plummeted

Migratory fish populations have plummeted 81% since 1970

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Large animal migrations usually evoke wildebeest images crossing the African savanna or flocks of birds crossing the continental skies. However, beneath the surface of our rivers and lakes lies an epic journey that is about to disappear. Here the UN itself pointed out that the populations of migratory fish of freshwater have fallen by 81% in the last half century. An abyss of data. Data published by the UN with support from WWF and Wetlands they point to a major collapse of the fish population. And to understand the magnitude of the problem, the researchers analyzed 1,864 populations of 284 species of migratory fish between 1970 and 2020. Here the overall result was the loss of that 81% of biomass with a panorama that changes depending on where we look. This is why Latin America and the Caribbean is the most affected region, with a terrifying decrease of 91% of its populations, while in Europe the collapse is 75%. A conservation paradox. A very important fact is that 97% of migratory fish that are already on the CMS protection list are threatened with extinction. However, science indicates that there is 325 species candidates (and long forgotten) that urgently need to be included in the appendices of international protection to survive. Brazil, for example, is already promoting the protection of emblematic species such as the painted surubí so that its delicate situation is recognized. Because? Migratory fish, such as salmon or sturgeon, need to swim hundreds or thousands of kilometers to reproduce or feed, using what scientists have baptized such as Global Swimways, or global navigable waterways. In this way, one of the reasons that is causing this great change is the fragmentation of the habitat, since the massive construction of dams and artificial barriers has cut off these ‘highways’. So if a fish can’t make it up the river to spawn, its lineage ends there. Other reasons are found in overexploitation, since unsustainable fishing continues to decimate adult populations before they can reproduce. But we cannot forget about pollution either, since agricultural, industrial and urban discharges have degraded water quality to toxic levels for many of these sensitive species. It has consequences. Environmental organizations here point out that the disappearance of these animals is not only a zoological tragedy, since migratory fish are a fundamental pillar of food security. In the end, tens of millions of people around the world depend on these animals and we cannot forget that they are the ecological engine that keeps the rivers themselves alive. That is why the message that the scientific community leaves us is an ultimatum: we must restore the connectivity of our rivers to protect the remaining migratory routes, or we will face the imminent extinction of some fascinating species. Images | Jinomono Media In Xataka | Although it may seem impossible, there is a 12-millimeter fish that makes as much noise as an airplane turbine

The price of oil has plummeted overnight. The one at the gasoline pumps will remain the same

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Just 24 hours. That’s how long it has taken the global oil market to go from historic panic to almost euphoric relief. On Monday, a barrel of Brent – ​​the benchmark in Europe – was close to $120, its highest level since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. It seemed the prelude to an imminent recession driven by the war between the United States, Israel and Iran. However, today we woke up with crude oil plummeting, reaching below 90 dollars. And no, there is no peace treaty signed in Geneva, no withdrawal of troops, nor the reopening of maritime trade routes. Everything has depended on the president of the United States, Donald Trump, assured the chain CBS News that the war with Iran was “virtually complete” and promised reporters that the conflict would end “very soon.” And so, by the art of discursive magic, the price has begun to fall. The nonsense of a market driven by headlines. What has happened these days gives a good account of the current state of the financial markets: they operate based on immediate speculation, not on physical reality. As the analysts summarize cited by Financial Timesthis stock market reaction is known as Taco trade (acronym of Trump always chickens outor “Trump always chickens out”). Investors don’t believe the war is really over; They simply assume that Trump needs to lower the price of gasoline at all costs so as not to sink in the legislative elections. In fact, to force this price drop on the screens of Wall Streetthe White House has had to resort to desperation. Trump has even suggested that he will temporarily lift oil sanctions on some countries — including the possibility of easing the punishment for Russia itself— and even the G7 has considered releasing strategic reserves emergency. The financial market bought the headline and the price of a barrel fell. But the real world tells a very different story. Reasons to distrust the optimism of the stock market. It is logical to view this price drop with skepticism. The Brent chart can go down as much as it wants on investors’ screens, but the real logistical problem remains intact. He Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) warns that the threat is real and palpable: The great logistical bottleneck: The Strait of Hormuz remains blocked. This has taken 20 million barrels a day out of circulation. The physical danger: Iranian speedboats, naval mines and drones prevent oil tankers from sailing. Collapse on land: The situation is so extreme that, since ships cannot sail, storage tanks on land have been filled to the brim, forcing wells to be closed. Furthermore, the supposed unilateral peace announced by Trump clashes head-on with Tehran’s position. According to Financial TimesIran’s Revolutionary Guard assures that its armed forces “are waiting for the US Navy.” As analyst Kurt Cobb points out in oil priceIran defines victory as the survival of its regime, so a negotiated cessation of hostilities is, today, a chimera. The “rocket and boom” effect at the pump. This is where macroeconomics collides with citizens’ pockets. It doesn’t matter if the barrel of Brent drops overnight in international markets, you won’t see that relief today at the gas station. As my colleague Alberto de la Torre explained a few days ago, in Xatakathe fuel market suffers a very particular effect: Skyrocket: When the supply chain falters, the price skyrockets quickly. Gas stations act in anticipation and raise prices to cover the future cost at which they will have to replace that fuel, regardless of the fact that the impact of the barrel of Brent is not yet real on their purchases. Drops like a feather: When the barrel drops in the stock market, the drops at the pump last for weeks or months. There is very little room for maneuver, a lot of caution in case war breaks out again, and a clear resistance to lowering prices at the same dizzying pace at which they rose. And why does diesel increase more than gasoline? The biggest loser of this crisis is the diesel customer, who in Spain has suffered increases of 20 cents per liter in just one week. Europe has a structural problem: we lost Russia as a major exporter, we have fewer operational refineries and we have a strong deficit. Furthermore, its demand is much more inelastic; The driver of a car can decide to take the subway if gasoline prices rise, but the freight transporter, the farmer or the industrial machinery must refuel with diesel, no matter what the cost. The disbelief of the industry itself. The lack of faith in this “express peace” is shared even by the oil magnates themselves. In an insightful article published in oil priceDan Doyle, businessman in the sector fracking American, confesses that the shale industry is not buying this rebound. Despite having touched $100, oil companies are not hiring more drilling platforms or starting large extraction campaigns. They know that the “fast dollars of war will dissipate” and prefer to maintain strict capital discipline. And although The Conversation remember that the United States is less vulnerable today to oil shocks because it exports millions of barrels a day, the psychological toll of seeing the scoreboard rise at the gas stations continues to damage consumer confidence globally. Missile climbs, rowing descents. Today, the world’s stock markets have closed with green numbers. Investors have bought into the optimism of a press conference in Florida, and algorithms have adjusted the price of Brent downwards. However, geography remains stubborn. Large oil tankers remain anchored without daring to cross the Strait of Hormuz, maritime insurers continue to tremble and wells in the Middle East continue to close due to lack of space. Tomorrow, when you approach the gas station in your neighborhood before going to work, the illuminated panel will remind you of the golden rule of today’s energy market: in times of geopolitical uncertainty, the downs travel in a rowboat, but the ups fly in … Read more

We believed that bitcoin volatility was a thing of the past. Then it plummeted to $95,000.

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The bitcoin roller coaster. If just a month ago bitcoin reached its maximum value of $123,000, now we find ourselves with an extraordinary drop that has reached almost a quarter of its value: this weekend bitcoin reached collapse up to $93,000. The question, of course, is why? The potential reasons. Although on other occasions there have been clearer reasons for sudden positive and negative movements, this time the geopolitical and economic panorama had not undergone major changes. Even so, there are several factors that may have influenced this notable drop. The traditional stock market has also been falling for days, which normally also marks the future of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Some analysts indicate that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates in December, which will make investments in cryptocurrencies less attractive. They all sell: “whales” and holders. That has apparently sparked a rush to sell and a bearish move that has affected all investors. The famous whales with huge amounts of bitcoin seem to have taken the opportunity to collect profits, but even individual investors who had been keeping their bitcoins safe for years (“holders” or “hodlers”, in the slang) have also withdrawn from their positions. Even so, short-term investors (Short Term Holders) have once again been according to CryptoQuant those that have influenced the price the most. A “lost” fortune. According to the crypto analytics company CryptoQuant, about 815,000 BTC have been sold in the last 30 days, the highest figure since the beginning of 2024. In the last month and a half, no less than 1.1 trillion dollarsand many cryptocurrencies have lost all or much of what they had gained during the year. “Extreme fear”. A website called “Crypto Fear & Greed Index” evaluates the state of the crypto market based on messages and movements that occur over the days. In one week that index has gone from “fear” (29) to “extreme fear” (14). Or what is the same: many investors sell out of fear of even steeper falls. Widespread falls. As is often the case in the cryptocurrency market, bitcoin’s movements mark a contagious trend. Ethereum fell 12% in a week to $3,183, while other popular tokens such as XRP, BNB, Tron, Solana, Dogecoin or Cardano were around 16% down. But. There are investors who take advantage of these falls to further strengthen their position. Michael Saylor, CEO of Strategy, published the phrase “Big week” in X and denied rumors that it was going to partially withdraw from the market. In fact, there has repeated over and over again that not only was it not selling, but “we have bought bitcoin every day this week.” There are theories for all tastes, and other analysts relate this fall to the so-called M2, a measure of available liquidity. If one compares the trends of M2 and bitcoin, assuresthat reveals that bitcoin will regain ground in the short term. Get ready for the curves. These days we are experiencing significant falls among large technology companies and the fear that the hypothetical AI bubble will burst is especially high. This seems to have influenced investors in the crypto world, who have taken the opportunity to correct positions perhaps waiting for new events (such as the announcement of rate cuts, if they occur). This volatility is different from the old one. The uncertainty and volatility are reminiscent of years ago, when the falls and rises in value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were enormous. The difference now is that for years bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have ended convincing the institutional market. In fact, CryptQuant analysts indicate that “the whales are accumulating (bitcoin) in a big way, and they have not made a profit. And yet they continue to accumulate.” It is something that we have been watching all year. Image | Jonathan Borba In Xataka | A man threw his hard drive in the trash and lost 700 million euros in bitcoins. Now he will have his own series

The United Kingdom put an age verification to access PornHub. Immediately afterwards, its traffic plummeted by 77%

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Since the United Kingdom implemented age verification stricter access to explicit sexual content last July, under the Online Safety Act, traffic to pornographic websites has plummeted. Pornhub, the most visited adult site in the world, ensures that its visits from this country have decreased by 77%. Massive traffic reduction. According to Ofcom, the British communications regulator, visits to sites with pornographic content generally have decreased by almost a third within three months after the law comes into force. Google shows that searches for Pornhub have dropped by about half since then. The regulations require that anyone who accesses this type of website from the United Kingdom prove to be over 18 years old through verifications such as facial identification, email codes or credit card data. It must be taken into account that Pornhub is the nineteenth most visited website on the entire Internet, according to data from Similarweb, which gives dimension to the impact of these figures. The VPN effect complicates measurements. The drop in traffic does not necessarily mean that Brits have stopped consuming pornographic content. And there is a tool that makes actual measurement difficult of traffic from the UK: VPNs. The UK has become one of the fastest growing VPN markets in the world. According to data According to Cybernews, in the first half of 2025, more than 10.7 million downloads of VPN applications were recorded in the country, a figure that is already close to 16.65 million for all of 2024. Ofcom esteem that around a million people use VPN daily, tools that are especially useful for hiding the user’s real location and thus bypassing age controls. After the law came into force, VPN apps topped downloads in the British App Store, with at least one provider reporting an 1,800% increase in downloads. “It is likely that some of Pornhub’s ‘missing’ audience has not actually disappeared, but is being reclassified as non-British traffic,” explains Aras Nazarovas, cybersecurity researcher at Cybernews. cunequal compliance. Alex Kekesi, director of Aylo, parent company of Pornhub, explains BBC that the new rules are “unenforceable” and that many platforms benefit from ignoring them. It notes that Ofcom faces an “insurmountable task” trying to enforce the rules on some 240,000 adult platforms, visited by eight million users a month in the UK, while the regulator has only taken action against fewer than 70 sites for non-compliance. Kekesi assures that there are sites whose traffic “has grown exponentially” due to not complying with age verification, and has expressed concern about the content of some of these platforms, mentioning one that seemed to encourage searching for content with minors. Aylo affirms have shared information about these sites with Ofcom. The defense of the regulator. Ofcom defend that prioritizes the investigation of sites according to their risk and number of users, and that the increase in traffic can be precisely one of the factors that triggers an investigation. The organism holds that the 10 most popular platforms already have verification systems in place, representing 25% of all visits to adult content from the United Kingdom. The regulator also insists that more than three-quarters of the daily traffic to the 100 most visited websites goes to sites with age verification. “Sites that do not comply and put minors at risk can expect to face enforcement action,” he said. declared Ofcom. The regulator has launched investigations against 62 services suspected of ignoring the law. The debate over where to check. Pornhub proposes that age verification be done at the device level instead of web by web, arguing that it would be more effective and better protect privacy. Kekesi, who has traveled to the United Kingdom to meet with Ofcom and government officials, stands out That the British country is an exception, since Pornhub has blocked access in other jurisdictions that required age verification, such as France, its second largest market. The difference is that the United Kingdom allows sites to offer various verification methods, including email checks that do not require biometrics. However, experts such as Chelsea Jarvie, a cybersecurity researcher at the University of Strathclyde, they explain to the BBC that “for someone to be truly safe online we need different layers of controls throughout their browsing,” noting that no single approach is a “silver bullet.” The position of the British government. The authorities they have defended the regulator’s actions and have reaffirmed that protecting minors online is a “top priority” for ministers. “Where evidence shows that greater intervention is needed to protect minors, we will not hesitate to act,” the executive states. Ofcom affirms that the new law is fulfilling its primary purpose of preventing children from being able to “easily stumble upon pornography without searching for it.” “Our new rules end the era of an age-blind internet, when many sites and apps did not carry out any meaningful check to see if minors were using their services,” the regulator says. In Xataka | We already know how to retrieve the exact prompts that people use in AI models. It’s terrifying news

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