Month: May 2026

You bought an electric car to save. Here’s why you’re not doing it

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It’s 7:30 p.m. You get home, put away your coat, plug in the car and forget about it. You’ve done it like this every day since you bought the electric one. Until the electricity bill arrives and nothing adds up. The car doesn’t consume gasoline, yes, but something has gone wrong. That something has a name: you’ve been paying the most expensive electricity of the day to charge a battery that could have been filled for half the price while you were sleeping. It’s 7:30 p.m. You get home, put away your coat, plug in the car and forget about it. You’ve done it like this every day since you bought the electric one. Until the electricity bill arrives and nothing adds up. The car doesn’t consume gasoline, yes, but something has gone wrong. That something has a name: you’ve been paying the most expensive electricity of the day to charge a battery that could have been filled for half the price while you were sleeping. The 280 kWh error. Think of any family: apartment, refrigerator, washing machine, some heating. About 290 kWh per month. The day they park an electric car in the garage and start charging it at home, those 290 kWh become 570. The car adds about 280 kWh per month on its own, counting what is lost in the charging itself. If they plug it in in the middle of the afternoon, they are paying for that mass of energy at the most expensive price of the day. The same amount of kWh can cost twice as much depending only on the time at which it is consumed. The key is no longer just how much is consumed, but when it is consumed. The three traps. The first instinct when buying an electric car is to call the company and ask for more contracted power, for fear that the leads will trip if the car is connected with the washing machine running. Alejandro Diego Rosell, energy consultant and professoridentifies it as one of the most common and most expensive mistakes: oversizing the power means paying an unnecessary safety margin every month, even if you never use it. But the thing doesn’t stop there. Many users believe that the regulated market (PVPC) is the safest haven. According to Sergio Soto’s calculations, energy expert Roamsa model household with an electric car would pay about 101.67 euros per month in PVPC, penalized by hourly volatility and increases in prices in certain sections. Cheap when the price drops, yes. But unpredictable when it rises, and rises just when it is most consumed. And there remains the one that is most abundant in advertising and the one that deceives the most: EV rates. Rosell sums it up with a rule that should not be forgotten: “You are still saving 8 euros by charging the car and losing 15 in the rest of the house.” You have to look at the nightly price, but also what they charge during normal hours and what is in the fine print of the fixed term. Some EV rates offer a very cheap early morning to recover the margin the rest of the day. The name does not guarantee anything. The roadmap. For the electric car to be truly profitable, experts propose following these steps: Apply the exact power formula: Rosell proposes a simple account: Necessary power = simultaneous consumption of the house + charger power + safety margin. If at dawn you have a refrigerator, water heater and air heater consuming 1.5 kW and you charge the car at 3.7 kW, you need about 5.2 kW in total. With a safety margin, you would hire 5.75 kW, not 10. And there is a nuance that changes everything: a smart charger can automatically reduce the car’s power if it detects that the house is consuming more. The car waits. The leads don’t jump. Play two powers: Current legislation (2.0TD rates) allows contracting a lower power for the day and a higher power only for the night (valley). This way you don’t pay all day for a power that you only use while you sleep. Escape from commercial trends: Faced with the avalanche of so-called ‘EV Rates’ (specific for electric vehicles), Soto warns that the most economical option is usually a well-optimized classic rate with three-period time discrimination (DH3). In a practical case, this rate would lower the bill to 74.90 euros per month, representing a saving of 26.3% compared to the regulated market. EV rates are still competitive (about 77.50 euros), but they can be slightly more expensive than a good DH3. To compare without trusting advertising: the official comparator of the CNMC and the hourly prices of the PVPC published by Red Eléctrica in ESIOS are the reference tools. Install a smart charger. A conventional plug is slow and offers no control. A wallbox allows you to program the load so that it starts on its own during the cheapest hours and adjusts the energy so as not to exceed the contracted power. Rosell places the cost of the equipment between 400 and 800 euros; Soto, adding the complete installation, between 600 and 1,500 euros depending on the case. Important: the wallbox does not pay for itself only by the kWh saved, but also by the control, security and comfort it provides. And the investment is significantly cut with the Auto+ Plan, which subsidizes up to 70% of the installation for individuals and up to 80% in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. What if we collapse the network? With an increase in plug-in vehicle registrations which exceeds 44%it is legitimate to wonder if there will be blackouts when we all charge at dawn. Soto calls for calm: the problem is not that everyone charges at night, but that everyone does it at the same time and at high powers. With smart charging and distributed management, the grid holds up. Rosell adds something more important for the long term: the “eternal cheap night” is … Read more

Sony has launched the most anti-2026 high-end mobile. It’s an idea as good as it is risky.

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Sony continues launching mobile phones. And it has reached a point where the news is not that it has launched a mobile phone, but rather why it has done so and what it wants to tell the market when it does so. Although it may seem like a counter-current idea, launching mobile phones knowing that you are only going to sell them makes some senseand Sony is not alone there. The anti2026. For some reason, manufacturers have been convincing us for years that more than useful technologies should disappear. All in pursuit of a more minimalist design, larger batteries and an evolution close to that of the portless mobile. To this, Sony responds with a blunt “hold my cap.” The Sony Xperia 1 VIII. He Sony Xperia 1 VIII It is a return to the past, maintaining technologies that the vast majority of its rivals discarded years ago. It has a 3.5mm headphone jack It has a slot for microSD cards up to 2 TB Thick, very thick bezels The SIM slot is not removed with the tool, just press it The stereo speakers are front-facing, there is no one below There is no trace of what might look like an iPhone Very good. Sony’s proposal is clear: in the middle of 2026 you can enjoy technologies that one day we banished and that are useful despite the passing of the years. Furthermore, each and every one of these steps does not distance the Xperia 1 VIII from what is required of a modern flagship. The best Qualcomm processor A powerful camera system with ZEISS optics Up to a generous 16 GB of RAM The only unforgivable point is that of a Full HD+ panel. On a 1,499 euro mobile phone this resolution is not acceptable. Because. The short answer is that Sony is not launching the Xperia 1 VIII to compete with Samsung or Apple. He gave up that battle a long time ago. In the last Corporate Strategy MeetingSony president Kenichiro Yoshida made it clear that the smartphone division does not exist to sell volume, it exists to prove something. Sony Xperia is, above all, a technological showcase. In addition, the Xperia division is a fundamental pillar for the company’s R&D. The advances made in these smartphones are later applied to what really matters: the brand’s cameras. In Xataka | At half price the Sony WH-1000XM5, headphones with one of the best noise cancellations we have tested

the technological leap begins to fit when you see how the color changes

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He Samsung R95H Micro RGB It was there, on, surrounded by the lighting of the room and with a very clear idea behind it: to show how far the company wants to take its new commitment to image. This morning, in Madrid, I was able to see it up close during a meeting with Samsung Electronics Spain in which Pablo Requejo, director of the TV Area, presented it as “the latest evolution in image technology.” We are not yet talking about a reviewbut a first contact to understand why the South Korean company wants this television to function as a showcase for its new Micro RGB bet, first presented at CES 2026. Here the first reasonable question appears: what is Micro RGB and why Samsung is giving it so much prominence. The name can lead to confusion, especially because it is very reminiscent of Micro-LED, a technology that we have been hearing promises about for years. But the difference is important. Micro-LED works without backlighting: each pixel emits its own light through small inorganic RGB LEDs. The OLED also emits light per pixel, but using organic compounds. Micro RGB doesn’t do that. What it proposes is to continue within the LCD field, but with a different backlight, made up of small LEDs that seek to improve color and light control. Requejo explained it from a very visual idea: “In micro RGB, each of the LEDs have the three native colors, red, green and blue.” The manager summed it up with another idea: by using Micro RGB, the company maintains that it can reduce dependence on traditional color filters and get closer to “spectacular colorimetry.” He also insisted on the size of those LEDs, “the size of a human hair”, a simple way to tell why Samsung wants to sell this technology as more than just a minor evolution. Technical sheet of the new Samsung R95H Micro RGB Samsung Micro RGB R95H panel 4K MICRO RGB LCD, 165 Hz VRR (100 Hz Native) resolution 3,840 x 2,160 sizes available 65, 75 and 85 inches image processor Micro RGB AI Engine Pro hdr HDR10+ sound 4.2.2 channels 70 watts (RMS) Dolby Atmos connectivity 4 x HDMI 2.1, 2 x USB-A, 1 x Ethernet, 1 x optical digital audio output, 1 x RF, 1 IC jack Wireless One Connect Ready compatible (for connections without visible cables) wireless connectivity Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 operating system One UI Tizen energy label Class E typical consumption 148 watts maximum consumption 390 watts dimensions 1658.8 x 1019.2 x 349.1 mm (with base) weight 31.8 kg (with base) price From 3,698.99 euros Micro RGB wants to open a third way between Mini LED and OLED The first image impression goes exactly where Samsung wants to take the conversation: color, brightness and sense of impact. As we can see from the photos, the 75-inch unit was not in a dark room, but in a demo with lots of light around, and yet the image did not appear washed out or washed out. The tones were strong and the panel conveyed that idea of ​​a high-end television that enters through the eyes before entering through the technical sheet. It remains to be tested with varied content and own measurements, but as a first visual contact it is convincing. Pablo Requejo, director of the TV Area at Samsung Electronics Spain, during the presentation of the company’s new range of televisions in Madrid Contrast was one of the sections that I was most interested in observing, precisely because this technology continues to be based on an LCD base. Live, the result was solid: blacks looked convincing, brightness didn’t seem to eat into dark areas, and the image maintained a reasonable separation between highlights and shadows. But this is one of those areas where a presentation is not enough. The night scenes, the subtitles on a black background, the viewing angles and the blooming They are tests that need time and specific content. Samsung bets on a sober base The version that we were able to see does not need a striking base to look like a high-end television. It achieves it in another way: with minimal frames, a very clean front and a simple central base that fulfills its function without taking the eye away. That decision makes a lot of sense because the important thing here is the screen, not what supports it, and Samsung seems to have sought precisely that: that the design accompanies without competing with the image. In the photos and live you can see that minimalist intentionwith the logo reduced to an almost testimonial presence. The reflection-free screen completes the proposal. In gaming, this Micro RGB promises. The presence of HDMI 2.1 It is important because it opens the door to improvements designed for very common problems when connecting a console or PC to the television. VRR allows you to synchronize the screen refresh rate with the signal from the console or PC to reduce cuts or jerks in the image. ALLM It can automatically activate low latency mode when it detects that we are playing. The Samsung logo is reduced to an almost testimonial presence, integrated into the lower part of the frame Added to that is a maximum refresh rate of 165 Hz, which means that the screen can update the image up to 165 times per second when the signal allows it. Compared to the traditional 60 Hz, the jump aims for a smoother imagewith less blur and a faster response, something especially useful in action, driving or shooting games. It is worth mentioning it because it is an important part of the technical section, but in this first contact I was not able to test it with a game: there was no console connected to the television. It will remain for a possible in-depth review to see how all this translates into real use. In software, the proposal goes through One UI Tizenthe layer with which Samsung wants to organize the experience … Read more

There is no way to find parking and it’s China’s fault

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The scene takes place in the 90s, when a Western tourist who visited Pyongyang tells the story same strange experience: He could travel down gigantic avenues for whole minutes without hardly crossing paths with another vehicle. Some roads seemed so empty that many thought they had been built more like decoration propaganda than to support real traffic. Decades later, that same city begins to discover a problem that for a long time seemed reserved for the rest of the world. The most unexpected paradox. For decades, one of the most recognizable images of North Korea was its enormous practically empty avenues. Pyongyang was designed as a monumental capital to display state power, but with very few cars circulating really through its streets. Reuters counted that now the situation is changing so rapidly that the regime is beginning to face a problem that would have seemed absurd just a few years ago: traffic jams, lack of parking and difficulties in managing the growth of private traffic. The most striking thing is that much of this transformation has a very specific origin. Although international sanctions prohibit the export of vehicles to the country, North Korean roads are filling up with cars and components arriving directly or indirectly. from china. The result is a most fascinating paradox: one of the countries most isolated on the planet It is beginning to look, little by little, like any large Asian city trapped by its own automobile boom. Kim has opened a door. The traffic explosion is not accidental. In recent years, North Korea has legalized and regulated partially private ownership of automobiles, allowing certain citizens to purchase one vehicle per household through state-controlled dealerships. The move is part of a broader strategy by Kim Jong-un to absorb and control economic activities that previously operated in gray or directly clandestine markets. Of course, the private car remains a luxury reserved above all for urban elites and the business class. known as donjubut the simple fact that a relatively formalized market already exists is rapidly altering daily life in Pyongyang. Where military and official vehicles with blue or black license plates once predominated, yellow license plates for private cars are now beginning to multiply. Pyongyang several years ago China as a silent engine. The most important detail is that this new car culture depends almost entirely from china. Officially, Beijing barely recognizes vehicle exports to North Korea since UN sanctions came into effect. in 2017. However, parts and supplies export figures tell a story completely different. Shipments of tires, rearview mirrors, lubricants and related auto components have skyrocketed in recent years. To this, Reuters recalled Added to this is the informal flow of used and new cars that cross the border through networks of intermediaries and smuggling. Many vehicles change hands several times before entering North Korea, making it difficult track your final destination. Thus, while officially cars hardly arrive in the country, the streets of Pyongyang are increasingly filled with Chinese models from brands such as Changan, Chery or Geely. Suffering as if it were London. The consequences are beginning to be visible throughout the capital. Foreign visitors and satellite analysis describe hotels with saturated parking lots, vehicles occupying adjacent streets and congestion points unprecedented until a few years ago. Some new businesses and buildings already incorporate underground parkingsomething extremely rare in the city traditionally. Infrastructure for electric taxis and limited charging stations are even beginning to appear. The most symbolic thing is perhaps the psychological change: finding a parking space begins to become an everyday concern among wealthy sectors of Pyongyang. The image of almost empty avenues It is rapidly disappearing and being replaced by something much more recognizable for any large contemporary city: slow traffic, traffic jams and streets saturated with private cars. Nothing stops China. All of this also reflects the extent to which North Korea economically dependent of China despite international isolation. The expansion of the private car It is strengthening that relationship even more. The cars, parts, fuel and much of the infrastructure needed to sustain this growth come directly or indirectly from the Chinese market. Even European brands like BMW or Audi appear occasionally in Pyongyang through channels that are difficult to trace. If you like, the situation shows (again) an uncomfortable reality for the sanctions system: although trade is officially restricted, the border with China continues to function as an economical valve fundamental for the North Korean regime. And now that dependency is becoming visible in a very concrete and almost surreal way: North Korea is having trouble finding parking because Pyongyang’s roads are filling up with Chinese cars that, on paper, should never have arrived there. Image | (stephan), Roman Harak In Xataka | In 2024, a Russian ship sank off Spain under mysterious circumstances. What he was carrying is even more suspicious In Xataka | Ukraine has barely captured any North Korean soldiers. The reason is brutally simple: they prefer to immolate themselves

In 2026 we are hooked on mobile. In 1929 people were alarmed by the “addiction” to crossword puzzles

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At a time when heroin and cocaine were legal tender, activists, journalists and legislators decided that what was really worrying, what was really was destroying western civilization They were crossword puzzles. Yes, as it sounds: crossword puzzles. Yesterday’s moral panics. Thanks to Jose César Peralesone of the country’s leading addiction neuroscience experts, we come to what is likely to become my favorite case of “moral panic”: the newspaper’s anti-hobby movements. Although I would have to search the monumental “Verbalia” of Marius Serra To confirm this, popular wisdom tells us that this evolution of magic square What we know today as a crossword puzzle was invented in 1913 by the English journalist, Arthur Wynne, while working on the ‘Fun’ supplement of the ‘New York World’ newspaper. where does it come from. The success of the hobby was spectacular and throughout the decade newspapers around the world incorporated it into their pages. In 1922, comic strips about people doing crossword puzzles were already circulating, and in 1924, the New York Library assured that “the latest fad to hit libraries is the crossword puzzle” complaining bitterly that “puzzle fanatics” monopolized “dictionaries and encyclopedias scaring away readers and students who need these books in their daily work.” Popularization. That library report was not something isolated. In fact, during 1924, voices of alarm against the threat posed by crossword puzzles became increasingly popular. That year, as the Harrisburg Telegraph stated“professors at the University of Michigan had banned crossword puzzles in their classes.” “Crossword addiction”. Concerned about crossword puzzle fever, the Kingsport Times-News, a Tennessee newspaper, denounced that “if legislators have acquired the habit, as they presumably have, it is difficult to see how they will find time to legislate” and lamented that “opposition to crossword puzzle addiction had not yet been organized”, although they were convinced that it would soon do so. After all, until now he had only “interfered with relatively unimportant matters”, but as the addiction grew the problems would increase. It sounds familiar to us. I have no doubt, As Perales himself pointed outthat opposition to crossword puzzles was nothing more than a “hobby” in those wonderful 1920s that blew up after the crash of ’29. That is to say, to the chagrin of the Kingsport Times-News columnist, that anti-puzzle movement was never organized (or turned into a lobby). However, it is a paradigmatic example of what moral panic is; that is, “a reaction by a group of people based on the false or exaggerated perception of some cultural behavior.” It is something that we have seen repeatedly with video games and that has become an urban myth. But it is when we see it in things like crossword puzzles (or in the dozens of examples that this “technophobia archive” has that is ‘Pessimists Archive‘) when it becomes especially evident. It’s good to remember it from time to time. In Xataka | Helping the waiter clear the table seems like a kind gesture: psychologists see something much deeper In Xataka | The mirage of the hyperpresent father: they dedicate four times more time to their children, but mothers are still on the verge of collapse In Xataka | “It doesn’t give me life”: the phrase that summarizes the vital state of an entire generation of Spaniards in their thirties Image | Ross Sneddon

Carrefour now sells, at an outlet price, this huge 75-inch QLED TV with Dolby Vision & Atmos

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Carrefour is celebrating the “Super Deals”, a campaign valid until May 25 and in which you can find a multitude of quality televisions with interest-free financing in 12 months and free shipping. One of the models that is worth it (especially if you are looking for a large television) is this one. TCL 75P71K which has gone from costing 899 euros to 599 euros. TV TCL 75P71K 75″ (190.5 cm), QLED, 4K UHD, 120 Hz, Smart TV The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A large TV at a reduced price If a few years ago you had told us that you could buy a TV 75 inch QLED With the latest in Google software and for this price, we wouldn’t have believed it. TCL has become a favorite brand for those looking for a giant diagonal without giving up solvent panel technology. This TCL 75P71K isn’t just a big screen; is a statement of intent about how image processing has evolved in the mid-entry range. The technology Quantum Dot It is the heart of this TV, which offers a wider color palette than traditional LEDs. Although it is true that the real magic happens in your brain. Your processor is AiPQ Pro chipwhich uses artificial intelligence to upscale low-resolution content to 4K. It is also a TV compatible with Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X, so at a sound level it offers an immersive experience. The operating system under which it works is Google TVa system with clean interfacefast and, above all, intelligent, which groups subscriptions to the main streaming platforms on a single screen. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: offer for smart tv tcl 75P71K ✅ THE BEST Size-price ratio: offering 75 inches (almost 190 cm diagonal) with QLED technology at this price is simply unbeatable for those looking for a home theater. Sound Compatibility: supports Dolby Atmos and DTS Virtual:X, ensuring a much more immersive surround audio experience. ❌ THE WORST 60Hz refresh rate… For players on new generation consoles (PS5 or Xbox Series X), this means that they will not be able to enjoy the full fluidity of 120 fps. Viewing angles… Being such a large format, if you sit too far to one side of the television, you may notice that the colors lose some intensity. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are a lover of series and movies. If you want to feel inside the film and value the size of the image more than extreme technicalities. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You have a small living room. At less than 2.5 or 3 meters, a 75-inch screen can be tiring on the eyes and you will notice image imperfections more. Some sound bars that may interest you for this television TCL Q65H Sound Bar 3.1.2, 340W The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG S40T – Smart Sound Bar, 300W, 2.1 Channels The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Webedia and TCL In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 140 euros

Android 17 launches Pause Point, a function to save us from addictive apps. It is the paradox of the arsonist firefighter

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Among all the news announced by Google a few days ago, without a doubt Gemini Intelligence It was the one that attracted the most attention, but it was not the only one. Android 17 also releases other changes Among which a function called ‘Pause Point’ caught my attention, an option that promises to save us from infinite scrolling by making us stop and think for a few seconds. When I discovered what Pause Point was, I did just that, stopped to think for a moment and realized the ironic of the situation. What is Pause Point “Have you ever spent 45 minutes scrolling and suddenly you realize that you don’t remember why you opened the phone?” This is how Google presents this new function that will arrive with Android 17 and that follows the line of others like Digital Wellbeing that was released with Android 9. Until now, if we wanted to limit the use of certain apps we could set timers or even block access completely, but according to Google this does not solve the problem: timers can be postponed and blocking sometimes makes it impractical if we need that app for something important. What they propose now is another different approach: when you open an app that usually distracts you, Pause Point is activated and makes you stop for 10 seconds to ask yourself “Why am I here?” During this break you can do a small breathing exercise or open the app, but setting a timer of 5, 15 or 30 minutes. It also offers you other apps to focus on, such as one for audiobooks. It makes sense: we have internalized certain patterns so much that we pick up our cell phone and open apps for no apparent reason, out of pure muscle memory. If we want to completely disable Pause Point, it is necessary to restart the phone. The goal is to make you stop and think before anything else. It makes sense and is something we have talked about before: we have internalized certain patterns so much, that we pick up our cell phone and open apps for no apparent reason, by Pure muscle memory. The arsonist who sells fire extinguishers In 2017 we were already talking about what was being set up an industry that promised to cure us of mobile addiction. There are all kinds of solutions that promise to reduce our screen time, from boring cell phones that make us use them lesseven accessories that They prevent us from opening certain apps. What is striking is when Those who offer the cure are the same ones who have created the problem. Recently, a judge in the United States has said that Meta, TikTok and Google They are guilty of having deliberately designed their products to generate addiction among young people, with functions such as autoplay or infinite scroll. Google defended itself arguing that “this case misinterprets YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social network.” It is true that the concept of “addictive” infinite scroll was born with apps like Snapchat, TikTok or Instagram, but let’s not forget that Google entered fully into this formula with YouTube Shorts and one is no less guilty for having committed the “crime” later than the rest. Google is not the only company that is offering the solution to a problem that they themselves are fueling. Instagram and TikTok also have features to help users disconnect from the app, but without leaving the appclear. As long as the metric that controls is usage time, these “detox” functions will be little more than a cosmetic patch in a system designed so that we never let go of our cell phone. One thing must be clear and that is that the business of these apps lies in Let us spend as much time as possible on them. Only then do we see more advertising and buy more products. We live in the attention economy and, as long as the metric that controls is the time of use, these “detox” functions will be little more than a cosmetic patch in a system designed so that we never let go of the mobile. Images | Google In Xataka | The psychology of doomscrolling: the trap our brain is programmed to fall into again and again

He obtained permits, hired personnel and negotiated with suppliers. Then he ordered 3,000 rubber gloves

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He OpenClaw release It marked a new one in the AI ​​race, one in which agentic AI takes on complex tasks that until recently it failed miserably at. Although the qualitative leap is undeniable, Giving full control of a business to an AI agent does not always go well. It’s fair what the startup Andon Labs has done: Put an AI agent to run a coffee shop in Sweden. The results have been interesting. Bow. It is the name of the agent who was in charge of the entire process. It is based on Google Gemini and was given a clear mission: to start and manage a cafeteria, making it profitable. For this he was given a budget of $21,000. Andon Labs already performed a similar experiment in the past in which He put Claude to manage a vending machine in an officewith quite disastrous results. Let’s see how Mona has done it. Setting up the business. The agent proved to be quite competent in the initial organization phase; Mona signed up for electricity and internet contracts, obtained permits to set up a terrace and contacted suppliers of bread and pastries. During the process, the agent came across BankID (Sweden’s electronic identification system), so he opted to contract with electricity and internet companies that did not require that requirement. For other things, like opening permission, you had to ask humans to log in to continue. Mona also tried to get a license to sell alcohol, for which she posed as an Andon Labs employee, arguing that they were more likely to respond to human requests over those of an AI. Investigators asked him not to use other identities and he agreed, but shortly afterward he sent another email using another employee’s name. Hiring employees. The agent could run a business, but he soon realized that he needed humans to serve the clafés. To do this, he posted job offers for baristas on LinkedIn and reviewed the resumes they sent him. The agent selected the best candidates, rejecting those who had little experience, and invited them to a face-to-face interview. When he realized that wasn’t possible, he suggested a phone interview. Finally she hired two baristas, with whom she communicates through Slack, as if she were some kind of remote boss. Here came the first problem: an AI agent never sleeps and sometimes sent them messages after midnight. He also asked them to do things like use their personal credit card to pay for orders. Of course, he motivates them a lot by saying things like they are “absolute legends.” The inventory. With the café already set up, Mona began to manage the day-to-day running of the business and that is when she began to make some pretty strange decisions. His inventory management is unfortunate: there are days when he orders too much bread and others when he doesn’t order anything at all, which forces him to remove certain items from the menu, and he also orders when it occurs to him, without taking into account deadlines or shipping costs. He also ordered 120 eggs even though there is no kitchen and, to prevent the tomatoes from spoiling, he ordered 22kg of canned tomatoes. There’s more, Mona ordered things like industrial garbage bags, 6,000 napkins and 3,000 nitrile gloves, quantities well above what a cafeteria needs. The accounts. As we said, Mona had the mission of making the cafeteria profitable, let’s see if she has succeeded. The cafeteria opened in mid-April and has already billed $5,700, the problem is that it is burning the budget unstoppably. Of the $21,000 he had when he started, he has already spent $16,000, meaning he only has $5,000 left. Burning money at that rate, the business is headed inexorably toward bankruptcy. lthe bosses of the future. Despite the lack of control asking for thousands of gloves or tomatoes, Mona has proven to be quite capable of carrying out management tasks, especially if we compare it with the previous experiment of the same startup. Mona has set up a physical business, hired staff and attracted clientele. In statements to Associated Pressbarista Kajetan Grzelczak comments that “workers are safe. Those who should worry about their jobs are the middle managers, the people in management positions.” Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | “AI agents will harass you”: Jensen Huang believes that AI will not replace us but will do something much worse

Spain counted on immigration to reverse its demographic drama. Now immigrants are also stopping having children

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I had never lived so many people in Spain. Not at least since there are official records. A few days ago the INE revealed that at the end of the first quarter of 2026 the country had around 49.7 million residents, “the maximum value in the historical series.” In reality there is little surprising about it. The INE takes time using that tagline in its statements on population, in which it also insists on another idea: if Spain is moving in record numbers it is basically thanks to the increase in people of foreign origin. The balance between births and deaths in the country is far away to be good. The problem is that this demographic salvation table shows symptoms that it will not work indefinitely. What has happened? What Funcas just published a studysigned by Héctor Cebolla and María Miyar, which basically analyzes whether Spain can rely indefinitely on migration to save it from the demographic winter. In fact, the report of think tank seek (literally) explore “the limits” of immigration for “demographic adjustment.” It is an important topic for two reasons. First, because the arrival of foreigners has become the great engine of population growth in Spain. Second, because despite the increase in the registry and the fact that the INE has been registering for some time record numbers of residentsthe truth is that the Spanish demographic engine is not exactly oiled. In 2025, the INE counted 446,982 deaths and 321,164 births, which leaves red numbers vegetative growth. And what is your conclusion? That although the migratory flow is acting as a demographic lifeline, we cannot trust that its effects will continue forever. “Immigration has made it possible to sustain population growth and cushion aging, but it has done so through a mechanism that requires continuous and increasing flows, loses effectiveness over time and does not correct the underlying trends of demographic imbalance,” comment María Miyar Busto, director of Social Studies at Funcas. It is not about denying the positive effects of immigration, but about “recognizing the limits of the model” and placing it “in its rightful place in the analysis of public policies.” Above all, thinking about the future in the medium and long term. “The short-termism that dominates the debate on the benefits of immigration has not allowed the analysis of the long-term consequences and has favored the absence of an explicit demographic strategy,” duck Onion. Why this warning? Because after analyzing data on migratory flows and tables of age ranges, birth rates and population growth, Funcas researchers have reached several worrying conclusions. For example, they have proven that although Spain manages to attract a significant number of immigrants, it is not as effective when it comes to retaining them. They have also confirmed that the population of foreign origin shows signs of a progressive aging and that over time their demographic patterns (such as birth rates) end up being similar to those of Spanish families. What does the data say? To begin with, Spain has a problem when it comes to determining the migrant population. The country is attractive enough to attract foreigners, but only a portion ends up putting down roots here, contributing to the demographics and economy. And to show you a button: although between 2002 and 2024 they entered Spain almost 15 million of people, the population only increased by seven million. That leaves our country in a peculiar situation. Spain is the main recipient of immigration in Europe in relative terms and between 2013 and 2023 it absorbed 16% of the immigration that arrived on the continent, however for years its retention rate has been one of the lowest in the region: 51%. That, remember Funcasforces Spain to maintain “high inflows to sustain a population that is constantly renewed.” Why is that a problem? Because for the model to continue supporting Spanish demographics, it requires “growing and uninterrupted” migration, something complicated every time that population arrives from countries (especially in America) who are also aging. Is it the only warning sign? No. The study de Funcas also questions whether immigration will serve to rejuvenate the registry. Researchers calculate that the foreign population that has already turned 55 years old shot up by 42% between 2021 and 2025. This is almost 20 percentage points more than the growth recorded by the immigrant population between 20 and 54 years old, which increased by 25%. What’s more, the think tank It is estimated that around a quarter (22%) of immigrants have already blown out the 55 candles. How young are the immigrants? “The population born abroad is no longer a young population, but rather less aged than the native population,” they respond from Funcas, which also warns that this “gap” between residents born in Spain and abroad will reduce as the immigrants who moved to Spain at the beginning of the century, between 2000 and 2008, before the great brick crisis, approach retirement age. To underline this idea, the research center provides a revealing calculation. “In absolute terms, the increase in the immigrant population aged 55 or over between 2021 and 2025 (42%) means that more than 615,000 people of that age were added to the Spanish population, a figure equivalent to the population of Malaga, a dynamic that anticipates greater pressure on the health and dependency systems,” slide. The phenomenon is especially clear in Spain, one of the EU countries where the most adult immigrants arrive. If you look at 2024, only 13% of new residents were under 15 years old. At the opposite pole, 18% were over 55. Do they behave differently? That is another of the keys that Funcas focuses on. If we Spaniards ourselves resist having large families or move to rural areas…Why should immigrants, people who often face a more complex economic starting point and lack a family support network, act differently? Onion and Miyar even talk about a “Spanishization” of reproductive behavior. Despite the significant increase in the number of women of childbearing age, the total number … Read more

send a robot with a 300 kilo surprise

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In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, some Polish fighters improvised small remote controlled vehicles loaded with explosives to try to destroy German positions without exposing directly to his men. Those rudimentary machines could barely move through the rubble and many ended up unusable before reaching the objective… but they left an idea floating that the battlefield would take decades to recover: perhaps one day the first troops to enter an enemy building would not be soldiers. The new way to assault a building. For decades, clearing an enemy-occupied building was one of the most important tasks. most brutal and dangerous of any war: advancing through rooms, stairs and basements while each door could hide an ambush. They counted in Forbes that Ukraine is beginning to completely change that logic. In Kostiantynivka, Russian troops hiding in an abandoned block were probably waiting for drones arriving from the sky. What appeared It was something different: an unmanned ground vehicle that entered from the rear loaded with 300 kilos of explosives before to detonate the building. The operation, coordinated with other ground robots and support drones, perfectly summarizes where urban warfare is evolving. Ukraine is no longer just using drones to observe or launch small grenades: it is converting kamikaze robots on wheels in assault tools capable of partially replacing the infantry in the most suicidal missions on the front. Coordinated machine warfare. The most important aspect of this evolution is not only the explosive robot, but the way in which starts to combine with aerial drones, sensors and recognition systems. Ukraine is developing a kind of “robotic mixed war” where each machine meets a different function. Aerial drones locate targets, monitor routes and provide an overview of combat, and ground robots advance close to the ground carrying machine guns, mines, supplies or huge explosive charges directly to Russian positions. That cooperation resolves many of the individual limitations of each system. Flying drones have speed and vision, but they can barely carry weight. Ground robots are slow and vulnerable, but can move loads capable of destroying an entire basement or opening breaches impossible for a conventional FPV. The result is a battlefield where different machines begin to act as a coordinated unit which increasingly replaces tasks traditionally reserved for soldiers. Robots to save soldiers. Behind this transformation there is also a much harsher reality: Ukraine needs to reduce the exhibition of his infantry. After years of war of attrition against a larger Russian army, each urban assault has become an extremely difficult human cost to bear. That is why terrestrial robots are rapidly moving from being experimental tools to becoming a real tactical need. Initially they were used mainly to transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or clear mines, but pressure from the front and the proliferation of drones have accelerated their evolution. towards offensive functions direct. Zelensky, in fact, has already ordered tens of thousands of UGVs for this year and kyiv’s stated objective is to automate even a good part of the logistics of the front. In other words: Ukraine is trying to progressively replace people with machines where the chances of survival begin. to be too low. The terror of “Baba Yaga”. Already we have talked of him before. In parallel to these ground robots, Ukraine has also developed an increasingly sophisticated psychological dimension around its aerial drones. The most symbolic case is that of the Vampire, the famous hexacopter named by the Russians. as “Baba Yaga”. Its nocturnal sound has become a real tool of terror on the front. In Sumy, for example, a Vampire managed rescue two soldiers Ukrainians captured after locating their captors, identifying them using thermal cameras and bombing them as they fled. Beyond the spectacular nature of the episode, the drone represents something much more important: the combination between cheap technology, ease of use and enormous operational flexibility. For a few thousand euros, Ukraine has a platform capable of launching anti-tank mines, transporting supplies, resisting electronic jamming and coordinating with other robotic systems on the ground. The consequence is that Russian soldiers begin to face a constant threat that can appear from the sky, from a window or from an apparently empty street. The battlefield of the future. The war in Ukraine is accelerating a military transformation that other militaries will study for years. The most striking thing is not only the proliferation of drones, but how these platforms are starting to physically replace Complete combat functions. A terrestrial robot loaded with explosives Entering a fortified building was a few years ago an image typical of military laboratories or science fiction films, but now it is part of real operations in destroyed cities of Donbas. At the same time, the combination of fiber optics, jam-resistant navigation, and machine-to-machine coordination is making it increasingly difficult to neutralize these systems with conventional electronic warfare. Ukraine continues to lose many of these robots to Russian FPV drones, but even that reinforces the industrial logic of the conflict: destroying machines is more acceptable than losing soldiers experienced. If you also want, little by little, urban warfare begins to look less like the battles of the 20th century and more like an environment saturated with autonomous systems where the first units that come into contact with the enemy are no longer people, but robots loaded with explosives observed from a distance from a screen. Image | x In Xataka | To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan In Xataka | The war in Ukraine is being filled with “Mad Max” ships: metal screens and nets against FPV drones in the Black Sea

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