people

“People don’t appreciate how unique it is”

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Elon Musk is a polarizing figure opinions: for some he is a visionary genius; for others, a businessman with controversial practices. However, those who have worked closely with him describe a unique leadership style that challenges traditional norms of large corporations. Andrej Karpathyformer head of AI and computer vision at Tesla, spent five years working directly with him. “It’s hard to describe how unique it is”says Karpathy. But he tries: in his own words, Musk represents a leadership style that does not fit traditional molds, but is precisely what has allowed Tesla to redefine sectors such as automotive and aerospace. In some statements 2024, this former collaborator explained what makes Musk so different and how his personal style shapes the dynamics within Tesla. Against bureaucracy One of Karpathy’s main observations revolves around Musk’s emphasis on maintain small and highly specialized teamss. According to Karpathy, while many companies tend to grow in size and bureaucracy, Musk acts as a constant counterweight to that trend. “At Tesla, I practically had to beg him every time someone had to be hired“says Karpathy. In addition, Musk does not hesitate to fire employees who do not meet his standards, a policy that may seem harsh, but which in his opinion is essential to maintain agility and efficiency in a company that seeks to constantly innovate. The rejection of bureaucracy is also manifested in his aversion to non-technical middle managers: Musk prefers that engineers, and not managers, be the primary source of information and decision-making. This philosophy ensures that the company’s priorities remain aligned with its technical objectives. The importance of the work environment “He doesn’t like stagnation”. Another distinctive aspect of Musk’s leadership is his insistence on a dynamic work environment, in which employees are engaged in problem solving, which has led him to eliminate large and unnecessary meetings and to encourage employees to leave those in which they are not actively contributing. This contrasts with common practices in large Silicon Valley companies which, according to Karpathy, tend to “pamper” their employees with superficial comforts that do not always translate into greater productivity. An involved CEO Unlike many executives who delegate most decisions to senior managers, Musk has direct and constant contact with engineers and technical teams. According to Karpathy, Musk spends about 50% of his time interacting with engineering teamssomething unusual for a CEO. Your proximity allows you to deeply understand technical challenges and address bottlenecks immediately Karpathy goes so far as to give the example that if a team faces a lack of GPUs, Musk does not hesitate to contact key suppliers directly to solve the problem… even if that means calling the CEO of Nvidia directly. This level of involvement ensures that strategic decisions are based on accurate technical information, rather than going through multiple layers of management. Ambitious promises and complex realities The style of Musk also has his criticsclear. Above all because of his extreme optimism… or, rather, their tendency to promise overly ambitious goalsas fully autonomous vehicles capable of crossing the United States without human intervention, has generated skepticism. Despite having achieved significant advances, such as the arrival of robotaxis not without controversyTesla has not managed to meet these goals within the established deadlines. However, he claims that Musk’s obsession with continuous improvement is what allows Tesla to remain a leader in advanced assisted driving technologies. Image | Marcos Merino through AI In Xataka | Elon Musk’s word is not reliable: the failure of Tesla’s “solar roofs” exposes him again This topic was originally published on Genbeta in December 2024.

Their bosses promote people they see

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He debate about whether a person is more productive at home or in the office has been a constant since companies insisted on putting people in the offices after years of teleworking. Even there are experts who say see the debate more polarized than ever before. A new study suggests that work remote harms workers, compared to going to the offices. And the reason is simple and has been defended by many, both bosses and workers: “employees who are not physically close to their bosses (or who don’t live in the same city as the headquarters) are seeing fewer opportunities. “Not because they have underperformed, but because they have become less visible.” 10 years TELEWORKING_ the BEST, the WORST and the TRICKS Regarding this, the magazine Work, Employment and Society, experimentally demonstrated With data from 1,000 UK managers, when managers do not have performance data on a remote worker, they are significantly less likely to be promoted or receive pay increases. Of course, according to the study, when they are provided with objective performance data identical to that of in-person workers, the penalty disappears. A study by the Deel companya global HR platform. HH. concluded a few weeks ago that a third (36%) of Workers in Europe say they are worried that physical distancing is harming their careers professional. It also says that more than half, 52%, would feel anxiety if they lived more than an hour from work. We have already seen various surveys of young professionals and many They bet on going to the offices for this same matter. Workers want to live far away, but they see harm According to this study, many workers have responded that they would be willing to move further from city centers, or even to another country, if that meant more affordable housing or being able to be closer to family (and they say that they would not even mind working outside of conventional hours to be able to be in another country if there is a time difference). But, at the same time, various professionals affirm that They are seeing that performance alone does not help them grow professionally. and who have witnessed that their managers, consciously or not, tend to reward the people they see most frequently and that “office conversations become opportunities.” Even as a clear example, we have the case of Dell, a company that openly warned employees that those who did not want to return to the office would resign. also to promotion possibilities within the company. Even too imposed obligations such as going in person yes or yes for all those who live less than an hour from the office. According to Forbesall this has been creating two types of employees: those who are considered eligible for promotion due to their proximity and those who are excluded of key decisions simply because they decided to live somewhere else. The experts: we must rethink this traditional model To all this, the warning given by the experts who produced this report is that “companies that assume that everyone can be present at all times are not only misinterpreting their workforce, but also limiting their reach.” From Deel they believe that, with remote and hybrid work becoming the norm, “traditional ideas about proximity to the office need a profound revision. Expanding the hiring approach and work culture is a necessary measure has been around for some time and can open new avenues of talent for organizations facing skills shortages. And this new Deel survey reveals that employees across Europe they increasingly want to move further away from their workplaces to live closer to nature (31%), reduce their living expenses (28%) and spend more time with family (26%). However, “that desire clashes with what many bosses want (but in many cases do not need): control“, as these human resources experts explain. Almost two thirds (60%) of bosses They said they would prioritize hiring in their own time zone or from those who lived within a reasonable distance. from work (58%), although almost as many (51%) also admitted that this mentality made it difficult to find the skills they needed. Image | Photo of LinkedIn Sales Solutions in Unsplash In Xataka | In their search for balance between productivity and mental health, Generation Z is clear: four-day work week This topic was originally published on Genbeta in September 2025

Cases in young people are skyrocketing and science points to our lifestyle

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When we think of patients with colon cancerour mind can automatically go to a middle-aged person with different risk factors behind them. However, epidemiology is documenting a radical change in statisticssince more and more young people are being diagnosed with this type of cancer, which makes us reflect to look for the ‘why’. The experts. Winette van der Graaf, professor of Medical Oncology at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), points to this new reality and states that “I would never have imagined that I would be seeing patients with colorectal cancer at the age of 19” as collect The Country. With this phrase he gives voice to a global trend that epidemiological studies continue to confirm, since cancer is no longer a disease almost exclusively of old age, and the incidence is growing at a rate four times faster in young people than in older people. An explosion. Data supports the medical concern through multiple international macro studies, such as the one published in 2024 in The Lancet. Here, 50 countries were analyzed and showed that early-onset colorectal cancer (between 25 and 49 years) is increasing in 27 of them. But the most revealing data is in 20 of those 27 territories, where the increase in cases is exclusive to young people or is advancing much faster than in the adult population. The fastest pace is taken by countries such as New Zealand or Chile, growing at 4.0% annually, and Puerto Rico with 3.8%. Furthermore, in 14 countries, including Spain, the United States and the United Kingdom, cases are increasing in young people while remaining stable in those over 50 years of age. Among the youngest. The figures here are scary, since, according to the data From the CDC, data on colorectal cancer among adolescents tripled between 1999 and 2020. If we go into detail, in the 20 to 24 year old group they grew by 185%, while in the 10 to 14 year old age group the growth was 500% as the incidence went from 0.1 to 0.6 cases per 100,000 children. The Spanish case. Here, a study based on real data from the Virgen de la Victoria Hospital published in JCO Global Oncology in 2024 analyzed more than 24,500 patients and found that 22.2% had early-onset cancer, being present before the age of 50. And we can go further, by making a list of the types of cancer that have increased the most in our territory: Sarcoma: increased by 43.4% in young people compared to 28.6% in older people. Kidney: rose 27.8% in young people compared to 20.1% in older people. Testicle: grew by 16.3% in young people, while its incidence fell by 13.1% in older people. Because? Here experts point to a combination of very diverse factors that try to explain it, although none of them is definitive. One of these is an inadequate diet with an increase in the consumption of red meat and calcium-deficient diets that is complemented by a tendency toward a sedentary lifestyle. But in addition, the excessive use of antibiotics could be severely altering our intestinal microbiota, added to the impact of bacterial infections during childhood. And it even goes further by considering the role of the exposure we have since childhood to chemical elements such as pesticides or pollution in general to give it an explanation. Images | brgfx on Magnific Julia Koblitz In Xataka | Neither cure nor die: why the next great revolution against cancer is to make it chronic

In 2026 there are still people throwing messages in a bottle into the sea. A man keeps finding them in the Caribbean

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To give us an idea, more than half a century ago, in 1959, Guinness launched 150,000 bottles to the Atlantic to celebrate its bicentennial. Many decades later, in the era of networks and algorithms, some continue to appear on beaches in places as different as the Caribbean, Canada or the Arctic. People keep sending the messages. History remembered her the New Yorker a few days ago. In the era of WhatsApp, TikTok and instant messages, there are people who continue doing something that seems straight out of a 19th century novel: writing a few lines, putting them in a bottle and throw them into the ocean waiting for someone, somewhere in the world, to find them. The surprising thing is that much more happens than it seems. Oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer estimates that millions of bottled messages have been thrown into the sea since the mid-20th century, and some continue to wash up decades later on remote beaches. What’s more, in the Caribbean, a man named Clint Buffington He has been obsessed with finding them for almost twenty years. What started as a coincidence ended up becoming a kind of emotional archeology of the ocean: messages written by strangers, couples who broke up, improvised memorials, jokes, goodbyes and small capsules of humanity carried by impossible sea currents. The bottle hunter. Buffington lives in Utah, far from the sea, but spends much of his life studying ocean mapstides and currents to locate beaches where floating objects may end up accumulating. Walk for miles in brutal heat in the Bahamas or Turks and Caico Islands searching for something extremely unlikely: a bottle with a message still readable. Of course, most of the time he finds nothing. Or worse– Find trash, empty bottles or papers destroyed by salt water. But every now and then something extraordinary appears. Ha recovered sent messages from freighters, love letters, confessions written under the influence of alcohol, vacation memories and even tributes to lost pregnancies. For man, each bottle is a kind of human trail floating between continents. He does not look for material treasures, “I look for stories,” explained in the report. Internet before the Internet. Part of the fascination is that the bottles function as a kind of very slow, analog version of modern social networks. A stranger writes something for someone they don’t know, throws it into the void and waits for a response. The difference is that here the algorithm is ocean currents. For example, a Japanese woman found a bottle sent years before by a french sailor and ended up reconstructing his identity thanks to an absurd human chain that involved tourists, hairdressers and neighbors in different parts of the world. Another bottle thrown from an American lighthouse during the pandemic appeared six years later in the Bahamas, after probably traveling thousands of kilometers across the Atlantic. The ocean thus becomes a kind of chaotic postal network where any object can disappear forever or reappear in the most unlikely place on the planet. The sea as an emotional archive. I remembered the NY The most striking thing is that many of these messages do not contain practical information or real requests for help. They are simply deeply human impulses: to leave a fingerprinttalk to someone unknown, demonstrate that one existed at a specific time. Some authors write philosophical reflections, others leave money, cigarettes or small objects inside the bottle. There are messages written by sailors crossing straits out of superstition, bored tourists, lonely people or couples in crisis. There are even real marriage stories emerged thanks to a bottle found on another coast decades ago. For Buffington, that’s the true meaning of it all: the human need to connect with someone, even if it’s in the most unlikely way imaginable. The ocean continues delivering messages. If you like, the story also has something melancholic. Many bottle hunters They believe that the phenomenon is disappearing because cell phones and social networks have destroyed some of the patience and romanticism necessary for this type of slow communication. However, the bottles keep appearing. Some were launched a few years ago, others have been traveling between currents, storms and reefs for decades. Buffington even has found remains of that distant campaign Guinness promotional from 1959 that still surfaces on remote beaches. The ocean preserves these objects like erratic time capsules, battered by sun and salt for years. And every time someone find a bottle intact and manages to read what is inside, something strangely powerful happens: two people separated by thousands of kilometers and several years away manage to connect thanks to an ocean current and a piece of glass floating in the Atlantic. Image | Snapwire In Xataka | 45 years ago we sent a “message in a bottle” to space in the Pioneer probes, today they are making a replica that you can buy In Xataka | We already know how thirsty artificial intelligence is: a 100-word email consumes a bottle of water

No missiles, no rifles, no bombs. Ukrainian drones are carrying a type of cargo unprecedented in war: elderly people

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During the Soviet blockade of Berlin in 1948, an American pilot began to throw chocolates tied to small cloth parachutes on children watching the planes from Tempelhof airport. That improvised initiative ended up becoming the famous “Operation Little Vittles“, one of the most unexpected images of the Cold War: military aircraft used to carry hope instead of weapons. Decades later, Ukraine is finding equally unusual uses for its war machines. Lifesaving robots. For years, unmanned vehicles were associated with a very specific idea: transporting weapons, ammunition or explosives where the risk for soldiers was too high. The war in Ukraine is expanding that definition with an image that would have seemed unthinkable just a few years ago. In some of the most dangerous sectors of the front, the same ground drones that are part of the war machinery are being used to evacuate elderly people trapped between bombings, mines and artillery fire. In a conflict marked by the automation of combat, one of the most unexpected loads carried by these vehicles are not projectiles or supplies, but old people who no longer have a safe way to leave their homes. Rescue through no man’s land. The last known operation took place near Limánin the Donetsk region. While carrying out a logistics mission, a ground drone unit from the Kraken group was approached by a woman who asked for help to leave the area along with three other people, one of them injured by shrapnel. After coordinating the procedure for days, the operators sent a Zmiy Logistic vehiclea kind of remote-controlled four-wheeled buggy capable of transporting up to about 500 kilos of cargo. The drone traveled about 16 kilometers to the agreed point, rpicked up the four evacuees and began the return journey to a river crossing where Ukrainian soldiers completed the rescue and took the wounded to a hospital. The impossible life in the gray zone. These rescues They show a less visible reality of war. Despite years of fighting, there are still civilians living in the so-called “gray zone”, a strip of land disputed between both armies that can reach between 16 and 20 kilometers wide. There are practically no public services, shops, schools or hospitals left there. Power outages are common and bombings are part of the daily routine. However, many older people continue to resist in those places because they don’t want to leave the houses where they have lived all their lives, because they care for sick relatives or because they hope that the war will end before being forced to leave permanently. Iron soldiers on a new mission. It is not an isolated case. They remembered in Insider that in early April, another 77-year-old Ukrainian woman was evacuated from the same area using a ground drone operated by the 60th Mechanized Brigade. The images They went around the world because the soldiers approached her with a blanket on which a message as simple as it was revealing could be read: “Grandma, get on.” The scene summarizes the extent to which these systems are evolving. Originally designed to transport supplies, plant explosives or even assemble remote weaponry, the so-called “iron soldiers” are beginning to take on rescue tasks that previously would have required exposing soldiers or volunteers to extreme danger. Total automation. Behind these stories there is a much deeper transformation. Ukraine and Russia are accelerating the incorporation of unmanned ground vehicles to carry out missions that They are too risky for people. Some carry ammunition, some carry medical supplies, and some incorporate remote-controlled weapons. The Ukrainian goal is especially ambitious: Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, has announced the purchase of 25,000 ground drones during the first half of 2026 and aspires for all frontline logistics to one day depend on these systems. During the first quarter of the year alone, unmanned vehicles performed more than 21,500 missions. Unexpected consequences. The usual image of military innovation may be associated with increasingly destructive systems, but the Ukrainian experience is showing an unexpected consequence of that technological revolution. The same robots that were born to keep soldiers away from danger are being used to remove vulnerable civilians from some of the most dangerous places in Europe. As militaries race to automate combat, ground-based drones are proving military technology can play a role, too completely different: become the ultimate escape vehicle for those trapped in the ruins of an endless war. Image | ArmyInform In Xataka | Storks have become the best anti-drone weapon of war. And Russia and Ukraine are taking note In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back.

There is a city that has scanned the faces of more than 3 million people on the street and it is not in China, but in Europe

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A few days ago a man was walking down the street when, without realizing it, a camera scanned his face. As he continued walking, a sophisticated system compared his face to a police database, sent the alert, and within minutes he was arrested. It happened in London. The city of cameras. London is one of the most surveilled cities in the world; according to some sourcesin its streets there are more than 600,000 cameras controlling everything that happens. For some years now, in addition, they have a real-time facial recognition system to identify dangerous criminals, and it seems that the system is being as effective as it is controversial. In numbers. London’s Metropolitan Police say that since the beginning of 2024 they have made 2,500 arrests, of which 2,100 are related to violent and sexual crimes against women and girls. The system scanned more than 3 million faces in one year and only generated ten false positives. During a pilot in the Croydon district at least 470,000 passers-by were scanned with only one false positive. According to the police, the result of this test was a 10.5% crime reduction. How it works. The facial recognition cameras they have installed are capable of scanning up to 5,000 faces per hour. What they do is send the data to a police operations room where an AI system, signed by the Japanese company NEC, is dedicated to compare them with the police databasewhere there are more than 17,000 registered suspects. When there is a match, an alert is issued to officers in the area so they can make the arrest. Opposition. Organizations like Big Brother Watch has carried out campaigns against this systemarguing that it risks normalizing mass surveillance in public spaces and calling the technology ‘Orwellian’. Furthermore, they strongly question its true operational profitability since, while the police boast of making an arrest every 35 minutes, they warn that these statistics hide the enormous number of hours of the agents and the immense logistical resources that the system requires on the streets, diverting efforts from traditional and more proportionate police work. The debate has intensified after the unprecedented use of the system in a political protest in London. Big Brother Watch took the case to the High Court, but it ruled in favor of the legality of the technology, paving the way for its expansion. In favor. Despite opposition from some organizations, according to Police Director Lindsey Chiswick, the technology is “revolutionary” and completely secure, stressing that the biometric data of those who do not match the list of suspects are immediately destroyed. There are also fears that the algorithm discriminates based on race, but the police hide behind the fact that the tests carried out concluded that the system is accurate and does not present ethnic or gender biases. According to Chiswick, citizen support is around 80% in surveys. Image | Levi Meir ClancyUnsplash In Xataka | Concern over mass video surveillance has created a new product: anti-facial recognition glasses

They have measured the brain age of people who usually meditate. The result is that he looks six years younger

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The age reflected on our identity card does not always coincide with the real age of our organs. In the field of neuroscience, the “brain age” has become a fascinating biomarker to understand how our nervous system ages and what factors can protect it. And now meditation seems to have a fundamental role in delaying this clock at least during our rest hours. A new study published in the magazine Mindfulness has found that people who practice meditation At an advanced level they have a “brain age” during sleep that is almost six years lower than their chronological age. A striking fact that opens doors in the study of neuroplasticity and the role that this habit can have in the lives of many people. Although logically we must move away from the idea of ​​suffering a miraculous “rejuvenation” How it has been seen. To understand the finding, we must first understand how this “brain age” is measured, and here the researchers did not use MRIs to see the size of the brain, but instead analyzed the electrical activity through electroencephalograms (EEG) during sleep. Its evolution. Something that is known is that, as we age, the brain waves we produce when sleeping change in predictable ways. Under this pretext, algorithms have been used to calculate a “brain age index” based on these electrical patterns. With these data, if the brain produces waves typical of someone of a similar age, the index is similar to zero, but if waves are produced from someone older, the index is positive. The method. The research team evaluated 34 people who meditate at an advanced level, belonging to the discipline Inner Engineering with an average age of 38 yearsand compared their sleep records with those of several control groups who did not meditate. The result here was that people who usually meditate showed an index that corresponded to people six years younger. That is, their brains, electrically speaking and while sleeping, behaved like those of people almost six years younger, while the control groups showed values ​​close to zero or slightly positive. One more biomarker. The findings fit like one more piece in a scientific puzzle that has been years in the making. Previous research already pointed to global changes in the EEG spectrum and greater neuroplasticity, and it was even seen that regular meditation caused an increase in brain gray matter and a possible neuroprotective effect. However, from a clinical standpoint, it is critical not to confuse an EEG marker with literal rejuvenation. The fact that the brain shows younger electrical patterns at night is an excellent biological indicator of brain health, but this study does not clinically prove that meditation is a proven tool for reversing cognitive decline. You have to be cautious. In this case it cannot be categorically stated that meditating rejuvenates the brain because there may be other factors that have not been measured. We must also keep in mind that we are dealing with a study on only 34 people, so the sample should be increased with the aim of extrapolating it to the entire population. Images | Drazen Zigic in Magnific In Xataka | The best 18 meditation, relaxation and mindfulness applications to have better mental health

Separations between people over 50 are growing. And there are two words that explain it: gray divorce

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The term may be striking, but one thing must be recognized: it does not leave much room for misunderstanding. The “gray divorces” They are neither more nor less than that, separations carried out by couples with gray hair, spouses who are over 50 years old and often have been married for several decades. Until not long ago they were a relatively strange phenomenon; But as the population pyramid widened at its upper end and society changed, they have gained weight. So much, in fact, that there are already experts investigating its causes to understand them better. New times, new trends. Divorces with last name. There is nothing written about love. About heartbreak, either. There are those who end their marriages just a few years after saying “I do”, those who do so after decades and those who sign the divorce papers after the age of 60, when both spouses have gray hair. Sociologists and academics specialized in demographic phenomena have even given the latter a name: “gray divorces”. The term is not entirely new. In 2004 I used it and to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) and in 2012 researchers from the Bowling Green State University They even spoke of a “gray divorce revolution”, but since then it has attracted the attention of more and more experts. Today the expression is replicated in a good number of essaysincluding a extensive article published in 2024 in Sage Journal and that seeks to investigate its causes. A rising phenomenon. It takes reviewing some figures to understand that interest. In the US, the divorce rate among adults at least 50 years old has more than duplicate in a matter of two decades to the point that in 2010 almost 25% of separations could be considered “gray divorces”. Some experts have detected that their incidence has stabilized over the last decade or that they have even decreased after the pandemic, but still almost 40% of the people who decided to dissolve their marriages in the US in 2022 were still over 50 years old. Beyond the USA. The phenomenon is not exclusive to the US. The INE also leaves some brush strokes interesting about what is happening in Spain. For example, almost a third (31.8%) of divorces made official in 2024 were carried out by couples who had been married for at least two decades. Another key fact is that, although the highest number of separations occurs between spouses who are in their forties (40 to 49 years old), the average age at which they decide to follow different paths has not stopped growing in recent years until it is approaching 50. Among men it is already close to 49 years old. In general, the INE estimates that over the last three decades, senior divorces, between couples over 50, have skyrocketed by around 40%. Accented from 65 onwards. “Divorce in old age is increasing in the Western world, even in family-oriented societies like Israel, in which the most common family status for older adults, aged 60 or over, is to be in a long-term heterosexual marriage with adult children,” a group of researchers from the University of Haifa reflected a few months ago in an article focused precisely on the drift and causes of gray divorces. In their analysis, they also see a particularly marked increase among couples with members who are 65 or even older. Average age of spouses at divorce (YEARS) Women Men 2015 43.8 46.3 2016 44.2 46.7 2017 44.8 47.2 2018 45.2 47.6 2019 45.5 47.9 2020 45.6 48.2 2021 45.5 47.8 2022 45.9 48.4 2023 46.2 48.7 2024 46.6 49 And why do they separate? The big question. And there is no single answer. The first and obvious thing is that not only those who get divorced have changed; society itself has done it, increasingly older in regions like Europe or the US. Considering that the average age of Americans has gone growing gradually since the 1970s or that the population over 64 years of age hasn’t stopped to gain weight, it makes sense that there are also more and more divorces involving couples who have blown out all 50 candles. life expectancy has been stretched Furthermore, which broadens the life horizon of couples. “Your ability to enjoy has improved”. “In these societies, older adults enjoy relatively good health and functioning, and these conditions have improved their ability to enjoy life,” they add the Halifa researchers, who point both to the transformations of the population pyramid and at the cultural and social level. “Later-life divorce is increasing due to changes in marital and family structures and demographic trends.” Although that is the general framework, there are those who appreciate important nuances. After observing a slight drop in divorce rates among couples aged 50 to 60 from 2022, a study Recent research from Bowling Green State University raises an interesting reflection: gray divorces could be “largely” a phenomenon associated with couples Baby Boomersformed by spouses born around the middle of the 20th century. One process, two phases. During your studio Researchers at the University of Halifa discovered something else: they concluded that divorces that occur after the age of 50 or even in old age are usually the result of a “complex” and long process, lasting several years, during which two well-differentiated phases can be identified. “The first, continuous and prolonged, is that of staying together despite the distance. The second captures the moment of the final decision to separate, with a point of no return or inflection and several accelerating factors in the background.” The experts too have identified two large layers in divorces between older couples: the “interpersonal” and the “demographic”, such as increased life expectancy. Of the two, the most curious are the first, since – the researchers highlight – they do not differ much from the reasons that lead younger couples to break up: distancing, infidelities, health or financial problems, poor communication, behavioral changes or an imbalance of roles in the home. Second … Read more

Spain has broken records in youth employment. The bad news is that one in three unemployed people is already over 50 years old

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Unemployment in Spain has been chaining months of good news. In April, the number of unemployed fell to 2,357,044 people, falling below 2.4 million for the first time since June 2008. The story, seen from afar, is that of a labor market that has finally left its worst unemployment figures behind. However, that story has a blind spot. When the data is broken down by age, the initial optimism gives way to reality: the labor market is improving, yes, but not for everyone equally. The workers over 45 years they continue to fall behind, and the latest data of the State Public Employment Service (SEPE) confirm it. Senior unemployment is close to 60% of the total. Of the slightly less than 2.35 million unemployed counted in April 2026 in Spain, 1,376,550 unemployed were 45 years old. This represents 58.4% of all registered unemployment. In other words, six out of ten unemployed They are over 45 years old. The bad news doesn’t end there. Within this group of people over 45, one in three unemployed people is already over 50 years old. To put into perspective what that percentage implies, we must compare it with what happened in the same month among those under 25 years of age. Youth unemployment has improved its percentages with a drop of 10.2%, with 19,284 fewer young people on the SEPE lists. If we return to the data for those over 45 years of age, we find that only 19,990 people in this age group they found a job, but in this case the decrease has only meant a drop of 1.43%. That is, given the progressive aging of the active population in Spain, those over 45 years of age are the largest group, so although the number of people who have found employment are very similar, the weight as a whole is very different. Less unemployed, but more chronic unemployment. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, the segment of those over 55 years of age was close to 4.93 million employed people. This represents 22% of all workers in the country, with 242,500 more people than a year before. These are figures that reflect that, on the one hand, the active population is increasingly older and, on the other hand, he is retiring later and remains in the labor market for longer. The second bad news for those over 45 years of age is that those who lose their job at that age have enormous difficulties in recovering it. In March 2026, those under 25 years of age signed 308,094 contracts, compared to the 367,204 signed by the group over 45, which doubles the percentage of the active population in number. That leaves us with one conclusion: senior hiring is proportionally tiny. He Labor Market Report for People over 45 years of age 2026 prepared by the SEPE, indicates that this group will exceed 11 million employed during 2025, more than 50% of the total number of workers. Even so, this massive presence in existing employment does not translate into the same rate of access to new opportunities. This is an indicator that the barriers to the reintegration of those over 45 into the labor market continue to be insurmountable. once you lose your job. Proof of this is that 53% of the 755,500 unemployed people over 50 have been looking for a job for more than a year without finding it. Youth unemployment breaks its own record. The scenario for those under 25 years of age is diametrically opposite. unemployment among those under 25 years of age It closed April 2026 at 24.53% with a total of 169,693 people, the lowest figure in the entire SEPE historical series. In year-on-year terms, it represents a drop of 14.2% compared to April of last year, when there were 197,674 young people unemployed. A decade ago, in 2015, the youth unemployment rate in Spain stood at 44.4%. This sustained decline has no equivalent in any other age group, which makes youth employment one of the great successes of the Spanish labor market in recent years. In aging it is a determining factor. As the data show, age defines large differences in the impact of unemployment between the different segments of the active population, but this differentiation also means that unemployment punishes some communities more than others, with a special impact on emptied Spainwhere young people have moved to the large industrial hubs. By province, Zamora stands out strikingly because more than 62% of its unemployed are over 45 years old. Pontevedra and La Coruña also present very aging unemployment structures. In Xataka | There is a man who has been working for the same company for 85 years. And he has no plans to retire. Image | Unsplash (Hasan Mrad)

Many people wake up between two and three in the morning. And science already knows what they have in common

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Waking up in the middle of the night can be a pleasant experience when we look at the clock and see that we still have several hours of sleep left. dream. However, for many people it can become a frustrating routine that reduces their ability to achieve restful sleep. It is therefore likely that people may wonder why this happens and to what extent it can be prevented. Many things can wake us from our sleep at night. From a mosquito stalking our bed to serious cases of insomnia. Each circumstance may have its particular characteristics, but in any case, a significant part of the population ends up waking up at some point during the night with some frequency. And why does it happen? Beyond the external factors, there are two internal processes related to this. The first is the circadian rhythm, and the second is the sleep cycle. The circadian rhythm refers to “biological clock“which tells us the sleep and wake cycles. It is a collection of biological processes that activates us throughout the day and prepares us for sleep in the afternoon and night. It does so through substances such as melatoninthe “sleep hormone” that transmits this information between different parts of our brain. Our body takes advantage the light we perceive as an indicator of when to secrete melatonin or not. The sleep cycle, for its part, refers to a series of stages that occur and repeat throughout our daily sleep. A night of sleep has between four and six sleep cycles, each with four stages: a REM (rapid eye movement) stage; and three non-REM stages, each deeper than the last. Although the cycles are repeated in their structure, each of the four phases can have greater or lesser presence in each cycle. In the first cycles, the deeper stages predominate. That is why from the first hours of sleep it is easier to wake up and more difficult to fall asleep again. However, there are numerous factors that can affect how often we wake up at night more or less frequently. It is about both internal and external circumstances that can affect our circadian rhythm or our sleep cycle. The age It is one of the main factors. Over time our circadian rhythms changejust like our need for sleep. Age is a determining factor to the point that older people can have their sleep interrupted up to four times a night. The menopause It can also affect our ability to sleep straight through (as well as pregnancy). Age is also linked to nocturiathe interruption of sleep caused by the need to go to the bathroom. Our psychological state can also affect. Stress, as well as disorders related to anxiety either depression They can have a negative effect on our quality of sleep. This is bad news if we take into account that poor sleep quality can aggravate these problemswhich has the potential to generate a vicious cycle. From a mild headache to chronic painphysical pain can also affect our sleep. Like some medications such as beta-blockerscorticosteroids, antidepressants or diuretics They can negatively affect our sleep. How to avoid interruptions Understanding the causes of our sleep problems can serve as the first step to solving them. Adapting to changes in our body can be complicated, but some general guidelines They can also be useful. Guidelines such as correct “sleep hygiene”. Something that can help us is to introduce changes to our schedule. The usual recommendations in this regard usually begin by maintaining regular schedules, going to bed at “prudential” hours, that is, ones that allow us to achieve the recommended seven or eight hours of sleep. Another habit change can happen eliminate nap. Napping can negatively affect our night’s sleep. However, in this sense, science tends to consider that the differences between individuals are high, so there may be important differences from person to person. Another important guideline is to avoid screens or other blue lights in the last hours of the day. Physical activity can also help, although it is usually recommended not to leave it until the last hours of the day. That is, not exercising before going to bed. Eliminating alcohol and tobacco in our daily lives can also help us improve our sleep. Many of the techniques that aim to help us sleep are relaxation techniques. These can also help us so that sleep interruptions do not result in hours of lost sleep. “Empty” our thoughts in a notebook before going to bed, controlling our breathing… these are ways to prevent our stress from affecting our sleep. Lack of sleep and rest has important effects on our physical health and our mood. It is not surprising therefore that it is an issue that worries Spaniards more and more, to the point of becoming one of the countries with increased drug consumption to sleep like benzodiazepines. Like any other health problem, many times treating it is not in our hands but rather health experts must be the ones to tell us the appropriate guidelines to solve our problem. Of course, taking the first steps towards a better dream is still in our hands. In Xataka | There are people who sleep four hours a day and are still functional. It’s the closest thing we have to genetic “superheroes” In Xataka | Drink water right before going to sleep? Science has finally clarified whether it is a good idea or a terrible enemy of sleep Image | Mathieu Bigard *An earlier version of this article was published in May 2023

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