time

with a bridge built in record time

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Satellite images reviewed by the BBC confirm that the first direct connecting highway between Moscow and Pyongyang will be operational in the coming weeks. That is to say, there will soon be a bridge that connects Russia and North Korea by road, materializing an alliance that is reconfiguring the conflict in Ukraine. What is happening. The Khasan-Tumangang Bridge, which crosses the Tumen River on the border between Russia and North Korea, is nearing completion. The satellite images that share The middle shows the structure already united in its central section, along with new access roads, a border control post, support infrastructure and parking areas. The Russian embassy in Pyongyang confirms that the planned opening date is June 19. First time in history. Until now, the only physical link between both countries was the so-called Friendship Bridge, a Soviet-era railway crossing inaugurated in 1959, and whose use for road vehicles was limited. The new bridge is, therefore, the first road link in history between Russia and North Korea. It measures approximately one kilometer in length, has two lanes and is built on concrete pillars with metal openings. It also runs parallel to the old railway bridge. Numbers. According to share In the middle, the crossing has been designed to support up to 300 vehicles and nearly 3,000 people a day. Its total cost exceeds 9 billion rubles, according to Russian state media, which is equivalent to about $120 million. Construction has been rapid, taking about a year, a pace that analysts consider strikingly fast. “The speed of construction reflects the volume of commercial activity between both parties,” said Victor Cha, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Where does this project come from? The agreement to build the bridge was reached during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Pyongyang in June 2024, when the Russian president met with Kim Jong Un. At that same meeting, both countries signed a comprehensive strategic partnership treaty that includes a mutual defense clause: if one of the two is attacked, the other is obliged to respond. The bridge, therefore, was born under the protection of that pact and has been built in record time. More than concrete. It is inevitably necessary to analyze its geopolitical context. According to data from South Korea, Pyongyang has sent around 15,000 soldiers to fight alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, in addition to long-range missiles and weapons. Seoul also estimates that some 2,000 North Korean soldiers have died in that conflict, although neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have confirmed these figures. In return, North Korea is believed to have received food, fuel and military technology from Russia. “This is an alliance largely driven by North Korean supply of troops, weapons, ammunition and manpower for Putin’s war in Ukraine,” explained Cha about it. What exactly will it be used for? Once open, the bridge will connect the Russian settlement of Khasan with the North Korean town of Tumangang and link directly to the Russian road network, reducing the distance between Vladivostok and the border town of Rason to 320 kilometers. Of course, Russian and North Korean drivers will be prohibited from driving their vehicles into the territory of the other country. In this way, the exchange of goods would take place at the border post itself, transferring the load from one truck to another. “This bridge will offer a very useful route to transfer military material and ammunition, both to North Korea and Russia,” counted Dr. Edward Howell, an expert on Korea at the University of Oxford, spoke to the media. The other side of the coin. Russian Foreign Ministry has described the opening of the bridge as “a truly historic stage in Russian-Korean relations” whose “significance goes far beyond a purely engineering task.” Moscow presents it as a symbol of cooperation in trade, economy and humanitarian relations. But for Western analysts, the reading is very different: a logistical artery designed to sustain a military alliance that transcends the war in Ukraine. “The construction of the bridge exemplifies how North Korea’s ties with Russia aim to continue beyond any end to the conflict in Ukraine,” pointed out Howell. China. It is not just Russia that is seeking to strengthen its physical connection with North Korea. China resumed last month the first passenger train service with Pyongyang after six years of interruption. North Korea, which for decades has been one of the most isolated corners of the planet, is being progressively integrated into the infrastructure networks of its two great allies. “It is fair to say that this connection, before the war in Ukraine, was one of the most dormant links between North Korea and its two neighbors,” Cha acknowledged. It seems that that lethargy has been left behind. In Xataka | While we were looking at gasoline, the Iran crisis has skyrocketed the price of asphalt. And the roads of half the world are already suffering from it

The lungs have an incredible capacity to regenerate after quitting tobacco. But time plays against

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Smoking is not healthy at all and even less for our lungs, which are severely affected in their structure by the harmful damage of the tobacco or at the end of any substance other than oxygen. This is something that is quite well internalized, but the other reality is that when we quit tobacco we can recover some of what we lost due to its great capacity for regeneration driven by healthy cells that replace damaged ones. There is evidence. The great turning point in our understanding of this phenomenon came with a pioneering study published in Nature in 2020, where they analyzed the cells that line our bronchi among smokers, ex-smokers and people who have never touched a cigarette. Here what they found was fascinating, since they saw that in the lungs of smokers there were a large number of cells that were mutated and could be the prelude to lung cancer. However, upon quitting this bad habit, a group of non-mutated cells genetically similar to those of non-smokers began to proliferate rapidly. It’s good news. So, at this moment the healthy cells, which had remained “hidden” or protected from the smoke, begin to multiply to replace the damaged ones that end up dying to prevent them from developing cancer. Here the study pointed out that up to 40% of lung cells in ex-smokers are these new replacement cells, and most importantly, this repair process occurs even in people who have smoked a pack a day for 40 years, which is a lot. That is why this is the explanation we find for the plummeting risk of lung cancer after quitting smoking, although it is not logically eliminated. The chronology. Regeneration is not only genetic, but it is also mechanical and functional, and we see it clearly in the different events that occur when tobacco is stopped. For example, in the first 24 hours There is a normalization of carbon monoxide levels in the blood and the effect on respiratory capacity or even blood pressure is noticeable. In subsequent weeks, tissue recovery and regeneration of cilia begins, which are small “brooms” in the lungs to expel the mucus that accumulates upward, drastically reducing respiratory infections. But if we go to the first year, we see how lung capacity experiences a measurable improvement in a spirometry. You have to be cautious. Despite the good news, experts and companies like SEPAR they are prudent by pointing out that lung regeneration is partial, not total. This means that the lung is not exactly that of a newborn, and there are structural damages that are irreversible. Diseases such as emphysema or advanced fibrosis persist, since the tissue destroyed at these levels cannot regenerate. Likewise, in the case of COPD, quitting smoking significantly stops or slows down the progression of the disease, but does not cure the severe obstructive damage already established. Age influences. The regeneration capacity also decreases with age and with the years accumulated as a smoker. Healthy cells end up dominating the epithelium after years of abstinence, but there are always residual risks that do not disappear. This should make us aware of how important it is to stop smoking as soon as possible so that we can have much fewer chances of having a serious disease in our lung, such as cancer. Images | wirestock at Magnific In Xataka | Beyond tobacco: we have just discovered that diet can also affect the risk of developing lung cancer

There are people who buy plants to purify the air in their home. The reality is that you are wasting your time

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When we want to give a little life to our homes, the first thing we think about is putting in several plants with the idea that, in addition to giving it a more natural touch, they will also clean the air we breathe. And it’s no wonder, because all you have to do is take a look around the internet or through the hallways of any nursery to find us. with the promise that pothos, mother-in-law’s tongue or ribbon are “natural purifiers” that eliminate toxins. But It’s not like that. The origin of the idea. To understand why we blindly believe in the purifying power of the plants that we can have in our home, the responsibility lies with NASA and its classic studies published in the 80s. Here, in their quest to find ways to clean the air on space stations, researchers placed different plants in hermetically sealed chambers and injected volatile organic compounds that were partly removed by the plants. This was very relevant, but the extrapolation to the general population, not so much. And these investigations were carried out in an airtight chamber in a laboratory, and at the moment a home or an office is not hermetically closed, but there is the possibility of air constantly entering and leaving through windows, doors or cracks. But this detail has not resonated so much with the population. A bath of reality. This arrived in 2019, where a study from Drexel University analyzed a dozen previous studies to evaluate actual plant performance using a standard metric: the clean air delivery rate, or CADR. Here the conclusion reached is that potted plants do not improve indoor air quality in a relevant way. And the explanation is purely mechanical, since the normal ventilation of any building eliminates volatile organic compounds at a rate faster than the absorption capacity of an indoor plant. Size matters. With this premise, for the plants to match the purification achieved by the ventilation system of a standard building or the simple act of opening windows, you would need between 10 and 1,000 plants per square meter. I mean, you would have to literally turn your living room into a dense, impassable rainforest to notice the difference. Very controlled exceptions. This does not mean that all pro-plant studies lie, but rather that context is everything, since some studies point to a decrease in CO₂ levels. A notable example is a study conducted in a school in Portugal, where flower pots were introduced into classrooms and an improvement in the air was measured. However, the scientists themselves warn that these are highly specific and controlled environments and their results cannot be mathematically extrapolated to what happens in the living room of a normal apartment or in a standard office. There is no evidence. Given all this that we already know, the authorities are sharp noting that there is no evidence that a reasonable number of indoor plants remove significant amounts of pollutants in homes and offices. What do we have to do? In order to improve air quality inside the home, the important thing here is to reduce the use of chemicals and avoid smoking indoors. In addition, opening the windows every day to renew the air is the key measure, as well as the installation of air purifiers, which are almost mandatory in many cases for people who have significant allergies. Images | freepik In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

The chip crisis is leaving no stone unturned. Motherboards seemed untouchable, but their time has come

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The RAM memory crisis is no longer a RAM memory crisis. Emulating what happened at the end of 2020, we are immersed in a new component crisis that, unlike that of five years ago, has not been caused by a combination of factors but by something very specific, the AI ​​industry. It is very difficult to buy any component with a NAND chip at a fair price and it is something that It is affecting all devices. The PC was already affected, but now the four largest motherboard manufacturers predict the worst. A shipment contraction of almost 30% on motherboards. Focused away from consumption. To understand why the crisis is impacting motherboards when, a priori, they could continue to be produced at the normal price, you have to look a little further. Nvidia and AMD are fully focused on the artificial intelligence segment, pausing their consumer GPU renewal plans for 2060. For example, the RTX 50 Super series neither is nor expected for this year and already speaks of some RTX 60 that would be released by 2028. Intel, for its part, also recently confirmed that consumer processors were taking a back seat in its priorities, since They were going to focus on the Xeon for servers and data centers. It is a strategy aligned with the great objective: become the great American foundry and sneak into the conversation they dominate TSMC and, at a good distance, Samsung. Update paused. With three manufacturers of the three key components having the focus away from the user and with the three main memory manufacturers (Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix) focused on memory for AI, what had to happen is happening: not only is buying new parts for a PC very expensive, but sometimes there is no stock, and the enthusiastic user who renews a PC every generation has no reason to do so, even if he had the deepest pockets in the world. That is why they are putting these PC updates on hold, clinging to current devices that they will have to get more out of because the market, directly, is broken. motherboards. And if PCs cannot be built and the companies that build computers themselves have already reported that they are having problems due to the price of RAM and storage, the foundation of the computer stops making sense. That’s where motherboards come in as those ‘foundations’. As we read in Tom’s Hardwarethe four main ones in the market (Taiwanese, too) are shipping units well below expectations. According to the media, ASRock will ship 37% fewer boards, Asus 33% less, MSI 24% less and Gigabyte 22% less. In total, the big four in this segment will ship 28% fewer units than they moved last year, which will push prices up for components that had not yet suffered the blow. In fact, the fact that the four companies are reviewing its shipping and sales predictions for this period could cause a parallel crisis. In a hypothetical scenario (because at the rate we are going it is very difficult for the crisis to be resolved in two days), if tomorrow it is possible to buy RAM and SSD memory at their normal price and people start building PCs again, what would be missing would be motherboards, so the shortage would cause price spikes. No end in sight. But hey, I already say that it is a hypothetical scenario because everything indicates that the NAND chip crisis is not even close to being resolved in the short term. The hyperscalers have the vast majority of the team unemployed full time, but they continue to demand new platforms to continue developing AI. That is why the entire segment has turned its head to look only at a market that is guaranteeing them an unprecedented peak in income. And no, don’t think that Asus, MSI, ASRock or Gigabyte are having a hard time, since they point that manufacturers are also offsetting declining profits in the user segment with growth in data center platforms. In the end, although ‘rare’, they are computers that need motherboards. When will the storm pass? Namely. There are sources that point to 2027 to start seeing green shoots, but others go to 2030 and Nvidia, which in the end has some hand in this mess, considers that there are seven or eight years of wild investment left. Image | Sitraka, Luis Gonzalez In Xataka | There is a shortage of RAM because of AI. That will make your next console much more expensive.

the search against time to locate the “loose ends” of the hantavirus cruise

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Although how much the experts insist In which the risk for the populations is very low, the fear of the hantavirus continues to travel through each of the countries through which the passengers of the MV Hondius have circulated. Actually, it’s normal. Fear is a very human emotion, which helps us be alert in situations as new as this one. There is considerable uncertainty in this situation, especially in relation to passengers who got off the ship before the hantavirus outbreak was confirmed. However, little by little this uncertainty is fading as information about their countries of origin arrives. Saint Helena, April 24, 2026. On April 24, 13 days after the death of the first infected passenger with hantavirus, the ship made a stop on the British island of Saint Helena. He took the opportunity to lower the body and prepare it for repatriation. His wife traveled with him, who became the second victim, after traveling to South Africa. In addition to the two deceased, it is known that on the island another 28 people got off. It was not yet known that the first victim had a contagious virusso no passenger control was carried out. Then what? Since it became known that there was a hantavirus outbreak on the ship, attempts have been made to locate those 28 people and their close contacts. It is known that among them there were passengers of at least 12 different nationalities. There were mainly British and Americans, but also people from other countries such as Singapore, Canada or Germany, among others. The countries of origin or residence of each of them have also been taking charge. Thus, some have already achieved the goal of finding them and putting them in quarantine. From the United States to Singapore. In the United States there are five people in quarantinespread across Texas, California, Arizona and Georgia. In Singapore too have been quarantined and to the two passengers who got off in Santa Elena. France had no citizens among that group of passengers, but has quarantined eight citizens who were in contact with one of those people on a flight from Saint Helena to Johannesburg. In short, many of these people are already under observation, although it is true that there are others to be identified and monitored. Many of the passengers who got off in Santa Elena have already been identified. It is not very contagious. The positive part of all this is that hantavirus is not as contagious as other pathogens with pandemic potential such as the COVID-19 coronavirus. In general, contagion between people, which only occurs with Andes variant (that of the boat), requires very close contacts. It is possible that he was a super-spreader on board the cruise ship. That is, a person from whose body a virus is transmitted exceptionally well. We saw some cases with COVID-19, for example. However, it is normal that the rest of those infected are not super-spreaders. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that there were several simultaneous infections when coming into contact with mice on an excursion. It would not be a patient who is super contagious, but there could have been an initial event that caused a good part of the cases. In both scenarios, the contagion capacity would decrease over time. dead end. Another positive point about hantavirus is that has what is known as a dead end. It cannot be contagious continuously. It is known that, at most, it usually reaches three links. That is, one person infects another, that second infected person passes the disease to a third and that’s it. The chain cuts itself. For this reason, even if some of the people who got off in Santa Elena could continue to be contagious, they would not infect many people beyond their closest contacts. And what about those who are still on the boat? Spain is prepared to repatriate all passengers, with or without symptoms, or treat whoever is necessary. In that case, the transfer will be carried out with the necessary safety conditions so that there are no more infections. Therefore, from now on, the important thing is that these people undergo the necessary quarantines. Each country will decide how long they will be, but always taking into account that the incubation time in the most extreme cases can exceed 40 days. Easy to detect. The genome of this virus is very well known. For this reason, the diagnosis is simple through PCR. This test will be carried out on passengers on several occasions during the quarantine, to check their evolution. They cannot be discharged without repeating it once again. That said, although it is logical that uncertainty worries us, it is important that we keep in mind the limited pandemic potential of this virus. There is a lot of work to be done to ensure that the situation does not get worse, but there are already many people working on it. Image | CDC/Magnific | Fdesroches In Xataka | We believed that hantavirus did not jump between humans. Until someone went to a birthday party in Argentina

They dedicate four times more time to their children, but mothers are still on the brink of collapse

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Let’s imagine for a moment the classic picture of a living room in the 1950s. The father, fresh from work, barricades himself behind the newspaper or asks for silence to listen to the radio. His parenting figure is peripheral, an economic provider whose emotional absence is normalized. Let’s now jump to 2026. Today’s father kneads gluten-free pancakes on a Tuesday morning, manages the third grade WhatsApp group, reads positive discipline manuals and monitors every millimeter of his offspring’s cognitive development. If we traveled back in time, today’s fatherhood would be unrecognizable to a father from the “Silent Generation.” However, this revolution, which a priori should have created the most balanced generation in history, hides a deep structural trap. If today’s parents sin something, it is not that they are absent, but rather the opposite. And this hyperpresence – crossed by a fierce demand of class and gender – is triggering the anxiety of children and causing unprecedented exhaustion, especially in women, who continue to support the invisible scaffolding of the home. The sociological data is compelling. According to analyst Derek Thompson in your newsletterparents millennials in the United States spend approximately four times more time caring for their children than parents of the generation of the baby boom. The hours of male involvement have taken a historic leap. However, this phenomenon is deeply fragmented by socioeconomic status. The research of economists Guryan, Hurst and Kearney They already warned of an astonishing paradox: The higher the educational level and purchasing power, the more hours are invested in parenting. The famous study The Rug Rat Race (The Rat Race)created by Valerie and Garey Ramey, hits the nail on the head by explaining why. This hyper-involvement responds, to a large extent, to the anxiety to ensure the future success of minors in the face of a savage academic and labor market. It has become a status symbol; a frenetic competition where free time is sacrificed on the altar of extracurricular activities. In Spain, this desire for presence has been supported by the institutions. From Moncloa trace the evolution: we have gone from the ridiculous two days of paternity leave prior to 2007, to consolidating ourselves in 2025 as a European reference model with 19 paid and non-transferable weeks per parent (and 32 weeks for single-parent families). The father, by law and by cultural change, is at home. But what happens behind closed doors? In Spain, the dynamic is identical. Studies on time use like those of the sociologist Pablo Gracia confirm that Spanish parents with higher education dedicate significantly more time to the physical and interactive care of their children. A will to be present that has also been supported by the institutions. The Moncloa figures trace undeniable progress: we have gone from the ridiculous two days of paternity leave prior to 2007, to consolidating ourselves as a European benchmark with 19 paid and non-transferable weeks per parent (and 32 weeks for single-parent families). The father, by law and by cultural change, is at home. But what really happens behind closed doors? The mirage of the distribution Headlines celebrating the “new super dad” demand critical reading. Researcher Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play, warns in the magazine Lounge of the trap of traditional surveys: they measure execution time, but ignore cognitive effort. Today’s men “help” more, yes. But the mental load—conceiving, planning, and continually anticipating family needs—continues to fall on them. Today’s mothers feel, in Rodsky’s words, “overwhelmed and bored” by having to act as directors of a project where their partners often act as kind subordinates waiting for instructions. The x-ray of this inequality in Spain reveals an exhausting panorama: Chronic overload: 78% of Spanish mothers declare themselves overloaded, assuming 64% of domestic tasks, regardless of whether they work outside the home. according to data from Make Mothers Matter. Class gap and vulnerability: The situation becomes dramatic for single-parent families and women with precarious jobs, who lack the network and resources to outsource care. Fear of penalty: A report of TELOS evidence that, when push comes to shove, more than 90% of mothers use up their entire birth leave, compared to 85% of fathers, still inhibited by the culture of corporate presenteeism. This systemic pressure to achieve everything invariably results in burnout or parental exhaustion. The psychologist Silvia Álava It is estimated that 7 out of every 10 Spanish parents They are exhausted by the effort to achieve perfection. Worse still, clinical research on this syndrome (such as the psychometric analyzes of Suárez, Núñez et al.) warn that extreme exhaustion ends up causing serious emotional distancing. It is the final paradox: parents try so hard to be present that they end up emotionally disconnecting from their own children for pure mental survival. The bill is paid by the minors We live in the era of “helicopter parents” and “lawnmower parents”: those who, as illustrated in the magazine International School Parentthey compulsively pave the way so that children do not even stumble. And the great irony of this intensive parenting, spurred by the suffocating showcase of social media, is that it is devastating those it seeks to protect. The great irony of this intensive breeding is that it is devastating those it is intended to protect. A Norwegian review of 38 studies has detailed that between 70% and 90% of research associates excessive parental control with profound mental distress in children. Avoiding frustration deprives them of the tools to be functional adults. A Norwegian review of 38 independent studies makes it clear: Between 70% and 90% of research associates excessive parental control with profound discomfort in children. Avoiding frustration deprives them of the basic tools to be functional adults. In fact, neurology confirms that taking constantly Decisions for children stunt the development of their prefrontal cortex, the area of ​​the brain responsible for solving problems and regulating emotions. The brain literally needs to fall down to learn to get up. In Spain, the clinical alarms are ringing loudly: Psychiatric admissions: The magazine … Read more

I always thought that a Stream Deck was only for streamers. It turns out to be a gadget that saves you a lot of time every day

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It is not easy to work in front of a computer for many hours a day (whether at home or in the office). You spend the entire day browsing between documents, spreadsheets, files or writing emails and, just moving from one task to another, you already waste a lot of time. I really like the concept of ‘optimize workflow‘so that this does not happen (or happens little), but it is not easy at all. There are many ways to try to do this, although few are as visual as using a Stream Deck. Yes, that little device that many streamers have on their table and that seems to only serve to change scenes or cameras, but nothing could be further from the truth. It is a device that helps improve productivity in many waysand although there are a lot of models, my favorite is this Stream Deck Neo: right now it costs 84.99 euros. Elgato Stream Deck Neo – 8 customizable keys, 2 Touch Points, fly through your tasks and processes – Control Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Teams, Zoom, Spotify, etc. Easy setup – For Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Integrates with almost any software you use on a daily basis The idea of ​​the Stream Deck (of this specific model or any of the others that Elgato has) is the same: to have a panel that, with just the press of a button, simplifies tasks of all kinds. Let’s start with something simple: you can place buttons on a key to open the apps that you use most when working, such as an email manager, the browser or a Slack-type program. Or directly program a single button to open everything at once when you sit in front of the PC. In addition, it is a device that is very easy to install (it is basically plug and play) and configure. The software is also intuitive and allows us to customize the keys to the millimeter. Being compatible with software of all types, we can assign very specific keys to Photoshop, Excel or PowerPoint tools, for example. All, furthermore, with a very high degree of customization. I like this particular model for two things. The first of them is that it is compact and not as big as other models that Elgato has (which have more keys or even other types of buttons). The other is that it has two small touch panels that allow us to switch between the different “pages” of actions that we have configured. All of this means that we have a tool that will help us (a lot) to give a boost to our ‘workflow’. You also have other different Stream Deck models As I said above, there are different models of this gadget. In fact, this same year it released a keyboard in collaboration with Corsair that, directly, integrates a Stream Deck where the numeric keypad usually goes. Next, we leave you said keyboard and some different models of this Elgato gadget. Corsair Galleon 100 SD RGB Wired Mechanical Gaming Keyboard – Spanish QWERTY, Stream Deck Integration, Pre-Lubricated and Interchangeable MLX Pulse Key Switches, SOCD FlashTap, 8000Hz The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck Mini – Control Zoom, Teams, PowerPoint, MS Office etc., increase your productivity with perfect integration with the most used apps, easily create shortcuts, compatible with Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck +, Audio Mixer, Live and Studio Controller for Content Creation, Streaming, Gaming, with Touch Strip, Customizable LCD Dials and Keys, Works with Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Elgato Stream Deck XL – Advanced Studio Controller, 32 Macro Keys, Activates actions in apps and Software such as OBS, Twitch, Youtube and Others, Works on Mac and PC The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Elgato In Xataka | Best iPhones. Which one to buy in 2026 and recommended models based on budget, tastes and quality-price In Xataka | This is the gaming tower that I would buy. The computers with the best quality-price ratio for gaming recommended by Xataka

Netflix premieres today one of the best dystopian series of all time and breaks a sadly unusual record

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When ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ premiered on Hulu in April 2017, winning the Emmy for Best Drama when it was still a cult series. Now, a year after airing its sixth and final season, the series lands on Netflixbreaking a record that is as pleasant as it is sadly unusual: it is a series with a very specific production company (owned by Disney), but in Spain it can be accessed on practically all platforms. It’s on Netflix, yes, but also on Disney+ (where you can also see – this time, exclusively – its prequel ‘The Testaments’), Prime Video, HBO Max and Movistar Plus+. The weight of the series It is well understood by reviewing its impressive collection of awards: six seasons, 76 nominations and 15 Emmy wins, including the historic award for Best Drama in its first season, the first ever awarded to a streaming platform. streaming. That first season also won for writing, directing, leading actress (Elisabeth Moss), supporting actress (Ann Dowd) and guest actress (Alexis Bledel). For its last season it only received one nomination, but by then it had already made history. In its terrifying dystopian vision, ‘The Handmaid’s Tale tells us how in the near future, the United States government has been overthrown by a theocratic movement that founds the Republic of Gilead. In the face of a global birth crisis, the new regime enslaves the few remaining fertile women (the Handmaids) and assigns them to elite families to father children through ritualized rape. The series follows the awakening, escape and rebellion of one of these maids. Margaret Atwood, author of the original 1985 novel, stated that nothing in the novel was pure invention: everything had already happened. The repressive Taliban system, which since its return to power in 2021 has denied women access to work, education and almost any form of presence, has been repeatedly pointed out as the most direct parallel with the Republic of Gilead. But in the United States, debates about reproductive rights in different states have continued to fuel the political reading of the series. Nobody is spared. For this reason, the Handmaids’ clothing has become a symbol of feminist protest, thanks to a series that remains as shocking and terrifying today as when it premiered. In Xataka | The ambitious adaptation of a literary classic with 70 million copies sold comes to Prime Video

The EU believes it is time to knock it down

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The European Commission has sent a strong message to the Member States that still maintain regulated electricity rates: it is time to prepare for their end. In his latest report Regarding the retail market, Brussels requires countries like Spain to develop clear roadmaps with defined deadlines to transition in an orderly manner towards prices based purely on the free market. Why do you demand change? The underlying objective of the European Union is that everyone operates under the same rules in the free market. The European Commission considers that, if the Government intervenes in prices, citizens lose the incentive to be efficient with energy and competition between companies is stifled in the long term. Therefore, the official document ask for a step-by-step exit planwith specific milestones and guarantees of non-discriminatory treatment, to gradually disconnect this rate without creating chaos in the sector. Besides, how to underline The Economist, There is a strong component of financial risk prevention. Brussels wants to avoid at all costs a repeat of the cascading bankruptcies experienced during the energy crisis of 2021 and 2022. To achieve this, the European recommendation involves strengthening financial supervision, forcing marketers to undergo “stress tests” and present periodic reports on their hedging strategies against the volatility of wholesale prices. The weight of the intervened tariff in Spanish homes. The European mandate collides with the reality of our country. In Spain, 29% of households continue to benefit from this intervened rate, the Voluntary Price for Small Consumers (PVPC). According to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC)the magnitude is even greater since 33.5% of those surveyed claim to have hired it. Although Brussels admits that regulating prices may be justified temporarily to protect consumers during a transition, it strongly warns that these interventions should not become a permanent element of the system. The Government stops the measure dead. Despite the European guidelines, the Spanish Government has no intention of stepping on the accelerator. According to statements to the press collected by the agency Europa Pressthe third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, has been emphatic: “At this time there is no plan to eliminate the PVPC.” Aagesen defends that “current market conditions are not appropriate” to eliminate this rate and advocates maintaining it for both vulnerable consumers and any citizen who wishes to benefit from it. As the minister explainsSpain’s argument against Brussels is that the Spanish PVPC is not a fixed price, but is indexed hour by hour to the wholesale market and linked to the futures markets, providing it with greater stability and complying with previous requests from Europe. For now, the Executive has left the ball in the court of the CNMC, which has commissioned a study to evaluate whether this model could be dispensed with in the future. The relief of the social bonus. The debate on the suppression of the PVPC has raised alarm bells among the most fragile households. Having contracted the regulated tariff is an essential requirement to receive the social electricity bonus, an aid that reaches more than 1.7 million beneficiaries, according to data from Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO). However, users can rest assured: the European Commission’s own report expressly cites the Spanish social bonus as a valid and justified measure to protect vulnerable consumers within a structural strategy against energy poverty. The clash of two visions. We are faced with an obvious clash of rhythms and concepts. On the one hand, the orthodoxy of Brussels, which conceives the PVPC as a temporary anomaly on its path towards a fully liberalized European market. On the other hand, the pragmatism of the Spanish Government, which still perceives this regulated tariff as an essential shield for citizens against energy volatility. Although the beginning of the end of the regulated rate is already part of the European demands, Spain has decided, for now, to maintain it with assisted breathing. Image | Magnificent 1 and 2 Xataka | Europe and Japan step on the accelerator of nuclear fusion and place the ball in the court of a strategic country: Spain

It’s time you had a button that allows you to filter AI-generated music

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Music created by AI is generating millions of dollars on platforms like Spotify, making royalties from real artists decrease. The platforms More than 75 million songs have already been uploaded of this type in the last year, and rivals such as Apple Music acknowledge that more than a third of the songs currently uploaded They are generated by AI. You can’t put doors on the field, but putting your hand in the matter seems inevitable. The new step. Spotify is starting to add verification badges for real artists, a badge that guarantees that the artist profile has been reviewed and is an “authentic” musician. The platform explains that those profiles that generate music using AI cannot be verified. The platform takes into account recent concerts, social networks, fan activity and profile behavior to determine whether or not it is real, a fairly fallible method. The world upside down. Spotify has decided to take the opposite path to rivals like Deezer. Their solution to stopping songs created with AI is to verify real artists, while Deezer is betting on a much more aggressive solution AI Music Detection Tool from Suno AI and Udio Removal of AI songs from recommendations Labeling of all songs created with AI According to Deezer, 44% of the total daily music delivery on the platform corresponds to songs created with AIstating that 97% of users are not able to detect between AI-generated music and human-generated music in a blind test. The underlying problem. Spotify’s approach reverses the burden of proof: instead of detecting fake content, it tries to certify authentic content. An independent artist without many numbers, without recent concerts or intensive activity on social networks has a hard time achieving verification, even if his music is completely human. The badge does not measure authenticity, it measures the relevance of the artist, and Spotify is also home to emerging artists. Furthermore, the criteria that Spotify explains are metrics that can be easily modified in AI times, precisely. The system has holes from day one. The damage to artists. The structural problem is not that there are users generating songs with AI, but rather the proportional distribution model that these platforms use. Each artist charges based on their number of plays over the total: the more AI songs accumulate listens, the more diluted what a real musician can earn. Cases like that of ‘Walk My Walk’or how a song generated by AI became the most listened to in the United States, make it clear that the phenomenon is here to stay, and raises the debate of whether AI itself should learn from what it knows: It is the artists who have taught her to compose. In Xataka | You make music with AI, one day you go to download your songs and you discover that you can’t anymore. That’s what just happened with Udio

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