Mobile Tech & Gadgets

China has given the green light to buy NVIDIA chips. The problem for your companies is that you will closely monitor each operation

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NVIDIA has hundreds of thousands of H200 chips trapped in limbo. It is one of the company’s most powerful chips and the standard of the companies that are training AI. It is preferred for train the modelsand also the weapon with which The United States sought to leave China out of the game. After movements by the two countries, The US finally approved (25% commission through) that NVIDIA could sell the H200 to Chinese companies. China has taken some time, but finally it seems that it will accept the offer reluctantly and with an ace up its sleeve: DeepSeek. The mess. The H200 issue is a soap opera. In the context of the trade and technology warthe United States played one of the best cards they had: preventing one of their most powerful products from reaching Chinese hands. They also hindered European companies like ASML from selling their most advanced machinery for making semiconductors to companies like Huawei or SMIC. China responded, of course. He attacked with rare earth -that control almost exclusively– and has been showing little by little that they can not only create advanced semiconductors on your own (and pushing old technology to the limit), but they are alive and well in the battle for artificial intelligence. Furthermore, they have developed a robotics industry and other aerospace practically out of nowhere, making a vacuum to Western chips, and that has caught the United States on the wrong foot. China makes a move. Seeing that China was advancing and the US was not getting a cent, they moved tab: They opened the door for NVIDIA to sell its H200s to certain Chinese customers. For each sale, the US took 25%, but it seems that it was something that the Chinese Big-Tech wanted to take on because they need, at least currently, that NVIDIA technology. And the GPU company itself increased production expecting two million orders above normal. The problem is that everything moved very quickly. without China, really, having said anything. Because here it is not just a question of whether the United States lets it sell, but whether China wants its companies to buy. In a tense calm that left requests halted and thousands of H200 in limbo, China has finally made a move. According to Reuters, and as we told a few days agothere are companies that will be able to place orders for the H200. There is a “but”. It is not carte blanche for anyone to place an order. According to WSJ, Chinese authorities have indicated that each purchase must be for a use considered “necessary.” That includes advanced research or development in AI. Because two factors come into play here: On the one hand, it seems that there are Chinese companies that are pressuring the Government to let them access the technology. NVIDIA was allowed to sell the H20 to Chinese customers, but if these customers can now buy the H200 – six times more capable – they want to take advantage of it. But China does not want everyone to throw themselves into the arms of NVIDIA because, precisely, they have been building their own semiconductor industry for five years with SMIC and Huawei in the lead. China’s goal is to stop depending on the US, and if everyone starts buying US chips like crazy, they will not advance on the technological roadmap that the country marked a long time ago. That is to say, it seems that Chinese regulators are going to evaluate which companies can or cannot buy the H200 depending on the use they want to give it. It has been reported that, for example, ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent will be able to import 400,000 H200 chips. But there is a twist to all this. deepseek. China’s quintessential artificial intelligence model is one that has turned both NVIDIA and the United States upside down. The question was how it was possible that, without access to the latest technology, DeepSeek could optimize its AI so much. On the one hand, ingenuity to circumvent the CUDA standard. On the other hand, there are those who are clear that DeepSeek has been trained with NVIDIA cards… smuggled. Accusations of smuggling are nothing new in this commercial and technological war, but precisely, and according to Reutersthe company that joins NVIDIA’s massive H200 order along with ByteDance, Alibaba and Tencent is… DeepSeek. Officially, and without restrictions, they will be able to access the H200. “We have given China the argument to launch its own industry and, at the same time, we are giving them access to ours again” – Samuel Bresnick Whiplash. I really liked this concept that Wired uses to define American policy in this regard. They are the ones who started the conflict and their position has been pivoting about tariffsbut with more or less lax measures depending on the moment. It seems clear that, now, they are at a point where they have had to think “if China is going to somehow reach the technology, at least we sell it and earn something along the way.” Samuel Bresnick is a researcher at the Georgetown Center for Security and Technology and comments in Wired that the worst thing you can do is “come and go,” noting that “we have given China the argument to launch its own industry and, at the same time, we once again give them access to ours.” Get your batteries. And meanwhile, there’s Jensen Huang. The CEO of NVIDIA has taken a mass bath in recent days in both China and Taiwan, where he has met with some of the companies that move the semiconductor sector. NVIDIA sat at the same table, TSMCFoxconn or Asus, and Huang came out, half joking, half seriouswith one request: you need wafers and RAM. Regarding the purchase of the H200, China is walking on eggshells, and it makes perfect sense. It is at a point where it does not want to be left behind, and to do so it needs its … Read more

The Ministry of Labor wants death leave to be extended to 10 days. Obstacle: Congress

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The Ministry of Labor plans to approve by royal decree law the extension of leave for the death of family members up to 10 days. Although the formula would allow its entry into force immediately after the Council of Ministers, there is a risk that the measure will end up being overturned later in Congress. Just like share El País, the Secretary of State for Labor, Joaquín Pérez Rey, confirmed this Tuesday that “the intention would be for the rule approving leave for bereavement and death to be an urgent rule” and that his “predisposition is to do so through a royal decree law shortly.” The Government’s strategy. By processing the norm as a decree law instead of as an ordinary draft law, the ministry led by Yolanda Díaz seeks to ensure that the extension of permits is applied immediately, without waiting to complete the entire parliamentary procedure. That would make the measure come into force the day after its publication in the BOE, although it then requires validation by Congress within a maximum period of one month. According to account In the middle, during that period, workers who suffer a family death could now access extended leave. Agreement. Job agreed with CCOO and UGT On December 15, the paid leave for the death of a spouse, common-law partner or relatives up to the second degree (parents, children, siblings, grandparents and grandchildren) was extended from the current two days (extendable to four in the event of displacement) up to 10 days. These could be used continuously or discontinuously within four weeks after death. Furthermore, just as share El País, the agreement includes a new 15-day permit for palliative care, divisible into two fractions over a period of three months, and one day of leave to accompany someone who is going to receive euthanasia, regardless of family ties. Rejection. The employers’ association CEOE and Cepyme have opposed the proposal because they consider that “it represents a new attempt to transfer to companies the cost and responsibility of public policies on care that corresponds to the Administration,” as they indicated in a statement. The lack of consensus in social dialogue marks the position of the PP, which has already announced its vote against following its criterion of rejecting labor measures that do not have the joint support of unions and employers. Key vote in the air. Parliamentary arithmetic turns Junts and PNV into decisive pieces in approving or not the measure. Just like they point From El País, the Catalan nationalists have already joined together with PP and Vox to overturn the reduction in working hours and have maintained very critical positions with other proposals rejected by unions and employers, such as the increase in the self-employed quota. For the measure to be approved, the Executive would need the support of the entire left plus the support of Junts and PNV, or at least the yes of one and the abstention of the other. Comparisons with Europe. Labor has been highlighting Spain’s delay compared to neighboring countries in regards to death leave. From the middle they point out that Portugal extended the paid leave for the death of a spouse in 2023 to 20 days, equal to that of children, while in France 12 working days are granted for the death of children and 14 if the deceased is under 25 years of age. According to the ministry, the current two days in Spain are insufficient to face a duel. A controversial vote. The decision to take the measure through a decree law responds to a clear intention to make it difficult for the opposition to reject it, since it is a measure of high social sensitivity. “suffering from the death of a son or daughter” is “not a question of the right or the left,” counted Pérez Rey in the middle. Cover image | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | Deepfakes are much more than a bad joke. Now the Government wants them to be a violation of the right to honor

claims its new humanoid robot runs like an elite athlete

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For years, when we think about humanoid robots, the image that usually comes to mind is that of machines capable of making impossible jumps or executing perfectly measured stuntslike those popularized by Boston Dynamics with Atlas. At the opposite extreme are designs oriented toward repetitive tasks and controlled environments, like Tesla’s Optimus. Between both imaginaries there is an obvious gap: it is difficult to visualize a robot as an athlete. However, that frontier is beginning to move with proposals that no longer only seek balance or skill, but also performance typical of human athletics. ‘Bolt’, the athlete robot. We are talking about the new humanoid presented by the Chinese company MirrorMe Technology, which claims to have reached a maximum speed of 10 meters per second during tests in real conditions. The company maintains that this is the first time that a full-size robot has achieved that record outside of a laboratory, a milestone that, if confirmed, would shift the conversation from controlled demonstration to performance in environments closer to the physical world. To place the magnitude of the data as a historical reference, Usain Bolt clocked 9.58 seconds in the 100 meters during the 2009 World Cup in Berlin, a mark that at that time defined the ceiling of sprint athletics. Real running. Achieving high speeds in a humanoid requires solving one of the biggest challenges in bipedal robotics: maintaining dynamic balance while the body endures repeated impacts and constant changes of support. In humans, this coordination between perception, motor control and response occurs almost automatically, but in a machine it requires redesigning joints, optimizing energy delivery and fine-tuning stability in real time. MirrorMe maintains that the Bolt incorporates new joint configurations and a power system optimized to approximate human movement patterns. A job that started years ago. The company had already attracted attention with Black Panther IIa research-oriented robot that traveled 100 meters in 13.17 seconds during a television broadcast in China. In that same demonstration its top speed was around 9.7 meters per second. Bolt thus appears as the next logical step in that search for ever-increasing physical performance. Robots as athletes. Bolt’s advance also fits into a broader context in which China is exploring the athletic dimension of humanoid robotics. Public demonstrations of robots have appeared in recent years capable of fighting in disciplines such as kickboxingdeveloped by companies such as Unitree Robotics, in addition to viral tournaments that serve as a showcase to measure agility, balance and coordination. This ecosystem suggests that physical performance is beginning to become a relevant metric beyond pure research. The future. Beyond the record that the company says it has achieved, MirrorMe imagines specific applications for this type of high-performance humanoids. Among them, he mentions the possibility of them acting as training partners for human athletes, an idea that points both to professional sports and to research in biomechanics and movement. However, as with many announcements in advanced robotics, the true scope will depend on sustained testing over time and real-world usage scenarios. Images | MirrorMe In Xataka | OpenAI going from 70% share to 46% is the symptom of something more worrying: they have entered panic mode

Changan lands in Spain but its objective is global

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They arrive in our country in 2026 but Changan’s backpack is loaded with experience. With its first two models flanking the presentation and the presence of the personalities who will direct its operations in our country, this Chinese company gained muscle in Madrid, the first stop in an expansion that they want to be as rapid as it is successful. The cover letter was quickly put on the table: “We want to manufacture five million units in 2030. 3.5 million will be new energy cars (a category that in China includes plug-in hybrids and electric cars)” said Manuel Perez Casado, head of sales in our country and on whose shoulders most of the presentation fell. The goal is ambitious. So much so that if it were achieved it would put the company in the famous five million club. A space reserved for the chosen ones. In the absence of knowing the consolidated data for 2025, it is only certain that two brands have far surpassed the five million units sold: Toyota (which has exceeded 11 million of cars sold) and Volkswagen. Behind, BYD has not achieved break the barrier of five million that has been fighting for two years. That is, right now, selling five million cars means becoming the third best-selling manufacturer in the world. That’s where Changan is pointing. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? Your arrival in Spain Although Changan arrives in Spain in 2026 as a Chinese firm that may be unknown to the general public, it has 45 years of history behind it. During the presentation, much of the speech focused on building trust in the company. As a group, Changan is fighting, right now, to be the fourth conglomerate of China’s largest car manufacturers. Ahead and as the undisputed leader is BYD, which dominates the Asian country and has found in its BYD Seagull (Dolphin Surf in Europe) a car that has swept the low-priced models. It is followed by Chery, the largest exporter in China that sells in our country under the brands of Omoda and Jaecoo and whose cars serve as a basis for Ebro. The third group is Geely, owner of Volvo or Smart, among other companies. Changan has, like Chery, a long tradition in the export of vehicles. It currently actively sells in 115 different countries, has 21 factories and development centers and more than 24,000 employees spread across 31 countries. In Europe they have centers in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom that, they say, will help them tune the cars to European tastes. Changan’s contact with countries outside of what has been happening in China is not new. They have development and research centers related to autonomous driving in the United States and design centers in Japan. Furthermore, they have had and have collaborations with Ford and Mazda. So much so that Japanese electric cars are, in essence, Changan cars. Yes, he Mazda 6e and the future Mazda CX-6e They are electric cars built on the Chinese skeleton that Mazda claims to have tuned for European tastes. For now, we have only been able to touch the first of them and we can confirm that it is a good car but that its driving feel and some details of its interior in terms of ergonomics are not exactly what we expect from this Japanese brand. Their weapons to open a gap Ahead of its collaborating company, Changan arrives in our country with the Deepal S05 and S07. They are practically the same car with some differences in equipment and battery size. The first of them is the smallest and makes an appearance in our country with a 68.8 kWh battery with LFP technology which promises 485 kilometers of electric autonomy. For its part, the Deepal S07 does so with an 80 kWh NCM battery that certifies 475 kilometers of autonomy. Both cars were on display during the presentation and we were able to get into one of them in a lap from which we can draw few real conclusions. We will have to wait for a contact or an in-depth test to have a better perspective of the whole. If we talk about driving feel, we found it to be a car that accelerates sufficiently but lacks a bit of restraint in its suspension, too soft which generates very long supports, and that has a proposal that is too artificial in its direction, at times excessively forceful but without the ability to transmit anything that happens with the wheels, which makes us lose feeling when moving quickly. Yes we can say that both cars are greattaking care of the materials that are reached by hand, prioritizing soft plastics and leaving the hard ones where we usually will not touch. They are very spacious cars that comply with the maxim of many other Chinese cars that we have had in our hands. In general, they are well-resolved vehicles inside, with a lot of interior space for the rear seats and with a trunk that is somewhat fair for its size. And, above all, with very extensive equipment. The Deepal S05 comes with a 15.4-inch screen with 2.5K resolution (compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) that flows very well in the tests that we were able to do when we got on it. Its equipment has all the expected driving assistance systems in level 2 autonomy such as adaptive cruise control. Cameras with what the brand calls 540º vision are also included. That is, we can see what we have under the car. Deepal S05 interior For its part, the Deepal S07 adds a rotating screen that moves left or right to facilitate handling for the driver or passenger. Of course, like its little brother, it lacks any type of physical buttons for the air conditioning functions. Also included as standard is a glass roof and wireless charging for your mobile phone. In this case, the screen is 15.6 inches. The cars have a … Read more

Intel refuses to be left out of the AI ​​race. Your next move points directly to NVIDIA’s territory

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The AI ​​fever is not only redefining software, it is also turning the map of power in the chip industry upside down. On this new board, the GPU has become the essential engine for building models and scaling data centers, to the point that demand has skyrocketed and placed its main manufacturers in a dominant position. For Intel, the diagnosis is difficult but evident: if the next decade of computing is decided in this area, it is not enough to protect the kingdom of the CPU. Intel’s move. The Santa Clara company has chosen a very specific setting to begin organizing its speech. During an AI Summit organized by Cisco, the company’s CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, said that Intel will start to produce GPUs and has just hired the “chief GPU architect” who will lead that effort. The manager avoided giving details about the name, but he did leave a message consistent with the moment in the sector: the GPU matters and will continue to matter. The missing piece. According to Reutersthe talent hired by Intel is Eric Demers, from Qualcomm. On the other hand, the initiative would fall under the umbrella of Kevork Kechichian, executive vice president and head of Intel’s data center business, incorporated in September within the framework of a series of hires aimed at strengthening the company’s technical profile. AI, before gaming. The nuance is important, because talking about GPU can automatically activate the imagination of graphics cards for gaming, but reality goes in another direction. Intel already has a presence in graphics on the PC, with its Arc productsbut the announcement targets GPUs for AI and data centers. The initiative as a still early plan, with a strategy that will be developed based on customer demand, a coherent approach with an AI infrastructure market where the most intense battle is being fought today. Intel’s corporate moment. According to CNBCthe stock market value has risen in the last year in the heat of optimism about your business foundrybut the company is still mainly dedicated to manufacturing chips for its own catalog. It’s no secret that Intel has lost ground to companies driven by the AI ​​data center wave, and is now taking steps to respond. No relief until 2028. In the same forum, Tan slipped in another element that helps dimension the challenge of AI infrastructure. He spoke of the memory chip shortage which is disrupting the market due to the mismatch between supply and demand, driven by the construction of AI-oriented data centers. That environment is giving manufacturers room to continue raising prices, and Tan was blunt in describing AI as the “biggest challenge” to memory. He also released an estimate that leaves little room for optimism: he stated that he does not expect “no relief until 2028.” Images | Brecht Corbeel In Xataka | Goodbye to the duopoly of Intel and AMD in Windows: the arrival of NVIDIA processors is imminent and brings 8 laptops under its arm

bomb them with 6,000 logs from helicopters to fix a decades-old mistake

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Historically, the rivers of the Pacific Northwest of the United States They were a chaos of fallen wood, deep pools and irregular currents that prevented the normal flow. The logic marked clean them and remove all the trunks to facilitate the passage of water and transportation, something they did not hesitate to do. The problem is that this has subsequently been seen to be a mistake, and they have literally had to fix it throwing logs into the river with a helicopter. Something that may seem crazy, but that science has endorsed as the best. A bombardment of wood. The project, led by the Yakama Nation in collaboration with organizations such as The Nature Conservancy has reached an unprecedented milestone. They have managed to place more than 6,000 Douglas fir logs and cedar along Central Washington’s 24 miles of rivers and streams. With helicopters. A task that was not easy, and for which helicopters have been requiredsince access by land to these virgin areas is almost impossible without building roads that would destroy the ecosystem that they are trying to save, in a paradoxical way, ‘dirtying’ the rivers. That is why the use of cargo helicopters has allowed the wood to be deposited with surgical precision without touching the surrounding forest floor to do as little damage as possible. An image that has actually attracted a lot of attention on social networks due to the impression of seeing a helicopter dumping wood into a river. A dirty river. Although seeing thousands of logs piled up in a river may seem like a natural disaster, to a biologist it is a perfect work of engineering. And these stacks are called ‘Engineered Log Jams’ and have a very clear meaning. The first is that the logs create deep pools and shadows where the water stays cold, which is vital for the survival of salmon and bull trout in the face of rising global temperatures. Stopping the current. This is another reason why science justifies the need to have these logs in the river, since slowing down the water allows the gravel to settle for the salmon to lay their eggs. Something that is complemented by the possibility of shelter that the trunks provide to hide from predators. Furthermore, by forcing the water to go around the obstacles, the complexity of the channel is recovered, avoiding accelerated erosion of the banks. The backup. As we have said before, it has not been a unilateral political decision, but rather it has had the support of science with different studies. These targeted a survival rate of 78% of fauna after major floods, more than meeting the protection objectives. And the success has been such that they are already being replicated in other parts of the country. The public administration itself is financing similar projects in the olympic peninsula and in counties like Cowlitz they have doubled down, placing up to 8,000 logs in the Grays River. The return of the salmon. This project is not just a question of river aesthetics. It is a battle for food sovereignty and biodiversity. Research in the Elwha River already confirms an immediate positive response with the presence of young salmon in front of these structures. In this way, what was eliminated decades ago because it was considered “garbage” or obstacles to progress, is today reinserted with high-tech helicopters. It is the recognition that sometimes, for nature to function properly, we need to make rivers “dirty” and full of obstacles again. Images | Job Vermeulen Magnus Mandrup In Xataka | Finally we have salmon without an environmental footprint, without overfishing and without microplastics. It’s just not salmon

Returning to the Moon before 2030 begins to seem like a political fantasy

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This same week we learned that the Artemis II mission, which was to put humans around the Moon again, it had to be delayed. The old ghosts of the space program, as it is the complexity of liquid hydrogenhas once again been a blow to NASA, which is increasingly closer to SpaceX to delegate part of its space missions. Hydrogen as a cursed inheritance. As a reminder, all the problems with Artemis II have arisen during the general refueling test, since it had to be stopped when a leak was detected in the hydrogen fuel lines. For fans of the show, this sounds awfully familiar. They are faults traced to which The Artemis I mission has already suffered and that seem inherited from the Space Shuttle era. Liquid hydrogen, being the smallest molecule in existence, has an astonishing ease of escape through the slightest imperfection, a situation that has been recently aggravated by the extreme cold on test platforms. The dependence on SpaceX. While the SLS rocket shows signs of technical and budgetary fatigue, with Boeing threatening staff reductions amid this crisisNASA is forced to pivot increasingly toward the private sector. This is where SpaceX meets with open arms. The current plan is complex: the SLS must put Orion capsule in orbitwhich will then be coupled with the SpaceX human landing system (HLS) to go down to the lunar surface. However, the SLS delays put at risk the entire chain of missions that come after such as Artemis III that could go until 2028. It has its challenges. But SpaceX is not completely perfect, since for the Starship HLS to reach the Moon, it requires an orbital resupply maneuver that could involve up to 12 prior tanker flightsan unprecedented logistical complexity. Although Starship also faces its own challenges and delays, different sources indicate that is the only lander contracted with real capacity to operate before 2030. Although NASA has opened the door to Blue Origin for later missions seeking to diversify, today, without SpaceX, the lunar rhythm would collapse. Until exhaustion. While SLS struggles to overcome basic leaks, SpaceX is following its “break things to learn fast” philosophy. By the end of 2025, the company completed its eleventh test flightachieving a key milestone: the smooth and controlled splashdown of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean and the successful restart of the Raptor engines in a vacuum. This flight marked the end of the “V2” era. Now, SpaceX transitions to Starship V3, an even larger and more capable beast, designed specifically to meet Artemis’ payload requirements. But introducing a new vehicle involves new risks and time-consuming certifications. More than a rocket. We often forget that the Starship HLS is not just a transport vehicle; It will be the “home” of the astronauts on the lunar surface for a week, which further marks this dependence. Although it does not stop here, since SpaceX has completed SpaceX recently completed 49 crucial contract milestones for NASA that go beyond propulsion, including life support that will keep the astronauts alive. Although they have also managed to validate the system for the descent of the crew on the moon or the Raptor engines that have demonstrated their ability to ignite after being exposed to the deep cold of space. Dependency is a problem. With the current data on the table, the optimism of 2025 has evaporated, delaying the date of the different missions to return to the Moon. And although the SLS is currently a bottleneck, the immense complexity of the Starship operation, which requires an almost weekly launch chain, is the real wall against which Washington’s political dates crash. Images | SpaceX In Xataka |

imitate Russia in the Arctic

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While millions of tourists enjoy a privileged climate in Gran Canaria, the infrastructure that supports the island operates on the verge of collapse. The island’s electrical system, isolated and without connection to the mainland, operates with minimum safety margins, dangerously approaching what technicians call “energy zero”: a total blackout. The threat is not theoretical. The neighboring island of La Gomera had a blackout a couple of weeks ago due to the destabilization of the El Palmar thermal power plant, but the inhabitants still remember 2023 in which they spent 37 hours in the dark. Faced with a structural power deficit and a demand that is close to 550 megawatts (MW) at peak times, a technical proposal has emerged that breaks all taboos in Spain: bringing floating nuclear reactors to the Port of La Luz to guarantee electricity and water to the island. Urgency and the fossil “patch.” The energy situation of Gran Canaria is critical. It is estimated that the island has a firm power deficit—safe energy that does not depend on whether it is sunny or windy—of between 120 and 140 MW. Current thermal power plants, based on fuel oil and gas, are aging and the network lacks robust support. To avoid the blackout, the Government of the Canary Islands has chosen a solution emergency: hire a powership of 125 MW. It is a thermal power plant installed on a ship (Shark class) that will dock in the port of Las Palmas to burn fossil fuels and cover that gap. The study that supports it. It is in this context where the Peter Huber Center of the University of the Hespérides emerges. Through a study signed by experts Manuel Fernández Ordóñez and Daniel Fernández Méndez, direct criticism is launched at the current management: he powership It is a “patch” that perpetuates pollution, increases CO2 emissions in a dense urban environment and maintains dependence on imported fossil fuels. Their alternative is radically different: betting on floating nuclear reactors. According to the authors“we are not talking about an experimental technology, but rather an evolution of light water reactors that have been operating safely for decades on military ships and icebreakers.” The glass ceiling of renewables. Here lies the technical core of the debate. If the Canary Islands have plenty of sun and wind, why consider nuclear energy? The answer lies in network stability. Despite the efforts, the contribution of renewables to the energy mix of the Canary Islands has been stagnant at around 20% for four years. Although 2024 aimed for a clean production recordthe technical reality is stubborn: the island electrical grid, being small and isolated, needs an “inertia” that wind and solar energy cannot provide on their own. Without a firm power base, when renewables rise a lot, the system becomes unstable and energy must be dumped to avoid failures. Currently, the big bet to solve this It is Chira Falls: a reversible hydroelectric plant that will function as a 200 MW “megabattery.” This pharaonic work, scheduled to be operational by 2027, will pump water to store excess renewable energy and release it when necessary. However, the Hesperides University study argues that, even with storage, the system still needs a constant generating “backbone” that does not emit CO2. They argue that a 100 MW reactor would provide that fixed power and the auxiliary services (frequency and voltage control) necessary so that, paradoxically, more renewables can be installed without the risk of pulling down the grid. As Manuel Fernández explained in an interview: “The only reliable alternative to fossil fuels in the Canary Islands is nuclear.” Much more than electricity. The proposal goes beyond turning on light bulbs; It strikes a chord with survival on the islands: water. The water-energy nexus The Canary Islands are one of the places in the world most dependent on desalination. More than 70% of the water for human consumption comes from the sea, and these desalination plants devour between 10% and 12% of all the electricity generated on the islands. “The water security of Gran Canaria is strongly coupled to its electrical security,” the study says. While experimental pilots are tested like the DesaLIFE projectwhich seeks to desalinate using wave energy to supply some 15,000 people, the nuclear option presents a brute force solution. A reactor generates electricity and an immense amount of waste heat. According to the report1 MW of electricity can desalinate between 4,000 and 6,000 cubic meters of water per day. A single 70 MW nuclear ship, partially dedicated to this task, could cover a gigantic fraction of the water demand of all of Gran Canaria. The Russian mirror in the Arctic. The proposal is not based on futuristic plans, but on a tangible reality that operates today: Akademik Lomonosov. It is the first modern commercial floating nuclear power plant. It has been docked in Pevek (Russia) since 2020, supplying electricity and heating in extreme weather conditions. Its technology is two KLT-40S reactors (derived from icebreakers) that generate 70 MW. In 2024, it reached an operating factor of more than 94%. Russia is already working on the next generation (RITM-200M), which will offer about 100 MW with a useful life of 60 years. Regarding the logistics of powership fossil, which requires the constant docking of tankers with fuel, a floating reactor is recharged every 3 or 4 years. This would shield the island from the volatility of oil prices. The small print. To understand real viability, you have to look at the global context. Although Russia now leads the market and uses it as a geopolitical tool, the US was a pioneer in operating the nuclear ship Sturgis in the Panama Canal between 1968 and 1976. Today, Western companies such as Westinghouse or Seaborg are trying to regain ground against Chinese (ACP100S) and Russian designs. The “B side” is social rejection. Greenpeace has come to qualify these projects like “Chernobyl on ice”. The study defends security through “defense in depth” design (double hull, passive systems). However, analysts warn of specific … Read more

the founder of Telegram charges against Pedro Sánchez and sends a massive message

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He package of measures of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to regulate social networks has not only aroused the ire of Elon Musk, who has launched several disqualifications through X. It has also provoked a reaction from the CEO and co-founder of Telegram. Pável Dúrov is sending a message this afternoon to Spanish users of the platform in which he frontally rejects the proposal and warns of what, in his opinion, would be its consequences. Hey, you have a message from Durov. If you use Telegram and have a Spanish number, it is very likely that this afternoon you received an unusual notification. The official ‘Telegram’ bot, the same one usually used for security communications such as login codes, displays a message forwarded from the channel @durov. “The government of Pedro Sánchez is promoting new dangerous regulations that threaten your freedoms on the internet,” the text begins. From there, Dúrov promises to “explain” why he considers that the package of measures represents an alarm signal for freedom of expression and privacy. Durov Dúrov’s message translated into Spanish in the Telegram bot Against the prohibition of social networks for minors under 16 years of age. One of the central criticisms of the founder of Telegram points to the proposal to restrict the access of minors under 16 years of age to social networks. Dúrov maintains that such a measure, in practice, would imply strict identity verification controls that would go beyond that age group, citing formulas such as DNI or biometrics. “It sets a precedent for tracking the identity of EVERY user, eroding anonymity and opening doors to mass data collection,” he says. “What starts with minors could spread to everyone, stifling open debate,” he adds. Here it is important to clarify something important: for now, the Government has not fully detailed what specific technical measures would be applied for this age verification, nor how they would be implemented in practice. That is to say, Dúrov’s interpretation is based on a harsh scenario, but the actual implementation will depend on how the initiative ends up being drafted and the mechanism chosen to apply it. Risks of “overcensorship”. The message also focuses on another point of the proposal: tightening the responsibility of the platforms, including their managers, if they do not remove content considered illegal or hateful. According to Dúrov, this would push companies to act preventively and aggressively, with a clear collateral effect on public debate: “this will force over-censorship—the platforms will delete anything minimally controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissidence, journalism and everyday opinions.” And what about the algorithm? The initiative also proposes legally punishing the manipulation of algorithms and the deliberate amplification of illegal content. Dúrov interprets this point as a potential paradigm shift: that the control of the order of what we see on the Internet becomes a regulated matter with room for political intervention. “Governments will dictate what you see, burying opposing opinions and creating state-controlled echo chambers,” he writes. In the same block, he warns that these types of measures would end up affecting the free circulation of ideas. Measures against polarization. Another leg of the package is the creation of a system described as a “footprint of hate and polarization,” which would quantify how platforms amplify social division and serve as a basis for future sanctions. Durov dwells especially on this point, questioning the fit of categories that, in his opinion, are too open and moldable: “vague definitions of ‘hate’ could label criticism of the government as divisive, leading to closures or fines. This can be a tool to suppress the opposition.” A message without gray, waiting for the small print. Overall, Dúrov presents the proposal as an inseparable block of threats against freedom of expression and privacy, hardly distinguishing between measures or opening room for nuances. It is a reading aligned with Telegram’s usual narrative, which tends to frame regulation as a direct risk to digital rights. But it also leaves a decisive factor in the background: several parts of the plan, as we say, are still pending completion, both in its final formulation and in its technical implementation. Telegram does not come to this debate from scratch. Dúrov’s intervention also occurs in a complicated context for the platform. Telegram has been under the spotlight for some time due to the role played by some channels and groups in the dissemination of content that is difficult to moderate, and due to the recurring debates about responsibility and cooperation with authorities. Added to this is that the founder has been noted in France in the framework of investigations linked to the use of Telegram against criminal activities and certain illegal content. This history helps to understand why these types of messages are not just political criticism. Images | Dima Solomin | Moncloa In Xataka | We don’t know if banning social media for those under 16 is going to solve the problem. Yes we know that it will generate others

finding the winner has not been easy at all

by

For many, choosing a phone with a camera that really delivers what it promises has never been so complicated. A few years ago the map was simple: the options were clear and each range had its well-defined place. Today that ground has moved. New players have entered, the level has been equalized above and It is no longer enough to look at the usual ones If what we are looking for is mobile photography at the highest level. This is even more noticeable when the focus is on the telephoto lens, one of the sections that most separates a “very good” mobile phone from a truly outstanding one. With so many alternatives on the table, the question arises: which one is worth buying? in a new Versus from Xataka We wanted to respond precisely to that. We have faced seven of the best zoom phones of the moment so that you don’t have to, and we have put them against the ropes in a battery of tests designed to see both the muscle of the hardware and the weight of the processing. As is usual in this format, where we have analyzed products and platforms with very different approaches (of the AirPods Max versus the Sony WH-1000XM6 to the iPhone Air vs. the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge), the system is clear: each round adds points and, in the end, only one takes first place. A zoom duel with very serious candidates Ana Boria has been in charge of leading this comparison, with a lineup of protagonists who have already says a lot about the moment that mobile photography is experiencing: Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, Xiaomi 15 Ultra, iPhone 17 Pro Max, Vivo X300 Pro, OPPO Find X9 Pro, Realme GT8 Pro and HONOR Magic8 Pro. The test starts with a relatively controlled scenario, daytime photos with good light and optical zoom, and then raises the level of demand as it progresses. the video we just published on our YouTube channel. “In the case of the colors of this garden, it is the Xiaomi, the VIVO and the OPPO that I like the least because of their saturated and bright, somewhat artificial processing. On the other hand, with this sunset, precisely that play of saturation in the colors makes my eyes go directly to those photos,” says Ana while comparing results and showing some of the images captured during the test days. Beyond the pure and simple zoom, there is a particularly revealing block: portrait-type shots without activating portrait mode. The idea is not to evaluate a software effect, but to check how telephoto lenses behave when asked the most difficult things, separate the subject from the background naturally. And there, as usually happens when the level is so high, it is not only important how close each mobile phone gets: it matters how it does it. A particularly interesting result appears in this section. which is detailed in the video. From here comes the most delicate territory: the digital zoom designed to maintain detail without turning the photo into a pixel puzzle. It’s the kind of promise we’ve all heard, but only some phones manage to keep. “If we talk about colors, it depends a lot on the photography whether we notice more or less differences between the seven phones,” explains Ana. At this point, very different trends are clearly seen between brands: from models with “a more intense HDR” to more conservative and balanced proposals, with a more consistent white balance and a less aggressive final image. And if there is a theme that runs through the entire video, that is the role of artificial intelligence. Because today zoom is not just optics. It is also an algorithm. It is also reconstruction. In this part of Versus it is appreciated which manufacturersThey put more into AI to “improve” the capture and what is gained (or lost) with it. Sometimes the result is striking, even spectacular. In others, excess translates into photos that are too artificial, with an aesthetic that may not be to everyone’s taste. “Although if we look at these portrait photos, and we look at my face, the Vivo photo is all AI and my skin has completely lost its texture,” says Ana about the Chinese brand’s mobile phone, although the video leaves more examples of the extent to which AI can mark the character of an image. The comparison does not stop at photography. It also includes optical + digital zoom in low lighting conditions, video tests and, as it could not be otherwise, the section that arouses the most curiosity when we talk about telephoto lenses: the external accessories that allow you to take the zoom to another level. Only three of the models analyzed have this type of option, Xiaomi, vivo and OPPO, and it is one of those details that not only changes the final result, but also changes the experience. “The thing is, how do I get back to my iPhone now?” Ana asks herself after checking it out. To know the winners of each round, see the complete tests and discover Ana’s final conclusions, we invite you to watch the video on the Xataka YouTube channel. And as we always do, you can leave us your opinion both here and in the comments of the video. Images | Xataka In Xataka | It had been a long time since a cell phone left me speechless. So I went to China to test the Honor Magic8 Pro camera

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