Month: May 2026

Spain’s problem is not the lack of buildable land. It is a huge land jam that blocks three million apartments in cities

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The brick crisis at the beginning of the century may be left far behind in time; But the truth is that, almost 20 years after the bubble burst, the sector has not yet recovered from its hangover. And that has dragged it into a paradox: although the country drags a serious deficit residential (some 700,000 homes) and prices they don’t stop going upin Spain there is a huge amount of immobilized buildable land, plots that after the crisis have ended up in the hands of municipalities incapable of promoting housing on them or of groups, funds and companies that have not been able to develop them or have not considered it viable. It might seem like a minor issue if it weren’t for the fact that there are calculations who estimate that that ‘big traffic jam’ of land is costing the cities of Spain 2.9 million potential apartments. That is, houses that could be built on developed lots, but for one reason or another they still do not go beyond paper. Just over half (1.5 million) are also concentrated in the 15 main metropolises. One figure: 1.5 million. The data comes from a study published in the last notebook of the Civic Circle of Opinion by Ignacio Ezquiagaeconomist and expert in the real estate sector. In it he basically dedicates himself to reviewing the “pending planned housing” in the main urban areas of the country. These are apartments and houses that should be built on plots of land in an “advanced state of urban development” or sectorialized (endorsed by a plan and the corresponding city council), but that still do not go from paper to work. Why is it important? Because as Ezquiaga’s study recalls, that bag of land could accommodate millions and millions of new homes. To be precise, it speaks of about seven million properties, although a good part is located in rural areas where the gap between supply and demand is not as serious as in the capitals. If we focus on the 86 urban areas of Spain, we find vacant land with the potential to host 2.93 million of housing. If we refine the shot even further and limit ourselves to the 15 main metropolitan areas of Spain, the figure remains at around 1.51 million homes. Of these, half a million would be located in areas with already urbanized land. Madrid, in the lead. In your studioEzquiaga includes a table prepared with data from the Ministry of Housing that shows that the largest housing stock planned and pending execution is located in the Madrid area, at least if we talk about raw figures. There the potential is 351,000 properties, almost 15% of the total existing housing stock in 2021. The potential is equally high in Murcia (226,600 units), Seville (142,900) and Barcelona (142,900), although in general terms it adds up to thousands of homes in all areas of the country. The smallest is Palma, with almost 12,000. In “dead hands”. To understand part of this large pool of stuck housing we have to go back almost two decades ago, to the bursting of the real estate bubble and its subsequent hangover. When brick ceased to be the business of the century and many developers were forced to close, the plots that had recently hosted residential projects began to become an asset with an uncertain future. A part ended up in private hands. Another, from the town councils. Their casuistries are different, but in the end the result is the same: what Ezquiaga calls properties in “dead hands”parked plots, stuck despite having the potential to inject millions of homes into a market that, 20 years later, is once again tense. “Judging by its urban status, blocked for more than two decades in which many have remained vacant, these are not temporary but structural situations; that is why they remind us, overcoming the distance, of those owners who went down in history as dead hands,” reflect. Who controls that land? As remember The Country There are two major fronts. 30% has remained in the hands of municipal administrations that once received them from the developers as part of the land that they had to give up to carry out their real estate projects. The problem is that not all town councils have the capacity, will or simply the resources to take advantage of that land and convert it into public housing (VPO). The result is that it ends up blocked, up for sale or redirected towards other uses, such as endowment services. The remaining 70% of the land depends on private entities, but that does not guarantee that it will be exploited and converted into housing. The key is whether or not its development is profitable. And if they can finance it. This also explains that when city councils opt for public-private collaborations to take advantage of the land they control, they do not always find partners willing to embark on the projects. One of the keys is provided by Ezquiaga in your studio: The 15 main metropolitan areas in Spain have land with potential for a million and a half homes, but only a third are located in environments with already developed land. “Vacant land”. Last year, in another study published by the think tank Funcas on the Sareb, Ezquiaga I already warned of the complexity of the scenario: “With a development industry with lower capacities compared to previous decades, the original projects were discontinued. Thus, many of the still viable lands would not adapt to the regulatory changes or the new territorial needs, paralyzing them and contributing to a surplus of vacant lands with negative consequences on the valuation of Sareb’s portfolio and, above all, for the long-term generation of new residential supply.” He is not the only one who has drawn attention to the land with still pending potential in the cities of Spain. The Ministry of Housing itself has analyzed the main pockets of land available in Spain for new apartments, focusing above … Read more

After more than 20 years using Microsoft Office, I have switched to LibreOffice. Now I realize everything I’ve missed

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After more than two decades of unwavering loyalty to Microsoft Word, a couple of years ago I made the leap to LibreOffice. This change was not something I had planned, but rather a spontaneous decision born of frustration and fatigue. It happened one day after formatting my PC, at which point I decided to take the step and install LibreOffice. Below these lines I tell you what my experience has been like in case you are also considering something similar. 20 years of Word and Excel are exhausting For practically my entire life with computers, Microsoft Word has been my inseparable companion. I have installed it religiously on every new version of Windows, from XP times to current versions. I have witnessed its evolutionits interface changes, its sometimes controversial ribbon, and how little by little it was integrating with the cloud. I also spent some time using the web version of Office, one of the methods to have it for freewhich although I found it useful for simple tasks when I was away from home, always seemed like a decaffeinated version of its older brother. It’s fine to get by, but when you need all the features, there is no color. LibreOffice, download, install and that’s it Everything changed a few weeks ago. My PC was beginning to show symptoms of fatigue, slowness, and some random errors that made me suspect that it was time for a format. I started using it on Windows 10 before its end of support, since I had Windows 10 and 11 on different computers to stay up to date with everything that happens in Microsoft systems. So I proceeded with the formatting, installed Windows 10 again and quickly installed everything I had before and without bloatware. And that’s when I stopped to think: Do I really want to go back to Office, go through the hoops of having a Microsoft account linked, keeping track of the subscription and a thousand other moves just because I like Word? It is incredibly comforting to use free, comprehensive, open source software like LibreOffice I was honestly tired, so that It was my turning point. to opt for LibreOffice once and for all. And I know that I don’t discover anything new to those who have been using it for a long time, but this change tasted so good to me that I wanted to share it through this article. Other colleagues too They have taken this leap and explained it. LibreOffice was not unknown to me. I had tried it occasionally in the past and it had always seemed like a decent alternative, but inertia and the comfort of sticking with the familiar had kept me in the Microsoft ecosystem. This time, however, I decided to give it a serious chance.. I downloaded the latest version and installed it. The process was surprisingly easy compared to what I was used to before: download, install and go. No product keys, no linked accounts, no subscriptions. A refreshing sensation. My main work tool is the word processor, so LibreOffice Writer was my first stop. The interface, although different from Word, was quite intuitive to me. Yes, there are notable differences, but after a couple of days of continuous use, my workflow was almost as efficient as before. It should be noted that It is a very complete tool. All the functions that I usually use in my work were there: track changes, paragraph styles, spell check, page numbering, indexes… Even some options that in Word are hidden in submenus were more accessible here. It is true that the transition was not perfect. Some old DOCX documents opened with minor differences, but nothing I couldn’t fix in a few minutes. Writer saves by default in ODT format, but can export directly to PDF or save in DOC or DOCX format if you need to share documents to other users who use Office. I’m not a spreadsheet expert, but I need something reliable to organize information, create simple graphs, and occasionally apply a formula. Therefore, Calc has pleasantly surprised me. The transition from Excel was even easier than from Word. The basic formulas work practically the same, the creation of graphs is intuitive and, for my level of use, I have not missed anything at all. What I value most about LibreOffice is the feeling of freedom it gives me. It’s incredibly reassuring to use free, comprehensive, open source software like what you offer, which doesn’t rely on renewable subscriptions or constant connections to cloud services. During these years of intensive use I have not experienced any crashes or loss of information. Furthermore, another notable aspect is its lightness. LibreOffice starts noticeably faster than Office and consumes much less system resourceswhich is always appreciated. Regarding the interface, I must admit that At first I found it a bit cumbersome.. Unlike the Office ribbon, LibreOffice presents a jumble of features that can be overwhelming for a newcomer. However, as the days go by and you become familiar with its layout, you begin to appreciate having all those possibilities in view. Now that I’ve gotten used to it, I find it even more efficient to have direct access to so many features without having to navigate through multiple tabs like in Office. LibreOffice is not perfect. It has its quirks, and during this time I’ve dealt with things like opening DOC and DOCX documents almost always ending up in a bad modification of the document structure, although this is something that it has already been solved. However, for daily professional use it more than meets the requirements. The transition requires a bit of a learning curve and some patience, but the freedom you gain is worth every minute invested. After 20 years with Microsoft Office, I can say that LibreOffice is not only a viable alternative, but it will become my default tool from now on. In Xataka Basics | Microsoft 365 for free: how to get free Office on your PC … Read more

From today you can pay with Bizum in stores, this is how it works

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Let’s tell you How Bizum payments work in stores physical. This is the long-awaited function with which the Spanish application begins to compete with the American Visa, Mastercard, Apple or Google to take over our mobile payments. The deployment of this function will be progressiveand it will be each banking entity that will decide when to implement it. So, the technology already works as of now, but since Bizum is implemented directly in your bank’s app, it will be up to you when to add the touch payments feature. How this feature works This new function is used to pay with Bizum at the establishments’ dataphones. Businesses will not have to change their POS terminals, since the financial institutions themselves will be the ones to enable this new function in the terminals they already have. All this so that the implementation of this function is quick and easy. Currently, when you pay with your mobile phone in a store, you open your wallet application, choose the card and bring your mobile phone closer to the POS. The NFC chip in your mobile phone and the dataphone establishes the link between them and that’s it, you’ve paid. Now, You can do this from your bank’s app without having to configure the mobile wallet app. In addition to this, An app called Bizum Pay is also going to start arrivingwhich will be like a Bizum wallet application with which to make the payment easier, just as if you did it with Google Pay or Apple Pay, and without having to enter your bank app. The Bizum system will have the same security guarantees as the rest of the mobile payment options. You’ll have to unlock your device to pay, so it’s safer than paying with a card that others can use. Bizum currently has 39 participating banking entitiesamong them the most important banks in Spain, but also many neobanks. Therefore, if you are going to pay for your mobile phone, you can do so with this Spanish alternative instead of resorting to the American ones. The way it works will be exactly the same. When can you pay with Bizum in a business When your bank wants. This is the quick answer. From now on, it will be up to each bank to implement this technology in their mobile applications for customers and in the POS terminals of businesses. Each bank will have its own rhythm, that is, it will arrive progressively. In any case, you will have to pay attention to notifications from your bank’s appthe one you already use to send money with Bizum, because that will be when you will be told when you can start using this. In Xataka Basics | Bizum in 2026: everything that changes (and what does not) in transfers with this system

For the first time in 30 years, Nvidia will not present new GPUs for gamers in 2026. They earn much more with AI

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In 1995 Nvidia presented its NV1 chipsits first multimedia card and the one that would start its particular revolution in the world of gaming. Since then, every year the company has presented a new model intended for this segment. In 2026 that tradition will be broken. what has happened. What has happened is AI. The rise of this industry has been of such magnitude that it has had a critical impact on the technological field and, little by little, on the social field. Nvidia is at the center of this particular revolution, because the company bet early on the ability of its GPUs to be used as AI chips and that bet has been rewarded. Gamers in the background. Such has been the explosion in this field, that Nvidia has decided that what is important is no longer gamers, but AI chips for data centers. From a financial and business point of view, the logic is overwhelming: the profit margin of AI chips round 75%, especially thanks to price control that allows the company to set prices to its liking thanks to the fact that it currently has almost no competition. Data centers win by a landslide. There is another element that favors it: volume. Not only is the price per unit higher, it is that the volume handled in data centers is much higher than that of gaming GPUs. Analysis like that of App Economy show how the market started timid, but in the second fiscal quarter of 2024 revenues began to skyrocket and the data center fever has made Nvidia the company with the largest market capitalization in the world. No GPUs for gaming in 2026. After the launch of the RTX 5000 in January 2025, this year Nvidia was expected to announce the “SUPER” versions of said family. These models they were going to tell with denser GDDR7 memory modules, which would allow the memory configuration of the original models to be increased. The memory crisis and the total focus on the catalog of GPUs for AI has meant that Nvidia has not announced them, and for the first time in more than 30 years there will be no renewal of the gamer catalog for this year. And the RTX 6000 even further. If the news is already bad for the SUPER versions of the RTX 5000, things are even more terrible for the theoretical RTX 6000, which will have Rubin architecture and from which a notable jump in performance is expected. According to the latest datathese graphics cards will not begin to be manufactured until the end of 2027, which would mean that they would not arrive until 2028. The current situation suggests that it is likely that they will not even arrive that year. Do we really need more powerful GPUs? On Reddit a user did an important comment when it became known that NVIDIA would probably not release new graphics for gamers. “On the one hand it makes me angry. On the other hand I realize that I am playing ‘Rimworld‘ and ‘Terraria‘”. It refers to very popular games that can be played even with integrated GPUs such as those used by many Intel or AMD processors. Others they responded that Nvidia GPUs are so powerful that they are actually often necessary because game developers don’t really squeeze the hardware. Be that as it may, it seems that the current generation is usually more than prepared for the most demanding titles, and the urgency for a new generation is perhaps not so pressing. The April 2026 Steam survey makes it clear that the next-generation RTX 5000 coexists with a market in which the RTX 4000 and RTX 3000 remain very popular. Source: Steam. The data confirms it. If you go through the April 2026 Steam Survey you see how more than a year after its presentation, the RTX 5000 has almost 24% market share, while the RTX 4000 has 35% and the RTX 3000 has 16%. The rest of the users opt for previous solutions or from rivals like AMD, which is still far away in this battle. Many users have already invested in their RTX 3000 and 4000, and it seems unlikely that they will do so again for a new GPU, especially when in the recent times The prices of these cards have skyrocketed. There is nowhere to run. There is another problem with this Nvidia strategy of turning gamers into second-class users: there are not many alternatives, at least if we want maximum performance. AMD continues to fight in this market, but its graphics still fail to capture the interest of many users. Intel has done interesting releases recent years, but not in the high range in which Nvidia is a de facto monopoly. Your efforts They are not achieving great success either.and the company is not focusing on it either because it knows that now the money is somewhere else. In Xataka | If at some point NVIDIA has to choose between giving its best chips to the US or China, its choice is very clear.

What if the combustion engine of tomorrow was French?

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The European Union is committed to the electric car. It is a plan that has been around for years and, although some modifications have been made, it is not going to change. The decision led manufacturers to jump to “all electric.” The final objective was clear: simplify ranges adapting to the most restrictive regulation, the European one, trusting that the public would embrace the technology at a good pace. Although the growth of electric car It is evident, this embrace of the public has not gone at the pace that was expected. This has made manufacturers rethink their objectives.. Europe is a smaller market than the North American market (where the electric car is advancing at a very low rate) and the South American market (where the combustion engine seems to continue to be indispensable for many years to come. China is committed to the electric car but its own idiosyncrasies makes electric cars designed to please Europe unsaleable. As a result, manufacturers have lobbied as hard as they can to force the European Union to change the rules of the game. They have achieved itbut in a minimal way. And from 2035, cars with combustion engines can continue to be sold but they will be limited to units for the rich. Meanwhile, there was someone who was betting on the combustion engine, to maintain a wide range of technologies where the heat engine for “the popular classes”. That country has been France. We have the case of Horse Project, supported by Renault and the Chinese group Geely. But the last thing, the French colleagues from L’Automobile It is that of Aramco, who are clear that the future of the combustion engine involves simplifying what we already know. A simpler engine to keep combustion alive As we said, relevant projects have been emerging from France to keep the combustion engine alive. With direct consequences in our country. Or that they should have them. As we said, Horse Project born as a result of the collaboration between Renault and the Chinese manufacturer Geely. This last group owns purely electric brands such as Smart but its own cars, The Geely Starray EM-iwill use plug-in hybrid engines when they arrive in Europe. Lotus, which also belongs to Geely and also had made the leap to “all electric”has reversed its strategy and will also have a new launch supported by a plug-in hybridization platform. It is the latest example but by no means the only one. At the last Beijing Motor Show, the company presented the latest evolution of an electrified V6 engine with three- and four-cylinder configurations that, they say, guarantee minimal consumption and can offer power of up to 400 kW (544 HP) and 700 Nm of torque. The company has part of its future in Valladolid where the R&D&I center in Europe is located for the development of more efficient combustion engines. The situation is not chosen randomly since there it produces the Renault Captur and Symbioz that continue to use combustion engines and very close by, in Palencia, large models of the group such as Southern, Space and Rafale. For Renault, the thermal engine has become essential. While other companies jumped into the arms of the electric car, those with the rhombus have remained faithful to having one foot in the combustion engine and are based on it to make the leap into new markets such as South Korea with the Renault Filantethe company’s most ambitious car in many years and a bet that aims directly at the premium segment. The other big French commitment to a combustion engine is one that comes from the Aramco headquarters. The Saudi oil company is the most valued in the world and has partnered with Pipo Moteursa small company specialized in engine development. This company has been chosen by Aramco to develop a combustion engine that is as simple as possible to adapt it to different needs. The idea is that the engine will be developed directly as a solution for hybrid vehicles. That is, it is a car designed from scratch under this concept, not with the idea of ​​adapting an existing combustion engine to hybrid technology. The final objective is clear: do not oversize the engine. And that happens by going back to the past. With the idea that a good part of the weight will be carried by the electric motor and the power stored in the battery, a single camshaft is chosen for the engine. That is, there are only two valves per cylinder instead of four, as has been the industry standard for decades. Besides, the classic push rod system is used omitting the use of a timing chain. This makes the whole even cheaper in a solution that once again looks to the past. Additionally, the engine (at least on paper) is easily adaptable to different configurations. Thus, to begin with, it is a 1.6-liter three-cylinder that can be converted without many modifications into a 1.1-liter two-cylinder, a 2.1-liter four-cylinder and a 3.2-liter V6, naturally aspirated or with a turbo, as stated in motor.es. All this comes from the offices that Aramco has in the United States but it is Pipo Moteurs, this small company specialized in motors for competition, that is in charge of making the prototypes. The proposal is even more interesting if we take into account that Aramco is a partner of Horse Projectthe aforementioned company mostly owned by Renault and Geely. Photo | Aramco In Xataka | Keeping combustion engines alive in 2035 leaves us with clear winners. Some called BMW, Porsche and Ferrari

The new Siri will arrive soon in beta phase. It doesn’t matter when you read this

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The new Siri will arrive in beta phase with iOS 27. And yes, you have already read this news… two years ago. Gurman himself failed in his predictions, as he expected the beta version of Siri to land early this year, in one of the iOS 26 betas. With Gemini Intelligence presented and the advanced state of third-party alternatives such as ChatGPT either Claudeit may seem that Apple’s delays are getting more serious. The truth is that it matters little. The new. Gurman has revealed important details about the iOS 27 news and, among them, it seems inevitable that the new Siri will finally arrive. Although it will be an independent application (like any of its rivals), it will be fully integrated into the system and can be invoked as before. To reinforce privacy, Apple will allow you to schedule automatic deletion of conversations. A function that casts certain doubts since, whether we like it or not, the proper functioning of an AI depends on how much it knows us. And if you are going to forget what we talked about for privacy, you will have a difficult time in new conversations. If you can’t beat the enemy… Siri as a direct rival to Gemini, GPT or Claude doesn’t make much sense, so the leak suggests that iOS will not depend exclusively on its model. When she is not able to respond for herself, will continue to use third partiesas it currently does in its integration with OpenAI. After the agreement between Google and AppleGemini will be at the base of much of Siri’s behavior. The question is how much and in what way, since privacy is Apple’s main concern compared to other models. what’s happening. The internal delays in the new Siri are causing chaos that is taking a media toll on Apple, and there is no firm explanation beyond the fact that they will only release it to the public when they are ready. The shipwreck of the new Siri It is a mixture of competing visions, technical errors and an internal war between the Artificial Intelligence and software teams themselves. The obsession with privacy has led to two years of delays in a territory where progress is counted weekly. For years Apple set the pace of the industry. For two years now, for the first time in a long time, he seems to be running after her. In Xataka | Welcome to the AI ​​duopoly: the sector already has a turnover of 80 billion a year, but OpenAI and Anthropic take 89% of the revenue

It is the only one with AI as co-pilot

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Cross the Mediterranean aboard a luxury superyacht without the annoying constant roar of the diesel and without vibrations it was a luxury reserved for Jeff Bezos and other millionaires sailboat owners. However, that is the promise of Seawolf X, the world’s first yacht whose hybrid propulsion system is not only governed by a captain, but also has an AI as co-pilot. He Seawolf has been attracting the attention of the nautical sector for months, not only for its innovative hybrid propulsion technology that combines diesel and electric engines, but because it proposes something that very few had dared to try: that an AI takes control of the propulsion of a luxury superyacht so that it consumes just enough at all times. The world’s first yacht with AI on board. As and how he published Forbesthe Seawolf The second on board is an AI system called Rossinavi AI, which analyzes the state of the sea, wind speed, currents and the planned route in real time to calculate at every moment which combination of electric and diesel propulsion is most efficient. The manufacturer assures that this is not a simple automation, but that the system continually learns and adjusts the behavior of the engine to save maximum fuel in each scenario and do not generate emissions. SeaWolf Autonomous load management. The most striking part is that the AI ​​does not wait for the captain’s instructions to optimize the operation of the propulsion systems. Rossinavi AI has been designed to learn from the usage patterns on board and acts accordingly: adjusting power distribution, deciding when to charge or discharge the batteries and coordinating the various systems on the boat so that everything works without anyone having to intervene. The Seawolf X’s battery bank is recharged by the engines themselves and through solar panels integrated into the structure of the boat. The autonomy in hybrid mode reaches 3,000 nautical miles (about 5,500 km), which makes it a boat capable of facing long-distance ocean crossings. But the most striking fact is that the AI ​​intervention manages to reduce fuel consumption by up to 30% compared to a conventional yacht with equivalent performance. In calm waters and with favorable wind, Rossinavi AI prioritizes electric propulsion. When the sea gets rough, it automatically switches to diesel engines to provide more power. One of the SeaWolf X decks Luxury is also measured in silence. This is where one of the Seawolf X’s strongest arguments from a luxury point of view comes into play. The hybrid system allows sailing in fully electric mode in certain conditions, which eliminates the noise and vibrations characteristic of diesel engines. When at anchor, the batteries power the entire boat without starting any engines. The result is absolute silence, something that owners of yachts of this level of luxury highly valued and which, until now, was almost impossible to obtain for more than a few hours. Luxury within reach of few pockets. The interior of Seawolf X has been designed by studio Fulvio De Simoni and can accommodate up to 12 guests in five cabins, with a crew of up to nine. The spaces combine woods and high-end materials with a distribution that takes advantage of the spaciousness offered by the interior of catamaran hulls. The aft beach club provides direct access to the water for nautical activities, and the decks are designed for relaxing both in port and on the voyage. Enjoying all this luxury and silence does not come cheap. It is possible to sail on the Seawolf between 280,000 euros and 380,000 euros per week while you enjoy the landscapes of the Greek islands, the crystalline waters of the Croatian coast or the glamor of the Côte d’Azur and Italy. In Xataka | There are millionaires planting trees on board their yachts because, apparently, you can get bored of having so much money Image | Rossinavi

The WHO warns of a new outbreak with a strain for which we do not have a vaccine

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A few days ago the news broke in the media that warned of the decision taken by the WHO to warn of a new Ebola outbreak in the province of Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just when we are still trying to resolve the health emergency triggered by the hantavirus. With this ‘alarm voice’ the WHO gives international relevance to this outbreak, which is not a routine or predictable episode, but is a variant for which there are no approved treatments and, above all, which can be expand easily to the surrounding countries. Expanding. The magnitude of the problem is reflected in its rapid evolution, since in just a few weeks since the initial detection, the health authorities have already recorded more than 246 suspected cases and around 80 deaths that would be related to this virus a priori. And although so far there are only eight laboratory-confirmed cases, the geographical situation complicates tracking. The epicenter is in the east of the DRC, but the pathogen has not respected territorial limits, since the virus has already crossed the border into Ugandawhere two cases have been confirmed in the capital itself, Kampala. This jump to a densely populated urban center is precisely what has precipitated the maximum alert by the United Nations and the WHO. It is not a pandemic. At the moment the criteria are not met to consider this outbreak as a pandemic, but the declaration seeks coordinate international response before mobility between affected countries turns this outbreak into something much larger. And we must not forget that we are facing a virus that generates a serious and potentially fatal disease. In the past. If we look back, this situation is not completely new, since a outbreak in 2014 In West Africa this same alert was raised and the consequence was that it ended up reaching Spain. This virus in our territory caused the repatriation of several citizens, some infections on the ground and also the sacrifice of the famous dog Excalibur On this occasion, the protagonist was the strain Zaire, but the current outbreak is developed by the strain Bundibugyo. The big problem facing the scientific and health community is that, although in recent years we have developed an impressive preventive and therapeutic arsenal for the variant Zairethese tools they don’t work against the Bundibugyo strain. The absence of prophylaxis and specific approved treatments exponentially multiplies the clinical risk and makes control efforts on the ground difficult. The perfect storm. Added to the virological challenge is a first-level logistical and social challenge. We must keep in mind that the east of the DRC is one of the areas more unstable of the planet, characterized by constant armed conflicts, and this is the perfect storm epidemiologically speaking due to many factors such as: Lack of access to medical equipment and rapid response in hot zones safely. The constant movement of refugees means that the virus may be spreading between countries. Distrust of national and international health systems makes it difficult to isolate the sick, trace direct contacts, and implement protocols to manage bodies. It is not endemic Ebola. On many occasions we can hear that Ebola is ‘one more’ in some areas of Africa, referring to the constant circulation of the virus in animal reservoirs such as, for example, bats in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone. In this case, the virus can emerge sporadically and cause outbreaks that are contained and do not generate too many epidemiological problems. And now we are facing something quite different, starting with the strain that resembles what we were used to and also because it is now ‘jumping’ geographical borders and passing between countries. This is also added to the fact that this new outbreak with an international emergency is developing in a country with war, where the disease takes a back seat, which is more dangerous when we are faced with a variant that we are not used to and for which we do not know many treatments. Images | aleksandarlittlewolf in Magnific In Xataka | We believed we were prepared for a post-covid world. Hantavirus is the first serious test and the results are not optimistic

This is how astronauts prepare to step on the Moon in 2028

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This week, SpaceX may take a giant step toward the Moon If Starship Flight 12 goes well. However, its main competitor in this race, Blue Origin, is not far behind. Its lunar module, the Blue Moon MK1, has successfully passed tests in a NASA vacuum chamber. And if that were not enough, there is now a model of the Blue Moon MK2 installed at the Johnson Space Center, so that the Artemis astronauts can practice the steps that will be carried out during the long-awaited moon landing. A step that SpaceX has not taken. The Blue Moon MK2 model is positioned in Building 9 of the Johnson Space Center, next to a prototype of the Orion capsule. The goal is for astronauts to rehearse the transition from one ship to another just before landing on the moon. This maneuver will take place during the Artemis IV missioninitially with Starship. This is because NASA closed the contract for this point of the mission with SpaceX. As for Blue Origin, would come into play in Artemis V. However, given some SpaceX delays, NASA has expressed the possibility of making changes to the contracts and advancing Blue Origin if it is ready sooner. At the moment, both are going well and it seems that SpaceX is recovering from its delays. The astronauts have also been able to do some training on Starship. However, everything has happened at the SpaceX facilities. It is the first time that NASA itself houses a mock-up of one of the landers so that the future crew can carry out the maneuver together with Orion. Different from the Apollo program. The Apollo program missions were manned by three astronauts, of which two landed on the moon and another remained orbiting the Moon. This happened after the two stages of the ship separated. The lander descended towards the Moon, but the command module remained in lunar orbit. In the case of Artemis there is not one ship that separates into two, but two ships. Astronauts will travel to lunar orbit aboard Orion. Once there, the ship will dock with the human landing system (HLS) developed by Blue Origin or SpaceX. This will allow two of the astronauts to transition to it and embark on the moon landing, while the other two remain in Orion. A very close race. The manned moon landing will happen on Artemis IV. However, before that, each company will need to have demonstrated the landing capability of its HLS separately, as well as the possibility of refueling directly in orbit. This is mission essential and has never been done before. Both SpaceX and Blue Origin are making good progress. Some more advanced than others in specific steps, but without stopping moving forward. A lot of money at stake. It is logical that both companies are putting so much effort into this competition. Not only the pleasure of making history is at stake. There is also a lot of money on the table. If everything goes as planned, is calculated that SpaceX could earn up to $4.5 billion and Blue Origin $3.4 billion. It may end in a tie. Although this has always been seen as a competition, in reality if both prove to be viable, it is expected that neither will be left without visiting the Moon in the Artemis program. It is expected that Artemis III already has one of the landers for its docking with Orion in 2027. Afterwards, a manned lunar landing would be completed in 2028 with Artemis IV. From then on, the goal is for trips to the Moon to become a regular occurrence. For that, the more landers, the better. In principle, the two companies will have their piece of the pie. Images | POT In Xataka | In 2018, Elon Musk put his own car into orbit. Eight years later it is still circling the Earth

is outshining solar panels

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The world has returned to coal. NoWe are not in the 18th century. in the midst of the Industrial Revolution, but in the era of artificial intelligence and wild computing in huge data centers. Although it seems that a large part of the GPUs mounted in data centers are stops most of the timewhen they start working they need a huge amount of immediate energy. There renewable energies cannot respond (due to intermittency and storage), and that is why Big Tech is resorting to opening nuclear power plantsof gas and, of course, coal. And the big problem with coal is not only the issue of emissions, but something almost as serious: its pollution. is interfering with solar energy production. It neither eats nor lets eat, as they say, and the researchers who have measured it point out that reality can be much more negative than what they reflect in their study. Double contamination Researchers from the University of Oxford and University College London have just published in Nature a study in which they detail how they have mapped and analyzed more than 140,000 photovoltaic installations around the world using satellite images. After comparing it with atmospheric data on air pollution and calculating how much sunlight stops reaching the photovoltaic cells due to that pollution, they concluded that these solar ‘farms’ produced 5.8% less than they could have produced. Although the study has been published now, the data corresponds to 2023 and, to lower that figure of 5.8% a little, they point out that it is equivalent to 111 TWh of lost energy. How much is that? The amount generated by 18 medium-sized coal-fired power plants. That the figures are from 2023 is interesting. Electricity from solar energy was already well established and, furthermore, we were talking about the end of coal. The huge data centers they needed all that immediate energy They were not yet as developed as they are now and both the energy companies and the countries themselves were leaving this type of energy generation aside. However, there was something that the researchers say had not been measured: the brake on that transition to clean energy. Between 2017 and 2023 there was an explosion in the installation of solar panels with an average of 246 TWh new each year, but this study points out that the losses caused by aerosols were about 74 TWh. That is, almost a third of what was earned by installing plates was lost due to particles emitted by coal plants. China or India stop generating a lot, but there are countries that are directly negative, such as the United Arab Emirates, South Korea, Greece or Pakistan. These particles are extremely fine, but they are still capable of absorbing light before it reaches the solar panels. It’s like an invisible umbrella that prevents photovoltaic installations from deploying their full potential and the curious thing is that the countries that have accelerated the most with photovoltaics are those that burned the most coal, so they were tripping themselves up. Focused on China, the great solar power in the worldit is estimated that in 2023 it will generate 793.5 TWh of electricity thanks to photovoltaics. This was 41.5% of the world total, but at the same time had the largest loss due to these particles, with production that could have been 7.7% higher. And the researchers point out that 29% of those solar losses were directly related to emissions from coal plants. However, they have also found that China is the only powerful region in electricity production through photovoltaics that has been improving over time due to some strict emission standards. In the United States, although photovoltaics have also been on the rise, solar production fell by 3.1% during the same period due to the same thing: large photovoltaic ‘farms’ are too close to coal plants. The team points out that it is no longer just that pollution blocks sunlight, but “it also changes clouds, which can further reduce solar energy production. This implies that the real impact is likely to be greater than what we have measured, so we may be overestimating how much solar energy can contribute to emissions reductions if we do not control pollution from coal energy.” That is to say, although more renewable sources are being installed, with solar being the star in much of the world (in Nordic countries it is wind), it is likely that this overestimation of renewable production serves to make governments and companies take advantage, but it should be taken into account. the hidden carbon brake to banish fossil fuels from energy generation once and for all. The problem is what is surely on your mind. These figures correspond to the period measured in 2023, but since then we have experienced a significant increase in data centers. As we say, they need a huge amount of electricity available immediately to supply the consumption of the facilities in computing peaks, and this is something that they are not covering with renewables. To do this, data centers they would need huge batteriesbut they would exhaust the energy quickly and would go back to ‘pulling’ from conventional sources. Since the explosion of data centers, some have relaxed anti-pollution measures and even the oil companieswho were making the transition to renewables, they swerved to redirect their gaze to a much more profitable business in the short term. And the most important thing is what we also mentioned: it doesn’t matter if you install many solar panels if you increase the rate of coal production to satisfy the gluttonous data centers because it is no longer just that there is direct pollution, but that those particles resulting from the burning of coal are interfering with the production of solar energy. Images | Nature, David Dalton In Xataka | There is no energy for so many data centers and the consequence is clear: half of those planned for 2026 in the US are in danger

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