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After the pandemic collapse, the country tries to overcome its contradictions and accelerate the transformation of its business model Portugal is the country where the online luxury fashion store listed on the New York Stock Exchange emerged and which became the first Portuguese unicorn in 2015. That year the minimum wage was 589 euros, below what each customer spent on average on a purchase at Farfetch, the author clothing and accessories platform for checking accounts without complexes created in Matosinhos by Jose Neves, today one of the largest Portuguese fortunes. Since then unicorns have ceased to be an extravagance. There are seven Portuguese companies in the digital world now valued at more than a billion dollars (12 in Spain and 321 in Europe, according to Atomico's 2021 State of European Tech report). But Portugal, which has added an unexpected political crisis to the pandemic and is trying to resolve it with early elections on January 30, is also the country where poverty threatens more than a fifth of the po[CENSORED]tion and where the economy is among Europe's laggards. The fashionable country among European retirees and foreign investors who enter through the front door of the gold visa is also the place of inaccessible housing for the Portuguese middle class (1,209 euros of average monthly salary in 2019, 1,982 euros in Spain). Between these paradoxes of capitalism moves the Iberian country, small, peripheral and with the most stable borders in Europe. Knowing what the territory has been for centuries helps to have a long experience to look outside for what cannot be found inside, whether they are seas and continents in the Modern Age or businesses and jobs in the 21st century. As for the unicorns, they lead the fascinating and uncertain life of ancient navigators. Among the latest additions to the Portuguese list are Feedzai and Remote, whose stories are told in the book Portuguese Unicorns, by Ana Pimentel, a journalist specializing in technology and start-ups. The first was founded in Coimbra and has nearly a thousand clients around the world, including Santander and Citibank. It produces technology to make digital transfers in banking and online commerce more secure based on artificial intelligence. Remote is a telecommuting human resources management platform that was created in 2019. It would be difficult to find a company with a more opportune timing to go to market, fifteen minutes after the world began the era of mass teleworking. One of those businesses that benefited from the virus, that enriched a few and impoverished many. In 2020, Portuguese millionaires increased by 19,430 to reach the figure of 136,430 (1.31% of the po[CENSORED]tion). "The country was poorer, but there was no doubt that it had richer ones," writes Pimentel. Inequality, which had been slowly falling in the last three years, grew again in 2021 to 22.4% in a country of 10.34 million inhabitants. A certain pessimism from the days of the European bailout returns, although the formulas for dealing with the pandemic are the opposite of the philosophy of the Great Recession. “The way economies have handled this crisis has been very different from what happened in the past. It was understood that it was a circumstance external to the functioning of governments and economies, with which it was possible to organize a package of aid to companies and families that allowed the country's productive capacity not to be destroyed, "says the Minister of Economy and Digital Transition, Pedro Siza Vieira, during an interview in his office in Lisbon. Support to the company The liquidation of companies was mitigated in part with these supports. "They constituted a safety net, so it is important that they be maintained while the negative impacts of the pandemic last to avoid insolvencies and the destruction of productive capacity, which would limit the rapid recovery," says Luís Miguel Ribeiro, in an email. president of the Portuguese Business Association (AEP), which encompasses 1,500 companies. The government strategy does not equally convince Susana Peralta, professor at the Nova School of Business and Economics and author of the book Portugal and the crisis of the century. "The government was timid," he writes. The economist cites that of the International Monetary Fund which, without counting the health reinforcement study items, shows that Portugal spent the equivalent of 2.4% of GDP on artillery against the economic effects of the pandemic. Only Slovakia and Greece were behind. Insufficient support influences the difficulties for families to repay their credits. "A bomb that can explode," warns Peralta, who highlights that the country is the third with the most bank moratoriums granted to companies and families with the support of the State. Public weight is often identified as a burden. “The Portuguese economy has been stagnant for too many years, it is not only the effect of the crisis, but also the effect of an economy extremely dependent on the State and, in many cases, even worse, dependent on power”, he observes by email. the professor of Political Science at the University of Aveiro, Filipe Teles. One of the reasons for the stagnation lies, in his opinion, in excessive political centralization. “Nearly two-thirds of the value of the total purchases of public administrations are concentrated in the Lisbon metropolitan area, which generates an economy in the capital that is highly dependent on the public sector, while in the rest of the country it is more industrial and export-oriented” , indicates Teles, who defends the regionalization of the country to revitalize the economy, win democracy and address structural problems such as demographic decline. The debate on territorial reform, resumed a few months ago, could culminate in a referendum in 2024. The health crisis especially punished an economy with great prominence of tourism and restaurants, the fourth non-financial activity with more business life after commerce, construction and real estate activity and agriculture. Especially thanks to the figures of Spaniards, French, British, Germans and Brazilians, the number of tourists since 2009 grew at a galloping rate and quadrupled in a decade to exceed 24 million in 2019. The sudden stop of the Great Confinement exceptional a collapse of 73.7% in 2020. That year the Portuguese GDP fell by 8.4%, two points more than the euro zone, but the forecasts of the Bank of Portugal for this year are of economic joy: a growth of 5, 8% (4.2% in the euro zone), favored by the reactivation of tourism, hotels and restaurants, and the continuing decline in unemployment, which closed 2021 with a rate of 6.1%. Spain continues to be the first client of Portuguese exports, which began to recover last year. "Portugal is recovering from the pandemic faster than Spain," says Ricardo Reis, professor of economics at the London School of Economics. “If we look at the disposable income of families in relation to what they had in 2019, it is in one of the last places in Europe (Spain is in the last). In a way, this was unavoidable in a country that relied heavily on tourism and had no budgetary space to respond aggressively to the crisis due to the enormous burden of public debt. The policies adopted were not very different from those followed in other European countries, but they were smaller”. Public debt The Portuguese public debt skyrocketed between 2009 and 2014 to reach 132.90% of GDP, its peak until the coronavirus arrived (135.2% in 2020). Public accounts have dragged their feet since the previous crisis, when part of the Portuguese financial system went bankrupt. Banks, however, have stopped worrying. "It's more solid and less likely to be at the center of a crisis," says Reis. “The restructuring of that time was good enough for the financial sector to be managing this crisis well and give confidence to the system,” says Carlos Martínez Mongay, who was head of the European Commission mission in Portugal between 2014 and 2019. An important part of the financial system is now in the hands of foreign groups such as the Spanish Santander, Caixabank and BBVA or the US fund Lone Star, which in 2017 took over Novo Banco, created to manage the good assets of Banco Espiritu Santo, in a opaque operation that has been censored in a parliamentary investigation commission. More significant is Chinese investment, which was deployed in Portugal when the country was being paid off in times of the troika. The Asians took over a good part of the assets of the Economic Adjustment Program between 2011 and 2014 and landed in strategic companies such as Energías de Portugal (EDP), Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN), and the insurer of the Caixa Geral de Depósitos, the public bank. During President Xi Jinping's visit to Lisbon in 2018, agreements were made on infrastructure, water, 5G technology, space research and agriculture, among others. The following year Portugal became the first country in the euro zone to issue debt in yuan. Link: https://elpais.com/economia/negocios/2022-01-16/bajos-salarios-y-poco-valor-anadido-la-economia-que-portugal-quiere-olvidar.html

The loss of species, such as birds and mammals, is impacting the ability of plants to adapt to climate change, according to a recent publication in the scientific journal Science. “When we lose birds or mammals, we don't lose just these species. We also lose its important ecological function, which is to disperse seeds,” said Evan Fricke of Rice University. “When we lose birds or mammals, we don't lose just these species. We also lose their important ecological function, which is to disperse seeds," Evan Fricke, of Rice University, and one of the authors of the study entitled The effects of defaunation on the ability of plants to follow climate change, told AFP. which is the cover of the most recent volume of the journal Science. This study is the first to quantify the problem at a global level, and estimates that the ability of plants that need the collaboration of animals to adapt to climate change has already been reduced by 60%. (You may be interested: NASA warns that in 10 years the global warming ceiling will be reached) Tree species present in regions that have become inhospitable due to global warming can, for example, migrate to other areas where it rains more, but they do so in the form of seeds. Half of the plants depend on animals to eat their fruits and transport them further, a figure that can increase to 90% in tropical forests, while others are left to the wind alone. The Danish researchers used data from thousands of previous studies of animal behavior to build a map of their contribution to seed dispersal. They then compared a map that nullifies the effect of human-caused species extinctions and shrinking ranges. (You can read: In pictures: The little-known opossum found in Guainía) The results were surprising. Loss in seed dispersal was most pronounced in temperate regions of North and South America, Europe, and Australia, despite losing only a small percentage of mammal and bird species. And it was less in the tropical regions of South America, Africa or Southeast Asia, but it could accelerate if other species such as elephants become extinct. (It may interest you: A little-known species of opossum is found in Guainía) “If enough seeds are not dispersed to follow the environmental conditions, such as temperature and rainfall, that plants need, they can become trapped in environments where they will have difficulty surviving. This could lead to the loss of plant species, along with the valuable products and services that they guarantee, from food to carbon storage,” the authors note in an article published in The Conversation, where they summarize part of the research of their research. Link: https://www.elespectador.com/ambiente/extincion-de-animales-dificulta-adaptacion-de-plantas-al-calentamiento-global/

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The plan, which will seek to offer solutions "in the short and medium term", and not a "naturalization" in the long term, supposes a fulfillment of the electoral promise. The Ecuadorian government plans to announce this month its regularization plan for Venezuelan migration, a project in which original countries and the United Nations have been involved to offer inclusive solutions to more than half a million people. "We are a few days away from formally presenting the regulations worked not only internally and based on what President Guillermo Lasso governed the country, but precisely with the donor conference," the new Ecuadorian foreign minister told Efe, Juan Carlos Holguín. The plan, which will seek to offer "in the short and medium term", and not a "naturalization" in the long term, supposes a fulfillment of the electoral promise that the president made to solve the humanitarian problem of hundreds of miles of migrants living in the country. Andean in the last five years. According to Holguín, it is about "more than 500,000 people who are already stable in Ecuador without regularization and who want to make Ecuador their stable place." The plan also had solutions to "almost 200,000 floating people going south," which has also required dialogue with the Government of Colombia and Peru. The intention is to offer "immediate" regularization for those who cannot receive the plan of the previous Lenín Moreno government, either due to the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic or because they simply do not have the 50 dollars required for the humanitarian visa. It is, the minister pointed out, a process so that "those citizens who were not regularized will have, not only a perspective of dignity, but also of economic, social and cultural inclusion in our country." And "make transparent what is not transparent today." "It is a huge challenge but that is the situation we have," said the minister without offering figures on the cost of the project, in which countries such as Canada, Germany and others from the European Union have offered their help so that the plan "includes the concerns "that are had. "As we say here, they have helped with 'with money and person', with non-reimbursable cooperation funds, with technical equipment, and the United Nations system played a fundamental role." Among the requirements that will be taken into account are the candidate's criminal record, according to the minister, for whom the project offers to resolve "the vulnerability" of this group. "Now, this solution process does not remove the problem of origin that migration has and that - I believe in a very personal way - is something that must be discussed in the region," he said. Link: https://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/politica/gobierno-ecuatoriano-anunciara-este-mes-su-plan-de-regularizacion-de-migrantes-venezolanos-nota/

Tracking the movements of large wild animals, researchers developed the software ‘enerscape’ – protecting species and helping humans avoid animal contact arge land animals impact the ecology and biodiversity of the regions of land they live in and navigate. Should these routes, such as stopping places of cattle, horses, sheep, and those of wolves or bears overlap with those of people, this contact between humans and animals could easily lead to conflict. However, these new maps being made by enerscape are simpler than measurements obtained using radio transmitters – additionally, they can be used where conventional methods fail. Tested in the Abruzzo region of Italy, the software tracks the movements of the endangered and protected Marsican brown bear, around the region of the Sirente Velino Regional Park. By recording the bears’ patterns of movement in the 50,000-hectare park, the maps can protect the threatened species as well as the people living there, and the sensitive flora. Dr Emilio Berti, first author of the study, said: “What’s special is that the software requires very little data as a basis. The energy an animal needs to expend to travel a certain distance is calculated, based on the weight of that animal and its general movement behaviour. This energy expenditure is then integrated with the topographical information of an area. “From this information we can then create ‘energy landscape maps’ for individuals as well as for groups of animals. Our maps are calculated rather than measured and thus represent a cost-effective alternative to traditional maps. “In particular applications, such as the conditions in the Italian national park, our method makes the creation of movement pattern maps actually possible at all.” Bears use routes which require the least energy expenditure Published in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, researchers found that bears choose paths that require less energy expenditure using enerscape. These paths, often leading through settlements, can often result in fatalities for the animals, should bears come into contact with people. This software can help avoid this encounter. The software additionally predicts that bears wanting to save energy will tend to stay in valleys, far away from human settlements. It also identify bear conflict and protection zones, with its maps being able to check whether landscape elements are still well-connected enough to enable the animals to move around the area sufficiently. Enerscape is based on the widely used programming language ‘R’, with its modular structure it can process animal movement and topographical data from a wide variety of ecosystem types. Emphasising the special nature of enerscape, Professor Fritz Vollrath from the Department of Zoology at the University of Oxford and senior author of the study said: “This makes it possible for both researchers and wildlife managers to adapt the software to a wide variety of landscapes and animals. “This means that the number of maps of animal movement in landscapes will increase in just a short time. With significantly more cartographical data, the understanding of the behavioural ecology of a species in a certain habitat will also fundamentally change. Link: https://www.openaccessgovernment.org/animal-movement/127312/

The Ebroh brand stages a new electrical creation developed and approved in Spain. The Bravo CR delivers a power of 11.3 hp, offers a maximum speed of 115 km / and is committed to offering 100 kilometers of autonomy. Four years ago, Ebroh lost itself to the world of electromobility as a successful startup. Based in Zaragoza, the brand offers several two-wheeled models (both bikes, motorcycles and scooters), and one of its latest creations has been the Ebroh Bravo CR, a faired electric motorcycle that completes the range of the Bravo GLE ('naked ') and the Bravo GLS (' roadster '). The Bravo CR is a motorcycle whose features, performance, design and handling have nothing to envy of the gasoline motorcycles in its segment. It maintains a modern motorcycle silhouette, with a clearly ‘Sport Touring’ approach, which stands out for transmitting modernity and versatility. These two elements are in high demand in this segment and, therefore, Ebroh has devised this Bravo as an element of penetration in the European market. Thanks for watching It stands out for offering a very ergonomic driving position, which allows it to cover the 100 kilometers of autonomy that it proves without signs of fatigue for the user. Its dimensions and distribution of weights allow to circulate with total comfort. With 147 kilos we can say that it is a really manageable motorcycle. The frame offers a double upper cradle and a second lower cradle. Its structure is tubular. The suspensions worked a hydraulic fork of 35 mm diameter 125 travel. The seatposts have 194mm between the centers of the hanger bar anchors. Back mounted a hydraulic monoshock with progressive system. It mounts 17-inch aluminum wheels, double disc brakes at the front and single disc at the rear. Its motor highlights its highly efficient brushless system, which allows it to maintain good power delivery in any driving mode. Link: https://www.elperiodico.com/es/economia/20220109/ebroh-bravo-cr-nueva-moto-electrica-13062242

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The magnitude of the economic damage from the new variant is uncertain, but growth could suffer from both sanitary restrictions and the havoc caused by the variant. Almost two years after the tsunami caused in the international economy by the appearance of the new coronavirus, experts from around the world are trying to gauge the impact of the increase in infections by the Omicron variant after the shaky recovery in 2021. Is global growth threatened? The magnitude of the economic damage of the new variant is uncertain, but growth could suffer both from sanitary restrictions and from the damage caused by the contagious Ómicron in the workforce of companies. The director of the International Monetary Fund, Kristalina Georgieva, warned in early December of a downward revision of world growth forecasts, currently at 5.9% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022. The change could be announced at the end of January. In the United States, "Ómicron is already causing damage," noted the chief economist of the rating agency Moody's, Mark Zandi, who estimates a growth of 2.2% in the first quarter in that country, against 5.2% previously. of the Omicron impact. These shocks can dissipate from the second quarter, he says. In the eurozone, Andrew Kenningham, chief economist for Europe at the Capital Economics cabinet, estimates that restrictions such as the lockdowns applied in the Netherlands or Austria will cause a slowdown in the first quarter, followed by a rebound if the epidemic peak is reached in January. "Each wave causes less damage to the health care system and the economy than the preceding one," summarizes Zandi. The uncertainty is greater in emerging countries, with less vaccination coverage, and in China, which continues to apply draconian restrictions in its "zero covid" strategy. What sectors are most affected? Thousands of flights canceled during the holidays, diverted or suspended cruises, sinking hotel reservations ... Ómicron has hampered the long-awaited recovery of the travel sector, especially hit by the pandemic. The entertainment industry also fears that the explosion of cases will put off casino, theater or movie theater patrons. But on world stock markets, these sectors have been going from strength to strength for weeks. "The market seems to be projected in the post-Ómicron", explains Alexandre Baradez, analyst at the investment company IG France. Since December 20, the share of the cruise company Carnival has risen by almost 20%, that of Air France by 15% and that of the manufacturer of engines and construction materials Caterpillar, almost 25%. These values, which strongly depend on the situation, illustrate the hope of an imminent economic normalization. Will inflation get worse? Before Omicron, inflation in the United States and the eurozone was at its highest level in decades. And this phenomenon could be accelerated. "People who stay home because of the variant are more likely to spend their money on consumer goods, rather than on services like restaurants and face-to-face entertainment," says Jack Kleinhenz, chief economist at the US merchants federation NRF. Global supply chains are already overloaded, causing shortages of materials and raw materials. An increase in demand could raise prices further. It is the scenario feared by the US Federal Reserve, which plans to advance its calendar to raise rates, according to the minutes of its last meeting. In other economies, such as Brazil or Nigeria, families see their purchasing power decline due to double-digit inflation, and the British economy is on the verge of contraction, according to the country's chambers of commerce. What will happen to the aid? Massive business aid programs in the spring of 2020, which added $ 226 trillion to global debt the previous year according to the IMF, seem like a thing of the past. "The use of programs such as partial unemployment made sense at a time when uncertainty was total and the entire industry was paralyzed," says Niclas Poitiers, a researcher at the Bruegel Institute. But the planet has learned to live with Covid-19 and "now we are talking about launching more structural aid programs such as Build Back Better (which provide for social and environmental reforms in the United States) or the Next Generation," the plan of Ecological and digital transition of the European Union, he adds. But there is still more focused aid for the worst hit sectors, such as the French or British programs for tourism, hotels and restaurants. Link: https://www.eleconomista.com.mx/economia/Un-tsunami-La-economia-mundial-calibra-el-impacto-de-Omicron-20220107-0029.html

The saola is so elusive that no biologist has seen one in the wild. Now they are racing to find it, so they can save it Weighing 80-100kg and sporting long straight horns, white spots on its face and large facial scent glands, the saola does not sound like an animal that would be hard to spot. But it was not until 1992 that this elusive creature was discovered, becoming the first large mammal new to science in more than 50 years. Nicknamed the “Asian unicorn”, the saola continues to be elusive. They have never been seen by a biologist in the wild and have been camera-trapped only a handful of times. There are reports of villagers trying to keep them in captivity but they have died after a few weeks, probably due to the wrong diet. It was during a survey of wildlife in the remote Vũ Quang nature reserve, a 212 square mile forested area of north central Vietnam, in 1992, that biologist Do Tuoc came across two skulls and a pair of trophy horns belonging to an unknown animal. Twenty more specimens, including a complete skin, were subsequently collected and, in 1993, laboratory tests revealed the animal to be not only a new species, but an entirely new genus in the bovid family, which includes cattle, sheep, goats and antelopes. Initially named Vu Quang Ox, the animal was later called saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) – meaning “spindle horns”, the arms or posts (sao) of a spinning wheel (la) according to Lao-speaking ethnic groups in Laos and neighbouring Vietnam. The discovery was hailed as one of the most spectacular zoological discoveries of the 20th century, but less than 30 years later, the po[CENSORED]tion of the saola is believed to have declined enormously due to commercial wildlife poaching, which has exploded in Vietnam since 1994. Although saola is not the direct target of poachers, the intensive commercial trap providing animals for use in traditional Asian medicine or as bushmeat constitutes the main threat. Despite efforts to improve patrolling of nature reserves in the Annamite Mountains, a major mountain range that stretches around 680 miles through Laos, Vietnam and northeast Cambodia, poaching has intensified. "Thousands of people use traps, so there are millions of them in the forest, which means that po[CENSORED]tions of large mammals and some birds have no way to escape and are collapsing in the Annamites," says Minh Nguyen, a student at Ph.D. from Colorado State University. , which studies the impact of traps on critically endangered great-horned muntjac. In 2001, the Saola po[CENSORED]tion was estimated to be 70 to 700 in Laos and several hundred in Vietnam. More recently, experts have put the number at less than 100, a decline that led to the species being listed as critically endangered on the IUCN red list in 2006, the highest risk category a species can have before it. extinction in nature. The animal was last photographed in 2013 at the Saola Nature Reserve in central Vietnam. Since then, villagers continue to report their presence in areas in and around Pu Mat national park in Vietnam and in Bolikhamxay province in Laos. In 2006, William Robichaud and Simon Hedges, a biologist and specialist in wildlife conservation and fighting the illegal wildlife trade in Asia and Africa, co-founded the Saola Working Group (SWG) with the goal of finding the last saolas in nature for a captive breeding program, in order to reintroduce the species to the wild in the future, in a natural habitat free of threats. The SWG connects conservation organizations in Laos and Vietnam to raise awareness, gather information from the local po[CENSORED]tion, and search for saola. But the animals continue to elude the team. Between 2017 and 2019, the SWG conducted an intensive search using 300 camera traps in an 11-square-mile area of the Khoun Xe Nongma National Protected Area in Laos. Not one of the millions of photographs that saola captured. According to the IUCN, only about 30% of Saola's potential habitat has had some type of wildlife study and potentially only 2% has been intensively searched for the species. Technologies limit capabilities: camera traps are not good at detecting individual animals that are scattered over a large area, especially in the dense and humid forest of the saola mountain range. In August this year, the IUCN Species Survival Commission called for more investment in the search for the saola. "It is clear that search efforts must increase significantly in scale and intensity if we are to save this species from extinction," said Nerissa Chao, director of the IUCN SSC Asian Species Action Association. One organization, the Saola Foundation, is raising money for a new initiative that would train dogs to detect signs of saola like manure. Any samples would then be studied on-site using saola-specific DNA rapid field test kits that are being developed in conjunction with the Molecular Laboratory of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York. If the kits test positive within an hour, expert wildlife trackers will start looking for saola in the forest. If successful, the captured saolas will be taken to a captive breeding center developed by the SWG and the Vietnamese government in the Bạch Mã national park in central Vietnam. "We are at a point in the history of conservation," says Robichaud, who is president of the Saola Foundation. “We know how to find and save this magnificent animal, which has been on planet Earth for perhaps 8 million years. We just need the world to come together and support the effort. It will not cost much and the reward, for Saola, for the Anamite mountains and for us, will be enormous ”. Find more coverage on the age of extinction here and follow biodiversity reporters Phoebe Weston and Patrick Greenfield on Twitter for the latest news and reports. … We have a small favor to ask. Millions of people turn to The Guardian for quality, independent, open news every day, and readers in 180 countries around the world now support us financially. We believe that everyone deserves access to information based on science and truth, and analysis based on authority and integrity. So we made a different decision: to keep our reports open to all readers, regardless of where they live or how much they can afford. This means that more people can be better informed, united and inspired to take meaningful action. In these dangerous times, a truth-seeking global news organization like The Guardian is essential. We do not have multi-million dollar shareholders or owners, which means that our journalism is free from commercial and political influence; this makes us different. When it has never been more important, our independence allows us to fearlessly investigate, challenge and expose those in power. Support The Guardian from as low as $ 1; it will only take a minute. If you can, consider supporting us with a regular amount each month. Thank you. Link: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/07/scientists-step-up-hunt-for-asian-unicorn-one-of-worlds-rarest-animals-aoe