Month: January 2026

The US offered NVIDIA chips to China. China has responded with a “no, thank you”, according to the Financial Times

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China has turned the technological development in state policy. The country is shaking up its economy through robot development (some already working in stores or in disasters), artificial intelligence and, above all, chips. Giants like Huawei and companies like SMIC are developing chips with one goal in mind: eliminate dependence on the United States. However, some of these companies need to access powerful and reliable chips immediately, and NVIDIA had presented itself as the best option. It seems that everything has been a mirage. Full speed ahead. The current technology war between the United States and China means that Western companies cannot do deals with Chinese ones. This includes the sale of advanced chip making machinesbut also that NVIDIA, for example, can’t even sell its advanced chips like the previous generation. A few weeks ago, however, the United States relaxed its policies, which opened the door so that NVIDIA could sell the famous ones again H200 to certain Chinese customers. The US was going to take a 25% tax on each sale and it was a win-win: Chinese customers had access to renowned chips and NVIDIA managed to take part of the Chinese pie (a pie of 50,000 million dollars). At least until local companies develop their alternatives. Last week we already said that NVIDIA had increased production waiting for two million orders. But there is a problem: a sudden stop. With Customs we have encountered. At that time, China had not commented and the person most interested in the operation, Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, commented that if the orders were arriving it is because someone had authorized them. That was taken as a silent confirmation from China, but now there is news. Although the country still has not made an official statement, since Financial Times They point out that NVIDIA was surprised to find that customs had stopped the orders. According to sources consulted by the media, customs officials in China recently summoned logistics companies from Shenzhenone of the neural points of technological innovation of the country, to warn of something: they could not submit shipping requests for the H200 chips. National chips please. That pressure has led the company to pause production. All there is is uncertainty right now due to a chain of events that show that NVIDIA was crazy about selling. After putting pressure on both governments, Huang managed to get the US to give approval for the sale in China, but China did not comment, something that the US company took as an approval. Chinese policy for a few months has been very clear: favor and promote local industry with one goal: ‘Delete America’. China seeks technological sovereignty through giants like the aforementioned Nvidia, but also with others like Moore ThreadsBiren, MetaX or Enflame. black market. However, the fact that orders cannot be placed to buy NVIDIA chips does not mean that NVIDIA chips are being stopped: As already pointed out Reuters a few months ago, that ban and the veto on the sale of sophisticated chips has promoted a black market of American chips, especially the B200 and B300 from NVIDIA, more powerful than the H200 that the US Administration authorized. There is talk of a market of more than 1,000 million dollars, and although NVIDIA had hopes of re-entering the country through official channels, it seems that the Government is going to continue encouraging its technology companies to bet on ‘Made in China’ solutions. Images | Chinese Communist PartyNVIDIA + Photoshop In Xataka | The race for AI has placed China in an unthinkable scenario: forcing the United States to leave its comfort zone

For the first time, a military drone has invaded Taiwan’s airspace

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China has taken a new step in its pressure on Taiwanone that until now was only part of the rhetoric and that has become very real: the introduction for the first time of a military drone in its airspace, a brief incursion (just four minutes) but loaded with symbolism and unpredictable strategic intention. The first time. What happened reminds what we had seen with Russia in Europe. The device, identified by Taiwanese sources as a WZ-7 reconnaissanceentered the air of Pratas/Dongshaa small atoll controlled by Taipei in the South China Sea, and did so at a deliberately f altitudeout of reach of defenses available on the island, leaving after Taiwan issued international radio warnings. The maneuver appears to reveal a classic pattern controlled climbing: Beijing is not seeking an immediate clash, but rather to normalize the fact that it can violate Taiwanese sovereignty without suffering consequences tactics, forcing Taipei to accept rape as routine or to react in a way that could be presented as provocation. Pratas as a weak point. Pratas is a perfect target for this type of testing because it combines symbolic value and military fragility: It is about 400 kilometers south of Taiwan, in an area through which American and Chinese submarines would transit in a crisis scenario, and in recent months it had already been harassed by coast guard and militias Chinese maritime forces, that hybrid arm that operates on the border between civil and paramilitary. There, Taiwan maintains minimal defenses (there is talk of short-range systems like Avenger or portable missiles) that serve for low and close threats, not for a high-altitude drone, which turns each incursion into a demonstration of impunity. Furthermore, the problem for Taipei is that this type of movement opens up a dangerous ladder. Tomorrow it can be repeated, but the drone can go a little lower and force a decision whether to shoot it down or tolerate it, and if it is shot down when it is finally in range, Beijing can use it as a political excusearguing that Taiwan “escalated” a situation it had previously accepted. A Wz 7 drone The unpredictable factor. The Financial Times recalled that what is disturbing is not so much the time the flight lasted, but rather what trains: China’s ability to explore doctrinal gaps, measure reaction times, test warning communications and, above all, introduce uncertainty about what each side considers a “first strike.” Taiwan has been warning for a long time that any unauthorized entry of military assets into its waters or airspace can be interpreted as an initial attack that enables a response, but its own rules of engagement are still being refined to decide who, when and under what circumstances can order an action that could trigger a further escalation. From that prism, Pratas works as a laboratory: a place sensitive enough to hitbut remote enough and defended with tweezers so that each decision is a balance between firmness and restraint. The choreography around. The incursion also comes in a context of accumulated pressure, with exercises increasingly frequent and closer to the island from Taiwan, and with a constant pulse in the strait which combines military maneuvers, US weapons packages and Chinese responses in the form of live fire or more aggressive patrols. That backdrop turns a drone into something more: a message that Beijing not only intimidates with large deployments, but can wear out daily with small, cheap and difficult to answer actions. At the same time, the role of the United States adds ambiguity: Washington is committed to helping Taiwan defend and maintain ability to resist pressure, but even within that framework there is doubt about how far it would go if something catches fire, which reinforces the Chinese temptation to press just where the allied response could be less automatic. The new threshold. China presents it as a “legitimate and legal” exercisebut precisely that narrative is part of the change: if it is accepted that these incursions are normal, a precedent is opened that erodes sovereignty without the need to occupy or shoot, and that prepare the ground for more dangerous scenarios. In other words, if Beijing repeats and deepens this tactic, it could force Taiwan to choose between normalizing the incursions or a risky response, and in that margin of doubt (where no one “wants to be first”) is where the strategic pressure is more effective. Image | CCTV, Infinity 0 In Xataka | China’s new futuristic drone is already flying alongside the J-20 fighters. And Beijing has shown it without saying a word In Xataka | One of China’s most disturbing weapons already has a flight date: a huge mother drone with 100 kamikaze drones on board

Micron has emulated TSMC and is spending $1.8 billion on a RAM factory. Don’t clap yet

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Taiwan is becoming one of the technological hotspots worldwide. If the country was already at the center of the technology sector because it is the home of TSMCwill now take on more prominence in the new era of AI. Your crown jewel is investing an astronomical sum in the United States and, now, the American Micron ends to close a $1.8 billion deal in Taiwan. And you can guess the goal. Keep feeding the data centers based on RAM memory. Micron. In recent weeks, Micron has been one of the big names in the technology sector. However, Crucial may sound more familiar to you. It is, or was, Micron’s brand for consumer RAM, but also for storage. Their products are very well regarded when it comes to assembling a PC in parts, but They turned off the tap at the end of last year and the last shipments will occur in February 2026. Now, Micron is shifting its focus to something much bigger and more lucrative: artificial intelligence. Specifically, supplying those same components, but to large companies that are setting up gigantic data centers. In the end, a data center It is made up of hundreds of “computers” that need both storage and RAM. The operation. Given the context, we come to the news. As the company itself has confirmedhave just signed an operation worth $1.8 billion to take over the P5 factory of the Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation -PSMC- company in Tongluo, Taiwan. An operation like this must pass several filters, but the company’s intention is for the transaction to be closed by the second quarter of this same 2026. They have stepped on the accelerator, and as soon as they can, they will begin to do one thing: increase the production of DRAM memory. clean room. Micron has confirmed that it is just one of the operations it is contemplating in a global expansion movement “to meet the long-term demand of its customers,” and acquiring a semiconductor factory makes perfect sense. Beyond the fact that the components and machines are different, there is something that factories of this type share: clean rooms. It is an extremely… well, clean facility stripped of any external elements. Suspended particles are kept at extraordinarily low levels, temperature, humidity and pressure are highly controlled parameters and the air is filtered numerous times per hour. Static electricity is reduced as much as possible and, ultimately, it is a clinical space so that no impurities interfere with something as sensitive as the manufacturing of semiconductors. It is, in short, like an operating room (or stricter if possible). Example of a clean room “All in one hour“Creating something like this requires a considerable investment (which is why new companies are entering to compete in the RAM segment, as rumored with Asusit is tremendously complicated), and that is why Micron has taken over existing facilities that they will only have to adapt to their activity. Besides, take the example of TSMC. In Taiwan, all components TSMC needs are “an hour” away. This allows the assembly line to be efficient, minimizing time, maximizing production and saving money. The new Micron factory will be very close to the one they already have in Taichung, being able to emulate that way of working that has led TSMC to excellence. Consumption RAM for when. Micron is expected to begin optimizing the manufacturing process in the new plant by the second half of 2027, but thanks to the context we gave before, we know that these “customers” are not those who want to assemble a PC in parts or even assemblers such as Asus, MSI, Lenovo or Gigabyte: they are the ‘Big Tech’ that are setting up data centers. In a recent interview, Christopher Moore, vice president of marketing for Micron’s client and mobile business, said the problem and the RAM bottleneck is elsewherebut also stated that this growth in data centers has gone from representing 30% of its market to 60%. He also stated that, although Crucial has disappeared, Micron will continue to supply memory to OEM manufacturers, but it is evident that the bottleneck is affecting, that prices are through the roof and that things are not looking good if you had to renew PC.E And, according to Micron’s vice president, it will continue until 2028. At least. Images | Maxence Pira, Hunter Trick In Xataka | Google doesn’t have rockets, but it is going to install data centers in space. SpaceX and Blue Origin rub their hands

We can no longer trust any image on the internet

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In 2012, Hurricane Sandy devastated the Caribbean Sea and reached the coast of New York. There he left floods, power outages and spectacular photos. Of all of them there was one especially amazing which went viral, but there was a problem: it was false. She wasn’t the only one that slipped into networks. That image was just one more example of what we have seen before and after: great phenomena and events end up generating floods of content, some of which are not real. There are many reasons why people take advantage of these moments to spread false images, but at least before achieving credible images and videos was expensive. Only advanced users of applications like Photoshop or Final Cut/Premiere could achieve convincing results, but AI, as we know, has changed all that. We have been warning about this problem for some time: distinguishing between what is real and what is generated by AI it’s getting harder. and these days we have had the last great example of this trend. Anatomy of a deepfake The Kamchatka Peninsula, in the far east of Russia, has experienced a historic snow storm. The worst in decades, according to records, with snow levels exceeding two meters in various areas, according to Xinhua. Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the administrative, industrial, and scientific center of Kamchatka Krai, has especially suffered these consequences, and residents of the region have spread images on networks of the one that already has been baptized like the “snow apocalypse.” Those images spread in news media and social networks and that they were real—often more “mundane” and much less spectacular— contrast with others that theoretically also showed the state of various points in the region but that are actually generated with AI. That video, for example, was shared a few days ago by Linus Ekenstam, an influencer who often shares news and reflections on AI. He republished that video and claimed that it was real, but soon several users indicated that the video was actually created by AI. Ekenstam argued that the theoretical AI error that it pointed out in the user was not such, and that where he lives there are poles near the streetlights. He therefore tried to defend that for him the video was real, but others suggested that it was not. The definitive test: a user linked to the theoretical original videowhich apparently originated in a TikTok account dedicated precisely to disseminating AI-generated content that seems real. The crucial thing about that fake video is that it is spectacular, but not overly spectacular. It is, to a certain extent, believable, and when the image and the camera movement itself is so convincing, it is difficult to think that “maybe it is generated by AI.” With this snow storm experienced in Kamchatka, unusual images have been shared on networks, much more typical of a dystopian Hollywood movie than a real natural phenomenon. A priori the images may even seem coherent, but a more detailed – and above all, more critical – examination makes it easier for us to realize that perhaps these images are not as real as they seem. In fact, the most striking images shared on social networks and that accumulate thousands of retweets and likes on X, for example, contrast with those published in traditional media, which tend to be as we said much less flashy and much more mundane. Spanish media such as OndaZero or OKDiario have published some images and videos generated by AI on their digital media or on their social media accounts without realizing that these videos actually had their origin in the aforementioned TikTok account which has managed to spread like wildfire. Debates about the possibility that certain images could be real have been frequent for example on Redditwhere users shared for example an amazing catch which when analyzed in detail seemed generated by AI. The avalanche of “citizen journalism”, which can be well-intentioned and very important at times, contrasts here with the role of the media, which has an enormous responsibility in acting as trusted sources of information. Even they (and we) can fall into the trap, and here once again The best thing is to start distrusting what we see on our screens, because it may be false content. The videos that appeared in some media such as SkyNews or in The Vanguard they combine with others that (at least, a priori) seem real, but that at this point also require rigorous examination. Our brain betrays us and technology knows it There are several well-studied psychological phenomena and cognitive biases that explain why we believed in fake news in the past and now the same thing happens to us again with deepfakes. It doesn’t matter if we know (or at least rationally suspect) that these images and videos are false: technology and especially AI precisely exploit these biases. Among them the following stand out: Confirmation bias: we believe what fits with what we already believe. Our brain does not seek truth as much as internal coherence, so if a piece of news reinforces our ideology, we lower the level of potential criticism, but if it contradicts it, we analyze it with a magnifying glass or directly discard it. The problem here is that AI can generate tailor-made content adjusted to each narrative. Illusory truth effect: here it happens that “if I have seen it many times, it will be true.” Repetition increases the feeling of truthfulness, not actual truthfulness, and it is something that, for example, social networks, machines for repeating hoaxes, make the most of. Again, AI facilitates the mass production of the same lie with minimal variations. We believe what we see: This is what some call perceptual realism. We trust too much in the visual, and hence the famous saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Images are processed much faster than text, and critical thinking comes after the emotional reaction, as you well argued Daniel Kanheman in his famous ‘Think fast, think slow’. Cognitive load: related … Read more

What is the LZB and why is it in the spotlight of the Adamuz accident?

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20 seconds. That is the time that, according to Álvaro Fernández Heredia, has passed since the derailment of the Iryo train in Adamuz and the arrival of the Alvia train in the opposite direction. “It still cannot be concluded that the Alvia collided with the Iryo cars or with any element of the road,” said the president, who, remembers, will take days to reach conclusions. It puts the focus, however, on the LZB security system. What has happened? What we know, at the time we write these lines, is that an Iryo train and an Alvia have had an accident at the same point on the Andalusian high-speed corridor. Until now, the first assessments have suggested that the Italian train derailed in the middle of the straight line and the Renfe train collided with it. However, this “cannot yet be concluded,” according to Álvaro Fernandez Heredia in statements to Chain Being. What is certain is that both trains have areas that are very difficult to access, with serious damage to their structure. The Alvia train also fell down a four-meter embankment. There are, at the time we write, 39 deaths (including the 27-year-old Renfe driver) and it is not ruled out that more bodies will be found once the rescue work is completed. 20 seconds. It is, according to Fernández Heredia, the time that has passed since the Iryo train derailed and the Renfe train arrived at the same place. However, Heredia has made it clear that understanding what happened at that moment is, for the moment, conjecture because the investigation that the Railway Accident Investigation Commission (CIAF), who They already did the same in Angrois, in the Galician accident of 2013. Explained visually in The CountryWhat we do know is that the Iryo derailed first when it was traveling at 210 km/h in a space limited to 250 km/h, so excessive speed seems to be ruled out. After 20 seconds, the accident worsened with the arrival of the Alvia, which did so at 205 km/h (also below the maximum speed allowed). Both trains were found at a distance of 700 meters between them, with the Alvia falling on the embankment located next to the tracks. Those 20 seconds, everything indicates, will be key to the investigation. And the president of Renfe pointed out on the radio that “the LZB system is equipped in such a way that when there is an obstacle on the track, the path is blocked and prevents circulation and orders emergency braking to the train. But apparently, the time interval between one train and another that crossed in opposite directions has been 20 seconds and, therefore, it is impossible for this mechanism to act.” What is the LZB? The LZB is the security system used in the Andalusian corridoron the Alvia Madrid-Toledo and on Cercanías lines C-5 in Madrid and the entire Euskotren network. The acronym refers to the German word Linienzugbeeinflussungsince the system is also used in Germany and Austria. The system consists of a cable that extends along the track, centered but drawing a slight zigzag. This wiring sends train running informationthe maximum speed of the road and the distance remaining before reaching a new speed limit change. If the driver does not reduce the speed, it is the train that activates the emergency braking. This wiring sends electrical signals in a closed circuit to recalculate the aforementioned variables through beacons. When the track is blocked, the transmission is interrupted and the system automatically orders the train to stop. However, according to the president of Renfe, the 20 seconds that have passed between the derailment of the Iryo train and the arrival of the Alvia have not been enough to stop the vehicle. It remains to be seen whether he braked previously and lost speed or not. Dated. The LZB system is considered an outdated safety system and Spain is one of the few countries in Europe that continues to use it on a high-speed railway section. In fact, by European order to facilitate interoperability, The LZB system in the Andalusian corridor is being replaced by ERTMS 2the European system that is already mandatory on all trains. ERTMS 2. This system It is a simplification of the processboth in equipment and operation. The data connection is made through GSM-R so the beacons only serve as a redundant system to locate the train. In exchange, radio equipment is used that communicates the train with the Movement Authority or MA (Movement Authority), explain in How trains work. This MA is responsible for telling the driver the maximum speed at which they can travel and for how many kilometers, but it includes a greater amount of information such as temporary speed restrictions, which makes it easier to comply with the limits. The system has the advantage that if a train suffers a problem but can no longer stop, it can pass through an enclave at an appropriate speed without the risk of derailing and only applies emergency braking when the situation is safe. On the contrary, it closes the passage of all trains instantly so that a collision does not occur. The system is considered more secure because it has more information, redundant systems and decisions are made more quickly. Speed ​​is key. Having a system capable of more closely monitoring the status of the trains and managing traffic is key when we travel on a high-speed train. We must keep in mind that when we travel at 205 km/h we are traveling 56.94 m/s. That is, in the 20 key seconds indicated in the Adamuz accident, 1,138 meters were covered. It must also be taken into account that the braking space increases exponentially with an increase in speed. At the same time, braking space is drastically reduced at lower speeds and the violence of an impact or a derailment is less. Photo | Wikimedia 1 and 2 In Xataka | More than 30 years ago, Spain decided to invest heavily in the AVE: today … Read more

ChatGPT urgently needs its users to start paying money. Solution: put ads on them

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It was inevitable. OpenAI has confirmed that is going to start testing ads on ChatGPT. The test will begin in the United States with users of free plans, those who have ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Enterprise are exempt for the moment. It is a movement that marks the beginning of a reality that was seen coming: The user experience of free AIs is about to get worse. All for the AGI. Through your X profileOpenAI has shared what those ads will look like and is striking in the heading of its “advertising principles.” Here they say their mission is “to ensure that AGI benefits all of humanity; our pursuit of publicity always supports that mission and makes AI more accessible.” how he jokes Pedro Domingos in Xit seems that the AGI was actually “Ad-Generated Income”, that is, “Income generated by advertising.” Where I said I say…. The AGI is becoming the excuse for everything. To find the true reasons behind this decision, it is enough to look at OpenAI numbers. Or also we can go back to 2024when Sam Altman said that ads on ChatGPT are “the last resort for our business model.” Saying that everything is part of a plan for the benefit of humanity is better than admitting that the AI ​​race is very expensive and OpenAI desperately needs to monetize its AI. This sounds familiar to us. The situation is quite reminiscent of the case of Netflix, which In 2020 he flatly refused to advertising, stating that it was a way to “exploit users” to two years later launch your plan with ads. Since then the streaming experience began to deteriorate and everything indicates that we are at the beginning of exactly the same thing happening with AI. Advertising as punishment. Before, ads were a way to generate income. Today they also function as a pressure tool to push users to pay a subscription. This is what we find on YouTube or Spotify, where the bombardment of ads is constant, repetitive and very intrusive. We pay to end the torture. Objective: subscriptions. ChatGPT has 1.8 billion users, but the reality is that only 5% are subscribed to one of their payment plans. How to increase this figure? If we don’t subscribe ourselves, maybe a few ads will convince us. OpenAI has been the first, but there are also rumors that Google will integrate ads into Gemini. The AI ​​party does not pay for itself, it is a matter of time. There is a loophole. If the big chatbots turn their free versions into a minefield of ads, we will always have the option of use local models such as DeepSeek, Mistral, Llama or ChatGPT itself. Here we get rid of token limits, queues and also ads. The bad part is that the performance is usually lower than the cloud and it also has fewer integrations. Time will tell if they end up being a better alternative. Image | OpenAI In Xataka | Generative AI opens its gap between those who focus on it locally and those who focus on the cloud. There is room for both

The Adamuz accident comes after a year of incidents and controversies

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The tragic Adamuz accident It is the worst that Spanish high speed has suffered in its entire history, but during the last year both the AVE and the rest of the LAV services have accumulated incidents, delays and problems that have damaged its image as a 100% reliable service. A year to forget. 2025 has chained incidents of all kinds on the high-speed network. Some of the events that have affected the operation of our trains: All of them have been events that, for different reasons, have challenged our perception of railway capacity in Spain. Delays and technical breakdowns. Punctuality plummeted up to levels of 70% in some months, well below the historical standards of the AVE. According to data According to El Mundo, four out of ten trains arrived late during the summer. On the other hand, technical problems forced the temporary withdrawal of part of the Avril and Avlo train fleet due to manufacturing defects, reducing available capacity just when it was needed most. The paradox of success. Despite everything, 37.3 million people traveled on AVE trains and long distance from Renfe during 2025, according to data from the Ministry of Transport. It is an absolute record: 6% more than the previous year. The AVE reached 21.5 million passengers, while Avlo grew from 4.55 million to 6.2 million users. The Madrid-Levante-Mediterranean corridor went from 5.5 to 7.7 million passengers, and the line to Galicia and Asturias skyrocketed from 2.5 to 4.6 million. These are figures that show that we prefer the trainand you like it when it works and offers competitive prices. Despite the figures, the incidents of recent months have given very negative publicity for high speed in Spain. Returns that do not arrive. The recurring incidents, added to the tightening of return conditions due to delays that Renfe applied in 2024, have fueled a story of discontent. Now it takes an hour of delay to recover 50% of the ticket, when before 15 minutes were enough. In September of last year we discovered that only three out of every hundred passengers were able to claim compensation over the summer, despite millions suffering delays. Discontent. We had never used the AVE so much and the incidents of the AVE had never had so much media attention. The competition from Ouigo and Iryo has helped boost the number of travelers thanks to lower prices, but the number of incidents has caused this gradual reduction in prices to take a backseat. And in the case of Renfe, lack of rolling stock It has not followed that growth rate either. Issues. Minister Óscar Puente recognized in September that the system will continue to have problems for at least two more years, in reference to the rolling stock that did not arrive and visited countries such as Germany or China looking for new trains. Meanwhile, the president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, assured at the end of the year that it would not apply the new compensation approved by Congress, which required money to be returned after 15 minutes of delay, considering them unconstitutional and asymmetrical compared to the competition. And now what. The Córdoba accident has been a devastating end to a bad streak of incidents in the Spanish railway system. All railway operators now face the challenge of demonstrating to Spain that the service remains reliable and safe despite the Adamuz accident. In Xataka | More than 30 years ago, Spain decided to invest heavily in the AVE: today it is winning contracts in Vietnam thanks to it

up to four days of leave

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The derailment of an Iryo high-speed train and the alleged collision with an Alvia train that was traveling on the adjacent track has caused one of the most tragic railway accidents reminiscent of the Spanish railway system. The accident caused train circulation between Madrid and Andalusia to be instantly interrupted, leaving thousands of passengers. no options to return to their places of residence and without being able to return to work today. In this context, the UGT delegation in Andalusia has remembered from their social networks to companies and employees that this circumstance is among the assumptions contemplated by paid leave of up to four days due to “force majeure causes”, as previously happened before the DANA of Valencia. No rail traffic between Madrid and Andalusia. The accident occurred in the municipality of Adamuz (Córdoba), causing the suspension of railway traffic between Madrid and Andalusia, and without a clear date for the reopening of the service, given that rescue tasks and investigation of the event are still being carried out. The closure of train circulation has caused many employees to see how their trains suffered cancellations and they were trapped in their destinies without option to return to their homes and without a clear transportation alternative. Four-day paid leave. As a result of this total interruption of service, UGT has reminded through their social networks that he article 37.3 g of the Workers’ Statuterecognizes up to “four days for inability to access the workplace or travel through the necessary traffic routes to get there, as a consequence of the recommendations, limitations or prohibitions on movement established by the competent authorities.” This situation includes both those who regularly travel from Madrid to Andalusia by train and those who depend on transfers or connections affected by the closure of the line, provided that the mobility problem is a direct consequence of the incident and the decisions of the competent authorities. According to the union, this situation, which has left thousands of workers trapped in a community other than their own and without the immediate possibility of return, could benefit from this paid leave, provided that the company has been previously notified of the situation. Teleworking options. The measure contemplates in these cases the possibility of opting for alternatives such as teleworking until the causative event is normalized, as long as the affected employee has the possibility or option to carry it out. That is, your position allows it and you have the necessary technical means to telework until you find an alternative to return since you still no alternatives have been enabled and services such as rental cars They are saturated. The background of DANA. The measure was initially approved in response to natural disasters such as the one that devastated different towns in Valencia, Albacete and Málaga on October 29, 2024, but its application can be expanded beyond natural phenomena and also applied to accidents such as the one that occurred in Adamuz, which has disabled rail traffic between not only the line that connects Madrid with Seville with High Speed, but also with other branches to Málaga and Huelva. In Xataka | Thousands of employees cannot go to work after DANA. We already know how the Government is going to help them. Image | Flickr (Luis Fernando Franco Jimenez)

The question after the Adamuz accident is whether he is investing in maintaining them

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On May 7, 2021, rail transport in Spain entered a new dimension. For the first time, a train that was not owned by Renfe stepped on our lines to operate between Madrid and Barcelona. It was the maiden voyage of Ouigoowned by the French SNCF in Spain. Objective: to offer a cheap alternative to the most famous high-speed service in our country. Shortly after, Renfe itself launched a new service to safeguard their backs. The first service AVLO (High Speed ​​Low Cost) arrived on Spanish roads a month later. In November 2022, Iryo It kicked off its operations with a Madrid-Valencia trip as its inaugural trip. In a year and a half, Spanish roads had gone from supporting the weight of Renfe to that of three companies (Renfe, Ouigo and Iryo) and four services (Renfe splits into AVE and AVLO). Over time, operations have increased and the competition that had been initially restricted to Madrid-Barcelona has also reached Levante and the Andalusian corridors. The plans go through continue expanding competition to the Galician corridor and the branches to Asturias and Cantabria, as well as the Madrid-Cádiz/Huelva. To have a clear picture of the increase in traffic volume in the Andalusian corridor, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport, pointed out last summer that “in the 90s six trains circulated a day between Madrid and Seville (…) today 289 trains circulate”, referring to the drop in Renfe’s punctuality but the increase in complexity in traffic management. However, Renfe has been receiving numerous reviews for their lack of punctuality and their cancellations. But it is not the only company that has suffered significant inconveniences. In May, a cable theft and a coupling of an Iryo train with a catenary caused the collapse in the Andalusian corridor with more than 10,000 affected. Weeks later, a concatenation of incidents originated by an Ouigo train ended up causing a fire on a Renfe train and hundreds of lost passengers for more than 13 hours in the middle of the line spending the night outdoors. Facts that have been accumulating, that have been used as a political weapon (such as Renfe compensation in case of delays) but above all, they have put a recurring question on the table: what happens with investments? Investments in high speed To keep the roads and infrastructure in good condition, Adif (the company in charge of this) receives funds from the State and the European Unioncharge some fees to operators who use their channels to do business and issues bonds. However, the bulk of the money for road maintenance and future investments continues to come from the State. Whether these investments are sufficient or not is something that has been questioned for some time. Operators have long pointed out investments in the roads as insufficient. Ouigo did it when the July case left the Andalusian corridor paralyzed. Since July, Renfe, Adif and Talgo have been living a kind of triangle of love and hate in which they blame each other for the cracks caused in AVRIL trains that covered Madrid-Barcelona, leaving Renfe without this service in the corridor and with trains running at a lower speed as expected as a temporary patch at that time. In an article published in The World Last November it was pointed out that high speed in Spain has experienced three clear phases since the first Madrid-Seville was covered in 1992. The first points to the first years, with sustained investments between 1992 and 2005. The last refers to the liberalization of roads, active since 2021 in practice. Spain has gone from investing 6,558 million euros in the railway sector in 2009 to 2,318 million in 2018 but the figure hides the real maintenance In the middle, an explosion and a stagnation that marks our daily life. Between 2005 and the crisis of 2008 and the years to come, investment in Renfe and Adif skyrocketed. And it is in those years when high speed is extended to Córdoba and Málaga, to Valladolid after passing through Segovia and to the Levante area. High-speed investments in Extremadura or the Galician corridor and expansions to the north of Catalonia are also underway. But the years of crisis hit hard and investment falls. Once the budgets that have been approved in the years before the crash have been concluded, between 2014 and 2020 investments plummet. According to the Railway Observatory In its 2023 edition (last available), the real brutal investment fell from 6,558 million in 2009 to 2,312 million in 2018. Since then, it has grown and in 2023 it touched 4,000 million euros. But those numbers hide another perspective. If railway investments in Spain were reduced by a third in less than a decade, it is also a consequence of a stoppage in the construction of infrastructure. And, as we have seen, the years before the crisis saw a boom in the opening of high-speed stations and new corridors. Since then, expansions have been minimal. Source AIReF The Independent Authority for Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF) shows how the opening of new lines has a direct impact when preparing budget plans. Thus, 88.6% of investments in high-speed railways between 1987 and 2018 were taken by the allocation dedicated to the construction of new lines. The rebound in investments that we have experienced since 2020 is closely linked to this way of acting. In recent years Full high speed has arrived in the Galician corridorwhich includes new gauge trains variable, the AVRILs, and great progress has been made in the Asturian and Cantabrian high speed. Óscar Puente visits the Hitachi Rail factory in Pistoia (Italy) Those numbers are skyrocketing again but they will do so in a different way. Although in 2024 The Government has allocated 4.5 billion euros to the trainof which 2,500 million euros were made in high speed and that the investment in Adif AV (high speed) should reach 12,000 million euros between 2022 and 2026, the announcement for the future is somewhat different. Because in its future investments the … Read more

eight trillion dollars in assets

by

From politics to finance. If anything has become clear during Donald Trump’s first year in the White House, it is how blurred the separations (if there are any) between geopolitics, defense, economics and taxation are for him. He made it clear shortly after assuming his second term, with the round of tariffs which followed what he baptized as “Liberation Day.” And it has become clear again now with the threats of liens to European countries on account of the tensions created around Greenland, an island that the Republican wants to incorporate to the USA. Against this backdrop, Brussels is asking what response the EU should (can) offer. There is talk of activating tariffs worth 93 billion to punish American companies, to dust off the so-called “commercial bazooka”…and even a financial ‘nuclear bomb’ with which Brussels could pressure Trump, one that amounts to eight trillion of dollars. What has happened? That Trump is not willing to give in to Greenland. And he did not like it one bit that a delegation of eight European countries (and colleagues in NATO) sent a small group of soldiers to the Arctic island to guarantee its defense. The Republican weekend threatened to punish them to all (Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom) true to its style: imposing tariffs on them. The new rates will focus on commercial exports to the US and would be activated on February 1 with a value of 10%, although the idea is to raise them to 25% in June if the outlook does not change in Greenland. The message is clear: the Republican wants the Stars and Stripes flag to fly in Greenland, regardless of who he is, be it Denmark, the greenlanders themselves or other European nations with which it shares an alliance in NATO. “We need Greenland for national security reasons,” ditch the republican. “He will not allow himself to be blackmailed”. Trump threatening tariffs is nothing new. In fact, one of his first star measures shortly after returning to the White House (just a year ago) was to announce a wide range of rates for an even broader list of nations, including the EU. What is more shocking is that it encounters the manifest anger that the EU has shown on this occasion. “Europe will not allow itself to be blackmailed,” he warned shortly after from Trump’s announcement Mette FrederiksenPrime Minister of Denmark. Similar messages (more or less emphatically) have been launched by Emmanuel Macron, Keir Starmer or even the leaders of Norway and Finland, Alexander Stubb, who on other occasions has praised the American for his international policy. Not only the leaders have spoken out. Community parties have also done it, which they seem willing to go beyond rhetoric. How to respond to Trump? That is the debate that has been flying over Europe since the weekend. Bloomberg assures that representatives of the 27 EU countries met yesterday precisely to discuss solutions. This week a new summit will be held with the same objective: to discuss retaliation. For now, the European People’s Party (among other formations) has shown in favor to leave in the air the trade pact reached in the summer with Washington. It talks about restrict access of North American companies to the EU market and imposing tariffs on the US worth 93 billion of euros. all this on the eve of the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. The clearest and most resounding voice has probably been that of Macron, who has encouraged for the EU to activate its anti-coercive instrument, known as the community “trade bazooka”, which (if applied) could complicate US access to EU markets. Brussels itself clarify that this tool allows it to “launch countermeasures against a non-member country, including a wide range of restrictions related to trade, investment and financing.” These are big words if we take into account that in 2024 transatlantic trade in goods and services between the EU and the US exceeded 1.68 billion of euros. “The biggest lender”. In recent days, another course of action has circulated, much more complex (and emphatic) that focuses on another key link between both territories: the enormous amount of US assets in the hands of Europeans. In a report released yesterday, George Saravelos of Deutsche Bank AG, I remembered that Europe is the largest lender to the US. To be more precise, their countries hoard eight trillion dollars in bonds and stocks. For reference, it assumes almost double than the rest of the world as a whole. “Enjoys influence”. He is not the only one who has slipped that figure. In another report published today by ING Think, Carsten Brzeski and Bert Colijn recall that in recent days there has been talk of “the exposure” of the US to investors on the other side of the pond. “European countries own $8 trillion in US bonds and stocks, making Europe by far the largest US lender. Not only does this illustrate the interdependence between the regions, but Europe also enjoys influence over the US.” Why is it important? Financial Times even goes further and estimates, using data from the Federal Reserve, that the total value of US financial assets in the hands of NATO countries in Europe reaches 12.6 trillion dollars. Savarelos slips that this figure represents a “weakness” of the US that makes it “dependent on others to pay its bills through large external deficits,” and cast a reflection: “In a context where the geoeconomic stability of the Western alliance is seriously disturbed, it is not clear why the Europeans would be so willing to assume this role.” “Danish pension funds were among the first to repatriate money and reduce their exposure to the dollar a year ago. With dollar exposure still very high in Europe, the events of recent days could further drive dollar rebalancing,” duck the analyst. The question therefore is… Does the EU have a secret weapon, a pressure tool in its favor against Trump? Could Europe embark on “an … Read more

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