Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Libya has decided that the full weight of Islamic law must fall on one thing in particular: crows

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At 900 meters above sea level, the Green Mountain is actually a fertile plateau of lush forests in northern Libya. It is by far the wettest place in the country: one of the jewels of North Africa’s biodiversity. one that a religious ‘fatwa’ is about to load. A ‘fatwa’? Not only that: a ‘fatwa’ (that is, an Islamic legal opinion issued by a qualified jurist) whose content is almost entirely dedicated to crows. They told it in El PaísAhmad al Dalansi, of the Investment Authority of the National Salvation Government, made it clear “there is no religious objection to killing them.” In his view, “the prophetic tradition that classifies them as harmful (fawasiq) and dictates that they can therefore be eliminated “just like rats and snakes.” But why would anyone want to kill crows? That is to say, it is one thing that it is not prohibited to kill them and quite another that people are willing to do so. However, the matter is more complicated than it seems: because the truth is that crows are becoming a real problem. What is a crow like you doing in a place like this? Let’s start at the beginning: the crows (Corvus ruficollis) are not new to the Green Mountain area. However, in recent years the corvid population has not stopped growing and this seems to be causing problems in other animal populations. Especially in land turtles and a native type of short-toed eagle. This, although it may not seem like it, is part of the problem. Because, unlike other animals, crows do not attack crops. However, they are “very intelligent creatures, who do not fear humans and are capable of adapting to various environments.” The growth of its population, like a chess game, is what is pushing an ecological imbalance that triggers (in turn) rodents and snakes. Hence the consultation and the fatwa. It makes sense, right? If crows are a problem, the most direct question is whether they can be eliminated. AND the Al Dalansi edict maintains that culling them is not only Islamically acceptable, but that “preventing harm is a more important priority” than maintaining current populations. The problem is that, upon seeing it, the Libyan Heritage and Wildlife Authority came out to report that such an eradication would be disastrous. Not only because crows also have a very important role in regulating the ecosystem; but, above all, because the problem is not the crows. What is the problem? The problem is the garbage. In recent years, as explained by journalist AMR Fathallah“the crow population (…) has multiplied spectacularly in Shahat, (due to) poor waste management.” Shahat is in the heart of the mountain. The lack of urban planning has caused housing to get out of control and that has caused “secondary landfills to proliferate in the forests, valleys and even roads of Shahat.” And there the crows feel at home. And, of course, killing the crows won’t end the problem. Fathallah himself explains that the last time an attempt was made to eliminate the crow population, it was followed by a history-making infestation of ticks. It is reminiscent of the mass killing of Chinese sparrows that caused a famine that killed millions of people. Ecology is too complex to be solved with fatwas (or pseudoscientific theories). The central issue in all of this is that these are not isolated cases. As climate change accelerates, “magic” responses are becoming increasingly popular. The problem, as we see, is that this has consequences. Image | Sasha Matic | Aldin Nasrun On Magnet | 400 years ago, Chinese women invented a language to speak only among themselves. Today it is resurfacing

The popular hair drug hides a big problem behind depression

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Finasteride has long been a popular solution for the treatment of androgenic baldnesswhich has long been a very popular solution to stop hair loss. However, behind its apparent cosmetic success hides an alarming reality that has taken more than twenty years to receive greater attention: a significant association with depressionanxiety and suicide. The analysis. Published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry by Professor Mayer of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, systematically reviews the accumulated evidence and exposes what he describes as “a systemic failure of pharmacovigilance.” The study concludes that both the drug’s manufacturer, Merck, and regulatory bodies, such as the US FDA, failed to take relevant action despite growing danger signals about serious health problems. The evidence. Although concerns about depression associated with finasteride arose as early as 2002, it was not until the last decade that the evidence became overwhelming following studies done after the product was marketed. Brezis’ analysis is based on eight large independent studies published between 2017 and 2023, which used two main methods: disproportionality analysis in adverse event reporting systems and analysis of massive health registry databases. The results. The study carried out in countries such as Sweden, Canada and Israel points to very consistent results: the use of finasteride is associated with a significantly higher risk of developing depression, anxiety and suicidal behavior. All of this with a good statistical significance that shows that it is not due to chance. The human cost of this two-decade delay is devastating. The report estimates that, globally, “hundreds of thousands of people may have suffered from depression, and hundreds, or even thousands, may have died by suicide.” The data. One of the main reasons why it took so long to react was the massive under-reporting of cases. In 2010, the FDA was already discussing internally the possibility of including depression as a side effect, but noted that reported suicides were lower than expected in such a large user population. Brezis’ analysis puts figures on this discrepancy: For 2011, with a base of 4.6 million users worldwide, between 6,440 and 12,880 suicides were expected over a period of 10 to 20 years. However, only 18 cases had been reported to the FDA system (FAERS). By 2024, reported suicides amounted to 320, compared to the 19,320 that would be expected over a 30-year period. FDA inaction. The report is especially critical of the manufacturer and the regulator. Despite suspicions, none of the eight studies analyzed were conducted by Merck or requested by the FDA. This is striking, since Merck itself had validated in 2006 the usefulness of the pharmacovigilance tools used in these investigations, concluding that they had “sufficient sensitivity and specificity.” For its part, the FDA was disconcertingly slow. In 2011 it recognized depression as an adverse effect and in 2022 it added suicidal ideation, but not as a formal warning on the label. It took the agency five years to respond to a citizen petition requesting the drug be removed from the market. Internal FDA documents from 2010 show entire sections redacted as “confidential,” hiding key data about the drug’s safety. The case in Europe. In addition to the report issued by the FDA, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has also launched an alert following its research on this same medication and suicidal tendencies. This is something that the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products (AEMPS) has collected on its website, pointing out that from now on the packages of finasteride 1 mg will include a patient information card with the aim of reinforcing these warnings. In France they wanted be much more critical with the recommendations made by the EMA to confront this serious problem. Specifically, they have pointed out that the introduction of this alert card or the dissemination of a letter to professionals is not enough. Especially considering that the latest recommendations made by the regulator have not reduced the incidence of suicidal ideation in treated patients. Because. The relationship between finasteride and mood disorders is not a simple correlation, but has a plausible biological basis. The drug inhibits the enzyme 5α-reductase, reducing the conversion of testosterone. This process also decreases the synthesis of brain neurosteroids, such as allopregnanolone, which are crucial for mood regulation. For some users, the effects do not go away when they stop treatment. The so-called “post-finasteride syndrome” describes severe neuropsychiatric symptoms that persist for months or years after stopping the drug. Call to action. Brezis emphasizes that, as it is a medicine for a cosmetic indication, the balance between benefit and risk is radically different. “It wasn’t about a life-or-death medical need. It was about the hair,” he emphasizes. Images | Nik Shuliahin 💛💙 In Xataka | A natural, safe and already approved sweetener for consumption: the new and unexpected solution against baldness

SpaceX has said goodbye to Starship v2 with an unprecedented maneuver

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The largest rocket in the world has once again taken to the skies, and it has done so to say goodbye. He Starship’s eleventh test flight It has been the finishing touch to a season with lights and shadows. SpaceX has exhausted the Starship V2 prototypes and has used for the last time the launch pad from which the 11 flights have taken off. One last trick to say goodbye to the Super Heavy we know Once again, the 33 Raptor engines of the Super Heavy booster started without problems to launch the Starship into space. For the second time, the prototype on the platform was the Super Heavy Booster 15, which had already taken off and landed successfully on flight 8. The first big news about Flight 11 arrived after the separation of stages. The booster tested a new engine ignition sequence to stop when returning from space, the same one that the Super Heavy V3 will use. First he turned on 12 engines to brake suddenly (there had to be 13, but one took a while to start). He then turned off all but five to fine-tune his trajectory. Previously, the Super Heavy fired three engines instead of five during this braking phase. As SpaceX propulsion engineer Jake Berkowitz explained, during the flight broadcastusing five motors “adds an additional layer of redundancy for spontaneous motor shutdowns.” But what was noticed was not the redundancy, but the additional smoothness in the maneuver. SpaceX did not intend to recover Booster 15 with the tower’s arms, but rather to virtually rehearse the maneuver over the Gulf of Mexico. The rehearsal went smoothly, but the SpaceX broadcast from the point of view of the rocket did not do justice to the precision of the maneuver. Fortunately, NASASpaceflight cameras captured the moment from shore. With the NASASpaceflight video We witness the last seconds in flight of the Super Heavy V2. And to the last trick that SpaceX has pulled out of its hat. The imposing 70-meter-high steel cylinder, equivalent to a 24-story building, seems to stop time over the ocean. The braking is so smooth and vertical that it gives the sensation of standing still, magically floating dozens of meters above the water. Then it plummets and self-detonates. The deployment of satellites with Starship is already looking much better As for the ship, it completed one of its most roundabout flights in a long time. After finishing his eight minute climbturned off its six engines and began a suborbital trajectory toward the Indian Ocean. He later opened a slot in his cargo bay and slowly deployed but this time gentlyeight Starlink satellite simulators. Starship 38 has shown that SpaceX is very close to being able to deploy cargo with its mega rocket. Starting in spring (in the time of Elon Musk), Starship will begin launching new generation Starlink satellites, much larger than the current ones and with the capacity to offer gigabit bandwidth to customers. Another critical maneuver that they already have under control is deorbiting. For the third time in its history, Starship restarted a Raptor engine in the vacuum of space, which in the future will allow it to return from space to land or make orbital corrections on missions to the Moon and Mars. The final phase of the mission was, perhaps, the most risky. SpaceX had purposely removed even more tile patches from the heat shield with the goal of increasing stress on the vehicle and collecting data on its tolerance limits for the extreme heat of reentry. Despite the mistreatment, the ship survived the inferno surrounded by plasma while the cameras on board once again gave us spectacular views. Just before the end, the ship executed another novel maneuver: a “dynamic turn” to simulate the trajectory that future Starships will take to align with the tower at Starbase. Like the booster, the ship will attempt to be trapped by the mechanical arms of one of the two launch towers. Finally, 66 minutes into the flight, Ship 38 made its iconic turn prior to splashdown, started its engines for a final braking and fell into the water in one piece. Of course, several tiles of the heat shield fell off along the way. The end of an era and a presumed wait for the next Starship In addition to being successful, Flight 11 has been a turning point for several reasons. First, it closes the chapter on Block 2 vehicles, a generation that has had a turbulent history with the failures of Flights 7, 8 and 9 (as well as a large explosion on the ground), but which redeemed itself with the successes of Flights 10 and 11. On the other hand, it is the last mission from Platform 1 in its current configuration. This ramp, which suffered catastrophic damage on the first flight and was rebuilt with a massive flame deflector that shoots water jets, will be completely renovated to accommodate the third generation rockets. However, the next launches will be made from Platform 2, which is about to go live. With V2 retired, attention now turns to V3, the version that will be the first to reach Earth orbit and begin deploying next-generation Starlink satellites. Despite the advanced status of both the V3 prototypes and the second tower, Starship is not expected to fly again for a few months. This new iteration and its engines still have tests to complete before taking flight. Starship 3 will be more powerful, taller (about 124 meters, adding the two stages) and will be better finished. The Super Heavy will have the integrated hot separation ring and a new design in the aerodynamic grilles, which become three. It will debut Raptor 3 engines and fuel lines so large they resemble a Falcon 9. The Starship will include adapters that will allow it to transfer fuel in orbit (an essential maneuver for lunar missions). Although no one is confident that NASA’s Artemis 3 lunar landing mission can occur in 2027, the … Read more

This is the “danger zone” we enter after the massive death of corals

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The Earth has officially entered a grim new era. climate reality. According to a shocking new reportthe incessant increase in heat in the oceans has pushed the corals from around the world beyond its limit, causing a unprecedented large reef mortality because of this climate change. Something that is not good news at all. This event, according to scientists, marks the first climate tipping point we have passed as a planet, directly threatening the livelihoods of nearly a billion people. The report. This data has been collected in the “Global Tipping Points Report 2025”, prepared by an international consortium of more than 200 researchers. And the truth is that they are not at all positive, since they suggest that even in the most optimistic scenario, where global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, practically all warm-water coral reefs will exceed a point of no return. This makes their loss “one of the most pressing ecological losses facing humanity,” although the disappearance of corals is only the tip of the iceberg. Experts point out that since 2023 we have witnessed how the temperature has increased more than 1.5 °C compared to the pre-industrial average. In this way, exceeding the 1.5 °C limit now seems quite inevitable and could occur around 2030, something that puts our planet on the brink of an abyss. What are ‘turning points’. These points are nothing more than critical thresholds. Once crossed, the climate system is pushed into a new paradigm, triggering effects that will go on in a chain. Specifically, we talk about events such as widespread death of the Amazon rainforestthe collapse of the Greenland ice sheets or the collapse of the circulation of Atlantic southern overturn (AMOC). The Amazon, in particular, is in a critical situation. The report warns that not only warming threatens the forest, but also the combination of this with deforestation. With 1.5°C warming, only 22% deforestation would be enough to reach its point of no return. The current figure is already at an alarming 17%. All is not lost. Despite the bleak outlook, the report identifies a silver lining, which is nothing more than a paradigm shift that, unlike the negative ones, triggers a cascade of beneficial changes. Since 2023, the world has seen very rapid progress in the adoption of clean technologies, especially in two key areas: velectric vehicles and photovoltaic solar energy. Accompanied by a drastic drop in battery prices, these factors are beginning to reinforce each other, accelerating the energy transition in a way that few anticipated. The problem. According to the report’s authors, it lies in governance systems. From national policies to multinational agreements, such as the from Pariswere not designed to address turning points. They are designed to manage gradual, linear changes, not abrupt, cascading collapses on multiple fronts at once. But these turning points are really threatening, so they point to a series of immediate actions to be taken in all countries to avoid a catastrophic situation. In this case they point to the following: Reduce emissions of short-lived pollutants such as methane and black carbon. Accelerate efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Making global supply chains sustainable. Develop mitigation strategies for climate impacts. The message is clear and forceful: what we have done so far is not enough. Researchers urge not to look away. As Milkoreit concludes, “even having a reader have the courage to stay with the problem is work, and I want to recognize that work.” Images | quinguyen Chris LeBoutillier In Xataka | In the fight against climate change, we have developed the air conditioning revolution: ionocaloric cooling

For years tourist apartments expanded without brakes. Alicante has just reminded them that the party is over

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Alicante has become serious with its tourist offer. The city, which so far this year received more than 600,000 visitors (taking into account only those staying in its hotels), has decided to close the tap on new licenses in “saturated” areas and setting a maximum rate that will be applied by neighborhoods. The measure just received the endorsement of the Government Board and still has a long way to go before passing through the municipal plenary session, but it points out the path that more and more cities are following. The objective, as recognize the Alicante mayor, is to achieve a (complicated) “balance between the daily lives of residents and tourist activity.” What has happened? That Alicante has decided to say enough is enough to the proliferation of tourist accommodation. It’s not the first time he’s done it. In December already advertisement a moratorium on the granting of licenses for vacation rentals in residential buildings, a measure that extended months later to buildings dedicated only to tourist apartments. Now its City Council has gone further: a few days ago launched its administrative machinery to modify its PGOU and regulate how and where the opening of new places for visitors will be allowed. At the moment the proposal has received the endorsement of the Local Government Board. Once the change in the General Plan has obtained the necessary permits, the initiative will be submitted for approval by the Plenary of the City Council for its entry into force. What do you want to do? Apply a series of guidelines that will determine where, when and under what conditions the accommodation offer in Alicante can be increased. At a general level, a maximum of 0.187 tourist places per inhabitant. From there, the tap will be turned off. For its application, the Consistory will take as reference the census sections of the municipality. That will be the unit you use to decide, for example, which areas are “saturated” or which can still accommodate new places without exceeding the threshold. The situation will be reviewed every year. Is it the only measure? No. In neighborhoods that are already considered “saturated” at the outset (that is, those that exceed the limit of 0.187) new “tourist places” will not be allowed. In the statement In which the City Council announces the measure, it does not speak of flats, but of “squares” intended for visitors, in general. The only exception it provides is for the highest quality hotels: three, four and five stars. In the first case (three-star businesses) there will also be a limit, but more lax: the limit after which new licenses will stop being granted will be 0.32 tourist places per inhabitant. Things will be different for higher-class establishments. Entrepreneurs interested in setting up four or five star hotels will not encounter limits, “even if the area in which they are located has reached the maximum permitted threshold,” confirm from the City Hall. Map of saturated areas of Alicante. Go into more details? Yes. The City Council wants to adopt two measures that will clearly determine where new tourist apartments can be opened. The first is to prohibit “the implementation of tourist uses on the ground floors of the main commercial roads.” That is, in these areas it does not matter whether or not the maximum limit of 0.187 beds/inhabitant has been reached: vacation rentals will be prohibited in the lower parts of the buildings. The second measure is that this type of accommodation must have “independent access” if it is located in residential buildings. It is not something exceptional. Many other cities have promoted a similar rule in an attempt to facilitate coexistence between neighbors and visitors. If this mandatory condition is not met, the Alicante City Council already warns that it will not grant the municipal license. What is the objective? in words of Mayor Luis Barcala (PP), achieve “sustainable tourism” and “the balance between the daily lives of residents and tourist activity.” “The city aims to attract visitors, but guaranteeing its sustainability: without compromising its model, exceeding the capacity of the territory or expelling the local population, guaranteeing that residents can continue living in their neighborhoods, access to housing, work and services.” another of the objectives of the Consistory is to prioritize “quality over quantity”, “reducing pressure” and “promoting three, four and five star hotels”. It is not the city’s first move in that direction. In December the City Council approved a two-year moratorium on the granting of new licenses for tourist apartments and in summer extended the suspension to apartment blocks intended for vacation rentals. The decision has been met with front rejection of the sector, which has even taken the issue to court. Why is it important? First, because Alicante is one of the main tourist centers in the country. Second, because it is not the first (nor will it probably be the last) city that has applied such a measure in its tourist fabric. In 2024 Madrid decided freeze the concession of licenses for tourist apartments, in Barcelona directly the City Council has proposed remove offer in the medium term and in other cities with a tourist ‘pull’, such as Seville, Malaga, Valencia either Santiago de Compostelathe institutions have also moved in one direction or another to regulate the supply. The reason: among others, the enormous pressure that offers vacation rentals in the urban residential market. Images | Cale Weaver (Unsplash) and Alicante City Council In Xataka | Northern Spain has been complaining about mass tourism for years. Asturias has discovered the bitter consequences of losing it

In reality, the workslop is sinking her

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One of the mantras most repeated by the apostles of AI automation is that AI-assisted work was going to boost productivity in companies that apply it, but the data shows that the reality is very different and depends on How is that productivity measured?. For example, the study data ‘Forrester Consulting’s Total Economic Impact 2023′ from IBM, highlight an increase in productivity based on a 30% reduction in the time it takes to manage an incident, but it does not measure the quality of that management. It is at that point where AI, more than boosting productivity, is sinking her. The effect “Workslop“. As and how do they count in Harvard Business Reviewin many companies, the mass adoption of AI tools translates into enthusiasm and apparent advances, but behind these figures lies an increasingly evident problem: the proliferation of mediocre content generated by AI, known as “workslop” or work garbage. The phenomenon occurs mainly when AI is used to produce documents, reports and materials that are very apparent at first glance, but are superficial at their core and end up generating more work in reviewing and correcting them than it would have taken a person to do it from the beginning. A recent study conducted by BetterUp Labs together with Stanford Social Media Lab reveals that 40% of US employees reported having received content “workslop” in the last month. Data indicates that 15.4% of all the content they received at work falls into this “Workslop” category. BetterUp Labs estimates put the cost of reviewing AI-generated work at $186 per employee, or about $9 million per year for a large corporation with 10,000 employees. It is useful to get rid of “paperwork”. AI is proving useful in routine tasks, such as email automation, simple summaries or basic content generation, allowing the employee release cognitive load. That is, freeing your brain from work that, although necessary, does not really represent progress in tasks or projects. The report GenAI Divide (MIT, 2025) confirms that 70% of employees prefer to use AI to compose quick communications and perform simple analyses, noting that “AI has already won the battle of easy work.” However, for complex projects and jobs that require memory, continuous adaptation and deeper analysis, 90% still prefer to turn to human professionals. The investigations from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Duke University point out that AI can serve as a starting point for developing an idea, but it fails in 70% of the cases in which tasks are asked to complete unattended. The invisible “tax” of AI. Every time an employee receives AI-generated workslop content, the process requires an additional investment of time and resources to unravel and correct any errors or inaccuracies that come with it. The aforementioned BetterUp Labs study estimates that each employee wastes an average of one hour and 56 minutes analyzing or reviewing this “junk” content. So much so that it has even given rise to the birth of a new professional niche in which professionals who previously carried out that work now charge for analyzing it and fix your mistakes. The biases of AI. The study also analyzes the social and labor impact of this type of content. His conclusion: it is as harmful as the economic impact. 53% of employees say they feel upset after receiving these texts and 38% say they are confused. According to published Forbes, approximately half of those surveyed consider their colleagues who submit workslop work to be less creative, less capable. Furthermore, 42% say they see them as less trustworthy, generating a deterioration in reputation and collaboration within the team. This social impact does not have its origin in the fact of using AI to generate documents, code or graphics, but in the fact of not having taken the trouble to check if the content generated by AI is correct before sending or using it in his work. Use AI with common sense. Researchers at MIT and BetterUp Labs agree that using AI indiscriminately, only following the mandate to adopt the technology, like some big technologies they want to do at all costsis not a good idea to increase productivity. According what was published by CIOdespite the fact that the CEO of Google beats his chest assuring that 25% of your code It is already generated with AI, that work is not free nor does it result in notable improvements in productivity of its engineers. Before they were dedicated to generating code, and now they use that time to review it or repair the errors produced by the new integrated code. Therefore, using AI on complex tasks that must then be supervised by engineers does not improve productivity, but rather displaces it at best and even can reduce it depending on the use case. In Xataka | We believed that AI was going to take our jobs. At the moment he has started whispering to your boss who he should fire Image | Unsplash (Sigmund)

Clean energy has made the electricity market cheaper. But what we pay for is no longer energy: it is stability

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Spain is a unique case in Europe: it has managed to ensure that gas and coal barely influence the wholesale price of electricity – only 19% of the hours this year, compared to 75% in 2019. according to a report by Ember. Thanks to this, the average Spanish wholesale price was 32% lower than the European one. However, something does not add up: the consumer still paying an expensive billwhy doesn’t the receipt go down? Let’s go in parts. Since 2019, Spain has added more than 40 GW of new solar and wind capacity, doubling its renewable power. In the first half of this year, 46% of the electricity generated was clean. But on April 28, 2025 came the blow of reality: the great blackout. A concatenation of electrical failures and lack of operating margin left much of the country in the dark for hours. The ENTSO-E preliminary report discarded that renewables were the direct cause, but it did reveal a structural problem: the Spanish network was not prepared for so much intermittent generation without sufficient flexibility. Since then, Red Eléctrica operates the system in “reinforced mode”activating more combined gas cycles to stabilize the voltage. According to Emberthat strategy has come at a high cost: in May, gas-based network services represented 57% of the final price of electricity, compared to the usual 14% before the blackout. The underlying problem. Spain produces more clean electricity than ever, but cannot fully take advantage of it. The lack of grid, storage and interconnections is leaving thousands of solar and wind megawatts unused. Although there is now a plan in place to reinforce those connections that act as a bottleneckthe reality is that when there is excess clean energy and it cannot be exported, it is “thrown away”. He curtailment (wasted renewable energy) has tripled since the blackout, going from 1.8% to 7.2%, according to Ember. Furthermore, the country continues to lag behind in flexibility. Regarding investment in batteries, it arrives late: Spain is placed in fourth position in the electricity market, but it is thirteenth in batteries, with only 120 MW installed. Despite to have planned a total of 16,000 MW planned for 2030. The reason for these problems is structural and can be understood with the investment made in networks of such only 30 cents For every euro allocated to renewables, half the European average. In other words, we have more sun than cables. The cost of fear. The problem is not only technical, but economic. As the analyst Javier Blas recalledoperate in reinforced modeeither since April it has cost consumers an additional billion dollars. And that is just the beginning: the approval of the new re-reinforced mode could add another 3,000 million euros and open the door to increases in fixed rates by the marketers, as the UNEF has detailed in statements to El Español. The cost of keeping the network “in tension” is transferred directly to the invoices, even if the wholesale price is low. Ember’s own report points out that the wholesale market price It only covers approximately half of the electricity bill, the so-called “energy component.” The rest – networks, tolls, taxes, stability of the system – does not decrease even if electricity becomes cheaper at source. Therefore, falling wholesale prices do not automatically translate into lower bills. The ghost of the blackout again. Six months have been enough for another feared blackout to return. Red Eléctrica warned of “sudden voltage variations” in the peninsular system, so serious that it asked the CNMC for permission to urgently modify several operating procedures. Among the measures: more room for maneuver to act before the operating day begins and stricter control of reactive voltage. An express adjustment of the country’s electrical operations to contain the ups and downs of voltage, just as my partner described. The REE itself insisted that “there is no imminent risk of a blackout,” but the truth is that no one is calm. “The grid operator has been operating in reinforced mode since April 29, activating gas plants with greater intensity and reducing solar and wind energy,” Blas pointed out. Every day that passes in these conditions adds costs that end up being passed on to customers. The ghost of the blackout is still there: less visible, but more expensive. From patches to clean flexibility. After the blackout a reform package was approved (Royal Decree-Law 7/2025) with measures to strengthen the network and promote storage. Although the decree was rejected in Congress, many of its provisions are being applied in other ways. Among them, the installation of eight synchronous compensators stands out—devices that stabilize voltage without using fossil fuels—and a portfolio of 2,600 MW of batteries, of which 340 MW already have permission. From Ember has been calculated that the compensators will involve an investment of 750 million euros, but will save 200 million a year by reducing the use of gas for network services. The objective is clear: to move from gas as a crutch to clean flexibility as the basis of the system. The Spanish paradox. Spain is Europe’s energy laboratory: the country where renewables have shown that they can reduce the wholesale price, but also where it is clearer to see how expensive it is to sustain this transition without robust networks. As explains Ember’s reportaround 50% of the Spanish electricity bill corresponds to the energy component, which has become cheaper. The rest are system costs and from there, although the megawatt-hour does not cost less, the final bill barely goes down. A major challenge. Spain has shown that it can have the cheapest electricity in Europe and, at the same time, one of the highest bills.Because the energy transition is not measured only in megawatts or solar panels, but in cables, stability and trust. The challenge now is not to produce more clean energy, but to make it arrive—and be paid for—fairly. Image | Unsplash Xataka | A ghost haunts Spain: the ghost of another massive blackout caused by network tension problems

We’ve been obsessed with strong passwords and public Wi-Fi for years. It turns out that the data sink was in the satellites

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While we worry about choose strong passwords and Don’t let the neighbor steal our WiFiit turns out that anyone can capture private data simply by pointing a dish at a satellite. It is not a government conspiracy, it is what some Californian researchers have discovered using a piece of equipment that only costs $800. What has happened? They count in Wired that several researchers from the universities of California and Maryland have been capturing communications from various satellites for three years. During this time they have collected a huge amount of private data. Among the information collected there is data on calls and messages from users of various operators, the pages visited by airplane passengers who used WiFi on board, communications between different critical infrastructures such as oil platforms or electrical companies and even police and military communications that revealed the position of their equipment. Why it is important. According to the study’s conclusions, it is estimated that around half of the signal from geostationary satellites carries sensitive information of consumers, companies and also governments. We strive to protect our WiFi networks, our online accounts or mobile devices, but the results of the research make it clear that satellites are a critical element through which data can also be leaked. A basic equipment. What is striking is that the researchers did not use super complex technology to obtain these findings. They simply placed a satellite dish on the roof of a university building and started pointing it at the satellites. They only invested $800 in the entire equipment. The data they obtained is only from the satellites that they could capture from their position in southern California, which according to their calculations is 15% of the total, so logic leads one to think that the amount of sensitive data will be much larger. In addition, it also shows that anyone could do it from another part of the world. Operators. The most significant data came from telephone providers, mainly T-Mobile, but also Telmex and AT&T México. In just nine hours of communications logging, researchers were able to collect the phone numbers of more than 2,700 T-Mobile users, as well as text messages and phone calls. After contacting T-Mobile to alert them, the company took steps to encrypt the data. AT&T also fixed this and claimed it was due to a satellite provider failing to configure some towers in a region of Mexico. Telmex has not said anything about it. Military and police data. That anyone’s data is exposed is already problematic, but that it is data from the army and security forces adds another layer of seriousness. Investigators were able to intercept communications between US military ships and the names of those ships. Since they were in Southern California, they also obtained data from Mexican authorities, including transmissions of confidential information about ongoing operations. “When we started looking at military helicopters, it wasn’t the sheer volume of data that worried us, but rather the extreme sensitivity of that data,” says Aaron Schulman, co-director of the research. Cybersecurity in space. In August of this same year, researchers found several vulnerabilities which, under certain conditions, could allow remote control of satellites. At the beginning of the Ukrainian war, Russia carried out a cyber attack against ViaSat which affected thousands of users. Cases like these highlight the need to bring the cybersecurity debate to space systems as well and not just terrestrial systems. Image | SpaceX on Pexels In Xataka | There are so many satellites orbiting the Earth that Starlink has a new concern: avoiding colliding with them

central banks are fleeing the dollar

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A few days ago we saw how gold had exceeded $4,000 per ounce for the first time in its history and, as it could not be otherwise, it has raised a general alarm in the markets. And there are not exactly a few analysts who are already pointing to $5,000 by 2026. But the real story behind this historic rally is not only that gold is expensive: is that the dollar is losing its neutrality as a world reserve currency. In emerging countries and China is where this is being noticed the most, and central banks react accordingly. A historic rise. gold accumulates a 50% increase so far in 2025, its best year since 1979. However, neither geopolitical uncertainty nor rate cuts nor dollar weakness fully explain the magnitude of the movement. Just like they explain Since Expansion, gold has continued to rise even with the truce in Gazasome recovery of the dollar and a Federal Reserve in standby mode. Something deeper is happening. Central banks lead the purchase. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, central banks They have bought gold massively and constant. In this way, some emerging countries and China diversify their reserves to depend less on the US dollar. According to Goldman Sachscentral banks explain 19% of the expected rise in gold until the end of 2026, buying an average of 80 tons in 2025 and 70 in 2026. Bank of America also matches by pointing to central banks and small investors who push the price up. Gold already competes with American Treasury bonds. The value of central banks’ gold reserves (excluding the United States) reached 3.93 trillion dollars at current prices, slightly exceeding the $3.92 trillion in US Treasury bonds held by foreign governments. Gold has gone from representing 10% of world reserves a decade ago to 24% by mid-2025. It is a structural change in the international monetary system. Preparing for a post-hegemonic dollar world. What is at stake is the global financial architecture. Central banks in emerging economies are betting on a future where the dollar is no longer the neutral currency it has been for decades. Trade tensions between the United States and China, political pressures on the independence of the Federal Reserve and record debt levels Americans feed this narrative. Individual investors join in. A wave of retail investors has recently added to institutional demand. In Japan, where gold exceeded 20,000 yen per gramdistributors such as Tanaka Precious Metals had to suspend sales due to the avalanche of orders. In Hong Kong and Türkiye, traditional gold-buying markets, families They are both buying and selling to take advantage of record prices. Gold Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) they caught 26 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2025 alone, a record figure. Around $5,000. Société Générale has just raised its forecast to $5,000 per ounce by the end of 2026, describing this goal as “increasingly inevitable.” Bank of America aims for the same level, while Goldman Sachs projects 4,900 dollars by December 2026. And in all the projections there is a common denominator: they assume that institutional demand from central banks will remain strong and that individual investors will continue to see gold as a refuge, especially in an environment of great uncertainty. Risk. It’s not all good news for the precious metal. a survey from Bank of America shows that 25% of fund managers consider long positions in gold as one of the most saturated bets in the market. Just like they explain From the Financial Times, historically, when gold moves more than 20% away from its 200-day moving average, as is happening now, corrections of 20% to 33% usually occur. But even with that risk, everything indicates that the world is preparing for a monetary system where the US dollar no longer dominates alone. Cover image | Jingming Pan In Xataka | In Europe we have a problem: we are becoming the Japan of the 21st century

The question now is why the car was not opened.

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A Xiaomi SU7 Ultra has caught fire after a serious accident on Tianfu Avenue in Chengdu, the largest city in western China. The accident, which took place around 3:16 AM on October 13, has ended the life of the driver, a 31-year-old man who was trapped inside the vehicle while the flames consumed it. The images of the event have once again generated an intense debate on the safety of electronic handles in electric cars, a topic that It became popular after the first Tesla to incorporate this feature and that they have adopted a good part of the vehicles in the premium segment. China is about to change this regulation. What happened. The driver, identified by authoritieshit another sedan, crossed the median of the road and the car immediately caught fire. Several drivers passing by the area stopped to try to help him. The videos show how they tried to break the windows by hitting them with their elbows and shoes, without success. They then used a fire extinguisher, but the flames and intense heat prevented them from getting closer. After the firefighters arrived, who put out the fire, only the chassis remained: they had to use hammers and electric saws to cut the doors, which could not be opened manually. Why didn’t the doors open? local police confirmed that the driver was allegedly under the influence of alcohol. However, the focus of the controversy has focused in the vehicle’s electronic handles, which allegedly remained locked throughout the fire. Although some users on social networks they speculate Since the locking system was activated after the impact, the Chengdu and Xiaomi Auto authorities have not yet issued an official statement in this regard. This type of handles, popularized by Tesla a decade ago with the Model S, they depend on electrical energy to function, and in the event of a loss of power after an accident, they can prevent the occupants from exiting. The impact on Xiaomi. Xiaomi shares in Hong Kong fell up to 9% during the day on Monday, closing with a loss of 5.71%. It was the worst day for the company since April. This is not the first fatal accident involving a vehicle from the Chinese brand: at the end of March, an SU7 that was traveling in intelligent driving mode hit an obstacleburned and killed three university students. That event led Xiaomi to announce in September the software update of its driving assistance system in almost 116,900 SU7 units, after the Chinese regulator warned that the system could fail to detect certain scenarios. A problem that goes beyond Xiaomi. The safety of electronic door handles is part of a hot debate that involves the entire electric vehicle industry. In September, the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) opened an investigation on Tesla for the handles of the Model Y manufactured since 2021, after it was learned that several people were injured or died when they could not open the doors when power was lost, especially after accidents. In another case earlier this month, a wrongful death lawsuit alleged that the Cybertruck’s door handle system caught a 19-year-old young man inside the burning vehicle. Also Rivian is redesigning the doors of its upcoming R2 SUV to include a more visible manual opening system following concerns from its employees. What does Chinese regulations say? The country has a public consultation phase your new standards security. These standards also include changes that are specifically aimed at the use of electronic door handles in vehicles. These changes are expected to come into effect soon, so they should put even more pressure on automakers to develop these types of levers. Cover image | Xiaomi and Weibo In Xataka | Chinese laptops are less and less imitating other people’s successes: the latest from Anbernic is identical to a Nintendo DS

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