Mobile Tech & Gadgets

With the fashion of American kitchens, a refrigerator that makes noise can be torture when watching TV. How to choose well to avoid it

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How cool American kitchens are. You have, without walls, doors or partitions in between, the kitchen next to the living room and dining room. I love the concept itself, but there are two things that have always raised doubts in my mind. One is the smell, because imagine starting to do something that doesn’t smell good (like cooking cauliflower or making some fried fish, for example) and going to the couch to watch TV while you do it. And then there is the issue of noise. Of course, here you may think that it is the price to pay for having everything in the same space and you are right. If everything is together, you have to assume that, while you cook, you will have noise next to the TV. But the stove, the extractor or the oven are not the only things that make noise in a kitchen. What’s wrong with the refrigerator? This appliance makes noise and is not like the rest of the things in the kitchen: it is always working. For this reason, if you have an American kitchen, It is essential that you choose carefully which refrigerator you are going to place in it. Yes, it’s about looking at what decibels it emits, but there is something to it. I explain everything you need to know about the subject. Two or three dB more than necessary are enough to ruin your movie night A refrigerator is not as noisy as a washing machine when it starts spinning like crazy, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sound. In houses or apartments with traditional kitchens, this is not a problem. I have been living in my apartment for more than 20 years and, since the kitchen is at one end, I barely know the noise my refrigerator makes. Things change if the kitchen is American. I put you in situation. Imagine that you are on the couch watching a movie with a blanket and popcorn. During shootings and explosions you will not hear anything other than the TV, but things change when there is dialogue or even nothing at all. There, if your refrigerator sounds more than necessary, you are going to hear a hum that is anything but pleasant. Okay, but how do I know how loud a refrigerator sounds? If you take a look at the technical data sheet of any refrigerator, you will find the sound it emits measured in decibels (or dB). It is obvious that the higher the dB number, the greater the noise it emits. What is not so obvious is that A difference of just 3 dB will make us perceive twice as much noise.. To put it bluntly: a refrigerator that emits 40 dB or more in a kitchenette can be really annoying when watching TV. The ideal is to search for this type of spaces a refrigerator that emits 39 dB or less. But of course, since two or three dB less is noticeable, the less the refrigerator emits, the better. The noise comes from the compressor, but not all are the same We have talked about the noise, but not its origin. The sound that refrigerators emit comes from their compressor, which is responsible for keeping your food and drinks very cool. And what does that matter to me for my American kitchen? The answer is very simple: depending on the type of compressor or motor, the type of noise is not the same. Refrigerators that are a few years old have a traditional motor or compressor. This, in summary, only has two modes: either it’s off or it’s on. If the refrigerator detects that the temperature inside is too high, it starts the compressor at full speed to cool down. This means that, when this happens (which often happens if you open the door too much, for example), we will hear a loud noise when starting, followed by a humming noise that will last until the compressor stops. That changes with Inverter motors. These are basically always on and they regulate their speed depending on the temperature. If you open the door and it gets a little cold, speed up a little. However, if your refrigerator has been closed for a long time, it will run very slowly, so the noise will be less. This way, the noise made by the refrigerator will be quieter most of the time. And of course, you get rid of the “noise” of the traditional compressor when starting up. If you are looking to save as much as possible, refrigerators with traditional compressors are cheaper. In price, because traditional compressors consume significantly more energy than inverter motors. However, I would only place one of these in a conventional kitchen and away from the living room or bedrooms. For an American kitchen, in 100% of cases, I would always recommend a refrigerator with an inverter motor. Not only because they tend to emit, on average, less noise. It is due to the fact that we are not going to hear them start suddenly, something that does happen (and very often) with those that have a conventional engine and that can be annoying if we have the refrigerator next to the TV. Therefore, with that clear, it is time to take a good look at the dB. The good and the bad of both options, face to face 36 dB or less between 37 and 39 dB THE GOOD 🟢 You won’t hear it even when the protagonists of your movie look at each other without speaking. They are cheaper and, at the same price, you get a refrigerator to store more food or drinks THE BAD 🔴 It is a more expensive option that may cause you to have to cut back on capacity or features You will hear a slight hum while watching TV that can take you out of the movie Ideal for: Do not hear any type of hum or vibration when watching TV Families who … Read more

While Anthropic goes on the US blacklist, the Pentagon already has someone to succeed him: OpenAI

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The pentagon gave an ultimatum to Anthropic to accept the unlimited use of its AI models for applications of all kinds, including espionage and military use. The deadline arrived, at 5:01 p.m. this Friday, February 27, and Anthropic said no: he would be faithful to his principles. The sword of Damocles has fallen on the company led by Dario Amodei and the United States has completed its threats. How did he communicate? A few hours ago, United States Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, for the Pentagon, Anthropic is already a “risk to the supply chain.” The context. This chronicle of a death foretold has been meeting its deadlines and everyone has remained in their initial position: Anthropic rejected the Pentagon’s lawsuit over concerns about the use of AI for mass civilian surveillance and the development of weapons capable of firing without human intervention. The company behind Claude has already announced that he will contest. We will have to see the cost of maintaining his position. The United States will apply a sanction that until now we had only seen applied to companies from rival countries, Huawei is one of the clearest examples. What’s going to happen now. Leaving aside the fact that the president of the United States refers to Anthropic as “a radical left-wing and woke company” on your social network Truth Socialthe US Ministry of Defense has carried out its threat, which has come into effect immediately: It will terminate its contract with Anthropic, valued at up to $200 million, and as announced Peter Hegseth, no contractor, supplier or partner doing business with the United States Armed Forces may do business with Anthropic. There will be a six-month period for the Pentagon and other government agencies to transition Claude to alternatives. OpenAI said yes. The United States already has a company to provide its services to the Pentagon and other agencies: OpenAI. Sam Altman announced the agreement to deploy its models on its classified network explaining that the Department of Defense had shown a “deep respect for security” and that both AI security and broad benefit sharing are the foundation of its mission. Among the security principles specifically mentioned by Altman are the prohibition of domestic mass surveillance and human responsibility for the use of force, including autonomous weapons systems. According to the CEO of OpenAI, the War Department is aligned with these principles. Likewise, he explained that they will apply technical safeguards to guarantee the correct behavior of their models. Claude’s shadow is long. Saying goodbye overnight to your reference AI company (even with that transition period) and putting a veto on other companies working with it is a tricky measure to put into practice as it is behind recent strategic operations, such as Maduro’s arrest and others imminent. Likewise, it leaves projects such as that of Palantirwhich Claude uses. behind the scenes. According to AxiosDeputy Secretary of Defense Emil Michael was in talks with Anthropic to offer a deal just as Pete Hegseth dropped the bomb on X/Twitter. This theoretical agreement would have allowed the collection or analysis of data on US citizens, such as location, web browsing or financial information. At the moment it is unknown if this interest of the Pentagon in collecting personal data legally applies to OpenAI. In Xataka | IBM has been living for decades that no one could kill COBOL. Anthropic has other plans In Xataka | Anthropic and OpenAI have developed AI. The US Pentagon is showing you who really owns it Cover | Tomasz Zielonka

The Pope is asking priests not to use ChatGPT to write their sermons

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Artificial intelligence may hallucinate from time to time and make things up, but there is one thing it does quite well: prepare texts from a base. Although the results depend greatly on what you ask for in your prompt, it is great for writing to the OTA about a fine they have given you or making a summary of photosynthesis. And why not: also to explain a parable from the Bible to you grounding it to everyday reality. A sermon from the old priest, come on. Well no. I’m not saying it, he says it the current Pope of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church Leo XIV. A few days ago, the Augustinian religious was at a meeting with the clergy of the diocese of Rome and there he remembered the technology, issuing a warning to anyone who is tempted to entrust homilies to AI because “to make a true homily, which is sharing the faith, the AI ​​will never be able to share the faith.” That is to say, although language models undoubtedly have the capacity to smooth out the readings of the Bible to bring them down to Earth, bringing them closer to everyday life, one thing is explain the earthly and quite another is providence. In short, spirituality is an exclusive quality of humans and not machines. Perhaps it could help the church staff precisely to select readings from the long list offered by the book par excellence of Christianity and to synthesize what is important so that later they are the ones who, in their own handwriting (it is a way of speaking), write the sermon in the old-fashioned way. What the Pope says goes to mass In any case, Robert Francis Prevost continued with statements that align with science: “like all the muscles in the body, if we don’t use them, if we don’t move them, they die, the brain needs to be usedso our intelligence, your intelligence, must also be exercised a little so as not to lose this capacity” because the exercise of searching the Bible, reading thoroughly and staying with what is important is undoubtedly a mental exercise that, if not done, reduces mental exercise. Another part of his speech was directed at the use of mobile phones and that current paradox of being more connected and more alone than ever, ensuring that there is no human contact and that another type of friendship experience must be sought to establish bonds. In Xataka | Pope Francis made his opinion clear on end-of-life medical ethics. The one we don’t know is that of the Vatican In Xataka | The Vatican, a holy and renewable city: the Pope’s plans to make the small Catholic state more sustainable Cover | Flickr

Tokyo is one of the few cities in the world that has managed to maintain housing prices. His secret: build

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“If you can’t solve a problem, make it bigger.” This oft-repeated maxim (and mistakenly coined for Dwight D. Eisenhower) can be good advice when it comes to housing: Expanding the scope of a problem can make new solutions possible. Japan is the world’s best example of an advanced industrial democracy with abundance of affordable housing with low carbon emissions. To build. The key to Japan’s success is its unusual degree of national control over zoning and building rules. Centralized authority trumps local housing obstructionism. Tokyo builds more housing in a year than all of California or all of England, which have 3 or 4 times its population. In the largest megalopolis in the world, the way Rents stay low in the long term is to build. National decisions. The political scientist Grant McConnell wrote on the classic articulation of the view that the national government is more likely to solve difficult problems than state or local governments. Small can be beautiful, the reasoning goes, but it can also be provincial, backward and oligarchic. This logic fits well with the housing issue: Putting much more at stake, all at once, in one big fight, rather than piece by piece in hundreds of separate local fights, could disrupt the housing war. More homes around the world. The world has provided some examples of this. Japan has had extraordinary success in housing construction. He has long been a leader and expanded his leadership even further in recent years. Germany, Austria and Switzerland have always had good records, behind Japan but still performing well. France has stepped up, at least in Paris. These countries generally employ rule-based (or “by right”) building permit systems: if your plans check the stipulated boxes, building authorities have no choice but to sign. The Anglo-Saxons. On the other hand, English-speaking countries, including Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand, are lagging behind. Their permit systems are often more discretionarygiving local officials the power to approve or reject buildings at will. In many parts of these countries, especially their large cities, housing is expensive because it is scarce. For now, the Anglosphere suffers the worst housing shortages and prices. The Japanese case. The Asian country is the best example of the maxim of “magnifying” problems. Japan’s national government controls the use of land and buildings to a greater extent than national authorities in other countries. This control has grown in recent decades, even as other nations have gone into lockdown. The number of homes built per year in industrial democracies has fallen by more than 60% since 1970, according to The Economist. Meanwhile, housing construction in Japan has remained solid at all timesbroad public interest in abundant housing has triumphed over obstructionism. What did they do? To boost construction and lower prices, Japan redoubled efforts to allow more housing construction. He resorted, in particular, to administrative changes in building codes. “To help the economy recover from the bubble, the country eased the regulation of urban development,” explained Hiro Ichikawa, a construction development advisor. in the Financial Times. “If it hadn’t been for the bubble, Tokyo would be in the same situation as London or San Francisco.” Build, build and build. The results, in abundant housing, low prices and low carbon urban formswalkable and transit-focused, are notable. The city of Tokyo had 13.5 million residents in 2018. But the city built 145,000 new residences that year. Tokyo’s achievement was particularly surprising considering that the prefecture has very little vacant land, so almost all of those 145,000 homes were located in an existing neighborhood. The astonishing pace of housing construction in the capital has continued for years. Tokyo routinely builds more new homes than all of California (which has three times its population) or, in some years, all of England (which has four times its population). It has increased housing construction by 30% since the turn of the century, even as its population peaked and began to decline in 2007. disposable houses. It is true that Japan demolishes houses much earlier than other industrialized countriesso a large portion of their housing starts are replacement housing. But the much criticized Japanese culture of “disposable houses” It is actually one of the secrets of its success. Japan’s rigorous and up-to-date earthquake safety laws, plus a cultural attachment to new homes, mean that tiny houses in Japan often depreciate completely in just 30 years and are replaced soon after. Because housing is renovated quickly, the country has a much better chance of installing larger buildings. In parts of the US, where buildings typically have an economic life of 100 years, you only have one chance per century to replace a house with an apartment building. In Japan, you get three. More housing. The prefecture has tripled its stocks of housing in the last 50 years and has expanded the number of residences in the city by about 2% annually since 2000. In fact, its overall housing unit growth rate was three times faster than London or New York in the 2010s. Among the 14 megacities around the world, only Singapore and Seoul surpassed Tokyo in the pace of overall housing growth. Thanks to the Japanese program to govern housing, Tokyo Prefecture and the world’s largest metropolis have completely avoided residential closures. Japan seems to have learned the maxim attributed to Eisenhower: if you can’t solve a problem, make it bigger. In Xataka | In its crazy rise in housing prices, Madrid has just broken a barrier: that of the most expensive apartment in its history In Xataka | Tenants and owners are not the same type of Spaniards: some pay €400 more than others for the same home Image | Yu Kato

which cars can circulate and which rest on February 28

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This Saturday the Hoy No Circula Saturday scheme is back in operation, the mechanism with which the Environment Secretariat of Mexico City (SEDEMA) restricts the circulation of certain vehicles to try to contain pollution in the Valley of Mexico. Once again, anyone planning to use the car should carefully check its license plate finish and verification hologram before driving off. The restrictions are not limited to the 16 municipalities of CDMX, but also extend to a series of suburban municipalities in the State of Mexico included in the program. Today No Saturday Circulation also applies to: Atizapan of Zaragoza Coacalco de Berriozábal Cuautitlan Cuautitlán Izcalli Chalco Chicoloapan Chimalhuacan Ecatepec de Morelos Huixquilucan Ixtapaluca Peace Naucalpan de Juárez Nezahualcoyotl Nicolas Romero Tecámac Tlalnepantla de Baz Tultitlan Chalco Valley Also, keep in mind that if your route crosses any of these demarcations, the Saturday No Circulation Day will be equally applicable to your vehicle throughout the journey. What cars and license plates does Hoy No Circula Saturday affect? The logic of the program is to reduce the number of cars in circulation in order to reduce emissions, but Saturdays are governed by their own rules that are added to the scheme from Monday to Friday. Not all drivers rest on the same weekend: it is the combination of hologram, license plate finish and whether Saturday corresponds to an even or odd week that determines which cars must remain stopped and which can leave. It is also worth remembering that Hoy No Circula on Saturdays does not operate 24 hours a day. The application schedule goes from 05:00 to 22:00; Outside of that period—that is, at night and early morning—the program does not limit vehicle traffic, unless an environmental contingency or another extraordinary measure is decreed that adds additional restrictions. For February 21, 2026, the calendar indicates that it is the third Saturday of the month, which is why it is classified as an “odd week.” Under this scenario, vehicles with hologram 1 and plates whose ending is an odd number are the ones that must remain out of circulation during the entire official program schedule. If your car falls into that category, you will have to keep it parked until after 10:00 p.m. On the other hand, vehicles with hologram 0 and 00 retain permission to circulate without restrictions within the framework of Today No Circula Saturday. Cars with hologram 2, for their part, cannot circulate on Saturdays under any circumstances. Along with the previous cases, there is a group of vehicles exempt that can circulate without being affected by these rules. Among them are: Electric, natural gas or hybrid technology vehicles Units registered with plates for people with disabilities All those intended for urban public transport services (including funeral services) Those dedicated to school or passenger transportation Those assigned to public security and/or civil protection Whoever decides to ignore the provisions of Hoy No Circula risks a considerable financial penalty. The fine for failing to comply with the program ranges from 20 to 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA), which translates into approximately 1,924.40 pesos at the minimum and up to 2,886.60 pesos at the maximum. Added to this blow to the pocketbook is the immobilization of the vehicle and the time lost in resolving the problem before the corresponding authorities. In short, if you are going to use the car this Saturday in CDMX or in one of the suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico included in the program, it is advisable to verify before leaving which hologram your vehicle carries, what the ending of your license plate is and if the calendar shows an even or odd week. Today No Circula on Saturday seeks to take the most polluting cars off the road, but at the same time forces people to better plan trips and consider mobility alternatives when the vehicle has to stay at home. Photo | Osmany M Leyva Aldana In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

US agents denounce that it is failing in a key point

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Social networks have been using automated systems for years to try to detect some of the most serious crimes that circulate on the internet. Among them is child sexual exploitation, a phenomenon that forces platforms, regulators and security forces to monitor enormous volumes of content every day. The promise of these tools is clear: identify potential cases sooner and make the work of agents easier. However, some specialized teams in the United States maintain that the volume of notices they receive from Meta platforms has skyrocketed and that a significant portion of them do not provide useful information for action. Clash between scale and utility. In a lawsuit underway in New Mexico, prosecutors maintain that Meta did not adequately disclose what it knew about the risks minors face on its platforms and that it violated state consumer protection laws. According to the Associated Pressthe indictment also argues that the company presented the safety of its services in a way that did not correspond to the risks faced by children and adolescents. The case is part of a broader wave of lawsuits filed in the United States against large technology companies for the effects their services may have on minors. Meta rejects that interpretation. In his speech before the jury, the company’s lawyer Kevin Huff defended that the company has reported the risks associated with the use of its services and that it has introduced different tools to detect and eliminate harmful content. According to the Associated Press, Huff insisted that the central point of the case is not to prove that problematic content exists on social networks, but rather to determine whether the company hid relevant information from users. Researchers on the front line. Those who have provided figures and concrete examples of this problem are agents who work directly in investigations of child exploitation on the Internet. In the United States, those tasks fall largely to the network of units known as Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC), a program that brings together police forces at different levels and is coordinated with the Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute crimes committed against minors in digital environments. Its agents receive notices about possible cases from different sources, including the technology platforms themselves. During the trial, some of these agents have described how they are experiencing the increase in ads from Meta platforms. Benjamin Zwiebel, ICAC special agent in New Mexico, explained in court that many of the notices they receive are of little use in advancing an investigation. “We get a lot of advice from Meta that is just garbage,” he declared, according to The Guardian. His words reflect a broader concern within these units: the volume of alerts has skyrocketed, but not all of them contain the information necessary to identify a suspect or initiate police action. Poor quality. In some cases, reports sent from the platforms include data that does not describe criminal conduct. In others, they do point to a possible crime, but they arrive without essential elements to continue the investigation, such as images, videos or fragments of conversations that allow those responsible to be identified. Without this material, agents have few tools to advance the case or request new proceedings. Some agents have also noted that a portion of these notices arrive with incomplete or partially removed information. The mass reporting machinery. Behind this increase in notices there are several factors that help to understand why the volume of reports sent to the authorities has skyrocketed. In the United States, technology companies are required by law to report any child sexual abuse material they detect on their services to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), an organization that acts as a national center for receiving these notices and subsequently distributes them to the corresponding police forces. Agents cited by The Guardian also point to recent legal changes, such as the Report Act, which came into force in November 2024, as a possible factor that would have increased the number of notices sent to avoid non-compliance. Meta says he’s doing the opposite.. The company rejects the idea that its systems are making the work of the authorities more difficult and maintains that, on the contrary, it has been collaborating for years with security forces to detect and prosecute this type of crime. A Meta spokesperson stated that the United States Department of Justice has recognized on several occasions the speed with which the company responds to requests from authorities and that NCMEC has positively evaluated its notice notification system. According to the company, in 2024 it received more than 9,000 emergency requests from US authorities and resolved them in an average time of 67 minutes, a process that, it claims, is accelerated even more when it comes to cases related to child safety or the risk of suicide. Meta also notes that it reports to NCMEC any material that may be linked to child sexual exploitation and that it works with that organization to help prioritize the notices, including by labeling those it considers most urgent. a real problem. Regardless of what the jury in New Mexico determines, the case reflects a tension that goes beyond a single company or a single state. Digital platforms operate on a global scale and use automated systems to detect illicit content in volumes that would be impossible to review manually. However, the experience described by some agents shows that increasing the number of tips does not always translate into more effective investigations. Images | Dima Solomin | ROBIN WORRALL In Xataka | Dario Amodei founded Anthropic because OpenAI didn’t take the risks of AI seriously. Now you are going to give in to those risks

Supplements, medications and Silicon Valley vampires: the promise of living (well) over 100 years: Crossover 1×40

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A few weeks ago we brought Dr. José Hernández, an expert in longevity and rejuvenation, who told us about what it really means to get older And what technologies allow us to stop this curse? biological. Well, the thing did not stop there, because in the pipeline we had this second installment of an interview that now goes even further. Thus, on this occasion we focus especially on the drugs and medications that try to extend our longevity and let’s also do it with quality of life. There are some here usual suspectsand there has long been talk about how certain supplements can contribute to human longevity. We took the opportunity to talk about Mounjaro and Ozempic and how these medications “reprogram” the brain and what impact that strategy can have. But in addition, Jaume de la Hoz —who is “deep inside” this segment, as he says— reviews many other drugs and supplements in addition to taking the conversation to another fascinating terrain: that of the vampires of Silicon Valley and that of millionaires like Brian Johnsonwhich has become famous for its unique methods of rejuvenation. Without a doubt, an exciting topic in which, of course, AI can also play a fundamental role. Platforms like AlphaFold and their implications when it comes to proposing a potential revolution in biology are certainly promising, but here we have to be cautious: There are many expectations and, at the moment, few certainties. On YouTube | Crossover

After 16 years, Mexico has managed to get a millionaire to pay his taxes. And they are going to use them to help young people

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One of the richest men in Mexico has been litigating for two decades to avoid paying what he owes to the treasury. In an unexpected turn of events, that money that was owed has ended up financing scholarships, soccer fields and cultural centers for young people at risk of falling into drug trafficking violenceat least that is what the Mexican Government has assured. President Claudia Sheinbaum has presented the social program “Young People Transforming Mexico” aimed at distancing young people from the influence of drug trafficking networks. During the explanation of the measures that includes the program, the president was very direct about the origin of the project’s financing: “Where does this resource come from? All this resource for young people, well, from the payment of a person who finally paid his taxes.” Sheinbaum was not referring to just any citizen, it was a direct reference to businessman Ricardo Salinas Pliego, owner of TV Azteca, Elektra and Banco Azteca, who at the end of January settled the largest individual tax debt in the history of Mexico. The largest payment in Mexican tax history The conflict between Salinas Pliego and the Tax Administration Service (SAT) dates back to 2009, when the Treasury concluded that the Elektra Group, owned by Mexican millionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego, with a estimated fortune at $5.8 billion, it had declared non-existent tax losses to artificially reduce its bill between 2008 and 2013. As explained in the specialized medium LexLatinFor 16 years, the businessman used a strategy of systematic delay, filing appeals in multiple judicial instances and requesting recusals of judges in order to prolong the lawsuits that demanded payment of his tax debt. In the Supreme Court alone, the seven main trials generated 100 secondary processes, the majority at the initiative of the Salinas Group. The turning point came in October 2025, when Congress approved a reform of the Amparo Lawwhich limited the possibility of challenging already final tax rulings. In November, the Supreme Court used this new law to resolve the seven trials, confirming sanctions of more than 48,000 million pesos (about 2,367 million euros), including one of more than 33,000 million pesos (about 1,627 million euros) from the 2013 fiscal year. What began in 2009 as the claim of a tax debt of about 38,000 million pesos (around 1,874 million euros) had already exceeded 74,000 million pesos (about 3,649 million euros) due to accumulated interests, surcharges and penalties. On January 29, 2026, Salinas Pliego made a first disbursement of its tax debt with a payment of 10,400 million pesos (about 513 million euros), which were deposited that same day into the Treasury. The total debt finally recognized has amounted to 32,132 million pesos (the equivalent of 1,584 million euros), with the remaining balance to be settled in 18 monthly payments. This final amount represents a discount with respect to the 51,000 million pesos (about 2,515 million euros) that the Mexican treasury had initially set, since Salinas Pliego took advantage of the benefits of the Tax Code, which in this case represented a 37% reduction of the debt through voluntary payment. As and how I collected The CountrySheinbaum He did not hide his satisfaction after knowing the sentence. “It is the largest payment that has ever been made for a case of this type. And it is really good that he decided to pay it!” The president recalled that “for many years, based on negotiations and agreements, taxes were not paid. When President Andrés Manuel López Obrador arrived, the remission of taxes was prohibited in the Constitution.” A plan against youth violence As Sheinbaum pointed out at the presentation event, the money collected from taxes owed for years by one of the largest fortunes in Mexico was going to be used to finance the program “Young People Transforming Mexico“. This project includes the construction of new educational facilities, more places in secondary and higher education, as well as the expansion of the Gertrudis Bocanegra Scholarship for one million students. In the sports field, 4,208 football fields will be rehabilitated, 100 community centers will be created in high violence areas with capacity for 1,000 young people each, offering sports, cultural workshops, mental health and addiction prevention. The objective of all these measures is to offer educational opportunities, social support and leisure to prevent young people at risk of social exclusion and without professional opportunities from falling into the networks of the Mexican drug cartels. “That young people stop any activity that has to do with criminal groups,” the president stated Mexican. In Xataka | The chances of two superyachts colliding are few, but never zero: “You won’t believe it, but our yacht was hit” Image | Wikimedia Commons (JGTorresH), Unsplash (Jesus Herrera)

Ryanair proposes burying the hatchet with Aena and negotiating the new rates until 2031

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There are many signs that define a toxic relationship. Ryanair and Aena seem to have fully entered into one of them. The Irish company is playing the good cop, bad cop game with the airport manager. But, unlike what usually happens, there is only one player here. One that unfolds and that attacks as soon as it reaches out. What happens? That Ryanair “would welcome the opportunity to sit down with Aena and agree on competitive incentive programs, available to all airlines, that would stimulate traffic.” That is, a hand extended after continued attacks on Aena, the company in charge of managing the vast majority of Spanish airports. There is only one problem, that proposal must be found in the fifth paragraph of a statement that repeats over and over again the position that the airline has taken regarding airport taxes in our country: “Aena’s excessive rates are diverting that traffic towards more competitive airports in other parts of Europe.” What is Ryanair talking about? In its latest publication, Ryanair points to a Aena statement of February 25, 2025 in which the company noted that “passenger traffic at Aena airports in Spain grew by 3.9% in 2025, with 321.6 million passengers.” And not only that, the company assures that in 2026 it will grow another 1.3% to reach around 326 million passengers. But the true origin of the last exchange of statements was found a few days ago. On February 18Aena presented its proposal for the coming years with an average annual increase in airport taxes of 3.8% between 2027 and 2031. The increase will result in an increase of 0.43 euros per passenger, according to Aena. The company assures that these increases are essential to undertake an investment wave of 12,888 million euros with a great boost from the Canarian airports that should receive investments worth 1.8 billion euros. very hard. “The Aena monopoly statement of Wednesday, February 25, is astonishing for its inability to understand how to take advantage of Spain’s airport infrastructure to boost traffic, tourism and employment,” is how the press release that Ryanair has distributed begins to explain its position regarding Aena’s latest communication. And once again, the company focuses on airport taxes in regional enclaves. “Aena’s DORA III proposal (where investments are collected in the coming years) It is exactly what you would expect from a protected monopoly: defending itself, blaming others and ignoring the damage caused by its own pricing policy. With the DORA III proposals, Aena plans to increase airport taxes by 21% without taking inflation into account. “This will be another nail in the coffin of regional connectivity in Spain for the next five years, unless the CNMC and the Government of Spain intervene and reject this failed monopolistic strategy.” an open door. However, the Irish company opens the door to a new negotiation with Aena despite the fact that this company “has closed the door”, in the words of Ryanair. The airline assures that it intends for part of the 300 new aircraft that will arrive in its fleet to be destined for one of the Spanish airports. And the company is once again focusing on smaller airports. In 2025 they carried out a restructuring that has left some of them, such as Valladolid, completely empty. They claim that their traffic has increased by 11% in Morocco, 9% in Italy and 60% in Albania. Despite this, they do not point out that even with their partial withdrawal have increased their presence in Spain by 100,000 places. And although its 0.5% growth is small, it is also misleading. It has moved more passengers than ever in our country and some withdrawals are understood only by commercial agreements that, in reality, are flights subsidized by local entities. Something that Morocco applies but that also have been using some town halls in Spain. Interested. What seems evident is that Spain continues to be one of the main airport markets in Europe. Last year, our country reached a new tourist record: 97 million. And the great objective is to achieve break the barrier of 100 million tourists this same year. Aena is aware that tourism is a powerful weapon when it comes to putting pressure on airlines with annual increases. Maurici Lucena, president of Aena, pointed to a lack of responsibility on the part of the airlines and to acting “in bad faith” when they criticize the increases, in words reported by EFE. For its part, the Association of Airlines (ALA) presses for the CNMC to reduce Aena’s proposal which they call a “high rate” while they have presented a proposal that advocates lowering rates by 4.8%. The gap between both proposals is 4,950 million euros. Photo | Xataka In Xataka |

It’s a clue to your strategy for the hardware of the future

by

Apple has acquired Invrs.io, a small AI-guided photonics and optical research company. It is one of those purchases that almost goes unnoticed, but that reveals a lot about where Apple is aiming in the hardware and AI race. Below these lines we tell you all the details. What has happened. According to a notification published by the European Commission, Apple announced in October 2025 that it was acquiring certain assets of Invrs.io LLC and hiring its only employee and founder, Martin Schubert. The information was made public this week, after the regulatory waiting period of four months, according to counted MacRumors. Who is Schubert and what he did. Schubert founded Invrs.io in 2023 after spending more than a decade working on advanced display, chip and optics technologies at companies including Google, Alphabet, X and Meta. According to your LinkedIn profileaccumulates nearly a hundred patents. At Invrs.io his goal was to develop AI-guided design tools focused on optics and photonics, with direct applications in augmented and virtual reality, data centers and autonomous vehicles. The company, according to its page on GitHubbuilt open source frameworks for photonics research, with standardized simulations and a public ranking to compare design results. Why does this matter? Photonics is the science that studies how to generate, control and detect photons, that is, light particles. In practical terms, it is the basis for optical components such as cameras, sensors, displays, LiDAR scanners, and lenses for mixed reality devices. Apple has been integrating this type of technology into its products for years, from the iPhone’s camera system to the Apple Vision Pro. Bringing in someone specialized in designing those components with the help of AI allows you to speed up that process and do it with greater precision. The Apple pattern. This acquisition fits perfectly into Apple’s usual way of moving: small, silent purchases highly oriented toward specific capabilities, generally months before introducing a new product. In January of this year it bought Q.aian Israeli AI startup applied to audio, in what is considered its second largest historical acquisition with nearly $2 billion. Invrs.io is much more modest in size (it literally has one person in charge), but it gives us small clues as to how the company’s movements regarding its products will be in the following years. The hardware that accompanies AI. Although we are now witnessing a great technological battle to see who launches the most powerful AI model, there is a race in the background that will decide who stays on top, and that race involves hardware. Specifically, the hardware that AI will use to perceive the physical world: sensors, lenses, optical systems, computer vision technology, etc. Google now has Nano Bananaa model with which it works so that AI can generate images with knowledge of the real world. Apple, with moves like this, could bet on integrating ultra-precise optics into its wearables and future devices. They are different strategies, but with a common objective: to be the eyes of the AI. And now what. Apple has not confirmed which projects Schubert will work on internally, something completely common for the company. But everything indicates that the company will intend with this purchase to improve the optical components of future models of the Apple Vision Pro, the iPhone or devices yet to be announced. Cover image | Junseong Lee and Xataka In Xataka | Apple is not yet ready to manufacture the iPhone in the US, but it has given in something: part of the Mac Mini is

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