April 2026 - Page 2 of 93

The US is doing a lot of damage to Iran with the Hormuz counterblockade. So much so that he is already considering closing oil wells

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Oil has an unbreakable physical law: once it leaves the ground, it has to go somewhere. If ships can’t transport it and storage tanks fill up, the only option is to shut down the wells. Today, the war of attrition between the United States and Iran has ceased to be a mere diplomatic conflict and has become a geological and logistical time bomb. According to data from the analysis firm KplerIran has just 12 to 22 days left before its crude oil storage capacity is completely saturated. The US naval blockade has suffocated its exports by 70%, plummeting shipments from 1.85 million barrels per day to a meager 567,000. A lethal limit. As explained Al Jazeera, Stopping production at an oil well is not like turning off a light switch. When pumping is stopped, the pressure in the underground reservoirs drops sharply, allowing water or gas to seep into the production layers. The potential damage is immense: The Wall Street Journal warns that almost half of the Iranian oil fields are old and low pressure. An abrupt shutdown threatens to permanently destroy part of this aging infrastructure, making recovering that crude oil in the future technically and financially unfeasible. In Washington, the narrative is one of imminent victory. The US administration is confident that this collapse will force Tehran to surrender. According to statements collected by Foreign Policythe US Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessentand President Donald Trump himself predict that the drowning will cause an imminent internal shortage of gasoline, increasing social pressure on the regime until it is forced to give in. However, experts urge caution against Western triumphalism. A rigorous analysis of the Center on Global Energy Policy from Columbia University dismantles part of the myth of catastrophic damage dividing the problem into two fronts: Crude oil can breathe: Specialists detail that the historic oil fields of Khuzestan operate through a “gravity drainage” system. Paradoxically, a temporary stoppage could allow these specific reservoirs to recharge naturally. Natural gas, the true Achilles’ heel: The real risk, the institution explains, lies in the natural gas fields, such as the gigantic South Pars. If these become blocked as they cannot release the associated liquids, Iran will be forced to drastically ration energy for industry and homes in the coming months. Tehran does not plan to give up. According to NDTV, The Islamic Republic will maintain its “diplomacy of patience.” Furthermore, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) already survived to severe production cuts in 2012 and 2019, and has a robust smuggling network that makes it very resistant to conventional economic pressure. Added to this is the time factor: according to the calculations of Kplerthe real financial blow will take between three and four months to be felt in Iranian coffers, since China – its main client – operates with long delays in payments. The flight forward. To buy time, Iran is resorting to extreme measures. As revealed The Wall Street Journal, The country is reactivating dilapidated infrastructure, known in the sector as “junk storage”, in areas such as Ahvaz and Asaluyeh, and is even trying to export crude oil by train to China; a very slow and very expensive route that shows the level of stress in the system. and in the sea activation of the Nashaa 30-year-old supertanker rescued from scrapping to serve as an emergency floating warehouse. But the most fascinating and opaque strategy is unfolding thousands of miles from the Persian Gulf. As my colleague Miguel Jorge has developed for Xataka, There is a “secret gas station” in the middle of the ocean. This is an area off the coast of Malaysia, known as EOPL, which functions as a huge ghost car park. There, a shadow fleet of aging ships with their tracking systems (AIS) turned off conduct dangerous ship-to-ship crude transfers. With this maneuver they launder the origin of the oil, passing it off as Malaysian to sell it to independent Chinese refineries and evade the radar of US sanctions. The global earthquake. As Iran searches for oxygen, the collateral damage of this blockade is fracturing the global economy and geopolitics. Behind closed doors, the Iranian social collapse is advancing at a steady pace. A crude report of the Financial Times details that real inflation is already close to 50% and the national currency (the rial) sinks to historic lows. The price of basic products such as cheese and chicken has skyrocketed, and the government admits that more than 191,000 workers have applied for unemployment benefits since the start of the war. Globally, the Straits crisis has shattered the mirage of modern logistics. The collapse of Hormuz It’s not a temporary traffic jam.but a tectonic fault that has broken the “just in time” system and is threatening the hegemony of the petrodollar. Markets, panicking over a prolonged disruption, have pushed a barrel of Brent crude above $120, its highest level since 2022. But the most seismic geopolitical consequence of this war has erupted within the oil cartel: the United Arab Emirates (UAE). will leave OPEC+ May 1st. Fed up with production quotas that limited their income and feeling deeply abandoned by their Arab neighbors in the face of direct attacks from Iran, the Emiratis have decided to fly alone. This breakup leaves Saudi Arabia alone bearing the cost of stabilizing the market, greatly weakens OPEC and gives Donald Trump a diplomatic coup that he had been seeking for years. The final pulse. In the end, this conflict has become a drag race in which no one emerges unscathed. The big question that will decide the outcome of the war is who will go bankrupt first: the fragile and antiquated oil wells of Iran and its exhausted population, or the global consumers and the great Western powers, unable to withstand the skyrocketing fuel prices and the collapse of world shipping routes for much longer. And all this happens under inescapable pressure. While political leaders debate and move their chips thousands of kilometers away, the valves of Kharg Island … Read more

The RAM crisis is very good news for someone. That someone is Samsung

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

The great supply crisis in 2026 is starring memoirs. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron control 90% of global DRAM production, and can currently only cover about 60% of projected demand. This is bad news for consumers, and excellent news for giants that cannot keep up with selling memory. Tell Samsung. Samsung Electronics has published its financial report corresponding to the first quarter of 2026. The company recorded revenue of 133.9 trillion won and, so that we understand each other better, this is its all-time quarterly high, with a 43% increase compared to the previous quarter. Memories, memories, memories. The figure is even more surprising if we look closely at the Device Solutions Division, in which its memory business is located. It recorded a sales increase of 86% compared to the previous quarter, with a historical record in operating profit. Samsung itself details that this boom comes from the hand of much higher demand and, to no one’s surprise, a sales price that has increased in the industry. It is not something isolated. Sales related to memories and semiconductors will continue with strong demand throughout the second quarter, Samsung predicts. The company wants to continue capitalizing on demand for GPUs, CPUs and DRAMexpecting advances in agentic AI to continue accelerating demand growth. Why is it important. Samsung’s results are not only good news for the company’s shareholders: they are a reflection of a change in the industry that is here to stay. The RAM crisis will change forever the price of the products we buywill make companies that have never participated in the manufacture of memories have to start considering doing so, like teslaand positions manufacturers like Samsung in a position of power that they have not had for years. The new Samsung. Samsung has always been relevant in semiconductors and memories, but currently this division accounts for 94% of the company’s total operating profit. Virtually every won Samsung earns comes from its device solutions business (RAM and chips). And what about mobile phones?. Although Samsung’s near future will be led by a single division, the company gives enough clues about its future in a territory that touches the average user very closely: mobile phones. Its DX division (in which smartphones are found) grew 19%, with more sales and more profit compared to the previous quarter. Samsung expects a slight drop in revenue next quarter, although it will continue to focus on three clear pillars: high end, folding and series A. In Xataka | There is a company that has grown 3,000% in the stock market, even beating the performance of Nvidia: Sandisk

Ryanair will cut 1.2 million seats in Spain but there is one region that will suffer more than the rest: Galicia

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Ryanair will reduce seats, cancel routes and raise ticket prices. That is the strategy that the company envisions for Spain during next summer. And Eddie Wilson has confirmed a strategy that has been talked about since last October when the CEO of Ryanair already threatened to take more flights from Spain if the situation did not change with Aena’s rates. And one autonomous community is feeling it more than the rest. 1.2 million seats. That will be the cut that Ryanair has prepared for our country next summer. It is something that was already reported in October and was confirmed last Monday. Counterscheduling the distribution of Aena dividends among its partners, Eddie Wilson has taken the opportunity to point out that its activity will be reduced in Spain in just a few months. They do so because the Government takes advantage of “(Aena’s) monopoly position in Spain’s main airports, obtaining excessive margins of 60% at the expense of local economies, which depend on affordable air travel for tourism and employment.” Without a change in airport taxesRyanair confirms that it is withdrawing flights in our country and that it will replace seats in larger airports. The reason is the repeated one in the last months of this Government-Ryanair battle: They consider that Aena’s rates at regional airports are too high. Once again, regional airports. According to the company, Aena’s airport taxes in regional spaces are uncompetitive and a burden on tourism and the economy of these cities. This has caused, according to the company, its departure from the airports of Asturias, Valladolid, Jerez, Tenerife North and Vigo and its activity to be reduced by 79% in Santiago compared to the summer 2024 figures. Not only that, in addition to this cut in seats, Wilson has not hesitated to warn that if the price of jet fuel becomes scarce, the first victims will be the regional airports, prioritizing the large seats. What about Galicia? Although Ryanair claims that its departure is fatally damaging the less frequented Spanish airports, the truth is that not all of them are suffering the same fate. A good example is Zaragoza. Compared to 2024, it will have 45% fewer seats, three routes canceled and two others cut. Despite this, Aena data They say that in 2025 the number of passengers grew by 1.9% (especially on domestic routes) and that in 2026 it is growing by 2.6%. Photography is very different in Galicia. So far this year, A Coruña airport is the only one that has grown. Without Ryanair, Vigo is falling 3.4% this year but the most worrying thing is in Santiago. At this airport, Ryanair has cut its activity by almost 80% compared to the summer of two years ago. In 2025 it has already fallen by 14.3% and this year it is falling by 29.6%. The lower activity at this airport has caused flights in the region to fall by 6.9% last year and so far this year this has worsened to 15.5%. There is only one worse fact. From all regions, Galicia is the one with the worst figures. And so far this year, only Castilla y León has lost more travelers, with a drop of 18.6%. However, its volume of travelers is much lower than that of Galicia. In the first three months of 2025, 40,051 people moved by plane in the region, while this year 32,613 passengers did so. That’s a drop of less than 8,000 seats filled. In Galicia, however, so far this year 987,812 passengers have taken a plane, while in 2025 a total of 1,168,745 people had taken a plane. That is, in the first quarter of the year, 180,933 passengers have been lost in the first quarter of 2026. And more than 200,000 passengers compared to 2024 when more than 1,194,032 people moved by plane in the first three months of the year. Not only the rates. When Ryanair announces that it is leaving an airport, it usually points to airport taxes, but the reality is more complex. The truth is that the company has maintained some commercial routes with low demand because it had advertising contracts that supported its routes. Contracts that he has not hesitated to break, as in Vigowhen you have found more juicy economic incentives like those that have arrived from Morocco. It must be taken into account thatthe launch of the AVE to Galicia It has also been a hard blow for airline companies that have seen how part of their customers move to the train since it offers more affordable rates and travel times that, adding the waits at airports, are similar to those of the plane. In fact, companies like Iberia have also reduced their supply because demand did not compensate for the effort. Photo | Left Victorian and Simone Muzzi In Xataka | The new EU border system is leaving people without flights. Ryanair has a solution: close check-in early

The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

SMIC (Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp) is the largest Chinese semiconductor manufacturer with a global market share 5.32%. Only TSMC and Samsung surpass it. Currently this is the only Chinese company that has the necessary technology to manufacture 7nm integrated circuitsbut Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second largest chip producer, is developing the technology necessary to manufacture this class of semiconductors. The US Department of Commerce has confirmed without intending it that Hua Hong Semiconductor is very serious with its 7nm photolithography. And it has done so because, according to Reutershas notified the most important lithography and wafer processing equipment manufacturers in the US that they no longer have permission to deliver their most advanced machines to this Chinese company. The purpose of this US entity is clear: it aims to make it difficult for Hua Hong Semiconductor to conclude the development of its 7nm lithography. Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA already have one more obstacle in China Department of Commerce technicians analyze export requests within the framework established by current regulations and approve or deny the sale of integrated circuits and wafer processing equipment to China. The current regulation is the most effective tool at the disposal of the US Government to try to slow down the development of China’s semiconductor industry and prevent it from acquiring the capacity to manufacture cutting-edge integrated circuits in the short or medium term. Hua Hong is preparing to start production of 7nm chips at its Shanghai plant Hua Hong Semiconductor’s division specializing in third-party chip manufacturing is called Huali Microelectronics, and it is preparing to launch the production of 7nm integrated circuits at its Shanghai plant. The sources that have revealed this information assure that Huawei has collaborated with Huali Microelectronics on this project, which invites us to reach two reasonable conclusions. The first is that Huali’s 7nm lithography is likely to play an essential role in GPU production capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) from both Huawei and other Chinese companies. And the second conclusion is actually a plausible hypothesis. And, like SMIC, Huali does not have access to ASML SVU teams. For this reason, it is very likely that with the help of Huawei it has developed security techniques. multiple patterning to be able to manufacture 7nm chips with the UVP machines in its possession. Lam Research, Applied Materials and KLA are three of the US companies that the Commerce Department has notified that they can no longer provide Hua Hong Semiconductor with their most advanced wafer processing equipment. China is a very important market for these companies, so presumably they are going to lose several billions of dollars in sales. Lin Jian, the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has declared that his country expects the United States to stabilize global industrial and supply chains and keep trade functioning normally. Image | TSMC More information | Reuters In Xataka | TSMC is already the highest-earning chipmaker on the planet. It has beaten two semiconductor giants

This European alternative gives you 1 TB of storage for 15 euros per year

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

I say it a lot lately: the 256 GB of storage on my phone is no longer enough. If it happens to you like it did to me, it is very likely because you have it full of photos and videos. There, cloud storage can be a good relief, but, which one to choose? For anyone looking an alternative to the main US cloudsInternxt presents itself as a great option: it is a European cloud that now, with its 87% discountleaves us 1 TB of storage per 15 euros per year. Of course, you only have a few days left to take advantage of this promo. 1 TB of cloud storage (annual subscription) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Good capacity, security and even includes a VPN Without the current offer, this Internxt plan has a price of 120 euros per year. That’s a huge discount for secure cloud storage that also comes with VPN and antivirus. The ‘Lifetime’ option also has the same discount, that is, that you pay only once and forget. This is great because it eliminates a monthly subscription and avoids possible future price increases. It has a price of 247 euros. Internxt is a company of Spanish origin that offers, as we say, a good European alternative to services like Google Drive or Dropbox. This cloud has a very high level of security and uses, in addition to end-to-end encryption, what is known as ‘Zero-Knowledge’. That implies two things: that your data is encrypted before uploading (which prevents anyone from intercepting them along the way) and that not even Internxt itself can access them. Another highlight of the Internxt cloud is that it is open source. This means that any person or entity can audit it and verify that there is no type of security hole or way for our files to be extracted. It should be noted that this cloud has a two-factor authentication service, which increases its security even further. Are you short on 1TB of storage? Internxt also has its other two plans with the same 87% discount. Below we leave you what they include and their price, both in its annual and ‘Lifetime’ modality: Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus and cleaner per 31 euros per year (or 377 euros lifelong). Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and meet per 46 euros per year (or 507 euros lifelong). 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 | Internxt In Xataka | 61 European alternatives to Google, X, Gmail, Chrome, Maps, DropBox, Google Drive, WhatsApp and other popular services In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files

“Some people expend tremendous energy just being normal.”

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

If modern philosophy had its pantheon of rockstars, Albert Camus It would probably be one of the most popular. And not only because he is one of the key figures of the absurdism and existentialism, the latter label he rejected throughout his life. As if that were not enough, Camus was a prominent political activist, a brilliant novelist, and one of the youngest writers to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. He picked it up when he was 44 years old, just three years before he died prematurely in a traffic accident in Villeblevin, France. We also remember Camus for something else: his deep reflections on the human condition, something that connects with the quote with which we opened this post. Pill Philosophy. We have discussed it many times: The Internet is full of philosophical quotes of dubious attribution and authorship that is impossible to verify, if not outright false. This is sometimes a problem because the quotes clash with the way of thinking of the philosopher to whom they are assigned, as happens with the most famous phrase (and false) by Marcus Aurelius. Other times the quotes are simply paraphrases that try to make complex ideas digestible. Hidden in a notebook. The phrase that concerns us today is not neither one thing nor the other. It is not by Camus, although the Internet is full of pages that point to him as its author. However, it did come out of his own handwriting and is included among his works. How do you explain that? Simple. In addition to writing his own reflections, Camus was fond of recording other people’s comments that, for one reason or another, he found interesting. one of those quotesnoted in one of his notebooks between 1942 and 1945, is the one that concerns us today: “No one realizes that some people expend tremendous energy simply to be normal.” The comment is attributed to “BB”, the actress’s initials Blanche Balainwho was probably heard during a meeting in Saint-Étienne. Isn’t it your work then? No. And yes. Perhaps Camus is not its author in the strict sense, but (ironies of life) that phrase has ended up becoming one of the most popular of the Nobel Prize in Literature. And it is understandable. In addition to being suggestive, the phrase connects with the way Camus looked at the world and the human condition. It is difficult to know why he decided to write down Alain’s comment in his notebook, but what is clear is that he was the one who popularized it. Not only that. Over time, the actress’s words have become a door through which to access Camus’ philosophical legacy. “Just be normal”. The phrase in question leaves behind a suggestive, almost challenging idea: there are people investing energy in something seemingly as simple and simple as “being normal.” But… What is ‘being normal’? Does it require an effort? If something is ‘normal’, shouldn’t it come naturally to us by definition? Balain-Camus’s reflection dynamites that idea and introduces another, much more suggestive one: the ‘normal’ can actually be an artifice, a mask that we put on to avoid going against the current and whose use, furthermore, is exhausting. “The most important thing”. Camus is not the first to point out the clash between social pressure and authenticity, an idea that already had expressed centuries before the philosopher Michel Montaigne in ‘About loneliness’: “The most important thing in the world is knowing how to be yourself.” What Camus does stand out for is his radical nonconformity and his defense of the rebellion as a form of dignity. Hence many people interpreter Camus’ annotation as a wake-up call, a way to remind us of the price often paid by those who deviate from ‘normality’ or do not meet society’s expectations. The (no) meaning of life. Camus’s phrase has a deeper reading level that connects directly with his ideas about the human condition. Like other authors who embraced philosophy of the absurdCamus believed that our existence is meaningless and does not respond to any higher purpose. That does not mean that it has no value or that we should abandon ourselves to death. On the contrary, the French writer believed that the meaninglessness of existence forces us to pursue a lofty goal: be the ones who give it our own meaning and do so while being fully aware of its futility. Remembering Sisyphus. The clearest example (used by Camus) is left by classical mythology with the character of Sisyphus, the king of Ephyra condemned to push a huge rock up a mountain day after day only to see that, just before reaching the top, the stone always rolled down the mountain. That of Sisyphus is an absurd purpose, just as is the determination of men to search for meaning in a universe that lacks purpose. Still, Sisyphus presses on, carving out his own courage. Just like we do, facing day to day. “The very struggle to reach the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. You have to imagine Sisyphus happy,” Camus concludes. Image | Wikipedia In Xataka | “A place of joy with pain”: the phrase that summarizes the Aztec philosophy to be happier in this life

The business of AI is not AI, it is renting its infrastructure

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

We have been a few years since the AI boom and doubts about its profitability continue to loom large. We are witnessing a change in strategy by numerous AI companies such as Claude or Github that points in a clear direction: the end of the free model. Chatbots and other AI tools cost more money than they generate, what really makes money is something else and that thing is having data centers. The real business of AI. The results of the big technology companies for the first quarter of 2026 have just been published and they make something very clear: the real business of AI is not the AI tools, it is being the one who rents the data centers to those AI companies. Amazon, Google and Microsoft have all posted strong revenues, largely driven by their cloud divisions. For its part, Meta has managed to raise revenue forecasts thanks to its advertising business. In other words, none of them are making money directly from their AI tools. In figures. These are the most notable data for each company in this first quarter: Alphabet: has been the big winner, entering $109.9 billion22% more year-on-year and well above forecasts. Google Cloud grows 63% year-on-year with revenues of $20 billion. amazon: Amazon’s total turnover stands at $181.5 billion, of which 37,600 come from Amazon Web Serviceswhich represents an increase of 28% year-on-year and exceeds analysts’ forecasts. Microsoft: has entered $82.9 billion18% more than last year. Regarding Azure, the year-on-year growth is 40%. Goal: Revenues for this first quarter exceed analysts’ forecasts and reach $56.3 billion, which represents a 33% year-on-year increase driven by the advertising business in its family of apps. More wood. Big tech companies are making a lot of money, but they are also spending a lot. We recently talked about how the capex (capital expenditure) of big tech companies by 2026 was already 25% of all world military spendingabout $650 billion combined. Well, if that already seemed crazy to us, Alphabet and Meta have announced that they are going to raise it even more. In the case of Alphabet, 5,000 million more than expected (they said 185,000 and now 190,000), while Meta increases to 10,000 million (it was 135,000 and now 145,000). The reason, of course, is to continue funding AI infrastructure. Amazon and Microsoft have not said anything about increasing spending, which was already very high, with 200,000 and 140,000 million respectively. The market response. During the after hours, Meta was the most affected, with a 6% drop in the stock market. Microsoft was also punished with a 2% drop. In the case of Meta, the reaction of investors is what we have already seen in previous earnings conferences, mainly due to distrust regarding the increase in investment and doubts about whether this AI boom is sustainable in the long term. Instead, investors rewarded Alphabet with a 6% rise and Amazon with 4%. Its commitment to AI is also stratospheric, but it is translating into more visible cloud revenue growth. The strategic gap. There is a clear advantage between those who master more pieces of the AI chain (own chips, cloud, models and applications) and those who depend most on third parties. Here, Amazon and Alphabet are the best positioned companies and it is reflected very clearly in the results. Furthermore, as mentioned in the Wall Street Journalwidespread shortages of both chips and electricity are accelerating the formation of this fork. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Google is the big technology company that is doing the best thanks to AI: so it is going to spend another million

The world has an insoluble problem with coal. China has found the solution and it does not involve burning it

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Decades ago, the world embarked on the decarbonization race. Each country has gone at a pace with nuclear, but gas, hydrogen research and the rise of renewables They aimed to be the impetus to close coal plants. That’s when artificial intelligence arrived and turned the plan upside down. The data centers They need a lot of electricity and, at peak computing, the demand is for immediate energy. This is where coal burning comes in, but in China they believe they have found a solution to avoid definitively bury the coal. Extract energy without burning it. ZC-DCFC. That is the not-so-friendly name that a team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Shenzhen University has used. baptized what they call as zero carbon direct carbon fuel cell. The group, led by Xie Heping, has been since 2018 developing This concept is not so much a new way of using coal as a primary energy element, but rather a technique to exploit reserves in deep mines. How it works. To achieve this, carbon is pulverized, purified and introduced into the anode chamber of a fuel cell. On the other hand, oxygen is introduced through the cathode, which causes a reaction in the carbon: an electrochemical oxidation. This process generates electricity directly without combustion, without turbines and without emissions. According to those responsible, the efficiency in energy generation is notably greater than that obtained in conventional energy generation with coal and another advantage is that the system is silent, which also solves the problem of noise pollution that comes with the use of coal. Solving the big problem. The ZC-DCFC also works without CO2 emissions because the high-purity carbon dioxide generated at the anode outlet is captured on site and converted by catalysis into chemical feedstocks such as syngas or compounds such as sodium bicarbonate. But the system has not been made thinking about processing coal in a better way. For that we already have the response in the form of renewables and the green hydrogen. What Xie Heping’s team is creating is a solution to the big problem of harnessing coal from deep underground deposits. not so fast. The idea is to create systems that generate electricity, directly, in the depths of these mines. This way there is no need to launch the very expensive industrial network to bring the coal to the surface and then process it. Electricity would be generated two kilometers deep and it is that energy that is directly transmitted to the surface. Now, they have been investigating since 2018 and are already testing it, but although the project is framed within China’s great plan for the Deep Exploration of Earth and Mineral Resources, there is still a long way to go. This is a long-term plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 and it is already point that these carbon cells are unlikely to come into operation on a large scale before 2045. Either way, if it makes sense for anyone to research alternatives to coal using coal, it’s… China. Despite being the power of renewables and be on top of the nuclear raceit is estimated that 60% of the nation’s electricity comes from coal. They have enormous reserves and somehow they have to be used. Image | Ministry of Energy of Chile In Xataka | To survive the end of oil, China has resurrected an old German technology from World War II: turning coal into plastic

There are meteorologists who are already comparing El Niño of 2027 with that of 1877, a catastrophic event that wiped out 4% of the population

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

We have been worried about El Niño for weeks and rightly so. One by one, the main weather forecasters have been warning us that curves are coming. It is true that on April 24, 2026, the World Meteorological Organization refused to call it “super”, but its refusal is purely terminological: what is clear is that everything indicates that “it could be strong or very strong.” Even Ryan Maue, one of the most controversial meteorologists of the moment (for his criticism of “climate alarmism”), has become nervous and has linked what is coming directly to the El Niño of 1877-78. That event wiped out 4% of the planet’s population. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and remember what El Niño is. By ‘El Niño’ we refer to a cyclical (although very irregular) climate phenomenon that has great effects on the global climate. Huge, in fact. If we exclude the stations, it is the most important source of annual climate variability from all over the planet. During the warm phase (that is, during El Niño), the absence of strong trade winds that cool the surface of the equatorial Pacific causes the temperature of that area of the ocean to skyrocket. It is this, through different atmospheric teleconnectionswhich disrupts all the weather systems in the world. The effects are varied and change depending on the region (“drier conditions than normal in certain parts of the world; while in others it causes more precipitation. Some countries have to deal with major droughts and others with torrential rains”, says AEMET); But when we talk about temperatures there is no doubt: El Niño is synonymous with heat and, in many places in the world, hunger. That’s what happened in 1877. According to modern reconstructionsEl Niño of 1877-78 was the most intense since 1850: sea surface temperatures remained high for 16 months and, as if that were not enough, that coincided with two warm phenomena (in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic). That triggered a drought of unusual magnitude. However, the 4% figure is problematic. Not because it’s not realbut because (firstly) it corresponds to a longer period that begins in 1877, but lasts until 1902. And, secondly, because the demographic catastrophe was not a direct effect of the climate, but the result of colonial policies: in many areas of the world they were forced to export grain to the metropolises despite famines. In this sense, transferring the mortality figures from that year to today (even if El Niño reached a similar intensity) is not serious. Although it can be expensive. We must not forget that the super El Niño of 97-98, one of the strongest ENSOs in recent years, caused numerous consequences that lasted for years: the estimates say which caused damage to global economic growth of around 5.7 trillion dollars. That is, we are not talking about an episode from 100 years ago, but something that happened 30 years ago and that draws the framework in which state policies have to work. Above all, because although Spain is not in the first row, the consequences can be global. We are no longer talking about diffuse teleconnections (more rain in some areas), we are talking about enormous economic pressure in international markets that have been having a hard time for years. Nobody is very clear what is going to happen, but we do know that we have to prepare for it. Image | Xataka In Xataka | “It is so extreme that it is difficult to believe”: El Niño forecasts depict an event of unprecedented intensity.

cost savings are becoming very expensive for big tech

April 30, 2026 by usatoday24

Large technology companies have been in a dynamic for months that is difficult to understand if the current technological context is not taken into account. Companies that, according to your tax results of the first quarter of 2026, record historic profits close to 80%they are cutting jobs at the same time. What is happening in their workforce has nothing to do with a financial crisis, but rather responds to a strategic decision regarding AI. According to the records from the portal Layoffs.fyiSo far in 2026, more than 92,000 employees in the technology sector they have lost their job throughout the world due to layoff rounds that the main technology companies have launched. The main argument for these layoffs is AIbut not because this technology is going to do the work that programmers used to do, but rather it responds to a restructuring of companies to lighten their workforce and focus only on developing AI. The measure is not coming cheap. The big bet of AI that must be paid. By chance (and the proximity to the presentation of their first quarter results) Microsoft and Meta announced, on the same day, layoffs that will affect more than 16,000 employees between the two. Meta will lay off 8,000 workers, 10% of its global workforce, and will leave another 6,000 vacancies unfilled. The goal of both companies is to improve efficiency and offset investment in artificial intelligence. Microsoft will face investments close to 145 billion dollars only in this fiscal year, thus adding to investments in AI what are they doing each and every one of the big technology companies. Maintaining that bet without margins suffering forces cuts, and personnel is the expense that investors like it less. Altogether, investments worth 700,000 million will be accumulated among all large technology companies during 2026. These estimates also include compensation expenses that are associated with these personnel cuts. Oracle, for example, reserved 2.1 billion dollars only for this game in your round of 30,000 layoffs. Microsoft launches a different formula: voluntary dismissal. Instead of announcing collective layoffs, Microsoft has chosen a path that the company had never used in its 51-year history: making voluntary exit offers to encourage its employees to leave by their own decision. Google already applied this formula of voluntary dismissals in its 2025 personnel cuts, not without the risk of losing its best employees by opening the exit door for them. This initiative is aimed at employees with a very specific profile who, in theory, would be more complicated to relocate to a new internal position within the framework of this workforce restructuring. In total, this offer has been made to 7% of its workforce in the US, more than 8,500 people. Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the move in an internal memo. In that statement to which had access CNBCColeman wrote: “Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the option to take that next step on their own terms, with the company’s generous support.” Why an incentive instead of a layoff. Both voluntary departure and conventional dismissal have the same outcome: the workforce is reduced. However, as as highlighted to Fortune Domenique Camacho Moran, lawyer and partner at the Farrell Fritz law firm, specialized in labor law for Fortune 500 companies, traditional layoffs are legally more complex because they require evaluating the performance of each worker and argue his dismissal to avoid legal risks. “The voluntary exit option gives the employer the ability to say that it’s not that we don’t think you’re doing a good job, but that if you’re thinking it’s time to move on, I’m going to encourage you to do so because we need to downsize.” Incidentally, since it is an initiative of the employee, the company does not have to look for arguments for dismissal, which simplifies the process and avoids future legal claims. A risky bet for talent. However, as we already mentioned, the voluntary dismissal formula is risky since it leaves the decision in the hands of the employee. possibility of resigning. In a context of shortage of specialized talent (especially in AI), companies run the risk that their best swords will accept the incentive, paying a double cost for it. Last year, Google offered voluntary departures across several teams, including its search and advertising division. Vice President Nick Fox was blunt in his memo: “I want to be very clear: If you are excited about your job, energized by the opportunity ahead of you, and performing well, I really (really!) hope you don’t take it.” as collected CNBC. In Xataka | While technology companies dispense with juniors to replace them with AI, IBM is doing the opposite: catching bargains Image | Unsplash (Compagnons, Sam Torres)

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