happening

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

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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

when to know when there are going to be more chances of them happening

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Let’s tell you How can you know if there are going to be northern lights in Spain?. So, in case you hear that there may be some in the next night or if there have been some the night before and you want to know if they will be repeated, you will have a reliable source to know. We are going to tell you three resources that you can use, and that predict the amplitude and areas where there will be Auroras in the next few hours. A good reference to browse. How to see if there will be northern lights To see if there are going to be northern lights in Spain, the best resource is the website of space time by AEMETwhose page is spaceweather.aemet.es. In it, within the section Auroraswith predictions for the next few hours. There are two maps, one for the northern hemisphere and one for the southern hemisphere. This map shows predictions using the OVATION model, based on observations of the solar wind. With this model, you can see in red the areas where there will be auroraswith colors grading to green depending on the possibilities. In short, if any of the colors approach Spain, then you will know that there are chances of seeing the northern lights. Additionally, if you click on the map you will go to the original source of the information, the Space Weather Prediction Center website. In it you will be able to see in video format what this evolution of the auroras will be like during the next few hours. You can get even more information Another interesting resource is the website spaceweatherlive.comwhere there is a section of Auroral activity. Here, you will have all the technical data with which to understand if there will be auroras, from the possibilities to the movement of magnetic fields. It’s normal to get lost in all this. Here, look at the right side of the website, where the places with the most possibilities are indicated. Then, in oval auroraclick on More informationand you will go to a page where below you can click on a tab Europe and Asiato see which countries or regions in Europe and Asia are most likely to have auroras. Easier with Aurora Forecast Finally there is a page with mobile applications called Aurora Forecast, with a page where you can see the probability of auroras in major cities Spanish. You just have to enter auroraforecast.me/country/spainand below you will see a list of cities along with the odds in each one. You will even be able to use the search engine to find the big city closest to you, and enter a tab where you will be told all the possibilities you have of there being one in the next 6 hours. In the mobile application you will have information for the next 27 days. Look for information from reliable pages In addition to this, it is also recommended search for information on weather websites. The general media usually covers this information well, talking about when it can happen, but sometimes current affairs may bury this other information and it may not always be reported. Therefore, it is good to consult social networks and media pages such as AEMET and ElTiempo.es. In Xataka Basics | Personal weather forecast in Gemini: how to use it to ask the weather today and how to schedule forecasts to appear for you

We analyze on video what is really happening

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From time to time, the technology sector enters a phase of turbulence that breaks the apparent normality of the market and forces us to take a closer look at how the supply chain, industrial priorities and the balances between supply and demand. The most recent example that many remember is that of cryptocurrency mining, that for years stressed the graphics card market to the point of turning them into a scarce commodity and prohibitively expensive for many players. Now the focus has shifted to another key component: RAM. The increase in the cost of the modules begins to be clearly noticed and, as usually happens in these cases, the inevitable questions arise. What exactly is happening, where does this problem come from and if there are signs that allow us to think about relief in the short or medium term. To try to answer all this, we have published a new video in the Xataka YouTube channel in which our colleague Francisco Franconi explains this scenario calmly and in context, trying to explain what is behind a crisis that cannot be understood just by looking at the final prices. The piece is integrated into the set of content that we regularly publish on the channel, with formats such as 24/7the series Domotize or die trying, Science and Apart and reports that explore technology from very diverse angles. We are in a RAM memory crisis, now what? The starting point of the video is a broader photograph of the moment that the technology industry is experiencing. Francisco introduces the topic with a piece of information that helps to understand the background of the problem: “It is evident that 2025 was the year of AI. Projects like Stargatewhich has the purpose of investing 500 billion dollars for the development of artificial intelligence in the United States, are a sample of the economic interest that exists around this technology.” From there, the question arises almost naturally: what relationship does this rise in artificial intelligence have with RAM? The video explains how data centers, the backbone of this new technological wave, depend on three essential components, and RAM is one of them. Analyzing the role played by the rest of the pieces not only helps to understand the current crisis, but also opens the door to thinking about whether we could be facing similar tensions in other components in the not-so-distant future. Francisco goes one step further and dismantles an idea that is often taken for granted. “High demand for components alone does not trigger prices“, he points out, before delving into the specific factors that are turning the current artificial intelligence boom into a real headache for the RAM memory market. This analysis also includes some of the large companies that are decisively influencing this movement, helping to understand why the problem is neither specific nor easy to solve. The video also reserves space for a more technical explanation, addressing the different types of RAM and the differences that are key to understanding this crisis. This technical context allows us to connect two worlds that often seem separate: that of large language models and that of users who want to assemble a PC in pieces and find that this technological ambition ends up having a direct impact on their pocket. In the final section, Francisco puts on the table the question that many are asking: how long can this situation last. “Some estimate that price increases will be constant for the next 6 months, others talk about increases until 2027,” he explains, before closing with a series of reflections that help set expectations and understand what to expect from the market in the coming years. We invite you to see the full video on our YouTube channel and share your opinion both there and in this article. Images | Xataka In Xataka | In the midst of the RAM memory crisis, Samsung takes a leap with its HBM4 memory. It does not imply good news for the pocket

This graph shows per capita coffee consumption and leaves us with a disturbing question: what is happening in Luxembourg?

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Be it for your energetic effectsby its benefits in the body or even for their psychological effectscoffee is the second most consumed beverage in the world. Is one of the engines of the economy of countries like Colombia or Brazil, as well as a thermometer of global economic health. Coffee culture continues to expand, and in this graph we can see which countries whose inhabitants drink the most coffee every day. There is only one question: what about Luxembourg. Europe >> others. Despite not being producers (although climate change may change that sooner rather than later), Europe gives the rest of the world a review of coffee consumption. Including powers like Brazil, Costa Rica or Colombia. The top 10 positions in coffee consumption correspond to European countries, and except for Greece, which has managed to sneak into the TOP, they are all northern countries. Outside of that ranking we find a country that may be unexpected: Lebanon. Then we have Brazil, Canada and another string of European countries. But if there is a proper name on this list, it is Luxembourg. Luxembourg has a trick. Visual Capitalist has created the graph taking the data from Cafely. After an impressive display of figures, they detail that they have taken data from sources such as the International Coffee Organization, as well as from Wikipedia to calculate per capita consumption and from global surveys of more than 4,000 people. All this has led them to calculate that Luxembourg drinks coffee. And a lot. That each person, on average, drinks 5.31 cups a day seems outrageous. It does not reach worrying levels of caffeine consumption (There are drinks that are not coffee and have much more caffeine), but it is a fact that draws attention. However, there is a trick: Luxembourg’s per capita figure is explained because almost half of those who work in the country live abroad and drink coffee on the road, as well as to stay awake, and although they are not the country’s population, that consumption has been taken into account for Luxembourg’s totals. 5.31 coffees a day implies 118,227 cups that each person drinks throughout their life, and is well above other countries: Cups consumed throughout life Money spent throughout life Luxembourg 118,227 425,618 Finland 83,939 335,756 Sweden 58,612 216,863 Norway 58,159 255,900 Austria 45,198 149,153 Denmark 44,676 241,250 Swiss 42,318 211,591 Netherlands 39,854 123,548 Greece 37,449 116,092 (27) Spain 23,988 46,057 (28) Costa Rica 22,229 56,683 (39) venezuela 12,844 20,423 (41) Colombia 12,264 13,981 a fortune. The average price per cupFurthermore, it is not cheap at all. Not counting atrocities that can be paid in countries like Japan (it is not a product either and transportation is expensive) or Dubai (because… it’s Dubai), the average price of a cup in northern European countries is quite high. Contrast with the average price as we go down to Portugal, Italy or Spain. And more interesting than the average price of a cup It is the account of the money we spend on coffee throughout our lives, which we can also see in the table above. The great absentee. It may be striking that countries like Mexico have a consumption of just 0.29 cups, but along with Guatemala, Argentina or Peru, it is one of the countries with the least roots in coffee. For example, it esteem that each Mexican consumes 2.1 kilos of coffee per year, while Colombians increase the figure to 4.2 kilos. But the big absentee on this list is… China. The Asian giant is not a traditional coffee consumer, but things are changing. There is not only multitude of cafes and chains like Luckin Coffee that are present practically on every corner of a big city, but they are leading the greatest growth in the region in opening of new brand cafes. And they are not only emerging in the region: China is taking over tons of coffee from Brazil due to a market that is growing at double-digit speed since 2010, with a growth annual average of more than 20%, which is well above a world average that barely reaches 2% But anyway, there is no one to blame Luxembourg. And if at some point they blame you for drinking a lot, you can now say that you are trying to raise the average for your country in this curious competition. In Xataka | The latest craze for weight loss is adding mushrooms to coffee. Science is not clear that it is a good idea

Half of Spain is on alert due to snow and yet AEMET has not issued a single red notice: what is happening here?

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“Historical Polar Beast“, “New Philomena“, “the polar storm that threatens Spain“: Much has been written about the intrusion of cold air that is causing drops in temperatures, snowfall and trouble throughout the north of the country. And not always without reason. In fact, the Junta de Castilla y León has declared the alert for snowfall in the provinces of Burgos, León, Palencia and Soria. And yet, AEMET has not issued a red weather warning. What is happening here? QTo start: everything is working normally. And we must not forget that AEMET and Civil Protection do not do the same work. The State Meteorological Agency is limited to issuing weather warnings that are based on physical and objective thresholds. Civil Protection, on the other hand, declares the alert based on the expected impact (on the population and/or infrastructure). In this sense, they are not things that can be linked directly. And what is happening these days is a textbook example. AEMET has not activated red warnings, simply because snowfall exceeding the highest thresholds is not expected. Yes, the snow level had dropped a lot… but in reality, no one expected a lot of snow to fall. This does not mean, as is evident, that it is not an important episode; Only it is not an extreme episode in purely meteorological terms. In social terms, it is different. Because as Víctor Gonzalez explained There are a series of factors that make this relatively small winter storm something to take into account. To begin with, it is the first episode of snowfall at low levels of the season. As with heat waves in summer, the first ‘episodes’ are always more dangerous because they ‘catch’ the population unprepared. Especially when (as is happening now) that episode comes earlier than usual, when winter hasn’t even started yet. In addition, it coincides with very busy days (because we are talking about a very busy weekend). An important lesson: When we talk about meteorology, it doesn’t just matter how much snow falls, how hot it is going to be, or how much water a storm will dump. What really matters is when, where and on whom it falls. As Víctor González said“If this same episode occurred on a Tuesday in February, perhaps the alert would not have been declared.” Image | ECMWF | Alev Takil In Xataka | AEMET is clear about what we can expect from the polar storm that threatens Spain: the question is whether we are prepared

We have to start calling what is happening in Venezuela by its name. The “other” US bombers have arrived

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May America return to “walk” bombers strategic actions against Venezuela gives shape to an idea: this is no longer a tactical whim, it is a military campaign that moves on a dangerous border between ambiguity and prelude of something of greater significance. Not only that: the presence in the air, sea and territorial periphery of a country without the capacity for military parity introduces a geopolitical message directed towards third partiesand places the region before an unprecedented scenario. The visible phase. United States has done it again. Now they have been B-1 Lancer (long-range bombers, high payload and supersonic speed) from Dyess (Texas) to the outskirts of Venezuelawithout entering sovereign airspace but close enough to constitute an unequivocal signal of availability of remote fire. These flights are added to previous demonstrations with B-52 and F-35B, and are part of a expanded deployment which includes eight warships, a submarine, P-8 maritime patrol, MQ-9 Reaper and a squadron of F-35s already advanced in the theater. The novelty is not the capacity but the frequency: what used to be an annual exercise has become a sustained cadence that Pentagon officials already hint will grow, under the operational argument of surveillance and destruction of boats, but with a clear transition potential to fixed targets ashore. What the bombers reveal. Air traffic scans showed pairs of B-1 with BARB21/22 and nodal planes (KC-135 for replenishment, RC-135 ISR and a E-11A BACN) composing architecture of command, link and persistence typical of complex operations, not symbolic gestures. The immediate precedent of the B-52 in the same areadescribed by the Department of Defense itself as a “demonstration of attack”, reinforces the reading that Washington is setting up an environment from which it will be able to strike from outside the Venezuelan tactical range without the need to preposition bombers in regional bases, exploiting the strategic autonomy of the heavy wing. The E-11 BACN The bridge and options. The campaign against suspicious vessels (with at least seven confirmed attacks on speedboats and a submersible since September) complies a double function: produces immediate kinetic effects and, at the same time, normalizes the use of lethal power without explicit congressional authorization on targets politically designated as “narco-targets.” Trump openly declared that, once the maritime phase has been exhausted, the attacks could move to land against distribution or production facilities, and former USAF officers admit that the B-1 platform is ideal for that scenario. The Republican-dominated Congress has blocked attempts to limit presidential authority, and the line between war on cartels and strategic coercion of the regime has been blurred. deliberately blurred. A B-52 and two F-35Bs seen flying together during the “bomber strike demonstration mission” last week The background. Before reappearing heavy wing on the Caribbean, Washington had consumed three cycles without success: maximum sanctions, political negotiation and recognition of a parallel government. They all failed in dislodging Maduro, protected by a Cuban counterintelligence apparatus and armored by alignment with Russia, China and Iran. The turn to military coercion (destroyers with Tomahawk, embarked special forces, ISR means and precision fire) replicates a repertoire with long and bumpy genealogy in Latin America, but here with a deliberately ambiguous purpose. The Caribbean without law. The Pentagon has sunken vessels alleging narcoterrorism, with no specific congressional authority to equate cartels with al-Qaeda-type threats. Trump came to contemplate blows on the ground that would produce high-impact viral images, but without a sure path to a stable political outcome: the available force (some 10,000 troops) is not enough for a conventional invasion, and a surgical assault to capture Maduro would entail catastrophic risks if it failed. The limits and fragility. I remembered a few hours ago the financial times that the recent history of the United States in “nation-building” after the use of force is poorand in Venezuela the vacuum after a forced decapitation could be occupied by hard factions of the apparatus or consolidate Maduro himself if a failed operation gave him an alibi for deeper repression. The legitimate opposition is fragmented or in exileand institutional continuity after a crash would be uncertain. The main weight of the warning lies not so much in the probability of an immediate attack as in the fact that, by declaring the war open to “narco-terrorists” and pointing to Maduro as one of them, the administration has crossed a line from which it is difficult to retreat without showing strength. The strategy. If you want, the bomber flyover In the face of Venezuela, it functions as an element of psychological pressure, as an enabling infrastructure for a rapid kinetic leap, and as an extra-regional message to those who support the regime. Until now, the legal elasticity of this “anti-drug” framework has served to go through it lining barriers to the use of force without declared war. Now, with the appearance of heavy wingWashington points out that coercion has left the discursive plane to settle in the closest thing to a real architecture of the theater. Image | USA, USAF In Xataka | The US has several warships deployed off Venezuela. Venezuela has a Soviet missile capable of penetrating them In Xataka | Satellite images leave no doubt: there are 10,000 soldiers and unusual artillery pointing at the same place in the Caribbean

What is really happening with AI and mental health

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A woman named Kendra has gone viral in Tiktok. The reason? It is probably the first case of psychotic outbreak fed by the AI ​​we are seeing live and direct. A teenager He discussed his suicide plans with chatgpt and His parents have sued Openai. They are only two recent cases, but there are more and more news that blames the cause of provoking delusions or even deaths. We already saw that reality is much more complexbut it is clear that there is a debate on the effects of AI on our mental health. What is happening? The Adam Raine case. They tell it in the New York Times. Adam began using Chatgpt to help him with his homework, but later his conversations took a dark turn. After his death, his father reviewed his mobile and discovered that he had been asking the details about how to commit suicide. Although Chatgpt identified the messages as dangerous and insisted several times to seek help, Adam managed to skip these warnings by telling him that he was not really going to do it, but was collecting information for a story he wanted to write. His parents have sued Openai arguing that the AI ​​validated the “most harmful and self -destructive thoughts” of his son. The Kendra case. Since the beginning of August, Kendra is one of the hottest conversation issues in Tiktok. It all started when, in a series of several tens of videos, he told how his psychiatrist had manipulated her to fall in love with him. For the situations he narrates, for experts it is evident that Kendra suffers some kind of personality disorder. The striking thing is that he constantly went to Chatgpt, whom he nicknamed “Henry”, to validate his delusions. Arrived a point, Chatgpt did not tell him what he wanted to hear and began to use Claude, the AI ​​of Anthropic. Kendra does not consider that its use of AI is dangerous, on the contrary: in This video ensures that it is a prophecy. Worry. AI is in the spotlight for many reasons and the impact it can have on our mental health is one of them. Cases like those we have described are the most striking because of how alarming they are, but they are not so common. There are other use cases, such as the tendency to resort to AI as if it were a psychologist wave Emotional dependence caused by the apps of “Companions AI”that they are popularized and have aroused a wave of concern. New studies are also emerging in this problem, such as East of Stanford University which concluded that therapy chatbots They tend to be complacent and in cases of risk they can reinforce delusions instead of questioning them (as in the case of Kendra). The response of authorities and defense groups It has not been expected. Alarm voices. The American Psychology Association (APA) met with the US authorities to give the alarm to the growing use of psychological therapy chatbots. The organization expressed its Concern against deceptive practices like the chatbots that are passed through real therapists. They demand education campaigns to inform consumers and that applications integrate mandatory security measures for users who are in crisis. The ‘Center for the Fight against Digital Hate’ has also demanded a stricter regulation. In his Report ‘Fake Friend’ They presented how fragile the safeguards of the chatbots IA, all from the point of view of a vulnerable teenager (the case of Adam Raine is a clear example of this). They ask that the age verification be enforced, that designs that manipulate emotionally and make independent audits of the IA tools are prohibited. They are not the only ones. There are more organizations that are alerting this problem as Mental Health Europethe WHO And even the General Council of Psychology of Spain. Legal measures in the US. Although you still cannot talk about a federal regulation, there are already several states that have taken measures. This is the case of Illinois, where a Law that prohibits the use of AI in psychological therapy. In Utah they have opted for a more transparency oriented approach and In their law they establish that users must be informed Clearly when they are talking to an AI. In New York they have prepared A law that will enter into force in November and will require that the partners notify users repeatedly that they are interacting with a non -human entity. In addition, these colleagues must have a system that detects risk of self -injury or suicide and remits users to help lines. In California there are A law proposal that wants to prohibit “interaction maximization strategies that emotionally manipulate users.” If it ends up, it would be the first law that regulates the design mechanisms that encourage the dependence of these tools. And the European Union? In Europe we have the AI ​​ACT that He entered into force a year ago. The law defines four risk levels With specific regulations for each one, including an “unacceptable risk” that would lead to the prohibition of technology in question. In matters related to mental health there is nothing concrete, but In article 5 We see that it prohibits any system that uses “subliminal techniques” to manipulate people so that “causes that it causes physical or psychological damage.” The AI ​​is also prohibited to “infer emotions in people”, although it includes an exception if it is for therapeutic purposes, which is somewhat ambiguous. The measures of the companies of AI. In the case of companies, although practically all have some type of security for cases such as these, the reality is that Openai is the one who has detailed their measures most, partly because the success of Chatgpt makes them the ones who are usually in the spotlight. Let’s see what each one says: Chatgpt: After the news of Adam Raine’s suicide, OpenAI has confirmed that it will add additional parental and safeguard controlslike users can contact an emergency … Read more

We believed that at this point the PS5 and Xbox would be cheaper than ever. The hallucinating thing is that it is happening just the opposite

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Sony has just announced that all models of their PlayStation 5 consoles will rise $ 50 in the United States. The argument that Sony has used in its statement To explain the decision is that there is a “difficult economic environment.” Or what is the same: they blame tariffs. But that is already a generalized trend … and very unreasonable. PS5 rises around the world. It is the same that happened in April in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Australia and New Zealand, when this company He also announced that prices went up for some models. In Europe, for example, the PS5 digital edition cost 499.99 euros. In the US, these increases affect all models, and the new prices will be activated as of Thursday in that country, being like this: PlayStation 5: 549.99 dollars (before $ 499.99) PlayStation 5 Digital Edition: 499.99 dollars (before $ 449.99) PlayStation 5 Pro: $ 749.99 (before $ 699.99) Prices for accessories, yes, remain unchanged. Microsoft already did the same. This movement is the same as Microsoft also with its Xbox Series S/X consoles, which They also rose in price at 50 euros In Europe and the US. Even the controls and some accessories saw their prices increased. And of course, Nintendo. The Japanese company took a long time to end up lowering the price of the original Nintendo Switch, but the Switch 2 has given it the excuse for uprise even more Even in the games. Not only that: the economic situation has caused Nintendo that Prices upload of the original Nintendo Switch, the Lite edition and the accessories. These data have not been met for the latest Sony and Microsoft models. In fact, the thing is totally the other way around. Damn tariffs. Most video game consoles are manufactured in China, and tariffs have especially affected the Asian giant. That certainly makes manufacturers more expensive to manufacture and export them to be able to sell them in the US or Europe. And if they want to keep their profit margins, they end up doing something logical for them and terrible for consumers, because we are the ones who end up paying the duck. But some manufacturing costs have dropped. The amazing thing about the situation is that both the PS5 and the Xbox Series S/X are now cheaper to manufacture (let’s not say the original switch). After five years in the market (nine in the case of the Nintendo console), the components of these consoles have dropped in price: their cost was then very high, but after all this time those components have ended up becoming almost obsolete compared to the new chips that have appeared in all this time. So what is happening? Not everything has come down. In fact, these consoles are based on GDDR6 memory chips and NAND chips for their solid state units, and there the prices They rose strongly in 2025 and 2025 for the relative shortage of this type of chips and the focus that manufacturers are putting in HBM memories for AI accelerators such as those of Nvidia. To this are added other costs not directly related to the material invoice (BOM), such as logistics, manufacturing energy, or marketing. The dollar loses bellows. But it is also the green ticket has lost value in front of the euro and other currencies. After 80 years being the pillar of the world economy, US tariffs They are starting to destroy it And that also translates into the price increases of everything. Including consoles. Less “boxes” are sold. Consoles manufacturers used to lose money with their models in the initial periods. The idea was always to recover those losses of plenty with the sale of physical games, but the rise of the sale of digital editions, the free-to-play games and the subscriptions have made the distribution of value change. For Sony or Microsoft the solution is simple: if we no longer recover so much value with the games, we upload the price of the hardware. But all that already happened before. The truth is that the situation is in many cases analogous to which it was lived with the PS4 and the Xbox One for example. These consoles ended up falling in a remarkable price over the years, but here a perfect storm has been created. One in which inflation, dollar weakness, tariffs and new video game access models have caused the worst result for users: more expensive consoles. In Xataka | 60 euros for a camera, 90 for a game. The worst (and best) of Nintendo prices for switch 2

Something strange is happening this year in the Svalbard archipelago

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February of this year, 2025, it is full winter, but some areas in the Svalbard archipelago do not seem to be aware: melted ice and green sprouts peeling among the rocks attract the attention of a group of scientists who work in these Norwegian islands in the middle of the Arctic polar circle. Something does not fit. A February too warm. The Researchers Team I recently caught attention About this fact, and did Through an article Posted in the magazine Nature Communications. In this piece it is pointed out that, for several days in February 2025, the temperatures recorded in this area exceeded 0º Celsius, the water freezing temperature. An archipelago in the eye of the hurricane. The increase in temperatures that we associate with climate change is not a uniform phenomenon: while some areas of the globe They coolabout hundreds of kilometers others are heated much faster than average. This is the case of the Svalbard archipelago. This set of islands belongs to Norway and is located in the middle of the Arctic Circle. The Svalbard archipelago is the place where we can find the most northern civil settlement on the planet, NY-work. From white to green. The exceptional warming in these islands was apparent to the team beyond the measurements captured by the thermometers. The snow in the area had backed away not only huge puddles of liquid water, but also suggesting the rock surface of the islands and the tundra’s own vegetation in summer. “Being on water swimming pools at the tip of the glacier on green, naked, was shocking and surreal,” described in a press release James Bradley. “The thick layer of snow that covered the landscape vanished in days. The team I wore felt like a relic of another climate.” Rain, no snow. These changes made almost impossible for the team to perform their work. First because its goal was to collect snow samples that rushed in this polar environment. In Words by researcher Laura Molares Moncayo“The objective of our field work campaign was to study newly fallen snow. But for a period of two weeks, we were only able to collect newly fallen snow once, since most of the precipitation fell in the form of rain.” The change also involved added difficulties, including more risks derived from the activity. The thaw hindered vehicles transit, making access to certain areas difficult, but also making the task of returning to the camp more complicated in the face of unexpected dangers, dangers that include, for example, the encounter with polar bears. Feedback According to the team, the implications of these changes can be very relevant beyond the difficulties involved for scientists working in the environment. According to the team itselfwarm events such as that registered in February can affect many different systems, “from the microbial carbon cycle to the survival of the Arctic Fauna.” In case it was not enough, these events can also generate a loop: by melting permafrost, soil that remains frozen all year, greenhouse gases are released that in turn aggravate heating. In Xataka | What is global warming, what are its causes and how we are trying to fight it Image | Bradley, Molares Moncayo, et al. (2025), Nature Communications

Something is happening in Silicon Valley. More and more startups are going to the day ‘996’ of China

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“If you want to leave at 5 you are not at the right work.” Lucy Guo said it, Founder of the Startup Scale AI. And it is not the only one. More and more Silicon Valley startups, especially those dedicated to AI, which are betting on this “extreme commitment” model that reminds us of the endless 996 Conference that were so controversial in China. What is happening? New culture. The culture of ultra-productivity defended by figures like Elon Musk It has been installed in Silicon Valley. In statements a WiredAdrian Kinnersley, CEO of a hiring company, says that “it is becoming very common. We have several clients who have as a prerequisite when selecting candidates who are willing to work on days 996”. Hysteria. In California, labor legislation is very favorable for workers and Kinnersley is surprised that many companies are “breastfeeding it.” It is one of the consequences of the AI career. Not only is there a great competition between China and the United StatesSilicon Valley has become the battlefield where small startups fight for being number one in his. The price: squeeze your workers. What was given was over. Not long ago, working in Silicon Valley was a dream for many. Companies like Google were known for offering gyms, coffee shops and even masseuses. All kinds of comfort for that employees felt at home. That is over. With the return to the offices after the pandemic, The dream began to fade. The tortilla has turned around. Today it is common for any startup to ask its employees to make marathon days and even work on weekends. Extreme commitment. It is another way of saying that you will not go through home much. We recently talked about the young CEO of Greptile and his controversial statements. “We do not offer conciliation”he said in Your X profile. The CEO says it directly in the work interviews: they work from 9 in the morning until late at night and, often, also on Saturdays. It looks a lot like China 996: from nine to nine, six days a week. The excuse: be competitive. In an interview, this CEO said that “nobody cares about the third best company, not even the second best, in any software category. If you are going to strive 95%, it is the equivalent of striving to 0%.” There are arranged people. In Spain we have attended the opposite in the hospitality sector: The waiters rebelled against the 12 -hour days, to the point that there was no labor. In Silicon Valley it seems that there are enough people willing to work 996. In Rilla, another AI startup, they say that 80% of their employees are working 72 hours a week. Even They put it in their job offers And they are not having problems hiring. His CEO says that there is “a very strong and growing subculture, especially in my generation (the Gene z), who grew up listening to stories by Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, entrepreneurs who dedicated their lives to create companies that changed the world. ” 996 in China. The 996 day became popular in China among Chinese technology last decade. This model was the growth engine of companies such as Alibaba or JD.com for years, but there came a point where The workers were fed up and The protests began demanding better working conditions. The Chinese government ended up prohibiting The endless days and went from 996 to 1065 (from 10 in the morning to 6 in the afternoon, five days a week). Temporary and only for those who want. There are startups that defend a slightly more moderate hyper-productive culture. The CEO of Sotiraa startup that applies AI solutions to the logistics sector, sees it as something temporary: “During the first two years of your startup, you have to work in the 996 style.” He also states that these days are for the leaders of the companies and does not believe that the entire employee base must be imposed. This vision creates a kind of structure on two levels, where only a part of the company meets these schedules. It is what the CEO of the “Telesalud” Fella & Delilah company proposed to its employees in a Publication in your LinkedIn. Employees who adhere to this schedule will receive a 25% increase in their salary. Image |Ron Lach, Pexels In Xataka | Work tired, stress and generates burnout. There is a way to reduce all that impact: the four -day week

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