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Spain prepared thousands of young people for university by passing the PAU. Four out of ten ended up doing a vocational training degree

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Every July the same scene of thousands of teenagers leaving school is repeated. any of the exams of what was once called Selectivity and, for now, is known as the University Access Test (PAU). For decades, this ritual almost always ended at the same door: the a university. However, in recent years something has changed. The students who take this test no longer do so trusting that your future is assured after a university degree and no longer see Vocational Training as the way out for those who do not want to study. The twist that no one announced. For years, passing the PAU and not going to university was experienced almost as a failure. A waste of talent. Today that stigma has been broken. According to the report Education Panorama 2025prepared by the OECD, 39% of those who enter the economy for the first time Spanish higher education They do so through a higher degree vocational training cycle and only 47% opt for the university route. The figure more than doubles the organization’s average, where only 16% choose this route and 78% go directly to university. These percentages undoubtedly represent a change in mentality more than a statistical anecdote. The FP is no longer the “ugly duckling” of the educational system in Spain. The figures that support the change. According to the latest data collected by the Ministry of Education in the report Vocational Training Student Statistics 2024-2025there has been an increase of 23.5% in the student body in the previous five years, especially highlighting the number of students enrolled in higher grades, which receive 29.8% more students. The contrast with Europe is striking. In Spain, higher vocational training as a gateway to higher education is 33.3%, tripling the European Union average, which remains at 10%. This shift towards training oriented towards learning a profession responds to a specific request that comes from companies. Why young people choose FP and university. According to the report ‘Infoempleo Adecco 2024: Job supply and demand in Spain‘, 47% of the job offers published in Spain, asked for some vocational training degree. It is a figure that grows every year and that begins to compete face to face with the requirement of a university education. Marisa Bermejo, director of Sanitas Campus FP Madrid, declared to The Spanish that “After PAU, young people have to understand that there are several ways to get into a profession.” And he adds that vocational training “allows the development of technical skills from an early stage.” According to data From the Ministry of Education, the employability of Vocational Training is 73%, and with some sectors touching 90%, which places it as a direct access door to the labor market for young people. The sectors that use FP the most. Not all training families grow equally. Administration and Management leads the number of offers, closely followed by Health, with constant demand in laboratories and clinical areas. Commerce and Marketing is also pushing forward, driven by the rise of digital commerce. The fastest growth is carried out by Computing and Communications. It is one of the families with the highest job placement among Higher Degree graduates, where 54.7% find employment before completing two years after graduating. according to the data of the Ministry of Education. In Xataka | Europe is very clear that there are many graduates in Spain. The problem is that they are not what companies need. Image | Unsplash (ThisisEngineering)

Europe has a problem with the size of its cars: the "carspreading" threatens to devour thousands of parking lots

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New cars sold in Europe they are a little longer every yeartaller and wider. The phenomenon already has its own name, “carspreading”, and according to a new report from the environmental organizations Transport & Environment (T&E) and Clean Cities, if this trend is not stopped, it will have direct consequences both on road safety and on the parking available in our cities. We tell you the details. What is happening. The report, published by T&E and Clean Cities, has analyzed the evolution of the size of new cars sold in Europe from 2000 to today, and has projected two possible scenarios until 2040: one in which growth continues at the current rate, and another of “adequate resizing”, in which specific policies return the average size of vehicles to the levels they had in 2015. The difference between both scenarios is, according to the authors, alarming. In detail. The data show The average length of a new car increases by 1.2 centimeters each year, while its height and width grow by 0.5 centimeters each year. The height of the hood, which is precisely a key element that directly affects pedestrians and cyclists in the event of a collision, also rises at the same rate. If nothing changes, the study estimates that the average height of the hoods in the entire European vehicle fleet will reach 86.2 centimeters in 2040. All this despite the fact that, as the same report emphasizes, families are becoming smaller and cars transport fewer people on average than before. In Xataka Michael O’Leary, Ryanair: "Von der Leyen is very good at giving speeches, but he is useless in boosting competitiveness in Europe" Why it is important. As highlighted in the study, andThe size of cars has a direct impact on the chances of surviving a crash. The higher the hood of a vehicle, the greater the risk that the impact will occur on the victim’s torso or head rather than the legs. According to figures collected in the study, an increase of 10 centimeters in the height of the hood increases the risk of death for pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists by 27%, and up to 81% in the case of children. If the current trend continues, the report estimates that in 2040, 40% more child pedestrians could die on European roads than in a scenario in which cars are limited in size. The key figure. Comparing both scenarios, T&E and Clean Cities they estimate that the difference in the number of deaths of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists, motorcyclists and people with mopeds) could reach 400 additional deaths per year in 2040 in the European Union and the United Kingdom. Adding the intervening years, between 2026 and 2040 this accumulated difference would amount to 2,500 adults and 79 additional children who died, according to the report. And parking is not spared either. The other major effect of “carspreading” is the loss of street parking spaces. The study predicts that European cities will lose between 8.5% and 14% of their surface parking capacity by 2040 if the size of cars continues to grow uncontrollably. London and Berlin could lose around 100,000 places each, while Rome would lose around 95,000. In the case of Madrid, the loss could reach 41,000 places, according to the report’s calculations. In Xataka Omoda and Jaecoo already sell more cars than Citroën, Nissan or Ford in Spain. And they are very clear that their secret is not the price Between the lines. “Many automakers have followed a strategy that prioritizes larger, more profitable vehicles over smaller models,” explains Isabell Büschel, director of T&E in Spain, pointing out that “our roads are increasingly dominated by huge off-road vehicles that pose a physical danger to other users.” From the United Kingdom, the T&E director in that country, Anna Krajinska, sums it up as a “market failure.” “The result is a double harm: city councils are forced to redesign streets around larger vehicles, sacrificing parking capacity, public space and safety,” he continued. Not everyone sees the problem the same way. Edmund King, president of the British Motor Association (AA), nuanced to the BBC that, depending on the design, some large cars can be safer for both occupants and pedestrians, so he considers it “too simplistic to assume that larger cars are always more dangerous.” For his part, Mike Hawes, head of the British manufacturers’ association SMMT, argued that it is the consumers themselves who, with their purchasing preferences, end up influencing the design of vehicles. What organizations ask for. T&E and Clean Cities they claim European regulators several measures to stop this trend: A limit of 85 centimeters of bonnet height and 192 centimeters of width for new cars, applicable to approvals from 2033 and to all sales from 2036. Tax reforms that penalize the purchase of large vehicles. An update to Euro NCAP protocols to assess the visibility of young children from the driver’s seat. Changes in municipal parking rates depending on the size and weight of the vehicle. In Xataka César Franco, engineer: “We have preferred to inaugurate over conserve. Nobody applauds that a bridge is still standing” Along these lines, Carmen Duce, coordinator of the Clean Cities campaign in Spain, point to experiences such as that of Paris, which “is already considering differentiated rates for parking”, as the type of measures that, in his opinion, “must be taken urgently to guarantee a fairer redistribution of public space.” And now what. The report comes precisely at a time when the European Union maintains as its objective its “Vision Zero” strategywith which it aims to eliminate road deaths by 2050. The distance between that objective and the current trend of growth in the size of cars is, according to T&E and Clean Cities, increasingly evident. Lucien Mathieu himself, a T&E analyst, poses it as an open question that regulators and manufacturers will have to answer in the coming years: “Where do we stop?” Cover image | Aditya Rathod In Xataka |Good news, Michelin has finally … Read more

a vase filled with tens of thousands of Roman coins from 1,800 years ago

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In real life, the work of archaeologists bears little or no resemblance (rather nothing) to what they show us. the Indiana Jones movies. There are no lavish buried treasures, no chests full of coins, no secret chambers capable of spending centuries hidden. That’s the general rule, of course. Then we find cases like Senon’sin Lorraine, France, which remind us that sometimes reality surpasses science fiction. Even the one filmed by Steven Spielberg. There archaeologists have found three amphorae with 40,000 coins Romans. North of France. Senon is a small town in the Meuse department, in France, close to the borders with Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany. Today it may be a discreet town, but centuries ago it was one of the main settlements of the Mediomatrician ancient Celtic population in Gaul that had its capital in neighboring Metz, then known as Divodorus. Recently, when digging in Senonarchaeologists reached the vestiges of a little-known area with several layers that span from the Gallic period (before Julius Caesar’s conquest) to the mid-4th century AD. An underground chronicle. As explains the Institut National de Recherches Archéologiques Préventives (INRAP), the new discoveries in the area occurred (almost) by pure chance. During house expansion work, researchers excavated a 1,500 square meter (m2) plot that showed them a known but little-explored part of Senon. In general, the site preserves ancient structures excavated in the earth, such as pits, ditches or post holes that date from the 2nd century BC to the beginning of our era; and other structures that extend into the late 4th century AD As they delved into the archaeological layers, the researchers found ancient limestone quarries, buildings, remains of homes and roads, walls, ovens, patios… “The architectural characteristics, together with the material culture revealed by the small objects found at the site, indicate a relatively well-off population, possibly composed of artisans or merchants,” they confirm from INRAP. And the big surprise came. During their excavations, archaeologists located more than just ancient walls and causeways. When studying remains from the residential area dating back to Late Antiquity, they discovered three large ceramic vessels with thousands of coins dating between the last four of the 3rd century AD and the beginning of the 4th century. Two of these amphorae were located in the INRP excavation. The other appeared during the work of the Regional Archeology Service. In December, Live Science needed that in total the ‘treasure’ includes more than 40,000 coins. To be more precise, the first amphora contains 38 kg of metal, which is equivalent to about 23,000-24,000 pieces, according to calculations by Vicent Geneviève, INRAP numismatist. The second jar has a broken neck and a total of around 50 kg, so experts estimate that it contains between 18,000 and 19,000. Curiously, the third container preserves only three pieces. By analyzing all this material in detail, the Gallic archaeologists came to the conclusion that the amphorae were buried between 280 and 310 AD. In fact, some coins include the faces of the emperors. Victorino, Gloomy I and his son Gloomy IIemperors of the fleeting Gallic Empire who ruled the region with their backs to the centralized power of Rome between 260 and 274 AD Why is it important? It is not every day that amphorae from 1,800 years ago are discovered with 40,000 coins Romans. However, to be honest, in the Meuse area there have already been found about thirty of coin deposits. If the INRAP discovery is so important, it is, more than because of the number of pieces in the vessels, because of their context. Archaeologists believe that we are not looking at treasures hidden for security, but rather a kind of homemade bank. What’s more, the amphorae were not hidden with coins inside. Everything indicates that they were buried in an accessible place and then filled up. “Carefully placed”. “These deposits should be considered as a snapshot of complex monetary management, planned in the medium and long term, within a household or administration, capable of making deposits and withdrawals at regular intervals,” they explain the INRAP experts, who after analyzing the vessels and their surroundings do not see signs of a “hasty concealment.” “The containers were carefully placed in well-prepared pits, vertical thanks to leveling stones. Their location, in apparently common rooms and at a height close to the ground, indicates that they remained easily accessible to their owner,” the archaeologists insist. The great mystery. In reality, the great mystery is not why someone (one or more people) stored tens of thousands of coins in amphorae buried at ground level or what they intended to do with all that money. The real enigma is why he left them there, apparently forgotten for centuries. INRAP experts several ideas slidesuch as the fact that Senon hosted a military fortification at that time located just 150 meters from the excavated area. Was there a link between the amphorae with coins and that military base? Was the money reserved for payments? Researchers know that at the beginning of the 4th century there was a fire in the area that could have affected the coin deposits. Later the houses were rebuilt taking advantage of the charred foundations and walls, but that second occupation barely lasted 50 years. The place seemed to be definitively depopulated in the middle of the IV, after another fire. Images | Simon Ritz-Anthony Robin–INRAP Via | 3DGames In Xataka | The archaeologists who have found a Roman temple in Cuenca: “You can see an owl, which is the bird that represents Minerva”

China is diverting its largest rivers thousands of kilometers away. The price to pay is a huge environmental mystery

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Water in China has a basic geographical problem, since the south of the country floods very frequently while the north is in a drought situation. To solve it, the Asian giant has spent decades running which is probably the most ambitious hydraulic engineering project in the history of humanity, since they are literally moving nature. Making history. If there is a country capable of altering the face of the Earth to guarantee its economic and demographic survival, it is China. The premise is as simple to understand as it is pharaonic to execute, since what they are doing is transferring water from the rich Yangtze River basin in the south to the arid plains in the north, where a large part of the country’s population, agriculture and industry is concentrated, but barely 20% of its water resources. The result of this It is the ‘South-North Water Transfer Project’ that has a colossal network of canals, pipelines and pumping stations that are defying geography. The figures of a titanic work. To estimate the size of this project, it is enough to go to official sources, since, according to the latest updates from China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the infrastructure is unparalleled in the world. Specifically, to date, the system has managed to transfer more than 70,000 million cubic meters of water through its central and eastern route. From a hydrological perspective, as detailed in CEDEX technical schemes on platforms such as Hispagua, this is equivalent to moving entire rivers artificially. The beneficiaries There have been 150 million people who have seen how this water injection It has even allowed an “ecological replenishment”, recovering the water table in northern areas that had been depleted for decades. But massive intervention on the ground always has a “B side.” The rivers. As China redraws its water map, an alarming fact emerged, as official censuses revealed that tens of thousands of rivers appeared to have disappeared in the country in just a few decades. Here the specialist media have raised great global concern about this phenomenon, since it is not known if this transfer was drying out the country at an unprecedented rate. The answer. It was given to us by an article published in 2019 that pointed out that the massive “disappearance” of the channels was not due to the fact that they had evaporated overnight due to dams or climate change, but rather to a problem of cartographic methodology. That is, historically, censuses included what scientists call ‘pseudo-rivers’ and used counting criteria that were not supported. Now that they have applied a much better and more consolidated hydraulic classification, the number of these “lost” rivers has been drastically reduced. The ecological cost. The fact that rivers are not disappearing en masse from the maps does not mean that the megaproject is free, since modifying the flow of some of the most important basins on the planet entails risks that scientific literature has been monitoring for years. Already in 2009, a classic review published in Wiley by researcher Zhang Quanfa warned of the profound Yoenvironmental implications of the transfer. Here he proposes that extracting such massive volumes from the south irreparably alters the Yangtze basin, causing an alteration of the southern aquatic ecosystem, or it has even been seen that as less fresh water reaches the mouth of the Yangtze, sea water penetrates inland, threatening the local supply and agriculture of the delta. The demographic cost. Added to these environmental warnings is the institutional analysis of experts such as Mark Wang and Chen Li who point out the governance challenges and the enormous political and social friction generated. Here different critical organizations point out that the authorities have forced the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and have required multimillion-dollar investments in treatment plants to prevent contaminated water from the south from ruining the reserves in the north. Images | ダモリ In Xataka | A small river lost between Russia and North Korea is testing something much bigger: China’s patience with both.

For thousands of years, Neanderthals and Homo sapiens tried to mate insistently. History had another idea

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In 1856, while working on a limestone quarry Near Düsseldorf, two Italian workers found a basin full of bones. They thought they were the remains of a bear and brought them to a professor from a nearby city, known to be a bone collector. They had no idea what they were about to do. When he saw the bones, Johann C. Fuhlrott realized that they were not from a bear, he took the bones to the University of Bonn and, together with Hermann Schaaffhausen, they communicated the discovery to the world. Nobody took them very seriously. It was even said that he was a Russian Cossack with rickets who pursued Napoleon through Europe. Until almost a decade later, the Anglo-Irish geologist William King came to a revolutionary conclusion: that we had not always been alone. But why are we now? With the discovery of Homo neanderthalensis many unknowns were openedbut there is one that has been haunting us for almost 200 years: why did they disappear? How is it possible that a species so ancient, so robust, that had survived so many things, simply disappeared? Why had we been left alone? Throughout all these years, scientists have come up with numerous hypotheses and theories. From prehistoric genocides to a slow and agonizing eclipse. However, Ludovic Slimak, researcher at the Center for Anthropobiology and Genomics of Toulouse and one of the leading international experts on Neanderthals, have another idea. The forms of love (and what love is not). For Slimak, if we apply the knowledge of cultural anthropology to what paleogenetics is telling us, the picture is quite different. And, as in all traditional societies in which strong identities coexist, it seems that the different human communities exchanged women. From our perspective, mere expression is already savage. But from the perspective of anthropology, those “family crossing” processes were basic to ensure stable alliances between different communities. And that, if we take into account that we are loaded with Neanderthal DNA, seems to be what happened. However, as Slimak points outthis “fusion” of lineages never fully occurred. The question is why. A (genetically) impossible story. We know that Neanderthals and Sapiens interbred and they had offspring. But we also know that, although the communities tried to establish these relationships and alliances based on miscegenation, things did not work. It was thought that many of the descendants of these relationships were sterile people unable to reproduce. But, as explained Platt, Harris and Tishkoff in February 2026everything seems to indicate that it was mating preferences and sexually biased breeding that decided which Neanderthal DNA survived and which was lost. Searching. It’s curious, said Slimak in an interview for LiveSciencethat “when you’re looking for ancient DNA (from 40,000 to 45,000 years ago) all of these sapiens early have recent Neanderthal DNA, and that’s why we have (neanderthal DNA) today. But when you arrive and try to extract DNA from the last Neanderthals, contemporaries of these first sapiensLet’s say that between 40,000 and 50,000 years ago there was not a single Neanderthal with DNA sapiens“. In 2025, Slimak came to describe Neanderthal disappearance as “a kind of suicide” due to isolation and social fragmentation. Curious and very possibly one of the keys that explain why the most numerous and genetically diverse population of sapiens won the game over the Neanderthals. That is, why we are left alone. A previous version of this article was published in February 2024 Image | Suchosch In Xataka | We usually see Neanderthals as a different species, what if we are wrong?

Pamplona is being invaded by thousands of white moths. The funny thing is that this is the only harmless part of the problem

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In recent days, there is a specific type of Navarrese videos that do not stop roaming the internet: storms of white moths invading entire houses, covering terraces and “taking” rooms. We are talking about white butterflies about four centimeters long that voraciously seek any point of light. The result is chairs, tables and columns, floors, ceilings and walls completely “upholstered” by them. I said “videos”, yes; but the word I was looking for was “nightmares.” And the funny thing is that this is the only part of the process (of the boxwood moth cycle) that is not really a problem. What is happening? Nothing new is actually happening. As predicted for weeks, the boxwood moth (Cydalima perspectalis) has hatched en masse in the Pamplona region, coinciding with the first heat stroke of the summer. It is not only that, as the local press remembersthese moths have caused problems before. It is that in the 2018-19 season caused a decline in the ‘bojedales’ of Atlantic Navarra which put the entire botanical community in the north of the country on alert. In other words, the new thing is the videos: the problem comes from further away than it seems. I mean, it’s a problem, right? The curious thing is that the moth (about 4 cm wingspanwhite and with nocturnal habits) is not usually so. In its adult phase it does not eat boxwood, It is not stinging, it is not dangerous for people or pets. It is very scandalous and somewhat annoying, but little more. The real problem is caterpillars and, as far as we are talking about moths, the damage has already been done. A sentence that already lasts 20 years. The caterpillars are monophagous. That is, they only eat boxwood; But, in addition, they eat it in a big way: they gnaw the leaves until the nerves are stripped. And it shows: according to the Ministry, after two years of ‘defoliation’ 72% of boxwoods do not resprout. It has been 20 years since the plague arrived in Europe and about 12 that arrived in Spain. However, today (and only in Catalonia) there are already 180,000 hectares affected. A third of everything in Catalonia. And now what? Little now. As I say, moths are annoying, but they are not dangerous. The authorities trust that it will be achieved a natural ecological balance that keeps the boxwood alive. The problem is that the climate works against us: if the heat continues to rise we cannot rule out several generations a year. And that would compromise everything. Image | Denis Chanter In Xataka | We are on the verge of the first heat wave of the year: an anomaly of up to 15 degrees never seen since 1950

It is the result of thousands of years of trial, error and Pasteur’s germ theory

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Nowadays, a baby bottle is an everyday object, a safety standard sanitary that is made up of BPA-free plastics, tempered glass and high-quality silicone. However, behind this simplicity hides a great medical story about the origin of the baby bottle and the dark times he has gone through over the years. The origin. For a long time, the history of infant feeding was based on assumptions, but modern archaeological science has shed light on our ancestors. Here anthropological and archaeological studies have shown that non-maternal feeding practices have existed since Antiquity, evidenced by ceramic containers found in Greece, Rome and Egypt. But the most interesting discovery came from the hand from a publication in Nature in 2019, where researchers analyzed small terracotta vessels found in children’s graves from the Bronze Age and Iron Age. What they saw. Thanks to the analysis of isotopes and lipid residues adhered to the walls of the ceramic, the scientists confirmed the presence of ruminant milk in these containers. This is, to this day, the strongest direct chemical evidence for the use of containers that resembled our baby bottles in prehistoric times. A dark time. Moving forward in history, when traditional breastfeeding was not possible and wet nurses could not be used to feed the children, artificial feeding methods were used. But logically there were no baby bottles today, and that is why rudimentary alternatives such as rags and animal horns were chosen. However, pre-modern artificial feeding had a terrible cost, since between the 17th and 19th centuries, the first attempts to manufacture artificial feeding containers resulted in very high infant mortality. Because? Historical medical literature documents a direct and indisputable relationship between the use of unsafe baby bottles and the massive deaths of babies due to enteritis and diarrhea. At that time, the lack of hygiene turned these first containers into death traps full of problems. And this was a big problem, since at that time society began to see the population as authentic productivity machines. This meant that, if children died, there would not be enough workers in the future to continue growing the countries’ economies. It was about solving. To avoid this high infant mortality, at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century, “drops of milk” were established. They were charities created in France to distribute free sterilized milk to mothers who could not breastfeed their children and did not have the resources to pay wet nurses. They also arrived in Spain with the opening of the first center in San Sebastián in 1902, but they were also seen in Barcelona or Madrid to try to solve a very important problem. The new bottles. The transition to the modern baby bottle depended on materials technology, as the 19th century brought the transition to glass bottles, but a crucial element was missing to emulate breastfeeding: a durable, elastic nipple. But here industrial technology came into play, and in 1844 Charles Goodyear discovered the process of vulcanization of rubber, which shortly after allowed the adoption of rubber nipples, representing an immense functional improvement compared to the horns and rags of the past. The triumph of microbiology. Having glass bottles and rubber nipples did not stop infant mortality immediately, as the real turning point came not from design engineering, but from microbiology. In the 1860s, Louis Pasteur’s original work on germ theory changed the paradigm of medicine, and Pasteurian bacteriology radically transformed hygiene practices, prompting public health reforms and the systematic sterilization of baby bottles and milk. So, the combination of three elements such as teats, glass and advances in microbiological hygiene laid the definitive foundations for the safe and modern baby bottle that we have in our homes today. There are myths around. There are some ideas around the baby bottle that are wrong, such as that it was invented by accident, and the truth is that the literature describes us a gradual evolutionary progress towards the result we have today. And although it is true that Charles Windship registered a patent of baby bottles in the American database in 1841, historians agree that there is no consensus to attribute the invention of the “first modern baby bottle” to a single person, since there were multiple patents for baby bottles throughout the 19th century. Images | Lucy Wolski In Xataka | One baby, three parents (biological): a promising fertilization technique that, for now, we will not see in Spain

First it was a suspicious cake. Now China has discovered that thousands of restaurants on its delivery apps… do not exist

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One of the most famous stories of the internet era it happened in 2013when American journalists discovered that a supposed restaurant called “The Shed at Dulwich” became one of the best rated of London despite the fact that, for much of its existence, it did not even serve real food. The case demonstrated how a compelling digital presence can be more powerful than an authentic physical business. The cake that uncovered the cake. It all started with something seemingly trivial. A customer from Beijing ordered a birthday cake through a delivery application and received a decorated product with inedible flowers. The claim seemed like just another incident among millions of daily orders, but the subsequent investigation ended up uncovering one of the largest food fraud schemes in Chinese digital commerce. The business he had purchased from claimed to have nearly 380 stores spread across the country. Actually, I didn’t have not a single physical store. The licenses were fake and the company existed only within the applications. What started as an isolated complaint ended up opening the door to a national review that revealed a much deeper problem: “ghost kitchens,” thousands of restaurants that seemed real to consumers. They just didn’t exist.. Food delivery drivers start their workday for Kangaroo delivery service in Beijing The operation. Apparently, the BBC told this week that the so-called “ghost kitchens” were operating by taking advantage of the control gaps of the delivery platforms. These businesses advertised themselves as conventional restaurants, often using rented licenses, falsified documentation, or non-existent addresses. When a customer placed an order, the supposed restaurant I didn’t cook anything. In many cases the order was automatically transferred to intermediary platforms that organized auctions between different suppliers. The order ended up in the hands of whoever agreed to prepare it. for the lowest price possible. The consumer believed they were buying from a specific brand when, in reality, the food could come from any unknown kitchen, without knowing who made it or under what sanitary conditions. The figures of a monster. The national investigation carried out by the Chinese authorities revealed the magnitude of the phenomenon. Inspectors identified more of 67,000 ghost restaurants distributed among the main delivery applications in the country. In addition, they discovered a chain of illegal orders that only in the cake sector had been managed around of 3.6 million orders. The authorities they concluded that delivery platforms, middlemen and numerous sellers had built a parallel supply chain based on opacity and in mass subcontracting. What seemed like a set of isolated frauds turned out to be an industrialized system that operated on a large scale and moved millions of transactions. The price war behind the fraud. They remembered in Nikkei that the origin of the problem lies in the fierce competition in the home delivery sector in China. With almost 630 million users Using these services, platforms compete to attract customers through constant discounts, aggressive promotions and an ever-increasing range of establishments. In that context, the pressure to reduce costs It ended up generating a race to the bottom. An example cited by the investigations showed how a cake sold to the customer for $35 ended up being awarded to a supplier willing to manufacture it. for just 11 dollars. Between intermediaries, commissions and platforms, much of the money disappeared before reaching the chef who actually prepared the product. The consequence was a model that rewarded volume and price above quality, traceability and food safety. The platforms, in the garlic. The investigation was not limited to the sellers. The authorities they concluded that many platforms had deliberately relaxed their controls to accelerate their growth. According to regulators, companies they did not properly verify the licenses of the establishments and allowed the presence of unauthorized sellers because a broader offer helped to attract more users. Some employees they came to recognize that applying strict controls could cause merchants to migrate to rival applications. The result was a situation in which commercial incentives ended up trumping legal and health obligations. Historical fines. Beijing’s response has been one of the most forceful seen in years within the Chinese digital economy. The authorities imposed sanctions worth 3.6 billion yuanabout 500 million dollars, to large companies such as Taobao, JD.com, Meituan, Pinduoduo, Douyin and other platforms involved. Some businesses were temporarily suspended from recruiting new vendors and forced to eliminate detected ghost restaurants. Sector analysts have described the operation as one of the tougher regulatory sanctions imposed on internet companies since the entry into force of the current food legislation. The new digital surveillance. From now on, platforms must verify periodically that the licenses are valid, that the physical addresses exist and that the businesses actually correspond to the advertised establishments. Restaurants without in-person service will have to state it clearly to users. At the same time, some cities have begun to implement transparent kitchens equipped with cameras that allow you to follow the preparation of food live. They are also being deployed artificial intelligence systems capable of detecting fake photographs, supervising kitchens and analyzing possible irregularities. Even delivery drivers have been incorporated into the surveillance system through reward programs for those who report suspicious establishments. The end of uncontrolled expansion. Beyond food safety, the campaign reflects a broader shift in Chinese regulatory strategy. For years, platforms grew by prioritizing the number of users, sellers and orders. Now Beijing wants to replace this accelerated expansion with a model more controlled and predictable. The appearance of tens of thousands of non-existent restaurants showed the extent to which competition had distorted the market. What began with a simple cake purchased online ended up revealing an ecosystem where millions of consumers believed they were choosing between thousands of different restaurants when, in many cases, behind the screen there was no establishment, no dining room and, sometimes, not even a real company. Image | TurnOnTheNight, Tracy Hunter, SKWTAM8 In Xataka | Just Eat knows that we Spaniards are hooked on Delivery. This is how … Read more

Thousands of Spaniards are obsessed with Hyrox. So Amazfit has launched two smart watches for them

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Crossfit is dead long live Hyrox. The other day a colleague asked me what the hell is that, and I had a hard time answering him in a simple way. So that we understand each other, it is basically a mix of running and seasonal exercises. You do one mile, move on to a station (sled pushing, burpees, rowing, weighted lunges), you do another mile, move on to another station for a total of eight. A boom that already brings together thousands of participants in competitions. Such is the Hyrox boom that one of the most relevant smart watch manufacturers in the world, Amazfit, has released two especially oriented for sports measurements of this discipline. Let’s take a look at the new ones Amazfit Balance 3 and Balance Ultra. Technical sheet of the Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra amazfit balance 3 amazfit balance ultra DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT 47.5 × 47.5 × 12.5mm 48.6 x 48.6 x 13.3mm MATERIAL Grade five titanium for the case Stainless steel and grade five titanium versions for the case SCREEN 1.5 inches AMOLED technology Resolution 480×480 3,000 nits peak brightness Supports glove mode sapphire lens 1.5 inches AMOLED technology Resolution 480×480 3,000 nits peak brightness Supports glove mode Sapphire Lens STRAP SIZE 22mm 22mm CONNECTIVITY Dual band GPS Bluetooth 2.4GHz WiFi Dual band GPS Bluetooth 2.4GHz WiFi SENSORS BioTracker PPG biometric sensor (supports blood oxygen measurement) temperature sensor Acceleration sensorGyroscopic sensorGeomagnetic sensorbarometric altimeterAmbient light sensor BioTracker PPG biometric sensor (supports blood oxygen measurement) temperature sensor Acceleration sensorGyroscopic sensorGeomagnetic sensorbarometric altimeterAmbient light sensor ENDURANCE 10ATM 45 meters diving 10ATM 45 meters diving processor ZPS3044S ZPS3044S memory 64GB 64GB BATTERY 780mAh 780mAh COMPATIBILITY iOS and Android iOS and Android SOFTWARE Zepp OS 6 Zepp OS 6 PRICE 349 euros for the steel version 449 euros for the titanium version 599 euros, unique titanium version Born for Hyrox Amazfit Balance Ultra vs Amazfit Balance 3 The most notable thing about the new Amazfit Balance Ultra and Amazfit Balance 3 is that they are specifically designed for Hyrox. It’s not that they have just one specific way to practice this sport, it’s that they have an entire library of hybrid training plans to prepare ourselves when making one. They are able to create strategies depending on the actual length of the track we are going to compete on, and even the size of the ROX Zone (the transition area between the running track and the exercise stations). The degree of analysis during Hyrox training is more than precise: We will see the weather in each of the stations in the apptarget pace, completed pace and average pace. In addition, a monitoring system called Hybrid Chargein which not only a measurement of physical parameters is made objectively: the watch will also ask us about our subjective sensation to track our recovery even more completely. These measurements will also analyze how we have performed in our training, to tell us if we have done better in the strength or resistance stations, with the aim that we are clear about the points to improve. Two great clocks with all the letters Beyond the specialization in Hyrox that Amazfit has wanted to provide to its Balance 3 and Balance Ultra, we are faced with two watches with more than interesting specifications. The panel is both 1.5 inches, AMOLED, with sapphire coating (it is quite difficult to scratch us due to the physical properties of this material), and with a peak brightness of 3,000 nits. Don’t you know if this is a lot or a little? It is the same brightness of a iPhone 17 Pro Maxwithout going any further. The main differences are in the battery. The Ultra model has 780mAh and lasts up to 30 days of typical use according to Amazfitwhile the Balance 3 has 658mAh and up to 21 days of typical use. Although in real use with GPS the figures go down, Amazfit is well known for offering one of the most complete autonomy in sports watches. There are also slight differences in the finish: The Ultra model is finished entirely in grade five titaniumwhile the Balance 3 has grade five titanium and stainless steel versions. Of course, the steel Balance 3 is not completely metallic (just the frame), the casing is plastic. These watches have something that their competition does not usually include: a Dual band circular polarization GPS antenna. This curious name refers precisely to how many GPS satellites transmit signals (circularly), which allows the signal to reach widely and with less interference. By the way As Amazfit usually does, there are dozens of sports modes, measurement of blood oxygen, heart rate, sleep and stress (among others), all through the app Zepp Lifewhose data can be synchronized with third-party apps such as StravaAdidas Running, Apple Health or Google Health. If you have never tried an Amazfit, it is worth knowing that incorporate ZeppOS 6. It is a hybrid between a simple java system and a complete system like WearOS either WatchOS. It has its own “application store” (a small repository), countless watchfaces (both official and third-party), and it works quite correctly. Besides, It is a system that allows callswith hardware that incorporates a microphone and speakers to be able to respond from the watch, just as we would do in the most advanced systems. Versions and price of the Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra The Amazfit Balance 3 and Amazfit Balance Ultra are from the company’s most advanced watchesand they will arrive in Spain at the following prices. Amazfit Balance 3 in stainless steel case | 349 euros Amazfit Balance 3 in titanium frame | 449 euros Amazfit Balance Ultra in Titanium Case and Frame | 599 euros With the Ultra, Amazfit begins to look closely at the heaviest rivals on the market, looking for a niche in the Hyrox athlete that has not yet been covered. In Xataka | The Deportivo de la Coruña store knows how many people come in, … Read more

Alcasec managed to access hundreds of thousands of banking details in Spain: now it has accepted prison

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There are cybersecurity cases that seem distant until they force us to look inward. We are not talking about a large foreign technology company or a gap lost in some remote corner of the Internet, but rather about banking data of citizens in Spain, access linked to public infrastructure and a chain that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, ended with hundreds of thousands of records entered into a portal for sale. What we have seen with Alcasec It matters not only because of the name itself, but because of what it reveals: personal information has become a very valuable commodity. The agreement. This part of the case has been settled in the National Court with an agreement between the accused and the Prosecutor’s Office. According to EFEJosé Luis Huertas, alias Alcasec, has accepted a sentence of two years and seven months in prison for the crimes of illegal access to computer systems and discovery and disclosure of secrets. The Prosecutor’s Office initially requested three years, but applied the mitigating circumstance of confession. Along with him, Daniel BE and Juan Carlos OG, thus identified in the judicial information, have also accepted a sentence: two years and two months for the first as a cooperator and one year and three months for the second for discovery of secrets. The access. The indictment describes an entry built in layers, not a simple stroke of luck. On October 19, 2021, Alcasec contracted two massive data storage systems with Cherry Servers, a company based in Lithuania, using an email account created when he was a minor to hide his identity. Later, Daniel BE, whom the Prosecutor’s Office links to Russian forums specialized in the unauthorized sale of passwords, provided him with a stolen digital certificate issued to the General Directorate of Traffic. With that certificate, always according to the accusation, he managed to navigate the SARA network, connect to the CGPJ Judicial Neutral Point website and obtain the credentials of an official from a Bilbao court. The impersonation. The next step, always according to the Prosecutor’s Office, was to convert that first access into a way to obtain more credentials. Alcasec and Daniel BE created a page that pretended to be the access website to the Judicial Neutral Point, and the former sent a text chain to different courts that redirected to that false page. Two officials mistakenly entered their passwords, which allowed the scope of the attack to expand. The mechanics are important because they show that the intrusion did not depend only on a technical vulnerability, but also on deception of real users. The scale. With these credentials, according to the indictment, Alcasec made 438,099 requests to the Tax Agency’s “extended bank accounts” web service and shortly after carried out a second attack. The data is not minor: we are not talking about an isolated query, but rather a massive volume of queries to sensitive information through a system connected to the Administration. For the sale of data, some of relevant people, the portal was available. The reduction. The accepted sentence does not come out of nowhere, but from an agreement in accordance with the Prosecutor’s Office. As we noted above, the initial request was for three years in prison, but it was reduced to two years and seven months when the mitigating circumstance of confession for the recognized crimes was applied. The prosecutor also valued the collaboration of the accused during the investigation, particularly in providing their codes and passwords. In addition, they accepted the confiscation of the effects and the physical and virtual money seized in the searches carried out in Madrid, Cartagena and Dos Hermanas. Another investigation. There is an important nuance to not mix planes. Alcasec has been in provisional prison for a year for a different reason, related to a network of cyberattacks that seized sensitive and private data of millions of citizens and that he allegedly led. In that investigation he was arrested along with former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez, currently on trial for Operation Kitchen. The reading. What this case leaves behind is not only an accepted conviction, but a fairly clear photograph of where part of cybercrime has moved. We are no longer just talking about entering a system, but about chaining access, taking advantage of real credentials, consulting sensitive services and preparing information for sale. Images | Capture YouTube In Xataka | We have spoken with one of the leading cybersecurity companies in Spain. And his diagnosis is not encouraging

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