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Japan has had enough of tourists littering the streets. So he has started to control them with police and fines

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

No matter which guide you use, surely if you are looking for the iconic places in Japan, Shibuya, one of the districts, will be among them. more dynamic from Tokyo. The neighborhood is known for its neon lights, its skyline and (above all) its famous intersection. Shibuya sukuranburu kōsatenthrough which thousands of tourists pass every day. If you search on TikTok for #sibuyacrossing you will find more than 70,000 videosthe majority of foreigners. Local authorities have grown tired of these crowds leaving their streets. full of garbage and has decided cut to the chase. As? With special patrols and sanctions. What has happened? That the government of the Shibuya district, in Tokyo, wants to get rid of people who throw garbage in its streets. And he has decided to do it the most effective way (and emphatically) possible: using the police and with sanctions that will be imposed on the spot and offenders must pay either in cash, with a credit card or by means of a QR code. It is not a more or less diffuse idea or a political proposal that still needs to be debated and processed. The measure has already been introduced as an amendment in the ordinance for the ‘Joint Creation of a Clean Shibuya’, a rule from 1997. Now, and after a grace period that began in April, the authorities have begun to issue fines. They have even promoted a campaign with a name that leaves little room for interpretation: “If you throw garbage, you lose money”. Proof of how seriously the police take it is that only on their first day did they process a dozen of sanctions. What fines and how are they applied? The fines amount to 2,000 yenabout 10.7 euros, and will be applied immediately so that offenders can pay them in cash or by pulling a card. As if the threat of sanctions were not enough, the district has decided to mobilize a patrol of several dozen agents (up to 50) who will be in charge of exploring the area in search of offenders. As the objective is to eliminate dirt, the focus has not only been placed on pedestrians. The same rule contemplates fines of 50,000 yen (270 euros) for positions takeaway or vending machines that do not install trash cans nearby. Is the problem so serious? No data has been released on the amount of garbage that is collected every day on the streets of Shibuya, but there are several characteristics in the area that explain why the government has decided to resort to fines. The first is that public containers are not plentiful. In 2013 the authorities they withdrew bins and encouraged people to manage their waste responsibly. The idea was not only to avoid collapsed bins, but, as remember the BBCimprove security. In general, in the country it is not strange to find areas in which containers are scarce for fear that they will be used in terrorist attacks. This lack of buckets has not gone unnoticed by the millions of tourists who visit the country each year. In 2025 the issue appeared in a government survey on the problems faced by foreign tourists. He was cited by 20% of the respondents. Is it the only explanation? No. Shibuya is an important (and above all busy) tourist hub. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), during peak hours between 1,000 and 2,500 People cross its famous intersection every two minutes. “It is one of the most emblematic places in Tokyo,” the agency points out before remembering that just with the number of people who accumulate there, including residents and visitors, a stadium could be filled in a short time. Although slightly less than 250,000 peoplethis avalanche of passers-by is much better understood if we take into account that Japan has been experiencing an authentic tourist boom. It is estimated that only last year they visited the country 42.7 million of foreigners, a relevant figure for three reasons: it represents a year-on-year increase of almost 16%, it is the first time that the figure exceeds 40 million and, above all, it marks a historical record. Fines only for tourists? No. Fines for littering the ground apply to both visitors and local people, although it is not unreasonable to think that the measure has been adopted largely with foreigners in mind. And not only because it is centered on a tourist hub. The sanctions are immediate, they can be paid with a card or a QR and the agents in charge of enforcing the rule will speak several languagesincluding English, Chinese and Korean. “Shibuya is an international area visited by many Japanese and people from all over the world. We ask all visitors, regardless of nationality, to respect the city’s rules,” underlines Ken Hasebe, district leader. The authorities conduct a survey, carried out last year, which shows that 52% of the people hunted for littering were foreigners. Does it only happen there? No. Shibuya is not the only point in Japan where the tourist avalanche has generated tensions with the local population. In fact, you don’t have to go back very far in time to find two other towns that also decided to adopt measures to avoid the overcrowding, dirt and traffic problems generated by tourism. One is Fujikawaguchiko, which in 2024 installed a barrier to cover your views of Mount Fuji. The reason? The hordes of tourists seeking selfie perfect. The other is Fujiyoshida, who recently canceled their festival of the cherry blossom to save the neighbors the inconvenience caused by the thousands of foreigners that the event attracts. The country even has decided to charge for the ascent of Fuji to prevent it from becoming a huge public landfill. Images |Timo Volz (Unsplash) and Jezael Melgoza (Unsplash) In Xataka | Antarctica was practically the last corner of the Earth immune to touristification. That’s ending

The biggest mistake you can make the night before the Selectivity exam is not leaving a topic unlooked at: it is not sleeping

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

When we think of a student during exam time or of a candidate who is preparing very intensely for an exam that will offer him job stability, we automatically think of the classic image of being up early in the morning studying hundreds of underlined pages. Here it seems that sleeping becomes a minor issue due to the fact of studying and cramming hundreds of pages. But the reality is that study without sleeping It’s like wasting time, even though it may seem otherwise. The science. Here the science has a lot to sayand a robust body of evidence suggests that putting aside studying and getting into bed for 7 or 8 hours of sleep is by far the smartest decision you can make before an exam or during preparation. And something they don’t teach us is that studying is only half of the learning and memorization process that occurs in our brain, since the other half occurs while we are asleep in order to ingrain knowledge. In the brain. To understand why sleep is non-negotiable for students, we have to look at what happens inside our heads when we sleep. At these moments we may think that the brain is in a state of lethargy or shutdown, but the truth is that it is a period of frenetic activity at the neuronal level. We found one of the proofs in a published article in Neuron which suggests that the sleeping brain is biologically optimized for memory consolidation. Something very important, because during the day the brain acts like a true sponge, capturing a large amount of information quickly but volatile, which far exceeds the limit of its capacity to retain it. Transferring it to the hard drive. All this knowledge that we try to acquire in one afternoon has to be consolidated so that we can later remember it in the exam. This is where sleep comes in, which is where a hippocampal-cortical transferwhich allows the information acquired during wakefulness to be reactivated and transferred to the cerebral cortex, which is where the information is stored long-term. In Nature We found a fascinating article that detailed how neurons repeat at full speed the information learned during the first phase of sleep. This phase prepares the ground so that, during REM sleep, in the second half of sleep, synaptic connections are stabilized and strengthened to integrate all the information. But if we skip hours of sleep, or reduce it to 3-4 hours to be more efficient, this process is interrupted. The disaster of sleep deprivation. The penalty for not sleeping is severe, since if you decide to spend the night sleepless to review “a couple more topics”, you should know that the price you have to pay is a 40% reduction in learning capacity, in addition to an increase in memory losses and a plummet in concentration. And what these losses ultimately generate are temporary memory gaps, which is the typical situation in which we remain “blank” looking at the exam sheet without knowing what to write, although you remember having read it hours before. This is why a student with few hours of sleep shows much slower response times, is confused when making decisions, and suffers a radical worsening of attention. In surveys. In 2023, a study carried out with 640 students of the Autonomous University of Madrid during their exam period pointed out that 61.3% of those surveyed already sensed that their performance would improve if they slept more. From here, the researchers confirmed a direct and positive association between sleep quality and academic performance. Furthermore, they discovered that the “sleep debt” accumulated during the week took a very high toll, being associated with worse performance perceived by the students themselves. The perfect dose. Here the recommendation that we must keep in mind is that of the WHO or the National Sleep Foundation, which suggests that young adults should sleep between 7 and 8 hours a day, and even increase to 9 hours for students with great cognitive stress, such as opponents. Images | Ministry of Health In Xataka | If you wake up tired on a regular basis, your rest is fragmented. The good news is that science knows how to fix it

five laptops on sale at ASUS Weeks

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

With how difficult it is nowadays to ride a PC for parts (in part, because of the price of RAM), laptops have an advantage. The difficult thing perhaps is choosing one that suits our budget and our needs, since not all of us are looking for the same thing. Are you looking for a new team? Well, don’t lose sight of the ASUS Weekswhere we have a lot of laptops (and more devices or components) with quite interesting discounts. In this promo, available until next June 14we can find discounts of up to 69%. There is a lot to choose from, but we have selected five laptops that we find especially interesting: ASUS Zenbook DUO by 1,899.99 eurosa very versatile laptop that has two OLED touch screens. ASUS ProArt P16 by 4,099 eurosa laptop designed for professionals with 64 GB of DDR5 RAM and an RTX 5080. ASUS ROG Strix G18 by 2,449.99 eurosdesigned for demanding players thanks to its RTX 5070 Ti. ASUS TUF Gaming A16 by 1,249.99 eurosa cheaper gaming laptop that has great value for money. ASUS ExpertBook P5 by 1,029 euros– Lightweight, 14-inch laptop that’s perfect for working or studying. ASUS Zenbook DUO The first of the laptops that we bring you is this Zenbook DUO, a very special device that has two 14-inch OLED screens. This is very useful in terms of productivity, since it allows you to have a larger workspace. In addition, it has a detachable full-size keyboard and a stand for the screens. In terms of components, the truth is that it is a powerful device designed to perform at a high level for years. It has an Intel Core Ultra 7 255H processor along with 32 GB of LPDDR5x type RAMas well as 1 TB of storage in the form of SSD. Its current price is 1,899.99 eurossince it has a discount of 100 euros in ASUS Weeks. ASUS Zenbook DUO (UX8406) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ASUS ProArt P16 At ASUS Weeks we can also find equipment very oriented towards the professional world and the most demanding users. This ProArt 16 is a very clear example of this, since we are faced with a laptop with a top spec list: uses a Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, 64 GB of LPDDR5x RAM and an RTX 5080. In addition to this, it also mounts ora very good 16-inch OLED touch screen with 120 Hz and WQUXGA resolution (3840 x 2400 pixels). To all this we must add a series of very interesting ASUS tools, such as Muse Tree or StoryCube. Its RRP is 4,499 euros, but it is available for 4,099 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ASUS ROG Strix G18 There are many gaming options in these ASUS Weeks. The first of the two that we bring you is this ASUS ROG Strix G18, a laptop designed for enthusiastic gamers looking for very high performance even at 1440p. As a graph, mount one of the most balanced from NVIDIA: the RTX 5070 Ti. In addition to this, it also has a good processor such as the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM and an 18-inch IPS screen with 240 Hz and anti-reflective technology. All this makes it a laptop designed to play now and for many years at a good level and with DLSS 4.5. Its RRP is 2,799 euros, but we can get it for 2,449.99 euros. And it comes with the new and long-awaited ‘007 First Light’ as a gift. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Are you looking for a more affordable gaming laptop? Then perhaps this ASUS TUF Gaming A16 is more suitable for you, which is now available for 1,249.99 euros (instead of the 1,499 euros it usually costs). Despite being cheaper than the previous one, it is still a very interesting option that comes with an RTX 5060, a graphics card that is also still compatible with NVIDIA’s DLSS 4.5. To all of the above, we must add a Ryzen 7 260 processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM and 1 TB of SSD. Its screen in this case is 16 inches and has a 1920×1200 resolution, but it still has a good 120 Hz refresh rate. Like the previous one, it also includes the new ‘James Bond’ game as a gift. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ASUS ExpertBook P5 To finish this selection of laptops, we have this ExpertBook P5. It is a device designed to work or study, but also to be very easy to transport everywhere with us. Despite having a metal chassis, It barely weighs 1.29 kgso you won’t have to carry a contraption with you every time you go to the office or university. And how are the specifications? Well, it’s not bad at all: it has an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V, 32 GB of DDR5 RAM and a 14-inch screen with 2.5K resolution and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. It has a discount right now of 90 euros compared to its usual price: it costs 1,029 euros. ASUS ExpertBook P5 (P5405) 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 | ASUS In Xataka | Best laptops in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models In Xataka | What is the best laptop for working in 2026. Tips and recommendations

Emilia Clarke talks about her work in Marvel, Star Wars and Terminator: “it should never have happened”

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

In one recent interviewEmilia Clarke reviewed her post-‘Game of Thrones’ career with unusual frankness. About ‘Secret Invasion’ he said: “I don’t think anyone liked the series.” On ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’: “The viewers were not happy either.” On ‘Terminator: Genisys’: “It should never have happened.” He adds: “But they were jobs I said yes to. I joined franchises that were already big and established. That’s why I don’t take it personally.” It is difficult to find a better summary of how the big franchise business works in Hollywood. Some collections. Let’s see if Clarke’s feeling that they were failures is accompanied by data. ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ cost between 275 and 300 million dollars and raised 393 million worldwide. According to is calculatedDisney lost about $77 million on the film, making it Star Wars’ first commercial failure. ‘Secret Invasion’ had a production cost of 211.6 million dollars, a figure known thanks to the transparency demands of the UK tax incentive program, where it was filmed. More than ‘Barbie’ or ‘Oppenheimer’ cost that same year. Viewership figures on Disney+ in its first five days were the second lowest of any MCU production, only above ‘Ms. Marvel’. Critical reception was equally poor. Regarding ‘Terminator: Genesis’, 155 million budget, collection insufficient to justify sequels that had already been announced, and weak reviews. It’s not the first. In 2021, with the MCU still dominating the box office, Anthony Hopkins summarized his experience in the ‘Thor’ trilogy, between 2011 and 2017: “They put armor on me and gave me a beard. Sit on the throne, shout a little. If you’re sitting in front of a green screen, it’s acting in front of nothing.” Chris Hemsworth came to similar conclusions: recognized that in ‘Thor: Love and Thunder‘ “I got stuck improvising and clowning around, and became a parody of myself.” This time, critics and the public accompanied him in doubts. Hemsworth has described the dynamic that he calls “the curse of the superhero,” which is simply that “you get pigeonholed.” But at the same time he rejects the attitude of actors like Clarke, who criticize Marvel when their projects don’t work: “They are successful movies: put me in one. Mine doesn’t work? Well, I attack them all.” What Clarke is really saying. The heart of Clarke’s complaint is that major franchises operate as hiring machines that offer global visibility and financial rewards that few independent productions match. In return, the actor’s creative control over the result is minimal. Clarke said in the same interview that in ‘Game of Thrones’ she received the scripts and did “everything in my power to understand and empathize with the decisions.” This was not the case in later franchises. Not just Marvel. The pattern is not exclusive to a single franchise. When actress Jamie Lee Curtis rejected in 2022 participate in Marvel projects, he did so with the same type of argument as Hopkins: “they will stick stitches in my body and force me to perform in some warehouse.” What does seem to be clear and Clarke demonstrates is that when there is a commercial failure, actors seem to feel freer to point out the obvious shortcomings of a system in which they are just more meat for the content grinder. In Xataka | I have detected the exact moment in which things at Marvel began to fail and that culminated in ‘Captain America’

AI is destroying jobs, and creating others too: $2,000 to masturbate

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

AI not only is putting jobs at risk, He is also inventing others as unusual as they are disturbing. While some positions are shaky and others gain valuea company that sells virtual companions has taken an even stranger step: It has posted an offer to hire a “masturbation consultant.” It’s no joke, and it’s pretty well paid. The offer. Joi AI is a company that sells AI companions, similar to Replika either Character.aiand is working on a new adult audio feature. In order to evaluate your new product, They were looking for ten masturbation consultants They could test the feature for four weeks and conduct daily audio-guided sessions and then submit short weekly reports on their experience. The only requirement was to be over 18 years old and the salary was $2,000. What happened next will surprise no one. massive response We speak in the past tense because the offer has already been withdrawn. The flood of requests caused the link to the offer to break and, in just a few days, the company received no less than 100,000 applications for just ten positions, that is, 10,000 candidates per position. In statements to Business InsiderJulie Levin, Head of Communications at Joi AI, said “What are we supposed to do with 100,000 applications? I should probably call them winners, because it’s a very close competition.” The majority of candidates were young men between 20 and 30 years old. The business of artificial intimacy. Joi AI is one of many applications that are monetizing something that has been happening for a long time: that Humans are establishing relationships with AIs. The company already has 70 employees, has raised about $4 million in financing and boasts more than one million monthly active users worldwide. There are even more popular apps like the aforementioned Replika, which has two million active users. Joi AI falls into a subcategory of apps more oriented towards sexual content, which also includes the case of OhChat, a kind of virtual OnlyFans where Retired porn actresses continue working in the form of virtual avatars. As for price, all of these apps offer different subscription levels. It is striking that Joi AI offers a hybrid model between subscription and payment for tokens: for $13.99 per month they give you 1,000 coins and, if they run out, you can buy more. Aggressive marketing. Joi AI assured that the offer was real, but the suspicion that it may be all part of a marketing campaign is there. After the offer was published, the company was sharing some responses from the candidates to the question “What do you hope to learn about yourself?”, in a clear attempt to gain virality. Be that as it may, what is clear is that the company has a very aggressive marketing strategy; They sell themselves as an ‘ai-lationships’ platform and on their website they declare themselves enemies of dating apps. “We oppose that stressful and frustrating dating app experience that leaves people feeling hurt, insecure and alone (…) Joi AI is the antidote to everything dating apps have forgotten: authentic connection, real freedom and zero nonsense.” And they stay so wide. The dark side of artificial relationships. As these types of ‘AI companion’ services become popular, the risks they pose to our mental health are being questioned. we live an epidemic of loneliness, but it is increasingly clear to us that using AI to replace human relationships poses more problems than benefits. Far from curing isolation, studies have seen that regular use causes just the opposite effect, making us feel lonelier and more depressed. In this sense, Joi AI being sold as “authentic connection” and a cure for loneliness seems anything but honest. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | People Blaming ChatGPT for Causing Delusions and Suicides: What’s Really Happening with AI and Mental Health

Every time a megaship arrives at a port, the electrical grid collapses. The alternative already exists and does not need cables to the city

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

Ports around the world face an urgent and unavoidable mandate: decarbonize. The requirement is to turn off the huge diesel engines of commercial and cruise ships once they dock, connecting them to the local electrical grid. However, in practice, port cities have hit a concrete wall: there is not enough capacity in the land network to plug in these giants of the sea. Faced with this bottleneck, the engineering response has been to take the problem off the ground. A consortium backed by the United Kingdom and led by the firm ELIRE Maritime has been successfully validated what they define as “the world’s first floating, grid-independent hydrogen energy center.” The end of endless port works? To understand the impact of this development, you have to look at the current logistical ordeal. As emphasized Enlitinstall traditional shore power supply systems (known in the industry as shore power) is a real nightmare. The process can take between three and seven years, as it requires massive reinforcements of the network, improvements in substations, complex civil works and permitting deadlines that paralyze any progress. All this consuming land space that most ports lack. By placing the energy infrastructure directly in the water, this obstacle is overcome in one fell swoop. Furthermore, since ELIRE Maritime highlight a crucial financial advantage– The system avoids the risk of creating “stranded assets”. Unlike a concrete substation that cannot be moved if shipping routes change, this floating mega plant can be relocated as market demand dictates, giving port authorities complete independence from the network. Technological radiography. Far from being a mere concept on paper, the technology has just passed a rigorous six-month validation program. The physical design, echoed by all the media, consists of three interconnected hexagonal floating platforms that occupy about 1,200 square meters. But how does it supply power without collapsing? The system does not use huge generators to inject shock energy into the ship, but rather works on the premise of a “giant floating battery.” Through continuously operating 1.3 MW modular fuel cells (supported by up to 146 kW of onboard solar panels), the system slowly charges a massive 45 MWh battery bank throughout the week. When a ship docks, this battery releases energy quickly, delivering 5 MW of clean, continuous power without flinching. To fuel this process, the system consumes between 7,500 and 8,000 kilos of hydrogen per week. It has seven tanks on board integrated into low-pressure containers, which require refueling a couple of times a week. This allows ports to gradually adopt hydrogen without having to undertake extensive work to build pipelines or permanent storage facilities on land. The real impact. To ensure its real-world viability, the platform has undergone stability and wave testing in tanks at the University of Strathclyde, while industry giants such as Schneider Electric and Ricardo UK have successfully validated its entire complex electrical architecture. The environmental lights: According to the feasibility analyzes of the Ricardo consulting firm, the system can reduce emissions from docked ships by 77% compared to traditional diesel generation. In tangible figures, this represents a saving of about 47 tons of CO₂ per ship each week (almost 2,450 tons annually), in addition to completely eradicating emissions of toxic particles, nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur (SOx) that poison the air in coastal cities. The shadow of cost: Today, this solution is more expensive than plugging into the conventional network. The estimated energy cost of this hydrogen hub is between £0.25 and £0.50 per kWh, compared to £0.15 – £0.25 for the traditional ground system. However, the consortium argues that this initial extra cost is offset by the astonishing speed of deployment and they anticipate that standardization and the future drop in the price of hydrogen will equalize the trade balance. The potential is immense. The consortium estimates a global market of 62 TWh annually for grid-independent maritime solutions, with the potential to avoid the emission of 500,000 tons of CO₂ in the next decade. Next stops. As detailed ELIRE Maritimethe consortium is already in commercial talks to start the first real deployments in first-tier ports such as London, Singapore, Hamburg, Brisbane and Riga. The future of maritime decarbonization seems to have found a shortcut. It is not about inventing exotic technologies from scratch, but about integrating what we already know works (hydrogen, batteries and electrical power systems) in a much smarter way. If the mainland does not have enough electricity to power the giants of the oceans, the solution, ironically, has always been to go back into the sea. Image | ELIRE Maritime Xataka | The great challenge of drones was to transport loads for kilometers. A Chinese company has solved it with hydrogen

The US has had an idea to reassure Europe. Instead of soldiers, he is going to bring his nuclear weapons very close to Russia

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

In 1983, tens of thousands of women surrounded a British air base to protest the deployment of American nuclear missiles. That mobilization, known in time as Greenham Commonbecame one of the major antinuclear symbols of the Cold War and showed the extent to which the location of these weapons could alter European politics. Less soldiers, more “nuclear”. Europe has been trying to figure out what it really means for months the strategic turn of the United States. The reduction of troops, the withdrawal of some military systems and the increasing priority given to the Indo-Pacific have fueled fears that Washington is progressively moving away from the continent. However, conversations within NATO point to a very different response than expected. Instead of reinforcing the conventional presence, the United States would be willing to expand the deployment of nuclear capabilities in Europe to demonstrate that its commitment to the defense of the continent remains intact. The idea is simple but powerful: if there are fewer American uniforms on the ground, the nuclear umbrella must remain visible and credibleeven “closer.” The closer the interest is to Russia. There is no doubt, the allies most interested in this possibility are precisely those who observe Russia from the first line. Poland has been leading for years the list of candidates to host US nuclear capabilities and some Baltic countries have also shown interest in participating in future deterrence formulas. The invasion of Ukraine and Putin’s continued references to its nuclear arsenal have profoundly changed the perception of security in Eastern Europe. I remembered the financial times that, for these countries, hosting aircraft capable of using US nuclear weapons would have enormous political and military value, since it would turn any threat against them into an issue directly linked to Washington’s strategic credibility. The legacy of the Cold War. The proposal does not involve creating a new system, but rather expanding a mechanism that has existed for decades. Currently Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Türkiye and the United Kingdom participate in the program nuclear delivery of NATO, through which they store American nuclear weapons under exclusive control of Washington and train their air forces to operate within that scheme. This model was born during the Cold War to guarantee that European allies could participate in the Alliance’s nuclear strategy without having to develop their own atomic weapons. More than half a century later, the formula is once again gaining prominence in a continent that watches with concern the deterioration of the relationship with Moscow. Europe seeks to replace some capabilities, but not others. European capitals have assumed that they will have to spend more in defense and rebuild conventional capabilities that for decades were delegated to the United States. From anti-missile systems to strategic transportation to military intelligence, much of the current conversation revolves around how to fill those gaps. However, there is one area that many governments they consider it impossible to replace in the short term: the American nuclear deterrent. Although France and the United Kingdom have their own arsenals, Washington’s umbrella continues to be perceived as the central element of the European security architecture and as the ultimate guarantee against any military escalation. The signal that Washington wants to send. They told in the Times that for now there is no final decision and the conversations remain highly confidential. Still, the mere fact that the possibility is on the table reveals how Western strategy toward Russia is changing. For years the US military presence in Europe was measured in bases, brigades and deployed troops. Now the discussion increasingly revolves around another type of message. While Washington concentrates resources in Asia and requires its allies to assume a greater share of the defensive effortthe signal it seeks to convey is that nuclear protection remains intact. In a way, the new formula to reassure Europe is not to bring more soldiers closer to the Russian borders, but to bring closer what for decades has served as a last guarantee of security: American nuclear weapons. Image | Air Force, SJOERD HILCKMANN In Xataka | Spain’s great fear is not an invasion: it is a slow hybrid war with Morocco against its two most vulnerable cities In Xataka | To become technologically “independent” from the US, the European Union already has a plan: four desperate measures

The US opened the door to Nvidia’s H200 chip in China. The Chinese army has been waiting for a long time on the other side

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has been forced to “fight” with the US Department of Commerce for months, but he has achieved what he wanted: your company can now deliver some of its Chinese clients its chip to artificial intelligence (AI) H200. As we explain to you On May 14, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com are four of the ten Chinese companies that already have access to this powerful GPU. And they have it because the US Department of Commerce, which is the institution that grants or denies export licenses, has authorized at least ten Chinese companies and several distributors, including Lenovo and Foxconn, to acquire the second most powerful AI chip that Nvidia has. This decision has come almost two months after the US Government confirmed which was going to allow the company led by Jensen Huang to deliver its H200 chip to its Chinese customers. However, Nvidia likely won’t have time to savor this victory. Once again, dark clouds are gathering over it that threaten to compromise, once again, its business in China. And, according to Bloombergat least seven Chinese universities linked to the country’s armed forces and defense industry are trying to obtain H200 chips. This disclosure comes from China’s public procurement records, so it is presumably reliable. Remote rental: the avenue that the Department of Commerce still does not know how to close In the US there is a pressure group that opposes the sale of advanced American AI chips in China. Chris McGuire, senior fellow on China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, holds that “any deal that allows Nvidia to sell more chips to China means fewer Nvidia chips for US companies and a smaller US advantage over China in AI.” Besides, McGuire argues that “it is surprising that President Trump continues to allow himself to be convinced to put Nvidia’s interests before those of America.” Chinese entities increasingly resort to renting airtime on servers equipped with restricted Nvidia chips What is happening right now with Chinese universities is the ideal breeding ground to reinforce the theses of this pressure group in the US. Two of the institutions that have expressed interest in H200 chipsBeihang University and Northwest Polytechnic University, are among China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense”, a select group of universities dedicated to supporting the People’s Liberation Army. Both have been included in the blacklist of the US Department of Commerce for their involvement in the advancement of Chinese military capabilities. And public procurement records reveal that the Beihang School of Cyber Science and Technology, which claims to have “national defense characteristics and aerospace advantages,” is attempting to rent the use of Nvidia chips. Northwestern Polytechnic University’s School of Cyberspace Security is also trying to rent access to H200 chips, according to those same records. Chinese entities are increasingly resorting to time of use rental on servers equipped with restricted Nvidia chips as a way to access prohibited hardware without having to import it directly. This is the strategy that the US Government will surely try to dismantle. What is not clear at the moment is how he is going to do it. Image | Nvidia More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer

a laser that detects them and fries them

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

A young Chinese engineer named Steven Cheng has built an amazing system to kill mosquitoes. Their project makes use of a laser emitter connected to a camera and a computer. By combining computer vision algorithms with deep learning, the system is able to detect and fry mosquitoes with surprising accuracy. This is indeed the “artisanal” version of a commercial product from a Chinese startup, but there is a whole story behind this unique laser weapon. From space missiles to lasers for mosquitoes. The idea of using lasers against mosquitoes was probably born by Lowell Wood, an astrophysicist who was also the architect of Ronald Reagan’s anti-missile defense system. In a meeting with engineer and inventor Nathan Myhrvold—former CTO of Microsoft—the proposal arose to create a similar device to kill mosquitoes and thus fight malaria. failed attempt. Myhrvold got to work excited because mosquitoes weigh so little that a low-intensity laser was enough and could even be applied near (or on) humans and pets. Myhrvold’s company, Intellectual Ventures, created a prototype that showed in a TED talk in 2010but despite the attractiveness of the proposal, the idea and the product did not prosper. The commercial leap. A Chinese startup recently picked up the gauntlet and began offering a product that precisely applied that same idea with current technology. The startup Photon Matrix Lab already markets what they call “Mosquito Air Defense”, a portable system that is available on Indiegogo and that promises to eradicate mosquitoes through a detection system and a laser that fries these insects. On the official website the price is about 600 eurosand deliveries promised to begin this June for the nearly 4,000 people who have invested in the crowdfunding campaign. But there are those who cook it and put it together. Steve Cheng does not say what inspired him for the project, but he does sample in several tweets the videos in which you can see how your system has evolved. He also explains how for months he was collecting thousands of detailed images to feed his AI model. That, by the way, caused (always according to him) that he received various stings all over his body while he used high-resolution cameras to capture the insects in full feast. Anti-mosquito deep learning. The heart of their system is a deep learning algorithm that processes images in real time to identify static or flying mosquitoes. The system uses GPUs to analyze the environment and detect the mosquito, separating it from any visual background noise. To detect mosquitoes, it uses a digital SLR camera with a telephoto lens that allows zooming to identify mosquitoes from a greater distance. precision attack. The objective is to confirm that the target is indeed a mosquito before frying it with the laser. This engineer used a laser mounted on a gimbal capable of moving in milliseconds to act instantly. In the very striking video, you can see how the laser actually seems to kill the mosquitoes in a really satisfactory way. Many unknowns. The tweets and the existence of that business model are promising, but we have seen in the past how crowdfunding campaigns did not end well by delivering products that did not live up to the promise. The real effectiveness of these systems is unknown, but the idea is of course especially striking, especially when we are already beginning to suffer high temperatures: mosquitoes will not take long to plague us day and night, if they do not do so already, and there is still no 100% effective remedy against what Bill Gates described as the deadliest animals on earth. Image | Wolfgang Hasselmann | Steven Cheng In Xataka | Anti-mosquito repellents have been effective for 40 years. Now mosquitoes are learning to appreciate them

Amazon Prime Day returns in Spain with confirmed dates and benefits

June 2, 2026 by usatoday24

Amazon announced weeks ago that during this month of June that we have just begun, a new edition of its Prime Day: several days full of bargains, exclusive for Prime members, with which we can save a pinch on technology, home, video games and much more. But it was not until today, June 2, when has confirmed the final dates. Amazon Prime – annual subscription The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Amazon’s Prime Day 2026 arrives at the end of June with four days of offers Specifically, will take place between the 23rd and 26th of this month June. That is to say: it will kick off at midnight from Monday the 22nd to Tuesday the 23rd and will last for four full days, ending at 11:59 p.m. on Friday, June 26. We therefore have four days ahead of us to take advantage of the thousands of offers that Amazon will launch, compared to two days in previous editions. That is to say, double the time to save us a pinchFor example, in that cheap television that we had been thinking about buying for some time to watch the soccer World Cup. Or in that phone with which to replace our old mobile phone and much, much more. Furthermore, another change that we see this year compared to previous editions of this summer Prime Day is the chosen month. In this sense, the usual thing in recent years was for it to take place in July, but This time it will be done in June. Right now, in fact: exactly, in three weeks. An exclusive campaign for Prime members Like the dates of this Prime Day, Amazon has also announced that It is an exclusive sales campaign for its Prime members. Contrary to what happens with the Spring Sale Festival a few weeks ago or the Black Friday November, whose bargains are accessible to any type of user. So, how to take advantage of the sales this Prime Day if we are not subscribed? Very easy: just enjoy the free trial that Amazon offers for new registrations, which not only opens the doors of Prime Day to us but also allows us to save the cost of shipping, access a wide catalog of movies, series and documentaries through Prime Video and more for thirty days. Amazon Prime – 30 days free trial The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Once we are Prime members, we will be able to access the Prime Day offers which, as in previous years, will have guaranteed discounts on Amazon devices (Kindle, Echo, fire tv…). And also in brands such as Braun, Puma, Samsung and Philips, among othersas they have already confirmed. More offers, now available on AliExpress In case we don’t want to wait until then, right now we have another very powerful one available. AliExpress sales campaign. From yesterday until next June 10, we found bargains in nintendo switch 2, PlayStation 5 Pro, garmin watches, Xiaomi’s best-selling phones and much more in their Summer Promo. Some Amazon deals that you can now take advantage of XIAOMI REDMI Note 15 Pro 5G The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Midea Portasplit Portable Air Conditioner 4 in 1 | 3000 frigories 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 | amazon In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Which smart air conditioner to buy. How to choose a connected air conditioning system and featured models

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