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give reasons to bring back teleworking

April 2, 2026 by usatoday24

When the price of oil soars Because of a war, governments look for ways to reduce their consumption. This is something that already happened with the oil crisis of ’73 and it is being repeated again with the war between Iran, Israel and the US. One of the quickest is usually that people stop commuting to work. What is happening now leaves us with a certain déjà vu of 2020with the difference that the reason is no longer a virus, but an energy crisis and the objective is save energy. Asia has already released the 2020 manual. Given its greatest dependence on Iranian crude oilthe first movements have arrived from Southeast Asia. Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim advertisement that officials linked to the Administration will implement teleworking to reduce fuel consumption. The Philippines chose cut the work week to four days for executive officials, with the same objective. The measure has a preceding in 1990, when the country experienced a situation similar to the current one during the Gulf War. Sri Lanka and Pakistan also implemented the four-day week in their State departments, and countries such as Vietnam and Thailand They explicitly asked teleworking to reduce unnecessary travel. The International Energy Agency recommends teleworking. The International Energy Agency published a decalogue of measures to reduce the impact of the power surge. Teleworking tops that list due to its direct effect on fuel consumption during daily trips. The recommendation of the energy agency for reduce the volume of trips is not trivial, the report notes that “three additional days of teleworking, for those who allow it, could reduce automobile oil consumption by 2% to 6%, with average potential reductions of around 20% for individual drivers.” Spain advances its mobility plans one year. On March 20, the Government approved the Royal Decree-Law that launches the ‘Comprehensive Response Plan to the Crisis in the Middle East’ with a mobilization of 5 billion euros. One of the measures that this plan also includes is to advance the entry into force of the work mobility plans provided for in the Sustainable Mobility Law that was already approved, going from 24 to 12 months. This Mobility Law included the obligation for companies with work centers with 200 or more workers (or shifts of more than 100 workers) to create sustainable mobility plans that must include concrete measures to reduce travel through active mobility, collective transport and, this is the key, offer teleworking options in positions that allow it. Teleworking is already in the law, although no one has imposed it. In 2020, teleworking was an emergency measure and without a prior regulatory basis to regulate it. Now, there is a Remote Work Law and is being integrated into sustainable mobility plans, with deadlines and sanctions. Companies are not obliged to offer teleworking in a generalized way to its employees, but to design a strategy to reduce travel, which in many cases involves remote work. Not having teleworking does not carry a direct sanction. Not having a mobility planyes it does, which makes teleworking an increasingly less discretionary option for certain companies. If the energy crisis continues, the jump from recommendation to obligation now has much less distance than it did five years ago, because the legal basis is already in force. In Xataka | Teleworking will experience a second youth, at a very specific moment: when the boomers retire Image | Freepik, Unsplash (Jan Baborak)

Ukraine refused to fix a bombed Russian oil pipeline. The EU has given you 90 billion reasons to do so

March 19, 2026 by usatoday24

Choking off Vladimir Putin’s war machine seemed like a seamless plan for Europe, but geopolitics has a bad habit of ruining the best strategies. The outbreak of the Third Gulf War has shaken the foundations of the global energy market. Now, with prices skyrocketing and a European Union desperately searching for oil, all eyes have once again fallen on an old Soviet relic: the Druzhba pipeline (which, ironically, means “friendship” in Russian). This gigantic steel tube has today become the trench of a new cold war that threatens to fracture the EU itself. Ukraine, a victim of constant bombings, refused out of principle and security to repair a section of this pipeline that continues to supply crude oil to the European countries closest to Moscow. However, as he advances Financial Timesunprecedented pressure from Brussels and the blocking of a vital loan have forced kyiv to make a 180-degree turn and give in to its European partners. What has happened? To understand the problem, we must go back to the end of January 2026. According to the Ukrainian media Suspilne Mediaa Russian airstrike severely damaged the Brody pumping station in the western Lviv region. The flow of Russian oil transiting through Ukrainian territory towards Hungary and Slovakia was cut short. The diplomatic consequences were immediate. Hungary, which has an exemption to continue buying Russian crude due to its energy dependence, accused Ukraine of delaying reparations for political reasons. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán issued a lethal ultimatum, picked up by the chain NPR: “If there is no oil, there is no money.” A threat that was fulfilled. The Hungarian president vetoed a package of macro-financial and military aid from the European Union to Ukraine valued at 90 billion euros, in addition to blocking the twentieth package of sanctions against Russia. Faced with the risk that Ukraine would run out of funds to sustain its economy and its defense, the European Commission decided to intervene. According to PoliticalCommission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa sent a letter to Zelensky offering “technical support and financing” with European funds to repair the pipeline. Cornered by financial asphyxiation, the Ukrainian president ended up giving in and accepted the offer. “I call this blackmail”. For the kyiv government, this transfer has been an extremely bitter pill. In statements to the press collected by EuronewsVolodymyr Zelensky has not hidden his frustration, stating that forcing them to reopen the tap of Russian oil is, for practical purposes, the same as lifting sanctions on Moscow. “I openly say that I am against it. But if you give me the condition that Ukraine will not receive weapons, then, excuse me, I am powerless in this matter. I told our friends in Europe that this is called blackmail,” said the president, reproaching his country for being forced to “finance anti-European policies.” But the Hungarian blockade does not respond only to energy needs; It has a strong domestic component. As pointed out Al JazeeraHungary faces very close parliamentary elections on April 12. Orbán is nine points behind his main rival, Péter Magyar, is using the supply crisis and the figure of Zelensky as an electoral scarecrow. In fact, the Finnish Prime Minister, Petteri Orpo, did not hesitate to denounce upon his arrival in Brussels that Orbán is “using Ukraine as a weapon in his electoral campaign.” Maximum tension between kyiv and Budapest. On the ground, the situation is confusing. On the Ukrainian side, Zelensky has calculated The repairs will take about a month and a half, but at the moment there are no clear indications of what that might be like. While the agency Suspilne Media reports that a small delegation of EU engineers is already in Ukraine assessing the damage (excluding Hungarian and Slovak experts), Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi, declared to The kyiv Independent have no record of any official European mission in the country. On the Hungarian side, the escalation has gone beyond the merely rhetorical to enter the realm of physical retaliation. According to Deutsche WelleIn early March, Hungarian special forces intercepted two armored vans from the Ukrainian entity Oschadbank that were transiting from Austria. In the operation, Hungary seized $80 million in cash and 9 kilos of gold on suspicion of “money laundering.” Various legal experts consulted by the German media greatly doubt the legality of this seizure, suspecting that it is a direct retaliation for the closure of the pipeline. Zelensky, for his part, has not hesitated to describe this act as plain and simple “banditry.” Drones as the “new oil.” While forced to compromise on Russian energy, Ukraine is seeking to capitalize on its own warfare technology to gain international relevance—and funds. As detailed in an analysis of the BBCZelensky has offered the United States and the Gulf countries a $50 billion joint production deal based on Ukraine’s experience making cheap interceptor drones. “For us, this is like oil,” said the Ukrainian president, trying to position his country as a vital provider of security in the midst of the Middle East conflict. In parallel, the energy war is not limited to the Druzhba pipeline. As revealed The Moscow Timesthe Russian state company Gazprom recently denounced that Ukraine launched a wave of 26 drones against compression stations in the Krasnodar region. These infrastructures are key for the TurkStream and Blue Stream gas pipelines, which are currently one of the few remaining routes for Russia to export gas to Europe through Turkey, demonstrating that kyiv continues to try to hit the Kremlin’s energy portfolio wherever it can. The final pulse in Brussels. All this tension has led to the summit of European Union leaders that starts today, March 19, 2026, in Brussels. As he emphasizes TVP Worldthe pressure on Viktor Orbán is absolute. Upon arrival at the summit, the head of European diplomacy, Kaja Kallas, went straight to the point: “It’s time to show our support for Ukraine.” In Brussels right now they are crossing their fingers. As pointed out … Read more

We have been avoiding aged cheese for years for health reasons. Massive study suggests we were wrong

February 6, 2026 by usatoday24

For decades, nutritional guides and specific diets focused on ensuring brain health, such as the famous MIND diethave had a common enemy: saturated fats of dairy origin. However, science has now given a turn of the wheel to show us that we were completely wrong. New evidence. A new and comprehensive study published in the magazine Neurology You just turned this belief upside down. After following almost 28,000 people for a quarter of a century, researchers at Lund University have found a surprising association: regular consumption of high-fat cheese and cream not only does not increase the risk of dementia, but seems to reduce it significantly. The Swedish diet. The researchers conducted a median follow-up of 25 years until 2020, cross-referencing dietary data with the Swedish National Patient Registry. The result was that during this type 3,208 were identified cases of dementiaand from here we began to see what these people ate. In this case, those who consumed 50 grams or more of high-fat cheese per day showed a reduced risk of dementia of between 13% and 19% compared to those who did not consume it. Furthermore, consumption of high-fat cream was associated with a 16% reduction in the risk of having full-blown dementia. But there is more. The most curious thing about the finding was the specificity, since similar benefits were not found in low-fat dairy products, nor in regular milk or butter. In this way, you can see that there is something specific in the nutritional matrix of cheese and fermented cream that plays in favor of our brain. Why this cheese. Emily Sonestedt, co-author of the study, She was surprised by the resultsalthough he points out that they have biological logic. While traditional diets limit cheese due to its calorie and saturated fat content, this food is rich in medium chain fatty acids, vitamin K2calcium and high quality proteins. In addition to all this, the fact that it is a fermented food can positively influence the intestinal microbiota, and we know more and more about the direct connection between the intestine and the brain. In this way, maintaining a good microbiota again indicates that it guarantees us having better brain health. You have to be cautious. Before running to the supermarket to buy all the types of cheese on the shelves, it is necessary to put on the usual handbrake in science, since we are talking about an observational study. This means that science points out that two things happen at the same time, but it does not prove 100% that one causes the other. And in this case, lifestyle may be interfering, such as the fact that people who eat cheese in Sweden have other lifestyle habits such as greater physical activity that protect them, although the researchers tried to adjust the variables. The verdict. The idea that “all saturated fat is bad for the brain” is losing steam in the face of evidence that certain complex foods, such as aged cheese or cream, have properties that go beyond their basic nutritional label. As is often the case in nutrition, the key does not seem to be eliminating food groups, but rather understanding the quality and source of what we eat. Images | Aliona Gumeniuk Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | Forgetting things is not a bug, it is a feature of your brain: how not remembering things makes us think better

has 31.5 million reasons to do it

February 4, 2026 by usatoday24

Public television has renewed David Broncano’s contract until the end of 2028 with an investment of 31,555,572 euros for two new seasons of ‘La Revuelta’, as confirmed The Confidential and The World. The RTVE Purchasing Committee approved the renewal in December 2025, eight months before the current contract expires. The figures. The new agreement increases the budget per season by 1,701,651 euros (from 14,076,135 to 15,777,786 euros per course) and sets the average cost per program at 98,611 euros, compared to 87,975 in the initial contract. The operation ensures the permanence of the presenter on La 1 during the next electoral period and guarantees its continuity even if there is a change of Government after the general elections. Each program will cost 10,646 euros more than in the current season. Early renewal. The deal was closed with unusual speed. RTVE sources explain that they have dispensed with waiting for the end of the season, which is usual in this type of negotiations, and the renewal has been processed when there are still eight months left on the contract, since the presenter has signed his current agreement until September 2026. The operation includes about 160 episodes per season, from Monday to Thursday, with a duration of between 70 and 80 minutes each. The contract establishes a guaranteed minimum of 155 deliveries per course, with the possibility of expanding through addendums if RTVE requires it. In the first season, 159 of the 160 planned were broadcast. Who is behind. The production companies El Terrat (from Mediapro Studios) and Encofrados Encofrasa (the company of Broncano, Ricardo Castella and Jorge Ponce) will continue to lead executive production. The agreement maintains the technical conditions: false live broadcast, with the option of broadcasting live due to the needs of the network and prior agreement with El Terrat. The presence of David Broncano as driver and Jorge Ponce and Ricardo Castella as directors is mandatory unless expressly agreed otherwise. Why has it been advanced? The decision to bring forward the renewal responds to a strategy that avoids risks. Sector sources point out that RTVE feared the appearance of offers from private channels, especially after the unexpected signing of Marc Giró for Atresmedia. The calendar is key: the agreement guarantees the presence of ‘La Revuelta’ on La 1 during the pre-electoral period and the first two years of the next legislature, regardless of the political color of the government. This protects RTVE, which ensures that it maintains its main asset in prime time access, and the presenter and his team, who obtain job stability in the event of a possible government replacement. The controversial beginning. Unlike the first contract (which caused a institutional earthquake which culminated in the departure of President Elena Sánchez and Content Director José Pablo López), this renewal has been processed without media noise or conflictive votes. The Government responded to that crisis with a Royal Decree that transformed the governance of RTVE: among other things, it transferred powers from the Council to the executive presidency, which began to directly control some 400 million euros per year in external hiring without the need for approval. José Manuel Martín Medem, advisor proposed by Unidas Podemos, said in The Spanish that Elena Sánchez received pressure from those around the President of the Government, including former President José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The controversy grew with accusations from conservative sectors about alleged political interference to counteract the influence of ‘El Hormiguero’ on Antena 3. economic analysis denied part of the criticism: The cost per episode of ‘La Revuelta’ (87,975 euros) was lower than that of ‘4 Estrellas’, the series that occupied the same slot, with a budget of 110,000 euros per episode. The hearings. The data on screen shows a downward trajectory for ‘La Revuelta’ since its notable start. Between September and December 2024, the program closed with an average quota of 15.7% compared to the 15.6% of ‘El Hormiguero’. In the strict time period, Broncano’s advantage was clearer: 16.3% against 15%. But in 2025 ‘La Revuelta’ experienced a progressive erosion: it started in September 2024 with 17% share average and decreased to 11.3% in May 2025. The balance of daily victories is eloquent: the Antena 3 program won 166 days of direct competition, compared to 44 victories for the La 1 space. The last time Broncano led the slot consistently was in January 2025. The RTVE program has, however, had exceptional audience peaks, such as Rosalía’s visit on November 10, 2025. For now, ‘El Hormiguero’ maintains its position as leader of access prime time for eleven consecutive years. In Xataka | The exception of ‘El Hormiguero’: no successful program in the history of Spanish TV has lasted so long

That doctors, one of the groups with the best salaries in Spain, go on strike is striking. These are your reasons

January 15, 2026 by usatoday24

2026 has started with Spanish doctors on the streets. Although the tracking data is clouded by the dance of figures usual in these cases, thousands of doctors they have seconded today the strike convened by the Professional Group for a Medical and Faculty Statute (APEMYF) to demand better working conditions. Three are its greatest workhorses: guards, salaries and hours. The question that surely more than one person is asking today is… What do doctors, one of the groups, complain about? better paid and with higher status social? To understand it you have to know their day to day life. White coat strike. The year has started with turbulence in the country’s hospitals. Although the first data from the Administration point to a follow-up more or less discreet (those who arrive from the unions show a ‘photo’ very different), one thing seems clear: today thousands of doctors have responded to the strike called by APEMYFa platform that brings together more than a dozen organizations. The protest will last today and tomorrow and is added to those in 2025. One word: statute. APEMY already clarifies on its behalf what its main claim is: the group demands that its own statute be negotiated with doctors in Spain, a “basic standard” that meets the needs of the group. In contrast to the “framework statute” for health personnel that the main unions and the Government have negotiated, doctors want their particularities to be taken into account. That they go out onto the streets right now is no coincidence. a month ago Health closed a preliminary agreement with the unions to carry out this general rule for the health branch, an ‘umbrella’ that will determine the conditions of hundreds of thousands of public employees. Why’s that? Because the collective (at least the one that supports APEMYF) insist in that it has specific “needs”, just like “other professions with singularities”. Hence, he calls for a negotiation “exclusive for the medical profession.” On the table they have put issues such as the management of guards, hours and salaries, issues that have also served as leverage for the strike today and tomorrow. In fact, everything related to the guards (its duration, remuneration and recognition) has had a key weight in the call. But they charge well, right? Although their salaries are noticeably below Compared to other European colleagues, Spanish doctors enjoy good salaries. At least if they are compared to other sectors. What a doctor earns is influenced by issues such as the region in which you work or its age, but Medical Writing remember who are generally among the highest paid professionals. In the INE’s Annual Salary Structure Survey, doctors and nurses appear in the chapter “Technicians and scientific and intellectual professionals”, to which in 2023 an “average annual earnings per worker” of almost 43,000 euros. As a reference, the average for all sectors did not reach 28,500. A wide fork. However, this information must be handled with caution. A year ago Newtral analyzed also the remuneration of doctors and concluded that the fixed annual salary of hospital doctors ranges between 19,000 euros for a first-year MIR and 72,100 for more senior doctors. There is an important nuance: this gross salary indicator does not include guards, who according to the same medium were paid at 28.6 gross euros per hour. Or more, on holidays. The payment varies in any case from one community to another. Other estimates, how are you also published by Medical Writingconcludes that the average salary of a Spanish doctor who works in public health is around 54,200 euros gross, although the range goes from 35,300 to 140,000. Why do they go out into the streets? Because (beyond these figures) doctors are exposed to a considerable load of stress and work, handicaps that are addressed in the statute negotiated by the main unions and the Government, although not in a way that satisfies the entire group. Of all the issues on the table, perhaps the most complex is the one related to medical guards. Right now doctors cover continuous 24-hour shifts, including their regular shift. From the collective they take time crying out against those marathon shifts, which affect thousands of doctors. a report of the Official College of Physicians of Toledo points out that in Spain 60% of professionals face exhausting shifts and that there are even professionals who exceed “36 hours of continuous work”, which for many carries an emotional burden. “Stop 24-hour guards”. Among other novelties, the draft of the framework statute reduces the duration of the guards to 17 hours straightbut in the group there are those who already warn that in reality the norm opens the door for nothing to change. The reason: this limit of 17 hours could be exceeded if there are “organizational or healthcare reasons” that justify it and the doctor accepts it in writing. Another sensitive point is how those ‘extra’ hours are compensated. The unions demand that an hour of on-call duty not be paid worse than an hour of their ordinary day and that they also count towards retirement, a circumstance that now it doesn’t happen. The issue is so worrying that during today’s demonstrations doctors could be seen with signs of “Stop 24-hour guards”. “Just like the rest of the workers”. In your manifestothe Association of Higher Qualified Doctors of Madrid (AYTS) demands to “recognize all of the doctor’s time worked, just as it is done with the rest of the workers.” Their request is clear: “Suppress the concept of on-call duty as a type of duty that is neither ordinary nor extraordinary, with the conditions of obligation and remuneration below the ordinary shift.” The underlying objective? That doctors stop chaining together exhausting 24-hour shifts, periods of work that do not also count as time for retirement and that even generate ‘debts’ of hours. All this while assuming a high level of responsibility for their patients, which has even led some to suggest that 24-hour shifts should be “illegal”. watch earrings. Another … Read more

Poland and Spain are the European countries that have increased their contribution to space the most. For very different reasons

December 31, 2025 by usatoday24

“Europe wants to get its act together in space matters and become independent from States, so in 2025 it has launched the ambitious 15-year plan.”Strategy 2040: Elevating Europe’s future“, ha merged its largest companies and has approved a historic budget of more than 22,000 million euros. In this new budget of the European Space Agency, there are two countries that have taken a step forward in investment: Poland and Spain. Spain and Poland take a step forward. With a contribution of 1,854 million euros, the Spanish state goes from fifth to fourth positiononly behind Germany, France and Italy. Since 2022 it has surpassed the United Kingdom, the only member state that has been reducing its contribution since 2022. Poland has gone from twelfth place to become the eighth largest contributor. Although the objective of Spain and Poland is the same, their motivations are different: while the former’s priority is to support its industrial base, for the latter security and autonomy are essential. The success of ESA’s budget request lies in the programs it houses and how each country and its priorities can influence the general space spending trends of the old continent. The jewel in the crown: EOGS-ESA. One of the great engines is Earth Observation Governmental Service (Government Earth Observation Service), a key program of the European Space Agency focused on Earth observation with satellite data, but not only for science or climate, but also for defense and security in what they call dual use, civil and military. The economic injection from Poland and Spain was significant: 325 million euros for the Spanish state and 109 million euros for the Eastern country, more than half of what it put in 2022. But both financed different components of the project that align with their interests. Each country has its reasons. Thus, Poland was allocated to shared European systems and resilience networks (services that work even if there are failures or sabotage), which fits with its concern for national security, the protection of strategic infrastructures and obviously, the context of the war in Ukraine. For its part, Spain opted for a part of the most tangible project: building satellites, more specifically the “Atlantic Constellation“, a constellation of small satellites shared with Portugal to observe the Atlantic. Missing launchers. In Europe, traditionally the launching countries have been France, Germany and Italy through Ariane and Vega, but in recent years the panorama has become more complicated. On the one hand, the success of SpaceX has overshadowed European work and on the other, the gap in launches that has existed in recent years, as a result of Ariane 6 delaysthe breaking of collaborations with Russia and the stoppage of Vega-C. So other countries with less tradition have taken a step forward, improving competitiveness. In the case of Spain, it has allocated 169 million to miuraa reusable small satellite launcher from the company PLD Space. Poland has increased its contribution to the Future Launcher Preparatory Programme, an ESA program focused on new innovative launcher technologies. From 2022 to 2025 it has gone from providing three million to 48. Bringing historic programs to life. Although they had not previously been a priority for both countries, Poland and Spain have set their sights on older programs such as ‘Celeste’ or ‘Iris2’. ‘Celeste’ is an ESA mission based on low orbit satellites that reinforces Galileo in achieving more precise and difficult to interfere navigation, with a scope of application in the development of autonomous vehicles, drones and critical infrastructures. Poland has made its debut with a contribution of 10 million and Spain has tripled its investment. ‘Iris2‘ is something like the European Starlink, made up of a network of about 300 satellites that will provide secure, fast and resilient communications to EU governments and companies. With supervision from ESA, the objective is to guarantee European digital sovereignty. Its first launch is scheduled for 2029. In this mission, Spain has emerged by contributing much more than any other member state to Element 3, which focuses on user terminals, new services and missions, with 140 million euros. More R + D + i. Likewise, both states have gained weight in FutureEOESA’s R&D program for Earth observation focused on climate change, ecosystem collapse, human health and the impact of resource consumption. Thus, Poland and Spain went from 8.5 and 20 million respectively in 2022 to 35 and 110 million in this new budget. Poland’s space exploration. Poland has risen from 12.5 million to 61 million euros in just three years, with more than half of that increase (30 million) allocated to lunar exploration. However, they have just send its first astronaut in decades: Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, on an Ignis trade mission. The pioneer was Mirosław Hermaszewski, in 1978. In Xataka | “Elon Musk can monopolize everything,” warns Arianespace, which has been launching all of Europe’s satellites for 40 years In Xataka | A space war looms over our heads and Europe is the power that invests the least in defense technology Cover | Image from freepik

why this time there are reasons for optimism

December 29, 2025 by usatoday24

Until now, the scientific narrative about Alzheimer’s It has been, for the most part, one of resistance. Current treatments, and those on the way, focus primarily on slow the progression of the disease or try prevent it before the damage is massive. Cure right now seemed impossible, but a recent study has given a small hope of cure, although with a long-term view. They have reversed the disease. The news is fantastic. Science has managed to completely reverse Alzheimer’s and recover brain function in animal models. Something that has earned the Case Western Reserve University team a publication in the prestigious journal Cell Reportssince it opens a path of hope that is as revolutionary as it is cautious. A change of focus. In a simple way, Alzheimer’s disease is caused by a neuronal alteration that literally causes accumulate protein plaques that are not destroyed. We can say that They accumulate garbage inside and that is why its function begins to be altered. That is why science I was focused on cleaning these “plaques” from the brain or slow down the appearance of more. They have now changed this to focus on repairing the energy metabolism of neurons. The key in this case is a molecule called NAD+essential for any cell in the body generate power and initiate repair mechanisms. The results. In the case of Alzheimer’s, this energy molecule is in a minimum concentration, which leaves the cells without the ability to defend themselves. In this way, scientists have used an experimental drug called P7C3-A20 to be able to solve this problem with very positive results. The first thing that was seen was that the tau protein, one of the major germs of Alzheimer’s, began to activate less. Something that generated a minor damage to neurons. But in addition to this, the mice began to recover the memory they had lost with Alzheimer’s, including the ability to learn new things. Standardization. Along with cognitive recovery and damage reversal, the mice began to normalize the biomarker in your blood p-tau217, which is used today as a way to diagnose the disease in humans. In this way, Alzheimer’s was practically cured thanks to this treatment. From mouse to human. Although it seems like spectacular news, the reality is that there are several nuances, since “cure mice“It is not “curing humans.” Many promising drugs have died along the way after great results in rodents, since we are not at all the same and there are many changes between species. However, this study adds an extra layer of optimism: the researchers identified 46 specific proteins that are altered in Alzheimer’s mice and that return to normal with the drug. Proteins that are also altered in an identical way in a diseased human brain. This suggests that the mechanism found could be extrapolated because it is something we share between species. A long road. This is where we must apply precision surgery to our hopes. And although the study speaks of a “complete reversal”, there are several factors that force us to keep our feet on the ground. The first of them is that the study is in a preclinical phaseso it has not yet been tested in humans. Something that can take years or decades to occur, and always with the risk that the failure rate in neurology is always very high. Something that is logical, since the human brain is infinitely more complex than that of a laboratory mouse. This may mean that what in an animal is a full recovery, in humans, could be only a partial improvement or have side effects that have not been seen in animals. A change of era? Despite the caution, the importance of this finding is undeniable. It challenges the idea that Alzheimer’s is a one-way street to degradation. If it is confirmed that the brain has the ability to recover once its metabolic balance is restored, the approach to 21st century medicine will radically change. In this way, we are facing a hopeful study, although we must be patient to see if it really has great results when it enters the complexity of our organism. Images | Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | The relationship between sleep and Alzheimer’s, in a “simple” action: our brain also has to clean

Dogs are getting uglier and uglier. And science has several reasons to explain why we love that.

December 8, 2025 by usatoday24

In 1989, journalist Margo Kaufman reported in the Los Angeles Times how a stranger shouted “Hey, ugly!” upon seeing his two pugs walking down the street. It was not an isolated case, in his chronicle he commented that the derogatory comments accumulated day after day. At the time, these dogs were seen as comical anomalies, far removed from the prestige enjoyed by the German Shepherd or the Labrador. Three decades later, the world has turned upside down. What used to provoke ridicule today generates fascination. The networks have been filled with hairless Chihuahuas, toothless Chinese Cresteds, bulldogs that snort like locomotives and identical Brussels Griffons still Ewok. The phenomenon is as visible as it is undeniable: we are falling in love with ugly dogs. The rise of ugly dogs. The most compelling data It is contributed by The Wall Street Journal: As of 2022, the French bulldog is the most registered breed in the United States, displacing the Labrador retriever after 31 years of absolute reign. And it is not an isolated case: pugs, Brussels griffons, Chinese crested dogs and peculiar chihuahuas accumulate searches, followers and adoptions. Although Spain does not have a record as exhaustive as the United States, the trends point in the same direction. Industry platforms place the French bulldog, Chihuahua and other small and striking breeds among the most in demand in big cities, a symptom that aesthetics ugly-cute It is also gaining ground here. As explained by Elias Weiss Friedmancreator of The Dogist account, people look for dogs that stand out, animals whose appearance attracts attention and says something about the owner. Social networks as an amplifier. The aesthetics ugly-cute (translated as cute, but ugly or funny) is a fashion promoted by influencers and celebrities, who boast on Instagram of their pugs (either pugs) either french bulldog (either frenchies), contributing to normalize—and popularize—its extreme appearance. And contests also help: in 2025, the winner of the historic World’s Ugliest Dog Contest It was Petunia, a hairless French bulldog, rescued in Oregon. The contest may sound ridiculous, but its function is to make dogs from shelters and illegal breeders visible and facilitate their adoption. Ugly sells and moves. However, this trend is not sustained by virality alone. There are deep psychological mechanisms. But why? The general health psychologist Alejandra de Pedro González explains to Xataka that the fascination with the “rarest” dogs responds to a very human instinct: taking care of the vulnerable. “We associate certain traits—lameness, hairlessness, deformities—with a need for protection. That activates our most basic prosocial instinct,” he points out. This impulse is not exclusive to our species. Scientist Konrad Lorenz defined in 1943 the baby schema: a set of childhood traits (big eyes, round face, small nose) that trigger caring behaviors. Many “ugly animals” share these exaggerated traits: bulldogs and pugs with flattened snouts, Chinese crested dogs with prominent eyes, chihuahuas with disproportionate heads. The researcher Marta Borgi, in a study published by the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychologyexplains that these traits increase the willingness to protect and reduce aggressiveness towards the individual. Beyond tenderness. According to De Pedro, unusual dogs allow you to project an almost human personality: “With a strange dog you can almost invent a personality,” he details. This fits with what picks up The Wall Street Journal: owners who describe their dogs as elves, babies, literary characters, or even tragic souls. Crooked faces, prominent eyes or disproportionate bodies become emotional canvases. In addition, these breeds require special care—fold cleaning, respiratory medication, constant checkups—which strengthens the bond. For the psychologist, this emotional investment is a form of parentification: “In an individualistic society, people look for someone to take care of. An ugly dog is the ultimate expression of unconditional love, it doesn’t even have to be cute for you to love it.” The dark side of the trend. Brachycephalic breeds—pugs, French and English bulldogs, Boston terriers—suffer from severe respiratory problems, difficulties regulating temperature, eye diseases, and infected skin folds. Veterinarians cited by The Wall Street Journal They describe these extreme cases as “medical nightmares.” Countries clike Holland and Norway have banned the breeding of some breeds for violating the animal welfare law, by perpetuating characteristics that condemn the dog to a life of pain. In fact, studies from the Royal Veterinary College show that English bulldogs are more than twice as likely to suffer from diseases compared to other breeds and have a drastically shorter life expectancy. Even so, owners and breeders resist changes: some people They think it’s “funny” the snoring or noisy breathing of pugs, without understanding that they are clinical signs of suffering. The (im)perfect beauty. Petunia, the hairless bulldog crowned in California, doesn’t know that she has been on the front page of newspapers. Nor has it fueled a global debate on aesthetics, vulnerability or animal welfare. He only wags his tail when someone approaches him. And perhaps therein lies the true explanation of this contemporary obsession. In a time that demands perfection —symmetrical faces, ordered lives, polished bodies—, ugly dogs offer us the opposite: unconditional tenderness. It doesn’t matter if they have a crooked tusk, a milky eye or a snorting snout. His way of loving does not change. Perhaps that is why we look so much for these unlikely animals: because, when we look at them, we recognize that tenderness remains a basic human need that does not understand symmetries. Image | freepik and freepik Xataka | For the first time in thousands of years, we are seeing the domestication process of a species live and direct: that of raccoons.

Google has OpenAI cornered. Altman has reasons to go into crisis mode

December 3, 2025 by usatoday24

Sam Altman has pressed the red button on OpenAI. After three years of being the startup that terrorized Google, it is now Pichai’s company that has the creator of ChatGPT on the ropes. Why is it important. OpenAI’s CEO sent an internal memo on Monday declaring “code red”: all resources are focused on improving ChatGPT. Projects like advertising in the free versionAI agents for health and purchasing or the deployment of the personal assistant Press are postponed. The company that forced Google to react is now the one that reacts. The backdrop. In 2022, Google panicked when ChatGPT changed our expectations about generative AI. Three years later, the roles have been reversed. Gemini 3, launched a few weeks ago, has surpassed OpenAI models in benchmarks key and in general it has arrived with a great reception. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, he said it bluntly a few days ago: “I’ve been using ChatGPT every day for three years. After two hours with Gemini 3, I won’t go back.” The figures. Google has gone from 450 million monthly active users on Gemini in July to 650 million in October. ChatGPT maintains leadership with more than 800 million weekly usersbut the speed at which Google is advancing is what has set off all the alarms. The difference in spending capacity is abysmal: Google brought in $102 billion in just the last quarterwith three quarters coming from advertising. OpenAI projects to reach 20 billion revenues this year, but will need 200 billion by 2030 to be profitable according to their own projections. Its infrastructure commitments add up 1.4 trillion dollars in the next eight years. The money trail. Google can afford to spend between $91 billion and $93 billion this year on AI infrastructure because it has a high-margin cash machine behind it. OpenAI, on the other hand, continues to rely on funding rounds while racking up record losses. Yes, but. OpenAI still retains advantages. Its 800 million weekly users represent a moat that can only be conquered person by person. ChatGPT is today synonymous with conversational AI in the same way that Google is with search. Changing the habits of hundreds of millions of users is much more difficult than convincing a few CEOs to switch chip suppliers. Between the lines. OpenAI’s refusal to monetize ChatGPT through advertising is increasingly inexplicable. Google dominated search precisely because it understood that an advertising model not only generates revenue: it improves the product. More users generate more feedbackmore purchasing signals allow for more personalized responses, and margins improve as scale grows. OpenAI has been avoiding this evidence for three years, but it has not stopped signing spending commitments exceeding one trillion. Unexpected twist. three years ago It was Google who declared code red in the face of the ChatGPT threat. The empire now counterattacks with an overwhelming structural advantage: control of distribution (Android, Chrome, Search, YouTube, Docs…), comfortable financial capacity and its own chips. OpenAI has users, but Google has the money, infrastructure and patience to fight a war of attrition. At stake. The question is whether OpenAI will survive as an independent company when its technological advantages evaporate and its business model continues to fail. Altman He usually says that he doesn’t like to think too much about the competition.. Those days are over. In Xataka | NVIDIA is the most valuable company in the world because it had no competition. Until Google started making chips Featured image | Google, OpenAI

A US company sees reasons to try it in 2026

November 27, 2025 by usatoday24

The nuclear industry has been looking for years for the moment of SMRs, smaller, cheaper and more versatile fission reactors. A Californian startup called Deep Fission believes it has the key to getting them off the ground: bury them. 160 free atmospheres. Most of the world’s commercial reactors run on pressurized water. To do this, the water that cools the core must remain liquid at more than 300ºC, which requires an immense pressure, around 150 to 160 atmospheres. On the surface, this translates into steel vessels of enormous thickness and cost. The Deep Fission proposal harness the brute force of gravity to eliminate that problem. Placing the reactor a mile underground, inside a well filled with water, the column of liquid itself exerts a natural hydrostatic pressure of 160 atmospheres. There is no need for a complex pressure vessel: the reactor water is kept in a liquid state without wasting energy or exotic materials. There is another advantage. The second key point is the mineral environment. Instead of building reinforced concrete domes to contain radiation in the event of an accident, Deep Fission takes advantage of the environment. The solid rock at that depth acts as a natural and inexhaustible retaining wall. Petroleum engineering. What Deep Fission proposes is to use standard fuel (low-enriched uranium), but with fracking and oil drilling techniques, extracting heat as if it were geothermal. Its Gravity reactor is a 15 MW module narrow enough to fit into a drill hole about 76 centimeters in diameter. But the economic promise is immense: a cost of 50-70 dollars per MWh and an 80% reduction in civil works, which would be completed in months. There is a but. Although Deep Fission has already announced a portfolio of potential clients in Texas and Kansas, its design has an Achilles heel. At the same time that burying the reactor protects it from tornadoes, plane crashes or terrorism, it creates a logistical nightmare for its maintenance. In a normal plant, if a valve fails or a sensor breaks, technicians can access auxiliary areas by taking precautions. Here, everything would be 1.6 km deep. To refuel or repair a breakdown, the entire module would have to be hoisted to the surface using cables, as if it were a miniature submarine. Today there is no regulatory framework for “deep well reactors” anywhere in the world. Still, Deep Fission promises to have a pilot ready by July 2026.

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