usatoday24

Giving seven times more vitamin D during pregnancy improves children’s memory at 10 years old. The problem is in the fine print

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

During pregnancy, the recommendations of supplementation They are an area where science advances with lead feet, since the most important thing is always to guarantee safety. One of these supplements that is heard the most is vitamin Dtraditionally known for its role in calcium absorption and bone health, but which has been in the spotlight for years for its possible impact on neurodevelopment. A new study of Danish origin has put its objective on this statement to be able to clarify what happens when a mother supplements with vitamin D during pregnancy. Through its publication in JAMAtells how, to achieve good results, almost 500 children were analyzed for several years until finally being able to see if they had cognitive improvement during their childhood. What were they based on? To understand this discovery we have to go back in time to a randomized clinical trial titled as COPSAC2010whose initial results were published in 2016. This trial sought to evaluate whether vitamin D prevented the risk of suffering from asthma or persistent wheezing in babies, and to verify this the researchers divided the mothers into two groups from the 24th week of gestation: One group would receive the standard recommended dose of vitamin D of 400 IU per day. The other group had a “megadose” of vitamin D of 2,800 IU daily. The discovery. Taking advantage of this valuable group of 498 children, the research team decided to get more out of it, since when these children reached 10 years of age they were subjected to rigorous cognitive tests to see if the fact of having given vitamin D to their mother during pregnancy had left its mark on their brain. In this way, two objectives were covered with a single investigation. Here the results revealed that children in the high supplementation group showed a modest but significant improvement in verbal and visual memory compared to the children of mothers who took the standard dose of vitamin D. Although something important to note is that it puts to rest any idea that this supplementation is a machine to “create geniuses”, because there were no differences in IQ and they only saw that the ability to retain information was improved. The small print. Given such a finding, it is tempting to think that all pregnant women should multiply their vitamin D intake to give their children an advantage over others. But here we must pay attention to different problems, such as that the original trial was designed to measure respiratory problems and not neurological development. This means that drawing conclusions from here reduces the statistical robustness of the discovery. But this is not the only problem, since we have seen that the effect is “modest” without seeming to give children a great advantage. And furthermore, the study is based on women who already had normal vitamin D levels before the study, so it is not clear how this dose would act in populations that truly have some type of chronic deficiency of the vitamin. Will there be changes? At the moment, these studies do not justify the need to recommend that all pregnant women supplement their diet with vitamin D, as is the case with other supplements such as folic acid. The real value of this research is not to give us an immediate new prescription, but to open the door to future clinical trials specifically designed to unravel how what happens in the womb continues to shape our brains a decade later. Images | amylla battani In Xataka | We have been sending pregnant women to bed for decades as a precaution. Science has just proven that it is a big mistake

For centuries Spain shone for its castles. Today we do not know exactly how many there are and we have thousands that are increasingly dilapidated

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

There are times when the best way to raise awareness is to take out a cell phone at the right time and place. Occurred a few weeks ago in Escalona, Toledo, when one of the tourists waiting to enter the castle of the town observed that stones were beginning to fall from one of the towers. His impulse was record the scenewhich ended up immortalizing the mere five seconds in which the structure crumbles in a cloud of dust, taking with it centuries of history. The video ended up going viral and leading to another debate: the conservation of the castles of Spain. At the end of the day Escalona It is not a unique case. Two collapses in one year. Escalona Castle is a stately fortress whose history can be traced back to Roman times and covers a period that extends from the 1st century AD to the 12th century. Neither that, nor its status as BIC, nor the City Council’s plans to restore part of the structure prevented two months ago, March 14the albarrana tower will collapse in front of a tourist’s camera. the castle Almonacid of Toledo It is also another heritage jewel of Muslim origin whose chronicle dates back to at least 848. Again, neither that antiquity, nor its enormous historical wealth, nor its protection like BIC prevented one of its most emblematic towers from would fall apart after several weeks of heavy rain. “We have reached this situation because they (the Board and the owners) did not spend a euro on historical heritage. In the end what we feared has happened: it has fallen,” explained the councilor, Almudena González, to The Country. @latinus_us Tourists recorded the moment in which the tower of the Escalona Castle collapsed, in Toledo, Spain; there were no injuries. The site dates back to the 11th century and in 1922 it became a Site of Cultural Interest. #Latinus #InformationForYou ♬ original sound – Latinus – Latinus How is it possible? That’s it the debate that began to gain strength after both events, especially because both occurred in a surprisingly short period of time, not far away and affected fortresses with high historical value. Added to that is the viral video of Escalona. The truth, however, is that both news have stirred up a problem that is by no means new. Although the vast majority of castles in Spain enjoy heritage protection since 1949in practice the state of conservation of the thousands and thousands of fortresses that are distributed throughout the Spanish geography is very “unequal”, as explains Miguel Ángel Bru, member of the Spanish Association of Friends of Castles (AEAC), to the SER. Do we handle data? Some. And they paint a scenario that clearly could be improved. In the same interview in which he was asked about the heritage of Castilla-La Mancha (where Escalona and Almonacid de Toledo are located), Bru provided a revealing percentage: only 20% of the castles have been rehabilitated and are maintained in an acceptable state. The remaining 80% present more or less serious conservation problems. Another interesting approach is provided by Hispania Nostra, an association that is dedicated to the defense of Spanish heritage and is known above all for its “Red List”which includes those elements “threatened by a serious risk of destruction, disappearance or irreversible loss of their heritage values.” If we search for “Castles and fortified architectural complexes” we obtain dozens and dozens of results spread throughout the country. And the selection increases if we include other types of structures, such as “forts, military buildings, towers or walls.” The percentage: 60%. Probably the most shocking fact was shared a few days ago by Bru on a talk with The Country in which he warned precisely about the state of conservation of a large part of the heritage: “Six out of every ten castles in Spain are exposed to collapsing, but if we refer to smaller landslides, partial falls, we would already be talking about eight out of ten.” In reality, the problem is not only that it is estimated that 60% of the fortifications are in conditions very far from what would be ideal. The real challenge is that we don’t even have a complete, closed ‘photo’ of how many structures there are. “The first catalog there is is from 1968, it is the one recognized by the Ministry of Culture, but it is completely insufficient because the number of records is very low,” duck the director of the AEAC. To solve this, the association has been developing for decades a list of defensive structures that already exceeds 10,000, but that does not mean that the study has ended. If we want to protect the castles, the first stepEssentially, it is to have a precise idea of how many fortifications exist. The other figure: 2,807. Right now the catalog of Castles of Spain includes a total of 10,362 registered properties. That is the global figure, the most updated photo that the association has achieved. When we go down to detail, however, we obtain other more worrying ones. Of those 10,362 castles, only 728 They are in “very good” condition. 2,209 They are considered to be in good condition and 1,037 They are in a situation that technicians consider “regular.” In 537 cases the collective speaks of “consolidated ruins” and in 2,087 of “progressive ruin.” The entity contemplates still other scenarios, such as fortifications that have already disappeared or that have been altered. The big question: Why? How is it possible that, despite their high heritage, historical and even tourist value, and that they are protected by state regulations, there are so many castles with poor conservation in Spain? There are several factors that come into play. One is that not all buildings play the same cards. There are large historical complexes located in populated areas that have become symbols ‘pampered’ by the administrations. And also isolated fortifications or in rural areas that have not suffered the same fate. If we talk about … Read more

Benicio del Toro and James Cameron have been obsessed with adapting a “cursed” work for decades: ‘Prometheus’

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

In March 2011, Guillermo del Toro resigned. He sent an email to his team announcing that the project to which they had dedicated years of work was definitively cancelled. Behind them were more than three hundred pieces of conceptual art, a script they had worked on for almost a decade, James Cameron as producer and Tom Cruise as star. The novel that inspired it, a classic of literary horror, is still waiting to be adapted ninety years after its original publication. Foundational text. HP Lovecraft He published ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ in 1936 in installments in the magazine ‘Weird Tales’. The story follows a team of researchers who travel to Antarctica and discover, within a colossal mountain system, the remains of a civilization that predated humanity. Its builders, known as “the Ancients” are organisms whose existence makes it clear that humanity does not occupy any special place in the universe, as happens in so many other stories by the author. It is a scheme that laid the foundations (after multiple experiments in the form of stories) of the cosmic horrorand its influence on cinema is obvious in movies like ‘Alien’ or ‘The Thing’. Marked at eleven years old. Guillermo del Toro discovered the short novel as a child in Mexico and it became an obsession that stayed with him for decades. In 2002 he began working on an adaptation with Matthew Robbins, screenwriter and frequent collaborator of the director on projects such as ‘Mimic’ or ‘Pinocchio’. They completed a script but difficulties began when they tried to finance it: Warner Bros. rejected the project, and Del Toro chained films while the project returned again and again to the drawer: ‘Hellboy’, ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, ‘The Hobbit’… Ready. In 2010 the project took a little more shape, for the first time in its eventful career. James Cameron, fresh off the success of ‘Avatar‘, came in as a producer and Tom Cruise began talks to play the protagonist. The film would be shot in native 3D and distributed by Universal. In 2011, Del Toro was hurriedly working on a new version of the script to shoot that summer, but before that, in March, Universal archived the project. The reason was, mainly, the exorbitant budget of 150 million for a horror film for adults in which Del Toro did not want to reduce the violence. Curiously, Universal next financed ‘Pacific Rim’, which cost $190 million but, yes, had much less exaggerated violence. The coup de grace: ‘Prometheus’. In April 2012, del Toro published in the forums of their official website a text that related ‘At the Mountains of Madness’ with ‘Prometheus’, the feature film by Ridley Scott. According to the director, they had an identical premise, very similar scenes and an absolutely parallel final revelation. That is: explorers of unknown places discover an ancient alien civilization and realize something devastating about their own origins. More attempts. Despite the disappointment of ‘Prometheus’, Del Toro did not completely abandon the project. When he joined Legendary Pictures, he considered the possibility of making a PG-13 film, that is, with less violence. When he later signed a contract with Netflix in 2020, he submitted the project to the platform, but it was not accepted. In November 2022posted on Instagram 25 seconds of CGI footage prepared by Industrial Light & Magic for the 2011 version. The clip showed the Ancients in spectacular fidelity to Lovecraft’s description. Later would recognize than a feature film stop motion could be a viable format for the project. At the end of 2025, del Toro released ‘Frankenstein’ on Netflix, another project he had been wanting to do for decades. The film was a success in the awards season (nominated for nine Oscars and won three), with audiences and critics. Perhaps it is also, without us knowing it, an open door for one of the most deservedly legendary projects of modern fantasy cinema. In Xataka | HP Lovecraft wrote 75,000 letters in his entire life. And they give a definitive insight into all its secrets

look at Apple out of the corner of your eye

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

2026 will be a great year for Android. With Google giving the final touches for the final version of Android 17the system is being drawn as one in which all those small weaknesses that it once carried are being diluted. The last of them is “Continue On”, a function that separated – by far – iOS from Android, and which makes it quite clear that Google wanted to look askance at Apple to make its system what it always wanted. What is this. One of the compelling reasons for betting on iOS and not Android, historically, has had to do with the “ecosystem.” And it’s true: if you use iPhone and Mac, it’s a real treat to have a universal clipboard. The tasks we start on one device can be continued on the other and, ultimately, you feel like you are using a single product. Through its website for developers, Google has quietly announced Continue On. It is a feature that allows Android users to launch an app on one Android device and continue the activity on another Android. So that. In its first phase of development, this function is mainly designed so that we can use an application on our Android mobile and continue using it on a tablet. Of course, it will be necessary to have the app installed on both devices with our account synchronized. If you do not have the app installed, it is possible to open the task in the web browser. Being an API, the function in its initial stage will mainly work with Google apps, and developers will decide whether or not to implement it in their apps. The year of iOSization. All operating systems draw from others. All you have to do is see how the customization benefits that iOS boasts have been on Android for years. However, 2026 is a year in which Google seems to have wanted to focus one by one on those aspects that worried Android users and that could make them opt for the rival system. Universal clipboard continuity function Agreement with Meta to finally put an end to the poor quality of Instagram uploads Universal Android Compatibility Less control over installation of external applications (APK) to improve security. Transparency effects as a design language Additional security measures good times. Android has reached a point of maturity in which it practically only needed to refine some of the points that Google has touched on with Android 17. The problem of fragmentation It still seems unsolvable, but we have increasingly clear reasons to think that it is a round system. The final version is yet to come, and it is more than likely that there will be small changes under the breech that we do not know about yet. The final version is expected to land on the Pixels starting in June. And from there, we will have to wait. In Xataka | The list of requirements for Gemini Intelligence is so long that even many Google phones are left out

As towns dry out and the desert advances, women in Morocco climb the mountains to capture the fog and turn it into drinking water

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

A chance experiment took place in the 1980s. Some researchers working in the Atacama Desert accidentally left a simple metal mesh exposed to wind at night. The next morning they discovered that it was covered in water droplets in one of the driest places on the planet. That seemingly trivial scene ended up inspiring an idea that decades later would change the lives of entire towns. Capture the fog before it disappears. As the desert slowly advances over southwestern Morocco and traditional wells begin to dry up, several villages in the Aït Baâmrane region have found a solution which seems closer to a science fiction image than to conventional hydraulic infrastructure: capture the fog from the mountains and convert it into drinking water. For generations, the women of these communities spent up to four hours a day walking to remote wells and returning carrying barrels weighing almost 25 kilos on their heads. That routine organized the entire life of the villages, kept many girls out of school and reflected the extent to which the lack of water conditioned any daily activity on the edge of the Sahara. Giant nets convert air into water. The change began when huge polymer networks They appeared on the slopes of Mount Boutmezguida, at more than 1,200 meters above sea level. The idea is surprisingly simple: take advantage of the moisture from the Atlantic fog that regularly passes through the Anti-Atlas mountain range. The tiny droplets become trapped in the mesh, condense and end up descending towards deposits connected to kilometers of pipelines by gravity. Without complex pumps or large industrial infrastructure, the system manages to carry water directly to homes using only wind, altitude and ambient humidity. Thanks to the advances in materials engineeringthese modern networks are much more efficient than the experiments carried out decades ago in countries like Chile, Yemen or Eritrea. And the fog reached the tap. When the system went live, neighbors gathered to see something they had never seen before: water coming directly from a faucet inside a home. That “fog water”as they began to call it, quickly transformed the daily life of the villages. Women stopped spending part-time carrying water and many girls were able to attend school regularly again. The project, promoted by the NGO Dar Si Hmadnot only modified water management, but also the social balance of communities where transporting water had been an exclusively female responsibility for centuries. The cultural challenge of drinking water that did not touch the ground. The technology worked from the beginning, but convincing everyone was much more difficult. Some inhabitants they distrusted of a water that had never passed through the earth and that, as they believed, lacked minerals and “life”. The fog represented something ambiguous, almost unreal, too far from traditional sources. Over time, the rejection disappeared as the families verified that the water was safe and constant. The transition also forced us to work unexpected social issues: Some women felt that they were losing part of their central role in the home by no longer being in charge of fetching water. That is why the project ended up incorporating literacy, technical training and community management along with hydraulic infrastructure. Finding water is impossible. The UN has recognized this May 2026 that the Moroccan system is one of the more interesting examples of climate adaptation against desertification. The project shows that some extremely dry regions can still take advantage of invisible resources which until now were hardly used. However, it also makes clear that does not exist a universal solution: capturing fog only works where mountains, ocean humidity and very specific atmospheric conditions coincide. Still, the image is powerful for a planet increasingly affected by water scarcity: as wells empty and temperatures rise, there are entire communities in Morocco that have literally begun to harvest clouds to survive. Image | Aqualonis In Xataka | Satellite images leave no room for doubt: it has rained so much that Morocco has not looked so green for a decade In Xataka | France and Morocco have teamed up to flood Europe with green ammonia. And they compete directly with Spain

Aragon’s great plan to fill its reservoirs with solar panels has just collapsed due to a bureaucratic oversight

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

There is an image that sums up our times: reservoirs covered in solar panels floating like technological water lilies. It was the Government’s great bet to squeeze clean energy without consuming soil. However, that landscape has just collided head-on with the Supreme Court. According to the national climate roadmapBy 2030, Spain has to achieve a renewable penetration of 42% in final energy consumption and 74% in electricity generation. Swamp water, free of conflict over agricultural or forest land use, seemed the ideal setting. But the legislative rush has truncated the plan. The Supreme Court agrees with Aragón. The Fifth Section of the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the Supreme Court has declared null Royal Decree 662/2024, of July 9. It has done so by upholding an appeal filed by the Autonomous Community of Aragon. The ruling annuls the regulations by operation of law and condemns the State to pay the procedural costs. The Aragonese regional executive had full legitimacy to appeal, since, as the court confirmed, the execution of this decree directly affected its powers in territorial planning, the environment, tourism and hydroelectric development. But what did it consist of? Published in the Official State Gazettethe objective of the text was to develop the regime to which the installation of these plants in state-managed reservoirs should be subject. The preamble of the standard strongly defended the technology, ensuring that these systems have better energy performance due to the cooling effect of water, reduce evaporation by casting shade, and slow down the growth of phytoplankton in waters at risk of eutrophication. To put order in this deployment, the Government articulated a strict system of temporary concessions that limited the exploitation of the plants to a maximum of 25 years, including extensions. The regulatory text also imposed space limits according to the ecological state of the waters. Likewise, the conditions required the promoters to provide a provisional bond of 4,000 euros per megawatt (MW) installed only for the application – which became up to 12,000 euros per MW to respond for damage to the public domain -, all conditional on the presentation of environmental studies, monitoring of invasive species and a continuous monitoring program to evaluate water quality. The legal stumbling block: legislating without asking. The central problem was not the content of the norm, but how it was approved. The Government omitted the process of prior public consultation with affected citizens and groups. This is a procedure that the ruling considers inexcusable, and its omission has been the nail in the coffin of the decree. The State tried to justify this legal shortcut in the courts with two arguments that the Supreme Court has dismantled. Firstly, the State Attorney’s Office alleged that there was an extraordinary situation of public interest due to the increase in energy prices due to the war in Ukraine. The High Court rejected this premise, recalling its own doctrine: to skip public consultation, it is not enough that there is urgency; the rule must also be of a purely organizational or budgetary nature, something that does not happen in this case. Secondly, the Government tried to rely on an “urgent processing” route. The response of the magistrates It was forceful.: “In this case, the aforementioned procedure cannot be dispensed with because there is no declaration of urgency nor was the procedure developed on that legal basis.” There was no agreement from the Council of Ministers that supported the rush; therefore, the shortcut was illegal. Why it matters: form, not substance. There is a crucial nuance that changes the reading of this news. The Supreme Court has not ruled that putting solar panels on water is a bad idea or that it is harmful. In fact, it rejected the rest of the complaints presented by Aragón, resolving that the text did not violate the principles of good regulation or legal certainty. We are facing what jurists call a formal procedural defect. The law falls only because the Government did not listen to the parties involved before acting. It is especially ironic that the Council of State itself I would have already warned to the Executive during the draft phase that this matter was going to need, in the medium term, a much more complete and systematic regulation. And now what? The renewable energy sector, which saw floating platforms as an unbeatable alternative to avoid the controversy over the consumption of agricultural land, is left in limbo. All the regulations of the decree disappear, including the modification of the Regulation of the Public Hydraulic Domain of 1986 that articulated these concessions. Meanwhile, in the affected territories, caution is already a reality. The Ebro Hydrographic Confederation, for example, had previously vetoed the installation of these floating plants in the Cinca swamps. The legal basis that allows these facilities continues to exist in the Water Law. What has fallen is the regulatory development, so the Government can go back to square one and draft a new regulation. But he will have to do it by scrupulously complying with the steps that he ignored this time. It has been shown that the rush in the energy transition has a high legal cost. The decree that was going to order solar panels on water has been shipwrecked. For not having listened before. Image | RawPixel Xataka | Europe throws away 16 billion a year in electronic waste. Spain has just turned on the first oven in Europe to recover them

It no longer goes to the Moon, and that is precisely what makes it more important

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

The design of Artemis III has changed a lot with respect to what was initially conceived. To begin with, initially the objective was to carry out the moon landing. Later, the possibility of not landing on the moon was raised, but testing docking with the landing system in lunar orbit. However, this will no longer be the case. It has been decided test everything in low Earth orbit, since the tests can be done just as well there and costs and risks are reduced. However, this is not the only change that has been announced recently about the mission. They are all advantages. The journey to low Earth orbit is easier, but also offers more opportunities. In Artemis III there will be many vehicles involved, since we will not only have the SLS rocket and the Orion ship as in Artemis II. The HLS landing systems of SpaceX and Blue Origin. To travel to the Moon there are very narrow launch windows, while low Earth orbit offers more launch opportunities for all of these vehicles. If it is necessary to postpone a first date, there would not be a long wait. Why so much propulsion? In Artemis I and II, the rocket that propelled the shipthe SLS, had a cryogenic propulsion upper stage, which used cryogenic fuels to give the rocket an extra boost and escape the Earth’s gravitational pull. But this is no longer necessary in Artemis III. They don’t need to escape from Earth, on the contrary. Therefore, this stage has been eliminated in order to save on fuel. Be careful with the gap. You cannot remove a stage from the rocket and leave it as is. The rocket is manufactured with a specific weight and height profile. If a piece is simply removed, some of that weight is lost and it becomes unbalanced. Therefore, this propulsion stage It will be replaced by a structural spacer. That is, a piece that weighs and measures exactly the same, but has no function. NASA has already made great progress in its construction. Nothing is thrown away here. The upper stage that has been removed will be used on Artemis IV, since there we will travel to the Moon and all the possible momentum is needed. For the third phase it will be much easier and cheaper to fly without it. Orion+HLS. The main objective of Artemis III will be to verify that the Orion spacecraft and the SpaceX and Blue Origin HLS can dock properly. Once this docking occurs, some members of the crew would go from Orion to the HLS, to verify that the transition from one vehicle to another can be made and to carry out the relevant tests. More permanence in space. Artemis III astronauts will stay in space longer than Artemis II astronauts. This will allow them to obtain additional data on Orion’s life support systems under prolonged manned conditions. Slowly and with good writing. The Apollo missions were a leap into the void, literally. It was possible to go to the Moon on several occasions, but the risk was very high. During all these years, a more exhaustive study of the Moon has been done to design the best travel conditions. The goal was to return to our satellite, but not at any price. The return journey has already begun, but it is not worth rushing at the last moment. To do this safely and send many more manned missions in the near future, it is important that Artemis III is a safe test. That’s why these NASA design changes are so important. Of course, we cannot forget that NASA is not the only one responsible. SpaceX and Blue Origin must also demonstrate that their vehicles are safe. Time is running out for everyone. Image | POT In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

The wealth gap between young and old in Spain is skyrocketing and we have a suspect: housing

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

Just look at the list of greatest fortunes in Spain of the last two years to realize that not only have their assets grown, but even among the wealthiest a gap has been created increasing among the rich and ultra-rich. This wealth gap is not an isolated phenomenon among the richest 1%, but rather has permeated to the entire population, leaving a worrying generational scar to which they have already put a figure: 340,000 euros. That is the difference in assets that today separates a person under 35 years old from someone who is between 65 and 74, according to a report which has just been published by the Santalucía Institute. A generation that starts from scratch. The data from the report maintain that the median wealth of those under 35 years of age in Spain has plummeted by 76.7% in the last 18 years. Not only do they accumulate fewer assets than their parents at the same age, but a growing proportion of young people “lack significant assets, which limits their financial stability and their ability to undertake long-term vital projects,” the report notes. The participation of young people under 35 years of age in the country’s total net wealth went from representing around 8.2% of the national wealth in 2002 to just 2.1% in 2022. For their part, those over 75 years of age, in the same period, went from representing 8.3% of total wealth to 18.3% in 2022. wealth transfer that has been redesigning the economic map of the country. This means that, although the net wealth of Spanish households has grown by 80.9% in the last two decades, this growth has mainly benefited those who already had a certain initial wealth, making the balance of wealth growth lean more towards the older (and more wealthy) population. The brick that only rose for a few. The report from the Santalucía Institute assures that the heritage in Spain rests almost completely in the homethus explaining the origin of the wealth growth of the oldest segment of the population. More than 80% of household assets are real estate. That has favored those who bought properties when prices were affordable. Those that came laterToday’s young people have found a market where buying a home is little less than a utopia. The property rate among those under 35 years of age has fallen from 35% in 2023 to 30% in 2025, continuing with a clear downward trend. Without home ownership and with skyrocketing rents At historic highs, the assets of young people have no basis on which to grow. Added to this is the job insecurity that characterizes this age group, which further reduces their savings capacity, closing a circle of which it is increasingly difficult to escape. The generation gap in figures. According to data from the ‘Family Financial Survey‘ conducted by the Bank of Spain, the gap between generations reached its historical maximum in 2022 and rose an additional 3% in 2024, the last year for which the entity’s data is collected. People between 65 and 74 years old accumulate on average more than 425,000 euros in deposits, investments and real estate assets, compared to the 83,000 euros that, on average, those under 35 have available. The distance between generations, estimated at 340,000 euros, has never been so great. Beyond the gap between generations, a report Prepared by FEDEA economists based on data from the Bank of Spain, it confirms that wealth inequality in Spain has grown constantly in the last two decades. The richest 1% concentrates around 21% of the country’s total wealth, while the poorest half barely reaches 7%. The Gini index, which measures this inequality, has risen from 0.57 in 2002 to 0.69 in 2022. Income also distances. The problem for the youngest is not only the accumulated wealth, but also in the income they receive every month. The median income of households between 65 and 74 years old already reaches 34,700 euros per year, this is 2,700 euros above what households headed by those under 35 years of age earn. The most striking thing is the speed at which this change has occurred since, in 2022, that difference was just 500 euros per year, but in just four years that difference has multiplied by five. Young households already have 8% less income than older households. Less income, less savings, less assets. The Santalucia Institute report, just as the OECD for yearswarns that this model points to structural inequality that will have direct implications for housing, the ability to save (and consume), and the redistribution of wealth. In Xataka | How wealth inequality has changed in the world since 2008, explained with a simple graph Image | Unsplash (Towfiqu barbhuiya, Brayn Ramos)

El Corte Inglés liquidates in its Save the VAT all these LG, Samsung and Sony TVs in its online outlet with prices from 495 euros

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

El Corte Inglés returns with its Save VATa campaign where we can find offers on some products in the store for a few days. It will end on May 24, so there is not much time to choose between so many devices. However, if you are looking for a good TV, be careful because in its outlet there are very good prices on brands such as LG, Samsung and Sony. Sony Bravia XR-65A84L by 635.50 eurosa television with a 65-inch OLED screen. LG 75QNED876QB by 660.29 eurosan ideal TV if you are looking for an even larger size. Sony Bravia 7 65XR70 by 495.01 eurosa smart TV with a 65-inch MiniLED panel. Samsung TQ65QN800DTXXC by 528.07 eurosa television with 8K resolution. Samsung TQ48S93FAEXXC by 495.01 eurosa TV with OLED panel technology. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Sony Bravia XR-65A84L If you usually watch a lot of movies and series at home and are looking for a good television with OLED panel technology, the model Sony Bravia XR-65A84L It is located in El Corte Inglés for a price of 635.50 euros. It incorporates a 65-inch screen, its operating system is Google TV and it has HDMI 2.1. In addition, its refresh rate is up to 120 Hz (ideal for gaming) and it is compatible with both Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links LG 75QNED876QB If you prefer a television that is more oriented towards gaming and that is also larger, but not much more expensive, El Corte Inglés has the smart TV LG 75QNED876QB for a price of 660.29 euros. It is a television with MiniLED technology, which is also interesting to enjoy sports to the fullest. Its screen is 75 inches, the refresh rate reaches 120 Hz and it incorporates an HDMI 2.1 port. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Sony Bravia 7 65XR70 On the other hand, if you are looking for a good television that is even cheaper than the previous ones, the store right now has 495.01 euros the model Sony Bravia 7 65XR70. We are talking about a TV that also has MiniLED technology, although in this case its screen is 65 inches. Its refresh rate is also 120 Hz, it is compatible with Dolby Atmos and its operating system is Google TV. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ65QN800DTXXC He Samsung TQ65QN800DTXXC It was one of those televisions that were launched betting on 8K resolution, and can currently be found in the El Corte Inglés outlet at a price of 528.07 euros. It includes a screen with 65-inch Neo QLED technology, its refresh rate reaches up to 165 Hz, it has anti-reflective treatment, its speakers are compatible with Dolby Atmos and it integrates the voice assistant Alexa. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung TQ48S93FAEXXC Finally, if you want a television to watch a lot of film and series content, but you want its size to be smaller than the rest of the models we have mentioned, El Corte Inglés has the Samsung TQ48S93FAEXXC for a price of 495.01 euros. It is a television with an OLED panel and a 48-inch diagonal. It also has anti-reflective treatment, its refresh rate reaches 144 Hz, it is compatible with Dolby Atmos and includes a gaming mode. 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. Image | El Corte Inglés and Compradicción (header), Sony, Samsung, LG In Xataka | Best home theater projectors. Which one to buy and five recommended models from 299 to 18,000 euros In Xataka | Mega-guide to set up a home theater: projector, screen, sound system and more

Japan wanted its roads to be more than just a place of passage. And they thought of something: vending machines

May 21, 2026 by usatoday24

There are many, many things that catch your attention when you arrive in Japan. At first, it is difficult to understand how this country of ancient traditions and quiet Buddhist or Shinto temples that seem to be everywhere can mix with the most hilarious bustle of stores like the Don Quixote. As the days go by, little by little, one begins to assimilate what one sees and begins to focus on issues just as curious but not as striking. When you want to realize you are in the konbini in turn choosing which of the 12 types of cold coffee and the eight hot ones you want the most. Or if you dare with that lemon soda marked by some kanji as attractive as they are threatening. A few days later, you are picking up any of those soft drinks in the middle of a road, in a layby where there is nothing… Where there is nothing but a vending machine. And then you ask yourself: but what is this machine doing here? Vending machine culture And in Japan there is something as ubiquitous as shrines: vending machines. The Japanese have a passion for jidouhanbaiki either jihanki. Obviously, the most famous and used are those that sell something to drink, but there are all kinds of them and for all kinds of objects. My colleague Javier Pastor already pointed out in 2017 that there were an estimated five million vending machines distributed throughout the country. Some with objects as extravagant “like this one from used panties either it’s poop“. But in addition to selling products, these vending machines have found another function: that of promoting national and inland tourism by road. The country has been fighting rural depopulation for years and has found in vending machines a great support for travelers to opt for the car and motorcycle instead of the very crowded bullet train. The formula is as simple as it is Japanese: make the traveler comfortable. With that premise, many vending machines have been popping up on lay-bys and rest areas in the country. A tremendously simple formula for the traveler to stop and even deviates from its path. With a density of less than 40 inhabitants for each machine vending machine, this option has not only become a tool to assist the traveler, It is already a tourist attraction in itself. And that has encouraged an increase in the number of people who see here as another incentive to go out with their car or motorcycle for the weekend. When the Japanese have an obsession, it is very difficult for others to catch up to them. If we talk about motorcycling and motorsports, Japan is one of the most cultural countries. Hence, some roads have simply become a hobby. One where the customer simply pays to drive but to which some auxiliary services have been added to improve the experience. like the ubiquitous vending machines. It is not the only tool they have found to encourage this type of pure leisure travel. There are musical highways where the asphalt emits a melody as the car or motorcycle passes by, using the roughness to create scores that the traveler plays as they pass over it. Or the michi no eki, something like the latest evolution of the service area where the gas station has the obligation to have another business or to offer a local product. There are those that only sell local food but there are those that even have their own natural science museum. A perfect opportunity to collect your stamps or banknotes, other tourist attractions of these spaces. And Japan is an obsessed country for collecting and making everyone as comfortable as possible. And for that jidouhanbaiki They are perfect. Photos | Xataka In Xataka | Japan is searching for the person who built a road on the country’s largest lake. It leads nowhere

Log In

Sign In

Forgot password?

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections