cheap

Europe has been left without cheap gas from Russia. Their new hope is in the renewables of Morocco and Tunisia

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With the war in Russia and Ukraine, Europe forgot with blood, sweat and tears about the gas of the first to throw themselves into the arms of the United States. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has made it clear that looking for a supplier far away and through inhospitable territories is not the best idea, so the old continent has set its sights on its neighbor: North Africa, an area with enormous potential and several essential projects (for Europe) under way. After all, it has everything: abundant sun and wind, available land and it is just a stone’s throw away. That they can produce energy is a fact, the question is whether they can connect it to Europe reliably and profitably. North Africa, energy cluster. While they cook two giant African gas pipelinesthe Trans-Saharan led by Nigeria, Niger and Algeria and the pharaonic Africa-Atlantic and are committed to green hydrogen with projects such as the Algerian ALTEH2A and the Moroccan investment worth 32.5 billion dollars, in the north of the continent there are several clear and concrete plans in renewable energies: Morocco wants add 16GW of capacity and plans an investment of 16,000 million dollars in five years to materialize it. Tunisia wants to reach a 50% renewable share by 2035. It has already put out to tender 2.3 GW of wind and solar infrastructure. Norwegian Scatec closed financing and began construction of the 120 MW Sidi Bouzid II solar plant together with Toyota Tsusho, with completion scheduled for 2027. The connection to Europe is advancing with the 600 MW Elmed submarine cable bound for Sicily. Algeria plans to connect 15 GW of renewables to the grid by 2035, with a first tranche of 3.2 GW solar. Why is it important. For North African countries, these projects entail economic development, creation of critical infrastructure and technological employment and foreign investment. For Europe it is a real lifesaver: the old continent imports enormous quantities of gas, oil and electricity and since the war in Ukraine and Russia, The EU desperately seeks to diversify suppliers and has its sights set on northern Europe as a priority source of hydrogen in its Hydrogen Strategy. If these projects materialize, Europe would have cleaner, cheaper energy close to home. Context. The Strait of Hormuz crisis has revealed something that we already knew: depending on third parties for your energy is a tremendous risk. Tunisia suffers it first hand: 95% of its electricity comes from natural gas and more than 60% of that gas is imported. It’s not new: according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), in 2024 the Middle East and North Africa region supplied more than 30% of the world’s oil and almost 20% of natural gas, but its electricity generation continues to depend on fossil fuels for more than 90%. Making the move to renewables is also a question of energy sovereignty. In these movements there is a key Italian company: Snam. In 2023 acquired a 49.9% stake in the two gas pipelines that connect Italy with Algeria and the Algeria-Tunisia gas pipeline, this places it as a natural operator facing a possible conversion to hydrogen. Despite be an “energy island” On the continent, Spain starts from a privileged position if North Africa becomes the European tap: it will be one of the entry doors. In detail. At a technical level, the most important thing is how to bring that energy to Europe: by submarine electric cable or by converting existing gas pipelines to transport hydrogen, which will have implications in both cost and management. While the second is in the study phase, the cable option is advancing: Italy has already hired Prysmian the construction of a 600 MW interconnection with Tunisia. Meanwhile, Spain and Morocco agreed in 2019 a third electrical interconnection, but to this day it still has not materialized. Yes, but. The conversion of North Africa into an energy hub is a promise full of official commitments, GW targets and billions of dollars on the table, but it is not an installed and operational capacity. And unfortunately, the region has a history of advertisements that fell flat, serve as an example the Desertec solar project. Without going any further, geopolitics is already leaving warnings of the complexity of the matter. On the other hand, there is the question of the price of green hydrogen: although in North Africa it is cheaper than in the rest of the world thanks to the sun, it still cannot compete with hydrogen from natural gas, which costs between 1 – 2 dollars per kg. According to a study by the Technical University of Munichonly a tiny fraction of African sites could approach competitive prices in 2030. Without subsidies, most projects are not profitable today. In Xataka | Russia turned off the tap and Europe looked south: the two pharaonic African gas pipelines that want to change the energy map Xataka | The first natural gas that does not depend on fossil sources is already a reality in Europe: it is manufactured in Extremadura by combining hydrogen and CO2 Cover | Matthew Henry and Anirudh

Spain planted millions of eucalyptus trees to have cheap wood. 90 years later, we have confirmed that they are a green desert

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If you usually move around the Cantabrian coast, you are surely already familiar with that long and stylized tree that is so abundant in its mountains. However, the eucalyptus already covers 30% of the forest area in areas such as northwest Spain. The omnipresence of the eucalyptus is the result of a forestry policy that started in the 40’s whose main objective was to supply the paper industry: it was cheap, it grew quickly, so it had all the potential to be the ideal candidate to repopulate unproductive forests. Decades later, a scientific study of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the CSIC has put numbers to suspicions: For the fauna, these plantations are almost a desert. The environmental cost of the ubiquitous eucalyptus. This research analyzed 240 areas of native Atlantic forest and eucalyptus forest in the Parque Natural das Fragas do Eume and They found an abysmal difference in richness and abundance of birds. In short: the more eucalyptus there is, the fewer birds live in that area and it is no coincidence. Mature eucalypts cannot replace mature trees as functional habitat and their foliage offers very limited support for birds. The most affected are those that eat insects and those that breed in the holes of old trees, such as the great woodpecker or the great tit. The eucalyptus does not generate enough insects to feed on, it has no undergrowth and it is cut down before it forms the cavities that these birds need to nest. On the less bad side, they have also found a fairly simple solution that does not involve eradicating the eucalyptus: simply letting wild vegetation grow in some areas, without clearing it. Why is it important. Because the role of forest birds is important in the balance of the ecosystem: they regulate insect pests, help in seed dispersal and act as an indicator of environmental health. In fact, the EU Birds Directive 2009/147 obliges member states to conserve bird populations in good condition and this study documents that this obligation is being breached in the most eucalyptus of Galicia and the Cantabrian coast. The situation is more complicated than it seems because already in 2017 the scientific committee of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition recommended include eucalyptus in the Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species in 2017, but the proposal was rejected due to the economy behind it: in Galicia this sector generates 2.5 billion euros annually in wood and paper pulp and employs more than 19,000 people, according to the report A Cadea Forestal-Madeira de Galicia 2025 prepared by XERA. It is a complete conflict of interest. Context. The eucalyptus arrived to the Iberian Peninsula in the 19th century for ornamental and medicinal purposes, but its true boom arrive with the repopulation plans of the Franco regime and the commercial demand for cellulose. Parque Natural das Fragas do Eume, the place where the analysis was carried out, is one of the last remaining coastal Atlantic forests on the Iberian Peninsula. There, eucalyptus plantations are currently the second largest type of forest: 1,340 hectares, only behind the native forest. But the species has already colonized its surroundings. In any case, the problem with eucalyptus trees is not local: in Portugal the eucalyptus already covers more than 800,000 hectares and is the most widespread forest species in the country. according to data from the National Forest Inventory of Portugal prepared by the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas. It is also under scrutiny there due to its relationship with large fires. In fact, on a global scale the scientific community has been documenting for years the impact of eucalyptus on Mediterranean and temperate ecosystems outside its native Australia. In detail. Eucalyptus is a silent killer: it releases chemicals that prevent the growth of other plants under its canopy (allelopathy), which eliminates native shrubs and with them, the insects that feed the birds. Furthermore, since it is cut down every ten or fifteen years, it never ages enough to develop the holes needed for nesting by cave birds such as woodpeckers. The problem does not stay on land: dead eucalyptus leaves release oils and toxic compounds when they reach river courses, harming aquatic insects and amphibians that form the base of the river food chain. Yes, but. The damage to the diversity of the eucalyptus is a reality as undeniable as its socioeconomic importance: it is an economic vector and population fixation in these rural areas and eliminating or restricting its cultivation would have a notable impact in communities where alternatives are not abundant. Hence, the study itself does not call for its eradication, but for something simpler and more practical: leaving strips of vegetation uncut within the plantations so that the native flora can recover and the birds can return. It is a low cost solution that has already proven to be effective in other European contexts. On the other hand, there is the limitation that the study has been carried out in a single forest and is focused on birds. Not all species respond the same. In any case, science does not say that eucalyptus is evil, only that covering 30% of your forests with it has a serious biological toll. In Xataka | The Iberian Peninsula is being invaded: more than 1,200 exotic species have come to stay In Xataka | The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates. Cover | Flickr

Google opens reservations for its Home Speaker, a speaker with Gemini that is not especially cheap

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Google has finally announced the arrival of its next smart speaker, the so-called Google Home Speaker. It can now be reserved in the official store, and be careful because it is not particularly cheap, especially if we take into account the price at which the product was launched. Nest Mini. It can be reserved in the official store for 119.99 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A speaker with Gemini Voice assistants are changing. Amazon recently presented Alexa+an improved voice assistant that allowed for better real-time interaction. Now, Google has made a similar move with the Home Sepaker that features Gemini. The interesting thing about this new Google speaker is that we no longer have to learn the exact commands to interact with it, since it is capable of better understanding what we say and what we want. Furthermore, also takes into account the place where it is locatedsomething quite interesting to have greater precision when controlling the devices you have nearby. We have a good example in smart plugs; If we tell you to turn them off, you can keep in mind that we are referring to those in that same room. At the design level we also noticed quite a few changes. The speaker is larger than the Nest Mini and maintains the minimalist design that we saw in this same speaker, so it can integrate very well with the decoration of the house. As we see in other speakers, every time we interact with the Google Home Speaker we can know that it is listening to us because an LED light will illuminate located at the bottom (similar to the Echo Dot). Additionally, there are also improvements in sound quality. With the new design, Google promises that its speaker can play 360 degree surround audio in order to have a more uniform experience. Finally, it is worth mentioning that, although not necessary, two subscriptions are available that add several functions: Standard (10 euros per month or 100 euros per year), which adds Gemini Live and Help me create. Advanced (18 euros per month or 180 euros per year), which adds the functions of the Standard subscription and Search in video history and daily summaries. In addition, Google is now giving away six months of Google Home Premium if you reserve from the official store. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Google Home Speaker ✅ THE BEST Gemini: By having Gemini, we will not need to learn exact commands to interact with connected devices. Your surround soundwhich offers a better experience. ❌ THE WORST Subscriptions– If you don’t pay month-to-month or annually, you won’t be able to access some features. 💡 BUY IT IF… You want to create a smart ecosystem away from Alexa, with the Google speaker as the center of home automation. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… Your devices are compatible only with Alexa. In that case, it is more advisable to go for an Amazon Echo. You may also be interested Echo Dot (Latest generation) | Smart Wi-Fi and Bluetooth speaker, with more powerful and wider sound | Anthracite, with Early Access to Alexa+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Amazon Echo Spot (latest generation) | Smart alarm clock with quality sound | Black, with Early Access to Alexa+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Google In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price (2026). Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 99 euros In Xataka | Best home theater projectors. Which one to buy and five recommended models from 299 to 18,000 euros

What is the best cheap dongle for your TV in 2026?

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Although it is true that 4K dominates marketing, HD streaming is still the king of the second homes, bedrooms and old TVs who refuse to die. If you want to convert a standard television into smartwith a simple dongle you can achieve it and for less than 50 euros. Today, there are two devices of this type that are leaders: the Fire TV Stick HD and the Xiaomi TV Stick HD (2nd Gen). We confront both throughout this post so that you can choose one of them to give a second life to an old television that you have at home. Amazon Fire TV Stick HD (latest generation) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Xiaomi TV Stick HD 2nd Gen The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Technical data sheet of the Xiaomi TV Stick HD (2nd Gen) and the Fire TV Stick HD Xiaomi tv stick hd (2nd gen) fire tv stick hd Maximum resolution 1080p (Full HD) at 60 fps 1080p (Full HD) at 60 fps processor Quad-core Cortex-A55 Quad-core 1.7 GHz (Optimized) ram memory 1GB LPDDR4 1GB DDR4 Storage 8GB eMMC 8GB operating system Google TV (based on Android 14) Fire OS (Amazon Ecosystem) video codecs AV1, VP9, ​​H.265 (HEVC) AV1, H.265 (HEVC), H.264 hdr HDR10, HDRO10+, HLG HDR10, HDRO10+, HLG audio Dolby Atmos, DTS-HD Dolby Atmos (passthrough), Dolby Digital Connectivity Wi-Fi 5 (Dual Band), Bluetooth 5.0 Wi-Fi 6 (Basic Support), Bluetooth 5.3 Ports HDMI (built-in), Micro-USB (Charging) HDMI (built-in), USB-C (Charging) voice assistant Google Assistant Alexa extra features Chromecast built-in Support for Ring/Echo cameras remote control Bluetooth with direct access to YouTube Bluetooth with TV channel buttons price from 59.99 euros (only for sale at Powerplanet) 49.99 euros (not yet for sale) At first glance, in this comparison table you can already see how these are similar and what they are not. dongles. But so that you are clearer about the best option for your TV (and your own tastes and needs), we are going to delve into their differences. Software and philosophy: customization or recommendation? This is the main difference between both models, since you are not buying just hardware but you are choosing the operating system that you will see every time you turn on the screen. The Xiaomi device works under the latest version of Google TV. One of its great advantages is neutrality, since Google recommends content based on what you seewithout aggressively prioritizing its own platform. In addition, having Chromecast integrated is a lifesaver, since you can send content from your mobile directly, with just one touch. Instead, the Fire TV Stick HD uses Fire OS. Here, you could say that Amazon is the owner and this shows. The interface is fluid, but designed for you to consume Prime Video content. One of its strong points in 2026 is its integration with home automation. So if you have a smart home with the Alexa ecosystemyou can see who is knocking at your door (if you have a Ring video doorbell) or ask the voice assistant to turn off the lights in the living room, for example. Of course, you have to be prepared to see banners of advertising for their own series on the home screen, something that not everyone likes. The controller: the physical connection with the content Both controls They work via Bluetooth (which prevents you from having to point them directly at the TV); The sensations of use are different. Xiaomi bets on the extreme minimalism. Its buttons are very quiet and have dedicated shortcuts. Of course, Google’s voice assistant delivers, but sometimes it may seem a little slower, especially when processing complex requests. On the contrary, Amazon’s command is already a reference. Is ergonomic, robust and the button intended for Alexa works instantly. Voice search allows natural commands and the system gets it right. Performance and memory management On paper, both devices are entry-level, although there are some differences in performance. Don’t be fooled by the RAM numbers, which are still frozen at 1 GB in both models. The secret of this renewal (in the case of Xiaomi) is purely hardware: the processor makes the leap in architecture A53 to A55while the graphic section is modernized from a Mali-450 to Mali-G31 MP2. How does this show up on a day-to-day basis? It doesn’t change the number of apps you can keep in the background, but rather the pure speed at which the stick responds. Both models, on the other hand, decode the AV1 codecsomething vital in 2026. This means that it allows you to watch HD streaming with superior image quality while consuming 30% less data. If your connection is unstable or you use your mobile as a hotspot, AV1 can significantly reduce interruptions during playback In this section we would also have to talk about connectivity. Here the Amazon Fire TV Stick stick out his chest with his WiFi 6 compatibility (compared to WiFi 5 of the Xiaomi model). If you have a modern router at home, the connection is stronger and has less latency, something you will notice a lot, especially if you use cloud gaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming or Amazon Luna. Why buy the Xiaomi Stick HD (2nd Gen)? Although still It is not officially for sale in Spain (at the moment we have only found it on Powerplanet for 59.99 euros), if you want to wait to get it dongle from the Chinese manufacturer in other stores, these are the reasons why it would be worth waiting to buy it. You send a lot of content from the mobilelsince the built-in Chromecast is much more stable than Amazon’s mirroring system. It’s perfect if you project photos from your gallery, videos from social networks or Chrome tabs to your TV. Do you like to enjoy a Clean interface without intrusive ads. Want customize your home screen to the millimeteruse apps that are not in official stores or you want full access to the Google … Read more

We knew that freezing bread was convenient, cheap and fashionable. What we are not clear about is that it is “so good” for health

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The world has changed. And if there is something where that It is more noticeable than in water, land or airthat’s bread. HE note on bread and it shows a lot. So much so that, despite the attempts in recent years to revitalize it, the culture of bread (those 315 varieties that identified Jose Carlos Capel at the end of the 80s) is in clear decline. Thus, the idea of ​​buying bread every day is increasingly in the minority and the big question that thousands of people ask is… “Is it really a good idea to freeze it?” And, to the surprise of many, it is a good idea (although not as good as it wants to let us know). You just need to do it well. So you don’t lose properties? As the dietitian-nutritionist explained Nuria Romero in Ideal“we can rest assured, because when frozen, bread does not lose nutritional properties.” Although, it is true that “sometimes its texture or flavor can be affected.” And is any bread worth it? The best are “those that are less toasted, since they are the ones that best hold the moisture balance between the crust and the crumb.” For the same reason, it is also a good idea to freeze large breads or those that are made from whole wheat or rye flour. How do you freeze bread? Although it may seem obvious, freezing bread is very very simple. There are three easy steps to implement. The problem is that most consumers They are not usually applied systematically. The first thing is to choose fresh bread at room temperature. If the bread is already starting to get hard or hasn’t cooled completely yet, the end result will be much worse. Later, it is highly recommended to cut it into portions that make it easier to defrost later. In this sense, many people choose to cut it into slices. And then pack it airtight. This way we ensure that moisture from the freezer does not come into contact with the slices. And so (well isolated) you can last up to six months in a lot of trouble. And how do we defrost it? That is usually the other big problem: if we do not defrost it correctly, it can lose its freshness. Therefore, the most effective way to do it is at room temperature: placing it on a rack so that moisture does not accumulate, defrosting gives very good results. If we are short of time, it can be defrosted in the oven (at about 160 degrees, wrapped in aluminum foil for 10 or 15 minutes) or directly in the toaster if we have it sliced. Is that where the magic begins? We have seen it in many articles: for example, as he explained Dr. Karen Alarcón Fuentesgastroenterologist and endocopyist, when unfrozen “a large part of the carbohydrate in the bread will be converted into prebiotic fiber.” Something that “not only benefits your microbiota, but will also regulate your blood glucose.” But is it true? It is not clear. As our colleague Liliana Fuchs explained to usis something that “has a certain scientific basis, but is of no use in practice.” The key to all this mess is in the resistant starch“a type of carbohydrate that is difficult for our body to process, it is not completely digested and has a similar effect to fiber.” The problem is that, in the case of breadit has only been possible to demonstrate that freezing it (and roasting it later) reduces the glycemic index, although it was a fairly small study. The process does not affect resistant starch. And, in fact, “the effect on the health of a normal person will be practically nil; the total diet and daily habits matter much more.” Image | Charles Chen | Coffee Danube Still Life Photography In Xataka | We have been eating bread with “hidden salt” for so long that we have forgotten its true flavor. That’s going to change

This cheap device is ideal for cooling the house in summer

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The summer heat is settling in many towns and cities, so it is a good idea to pay attention to the different devices that allow us to better cope with the high temperatures. Among all of them, air conditioners are especially interesting, especially if you can use them in several rooms. We have a good example in the Orbegozo Air 55whose price on Amazon is 160.67 euros. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Air conditioner, humidifier and purifier The Orbegozo Air 55 is a three-in-one device that has functions of air conditioner, humidifier and air purifierso its use is not limited to times when it is very hot, but at different times throughout the year, whether in summer, winter or spring and autumn. Now, for the summer it is especially interesting because it includes a removable 35 liter tankwhich allows you to relieve the heat in the room, becoming an alternative to other devices such as fans or air conditioners. They may not be as practical as the latter, but they can be transported to other rooms by including wheels. It comes with oscillating directional fins that allow cold air to be better distributed throughout the room. Furthermore, another positive point is that it can be used through its button panel or through the remote controlthus offering good comfort. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: Orbegozo Air 55 ✅ THE BEST Its triple function– Can be used as an air conditioner, humidifier or purifier. its wheels: allow it to be moved to other rooms. ❌ THE WORST Efficiency compared to other devices such as air conditioners, which allow rooms to be cooled better. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a device that allows you to better cope with the summer heat and that you can also take with you to different rooms. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You only want to use it in one room. In that case, it is worth paying attention to other devices such as ceiling fans or air conditioners, split or portable. You may also be interested MIDEA Portable Evaporative Air Conditioner 3 in 1 Capacity 7L and Remote Control | Water Fan, Air Cooler, Humidifier, 6 Speeds, 5 Modes, 12H Timer, 85º Oscillation, with AI The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Cecotec EnergySilence 3500 Cool Compact Smart Evaporative Air Conditioner, 65 W, 3.5 L Tank, Touch, Remote Control, 3 Speeds, 2 Modes, 70º Oscillation, 12h Timer, Includes 2 Coolers The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Lotus Design N Print in UnsplashOrbengozo In Xataka | Buying guide for connected fans: recommendations for choosing a “smart” model with WiFi and six models from 50 euros In Xataka | Silent ceiling fan: which one to buy? Tips and recommendations

I thought that in 2026 I could buy a cheap cell phone without worrying about anything. big mistake

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I have spent half my life being especially critical when analyzing phones and, on the only occasion that I have decided to stop being so, I have hit a wall. We are in 2026, a year in which one might think that at this point in the game practically any phone newly launched on the market must work well. Mistake, big mistake. So I want to tell you how the component crisis in the technology sector and, to be honest, a certain apathy on the part of manufacturers, continues to make choosing an affordable mobile phone complex in 2026. Either we look closely at what we buy, or it may turn out to be a failure. The objectives. A mobile to send and receive WhatsAppsliterally. I wanted a phone whose main use was to manage communication with clients in one of my projects and, taking advantage of the fact that I had a new purchase, use it as GPS when I ride a motorcycle. The demands were minimal, there were practically no requirements other than that the cell phone worked decently. The expectation was not high either: I know that a low-end mobile phone does not work like a high-end one, not even like a mid-range one. I was just looking for something functional and simple. The search. I started the search, with phones over 100 euros. For that price it was practically impossible to access basic phones like the LITTLE M7which at least has a Snapdragon 685 (a processor, mind you, from 2023), so I had to continue lowering the bar. I ended up finding a 199 euro phone on sale for 89 euros on Aliexpress. One with 8 GB of RAM, 256 GB of internal memory… and a Helium G100 Ultra. the drama. The Helio G100 Ultra is an entry-level processor launched in 2024, relatively modern, and should have enough capacity to run basic applications. That’s what I thought. It’s been a while since I’ve tried an entry-level model. I thought that in 2026 things would be a little better, and I couldn’t be more wrong Almost two seconds to open the camera, lag in the launcher with the mobile newly configured, constant freezes and a performance that, after having tried other cheap mobile phones of a similar price (without offer), was simply unacceptable. And no, I’m not going to tell you the model so as not to draw blood, but it is one of the most popular mobile phones in Spain. Blind. One of the supposed advantages that it has brought us the semiconductor race is all about performance. For some time now, in certain ranges, my recommendations when asked which mobile phone to buy for The same does not happen with the entry ranges. Processors like Helium G99Helio G100, and even some Snapdragon 600 series (or Gen 6) are still barely moving basic apps. And the worrying thing is not how the phone performs right out of the box (which already performs poorly), it is how it will perform in a few years with some hardware degradation, system and app updates. big horse. At this point in the game there is something that is very clear to me, something that I have always defended: the processor It is much more important than we can think as average users. It is the heart of our mobile: The Gross Performance Manager The person in charge of the modem who will make us have better or worse coverage The element behind photo quality and camera performance The one that allows the final audio quality to be better or worse The one that helps to manage energy consumption more or less efficiently And here, even though the chip race continues at its pace, the high-end processors from a few years ago are noticeably superior to the entry-level ones. So between that high end of 2024 full of chicha and that newly released entry range… I’m clear about what I should have done. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Best mobile phones in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and nine recommended models

the explanation points to a cheap Iranian drone

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If we stage a AH-64 Apache of about 25 million dollars and, on the other side, an Iranian drone Shahid of about $35,000, the answer seems written before starting. One is an attack helicopter designed to operate in hostile scenarios; the other, a low-cost ammunition associated with long-range attacks. But the current war is leaving less and less room for these inherited intuitions. What we have seen near Oman points just in that direction. The incident. According to the United States Central Commandthe AH-64 Apache went down on June 8 near the coast of Oman while patrolling regional waters. Its two crew members were rescued by US forces in about two hours and are stable, although the cause was still under investigation in the official communication. The trickiest part comes next: The New York Timesciting US officials, attribute the crash to the impact of an Iranian Shahed one-way attack drone. The great unknown. This distinction is important because not even the version that points to the Shahed completely closes the sequence. Military investigators were trying to determine whether the Iranian drone hit the Apache deliberately or if it all happened as a reckless accident in congested airspace off the Omani coast. In other words: the result is already extraordinary, but the intention remains under examination. Why is it surprising?. Shahed’s basic models are not typically intended to pursue moving targets such as a helicopter. Mark Canciansenior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies cited by the aforementioned newspaper, explained that these versions depend on GPS guidance and pre-programmed coordinates to attack stationary targets at long distances. If the impact is confirmed in these terms, we would not be facing a routine case, but rather an episode that forces us to look closely at the trajectory of the drone, the environment and the possible existence of modified variants. A more present threat. Loitering munitions and drones are changing the way we operate in the air, also for platforms that were born in another technological era. The US Army reflects this in its own exercises: last year it presented the AH-64E Apachev as an adaptable solution to the UAS threat after a live fire demonstration. That context helps to understand why the incident near Oman is not just a striking anecdote, but part of a much broader concern. In detail. In exercises carried out by the US Armythe AH-64E appears using electro-optical, infrared and radar sensors, in addition to missiles, guided rockets and the 30 mm cannon to confront drones. The other plane is the survival of the aircraft itself: BAE describes the AN/AAR-57 as a warning system for US and allied fixed and rotary wing aircraft against infrared missiles and hostile fire, compatible with chaff, flares, radio frequency decoys and DIRCM/ATIRCM systems. But there is no invulnerability. This list of capabilities should not be confused with an absolute guarantee against any scenario. It is one thing to detect, track and destroy drones in controlled exercises, and another to operate in a real environment where there may be unexpected trajectories or just seconds to react. The US Army itself left a relevant nuance in March 2026: Many pilots had not conducted air-to-air combat with the Apache, so they were still developing tactics, techniques and procedures for that mission profile. The equation has changed. The episode does not demonstrate that a cheap drone can always prevail over a much more sophisticated platform, nor that the Apache is vulnerable by definition. What it does leave behind is an idea that is difficult for any modern military to ignore: a low-cost threat can disrupt an operation, elevate risk, and expose even highly advanced systems if conditions align. That is one of the lessons that is pushing armies to adapt: ​​the price of a weapon is no longer enough to anticipate its impact. Images | Richard Kim/2nd Combat Aviation Brigade In Xataka | Silently, Russia has deployed a sophisticated network of satellites with one mission: to leave all of Europe without GPS

DeepSeek is good, pretty and very cheap. And above all, the weapon to create a Chinese hardware industry independent of Nvidia

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The arrival of DeepSeek-V4-Pro It hasn’t caused that much of a stir. like the one caused by DeepSeek R1 a year and a half ago, but we may be facing an even more important model. If that version revealed to the world that China was advancing spectacularly in this race, this other one is beginning to allow us to glimpse something else more interesting. What most people see is a very decent model and above all “low priced”. Which hide the company It’s another more important thing: achieve independence from Nvidia and US hardware. what has happened. Last Friday, those responsible for DeepSeek announced something surprising: their promotional offer with a 75% price cut to use their DeepSeek-V4-Pro model will be maintained permanently. That makes this model offer very decent features (but not exceptional) for a really low price: 1M entry tokens 1M tokens output DeepSeek-V4-Pro 0.435 0.87 GPT-5.5 5 30 Opus 4.7 5 25 Gemini 3.5 Flash 1.5 9 Good, pretty and very cheap. It is true that the performance of DeepSeek-V4-Pro is inferior to that of rival models from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. Artificial Analysis tests indicate that the DeepSeek model is at a very good level, but it is also much cheaper than its competitors. This is especially relevant for agentic tasks that consume many tokens and that with this model become accessible and very affordable. According to Artificial Analysis, DeepSeek is close to the performance of the best models in the industry, and although it is slower in its responses, it is also much cheaper than the frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic or Google. A different strategy. How is this company going to make money? It does not have subscription plans like its local competition (GLM, Kimi) or the western one (ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro). It also does not have voice or image models. It does not have an AI agent for programming that competes with Claude Code. It publishes the open weights of its models and shares its technical innovations with the industry (and with its competitors). For those who closely follow the company and these decisions, the strategy is clear. DeepSeek’s goal is not to win the AI ​​model race. Their goal is to build a Chinese AI hardware industry that doesn’t depend on Nvidia or TSMC… and get paid their share in that process. Hardware independence. China has a structural problem in this AI race: sanctions and vetoes imposed by the US make you unable to access the most advanced chips nor to ASML UVE photolithography. And since China cannot currently compete in terms of computing power, what its companies are doing is ensuring that their AI models need less computing power to achieve similar results. Efficient architectures. The Mixture of Experts (MoE) and Multi-head Latent Attention (MLA) architectures are two key weapons in this strategy. The first already existed but was adapted by DeepSeek for their model: with it only part of the total parameters of the model are activated to answer the query without losing precision. What MLA does is compress the attention information (the so-called KV Cache) with which the model maintains the context of a conversation, reducing it by 90%. Both techniques allow us to reduce the need to use high-speed HBM memories, something that is also striking in order to reveal DeepSeek’s probable strategy. The importance of KV Cache. As the GDP analyst explains in Xthat use of MLA allows that for one million tokens, DeepSeek-V4-Pro only needs 5.48 GB of HBM memory. Competitors like Zhipo AI, which develops GLM 5, need 60 GB for the same, while Alibaba’s Qwen 3 needs 89 GB. This advantage allows DeepSeek to offer much lower prices to obtain performances similar to those of its competition, but it also means that DeepSeek models can run on Chinese memory chips that cannot compete in speed with HBM modules. Goodbye HBM, hello NAND and SSD. These innovations open the door to the use of NAND memories and even SSD drives to process this data, and there YMTC enters the scenea Chinese Flash memory manufacturer that is slowly becoming a global giant. Also CXMTwhich manufactures DRAM memoriesbecomes an alternative here and the reason is equally interesting: DeepSeek introduced a memory search module in LLMs called Engram which is also intended to avoid excessive dependence on HBM memories. How to bypass the CUDA monopoly. Nvidia continues to have a fundamental element in CUDA to maintain its market dominance, but here DeepSeek too has proposed an alternative. Is called Tile Kernels and these are software cores created with TileLang (a variant of Python for this field) that allow governing advanced AI chips (GPUs). Huawei as an invisible ally. Those responsible for Huawei recently indicated that its new Ascend AI supernodes fully support DeepSeek v4 models. Precisely this provides another fundamental advantage to the company, which thus avoids (at least in part) total dependence on the use of Nvidia chips and prepares to further strengthen Huawei’s relevance in a market in which until recently Jensen Huang’s company was queen and mistress. Open models to attract the hardware industry. US companies continue to maintain their closed and proprietary models, but DeepSeek is one of the many Chinese startups that publish them with open weights. With this, what she and the others intend to do is not only attract AI developers and users, but also create a hardware ecosystem that adopts these architectures. DeepSeek invites its rivals to use techniques such as MoE or MLA precisely so that all these advances become a de facto standard and hardware manufacturers also adopt them and integrate them in an optimized way into their designs. A round of 10,000 million to advance. The company is also preparing a financing round in which they intend to raise 10,000 million dollars and with which they would achieve a valuation of between 45,000 and 50,000 million dollars. Still far from the mammoth valuations of OpenAI or Anthropic (already close to a billion dollars) but certainly … Read more

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

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

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