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It turns out that birds and insects live much better under them

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We have been hearing for years that the expansion of solar parks threatens the countryside. The mental image we usually have is of hectares and hectares of black panels under a relentless sun, devastating the landscape and without a single bird for miles around. However, the data is beginning to tell a radically different story. There is more life inside than outside. To understand this phenomenon, we only have to look at the most recent data in Spain. According to a report from the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF)endorsed by the independent environmental consultancy EMAT, photovoltaic enclosures are proving to be refuges full of life. After analyzing different facilities in 2025, the pattern is repeated within the park, there are more species than in the adjacent agricultural field. The numbers in three different provinces leave no room for doubt: Minglanilla (Cuenca): Researchers counted a total of 32 species of birds inside the solar plant, compared to the 19 they found in the control agricultural area located just outside. Revilla Vallejera (Burgos): The balance recorded 39 species inside the facility compared to 34 outside. Trujillo (Cáceres): 31 species were detected living between the panels, compared to 25 outside them. And what kind of tenants are arriving? They are not just common birds. The presence of protected or declining species such as the curlew, the little bustard, the roller, the owl and the lesser kestrel have been documented. And the food chain works its magic: as wild vegetation grows, insects arrive; with the insects, come the birds; and the abundance of these prey is attracting birds of prey such as eagles, vultures, hawks and owls. There is no technology, but something simpler. To understand why this is happening you have to change the reference point. The question is not whether a solar park is ecologically better than a virgin forest, because it clearly is not. The key is to compare it with what was before in that field. In the vast majority of cases, these fields were previously intensive agricultural operations: impoverished landscapes, treated with herbicides and profoundly silent. In contrast, installing a solar park de facto introduces an ecological exclusion zone. In other words, no pesticides or herbicides are used, hunting is prohibited and there is no tillage of the land, and human presence is reduced to very specific maintenance visits. As Martín Behar points outdirector of Studies and Environment at UNEF, this lack of chemicals, added to natural vegetation management through extensive grazing, is generating fantastic results on biodiversity. Spain It is not an anomaly. At an international level, what science is beginning to call “conservatory” systems (the union of renewable generation and active conservation) already has fascinating evidence. In the United Kingdom, a study led by the RSPB and the University of Cambridge analyzed six solar parks in East AngliaEdit. The conclusion was that they housed a greater wealth of birds than nearby crops. In those better managed (with unpruned hedges and varied vegetation), almost three times as many birds were found than in neighboring fields. But perhaps the most curious story comes from Australia. A Lightsource bp study followed 1,700 merino sheep for three years. Half lived in traditional grass fields and the other half lived among photovoltaic panels. The discovery surprised everyone: the sheep that grazed in the solar park produced better quality wool. The reason is that the microclimate under the modules allowed them to alternate between fresh forage, dry grass and hay several times a year, something not feasible in a normal paddock in full sun. It’s not enough to plant the panels and cross your fingers. Of course, the researchers themselves warn of something fundamental: that solar parks can benefit the ecosystem does not mean that they always do so by magic. It is not enough to install the panels and wait. If you just cut the grass close and leave a “simple habitat”, there will be no miracle. For the magic to happen, active management is needed: maintain vegetation covers, use native vegetation on the margins, create ecological corridors and rely on sheep as a natural lawnmower. To push the industry in this direction, UNEF has promoted a Seal of Excellence in Sustainability, developed hand in hand with experts from WWF and SEO/BirdLife. The debate is changing. What makes photovoltaic energy an ally for biodiversity or a territorial threat is, simply, what we decide to do with it. Image | Pexels Xataka | Australia compared 1,700 sheep and discovered something unexpected: those that graze among solar panels give better quality wool

put an astronaut to “live” a year in orbit

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The Shenzhou 23 mission has been a success on its journey to Tiangongaccording to various Chinese media reports. In these, this milestone is noted as a great step forward in China’s race to the Moon. Certainly, each of these advances brings the Asian country closer to our satellite. However, it should be noted that the milestones achieved with this latest mission are rather achievements of the Chinese space race in general, and not so specific to lunar exploration. It is also worth noting that several records have been broken or are expected to be broken, but again these are particular records for this nation, not worldwide. All this indicates that they have the capacity of the great space powers, although much of what they are doing has already been done before. Three new taikonauts in space. This May 24, three taikonauts (the name by which Chinese astronauts are known in the West) they left with the help of a Long March rocket heading to the Tiangong space station. Docking with one of the station’s ports was carried out without problems 3.5 hours later. Two of the ship’s three crew members are expected to spend around 6 months in these facilities. The normal thing in these missions. However, one of them, which has not yet been specified, will break the record for spending a year in space. Background. There have already been other astronauts who have spent about a year in space. At NASA, the record is held by astronaut Frank Rubio, who spent 371 days aboard the International Space Station. Before him, at the top of the US space agency was Mark Vande Hei, with 355 days. However, both are far short of the 437 days Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov spent at the Russian Mir station. The crew. The three crew members of this Chinese mission are Zhu Yangzhu, Zhang Zhiyuan and Li Jiaying. The latter is the fourth female taikonaut and the first person from Hong Kong to travel to space. Before, she was a police inspector. More first times. The next mission to Tiangong will have a Pakistani astronaut on board, so firsts will continue to be achieved. Future experiments. The astronauts who have now arrived at the Chinese space station will carry out various experiments, related to medicine, materials science, fluid physics, biology and medicine. Highlights include those carried out by the crew member who will extend his stay up to a year, since he will be the one in charge of studying how it affects microgravity to the human body in long stays. It will also focus on the psychological effects of confinement and, in general, everything that could affect the health of the next lunar colonists. Target: the Moon. Of course China has its sights set on the Moon. In fact, with their Chang’e missions, they have done a very exhaustive study of our satellite. They have managed to map it, land on your hidden side and collect samples and return them to Earth for analysis. Even has been made to germinate a seed in a simulated biosphere, within the selenite territory. The Chinese Academy of Sciences has sufficient knowledge about the Moon and has also proven to have more than competent technologies. Their goal is to land on the moon in 2030. NASA’s is set for 2028, but everything can change. At the moment, China is advancing at a good pace in its space race and that, without a doubt, is great news. At the end of the day, we should see the space race as a goal of humanity, not so much as a race between countries. Images | CMSA In Xataka | The space race between the United States and China is, above all, a race to see who can spend the most money

In Japan there is no doubt that they live worse than 30 years ago. Houses are literally getting smaller.

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The demographic crisis that drags Japan comes long. In 2024 we say that it is the great challenge of the nation, the same one that we could summarize with one fact: if we continue like this, By 2531 all its inhabitants will have the same last name. That’s why we have seen all kinds of ideas and proposalssome with more common sense than othersbut all with the idea of ​​raising birth rates and combating aging. Now there is another fact that aggravates the situation even more: the houses are smaller. The house shrinks. The data is official and comes from a study that is carried out every five years in the nation. The average housing space in Japan has reached its lowest level in 30 years, with an average of 90 square meters at the end of 2024three square meters less than the 2003 peak, according to the government study. The change reflects a trend towards reduction in the size of homes, evident in the last five years. Additionally, in both single-family homes and multi-family units, including rentals and condominiums. Multifamily, in particular, average only 50 square metersfive less than what the government considers adequate for two adults in urban areas. It’s the economy, friend. They counted on a report in Nikkei that the increase in construction costs, which has shot up 30% since 2015 in the country, is the main driver of this reduction of space in homes. To keep prices affordable and protect their profit margins, builders are downsizing homes, a practice known as “hidden price gouging.” Not only that. In addition, land prices in popular residential areas are also on the rise, which further aggravates the situation. This increase in prices has reduced the demand for larger, more expensive, personalized homes in favor of smaller, cheaper units. Impact on quality of life. It is another of the legs that slips from the problem. The reduction in living space creates discomfort, especially in small homes. For many people, like a 50-year-old woman who lives in a 30-square-meter apartment with her husband, the situation is described as suffocating. Even single-person homes, which They represent 38% of households according to the national censusare often considered too small for a comfortable lifestyle. And then there are young people, who face greater barriers to accessing larger homes, with prohibitive prices even on the second-hand market. Young people and birth rates. All this leads to what we indicated at the beginning. The reduced living space and the impossibility of purchasing larger homes discourage young couples from, for example, starting families, exacerbating the already worrying drop in the birth rate. Housing policies alone do not seem sufficient to reverse this trend, and experts such as Masayuki Takahashi emphasize that The key is to increase salaries in a sustained manner. During the period of high economic growth in Japan, rising wages allowed more people to access spacious housing, something that is not the case today. The elderly and housing. The housing problem goes much further. In fact, every time More seniors in Japan face difficulties renting housingeven if they have financial means. Cases like that of an 88-year-old man in Tokyo, who, with more than 100 million yen in savings after planning to sell his apartment, experienced multiple rejections for not being able to provide an emergency contact under 70 years of agea common requirement among homeowners in the nation. After four months of searching, he managed to find an apartment, but the case reflects a broader problem. Rent and the veto for older adults. According to 2020 census data, Japan had 6.7 million single-person households with residents aged 65 or older, accounting for 12% of the total. By 2030, it is estimated that this number will reach 8 million. Again, even though there are approximately 9.3 million of vacant homes, landlords’ reluctance to rent to seniors is a significant obstacle. In August 2025, the Ministry of Infrastructure published a survey specific about owners of the akiya which revealed that approximately 60% of these properties were inherited, with more than 70% built before 1980, and that more than 70% show signs of deterioration or damage. Reasons? 66% of landlords expressed reluctance to accept older tenants, in a ministry survey. The main fear: the risk of death of the tenant alone of which we have talked beforewhich can require costly cleanups and require reporting to future tenants for three years. This situation is worsened by the increasing loneliness of older people and the lack of close family members throughout the nation. Ultimately, and with official figures and data In hand, it does not seem that the housing problem in Japan has improved for three decades. In reality, and sticking to those numbers, houses are literally smaller and more expensive, both to buy and to rent. a problem that we see in many other nationswhere the practice of downsizing in homes to maintain competitive prices ends up affecting the stability of the real estate market and the residents’ own quality of lifewith special emphasis on the case of young people and the elderly. A version of this article was published in January 2025 Image | Ted McGrath In Xataka | Japan has known for many years the secret to cleaning dust less frequently at home In Xataka | If you thought that living in Japan was already a luxury, wait until you see the latest house signed by Aston Martin

memory no longer wants to live in each machine

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For many of us, memory shortage It may first sound like a problem close to domestic consumption: RAM modules, components and devices conditioned by an increasingly stressed demand. But the phenomenon that The Next Platform describes also points to the other end of the chain. It reaches the large technology companies that train, deploy and offer artificial intelligence models in data centers. The cloud is not an abstraction, and its appetite for memory is forcing us to think about something that until recently seemed unintuitive: perhaps each machine should not depend only on the RAM it has inside. Memory changes places. The underlying idea is to transfer to memory a logic that is already familiar to us with storage. Today, data can live on the computer itself, on another machine on the network, or on a shared system accessed by several servers. The next generation of servers could treat RAM in a similar way: keep a portion local to each machine, but bring a much larger portion to large external systems capable of distributing capacity according to the need of the moment. From there comes what some call “memory godbox”: a large box or cluster of memory that is no longer tied to a single machine. The CXL moment. For years, Compute Express Link has advanced slowly, almost as a promise for more flexible architectures. The technology was introduced several years ago, but current memory pressures are giving it a much more favorable context. CXL provides a coherent interface to communicate processors, memory, accelerators and other peripherals, relying on PCIe. The final idea is simple to tell, although complex to execute: separating resources without breaking the feeling that they work together. CXL didn’t arrive all at once. It was first used to expand the memory of a server using modules connected to compatible PCIe slots. Then, with CXL 2.0, pooling appearedthat is, the possibility of pooling memory in a common pool and assigning it to different machines as needed. The limit was that that memory could be reallocated, but not truly shared between two systems working on the same data. CXL 3.0 It is the point at which that frontier begins to move, because it introduces broader topologies and shared memory between machines, although with certain technical limitations. The underlying problem. According to The Next Platform, AI does not fall short only because of a lack of calculation, but also because of a lack of memory. The HBM that accompanies the GPUs is very fast and is designed to power these chips at high speed, but its capacity is limited and its cost is high. In training, the big challenge is usually processing enormous amounts of data to build the model. In inference, however, we talk about something else: using that already trained model to respond to a request. The memory of the conversation. Each response from a language model is built little by little, token by token. In order not to recalculate everything above at each step, the systems save a type of working memory called KV cache. The Next Platform explains that previous attention vectors are preserved there, which help the model to continue taking into account the context while generating the response. The problem is that in services with many users, this cache can grow to occupy enormous amounts of memory, even more than the model itself. It’s not just theory anymore. This idea no longer lives only in technical documents or architectural promises. The Register mentions Panmnesia, Liqid and UnifabriX as companies working on systems to take memory off the server and make it available to multiple machines. Some do it with CXL switches, others with large reserves of DDR5 that can be distributed among different hosts. The Next Platform adds the case of Enfabrica and its Emfasys system, designed for inference and capable, according to the media, of reaching 18 TB of DDR5 per memory server and 144 TB in a full rack. The conclusion is simple: the industry is not only looking for more memory, it is looking to place it in another way so that AI can take better advantage of it. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | The ‘Chinese Netflix’ has designed a plan for AI to generate the majority of its content within five years. It sounds risky

Microsoft wanted to create a mega data center in Kenya. To function, half the country had to live without electricity

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In May 2024 Microsoft announced what seemed like a historic agreement for Kenya’s technological development. The goal: create a gigantic data center that would be powered by geothermal energy. This center was going to be created in the Olkaria region, but the Kenyan president, William Ruto, has been blunt with Microsoft’s energy claims: to power the total requested 1 GW capacity, the country “would have to shut down half the nation.” too fair. Kenya has an electrical capacity installed capacity of between 3 and 3.2 GW, with peak demand that already reaches 2.44 GW. Microsoft’s project would consume approximately a third of the country’s total capacity. Even the first phase, which requires a capacity of 100 MW, would take a huge bite out of the production of the Olkaria geothermal complex, which generates about 950 GW in total. Kenya seems to be clear that sacrificing domestic consumption was not worth it when most of the project’s profitability will end up in the hands of a large foreign technology company. Financial disagreement. In addition to the energy problems, the negotiations have ended up getting stuck in the economic field. According to sources close to the process cited in BloombergMicrosoft and the investment firm G42 have reportedly asked the Kenyan government for a financial commitment. Specifically, payment for a certain amount of capacity each year, something with which the Kenyan leaders did not fully agree. The project has not been canceled. John Tanui, head of Kenya’s Ministry of Information, explained that his country is still in negotiations with Microsoft and G42, and that the agreement “has not failed or been abandoned. The scale of the data center they needed requires some structuring,” and that includes solving both the energy and economic problems. A project with a lot of geopolitics behind it. This project was not only a technological milestone for Microsoft and Africa, but also a diplomatic one. It is part of a $1.5 billion deal between Microsoft and Abu Dhabi-based G42, which was designed to counter potential deals on this continent with China. In fact, as a condition for the G42 agreement had to divest its Chinese assets and remove Huawei equipment from their systems. While the project is on hold, however, the Chinese company continues to expand in this region and has recently launched new broadband services over fiber with the largest Kenyan operator, Safaricom. Bottlenecks everywhere. The case of Kenya is not the only one that is stopping Microsoft’s plans. The company has announced a capex of 190 billion dollars by 2026 that will be invested in data centers, and the company is adding approximately 1 GW of computing capacity each quarter globally. However, about half of the data centers planned in the US this year have been canceled or delayed due to the shortage of electrical infrastructure. Image | Microsoft In Xataka | In 2024, Big Tech spent absurd amounts of money on AI. In 2025, they managed to spend 77% more

In 1962, someone donated shares in a company to the elderly in his town. The company was Nokia and today they live like millionaires

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There are stories that seem taken from a Hollywood script. That of Onni Nurmi, a young Finnish entrepreneur, has a name, surname, date and even a street named after him. The story of our protagonist It has all the elements for a script worthy of an Oscar: a man who was born in misery, fell into debt with his neighbors, crossed the Atlantic to settle his outstanding accounts and returned to his country. Decades after he died, he has become the greatest benefactor of his people. All this, for having donated to the nursing home in his town the shares of a rubber company that did not attract anyone’s attention. A Nurmi always pays his debts Onni Nurmi was born in 1885 in Savijoki, a small town within the municipality of Pukkila, in Finland, a town of just under 1,700 inhabitants. Nurmi grew up in a humble home marked by the hardships of being raised by a single mother who worked in the fields and ran a small canning store in the town. When she died unexpectedly at age 49, Onni was only 13 years old and had no future in Pukkila, so he moved to Helsinki. In 1912, he returned to Pukkila and resumed the family business by opening a store. However, his business did not work out. The following year, indebted to dozens of neighborstook a ship to America and spent 15 years working as a game warden in Minnesota. When he returned in 1928, he went door to door paying off every outstanding debt owed to Pukkila residents, some of them incurred a decade earlier. He didn’t do it because no one demanded it. Onni was simply that type of person. Onni Nurmi. Source: Kylä Savijoki Helsinki’s most unlikely investor With his debts paid off, Onni moved back to Helsinki, where he worked as a property manager and led an orderly, quiet life. He never married or had children. At some point he discovered investments in the stock market and, without financial training and with the only help of his intuition, he decided to buy shares of a small company that manufactured paper, rubber, rubber tires and boots which had its headquarters in the city that gave it its name: Nokia. In 1959 he wrote his will and decided to leave all the shares of that company that manufactured wellies to the municipality of Pukkila, with two conditions: They should never be sold and his donation was to be used solely for the well-being of the town’s elders. Onni Nurmi died in 1962 at the age of 77. The 780 shares he donated to the town where he had lived most of his life were then worth about $30,000, the equivalent of about $320,000 today. His gesture was undoubtedly generous, but not extraordinary…yet. The Buffett Effect: Let Time Do Its Work The clause preventing the sale of the shares seemed a problem at first. If the town had been able to cash in on the stock portfolio at any time, it would have obtained funds to improve the nursing home. However, the will was blunt on that point: shares had to be keptand they could only use dividends that these actions will generate over time. However, what seemed like a limitation to local authorities eventually became the best investment decision anyone in Pukkila could have made. The will was forcing them to apply a technique that for more than six decades has become a millionaire to Warren Buffett: leave let time do its work. Throughout the 80s and 90s, Nokia left rubber boots behind to become the largest mobile phone manufacturer in the world, position he held between 1998 and 2012. The original 780 shares that Nurmi had donated multiplied by a thousand due to its growth in the stock market and the overwhelming sales domain of their phones. At the height of the technology boom, Pukkila’s portfolio was valued at around 90 million dollarsmaking their Pukkila retirees the most prosperous in Finland, at least on paper. What do we do with so much money? The prosperity of the actions opened a new debate among the residents of Pukkila. They were sitting on a fortune and doing nothing to profit from it. In 1997, the city council proposed selling part of the shares to diversify the portfolio and reduce the risk of a hypothetical fall of Nokia. Not everyone agreed. A section of the town argued that selling the shares was against Nurmi’s will. Another sector even proposed that the benefits be used so that residents would not pay municipal taxes for 12 years. Given the disagreement, the debate reached the courts and lasted for several years. Ironically, the “Buffett effect” came into play again, and the judicial paralysis was the best possible news for the people’s coffers: while the issue of the sale of shares was being settled in court, Nokia shares did not stop increase its value. The courts finally approved an agreement by which the municipality could sell a part of the portfolio and diversify its funds, always respecting the original will of the will to support the town’s elders. as main beneficiaries of those actions. With that money the Onni Wellness Centeropened in 2008. The building stands on Onnintie Street (which in Finnish literally means Happiness Street) and includes sheltered housing, spaces for people with memory disorders, a health center, pharmacy, swimming pool, gym, library, cafeteria and a Japanese garden. All this in a municipality of less than 2,000 inhabitants. Onni Nurmi never imagined the magnitude of his donation decades after his death, but in some ways, he more than repaid the patience his neighbors had in waiting decades to pay off their debt. In Xataka | Giving money away wasn’t enough: Warren Buffett turned Christmas into an investing masterclass for his family Image | Unsplash (Pawel Czerwinski, Joe Zlomek, MW), Kylä Savijoki.

We are injecting radioactive material into live rhino horns so that we stop consuming them

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Maybe you didn’t know it, but to protect ourselves from human nature itself, which is capable of generating the most absolute chaos, most of the main airports and ports, including those in South Africa, already have the necessary infrastructure to detect radioactive material. So that? To detect nuclear weapons. Thus, in theory, we avoid smuggling between countries. In a twist, science has just found in this infrastructure a solution for stop poaching. Radioactive horns. The news is as surprising as it is true: a group of South African scientists has been injecting radioactive material directly into live rhino horns for some time. The idea: make them easier to detect at border posts. Behind the project is the Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. Why the horns. Of course, the enclave where it is happening is not trivial. South Africa is home to most rhinos on the planet and, as such, it is a hotspot for poaching driven by, and here comes the key, demand from Asia. Yes, there the horns are used in traditional medicine for its supposed therapeutic effect (not proven). As Professor James Larkin, who directs the project, explained, “every 20 hours in South Africa a rhino dies for its horn.” In fact, before this surprising twist in the script, an attempt had been made to save the rhino with another unexpected move: investing in bonds. Not only that. Researchers indicate that the smuggling of these horns has now made them “the most valuable counterfeit product on the black market, with a value even greater than that of gold, platinum, diamonds and cocaine. These poached horns are trafficked around the world and used for traditional medicines or as status symbols,” they assure. Radioactivity injection process. under the name Rhisotope Projectresearchers are drilling low doses of radioisotopes into the horns of 20 sedated rhinos whose health will be monitored for the next six months. We are talking about two small radioactive chips in the area of ​​the horns that are then “finished off” by spraying 11,000 microdots in the area. Long term. If successful, the program could be expanded in the long term to include elephants and pangolins, as well as other plants and animals, according to the university. The material, in principle, would last five years on the horn, which “was cheaper than removing it every 18 months.” “Each insertion was closely supervised by expert veterinarians and great care was taken to avoid any harm to the animals,” Larkin explains.. “Through months of research and testing, we have also ensured that the inserted radioisotopes do not pose any health or other risks to the animals or those who care for them.” Poison to humans. In essence, once the dose of radioactivity is inserted, the consumption by any means of products made from the horns will make them “essentially poisonous for human consumption,” they say in the work. Be that as it may, the main objective is none other than to identify smuggling attempts, if possible, before they leave the country. How the alarm goes off. Apparently, this infrastructure found in many airports works more or less simply. Anyone trying to get past the radioactive horns would set off alarms and trigger a police response. By the way, scientists remember that the process is not harmful to animals, since the dose of radioactive material is so low that it does not affect the health of the animal or the environment in any way. Figures that have led to the situation. Last year, the country’s Environment Ministry said that, despite the government’s efforts to combat illicit trade, 499 of these giant mammals died in 2023most in state parks. In figures, it represents an increase of 11 percent compared to 2022. To give us an idea of this sad realitywe are talking about figures of up to $60,000 per kilo, which explains why rhino horn is still one of the most lucrative illegal markets. Image | Witts University, Martin Pettitt In Xataka | For centuries, British sailors devoured green turtles until they were almost extinct: today we have recovered them In Xataka | We have a serious problem with the extinction of bees. The United Kingdom wants to solve it with bricks *An earlier version of this article was published in June 2025

chronicle of a collapse announced and recorded almost live by NASA

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Mexico City faces one of the most complex geological challenges that exist and it is not earthquakes: it is subsidence accelerated by human activity. What’s that? The slow and progressive sinking of the soil. One of the causes is the extraction of too much water from the subsoil because that water partly holds the ground from within. If there is no water, the sediments are compacted by gravity and as a result, the surface sinks. Mexico City has been sinking for more than a century for this reason and the recent NISAR satellite mission, a collaboration between NASA and its Indian counterpart ISRO, has launched unprecedented surveillance that is already bearing fruit: the most detailed and recent cartography of this phenomenon in the Mexican capital to monitor its sinking almost in real time. It is more than a map: it is a survival tool for a city inhabited by more than 20 million people. Mexico City sinks. The first time subsidence was reported in Mexico was in 1925. The data from 1898 to 2005 show a constant subsidence throughout the period, with a maximum rate of 40 centimeters per year between 1998 and 2002. It is neither new nor something small and, furthermore, it is a cumulative and mostly irreversible process. So Mexico City is deforming. Sentinel-1 data they showed that the soil surface sinks at a rate of 35 cm per year within the city, while the peripheral areas suffer a slight rise of about two centimeters per year as an elastic response to this loss of water mass. The new NISAR data barely covers three months (from October 2025 to January 2026) and is as easy to read as it is alarming: the dark blue tone marks those areas that sink more than 2 centimeters per month due to subsidence. Map of the subsidence of Mexico City. POT Why is it important. The problem is one of public safety and economics. The Economist echoes from a Water Engineering and Management study that quantifies the structural damage derived from subsidence: about 67,926 million pesos per year (about 3,312 million euros) in pipes, breakdowns, building fractures, among others. It might seem that the fact of sinking itself is the worst, but what is truly destructive is the difference in speed between those areas that go down faster than others, which causes progressive damage to infrastructure while generating structural tensions. criticisms for infrastructure design. In addition to material damage, subsidence alters the seismic response of the soil, increases the risk of serious flooding by modifying the natural drainage of the basin and favors the migration of salts and contaminants into aquifers, which affects water quality. In short, it raises alarm bells about a future water crisis. Context. The origin of the problem is a combination of natural geological factors and historical urban planning decisions. Mexico City was built on the ancient bed of Lake Texcoco, drained by the Spanish conquistadors. When the lake was drained, the city was settled on its old bed, formed by lacustrine clays of volcanic and organic origin. Under natural conditions these clays supported the lake ecosystem without collapsing. However, the development of the city and water extraction has caused the balance to be broken: the silt is compacted and causes the soil to contract and sink. The urban growth of Mexico City prevents rain from recharging the aquifers because more and more soil is covered by impermeable surfaces such as asphalt. It is a vicious circle: there is less natural recharge of the aquifer, which forces more water to be pumped, compaction accelerates and aggravates the subsidence, damaging infrastructure. There is no turning back. When the effort of supporting the city on its shoulders exceeds the pre-consolidation stress (the resistance limit of the clay), the mineral sheets collapse and rearrange themselves definitively. It’s a path of no return: Even if water were stopped being extracted tomorrow, a good part of the accumulated sinking cannot be reversed. The city has literally lost meters of height that it will never recover. What can be controlled is the damage, which involves a change in water management where reducing dependence on aquifers is essential. Of course, it implies looking for other water resources such as transfers or recycling water, in addition to facilitating the penetration of water into the subsoil. These measures will not reverse the damage caused, but at least they would slow down the sinking and offer an alternative access to water for a megacity. The technology behind the map. The satellite NISAR It is the first to carry two synthetic aperture radar instruments at different wavelengths and is capable of monitoring the Earth’s land and ice surfaces twice every 12 days thanks to a huge 12-meter diameter antenna reflector. The technique used is called SAR interferometry (InSAR) and consists of comparing two radar images taken at different times: by measuring the phase changes of the signal, ground displacements of just millimeters can be detected. The great advantage of NISAR over its predecessors is its L band (wavelength of about 24 centimeters), which allows it to work even in terrain with dense vegetation or high humidity where other radars such as the Sentinel-1 lost quality. This tool turns NISAR into a global early warning system for cities facing similar risks. In Xataka | Mexico touches the sky with a new and elegant skyscraper of 484 meters and 99 floors: it will be the tallest in all of Latin America In Xataka | Cancun has a huge bottleneck in its tourist area: Mexico is going to solve it with a megabridge Cover | POT and Alexis Tostado

people who go to live in Valladolid and return to work by train

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For a simple work issue, for decades Many pucelanos had no choice but to pack their bags and move to Madrid. The companies are there. And good job prospects. Today things are different, as suggested the data of the Valladolid City Council. The expansion of teleworking and the improved communications It has allowed quite a few people to return to the Castilian-Leonese city without giving up their jobs in the capital and even turn the tables: Valladolid is the one that grows at the expense of Madrid. The data are certainly eloquent. What do the figures say? That for years the Castilian-Leonese city endured a clearly negative migratory balance with the capital. Many more people from Pucelanos went to Madrid than people from Madrid arrived to Valladolid. If you follow the historical series The census shows that this imbalance favorable to Madrid dates back to at least 1997, with years in which the difference was brutal. In 2014, for example, Valladolid recorded 736 casualties of Pucelanos who packed their bags to move to Madrid; The reverse route (from Valladolid to Madrid) was done by 305 people. And is it still like this? No. We know the change thanks to an analysis published in 2025 by The Confidentialwho has had access to the records of the Valladolid City Council. They show how between 2022 and 2023 the migratory balance between the cities of Valladolid and Madrid experienced a change: if in 2022 the Pucelana city registered 799 departures of residents bound for Madrid compared to 617 registrations in the opposite direction, in 2023 the “photo” was the opposite: 765 registrations and 566 cancellations. From the red numbers it went to a positive balance of 199 people. The trend was confirmed in 2024 with a new positive migration balance. That year, the Pucelano City Council recorded 796 new arrivals from Madrid compared to 504 new arrivals from residents who moved to the state capital. Again a positive balance, 292 people. In a matter of two years, Valladolid therefore went from dragging a historic deficit in population exchange with Madrid to “gaining” 491 new registered residents at the expense of its southern neighbor. This trend has coincided with the general growth of the Valladolid registry, which has been gaining population for several years and is now located at 303,843 inhabitants according to the municipal censusthat doesn’t always match with that of the INE. Is there more recent data? The last ones indicators published by the Statistical Institute of the Community of Madrid and the Junta of Castilla y León They are from 2024, but a quick Google search comes to find articles with testimonials recent of people who live in Valladolid and work in the capital. Even from other parts of Castilla y León even further away from Madrid. “Right now, whatever station you go to, Zamora, Salamanca, Segovia, Palencia or León, they are packed. Before you saw the train half empty,” explained a few weeks ago Carlos Perfecto, promoter of the Association of AVE Users in Castilla y León, told RTVE. “We are talking about the fact that between Valladolid and Segovia alone, 7,000 direct families go to work in Madrid every day.” Does it only affect cities? The “picture” can be completed with more brushstrokes that help understand the change. The change in the migratory flow has also been observed in the entire Madrid region, not only in its capital. After decades in the “red numbers” (in demographic terms), in 2023 Valladolid registered more registrations of new residents arriving from the Madrid community than registrations of Pucelanos who had moved to municipalities such as Móstoles, Alcalá, Leganés, Fuenlabrada, Getafe or Madrid itself. Between 2023 and 2024, in this sense, it accumulated a positive balance of 758 new registered. At the end of 2024 The North of Castile the change was already pointed out trend citing INE statistics, although in his article he handled data until 2023 and at the provincial level, not exclusively from the municipality of Valladolid. What did they show? Something similar to what is reflected in the register of the Pucelano City Council. In 2023, 1,785 people arrived in Valladolid from the Community of Madrid, while 1,270 people left the province to settle somewhere in Madrid. Result: 515 more people for the Valladolid census. Not bad if you take into account that the previous year (2022) the province had lost 115 people to the Community of Madrid. Last December The North of Castile updated analysis with provincial data from 2024 and verified that the trend continues. That year 1,744 people left the Community of Madrid to settle somewhere in Valladolid while 1,232 made the reverse move. Once again the figures favor the Castilian-Leonese demographic with a balance of 512 people. And what is the reason? Rather, we should talk about reasons, in the plural. When analyzing the change in trend, there are those who talk about the expansion of teleworking after the pandemic or the attractiveness of the Valladolid real estate market compared to that of Madrid, which makes buying a home much more acceptable there than in Madrid. According to Idealista, the m2 costs in Valladolid €2,029 while in Madrid it is located in 5,960. Something similar happens in the rental market: in the city of Pucelana, the m2 is rented to €9.7 in front of the 23.2 from Madrid. But… Why this abrupt change? Although it is true that COVID-19 marked a before and after in the implementation of teleworking in Spain and that the real estate market has not stopped tense In recent years, both trends do not fully explain why the population flow between Valladolid and Madrid has experienced such a sudden change in such a short time. Nor why it has become more pronounced in 2023. Hence, when looking for explanations, analyzes of the phenomenon add another determining factor: the improvement of transportation. At the end of 2007 the line was launched Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid high-speed train, which made it possible to get from … Read more

If you live in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​it is possible that a Latin American bookstore has opened next to your house

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The indomitableopened four months ago in the Madrid neighborhood of Prosperidad and directed by a Mexican. A few meters from Retiro Park, the now classic The Retreat of Lettersowned by two Colombians. In Arganzuela, the Argentine bookstore Mandolin It inaugurated its first Madrid branch a year ago. It is not an isolated or spontaneous phenomenon. It responds to an accumulation of demographic, editorial and economic factors that go beyond the folklore chronicle. From rookies to veterans. In this panorama, the most recent projects coexist with initiatives that have been established for a few years. The Mistral It opened in 2021 in the hall of the old Arenal Theater, two minutes from Puerta del Sol, by the Argentine Andrea Stefanoni, and was considered the most beautiful bookstore in the world by National Geographic that same year. His fame allowed him to organize a short story contest that received 150 manuscripts from different countries. Closer in time, in 2020, a couple of Venezuelans inaugurated The little beings also in Madrid, where they sell new and used books with special attention to Venezuelan and Latin American production. Olavidefounded by two Argentine journalists, combines book sales with cultural activities. AND Late Space It simultaneously functions as a bookstore, cafeteria and headquarters of Late, an Ibero-American network of narrative journalism founded as a cooperative by professionals from Colombia, Spain and Cuba. Repeating pattern. Although they are founded by Latin Americans, these bookstores do not operate exclusively with the diaspora as clientele. They are neighborhood bookstores in the most classic sense: children’s collection, independent labels and a personal relationship between bookseller and customer. They organize workshops and reading clubs. Sometimes they even serve cuisine from their places of origin. As a reflection of this phenomenon, the Madrid Book Fair of 2025 dedicated a table of its Meeting of Independent Ibero-American Bookstores to the phenomenon. The figures behind the phenomenon. The most recent breakdown by Latin American origin available, the analysis of the Elcano Royal Institute Based on INE data as of January 1, 2024, there were 4.25 million people born in Latin America residing in Spain (9% of the total population and 48% of all immigrants). The trend behind that figure has not slowed down: during 2024, the largest increases in the foreign population were once again concentrated in Colombians (+98,057), Venezuelans (+52,555) and Moroccans (+48,306), according to the INE. in December 2025. The accumulated result is that as of January 1, 2026, Spain has exceeded the 10 million inhabitants born abroad. A community of that magnitude, concentrated in large cities, generates cultural demand. But… why is this demand channeled towards the opening of own bookstores and not only towards consumption in establishments that already exist? The distribution obstacle. Part of the answer lies in how the transatlantic publishing market works. That Spain and Latin America share a language does not mean that they share a catalog: for example, El Retiro de las Letras imports directly from publishers in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina to make authors visible that do not reach Spain through conventional distribution channels. Combed Cana bookstore specialized in Latin American fiction with offices in Barcelona and Madrid, recognizes that half of its titles are not distributed in Spain and that These copies cannot be returned if they do not sell.. It is a risk of excess stock that large chains are not willing to assume. The bookstore Juan Rulfoproperty of the Economic Culture Fund of Spain, and the Ibero-American Bookstoreopen in Madrid’s Barrio de las Letras since 2004, have been covering that specialized niche for decades. To those establishments have been added in recent years dozens of projects promoted by immigrants that multiply the offer, from bookstores specialized 100% in Latin American narrative to hybrid spaces with a focus on culture. Relief in the sector. The context of the book sector in Spain is not immune to this phenomenon. There are 2,754 independent bookstores active in Spainand although it is a figure in permanent declinethe business going well in economic terms: In 2024, the Spanish publishing sector had a turnover of 3,037 million euros, 6.3% more than in 2023, in its eleventh consecutive year of growth and with the highest figure since 2008. How do you explain that establishments fall while turnover rises? 85% of closures are caused by the retirement of the bookseller. Latin American booksellers are occupying a space where replacements are scarce, in residential neighborhoods of large cities where the traditional bookstore has closed. The limits of the phenomenon. It is advisable not to exaggerate the scope of the phenomenon. A few dozen bookstores founded by Latin American immigrants in Madrid and Barcelona do not reconfigure the Spanish publishing ecosystem. Spanish book exports in 2024 reached 381 million euros, aimed mainly at Ibero-American countrieswhich indicates that the flow of books between Spain and Latin America continues to be mostly in the opposite direction. What these bookstores do represent is a symptom: that of an immigrant community with sufficient cultural roots to invest in a business with fair profitability and that demands a very high vocation. A sector where the main problem is that retirements are multiplying and where there is a Latin American catalog with four million potential readers who continue to need intermediaries willing to cross the Atlantic. In Xataka | The 24 most beautiful bookstores in the world

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