army

The US built the most powerful army in the world. Now there are those who point out its Achilles heel: cyberwar

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Few countries have a military mix comparable to that of the United States: ground, naval, air and space forces, industrial capacity and the means to operate far from their borders. However, recent conflicts have made it clear that the superiority no longer depends solely of airplanes, ships or battle tanks. In Ukraine, drones have acquired a prominence that forces us to review tactics and defenses. Meanwhile, Cyberattacks have established themselves as another tool of confrontation. And that’s where some experts believe the American structure is starting to show problems. A commission assembled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, in collaboration with the Cyberspace Solarium Commission 2.0s project, has tried to answer this question and its diagnosis is not very reassuring. In a recently published reportits authors maintain that the current design of US cyber forces is insufficient to deter, compete and combat in this domain. They do not claim that the Pentagon lacks specialists, units or operational capacity. The problem, according to the study, is deeper: no organization concentrates the responsibility of consistently recruiting, training and equipping the personnel needed by the United States Cyber ​​Command. It is no secret that measuring military power requires more than counting soldiers, ships or planes. The most visible data comes from SIPRI: in 2025, the United States remained by far the biggest military spender in the worldwith 954 billion dollars and 33% of the global total, compared to the 336 billion estimated for China. This data does not measure military power on its own, but it fits with other analyses, like those of GAO and Brookingswhich continue to describe the US as a dominant force due to its combination of capabilities, deployment, logistics and alliances. The domain for which no branch of the United States Armed Forces was designed There appears the anomaly that focuses the report. The United States has created military services with central responsibilities associated with the large traditional domains of combat, including the space branch since 2019. Cyberspace, on the other hand, continues without its own branch. The commission maintains that, for this reason, there is also no single authority responsible for creating the necessary forces to operate in that area. Responsibilities are distributed among different services, all involved in the mission, but none obliged to place it ahead of their traditional tasks. This dispersion translates, according to the report, into different approaches among the Department’s five military services to recruit, train and develop those who make up the cyber forces. Each one applies their own criteria access, career plans, educational systems and compensation models, which, according to the commission, produce unequal and inefficient results. Katherine Sutton, civilian cyber policy officer and senior cyber advisor at the Pentagon, acknowledged before the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 28, 2026 the “significant difficulties” in recruiting profiles with the appropriate skills, retaining the most experienced operators in the face of better-paid opportunities in the private sector and offering specialized training with sufficient agility. Now, the Pentagon has not stood still. The report acknowledges that it has attempted to correct part of the problem with CYBERCOM 2.0an initiative announced in 2025 to reinforce the role of Cyber ​​Command in talent, training and capacity development. But the commission considers that this type of reform does not resolve the underlying issue: the absence of a military branch dedicated to generating forces for cyberspace. In other words, it is not just discussing who commands the operations, but who stably builds the personnel, preparation and tools that those operations need. The United States Cyber ​​Command, known as USCYBERCOMhas the official mission of directing, synchronizing and coordinating operations in cyberspace to defend and promote national interests, according to its own institutional description. According to the commission, the problem is that in practice it also ends up carrying part of the “service-type” functions that it should provide. personnel, preparation and capabilities. The authors see there a design problem that is reminiscent of the model corrected by the Goldwater-Nichols Act of 1986which reorganized the Pentagon and better delineated the difference between building the force and employing it in operations. And what do they suggest? Well, the study works on the hypothesis of creating a military branch dedicated to cyberspace and develops how it should be organized if Washington were to make that decision. This Cyber ​​Force would have a defined mission: organize, train and equip the personnel in charge of offensive and defensive operations, while USCYBERCOM would retain the responsibility of employing them. The proposal does not seek to absorb all of the Pentagon’s technology or take charge of each of its computer networks. The other branches would continue to manage the systems linked to their own missions, but they would stop separately generating a capability that requires common criteria, careers and priorities. The paradox is difficult to ignore. The United States retains the most powerful military force in the world, but the report warns that has not yet developed a structure specifically designed to generate its capabilities in cyberspace. Erica Lonergan, lead author of the study and professor at Columbia University, and Mark Montgomery, commissioner of the report, retired rear admiral and head of cyber and technology at the FDD, They later transferred that conclusion to a forum in Defense News: If the digital environment has already become a war domain, it should have a branch ready to fight in it. Images | US Army Cyber ​​Command | Wyoming National Guard In Xataka | For years Russia accustomed its citizens to a distant war. Thousands of gas stations have just broken that illusion

An ancient necropolis in England has revealed what was Rome’s great weapon in Britain. And it has little to do with his army

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The Roman Empire was forged with swords, strategy and hordes of legionaries, but the eternal city had an even more effective resource than its military power: its magnetism. Sometimes, before the soldiers, what reached the future conquered territories was the commercial influence of Rome. The clearest example has just been offered to us by Essex, United Kingdom, where archaeologists They have found a necropolis with several copper vessels, amphorae, nails, brooches and even a delicate molded glass bowl, an exclusive piece. The important thing, however, is not so much the ‘what’ as the ‘when’. Experts believe that those pieces that tell us about a connection with Rome are prior to the invasion of Britain in 43 AD, so they reveal a previous cultural, diplomatic and economic contact between both worlds. What has happened? What archaeologists have discovered an ancient necropolis south of the United Kingdom which confirms that, before the Roman invasion of 43 AD launched by Emperor Claudius, the region was already permeable to the influence that came from the other side of the English Channel. It is a key detail because it tells us both about the Iron Age in modern-day England and about Rome’s ability to extend its cultural influence beyond its military power. What have they found? A cemetery near Chelmsford, Essex. When excavating the area, researchers from UCL Institute of Archeology They located the cremated remains of more than a hundred individuals buried there about 2,000 years ago. To be more precise, the tombs appeared in an area surrounded by a ditch and, according to expertsdates for the most part from the 1st AD, so it “marks the transition towards Roman domination in Great Britain.” Why is it important? As they delved deeper, the archaeologists saw two clearly differentiated types of graves: there were the most common ones, which numbered in dozens and basically consisted of urns with the remains of the deceased; and then a handful of burials were identified that, due to their characteristics and decorations, reveal a higher social status. There are only five, but they have been revealing. Revealing why? Because, in addition to cremated remains, funerary trousseau was deposited in the tombs that reveal the social status that the deceased had enjoyed in the East Anglia of the Iron Age. Experts located vessels made of copper, ceramic wine amphorae, horseshoe nails, brooches and even a detailed molded glass bowl, an exceptional piece as it is probably one of the first to arrive in Britain. And is that important? Yes. Because of its origin and (above all) the history it suggests to us. “These exceptional grave goods are likely to reflect diplomatic contacts and economic exchanges between Iron Age peoples in Britain and the Roman Empire, which were already taking place before the Roman conquest of 43 AD,” reflect Angus Forshaw, one of the experts leading the UCL Archeology excavations. In the case of the amphorae, Forshaw believes they may have arrived in Britain filled with wine for local elites. As for the bowl, he believes that it was probably “a very prized personal possession” of the deceased, which is why it ended up in his grave. “The period surrounding the Roman conquest was a time of immense political and cultural change. These burials could have been a way for different Iron Age communities to signal their identity, their power and their supposed loyalty to Rome,” duck Samara King, from Archeology South-East. And now what? There is still a lot of work ahead. The experts of Archeologym South-Eastt are in charge of cleaning and analyzing in detail the different objects extracted from the necropolis. They also examine the Essex site and its dozens of tombs to learn more about the people who were buried there, especially those who occupied the most elaborate tombs. In principle, experts believe that the burials have certain parallels with others located in the area that are reminiscent of cremations discovered in Stansted and Stanway, as well as sites in Hertfodshire. Furthermore, its focus is not only on the graves. Excavations have revealed more Iron Age structures, including three previously unknown settlements with their moats, cultivation and wells spread over 11 hectares. Images | UCL and Wikipedia In Xataka | 90 years ago, archaeologists in Mexico encountered the greatest enigma of pre-Hispanic America: a Roman head

Volkswagen led an army of sheep to graze under 31,000 solar panels. It turns out that the way of producing energy began to change

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For years, the industry has assumed that each new problem required an increasingly sophisticated solution. Volkswagen just demonstrated which is not always like that. After deploying thousands of solar panels to power one of its factories, it has discovered that the best possible maintenance is not done by a robot or a specialized machine, but by a flock of sheep. The problem was not the plates, but what was underneath. Photovoltaic parks share a challenge that is as simple as it is constant: vegetation doesn’t stop growing. In industrial facilities with tens of thousands of panels, keeping the ground clear involves introducing machinery between metal supports, wiring and electrical equipment, with the consequent economic, energy and maintenance costs. In the Volkswagen plant in Poznań, Poland, where a solar park of 31,000 panels can cover the entire energy demand of the factory during the days of greatest radiation and provides about 25% of its annual consumption, that challenge had become part of daily operations. An ancient solution. Instead of looking for a more efficient machine, Volkswagen turned to a much older technology: a hundred sheep. The animals replace lawnmowers, eliminating the need for mechanical clearing as they calmly cover the terrain under the plates. The curious thing is that the solution is not only effective in maintaining the grass at baybut it avoids the constant passage of vehicles between the infrastructure, reduces emissions and simplifies the maintenance of a state-of-the-art energy installation. The plus that sheep give. The project is part of a known model like agrivoltaicswhich seeks to combine electricity production with agricultural activity on the same surface. Under the supervision of researchers from the Poznań University of Sciences, the flock has been turned into a real open-air laboratory. The scientists analyze how it influences grazing on biodiversity, soil quality, vegetation, microclimate and animal well-being, while studying the extent to which the shade projected by the panels reduces the thermal stress of livestock during the hottest months. Nature also optimizes. The first results show an adaptation surprisingly fast. The sheep have been distributed naturally throughout the facility, forming small groups that take advantage of the shaded areas generated by the solar panels. This behavior, in addition to indicating that the animals feel safe, helps maintain a uniform plant coverage and encourages the appearance of insects and other species, transforming a simple photovoltaic plant into a much richer ecosystem than conventionally mowed land. Agrivoltaics is no longer rare. Although the case of Volkswagen is especially striking because it is a large industrial facility, the use of sheep in solar parks takes vyears extending in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States. The idea it’s simple: obtain two different yields from the same plot. While the plates generate electricity, the agricultural or livestock activity keeps the land productive, reduces operating costs and improves the environmental performance of the facility without competing for the use of the land. Innovation is not always more technology. The paradox of the project is evident. A factory that is committed to electrification, solar energy and decarbonization has ended up finding one of its most effective solutions in a livestock practice with thousands of years of history. At a time when innovation is often associated with artificial intelligence, automation or robotics, Volkswagen has discovered that, sometimes, the greatest advance consists of simply letting innovation. nature do a job that no machine can do with the same efficiency. Image | Rafal Pijanski In Xataka | Australia compared 1,700 sheep and discovered something unexpected: those that graze among solar panels give better quality wool In Xataka | Texas installed millions of solar panels on rural land. To maintain it they have had to hire 3,000 sheep

Apple has Siri. Huawei has an army of agents in HarmonyOS 7

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Huawei’s intentions with HarmonyOS are clear: do not need absolutely nobody to achieve quality software in your product ecosystem. As part of its annual developer conference, Huawei has made official Harmony OS 7which will be the next update of your operating system. Richard Yu made it clear at the conference that this new version will be focused on AI agents, an intention in line with what Google and Apple are trying. The era of agents. The Agentic AI is the buzzword, but it is worth reviewing the term before understanding what Huawei wanted to do with the new version of HarmonyOS. An AI agent in a system developed to perceive its environment and make automatic decisions using AI models. Basically, the focus of use shifts: we are no longer the ones who have to actively search for the AI ​​solution so that it can perform tasks for us autonomously. Up to 2,000. Richard Yu has boasted that the next version of HarmonyOS will allow Celia (Huawei’s Siri) to connect with more than 2,000 specialized agents. The numbers are somewhat ambiguous, since this is the capacity of the system, not a translation of HarmonyOS being immediately connected to 2,000 agents. In other words, the system will allow Celia to perform dozens of tasks herself (with our permission). For example, during the presentation, Huawei showed how the system can generate personalized training plans using our information from the health app, all locally. It can also locate files on the mobile phone to send them to a third party with a voice command: the agent can connect to compatible apps so that Celia can execute the order. What else is new. For years, iOS has been the benchmark in security. Android redoubled efforts with its version 17the most secure to date, and HarmonyOS 7 wanted to take the baton. The new version will automatically block SMS suspected of fraud, monitor bank transfers made abroad (for now, in Chinese banking apps), and analyze deepfakes in real time using AI. Added to this is a 15% performance increase compared to the previous version, promising that energy consumption has been reduced, without daring to give percentages here. The roadmap. Huawei’s plan with HarmonyOS 7 is not to release just an update to its ROM. Huawei’s commercial objective is to give life to mobile phones, computers, tablets, and even adapt these iterations to cars. It is expected that the new version will begin to land on Chinese devices in the month of October, and that some of these functions (not all, since a good part of these integrations are designed for Chinese apps) will reach the rest of the world later. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Huawei FreeBuds Pro 5, analysis: its noise cancellation can only be defined with two words and they are “black magic”

The US opened the door to Nvidia’s H200 chip in China. The Chinese army has been waiting for a long time on the other side

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Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, has been forced to “fight” with the US Department of Commerce for months, but he has achieved what he wanted: your company can now deliver some of its Chinese clients its chip to artificial intelligence (AI) H200. As we explain to you On May 14, Alibaba, Tencent, ByteDance and JD.com are four of the ten Chinese companies that already have access to this powerful GPU. And they have it because the US Department of Commerce, which is the institution that grants or denies export licenses, has authorized at least ten Chinese companies and several distributors, including Lenovo and Foxconn, to acquire the second most powerful AI chip that Nvidia has. This decision has come almost two months after the US Government confirmed which was going to allow the company led by Jensen Huang to deliver its H200 chip to its Chinese customers. However, Nvidia likely won’t have time to savor this victory. Once again, dark clouds are gathering over it that threaten to compromise, once again, its business in China. And, according to Bloombergat least seven Chinese universities linked to the country’s armed forces and defense industry are trying to obtain H200 chips. This disclosure comes from China’s public procurement records, so it is presumably reliable. Remote rental: the avenue that the Department of Commerce still does not know how to close In the US there is a pressure group that opposes the sale of advanced American AI chips in China. Chris McGuire, senior fellow on China and emerging technologies at the Council on Foreign Relations, holds that “any deal that allows Nvidia to sell more chips to China means fewer Nvidia chips for US companies and a smaller US advantage over China in AI.” Besides, McGuire argues that “it is surprising that President Trump continues to allow himself to be convinced to put Nvidia’s interests before those of America.” Chinese entities increasingly resort to renting airtime on servers equipped with restricted Nvidia chips What is happening right now with Chinese universities is the ideal breeding ground to reinforce the theses of this pressure group in the US. Two of the institutions that have expressed interest in H200 chipsBeihang University and Northwest Polytechnic University, are among China’s “Seven Sons of National Defense”, a select group of universities dedicated to supporting the People’s Liberation Army. Both have been included in the blacklist of the US Department of Commerce for their involvement in the advancement of Chinese military capabilities. And public procurement records reveal that the Beihang School of Cyber ​​Science and Technology, which claims to have “national defense characteristics and aerospace advantages,” is attempting to rent the use of Nvidia chips. Northwestern Polytechnic University’s School of Cyberspace Security is also trying to rent access to H200 chips, according to those same records. Chinese entities are increasingly resorting to time of use rental on servers equipped with restricted Nvidia chips as a way to access prohibited hardware without having to import it directly. This is the strategy that the US Government will surely try to dismantle. What is not clear at the moment is how he is going to do it. Image | Nvidia More information | Bloomberg In Xataka | The US remains committed to stopping China. Now it has targeted the second largest Chinese chip manufacturer

OpenAI had to choose between being the star app of the US army and its users. And the users have chosen for it

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Last Saturday there were 295% more uninstallations of the ChatGPT mobile app in the United States. Many users felt terrible that OpenAI reached a theoretically unethical agreement with the US Department of Defense to replace Anthropic, and they have punished it with a “Cancel ChatGPT” movement on social networks which has also had an impact on those uninstallations. what has happened. The consulting firm Sensor Tower, which monitors the status of mobile application stores, has indicated that the ChatGPT uninstall rate has increased by 295% on Saturday, February 28 compared to the previous day. Normally, the uninstall rate is around 9% from one day to the next, but that day it was clear that many users decided to get rid of the app at the same time. The reason is obvious. The Pentagon vs. Anthropic. The pentagon it had been months working with Claude, Anthropic’s AI, which was already used on classified documents. Anthropic had made it a condition not to use its AI for mass espionage and the development of autonomous weapons, but the Department of Defense (DoD, which many now call the “War Department”) wanted Anthropic remove those limitations. Anthropic refusedand that’s where OpenAI comes in. and opportunistic. Sam Altman first praised Anthropic’s stance. A few hours later he announced that they had reached an agreement with the DoD to replace Claude with ChatGPT. This has been widely criticized for OpenAI’s lack of ethics and opportunistic attitude, and led to a “ChatGPT cancellation” movement which has had an immediate impact on the downloads and uninstallations of this chatbot. Altman wants to clear things up. He OpenAI announcement It was unclear whether OpenAI actually imposed the same limits that Anthropic had imposed, but Altman soon announced that had added amendments to the agreement to avoid any confusion. Apparently they have been added protections against mass surveillancebut nothing is mentioned about the development of lethal autonomous weapons. Punishment for OpenAI. Not only has it been noticeably uninstalled, but in the opinions of the ChatGPT app many users have given a single star out of five in a very high proportion: those bad opinions grew by 775% on Saturday and then by 100% on Sunday according to Sensor Tower. Five-star reviews fell by 50%. Claude has overtaken ChatGPT in downloads as a result of the latest events with the Pentagon. Source: Appfigures. And Claude already surpasses it in downloads. Another consultancy that monitors the download market, appfiguresindicated that on Saturday Claude’s downloads surpassed those of ChatGPT in the US for the first time. In fact, Claude has become the most downloaded app in at least six countries outside the US: Belgium, Canada, Germany, Luxembourg, Norway and Switzerland. Streisand Effect. We are facing another case of Streisand effect: trying to censor certain information or a certain company ends up being counterproductive. The Pentagon tried to make Anthropic the bad guy, but what has happened is that the company is now seen as the great defender of ethics and “AI alignment.” This has made people perceive it as a more morally respectable option than ChatGPT. But Anthropic has problems. According to Reuters Several US government departments and agencies have made the switch to OpenAI and have begun to stop using Anthropic models for their work. That is already a problem for Anthropicbut even more so is the fact that their recent investment round, in which they raised 60,000 million dollars, could be in danger. If the DoD decides to label Anthropic a “supply chain risk,” its contracts and agreements with dozens of companies would be at risk, and its own future as a company would be at risk. It would be an extraordinary measure and it seems unlikely that the US would go to that point, but nothing is certain today. Image | Village Global In Xataka | The war between Anthropic and the Pentagon points to something terrifying: a new “Oppenheimer Moment”

replace 50,000 workers with an army of Terminators

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For decades, movies like terminatorby James Cameron, we were accustomed to thinking about armies of robots since a dystopian perspectiveif you will, as an exaggeration typical of science fiction, a narrative resource to talk about fear of the future. The problem is that, little by littlethat future has stopped seeming so distant, and some of the ideas that previously only fit in the cinema are beginning to appear in the real world with a disturbing naturalness. From the worker robot to the soldier. Most of the humanoid robot startups that have emerged in recent years sell a reassuring promise– Machines designed to work in factories, warehouses, hospitals or even homes, alleviating labor shortages and increasing productivity. Foundationa young Silicon Valley company, shares that ambition, but takes it to much more uncomfortable terrain: his Phantom robot It is not only designed for industrial work, but also for armed combat, with the United States Army as an explicit client. Its founder, Sankaet Pathak, does not hide the intention nor the schedule: manufacture 50,000 humanoids before the end of 2027 and turn them into an operational tool for both the civilian economy and the battlefield. Impossible calendar. They counted in Forbes that Foundation boasts an unusual development speed even by industry standards. In just 18 months since its founding, Phantom was already making real production tasks in facilities of undisclosed industrial partners, a pace comparable to that of the most advanced players in the market. This acceleration is explained by two key acquisitions in artificial intelligence and new generation actuators, but also by a recruited team directly from companies like Tesla, Boston Dynamics, SpaceX or 1X. The scaling plan is as ambitious as it is risky: 40 robots this year, 10,000 next year and 40,000 in 2027. Pathak admits which is an extreme goal, but insists that there is a “non-zero probability” of achieving it, relying on a philosophy inherited from Tesla: do not try to automate everything too quickly. Foundation The economic model. The commercial bet by Foundation It is not about selling robots, but for renting them. The company isn’t looking for dozens of small customers, but rather a few gigantic contracts capable of generating hundreds of millions in recurring revenue. If the plan is fulfilled, 50,000 rented robots between 2026 and 2027 could translate into about 5 billion dollars annuallywith an approximate price of $100,000 per robot per year. At first glance it seems expensive compared to an average human salary, but the argument is purely industrial: A humanoid can work almost 24/7 and replace between three and five people. Even discounting maintenance, human supervision and downtime, the potential savings per unit could be around $90,000 annually. All of this, of course, under a crucial condition that no one has yet demonstrated: that the robot is really as fast, reliable and versatile as a human worker. Technology that does not exist. Phantom boasts of advanced “muscles”, efficient and reversible actuators that allow it to operate for several shifts without overheating and coexist with people with a reasonable level of safety. Still, there is an uncomfortable reality in the sector: no manufacturer has yet achieved a humanoid that is fully equivalent to human performance in complex environments. Therefore, the money intelligent It discounts delays, reduces expectations, and assumes that it will take additional years for hardware and software to reach true maturity. The recent history of robotics is full of promises ahead of their time. An armed robot. It is in the military sphere where Foundation definitively breaks with the comfortable narrative. Pathak defend that an armed humanoid can be “the first body in” in high-risk situations, because a docile robot does not force the enemy to reveal itself. PhantomAccording to his vision, it must be lethal. The range of uses it’s wide: carry ammunition, perform dangerous tasks, explore buildings, cross ridges or enter caves where no officer would want to send a soldier. In fact, it is not pure science fiction: terrestrial robots have already been seen with similar functions in the Ukrainian war, although not humanoid in shape. More precise (or easier) warfare. Foundation argues that these robots could make war more precise, not more brutal. Instead of bombing or heavy weapons, a terrestrial humanoid could evaluate situations directly. The operating model would resemble that of current drones: the robot would move and navigate autonomously, but the lethal decision would remain in human hands, remote and safe. If that scheme works, armed humanoids could alter the logic of deterrence, substituting human deployments for robotic force demonstrations scalable. Pathak even arrives to affirm that an army with tens of thousands of visible robots could prevent wars before they start. The ethical dilemma. There is no doubt, the other side of the argument is just as disturbing. If sending robots reduces the political and human cost of war, it can also make it more likely. History shows that when the threshold for sacrifice is lowered, resort to force becomes more tempting. The ethics of armed humanoid robots become like this more complex than everespecially in a world where China, Russia and the United States are already developing lethal autonomous systems, even if they do not take human form. In reality, automated warfare is not new: Nazi V-2 missiles They already incorporated a primitive form of autonomy during the Second World War. What changes now is the degree of sophisticationthe distributed decision-making capacity and the physical proximity of the robot to the human combatant. Image | Foundation In Xataka | We had seen everything in Ukraine, but this is new: drones are disguising themselves as Russian soldiers, and it is working In Xataka | When we thought we had seen all kinds of rehearsals for an invasion, China makes science fiction: robots taking over an island

an army to “clean up” the most dangerous and lethal area of ​​Ukraine

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For months now, Western intelligence services and military analysts they were warning about what something deep was changing in North Korea: thanks to Russian support, the Kim Jong-un regime was beginning to accelerate the modernization of your armywith advances in missiles, drones and even signs of technical support in programs as sensitive as that of nuclear powered submarines. Moscow appeared to be breaking strategic taboos to shore up an isolated ally, but a key question remained unanswered. Now, it is beginning to become clear what the real price to pay for this military leap is. Alliance sealed with blood. As we said, the reactivated Moscow-Pyongyang axis alliance out of mutual necessity The true price of one side has been revealed with brutal clarity: North Korea is paying back its support for Russia by putting its own soldiers in the most dangerous task of the Ukrainian war. Not as advisors, nor as a symbolic rearguard, but as extreme risk meat, sent to clear minefields in active combat zones, where the probability of being killed or maimed is structurally high. The confirmation has come from Kim Jong-un himself, in an unusual gesture of propaganda transparency, and marks a qualitative leap in the degree of North Korean involvement in the European conflict. Engineers in the hell of Kursk. The North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia belong to specialized combat engineer units, sent to the Kursk region to carry out demining work after fighting with Ukrainian forces. This is a technically complex mission and psychologically devastatingeven for well-equipped professional armies, and even more so for troops coming from one of the most closed and disciplined regimes on the planet. According to the official datathe operation lasted about 120 days and resulted in the death of at least nine soldiers, although Western and South Korean intelligence services they estimate that actual North Korean personnel casualties in the war could run into the hundreds. Before these engineers, up to 15,000 troops North Koreans would have fought alongside Russian forces in the same region to expel Ukrainian units. The tacit agreement. The logic that supports this deployment It is as simple as it is disturbing. Russia, in need of men, ammunition and regeneration capacity after years of war, offers North Korea that in exchange what else do you need: fuel, food, financial aid and, above all, access to advanced military technologies that could modernize its military and its missile and weapons programs. For a regime suffocated by international sanctions, selling highly disciplined military manpower is a strategic asset. It is not just ideological or diplomatic support: it is a direct transaction in which Pyongyang exchanges human lives for economic and military oxygen. Scenery of the sacrifice. Over the weekend it was learned that the engineers’ return was celebrated in Pyongyang with a carefully designed ceremony to transform loss into epic. Kim Jong-un embraced wounded soldiers, some in wheelchairs, consoled families of the dead and awarded the dead with the highest state decorations, promising “eternal luster” to their sacrifice. The broadcast images by the KCNA agency show the leader kneeling before portraits of the fallen, placing flowers and medals, and talking about “miracles” achieved in deadly zones converted into safe spaces. All of this is part of a deliberate effort for normalizing the sending of troops abroad and strengthening internal support for a decision that, in any other context, would be politically explosive. Russian landmines laid during Ukraine’s advance in the 2022 Southern Ukraine counteroffensive. It reads “from a pure heart” and “with love from Russia” Propaganda and obedience. The official story goes beyond the tribute. North Korean state media they have spread images of soldiers advancing without hesitation through minefields or under intense fire, as well as scenes of wounded combatants committing suicide with grenades to avoid capture. It’s not just war propaganda: it’s an internal message of absolute disciplinewhere individual life is completely subordinated to the State and the leader. In this framework, the soldier is not an armed citizen, but rather an expendable strategic resource, trained to accept missions that other armies would consider almost suicidal. From ideological allies to operational partners. North Korean involvement is not limited to sending men. Pyongyang has supplied Moscow large quantities of projectiles of artillery, missiles and various weapons, de facto reactivating a mutual defense treaty inherited from the Cold War. However, the deployment of troops on the ground marks a new frontier: North Korea is no longer just a distant supplier, but an operational actor within the war. The choice of demining it is not coincidental: It is an essential, dangerous and inconspicuous function, perfect for an ally that can take losses without being accountable to public opinion. Disturbing precedent. That a State sells its soldiers to clear mines in a foreign war is not only a dark anecdote from the Ukrainian conflict, but a disturbing precedent. It demonstrates the extent to which war is becoming internationalized in layers, incorporating actors who exchange support not out of long-term strategic affinity, but out of sheer regime survival. In this scheme, North Korea has found an extreme way to break its isolation, while Russia obtains something increasingly scarce: men willing (or forced) to walk where no one else wants to. The price of this alliance is no longer measured in treaties or speeches, but in steps taken. on mined ground. Image | GoodFon, Stefan KrasowskiMinistry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | “It’s a level 10 Godzilla, but they only see a tiger”: South Korea’s surprising response to North Korea’s rearmament In Xataka | North Korea has been sending weapons to Russia for months. In return, Russia is giving him what he craves most: a functional army.

China already has an army of 5.8 million engineers. His new plan involves accelerating doctorates

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China has a plan to win the technology race, one that began more than 40 years ago when decided to invest in training millions of engineers. We have seen it in the signings of the Meta superintelligence teamwhere the vast majority are Chinese. Chinese universities have a new plan to further accelerate the attainment of doctorates, one that puts aside theory to focus on practice. What is happening. They tell it in South China Morning Post. China is implementing a new policy that affects STEM students pursuing doctorates. The title PhD or ‘Doctor of Philosophy’ is the highest academic rank that can be obtained and until now required the development of a thesis. With this change, led by Harbin University of Technology, engineers can earn the PhD degree with the development of real products and systems. First case. The first student to achieve the PhD based on practical results was Wei Lianfeng last September. He graduated in 2008 and joined the China Nuclear Institute, where he worked for more than a decade until he decided to return to university to pursue his PhD, which he earned for his results in developing a vacuum laser welding system. To evaluate their work, the court that attended the oral defense included industry experts. Why is it important. The training of technical talent has been a priority for China for decades and more recently they have redoubled their efforts. In 2022, the government launched a program to promote STEM education especially in strategic areas such as semiconductors and quantum computing. Among the key points of the plan was close cooperation between companies and universities for joint training. This measure is the culmination of this strategy and the recognition that theoretical knowledge is not enough to compete in the technological race, especially with US blockades of key technologies. This allows China to solve the bottleneck in graduating higher-ranking engineers; It is not only about training more engineers, but about training them as soon as possible and with solutions that can be applied to the real world, instead of theses that are hundreds of pages long. STEM Power. The push to train engineers and scientists is part of a long-term government plan that began in the post-Mao era. And the plan is going from strength to strength. If we focus only on doctorates, according to data from 2023, China awarded 51,000 doctorates (PhD) in STEM careers, while the US was at 34,000. The projection at that time was that by 2025 the figure would rise to 77,000. In terms of total figures, In 2020, China was already the country that produced the most STEM graduates throughout the world with an abysmal difference: 3.57 million compared to the 2.55 million that India produced or the 822,000 in the United States. At the moment China already has 5.8 million graduates and it is estimated that more than 40% of all graduates choose a STEM career. Image | Joshua Hoehne in Unsplash In Xataka | Silicon Valley has a problem: its engineers are beginning to look to the other side of the Pacific. Specifically towards China

a poncho turns its soldiers in Ukraine into an invisible army

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Last October Ukraine I remembered to his troops that Russian soldiers had come up with a new infiltration system. After the helmets with antennathe lures and the optical illusionsMoscow had found a way to appear among the Ukrainian forces “out of nowhere”. Now, in a new unprecedented twist in the conflict, Russia has found the closest thing to an invisibility shield. From the video game to the fight. Something very similar to what we saw in the Metal Gear saga, then called optical camouflagehas appeared in the conflict in Europe. The war on the Russian-Ukrainian front has seen a tactical evolution that has shifted classic protection (armor and vehicles) towards mobility and thermal stealth: Russian assault forces have adopted ponchos or thermal tarps (the so-called “invisibility cloaks”) as an essential element to minimize the infrared signature and allow infiltrations on foot in the wide swath controlled by the drones. There is no perfect thermal concealment, but the difference between being detected or not can decide the life of an assault group. That’s why these clothes, combined with night movements and the use of specific environmental conditions, have become a central tactical tool that, in practice, today protects more than many armored vehicles against the aerial threat of reconnaissance and attack. Tactical evolution. Thermal tarps are blankets made with reflective layers and materials that accelerate heat dissipation, their purpose is approximate the temperature superficial of the human body to that of the environment to reduce contrast that thermal cameras detect. However, its effectiveness depends of multiple factors: quality of the material, contour sealing (bare feet and hands are detectable signs), weather conditions and, above all, the time of day. The so-called as “thermal crossover” (two brief daily periods in which vegetation, soil and air have similar temperatures) reduces global thermal contrast and offers the optimal window to move forward without standing out, while fog, rain or humidity can complement that invisibility. Improperly used, ponchos generate “cold spots” that attract attentionbut used well, multiply the probability of achieving tactical objectives. Limitations and learning. It must be clarified that thermal tarps do not make the attacker invulnerable. Experienced drone operators look for subtle signs (bare feet, movement under the cover, small thermal disturbances) and learn to distinguish behavioral patterns that reveal infiltrations. In addition, there are low quality materials and training errors: there are cases of soldiers who tried to camouflage themselves in broad daylight or with inappropriate ponchos and were detected. The tactic is therefore effective but fragile: it works best en masse, under optimal conditions and when the adversary lacks sufficient alternative sensors or personnel on the line. US Marine Corps uniform with built-in thermal camouflage Countermeasures and tactical recovery. To counteract these infiltrations, the solution it is not unique: involves deploying complementary sensors (acoustic, magnetic, seismic) that do not depend on the thermal spectrum, or reinforcing minefields and physical barriers, densifying human or robotic presence in exposed sectors, or even improving doctrine multisensory surveillance and train detection teams to identify minimal signs of intrusion. In strategic terms, Ukrainian forces agree that the response involves combining technology (more sensors, better integration) with greater territorial occupation, because passive defense based solely in aerial interceptions It is insufficient against equipment that infiltrates at low visibility. Operational implications. The resort to small infiltrated groups reflects broader tensions: troop shortages, accumulated material wear and tear, and an environment where air or drone superiority does not guarantee the security of the rear. For those who attack, the tactics allows you to exploit holes in defense and wear down positions through groups that, although they lose part of their troops, can complete reconnaissance, sabotage or local assault missions. For those who defend it, it forces us to rethink the segmentation of the front and the provision of resources: the balance between expensive sensors and effective personnel, the need for mobile reserves and the growing importance of passive and active containment measures on the ground. Strategic conclusion. If you like, we are facing a tactical transformation where war becomes more granular and less dependent on traditional armor: the multiplication of drones and sensors has revalued thermal invisibility and human mobility, while it has revealed the fragility of conventional defensive schemes. In the short term, the balance favors those who know integrate camouflagemeteorology and discreet logistics. In the medium term, effective defense will require a greater density of heterogeneous sensors, more troops or robotic means on the line and a doctrinal adaptation that combines multisensory detection with physical measures that close the gaps that infiltrators exploit today. In short, in the current field a thermal tarpwell used, can offer an attacker more practical protection than many armored vehicles, and this realization forces us to rethink tactical defense and territory management in a conflict dominated by sensor warfare. Image | UKRAINE MOD, Metal Gear In Xataka | Russia’s latest tactic is the closest thing to a magic trick: By the time Ukraine realizes it, the Russians are already behind it In Xataka | The Ukrainian army has been asked what it urgently needs. The answer was clear: no missiles or drones, just cars

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