Month: April 2026

Japan has plunged into a crazy spiral of aging that is claiming an unexpected victim: the yakuza

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the yakuza it’s news in Japan. And not because of his coups, a particularly successful police raid or a change in policy by the Government of Sanae Takaichi to combat the criminal network that takes centuries filtering into Japanese society. No. The yakuza is in the news because after several years of seeing its ranks decimated, it has reached an all-time low. According to police statistics, in 2025 their criminal groups numbered about 17,600 people (among members and allies), far from the more than 80,000 just a decade and a half ago. This loss of strength is explained by the control of the police and a turn in the underworld towards new criminal networksbut also because of a trend that affects the rest of the country: the yakuza ages, just like society ages Japanese. The yakuza is shrinking. These are not good times for the yakuza. Not at least as far as follow-up is concerned. Statistics from the National Police Agency show that Japan’s quintessential criminal institution (and one of the best-known in the world) has seen its member and affiliate base fall to a minimum. In 2025 They totaled 17,6001,200 less than the previous year. If we look only at the hard core, the full members, the figure is even more devastating: it remains at 9,400, the lowest since there are records. Is the data so bad? Yes. The problem is not that 2025 has been a particularly bad year for the yakuza, but that it maintains a trend that goes back a long time. Nippon explains that the institution has been seeing its ranks thinning little by little for at least 21 years, tracing a negative curve that has no signs of improving. For reference, the newspaper recalls that until 2009 the yakuza had more than 80,000 people spread throughout the country. If we go back to the 1960s, that support base was considerably higher. The crisis also seems to be affecting (to a greater or lesser extent) the different organizations that make up the yakuza. Nippon appointment half a dozen entities that have either stagnated their social mass or have lost members. The worst stop is Sixth Yamaguchi-gumiwhich in 2025 remained at 3,100 members and 3,200 affiliates. They are 200 and 400 less respectively than a year before. Curious yes, new no. The 2025 data is revealing, but will probably surprise few people in Japan. The country takes years reading headlines that report the gradual loss of base of organized crime networks. In 2022 the Police Agency already revealed that the number of members and associates of mafia groups had fallen to 24,100, the lowest figure since at least 1958, the first year with statistics. Only a few years later the ranks of the yakuza fell below the 20,000 barrier, a new low. What is the reason? As is often the case with all social phenomena, whether related to crime or not, this trend is explained by a combination of factors. In the case of Japanese bands, however, there is one particularly interesting one: age. The Japan Times reveals that one of the theories that the authorities use to explain this decline is the aging suffered by organized groups. The yakuza is getting older, just like japan. In 2022, the Japanese police estimated that 30.8% of members They were between 50 and 59 years old, making it the largest cohort. People between 60 and 69 years old represented 12.5% ​​and septuagenarians 11.6%. More than 50% were 50 or older. In general, the average age of the members was 54.2 years, seven more than a decade before. Members between 40 and 30 years old accounted for 12.9% and those in their twenties did not exceed 5.4%. An increasingly aging country. That the ranks of the yakuza are aging can be explained for several reasons. A key one is that Japan in general is getting older. The country has been immersed in a serious demographic crisis which has plunged its birth rate and raised the average age of the population. According to the records According to Statista, in 1950 this indicator marked 21.3 years, in the mid-90s it had already risen to 39 years and in 2020 it was close to 48. Their forecasts assume that at the end of this century the average will comfortably exceed 50 years. The result of that drift? Japan presents one of the worst percentages of population over 65 years of age: represents more than 29%. Click on the image to go to the tweet. One word: tokuryū. There is, however, another factor that explains why the organizations that make up the yakuza are increasingly aging. It is not that crime is fading in Japan, rather it is transforming and it is doing so by leaning towards a new format: the tokuryūcriminal networks that flee from hierarchical and well-structured models, such as the yakuza. The tokuryū (the word is the sum of tokumeik“anonymous” and ryūdo“fluid”) often operate as groups of criminals who form for coups, without structure, codes, organizational rigidity or bonds. That nature deprives them of some of the advantages of the yakuza, but it also has its strengths. The police find it difficult to deal with such loosely knit groups. And they also seem to offer an attractive model for younger offenders. The Japan Times assures that last year 12,178 people related to tokuryū were arrested, 2,073 more than in 2024. Many of them were under 40 years old or even in their twenties, which gives another clue about the changes that the underworld world is experiencing. “The younger generations’ aversion to yakuza organizations, with strict codes of conduct and hierarchies, is a contributing factor to their decline,” precise the diary Sankei Shimbun. Fighting crime. When explaining the bleeding of the yakuza, the authorities point to another factor: the work of legislators and police. Specifically, they point to greater application of the law and ordinances that complicate the participation of companies and individuals in organized crime. To combat crime the … Read more

We attended a crash test and discovered the new (and first) Ebro full electric

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Wuhu has turned out to be quite a surprise. While Beijing has those aromas and that life of what, clearly, is a great capital, Wuhu, although it is enormous, is more reminiscent of that “neighborhood China.” The multi-hundred-story buildings that can accommodate hundreds and hundreds of families make an appearance, of course, but the atmosphere is different. There are restaurants, small shops, it feels more local, more authentic. It is here where Chery, the technological partner of the Spanish company Ebro, whom I accompany on this trip, was born and has its headquarters. And it shows. Not because the hotel we stayed in belongs to the company, that too, but on the road. A walk through Wuhu | Image: Xataka If in Beijing you didn’t see a single Chery car, here they are religion. They are everywhere, wherever you look. The taxis? All Chery. Personal vehicles? Absolute omnipresence of the Tiggo and Arizzo ranges. BYD, Geely, Toyota, Kia and Hyundai are also here, but Chery’s dominance is absolute. Caught | Image: Xataka It’s something normal. China has that component of betting on the local. It is a kind of pride, something to boast about, using a product born in your city and the government promotes it. That’s why BAIC reigns in Beijing and that’s why when they ask you about your cell phone or watch model, they smile a little when they see that, in my case, they are an honor and a Huawei. The same thing happens with Chery, but today it’s not time to talk about Chery, but about Ebro. Chery is the partner technology from the Spanish Ebro, which uses its platforms to sell its own models in Spain, Portugal and, soon, Bulgaria, Slovenia and Croatia. A Ebro s700 It is, at its core, a Chery Tiggo 7. Knowing that, it will not surprise anyone that Ebro’s new model is based on the Chery QQ3 EV. Because yes, Ebro has finally announced a completely electric car which will be produced in its factory in the Free Trade Zone of Barcelona. It still does not have a name and the specifications are not final, since the homologation is missing, but I can tell you a little something, since I have been able to see it in first person. The new electric Ebro | Image: Xataka This car has a clearly urban vocation and is focused on the younger audience. More circular and oval shapes, 2.7 meters between axles and 4.3 meters long give shape to a more compact car and very different from what Ebro has put on the road to date. It is a risky bet for 1) a brand that until now was synonymous with SUVs and 2) a market whose electrification still has a way to go. It has a 42.7 kWh lithium-ferrophosphate battery, which translates into a range of more than 300 kilometers. It has a 90 kW rear axle motor, which allows it to offer, always according to the brand, 122 HP, 111 Nm of maximum torque, 135 km/h maximum speed and acceleration from zero to 100 in less than 11 seconds. At the moment, his name is Ebro BEV | Image: Xataka The power of the charging system has not been revealed, but it will be compatible with AC and DC and will be able to go from 30% to 80% in 30 minutes. Inside the car we find two generous screens, a 15.6-inch floating central one with 2K resolution and a system powered by a Snapdragon chip, and another smaller one, 10.25 inches, in the instrument panel. In China, analog needles and lights have passed away. Interior of the Ebro BEV | Image: Xataka The price has not been revealed either. and the specifications, as we said, are provisional. When the process of industrial adaptation and approval is completed, we will clear up doubts. This is not the only novelty, although it is the most notable. Ebro has taken advantage of the presentation in Chery’s hometown to announce a new version of the Ebro s400 with 1.5 TGDI engine and DHT transmission with two electric motors. This has a power of 224 HP and consumes 5.55 L/100 km. An interesting thing is that it can move in tandem mode (so that the combustion engine generates energy so that the electric one moves the wheels) or in parallel (both engines working at the same time). In theory, this should help reduce the car’s engine noise and improve the lack of “oomph” seen in the previous model. Restyling of the Ebro S800 PHEV. The s700 and S400 maintain the same front grille design | Image: Xataka Ebro also announced a restyling from the s700 and s800with a new front grille with rectangular shapes inspired, according to the firm, in Barcelona, ​​and aesthetic adjustments designed to homogenize the design and give it a more rounded touch. This has been one of the parts of the day, but today I have also been able to witness something that, to date, I had never seen: a crash test. I don’t know, there’s something, let’s say, funny, in seeing a car going towards another knowing that both are going to break down. Under controlled conditions, needless to say. It has a certain charm and, frankly, the real shame is that it lasts so little, because it’s barely a second. New car for sale, few kilometers, one owner, always in a garage | Image: Xataka For the test, Chery placed a Tiggo 9 (remember, the base of an Omoda 9 SHS) at one end of the road. To the other, a Tiggo 7 that rushed towards him at 50 km/h. At the same time that the Tiggo 7 crashed head-on, the Tiggo 9 received a complete impact against a barrier vehicle at 40 km/h from behind. They are, from what they have explained to us, two overlapping forces whose purpose is to bring the test closer to a real environment. To the right and in the background, … Read more

We have been using the excuse of hunger for years to justify our bad mood. Science has just proven us right

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There are people who when they are hungry seem to completely lose control and jump at the slightest, making it difficult to approach them. And it is not a lack of patience for waiting for lunch or dinner, nor is it a personality trait, but rather It’s pure biology. Here society has even given it a name to explain this phenomenon that relates quick anger to the desire to eat: ‘Hangry‘, a fusion between hungry (hungry in English) and angry (angry in English). The definitive experiment. Although this attitude has been internalized in society as a personality trait, like someone who wakes up and can’t have a conversation, science has a lot to say. Specifically, a study published in the journal PLOS ONE in 2022 continued to 64 adults for 21 days to see what happened. Using an app, participants recorded their levels of hunger, anger, irritability, pleasure and arousal five times a day, accumulating more than 9,100 observations. And here the results, the truth is, were devastating: being hungry was directly associated with negative emotions, such as anger or being irascible. A great anger. If we go into detail, the feeling of hunger It was able to explain 34% of the cases of anger, 37% of the cases of irritability and also a 38% drop in the feeling of pleasure. But the most important thing is that this correlation remained firm even after scientists controlled for variables such as age, sex, weight, or even personality traits when not hungry. Because? The answer to these mood changes seems to lie specifically in what we need to ingest: glucose. And it makes a lot of sense, because this carbohydrate acts as the main fuel for our brain and its scarcity generates a true energy crisis that forces the body to draw energy from other places, such as ketone bodies. The brain here is a really demanding organ, since, although it only represents 2% of the body weight, it consumes around 20% of the energy, and in these situations it is noticeable. And it is proven. Without going any further, a study published in 2014 analyzed 107 couples for 21 days, measuring their blood glucose and measuring aggression. The best thing is that they quantified it with a voodoo doll that represented their partner and a pin cushion. From here it was seen that the lower the glucose levels were at the end of the day, the more pins were stuck in the doll. The conclusion seemed very clear: glucose acts as the “fuel of self-control.” Without it, the prefrontal cortex, which is in charge of regulating impulses, loses its ability to stop the amygdala, which is the center of primitive and less rational emotions. What happens. When the brain detects this lack of “fuel”, it does not interpret it as “the restaurant reservation has been delayed”, but as a vital threat that there is a lack of food in the environment. That is why to compensate, the adrenal glands release both cortisol and adrenaline, which are involved in the stress situation. Logically, an increase in these hormones generates irritability that is typical of hypoglycemia. Although if we go further, there are studies that suggest that the brain, in emergency situations such as hunger, prioritizes survival over patience or social courtesy, making us ‘jump’ at any interaction. The good news. Here, being aware of what is happening to us and that it is related to hunger is the most valuable thing to avoid getting angry with our partner or friend. Logically, this makes the brain understand that it is not in the middle of the jungle and that it needs to look for food as soon as possible, but it will only delay a little returning to the glucose levels to which it is accustomed. Images | freepik In Xataka | We thought that quenching hunger with Ozempic was the definitive remedy against obesity. Until we look at the muscle

It has such a mundane history that it is fascinating.

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In the North Atlantic Ocean, off the southern coast of Iceland, there is a solitary building framed in a postcard setting whose image probably sounds familiar to you because it has been photographed to death: it is a small, lonely white house planted in the middle of a rock, surrounded by intense green grass and vertical cliffs that reveal a rough sea and majestic snow-capped mountains in the background. Of course, the house and the island exist: it is not a montage. It is often referred to as “the loneliest house in the world“and around her there are legends like that the singer Björk lived there, that there lived a religious hermit and until it was a billionaire’s idea to flee there in the face of an eventual zombie apocalypse (all false). And one thing is certain: although the idea of ​​the loneliest house in the world sounds exaggerated and difficult to measure, in practice it is close. If it is not the most isolated, it is not missing much. Of course, the reality around it is much more modest and yet interesting: It’s a hunting lodge.now in disuse. A house in the middle of nowhere. Because technically it is not a house, but a hunting lodge that built the Elliðaey Hunting Association in 1953 to provide shelter to its members during the hunting seasons of the puffina most picturesque bird that nests on the island. In 2017, an Icelander named Bjarni Sigurdsson went there to document what was in a video and the truth is that the inventory is quite modest and functional: bunk beds, a room with a long wooden table with chairs, kitchen, radio, candles, refrigerator… come on, a Scandinavian mountain refuge. The shelter does not have an electrical connection to any external electrical network or running water, plumbing or of course the internet. The water comes from a rainwater system and the energy comes from propane gas that has to be transported there. Of course, like good Icelanders, It has its sauna. The best thing in the world after spending several hours exposed to the cold polar wind from the Atlantic. As a curiosity, on the island there is another construction older and much smaller, probably used as a warehouse by research teams studying the nature of the place. Hansueli Krapf Where Christ lost the lighter. The building is in Elliðaey the northeasternmost island of the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago (called the Vestman Islands or Westman Islands), about eight kilometers off the south coast of Iceland. The archipelago is made up of 18 islets of volcanic origin originated in the last 12,000 yearswhich in geological terms makes them “newborn” territory. The largest island and the only one currently inhabited is Heimaey, with about 4,400 inhabitants. From there on clear days you can see Elliðaey. With just 45 hectares, to give us an idea, Elliðaey has an area similar to that of the Vatican. And its almost vertical cliffs, its sloping plateau and the absence of any port or docking area make getting there impractical: you have to jump from a boat and then climb to reach the meadow, as Bjarni Sigurdsson’s excursion documents. This Iceland tourist guide reflects the difficulty of getting there due to its remote location, the lack of a port and the protection provided by the Icelandic government, since it is classified as a protected area. The island is abandoned. Today no one lives there, but Elliðaey was not always empty. The book “Iceland Adventure Guide” is mentioned that in the past there were fishing camps scattered throughout the island and that there were up to three farms, so that 17 people and 258 sheep and even cows lived there. This census continued until the 20th century: in 1920 there were only five people and around that period Olafur Jonsson and his family became the first fox breeders on the islands. A cycle of precarious occupation, dependent on the sea and the climate that was slowly exhausted. Finally, in the 1930s it became uninhabited. Two decades later, the Hunting Association built the refuge. That void between the last inhabitant and the white cabin is, perhaps, what gives the image its very particular character: it is neither an abandoned house nor a new house, but something in between, a place that was once human, stopped being human, and became human again in the most minimalist way possible. Getting there is quite an adventure, so it’s best to see it from the boat. Diego Delso What is it for today?. We have already seen the concrete and unglamorous function of the hut for which it was built: it is a hunting base for the puffin. Puffin hunting is a centuries-old tradition in the Westman Islands, where the bird has historically been a source of food and continues to be practiced in a regulated manner. Of course, puffin populations have been in decline for years in several areas of Iceland due to the change in ocean conditions and the reduction of their food source, so hunting is becoming increasingly residual. Snopes concludes It is not clear that hunters continue to use the refuge and there are no signs of hunting. In practice, today it is probably more of a tourist attraction than a hunting refuge. Björk’s story. That the Icelandic singer lives there or even owns it is one of the most widespread rumors because, well, the Prime Minister of Iceland sowed the seed: the island was (and is) state property, but the then top leader Davíð Oddsson declared that he was willing to give her the island and build a house for Björk to live there rent-free as a sign of gratitude for her work for the benefit of the country and its people. Of course, the island was not “our” Elliðaey (the one with “the loneliest house in the world”), but another Elliðaey, which is in Breiðafjörður. According to the Irish Examinerthe singer turned down the island’s offer because she didn’t want her home to … Read more

The most important question to understand someone is not what they believe in or what they hope for. The question is what does he love?

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“To know if someone is good, we do not ask what they believe or hope for, but rather what they love.”. One reads this phrase and it is almost inevitable to think that it is the typical self-help junk merchandise that fills feeds, mugs and WhatsApp statuses. But nothing could be further from the truth. And not only because It was written more than 1,500 years ago by one of the most influential thinkers in history, but because (in addition) it has become one of the philosophical concepts of recent months. So maybe the question is not what an old priest can teach us in this time full of haste, but also; The question is why that old priest has returned to the center of public debate exactly now. What exactly did Saint Augustine mean? The phrase is very interesting because, beneath an apparent meaningless string (what do you believe? What do you expect?), it hides a very clear idea of ​​what is important in life. In Christian thought, the three great traditional virtues are precisely faith, hope and love. What the philosopher from Hippo defended is that faith is important, of course; Hope is fundamental, of course it is: but at the center of everything is love. In fact, Augustine himself has another famous phase (“Love and do what you will”) that goes much further in his master-centrism. Nobody can be very surprised, really. Saint Augustine has great hits like: “Lord, grant me chastity and continence, but not now.” That “Do whatever you want” sounds suspicious, but (actually) it’s not so suspicious. We’ll see. Why has all this become popular right now? For politics, of course. On January 29, 2025, US Vice President Vance defended in an interview that canceling most US foreign aid and mass deportations with that argument. That “there is a Christian concept old-school “where you love your family, then your neighbor, then your community, then your fellow citizens, and after that, you can prioritize the rest of the world.” Later, at X.com, he spent the afternoon sending people to google “ordo amoris”. That is to say, Vance endorsed that idea of ​​”love and do what you want” in the most direct way possible. But does it make sense? Translated into a more current language, the Augustinian idea simply tells us that the subject is defined by the direction of his desire, not by the correctness of his beliefs or his expectations. But, without getting into political questions, that doesn’t exactly mean that there is a clear order of obligations that tells us who we should love first and who we should love second. It is not a ranking. Augustine’s idea is more complex because, deep down, he was convinced that love has a transformative power over people: it orders them from within. That is the order he claimed. What we can learn from Saint Augustine without entering into politicking. That what is important are the things that really matter to us; not our ideas about the world, nor what we hope will happen. But, above all, because what we love will end up turning us into the type of person we want to be. In someone, as the Father of the Church would say, good. Image | In Xataka | “If I am wrong, I exist”: 1,500 years ago, Saint Augustine had already given the best argument against the productivity gurus

There are 3 fewer days of frost and 5 more days of summer each decade

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Mountains are one of the first thermometers on the planet: they respond earlier, do so intensely and more visibly than any other terrestrial ecosystem to global warming. What begins happening at its summits anticipates what will come later to the rest. The Pyrenees are no exception, in fact they work like a huge natural laboratoryone of the most documented in Europe. And the data they provide is anything but good. He Bulletin of Climate Change Indicators of the Pyrenees prepared annually by Meteocat and coordinated by the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory (OPCC) confirms it: the warming of the mountain range is not something punctual, but structural. What is happening in the Pyrenees. That they are warming asymmetrically and accelerated, with summers exploding at a rate that doubles the rest of the year, which has direct and different consequences on the ecosystem. Jordi Cunillera, head of the Meteocat climate change team, goes even more into detail: on the southern slope the trend is also drier, adding additional water pressure on the southern ecosystems. In data. The list of indicators and the 65 years of monitoring show clear and worrying trends. From 1959 to 2024: Increase in average annual temperature of 1.9 °C. By seasons: while in winter the increase has been 1.4 °C, in summer it has been almost double (+ 2.7 °C) Steady increase in tropical nights. There are 20 fewer days of frost and 32 more days of summer per year. Every decade: There are 3 fewer days of frost with colder winters There are 4.9 more days of summer (temperature above 25 ºC). The temperature increases +0.30 ºC. Why is it important. Firstly, because of the solidity of the research: it does not measure specific variability, but rather the structural and accumulated transformation of the Pyrenean climate over 65 years. The Pyrenees are a climatic island for alpine species that do not have the capacity to migrate further north or higher, a true gem in flora and fauna with endemisms particularly sensitive and vulnerable to changes in temperature. Thanks to its rugged terrain, it has been able to preserve certain spaces from direct human activity (from tourism to agriculture), but it cannot escape this indirect effect. On the other hand, the Pyrenees are also a tap for southern Europe: the accumulated snow and ice feed rivers such as the Ebro, the Segre or the Garonne during the dry season, on whose flow millions of people, irrigated hectares and river ecosystems depend. It is true that precipitation remains stable, but if it gets hotter, water stress increases: evapotranspiration skyrockets, the soil loses moisture faster and terrestrial ecosystems enter a situation of progressive summer water deficit. The system becomes less resilient to disturbances, such as fires. Context. The study is part of the work of the Pyrenees Working Community, which through the Pyrenean Climate Change Observatory seeks to unify the data of the Spanish, French and Andorran states through the LIFE project Pyrenees4Climate. This international cooperation effort is essential as ecosystems do not understand political borders and climate change requires joint actions. In addition to climate monitoring, its objective is to implement the Pyrenean Climate Change Strategythe first European initiative of its kind designed specifically for a transboundary mountain bioregion. The project has established 16 key recommendations, including a “Pyrenean Forest Emergencies Protocol” to share cartography, meteorological data and crisis communication. The report highlights that differences in regulations between the three states slow down the response, which is why they urge the interoperability of physical means and improve protocols to be more resilient to climate change. How they measure it. The scientific robustness of these results is based on the analysis of 12 temperature series and 26 high-quality precipitation series, strategically distributed throughout the mountain range. The different research teams use the period 1961-1990 as a historical reference to calculate anomalies and ensure that the observed trends are statistically significant. The work team is led by Meteocat and has the collaboration of affected organizations such as AEMET, Météo-France, the Andorra Meteorological Service, IPE-CSIC or Euskalmet for a complete and unified view. Among the indicators studied are the average annual temperature, seasonal variation, frost days, summer days, tropical nights, warm and cold spells or water stress. These indicators respond to internationally standardized definitions by the World Meteorological Organization, which allows comparison with other European high mountain studies. The impact on the ecosystem. One of the most serious effects is anoxia in mountain lakes: as surface water warms and winter ice reduces, the natural water mixing cycle is broken, leaving the bottom without oxygen. This phenomenon puts at risk the survival of invertebrates and microorganisms that are the base of the trophic chain in these sensitive aquatic ecosystems, something that is happening, for example. in the Ibón de Marboréin the Aragonese Pyrenees. The Pyrenean glaciers have lost 96% of their glacial surface since the 15th century and the future looks even darker: 4% are will be extinct by 2050. On the other hand, the more intense heat is causing the snow to melt earlier due to the arrival of intrusions of Saharan dust associated with warm air masses from Africa: when dust particles are deposited on the surface of the snow, it absorbs more energy instead of reflecting it, thus accelerating its fusion, as explains Meteored. In addition to being a climatic indicator, the disappearance of the Pyrenean cryosphere means the irreversible destruction of a habitat and a hydrological function on which the entire chain of ecosystems rests, from high mountain lakes to wetlands many kilometers ahead. In Xataka | If we want to know how climate change will affect the Pyrenees, we do not have to look at the heat or the snow. You have to study the caves In Xataka | The Pyrenees have become a huge meteorological laboratory: torrential rains have multiplied by four in Spain Cover | jolumurcia and Myrabella

“forever chemicals” have invaded our closet (and our blood)

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As journalist Jess Cartner-Morley recently wrote on the pages of Guardianthe leggings They have returned with force. They are no longer a garment relegated exclusively to the gym, but have become an elegant option for everyday use. It is a “utilitarian level” garment—as Cartner-Morley defines it—that practically all of us have stored in a drawer. And it’s not the only one: we buy our children “stain-resistant” school uniforms to save hours of scrubbing, or we wrap ourselves up in a state-of-the-art water-repellent raincoat. We look for clothing that offers us absolute comfort. But have we stopped to think at what price? The reality is more chilling. According to a report from the European network ENR (European Newsroom)in the Netherlands, the National Institute of Public Health (RIVM) analyzed blood samples from its citizens and concluded that practically all of them have industrial chemicals in their bodies. At the European level the outlook does not improve: 14.3% of adolescents have blood concentrations that exceed safe levels, reaching peaks of 23.8% in France. These compounds, designed to make our lives easier by repelling water and stains, have jumped from our closets directly into our bloodstream. This is the story of a silent invasion. The toxic magic of the textile industry. To understand how we got here, we have to look at science. According to US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)perfluoroalkylated and polyfluoroalkylated substances (PFAS) are a huge family of thousands of synthetic chemicals created in the 1940s. They are popularly known as the “forever chemicals” or “forever chemicals” because they contain a very strong carbon and fluorine bond that makes them practically indestructible in the environment. Their commercial magic lies in the fact that they repel water, grease and heat in an exceptional way. The report Toxic Convenience (Toxic Convenience), prepared by the NGO Toxic-Free Futuredocumented how these substances are used massively in all types of textiles, from sheets and tablecloths to mountain clothing. However, a scientific study published in the magazine Environmental Science & Technology analyzed children’s clothing in North America and found that school uniforms labeled and marketed as “stain-resistant” contained significantly higher levels of PFAS than other common clothing. This obsession reaches the fashion giants. On the one hand, the high-end where the Texas attorney general has opened an investigation against the sought-after sportswear brand Lululemon. How to detail The Washington postit is being investigated whether its garments contain PFAS, which would be an advertising deception for consumers who come to the brand looking for a “healthy” lifestyle, despite the fact that Lululemon claims to have eliminated these substances at the beginning of 2024. On the other hand, the opposite extreme of consumption: ultra-fast fashion. A devastating report published by Greenpeace at the end of 2025, titled “Shame on you, Shein!”reveals that this platform continues to be a drain for toxics. Of 56 garments and shoes analyzed, 32% contained dangerous chemicals that exceeded the limits established by the European Union. The most alarming data was found in a garment purchased in Spain, which exceeded the permitted levels of PFAS by more than 600 times. So how does it affect us? Knowing that we carry industrial chemicals in the clothes we wear every day is already disturbing, but their documented medical effects are even more so. The EPA warns that prolonged exposure and the accumulation of PFAS in the human body are linked to serious problems: alterations in the immune and hormonal system, increased cholesterol, problems in fetal development, lower effectiveness of vaccines in children and a greater risk of suffering from cancers such as kidney and testicular cancer. Until recently, it was believed that the greatest risk came from drinking contaminated water or eating food. However, Marta Venier, environmental chemist cited by Washington Postwarns of the risks of dermal exposure. Their fears have been confirmed by a revealing study led by researcher Oddný Ragnarsdóttir from the University of Birmingham, published in the magazine Environment International. Using equivalent 3D human skin models, scientists demonstrated for the first time that 15 of the 17 most common PFAS show substantial dermal absorption. Some compounds, such as PFPeA, are absorbed by human skin by almost 60%. Areas where the skin is thinner – such as the neck, armpits or groin, where leggings generate greater friction—are especially vulnerable. And the risk does not end when we take off our clothes. Graham Peaslee, professor emeritus of physics and astronomy at the University of Notre Dame, explains in Washington Post that some PFAS used in clothing are volatile. “Even if they are hanging in your closet, you won’t smell them because they are odorless,” he details, but they release compounds into the air that you end up inhaling directly in your own home. What can we do about the closet? Faced with this avalanche of data, consumers may feel helpless, but experts insist that there are alternatives. At the corporate level, some brands are taking responsibility. An example is the outdoor clothing brand Patagoniawhich in a statement explained his long ordeal to get rid of PFAS. They recount how they fell into what scientists call “regrettable substitution” (changing a long-chain toxic chemical for a short-chain one that turned out to be just as harmful) and how today, 99% of their fabrics repel water without intentionally added PFAS, promising to reach 100% very soon. For our daily lives, experts offer several practical tips: The Gout Test: Professor Peaslee suggests putting a drop of water about that suspicious raincoat or technical pants. If three hours later the drop is still there, intact, the garment is probably treated with PFAS. If it absorbs within a couple of minutes, it doesn’t have the chemical. Read between the lines: Jamie DeWitt, toxicologist at Oregon State University, rI recommend distrusting marketing. If a garment is sold as water or stain resistant, and doesn’t specify what its lining is made of, “assume it has PFAS.” Wash and inherit: Marta Venier advises washing He repeatedly washes new clothes to remove some of the chemicals, and … Read more

If you live in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​it is possible that a Latin American bookstore has opened next to your house

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The indomitableopened four months ago in the Madrid neighborhood of Prosperidad and directed by a Mexican. A few meters from Retiro Park, the now classic The Retreat of Lettersowned by two Colombians. In Arganzuela, the Argentine bookstore Mandolin It inaugurated its first Madrid branch a year ago. It is not an isolated or spontaneous phenomenon. It responds to an accumulation of demographic, editorial and economic factors that go beyond the folklore chronicle. From rookies to veterans. In this panorama, the most recent projects coexist with initiatives that have been established for a few years. The Mistral It opened in 2021 in the hall of the old Arenal Theater, two minutes from Puerta del Sol, by the Argentine Andrea Stefanoni, and was considered the most beautiful bookstore in the world by National Geographic that same year. His fame allowed him to organize a short story contest that received 150 manuscripts from different countries. Closer in time, in 2020, a couple of Venezuelans inaugurated The little beings also in Madrid, where they sell new and used books with special attention to Venezuelan and Latin American production. Olavidefounded by two Argentine journalists, combines book sales with cultural activities. AND Late Space It simultaneously functions as a bookstore, cafeteria and headquarters of Late, an Ibero-American network of narrative journalism founded as a cooperative by professionals from Colombia, Spain and Cuba. Repeating pattern. Although they are founded by Latin Americans, these bookstores do not operate exclusively with the diaspora as clientele. They are neighborhood bookstores in the most classic sense: children’s collection, independent labels and a personal relationship between bookseller and customer. They organize workshops and reading clubs. Sometimes they even serve cuisine from their places of origin. As a reflection of this phenomenon, the Madrid Book Fair of 2025 dedicated a table of its Meeting of Independent Ibero-American Bookstores to the phenomenon. The figures behind the phenomenon. The most recent breakdown by Latin American origin available, the analysis of the Elcano Royal Institute Based on INE data as of January 1, 2024, there were 4.25 million people born in Latin America residing in Spain (9% of the total population and 48% of all immigrants). The trend behind that figure has not slowed down: during 2024, the largest increases in the foreign population were once again concentrated in Colombians (+98,057), Venezuelans (+52,555) and Moroccans (+48,306), according to the INE. in December 2025. The accumulated result is that as of January 1, 2026, Spain has exceeded the 10 million inhabitants born abroad. A community of that magnitude, concentrated in large cities, generates cultural demand. But… why is this demand channeled towards the opening of own bookstores and not only towards consumption in establishments that already exist? The distribution obstacle. Part of the answer lies in how the transatlantic publishing market works. That Spain and Latin America share a language does not mean that they share a catalog: for example, El Retiro de las Letras imports directly from publishers in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina to make authors visible that do not reach Spain through conventional distribution channels. Combed Cana bookstore specialized in Latin American fiction with offices in Barcelona and Madrid, recognizes that half of its titles are not distributed in Spain and that These copies cannot be returned if they do not sell.. It is a risk of excess stock that large chains are not willing to assume. The bookstore Juan Rulfoproperty of the Economic Culture Fund of Spain, and the Ibero-American Bookstoreopen in Madrid’s Barrio de las Letras since 2004, have been covering that specialized niche for decades. To those establishments have been added in recent years dozens of projects promoted by immigrants that multiply the offer, from bookstores specialized 100% in Latin American narrative to hybrid spaces with a focus on culture. Relief in the sector. The context of the book sector in Spain is not immune to this phenomenon. There are 2,754 independent bookstores active in Spainand although it is a figure in permanent declinethe business going well in economic terms: In 2024, the Spanish publishing sector had a turnover of 3,037 million euros, 6.3% more than in 2023, in its eleventh consecutive year of growth and with the highest figure since 2008. How do you explain that establishments fall while turnover rises? 85% of closures are caused by the retirement of the bookseller. Latin American booksellers are occupying a space where replacements are scarce, in residential neighborhoods of large cities where the traditional bookstore has closed. The limits of the phenomenon. It is advisable not to exaggerate the scope of the phenomenon. A few dozen bookstores founded by Latin American immigrants in Madrid and Barcelona do not reconfigure the Spanish publishing ecosystem. Spanish book exports in 2024 reached 381 million euros, aimed mainly at Ibero-American countrieswhich indicates that the flow of books between Spain and Latin America continues to be mostly in the opposite direction. What these bookstores do represent is a symptom: that of an immigrant community with sufficient cultural roots to invest in a business with fair profitability and that demands a very high vocation. A sector where the main problem is that retirements are multiplying and where there is a Latin American catalog with four million potential readers who continue to need intermediaries willing to cross the Atlantic. In Xataka | The 24 most beautiful bookstores in the world

The company that abandoned gamers in the SSD crisis is looking to redeem itself. It’s not going to be easy

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If you have ever built a PC, it is very likely that you have purchased some component from the Crucial brand, owned by Micron. The RAM ‘pills’ or SSDs were of quality, but Crucial ceased to exist at the time when Micron decided that the segment of the artificial intelligence It was the priority. They focused on creating high-bandwidth memory for the platforms of the data centersbut now they have just announced their new generation of GDDR7 chips for gaming GPUs. And it is an example of how far behind they have fallen compared to the South Koreans. In short. In a post on his blogMicron has confirmed that it is starting mass production of 3 GB GDDR7 chips with a density of 24 Gb. They have done so with pride, as they complete an objective for which they have been fighting for months: to get on par with Samsung and SK Hynix, the leaders of the DRAM market. GDDR7 with asterisk. As detailed tomshardwarethese new Micron chips are 12.5% ​​faster than the first GDDR7 chips that hit the market. They have a bandwidth of 36 Gbps compared to the 32 Gbps from those original modules. However, although the density is the same as its competitors, the bandwidth is noticeably lower. Samsung chips have a bandwidth that can reach 42.5 Gbps and SK Hynix is ​​on par with its 40 Gbps modules… and is already working on 48 Gbps ones. To put it bluntly, the more memory a GPU has, the more textures it can hold, but bandwidth is the amount of simultaneous data it handles, which directly impacts performance in games. The third in contention. The more bandwidth the memory has, the better also for calculations in artificial intelligence applications, something that is becoming essential in video games with techniques such as Nvidia DLSS. And here we have to clarify something: although Micron’s is slower than its competitors, it doesn’t really matter that much in video games because even the most powerful cards from Nvidia and AMD move below 40 Gbps of bandwidth. However, and here comes another asterisk, the fact that Micron is announcing this now shows that it is months behind the two South Korean companies. This is something that is important because we are seeing that, especially in this AI race, whoever comes first is the one who takes the lead, a cat called Nvidia. It already happened a few weeks ago with Samsungbeing the first with the capacity to deliver Mass HBM4 memory to Nvidia for its new Vera Rubin platform and, precisely, being the one chosen by the AI ​​giant over SK and Micron. Nvidia always wins. But hey, here is a win-win. Micron is already in line with its competitors, at least as far as 3 GB GDDR7 memory production is concerned. And Nvidia manages to have a third manufacturer that can deliver those 3 GB chips for its GPUs. With a complicated market due to scarcityand with a gaming segment that remains important, having three memory manufacturers working on your platform can help unclog the GPU market. If Nvidia launches new products this year, what remains to be seen. That, speaking of Nvidia and the three big memory manufacturers, both the South Korean companies and Micron are already mass creating the aforementioned HBM4 for Vera Rubin. In Xataka | The US is investing a fortune in creating its own sovereign chips. Behind it is a South Korean company: Samsung

There are so few bees that there is a law in the United Kingdom that requires new houses to have “rooms” for them.

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On a global scale, humanity is facing a natural disaster that we have not yet come to terms with: the “insect apocalypse.” Science takes years showing its decline and although without careful thought the first impression may be “how nice to get rid of mosquitoes”, that loss threatens ecosystems essential for human life. In this collapse there is a most critical and weakest link if possible: pollinators. Its disappearance not only affects the flora, but also the food. Faced with progressive urbanization and the loss of its natural habitats, current architecture in the United Kingdom has begun to integrate microconservation solutions into the buildings themselves: the Bee Bricka brick that, in addition to supporting walls, houses bees. What began as a sustainable design project has become an urban policy phenomenon that is spreading around the world. bee bricks. As you can see below these lines, a bee brick looks quite similar to a normal brick, but with one particularity: on its front face it has 18 cavities of different diameters. The back is solid, which prevents insects from entering the interior of the building. It is made from precast and largely recycled concrete (75% granite waste from the Cornish kaolin industry and 25% granite aggregate and cementitious material as a binder). Behind the choice of design and materials used are years of testing and research not only by engineering professionals, but also by biology, such as collect research log from Falmouth University. This Bee brick can be integrated directly into the masonry of a new building, replace an existing brick in a renovation or placed independently in a garden or orchard. As a presentation, the British company Green&Blue came up with the idea and the first brick hit the market in 2014. This is what a brick for abjeas looks like. green and blue Why it is important. Because bees are one of the main engines of pollination of terrestrial ecosystems. According to the IPBES Thematic Assessment on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Productionmore than three quarters of the world’s major crops benefit from animal pollination and approximately one third of the global volume of food produced depends on it directly. That same report indicates that 87.5% of the planet’s flowering plants are pollinated by insects or other animals. And although in the collective imagination we associate this function with honey bees (Apis mellifera), this is actually an exception: they are a social species, domesticated and exploited by humans. In short: they are an overwhelming minority. Most bees do not produce honey, do not have a queen, and do not form colonies. Of course, they are first-class pollinators and some are specialized in specific species. Their decline has no substitute: if they disappear, there will be plants that will be left without a pollinator. Context. In the UK there are approximately 270 species of bees and 90% of them are solitary, such as collects the British National Bee Unit. And it is not an isolated case: on the European red list of bees of the IUCN are also the majority and on a global scale the Journal of Applied Ecology establishes that more than 75% of the more than 20,000 described species of bees are solitary. In other words, it is not an isolated case of the islands. And the problem of British bees is not exclusive either: they are losing their nesting habitat at stratospheric speed. Historically, they made their nests in cavities provided by construction, such as dead wood, cracks in the mortar in old buildings, gaps between stones and also in slopes of unpaved earth, in gaps between stones… spaces that with modern construction, so homogeneous and sealed (compared to the previous ones), have disappeared. The large-scale use of pesticides, the disappearance of grasslands or the effects of climate change, which are pushing species adapted to lower temperatures to the margins, do not help either. And that this study from Anglia Ruskin University evidence that solitary ground bees nest in a wider range of habitats than previously believed. Rooms for bees by law. The southern English coastal city Brighton & Hove was the first to turn the Bee Bricks into a legal requirement for new buildings. From January 2022 all new buildings over five meters high must include both Bee Bricks as nest boxes for swifts. Out there, Cornwall adopted in 2018 an official planning guide that includes bee bricks as a prescriptive biodiversity measure and several construction companies in the south of England they integrate them voluntarily in their projects for more than a decade. And do they work? Trials in Cornwall between 2019 and 2021 demonstrate modest results: occupancy rates were low, although nesting activity was recorded in bricks of all colors and in both urban and rural environments. The species that used them the most were the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis) and leaf cutters of the genus Megachile. He Conservation evidence from the University of Cambridge systematizes the available studies on artificial habitats for bees and concludes that nest boxes and cavity systems are used by solitary bees, as long as they are well designed and located. To work, the bricks need to face south, more than a meter off the ground and near flowering plants. Without those conditions, the probability of a bee colonizing them drops dramatically. Yes, but. In addition to the modest results precisely due to unsuitable designs and arrangements, there are experts such as Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex and one of the most renowned bee researchers in the United Kingdom, warns for The Guardian that the holes in the Bee Bricks are too small and shallow for most solitary bee species and that the initiative risks being greenwashing for the real estate sector: “We are kidding ourselves if we think that having one of these in every house is going to make a real difference to biodiversity. Much more substantial action is needed.” On the other hand, other ecology professionals they point out … Read more

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