alarming Archives - usatoday24

The result is clear, alarming and there is no turning back

May 23, 2026 by usatoday24

There is an unquestionable reality with the data in hand: In Spain it rains less now than 30 years ago. In fact, the climate has changed since the 90s: temperatures have risen, summers are longer and those rain patterns essential for activities such as agriculture or aquifer recharge are no longer what they used to be. The Spanish state is one of the regions of the planet where climate change is being seen more and better worse. In this climatic context, precipitation data tells a crystal clear story. Meteorologist Roberto Granda from Eltiempo.es has used AEMET Opendata records to draw maps that compare the average annual rainfall between the periods 1961–1990 and 1996–2025 in 71 stations with continuous data for more than 60 years. The first of these periods is not chosen at random: it is the reference climate norm fixed by the World Meteorological Organization, the global standard for detecting anomalies and trends. To distribute the values between stations, Granda applied a geostatistical interpolation technique that incorporates the relief of the terrain, which makes it the most reliable method for mapping precipitation in a geography as irregular as the peninsula. The result is unequivocal: it rains less in Spain, and it is not something specific or local, but structural and widespread throughout almost the entire peninsula. In this climatic context, precipitation data tells a crystal clear story: meteorologist Roberto Granda of Eltiempo.es has used the records of the Spanish Meteorological Agency AEMET Opendata to draw maps that compare the average annual rainfall between the periods 1961 – 1990 and 1996 – 2025 in 71 stations, that is, with continuous data and for more than 60 years. It rains less in Spain and it is not something specific or local: but something structural and that affects almost the entire peninsula. Evolution of average annual precipitation in Spain. Roberto Granda with data from AEMET These first two maps collect the amount of precipitation in both time frames where it can be seen that he rain pattern continues: The north and northwest (Galicia, the Cantabrian coast and the Pyrenees) continue to concentrate the highest rainfall, above 1,500–2,500 millimeters annually, while on the other side of the scale is the southeast of Almería and Murcia, which does not reach 200 mm. But within that known pattern, absolute values have fallen in practically all regions. With the data in hand, it rains less in Spain than it did 60 years ago Difference in precipitation from 1961 to 2025. Roberto Granda The most impressive map is exactly the one above these lines: the difference in rainfall between 1961 and 2025. At a glance it is clear that in almost the entire State the rain is in the red compared to 60 years ago, since the cartography is colored by beige and brown tones on almost the entire peninsular surface. The steepest falls, between 100 and 200 mm per year, are concentrated in inland Galicia, Extremadura and the central-western area. In this last area is Mediterranean aridification at its maximum splendor: the Mediterranean is one of the hot spots of climate change. Fortunately, there are some exceptionsbut they are localized: areas where the variation is practically zero or slightly positive. One of the most obvious is in the extreme northwest of Galicia, especially the Costa da Morte and the province of A Coruña, which maintains or slightly exceeds its historical records thanks to its direct exposure to Atlantic storms. Neutral or slightly greenish tones are also seen in some areas of the Navarrese and Aragonese Pyrenees, and in the corridor of southern Navarra and northern La Rioja, at the transition between the western Pyrenees and the Ebro valley. The meteorologist has also published year-by-year rainfall since the 1990s, allowing for a closer and more detailed analysis. Something that stands out considering the colors is that the variability has skyrocketed. The CSIC has an explanation: Oscillations between dry and humid extremes are precisely a characteristic of the Mediterranean climate under global warming. Precipitation per year. Roberto Granda Although the general trend is less rain, there is years that define the extremes. On the dry side, there are four years that stand out above the rest: the 94-95 biennium, devastating in the south and center of the peninsula, 2005 on the plateau or that 2012 that left reservoirs below minimum levels in half of Spain. At a quick glance, the 2017 orange draws attention: AEMET he rated it as one of the driest years since instrumental records exist. On the wet side, 96 – 97 stand out from what they had before and after, especially in the northwest and central. Also 2010 and 2013 show green and blue coverage well above the average. 2024 deserves special mention: it breaks a long streak and is the wettest year of the last decade in several basins. Of course, a wet year does not work miracles. The AEMET projections are not encouraging: this reduction in rainfall will worsen throughout the 20th century, with decreases of more than 20% in the south and southeast of the peninsula. With longer and more frequent rain events, the rain will be concentrated in more intense, concentrated and tragic events throughout the year. Because paradoxically, this pattern has consequences in both droughts and floods. In Xataka | The temperature your city will have in 2080, simulated on this disturbing interactive map In Xataka | How to see air quality and temperature with Google Maps Cover | Roberto Granda

Tesla’s enormous problem in Germany has an alarming figure and a clear person responsible: Elon Musk

February 15, 2026 by usatoday24

Three out of four potential buyers of an electric car reject the idea of buying a Tesla. The study points to the German market, which is the first electric car market in Europe by sales volume, and explains an important part of Tesla’s failure in Europe during 2025. Three out of four. 75% of potential buyers of an electric car in Germany do not value the idea of buying a Tesla car, according to a study by the German Institute of Economics in collaboration with the Technical University of Dresden. The figure, which in itself is bad, has even more meaning. And that 75% is made up of potential customers who believe it is unlikely to buy a Tesla (15%) and those who completely reject buying a vehicle from this brand (60%). The reason, as we could imagine, is not a question of competition or price. The disaster. Last year, 545,142 electric cars were sold in Germany. It was, by far, the strongest electric car market in Europe. The growth was 43.2% compared to 2024, the year in which just over 380,000 electric cars were sold. Its market share reached 19.1%, above the European average, according to ACEA. For Tesla, however, it was not a great year. In Europe, 150,504 electric vehicles from Elon Musk’s company were sold, 37.9% less than the previous year when 242,436 registrations were registered. The most problematic thing is that the company had achieved a market share of 2.3% (a good bite to eat on the electric car pie, which in 2024 was only 13.6% in the European Union. That is, almost two out of every 10 electric cars sold in Europe were from Tesla. The drop was even more pronounced in Germany. There, the drop was 48.4%, as recorded Reuters at the beginning of the year. And, with everything, It has not been its strongest percentage drop in European countries but the damage in volume is more than evident. The politics. The decision by which the Germans seem to completely reject Tesla is evident to the creators of the study: Elon Musk’s political positioning. According to the authors, political positioning influences the purchase of a car more than sociodemographic characteristics. They point out that young people, those with a higher level of education and those who live in urban areas are more inclined to purchase an electric car. In political terms, Green supporters are the most open to acquiring this technology and AfD (German far-right) voters are the least enthusiastic. On average, they say, the potential customer for an electric car has grown by over 40% and those who reject it outright have also fallen. But the problem for Tesla is that it is not attractive to either group. Among the Greens, only 10.8% value the purchase of a Tesla as their first option and the percentage grows among AfD followers to 15.2% but it must be taken into account that these voters are also less in favor of buying a car of this type. Just lose. The study concludes with a statement: Elon Musk has lost support for buying cars among progressive groups (those who buy the most electric cars or are willing to buy) and has not attracted enough conservative groups to alleviate this disadvantage. The result is a direct consequence of a year 2025 that began with Elon Musk doing a Nazi salute during Donald Trump’s takeover of the United States and which continued with a explicit support of the company’s head for AfD and other far-right parties in Europe. It must be taken into account that this type of political positioning in Germany is much more delicate than in other countries. In Germany the Nazi salute is a crime punished with a fine in minor cases but which can be grounds for imprisonment in more serious cases. Study on preferences when buying an electric car in Germany segmented by political parties. Source: German Institute of Economics The worst option almost always. The image above shows the predisposition of Germans to the type of electric car they want to buy, segmented by their origin and the political parties that these potential customers vote for. According to this data, Tesla is the last option in four of the six political parties studied, even behind Chinese cars as the first option. The latter always surpass him except among CDU and SPD voters (although in both cases a greater percentage considers it possible to buy a Chinese car over a Tesla if we add the second level of predisposition). Tesla reaps the worst results among the Greens and Linke (The Left) and the absolute rejection is greater among the supporters of the latter political party. Chinese cars are, in all cases, the second option chosen when considering those who are willing to buy an electric car and those who value it as a possible purchase. The Germans are the ones who obtain the most support and the first option in all cases, with the greatest support among Green voters and with the AfD as the party with the greatest reluctance to buy it. Photo | Elon Musk in X and German Institute of Economics In Xataka | Tesla is discovering in real time that the most difficult thing was not to build a car brand from scratch: it was to maintain it

60 years ago Singapore lived an alarming housing crisis. Today almost all of its inhabitants have their own home

September 4, 2025 by usatoday24

Singapore is a constrained nation, rich and with one Huge concentration of population, ingredients that a priori invite you to think about a complicated residential market. His most iconic image is in fact that of a ‘skyline’ drawn by huge and brand new skyscraper. However, despite the fact that it has not been oblivious to market reheatingthe city-state presents a curious peculiarity: a overwhelming majority of its population resides in homes promoted by the State and the country has one of the biggest Property rates of the world. His model has fascinates experts for years. A unique country. It is not that the real estate market of Singapore is special, is that it is the nation itself. If it had to be defined with three adjectives, they would be small, concentrated and prosperous. The city-state is barely 720 km2 And he welcomes just over six million people, so that his population density is around 8,200 people/square kilometer. These data make the island nation one of The most concentrated of the planet, behind Macao and Monaco. If we talk about per capita income, an indicator of population wealth, Singapore also sneaks into the top of international rankings. In fact, he heads Asia’s list and stands out on the world map. According to The data which manages the US administration, at least last year there were only two nations that exceed it (both small): Monaco and Liechtenstein. The city-state also stands out for Your concentration of millionaires. Singapore’s paradox. If the country’s economic and demographic data are curious those of its real estate market are no less. Especially because, as he pointed out In March Wei Low In an analysis published in Bloomberg, the city-state presents a “paradox.” Singapore is not cheap for real estate professionals, but at the same time it is surprisingly affordable for its inhabitants, which seem to have no problems when acquiring a house. Does not lead the List of countries With a higher housing property rate, but it is appearing in the upper part of the table, with a percentage much higher than that of Spain. Here the Bank of Spain (BE) Calculate that the percentage of households owned by their main house The European average It was slightly lower, of 69.7%, a percentage that brings together, however realities so disparate such as Romania (96.1%) or Denmark (59.3%). First percentage: 90%. In the case of Singapore the analysts They usually point that the property rate is around 90%. That The reference that is handled from Wei or the one that collects the Trading Economics platform, which Precise that the average property rate in the city-stated between 1980 and 2024 was 89.2%. The last indicator (of 2023) would be 90.8%, a few points below the maximum of 93.1% scored at the beginning of the century. Such a percentage has made often analysts are done a question: How have Singapore managed to reach a rate of ownership of the housing so surprisingly high? Second percentage: 80%. The above is much better understood when knowing Another indicatorequally striking: it is calculated that More than 80% of the population of the country resides in apartments built by the State, which also controls an overwhelming part of the territory. In 2018 Abhas JHA, Urban Development Manager and Risk Management of the World Bank, I calculated that 90% of the land were owned by the administration, almost double that in the 60s. During the same period, between the 7th and the present, the property rate He also shot. Three letters: HDB. To understand these percentages, we must know the recent history of Singapore and especially the origins of one of its fundamental organisms at real estate, HDB, the acronym in English of Housing and Development Board. In the late 50s, when the city-state reached its self -governmentthe Singaporenses authorities met A challenge Capital: its housing park had not grown alongside that the population of Chinese, bad and Indian immigrants, which translated into overcrowding and illegal populations. To solve that pressing “Residential Crisis” In 1960, HDB was created, an organism that was launched with a strong support of the government. In three years he had built 21,000 homes, a couple of years later the figure amounted to 54,000 and after a decade it resulted in the crisis. The result, highlights the organism itself On its websiteIt is that today “about 80% of the population of Singapore resides in HDB homes in 24 cities and three urbanizations.” As a reference, at the beginning of the 1960s only a small part of the Singapurenses (about 9%) resided in houses of public origin. Government graph explaining the sales system to 99 years. One date: 1964. In the residential chronicle of Singapore there is, however, another even more important date, such as remember Bloomberg Agency: 1964. That year the administration decided to offer subsidiary apartments for sale as part of the program ‘Housing access plan for the people’an initiative aimed at medium-low-income families who wish to acquire their own home. Since then the country has continued to polish the system, creating a mechanism that has favors for more than 30 years the mixture of ethnic groups (Chinese, Malays or Indians) to prevent them from forming in the small city “Racial enclaves” and a program that encourages the modernization and reform of the housing park. “Being a home owned citizens a tangible asset and a participation in the construction of the nation. There are more than one million HDB houses, in which 80% of the resident households reside. Of them, nine out of ten are owners of their homes,” stands out The Singapore government. How does the system work? There is an important detail. As remember Administration, The majority From HDB homes are sold with a 99 -year -old lease contract, a formula that, Reason the Government“satisfies the needs of the owners and their children while guaranteeing the rehabilitation of land and building construction.” The formula is not exclusive to the city. In Hong Kong there are also … Read more

The state of the ISS is so alarming that the United States and Russia have sat at the table for the first time in eight years

August 7, 2025 by usatoday24

You have to look back until October 2018 to find the last time that NASA’s top people and her Russian counterpart, Roscosmos, the faces were seen. The launch of the Crew 11 mission has served as an excuse for them to meet again. A meeting to save the furniture. The new general director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, traveled for the first time to the United States last week to witness the launch of the SPACEX CREW-11 MISSIONin which two American astronauts, one Japanese and a Russian one flew to the International Space Station. Bakanov took advantage of the trip to meet with NASA’s acting administrator, Sean Duffy. On the table, the future of a space station that ages by leaps and bounds and The road map for withdrawal in 2030. NASA and ROSCOSMOS are needed. In a global context where war and other geopolitical tensions have affected almost all areas of cooperation, the International Space Station and the exchange of seats in Crew Dragon and Soyuz ships remains one of the few bridges standing. But this has been the first high -level meeting in almost eight years, especially since the previous Chief of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, adopted a belligerent rhetoric against his US partners. According to the Russian state agency TassBakanov and Duffy agreed to extend the shared use of the International Space Station until 2028, as well as a joint process for exorbitation in 2030. “The conversation was quite well,” Bakanov said. The US agency Associated Press He says that both leaders pointed out the need to maintain cooperation in space despite their “strong discrepancies” on Earth. They also agreed to seek the approval of their respective presidents for future joint projects, including lunar and exploration of deep space. The ISS falls apart. This “we have to talk” is not accidental. It occurs at a time when the state of the International Space Station is a matter of “deep concern”, as noted by the NASA Aerospace Security Advisory Panel in April. The Committee described the coming years as “The riskiest period“Of the ISS in all its existence. One of the most serious and persistent problems are Air leaks in the Russian module Zvezdafirst detected in 2019. Despite the multiple attempts to repair them, the module continues to lose air, a qualified problem with the highest level of risk of NASA. To this we must also add other ailments of a structure with almost 30 years components. Lack of spare parts for critical systems, space costumes with technology from the 70s that have caused several incidents, and constant problems with bathroomsamong other headaches. Pension plan. The common denominator of these risks is a huge budget deficit. No government wants to allocate more money to the International Space Station when the priority is to finance future lunar missions and commercial stations. More than a shy thaw, the meeting between Bakanov and Duffy represents the imperative need to jointly manage the last years of the ISS, the largest symbol of international cooperation outside the earth. One of the Keys to this approach It is the contract of almost one billion dollars that NASA awarded Spacex to develop a ship that tow the station towards a safe reentry on the Pacific Ocean. Before Spacex, the ISS partners had considered using Russian progress ships for this task, an option that Roscosos seems to have put back on the table. Be that as it may, the retirement of the ISS already has its date insured by the end of this decade. Image | ROSCOSMOS In Xataka | NASA’s Security Committee has launched a forceful warning on ISS: it is in very poor condition

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