world

Very few countries in the world are dedicated to the industrial production of avocados. Now an unexpected one has joined: Japan

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Tsutomu Uchida is 64 years old, is a retired entrepreneur and for a while now He spends hours working on a plot located in the Shizuoka districtwhere different cultivation techniques prove. So far unusual. The funny thing is that Uchida is not dedicated to Plant riceneither soy nor Mikana very popular citrus in the region. No. His interest has little to do with traditional vegetables. What is trying to grow since 2020 are avocados, a plant that wakes up more interest in Japanese agriculture. The reason: the market … and climate change. What happened? That in Japan, Rice landcherries and citrus, there are farmers who begin to Look with interest A new variety of crop, a very popular in other latitudes but that has so far had an almost testimonial weight in the country of the rising sun: avocado. And the most curious thing is what that curiosity is awakening. Beyond the growing Internal demand or the Production increase Worldwide, the factor that has led Japanese farmers to plant avocados is climate change. Shizuoka avocado. The news I advanced it A few days ago The Japan Times: More and more farmers in Shizuoka Prefecture show interest in avocados. The phenomenon is curious for several reasons. First, because the traditional cultivation of that region is another good, the Mikana citrus similar to mandarin. The second reason is that this interest It is promoted by local authorities. Shizuoka Prefecture has just activated a triennial plan that aspires, among other goals, to develop cultivation techniques and sales channels focused on avocado. With that purpose the institution plans to invest over the coming months 18 million yen (about 100,000 euros) in investigations to improve local production. Putting his head. If everything goes as planned, in three years you will publish a manual for farmers. It may seem like a modest initiative, but it is quite significant: Shizuoka is one of the main producing regions of Mikan From Japan and right now the avocado cultivation in the country is very small. According to the Ministry of Agriculture, in 2022 there were hardly any 34 tons who came out above all from Saga, Ehime and Wakayama, territories that (exact!) have always stood out for their citrus. TEMPERATURES QUESTION. The most curious thing is that this growing interest in avocado is not explained only for its internal demand or market prospects. At stake there is another equal or even more relevant factor for Japanese farmers: climate change. Their effects already They let themselves feel in the Rice crops and They threaten to punish to much of the plantations of Mikan of the country while They favor to those of avocado, a tree originally from Mesoamerica. “We cannot simply advance complaining about the negative impact of change on the agricultural environment. We are trying to convert this adversity into an opportunity and make the most of it,” Recognize to The Japan Times Yuji Hirano, responsible for agricultural strategies in the government of Shizuoka. With that clear idea, the prefecture probes the pros and cons of betting on a dozen subtropical crops in the region. Among them there was one that stood out for their “pull” in the market and that could also be favored by the weather: the avocado. But … what are they based on? In forecasts that draw such a promising scenario for avocado as a funeral for the Mikan. In March the National Organization for Agricultural and Food Research (Naro) public A report in which he warns that the future of citrus in Japan “will depend largely” on greenhouse gas emissions while avocado suitable areas could expand its current size more than 2.5 times by the middle of the century. An uncertain horizon. Nikkei It goes further And he warns that climate change can make that at the end of the Japanese century find that 80% of the areas that are right now for the cultivation of tangerines cease to be. With the land suitable for avocado plantations, a subtropical fruit, the opposite would happen: they would multiply by 7.7. “Maybe you think that a temperature difference of 1ºC does not mean much,” Clarify Toshihiko Sugiura, from Naro. “But for him Mikan It makes the difference. “ Hence the scenario can vary greatly depending on what happens in the coming years. If for 2100 the temperature rise does not exceed 1.4ºC the country may keep 80% of the current surface destined for Mikan. If the increase is 4.3ºC as soon as any. However, and although the increase in temperatures may make it easier, the avocado is not guaranteed in Japan either: the winter cold waves would mean a serious threat. The other key: the market. The other factor that explains Shizuoka’s interest in avocado should be sought in the market. The Japan Times remember that today the fruit is much more popular in the Japanese fruit shops than a few decades ago. And the data show it. In 1988, only 3,400 tons were imported. In 2020 there were already 80,000. That boom coincided with an increasing exposure of the fruit in the country’s media, which began to highlight its nutritional value as “superfiment” rich in vitamins and fiber. Today the avocado is already integrated from the diet of many Japanese and it is easy to find in supermarkets, although the nation basically depends on imports. The vast majority (at least in 2020) comes from Mexico, where they start around 85% of importsand Peru, which brings together about 11%. National production is scarce and is sold at prices greater than foreign fruit. Images | Eddie Pipocas (UNSPLASH), 光曦 刘 (UNSPLASH) and Rui Hao Lim (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | Japan is suffering a bankruptcy record from Ramen. And in part it is the result of the “1,000 yen barrier”

The size of the submerged economy of all countries in the world, exposed in this developer map

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It is said that, each one does what they want with their money, but in the future there is the question of whether each one You can pay as you want. Cash is still a important part of day -to -day paymentswhat has generated an unequal career in half the world and a problem: the submerged economy, which in many countries is a good percentage of GDP. And on this map prepared by Visual Capitalist It is perfectly reflected, although we must bear in mind that the percentages … they deceive. In the shadow. There are countries that have A crusade against cashand that is why you are promoting payment in digital and tools such as Digital euro. The map is based on the Global Report of Economy in the 2025 shadow of Ernst & Young and reflects which part of the GDP of each country escaped to fiscal control in 2023. Complicated. While this informal economy represents a significant loss of tax revenues for governments, it is really complicated to obtain an exact figure. That is because they are all those economic activities that are not declared and, therefore, regulated. For example, payments without invoice to avoid VAT, but also not declared and without contract, Rentals without contract or something that seems as innocent as some private classes in which no invoice is issued. Depending on the study, percentages of GDP by country or others are handled, but there is something that does not usually vary, and it is the difference between hemispheres. North. Worldwide, it is estimated that the submerged economy is equivalent to 11.8% of GDP and, although there are exceptions, there is a clear line that divides the world into north and south if we get carried away by that percentage of GDP that would correspond to money from the submerged economy. In Europe, countries such as Poland, Spain, Portugal, Italy or Greece have higher levels of submerged economy. Countries like Greece, Romania or Ukraine raise the average, and in others as Albania we talk about more than 27% of its economy belonging to the submerged economy. Canada and the United States remain at 4.5% and 5% respectively, Saudi Arabia has 5.2%, Japan 6.7%, Mexico 18% and in Central America we see that the level of submerged economy is increasing. South. Australia with 5.7% is one of the exceptions of countries in the southern hemisphere with a submerged economy contained, since in most of the rest, the percentage is overwhelming. Latin America It has a high level of submerged economy, but nothing is left if we compare it with what we see in Africa and some Asian countries. Africa takes the palm and it is estimated that, if Sierra Leone had a GDP of 6,400 million dollars in 2023, it had another 4.1 billion dollars, or 64.5% compared to GDP, in submerged economy. It is not an isolated case, since Nigeria, Ethiopia or Burundi are also cases in which the submerged economy is 50% or more of its GDP. And Asia. In Asia, the film is not so dramatic, but it is also not the region with the more transparent economy. India submerged would be comparable to 26% of its GDP, in Iran and Iraq it is similar, in Nepal it rises to 51% and then we have the case of China with 20%. It is not much if we compare it with the rest of the territory, but taking into account the amount of population that hasWe talk about important quantities. The same happens in Indiawith 26% that is much less than what is seen in many African countries, but that in total numbers, is much more. The percentages deceive. Because here there is something to take into account, 64.5% of Sierra Leone GDP has nothing to do with 5% of the United States. The higher an economy, although the percentage of submerged economy is lower, the total will be astronomical. In This other graph It can be seen perfectly, since that 20% of China translates into a total of 3.3 billion euros and the United States, with that “scarce” 5% submerged economy, translates into the largest economy in the shadow of the planet with 1.3 billion euros. Cash safety. As we said, there are countries trying Face this economy In the shadow. Portugal, for example, has converted invoices into lottery ticketsbecause not all activities that are not declared are illegal and the objective is that there are higher tax revenues. Paying with a card or digital media seems to the solution and, although it raises doubts about its operation without internet or electricity, the recent April blackout showed that There were TPV terminals prepared for it And that the future digital euro … It is too. If it arrives one day. In Xataka | The sudden enthusiasm for a society without cash or physical portfolio: the geek and the accommodation, a drama for the poor

When the British wanted to terrorize the Nazis during World War II, they chose a peculiar weapon: pump rats

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Think about the Second World War is to think of large -scale battles, tremendous operations and epic skirmishes. And, although it is true that there were imposing deeds, we are also tremendously influenced by cinema and video games. Because doing one spy movie or a ‘Save Soldier Ryan‘is’ easy’, but … and one above the inflatable tanks or of pigeons piloting missiles? That is more complicated. Because, In a moment of despaireverything goes. And if the Americans gave them to devise a bomb -loaded bomb To set the Japanese houses, the British be occurred Something that looks like a joke, but that made a lot of sense: filling rats with plastic explosive and waiting to be triggered in Nazis facilities. The Germans They were caught at firstbut far from being a fudge, it turns out that discovering the pump rats was what made the operation a success. Exploding Kittens Rats 1941 was a key year in the Second World War. The Nazis gave the green light to the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the United States entered the war officially and began the Mass deportation of Jews to the extermination fields. There were too many open fronts and the war had just become a global phenomenon, but the British wore years fighting the Nazis. The first quarter was crazy, with bombings of the British to German possessions and intense German bombings in English territory, attacking cities such as Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and, above allLondon, who for almost two months He suffered night bombings. Apart from in the air, the war was fought on land, and one of the plans of British intelligence revolved around the industrial sabotage. Damaging the factories, Germany would lose war power, it is evident. Thus, the British Special Operations Office, or SOE for its acronym in English, devised a strategy which would consist in wasteing pump rats near German infrastructure. They would not put a “backpack” pump to the rat and leave it free out there, no: the plan It consisted In getting dead rats, open them on the channel, empty them, fill them with plastic explosive, place a detonator that would come out for what would be the anus and strategically locate each animal near the boilers of the factories and key buildings of the Nazis. The goal? That when a worker found a rat, he directly threw it into that boiler, turning on the wick and causing the structure to fly through the air, interrupting the Nazi war machine. That said, the truth is that it was a brilliant plan because it was easy to think that workers would not bury the animal or throw it out there, since it could spread diseases, that cremation in the boiler being as fast. And they got with a hundred of them. There was a problem: the Nazis intercepted the first sending of explosive rats before they were deployed. Far from thinking that the plan failed, it turns out that The caught was much more effective that what they could have achieved if the rats had managed to be thrown into the boilers. And the reason is obvious: the Nazis, when discovering the Artimañathey wondered how many explosive rats before that interception they could have placed the British. That sowed a more explosive doubt than the rat itself because the Nazis launched campaigns to search for similar devices and, if they found a dead rat, began to tremble. Would it be a rat or a pump? Although any exploded, the operation was never considered a psychological success for the general paranoia that caused in the German ranks. The possibility of such unconventional sabotage forced the Nazis to divert resources to counteract similar threats. In the official SOE archives, they detail that the device “caused considerable problems to the enemy, but not quite in the way it was intended.” In the end, it was an effective form of psychological war because there were Germans trying to counteract a non -existent threat. As concluded Soe himself, “the problem that rats caused to the Nazis was a much greater success for us than if the rats had really been used.” Today is an anecdote or an object of collecting, like the main image rat, sold In 2017 for more than $ 1,800. Also as a much less crazy idea than those of those pilot pigeons … or that of the incendiary bats. Images | Charles Merrell, The National Archives, Bonhams In Xataka | 80 years ago the US threw a bomb in Japan that nobody agreed again. He has just exploded at an airport

Waymo promised them very happy as a world leader in Robotaxis. Now Baidu has just advanced on the right

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Chinese robotaxis just advanced the United States for the first time in the race for autonomous transport. Baidu announced that his service Apollo Go has completed 11 million tripsovercoming the 10 million reported by Waymo. Why is it important. This advance marks a turning point in a technology that defines the future of urban transport. China has needed only two and a half years to overcome the company that launched the first completely autonomous service in the world in 2020, after a long stage of R&D as part of the “Other bets“From Google. The contrast. General Motors announced that He left his Cruise project At the end of 2024 after spending 10,000 million dollars on it. Motion had to pause its operations for economic causes. Meanwhile, Weride and Pony.aiboth Chinese, expand through Europe and the Middle East thanks to alliances with Uber. In Xataka I have tried a totally autonomous taxi. This is traveling without driver In figures: A journey in Robotaxi costs 35 cents per mile in China. That same trip costs about 2 dollars in the United States. China and its 1.4 billion inhabitants make up a market that quadruples to the American. That is a natural advantage of scale impossible to replicate. The panoramic. China has built its advantage over three pillars: Favorable regulations in more than 50 cities. Competitive automotive supply chains worldwide. Enthusiast government support that considers the autonomous car as a key area of ​​innovation. {“Videid”: “X8Clg26”, “Autoplay”: False, “Title”: “Baidu World 2022 Say hello to the apollo rt6, Baidu’s Next-Gen Av”, “Tag”: “Baidu”, “Duration”: “53”} And now what. Tesla announced that I was going to launch his service in Austin this monthbut competition has been globalized. Baidu is already testing in Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates, with filtered plans to do the same in Switzerland and Türkiye. Nevertheless, Chinese companies are still looking for financing: Not even its huge market by population serves to survive in a sector that has not yet achieved black numbers. Deepen. McKinsey estimates that the robotaxis will not reach commercial scale until 2030, requiring billions of extra dollars to achieve a completely autonomous capacity. In Xataka | There are only two confirmed data of the launch of the Xiaomi Yu7: that we do not know its price and that the waiting list is one year Outstanding image | Apollo Go (Function () {Window._js_modules = Window._js_modules || {}; var headelement = document.getelegsbytagname (‘head’) (0); if (_js_modules.instagram) {var instagramscript = Document.Createlement (‘script’); }}) (); – The news Waymo promised them very happy as a world leader in Robotaxis. Now Baidu has just advanced on the right It was originally posted in Xataka by Javier Lacort .

Some researchers have calculated mathematically which are the most tourist cities in the world. Bad news, Barcelona

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Each summer Barcelona usually Be news in the foreign press for its attractiveness as a tourist destination. After all, its mixture of Mediterranean climate, beach, culture, architecture and gastronomy attract every year to hundreds of thousands of travelers from other parts of the world. However in July 2024 The Ciudad Condal monopolized holders in the media of the entire planet for a rather different reason: fed up with saturation, a group of neighbors dedicated himself to shooting visitors with water guns next to posters in which messages such as “Tourists Go Home” were read. That was a sample (The nth) The impact of the sector in the Catalan capital, a phenomenon that has now been black on white in A study which identifies Barcelona as the city most pressured by tourism. Tourist density. That is the parameter that has analyzed Nomad Esim in A report published a few days ago, a study in which he is dedicated to examining how Overurism It is affecting some of the most popular destinations in the world. To do this, it has basically valued two parameters: the size of the cities and the number of foreign visitors who receive each year, which allows it to calculate their “density” of travelers. With the results it has elaborated A 40 -cities ranking Headed by Porto, Cancun and Barcelona, ​​which leads the list. Why’s that? Nomad technicians have estimated that Barcelona receives about 20.37 million tourists who are forced to be distributed by an urban area of 101 square kilometerswith what the concentration of visitors per km2 amounts to 201.722. There is no other city on the list that approaches him. The second in the ranking, Cancun, has 147,887 tourists per km2 and in Porto do not even reach 144,000. The fourth place is occupied by New York, with 137,712, which Dubrovnik (112,500), Florence (107,843), Kyoto (98,651) and Lisbon (88,000). Mallorca occupies the 37th position, with 5,137, and Paris the 29th (16,820). Issue of density and size. That data does not mean that Barcelona is the one that receives the most tourists. Not much less. New York, Kyoto, Los Angeles, Paris, Las Vegas or London (to quote only some examples) receive more visitors than the city, according to the information that Nomad Esim manages, but its largest urban extension explains that the tourist massification is not so high. The data of the report They must also be taken as what they are: a report, with their biases and limitations. His estimate of tourists does not coincide for example with the global data that the city handled in the late 2024 (15.5 million). In 2023 the observatori of tourism spoke of 15.6 million of visitors, balance that rose to 25.9 million if the region was taken into account, not just the city. The report It is interesting in any case because it provides clues about other destinations and connects with a feeling that has been breathed for years in Barcelona: The discomfort from the neighbors for the tourist. The pressure on residents. In his report, Nomad has done something else: calculating the “pressure” that tourism exerts on the local population of each of the destinations. To do this he crossed the flow of tourists from each city and its census. The most bulky data is taken in that case Orlando, with 241 tourists for each resident. They are followed by Santorini (220), Queenstow (116), Mykonos (105) and Cozumel (94). Barcelona occupies the 24th place of the international list, with an average of 13 visitors per local, a result slightly lower than that of Mallorca (20). If both metrics are mixed, the surface, total register of neighbors and influx of tourists, the first in the list is Cancun, followed by Orlando, Dubrovnik, Kyoto, Florence and witches. Barcelona is in tenth place and Mallorca in the 32nd. Of the imforms to the streets. The study is interesting because it gives a measure of the pressure that great destinations support, including Barcelona or Mallorca, a phenomenon that has caused resident mobilizations that claim a more sustainable tourist model. The Protest with guns Water was surely the most media, but not the only one: in Barcelona (as in other locations) the neighbors have taken to the streets to show their rejection of massification or demand a greater access to housing, a market conditioned for tourist pressure. The risk: die of success. Saturation supposes something else: a threat to the quality and future of its own destination. The “No List 2025” of Fodor´s, one of the most solera guides among the Anglo -Saxon travelers already has proposed To their readers who “reconside” spend their vacation in three emblematic destinations in Spain that face the risk of dying of success or are directly saturated. Which is it? Canary Islands, Mallorca … and Barcelona, ​​who share a list with international destinations such as Bali, Venice, Lisbon, Koh Samui (Thailand) or Agrigento (Sicily). It is not that they have asked for charm, but about the consequences that tourist success is having in the functioning of cities. Image | Sung Shin In Xataka | The tourism paradox in Spain: if you have not reserved your vacation in the Canary Islands, it is possible that the same thing costs to go to the Caribbean

The 100 best universities in the world excluding those of the US, exposed this graphic revealing

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The listings are important. Well for Choose the most reliable car or to see Where can we give ourselves a feasthaving well -ordered options is a good starting point in our search. The same goes for universities and, in These dates after the Pauit is likely that many wonder which one is the best. In this graph prepared by Visual Capitalist We can see the top 100 of the best universities in the world if we do not take into account those of the United States. Eeuu queen, but collapses. The list of the best universities has been prepared thanks to the data and scores of the ranking of Times Higher Educationbut something interesting is that the United States is left out for a very specific reason: although it represents almost a third of the best 100 universities in the world, in recent months Cases of permits rejection are being given due to the changing immigration policy of the country. According to data Of the Association of International Educators, or Nafsa, the interest in studying in the United States by postgraduate students from other countries collapsed in more than 40% after the arrival of Donald Trump to his second term. That after 6.6% increases in 2023 and 11.5% in 2024. Because of that, the graphic excludes American universitiescountry that still has Mit, Harvard, Princeton, Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley and Yale within the world top 10. United Kingdom: proper name. There are three free positions within those first ten, and the United Kingdom is the protagonist. The best in the world, according to this data, is the Oxford University. His eternal rival, Cambridgeoccupies the fifth place and closes the top 10 the Imperial College of London. The latter does not have as much name as the previous two and is much younger (open in 1907, when the other two are from the eleventh and thirteenth century respectively), but has managed to sneak among the best of the best. If we exclude the United States again, the United Kingdom stands out with 12 universities in the list. Europe, culture focus. If the United States is the one that has the most universities in the top 100 and the United Kingdom that has the best university in the world, as region, it is Europe that carries the singing voice. 36 of the 100 best non -American universities are found in Europe thanks to programs and policies Focused to scientific excellence and research. This list tells us about how Europe is not only an academy, but also a Important research pointwith Germany to the front with eight centers and other countries such as France (4 centers), Sweden (3) and the Netherlands (1) being outstanding names. In this list, Spain, Italy or Portugal are out of Top 100. In fact, according to the list, the only Spanish universities within the Top 200 are the University of Barcelona (position 149), the Pompeu Fabra (176) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona (199). Italy strain three others (Bologna (146), Scuola Normale Superior Di Pisa (154) and Sapienza University of Rome (185). China advances with speed. Leaving Europe, another important name is that of China. In recent years, Chinese universities have acquired greater importance in the international scenario due to an exhibition greater to their studies, to research and innovation. The country has seven universities in the list, two of them (the Tsinghua and Beijing) They are within the 20 most important, and is the third country with the most renowned universities at the moment after the US and the United Kingdom. AND It is not a coincidence: The Chinese government has invested more than 23,000 million dollars since 2016 for infrastructure and research equipment improvements and have started To apply policies to attract international students, with programs in English and certain advantages. And also talent. Notable absences. Outside these three regions, we have Japan, Canada, Singapore or Australia as examples of countries that also have universities in this list of the best 100. And, beyond countries such as Spain, Portugal, Greece or Italy without universities in this top, we also see a lack of Latin American and African universities. Rejection of listings. And, although lists of this type can be very useful when finding the university that best suits your educational or research needs and can give prestige to those that are above the list, it is also possible that those same universities reject being there. An example is that of the Harvard School of Medicine, which a few years ago said “no” to one of these lists. Specifically, the index of the medical schools of US News & World Report. Reasons? Question the methodology used to create these indexes. But from the index they responded to Harvard stating that, with increasingly faces, students deserve to have access to all data and information to make a decision. Beyond all that, it is curious to know which countries that accumulate that educational and research wealth and know that it is not something that is achieved overnight, needing, as we see in the case of China, that the government impulse is key to improving the university offer. In Xataka | Some millionaires did not like the ideology of universities, so their own university has been created: an anti-woke “

There is a World War II board game that lasts 1,500 hours. It is not known if someone has finished it

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If you have to regulate that to prepare a board, learn the rules and put the game to invest an afternoon (and peak) with your friends for any board game, ‘The Campaign for North Africa’ It is not for you: a Wargame of mastodontic size whose duration and ambition are so monumental that it came out in an episode of ‘Big Bang Theory’. This is its story (and the time you have to book in your agendas of the next eight years). Historical context. ‘The Campaign for North Africa’ replicates with painful detail the development of the conflict that took place in North Africa, during World War II, between 1940 and 1943. There were campaigns in the deserts of Libya and Egypt, in Morocco, Algeria (the famous Torch operation) and in Tunisia. The combat occurred mainly between British and German forces, until the United States entered the conflict in 1942. The longest game ever produced. It is estimated that to play a complete game about 1,500 hours are needed (and has been defined as he Wargame More complex ever edited), and about ten players. It takes place over 100 shifts, each of them equivalent to a week of the real conflict. Combat is the least: here what you have to do is manage resources to an absolutely delusional end. The most famous meme linked to the game to record its psychotic level of detail is that the Italians need extra supplies of water to prepare pasta (in reality, an autoparadical wink of the creator who does not correspond to a real fact). Each box included, among other things, a map of 3 meters, 1800 cards and six books with rules, historical context and tables. And a dice. But why. After this nonsense is Richard Berghistorical designer of hundreds of war simulators, not all of World War II: in his curriculum there are games set in ancient Rome, in Waterloo, in the Mexican revolution, in the times of the Highlandersin the Middle Ages, in feudal Japan … This game was born, in reality, as a collaborative project for experts who worked at the editor Simulation Publications Inc. Six months later, the development was so exasperating that Berg had to take the reins, something that took two more years. At the end of that period they were so fed up that they threw it without him (often exhaustive) testing that these titles need to be balanced. But … Is it good? Not too much: the game came out in 1979, it was not a success of criticism or public, but it arrived at a time when the Wargames They invaded stores every week. Today it is considered more a very heavy joke than anything else (and very expensive: as it has not been reissued, copies are quoted for thousands of euros), but playing it is not especially fun: it consists of calculating percentages all the time to keep the account of how resources are exhausted. It has been as a redoubt for fans who decide to broadcast how they will be its weekends for the next ten years. Sheldon does like. In the end, the game has remained as a wink for fans with excess of free time, as attesting to its recognized leviísimally autoparadical character. In episode 16 of season 11 of ‘The Big Bang Theory’, Sheldon proposes to your friends Wait for Bernadette to give birth playing ‘The Campaign for North Africa’. Of course, they get bored quickly, but Sheldon has no problem playing their own shifts and those of their rivals. A perfect summary of the crazy dynamics of the wargames as ambitious as this: fascinating as a concept, too demanding in everything else. In Xataka | The 41 best board games: from ‘Catán’ to ‘Gloomhaven’

Xiaomi surprised the world with his own mobile chip. The next step is to replicate this success in your electric car

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Xiaomi creating its own chips by the hand of TSMC It is something that we did not see in 2025 in which China’s greatest obsession is to boost 100% national technology. The company, in a movement to reduce dependence with Qualcomm and MediaTek Without breaking the ties that still tied to the United States, he presented his Xring 01. A chip capable of competing with the best in the market, thanks to both TSMC technology and its innovative design. The company has confirmed to be locking in its own chip for its future electric cars. It is one of the last pieces that the company needs to close the circle and not depend on companies such as NVIDIA or Qualcomm. The beginning of an era. Xring 01 is a before and after for Xiaomi. It is the first time that it manages to design a processor at the height of the best in the market, improving proposals such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite. Most of this TSMC baby success, who has manufactured this hand processor with Xiaomi. But its architecture is peculiar: it is the only high -end processor with a design composed of ten nuclei, and a distribution of workloads much more efficient than most current processors. Three chips, at least. Xring is the mobile processor, the Xring T1 It is the chip for watches, and Xiaomi has confirmed being working on a third processor for electric cars. The recent launch of your SUV, the Yu7came from the hand of Nvidia and Qualcomm, something that could change completely in the next generation of vehicles. Why there is a Qualcomm chip in the SU7. If you wonder what paint a Nvidia chip and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 In Xiaomi cars the answer is easy: electric cars, today, They are computers with wheels. Yu7 is one of the cars with the largest infotainment system in the world: one in which the windshield is a giant screen. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is responsible for moving HyperosXiaomi’s own software platform. Why there is a nvidia chip in Yu7. The central screen is just a small example of the computing capacity that an electric car needs. Assisted driving systems, Lidar data processing, radars and cameras, are in charge of the Autonomous Driving Platform Nvidia Drive Agx Thor. This software solution allows to manage high work loads with maximum energy efficiency, and is currently the most capable in terms of computing aboard a vehicle. A discreet approach. Xiaomi has not revealed data about whether you are preparing an adaptation of the Xring 01 to electric cars or if the goal is more ambitious and seeks to create its own complete hardware platform. The company has TSMC as an ally, but the design runs on its side. Competing to lead on platforms for new mobility is the next step for a Xiaomi that aspires to conquer almost all of the technological product categories. There Huawei has special advantage with Your Driveone platformone that gives life to Chinese vehicles like the Luxeed S7 or Aito’s latest proposals, such as the M5 and M7. The limitations. The United States Department of Commerce has tried to advise China, urging its national EDA software companies (electronic design automation software) to stop selling your products to your rivals. This software is key to the development of new lithographic processes, and one of the keys to lead the next generation of 2 Nm. Consequently, giants such as Xiaomi will have it complicated to continue improving the design of their chips. As much as TSMC is the one who manufactures them, falls into their hands to design their architecture. The current competitiveness of this chip resides largely in Your 3nm nodewhile China struggles to achieve ability to Manufacture 5 Nm national chips. There is a strong national movement in China to overcome this limitation and boost an EDA industry within the country. It is something that will end up happening, although not in the immediate future. Xiaomi’s great opportunity. Shanghai Xuanjie Technologies, the Xiaomi chips design subsidiary led by former Qualcomm and Ex Unisoc, is an important threat to the United States, with and without TSMC within the equation. The division has shown that, with the necessary tools, the design quality in Xiaomi semiconductors is up to the best. And there are the keys. How much will take advantage of that they can still collaborate with TSMC, and how much of a Xiaomi preparing its complete independence from the United States and seeking to be as competitive as Huawei on platforms for the car of the future. Image | Xiaomi In Xataka | An unexpected war has opened in China: Byd, Catl and Huawei fight for having the final electric car charger

Japan has been a test laboratory for years to encourage birth. And he doesn’t have good news for the world

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Neither The aid. Nor the facilities for access education. Nor the improvement of working conditions. Not even attempts for Exercise “Casélro” and create new couples. The repeated attempts of the Japanese authorities to reactivate their Merm Birth They are clicking on bone and have not prevented the country from closing 2024 with a bleak demographic panorama. Its fertility rate is minimal, births have fallen below the barrier of 700,000 per year and the number of deaths far exceeds the babies. Thus, the country faces a question that They have been Considering analysts: what can a government really do to encourage birth? Can you avoid collapse by looking for everything to the measures of Economic cut? Birth. 2024 has not been a good year for Japanese demography. His Ministry of Health, Labor and Social Welfare has just confirmed it in A balance Desorator and confirms that, despite all its efforts, the country has not yet found the appropriate key to avoid collapse. Among all their data there are two special worrying and that give an idea of ​​the descending drift that is drawing its birth: the fertility rate and births. Last year the global fertility rate (the number of children that a woman would have if she lived until the end of her fertile life) It stood at 1.15. A bad result twice. Not only is it 0.05 points less than in 2023, but it leaves that indicator in historical minimums. This is the lowest recorded data From at least 1947which further away to Japan from the one known as Replacement ratethe necessary number of children (2,1) to maintain a stable population without taking into account immigration. In Tokyo that indicator It does not arrive Even 1. A fact: 686,000 babies (and down). The other devastating fact for Japanese demography is that of the number of births. In 2024 the Japanese Ministry of Health accounted for 686,000, 5.7% less that in 2023. It is the first time in addition (at least since 1899, when the official registration began) that the number of annual lighting was below the 700,000 barrier. The Japanese authorities already had the birth would cross that psychological red line, but they expected it to do so within several years. The forecasts of the National Institute for Research of the Population contemplated that 2024 be closed with some 755,000 new babies And that the births would not fall below the barrier of 690,000 to a decade and a half, in 2039. The predictions were pessimistic, but they have fallen short: that threshold crossed 15 years earlier than expected. ASAHI remember In fact, the 2024 data has coincided with the worst projection drawn by the body. Losing population. The data of the Ministry of Health show only the photograph of the native population resident in the country, excluding both foreigners born in Japan and Japanese born outside their borders; but reveals a serious problem in the demographic engine of the nation. The reason is simple: more Japanese die than they are born. The 686,061 babies scored in 2024 remain away from the 1.6 million of deaths (1.9% more than in 2023). That translates into a negative balance of 919,237 people, around 70,000 people more than the previous year. To understand what this data supposes in practice, Nikei Slide that equivalent more or less to lose all Kagawa in a matter of 12 years. That hole also adds to those that Japan has been suffering over the last years. After all, it carries almost two decades supporting more death than births, which is reflected in Evolution of its total population. A small ray of light: marriages. Among all these negative data the balance of the Ministry of Health leaves one in positive: the number of marriages. The organism registered 486,0632.2% more than in 2023. They remain at low levels and below half a million, but leave the first increase in two years. And that is very relevant to birth. Although in Spain and other EU countries it is increasingly common That couples have babies without going through the altar, in Japanese society births outside marriage or de facto couples are still rare: Nikei remember which in 2023 represented 2.5% of the total. A matter of state. Japan is not the only nation that dealt with birth problems. Something similar happens to South and China. And like them the Japanese authorities have deployed A wide fan of measures to try to reverse the trend that include from children’s subsidies or measures that facilitate education for initiatives to Promote creation of new couples. “Focusing children related to children and parenting is something that cannot expect or postpone,” warned two years ago! Fumio KishidaJapan’s Prime Minister until last October. The problem worries enough to Tokyo for its executive It would be proposed Raise public aid by son to levels similar to those of Sweden and thus avoid that the nation lost “its ability to operate as a society.” That same year the government announced An ambitious plan to encourage birth to deploying a millmillionaire investment. Can you solve with money? That is the question that leaves the last demographic balance of Japan and that have been raising analysts for a long time, both inside and outside the nation. Are economic -economic policies enough to encourage birth? There are those who indicate that at least these strategies must be accompanied by deeper changes and even A rethinking of certain ideas and attitudes rooted in their culture. In 2023 Tomas Sobotka, deputy director of the Institute of Demography of Vienna, He pointed out some keys that feed the demographic crisis and that go beyond subsidies or married policies. The list includes the delay in the age of motherhood, cultural and social changes that lead to young people choose to remain single and without children, a change in the homes themselves, the greatest presence of women in the labor market and a philosophy of life that prioritizes professional ambitions and leaves little time available for parenting. … Read more

The world wants more and more matcha tea. The problem is that Japan is not being able to give it to him

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For centuries Matcha tea It has been one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese culture. Now is that and something else: a drink popularized by social networks and coveted in the international market to such an extent that, in Japan itself, there are stores that have been forced to limit sales by customer. The world is thirsty for Matcha. Increasingly. And that has triggered a deep imbalance in the market that will not be easy to correct in the short term. The big question is … why? Limited purchases. The market of Matchaa popular Japanese powder tea that is made with Técha leaves And it stands out for its bright green color, faces a complicated scenario: a considerable (and growing) decoupling between the supply and demand that has even led some suppliers to limit the amount of product they sell to their customers. Recently Nikkei Asia He spoke of online stores without stock or UJI and Kyoto stores in which only a single Matcha product per day is allowed to acquire. Nothing else. “Due to the strong and continuous increase in the demand for products in recent months, the current demand has already exceeded our production capacity,” Recognize The store Marukyu Koyamaen In a message posted on its website. “This translates into an extremely low inventory of all Matcha products at this time.” If the scenario were not complex in itself, it is added that there are producers who want to prevent their historical clients, such as temples, sanctuaries and places where the drink is used for ceremonial purposes, they are left short. A figure: 4,176 tons. The figures always help to better understand trends. And that of the Matcha boom is no exception. Although throughout the last decades the consumption of green tea and Matcha has been losing bellows in Japan, its success among foreign consumers has triggered the production of the ground TE. If in 2010 the country produced 1,471 tonsin 2023, according to the data of the Ministry of Japanese Agriculture (Maff), that volume had shot up to the 4,176 tons. Almost triple. The Japan Times Precise In addition, in the last five years, the sector has experienced a key change, orient more and more towards the international market: today more than half of the Japanese matcha ends up exporting. In general Nikkei Calculate That last year the flow of green tea exports reached 8,798 tons, ten times more than a couple of decades ago. Of that volume, powder tea, especially Matcha, represented more than half. The reflection in prices. The increase in demand has not long to move to prices, which draw an upward curve. After years down, the value of the tancha began to rebound after the pandemic and It has been consolidating little by little. In early May the Japanese newspaper The Asashi Shimbun revealed That, in the first auction of the year of green tea held at the Ja Zen-Noh Kyoto distribution center, the kilo reached an average of 8,235 yen, almost 67 dollars and 1.7 times more than a year ago. The value far exceeds the previous record, of 2016. Looking out of Japan. Interestingly, matcha fever comes after decades in which both the consumption of powdered tea and green tea in general has been losing strength In Japan’s households, which also explains that has decreased production. The causes of their renewed boom must be sought beyond, in an international demand that According to some analysts It moves to historical maximums. Only American buyers absorbed in 2024 44% of shipments International TEA powder. Second, quite a distance, Germany and Malaysia are. There are estimates that calculate that Matcha’s world market will be around 5,000 million of dollars in 2028, a more than considerable amount if one takes into account that in 2023 it stood at 2.8 billion. “In spite He recounts in Bloomberg K. Oanh ha. What is that boom? There is not a single factor that explains the growing world thirst for Matcha. When analyzing the phenomenon, analysts usually point out a key: the visibility it has reached in networks, both for its photogenic bright green hue and by the videos and comments that extol their health benefits, a message that seems to have penetrated above all After the pandemic. To that growing interest are added the changes in the consumption of the Matcha, which has ceased to be an exclusive drink of homemade ceremonies and meetings to join bottled drinks or even accompany chocolates and ice cream. And why not grow anymore? The tancha production has grown over the last years, expanding beyond the traditional areas of Japan. In addition, their farmers have seen how new competitors from China and South Korea arrived. So … why not that mismatch between supply and demand is not remedied? The key is in the limitations that the sector itself is found to expand its crops. The country has land, but plantations are not created overnight. It takes years In being lists and tancha leaves need to pass a storage and processing phase. Especially if farmers want to wear stone mills. The sector is not alien to the shortage of collectors and the lack of generational relief in a country that dealt with a serious birth crisis. Either to A record tourism flow that further tense demand. With that backdrop, farmers also face a fear that complicates the investments in the plantations: that the Matcha boom stays alone in that, a punctual fashion. Images | Matcha & Co (UNSPLASH) and T.TSeg (Flickr) In Xataka | Japan’s economy depends more and more on a very Japanese phenomenon: fans absolutely delivered to its idols

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