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The oceans are smoking and the bad news is that that phrase is starting to stop being a metaphor

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Global sea surface temperature is once again approaching 2024 records, Arctic ice marks its historic winter minimum and the average temperature is 1.43 degrees above pre-industrial levels. What’s more, the Earth’s energy imbalance has reached its highest level in 65 years. And all of this without El Niño being active. So I have to correct myself: what is happening is not that the sea is smoking. That’s a huge understatement. What happens is that the oceans have gone up a notch and we are completely caught out of the game. What is happening? According to Copernicus dataIn March, the global average temperature was 13.94 degrees. That is 0.53 above the 1991-2020 average and 1.48 above the pre-industrial temperature. It’s not the warmest March on record, but it’s close. In contrast, February 2026 was one of the three coldest in the last 14 years. And it’s curious because, anyway, we are in ENSO-Neutral conditions. The 2024 record was reached with El Niño pumping heat from the Pacific; Now we are in the most absolute normality. That does have experts from half the world worried. And the sea? In the sea things are more complicated because the surface temperature is very close to lrecord ace of 2024. Furthermore, it is not a question of a specific rebound: it is the result of a sustained rise throughout the entire month of March. There are specific areas (subtropical and northeastern North Atlantic, North and South Pacific) that are already at record values; The big question is what will happen at the end of the year and, above all, at the beginning of the year when El Niño is at its highest peak of intensity. Well, but this doesn’t affect us much, right? It depends on what we mean by ‘affect’, of course. What there is no doubt is that, despite the fact that temperatures are rising around the world, the Mediterranean has become the great laboratory for all detected and undetected climate risks. After all, Mare Nostrum heats up to 20% faster than the global average. And that has clear and direct consequences for water: from the mass extinction of vertebrates to the decline of grasslands to an enormous mortality of fish. Is a sea dying little by little; a sea that drags us with it: because the heat of the Mediterranean injects more water vapor and fuels extreme precipitation phenomena. The DANA of Valencia It’s a reminder of all this.. That is, the scenario is known. What remains is to see what we do to prepare for it. Images | BenBaso | Xataka In Xataka | Something strange has happened in the stratospheric polar vortex. And it is a hint of the winter that awaits Spain

The industry does not stop raising the price of games and I have gotten hooked on this free movie guessing game

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There’s something perversely satisfying about spending weeks thinking more about Al Pacino movies because of one game than any recent AAA release. This movie guessing game has no cutscenes spectacular nor does it come with an ambitious built-in trailer. This is a free website, without invasive advertising, that makes you chain movies with an unknown rival from the other side of the world. Is called ‘Cine2Nerdle‘, and its Battle 2.0 mode is, right now, the hardest thing for me to leave in the browser. How to play. The daily puzzle puts you in front of a grid of 4×4 tiles. Each card contains a word or phrase. The objective is to rearrange them by exchanging positions until each row or column alludes to or describes a movie. There are between four and five movies hidden on each board. When you have three tiles of the same movie lined up, they light up yellow; when you complete all four, the row is resolved. And when you have four horizontally you have to reorganize in search of the fifth. All with limited movements, of course. What makes Cine2Nerdle genuinely interesting in its single-player mode is its constant cheating. A card can belong to a row because it is the place where a movie takes place, and simultaneously to a column because it is the last name of the leading actor in another. This game of polysemy also affects false paths; A proper name can have multiple owners, an initial can be a title or the name of a character. Each puzzle is more like a crossword puzzle than a logic test. Its secret: Battle Mode. The daily puzzle is already good enough, but what makes ‘Cine2Nerdle’ a diabolical invention is the Battle mode, and more specifically its second version. The basic idea is a 1vs1 duel in real time: both players start from an initial film and have 25 seconds, taking turns to chain together others that share at least one member of the artistic team: actor, director, screenwriter, director of photography. And so on until someone is left without an answer or runs out of time. What Battle 2.0 added over the previous version is a layer of strategy that transforms the game. Before, games could last about an hour if both players knew cinema well. Now each player carries a “battle kit” that includes items as a condition for immediate victory (for example, mentioning four science fiction films from the eighties or connecting films with an actor without using him as a direct connector), life savers (small helps, such as revealing facts about the films) and the possibility of banning films or actors to the rival. Thus the games are resolved in about five minutes. The good thing: before each game you prepare the kit of aids and objectives that you have gained while playing, and thus you can make up for your film-loving shortcomings. Pure RPG mechanics. The strategy. You have to use the aspects in which you are strong and have knowledge to drag the rival there. For example: are you an expert in horror films from the eighties? Mention long career directors who take the game from the present, where everyone knows titles, to decades past (e.g. John Carpenter). Take the game to your territory, and there, begin to uncover increasingly rare films, and reinforce your choices with prohibitions on using the best-known actors in the cast. The remains of ‘Wordle’. When the New York Times bought ‘Wordle’ for more than a million dollars By early 2022, the game already had millions of daily users. The formula was simple: one word per day, shareable on networks, without unnecessary additives. What followed was an avalanche of thematic derivatives: geography (Worldle), music (Heardle), mathematics (Nerdle)… Most did not survive a year. Cine2Nerdle He is one of the survivors. It was created by Nilanth Yogadasan, who had already published CineNerdle (a puzzle of film frames that were revealed little by little). The jump to “2” completely changed the mechanics and also, as its creator recognizesis a nod to the style of titles like ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’: the sequel that puts the number in the middle. The kind of winks for coffee lovers that turn a game for film nerds into an accessible and fun experience. In Xataka | The Spanish Puzzle Championship exists, real professionals participate and there are prizes of up to 1,000 euros

the day ships stop arriving from the Middle East

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There is a date marked in red on logistics calendars across the continent: tomorrow, April 10. According to the projections of the analysis firm Argus Mediaaround this day the last shipments of aviation fuel (jet fuel) that managed to cross the Strait of Hormuz before its closure will dock in European ports. From that date onwards, entry volumes will plummet. The impact is no longer a theoretical threat. According to TVP Worldthe shortage is already palpable in Italy: the airports of Bologna, Milan Linate, Treviso and Venice have issued notices warning of possible restrictions on refueling due to the limited availability of fuel from their supplier, Air BP Italia. It is the first major warning of a domino effect that threatens to paralyze the European skies. The perfect storm in the Gulf. Since the start of the Third Gulf War on February 28 more than 20% has been canceled of the world’s seaborne jet fuel supply, and no less than 42% of seaborne imports from the European Union and the United Kingdom. The recent news of a “two-week truce” announced by US President Donald Trump has been received as a mirage in the industry. According to Politicalthe ceasefire will not solve the shortage in the short term. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warned that rebuild damaged refining capacity in the Middle East will take months. Among the infrastructures hit is the Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait, responsible for providing approximately 10% of Europe’s jet fuel imports, as pointed out BBC. Furthermore, maritime logistics is unforgiving. In the most idealized scenario where Hormuz is completely reopened today, ships would take 25 days to reach Europe sailing through a Red Sea where the Houthis remain a threat, or up to six weeks if they are forced to go around the Cape of Good Hope. Prices are skyrocketing. The price of aviation fuel in Europe reached last week an all-time high of $1,838 per ton, compared to 831 dollars before the start of the war. This increase translates into an immediate logistical problem on the landing strips. Anita Mendiratta, special advisor to the Secretary-General of UN Tourism, explains to Euronews a crucial technical detail: airports cannot store aviation fuel in large quantities. The entire system is designed to rely on continuous deliveries through refineries and pipelines. Any slightest interruption breaks the chain. The consequences are already visible on the exit panels. Just two weeks ago, we reported in Xataka that more than 25,000 flights canceled over the Middle East, while European airlines such as Scandinavian SAS have canceled at least 1,000 flights in April alone. For their part, giants like Delta Air Lines plan to absorb $2 billion in extra costs during the second quarter alone due to fuel, according to Reuters. How does it affect the passenger? Analysts of Barclays, in statements collected by Politicalthey end the era of “super normal” prices and cheap tickets. Airlines will also have to make drastic decisions about their fleets: Willie Walsh, in an interview with Bloomberganticipates that companies will be forced to evaluate the accelerated retirement of high-consumption aircraft, such as the gigantic A380. United States to the rescue (at the price of gold). In this survival scenario, Europe has found a lifeline on the other side of the Atlantic, although at a very high price. According to Financial TimesAmerican fuel already accounts for half of British imports (compared to the usual 7%). However, Europe is waging a fierce bidding war with Asia over shipments that, as it warns, Argus Media in the British environment, they will barely cover half of the gap left by the Middle East. Internally, the resistance goes in other directions. While countries with their own refining such as Poland are more protected, the calculations of Argus Media collected by Euronews They estimate that, without new shipments, commercial reserves will be exhausted in three months in the United Kingdom, in four in Portugal and in seven in Spain, Italy or Germany. Faced with this fragmented map, the EU is in tow: its spokesperson, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, has acknowledged to the same medium that Brussels still lacks a “complete image” of national reserves to be able to organize a solidarity plan. The lessons of a dependent industry. Beyond the April emergency, the crisis has uncovered deep structural flaws in global aviation. According to Aviation WeekMarie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s chief economist, was astonished at the world’s complacency in living “under the domination of this monopolistic industry that is oil.” Thomsen denounced the very serious lack of investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), pointing out that capital is overwhelmingly directed to sectors such as artificial intelligence. For his part, Willie Walsh launched a direct criticism of governments: while States maintain immense strategic reserves of crude oil to cushion global crises, “it does not seem that we have any strategic reserves of jet fuel,” collects Aviation Week. The underlying fear is not just a difficult summer, but a permanent paradigm shift. According to a European executive in the energy sector to Politicalthe “worst case scenario” is that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, but under new rules: with Iran applying permanent restrictions or charging tolls that alter global energy dynamics forever. A summer on the wire The high summer season is just around the corner and the market is walking on the wire. A firm analyst Vortexa warns in the BBC that, if these interruptions persist, maintaining the current level of flights will be logistically unsustainable without drastic route cuts and massive fare increases. Starting tomorrow, when the last ships that managed to escape the blockade unload their precious fuel in the continent’s ports, European aviation will begin to fly with the reserve light on. The era of absolute vulnerability of the European sky has just taken off. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The canary in the mine of the new oil crisis are the airlines: they are already canceling flights due to lack of fuel

the fatty liver epidemic that escapes routine analysis and that science seeks to stop

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For decades we have relied on annual tests to know if our liver was healthy, since there are several values ​​that tell us if there is any damage that we are not ‘feeling’. The problem is that science advances, and the last major liver study has put on the table that the liver can become ill without symptoms for years, and the main culprit is not alcohol consumption or hepatitis viruses, but a major metabolic disorder. A silent epidemic. Right now, fatty liver disease associated with metabolic dysfunction, known as MASLDhas become one of the main threats to public health globally. And it is no wonder, since its danger lies in its invisibility, since the initial phase and progression towards liver fibrosis can be completely asymptomatic. Although it may seem silly, fibrosis must be taken seriously. In this case, fibrosis occurs when the liver suffers injuries that it cannot repair properly and, instead of generating new tissue, it ends up with different scars that alter its functioning. But it is not that the liver functions at a lower percentage than normal, but rather that this fibrosis can progress to cirrhosis or liver cancer associated with high mortality. The data. Science suggests that we are not facing an isolated problem that should be ignored, since a macro study published this year in Lacent With a total of 7,764 studied, it indicates that the prevalence of this disease is 38.9%. Something that, adjusted to the world population, leaves us with a fibrosis rate of 2.4% globally. In the context of Spain and Europe, the figures are no less alarming. During the recent congress of the Spanish Association for the Study of the Liver (AEEH) in 2026, was alerted that the prevalence of significant fibrosis in our country is around 3.6%. The most worrying thing is that these are people who live their normal lives, without pain or apparent symptoms, while the liver suffers from these scars. A lethal cocktail. Although you may think that alcohol is the only enemy of the liver, the reality is that the lifestyle we have influences it much more than we thought. In this case, type 2 obesity, hypertension and dyslipidemia are the main risk factors for this disease. The problem is that alcohol consumption in people who have obesity or diabetes causes the damage not only to add up, but multiplymaking the progression towards fibrosis, cirrhosis or even liver cancer more rapid. Medical checkups. Traditionally, liver health has been assessed by transaminase levels in a simple blood test. But the scientific literature suggests that normal blood tests should not make us breathe easy, since the vast majority of cases of fibrosis are not seen in a routine analysis. This means that a patient with severe fibrosis has perfect transaminases in some cases. What can be done. With all this data, changes must be made in the strategy and some voices point to the need to implement population screening programs directly in primary care centers. To this end, it is proposed to monitor those patients with more risk factors using two very simple tools: The index IBF-4: a simple mathematical formula that uses the patient’s age and three basic parameters from a blood test to identify the risk of fibrosis. Perform an elastography: Ultrasound techniques are here to stay because of how easy they are to do and also because they are accessible, since you can have an ultrasound machine almost in your pocket. All this means that the strategy of an ultrasound per consultation can be a very appropriate strategy. What is clear is that you cannot sit around waiting for the liver to hurt or fail, which is why, given this increase in cases, early diagnostic tools must be implemented to be able to better control a disease that can have devastating consequences. Images |julos stefamerpik In Xataka | Fatty liver advances silently, but science has found unexpected allies: coffee and green tea

First the PS5 rises in price by 100 euros and now the lack of chips forces Sony to stop selling SD and CFexpress cards in Japan

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Buying a computer, a mobile phone or a console is much more expensive today than it was a couple of years ago and the voracious appetite of data centers is to blame for this component crisis: RAM has become more expensivemore of the same for NAND storage (and therefore, of SSDs) and already threatens even to the batteries. And consumer electronics manufacturers are making moves to avoid swallowing the price rise resulting from this imbalance between supply and demand. If we talk about gaming, a couple of days ago Sony threw a bucket of cold water on those who expected its latest console to drop in price over time because it has been the opposite: The PS5 will go up 100 euros in April. But it is not Sony’s only drastic measure: in Japan have announced that stop selling storage cards. When you see your neighbor’s beard cut… NAND memory chip shortage is wreaking havoc If you have tried to buy a memory card in recent months, you will have already realized that prices have gone up a lot for that common little device that we use for photography, gaming or the Raspberry Pi (which also its price has skyrocketed due to the component crisis). Well, Sony has gone one step further and has indefinitely suspended the acceptance of orders for almost all of its line of CFexpress Type A, Type B and SD cardswhether for authorized distributors or those who buy from the Sony Store. The brief Sony Japan statement is blunt: “Due to the global shortage of semiconductors (memory) and other factors, it is expected that supply will not be meet the demand for CFexpress and SD memory cards in the near future. Therefore, we have decided to temporarily suspend the receipt of orders from our authorized dealers and customers in the Sony store from March 27, 2026. As for the resumption of accepting orders, we will study it based on the supply situation and will announce it separately on the product information page.” It is no longer just the temporary suspension, it is that there is no return date and the reality is that the medium-term future looks bleak: it does not seem that this shortage of components will be resolved in the coming months. In fact, the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran It is bringing other consequences beyond the rise in fuel prices: helium shortageessential in cooling operations in chip manufacturing It is true that this statement is restricted only to Japanbut the shortage is not exclusive to the Asian country: a quick search for SD in the Sony Store in Spain It returns just four models, one moderately affordable 64GB and then three others of 128GB, 256GB and 512GB that cost around 300 euros. One of the most affected models are the TOUGH cards used in professional photography and the entry-level SD cards. What you can buy today on the Sony website About a month ago the CEO of Phison, one of the major suppliers of controllers for SSDs and memory cards, he already warned: If the situation does not improve, this shortage may end the closure of consumer electronics companies completely in 2026. In Xataka | Not content with bursting demand and prices for RAM, AI is already targeting another victim: batteries In Xataka | The current generation of consoles was supposed to be “weak” and the games were expensive. Well: nothing has stopped the PS5 Cover | Xataka

The wine industry believed it had its new El Dorado in China. Until China asked its officials to stop drinking

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a few days ago Dynasty Fine Winesa wine company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, had to share the class of information that makes shareholders’ coffee (or wine, as the case may be) choke: their 2025 profit forecast has plummeted more than 50% with respect to 2024. The news might not have interest beyond its board if it were not for the fact that it connects with a larger trend: changes in the Chinese market that have led to the Asian giant ceasing to be the inexhaustible gold mine that the sector imagined in his day. And in part it is due to the guidelines on morality by Xi Jinping. What has happened? That the Western alcohol industry’s dream of finding a new big gold mine in China seems to be slowly receding. And this is especially noticeable in wine cellars. After years of accelerated growth, in which the Asian giant seemed increasingly interested in wines from Australia or France, demand has started to slow down. The signs are clear. has fallen per capita consumption, imports, production and there are companies such as Treasury Wine Estates, Pernord Ricard, Diageo or Dinasty Fine that have seen how it gets complicated the panorama in the country. China is no longer in the news for increasing its world import quota from 1 to 8% in record time to make headlines for the drop in demand. What does the data say? There are many indicators to pull from. Of all, perhaps the most eloquent is the one published by the Interprofessional Wine Organization of Spain (OIVE), based in turn on Chinese customs data. The organization recently revealed that in 2025 imports suffered a decline of 26.7% in volume, although the increase in the average price reduced the fall to 14.6% in terms of value. The “prick” affected exporters like France or Chile. Is it the only indicator? Not at all. Another producing country that has also suffered the ups and downs in the Chinese market is Australia. Although the wineries there received good news in March 2024when Xi Jinpuing lifted the tariffs that penalized his wine exports, the joy was short-lived. A few months ago Wine Australia published a report in which it recognizes that shipments of merchandise to other countries were reduced by 6% in volume and 8% in value in 2025, a decline that is partly explained by the fall in two markets: the United States (-12%) and especially the Chinese one, which contracted another 17%. Are only imports falling? No. Just a year ago the University of Adelaide published a study which shows that the changes in the Chinese wine market are much deeper and more complex. Per capita consumption, for example, skyrocketed during the first decade of the century, then registered fluctuations until 2016 and from that year on it suffered a decline that extends at least until 2022, the last year analyzed. The production curve is not good either. “We have seen how the (Chinese) market has completely dried up,” he complained recently in statements to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) the owner of a winery that exports wine from New South Wales, Australia. Your case is illustrative. Until 2019, 40% of its profits came from China. The collapse in sales in that market has now translated, however, into a surplus that will force him to let 30% of his grapes rot this year. Has the market changed that much? It seems so. In November 2025 the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) published an extensive report which made its premise clear from the same headline: “European wines stay on the shelves while China looks for cheaper drinks.” In the chronicle he talks about a contraction in the consumption of both premium wines and traditional spirits, while other options such as craft beer seem to be gaining ground. The information is accompanied by a graph that reflects the fall in wine imports between 2017 and 2023. If there were any doubts about whether the trend only affects European or Australian wineries, a few weeks ago The New York Times public another report in which he explains how the drop in demand affects the distilleries of Maotaiin China itself, dedicated to the production of baijiua powerful liquor. Why is demand falling? There are several factors. Influences the economic slowdown and the hangover real estate crisiswhich have in turn affected spending on alcohol, especially when we talk about expensive imported wines. There are also analysts who they point to a change in consumer habits, especially among the youngest. Recently Global Timesa Chinese newspaper linked to the communist government, published a report in which he told precisely how the new generations show less interest in drinking. In that aspect they connect with other societies that live the same phenomenon. Is it the only reason? No. There is another. And although a priori it may seem minor or secondary, it is relevant enough for WSJ I related it directly with the decline of the wine market. Which is it? The position of the Chinese Government. A few months ago the Executive headed by Xi Jinping issued a strict guideline in which it prohibits the serving of alcohol, luxury dishes or cigarettes at official meals. The objective: end excesses. “Extravagant banquets and excessive alcohol consumption were a regular part of official life in China. But such excesses, long criticized by the public, have come under increasing scrutiny. As part of a new push to ensure discipline, China has imposed a widespread ban on alcohol at official receptions,” it proclaims. a statement published in May 2025 by the Information Office, which warns: “Excessive alcohol deteriorates the image of officials.” And is it being fulfilled? Although it cites the rest of the economic and cultural factors that influence demand, WSJ points out the government guideline as one of the factors that explain the change in trend in China. He even shares a concrete example: last year during the conference of a state-owned … Read more

“The tiger cannot stop being a tiger but man lives in permanent risk of being dehumanized”

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“And here it matters to me what a tiger can or cannot stop doing?” That, I imagine, is the only reasonable question one can ask when listening to this famous phrase of Ortega y Gasset. “The tiger cannot stop being a tiger,” said the philosopher just before adding: “but man lives in permanent risk of being dehumanized.” This is the interesting thing: that for Ortega the tiger has it easy. Tiger is born, tiger lives and tiger dies. It’s not that I have a simple life, nothing in this world has simple lives. But, at least, there are no head warm-ups. Being a human, however, is something else. As explained in ‘The man and the people’human beings have a problem that no other animal has: they have to decide who they are going to be. It is a central idea of ​​Ortega’s thought: that the human being does not have nature (he does not have a fixed behavioral repertoire, nor a series of concrete capacities, nor a ‘way of being’ in the world that comes as standard), what he has is history. It is true that contemporary science (by pulverizing the qualitative distance between us and them) has questioned this idea, but on a personal level still makes sense. In many ways, the philosopher would tell us, we are a project that is being carried out over time. However, the idea has problems: on the one hand, it empowers us, it gives us tools to take control of our own lives. On the other hand, it subjects us to pressure and anxiety (that of being “the unique and non-transferable self”) that can be counterproductive. How not to dehumanize ourselves, then? “Dehumanize“It is not becoming bad, or anything like that: it is simply betraying our individuality. Whatever that means. What Ortega did give us some ideas about is how to avoid it. For him, life oscillates between two poles: self-absorption and “alteration”: between locking yourself inside yourself and letting yourself be carried away by what is happening around you. The key is not to fall into any of these poles: neither reject society, nor get confused with it. We have to orient ourselves within it to get closer to who we are in the midst of the chaos of the contemporary world. It is an invitation to stop living without autopilot on. The difficult thing, I imagine, is doing it. Image | ChatGPT In Xataka | What did Immanuel Kant mean when he argued that patience is not “a force of resistance, but rather one that hopes to make suffering satisfactory?”

There are people modifying their router so that ads stop appearing on their refrigerator

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A man had to install an ad blocker directly on his router to stop his $1,400 refrigerator from showing ads. They tell it in the Wall Street Journal and, although it sounds absurd, it is just one of the experiences of those affected by the questionable decision that Samsung made a few months ago. What has happened? Samsung Family Hub refrigerators (those with a screen built into the door) began showing ads in September last year. Samsung admitted itconfirming that it was a pilot program for some users in the United States. Six months later, the ads are still appearing, some showing Samsung consumables like water filters, but others are third-party ads and in some cases they are full screen. Samsung says that the latter appear when the browser is opened and that it cannot control them. The problem of the official solution. Samsung allows you to remove ads from its refrigerators, but be careful because there is a catch. The advertising is integrated into a widget that also displays news, weather and calendar. To remove them, you have to delete the entire widget and there are users who do not want to lose it. The unofficial solution. Brian Bosworth is one of those affected by this decision, but he refused to give up the widget because he found it very useful, so he took the long route: he logged into his router, installed ad-blocking software, and made sure his refrigerator was included in the filter. Result: You keep the widget and don’t see ads. Discomfort. There are owners who feel directly deceived by this situation. They paid $1,400 for a premium appliance and now it has been turned into an advertising panel, all without their prior consent. One of them wants to return the refrigerator and has said that he will not buy any Samsung device again, which leads one to wonder if Samsung has correctly calculated the benefit of this decision. Making things worse. Cases like this are one more example of the drift that the internet and digital services are taking. It’s what was coined as ‘enshittification’which translated would be something like shit. It is a deliberate degradation of products and services that responds to an economic objective. Advertising is one of the forms of this degradation and we have seen it flood all types of services such as Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video, Instagram and even apps to control home cameras. We didn’t expect to see it also in refrigerators, but that’s the way things are. Image | Xataka In Xataka | “I take things that are good and make them worse”: Norway has a plan to reverse the decline of the entire Internet

that tourists stop coming

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For a couple of years, almost day in and day out, Japan has been in the news for its avalanche of tourists and the problems that this massification is leaving in the country. It doesn’t just happen there. In Italy, South Korea, Nepal, Hawaii either Netherlands They are not alien to the effects of the tourismjust as Spain is not, where they have already organized several demonstrations by the pressure that vacation rentals are having on the real estate market. Not everyone encounters that problem. In Peru it is actually worrying quite the opposite: the tourists who do not arrive. “Warning signs”. We mentioned it before. Accustomed to news about countries saturated by tourism or even look for ways to repel visitors, it is surprising to read cases like that of Peru. Over there Apoturthe Association of Incoming and Domestic Tourism Operators, has just launched a message that breaks in a certain way with the speech optimistic that the Government maintains. The association recently published a study with several “warning signs”. Specifically, two. The first is that, despite the gradual recovery of visitors, Peruvian tourism still not going back to their pre-pandemic levels. The second, that foreign travelers seem less and less interested in spending their vacations in the Andean country, which is benefiting other destinations. “Loss of competitiveness”. The study de Apotur does not leave much room for interpretation. After analyzing the searches of millions of people from several countries, including Spain, its authors warn that the interest that Peru arouses as a vacation destination experienced a year-on-year decline of 14% in 2025. The result, insists the employers’ association of Peruvian tour operators, is “a loss of competitiveness” that favors other nations in the region. “The study detects a shift in demand towards regional destinations that today compete directly with Peru. When travelers discard the country, 26.1% opt for Colombia, 25.4% for Costa Rica, 20% for Ecuador and 19.8% for Mexico, markets that are capitalizing on cultural and natural tourism that was previously directed to Peruvian territory,” stand out from Apotur. In case there were any doubts, its president, Claudia Medina, insist in that it is not that international tourism is declining, but rather that it is looking towards other horizons. But… Why? Peru has an enviable landscape, cultural and heritage wealth and has one of the main tourist attractions in America, the ancient Inca citadel of Machu Picchuconsidered one of “the seven wonders of the modern world” along with other treasures such as Chichén Itzá, the Taj Mahal or the Great Wall of China. So…why is it “falling interest” of foreign tourists, as Apotur itself warns? What is the distancing due to? The key would be more in travel management than in what the country offers. “Sector studies show that there is a high interest in visiting the country. However, more than 70% of potential travelers change their decision (postpone or cancel) due to uncertainty about their trip. Factors such as blockades, lack of predictability, informality and operational limitations at the entrances to Machu Picchu directly affect confidence in the destination,” regrets the head of Apotur in statements collected by the newspaper Management. Seeking security. The key would be precisely that, the perception of “security”a value that does not refer so much to the crime rate as to the reliability that the country offers at the tourist level. When traveling, people want everything to go as planned, without surprises. And that is where Peru loses strength. “Among the reasons that most worry travelers are informality in tourist services (31.2%), citizen insecurity (30.9%) and social instability (29.1%), as well as infrastructure problems and logistical disorder in some destinations,” remember from the association. “The study warns that these elements do not affect the attractiveness of the country, but rather the perception of risk.” The example of Machu Picchu. The message from the tour operators comes after Peru’s great heritage treasure, Machu Picchu, has been involved in controversy over its management. Last year New7Wornders warned Lima that the citadel risked losing its place on the list of the “New Seven Wonders of the World” if it did not solve the problems that threatened it. Which is it? The organization specifically pointed out its saturation, the lack of sustainable management and “irregular practices” related to inputs. The Peruvian General Comptroller’s Office itself has shown its concern about the “tourist overload” that both the citadel and the Inca Road Network suffer. The Government of Peru already has made a move and made an effort to strengthen security and entry control, but what it has not managed to avoid is that the controversy spread beyond its borders. And it hasn’t been the only one. The country wants to create an airport in the region that could shoot 200% tourism. One figure: 3.4 million. That does not mean that Peru’s tourism industry is doing poorly. Recently the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism confirmed that in 2025 the country will receive 3.4 million of international tourists and its objective is that this year this mark will be far exceeded, reaching four million. When announcing the data, the central Executive also showed its intention to diversify the offer, also betting on religious, nature, adventure and meeting tourism, distributing the flow of visitors throughout the country. The problem for Apotur is that, even if the set objective is reached and four million tourists are reached in 2026, the figure would be “insufficient”. Competition earrings. “We are growing, but we are still not competing at the level that Peru can,” claims Medina before remembering that in 2019, before COVID turned the sector upside down worldwide, Peru registered around 4.4 million international tourists. It is not just that the country has not yet reconnected with the demand that the coronavirus once destroyed. The group also insists that Peru is losing ground in favor of neighboring countries that “have already exceeded their pre-pandemic levels.” In the background: the cost that this has for the country’s economy, which Apotur estimates … Read more

Shopping centers seemed condemned to agony. The reality is that they do not stop growing with million-dollar investments

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The outlook looked bad. Very badly. The competition from online commerce, the change in consumer habits, the pressure that platforms such as Netflix or Amazon Prime were beginning to exert on cinemas and (as a cherry on top) the blow that the pandemic dealt to crowded spaces led some analysts back in 2020 to announce the “apocalypse of the “retail”. The ‘shopping center’ model, so prosperous in its day, seemed exhausted. After all… Who would want to go shopping with Amazon or pay for a movie with Netflix at home? Time has shown that those predictions were wrong. Apocalypse of retail? Today it may sound strange, but there was a time (not so long ago) when could be read frequently about the “apocalypse of the retail” in the press. Not all analysts saw it clearly and there were even who warned that the formula, imported from the United States, was not transferable to a market like the Spanish one, much less dense than the American one, but the logic seemed overwhelming: with the ecommerce growing and platforms like HBO or Amazon stomping in leisure, weren’t shopping centers doomed? The answer is no. On the contrary. A magnet for large investors. In 2025, the sector already showed signs of its good health by starting the year with five purchase and sale operations or transfers underway that amounted, in total, to about 1 billion euros. That was the first proof that shopping centers still awaken investor appetite, but that attraction appears to have strengthened. elEconomista.es publishes today a chronicle in which he slips that, a priori (and at the expense of what occurs at a macroeconomic level) the sector is aiming for a year of record investments. To be more precise, the newspaper speaks of operations worth about 3 billion of euros, an estimate that comes from the Colliers company. Beyond the forecasts and predictions, the data already closed for 2025 confirm that large commercial areas are experiencing a moment that has little to do with an economic “apocalypse.” In 2025 they will monopolize 59.5% of all the investment directed at retail, which translates into 1,484 million euros out of a total of 2,494 million. Not only is this a high figure, it far exceeds the capital allocated to other popular commercial formats, such as retail parks (352 million euros), small stores (524 million) or supermarkets (135 million). Is it the only sign? No. There is more. And they confirm that investors seem increasingly willing to bet on commercial areas in search of profitability. Its investment flow has been chaining increases for several years, which has allowed it to go from 406 million which it managed in 2022 to 1,484 million in 2025. Furthermore, the map of large stores continues to expand throughout the country. a few days ago The Newspaper revealed that, if nothing goes wrong, by 2028 Spain will add 28 new commercial parks with a total gross leasable area (GLA) of around 626,079 square meters. To these are added eight planned shopping centers that will reinforce the commercial park with 308,500 m2. Going down to detail. The list includes projects as ambitious as Valdebebas Shopping (Madrid), Infinity (Valencia), Breogán Park (A Coruña), Sur Córdoba Shopping (Cordova), Promenade Lleida (Lleida) or Metropolitan (Madrid), among others. “The majority of the spaces planned for the next three years are 20,000 m2 or less, that is, small or medium-sized, so their promotion and development is easier,” explains Eduardo Ceballos, from the Spanish Association of Shopping Centers and Parks (AECC). Greater than what was invested in new facilities are the funds dedicated to renovations. A percentage: 6%. That capital flows to shopping centers is no coincidence. According to shared data by the AECC in February, the sector closed 2025 with growth in both visits and billing. Specifically, the association estimates the increase in footfall in shopping centers and parks at 2.4% and a 6% increase in sales. Translated into hard and fast figures, that means 1,995 million consumers and just over 58,500 million in sales. The increase was largely possible thanks to restaurants (+10.8%), followed by the sale of clothing and accessories (+6.9%). Pre-pandemic levels. In AECC internal code assures having registered 32 purchase and sale operations of shopping centers and parks for a total of 2,000 million euros, which places the industry at 2018 levels, prior to the pandemic. The operations carried out by Bonaire, Parque Corredor, Intu Xanadú, Espacio Mediterráneo and Ballonti stand out above all. According to calculations by the sector’s employers’ association, right now in Spain there are around 592 shopping centers totaling 16.9 million m2 of GLA, a figure that is explained by the creation in 2025 of 132,000 m2 thanks to five new projects. Why this interest? The big question. If the factors that not so long ago made analysts fear an “apocalypse of the retail“have not disappeared (on the contrary, the ecommerce keeps growing), why are new shopping centers still opening? Why in 2025 have we visited them more often and spent more money on them? Why the hell do they attract million-dollar investments? For Ceballos One of the keys is the format’s demonstrated ability to adapt to local markets. At the end of the day, large stores continue to play with the trick of combining commerce, hospitality and leisure, also adapting to each market, which explains why the centers hold out while other more rigid surfaces (in the case of hypermarkets) they are in the doldrums. In full reinvention. Another key is that commercial centers and parks have not stood idly by. Maybe the context has changed, but they they have also done itespecially in the most disputed markets, where it is not unusual to find areas that have pivoted towards a clear commitment to luxury, big brands, the outlet concept or the leisure and restaurant offering. Increasingly, shopping centers are becoming less “commercial” and more “experiential.” What they seek is to guarantee experiences, to show themselves as spaces to be lived, marking distances with … Read more

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