Mobile Tech & Gadgets

The EU believes it is time to knock it down

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The European Commission has sent a strong message to the Member States that still maintain regulated electricity rates: it is time to prepare for their end. In his latest report Regarding the retail market, Brussels requires countries like Spain to develop clear roadmaps with defined deadlines to transition in an orderly manner towards prices based purely on the free market. Why do you demand change? The underlying objective of the European Union is that everyone operates under the same rules in the free market. The European Commission considers that, if the Government intervenes in prices, citizens lose the incentive to be efficient with energy and competition between companies is stifled in the long term. Therefore, the official document ask for a step-by-step exit planwith specific milestones and guarantees of non-discriminatory treatment, to gradually disconnect this rate without creating chaos in the sector. Besides, how to underline The Economist, There is a strong component of financial risk prevention. Brussels wants to avoid at all costs a repeat of the cascading bankruptcies experienced during the energy crisis of 2021 and 2022. To achieve this, the European recommendation involves strengthening financial supervision, forcing marketers to undergo “stress tests” and present periodic reports on their hedging strategies against the volatility of wholesale prices. The weight of the intervened tariff in Spanish homes. The European mandate collides with the reality of our country. In Spain, 29% of households continue to benefit from this intervened rate, the Voluntary Price for Small Consumers (PVPC). According to the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC)the magnitude is even greater since 33.5% of those surveyed claim to have hired it. Although Brussels admits that regulating prices may be justified temporarily to protect consumers during a transition, it strongly warns that these interventions should not become a permanent element of the system. The Government stops the measure dead. Despite the European guidelines, the Spanish Government has no intention of stepping on the accelerator. According to statements to the press collected by the agency Europa Pressthe third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Sara Aagesen, has been emphatic: “At this time there is no plan to eliminate the PVPC.” Aagesen defends that “current market conditions are not appropriate” to eliminate this rate and advocates maintaining it for both vulnerable consumers and any citizen who wishes to benefit from it. As the minister explainsSpain’s argument against Brussels is that the Spanish PVPC is not a fixed price, but is indexed hour by hour to the wholesale market and linked to the futures markets, providing it with greater stability and complying with previous requests from Europe. For now, the Executive has left the ball in the court of the CNMC, which has commissioned a study to evaluate whether this model could be dispensed with in the future. The relief of the social bonus. The debate on the suppression of the PVPC has raised alarm bells among the most fragile households. Having contracted the regulated tariff is an essential requirement to receive the social electricity bonus, an aid that reaches more than 1.7 million beneficiaries, according to data from Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO). However, users can rest assured: the European Commission’s own report expressly cites the Spanish social bonus as a valid and justified measure to protect vulnerable consumers within a structural strategy against energy poverty. The clash of two visions. We are faced with an obvious clash of rhythms and concepts. On the one hand, the orthodoxy of Brussels, which conceives the PVPC as a temporary anomaly on its path towards a fully liberalized European market. On the other hand, the pragmatism of the Spanish Government, which still perceives this regulated tariff as an essential shield for citizens against energy volatility. Although the beginning of the end of the regulated rate is already part of the European demands, Spain has decided, for now, to maintain it with assisted breathing. Image | Magnificent 1 and 2 Xataka | Europe and Japan step on the accelerator of nuclear fusion and place the ball in the court of a strategic country: Spain

It’s time you had a button that allows you to filter AI-generated music

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Music created by AI is generating millions of dollars on platforms like Spotify, making royalties from real artists decrease. The platforms More than 75 million songs have already been uploaded of this type in the last year, and rivals such as Apple Music acknowledge that more than a third of the songs currently uploaded They are generated by AI. You can’t put doors on the field, but putting your hand in the matter seems inevitable. The new step. Spotify is starting to add verification badges for real artists, a badge that guarantees that the artist profile has been reviewed and is an “authentic” musician. The platform explains that those profiles that generate music using AI cannot be verified. The platform takes into account recent concerts, social networks, fan activity and profile behavior to determine whether or not it is real, a fairly fallible method. The world upside down. Spotify has decided to take the opposite path to rivals like Deezer. Their solution to stopping songs created with AI is to verify real artists, while Deezer is betting on a much more aggressive solution AI Music Detection Tool from Suno AI and Udio Removal of AI songs from recommendations Labeling of all songs created with AI According to Deezer, 44% of the total daily music delivery on the platform corresponds to songs created with AIstating that 97% of users are not able to detect between AI-generated music and human-generated music in a blind test. The underlying problem. Spotify’s approach reverses the burden of proof: instead of detecting fake content, it tries to certify authentic content. An independent artist without many numbers, without recent concerts or intensive activity on social networks has a hard time achieving verification, even if his music is completely human. The badge does not measure authenticity, it measures the relevance of the artist, and Spotify is also home to emerging artists. Furthermore, the criteria that Spotify explains are metrics that can be easily modified in AI times, precisely. The system has holes from day one. The damage to artists. The structural problem is not that there are users generating songs with AI, but rather the proportional distribution model that these platforms use. Each artist charges based on their number of plays over the total: the more AI songs accumulate listens, the more diluted what a real musician can earn. Cases like that of ‘Walk My Walk’or how a song generated by AI became the most listened to in the United States, make it clear that the phenomenon is here to stay, and raises the debate of whether AI itself should learn from what it knows: It is the artists who have taught her to compose. In Xataka | You make music with AI, one day you go to download your songs and you discover that you can’t anymore. That’s what just happened with Udio

has just opened its warehouse and delivery network to any company in the world

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For decades, Amazon has built its business one of the most powerful distribution infrastructures on the planet, one that allows its workers to ship products anywhere in the world extremely efficiently. Now he is going to make it available to any business that wants to use it. global network. amazon has announced the launch of Amazon Supply Chain Services (ASCS), a service with which any company, not just its marketplace sellers, will be able to access its global logistics network. Transport by sea, air, road and rail; warehouses; distribution centers; and last mile delivery: all under one umbrella and available for companies in all types of sectors, whether healthcare, automotive, manufacturing or retail, among others. Why does it matter? Amazon has a fleet of more than one hundred cargo planes, only behind FedEx and UPS, thousands of warehouses and sorting centers around the world, and its own last-mile delivery service. In fact, according to data from ShipMatrix, this parcel service is already the largest in the United States by volume, ahead of UPS, FedEx and the US Postal Service. What changes now is that all that capacity, previously reserved for its own sellers and internal operations, is formally opened to the market. Likewise, the movement turns Amazon into a gigantic logistics operator, what is known in the sector as 3PL (third-party logistics provider) and places it in direct competition with giants such as DHL, Kuehne + Nagel or DSV. According to data From the consulting firm Armstrong & Associates, it is estimated that this global market moves more than 1.3 trillion dollars. The parallelism with AWS. In 2006, the company took the technological infrastructure it had built to run its own business and began selling it to third parties. This is how Amazon Web Services was borntoday the largest cloud service provider in the world. Now try to replicate that model with logistics. “Amazon brings the infrastructure, intelligence and scale of its decades-proven supply chain services to businesses around the world, just as Amazon Web Services did with cloud computing,” counted Peter Larsen, vice president of Amazon Supply Chain Services, in the company’s official statement. Variety of services. According to the company, ASCS offers services divided into four large blocks: Transportation of goods (sea, air, land and rail freight). Distribution and storage with automated inventory forecasting. Preparation and shipping of orders through any sales channel, including rival platforms such as Walmart, Shopify, Shein or TikTok. Parcel delivery with deadlines of between two and five days, seven days a week. A blow to the sector. Following the news, FedEx and UPS shares fell more than 9% each after the announcement, while GXO Logistics plummeted around 13% and DHL lost 7.3%. For these companies it is a direct competitive blow, and according to analysts from the Baird firm, the impact could also extend to air and maritime cargo transport operators. With this blow on the table, another of the threatened segments is business-to-business (B2B) logistics, a niche with a high profit margin where UPS and FedEx have been focusing all these years. Between the lines. Beyond the competitive threat, Amazon seeks to monetize an infrastructure that already exists and in which it has been investing for almost thirty years. The company was already according to Armstrong & Associatesthe world’s largest logistics operator by gross revenue in 2025, although its services were sold in a fragmented manner and without a unified proposition for external clients. “They have warehousing operations, transportation management, and international air and sea freight, but they did not have a coordinated sale like 3PL, although together they are already the largest,” counted Evan Armstrong, CEO of Armstrong & Associates, told the Wall Street Journal. Customer data. Opening the network to external companies raises a question: what does Amazon do with the information of its logistics clients? The company has already been accused in the past of using data from sellers in its marketplace to compete against them, something it has always denied. Larsen assures told the WSJ that Amazon explicitly prohibits using ASCS customer data to make decisions in its own marketplace, citing the fact that hundreds of thousands of sellers already use its logistics services for channels outside of Amazon. Cover image | Garakhan Safarli and Claudio Schwarz In Xataka | What is the cheapest Amazon device you can use Alexa+ on?

a man just discovered that robotaxis can do it too

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It is an automatic thought when we check a suitcase: please don’t let me lose it. The airlines They have improved baggage managementbut millions of incidents continue to be recorded every year and it is something that has happened to practically all of us who have taken a few planes. What is not so common is that the person who loses your suitcase is a robotaxi, or rather we should say the one who steals it from you. what has happened. They tell it in Futurism. A few days ago, a man ordered a Waymo robotaxi to go to the San Jose airport in California. The journey went well, it was upon arriving at the airport that the problem arose. The passenger was able to get out of the taxi without problem, but when he tried to open the trunk to retrieve his suitcase, it did not open and the robotaxi left, leaving him without the luggage that he had prepared for his trip. Waym’s responseeither. The first thing the passenger, whose name is Di Jin, did was call Waymo customer service in the hopes they could get the taxi back with his suitcase. However, the person who assisted him told him that the car was on its way to the warehouse and that it was impossible to change its route. Jin decided to take the plane anyway and later tried to get Waymo to send his luggage, but the response was that he had to go pick it up himself. In statements to NBCJin states that “It doesn’t make any sense because it wasn’t my mistake (…) I pressed the button to open the trunk and it just didn’t work” Why is it important. When autonomous driving is questioned, we often focus on safety and overlook incidents like this. What happened to this passenger perfectly illustrates that there is a whole dimension of failures more focused on user experience in unexpected situations. These are errors that a human driver resolves intuitively and quickly, but in this case it became a very complicated situation full of obstacles. The problem is not just security. In China, a system failure caused more than 100 taxis will stop in the middle of the city. In California, several passengers were trapped inside a Waymo because a passerby attacked the car and it crashed. Self-driving taxis have proven to be a safe and effective means of transportation, myself I tried one a few days ago in China and I was surprised how integrated it is into the dense city traffic. What we are seeing most lately are not so much accidents, but problems of this type more related to practical problems that do not affect a taxi with a driver. Image | Xataka In Xataka | The robotaxis did not need a driver, but Waymo has ended up paying delivery drivers to close ajar doors

an unusual toll to revolutionize global maritime trade

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In the 16th century, several sultans of the Ottoman Empire came to seriously study the possibility of open an artificial road next to the Bosphorus to better control maritime traffic between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean… the project was canceled again and again for centuries due to wars, lack of money and strategic doubts, but the idea never completely disappeared from Türkiye. The old Turkish obsession. While the Strait of Hormuz has become one of the largest sources of tension of the planet due to the war between Iran, the United States and Israel, an idea that has been around Turkey’s politics and strategy for years has once again gained prominence: building a gigantic artificial canal parallel to the Bosphorus to create a new sea route under Ankara’s direct control. It is not just about decongesting Istanbul’s naval traffic. Behind the project appears a much greater ambition: converting a free natural passage into an alternative corridor capable of generating incomegeopolitical influence and pressure capacity on part of international trade. Precisely now, when Hormuz demonstrates the extent to which a maritime bottleneck can disrupt the world economythat old Turkish idea it rings again with more strength. The Bosphorus and its importance. He Bosphorus It is much more than a strait that divides Istanbul between Europe and Asia. In reality it is the only sea exit towards the Mediterranean for countries such as Ukraine, Georgia, Bulgaria or part of southern Russia, and one of the busiest corridors in the world. Every year, thousands of oil tankers and freighters cross a narrow road, full of curves and surrounded by a gigantic city of millions of inhabitants. Türkiye has been defending for years that this trafficking represents an enormous risk both for maritime security and for Istanbul itself, especially after several accidents of ships occurring next to historic and residential areas. The problem for Ankara is that the Bosphorus is regulated by the Montreux Convention of 1936, which guarantees free transit and greatly limits the possibility of charging direct tolls to ships. The idea that could change the rules. There appears the real core of the project Istanbul Canal. As it is an artificial route and not a natural strait, Türkiye could try apply rates and services transit routes similar to those of Suez or Panama without formally breaking international maritime law. For years, this possibility seemed more like a geopolitical fantasy than a near reality, but the Hormuz crisis aims to restore prominence to an uncomfortable question: what happens when large maritime corridors stop being simple routes and become tools of economic and political pressure. Iran has already hinted at the possibility of demanding payments in Hormuz, something that has alarmed organisms international organizations and the great maritime powers. In this context, the old Turkish project begins to fit within a broader trend: transforming certain strategic steps into infrastructures capable of generate multi-million dollar income and increase the political weight of the countries that control them. Istanbul, Türkiye, divided by the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus Strait. Erdogan’s dream. Yes, because Recep Tayyip Erdogan turned the Istanbul Canal into one of its great symbols politicians. In fact, he has compared it to Suez and Panama, he has described it as a project aimed at transforming the Türkiye’s international role and has presented it as a work capable of turning Istanbul into one of the great logistics centers in the world. On paper, the channel would have 45 kilometers longwould allow the passage of large oil tankers and freighters and would be accompanied by ports, logistics zones, new urbanizations and enormous real estate developments. It would also physically split the European part of Istanbul, creating a kind of gigantic artificial island between the Bosphorus and the new canal. The big question: if anyone would pay to use it. The enormous problem of the project has always been the same. Although Türkiye could charge tolls on the new canal, the Bosphorus would still exist as a free alternative. That doubt has been haunting the plan for years: why a shipping company would agree to pay millions to cross an artificial route when it has another relatively nearby toll-free route. Ankara is confident that congestion, navigation risks and possible delays will push many companies to choose the new corridor, especially for dangerous goods and large tankers. But many economists and maritime experts believe that the real profitability of the project remains uncertain and it would depend on very specific international scenarios, precisely like those that the Hormuz crisis is causing today. Criticism within Türkiye. Furthermore, the Istanbul Canal It has never been solely a discussion about maritime trade. For years it has been accumulating criticism for its ecological impacturban and economic. Scientists and urban planners warn that the canal would cross forests, aquifers, agricultural areas and very sensitive ecosystems in the north of Istanbul. Not only that. There are also fears about how alter the currents between the Black Sea and the Sea of ​​Marmara, affect marine biodiversity or increase problems related to earthquakes and landslides in an already very seismically vulnerable region. Plus: the projected cost (which different estimates place between 15,000 and more than 60,000 million dollars) continues to generate doubts even among sectors that support strengthening Turkey’s strategic position. Hormuz has reactivated the dream. For years, the Istanbul Canal seemed to move between bombastic announcements, delays, political disputes and financial doubts. but the war around Hormuz has returned to put on the table a much broader issue: the enormous power that certain maritime points have to alter supply chains, energy markets and entire geopolitical balances. Türkiye now watches as the entire world discusses blockades, maritime insurance, tolls and control of strategic routes while your old project appears again, at least in some sectors of the country, as a possible tool to increase your global influence in a century where maritime corridors once again become central pieces of international power. Image | Wikimedia, NASA In Xataka | Neom has stopped being science … Read more

These are the most outstanding offers on AliExpress

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Although May just started just a few days ago, the first AliExpress promo of the month is just a few hours away from ending. This one, called ‘Ready for summer‘, there have been several discount coupons to save and reduce our carts, but they are already gone. Does that mean that there is nothing worthwhile anymore? Not at all. Realme GT 7 (12 + 256 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links We still have quite interesting technology offers, ideal if you are looking to renew any of your devices and want to do so while saving along the way. There are several interesting offers available, although we have made you a selection of five that we find especially attractive: Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones by 295.79 eurossome of the best over-ear headphones on the market. Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 by 141.80 eurosa tablet with very good quality-price ratio. Realme GT 7 by 376.28 eurosa mobile phone that has enough battery to last up to two days without charging it. Google Pixel 10 by 578.68 eurosideal if you are looking for a compact Android mobile. Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 by 172.89 eurosan economical mobile phone in its version with more memory. Sony WH-1000XM6 Headphones If we talk about headband headphones, one of the best options that we can buy are the Sony WH-1000XM6. Their sound is wonderful and they have a design that, in addition to being super cool, also makes them very comfortable to wear. They have plenty of autonomy and their active noise cancellation is one of the best there is. They go out for 295.79 eurosa considerable discount if we take into account that they cost almost 469 euros at launch. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 For less than 150 euros, Xiaomi’s Redmi Pad 2 It is a very good Android alternative if we are looking for a versatile tablet. We can highlight its 11-inch screen with 2.5K resolution and 90 Hz refresh rate, which makes it very interesting if we want it to read text, because it will look very clear and with a good feeling when moving across the screen. In addition, it has a 9,000 mAh battery and a good 4-speaker system with Dolby Atmos. Costs 141.80 euros. Xiaomi Redmi Pad 2 (8 + 256 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Realme GT 7 If you are looking for an Android phone that has a high-capacity battery, then you may be interested in the Realme GT 7. It is true that it does not offer the same autonomy as the GT 7 Pro, but it still has more than enough to last up to two days of battery life. Plus, its 6.78-inch screen looks great (even outdoors) and has remarkable performance. Perhaps it was expensive at launch (starting at 749.99 euros), but for 376.28 euros Yes, it is a very good option. Realme GT 7 (12 + 256 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 He Google Pixel 10 It is a very good phone and a top option if you want something compact. Its 6.3-inch screen looks very good (although, yes, it is not LTPO) and its photography section performs very well in almost any scenario. As always, having a Google Pixel means that we can receive Android news sooner than on phones from other manufacturers and it also has seven years of updates. comes out for 578.68 euros. Google Pixel 10 (12 + 128 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 Are you looking for a cheap mobile phone? This Redmi Note 15 It is a very good option. It is an ideal device if you use your mobile with undemanding apps almost all the time, such as WhatsApp or social networks. Something to keep in mind is that it is the version with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, which will help the mobile last longer. We can purchase it for 172.89 euros. Xiaomi Redmi Note 15 (8 + 256 GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Xataka, Sony, Xiaomi, Realme, Google In Xataka | Best mobile phones in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and nine recommended models In Xataka | Best tablets in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and seven recommended models

The rental market is so broken in Spain that more and more tenants are facing a reality: record overcrowding

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In Spain he increasingly lives more lonely people. And every time he lives more people crowded also. I know: it sounds contradictory, but that is the curious reality drawn by the studies that are in charge of ‘x-raying’ the country’s homes. As paradoxical, counterintuitive and even ironic as it may be, statistical observatories such as the INE or Eurostat confirm that while a part of Spain is forced to live in overcrowded conditions, sharing a house or even fourththe number of single-person households is growing at such a speed that in a few years they will probably be the most common in Spain. That tells us a lot about how the country, its society, the economy and (also) the residential market are changing. Overcrowded Spain. Among its many functions, Eurostat is responsible for reviewing every year how the overcrowding data from the different countries of Europe. Said like this, the concept ‘overcrowded’ may sound subjective, but its technicians have a clear guideline to distinguish what is (and what is not) a home. ‘overcrowded’. In general terms, a home is considered saturated when it does not have a room for each couple, for each adult or for each two young people of the same sex. In Spain that is a reality they deal with more and more people. Especially if we talk about people who live in rented houses. A percentage: 9.5%. The data from Spain leave two clear readings. The first, positive one, is that in our country the overcrowding rate It is much lower than that of other European nations. At a general level (if we take into account all types of housing, owned and rented, both in the free and regulated markets) Eurostat calculates that 9.5% of the population Spanish resides in ‘overcrowded’ houses. Although in practice this is equivalent to millions of people, it is far from the 16.8% average of the 27 EU countries or the ratio of states such as France (10.8%), Italy (24.3%), Portugal (12.7%) or Germany (11.7%). That’s the positive part. The negative part is how the indicator has evolved. In Spain the overcrowding rate has not stopped growing in the last five years until it is at its highest level in the last decade. For reference, in 2018 marked 4.7% and in 2016 it was at 5.4%. The EU average has advanced at a much slower pace. In fact, it has been practically stagnant for years. around 16.8%a value somewhat lower than that recorded in 2016, when it was around 18%. A tenant problem. The Eurostat data They reveal something else: although there is no market that escapes overcrowding, not everyone suffers from it equally. Its incidence is especially high when we talk about people who reside in homes rented at market prices. That is, without taking into account protected housing. In that case the overoccupation rate shoots up to reach 20.5%. What does that mean? That a fifth of Spanish tenants who have rented houses on the free market live in what Eurostat considers overcrowded conditions. Once again, the figure is below the EU average (23.8%) or the rate of nations such as Italy, but it exceeds the indicators for France (18.6%), Germany (18.3%) or the Netherlands (8.3%). And again too stands out for its evolution. Beyond the comparison with the rest of the EU, the reality is that this 20.5% is considerably above the 12.5% ​​in 2016 and represents the highest value since at least 2014. Spain General overcrowding rate Overcrowding rate among tenants in the free market 2016 5.4 12.5 2017 5.1 12.4 2018 4.7 12.8 2019 5.9 16.3 2020 7.6 18.8 2021 6.4 15.4 2022 6.6 14.9 2023 7.6 17.5 2024 9.1 20 2025 9.5 20.5 What is the reason for this increase? A sum of factors, as stated this week The Country in an analysis on the increase in overcrowding in Spain. One of those (crucial) elements is how the housing market has performed in recent years. Idealistic reveals that in general the price of rents has almost doubled in the last decade, at least if we talk about nominal values (without taking into account the effect of inflation): from €7.7/m2 in April 2016 we have gone to €15/m2. In highly stressed markets, such as the one from Palmathat increase has been even more pronounced. The increase in housing prices (extended to both the rental and purchase markets) directly influences the behavior of families. Not only does it limit the options that those looking for housing can choose from, it also complicates emancipation and assume the rent of an apartment without sharing expenses. Not to mention that the imbalance between supply and demand can lead some landlords to opt for renting single rooms and makes it difficult for families who, after growing up (due to reunification or the birth of children) aspire to a larger apartment. A more populated country. There is another key factor. The increase in the overcrowding rate coincides with the general growth of the Spanish registry. According to the INE, at the beginning of 2026 they resided in the country 49.57 million people. Not only is this 440,000 more than a year before, it also represents “the maximum value in the historical series,” in words of the INE. This growth is also supported by immigration, which broke its own record. In January, the foreign-born population exceeded the ten million of people. Why is it important? Although inflation may have led some families to rent part of their homes to make mortgage payments more bearable, it is not unreasonable to think that this increase in migration explains in some way the rate of overcrowding. The economist José García Montalvo remember in The Country that the foreign population tends to group together in support networks and part of the migrants who arrive in Spain choose, at least at first, to settle in the homes of people they already know. “So where three live, five end up living,” he illustrates. In any case, the phenomenon … Read more

A US company claims it can build a cutting-edge lithography machine. ASML says not even remotely

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Substrate is not just another startup. It was founded in 2022 by brothers James and Oliver Proud, and is backed by Peter Thiel (he co-founded PayPal and is one of the largest investors in Silicon Valley). Despite having existed for only four years, it has raised more than 100 million dollars and has been valued at more than 1 billion. This very successful start-up is based on a promise: the Proud brothers claim that they can build photolithography equipment as advanced as the most sophisticated they have. the Dutch company ASML. Currently this firm from the Netherlands is the only one capable of manufacturing the machines extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) that are used to produce cutting-edge semiconductors, which has placed it in an effective monopoly position in the global semiconductor industry. In the current scenario of confrontation with China, the US is interested in having a national company capable of manufacturing cutting-edge lithography equipment. This is Substrate’s trump card. However, we have reasonable grounds for reluctantly taking up the promise of the Proud brothers. “No one is coming for us” Christophe Fouquet, the general director of ASML, assures that no company on the planet is in a position to compete with them. During a conversation with Connie Loizos, an editor at TechCrunch, Fouquet has argued that “the challenges of lithography are many. Being able to make an image is a starting point, but that image must be produced in large quantities, at very low cost, at high speed and with nanometric precision.” It makes sense. “We had to solve only one problem: obtaining extreme ultraviolet light. And that alone took us 20 years” “I always say that the only reason ASML was able to build an EUV machine is because 80% of it already existed from prior knowledge and products developed over time. We had to solve just one problem: getting the extreme ultraviolet light. And that alone took us 20 years. When starting from scratch, the challenge is enormous. I have heard many statements. And I have seen some images. But we got our first image with EUV technology 30 years ago, and even then we need 20 more years of hard work to turn it into a manufacturing system,” points out the head of ASML. It is clear that Christophe Fouquet trusts his technology. And in your product. However, the starting point of Substrate is different from that of ASML. This American startup uses a particle accelerator as a light source for an X-ray lithography tool instead of using extreme ultraviolet light like ASML. According to the Proud brothers Their technology allows them to manufacture a silicon wafer at an order of magnitude lower cost than with ASML’s EUV approach. Be that as it may, there is another fundamental difference between the ASML and Substrate strategies. And instead of supplying machines to chip manufacturers, as ASML does, Substrate wants to establish its own network of semiconductor production plants equipped with its photolithography machines. Furthermore, its plan is very ambitious: it aims to produce cutting-edge integrated circuits on a large scale in 2028. It sounds daring, no doubt, but time, as always, will put everything in its place. Image | ASML More information | TechCrunch In Xataka | TSMC has made the chip industry’s most intriguing decision: not to use ASML’s most advanced machines

fines of up to 30,000 euros

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Do you charge 2,320 euros per month? You’re lucky because you can rent an 80 square meter apartment in Ibiza. Of course, you won’t have any money left for anything else. Not even for those small luxuries like eating or showering. These are the data if we take as reference the 29 euros/m2 that, according to Idealista, It is difficult to live on rent in Ibiza city. That is if we take into account that the data is from the month of February, because in summer prices have been exceeded in recent years, reaching 32 euros/m2. Everything indicates that the pressure on rental prices will increase. They point out in The Voice of Ibiza that the Balearic Islands have become the Autonomous Community where the most pressure is expected on rental prices, with an average increase of more than 4,000 euros at the end of the year, as a result of the renewal of contracts that expire this year. The problem recurs every year. The New York Times addressed this problem in 2024 in a report in which voice was given to firefighters, teachers or police destined for Ibiza and who could not pay the rental bill. Entrenched and without solutions, the housing problem has created a series of settlements of workers who spend the night in tents and caravans unable to afford an apartment or rooms for which they have been asking 1,000 euros for years. On an island where tourism and luxury hotels drive the economy, a considerable number of workers do not have a roof over their heads. The solution to some of them went through live in a caravan. Now Ibiza has expelled 200 of them and it is being protected against this type of settlements. Legal, until it isn’t Last January, A post on Tiktok went viral of a woman who worked as a seasonal worker in the Tena Valley (Huesca). “I am a temporary worker and I come to work in the Tena Valley. The rents are 800 euros and I am not going to share a flat. I prefer to live in the van with my cat (…) I don’t understand why they focus on me when I don’t break the regulations,” she noted in the video. The video showed how the police asked him to leave the town where he had parked his motorhomewhere he lived. The truth is that he was right, nothing prevented him from living in his house on wheels as long as it was parked legally and he did not take objects outside, which could be considered camping. But this case cannot be completely extrapolated. to the entire national territory. Municipalities or autonomous communities can apply their own restrictions to prevent camping. This is the case of the Balearic Islands, which has decided to protect itself against the entry of caravans. Since last year, and with the excuse of putting limitations on tourism, Ibiza imposed a maximum number of cars that could enter its islands. Since then, there can be no more than 20,000 non-resident cars driving on its roads. But, of them, 16,000 cars belong to rental fleets. And if you want to move around the island with a caravan you have to prove that you have the camping nights already booked. This last measure included in the Law 5/2024 on vehicle control It is one of the weapons that are being used on the island to evict those living in a caravan. In fact, the third additional provision reads the following: In order to avoid the proliferation of motor vehicles parked in certain places for long periods and that are used, in practice, for camping and overnight stays, the prolonged parking of motor vehicles on the rural land of the island outside of the existing public parking lots specially enabled for this purpose is prohibited. Long-term parking is considered to be staying parked in the same location for more than three days. Camping and overnight stays with motor vehicles on the rustic land of the island of Ibiza outside the legally existing tourist camps are prohibited. Any type of parking of motor vehicles on the rural land of the island of Ibiza is prohibited if they do not have the accreditation of entry and/or permanence on the island regulated by this law. The previous regulations, therefore, aim to the Law of Rustic Land of the Balearic Islands in which exactly what rustic land is is defined. And according to the description we read in article 7 of said law, rustic land is practically any non-urban space on the island. Therefore, the prohibitions described above make any parking illegal in spaces considered “rustic land”, which includes all types of trucks next to the road or towns. They are spaces that tourists with caravans have usually taken advantage of to sleep but that have also been used by the island’s own workers. The problem is not small. And it is that in article 8 of the Vehicle Control Law it is specified that “the Plenary Session of the Ibiza Island Council” may “agree to temporarily limit the influx and/or parking of motor vehicles” where it is considered that there is too much influx of vehicles following a report from the affected city council if they consider that environmental damage may occur in “certain spaces with natural, heritage or landscape values.” This makes it easier for caravan settlements of workers who cannot find housing are dismantled. And the fine is no small thing. In its sanctioning regime, a driver who enters one of the described areas can be punished with a fine of between 300 and 1,000 euros, as it is considered a minor offense. But when it comes to spending the night, things get complicated. And the very serious sanctions include contravening the third additional provision, the one in which it is explained that a person cannot spend the night outside the spaces specifically designed for it. In this case, fines of 10,001 to 30,000 euros and … Read more

the radical plan for buyers to take control

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The world faces “the greatest threat to energy security in history.” As warned by the International Energy Agency (IEA)Europe has aviation fuel reserves for only “about six weeks.” Along the same lines, countries like Pakistan or the Philippines are days away from running out of gasoline at their pumps. The war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have caused the largest oil supply disruption ever recorded in history. According to Maurizio Carulli, analyst at Quilter Cheviot in statements to Euronewsthe prolonged closure of this key corridor has removed about 12% of the world’s oil supply from the market, an impact far greater than that of the Yom Kippur War or the invasion of Kuwait. For 65 years, the global dynamic has been immutable: the producing countries, grouped in OPEC, have dictated the volumes and the rules of the game. However, the magnitude of this crisis is prompting economists to propose a radical paradigm shift in which the balance of power changes sides. “OPEC in reverse” To address this market suffocation, University of Massachusetts Amherst economist Gregor Semieniuk and his colleague Isabella Weber propose a revolutionary idea: create an “OPEC in reverse.” As detailed Fortuneit would be a global coalition of oil-importing and consuming countries that would act as a bloc. Instead of controlling production volumes as the traditional OPEC does, this consumer club would set a purchase ceiling or maximum price. As explained on the financial portal Reelfinancialthe primary objective is to stop a bidding war in which rich nations monopolize the energy supply, raising costs to the point of expelling lower-income countries from the market. It is not an idea without historical foundations. The experts themselves remember that the IEA, founded in 1974, was born precisely as an institutional counterweight of the consuming nations against OPEC. Since former US President Ronald Reagan removed oil price controls in 1981, the system has been governed almost exclusively by free trade. However, Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, explains in Fortune that the international economy has stagnated in a “zero-sum game.” Prasad compares the current energy crisis to the hoarding of vaccines and medical supplies by rich countries during the pandemic, leaving poorer nations with shortages. The roadmap according to the experts To materialize this plan, Semieniuk points out that the United States is in the ideal position to lead the new coalition of buyers. Being a net exporter and registering an energy trade surplus close to $100 billion in 2024, Washington has the financial and geopolitical muscle necessary to force change, explains Fortune. In addition to coordinating price caps, economists advocate implementing taxes on windfall profits (windfall taxes) on giants like ExxonMobil or Chevron, companies that continue to profit considerably from the rise in crude oil prices. The mechanics of this strong state intervention are justified by the seriousness of the situation. Faced with an unprecedented military blockade, governments must take a much more active role to ensure fair access to energy, making it clear that, in times of war, the free market cannot be the only response mechanism. This consumer proposal comes at the exact moment when the historic producer cartel is collapsing. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have made their departure from OPEC official prioritizing their “national interest.” The impact of this divorce is tectonic. In an opinion column published by Reutersanalyst Ron Bousso warns thatAfter the Gulf blockade, OPEC’s global market share had already plummeted to 26% in March. The cartel is rapidly losing its ability to dominate and stabilize the markets. The OPEC crisis is not purely economic; Its roots are deeply political and territorial. Analyst Robin Mills explains that OPEC obliged the UAE to limit its production to 3.2 million barrels per day, despite the fact that the country had invested billions to reach a real capacity of 5 million. Added to this quota tension is an evident diplomatic fracture in the Gulf. Emirates has felt betrayed and abandoned by its Arab allies after having to absorb the impact of almost 2,800 Iranian drone and missile attacks alone. Consequently, the geopolitical chessboard is being rapidly redrawn. Joe DeLaura, energy specialist at Rabobank, underlines in the magazine Intelligencer that the world is heading towards fragmented blocks. The UAE is strategically pivoting toward the United States in exchange for protection for its shipping, and DeLaura anticipates that countries like Kazakhstan could be next to rebel against OPEC quotas. In his opinion column for Le MondeStéphane Lauer summarizes the great historical irony of this collapse: OPEC, created in the 1960s out of an iron desire for national sovereignty against Western powers, is fracturing today “in the name of that same sovereignty”, with each state seeking its own salvation. The dawn of a new era OPEC, as we knew it for more than half a century, has fractured. As explained by Jorge León from Rystad EnergySaudi Arabia has been left practically alone to bear the enormous cost of stabilizing supply, which anticipates an era of extreme volatility. While the old cartel is bleeding due to internal divisions and the weight of the war, an unprecedented window of opportunity opens for importing countries to finally take control of the market. History has already shown for 65 years that an organized coalition of nations can shape global energy markets. The big question now is whether the consumer world will have the courage and political will to do exactly the same. Image | Magnificent Xataka | Iran has responded to the US plan to liberate the ships in Hormuz with another approach: one with drones, missiles and burning ships

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