Spain is going to continue fishing for eels until we have no more eels to catch

A few days ago, the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge he took to the Wild Flora and Fauna Committee the proposal to include the European eel as “in danger of extinction” in the Spanish Catalog of Endangered Species. That, in practice, means prohibiting fishing and marketing. Also that of the eel, its juvenile phase. As expected, the world championship has been messed up. And not because there is debate on the topic. For many years, scientists They are clear that the eel is on the limit. In fact, there are many communities that already prohibit fishing (some for more than a decade). And yet most of it fell this Tuesday the proposal. Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria, Murcia, the Valencian Community and the Balearic Islands, where the species is exploited, have voted against. Others such as Catalonia, the Basque Country, Navarra, La Rioja, Extremadura, Aragón, Castilla y León, Madrid, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia have abstained. It is the third failed attempt after those in 2020 and 2024. This has many readings, but the most obvious is simple: as Miguel Clavero says“Spain will continue fishing for eels until they become extinct.” It is also the most realistic. Because yes, a working group has been created between the Ministry and the CCAA to share data and discuss measures; but experts assume that it is just a way to save time. The thing is, it’s time we don’t have. And why isn’t eel fishing prohibited? The economic context is also simple: this fish moves little volume, but a lot of value. This is a premium product that generates a lot of money. For this reason, the sector is only willing to accept temporary moratoriums (such as this year in Euskadi), despite the fact that since the 60s the population has fallen by more than 90%. A problem that is also European. And that’s the other part of the problem, of course: lgovernance is fragmentedthe decline It is multifactorial (fishing, yes; but also river barriers, pollution, loss of habitats…) and the ‘revival’ of anti-scientific discourses when they touch the pocket. And without meaning to, that is what has turned this issue into a central issue for the entire European continent. After all, the extinction of the European eel is the chronicle of a death foretold. But also a portrait of our helplessness, of our inability to conserve what is valuable in our rivers. It is a portrait of ourselves. Image | Phil Robston In Xataka | China has mobilized 1,400 fishing boats to create a 300-kilometer “barrier.” Not good news for Taiwan

In China you can buy an 800 HP Audi for a price of a bare A3. The only catch is that it’s not an Audi

We already explained some time ago in this house how AUDI was formed in China and in what aspects it differs from the one we all know in Europe. in China its four rings disappear to display the manufacturer’s name in capital letters on the front of their cars. But beyond the difference in their logo, it is clear that their cars are completely different. This makes sense, since the firm embarked on a stage in which wanted to adapt to local tastes taking inspiration from the brands that are already established there. Even if that means eliminating all traces of what we know about Audi to date. In China, AUDI markets an electric vehicle with 770 HP of power and that costs between 28,000 and 40,000 euros in exchange. Meanwhile, an equivalent model in Europe could easily exceed 100,000 euros. We are talking about the AUDI E5 Sportback, which was already presented in 2024, and which continues to surprise due to the contrast of the figures they manage there and here in Europe. Although we make no mistake, we know perfectly well that it is not an Audi. An Audi that is not Audi. The E5 Sportback is the result of a joint venture between Audi AG and SAIC (Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation), the Chinese state company. Although it has German engineers behind the interior design and chassis development, the technical architecture, components and production are completely Chinese. In fact, the vehicle is based on the SAIC platform, the same one used by IM Motors, another brand of the Chinese group. German YouTuber Jean Pierre Kraemer, better known as JP Performance, has had quite a bit of traction on one of his latest videossince it has been able to show the ins and outs of this car through an imported unit. “This car has as much to do with an Audi technically as… well, many of our viewers have never seen it before,” he said. The trap of the Chinese market. 770 HP, 0-100 km/h in 3.4 seconds, 100 kWh battery, ultra-fast charging up to 424 kW and… it costs almost less than a basic Audi A3 in Spain. But hey, it’s really not the first case nor the last. This is due to cost structure in China. We are talking above all about lower wages, local production of batteries up to 15% cheaper than in Europe, according to data from Business Insider, massive state subsidies for production plants, aid for the purchase of electric vehicles, and a brutal price war between local manufacturers that forces even foreign premium brands to adjust their offerings to survive. The dilemma of German manufacturers. For brands like Audi, Volkswagen or BMW, China represents a critical market. According to account Audi, the firm sold approximately 650,000 units in China in 2024, compared to just 198,000 in Germany. That is, the Chinese market is three times larger than the German one for the Ingolstadt firm. These figures explain why Audi has surrendered to the conditions of the Asian giant: because to sell there, foreign brands are required by law to form joint ventures with local companies. The result is that Audi provides the design and part of the engineering, but SAIC provides the technology, factories and know-how for mass production at low cost. The reaction of the Chinese market. The E5 Sportback reached 10,000 units sold in its first 30 minutes since its launch. One week after the debut of the E5 Sportback, Audi presented the SUV versionand a luxury sedan on the same platform is even rumored. For Chinese consumers, the E5 competes directly with the Xiaomi SU7 and other high-end local electrics. Logically, the car will not reach our lands, and if something similar is done in terms of equipment and technology, it is clear that we will not see it at that price either. Cover image | AUDI In Xataka | In 1997, a Chinese student asked his grandmother for money to set up a stall. Today it is an emporium that surpasses McDonald’s

The question is not if there will be another AWS outage, but when and how the next one will catch us

Yesterday there was a fall in Amazon Web Services infrastructure which affected a multitude of services. Many AI tools did not work, nor did games like Fortnite or Roblox, streaming platforms, applications and much more. Additionally, at the same time there was a failure in the Redsys system (according to the company, unrelated) that left all payment services in Spain out of play. It’s not the first time this has happened and it doesn’t look like it will be the last. How can we prepare? Amazon falls. The failure occurred around 9 a.m. (Spanish time) at the AWS data center in Northern Virginia and caused a global butterfly effect. The DownDetector home screen showed a Dantesque panorama; Dozens of well-known services were experiencing downtime around the world. AWS reacted quickly and a couple of hours later they were already up and running their systems. And Redsys. Around 11 in the morning, the dataphones, Bizum payments and even the ATMs also began to fail. At first we attributed it to the AWS failure, but according to Redsys it had nothing to do with the Amazon Web Services failure. Regardless of whether it was a coincidence or not, for a few hours many people were left without access to their money and Redsys is the main payment service provider in Spain and one of the most important worldwide. Cash. In the case of failure of ATMs and dataphones, the solution is obvious: carry cash for what may happen, a habit that many of us do not have. In addition, it is also advisable not to keep all the money in the same bank, for example having a savings account separate from the rest for emergencies. Yesterday wouldn’t have been of much use, but if only our regular bank’s system had failed, we could access the other one. Diversify. As with money, it is not advisable to put all your eggs in the same basket in the case of the apps and services we use. The biggest problem may be if one of these outages affects communication services as happened with WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook in 2021. In this case, it is best to have an account in other apps through which we can stay in touch. In fact, that time Telegram was the big winneradding no less than 70 million users. Dependence. The fall of Amazon Web Services is an example of the enormous dependence on the cloud, a sector in which Amazon is the undisputed leader with a 31% market share. It is followed by Microsoft Azure with 20%, Google Cloud with 12% and Alibaba Cloud with 4%. The pie is shared among very few companies and, if one fails, the impact is very great. It’s happened before. In September 2015, Amazon Web Services suffered another “blackout”” that affected many services such as Netflix, Reddit, Medium, Tinder and more. Already then the enormous dependence on Amazon’s cloud was evident and what happened yesterday makes it clear that the situation remains the same and even worse. Redsys also experienced a drop two years ago it affected bank payment systems. The dataphones, some ATMs and other services such as Bizum did not work. The situation was quite similar to what occurred yesterday. There have been more cases, such as last year’s Crowdstrike crash. Microsoft’s cloud-based cybersecurity platform knocked out the systems of airports, hospitals, and many more companies. And it will happen again. Fortunately it is not common, but errors of this type they happen all the time. The problem is when they occur in such large infrastructures on which so many services depend. Yesterday’s error on AWS occurred in the service that is responsible for distributing traffic among its servers, but also may come from other causes such as faulty updates or incompatibilities. Image | Markus Spiske, Pexels In Xataka | Red Eléctrica still has not stabilized the voltage half a year after the blackout. It is not a technical failure, it is a geographical mismatch

The French Revolution proposed dividing the day into ten hours. It didn’t catch on, but an artist has created watches that respect that idea

Apparently it is a normal clock: its division by hours, its two hands (yes, we already know that if you are from Generation Z it is very possible that you do not know how to read time in this device, but let’s start from the fact that it seems to all of us that this looks like a traditional watch)… However, as soon as you look closely you will see that there is an extraordinary difference: the dial is divided into ten spaces instead of the usual twelve. In the name of Lewis Carroll, what the hell is this. Ruth Evans, provoking. The clock is the work of artist Ruth Ewan and is part of a series of similar creations, called ‘We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted To Be’, originally presented at Folkestone Artworks in 2011. It is a triennial of urban art works that, in its latest edition, includes 91 works by 52 artists. Ewan, a Scottish artist whose works always contain a social message, has retouched for the occasion some of the watches she created almost fifteen years ago for the contest. How they work. The strange arrangement of the numbers is not an aesthetic decision, but rather we are looking at clocks that divide each day into ten hours, each hour into one hundred minutes and each minute into one hundred seconds. Midnight takes place at ten and noon at five. Currently, you already know: a day has 24 hours, each of which has 60 minutes, each with 60 seconds. From there we also use decimals: a second has ten tenths of a second, one hundred hundredths or one thousand thousandths. But Ewan’s is an absolutely rational division of time that is not capricious: it has a historical basis. Making history. As we already said in its day, The ten-hour system was officially implemented in 1793 as part of the radical reforms spurred by the French Revolution. This decimal system was intended to simplify calculations and break with the past, aligning itself with other revolutionary aspects such as the republican calendar that divided the year into 12 identical months, of 30 days each and 10 days per week. The use of decimal time was mandatory from the end of 1793 until April 1795, when its use was suspended after only 500 days, due to great popular resistance and the difficulty of adapting daily life and existing clocks to this new system. Some watchmakers attempted to create watches with dual numbering (decimal and traditional) to help the transition, but the change clashed with customs and business needs that depended on the traditional system. What does it mean? Ewan’s intention with this watch is to show how changes in the organization of time can also symbolize profound social transformations, and proposes a new way of perceiving the world and questioning current systems. Let us remember that revolutionary France sought to introduce reason, equality and efficiency in all aspects of social life, including the measurement of time. With something as simple as reminding us that time can be perceived very differently with a simple change in the artifacts with which we measure it, Ewan proposes a possible new social order, and an invitation to imagine alternative futures. The work questions the rigidity of capitalist chronological time, and that is why Ewan prepared and distributed some pamphlets that spoke of the utopian concept of time in the Revolution. In Xataka | Physicists do not know precisely what time is. Still, they suspect it’s just an illusion.

that students use it to avoid being caught and teachers to catch

Grammarly is a program and browser extension which has been helping us correctly since 2009: ten years before Google Integrate Writing suggestions in Gmail or that generative artificial intelligence will change everything in natural language with chatgpt. And what if it changed, so much that Grammarly has launched An application to improve texts that integrates nine agents. Back to the origins. Grammarly’s new tools are focused on using artificial intelligence for students and teachers to improve in their work: some can write better texts and others can detect plagiarism scanning “databases, academic articles, websites and published works.” In that sense, there is an agent that gives a numerical score that reflects the probability that the text is generated by AI or written by a human. Something striking of the announcement is that the founders of the company, before launching Grammarly, They undertook creating My Dropbox In 2002 (not confusing with Dropbox) with a nature that now recovers: as a plagiarism detector. Why it is important. Grammarly’s movement is relevant because it shows the recent impact of artificial intelligence even in companies that already had a lot of agricultural help component. Now they have to adapt because any great language model can bury them, such as It also happens with Duolingo. But, above all, it is interesting by how it exemplifies the moment that education lives with the boom of chatgpt: in conflict between students that They use artificial intelligence to do essays and other jobs looking not to be detected … And teachers looking for all means that do not “sneak” plagiarized and elaborated with AI, for which they will use an artificial intelligence agent that will also help them correct jobs. Luckily, there are universities that already They are implementing it in class. An agent who makes Stalking To teachers. The thing does not end there: the agent who helps to rewrite texts too Improve the process with the bibliography And deepen something that obsesses students: predict the note. The most impressive thing about Grammarly’s promise is how they claim that he does it: investigate on the Internet about which teacher the subject teaches to try to know his tastes and evaluation priorities, and help the result to approach as much as possible to what he will please. With giving him the name of the professor, subject and the university, the Grammarly agent promises to predict what note we will take out. The great challenge. As a way to differentiate, Grammarly’s proposal is ambitious, because until now there is no detector for the use of artificial intelligence that has been widely accepted as effective. According to A studydetectors we have detected less than 40% of the content generated by modified artificial intelligence to avoid being detected, and are even more imprecise (17.4%) when they have to analyze manipulated content. Some great American universities They do not support the use of detectorsbecause They do not work. For its part, OpenAi launched A tool to detect plagiarismand then He withdrew it silently. Although according to leaks now they have a tool that works, They do not throw it. If Grammarly manages to become the era of artificial intelligence in what Turnitin It has been in traditional plagiarism, it can become an actor who plays a great role in the market. Tensions. That detectors do not work is generating problems, and not only teachers, because work generated by artificial intelligence is sorry as if they were more handmade. Students are suffering from be falsely accused of lyingwith fatal consequences as suspensions in subjects. But in the background there is a reality: students cheating artificial intelligence for artificial intelligence detectors. To a future generated, summarized and read by the. Two years ago, with the launch of GPT-4 still fresh, Javier Lacort, Xataka editor, He drew a future that today sounds even in present: a reality full of emails written by artificial intelligence, in which we summarize those same emails with artificial intelligence, and in which we respond with the same tools. The most comic scenario: that “we turn to AI by postureo, to artificially lengthened emails that the receiver will not read, because that same will be in charge of summarizing it.” Today, integration into Gmail, WhatsApp, social networks and other day -to -day places already makes that future very present. Image | Annie Spratt in Unspash and generated with AI In Xataka | Goal has realized that right now it doesn’t matter to have the best AI. Just have one with the one to have you hooked on the screen

When Mercedes manufactured a “F1” street to three million euros each, he forgot something important: that they would not catch fire

The Mercedes-Am One, one of The most advanced hyper -sports And exclusive to the planet, has been called to review for a problem that, in principle, could be considered insignificant. However, it can end with a car that is around 3 million euros wrapped in flames. For this reason, the owners of 219 of the 275 units that Mercedes manufactured from this model have received a review call to be carefully reviewed. A tiny mistake, a huge risk. Mercedes-Benz has issued a revision call for the Mercedes-AMG One due to a possible failure in the hydraulic system that activates its active rear wing. According to data of the Federal Motorized Transport Authority of Germany (KBA), 219 units manufactured between December 12, 2022 and May 9, 2025 could be affected by this defect in its manufacture. The problem lies in a small piece of the hydraulic system, a pin or clip, whose function is to guarantee the stagnant closure of the hydraulic circuit. As read in the report of the call to review, the absence of this piece can cause flammable fluid leaks that, in contact with hot parts of the engine, are a real risk of fire. The solution: fast and without complications. Despite the potential severity of the failure, repair is apparently simple and does not require disassembling the vehicle or making structural changes. KBA sources They have explained to Motor1.com That a specialized technician must check if the pin in question is present and, if necessary, will be installed in an intervention that lasts approximately 90 minutes. So far, the brand has not officially related this defect to the fire suffered in June AMG One, as he said Autobild. That was the second unit of an AMG One that has burned. The first burned while They were preparing it to deliver it And I was already uploaded to the transport truck. That is why the brand considers that there is no connection between those incidents and the spoiler’s pin. A very complex hybrid hypercoche. Beyond the shock that more than one owner will have had when receiving the brand notice, the Mercedes-AMG One is a record supercar. HE presented in 2017 as ‘Project One ‘and was developed for years by the complexity of adapting a V6 engine of Formula 1 with four electric motors to give a total power 1,063 hp and echo on your windshield. The first units did not begin to be manufactured until 2022 as published Coach. Of the 275 units manufactured, 183 have remained in Germany, while the rest are distributed throughout the world. The exclusivity of a street F1. The Mercedes-AMG One is a superxclusive car and with a very complex development given the nature of its mechanics. In fact, the development of the car was so complicated that neither Ola Källenius, president of Mercedez-Benz agreed with its manufacture. “I will have to check the minutes of the meeting again, but I am sure we were drunk when we said yes,” joked the Swedish manager in statements to Coach. In Xataka | Bugatti Veyron was a jewel that cost 1.7 million dollars: Volkswagen lost 6.7 million with each one that sold Image | Wikimedia Commons (Matti Blume, Alejandro Migl)

The last tactic of Ukraine is a drone that seeks to catch him. When Russia opens it displays its threat: a virus

The Russian invasion in Ukraine has led to two very different lines of development in kyiv. On the one hand, and in the face of investment in sophisticated and expensive armament, Ukraine has shown that systems relatively simple and low costas The mounted shotguns In drones, they can be equal or more decisive in asymmetric combat scenarios. On the other, and given the adversity, the creation of one of the most powerful industries From the planet: national combat drones. The last one is a surprise. Technology on the battlefield. We have gone counting months ago. The war between Russia and Ukraine, marked from the beginning by intensive use of New technologieshe has seen in the drones one of his more decisive instruments. However, a recent video Shared in social networks of Russian origin warns about a new and worrying front: Malware use by Ukraine embedded in drones capable of infecting Russian systems. Although these computer threats have been considered lower so far (mainly because they do not attack complete networks, but individual devices such as computers or the captured drones themselves) their appearance represents a more than significant change in the cyber dimension of the conflict. Ukrainian malware. Apparently, Forbes counted that the malware detected in Ukrainian drones has Specific functions: physically damage USB ports, prevent the Reflasso of the system, block the reprogramming of the drone or even very important, allow Ukraine to locate the new Russian operators if the drone is reused by Moscow. As? These malicious codes are designed to sabotage any reuse attempt by the enemy, disabled the electronics of the devices or creating vulnerabilities They can be remotely exploited. In a context in which both countries face resource restrictions, limiting the ability to have enemy drones represents a crucial strategic advantage for Ukraine. Operational impact and consequences. No doubt, the use of malware has immediate tactical implications. Russia depends on the detailed analysis of the enemy drones captured for Adapt your systems of countermeasures, which requires manipulating its components and studying its software. If these drones are protected with code that disables or compromises their systems when connecting them, the reverse engineering process becomes slower, complex and, ultimately, risky. Thus, Ukraine manages to extend the useful life cycle of its drones before Moscow develops an effective countermelted, something vital in an environment where technological innovation translates into direct tactical advantage. “Human” talent. Development looks in the form achieved with the Double cannon or with The optical fiber. The success of these strategies lies in the force of Ukrainian technological sectorthat before the war already stood out for its dynamism and human talent. With a robust base of software engineers and cybersecurity experts, Ukraine has managed to transfer civil abilities to the military, generating asymmetric tools that do not require great physical resources, but a high degree of technical sophistication. The development of malware in drones allows maximizing the impact of available resources, hindering Russian work without increasing the number of devices deployed. A new cyber career in the theater. Not just that. The introduction of malware also marks the beginning of a new phase in the struggle for technological superiority. If Ukraine has begun to use malware with limited but effective functions, it is reasonable to anticipate that Russia will respond with Your own developments Similar offensives, as has happened with previous innovations of both sides. In this way, a climbing cycle is opened: more advanced malware will require better defenses, which in turn will be target of more sophisticated versions. In a short time, it is assumed that both parties could implement specific antivirus protection in drones, harden managerial device management protocols and use new malicious software variants that attack command and control networks or even open rear doors for intelligence operations. Technological consequences. In the last three years, both Russia and Ukraine have converted their respective scientific ecosystems into Weapons at the service of war effort. The Ukrainian decision to integrate malware into its drones not only slows the Russian reusing, but redefines the battle for Technological supremacy In the conflict. In addition, the strategy can be extended perfectly to other electronic devices, including smart weapons, communications sensors or systems. What began as an innovative tactic could be consolidated as a digital war doctrine, influencing the design, use and protection of all military equipment from now on. If you want also, the deployment of malware in Ukrainian drones shows how modern war has moved towards the scope of the code, where only a small script can have effects comparable to a certain shot … without the need for a single bullet. Image | Rawpixel In Xataka | To hunt Russian drones, Ukraine is resorting to a revolutionary technique … from World War I In Xataka | A Russian drone has opened one of the greatest engineering works. The problem: it was the sarcophagus of Chernobil reactor 4

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