warns

The AEMET warns of extreme temperatures in the midst of the fire crisis

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This summer we are going to have few respites as far as temperatures are concerned, and after the ‘rest’ we experienced this weekend, we already have the fourth heat wave of this summer upon us. And it is that, after propping it up in the last few hours On the part of the meteorological models, the AEMET has finally activated a special warning indicating that we will have a considerable increase in temperatures at least until Sunday. When does it start? The special notice issued by the AEMET marks Wednesday, July 29 as the official starting point for this new episode. Although the anticyclonic situation has already begun to raise thermometers, it will be on Wednesday when temperatures take an extraordinary leap, especially in the eastern third of the Peninsula. It will not be something specific, but the official forecast indicates that the extreme heat will stay with us at least until Sunday, August 2, although there are already voices that suggest that high temperatures will continue for a good part of next week. The oven map. On the same Wednesday, the mercury will reach 39-41 ºC in the main valleys of the southwest, such as the Guadalquivir, Guadiana and Tagus. But it will also break the barrier of 40-42 ºC in the Ebro valley and the depressions of the northeast. In the Canary Islands, the decrease in the humid layer will leave temperatures above 37 ºC and a strong presence of haze. On Thursday there will be a slight thermal respite on the Cantabrian coast, but the suffocating heat will remain unchanged in the center, south and east, repeating extreme maximums, which will last until Friday with temperatures that will continue to hover around 40-42 ºC. At the end of the week. Although the models show some uncertainty for so many days ahead, a significant drop in temperatures is not expected to allow the warnings to be reduced, and maximum temperatures will continue to remain stuck above 40 ºC. At the worst moment. Extreme temperatures pose a serious danger to public health, and the AEMET itself has warned of a “significant” risk in the middle of the day. But in addition to the medical field, we must not forget the many fires that we are facing in our country. Extinction efforts, which are currently focused on large fires in areas of Ávila, Madrid, Toledo and Castellón, are facing dramatic conditions. The heat wave brings with it very low generalized humidity and locally gusty southern winds and this scenario, which in climatology is known as the 30-30-30 factor (more than 30 degrees, winds of more than 30 km/h and less than 30% humidity), will once again trigger the fire risk index to extreme levels in practically the entire national territory. In Xataka | ENT doctors agree: “Sleeping with air conditioning forces the nose to work excessively”

We have been drinking beer on the beach all our lives to cool off. Science warns of great danger to our body

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On any summer afternoon, the beaches and terraces are filled with people seeking refuge from the high temperatures, and the instinct of the vast majority is to order a cold beer. This classic drink in Spain gives a false sensation of immediate coolness and temporary relief, but here the question we must ask ourselves is: is it really useful to drink it to alleviate the sensation of heat? A myth. Given this classic scene, science suggests that it is a bad idea to have a beer to quench thirst, since alcohol causes exactly the opposite by triggering a response that dehydrates us. And this is explained by a fundamental hormone called vasopressin or antidiuretic hormone. As its name indicates, its function is to retain water in the kidneys when the body needs it because it is dehydrated, and alcohol suppresses it almost immediately. And it is something proven, since studies show that ethanol blocks the release of vasopressinpointing out that after ingesting alcohol, an acute drop in this hormone is observed in the bloodstream. This causes the kidneys to stop reabsorbing fluids and begin to expel water at a rapid rate to promote the production of urine and, therefore, the loss of fluids. an experiment key here demonstrated that the subjects studied lost up to 0.9 kg of water weight in just two hours. That is, for every beer you drink to “hydrate” your body expels more liquid than it consumes. And this is a context of heat and high sweating; It is a one-way ticket to a state of dehydration if you do not also drink water. The broken thermostat. The second big problem with drinking alcohol in the sun is thermal. Alcohol is a powerful vasodilator and this means that it widens the blood vessels, bringing more blood to the surface of the skin, which produces that typical facial flushing and sudden feeling of heat when we drink. And although at first the breeze on the skin may make us feel cooler, we are actually compromising our ability to regulate internal temperature. A model published in International Journal of Legal Medicine demonstrated that drinking alcohol before facing a high temperature environment drastically worsens the body’s response. Alcohol literally “hacks” the brain nuclei responsible for thermoregulation, activating abnormal responses of the body to heat. Water is the best. Drinking a cold beer has logically become socially rooted in our society, but when you are thirsty and have been sweating for a long time, it is best to hydrate with water first. And this also confirms that there is no alcohol that is “safe” from a medical point of view. Non-alcoholic beer can be an option since, since it is composed mainly of water and lacks alcohol, it does not have an effect on our antidiuretic hormone. Images | Nicolas Postiglioni In Xataka | Generation Z is reinventing the way they drink alcohol, but there is something that remains untouched: the stigma of teetotalling

Demis Hassabis, Nobel Prize winner, warns of the risk of losing control of AI

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Let’s think for a moment about how the technology market moved before November 2022. The artificial intelligence It was already present in search engines, cameras, recommendations and digital services, but it was not yet the label that brands tried to place on each product or the argument around which a good part of their presentations revolved. The industry had other visible priorities and distributed its attention among multiple fronts. Less than four years later, it’s hard to find a large manufacturer or platform that hasn’t reorganized part of its strategy around AI. You only have to look at where the money is flowing to understand the magnitude of this race. Big technology companies allocate huge investments to chips, servers and data centers that span different parts of the world, while seeking to ensure the energy necessary to keep them running. Governments are not just watching, either: the United States and China support the development of infrastructure and computing capacity as part of economic and strategic competition. In the midst of this acceleration, one of its main protagonists has warned that we are advancing faster than we understand. The warning from those who are on the front line of the race The message does not come from outside the sector. Demis Hassabis He is co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, one of the laboratories that promotes the development of the most advanced artificial intelligence systems. Under his direction, projects such as AlphaGo, who defeated a world Go championand AlphaFold, capable of predicting protein structures. In 2024, Hassabis and John Jumper jointly received half of Nobel Prize of Chemistry for his work on protein structure prediction. His words have weight precisely because of this double condition: he helps build this technology and, at the same time, he calls for mechanisms to contain its risks. Part of the text published by Demis Hassabis in X | Click to see the full message Hassabis starts from a conviction that helps understand the urgency of his proposal: he believes that general artificial intelligence (AGI), defined in its text as a system capable of exhibiting all the cognitive capabilities of the human brain, could arrive in just a few years. He does not present it as a certainty, but as a close possibility that would force us to prepare before technology reaches that point. Their concern covers cybersecurity, possible biological and nuclear risks and, later, increasingly autonomous systems, capable of acting with less supervision and improving their own capabilities. In an extensive article published in Xthe manager tries to hold two ideas at the same time. Artificial intelligence can become an extraordinary tool for science, medicine and the economy, but that potential does not eliminate the need for establish controls and oversight mechanisms. Nor does he propose waiting for a specific threat to appear to react, because then the measures could arrive too late. Before detailing which organization and what evaluations it considers necessary, it sets out the diagnosis that serves as the basis for its entire proposal: “We are currently locked in an extremely intense trade and geopolitical race unfolding at multiple levels. While these competitive dynamics are driving rapid advances and accelerating their extraordinary benefits, progress on the frontier of AI is outpacing our understanding of the technology. No one in the world knows for sure what will happen next, and not even the experts agree. When there is such a high degree of uncertainty and so much at stake, moving forward with cautious optimism is the sensible and correct strategy.” The answer he proposes is to create in the United States a specialized organization in evaluating the most advanced artificial intelligence models. Their proposal takes as reference a public-private partnership or a self-regulatory entity with federal supervision, led by a board that would also include independent specialists and representatives of the open source ecosystem. This institution would define what thresholds make a system a frontier model and design assessments on cybersecurity, biological threats and other high-risk areas, as well as tests to detect attempts to circumvent safeguards or signs of deception. In a first stage, laboratories would voluntarily share their models up to 30 days before launching them. Initial cooperation could later become a mandatory requirement. Once the protocol is validated, any model considered frontier would have to pass the evaluation before reaching the United States market. Tests would be periodically reviewed to replace outdated ones and measure new capabilities, while independent auditors would help expand the control system. The approach goes even further: if the severity of the risks justified it, the framework could be used to coordinate a slowdown in development between major laboratories. The concern is not exclusive to Hassabis. Geoffrey Hinton has recognized that we do not know if we will be able to retain control of systems more intelligent than us, while Joshua Bengio calls for more research and specific mechanisms to monitor them. In 2023, Elon Musk also signed an open letter what he asked for pause for at least six months the training of more powerful AI systems than GPT-4although a few months later it announced xAI and began to compete directly in this market. Many of these voices agree in calling for caution, but there is no consensus on the probability that we will lose control. The history of artificial intelligence still does not have a written outcome, although its first effects have already changed our relationship with technology and the decisions of those who develop it. It remains to be seen whether the body proposed by Hassabis would have a place, whether its evaluations would be truly effective, and whether laboratories and governments would agree to submit to them when they conflicted with their own interests. It may also happen that some of the risks it poses are oversized or do not materialize. For now, his proposal adds a concrete roadmap to a discussion in which there are still more unknowns than certainties. Images | Google In Xataka | Claude has a space … Read more

Mistral CEO warns Europe that time is running out to build its own AI infrastructure

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When the United States Claude Mythos blocks people from outside the USsends a clear message: it is a cutting-edge export technology subject to control, like chips are. And in that scenario, Europe is practically an observer: the old continent is a pioneer in legislating AIbut its infrastructure, business ecosystem around it, and LLM models are behind what the United States or China have. Simply put, Europe depends on third parties for the best AI. But that can change. A little less than a month ago, Arthur Mensch appeared in May 2026 before the French National Assembly with another very clear message: if Europe wants to stop being an observer and descend into the mud, it has to do it now. Time is running against them. The deadline given by the co-founder and CEO of the main European artificial intelligence company is short: two years. The warning from the CEO of Mistral AI. In his exhibition, Arthur Mensch gave a warning macroeconomic with concrete figures: Europe has approximately two years to build its own AI infrastructure, or it will be structurally subordinated to American technology companies. If it does not arrive in time, Europe will become “a vassal state.” The future if we don’t achieve this is dark: “Once the supply is monopolized by American companies, we will suddenly run out of supply and will no longer be able to transform electrons into tokens.” His argument is technical but with a political background: whoever controls the calculation controls the economy. AI is not just another digital service: it is the infrastructure on which everything else will work. Like electricity or roads, but privatized and in foreign hands. Why is it important. Because under this approach, being dependent on third-party AI is not only a mere technical issue, which is no small thing considering its use in critical sectors such as defense or banking, it is also a serious problem of productive sovereignty and balance of payments. The CEO of Mistral refers to AI as a strategic asset, in the same way that gas is. Europe had a hard time understanding the cost of its energy dependence on Russia and Mensch’s argument is that the old continent is making the same mistake. In statements to CNBCdelved into the impact on the macroeconomy: “You cannot afford a trade deficit of one trillion if you really want to remain competitive in the race” because every euro that Europe pays to US companies for AI services is financing the competitor’s R&D. And that money is not coming back. Furthermore, we have already seen that using AI will be increasingly expensive, so much so that There are companies like Uber or Microsoft cutting licenses. Imagine if what depends on AI is your safety. Context. The game board shows that Europe does not exactly start with a good hand: according to data from Epoch AI, collected both by the US Federal Reserve as by RAND Europethe United States controls 74% of global high-level computing for AI, China 14% and the EU just 4.8%. He Draghi report of September 2024 has already identified that much of the blame for Europe’s productivity gap with respect to the US lies in the technology sector, or rather, the absence of it. One year later, Draghi himself was pessimistic: barely had been fulfilled 11.2% of almost 400 recommendations. In detail. Europe has already started with the plan action plan called “AI Continent” which is committed to tripling the capacity of data centers and deploying up to five gigafactories, but the question is whether it will be enough and if it will arrive on time. Without going any further, the 500,000 chips in these gigafactories planned are very far from what there is in the US: by the end of 2025, OpenAI I had already planned exceed one million chips. Mensch did not stop at warnings, but made concrete proposals. The first of them: use public procurement as a lever. Given that 50% of European GDP is generated through public spending, it is clear that it is a magnificent instrument to catalyze this development. On the other hand, Mistral is exploring the development of its own chips and has already announced a new data center in France. Yes, but. The main argument against Mensch’s words is obvious: he is one of the major stakeholders in the policies he proposes. Mistral has 1,000 employees, a valuation of 12 billion euros, a target of 1 billion euros in revenue by the end of 2026, this year it has invested 1 billion in R&D and approximately 75% of its sales are in Europe. On the other hand and for the moment, not having your own servers does not mean not being able to use AI, of course, being clear that it is a third party who dictates the conditions, prices and limits of that access. In Xataka | Europe wanted to set an example to the world with its AI Law. What you are achieving is becoming evident In Xataka | To become technologically “independent” from the US, the European Union already has a plan: four desperate measures Cover | Flickr and Wikimedia Commons / ALEXANDRE LALLEMAND | Igor Omilaev | Markus Spiske

Showering with cold water before sleeping in a heat wave seems like the best idea. Science warns that it is a big mistake

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Heat waves are already with us and in many places in recent days we have seen how they has far exceeded 40 ºC in many parts of our country. But the problem is not only that it is difficult to leave the house, but that sleeping becomes practically impossible for many peoplehaving a very fragmented sleep with different awakenings or even suffering from insomnia due to not being able to fall asleep. A solution. Faced with this great problem, common sense and desperation push us to get under the shower to be able to cool our body as much as possible just before entering bed to at least be a little cooler and try to fall asleep. But the problem here is that showering activates our body and can have a quite different effect than what we are looking for, making it very difficult to fall asleep. The mechanism of sleep. Something that we must keep in mind is that for our brain to understand that it is time to sleep, it needs a very specific physiological signal, which is the drop in the body’s core temperature. But when we take a shower of ice water, we get instant relief on the skin, but we cause our blood vessels to constrict so that our blood does not drop below its precious 36-37 ºC. In other words, the blood vessels They close to protect the internal heat of the body by sending less blood to our skin. The result. Although we get very fresh skin, a few minutes after getting out of the shower, the body experiences a rebound effect, retaining central heat and remaining in a state of alert because for the body there is a threat to which it has had to respond. On the other hand, warm or hot water does just the opposite, since, according to the group of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, hot water stimulates the thermoregulatory system, causing blood to travel from the inner core of the body to the extremities. This facilitates a massive dissipation of body heat once we leave the bathroom, and that subsequent drop in core temperature is the biological switch that induces sleep. The warm water. Knowing all this, we can conclude that we should not use hot or cold water when showering, but that the middle ground is what we should look for. This is what an exhaustive review published in the journal points out. Sleep Medicine, where it was analyzed thousands of data to reach the conclusion that the optimal water temperature to improve sleep quality is between 40 and 42.5 ºC. But in a context of great heat like the one we are experiencing, experts clarify that the ideal is to look for the point of warm water, since the objective is not to roast ourselves, but to relax the blood vessels to promote heat loss from inside the body. The time. Showering and immediately getting into bed (or getting on top of the sheets) doesn’t work at all, since the body needs time to cool down. This same study we were referring to showed that the optimal time to take this shower is between 1 and 2 hours before going to bed. And best of all, it is something that has been shown to reduce the time it takes to fall asleep. These data are reinforced by a large-scale observational study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, where, after analyzing more than 1,000 adultsresearchers confirmed that bathing between 61 and 180 minutes before going to bed is directly associated with faster falling asleep, thanks to physiological changes that are related to body heat. Images | Slaap In Xataka | An expert clarifies the main mistake of sleeping with air conditioning: “It is totally unnatural and we rest worse”

Tim Cook warns that the impact of AI will cause increases in iPhone prices

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We are in the midst of “RAMageddon.” The RAM memory crisis continues to impact the industry, and Apple knows it well. The company had weathered the storm (relatively) until now, but its current CEO, Tim Cook, is already warning customers: your next Mac, iPhone or iPad could go up in price very soon. Few surprises, many disappointments. The situation is “unsustainable”. The head of Apple granted an interview in The Wall Street Journal in which he noted that price increases are “inevitable.” The company has made great efforts to absorb the impact of the increase in costs in all types of RAM and NAND memory chips, but the limit seems to have already been exceeded, because Cook stated that the situation has become “unsustainable.” Apple prices will rise. Apple has not specified which products will be affected and to what extent, but it already warns that there will be changes to the catalog. cook already warned in April, during the conference with investors, that the shortage would end up taking its toll on them. The future CEO, John Ternus, explained the same shortly after. He who warns is not a traitor, they seemed to want to say. The iPhone, a firm candidate to increase in price. According to industry experts cited in the Financial Times, if Apple raises prices, one of the clear candidates to see that price growth is the iPhone. The company is expected to announce new iPhones in September, which will give the opportunity for these new models to have a significantly higher price than the traditional one from launch. Source: TechInsights How much more expensive? What is not clear is how much more expensive both the iPhone and the company’s other hardware products will be. In The Wall Street Journal they cite estimates from the company TechInsights, which believes that the new iPhones will have a price that will be at least $270 more expensive so that Apple can maintain its profit margin. The iPhone 17 Pro starts at $1,099, and therefore now the price would be close to $1,400. The situation is tragic. Data from TechInsights (in the graph above) reveals how price increases in both RAM and NAND chips in our SSDs have risen in price astronomically since mid-2025. It is estimated that RAM will do so even more in the next 12 months, although it seems that the situation will relax for NAND memories. And the manufacturers make their fortune. Meanwhile, the companies that dominate the memory market continue to do their own thing. Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Kioxia and SanDisk have managed to grow astronomically on the stock market (the latter two, 4,600% in the last twelve months) and have no intention of drastically increasing their production. There are plans for new production plants, yes, but almost all of them to produce HBM memory chips for AI. Meanwhile, wafers with memory chips for devices for end users will continue to be 15% below demand, they estimate at Morgan Stanley. AI is costing Apple. At the moment AI is not favoring Apple. Their strategy with this technology has been highly criticized and only now have they just launched the new Siri AI thanks to the agreement with Google. It does not seem that this is going to be a sufficient argument to accelerate iPhone sales, especially if they rise in price. It certainly has not been the case in the Android world, let alone the PC and laptop segment: the Copilot+ PCs never managed to catch on after promise a revolution that never happened. Image | European Commission (Christophe Licoppe), Arne Müseler In Xataka | The RAM crisis is so extreme that it has achieved what seemed unthinkable: Apple’s memories are “cheap”

Science warns of its silent and devastating impact on fertility

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When we think about the effects that tobacco has on the body, our mind quickly goes to the lung cancer or cardiovascular diseases. However, the damage goes much further and one of the key points here is in the direct impact it has on the fertility of men and women. But it not only alters conception, it alters our DNA and reduces success rates in medical treatments. In the case of women. The scientific evidence is very consistent regarding the effects of smoking on the female reproductive system, since smoking harms conception, alters ovarian follicular dynamics and makes embryo implantation difficult. In fact, a higher risk of delayed pregnancy, as well as primary and secondary infertility, is observed in women who smoke. To highlight some of these points, we must know that women smokers have up to 60% more likely of developing fertility problems. This is justified by the difficulty in forming the blood vessels that will nourish the endometrium. But in addition, it is also estimated that today 13% of infertility cases that have been reported to be related to tobacco itself. Aging. One of the most striking effects is how tobacco steps on the accelerator of ovarian aging. A study of the Women’s Health Initiative found that both active smoking and passive smoke exposure are associated with natural menopause before age 50. Specifically, menopause can be advance between 1 and 4 years in smokers or ex-smokers compared to women who have never smoked. The masculine factor. Although we can almost always blame women for reproductive problems, the reality is that the impact of tobacco on men is equally severe. Here the WHO itself point that tobacco affects fertility and sexual potency, something the CDC agrees with, pointing out that smoking damages sperm and can be one of the causes of erectile dysfunction. Because? Science has seen in these cases that smoking reduces semen volume, sperm count and also how they are moving. But in addition, smoking can negatively affect hormonal production and damage the DNA of the sperm, which makes conception less likely. In assisted reproduction. When a natural pregnancy does not occur after several months of trying, assisted reproduction techniques are used, but here tobacco can also play tricks. And we are not talking about an infallible technique, and that is why smokers face a worse prognosis in in vitro fertilization treatments. To be more specific, the figures suggest that these patients suffer pregnancy rates 30% less and they need a higher dose of medications to stimulate their ovarian reserve. Pass the generations. This is one of the most interesting discoveries that has been made in this case, since smoking not only affects those who ascend to the cigarette, but its trace can follow the offspring. For example, children of smoking mothers may suffer a reduction in sperm concentration of between 20% and 40%. And in the case of daughters there is a risk of being born with a low ovarian reserve. Images | Haim Charbit freestocks In Xataka | ‘Children of Men’ is ceasing to be a dystopia: the global sperm count has been sinking for years

We believed that eating with our cell phone in our hand was harmless. Science warns that it is “hacking” our satiety

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Today, a fairly everyday scene is to see how, at meal time, in addition to the plate on the table, there is also the illuminated mobile screen is next to it while playing a TikTok video or an Instagram reel. The habit of eating by doing scroll on social networks, reading news or answering messages has become normalized to the point of becoming invisible. However, scientific literature has been warning for years that this disconnection between the plate and the brain has measurable consequences. The hijacking of satiety. The fact of eating while looking at the mobile screen makes us eat much worse, and this is what is known in the literature as mindless eating, which can be translated as “eating unconsciously.” Something that makes a lot of sense because when we are looking at something that interests us, we don’t even realize what we are putting in our mouths, going into automatic mode. And this is very important, because science is quite clear that the fact of feeling full of food is not something that depends only on the gastric process, but also involves our consciousness. In this way, when we eat while paying attention to something else, we damage the episodic memory of food. in the brain there is no adequate record of the textures, flavors or amount of food that has been put in the mouth. As a result of this “food amnesia”, the signals that indicate that the stomach has become full and that one should stop eating more become blurred. This causes us to eat more at that moment, and also, since we do not have a solid memory of having been full, we tend to eat more calories at lunch or snack. The data. This lack of active attention during eating can be extrapolated to specific figures, and something that has been repeated a lot is that cell phone use can increase caloric intake by 30%. Although this is an extreme limit derived from the sum of several disconnection factors, since studies point to somewhat lower figures. a study published in 2019 showed that eating with a mobile phone increases caloric intake by around 15% compared to people who are completely aware of their food. Furthermore, we do not eat more of everything but rather the nutritional profile worsens by tending towards a noticeably higher intake of fats. In the long term, we have a studio published in 2025 by Kyoto University where regular cell phone use during meals was associated with more marked weight gain in adults. But in the case of adolescents, it is associated with a greater consumption of sugary drinks and a higher BMI attributed to multitasking with the mobile phone. That is why it is best to always eat without any type of distraction that diverts attention from the task at hand, because otherwise there are several risks to our own health. Images | drobotdean in Magnific In Xataka | Eating in front of a screen is not a modern mania: it is the new social ritual

Oviedo has already broken its heat record for May and AEMET warns that this has only just begun

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Let’s stay with a figure: 34.3. It is, almost certainly, the most important data of the week. On Thursday, May 21, 2026, the thermometers of the city of Oviedo They recorded a temperature of 34.3 degrees. 1.8 ºC more than the highest temperature ever recorded in May in the capital of the Principality. AEMET is convinced that between today and the weekend will be reached again (or even exceeded) this temperature. And yet, this is only a tiny part of the story. Because the real story is that, in a region structurally protected by its oceanic climate, records are being broken in ways we would not have been able to imagine. And that’s without the country being in a ‘heat wave’. What is happening? Although There is some controversy with the namewhat is happening is called ‘heat dome‘. That is, a subtropical anticyclonic ridge, anomalously powerful for this time of year, which is trapping very warm air above our heads. Europe is bearing the brunt, it is true. Countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and the British Isles they are seeing temperatures between 10 and 15 degrees above normal. If everything goes as predicted by the models, the May records of half of Europe are going to explode on the 25th of this month. And, of course, we are noticing that. As the haze falls on the Canary Islands (right at the eastern vertex of the dome), a good part of the country will suffer considerable heat. We talk about more than 34 degrees in Asturias and the Basque Country and 38 in the Guadiana valleys. The Guadalquivir valley is already above 35. And, as I say, all this without heat waves. Despite the magnitude of the episode, AEMET does not rate it like a heat wave in peninsular Spain. It is not. We already know that the operational definition requires exceeding the 95th percentile of daily maximum temperatures for the July-August quarter for at least three days and, of course, we are not going to go to that extreme. What does all this heat tell us? Let’s be honest. For Andújar or Badajoz to reach 38 degrees on May 21 is rare, but not exceptional. But for Oviedo to reach 34.3 is a very different thing. It shows, above all, that the Cantabrian coast is beginning to stop being a “climate refuge.” Why is all this important? In addition to an underlying climate issue, this warm episode is important because it is dangerous. The first extreme heat of the year is the deadliest because the population has not gone through the period of physiological acclimatization produced by progressive exposure to summer heat. That is, because it is May and the Iberian summer has truly begun. Image | Tropical TidBits In Xataka | The Gulf Stream is dying. Someone’s idea to solve it dates back to the 1950s: closing the Bering Strait

The WHO warns of a new outbreak with a strain for which we do not have a vaccine

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A few days ago the news broke in the media that warned of the decision taken by the WHO to warn of a new Ebola outbreak in the province of Ituri, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, just when we are still trying to resolve the health emergency triggered by the hantavirus. With this ‘alarm voice’ the WHO gives international relevance to this outbreak, which is not a routine or predictable episode, but is a variant for which there are no approved treatments and, above all, which can be expand easily to the surrounding countries. Expanding. The magnitude of the problem is reflected in its rapid evolution, since in just a few weeks since the initial detection, the health authorities have already recorded more than 246 suspected cases and around 80 deaths that would be related to this virus a priori. And although so far there are only eight laboratory-confirmed cases, the geographical situation complicates tracking. The epicenter is in the east of the DRC, but the pathogen has not respected territorial limits, since the virus has already crossed the border into Ugandawhere two cases have been confirmed in the capital itself, Kampala. This jump to a densely populated urban center is precisely what has precipitated the maximum alert by the United Nations and the WHO. It is not a pandemic. At the moment the criteria are not met to consider this outbreak as a pandemic, but the declaration seeks coordinate international response before mobility between affected countries turns this outbreak into something much larger. And we must not forget that we are facing a virus that generates a serious and potentially fatal disease. In the past. If we look back, this situation is not completely new, since a outbreak in 2014 In West Africa this same alert was raised and the consequence was that it ended up reaching Spain. This virus in our territory caused the repatriation of several citizens, some infections on the ground and also the sacrifice of the famous dog Excalibur On this occasion, the protagonist was the strain Zaire, but the current outbreak is developed by the strain Bundibugyo. The big problem facing the scientific and health community is that, although in recent years we have developed an impressive preventive and therapeutic arsenal for the variant Zairethese tools they don’t work against the Bundibugyo strain. The absence of prophylaxis and specific approved treatments exponentially multiplies the clinical risk and makes control efforts on the ground difficult. The perfect storm. Added to the virological challenge is a first-level logistical and social challenge. We must keep in mind that the east of the DRC is one of the areas more unstable of the planet, characterized by constant armed conflicts, and this is the perfect storm epidemiologically speaking due to many factors such as: Lack of access to medical equipment and rapid response in hot zones safely. The constant movement of refugees means that the virus may be spreading between countries. Distrust of national and international health systems makes it difficult to isolate the sick, trace direct contacts, and implement protocols to manage bodies. It is not endemic Ebola. On many occasions we can hear that Ebola is ‘one more’ in some areas of Africa, referring to the constant circulation of the virus in animal reservoirs such as, for example, bats in Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone. In this case, the virus can emerge sporadically and cause outbreaks that are contained and do not generate too many epidemiological problems. And now we are facing something quite different, starting with the strain that resembles what we were used to and also because it is now ‘jumping’ geographical borders and passing between countries. This is also added to the fact that this new outbreak with an international emergency is developing in a country with war, where the disease takes a back seat, which is more dangerous when we are faced with a variant that we are not used to and for which we do not know many treatments. Images | aleksandarlittlewolf in Magnific In Xataka | We believed we were prepared for a post-covid world. Hantavirus is the first serious test and the results are not optimistic

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