Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Iran’s Achilles heel is a tiny island located 25 km from its coast. The question is whether the US will dare to attack it

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Until practically the day before yesterday Kharg island It was unknown to the vast majority of Europeans. Normal. To begin with, because it is thousands of kilometers from the heart of the EU, in the Persian Gulf, about 25 kilometers from the Iranian coast. It’s not particularly big either. It measures about eight kilometers long and 4.5 km wide. Despite all that, Kharg is perhaps the point that attracts the most attention. is hoarding (from Europe, but also the United States, China and Russia) in the convulsive geopolitical board with which March has started. The reason: the island is the key link of the Iranian oil sector. In a place in the gulf… Kharg Island is not exactly big. It measures 22 km2. What it does not have in surface area, however, it makes up for with its location. Located just 25 km from the Iranian continental coast and a few hundred kilometers from Strait of Hormuzis a strategic point for the global oil industry. The reason: that tiny island channels almost all of the crude oil exported by Iran. And those are big words if we take into account that, according to OPEC calculations, it is estimated that the Islamic Republic has confirmed reserves of 208.6 billion barrelsalmost the 12% of the total world. Is it that important? Yes. Iran enjoys a strategic position that (among other things) allows it to control the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic point for the commercialization of Middle East oil. In fact, it is estimated that almost a fifth of the world’s crude oil and gas pass through that narrow strip of a few tens of kilometers. However, not all are advantages for Tehran. Most of the Iranian coastline is bathed by shallow waters that complicate the movement of oil tankers. To operate with them, companies need to rely on Khrag, an island equipped with deeper docks and which since the 60s has had a powerful infrastructure built with the help of the firm. Amoco. Today it is the largest terminal exporter of the country. A percentage: 90%. Kharg’s role is best understood by dealing with various data. The main one is the volume of merchandise that it channels. It is estimated that almost 90% of Iranian oil exports pass through there, a bottleneck through which black gold flows before being shipped to the Strait of Hormuz. It may seem like an exorbitant percentage, but the island has the necessary infrastructure to charge seven million of barrels daily. Added to this are underwater pipelines connected to the country’s oil fields, storage tanks and housing for the complex’s operators. In the spotlight. Khrag has become the key link in the Iranian oil trade, but it also represents a kind of ‘Achilles heel’. Hitting the island means hitting the Iranian oil industry squarely. It’s nothing new. In the 80s Kharg has already suffered Iraqi bombings. The big question on March 9, 2026, with the US and Israel attacking the Islamic Republic is… Does Washington have any plan that involves controlling the island in one way or another? It is not a whimsical question. The Israeli army already has attacked several crude oil deposits and an oil transfer center located in Tehran and Alborz. The Axios weekend wakefulness In addition, Israel and the US have discussed sending special forces to Iran for various purposes: the main one would be to secure uranium reserves, but Kharg would also be in their sights. Ground operation? However, it is one thing to attack oil deposits and another to invade the island. For a start, remembers CNBCbecause it would require going one step further in the offensive in Iran and undertaking a ground operation. A hypothetical attack could also add more volatility and uncertainty to the industry at a time when a barrel of oil has risen to around $100. In the last hours the Brent even it touched 120. Cutting off the tap. The maneuver would also have advantages for Washington and Tel Aviv, especially when it comes to putting pressure on Tehran. Petras Katinas, an expert in energy and defense, recalls that if the United States controlled the island it could cut off “the oil livelihood” of the Iranian regime. “Looking ahead, confiscation would give the US leverage during negotiations, regardless of which regime is in power once the military operation ends,” insist. “It would deal a severe blow to the regime, since it would deprive it of a crucial source of income,” adds Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM, who draws a parallel between what happened in Iran and the US intervention in Venezuela. in january. Why doesn’t the US act? For several reasons. We mentioned two (fundamental) before. Experts point out that taking Kharg would require a ground operation. And that, among other issues, could lead to even more instability in the region and the oil market at a delicate time. “Kharg could focus a multi-week attack campaign with Iranian drones and the island has mines and soldiers,” remember Marc Gustafson, who warns that an intervention of this type would not be without risks for the United States. He even mentions the possibility that, if the situation escalates, Iran will destroy its oil pipelines. One island, many drifts. If the US and Israel decide to comply with Kharg, Tehran could also see legitimacy to hit the oil infrastructure of other Gulf countries. That’s not counting, insists Michael Doran (from the Hudson Institute) in that it could complicate the post-war Iranian economy and the stability of any new government that takes the reins of Iran once the war ends. Images | Google Earth and Wikipedia In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that Iran knocked down four of the US’s eight unique defense systems. If they reach zero a new war begins

Many people hide behind anonymous accounts thinking that no one can discover them. AI has bad news for them

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Accounts without a profile photo or real name plague social networks; perhaps even you, who read these lines, are the owner of one. We do not judge, there are many reasons not to show your face on networks and, in fact, anonymity is the pillar on which the internet has been built. However, if you thought that calling yourself ‘user84721’ and having a landscape photo protected you, researchers have just shown that accounts can be deanonymized in minutes with AI (of course). The study. A team of researchers has published a study called “Large-scale deanonymization online with large language models” which is echoed Guardian. In it, they demonstrate how an LLM-based agent is able to compromise anonymous social media accounts with astonishing efficiency. The process consists of three steps: the LLM extracts identifying data (age, location, interests…), looks for possible matches in other users and finally reasons which are the best candidates, verifying the matches and eliminating false positives. Minutes. This is how long it took to identify users on sites like Reddit, Hacker News, and Anthropic Interviewer Dataset participants with this method. In the image you can see how, based on a few pieces of information such as where the student studies, the approximate age, the city and the name of the dog, they achieve a match with the user’s real profile. This is a fictitious case, but in the experiment they managed to identify real users by cross-referencing information with Linkedin profiles and other platforms. According to the researchers, LLMs allow for large-scale deanonymization of accounts, far exceeding the speed and efficiency of classical methods. They also highlight that there is not always enough information to reach a match, so everything depends on the online footprint of each user. Consequences. Researchers warn that this use of AI could be used for problematic purposes, such as governments that want to identify activists or cybercriminals seeking to launch highly personalized attacks. In addition, it must be taken into account that the system is not infallible and there may be false positives. Speaking to The Guardian, Peter Bentley, professor of computer science at UCL, warns that “People are going to be accused of things they haven’t done.” The end of anonymity. As we said at the beginning, the Internet has been built on the anonymity of its users, but we are experiencing a regulatory shift that pursues precisely put an end to it. We see it with the ban on social networks or the blocking of pornographic websites for minors promoted by countries such as United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark and now also Spain. These initiatives require the identification of users to be able to access certain content through video selfies, electronic ID, verification systems with AI… There are many options, What is not clear is its effectiveness. Image | Own preparation on a background of Google DeepMind In Xataka | There was no need to invent a “pajaport”, Google already includes it in Android. The real challenge is in Europe

the four-day work week

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Various tests carried out around the world have revealed that reduce the work week of five days and 40 hours to four dayscontributes to improving not only the well-being of workers, but also their productivity and commitment to their work. However, there is something about the four-day work week that, currently, is of much more interest to leaders: the savings in fuel consumption that implies that workers do not take the car to go to work. For this reason, the president of the Philippines has decreed that officials in several offices of the Philippine executive would go to work only four days a week to save energy for the crude price increase due to the war situation in Iran. The four-day work week as an economic measure. This is not the first time that labor flexibility has been used as an economic tool. In fact, in Spain it was asked to prioritize teleworking after the DANA of Valencia or to avoid risks when traveling due to meteorological threats. However, what is unusual is that the four-day work week is used to prevent officials from traveling to their workplaces and thus save fuel in the face of an imminent supply crisis in the archipelago. As stated in the Memorandum Circular number 114A published by the Philippine government, the average will affect all officials starting March 9. The four-day week for efficiency. In his statement, President Marcos highlighted one exception, “We are temporarily adopting a four-day work week in certain executive branch offices. This does not apply to those providing emergency or essential services, including police, firefighters and other frontline services,” leaving emergency personnel out of the workweek cut. Along with this, the president ordered all public organizations to reduce their electricity and fuel consumption by between 10 and 20%, also prohibiting non-essential travel, study visits and all face-to-face meetings that can be held electronically. Each organization must also appoint a person responsible for energy efficiency and submit monthly consumption reports. A country hostage to foreign oil. Although the measure may seem somewhat exaggerated after only a week of conflict, the Philippines does not produce its own oil and depends on fossil fuel plants to generate much of its electricity. That makes the minimum swing in prices of the crude oil is transferred immediately to homes and businesses. In his message, Marcos explained that the conflict in the Middle East has affected the passage of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and that, when that route fails, prices rise around the world. The president warned of the concrete consequences if the strait were to close, fuel prices would skyrocket in the market. Something that, in fact, it’s already happening in much of the planet. The private sector, on guard. At the moment, the reduction in working hours only applies to the public sector, but the debate on the convenience of applying it to the private sector is already being debated among political groups. Senator Francis Escudero encouraged companies private companies to study staggered shifts or flexible working, arguing that reducing traffic in large cities would have a significant economic impact. According to senator’s details According to a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), traffic jams in Metro Manila cost the country approximately 3.5 billion pesos a day (about 51 million euros). However, businessmen do not have the same opinion. “For manufacturing, we have been operating with limited resources, and further reducing work days could put our commitments at risk,” assured to The Inquirer Ferdinand Ferrer, president of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI). A story that repeats itself. Although the four-day work week is a concept that sounds novel, it is actually not something new for the Philippines. Already in 1990, during the Gulf War, the Department of Labor and Employment implemented the week of four days with the same objective: to cushion the economic impact of a sharp rise in crude oil. History repeats itself under very similar conditions. The difference with the European debate on the four-day week could not be greater. There are no employee well-being studies or analysis of productivity for companies. The Philippine government’s vision is much more pragmatic: reduce its energy bill as quickly as possible. In Xataka | Spain already has its first municipality with a four-day work week. It is not in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​but in a corner of Cádiz Image | Unsplash (Haberdoedas, phyo min)

At the controls of the new MGS6 EV, the new electric competitor of the Chinese firm.

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MG is the Chinese brand of the moment in our country. By sales volume, it is the company that dominates the market, with a clear focus on the low or entry range. Last year they sold 45,163 units and grew by 46.78%. If we expand the focus to the rest of the market, BYD with 25,556 units was the second Chinese brand that sold the most cars (although in this case they only registered plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles) and MG put it in the Spanish market more cars than historical ones like Citroën, Ford, Nissan or Opel. So far this yearthe MG ZS is once again positioned as one of the 10 best-selling cars in our country but there is a clear gap between this SUV, the MG3 (which has a hybrid option) and the rest of the range. In fact, of the 6,031 registrations this year, the sum of both models exceeds 5,000 units. Its electric offer, driven by the MG4 Electric, has been losing strength. Now, the MGS6 EV is the opportunity to get back on track. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? MGS6 EV technical sheet MGS6 EV BODY TYPE. Five-seater electric SUV. MEASUREMENTS AND WEIGHT. 4,708 mm long, 1,912 mm wide, 1,672 mm high. 2,835 mm wheelbase. 1,908 kg weight for the rear-wheel drive version. 2,005 kg weight for the all-wheel drive version. TRUNK. 674 liters in the rear trunk. Front trunk: 124 liters for the rear-wheel drive version. 102 liters for the rear-wheel drive version. MAXIMUM POWER. 361 HP WLTP CONSUMPTION. Rear-wheel drive version: 16.6 kWh/100 km. All-wheel drive version: 18.1 kWh/100 km. ENVIRONMENTAL DISTINCTIVE. Zero emissions DRIVING AIDS (ADAS). Required by the European Union. OTHERS. Own infotainment system, compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Bluetooth connection for the multimedia system. Wireless charging for mobile phone. ELECTRIC HYBRID. No. Plug-in HYBRID. No. electric Yeah. Rear-wheel drive version: 244 HP and 530 km autonomy. All-wheel drive version: 361 HP and 485 km autonomy. price and launch Now available WITHOUT aid from: Rear-wheel drive version: 45,990 euros All-wheel drive version:48,990 euros Now available WITH aid and discounts from: Rear-wheel drive version: 37,789 euros All-wheel drive version: 40,789 euros The battle for the best electric family heats up Cars with an SUV body, electric, about 4.70 meters long and at relatively affordable prices. Space, price and autonomy to convince the client. These are the premises that must be clear to companies that are preparing to move on quicksand terrain. Sizes where price value is important but where the customer already seriously values ​​other attributes. Until not long ago, the Tesla Model Y It was the only candidate for those looking for an SUV electric car of this size without resorting to a premium brand. Right now, Elon Musk’s company already has to face the Skoda Elroqthe most affordable proposal (and one of the most interesting on the market) from the Volkswagen Group. And, as an alternative, Chinese proposals. we have the Lepmotor C10he BYD Seal U electric. Now the MGS6 EV is added and does so with good conditions. Thinking about prioritizing size and price, this electric SUV arrives 4.71 meters long, 1.92 meters wide, 1.67 meters high and, above all, with a wheelbase of 2.82 meters that takes the rear seats to an enormous width. Added to doors that are close to 90º when opening or a trunk that boasts 674 liters (we believe measured to the roof) and another 124-liter front trunk where we have verified that a cabin suitcase fits, the MGS6 EV is clearly committed to the family aspect. He does it with a car that, inside, has presence. Soft plastics well distributed and pleasant to the touch. Physical controls for gear selection and temperature or volume control with a good feel. It is not the best but in cabins where all physical buttons disappear, it is appreciated that the climate temperature and fan speed can be raised and lowered with physical controls. The steering wheel is good, with individual buttons for each function, without touch surfaces. It is accompanied by a 10.25-inch instrument panel screen and a 12.6-inch central one. Not made a larger screen and since it is not integrated, I almost prefer it to the. increasingly common, panels larger than 15 inches. The surface to leave the mobile phone charging wirelessly has a small textile surface and a fan to prevent it from heating up, and in the lower area there are USB sockets and a huge space where you can leave objects. Connectivity with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay is wireless. These are all details that raise the perception of quality and make MG look closely at its rivals. Where I think the proposal is a little weaker is in the system of infotainment. It feels somewhat heavy and the response to touches is not immediate. Luckily, the menus are well structured and the touch surfaces are large, so navigation is easier in this part. In addition, there is an upper drop-down menu with which you can select the personalized driving profile so with a movement of the finger and a touch we can have the car ready in the driving mode (Comfort, Sport, ECO, Snow or custom), the level of regenerative braking and the desired ADAS systems quickly and intuitively. We have not been able to test these driving aids because the route has mostly run along secondary roads. What is certain is that the system is not intrusive at all because it has not been correcting us as we linked curves. Yes, it has surprised us for the better, it has been the first dynamic contact with the car. My prejudices, I expected a car with a soft and long suspension, as usually happens with Chinese cars. Or very artificial direction. But this has not happened by any means. The suspension contains the body more than I expected and the steering transmits practically nothing that happens with the wheels but it … Read more

Europe is looking for a place to put its AI gigafactory. Spain and Portugal are showing all their renewable plumage

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There is a concept that should be familiar with: technological sovereignty. The United States is looking for her in terms of semiconductors so as not to depend on Taiwan. China wants her with the same goal and with the intention of strengthen your industry. And Europe is also pursuing it. Within this search is the idea of ​​strengthening European sovereignty in artificial intelligence by building AI gigafactories. And Spain and Portugal are clear about one thing: they want to be that node of European AI. InvestAI. Within this search for independence, the truth is that Europe has a long way to go. On the world stage, they depend on the Dutch ASML to create cutting-edge chipsbut Taiwan and China are the world’s factory and the United States has been a key partner both in software as in space matter. Seeing the recent course of the United StatesEurope has realized that it cannot depend so much on foreign alliances and that its key systems are not European, and it is going to dig deep into its pockets. 200 billion euros is what the European Commission’s InvestAI initiative has to invest in programs focused on the development of artificial intelligence. Within it, there are another 20,000 million saved to build gigafactories. GigafactorIA. Its name is quite revealing and it is about huge data centers with capacity for hundreds of thousands of chips with the objective of both training and inferring artificial intelligence models. The plan was launched a few months ago with the reconversion of seven European data centers in data centers for AI and with one objective: that European companies stop turning to foreign ones. For example, the French Mistral signed with Microsoft to be able to use its systems to train Le Chat. The idea is that this be done ‘at home’. It is estimated that one of these gigafactories may have more than 100,000 state-of-the-art AI processors and they are expected to be optimized to have low consumption, reuse of resources such as water and be a strategic node close to other companies, universities and serve to attract talent. Strategy. Spain has been for a few months tempting American companies to build their data centers in the national territory. Aragon has become one of those strategic pointsbut also Madrid either Tarragona. Now, there are other municipalities that oppose it (something that not only happens in Spain). Within this strategy of European technological sovereignty, Spain has two aces up your sleeve: Mora la Nova in Tarragona and San Fernando de Henares in Madrid. They are the two municipalities that could host one of these AI gigafactories and that would take advantage of the technological and energy infrastructure in the area to accelerate the projects. The information is not new, but now Portugal joins in. As detail From Moncloa, both countries are going to carry out a series of bilateral efforts to be at the energy and technological head of Europe, doing emphasis on the coordination of artificial intelligence projects. Because Spain wants the European gigafactory and Portugal too. The neighboring country is already developing a data center in Sines, and the two countries are playing their cards. Energy. Portugal plays the card that Sines has a good connection with the Atlantic submarine cables. Spain also has a powerful argument: if Europe wants AI gigafactories to be energy efficient, the country has a renewable infrastructure that can help make AI independent of gas or coal. Through the agreement between the two, the intention to collaborate to take advantage of the complementary capabilities and synergies between both countries is put on the table. Problem. There are several. On the one hand, the energy ones. Although Spain is one of the Europe’s powers in terms of renewable energyartificial intelligence demands a lot, a lot of energy at peak times. So much so that not only Big Tech have private projects to open nuclear power plantsbut it has been shown that it is necessary turn to coal to meet demand. Because AI needs sustained energy, but above all fast and immediately accessible in the most stressful moments. And there renewables only comply if there are huge batteries involved. On the other hand, Europe is now building its infrastructure… and it is the worst time. If you want gigafactories to have the latest generation chips, it means buying NVIDIA’s H200s. The problem is that these chips, which are currently leading the way, will be surpassed in the short term by a new generation. NVIDIA is already working at full capacity on Vera Rubinand it is not a more powerful chip, but a paradigm shift. This game of being at the cutting edge of AI is slow because the infrastructure has to be built. But, above all, it is expensive. In any case, the results on which countries will host the gigafactories are expected to be published this spring, and we will see if the Spain-Portugal candidacy convinces the Commission. Images | Moncloa, chaddavis In Xataka | Spain has a plan to capture more data centers than anyone else: “shield” them from energy costs

Spain has many options to manufacture the successor to the Airbus A320. We have advantages that our neighbors do not

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Airbus is going to have to make a very relevant decision within its business in the next decade, and that may affect Spain more than we think, although in a good way. We are referring to where the aeronautical giant will manufacture the successor to the A320, the best-selling single-aisle aircraft in the world. In this sense, Spain is running as a strong candidate, and even the CEO of the group himself counted that the country has ballots for it. Why this decision matters. The A320 is Airbus’ star product, the one that moves the bulk of its deliveries and the one that competes directly with Boeing in the highest volume segment of all commercial aviation. The program that replaces it will define Airbus’ industrial roadmap for decades, so the country that houses all its technological knowledge, investment and employment can give itself a good tooth in the teeth. In this context, Guillaume Faury, CEO of Airbus, counted during his meeting with the media at the Getafe plant that “Spain has many cards in its hand to attract these investments.” Where is Spain today? Airbus currently has eight centers and around 14,000 employees in Spain. The largest of them is the Getafe plant, the company’s headquarters in the country and its largest industrial facility in Spain, with nearly 10,000 workers. Added to this is the Illescas factory, specialized in carbon fiber structures, which would soon benefit from the A350 production increasegoing from 5-6 units to 12 in 2028. There is also a relevant presence in Albacete and Seville. “Basically all the activities we have in Spain are growing,” counted Faury. Advantages of Spain. Faury recognized that Spain presents “some competitive advantages over other European countries”, among them the progress in renewable energies, which can help contain energy costs, one of the factors that most concern the group on a continental scale. The CEO claimed also that Europe pays between 2 and 2.5 times more for energy than the United States or China, being a gap that hinders the competitiveness of this industry on the continent. Therefore, in this context, Spain can be a great asset for the company. Added to this is a supply chain with years of experience, qualified labor and a good relationship with the Government, according to Faury himself. But not everything is won. For Faury, the conditions that Spain must continue to meet for the award to be possible include competitive labor and energy costs, a reliable supply chain and a good availability of workers with the appropriate qualifications. He also warns that the challenge of competitiveness cannot be addressed only from a national perspective, but rather a European one. “If we want to keep the industry in Europe in the long term, we have to simplify the regulatory framework and guarantee affordable and available energy,” pointed out the CEO. Consider In this sense, we must “take the bull by the horns” in the face of a situation that he described as urgent. Cover image | Gabriel Goncalves In Xataka | AI seemed ready to destroy skilled employment. A new study with real data says something different: unemployment has barely moved

Battles are won long before the first missile is launched

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In World War II, armies began to discover that intercepting a radio signal could be as decisive as sinking a ship. Decades later, that logic has multiplied: today a modern conflict can involve satellites, algorithms that process millions of data per second and attacks that occur on invisible networks long before the first plane or the first missile appears in the sky. The war that happens before. In the past, wars began with the first visible shot: a cavalry charge, an artillery barrage, or a missile launch. But the conflicts of the 21st century have changed radically that logic. Before the first projectile crosses the sky, it has already been released a decisive battle in another much less visible place: computer networks infiltrated for years, satellites observing movements, electronically blinded radars and algorithms that analyze mountains of data to anticipate each enemy movement. The war in Iran has proven it again crudely. Same as it happened in ukrainethe real showdown begins long before the audience sees the explosions. A years-long murder. I was counting last week the financial times in an extensive report how the attack that ended the life of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was planned, one of the most extreme examples of this new way of fighting. When Israeli fighters dropped their bombs on the Pasteur Street complex in Tehran, the operation was actually years developing in silence. Israel had hacked a large part of the traffic cameras in the Iranian capital and transmitted their encrypted images to servers in its territory. Those data are combined with algorithms able to reconstruct patterns of life: what time the bodyguards arrived, where they parked their cars, what routes they followed and which officials they worked with. This information was integrated with human intelligence, communications interceptions and social network analysis that identified centers of power within the Iranian system. The result was a production chain targeting: an intelligence machine designed to convert data into military targets. Blind first, attack later. When it came time to execute the operation, the missiles and bombs were actually the last phase of the plan. Before the fighters went into action, the United States launched cyber attacks aimed at degrading Iranian communication and air defense systems. The goal was simple: blind the enemy. Disabled radars, confused command networks, and cell towers unable to transmit warnings created a temporary vacuum in which attacking forces could move with advantage. That logic (take away first the eyes to the opponent) had already appeared in previous conflictsbut has now become a centerpiece of modern military strategy. The invisible battlefield. This previous combat is fought in what the military calls the electromagnetic spectrum: the domain where radars, communications, satellites and navigation systems operate. Controlling that space means being able to detect threats before the enemyguide precision weapons or block signals that allow a defense to be coordinated. Losing it can have immediate consequences. Without secure communications, units cannot coordinate, without satellite navigation, guided weapons lose precision, and without radar, anti-aircraft systems stop seeing the targets they must intercept. That is why military strategists repeat a warning increasingly clear: if the electromagnetic spectrum battle is lost, the war is probably already lost. The lesson that came from Ukraine. How have we been countingthe war in Ukraine was the laboratory that demonstrated to what extent this invisible combat It is decisive. There, both Russia and Ukraine have employee war systems electronics to jam drones, jam GPS-guided missiles or disable enemy communications. At times, Western precision weapons such as lHIMARS rockets or the JDAM pumps They lost some of their effectiveness due to Russian electronic interference. The result was a battlefield where spectrum control (and not just the number of missiles or tanks) determined who had the advantage. The new phase of modern warfare. The operation against Iran confirms that this trend is not a Ukrainian anomaly, but rather the norm in contemporary wars. Today the first movements in a conflict are not usually visible, because they are hackers infiltrating networks, satellites detecting signals, algorithms processing data or electronic systems blocking communications. If you like, it is also a silent phase, but absolutely critical. Only when that battle is won do missiles take off, planes cross the border or bombs fall on their targets. By then, however, much of the outcome has already been decided. Because in the wars of the 21st century, the most important combat is not fought in the air or on the ground, but in an invisible domain where seeing before the enemy is as decisive as shooting first. Image | US Navy, nara In Xataka | Iran’s drones have aimed at the same target as the US. And now that they have pulverized it, they are going to unleash their most dangerous weapon In Xataka | Iranian oil made the Shah of Persia immensely rich. He also financed palaces, 140 luxury cars and a private Boeing 727.

It only costs 16 euros a year

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If you like to take photos and videos non-stop, it is very possible that your phone’s storage is shivering. Of course, you always have the option of pulling a portable SSD or even have an HDD as a safe photo album at home. But if you want to be able to access your files from everywhere, the ideal is a cloud storage service. Google Drive, iCloud and other US services reign there, but there are real alternatives in Europe. As there are more and more users searching depend as little as possible on services from this countryEuropean services are beginning to gain popularity. One of them is Interxt Drive, a cloud storage of Spanish origin that, among many other things, has a quite attractive price: with the code ‘XATAKA‘ you have 1 TB of storage per 16 euros per year. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cloud storage that even comes with VPN The price we indicate above corresponds to the most economical Internxt modality, which is called ‘Essential’. With it we will have 1 TB of storagea figure that is not bad at all. Although this is the most notable, we cannot ignore that it is a quite attractive price if we take into account, among other things, that it comes with two extra tools: VPN and antivirus. Let’s now talk about the service itself. We have pointed out above that with Internxt we would be betting on a cloud service that does not depend on large US companies, but that is not the only incentive that the platform gives us. It is also very secure, since it uses ‘Zero Knowledge’. What does it imply? That, despite the fact that their servers are going to store our files, Internxt cannot access them. Privacy is important for this service. In fact, It is open sourceeitherso anyone can access and audit it. Thus, it is practically impossible for it to hide any type of back door or secret route so that your data ends up in the hands of third parties. Transparency above all, something that, added to its end-to-end encryption, also makes it a secure option. If we want more capacity, we can jump directly to their ‘Premium’ plan, which offers 3 TB of capacity and costs 31 euros per year. Not only does it have more room for your files, but it also adds some extra features like ‘Version history‘. This allows you to go back to previous versions of files, which is ideal to avoid losing data if you overwrite them by mistake. 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 | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | Best VPNs 2025: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy

OpenAI says its agreement with the Pentagon is completely secure. His way of convincing us: “Trust us”

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Don’t worry about anything, really. Trust us. Who says it is OpenAI, a company led by Sam Altman that has earned the reputation of saying one thing on one hand and doing another on the other. There are whole books written on that premise, and it is inevitable not to remember it now that this gigantic startup has signed a disturbing agreement. soap opera. OpenAI reached an agreement with the Department of Defense to integrate its AI models into government agencies, replacing Anthropic. They did so by indicating that they would impose requirements on the use of these models and would have red lines similar to those defended in Anthropic: no mass espionage, no development of autonomous weapons. That decision has cost Anthropic the contract with the DoDbut also has been tagged as a “risk to the supply chain.” Trust us. There are two problems here. The first, that OpenAI has never shown the contract that makes it clear that there are red lines to the use of GPT by the military. And the second and most serious, that according to OpenAI we do not need it because we only need to trust them. Altman himself tried to dispel doubts explaining that they had added amendments to the agreement to ensure that those red lines were not crossed. The wall of opacity. Despite promises of transparency, OpenAI refuses to publish the contract. The firm’s head of national security, Katrina Muligan, he came to affirm in that it does not feel “obliged” to share the legal language of the agreement. This has raised suspicions about what has really been signed behind the scenes. Holes everywhere. Brad Carson, who served as secretary of the US Army under Obama, indicated at The Intercept how Sam Altman’s legal language in his posts on X is suspect. The CEO of OpenAI mention for example that “the AI ​​system will not be intentionally used for domestic surveillance of US citizens.” That “intentionally” is, according to experts like Carson, a kind of blank check to allow data on American citizens to be captured while spying on foreigners “by accident” but systematically. As Carson explains, They are trying to confuse you with complicated legal terms that ordinary people think mean something completely different. But lawyers know what it means. And lawyers know that this is no protection. The human factor. The integration of OpenAI’s AI into DoD systems now falls under the direct supervision of Secretary of Defense Pet Hegseth and President Trump. This represents an ethical dilemma: the security of the system depends on the political will of figures who have traditionally had no problem eliminating restrictions on mass surveillance systems. Quo vadis, OpenAI. The 180º turn it’s clear for OpenAI. While in its beginnings the startup was defined With the message of creating AI systems “for the benefit of humanity” and prohibiting the military use of its technology, this agreement demonstrates that such premises no longer seem to exist. another bad sign. This way of acting by OpenAI has caused it to be openly criticized on networks, but there have also been internal problems. This is demonstrated by the fact that its director of robotics, Caitlin Kalinowski, has decided to resign from office over concerns about the company’s military negotiations. And an obvious question. The dispute between the Department of Defense and the Pentagon centered precisely on the fact that they did not want Anthropic to establish red lines. OpenAI claims to have established basically the same ones, so how is it possible that the DoD allows OpenAI to establish them when it has not allowed Anthropic to do so? It doesn’t seem to make any sense. What a mess. We are living a real soap opera with three protagonists. The US Department of Defense (DoD) – now renamed the Department of War –, the company Anthropic and its rival, OpenAI. The DoD, which used Anthropic’s AI for military operations, He demanded to be able to use it without restrictionsbut Dario Amodei, CEO of the startup, he flatly refused. That was the moment Sam Altman took advantage of to become the new ally of the DoDsomething that has been seen by many as opportunistic and morally reprehensible. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | The war between Anthropic and the Pentagon points to something terrifying: a new “Oppenheimer Moment”

MrBeast makes a video and everyone copies him

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Content on YouTube and other video networks is becoming more and more like fast food: clone flavors, different packaging (although with few differences). MrBeast It is currently the global reference on the platform and has sparked a race to replicate its challenge-show-prize format, flooding other people’s profiles (both North American creators and Spanish streamers) with content with very few differences between them. What we have lost along the way: the personality that turned YouTube into an alternative to traditional television. What are these videos about? A hook in the first ten seconds, absolutely obscene amounts of money at stake (figures like $250,000 in weekly challenges), many people screaming a lotan editing rhythm that doesn’t let you breathe. This is how Jimmy Donaldson’s channel, better known as MrBeast, works, and this is how those of hundreds of creators work who, to a greater or lesser extent, have copied his visual grammar, which ranges from the speed of editing to the video thumbnails themselves. In Spain, Its most relevant copier is Ibai Llanos. But is everything as the same as it seems? According to some studies, yes. This 2024 analysis discussed how YouTube’s recommendation system tends to reduce the diversity of content that reaches the viewer, favoring what researchers call “densely interconnected content communities.” The mechanism is circular: the algorithm rewards what already works, the creators replicate what the algorithm favors, the viewer sees more of the same. Whether it is all part of a plan or something that has simply evolved in that direction is a dilemma that remains subject to discussion. The practical result is a platform where the average video thumbnail includes a face with an open mouth, a large red number, and some high-value object. Youtube Product Manager has recognized that the algorithm drives 70% of all views on the platform, meaning that more than the creators themselves, it is the system that decides what thrives and what doesn’t. And YouTubers have to study it and embrace it if they want to upload. of visits. The first times. For years, around the middle of the last decade, YouTube was a platform that encouraged experimentation: the first big channels, like PewDiePie or the Vlogbrothers, and in Spain people like the foundational AuronPlay, ElRubius or Wismichu, to name just a few, made spontaneity a format and built their video empires on their own personalities. Long, sometimes chaotic videos, where the audience’s loyalty did not come from the spectacle but from the identification with whoever was speaking to the camera. It was parasocial content in the most literal sense: the hook was to sit down and watch someone, week after week, and feel like you knew them. How he triumphed. MrBeast spent, by his own account, between 20,000 and 30,000 hours studying YouTube before building the most viewed channel on the platform. In 2023, a 36-page internal document titled “How to Succeed in MrBeast Production” (or ‘How to Succeed at MrBeast Production’, an onboarding manual for new employees) was leaked online. Its content was revealing: the content of the videos formulated as engineering to retain the viewer with precise metrics, tested formats and detailed analysis of important elements of the videos, such as the so-called “wow factor”, and the suggestion of never reusing the same format twice in a row so as not to fatigue the audience. The triumph. This industrial production manual applied to entertainment worked like a charm: the youtuber brought in 54 million dollars in 2022 alone and surpassed 300 million subscribers in 2024, becoming the first individual channel to reach that number on YouTube. MrBeast himself knows perfectly well that he makes a very imitated model. On the topic declared: “many people copy me every day, but it would be hypocritical to get angry with them”, referring to the fact that his fortune comes from studying previous content that worked. Nobody is blameless. Among his most notable copiers are A4 (Vlad Bumaga), Brent Rivera, Yolo, Morgz. It is copied. In 2023 Ibai Llanos issued the second edition of ‘The Last One Standing’: Ten streamers locked in a square, the one who lasts the longest wins 50,000 euros (in the first edition it was 30,000). Ibai himself made it clear that the format was based directly on MrBeast videos (“it’s great in the United States”). He did it in his own style, of course: he not only published a summary of the event, but it was broadcast live in an eight-hour stream. The relationship between the Spanish-speaking ecosystem and MrBeast had another interesting crossover. In July 2024, Ibai, Rubius, Spreen and Quackity participated in a video by the North American creator with fifty content creators from around the world. The video has more than 447 million viewsalthough the Spanish streamers appeared for just a few seconds. Ibai acknowledged that “Compared to North American YouTubers and streamers, we are insignificant”, That has not prevented the formula from continuing to be replicated on a local scale. The productive infrastructure of Ibai (Kings League, The Evening of the Yearthe Ibainéficos) responds to a similar logic: the event-show as a unit of content and money as a narrative engine. In the case of Ibai, the truth is that the Spanish creator strives to maintain his personality, although most of his formats and approaches would not exist without the precedent of MrBeast. Where are we going? MrBeast seems to sense that the formula has a limit, and there are signs that he is aware of the exhaustion that his own formula generates. In September 2025, the YouTuber himself described one of his most recent videos as “less screaming, slower, more story, more emotion,” and the video surpassed 83 million views in four days. The spectacle continued to predominate (two ex-boyfriends had to remain chained to win a large amount of money), but the feelings and drama were just as high as the substantial prizes. New tiger costume or the same old striped pajamas? In Xataka | Chichén Itzá and the Mayan ruins … Read more

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