Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Alsa has gone ahead of Iryo and Ouigo with a radically different proposal

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Alsa, one of the most important companies in the transportation of passengers (if not the most important) is getting back on the tracks. The company, beyond buses, has a lesser-known business that also goes on wheels but off the road. They are their tourist trains. And now the CNMC gives it the go-ahead to operate yet another service. There is no competition. It’s what the CNMC has concluded about the new Alsa tourist train and the possibility of it competing with Renfe on its new Galician route. For regulators, Alsa’s new business “does not affect the economic balance of Renfe’s public service contract.” It is concluded that although Renfe provides services in the same place or to reach the same locations, both proposals “do not compete with each other” since Alsa trains will only be available in summer and are “between three and seven times more expensive” than Renfe trains. For now, Alsa has indicated in its documentation that the tickets will have a price of 17.28 euros while Renfe public services range between 2.51 euros and 5.40 euros. New historic train. During the summer months, Alsa will put into service a new historic train on two Galician routes that will have the following route: Orense – Barra de Miño – Os Peares – San Estevo de Sil – Canaval – Monforte de Lemos Monforte de Lemos – San Coludio-Quiroga – Montefurado – A Rúa-Petín The train, for which specific schedules and details are not yet known, is known as Galaico Expreso and Alsa Rail, the subsidiary that operates its trains, took it out last April from Galician Railway Museum (Muferga), based in Monforte de Lemos. The train was towed by an Alsa machine to pass the exam in Renfe workshops. They explain in The Voice of Galicia that the material consists of two first-class apartment cars, one with restaurant service and a generator van. This last car is property of the museum and the others were donated by Adif with the condition that they be used for tourist services. The Galaico Express. This train that is being reviewed in the Renfe workshops is, as we have seen, a historic one in our country. At the beginning of the last decade, an attempt was made to resume a tourist service with a walk through the Ribeira Sacra that you can see in this link but its use was discontinued in 2011. In his previous attempt To offer this tourist service, the line only made two stops between Ourense and Monforte de Lemos and had a maximum of 200 passengers. Furthermore, they explain in Vigo Lighthousewas an opportunity to revitalize local tourism since train tickets were sold with additional packs to buy or eat at associated businesses. It’s not the first. By no means is this Galician train the first tourist experience in Spain that takes you back to the past aboard trains operated by Alsa. The company has different offers and packs available with trains of all types for prices starting below 20 euros. This is the case of the one known as Blue Train to link Zaragoza and Logroño through the Ebro valley and the 80’s trainwith which you can travel between Madrid and Cáceres and from Cáceres to Valencia de Alcántara. It also has a round trip train to San Lorenzo del Escorial from Madrid known as the Philip II Train and the Train of the Three Wise Men in Madrid and Zaragoza. Other type of tourism. As we said, these tourist train offers in Spain are affordable and are perfect for spending a day with the family. However, there is another type of tourism that has found a rich source in Spanish historic trains. Specifically, luxury tourism. Probably, The most famous case is that of the Transcantábricowhich departs from Santiago de Compostela to reach San Sebastián (with bus routes) and prices that start above 2,000 euros but can reach 10,000 depending on the room. But the latter is not the only one nor the most expensive. Renfe has its Al-Andalus availablewhich in seven days passes through large Andalusian, Extremaduran and Castilian cities such as Cádiz, Seville, Córdoba, Cáceres and Toledo, before arriving in Madrid. Its price, from 5,000 to 14,000 euros. And also operated by Renfe you can get on the Costa Verde Express or the La Robla Expreso. Of course, prepare thousands of euros. Photo | Muferga In Xataka | The AVE to Galicia has achieved what seemed impossible in a Santiago-Madrid: airlines that throw in the towel

A man is making a fortune selling Yu-Gi-Oh cards he found in the trash. Or that’s what he says

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When it comes to collectible card games, the first one that comes to mind is ‘Magic: The Gathering’but he is not the only one. There are other highly sought-after games in the world of collecting such as Yu-Gi-Oh, the card game based on the Japanese manga of the same name and the protagonist of this crazy story. What has happened? They count in 404media that a Texas man claims to have found a stack of Yu-Gi-Oh cards in a dumpster, valued at almost $1 million. What at first seemed like a peculiar stroke of luck has unleashed a drama, with part of the community accusing him of having stolen them and his mother intervening to defend him. The beginning of the drama. In late March, several uncut sheets of Yu-Gi-Oh cards appeared on eBay, Facebook, and TikTok. It immediately attracted the attention of the community because it is very rare for these types of leaves to appear for sale. The usual thing when there is a printing error (for example, a color does not come out correctly or a plate is misaligned) is that those sheets are destroyed and in fact Konami, the company behind Yu-Gi-Oh, is very strict about this. They do give out sheets of 3×3 cards as prizes in some tournaments, but they do not allow their sale and in the past they have intervened when they have detected this type of products on online sales platforms. In total, the “stash” consists of more than 500,000 bulk letters and at least 400 uncut factory sheets, almost nothing. Suspicious. Besides the rarity of what he was selling, there were other factors that were highly suspicious. Instead of selling slowly and at high prices, it began to sell at prices well below its value and very visibly on different platforms. In the ads there were blurry photos with hundreds of sheets of ultra-rare letters, piled up like trash. Each of these sheets can cost thousands of dollars, so their value is enormous, and selling one sheet occasionally is one thing, selling hundreds set off all the alarms. Theft accusations. The seller, who claimed on Facebook to have already made “over $60,000 on these damn Yu-Gi-Oh! cards out of the trash,” had very erratic behavior: he posted ads with titles that didn’t match what he was selling, deleted posts, and posted strange comments. The case reached Uncut Sheet Collectors Facebook Groupwhere the majority agreed that the letters had to be stolen, something that did not please the seller, who commented insisting that he had found them in the trash, but no one believed him. Maternal intervention. “Well, let me ask you all: if you found the same thing that was found in the trash (the uncut sheets, the cards and so on), would you try to sell it or not?” said the seller’s mother in one of the posts in the Facebook group. In addition, he asked that a video compiling several advertisements published by his son be removed because it was exposing “his past history.” Until that point, no one had looked into the seller’s past, but the mother’s message caused a Streisand effect and they discovered that he had a criminal record for theft. What was missing. What if in the end he told the truth? It’s not entirely clear, but there are hints that the dumpster story could be true. The strongest one is that the mother owns a company in Dallas, which is where one of the factories is located. Cartamundi, company dedicated to the manufacture and distribution of collectible cards. Furthermore, some of the prints he sent were in very poor condition, which would be consistent with having found them in a container. In redditthe consensus is that they really came out of the trash and that the seller was inexperienced and was overwhelmed by the situation. The last thing known about the seller is that on May 4 he posted on Facebook that he was “back in business.”

having babies in space

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China has just sent a very special shipment to the Tiangong, one that aims to find out the answer to whether humans will be able to reproduce in space. Because the great powers have embarked on adventure to colonize the Moon or Marsbut there is a fundamental question which is whether a human embryo can develop in zero gravity. The Chinese Academy of Sciences hopes the answer “is yes.” And that’s why they have sent a curious ‘Noah’s Ark’ to their space station. In short. This May 11, the State Laboratory of Stem Cells and Reproductive Biology post the ship Tianzhou-10 with a cell with embryos of zebrafish, mice and artificial humans. These human embryos are derived from stem cells that are now on their way to the Chinese Tiangong station. This is a facility that the Asian giant has plans to expand to be the great space laboratory once the International Space Station is dismantled, and this is a first step to see if humans can reproduce and develop in zero gravity. artificial humans. Before entering into the objectives, it is advisable to clarify what “artificial humans” is. As Chinese authorities point out, these human embryos are not complete organisms that can become babies. Simply put, these are structures made from stem cells that mimic the very early phases of human development. What has been sent to the Tiangong corresponds approximately to days 14 to 21 after fertilization, a crucial window because it is during which all organs begin to form and in which any anomaly can have a significant impact on human development. For five days, the station’s astronauts will monitor the status of the embryos. They will then freeze them and send them to Earth for analysis. Aim. It is not the first time that embryos have been sent to space. A few months ago we already said that China had sent a mouse so that it would have babies in the station that would later be analyzed to see if they came with any alteration. Nine were born and six survived, resulting in tremendous success because there were so many things that could go wrong. The goal is to see if we can survive away from the protection of the Earth’s atmosphere, and there are more things outside of zero gravity that could be an evolutionary barrier. For example, cosmic radiation, a shower of high-energy particles passing through us, can cause breaks in DNA, with unexpected and fatal consequences. On Earth, the atmosphere protects us, but without that shield, the exposure is much greater. What was deduced from the mouse research is that the cellular repair mechanisms of mammals are capable of compensating for this damage, at least in short-duration flights. That is why this mission is so special because they will spend a longer time in orbit and, furthermore, it is the first time that such a large sample system has been sent with lower vertebrates up to models of human embryos. Those responsible for the project point out that it is the first attempt in history to answer the question of whether humans can reproduce in space and, thanks to the data, work will be possible to develop technologies that mitigate possible adverse effects. Pawned. China is very focused on studying these effects of microgravity and cosmic radiation on embryonic development and, apart from this experiment or that of the mouse, it already sent 6,000 mouse embryos on the SJ-10 satellite in 2016, demonstrating that mammals can complete the first phases of embryonic development. And in 2023, Japanese scientists They sent frozen mouse embryos to the ISS, where they were thawed and where it was concluded that these conditions did not significantly affect the formation of blastocysts. With foot on board. The Tianzhou-10 carries another load to carry out experiments such as ultra-thin solar cells or greenhouse gas sensors, but evidently the issue of embryos draws much more attention. And what it shows is that China is going full throttle in this new space race. A race in which space is being militarized, but also in which a new playing field is being defined for get unlimited energy that being able to send the Earth through laser ‘cannons’ and even the possibility of turn the moon into a mine space. In Xataka | Europe has grown tired of being NASA’s “supporting actor.” And that is why it is starting to work with China

Looking like a real miura in the gym is of no use if you do something afterwards: stuff yourself with chips

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Something that is already quite internalized among society, precisely, is that abusing food ultra-processed is closely linked to obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems mainly due to the large presence of low quality fats. But although we think that this bad diet only translates into an increase in subcutaneous fat, medical technology has shown us that they are also filling our muscles with fat. A new study. This is precisely what a new study has pointed out. published in the magazine Radiology, which, Thanks to images obtained by magnetic resonance, researchers have discovered that the consumption of these products is related to an increase in intramuscular fat in the thighs. And it doesn’t matter how much we go to the gym for this. The evidence doesn’t lie. Much of nutritional studies are based on surveys and general measurements such as BMI or weight on the scale at certain times of the day. But here science has chosen to take an image to have completely objective data thanks to magnetic resonance imaging that objectively quantifies the internal composition of the muscle. The results. Here they could see that people who ate a higher proportion of ultra-processed foods had a significantly higher fraction of fat infiltrated into the thigh muscles. But most interesting of all is that, even after adjusting the results for total calorie intake, physical activity levels and other demographic variables. That is, it is not simply that people who eat ultra-processed foods eat more calories or exercise less, but there is something in the very nature of these foods, such as additives or the lack of fiber, which favors fat to be deposited directly between the muscle fibers. It’s clinical. This phenomenon of infiltration of adipose tissue into the muscle is clinically known as myosteatosis and, to visualize it, imagine the difference between a lean cut of meat and a marbled or fat-marbled steak. Why are we worried? Muscles are not only “motors” that allow us to move, but they are metabolically very active organs that are essential for regulating our blood glucose and even for the functioning of our brain. In this way, when fat infiltrates them, muscle quality plummets. And this is a big problem because logically we would begin to lose strength, sarcopenia would develop and there would be a risk of suffering a metabolic disease. Furthermore, in the context of this study, a poorer quality of the thigh muscles, especially the quadriceps, translates into greater overload of the knee joint and increases the chances of having knee osteoarthritis. There are nuances. As is usual, the researchers themselves point out that this is a cross-sectional analysis, so we do not have a “photograph” of the current moment and this means that there is no cause-effect relationship. That is, this study was done in older adults and people with previous illnesses, so these results cannot be generalized to the younger population and an independent study must be done with this sample to see exactly if a pizza from the supermarket can be too harmful. Images | senivpetro in Magnific In Xataka | Drinking coffee is not harmful, but for science there is a very clear limit that should not be exceeded

We had been wondering for years why the Chernobyl wild boars were so radioactive. The answer was not in the accident

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Four decades after the accident at the nuclear power plant located in Prypiat, the animals of Chernobyl they continue generating fascination. These survivors in one of the most contaminated regions in Europe they surprise us in many ways, but if there is an enigmatic species in this place it is the wild boar. One of the most radioactive species from Chernobyl. Solving the mystery. In 2023 it appeared a new trackrevealed by a team of researchers, about these animals: we finally know why their radioactivity is greater than that of other species. The answer has less to do with the nuclear accident itself than with something that happened long before. More radioactive? There is very little we still know about the animals of Chernobyl. One of the most curious enigmas was that of wild boars. To understand why we have to talk about one of the most polluting radioactive isotopes, caesium 137 (Cs137). The half-life of this isotope (the time in which half of the atoms we have of the material will have disintegrated) is just over 30 years. The concentration of cesium in the food chain should in principle be reduced even further since the atoms tend to leach into the soil or be carried away by water into rivers. Going down. That is why the level of radioactivity in animals such as deer or roe deer has decreased significantly in the area. Not only has this situation not occurred in wild boar populations: their radiation levels have remained almost constant, that is, the decrease is not even in line with what the semi-disintegration of Cs137 would imply. It is the “wild boar paradox”. Nuclear tests and radioactive truffles. The answer comes from cesium 135. The team that solved this mystery did so by focusing not on the radiation levels but on its origin. They verified that it was this other isotope of cesium that was behind this phenomenon. Cs135 has a much longer half-life, which explains why the reduction had been smaller. This also makes it more difficult to detect the presence of Cs135. As explains the responsible team From the study, each type of nuclear incident has its own “signature.” It is estimated that 90% of the Cs137 present in Europe was released by the Chernobyl accident, but this is not the case for Cs135. The origin of this is 68% in the nuclear tests carried out in the context of the cold war. Just the right depth. The diet of wild boars has also been one of the key factors when it comes to understanding the reason for their radiation levels. These animals feed on a type of truffle (Elaphomyces) that grows in the subsoil, at depths of between 20 and 40 centimeters. As we pointed out before, part of the radioactive cesium It was seeping year after year into the soil of the area. At the rate of a few millimeters a year, cesium (both from nuclear tests and from the accident) has been advancing towards these depths, contaminating these mushrooms, a source of food for wild boars. From Chernobyl to Bavaria. The study that clarified this mystery was carried out by analyzing a population of 48 wild boars in the state of Bavariasouthern Germany. The analysis details were published in the magazine Environmental Science & Technology. In the long term. The results of the study invite us to think that the situation will not change in the short term. That is, it is unlikely that the radioactivity levels of wild boars will begin to decline in the coming years until they are equal to those of other similar animals such as deer or roe deer. The greater radiation present in these animals has made hunters resist their capture. This implies that the populations of these wild boars will go increasing in the future. Perhaps their expansion through central Europe will cause the radiation levels of these animals to decline generation after generation but, from what we have seen, this process could still continue for decades. In Xataka | When Chernobyl exploded in 1986, Spain was freed from the radioactive cloud. AEMET has now discovered that it did it for very little In Xataka | Some Spanish scientists are recreating the Chernobyl accident in Seville. Objective: see how it affects biodiversity Image | Joachim Reddemann / Кирилл Пурин *An earlier version of this article was published in July 2024

The Bernabéu can now hold concerts again. The question is whether anyone will want to do it.

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Real Madrid has not held concerts at the Bernabéu for more than a year and a half. This week, the Provincial Court of Madrid has filed the criminal case that weighed on the club due to the noise of the shows in the summer of 2024. But the stadium has been hosting events for months but not live music, and no one in the promotion industry has the intention of re-signing a contract that, from now on, has all the criminal responsibility for the matter. What is this about? In the spring of 2024, the newly renovated Bernabéu began hosting large-format concerts. From the first events with Taylor Swiftresidents of the Chamartín district complained about the noise levels, which sometimes exceeded 85 decibels, when the municipal ordinance sets the ceiling at 53. As the problems persisted, a few months later the club suspended its entire musical agenda to undertake acoustic improvement works. Experts already warned that soundproofing the stadium would be almost impossibleand in mid-2025, Real Madrid definitively canceled the concerts. Meanwhile, the Association of Neighbors Affected by the Bernabéu filed a complaint for environmental crime, alleging that the club rented the stadium to concert promoters even though it knew that the facility lacked the necessary acoustic insulation. What the car says. The 3rd Section of the Provincial Court upheld the appeals presented by the club and agreed to the free dismissal of the process (that is, the case is filed and reopening it is ruled out). According to the court, Real Madrid Estadio SL limited itself to renting the venue; he did not organize the concerts, manage the sound system or make decisions about volume or technical production. The Court concludes that those who “promote, organize, develop and execute each show” They are the promoter companies that are the transferees of the stadium.and that they are the ones obliged to respect the decibel limits set by the Municipal Ordinance for Protection against Noise Pollution of 2011. In other words, the owner of the stadium has no legal or contractual duty to monitor acoustic emissions once the venue has been transferred. What the neighbors say. The Association of Neighbors Affected by the Bernabéu affirms that the ruling “doesn’t change anything”in their opinion the concerts are still illegal, and they are going to file an appeal. The resolution, they claim, does not determine that the concerts are legal or that they can be held, it only exempts Real Madrid from criminal liability. The acoustic problem that gave rise to everything is still there. Besides, there is a parallel judicial path: The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid has another case open related to the licenses and authorizations of the events, considering an appeal by the neighborhood association against administrative decisions. In the hands of the promoters. The order clears of responsibilities, but it does not solve the problem: any promoter that signs a concert at the Bernabéu now assumes, alone, the criminal risk from which the club now escapes. And it is not an attractive panorama: during the 2024 concerts, The Madrid City Council imposed 24 sanction acts with a cumulative amount greater than 2.6 million euros. Real Madrid’s measures, first canceling the concert schedule and later acoustic improvement works, make it clear that the club is very aware of the difficulties of giving concerts. Which promoter is going to assume responsibility for the fines? And now what? And now nothing. Real Madrid celebrates the judicial victory in its statement, but it will be difficult for it to find promoters willing to organize concerts in a stadium with such a sanctioning record, assuming the criminal risk alone. Meanwhile, on the other side of Madrid, the Riyadh Air Metropolitano can boast an impeccable track record: since its inauguration in 2018, the Atlético stadium has held more than 50 concerts without a single acoustic violation or a neighborhood complaint. The secret: the Metropolitano was built in the San Blas-Canillejas district, but far from the residential fabric. Sometimes it is not about ambition, but rather respecting some ordinance or other. In Xataka | Real Madrid invested 1,000 million euros in the Bernabéu to host concerts: at the moment it has tennis

Who do you love more, bars or Mercadona? Hospitality is taking the battle over prepared food to a zero-sum game

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Since Spain believe made the “menu of the day” official 61 years agoin Manuel Fraga’s time, workers, travelers and families have gone to bars at midday basically looking for two things, in addition to food: time savings and good prices. That sacred triad turned the menu into the great success of the national hospitality industry (with forgiveness for the omelette). Now it plays against him. The same customers who have been eating in restaurants for generations have found an alternative that offers them food at better prices and with greater flexibility: supermarkets. The hoteliers, of course, they are not willing to give up and have taken out their best weapon: regulation. What has happened? The event was intended to review the data and needs of the sector, but it ended up leading to something else: a call to attention to chains such as Mercadona or Alcampo. Yesterday, during the General Assembly of Hospitality of Spain, the president of the group, José Luis Álvarez Almeida, post against a rival that until recently was off the radar of the country’s bars and restaurants: supermarkets. Without expressly mentioning them, the head of the employers’ association complained about the competition exerted by firms such as Mercadona, Carrefour, Bon Preu or Alcampo (to name a few), which have been betting on the sale of prepared dishes for some time and, in some cases, even include dining rooms in their premises so that customers can consume the food and drinks that they previously bought in the store right there. A model, Almeida insistswhich looks too similar to yours. “Unfair competition”. “Now we have gas stations, stores, hypermarkets or supermarkets that want to be bars. That is unfair competition,” argument the president of Hospitality of Spain during an event that was also attended by the Minister of Tourism, Jordi Hereu. “What we tell them is that, from an economic and competitive point of view, they can do what they want; but we all have to play on equal terms and be equal before the law.” your words have resonated with force in the sector, although it is not the first time that the expansion of the ready-to-eat dishes business within the supermarkets themselves leads to this question: Can it be considered unfair competition? He floated the same idea in December during an interview with SER Emilio Gallego, general secretary of Hospitality of Spain. “It is a controversial question. Either you are a supermarket or you have a space for a restaurant,” argument. “If you have a space where you buy food and eat it, you obviously have to have a restaurant activity license.” The key word: merchant. That the hospitality industry has raised its voice just now is no coincidence. Although supermarkets have been selling pre-cooked and ready-to-eat food for decades, in recent years some chains are shifting towards a new business model: the merchants. It is no longer about buying a tray of sushi, a cold tortilla or some pre-cooked noodles from a factory that the supermarket sells packaged. The key is that the customer can choose what they want to eat on a counter full of steaming stews, stews, fish… and then, if they want, they can devour that same food without leaving the store. The menu dilemma. Things get complicated there for bars, especially those that rely most on the concept of ‘menu of the day’: an affordable, varied and time-saving gastronomic offer. For years bars dominated that field. Now they have to fight with heavyweights like Mercadona, which offer prices that are difficult to match by family businesses that have been juggling for some time to make their menus profitable. This change in trend was summed up wonderfully well a few months ago by a gym instructor who The World interviewed while eating in a Mercadona in Madrid: “Although they pay me for the food, this is more practical and faster. You eat for six euros and I don’t spend 45 minutes. I haven’t eaten from a menu since summer.” In that same reportage The journalist spoke with other customers who came to Juan Roig’s store to buy dishes (stews, casseroles…) that they then ate in their own living rooms or office. Two years ago they might have gone to a bar with a menu or cooked at home. Not anymore. Has things changed that much? The data is revealing. In 2025 Mercadona had a turnover of around 700 million euros in Spain through its ‘Ready to Eat’ section. It may not seem like a big deal for a corporation whose sales exceeded 41.8 billionbut it is good to keep several things in mind. First, the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is very young. It was launched in 2018 and has expanded to more than 1,400 points of sale. Second, that those 700 million of euros are just part of the cake. If we take into account the entire supply of pre-cooked products (refrigerated, trays…) and the business in Portugal, the figure rises to 3,000 million. To give us an idea, this figure exceeds the annual sales of McDonald’s in Spain (2 billion) or Burger King (1,500). In general, it is estimated that the Valencian chain accounts for a 19.7% share of value in food and beverage consumption. That is, almost two out of every ten euros What we spend on that branch ends up in the company’s coffers. A key percentage: 7.6%. To understand how quickly the prepared food business is expanding, it is good to review Algori data advanced a few days ago by theEconomist. According to the consultancy, this segment was (by far) the one that recorded the greatest growth in sales volume last year among supermarkets and hypermarkets in Spain. In general, the sale of pre-cooked and cooked dishes soared by 7.6% in volume. Above fruits and vegetables (7%), meats (6.1%) and fish and seafood (4.9%). The Valencian chain is not the only one that is committed to this business niche, although it has managed to lead it. Your … Read more

surpasses all existing defense systems

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In 1961, the Soviet Union Tsar bomb detonated over the Arctic. Its shock wave was so enormous that it broke windows hundreds of kilometers away and circled the planet several times, registering at seismic stations around the world. That essay didn’t have much practical military sense: It was, above all, a psychological demonstration intended to send a very specific message to the West. Since then, much of Russian nuclear strategy has revolved around the same idea: convincing the adversary that there is always a weapon capable of overcoming any defense imaginable. The “ultimate weapon” card. Yes, Russia has just recovered one of the most classic elements of the Cold War: announcing a missile as if it were a tool capable of completely breaking the global strategic balance. Vladimir Putin confirmed that he RS-28 Sarmatknown in NATO like Satan IIwill be operationally deployed at the end of 2026 after a new successful test including video. Moscow does not simply present it as a new intercontinental nuclear missile, but as “the most powerful missile system in the world”, a platform specifically designed to overcome any existing or future anti-missile shield. The message is not accidental. Russia wants to reinstall a very specific idea in the minds of the West: that, even in a scenario of maximum technological defense, it still retains the capacity to guarantee mass nuclear destruction. Sarmat does not seek only to destroy. The most important thing from Russian speech It is not only the power of the missile, but the insistence that it can avoid any attempt at interception. According to Moscow, the Sarmat combines ballistic and suborbital trajectories, a range of more than 35,000 kilometers and penetration systems capable of confusing or saturating anti-missile defenses. Russia also claims it can carry multiple nuclear warheads and potentially maneuverable hypersonic vehicles. like the Avangard. In other words, the goal is not just to unleash more power, but to break the Western defensive logic built for decades around radars, interceptors and anti-ballistic systems. The implicit threat is clear: even if the United States invests billions in missile defense, Moscow wants the feeling that no shield is truly reliable. “Apocalypse” after years of failures. However, behind the bombastic narrative there is a much more rugged reality. The Sarmat program accumulates delays for years and should have entered service already in 2020. Since then has suffered multiple technical issues, including failed tests and the destruction of a silo trial in 2024. The difficulties reflect both technological complexities and the effects of sanctions, economic pressure and Russian industrial attrition following the invasion of Ukraine. This is precisely why the latest essay has such political importance for the Kremlin. Moscow needs to demonstrate that it remains capable of developing new generation strategic weapons despite international isolation and despite enormous strains on its military industry. The disappearance of New START changes the context. The chosen moment is not coincidental either. Sarmat arrives in a scenario where the limits of the New START treaty have disappeared and where both Russia and the United States they think again in expanding and modernizing their nuclear arsenals. Without these restrictions, Moscow can replace old Soviet missiles with more advanced systems without the previous numerical limitations. At the same time, the United States continues to deal with delays and cost overruns in its own ICBM replacement, the Sentinel. The result is a climate that increasingly resembles a new arms racewhere both powers try to demonstrate that they maintain second-strike capacity even in the face of defensive technological advances from the adversary. The real battle is psychological. Beyond its actual specifications, the Sarmat fulfills a very specific strategic function: strengthen deterrence through fear and uncertainty. Russia has been using this type of advertisement for years to convey the idea that has “unstoppable” weapons capable of altering any Western military calculation. The Kremlin understands that perception matters almost as much as actual ability. If he manages to install the idea that his missiles can break through any defense existing, forces the United States and its allies to assume that no defensive system guarantees total security. That is the essence of the Russian message: no matter how much Western anti-missile technology advances, Moscow will still have the ability to respond with devastating force. The logic of the Cold War. If you also want, the reappearance of Sarmat It symbolizes something broader than the deployment of a new missile. It reflects the return of a strategic logic based again in gigantic weaponsexistential threats and public displays of nuclear power. For years, many thought that military competition between great powers would mainly revolve around artificial intelligence, drones or cyberattacks. Russia is remembering that nuclear weapons continue to occupy the center of the board geopolitical. And it does so by recovering a classic but always effective narrative: announcing a missile presented like so powerful and so difficult to intercept that it forces the rest of the world to wonder if there really is any defense capable of stopping it. Image | Russian Media In Xataka | In 2024, a Russian ship sank off Spain under mysterious circumstances. What he was carrying is even more suspicious In Xataka | Russia has built an imposing nuclear submarine with one mission: to launch one of the most extreme weapons ever devised

As Europe builds data centers to achieve independence, its power grid enters the hunger games

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Europe finds itself at a crossroads. If you listen to the CEO of Mistral, you should start investing big to stop being the technological vassal of the United States. That implies investing and part of that investment is in data centers. But American Big Tech is also moving and, if in the US they find frontal opposition to the construction of data centersthey move and there are countries like Spain that are favorite destinations. But there’s a huge problem: it’s not so much about money as it is about energy. And European macroplans are colliding with the reality of the electricity grid. Full speed ahead. The United States has the most brutal data centers on the planetbut Europe has a plan to arm itself and achieve that technological sovereignty. The plan goes through energy thanks to geothermal energy and, above all, renewables. Europe is a power in this and Spain has already shown its plumage to attract European and Big Tech data centers. esteem that there are 5,400 in the US and 3,400 in Europe, and Europe wants to close the gap. There is a very small problem: renewables are not enough to satisfy the voracity of data centers. We are constantly seeing it: data centers need constant power, but when they enter intense computing phases, the expense is so high that they need energy spikes that renewables cannot satisfy. That’s where they come into play. nuclear, gas and even coaland a Europe that cannot play that due to environmental policies is where it has its weak point. Spain. There are several points to analyze. As we say, Spain is one of the countries that is presenting itself as one of the best assets to host data centers. Aragon, specifically, is a community that is pushing hard in this direction and serves as an example. AWS is going to put some gigantic data centers in the community, adding more than 10,800 GWh of energy per year. To contextualize, it is more than all the current electricity consumption of the community. But it is not only happening in Aragon and the fear is that the saturated Spanish electricity grid will now have to deal with those data centers that they can collapse the network. He blackout ghost it’s still there and it’s already been warned in the Official State Gazette that an increase in installations that are not capable of withstanding voltage dips pose a very high risk for the network. the hunger games. Because first the principles of agreement came and, now, the different EU countries are realizing that, perhaps, it is not such a good idea. One of the most recent cases is that of Energinet, the state operator of Denmark’s electricity grid, which, in March, suspended all new large-scale connection agreements by receiving requests that would reach 60 GW, with 14 GW of them being for data centers. As in the case of Aragon, it must be put in context and, according to According to CNBC, the country’s maximum demand is 7 GW, so that total of 60 GW exceeds the country’s consumption almost nine times. It is not about canceling plans, but about an extension until we discuss what to do with that demand, but there are already those who point out that the extension cannot be ruled out because, simply, the country’s network may not be prepared. Estimation of increased energy demand for data centers FLAP-D. But they are not the only ones. Amsterdam, London or Dublin can no longer absorb the brutal energy consumption of artificial intelligence and the technology industry has set his eyes on the northern countries (in which wind energy is the protagonist) and in those in the south (with solar as a guest star). They are three important names because they are part of the FLAP-D, the conglomerate of Flankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin that, historically, have been the dominators of the data center sector. Because these facilities have existed before the arrival of AI, but with the conversion to computing centers for AI is when their consumption has decreased. shot and when these metropolitan areas cannot meet demand. Those needs are so exaggerated It is estimated that data centers accounted for almost 80% of Dublin’s electricity consumption, forcing Ireland to impose a de facto moratorium on new data centers in its capital until 2028. braking. The situation, of course, is not the most promising for those who are building the AI ​​infrastructure at the moment. The boss of SMIC, one of the Chinese companies that is leading the country’s technological transformation, pointed out a few weeks ago that the AI ​​Big Tech companies are building all the infrastructure they will need over the next decade. in just one or two yearswhat is generating that plug in stock components worldwide. But then there is the energy plug which, as we see, is not small. And, obviously, it also generates delays in supply. According to the calculationsa decade to connect the new facilities to the electrical grid. If Microsoft, or whoever, builds a data center by 2027, but can’t pull the plug until 2037, something is clearly wrong. What is clear is that regulators are going to look at these projects with a magnifying glass because there is a physical limit that is that energy and connection requests. In fact, it is already recommended that before coming with a monstrous data center and then looking to see if there is a plug, construction plans take into account consumption and connection planning to national networks from the beginning. But there’s another problem: You can build a data center today that consumes x energy, but when you upgrade to more powerful platforms, those calculations may blow up. Either that… or self-powered data centers, as already stated made in Dublin. In Xataka | Data centers are real “heaters”. And they are settling in regions as hot as Aragón

Android 17 says it’s okay now

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Uploading content to social networks from an Android mobile has been, for years, a real punishment. Beyond specific agreements with Samsung or Google —which did introduce relevant improvements, such as HDR support on some platforms— the difference between iOS and Android when it came to sharing content on networks was simply abysmal. The problem went far beyond the casual user who uploads a photo to Instagram and wonders why it looks so bad. It was a structural limitation that pushed companies and content creators to buy an iPhone or the latest high-end Galaxy if they wanted to develop any network strategy with a minimum of seriousness. It is something that will finally change with Android 17. Or so Google says. The change. Mishaal Rahman himself, one of Google’s workers, admitted after Google’s presentation that taking a good photo is 50% of the job. The rest is provided by the operating system. “Recent benchmark testing using the Universal Video Quality (UVQ) model confirms that video captured and uploaded to Instagram from flagship Android devices scores the same or better than the leading competitor.” Google. It thus announced that Google has been working with Meta to completely optimize upload flows to social networks like Instagram. Starting with Android 17, they promise a notable improvement. Specifically, “impressively sharp” and much faster climbs. Beyond. In addition to solving the structural problem related to uploads, more than interesting functions are added from Android. Ultra HDR capture and playback Integrated video stabilization Night Sight integration in Google Pixel New interface for tablets Additionally, Android will have direct integration with Editsthe Instagram app for editing videos. With a single touch, using AI, we can improve the quality of low-resolution photos and videos. The small print. Without giving too many details about the implementation of the measure, Mishaal lets it be known that these news will reach “lThe most advanced Android devices“. It remains to be seen if for practical purposes these changes are really noticeable and if they end up reaching all devices or are restricted to the high ranges. It is also worth keeping in mind that video recording continues to be the Achilles’ heel on many Android phones. Even if Instagram and Google optimize the flows, if we do not have a quality native recording, the upload will be limited. Why is it important. For most users, the quality of what they upload to networks may be secondary. For Google, it is not at all. In markets like the United States, where the iPhone dominates with an iron fist, one of the most difficult fronts to attack is precisely that: Apple’s product works exceptionally well on social networks, and Android has not been able to say the same for years. Finally without weak points? With Android 17, it seems that Google has read the list of weak points that the system had to eliminate them one by one. We are facing the safest version of its historywith a renewed and 100% own design, without being “inspired” by Apple’s Liquid Glass, as expected. Gemini has a real and meaningful integration as AI, there is compatibility with AirDrop for everyone, a universal clipboard (something that was missed if we came from iOS), important new features in Android Auto… In short, a version that can return Android to the top. In Xataka | Android 17 wants to be more than Gemini Intelligence: its other news also has a lot to say

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