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this map exposes the juiciest

October 11, 2025 by usatoday24

Not all passports are the same. We are not referring to the color, but to the quantity of doors that one passport can open and another cannot. Depending on geopolitics and other factors, each year a list is drawn up in which they order The best and worst passports. The vast majority are achieved by being born in a specific country or passing a citizenship exam. But there are other passports that are obtained in a much more direct way. Yes we have -a lot- of money. The passport purchase map. Visual Capitalist has prepared the map that we have on these lines thanks to the data from Henley & Partners (those who make the lists of best and worst passports) and we can see which are the 13 countries that offer something as curious as that “citizenship by investment.” Passport prices are not cheap, but among them we have some like the Malta one, which allows access to 184 countries, making it one of the most “powerful in the world.” In European territory there is also Montenegro -127 countries- and North Macedonia -128 countries-, with Montenegro being very expensive for the “few” countries to which it opens doors. The prices of these passports, in order, would be as follows: Investment required malt (not available from 2025) $698,580 Montenegro $524,000 Jordan $493,640 Türkiye $400,000 Saint Christina and Nevis $250,000 Egypt $250,000 saint lucia $240,000 grenade $232,860 north macedonia $232,860 ancient and bearded $230,000 dominica $200,000 nauaru $130,000 Money for… what? Something that is obvious is the number of Caribbean countries that have these “citizenship by investment” programs, with extremely similar prices. The big question now is who do you have to pay to have a passport (legal, of course) and where does that money go? The answer is… it is paid to the Government. Or the country, however we want to see it. In the case of Caribbean countries, you do not have to pass a language exam or reside on the island. We simply pay the amount and, within a period of just a few months, the passport is delivered to us. And more than a payment, it is a donation or investment, depending on the country. For example, we can get a Saint Kitts and Nevis passport if we contribute to the Sustainable Growth Fund for the Islands or if we make a considerable real estate investment. It is one of the strongest passports in the Caribbean (with visa for 154 countries) and one of the most coveted “golden passports” because it is not the most expensive. Other countries in the area operate in a similar way and the attractions depend. For example, Granada has a visa treaty E-2 that allows citizens to apply for different procedures in the United States. In fact, there are websites that detail not only what you have to pay, but also the period for obtaining the passport and the “countries that being a citizen opens up to you.” What was given is over. Surely there is something on your mind: to what extent this is an irregularity. It is also something that the European Union itself asked itself not so long ago. Malta appears on the map, but although it was the most expensive and somewhat stricter (because you had to reside for a certain time, buy property and donate to charities), taking into account that it is one of the most powerful in the world, it could be worth putting that amount on the table and getting citizenship. However, in April of this same 2025, the European Court of Justice ruled that these passport-for-money programs violate Union law. Specifically, they consider that granting European Union citizenship in exchange for investment without having any other requirements or connection with the country violates the principle of cooperation between Member States. Because, basically, getting a Maltese passport is have the doors of European countries open wide open, plus those of almost everyone. Cyprus and Bulgaria also had these programs, but after the European ruling, they stopped them. North Macedonia, however, is one of the most relaxed… but there is no indication that applications have been processed. And be careful, regardless of the “ease” of obtaining them, an investigation is usually carried out to verify the origin of the funds, the background of the people, proof of identity, financial history and medical history. What there is not are language exams or the obligation to reside in the country. For the low. Now, there are countries that have this “golden passport”, but not a table with the fees and requirements. For example, Austria, which has another of the most powerful passports, offers citizenship to foreigners who make “extraordinary and significant merits for the country.” It is a highly selective process. Canada has the Quebec Immigrant Investor Program which requires an investment of one million Canadian dollars over five years, a non-refundable contribution of $200,000, an asset of two million Canadian dollars and passing a B2 French exam. And the United States has the EB-5which requires investments of almost two million dollars and grants the green card of permanent residencealthough you do not become a US citizen. In the end, although residual in areas such as the European Union, the Golden Passport is something that continues to exist in several countries as a way to improve global mobility or, directly, to obtain certain benefits that come with being a citizen of a specific country. In Xataka | Americans are moving to Europe in droves. Reason? Housing there is unaffordable

In 1990, the Internet was science fiction for half the world. And in Japan they already played the Sega Mega Drive online

October 11, 2025 by usatoday24

We live in a highly connected world in which the Internet is present on our computers, mobile phones, consoles and even refrigerators. Never in history has it been so easy to access information, play online or control devices from a distance. However, as we all know, this has not always been the case. The year is 1990. It may be a little surprising to think that in 1990 Japan not only were already connecting to the Internet, but some people were connecting modems to their video game consoles to play online. And the most curious thing about this service is that the country was not even among those that had the most developed connectivity offer. The data. To give a little context, according to Worldmapper dataAbout 3 million people had access to the Internet in the inaugural year of the 1990s. Most of the users were distributed between the United States and Europe. In the connectivity ranking, Japan was far behind, outside the top 10 positions. Pioneers. However, the Japanese company Sega did not hesitate to embrace the network of networks with its Mega Drive console (known as the Sega Genesis in other markets). It was its fourth-generation 16-bit console that had been launched in 1988 and had been a success. The device had a 7.6 MHz Motorola 68000 microprocessor to run the games and a Zilog Z80 coprocessor. The console thus had 64 KB of RAM, 64 KB of VRAM, 8 KB of audio RAM. Two years after its launch, specifically on November 3, 1990, Sega launched the Mega Modem in Japan. It was an accessory that connected to a DE-9 port located on the back of the console and that allowed it to connect to the Internet. Dial-up. As you can surely imagine, the offering of online services back then was very primitive. However, the Japanese company was encouraged to distribute games through dial-up connection as well as to allow online play in some of its titles. All this was done through a telephone connection whose speed was around 1200 bauds (1.2 kbit/s). And, since there was no additional storage device, all downloaded games had to be stored in the Mega Drive’s memory. Variety of games. At that time, Sega offered two options to access the Mega Modem. On the one hand, players could purchase the accessory with a cartridge for 12,800 yen. This enabled the aforementioned connectivity and gave access to a range of included games. Titles included ‘Nikkan Sports Professional Baseball VAN’, ‘Cyberball’, ‘Advanced Grand Strategy’, ‘TEL/TEL Stadium’, ‘Forbidden City’ and ‘TEL/TEL Majan’. The last one was a mahjong game with individual or online play capabilities. Mega Modem Purchasing separately. On the other hand, the company only offered the Mega Modem for 9,800 yen. In this case, users should purchase compatible cartridges separately to take advantage of the connectivity benefits of the accessory. One of the most successful cartridges was Sansan. It was a Go strategy game with online play capability. The developer, White Box, allowed owners of the cartridge to play through the Mega Modem with others using their Sansan ID. The proposal, without a doubt, was enormously interesting. However, it did not have the expected success and the Japanese company decided to discontinue it at the end of 1992. The new versions of the Mega Drive, in fact, were launched on the market without the modem port. Images | SEGA | boffy_b | In Xataka | The PS5 Slim has removable Blu-ray drives. This modular option carries a penalty called DRM

which cars can circulate and which rest on October 11

October 11, 2025 by usatoday24

Once again the weekend arrives and with it the restrictive measures that we know so well. The Hoy No Circula Saturday program comes into force again, affecting all those motorists subject to these regulations established by the CDMX Environment Secretariat (SEDEMA) with the purpose of contributing to the improvement of air quality in the capital. The basis of these measures is precisely to reduce the number of vehicles that travel on public roads. This strategy requires certain cars to remain parked at their homes. Such limitations apply to the 16 municipalities of Mexico City and the suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico, which are detailed below: • Atizapan of Zaragoza • Coacalco de Berriozábal • Cuautitlan • Cuautitlán Izcalli • Chalco • Chicoloapan • Chimalhuacan • Ecatepec de Morelos • Huixquilucan • Ixtapaluca • Peace • Naucalpan de Juárez • Nezahualcoyotl • Nicolas Romero • Tecámac • Tlalnepantla de Baz • Tultitlan • Chalco Valley What cars and license plates does Hoy No Circula Saturday affect? Considering these elements, how can we prevent a penalty for traveling improperly? Without a doubt, the fundamental thing lies in properly understanding the limitations that are established. You can see these limitations in the image that appears above. Each of these days presents a specific characteristic. The regulations are precise, although Saturdays experience minor variations. The reason is that not in all cases it is the owners themselves who must keep their vehicles off the road. Briefly, the following situations may occur on a Saturday. • Vehicles authorized to travel every Saturday • Vehicles forced to remain at rest every Saturday • Vehicles that alternate Saturday rest These limitations, however, are not maintained throughout the day. During night hours they are not considered and, therefore, remain in force from 05:00 to 22:00. This means that during the night we will have the possibility of moving around without restrictions and without worries about sanctions. After clarifying this, what other elements should we consider? The first thing is to understand that the Saturday Hoy No Circula does not always work exactly the same. It is necessary to consult the calendar because Saturdays do not always affect the same cars equally. The final enrollment figure will be the determining factor. Vehicles with hologram 2 are required to remain off the road. On the contrary, cars with hologram 0 and 00 do not require rest at any time. The latter enjoy total freedom of movement because they represent the vehicles with the lowest polluting impact. But what is the situation of hologram 1? On a date like today, October 11, 2025it will be up to vehicles with hologram 1 and registration ending in an even digit to remain in their homes. This is because this Saturday corresponds to the second Saturday of the month of October and, consequently, coincides with an “even week.” Next weekend, the situation will be reversed and the odd ones will have to rest. However, there are certain exemptions that must be considered, since these vehicles will be authorized to travel without limitations: • Those that operate with electricity, natural gas or hybrid technology • Those who have registration for people with disabilities • All those intended for urban transportation services (including funeral services) • Those that provide school or user transportation • Those assigned to public security and/or civil protection If these restrictions are violated, the economic penalty will range between 20 to 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA), which represents 1,924.40 pesos and up to 2,886.60 pesos. Photo | bardia Hashemirad In Xataka | Pollution is not only making you live less and worse. It’s also making you dumber

The Meta Ray-Ban Display wants to replace the smartphone. The question is whether they will be able to do it: Crossover 1×25

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

Mark Zuckerberg believes that In 2030 we will not take our smartphones out of our pockets so much because we will do almost everything from the glasses. This may be a fairly accurate prediction, especially after the launch of the Meta Ray-Ban Displayconnected glasses that are an important qualitative leap compared to traditional Ray-Ban Meta. Precisely to talk about If glasses can end up replacing the smartphone We have gotten together Jaume Lahoz, Jota and a server in Crossover 1×25. In this new episode we discuss everything about a launch that is certainly promising and even disruptive. So, we begin by talking about the integrated screen on the right lens of the glasses, an extraordinary option that allows you to display notifications and relevant information at all times. Added to this is that bracelet with electromyographic technology for gesture control, a fantastic way to interact with the interface of these glasses. Of course there is a worrying hidden face in this product: privacy risks. As with their predecessors, glasses can be used to capture images and video of what is in front of us, and that can spark new controversies in this regard. We also talk about how several manufacturers in China have similar models that even surpass Meta’s glasses in technical performance. And of course we review the history of devices that already wanted to tempt us in 2013 with the legendary Google Glass. Will other large technology companies enter this race? It seems inevitable, but the real question is whether glasses will actually become a great alternative to smartphones. Mark Zuckerberg is clear that yes. If you want to know what we think, We encourage you to take a look at the debatewhich we think has turned out great and interesting. Enjoy it! On YouTube | Crossover

In the nineties, no one saw how the Internet would starve factories. Thirty years later, AI is doing the same thing

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

On the one hand, the United States government is trying to reverse three decades of deindustrialization with tariffs on China. On the other hand, investment in AI is recreating exactly the phenomenon that destroyed part of the American industry in the 1990s. History repeats itself, but this time knowing what is going to happen. Why is it important. Derek Thompson, business reporter for The Atlantic, has identified a pattern that rewrites what we thought we knew about American industrial decline. China not only stole jobs but American capital abandoned them early. In an interview with the investor Paul Kedrosky for his podcast Plain EnglishThompson presents his thesis: In the nineties, the massive deployment of the Internet and telecommunications absorbed brutal amounts of money. That money had to come from somewhere. He left the factories. Small manufacturers saw financing becoming increasingly more expensive. Just at that time, China was entering the World Trade Organization and trade barriers were falling. It wasn’t bad luck. It was cause and effect. The context. Technology companies are going to spend about $400 billion this year building infrastructure for AI. To put it in perspective: the Apollo program that took the United States to the Moon cost about 300 billion adjusting for inflation. That was ten years. This is a year. Data centers have accounted for half of US economic growth in the first six months of 2025. The forecast is that investment exceeds 500,000 million annually in 2026 and 2027. Meanwhile, American consumers are spending $12 billion a year on AI services. The difference between what is invested and what is earned is abysmal. The panoramic. The problem is structural. If you manage an investment fund with 500,000 million, you have two options: You can distribute that money among a hundred small factories that need five million each. Or you can write ten $50 billion checks to AI projects. The first option means managing a hundred different companies. Sit on dozens of tips. Do constant monitoring. The second means ten meetings a year. The choice is obvious. A manufacturer that wants to take advantage of the moment to bring production back to the US finds that borrowing money is very expensive. Banks compare their project with the returns that AI promises. There is no color. The irony. Trump has built his economic policy on tariffs that force companies to manufacture in the US. But investment in AI is making it more expensive exactly what the tariffs are trying to make cheaper: producing locally. Tariffs raise the price of importing from China. AI raises the cost of financing local production. The net effect may be zero for the industry, but with higher prices for everyone. The figures. Building a modern data center involves… That 60% of the budget goes to NVIDIA chips. The rest is divided between refrigeration, electricity and construction. The physical building is the cheapest part. Geography also counts. Northern Virginia concentrates a good part of the investment. Areas that were rural ten years ago are now surrounded by industrial facilities that operate 24 hours a day. Yes, but. There is a way out that did not exist in the nineties: set up data centers outside the United States. India and the Middle East are receiving huge investments because electricity is cheaper and your neighbors, ahem, complain less. But that makes the original problem worse. If the money goes to data centers in other countries, there is even less left for American factories. Between the lines. Kedrosky uses a simile that sums it all up: a death star that absorbs capital. In the nineties that star was the Internet. Now it’s AI. The factories, in both cases, are collateral damage. The difference is that in the nineties no one saw it coming. Now yes. In Xataka | Spain has a railway giant in the shadows. And he just got the “contract of the century” Featured image | Cemrecan Yurtman

This is how the money is distributed in the neighborhoods and municipalities of Spain

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

On the streets of Spain, the standard of living can change radically from one apple to another. The environment that a person finds when leaving home, the parked vehicles, the diversity of stores or the simple appearance of the buildings tell part of a deeper and more complex story. Behind these everyday differences, the data reflects the extent to which geographic location reflects economic level and the well-being of its inhabitants. The published statistics This week by the Tax Agency they show a growing gap that crosses cities and neighborhoods, making it clear that wealth and poverty do not usually live in the same zip code. Where wealth is concentrated. The richest neighborhoods in Spain They are recorded in residential areas on the outskirts of the large urban centers of Madrid and Barcelona. La Moraleja (Alcobendas, Madrid) stands out for another year with 196,429 euros of average gross income, followed by Ciudalcampo (San Sebastián de los Reyes, Madrid) with 121,838 euros and Fuente del Fresno (also in San Sebastián de los Reyes) with 108,354 euros. Outside the capital, the Vallvidrera-Tibidabo i Les Planes neighborhood, on the eastern edge of Barcelona, occupies fourth place with 107,513 euros. Without leaving the city of Barcelonathe neighborhoods of Muntaner (106,734 euros) and Pedralbes-Sarriá (104,963 euros) complete the list of the richest in Spain. We have to reduce several tens of thousands of euros in rent to find a neighborhood outside the scope of these two cities, until we reach the Valencian Massarrochos-Santa Bárbara, with an average gross income of 81,807 euros. The neighborhoods with the least income. The opposite extreme is represented by Torreblanca, in Seville, which according to records According to the Tax Agency, it was ranked as the area with the lowest average gross income in all of Spain during the year 2023, reaching only 11,354 euros annually. Despite this figure, the neighborhood itself improves slightly compared to previous years. However, the gap between the highest and lowest average income centers remains abysmal, standing at over 185,000 euros difference. Other neighborhoods with low income are Nou Alacant (Alicante, 16,868 euros), Cortijos de Marín (Roquetas de Mar, Almería, 17,210 euros), Carrús-Plaza Barcelona (Elche, 17,670 euros) and Ciudad Jardín (Alicante, 19,000 euros). Given these data, it is worth highlighting the enormous gap that exists between the neighborhoods with the highest and lowest incomesreaching a difference of up to 185,000 euros on average between La Moraleja and Torreblanca. Origin of wealth in the neighborhoods. The nature of wealth also changes depending on the neighborhood in which you live. For example, only 58.55% of the income of the residents of the richest neighborhoods comes from a salary, while 17.79% corresponds to capital returns, 10.68% is earned from economic activities and 11.53% comes from of capital gains. However, in lower-income neighborhoods there is a greater dependence on labor income direct and there is very little generation of passive or patrimonial income. The salary of the residents of these humble neighborhoods represents more than 75% of the total average annual income. In the case of Torreblanca, the poorest neighborhood in Spain, the weight of salaries in the total declared income reaches 75.18%. For its part, capital income barely represents 0.22%, economic activities 1.83% and capital gains only 0.47%. Wealth and poverty in the shadow of big cities. It is enough to open the focus a little more to discover that the municipalities with the highest average income are clearly concentrated in the communities of Madrid and Catalonia. Pozuelo de Alarcón, in Madrid, repeats as the richest municipality in Spain with an average income of 88,011 euros in 2023, 3.15% more than the previous year. They are followed by Boadilla del Monte (Madrid) with 70,869 euros and Sant Just Desvern, in Barcelona, with 67,265 euros. In total, five Madrid and four Catalan municipalities appear among the top ten on this list. At the other extreme, the municipalities with the lowest incomes are located mainly in Andalusia and Extremadura. Benamargosa, in Malaga, is the poorest, with an average income of only 13,831 euros. It is followed by other Andalusian municipalities such as Guadahortuna and Colomera, both in Granada, with around 14,000 euros of average income. The difference between Pozuelo de Alarcón and Benamargosa is 74,180 euros, which, as we already saw in the breakdown of the neighborhoods, also shows great economic inequality between areas of the country. In Xataka | The list of the richest people in Spain in 2025: many changes in the figures, but not in the protagonists Image | Unsplash (Yzy Pop, John Fornander)

The US investigates 2.9 million cars for breaking the rules

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

Tesla continues to push for its FSD to reach Europe. At the moment, the company still does not have its semi-autonomous driving system available (requires paying attention while driving) on our continent. In recent months they have intensified their messages but now they have a problem. One that concerns 2.9 million cars. FSD. Full Self Driving. It is Tesla’s most advanced driving assistance system. The company sells this system in the United States that allows you to take your hands off the wheel and let the car take all the reins. The system can even be activated within a town with the car taking various exits or reacting to traffic agents such as pedestrians or improperly parked cars. The system, for now, is still awaiting approval on our continent. The deadlines have been extended but, at the moment, the only cars that allow you to drive without hands on the steering wheel are those equipped with Ford BlueCruise and as long as the route has been previously mapped. Click on the image to go to the original tweet More and more pressure. Since last summer, Tesla has been pushing for the European Union to allow this system to be used on its roads. Last June, Elon Musk asked in X the support of his followers so that the European Union speeds up the processes. And, furthermore, He went so far as to say that the FSD “will save lives”. The tweet was preceded by two other publications aimed in the same direction. From the official Tesla account, the company shared videos showing how its cars equipped with FSD circulated normally through cities like Rome or Paris. In the latter, even entered fully into the chaotic roundabout of the Arc de Triomphe Parisian and behaved completely normally. 2.9 million. With this idea on the table, the NHTSA, in charge of traffic safety in the United States, has opened a preliminary investigation into 2.88 million Tesla cars equipped with its most advanced autonomous driving system, advancing in Reuters. The reason is simple: they violate traffic regulations. In total, NHTSA has been informed of at least 50 violations while the FSD was active. Nearly two dozen warnings have been reported after cars ran a traffic light or stalled after it had already opened. Other warnings reflected that the car did not take cross traffic into account and was rushing to pass an intersection with other vehicles already performing the maneuver. They remember in Ars Technica that these investigations are not unknown to Tesla. In fact, this is already the third time that the NHTSA has opened an investigation related to Tesla’s driving assistance systems. like a human. For better and worse, Tesla cars appear to have been configured to behave like a human. Elon Musk already pointed out that their fleet of cars allows them to collect data in real traffic scenarios much faster than their competitors and this allows them to improve autonomous driving skills much faster. However, it was noted a long time ago that this “more human” and less robotic behavior sometimes passed for violate certain traffic rules. And with the launch of the first robotaxis onto the streets, it was proven that this human behavior, even, could be translated into braking in case you see the police. Clue. The problem for Tesla is that FSD approval is key. First because it has been one of his great promises: buy a car today that, tomorrow, you will be able to drive alone. Promises that, on the other hand, have not been fulfilled. But, also, for Tesla the FSD is really very important. First, because it is a source of income that I hoped to make profitable over the years, either with a significant income at the time of purchase or with recurring payments to activate and deactivate it through updates. And, second, because it would allow regain a leadership position within the industry. Right now, except for the specific case of Ford and the Mercedes level 3 applicable in very specific circumstances, no one can drive without having their hands on the wheel. If Tesla obtained this approval it would turn the system into an added value that could tip the balance in its favor when choosing a new car. Photo | tesla In Xataka | Tesla unlocks one of its most advanced functions in Europe. And incidentally confirms that we will have the least autonomous Teslas of all

The most watched film in history on television is not a Hollywood success, but a classic from the most carpet-loving Spain

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

You will have heard on more than one occasion that every time ‘Pretty Woman’ is broadcast on television, audiences skyrocket. Nowadays it is no longer so true: Telecinco broadcast it a couple of days ago and the result It wasn’t spectacular.. In any case, not even the film by Richard Gere and Julia Roberts has come to live up to what is the greatest milestone in television cinema: the most viewed film in history in Spain has nothing Hollywood about it. Neither cathete nor cathete. On January 14, 1992 (that is, with the private ones already at full capacity, but still unable to stand up to depending on the customs of the Spanish viewer), the broadcast on La 1 of ‘Cateto a port’ had an average audience of 10,078,000 viewers and a stratospheric share 60.5% (for comparison, the final of the last Copa del Rey, the most watched in years, it didn’t reach 50%and the daily program that exceeds 15% is rare). Tremendous landism. ‘Cateto a port’ is a 1970 Spanish comedy starring Alfredo Landa. In it, a simple young man, after multiple attempts to avoid military service in order to take care of his little brother, ends up joining the Navy, having to face multiple difficulties due to his lack of experience. The film uses simple humor for all audiences, contrasting the naive protagonist (the recruit Cañete, whose name will soon become iconic) and the highly regulated environment of the Navy. All seasoned, of course, with its mild military propaganda, showing the modernity and friendliness of the institutions. Why do you like ‘Cateto a port’? His conciliatory tone, so typical of the last years of the Franco dictatorship, guaranteed him notable box office success, and above all, as with other stars of the time such as Paco Martínez Soria, the favor of the public. Its comedy of manners with a very friendly tone makes ‘Cateto a port’ very digestible by audiences of all ages, just what brought ten million people to the television screen. The most aggressive landismo was yet to come, full of plots with Spanish boys chasing Swedish women among images of medium intensity eroticism. It would be inaugurated, precisely, that same 1970 with a film by the same director, ‘You will not desire the neighbor on the fifth floor’. Relative milestone. Of course, we are talking about an absolute record… since there have been measurements, something that started in Spain in 1986. In 1992, audiences had already atomized due to private ones, so it is possible to think that in the seventies and eighties, when the population’s primary entertainment was television, the audiences for other films (or even this one) could have been much larger. Before measuring with audiometers, The audience was measured through the General Media Study (EGM) since 1968, which used interviews to estimate consumption. Other successes. There are only four feature films registered that have exceeded 9 million on average: the humorous western by Clint Eastwood and Shirley McLaine ‘Two Mules and a Woman’, with 9,598,000; the tremendous ‘The Priest’s Son’ by Fernando Esteso, with 9,287,000 spectators; We were talking about ‘Pretty Woman’ and there it is, with 9,223,000 viewers; and finally, ‘Dirty Dancing’ with 9,110,000 viewers. Be careful, because they are all broadcasts from 1992 (with the exception of ‘Pretty Woman’, from 1994), which suggests that, despite the arrival of private broadcasts, there was a general increase in people watching television in the early nineties.

Europe has decided to take action against Moscow’s hybrid war. So Germany has started hunting for Russian drones

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

Which started as a succession of technical incidents and contradictory testimonies did not take long to shake the governments of the old continent, mobilizing ships and planes, and forcing Berlin to rewrite the rules about when and how something floating above our heads can be knocked down. On that invisible chessboard there was a question that everyone avoided answering: who really presses the button that launches these devices, and for what purpose? Now, Germany and the rest of Europe seem to agree. The invisible front. we have been counting. Europe has entered an unprecedented phase of aerial vulnerability. In just a few months, a wave of incursions by unidentified drones (some over airports, industrial plants and strategic centers) has forced the closure of airspace, diverting flights and putting on alert to the forces navies of several countries. In Germany, air traffic disruptions have been multiplied by 33% in a single year, and what began as a succession of isolated incidents has become a continental phenomenon that many attribute to a hybrid offensive orchestrated by Russia. And more. These raids, without constituting a formal act of war, are part of a destabilization strategy broader that combines cyberattacks, sabotage and technological intimidation to gauge NATO’s reaction and test European response capacity without crossing the threshold of direct confrontation. Germany changes doctrine. Until recently, German authorities were limited to detecting drones, without being able to intervene on them. However, the magnitude of the raids (which forced even at closing of Munich airport and left thousands of passengers stranded) has forced a legal change of enormous significance. The Government of Friedrich Merz has approved a bill authorizing the federal police to shoot down drones that violate German airspace or represent an immediate danger, using everything from kinetic shots to laser weapons and electronic jamming systems. It is not a trivial topic. It is about the first modification of the police law since 1994, and its parliamentary approval will place Germany at the level from France, the United Kingdom, Lithuania and Romaniacountries that already allow the active neutralization of unmanned aircraft. The Executive has also announced the creation of a national anti-drone unit that will be in charge of neutralizing low-altitude devices, while those with greater power will remain under military jurisdiction. Between safety and climbing. The approval of this law reflects a dilemma that crosses all of Europe: how to respond to Russian hybrid aggression without provoking an escalation of war. Chancellor Merz himself has acknowledged that many of the intercepted aircraft appear to be carrying out reconnaissance flights, without weapons, but with clear strategic intentions. At the same time, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt has underlined that operations in urban environments must be governed by the principle of proportionality to avoid collateral damage. Fear that a misidentification could lead to a diplomatic or military incident keeps security forces on edge. a constant balance between firmness and prudence. Meanwhile, Germany modernizes its defense with systems such as the Rheinmetall Skyrangerdesigned to neutralize swarms of drones in the middle of a hybrid war, and strengthens its coordination with NATO in the face of the risk that the technological frontier will also become a political frontier. The risk of the “gray zone”. Recent incidents in Poland, Estonia and Romania (where Russian drones and MiG-31 fighters have violated allied airspace) have prompted NATO to review its rules of engagement. Countries bordering Russia, backed by France and the United Kingdom, have proposed more aggressive measures: allow pilots to open fire without visual confirmation, arm surveillance drones and carry out military exercises on the same border line. Although some allies advocate containment to avoid a direct clash with a nuclear power, others maintain that the only effective deterrence is the visible action. Washington has pushed to relax response rules and even has suggested that the Alliance should “shoot Russian planes” that enter its airspace. In other words, the debate has revealed the tension between European caution and the American desire to regain the initiative against Moscow, in a context in which the war in Ukraine and Russian aerial provocations threaten to overflow the limits of conventional war. Europe and the air shield. The idea we count recently. While NATO refines its protocols, the European Union is trying to strengthen its autonomous capacity against hybrid attacks. The president of the Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, has proposed lifting that “drone wall”a network of sensors, radars and weapons that protects the eastern flank of the continent. Brussels is also preparing sanctions and restrictions to the movement of Russian diplomats suspected of directing sabotage operations, while allocating community funds to finance anti-drone systems in airports, ports and power plants. The initiative seeks not only to reinforce physical security, but also to respond politically to the Russian attempt to sow division within the EU. “Russia wants to divide us; we must respond with unity,” has warned von der Leyen, stressing that defense against gray war cannot be limited to reacting, but must focus on active deterrence. Europe in transformation. The drone challenge has forced Europe to recognize that 21st century war is not fought only with tanks and missiles, but also with algorithmsautonomous swarms and information saturation. The German law authorizes the demolition of unmanned aircraft, military coordination of NATO on the eastern flank and the new European strategy air defense They are part of the same response: that of a continent that adapts to an enemy that does not always show itself. In the diffuse space of the hybrid warwhere a civilian drone can become a strategic weapon and a cyber attack an act of war, the border between peace and conflict has become more blurred than ever. Germany, the industrial and political epicenter of the old continent, seems to have understood that security is no longer measured in battles, but in reaction seconds. And as the Ukraine war redefines the global balance of power, Europe rehearses its own defensive revival: a forced transition from pacifism to pragmatism, in which each downed … Read more

From now on your Word documents are automatically saved to OneDrive. It’s a disturbing idea

October 10, 2025 by usatoday24

Until now, when we saved a file that we worked with in Microsoft Word We used the hard drive or SSD of our computers. However, that just changed, and Microsoft has decided that your files are stored by default in your cloud. It is an idea that has its advantages, but also important drawbacks. what has happened. At an event dedicated to OneDrive and Copilot this week, Microsoft has announced new features for your cloud storage service. In the version of Word for Windows, new documents will be saved directly to OneDrive and automatic saving of those documents will be activated automatically. Good on the one hand. At Microsoft they explained that they knew “how frustrating it can be to search for important files on different devices and locations.” That has made them decide that instead of saving them directly to your device, are saved in the cloudwhere they are always available and from any other computer and place. It’s a good idea to have those documents ready to be accessed from other computers, but it has several major drawbacks. Also activating automatic auto-save will prevent us from losing work. Privacy and security. For starters, uploading documents to the cloud by default can raise privacy and security concerns. What happens if the document contains confidential or sensitive information? Would we really want to upload that document to the cloud? If someone gets our OneDrive credentials—and that happensespecially when we reuse passwords— you will be able to access all our documents and, if there is sensitive information in them, collect it. Will they use those files to train their AI models? Microsoft Support Managers they have made it clear in the past that “our terms of service clearly state that we do not use customer data to train our AI models.” The privacy terms and the website of theMicrosoft Responsible AI” seem to confirm this, although they do point out that they do use the conversations with Copilot—but not the documents themselves—to improve those models. It is not a backup, it is the only copy. Normally we turned to OneDrive and other cloud storage services as ways to have a backup copy of our documents and thus get closer to that philosophy of “Backups 3-2-1“. With this type of feature, the files are stored directly in OneDrive, and although we have a local folder synchronized with the OneDrive files on our computer, Microsoft reverses the process here: before we saved those files in another folder and then we also uploaded them to OneDrive if we wanted. Now that copy of OneDrive is the only one. You can go back to business as usual. Microsoft will set this option by default, but users can deactivate it so that the office application behaves in a traditional way and offers the saving of files on our PC or laptop. It is likely, however, that many users will not even do it if they do not know about this change. They will simply assume it, something that can end up causing confusion. What if I don’t have a connection? It is true that it is normal that at this point we work on documents when we have the computer connected to the internet, but that cannot be the case. If that happens, we will not be able to save to OneDrive or have the autosave option working with those cloud operations. What will happen then? It is likely that in this scenario Microsoft Word will save files temporarily in the computer’s storage system, but that detail is not clarified. Another way to encourage you to pay for OneDrive. Microsoft is obsessed with getting you to use (and pay for) its services. We already saw how they are blocking the installation of Windows 11 with local accountsand this automatic autosave in OneDrive also aims to boost the use of OneDrive and Microsoft 365, its two great solutions for end users and businesses. Image | Ed Hardie In Xataka | Microsoft embraces the ‘working vibe’: it has launched Excel and Word that are controlled with prompts

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