Mobile Tech & Gadgets

In León there are small villages that are finding a peculiar phenomenon: thousands of “ghost tourists”

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In the world there is good and bad touristsrespectful tourists and disrespectfulclean and others capable of converting places such as Everest either The Fuji In authentic stercolera, but much less common is what some peoples of the province of León are living. His municipalities are finding a kind of “Ghost Tourism”a drip of thousands and thousands of travelers that nobody has seen or heard or housed, but that in theory they have visited the town. Or at least he assures it A study of the INE. Multiplying the census by 24. Carbajal sources It is a town of León located about 50 minutes by car from the provincial capital and surrounded by hectares and hectares of cultivation. It doesn’t usually sneak into the news, but Monday León News He dedicated him A broad article which explains a peculiarity of the people: in summer there are few municipalities in which the population shoots more for tourism. According to A study INE experimental that measures the flow of tourists from the position of mobile phones, between July and August 2024 the town received 1,826 tourists. Many do not seem like many, but it is that INE himself acknowledges that in the Leonese town there are barely registered 76 people. That is, when the heat arrives, the summers multiply by 24 the municipal census. Next to nothing. “It’s a mockery”. Such data would be compressible if Carbajal sources had a natural park, an old fortress, parties known throughout the community or some other claim that explains that avalanche of visitors, but the City Council itself itself Recognize that this figure of 1,826 tourists (464 in July and 1,180 in August) is difficult to explain … and even more difficult to assume. “It is a burial,” nods The mayor of the town, Carlos de León Saluds, in León News. Similar opinion, Ana María Ortega, former mayor and councilor, Explain That one thing is that the influx of visitors increases in July and August for the people who returns to the village or visit to their relatives and a very different one that the data is triggered in an exorbitant way. “In summer you can triple the population, but multiply by 24 the number of inhabitants with veraners and tourists cannot be.” So … what happens? To understand that mysterious “Ghost Tourism” the first thing is to go to the prine sources. The data of the 1,826 tourists leaves a new “Experimental Statistics” of the INE that resorts to the signals of the mobiles to calculate different metrics related to tourism: the place of origin of foreigners arriving in Spain, the destinations that visit the Spaniards when they leave the country and the movement between communities, provinces and municipalities. The study has been prepared for a few years and always talks about the same: “Tourists.” If we consult the “internal tourism” data and more specifically the flows of “Interprovincial tourists” Residents in Spain, classifying the results by municipalities, the surprise arrives: in July of last year Fuentes de Carbajal received 646 and in August 1,180. In total 1,826. The question is therefore … how are those figures calculated that collide the mayor and the former mayor of the people? Mobile and antennas matter? The response is given by INE in The technical file From the survey: the data is related to the position of mobile phones and are obtained thanks to the collaboration of the country’s large operators. The approach is interesting and promising, but implies certain challenges. “The location of mobile phones is estimated from mobile phone antennas”, collects the institute itself: “This implies that the location of a mobile is not established with total precision, and the error depends on the concentration of antennas.” In summary, the more mobile antennas, the greater precision. Unraveling the mystery. The INE’s ability to analyze the data is also limited. The records on mobile location are anonymous and processed each operator, so the institute receives only aggregate data and in tables, without option to examine loose values. In rural areas it is also found that the low density of the network conditions the type of ‘cells’ with which it operates. By statistical secret, the institute also hides certain data. With that information about the Ortega table Slide that the balance of carbajal sources (which is so adjusted to what is perceived in the people itself) may be due to technical issues, such as coverage or that for some reason the data of other municipalities are added to those of the Leonesa Villa, thus blurring the real photo. Near Fuentes de Carbajal there are other villas with a balance of zero visitors. In Xataka we have already addressed the INE to ask him about that apparent mismatch. Is it the only case? No. León News Informs other equally striking, although none reaches the level of carbajal sources. In San Millán de los Caballeros, for example, the INE registered 1,648 tourists in July and in August 1,602, which adds 3,250. Again they may not seem like many, but it is that the town has 191 inhabitants registered. The same occurs in Izagre, of 137 residents and who according to the statistical institute receives almost 2,000 Veranians. “We don’t have great parties, just four performances during the summer,” remember the mayor of San Millán. “There are two campsites close to the people, but they are in the municipal terms of Valencia de D Juan and Villamañán.” Nor does the Izagre councilor achieve to understand everything that happens: “On central summer days, with the holidays, between 150 and 200 people can be reached in each of the villages, but reaching the 1,987 veraneantes in those two months cannot be.” Images | Zed Mendez (UNSPLASH)Google Maps and Wikipedia Via | León News In Xataka | It is increasingly easy to see from the road a crop that had never been dominant in Spain: the pistachio

It is more profitable than Inditex

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International expansion and diversification strategy of Amancio Ortega investor arm He is marking a milestone in the European real estate sector. So much so that the latest financial information places its real estate, Pontegadea, surpassing Inditex in profitability. The strategic turn of Ortega Empire The magnitude of the Pontegadea assets has already raised that it has already become the Real estate with greater value in Spainand has settled the foundations to become the most powerful in Europe in the coming years. Pontegadea: the new Lencio Ortega locomotive The founder of Inditex has taken less than two decades to convert his second company into A real estate empire. His modus operandi is relatively simple: use The annual dividends which provides you with 59.29% of Inditex shares, to buy office buildings, premises in strategic locations for Inditex stores, luxury residential buildings, logistics and logistics centers Even hotels. Since Inditex dividends ascend Several billions Annual, Pontegadea has dedicated the last decades to Buy strategic buildings all over the world. The key to everything is that, upon receiving every year A generous check Inditex, Pontegadea does not need to depend on bank loans to make your real estate purchases. 0% debt 100% advantages. In what we have been in 2025, the company has invested 800 million dollars in acquiring new buildings. However, unlike Investment fundsPontegadea does not base your business on obtaining profitability of the surplus value of the sale of these properties, but of becoming the landlord of companies such as Apple, AmazonSpotify and even the main competitor of your textile empire: Primark. Profitability record in 2024 According The published by The economistAmancio Ortega’s holding registered a net benefit of 9,322 million euros in the exercise of 2024. This increase represents a increase of 17.3% with respect to the previous year, placing the group at the head of Spanish patrimonial societies. According to data of Expansion, Obtained from the accounts deposited in the Mercantile Registry, Pontegadea declared consolidated income of 43,125 million euros, growing 8.7% compared to 2023. Total assets, that is, the value of the buildings owned by Pontegadea, its renewable energy business and of Inditex’s shares, exceed 110,615 million euros, which represents an annual increase of 9.3%. For its part, Inditex has also presented historical figuresalthough a little more contained than their investors expected. The company directed by Marta Ortegayoungest daughter of the founder, He scored a benefit Net of 5,866 million euros In 2024, which is 9% more than the previous year. Although the good results of both companies in 2024 were excellent, the benefit of Pontegadea was 62.9% higher than the total that Inditex obtained, which shows Cycle change and the strength of the patrimonial sector in the investment portfolio of Amancio Ortega. Next objective: Europe During the last two decades, Pontegadea has been managing the properties he was buying around the world from the local subsidiaries that the company has created in Spain, Portugal, the United Kingdom, France, France, USA or luxembourg. However, a complete redesign of its structure has just executed to centralize all assets management of Europe, Canada and the USA In his Luxembourg subsidiarywhich becomes the control center of all assets. The only exception is the assets that manage the subsidiaries of Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, which continue to be independent. This process aims Banke Hotel Purchases from Paris for 97 million euros and the Banco Sabadell offices building in Miami for 235 million euros more. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives as one more neighbor (except for private jets and superyates) Image | Gtres, Inditex

TV Philips OLED and sound bar at the price of outlet

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From time to time, PCComponers launches some packs that gather expensive and practical devices with a discount that at least should be taken into account. Now the store has just launched a quite interesting combo if we want to enjoy cinema (or video games) at home: a TV Philips 55OLED819 and a sound bar Philips Tab6309/10 For alone 1,099.99 euros. Much eye because the pack has an official price of 2,198 euros, so we talk about a 50% discount. Pack: Philips 55OLED819 + Philips Tab6309/10 * Some price may have changed from the last review A half -price combo Philips 55OLED819 is a Smart TV that right now it is priced at 1,049.99 euros, so The sound bar is practically given away: for 50 euros. It is a quite complete television that comes with technology Ambilight of the brand. Among other things, ride a 55 -inch OLED panel which is compatible with Dolby Vision and their speakers are compatible with Dolby Atmos. Its operating system is Google TV and works with both Google Assistant and the voice assistant Alexa. Regarding Philips Tab6309/10, it is a sound bar quite powerful that comes with a wireless subwoofer, thus offering a 320W power to 2.1 channels. In addition, it is compatible with Dolby Atmos and incorporates a port HDMI EARCalthough it also has Bluetooth connectivity. You may also interest these accessories for Philips TV Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (last generation), streaming device compatible with Wi-Fi 6e and Environmental Fund * Some price may have changed from the last review Xiaomi TV Box S (3nd gen), 4K Ultra HD Streaming Media Player, 2GB RAM, 32GB Smart TV box * Some price may have changed from the last review Some of the links of this article are affiliated and can report a benefit to Xataka. In case of non -availability, offers may vary. Images | PCComponentes y Buyadicción (header), Philips In Xataka | Best home film projectors. Which to buy and five recommended models from 299 to 18,000 euros In Xataka | Mega-guide to ride a home cinema: projector, screen, sound system and more

China built the largest high speed network in record time. Now you want something more difficult: improve it

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China has already shown that you can do what no other country has achieved: display in record time The largest high speed network on the planet. But it is not enough to have it. The new challenge is even more complex: to improve it, make it more efficient, more connected, more useful for the economy. And that demands less colorful, but equally ambitious decisions. To grow quickly to grow well. Between 2021 and 2024, China added 10,000 Kilometers of track to your high speed network. The figure impresses, but it is no longer what defines success. The Ministry of Transportation has made it clear that the current objective is not to extend the railway map without pause, but to squeeze its potential. In fact, The country has set As a goal to reach 50,000 operating kilometers before the end of 2025. The network adds 48,000 kilometers, more than 70 % of the world total, and connects 97 % of cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants. Millions of travelers, but there is still a margin of improvement. Only in the first half of 2025, Chinese high -speed trains They transported 2,240 million people. The figure impresses, but the authorities are not formed. The objective now is to make this system more comfortable, more predictable and better coordinated with the rest of the transport ecosystem, from the urban metro to airports. High speed yes, but also logistics. China wants its high -speed trains to cease to be just a solution for travelers. The new approach includes routes adapted to the transport of goods, interconnections with airports and sea nodes, and improvements to integrate the system into the production chain. What is at stake is no longer only mobility, but the country’s competitiveness. Beyond traditional rails. While the current network is kept, China develops new generations of trains, such as magnetic levitation. These advances do not seek to replace what is built, but prepare for a future where speed, autonomy and sustainability are key. The country has already tried prototypes that reach 600 km/h In cities like Qingdao. Figures that impress. Security that holds. Moving millions every day with punctuality is an achievement. Doing it without major incidents, for years, it is even more. China has built a network that not only runs quickly, but aims to resist earthquakes, storms and overloads. According to Xinhuasince 2012 no serious accident has been registered in the high speed network. Centralized planning. Faced with chronic delays that affect many countries, China has maintained a clear strategy: centralized decisions, sustained investment and state control of the process. It is not a perfect model – there are errors, cost overruns and debatable decisions. But its results in deployment and integration are difficult to ignore. A mature network, a major challenge. As we have seen, the Asian giant continues to expand its network, especially towards interior and less connected regions. However, it is no longer just about adding cities to the map. The real challenge is another: to ensure that a gigantic infrastructure works better and better, with less margin of error and more logistics demands. The stage of the big deployments is giving way to the stage of precision. Images | N509FZ (Wikimedia Commons – CC by-SA 4.0) | N509FZ In Xataka | China has not only created the world’s broader high -speed network: it wants to operate it at 1,000 km/Hy has taken a new step

There have always been people preparing for the Apocalypse. The difference is that they now include AI in their survival kits

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For years there are people preparing for a nuclear war, for the end of the world, or For both. They are called ‘Preppers‘, that at times like the recent Spanish blackout They feel claimed. The movement is mutatingand as Mit Technology Review collects, the needs and possibilities of 2025 leave us people doing and proposing Collect Artificial Intelligence Language Models (AI) to save them in a USB pendrive. A good tool for the end of the world. The engineer Simon Willison, known for being the creator of the Django web development framework, has A plan For a future dystopian: keeping open artificial intelligence models, you can execute them at home if collapse civilization. In this way, even without internet access, it would be possible to continue accessing the enormous human knowledge located in its pesos. To carry out something like that, there is no need for resources beyond the reach of the homes of the homes. Today, there are already AI models that can be executed at home, Even in smartphones. Even something as powerful as Deepseek can work on our PCprovided we use a small version, the ‘distillate’ of 8,000 million parameters. As Share Evan Hahnthe Chinese Qwen 3 model, in its 600,000 parameters version, can occupy the ridiculous amount of 523 MB in our storage. With only 2 GB, we can download call 3.2 in its version of 3,000 million parameters. A powerful but “economical” team like a Mac Mini M4 can run models capable at home. An alternative to something more traditional: all Wikipedia. Download all the wikipedia To read it without connection, it is something possible with different options, and something equally useful in an apocalyptic scenario such as the proposal. Hahn has included what he would occupy with the great open language models, and using little space, enough information can be stored. With 356.9 MB we can access the 50,000 best articles in Wikipedia. And with 57.18 GB, which fit perfectly in a modern pendrive, we can have in our possession all the Wikipedia available in any language. Occupy less than half of the space, we can have QWEN 3 of 32,000 million parameters and Deepseek R1 of the same size. Limitations. Using artificial intelligence at home to have access to the knowledge of the world sounds very good, until not so much. Simon Willison himself told Mit Technology Review to use the local AI models “is like having a strange, condensed and defective version of Wikipedia.” The reason is simple: the models are trained with data available on the Internet, to the point that the AI bots are putting the future of Wikipedia at riskHowever, these models do not faithfully reproduce all the information when we enter Prompts o Indications to ask about a specific topic. The hallucinations problem. Not only are they confirmed by actors such as OpenAi, but for them we know that models such as O3 and O4-mini They hallucinate more than their predecessors. According to Jensen Huang, we need much more powerful hardware So that this phenomenon of AI disappears, and of course, it is not hardware that we have at home. In addition, small models executable at home, being very small versions in size and memory used, toThey look more. And more limitations. In our tests executing local AI models on smartphones, The results are irregularalthough promising. In that sense, Apple itself will open in iOS 26 his AI to any developerso that they can execute it on the device itself. Beyond the quality of small and local models against the gigantic Grok 4, O3-PRO either Claude 4 a ‘prepper’ plan with pendrive has more limitations, and is to trust such a unit for a situation that requires, above all, reliability. These USB units are not designed to last more than 10 years. If they have poor quality NAND chips, they can even stop working without use. And that is why there are companies like Machdyne UG, which has created a pendrive that It lasts 200 yearsor so they promise. Of course, even if I achieve that longevity, it has an 8 kB capacity, which only gives to save some text. If you want to store almost all the knowledge of humanity, it is best to think of a lasting environment in optimal conditions. And then, think about major disasters. Image | Antonio Sabán with Ia In Xataka | AI is one of the most advanced technologies that the human being has built. It also gets distracted with a cat

What’s true and what’s myth in the “tricks” to identify it

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It is almost a summer ritual: carefully choose a watermelon in the supermarket, get home, leave it, and the time of feeling the tooth feel the disappointment in our palate. Choosing watermelly is not easy And there is no infallible trick. But some, at least, can increase our probability of success while others, They are rather myths. There are two factors that make the choice of watermelon (and Also of the melon) A sensitive task. One of these factors is in your skin, which maintains its firmness and coloration throughout different stages of maturation. Checking the maturation status of a peach can be easy just by tighten and check the firmness of the fruit. In the case of banana we can do it at first sight only appreciating the color. The other factor is in the same process of maturation of these fruits. Both watermelon and melon are non -heated fruits. This means that these fruits only mature while they are connected to their plant, contrary to what happens with the Healthy fruits (such as banana or peach), which continue to mature even while resting in our fruit trees or refrigerators. As we pointed out, this makes the selection of this fruit a delicate process: if we do not succeed in the supermarket, it will not be enough to wait a few days for the watermelon to reach its ideal maturation. And how can we detect the maturation point of the watermelon? Perhaps the main clue we have when knowing if this fruit has reached its maturation point is The “stain” That is formed at the bottom. The yellowish spots They usually indicate A more ripe fruit, while the most pale and whitish indicates that the fruit was collected before reaching maturity. But this It is not the only clue that we can find in the skin of this fruit. Another indication is in the texture: it is convenient to look for melons with flat and rounded surfaces, avoiding those with visible marks. Although making a brand ourselves is an option. Scratching the skin of the fruit can give us another clue, since if when the brand the outermost layer is peeled easily and showing a somewhat whitish interior, we are more likely to be encountering a mature specimen. The maturation of the watermelon The color and texture of the skin It is not the only indication that we can use when identifying the correct watermelon. He Fruit weight (or your density rather) you can also give us a clue about what we will find after opening it. Sandia, such as melons, contain abundant water (they contain more than 90% water). According to experts, the heaviest watermelons with respect to their volume will be the ones that contain the most water and therefore the most juicy. If we are looking for melons in its maturity point, a factor that we must take into account is the date: the watermelon is a seasonal fruit: according to the seasonal fruits calendar of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, we can find watermelons between the months of May and September, the months being the months between June and August the highest level of commercialization (always including the mentioned months). The organization of consumers and users (OCU) the months between June and August (both included). The existence of discrepancies or difference between months with greater or lesser commercialization is in the fact that many factors can alter the fruit maturation process, especially weather and weather factors. What does this mean? That depending on the place of Fruit origin And depending on rainfall and temperatures throughout the year, watermelons can mature with greater or lesser speed, which will alter their flavor. Knowing this type of detail may be beyond the scope of the average consumer, but it can help refine our test and error method. In Xataka | Goodbye Olivares, hello pistacheros: in Spain the record crops are leaving them a fruit until recently residual Image | Crina-miriam pretu

Ammonite. They are lousy news for the fans of the planet nine

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In the Dark confines From the Solar System, beyond the orbit of Neptune, a new world has appeared. First detected in May 2023 from the top of the Mauna Kea volcano in Hawaii, astronomers have just called a name: ammonite. But not everything is good news, especially For those who hoped to find The planet nine. Short. 2023 KQ14 “Ammonite” is a new transneptunian object between 220 and 380 km in diameter that revolves around the sun in an extremely wide elliptical orbit. The peculiar of his orbit is that he is not aligned with other similar objects. According to a study Posted in Nature Astronomythe finding challenges the hypothesis that a distant planet still to discover (the elusive planet nine) could be aligning its orbits. A true cosmic fossil. The Amonite nickname, like ancient marine fossils, is not accidental. Astronomers believe that this object is a solar system relic, a time capsule whose orbit has remained virtually unchanged for 4.5 billion years. In fact, its discovery was possible thanks to the Fossil II Project (Formation of the Outer Solar System: An iory legacy), which tracked this type of objects with the Subaru telescope in Hawaii. What they found exceeded their expectations, because Ammonite is quite special. A very exclusive club. In addition to having a considerable size, Ammonite is far away. It has the third most distant perihelio ever detected: the point closest to the sun of its orbit is 66 astronomical units, more than double that of Neptune. The interesting thing is that what astronomers occupy the “perihelium gap”, an area between 50 and 75, where they had not found objects of this type. Ammonite is what is known as a senoid, an ultra -exclusive category of transneptunian objects of which we only knew three specimens: Sedna (The candidate for dwarf planet that gives name to the group), 2012 VP113 and Leleākūhonua. What makes them so special is that their orbits are enormous and extremely elliptical, but its closest point to the sun is so far that Neptune’s gravity barely affects them. They are gravitationally isolated. Problems for the planet nine. For years, The planet’s hypothesis nine He has won traction to explain a strange anomaly: the orbits of the sedoids and other extreme transneptunian objects They seem to be groupedas if the severity of a massive planet, too dark to be easily detected from Earth, were directing them. In addition to dark and distant, we now have another complication that makes it difficult to find. Amonite’s orbit is not only aligned with that of the other three senoids, but points in the opposite direction. With most of the models proposed for planet nine, Ammonite’s orbit would be unstable: it would have been expelled from the solar system a long time ago. So what happened? If it is not the planet nine, what molded those strange orbits? By simulating the orbits of the four senoids known back in time, Synica Academy researchers They discovered something. Although today they are scattered, simulations show with more than 97% confidence that about 4.2 billion years ago, their perihelios were grouped. This suggests that a cataclysmic event occurred about 300 million years after the formation of the solar system placed them all in their strange trajectories. But what was that power so powerful? There are two great candidates. The near passage of a wandering star who approached our sun in his childhood and that could have gravitationally scrambled the confines of the system. Or the existence of a giant planet that, after interacting with these objects, was subsequently expelled from the solar system. Not a planet nine, but a rebel planet. Image | Synical Academy In Xataka | Good news, the solar system has a new minor planet. Bad news, it’s so far that appears every 25,000 years

A “real” quantum computer before 2030

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Spinq is one of the main manufacturers of Quantum computers from China. We discovered this company in early 2023 because it placed in the market An amazing quantum team Very compact that looked much more like a PC than one of the huge and exotic quantum computers of IBM, Google or Honeywell. However, Spinq machine technology It was very different to which the equipment with Superconductor cubits or ion traps. And it is that their cubits were implemented taking advantage of the possibility of measuring spin states of certain atoms of a molecule using nuclear magnetic resonance techniques (NMR). A brief note: the spin is an intrinsic property of elementary particles, as well as the electric charge, derived from its time of angular rotation. This strategy has allowed this Chinese company to point out some reasonably simple cubits, which can also operate in relatively little demanding environmental conditions. Spinq has ties with the Chinese government The computer we can see in the cover image of this article is the machine with spinq NMR cubits. This is a mature technology that has been known for more than two decades. In fact, the quantum computer that executed for the first time the quantum algorithm of Shor numbers factoring it. This happened in 2001. However, these cubits are very sensitive to noise, so this technique is not appropriate to put quantum processors with many cubits. Spinq plans to have a quantum machine of 100 cubits before expiring 2025 Another advantage of NMR cubits is that they are much simpler than superconductor cubits or those of trapped ions, so putting them ready is cheaper. Spinq says in Your website That their quantum computers Gemini Mini and Mini Pro, both of two cubits, and Triangulum II, of three cubits, They are low -cost quantum equipment. It makes sense that they are much cheaper than quantum computers with IBM or Google Superconductor cubits, and also that computers with Honeywell or Ionq ion traps. Even so, they are much more expensive than our PC. In fact, the first version of Triangulum, the most advanced of these compact quantum computers, cost approximately 56,000 euros in 2023. In any case, Spinq does not manufacture quantum machines for educational projects and to address some simple scientific problems; It also designs and produces quantum computers with much more ambitious superconductor cubits. According to SCMPthis company plans to have a quantum machine of 100 cubits before it expires 2025. It does not seem a great achievement if we are in mind that IBM has since 2023 ‘Condor’a quantum processor of 1,121 cubits, but Spinq’s plans do not end here. And before this decade ends up having prepared a quantum computer “useful to solve real world problems”, According to Spinq itself. To carry out this successful plan you will have to develop a machine with thousands of superconductor cubits, and, in addition, with the ability to amend your own mistakes. There is something that is worth not overlooked: this company has Very narrow ties with the Chinese government. In fact, has received a subsidy of the administration of Shenzhen and collaborates with the Harbin Institute of Technology and the Ministry of Education. There is no doubt about one thing: quantum technologies are a priority, and Spinq is one of its main assets. IBM also plans Having a quantum computer equipped with the ability to amend your errors before this decade ends, so for China it is essential to match this milestone. Image | Spinq More information | SCMP In Xataka | China manufactures quantum computers as if it were life in it. Its best plant is capable of producing eight at the same time

In full European rearme, Belgium has just expanded his f-35 fighter request. The next step is much more ambitious

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In full European rearme, not exempt from obstaclesBelgium will expand your request for F-35 With eleven new units. Thus adds to other allies such as the United Kingdom, who continue to bet on the American hunting Despite the problems that its deployment has raised. The current geopolitical context has once again placed aerial superiority in the center of the strategic board. Belgium had already commissioned 34 F-35 in 2018 With a clear objective: replace its aging F-16 fleet, a hunt that has been in service decades. At that time, the Belgian government opted for the American model against other proposals such as the Eurofighteralleging interoperability reasons, costs throughout the life cycle and compatibility with NATO nuclear weapons. Why the F-35 is the option that Belgium continues to see how more solid To date, eight units have been delivered, All in US baseswhere they serve as a training platform for the first Belgian pilots. The new order will raise the total figure to 45, in a decision framed in the reinforcement of the military budget agreed by the current government, that has committed to achieve 2% of GDP in defense in 2025 and climb up to 2.5% in the following decade. The investment planned for this extension amounts to about 1.6 billion euros, According to the strategic vision document. Although the F-16 have been updated over the years-and remain operational in several countries-it is a fourth generation platform, without furtive abilities and with less integrated sensors. They are versatile, reliable and relatively economic fighters, but belong to another era. In some scenarios, the technological difference with F-35 is abysmal. The new Lockheed Martin hunt offers a poaching, fusion of real -time sensors, advanced electronic warfacities and, above all, It is certified to carry American nuclear armament. Beyond conventional combat, this renewal of the fleet has deep strategic implications. Belgium is one of the European countries that actively participates in the strategy of NATO nuclear deterrence. To fulfill that paper, you need compatible aircraft with nuclear pumps that it is believed that they are stored in the base of Kleine Brogel. The current F-16 are certified for that mission, and the F-35 not only inherits that function, but reinforces it with more stealthy and precise technology. The delivery calendar also imposes its own limits. According to VRTthe Lockheed Martin production line is practically saturated, and the first additional fighters will not arrive until after 2033. The decision to expand the fleet, in that sense, is also a long -term commitment: future governments may resume the issue and add more units if the budgetary conditions allow it. Apart from F-35, Belgium seeks to gain weight in the air defense of the continent. In parallel to this acquisition, he has reserved 300 million euros to fully integrate into the second phase of the FCAS, The New Generation European Hunting Program. The objective is to be at the table where the technological standards of the next decades are defined, without renouncing the US fleet. On the horizon, a future coexistence is even contemplated between the F-35 and the plane that emerges from the FCAS after 2040, if the staff and the budget allow it. Images | US Air Force (1, 2, 3) In Xataka | China will need 9,000 new airplanes in the coming years. And a manufacturer takes the lead to Boeing: Airbus

part of Azure’s support was in China

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The last thing one expects when you think about the digital security of the US Department of Defense is that part of the technical support passes through engineers that are on the other side of the world. But that is just what has been happening. A group of Microsoft workers based in China participated in assistance tasks linked to Pentagon contracts, under a remote supervision system. Now, after a revelation, that scheme no longer applies to defense contracts. The cloud is not in heaven. Although it sounds ethereal, the cloud is very real. They are physical servers Distributed throughout the world, managed by technological giants such as Microsoft, Amazon or Google. These companies offer remote access to infrastructure, platforms and applications through the Internet, which allows saving costs, operating from anywhere or climbing services in seconds. But that comfort implies a huge dependence on a few suppliers. Azure not only serves private companies: It also manages government contractsincluding the US Department of Defense. And here the technical support as a key pillar comes into play: people who resolve incidents, help with configurations and guarantee that everything works without interruptions. That was where the controversy we talked about today emerged: part of that support was lending from China. A model that now makes noise. An investigation published by Propublic He revealed more than the participation of engineers based in China in sensitive contracts. He uncovered an inherited system, designed more than a decade ago, which Microsoft used to meet the security requirements of the US government. These foreign engineers did not directly access the systems: their instructions were replicated by authorized personnel from within the country. That model is known as “digital escorts.” In theory, it offered a protection layer. In practice, it opened the door to errors. Those who executed the orders – American employees with access – did not always have the necessary experience to understand what they were doing, according to the medium. In an environment of increasingly complex threats, that architecture has ceased to be a solution. Microsoft has decided to deactivate it. Microsoft moves card. After the publication of the report, Microsoft soon pronounced. In a statement released by Frank Shawits communication director, the company announced an immediate change in its operations: no team based on China will return to technical support for the Pentagon and other sensitive federal clients. The measure directly affects Pentagon’s contracts and is presented as an adjustment to “guarantee security” in critical environments. The company also insisted that its teams acted according to the protocols established by federal agencies. Even so, he promised to review his security procedures with his national partners. “We continue working to offer the safest services possible to the US government,” said Shaw. The language was diplomatic. The turn, not so much. The Pentagon responds. The reaction of the US government was swift. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, described the situation as “unacceptable”underlining that such a system has no place in the current context of digital threats. This is an architecture inherited from the Obama era, he said in a video published in X, where he announced a complete review to detect if there are more similar cases in other technological contracts. Another case on stage. The question about which suppliers deserve our trust does not end in Microsoft. In Spain, A contract awarded to HuaweiTo store judicial listening has caused diplomatic tensions with the US and Brussels. Both question if certain technological infrastructure should be in the hands of actors considered sensitive. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 Flash | Microsoft In Xataka | The impossible challenge of China: becoming 100% of the West to have a bomb -proof chip industry

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