government

“Karoshi” is the scourge that has been undermining the health of Japanese workers for decades. And the Government does not know how to stop it

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It is not a new or unknown phenomenon, but he karoshi (illnesses or even deaths due to overwork) is gaining ground in Japan. This is suggested by at least the latest data from the Ministry of Health, which reflects that last year the Government recognized a record number of those affected with the right to compensation: 1,310. If we take into account all the requests, the figure is 6,212, another record. State records are only one indicator of a much broader problembut they suggest that Japan is a long way from solving it. And that sets off alarm bells. What has happened? That data from the Ministry of Health reveal that Japan is far (very far) from solving one of its thorniest social challenges: illnesses or deaths from karoshithat is, due to work overload. The latest official balance reveals that the number of employees who received government compensation for this reason rose to a level never seen before during fiscal year 2025. That is alarming in itself, but beyond the numbers what is truly worrying is the trend. As remember The Japan Timesit is the fourth consecutive year that the record has been broken and the flow of applications (whether approved or not) is also at historic levels. What do the figures say? The report of the Ministry of Health reveals that in Japan there are hundreds and hundreds of people for whom the Government recognizes the necessary conditions to receive compensation for excess workload. Specifically, during fiscal year 2025 the record of 1,310 was reached. There are only five more than in 2024, but what is relevant is that the number has not stopped growing in recent years. In fact, it is not the first time that alarms have gone off. At the end of 2024 Nippon I already warned of the escalation in the number of documented cases. As if that were not enough, the ministerial report throws out another figure: perhaps there is 1,310 compensatedbut the number of requests is much higher. During the same period it rose to 6,212, another record figure that exceeds that of 2024 by 1,402. Probably not all meet the requirements demanded by Health, but the Japanese press does not clarify whether the difference between both figures (indemnified and applicants) is due to this disparity or a simple administrative issue. Do we know anything else? Yes. The vast majority of compensated people (1,086) had work-related mental disorders, including depression. The remaining 224 suffered strokes and heart attacks. All attributable to his professional work. In 145 cases the outcome was the most traffic: it ended in deaths or suicides, although this is 14 less than in 2024. Among the applications received at the Ministry of Health, the majority (4,958 out of a total of 6,212) are also related to psychological problems. Not only are they the most common, but their incidence is clearly growing: the Government registered 1,178 more than during fiscal year 2024. Their report also reveals that after many cases of karoshi There are problems with bosses, workplace harassment and sudden changes that affect the workload and quality of the work entrusted to the affected person. Does the sector matter? Yes. Those who are most at risk are professionals in sectors in which overtime regulation is less developed. The Japan Times specific quote to bus and truck drivers, doctors and construction workers, trades that have seen their legal framework gradually improve, but in some cases still have certain exceptions. For example, a driver can work up to 960 overtime hours a year, a workload that is also exceeded 15% of doctors that are used in hospitals in Japan. In 2016 they were 39.2%but even so the data is worrying and there are certain specialized profiles in which overtime hours skyrocket. Why is this something worrying? Because illnesses and deaths related to karoshi They are nothing new. The discipline of strenuous work is very rooted in Japanese culture, although it hardened especially after the Second World War. For a time it helped the country advance, but in the 60s it began to pay its price: heart attacks, strokes and even cases of suicide due to stress, the karojisatu. In recent years there have also been very high-profile cases, such as that of a young girl who took his own life in 2015 after sleeping only 10 hours a week due to his work overload and accumulating around 100 overtime hours a month. How do they face it? Against that backdrop, Japan has begun to regulate issues such as overtime and the maximum number of consecutive days that can be linked. However, the results just released by the Ministry of Health reveal that the problem is far from being solved. In the country there are also those who fear the impact that the conservative government may have. Sanae Takaichiwho does not hesitate call meetings team at three in the morning and brag about not sleeping more than four hours. Images | Beth Macdonald (Unsplash), Vien Dinh (Unsplash) and Joris Beugels (Unsplash) In Xataka | Faced with labor shortages, Japan has taken an unprecedented measure in the last two decades: paying women the same

The AP-7 has not had tolls for four years. Now the Government is studying whether to recover them or spend 500 million to expand it

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The AP-7 is once again at the center of the debate on mobility in Catalonia. And just as share El Periódico, the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility has four projects underway to widen the highway with new lanes, a joint investment that exceeds 500 million euros. The works will affect almost a hundred kilometers spread between Vallès, Penedès and Terres de l’Ebre. Why it is important. Since tolls were eliminated in 2021the AP-7 has ceased to be a highway designed primarily for long journeys and has become a road that also supports a good part of the daily traffic of the Barcelona metropolitan area, in addition to an intense passage of trucks of all kinds. This has led to almost daily traffic jams in the most densely populated sections and recurring collapses every summer. In detail. The four projects are: Third lane between L’Hospitalet de l’Infant and Ampostajust over 38 kilometers. It is the most advanced, with the drafting of the project underway since 2023. Fourth lane between the B-23 and Martorellabout nine kilometers, in one of the main accesses to Barcelona, ​​with an estimated cost of 94 million euros. Fourth lane between Sant Celoni and Montornès del Vallèsapproximately 30 kilometers. Fourth lane between Martorell and Vilafranca Centerabout 25 kilometers. These last two are, as far as possible confirm ACN and El Periódico, which until now were not publicly known. Each project is in a different phase of processing, from preliminary studies to final drafting, so none of them yet have a closed execution date. Between the lines. The problem is not just with private cars. Of the 41,000 vehicles that cross the border through La Jonquera on average every day, 15,000 are trucks, according to data of 2025 collected by El Periódico. The Ministry and the Generalitat agree that the railway should absorb a greater part of this freight traffic, but the lack of capacity of the railway network and intermodal terminals, together with a Mediterranean corridor still uncompleted, leaves the road as practically the only competitive option. Meanwhile. Expanding lanes requires years of environmental and administrative procedures, so both administrations have chosen to also act where the highway loses fluidity without the need to build anything new. An agreement of 250 million euros Annually between the Ministry and the Generalitat will allow the remodeling of fifteen links (including Girona Nord and Sud, Maçanet de la Selva, La Roca del Vallès, Montmeló-Parets, the connection with the B-30 or Vilafranca del Penedès) to eliminate the so-called “braided”, the conflictive crossings between vehicles that enter and leave in a few meters and that generate a good part of the delays. And now what. It is also still on the table limit truck overtaking in some sections, an option that the Servei Català de Trànsit is studying to reduce accidents while the works have not yet begun. In parallel, the debate has also resurfaced about whether it is appropriate to introduce a toll or a vignette on high-capacity roads, although both the central government and the Generalitat have ruled out recovering any means of payment for now. The Minister of Territory, Housing, Ecological Transition, Sílvia Paneque, already claimed a few days ago in an interview with El Periódico to advance in these expansions to prevent the same image of collapse on the AP-7 from being repeated every summer. Cover image | Costa Brava In Xataka | “The recharging excuse has its days numbered”: the Government confirms that 90% of the main roads already have fast charging nearby

The Government says Palantir is a risk to national security. NATO, of which Spain is a member, has put it in charge of its own

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Moncloa has begun to ask public companies not to sign new contracts with Palantir, according to Agustín Marco has advanced in The Confidential. The order is not official nor is it in writing, but an agreement has already been reached with the Civil Guard and another with Navantia. The panoramic. Spain joins France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in distrust towards the company of Peter Thiel and Alex Karp. The unofficial argument is the usual one: not to risk sensitive information in the hands of an American company with close ties to the Trump White House. The veto affects Telefónica, Indra, Correos and Navantia, all of them under the umbrella of SEPI. There is no statement, no press conference, no official note. They are indications transferred internally to boards of directors. In detail. The contract that really matters still stands. Defense signed with Palantir in 2023 a 16.5 million euro agreement for the Armed Forces Intelligence Center, and that contract expires in November of this year. According to The Confidentialthe chiefs of the General Staff have pressured Margarita Robles to renew it because there is no comparable alternative. Either Palantir or nobody. The decision remains unmade. The contrast. While Moncloa slides the veto inside, NATO announced this week that Palantir’s Maven Smart System becomes its operating system for military data management. Spain is a partner of the Alliance and has had to approve this decision, like all allies. So he voted yes in Brussels but has chosen the opposite direction behind closed doors. Why is it important. The veto does not touch the only thing that really counts: the Defense contract. Everything else (the Civil Guard and Navantia) were negotiations in progress, but not consolidated relationships. Cutting them costs little. Touching the CIFAS contract (Intelligence Center of the Armed Forces), on the other hand, would require replacing a tool that, according to sources in the military sector itself, has no rival in the market. Again: either Palantir or nobody. Yes, but. The gesture has a clear recipient: the US government. Pedro Sánchez has not received the US ambassador in Madrid, Benjamín León Jr., for months and Its Executive has invested 115 million euros in Openchip and another 5,000 million in a chip gigafactory as a commitment to European technological sovereignty. The Palantir veto fits that narrative. What doesn’t fit so well is that this same story coexists with a Defense contract that no one dares to cancel. And now what. The end of the current contract in November will test whether this was signaling or conviction: If the CIFAS contract is renewed without making much noise, the veto will have been a diplomatic gesture. If it is dropped without an equivalent replacement, Spain will be left without the tool its own military considers irreplaceable. The middle way, replacing it with European or national technology, does not yet exist. In Xataka | AI is crucial for the US military. So he’s naming OpenAI and Palantir leaders as lieutenant generals Featured image | Palantir, Wikimedia Commons

Who are Openchip, the Catalan company that designs RISC-V chips… and has just received 115 million from the Government

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This Monday, June 29, the Council of Ministers authorized an investment of 115.77 million euros in Openchip & Software Technologiesa microelectronics company based in Barcelona and five years old. The operation is channeled by the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation (SETTthe digital SEPI, dependent on the Ministry for Digital Transformation) through the Next Tech facility of the Recovery Plan. It is the largest one-time injection of public capital received by a Spanish technology company in the sector to date. It comes just a week after another move. On June 23, The Generalitat converted part of a 35 million bridge loan into sharesan operation that gave him 5% of the capital and set a implicit valuation for Openchip in around 700 million. With that reference, the 115.77 million from the SETT would be equivalent to a participation of up to 16.54%, which would place direct public control (State and Generalitat) above 20%. Both administrations will have a seat on the council. The Government also included a veto right over any transfer of the headquarters outside of Catalonia. Added to the 111 million already received via PERTE Chip, public support accumulated is close to 262 million. The public supports a good part of the structure. A company that designs, not manufactures Openchip was born in 2021 as a joint initiative of the Catalan engineering group GTDaround 54% of the capital, and the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS), the center that operates the MareNostrumaround 46%. Today it employs about 300 people, almost all of them engineers, and operates under a fabless– Designs intellectual property and outsources manufacturing to external foundries. The CEO himself has admitted that this production will leave Europe, which in practice points to where these types of projects usually aim: TSMC. The industrial plan estimates investments close to 500 million to deploy the entire infrastructure. What it designs are processors and accelerators based on RISC-V, the open source architecture that has become the European bet (and, ahem, China) to avoid the dependency on x86 (Intel, AMD) and ARM. Its specific product is a vector accelerator for AI and high-performance computing, integrated into DARE SGA1a 240 million European initiative led by BSC itself that distributes the design between Openchip (vector accelerator), the Dutch Axelera (AI processing unit) and the Czech Codasip (general processor). The goal: a European hardware and software proposal operational by 2028. The schedule, the equipment and the exam This is where it is good for everyone to temper expectations. In November 2025, Cesc Guim (pictured above), CEO and former Intel, said that the company had just sent its first prototype to the factory and that commercial production was planned for 2028. The commercial argument is energy efficiency: its designs promise to reduce electricity consumption by 20% to 30% compared to current alternatives. The real comparison can only be made when there is working silicon, not plans. A few weeks ago, in May, Openchip signed Tobías Martínez as presidentformer CEO of Cellnex for almost a decade. Replaced Carlos Kinder in a change that the company did not officially confirm. His profile provides what a startup of 300 engineers with a round of hundreds of millions was missing: plenty of experience in the capital markets. The operation is sold under the convenient modern mantra of ‘European technological sovereignty’, and the truth is that the framework is real: Europe today designs a minuscule part of the world’s chips, and certainly none of the leading ones. But There remain questions that public investment does not solve on its own: Whether Openchip will achieve a competitive product against rivals with a twenty-year advantage (Guim himself has admitted it). Yes, manufacturing will continue to depend on TSMC, which keeps Europe away from the critical link in a long-term dependence. And whether the intensive financing model, with two administrations on the board and a regional veto over the headquarters, will allow the flexibility and agility that a semiconductor business requires to compete. The State has bought shares, a seat on the council and qualified employment in Catalonia. What remains to be seen is whether the chips arrive. And they work as promised. In Xataka | The Valencia family that made a fortune with guano and Coca-Cola now has another project: photonic semiconductors Featured image | Openchip, Xataka

The Government extends fuel aid, but will progressively eliminate it

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The Council of Ministers approved this Mondayin an extraordinary session, a new royal decree that extends fuel aida series of measures that were activated after the start of the war between the United States and Iran. The most visible measure for drivers is that the reduction in the price of fuel remains, but it will be reduced month by month until it disappears completely in October. There was a meeting pending. The previous package of measures expired on June 30, which has forced the Government to convene an extraordinary Council of Ministers to approve the extension before the deadline expired. If not, the aid would have been withdrawn suddenly, significantly increasing the price of fuel, as we were advancing a few days ago. What does it consist of? now it’s discount. Unlike the previous plan, which applied a VAT reduction, the new mechanism acts on the special tax on hydrocarbons. The discount starts at 15 cents per liter during July, drops to 10 cents in August, stays at 5 cents in September and disappears in October. According to explained the first vice president and Minister of Economy, Carlos Body, “the relief in the cost of gasoline and diesel will continue and we will adapt it to the normalization of crude oil prices so that a jump is not noticeable.” You have touiandn stays the same. Transporters, farmers and fishermen do not notice any changes, maintaining the discount equivalent to 20 cents per liter, without progressive reduction. Furthermore, the decree expands by 165 million euros aid so that the agricultural sector can purchase fertilizers, the cost of which is expected to be higher in September. Insurance in case prices rise again. The decree includes an automatic reactivation clause. This means that, if fuel inflation exceeds 15% in year-on-year terms, the discount returns to 20 cents per liter without the need to approve new measures. The Corps does not rule out new actions starting in October if the situation demands it. What is not extended. The VAT reduction on electricity and gas, which had already returned from 10% to 21% since June 1, is not recovered in this decree. According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), precisely this fiscal normalization explains why electricity and gas are now contributing to the rise in the CPI, which remained at 3.2% in June for the third consecutive month. The most relevant structural measure. Aside from this aid, the new decree also establishes the progressive elimination of the Tax on the Value of Electrical Energy Production. Currently at 7%, it will drop to 5% this year, to 3.5% in 2027 and will disappear in 2028. The third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, was estimated at 6% the potential savings on household bills. According to Aagesenit is “the only structural tax reduction of the anti-crisis shield.” How much does all this cost? The whole package mobilizes 4,525 million euros: 1,825 million in direct fiscal cost for 2026, plus another 2,700 million associated with the gradual elimination of the tax on electricity production in the next two years. Why these measures. The Government justifies the decision in which there is still geopolitical uncertainty. The truce in the Middle East remains fragile, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has not completely normalized and the Government fears a rise in inflation coinciding with the start of the summer holidays. According to the calculations of the Ministry of Economy, the measures in force since March 20 would have contained general inflation to around one percentage point. In Xataka | Spain has standardized a small trick to avoid rear-end accidents. The DGT is not very satisfied

The Government is already debating whether or not to extend fuel aid. If you don’t do it we will pay 15 euros more to fill the tank

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Next Monday, June 29, the Council of Ministers will debate whether to extend the fuel tax reduction beyond June 30, which was the established deadline. If you don’t do it, filling the tank in the middle of a vacation trip is going to hurt us a lot more than it does now. Fuel aid. In March, the Government approved a package of urgent measures to stop the rise in energy prices caused by the war between the United States and Iran. The most visible for the driver was the reduction in VAT on fuel from 21% to 10%, accompanied by a reduction in the special tax on hydrocarbons. These measures expire on June 30 and the Government has to decide now what to do with them. What is being studied. According to share From ABC, the Ministry of Economy is considering maintaining VAT at 10% for at least three more months, that is, until September. A gradual withdrawal of aid is also being studied to avoid the so-called rocket effectthat is, a sudden increase in prices from one day to the next in the middle of the high travel season. What happens if it is not extended. According to the calculations of the Spanish Confederation of Service Station Employers (CEEES), the elimination of all aid would mean an increase in the price of 29 cents per liter for gasoline and 22 cents for diesel. With current prices (around 1.46 euros per liter for gasoline and 1.53 for diesel) both fuels would rise to 1.74 euros per liter. In this way, filling a 55-liter tank would go from costing around 70 euros to close to 90. And the blow would come right in the middle of the summer operation. The diesel thing is delicate. The Iran crisis has caused a liter of diesel to cost more than gasoline, something quite unusual taking into account the lower taxation of diesel in comparison. Although the price has fallen for four consecutive weeks, it still remains 5% above what it cost before the start of the conflict, according to collect ABC. If the reduction in the special tax on hydrocarbons is withdrawn, diesel has a good chance of once again overcoming the psychological barrier of 2 euros. Why it is not so easy to extend it. The Government cannot extend these measures on its own because it needs the support of Congress. That means negotiating with the investiture parties, including Junts and the PNV, something that already generated tension in March when the first decree was approved. On the other hand, there is also external pressure, since the Bank of Spain pointed out Just a few days ago, Spain has been the country in the European Union that has mobilized the most public resources in response to this crisis (0.25% of GDP), criticizing that 75% of the measures are not focused on the most affected, but are of a general nature, as is precisely the case with the VAT reduction. The European Commission and the Treasury technicians (GESTHA) also have recommended withdrawing these subsidies considering them contrary to the energy transition. What does the transportation sector ask for? The Spanish Confederation of Freight Transport (CETM) already has asked that any extension explicitly includes the transport of goods by road. In a statement, the organization warns that “leaving transportation outside of these measures would mean ignoring the sector on which a good part of the country’s economic activity is based.” In addition, the CETM demands that the commitment to pay 20 cents per liter of fuel promised to the sector be made effective. What does the president say? Pedro Sanchez has advanced that the new decree will be “to protect the productive fabric and also the citizens”, although without specifying the exact scope of the measures. The Government warns that, even with a peace agreement between the United States and Iran, the economic effects of the conflict will continue to pressure prices for weeks or months. Cover image | Roberto Rodríguez and engin akyurt In Xataka | In February, historic rains broke the roads. Málaga has just received the go-ahead to repair the A-7 and A-45

The Government confirms that 90% of main roads already have fast charging nearby

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In recent years, we have seen how Spain has been updated in terms of the number of vehicle chargers. What a good part of them don’t work It’s a different story, but the truth is that infrastructure is taking on a different tone in the country. This same issue is what the Secretary of State for Energy, Joan Groizard, has recently focused on, during the opening of the Electric Vehicle Fair in Madrid (VEM) has taken stock of the state of the charging infrastructure. The data on which it has placed the most emphasis is that nine out of every ten kilometers of the main road network already have a charging point of at least 100 kW less than 60 kilometers away. Why does this data matter? The European Union approved the AFIR regulation (Alternative Fuel Infrastructure Regulation) to force member countries to ensure that their main transport corridors have high-power chargers at sufficient distances. The specific objective for 2030 is for there to be points of at least 150 kW every 60 kilometers on these roads. What has confirmed Groizard is that Spain is already close to that threshold in coverage, although there is still room to reach the power required by European regulations. Moves Corridors. The main tool to achieve these objectives is the program Moves Corridorspromoted by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. On June 3, the IDAE published the definitive resolution proposal of its first call: 337 fast and ultra-fast charging projects, with powers of at least 150 kW, will receive just over 97 million euros in public aid, of the 200 million that the program had allocated. The remaining amount (more than 102 million euros) will be added to other items planned to finance a second call, expected in 2027, according to Administration sources. consulted by La Tribuna de Automoción. Shadow areas. The selection criterion for the projects in this first call has not been to install chargers where there was already infrastructure, but rather The so-called “shadow areas” have been prioritizedstretches where there were hardly any alternatives for those traveling by electric. And the problem with the charging network in Spain is not the points that there are in total, but in which places they were positioned. Accumulating chargers in large cities does not solve a long trip in the rest of the country. The market is also changing sides. Groizard also took advantage of his intervention at the fair to highlight the number of registrations last May. According to ANFAC data (Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers), diesel reached just 3.7% of sales, while pure electric cars reached 11%, a historical monthly record in Spain. Adding plug-in hybrids, electrification already exceeds 20% of the market. “The excuse of recharging has its days numbered,” warned Groizard. There are currently more than 55,000 public charging points in operation (more than gas stations in Spain). Of course, 69% of all of them It is made up of slow chargers with up to 22kW of power. The remaining 31% looks like this: 2,253 charging points between 22 and 50kW. 9,015 charging points between 50 and 150 kW. 3,206 charging points between 150 and 250 kW. 2,469 points of 250kW or more. Which still doesn’t quite add up. The progress in coverage is real, but the state of the network still has cracks. And it is that according to the organization’s data As of the first quarter of 2026, more than 17,000 charging points were still out of service, 24% of the total. The causes range from breakdowns to installed points that are not yet connected to the network. Communities such as the Balearic Islands (45.5% of inoperative points) or Galicia (39.5%) have the worst records. What’s coming now? According to share from La Tribuna de Automoción, in the coming weeks, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition will submit to public consultation the National Action Framework (MAN), a document that will take stock of the state of the charging infrastructure at the end of 2025 and will set the roadmap for 2026 and 2027, including the next call for Moves Corredores. It will also be the first official and updated photograph of where Spain really is in this deployment. Cover image | Andrew Roberts In Xataka | In February, historic rains broke the roads. Málaga has just received the go-ahead to repair the A-7 and A-45

A Chinese company has been building AI for years to predict who is going to criticize the government before they do so

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In ‘Minority Report‘, Tom Cruise was the head of the pre-crime police, a department capable of arresting criminals before they could commit the crime in question, all thanks to the powers of mutants or precogs. Well, according to the New York Timesthere is a Chinese company that is trying to build a similar system, but their target will be future political dissidents and instead of mutants with powers they will use AI. what’s happening. The leak reported in the New York Times contains internal documents from the Chinese company Geedge Networks and has been published by a group of researchers at Vanderbilt University. In it they detail how the company is building an AI system capable of predicting which citizens will become political dissidents in the future. Geedge is investigating how to use LLM to synthesize large packets of data (including browsing histories, locations, online activity and contacts) and then infer citizens’ behavior, detecting whether they will present a “political risk” in the future. Like the police precrime, but for political dissidents. What is Geedge?. In September 2025 we learned that a Chinese company was exporting the surveillance system known as “Great Firewall of China” to other countries. It was Geedge Networks. The company, which has one of the creators of the Chinese firewall as a key investor, has already sold its solution to countries such as Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Ethiopia and Myanmar. What this great firewall does is analyze the traffic of entire countries, even capturing personal data such as passwords and emails. Why is it important. According to the leak, the system is in the research phase, but it is still a disturbing approach. It is no longer just about using AI to monitor what people do, the next thing is to anticipate what they could do and even think. We see every day that AI models have biases and make many errors, using them as predictors to repress dissent poses a terrifying scenario. Tech authoritarianism as a service. As we said, Geedge is already exporting its solutions to other countries so it is selling technological authoritarianism as a service. The worst thing is that we do not find this only in China, but it is a global trend: the United States too you are delegating critical security functions to private and disreputable corporations like Palantir, and The United Kingdom also wants to follow in their footsteps. The bottleneck. There is good news (if you can call it that) and that is that Geedge has encountered a problem in developing this system: they do not have the power to manage such a volume of data. According to the New York Times, since they cannot access the most powerful chips due to the US blockade, since 2024 they have been forced to use AI models and less powerful chips. In order for the system to be able to manage the enormous amount of data they already collect, they need computing capacity that they currently do not have, always according to US sources. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | We have been hearing for years that China scans the faces of millions of citizens every day. It’s already happening in Europe

Türkiye seemed immune to the drop in birth rates. Now his Government is desperate because it does not know how to stop it

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In Türkiye 2025 was the “Year of the Family” and the decade ahead of us (2026-2035) will be that of “Family and Population”. It’s not a coincidence. Just like many other countries from Europe, Asia or America, the Turkish Government increasingly looks with greater concern its declining birth rates. Specifically there is two data that worry Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s team: the number of births has been falling since 2014, which has dragged the fertility rate to its lowest level so far this century, far from what is necessary to keep the population stable. The problem is that neither the “Year of the Family” nor the rest of the measures deployed by Erdoğan seem to be running too much. What has happened? That Türkiye has not managed to avoid the demographic winter that hits other countries in the world, such as Japan, South Korea either much of Europe. It is not just that the birth rate is falling or that the country’s demographic engine is showing clear signs of having caught the flu. The most revealing are the ‘pro-birth’ initiatives and above all the statements of Erdoğan encouraging his fellow citizens to have more offspring, which shows that the issue is generating more and more suspicion in Turkish institutions. In March, the Turkish Minister of Family and Social Services, Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas, expressed it clearly (and dramatically) during an interview: for the Executive, demography has become “a question of survival.” “Our strongest strength is the family,” the leader stressed after recalling that in a matter of 27 years Turkey has experienced the same decline in birth rates that has taken nine decades in other nations. Number of births and total fertility rate, 2001-2025. What does the data say? The last ones, published This same week by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) they draw a very unflattering scenario. In 2025, 895,374 babies were born in Türkiye, a bad figure no matter how you look at it. To begin with, because it represents a drop of 4.78% compared to 2024 and the lowest figure in the entire historical series disclosed by TUIK, which dates back to 2001. As if that were not enough, it aggravates the decline in what is known as the ‘total fertility rate’, which has been moving away from the levels necessary for years to keep the population stable. Why are they important? Of all the TUIK indicators, the ‘total fertility rate’ is probably the one that worries Ankara the most. And it is logical. It basically shows the number of children that, on average, a woman is expected to have throughout her reproductive life (between 15 and 49 years old). In 2001 this indicator stood at 2.38 births. It was good data because it far exceeded the necessary rate (2.1) to keep the population stable without having to take into account other factors, such as immigration. The problem is that since 2014 that indicator has been receding steadily until it remained at 1.77 in 2020, 1.49 in 2024 and 1.42 last year. In fact, 2025 has been the ninth consecutive year in which Turkey falls below the ‘replacement rate’, which means that if Turkey does not want to lose population in the future it will probably need the arrival of foreigners. The crude birth rate has also plummeted in the last five years. Total fertility rate by province, 2025. Can it go further? Yes. He latest report of TUIK suggests that the trend is far from stopping. If in 2017 the organization registered 57 provinces with a fertility rate insufficient to keep the population stable, last year that list had already skyrocketed to 76 territories. What’s more, what has grown the most is the number of provinces with the worst birth rates. If in 2017 there were only four with a fertility rate of less than 1.5, last year 59 provinces were in that situation. What’s more, in all of Türkiye there were only five regions where the replacement rate reached (or exceeded) 2.1. In general, Turkish women not only have fewer children, they also have them later. The average age of mothers in the country at the time of giving birth has skyrocketed in recent years, going from 26.7 in 2001 to 29.4 in 2025. There are a dozen provinces in which, on average, women do not have their first child until they are almost 30 years old. In Artvin or Istanbul, in fact, the average age for new mothers is 29 years old. What does the Government think? Türkiye’s fertility rate may have been declining for years, but still stays above of the EU average (1.34) and of course in countries like Italy, Poland, Lithuania, Spain or Mala, where this indicator does not even reach 1.2. Despite this, Erdoğan has elevated demography almost to a state issue. In fact, he has not hesitated to cross out “disaster” the country’s low birth rates and “betrayal” of fertility control. “Why not have at least four children, or five?”, recently reflected the Turkish leader, leader of the conservative AK Parti, who on other occasions has already warned that the nation is seeing its average age increase (around 34 years old) and the weight of the elderly population. What have they done about it? Beyond political discourse, its Executive has promoted different pro-natal measures. In April Parliament supported extending maternity leave eight to 16 weeks and last year Erdoğan himself advertisement that the Executive would increase its financial aid to families that have children, with the payment of 5,000 liras after the birth of the first-born. “We are also implementing financial aid per child of 1,500 liras per month for the second child and 5,000 liras per month for the third and subsequent children,” advanced. The big question is whether these measures will have an effect and will encourage Turkish births. What do people think? That’s what he tried to find out a few days ago The New York Timesthat interviewed to several Turks to find out if they would … Read more

In 2020, the Government quarantined millions of people. The question is whether he will be able to do it with the 14 Spaniards of the MV Hondius

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If Spain learned anything during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that when it comes to dealing with crises related to diseases, the borders between health, politics and law become blurred. With the hantavirus outbreak detected aboard the MV Hondius something similar happens. As the ship moves towards the Canary Islands, what began as a health alert turns into something more: reason for political dispute and a legal debate on how to treat the 14 Spaniards (asymptomatic) who travel on the ship. In the background there is a key question: What to do if the time comes, one of them refuses to undergo a quarantine? One word: hantavirus. Until a few days ago, the vast majority of Spaniards (Europeans, in general) did not know what hantavirus. And it’s normal. As remember According to the Ministry of Health, infections due to this virus are usually generated by contact with excrement or saliva of sick rodents and are “relatively uncommon worldwide.” In 2025 in America ‘only’ 229 cases in eight countries. The number of deaths rose to 59 due to the so-called “hantavirus pulmonary syndrome” (HPS). A bumpy ride. Things changed a few days ago, when the outbreak of a serious respiratory illness was reported on board the MV Hondius, a passenger ship that sailed on April 1 from Ushuaia (Argentina) to make a voyage through the South Atlantic with stops at points such as Nightingale Island, Santa Elena or Ascension Island, heading to Cape Verde. Just a few days after starting the voyage, one of the passengers, a Dutch septuagenarian, began to feel fever, diarrhea and headache. His health worsened alarmingly until he died after five days. The body remained on board the ship until April 24, when it disembarked in Saint Helena for repatriation. His wife, also Dutch and 69 years old, did it with him, who after showing similar symptoms ended up dying in a hospital in South Africa. A PCR confirmed the cause: hantavirus infection. Since then other passengers have shown similar discomfort. At the moment the outbreak has left, as far as is known, three deceased and at least another half dozen infected. On Sunday the ship arrived in Cape Verde, which “public safety”refused to moor in the capital. Next stop: Canary Islands. Now the ship continues its voyage towards where it was your final destination: Canary Islands. the ship sailed yesterday of Cape Verde after two key news events occurred. The first came around noon, when Tedros Ahdhanom, director general of the WHO, confirmed via X that the authorities had evacuated the three patients from the ship suspected of suffering from the disease. Their destination is Holland, where they will receive medical assistance. The second arrived from La Moncloawhich has confirmed Spain’s willingness to “meet the WHO’s request” to host the liner in the Canary Islands “once the evacuation of all symptomatic people is completed.” The Dutch shipping company Oceanwide Expeditions, responsible for the MV Hondius, assures that keeps monitored the situation on board the ship and in its last part, published this morning, it guarantees that “there are no people with symptoms on board.” And the controversy broke out. The announcement that the ship is sailing towards the Canary Islands, where it will probably arrive on sundaygenerated considerable debate. Moncloa’s initial plans called for the ship to arrive at the port of Granadilla de Abona, in Tenerife, where the workers soon arrived. threaten a blockade of the terminal. The reason? The staff denounced the lack of information and clear protocols on how they should act in the face of the viral outbreak. In the archipelago he also jumped the debate on whether the region has legal (or at least political) margin to reject the scale. With that backdrop, Health has confirmed today to the Canarian president, Fernando Clavijo, that the MV Hondius will not dock, “it will only anchor” so that passengers can evacuate with the help of boats. The idea is that they will be transferred to the airport, from where they will be repatriated to their respective countries. When the ship left Patagonia it had some 147 travelers of 23 nationalities. Who travels on board? That’s the key. The idea is that, once in the Canary Islands, the passengers are repatriated to their countries; but there are 14 who will not need that operation. The reason? They are Spanish. Specifically, there are 13 passengers and a crew member of Spanish nationality on board the MV Hondius who have opened another debate just as interesting. Once on land the plan goes through transport them on a plane military to the Torrejón de Ardoz air base and, from there, to the Gómez Ulla Defense Hospital. The idea is that they spend a quarantine period in individual rooms. How much exactly? Today it is difficult to know. It is known that the incubation period of the virus is around 45 days, but the question remains as to what day it should start counting. The outbreak probably arose between the 6th and the 28th. “They will remain cared for and will remain in quarantine for as long as the clinical protocols require,” guaranteed on Wednesday the Minister of Health, Mónica García. His department insists that, even if some of the Spanish passengers presented symptoms or had to attend to other patients, the risk for the population “it is considered very low”. The big question. The question that flies over In recent days the ministries of Health and Defense have been… What would happen if any of those 14 Spaniards are reluctant to undergo quarantine? Could they refuse? And in that case, would the State have tools to demand that period of controlled isolation from them, something reminiscent of what happened during the State of alarm of COVID-19? It is not a whimsical question if one takes into account that the Government already has recognized that the will of the patients will be key. In fact Mónica García has appealed directly to “common sense and responsibility” of Spanish … Read more

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