normal

The big question is what happens if this is the new normal?

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There is only one piece of information that summarizes what has happened in this country since January 1: that the accumulated rains since January 1 exceed three times the normal value (for the average of the years 1991-2020). What’s more, most of this rainfall has not been concentrated in the north (there are areas of the Cantabrian coast that they have hardly received water), but in the center, the south and some areas of the northeast. No one can be taken by surprise by all this. It has rained unspeakably in Spain and that is being noticed in things like there are 96 reservoirs above 90%. But the most interesting thing is not that, the most interesting thing is why all this is happening. Let’s talk about atmospheric circulation. “It’s outrageous how (…) he’s been behaving in recent weeks,” said meteorologist González Alemán a few days ago. And he is right to such an extent that “although there seems to be a tendency toward change, the pieces still fit together to continue bringing atmospheric rivers with abundant precipitation to the Iberian Peninsula.” But what is interesting is not so much this anomaly as that “the global causes that cause this state of circulation (with the succession of many storms and atmospheric rivers) are unknown.” And, when the AEMET scientist says ‘unknown’, he is not referring to possible mechanisms or teleconnections; It doesn’t even talk about specific gears. It talks about the culprits of causing such mechanisms and gears. And all this comes about a runrun: that people are beginning to wonder if this is a symptom of the changes in the Atlantic Ocean over the ones we carry years talking. We already know that climate change increases extreme phenomena. The data of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) they are clear and they show that, indeed, they have increased since the 1970s. Specifically, they have multiplied by five over the last five decades. According to your calculationsin the 1980s, 1,400 incidents were recorded – its tables include extreme weather, climate and water phenomena – and in the 1990s, just over 2,200. In the first decade of the 21st century, 3,500 were reached and the trend continued. Questions, questions and more questions. In this sense, It is logical to ask us whether climate change is updating the probabilities so that extreme events, like these rains, become more frequent. What if we have been years obsessed with desertification and what we find, suddenly, is a disproportionate amount of rain in the most (climatically) fragile areas of the peninsula? It seems like good news, but it is full of problems. And, as I often repeat, we tend to have a stereotyped view of global warming and we forget where it makes a real difference: in the ability to put our infrastructures in check more criticism. More rain, not just more rain, is (as we have seen these days) a terrible threat that can force the displacement of thousands of people. Are we going there? That’s the big question, of course. And González Alemán is right that we should not write causal checks that science is not able to pay. You have to study everything in detail to see what is really happening. But that cannot be a justification for doing nothing. Our water system has just suffered the biggest stress test in recent history and if we don’t analyze what has happened, anything could happen next time. Image | AliciaMBentley In Xataka | Desertification is devouring southern Spain: Extremadura and Murcia face a completely dry future

Three Russians surrender on camera. A normal scene from wars, but science fiction in Ukraine because of the “soldier” who points guns at them

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From dug trenches rush to heaven buzzing without restthe war in Ukraine has become a testing ground where the classic rules of combat have long since lost the battle. Every month scenes appear that would have seemed impossible just a few years ago and that force us to rethink what it means today to fight, resist or survive in a front dominated by unexpected technologies. The last example shows a surrender. The first time before a machine. Three Russian soldiers emerge from a building, one of them bloody, raise their hands and obey orders while a camera records everything. The scene would be routine in any war conflict in history, but in Ukraine it marks a breaking point: The one who points the gun at them is not an infant, but an armed robot. It’s not the first time we see such a surrenderbut it is the first to be documented on video and in front of an unmanned land vehicle, a scenario that symbolizes the extent to which the line between science fiction and real combat has been definitively erased in this conflict. From marginal experiment to centerpiece. It we have counted before. Ukrainian ground robots, known as robotic ground complexes, began the war as imported rarities and today are an industrial and military mainstay of their own. 99% of UGVs in use They are already manufactured in Ukrainewith more than 200 different models produced by dozens of local companies in ultra-fast design cycles, fine-tuned directly with feedback from the front. Small, cheap and assembled from commercial components, these robots have moved from transportation and evacuation to carry heavy machine gunslead assaults, hold defensive positions for weeks, and now, accept prisoners without any human soldiers having to expose themselves. Machines that do not bleed. The tactical value of these systems goes beyond firepower. Accepting a surrender with a robot eliminates the risk of ambushes, false capitulations or instant decisions between life and death, a recurring problem on the Ukrainian front. At the same time, the psychological impact It’s huge: fighting an enemy who doesn’t feel paindoes not die and can be replaced quickly erodes morale and makes the option of surrender more rational. Hence the image of confused soldierss surrendering to a machine summarizes that moral and human imbalance. Some of the varieties of Ukrainian ground drones The sky as a weapon. This qualitative leap on the ground fits with an even more overwhelming reality in the air. According to Zelenskymore than 80% of effective strikes against Russian forces are already carried out with drones, the vast majority manufactured locally. In 2025, Ukraine claims to have attacked about 820,000 targets with these systems, recording each impact on video within a points system that rewards units for each confirmed casualty and accelerates the acquisition of new material. In other words, war has become a closed loop of sensors, cameras, algorithms and rewards. An unprecedented cost. Almost four years after the invasion, Russia’s human toll in Ukraine reaches unprecedented figures since World War II: around 1.2 million soldiers dead, wounded or missing, according to the latest report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This massive attrition contrasts with very limited territorial advances, barely 12% more territory controlled since 2022, with daily progress that in some sectors is measured in meters and is even lower than that recorded in battles of the First World War. The Ukrainian defense-in-depth strategy, combining trenches, mines, obstacles, artillery and drones, has tipped the balance of casualties by a proportion clearly unfavorable for Moscow and questions the idea of ​​an inevitable Russian victory. The Russian rearguard. The impact of the conflict goes far beyond the front and is degrading Russia’s economic and strategic capacity, the same as the SCIS report already described as a second or third order power. The combination of inflation, labor shortages, industrial weakness and technological stagnation has left growth stunted and a committed futurewhile human losses exceed the recruitment and replacement capacity. In fact, compared to past conflicts, the figures are devastating. The war future. In short, between swarms of FPV drones, armed ground robots and electronic warfare systems, the war in Ukraine has advanced decades of military development in just a few years, while much more expensive and slow Western programs they stalled or were canceled. Therefore, the filmed surrender facing a robot is not an isolated anecdote, but a sign that modern combat no longer revolves only around the human soldier, but rather cheap, disposable and omnipresent machines. In Ukraine, the war of the future is no longer being imagined: it is being recorded in the first person. Image | UKRAINE MOD In Xataka | “They are under our feet”: Ukraine has entered an inexplicable phase, that of its drones attacking Russians at absurd distances In Xataka | We had seen everything in Ukraine. Until Russia sent a soldier to the front that we had only seen in the movies

How is it possible that Spain is freezing in the middle of a ‘warmer than normal’ winter?

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When you look out the window these days, it’s easy to ask yourself a very clear question: didn’t they say that This was going to be a warmer than normal winter.? With the storm Francis opening the door, followed by Ingrid and Joseph, and the snow level plummeting up to 500 meters in the northwest, the thermal sensation in January 2026 is far from “mild”. And although we can think of an error by the AEMET in its predictions at the beginning of the season, the problem is in the probabilities What was said. The AEMET in his initial prediction For this winter they did not use a crystal ball to ensure days of sun and beach, but rather they resorted to prediction models that showed a probabilistic situation: they placed almost all of Spain in the warm tertile. This means that there was a very high probability that the average temperature for the entire quarter was among the 33% warmest winters in the historical record. The chance of it being a colder winter was just 10%. When it comes to rainfall, the truth is that They didn’t get too wet at the AEMET by giving the same probability for it to be wetter, drier or normal than those of other years. He gave all of these 33%. January 2026. When we stop looking at the probabilistic models and move on to meteorological reality, we already see that there are substantial differences. And it is that Throughout this month we have had a severe entry of arctic air, notices in all communities and relevant snowfalls in the Cantabrian Mountains and the Pyrenees. It’s a bookish winter episode. Data is still missing. A freezing week does not make a cold winter, and everything indicates that after these storms that we are enduring right now, temperatures will rebalance between 1 and 3 degrees above the table. And for the AEMET this winter we have not yet had any cold wave which would mark the third consecutive year without them in Spain. According to the historical series, since 1975 the duration of cold waves on the peninsula has been reduced by 1.2 days per decade and that is why this winter is presented as one more to reduce this average in our climatological history. The NAO factor. The models certainly cannot see the climatological “day by day” coming very far in advance, since seasonal predictions, which are based on systems like ECMWFhave limited resolution. In this case we are talking about contextual tools for energy management or agriculture, not a “horoscope” to know if we will be able to ski without snow in the mountains. What the European winter climate largely depends on is the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Arctic Oscillation (AO). In this case a positive NAO indicates a westward, warm and humid circulation. But if we talk about a negative NAO, it translates into a blockage that allows polar air to escape to the south, which is what is happening to us right now. The problem. It is precisely because these coupled atmosphere-ocean models have a low ability to anticipate what phases the NAO will be in months in advance. They get the global thermal signal very well, such as background warming, but it is difficult for them to see the specific sequence of cold entries. A change of pattern. The debate about whether the “AEMET fails” with its predictions usually hides a deeper climate reality. And a “warm winter” in the current context of climate change does not mean the disappearance of winter, but rather it means that mild days and mild minimum temperatures are becoming more frequent, and cold waves are less common and less lasting. Next weeks. If we look beyond this week full of water we find ourselves again faced with uncertainty. According to the prediction made by the AEMETit is expected that for the week of February 2 to 8 a similar meteorological pattern will continue with Atlantic storms at our altitude, so there would be water throughout all of Spain. What the models predict, although everything can change, is that it will be presented in the west of the peninsula an extremely wet period over the next two weekswith rainfall that would be counted per liters of water in very specific areas of Spain and Portugal. In Xataka | We have always believed that London is very rainy and that Barcelona is not. The only problem is that it’s a lie

Calling without warning has gone from being normal to being rude. And in that change we have lost something

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“It seems rude to me to call the cell phone without warning. If it’s not an emergency (and it’s not my parents) don’t call me, we have WhatsApp for something.” This tweet from @thaissotillo It went viral a few days ago and generated responses of all colors, but with the feeling that it is a generational issue: at some point, for those born especially in the late 90s onwards, telephone calls – the most basic gesture of a telephone – have become a violation of social protocol. The generational issue does not explain much: the interesting thing is not what the girl prefers, but why an unannounced call now feels like an intrusion. A WhatsApp message gives you time. You read, you think, you decide, you write, you erase, you rewrite. You decide if it is better for you to sound warmer or more edge. Ten extra seconds to build a better version of yourself. A call takes that possibility away from you. It forces you to be youno editing, now. That’s why it’s uncomfortable. “It’s another way to avoid direct confrontation,” he explains. Alexandra de Pedrogeneral health psychologist. “An awkward conversation always becomes less awkward when I have time to process what I want to say and how.” we have built tode to a way of life about the right to edit ourselves before being seen. De Pedro says that many people pass their important conversations through the AI ​​filter: “Write this to me, but in a more assertive way.” We lose the ability for direct communication while we gain resources to avoid it. But there is something else. The call doesn’t just demand that you be yourself. Demand that you be now. We live in an asynchronous world. We work with people in four time zones, we watch series when we want, we answer emails between meetings. Everything can wait for me to be ready. The call shatters that illusion. It is a demand for synchronicity. It is a way of telling us “we speak now or we don’t speak.” And that, in a culture where procrastination is an earned right, feels obscene. That’s why voicemails have taken over: They transfer the call experience to something asynchronous, to have time to think about the answers. “Young people have understood that being accessible is not the same as being available,” says De Pedro. “They practice setting limits more. But you can also go overboard and We are moving towards a society that is a little more individualistic.“. Exceptions tell part of the story. Your parents may call you without warning. Not because they are from another generation, but because the family still operates under a previous code: that of automatic availability. You can interrupt me because you are my father. The rest of the world lost that privilege. Now you have to write first, raise the issue, wait for confirmation. Only then, perhaps, call. The direct call is read as arrogance. We have changed the semantics of what it means to respect others. Before it was “I give you my attention when you ask for it.” Now it’s “don’t ask me for attention without prior permission.” We say that we gain efficiency, that WhatsApp avoids unnecessary interruptions. But what we have really done is build a wall around our emotional availability. “It has to do with postponing everything uncomfortable,” says the psychologist. “Much lower tolerance for frustration, for uncomfortable sensations. If I find it uncomfortable to answer a friend, it’s annoying, because it costs me more and I put it off.” The phone call was the last vestige of an ancient social contract: we accepted that others might need us in real time, without warning, without the possibility of postponement. That contract was broken. Now we all live behind a perpetual mailbox. We respond when it suits us, not when they need us. We feel freer, more owners of our time, more protected. What we do not feel is what we have lost: the habit of tolerating the discomfort of appearing unprepared, of improvising closeness, of accepting that the other has the right to alter our day. The phone is still in our pocket. But it’s not to talk anymore. It is to decide when, how and with whom we want to appear to be speaking. In Xataka | AI is transforming the relationship we have with our own ideas: we no longer create, we just “edit” ourselves Featured image | Xataka

The normal thing when a product is successful is that the manufacturer renews it the following year. Hello iPhone Air

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Apple has a problem, almost a syndrome with the fourth iPhone. For years it has been trying to integrate a new variant of the “classic” iPhone into the family, but the success of these models has always been limited. It happened with the iPhone mini and then with the iPhone Plus in its different versions. And now it seems to be happening with his brand new iPhone Air. No iPhone Air 2 at the moment. As indicated in The InformationApple has warned “engineers and suppliers that they would remove the future iPhone Air (next generation) from planning without providing a new release date.” Three different sources have confirmed that Apple has no intention at the moment of relaunching a second iteration of the iPhone Air. We expected it in 2026. Theoretically, the second-generation iPhone Air should have been launched next fall alongside the iPhone 18 family and the rumored iPhone Fold. And it was going to be much better. It was expected to be even lighter than the current iPhone Air and still have a higher capacity battery. In fact, sources close to the project also reveal that Apple was working on a new cooling system that debuted with the iPhone 17 Pro and that would be adapted to those hypothetical iPhone Air (2026). It was even rumored that instead of a single camera I would have two. Bad sales. The reason for that decision seems to be sales of the iPhone Air below expectations. News had already appeared that Apple had ordered a huge production cut to just 80% of the original capacity: that ultralight model does not seem to have attracted the mass public. Minimum production. In The Information they confirm this reduction in production. According to their data, Foxconn has “dismantled all but one and a half production lines, and expect to stop production completely at the end of this month.” Apple’s other major manufacturing partner for the iPhone Air, Luxshare, already stopped its production of this model at the end of October. New release schedule. Following the news, what is now expected is that Apple will present its new family of devices in two different phases: Fall 2026: iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone 18 Pro Max, iPhone Fold (unofficial name) Spring 2027: iPhone 18, iPhone 18e The other possibility. Sources close to the company reveal that the iPhone Air could simply be suffering important changes —like those mentioned— for a theoretical second generation. That would make its development process a little longer, but it is not ruled out that this model will end up appearing in spring 2027 along with the iPhone 18 and iPhone 18e. The condemnation of iPhones that are liked but do not sell. we loved it the iPhone mini—like everyone else who bought it—but it didn’t sell much. The iPhone Plus also proved to be an interesting product, but it didn’t catch on either. In both cases, Apple ended up abandoning these models to focus on what worked in sales, and now seems to be doing the same, or, at least, adjusting production to demand, something that makes perfect sense from a business point of view. In Xataka | If the question is which of the big tech companies is winning the AI ​​race, the answer is: none

30,000 lightning strikes, orange warnings and severe events: don’t call it ‘squall line’, call it ‘new normal’

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During the early morning and early hours of this Wednesday, November 5, the arrival of a cold front to the Peninsula has caused a very active squall line throughout the southwest. And, in this case, saying “very active” is not an exaggeration: the images that they come to us from Portugal they are incredible and at the moment, he is heading to Extremadura and Western Andalusia. The interesting thing is that we no longer talk about meteorological information, we begin to enter the field of Okay, but what is a squall line? This is an organized storm system that, often ahead of a cold front, forms in a line. Due to its structure, this phenomenon causes strong and destructive winds, torrential rains, hail and lightning. In addition, they are characterized by advancing very quickly and being able to cause significant damage. In Xataka The "tropicalization" of the atmosphere is going to change Spain and not exactly for the better And so it has been. Portugal’s Civil Protection recorded more than 150 nighttime incidents and, as the Portuguese press explainedit is not just the problems caused by the rain and wind; is that tens of thousands of electric shocks have been recorded. About 30,000 in a few hours. Given this, AEMET activated orange noticesin Galicia, Extremadura and Andalusia. In addition, 122 Extremadura is prepared for rains of 5–20 l/m² in very short periods of time. It’s not a lot of water, but in these circumstances it can cause a lot of problems. Aren’t we talking about autumn showers? No, we are not talking about loose showers: it is an organized convection capable of producing severe gusts, hail and wet blowouts. They are formations that trigger the risk on urban areas, electrical networks and mobility. It’s another episode of “This is not just an Atlantic storm” that has been with us for weeks now. It is true that November is a typical month for hallways in the southwest; but the data suggests that we are facing something more. {“videoId”:”x89b35l”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”PROFESSIONAL STORM CHASERS_ this is their daily life”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”400″} What is really happening? In technical terms, we are talking about the arrival of an Atlantic trough and cold front with sufficient shear to organize convection and force a quasi-linear system. Ambient humidity does the rest and that is the key. As we said a few days agothat area of ​​the peninsula is prone to low convergences that, with adequate shear and sufficient humidity,They organize convectively very easily. As connections with the Gulf of Mexico (the famous ‘rivers of moisture’) become more common and, with them, the available humidity grows: these systems will become more frequent and more intense. It is the same as occurs in the Mediterranean with DANAs: It doesn’t matter if climate change causes more or not, the amount of “available fuel” makes any spark turn into a fire. Meteorologically speaking, of course. Image | Carlos Virazón (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news 30,000 lightning strikes, orange warnings and severe events: don’t call it ‘squall line’, call it ‘new normal’ was originally published in Xataka by Javier Jimenez .

“Growth without jobs is the new normal”

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Generation Z has had a incorporation into the labor market really bumpy. Their last years of training and internships were marked by the isolation caused by the pandemic and, when it already seemed that they were going to be able to return to their first jobs normally, the adoption of AI has put them on the tightrope again. According to a new report from Goldman Sachs has had access FortuneGeneration Z is at a strange crossroads of economic prosperity for companies and unemployment for them. USA: the canary in the mine. The American labor market is experiencing a profound change which especially affects young people of generation Z, who are looking for their first job in an increasingly complicated environment. It is no coincidence that the first symptoms of impact of AI in the workplace arise in the US since it is the country with greater implementation of AI with 1.2 million companies that are already using AI in some of their processes. Its effects are the canary in the mine for the rest of the economies. In this context, US companies are already They don’t offer as many opportunities. jobs for newly graduated employees as before, and analysts warn that this “jobless growth” scenario will be the new normal for years to come. Soaring economy, stagnant jobs. At this moment, the Stanford research show that generation Z has 13% more difficulty accessing certain jobs, even when the economy continues to grow in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Goldman Sachs experts David Mericle and Pierfrancesco Mei emphasize that this economic growth reflected by GDP does not translate into more jobs, especially for young people who start their professional career who are seeing how AI has taken on tasks that until now were part of your job learning process. That is, companies earn more, with less staff. The perfect storm for generation Z. According to report data ‘2025-2026 Hiring Benchmark Report‘ prepared by Criteria, human resources managers agree that 92% of young people from generation Z are not prepared for the current demands of the labor market. Although these young people are skilled in using technology and digital tools, companies demand highly qualified and experienced professionals. Something they have not yet had the time (or opportunity) to acquire. On the other hand, automation and mass adoption of artificial intelligence are causing “the modest employment growth along with the strong GDP growth observed recently is likely to normalize to some extent in the coming years.” This diagnosis implies that the majority of new jobs that emerge will be closely linked to high-level technological profiles, while opportunities for young people without experience continue to decline. Productivity and employment have let go of each other’s hands. According to the authors of the Goldman Sachs study, the economic boost to the US GDP is supported above all by the productivity that artificial intelligence is already beginning to provide. However, the new job creation data They are not on the same ascending line. The information They show that in almost all sectors (less in health), job creation is “weak, null or negative”, with managers opting to automate tasks and reduce labor costs permanently. Generation Z in a delicate situation. The conclusion of the Goldman Sachs analysts is clear: “History also suggests that the full consequences of AI for the labor market may not be evident until a recession hits,” at which point the generation Z would be the most vulnerable to any financial shock. Given that, although it is true that the data confirms that there are not large rounds of layoffs (at least not as many like in 2023), No new vacancies are opening either.. The result is a static labor market, especially for those seeking their first job. Youth employment on the rise. Youth employment is already accustomed to be a problem for most economies in the world. The US AI’s canary-in-the-mine figures show that the youth unemployment rate is increasing, especially in the technology sector. Veteran Goldman Sachs analyst Joseph Briggs stressed on the podcast Exchangesthat more than 3% of young people between 20 and 30 years old have lost their jobs in technology since the beginning of the year, and the big layoffs made by companies such as Microsoft, Google and Meta directly affect this generational group. Are replaced by other engineers with more experience. In Xataka | Amazon’s CEO has put his cards on the table: “We expect AI to reduce our total workforce in the coming years” Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev)

That the US Air Force flies its three B-52 bombers is normal. That he does it against Venezuela not so much

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At the beginning of September the southern Caribbean became in a hybrid war board where anti-drug operations, financial sanctions and military deployments mixed together. Then we learned that the United States had decided to open a base that had been closed for 20 years and had not been open since. F-35 have stopped arriving. Three have been added to the fighter jets monsters looking at Venezuela. The roar. In recent days, the Caribbean has once again been the scene of a military deployment reminiscent of the most tense years of the Cold War. Up to three strategic bombers American B-52 were spotted orbiting for hours off the coasts of Venezuelaescorted by F-35 fighters and supported by tankers and reconnaissance drones. The maneuver, carried out in international airspace, was all less discreet: a deliberate display of force a few kilometers from Caracas, in a context in which Washington intensifies the pressure against the regime of Nicolás Maduro and in which rumors about a possible direct action They begin to sound with increasing verisimilitude. Echo of the giants. The B-52s, based in Louisiana, sailed the Caribbean sky with the unequivocal purpose to be seen. His mere presence has a strategic meaning: each of these colossi can carry dozens of long range cruise missilescapable of hitting land or sea targets without having to fly over enemy territory. The United States assures that the patrols They are part of anti-drug operations, but the simultaneity with Trump’s threats and the recent attacks to vessels suspected of drug trafficking point to a clearer political message: warn Maduro that Washington’s reach extends from the air to the waters of the Caribbean and, if it deems necessary, beyond. The fence In just two months, the Pentagon has deployed in the region a naval and air device that includes three destroyers, a missile cruiser, a nuclear submarine and an amphibious group with more than 2,000 marines. TO they add up Reaper drones, C-17 transport planes and the feared AC-130J Ghostrider, specialized in interdiction operations and surgical strikes. The structure is more reminiscent of a preparation force for a limited campaign than a mere anti-drug operation. Washington has also confirmed the creation of a new force regional task force under the command of the II Marine Expeditionary Force, while reports of lethal attacks on suspicious boats in international waters accumulate: at least five in recent weeks, with 27 dead. Open threat. The turning point has arrived when Trump himself openly declared who studies “striking on Venezuelan land” after having “controlled the sea almost completely.” He said it with the naturalness of someone describing a logical extension of an operation in progress. He also acknowledged having authorized to the CIA to develop covert operations in Venezuelan territory, in a decision that marks a qualitative leap with respect to traditional diplomatic pressure. Although he avoided confirming whether this authorization includes the figure of Maduro, the hint was enough for him toturn on all alarms in the region. In Washington, sources from the Department of Defense maintain that these would be actions aimed at “disrupting drug trafficking networks,” but Trump himself has described the Venezuelan president as “head of a cartel,” blurring the line between anti-drug war and regime change operation. Venezuela on alert. From Caracas, the response It was immediate. Maduro accused the United States of preparing an invasion and denounced to the United Nations what qualified as “a very serious violation of international law.” His government maintains that the military movements seek to “legitimize a regime change operation to seize Venezuelan oil reserves.” In a televised speech, supported by his military leadership, evoked the blows sponsored by the CIA during the Cold War in Latin America and cried: “Down with coups d’état! Latin America neither wants nor needs them.” At the same time, he announced that 4.5 million civilian militiamen would be ready to defend the country, although the actual enlistment figures were far from his rhetoric. Meanwhile, the opposition, led by María Corina Machado (recently awarded with the Nobel Peace Prize), celebrated American support and dedicated his award “to Trump, for his decisive support of our cause.” Fuzzy red line. The situation has become a dangerous choreography of power. On the one hand, Washington insists that its mission is stop drug trafficking and irregular migration, on the other, their actions increasingly resemble the preparatory phase of a military operation. Trump’s rhetoric, direct and unfiltered, evokes the old ghosts of North American interventions in Latin America, while his deployment in the Caribbean resembles a modern reissue of the big stick politics. Venezuela, with a weakened armysuffocating sanctions and a perpetual internal crisis, thus becomes a board and excuse: the place where the United States’ ambition for regional control and the need for an external enemy to maintain the cohesion of Chavismo intersect. A prelude? He flight of the B-52 off the Venezuelan coast it was not a routine maneuver. It was a sign. A demonstration that pressure is no longer measured in sanctions or communications, but in long-range missions, combat escorts and submarines that silently patrol a few kilometers from the continental shelf of a sovereign State. Trump has found in Maduro the perfect antagonist: an isolated dictator, converted into a symbol of Latin American collapse and a justification of his new hemispheric doctrine. If you will, also a warning to sailors: it could become the first salvo of a selective intervention. Image | USAF In Xataka | The US can spend months attacking boats in the Caribbean. A base closed for 20 years has just opened and F-35s keep arriving In Xataka | Venezuela has found proof that the video of the US missile pulverizing a boat was made with AI: Google AI

how it is formed, how it differs from a normal storm and how to act in one of them

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It rains in the Levant. Deluge. Injuries, dozens of homes flooded, infrastructure unusable, rivers overflowing. Deaths. As you may have seen, there are no links in the three sentences that head this paragraph. And it is not an oversight: there are no links because, sadly, they are not necessary. Every year, for too many now, the end of summer ends with torrential rains in the east of the peninsula and the Balearic Islands. How is it possible that the same improvisation scenes are always repeated? Why are we not prepared for what, by all accounts, seems inevitable? What is a DANA and what should we know about them? Difference between DANA and cold drop POT Around 1886, a group of German meteorologists they started talking of kaltlufttropfen (‘cold air fall’). It may seem that ‘cold drop’ is a native and traditional way of calling certain types of meteorological events, but no. Our ‘cold drop’ comes directly from there: from a way to describe “cold air pockets” or stormy phenomena at altitude”. A description that is more than a century old. For this reason, there was a moment when the AEMET decided to start talking about Isolated Depressions at High Levels. The DANA concept is more current and, therefore, more accurate: it describes a cold depression at high levels, isolated from the main circulation, which generates instability by interacting with warm and humid air in lower layers. But, be careful, the change was not only due to a scientific issue. As the Agency itself recognized‘cold drop’ began to become synonymous with “catastrophic, intense and damaging rains, as well as highly dangerous meteorological situations.” And this is not always the case: we know for a fact that there are DANAs that cause absolutely nothing. It is something very similar to what he has done in recent days giving a proper name to dangerous DANAs. So for practical purposes, DANA is a more precise way than Gota Fría to talk about one of the most characteristic (and potentially dangerous) atmospheric phenomena of the Spanish autumn. How a DANA is formed The mechanism behind Isolated Depressions at High Levels is quite well known. At high levels of the atmosphere, the jet stream is disturbed, undulated, pinched. And finally, it comes off. That’s what we call an ‘isolated closed low’; that is, detached from the main flow. This low remains circulating independently and, when it interacts with areas of warmer and more humid air (for example, in the Mediterranean) it can generate vertical instability, intense convective attacks, deep clouds and torrential rains. Why DANAs are increasingly common in Spain The truth is that there is no consensus that DANAs are increasing in Spain. It is something that is being discussed; But there are indications that some factors are making the episodes more extreme. We talk about things like the Mediterranean being warmer than usual (a warmer sea contributes more water vapor to the air), the atmosphere also it’s hotter (and has more latent energy) and that the polar jet is becoming more erratic. All this means that even if the same DANAs occur as in previous years, the effects are much worse. Consequences of DANAs Manuel Pérez García and Estefania Monerri Mínguez. That’s where the problems begin. Although the effects may vary depending on intensity, duration and location, the fact that DANAs become more intense is what is making our lives difficult. And it is thatThe catalog of consequences is very extensive.. Flash floods, river flooding, dry riverbed overflows; damage to infrastructure (roads, bridges, urban drainage) and agricultural crops; very numerous human risks: trapped people, power outages, evacuations; and a high economic impact: reconstruction, insurance, losses in tourism or agriculture. DANAs and climate change As I said, there is no clear consensus about the appearance of more DANAs than normal. The IPCC reports, for example, do not state any of this; but yes the favorable conditions for extreme phenomena they increase. In fact, in the Mediterranean regions, warming scenarios foresee an increase in precipitation very intense in isolated events. In other words: as I have been arguing, the climate change It does not create more DANAs, but it makes them more dangerous and difficult to predict. DANAs in other parts of the world In the rest of the world, what we call ‘DANA’ is often called ‘cut-off lows’ and, indeed, they are very common in many parts of the world. This type of phenomenon is also observed in the USA, Australia and South America. However, it is something especially relevant in our country because our climate, the extremely warm sea and such abrupt relief They make isolated casualties our daily bread. Precautions before the arrival of a DANA That makes more relevant than ever the fact that be prepared. In that sense, there are a handful of: Consult official alerts: AEMET, public administrations and Civil Protection. Avoid driving on secondary roads, dry riverbeds and flood-prone tunnels. Do not cross watercourses. Seal or check drains, roofs and sewers to avoid backups. In houses, lift belongings from the floor if water is expected to enter. Take refuge in high areas. Have prepared a basic ‘survival’ kit: flashlight, radio, chargers, water, important documents. In short, the best defense against a DANA is accurate information, preparation and prudence. Image | The Tampa Bay Estuary Program In Xataka | What is cold drop, why it seems more intense than ever and why it is not correct to call it that

Having Spain at more than 40 degrees in September is not normal. Nor is what comes just after

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Summer warmer in records It continues determined to prolong, at least during this week. So much so that some meteorological stations have seen the Mercury again reach the brand of the 40º Celsius. Return at 40. Three weather stations from the southern peninsula reached or exceeded yesterday the 40º. They were those of El Granado, in Huelva (40.8º); Montoro, Córdoba (40.2º) and Badajoz (40º), According to the data of the State Meteorology Agency (Aemet). At least six others approached the brand, with temperatures of at least 39. The heat does not leave (yet). Today the story seems to be destined to repeat itself. The forecasts for today They point out that we will see temperatures Ascent maxims both in the Peninsula and in the Canary Islands. Of course, it will be in the north where the change is most accused and not in the south where temperatures, as we see, were already high yesterday. Aemet’s forecasts talk about temperatures above 35º at high and a half Ebro, in the Cantabrian, in southern Galicia, in some areas of the northern plateau and also in the southern half of the Atlantic aspect. Again, temperatures between 30º and 40º in the valleys of Guadalquivir and Guadiana can be expected. Minimum ascent are also expected with temperatures that do not lower the 20º in some areas. Notices for high temperatures. Aemet has issued numerous notices due to maximum high temperatures that will last during today and tomorrow. We can highlight yellow warnings with expected maximum temperatures of 39º in the valleys of the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir, as well as an orange notice due to important risk that will remain active this afternoon in the interior regions of Bizkaia. Not so normal. September is a month of high variability in regards to meteorology, covering the transit between summer and autumn. According to the climatological data Aemet, the average maximum temperature of the month of September does not usually exceed 32.5º. Being a month of relatively variable temperatures, clearly determine the relative magnitude of anomaly, but of course something seems clear: it is more hot than one would expect. Final in sight. It seems that the situation will change over the weekend. Meteorologists provide a change in trend that could be radical, not only with a decrease in temperatures but also by the arrival of storms and rain To a good part of the country. While change leads us to something that we could consider more normal for this time of year, abruptness and intensity of change are also notorious. In Xataka | Google has demonstrated with its AI that the prediction of storms and hurricanes is outdated. This is how your new model works Image | ECMWF

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