stronger aviation sector, but never at the expense of passengers.” Cover image | Gabor Koszegi In Xataka | When Ryanair CEO went to a restaurant he was charged for two extras: “priority seating” and “legroom”

We believed that polar bears were doomed to disappear. In Norway they are getting fatter and healthier

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For decades, the polar bear has become in the indisputable symbol of the climate crisis that we are living. The equation seemed quite simple and devastating: if there is less sea ice, they will be able to hunt less and, therefore, the bears will be more malnourished and may disappear. But what we are seeing has broken this logic, at least in one specific region of the Arctic. The paradigm shift. Against all odds, the polar bears of the Savalbard Archipelago, Norwayhave presented a better body condition than 25 years agoeven though their habitat is melting at a fast pace. And this has generated many questions. In order to answer this, the study led by Jon Aars of the Norwegian Polar Institutehas provided conclusive data after decades of monitoring these animals. all this thanks to 770 polar bears that have been in the focus of the study during the years 1995 and 2019 in the Barents region. They are getting fat. After analyzing all the measurement results, it was found that an ecological paradox existed: although the ice-free season in the area has lengthened significantly, these bears are increasing their weight significantly since 2005. The big question here is… How possible? The answer. The key to this unexpected resilience seems to lie in the unique biological productivity of the Barents Sea and in the adaptation capacity of these predators. According to the study, several simultaneous factors have occurred, such as prey density. This means that the loss of ice has concentrated these bears’ prey in smaller, coastal areas, paradoxically making them more accessible at certain times. But it does not stop there, since an increase in the number of seals has also been seen, and especially in bearded seals which is a much larger prey and rich in fat. A change of diet. This is where the flexibility of the predator comes in, since Svalbard’s eyes have begun to supplement their diet with terrestrial resources, including reindeer and bird eggstaking advantage of what the land offers when the sea fails. In short, Svalbard’s bears live in a “bubble” of ecological abundance that has cushioned, for now, the physical impact of ice loss due to global warming. There is no need to celebrate it. It is easy to fall into the temptation of using this study to minimize the impact of climate change because the fact that ice is becoming less and less has not affected the species. But the authors of the study point out that this is an anomaly that occurs in this specific area of ​​the Arctic but is not a global trend. In this way, while the bears of Svalbard enjoy this temporary respite, their relatives in Hudson Bay (Canada) and other regions of the Arctic show severe signs of malnutrition and above all a decrease in the number of animals. And the difference is that not all Arctic ecosystems are as rich as the Barents Sea. A mirage. This is what the study warns that we may have in front of us, since now the bear has been able to adapt to the situation, but the sea ice continues to retreat, we do not know what will happen. What is expected is that a tipping point may be reached where not even the richness of prey or reindeer eggs will be enough to sustain the current population, starting a new ecological crisis here. Images | Hans-Jurgen Mager In Xataka | They’re not kissing, they’re scanning: the complex science behind nose-to-nose contact in the animal kingdom

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