If you live in Madrid or Barcelona, ​​it is possible that a Latin American bookstore has opened next to your house

The indomitableopened four months ago in the Madrid neighborhood of Prosperidad and directed by a Mexican. A few meters from Retiro Park, the now classic The Retreat of Lettersowned by two Colombians. In Arganzuela, the Argentine bookstore Mandolin It inaugurated its first Madrid branch a year ago. It is not an isolated or spontaneous phenomenon. It responds to an accumulation of demographic, editorial and economic factors that go beyond the folklore chronicle. From rookies to veterans. In this panorama, the most recent projects coexist with initiatives that have been established for a few years. The Mistral It opened in 2021 in the hall of the old Arenal Theater, two minutes from Puerta del Sol, by the Argentine Andrea Stefanoni, and was considered the most beautiful bookstore in the world by National Geographic that same year. His fame allowed him to organize a short story contest that received 150 manuscripts from different countries. Closer in time, in 2020, a couple of Venezuelans inaugurated The little beings also in Madrid, where they sell new and used books with special attention to Venezuelan and Latin American production. Olavidefounded by two Argentine journalists, combines book sales with cultural activities. AND Late Space It simultaneously functions as a bookstore, cafeteria and headquarters of Late, an Ibero-American network of narrative journalism founded as a cooperative by professionals from Colombia, Spain and Cuba. Repeating pattern. Although they are founded by Latin Americans, these bookstores do not operate exclusively with the diaspora as clientele. They are neighborhood bookstores in the most classic sense: children’s collection, independent labels and a personal relationship between bookseller and customer. They organize workshops and reading clubs. Sometimes they even serve cuisine from their places of origin. As a reflection of this phenomenon, the Madrid Book Fair of 2025 dedicated a table of its Meeting of Independent Ibero-American Bookstores to the phenomenon. The figures behind the phenomenon. The most recent breakdown by Latin American origin available, the analysis of the Elcano Royal Institute Based on INE data as of January 1, 2024, there were 4.25 million people born in Latin America residing in Spain (9% of the total population and 48% of all immigrants). The trend behind that figure has not slowed down: during 2024, the largest increases in the foreign population were once again concentrated in Colombians (+98,057), Venezuelans (+52,555) and Moroccans (+48,306), according to the INE. in December 2025. The accumulated result is that as of January 1, 2026, Spain has exceeded the 10 million inhabitants born abroad. A community of that magnitude, concentrated in large cities, generates cultural demand. But… why is this demand channeled towards the opening of own bookstores and not only towards consumption in establishments that already exist? The distribution obstacle. Part of the answer lies in how the transatlantic publishing market works. That Spain and Latin America share a language does not mean that they share a catalog: for example, El Retiro de las Letras imports directly from publishers in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina to make authors visible that do not reach Spain through conventional distribution channels. Combed Cana bookstore specialized in Latin American fiction with offices in Barcelona and Madrid, recognizes that half of its titles are not distributed in Spain and that These copies cannot be returned if they do not sell.. It is a risk of excess stock that large chains are not willing to assume. The bookstore Juan Rulfoproperty of the Economic Culture Fund of Spain, and the Ibero-American Bookstoreopen in Madrid’s Barrio de las Letras since 2004, have been covering that specialized niche for decades. To those establishments have been added in recent years dozens of projects promoted by immigrants that multiply the offer, from bookstores specialized 100% in Latin American narrative to hybrid spaces with a focus on culture. Relief in the sector. The context of the book sector in Spain is not immune to this phenomenon. There are 2,754 independent bookstores active in Spainand although it is a figure in permanent declinethe business going well in economic terms: In 2024, the Spanish publishing sector had a turnover of 3,037 million euros, 6.3% more than in 2023, in its eleventh consecutive year of growth and with the highest figure since 2008. How do you explain that establishments fall while turnover rises? 85% of closures are caused by the retirement of the bookseller. Latin American booksellers are occupying a space where replacements are scarce, in residential neighborhoods of large cities where the traditional bookstore has closed. The limits of the phenomenon. It is advisable not to exaggerate the scope of the phenomenon. A few dozen bookstores founded by Latin American immigrants in Madrid and Barcelona do not reconfigure the Spanish publishing ecosystem. Spanish book exports in 2024 reached 381 million euros, aimed mainly at Ibero-American countrieswhich indicates that the flow of books between Spain and Latin America continues to be mostly in the opposite direction. What these bookstores do represent is a symptom: that of an immigrant community with sufficient cultural roots to invest in a business with fair profitability and that demands a very high vocation. A sector where the main problem is that retirements are multiplying and where there is a Latin American catalog with four million potential readers who continue to need intermediaries willing to cross the Atlantic. In Xataka | The 24 most beautiful bookstores in the world

American refrigerator or 70 cm Combi? Be careful with making mistakes when buying liters that you may not be able to use

I don’t know about you, but when I go to the grocery store, it often feels like I’m preparing for a catastrophe. Many of us live at home and I don’t like going shopping every other day, so I try to put in the cart what I need for at least a week. What’s happening? Then you need space at home to store it.. I have plenty of cabinets and drawers, but my kitchen refrigerator doesn’t have as much space as I would like. Even though I don’t have a kitchenettethis whole situation has made me consider more than once about jumping into an American refrigerator (you know, the ones with two doors with a left-right distribution). But, Is it really worth it compared to a wide combi? Let’s see which one can fit best in your kitchen and your needs. Bespoke AI American Refrigerator 178cm 659L Class E Inox RS70F65QETEF The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Choosing an American refrigerator If you start browsing stores looking for an American refrigerator, you will see that they all have a very large capacity measured in liters. This is something that cannot take us by surprise, although it has a certain “trick”, since it adds the space of the refrigerator to the freezer. What not many people notice is that, although these refrigerators are very large, the reality is that they are also narrow. And that’s where it comes in the pizza box test. There’s not much science to it, it’s just what you think: since the shelves are narrower, a pizza box does not fit horizontally. This is the most visual example, but you can take it to other everyday things that you are more likely to keep in your refrigerator. There we can include food trays, cakes, large tupperware or even watermelons if they are large. Now, what you lose in width you gain in height. This is ideal if you are one of those who practices batch cooking and you cook in one sitting for several days, so you can stack the tupperware without any problem. In addition, you can also take advantage of the more vertical distribution of the refrigerator to your advantage, placing the things you use most at the top and the things you use least at the bottom. More things to keep in mind about these refrigerators. First, the best thing they have: the freezer. The left-right distribution means that we have plenty of room to freeze things of all kinds and have them very well organized. Not only that, but its more vertical distribution also means that we can have a lot of space at eye level and not have to bend down every time we want to check what we have frozen. All this has a price (and never better said), since American refrigerators have higher energy consumption. There is also the issue of the water and/or ice dispenser that these types of refrigerators normally come with. It depends on the model, but there are those that need a water intake to make this workalthough there are others that have a tank that we can fill without the need for installation. And, speaking of installation, be careful with American refrigerators: they are deeper. This can make them stand out from the line of the furniture, something that aesthetically does not look very good. Choose a wide combi The vast majority of vans in stores are about 60 centimeters wide. We would not put one of these to compete in capacity with an American, but things change if we add 10 centimeters to the formula. It seems like very little difference, but from 70 centimeters wide, the combi gains a lot more capacity. And, of course, without taking up as much space in the kitchen as an American refrigerator. These pass the pizza box test without breaking a sweat, since its shelves are much wider. Now, the extra total capacity they gain is not enough to beat the American refrigerators. Not through the refrigerator, but through the freezer. There they clearly lose out, so if you have a freezer full of food, it may not be worth it to go for a combi. There is also the issue of consumption. It will depend a lot on the model we choose, but as a general rule, one of these wide combis It will consume less energy than an American refrigerator. It will not be a consumption figure large enough for us to rule out the Americans, but it will be something to take into account. The good and the bad of both options, face to face American refrigerator wide combi THE GOOD 🟢 Plenty of space to freeze and stack tupperware in the fridge You can have frozen products at eye level so you don’t have to bend down all the time Much more horizontal capacity for large containers and takes up less space Less electricity consumption THE BAD 🔴 Uses more light and has less horizontal space to store large things The “aisles” of the refrigerator are narrow, so if you put something bulky you won’t see what’s behind it Your freezer doesn’t do much, so you may have to juggle if you freeze a lot of food. Ideal for: Kitchens with a lot of space and for large families who need a huge freezer Smaller kitchens and for storing very wide trays or containers without a problem In summary: 👉 Choose an American refrigerator if: You have plenty of space and if you prioritize maximum capacity in your freezer. 👉 Choose a wide van Yeah: You prefer to have wide shelves and you want a large refrigerator, but not gigantic. Recommended models American refrigerator: Bespoke AI RS70F65QETEF As an American refrigerator option, we have this one from Samsung. Here we are talking about a refrigerator with a total capacity of 659 litersdivided into 239 liters for the freezer and 420 liters for the refrigerator. The refrigerators from this … Read more

China has invented the coldest helium-free alloy in the world. The American DARPA is not going to like it

In addition to having an extremely high voice, filling balloons or scuba diving, the most widespread use of helium is in refrigeration, a crucial task in countless tasks ranging from magnets for magnetic resonance imaging to particle accelerators (with conventional helium or Helium-4) to cryogenic cooling for quantum computing or neutron detectors (Helium -3). Critical industries. Because yes, everything is helium, but the circumstances change depending on the isotope. Thus, while Helium-4 is abundant in the atmosphere but difficult to retain (it escapes into the atmosphere due to its lightness), Helium-3 is scarce on Earth and is also difficult to obtain: it is a byproduct of the aging of tritium nuclear warheads. Simply put: the helium needed to cool quantum computers and cutting-edge physics acts as a bottleneck to research. A Chinese research team has published in Nature a solution: a metal alloy that cools almost to absolute zero without needing helium. The invention. It is a metallic alloy, EuCo₂Al₉ (ECA), a rare earth intermetallic compound capable of reaching 106 millikelvin (–273.05 °C), thus establishing a record: it is the lowest temperature achieved by a metallic magnetocaloric material without using helium-3. Another peculiarity is that it combines two seemingly antagonistic properties: it acts like a sponge that absorbs heat from the environment and its thermal conduction is between 50 and 100 times greater than other similar materials. A combination that postulates it to be the definitive supercoolant. The network structure, its interactions and the resulting supersolid spin state. Chinese Academy of Sciences Why is it important. We have already seen that helium-3 is a rare commodity and its usefulness in advanced physics and quantum computing. Finding an alternative opens the door to alleviating that bottleneck, although it is still in an early stage. Historically the largest global suppliers of helium-3 They have been the United States and Russiaas a byproduct of its nuclear programs. With this invention, China is one step closer to achieving independence of this strategic resource because it currently imports almost all of the helium-3 it consumes (95%, according to this paper 2024). But the United States is also interested: at the end of January, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency launched a call to develop a modular helium-3-free cooling system for quantum and defense technologies. In less than two weeks I had the solution, yes, from China. Context. The superconducting quantum computers They require working below 1 Kelvin and in that scenario the standard for decades has been dilution refrigeration technology. In a few words and in a simplified way: expensive refrigeration contraptions that occupy cubic meters and need helium-3 continuously. This limits its scalability, practically limiting it to specialized laboratories. Adiabatic demagnetization cooling on which the ECA is based is not new, in fact the concept is a century oldbut its features have never been up to par. As explains the CASthe endemic problem was its poor thermal conductivity. According to the South China Morning PostPeking University already built two refrigerators using this principle in 2024, which have been operational for several months. How have they done it. The cooling technique is called adiabatic demagnetization (ADR): a magnetic field is applied to the cold material, so that the internal “magnets” of the material align and release heat to the outside. When the magnetic field is removed, they return to their natural disordered state, absorbing heat from the surroundings, thereby lowering the temperature. To solve the historical problem of low conductivity, ECA enters an unusual “metallic spin supersolid” physical state, which combines high heat absorption capacity with thermal conductivity similar to a conventional metal. Yes, but. Being able to drop the temperature to 106 mK is remarkable, but the reality is that classic dilution systems in their most advanced version are capable of reaching 10 mK or less. And this is where much of quantum computing operates. In short: there is still a thermal gap to overcome. On the other hand, it is a first step: going from laboratory material and even a prototype to the industrial or military environment is a long road. Scalability and costs will be decisive. Finally, it should be noted that the composition of the ECA includes Europium (in addition to cobalt and aluminum), a rare earth that makes the operation difficult and expensive. Nevertheless, China starts from a privileged positionas long as it is the absolute leader in this industry. In Xataka | Spiderman’s web is no longer science fiction: China has just created something very similar after years of vetoes In Xataka | Japan has a rare earth megadeposit: 700 years of consumption to challenge China Cover | VALGO, ASML

Madrid stew. An American team manages to grow chickpeas in lunar regolith

A team from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M has achieved that a handful of chickpea plants complete their life cycle in a substrate that imitates the lunar regolith. That is to say, (for the first time) it has been possible for a legume of direct nutritional interest to germinate, develop flowers and produce seeds in a medium of this type. But, let’s go for twists. Grow chickpeas on the Moon!? Although that is the most striking headline, the truth is that it is not exactly that what researchers have shown. We have been trying to find ways to grow crops in the lunar regolith for years and, in fact, the tests that were done in 2022 on real samples were a failure. For this reason, the team has focused on demonstrating that a sterile substrate could be transformed into something similar to arable soil by exploring the symbiosis between the plant in question and a fungus. That is, the crucial thing is that they have managed to ‘bioremediate’ the pulverized rock. And what did they do? The researchers got together chickpeas with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi drastically improve the absorption of water and nutrients, increase resistance to stress and function for practical purposes as natural biofertilizers. The chickpeas in question flowered and produced seeds in soil containing up to 75% simulated regolith. In the soil composed of 100% simulated regolith they couldn’t get them to give seedsbut the step forward is incredible. Above all, because we have gone from a proof of concept in which lPlants could survive with a lot of stress to one where they can generate crops. The choice of plant is also interesting. Typically, space agricultural research has focused on short-cycle leafy vegetables and, indeed, lettuces. have been cultivated on the ISS for a long time. The problem, as researchers say, is that these vegetables serve to complement the diet, but do not contribute much nutritionally. Chickpeas (with their 15 grams of protein per cup and almost all essential amino acids) are something else. However, the question is important: does it make sense to plant on the Moon? And the answer, as Raúl Herranz of the CSIC points outit’s just not right now. If you need 25% of the necessary soil, mushrooms and some worms… it is probably more efficient to carry the chickpeas packaged. Luckily, this is only the beginning of the journey and there is still a long way to go before the final turnaround. The good news is that we are getting closer. Image | Salvatore G2 – POT In Xataka | A study has tried to find out why space food is so bad: it’s not the food, it’s the astronauts

With the fashion of American kitchens, a refrigerator that makes noise can be torture when watching TV. How to choose well to avoid it

How cool American kitchens are. You have, without walls, doors or partitions in between, the kitchen next to the living room and dining room. I love the concept itself, but there are two things that have always raised doubts in my mind. One is the smell, because imagine starting to do something that doesn’t smell good (like cooking cauliflower or making some fried fish, for example) and going to the couch to watch TV while you do it. And then there is the issue of noise. Of course, here you may think that it is the price to pay for having everything in the same space and you are right. If everything is together, you have to assume that, while you cook, you will have noise next to the TV. But the stove, the extractor or the oven are not the only things that make noise in a kitchen. What’s wrong with the refrigerator? This appliance makes noise and is not like the rest of the things in the kitchen: it is always working. For this reason, if you have an American kitchen, It is essential that you choose carefully which refrigerator you are going to place in it. Yes, it’s about looking at what decibels it emits, but there is something to it. I explain everything you need to know about the subject. Two or three dB more than necessary are enough to ruin your movie night A refrigerator is not as noisy as a washing machine when it starts spinning like crazy, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sound. In houses or apartments with traditional kitchens, this is not a problem. I have been living in my apartment for more than 20 years and, since the kitchen is at one end, I barely know the noise my refrigerator makes. Things change if the kitchen is American. I put you in situation. Imagine that you are on the couch watching a movie with a blanket and popcorn. During shootings and explosions you will not hear anything other than the TV, but things change when there is dialogue or even nothing at all. There, if your refrigerator sounds more than necessary, you are going to hear a hum that is anything but pleasant. Okay, but how do I know how loud a refrigerator sounds? If you take a look at the technical data sheet of any refrigerator, you will find the sound it emits measured in decibels (or dB). It is obvious that the higher the dB number, the greater the noise it emits. What is not so obvious is that A difference of just 3 dB will make us perceive twice as much noise.. To put it bluntly: a refrigerator that emits 40 dB or more in a kitchenette can be really annoying when watching TV. The ideal is to search for this type of spaces a refrigerator that emits 39 dB or less. But of course, since two or three dB less is noticeable, the less the refrigerator emits, the better. The noise comes from the compressor, but not all are the same We have talked about the noise, but not its origin. The sound that refrigerators emit comes from their compressor, which is responsible for keeping your food and drinks very cool. And what does that matter to me for my American kitchen? The answer is very simple: depending on the type of compressor or motor, the type of noise is not the same. Refrigerators that are a few years old have a traditional motor or compressor. This, in summary, only has two modes: either it’s off or it’s on. If the refrigerator detects that the temperature inside is too high, it starts the compressor at full speed to cool down. This means that, when this happens (which often happens if you open the door too much, for example), we will hear a loud noise when starting, followed by a humming noise that will last until the compressor stops. That changes with Inverter motors. These are basically always on and they regulate their speed depending on the temperature. If you open the door and it gets a little cold, speed up a little. However, if your refrigerator has been closed for a long time, it will run very slowly, so the noise will be less. This way, the noise made by the refrigerator will be quieter most of the time. And of course, you get rid of the “noise” of the traditional compressor when starting up. If you are looking to save as much as possible, refrigerators with traditional compressors are cheaper. In price, because traditional compressors consume significantly more energy than inverter motors. However, I would only place one of these in a conventional kitchen and away from the living room or bedrooms. For an American kitchen, in 100% of cases, I would always recommend a refrigerator with an inverter motor. Not only because they tend to emit, on average, less noise. It is due to the fact that we are not going to hear them start suddenly, something that does happen (and very often) with those that have a conventional engine and that can be annoying if we have the refrigerator next to the TV. Therefore, with that clear, it is time to take a good look at the dB. The good and the bad of both options, face to face 36 dB or less between 37 and 39 dB THE GOOD 🟢 You won’t hear it even when the protagonists of your movie look at each other without speaking. They are cheaper and, at the same price, you get a refrigerator to store more food or drinks THE BAD 🔴 It is a more expensive option that may cause you to have to cut back on capacity or features You will hear a slight hum while watching TV that can take you out of the movie Ideal for: Do not hear any type of hum or vibration when watching TV Families who … Read more

We have a new winner to generate images with AI. And he is not American, but Chinese

Tencent has just launched a new model of AI capable of Generate images from a text prompt. Traditionally the proprietary models have dominated this type of creative task, but the Tencent model has given the surprise and according to various benchmarks is able to generate images better than the rest of competitors, including those of Google and Openai. Hunyuan Image 3.0. This is the name of the new Tencent model, which in the LMARENA classification Of more powerful models for the generation of images from text has managed to overcome Gemini 2.5 Flash image preview (popularly known as Nano Banana), in addition to other proprietary models such as GPT-IMAGE-1, FLUX-1-KONTEXT-MAX or QWEN-IMAGE. The Tencent image model has already managed to overcome its competitors according to LM Arena experts. Blind vote. This LM Arena classification works through a blind voting system in which the users choose their favorite images without knowing what model generated them. And according to this vote, this Tencent model surpassed all its opponents, including Google’s popular “Nano Banana”. Of course: the vote also takes into account long -term results, and the short period that has been available Hunyuan Image 3.0 makes the results qualify as “preliminary” and not definitive. How it works. Those responsible for Tencent explain in the description of the model How they have used a new diffusion architecture that makes use of dual encoders (a multimodal llm and another that better understands characters in different languages) and RLHF optimization (Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback, which refines the previous result) for the creation of higher quality images. The system makes use in addition to a compression system so that the entire process consumes less resources without loss of quality. Open pesos and commercial license. Hunyuan Image 3.0 is a model that shares Your code in github and that offers A license surprisingly permissive. In fact it is possible to use it for commercial and professional purposes. The price is not entirely economic. Although the model can be tested for free in the Project websitein our tests we could only create an image (10 credits). The platform allows you to buy monthly credits: $ 8 per month allow Buy 500 creditswhich a priori would allow us to create 50 images of 10 credits each. Each would go to $ 0.16, when Nano Banana It has a cost of $ 0.039, four times lower. There are other options to try it, such as Hugging Face “Spaces”. It is also possible to get an API key In Tencent Cloud To use the locally. Gemini continues to win as “editor”. Although the Tencent model is interesting and remarkable, Nano Banana continues to win the game if we consider that it has become a unique substitute for the traditional Photoshop. Many users no longer edit photos but carry one in Gemini and then they tell the AI ​​what changes they want to make in that image. Alibaba, more conversational. Although Hunyuan Image 3.0 can allow something like that – in fact There are demos In this regard – the interface is now more aimed at a single prompt to generate images, not to a “conversation” as GEMINI allows. Another of the protagonists of this land is Alibaba, who with Qwen-Image-Editor adopts the same approach as Google with Gemini and Nano-Banana. In that Alibaba model “you speak” with your image to ask for changes, something that at the moment does not seem that the Tencent model does so directly (although it does not seem difficult for him to get it). But be careful. The differential here is that the generation of images, which seemed to be dominated by proprietary models, can be apparently equally good (or even superior) through open models. One more time The Chinese commitment to that philosophy is remarkable and contrasts with the closed approach and owner of most American companies that develop AI models to generate images and text (or, of course, video). Image | Hunyuan In Xataka | In China they do not conform to create advanced robots: a company has developed a head that gestures like a human

There are American and Europeans fed up with the lack of “traditional values” of the West. So they are moving to Russia

Surprising data were known last May: more and more Americans sought to leave the country to Live in Europe. The problem: that the old continent seemed to be closing its doors with migratory policies stricter. What very few anticipated is a new migratory current: that of Westerners who, seeking to recover the “traditional values” that have been lost … and end in Russia. The attraction for the Russia of War. I told it last week The Financial Times. In full invasion of Ukraine and under an increasingly repressive regime, a group of Westerners has chosen to move to Russia in search of what they perceive as “traditional values” in front of a west who consider decadent. Among the most notorious cases is Derek Huffman’san Arizona welder and father of six children, who emigrated with his wife and children alleging rejection of “LGBT indoctrination”, immigration and insecurity in the United States. To accelerate the obtaining of Russian citizenship, he decided to enroll in the Army and fight in Ukrainedefending Even on YouTube that he did to gain respect and a future in his new country. His extreme case has received criticism and also media attentionbecoming a symbol of a reduced but very publicized phenomenon. The “visa of shared values”. Moscow launched in 2024 A special visa For disenchanted western, which facilitates permanent residence to about 150 people per month, a measure that reminds of Soviet propaganda that opposed a corrupt West to a supposedly moral Russia. Although in numbers they are just A few hundredtheir stories receive great diffusion in YouTube channels with Professional productionseveral of them linked to Russia Today According to researchwhich suggests a state effort to amplify the narrative of Russia as a refuge for the conservatives of the West. Examples and integration networks. There are many more cases in addition to the Huffman, such as The one of the Feenstraa Canadian family with eight children who settled on a farm in Nizhni Nóvgorod and reached almost 200,000 subscribers On YouTube, or Stephen Shoresan American computer scientist turned to orthodoxy who claims to feel freer in Russia against the “culture of cancellation”, although he lives under the threat of Ukrainian drones. At the institutional level, figures such as Maria Butina (former Russian agent deported in the United States) and businessmen such as The German Jakob Pinneker They help these immigrants to integrate, facilitating their installation and extolling the “family order and values.” Contradictions and realities. While the Kremlin exhibits these cases as proof of its appeal, the reality is that tens of thousands of Russians They have fled since 2022 to avoid mobilization, political repression and international isolation. In the country itself, thousands of people fulfill condemns for protesting against war or publicly disagree with the regime. The paradox It is evident: Those who come from the West Echoes of the Cold War. What we see today has clear historical parallels with the Soviet strategy during the Cold War. At that time, the USSR I tried to attract to intellectuals, artists and western militants who felt marginalized or frustrated with the capitalism and politics of their countries. Many communists and supporters They traveled to Moscow convinced That there they would find equality and social justice, some even acquired Soviet citizenship or were used in propaganda campaigns that showed the “exploitative west” against “socialist paradise.” The most emblematic case was that of The deserters North Americans who, after the Korean or Vietnam War, sought refuge in the USSR or allies like Cuba and North Korea, converted in trophies ideological. Strategic background. The flow of Westerners to Russia is minimal in figures, but useful in the propaganda plane. Under the official narrative, it reinforces the idea that Russia is not isolated and that even citizens of the Western enemy seek refuge under their flag for reasons of values ​​and morals. In the geopolitical plane, it points to an attempt to counteract the story of a country in crisis and project the image of cultural strength against a fragmented West. Of course, social also reveals the existence of disenchanted minorities In Europe and the United States that, not finding lace in their societies, becomes something very similar to useful pieces for Moscow’s speech. Image | RakoonDerek Huffman/YouTube In Xataka | More and more Americans want to live outside the US but they have a problem: Europe is closing its doors In Xataka | Digital nomadic visas: the countries hook to attract the best digital talent without paying the cost to keep them

An American military seemed like a cybercrime genius. He was given his own searches on how to desert Russia

Cameron John Wagenius had no criminal record or a dark past. He had a military uniform, 21 years and a career ahead in the United States Army. But in his spare time, from his bedroom in Texas, It connected as “Kiberphant0m” to telegram groups and forums where stolen credentials are purchased and databases for thousands of dollars are sold. I knew how to move, how to enter without being seen and how to extort technological companies from the shadow. According to the Department of Justicefor more than a year he directed a campaign that affected at least ten organizations. It was made with private credentials, accessed protected networks and much more. He did it as he continued charging the army and fulfilled functions as an active soldier. Until everything fell apart, not by a filtration, or by a technical error. For himself. The soldier who moved as a professional cybercrime Wagenius and his accomplices were coordinated through encrypted chats. They shared passwords, discussed vulnerabilities and talked openly about their next objectives. They used Tools like SSH Brutea brute force solution to enter protected systems, and acted quickly to move stolen data in some of the best known cybercrime forums of the moment. Once they got access, they launched threats. Sometimes privately, sometimes publicly. They threatened to publish the stolen information if they did not receive money in return. In some cases, they came to sell the data directly. In others, they used that information to launch attacks from Sim Swapping and supplant identities. The goal was always the same: money. The Department of Justice estimates that they tried to extort at least 1 million dollars to the victims. But while all that happened, Wagenius did something that FBI agents did not expect to find so easily: I left trace. According to judicial documentsin October 2024, in full swing of its operation, it began to search Google how to escape from the country. Literally. These are some of the searches he made from his personal account: • “Where you can desert an US military without being extradited” • “US military personnel deserting Russia” • “Russia Embassy – Washington DC” • How to get a fast passport “ In parallel, I wrote to his contacts with phrases such as: “The fun is that if they ever discover me, They can’t immediately arrest me by military law. That gives me time to disappear. ” The reality was another. Not only did he not escape. All this activity was recovered, documented and used as proof to demonstrate not only its crimes, but its intention to escape. Wagenius was arrested and declared himself guilty of several serious positions: conspiracy to commit electronic fraud, extortion in relation to computer crimes and aggravated identity. He had already admitted before, in another case linked, his involvement in the illicit transfer of confidential telephone records. His conviction, which will be read on October 6, could add up to 27 years in prison. The charges have different weight: electronic fraud can cost up to 20 years; Computer extortion, up to five; and the theft of aggravated identity entails a mandatory penalty of two additional years that cannot be combined with the previous ones. Wagenius had knowledge. I knew how to move around the network and how to hide behind proxies, vpns and Tools that in theory had to protect it. But something in his strategy went wrong. Now he is paying the consequences. Images | Xataka with Gemini Flash 2.5 | Kevin Ku In Xataka | Sam Altman believes that a serious crisis is coming with the AI fraud. The problem is that it has strong interests in the solution

The US already has its first smartphone made in the US. Bad news for the dream of a “100% American iPhone”

Purism has called it Liberty Phonebut in addition to that liberating name this phone stands out for something very special: it is assembly In the United States. The good news is that it shows that it is possible to manufacture an iPhone within the US borders. That may make the government of this country happy, but in reality practically everything is bad news. A mobile “made in USA” (more or less). As they explain In The Wall Street Journalthe Liberty Phone motherboard is manufactured in the Purism facilities, the main chip comes from Texas, and the assembly is carried out at the plant that the company has in Carlsbad, California. Other components come from China and other countries in Asia, but in essence we are facing a telephone that meets the demands of the Donald Trump government. Not for those. Todd Weaver, CEO of Purism, explained in WSJ how it has been working for 10 years and has done everything possible to have a 100% mobile component of US components, “but but There are some pieces which simply do not have supply chain. “their intention, however, is to continue working so that in the end they all come from US suppliers. Its scale is tiny. Even with these difficulties, Purism is able to face this manufacturing process because it produces about 10,000 units per month and have sold less than 100,000 in total. In 2024 Apple sold Something more than 230 million mobiles, about 19 million a month. Manufacturing all of them in the US makes clear the amount of resources that would need to transfer the country. Of course: the CEO of Purism clarifies that the production could upload up to 100,000 units per month in six months if you need it. And it is not even a latest generation mobile. The Liberty Phone chip is an I.MX 8m from the Dutch company NXP semiconductor that occurs in an Austin plant, in Texas, and that is not even thought for mobiles, but for cars. Other components such as the screen and battery come from China, while the rear camera comes from South Korea. The operating system is Pure OS, a variant of Debian Linux that is not compatible with Android or iOS and that has a very limited application catalog And it costs 2,000 dollars. Weaver states that manufacturing the Liberty Phone costs $ 650 – the estimated hardware cost on the iPhone 16 Pro is 550 dollars – but Purism sells it for a much higher price. According to him, the $ 1,999 that it costs – and that in its 4 GB version of RAM and 128 GB of storage – reflects its orientation: it is a mobile specially prepared to maintain user privacy. In fact, half of Purism’s clients are US government agencies. The iPhone and tariffs. Liberty Phone is a clear example of how Apple and its users could affect the demand of the Trump government to manufacture the iPhone in the United States. One of the big problems It is the fact that the components that this mobile needs are not manufactured in the US, or do not do it on a large scale. The efforts of companies such as TSMC to create production plants in the North American country It will mitigate the problembut it won’t eliminate it. Specialized labor. But there is another even greater problem: manufacturing millions of iPhone in the United States would force specialized labor. China has become the Great World Factory of technological devices, not only by cheap labor – which was originally – but for its qualification. Before a practically insurmountable situation, Apple has chosen to manufacture in India Most iPhone who end up selling in the US. That will expose some sensitive tariffsbut even so It will be cheaper than manufacturing them in the US or facing the huge tariffs applied to Chinese imports. Mission almost impossible. The example of the iPhone is clear, but there is a especially striking one: The T1 Phone which was announced a week ago told us about a completely assembled mobile in the US, and that would also have specifications Very notable (although it does not indicate which soc will rule it). The surprising thing is that the mobile will theoretically cost $ 499 and will be available in August, but it seems absolutely impossible to do so fulfilling all those promises. Everything points to an obvious solution: that in reality that mobile that presumes to be manufactured in the US is not manufactured in the US, but rather – like almost always – in China. In Xataka | The Ford Factory in Almussafes had been in a permanent strip and loosen for years. Now has another problem: tariffs

The hunt that still resists in Iran more than 40 years after his arrival. It is not Russian or Iranian. It is the American F-14

While the missiles cross the air between Israel and Iran, the Israeli Air Force has confirmed A new attack on facilities close to Tehran. According to its version, among the objectives there were at least a couple of fighters F-14 Tomcat. In one of the available videos, the impact on what would be one of the few units that are still in service, almost half a century after having been manufactured. That an American hunt retired in 2006 Keep flying today in one of Washington’s great adversaries is no accident. The explanation is in the convoluted – sometimes contradictory – that history can be. An order, a revolution and a war The History of F-14 in Iran begins in the 70s. The SHA, still strategic ally of the United States, decided to incorporate Dozens of Tomcat fighters to its Air Force, in a military package valued at approximately 2,000 million dollars. To do this, he sent his pilots to train in California. But everything changed in 1979, with the Islamic revolution. The relationship between Iran and the United States deteriorated quickly. Ayatolá Ruhollah Jomeiní ordered the arrest of many of those pilots and left the F-14 on land. But the situation took a new turn in 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran. The authorities decided to free the aviators, and began a career to counterreloj for reactivating a fleet for which there were no longer spare parts. An Iranian pilot next to an F-14 Now, keeping an F-14 in flight is not an easy task. Every flight hour required many more maintenanceand many of its components were impossible to manufacture locally. No access to Western technology, Iran resorted to smugglers, to the black market … And also, in a maneuver as surprising as documented, to the United States. During the 80s, within the framework of the scandal Iran-contextsthe Ronald Reagan administration He secretly authorized The sale of weapons to Tehran in exchange for the release of hostages. Iranian Tomcats equipped with multiple missiles in full flight Today, almost half a century after that SHA request, the F-14 Tomcat It continues to appear In Iran. There are no official figures on how many are or how many are really operational. Some have seen in parades. Others, in blurred videos. And now, according to Israel, at least two would have been destroyed in a recent attack near Tehran. Israeli Air Force announced the impact on Iranian F-14 with this publication That an F-14 is still present in 2025 is not just a technical rarity. It is a string of how convoluted the story can be. A hunt designed for US carriers, designed to face the Soviet Union and retired almost twenty years ago, still appears – in one way or another – in one of the most serious military tensions of the moment. Tomcat was a technological feat. But he is also an unlikely survivor: he went from ally to enemy, he sustained thanks to improvised engineers, to clandestine networks, and the carelessness of those who tried to leave him on the ground forever. Images | Nasim News Agency | Iriaf | Shahram Sharifi | IIAF 2 US Navy (via Wikimedia Commons) In Xataka | If the question is how much the iron dome of Israel can endure, the answer is simple: much more than Iran’s defenses

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