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LaLiga has been at war with Cloudflare for years over piracy. It has just joined forces with its main competitor

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We have bad news and worse news. The bad thing is that condemnation of the indiscriminate blocking of LaLiga IPs continues to occur more than a year later. The bad thing is that probably go more. Above all, after the agreement that LaLiga has reached with Fastly. what has happened. LaLiga yesterday announced an agreement with the company Fastly, a direct competitor of Cloudflare in the market “edge cloud“. Both provide CDN and content acceleration services as well as web security, but their philosophies are different. While one has become a great defender of the privacy of its clients and users, the other has teamed up with LaLiga to help it in this crusade against the broadcasts of football matches on IPTV platforms. In reality LaLiga He already made a similar move a year ago. AI to detect illegal emissions. According to the announcement, Fastly “has developed a smart, targeted detection system that leverages AI and content signals from owners to identify illegal broadcasts in near real-time.” This solution, they say in LaLiga, will allow the elimination of “illegal content (…) with greater precision and drastically reducing the scope for piracy.” The glitch that makes speed everything. The data from the Grant Thornton study cited in the press release are revealing: in 2024 at least 10.8 million unauthorized retransmissions were detected, 81% without broadcast suspension, and only 2.7% addressed in less than thirty minutes. An illegal issue of this type has a very short window of value. If it is not removed within the first few minutes, the damage has already been done. AI to detect… and a hammer to block? The system that Fastly has created promises surgical detection of these IPTV broadcasts, but there are no details or evidence that it actually fulfills that promise. The real question will then be another: if this detection information will end up contributing to the massive and indiscriminate blocking of IPs being even more massive and indiscriminate, or if it will improve that precision. It does not seem likely, because shared IPs are still the root of the problem: when LaLiga orders to block a Cloudflare IP, in reality that IP is shared by dozens, hundreds or even thousands of websites. Knocking down the guilty makes many innocent people They are punished again and again. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. LaLiga has been trying to force Cloudflare to collaborate for years through judicial means. That has had legal costs, collateral damage and a public relations battle that has clearly impacted the organization’s reputation. The alternative sought is to go to someone who precisely understands perfectly how the segment in which Cloudflare operates works. Not only that, if successful, Fastly may end up attracting other leagues and television producers from around the world. The real solution would probably be another. In Xataka | “We have gone from earning 70,000 euros a month to 40,000”: LaLiga’s IP blocks are bleeding many companies dry

John Deere had been preventing farmers from repairing their tractors for years. Now he will have to pay them 99 million dollars

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A modern tractor is a computer on wheels: GPS, sensors, telemetry and proprietary software. Buying it costs a lot more money than a normal car, but until now not even that made the farmer its real owner. John Deere has agreed to pay $99 million to close a class action lawsuit in the United States which accused him of monopolizing the repairs of his machinery, forcing thousands of farmers to depend on authorized workshops with inflated prices and waiting times that could ruin an entire harvest. Why is it important. This agreement is not just about tractors. It is the most visible case of a battle that affects phones, cars, appliances and consoles: that of right to repair what you have bought. If a manufacturer can software block access to the guts of a product you already own, ownership becomes a mere pantomime. What John Deere has done with its tractors, Apple has long done with its iPhones and Tesla with its cars. What has happened. The lawsuit was filed in 2022. Farmers Alleged Deere Purposely Restricted Access to Its Diagnostic Softwareforcing them to go to dealerships that charged artificially high prices. Deere has not admitted wrongdoing, but has accepted the following: Create a $99 million fund to compensate those affected who have paid reparations since 2018. Open to farmers and independent workshops the diagnostic tools that until now only their dealers had. Allow diagnostics and reprogramming in offline mode before the end of 2026. Between the lines. The figure of 99 million is not coincidental. Deere has chosen to stay a million short of nine figures, a classic psychological trick to make it sound less serious in the headlines. But the estimated real damages are much higher: the overpricing in repairs has cost farmers between 190 and 387 million, and total losses could reach 4.2 billion. The fund will be distributed among around 200,000 farmers. Each one will receive a symbolic amount. They cost less than $500 each. Yes, but. John Deere has committed to opening up its repair tools, but only for ten years. After that period, nothing prevents you from turning off the tap again. The company already promised to improve access to repairs in 2023 and, according to the plaintiffs, it failed to keep its word. Additionally, the Federal Trade Commission, the US regulator, keeps another lawsuit open against Deere by the same pattern of behavior. So this soap opera will have more chapters. The big question. The case of tractors is the tip of the iceberg of something that affects us all. A modern tractor, an electric car or a smart thermostat share the same logic: the software inside can turn the owner into a user with permission from the manufacturer. What has been decided in a US court about agricultural machinery will end up defining the limits of ownership in the digital age. Also in Europe. In Xataka | Every summer fires devastate Spain. There is a common culprit that goes unnoticed: old tractors Featured image | Randy Fath

projections have just put on the table the worst El Niño in 140 years

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It often feels like we are erasing the meaning of the word ‘historical’ by using it so much. And yet, here I am: about to say that seasonal prediction models show an “unprecedented” convergence in the same direction: an extremely strong El Niño before the end of 2026. If what the models say is confirmed, we could be facing the most powerful El Niño in at least 140 years. So yes, ‘historic’ is the appropriate word. But, first of all, let’s review what ENSO is. They are the acronym in English of El Niño-Southern Oscillation and they refer to a cyclical (although very irregular) climate phenomenon that has great effects on the global climate. Huge, in fact. If we exclude the stations, it is the most important source of annual climate variability from all over the planet. During the warm phase (that is, during El Niño), the absence of strong trade winds that cool the surface of the equatorial Pacific causes the temperature of that area of ​​the ocean to skyrocket. It is this, through different atmospheric teleconnectionswhich disrupts all the weather systems in the world. The effects are varied and change depending on the region (“drier conditions than normal in certain parts of the world; while in others it causes more precipitation. Some countries have to deal with major droughts and others with torrential rains”, says AEMET); but when we talk about temperatures there is no doubt: El Niño is synonymous with heat. Although, of course, that is in a normal ENSO. If we talk about the strongest ENSO event in a century and a half, everything skyrockets. The most likely conclusions tell us about a wild redistribution of heat globally, a more than likely temperature record for 2027 and a string of profound alterations in rainfall and hurricane patterns. And why do we think it will be like this? Fundamentally, because the convergence of the different models is a very strong indication. Not only is it that more than half of the probabilistic scenarios of the European model they project anomalies greater than +2.5 degrees in the equatorial Pacific, is that Zeke Hausfather (adding 433 members from 11 models) reaches the same conclusions. And what exactly is the news? Obviously, the news is not that El Niño is coming. We have already talked about that: The news is the strength (aggressiveness, even) with which it now appears in our projections. Or not even that. Because no one is very clear what an event of this type means in a climate context like the current one (it would arrive after three years above the 1.5 of the Paris Agreement). And that is a problem. “Problem”? It is also the most appropriate word. We must not forget that the super El Niño of 97-98, one of the strongest ENSOs in recent years, caused numerous consequences that lasted for years: the estimates say which caused damage to global economic growth of around 5.7 trillion dollars. If this event is greater than the one in ’97, the question is whether the improvements we have made since then are enough to contain the blow or not. The answer, I’m afraid, we will have in a few months. Image | Xataka In Xataka | “It is so extreme that it is difficult to believe”: El Niño forecasts depict an event of unprecedented intensity.

If the energy and technological future passes through “Electrostates”, there is one that has been living there for years: China

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As the world panics over the lack of fossil fuels, the numbers in the Chinese renewable sector they are vertigo. Shares in battery giant CATL have soared 29.5% on the Hong Kong stock exchange since the conflict began. For its part, electric vehicle leader BYD has seen its sales abroad skyrocket by 65% ​​year-on-year in the month of March. This wave of buying is not new, but it has accelerated dramatically: last year, Chinese exports of solar panels to Africa increased by 48%, sales of electric vehicles rose by 27%, and sales of wind turbines grew by almost 50%. Survival and a career already over. The global turn to renewables at this critical moment is not driven solely by climate promises, but by a need for “energy security”. Fuel shortages in Asia have led vulnerable countries to take drastic measures: Indonesia’s president has announced the construction of 100 gigawatts of solar power over the next two years, while the Philippines is offering state loans of up to $8,300 to install home solar panels. As an analysis by my colleague Javier Lacort points outthe West has been promising alternatives for years, but China “is not winning the battery race; it has already won it,” controlling more than 80% of global manufacturing. Companies like CATL and BYD have already announced or built 68 factories outside China, investing more money abroad than in their own country. The rise of the “Electrostates.” The global landscape is being redefined. We are witnessing a contest between the traditional “Petrostates”, led by the United States, and the new “Electrostates”, anchored by China, which supplies more than 70% of all the green hardware in the world. Excluded from the United States and Europe by protectionist measures, the Chinese solar industry has found its salvation in the Global South. Last year, Chinese manufacturers shipped 18.8 gigawatts of solar panels to Africa. Diplomatically and economically, the war will cement China’s superpower status. The disconnection of Middle East crude oil could even erode the dominance of the “petrodollar” and catalyze the beginnings of the “petroyuan”as countries like Iran negotiate the passage of ships in exchange for payments in Chinese currency. Side B. Despite this overwhelming dominance, Beijing’s path has significant obstacles. In Africa, although cheap technology is welcome, alarm voices are growing about the creation of a new “dependency syndrome.” Some experts lament that while African countries see China as a savior, Beijing considers them a “dump” to get rid of its industrial overcapacity. In the West, mistrust is even greater for reasons of national security. The UK recently vetoed Chinese manufacturer Ming Yang’s plans to build a wind turbine factory in Scotland, alleging risks of espionage or sabotage in critical infrastructure. At the same time, Donald Trump’s US administration has decided from the beginning to withdraw fiscal support for green energy and prioritize fossil fuels so as not to depend on supply chains controlled by foreign adversaries. China is not invulnerable either.. Despite its renewable leadership, the country still imports 78% of oil that it consumes, and the Persian Gulf supplies almost half of those imports. The rise in the barrel is causing havoc due to cost inflation in its vital steel, aluminum and petrochemical factories, reducing its competitive margins. A geopolitical choice. Precisely because this dependence on fossil fuels punishes everyone equally, the green transition has become a race of pure economic survival to shield national economies. The crisis triggered by the war in Iran shows that resilience is today the main driver of global change. As Fatih Birol of the International Energy Agency points outclean energies will accelerate not only because of emissions, but because they are a “national energy source.” However, adopting this technology means choosing which side of the scale you want to be on. The energy transition is no longer a simple choice between fossil or renewable fuels. Today, the degree to which a country decides (or not) to rely on China will define its ability to decarbonize, making an environmental debate the most defining geopolitical decision of the next decade. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The country that controls the electric batteries of electric cars will control the future. And we already have a winner

Spain has been building a bridge with China for years. Now it is the European Union that needs to cross it

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Pedro Sánchez is going to land in China this week for the fourth time in three years. No other Western leader comes close. Why is it important. What seemed like a diplomatic eccentricity has become a trend. A year ago, Spain seemed an outlier in Europe due to its favorable and close stance towards China. Today it is France, with its calls for tougher trade measures against the Chinese government, who seems isolated, according to analyst Noah Barkin in his specialized newsletter. Watching China in Europe. The context has changed everything: the war in Iran, the volatility of the Trump government and the tariff as a political weapon have pushed Europe towards where Spain already was. The context. In recent years, Spain has attracted a constellation of Chinese companies while maintaining a discourse of rapprochement with China that the rest of the EU viewed with skepticism, if not suspicion. The map of Chinese presence in the country is already considerable: The result of all this rapprochement is also reflected in capital flows: Chinese investment in Spain went from 149 million euros in 2024 to 643 million in 2025, an increase of 331% in a single year. Nevertheless, has done little to reduce Spain’s large trade deficit with the Asian giant. The pattern is known: investment arrives, but Spanish exports do not grow at the same rate. Openness has a price. Between the lines. Barkin describes it like this: Pedro Sánchez has positioned himself as the most openly pro-China and Trump-critical leader in Western Europe. This gives Spain a position as unique as it is uncomfortable. Being China’s favorite interlocutor on the continent means assuming the diplomatic costs of that position when the EU needs to maintain a common voice vis-à-vis China. The contrast. While Spain opens its arms, the European Parliament cautiously reopens its ties with China after eight years of distance. A delegation of MEPs visited China this week on the first official trip since 2018, with a clear message, according to coverage by Traffic light China: commitment does not mean concession. The European Union negotiates with one hand and shields with the other. Spain, on the other hand, has opted for the extended hand, practically alone. The big question. Is Spain a pioneer or a lever? A pioneer sets the path that others end up following because it is the right one. A lever is an instrument that others use for their own purposes. Barkin warns that Spain is following the Orbán model: welcoming Chinese investment without the necessary checks and balances. The comparison may be unfair in its nuances, but it points to a very real risk: that the Spanish opening strategy lacks the reciprocity that Europe needs to negotiate as a bloc. In Xataka | Donald Trump’s tariffs are having an unforeseen effect on China: its factories are getting stronger Featured image | ZQ Lee, Sam Williams

It’s been more than 50 years since we saw the Moon like this. Artemis II has already left new historical images

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Looking at the Moon again as we are seeing it now is not something that happens every day. More than half a century after the Apollo era, Artemis II has completed its lunar flyby and it has already left a visual trail that returns us to that type of trip that we believed almost from the past. At this time, with the mission progressing as planned, NASA points out that the Orion ship would have already left the lunar sphere of influence and would have begun its way back. How we knewthere has been no lunar landing, but what we have seen during these hours, those images captured by the crew, places us again in front of the Moon from a manned perspective that we have not seen for decades. From here, the key is what this overflight has left us. During their passage through the lunar environment, the Artemis II crew has photographed the Moon at different phases of the journey, capturing both surface details and broader scenes of the surrounding space. All this material is already being organized and published by NASA in your multimedia repositorywhere you can consult images, videos and other content of the mission. We are not talking about a specific selection, but rather an archive under construction that will grow over time. The Moon as we had never seen it again Among the material that NASA has already begun to disseminate there are especially powerful scenes, with the Moon dominating the frame and the Earth visible in the background in some shots. The image conveys the scale of the trip very clearly.with our planet reduced to a luminous sphere in the face of the massive presence of the satellite. In the photographs published by the agency, this play of distances is well appreciated, but also the contrast with the surroundings, that completely black background that surrounds the scene. This is where the images gain strength, because they not only show two celestial bodies, but also the relationship between them seen from a position that very few humans have reached. If we look closer, what appears is an enormous level of detail. In photographs taken during During the flyover, large craters, ancient lava flows and structures that run across the surface such as cracks and reliefs can be clearly seen.. The Artemis II crew described these formations as they observed them, also pointing out differences in brightness and texture that help to better understand the composition of the terrain. It is not just an aesthetic issue: each of these details provides information about the geological history of the Moon. The craters on the eastern edge of our satellite Our planet, in the crescent phase, passing behind the Moon Dark spots of ancient lava on the Moon There are moments of the flyover that go beyond the still photography and that help understand the complete sequence of what happened. During the passage through the far side of the Moon, the ship was temporarily without communication with the Earth, a planned section in which one of the most unique moments of the trip also occurred: the so-called “Earthset”, when our planet disappears behind the lunar horizon from the perspective of Orion. Later, when communication was resumed, “Earthrise” arrived, the moment in which the Earth appears again on the other side. These events occurred within a very measured sequence of observations which also included an eclipse seen from the ship. The Moon completely eclipsing the Sun Another image of the total solar eclipse captured by the Artemis II mission Astronauts also use glasses to view eclipses, just like we would on Earth! Here we see the astronauts capturing images through the windows of the Orion spacecraft Not everything we’ve seen happens outside the ship. Part of the disseminated material also allows us to look inside Orion and understand how this section of the journey was experienced from the inside. In the images shared by NASA you can see the crew working in a compact space, surrounded by screens, controls and onboard systems. There are no grand gestures, but a constant sense of activity and coordination, with the astronauts documenting what is happening as they continue with the flight plan. Although the ship has already left the lunar environment behind and is moving towards its return, there is a part of the mission that begins now. All the material collected during the flyby, as we say, will be analyzed in the coming days by the scientific teams, which will seek to extract information from the images, audio and data captured by the crew. As explained by NASA, these observations will be reviewed in detail once the data download from Orion is complete. Meanwhile, the agency has already made part of this content available to the public on its multimedia platform, where the images can be consulted in high quality. Images | POT In Xataka | Artemis II has five different hot sauces on board: the reason is a radical change in what we consider “space food”

Fish has been in a deep crisis in Spain for years. Mercadona believes it has the formula for that to change

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He video It is from October 2024, but it could have easily been recorded yesterday, today or even tomorrow. In a piece lasting just under a minute, Jana Quiles, tiktokerrecounts his disastrous time at a fishmonger: “I just wanted a piece of fish for dinner and, because I didn’t know what to order, I ended up buying 25 euros worth of hake.” Your case is interesting because it connects with a phenomenon shared by many other young people on networks and that is reflected in the statistics from the Government: Spanish households buy less and less fish. Mercadona has taken note and has decided to step on the accelerator in a bet that it’s been a while implementing: the move from the fishmonger to the trays. What has happened? That Mercadona wants a “new fish sales model” in its stores. The chain itself announced it in a statement posted on its website, a note that, beyond its corporate tone, stands out for two things. The first, the message. The company advances its intention to complete the transformation of its sections, betting 100% on the packaged product. “We transfer all products to trays, guaranteeing quality and freshness.” The second thing that draws attention is the images. Mercadona’s statement only shows photos of fish already packaged, labeled and arranged in open refrigerators. Not a counter. Not even a stand with fresh goods and fishmongers to consult about the goods or a special cut. Nothing, in short, that can lead to experiences like the one that Jana Quiles lived in her day. @janaquiles This happens to me as a beginner 😂🐟 ♬ original sound – Jana Quiles Is it something new? In a way. Although Mercadona seems determined to complete its “reengineering” of fish, in reality the change comes from behind. Does more than a year There was already talk of the chain’s desire to find a more efficient model for the section, betting on the consumption of clean merchandise arranged on trays. The idea, how it progressed TOB.C. in January 2025: greater offer in packaging, with items ready for consumption, and much less assisted sales, moving away from the model that prevails in traditional markets. From the traditional image of customers browsing the hake, turbot and mussels displayed on ice, with the fishmonger on the other side of the counter, we move to a more functional one in which there is only the customer and the tray. Why this change? Mercadona argues who wants to “adapt” to how we consume in our homes and defends the benefits of the new model: “The key is to reduce as much as possible the time that passes from when the fish comes out of the water until you consume it.” To older claims that the trays allow it to reduce waiting times in stores, offer an “assortment adapted to real consumption” and work with merchandise “clean and ready for consumption.” In short, selling merchandise made almost to measure for a clientele that has lost the habit of buying fish and no longer has the vocabulary and the keys to ordering fresh goods. Again the case by Jana Quiles is paradigmatic. His experience with hake is not something isolated, it connects with an entire generation that has not acquired the habit of going to traditional fishmongers. That’s all? No. To these advantages are added others that Mercadona does not cite and directly affect its production costs, logistics and even the management of spaces in the store. In January the company already made it clear In any case, the change in model would not imply dispensing with employees, they would simply be assigned new roles. “The entire fishmonger’s team continues to be part of Mercadona. Their work adapts to other needs in the store.” Does it only affect fish? No. The focus may now be on fish, but it is only part of a much larger Mercadona strategy that connects with two of its main bets. One is food ready for consumption. For years, the chain has aspired to be more than just the place where you buy products to fill your refrigerator and pantry; It seeks to be directly the space in which you feed yourself. The clearest reflection of this slogan is the section “Ready to eat”but the commitment to trays of fish that are clean, cut, filleted and practically ready to put in the oven goes in that same direction. And the other bet? The ‘Store 9’the new local format that the Valencian chain wants to bet on. Your goal is optimize processes and improve efficiency, but in practice that translates into moving even further away from traditional counters and moving towards already packaged merchandise. Interaction with staff during purchases is reduced to a minimum. No chats with butchers, fishmongers or fruit sellers, like in traditional supermarkets. Speed, efficiency, and functionality prevail, which in turn leads to handling and packaging tasks being removed from public areas. Is this just about Mercadona? Not at all. Roig’s chain has managed to gain a considerable market share in Spain, close to 30% in terms of value, so their decisions affect thousands and thousands of families. However, the changes in fish consumption go further and partly connect with the Quiles video that we mentioned at the beginning of the article. We Spaniards buy less and less fish. The official data of the Government show that per capita consumption of fish (both fresh and frozen) in homes has been plummeting for years. And it doesn’t get better. He latest reportfrom November, shows interannual falls of between 4 and 5.5%. With its latest movements, Mercadona seeks to position itself in the part of the business that performs best. While Fedepesca talks about the closure of thousands of fishmongers Since 2007, there are businesses in the sector more focused on the sale of ready-to-buy merchandise, online orders and home delivery that they keep growing. Fish consumption itself is leaving homes to focus at leisure. Now Mercadona aspires to carve out … Read more

We have been debating for years whether it is better to go to the gym in the morning or in the afternoon. Physiology finally has the answer

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In the world of sports there is an eternal debate about the best time to exercise. On the one hand, there are those who defend tooth and nail that get up early to train At six in the morning it activates the metabolism for the rest of the day. On the other hand, there are those who claim that the body only performs at its maximum after leaving work late in the day. Who is right? The answer, as is often the case in exercise physiology, has different nuances, since if we turn to scientific literature, recent studies and controlled trials, we will discover that the best schedule depends on the biology, objectives and internal clock of each athlete. And something that is already known is that our biology does not function in a flat manner during the day, but is governed by circadian rhythms. Here, science already indicates that body temperature and neuromuscular performance reach their maximum peak in the afternoon, generally between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. Although the key here is whether this can translate into more muscle in the long term. The concrete studies. In 2019, a group of scientists public a meta-analysis that confirmed that, indeed, baseline muscle strength is greater in the afternoon. However, for early risers, they also pointed out that, if consistency is maintained at the same schedule, the long-term gains in strength and muscle mass are similar, regardless of the schedule, because the human body ends up adapting to what is asked of it. But there is a fairly clear exception, as stated in a study published in 2016. Here, after 24 weeks follow-upit was shown that there is a greater gain in muscle mass in the legs if training is done in combination of bodybuilding and weights. The morning situation. If the goal you have set is not to lift the maximum weight possible, but rather to improve cardiovascular health or combat insulin resistance, the balance tips towards the morning, as confirmed by a study published in 2024 that analyzed patients with metabolic syndrome who performed intense aerobic exercise. Here it was seen that training in the morning achieved a reduction in systolic blood pressure of 4% compared to only 1% in the afternoon group. Additionally, the early risers group experienced a 14% improvement in insulin resistance, compared to 4% for the evening group. Furthermore, narrative reviews suggest that morning exercise helps advance sleep phases and improve the lipid profile. It depends on each person. But beyond what the population averages say, we must take into account the genetic and behavioral component of each person, and above all their chronotype. In this way, people who get up early naturally perform better in the morning, while those who perform better at night, if they are forced to train at six in the morning, the truth is that they will have greater fatigue and a worse perception of effort. The conclusion. Although science finds specific metabolic benefits in the morning and performance peaks in the afternoon, general reviews agree on an insurmountable rule of thumb: the best time to train is the one in which you can maintain long-term adherence. The hormonal peak in the afternoon is of no use if your work obligations prevent you from going to the gym regularly or it means a great sacrifice to radically change the routine you are following. Images | Drazen Zigic In Xataka | Science already knows what is the best “gasoline” to create new neurons: physical exercise

This map shows what the Earth will be like in 250 million years. If it comes true, Spain will be very lucky

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About 200 million years ago, the last supercontinent began to break up. The division of Pangea It gave way, very little by little, to the current geological composition. But what was separated will come together again. The continents keep movingcrashing into each other, and one theory suggests that it will be within 250 million years when another supercontinent will emerge. We have named it as Pangea Ultimaand the truth is that it will not matter exactly which countries we have as neighbors. Pangea Ultima. plate tectonics It is curious because they continue to move one under the other, and that is what has led to the theory of continental drift. These movements are studied to understand the past, as well as to decipher the future, and one of those scholars is Christopher Scotese. This American geographer is the creator of the PALEOMAP Projectwhich seeks to show not only how the elements have moved these last 1,000 million years, but is also attributed the prediction of that future supercontinent. and Scotese elaborated this map: What is it that has inspired the one who opens this article: Curious neighbors. According to this, within about 50 million years North America would have rotated so much that Alaska would be at a subtropical latitude and Eurasia would also rotate, but in the opposite direction, making Britain closer to the North Pole. Africa will move closer to Europe and Arabia, both the Red Sea and the Mediterranean will disappear and, within 100 million years, the Atlantic will begin to shrink. It will be in 150 million years when the Atlantic will disappear as a result of being sucked in by the American continent, bringing America and that block composed of Eurasia and Africa much closer. And the culmination will occur within 200 million years when this new supercontinent is formed, with the Indian Ocean as a central sea and a curious neighborhood mix. According to this model, Latin America would be more or less the same, but with African neighbors to the east. Cuba would be attached to the United States, Greenland would be next to Canada (bad luck, Trump) and Spain would continue to border France and Portugal, but also with Italy, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria. England would also be close to France and Korea would be in a curious sandwich between Japan and China. It will make exactly the same. But the truth is that it doesn’t matter what your new neighbors seem to you, not because, obviously, you won’t be there to suffer them, but because humanity may have become extinct by then. Not because we sometimes put effort into it, but because the conditions will not be the most ideal for the life of mammals. In a study Published in Nature, researchers predicted that 92% of the Earth would be uninhabitable for mammals. The reason is that, in a simulation of the climate of this new supercontinent, it is estimated that the temperatures of a large part of Pangea Ultima will be more than 40ºC, but in addition the amounts of CO₂ will make the life of mammals… complicated. Due to the number of collisions between plates, there will be great volcanic activity that will increase the CO₂ emissions into the atmospherea, not only warming the planet, but also encouraging the levels of this CO₂ to double the current levels. In addition, the Sun will be 2.5% brighter at that time because its nuclear fusion rate will have increased and this is something that will also contribute to making the planet drier. Spain not so bad. It’s not a very encouraging outlook, to be honest, since plant life will also experience mass extinction, but researchers point out that conditions may not be so bad in all parts of the new world. Thus, those closest to the top of the North Pole could have cooler conditions that facilitate better adaptation to life. And Spain, Portugal, Morocco or England are in that scenario. It is also possible that we become specialists in desert environments, becoming nocturnal animals in something similar to what was seen in ‘Dune‘. Alexander Farnsworth, one of the researchers who have simulated the climate conditions of that future, also analyzed From the most serious point of view, how life makes its way in the climate of Arrakis and points to this parallelism with the Earth in 250 million years. one more. Is this what the Earth will look like in 250 million years? Namely, but there are several hypotheses formulated in recent decades that, in one way or another, point to the existence of that supercontinent. One is Novopangeawhere the Pacific will close. another is Auricawith the closure of both the Atlantic and the Pacific. And another model is Amasiawith the union between Asia and America. And it doesn’t matter the model, they are still similar to the last Pangea and, after this new supercontinent, the estimate is that the Atlantic will open again, separating the countries and beginning a new cycle of rupture. What will happen to life? Well, it will make its way, as the great Jeff Goldblum already said in ‘jurassic park‘, because mass extinctions… there have been several. Image | Coffee In Xataka | The Earth has moons that we don’t know about: exploring them is key to revealing the secrets of our solar system In Xataka | This map is a journey through time: this is how the Earth has evolved for 750 million years A version of this article was published in 2025

We have been obsessed with measuring deep sleep with a watch for years. Science says what matters is dreaming vividly

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The reality is that waking up feeling like you’ve fallen asleep like a dormouse is one of the greatest pleasures in life, since it makes you start the day in a very different way. Until now, sleep science has told us that to achieve that feeling of rest we had to maximize deep sleepbut now the rarity and the intensity of dreams They are also gaining a starring role here. A new study. A recent published research in the prestigious magazine PLOS Biology by an Italian team has revealed that vivid and immersive dreams are directly related to a greater subjective sense of deep sleep. And most fascinating: this occurs even when the brain’s electrical activity tells us that we are in a phase of light sleep. How they have done it. To reach this conclusion, the researchers did not settle for morning surveys, but rather They took 44 adults healthy people to a sleep laboratory for four consecutive nights. Here they simply had to be connected to a high-density electroencephalogram to monitor their brain activity in real time. The methodology used was quite methodical, since all of them were awakened repeatedly, reaching the figure of 1,900 awakenings in total throughout the entire study. But they were not waking them up at any time, but rather sleep phase N2 which is what belongs to non-REM sleep and is what is considered relatively light sleep, where the biological need to sleep usually decreases as the night progresses. But the important thing is that, after each awakening, the participants had to describe their previous mental experiences and rate, from 1 to 10, how deep they felt their sleep had been just before opening their eyes. The result. By crossing the data from the dream stories with the EEG activity and the subjective perception of the participants, the scientists found a pattern that indicated that when the participants reported vivid, strange dreams, with high emotional intensity or very visually rich, they reported having been immersed in a very deep sleep. In contrast, if the mental activity before waking up was abstract, vague, or the participants had “meta-awareness,” which is thinking about real problems or being aware that they were sleeping, they felt that their sleep had been very superficial. A change. In this way, this sensation of dreamlike depth challenged the electroencephalograms themselves. And the fact is that, although the EEG showed that the participant’s brain activity was dangerously close to wakefulness, if he was immersed in an intense dream plot, his brain interpreted that he was resting peacefully. Memory doesn’t matter. One of the most interesting details of the study points to a situation that can be frustrating: waking up knowing that you had an incredible dream, but unable to remember the entire plot. Here the scientific study demonstrates that narrative memory is not necessary for rest, since the participants continued to rate their sleep as deep and restorative despite not remembering it. In this way, the simple fact that the brain has been “disconnected” from the physical environment and immersed in its own virtual world seems to be enough to preserve the subjective perception of rest. What does it mean? This discovery opens the door to new treatments for sleep disorders, since, in the case of insomnia, the problem could not only be in the clinical architecture of sleep, but in an alteration of dream activity or a lack of mental disconnection from the environment. And this is precisely where science has to begin to investigate. Images | iam_os In Xataka | Waking up at 3 in the morning is totally normal: sleeping straight through is a modern invention, not an evolution

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