America

the third country in South America with the shortest day

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Reduction of working hours to 40 hours per week It is already a reality in Mexicoafter his approval and publication in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF). Now, the country begins a period of progressive adaptation that will end in 2030 with a 40 hour work day weekly. This milestone places Mexico in an advantageous position with respect to the rest of the continent, being the third country in South America with the shortest working day. This change comes in a context in which the majority of Latin American countries still maintain a 48-hour work week, while only Ecuador and Chile have until now had a 40-hour regulation like the one Mexico now faces. Mexico joins the 40-hour “club”. With the reform, Mexico joins Ecuador, a regional pioneer in reducing the working day since 1997, and Chile, which is already in the process of transitioning from 45 to 40 hours with closure planned for 2028. The International Labor Organization (ILO) points out in its report ‘Reduction of working hours: global evolution and challenges for Latin America‘ that 48-hour work weeks remain the norm in Latin America, although some countries have moved towards shorter limits. The report highlights that reducing working hours can improve health, well-being and productivity, but clarifies that the impact depends on the economic context, the design of the reform and of complementary policies that each country adopts. Other countries with days of less than 48 hours. Beyond the aforementioned examples of Ecuador and Chile, other Latin American countries have already reduced their working hours to below 48 hours, although without reaching the 40 hours of the Mexican project. The Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela, El Salvador and Honduras maintain a 44-hour day, while Colombia established it at 42 hours per week, after a gradual reduction that began in 2023 and concluded this year. In contrast, most of the economies in the region, including Mexico until now, continue with the 48-hour limit, which reflects a certain degree of immobility in the face of international recommendations and the experiences of reducing working hours that have already been carried out. in other countries. How the reduction will be applied in Mexico. Taking the example of other countries that have already followed the path of reducing working hours, in Mexico, the change will be carried out gradually, with the goal of going from 48 to 40 hours weekly without altering the scheme of a single day of rest, something it shares with the recent reforms in Chile and Colombia. The adaptation will be carried out progressively at a rate of two hours per year, so that in January 2027 the working day will become 46 hours per week; In January 2028 it will go to 44 hours and by January 2029 it will be reduced to 42 hours. In January 2030, the cycle ends and the working day will be established at a 40-hour work week. All this without applying a salary reduction. The labor challenges of Latin America. The ILO report highlights that the reduction of working hours in Latin America faces specific challenges, such as high levels of informality in contracting, limited coverage of collective bargaining and a tendency to underground economywhich conditions the scope of the reforms. Furthermore, sectors such as domestic work, moonlighting and gender gaps They require specific regulatory frameworks for their respective labor markets and not a simple copy of the models that have worked in high-income countries. In Xataka | If the question is how to do your job without extending the working day, the answer is simple: avoid “time traps”

In South America there is a bird that camouflages itself as a piece of wood. And a young Uruguayan has insisted on finding him

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In the depths of the South American forests lives a bird that has inspired legends, myths and night terrors and is called the ‘ghost bird’, although his real name is urutaú. At first glance it is just a piece of wood that acts as an extension of the tree on which it perches like a chameleonbut behind this mimicry lies a biology that makes many scientists very curious to see it live even if it is really complicated. An ornithologist. The urutaú is not a bird that one finds by chance, but one must know how to look. Mauricio Silvera, a young Uruguayan amateur ornithologist who has been observing birds since he was five years old, knows this premise well, and according to a recent report from the BBCMauricio has turned observing this elusive species into a true passion. In popular culture, the melancholic song of the urutaú has fueled all kinds of folklore and rural legends in South America. However, for observers like Silvera, the true “magical power” of this species is not in the myths, but in its plumage and its peculiar way of ‘hiding’. A chameleon. It is no wonder, since we are not talking about it going slightly unnoticed, but rather its ability to imitate the bark of trees It is so perfect that sighting records on scientific platforms often require exhaustive photographic confirmation. And it is no wonder, because without this evidence it is difficult to convince the experts that they are not looking at a simple branch and a small irregularity that corresponds to this bird. How he does it. Disappearing in broad daylight is not something easy to achieve, but here science has different answers that go far beyond the simple color of their feathers. The key is in visual crypsis, where research shows that these birds not only have a plumage pattern that blends with the environment, but also make active decisions about where to perch in trees. And it is that a 2017 study on the choice of backgrounds showed that these birds carefully select the place where they rest to maximize the coincidence of patterns with their environment, which increases the survival rate against predators. And if they don’t see it, they can go completely missing. Modify your smell. Beyond the visual, researchers were able to see in a fascinating 2022 study that these birds have the ability to change your scent profiles in different seasons to prevent predators from being able to smell them. Echolocation. Unlike most birds, owls have developed this system, emitting acoustic signals to navigate in the darkness of Venezuelan and South American caves, similar to bats. Furthermore, their role in the ecosystem is vital, since research into the “secret life” of these birds reveals that they are formidable seed dispersers. They spend entire days in the trees regurgitating the seeds of the fruits they consume, acting as true foresters who maintain the ecological connectivity of Neotropical forests. A story of the search. As we see, it is not easy to find this bird and that is why Mauricio Silvera relates that finding it is “an adrenaline rush like in the chest of not knowing what to do: whether to scream, take the photo and tell someone.” Even this biology student makes a very comical simile when he sees that it is “almost like looking for Pokémon and seeing how many little birds you find and if you find the rarest one.” Your adventure always begins with a location or a photo that indicates that the bird may be present in a specific place. But due to its great ability to hide, it means that your trips do not always end with a photograph of this bird, much to your misfortune. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | “Emergency room mentality”: the Dutch philosopher convinced that saving snails is saving ourselves

Microsoft has a billion-dollar plan to end inequality in Latin America. And it is to expand AI, of course

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50 billion dollars. This figure that seems so impossible to contextualize is the amount of money that Microsoft is going to invest in what they have dubbed the ‘plan’Global South by 2030‘. And like almost everything that has to do with Microsoft for a few months now, it is focused on one thing: improving access to AI in the countries of the ‘Global South‘. In short. This week, during the AI ​​Impact Summit in New Delhi, Microsoft president presented a plan to invest $50 billion by the end of the decade to improve access to artificial intelligence in developing countries and emerging markets. Brad Smith said they want to sustain the long-term growth of those countries as part of his company’s effort to address a problem they have detected: the growing digital divide between developed and developing nations. There may be many other gaps beyond access to AI, but Smith is convinced that what is urgent is to accelerate the adoption of AI in regions of India, Africa and Latin America. This ‘Global North’ and ‘Global South’ thing is not a geographical issue. It is an economic division The plan. The intention of Microsoft is “to make the dissemination of AI real and at scale, so that communities have what they need to access that tool, that they trust it and can apply it to local priorities.” The legs of that plan are: Empower schools and nonprofit organizations through technology and digital skills. Strengthen multilingual and multicultural artificial intelligence capabilities. Enable local AI innovations to meet community needs. Measure the spread of AI to guide future policies and investment. Let it be used more. With this, Microsoft hopes that AI will penetrate more into these territories because, according to an internal report on the spread of artificial intelligence, while 24.7% of the working-age population in the Global North uses generative AI tools, in the Global South only 14.1% use it. According to Smith, developing economies cannot miss out on those productivity advantages that come with AI. AI and hunger in Africa. But it is not the only thing that Microsoft has recently presented that seeks to position AI as a catalyst for change. With the ambitious title of ‘Stop malnutrition with AI’, the American company has presented a project to improve food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Starting in Kenya, the idea is that institutions have access to tools that offer information to predict and prevent food shortages and predict, with AI, the risks that this implies for health. If you are raising an eyebrow like “thank goodness we now have AI to give us the solution to a problem that we already know”, here at least there is no talk of Generative AIbut rather a model that collects all the data and reflects it on a map so that organizations have more detailed information. Data centers. These 50,000 million are added to other previous billion-dollar investments that Microsoft had already done in countries like BrazilIndia or South Africa, but there is something more than “digital empowerment”. The initiative includes building AI infrastructure, and that means one thing: building data centers. This infrastructure requires an immense amount of energy to satisfy the needs of the digital infrastructure, but they also need water and Mexico and South American countries are directly mentioned as home to some of the new data centers. Microsoft has been testing for some time more sustainable data center designsbut precisely in developing places, energy and water are resources that, perhaps, are not abundant. Images | Specialgst, Microsoft In Xataka | What is happening in the US is a warning for Spain: data centers driving up electricity bills in homes

the most powerful warship in the history of South America

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South America has long lived under a fragile balance between military modernization, internal tensions and the constant influence of external powers. That balance shakes again todaywith a turbulent regional scenario marked by the renewed pulse of the United States around Venezuela and a continent that observes how security, autonomy and defense once again occupy a central place on the strategic agenda. This context explains an unprecedented naval project. The assault of Colombia. Yes, Colombia has started one of the most ambitious industrial and military transformations in its recent history as it began construction of its first frigate manufactured in national territory. The project of the Strategic Surface Platform It marks the country’s entry into the small group of Latin American nations capable of designing and building highly complex combat ships. It is not only a military decision, but a strategic bet for autonomy, knowledge and control of the complete cycle of its naval capabilities. Cotecmar and shipyard maturity. Project responsibility falls on Cotecmarwhich assumes for the first time the complete construction of a frigate for the Colombian Navy. The media they have spoken these days of the beginning of sheet cutting as a symbol of the culmination of years of investment in engineering, production processes and industrial infrastructure. In this way, the nation leaves behind the role of simple buyer or assembler. and goes to control design, integration and maintenance of a strategic platform. Designed to last. They counted in Defense that the PES is built under an advanced modular architecture based on the design SIGMA 10514 from the Dutch Damen shipyard. With more than 107 meters in length and nearly 3,000 tons of displacement, it will be the largest warship never built in the country. Plus: block construction will allow optimization of time, quality and future modernizations without compromising the basic structure of the ship. Fleet renewal. These frigates will give rise to the class Grand Admiral Padillacalled to become the new nucleus of Colombian surface escorts. The plan contemplates up to five unitswhich will allow a progressive and sustained renewal of the fleet over the next decade. Bottom line: replace veteran ships and ensure modern capabilities in anti-aircraft, anti-submarine, surface and electronic warfare. Operational versatility. There is much more, since ESP has been conceived as a multipurpose ship capable of operating both in naval combat scenarios and in surveillance missions, protection of sea routes and international cooperation. Furthermore, its flexible and digitalized design places it among the most modern frigates in Latin America, and the most powerful in terms of war technology. On paper, this versatility will expand Colombia’s strategic room for maneuver in the Caribbean and the Pacific without the need for specialized fleets for each mission. Technology and strategic autonomy. Beyond its military power, the program reinforces industrial autonomy by allowing maintenance, updating and modernization to be carried out in the country itself. The frigate will also be prepared to operate under NATO compatible standardsfacilitating exercises and combined operations with allies. In other words, Colombia thus gains operational independence without having to give up international interoperability. Economic impact. It is the last of the legs in the global analysis of the movement. The PES program will have, a priori, a tractor effect on the economy and specialized employment, with thousands of direct and indirect positions until the delivery of the first unit scheduled for 2030. However, its true scope is structural: consolidating an industrial base capable of sustaining future naval projects and positioning Colombia as a relevant actor in the regional defense industry. If you want and from that perspective, the frigate is not simply a ship, it is a declaration of long-term intentions. Image | Defense In Xataka | Brazil has been following a path reserved for few powers for years: that of developing its own nuclear submarine In Xataka | Neither drones nor fighters nor elite soldiers: the US entered Venezuela disguising a 20th-century tactic as technology. XIX

Latin America is the next step

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If you have ever been traveling and, upon arriving at your destination, you have wanted to book an excursion in Spanish, a skip-the-line entry or a transfer without complications, it is quite possible that you have come across Civitatis. The company, based in Spain and founded in 2008, has made a name for itself as an online platform for booking activities, guided tours and destination experiences designed for Spanish-speaking audiences. Now he wants to play another game: look beyond Europe and grow strongly in Latin America. Look beyond Europe. After years consolidating its presence in Europe, Civitatis is preparing for a change of scale in its international expansion, with Latin America as a priority. The company frames it as a strategic step and also as a positioning adjustment: in an informative meeting prior to Fiturits CEO, Andrew Spitzerdefended that the focus is not only on growth, but on truly integrating into the market. The goal, at least in his story, is for this growth to stop being peripheral and become central. three levers. From there, the plan is based on three pillars. The first has to do with the United States: the company highlights the proximity to that market and the weight of the Spanish-speaking population as an opportunity for organic growth. The second is Brazil, where the company plans to grow by 30% in 2026, an objective that involves expanding the catalog also in Portuguese to better adapt to the country. And the third is more structural: in Latin America the wholesale channel, supported by distribution agreements with travel agencies, has more weight than in Europe, where direct sales to the end customer predominate. Operating muscle. According to the data provided by the company, Civitatis already works with three regional centers in Mexico, Argentina and Brazil, which function as a base to coordinate its activity on the continent. Together, these hubs concentrate 70 employees out of a total workforce of 360, according to the figures shared at the meeting prior to Fitur. The reading is clear: it is not just about selling in the region, but about building structure and teams on the ground to sustain growth. The app as an inflection. The other major axis of the plan for 2026 does not have to do with the map, but with the product. The company is preparing the launch of a new mobile application with which it aims to stop behaving as a purely transactional platform and become a travel companion. Europa Press adds that the app would be designed to centralize reservations, itineraries and complementary services under a space called My Trips, with access even offline. The idea of ​​relying on artificial intelligence to promote greater personalization also appears in that roadmap. What exactly is Civitatis?. It is not a traditional tour operator, but a platform that connects travelers and local tour operators, acting as Online reservation channel for activities and visits at destination. Their proposal consists of bringing together this dispersed offer, presenting it in a digital catalog and managing the reservation from the same place, so that the user does not have to go supplier by supplier. This intermediation position also marks its limits and its opportunities: expansion does not depend only on opening the market, but on building a local catalog and making it accessible with the same product logic. Grow cautiously. The expansion into Latin America and the launch of the new application also have a business reading: Civitatis maintains that its roadmap is based on sustainable profitability. It should be noted that the company does not currently have an IPO among its priorities, despite being in the full acceleration phase. And El País places as a key piece the investment of Vitruvian Partners, with 100 million euros in 2022 and another 50 million in a second operation two years later. From here, the game consists of combining global ambition with measured growth, without losing the ability to adapt to each local market. Images | Laurentiu Morariu | Civitatis In Xataka | The “European Bizum” is on the verge of becoming a reality and there are two clear losers: Visa and Mastercard

The European Space Agency has always launched rockets from South America. Norway is very close to changing that

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The Arctic is no longer just that vast ice desert at the end of the world, but it has become a strategic point for many countries that they do not want to waste. And Europe does not want to let him escape, now opting to migrate the launch of part of your rockets from South America to this new location, something that has a great geopolitical strategy behind it. An agreement. The European Space Agency (ESA) and Norway recently signed an agreement to promote the creation of a new research center in the north of our planet: the ESA Arctic Space Center in Tromso. But it is not just another research center, but rather it is Europe’s response to ensure its autonomy in observation, navigation and communications in a region where it is already Russia and China is deploying its own infrastructure. The location. Choosing Tromsø as the city where to locate this new launch zone is not something chosen at random. If we go to a map, we can locate it far above the Arctic Circle, already being a city that has become a vibrant ecosystem of satellite data. Looking back, Tromsø already hosts mission control Arctic Weather Satellite, a satellite launched in 2024 that tried to demonstrate how a polar constellation can save lives through very accurate weather forecasts. But it also has a large number of institutions that make it a true Silicon Valley of the cold, housing the Secretariat of the Arctic Council and the Norwegian Polar Institute. A greater amount of data. The agreement signed between ESA and the Norwegian agency NOSA establishes a working group that will define the details before the end of 2026. This center is defined as an opportunity to monitor the melting of the Arctic, which warming four times faster than the global averagewhich gives us data on what will happen in the rest of the planet. It also entails an important national security reason, since today maritime traffic in the Northeast Passage does not stop increasing, and this means having signs of Galileo It allows you to have better control of everything that happens here. That is why, more than science, we are facing a critical center for civil security, search and rescue. The change of location. Until now, our gateway to space was French Guiana for a reason of basic physics: its proximity to the equator allows us to take advantage of the “impulse” of the Earth’s rotation to launch heavy satellites. However, the center of Tromsø and the new Nordic ports respond to a different need: polar orbit. That is why while from South America it is ideal to launch television satellites that remain “fixed” on the equator, the Arctic is the perfect balcony for satellites that must monitor melting ice or borders. Launching from the Pole, the satellite enters directly onto a North-South path that allows it to scan every corner of the planet as the Earth rotates below. In addition, being on the axis of rotation, rockets do not have to “fight” against the Earth’s lateral spin, which makes observation missions much more efficient and cheaper. Geopolitics. Beyond science, in this case there is a reading of territorial sovereigntysince while China invests in the “Polar Silk Road” and Russia increases its infrastructure in Siberia, Europe needs its own eyes in the north. In this way, while from South America it is ideal to launch television satellites that remain “fixed” on the equator, the Arctic is the perfect balcony for satellites that must monitor melting ice or borders. In this way, the Tromsø–Svalbard axis, added to the new spaceports of Andøya (Norway) and Kiruna (Sweden), consolidates northern Europe as the main gateway to space on the continent. This decision reduces dependence on external infrastructure as occurred in South America and obviously guarantees that all data remains in European territory. What’s next now. Norway, a member of ESA since 1987, brings its network of polar stations and its unique experience in polar orbit operations that are undoubtedly crucial in the current situation. From now on, the working group that has been formed has two years to design the governance and calendar of a center that promises to be “the control tower” of the European future in the Arctic. Images | riya rohewal In Xataka | In January a SpaceX rocket exploded. Today we know the danger that an Iberia plane was in with 450 passengers in the air

Brazil has been pursuing high-speed trains for 20 years. Now it will have the first in South America

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If we see the list of countries with the most high-speed train linesChina is the one cut the codwith Europe and Japan also on the crest of the wave. However, South America is a territory that neither punctures nor cuts. That’s about to change and, although there are several projects in different countries, the first high-speed train in South America will be in Brazil. And it promises to revolutionize transportation in one of the country’s key corridors. It is not (fast) train territory. Connecting South America by train is extremely complicated. Not only do they have a complex topography with mountains and jungles to overcome, but also an enormous geographical dispersion, political instability in some countries and priorities that have changed with different governments. Currently, the territory is experiencing a revolution. There are countries like Mexico either Chili who are waging war on their own with internal projects, but also a project known as ‘Bioceanic Railway Corridor‘ which will unite the Pacific and Atlantic and connect the port of Santos in Brazil with that of Bayóvar in Peru. Apart from that line, Brazil has its own plans. The Brazilian TAV. The Brazilian high-speed project is not without controversy. The TAV (or High Speed ​​Train) began to take shape in 2004. Named ‘Bandeirantes Express’, the idea was to connect São Paulo with Campinas. It came to nothing and in 2007 it was shelved, but with the arrival of Lula da Silva and the perspective of Soccer World Cup 2014HE relaunched. It would have been the perfect setting, but the dates were not met either and, from lost to the river: we took it back to 2016 for the Rio Olympics. Spoiler: it went wrong due to financing problems, doubts about profitability and, evidently, a lack of interest from the private sector that was not clear about how to recover the investment. Chronology. It would have been the first high-speed train in South America, but it seems that it had not said its last word, because in 2023, the private company TAV Brasil got by the National Land Transportation Agency the authorization to link the main cities of the country: Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo. The 99-year concession allows them to plan, build and operate the line that, if all goes well, will connect the two cities with intermediate stops between Sao José dos Campos and Volta Redonda. The investment is not clear and is estimated at about 60,000 million reais, which is about 11,000 million euros, and points to a ticket price of around 85 euros for a complete trip. TAV Brazil has announced the following calendar: End of 2026 for the conclusion of feasibility studies. 2027 as the start of construction. 2032 as commercial commissioning. The train. The intention is that the machine reaches speeds of 320 km/h, which would more than meet what is considered the high speed standard (250 km/h) and will allow travel the 400 kilometers between the two megacities in just one hour and forty-five minutes. This is a considerable reduction compared to a current road trip that takes about six hours. Interests. The big question is who will build the system… and the trains. This is a high-stakes project and, as in other parts of the world, geopolitics plays an important role. Historicallythe project has attracted the interest of companies such as the Spanish CAF or the French Alstom (in contention right now for the train in Belgian), but also from Siemens and other leading companies in the sector. TAV Brazil has not closed its doors and is talking with both Spanish companies and Arab funds and, of course, with China, which is becoming a global touchstone in the railway segment. They are revolutionizing Africa, they have a presence in the deployment of the line that will cross South America from Brazil to Peru and getting a piece of the Brazilian high-speed pie would mean another lucrative hit on the table. In any case, the one in Brazil and other projects seem to be beginning to shape the railway future of a Latin America that has had plans for decades, but for various reasons they have not come to fruition. Images | Limongi, Danilo.mac, Mohamed SY In Xataka | The US has been dreaming of its first high-speed train for decades: the California project is being a real nightmare

The new arms race is being fought at more than 6,000 km/h. And America is late

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At more than 6,000 km/h there is no room to think twice. The new generation of hypersonic missiles operates in that speed range, a terrain in which the global military balance begins to shift. Russia and China they have already shown systems capable of flying above Mach 5. The United States, accustomed to setting the technological pace, moves forward with more doubts than it would like. The term “hypersonic” is not military marketing, but a clear category: devices that travel faster than five times the speed of sound. The real complexity comes with the trajectory. Unlike ballistic missiles, which ascend and descend in an arc, these systems can stay relatively low and change course in flight. This ability to maneuver, added to the thermal loads and ionization they suffer when passing through the atmosphere at such speed, explains why their development is so challenging. Hypersonic weapons enter the scene Russia was the first to proclaim operational capabilities. Its Avangard system, an intercontinental missile-launched glider vehicle, was announced for service in 2019 and Moscow claims it can carry a nuclear warhead. Experts in kyiv also claim that Russia used the zircon against the ukrainian capital in February 2024. China, for its part, demonstrated the DF-17 and tested the DF-27, which according to reports from 2023 flew about 2,100 kilometers in 12 minutes. In addition, it has shown the YJ-21, integrated into destroyers and bombers, consolidating a more visible deployment. The United States has focused on the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon. Dark Eagle has a range greater than about 1,725 ​​miles, that is, about 2,780 kilometers, and a first system valued at about 2.7 billion dollars, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The official plan aims to deploy it at the end of 2025, after a sequence of tests with failures in 2023 and 2024 that the GAO collected in June 2025. In August 2024, the CRS reported of the first satisfactory end-to-end flight. In parallel, the Navy is leading a common glider vehicle and the Air Force is working on an air-launched glider and a cruise ship with DARPA. The hypersonic threat tests the most fragile link in modern defense: time. The radar has less useful horizon at low altitude and Trajectory changes break prediction patterns. Furthermore, the dynamics of flight itself generate phenomena that can complicate detection. The forces trying to stop these systems are working on layers of sensors, more advanced tracking algorithms and more agile data links, but it is a challenge that is not yet solved. What sets hypersonic weapons apart is not just their performance, but the effect they have on the logic of deterrence. The impossibility of knowing what type of cargo they are carrying until impact creates fertile ground for misunderstandings. The United States assures that its development focuses on conventional ammunition, but rivals such as Russia and China have shown systems directly linked to their nuclear arsenal, which fuels distrust. Faced with this scenario, the allies are rearming their surveillance and defense architecture. In 2022, the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia expanded their cooperation within the framework of AUKUS to include “hypersonics and counter-hypersonics“, with emphasis on distributed sensors, shared intelligence and new interceptors. The objective is not only to have equivalent missiles, but to build a system capable of detecting threats in early phases and coordinating the response between different military nodes. The focus is on the next deployment milestones and on validating that this cooperation translates into real capabilities. Today, the initial advantage is not on the American side, and that realization has already had an effect on its military planning. Russia and China have moved first and have forced Washington to accelerate decisions and prioritize resources in the middle of a year of technological validation. It remains to be seen whether the deployment planned for this year consolidates a balance or confirms the gap. Images | People’s Liberation Army | Russian Aerospace Forces In Xataka | China promised them very happy with the catapult system of its new aircraft carrier. Until the US took a look

OpenAI has taken its first step towards Latin America. Behind it there is an investment of 25,000 million in Argentina and many questions

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For almost any country in Latin America and the world, a company like OpenAI announcing a multi-million dollar investment sounds like a golden dream. It is not only the most influential company on the planet in artificial intelligence, but also one of the pacesetters in the industry. Its arrival promises jobs, economic movement and global visibility. But, as with any large-scale project, it also has doubts: energy consumption, water use or the sustainability of a data center of hundreds of megawatts are not minor issues. Argentina, at least on paper, has been chosen to attempt that leap. The announcement of the Argentine Government It is based, at least for now, on a single document: a letter of intent signed between OpenAI and the local company Sur Energy. The text, published on October 10, 2025, mentions an investment of “up to $25 billion” for a data center of “up to 500 megawatts,” under the Incentive Regime for Large Investments (RIGI). The location of the project is not specified nor are deadlines or construction phases detailed, which keeps it in a preliminary stage. The Argentine president met at the Casa Rosada with representatives of OpenAI last week Silences that weigh. There are details that attract attention. A multimillion-dollar announcement, linked to the expansion of OpenAI in the region, and yet neither its CEO nor the company itself have communicated it through their official channels. That they have not done so does not invalidate the project, but it does mark a distance with the institutional enthusiasm on the Argentine side. In this type of operations, communication is usually part of the message. Here, for the moment, it is conspicuous by its absence, at least on the side of the American startup on its website and social networks. The plan: AI factories at scale. Stargate is not an isolated project, but the name that OpenAI uses for its global infrastructure program. Its objective is to build a network of data centers capable of supporting cutting-edge artificial intelligence models, the technology that gives life to tools such as conversational chatbots or image generators. In the case of OpenAI, those models are the ones hidden behind products like ChatGPTbased on systems such as GPT-4 either GPT-5. The plan began to take shape months ago, when the company announced an ambitious infrastructure project in the United Stateslater expanding it to other countries. Interior of Stargate 1, the first large-scale data center developed under OpenAI’s own program Power, density, permissions. Data centers for artificial intelligence operate in another league. They concentrate massive training on GPUs with industrial-level consumption and an energy density much higher than that of a conventional data center. Each room requires advanced cooling systems capable of constantly keeping the temperature under control. And, although permits and licenses are required as in any facility of this type, its scale and technical requirements make building one of these projects a much more complex and lengthy process. {“videoId”:”x8jpy2b”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”What’s BEHIND AIs like CHATGPT, DALL-E or MIDJOURNEY? | ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”1173″} RIGI and financing: promise vs contract. As we say, the project is covered by the Incentive Regime for Large Investments, a tool created by the Argentine Government to attract foreign capital through tax, customs and exchange advantages. In practice, the RIGI facilitates the conditions so that a large-scale project can be financed, but it does not guarantee that the investment will materialize. Patagonia sounds loud, it’s not official. On paper, there is no defined location. Neither the Argentine Government nor OpenAI have mentioned Patagonia in their statements. Even so, the name of the local company that appears in the letter of intent, Sur Energy, fuels the idea that the project could be developed in the south of the country. The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, with the CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, in May 2024 Climate and design: allies or burden. If the southern hypothesis gains strength, it is also for a technical reason: the climate plays in its favor. Colder areas allow you to operate with less cooling energy and take advantage of outside air, something that reduces costs and emissions. In parallel, the availability of water continues to be a decisive factor. The new artificial intelligence campuses, aware of this risk, are adopting cooling systems that minimize the use of water resources. We will have to wait to know the option chosen by OpenAI. When the network or the water say no. The location of a data center does not depend only on the weather or tax incentives. Factors such as the electrical grid or the availability of water can mark the success or failure of a project. Mexico, for example, is one of the largest technology hubs in the region, but even there a Microsoft data center ran into the limitations of the national network. and had to resort to gas generators. In Chile, Google saw its plan blocked due to excessive water use. They are reminders that it is not enough to have space: you need infrastructure. In Xataka In the nineties, no one saw how the Internet would starve factories. Thirty years later, AI is doing the same thing From exclusivity to autonomy. For years, OpenAI’s infrastructure depended almost entirely on Microsoft. In 2019, the Redmond company invested 1 billion dollars and became your exclusive cloud partner. Over time, that alliance grew to exceed 10 billion, consolidating Azure as the platform where the company’s models were trained and executed. However, OpenAI has been seeking greater operational autonomy. The Stargate program responds precisely to that idea: having its own computing resources and diversifying its technological dependence. From paper to concrete. For now, it all depends on the next steps. For the initiative to move forward, a definitive contract between OpenAI and Sur Energy, the presentation of environmental studies and electrical interconnection licenses will be necessary. The financing scheme and long-term energy agreements will also have to be defined. Only with these pieces in place can we speak of a real work. Until then, … Read more

‘Operation Triunfo’ is the prime video tool to grow at full speed. The key is in Latin America

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Although the audience figures did not seem clear until Operation Triunfo 2023 concluded, the program He ended up throwing a very positive balancebecoming the most watched national premiere in the history of prime video in Spain. Therefore, the platform has decided to bet strongly on this new stage, seeking to maximize its scope, and devote itself especially as a cultural reference for generation Z and decisively reaching various Latin American countries. Some figures. Among the things that Prime Video has told is that it reached 3.5 million unique viewers during its 14 weeks of broadcast. A triumph that extended, as Amazon will certainly interest, Beyond the mere audience Of the platform: in its 14 weeks of broadcast, Amazon registered one million visits to the OT thematic store, 720,000 interactions with Alexa and 66 million votes through the app. They are additional business routes that corroborate why OT is so important for the digital store economy. Audience involved. The great triumph of the program (worth the redundancy) has been to earn to very involved spectators with the format: 8.6 million weekly votes and 1.6 million records in the app (the previous record was at 820,000) that add up to those mentioned 66 million; 5,000 million global visualizations and 80,000 publications in Tiktok; a peak of 180,000 users connected simultaneously on YouTube; And more than 27,000 attendees in disc firms, so that everything is not virtual. And in addition, of course, hashtags about the program after in the list of Twitter trends every Monday, on many occasions monopolizing the first ten positions and making the edition of constant conversation during its 14 weeks. For all of Latin America. ‘OT 2025 ‘premieres on September 15 at 10:00 p.m. in Spain with simultaneous live transmission for the first time in its history for six Latin American countries: Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Peru. It is a Amazon response to the growing demand of the fans of the program and, above all, wants to take ‘OT’ beyond Spain, and that Prime Video impacts more globally. Undoubtedly, an ambitious intention but that if it is possible to give an extraordinary dissemination to the program. To increase this impact will bet on social networkswith 15 weekly minutes with which the contestants to generate content in a “Tiktok Corner” within the Academy, with live reactions on Fridays on social networks at 15. Again, as happened last year, social networks will form a primary part of the Amazon strategy. There will also be new weekly programs: ‘OT connection (Tuesday to Saturday at 8:00 p.m.) and’ Face B ‘(Sunday, also at eight in the afternoon). Technological investment To provide viewers A program at the heightAmazon has put on their feet the greatest scenario in the history of Prime Video, with 358 m² of LED screens, 10 cameras, including the Spderm, and more than 750 lighting devices. It is a considerable technological leap and as Amazon has revealed to the press, it is only the spearhead of a very ambitious project, where everything is integrated more organically than in previous stages. For example, the study where ‘connection ot’ is recorded just below the academy, so that there is immediate access to teachers and contestants. And there will be no post -grooves or videosumeros: everything will be part of the gala. Youth is sought. Therefore, expand borders, more programs and support determined to the possibilities of social networks. All with a very clear intention: to appeal to the interests of generation Z, which is able to make a fan phenomenon germinate that is the one that really gives life to this type of programs. In search of the youngest generations of spectators to get the format, which is already 24 years old, it remains fresh. Header | Amazon In Xataka | How Prime Video Use Chenoa and ‘Operation Triunfo’ to destroy the tired audiences of traditional TV

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