“When we leave home, even on a weekend, cats must be supervised”

After months of work, stress and headaches, the second half of July has finally arrived and with it those vacations that you have been planning for months. Maybe you go to the Rías Baixas, the Canary Islands or Southeast Asia, the fact is that you will be away for two weeks and there are a loose end that you have not yet resolved: Who, when and how is going to take care of your cat? If it were a dog you could take it to a dog hotel or maybe leave it with your parents, but… And a kitten? Are there hotels for cats? Is it advisable to move them to an apartment that they do not know or is prepared for them? Better that someone go home to take care of them? Noelia Hernández, feline educator in Feline Codehas some keys. Feeders overflowing, and that’s it. If you are going to be away from home for several days (even if not many) the option of leaving your cat alone and unsupervised is not an option. Even if you leave the feeders full, a couple of bowls overflowing with water and the sandboxes just changed. “It is not contemplated even under the law,” warns Noelia Hernández, who recalls that the Animal Welfare Law (LBA) regulates the maximum time that an animal can be alone. In your article 27 (section “i”) the rule leaves the responsibilities of guardians in black and white. And one of them is to guarantee that your furry companion will not be unattended for more than 72 hours. To be precise, the law expressly prohibits “leaving any pet animal unsupervised for more than three consecutive days.” If we talk about dogs, that period is reduced to 24 hours. “Also a weekend”. Regardless of what the law says, Hernández remembers that even leaving a cat unsupervised on a weekend entails serious risks to its health. The reason: if the animal is alone and no one watches it, it is very difficult to know how it behaves, if it feeds, drinks and visits the sandbox. “A cat that spends 24 hours without going to the litter box, eating or drinking is a cat that urgently needs veterinary attention,” the expert emphasizes. He doesn’t exaggerate. In addition to dehydration, fasting can lead to hypoglycemia either hepatic lipidosis. That he does not go to the sandbox also reveals a urinary obstruction. Hence, Hernández advises that, even if we are only going to be away from home for a weekend, it is recommended that the cat not be left unattended. What if I take the cat with me? If you plan to move to a rental apartment on the coast and stay there for the rest of the summer until September, taking your minimum companion with you is an option, although you should take several factors into account. The first, recalls Hernández, is that “the cat is a territorial animal and changes in its environment cause a lot of stress.” “The car trip can be very stressful for them and there can also be a lot of risks,” he insists. At the end of the day, you may have your house ready, but… And that apartment where you are going to stay? Are the windows protected with nets to prevent falling? Are you sure there won’t be people coming and going without watching for the cat to escape? Not only that. Hernández remembers that yes the apartment is pet friendly It is quite likely that traces of other animals remain. Territorial animals. The same thing happens if we decide to remove the cat from its usual home and temporarily transfer it to that of a family member or friend who will take care of it or even if we opt for a feline hotel, that there are. Hernández advocates “assessing the risks” and remembering that cats are territorial animals. If we want to avoid stress, “it is always best to leave them in their territory.” The figure of catsitter. That does not mean that there are no options to go on vacation without neglecting the well-being of our kitten companion. Hernández remembers the figure of catsittera home cat care professional. “If they have training, they are people who also know how to maintain environmental enrichment when they get home,” explains the expert before emphasizing that idea: the ideal is not only for a person to go a couple of times a day to watch our pet and supervise the litter boxes and food, but to interact with them. “If the person who is going to come is trustworthy, we try to get the cats to know her first, to have seen her previously and to be aware of the routines and know as much as possible about them. Cats are animals of habit,” Hernández explains about her specific case. To ensure that everything is going well, another option is to use surveillance cameras in the food area and sandboxes. “A little outline”. That the person who is going to come to our house has been in contact with cats is important. Both for the animals and for the caregiver himself, who will thus handle more keys to carry out his job. “When I leave, I like to leave a small diagram of what is normal and what is not in each of my cats: how they like to play and eat, in what areas they stay and what symptoms are strange. For example, that they hide in a certain place or that they do not eat their favorite treat. The person who comes from outside does not know them.” It is about, summarizes Hernández, giving “a cheat sheet” to the caregiver so that they can quickly detect the “alarm” signs when something is not going well. “I always leave the carriers set up for any emergency and I tell the contact who comes to the house which is our reference veterinary hospital and the nearby 24-hour center in case of an … Read more

OnePlus is preparing to leave Europe and the United States. I had been sending signals for months that this was going to happen.

OnePlus and Oppo are going to announce in the coming days a total withdrawal from two large markets such as the United States and Europe, according to the German media has advanced WinFuture. Neither of the two companies has confirmed it in public yet, but the evidence has been accumulating for months and this time they all fit. What has happened. WinFuture cites internal sources who speak of “fundamental changes in strategy” that will be communicated this week, a classic euphemism to say that OnePlus is going to stop selling new models in two of its historical markets. There have already been press conferences behind closed doors with specialized media in which neither OnePlus nor Oppo have wanted to explain the reason for the closure. There will be no new launches of mobile phones, tablets or wearables in Europe or the United States. He stocks What remains will be settled in the coming weeks. Devices already sold will maintain software support until the end of their life cycle. India and China are left out of the announcement, although the brand will lose its independence there and will become a cheap line within Oppo. The context. This doesn’t come out of nowhere. In January, a report –without clear sources– he was already talking about dismantling and OnePlus denied it. In March, 9to5Google public that the global withdrawal could come in April. In April, the brand itself admitted that it was “evaluating its roadmap” in Europe, while also cutting its workforce in the region, with layoffs focused on communication, marketing and sales. The team that explains, advertises and sells a brand to the public is not fired if that brand is going to continue to need to be explained, advertised and sold. Then came the rumor of a merger with Realme, the leak that OxygenOS would be integrated into ColorOS (Oppo’s software) and, finally, OnePlus’ own websites in Germany, Spain and France They began to redirect buyers towards Oppo products. Between the lines. The replacement plan has an obvious crack. Oppo wants to fill the gap left by OnePlus in Europe, but its phones do not cost exactly the same. OnePlus built its entire brand on the promise of delivering high-end specs at a mid-range price tag, the “flagship killer” with which it was born in 2014. Replacing that proposal with a more expensive catalog is not a change of logo but a change of a brand’s target audience. There is another fissure that is caused by those who are still their clients. In several EU countries Complaints about unfulfilled guarantees have multiplied: users whose OnePlus headphones damaged under warranty receive compensation a voucher of 199 euros for an online store that barely has stocksand which also does not allow the voucher to be applied to the few remaining discounted products. Some have already opened complaints with the European Consumer Center. When after-sales service begins to systematically fail months before an unconfirmed closure, it stops being a customer service problem and becomes an exit signal. We saw it in Spain with BQ. Yes, but. OnePlus already denied similar rumors in 2023 and did so again in January of this year. Neither of the two denials has aged very well. Neither OnePlus nor Oppo have confirmed anything yet an official confirmation. From Xataka We have contacted Oppo and their response has been to explain to us that they are in talks with the regional teams, waiting to get more information to share. They neither confirm nor deny it, something that says a lot after years of categorical denials every time this rumor arose. Meanwhile, the accumulation of coincidences (execution departures, website redirects, software merger, empty store, guarantees that They are paid with hardly usable vouchers…) leaves little room for the benefit of the doubt. Why is it important. OnePlus was born in 2014 selling the promise that you didn’t have to pay more to have the best, and that promise ended up costing it its own identity: the brand was absorbed by Oppo in 2021which pushed its co-founder Carl Pei to leave to found Nothing. Since then, OnePlus has been losing room for maneuver within the group until it has become, by all indications, more of a label than a company with its own criteria. Its disappearance in the West closes the cycle of an idea (that of the premium mobile without a premium) that the market itself has been eroding as the differences between ranges have become smaller and Chinese brands have preferred to compete by volume rather than by differentiation. And now what. He OnePlus 15 It remains as the brand’s probable last major launch in Western markets. In parallel, similar rumors are circulating about other second-rate Chinese brands, but this week we could have the official announcement of the OnePlus outcome. In Xataka | Nothing is the most fascinating mobile phone brand in years for a very simple reason: it doesn’t sell mobile phones Featured image | Xataka

Germany toughens its labor reforms by requiring a sick leave certificate from day one: “It is a competitive disadvantage”

In Germany, take a sick leave After the pandemic it was as easy as picking up the phone, describing what hurts you and hanging up with the leave already processed. That procedure his days are numbered. Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants Germans to go to a doctor’s office again from the first day they feel unwell, and for him to be the one to prescribe sick leave with proof from the first day. The measure has opened a debate that, although it may not seem like it, we also have in Spain. What exactly changes in Germany. Since Germany implemented distancing measures during the Covid-19 pandemic, a worker could call his or her doctor, tell him or her the symptoms, and receive treatment. lower part without leaving home. Merz’s plan erases them with a stroke of the pen. From now on, proof must be requested in person from the first day of sick leave. Previously, it was only necessary after the third day of illness. As and how I collected the BBCChancellor Merz argued that “we cannot afford this competitive disadvantage caused by long periods of absence from work.” The reform, agreed between his party and the SPD, has clashed with unions, who speak of a “culture of mistrust” towards employees, and with family doctors, who fear seeing their offices overflowing with workers with a simple cold. Spain, an uncomfortable mirror. The German debate sounds distant until you look at the data here. Work absenteeism in Spain reached 7.2% of the agreed hours in the first quarter of 2026, its highest level in five years, according to the Randstad report Research. That is equivalent to more than 1.6 million of people who are absent from their jobs every day. In Germany the data follow a similar pattern and, according to the IGES report For the DAK-Gesundheit mutual insurance company, the average sick leave time is 19.5 days per year per worker, with mental health as the fastest growing cause. Justified and unjustified, two very different things. However, the term absenteeism is misleading and lumps together those who do not go to work due to a diagnosed illness and those who do not report to work by their own decision. He justified absenteeism It includes medical leave, legal permits or a justified appointment with the specialist, and the company cannot sanction you in any case. Unjustified absenteeism is a very different thing and includes absences without warning or giving any explanation, something that can end in a sanction and even dismissal. In Spain, almost eight out of every ten absences come from a temporary disability recognized by a doctor. It should be noted that temporary sick leave is not assigned by the worker himself, but is prescribed by a doctor. Only two out of ten workers miss work without justifying it. The real bottleneck: saturated healthcare. Many sick leave are not prolonged because the patient decides to extend their convalescence. They lengthen because the medical system takes time to treat you. According to data from the Ministry of Health, in 2025 there were more than 853,000 people in waiting list surgery in Spain, with an average delay of 121 days to undergo surgery. Added to this are more than four million people waiting for an appointment with a specialist. The result is easy to imagine: someone on sick leave due to a hernia or a knee can spend months on sick leave waiting for the test or operation that would return them to work sooner. While Germany tightens downward access, in Spain the bottleneck of absenteeism is a few steps further: in a waiting room. In Xataka | Germany has recovered a measure from 1889 to avoid the collapse of its pensions: work until age 70 Image | Unsplash (Maheshkumar Painam, Vitaly Gariev)

Today at Lidl (and with a 20% discount) this Parkside robotic lawnmower with which you can effortlessly leave your lawn perfect

If you are lucky enough to have a home with a garden, you will know that keeping it in perfect condition when the good weather arrives can turn into hours of work that many are not willing to waste. Between the heat and the time it consumes pass the traditional lawnmowerthe idea of ​​automating the task is increasingly attractive. However, the prices of autonomous robots are often prohibitive. Luckily, today on the Lidl website, we found this Parkside City Smart 20 V robotic lawnmower reduced with a 20% discount, being able to buy it for 143.99 euros. Don’t delay buying it though because the offer ends today. Parkside City Smart 20 V robotic lawnmower The price could vary. We earn commission from these links As we have already said, this offer is only available today, so if you are one of the laggards and can’t get this deal, on Amazon we have found another connected robotic lawnmower that may interest you. It is about the Worx WR303Ewhich is more expensive (it is now reduced to 599 euros) but it is worth it for the top features it offers such as automatic mapping, voice control and AI. WORX WR303E Landroid Vision Cloud Cordless Robot Lawn Mower The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A tool to have your perfect garden without lifting a finger The secret of this Parkside robotic lawnmower lies in its balance between connectivity and autonomy. It works under the brand’s 20 V battery ecosystem and is specifically designed to efficiently manage, urban and medium-sized gardens. Through the Lidl Home app (via WiFi or Bluetooth), you can schedule outage days, delimit the hours of activity and check the status of the device in real time from the couch or while you are away from home. It is equipped with a brushless motor (brushless) long-lasting and is a robot that optimizes energy consumption and significantly reduces noise compared to conventional gasoline or electric models. In addition, its cutting system finely shreds the grass, which means that the remains are deposited on the ground, functioning as natural fertilizer, thus saving you the task of collecting waste bags. With this robot you can forget about the device crashing or breaking if it starts to rain. The Parkside City Smart incorporates a rain sensor which orders it to automatically return to its charging station if the weather worsens, protecting both the motor and the health of your lawn. It also has Tilt, elevation and obstruction sensorswhich guarantees that you will avoid any unforeseen event on the terrain safely. Its configuration is extremely simple thanks to the included perimeter cable, which allows you to perfectly delimit the work area so that the robot knows exactly where to move. ⚡ IN BRIEF: offer for Parkside City Smart 20 V robotic lawnmower today ✅ THE BEST Good fluidity for gaming (144 Hz): It is his great asset. Finding a TV of this size with a native refresh rate of 144 Hz for this price is almost a miracle. If you connect a next-generation console or a PC, the experience is ultra-fluid, without jerks and with minimal latency. Google TV: For many, this is the best operating system for televisions. It is fast, intuitive and has the largest catalog of apps on the market. Plus, Google voice control works great for searching content without having to type on the remote. ❌ THE WORST Standard sound… Although it is suitable for the news, the integrated speakers do not have the punch necessary for an action movie. The image is so big and so good that the sound is dwarfed. Reflections in brightly lit rooms… If you have a window right in front of the TV, the panel may suffer from reflections during the day, since it does not have the anti-reflective treatment of the ultra-high ranges. 💡 BUY IT IF… If you are a gamer, since it is one of the best quality-price TVs currently. It is also recommended for moviegoers on a tight budget. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You have very large sofas and the family is spread throughout the living room and many watch TV from side angles, since it will not be the best option. You may also be interested Lawnmaster OcuMow®16 Electric Lawnmower Robots for Gardens of 150 m² The price could vary. We earn commission from these links MOVA LiDAX Ultra 800 Robotic Lawnmower, 800㎡ Coverage The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Webedia and Parkside (Lidl) In Xataka | Best handheld vacuum cleaners: which one to buy and 6 + 1 recommended models from just over 30 euros In Xataka | The best window cleaning robots to always have shiny windows

The big question in the middle of this terrible heat is whether we leave the air conditioning on or turn it off and turn it on again.

In Spain, there are about 7.3 million homes with air conditioning and most of them don’t know what kind of voracious and carefree critter they have on their hands. They sense it, of course; They have heard rumors, it is true. But only when summer comes and it is eaten around 30% of the electricity bill It is when they understand the reality behind the ‘fresquito’. That’s when the moral debates also begin. And just when he is going to leave through the door, our protagonist takes control of the air conditioning, directs it towards the split and asks himself… should I turn it off or not? Is it better to turn it off even if when you return the house has become an oven and you have to cool it down again? Or is it true that turning on the device is so expensive that it is better to leave it running all the time? This is the story of how an old piece of advice has become so embedded in people’s consciousness that it continues to operate even though HVAC technology has changed. It is an answer, also, to one of the big questions of the summer. From “don’t turn it off” to inverter… As I say, air conditioners have changed a lot. Old compressors had very high consumption peaks and this is the origin of the idea that turning it off is expensive. But current investors They work in a different way and their speed is modulated so that the starts are smooth. However, this is more of a technical issue. The most important reason to turn off the air is another. Inside and outside. What really rules in all this is the heat outside the house, the heat inside and the insulation that separates it. The first two factors are important because heat enters the house at a rate proportional to that difference. That means, roughly speaking, that if the house is warm, the heat enters more slowly. In this sense, if we are going to go out for a few hours, it is best to turn off the air (or raise the thermostat a lot). He US Department of Energy He says it bluntly: the starting peak lasts seconds and you also have to pay for the machine hours. Is it a good idea to turn it on and off while we are inside? As the OCU recognized, An inverter should be left to regulate only while you are at home. (without constantly turning it on and off by hand) and turning it off “when leaving the room permanently.” In any case, the question that can save us is not so much whether we turn it off or not as how many degrees and how many hours we have it on. The world of air conditioning is full of myths: from those who think that setting the thermostat lower will cool the room faster to those who confuse the legal minimum for public spaces (27 degrees) with what experts recommend (about 24). The last thing to keep in mind is humidity… cooling may have become relatively trivial thanks to inverter technologybut dehumidifying is not so much. So in very humid climates it pays more not to turn off the air because recovering a comfortable environment costs more. But do we turn off or not? It depends on the situation. For a short getaway like picking up bread or running a quick errand, we can leave the air on. The difference is almost non-existent. If we are going to be away for a long time, it is better to turn it off or, at the very least, raise the thermostat. Image | Kien Nguyen In Xataka | Air conditioning in summer has a double standard of measurement: it cools us but gives us torticollis

Next week the 2,400 W Parkside pressure washer arrives at Lidl that will leave your terrace like new

With the arrival of good weather, fine-tune the exterior areas of the house It becomes one of the mandatory tasks almost every weekend. If you are tired of scrubbing the garden floor, the terrace walls with the brush, or spending money at the car wash to clean the car, in next week’s Lidl brochure we have found a device that will help you do this. It is about the Parkside 2,400 W pressure washerwhich will go on sale in physical stores next Friday, July 3 by 89.99 euros. Although if you don’t want to wait, you can now buy it on the Lidl website. Parkside pressure washer 2,400 W The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Competing at this price with Lidl is impossible for the vast majority of brands. But if this Parkside cleaning device runs out, on Amazon Prime Day you have this one available Bosch Home and Garden pressure washer with 120 bars and a power of 150 W reduced to 91.99 euros. Bosch Home and Garden High Pressure Washer, High Pressure Cleaner, 1500 W, 125 Bars The price could vary. We earn commission from these links An ideal cleaning tool for removing stubborn dirt. The true hallmark of this pressure washer is its motor with 2,400 W of power, which powers a aluminum high pressure pump Specially designed to offer great durability and resistance to corrosion. This technical combination allows reaching a maximum pressure of 170 bars (with a very solvent continuous working pressure of 115 bars). This means that it has enough strength to lift moss embedded in the stone, clean the joints of exterior tiles or remove grease from the car without straining. In addition, it offers a maximum flow rate of 500 liters per hour, an ideal water volume to speed up cleaning large surfaces without it becoming an eternal task. It can also be noted that this pressure washer comes with seven interchangeable bulbsdetergent tank and a 10-meter anti-twist high-pressure hose. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: offer for lidl’s parkside 2,400 W pressure washer today ✅ THE BEST High pressure aluminum pump: Unlike many cheap pressure washers that use plastic components, this model has an aluminum pump. It is a key technical detail because it resists heating, wear and corrosion much better. The “all-inclusive” accessory kit: It does not require spending extra money on accessories. It comes standard with a vario nozzle, rotating turbo nozzle, detergent bottle and a generous 10 meter anti-twist high pressure hose. ❌ THE WORST Exclusively domestic use… Although it has a lot of power on paper, its overall and internal components are designed for moderate-duration home cleaning sessions. It is not recommended for intensive professional or commercial use. Volume and storage… With a weight of around 11.5 kg (with accessories) and considerable vertical dimensions, it requires a fixed space in the garage or storage room to store it. Although it includes wheels and cable supports, it is a cumbersome machine. 💡 BUY IT IF… You want to clean tiles, remove moss from stone paths, wash fences or clean blinds quickly and comfortably. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You need a machine to work continuously for several hours a day on facades or industrial warehouses, you will have to make the leap to professional ranges with water-cooled induction motors. Other pressure washers that may interest you Bosch High Pressure Washer UniversalAquatak 135 (1900 W, pressure: 135 Bar, max. flow: 410 l/h, in Box) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Stanley SXPW24BX Pressure Washer The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Webedia and Parkside (Lidl) In Xataka | Safety, organization and entertainment gadgets and accessories for cars on long trips In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes

stopped cars that cannot leave their ports

China has taken positions in Europe. The European automobile industry is witnessing a rampant arrival of Chinese manufacturers trying to sell as much as possible at the fastest possible pace. Chinese manufacturers looking for factorieswho reach new countries and try to build the necessary infrastructure to place their cars on our roads. A rampant landing that has its consequences in European ports. Overwhelmed. This is what the colleagues of Motorpassion. The large European ports have been filled with Chinese cars that no one can let out. Satellite images show that the large number of these cars is turning what was previously a transit area into authentic fields of Chinese cars. The large European ports are the ones that are most noticing this landing of Chinese cars. Antwerp-Zeebrugge in Belgium, Bremerhaven in Germany or Barcelona in Spain are those that have to deal with higher volumes of vehicles packaged in China and discovered in Europe. What does the data say? Exactly this. They rescue in GFM Review that the large ports mentioned above have found themselves with the problem of managing a huge stock of vehicles for which there is no outlet. So much so that there are vehicles, they say, that have not moved for 18 months. According to data collected by elDiario.esBarcelona is positioning itself as one of the great poles of attraction in Europe. Last year, cars arriving at the Catalan port increased by 5% but imports from China grew by more than 40%. In the month of January alone, the volume of cars received increased by 80% compared to the same month in 2025. In The Mercantile They report that the excess of vehicles in the port has forced unscheduled trains to be mobilized to distribute cars to Madrid, especially Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo, which have their large operations center in Barcelona. But they point out elDiario.es that other Chinese manufacturers that have recently arrived in Europe, such as Changan or Great Wall Motors (GWM) do not stop adding cars to the Catalan port. Converted into fields. This massive arrival of cars has turned European ports into massive fields for Chinese manufacturers. So much so that Barcelona (which in 2025 it will receive 80% of Chinese cars purchased in Spain and 14% of those purchased in Europe) has underway a project to expand its capacity to assimilate cars, with the NYK shipping company willing to invest 75 million euros in a new terminal that could accommodate 180,000 cars a year. The problem is that these spaces are at their limit because, as we say, cars are not allowed out at the expected rate. It is a story that It has been repeating for two years. Back then, the companies did not have a sufficient distribution network to assimilate the cars that were brought to Europe, but now the problems are different. The problem now is that the manufacturers They are not finding enough truckers to move the cars to their destinations but, in addition, There are more Chinese brands fighting for ports Europeans and a country willing to get all the cars it can out of there. We send them to Europe. For a few months we have been saying that China is determined to send all the cars it can to our continent. Actually, Europe is not its only target market, but the growth in electric sales (in May almost the same electric cars were sold as gasoline cars) and the absence of tariffs on plug-in hybrids make the European market ideal. Chinese companies are encountering problems selling their cars in the local market but their factories continue to produce at full capacity. This has boosted exports to the point that they have taken almost 50% more electric vehicles out of the country than last year and 100% more plug-in hybrids. Brad Setseran export specialist, shows how domestic sales are falling but exports are increasing at a devilish rate and that car production continues to grow. China seems determined to flood the market with the expansion of its brands and the shipment of more and more models even though the ports themselves act as a funnel. It repeats. The situation experienced by European ports is similar to what is being experienced in other markets. As we counted a few weeks ago in XatakaMexico has wanted to impose tariffs on Chinese cars. Its problem is that when it wanted to collect the new taxes, the Chinese manufacturers had already landed thousands of cars there and had them available for distribution. This strategy is accompanied by the commitment that China is making to what is known as the Global South. There, the manufacturers They are dethroning Japan as their priority customerexporting more and more cars that are sold at a more attractive price below the equator line where They already ship more cars than Europe and the United States combined. Photo | Omoda and BYD In Xataka | Japan had dominated total car sales for more than 20 years, until China knocked on the door

stopped cars that cannot leave their ports

China has taken positions in Europe. The European automobile industry is witnessing a rampant arrival of Chinese manufacturers trying to sell as much as possible at the fastest possible pace. Chinese manufacturers looking for factorieswho reach new countries and try to build the necessary infrastructure to place their cars on our roads. A rampant landing that has its consequences in European ports. Overwhelmed. This is what the colleagues of Motorpassion. The large European ports have been filled with Chinese cars that no one can let out. Satellite images show that the large number of these cars is turning what was previously a transit area into authentic fields of Chinese cars. The large European ports are the ones that are most noticing this landing of Chinese cars. Antwerp-Zeebrugge in Belgium, Bremerhaven in Germany or Barcelona in Spain are those that have to deal with higher volumes of vehicles packaged in China and discovered in Europe. What does the data say? Exactly this. They rescue in GFM Review that the large ports mentioned above have found themselves with the problem of managing a huge stock of vehicles for which there is no outlet. So much so that there are vehicles, they say, that have not moved for 18 months. According to data collected by elDiario.esBarcelona is positioning itself as one of the great poles of attraction in Europe. Last year, cars arriving at the Catalan port increased by 5% but imports from China grew by more than 40%. In the month of January alone, the volume of cars received increased by 80% compared to the same month in 2025. In The Mercantile They report that the excess of vehicles in the port has forced unscheduled trains to be mobilized to distribute cars to Madrid, especially Chery’s Omoda and Jaecoo, which have their large operations center in Barcelona. But they point out elDiario.es that other Chinese manufacturers that have recently arrived in Europe, such as Changan or Great Wall Motors (GWM) do not stop adding cars to the Catalan port. Converted into fields. This massive arrival of cars has turned European ports into massive fields for Chinese manufacturers. So much so that Barcelona (which in 2025 it will receive 80% of Chinese cars purchased in Spain and 14% of those purchased in Europe) has underway a project to expand its capacity to assimilate cars, with the NYK shipping company willing to invest 75 million euros in a new terminal that could accommodate 180,000 cars a year. The problem is that these spaces are at their limit because, as we say, cars are not allowed out at the expected rate. It is a story that It has been repeating for two years. Back then, the companies did not have a sufficient distribution network to assimilate the cars that were brought to Europe, but now the problems are different. The problem now is that the manufacturers They are not finding enough truckers to move the cars to their destinations but, in addition, There are more Chinese brands fighting for ports Europeans and a country willing to get all the cars it can out of there. We send them to Europe. For a few months we have been saying that China is determined to send all the cars it can to our continent. Actually, Europe is not its only target market, but the growth in electric sales (in May almost the same electric cars were sold as gasoline cars) and the absence of tariffs on plug-in hybrids make the European market ideal. Chinese companies are encountering problems selling their cars in the local market but their factories continue to produce at full capacity. This has boosted exports to the point that they have taken almost 50% more electric vehicles out of the country than last year and 100% more plug-in hybrids. Brad Setseran export specialist, shows how domestic sales are falling but exports are increasing at a devilish rate and that car production continues to grow. China seems determined to flood the market with the expansion of its brands and the shipment of more and more models even though the ports themselves act as a funnel. It repeats. The situation experienced by European ports is similar to what is being experienced in other markets. As we counted a few weeks ago in XatakaMexico has wanted to impose tariffs on Chinese cars. Its problem is that when it wanted to collect the new taxes, the Chinese manufacturers had already landed thousands of cars there and had them available for distribution. This strategy is accompanied by the commitment that China is making to what is known as the Global South. There, the manufacturers They are dethroning Japan as their priority customerexporting more and more cars that are sold at a more attractive price below the equator line where They already ship more cars than Europe and the United States combined. Photo | Omoda and BYD In Xataka | Japan had dominated total car sales for more than 20 years, until China knocked on the door

invest a fortune and leave NVIDIA with almost no margin

There is little doubt that the artificial intelligence race today has two major protagonists: the United States and China. They are not the only countries that are moving forward, but they are the two that are setting the pace, each with their own tools and with a very different idea of ​​how to sustain progress. As AI begins to become economic infrastructure, the question changes. It’s no longer just a question of who has the best models, but of who can build the material base to power them, deploy them, and take them everywhere. First idea. Large-scale state financing. According to BloombergChina is preparing a plan to allocate around 2 trillion yuan, about $295 billion, over the next five years to build AI data centers across the country. The information points to a deployment promoted by Beijing to strengthen its national artificial intelligence sector. We are not yet talking about a closed plan: the media points out that the project is still in an early phase of discussion and that the details may change. A network, not just more data centers. The key to the plan would not only be in building new facilities, but in connecting them under a national architecture. Bloomberg talks about a network of interconnected computing hubs that would allow resources currently dispersed between regions to be pooled and give companies and organizations broader access to high-performance capacity. The general objective would be for these facilities, now fragmented, to function as a more cohesive system by 2028. The State as architect. At the center of the design are organizations such as the National Development and Reform Commission, one of China’s great economic planning arms. On the other hand, state companies such as China Mobile and China Telecom would assume a good part of the operation of these centers and the connectivity between them. It is an important detail because it helps understand Beijing’s approach: it seeks to position itself as a coordinator, according to the information released by the American media. Second idea. The other big leg of the plan is who would supply the technology. Bloomberg notes that the idea is to turn to local suppliers, including Huawei, for at least 80% of the hardware and software, including AI chips. That threshold does not amount to an explicit ban on NVIDIA or AMD, but it would leave them with very little room to participate in the rollout. It is precisely there where investment also becomes a tool to reduce foreign technological dependence. It is not an isolated movement. Direction fits with steps that Beijing had already been giving to reduce dependence on foreign chips in private and public infrastructure. Without going any further, the market share of the firm led by Jensen Huang has plummeted in recent months, and there is little reason to think that he might believe again anytime soon. The background signal. It should be noted that the plan advanced by Bloomberg is not officially confirmed, but it shows where Beijing wants to move if it finally goes ahead. China would not only be preparing a huge investment in data centers: it would be trying to make this deployment work as a national network, largely powered by local technology. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | We already know how much water Amazon consumes in its data centers. We have good and bad news

Do not leave everything as an inheritance to your children

Bill Gates has been one of the 10 richest people in the world for decades. However, recently the Gates fortune has fallen several places on the list of millionaires, according to Forbes. That fall in the estimation of his fortune It is not because the founder of Microsoft has made a mistake in his latest investments, but because of a plan that he has been executing for more than two decades. Donate 99% of your fortune through the foundation which he created with his ex-wife Melinda French Gates. This foundation has already donated 100 billion dollars. Your fortune will not be your legacy. That of Bill Gates is only one of the best-known cases of billionaires who have made the decision to do not leave the fortune who have amassed their children throughout their lives. He veteran investor Warren Buffett, Mark ZuckerbergMick Jagger, Lauren Powell Jobs and the singer Sting have also declared their refusal to leave his empire as an inheritance to their children. In one recent interview for the BBC on the occasion of the presentation of his latest book Source Code: My Beginningsthe millionaire recognized that he was not going to leave his fortune as an inheritance. Despite leaving them only a small percentage of his fortune, now estimated at about $103.9 billion, the millionaire assures that your children will not be poor. “They won’t be,” Gates said. “In absolute terms, they will do well, but in percentage terms it is not a gigantic number.” Indeed, 1% of something doesn’t seem like a big deal, but 1% of 103.9 billion is 1.03 billion dollars. A not inconsiderable inheritance. 100 billion dollars. According to what the millionaire told the BBC, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was facing the 25th anniversary of its founding, reaching a round figure: 110.9 billion dollars. donated to projects philanthropists from around the world. “We have donated more than 100 billion,” Gates noted, “but I still have more to give.” Currently, the millionaire’s donations to the foundation that bears his name exceed 63.9 billion. The remaining 40,000 million have come from periodic donations from third parties, such as those of his friend Warren Buffett, who every year allocates several billion dollars to the foundation. What the Gates Foundation declares. According to the latest data made public By the Gates Foundation, as of the fourth quarter of 2025, the foundation had donated $90 billion and had a trust capital of $110.9 billion. Of those $90 billion that the Gates Foundation claimed to have donated from its creation until 20235, $63.9 billion had come from Gates’ coffers. Buffett’s contribution since he began collaborating with the Gates Foundation in 2006 has been $47.9 billion. From these figures, and in the absence of the Foundation publishing its 2026 accounts, it is clear that, in reality, Bill Gates would have barely contributed 500 million more to his foundation during the last year, while his fortune has remained stable during the last year. The responsibility of wealth. The founder of Microsoft claimed in his interview to have been greatly influenced by the philanthropy that his parents had exercised throughout his childhood. His mother often told him that “with wealth comes the responsibility of giving it away.” Bill Gates, inspired by his parents and by Philosophy of Chuck Feeneydecided to join forces with Warren Buffett to found the initiative The Giving Pledgein which several dozen millionaires have committed to donate at least 50% of his fortune to philanthropic purposes. Names like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, MacKenzie Scott or, the last to sign his commitment, Sam Altman, form part of this select club who believes that getting rich must be accompanied by a commitment to society that has allowed them to achieve it. A version of this article was published in February 2025. In Xataka | Lawyers and notaries agree: “When making a will it is wise to leave specific assets to each child and the home to only one” Image | Flikr (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office)

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