Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Europe looks to Spain to understand the agriculture of the future

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In just a decade, has grown by 3,000% and has generated more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs throughout Spain. We are talking about pistachio: the ‘green gold’ that, despite initial skepticism, has radically changed hectares and hectares of the heart of the country. But we have known all this for years. What we did not know is that this agricultural boom was going to lead to an entire agrotechnological revolution. The epicenter of “pistachotech”. With 80% of the Spanish pistachio, Castilla-La Mancha has taken a step further to become the European epicenter of this “pistachio technological wave”: from “laboratory” rootstocks and new less common varieties to drones, precision irrigation and sterile insect programs. However, that is not the most interesting thing. As the Nobel Prize winners recently reminded us, what is interesting about this technological boom is the cultural change towards an innovative agricultural environment. But let’s go in parts. What is really happening in Castilla La Mancha? As explained in Enclave ODSAccording to Ángel Minaya (director of Agróptimum), the ultimate idea is to “control the entire process from the origin: the seed, the tree, the management and, subsequently, the industry.” This has led a group of researchers, businessmen and producers to start – often separately – an authentic revolution that goes from genetics to industrial organization. Let’s talk about the seed… This has been one of the first battles, for years California has led the creation of varieties with vigor and high tolerance to pests, salinities and low temperatures. And places like Cuenca have been key in its widespread adoption. They are true all-rounders that also reduce harvesting (alternation of crops) and improve harvesting performance than traditional varieties. They produce more, in a more stable way and are collected with fewer resources. …but it’s not just a seed thing. The truth is that, even having the best seed in the world, the genetic approach is not enough. And it is even less so in areas like Spain where water tensions and the pressure of desertification processes are the order of the day. Therefore, beyond grafts and varieties, precision irrigation and nutrition, computerized phenology, drones and their new remote sensing systems and the mechanization of harvesting have a central role in pushing the countryside towards a techno-digital era that has not quite come to fruition. Until now. And the best example of this is the speed with which the Spanish countryside is considering putting into practice sterile insect techniques that, although they are not yet fully necessary due to the youth of the plantations, are the gold standard of pest management. Good news. After all, the pistachio depends to open and close the harvest window properly and, above all, to process the harvest quickly. Without an extensive technical and industrial infrastructure, it is an almost impossible mission. An ecosystem in full growth. In a context in which agriculture needs massive amounts of genetic engineering, automation and data in real time, the configuration of a high-tech hub in the heart of Castilla La Mancha is excellent news. It not only seems an excellent tool to establish population and develop Empty Spain, but it is beginning to be configured as the great opportunity for the Spanish agricultural industry to reinvent yourself. Image | Christopher Burns | Christopher Balz In Xataka | The best pistachio, the one from Madrid: this is how the capital of Spain wants to become the capital of nuts

Europe approved the sale of Nexperia to China in 2024 after “assessing risks.” Someone miscalculated

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Less than two years ago, European authorities assessed the risks of China controlling Nexperia through Wingtech and gave the green light. This week, The Netherlands has used a 1952 emergency law to confiscate that same company claiming that it is strategic for European security. Why is it important. Worse than being too rigorous or too lax is lurching. Europe has proven to lack a consistent criterion on what is strategic and what is not. This inconsistency comes at an enormous cost: any company that wants to invest in technology sectors in Europe now knows that the rules can change retroactively, without prior notice, under external pressure. And that scares away investments. The contradiction: If Nexperia was so strategic for Europe, why was it allowed to be sold to a consortium backed by the Chinese government in 2017? If it wasn’t then, what has changed now to justify a seizure using a law created for supply crises? The only possible answer is that someone miscalculated very, very badly. Between the lines. He editorial of Financial Times He puts it bluntly: Holland made a mistake in approving the sale, and is now trying to correct it. The problem is that this lurch sets a toxic precedent. You can pass all the regulatory filters, invest billions, operate for years under European supervision and suddenly the State decides that it was wrong. When Wingtech bought Nexperia in 2019European regulators had plenty of time to block the operation. They didn’t do it. For years, Nexperia has operated in the Netherlands, manufacturing millions of components annually for the European automotive and consumer electronics industry. Everything legal, everything supervised, everything approved. turning point. What has changed is not Nexperia’s technological capabilities or its strategic importance. What has changed is the geopolitical pressure: The United States blacklisted Wingtech in 2024. In September 2025, the US government extended restrictions to all subsidiaries of sanctioned companies. Court documents in the case suggest that the Netherlands acted under American pressure, not because of its own risk assessment. Yes, but. Wingtech is right about one thing: this is “excessive interference driven by geopolitical bias rather than fact-based risk assessment.” It’s the exact opposite of what regulators did when they approved the sale. So they did evaluate risks with facts. Now they confiscate for geopolitics. The money trail. Nexperia invested in its European facilities under Zhang Xuezheng. The company kept production in Holland, created jobs, paid taxes. He did exactly what an investor is supposed to do. The reward has been a confiscation by a 1952 law and a CEO suspended without formal accusations of mismanagement until it was convenient to find them. The case has an additional twist that is dangerously reminiscent of Huawei in 2018-19: First come Western restrictions for national security. Then the Chinese countermeasures. Days after the Dutch intervention, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce has banned Nexperia from exporting certain components from its Guangdong plant. The company is now caught between two countries that do not speak to each other. Huawei was gigantic and could hold its own. Nexperia is medium and we’ll see what happens with it. At stake. There is… 12,500 employees without knowing what will happen to their jobs. A CEO suspended in Amsterdam. An export veto from China. European automobile customers dependent on their chips. All this because less than two years ago someone approved a sale after “evaluating risks” and now it turns out that those risks were unacceptable. If Europe wants to attract technological investment, it needs clear and stable criteria on which sectors are strategic. What it cannot do is approve operations for years and then seize companies when the geopolitical wind changes. That is not protecting technological sovereignty, it is improvisation disguised as national security. Featured image | Nexperia In Xataka | China is taking a giant step in its quest for technological self-sufficiency: its own EDA software

the first SpaceX employee

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The race to explode all the resources that the Moon offers You’re going to need new spaceships. If Starship manages to become a fully reusable rocket capable of landing and taking off from lunar soil, we will have a winning horse. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is finding competition where he least expects it. From Jeff Bezos to Tom Mueller. Starship delays are causing talk. If rumors emerged last week that NASA could turn to the Blue Moon Mark 1 lunar module of Blue Origin to take astronauts to the Moon in the event that SpaceX did not arrive in time to beat China, this week a very particular company has joined the race for the moon. In this case, Impulse Space wants to solve the challenges facing the commercial race to the Moon with an unmanned spacecraft capable of delivering up to three tons of cargo. And who is behind Impulse? None other than Tom Mueller, SpaceX’s first employee and the genius who designed the Falcon 9 rocket engines. Agility and pragmatism against Starship. Impulse Space, founded by Tom Mueller not as a new rocket launcher but to solve the challenges of orbital mobility once in space, has set its sights on the Moon. The company revealed its plans to develop a lunar landing module which would enter service in 2028. Mueller places his idea in a “critical gap” in the market: a medium-sized cargo ship. Impulse’s proposal is quite pragmatic. Instead of developing a completely new system from scratch, it will combine the Helios booster, already in development by the company itself for upper rocket stages, with a lander of its own manufacture. Helios would act as a cruise stage, transporting the craft to lunar orbit in a week. One of the keys to its design is that it does not require a complex series of refueling in orbit, like Starship and other systems based on cryogenic fuel. The Impulse module’s engine will use a combination of nitrous oxide and ethane bipropellant, which has already been successfully tested on its Mira orbital vehicle. This choice, according to the company, is safer and less toxic than traditional hypergolic propellants, and in turn avoids the evaporation problems of cryogenic fuels. A competitor who knows the house inside. What makes this ad fascinating is the pedigree of its founder. Tom Mueller was a fundamental player at SpaceX: he led the development of the Falcon 9 engines and now applies that experience to his own company. Including the speed that characterizes SpaceX. Impulse Space boasts of having carried its Mira spacecraft from the design table to operating in orbit in less than 15 months. But Impulse’s lander won’t just compete with Starship. It is located in a very interesting competitive niche. While Firefly’s Blue Ghost aims for lighter loads and future systems contracted by NASA, such as Starship itself or Blue Origin’s Blue Moon Mark 2 focus on enormous loads (30 and 100 tons), the Impulse proposal competes directly with the Blue Moon Mark 1, which also has a capacity of three tons, and which NASA could use to transport astronauts in a mission with several moon landings. But the big advantage of the Impulse design is that it is compatible with a wide range of launch rockets (Falcon 9, Vulcan, Ariane 6, etc.). Its system does not depend on a single supplier, which gives it considerable strategic flexibility. He who laughs last… At SpaceX they don’t consider anything lost (and no one should consider SpaceX a loser in any case, looking at its history). In fact, Musk’s company has just put dates and figures on its lunar ambitions. According to an update on their websiteSpaceX plans to begin its cargo missions to the surface of the Moon in 2028, the same year as Impulse, but with a price that breaks all schemes: 100 million dollars per metric ton, or what is the same, 100,000 dollars per kilogram. To put this in perspective, Astrobotic, another competitor in the sector, sells its flights to the Moon at a price of 1.2 million dollars per kilogram. The difference is abysmal and demonstrates SpaceX’s aggressive pricing strategy, which is only possible with the total reuse of its Starship system. We are, therefore, faced with two opposing philosophies. A bet on the safe side and a bet on breaking the market. Led by two people who worked together for years. Image | Impulse Space In Xataka | The United States has a plan B to win the lunar race against China: change Elon Musk’s ship for Jeff Bezos’s

single material solar panels

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At a time when renewable energy is beginning to gain a lot of strength, achieving solar panels light, efficient and cheap It is undoubtedly the “Holy Grail” of current scientific research. Now some researchers from the University of Cambridge They just unlocked a quantum secret buried for more than a centurywith results capable of completely transforming how we capture and convert sunlight into electricity. Unexpected. The advance arises from a observed quantum phenomenon in an organic material called P3TTM, a spin radical moleculethat is, it has a solitary and unpaired electron from the rest, which we can say is “antisocial.” This material is typically used in organic light-emitting technologies (such as LEDs) for its intense luminosity and chemical stability. What is surprising in this case is that when many of these molecules are grouped together in a thin film, their unpaired electrons interact with each other in a very particular way. And instead of ignoring each other, they align in an alternating pattern (up-down), a quantum behavior known as that of a Mott-Hubbard insulatorsomething that until now was mainly associated with inorganic metal oxides. Biwen Li, the principal investigator of the Cavendish Laboratory, describes it as “true magic.” Upon absorbing light, one of these electrons jumps to a neighboring molecule, instantly creating a positive and a negative charge. Those separate charges are, in essence, electricity ready to be harvested. The revolution. Most of today’s organic solar panels work like a sandwich. They need two different materials: one that “gives” electrons when light hits it and another that “accepts” them. This union, or heterojunction, is essential, but it is also a source of inefficiency since it greatly complicates the manufacturing of the equipment. The Cambridge discovery changes everything. The P3TTM performs the entire process itself. He doesn’t need a partner. Charge separation occurs between identical molecules, a process called “homojunction,” which opens the door to that efficiency that was the goal of much energy research. How it works. If we look at the technical part, we can know that P3TTM films are manufactured using thermal evaporation techniques and are encapsulated for protection. Timed spectroscopic analyzes show two emitters: one at 645 nm due to the exciton of the radical, and another with late emission and red shifted (~800 nm), attributed to the recombination of separated charge pairs after the charge transfer process. The collection efficiency under reverse polarization reaches 100%, indicating that practically every photon is converted into an electron usable to generate current, something never before achieved in organics. The test. To test it, the team built a solar cell with a thin layer of P3TTM and, by illuminating it, achieved a charge collection efficiency close to 100%. This means that almost every photon of light that hit the material was converted into useful electrical current. The story. The theory on which this discovery is based, which is the Mott-Hubbard theory of insulators, was developed by Sir Nevill Mott, a giant of condensed matter physics. Now this Cambridge work is published just on the 120th anniversary of Mott’s birth, paying tribute to the legacy of the man who laid the foundations for understanding the electronic phenomena in semiconductors that we will now be able to use. The future. This is not just a small advance. It’s a paradigm shift. “We are not simply improving old designs,” says Professor Bronstein. “We are writing a new chapter in textbooks, demonstrating that organic materials can generate charges on their own,” he points out. The implications we will see now could be enormous. We could be witnessing the birth of a new generation of solar technology: panels made of a single, low-cost, light and flexible material that could be integrated into any surface, from windows to clothing. There is still a way to go to reach a commercial product, but the quantum secret that they have revealed in Cambridge has just illuminated a much brighter and simpler energy future. Images | American Public Power Dynamic Wang In Xataka | Clean energy has made the electricity market cheaper. But what we pay for is no longer energy: it is stability

No one has found the goose that laid the golden eggs, but from the price of eggs in the supermarket it seems that way

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There’s no use beating around the bush: eggs are expensive. Very expensive. And it is not a personal impression. According to the National Institute of Statistics, have gone up 15.9% so far this year and, according to the OCUthe growth has been 105% compared to 2021. When, a few months ago, we commented that the price of eggs had risen so much in the US that they had started smuggling them along the Mexican border, we did not expect that the crisis will arrive in Spain with the same force. But we already have him here. And why is all this happening? As always, the rise is multifactorial. As we explained this month of March, the first key is the demand itself. The sector has registered an increase that dates back to 2024with a 8% risemuch higher than that recorded for meat or refrigerated foods. And no one can be surprised: in times of marked inflationary tendencypeople naturally switch to cheaper options and eggs, with or without rising prices, are a protein source economical. But the situation, of course, does not stop there. More things. Many more things. To the increase in supply, we must add the increase in costs. It is not only the end of bonuses on the electricity bill, the increase in the cost of labour or the boom in the price of grain in the world after the invasion of Ukraine; is that the regulation that aims to eliminate cages has subjected the sector to more uncertainties of the usual ones. And then there’s the flu. A ghost haunts the farms of the world. With more than 300 million dead birdsthe world is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks (if not the worst) of bird flu in memory. And, surprisingly, Spain had avoided it. It is true that we all suspected that it was not a situation that was going to last too long: 2025 premiered with Portugal reporting the first focus of highly pathogenic influenza. It seemed like a matter of time. Therefore, taking into account that the flu was one of the key factors in the problems of Americans with eggs, this article is the “chronicle of a crisis foretold.” Because, today, in addition to the 45 wild outbreaks, there are eleven outbreaks in poultry throughout the country. And we must not forget that the fact of detecting a single sick bird entails “the sacrifice of 100% of the poultry herd on the affected farm.” In other words, to the problems of demand and costs, problems of supply are added. What can we expect? At this point in 2025, everything seems to indicate that there is only one scenario on the table: that of egg prices that will continue to grow. The reason is simple. There is no not one of the factors that are behind the “ovoflaction” that seems to be improving. In fact, the thealth, regulatory and macroeconomic order it can only cause (at least temporarily) supply to sink further. As I said at the beginning, according to the INE, the egg is the food that more has risen in price in 2025. And the problem begins to be another: that this rise could drag down the rest of the essential products (and the cheapest proteins) throughout 2026. What is clear is that no one has found the goose that lays the golden eggs. Image | Being organic in the EU In Xataka | The United States has been immersed in extreme egg prices for months. Spain now faces the same problem

vote in the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025

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Round three of voting Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025. The time has come to vote for one of the devices that we use most in our daily lives and that always accompanies us wherever we go: the mobile. We repeat the categories from previous years, although with a slight novelty: we have updated the prices to reflect the current market situation. As we have already mentioned on other occasions, your votes will determine the finalists in each category. Subsequently, they will be added with a weight of one third to those of the jury to decide the winners. These will be revealed at the gala that will take place on November 20, so save the date on the calendar. Voting will be open until October 27 at 11:59 p.m.. These are the candidates. Best folding mobile Note: If you are browsing from a mobile phone and the form does not look good, you can vote from here. Best super high-end mobile In this category we include all those mobile phones with a launch price of more than 1,000 euros. Note: If you are browsing from a mobile phone and the form does not look good, you can vote from here. Best high-end mobile In this category we include all those phones with a Launch price from 500 to 999.99 euros. Note: If you are browsing from a mobile phone and the form does not look good, you can vote from here. Best mid-range mobile In this category we include all those mobile phones with a Launch price from 250 to 499.99 euros. Note: If you are browsing from a mobile phone and the form does not look good, you can vote from here. Best entry-level mobile In this category we include all those mobile phones with a launch price up to 249.99 euros. Note: If you are browsing from a mobile phone and the form does not look good, you can vote from here. For the voting system we use Google Forms, so in order to send your vote you need to be logged in to your Gmail (or Google) account in the browser, whether desktop or mobile, so that each reader can cast their vote. Thank you. NordVPN offers you a fast and stable connection thanks to your more than 6,300 servers in more than 110 countries. Enjoy advanced cybersecurity tools with Threat Protection Pro™, securely access your streaming platforms favorites wherever you are and enjoy the best offers on flights and hotels. Advice offered by the brand How voting works The mechanics of the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025 are the same as in previous editions. It is divided into three phases: Public vote: Over the next few days we will be publishing articles with our categories and the candidates selected by the Xataka team so that you, our xatakeros, can vote for your favorites. Jury vote: With the finalists that the public has chosen, the Xataka jury and other technology experts will vote for those who are, in their view, the best devices. Choice of winners: The jury’s votes will be combined with those of the public to choose the winners, who will be announced on November 20. The selected candidates are devices that They have gone on sale in 2025 or will do so with a confirmed date before the end of the year. We also include those that were left out last year when they were announced after the Awards. We believe it is the best solution: Unfortunately we cannot celebrate the gala on December 31 and our idea is that the Awards can serve as support in the purchasing decision for this last part of the year. Vote in other categories: These are all the categories of the Xataka NordVPN Awards 2025 in which you can now vote: Thank you very much for participating! Image | Xataka In Xataka | Xataka NordVPN 2025 Awards: reserve November 20 for the great annual technology festival

they needed to be a perpetual soap opera

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In Spain we like a good story of rise, fall and recovery, but all very passionate and Mediterranean: backstabbing, toxic abysses and a discography that marked a generation. Van Gogh’s Ear once again has Amaia Montero in frontleaving Leire (and some other unexpected martyrs) along the way. We review this roller coaster of successes and failures, detailing all the lore of this story that now opens a new chapter. First successes. Amaia Montero was the original vocalist of La Oreja de Van Gogh from its beginnings in 1996 until 2007. During that period, the group achieved massive success with best-selling albums (Copperpot’s Journey, 2003, sold two and a half million albums in Spain and Latin America, where the group had a significant presence) and awards as important as a Latin Grammy and several Ondas Awards. Amaia’s characteristic voice marked a before and after in Spanish pop with songs prior to the steamroller of Latin sounds that was about to reach our music: ‘El 28’, ‘Cuéntame alhear’, ‘Cuídate’. ‘The beach’, ‘Pop’, ‘You can count on me’, ‘January 20’, ‘Roses’, ‘Rag doll’, ‘Sweet madness’… Amaia comes out. On November 19, 2007, Amaia Montero announced her departure from the band to pursue a solo career, a decision motivated by her desire to grow personally and professionally. That was the official version. Apparently, there were no conflicts or fights, but simply the desire to explore new musical horizons. La Oreja de Van Gogh continued with a new vocalist, Leire Martínez, while the relationship between Amaia and her former colleagues deteriorated: there were statements that reflected a cordial relationship but with some unresolved difficulties. Amaia free. Amaia Montero He started his solo career very soon.in 2008 (perhaps that was what disturbed the calm in the band?) with a self-titled album that reached number one in sales, and with a single, ‘ Quiero ser ‘, of considerable impact. But at this stage Amaia experienced complicated moments, with criticism of her appearance and concert recordings where he did not show his best physical condition. In 2020 he moved away from public life to “cure himself” and in 2022 he entered a clinic for a strong stress and anxiety. In 2023 things did not seem to improve: she was admitted to the ICU of a Madrid hospital for a cut on her hand. Now she seems to have recovered from these setbacks ahead of her new stage at LODVG. Leire lives, the fight continues. Van Gogh’s Ear has operated for sixteen years with Leire as the front, which is said to be early. His albums with the band, no less than five, performed well in sales (although without going overboard: in the best cases, around 500,000 copies, although we already talked about the era of streaming) and continued filling large venues. The group evolved, thanks to the quality of its singer, towards a more intimate and less strident pop, but they stopped appearing on the front line, as was the case with Amaia. Leire’s departure from the band, officially on October 14, 2024was peaceful although it was not lacking in bitterness: Leire has always stated that her former colleagues did not discuss her departure with her. And he sold his memorabilia on Wallapop, in a promotion with very bad grapes. Rumors begin. Above Amaia’s health problems and her lyrical drifts, the soap opera begins here thanks to the connotations of the replacement, not as oxygenated as the group wants to make it out. To begin with, the replacement was on the table before Leire left, which would undoubtedly strain the relationship between the new singer and her colleagues. Different signs were multiplying the rumors, such as Amaia’s appearance at a Karol G. concert to perform ‘Rosas’, certifying de facto that she was ready to front her old band again. Amaists against Leirists. The announcement of Amaia’s return occurred on October 14, 2025, just one year after Leire left the band. Classy. And on social networks, the group’s bio has changed to “Only together makes sense”, a phrase with more substance than it seems: the group used it when They decided to continue without Amaia). The deletion of Leire’s farewell from social networks and the replacement by a blank post has unleashed a war of comments between fans of both vocalists, something unexpected for a band with a style as pop and melodic as that of La Oreja de Van Gogh. Such dedicated fans would love Insane Clown Posse. Fans on fire. “I was never a fan of Van Gogh’s Ear, but I was always a fan of Leire Martinez”, “Van Gogh’s Ear is not coming back, Judas’s Kiss is coming back”, “The Queen of Pop is finally back!” or “Getting back with your ex is the worst thing you can do” are some of the niceties that are being read to accompany the first post of the second era with Amaia at the helm. A stark war which we will continue talking about in the coming weeks, without a doubt: to begin with, Pablo Benegas, one of the founders of the group, has decided to abandon training without giving further explanations. This return is going to bring a queue and more than one soaked face. In Xataka | The 51 musical gems to listen to if you don’t want to miss the best of the 21st century

an outlet with discounts of up to 40%

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“If you are not satisfied, we will refund your money” this is the claim that has been used for years, The English Courtso it can be said that they have been pioneers in returns. Most returned products end up in a outlet of refurbished products. If you’re looking for technological devices at a good price, these are some of the best deals we’ve found. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra by 939 euros: 6.8 inches and 200 MP camera. Google Pixel 10 Pro by 769 euros: 6.3 inches and with Android 16. iPad Pro 11″ (2022) by 699 euros: 11 inches and with M2 chip. Samsung Galaxy Watch4 by 119 euros: with 1.19-inch screen and 100 sports modes. Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) by 1,299 euros: 15 inches and 512 GB. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra He Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra It is one of the Korean firm’s top phones and now you can get it at a good price (939 euros) in El Corte Inglés. It is a model reconditioned to grade Bwhich means that it has been lightly used but has no cosmetic damage. This mobile mounts a 6.8 inch LTPO AMOLED display with Quad HD+ resolution. It comes with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and 512 GB of internal storage. Its photographic system consists of a triple camera of 200+12+10 MP and has IP68 certification and integrates the brand’s S-Pen. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra 12GB + 512 GB free mobile (Refurbished Grade B) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10 Pro The 10 series is Google’s most recent launch when it comes to mobile phones. At El Corte Inglés, in its reconditioned outlet, you can now get the Google Pixel 10 Pro (in grade A refurbished -with slight use, no damage and new packaging-). Its price is 769 euros. The Google Pixel 10 Pro has a 6.3 inch OLED screen. Its brain is the Google Tensor G5 processor, which is accompanied by 16 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. Its battery supports fast charging at 30 W and its photographic system consists of a 50+48+48 MP triple camera. Runs low Android 16 and you are guaranteed updates for seven years. Google Pixel 10 Pro 16GB + 128GB unlocked mobile (Grade A Refurbished) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links iPad Pro 11″ (2022) If you want to buy a discounted iPad, this iPad Pro (2022) 4th generation It is on sale at the El Corte Inglés refurbished outlet. Although it presents the degree “Brand New“, so the product is unused and only the packaging has a small damage. Its price is 699 eurossaving you 17% compared to its usual RRP. This iPad with the last name Pro has a 11-inch Liquid Retina display with ProMotion. Its brain is the M2 chip, accompanied by 8 GB RAM and 128 GB internal storage. It is compatible with the Apple Pencil (2nd generation), the Smart Keyborard Folio and the Magic Keayboard. Apple iPad Pro 11″ (2022) Wi-Fi (4th Gen) (Refurbished Brand New) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung Galaxy Watch4 If you want a smart watch, both to monitor your workouts and for everyday use, this Samsung Galaxy Watch4 It is at a bargain price at El Corte Inglés. It is a device rreconditioned in grade B (with slight use, without aesthetic damage and with packaging in poor condition but repaired), which you can take away 119 euros. This Samsung watch comes with a 1.19-inch Super AMOLED display with resolution of 396 x 396 pixels. Works under the operating system WearOS (with One UI Watch customization layer). It has 100 sports modes and is water resistant to 5 ATM. Samsung – Samsung Galaxy Watch4 Bluetooth 40 mm Black Smartwatch (Grade B Refurbished). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023) Finally, if you want to have an Apple laptop at a good price, this MacBook Air (2023) M2 is a good option. Now, you can take it in grade brand new reconditioned (This is an unsealed product with damaged packaging). Its price is 1,299 euros. This MacBook Air M2 15 inches of the year 2023 is a very light laptop (just 1.5 kilos). Its screen is 15-inch Liquid Retina and comes with the M2 chip, accompanied by 8 GB RAM and 512 GB of internal memory. Additionally, it brings Touch ID and its battery offers a range of up to 18 hours. Apple – Apple MacBook Air 15 (2023), M2, 8GB, 512GB SSD, 15.3′, MacOS (Refurbished Brand new). The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Webedia, Apple, Samsung and Google In Xataka | The best mobile phones, we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 140 euros

Norway promised them happiness with the world’s first megatunnel for ships. Until he saw how much it was going to cost him

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Thousands of kilometers of sinuous coasts, currents, storms and devilish geography. Norway does not make it easy for sailors who ply its coastline every day loaded with goods, fish or passengers. Hence, the country has been talking for some time about undertaking an ambitious work at one of its points more sensitive, the Stad peninsula. The idea is to cross the tongue of land with a tunnel almost two kilometers long, designed specifically for the passage of boats. The problem is that estimates of its cost have not stopped growing in recent years and that has led the Government to take a step back. His idea is to put the project in the drawer. Another thingOf course, Parliament is going to allow it. A boat tunnel? That’s how it is. It sounds strange, and it’s normal. After all the Stad tunnel It is an unusual infrastructure, the first underground road designed for boats. What Norway is proposing to do is open a large navigable canal of 1.7kmalmost 50 m high (the navigable space will be somewhat less) and more than 30 m wide to cross the Stad peninsula, in the province of vestlandwest of the country. Building it would require between four years of works. That they want to open right in Vestland is no coincidence. If the Stad peninsula stands out for something, it is because of its poor conditions for sailors: it is exposed to the inclemencies and gusts of wind of the Stadhavet Sea, with no nearby islands to cushion it, and the currents do not make it easy for sailors either. In the web of the project, it is recalled that the Kråkenes station, south of Stad, is the one that records the most stormy days: some years there are more than a hundred. And does a tunnel solve it? The same website Remember that in Stad there is intense maritime traffic, both Norwegian and foreign ships, dedicated to fishing, commerce, aquaculture, naval and tourism. With the underground canal, Norway wants to offer them several advantages: time savings and more security, with all the advantages that this can bring for anyone who depends on ships. Furthermore, supporters of the project defend that with “a safer and more efficient step” maritime transport will increase, removing trucks from the roads. Whether its promises are more or less convincing, the undeniable thing is that the Stad tunnel is nothing new. TO late 19th century There was already talk of crossing the peninsula with a subway, although the approach has not always been exactly the same. At one time they even opted for a railway pipeline. The idea has remained on the table with twists and turns in recent years until in 2013 It finally managed to sneak into the National Transportation Plan. In 2017 the tunnel seemed a little closer and in 2021 started to talk of the imminent start of the works. In fact, it is estimated that a little more than 30 million dollars in land purchases and feasibility studies to give it shape. Are you on track then? Not at all. If the work sounds ambitious it is because it really is. And that usually entails something more than technical complications: money. Big money. Millions and millions of Swedish crowns. An amount that has also increased with the passage of time, complicating its viability. Maritime Executive remember that at the time there was talk of 325 million dollars and in 2023 the figure had skyrocketed to 690 million. A few days ago NRK, the Norwegian public radio and television channel, I already needed that the estimated bill is around 9.4 billion crowns, about 780 million dollars. There are means, like one’s own Maritime Executivethat they even refer larger figures. Is that a problem? A few days ago NRK echoed some statements by the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Storewhich reveal that the Government wants to put the project in the drawer. At least for now. The reason has little mystery: its exorbitant cost at a time when the country prefers to invest in other areas. “In the budget proposal we will announce that we abandoned the Stad sea tunnel project,” the leader advanced Norwegian. “The cost will be so high that we feel it is not responsible to move forward with the project.” “We must prioritize and take care of every penny to use the money in the most efficient way possible. That is why we reject this project, we consider that it does not justify such a high expense,” insisted Støre, who cited other priorities, such as health, defense or municipal investment. “It will be so expensive that we consider it irresponsible to continue with the project.” With the option of lowering or renegotiating costs ruled out, the news soon spread to the local press and foreignerwith all kinds of reactions. What reactions? Days after the announcement the Norwegian Coastal Administration published a statement confirming that, within the framework of the 2026 national budget, the Government had decided to “suspend” the tunnel works pending Parliament’s ruling. The agency warned that, among other issues, this stoppage will also affect the bidding for works. An important notice considering that you had already received offers from three construction companies and expected to close the contract this year to start the works (five years) in 2026. The defenders of the tunnel have been more emphatic, speaking of “a hard blow” and an “irresponsible decision.” “More than 500 companies from the fishing industry and shipping to industry, tourism and aquaculture have signed the petition for the construction of the tunnel,” remember. “These represent thousands of jobs and billions in revenue.” What will happen now? Good question. Although it is not easy to answer it. Støre’s announcement was framed in the presentation of the 2026 state accounts, which left some questions raised. After all, as NRK herself recalled As the news progresses, the prime minister’s party, the Labor Party, does not have a majority in the Storting (Parliament of Norway), so … Read more

has bought more missiles from the US in just two years than in the entire last century

by

For months, Washington made Spain his example of disobedience within NATO. Trump came to threaten with punishment trade due to the “low” military spending, while Brussels and La Moncloa they defended their own pace of investment and warned that public accounts could not sustain an uncontrolled escalation. But behind that diplomatic struggle and there was something more to the reproaches exchanged. A “bill” that belittles both, and that reveals a very different story about how far Spain went to appease its most powerful ally. The tariff threat. It all started with an angry warning from the White House: Donald Trump, irritated for the rejection of Pedro Sánchez to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP, publicly stated “punish” Spain with tariffs. The threat, which occurred after a summit with Javier Milei in Washington, marked a new level of political pressure on a historic ally. The American president accused Madrid of “taking advantage” of NATO protection without contributing enough and, in a mix of bravado and electoral calculation, he hinted that he could turn the budget dispute into a commercial front. Behind the rhetoric there was an intention deeper: force Europe to finance the containment of Russia with its own resources and, in the process, prop up the military industry United States. The answer. Neither the European Commission nor the Spanish Government took long to respond. Brussels remembered that trade policy is the exclusive competence of the Union and that any attempt to penalize a Member State would have consequences. Madrid, for its part, took pains to emphasize that its military spending had grown more than double in just seven years (from 0.98% of GDP in 2017 to 2% in 2025) and that the debate was not about spending more as a slogan, but about doing it with a strategic sense and within the real capabilities of the country. At the same time, Spain insisted that it contributes to collective deterrence and that its budget increase, although more gradual than that desired by Washington, is part of a structural modernization of its Armed Forces. However, between the lines, the tension reflected something further: the fear that North American demands would end up conditioning the industrial and technological orientation of European defense. The silent turn. And neither one thing nor the other. The diary El País has published figures that confirm what until recently was just intuition: Spain has purchased more American weapons in the last two years than in almost a century. Between 2023 and 2024, the Spanish Government ordered military material for more than 4,500 millions of euros to the United States, a quarter of everything acquired since 1950. The contracts include Patriot systems, MH-60R helicopters and auxiliary equipment that represents the largest volume of expenditure with a single supplier in the recent history of Spanish defense. According to the DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency), sales to Spain reached 2,907 million of dollars in 2024 and 1,682 million the previous year. In other words: while Washington was publicly denouncing the lack of commitment, Madrid was carrying out one of the largest purchasing operations in its history, channeling billions into the US military industry. The geopolitical context. The rebound coincides with the new cycle of European rearmament after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the same one has shot the military budgets of all of NATO. In this context, Spain has accelerated the modernization of its forces with additional spending of 10,471 million of euros in 2025, advancing the goal of 2% of GDP by four years. To finance it, the Executive has resorted to zero interest loans, industrial modernization programs and R&D items, a financial framework that allows keep spending without reform general budgets. However, this expansion has a reverse: the strengthening of technological dependence on the United States, which is consolidating itself as the main supplier of critical systems and reducing the room for maneuver to advance European strategic autonomy. Budget pragmatism. If you also want, the contrast between the Trump threats and the flow contract record with American companies illustrates the balance that Spain has tried to maintain: resisting the public discourse of punishment while, in practice, meeting Washington’s strategic demands and covering its own operational shortcomings. The result could not be more paradoxical. In the eyes of NATO, Madrid meets faster than expected, and in the eyes of its European partners, it risks weakening efforts to consolidate a common industrial base. The movement also redefines the bilateral relationship with Washington, which goes from rhetoric of reproach to the pragmatism of the transaction: while the North American president shows political muscleyour industry reaps the benefits. A lesson. The truth is that the history of these two years reveals how defense decisions, beyond percentages and headlines, are a geopolitical currency. Spain has demonstrated the ability to respond to external pressures without breaking its internal narrative, but the long-term cost (dependency, industrial coherence and technological autonomy) has yet to be measured. Thus, in essence, the question is once again the same as always: whether Europe can rearm itself without falling back into the old pattern of industrial subordination that for decades fueled the transatlantic divide. Spain, with its purchasing record to the American “friend” and his sovereignty speechembodies that contradiction today: that of a continent that seeks independence, but keep buying their safety on the other side of the Atlantic. Image | Kelly Michaels, BORN In Xataka | The US no longer has to worry about Spain or the rearmament bill in Europe. Germany had a plan B In Xataka | Spain committed to investing 2% of GDP in Defense but is not looking for soldiers: it needs 96,000 qualified employees

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