ZonaGemelos generates the darkest content on the Spanish internet. They had to cancel their own ‘Big Brother’ in nine hours

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Extreme content has always existed on the Internet, but until recently it was part of the exclusive redoubt of the network’s sewer: deep webforums in which you had to register to enter, P2P circuits closed to the general public. Social networks, however, are increasingly expanding their themes in more aggressive directions. The lack of moderation and the avalanche of content has created monsters like ‘The House of Twins’, a reality show inspired by ‘Big Brother‘ which was canceled nine hours after its premiere. But who are you? Daniel and Carlos Ramos are brothers and content creators under the label ZoneTwins. They have become known for debate videos that revolve around controversy, morbidity, arguments and sometimes live violence between the guests of their program. Their accounts have hundreds of thousands of followers (just over 300,000 on YouTube, almost 400,000 on TikTok) and their style is reminiscent of entertainment programs from the beginning of the century like ‘Crónicas Marcianas’, and also dating shows like ‘First Dates’ or challenge shows, but in a more extreme way. Among its regulars are Paco Porras or Simon Perezand also include betting and gambling content (in casinos like LocoWin, with high-risk bets). What is ‘The House of Twins’? A reality show for networks which premiered on October 12 on Kick (the twins are banned from Twitch) and YouTube and was canceled in the early hours of the next day, due to violent incidents and serious confrontations between the seven participants, especially between two women who are regulars in the ZonaGemelos debates: la Falete and Triana Marrash. The latter had its fifteen minutes of fame on a national scale thanks to ‘Tardear’ and an alleged disappearance that turned out to be a setup to gain followers. What happened? Three contest participants voluntarily left the program before its cancellation, given the direction the program was taking, with the participants becoming increasingly drunk. Among other things, constant fights could be seen, attempts to quilting with three people involved, inappropriate comments on sensitive topics such as the war in Ukraine and destruction of the house and furniture. The organizers, when announcing the closure, spoke of “a second edition with some basic rules of coexistence and a few hours to sleep.” Some figures. In its first hours, the program was followed by more than a million live viewers, which makes it clear that we are not exactly facing a niche product. The hashtag #LaCasaDeLosGemelos became a trending topic on X and YouTube ended up cutting the broadcast due to the questionable content. Of course, as happens in reality shows, it soon began to generate lots of derivative content from other creators commenting on what happened in the house. extreme youtube. The type programs reality streaming like The House of Twins raise moral and ethical questions that have been object of study: emotional manipulation, exploitation of participants, loss of privacy, psychological and social effects on those who participate and consume this type of entertainment… Producers usually edit and manipulate recorded material to provoke conflicts and extreme reactions that keep the public’s attention. This strategy generates economic benefits, but results in the emotional exploitation of the contestants, who may suffer anxiety and psychological deterioration. Other key moral dilemma revolves around the actual consent of the participants. In many productions, contestants sign contracts that allow them to be constantly filmed, without effective control over their image once broadcast: participants are recorded in moments of emotional and physical vulnerability, such as arguments or personal crises. And if these issues are considerable in realities traditional, its impact is multiplied on the internet, where algorithms amplify emotionally conflictive content to maximize public interaction. In Xataka | Now I regret what I uploaded about myself to the internet when I was a teenager

The problem is that they are almost non-existent.

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Spain has more than 52,000 public charging points for electric vehicles, but only 2,080 allow you to charge the car in less than 15 minutes. Although there are various obstacles why a buyer does not want to opt for an electric car, the lack of quality infrastructure is one of the main reasons why the electric vehicle has not yet been standardized in Spain. The problem in figures. According to the latest Anfac barometeronly 4% of the charging points available at the end of September reached 250 kW of power or more, the threshold necessary for ultra-fast charging. Castilla y León leads with 357 points of this type, followed by Andalusia (277) and Catalonia (268). The rest of the network is mainly made up of slow chargers: more than 36,000 points offer 22 kW or less, which implies waiting times of between 3 and 19 hours, depending on the model. Why is it critical? The lack of ultra-fast recharging especially slows down long trips, where the experience should be close to that of a traditional refueling. Current electric cars already incorporate systems prepared for powers greater than 100 kW, and this capacity will increase with the new models. However, the infrastructure is not accompanying the evolution in vehicle batteries. Spain is situated like this below the European average in high power deployment, a key factor for individuals and companies to decide on electric. Who drives the network. Two thirds of the ultra-fast stations (equal to or greater than 250 kW) come from projects of the car manufacturers themselves. Just like share From the CincoDías media, Anfac has been insisting for some time that electric mobility should not only be promoted by brands, but also by energy companies and the public sector. An underused park. There is also a notable operational problem, since 14,643 charging points are installed but out of servicewhich represents 22% of the total. These chargers remain inactive due to breakdowns, lack of maintenance or because the installation companies have not yet obtained permits to connect to the electrical grid. This situation has remained this way for two quarters, with no signs of a significant improvement. The delay in Spain. The penetration of the electrified vehicle reached 29.3% in the third quarter, an improvement of 3.9 points compared to the previous period, but still far from the 43.1% average in the European Union. The general director of Anfac, José López-Tafall, warns that “leading the bottom group in Europe cannot be enough” and that Spain must maintain the current rate of growth for years to recover the accumulated delay. The road ahead. Although the charging network grows in absolute numbers (this year more than 13,000 points have been added), the challenge is to guarantee quality as well as quantity. However, from the employers they insist that the data is “very positive”, and that “the important efforts that companies are making to install public charging are little by little giving results.” Cover image | Michael Fousert In Xataka | Spain is emerging as the destination of the next BYD factory, according to Reuters: the next chapter of its advance in Europe

the questions you have sent us (and their answers) about this flexible vacuum cleaner

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We will respond to your doubts about the Rowenta X-Force Flexa flexible portable vacuum cleaner perfect for leaving all corners very clean. We have been testing it for several days, and now we bring you a video with all the answers to the questions that you have been sending us about it at our Instagram profile. Rowenta X-Force Flex Q&A We begin our review of all the doubts about the vacuum cleaner by talking about the power it has This Rowenta. Its maximum power is 240 Air Watts, which is what will be activated when you use Boost mode. Come on, it’s not the normal power, but the one it gives you when you press the turbo. Another question has to do with their suction levels, because there are several. First you have an ECO mode which serves to consume less energy and emit less noise, and with which in our tests we have been able to vacuum most of our house without too many problems. Then you have Max modewhich gives you extra power for especially complicated surfaces, such as carpets. And finally you have the Boost mode, which is the most powerful, and is used for that dirt that remains more embedded and is more difficult to vacuum. The vacuum has a start and use trigger, and another red one that takes you directly to Boost mode to make it easier to use and more accessible. But you also have an automatic mode It uses normal mode, but when it detects more demanding soil, it increases the power. You have also asked us about the noise it makes when vacuuming. ECO mode is usually around 70 dB, which is very little annoying. The Max mode goes up about 10 or 15 dB and everything starts to sound like a conventional vacuum cleaner, and the Boost mode almost reaches 100 dB, but it is the one we are going to use the least. In the video, we also show you vacuum cleaner accessoriessuch as its flexible broom or its different brushes that adapt to your needs. You also have another accessory for crevices and another for the sofa, as well as a motorized brush for pets. We then go into depth about the flexible broom to show you how it works. Finally, we also answer questions about battery and autonomyhow much the charging module occupies and how long it takes to fully charge the battery. We ended up talking about filters, cleaning and replacing them. But the best thing is that you watch the full video to see all the answers we give to the questions you have sent us. This content is a collaboration and sponsorship between Xataka and the brand, but there is no agreement on the script or the selection of the topics. The editorial content is created entirely by Xataka.

It’s not about not resting, but rather the opposite.

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Quite a while ago we explained a universal concept about weight loss: there is no single premise that works the same for everyone. What there is are general guidelines that, to a greater or lesser extent, can help us reduce the scale. From then until now we have learned a lot about exercises to lose weight, the diets to followor the most basic: why the hell I can’t stop gaining kilos. A method that experts always recommend is, a priori, the easiest to do: walk. and now we know what is the best way to do it. The advertisement. We knew that walking is a recommended exercise to keep us healthy and even help us control weight and lose weight. Now, if you’ve been leaving home for half your life and trying to get to destination A team of researchers from the University of Milan led by Francesco Luciano carried out a series of experiments reaching the same conclusion: contrary to what is usually thought, if you want to burn calories by walking, it is more effective to make stops to rest You have to do it consistently from start to finish. The work is published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The intrastory. As and as they have explainedbegan the study after observing that many estimates of the energy needed to walk were based on data from people exercising in a stable metabolic state, that is, when the heart rate is constant and the body’s energy production and consumption are balanced, such as the state of a car traveling at cruising speed. Thus, and to learn more about the energy needs for different walks, the researchers recruited 10 healthy volunteers who were monitored while they exercised on a stair climbing machine and a treadmill. The exercises covered three different speeds with sessions lasting from ten seconds to four minutes. The results. The idea, therefore, was to measure the oxygen and energy demands of short walks compared to longer walks. What did they find? Than walking or climbing stairs in periods of 10 to 30 seconds required 20 to 60% more oxygenan indicator of energy consumption, than covering the same distance in a continuous session, largely because walking is more efficient after several minutes in motion. For Lucianomakes perfect sense if we think that when we walk for shorter periods, we use more energy and consume more oxygen to cover the same distance, “it’s like having a car that consumes more fuel during the first few kilometers than later.” Energy records. They said in their work that for each exercise session they recorded how much oxygen each person consumed and calculated the metabolic demands for the different walks. They discovered that more energy was needed at the beginning of each walkto get going and warm up the body, than later in the exercise, when the body was already moving and working more efficiently. According to Lucianothe key is what we do at the beginning of that walk, “when we start walking, we may incur some fixed costs at the beginning of the session. By analogy, driving a car requires some fuel to start the engine or get the car out of the garage. We found that, when starting to walk from rest, a significant amount of oxygen is consumed just to start walking. We incur this cost regardless of whether we walk for 10 or 30 seconds, so, proportionally, it weighs more in the shorter sections than in the longer ones.” And more. Apparently, measurements of participants on the exercise machines also revealed that, in the early stages of a walk, people are less efficient at converting oxygen and energy in an effective movement, a situation that improves as they gain rhythm, when we have already “warmed up.” A work that highlights the health benefits of short walks and jumping up stairs, particularly for people who are largely sedentaryand that can also explain the improvements in physical condition that occur with so-called “exercise snacks.” The perfect hike. The study also closed the circle on what we could call the “perfect” walk in “caloric” terms. We already knew that the key to walking as an exercise was in consistency, and that about 150 minutes a weekor two and a half hours, are the minimum recommended average. Now we must add that the intensity that is always claimed does not refer so much to how long it takes us to get from A to B, but rather the opposite, walk in short periods and with stops of the same distance. Image | Diana Robinson, PickPick In Xataka | The truth about intermittent fasting to lose weight: deciding whether its benefits have a scientific basis or are pure hype In Xataka | We’ve been trying to figure out why we gain weight for decades. Science is becoming clearer

features, price and technical sheet

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Without events and practically a surprise, Apple has officially presented the new 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 chipan update that promises significant improvements in both performance, autonomy and artificial intelligence, while maintaining the same starting price as its predecessor. The company has also announced the new iPad Pro and its new generation of Vision Pro mixed reality glasses. MacBook Pro M5, technical sheet MacBook Pro 14″ M5 Screen Liquid Retina XDR, 1,600 nits (HDR), 1,000 nits (SDR) Processor Apple M5 Memory From 16GB storage From 512 GB and up to 4 TB connectivity Thunderbolt 4 camera 12 MP with Center Stage technology autonomy Up to 24 hours PRICE From 1,829 euros Apple MacBook Pro M5 14″, 512GB, 16GB RAM The price could vary. We earn commission from these links New M5 chip: improvements in AI and graphics performance The protagonist of this new generation is the M5 chip, manufactured with 3 nanometer technology. Apple assures that it offers up to 3.5 times more performance in artificial intelligence tasks compared to the M4and up to 1.6 times more graphics power. The new processor incorporates a 10-core GPU with a neural accelerator in each of them, which according to the company significantly improves the processing of local AI models, the generation of images and the execution of language models. The CPU, also with 10 cores, promises 20% more multi-core performance compared to the M4, a detail that especially benefits tasks such as code compilation or simultaneous work with several professional applications. Faster storage and greater autonomy Another notable change is the incorporation of Fastest SSD storage technologywhich according to Apple can up to double the performance of the previous model in read and write operations. This translates into shorter times when importing RAW files or exporting large videos. The maximum storage configuration reaches 4TB. Regarding autonomy, Apple announces up to 24 hours of battery life. Apple compares it to the MacBook Pro with M1with an increment of four hours. There is also a notable increase compared to Intel-based models, which would gain up to 14 additional hours. Of course, perhaps the most notable difference in this aspect (and not exactly for the better) is that this new model does not include a power adapter, so if we want it, we must add 65 euros more to the bill for the 70 W one or 85 euros for the 96 W one. A familiar and unchanged design The MacBook Pro M5 maintains the design and screen specifications of its predecessor: 14.2-inch Liquid Retina In addition, the company offers a nanotextured glass option to reduce reflections, also present in previous generations. Connectivity doesn’t change either: three ports ThunderboltSD card reader, HDMI and MagSafe 3 connector for charging. The 12 MP webcam with Center Stage technology (which has made the leap to the iPhone 17), a six-speaker system and Wi-Fi 6E They complete a technical section without news. Price and availability The 14-inch MacBook Pro with M5 chip has a starting price of 1,829 euros in Spain (1,699 euros with discount for education). The equipment is available in space black and silver. The base configuration includes 16 GB of unified memory and 512 GB of storage. Reservations are open from today October 15th through Apple website and the Apple Store app. Customers are expected to start receiving it starting Wednesday, October 22. As for the rest of the models, Apple has confirmed that the M5 Pro and M5 Max they will come laterfollowing the staggered release pattern of previous generations. Apple MacBook Pro M5 14″, 512GB, 16GB RAM The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Images | Apple In Xataka | We believed that tracking an iPhone only helped its owner: it ended up revealing a network that smuggled thousands of cell phones

The US has seized $15 billion in bitcoin. This is how the terrifying “pig slaughter” crypto scam works

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The US Department of Justice (DoJ) has confiscated about 15 billion dollars in the form of bitcoin. This fortune was in the hands of an alleged fraudster named Chen Zhi who supervised a gigantic crypto scam. One that sadly is becoming more and more frequent and is now known as the “pig slaughter” or the “pig fattening.” The name is a no-brainer. what has happened. We are facing the largest asset seizure in the history of the DoJ. The action focuses on the founder and president of an international conglomerate called Prince Holding Group based in Cambodia. Chen Zhi, 38, also known as “Vincent,” has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering. The scam used has many peculiarities. The “pig slaughter”. In English they use the name “pig butchering” for this type of crypto scam, and here we could translate it as “pig slaughter” or “pig fattening.” The process that scammers follow to deceive their victims is as follows: Search and contact: Scammers contact victims (the “pigs”) through social media, dating apps, or direct messages. To do this, they use fake and attractive profiles. Fattening (trust building): for weeks a personal, friendly or romantic relationship is builtand the scammer gains the trust of the victim. This scammer usually presents himself as a successful person with “secret” knowledge in the world of investments. You invest, you will earn a lot of money: once trust is gained, the scammer presents the victim with a “guaranteed” and very lucrative investment opportunity, usually in cryptocurrencies. And indeed, it seems that you win: after a small investment and to reinforce hope and confidence, the scammer allows the victim to withdraw a small profit. The victim becomes even more confident. Invest more, this works– With the victim now encouraged, he is persuaded to invest much larger amounts, often emptying his savings or even taking out loans The slaughter: When the scammer determines that the victim has invested all they can, they execute the fraud. It blocks the victim’s withdrawal of funds and denies access to that account. Excuses (taxes, verification fees) are made to try to request even more money Disappearance: The scammer cuts off all communication, the fraudulent platform disappears and the victim’s money has been stolen and laundered by the criminal network. A multinational scam. According to prosecutors in the case, Prince Group operates in more than 30 countries and secretly grew to become “one of the largest transnational criminal organizations in Asia.” The company presented itself as a legitimate real estate development and financial services company. Dumb with studies. Although it may seem incredible, this scam manages to deceive people with advanced training. Grace Yuen of Gaso—an international anti-scam organization— explained on BBC that this type of fraud affects all types of profiles, even those that we would think would be somewhat more protected: “About 80% or more of the victims have university degrees and a large percentage of them have a master’s or doctorate. They are victims of all branches: from nurses and lawyers to computer scientists or telecommunications engineers. They are all highly educated people, usually between the ages of 24 and the end of 40. Although now we are also seeing older victims.” human trafficking. The organization allegedly operated forced labor camps in Cambodia. According to the indictment, Prince Group operated at least 10 complexes of this type in which hundreds of people were forced to work under threat of violence executing this scam with victims from all over the world. Two of the facilities were equipped with 1,250 mobile phones that controlled 76,000 accounts on a popular social media platform. Bribes. According to the investigation, Zhi and his network of managers managed to use their political influence in several countries to protect their criminal network. Thus, they are accused of paying bribes to public officials to prevent law enforcement from dismantling these operations. The stolen money was laundered through online gambling or cryptocurrency mining platforms, as well as spent on trips on private jets or yachts and also on works of art. On the run. The accusation of the DoJ has been added to that of the US Department of the Treasury. Said organism has imposed sanctions against Zhi and more than 100 associated individuals and entities. Chen Zhi, of Chinese origin, has become a fugitive, and faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted and arrested. Image | Kanchanara In Xataka | The founder of WhatsApp spared no expense when decorating his mansions and yachts with very expensive furniture. Most were fake.

features, price and technical sheet

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Apple has just announced the launch of the new Vision Pro (2025)and in them there is an absolute protagonist. Now these mixed reality glasses are based on the powerful Apple M5 chip, which also debuts in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro and iPad Pro. There is also another interesting surprise: the inclusion of a new headband called Dual Knit Band that will theoretically allow users to enjoy “an even more comfortable fit” for these glasses, Apple says. Technical sheet of the Apple Vision Pro (2025) Apple vision pro (2025) weight 600-650 grams (depending on band and fit pad) The battery weighs an additional 353 grams Screens 2 panels x 11.5 million pixels, micro-OLED Resolution per panel: 3,660 x 3,200 pixels 3D display system, 7.5 micron pixels 92% DCI-P3 Refresh rates of 90, 96, 100 and 120 Hz CHIP 10-core M5 chip (4 performance, 6 efficiency) 10 core GPU 16-core Neural Engine Unified memory bandwidth: 153 GB/s R1 chip with 256 GB/s bandwidth 12 ms photonic latency Cameras Stereoscopic 3D camera system Space photo and video 18mm, f/2.0 aperture 6.5 megapixel stereo Sensors 4 eye tracking cameras 2 high resolution trail cameras 6 front tracking cameras TrueDepth Camera LiDAR Scanner Ambient light sensor flicker sensor Four inertial measurement units (IMU) Biometrics Optical ID sound Spatial audio with dynamic head tracking Audio ray tracing Six-microphone array with directional beamforming Ultra-low latency H2 to H2 connection with 2nd gen AirPods Pro. (with USB-C case) Battery Up to two and a half hours of general use according to Apple Up to three hours of video viewing according to Apple Does not support hot swapping Allows it to be used connected to the power supply (30W USB-C adapter) storage 256/512GB/1TB Connectivity Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) Bluetooth 5.3 Operating system visionOS 26 price From 3,499 dollars plus taxes (3,699 euros) Extra power and autonomy that gains (some) integers The new Vision Pro (2025) maintain the same design and almost all the specifications as the first generation of this device that was presented in February 2024, but there is an important change: M5 chip integrationwhich replaces the M2 that the original models included. This has implications in two sections: Refreshment Rate: The screen now supports refresh rates of up to 120 Hz. In the previous model the maximum was 100 Hz Battery: The greater efficiency of the M5 chips allows the new Vision Pro (2025) to win in terms of autonomy. Thus, we went from two hours of general use to two and a half hours, and from two and a half hours of video viewing to three hours with the new device. According to Apple, the M5 is capable of rendering 10% more pixels on the micro-OLED screens of the Vision Pro, and this SoC is also useful so that we can enjoy some advanced options in which AI is used. For example, when generating “People” – the virtual representation used in videoconferences with these glasses – or when converting 2D photos into spatial photos, a process that thanks to the Apple M5 we can do 50% faster. The other great novelty of the glasses is not in the glasses, but in their fundamental accessory: the support band. Apple now offers the call Dual Knit Banda kind of mix between the Dual Loop Band and the Solo Knit from the previous generation of the device. Of course: it is an optional support that we can purchase for $99 and that is compatible with the original Vision Pro. A strange renovation The renewal with the M5, which had been rumored for months, is undoubtedly a confirmation that Apple continues to trust in this product for the future. The problem is not so much its hardware, which was already spectacular a year and a half ago, but rather the fact that there is barely any content with which to take advantage of it. Until Apple solves that problem – if it ever solves it – the Vision Pro will continue to be a product aimed at enthusiasts both due to price – it is still expensive – and because of the catalog of exclusive applications and content with which to take advantage of it. We could already see what we could aspire to with content specifically designed with the Vision Pro. Sporting events, concerts and immersive experiences take on an absolutely extraordinary level with these glasses, but Apple has barely updated this offer, and that is what could really trigger its use. Variants and prices of the Apple Vision Pro (2025) The new Vision Pro (2025) with M5 chip can now be reserved and will be available next October 22 in stores in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, UAE, UK and US. The price in the United States will start at $3,499 plus taxes, while in European countries such as France or Germany its price will start at 3,699 euros. Spain at the moment still has no availability of these devices. More information | Apple

running AI models

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It was “sung” that Apple would present its new Apple M5 sooner rather than later, and we already have it with us. The chip represents a notable qualitative leap judging by its specification sheet, and there are improvements in all sections. The surprise is that where a real change is seen is in its GPU, which is now much more powerful and is clearly prepared to be able to work with AI models in a much more striking way. Apple M5. Apple’s new SoC makes use of third-generation 3nm photolithography. There are therefore no major changes in the manufacturing process, which is surely more efficient and reliable. Even so, the changes in the chip are notable everywhere. To start, the CPU has six high-efficiency cores and four high-performance cores. According to Apple, this CPU offers 15% more multicore performance than the M4. Working with local AI models thanks to apps like LM Studio is going to be much more feasible thanks to these Apple M5s. A GPU with a lot of potential for AI. If there is a standout element in this SoC, it is the GPU, which in the M5 has 10 cores, each of them including a Neural Accelerator. According to Apple, this allows AI workloads to run “dramatically faster”, and promises performance of more than four times that achieved with the Apple M4. There are also improvements in the bandwidth of the unified memory, which is now 30% higher and reaches 153 GB/s, something especially crucial for using AI models locally. These chips allow for configurations with up to 32 GB of unified memory: the figure is not particularly high, but we will undoubtedly see an M5 Pro and an M5 Max with much more room for maneuver in this section. And also to play. There is a lot of good news in this GPU for those who plan to take advantage of it to work with local AI models, but there are also improvements for video games. Graphics performance is up to 45% higher than the M4 GPUs, and we also have third-generation ray tracing technology. The neural motor is strengthened. The new Neural Engine has 16 cores and combines, according to Apple, a mix of efficiency and performance. This means that, for example, the new Vision Pro, which also includes this chip, can transform 2D photos into spatial images in the Photos application easily and quickly. Prepared for the future of Apple Intelligence. Apple Intelligence may not be a notable artificial intelligence platform today, but it is clear that Apple is preparing its devices for a scenario in which being able to run AI models locally (and privately) is the norm. The recent iPhone 17 also made a striking leap in these capabilities with the A19/A19 Pro, and now we see the same movement with these M5s that put all the focus on AI. Waiting for the M5 Pro/Max/Ultra?. These chips can already be found in the first products that use them: the new 14-inch MacBook Pro, the iPad Pro and the Vision Pro (2025). It is to be expected that Apple will soon present more powerful versions of the recently launched M5, because that is what it has done in previous generations. Last year he launched the Apple M4 in May and M4 Pro/Max at the end of October. So five months passed. In the previous generation the M3, M3 Pro and M3 Max were launched in October 2023, and the M3 Ultra appeared much later, in March 2025. The M4s have not seen (at least, for now) an Ultra version, but Apple may end up doing something similar to what it did with the M3s. If they follow the previous scheme, the M5 Pro/Max would be announced in February or early March, and more or less around those dates a hypothetical M4 Ultra could appear. Rumors suggest, however, that these chips would arrive later, in mid-2026. Future teams. Meanwhile, yes, we can now enjoy the first devices that have these chips. It is also expected that Apple will offer new devices with the M5 chip in the middle of next year: that is when the Mac mini with M5, the iMac with M5 and the Mac Studio M5 and on the other hand the MacBook Pro with M5 Pro/Max are expected to arrive. In Xataka | Apple has become a boring company. We wonder who will inherit his throne: Crossover 1×24

Working remotely for another country is not so simple

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A programmer’s innocent question about the availability of remote positions on a development platform in Spain has sparked an interesting international debate in X about a reality of the Spanish labor market that many were unaware of: those companies who hire in Spaineven if they are remote, must pay taxes in Spain. The problem is that not everyone can bear that additional cost. A complicated labor market A Spanish software developer asked in X to the CEO of Vercela cloud infrastructure platform of Argentine origin, on the availability of vacancies in Spain since, when carrying out the search, they only appeared in Germany and the United Kingdom, when in the past they had hired in Spain. The manager’s response It was simple, but it hid a reality that many companies that want to hire engineers and programmers in Spain face: “Unfortunately, we had to leave Spain; it was incredibly difficult to hire staff and expand our company there. We tried!” The expert analyst of technological employment trends, Gergely Orosz, witness to the conversation, pointed out some of the difficulties that companies that want to hire in other countries find, even if it is a remote work agreement:”(…) explains why ‘remote’ positions are often ‘remote in country X’. When a company employs someone who works remotely in country Y, they must follow the country’s regulations and following those regulations can be costly and time-consuming. Present rigid procedures, mandatory processes with a lot of paperwork, etc. “Most American companies are baffled by these requirements in European countries,” the analyst wrote. You hire in Spain, you pay taxes in Spain Spanish and international legislation, described in article 15 of the Tax Agreement on Income and Wealthdoes not make distinctions between remote or in-person hiring. Therefore, a foreign company that wants to hire someone with tax residence in Spain and who is going to work remotely from the country, must meet exactly the same tax obligations and requirements What if you hire her to go to a physical workplace every day. The problem, to hire someone in Spain, is that the company needs to be registered with Social Security to pay contributions, and have a Tax Identification Number. That is, it is necessary to be a natural or legal person in Spain. This implies that the company should have a tax representative in the country or what is called Permanent establishment. In other words, the foreign company must have a headquarters based in Spain to channel through it hiring in Spanish territory and comply with tax and labor obligations. Tap on the image to go to the original message As entrepreneur and developer David Bonilla points out in a message response thread from the founder of Vercel, there are several options for hiring in Spain, but none of them are easy for companies or workers, especially if they do not have the capacity to open a headquarters (or subsidiary, branch, permanent establishment or any other legal figure of representation) in Spain. The risk of going from worker to “headquarters” Once the headquarters option has been ruled out, the alternatives result in the employee becoming a service company by becoming self-employed or by establishing a limited company and billing its services to the foreign company as a commercial activity, not labor. However, that would mean walking on a knife’s edge for two reasons: the first is that if there is not a very clear definition of the commercial terms and conditions, the relationship can be interpreted as signs of employmentwhich brings us to the figure of the false self-employed. On the other hand, the Tax Agency could consider that these self-employed workers or companies act as a subsidiary of the company to which they invoice, so they must respond not only for their activity, but also for that of the “parent” company. On the other hand, it is also possible to do it by intermediary recruitment platforms as Deel either remote. These companies act as a bridge between the worker and the companies, preventing the contractor from having to assume all the tax procedures. Therefore, in some way, despite working for the company that contracts the service, from an administrative point of view you will really be working for the intermediary that provides the service. The use of these intermediaries (Employer of Record or EOR) increases the labor cost bill by between 10% and 20%, which leaves Spanish employees in a less competitive position with respect to other countries. In general terms, the difficulties that the CEO of Vercel pointed out for its deployment in Spain is that, to hire a single person in Spain and remotely, they need to comply with the same requirements as for hiring 1,000 employees. If the company’s priority is not to be present in the Spanish market, the implementation effort to hire one or more people is not worth it. This implies that it is conditional to hire in Spain, even if it is for work remotely from Spainbecause that company already has infrastructure in the country. This tax and labor policy is much more lax in countries like the US, the United Kingdom or India, which is why it is much more common for large technology companies to hire programmers and remote employees in those markets. In Xataka | Finding a job had always been a good way to escape poverty: in Spain it is no longer true Image | Unsplash (Magnus Andersson, Thammy Kolb)

a paradox that baffles scientists

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It is one of the cruelest paradoxes of modern neurology: women are diagnosed with the Alzheimer’s disease almost twice as many times as men. And the question in this case was obligatory: why? The first theories They pointed to brain agingpointing out that women’s brains deteriorate faster. But now, everything has changed radically. A published study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) Not only does it disprove this hypothesis, but it reveals just the opposite: the brains of healthy men seem to age and shrink faster. But even so, the expected effect is not what we see in the prevalence of the disease. Until now, studies on sex differences in brain aging have produced conflicting results. While some suggested a greater loss of gray matter in men, others pointed to a more pronounced deterioration. The method. To clarify this picture, an international team of scientists has carried out one of the largest analyzes to date. To do this, they analyzed 12,638 longitudinal brain MRIs of 4,726 cognitively healthy participants (2,181 men and 2,545 women). The participants, in this case, aged between 17 and 95, underwent at least two brain scans at an average interval of 3.3 years. This allowed the researchers to observe not a still photo, but actual structural changes in the brain over time, controlling for factors such as head size. Further deterioration. The results, after adjustments, were surprisingly clear: Men experienced greater volume and thickness reduction in more brain regions than women. Men showed a more pronounced decrease in cortical thickness in regions such as the cuneus, lingual gyrus, and parahippocampal. They also showed a greater reduction in surface area in the fusiform and postcentral cortex. For example, the postcentral cortex, responsible for processing sensations such as touch and pain, decreased at an annual rate of 0.20% in men compared to 0.12% in women. Furthermore, in older adults it was seen that men also showed greater contraction in key subcortical structures such as the caudate, putamen and nucleus accumbens. In contrast, women only showed greater surface area reduction in the superior temporal sulcus and greater ventricular expansion in old age. The conclusion. The study’s main conclusion is as compelling as it is puzzling: sex differences in age-related brain decline are “unlikely” to explain why women have a higher prevalence of Alzheimer’s diagnoses. Amy Brodtmann, a researcher at Monash University, agrees, adding that if these changes were responsible for Alzheimer’s, we would expect to see greater deterioration in women in areas crucial for memory, such as the hippocampus, something the study did not find in its main analyses. This forces the scientific community to look for other explanations. The results suggest that the higher prevalence of Alzheimer’s in women is likely due to factors other than brain atrophy due to age. There are nuances. The authors of the study themselves recognize that the disease is a complex phenomenon. One of the limitations of the study is that the sample of participants had higher educational levels than the general population, a known protective factor against Alzheimer’s, which may not be fully representative. Furthermore, the study introduces a fascinating nuance. When the researchers adjusted the data not for chronological age, but for remaining life expectancy, several of the differences disappeared. In this scenario, women even showed a greater decline in hippocampal volume. This could indicate that terminal, near-death brain changes play an important role, but more research is needed to confirm this. Images | Natasha Connell In Xataka | You don’t need more hours in the day. All you need is to understand how the brain works to work better with less.

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