Mobile Tech & Gadgets

The traditional couple model is in crisis. And it has translated into more people eating alone in restaurants

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Eating is a necessity, a pleasure … and also (in your own way) A social act. Around the tables we celebrate, remember and honor. We remain for dinner in our first events, to celebrate birthdays and promotions, the arrival of the New Year or say goodbye to that friend who moves to another city. Eating has always been synonymous with sharing, especially if we do it in a bar, where it also becomes a public act, exposed to unknown looks. Or at least so it was until now. Table for one, please. It is very simple. He arrives with any restaurant at rush hour and observing the room: There are more and more people eating alone. And not by obligation or because he does not have anyone to share dinner. On the contrary. We do it by choice, to enjoy loneliness and backs to the stigma that until not so long persecuted those who sat alone at tables that were designed precisely to gather large groups. Impressions … and data. As with most trends, there are studies and percentages that help us better understand their scope. Although finding a site to eat alone It is not always simplein the OpenTable US calculates that the reserves for a single diner 64% have shot Since 2019. Moreover, between 2022 and 2023, Resyanother New York reservation platform, calculates that requests of this type increased by 21%. They are forceful percentages and it is not unreasonable to think that they are short. After all, both opening and resy register only those who reserve in advance, not those who appear in the premises without calling before. Is there more data? Yes. And although there may be variations from one study to another, most point in the same direction. In 2024, opening calculated that the alone dinners in the United Kingdom had experienced a year -on -year increase of 14%percentage that in the case of Manchester stretched until reaching 23%. Other studies They also talk that the ‘Only Dining’ He has gained weight in Germany and Japan or that the number of Americans who recognize having recently has grown by 53% In just two decades, between 2003 and 2023. And Spain? There are some indicators that suggest that Spain does not remain oblivious to that trend. In 2022 Mapfre published A FOOD REPORT in which he revealed that, although most of the Spaniards continue to enjoy the family meals, between 2017 and 2022 the number of people who sit at the table without company, especially during working days, increased 5%. In 2020, in full pandemic, Thefork also perceived that the reserves for a single person had grew by 4% In our country. Of course, they were still a minority. In an attempt to go further in 2024 Reasonwhy did A poll Among several restaurant chains with presence in Spain that showed that, at least in part of them, it is increasingly common to see customers without company. Well because they are more or because those who already ate alone before do it now more often. Alsea, behind Vips, Ginos or Foster´s Hollywood, requires that 7% of Foster´sy customers 18% of those of VIPs eat without anyone next. And what is the reason? The right thing would be to talk about reasons, in plural. When analyzing the trend, so much The sector As analysts usually coincide in certain factors that have clearly influenced customers. Above all there are two: pandemic, with its restrictions and fear of infection; and a cultural change that leads us to look with other eyes to those who sit in a restaurant without a company. “That a person was lonely has always been might, but now that taboo to exhibit loneliness has broken,” Notice in The country José A. González, anthropologist. “It was growing before pandemic, but now it has been strengthened because we have become accustomed to being alone,” agrees Chef Lola Marín. “In addition, it was unthinkable that a woman was alone to eat or take a wine to a bar. Luckily it is now more common.” Even in networks They can be found Videos of people who presume that: to enjoy their dinner alone. Generational issue? There are those who believe that there is another factor that has influenced so much or more than the COVID: the change of mentality that accompanies the Z generation and the Millennials. Whether or not the truth is that the trend is accompanied by a transformation of Spanish society itself, in which It is increasingly common meet people living alone. If the INE forecasts do not fail in 2039 there will be some 7.7 million of unipersonal homes, 33.5% of the total. Question of loneliness (s). That we normalize loneliness does not mean that all loneliness is the same or all its positive effects. In fact it also carries certain challenges, as I collected recently An article of The New York Times in which a curious relationship is pointed out: in the US the increase of the people who eat alone has coincided with a worsening of the country’s general happiness index. The reason: not all loneliness is deliberate. The professor of the University of Oxford Jan-Emmanuel de Neve even It goes further and reflect on the implications that excessive isolation can have. “That we are increasingly socially isolated also assumes that we do not test our ideas about the world with other people,” he says. The result, in his opinion, is an amplification of echo chambers and polarization. Image | Ismail Hamzah (Unspash) In Xataka | More and more Spanish bars refuse to pay at the table. Its objective is very simple: greater rotation

The last tactic of Ukraine is a drone that seeks to catch him. When Russia opens it displays its threat: a virus

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The Russian invasion in Ukraine has led to two very different lines of development in kyiv. On the one hand, and in the face of investment in sophisticated and expensive armament, Ukraine has shown that systems relatively simple and low costas The mounted shotguns In drones, they can be equal or more decisive in asymmetric combat scenarios. On the other, and given the adversity, the creation of one of the most powerful industries From the planet: national combat drones. The last one is a surprise. Technology on the battlefield. We have gone counting months ago. The war between Russia and Ukraine, marked from the beginning by intensive use of New technologieshe has seen in the drones one of his more decisive instruments. However, a recent video Shared in social networks of Russian origin warns about a new and worrying front: Malware use by Ukraine embedded in drones capable of infecting Russian systems. Although these computer threats have been considered lower so far (mainly because they do not attack complete networks, but individual devices such as computers or the captured drones themselves) their appearance represents a more than significant change in the cyber dimension of the conflict. Ukrainian malware. Apparently, Forbes counted that the malware detected in Ukrainian drones has Specific functions: physically damage USB ports, prevent the Reflasso of the system, block the reprogramming of the drone or even very important, allow Ukraine to locate the new Russian operators if the drone is reused by Moscow. As? These malicious codes are designed to sabotage any reuse attempt by the enemy, disabled the electronics of the devices or creating vulnerabilities They can be remotely exploited. In a context in which both countries face resource restrictions, limiting the ability to have enemy drones represents a crucial strategic advantage for Ukraine. Operational impact and consequences. No doubt, the use of malware has immediate tactical implications. Russia depends on the detailed analysis of the enemy drones captured for Adapt your systems of countermeasures, which requires manipulating its components and studying its software. If these drones are protected with code that disables or compromises their systems when connecting them, the reverse engineering process becomes slower, complex and, ultimately, risky. Thus, Ukraine manages to extend the useful life cycle of its drones before Moscow develops an effective countermelted, something vital in an environment where technological innovation translates into direct tactical advantage. “Human” talent. Development looks in the form achieved with the Double cannon or with The optical fiber. The success of these strategies lies in the force of Ukrainian technological sectorthat before the war already stood out for its dynamism and human talent. With a robust base of software engineers and cybersecurity experts, Ukraine has managed to transfer civil abilities to the military, generating asymmetric tools that do not require great physical resources, but a high degree of technical sophistication. The development of malware in drones allows maximizing the impact of available resources, hindering Russian work without increasing the number of devices deployed. A new cyber career in the theater. Not just that. The introduction of malware also marks the beginning of a new phase in the struggle for technological superiority. If Ukraine has begun to use malware with limited but effective functions, it is reasonable to anticipate that Russia will respond with Your own developments Similar offensives, as has happened with previous innovations of both sides. In this way, a climbing cycle is opened: more advanced malware will require better defenses, which in turn will be target of more sophisticated versions. In a short time, it is assumed that both parties could implement specific antivirus protection in drones, harden managerial device management protocols and use new malicious software variants that attack command and control networks or even open rear doors for intelligence operations. Technological consequences. In the last three years, both Russia and Ukraine have converted their respective scientific ecosystems into Weapons at the service of war effort. The Ukrainian decision to integrate malware into its drones not only slows the Russian reusing, but redefines the battle for Technological supremacy In the conflict. In addition, the strategy can be extended perfectly to other electronic devices, including smart weapons, communications sensors or systems. What began as an innovative tactic could be consolidated as a digital war doctrine, influencing the design, use and protection of all military equipment from now on. If you want also, the deployment of malware in Ukrainian drones shows how modern war has moved towards the scope of the code, where only a small script can have effects comparable to a certain shot … without the need for a single bullet. Image | Rawpixel In Xataka | To hunt Russian drones, Ukraine is resorting to a revolutionary technique … from World War I In Xataka | A Russian drone has opened one of the greatest engineering works. The problem: it was the sarcophagus of Chernobil reactor 4

Goal has an excellent reason to launch a gigantic flame variant 4: Specialization capacity

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Goal advertisement Last Saturday the launch of flame 4, his new family of Open Source models of IA. The company takes chest with three multimodal variants and one especially striking for being absolutely huge in size. But it is for a good reason. Hello, call 4. It has been almost a year since the goal announced Call 3and his new family of models arrives with three different variants: Call 4 scout: the most “small”, which competes with Gemma 3, Gemini 2.0 Flash-lite and Mistral 3.1. Call 4 Maverick: Compete with GPT-4O, Gemini 2.0 Flash and Deepseek v3 Call 4 Behemoth: An absolute monster that as Meta surpasses GPT-4.5, Gemini 2.0 and Claude 3.7 in various benchmarks. The latter is not demomently available publicly. Amazing context window. These models offer a context window of 10 million tokens, something simply spectacular. That means we can enter a gigantic amount of data such as entry (PROMPT), for example huge code repositories on which to work directly. Mixture-Of-Experts. These models use mixture -of-ou-explet architecture that already took advantage for example Depseek. As we explain then, this allows to divide the model into “experts” that activates according to the type of request. That improves efficiency and has proven to be a fantastic technique for models to behave optimally with much less resources consumption. Scout has 16 experts and Maverick has 128. This type of architecture also favors the inference phase, or what is the same: the models will respond not only efficiently, but fast and fluid. Call 4 Behemoth, the “Model Professor”. It is not yet available, but this variant is absolutely huge and has two billion parameters (2T in English), when calling 3, which was huge (405b) was a five times smaller model. Deepseek R1 has 671,000 million parameters, three times less that calls 4 Behemoth. The key to this model is that it serves as “teacher” for smaller and, above all, specialized variants. The flame 4 comparative table with respect to some of its rivals. Specialization. This variant is also a perfect candidate to be “distilled” and starting from it to obtain much smaller but equally capable models that “learn” from that “teacher teacher” that is call 4, but adapting to more concrete areas and scenarios and in which they can highlight. And less censorship. OpenAI’s image generator He already took a 180º turn and applies much less inspired censorship By Grok 3. Goal does the same with flame 4, which according to the company has become “responds with a strong political inclination at a rate comparable to Grok in a controversial set of political or social issues.” Thus, we have a somewhat less “politically correct” model. For now debatable results. Although the model seems to score very well in benchmarks, experts like Simon Willinson They have tried it And they ensure that their first impressions are not especially remarkable. Gemini 2.5 Pro seems to behave much better in one of the tests he performed when summarizing and analyzing a text. However, with flame 3 something similar happened, and both calls 3.1 and calls 3.2 significantly improved their behavior. They can already be tested. Call 4 is now available In WhatsAppInstagram, Facebook or the website of Goal AI. And once again, experts offers the possibility of download italthough you will basically need a cluster with a lot, a lot of memory to be able to run them at home. They are also available in Huggingface. And soon “will reason”. Mark Zuckerberg Indian In its Instagram account that in addition to these models, next month we will see a model called 4 reasoning that will be the company’s first reasoning model. It is an especially interesting variant, especially when competing with Deepseek R1 (and its successor, which It will appear soon). Images | Goal In Xataka | Great technology have determined something this year: that we end up talking to an AI

Ghibli’s fever has forced Openai to adopt an unprecedented measure: add water mark

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He Viral phenomenon of the images generated by chatgpt that I mimic those of Studio Ghibli It has apparently caused an interesting reaction from OpenAI. One with which to avoid major evils. Water marks. The company is preparing the inclusion of water brands in the images it generates Your new AI modelImagegen. As indicated in Bleeping Computer, a researcher named Tibor Blaho He has found References to these water marks in the Android application of Chatgpt. They already did it with texts generated by AI. OpenAi has already raised long ago Your own system to integrate water marks into the texts generated by AI. Now it seems to be preparing something similar for its deployment in an image generator that is precisely becoming a successful tool for Capture a lot of new users. An idea with a lot of future. We have been talking about the efforts from various companies to create some type of standardized water brand. He C2PA standardthat among other things has been supported by OpenAIit is the one that is gradually gaining ground. This discovery in the Android of Chatgpt reveals that intention to implement it natively by generating any image from the OpenAi chatbot. Pay to avoid water brand? In Bleeping Computer they indicate how sources close to OpenAi talk about two types of images of AI: Water marks will be in the images generated with grauite accounts, but chatgpt plus subscribers can save them without water mark. It is something similar to what happens with image banks that have free images without water marks and others that do and that force to pay to remove them. A measure to avoid demands. The ability to create images that imitate those of Studio Chibli has unleashed a viral fever for this Openai tool, but that also raises potential judicial actions. Copyright is still a controversial element of everything that surrounds AI models, and water brands would at least serve to it conform their origin and avoid legal demands. The debate on fair use and copyright. In Your appendix On risks of use of GPT-4O and its image of the images, OpenAi mentions that the tool can be used to create images “that look like the aesthetics of some artists.” She and others They grab the concept of “fair use” of those tools when training them and generating images. However, the thin line that separates that fair use from a Copyright violation It is increasingly tense, and the risk is clear. Image | Xataka with chatgpt In Xataka | The price to be paid for having ia is the looting of all the internet content. And perplexity is just the last example

It’s called byd and represents everything China has to win

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We do not know how long it will last but we do know that we are living a few days that will happen in the history of financial markets. That they become a mere anecdote in books or that, really, becomes days, weeks or a historical period to study is something that time will only tell us. Anyway, since last April 2, something has changed in the world car market. Something that threatens to break the market as we have understood so far. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than the announcing Byd is emerging at a unique opportunity. A disruptive tariff. “A hole we have never seen”. With these words, Jim Farley, CEO of Ford, defined the possibility of cars to export tariffs to the United States. From April 2 they apply at 25%. A figure that substantially increases each vehicle or that dynamite the benefit that each company can obtain if it does not touch the prices. The pieces have also been granted to build those cars. For example, if a car is manufactured in the United States, the product has to increase because the transmission, engine or any other piece has been manufactured outside its borders. And, in addition, there are also A 25% tariff to tariff and aluminum They are key … indeed, for car production. A complicated calculation. The problem of which numerous experts are notifying is that it is impossible for the United States to attract a complete supply chain for all cars that buys in a short time space that is the alleged great objective of the measure. In BBC They explain with a map the complex process that carries the production of a simple piston, which moves as a fish in the water between the borders of the United States, Canada and Mexico. Farley’s words are also the company that produces the most within the United States After Tesla. The impact despite everything is huge, how to calculate the damage to General Motors, for example? We know that last year the United States imported vehicles and car parts worth $ 475,000 million in 2024. Of that figure, it is estimated that more or less half were represented by vehicles. And of those vehicles, between 50 and 60% arrived from Europe, they collect in eldiario.es. It does not seem accidental that the European Union is already proposing lift tariffs to industrial goods. First consequences. Given this context, there are two options. The first, of course, upload prices. It is estimated that, on average, and depending on the base price of the vehicle an American will pay Between 5,000 and $ 15,000 more per car bought. Given that climb, it is difficult to think that manufacturers can put on the market the same amount of cars as at the moment. Mercedes considers abandoning the sale of Mercedes Gla, one of its less small vehicles and, therefore, with the lowest profit margin, according to Bloomberg. Those who are not thinking about it are Stellantis. The company has already announced the Temporary dismissal of 900 employees. In addition, a factory in Ontario (Canada) and another in Toluca (Mexico) will be closed two weeks and all month of April, respectively. Toyota, which was already reducing its production in the United States, It is also going down the rhythm in Mexico. And Volkswagen has ordered to stop shipments from Mexico and Europe, according to Automotive News. The fifth producer. If we quickly review the companies that have begun to make their ads we find that we have talked about Toyota, Volkswagen and Stellantis. If we add General Motors and the Hyundai/Kia group to the equation we have the CInc major cars manufacturers of 2024. Last year, Byd already touched on the door of this group of the five. Its 4.27 million units produced were placed as the sixth producer of the world. The forecasts for this year are 5.5 million units. If they were fulfilled, last year they would have earned him to overcome Stellantis (5.41 million units) and start seeing General Motors on the horizon (fourth position, he touched the six million units). Bad forecasts. The worst thing for Stellantis is that the company was already dragging problems last year. In fact, in 2023 it came from touching 6.40 million cars made but their future, especially in the United Stateshe has prevented him. General Motors also lost bellows in 2024 when he made almost 200,000 cars less than the previous year. In both cases They are especially affected for 25% tariffs to the car. Stellantis manufactures 57% of the cars it sells. And General Motors reduces that 52%figure. In both cases a large part of its production to Mexico and Canada has been transferred where they produce 39% and 30% of their cars, respectively. The latter is especially important because Canada has already warned the United States that it will impose tariffs of 25% return to cars that export to the country. It is estimated that Canada imported from the United States in 2024 vehicles worth 15,500 million dollars. Nor are Toyota and Volkswagen saved. General Motors and Stellantis are the greats indicated in this case because they are the closest of Byd. But it is expected that Toyota and Volkswagen face very hard economic conditions if an understanding between Japan, the European Union and the United States is not reached. Toyota sold in 2024 2.33 million cars in the United States. Of them, only 1.27 million produced within the country. Volkswagen sold more than one million of cars last year in the United States. 80% of cars that it sells there would be affected by import tariffs (and it would be necessary to calculate the increase in those manufactured there). The right moment. The global car context cannot be, right now, more favorable to byd. The company does not produce vehicles for the United States or manufacture within its borders so it is a market that was non -existent and that will continue … Read more

The great fortunes are bleeding with the collapse of the bag. Warren Buffett has hit his old recipe again

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Financial markets are living A moment of maximum turbulence causing the value of the actions in all markets in the world to collapse from its opening. According to Bloombergsince Thursday, the 500 greatest fortunes in the world already They have lost more than 536,000 million dollarswhile its companies record falls valued by more than 5.4 billion dollars, As he pointed out Reuters. However, meanwhile chaos and justifying the nickname of “Oracle of Omaha”, Warren Buffett seems to have anticipated the collapse taking the appropriate measures to minimize losses. Buffett is the only one whose fortune is not written in red numbers. The devil knows more by old … When Warren Buffett began to get rid of his positions in Some of the main technological ones They were shot in the stock market, many thought that the veteran investor had lost their heads. They continued without understanding anything when the veteran investor accumulated the more than 325,000 million dollars that he obtained from their sales, and He preferred to pay taxes for them to invest again. Today, those who laughed, don’t laugh so much. As stock indices such as S&P 500 are minced– With a collapse of 17% since its February peak, and the Nasdaq falling more than 20% – Buffett’s decision to bet on liquidity and low -risk assets demonstrates its ability to Read the market with enviable precision. His movement has not only allowed him to protect the capital of Berkshire Hathaway, but also increase your own fortune In a context where the vast majority of Milmillonarios is registering losses in the assessment of their assets. As a good veteran In this investmentBuffett’s recipe for these moments of uncertainty is not very different from the one that applied in previous stock market crises: “There is simply no way of knowing how much actions can fall in a short period. However, when important falls occur, they offer extraordinary opportunities for those who are not limited by debts.” In a Opinion article for The New York Times In 2008, the millionaire gave another track about How to anticipate and act before moments like the one we are living: “A simple rule dictates my way of buying: being afraid when others are greedy and being greedy when others are afraid.” After capitalizing a good part of his actions, Warren Buffett now You have the portfolio to overflow with cash and ready to take advantage of generalized falls to buy the best bargains. Therefore, now all eyes are put in the next Buffett movements. The big fortunes lose, but buffett resists The main fortunes record losses so far this year except Warren Buffett. Source: Bloomberg The impact that the announcement of The commercial war that has begun USA has especially hit The technological magnateslike Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, whose fortunes have been reduced in 130,000 million and 45.200 million Of dollars, respectively, in what we have been in 2025. Larry Ellison, meanwhile, has left 42.1 billion dollars after the last falls and Mark Zuckerberg has lost 28.8 billion so far from 2025. Faced with this scenario, Warren Buffett’s fortune has remained out of generalized losses. Berkshire Hathaway class B actions even They have risen 7.7% this yeardespite suffering a slight correction in the last week, the result of the widespread fall of international bags. But it keeps its green counter so far this year. While others suffer the impact of the international exhibition of their portfolios and the fall of technological ones, Buffett did the homework in 2024diversified their investments to focus on sectors less exposed to imports and with a strong presence in the United States, such as insurance, energy and transport. Buffett not only withdrew a good part of the money from Berkshire Hathaway investors, but also chose to invest that liquidity in short -term treasure bonds, whose profitability has recently increased, thus raffling the collapse of the markets. In his Annual letter to shareholders February, Buffett explained that these bonds offer a “predictable gain” and one effective volatility protection of the market. This approach allowed him to avoid the generalized losses that have affected investors exposed to sectors such as technology, where Apple – one of the old jewels of their portfolio – dropped 28% since its peak, due to their high dependence on China. “Berkshire’s shareholders may be sure that we will always display a substantial part of their money in shares,” he said in his letter, although he adds that, as always, his goal is Companies with good foundations. In Xataka | In January, a group of millionaires supported the US president: they have already lost 209,000 million dollars in their mandate In Xataka | In 2000 Amazon fell 80% in the stock market. Bezos’ response leaves a clear lesson: we must not trust the markets Image | Unspash (Maxim Hopman), Flickr (Fortune Live Media)

Brussels Baraja tariffs of 10% and 25% to US products. The measure aims to take its toll on the European consumer

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We are attending a new climbing in the commercial war between Brussels and Washington. According to the EFE agencythe European Commission proposes to impose 10% and 25% tariffs to certain imported products from the United States. A proposal that, if progress, could have direct consequences for European consumers. The product list. Although the complete list of goods subject to the new tariffs proposed by the European Commission is not yet known, Bloomberg has had access to a document that includes dozens of categories. At the moment, there are two notable absences: digital services and whiskey. This is what appears on the list. Consumer and leisure goods: Appliances Motorcycles Recreation vessels Naipes Luxury products and others: Food products: Embutidos Corral birds and other agricultural products Personal and health care products: Industrial and Security Materials: Two possible tariffs. Bloomberg points out that most of the products included in the proposal would be subject to a 25%tariff, while a minority would face one of 10%. For now, it is not defined what percentage will apply to each category, so we will have to wait for the publication of the official document to know the details. Without bourbon on stage. As we point out, the final proposal does not include alcoholic beverages such as Bourbon whiskey, leaving out the 50% tariff that was initially shuffled. According to ReutersBrussels would have made this decision to avoid the 200% tariff to alcoholic beverages in the EU with which Trump threatened in case that measure went ahead. It is not yet official. 10% and 25% tariffs remain, for now, a proposal. Its public diffusion can be interpreted as a way of measuring the land in full commercial escalation. In any case, it is planned to be approved at the end of this week and enter into force on April 25. The collection, however, would begin in mid -May. View price increase. Tariffs, As explained by Tax Foundationthey function as taxes applied to imports. In practice, this additional cost is rarely assumed by companies: it ends up impacting directly on the consumer pocket. So if we are approved we will probably see products from the most expensive US. Images | European Parliament | The White House In Xataka | There is a clear winner with the 25% tariffs to the car: it is called byd and represents everything that China has to win

Mining companies believed to have found a treasure in Ciudad Real. Until the Iberian lynx appeared

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In a video that is has viralized By networks you can see how two lynxes are disputing the territory to headers, a habitual practice between these felines. He Reelrecorded in Ciudad Real, shows how felines are returning to their natural habitat. In a turn of events, these animals have managed to stop attempts to extraction a company: giving them a legal header. The exploitation. The “Neodimio Project” is an initiative of the Quantum mining company that seeks gray monacita in the province of Ciudad Real. From this rare land the neodymium is extracted, used in magnets of electric cars and wind turbines. The mining company has shown interest in exploring areas near Valdepeñas, Santa Cruz de Mudela and Torrenueva, areas to overcome the cat, According to the avant -garde. Maybe there are no lynx … But there are people living in those areas that oppose mining. The “yes to the living land” platform has asked the president of Castilla-La Mancha, Emiliano García-Page, to oppose the Rare Earth’s mining project, According to Cadena Ser. From the organization they have explained that it could have a devastating impact on local biodiversity and endanger the ecological corridors that the lynxs have begun to recover. They do not stop in your search. Quantum’s story with Ciudad Real It has been more than a decade. After the failure of the “Matamulas” project, the company tries to return to the load. But time does not play in its favor: the citizen opposition has grown, water resources are increasingly scarce and the rural economic model (based on wine, oil and tourism) fears are affected. The controversy has also intensified for a complaint of the Seprona, which accuses the company of having done work without permission on a plot of Torrenueva, According to Castilla-La Mancha Media. Legal header The Iberian lynx, in its reintroduction process in the region, has played a decisive role in this conflict. Although rare earth mining is seen as an economic opportunity in the context of the energy transition, efforts to preserve fauna and biodiversity have led to stop these projects. As have explained at the vanguardthe lynx is no longer just a conservation symbol, but an argument of weight in legal reports and protests. Its presence in areas such as the Montiel field has become an obstacle to mining companies that seek to exploit these natural resources. It is not the only place. Although Ciudad Real is emerging as the area with the most potential for rare earths in Spain, it is not the only one. In different areas of the country we can find, as Galicia, Gran Canaria, Almería, Estremaduraamong other places. The fan that has been opened is very wide, but these deposits have in common not only the element, but their extraction seems to be complex. For its part, the European Commission has not included the Quantum project in your list of strategic initiativeswhich means that it does not have the support of Brussels to continue its development. Recovering spaces. The lynx has become a defender of its territory, interfering with projects that threaten their home. The struggle for the future of Ciudad Real is between the protection of biodiversity and the progress of mining, a dispute that reflects the dilemma between the need for natural resources and the conservation of ecosystems. Image | Pexels and Diego Delso Xataka | The rare earth war has arrived in Spain. And it is in Ciudad Real where mining and ecology are confronted

Agents are the great promise of AI. They also aim to become the new favorite weapon of cybercounts

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The AI ​​agents are not the future: they are here. While chatbots like Chatgpt either Gemini They continue to gain ground in tasks that range from solving daily doubts to help you in programming tasks, large technological ones have begun to take determined steps towards a new generation of much more promising systems. They are able to execute tasks, make decisions and adapt to the environment. They not only respond: they act. And that change is presented as a very powerful advance. OpenAi is developing Operatoran assistant who can navigate pages, book trips or manage files. Anthropic proves your own agent with similar functions in controlled environments. Google works in Jarvis, his future digital butler. The idea is clear: delegate real tasks in artificial intelligences. But that same autonomy that makes them useful allies also makes them a potential risk for cybersecurity. Dangerous autonomy. Unlike traditional bots, AI agents are not limited to predefined instructions. They can control an operating system or make decisions depending on the context. In wrong hands, this autonomy could facilitate complex attacks without the need for human experts. Some laboratory tests already show how these models can replicate operations that previously required advanced technical knowledgesuch as automating spying tasks or manipulating system configurations. The threat begins to appear. Although there is no evidence that they are involved in large -scale cyber attacks, signs have begun to appear. Platforms like LLM Agent Honeypot, designed to detect suspicious accesses, have registered interactions with possible AI agents. In two confirmed cases, the agents responded to instructions embedded with a typical speed of language models, which points to their growing sophistication. We do not talk about organized offensives yet, but of an increasingly real phase. Cheaper, faster, more scalable. As Mit Technology Review points outone of the biggest risks is the potential for climbing. An agent can execute automated actions hundreds of times by a fraction of the cost of a human team. For criminals, that means expanding operations with unprecedented efficiency. If today the mass attacks require investment and specialized personnel, tomorrow they could be launched automatically, selecting objectives and exploring vulnerabilities without constant supervision. LLM Agent Honeypot operation operation scheme Detecting them is not so easy. Although current cybersecurity tools are effective against sophisticated threats, agents introduce a new type of challenge. Unlike classic malware, these systems can reason, adapt to the environment and modify their real -time behavior. This ability to mimic with legitimate traffic forces to rethink detection methods and to develop specific techniques to identify patterns of artificial intelligence. The industry is still exploring how far these systems can go. Some investigations show that, given ambiguous instructions, certain agents can execute unexpected actions. Although they still need human support to complete complex attacks, their evolution is rapid. And the most disturbing is not what they can do today, but what they could do tomorrow. And they will do it in an increasingly adverse scenario. According to checkpoint datain the third quarter of 2024, cyber attacks increased 75% compared to the same period of the previous year. Each organization suffered on average 1,876 weekly attacks. Sectors such as education, government or health are among the most beaten, and regions such as Africa, Europe and Latin America registered alarming growth. The hardware industry, for example, saw the attacks grow by 191% in just one year. More than 1,200 ransomware incidents were reported only in that quarter, mainly affecting manufacturers, hospitals and public administrations. If these types of attacks are delegated to AI agents capable of selecting objectives and launching chain offensives, the impact could be shot. The global panorama is tense, and the agents could be the multiplier that the attackers were waiting. Images | Xataka with chatgpt | Palisade Research In Xataka | There is a person who knows more than anyone in the world about password robberies. And they just steal his

His first ‘Joint Venture’ stops operating and dragging thousands of layoffs

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For more than three decades, Microsoft has maintained a constant presence in China. Although the country represents only a fraction of its global incomeRedmond’s company opted to position himself there with products such as Windows and Officeand with a network of research centers aimed at collaborating with the local technological ecosystem. Today, in a scenario marked by geopolitical tension, that bet begins to be diluted: Microsoft has begun to undo agreements and to close facilities, in what seems to be part of a broader reorganization plan in the region. A Joint Venture Microsoft in China throws the closure. As reported South China Morning Post, Wicresoftthe first Joint Business Created by Microsoft in the country, it will cease its operations. Although the situation for American technological ones in China has been complicated over time, the announcement has caught by surprise. According to the Hongkonese newspaper, the employees were informed on Monday that their work linked to the software firm led by Satya Nadella “will come to an end.” Citing the Chinese medium Caijing, the measure will affect some 2,000 workers. Sudden notification. Wicresoft, based in Seattle and more than 10,000 workers worldwide, is dedicated to offering advice, technological solutions and operational support for large international brands. In China, its presence extended to 20 cities, including Shanghai, Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, where it managed projects of different scale for Microsoft. According to the aforementioned media, the news of the closure came unexpectedly: many employees received the notice by mail this Monday and, in several venues, they were asked to leave the place as soon as Tuesday, without margin to react. A question about the future of support. The closure of Wicresoft leaves in the air who will manage Microsoft’s after -sales support in China, a market where access to technical services remains key to many users and companies. The company was responsible for giving technical assistance to key products such as Windows 10, Windows 11 and Office, among others, adapting the service to the particularities of the local environment. According to Reutersthis change is aligned with the intention of Microsoft to centralize and reduce subcontracting in the country, although it has not been revealed who will take over or in what deadlines. Impulse for local alternatives. Microsoft’s progressive withdrawal in China leaves free space that other local firms have not taken advantage of. One of the big beneficiaries is Kingsooft Office, head of WPS Office, An office suite compatible with Microsoft formats that has already exceeded 100 million daily users in the country. Her experience in the local market and her functional resemblance with Office (at first glance seems like a clone) have made it an option increasingly adopted by public organizations, banks and telecommunications operators. Since 2022, Chinese state companies are obliged to submit quarterly reports on their progress in the replacement of foreign software for national alternatives. As the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal points outthis policy, promoted from Beijing in full technological and commercial war with the United States, has directly favored companies such as Kingsooft, which now have the implicit support of the state apparatus. The result: less licenses for Office and more WPS deployment in strategic sectors where Microsoft moves. SDE WICRESOFT step is not an isolated case. In the last two years, Microsoft has progressively reduced its presence in the Asian giant. In 2023, The company closed all its physical stores in China, offered relocations to hundreds of employees in the artificial intelligence area and applied template cuts. More recently, he has also hardened his internal security protocols, forcing its workers in China to use iPhones exclusively to access corporate platformsdue to the restrictions imposed by the lack of Google Play in the country. Shanghai’s laboratory is another example of that replication. Inaugurated in 2019 as the largest center of its type outside the United States, the IATI & AI Insider Lab was conceived to promote the development of strategic technologies in collaboration with local companies. He closed its doors in early 2024 after supporting more than 250 projects and training thousands of professionals. Its closure confirms a trend that, although not entirely unexpected, does show a deep change in Microsoft’s strategy in one of the countries where it has been operating longer and where they had made multiple bets. Withdrawal in full trade war. The Microsoft replication does not occur in a vacuum. It coincides with a new escalation in the tensions between Washington and Beijing that has reactivated the large -scale commercial war. Donald Trump has threatened to impose additional 50% tariffs if China does not withdraw its retaliation measureswhich arrived after the first waves of taxes driven by the White House after their return to power. In this climate, many quoted American companies are collapsing in the stock market, dragging with it to entire sectors and other markets in the world. Images | VD Photography | / Ricardo | Silvestre Rui In Xataka | Manufacturing the iPhone 16 Pro of 256 GB in China costs 550 dollars today. With tariffs it will cost $ 850

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