Mobile Tech & Gadgets

This website is a magnificent calculator to calculate and compare with other countries

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Talking about taxes in certain scenarios is a recipe for disaster. All the ingredients are present: ignorance about basic concepts in economics and how they work, a misunderstood selfishness and confusion between whether what we dislike is how they are managed or their mere existence. One of the most controversial is the Personal Income Tax or Income Tax. How much IPRF do we pay? Is it a lot or a little? Well it depends. In general, we don’t even like money being “taken” from us and in Spain it is quite common to hear that they “take” too much from us. Keep in mind that most states have some personal income tax similar to personal income tax (there are exceptions such as Monaco either Kuwait which they don’t have), so neighbors like Germany or France do have it and leaving the EU, in the United States they have their equivalent in the Income Tax). From here two questions arise: what part of my income goes to personal income tax and whether I would pay more or less if I lived somewhere else. Without intending to replace an economics class (or reading in depth the ministry website) and yes like brief notes on personal income taxIt is important to be clear that this tax is progressive in sections, that is, you do not pay the same percentage for all your money. This is one of the most common mistakes when we hear that someone with a high salary (for the average in Spain) pays 47%: no, the Treasury does not take almost half. That first tranche up to 12,450 euros has a withholding of 19%, from there up to 20,199 euros it is 24% and so on. On the other hand, personal income tax is also divided into sections: state and regional. Depending on which autonomous community you live in, you will pay more or less. Finally, there is a personal and family minimum for which personal income tax is not paid as it is considered to be used to cover basic needs. Defaultit is 5,550 euros per year for a single person. Personal income tax calculators There are a few on the internet and in fact, even the Treasury has its own to make sure we are with the official. Now, if we look for an intuitive alternative that allows us to compare, this website by Benjamin Akar It is an excellent option even if it is in English. An easy personal income tax calculator and comparator to estimate what you pay After choosing a country from the list and verifying that the currency is the Euro, we only have to add annual gross salary. In the advanced options you can also add other deductions such as pension plans or union dues. We see it better with an example: 25,000 euros per year in Madrid and Navarra, two very particular autonomous communities: the state capital has deflated the sections and has one of the lowest minimums in Spain. Navarra, for its part, has its own Treasury, regional regime and personal income tax law. Thus, the sections are modified and there are differences in deductions and calculations such as the structure of the savings base. For the simulation we will assume that we are single people without children. From the previous calculation it is deduced that Madrid is the best option to maximize your salary. But not everything is money in the pocket: Navarra compensates with its own management of services that sometimes entails indirect benefits in the form of personal or family deductions either more budget per inhabitant in health. Now we try changing to Germany and its capital, Berlin, to see what the personal income tax calculation looks like. Deductions from work are very low because Germany has a very high exempt minimum because you do not pay taxes, but then social contributions arrive in the form of social security, pension, unemployment taxes, among others. The EU forms a mosaic where each state has its own tax recipe, although they all share to a greater or lesser extent the objective of financing the welfare state. However, the big difference is not only how much we pay, but how it is paid. So We essentially distinguish three routes: There are states like Germany, France or Spain, with a standard progressive model where you pay based on what you earn; Others, such as Bulgaria or Romania, apply flat systems with low single rates regardless of income. Finally there is the “Nordic” model of places like Denmark or Sweden, with very high maximum rates to finance extensive public services and social benefits. He Spanish state is located in a medium-high zone of the EU. The Eurozone average in maximum rates is around 40% compared to 45% in Spain (considering the combination of state and regional average), reaching 50% or more in regions such as the Valencian Community or Cataloniawhich only affects very high incomes. In Xataka | 64% of Spaniards believe that they pay more in taxes than they receive from the State. It’s actually the other way around In Xataka | Income Tax Calendar 2025: dates and when the 2026 Income Tax return is made Cover | Jakub Zerdzicki

Spain does not know if it has too many or too few rabbits. But this town of Toledo has declared war on them at their own risk and expense.

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In Villa de Don Fadrique, province of Toledo, the town hall you have just activated an extraordinary authorization to shoot down rabbits daily. In fact, it is inviting volunteers to reduce its population to a minimum. It is a total war against these rodents that are becoming a real headache for farmers across the country. And it is curious because, if we look at the data, the truth is that the European rabbit entered the red list of threatened species from the IUCN in 2019. Can you be endangered and an indiscriminate pest at the same time? And the answer is yes, of course yes. A few days ago, it was the Union of Farmers and Ranchers of Castilla la Mancha the one that warned that “the proliferation of rabbits is a problem that has been going on for ten years, they speak of a ‘pest’ that is threatening olive groves and pistachio and almond trees, and they demand that the populations of these animals be controlled.” It is not an anecdotal impression, in a sectoral report points out that rabbits account for 64% of agricultural insurance payments for wildlife damage and averages of tens of thousands of hectares damaged per year are cited. And yet, the decline of the rabbit at a general level it’s clear. And that not only impacts the “bug” itself: whether we like it or not, there is the base of the food chain of more than 30 species (from the Iberian lynx to the imperial eagle) and its disaster alters the functioning of the Mediterranean forest. He’s been altering it for decades. Because what is clear is that this is not something recent. The decline of the European rabbit is associated with myxomatosisfirst (mid-20th century); then continue with the rabbit hemorrhagic disease in the 80s; and is complicated by the arrival in 2012 of a new variant (RHDV2) that affects populations just when they were beginning to recover. To this we must add the changes in the landscape and the disappearance of boundaries, fallow lands and traditional shelters. However, when God closes a door he opens a window. And, despite the general decline, rabbits have known how to use the gaps in human infrastructure to create authentic breeding sites. The slopes and shoulders of the roads have become tremendously favorable habitats (and even in motion vectors) and areas with constant food (irrigation/crops) are natural attractors of these reduced populations. That is to say, the explanation is simple: the populations are smaller, but they have been rearranged in areas that cause more damage to farmers. And thus, the conflict is served. While conservationists and scientists ask to recover the rabbit in the mountains, farmers ask to expel it from its areas of influence. But the curious thing is that both sides are partly right and we do not have stories that allow us to understand what is happening. Something that is also happening with all the bugs on the mountain. Image | Sönke Biehl In Xataka | In 1940 Japan removed this island from the maps to keep its activities secret. Now your creatures are dying

They don’t have the AI ​​but they already have the energy

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In the AI ​​race, The United States has the chips and China has the energytwo different starting points that make them follow divergent trajectories. But both chips and energy are essential for the technology industry from a broader point of view. Guaranteeing supply is the first step to dominating emerging industries and China has taken it very seriously by stepping on the accelerator in the construction of energy infrastructure. The figures. According to data from the China National Energy Administration of which echoes BloombergIn 2025 alone, the Asian giant added 542.7 GW of capacity to what it already had to reach a total capacity of 3,890 GW. As collects China Newsthis is 16.1% more in just one year. In perspective. The cold data may not give an idea of ​​the magnitude of the Chinese attack, but those 542.7 GW added in the last year is more than the total capacity of powers such as India, Germany or Japan, according to data from the International Energy Agency. Only the United States and its 1,373 GW available on the electrical grid surpass it. However, if we extend the time frame four years ago, we find that in that period China expanded its capacity by 1,515.3 GW, more than everything the United States has today. Among China’s objectives With this ambitious commitment to energy, we are guaranteeing a stable and abundant supply, minimizing dependence on fuel imports and making it a competitive advantage in growth and intensive industries such as AI, robotics or advanced materials technology. Why is it important. From an engineering point of view, what China is doing in recent years is a feat: it has replicated the West’s largest power grid at lightning speed. What took the United States approximately a century, China has only required less than half a decade. But building electrical infrastructure (What happens with Data Centers?) is neither easy nor immediate: it requires planning, logistics and a highly qualified workforce. Not to mention permits or environmental evaluations. This level of manufacturing and installation involves overcoming a learning curve that reduces technology costs for global implementation. How has he done it. Achieving that capacity in record time is difficult, but it is not only how much but how: a good part of this growth comes from solar and wind energy. This type of energy, unlike fossil fuels, is intermittent. That is, it is not limiting itself to installing panels and wind turbines, but it is also redesigning the management of the network in the event of eventual events such as no sun or wind. However, coal and gas thermal power plants are also in record numbers. China has not forgotten nuclear and hydroelectric energy either, with more modest increases. What the graph doesn’t say. That China’s current capacity is immense does not mean that, for example, solar or wind plants are producing 24/7: their plant factor It is lower than those of gas or coal plants. Hence they need to build much more to achieve the same. And to move all that energy from one side of the country to the other, for example from the sunny Gobi Desert to industrial Shanghai, China has set up a kind of energy highway: the High Voltage Direct Current network, with the largest ultra-high voltage transformer in the world. You have another challenge ahead: where to store the excess energy. For now, is investing big time in lithium batteries and also in hydraulic pumping. In Xataka | The race for AI has placed China in an unthinkable scenario: forcing the United States to leave its comfort zone In Xataka | China needs chips and the United States needs energy: in the AI ​​race the two great powers have divergent paths Cover | Raisa Milova and Dominic Kurniawan Suryaputra

you will never see a green star

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There will be those who are too lazy to walk the dog at night (especially in winter) or at 6:30 in the morning, but I love finding it all asleep and being able to calmly raise my head so that, while I walk around the outskirts of my city so that my dogs can do their things, look at the sky to see what I find. One of my hobbies is, like when I was little, trying to distinguish what I find: The Polar Star, at this time of year also El Carro, the very bright Sirius with a bluish white or orange tone Aldebaranthe red Betelgeuse or the blue supergiant Rigel. Although there is light pollutionFortunately, I live near several municipalities starlight and it doesn’t take much to find authentic shows. I have seen stars of a few colors, but never green. The reality is that I look at the stars with no other instrument than my eyes and that implies only see those bright enough to emit enough light to activate the conesthe color-sensitive cells that are in the retina. But still, the stars I encounter seem white, blue, red, orange or yellow. Viewing the sky with a telescope things change and there you can see fainter stars or even go up a level and take a look (and try to interpret what space telescopes see). What is hard to see are green stars. Spoiler: it is as much a matter of the stars as it is of our eyes and their way of perceiving color. The Sun’s peak emission is green. There are several reasons why we never see it that color. A star behaves like a black bodythat is, it emits light depending on its temperature. Simply put: they emit light because they are hot. In fact, their color depends on their temperature: the coldest ones emit red light and those that are very hot glow blue. Different Planck curves for stars of classic colors: blue, yellow, red. POT However, this is a simplification: they actually emit in a wide range of colors but in different proportions in an asymmetrical bell shape (the Planck curve that you see above these lines) and it is the mixture that gives that final color. The relationship between the temperature of a star and the color where it emits the greatest amount of energy (the tip of the curve) is obtained from the Wien Displacement Law. If a star has a temperature of about 5,500K (very similar to that of the Sun), its peak emission would be precisely in that green zone. But we have never seen the sun be green. Here our eyes come into play: the color of a star is not an intrinsic property of light, but rather an interpretation of our eyes against that jumble of photons. The eyes have three types of coneseach of them sensitive to red, green or blue light respectively. That is, if an object emits or reflects red light, only the red cones would send a signal to the brain to perceive it that way. Obviously the brain can interpret more colors: the key is that these three types of cones can send the signal in different proportions and then they are mixed in the brain. Precisely what happens with the Sun, which although it emits the greatest amount of light in blue and green, simultaneously emits so much red and blue light that the combination ends up averaging in the brain as white (another thing is that is classified like a yellow dwarf star. Due to the physics of black bodies, there is no stellar temperature that excites only the green cones of the eye without also activating the red and blue cones. And since cameras imitate the vision of the eyes, the stars do not appear green in the photos either. Yes, but. After all this explanation it turns out that there are a couple of stars that some people claim to see green, but no: in reality They are brain tricks. It is the case of Almacha star system formed by a giant, bright orange star and a triple system of three blue stars so close that from our perspective they cannot be distinguished separately, but rather blend into a point of light. Our brain tries to balance orange with its complementary color, green. The result: we can perceive it as orange. Of course, the cameras do not take issue with this biological processing error. The other is Zubeneschamalia solitary star whose color we confuse either by subjective perception or by effects of the atmosphere. That doesn’t mean there aren’t green celestial objects in the sky. There are a few nebulae with a very striking green tone thanks to the intense emission of oxygen atoms, we have also seen emerald green comets (the blame lies with diatomic carbon) or planets like Earth for obvious reasons and even Uranus because of the methane in its atmosphere and how it absorbs light. In Xataka | We thought that the red color in a galaxy told us that it was dead. There are those who believe that we are wrong In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | Parastoo Maleki

In their obsession with overprotecting them, parents are depriving their children of something very important: frustration.

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We live in the era of hyperparentingsince never before had there been so much information about parenting, and paradoxically, never had so much guilt been felt. The fact that some parents are terrified of giving a bad answer, a separation or too much screen time will irreversibly ruin their children. But the truth is that we are overprotecting children. An expert. Faced with this anxiety, child psychologist Ana Aznarauthor of ‘Educating also means saying no’proposes a paradigm shift: realistic parenting. His thesis is that overprotection is creating a generation with low tolerance for frustration and that parents need to regain authority (not authoritarianism). And given this, science has a lot to say about the true weight that parental decisions have in children’s adult lives. The myth of determinism. One of the greatest sources of anxiety in these cases may be the idea that what happens in childhood is an immutable destiny. But this is not entirely the case. A classic study that followed thousands of people born in 1958 and 1970 pointed out that all childhood variables together, such as economic status, family traits or health, only explain between 2.8% and 6.8% of the variability in life satisfaction at age 30. This does not mean that childhood does not matter, of course it does. The evidence indicates that human development is cumulative and plastic, causing subsequent factors to take a greater step in the adult phase. With this we we refer to adolescencethe first social relationships or the work environment that have great weight. Paradox of overprotection. Although the pretext, which is basically to avoid the child’s suffering, the truth is that this style of education has important side effects. This is something that has been validated by sciencewhich found that parental overprotection is positively associated with internalizing problems such as anxiety and depression. The mechanism is perverse in this case, because by “clearing the path” of obstacles, we prevent the child from Build your frustration tolerance. Recent studies link intrusive parental overinvolvement with less autonomy and poorer emotional adjustment in adulthood. This means that making a child never get frustrated by being in a constant cloud makes the adult break down at the first “no” in real life like at work. The problem of screens. Currently one of the big questions is when to give the mobile phone to children for the first time. Science suggests that the important thing is to offer it but educate about its use from the first moment. A study on the Canadian population showed a clear relationship here: exceeding 2 hours a day of recreational time in front of screens is associated with a greater probability of anxiety and psychosocial difficulties. The real thing. However, the key nuance provided by organizations such as the American Pediatric Association is displacement. The problem is not always the pixels themselves, but what the child stop doing by looking at the screen: sleeping less, moving less and socializing less face to face. The strategy backed by science is not just to “remove your cell phone”, but to “fill your life” with alternatives such as sports, sleep or free play and monitor the quality of the content, rather than obsessing only with the stopwatch. The conflict. Something that can be deeply internalized in families is that witnessing a divorce within the family destroys a child. But the reality is that the most important thing is the climate of coexistence as a study that analyzed hundreds of families points out. This clearly showed that the quality of the relationship between parents, such as support or the absence of hostile conflict, is a much more reliable predictor of child well-being than whether or not they live with both biological parents. In this way, a home with two parents in constant war is, according to PMC data, a more toxic environment for the development of children than having a single-parent family where there is calm. Images | Christian Mai In Xataka | Those born between 1950 and 1970 have a psychological advantage over other generations: they are entering their “peak”

online sale on the day

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Costco, the American chain that has been operating in Spain for more than ten years, has recently launched your online sales service with delivery on the same day. It does so together with Instacart, a delivery platform with which it already collaborates in North America. It’s not that the chain is having great results in our country, but she is convinced that her large-scale American business model can end up being profitable in Spain. What’s up with Costco?. The chain really represents in Spain the opposite of the model that predominates in the country: it charges for membership (about 36 euros per year), operates with giant warehouses of more than 15,000 square meters and sells products in a wholesale format. Now it goes one step further and enters a field that Mercadona, which we could consider its rival (although with different concepts), has already dominated for a long time: home delivery. How it works. Costco members in Spain can place orders through your website and receive them on the same day in Madrid, Bilbao, Seville and Zaragoza, the four cities where the chain has a physical presence. Prices are the same as in store, but there is a fixed service fee of 15 euros per order and a minimum purchase of 35 euros. The logistics model. Instacart, which manages the operation through Storefront Pro, says it will work with “European partner companies” for the selection, packaging and delivery of orders. According to its official statement, the logistics models “align with local laws, regulations and market conditions.” Just like account CincoDías media, in the United States, Instacart operates with a ‘gig economy’ model in which delivery people only charge for deliveries made, choose the orders they prefer and are rated by customers. This system, precisely, is what motivated the Government in Spain to approve Rider Law in 2021, which forces delivery workers to be hired. Between the lines. Costco maintains its loss-controlled strategy while building market share. Just like we explained In October, at that time the Spanish subsidiary had accumulated 150 million euros in the red since 2014, although in 2024 its sales shot up to 607 million and added 15% more partners. Now it is betting on a channel that can accelerate its growth without having to open more physical centers, something expensive and slow. The clash of models. Mercadona dominates Spain with a 28% market share, having achieved this through stores close to its customers and optimized margins. Costco, for its part, pursues volume, loyalty and gradual expansion. It remains to be seen whether or not the arrival of the online service can attract more customers and whether the American hypermarket model also has a place in Spain. Expansion in Europe. Along with Spain, Costco has launched the same service in France, where it operates in the metropolitan area of ​​Paris and Mulhouse. “This step enables a new level of accessibility and ease for its members,” said Chris Rogers, CEO of Instacart. For his part, Pierre Riel, executive vice president of Costco’s International Division, stressed that the service “complements the services we already offer” and represents “another step to make Costco more accessible.” Cover image | Marcus Reubenstein In Xataka | The white label has been conquering supermarkets for years. It has done so well that it is now the pillar of the Spanish diet

Emirates just melted down 60 million to create Noah’s Ark. And he has given them to those who want to resurrect the mammoth

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We’ve been really into playing God for a few years now. On the one hand, we have Bryan Johnson, a millionaire who lives to rejuvenate -and to sell you oil-. On the other hand, there is Colossal, a company that is doing more serious and interesting things. How far? Until the of chase resurrect the mammoth. At the moment there are more promises than realities, but they have managed to get the United Arab Emirates to give them a check for 60 million dollars. Aim? Create the modern Noah’s Ark. Colossal. This company dedicated to biotechnology has become popular for its objective not only in bring the mammoth back to lifebut also to the dodoto the moa either to the Tasmanian tiger. It does so from well-preserved DNA samples, to the interest of personalities such as Peter Jackson -director of ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and great collector of moa bones– and, evidently, thanks to tremendously generous sums of money. Colossal Biosciences has reached a assessment of more than 10,000 million dollars and, in the latest round, it has been 600 accumulated. Peter Jackson himself collaborated with 25 million for the company to place the moa in its goal list. BioVault. Although there are those who think that What Colossal does is sell the motorcyclethey have achieved some results, like resurrecting the giant wolf. The theory is simple: they take the DNA of the extinct animal, combine it with samples from living relatives and the difficult part comes when they have to filter out the variants to polish the genes and get the animal they want. When they have it ready, they use the belly of a living animal to gestate the extinct creature. UAE does not want them to resurrect anything. At least, that objective has not been made public, but due to Colossal’s activity, they have obtained thousands of DNA samples. And that is what we want to preserve in BioVault. The goal is a capsule in which the DNA of more than 10,000 species is stored, with a special focus at the beginning on the 100 most endangered species today. Which is it? They are in ‘coming soon‘. Museum of the Future. For this, the United Arab Emirates will spend 60 million dollars, and once completed in 2027, this modern Noah’s Ark will be stored in the World Preservation Laboratory, which will be a part of the Museum of the Future from Dubai. Inaugurated in 2022, it is a tremendous building, on par with the pharaonic works built in the Middle East at that time. particular architectural war in which the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are involved. If it is spectacular on the outside, it is even more so on the inside, and precisely its name is due to the fact that it is a museum that does not show antiquity, but rather presents a journey to the future. To 2071, specifically. The museum is outrageous Backup. In the end, this is one of the largest and most important biotech deals. Ben Lamm, co-founder of Colossal, affirms that we are losing species at an alarming rate and the world “urgently needs a network of global BioVaults, a backup plan for life on Earth.” He threw a dart at the financing of other biobanks, ensuring that they are fragmented, underfinanced and do not have a collaborative spirit that allows them to use data in the event of a crisis. In fact, it is estimated that half of the species on Earth will face extinction by 2050, and BioVault will be there to remedy it. The big question is whether it will be worth bringing animals back just because we can when their ecosystems are destroyed. Images | Colossal, روتانا In Xataka | Face transplants always seemed like something out of science fiction. A hospital in Barcelona has made it a reality

China’s new obsession is to prevent the US from confiscating its ships

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When we think about boarding, it is inevitable that a scene from “Pirates of the Caribbean” comes to mind that takes us to past times and fiction, but nothing is further from reality. We have recently seen how American special forces carried out a raid on a cargo ship traveling from China to Iran at the end of last year in the Indian Ocean and another at the beginning of this year, this time in the Atlantic and with Marinera as a goalan oil tanker flying the Russian flag. It is not an action movie, it is the current maritime geopolitical reality. From the sanction to the boarding. That with Trump the United States’ policy towards the world had changed is no longer a surprise: his modus operandi at sea is another example of his proactive policy. At least seven ships have already been confiscated of the ghost fleet that transports Venezuelan oil, in addition to the Marinera oil tanker and the cargo ship in the Indian Ocean. In the latter case, the commandos confiscated “dual-use” components (military and civilian) before allowing the ship to continue on its course. The United States has clearly moved from paper sanctions to action. The boarding of an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela bound for the Asian country was branded by China as a serious violation of international law, as declared its Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The United States is putting its fist on the table. For China this is not a mere isolated event. According to analysts from Nanjing University quoted by the South China Morning Post The Trump Administration has one objective: to reaffirm American hegemony on the high seas, putting essential routes such as the Strait of Malacca in check. An open wound: Yinhe’s trauma. For China, this is a true déjà vu that takes them directly back to 1993, when the United States paralyzed the Chinese cargo ship Yinhe, causing it to deviate from its route for a search in search of chemical weapons that finally they did not exist. in China it was considered a deliberate provocation and put a reality on the table: they needed a powerful navy capable of escorting their ships beyond Malacca, otherwise the part of the economy that depends on the sea would be hostage to the decisions of the United States. M.Minderhoud – own work based on PD map, Public domain What is it about Malacca that is essential for China?. Just take a look at the map: the Strait of Malacca is the maritime gateway that links China to the world. Much of its energy and commerce passes through that enclave. If the United States normalizes the seizure of ships in the Indian Ocean before they reach the strait, it will be able to choke off China’s supply before cargo can access its safe waters without having to launch a single missile. Malacca is the weakest link. Because the Strait of Malacca is a maritime line of communication historical: this report from a 20o6 chinese report It says that more than 80% of Chinese oil exports transited through the Strait of Malacca. Today, this dependence remains a critical problem for which China still has no solution: 80% of China’s $390 billion in annual energy imports still passes through that 2.7-kilometer-wide strait at its narrowest part, according to data from the Observer Research Foundation report for September 2025. By DoD – Image:China Report 2006 China’s plan: escorts and an eye for an eye. Professor Li Lingqun of Nanjing University explains for SCMP a possible response, which involves “providing naval escorts for commercial vessels to deter such actions. (…)The rapid development of China’s naval capabilities today allows the rapid deployment of these means.” The United States is already aware that China is ready to deploy escorts beyond the Gulf of Adam. From Beijing, the brand new new Type 076 amphibious assault ship says hello EITHER the Sichuanthe largest amphibious assault ship in the world. China’s response to what the South China Morning Post qualifies as state piracy It would not be limited to diplomacy, but would also be military. As analysts detail, China has the legal precedent of the United States boarding to replicate this same action or intensive inspections at sea, including the Taiwan Strait. You already have your coast guard ready for do offshore inspections. This China of 2026 is not the one of 1993. And we have already seen it in the trade and tariff war: in the form of tariff counterattacks in response to Trump or as a pressure measure with its rare earth elementsa market where has total hegemony. On the other hand, it is worth remembering that in the roadmap China is modernizing its military capabilities with 2035 as the deadline. In Xataka | China has revealed a new naval military strategy: civilian ships that can become missile launchers In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing Cover | rhk111

enter the United States in three years despite 100% tariffs

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The Chinese automotive industry has set out to conquer the West, and Europe is too small for them. The great objective is to take a bite of the cake that is the United States, a risky bet if we take into account the tariff wall to the chinese electric car. And there is already a firm proposal: Geely is preparing its assault on the United States with two aces up its sleeve. Volvo… and Canada. The plan. Does a few daysthe Autoline Network media public an interview with Ash Sutcliffe. He is the head of global communications at Geely Holding Group, a Chinese giant that has its own brands such as Zeekr either Lynk&Cobut which also controls the Western Lotus, PolestarSmart and… Volvo. The interview was published within the framework of CES, the technology fair in Las Vegasand it was strange because, if there are 100% tariffs on Chinese electric cars, what was Geely doing there? The answer is simple: they are going to assault the US market. Sutcliffe commented that they are studying all the global markets in which they can expand and there is an internal question: when and where they will land in the United States. He did not share the roadmap, but did comment that they will have “an announcement on this in the next 24 to 36 months.” Trojan horse. There are many questions here and none of them were clearly answered in the interview. For example, what will happen to US tariffs or regulations on the Chinese software in cars? Sutcliffe simply said that Geely is an international group used to following the data protection and trade regulations of various countries, so they will do “whatever is necessary to follow those regulations when the time comes.” He gave the example of the European GDPRand although the interview does not connect the dots, the fact that they have taken advantage of such a framework to firmly assure that they will be in a market as complicated and hostile as the American one in the short term is a sign that they have given the matter more than one turn. Geely has an advantage here with Volvo, Polestar and Lotus. They are brands under their umbrella and already operate in the United States, but specifically, what Sutcliffe stated was that they want to land with Lynk & Co and Zeekr. North American Gate. There are two important questions. One is the tariff wall: 100% on electric vehicles from China. In practice, it would make it unfeasible for Geely to start selling cars because users would have to pay a premium that would make the brand simply unable to compete on price. But there are two safe passages. On the one hand, Geely build factories on American soil, a door opened by the Trump Administration if, with this, local employment is created. The Volvo factory South Carolina It would be an interesting and organic option for that local production. On the other hand, use brokers that export to US soil. There Canada can be the ace up your sleeve for the Chinese company. If they decide not to assemble the Zeekr/Lyn & Co in South Carolina, they can always import the vehicles from Canada and take them to the United States through that northern gate. Canada has recently moved from a 100% tariff Chinese electric vehicles at 6.1%. It is a very limited movement, since the initial quota will be 49,000 units per year. It’s a ridiculous number, but a start, and it could be a test bed for Geely to bring its 100% electric brands to the US from Canada. But hey, the United States is very aware of this and in fact, they have already saying that Canada “is going to regret it.” Feet of lead. With this management of brands like Volvo, Geely has an easier time than other Chinese competitors to get its foot in the US market, but there is an important nuance in all this. Geely has not said “in three years we will be selling thousands of cars,” but rather “in three years we will detail our plan to enter the United States.” However, although as we said, there is no specific public plan, it is evident that a statement like this implies that they are oiling the machinery to try do the same as in Europe. Now, taking into account the political climate and government maneuvers on issues such as trade or tariffs, things could change a lot in 36 months. Images | Zeekr, BYD In Xataka | Chinese cars are no longer just cheap: they are the world’s largest product experiment

They have you in from the beginning

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Betting houses sell a dream in their advertisements: anyone can win. The reality is just the opposite. They are designed to identify those who know what they are doing and neutralize them before they become a problem. A data journalist from The Economist he discovered it the hard way. After building models to detect miscalculated odds, Ladbrokes allowed him to bet exactly five pounds on the NBA MVP award. All other British houses closed their doors to him soon after. Not to make a lot of money, but to show that he knew what he was doing. The algorithm ranks you before your first bet Platforms don’t wait to see if you win or lose to evaluate you. They start much earlier. Do you enter from a computer or from your mobile? Do you deposit with a debit card or electronic wallets? Are you a woman in a sector where 90% are men? Each technical decision feeds a risk profile. An industry consultant explained it this way to The Economist: When you make your first bet, the houses already know with 80-90% certainty how much money they are going to win or lose with you. The initial play confirms or denies suspicions. A normal bettor bet on the Premier League or the NFL half an hour before the game, choosing the winner without comparing the odds too much. And he likes the combined ones: five, six, twelve crossed bets that are much more profitable (and therefore much more complicated to get right). a professional does the opposite. Bet on minor leagues as soon as the odds are published, when they still contain calculation errors. Look for derivative markets, such as how many points will be scored in the second quarter or whether a secondary player will beat a certain statistic, because that’s where the algorithms are least accurate. He never makes combinations. If your first bet captures a clearly mismatched market share, the restriction comes immediately. If not, the system needs less than ten moves to confirm it through the closing-line value: If you consistently bet better than the final odds, the algorithm already knows that you are a problem. Anthony Kaminskas runs ak Bets, a small house with 50,000 accounts. He perfectly remembers that British journalist’s first bet: 25 pounds on a basketball result that would take five months to resolve. Among hundreds of customers betting on the day’s football, that was too loud. He restricted it to 30% of the standard limit on the spot, adding a note: “This user has found a price where he has an advantage.” Whaling is more profitable than expelling ready whales But the system is not designed just to kick out the good guys. Its true function is to distinguish between three types of winners: Those who know. Those who are lucky. And those who are about to lose everything. They treat them depending on which group they belong to: “Those who know” are expelled. They keep the lucky ones close, waiting for their luck to change. AND The “whales” (players with a lot of money who bet badly) are pampered with VIP treatment: trips, five-star hotels, front-row tickets… Everything so that they feel entertained and continue betting happily, even if they tend to win. In 2023, DraftKings identified Felix Baum as a whale. They paid for a trip on the Indiana Pacers plane and a night at the Four Seasons. He turned out to be a camouflaged professional. But the cost of that mistake is pocket change: a year later, PointsBet raised its market share in New Jersey from 11% to 24% after catching a single real whale. The problem is that some professionals specialize in imitating whales: They purposely lose large sums on “silly” bets, such as accumulators in a very popular sport, so that the system raises the limits. When the house lets its guard down, they recover their losses and disappear with a net profit. The best ones even log on at three in the morning when there are games in other time zones, imitating the compulsive behavior of an addict. When all the doors close to you, the black market remains If all platforms restrict you, the options are a little murky: Houses in tax havens accept cryptocurrencies without asking questions, but then cancel winning bets citing “suspicious patterns.” Physical stores accept cash, but only in small amounts, and you have to constantly change hats and sunglasses to avoid facial recognition. The alternative is resort to front men. Family and friends who bet following your instructions. With the right precautions, such as never using the same WiFi or keeping each account on different devices, it is often almost impossible to detect. An attendee at BetBash, a professional betting conference in Las Vegas, explained that he has twenty different iPads and drives around his state so that each bet comes from different locations. Another recruits mules at his church. When the circle of trust is exhausted, there are professional intermediaries who sell access to networks of front men. They keep between 10% and 50% of the profits depending on the volume they move. Meta-fraud is included in the price: they estimate that between 3% and 5% of the mules will disappear with the money. Professionals do not want the system to change Several governments have attempted to ban these types of restrictions. The surprising thing is that professionals do not support these changes. If the houses could not limit accounts, they would worsen the odds for everyone or stop offering exploitable markets. “The restrictions are the best thing that ever happened to me,” says industry veteran Chris Dierkes. “They keep the competition away and make me money”. The entire system works because it benefits everyone who knows how to play: the houses maximize their profits by concentrating on the losers, and the professionals keep the market inefficient. And the casual bettor, convinced by advertising that he can win, keeps turning the crank. In Xataka | “Betting is … Read more

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