Month: March 2026

The best offers from MediaMarkt and El Corte Inglés in technology, today March 7

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Both MediaMarkt and El Corte Inglés have started the month of March very well, launching numerous offers on practically all types of devices. There are many discounts available during the weekend, so in this article we are going to review the five best deals we have found. nintendo switch 2 by 459 eurosthe hybrid console in a pack with one of the best discounts in recent months. Marshall Major IV by 59 eurosretro headphones with a big battery. Asus Rog Xbox Ally by 499 eurosthe consolidated PC now cheaper. Sony HT-SF150 by 129 eurosa sound bar that offers good audio power. Sony LinkBuds Open by 73.90 eurosopen-type Bluetooth headphones. nintendo switch 2 The nintendo switch 2 It has not stopped receiving offers since practically its launch, and now we have a very interesting one in MediaMarkt. By 459 eurosthis is the pack that includes the video game ‘Mario Kart World‘ in digital format, an especially interesting addition to start playing as soon as we have the console in our hands. Right now, the pack is priced slightly lower than what the console normally costs without the game. Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Marshall Major IV If you are looking for good headphones, El Corte Inglés and other stores have them. Marshall Major IV for only 59 euros. The price is especially interesting considering what they offer: good audio quality, theoretical autonomy of up to 80 hours and the possibility of two people listening to the same music by connecting other headphones via a 3.5 mm jack. In addition, visually they are very attractive headphones. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Asus Rog Xbox Ally At a time when RAM and many devices are increasing in price, many others are doing the opposite through the offers that stores are launching. The consolidated PC Asus Rog Xbox Ally has dropped right now to 499 euros on MediaMarkt and is ideal if you are looking to play your favorite video games anywhere. Asus Rog Xbox Ally (16GB, 512GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Sony HT-SF150 It won’t have a huge discount, but the Sony HT-SF150 It is a sound bar that is currently at a good price. 129 euros. It is a perfect model to give extra quality and audio power to the television, since it offers a power of 120W and has Bass Reflex, which guarantees deep and clear bass. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Sony LinkBuds Open If what you want are TWS headphones, the Sony LinkBuds Open They are also on sale at MediaMarkt for 73.90 euros instead of 199 euros. Of course, only in purple. They are open type headphones, especially useful if we want be aware of what is happening around us while we listen to music. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | MediaMarkt and Compradicción (header), Nintendo, Marshall, Asus, Sony In Xataka | Best wireless headphones. Which one to buy and 19 models from 20 euros to 450 euros In Xataka | Analysis of the best headphones for less than 100 euros: sound quality, active cancellation, battery, design and microphone tested

Fuel prices are so high that airlines are at risk of disappearing, according to Deutsche Bank

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On February 28, the United States and Israel bombed several cities in Iran, starting a conflict that has already spread to other countries in the Middle East, when Iranian missiles responded to Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait or Dubai and other emirates. One of the consequences has been the rise in fuel prices at a dizzying pace due to the paralysis of a key corridor for global energy: the Strait of Hormuz. The days go by, prices continue to rise and when something as strategic as oil rises, it is a matter of time before the accounts come together. Deutsche Bank warns: the sword of Damocles is on the neck of the airlines. The context. Bloomberg collects the information sent by the German financial institution to its clients: while the price of crude oil has increased by 50% so far this year, it is aviation fuel that takes the cake. The British Argus Media collects the price of the jet in recent days for the hubs of Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles and New York, where we see how it goes from 2.17 dollars per gallon on January 5 to 2.29 on February 5 until approaching 4 dollars per gallon on March 5 (3.95). In the United States, the price differentials between jet fuel and the price of crude oil range between $85 and $95 per barrel, equal to or higher than the cost of oil. That huge gap between the price of crude oil and that of refined products (called the crack spread) wreaks havoc. The last time a crack spread like this occurred was in 2005, when hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Why is it important. Because as the German entity highlights, 20 years ago the crack spread caused significant and widespread damage to the airline industry, which was the trigger for airlines to Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines filing for bankruptcy. The historical precedent sets off all the alarms. And Deutsche Bank is not alone: the CEO of United Airlines At the moment it has already warned that the increase in jet fuel prices will have a “significant” impact on first quarter results and that there could be an increase in air fares. Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Linenberg is forceful: Without immediate price relief, “some of the most financially vulnerable airlines could halt operations” and “airlines around the world could be forced to ground thousands of aircraft.” In detail. At the moment, airlines have plummeted on the stock market since the beginning of the conflict. American Airlines has lost 19% so far this year, but the blow is global: a group of 29 airlines, hotels and travel companies from Europe, Asia and North America together lost $22.6 billion in market capitalization in a single day, according to Reuters. In Xataka | The rocket and the pen: the theory that explains why the rise in gasoline is here to stay In Xataka | There is a hidden war to sell us the cheapest possible gasoline. One that Ballenoil and Plenergy already dominate Cover | Dawn McDonald and Daniel Shapiro

50 years ago, an inventor introduced the first water engine. He was Spanish, a visionary and a complete fraud

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“Of my patent, the license for Spain is transferred free of charge to the State for the benefit of all Spaniards.” Loud and clear, this is what Arturo Estévez Varela, the inventor of the water engine and, without a doubt, a great Spaniard. At least that’s what they must have thought. NODE viewerswhich in the early years of the 1970s included the words of this man from Extremadura. “That died with my father and we haven’t bothered to move it either,” said Arturo Estévez Jr. in a report for RTVE in 2009. Perhaps due to lack of knowledge or, probably, due to having too much knowledge. Knowledge that the invention, in reality, was completely unrealizable and that the patents shown to the journalist from the public entity have no value. But who was that man in a suit who drank from a jug before filling the tank of a motorcycle with water and made it work? Behind the name of Arturo Estévez Varela there was an inventor, an enormous visionary and, why not say it, also a scammer. Before his water engine, this Extremadura native born in Valle de la Serena (a small town of just over 1,000 inhabitants in the province of Badajoz) had already devised a chicken roaster with infrared and the “wing plane”, a device that allowed rockets to be recovered. Space X in Franco’s Spain. Arturo Estévez Varela in a demonstration of his invention With four liters of water, 900 kilometers of autonomy But if Arturo, who perhaps at this point we should start calling Don Arturo, became famous for something, it was for his water engine. An invention that, according to what he said, allowed you to travel by car 900 kilometers with just four liters of water. Statements included in the press of the time. It was October 1970 and, evidently, it seemed like magic. How did good old Don Arturo get a motorcycle he was taking around Spain running? Yes, with water, but also with hydrogen. Water was only one of the pillars of his invention. The third was hydrogen. And the second, a mystery. Town to town and city to city, Don Arturo traveled throughout Spain, generating a stir as he went, capturing the attention of the press and, as we have seen, also of the NODO. What this Extremaduran inventor did not reveal was what was hidden in that substance that, together with water, allowed the combustion engine of his motorcycle to work. In theory, the water reacted with a mineral that Arturo did not want to reveal. This reaction produced hydrogen which, when burned in the combustion engine, made the motorcycle work. That is, the procedure was similar to that have tried in Toyota. It is not a motor fuel cellis a combustion engine that burns hydrogen, a much more inefficient process. If we consult different sources on the Internet, many agree that the Francoism came to order a technical report to check if what that unknown inventor said was true. Obviously, everything was left in water, yes, but borage. missing These same sources end their story at the same point. Don Arturo was tireless in making himself heard, in convincing people and strangers that his invention worked and that it was the solution to many of Spain’s problems. However, it disappears. Nothing else was heard of him and the fables begin. Since the Franco regime tried to hide the invention until the oil companies decided to silence it. It seems that the secret, however, was not so secret. In this blog They recover a large part of press clippings from the time. Shortly after making himself known and without being listened to by the Government, Don Arturo managed to get someone to trust him. That someone was José Carrera Rey, a businessman who bought half of the rights to the invention at a price of six million pesetas. It is at that moment that Don Arturo loses track of him. José Carrera Rey then discovers that he has in his hands an invention that is useless. What it doesn’t have are six million pesetas and he doesn’t have a partner either. In desperation he denounces Don Arturo but nothing is heard from Don Arturo again. Only an indictment, in 1974, for an alleged crime of fraud, managed to get Don Arturo to appear in court. However, in December 1977 the magistrates were clear: Justice matters were already going very slowly in Spain and Don Arturo had not committed any crime of fraud because he believed in his invention, so there was no type of deception. Due to the dates on which the Spanish Television report was recorded and what his son says, Don Arturo died on the border of the 80s and 90s and took his secret to the grave. A secret which, according to the scientists who have studied the case, was boron. He boron It is a chemical element that, in reaction with water, produces hydrogen that, even, can become inflamed due to the enormous heat released. Hence, Don Arturo always warned that his “secret mineral” and water had to be mixed in controlled quantities. As collected The Vanguard last summer, the water engine, therefore, is perfectly functionalbut very little useful. To obtain 5 kg of hydrogen, with which a fuel cell Toyota Mirai (more efficient than burning hydrogen) travels about 600 kilometers, 45 liters of water and 19 kg of boron are needed. The problem is, basically, the 68,000 euros that 19 kg of boron would cost, according to what was reported in the Catalan newspaper. Was it functional? Of course, but, at its side, the first liter of synthetic and emissions-neutral fuel at 2,800 euros It no longer seems so expensive to us. Image | Commons In Xataka | The 194 kilometers that changed the history of the automobile have a first and last name: Bertha Benz In Xataka | The history of the first traffic light in Spain, installed in 1926: six lights … Read more

which cars can circulate and which rest on March 7

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This Saturday the vehicle restriction scheme is activated again in the Metropolitan Area of ​​the Valley of Mexico, known as Hoy No Circula Sabatino, with which the Ministry of the Environment of Mexico City (SEDEMA) seeks to contain pollution spikes by cutting the number of cars on the street. Before starting the engine, it’s time to calmly check what hologram your car has, how the license plate ends and what type of Saturday the calendar marks, because it depends on whether you can drive or have to leave the vehicle parked. The scope of the program is not limited to the 16 municipalities of Mexico City: it also extends to 18 municipalities of the State of Mexico integrated into the metropolitan area. Among them are: Atizapan of Zaragoza Coacalco de Berriozábal Cuautitlan Cuautitlán Izcalli Chalco Chicoloapan Chimalhuacan Ecatepec de Morelos Huixquilucan Ixtapaluca Peace Naucalpan de Juárez Nezahualcoyotl Nicolas Romero Tecámac Tlalnepantla de Baz Tultitlan Chalco Valley If your route crosses any of these points, you must assume that the Saturday No Circula Today restrictions also apply throughout the journey. What cars and license plates does Hoy No Circula Saturday affect? The spirit of the scheme is simple: take a portion of the most polluting cars off the road to reduce total emissions, but different rules are combined on Saturdays than those from Monday to Friday. The filter is defined taking into account three variables: the verification hologram, the last digit of the license plate and whether Saturday corresponds to an even or odd week, which distributes the breaks throughout the month between the different groups of drivers. It is also worth remembering that the Saturday Hoy No Circula does not operate 24 hours a day: The valid hours are from 05:00 to 22:00, so that outside this interval there are no restrictions derived from this program, unless an environmental contingency or other extraordinary measure is decreed. For March 7, 2026, the calendar places the date as the first Saturday of the month, which classifies it as an “odd week” within the scheme. In this scenario, vehicles with hologram 1 whose license plate ends in an odd number are the ones that must remain out of circulation between five in the morning and ten at night, which is when the measure applies. If your car fits that combination of hologram and license plate finish, the recommendation is to leave it stored until the restriction hours end and look for mobility alternatives for your trips that day. On the other hand, cars with hologram 0 and 00 maintain a green light to circulate without limitations within the rules of Today Not Circulating on Saturdays, while vehicles with hologram 2 cannot circulate on any Saturday, regardless of whether the week is even or odd. Beyond these assumptions, there is a list of exempt vehicles that can move normally despite the program: Electric, natural gas or hybrid technology vehicles Units registered with plates for people with disabilities All those intended for urban public transport services (including funeral services) Those dedicated to school or passenger transportation Those assigned to public security and/or civil protection Those who decide to ignore the provisions of Today No Circula Saturday risk a significant financial penalty. The fine for driving when it does not correspond is 20 to 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA), a figure that translates into around 1,900 and almost 2,900 pesos, to which could be added the immobilization of the vehicle and the time lost to recover the unit and regularize the situation before the authority. Looking ahead to this Saturday, if you plan to drive through CDMX or through any of the Edomex municipalities that are part of the program, the most prudent thing is to confirm in advance what hologram your car has, how your registration ends and what type of week you are in. Today No Circula on Saturday is designed to leave the most polluting cars at home, but at the same time it forces you to better plan your trips and always take into account other mobility options when your car has to rest Photo | Noah Katz In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

Claude just demonstrated it with Firefox

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For years, finding serious vulnerabilities in complex software has been a task reserved for specialized researchers who spend weeks or months examining millions of lines of code. That scenario is beginning to change. Artificial intelligence models are no longer limited to generating code or helping to debug it, they are also beginning to detect security flaws on their own. A recent example has been shown by Anthropic with Claude Opus 4.6its most advanced model, when put to the test with Firefox. The experiment is especially striking because Firefox, managed by Mozilla and used by hundreds of millions of people, is one of the most audited open source projects in the web ecosystem. Analyze the Firefox browser code. During two weeks of testing, the system identified 22 different vulnerabilities, according to information published by both organizations. Mozilla assessed 14 of them as high severity flaws, meaning they could have served as a basis for attacks if someone had developed the appropriate exploit code. According to those responsible for the project, most of these problems have already been solved in Firefox 148, the version published in February, while the rest will be corrected in future versions. Inside the experiment. Claude’s work was not a simple automatic search for errors. According to Anthropic, the team first used the model to try to reproduce historical vulnerabilities recorded in Firefox, a way to test if it was able to recognize real failure patterns. Then they moved on to the most interesting part of the experiment: asking it to analyze the current version of the browser to locate problems that had not yet been reported. The process started in the JavaScript engine and then expanded to other areas of the code. In total, the analysis covered thousands of files from the project, including several thousand C++ files, generating a long list of findings that were subsequently reviewed by the researchers. A striking fact. Claude found more high-severity bugs in two weeks than the browser usually receives in about two months through its usual investigation channels. During the process, the Anthropic team submitted 112 unique reports to the project’s bug tracking system, although not all were confirmed vulnerabilities. Part of Mozilla’s job was precisely to review, debug and classify those findings before determining which ones had real security implications. The experience ended up becoming a direct collaboration between both organizations to review the results and prioritize corrections. The other half of the problem. The Anthropic team also wanted to see how far the model could go beyond detecting errors and turning those failures into real attacks. To do this, they asked him to develop exploits capable of taking advantage of the discovered vulnerabilities. The experiment included hundreds of runs with different approaches and cost approximately $4,000 in API credits. Still, the result showed a clear difference between the two capabilities: Claude only managed to generate two working exploits in a simplified test environment, without some of the defenses present in a real browser. Beyond the specific case of Firefox, the experiment reflects a change that is beginning to worry and interest the security community at the same time. AI-based tools are rapidly improving at detecting vulnerabilities in complex software, which could help developers fix bugs more quickly. Images | Anthropic | Rubaitul Azad In Xataka | iPhones were supposed to be the most secure cell phones in the world. It was supposed

Huawei arrived at MWC as if the European blockade attempt had not happened. And he left as one of the great protagonists

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There are images that summarize geopolitical tension better than any official document. One of them occurred in Barcelona during the last Mobile World Congress. While several European capitals debate how to reduce the presence of suppliers considered high risk in telecommunications networks, Huawei appeared at the sector’s largest fair with a presence that is difficult to ignore. The Chinese company arrived at the event with one of the most visible spaces in the venue and left as one of the most notable presences at the congress, a scene that helps to understand the current relationship between Europe and the technology giant. The image. When touring the pavilions of the Barcelona exhibition center, it was quickly understood the weight that Huawei had decided to exhibit. As Politico tells itthe company installed one of the largest exhibition spaces at the event and located it in one of the busiest areas of the complex, a location usually reserved for the most powerful actors in the industry. During the days of the fair, that stand became a constant crossing point for executives, operators and analysts who toured the congress. Prominence also on the agenda. Beyond its deployment within the venue, Huawei also took up space in the official MWC programming. Company executives participated in different sessions of the congress and the company was among the actors present in the debates on network infrastructures and technological evolution of the sector. That role was reinforced with a recognition at the Global Mobile Awardsthe awards that are presented every year during the event. The award for one of its network infrastructure developments served as a reminder that, despite the political climate surrounding the company in part of Europe, its technological weight within the industry remains relevant. The European contrast. The scene left by the MWC contrasts with the political climate that has surrounded Huawei in part of Europe for several years. The European Commission has been toughening its discourse for some time on suppliers considered high risk in critical telecommunications infrastructure and has encouraged Member States to reduce their dependence on them. In parallel, several European countries have taken measures to limit or withdraw their technology from sensitive networks, especially in the deployment of 5G, with decisions in countries such as Germany, which has prompted the withdrawal of Chinese components in critical parts of the networkor Sweden, that banned Huawei from its 5G networks. The result is a fragmented map in which regulatory pressure coexists with a more complex industrial reality. Spain has not been immune to the European debate on Huawei either, although its evolution has followed a less abrupt path than in other countries. The Government has not decreed a formal ban, but the company’s role in critical infrastructure has been progressively decreasing. In the deployment of 5G, the large operators have been replacing their technology in the network corethe part that manages user communications and data. The result is an intermediate scenario: Huawei is still present in the technological ecosystem, but its weight in the most sensitive points of the networks has been significantly reduced. A resilience already known. The Barcelona scene fits a pattern that Huawei has been repeating for years. Following the sanctions imposed by the United States in 2019, many analysts assumed that the company would be relegated to a secondary role in the global technology industry. However, the company quickly refocused its strategy: strengthened its domestic market in China, developed its own chips and opted for an independent software ecosystem after losing access to Google services. This adaptation process allowed the company to remain present in numerous segments of the sector, even in markets where its position had been weakened. The image that Huawei left at the MWC. We can interpret it as a moment within a longer story. For years, different actors have tried to stop the advance of the Chinese giant in the global technology industry. However, the company has continued to reorganize its strategy and maintain a presence in the sector. What happened in Barcelona suggests that this process is far from over. Quite the opposite: we are watching a new stage unfold in real time. Images | Huawei In Xataka | The US has decided to shoot itself in the foot and destroy one of the best AI companies in the country

How does not having enough magnesium impact our body?

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For society and science, aging healthily and having a good quality of life in the last years of life It is a goal that we want to reach little by little. Gene therapies, evidence that do exercise of strength is the best and even having a good diet These are some of the keys we know to be able to have very healthy aging. But to this list now we must add the magnesium. On everyone’s lips. The magnesium supplementation It is something that is quite fashionable right now in society in general due to the supposed benefits that having optimal levels of this mineral can have. But now it is being seen that magnesium deficiency is not only tremendously common as we age, but it acts as a catalyst for our body to age worse and faster. There are studies. To verify the effect of magnesium on our old age, we have to look at the research that science has done on the matter. In this case, in the biology of aging they are guided by what they call the ‘hallmarks of aging’that is, marks of aging in the genetic material that dictate how and why our cells deteriorate. Here is a review from 2024 put on the table that magnesium is directly related to each and every one of these markers. We are talking about DNA instability, shortening of telomeres, which are essential to protect the genetic material, dysfunction of the mitochondria, which are the ‘energy factories’ and the dreaded chronic inflammation. And it has been seen. Studies done in the laboratory had already warned us of this. In 2008 It was shown that when a type of human cell was cultured in a magnesium-poor environment, it entered programmed senescence. That is, they age suddenly. Here it was seen how tissue aging markers began to increase and telomeres shortened rapidly. Basically, the cell loses its ability to repair itself and goes into an “early retirement” mode. Its consequences. This accelerated cellular aging not only remains in the microscope, but has great consequences in the human body that results in what is known in medicine as ‘inflammation‘, that is, the chronic low-grade inflammation that is associated with age. In this way, chronic magnesium deficiency favors the production of free radicals and pro-inflammatory cytokines, and this oxidative cascade has a direct impact on protein. Klothopopularly known as the “anti-aging protein.” And it is that this protective protein of our cells, without magnesium, it seems to function much worse. In the day to day. Here science suggests that having low levels of magnesium in the blood increases up to 24% the risk of dementia and cognitive decline. And in the case of muscle, it occurs a loss of muscle mass and strengthwhich is one of the great dangers in the elderly. Why is there a deficit? As we age, our body becomes inefficient at processing this mineral, which results in the The intestine absorbs less magnesium from food and the kidneys excrete more through urine. Yes to this we add diets which may be poorer at certain ages, along with more typical age-related diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, the result may be a drop in magnesium. The supplementation. Although it may be very easy, given all this, to start taking magnesium pills daily, the truth is that it is not necessary. In this case, the clinical approach proposed is to have personalized supplementation with a diet rich in magnesiumwith more green leafy vegetables and legumes. But in addition, it is also important to measure how much magnesium we have in our blood with an analysis to decide whether to take supplementation or not. The problem is that today having a magnesium supplement is within everyone’s reach, finding it on supermarket shelves. But we must insist that, before starting to take a pill, we must see if we really need it. Images | MIND FAVOR Daniel Franco In Xataka | Which dietary supplements really work and which don’t, in a great graph

A single company is going to buy 20% of all the footwear manufactured in Mexico. Their goal: confront China

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These are not easy times for the footwear industry in Mexico, a sector that generates tens of thousands of jobs, moves million-dollar investments and has its headquarters in the state of Guanajuato. main bastion. In a market highly conditioned by Asian competition, the local industry has experienced setbacks and job lossstaying far below of its production capacity. With this backdrop, the sector has received curious news: a single Mexican company is willing to buy 20% of all national production. Shoe addict. Grupo Coppel is a heavyweight in the Mexican economy. He holding companywhich a year ago announced its plans to invest almost 700 million of dollars in the country throughout 2025, has a long experience in the financial services and retail sector, with hundreds of points sales distributed throughout the country. All in all (and despite its enormous size), it is surprising the advertisement what it just did: in 2026 the company plans to buy no more and no less than 42 million pairs of shoes produced in Mexico. That’s a lot of shoes, right? Yes. To be precise, this is one million more pairs than those already purchased in 2025. However, the figure is striking for another reason. With this enormous volume of purchases, Coppel will account for a fifth (about 20%) of all formal national footwear production. The operation is part of a “strategic alliance” reached with the Chamber of the Footwear Industry of the State of Guanajuato (CICEG) and, according to calculations from the firm itself, will allow “contributing to the livelihood” of the more than 100,000 families that depend directly on the footwear industry in Guanajuato. “This alliance promotes the growth of our companies and strengthens the Mexican footwear industry in an environment of legality, transparency and respect for market rules. By choosing the formal national supplier, you contribute to the construction of a more solid and competitive sector,” celebrated a few days ago Juan Carlos Cashat, president of CICEG. For shoe manufacturers in Guanajuato, the news is a valuable breath of fresh air. Footwear ‘made in Mexico’. His output It is far from that of countries like China, India or Vietnam, but Mexico is a prominent footwear manufacturer. In fact there are rankings that place it as the tenth worldwide and second in Latin America, only behind Brazil. In 2024, the country’s companies produced around 214 million of pairs of shoes, which explains why the sector contributes million dollars to the Mexican GDP (especially in Guanajuato, the heart of the sector) and also maintain thousands of jobs. Despite this footprint, the sector has not had easy years. “The impact of the pandemic was severe. Before 2020 we had 64,000 jobs registered with the IMSS. During the pandemic that figure fell to 49,000,” recognized two years ago the CICEG. Since then the situation has changed, but the sector stay away to be at 100%. Beyond market fluctuations, the industry has had to deal with competition from low-cost merchandise from Asia. Click on the image to go to the tweet. The Government, to the rescue. The data quoted by the local press are eloquent. In 2022, Mexico imported 136.4 million pairs of footwear valued at 1,843 million dollars. Two years later, the Import Trade Balance showed that this flow had already reached 185.5 million pairs with a value of 2,163 million dollars. On average each pair cost $11.6. The problem was not so much the arrival of products manufactured in Asia as the competition it exerts on national firms, especially due to suspicions of price manipulation. To clear up doubts, the authorities responded with an investigation antidumping and in September 2025 they decided to impose a system of compensatory duties on imports from China. It was not the only support from the Government to the industry. In November the Executive advertisement a Textile and Footwear Promotion Plan to finance small and medium-sized businesses. The objective: inject around 6.5 billion dollars to improve the competitiveness of the industry and reactivate 50,000 jobs, recovering part of the lost production muscle. How does the future look? Optimistic. At least that is what the CIEG recognized in December. “Despite a challenging economic and commercial environment, the industry in Guanajuato is beginning to show signs of recovery, especially in terms of employment and productive capacity,” indicates the sectorwhich recalls that between the month of September and October it registered a small rebound in employment. The increase was modest (256), but it is the first recovery “in many years.” The employers’ association also detected a change in the international market. “Total imports remain high, with more than 141 million pairs imported from January to September 2025, although relevant progress in the fight against unfair practices stands out,” celebrates CIEG“Imports from China, corresponding to tariff items with quota, decreased by 81%.” Images | Irfan Simsar (Unsplash) and Phil Desforges (Unsplash) In Xataka | Mexico City is already noticing the economic effect of the World Cup: it is losing homes and gaining Airbnb apartments

Ben Affleck had been secretly setting up an AI company for filmmakers for four years. Netflix just got it

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Netflix has acquired InterPositivethe post-production AI tools company that Ben Affleck founded in 2022 and that was quietly developing tools. Its 16 employees go to work for the platform and the actor and director takes on advisory roles. The operation occurs just a week after Netflix will abandon the bid for Warner Bros. Discovery. What InterPositive is NOT. It is worth starting with what InterPositive does not do: it does not generate movies from a prompt of text. It’s not soraor anything similar. InterPositive starts from the already shot material of a series or movie (in any production, what is known as the dailiesthe raw footage that is recorded each day) and trains a specific AI model according to the characteristics of each production. This model then allows manipulate material during post-production: correct color, relight shots, add visual effects, reframe shots or redo shots that were not filmed. The company’s first model, for example, was trained to understand what Affleck calls “visual logic and editorial consistency”, respecting the real conditions of a shoot: the model solved common problems such as missing shots, details in the backgrounds that need to be corrected, incorrect lighting… All oriented towards filming techniques, not the actors’ performances. AI yes, but with nuances. At a conference in 2024, Affleck argued that AI “will eliminate the most laborious, least creative and most expensive aspects of filmmaking,” reducing barriers to entry. His stance is born from a specific concern for preserving what he calls “judgment”: the ability to make creative decisions that are only built with decades of experience. Affleck spoke to Netflix executives from InterPositive for the first time last fall, and acknowledged initially feeling “scared” at the idea of ​​computers playing a central role in production. Netflix, in favor. The acquisition fits into a strategy that Netflix has been defining with some consistency since 2024. At that time, the Argentine ‘El Eternauta’ included the first AI-generated scene in the final footagea sequence that was completed ten times faster than it would have been possible to do it with conventional effects. In ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ they used AI to digitally rejuvenate actors, and in ‘Pedro Páramo’ as well, with a total budget equivalent to what the visual effects of ‘The Irishman’ alone cost five years earlier. That timing Well. It’s very curiousand it is not clear if it means anything, that the purchase of InterPositive is announced just a week after Netflix withdrew from the bidding for the studios and streaming from Warner Bros. Discovery. Netflix saved, in the words of its financial director, “2.8 billion dollars.” The acquisition of InterPositive, although certainly of much smaller dimensions (although nothing is known about figures), indicates where it can direct part of those resources: basically, its own production. Disney, on the other side. Meanwhile, one of Netflix’s biggest competitors, Disney, has signed a three-year license agreement with OpenAI which allows Sora users to create short videos with more than 200 characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars. One billion dollars of investment that goes in the opposite direction to what Netflix intends, which is to make its own productions cheaper. Regardless of the position of each player in this game, Hollywood experiments more and more openly with AI in all phases of production, from pre-production to visual effects. A new landscape is opening up for film production and Affleck’s company is just one of the first chapters. In Xataka | ‘Critterz’ will be much more than the first AI-animated film: welcome to the new era of machine-made cinema

the third country in South America with the shortest day

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Reduction of working hours to 40 hours per week It is already a reality in Mexicoafter his approval and publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF). Now, the country begins a period of progressive adaptation that will end in 2030 with a 40 hour work day weekly. This milestone places Mexico in an advantageous position with respect to the rest of the continent, being the third country in South America with the shortest working day. This change comes in a context in which the majority of Latin American countries still maintain a 48-hour work week, while only Ecuador and Chile have until now had a 40-hour regulation like the one Mexico now faces. Mexico joins the 40-hour “club”. With the reform, Mexico joins Ecuador, a regional pioneer in reducing the working day since 1997, and Chile, which is already in the process of transitioning from 45 to 40 hours with closure planned for 2028. The International Labor Organization (ILO) points out in its report ‘Reduction of working hours: global evolution and challenges for Latin America‘ that 48-hour work weeks remain the norm in Latin America, although some countries have moved towards shorter limits. The report highlights that reducing working hours can improve health, well-being and productivity, but clarifies that the impact depends on the economic context, the design of the reform and of complementary policies that each country adopts. Other countries with days of less than 48 hours. Beyond the aforementioned examples of Ecuador and Chile, other Latin American countries have already reduced their working hours to below 48 hours, although without reaching the 40 hours of the Mexican project. The Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras maintain a 44-hour day, while Colombia established it at 42 hours per week, after a gradual reduction that began in 2023 and concluded this year. In contrast, most of the economies in the region, including Mexico until now, continue with the 48-hour limit, which reflects a certain degree of immobility in the face of international recommendations and the experiences of reducing working hours that have already been carried out. in other countries. How the reduction will be applied in Mexico. Taking the example of other countries that have already followed the path of reducing working hours, in Mexico, the change will be carried out gradually, with the goal of going from 48 to 40 hours weekly without altering the scheme of a single day of rest, something it shares with the recent reforms in Chile and Colombia. The adaptation will be carried out progressively at a rate of two hours per year, so that in January 2027 the working day will become 46 hours per week; In January 2028 it will go to 44 hours and by January 2029 it will be reduced to 42 hours. In January 2030, the cycle ends and the working day will be established at a 40-hour work week. All this without applying a salary reduction. The labor challenges of Latin America. The ILO report highlights that the reduction of working hours in Latin America faces specific challenges, such as high levels of informality in contracting, limited coverage of collective bargaining and a tendency to underground economywhich conditions the scope of the reforms. Furthermore, sectors such as domestic work, moonlighting and gender gaps They require specific regulatory frameworks for their respective labor markets and not a simple copy of the models that have worked in high-income countries. In Xataka | If the question is how to do your job without extending the working day, the answer is simple: avoid “time traps”

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