battle

the battle to explain gravity that Einstein won thanks to an eclipse in 1919

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This summer, many people have organized their holidays around the eclipse that will be seen in Spain on August 12. Without a doubt, many see it as a spectacle that perhaps they can only see once. or very few times in life. However, we must not forget that it is still a phenomenon with very interesting scientific implications. For example, something very curious is that in 1919 It was used to prove Einstein right. Einstein vs Newton. In 1915, Einstein enunciated his Theory of General Relativity. In it, broadly speaking, he pointed out that the attraction of gravity is due to a space-time curvature caused by the effect of objects with mass and energy. Before him, the most accepted theory about gravity was the one launched by Newton. In it, it was pointed out that the gravitational attraction was due only to the mass of the objects. Energy had nothing to do with it, and of course I had no idea that time and space could be intertwined. Einstein’s hypothesis was received as interesting, but many physicists of the time were not willing to abandon Newton’s theory. If Einstein wanted to be believed, he would have to prove that he was right. An eclipse ultimately turned out to be the ideal experiment for his demonstration, although it was carried out not by him, but by a British astronomer named Arthur Eddington. Light issue. Newton considered that light was composed of corpuscles with mass. Therefore, these could also be attracted to massive objects. If the Sun drew light from the stars around it, for example, it would do so with an arc of 0.84 seconds. Einstein, on the other hand, made different calculations. For him, light is not attracted like a magnet attracts metal or anything like that. What happens, according to his theory, is that massive objects curve space-time, like a ball falling on top of an elastic fabric. The light, to pass through there, must take the easiest path, which is passing through the edges of that groove that the massive object has generated in space-time. In short, it also deviates, but much more so. According to Einstein’s calculations, we would be looking at an arc of 1.74 seconds. Massive objects warp spacetime The trick. To know who was right, it would be enough to observe the effects of the Sun on a nearby star cluster. But of course, during the day those stars are not seen. Therefore, the ideal would be to take advantage of an eclipse that blocks the light of the Sun and allows you to see the stars when they are very close to it. A very useful excursion. To try to prove Einstein right, Arthur Eddington traveled to Africa in May 1919. On the 29th of that month a very interesting eclipse would occur, since at that time the Sun would be very close to the Hyades, a large star cluster. He went to Príncipe Island and made the calculations of the position in which the stars should be when they appeared when the Sun set. I only had 7 minutes to try to take photographs and the weather did not make it easy for him, but he managed to take advantage of a cloudless moment and take the snapshots that would prove the German physicist right. As he already sensed, the stars in the cluster were deviated from where they should be if the Sun did not exert any gravity on them. Specifically, with an arc of 1.7 seconds. Nowadays. Eclipses have not been used for a long time to confirm theories that the scientific scene takes with suspicion, but they are still very useful for science. They expose the solar corona, that superficial layer of the sun in which solar storms brew that can affect terrestrial communications so much. Nowadays there are coronagraphs that create a kind of false eclipse so that the corona can be studied. However, eclipses offer a very interesting natural opportunity to see it in all its splendor. That’s also very exciting. Image | Wikimedia Commons/Luc Viatour |ESA In Xataka | A third of Spain will be completely dark for a minute or two. The astronomical event of the century is approaching

In the battle for high speed in Italy, someone has passed Renfe on the right. Someone called France

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SNCF will compete for the Italian high speed network from September 2027. For a few weeks now, the French company has had the go-ahead to operate on the Italian network and stand up to the state company Trenitalia and the private company Italo. With this movement, France once again gets ahead of Renfe. Although it’s not all bad news. What do we know? The SCNF company, the public railway entity in France, will compete for high speed on Italian soil from September 2027. At least, those are the deadlines according to their latest announcement which specifies that the corridors they can use have already been assigned. In his statementSCNF explains that its trains will offer up to 13 round-trip services on the Turin – Naples and Turin – Venice corridors. The company boasts that this new activity on the lines will result in the creation of 4,000 jobs with the addition of direct and indirect workers. What does it offer? With its proposal, the French company ensures that the Italian railways 15 TGV M trains will be available. They are Alstom trains that the company has not yet been able to test because deliveries have been delayed in recent months. They hope to have them in operation first in France starting next July on the Paris-Lyon-Marseille line. The trains have had to be modified slightly since much of the Italian high speed It does not allow driving at more than 200 km/h. The company will offer four round trips on the Turin-Venice and nine on the Turin-Naples. This last corridor is key because it passes through cities like Milan, Florence and Rome, which is undoubtedly a very juicy cake for a company that intends to gain volume in the coming years. A tough battle. SCNF’s landing comes after a battle in the courts. They explain in the French media that Italy has tried to torpedo the company’s attempts to compete with Trenitalia and Italo. According to these media, the Italian subsidiary of the company has been in an open battle since 2021 with Italian Railway Rete (RFI) that manages the Italian roads, would be the Italian Adif. After numerous disagreements, the Italian subsidiary of the French company ended up denouncing RFI to AGCM, the body in charge of ensuring free competition in the transalpine country. Finally, this body has given the approval so that SCNF can compete with local companies on its roads. To compete, the French company will once again bet on offering lower prices and they assure that the medium-term objective is to gain 15% market share. In the French mediain fact, Spain is pointed out as the example model that SCNF wants to implement in the Italian country, trying to maximize trips on already consolidated routes. And Renfe? Renfe also has its own plans in Italy and although it has not been officially confirmed that it wants to make the leap to high speed, the truth is that the Spanish company has been taking positions that give us an idea of ​​the extent to which it wants to offer this service. And it is that Renfe bought 33% of Arenaways in 2024an Italian company that provides railway services. Of the rest of the shareholders, the Spanish Serena Industrial Partners It also has 33% so most of it is Spanish. This purchase has allowed Renfe to operate the Cuneo-Saluzzo-Savigliano regional line from 2025 and will do the same with the Ceva-Ormea line when the works are completed. But, furthermore, in Expansion They already pointed out then that the company has certifications to operate throughout the Italian network, which should facilitate the arrival of Renfe to the high-speed corridors. Spain-France-Italy. The triangle formed by Spain, Italy and France is leaving us with an intense battle for European high-speed services. In our country, the roads have been opened to Ouigo (SCNF) and Iryo (Trenitalia) and the battle has even reached the use of workshops. In Italy there has been an attempt to torpedo the entry of SCNF but after four years of fighting, the French company has ended up receiving the go-ahead to take its trains to compete on the Italian expressways. Renfe, at the moment, has not confirmed plans to take this step and only operates on regional trains. In France, Renfe has complained that the neighboring country is creating innumerable obstacles to reaching Paris, a key objective when it comes to offering a profitable high-speed service to the north of the Pyrenees. Trenitalia, however, Yes, it has managed to operate in France connecting Paris with its large local cities. Leisurely. All in all, it must be taken into account that Renfe’s forays abroad are not reaping bad results as far as its accounts are concerned. Last year he managed to invoice 20 million euros with the AVE of Meccawhere it moved 10 million passengers, like main promoter of Renfe International Projects. There, Renfe has high-speed services running but its projects outside our borders They are varied. It operates, for example, on the regional train network of the Czech Republic and on Rail Baltica (Latvia and Estonia) and It is also part of what is known as the Mayan Train. Photo | Fernando Meloni and Phil Richards In Xataka | There is a fight between the railway operators to get the best drivers and Renfe is winning it

a legal battle for control of Nexperia

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A company can be many things at the same time: a factory, a subsidiary, a patent portfolio, a piece within a supply chain. But, in the technological war we are seeing between China and Europe, it can also become a battlefield. Nexperia fits right in there. We are not just talking about who owns a semiconductor company based in the Netherlands and owned by the Chinese Wingtech, but about who can decide on it when courts, governments and the fear that certain industrial capabilities end up under another center of power come into play. The new demand. The latest movement comes from China. According to ReutersWingtech Technology and a subsidiary have filed a lawsuit against Nexperia BV and five other entities before a court in Guangdong, which has already accepted the case. The company provisionally claims 8 billion yuan, about $1.18 billion, for the economic losses it attributes to the conflict. SCMP adds another relevant element: Wingtech is not only asking for compensation, it is also demanding to regain full control over Nexperia, a point that once again places the case in the field of corporate governance. The origin of the crash. To understand why the demand does not come from nowhere, you have to go back to September 2025. So, The Dutch Government intervened Nexperia and removed Wingtech from effective control of the company, citing fears about a possible transfer of operations and intellectual property to China. The administrative decision was later revoked, but the problem did not go away. Wingtech maintains that its scope of control remained limited by a parallel Dutch court ruling, still relevant to the dispute. Nexperia’s response. The Netherlands-based firm has responded by downgrading the immediate scope of the judicial move. In statements reported by the aforementioned news agency, Nexperia stated that it “has taken note of Wingtech’s announcement” and that it understands that the corresponding court “has not opened the case to trial.” He also regretted the strategy of its Chinese owner and maintained that Wingtech does not seem interested in reaching a solution beneficial to all parties, including its own shareholders. The Chinese legal route. The lawsuit is not only based on a business claim, but on a politically charged legal framework. Wingtech invokes China’s Foreign Sanctions Law to seek compensation for damages it attributes to restrictions on Nexperia. The company maintains that Nexperia and its executives applied “discriminatory restrictive measures” within the meaning of that law. The financial blow. The financial blow. The push for Nexperia is also leaving its mark on Wingtech’s accounts. Reuters notes that the company closed 2025 with a net loss of 8.7 billion yuan, compared to 2.8 billion the previous year. The deterioration continued in the first quarter of 2026: income plummeted by 94%, after the foreign business stopped consolidating its results. A conflict still open. The lawsuit does not close the battle for Nexperia, rather it prolongs it in another area. SCMP points out that Beijing and The Hague have defended that the case should be resolved “between the two companies without government interference,” as explained on April 17 by the Dutch Minister of Economy, Heleen Herbert, after meeting with the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, Shen Bo. The message seeks to limit the conflict, but the evolution of the case itself shows how difficult it is to separate business, courts and industrial policy when a semiconductor company is caught in the middle of the fight between China and Europe. Images | Nexperia In Xataka | Brussels has just fined Temu the largest fine in its history with the Digital Services Law: 200 million euros

There is a battle to have the AI ​​model that programs best. And a good, pretty and very cheap rival has appeared in it: Cursor

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Cursor has introduced Composer 2.5a generative AI model specifically intended for one thing: programming well. How good? Well, according to this startup, it does it as well as the best models of the moment, Claude Opus 4.7 and GPT 5.5, but it also does it for a lower cost. The challenge is striking not only because of what it means for Cursor, but because of how they have created that model: it turns out that it is based on a Chinese AI model. AI models specialized in one thing. While OpenAI and Anthropic try to develop general-purpose models—they do a lot of things really well— Cursor you have decided to focus on a specific task. The AI ​​startup has created an AI model specialized in programming, and has done so by arguing that a billion parameters are not necessary to compete with the best. Devoting yourself to a single thing allows you to not only gain efficiency, but also costs. This is not a decathlete, but a specialist in the 200 m event, so to speak. As good as GPT-5.5 or Claude Opus 4.7? That’s what they say in Cursor, because according to their tests with several specific programming benchmarks, the performance is on par with those two models that today are the great references both in programming and in other areas. And much cheaper. These results are also especially interesting when we add the cost factor. The average cost per task in the CursorBench 3.1 benchmark showed that Composer 2.5 managed to solve almost 65% of all tests for a cost of just $0.3. Opus 4.7 max and GPT-5.5 xhigh managed to reach that 65%, but at much higher costs: just over 4 dollars in the case of GPT, and 11 dollars in the case of Opus. The difference is abysmal. He API access price demonstrates the differences: 0.5 dollars per million input tokens 2.5 dollars per million output tokens, when Claude Opus 4.7 is 5/25 and that of GPT-5.5 is 5/30 respectively. Textual feedback. Unlike models that only learn from the final result, Composer 2.5 has been trained with a reinforcement learning technique (Reinforcement Learning) that allows us to offer clues about what is happening if errors are being made. This allows the model to recalibrate and act as a transparent teacher. One that also corrects word by word as it solves the exercise, not just when seeing the final result. 85% of the training budget has been dedicated exclusively to reinforcement learning, calibrating the model not for chat, but to execute code refactorings or fix bugs in real time. A model “born” in China. Those responsible for Cursor themselves have explained that Composer 2.5—like its predecessor, Composer 2launched at the end of March—is a model derived from Kimi K2.5, the AI ​​model of the Chinese startup Moonshot. Although that is the basis, already in Composer 2 the training and post-training tasks manage to improve the behavior in a very notable way in programming benchmarks and also in others such as Terminal Bench that evaluate the agentic behavior of these models. Cursor gets older. This startup became famous for creating a programming AI agent that was a pioneer in that fever we live for vibecoding. The user experience is no longer that of programming, as in traditional IDEs (Integrated Development Environments), but rather that of directing the machine to program it for you. Composer 2.5 doesn’t just program: it understands the structure and relationships between files, and turns Cursor into a much more competitive AI company, because it no longer depends on being able to work with Anthropic or OpenAI models, for example. Having both the AI ​​agent and the model processing everything makes it a much more competitive solution. Elon Musk has Cursor in his sights. Cursor’s good performance has led to growing interest in buying this company even before it becomes too big. Elon Musk knows this well and Grok, xAI’s model, is not so popular in the programming field. In April we learned that SpaceX had reached an agreement that gives you the option to buy Cursor for 60,000 million dollars. It would be a promising deal for both, because Composer 2.5 has already used Colossus’ infrastructure to train, and xAI could thus try to gain market share in the juicy enterprise sector. In Xataka | Elon Musk knows that TSMC is overwhelmed: Terafab is his idea to completely change the global chip industry

why the great battle of mobile cameras is in size and not in megapixels

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How difficult can it be? know if the camera of one mobile phone is better than that of another. An example as a riddle, let’s see if you can see, at a glance, which camera is better. They are the two main cameras of two different phones: 50 megapixel sensor with f/1.7 aperture and one-inch size. 3.2 µm pixels and OIS stabilization. 200 megapixel sensor with f/1.7 aperture and 1/1.4 inch size. 0.56 µm pixels and OIS stabilization. Since a large number always attracts attention, a first glance could tell us that the camera with 200 megapixels is better than the one with 50 megapixels. Is that so? Well, not in this case, since the top camera (which corresponds to a Xiaomi 17 Ultra) It’s much better than the one below (from a Redmi Note 15 Pro+). That is something we could know from the size of the sensor and the pixels, which is exactly what we are going to explain in this article. A camera with more megapixels is not necessarily better Cameras are increasingly a claim by manufacturers when it comes to selling mobile phones. This is nothing new, since we have been seeing different races between them for years: first they were to offer more megapixels and then, to have a greater number of cameras. As we have seen in the example above, even cheap phones already have sensors with 200 megapixels. But, Does that mean the camera is better? In order to answer this question, we are going to explain what a megapixel is. A megapixel (also called ‘MP’ or ‘mpx’ on mobile devices) is equivalent to one million pixels and is an element that is not used to measure the quality of a sensor or an image, but its resolution. In short, the higher the number of megapixels, the larger the image size will be. This is very useful because it allows you to take large photographs and later make a digital crop to have an enlarged image. It is a very interesting solution for mobile phones that do not have a telephoto sensor (like the iPhone 17efor example), but it is not a factor that will determine the quality of the photograph. I understand this, now let’s talk about a key concept in photography: light. The more light a camera captures, the better the image quality and the less noise it will have. This is where pixel size comes in: the larger they are, the more light they are able to collect. What’s happening? That you cannot fit a huge number of megapixels into a small sensor because, in that case, each pixel receives less light. That is exactly the opposite of what we are looking for in photography, but it is a problem that is diluted if the sensor is larger. Why is sensor size so important? If the camera sensor is larger, the pixel and megapixel size will be larger. so they will capture more light. In fact, this is another detail that we can see in the example cameras that we used at the beginning of the article, since they tell us the size of their pixels measured in micrometers (or µm). The larger these are, the more light they will capture. Precisely based on this, manufacturers use a technique called ‘Pixel Binning’. Explained very simply, it is a process by which pixels join adjacent ones, thus forming larger pixels (and therefore, capable of capturing more light). There the number of megapixels (and therefore the resolution) is reduced in exchange for gaining more light. At this point, the question may arise in our mind as to why manufacturers don’t introduce larger sensors in phones. The answer, if we ignore the cost of these, is that you not only have to mount them: they have to be placed on the mobile so that it can take advantage of them 100%. And that takes up a lot of space on a device that seeks to be (relatively) thin. And where is the size of a sensor most noticeable? Well when we go to take a photo and there is little light. These large sensors offer more natural results at night and when lighting is poor, all without the need for overly aggressive software processing. It also performs very well with the contrast between dark and brightly lit areas, in addition to achieving a natural blur effect without having to resort to Portrait mode (or what is usually called ‘bokeh). How can I find out the size of a camera sensor? Sensor size is expressed in inches, usually as a fraction: for example, 1/1.95″. The smaller that fraction (closer to 1), the larger the sensor. A 1/1.3″ sensor is larger than a 1/1.95″ sensor. Megapixels are easy to sell because they are a large number and easy to compare in a store. Sensor size is harder to communicate, harder to manufacture, and harder to make profitable in the mid-range. That’s why manufacturers highlight it when they have it and omit it when they don’t.. Now you know which column to look at. Two mobile phones with one-inch sensors In recent months we have been seeing mobile phones with very good photographic sections and the vast majority of them (if not all) have one-inch sensors. It is true that we have mobile phones with an outstanding photographic section that barely have a sensor like this, like the Vivo X300 Ultra (main camera sensor measures 1/1.12 inch), he Vivo X300 Pro (1/1.28 inch) or the OPPO X9 Ultra (also 1/1.12 inch). There are many aspects that come into play when talking about mobile photography. and not all of them are physical (the processor and software also have a lot to say). Now, we have two good examples with one-inch sensors that we are going to see right below. Xiaomi 17 Ultra We have used it as an example because the Xiaomi 17 Ultra is one of the best cameras we have seen on mobile phones … Read more

Who do you love more, bars or Mercadona? Hospitality is taking the battle over prepared food to a zero-sum game

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Since Spain believe made the “menu of the day” official 61 years agoin Manuel Fraga’s time, workers, travelers and families have gone to bars at midday basically looking for two things, in addition to food: time savings and good prices. That sacred triad turned the menu into the great success of the national hospitality industry (with forgiveness for the omelette). Now it plays against him. The same customers who have been eating in restaurants for generations have found an alternative that offers them food at better prices and with greater flexibility: supermarkets. The hoteliers, of course, they are not willing to give up and have taken out their best weapon: regulation. What has happened? The event was intended to review the data and needs of the sector, but it ended up leading to something else: a call to attention to chains such as Mercadona or Alcampo. Yesterday, during the General Assembly of Hospitality of Spain, the president of the group, José Luis Álvarez Almeida, post against a rival that until recently was off the radar of the country’s bars and restaurants: supermarkets. Without expressly mentioning them, the head of the employers’ association complained about the competition exerted by firms such as Mercadona, Carrefour, Bon Preu or Alcampo (to name a few), which have been betting on the sale of prepared dishes for some time and, in some cases, even include dining rooms in their premises so that customers can consume the food and drinks that they previously bought in the store right there. A model, Almeida insistswhich looks too similar to yours. “Unfair competition”. “Now we have gas stations, stores, hypermarkets or supermarkets that want to be bars. That is unfair competition,” argument the president of Hospitality of Spain during an event that was also attended by the Minister of Tourism, Jordi Hereu. “What we tell them is that, from an economic and competitive point of view, they can do what they want; but we all have to play on equal terms and be equal before the law.” your words have resonated with force in the sector, although it is not the first time that the expansion of the ready-to-eat dishes business within the supermarkets themselves leads to this question: Can it be considered unfair competition? He floated the same idea in December during an interview with SER Emilio Gallego, general secretary of Hospitality of Spain. “It is a controversial question. Either you are a supermarket or you have a space for a restaurant,” argument. “If you have a space where you buy food and eat it, you obviously have to have a restaurant activity license.” The key word: merchant. That the hospitality industry has raised its voice just now is no coincidence. Although supermarkets have been selling pre-cooked and ready-to-eat food for decades, in recent years some chains are shifting towards a new business model: the merchants. It is no longer about buying a tray of sushi, a cold tortilla or some pre-cooked noodles from a factory that the supermarket sells packaged. The key is that the customer can choose what they want to eat on a counter full of steaming stews, stews, fish… and then, if they want, they can devour that same food without leaving the store. The menu dilemma. Things get complicated there for bars, especially those that rely most on the concept of ‘menu of the day’: an affordable, varied and time-saving gastronomic offer. For years bars dominated that field. Now they have to fight with heavyweights like Mercadona, which offer prices that are difficult to match by family businesses that have been juggling for some time to make their menus profitable. This change in trend was summed up wonderfully well a few months ago by a gym instructor who The World interviewed while eating in a Mercadona in Madrid: “Although they pay me for the food, this is more practical and faster. You eat for six euros and I don’t spend 45 minutes. I haven’t eaten from a menu since summer.” In that same reportage The journalist spoke with other customers who came to Juan Roig’s store to buy dishes (stews, casseroles…) that they then ate in their own living rooms or office. Two years ago they might have gone to a bar with a menu or cooked at home. Not anymore. Has things changed that much? The data is revealing. In 2025 Mercadona had a turnover of around 700 million euros in Spain through its ‘Ready to Eat’ section. It may not seem like a big deal for a corporation whose sales exceeded 41.8 billionbut it is good to keep several things in mind. First, the ‘Ready to Eat’ section is very young. It was launched in 2018 and has expanded to more than 1,400 points of sale. Second, that those 700 million of euros are just part of the cake. If we take into account the entire supply of pre-cooked products (refrigerated, trays…) and the business in Portugal, the figure rises to 3,000 million. To give us an idea, this figure exceeds the annual sales of McDonald’s in Spain (2 billion) or Burger King (1,500). In general, it is estimated that the Valencian chain accounts for a 19.7% share of value in food and beverage consumption. That is, almost two out of every ten euros What we spend on that branch ends up in the company’s coffers. A key percentage: 7.6%. To understand how quickly the prepared food business is expanding, it is good to review Algori data advanced a few days ago by theEconomist. According to the consultancy, this segment was (by far) the one that recorded the greatest growth in sales volume last year among supermarkets and hypermarkets in Spain. In general, the sale of pre-cooked and cooked dishes soared by 7.6% in volume. Above fruits and vegetables (7%), meats (6.1%) and fish and seafood (4.9%). The Valencian chain is not the only one that is committed to this business niche, although it has managed to lead it. Your … Read more

Wolves, bears and wild boars are dividing up the map of Spain and the real battle is between the rural world and the cities

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Wolves, bears, vultures, cormorants, wild boars, lynxes… When, a few months ago, Christian Gortázar, professor at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, was asked about Spanish wildlife, his words were tremendously accurate: “the problem is everywhere.” And dozens of species are being redistributed throughout traditional territory while rural and urban society confront each other over something extremely basic: what the hell nature is and what it is for. Why are we talking about this? Complaints from the agricultural sector about wildlife have been with us for years. However, in recent months (and spurred by the African swine fever crisis) the “mismanagement” framework has been gaining weight in public debate. But the truth is that the idea that “there are many animals and no one controls them” is not innocent. It is, in reality, a ‘discursive umbrella’: an idea-force that brings together very heterogeneous demands (the cuts from the future CAP, the fears derived from the Mercosur treatybureaucratic burdens, rising costs, rural identity, etc.). That is the main reason why the political debate does not fit with the scientific one, but not the only one. How to survive the end of the field. Talking about Spain being emptied today is almost obvious: 62% of Spanish municipalities has lost population since the nineties. In Castilla y León and Asturias that figure is around 85%. For the urban population it is only a sociological question, for the rural population it is an existential question. And in that context, the wolf has expanded to the southeast, the bear has doubled its area of ​​influence and the wild boar has sneaked into towns and neighborhoods (causing a complete economic and health earthquake). Regardless of the real effect of conservation measures on the rural world, it is easy for the feeling of general abandonment to curdle into an aversion to this way of seeing the countryside. A legitimate debate. From an ecological point of view, species recovery makes sense (as long as it is done properly). Degraded ecosystems lose the ability to adapt and become much more fragile: recovering species is the simplest and most cost-effective strategy. But we must not forget that these species return to a world completely different from the one they left and that the gaps they left are now occupied by “de facto powers” and realities historically established in the countryside and that still survive. And those powers They maintain that the ‘intervention’ of cities In their world it is counterproductive. The debate, as I say, is legitimate (and even healthy). And then? The real problem is not the discussion about whether the resources allocated to recovery measures would be better invested in other policies. The problem is that in the public debate the data and arguments are missing; and everything has become a partisan quagmire that is very difficult to manage. But the wildlife is still there. And the farmers too. In fact, all the actors who have taken us here are still there. The fundamental question is whether there is a future that can be understood as a solution. Image | Nancy Stapler In Xataka | Wolf hunting throughout Spain depended on a red button that changes its status. And Europe has decided to press it

From printing drones to looking at lasers. 300 reports have revealed that Iran’s battle manual has one name: Ukraine

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Barely a year after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, groups of volunteers began to assemble drones fighting in improvised workshops using parts purchased online and open manuals, managing to put operating systems on the air in a matter of days. The scene, closer to a technological garage than a military factory, reflected the extent to which modern warfare was about to change without making almost noise. Ukraine as a war manual. I told it a few hours ago in exclusive to the Financial Times. The war in Ukraine has become a central reference for Iranian military thinking, to the point that much of its current doctrine is being built on what is happening there. That has now been known through more than 300 reports prepared in military centers that analyze everything from industrial production in conflict to tactical adaptation in the face of a superior enemy. This effort is not theoretical, but applied: there is great number of manualstraining and planning that have been updated to incorporate direct lessons from the battlefield in a process that reveals a clear idea, that the future of war is already written in Ukraine and that, possibly, those who do not study it will be late. From cheap drones to doctrine. One of the most decisive learnings we have been counting these years: the role of low cost dronescapable of changing the balance of forces with a completely different logic from the traditional one, where volume and price weigh as much as precision. Iran has understood that cheap systems, produced even with commercial components and accessible techniques such as 3D printing, can overwhelm advanced defenses and exploit structural weaknesses of technologically superior armies, replicating a model that has already proven effective in both Ukraine and in their own confrontations recent. The problem of the West. Not only that. The expansion of these drones has exposed a critical gap in Western defenses, designed to intercept expensive and sophisticated threatsbut not massive waves of cheap systems, which has generated an obvious economic imbalance. While a drone can cost tens of thousands of dollars, intercepting it is the opposite and can involve missiles in the equation. extremely more expensivecreating financial and logistical wear and tear that has already become visible in recent conflicts, where spending skyrockets and arsenals begin to become dangerously strained. Beyond the present: AI and emerging weapons. Featured in an interactive special The New York Times that, however, Iranian learning has not stopped in the immediate present, but rather projects the conflict into the future, incorporating into its planning technologies such as artificial intelligence, cyber warfare or even emerging systems such as directed energy weapons. The own internal analysis They point to the need to integrate these advances in decision making, weapons guidance and combat management, in a transition that seeks not only to adapt, but to anticipate the next phase of the technological conflict. An evolving doctrine. There is no doubt, this change is also doctrinal, with a commitment to more units agile, decentralized and capable to operate with greater autonomy, inspired by the way in which Ukraine has managed to resist and adapt to a more powerful adversary such as Russia. If you like, what the combination of operational flexibility and accessible technology is doing is redefining the concept of superiority military, moving it away from large platforms and towards distributed and resilient systems that can evolve quickly, and there the massive use of FPV drones appears with its own name. From Ukraine to Iran. Ultimately, all of this results in a profound transformation in the way in which Iran conceives warone where Ukraine acts as a real reference manual of battle that guides from the manufacture of cheap drones to the ambition of integrating artificial intelligence and more advanced systems such as lasers. From that perspective, it is not just about copying each Ukrainian step, but about adapting, scaling and combining solutions to build our own strategy that turns kyiv’s experience into future advantage, in a scenario where we are already seeing that rapid innovation and low cost can outweigh the most sophisticated technology from the United States. Image | RawPixelWild Hornets In Xataka | China was the power that launched drones. Now he has realized his danger with a decision: close the sky to them In Xataka | While everyone was looking at the Middle East, North Korea has had time to do what Iran has not been able to: go nuclear.

Has Samsung been left behind in the mid-range battle?

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He Galaxy A57 Samsung’s is possibly its best mid-range phone, but before it hits stores (it will do so on April 10), it’s time to compare it with its main rivals. We have done it within Samsung’s own catalog with the Galaxy A56but now it’s the turn of another best-selling mid-range mobile: he Google Pixel 10a. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Google Pixel 10a – 7 years of New Updates and Features, 30+ Hours of Battery, Camera Assistant, Gemini Live, Pixel Security – Fog Gray, 128GB The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The differences between the Galaxy A57 and the Google Pixel 10a When the largest screen is carried by the thinnest mobile At the design level, both phones are quite continuous with respect to their predecessors. Samsung’s phone has a slightly larger screen than the Google Pixel 10a: specifically, we’re talking 6.7 inches vs. 6.3 inches. We are not facing a huge difference, but one that you can notice when watching videos or playing. Here comes the curious thing. Although the Google phone has a more contained diagonal, It is a thicker and heavier mobile. You have the exact measurements and weight in the comparison table at the end of this article, but what you have to keep is that the Galaxy A57 is thinner and lighter, but also larger. We can expect good image quality and a similar refresh rate of 120 Hz from both screens, but yes, There is a significant difference in maximum brightness in favor of the Pixel 10a. Indoors it may not be too noticeable, but it can be relevant if you are one of those who uses your cell phone a lot outdoors. Processor and memory configurations If we talk about processors, both manufacturers are betting on their own chip for their mobile phones. The Pixel 10a uses the Tensor G4, which is the same chip that the entire family used Pixel 9. Samsung, on the other hand, is betting on Exynos 1680 for your new device. We have not yet been able to test it and see how it performs, but both processors are manufactured in 4 nanometersso we can expect that there will not be a huge difference in performance. If we talk about RAM, this mid-range Google mobile only has 8 GB. The Galaxy A57 also starts from this same configuration, although it does allow us to choose a version with 12 GB of RAM. Neither of these two devices excels in this aspectespecially if we take into account that many Chinese manufacturers already start from 12 GB in mobile phones of a similar price range (such as the POCO X8 Pro Max). Lots of AI in both cases. Also years of updates It is not something exclusive to these two phones, but both the Galaxy A57 and the Pixel 10a stand out at the software level. Google phones are the ones that always offer the purest Android experienceideal if you hate bloatware and you want to have the news of this operating system as soon as possible. All added to the fact that Gemini is very well integrated, so much so that you can use Google Nano locally. In the other corner we have Samsung and One UI. It is one of the most polished Android-based custom layers that does not have too much. bloatware. In addition, it is also very customizable at its core, even more so if we start messing around with Good Lock. All added to the fact that, in addition to having Gemini, It also has Galaxy AI. This AI handles some functions such as image erasing very well. Then there is also the issue of updates. With these two phones, whichever one we choose, we’ll have enough power for a while: the Galaxy A57 has six years of guaranteed updates for the seven years of the Pixel 10a. Having one more camera is not always better If we start to compare the cameras of both devices, what draws the most attention is undoubtedly that the Pixel 10a has a smaller sensor. Now, let’s get this topic out of the way quickly: the “extra” sensor that the Galaxy A57 has is a 5 megapixel macro camera. We haven’t tried it yet, but it does perform similar to that of the Galaxy A56it’s not something we’re going to use a lot. The other two cameras on Samsung’s new phone are, by numbers, relatively similar to those of the Pixel 10a. However, if their performance is also similar to that of their predecessor, we can expect that, in general terms, Google’s phone offers better results in almost any scenario. In fact, as we told you in our analysis, the Pixel 10a has one of the best camera systems in this price range. The price: spending more time in stores works in favor of the Pixel We come to one of the key points of this comparison, which is the price. If we stick to the RRP, both play practically along the same lines: the Galaxy A57 starts at 529 euros, while the Pixel 10a started at 549 euros. What’s happening? That the latter has been in stores for some time now and that makes it easier to find it on sale. To get the Galaxy A57 at a lower price, we have to wait. However, we are facing an excellent purchasing moment for the Pixel 10a. We can find it right now for just over 466 euros at MediaMarkta very interesting price if we take into account everything that the mobile offers. In summary: which mobile phone to choose based on your needs Why choose the Galaxy A57 The Galaxy A57 is Samsung’s best mid-range phone. The problem is that, at launch, perhaps it does not offer enough to justify the outlay of almost 530 euros. However, it does have several interesting points: Manageable and very light: It does not reach 180 grams and is only 6.9 … Read more

China has started a battle against the US and Japan that no one is talking about. And it is crucial to winning the chip war

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In the semiconductor war that the US and China are fighting Companies that specialize in the manufacture of photolithography equipment tend to attract attention, such as ASML; those that design the chips, such as NVIDIA or AMD; and the companies that produce them, such as TSMC or Samsung. However, in this complex network there are other much less known companies that also play an essential role in the integrated circuit industry. One of them is the Japanese company JSR Corporation. This entity is one of the industrial strongholds of Japan. And it is because it supplies its photoresist liquids to most of the semiconductor manufacturers that produce cutting-edge chips, helping to sustain Japan’s leadership in a very important area that usually goes unnoticed: that of the manufacture of advanced materials to produce integrated circuits. For China to have its own advanced photoresist liquids in your path to total independence of its chip industry is crucial, so its plan involves break Japan’s monopoly in no more than five years. China prepares to intimidate Japan The photolithography equipment designed and produced by ASML is responsible, very roughly, for transferring the geometric pattern described by the mask with great precision to the surface of the silicon wafer. In this area we can observe the pattern as the “drawing” that delimits the distribution of the transistors, the connections and the other elements that make up an integrated circuit. Before transferring the geometric pattern to the wafer, it is necessary to pour a liquid capable of absorbing light and preserving the pattern on it. However, before reaching this very important step, it is necessary to subject the wafers to a process known as deposition. It usually involves equipment manufactured by Tokyo Electron or Applied Materials. Its purpose is prepare silicon wafers for the transfer of the geometric pattern by depositing a very thin layer of material on them. Depending on the type of chip being manufactured, it will be necessary to use one material or another. One of the most used deposition techniques is known as oxidation, and consists of taking advantage of the ability of silicon to form a very thin layer of oxide when reacting with water. Its purpose is to protect the transistors and other chip components from external contamination. However, before transferring the geometric pattern to the wafer using lithography equipment, it is necessary to pour a liquid capable of absorbing light and preserving the pattern on it. This is the function of the photoresist fluid. During the last two decades, all companies specialized in the production of photoresist materials have been Japanese. In fact, Japan has since then the monopoly of this marketwhich is currently led by JSR Corporation. For the US, one of its main allies should lead this market not a problembut the possibility of China developing the capacity to produce its own advanced photoresist materials on its path to cutting-edge chip manufacturing is an issue. The Chinese government knows that photoresist production is a critical bottleneck, which is why its latest five-year plan has set out to resolve it. Xuzhou B&C Chemical, which is one of the leading photoresist materials manufacturers in China, anticipates that in at most five years will have the capacity to produce large-scale advanced KrF photoresists (Krypton Fluoride) and ArF (Argon Fluoride). Precisely this last material is commonly used in nodes equipped with deep ultraviolet (UVP) lithography equipment. However, the great challenge facing China is the development of photoresists suitable for the production of integrated circuits in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) nodes. We will see what achievements it achieves over the next five years. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | SCMP In Xataka | Japan takes the lead with nuclear fusion and sets an extremely ambitious date: the 2030s

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