biggest

Mobile phones in China are suffering the biggest price increase in five years. The culprit is not a manufacturer: it is AI

by

Smartphones face a year of challenges due to the price of basic components such as RAM. The predictions They are already talking about increases of between 90 and 150 dollars for basic mobile phones, and between 300 and 400 dollars in the case of high-end mobile phones. AI is about to blow up an industry that has claimed its first victim: Meizu. Go for it, leave almost everything. I still remember that MWC last year when I stopped by the Meizu stand. I liked what I saw: new batch mobiles, with balanced hardware, the design and ROM that I fell in love with almost a decade ago and a shocking promise: the manufacturer was preparing its global launch. A history of mobile manufacturing in China, about to return to Europe as an alternative to manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Honor or OPPO. what has happened. Recently, Meizu has announced its exit from the smartphone market to focus their efforts on AI. In addition to the strong competition in its local market, the sharp rise in RAM prices makes it difficult for the manufacturer to be competitive against more established brands. It is a movement similar to that of ASUS, which He has said goodbye to his Zenfone family to focus on AI solutions and other types of products. The death of the quality-price mobile phone? 2026 will be a critical year for quality-price mobile phones. For years, manufacturers have been able to play with relatively comfortable margins: RAM abundance Component recycling A supply chain at your entire disposal The RAM giants have their shelves collapsed due to requests related to AI, and cheap modules have completely stopped being a priority. The dilemma. IDC analysts make it clear that we are witnessing a major shock in the supply chain. It’s not a temporary high: AI has completely changed market priorities, and things like RAM won’t stabilize in price anytime soon. Historically, we have normalized annual cycles and launches “just because”, even though there was no hardware or news to justify the launch of clone phones year after year. Maybe and just maybe, the price crisis will make manufacturers have to rethink their strategy. Image | Meizu In Xataka | Expensive and premium mobile phones are not a fad: they are the new standard, and Motorola knows it

The MacBook Neo is the biggest existential threat to the Windows laptop market. And the manufacturers have no answer

by

Catacrac. This is how the announcement that Apple made with the MacBook Neo. They are modest in specifications, yes, but they have a surprising price/performance ratio if we take into account that it comes from Apple. The company, which seemed like it would never “humiliate itself” with a “cheap” product, has ended up doing just that. And in the process, it has posed an extraordinary threat to Windows laptops with a product that is a missile to the waterline of many manufacturers. A perfect team for many people. We’re all looking for the best product at the best price, and the MacBook Neo is a fantastic balancing act. It is not by far the best laptop one can find, but it is a device with a very reasonable configuration for many people. And it is because many people use the laptop for tasks that do not need more power or features. Apple has also hit the nail on the head with the price: being an Apple product, those 700 euros almost seem like a bargain. A textbook masterstroke. While Windows laptop manufacturers get tangled up in justifying why a laptop It should cost 1,500 euros to do everything you want (not to mention the AI ​​options), Apple has on its hands a product that overturns the perception of value. The MacBook Neo does not seek to win performance races, but rather to be the equipment that any student, administrator or home user buys without looking at another alternative. In 2026, true innovation is not to include an incredible NPU, but to offer a product that solves a need and do so at a price that previously seemed an insult by Apple’s standards. Remembering netbooks. Almost 20 years ago the industry tried to move in this direction with netbooks. These Windows laptops were (very) modest, crude and cheap and generated a lot of expectation, but realities soon arrived. Its limitations were so obvious that they were not worth it, and the concept of the “modest, cheap and functional laptop” was perhaps ahead of its time. Cupertino has arrived on time. Apple seems to have arrived at the right time, because we have been saying for years that mobile chips were already extraordinarily powerful and were wasted both in our smartphones and (especially) in iPads. The MacBook Neo is what netbooks should always be—well, maybe a little expensive for a netbook—with the difference that here the features promise to be much more adequate. Slap for Windows on ARM. The appearance of this team is also a very hard blow for all those teams that have tried to Windows on ARM it made sense. We have seen several throughout these years and everything seemed to indicate that Microsoft and the manufacturers they had a chancebut they have ended up making computers that were basically clones of their variants with Intel/AMD in almost everything. With more autonomy and many AI functionsYes, but with often high prices and with some software limitations because the Windows ecosystem on ARM architecture is not nearly as prepared as Apple’s with macOS, which completed that transition after the launch of the M1 in 2020. There is hope for Microsoft and its users. Manufacturers of Windows equipment will now have to react and come up with competitive options. And they certainly have the potential to do so. Qualcomm has its Snapdragon Meanwhile, NVIDIA already has its SoCs for laptops almost ready —we saw them at CES— so we may be looking at a “second era of netbooks” in which the MacBook Neo competes with Windows/ARM machines on price and features. Of course, it remains to be seen what the real performance, autonomy and reliability of these future devices, including Apple’s, are. Suddenly Apple has a catalog of “affordable” products that puts its competitors in trouble. Beyond the Chromebook. The MacBook Neo could be seen as a “Chromebook killer”, but Google has stopped promoting them and manufacturers no longer lend them either so much attention. In fact, the future of Google laptops It seems to go through Android, not ChromeOS. While the MacBook Neo can certainly be a very reasonable device for students, it is actually an attack on the conventional “home laptop” with which HP, Dell or ASUS have always triumphed. Apple’s prestige plays a lot in its favor here, and it may win over not only young people, but also many other users who saw Apple as an aspirational brand that was too exclusive for their budgets. Memory makes everything more expensive… except the MacBook Neo. Furthermore, this launch moment could not be more cruel for Windows laptop manufacturers. All of them have already been warning that they will have to raise prices due to the RAM memory crisis, but Apple has done just the opposite: instead of presenting more expensive products—well, has also done it—, the firm has uncovered a functional and affordable bet that does not punish consumers. Sacrifices must be made, yes, but they are reasonable, especially in view of events. Apple has shown that you can be “humble” in price without losing your identity, and now it remains to be seen what the response of Windows equipment manufacturers is. Because what is clear is that that answer will come. And it is likely that after all this launch it will end up being very good news for us, the users. In Xataka | Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play

BYD sales have fallen 41% in China. It is the biggest symptom that something much more serious is happening in your industry.

by

They are very specific days but the data is the data. And the data says much more because of what it hides than what it says at first. BYD has fallen 41% in sales during the Chinese New Year holidays. The problem is that the Chinese market seems to be slowing down. And BYD isn’t the only company feeling it. 41%. This is, as we said, how much BYD sales have fallen in China during the month of February 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. The data is provided by CarNewsChina where it is also noted that it is 9.5% less than last January, so the trend does not invite optimism. In the middle they point out that this fall coincides with a Chinese New Year that in 2026 has completely departed the month of February. These are days in which sales inevitably fall because citizens live immersed in the largest migration in the world and this year has been one of the longest festive periods in recent years. In 2025, these festivals occupied the last days of January so that during the remainder of the month they were able to reach cruising speed, which exacerbates the decline. The price war. BYD’s low sales are exacerbated by a stagnating local market. To continue encouraging sales, BYD, Tesla or Xiaomi are offering financing for seven years. Something common in our country but a rarity that is becoming consolidated in China and that makes another detail clear: there is no room to continue lowering prices. Already in January, the China Passenger Car Association announced that sales had fallen 13.9% compared to the same month in 2025. The situation was more complicated among “new energy” vehicles, as plug-in hybrids, electric and extended-range electric vehicles are called. In this case, the drop reached 20%. Obviously, for BYD, Tesla or Xiaomi, who only offer electric or plug-in cars, the former, the situation is more delicate. A must-see. Exporting has become an almost obligatory outlet for BYD. Although its sales have decreased in the local market, exports have exceeded 100,000 units and that represents a growth of more than 50%. And there are already four consecutive months with shipments of this volume, they point out in CarNewsChina. Although BYD’s progress had been slow in Europe until recently, in 2025 they grew 270% on our continent. January has also been a good year (they almost triple their position compared to January 2025, they point out in The Energy Newspaper) and is a boost to a policy that has opted to give more for less money within plug-in vehicles. If we talk about Spain, one of the most important countries for BYD right now outside of China, BYD has placed two electric cars among the 10 best-selling cars so far this year and another two among the five best-selling plug-in hybrids. Much more than a symptom. Although we have focused on BYD sales, what is clear is that in 2026, car sales will not start in China. In The New York Times They reflect the drop in the company’s share price, which has lost part of the support of investors. But the problem goes beyond the brand’s headquarters. Mike Smithfrom Washington and Lee University, points out to the American media that 40% of the vehicle production generated by China is not being used, according to his calculations. This is not the first time that there has been talk of Chinese overproduction of automobiles. The constant evolutions in the product have made products launched just a few months before obsolete, pushing the price war even further. And with a country overproducing cars and evolutions at a dizzying pace, it is logical that the customer stops purchasing, expecting a better car at a better price in the short term. Photo | EEYAUT Waihung on Wikimedia In Xataka | Same car, three names, three prices and one reality: China has chosen Mexico as the spearhead of its exports

Zuckerberg in the front row of Prada seems like a mistake in The Matrix, but it’s actually Meta’s biggest statement of intent

by

Any regular attendee of Milan Fashion Week know what to expect in the first row: a perfectly choreographed ecosystem of K-pop idols, internet stars and Hollywood actors with million-dollar contracts. However, at the presentation of the Prada Fall/Winter 2026 women’s collection, a figure appeared which at first glance seemed like a mistake in The Matrix: Mark Zuckerberg. As the magazine points out GQthe usual fashion audience is undergoing a metamorphosis and the technological elite is reclaiming its place in the spotlight, as demonstrated the appearance by Jeff Bezos in Jonathan Anderson’s debut for Dior. However, the founder of Meta did not finish blending in with the environment. As described The Times With a certain British irony, Zuckerberg looked tense in front of the flashes, like “someone who has ever heard of the concept of sitting on a bench, but has never tried it,” awkwardly spreading his fingers over his pants and not really knowing where to look as the models paraded. But what are the Silicon Valley elite doing there? Despite its recent change of image – which some have dubbed the Zuckaissanceleaving behind his uniform of gray t-shirts for Balenciaga clothes and gold chains—his presence in Milan does not respond to the mere whim of a shopping tourist. It’s a top-notch corporate chess move. As detailed The Timesthe key was in the seating arrangement (the coveted Frow either front row). Zuckerberg was not placed next to any random celebrity, but strategically shoulder to shoulder with Lorenzo Bertelli, Prada’s marketing director and son of designer Miuccia Prada. At his side, his wife, Priscilla Chan, shared confidences with none other than Andrea Guerra, executive director of the Italian brand. Besides, they fulfilled the aesthetic duties completely changing her style for the sobriety of Prada. lhaute couture as a Trojan horse. All this social choreography points in a single commercial direction. According to the CNBCMeta and Prada are collaborating closely to launch luxury smart glasses powered by artificial intelligence. The corporate bridge that connects Silicon Valley with Milan is already built. Goal has been collaborating for years successfully with EssilorLuxottica, the Franco-Italian giant that manufactures the current Ray-Ban Meta. Glasses that, by the way, will reach the not inconsiderable figure of 7 million units sold in 2025. Given that EssilorLuxottica has just renewed its licensing agreement with Prada until the 2030s, the triangulation of the business is evident. The goal of this maneuver is to legitimize personal surveillance technology through exclusivity. As explained TechCrunch, Bringing AI to high fashion fills a niche that more sporty or casual brands like Oakley and Ray-Ban can’t reach. Consolidating these glasses as a symbol of status and luxury is the definitive step to benefit the global image of the Meta brand. The technological muscle behind the design. For a Prada product to make sense, the technology inside cannot fail, and this is where the specialized technology media provides the crucial context. As explained in an in-depth analysis by my colleague Lacort in Xatakahe hardware The current Ray-Ban Meta is brilliant—fantastic as speakers and great as a discreet camera—but its software is the weak link. Your “Meta AI” assistant currently feels like a “clueless intern” suffering from a lack of context and erratic responses. To solve this and live up to a luxury label, Meta has taken out the checkbook. Another recent report by Xataka details that the company has just signed a multi-million dollar agreement with NVIDIA to acquire its new generation of server infrastructure (the Rubin architecture and Grace processors). Mark Zuckerberg knows that to sell the glasses of the future he needs to achieve what he calls “personal superintelligence”, processing data in real time without the current glitches, whatever the cost. The elephant in the room. Despite the change of look and multi-million dollar investment, Meta faces a challenge that fashion cannot easily hide. Just a few days before sitting on the catwalk, the owner of Meta was testifying in a Los Angeles courtroom in a landmark trial over social media addiction. Most ironic of all, the judge threatened to hold her team in contempt for showing up in the courtroom wearing Meta glasses equipped with a camera, in a place where recording is prohibited. As he warns TechCrunch, Prada glasses will arrive at a time of growing citizen rejection of constant surveillance devices. Society is beginning to react against invasive technology. The rejection is so real that, as the media highlights, there is already a developer who has created a mobile application exclusively to notify you if someone around you is wearing AI glasses. This raises serious doubts about whether Meta will dare to incorporate controversial features such as facial recognition, something that The New York Times He already suggested that it was under study. Does the devil wear Prada? At the end of the parade, one detail did not go unnoticed. As observed Business InsiderZuckerberg was not wearing his signature Meta smart glasses while sitting in the front row. And he didn’t need it. The photograph of him sitting next to Prada’s leadership was the message in itself. Silicon Valley has finally understood that to convince millions of people to wear a camera, microphone and AI on their faces every day, design matters as much as microchips. The next great technological revolution will not be announced in an aseptic California auditorium with a presenter in jeans; It is being decided right now, under the spotlight on the Milan catwalk. Image | José Goulao and Mark Zuckerberg Xataka | AMD wants to be the great alternative to NVIDIA in AI chips, and Meta has a plan that involves both

their biggest problem is us

by

Of all the places in the world, the Limonium estevei “chose” a very specific place to live, evolve and develop: a beach in the municipality of Mojácar, in the southeastern end of the peninsula. What the poor thing didn’t know is that it was a bad place to survive. Scientists, however, have known this for a long time. Although they were wrong. The “Mojácar immortelle” is an ultra-endemism of the Mediterranean coast of Almería and, therefore, experts have feared for years that hybridization would wipe it out. But, all those years, the immortelle has held up. Now, a study from the University of Almería published in ‘Biodiversity and Conservation’ has discovered that, although there are hybrids with the L. cossonianumthe risk of this erasing the genetic identity of the species does not exist. Your problem is another. Location, location, location. The problem, as researchers have discovered, is that its persistence depends on preserving its edaphic niche. That is to say, it only grows in deliriously specific soils and if those soils disappear, the immortelle has a very difficult time. This would only be a problem if, by chance, the coastline were in danger. Because Limonium estevei It is a textbook species at risk: a single fragmented population highly dependent on its ecological niche that has no margin for survival in the face of changes in the ecosystem. And that ecosystem, unfortunately, has enormous tourist potential: Macenas, the beach in question, is in the spotlight of the construction companies in that area of ​​the country. It’s a matter of time before it fills up with people. The great paradox of the Spanish coast. Although one of its main heritages is bioecological, the Spanish coast is a terrain with strong incentives to self-destruct. The Algarrobico It’s just a few meters away. In other words, what researchers have discovered is that yes, the culprit is tourism: a model that is based on residential use and the construction of recreational infrastructure on the beachfront. And we do not have clear tools to stop it. The immortelle is, like so many others, an example of everything that fails in the system. And what is worse, of everything that we cannot solve. Image | Juanjo In Xataka | 50 years ago a German started a futuristic paradise in Lanzarote. Nobody imagined that it would end up being the most famous ruin on the island

become the biggest fortune in Europe

by

Amancio Ortega has been the greatest fortune in Spain. However, the founder of Inditex is getting closer to regaining the throne as the richest European according to the list of Forbes. In recent years, the Leonese magnate’s assets have grown thanks to the good stock market performance of Inditex but, above all, due to the profitable real estate investments of his second billion-dollar empire: Pontegadea. ​Race for the European throne. According to Forbes data, Bernard Arnault is currently the richest person in Europe and ranks seventh in the world. global ranking with an approximate fortune of $158.3 billion thanks to LVMH, the luxury fashion and beverage empire he founded. For his part, Amancio Ortega occupies tenth place on the Forbes list with a net worth of $148.9 billion, which leaves a difference of about $9.4 billion between both magnates. An increasingly smaller difference. $9.4 billion may seem like an insurmountable difference to anyone, but in reality a bad afternoon in the stock market can make the surprise possible. Ortega controls almost 60% of Inditex, which multiplies the impact of its rises in the stock market. In 2024, the gap between both millionaires was enormous. Bernard Arnault came from being the richest person in the worldand between both millionaires there was a difference of 130,000 million dollars in favor of the French magnate. However, Inditex’s growth and good stock market results contrasted with LVMH’s successive declines in sales in Asia. Weakness in luxury compared to the solidity of Inditex. Precisely those opposite trends of LVMH and Inditex are what increase Ortega’s chances of becoming the biggest fortune in Europe. LVMH registered a decrease 13.3% in its profits and 5% in turnover in its latest annual results, which caused a drop of more than 8% in the stock market in the first session and 19.4% in the last month. This instability in luxurywith brands such as Louis Vuitton, Moët & Chandon or Tiffany & Co., has weakened the equity of the company’s shareholders. Louis Vuitton matrix. On the other hand, Inditex charted an upward trajectory, reaching 58 euros per share last week, its all-time high, registering a capitalization of 177.8 billion euros. This divergence in the stock market explains why Ortega’s fortune is only one step from Arnault’s. Pontegadea: the key to growth. Beyond the fluctuations in Inditex’s prices, Pontegadea, Amancio Ortega’s investment holding company, is positioned as the most solid pillar of the Spanish tycoon’s assets. Your real estate investments, energy networks and logistics are not subject to fluctuations in the stock market, which is why they contribute to making Ortega’s fortune much more stable than that of the French millionaire. Recently, Pontegadea bought the Australian group Qube for 6,895 million euros together with Macquarie, adding more than 9,000 million in logistics investments from 2022. These operations in ports as PD Ports and assets in Vancouver or Miami diversify the portfolio of Ortega’s investment arm with stable incomes in consolidated sectors or growing. In Xataka | How much money Amancio Ortega has: how the fortune of the richest man in Spain is distributed Image | GTRES, Flickr (Trump White House Archived)

China brought humanoid robots to the country’s biggest television show: it made them practice kung-fu with millimeter precision

by

Every year, hundreds of millions of people in China sit in front of the television to watch the Spring Festival Gala, recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the most watched annual program on the planet. It is not only a music and dance show, but also a showcase where the country decides what image it wants to project of itself. In this scenario of maximum visibility, the presence of humanoid robots ceases to be a simple technological curiosity and begins to function as a public declaration about the place that innovation occupies in the national narrative. What happened there was not just an artistic number, but a clear clue as to where the Asian giant is looking when it thinks about its technological future. Kung fu, choreography and coordination. To present their robots to millions of spectators, the organizers turned to a deeply recognizable symbol: martial arts. In the CCTV broadcast available on YouTube We can see robots using traditional weapons such as swords and nunchucks, as well as doing tricks and jumping from trampolines, always in sequences shared with human performers. The choice of kung fu provided more than just visual spectacularity, it can also be interpreted as a close way of reading technological advancement within a tradition known to the public. The magnitude of the event. The Spring Festival Gala has been broadcast since 1983 and is an inseparable part of the New Year celebration in hundreds of millions of homes. Reuters also describes it as an event comparable, in terms of media scale, to the American Super Bowl, capable of concentrating popular culture, political message and industrial ambition in a single night. What appears in that scenario entertains and, at the same time, projects a message and indicates priorities. A gateway for the industry. Behind the staging there were specific names and a visible strategy. They participated in the gala companies known in the West such as Unitree, but others less known such as MagicLab, Galbot and Noetix. The immediate precedent helps to understand the moment: Unitree’s robot performance in the previous edition went viral and, in a way, brought this technology closer to the general public. So the idea of ​​betting on a similar show again is reasonable. From the stage to the factory. The public display of these systems fits with a line of industrial policy that places robotics and AI at the center of the next Chinese manufacturing stage. In recent years we have seen how the Asian giant has invested heavily in this sector. According to OmdiaChina accounted for around 90% of the nearly 13,000 humanoid robots shipped worldwide last year, a global shipping metric that does not go unnoticed. Morgan Stanley also projects that Chinese sales could exceed 28,000 units this year, which would point to a notable expansion phase. In Xataka There are people sharing their court cases with AI. The problem is when a judge considers the conversations as evidence In the end, what was seen on that stage went beyond well-executed choreography. Behind each movement appeared a country narrative that combines technological ambition, industrial policy and cultural projection in the same television image. The question is no longer whether these robots can perform in front of millions of people, but rather how much their presence will grow in the coming years and into what spaces of daily life they will end up integrating. For now, its massive presence is destined for this type of spectacle. Images | CCTV In Xataka | While technology companies dispense with juniors to replace them with AI, IBM is doing the opposite: catching bargains (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news China brought humanoid robots to the country’s biggest television show: it made them practice kung-fu with millimeter precision was originally published in Xataka by Javier Marquez .

The biggest geopolitical risk on the planet is not Greenland. It’s a smaller island with a disturbing neighbor: Taiwan

by

Throughout the cold warthere were points on the map whose real value was not measured by their size, but by what could be triggered if someone tried to force the situation. Today, one of those places once again concentrates gazes, calculations and uncomfortable silences among the great powers. and it is not in Greenlandbut on a smaller island. The global risk enclave. The tension between United States and China is concentrating increasingly evident in Taiwan, a territory small in size but enormous in strategic consequences. While Washington allows itself dramatize scenarios secondary in the Arctic, Chinese military maneuvers around the island they have been become routineincreasingly aggressive and similar to real blocking or maximum pressure tests. The absence of clear and quick responses from the White House projects a dangerous sign in a context where deterrence depends less on formal declarations than on immediate political reflections. The deterrence that is called into question. The contrast between Trump’s political lukewarmness and the warnings of the US military apparatus itself has opened a visible crack. The Telegraph said that Pentagon commanders have been warning for some time that China is preparing to be able to fight and win a conflict over Taiwan before the end of the decade, although that diagnosis does not always translate into credible public messages. This dissonance reduces the perceived cost of a Chinese action and leaves open the possibility of a calculation error on Xi Jinping’s part, especially if he interprets American caution as a lack of will. Taiwan as a key piece. Taiwan’s importance to the United States is not symbolic, but rather structural. We are talking about an advanced democracy in a region dominated by authoritarian regimes, one that houses the core of world production advanced semiconductor and is part of the first island chain that limits military projection China in the Pacific. From that perspective, the fall would be a direct blow to the global economy, Western technological superiority and Washington’s strategic credibility in Asia. Taiwan Navy It’s not 1996 anymore. Unlike previous crises, when American naval and air superiority was overwhelming, today the balance is much tighter. China has built a navy larger than the American in number of ships, an air force with hundreds of fifth generation fighters and, above all, a massive arsenal conventional missiles capable of hitting bases, ports and fleets at great distances. Although the United States continues to spend more on defense, lower Chinese industrial costs and its geographic proximity to the theater of operations significantly erode that advantage. The “logistics” weapon. The New York Times recalled in a column that one of the factors that moderated Beijing’s behavior for years was its dependence on critical raw materials from countries aligned with the West, especially Australian iron ore. That brake is weakening as China secure supplies alternatives from Africa, reducing their vulnerability to sanctions or blockades in the event of conflict. The result: an environment in which the economic costs of a war over Taiwan, while enormous, are already They are not so deterrent for Beijing as they were in the past. No clear winner. The open simulations and internal leaks From Washington they agree on a most uncomfortable diagnosis: if necessary, a war over Taiwan it would be devastating even for those who managed to impose their immediate objective. China could fail in invasion, but the United States and its allies would pay a military price not seen since World War II, with massive losses of aircraft, ships and personnel. Taiwan, even if it managed to resist, would be deeply damaged as a country and as a global economic engine, dragging the world into a prolonged crisis. The island that weighs the most. All this explains why Taiwan is, by far, the increased geopolitical risk of the planet at this time and a strategic priority, surely far above scenarios like greenland. It is not about territory, or not only, but about credibility, balance of power and stability of the international system between two superpowers. And, on that board, every gesture of ambiguity counts, and every sign of weakness can bring closer a conflict that no one would win on paperbut whose consequences would affect everyone. Image | Pexels, 總統府 In Xataka | China has just shown the world that it “plays” in another league: it only needs one soldier to control 200 drones in combat In Xataka | China’s best weapon doesn’t fire a single bullet: 300km ‘moving wall’ to close sea routes instantly

four years later it is experiencing the biggest audience crisis in its history

by

Telecinco has lost its way. Since the disappearance of Sálvame from his grill and the definitive closure of the Vasile era, the chain seems to have been left in no man’s land. The initial idea in summer 2023 was clear: Ana Rosa would take over the afternoons of that audience that was orphaned without Jorge Javier’s farmhouse. On the other hand, that was the first setback and what led to the fact that, faced with more than discreet audiencesthe presenter returned to her comfort zone, recovering the morning space. From then on, the situation did not rather than getting worse. With Joaquín Prat becoming the currency of the chain, the commitment to new contests and a weekend that, despite a rebranding constant (‘Viva la Vida’, ‘Ya es Verano’, ‘Fiesta’…) belongs for life to Emma García, the data remains unrecorded; In fact, the new stage of its news programs led by someone very established in that space within TVE has not even worked, as is Carlos Franganillo. The numbers show how little benefit the change of direction and this replacement of the Mediaset leadership is. And it is not only the new CEOs who have been unable to turn it around to the situation, but, paradoxically, the only thing that holds the chain is the Vasile inheritance. The audiences are clear: Telecinco finds it difficult to exceed 10% of the daily share and has been in decline for four years, with a historical monthly low 8% in August 2025. What is happening? Vasile continues to keep Mediaset afloat If we review what Mediaset has defined through its flagships, we can get an idea of ​​the type of programming that the audience wants and expects from the network, in addition to its editorial approach. During Valerio Lazarov’s era the ‘Mama Chicho’ led; Maurizio Carlotti will be remembered for promoting series such as ‘Family Doctor’ or iconic formats such as ‘Martian Chronicles’; and in the Vasile stage we remember that essence ‘Save me’. However, what stood out in its content management was the firm commitment to reality television and circular content, a move that was undoubtedly key to the chain’s success. The contestants of the latest edition of GH. ‘Big Brother’, ‘Hotel Glam’, ‘The Farm’, ‘Survivors’… The choice of this type of format may have seemed at the time a risky maneuver to boost the audience, but the truth is that the active participation of the public, its involvement in the personal plots of the contestants and the enormous amount of associated content that did nothing more than regurgitate the realities (debates, gatherings, 24-hour connections…) managed to keep an audience tremendously dedicated to reality television hooked and in suspense. Maybe the concept reality It was moving away from the classic contest format, but its essence remained intact and it was consolidated for years as the driving force of the network. ‘Women and Men and Vice Versa’ or ‘Sálvame’ were still, deep down, a 2.0 version of reality television. To understand and stay up to date with the cameos, the cross accusations and the melodramatic plots, it was essential to follow the different spaces spread throughout the grid, where the contestants, journalists and collaborators were part of the same network, which ended up building an extraordinarily loyal audience. Now we are in the middle of 2025 and after the debacle in hearings and the futile attempts to overcome the sharewhile the new management intends to more than shelve the Vasile stage, the only thing that it seems to still work as a claim to the public it is ‘Temptation Island’. A format that is still the natural evolution of Telecinco’s original reality television, more current and oriented towards young audiences, although keeping intact the philosophy of entertainment and controversy that defined the Vasile era. And this is not an isolated case: the other space that maintains acceptable figures in the chain is ‘Friday’a show that wants to appear whiter and more moderate in tone but is still another variant of the heartfelt programs that historically always triumphed on Telecinco during the reign of Paolo Vasile, such as Salsa Rosa or Sálvame Deluxe. Was this the revolution? Therefore, everything seems to indicate that the more they want to clean the slate, the more they need to resort to the ghosts of the past. As a way forward they wanted to rely on a format like ‘Big Brother‘ but this only highlighted the key deficiency: we have a Mediaset without a soul. There is no longer a synergy of programs with the same zeitgeist which in its day provided, for example, ‘Sálvame’. Without that transversal ecosystem that was nourished by that reality television, it is very difficult for a format like Big Brother to once again have the success of yesteryear. The contents appear too dispersed, without a clear common thread and, thus, the grid lacks cohesion. It seems that the solution and innovation proposed by the new management is based on decisions that go from bad to worse. When the debate on ‘Temptation Island’ (remember: its star program with three (!) weekly broadcasts), is relegated to the ‘Mediaset Infinity’ platform and on the contrary, they insist on broadcasting the debate of a program that gave his last blows like ‘Big Brother’ mean that the viewer was not surprised by that “sudden” cancellation of the format with an express final. The combination of a worn-out program, increasingly stronger competition, changes in consumer habits, the questionable selection of anonymous contestants and a fragmented programming has sentenced an edition of Big Brother with data that do not reach 10% of shareand confirming that the reality emblematic no longer connects with the audience like before; also entering into direct contrast with the wonderful data of ‘Temptation Island’; a fresher, viral and intense format that challenges the viewer. Only ‘Temptation Island’ saves the furniture. Mediaset only has to analyze how it is possible that a format like ‘The House of Twins’ has eaten the toast of his GH edition; … Read more

A beetle is decimating the population of Salamanca. And the biggest problem is that it is protected

by

The story is old, He is almost 20 years old: a protected beetle is destroying the Salamanca oak forests. It is a wood borer that digs galleries in the oaks and ends up weakening them to the point of death. The aggravation. And, although it is true that the dehesa is a very small and localized ecosystem, its economic, social and symbolic importance is enormous. Therefore, the idea of ​​a plague that is ‘drilling’ the productive infrastructure of western Spain and that cannot be controlled because it is “in danger of extinction” makes many people nervous. The problem, as always, is that the matter is a little more complicated. What is that Cerambyx pig? Also known as ‘greater capriconium of the oaks‘, it is one of the largest beetles left in Europe. It is relatively easy to recognize it because it has disproportionate, enormous antennae, longer than the body itself. And yes, indeed, the Habitats Directive protects it at European level. That is, member states have the obligation to establish special areas for their conservation. What happens is that in Spain, at least, this has generated problems: to what we have already mentioned about the oak forests of Castilla y León, we must add the case of the Balearic Islands where the authorities they dedicate million-dollar budgets to protect the Tramuntana Mountains from the overpopulation of these insects. So it is a problem, right? Yes of course. What happens is that a small detail is usually ignored: that, as technical studies have been saying for decadesthe most susceptible trees are usually old or in poor physiological condition. That is to say, historically the greater Capricorn had an almost symbiotic relationship with ecosystems: it helped ‘renew’ the forest, eliminating trees in poor condition. That is, the current problem it’s not just the beetle: it is the poor state of the mountains and pastures. Disrepair? a few weeks ago we were talking de la Seca, a serious disease caused by a pathogen (Phytophthora cinnamomi), linked directly to the decay and death of holm oaks and cork oaks. But, as we also said, despite the alarmism about pests, they are the consequence of decades of bad forestry practices that have undermined the ecosystem from within. The pasture, we already know, is not a ‘virgin natural environment’: it is a very complex agro-silvo-pastoral system the result of centuries of forest clearing, extensive grazing and human uses of all kinds. Practices that have disappeared and have been replaced by other industrial practices that applied little management and a lot of brute force. To that, we must also add climate change. Mytec What is in danger of extinction is the ecosystem. That is the real problem: the hundreds and thousands of trees in poor condition, with strong water stress and problems of all kinds. And that’s where pests grow. Let’s go back to the beetle. Because, of course, its special protection status makes managing it even more difficult than normal. That’s why, The normal complaint is that “you can’t fumigate”: but that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘fight’. Things like silvicultural prevention, surveillance and advanced technical means can help control populations. Furthermore, the same regulations that protect it allows more serious approaches when necessary. However, the problem is the same as always: the forest (even a forest as socio-economically important as the dehesa) is only profitable if the externalities generated by its exploitation are not considered. The best examplewe have been seeing in Murcia for years. Image | Mytec / Josh Hume In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.