regions

For decades a silent boom has been taking hold in many regions of China: Christianity

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The recent history of Christianity in China is anything but simple. First for the Cultural Revolution and more recently, with Xi Jinping at the helm of the Communist Party, for repression against the unofficial churches. However, despite this troubled chronicle, experts tend to agree on something: in recent decades the Christian faith has expanded with force for the country. So much so that it already clearly dominates certain regions and there is who considers that in no time China will be “the largest Christian nation in the world.” How many Christians are there in China? The question is quite simple. Answer it, not so much. The China General Social Survey shows that between 2010 and 2018 the percentage of Chinese adults who identify as Christians (Catholic and Protestant) it was around 2%a percentage that can be found in essays about the matter. However, there is a quick search to find authors which differ significantly from that estimate, placing it at 3%, 7% or even 9% of the total population, which also includes children. In 2020 The Economist pointed that only Protestants make up 3% of the country’s population, although there are studies that suggest the real figure could be much higher if unregistered clandestine churches are taken into account. The reality is that it is not easy to have a precise figure. The reasons are multiple: the control of information by Beijing, the diversity of sources and methods in making calculations or even the “linguistic and conceptual differences between religion in East Asia and other regions”, such as warns Pew Research. How many believers are we talking about? The answer is again the same: it depends on the source. Although given the large size of China (1.4 billion inhabitants) even the most conservative calculations would leave a census of tens of millions. How many? Years ago, a Peking University study spoke of 40 millionWorld Population Review raises the estimate to 49.2 million and Visual Capitalist has even gone further, placing the figure close to 72 million. Is there more data? Yes. Other sources speak of some 20 million of adults, 60 million if the global population is taken into account, or even 100 million. Although its considerable disparitythe data lends itself to two clear readings. The first is the enormous weight of Protestants in the Chinese Christian community (some studies claim that represent 90% thanks to your great expansion). The second is that it is not necessary to resort to the most optimistic calculations to verify that China already surpasses (by far) the number of Christians in countries like Germany, France or Spain and would even be a handful of millions of believers in Italy if both Catholic and Protestant Christians are taken into account. How are they distributed throughout the country? A few years ago Reuters produced a map based on the studies of Professor Fenggang Yang, from Purdue University, which shows the dominant confession in the different regions of China. The plan reflects that Buddhism prevails in most of the southern and southwestern regions while other areas such as Xinjiang or Gansu are Muslim. Catholicism and especially Protestantism shine on the eastern flank. Even in Zhejiang areadespite the challenges that believers have encountered there. And what is the evolution? A quick Google search shows there are experts convinced that Christianity will continue to expand strongly in China and even place it among the countries in which the religion is experiencing greater growth, especially if we talk about Protestantism. In 2016 Professor Yang predicted that in 2030 the Asian giant will be “the largest Christian country in the world” despite its enormous Buddhist and Muslim population, among other confessions. “If we use an average annual growth rate of 7%, there will be more than 224 million Protestants in China by 2030,” the expert reflectedwho specifies that they would represent 16% of the population. “If we add Catholics, it would take even less time for China to become the largest Christian nation.” Does everyone have the same opinion? No, not everyone is so optimistic. In 2023 Pew Research published a study which suggests that, although Christianity expanded during the 80s and 90s (between 1982 and 1997 its faithful base went from six to 14 million), in recent years it has shown signs of “stabilizing.” As proof, they are based on official data that reflect that the percentage of Christian adults has barely changed between 2010 and 2018, without the pandemic having altered that picture. Still, Pew Research recognize that, in general, “survey-based estimates of China’s Christian population could be conservative,” as there are believers who choose not to reveal their faith “for fear of negative social or economic consequences,” especially if they belong to an unregistered church. Images | Gary Todd (Flickr) and Visual Capitalist (Pallavi Rao) In Xataka | China faces a bigger problem than the birth rate crisis: its young people are too busy to form couples

There are regions of Spain that are building more houses than homes. And not even the wrings even go down

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That Spain suffers A housing deficit It is no novelty. Just as it is not that construction is unable to advance to the rhythm of formation of new homes. ACI, the Real Estate Consulting Association, has just published however A study that reveals something curious: there are 11 provinces in which it is built faster than new homes are constituted. The striking thing is that, although a priori that ‘surplus’ suggests less pressure in the market, its prices do not soften. On the contrary, they grow, as in the rest of the country. Asturias leaves A good example. A fact: 134,649. That is the real estate deficit that Spain accumulated last year according to The last report DE ACI, the Spanish Association of Real Estate Consulting. In this way it may sound abstract or too theoretical, but the data reflects something very simple: the mismatch between the number of housing and the new homes created throughout 2024. While the former stayed at 86,609, the seconds, which grow at much higher speed, amounted to 134,649, aggravating the housing shortage that Spain suffers. What are the reasons? “This lag shows the structural difficulties facing the promoter sector in Spain, derived from both the shortage of finalist land and the increases in construction costs, normative restrictions and delays in urban processing,” concludes The report, which recalls that the 86,609 houses delivered are also below the forecast of new homes. The 2024 deficit is also added to the one registered in recent years and that ACI estimated at 349,934 Since 2020. The association is not the first to warn of the difficulties that Spain is being found to adjust the creation of housing to the formation of New homes. In May the Bank of Spain estimated the lack of housing in Between 400,000 and 450,000 units in the period 2022-2024, an elevated figure, but that moves in any case of the huge hole of 600,000 that indicated in its 2023 report. Analyzing the map in detail. The most interesting thing about ACI study It is not so much the photo at the national level as its details, the information provided by each community. The reason? Although in most cases the delivery of housing was unable to cover the creation of new homes, enlarging its residential deficit, the agency identified 11 provinces in which the result was the inverse. That is, the volume of built houses covered (and exceeded) the creation of households. That is the peculiar situation in which Asturias, Burgos, Cáceres, Ciudad Real, León, Palencia, Salamanca, Soruel, Teruel, Valladolid and Zamora were found, to which the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla are added. Although they got off the general trend of Spain and closed 2024 with ‘residential surplus’, their effect was barely felt on the national balance. Among those 13 territories there are only a plus of 5,005 homes above the houses created. Province Housing delivered New real homes Difference 4th quarter price of 2023 (€/m2) * 4th quarter price of 2024 (€/m2) * Asturias 1.820 257 1,563 1,347.2 1,473.1 Burgos 808 462 346 1,169.3 1,212.3 Cáceres 1,344 267 1,077 849.7 873.4 Ceuta 71 41 30 1,827.3 1,937.5 C. Real 722 655 67 712.5 725.5 Lion 403 62 341 889.8 914.8 Melilla 182 150 32 1,827.3 1,937.5 Palencia 373 -46 419 931.1 954.7 Salamanca 485 220 265 1,218.1 1,230.7 Soria 460 247 213 939.8 968.7 Teruel 305 267 38 819.2 891.4 Valladolid 1.116 970 146 1,309.7 1,374.6 Zamora 152 -316 468 804.4 836.4 National Total 86,609 221.258 -134,649 1,842.3 1,972.1 *The prices are extracted from the official registration of the average appraisal value of the free housing that the government publishes quarterly Why is it interesting? So it reveals to us from the market. Although there are many buyer profiles (investors, families interested in a second residence or people who want to take a property and then dedicate it to the holiday rental), which in those 11 provinces (more Ceuta and Melilla) the delivery of homes exceeds the creation of households suggests a lower pressure of the demand on supply. And that, a priori, should move to market prices. Asturias leaves an especially interesting case. According to Data published by ACIthere last year 1,820 homes were delivered and 257 new real homes were recorded. The balance remained in green numbers with a positive balance of 1,653 homes. The second example is found in Cáceres (1,077), where he accounted for 1,344 homes delivered to 267 new real homes. And what happened to prices? They grew up. Despite this lower pressure in the market and that there was no mismatch between supply and demand for new homes, the house continued to take care. And that tells us about the key weight of other factors, such as costs or demand diversification. Government data on the appraisal value of the house shows that at the end of 2023 the square meter (m2) of free housing in the Principality was at 1,347 euros. A year later it was already at 1,473. The increase was therefore 9.35%, not very different from 9.43%of Madrid and several points above the state average, of 7.05%. If we turn to idealist the photo is similar. The real estate portal estimates that in December 2023 the residential M2 for sale cost in the Principality 1,371 euros and in the same month last year it was already 1,471. In summary: an increase of 7.29%. In THE CASE OF MADRID (Province) There are differences with respect to official appraisal data. During the same period it has passed from 3,208 to 3,771, which leaves an increase much greater than that of Asturias, of around 17.5%. A rising market. The Principality data does not surprise if one takes into account that its real estate market is on the rise. The latest data from the General Council of Notaries, published recently by The voice of AsturiasThey show a 19.9% growth in housing sale operations and an year -on -year increase in the price of 7.7%, although their … Read more

82% are concentrated in just five regions

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In full Tourism expansion international and with housing turned into the Great broken down With the head of the Spaniards, the government wants to cut short of short stay rents. To achieve it A few months ago presented its system of Single window and “registration number”, A new formula with which he intends to guarantee that those who rent their houses to tourists (even rooms) or through seasonal contracts do so complying with the laws of the sector. Now, with the new system of registration already advanced, the ministry has The first data. And they give us an interesting clue about the regions of Spain (surprisingly few) that suffer the most of the holiday rental pressure. What happened? That the government is putting the new system with which it intends to order the short -term rentals. A few days ago the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda (Mivau) revealed that since January 2, it has received more than 215,400 applications from owners interested in obtaining a “rental registration number” for its properties, the tuition that since July 1 they need to announce and operate on platforms such as Booking or Airbnb. Something more than half of those requests (134,300) arrived at the Ministry last month, which explains that not all are at the same point. According to the governmentthere are 94,200 that have already been activated definitively and 102,700 that have provisional green light, so you must still receive the guarantee of the College of Registrars. Another 18,500 have run worse luck and were revoked. Sum and follow requests. Although the system has just activated an idea of ​​the amount of short stay rents operating in the country. On Monday, a week after the balance of Mivau, Idealista published Updated figures that raise the total requests to more than 260,000, which shows that the drip of requests remains at a good pace. Moreover, the platform appointment A manager of the College of Registrars who estimates that at the end of June the 30,000 daily applications were reached, a rhythm that would now be around 10.00 or 15,000. Idealist Share Another interesting fact: To date, 22,000 homemade requests have been denied that have run out of the registration number that allows them to operate on the main digital platforms. The reason? Many incurred in the same three errors: their homes lacked license, they did not have the endorsement of the community of owners or can only be dedicated to residential use. For rent or season. Before following it is important to understand that not all owners request a registration number for the same. There are those who do it to rent their houses to tourists (the majority) and those who want to opt for the market of the season leasewhich is the one who demand, for example, the storms, researchers, students, athletes … in general any person who needs a house in which to stay a few months. The first case represents 78.9% of the requests until July. The second, 21.1%. Although these are different casuistics, both are considered “short -lived rentals” that from now on operate with the single digital window and a registration number that must be visible on the platforms. The objective, Underline Minister Isabel Rodríguez, is “to end the illegal tourist floors that expel families from their neighborhoods” and to use temporary rental to mock the law. What the data reveals. The figures Published by the Rodríguez department are interesting for another reason: they give us an interesting clue about the regions of the country most pressured by the short stay rentals, especially holidays. Of all the applications activated definitively at the end of June for tourist leases, the majority (82.22%) are concentrated in five regions: Andalusia, Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Catalonia and the Valencian C.. If we talk about provisional authorizations, that half dozen regions agglutinates 69.22% of permits. “This assumes that more than three out of four requests for registration numbers for tourist rental are concentrated in these five autonomous communities,” Clarify The Ministry of Housing. That 82% do not mean that the five communities agglutinate eight out of ten tourist rentals, but eight out of ten applications processed and approved today (the final photography can still vary). Still it is revealing. Can you get off in detail? Yeah. Mivau requires that at least at the end of June it was possible to identify Hot points in each of those five communities. In the case of Andalusia, which accumulated 49,397 requests, the vast majority (27,936) of Malaga. In the Canary Islands highlight Gran Canaria and Tenerife, which brought respectively 16,7100 and 13,300 applications of the 30,000 of the archipelago. Ministry data shows a similar trend in Catalonia or the Valencian Community. The bulk of the requests part of the provinces of Costa. Barcelona processed 9,500, Tarragona 6,600 and Girona 9,500, which between the three total 92% of the total. In C. Valenciana (21,900 applications in total), 14,500 left Alicante, 2,900 of Castellón and about 4,500 of Valencia. Images | Stay Grouted (Flickr), Oberon Copeland (UNSPLASH) and Ministry of Housing In Xataka | Cities full of empty houses and neighbors incapable of finding housing: the cities of “Las Persianas descedas” arrive

More than 6,000 employees will stop working at different levels and regions

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The shadow of the layoffs plans on the Redmond offices. Microsoft has announced that it will cut 3 % of its global workforce, a decision thatas explained by a spokesman to CNBCwill affect teams of all levels, divisions and regions. With a template of approximately 228,000 employees worldwide, the cut will affect more than 6,800 people. The company has stressed that it is not about layoffs for performance. The biggest adjustment since 2023. Although Microsoft has carried out several cuts in recent months, such as 1,900 layoffs at Activision Blizzard and Xbox last Septemberand others 1,500 in divisions like Azure and Hololensthis new adjustment is emerging as the broadest since the mass dismissal of 2023, When the company eliminated 10,000 positions. On that occasion, the cuts were linked to a general restructuring and the braking in the growth of certain areas not linked to artificial intelligence. The company itself recognizes that, since the integration of Blizzard Activision, it has had to readjust equipment and priorities to avoid overlaps. Reduce management layers to gain agility. “We continue to implement the necessary organizational changes to better position the company for success in a dynamic market,” said the spokesman. One of the specific objectives is to reduce management levels and simplify the organizational structure. It is not an isolated approach: Amazon has also recently eliminated layers considered unnecessary in its hierarchy. A contrast to good financial results. The announcement comes just a few weeks after Microsoft presented better results than expected. The company announced a net profit of 25.8 billion dollars in the last fiscal quarter, with solid growth in its cloud computing division. Azure was one of the trimester engines, driven in part by the demand for AI -linked services. The results exceeded expectations and helped reinforce market confidence. Images | Sam Torres In Xataka | People are completely obsessed with the ‘GTA VI’ trailer. And you are looking for clues and theories in every detail

Piri Reis drew in 1513 the most incredibly precise map in America. So much that it included regions still not discovered

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The maps have been, They are being and will bea key piece in the history of mankind. The cartographers carry thousands of years profileing the land From our planet, a silhouette that has gone changing over the centuries and with Europe and Asia as the undisputed protagonists in cartography. However, from the 16th century, the obsession changed to the west: now we wanted to map America. 500 years before, Nordic explorers have already stepped on the American continent, reaching the coasts of what is now Canada and part of the United States and shaking your vision on a map. This Viking document perfectly reflects that ‘perfection’ of the European silhouette and the sketch, or La Mancha, which was the American continent. And, among all the incipient maps of America, the most intriguing may be that of Piri Reis. The reason is that It is very precise for its time And the author said he was based on lost maps, supposedly, drawn by Christopher Columbus. The mysterious Piri Reis map In the Era of the discoveriesExplorers such as Columbus, Magallanes or Vasco da Gama found their best ally on the maps. They helped cross the oceans, but as they did, they were capturing their vision of the ‘New World’ in maps to help in the planning of future expeditions. The map of Juan de la Costa of 1500 is considered the first that includes a representation of America. It has important accurate, but it is the only one made by a witness of the first two trips of Columbus and the terrestrial profile, unequivocally and despite errors, it is America. A few years later, in 1507, the Enigmatic map of Waldseemüllerin which the name “America” ​​was used for the first time. Again, there were errors in the profile of the Eastern coast of South America, but these two explorers were not the only ones who mapped the continent at this time. In 1513, the Ottoman Piri Reis not only mapped the same territory, but did it with a past accuracy and detailing territories that should not be there (because they had not been discovered). In this mapwe find the following: The east coast of South America to Argentine Patagonia. The Falkland Islands. Antarctica Here are several details that surprise and invite you to lift an eyebrow. Piri Reis was a admiral and cartographer who, from a young age, participated in several battles in the Mediterranean, cartographing the territory and its islands. However, in 1501, only nine years after the discovery of America, his uncle and captain Kemal Reis of the Ottoman fleet captured several Spanish ships near the Spanish coast. Questioning the crew and looting the ships, discovered that one of them had been in the New World during Columbus’s journey and had a map drawn by himself that represented the American profile. As he was not a cartographer, he took it to Piri to study it. Thus, the cartographer got to work and, having as a source That Map of Columbusother Portuguese maps and several cards, began in 1511 to design its map. He did it on gazelle skin and surprises that Piri, really, did not travel to the New World, but that he drew everything based on the sources that had gone to an expedition. As well as knowledge of Ptolemaic Mapamundis. The most controversial of the matter? To start, the Falklands. As many times throughout our history, the discovery of the islands has several boyfriends. Numerous maps after 1520 suggest that the Falklands were first sighted by Magallanes, but Portugal also wants merit and attributes it to Américo Vespucio’s trip of 1504. In the map of Waldseemüller the islands are already intuited, but it is in the Piri Reis that are represented in a much more faithful way to reality. Identified as ‘Il de Sare’, the islands have compared with the Malvinas, located east of the Magallanes Strait. The Horn of Argentina is more stretched than it should, also the Caribbean, but surprises how well represented the entire eastern area of ​​the continent is. Creatures … strange On the other hand, and the strangest thing is Antarctica. The first thing is that it is represented without ice, something impossible, since it has been covered by that white mantle. The second is that, officially, it was discovered in 1820. Apart from this, the cartographer made some descriptions of some of the areas and represented both animals and mythological creatures, something normal at the time. Chiripa and controversy For years, Piri Reis’s map was in the shadow. However, in 1929, a group of scholars had the commission of organizing the archives of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul. The idea was to turn the palace into a museum, so you had to clean the basements and classify everything found. On a wall of the Ottoman Empire section, hidden and forgotten, the director of the national museums, Halid Edhem, found the map. Due to the mentions of Fuentes such as Cristóbal Columbus as it represented unknown details for the Ottomans of the early 16th century, the map was studied almost from the first moment. It is a Turkish national pride since 1933, but there is a problem: although it has extremely well represented areas, others, such as Stretched Caribbean Islands or the Union of Argentina with Antarcticaadded to the intrigue to know how an Ottoman who did not travel to a new world that, when the map was made, was in an extremely early phase of exploration, have raised controversy over the years. The most accepted theory about the map profile. There are those who say that Argentina’s horn is an error of the maps of the time, but also that having run out of space to draw would have motivated that elongated form Theories have been generated on the existence of ancient civilizations with advanced cartography abilities -controlled and without foundation. This may be because, although Piri cited reliable sources, he also referred to the “former kings of the sea.” … Read more

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