“The death of the star is not the end, but the beginning of a new chapter”

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The future of the Sun it is written. Like any star its size, it is expected that there will come a time when it runs out of fuel, swelling and becoming a red giant. Then, later on, it will expel its outermost layers and its core will collapse under the effect of gravity, becoming a cold and dense white dwarf. It will be a process that will take about 5,000 million years to occur and that, logically, will influence the planets that revolve around it. Including Earth. That’s why scientists are so interested in studying exoplanets around white dwarfs. They want to “travel to the future” and see what will become of our own planet and its neighbors. The problem is that, while many of these exoplanets have been found, it is generally very difficult to delve into their atmosphere and study their history. Until now, it had been impossible, but the James Webb Space Telescope has arrived to change that trend. Colder than expected. A team of scientists from several American universities has used the James Webb to enter the atmosphere of WD 1856bsimilar to Jupiter in orbit and size, which is currently orbiting a white dwarf. James Webb is not capable of solving the reasons why it is so complicated to study these exoplanets. However, thanks to the development of new analysis models, these researchers have been able to analyze its atmosphere. The composition, in reality, has not caught their attention too much. On the other hand, its temperature has. If we compare it with Jupiter, a temperature of -113ºC would be expected. However, 126ºC was measured. It is too hot, both for an exoplanet around a white dwarf, and for an exoplanet with the characteristics of Jupiter. Chronicle of a death foretold. In its early stages of life, a star remains “on” while It fuses hydrogen nuclei and transforms them into helium. While this happens in the core, there are two forces that remain in balance. On the one hand, gravity, which pushes all the material inward. And, on the other hand, the radiation pressure, which is generated by the effect of fusion in the stellar core and pushes outward. So far so good. The problem is that hydrogen is not infinite. When spent in the core, the forces are no longer in balance. Gravity overcomes radiation pressure, so the core is pushed inward and compressed. It heats up so much that the helium that remained in the core acquires the ability to fuse, becoming a new fuel, which will be transformed into carbon and oxygen. All this heating also “ignites” the hydrogen in the outer layers, which until now remained inactive. It begins to merge as well and the star grows outward. We have a big, hot red giant. The process repeats itself, but there comes a time when these new layers that form are expelled by the stellar winds and only the core remains, now cold and very dense. We have a white dwarf. Logically, it is a process that has consequences on the planets that orbit the star. In the case of the solar system, it is known that Mercury and Venus would perish. With the Earth things are not so clear, but it does not look good. What exoplanets around a white dwarf tell us. Numerous cases of exoplanets have been detected around white dwarfs. Studying them is opening a window to the future of the Earth and its neighbors. However, it is not something easy to study. Generally, the atmosphere of exoplanets is studied during transits. That is, when the planet passes between its star and our telescopes. At this time, light from the star is filtered through the planet’s atmosphere, so the resulting spectra can be analyzed and its chemical composition understood. The problem is that, normally, exoplanets are much smaller than their star, but that is not the case with those that orbit a white dwarf. This exoplanet, for example, is seven times larger than its star. Therefore, if normally the atmosphere of a transiting planet is completely on the disk of its star, in this case only a small part is. It was necessary to refine the analysis methods with the James Webb to be able to analyze the atmosphere of WD 1856b. too hot. The wavelength at which objects emit light can also give us clues about their temperature. Therefore, this procedure was used to calculate the temperature of the exoplanet. As we have already seen, it turned out to be too hot. The hypothesis. It is not known for sure what causes these inconsistencies, but the study authors have some hypotheses. They consider that the planet possibly reached its maximum temperature billions of years after its star became a white dwarf. Then, far from cooling as it would normally have, it was affected by a nearby binary star, whose tidal influence not only warmed it. It also moved it away from its orbit. All this took him away from what was expected, but above all it kept him alive. As explained in Science Alert one of the authors of the studyRyan MacDonald, this planet, like all exoplanets around a white dwarf, demonstrates that the death of the star is not the end of the planet, but a new chapter. Earth may not be influenced by a binary star, but there are many factors that can keep it alive. There may no longer be humans to see it, but perhaps there will be a new form of life. If humanity has not destroyed the planet beforeneither may the collapse of the Sun. That’s good news. More or less. Image | NASA, ESA, CSA, R. Crawford (STScI) In Xataka | What astronomers thought was going to be a boring supernova has revealed an enigma of galactic dust

Sony has told you why it stops selling games in physical format. The real reason, of course, is the same as always: money

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Sony has announced that in January 2028 will stop manufacturing physical discs for PlayStation. Among the brief reasons given for making this decision is adapting to the player’s preferences, and following the trends that rule the industry: digital games sell more than physical ones, therefore, this is the choice of the players, which must be adhered to. However, what you have to look at there to find Sony’s true motives is “best sellers.” And specifically, we have to ask ourselves what economic benefit Sony extracts from these sales. The clear accounts. You just have to take note of the profit percentages that Sony makes with each game sold to understand the operation. According to the analysis of consultant Serkan Toto, Kantan GamesSony receives around 54% more for each digital copy of its own game than for the same physical copy. At a price of 70 dollars, a digital game leaves you the full 70 dollars, because there is no external store that takes commission (of course, from there you have to extract development, marketing and corporate costs, if the game is from an external studio). The same title on disc, after deducting the distributor’s margin (about 30%) and the manufacturing cost (about 5%), is left with a profit of about $45.50. Although the calculation is approximate and countless external actors must be taken into account (especially third parties), the comparison makes clear the maxim that is guiding these decisions: the fewer intermediaries, the greater the profit margin per unit. Less physical. Added to this is that the physical aspect already weighs little in the company’s overall income statement. According to a corporate report of the company itselfphysical software represented only 3% of its revenue in 2024. All these decisions must also be contextualized: at a time when Your Playstation 6 can cost a thousand euros sales price and that the current component crisis promises not only to continue, but directly double next yearcutting that 3% can save millions. Kill the second hand. There is another figure that should be taken into account: resale. Every second-hand record that changes ownership is a sale from which Sony does not see a euro. An Alinea Analytics analyst said that “what this is all about is profitability and control for PlayStation”, two very juicy terms in this new situation because a digital code, apart from all the savings in intermediaries that we said above, is linked to a personal account that cannot be resold or lent. Every second-hand product that Sony was unable to sell now becomes a new purchase at full price, or is not produced at all. This second-hand market is not exactly marginal, and is now being seen to disappear. GameStop saw a 14% drop in its quarterly revenue last March, and explicitly attributed to the shift towards digital. The analysis firm Circana estimates that spending on new physical games in the United States has fallen to 1.6 billion dollars in the last year, compared to a maximum of 11.5 billion in 2009. In other words, we have had an almost uninterrupted decline for seventeen years. It’s the market, friend. Sony has taken the most aggressive step, but the direction had already been set from different parts of the sector for some time. A week before Sony’s announcement, Rockstar confirmed that The physical edition of ‘GTA VI’ will not have a disc version. Both Xbox and Playstation have sold versions of their latest consoles without a disc reader. It is an inescapable trend, which began on PC and in stores that have ended up becoming massive options, such as Steam, and which reveals that a corporation will always prefer, rather than a one-time sale, that we are subscribed (literally or figuratively) to a constant purchase, to a service that never ends. Therefore, saying that the player has chosen digital for convenience is, at the very least, a liquid truth. As he told newsletter ‘Friday in Kiribati’we must not get carried away by that discourse: we have not chosen the preeminence of the digital, it has been imposed on us: “it seems that during the last decade no one has designed consoles without a reader, exclusive discounts for digital versions, subscription catalogs, stores integrated (and hyperpresent) in the designs of the systems, games that, despite having the disc, need to connect to the internet (…) nor have they invested obscene amounts of money in convincing us that getting up from the couch to change a disc was a thing. of the past.” Image | Photo of Alexey Savchenko in Unsplash

“With two or three days a week changes are already noticeable”

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The arrival of the sixth decade of life is usually accompanied by an alarmist message about inevitable physical decline, with all the health problems that entails. To be able to deal with this, the important thing is to start exercising as soon as possible, and when you reach this age it is not necessary to go to the gym every day or subject your body to exhausting sessions. The science. Scientific evidence and clinical experience converge on a much more accessible point, which is the possibility of strength training two or three days per week, since it is the optimal threshold to generate structural, functional and perceptible changes in a short period of time. The experts. The physiotherapist and therapeutic exercise specialist Agus Oliver recently explained it in an interview for Infobae, making clear that with two or three days a week you can already notice important changes if the work is well planned. According to his clinical experience, the success of the intervention does not lie in leaving destroyed after hours of continuous effort, but in executing programs of between thirty and forty-five minutes consistently. This moderate frequency also allows the introduction of complementary disciplines such as Pilates, which adds body control and mobility to the gain of strength, without overloading the patient’s joint structures. The tests. This perspective is deeply rooted in the strictest international guidelines. Here the WHO itself, in a physical activity guide published in 2020points out that for older adults it is essential to accumulate between one hundred and fifty to three hundred minutes of moderate aerobic activity per week. But to this recommendation they add that strength training of large muscle groups during two or more days a week provides substantial additional benefits in fall prevention and functionality. Two points that are fundamental when you reach a certain age to maintain good autonomy. Rest is essential. Given the idea that more minutes of exercise means physical improvement on a linear scale, the American College of Sports Medicine point to the need to respect about 48 hours of rest between sessions that involve the same muscle group. In our country, the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology joins this consensus and explicitly endorses that strengthening the muscles two or three days per week is the most effective strategy to optimize walking, facilitate the use of stairs and drastically reduce the risk of accidents, recommending not working the same area on consecutive days. a study published by the Polytechnic University of Madrid in 2025 pointed out directly that traditional strength protocols, carried out precisely at those frequencies of two or three days a week, are capable of improving knee extension strength by up to 46%. Additionally, multicomponent programs increased the distance covered in the six-minute walk test by more than 13%, while interval training improved maximum oxygen consumption by almost six percent. We are talking about measurable clinical changes in a matter of weeks, which restore autonomy to patients without the need to impose unacceptable routines. Images | Center for Aging Better In Xataka | Muscle as medicine: this is how strength training protects your heart, your brain and your life expectancy

China launches the first factory for personalized vaccines with artificial intelligence

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Cancer treatment is on the verge of a historic revolution driven by the hyperpersonalization of medicine. Until now we were working with the idea of ​​manufacturing general medicines to treat cancer, but the idea of ​​manufacturing a unique and exclusive medicine for the genetics of each patient’s tumor has been around for years in laboratories, but the great bottleneck has always been the manufacturing time and, logically, the immense costs. A new step. China just gave the green light to the world’s first production line for cancer vaccines powered entirely by artificial intelligence. Located in Beijing, this facility is owned by Likang Life Sciences, a firm that has invested approximately $16.1 million in setting up a factory designed to operate at unprecedented speed. Its most advanced product is the LK101 neoantigen vaccine and it delegates the complex task of sequencing tumor DNApromising to synthesize customized doses in just one day. The definitive objective of this technological deployment is for patients to receive their personalized injection a few days after undergoing the biopsy. Why an AI? The key here is in the “neoantigens”, small mutated proteins that are exclusively in tumor cells and in each patient we find specific antigens. Here AI intervenes as an ultra-fast analytical engine by scrutinizing the tumor’s genetic information and predicting which parts of the antigen will be most effective in awakening and directing immune system cells to kill the tumor. Because here the only thing we seek is to activate the natural defenses we have, as we already do with immunotherapy, so that it is able to find tumor cells and destroy them, just as it does, for example, when we have an infection. But this is a process that requires great personalization and, above all, great speed to act as soon as possible on patients. And this is something an AI can do. for a long time Science has been paving this path, as we saw with an article published in 2024 which demonstrated that the integration of AI in the design of mRNA and DNA oncological vaccines is essential to know with maximum accuracy the composition of a tumor and its weak points. And to avoid failures, the algorithms are trained with large databases that we already have, where all the possible variants that a tumor may have are found. Another good news is that pioneering publications in Nature had already demonstrated the feasibility of RNA vaccines to induce specific and memory immune responses in patients with melanoma or even in such lethal and complex tumors. like pancreatic cancer. The nuance. It must be made very clear, first of all, that the promising results obtained in animals do not directly guarantee success in all patients, with clinical efficacy in humans still being very limited. And currently the vast majority of studies focused on this new personalized treatment are in very early stages. On the other hand, although China has built the first large algorithmic factory, its clinical research ecosystem remains very closed, and the data indicates that between 2014 and 2024 89 clinical trials of oncological vaccines were registered in this country. Something that greatly clashes with the 757 tests that have been carried out in the United States in this same period. And more limited. Added to this is that Chinese trials have an almost exclusively domestic vocation, with barely 2.2% global reach compared to 47.6% in the United States. But they also address less oncological diversity, focusing on about 5 types of cancer compared to the more than 20 studied by North American competitors. Images | Testalize In Xataka | Cancer in people under 50 years of age has been growing for decades. A macro study finally points to the big culprit: biological aging

Samsung starts July with its summer sales

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Were you waiting to get a Galaxy S26? Samsung launched these phones at the beginning of 2026 and, although we have seen them on sale other times, not with discounts. Whether we didn’t get these previous offers or if we were waiting for a greater discount, a new purchase window has just opened in the official Samsung store. And for the three phones that make up this Galaxy S family. Galaxy S26 Ultra (12+256GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links This store has a new round of sales right now with which we can get one of these phones at a very good price. We are going to detail the complete information below, but it is worth noting that they also have a special discount on refrigerators by using the code ‘FRIO10’. Galaxy S26 We start with the most compact of the family, the Galaxy S26. It is a device that has a 6.3-inch screen with 120 Hz in a body that only weighs 167 grams. Its processor is Samsung’s Exynos 2600 and it has 12 GB of RAM, a tandem that will give us outstanding performance for years. It has a very well optimized 4,300 mAh battery, seven years of guaranteed updates and lots of AI. Now, time for the offer. Let’s break it down step by step so you can see how to get them cheaper using the model with 256 GB of storage as example: The RRP of the device is 999 euros, but right now it is reduced to 799 euros. If we use PayPal or Samsung Pay as a payment method, we will get an extra discount of 50 euros. Also, using the code ‘SAMSUNG5‘, we will receive an additional 5% discount. When you put the phone in the cart, a gift case will automatically be added to it. Finally, if we request a code from the Samsung store expert chat, we will get a gift charger. In this way, its final price is 711.55 euros (a 29% total discount). Do you prefer the model with 512 GB of storage? You can apply the same discounts and get it for 901.5 euros (its RRP is 1,199 euros). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Galaxy S26+ If you like what the previous Samsung phone offers, but prefer it to be a little larger, then you may be more interested in the Galaxy S26+. It is a very similar device to the previous one, although with a 6.7-inch screen (and QHD+ resolution) in this case. and with a 4,900 mAh battery with 45 W fast charging. As before, we are going to break down the different discounts and promotions using the cheapest model with 256 GB of storage as an example: The RRP of the device is 1,249 euros, but right now it is available for 1,019 euros. If we use PayPal or Samsung Pay as a payment method, we will get an extra discount of 50 euros. Also, using the code ‘SAMSUNG5‘, we will receive an additional 5% discount. When you put the phone in the cart, a gift case will automatically be added to it. Finally, if we request a code from the Samsung store expert chat, we will take a charger as a gift. In this way, its final price is 920.55 euros (a 26% total discount). As with the Galaxy S26, we can buy the 512 GB version of this mobile for a little more. Specifically, for 1,091.55 euros. Galaxy S26+ (12 + 256 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Galaxy S26 Ultra And we finish with the Galaxy S26 Ultraone of the best phones of 2026. This Samsung phone has a spectacular 6.9-inch screen with anti-reflective treatment, although its most notable novelty is privacy function. In addition, it has the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 under the hood (the best Android processor currently) and a very versatile camera system that achieve spectacular results in photography and video. All without forgetting its 5,000 mAh battery with 65 W fast charging. In this case it is a little different from the previous ones, since the Galaxy S26 Ultra has three different memory configurations. Let’s see how the cheapest one turns out: The RRP of the device is 1,449 euros, but with this offer it starts at 1,199 euros. If we use PayPal or Samsung Pay as a payment method, in this case we will have a discount of 100 euros. Also, using the code ‘SAMSUNG5‘, we will receive an additional 5% discount. Finally, if we request a code from the Samsung store expert chat, we will get a charger as a gift. In this way, its final price is 1,044.05 euros (a 28% total discount). With 512 GB of storage, the price at which the phone would remain is 1,196.05 euros. If you prefer the one with the most memory of all, which has 1 TB of storage, its price would remain at 1,424.05 euros. It is important to note that the latter is the only one that has 16 GB of RAM (the others have 12 GB). Galaxy S26 Ultra (12+256GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links What if you need a new refrigerator? As we anticipated a little above, we have a very good opportunity to renew refrigerator with the offers that Samsung has active right now. Many of their appliances have a base discount that, added to a discount code, means we have very sweet prices. We leave you three examples below. Combi refrigerator RB34C775CS9/EF: a model with 344 liters of total capacity and energy efficiency C, whose RRP is 969 euros, but is currently reduced to 678 euros. We can use the code ‘FRIO10’ and with it, its price remains at 610 eurosso it’s 37% off. Combi Refrigerator 185cm 344L Class C Inox RB34C775CS9/EF The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Combi refrigerator RB34C632DSA/EF: a refrigerator that has a … Read more

Some millionaires wanted to build a city in the middle of a desert that did not convince anyone. They have had another idea: a shipyard

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Residents of Solano County, northwest of the San Francisco Bay Area, realized that someone had been secretly shopping a large amount of farmland. In fact, even the army He asked who had been purchasing all the land around one of his military bases located in that county. After much investigation, it was learned that behind these purchases there was a group of Silicon Valley billionaires with a plan as utopian as it is controversial: build an entire city from scratch, in the middle of dry fields. A secret land purchase. It all started in 2018, when a company called Flannery Associates was acquiringlittle by little, agricultural plots throughout the county. The owners received figures well above the market value, but no one knew who was behind the purchase. The county itself detected that a single company was purchasing large amounts of land and asked for an explanation. It wasn’t until 2023 when it came to light that Flannery was actually the real estate arm of California Foreverand that investors had been secretly buying land in Solano since 2018, until finally announcing their true purpose: to build there a new city. By then they already had some 24,281 hectares and between 800 and 900 million dollars invested. Who puts the money. The name that shows the face is Jan Srameka former Goldman Sachs trader of Czech origin. But behind the project there are Silicon Valley investors like Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell JobsLinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, as well as Michael Moritz, former partner at Sequoia Capital. His initial idea was to build a walkable city in the style of New York’s West Village, designed to attract high-net-worth employees driven by housing shortage in Silicon Valley. The plan stood on paper, but I needed something to only county voters of Solano could grant: change the law Solano County’s “Orderly Growth Initiative” of 1984, known as Measure A, which protects agricultural soil. Without that permission from the citizens there was no city possible. Water, the great obstacle. That’s where the problems started. Solano It is not an area with water leftover, and the neighbors immediately saw the risk of shortage to build a new city and increase consumption. Congressman John Garamendi, one of the most critical voices of the project, assured that “From the beginning, I have maintained that the proposed project was just a pipe dream, not a real plan. Accelerating the process without a comprehensive environmental and community review would have been disastrous for the current residents of Solano County”, criticizing that the project did not take into account that it was a site without water, without sanitation and without roads. The company tried to promote a campaign to win the vote of the citizens in 2024, which became one of the most expensive in the history of the county, and even then it was not enough. The vote was withdrawn and the project was, for the moment, frozen. The turn towards the shipyard. After that blow to the continuity of the project, California Forever changed its arguments. Instead of first selling a city in the middle of nowhere, he now sells a plan of industrialization with connections to the military: a shipyard in which to build ships equipped with the latest technology in naval defense, and close to the Travis military base. The new plan pivots on two axes. On the one hand, the Solano Foundryan industrial park of about 850 hectares located just over an hour from San Francisco that aims to become the factory for robotics projects and materialize all the R&D of Silicon Valley. On the other hand, the Solano Shipyarda complex of about 3,035 hectares designed to house several shipyards dedicated to military and civil naval construction. The idea with this turn is clearly to first attract the industrial fabric and employment, and then cover the housing needs of its workers by building the city that had been projected from the beginning. Unions, Trump and what remains to be decided. To win over Solano this time, California Forever has played another card: unions. The company signed with the construction union council and the carpenters union a labor agreement for the next 40 years on the 28,328 hectares of land it owns, in which it undertakes to hire your affiliates in the construction of that city. The speech is also supported by national politics and from California Forever they defend that building shipyards on the west coast is necessary to stand up to Chinaand has sought to fit the project into the SHIPS Actthe law that Trump has promoted to reindustrialize the US naval industry. A report Commissioned by the Bay Area Council, it estimates some $215 billion in private investment and the generation of 530,000 jobs in this industrialization plan for the area. However, the shipyard remains without a permit from the county, and the chosen land is next to the Suisun Marsh protected areaone of the largest brackish water wetlands on the West Coast. Water, again, will decide if this project remains a promise or becomes something real. In Xataka | The other war between the US and China is in the shipyards Image | Unsplash (Daniel J. Schwarz, Charlie Huston)

Europe enjoys the cleanest skies in half a century. And that’s one of the reasons why this summer is burning up.

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This is not another article about heat. It’s July: we all know it’s hot. However, there is a reason behind these high temperatures that we do not usually discuss and, for many people, is very surprising: that the skies over Europe are much cleaner than they have been in the last half century. As the popularizer Jorge Alcalde explained In COPE, the rise in temperatures in Europe is accelerating “at a rate of 0.56 degrees per decade since the 1990s, almost double the global average of 0.27 degrees.” And this is interesting because, “although the climate is warming globally, it is crucial to understand why some regions like Europe are more affected.” In that sense, Mayor pointed out that “sending less pollution into the atmosphere contributes to the increase in temperatures on the continent, there is a greater amount of solar radiation that impacts the ground.” It’s not that the air generates heat, of course. It is that the particles that we release when burning fossil fuels (especially sulfur sulfates) reflect sunlight and make the clouds whiter. That is, they cool. The data is crystal clear: in a series of the northeast of the peninsula, in Gironasolar radiation reaching the ground has increased by about 2.5 W/m² per decade since the late 1980s, especially in summer. And that is largely due. wing improvement of regulation against polluting aerosols. It is not the only thing that cools, it is not even the main cause. Copernicus attributes it to several things at the same time: atmospheric circulation, less snow that reflects light, the proximity to the Arctic, the drop in pollution and, of course, greenhouse gases (which They alone explain half of the increase in European heat waves). However, it is one of the most striking. And it is important to explain it well… because stated like this it may seem that the reduction of pollutants is warming the climate in Europe and that is not the case. What the pollution did was hide that warming. The conditions behind the rise in temperatures were there, it’s just that the sulfur didn’t let us see them. We were cooler, but the cost of that was paid by our lungs. We must not forget that Lowering fine particles to the levels recommended by the WHO would prevent around 182,000 premature deaths per year in the EU alone. Furthermore, while aerosols last a few days in the atmosphere, CO2 lasts for centuries. We were covering up a huge problem that was very difficult to solve. Dirty the world again. I insist on this idea because when the effect was discovered in the Atlanticmany proposed intervene again in the atmosphere to lower the temperature. The problem is that, as we can see, this doesn’t solve anything. Clean air is the first good news and, at the same time, what forces us to look squarely at the second: how much we have already warmed up. Image | Chris LeBoutillier In Xataka: The waters of the oceans are not only rising in temperature. They are also starting to change color

4.1 billion euros and no turning back

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The Court of Justice of the European Union has definitively closed one of Google’s longest antitrust litigations in Europe. And the organization confirmed this Thursday the fine of 4.1 billion euros imposed by the European Commission for the company’s use of Android to harm its rivals, as reported by the court itself in a statement. The sanction is final, so the company has no further opportunity to appeal. What has happened? The origin of this case dates back to 2018, when Brussels imposed Google a record fine of 4,340 million euros for forcing mobile phone manufacturers to pre-install Google Search, the Chrome browser and the Google Play store if they wanted to have access to the rest of the Android ecosystem, in addition to preventing them from installing alternative versions of the operating system, according to collect Bloomberg. In 2022, a lower EU court slightly reduced the amount up to 4.1 billion euros, although it maintained many of the Commission’s arguments. Google appealed that decision to the Court of Justice of the EU, which has now rejected the appeal and has definitively ruled in favor of the regulator. The largest antitrust fine. For Brussels, Google abused its dominant position to shield its search engine and its applications from the competition. This is the largest antitrust fine that the company has received in Europe and, according to share To CNBC, lawyer Alex Haffner, partner at the Fladgate firm, represents the closing of what could be called the “first phase” of the Commission’s fight with big technology based on classic competition laws. In detail. The Commission detected three illegal practices in the Android deal: First: it forced manufacturers to pre-install Google Search and Chrome as a condition of being able to license the Google Play store. Second: it paid large manufacturers and operators in exchange for installing its search engine exclusively. And third: it prevented manufacturers from launching phones with versions of Android not approved by Google itself, according to details Bloomberg. Google has always defended that Android offers more options to users and supports thousands of businesses in Europe. A company spokesperson has assured CNBCthat the ruling “does not recognize the significant investment” made to keep Android open, interoperable and free, although it has stressed that the company has already adapted its contracts to comply with the original decision since 2018. Between the lines. This ruling comes at a particularly delicate time for Google in Europe. The company has already accumulated nearly 11,000 million euros in antitrust fines in the last two decades, according to Reutersand last year the Commission already imposed another sanction of 2,950 million euros for its practices in digital advertising. The ruling also opens the door for companies that consider themselves harmed by these practices to claim compensation on their own, an avenue that has already begun to be explored, since from Bloomberg remember that Google was condemned just a day before to pay nearly $2 billion to Klarna in other related antitrust litigation. On the other hand, the organization FairSearch, which submitted the original complaint to the Commission in 2013, has qualified the ruling as “an important victory against Google’s anti-competitive conduct in the mobile market.” And now what. The regulatory focus in Brussels is no longer so much on traditional competition laws as on Digital Markets Law (DMA) and the Digital Services Lawthe new legislative tools with which the EU monitors big technology companies. Google already faces other files opened under these rules, including one for favoring its own services in search results and another for its practices in the application store. Added to this is the open investigation into whether the company unfairly harms certain news results, notes Bloomberg. The current political background doesn’t help either. And the president of the United States, Donald Trump, has threatened tariffs 100% to countries that impose digital taxes on US technology companies, a measure that directly affects countries like France or Spain, CNBC points out. Everything indicates that regulatory pressure on Google in Europe will continue to intensify in the coming months. We’ll see what happens. Cover image | Guillaume Perigois and Alex Dudar on Unsplash In Xataka | “To say that it is a bubble is a blasphemy against AI”: a man who has invested a fortune in OpenAI

copy Tesla. And that is why we are going to have 1,500 kW chargers in 2027

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Just a year ago I was in China and I was overcome with skepticism, I won’t deny it. BYD presented us with the 1 MW chargers. Chargers capable of 1,000 kW that seemed to come from the future. Then I already said that the experience had changed my mind. Now BYD has made another promise on which an important part of its future strategy is based. Skepticism. I’m glad I was wrong. It is something that one learns if one wants to be minimally critical of companies. And the companies and their communication teams, doing their job, flood us with promises that do not always come to fruition but that fill headlines. The 1 MW load was not one of them. It is one thing that, although it may seem silly to see an electric car (simply) charging, one has to experience for oneself. And it is amazing to see how the battery graph fills up at a devilish rate and, indeed, we have hundreds of kilometers again just after five minutes. Personally, it’s something I assumed would be full of asterisks and fine print. A “always complies except in this specific case.” But the truth is that it worked. The new promise. What BYD assures now is that the company will have ready between 300 1,500 kW charging posts by the end of 2027 in our country. That is, the 1 MW, 1,000 kW charger is a thing of the past. BYD will increase its power until it becomes almost ridiculous. The company has given a demonstration these days in Madrid. When we tested the 1,000 kW recharge we confirmed that the power dropped after 80% filling. With the 1,500 kW chargers, the battery goes from 10 to 97% in nine minutes. Nine minutes. It is faster (or there is hardly any difference) than filling the gas tank and paying at the cashier. How is it possible? With cars prepared for it, of course. And this expansion of ultra-fast chargers comes with the landing of Denza. The company already has a sports sedan for sale called Denza Z9 GT in plug-in hybrid and electric format. The latter is capable of assimilating the burst of power from these chargers. It is, in fact, the only car on the market in our country that can get the most out of BYD chargers. The great incentive to pay just over 100,000 euros For this car it is precisely that: that traveling in an electric car at a good pace is no different from doing so with a gasoline car. In terms of infrastructure, the charger has its own backup station. A few meters from the cable there are batteries stored stacked in a kind of small warehouse that support the electricity supply when it does not have enough power on its own. Is there much difference? It depends on the point of view. If we go to the purely technical, yes, there is a lot of difference. Right now, the vast majority of the most powerful chargers in Spain move around 350 kW of power. The cars that can get the most out of it move around these figures or, in the best of cases, assimilate 500 kW of power. That is to say, The Denza Z9 GT and the BYD chargers multiply these figures by several magnitudes. However, charging a car with a huge 100 kW battery at 350 kW means going from 10 to 80% of the available range in about 15 minutes. That is, if the car can travel 500 kilometers with said battery (assuming a consumption of 20 kWh/100 km) we will go from having 50 kilometers to 400 kilometers available in a quarter of an hour. It doesn’t seem like too much and on long trips they are recommended breaks. And does it make sense? Much more than the data says. For several reasons: BYD is positioned as a leader in this technology in our country. Only if you buy a BYD can you carry this power. This generates a feeling of belonging and improves the brand image. BYD presents a technology that, in reality, overestimates our needs but gives security to the electric car skeptic. The customer may never use it but knows it is available. And it will go further. Much of what changed my opinion about these chargers was the performance that could be obtained from the company. BYD assures that it will maintain a price of 0.50 euros/kWh loaded. That is, a 100 kW charge will cost 50 euros. It seems like a lot but it means that traveling 100 kilometers will cost about 10 euros. Compared to a gasoline car that consumes 6 l/100 kilometers on the road, there is hardly any difference. But, above all, it is interesting because these charges promise to be key when it comes to recharge electric trucks that need enormous charging powers if they want to reduce downtime. There, BYD is gaining ground and is positioning itself as one of the companies that will already be there when this type of vehicles multiply. Copying Tesla. BYD’s strategy is very similar to the one Tesla deployed in its day. The American company put cars on the market with very green technology and that used their own chargers to operate. This allowed them to position themselves as the leading company and create a brand image and community. They still receive the fruits of that today.. BYD is doing something very similar when the market is already more mature. If you want these charging powers, only the Chinese company offers them to you right now. It is a smart move to gain brand image and trust among skeptics of electric cars and Chinese cars. And, for the same price, they can position themselves as a key company in the deployment of heavy electric vehicles. Photo | Hector Ares for Motorpassion In Xataka | Spain has been filled with charging points for electric cars. The problem is that we … Read more

The Government says Palantir is a risk to national security. NATO, of which Spain is a member, has put it in charge of its own

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Moncloa has begun to ask public companies not to sign new contracts with Palantir, according to Agustín Marco has advanced in The Confidential. The order is not official nor is it in writing, but an agreement has already been reached with the Civil Guard and another with Navantia. The panoramic. Spain joins France, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands in distrust towards the company of Peter Thiel and Alex Karp. The unofficial argument is the usual one: not to risk sensitive information in the hands of an American company with close ties to the Trump White House. The veto affects Telefónica, Indra, Correos and Navantia, all of them under the umbrella of SEPI. There is no statement, no press conference, no official note. They are indications transferred internally to boards of directors. In detail. The contract that really matters still stands. Defense signed with Palantir in 2023 a 16.5 million euro agreement for the Armed Forces Intelligence Center, and that contract expires in November of this year. According to The Confidentialthe chiefs of the General Staff have pressured Margarita Robles to renew it because there is no comparable alternative. Either Palantir or nobody. The decision remains unmade. The contrast. While Moncloa slides the veto inside, NATO announced this week that Palantir’s Maven Smart System becomes its operating system for military data management. Spain is a partner of the Alliance and has had to approve this decision, like all allies. So he voted yes in Brussels but has chosen the opposite direction behind closed doors. Why is it important. The veto does not touch the only thing that really counts: the Defense contract. Everything else (the Civil Guard and Navantia) were negotiations in progress, but not consolidated relationships. Cutting them costs little. Touching the CIFAS contract (Intelligence Center of the Armed Forces), on the other hand, would require replacing a tool that, according to sources in the military sector itself, has no rival in the market. Again: either Palantir or nobody. Yes, but. The gesture has a clear recipient: the US government. Pedro Sánchez has not received the US ambassador in Madrid, Benjamín León Jr., for months and Its Executive has invested 115 million euros in Openchip and another 5,000 million in a chip gigafactory as a commitment to European technological sovereignty. The Palantir veto fits that narrative. What doesn’t fit so well is that this same story coexists with a Defense contract that no one dares to cancel. And now what. The end of the current contract in November will test whether this was signaling or conviction: If the CIFAS contract is renewed without making much noise, the veto will have been a diplomatic gesture. If it is dropped without an equivalent replacement, Spain will be left without the tool its own military considers irreplaceable. The middle way, replacing it with European or national technology, does not yet exist. In Xataka | AI is crucial for the US military. So he’s naming OpenAI and Palantir leaders as lieutenant generals Featured image | Palantir, Wikimedia Commons

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