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30 years ago we laughed at China and Japan for their obsession with sun protection. Now we’re following your path

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If you travel to Qingdao or any other beach in China, you may come across bathers who, in addition to bikinis, sandals and glasses, look colorful ‘facekinis’. That’s how it was at least a few years ago (even in 2025), when this peculiar garment that covers the entire face to protect it from ultraviolet rays gained popularity in the middle of a heat wave. In Europe, the image of Chinese women with their heads in XL swim caps that only leave their eyes and mouth visible was interpreted as an eccentricityone more proof of the aversion of Asians to tan. On the beaches of Spain it may not be common see ‘facekinis’but an idea is beginning to sink in: cultural issues aside, Chinese, Japanese and Koreans may not have been wrong when they did everything possible to protect themselves from the sun. “It is very frowned upon”. The facekini It is its most obvious (and graphic) demonstration, but it connects with a much larger phenomenon: not everyone values ​​tanning in the same way. Vincent Coëffé, from the University of Angers, explained it a few years ago in an article published in The Conversation: The prospect of sporting a tan skin tone may sound great in California, but things are quite different if you talk to an Asian. “Light skin continues to be viewed favorably in Asian cultures (China, India, Japan, Korea…), to the point that exposing the body to the sun is perceived as a subversive act,” comment coffee, geographer and tourism expert. “In China, tanning is very frowned upon, especially if it alters the female body, particularly influenced by the ideal of ‘milky’ skin.” Tanning is becoming globalized and it is increasingly easier to find Asians sunbathing both abroad and on the beaches of their countries, but there is still an important cultural gap with respect to the West. Why the hell do they do it? These differences in sun exposure explain why for decades, in countries like Spain, we have seen with a mixture of fascination and incomprehension Asian tourists walking down the street in the middle of summer, fleeing the ultraviolet rays like the plague. It caught our attention that, in addition to caps and sunglasses, they wore gloveslong-sleeved t-shirts, arm warmers, sun-protective clothing and umbrellas. “Why does everyone use umbrellas on the streets of Japan? Is it very hot? Do they protect themselves from the sun or is it extremely hot?” I asked intrigued a traveler in August 2025 in the ‘Backpackers in Japan’ Facebook community. The person writing this had the opportunity to travel to Cairo a couple of years ago and one of the details that most caught his attention, in addition to the monuments of Ancient Egypt, was seeing Korean tourists with very white skin walking around with umbrellas and long dresses that covered their arms and legs. Nothing to do with us Spaniards who walked under the sun in shorts and t-shirts. Lesson in humility. In Benidorm, Malaga, Barcelona or any other beach destination in Spain it is still very difficult to meet someone with their face covered by a ‘facekini’, but it is just as undeniable that something is changing. It is less difficult to find people who opt for long sleeves and sun protection pants (even muffs) in the hottest moments and, above all, no one is surprised anymore when they come across people who cover themselves with umbrellas. We told you recently: it is increasingly common to see Spaniards walking at five or six in the afternoon in July umbrella in hand. Also parents who, before going to the beach or the river, dress their young children in sun protection shirts. Umbrellas, t-shirts and more. Umbrellas may be the clearest demonstration that we are changing our way of relating to the sun, but it is certainly not the only nor the most important one. A quick search in the newspaper library arrives to find interviews with experts determined to debunk hoaxes and who warn of the risks of sunbathing without protection, the threat of melanomas, burns… They speak because there is an underlying problem, but the fact that they do so also demonstrates a growing sensitivity. It’s not about changing our cultural perception of tanned bodies, but that the message of experts is getting through who warn that, when 20, 30 or 40 years ago we looked strangely at Asians who protected themselves from the sun at all costs, we were the eccentrics. What is ‘strange’ is not walking around with an umbrella and protective clothing on a July day at five in the afternoon. The ‘strange’ thing is deliberately punishing our body, with all the risks that entails. “The Sun is an electromagnetic radiation that, when it reaches our skin, will produce mutations in our nucleic acid, and these mutations can initially be canceled by our body,” already warned in 2016 Dr. Julián Conejo Mir, Honorary President of the Spanish Academy of Dermatology and Venereology. “Any person who goes to the beach every day develops skin cancer, but our defensive system, if it works, cancels it out.” Great, right? Half. We may no longer be surprised to see someone using an umbrella on a sunny August afternoon, but that does not mean that we have internalized what it means to sunbathe irresponsibly. What’s more, we even run the risk of trusting us and think that protective clothing or umbrellas are infallible tools to keep us safe from melanoma. It is clearly demonstrated by a recent study from Nivea Sun that leaves two percentages that invite reflection: 85% of Spaniards admit to being worried about the effects of the sun on their skin, but nevertheless a large majority (67%) also admit that they do not regularly use sunscreen. Another clear example is in the networks. Thanks to them, doctors can warn of the risks of lying for hours and hours in the sun without protection, but X, Instagram or TikTok also serve as a loudspeaker for people who … Read more

Bugatti has manufactured its latest W16

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four years ago, Bugatti announced the end of its most iconic engine. The mythical and beastly W16 was coming to an end. He did it with a last dance to match. During the last four years, the company has released 99 units of the Bugatti Mistral. Now, the last unit has left its factory. The last Bugatti Mistral. The last Bugatti Mistral has left the doors of the company’s artisanal factory in Molsheim (France). A Blanc Éternel unit, inspired by the porcelain from Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur in Berlin. The supercar, as pointed out in Autonomyadds numerous details in honor of Ettore Bugatti, founder of the company, but has the customization expected in a car of this type. They explain in the middle that, for example, the classic elephant head on the gear shift knob has been replaced by a falcon head that represents the Middle East, where this last unit has ended up. The last of its kind. “The last of his kind.” So reads the tribute plaque found inside and on the spoiler of this latest Bugatti Mistral. This refers, of course, to the last dance of the W16 engine that dies with this supercar. The Bugatti Mistral will go down in history for being the last model to mount an unparalleled engine but also because its production has been limited to 99 units. (sold in one day) that They have been customized from scratch by each owner. Thus, each unit can increase its value, costing some of them more than five million euros. The supercar is the latest evolution of a series that began with the Veyron, which has continued with the Chiron and which has the last of its kind in the Mistral. A beast that has 1,600 HP and 1,600 nm of torque under its body. And a top speed that exceeds 400 km/h. The W16. With the latest Mistral the W16 is also lost. This engine is considered one of the jewels of automotive engineering. Its configuration comes from “gluing together” two V18 engines. The result is the 16 cylinders that they mount. A figure to which we must add its 8.0 liters of displacement and four turbos with which first appeared on the Veyron just over 20 years ago. Then the engine delivered 1,001 HP of power but this has skyrocketed to the 1,600 HP found in the brand’s latest supercars. The W16 is made up of 3,712 parts that add up to 400 kg. To achieve this reduced weight in such a monstrous engine, Bugatti produces its engines with large amounts of carbon and titanium, as light as they are resistant to high temperatures. The idea of ​​developing this engine came from Ferdinand Piëch, engineer and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, who resurrected Bugatti with the clear idea that it should represent the best and most exclusive in the world of motors. And, furthermore, he used the company to take cold revenge born in Le Mans in the late 80s. And now? Now, the future for the company lies in the hybrid. When the company presented the Bugatti Tourbillon, it did so by anticipating what would come in the future: plug-in hybridization. And the supercar, limited to 250 units and starting from four million eurosis a 1,800 HP plug-in hybrid with which, who knows, if one day they will be able to break the barrier of 500 km/h top speed. Yes, Bugatti’s proposal is to electrify the car to continue increasing the power of its machines. But it does it with a naturally aspirated V16 engine that no one else has. To this it adds three electric motors that also drive the wheels. The customer-facing concept is very similar to the W16: yes, it’s hybrid, but no one else has it. And, as our colleagues from MotorpassionMate Rimac, CEO of Bugatti, is clear: “if it is affordable, it would not be a Bugatti.” An uncertain future. It remains to be seen now what will become of Bugatti. A few months ago, the company was completely separated from the Volkswagen Groupwhich owned part of the property through shares in the name of Porsche. Mate Rimac has finally managed to completely control the company. Bugatti was one of the crown jewels of the group but it was also a whim. With the less personalized units, Volkswagen was losing more than four million euros. Now he is Mate Rimac, creator of the electric supercar company that bears his name, who is at the forefront of this new era of the company. Rimac was, in fact, the first to show a Tourbillon outside the factory. And he did it on a huge carpet of snow. It remains to be seen how Rimac manages to make profitable the investments and development that must be done for a car that is manufactured by hand and that, at least for the moment, will not jump to the electric car. The why, Mate Rimac himself can tell you. Photo | Bugatti In Xataka | Bugatti is taking its custom packages to extreme places: 230,000 euros for eight exhaust pipes

A student spent 100 hours in front of a 3D printer to make a multifunction prosthesis for his little sister

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I did my final year project (now called Final Degree) on the gasification conditions of a biofuel as best I could and then, on something else butterfly. The truth is that I barely remember it because it has rained a lot since then and I had no special interest in it. And here is probably some good advice in case a student reads us: if you can, choose a project that you are passionate about because you are going to dedicate many, many hours to it. And whoever says they are passionate, says they need, as happened to Vitaliy Bondarchuk, a 22-year-old mechanical engineering student at Bob Jones University in Greenville (South Carolina). Upon completion of your degree He was very clear about what his final year project was going to be.: a prosthetic arm for his little sister. A very close problem. Her sister, Bella, 7, was born with a congenital malformation: she was born without her left arm below the elbow. How does it count andIn his interview for PeopleVitaliy Bondarchuk knew from a young age that things were “a little more difficult or in some cases much more difficult” for her. Bondarchuk’s final year project required him to address a real-life problem and try to solve it. As explains Vitaliy for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers: “The challenge I tried to solve was helping him do simple tasks, things he enjoys.” According to the now graduate, he had never seen a multi-tool prosthesis: “It seemed like a very basic idea, a prosthetic arm with different accessories. But I could never find anything like it.” And that’s not to mention the cost: 3D printed prostheses They usually cost much less than conventional ones and it is possible to do them on your own by going to repositories such as those of e-NABLE. How did he do it. Bondarchuk knew that he “couldn’t create a complete prosthetic arm,” so he opted for a solution where accessories could be swapped out as needed. That is, a specific tool for each activity, such as painting or playing Uno, for which he created a card holder. To achieve this solution within the CBP deadline, he spent hours planning, documenting, measuring, designing and ensuring every detail. With creativity and perseverance on one hand and, on the other, measurements, SolidWorks for design and a 3D printer, he began to create prototypes, check the fit and start again. One of its great challenges was a reality applicable to prostheses: the design had to incorporate non-abrasive padding to avoid damaging the skin. The project. Bondarchuk estimates that he spent 100 hours developing the prosthetic arm and four months later, he had documentation, design manuals, different proposals and the multifunction prosthesis, with tools to play his favorite game, a flashlight or a brush holder. He got an A and his sister Bella got a prosthetic arm that she uses daily. The future: an endless prosthesis. Although Vitaliy Bondarchuk is already a working mechanical engineer, his project did not end with defending his PFC: he plans to continue modifying Bella’s prosthetic arm as she grows with the new hobbies she acquires. His mother has already dropped that the next one could be a driving accessory, account for People. In Xataka | Best home 3D printers. Which one to buy, resources for 3D printing and eight recommended models In Xataka | This is what I would have liked to know before starting out in the world of 3D printing. Cover | Vitaliy Bondarchuk via ASME

the danger of connecting anything to the mobile USB

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When the heat hits, we look for desperate solutions. Let them tell the Parisians by installing aluminum foil and thermal bags on the windows to try to mitigate the heat. At home, we turn on the air or the fanbut on the street it is suffocating and something I have been seeing a lot these last few days is people with portable fans. These devices are interesting because, although little, the air flow allows us to cool our faces a little. I’ve also seen passersby with more ‘pro’ solutions like neck fans (We have tried some, by the way.). A few days ago I was in London and I was looking at the tools that people were carrying, and among all the heat patches, I saw several using fans connected to their cell phones. And if I am writing this it is so that, if you use one of these USB-C fans connected to the port of your mobile, think a couple of times if you want to risk the integrity of the smartphone because it is something that can free you from the heat for a while, yes, but also It is more than likely that it will end up frying your phone. And no, it is not an exaggeration. The USB-C fan that fries your phone Although the USB-C port is great for connecting all kinds of accessories to your mobile, it is one thing if we can do it and another if we should. Not to mince words, plugging a USB-C fan directly into your phone works to power the fan, but it can damage the port, battery, or even the motherboard of your device. The reason is that these mini fans generate voltage spikes because they have cheap components and, above all, a motor that does not have a filter, so it “takes” what it needs without taking into account anything else because it does not have any filtering circuit. And that “nothing more” is the integrity of the device to which we connect it, which can be the mobile phone, but also the USB of a laptop. This video is tremendously revealing: The one of LeftyMaker It is a spectacular channel to dabble in electronics at home, but in recent years it has published several videos on battery and powerbank technology with ridiculous sizes, but great power and capacity. He usually gets to the point and the fan couldn’t be more direct. “Don’t buy this dangerous USB fan for your cell phone” is the title of a video in which, in less than three minutes, he demonstrates the reason why it should not occur to us to plug in the accessory. In it, he states that, with the help of an oscilloscope, he has observed voltage peaks above 20 or 40 V, depending on the fan. The mobile phone is not designed for that. According to the youtuber, it is due to the nature of the DC motor, since the current switches many times per second through the coils, generating those peaks when the current is interrupted even by a thousandth. Basically, the motor is continuously switching current between coils. Each short interruption acts as a small “disconnect” of an inductive load, and this generates momentary overvoltages. He explains that, although they are very brief peaks, because they are so constant they can reach the energy management chips, regulators and other components of the smartphone that are designed for 5 V, not for dozens of them, with the associated risk of permanent failure. Fan measurement | Screenshot of LeftyMaker video Measurement with the capacitor. He says there are still mini-peaks, but the decrease in voltage is evident | Screenshot of LeftyMaker video Can it be fixed? Yes, with a capacitor placed in parallel with the motor, something that costs a few cents, but not all of us know how to install nor do we have to know that we need it. And, although he does not show it on camera, he claims that he tested it on a real phone and the screen began to show lines that flickered as soon as he turned on the fan. His conclusion is clear: don’t buy it or give it only to someone you don’t likeand if you are hot, use a fan that is not powered directly by the USB port of a mobile phone, but by a powerbank that is more prepared for those peaks (it is not ideal either, but it is better to “kill” a 40 euro powerbank than a 500 euro mobile phone) or, directly, use fans that have their own battery. In Xataka | What science says about the “trick” of two crossed fans to cool the house: it works, but with limits

“We’ve been building infrastructure for humans for 20 years, maybe we have 20 months to rebuild it for agents”

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Companies have embraced the agentic AI boom, to the point that some They are drowning in so many AI agents. Employees are creating uncontrolled agents, triggering token consumption and causing many of those agents to duplicate tasks. But the real underlying problem is something else: the infrastructure on which all this is running is not prepared to support it. Meta’s warning. They tell it in Venture Beat. During the VB Transform 2026 talk, Meta’s vice president of engineering Barak Yagour gave a very powerful figure: queries from agents reaching the Meta system have multiplied by 30 in the last six months. “What happens to the infrastructure we’ve built over years when agents, not humans, become its primary consumers?” Yagour asked the audience. The answer is even more worrying: “We have spent 20 years building infrastructure for humans. Maybe we have 20 months to rebuild everything for a world where humans and agents co-create at scale.” And he adds that “The opportunity is open, but it will not last long.” lthe three problems. The emergence of the agents threatens to break the infrastructure on three fronts: Ability: Until recently, to plan how much computing power, storage or bandwidth was needed to carry out a project, it was enough to count the number of employees working on it. Yagour explains it very graphically: “Now, an engineer generates 10 agents, and each one generates sub-agents. An organization of 1,000 people can generate the load of 100,000 users practically overnight.” Identity: Access control systems are not designed for an AI agent. It is not human, but it moves around the infrastructure and makes decisions on its own. Speed: The third problem is the speed at which the agents move. They can write code faster than any human, but “that code still needs to be compiled, tested, deployed and monitored.” Deep changes. Yagour mentions that reasoning models are changing the way the data layer is processed. Detecting matches from keywords is not the same as reasoning about someone’s intention; That requires a complete history of behavior, not a summary. This requires making changes to how that data is processed and stored. Meta is moving from batch processing, which can take up to 24 hours to update, to real-time processing as it is key when the model is reasoning about what a user wants at that very moment. On the other hand, they are moving from an opaque storage to one that understands its own content, so that it only reads what it needs in each query and thus lightens the load on the GPUs. Setting limits. According to Yagour “Autonomy without governance is nothing more than chaos”, which is why Meta’s solution is to create what they call “trusted data environments.” Here, agents can move freely “but every result is traced back to its source and carefully vetted. This way you can always be sure that the data shared is trusted and controlled.” It is a way of giving freedom to the agents, but in a controlled way and without exposing themselves to the risk of ending up messing up. Image | Xataka with Magnific In Xataka | AI agents can destroy jobs. Or they can also save a century-old cheese factory from bankruptcy

Will Kerr, VP of new products at Dyson

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How is one of the most innovative hardware companies in the world managed? In a market as fierce as that of vacuum cleaners due to brand saturation, competition and price wars, the British multinational Dyson has begun a profound strategic restructuring to try to avoid the evils that threaten the technology sector: dependence on a single product, the loss of operational agility and the dosage of launches. We traveled to their Singapore headquarters to delve into their laboratories and speak with Will Kerrvice president of New Product Development, about his clear commitment to diversification, the past and the brand’s ambitious vision for the future. Where is Dyson now? On the old continent (geographically speaking) there are few technology companies that are a reference in the sector, but Dyson is one of them. In fact, it is great in technological prestige and billing: in 2025 it entered 6,130 million poundswith an EBITDA of 1,110 million (up 18%) and launched 13 new products, more than ever in a single year. However, if we talk about staff and structure, it is still relatively small for the money it moves: its global staff is made up of only 14,000 people. However, its strong point is its own R&D. Of course, the Dyson that James Dyson founded in 1991 has nothing to do with the current one: its fiscal headquarters moved to Singapore in 2019 and although its main R&D is still in the United Kingdom, its most iconic products are cooked, tested and developed in the Asian country. And the scenario has also changed: in 2024 its benefits They plummeted 49% despite breaking a product sales record. Last year the company recovered part of its operating muscle, but its turnover is still not what it would be in 2023. Dyson is not a diversified conglomerate, but rather a niche company of small premium appliances. R&D at two speeds and new operating model For Dyson, R&D is an essential area and there they spare no expense. Without going any further, of those 6.13 billion pounds of total revenue in 2025, they invested more than 400 million pounds in R&D. The question is: where to invest when the results can take years to arrive or even never arrive, like the electric car that was left in limbo after more than 500 million pounds investment? Dyson’s amazing electric car For Kerr, the dilemma is “finding the balance of when something is good enough.” They have a team in the UK to provide long-term insights and research, clients pointing out issues and potential improvements, developing key technologies in motors and batteries that have general application across their portfolio. And he gives a clear example: developing the next hair dryer could take five years and be incredible, but there are users who ask for one that is quieter, something that may only require six months of work. Virtue lies in balance. In any case, the process is always the same. Internally, this process is known as the “product creation framework” and the idea is to ensure that meet standards that can never be lowered. They have periodic checkpoints along the way. On each machine, James Dyson is very involved in the day-to-day: “Two weeks ago, we spent seven hours straight in Malaysia without stopping. He has an insatiable enthusiasm for this. And I say this because he interacts directly with the product, detects details and brings his experience of everything he has done.” The Dyson manager says that they always try to make sure that, “even when we do something for the first time, the standards are set uniformly across all categories.” Even so, from the technical direction they naturally admit that they are not always infallible: “It is clear that we never do it perfect the first time.” Without the pressure (from competitors), perhaps we would not be in the excellent state we are in. So that this huge investment does not suffocate the commercial viability of the company, Dyson has structurally separated its operations into two independent phases: “discovery” and “execution” (delivery). In the past, your engineering team worked on ideas and development simultaneously, requiring you to bet too much that new concepts would work. If a project failed, the firm faced periods of one or two years without news in the stores. Kerr explains the reason for this new organization very clearly: “If those new concepts don’t work, suddenly you’re disappointing customers for a year or two because you don’t have a launch. That’s why we’ve separated the two blocks.” Now, the execution team ensures a constant flow of innovation to the market, while the discovery team works free of commercial urgency looking for disruptive ideas. The iRobot mirror and the battle of robotics The recent iRobot bankruptcya pioneer of consumer robotics that sold 50 million units before end up acquired by Asian competitorsmakes it inevitable to think of the phrase: When you see your neighbor’s beards cut…. Or in other words, the need to diversify the catalog becomes evident when observing the international competitive environment. We refer to the facts: a look at the market in different aspiration formats (you can see our buying guides for robot vacuum cleaners and upright vacuum cleaners) makes it clear that the segment speaks Chinese. Meanwhile, Dyson has been expanding into other areas such as hair care or wearables for years. Dyson assures that market pressure is a welcome stimulus: “We see that the sector is moving quickly. It puts pressure on us, but it encourages us to do things more quickly.to look for new partners, new ways of working and new opportunities in the supply chain. Without that pressure, maybe we wouldn’t be in the excellent shape we are in.” We believe that robotics is, if not the future, then certainly an extremely important future. In addition, the firm prefers to ignore the daily noise of the market to focus on its own objectives: “If we woke up every day worried about those competitors, it wouldn’t be … Read more

Junior salaries have been in free fall for years. New study suggests the impact of AI is not so obvious

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We have been seeing headlines for a couple of years about the destruction that AI is doing to employment junior. And the usual reply: no, it’s an excuse, that companies cut when rates rise and AI is only a convenient justification. Both readings are partly right. That’s just the problem. The study. The Stanford Digital Economy Lab has been analyzing actual payrolls. Not surveys or estimates: payrolls. Published a study at the end of 2025 but keeps updated dashboard with much more recent data. The result. Employment of those aged 22 to 25 in professions highly exposed to AI has fallen since the end of 2022, just when ChatGPT arrived, and lately at a rate of 4% annually. In those over 30, in those same professions, it increases. Coinbase charged 14% of its workforce citing AI as the cause. Salesforce stopped hiring juniors last year. The nuance. The same study adds a very interesting nuance: the effect does not appear when the AI ​​helps someone do their job, but when it does it for them. Write code, answer ticketswrite a first draft: that’s where hiring goes down. Review, verify, support a decision: it remains there. It does not replace human work in general. It replaces the boring job you start with when you are a youngster. It’s time to stop and agree with those who disagree.. In 2001, relocation to India was blamed for a slowdown that actually came from interest rates: when rates fell, hiring returned, and the debate about India remained unresolved. The OECD points in the same direction in your report this month: Unemployment among young graduates was already rising before ChatGPT existed. Coexistence? The two things may coexist. But even if only part of the fall is done by the AI, that part attacks the step that no one else can replace. The intern who answers wrong tickets for six months or do well needing help you’re not wasting your time: you’re learning to fail cheaply in a controlled environment. Removing that step doesn’t fire anyone today. In ten years there will be a lack of people senior and no one will be able to explain why, because by then they will have forgotten that the bottom step disappeared long ago. Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | Spanish companies systematically hide their salary in job offers: there are notable exceptions

The best MediaMarkt offers in technology and entertainment, today Sunday, July 19

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MediaMarkt is celebrating its anniversary and has a good range of offer campaigns active right now. Therefore, in this article we are going to review the best deals on technology and entertainment that we found today, Sunday, July 19. Xiaomi 17 by 799 eurosa high-end mobile phone with the best discount it has received to date. De’Longhi Nescafé Dolce Gusto Piccolo XS by 39 eurosa coffee maker that is perfect for everyday coffee. nintendo switch 2 by 479 eurosthe console with a video game. Google Pixel 10 by 549 eurosthe mobile at a historical minimum price. Western Digital WD My Passport by 199 eurosa portable hard drive with a lot of storage capacity. Nintendo Switch 2 + Yoshi and the Mysterious Book The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi 17 He Xiaomi 17 It is an excellent mobile phone for those people who are looking for a compact yet powerful smartphone, since it incorporates a 6.3-inch screen and comes with the chip Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. In addition, its camera system is signed by Leica and its screen is a delight. Its price is 799 eurosthe historical minimum. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links De’Longhi Nescafé Dolce Gusto Piccolo XS If you are looking for a good, pretty and cheap coffee maker, be careful because MediaMarkt right now has the De’Longhi Nescafé Dolce Gusto Piccolo XS by 39 euros. It is a perfect coffee maker for daily coffee, it works using capsules, offers a pressure of 15 bars and is suitable for hot and cold drinks. De’Longhi Nescafé Dolce Gusto Piccolo XS The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 MediaMarkt has launched a new pack of the nintendo switch 2. Although this time we cannot choose a video game among several different options, for only 10 euros more than the console costs (479 euros in total), we have the Switch 2 along with the video game ‘Yoshi and the mysterious book‘, a perfect title for the little ones in the house, and for the not so little ones. Nintendo Switch 2 + Yoshi and the Mysterious Book The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 If you are not convinced by the Xiaomi mobile and are looking for a more affordable option, MediaMarkt also has the Google Pixel 10by 549 euros in this case. It is a high-end smartphone that has a 6.3 inch screentheir computational photography is excellent and the software will be up to date for many years, so it will not become obsolete in this sense any time soon. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Western Digital WD My Passport If you notice that you are running out of storage on your computer and are looking for a good hard drive, pay attention to this offer that MediaMarkt has: the Western Digital WD My Passport has dropped to 199 euros. It is a portable hard drive, so you can take it wherever you want. Additionally, it comes with 6TB of storage so you can save many photos, videos and files. Western Digital WD My Passport (6TB) 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), Xiaomi, De’Longhi, Nintendo, Google, Western Digital In Xataka | Best mobile phones 2026. Which one to buy based on use and six recommended models In Xataka | Capsules, super-automatic or manual. The best coffee makers according to your tastes and needs

the alternatives to asphalt that Spanish cities already use

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With the temperatures skyrocketing and the Aemet warning of new heat waves Above 40 degrees in much of Spain, it is clear that, beyond active cooling solutions such as fans and air conditioners, cities must also plan to implement urban solutions that dissipate heat in buildings and streets. In this article we wanted to highlight one of the measures that we have been using for decades. It is a type of pavement that effectively reduces the temperature of the streets thanks to its porosity. But it is not the only type of pavement that fulfills the mission of reducing temperatures (nor the only remedy that cities have). Below these lines we tell you the details. The thing is about pavements. There are two large families of “cold pavements”. The first are the permeable or porous pavements. These are surfaces with holes connected to each other that allow rainwater to pass into the ground instead of diverting it directly to the sewers. This retained water evaporates little by little and cools the environment, in addition to reducing flash floods. The second family are reflective pavements or high solar reflectance (also known as “cool pavements”), which do not seek to filter water, but rather return a greater part of the solar radiation they receive to the atmosphere, instead of absorbing and storing it as conventional black asphalt does. A type of porous pavement. Image: Pavipor Heat trapped in the streets. Dark asphalt and concrete absorb much of the sun’s radiation during the day and slowly release it at night, preventing cities from cooling even when the sun goes down. This phenomenon, known as urban heat islandcauses large cities to register noticeably higher temperatures than in rural areas, especially at night. And of course, with episodes of extreme heat becoming more frequent, any measure that lowers the street temperature by a few degrees already helps a lot. Examples. The most recent case is that of Barcelona. The City Council, with technical support from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), approved last year a new reflective agglomerate on a section of Martí i Franquès street, in the Les Corts district, directly comparing it with a section of conventional black asphalt to measure the real temperature difference between both materials. As explained by the City Council itself, this pavement has the capacity to reflect a greater part of solar radiation than traditional asphalt, which helps reduce both surface heating and the temperature of the environment. Barcelona installing a type of reflective pavement. Image: Barcelona City Council The test is part of the municipal Climate Plan, and is not the first of its kind, since according to collect El Diario, before testing with the pavement, Barcelona had already launched a pilot plan to paint the roofs of several buildings white and with reflective pigments, including a school in the Les Corts district. Seville, one of the cities hardest hit by heat waves in Spain, has also proposed similar solutions. And in recent years, the City Council has been adding to its planning the massive planting of shade trees, replacement of dark pavements with lighter materials in various parts of the city, awnings on commercial streets, sustainable drainage and a network of “climate shelters” distributed throughout the neighborhoods to give respite to the population during heat peaks. These types of measures are increasingly applied on Spanish streets, especially in those large cities in the country that become an oven when summer arrives. It doesn’t work the same everywhere. A recent study by the University of Granada, has analyzed the thermal behavior of the eight Andalusian capitals and has come to the conclusion that there is no single solution to cool a city. According to the project researchers, in Seville and Malaga the factor that weighs the most is the albedo of the materials, that is, their ability to reflect solar radiation, while in Córdoba the building density and the waterproofing of the soil have more influence, and in Granada the key is in the urban geometry and how open the streets are to the sky. The same study also recalls that dense canopy trees continue to be, by themselves, one of the most effective tools, since they can lower the temperature between 3 and 5 degrees in parks where it is well designed. It is clear that reflective or porous pavement helps, but they work more as a complement to other urban solutions. In Xataka | Madrid is going to open a tunnel that monitors traffic with AI in real time: this is how the new Castellana subway will work

The countries with the most billionaires in the world, gathered in a graph with a surprising winner

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Guess, guess: Where do the majority of the world’s billionaires live today? Answer the first thing that comes to mind and without cheating. Probably most of us would say that the United States and the reality is that this was true until very recently, but the map of wealth has changed: China has just snatched the throne and already has 1,110 Chinese billionaires compared to 1,100 Americans, according to the latest Hurun Global list. The most striking thing is not so much this surprise, but the speed at which it has happened: a decade ago, three of those four Chinese billionaires were not even on the list, which gives an idea of ​​the industrial, technological and business panorama of the Asian giant. Of course, the “land of opportunity” thing seems to have changed zip codes. The Hurun Global Rich List 2026 is an annual ranking prepared in China that has been measuring the fortune of the world’s billionaires for 15 years. It is not as popular as Forbes, but it is also one of the great references for quantifying billionaires. Both estimate net worth in dollars based on shares in listed companies, real estate and other assets, but each has its own methodologies, so there may be divergences between the two. The list is not very intuitive to visualize, so Visual Capitalist, through its Voronoi data platform, has prepared this graph that reflects how many billionaires (in dollars) live in each country in the world in 2026. We have already discovered gold and silver, but there is another curious fact: China and the United States alone concentrate more than half of the global billionaire population. To the surprise of few, wealth is concentrated. Beyond statistical curiosity, there are two reasons why it is interesting to know where the rich are concentrated: according to Oxfambillionaires are 4,000 times more likely to reach political office than the average person. Simply put: wealth is concentrated and it also tends to concentrate power. On the other hand, global billionaire wealth grew more than 16% in 2025, three times more than the average of the last five years, according to Oxfam. The rich are getting richer. The countries with the most billionaires in the world After China and the United States, India is at a certain distance but far away from the rest of the European squad, with 308 people. And the old continent already appears, with Germany (171), the United Kingdom (150), Switzerland (114), Russia (105), among others. According to Hurun, China added 287 billionaires compared to the previous year, compared to 130 in the United States and 24 in India, which explains why the list has changed so much. Spain appears in 20th place with 34 billionaires, behind countries of comparable or smaller economic size such as Sweden or Turkey and an abysmal distance from Switzerland, which has 114 and a trick to achieve it despite its small size that it shares with Monaco: favorable taxation. Where billionaires live in 2026. Visual Capitalist Where do these new billionaires come from? Although we already know that Most rich people are born and not made and the Hurun list confirms this, with 144 fourth-generation fortunes, this rise of the new rich has specific origins such as the market or technology. But technology is a very broad sector and the phenomenon that concentrates it is a boom that we have been finding in the soup for some time: artificial intelligence. Thus, there are 114 billionaires who owe their fortune to AI companies, of which 46 are newcomers to the list. Furthermore, there are countries and countries: despite representing 79% of the world’s population, Southern countries only own 31% of global wealth. In wealth there is also migration, but quite concentrated in one country: the United States. Of this 14% of “luxury” migrants there are famous cases such as those of the South African Elon Musk or the Taiwanese Jensen Huang. It is important to remember that a ranking of the number of billionaires is not the same as how rich a state is or the average well-being of the population. On the other hand, the country of residence can sometimes be somewhat ambiguous: some billionaires have dual tax residence or assets distributed internationally and both the geographic allocation criteria and the estimation of their assets may differ from Hurun compared to other sources. In Xataka | Tell me where you are from and I will tell you if the rich in your country were self-made or inherited wealth In Xataka | Where the ultra-rich are growing the most: the graph that proves that Europe is playing something else

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