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We have been reading the Bible as a moral guide for centuries. More and more people use it for something else: looking for investment funds

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When one puts your savings (many or few) in investment funds what you want are good returns. May your money generate more money. The question is… When pursuing this objective, can any criteria be applied beyond the strictly economic one? Is the search for profitability compatible with a moral approach? There are people who believe that the answer is ‘yes’ and that the financial sector must grow with an eye on environmental ethics or social, what happens, for example, by not supporting polluting companies. In that line, more and more people He decides to put his money in another type of investment funds: those that combine the search for profits with the morality of the Catholic Church. Investments and ethics? Exact. Although investment funds and exchange traded funds (ETF) are tools created to generate money, part of the financial sector has been trying to manage them with an ethical approach. Their idea is very simple: they offer returns, but with the guarantee that their analysts will be as attentive to the stock market as they are to the ESG criteria (Environmental, social and governance). That is, the idea is to bet on companies that in theory apply good practices and are respectful of the environment. What about religion? Among these ‘ethical’ funds, not all of them focus on respect for nature or human rights. There are those who emphasize the spiritual. His idea is that money generates profitability thanks to companies that conform to the precepts of a religion. Said this way, it may sound very abstract, but in practice it is very simple: investors avoid companies that make money through pornography, contraceptives, gambling, drugs, child exploitation, weapons, stem cell research… A clear example is the ‘Islamic EFT’funds that operate with sharia on the one hand, betting on companies that comply with the laws of the Koran. Does it happen with Christianity? Yes, too. In fact, just a few months ago, in februarythe Vatican Bank launched two stock indices that aim to make it easier for those who want to invest their money with a Catholic mentality. To be more precise, the Institute for the Opera of Religion (IOR) presented the Morningstar IOE Eurozone Catholic Principles and Morningstar IOR US Catholic Principles, a sort of S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 ‘Vatican version’. “Both benchmarks are developed following best market practices and in accordance with Catholic ethical criteria. They are designed to serve as a reference for Catholic investments around the world,” explains the IOR. In the case of the European index are included for example, the banks Santander and BBVA, the technology company ASML or the luxury firm Hermes, while other multinationals with defense subsidiaries or presence in the alcohol market are relegated. In the case of the USA, Meta or Amazon appear. But… Do these funds move money? Yes. We know it thanks to a recent analysis of Five Days which confirms that Christian funds are strengthening their footprint globally. And clearly, too. The latest report from the consulting firm Brightlight shows that in the last five years alone they have doubled their assets, going from just over 58.5 billion dollars in the summer of 2020 to more than 115,700 million at the end of September 2025. If we look further back, funds based on Christian principles barely accumulated an asset of 16.5 billion in 2009 or 1,500 in 1990. What do they invest in? The increase in variable income assets stands out above all, followed by fixed income assets. In total Brightlight has identified 166 funds Christians, which is also double the number recorded in 2010. Such an increase is not explained only by the launch of the two indices of the IOR in February. Much earlier, in 2022, the Church already published Mensuram Bonama document with “a set of principles and criteria” aimed at the financial sector. “Investors are increasingly looking for benchmarks that reflect specific value- or policy-based criteria,” defend Morningstar. And how are they doing? Not bad. Although in general investment funds that are guided by ESG criteria have not gone through his best moment (last year they saw capital outflows worth more than $80 billion), the S&P 500 Catholic Values ​​Index has located above of the S&P 500 in recent years. Nothing surprising, moreover, if we see the list of companies on which it focuses. The growth of funds with a Christian focus can be explained, beyond the drift of the stock market, by their own characteristics. Some, for example, donate a part of their commissions to entities linked to the Church. Images | Virgil Cayasa (Unsplash) In Xataka | There is a piece of information that clarifies whether or not the Spanish Generation Z is experiencing an upswing in religiosity: the 29-59% paradox

the expiration of medications

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Astronauts’ luggage problems They are more than known. You can’t travel to Mars with a suitcase full of “just in case.” Each extra kilo represents a huge amount of fuel, which in turn represents more load. It is important to choose well what you take and try to extract the most resources at the destination. However, an exception should be made with drugs. Medications are not “just in case.” They are the most necessary part of the luggage. Unfortunately, many medications degrade in space much faster than on Earth. The expiration. In experiments with drugs on the International Space Station (ISS), it has been seen that half of them expire in a maximum of 3 years. They probably wouldn’t last a complete stay on Marsa planet that is too far away to send supplies regularly. Therefore, the ideal would be to look for ways to obtain drugs directly in space. It may seem complicated, but a team of scientists from the University of California San Diego has published a method to do it using plants as allies. The key is in the viruses. These scientists have developed a method in which viruses are used as vectors to make proteins with pharmacological potential directly in plant cells. This is doubly advantageous, as the plants, in turn, can be used to recycle the air and water in the warehouses. These types of methods are already done on Earth, but normally, to extract drugs from plants, equipment is needed that is too large to take to Mars. However, they have found a way to redirect these substances to a compartment in the leaves called the apoplast and, from there, extract it without destroying them or using complex instruments. Experiments on the ISS. In the experiments carried out on the ISS It has been seen that, under space conditions, there are many drugs that degrade too quickly. This is, for example, the case of certain medications, such as amoxicillin or levofloxacin, but also of treatments for chronic diseases, such as levothyroxine. Similar effects have also been detected in analgesics and anti-inflammatories, such as aspirin and ibuprofen, or antihistamines such as loratadine. These are all medicines that could be useful when long-term bases are set up on Mars, so it is important to look for ways to build medicine factories there. Plants like factories. The authors of the study just published turned to the cowpea mosaic virus, a virus known to infect some plants, but also to stimulate the immune system and attack cancer cells in mouse and dog models. To carry out this new study, they infected plants of Nicothiana benthamianawhich are characterized by generating a lot of biomass in a short time. Thus, many viral particles could be obtained. Image of the plant that was used in the study Not all medicines come from viruses. This virus has pharmacological potential, but it is true that not all medicines are originally viruses. Most, in fact, are not. However, what is done in these cases is to genetically modify the virus so that, when synthesizing its own proteins, it also synthesizes proteins that can be used as medicines. They become factories for the medicine you want. When this occurs, the leaves are crushed and the medicine is extracted with very large instruments. It is very unviable in space, but these scientists have found an alternative. Much simpler. Some plants have the ability to secrete proteins inside a compartment known as an apoplast. These scientists saw a way to pour the desired proteins into that location and then remove them without major complications. To do this, the leaves of the plant are placed in a buffer solution. The mixture is then transferred to a sealed container, to which a vacuum is applied that allows the tampon liquid that has been introduced into the leaves to flow into the apoplast. In this process, the proteins of interest will have been extracted. Once this is done, the leaves are transferred to vials and centrifuged, so that the apoplast liquid is separated from the rest of the leaf. From there, the drug can be extracted. Simulated conditions. This process has been carried out on Earth, with more than 50 plants in less than two hours. Many of the plants were exposed to spatial simulation conditions, such as microgravitysudden temperature fluctuations or oxidative stress. Interestingly, not only was there no problem, but some plants also improved performance in cases of oxidative stress. This is because, in general, viruses attack organisms subjected to this type of stress more efficiently. It is usually a bad thing, but when the virus comes with a gift it is a blessing. We will have to continue investigating, but this study is on the right track. Image | Magnificent | David Baillot/UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering In Xataka | We knew that Mars has gravity. Now we have just discovered the unexpected effect it has on the Earth’s climate

Controlling a video game with your mind seems like an empty advancement. It is the door to treatments for depression or anxiety

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Although a good part of the technology industry is focusing on innovations that we are not very clear about how they can help us (there is the waste in AI and humanoid robotics), there are those who are researching something that can open an unthinkable door for thousands of people: brain-computer interfaces. That’s where they come into play brain chips. Neuralink It is the product with the best-known commercial name and the one that seemed to open the way in a more public way, something that China has followed with an important boost in these brain chips. The technology has been tested on humans for years, but there are two problems: it is a very invasive technology and, furthermore, learning to master this computer implanted in the brain It is a complex process that requires training. Yale University, however, is developing another way: an external, non-invasive brain interface that wants to fix these two problems. The problem is that it is not as pretty as it sounds. Work with the brain, not against it A few days ago, researchers at Yale University they published a study in Nature Neuroscience in which they detailed that the idea of ​​this project is to take advantage of the natural geometry of neuronal activity and not fight against it when a user can control software with their mind. The one of the fMRI-based BCIs (brain-computer interfaces) (functional magnetic resonance) is a field that has been explored for some time, but has an efficiency problem. It requires many long training sessions for a user to end up achieving modest results at best. Additionally, up to a third of participants never mastered the software. The twist that the Yale researchers have taken is to use the natural geometry of the brain. That is, taking advantage of the “consolidated pathways” of our brain activity so that technology works in favor of these existing pathways instead of forcing the brain to create completely new pathways. Result? Less friction and faster, more efficient learning. For landing it, we are not talking about a brain chipbut to introduce a person into an MRI machine not to do a standard scan, but so that that person can take advantage of the capabilities of real-time MRIs to move something in software. In this case, an avatar in a video game. That is to say, it does scan, all the time, in fact, while another program reads the data on the fly. To do this, they used a series of their own algorithms to discover the individual geometry of each person and, from that unique “map”, they created a closed system that read the user’s brain scan every two seconds and translated the data into video game movements. They tested three configurations: One based on the most natural pathways used by the brain. Others based on also natural routes, but less dominant. And a third based on pathways that the brain does not produce naturally, but that it builds. According to researchers, it’s like paving a road from scratch. The result was very positive: Participants learned to control the avatar using thought alone in less than an hour when the BCI interface aligned with that more natural brain map. Sometimes even in less time. When the system moved away from natural geometry, participants could control the avatar, but the time spent was much greater. The conclusion is that using this adjustment between the machine and the natural pathways of each individual’s brain, a physical reorganization of the brain has been observed to align with what the interface is demanding. The researchers observed that this reorganization spread even to brain regions that were not being used at the time, demonstrating that there is a kind of domino effect in the brain as it adapts to the changes. It’s very promising, but there is a problem: the necessary equipment. We are talking about that, to achieve these results, users had their heads inside an MRI machine, huge and very expensive equipment which is far from being as practical as brain chips claim to be. That is to say, it is not so much a “street” technology that allows people who need it to find an improvement in their abilities, but that does not mean that it remains a mere discovery. Something like this has interesting implications that can open the door to various applications in fields such as mental health (noting that it can be effective in developing treatments for depression or anxiety), motor and communication disorders or even cognitive improvement. Something more “clinical”, not common at home, although Erica Busch, first author of the study, opens the door to the construction of new generation video game systems controlled directly with the mind. But well, in the end, more than a commercial product, Busch herself points out that This discovery is more useful in the field of research. “We spend a lot of resources trying to become better versions of ourselves through education, practice or therapy. Understanding the structure of our own mind and brain can help us do this much more effectively.” Images | Yale In Xataka | Synchron is Neuralink’s great rival in the race for brain chips. Now you have an ace up your sleeve: ChatGPT

If you fly with a child under 12 years old you have to sit next to them. UK suspects Ryanair of taking advantage

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It is not mandatory but for Ryanair it is. At least for children between 2 and 11 years old, as indicated in their own reservation conditions. The Irish airline requires parents to travel, no matter what, in the seats next to their children when they are under 12 years old. An obligation that Ryanair, assures, is free. The United Kingdom is not so clear. What’s happening? That Ryanair requires minors under 11 years of age to travel accompanied by one of the parents in the adjacent seats, as they explain on their own website. This seat selection must be made during the reservation and does not entail any additional charge. But the United Kingdom is not so clear. And the body in charge of ensuring competition in the country assures that the company would be charging an average of about nine euros for reserving “family” seats. That is, it would charge because parents and children sit together even though the rules prevent them from doing so separately when the children are under 12 years old. What does Ryanair say? The Irish company assures that this does not happen and refers to its reservation conditions. When you make a reservation on a Ryanair flight you have the opportunity to choose a seat, but this comes with a cost. If you do not do so, the seat is assigned automatically. When a reservation is made with a child under 11 years of age, the platform enables the possibility of reserving up to four adjacent seats (up to three children per parent) completely free of charge. Yes, but. What the British organizations point out is that this does not always happen and that the Irish company is charging for the seats. And, really, there is something tricky in the information that Ryanair presents. The company itself indicates that the allocation of adjacent seats will be “in specific rows (depending on the aircraft)” and that there will be a charge for changing seats. There should be no problem there. However, it makes it clear that if there is no possibility of combining seats in these specific rows, the customer must make a reservation for a different flight. That is, if the company does not have space available in the usual rows where parents and child travel together, there are two options: reserve seats upon payment or change planes. The mess. What they are investigating in the United Kingdom is whether the company can charge for seats when traveling with children. There, at this rate the company calls it “mandatory family seat” and may be enough to fine the company for applying an abusive rate. For its part, Ryanair defends itself by ensuring that the parent does have to pay for seat selection but that this does not apply to the four adjacent seats in which they can seat their children. That is, the adult would be paying but not the child and the company ensures that, in this way, the country’s legislation would not be breached. And in Spain? European regulations state that adults and children under 12 years of age must travel together and that the child seat must be offered free of charge whenever possible. To comply with regulations, airlines usually automatically generate a reservation with two adjacent seats in these cases, but they are not required to do so. That is, if the airline does not have two adjacent seats available on that flight, it will be mandatory to change them. But, in addition, the interpretation of the rule leaves open the possibility that, as is being studied with Ryanair in the United Kingdom, surcharges may be applied to the final price. one more fight. Ryanair has also taken advantage of the confrontation to ensure that all this controversy is only motivated because the country’s government wants to appear to protect travelers instead of lowering rates. Another open front for the company with a national government that, as happens in Spain, has open disputes with numerous European states in relation to the fees they must pay for providing their services at airports. Photo | Paul Hanoka and Nejc Soklič In Xataka | The Spanish Justice is unable to determine whether it is legal for Ryanair to charge for hand luggage. So he has already asked Europe for help

Peter Thiel’s latest madness is to exchange barbed wire for a subscription

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Livestock farming is a highly sacrificed world that is unlikely to be replaced by AI, but that does not mean that technology can alleviate the hard task of caring for livestock. And even more so when one of the most influential men in technology believes in you: Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and Palantir, has a new futuristic bet between eyebrows: putting solar-powered smart collars on cows. Cows with subscription collars. More specifically, Thiel and his fund have put money into Haltera New Zealand startup that has been betting for a decade on solar feeding collars with GPS and artificial intelligence to control cows as if it were a 2.0 barn. Just a few weeks ago Halter managed to harvest a financial injection of $220 million led by Thiel’s Founders Fund, which allowed it to reach a valuation of $2 billion. In essence, these collars allow the cows to be guided using audio signals and vibrations so that they adhere to virtual limits that the farmer establishes within the app, without the need to build a fence. According to explains the startupanimals only need 10 days to learn the stimuli, something that supports science. each necklace send more than 6,000 data per minute to the cloud with information on health, movement, fertility or behavior, which allows, for example, to optimize grazing or reproduction. In addition to the initial investment of the collar, the service consists of a subscription of between five and eight dollars per cow in the United States plus the cost of installing the infrastructure. Why is it important. Because on the one hand it is increasingly difficult to find ranchers and those who remain are turning older and have to travel to their farm with the consequent expense of fuel for routine surveillance or care tasks. Halter means that the farmer does not have to go as often because it solves three problems at the same time: there is no need to build fences to keep them within an area, it minimizes the need for personnel in the field and the system detects health anomalies in the animal based on metrics that usually go unnoticed in the initial stages of certain diseases. Context. Extensive livestock farming has low technological penetration and high dependence on labor and it is not because there is a lack of initiatives to modernize it. According to the American specialized media iGrow, at least 21 companies in the sector in the North American country went bankrupt in 2025 alone. The problem is that alternative technologies are expensive, difficult to sell to professionals and have an unclear return on investment. As mentions the consulting firm McKinseymore than half of professionals in the sector mention high prices as a barrier to the entry of new technologies. With Halter, calculating the ROI considering savings in travel or labor is clearer. In detail. The financing acquired by Halter aims to consolidate its presence in the United States, Australia and New Zealand, as well as expanding into other markets such as Ireland, the United Kingdom and parts of North and South America. This geographical expansion has a technological ally to improve its surveillance: integration with Starlinka fundamental strategic improvement to operate in areas with coverage problems. Halter CEO and Founder Craig Piggott explains that this improvement will make livestock work more attractive, which helps new generations see the profession as something less slave-like and bearable. It’s his fault”Cowgorithm“, the algorithm behind it: a huge dataset that contains 7 billion hours of bovine behavior to know how to read and interpret results. Yes, but. On paper, the theory offers a technology that reduces the frequency of visits to the farm, anticipates possible diseases and also optimizes reproduction through a subscription service. Or what is the same: that the shoulder on which a business stands is the technology of a specific company. If the service fails, the rancher has no containment alternative. If the company raises its quotas, the rancher is sold on this alternative. Likewise, adding connectivity also incorporates the risk of attacks and vulnerabilities that can affect the exploitation and well-being of the animal. We mentioned before that cost is one of the great barriers to the entry of new technologies in the sector. A survey of South Dakota State University among farmers in the Midwest of the United States shows that the second reason is data privacy: Halter is not clear about the destination of this enormous volume of information that he accumulates. In Xataka | He is one of the richest men in the world and is obsessed with the Antichrist. The Pope has four things to tell you In Xataka | Peter Thiel’s “anti-scholarship”: a salary of $5,400 a month for dropping out of college and going to work Cover | Halter and Gage Skidmore

We have found the kryptonite of the irreducible tardigrades. It’s on the ground of Mars

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There are few vermin as important for space exploration as tardigrades. In fact, tardigrades and sepiolids They usually have a reserved seat in NASA space missions for a reason. If they are so essential for science, it is because They are almost indestructibleso they serve as a thermometer to analyze the potential development and survival of living beings in extreme conditions. We have bad news: they survive the vacuum of space, radiation and extreme desiccation, but they can’t stand the soil of Mars. The kryptonite of tardigrades. A research team put to the test to these very tough microscopic animals in the Martian regolith. The objective is twofold: they could serve to prepare arable soils on Mars and to better understand the risk of a potential escape of tardigrades from a possible human phase. Bad news: the Martian soil turned out to be toxic. After two days of exposure to the artificial soil designed on Earth to simulate the characteristics of Mars MGS-1, not a single specimen of Hypsibius exemplaris was left alive. Ramazzottius S778 had better luck: some individuals survived. The research team observed an essential fact: by washing the soil simulant, the damage was greatly reduced. What does this mean? That the main suspect is a soluble chemical compound specific to Martian soil: perchlorates, oxidizing salts very abundant on Mars, such as detected the Phoenix probe almost two decades ago and confirmed the Curiosity rover. Images of tardigrade samples with the simulant and exposure time in days. Corien Bakermans, Matteo Vecchi and Gillian Pearce Why is it important. Because if we eventually want to send humans there and establish a base, we will first have to be able to grow food there and for that the Martian soil must be productive and capable of supporting terrestrial life. This study shows that as it is, that soil is toxic to even the most hardy animals on Earth. On the other hand, these results have direct consequences for the protection of the planets: if an organism escapes from a Martian habitat, we must know if it could survive in the Mars environment by contaminating it. Context. Tardigrades have been the reference model for studying Extremophiles for decades. Thus, the TARDIS experiment in 2007 demonstrated that survive direct exposure to outer space and ultraviolet and ionizing radiation in a state of cryptobiosis (a state of extreme latency in critical environmental conditions). But it is one thing to resist in “off” mode and another in an active state, which is precisely what is of interest for eventual biological colonization. This experiment is precisely one of the first to test whether they can withstand these most vulnerable conditions and was carried out on simulated soils of Gale Crater, the area explored by the Curiosity rover. In detail. To better understand the survival of tardigrades on Mars, the research team exposed populations of these animals only to the Martian simulants MGS-1 and OUCM-1, without including other conditions typical of the planet such as radiation, vacuum or extreme temperatures. For the comparison, they used terrestrial sand as a control and monitored how many individuals remained active throughout the study time (four days). Statistical analysis determined that survival depended on both soil type, species, and exposure time. Yes, but. The results provide a good basis of information, but as the team explains, more testing is needed to fully understand the potential habitability and dangers of the Martian regolith. The next logical step will be to progressively incorporate the other environmental variables of Mars (radiation, pressure, temperature) in future experiments. This is, therefore, a study that is still very premature to know the ideal conditions for survival. In Xataka | We already know what the true superpower of tardigrades is. And there is its extreme resistance In Xataka | Why NASA keeps sending tardigrades and sepiolids into space Cover | Planet Volumes

“microshifting” is hacking work to give us back control of the clock

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Before his son wakes up, John D. Connolly has already been working for an hour. He has breakfast with his family, works four hours before eating with his wife, resumes at four in the afternoon and returns to the computer when the child is in bed. On weekends, when necessary. Connolly, 46, founded the financial advisory firm Bifrost Advisors and spent more than two decades working regular hours before accepting that this wasn’t how he thought best. “I could spend six hours looking at the screen without more gas, but I had to stay two and a half more hours,” explained to wall Street Journal. Now he doesn’t work less. He works when his mind is there. Jen Meegan, editor-in-chief of creative agency Sheer Havoc, starts her day before her teens order breakfast. Read emails, review ideas from the previous day. He takes them to school, does the shopping, comes back and works in concentrated blocks of a few hours. It ends late at night. “Sometimes the most important work happens during the break,” told the agency AP News“because you’re not sitting staring at the screen with no ideas.” Connolly and Meegan practice what has begun to be called microshifting: Fragment the workday into short, non-linear blocks, adapted to moments of greatest energy or the demands of real life. It’s not a passing productivity fad. It’s the next frontier of workplace flexibility, and the debate is already underway. What exactly is microshifting? The most precise definition has been coined by the company that popularized the term. Owl Labs, video conferencing technology company, describes it in its 2025 report as “structured flexibility with short, non-linear blocks of work tailored to each person’s energy, responsibilities or productivity patterns.” In practice, these blocks usually last between 45 and 90 minutes, separated by personal, family or rest time. The distinction with teleworking and the hybrid model is fundamental. Teleworking changed where you work; microshifting changes the when. It is, in the words of researcher Jonathan Westover, “the next evolution in work design, beyond remote and hybrid models,” according to his article published in the Human Capital Leadership Review. It is not, however, a completely new concept. It is related to techniques such as timeboxing or the Pomodoro method, although with a fundamental difference: it does not respond to an external timer, but to the vital rhythm of each person. As he describes it with some irony The Guardian, “an extreme form of hybrid working” and remember that, in the past, this was simply called “taking liberties.” The difference now is that there is data, there are companies that promote it and there is a name. Why now? He microshifting It has a specific origin: the 2020 pandemic. Mandatory closures forcibly broke the traditional schedule. Millions of workers learned, without looking for it, that they could do their jobs in unconventional hours. When the mandates came back to the office, many did not want to give up that autonomy. The paradox of the current moment is striking. While the microshifting grows as desired, physical presence in the office also silently increases. The Owl Labs report named the phenomenon as hybrid creep: 34% of hybrid workers go to the office four days a week, up from 23% in 2023, without there having been a formal mandate. Employees are being called back out of inertia, and in response, they are claiming control over when. Data suggests this is already happening: 59% of employees schedule personal appointments during work hours and 82% prefer meetings to end before four in the afternoon. The most powerful driver is also care: 72% of caregivers are interested in microshifting, compared to 28% of those who do not have that responsibility. Theresa Robertson of Maryland practiced it for 25 years to care for her chronically ill husband. “It was the only way to have a life and earn a salary,” told to CNBC. The next battle according to Fortuneit is no longer where you work, but when. Work-life balance has overtaken salary as the top priority for office workers globally. The new perspective of the experts Academia and business management, traditionally conservative, are beginning to validate this intuition. Mark Pacitti, founder of Woozle Research, not only defends that five hours of work deep are more valuable than eight of diminishing returns; has measured it. At his firm, he invested in tracking tools to track when his researchers were performing best and discovered that the last few hours of an eight-hour shift were inefficient. Reduced shift length and output increase. Today he promotes it as a competitive advantage in a sector, that of financial research, where the burnout It’s epidemic. This approach is supported by cognitive science. Professor Anita Williams Woolley, of Carnegie Mellon University, explains that when trying to solve difficult problemsthe mind can only push for so long; Microshifting, well managed, prevents burnout. However, voices like that of Professor Kevin Rockmann of George Mason University, they ask for caution: “The whole point of microshifting is to take care of yourself. That’s not a bad thing, but it shifts the emphasis from the individual to relationships.” Aytekin Tank, CEO of Jotform, adds thatalthough microbreaks boost creativity, they require clear rules so as not to cannibalize deep work. “To do cognitively demanding work you need an environment where your brain can focus on a single task without interruptions,” he warns. It is a delicate balance: flexibility, yes, but with precise communication so as not to break the team’s coordination. Lights and shadows: the risk of the infinite journey He microshifting It has a dark side. The first is the feeling of being “always connected.” Isabelle Young, political organizer who organizes his work like this to manage a chronic illness, she admits bluntly: “Work is never over, so you’re never really disconnected.” Labor experts warn that schedule autonomy can become a hidden expectation: employees who stretch their day to fourteen or sixteen hours to be available in different time zones. Cali Williams Yost, flexible … Read more

The best MediaMarkt offers in technology and entertainment, today June 14

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MediaMarkt has a good assortment of offers right now through its different campaigns, and all of the ones that we are going to review in this list will be available throughout the weekend. If you want to buy a console or a mobile phone, be careful because there is something to choose from. PlayStation 5 by 659 eurosthe console with reader and a video game to choose from several options. iPhone 17e by 849 eurosApple’s mobile phone in its 512 GB configuration. nintendo switch 2 by 459 eurosthe console with a video game to choose from among several options. Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo by 67.12 euros When you add to cart, open design headphones that are quite comfortable. Xiaomi 17T by 499 euros When you log in and with a coupon, a mobile phone with a very good quality-price ratio. Nintendo Switch 2 + Video Game The price could vary. We earn commission from these links PlayStation 5 The PlayStation 5 recently went up in priceso stores have begun to launch some offers. MediaMarkt has the Standard model with reader for 636 eurosbut if you pay 659 euros you get a video game as a gift. And the best thing is that you can choose one of these: ‘Marvel’s Spiderman 2’. ‘AstroBot’. ‘The Last of Us Part I’. ‘Gran Turismo’. PlayStation 5 Slim with reader + Video game The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iPhone 17e He iPhone 17e It is the perfect phone if you want to jump into the Apple ecosystem without paying what one of its older brothers costs. And if you also want to have a lot of internal storage, be careful with the MediaMarkt offer that the 512GB by 849 euros. In addition, it is the most compact iPhone (6.1 inches) of the current generation and has a good battery. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 With the nintendo switch 2 The same thing happens a bit as with the PlayStation 5, and that is that MediaMarkt is once again offering the console along with a video game. In this case, it is not worth paying for the console alone, because for the same price of 459 euros you take one of these titles to choose: ‘Hades 2’. ‘Kirby Air Riders’. ‘Metroid Prime 4 Beyond’. ‘Mario Tennis Fever’. Nintendo Switch 2 + Video Game The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo If you are looking for Bluetooth headphones and you are not interested in those with silicone ear pads, MediaMarkt has them on sale. Xiaomi OpenWear Stereo. When you add to cart, they stay for 67.12 euros. They are open headphones that offer good comfort by not having to insert them into the ear canal. In addition, they offer a theoretical autonomy of up to 7.5 hours (up to 38.5 hours with the case). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 17T He Xiaomi 17T It was launched very recently and you can still take advantage of the introductory offer. By logging into the store and adding the coupon 50XIAOMI17TMM before processing the purchase, you are left 499 euros. We are talking about a mobile phone with Leica cameras and a smaller screen (6.59 inches) than that of its previous generation. But if we talk about changes, one of the most notable is its battery, which is made of silicon-carbon and its capacity has risen to 6,500 mAh. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | MediaMarkt and Compradicción (header), PlayStation, Apple, Nintendo, Xiaomi In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2026 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | After testing them, Xataka experts agree: these are the best mobile phones of 2026

the countries that are doomed to extinction and those that are not

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Geographically speaking, the world is divided in two. On the one hand there are countries where more people are born than die: as a result, the population grows naturally. On the other hand, those countries where more people die than are born, which implies a population contraction and eventual disappearance… unless someone remedies it from the outside. What this map reveals Our World in data At a glance it is not something that comes overnight nor are its consequences. Behind these two colors hides the future of the economies and public systems of the different states of the planet. The map represents the natural population change during 2023, that is, the difference between how many people are born and how many die based on data from the official demographic report World Population Prospects 2024 of the UN. To prepare it, the UN used data from 1,910 censuses, birth and death records from 169 countries and 3,189 demographic surveys, so this is a fairly exhaustive compilation. Countries in blue have more births than deaths and those in orange have more deaths than births. Migration is excluded from the calculation, which allows us to see only the reproductive dynamics of each society without the corrective effect of flows of people. This reality is important because a country can appear orange on the map and still not lose inhabitants if it receives enough migrants. Note: the historical “magic” figure for a society to remain stable considering only reproduction it has been 2.1 babies per woman on average. That in a state more people die than are born on a sustained basis ago let all the alarm signals go off insofar as it causes a structural problem: the population ages, the population pyramid is inverted and there are fewer and fewer working people to finance the welfare system. Health, education and social protection systems were designed for younger and larger populations. According to the United Nationsby 2070 the number of people aged 65 or over will exceed those under 18 years of age globally. And spoiler: most states in demographic decline are world powers. And in some cases, the decline is practically irreversible. The countries that are born and the countries that die Where more people die than are born. Our World in Data A look at the countries that die returns places like Japan, China, South Korea, Russia and almost all of Eastern Europe. The most extreme case is Japan, where there are twice as many deaths as births (1.2 children per woman). South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan are between 0.7 and 0.9, well below that 2.1. China has a 1 and a particular history: the one-child policy applied between 1980 and 2015 artificially reduced entire generations. It is true that it was abandoned years ago, but the structural damage has already been done. On the old continent, Germany has had more deaths than births since the 70s and France, which was practically the only state that was saved thanks to decades of public aid for motherhood, has seen how that balance was broken. Although this map uses data from 2023, in 2025 France record more deaths than births for the first time since World War II. The block in blue includes almost all of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and South and Southeast Asia. And although the map is a simplification that reduces the world in two colors, Ethiopia should be extremely blue: it has more than five times as many births as deaths. The populations of these countries have high fertility rates and a young population. Of course, this growth is not synonymous with well-being: some of these places combine high birth rates with high infant mortality, low life expectancy and precarious infrastructure to sustain this population growth. Africa is the great demographic hope in terms of growth, which is also a challenge in terms of employment, education and resources. Among the bulk of countries that are growing, there are many developing countries, but there is also the particular case of the United States: it has 20% more births than deaths. Talking about countries that are born and die sounds alarming, but let’s remember that migration is not present on this map, which means that states like Germany, Italy or Spain are not losing population in absolute terms. This means that generational replacement becomes directly dependent on migratory flows, which generates integration, coexistence and institutional challenges that cartography does not reflect. In Xataka | Europe’s brutal demographic crisis can be explained on a single map with one country as the protagonist: Nigeria In Xataka | Europe is divided in two: the devastating map of deindustrialization Cover | Our World in data

the sordid story of the Nazis’ golden retreat in the interior of Chile

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Let’s say you are in a chilean villagethat you are with your friends or your family enjoying a few days of rest in what seems like a tourist venue that is passed off as a mini-simulation of the German Oktoberfest. But, suddenly, your suspicions are activated when you realize that this space is not exactly the resort of tranquility that you had been promised, but rather the gloomy place where very harsh events have taken place, crimes against humanity whose trail goes beyond the town or Chile itself. That’s what could have happened to any of the attendees. Villa Bavariaformerly known as Colonia Dignidad (the name changed in 2005 at the suggestion of arms dealer Gerhard Mertins) and the nerve center of one of the black spots in the history of South America that welcomed the Nazis after the Second World War. Since 2012, an activities program and the hotel have offered enjoyable experiences for “anyone” who wants to visit the town, thus trying to renew the public’s vision of this ancient community. Founded by Germans mobilized there at the end of the 50s, among the historical landmarks of Colonia Dignidadnow Villa Baviera, have germinated a sectarian organization from which it was very difficult to escape, having in its history reports of forced labor for both children and adults, having a leader (Paul Schäfer) accused of having raped dozens of children and having served as a detention and torture center for the DINA during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. From the shadiest cult to a renewed holiday paradise From Villa Baviera’s own website They don’t hide it. They know that sooner or later people will discover the center’s past: “we lived through painful moments that to this day cannot be forgotten. As a way of looking to the future, we opened ourselves to the community and currently anyone is welcome to share our lifestyle.” They defend themselves, establishing themselves, whether willingly or not, as one of the most twisted places to practice the so-called dark tourism. From an area populated by faithful to their cult, restricted and harassed by the leader of the colony Paul Schäfernow a dream place of everything that represents the folkloric supremacy of the Aryan race. Thus, between Chileans and former Germans who lived that dark past and who are now adultsthis tourist spot is organized, in which deluxe rooms have been added and jacuzzis but the wire fences that once protected the camp from possible escapes have not been removed. In these streets where they now drink mugs of beer and eat bratwurst Josef Mengele would have walkedand under the subsoil they found on more than one occasion what the local police of the Maule Region defined as the “largest private arsenal” ever found in Chile. Semi-automatics, rocket launchers, grenades, explosive material, chemical elements, camouflaged weapons and a tank. All this was in Colonia Dignidad. In 2005. And everything that revolves around Villa Baviera is just one of the multiple traces that the national-socialist regime left in Latin America from the 40smoment by which they would organize the ratlines (escape networks for the Nazis, who could settle with new identities, money and property in various countries) and would provide them with either new jobs alongside dictatorial regimes or an indefinite retirement from work. We have seen that Schäfer supported Pinochet from this location, but there is more than a pedophile paramedic in the ranks of infamous German soldiers who later hid on the other side of the pond. According to the Wiesenthal Center, about 300 war criminals and thousands of collaborators from the Third Reich arrived in Argentina at the end of the Second World War. According to the Commission to Clarify the Activities of Nazism in Argentina (Ceana), the list is closer to 200. Philippe Aziz writes in the book War Criminalsthe following: “Argentina was the most inviolable refuge of the Nazis. Recent and serious documents have formally established that Martin Bormann had extremely important funds (gold, foreign currencies, stock securities and company shares) transferred by plane, from November (1944) to March (1945). CIA agents even managed to identify in (1953), the names of the aviators who carried out these flights, the banks and the numbers of these “Unfortunately, the US government has until today opposed the publicity of these investigations that could provide interesting revelations about the famous Nazi treasure.” The Nazi Latin America dreamed of by Martin Bormann And yes, that was Bormann, Head of the Chancellery and Director of the NSDAP since almost its beginning, intimate of Adolf Hitler from his position as Private Secretary to the Führer. Bormann was one of the main defenders of the persecution of Christian churches and favored the poor treatment and enslavement of Jews and Slavs in the areas conquered by Germany during World War II. One of the greatest theorists of the regime and those responsible for crimes against humanity, no matter how much he tried to negotiate peace with the British in ’41. Most likely is that he died in the vicinity of the Führerbunker shortly after Hitler’s suicide, where remains resembling Bornmann’s body were found. But several Nazi hunters have believed they saw him in different American locations, among them, Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguaywhere, as we have seen, he had sent funds. Bormann could have been the first of the beneficiaries of ODESSA, that secret institution intended to find refuge to prominent Nazi leaders. These are some of the other great Nazi criminals in history who, following what Bormann designed, ended up in South America: Erich Priebke Erich Priebke He murdered, along with Herbert Kappler, 335 Italians and 75 Jews in ’44. But for him, this execution is nothing more than the product of a war in which they found themselves, a reprisal that would give a lesson to the GAP partisans who in the Rome area murdered 31 Nazi police days before. The person responsible for the Ardentine Graves Massacre He went to Argentina and lived in Bariloche, a … Read more

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