Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Accessing our car’s mechanics has become increasingly complicated. BMW has thought of complicating it even more

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Do-it-yourself repairability of a vehicle is something that Over the years it has gotten worse. while the systems have become increasingly complicated. Therefore, it is not surprising that multiple manufacturers have chosen to design specific tools to access sensitive parts of the vehicle. In the case of BMW, a patent recently discovered Meanwhile, CarBuzz could make things even more complicated for those who want to have access to certain parts of your car. And the patent shows some screws with heads designed in the shape of the brand logo that require specific tools for handling. What is this about? The patent from BMW describes four different types of custom screw heads that replicate the brand’s circular emblem, divided into four quadrants. Two of these sections are recessed to accommodate the screwdriver, while the other two remain flat or raised. The design of this type of specific screws means that they cannot be manipulated with conventional tools such as Torx, hexagonal or Phillips, but rather requires parts manufactured specifically for BMW. Why BMW says it does. As the patent itself explains, the objective is “to prevent the screw from being loosened or tightened using common drive structures, for example, by unauthorized persons.” The company proposes its use in structural and semi-structural applications, such as seat anchors or joints between the passenger compartment and the supporting structure of the body. The intention is that these screws can be used in visible areas, since if we judge these screws from an aesthetic point of view, the truth is that molar is cool. The problem for workshops and owners. On the other hand, and addressing the central problem behind this decision, this would turn even the most basic maintenance tasks into mandatory visits to the official dealer or, at best, would force independent workshops to purchase exclusive BMW tools. Something that, on the other hand, is not so strange if we take a look at the history of many of the largest automobile groups. Just like account In the middle, working with a two-point system and the decorative ring taking up much of the surface of the screw would increase the risk of breaking the tools, especially in applications that require very hard fastening. It’s not the first time. German manufacturers have a long tradition of using specialized fasteners. Just like points out In the middle, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz and BMW routinely use triple-square, oversized Torx or even E-Torx screws, which force mechanics to have specific tool sets. Against the current. The curious thing about it all is that this patent openly contrasts with the direction that other manufacturers are taking. Mercedes-Benz for example, its main rival, advertisement that would work on redesigning its future vehicles to facilitate repairs. An example of this is their decision to replace the glue with screws in the headlights to simplify their replacement. Just a piece of paper, for now. The patent was filed on June 7, 2024 and was made public on December 11, 2025. However, it is worth remembering that manufacturers register numerous patents that never materialize in series models. There is no confirmation that BMW will actually implement this system in its production vehicles. For now, this is only technical documentation. A general trend. Regardless of whether these specific screws are manufactured or not, the patent is yet another example of the progressive distancing of owners from the mechanics of their vehicles. With electrification and greater technological complexity, drivers they increasingly depend on specialized workshops for any intervention. It should also be noted that very few owners fix or modify their car on their own. Perhaps precisely because the systems have become increasingly more complicated to access. Cover image | Paul Martinez In Xataka | Ferdinand Porsche devised the first car with an electric motor in each wheel. Today a Chinese manufacturer is going to make it possible

other airlines have seen their opportunity

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A dead king, a king. This saying perfectly summarizes what is happening in the airports of northern Spain after Ryanair’s decision to cut its presence in regional airports. after his scuffle with AENA for airport taxes. The most affected airports Due to the cutback in Ryanair’s operations in Spain, they are concentrated in Galicia (-80%), Asturias (-16%), Cantabria (-38%) and the Basque Country, where the Irish company had built a very relevant position in low-cost flights and now leaves a gap that conditions the connectivity of residents and tourists. However, other airlines They are taking advantage of Ryanair’s withdrawal to occupy their space with more flight offers and new routes. ​Fewer places, but more routes. The Cantabrian coast is one of the main areas affected by these Ryanair cuts. According to data of RTVEthe balance of the 41% cut in the peninsular airports represents 600,000 fewer seats (spaces are eliminated in some, but they are increased in the most profitable airports), but the company has eliminated bases and routes in various parts of the country, with a special impact on the airports of Asturias, Santander, Vigo and, especially in Santiago, which is facing the final stretch of its works. The result of this movement has been an adjustment in the capacity and repertoire of airlines: Vueling, Iberia Express, Volotea and others have expanded their seats at these airports and have created new routes to take advantage of the freed demand. Vueling, for example, raises an increase of 15% in its offer of places for Santiago de Compostela. According what was published by The Economistthe IAG group would also have announced new routes from the Irish Aer Lingus that connect Santiago and Cork, as well as Dublin and Asturias, while KLM will link Amsterdam with Galicia and Asturias. ​Volotea takes over in Bilbao. While Ryanair reduces its presence in the Basque Country, Volotea has announced the increase in its activity in the north of the peninsula, with Bilbao as one of the main axes. The company foresees by 2026 “a 10% increase in its capacity from Bilbao by 2026 —which also represents a growth of 320% compared to 2018, the year the base was inaugurated—, approaching the 730,000 seats offered and reinforcing its commitment to the region.” This will be Volotea’s largest seat offering at this airport since the beginning of its operations. This move makes the airline one of the main actors called to occupy the space left by Ryanair in the north. It will also expand its operations at the Santander airport, where it will not only consolidate its current routes, but also plan to open new international connections to Cantabria. ​A market in recomposition. The gap left by the Ryanair cut has activated a response from other airlinesbut the previous volume of operations has not yet been reached in all airports, showing an asymmetric recovery. While airports such as Vigo or Santiago are still far from achieving this recovery of seats, others such as Bilbao or Santander register a positive balance with an increase in operations of 10% and 1.4% thanks to the strengthening of the position of Ryanair’s rivals at those airports. That is, the withdrawal of Ryanair has meant that its rivals have recovered in just a few months 41% of the share that the Irish airline previously had, which will increase throughout 2026. ​Less negotiating pressure for Ryanair. The political dimension of the conflict also influences the recomposition of the market. Faced with this new scenario, institutions and regional administrations are seeking agreements with new airlines to sustain key routes and avoid a further deterioration in connectivity, while the market moves towards greater diversification of operators. The increase in weight of other operators on the airport board of these airports takes away the strength of the pressure strategy of the Irish company, which could use its withdrawal as a measure to obtain better conditions at other airports compared to AENA. In Xataka | In the midst of the battle between Ryanair and Aena, there is a Spanish airport that is suffering more than any other: Valladolid Image | Ryanair, Volotea

From January 1 you have to carry a V16 beacon in your car. All of these are approved and will arrive to you on time.

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It seemed not, but there are just a couple of days left before we fully enter 2026. This implies, among many other things, that We are going to have to carry a V16 beacon in the car. If we don’t, there is a possibility that they end up fining us. The good news is that We still have time to get one and have it arrive on time.: we have this help flash IoT+ on Amazon for 38.05 euros and with fast (and free) shipping if we are users of Amazon Prime. help flash IoT+, V16 Emergency Light with Geolocation and more than 290 candela power, Required from 2026, Connected with DGT 3.0, V-16 Signal for Cars, data plan included The price could vary. We earn commission from these links All these V16 beacons will arrive to you before January 1 It is possible to find V16 beacons in many stores or supermarkets, although if we want to buy online, few offer shipping as fast as Amazon. As we said a little above, if we are also Amazon Prime users, shipping will be free. And be careful: because we have a 30 day trial period to use the service without having to pay anything. The one we indicated above, the IoT+ help flash, is one of the most popular. It complies with everything required by law. and offers more than 290 candelas of light. In addition, it has a system called ‘Eye Protect’ that dims the flash when turned on to avoid glare. It is also compatible with the myIncidence app and comes with eSIM. Below we leave you a series of approved V16 beacons that have fast shipping and they will arrive before January 1: You may also be interested VZero – Pack 2 units, V16 Emergency Light with Geolocation, Approved Signal Connected with DGT 3.0, Suitable for 2026, Car Beacon with eSIM Included, High Power and Eye Protect System The price could vary. We earn commission from these links EXTRASTAR Emergency Light Beacon V16 Approved DGT with Geolocation, Connected Car Beacon DGT 3.0, Data Included until 12/2038, Pack of 2 Units 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 | Netun, help flash In Xataka | Don’t wait until January 1: if you have to buy your V16 beacon, Leroy Merlin has them for less than 40 euros In Xataka | Safety, organization and entertainment gadgets and accessories for cars on long trips

why this time there are reasons for optimism

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Until now, the scientific narrative about Alzheimer’s It has been, for the most part, one of resistance. Current treatments, and those on the way, focus primarily on slow the progression of the disease or try prevent it before the damage is massive. Cure right now seemed impossible, but a recent study has given a small hope of cure, although with a long-term view. They have reversed the disease. The news is fantastic. Science has managed to completely reverse Alzheimer’s and recover brain function in animal models. Something that has earned the Case Western Reserve University team a publication in the prestigious journal Cell Reportssince it opens a path of hope that is as revolutionary as it is cautious. A change of focus. In a simple way, Alzheimer’s disease is caused by a neuronal alteration that literally causes accumulate protein plaques that are not destroyed. We can say that They accumulate garbage inside and that is why its function begins to be altered. That is why science I was focused on cleaning these “plaques” from the brain or slow down the appearance of more. They have now changed this to focus on repairing the energy metabolism of neurons. The key in this case is a molecule called NAD+essential for any cell in the body generate power and initiate repair mechanisms. The results. In the case of Alzheimer’s, this energy molecule is in a minimum concentration, which leaves the cells without the ability to defend themselves. In this way, scientists have used an experimental drug called P7C3-A20 to be able to solve this problem with very positive results. The first thing that was seen was that the tau protein, one of the major germs of Alzheimer’s, began to activate less. Something that generated a minor damage to neurons. But in addition to this, the mice began to recover the memory they had lost with Alzheimer’s, including the ability to learn new things. Standardization. Along with cognitive recovery and damage reversal, the mice began to normalize the biomarker in your blood p-tau217, which is used today as a way to diagnose the disease in humans. In this way, Alzheimer’s was practically cured thanks to this treatment. From mouse to human. Although it seems like spectacular news, the reality is that there are several nuances, since “cure mice“It is not “curing humans.” Many promising drugs have died along the way after great results in rodents, since we are not at all the same and there are many changes between species. However, this study adds an extra layer of optimism: the researchers identified 46 specific proteins that are altered in Alzheimer’s mice and that return to normal with the drug. Proteins that are also altered in an identical way in a diseased human brain. This suggests that the mechanism found could be extrapolated because it is something we share between species. A long road. This is where we must apply precision surgery to our hopes. And although the study speaks of a “complete reversal”, there are several factors that force us to keep our feet on the ground. The first of them is that the study is in a preclinical phaseso it has not yet been tested in humans. Something that can take years or decades to occur, and always with the risk that the failure rate in neurology is always very high. Something that is logical, since the human brain is infinitely more complex than that of a laboratory mouse. This may mean that what in an animal is a full recovery, in humans, could be only a partial improvement or have side effects that have not been seen in animals. A change of era? Despite the caution, the importance of this finding is undeniable. It challenges the idea that Alzheimer’s is a one-way street to degradation. If it is confirmed that the brain has the ability to recover once its metabolic balance is restored, the approach to 21st century medicine will radically change. In this way, we are facing a hopeful study, although we must be patient to see if it really has great results when it enters the complexity of our organism. Images | Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | The relationship between sleep and Alzheimer’s, in a “simple” action: our brain also has to clean

The TUR drops almost 9% despite the winter extra cost

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The energy scenario for January 2026 is very different from what families experienced just three months ago. As we analyzed in Octoberthe autumn began with an average increase of 13.2% in the Last Resort Rate (TUR) for households, driven by the introduction of the seasonal surcharge and the increase in regulated costs. However, the new resolution of the General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines, published this Saturday, December 27 in the Official State Gazette (BOE), change the board: The individual rate without taxes will decrease an average of 8.7% compared to October prices. The savings figures. The reduction not only affects individual consumers, but extends to the entire spectrum of the regulated rate. The descent is broken down as follows: Households (TUR 1 and 2): For an average customer who only uses gas for cooking and water (TUR 1), the annual bill with taxes will decrease by 3.7%. For those who also have heating (TUR 2), the decrease will be 4.3%. SMEs (TUR 3): Small businesses will see a 4.8% drop in their annual receipt. Neighboring communities (TUR Vecinal): In rates ranging from TUR 4 to TUR 11, the variable term will be reduced between 5.7% and 8.3%. What does this mean for the consumer? This drop represents a “balloon of oxygen” at the time of highest consumption of the year. The TUR is confirmed as a refuge from the volatility of the free market, where some clients even pay twice as much for the same supply. In addition, the regulations have shielded the protection of specific groups. According to the resolution of the BOEthe last resort rate is applicable indefinitely to communities of owners, public buildings for residential use and non-profit organizations. The international market has set the tone. The General Directorate of Energy Policy and Mines has applied a technical formula where the fall in international markets has weighed more than fixed costs. The points are: Cheaper raw material. The cost of base gas has been reduced by 1.7% thanks to the drop in the price of Brent (-2.9%), even compensating for the slight loss in value of the euro against the dollar. Seasonal gas down. Although in winter “seasonal gas” is mandatory (more expensive due to high demand), this year its cost is 18% lower than the previous period due to the decrease in natural gas futures. Technical components. The cost of the raw material has been set at about 2.55 cents per kWh — which serves as the basis for calculating your bill before adding tolls and taxes. Quarterly surveillance. This truce in prices will come into force on January 1, 2026. However, the automatic nature of the TUR implies that on April 1 the price will be reviewed again depending on how the different global conflicts evolve and storage capacity of the European Union. For now, Spanish households will start the year with a necessary respite from the cold. Image | Unsplash and freepik Xataka | Spain lights up for Christmas, but an uncomfortable doubt arises on some rooftops

Coca has dropped so much in price that the cartels are recycling their submarines

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He price crash of cocaine is affecting the modus operandi of drug traffickers. And in a peculiar way. Guardian has revealedciting sources from the National Police, that the cartels are doing something difficult to see until not so long ago: they recycle their narco-submarines. Instead of sinking them after drug dumps, they try to get the most out of them, even setting up “resupply platforms” in the middle of the ocean to reuse them. Being a drug trafficker is no longer what it used to be. What has happened? The drug business may be a peculiar business for obvious reasons (it operates outside the law), but deep down it is governed by the same guidelines as any other market: supply, demand, costs and the search for profitability. Hence before the collapse of prices in the wholesale cocaine market, drug traffickers have looked for new ways to guarantee their profit margin. One of those strategies revealed it a few days ago the British newspaper Guardian: Instead of sinking their narco-submarines in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean after unloading merchandise, the cartels have begun to reuse them. How to reuse them? Alberto Morales, head of the central narcotics brigade of the National Police, explains it clearly: until now the normal thing was for these rudimentary semi-submersibles to cover specific routes, such as one-way trips to the Canary Islands. Once there, they unloaded their valuable merchandise and then sank to cover their tracks. There is even speculation about the existence of “narcosubmarine cemeteries” in the Atlantic, between the Canary Islands and the Azores. After all, building each of these submersible vehicles cost 600,000 euros. It may seem like a lot of money, but it paid for itself thanks to its ability to move large loads of bales, at least three or four tons. The kilo of coca was paid at a good price, so it paid off. And now? Now, with prices falling, things are different, confirms Morales. “Instead of sinking them, what they do is unload the cargo and set up a resupply platform at sea so that the submarines can return to their countries of origin and make as many trips as possible.” It is not a capricious change. The ‘recycling’ of narco-submarines comes in a very specific context, marked by the price crash of the kilo of coca and an increase in the use of submersibles, one of the options that the cartels have on the table to transport their stashes between both points of the Atlantic. Are they used that much? It seems so. Guardian remember that, although semi-submersibles have long been used in South and Central America, where their history can date back as far as the 1980s, they were not recorded in European waters until relatively recently. In 2019 Interior boasted having intercepted in Galicia “the first ‘narco-submarine’ detected in Europe”, although there are news from 2006 who already talk about the discovery of submersibles. The truth is that in just 20 years, narco-submarines have gone from being almost unknown to more or less popular tools. During this time the police have detected or seized a dozen, so it is not unreasonable to think that many others have successfully robbed the 8,000 km of coast Spanish. Why do they use them? “We are observing a lot of narco-submarine activity because it is the most profitable system for organizations. The investment is less and the chances of the drug reaching its destination are greater, so the fight is constant,” confirm to The Country Emilio Rodríguez Ramos, from the CREGO organized crime response unit of the National Police in Pontevedra. In 2019, the authorities managed to seize a submersible with three tons of cocaine and since then they have intercepted three others, two already unloaded. But… Why? The increase in the use of narco-submarines is not the only trend confirmed by the authorities, who have been perceiving a clear increase in coca seizures for years. According to the data it handles GuardianIn 2022, the police and Customs intercepted about 58 tons of white powder, in 2023 there were already 118 and last year they reached 123 tons. “There is more cocaine than ever,” recently recognized em The Newspaper another police spokesperson when talking about the situation in Barcelona. If there is supply it is (evidently) because there is demand: the European Drugs Report of 2025 corroborates that ours is the country with the highest percentage of the population that has ever tried coca: 13.3%, significantly higher than France or Denmark. And the price? That’s the other key. In recent years the price of coca (at least in the wholesale market, another thing is the street) has collapsed to historical levels, until leaving the kilo at 13,000 euros. It is very little if you take into account that not so long ago that same amount was quoted at 30,000. In fact until at least a few months ago the reference with which Interior worked to calculate the value of the seized caches, set a kilo of coca at more than 30,500 euros. Behind this ‘pinch’ in prices there are several factors: there are those who speak of the impact on the market of the surplus of coca accumulated during the pandemic and those who point to the effects of the peace agreement reached in 2016 between the State of Colombia and the guerrilla. The pact freed hectares of jungle for cultivation, to which was added the decision of the Government to retire aerial fumigation of plantations with glyphosate due to its environmental impact. Images | Coast Guard (Flickr), Ministry of the Interior 1 and 2 and Ministry of Defense of Peru (Flickr) In Xataka | In 2001, a yacht took refuge on a remote island in the Atlantic. Days later its inhabitants breaded fish with coca

After a weekend of floods, deaths and evacuations, AEMET confirms that calm is coming for the New Year

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Málaga, Granada, Murcia and the south of the Valencian Community have passed a complicated weekend with floods, deaths and displaced people. In fact, in some areas of the southeast the worst has not happened yet. And people are tired: «”I feel like selling everything and leaving town: the rains are increasingly torrential”, said a neighbor from Cartama (Málaga). However, we will forget again. We will start the year cold, yes. But also with a strong anticyclone, with fog and frost. There will be no rain except somewhere in the south/east and the Balearic Islands; something that with the night movements of New Year’s Eve, is good news. However, the models start to draw that with the New Year there can also be a change in pattern. A change of pattern? Starting Thursday, as explained by Duncan Wingenthe models contemplate “the rise of the Atlantic ridge towards Iceland and Greenland”: it is what experts call the “Atlantic ridge.” It is a tongue of high pressure at altitude that bulges over the Atlantic and extends towards high latitudes. It is a wall that diverts the current from the west. What it represents for Spain. It’s hard to saythe truth. The effect on the peninsula depends on where the dorsal ends up placed. Or, close the Atlantic corridor and we have a few days of stable, dry and cold weather on the surface. Or, it favors the entry of cold from the north with thermal drops, a winter sensation and snow. Or, finally, the storm corridor opens with the consequent intrusion of Atlantic fronts from the Ocean. That is, rain and a slightly milder climate. What should we expect? It is a great unknown: enormous. And taking into account that it is the key phenomenon to understand what is going to happen in the coming weeks in southern Europe, it is important. Therefore, we have to continue monitoring them closely. Euro-Atlantic regimes modulate temperatures, energy demands and meteorological alerts. The Atlantic Crest is a piece of that puzzle and there are many things that depend on it. It is still surprising because, well, for now we are only going to see a deep, wintery cry. Image | PolarWx In Xataka | La Niña is going to be meteorologically “less intense” than we expected. And that actually hides a problem.

While Silicon Valley dreams of servers in orbit, Russia prepares a nuclear reactor on lunar soil

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Until recently, the space race was about seeing who could get there first. Today, the question is different: who will be able to turn on the light on the Moon? While companies like Google or Nvidia imagine satellites loaded with computers for their Artificial Intelligence, Russia has hit the table with a much more earthly (or lunar) plan: installing a small nuclear power plant on the surface of our satellite. A reactor by 2036. The Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, has signed a state contract with the aerospace company NPO Lavochkin to develop a lunar nuclear power plant. According to Reutersthe deadline marked in the contract is 2036. However, the political times are much more aggressive: Yury Borisov, head of Roscosmos, has placed the real operational window between 2033 and 2035. Although official statements sometimes avoid the word “nuclear” directly, project participants dispel any doubts, the Kurchatov Institute (a leader in nuclear research in Russia) and Rosatom (the state atomic flagship company) are in charge. As the Interfax media points outthe objective is to power the infrastructure of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a joint project with China that seeks to move from “round trip” missions to a permanent human presence. But why what nuclear? A colony on the Moon faces nights that last 14 Earth days. During that time, the frigid temperatures and lack of light make the solar panels useless to keep astronauts alive or power life support systems. Mikhail Kovalchuk, head of the Kurchatov Institute, he explained in an interview with the Russian agency TASS that Russia must “run forward.” According to this medium, the country seeks to consolidate its leadership through the “Atomic Project 2.0”, which includes new generation reactors and closed cycle systems. It’s not just about science; Russia admits that partners like China and India have learned a lot from them and are now direct competitors. Eyes in the sky: preparing the ground. For the Russian reactor to reach the Moon, Moscow is already preparing the logistics. According to another TASS statementRussia plans to launch 52 satellites from the Vostochny cosmodrome. Among them, the Aist-2T stands out, capable of creating 3D models of the lunar terrain and monitoring emergency situations. It is the necessary infrastructure so that the “lunar atom” does not suffer the same fate as the failed Luna-25 probe in 2023. The Moscow-Beijing axis: a long-range alliance. This deployment is not a solitary effort. As Interfax detailsRussia and China formalized their ambition in May 2024 with a memorandum of cooperation for the joint construction of this nuclear plant. They are not starting from scratch: both countries presented a roadmap in 2021 that includes five joint missions to deploy modules in lunar orbit and surface. While Russia brings its historical advantage in space nuclear facilities, China provides the scientific capacity and resources for the ILRS Station to be permanently inhabited from 2030. The board of the new Cold War. Washington has not stood idly by in the face of the Russian-Chinese alliance. NASA has received a clear directive from the current administration, in which they state that They need a reactor on the Moon by 2030. “We are in a race with China,” said Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation and who has led this directive. The background of this urgency is not only prestige, but the control of strategic resources. The Moon is the great deposit of Helium-3, an extremely rare isotope that is emerging as the “fuel of the future” for nuclear fusion. The White House’s fear is that if the alliance between Russia and China comes sooner, they will be able to declare “exclusion zones,” blocking access to this isotope and other essential metals for the technology industry. Faced with this threat, the US has increased the power of its nuclear project from the original 40 kW to a minimum power of 100 kW. Infrastructure over prestige. The space race of the 21st century has ceased to be a question of prestige and has become a question of infrastructure. While Big Tech tries to solve its energy limits with promises of servers in orbitRussia and China have opted for the pragmatism of the reactor on solid, but lunar, soil. Image| freepik Xataka | The race to bring data centers to space promises a lot. Physics says otherwise

thanks to this interactive map

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The image of the billionaire as a tax nomad in a permanent search of the best taxation It is widespread, but the data tells another story in which millionaires are much more reluctant to move countries, although not cities. A academic study recently has systematically analyzed where more than 3,100 billionaires around the world with assets exceeding $1 billion are born and live. The result is that, rather than large exoduses, the map shows stable patterns of wealth compaction. The mobility existsbut it tends to concentrate in already consolidated centers of economic power. Mobility exists, but it is local. The most relevant data from the study is that 81.6% of the billionaires analyzed live in the same country in which they were born. Just throw an eye on the map in which the study data is represented to realize that the international migration of large fortunes is visible, but not the majority. The main movement occurs within the countries. Only 23.3% of the 3,100 great fortunes analyzed by the study reside in their hometown, which indicates a habitual movement towards the large national economic capitals. The first step of these millionaires (and in many cases the only one) is not usually to cross borders, but rather to approach the economic capitals of their respective countries, where companies and networks of influence are concentrated. Large metropolises as historical centers of wealth. In Western Europe and the United States, the concentration is articulated around cities with a long financial tradition and business. London, Paris, New York, Los Angeles or San Francisco are the clearest examples. All of them They combine deep financial ecosystems, access to capital, legal certainty and global networks. London stands out for its high percentage of foreign-born billionaires, while New York has remained an example of a pole of attraction for local millionaires. According to published the luxury magazine Sperar’sthree out of every 100 millionaires are from New York (3.09%), while only 1.25% were born in London. In both cases, the logic is the same: wealth tends to settle where it already exists infrastructure to manage and multiply it. The internal migration of millionaires in the US is concentrated in the main economic centers: New York, Miami, Austin, Los Angeles and San Francisco Asia and the Middle East: two different concentration models. Asia presents a slightly different pattern. On the one hand, in economies such as China, India or South Korea, the majority of billionaires maintain their residence in their country of origin, with a limited international mobility. The concentration occurs above all internally, in large financial and technological capitals such as Seoul, Mumbai, Beijing, Shanghai or Singapore, reinforcing internal development, rather than global networks. The Middle East, on the other hand, introduces a clear anomaly on the global map of migrations in great fortunes. Countries like the United Arab Emirates, and especially Dubai, stand out for having become a magnet for billionaires born outside the country, something rare outside the West. Of the 17 billionaires that the study registers as residing in Dubai, only 4 were born there. Spain: concentration of capital in large cities. Spain fits well into the general pattern of the study. The majority of Spanish billionaires reside in the country, and their mobility is mainly internal. Madrid and Barcelona concentrate a good part of the great fortunes of the country. Madrid stands out as a political, financial and business center, while Barcelona maintains weight in industrial and property sectors. In both cases, residence is usually disconnected from the place of birth. The result is not so much a flight of wealth abroad as an urban centralization, which reinforces territorial imbalances within the country itself, creating points of extreme concentration of wealth. The real effect: spatial inequality. The most relevant impact of these patterns is not in international flows, but in the territorial concentration of economic power represented in the change of residence of these great fortunes. When billionaires gather in a few cities, those areas accumulate investment, services and influence, while other regions lose weight. The study does not analyze direct social consequences, but the data helps to understand why certain cities (such as Madrid or Barcelona) they become more expensiveconcentrate opportunities and widen the gap with the rest of the territory. Still, the pattern is clear: the global economic elite moves less than is often believed, but is extremely concentrated. Both at the level of concentration of capital in very few hands, and at the territorial level. In Xataka | The rich neighborhoods of Madrid and Barcelona have changed their accent: millionaires from the US and Mexico invest their fortunes in Spain Image | Billionaire Migration

On the ByteDance mobile, Android is secondary. AI is the real operating system

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The Doubao AI smartphone, a Chinese mobile that we saw arrive a few weeks agois not another mobile phone with AI functions crammed in, but a serious attempt to turn AI into the device’s real operating system, one capable of relegating Android to mere infrastructure. ByteDance’s bet is clear: whoever controls the assistant that executes the tasks will be the one who controls the user. Although I don’t control the app store. That breaks with the model of the last seventeen years. Why is it important. The model has not changed since 2008: The operating system funnels the user into its ecosystem of applications. That app store is capital for 99% of users: without it, you wouldn’t see the value. And that store allows the platform to capture traffic, data and transactions. Doubao’s proposal wants to change the model towards one in which the user speaks and the AI ​​executes crossing applications without the user having to enter them. Chinese super applications become invisible infrastructure for the user. Doubao itself has been pointing in that direction for some time with other devices, like headphones. Between the lines. Those same super apps are not happy with this proposal, and in fact when Doubao simulates taps to complete tasks, WeChat or Alipay interpret it as an attack, so they block attempts and close sessions. WeChat has built its empire Regarding experience control and payments, Alipay has invested a lot of money in reaching total user retention. An AI that compares prices between rivals breaks its desired captivity. ByteDance has copied the Seres-Huawei model: ZTE provides the shell, ByteDance provides the brain. And that’s how you get operating system privileges. Doubao has permission for everything by default and Android becomes more like just another application, because the manufacturer and AI layer control everything. Yes, but. Accuracy is around 50% in complex tasks that involve several applications. It works in simple scenarios, it fails when the user requests something that requires coordinating three different applications. Traditional manufacturers such as Samsung, Xiaomi or Oppo cannot adopt a model like this because it would mean handing over control to a third party. The alternative path is to build a framework where AI can coordinate applications, but with those applications maintaining control through APIs. The money trail. ByteDance does not have the business model of selling mobile phones at mid-range prices. Its model is based on behavioral data, traffic to its services and commissions on transactions executed by AI. The smartphone is the gateway and AI is its big bet in which use TikTok as a springboard. And now what. This is not a battle between assistants but between models: The app-centric that has been operating for seventeen years. The AI-centric where applications tend to become invisible. ByteDance is betting on the second, which changes the entry point for the user. That entry point has been on the application icon for three decades. ByteDance believes it will be on the microphone tomorrow. Featured image | Doubao In Xataka | They have dismantled the latest Huawei phones and what they have found is bad news for the US: 57%

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