Mobile Tech & Gadgets

A 28-page US document has brought peace in Ukraine closer than ever. The problem is that it is the translation of a Russian text

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And suddenly a 28 page document unpublished to date has suddenly entered as a missile in the negotiations of the war in Ukraine. Promoted by Washington, it has unleashed a diplomatic storm in Europe and in kyiv because, far from having been prepared with the main parties involved, it had been conceived in discreet negotiations between the American businessman Steve Witkoff and the Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, with the participation of Jared Kushner and the late endorsement of Trump. The origin of a plan. The result of these meetings was a text that Europe and Ukraine had not seen and that, to further alarm (according to one Bloomberg exclusive), preserved the linguistic structures typical of an original written in Russian, confirming the suspicions that Moscow had achieved filter your vision of the war in a document presented as a US initiative. The pressure exerted by Dan Driscoll (a close ally of JD Vance) on European and Ukrainian diplomats, urging them to accept territorial concessions in a matter of days, ended up setting off all the alarm signals. For European governments, which considered themselves central partners in any peace negotiations, the origin of the plan became a strategic question: they needed to know who had written it and with what objectives before sitting down to discuss. This information gap triggered a race against time to stop the imposition of a text that, in its initial form, was not only surprising for its demands, but also for its obvious alignment with Moscow’s interests. Territory, legitimization and a threat. The most explosive section of the American plan required that Ukraine will withdraw of the fortified urban centers that it still maintains in Donetsk, breaking the “belt of fortresses” that has slowed the Russian advance since 2014. This withdrawal would not only imply the displacement of tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens, but it would open a corridor that would leave exposed to key cities like Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia. To make matters worse, the document proposed that the occupied areas be recognized as “de facto Russian”a more favorable formula for Moscow than the already problematic “de facto under Russian control”, and which, in practice, brought the international community closer to accept territorial changes achieved by force. Added to this was the idea of ​​converting the evacuated territories into a demilitarized zone whose violation by Russia (not an implausible scenario given recent history) would allow Moscow to open a new, even deeper offensive in the future. From the Ukrainian perspective, accepting this point would be sowing the conditions for a future war in worse terms, reinforcing the impression that the document did not seek a stable peace, but rather formalized a strategic result that Russia has not been able to obtain through military operations. Security cut and promises broken. The security guarantees included in the plan were vague to the point of irrelevance: they promised “reliable protection” without detailing mechanisms, but simultaneously prohibited Ukraine from entering never in NATOprevented the stationing of allied troops in its territory and forced kyiv to modify its Constitution to renounce accession. For a country marked by the experience of Budapest Memorandum (formal guarantees that prevented neither the annexation of Crimea nor the 2022 invasion), accepting an even more ambiguous framework would amount to to be left helpless facing an aggressor who has systematically broken all previous agreements. Red lines. The absence of a commitment type Article 5 and the refusal to allow training missions or deterrence forces on Ukrainian territory reinforced the conviction that Ukraine would be trapped between a strengthened Russia and a West that would reserve the right to “diplomatically support,” but not to intervene. This component fueled rejection in European capitals, which consider it essential that Ukraine keep an army strong as a land barrier that protects the continent. Limit to 600,000 troops to the only country in Europe at war, without imposing a similar restriction on Russia, was perceived as covert disarmament and a prelude to a future Russian offensive. Amnesty and frozen assets. One of the most shocking elements of the plan was the proposal of a general amnesty and Ukraine’s renunciation of any legal claim about war crimes, deportations or deliberate destruction of infrastructure. For an exposed population to documented atrocitiesthis clause meant not only the denial of justice, but also the elimination of the legal basis that allows Europe to advance the reparations loan backed by frozen Russian assets. That loan, of 140,000 million of euros, is considered by the EU as the more solid path and less expensive to sustain Ukraine during the postwar period. The US plan not only made it unviable, but also redistributed those funds in an unusual way: 100 billion would go to a US investment vehicle that would deliver half of its profits to Washington, another 100 billion would be contributed by Europe and the rest would go to a joint fund with Russia. For Berlin, Paris or Warsaw, the message was clear: Russia would obtain indirect financial relief while the Europeans would see their most effective tool of strategic pressure weakened. The attempt to force kyiv to renounce all moral and legal responsibility for the aggressor reinforced the perception that the plan sought to resolve the war “quickly,” not “fairly.” The Russian strategy. Since the beginning of the invasion, Moscow has not changed their fundamental demands: more territory in the east, military neutralization of Ukraine and permanent veto on its accession to NATO. This strategic immobility, together with gradual advances on the front, has allowed it to capitalize on Western fatigue, the political fractures in kyiv and transatlantic tensions. For the Kremlin, the leaked plan demonstrates that its commitment to prolonged resistance, military pressure and the erosion of Western will is bearing fruit. Putin openly celebrated it, affirming that the document could serve as a basis and that rejecting it would only lead to new Ukrainian defeats. Likewise, Moscow has hinted that even a signed agreement could be used as leverage to resume the … Read more

the science behind a geological risk that repeats itself every 1,200 years

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Although the tsunamis seem like effects that are reserved for the Japanese coasts, the reality is that Spain He also has many ballots to suffer an event of this magnitude on our coasts. Cádiz is one of the locations with the highest risk of suffering a tsunami in Spain, and the authorities wanted to verify that the emergency and response systems they work in case this type of event occurs at any time. In order to verify this, the authorities carried out a drill in mid-November in which the ES-Alert systemseveral schools and all emergency services. And given this great display, the question is mandatory: what are the chances of a tsunami occurring in Cádiz? Cádiz is at the center of this simulation because it is the area with the greatest danger from tsunamis in the country, due to the history behind it and the seismicity of the Azores-Gibraltar area. For this reason, the Junta de Andalucía has prepared a Emergency Plan for the Risk of Tsunami (PEMA) and has chosen Cádiz for the largest tsunami simulation carried out in Spain. Because. In the past, geological records indicate that at least five large tsunamis have occurred in the Gulf of Cádiz in the last 7,000 years. All of these associated with megaearthquakes at the plate boundary between Africa and Eurasia. Added to this is the historical reference: the tsunami linked to the Lisbon earthquake of November 1, 1755which completely flooded Cádiz and part of the Andalusian coast with waves of several meters in a matter of dozens of minutes. The paleoseismology works of the CSIC and several universities place the recurrence interval of these events between 1,200 and 1,500 yearslong enough to be socially forgotten, but too short to be ignored in risk planning. This places the southwest of the peninsula as one of the most exposed areas in Europe to tsunamis, despite the fact that the “perceived risk” on the street has historically been very low. And this is precisely something that has been analyzed in the layers of sand and marine remains left inland and that gives us information about what happened thousands of years ago. Although logically always with a time frame that is approximate. Why now. The fact of doing the simulation in this month of November may make us think that scientists have found evidence that a large tsunami is coming to Cádiz, but nothing could be further from the truth. What is happening in this case is that a risk that has been known for a long time and for which, until now, hardly anything had been tested on a large scale, is being taken more seriously. That is why this scientific evidence that tells us about the real risk that exists in this case on the coast of Cádiz has been transferred to the regulations. In 2015, the Basic Planning Guideline for Civil Protection against the Risk of Tsunamiwhich recognizes the Gulf of Cádiz as a critical area where the expected wave height exceeds 0.5 meters. A framework that is not limited to pretty maps, but defines decision guidelines according to magnitude and location of earthquakes, chains of command, warning protocols and response time objectives, with the National Geographic Institute, AEMET and the future SINAM network as input sensors. What has been simulated. In this case, Cádiz has simulated an earthquake with an approximate magnitude of 7.5-7.6 to the southwest of Cape San Vicente, very similar to the one in Lisbon in 1755 and which generates a tsunami that points directly to the western Andalusian coast. In this scenario, the propagation models estimate between 45 and 60 minutes from the activation of the alert until the arrival of the first wave from Cádiz, which in practice is the clock with which Civil Protection works. The objective of the exercise was to virtually save as many people as possible in that one-hour window: horizontal evacuation to non-flood areas, vertical evacuation to high floors, beach and port rescues, protection of cultural assets and management of damaged buildings were tested. On paper, all this already existed in manuals and maps; What was missing was to see how a real city behaves when a tsunami warning sounds in the middle of a work morning.​ Images | Matt Paul Catalano In Xataka | There are scientists deliberately causing earthquakes in the Alps and they have a good reason for it

If it is better to collect in 12 or 14 payments

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One of the most common questions that many workers answer when starting to work in a new company is: How do you want to collect your salaryin 12 or 14 payments? It is a question that seems simple, but choosing one or the other can be decisive for the personal finances of each employee. As finance experts explain, understanding the advantages of each modality is essential to plan expenses and savings during the year or obtain greater profitability from your salary. That is precisely the question that labor lawyer Andrés Millán posed since your profile on LinkedIn“if I could earn 15,000 euros in January, with knowledge of capital management, it would be ideal.” More salary or more pay As confirmed to us Marta Rayaces, tax expert TaxDownthe annual salary is the same, whether it is paid in 12 or 14 monthly installments. However, the amount that employees receive every month and the way in which each extra payment is received can change some financial habits. The workers’ salary is not calculated monthly, but annually from of your gross salary. Then, depending on the choice of each employee (or by company imposition), that amount is prorated into 12 or 14 payments. That is, if a person has an annual salary of 16,000 gross euros per yearthat amount will be the same in either of the two options, it is just distributed differently over the months. In the 12-month prorated option, the worker earns more each month (1,333.33 euros gross), but does not receive extraordinary payments. With the 14-pay option, the monthly salary is lower (1,142.85 euros gross), but two extra income is generated, usually in June (summer pay), and December (Christmas pay), key months for the highest expenses. This difference is reflected in the availability of cash by the worker, so that he can manage your money. Rayaces points out that the higher salary provided by the 12 monthly payments leaves more cash in the employee’s pocket, which allows him to establish a savings planinvest or meet regular expenses with greater liquidity. On the other hand, with 14 payments you obtain less cash each month, but the two additional payments are useful to cover seasonal expenses, such as vacations, going back to school or the increase in expenses incurred during the Christmas holidays. Personal income tax withholding and tax effects According to the Taxdown expert, the choice between 12 or 14 payments also modifies how the tax is applied. monthly income tax withholding, although it does not affect the final amount paid to the State. “The annual gross salary is the same, the only thing that varies is the frequency of payment. It is just a question of how the withholding is distributed throughout the year,” Rayaces pointed out. The personal income tax withholding It is calculated based on a percentage of the total salary. Therefore, as was the case with the annual gross salary, the lower the monthly amount, a proportional withholding is applied, so the amount that is withheld as personal income tax is also lower in the same proportion. That is, taxation will not be a differential factor between the two options since it is exactly the same annual percentage in both regardless of whether it is done in 12 or 14 payments. Manage or let others manage Rayaces points out that the main condition that must prevail in this decision is the ability to manage the personal finance. “If you have financial and investment knowledge, it is better to pay 12 to earn more month after month,” says the Taxdown expert. In that way, you can invest part of that salary and obtain profitability from it. On the other hand, if you do not organize well and then you have problems making ends meet when seasonal expenses arise (planning vacations, gifts and meals at Christmas, going back to school, etc.), then it is better to receive your salary in 14 payments and thus you will receive more money when those expenses occur. In Xataka | Good news, salaries in Spain are rising: the problem is that if you are young you probably don’t know it Image | Unsplash (Andres Simon)

Renewable gasoline and diesel are the last bastion of combustion cars to be able to circulate in Europe: they have a difficult time

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Whether for lack of infrastructure, strict regulationsocial perception, or by many other factors, electrification is a process that is advancingbut very slowly. Meanwhile, more than 20 million diesel and gasoline vehicles continue to circulate in Spain, many of them more than a decade old (or two). However, there are solutions that try to make this energy transition more bearable, and one of them involves the use of renewable fuels. What exactly are these fuels?. They don’t have a single drop of oil. They are produced from organic waste such as used cooking oils, animal fats, forest waste or crop remains. The catalytic hydrogen generation process transforms these wastes into fuels with properties similar to those derived from petroleum, but with a key difference: the CO₂ they emit when burned is the same as that which plants have previously absorbed from the atmosphere. Here we would therefore speak of a closed cycle, unlike fossil fuels, which release carbon stored underground for millions of years. Emissions. Repsol states that its Nexa diesel can reduce net CO₂ emissions by up to 90% compared to conventional diesel, while your Efitec Nexa gasoline discount more than 70%. In this case, although the engine continues to emit CO₂, it was already in the atmosphere before being converted into fuel. However, there is a nuance: nitrogen oxides (NOₓ) continue to be generated during combustion, because they come from nitrogen in the air when exposed to high temperatures. And for now, studies show conflicting results, with some indicating slight increases in NOₓ with certain biofuels, while others like the US National Renewable Energy Laboratory they conclude that renewable diesel reduces both CO₂ and NOₓ. What is consistent is the reduction of particles and soot. Full compatibility with current cars. This is probably its biggest practical advantage. Any diesel or gasoline vehicle can use these fuels without technical modifications. There is no need to change the engine, adapt the tank, or install new pumps at gas stations. In the case of Repsol, its Nexa diesel also complies with the European standard EN 15940 for paraffinic fuels, and Efitec Nexa gasoline with EN-228. In addition, the company ensures that, thanks to its high cetane number, it improves combustion, reduces engine noise and has a cleaning effect on the injection system. Where to find them in Spain. Repsol clearly leads the deployment, with more than 1,000 stations that offer Nexa diesel and with the goal of reaching 30 stations with Efitec Nexa gasoline by the end of the year. BP too offers HVO (hydrotreated vegetable oil) in strategic locations such as Tafalla, Getafe, Villacastín Norte or Olaberria, although its network is more limited and is oriented towards professional transport. To locate them, the most practical thing is use web search engines of each company, since they include filters to find gas stations that offer renewable fuels. It is worth remembering that the conventional diesel sold at practically all gas stations in Spain already contains up to 7% biodiesel (B7 label), but it is not comparable to a 100% renewable fuel if we stick to emissions. Cost and availability. Price is one of the main obstacles. Nexa diesel costs approx. 10 cents more per liter than conventional diesel, placing it in the range of premium fuels. Renewable gasoline follows a similar trend. Furthermore, although Repsol has expanded its network, coverage remains limited outside large urban centers and main corridors, especially in terms of renewable gasoline. Industrial production. Repsol produces renewable diesel in its Cartagena refinery and 100% renewable gasoline at the Tarragona plant. The company assures that it has been researching these processes for more than twenty years in collaboration with Honeywell. In 2026, the opening of a new facility in Puertollano with capacity for more than 200,000 tons per year is planned. Who is using them already?. In addition to the fact that anyone can now go to a Repsol gas station to try these fuels, their use has transcended commercial vehicles. And they have been tested in competitions like the Dakar Rallyand even sustainable fuels are used on commercial flights. Also transport companies such as Scania, Alsa or Grupo Sesé have signed agreements for adoption. An intermediate solution. The current European regulations The CO2 emissions test for new vehicles measures emissions from the tailpipe. With this approach, the result is zero for an electric car, but not for one that uses renewable fuel, even if it is carbon neutral in its entire life cycle (from production to consumption). It is for this reason that the industry and defenders of these fuels are asking for a change in the methodology so that the complete life cycle of the fuel is considered. Repsol and other players in the sector They ask for adapted taxation and long-term objectives that provide stability to investments. The Spanish mobile fleet has an average age of 14.5 years and it has more than eight million vehicles that are more than two decades old, according to data from ANFAC (Spanish Association of Automobile and Truck Manufacturers). Therefore, renewable fuels could be an intermediate alternative in this stage of energy transition, especially since they do not leave millions of drivers behind. Cover image | engin akyurt In Xataka | In 2001, Renault launched a car ahead of its time: it was a miserable failure that now has another chance

create a reserve capital

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Tokyo is the capital of Japan. That’s been the case since quite a while. Yeah the debate which two of the country’s main parties have embarked on comes to fruition, the Japanese institutional reality could nevertheless undergo a radical change: Tokyo would be joined by a ‘backup capital’a city that would take over if necessary. The goal: decentralize the nation… and ensure that Japan won’t be knocked out if a natural disaster or emergency hits Tokyo. What has happened? That Japan has opened a debate that affects its economy, population, politics and above all the territorial and power balance of the country. Your goal: decide if you should have a “backup capital”a secondary capital that helps decentralize administrations and encourage economic development beyond Tokyo. It may sound strange, but one of its purposes is to assume government functions in case Tokyo suffers a disaster. Where does the debate come from? The local press began to talk about the matter even before the Liberal Democratic Party and Nippon Ishin (JIP) reached a coalition agreement. In fact, in September The Japan Times counted as it was among the “key” issues that the opposition wanted to discuss with the leader of the LDP, Sanae Takaichi. Since then it has remained on the table, with an agreement between both formations to advance their development next year and a open debate about what the creation of a backup capital would mean. Why a ‘substitute’ capital? For several reasons. One of the main ones is to prevent the Government from being paralyzed in the event that a natural disaster (or any other emergency) hits Tokyo, although that is only one of its purposes. In the background is the desire to correct the excessive political, economic and demographic concentration that Japan suffers from. “We must aspire to a country that avoids excessive concentration in Tokyo and is not too dependent on it, a place that is an economic zone that can counteract Tokyo and serve as a backup capital in times of crisis,” claims Hirofumi Yoshimura, leader of the JIP. Is it that important? Over the last few months, both ideas have been emphasized: the advantages that a secondary capital would have economically, politically and to decentralize the country and also to prevent Japan from being paralyzed in the event of a disaster. “The main importance of the concept of reserve capital lies in the dispersion of disaster risk and is a fundamental issue for national crisis management,” highlights Seitaro Hattori, governor of Fukuoka. In fact, Hattori focuses so much attention on that aspect (that the secondary capital can take a step forward in case of emergency) that he advocates locating it in a place where the risk of a large earthquake in the Pacific that affects Tokyo also punishes the secondary capital is minimized. “Fukuoka is a major city with a low disaster risk, as is Kitakyushu.” And what city do we choose? That’s the big question. There are those who fear that the true purpose of JIP is to merge the districts of the city of Osaka to give them a format similar to that of Tokyo, a change that would pave the way for it to become the secondary capital of the country. Reserve capital status would bring relevant advantages, such as tax exemptions. Right now in Osaka the metropolitan government assumes the provision of certain services, such as water supply, firefighters or urban planning. More local tasks, such as garbage collection, social services or education, depend on the districts. The JIP has been wanting to adapt Osaka to a model more similar to that of Tokyo for some time, claiming its benefits. Without success. Are there more names? Yes. Other names have also been mentioned in the national press, such as Sapporo or Fukuoka. “If we were to imagine an earthquake in the Nankai Trench, the city of Fukuoka, on the coast of the Sea of ​​Japan, would be the least at risk of simultaneous damage. In terms of response capacity, Fukuoka is a suitable location,” claims Takashima. Images | Louie Martinez (Unsplash) In Xataka | Japan keeps setting tourism records, so it has an idea: charge three times as much to leave the country

The microprocessor that advanced the Intel 4004 was not in a computer, but in a secret place: an F-14

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We are used to thinking that the history of microprocessors begins with the Intel 4004. Even those who are not experts have it associated with it as the first big chip that inaugurated the era of personal computing. But that is not the only possible story. There was another design, less known and outside the commercial circuits, that began operating before the 4004 reached the market. It did not appear on a computer or calculatorbut in a F-14 Tomcatand for almost thirty years it was invisible to the public. What that plane had inside was a processor designed to do something that no commercial chip did at that time: automatically calculate speed, altitude or wing position while the pilot maneuvered. That system, known as MP944, had been in service since 1970, when the 4004 had not yet been introduced. Its context was completely different from that of Intel, because it was not designed for the market or to be licensed, but rather to fulfill a requirement of the military program marked by the tensions of the Cold War. A secret microprocessor in the bowels of an F-14 The novelty was not only that it made calculations, but that it did so automatically and digitally, something unusual in on-board systems from the late sixties. The MP944 processed sensor readingsapplied aerodynamic equations and provided data that influenced the behavior of the plane, reducing the pilot’s workload. It was not a passive assistant, but a module capable of interpreting those readings and providing results fast enough to be integrated into actual flight control. That is why it was considered a technology ahead of its time. The declassified documents in the nineties show that the MP944 combined advanced MOS technology with a 20-bit parallel architecture capable of executing pipeline calculations, something unusual for its time. Its frequency was 375 kHz and it could process specific mathematical operations efficiently enough to be integrated into real flight systems. According to the figures collected in Holt’s work and in the subsequent review by Tom’s Hardware, this performance placed the MP944 clearly ahead of the 4004 in number of instructions executed, although it was never intended as a general-purpose commercial chip. They were two different approaches: one for a military aircraft, the other for a commercial device. When Holt’s work came to light decades later, He argued that the MP944 should be considered the first microprocessoreven though it was not on a single chip nor had it been marketed. Intel engineers, such as Ted Hoff and Federico Faggin, disagreed and argued that 4004 was the first in integrating all the essential functions of a CPU in a single piece of silicon and with general use. Russell Fish, a former Motorola engineer, reviewed the MP944 documentation and described it as an advanced microprocessor for its time, while Richard Belgard saw it as an overly specific system, designed only to keep an airplane in flight. Holt maintained that the reason no one knew about MP944 for years was because his work had been classified and subject to military restrictions. He said he spent decades requesting the release of the documents and was only able to do so when, in 1997, he won the support of Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren for the Navy to authorize their publication. With the documentation now available, the Navy qualified that version and maintained that Holt’s work had not actually been classified, but that what was missing was the company’s authorization to release the records. Garrett AiResearch admitted that they were no longer clear about what had happened, because the people who managed the case had left the company. When the information became available, Russell Fish claimed that MP944 was so advanced for its time that, had it been known, could have accelerated the development of the sector by up to five years. The creators of the 4004, such as Federico Faggin and Stan Mazor, openly disagreed and pointed out that the merit of the commercial microprocessor was to integrate all the essential elements on a single chip and make it viable for multiple applications. Richard Belgard qualified this position: he recognized the technical value of the MP944, but saw it as a system designed for a single purpose, without the capacity to open its own market. The debate about which was the first microprocessor is not resolved with a date, but with a definition. The 4004 was the first to hit the market as a commercial, integrated and programmable chip, and that merit explains its place in manuals. The MP944, on the other hand, previously demonstrated that it was possible to process data digitally and feed control systems in real time, even if it was done while locked in an airplane and outside of public space. One opened an industry; the other anticipated capabilities. Both represented different ways of understanding what a microprocessor could be. Images | DVIDS (1, 2, 3) | Thomas Nguyen In Xataka | The United States wants to be sovereign in AI. AMD’s new supercomputers will be part of the plan

It is one thing to support the US, quite another to defend Taiwan

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The latest diplomatic outbreak between China and Japan It does not seem to arise from an isolated gesture, but from a profound change in Tokyo’s strategic perception of the Taiwan Strait and Japan’s increasingly central role within the regional security architecture. The problem now is that China has forced it to make clear a position that until now it had found in the ambiguity the perfect setting. An archipelago between two fires. The statement of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, suggesting that a Chinese blockade or attack on the island could constitute a situation existential threat for Japan, it immediately upset the fine balance of strategic ambiguity that Tokyo had maintained for years. His comment put into official words for the first time something that Japanese security teams were discussing privately. for decades: that, in certain circumstances, Japan could be forced to act alongside the United States in a war scenario around Taiwan, not to defend the island as such, but to preserve the sea routes, energy supplies and American bases that guarantee the survival of Japan itself. That nuance, normally invisible to the general public, is what triggered the Beijing reactionwhich interpreted the statement not as a technical analysis, but like a hint that Japan could intervene militarily in an area that China considers strictly internal. The clash and diplomacy. Beijing’s response was immediate and forcefuldeploying a full range of instruments of pressure designed to punish, intimidate and isolate Tokyo. China issued warnings to students and tourists to They will avoid Japan alleging alleged security risks, suspended diplomatic meetings, delayed film premieres, patrols intensified of its Coast Guard in disputed waters and raised the tone of the propaganda discourse, recalling the war of the past to underline its current military superiority. The intention was clear: send a message internal and external that any questioning of his stance on Taiwan will carry an immediate cost. However, the virulence of the reaction generated a double effect. On the one hand, it fueled a growing sense in Japanese society that China systematically uses economic and diplomatic punishment to shape the behavior of others. On the other hand, it reinforced within the Japanese Government the idea that Chinese pressure is not going to decrease and that the only viable response is through strengthen alliances military and preparation for real contingencies. Sanae Takaichi And more. The division of Japanese public opinion reflects this tension: approximately half of society believes that Japan should intervene in a scenario of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, and the other half fear that any involvement would plunge the country into a catastrophic conflict. Meanwhile, the Chinese state machinery intensifies a warning message which, far from universally intimidating, is prompting growing accusations of diplomatic harassment by Tokyo and calls to further strengthen deterrence. The United States has conducted multiple tests of the Typhon system, which includes four trailer-mounted launchers and support equipment capable of firing Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles. USA and the military board. In this context of escalation, the sudden withdrawal by the United States of the system of Typhon missiles temporarily deployed at the Iwakuni base adds an extra layer to the puzzle. Its initial presence, capable of launching Tomahawk and SM-6 missiles with a range sufficient to hit critical targets in eastern China, had unleashed worry in Beijing and Moscow, which interpreted its deployment as a preview of a network of US land-based missiles in the Indo-Pacific after the end of the INF treaty. The official goal was to conduct rapid transition testing in the event of war, but it also represented a explicit demonstration that Japan is a key piece in the US containment strategy. His withdrawal, just when China intensifies retaliation against Tokyo, does not reduce tension: it shows the flexibility with which Washington repositions its pieces and its intention to keep Beijing in permanent uncertainty. Japan, in turn, finds itself increasingly at the center of a strategic dilemma: it depends on American security umbrella for its survival, but the price of that dependence is that any crisis in the Taiwan Strait automatically becomes a Japanese domestic matter. The strategic ambiguity. The episode has shaken the guiding principle of security policies in East Asia: the strategic ambiguity. The United States avoids explicitly compromising its reaction to a Chinese attack so as not to offer certainty to Beijing or Taipei, while Japan had tried to align its position without standing out. Takaichi’s words break that ambiguity, even though he later insisted that they did not imply a doctrinal change. In doing so, they reveal the evolution of a country that has left behind the absolute caution of the post-war and that, faced with the real possibility of a high-intensity conflict in its neighborhood, begins to assume that its security can no longer be separated of a possible war over Taiwan. For Beijing, this transformation It’s disturbing: a more assertive Japan, more integrated into the US military framework and more willing to act preventively modifies the strategic equation in the entire region. For Tokyo, on the other hand, the current crisis illustrates precisely why trying to ease tensions with China does not avoid its pressureand why maintaining decision-making capacity and room for maneuver involves reinforcing its autonomy and military cooperation. The fragile balance. Taken together, the sequence reflects a turning point. China wants deter Japan through immediate punishment, and Japan wants deter China showing that it will not be intimidated, as the United States adjusts discreetly his presenceremembering that its military power will be decisive in any scenario. For its part, Taiwan becomes the axis around which the stability of Northeast Asia revolves. The result is a more tense, more transparent and dangerous balance than in previous years. A balance in which the words of a prime minister, the oversized reaction of a neighboring power and the apparently technical movement of a missile system they intertwine to reveal an uncomfortable truth: that the region is moving towards a stage where a misinterpreted gesture has the potential to … Read more

the last one caused a big change in their way of living

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For ten years, in Kibali National Park (Uganda), a silent and brutal war was fought. Its protagonists were not humans, but the community of Ngogo chimpanzees largest known, which maintained a constant conflict with its neighbors until they ended up exterminating them to keep their territory. Now science has wanted to find biological meaning in this, and it has succeeded. Something natural. From the outside, this conflict can be seen as something very bloody, like the one we see between humans themselves to dominate a specific territory. But science believed that there was something more behind it, and in the end it has been seen that these wars They are more natural than we think within nature itself. And it gives us a concrete idea of ​​how the minds of these animals work. The PNAS scientific journal just found the biological logic behind this massacre, and has not hesitated to confirm that we are facing an evolutionary strategy very profitable. After the victory, the females in the winning group not only doubled their fertility, but infant mortality plummeted. A spoil of war. The investigation, led by Brian Wood and veteran anthropologist John Mitani, puts numbers to this brutality. And in this lapse of time the Ngogo expanded their domains by 22% at the cost of eliminating the neighbors who were occupying it in that case. But just like humans, we often create wars. to get more resourcesanimals seem to do something similar. This territorial expansion brought with it a great abundance of food resources that completely transformed the demographics of the group. To get an idea, the researchers in this case compared data from the three years before the conquest with those from the three years after. In this case it was seen that before the victory there were only 15 births in the group, while after the victory there were 37 new offspring. And it is not something random, since it is the first time that cooperative killing between groups has been linked to “territorial gain and greater reproductive success.” The biological sense. But beyond the fact that more chimpanzees are born in this environment, it has also been seen that much more survive. And in the chimpanzee population, infant mortality is really high because they suffer from serious malnutrition at the beginning of their lives, as well as diseases or infanticide. The data is quite clear. Before winning the war, 41% of the offspring died before they were three years old. After annexing neighboring territory and eliminating border threats, that figure radically dropped to 8%. Because? The equation is quite simple: more food in the environment, less competition and greater security as there are not so many enemy incursions that kill their young. Josep Call, a primatologist at the University of St Andrews, defines it as “biological rationality”. It is not a moral decision, it is pure natural selection: the genes of those who successfully apply this violence are much more likely to perpetuate themselves. Death patrols. A question that we can ask ourselves in this case is how an animal with these characteristics can be organized to go to war. And although we may think that they do it without thinking about it first, the reality is that they organize very well calculated border patrols in their territory. Upon reaching the border, these animals completely change their behavior, as they become much quieter to maintain stealth, with a strategy that is quite similar to what we can see in a human military exercise. The moment they encounter a rival group, if they are outnumbered they know that they will not be able to win and the smartest thing to do is to retreat. But if the situation is contrary, it will be attacked without mercy. Attacks include hitting, biting and dismembering. It is a coordinated violence that, in the case of the Ngogo, was favored by an unusual demographic factor: they had a disproportionate number of males, which allowed them to form patrol “squads” that were more lethal than those of their neighbors who did not have this advantage. War? Although the parallel with human conflicts is inevitable, scientists prefer the term “intergroup violence.” The reasons that exist to defend this difference are that among chimpanzees there is no ideology, but rather they do it exclusively out of biological necessity, such as having food or providing for the smallest members of the community. And the truth is that annihilating the neighbors is one of the smartest ways to achieve this. Images | Satya deep In Xataka | These researchers are not only convinced that chimpanzees can talk, but that we have proof since 1962

they are gentrifying in reverse

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A curious phenomenon has been quietly repeated in recent years in the wealthy neighborhoods of the northwest of Madrid, where large mansions located on plots valued at millions of euros are a regular part of the landscape. It involves the replacement of these large single-family mansions with private complexes made up of smaller single-family houses, built in the space previously occupied by large mansions. At the urban level there does not seem to be a big change. However, as the councilor of the Socialist Municipal Group of Madrid Antonio Giraldo in your X profileit is an unprecedented gentrification process that is silently being implemented in the richest neighborhoods of the capital. Same space, more population. As Giraldo explains in your threadeach of these operations occurs within a perfectly legal framework since it does not require any action to reorganize the territory or reclassify the land use since it continues to be a single plot and contains single-family homes. The type does not change, just change the number. To make the miracle of loaves and fishes possible in a real estate version, it is enough to enable a private street that provides access to the new single-family houses within the plot. The only difference is that, instead of having a single construction in the form of a huge mansion occupied by a single family, the space is redistributed into several smaller single-family homes, occupied by separate families. No complex legal requirements. Since there is only a rearrangement of space within the plot. the only requirement that marks the General Urban Planning Plan of Madrid is to present a detailed study to the city council. As in reality no regulations are being breached because the nature of the homes to be built is not being changed, in reality the procedure remains almost an informative formalism. However, what is actually being achieved is to increase the density of the resident population because, instead of having a single-family home of 1,000 m2 in which one family lives, there are now five single-family houses of 200 m2 with five families occupying the same space. Rich, but not so rich. The gentrification of wealthy central neighborhoods in the capital is already a reality. The traditional inhabitants of neighborhoods like Salamanca already they are being forced to move to other more remote areas due to the increase in the price of luxury housing in those neighborhoods driven by the arrival of US millionaires and Latin America. This has made the luxury residential neighborhoods on the outskirts, traditionally inhabited by the ultra-rich who had built their mansions in a quiet neighborhood with few inhabitants, become the new destination for these new neighbors who are not rich enough to buy a mansion, but are equally well-off. The density problem. The big problem of increase density of a residential area is that the infrastructures were not designed for this change. Precisely for this reason it is not allowed to build floor blocks on them. The residential neighborhoods of Madrid and the majority of large cities in Spain have narrower streets, less parking capacity and public transport networks sized for use by a small volume of people. If suddenly the population multiplies by five, services become strained and life in those neighborhoods is no longer as calm and relaxed as it used to be. Streets with more traffic and traffic jams, insufficient public transport frequencies, insufficient health infrastructure and school places, etc. “Inverted” gentrification. While usually the arrival of new neighbors of high purchasing power raised the price of housing to the point of making it inaccessible to its inhabitants, in the residential neighborhoods with high purchasing power of Madrid the reverse process is taking place. Real estate developers are putting pressure on the owners of large mansions to demolish them and build smaller, more profitable luxury homes for millionaires who cannot afford to buy a 1,000 m2 home in that area, but can afford to buy a 200 m2 home and share space with four other neighbors. It doesn’t work in Barcelona. In the upper area of ​​Barcelona, ​​with a layout of huge plots on which enormous mansions were built, an attempt has been made to apply the same model of replacing large mansions with luxury houses, but smaller. However, the urban policy of the city of Barcelona does not interpret in the same way that practice. For the Catalan council, the change does not simply represent a rearrangement of the built volumes as happens in Madrid, but rather they take into account the impact of the modification on the neighborhood and recognize “the need to maintain the character of a consolidated neighborhood.” In Xataka | If you don’t have the money to buy a house, there are several towns in rural Spain that have something to offer you Image | Unsplash (Fabian Wiktor, Alim)

an amphibious assault ship to revolutionize its naval capabilities

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On September 3, Beijing was transformed into a catwalk. Not focused on fashion, but on weapons. In one of the most impressive military parades in memory, the Asian giant celebrated the 80th anniversary of Japan’s defeat in the Second World War with an unprecedented deployment of weapons. Was some things that were savedand that’s where it comes into play his naval strategy. Because he famous Fujian It is not the only new generation ship from China. They have another known as the Type 076 which is already doing tests. And it represents an unprecedented technological leap in the Chinese naval industry. Type 076 Sichuan. If ‘Type 076’ is the class, ‘Sichuan’ is the name they have given to the country’s 51st hull. It is the first ship of this class that, on November 16, completed his first tests of sea after setting sail from the Shanghai shipyard. We have told it on several occasions: the Type 076 impresses with its scale. It is a ship that displaces about 40,000 tons, has a length of about 260 meters, a beam of between 45 and 52 meters and has a deck of about 13,500 square meters, just over two football fields. Those dimensions are considerably larger than those of its predecessor and comparable to the Charles de Gaullethe nuclear aircraft carrier that is the pride of France. Versatility. What stands out most is not its size so that it is not an aircraft carrier: what really stands out is that China has developed a ship that can carry out any type of mission. We are talking about an amphibious assault platform, which implies that it combines traditional landing capabilities with the possibility of performing tasks typical of a light aircraft carrier. That is why its deck is so large: it is designed to house helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft and, in addition, it has a deck prepared to house and deploy both landing craft and amphibious vehicles. Its human capacity is 1,000 marines. Electromagnetic catapult. For years, China depended on old Soviet heritage ships, but if Fujian marked a milestone Being the first aircraft carrier developed in-house, the Type 076 also marks a before and after by having the latest technology that the army has developed. To start, it has a electromagnetic catapult system like the one The United States has developed for your latest generation aircraft carrier and like the one Fujian has. It is a technology that will become the new standard for this type of boat, and the comparison with the Fujian is relevant because the catapult of the Type 076 It is the same length as its older brother: about 100-130 meters. This allows the Type 076 to launch conventional fixed-wing aircraft. Other amphibious assault ships can accommodate aircraft, but these must have systems V/STOL vertical or short takeoff. The new Chinese ship does not have this limitation. and electrification. But the catapult is not the only new thing: the propulsion system is fully electric. This is the first for the People’s Liberation Army Navy and the system combines two 21 MW gas turbines with six 6 MW diesel generators. Altogether, it provides about 78 MW of total power. The electrical system is responsible for powering the motors and propulsion, with a rapid delivery of energy, but it is also responsible for the high-power “pulses” such as those needed by the electromagnetic catapult. The use of this gas turbine system offers considerable advantages compared to traditional diesel, such as faster starting, the aforementioned power delivery, a reduction in vibrations, more flexibility and a lower underwater acoustic signature. Fujian deck Armament. Regardless of their transport capacity, assault ships have integrated defenses. It is not so much about carrying out attacks, but rather preventing it from being sunk, for which it has: Three surface-to-air missile launchers short range to intercept aircraft. Three Type 1130 systems with 11 30 mm cannons which provide defense against missiles and low-altitude aircraft. Four decoy launchers which consist of 24 tubes capable of deploying flares and other elements to confuse radars. Sensors similar to those installed in Fujian. These are, as we say, defensive elements, so the Sichuan will continue to depend on auxiliary ships for long-range attacks. But as we are seeing, and at an accelerated pace, it is not a problem for today’s China. Add and continue. During their three-day mission, operators tested the ship’s propulsion system, electrical systems and other key aspects that, according to reportsmet the expected standards. As we say, it is a milestone in Chinese naval modernization by merging traditional amphibious transport and aircraft carrier capabilities. It is like a category in itself and one more example that China is very serious about its maritime conquest. They are giving leaps and bounds in modernizing and expanding its fleetwith three aircraft carriers under its belt and a fourth that is estimated to have nuclear propulsion, as well as ships of other categories that fulfill two missions. On the one hand, that of national protection, but on the other, it is one more message in a territorial dispute scenario in it South and East China Sea that not only has Taiwan in its sights: also islands of Japan that China considers its property. And, of course, Japan is also responding accordingly in what has become an escalation of tension that the other giant of the seas does not want to miss: the United States. Image | 中国新闻社CHINESE MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE In Xataka | The plan of one hundred million dead: this is how Japan intended to resist in World War II

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