building

While we continue planning how to colonize the Moon, China already has a bricklayer robot to start building a base

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If we talk about lunar exploration we immediately think of the Artemis programbut the United States is not the only country pushing towards the colonization of our satellite. China also has a program underway and they just showed off a new lunar rover with four wheels and a humanoid upper body. Your job will be to assist in the collection of samples, transportation and deployment of instruments, something like a porter mason. What exactly is it. It is a robot weighing about 100kg with a lower part with four wheels and a humanoid torso with two arms on the upper part. It is not a typical scientific rover, but Its main function is to act as a carrierpicking up and placing different objects and instruments in their positions. The hybrid design, with wheels to move and arms to manipulate, responds to a specific need: on the Moon there are no operators who can move equipment, connect sensors or install instruments. Someone has to do it, and that someone is going to be this robot. Technical challenges. The robot is equipped with AI systems, remote vision and 3D mapping to be able to function in a totally unknown environment. The team that developed it, led by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, has South China Morning Post that the main challenge is to ensure that both arms move in a coordinated and precise manner to manipulate fragile instruments. On Earth it is already a complex task, but here you will have to do it in a hostile environment with extreme temperatures, uneven terrain and no one who can repair a possible breakdown. To operate, the robot is powered by solar energy and is designed to operate for two years on the lunar surface, which implies that it will spend 24 lunar nights, each of more than 14 Earth days. During these periods, as it does not receive sunlight, the robot will have to enter a hibernation state and wake up at the beginning of a new day. The mission. The robot is part of the Chang’e-8 missionscheduled for 2028-2029. It will be the eighth mission of the series Chang’e, which China has been using since 2007 to progressively explore the Moon: first orbiters, then landers, rovers and sample collection. The goal of the Chang’e-8 mission is to deliver materials and begin preparing the ground for a permanent presence at the lunar south pole. That’s why the robot is not only designed to explore, but also works. Chang’e-8 is a key part of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), the joint project of China and Russia to build a base on the Moon using 3D printing techniques. Why the south pole. The choice of location is not accidental. The lunar south pole has great strategic importance for space agencies because It is where reserves of water ice have been discovered in its craters. That ice has the potential to become fuel, oxygen and water for any permanent base. Whoever arrives first, learns to navigate the terrain and installs more instruments will have a huge advantage. That is why both Chang’e-8 and Artemis III go to the same region. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | China’s most ambitious space project: an advanced hyperspectral satellite to make a “CT” of the Earth

Emirates and Oman are building a $3 billion megatrain. The problem is that it crosses a drone battlefield

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In the midst of a geopolitical climate where tension cut with a knifean infrastructure megaproject emerges in the Middle East that challenges the context of conflict. It is about the construction of the first cross-border rail network of the region. Promoted by Etihad Rail, Oman Rail and Mubadala, this plan proposes a corridor that will integrate the national network of the United Arab Emirates with the strategic port of Sohar, in the Sultanate of Oman. However, the immense work advances under a dense shadow. While the pillars of this train are being raised, the region is going through what in practice It’s the Third Gulf War. The impact of a commercial revolution. To understand the magnitude of “Hafeet Rail”, just look at their economic projections. This mixed corridor—designed for both passengers and cargo—promises to radically transform the flow of trade in the Gulf and lower logistics costs. The network has a monumental investment which is around 3,000 million dollars, equivalent to about 2,500 million euros. Additionally, the infrastructure will link five major ports and more than fifteen integrated cargo facilities directly. The benefits, however, will not be exclusive to maritime trade. For the average citizen, this line will mean an unprecedented change: the trip between Abu Dhabi and Sohar, which currently takes more than three hours on winding roads, will be reduced to just 100 minutes. In addition, it will offer a reliable alternative that will eliminate the usual and costly delays at border crossings. The challenge of operating in a disputed region. The main route of the project will cover a length of 238 kilometers. On these new generation tracks, passenger trains will be able to reach speeds of up to 200 kilometers per hour, while heavy cargo convoys will circulate at a maximum of 120 km/h to optimize international shipping times. Far from being a mirage in the desert, construction is now a tangible and has reached 40% overall progress. On the rugged terrain, backhoes have completed more than 27 million cubic meters of earthworks, and there are currently 80 key structures in different stages of construction. The big question: can it work? Military analysts warn that the recent proliferation of cheap drone attacks has shown that facilities previously considered untouchable are today extremely vulnerable. The fact that the United Arab Emirates host allied infrastructure and bases It makes them latent targets within this tense regional board, adding enormous operational risk to any large connectivity project. Technological avant-garde. On a technical level, the project does not skimp on innovation. According to the technical documentationthe railway fleet will be equipped with the European Train Control System (ETCS Level 2), considered the most advanced and safest in the world in its category. This system, which will be implemented by a joint venture between Siemens and HAC, will allow absolute digital tracking and control of trains using GPS technology. Regarding the execution of the challenging civil works, these were awarded to an Omani-Emirati consortium led by Trojan Construction Group (NPC) and Galfar Engineering and Contracting. A milestone that the consortia particularly celebrate is the extreme workplace safety achieved: to date, 10 million hours of work have been recorded in the field without reporting serious accidents. Closing a historical gap. Beyond the colossal engineering figures, the project carries a deep cultural weight. The unified network has recently adopted the identity of “Hafeet Rail”, a direct tribute to the Jebel Hafeet, the imposing mountain and limestone formation that extends between the borders of both countries and that has historically served as a geographical bridge. Despite business optimism, the success of the operation will not depend solely on laying tracks. Monumental bureaucratic challenges await ahead, such as regulatory coordination between the two sovereign nations and the fluid articulation of port and customs services. In the end, time will tell if the shared vision of progress prevails. For now, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are committed to full economic integration and the creation of a new artery for global trade; All of this, paradoxically, at a time when its immediate environment is navigating a hybrid war defined by uncertainty, intermittent blockades and air threats. It is, in short, a bullet train making its way through a minefield; the maximum expression of risk and ambition in the heart of the Middle East. Image | Photo by Grant Durr on Unsplash Xataka | The US believes that the war in the Persian Gulf is over. Iran believes that it will decide that when it considers

The incredible story of the tallest building on the planet that ended up becoming the largest swimming pool in the Soviet Union

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During the coldest winters of the Soviet Union, there was a place in Moscow where thousands of people they continued bathing outdoors while huge clouds of steam completely covered the landscape. In fact, from some points in the city the silhouettes of the swimmers could barely be distinguished among the artificial fog. For many foreign visitors, that scene seemed more like something out of a science fiction movie than in the center of a Soviet capital. I don’t remember spaces that have given so much, literally. The cathedral that Stalin erased from the map. Yes, for decades, one of the strangest places in Moscow was that huge smoking circle where thousands of people swam under the snow without thinking much about what had existed there before. The fascinating thing is that that place had first been the largest orthodox cathedral of Russia, then the land chosen to build the tallest building on the planet and finally the outdoor pool bigger. Today, on that same site, it rises again a gigantic cathedral golden Few stories explain so well how architecture can become an ideological battle permanent between empires, revolutions and erased memories. The monument that celebrated the defeat of Napoleon. The story began after Napoleon Bonaparte’s withdrawal from Russia in 1812, when Tsar Alexander I promised to raise a huge cathedral in honor of Christ the Savior as thanks for the survival of the Russian empire. The project went through decades of delays, design changes and ideological disputes until it became a gigantic cathedral orthodox partially inspired by Hagia Sophia of Constantinople. Its construction took more than forty years and the final result completely dominated Moscow skyline with huge golden domes visible from the Kremlin. The building represented the union between religion, monarchy and Russian imperial power at a time when the country was trying to project itself as a great European power. The ancient Cathedral of Christ the Savior Stalin wanted to erase the old Russia and build something greater. After the Revolution of 1917the Bolsheviks began a fierce campaign against religion because they considered that the new Soviet society couldn’t share space with symbols of the old imperial order. Churches were closed, confiscated or reused as warehouses, cinemas or homes, but the Cathedral of Christ the Savior It was too visible to survive. In 1931, by direct order of Joseph Stalin, the building was demolished with explosives to make way for to the most delirious project of Soviet architecture: Palace of Soviets. The plan was to build a 415 meter colossus crowned by a gigantic statue of Lenin about one hundred meters high, a building so enormous that it would have surpassed any existing skyscraper on the planet. The objective was not only architectural. Stalin wanted to physically demonstrate that Soviet communism had forever replaced the old, religious, tsarist Russia. This is how the Palace of the Soviets would have looked The tallest building on the planet never came into existence. The architect Boris Iofan He spent years obsessed with that monumental project, designing enormous auditoriums, stepped terraces and spaces designed to glorify the Soviet State and its leaders. It was excavated a gigantic crater next to the Moscova River, the foundation work and part of the metal structure began got upbut reality ended up destroying the Soviet propaganda dream. The terrain was difficult, water continually flooded the area and the German invasion of 1941 definitively paralyzed the works. Much of the steel accumulated for the building ended up reused in fortifications and bridges during the war. What should have been the greatest architectural symbol of world communism ended up becoming a huge muddy hole in the middle of Moscow. Then something even more surreal happened. Instead of resuming the project after the war, the Soviet regime made a completely unexpected decision: transform that immense circular foundation into a gigantic public swimming pool. This is how the Moskva swimming pool was born, inaugurated in 1960 under Nikita Khrushchev. The place became the outdoor pool bigger of the Soviet Union and possibly the world, with 130 meters in diameter and capacity for thousands of people. The water remained heated even in winter, creating huge clouds of steam over the center of Moscow as citizens swam surrounded by snow and sub-zero temperatures. For entire generations of Soviet people, that space stopped being a religious or political symbol and became simply an everyday place where they could learn to swim, meet with friends or escape the cold. The most famous swimming pool in Moscow and its legends. The gigantic circular pond acquired over time a almost mythological fame. The dense columns of vapor made visibility difficult in winter and began to circulate rumors about accidents, drownings and alleged “suicide cults” linked to the ancient sacred ground where the destroyed cathedral had stood. There were also stories about humidity and corrosion that the complex caused in nearby buildings and nearby museums. Still, millions of people used the pool for decades and for many Moscow residents that place ended up forming an inseparable part of their personal memories, even if they knew that they were literally swimming over the ruins of one of the most important temples of imperial Russia. The Cathedral of Christ the Savior restored on what was the largest pool The fall of the USSR changed everything again. With the Soviet collapse, Russia began to recover religious symbols and nationals who had been persecuted for decades. Maintaining the gigantic pool turned economically unsustainable due to the enormous cost of heating and electricity, while a movement grew that demanded the reconstruction of the original cathedral. In 1994 the pool was emptied and demolishedand soon after began an accelerated reconstruction financed by donations and institutional support. He new temple was built in just a few years and consecrated in 2000 as a almost exact replica of the building destroyed by Stalin. For many Russians, that reconstruction symbolized the return of religion and Russian historical identity after the Soviet period; For others, it … Read more

To achieve the milestone of building the largest drone industry without China, Ukraine has found an explosive ally: Taiwan

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In the midst of the Cold War, several Western engineers they were surprised upon discovering that some of the most reliable small electronic components on the world market came from an island that barely made the big geopolitical headlines. Decades later, that silent specialization in manufacturing tiny and apparently invisible parts would end up becoming one of the industrial capabilities most coveted on the planet. The war that changed an industry. For decades, Taiwan was known primarily for making chipselectronic components and invisible parts that ended up inside telephones, computers or servers spread all over the planet, but modern wars are beginning to push that industrial capacity towards another, much more explosive terrain. The Guardian said that what is happening between Ukraine and Taiwan reflects a quiet change that barely existed a few years ago: the creation of a new technological alliance born directly from drone warfrom Chinese pressure and the desperate need to produce millions of cheap, autonomous and combat-ready systems. Ukraine wants to break its dependence on China. The war forced Ukraine to build at full speed a gigantic industry of drones capable of feeding a front that consumes absurd quantities of devices every month. The problem is that much of the global supply chain remains dominated by China: Motors, batteries, navigation systems, electronic components and rare earths continue to depend heavily on Chinese manufacturers. As we said, kyiv began to consider this dependence as a strategic risk When suspicions grew about indirect support from Beijing to Russia and fears grew of possible export restrictions. There Taiwan began to appear as an alternative unexpectedly important. His huge experience in semiconductors, microelectronics, electronic integration and advanced technological production made it one of the few places capable of supplying critical parts without being completely dependent on the West or trapped under direct Chinese control. For Ukraine, finding industrial partners outside of China stopped being a commercial issue and became literally a matter of survival. And Taiwan found Ukraine. While Ukraine seeks to produce millions of drones, gradually moving away from China, Taiwan observes the conflict with another concern: the possibility of one day confronting Beijing on its own territory. That coincidence of threats is creating a relationship ever deeper between both worlds. In fact, The New York Times said what Taiwanese engineers They send drones to Ukraine to be tested directly in combat, American companies transfer designs born on the Ukrainian front to Taiwanese production and former Taiwanese soldiers who today fight in Ukraine return home telling how modern war really works. Many Taiwanese militaries are beginning to discover that traditional doctrines are completely outweighed by swarms of FPV drones, unmanned maritime systems or cheap ground robots capable of destroying multimillion-dollar vehicles. Ukraine is thus becoming a kind of university improvised military for Taiwan, one where the lessons do not come from simulations but from a real front where every mistake costs lives. The new military industry no longer resembles the old one. One of the most profound changes of this war is that military production no longer depends solely on gigantic state factories or large traditional contractors. Ukraine has developed more than one hundreds of local manufacturers of components while constantly adapting its systems to specific front-line needs. Ukrainian companies modify drones, software and guidance systems at a much higher speed to the Western classical industry. Taiwan fits perfectly in that transformation because it has exactly what Ukraine needs to accelerate that production: advanced electronics, specialized chips and flexible industrial capacity. Several Taiwanese companies already operate from Poland or Lithuania to indirectly supply kyiv, while Taiwanese drone exports to Europe have skyrocketed massively. In parallel, American companies are using Ukraine and Taiwan like two extremes of the same industrial chain: Ukraine provides combat experience and accelerated development, and Taiwan provides technological capacity and scalable manufacturing. The obsession with building drones outside of China. Both Ukraine and Taiwan share another priority that is becoming almost an industrial doctrine: building supply chains at the expense of Beijing. The problem is much more complicated than it seems because even many components manufactured outside China still use materials, batteries or magnets that depend from Chinese suppliers. Even so, both territories try gradually reduce that exhibition. Taiwan wants to build a drone industry completely disengaged from China by 2027 and increase its own production of rare earth magnets, while Ukraine continues to shift production within its borders. There is no doubt, the challenge is gigantic because Chinese products continue to be much cheaper and more abundant, but strategic logic is beginning to outweigh the economic cost. In the middle of a war, the priority shifts from buying the cheapest to ensuring the supply chain continues to function when the next crisis hits. Building something bigger than drones. If you also want, the most important thing in this relationship may not only be the production of drones, but the emergence of a new technological and military axis informal between two territories that live under permanent threat from much larger neighbors. Ukraine contributes real experience of war, proven tactics and a brutal speed of innovation under extreme pressure. Taiwan contributes industrial capacitysemiconductors and access to critical technologies that the West does not produce quickly enough. The result is beginning to look like something much more ambitious: an entire international network of distributed military production where private companies, engineers, volunteers and manufacturers work beyond official diplomatic limitations. Even the Ukrainian government recognize as drone factories based on Ukrainian designs are popping up outside its borders, including one in Taiwan. One more thing. Ultimately, what the war is accelerating is an idea that a few years ago would have seemed improbable: that to build the largest drone industry on the planet outside chinaUkraine has ended up finding one of its most valuable and strategic allies in Taiwan. Image | x, Trydence In Xataka | Today in “the war in Ukraine beyond all comprehension”: drone pilots are training with ‘Grand Theft Auto’ In Xataka | Ukraine has barely … Read more

Amazon had been building its alternative to Starlink for some time. Now the company behind the iPhone SOS has been bought

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If we think about satellite internet, the first thing that comes to mind is usually Starlink. It is logical: SpaceX has managed to occupy a large part of the conversation in this area. But, while that was happening, what we have seen is that Amazon had been building its own bet on low orbit with Leoa project with which he wants to gain relevance in an increasingly disputed market. Now that plan has taken a much more serious step. The company founded by Jeff Bezos has announced an agreement to acquire globalstarthe company that until now supports several Apple satellite functions on compatible iPhones and on the Apple Watch Ultra 3among them Emergency OSS via satellite. At the same time, both companies have communicated an agreement to continue these services and collaborate on future satellite functions supported by Leo. In other words, not only does it buy a strategic piece of the sector, it also fully enters into an already established relationship with Apple. Here the value of Globalstar goes well beyond its name or its relationship with Apple. What Amazon is buying is a combination of satellite fleet, infrastructure, spectrum and operational knowledge accumulated over years in mobile satellite communications. There is also a particularly relevant point: the acquisition gives it immediate access to radio spectrum rights, a piece that can accelerate its plans to offer services on mobile phones and other devices in the future. Furthermore, this operation does not appear in a vacuum. Leo had been trying to gain traction with his own deployment for some time: he already has more than 200 satellites in orbit, although he is still far behind SpaceX. At the same time, the firm has been teaching the product and clients: A few days ago it presented its aviation antenna and already has agreements with JetBlue and Delta to offer inflight connectivity starting in 2027 and 2028, respectively. There is another detail that helps measure the magnitude of the movement without losing sight of caution. The information published by the Financial Times places the agreement in 11.6 billion dollars and places it among the largest purchases in the company’s history, below Whole Foods but above MGMalthough on paper there are still pending steps before considering it resolved. The announcement itself specifies that closure is planned for 2027, provided regulatory approvals arrive and certain technical commitments linked to Globalstar’s satellite program are met. Viewed as a whole, this step helps to better understand where Leo wants to go in the coming years. We are not just facing a large acquisition, but rather an attempt to gain time, capabilities and position in a race in which Starlink continues to set the benchmark. The operation, if it ends up closing as planned, can change the starting point of the American giant quite a bit. Images | Amazon | Apple | globalstar In Xataka | Samsung faces a very serious problem to surpass TSMC with its 2nm chips: the 60% curse

China is building a tunnel under the sea for its high speed. It has already reached a record depth

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Under the seabed, dozens of meters deep, there is a work that is progressing with a minimal margin of error. It cannot be seen from the surface, but it is part of a railway infrastructure key in southern China. According to CGTNthe country has reached a new milestone in the construction of a high-speed underwater tunnel: the excavation has already reached 113 meters under the seabed. The figure is not minor, because it places the work at a point where the geological conditions and water pressure significantly increase the technical difficulty. This advance is part of a much larger infrastructure that is taking shape in the south of the country. The 116-kilometer Shenzhen-Jiangmen high-speed line is designed to connect both cities in less than an hour, integrating into the rail corridor that runs along the Chinese coast. In this way, the project has entered a particularly demanding phase, in which the tunnel under the Pearl River estuary becomes one of the most technically complex points of the entire work. A section under the sea that concentrates the greatest technical challenge At the center of this phase of the project is the underwater infrastructure that requires refinement of each step. To execute it, the work relies on a large diameter tunnel boring machine developed in China. The machine, known as “Shenjiang-1”, has kept the excavation going continuously, even during festive periods such as Qingming. It not only drills the ground, it also allows progress while the interior lining of the tunnel is being built, a system that seeks to gain efficiency in one of the most delicate points of the route. From there, the challenge stops being just mechanical and becomes conditioned by the terrain. The TBM must traverse 13 different strata, with five types of composite geology and six fault zones along the route. These types of conditions force the operation to be constantly adjusted, because each layer can respond differently to the excavation. In this context, moving forward does not depend solely on the power of the machinery, but also on maintaining control in a challenging environment. Added to this complexity of the terrain is a less visible, but equally determining factor: the pressure of the water at those depths. The tunnel is planned to reach a maximum of 116 meters below the seabeda level at which hydraulic conditions become especially demanding for the machinery and the structure itself. To operate in this environment, the system uses a sludge circuit that fulfills a double function: on the one hand, it reduces friction at the excavation face and, on the other, it transports the extracted material to the surface, where it is separated and reused in the process. While the machine advances, the tunnel is not far behind. Just behind the excavation face, the teams are assembling the prefabricated concrete segments that form the interior lining. Each one measures around two meters wide and nine are needed to complete a ring in a structure that exceeds 13 meters in diameter. This system allows excavation and construction to progress at the same time, reducing time and helping to maintain the pace of execution. The magnitude of this work is better understood when put into perspective. Official information indicates that this section extends over 13.69 kilometers and crosses several waterways at the mouth of the river, located between Dongguan and Guangzhou. It is a key piece within a line designed to improve the connection in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Beyond the depth already achieved, the project seeks to strengthen regional connectivity and support economic integration in one of the most active areas of the country. Images | CGTN In Xataka | Singapore is literally coming into its own: reclaiming 25% of land from the sea and turning wastewater into drinking water

Spain has been building a bridge with China for years. Now it is the European Union that needs to cross it

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Pedro Sánchez is going to land in China this week for the fourth time in three years. No other Western leader comes close. Why is it important. What seemed like a diplomatic eccentricity has become a trend. A year ago, Spain seemed an outlier in Europe due to its favorable and close stance towards China. Today it is France, with its calls for tougher trade measures against the Chinese government, who seems isolated, according to analyst Noah Barkin in his specialized newsletter. Watching China in Europe. The context has changed everything: the war in Iran, the volatility of the Trump government and the tariff as a political weapon have pushed Europe towards where Spain already was. The context. In recent years, Spain has attracted a constellation of Chinese companies while maintaining a discourse of rapprochement with China that the rest of the EU viewed with skepticism, if not suspicion. The map of Chinese presence in the country is already considerable: The result of all this rapprochement is also reflected in capital flows: Chinese investment in Spain went from 149 million euros in 2024 to 643 million in 2025, an increase of 331% in a single year. Nevertheless, has done little to reduce Spain’s large trade deficit with the Asian giant. The pattern is known: investment arrives, but Spanish exports do not grow at the same rate. Openness has a price. Between the lines. Barkin describes it like this: Pedro Sánchez has positioned himself as the most openly pro-China and Trump-critical leader in Western Europe. This gives Spain a position as unique as it is uncomfortable. Being China’s favorite interlocutor on the continent means assuming the diplomatic costs of that position when the EU needs to maintain a common voice vis-à-vis China. The contrast. While Spain opens its arms, the European Parliament cautiously reopens its ties with China after eight years of distance. A delegation of MEPs visited China this week on the first official trip since 2018, with a clear message, according to coverage by Traffic light China: commitment does not mean concession. The European Union negotiates with one hand and shields with the other. Spain, on the other hand, has opted for the extended hand, practically alone. The big question. Is Spain a pioneer or a lever? A pioneer sets the path that others end up following because it is the right one. A lever is an instrument that others use for their own purposes. Barkin warns that Spain is following the Orbán model: welcoming Chinese investment without the necessary checks and balances. The comparison may be unfair in its nuances, but it points to a very real risk: that the Spanish opening strategy lacks the reciprocity that Europe needs to negotiate as a bloc. In Xataka | Donald Trump’s tariffs are having an unforeseen effect on China: its factories are getting stronger Featured image | ZQ Lee, Sam Williams

a building that houses treasures inspired by Goya

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they call it the ‘Palace’ and it makes sense if we take into account that it is one of the most stately buildings at the Cuatro Vientos airfield, in Madrid, and perhaps in the entire Air Force. The Officers’ Pavilion (that is its official name) is an architectural jewel built around 1916 to host the pilots and students of the first Military Aviation school in Spain. More than a century later, its rooms and offices are still full of artistic and historical treasures, but they have not been immune to the passage of time, something that Defensa wants to solve now. For this he has used his checkbook. What has happened? That the Ministry of Defense wants to rehabilitate the Historical Officers’ Pavilion (the ‘Palace’), an architectural and historical jewel located at the Cuatro Vientos air base. In fact, it is usually presented, along with the Tower, as its most emblematic property. At the beginning of 2026, Margarita Robles’ department published a tender notice in the BOE to carry out “renovation and restoration” works in the old pavilion. The total amount of the work, including VAT, amounted to about 3.49 million of euros. After passing several procedures, the final award announcement was posted on the State Contracting Platform a few days ago and details that the agreement has been closed for 3.46 million (including VAT). The execution period is 14 months, so in theory the work will not be ready until well into 2027. What will they consist of? The idea is to get the ‘Palace’ ready, which, as you remember the specialized portal Infodefenseundergoes a complicated task: modernizing the building to make it more comfortable and functional while preserving its historical and artistic identity. In practice this will translate into works to rehabilitate the façade, a redistribution and the renovation of facilities. The technicians hired by Defense will eliminate the lichens and dirt accumulated on the exterior, recover the original tones of the façade, restore the cornices, stairs and balustrades, solve water leaks and replace pieces damaged by time. To prevent the bars and other metal elements from being ruined, the specialists will clean them up. The idea is not only to rehabilitate the pavilion. Defense wants it to be more functional. Hence, the project includes some distribution changes and the installation of services such as an elevator and a dumbwaiter. The reorganization of spaces will also increase the building’s capacity to accommodate tenants and reinforce their comfort, focusing for example on thermal insulation, waterproofing and electrical installations, pipes and wiring. Is the pavilion so important? Yes. And for several reasons. One of them is its historical dimension. The Officers’ Pavilion was built between 1914 and 1918at a key historical moment in which, remember from Defensethe old Cuatro Vientos airfield became “the cradle of Hispanic aviation.” As it grew, it became necessary to build a specific building to house the pilots and flight school students. The building began to be built around 1915 and from very early on it played a fundamental role. In fact its nickname, ‘Palace’, is probably explained because it welcomed the infant Don Alfonso of Orleansaviator from the school’s first class of pilots. What role did he play? In an article published for the centenary of the pavilion, the Spanish Defense Magazine He recalled in 2016 that the ‘Palace’ was in a way the “center of teaching, debate, analysis and planning of the ‘Great Flights’”as the first great feats of Spanish aviation are known, such as the ‘Plus Ultra’from 1926, during which the South Atlantic was crossed. Prototypes such as the one with the autogyro and aeronautical workshops and an aerodynamics laboratory were installed. Is it the only reason to reform it? The truth is that no. Another reason why Defense probably wants to take care of the ‘Palace’ is its heritage and architectural value. Beyond its age (it was built between 1915 and 1918), the pavilion was designed from the first moment as a noble building, equipped with coffered ceilings, tiles and stained glass with considerable artistic value. A residence worthy of an infant of the Orleáns-Borbón house. Infodefense stands out specifically the wooden frieze and ceiling of the Noble Hall, the plasterwork of the Officers’ Hall and Weapons Room or the marquetry of the dining room, in which the architects wanted to make a nod to the history of Spain: the pieces are inspired by the engraving ‘Modo de Volar’ by Goya. Also notable is the leaded stained glass window that preserves the original shield and was restored in the 90s. “To the right of the main entrance, is the ‘chiefs’ dining room’, today called ‘Los Pajaritos’. The room is surrounded by a wooden frieze, in the upper part of which appear, reflecting Goya’s engraving ‘Modo de Volar’, different birds in the attitude of flight”, details the Air Force. Images | Ministry of Defense of Spain and Air Force (Facebook) In Xataka | Spain in the 1950s, seen from the air: the pioneering photographs of the US army

This engineer found 1,351 loose photos in his grandmother’s house. He ended up building a personal Wikipedia of his entire life

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It all started with a closet full of old loose photos. Last year an engineer named Jeremy visited his grandmother’s house for the first time since the pandemic and unknowingly came across a treasure. 1,351 on paper, without order, without dates and without context. Some were in black and white, from when his grandparents were 20 years old. Others were from his mother as a baby. The last ones were from him in high school, just before smartphones arrived and everything moved to the cloud. What began as a family organization exercise became a fascinating project over the weeks: a personal encyclopedia. A Wikipedia of his own life. First, the physical photos and the grandmother. The first problem he encountered when starting his project is that physical photos do not have EXIF metadata. There is almost never a capture date (although some cameras superimposed it), there are no GPS coordinates and there is no information that allows them to be easily sorted. What Jeremy did was resort to a much more direct solution: sit down with his grandmother and ask her about the photos. Remembering that it is a gerund. In that conversation she rearranged the photos of their wedding and narrated the details while he took notes. Names, places, who was sitting where, what each ritual meant. With those notes, he set up a local instance of MediaWiki, the same software that Wikipedia uses, and wrote a page about the wedding following the same format that was used on Wikipedia to royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton in 2011. Within two afternoons I had a complete article with scanned photos, captions, links to empty pages about each person mentioned, and links to the real Wikipedia to give historical context to the events. Digital photos and Claude Code to get the job done. Jeremy realized that things could get worse and took the opportunity to do tests with digital photos, which do have EXIF data with date and time and even GPS coordinates. With that information he wanted to see how far he could go without interviews, so he took 625 photos from a family trip to Coorg (India) in 2012, put them in a folder and opened Claude Code in that directory with a simple instruction: compose a Wikipedia page by browsing the images. The model used ImageMagick to create contact sheets that allowed him to process multiple photos at once, and the magic of AI did the rest. The result was a detailed draft chronicling the trip organized by time of day. Without location data, just with timestamps and visual content, the AI ​​model was able to identify the places that appeared in the photos, including some that Jeremy himself had forgotten. It even detected the means of transportation used between destinations just with what it saw in the images. When AI starts remembering for you. Then came the most ambitious experiment, when he wanted to go further with a trip he took to Mexico City in 2022. He had 291 photos and 343 videos taken with an iPhone 12 Pro with GPS coordinates in the metadata, but he also exported his Google Maps location history, his Uber trips, his banking transactions and his Shazam history. By including all that data and sources, the model was able to cross-reference banking transactions with location data to identify the restaurants where he had eaten. For example, he found images of a soccer match in the photos but did not remember which teams were playing, but he found out that information by crossing those photos with bank transactions in which he found a Ticketmaster invoice with the name of the tournament and the teams, and incorporated them into the page. He also used Shazam’s history to describe the music playing in each location. From photos and memories to a personal encyclopedia. A wonderful project that now anyone can replicate thanks to the whoami.wiki website. First the trips, then the friendships. What started as a travel documentation project evolved into something more personal. The Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp archives contained some 100,000 messages and several thousand voice notes exchanged with close friends over a decade. The AI ​​model managed to convert all this information into a unique biography, identifying vital episodes of the protagonists, then converted into pages that, according to Jeremy, “read as if they were written by someone who knew us both.” When he shared the pages with those friends, they couldn’t stop reading those stories and wanted more. MediaWiki as a master ingredient. One of the most interesting decisions of the project is the choice of software. MediaWiki, Wikipedia’s engine, turned out to be an extraordinarily suitable tool for that use case. AI models understand this perfectly because they have been trained with millions of Wikipedia pages and know their structure and functioning. Discussion pages serve to control the development of those pages, categories group pages by topic, and revision history monitors the evolution of each page. All of this infrastructure already existed, and it was not necessary to create a new platform to organize the information that Jeremy was providing. Surpriseyes. At the end of his story, Jeremy explains that after the process: “I realized that I was no longer alone working on a family history project. What I had been creating, page by page, was a personal encyclopedia. A structured, navigable, interconnected record of my life compiled thanks to the data I already had around me.” Documenting her grandmother’s life revealed things she didn’t know: her years as a single mother or the decisions she had to make, for example. Going through the history of his friendships allowed him to recover moments that he had almost forgotten and made him call some of them to remember them together. “The encyclopedia not only organized the data, it made me pay more attention to the people in my life,” he explained. you can do it too. The project has been so rewarding for him that he … Read more

A Spanish startup is building the map of the Earth that AI needs: Xoople

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Xoople has closed a Series B round of 130 million dollars led by Nazca Capital and with the participation of MCH Private Equity, CDTI, Buenavista Equity Partners and Endeavor Catalyst. With the financing accumulated so far, 225 million dollars, the Madrid startup presents its candidacy for unicorn and becomes one of the most peculiar bets in the European space ecosystem. Why is it important. More than a round, this capital injection is the validation of a model that almost no one in the startup ecosystem has the stomach to execute: seven years building technology without going to market, without growth metrics to show to investors and with hardly any noise. Xoople has opted to be infrastructure before product, and that places it in a different category than almost any European space startup. The context. The company, founded in 2019 and based in Tres Cantos (Madrid), has developed its own constellation of satellites combined with an AI data processing platform called EarthAI. The goal is to become what its founders call the “Earth system of record” for the era of agentic AI: scientifically accurate geospatial data, ready to train models and feed autonomous workflows in enterprises. The comparison with Google Earth is superficial because what Xoople builds is data infrastructure, not visualization. In detail. He agreement signed with L3Harris Technologiesone of the largest aerospace defense contractors in the United States, is the piece that elevates the proposal. Its sensors, designed with defensive-grade technology and adapted for commercial use, promise to capture a volume of data two orders of magnitude greater than current monitoring systems. Marketing has started this year with clients in preview private between government agencies and companies of the Fortune 500. Between the lines. The investment pattern of this round says as much as the number. The CDTI has been in the capital of Xoople for some time and has it classified as a Strategic Company, the largest investment of your Innvierte program. That Nazca Capital, the most active fund in the Ibero-American ecosystem, leads the Series B together with MCH Private Equity is a sign that private capital already sees in Xoople something more than a technological promise. The milestone must also be read in terms of ecosystem: just a month ago, PLD Space closed 180 million euros of Series C. The Spanish space sector is no longer anecdotal. The big question. Xoople’s model requires its customers to rely on critical data infrastructure built by a startup. In sectors such as defense, climate management or urban infrastructure, this institutional trust threshold is a bottleneck, even more so than technology. The waiting list in preview private that the problem is being resolved. But climbing from a waiting list to long-term contracts with governments and global corporations is the leap he has yet to prove. Featured image | Javier Miranda In Xataka | We have a problem with the future of GPS: $16 billion later, it’s an absolute disaster

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