usatoday24, Author at usatoday24

Mexico is about to finish one of the longest bridges in Latin America

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

If you’ve been to Cancun, it’s very likely that you’ve been through the same thing: short trips that take much longer than expected, especially when it’s time cross towards the hotel zone. The city depends largely on a connection that, at peak times or in high season, becomes a bottleneck that is difficult to avoid. That is the problem that Mexican authorities have been trying to alleviate for years. Now, everything indicates that the answer is close to materializing with the Nichupté Vehicular Bridgean infrastructure that seeks to offer a direct alternative and significantly reduce travel times. The answer to this problem is not only a distant promise, but a work that is approaching its final phase. According to the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation (SICT), the Nichupté Vehicular Bridge is in his last works and the most recent official forecast places its opening towards the end of April. In this final section, the work focuses on verifying that the structure responds as expected, with load tests of up to 150 tons and vibration measurements using accelerographs. A new access to alleviate the Cancun bottleneck To understand the scope of the work, it is advisable to stop at its dimensions, which are not always clearly explained. The infrastructure adds 11.2 kilometers in total: 8.8 km correspond to the bridge over the lagoon and 2.4 km to the junctions at both ends. According to the SICT, this is the key difference between the complete work and the section that directly crosses the Nichupté lagoon system. Added to this are three traffic lanes, one of them reversible, as well as a 103-meter metal arch and a cycle path. Beyond its dimensions, the key is how it is integrated into the real mobility of the city. The new route will connect the Boulevard Luis Donaldo Colosio with the Kukulcan Boulevardtwo essential points to access the hotel zone, one of the main tourist and traffic hubs of Cancun. This connection, those responsible explain, would make it possible to reduce journeys that today can take up to an hour and a half to just about 10 minutes, an estimate that should be understood as the objective of the project. Furthermore, the infrastructure is planned as an alternative route in emergency situations, something especially relevant in an area exposed to natural phenomena. The scope of the work is also measured by who it aims to impact. According to data from the Government of Mexicothe bridge is designed to benefit more than 1.3 million inhabitants of the region, in addition to the more than 20 million tourists who visit Cancun every year. Regarding the expected traffic, the official figures have not been entirely uniform: in November 2025 the SICT spoke of an annual average daily traffic of 12,612 vehicles, while in January 2026 it raised that forecast to 20 thousand. Added to this is its impact during construction, with around 51 thousand direct and indirect jobs generated, according to the secretariat itself. But not everything is reduced to mobility and travel times. The passage of the bridge through the Nichupté lagoon system introduces a delicate variable, that of the impact on a sensitive ecological environment. The Ministry of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation maintains that the project has been developed under 10 programs and 25 environmental subprograms focused on mitigating this effect. In that framework 306 hectares of mangrove have been restoredrehabilitated 118 hectares of seagrasses and relocated more than 2,100 specimens of fauna, in addition to rescuing native vegetation. Cancun has been living for years with an obvious limitation in its mobility, especially in access to its most touristic area, and that pressure has only grown over time. He Nichupté Vehicular Bridge It is proposed as one of the most ambitious responses to this problem, both due to its scale and the role it aspires to play in the day-to-day life of the city. With the work in its final phase and an opening scheduled for the end of April according to the most recent official communication, it will soon be possible to verify to what extent it meets the expectations that have accompanied the project since its conception. Images | Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation / SICT Quintana Roo Center In Xataka | China has already conquered the cargo ship industry: now it has begun to compete in the mega-cruise ship industry

Mexico is about to finish one of the longest bridges in Latin America

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

“The tiger cannot stop being a tiger but man lives in permanent risk of being dehumanized”

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

“And here it matters to me what a tiger can or cannot stop doing?” That, I imagine, is the only reasonable question one can ask when listening to this famous phrase of Ortega y Gasset. “The tiger cannot stop being a tiger,” said the philosopher just before adding: “but man lives in permanent risk of being dehumanized.” This is the interesting thing: that for Ortega the tiger has it easy. Tiger is born, tiger lives and tiger dies. It’s not that I have a simple life, nothing in this world has simple lives. But, at least, there are no head warm-ups. Being a human, however, is something else. As explained in ‘The man and the people’human beings have a problem that no other animal has: they have to decide who they are going to be. It is a central idea of Ortega’s thought: that the human being does not have nature (he does not have a fixed behavioral repertoire, nor a series of concrete capacities, nor a ‘way of being’ in the world that comes as standard), what he has is history. It is true that contemporary science (by pulverizing the qualitative distance between us and them) has questioned this idea, but on a personal level still makes sense. In many ways, the philosopher would tell us, we are a project that is being carried out over time. However, the idea has problems: on the one hand, it empowers us, it gives us tools to take control of our own lives. On the other hand, it subjects us to pressure and anxiety (that of being “the unique and non-transferable self”) that can be counterproductive. How not to dehumanize ourselves, then? “Dehumanize“It is not becoming bad, or anything like that: it is simply betraying our individuality. Whatever that means. What Ortega did give us some ideas about is how to avoid it. For him, life oscillates between two poles: self-absorption and “alteration”: between locking yourself inside yourself and letting yourself be carried away by what is happening around you. The key is not to fall into any of these poles: neither reject society, nor get confused with it. We have to orient ourselves within it to get closer to who we are in the midst of the chaos of the contemporary world. It is an invitation to stop living without autopilot on. The difficult thing, I imagine, is doing it. Image | ChatGPT In Xataka | What did Immanuel Kant mean when he argued that patience is not “a force of resistance, but rather one that hopes to make suffering satisfactory?”

All these European alternatives are great if you want to depend less on the US

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

You may or may not have realized it, but chances are that many of the apps and services you use every day are owned by a large US company. Precisely for this reason, more and more users are thinking in switching to services of European origin, thus depending less on the US. Is it possible? The reality is that there are many quality European services that are a real alternative and are very worthwhile. There is a lot of work pending if you plan to reduce your dependence on American services to a minimum, but let’s start with four basic ones: cloud storage, email, VPN and cloud office automation. European alternatives to Gmail Are you looking for a European email service? Yes, most people choose Gmail, but we have options if we don’t want to depend on Google for our email: Proton Mail: Proton has its email service, very much in line with its cloud storage. It has end-to-end and zero-knowledge encryption, so not even the company itself will be able to access our information. It starts at a very reasonable price (2.99 euros per month), but right now we have the same promo to try the service for 1 euro per month for the first month. Proton Mail (the first month) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Tuta Mail: We have an alternative of German origin that also works with renewable energy. It also offers very good security, as well as protection against spam, phishing and tracking. It has a free option if we want to try the service, although it is a bit limited. Part of 3.60 euros per month. mailbox: Another service of German origin is Mailbox, which in addition to offering email, has an assortment of various functions (including video calls). The most basic service offered by Mailbox costs 1 euro per month. European alternatives to Google Drive or iCloud The cloud has become an oasis where we can save our photos, videos and files to free up our equipment. The most popular or used are usually Google Drive, Dropbox or iCloud, although there are quite interesting European alternatives: Internxt: Internxt, a company of Spanish origin, offers end-to-end encryption and is open source, so anyone can access it. This service is committed to an annual modality that starts from the 16 euros per year, although it also has lifelong plans. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Proton Drive: Another quite notable alternative is with Proton, which offers a service with end-to-end encryption and with a lot of control over the files we store, as well as the links to share them that we can create. It has a fairly reasonable price, although right now there is an active promotion that allows us to get a month to try Proton Drive for 1 euro. pCloud: Of Swiss origin, pCloud is another European cloud storage alternative. It has a very intuitive interface and has a native application on practically all operating systems. This service is part of the 4.99 euros per monthalthough it also has annual and lifetime options. European alternatives to Google Docs Online office automation is very useful, especially when it comes to working collaboratively. Yes, we also have several very interesting options of European origin: OnlyOffice: a very useful service that is characterized above all by a very intuitive interface to use. It offers the possibility of hosting it in our own cloud with services such as OnwCloud or Nextcloud and, being open source, anyone can audit it. It has a free plan. Nextcloud Office: This service also offers a very good online document editing experience, both alone and collaboratively. Yes indeed: here we do not have a free plan. Proton Docs: This company also offers office automation among its services, which is doubly useful: it is easy to use and very secure. In addition, it is included in Proton Drive or even Proton Unlimited, which is this company’s package that includes both 500 GB of cloud storage and Docs, VPN, password manager and your email. This last service is on sale right now: it goes on 8.99 euros per month in its annual mode (so we will pay a total of 107.88 euros). Proton Unlimited (12 months) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links European alternatives to IPVanish More and more people use a VPN to protect your Internet traffic and your VPN. There are several of the best VPNs that are of American origin, although not all. We have European alternatives that are safe and work well: Mullvad VPN: With more than 700 servers distributed in 38 countries, Mullvad VPN is one of the best European alternatives if we are looking for a VPN. It costs only 5 euros per month, regardless of whether we want a month, a year or a decade. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Goose VPN: It is a smaller alternative, but Goose VPN is also a very interesting European service that can come in handy if we are looking for one of these tools. It offers 24/7 support and unlimited devices and is priced at 4.99 euros per month if we choose your annual subscription. It is worth noting that it offers a lifetime subscription for 159 euros. Proton VPN: Proton also has VPN, one that is open source and allows any user to access it. One of the best things about this service is that it has a free option, which is interesting if we want to try it before subscribing. Its price right now is 2.99 euros per month if we opt for its annual subscription. NordVPN: We leave one of the most recognized VPNs for last, which is also one of the best we can currently use. Right now it is on sale with a discount of more than 70% if we choose its two-year plan, one that also comes with 3 extra months. In other words: we … Read more

OpenAI promised them they would be happy selling hype and memes. Until reality hits

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

The news of the weekend is Sora’s closure. What was once the platform of the hype Regarding video creation, he says goodbye, leaving agreements behind millionaires with giants like DisneyOpenAI’s promise to be one of the big players in text to video, and doubts about the company’s strategy. The bet on hype. For some time now, OpenAI’s strategy has been to create hype, be the protagonist in the conversation, and wait for the user to assimilate its proposal. The problem? It is a strategy that worked in its initial phases, when OpenAI played practically alone. We saw it with Sora: the launch was the most talked about on networks, television and practically all media. Months after its launch, there was no way to use the app without VPN outside the United States (and in a very controlled way through its app in countries such as Canada, Japan, Korea or Vietnam) and was still in the experimental phase. The closure. Sora hasn’t lasted even two years. It was born in February 2024 and says goodbye in March 2026. What was born as the reference model for video creation remained a half-baked experiment, while Chinese giants or Google itself with their models I see They advanced and landed their models on the plane that really matters: the one that allows the average user to access it. The competition tightens. OpenAI promised them happiness two years ago, when ChatGPT had hardly any rivals and companies like Anthropic were in their early product stages. But photography has changed in just a few months: Claude is becoming, with almost daily iterations, the most complete chatbot (it is already much more than that). Gemini has been starting to eat his toast for a year. China is absolutely unleashed launching spectacular video models like Seedance 2.0. AI solutions are no longer promises and hype: they are rapid and controlled launches, integrated into platforms that any average user can access. If you don’t integrate, you don’t win. Seedance 2.0 has not even been running for three months and already It is beginning to be integrated into editing programs such as CapCut. AIs like KlingAI have been integrated into gigantic platforms like HighsfieldAI for months. Releases that materialize a few days after seeing the light, and that lay tangible foundations for the state of AI in text to video. OpenAI assumed that a minority of professionals would be willing to pay for the more expensive versions of GPT to access Sora. The reality: the competition is managing to create much superior mass-use tools, and OpenAI cannot afford tools like Sora. The money is on the other side. Sam Altman need to redefine the strategy. For the moment, he wants double the company’s workforcecenter everything in one superapp that reduces catalog and he has his eyes on Spud. This is the name given internally to the next great AI model they are preparing, one aimed at making OpenAI finally a profitable company. After years without a fixed direction, and with its rivals eating its toast, OpenAI faces its most complex stage: one in which selling hype is not enough. In Xataka | Sora’s closure is a sign: OpenAI takes a step back in the AI race to completely recalibrate

the price of fuel does not go down in the Canary Islands

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

Last week, the Government launched an emergency plan to cushion the blow of the war in the middle east on the citizens’ pockets. The most visible measure is the reduction of VAT on fuel, from 21% to 10%, which in practical terms translates into around 30 cents less per liter of gasoline and about 20 euros in savings per tank. On the peninsula, thousands of drivers They have already noticed it at the pump since the royal decree It came into effect last Sunday. In the Canary Islands, however, this discount does not exist. And it is basically the consequence of a tax system that has been operating for centuries in a completely different way from the rest of the country. The Canary Islands do not pay VAT. When the Government cuts VAT on fuel, it is modifying a tax that is not applied in the archipelago. In the Canary Islands, the Value Added Tax does not apply, nor does the Special Tax on Hydrocarbons, which do apply in the rest of the national territory. Instead it works the Canary Islands General Indirect Tax (IGIC) and its own regional tax on fuels derived from petroleum. This is because the Canary Islands have a special tax regime within Spain and the European Union, with historical roots linked to its status as an outermost territory. Type difference. The IGIC works in a similar way to the VAT, but its percentages are much lower. While the general VAT rate is set at 21%, the general IGIC is set at 7%. And if the reduced VAT is 10%, the reduced IGIC drops to 3%. This means that every time a driver fills up the tank in the Canary Islands, the consumption tax he pays is less than half that of a driver in Madrid or Seville. In global figures, fuels on the islands support a tax burden of around 25%compared to 50% of the national average. This is done to compensate for the structural extra costs involved in being an archipelago far from the continent, without oil pipelines and with all the energy imported by ship. Margins. The gap in tax rates limits the scope for action on the islands. When the State reduces the VAT on fuel from 21% to 10%, it cuts 11 percentage points. If the Canary Islands Government wanted to apply an equivalent reduction, it would have to take the IGIC from 7% to 0%, and even then. In this way, the economic impact on the consumer’s pocket is not the same, although the proportional effort is comparable. This explains why the savings generated by this type of measures are structurally greater on the peninsula than on the islands. In the Canary Islands they already paid less, but the increase is suffered more. Before the crisis broke out, gasoline was cheaper in the Canary Islands thanks to REF (Economic and Fiscal Regime of the Canary Islands), the application of IGIC instead of VAT and price regulation. But when oil becomes more expensive, the effect is especially abrupt in the archipelago. Most consumer products in the archipelago arrive by ship, including fuel. The rapid rise in crude oil also affects maritime transport, which in the end makes everything more expensive. According to data from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition collected by Dieselogasolinethe average accumulated price of a liter of 95 gasoline in the Canary Islands has gone from 1,181 euros to 1,383 euros since the conflict began. The strategy that the Canary Islands are considering. The regional government of Fernando Clavijo is already working on its own anti-crisis shield. The central measure is to bring the IGIC of fuels to zero rate, eliminating the current 7%. It also contemplates a 99.9% bonus on fuel tax for transporters and deductions in the regional section of personal income tax. Of course, in order to be able to carry it out without breaking the spending rule, the Canary Islands Executive has asked the Ministry of Finance to make this limit more flexible. In Xataka | Chinese airlines are the only ones still flying over Russia. And that is why they are the winners of the Iran crisis

suffocate your business model

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

If we limit ourselves to the average gasoline prices in Spain, the measures imposed by the Government have eased the pockets of the Spanish people a little. That, at least, is what the portal says. dieselgasolina.com which collects the prices of all the gas stations in our country. However, the full photograph does not tell us this. There seem to be nuances. And one of them has the low-cost gas stations at odds with the big oil companies. A meeting with the CNMC. It is the information that brings Populi Voicewho assure that the National Association of Automatic Service Stations (AESAE) will meet with the CNMC to express their complaints about the policies of Repsol and Moeve when applying aggressive discounts on the purchase of fuel. According to the newspaper, this association is in favor of filing a formal complaint because they understand that their discounts are only intended to harm their business. In Xataka We have contacted this association but at the time of writing this article we have not received a response. What has happened? On March 20, 2026, The Government reduced VAT on fuel from 21% to 10%. This has caused an immediate drop in the price of about 30 cents on average, according to figures collected by the portal. dieselgasoline. All in all, both diesel and gasoline remain well above the prices we found on March 1, when the Iran War had just begun. Then, the price of gasoline was 1.495 euros/liter and today it is 1.584 euros/liter. Diesel is the most affected fuel. From the 1,447 euros/liter registered at the beginning of the month, it is today at 1,783 euros/liter, even above 98 gasoline. Repsol and Moeve tighten. In this context, Repsol and Moeve have taken the opportunity to launch aggressive discount campaigns that, of course, are not available to everyone since they rely on their loyalty cards and multi-energy programs to catch the consumer with more attractive prices. Repsol relies on Waylet to put on the table discounts of up to 40 cents/liter. With the card, the discounts are 10 cents/liter but these are doubled if we have the electricity contracted with Repsol. And they reach 40 cents/liter if we have also taken out home or car insurance. Moeve uses a very similar strategy. Using its alliance with Naturgythe company offers discounts of 20 cents/liter with each report if we have also contracted electricity or gas. And we will also have six cents/kWh refueled with each electric car recharge. These figures grow if we have also contracted other services and even the consumption of our home with plates. In that case, the discount reaches 60 cents/liter and 15 cents/kWh with each electric recharge. Low cost companies complain. These discounts are not being seen well by low-cost companies. These types of companies He already pointed out to the Government in the early days of the Ukrainian War that subsidy of 20 cents/liter of the State put its business model at risk. But, also, they pointed out to the big oil companies as architects of a staging with its discounts that compromised its economic viability. Therefore, according to Populi Voicethese companies will file a formal complaint with the CNMC against a pricing policy that they consider abusive. They are not the only ones, FACUA also denounces that service stations are absorbing state aid with the VAT reduction. Already in 2022 The CNMC verified that the discounts applied were quickly absorbed by the oil companies. In Xataka We have contacted the Spanish Fuel Industry Association, who defend that their members, including Moeve and Repsol, “have always taken the side of consumers in times of crisis such as the years of Covid-19, the War in Ukraine or in this case.” Same story (more or less). Those 2022 complaints seemed founded, as time has shown. It’s only been a few months since The CNMC fined more than 20 million euros in penalties to Repsol for applying discounts during fuel purchase subsidies four years ago. According to Competition, the company launched a two-direction strategy. It offered extra discounts of five cents/liter to professionals and, at the same time, raised the sales price of its fuel to independent service stations. The objective was to narrow their profit margin while offering itself as a company with more attractive prices than the competition. A question of margins. Big oil companies have an obvious advantage in times of crisis. As has been seen with the 2022 discounts and is seen right now, they are companies that can play with their profit margins with greater ease than low-cost companies. First because they have a dominant position with more establishments in the market, second because they buy a greater amount of fuel. Low cost companies can offer more attractive prices in normal circumstances but they are more sensitive to crises if we are talking about an increase in the price of the product. This is because their purchases are smaller and more frequent, so they live adrift from the price of oil, reflecting the rise in price before large companies. And, obviously, they suffer much more when these companies apply aggressive discounts since their profit margins are narrower but their room for maneuver is also smaller since, as we say, they cannot make large purchases that lower the price for a few days, no matter how few. Photo | Repsol and Ballenoil In Xataka | Finding the cheapest gas station in your area is very simple thanks to this very powerful tool

Imagine you are offered $26 million to convert your farm into a data center. And then imagine that you reject them

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

The market price of agricultural land in Mason County, Kentucky, USA, is around $6,000 per acre. Last year, an unnamed company — the suspect is one of the AI majors — offered Ida Huddleston and her family about 10 times that amount for half of their 1,200 acres. They tempted her with 26 million dollars to build a data center there but Huddleston, 82, rejected the offer without thinking. Farmers of yesteryear. Delsia Bare, daughter of the owner, counted on a local television station as for them “26 million means nothing. Although the phrase is blunt, it is likely that more than indifference to money it reflects a different scale of values. The land matters. Bare explained how his family has farmed that land for generations, paid taxes on it, and kept it productive even during the Great Depression. “We even grew wheat during the Depression and kept bread production lines running in the US when people didn’t have access to other foods.” For the family, the sale would be a break with those values. Obsession with data centers. The Huddlestons’ story is not an isolated case, and Bare herself claimed to be one of dozens of homeowners in the area who had received similar offers from the same anonymous buyer. We all know that large AI companies have been seeking for months to expand the presence of data centers throughout the US, and several of them have announced astronomical investments to achieve that future computing capacity. cheap land. Rural areas are perfect because they are far from urban centers but still have access to resources such as water for their cooling systems and electrical networks with sufficient capacity. In Kentucky the price of agricultural land is relatively low compared to other areas, and that availability of water and energy is a very attractive combination for companies that want to create new data centers. From stupid farmers, nothing. Huddleston, 82, explained that turning down the offer is surprising: “They call us stupid farmers, but we’re not. We know when our food is disappearing, when our land is disappearing.” The owner is clear that the conversion of agricultural land into the basis for digital infrastructure will have consequences on water, food production and the economy of rural communities itself that for decades have been very outside of these technological cycles. Lies. Those who wanted to buy his land claimed that the project would bring jobs and economic growth to the area, but Huddleston has a very different opinion. “I say they are liars, and the truth is not in them. That’s what I say. It’s a scam.” Gone with the wind. His daughter compared this symbiosis with his land to that reflected in the mythical film ‘Gone with the wind‘ and what her protagonist in the film, Scarlett O’Hara, experienced: “She was very attached to that land. Her spirit would never die. The same thing happens to me. As long as I am on this land, as long as it feeds me, as long as it takes care of me, there is nothing that can destroy me if I have this land.” But. Despite the Huddlestons’ refusal, the project has moved forward. Other neighbors in the area have agreed to sell, and the AI company has adapted its plans to use those plots. It is therefore likely that the Huddleston family farm will end up being very close to that future data center if it is finally built, but one thing is certain: for now they are holding out. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | OpenAI has signed countless billion-dollar agreements with other companies. We are discovering that they are made of paper

Something that happened 30 km from the North Pole six weeks ago is about to ruin Palm Sunday. The culprit has a name and surname

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

There is a line that connects something that happened 30 kilometers from the North Pole six weeks ago with the foremen looking at the weather report on the afternoon of Palm Sunday. And that line has a name: a cold episode as real as it is unusual. -35 degrees at 5,500 meters. This meteorological indicator is a perfect summary: they are thermal values typical of the harshest part of winter at the end of March. However, we should not overstate the issue as has been done in recent days. So what’s going on? The configuration is simple: a powerful blocking anticyclone is establishing itself between the south of the British Isles and the north of the Peninsula. That will channel a polar mass over the continent. Spain in particular will be under the influence of a slightly warmer branch, but (still) very cold for the time. Palm Sunday (i.e. March 29) will be the ‘climax’ of the onset of cold: The two main weather models in the world indicate -35 degrees. A good part of the eastern third of the Peninsula and the Balearic Islands will be in full “climate January” during the first half of Easter. The good side. According to AEMETthe anticyclone will block the rains during most of the festivals. It cannot be ruled out that “someday something will sneak in”, but scant rainfall is expected in most of the west and south of the peninsula. What can we expect? That’s the most complicated part of all this. The context is complex: an exceptional winter (the wettest in at least 47 years), a historic number of high-impact storms (at least 19) and reservoirs at 83.2% of their capacity. But the underlying mechanism complicates everything even more. In early February, sudden stratospheric warming occurred at the north pole, fragmenting the polar vortex. What we are seeing now is a coherent scenario with that. Holy Week, in this context, acts as a media amplifier. What’s going to happen. Because make no mistake, the snow level below 600 in the north is going to collapse many roads (just when more people are moving), the uncertainty in the northwest is going to complicate life for processions and agriculture can affect many plants in full bloom. Now, all of this falls within the typical Easter ‘playbook’. So no, it won’t be a perfect week: but we certainly shouldn’t expect a “universal flood” either. Image | Tropical Tidbits In Xataka | The rain has transformed the driest desert on the planet into a sea of flowers. It’s a sight to behold and a problem for experts

instead of Polos or Golf, make Iron Domes to Israel

March 25, 2026 by usatoday24

In World War II, several of the biggest factories European companies had to completely reinvent themselves in a matter of months, going from producing civilian goods to manufacturing strategic equipment or vice versa. Since then, the ability of an industrial plant to change function quickly has been considered one of the key indicators of economic resilience. From cars to domes. I told it exclusively this morning the financial times. Volkswagen has found a way out for one of its ailing factories in Germany. The Osnabrück plant, threatened with closure due to the decline in the automobile business, it could be converted very soon to produce components and anti-missile system material Israeli Iron Dome. There is no doubt, the change it’s very deep. It would go from assembling civilian vehicles to manufacturing military technology. All for a very clear objective: maintain the 2,300 jobs and make use of an industrial infrastructure that is no longer profitable in the automotive sector. Industry in crisis. The move reflects a broader change in Germany, one that we have been counting recent months: the automotive sector suffers from competition China and a slower than expected electrical transition. At the same time, defense spending in Europe is growing strongly after the war in Ukraine. As things stand, Berlin plans to invest more than 500,000 million of euros in the coming years, and in this context, factories that previously produced cars are now seeking to adapt to the military industrywhere demand is stable and growing. Iron Dome Launch System What exactly would they make? According to the FTthe plant would not produce complete missiles, but key parts of the system. Among them, the trucks that transport the launchers, the launch systems and the electrical generators that activate them. Talk later of essential elements for the system to work in the field. Furthermore, the plan requires a relatively low investment and could be operational within a short period of time. from 12 to 18 months. Plus: Rafael would install another specialized factory in Germany for interceptorswhich would complete the production chain in Europe. How the “Dome” works. The Israeli anti-missile system is designed to intercept rockets short-range before they impact inhabited areas. It works in several phases. First, a radar detects the launch and calculate the trajectory of the projectile. A control system then decides whether the rocket poses a real threat or will fall into an uninhabited area. If it is dangerous, it is launched an interceptor missile which destroys it in the air. This process occurs in a matter of seconds. The system combines sensors, software and mobile launchers, and Israel claims it manages to intercept more than 90% of the projectiles that it considers dangerous. A return to military production with history. For Volkswagen, this turn is not completely new. As we count a few months ago, during the Second World War, the company already produced military vehicles and even weapons clike the V1 bomb. After decades focused on the civilian sector, this collaboration would mark a partial return to the defense industry. Even so, the context is different. Now it’s about take advantage of industrial capacity existing in a changing economic environment, not a reconversion forced by an all-out war. Europe and its defense. The interest, furthermore, is not only industrial. Also It’s strategic. Europe seeks strengthen your autonomy in defense and reduce its dependence on third parties. There is no doubt, introducing systems like the Iron Dome on European soil facilitates its deployment and maintenance. However, there are doubts. The reason: the system is designed for short-range threats and some experts question its effectiveness against more advanced missiles. Even so, the need to strengthen air defense is driving these types of projects. An industrial decision. The plan, in any case, is not yet completely closed and depends on the acceptance of workers. Not everyone is willing to go from manufacturing cars to producing military equipment, but the media explained that the alternative is uncertain. With the planned closure of current production, reconversion appears as one of the few options to maintain activity. If you like, ultimately the decision reflects a major change. The European industry is beginning to adapt to a scenario where security is once again an economic engine. Image | Roger Wollstadt, Israel Defense Forces, Kārlis Dambrāns In Xataka | Germany was a sleeping military giant: now it has been awakened and it is already surpassing the US in bullets produced per year In Xataka | The “rearmament” of Europe has begun at a Volkswagen factory in Germany: instead of cars they will produce tanks

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