blow

a blow to European railway monopolies

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The European Commission has presented a legislative package that forces large railway operators to open their sales platforms to other companies. And Renfe, the main operator in Spain, is in the spotlight. Platforms. Buying a train ticket in Europe continues to be, in many cases, an odyssey. Especially when the trip crosses borders or involves combining different operators. The European Commission esteem that on average it takes 70% longer to book a train journey than to do the same with a flight. And part of the blame lies with the large historical operators, such as Renfe in Spain, Deutsche Bahn in Germany or SNCF in France, which control their own sales platforms and have few incentives to give visibility to their rivals. What exactly does Brussels propose? The Commission has presented a legislative package that directly targets this dominant position. The rule obliges any operator that has a market share equal to or greater than 50% in the national railway market to open its digital ticket sales platform to other companies that request it. In practice, whoever enters the Renfe website should also be able to see the Iryo and Ouigo tickets, not just the Renfe ones. The same would happen in the rest of the countries with their own dominant operators. But not only that. Large operators will also have to share your ratesdiscounts and schedules dynamically and in real time with travel agencies and digital platforms such as Booking, Omio, Trainline, eDreams, and must do so under fair and non-discriminatory commercial conditions. Until now, according to the Commission itself, these platforms only had access to the most expensive rates, not the complete catalog. Why Renfe is in the center. It is not the first time that the Spanish operator appears in this debate. In 2023, the European Commission opened a formal investigation to assess whether Renfe could have abused its dominant position in the Spanish market by refusing to provide its real-time data to competing ticketing platforms, according to share from El Diario. The new regulation would settle this type of situation generally for all of Europe. The Commission emphasize that the operators with greater brand recognition, the heirs of the old railway monopolies, have become the usual reference for the traveler, which gives them a structural advantage to exclude competition from their ecosystem. The other side of the coin. The change is not only against Renfe in Spain. And if the Spanish operator must open its platform to Iryo and Ouigo, it would also have the right to have its tickets appear on the dominant websites of other countrieslike SNCF Connect in France (as much as it has resisted until now). That could facilitate its expansion in the European market. Even so, the impact for historical operators is double and not at all comfortable. And just as they point out in El País, on the one hand, they must show their commercial strategy in advance to their direct competitors. On the other hand, more competition in ticket sales increases pressure on margins and commissions. The single ticket, the great novelty for the traveler. Along with the opening of platforms, the Commission proposes to create a single ticket that covers routes operated by different companies in a single transaction. A trip from Madrid to Brussels with Renfe, SNCF and SNCB would have a single document. And if there is a delay in one of the sections, the passenger would be covered, since the company responsible for the incident assumes the assistance, the transportation alternative and the corresponding financial compensation. There is an important nuance: if the problem is not caused by the train but rather that whoever sold the ticket did not respect the minimum connection times, the responsibility falls on the sales platform, which must refund the entire ticket and compensate the passenger. up to 75% of its price. What happens now? This proposal is, for now, just that, a proposal. The negotiation still remains to be concluded between the Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States. If the process progresses without major obstacles, Brussels estimates that the changes could be operational in less than twelve months from the entry into force of the regulation. The European Commissioner for Transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, was one of those in charge of presenting the initiative together with the executive vice-president Raffaele Fitto, counting that “we went from building networks to serving passengers.” Cover image | Jose Garcia In Xataka | If the question is what Renfe can do to stop Ouigo and Iryo, the answer is not in the prices

Apple is clear that the memory crisis is about to hit harder. No more cushioning the blow

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With the launch of iPhone 17e and of macbook neoit seemed that Apple was one of the few untouchable companies due to the component crisis that we are experiencing. Although prices increased in the United States, they remained the same in Spain and the MacBook neo was launched at a price to eat the market. The problem is that time has shown that not even Apple is untouchable. And Tim Cook affirms that the worst is yet to come. The Mac Mini. This was, along with the MacBook neo, one of the best options when buying a computer. Not from Apple: in general. An interesting price for a team with enormous potential in a very small size. It had one drawback: it started with 256 GB of storage for a price of 719 euros, but it was interesting because using Thunderbolt you could expand with external SSDs. Now, that basic option does not exist. Apple has deleted the ‘cheap’ Mac Mini and now we can only buy the device with 512 GB base at a price of 969 euros. This is a mandatory price increase that suggests that the 256 GB option was the best-seller and Apple ran out of stock. Cushioning the blow. This price increase occurred hours after Tim Cook, in a call to investors to present quarterly results, will aim that the company has had the best starter of the year in its history, with 17% year-on-year. How well the iPhone is working in China, the services and equipment like those mentioned Mac Mini and MacBook neo have contributed to this. However, he left another message: the global chip crisis is about to hit the ship much harder. In the earnings presentation, he noted that things will get considerably worse due to “significantly higher memory costs” in the coming quarters. The rest of the industry has already been experiencing that blow, but Cook detailed that, so far, Apple has been partially protected and isolated because it has been selling inventory accumulated in advance. The problem is that, as reserves have been depleted, they have had to resort to the only two options: eliminate the best-selling options (we just saw this with the Mac Mini, but We saw it recently with the Mac Studio) and raise prices. Curves are coming. The current CEO pointed out that Apple is considering a range of options to manage this impact, although he has not given more details. Really, there aren’t that many: price increases in basic equipment, configurations with less RAM and less storage, eliminating options that, for the user, are still an increase and something that is more complicated: taking the hit. What is clear, as we read on CNBC, is that Apple expects that this increase in costs will have “a growing impact on our business”, leaving a message to John Ternus who will become CEO of Apple next September 1: “we have the right leader to take on the role.” The truth is that Ternus is going to arrive at a sweet time for Applebut in one where the industry is on fire. The 256 GB version is over. Now starts at 512 GB for 969 euros Tsunami. This time we focus on Apple, although Cook has not really said anything that any other executive from the main technology companies would not have commented before. With SK Hynix, Samsung and Micron turning to the NAND chip market for data centers, the consumer market has been left to its own devices and the consequence is what we are now seeing with Apple. As we say, the company has dodged the first blow because they had accumulated stock, but now the hard part will come for users. From Samsung, in the also recent presentation of results, already they warned that there will be “significant shortages” in products that need these types of chips and that they expect the situation to continue until at least 2027. It is an ambitious estimate, since SK Hynix believes that things will return to normal in 2030 and Nvidia is even more pessimistic. If you need something…Buy now. It is the best warning because things do not look like they are going to improve. If you think you are going to need a device, you better buy it as soon as possible because the price will continue to rise or, simply, that device will stop selling. The mobile industry has been warning for weeks that prices are going to rise, the same thing happens with computers and even with hard drives with which you can make a NAS. And a personal example: when the crisis was beginning to be critical, at the end of January of this year, I bought a 2 TB T7 SSD from Samsung for 160 euros. Today, that same one is for about 229 euros, which is not even close to its fair price. And how says Samsung itself, things are going to get worse. Images | Xataka In Xataka | There is a company that has grown 3,000% in the stock market, even beating the performance of Nvidia: Sandisk

The most unexpected blow of the Iran war is not the price of oil. It’s the one with the chips

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The Strait of Hormuz does not manufacture semiconductors or host data centers. However, its closure effective March 4 threatens to destabilize the heart of the global technology economy. Taiwan, which through TSMC manufactures around 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, runs on imported energy, and a large part of it flowed through that strait. The connection between a conflict in the Middle East and the price of a GPU It is not metaphorical. It is totally physical. Why is it important. What Trump has described as a “minor excursion” began on February 28 as a military intervention against the Iranian leadership and has led to the almost total closure of the passage that connects the Persian Gulf with the Indian Ocean. 20% of the world’s natural gas and 25% of the global oil usually pass through there. Now, practically nothing happens. Between the lines. The problem for the chip industry is not oil, but two much less visible resources: The LNG. The Middle East supplies 37% of the fuel that powers the Taiwanese electrical grid, and that electricity is what TSMC’s factories consume with an energy hunger that demands continuous supply. And helium, which is even more delicate: it is essential in the process of photolithography and has no viable substitute. Taiwan only has LNG reserves for 11 days without external imports. South Korea has 52; Japan, three weeks. The contrast. South Korea and Japan have been building energy security buffers for years precisely because they know how much they depend on abroad. Taiwan, on the other hand, has historically prioritized cost over resilience: its LNG storage capacity is much lower than that of its neighbors, and that is now taking its toll. It’s not just a matter of reserve days. The thing is that Samsung and SK Hynix operate in a country with more robust emergency infrastructure, while TSMC, the company on which practically the entire global technological ecosystem depends, turns out to be the most exposed of all. Yes, but. Companies are not sitting idly by: TSMC has secured LNG supplies until mid-May. As for helium, Australia and the United States have the capacity to partially compensate for Qatar’s decline. Morgan Stanley estimates that several additional shipments are already heading to the islandalthough Taiwan has probably paid a notable premium for them. That premium will most likely translate into a price increase. The big question. The real risk is not the immediate cut, but how long this lasts. Consumers expecting GPUs for gaming They will be the last in line. In Xataka | Chinese airlines are the only ones still flying over Russia. And that is why they are the winners of the Iran crisis Featured image | Xataka

Iran is planting sea mines in Hormuz. And what threatens to blow up is not ships: it is the world economy

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On the maps it looks like just a gap of water between deserts, but it passes through that narrow corridor every day. a gigantic portion of the energy that moves the planet. So narrow that in some sections the ships navigate in maritime lanes of just a few kilometers, constantly monitored by radars, drones and military fleets. For decades, any tension at that point in the Persian Gulf has been capable of shake up prices of oil in a matter of minutes. Imagine if will plant mines. A war also at sea. As bombings and missiles focus attention on the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran, a parallel battle has begun to unfold in the Persian Gulf. From the start of the warUS intelligence services They detected signs that Tehran could try to disrupt maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz by deploying naval mines and small fast boats. The threat is serious enough to have triggered public warnings of Washington and preventive military operations against Iranian ships suspected of participating in these maneuvers. In this context, the control of this narrow maritime corridor has become one of the strategic points more delicate of the conflict, because any disturbance there has immediate repercussions on the global energy supply. The strait, the global energy artery. There is no doubt, the tension is explained by the central role that Hormuz plays in the global energy system. Approximately a fifth of the oil consumed by the planet circulates through this strait of just a few dozen kilometers, in addition to a similar proportion of the international trade in liquefied natural gas. Every day they go through it in normal conditions about twenty million of barrels of crude oil from the producing countries of the Gulf heading to Asia, Europe and America. Powers like China, India, Japan or South Korea depend largely of this step to secure its energy supply, which turns any threat in these waters into an immediate global problem. It is no coincidence that even rumors or minor incidents in the area provoke immediate reactions in the oil markets. The new war. In that scenario it has begun a new phase of the conflict: that of oil tankers navigating between the risk of mines capable of shaking the planet’s economies. American intelligence reports indicate that Iran has begun deploying dozens of these explosives in the strait and keeps intact most of its fleet of small boats capable of planting hundreds more in a short time. The Revolutionary Guard controls much of the area next to the Iranian navy and has a combination of speedboats, minelayer boats, drones and coastal missile batteries that can turn the sea passage into a navigation trap. The goal would not necessarily be to sink large numbers of ships, that too, but to create enough uncertainty enough to paralyze global energy traffic, raise transportation costs and trigger a shock in international markets. In other words, a well-placed mine in these waters can have an economic impact that goes much further of the ship that hits it. First shocks. Faced with this threat, Washington has chosen for acting before mine deployment reaches a larger scale. The US military has confirmed (with videos included) a few hours ago the destruction of at least sixteen Iranian vessels involved in mining operations near the strait, in what US officials describe as pre-emptive strikes based on intelligence about Tehran’s operational plans. These actions seek to prevent Iran from turning the strait into a practically closed area to navigation before the deployment of explosives multiplies. At the same time, the White House has warned that any attempt to block the flow of oil will provoke a much more forceful military response than the operations carried out so far. Trapped oil and markets in panic. The economic consequences are already beginning to become visible. Since the start of the war, oil transit from the Gulf has seriously upsetwith millions of barrels per day that cannot leave the region normally. Countries like Iraq or Kuwait depend almost exclusively of this route to export its crude, which amplifies the potential impact of any interruption. Energy companies have started diverting ships or to look for alternative routeswhile Saudi Arabia tries to compensate for part of the problem by increasing the use of its oil pipeline to the Red Sea. In parallel, the International Energy Agency studies a massive liberation of strategic reserves to contain the impact of the energy crisis. A few kilometers to shake the world. The fragility of the situation is also explained by the geography of the enclave itself. At its narrowest point it barely has 34 kilometers wide and the navigation lanes through which the ships circulate barely exceed three kilometers in each direction. This narrowness makes the place extremely vulnerable to mines, drone attacks or coastal missiles. It is not the first time this has happened, in fact, since how do we countduring the so-called “tanker war” in the eighties, Iran already used mines in these same waters to pressure its adversaries during the conflict with Iraq. History, therefore, suggests that these types of tactics can be surprisingly effective in destabilizing global trade. A planetary blow. The extreme sensitivity of the energy markets to any news coming from Hormuz was fully demonstrated very recently, when a wrong message on social media suggested that the US Navy had successfully escorted a tanker through the strait. The simple rumor caused an immediate collapse of crude oil prices and a shake-up in financial markets before authorities clarified that no such operation had occurred. The episode illustrates the extent to which the world watches every movement in these waters with nervousness. In a global energy system so dependent on a few strategic corridors, the mine threat in the Strait of Hormuz has opened a new dimension of war: one in which fate of the world economy it may depend on a maritime corridor just a few kilometers wide. Image | nara, Picryl, naraNZ … Read more

Spain had a completely saturated electrical grid. And then data centers arrived to blow it up even more

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Imagine a highway on which not a single vehicle can fit anymore. But the problem is not that there is a lack of asphalt, but that the cars do not know how to drive efficiently and keep kilometer-long safety distances. The Spanish electrical grid was exactly that. It had been operating for years at the limit of its administrative capacity, and suddenly, a convoy of trucks of industrial tonnage and voracious appetite has arrived at the access ramp: data centers. These megainfrastructures, pillars of artificial intelligence and the cloud, promise to water the economy of millions, but their brutal need for supply threatened to burst the seams of an already saturated electrical system. To avoid collapse and not let the reindustrialization train escape, the Government has had to react and radically change the technical rules of the game. Cascading capacity collapse. To understand the collapse we have to look at how our way of consuming energy has changed. The energy transition is profoundly reconfiguring the model throughout the national territory. Requests to connect to transportation and distribution networks have skyrocketed. In addition to the electrification of industry and renewable hydrogen, there is now massive consumption associated with data centers for artificial intelligence. The problem broke out when the National Markets and Competition Commission (CNMC) established a “dynamic criterion” to calculate how much access capacity was available in the areas shared by several network nodes. As detailed by the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge (MITECO) in his press releaseapplying this criterion means that a single access requested at a node can cause a “cascading effect that drains capacity in the rest of the nodes that share the area”, blocking requests from dozens of kilometers away. Basically, a large data center asks for passage and, automatically, the system administratively blocks neighboring nodes as a precaution, even if physically the cables have plenty of space. Investments in the air and the ghost of the blackout. The consequences of this traffic jam directly affect the real economy and national security. Real estate and industrial paralysis. The situation is so critical that, as we already mentioned in our previous coverage citing the Asprima employers’ associationlast year only 12% of connection requests for new urban developments were granted. There are 350,000 homes at risk simply due to lack of electrical power. The risk of an electrical “zero”. The Official State Gazette warns that the increase in installations that are not able to withstand “tension gaps” poses a very high risk. If there is a disturbance and these generators are massively disconnected, exchange flows are produced that are incompatible with Spain’s limited interconnections with Europe. As the diary recalls The Countrythe objective is to avoid at all costs a repeat of massive blackouts like the one suffered by the Iberian Peninsula on April 28, 2025. It is not enough to put more cables. In areas limited by this dynamic criterion, it is no longer possible to enable new capacity simply by investing money in reinforcing the network with “more copper.” The expert in the sector Joaquín Coronado sums it up perfectly: the demand must be 100% active; It must provide flexibility and commit to the stability of the system. The Government’s emergency surgery. To unclog this Gordian knot, the Government and regulators have launched a three-way shock plan: The new Royal Decree of MITECO. The Ministry has been brought to public hearing (until March 16) a standard that updates the technical requirements to connect to the network. The master key is that now it is required that the demands “withstand voltage gaps”, do not introduce adverse oscillations and maintain the quality of the wave. By forcing installations not to disconnect in the event of small disturbances, the number of nodes affected in shared areas is reduced. This simple technical measure could bring out 50% more capacity in about 900 knots of connection to the high-voltage network. The “flexible permits” of the CNMC. To put an end to the binary model (either I give you all the capacity or I deny it), the CNMC has proposed four new types of permits, as we already broke down in Xataka. These range from allowing consumption only in certain time slots, to “dynamic” permissions where the operator can remotely disconnect a data center if there is an emergency on the network. The “technical amnesty” for data giants. In parallel, the Ministry of Industry has been urgently removed the “off-peak” requirement. Previously, to receive aid, you had to consume at night, an absurdity for a data center (which operates 24/7) and for today’s Spain, where solar energy has brought down prices at midday. The citizen cost and the fine print. The Government’s maneuver not only responds to a national emergency, but also places Spain as a pioneer on the continent. The country is anticipating the update of the European network codes, deploying a battery of technical specifications simultaneously that is already considered a milestone worldwide, as detailed The Country. In this deployment, the new regulations also settle a historical debt with energy storage: batteries will finally have their own specific regulatory framework, no longer being administratively treated as simple “generation by analogy” facilities. However, this deep digitalization so that the network supports such a complex mode of operation will not come for free, and the bill for modernization will end up looming in the consumer’s pocket. Forecasts for 2026 They already estimate direct increases in citizen receipts, with a 4% increase in tolls and a not inconsiderable 10.5% in electricity system charges. And while citizens assume the technical cost, the data giants – recipients of this regulatory red carpet – prefer to remain cautious in the face of the eternal Spanish bureaucratic obstacle. The technology sector warns that a key piece of the puzzle is missing: If the Government does not expressly include the National Code of Economic Activity (CNAE) corresponding to “Data Processing” in the official list of sectors entitled to receive the million-dollar electro-intensive aid, all … Read more

Peru gave the keys to a giant door to China that the US now wants to blow up

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For years, Chancay was a secondary port on the central coast of Peru, one linked to regional exports and with a limited weight in international trade. Everything changed when, at the beginning of the 2010s, the project began to transform into a megaconstruction designed to receive the largest ships in the world, a leap that culminated with the entry of Chinese capital and the inauguration of a work called to redefine the country’s role in Pacific trade. A giant door to the Pacific. Peru has now become the central stage of the rivalry between China and the United States for a very specific reason: the Chancay megaport, a deep-water infrastructure north of Lima that acts as a direct gateway between South America and Asia and that has elevated the Andean country from a trading partner to a strategic piece. As we said, with the capacity to receive the largest cargo ships in the world and accelerate the flow of raw materials to China, the port symbolizes how a logistics project can alter regional balances and place a country in the middle of a dispute between powers. The direct notice. From the Washington Department of State, the Donald Trump administration rated case as an example of how “cheap Chinese money” can erode national control over critical infrastructure, an unusually harsh warning in pointing out that Peru could be losing sovereignty over one of its critical infrastructures, after a court ruling which limits the ability of the national regulator to supervise Chancay. For the United States, the message is clear: Chinese money, presented as cheap and fast, has a long-term political cost. A case that has become an example of the US strategy to stop the expansion of Chinese influence in the Western Hemisphere and regain ground in a region that it considers vital for its security and global leadership. China and the Silk Road in Latin America. It we count some time ago. For Beijing, Chancay is a key piece of its Belt and Road Initiativethe great project with which it has financed ports, roads and airports around the world through credits and state guarantees. China has been for more than a decade the main partner Peru’s commercial sector and has invested massively in strategic sectors such as mining, electricity and transportation, consolidating a deep economic relationship that goes far beyond a single port and that reinforces its presence in the Latin American Pacific. The court ruling. The spark of the conflict has been court ruling Peruvian law that orders the authorities to refrain from regulating, supervising or sanctioning the activity of the port of Chancay, considering it a private facility. The regulator Ositran, which controls the rest of the country’s large ports, has denounced that this exception leaves users unprotected and creates a dangerous precedent, by making the operating company the only one that provides a public service without direct supervision of the State. The organization has already announced that it will appeal the decision. Cosco, sovereignty and red lines. The Chinese company Cosco Shipping, majority shareholder and operator of the port, has rejected any insinuation of loss of sovereignty and maintains that Chancay remains fully under Peruvian jurisdiction and subject to its laws, with the presence of police, customs and environmental authorities. For China, the US accusations are a political maneuver and a discredit campaign, while for Washington the problem is not only legal, but strategic: who controls, de facto, South America’s great gateway to transpacific trade. Peru trapped between two powers. The country is thus in an uncomfortable positionwith China as its main trading partner and the United States as a strategic ally and military partner, even designated as a main non-NATO ally. While Washington negotiates the construction of a naval base a few kilometers from Chancay, Beijing consolidates its influence economy around the same enclave. The result is a nation located in the middle of a major geopolitical battle, one where a port infrastructure has become the symbol of a difficult choice: take advantage of an economic opportunity without this giant door to the Pacific ending up conditioning its sovereignty and its international room for maneuver. Image | cosco In Xataka | China has been building a megaport in Peru for eight years. It has just been released to revolutionize South America In Xataka | €10 order, €30 tariffs: the EU has just approved the mother of tariffs for Aliexpress, Shein and Temu

2026 will be a blow in your pocket if you have fiber and mobile. Unless you use DIGI

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New year, price rise. Or that’s what traditional operators have been doing practically since we can remember. But in Spain there is an operator that swims against the current: Digi. The company closed 2024 without raising pricesand in 2025 the promise has been repeated again. On the rival side, fiber and mobile from Vodafone, Movistar and Orange will be more expensive in 2026with the three large companies preparing an upward update in their rates for the month of January. The Digi paradox contrasts with this year-end: he makes less and less money with each clientand that’s just what you want to do. Not a euro goes up. There will be no price increase in DIGI by 2026announcing it officially and distancing itself from the rest of its rivals. Marius Varzaru, CEO of the company, similarly reaffirmed that in 2025 both the price of its ilimiTODO rate and the speed of SMART Fiber rates have been improved without compromising the price. A strategy completely against the flow of the rest, with a Yoigo raising fiber and mobile prices, an o2 that also entered 2025 with increasesand the three large operators on the verge of their annual rate updates. The plan. Digi wants to be, at a minimum, the third operator in Spain. Despite being a direct rival, has the agreement with Telefónicathrough which you benefit from both national roaming services and RAN Sharing (radio access network sharing). For user purposes, coverage relatively similar to that of Telefónica for much less money. Is it a profitable plan? Yes, but. During 2025, Digi has been the operator that has managed to snatch the most customers from its rivals, close to one million. Despite this, its profitability is increasingly lowergoing from 8.7 euros per client to 7.8. This would be a significant problem for an operator with low customer volume, but this is not the case with DIGI. The operator’s priority is volume over margin, something that has allowed it to catapult to fourth place in the ranking of Spanish operators. And, if it continues like this, it will not take long for it to eat Vodafone. It’s not something new. Already in 2022, DIGI managed to take over 60% of the total portability in Spain and, since then, it closes each year with close to one million new lines. DIGI is not an MVNO, it is the fourth major Spanish operatorand has the potential to continue climbing positions. For now, Telefónica seems not to be considering the purchase of DIGIgiven that Murtra’s aggressive plan does not include new acquisitions. Despite this, the only possible way to stop DIGI seems, precisely, to go hand in hand. Image | Digi In Xataka | Movistar Plus+ was making a comeback after four years of losing customers. Telefónica has decided to cut its workforce

Iberian ham has been synonymous with the highest quality for decades. Now Guijuelo wants to blow him up

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“Race is not a parameter of quality.” With that simple idea, the Salamanca town of Guijuelo wants to open a gap in one of the flagships of our country’s gastronomy: ‘low cost’ Iberian ham. With the endorsement of the Ministry of Agriculture and the opposition of the rest of the denominations of origin (which call it “deception of the consumer”), Guijuelo’s movement has just unleash a whole Civil War in the ham sector. And it’s no wonder. What has happened? That the Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) of Guijuelo (Salamanca) approved a modification of its regulations to certify, as Iberian, “hams and pork shoulders that are 50% Iberian breed and 50% Duroc”. Until now this was something that could only be done with 75% or 100% Iberian hams. On September 1, the General Directorate of Food He has limited himself to saying that the change is legal and various communities they have supported him (although others, as we will see, have opposed it). After all, The Iberian Quality Standard (RD 4/2014) covers legally this movement; as long as it is well labeled. If this had been done by a small DOP, it would have been controversial; but it surely would not have unleashed the enormous earthquake that it has unleashed. However, Guijuelo has done it: the oldest denomination and the largest in number of marked pieces. The rest of the DOPs have come out in a rush. Let us remember that there are only four DOPs of Iberian ham in the country. Well, the other three (Jabugo, Dehesa de Extremadura and Andalucía) have denounced the change because they consider it “unfair competition” and what is worse, a “trivialization” of the DOP seal and the Iberian in general. In recent days, regulatory councils, communities (especially Extremadura and Andalusia) and professional groups have announced appeals and do not rule out going to trial if Agriculture does not take action on the matter. But if it’s legal, what’s the problem? In slightly more technical terms, the conflict is not whether a “50% Iberian” ham can exist; but whether that type of ham should carry the DOP seal. We must not forget that these seals are designed to ‘make visible’ in the market a special relationship with the territory and the product. The rest of the Regulatory Councils that want to maintain stricter racial criteria (as has been customary) believe that there is a reputational risk and that it could end up confusing the consumer. And the issue of price, of course. Guijuelo is accused of wanting to burst the market by lowering prices and moving production towards less demanding specifications. The DOPs fear that the seal and label will harm livestock farmers and dryers who have been betting on higher quality standards. In fact, as reported from the Pedroches valley, the regulatory change in Guijuelo “facilitates more intensive productions (a jump in densities per hectare in “field bait” is cited within the specifications), which threatens the pasture and the sustainability story associated with traditional Iberian. And from Jabugo they assure that “Brussels said that can’t be done.” What do they say in Guijuelo? From the PDO of Salamanca, in addition to describe many of these statements as “barbarities”focus on defending that a) the movement is legal and b) that “race is not a quality parameter, food is.” And now what? The question is whether the changes to Guijuelo’s regulatory document are indeed “normal” or require the approval of Brussels. And the most likely thing, if the regulatory councils decide to go ahead, is that it will reach Brussels. Or at least Image | Tim Sackton In Xataka | A tax on ham? There are those who already propose it as the best way to eat less meat

There are more robots working in Chinese factories than in the rest of the world together. Beijing’s strategy is already a blow of global authority

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Close your eyes for a moment and imagine The country with more robots in its factories. The logical thing would be to think of Japan, and not a few would also include the United States in the quiniela. However, the most recent figures point out another destination and do it clearly: China, where robotics has ceased to be an experiment to become the daily pulse of production. It should be specified from the start: we do not talk about showcase humanoids, but of industrial welding robots, manipulation and assembly, which are transforming how it is already manufactured what speed. The last report From the International Robotics Federation offers the clearest photograph of this phenomenon. In 2024 alone, Chinese factories installed about 300,000 industrial robots, a figure higher than the rest of the combined world. In parallel, the total park exceeded two million active units, well above any competitor. In contrast, the United States added 34,000 new robots in its production and Japan lines around 44,000, confirming the magnitude of the Chinese jump. China not only competes, already dominates China’s hegemony in industrial robotics has not appeared out of nowhere. Since 2017, its factories have installed Between 145,000 and 295,000 annual robotswith a especially strong jump from 2021. Pandemia barely slowed that progression, and in 2024 the figure was again located around 300,000 units. In contrast, the United States, Japan, South Korea and Germany not only started from much more modest volumes, but also registered declines in the last statistics. The next step in the Chinese strategy was not only to install robots, but to manufacture them on a large scale. For the first time, Chinese suppliers sold more than foreigners in their own market: 57% of the 2024 facilities were of local origin. On a global scale, Japan remains the main manufacturing country (around 38% of the world supply, according to IFR). This turn reduces dependence, although it does not equals full technological autonomy Chinese industrial policy has been decisive to accelerate the transition to automation. The initiative Made in China 2025 marked the first great milestone in 2015, with the aim of REducate dependence of imports in key sectors. Six years later, in 2021, the country adopted a specific plan to multiply the deployment of industrial robots. This planning added loans at low interest from state banks and support for technological purchases abroad. The result has been a fertile terrain for the expansion of Chinese robotics. When talking about robotics, the most common image is that of humanoids as Optimus either Figure. However, the figures that place China in the lead correspond only to industrial robots: mechanical arms that weld, assemble or move materials in the production line. The report leaves humanoids out, still in an experimental phase and with very small sales. Even so, the state impulse has generated an ecosystem of humanoid -centered startups, such as UNITREEalthough its weight in the industry remains marginal. The figures that place China in the lead correspond only to industrial robots. The integration of artificial intelligence into the factory is not exclusive to China: Japan, South Korea, Germany or the United States also apply with vision systemsautomated failures and quality control algorithms. What distinguishes Beijing is the scale with which this practice has spread, until it becomes a usual component of its industrial strategy. In many plants, the AI ​​monitors real -time machines, anticipates breakdowns and adjusts processes. This broader and more coordinated deployment has multiplied the impact of automation. The technological jump also depends on the people who make it possible. China has a large number of specialized technicians, from programmers to industrial electricians, capable of installing and maintaining robots in complex environments. Even so, the demand exceeds the supply and salaries of the installers have shot, already around $ 60,000. This talent gap reflects a global bottleneck: automation does not advance with capital and machines, it needs professionals who integrate it into the factory. Chinese leadership in industrial robotics still has clear borders. Although the country already manufactures a third of world robots, it continues to depend on foreign supplies for some key components. High precision sensors and advanced semiconductorsfor example, they are still domain from Japan and Germany, with decades of technological advantage. This deficit limits China’s ability to assemble higher range robots, especially humanoids. Even with a thriving ecosystem, technological autonomy is not yet complete and marks one of Beijing’s pending challenges. Although China continues to depend on foreign suppliers, the weight of its market already conditions global dynamics. By producing and installing more robots than anyone, it achieves economies of scale that reduce automation projects and pressing international prices. Its volume also gives it the capacity to influence technical standards and equipment interoperability. In the supply chain, the center of gravity moves to Asia, forcing other countries to adapt to an ecosystem in which China marks the rhythm, even without still controlling all technology. The map of industrial robotics is no longer understood without China in the center. In the next two years, the attention will be to verify whether to reduce its dependence on key components and if it maintains the rhythm of 300,000 new annual facilities. Beijing does not hide that he wants to extend this model to emerging sectors such as humanoids and reinforce their weight in global chains. For the rest of the world, the question is not whether China will continue to lead in volumebut how to respond to a strategy that combines scale, industrial policy and technological ambition. Images | Simon Kadula | Arthur Wang In Xataka | Qualcomm believes that the 6G will be the final network for AI and has already set it: the reality is that 5G is still in diapers

Ukraine has struck Russia a blow to two “amphibious” relics of the cold war. And then he has shown it on video

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On October 18, 1960, from the Taganrog airfield, the Soviet Union presented the world with its first flight The Beriev Be-12an amphibious plane designed to perform underwater and maritime patrol missions that over time was expanding its abilities. In fact, Russia continued to keep several models used in the invasion of Ukraine. Until a few days ago. The attack against a relic. The scene took place September 21when Kamikaze drones Ukrainians reached the Kacha air base, in the Crimea occupied, attacking two of the very scarce be-12 amphibians of the Russian Navy and a MI-8 helicopter. The disseminated images By the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense they show the direct impact on one of these devices (identified With number 08) and reinforce the idea that it is the first confirmed attack against this type of aircraft, known In Russia as chaika (Gaviota) and by NATO with the name in a mail key. The action was claimed by the Special Unit “Ghost” of Ukrainian intelligence, underlining the increasingly relevant role of drones in the campaign against infrastructures and military assets in Crimea. The importance of B2-12. As we said at the beginning, the BE-12 was conceived in the sixties as an anti-submarine platform. Lost that main function decades ago, although kept in service in search and rescue configurations and, above all, as a maritime patrol to detect unmanned Ukrainian boats that Hostigan to the Black Sea fleet. With just Six registered devices In 2023 and only four or five in the operational state, the destruction or damage of two of them could mean the reduction to half of the active fleet. Although one of the specimens achieved could have already been out of service, even in that case it was valuable as a source of spare partsa critical resource to prolong the life of the model. The pressure in Crimea. Since the summer of 2022, the BE-12 have been frequently operating On the Crimea coastacting as support in the detection of unmanned vessels, recognition commands and Ukrainian special operations divers. The drone campaign of Ukraine surface, which began with suicidal models and has resulted in reusable platforms capable of launch FPV drones or even gunners, has weakened To the roller and forced fleet the construction of hardened shelters in air bases Like Belbek. The loss of specialized aerial patrols aggravates Russian vulnerability in this scenario, where early intelligence and detection are vital. The sunset of an airplane. The BE-12 has survived multiple stages of obsolescence, from the dissolution of the USSR to its Official withdrawal in 1992re -giving prominence after Crimea Annexation in 2014. However, without substantial modernizations, it lacks viability in an air environment disputed and can only perform secondary missions under conditions of Russian superiority. Its apparent final, precipitated by Ukrainian drones, symbolizes how a war marked by autonomous systems and precision attacks is dismantling the last vestiges of Soviet aviation in the region. Strategic consequences. If you want also, the attack against the BE-12 He fits the Ukrainian strategy to deprive Russia of surveillance and control capacities in the Black Sea, weakening the operating margin of the enclave fleet and undermine military logistics in the Peninsula. Beyond the tactical blow, the action reflects the War transition Towards a scenario in which cheap, autonomous and difficult to counteract systems are able to neutralize expensive and scarce platforms, accelerating Russian wear and questioning Moscow’s ability to keep an increasingly naval aviation operational relic dependent. Image | Commander, US Naval Forces Europe-Africa/US 6th FleetUkrainian Ministry of Defense In Xataka | Two hidden Russian soldiers wrote something unpublished to a drone. That day in Ukraine changed the rules of wars In Xataka | Italy, Germany, Sweden and Finland have done something that seemed unthinkable: throw their fighters in search of Russian airplanes

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