dominate

today it continues to dominate Sri Lanka

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We live surrounded by increasingly modern cities, connected by transport networks, technology and services that seem to completely define our time. However, in different corners of the planet there persist material traces of ancient societies that built works destined to last long further than those who built them, reminding us that the human ambition to transcend is not an exclusive feature of the present. Some of these structures remain part of the everyday landscape thousands of years later, silent but imposing. One of them stands on Anuradhapura and, despite its extraordinary scale, it remains little known outside its immediate surroundings. In the central north of the island is the first major capital of the territory and one of the most sacred places of Buddhism, where religious practice continues to develop with a continuity unusual in the contemporary world. On full moon days, pilgrims dressed in white walk barefoot along dusty paths while monks sing chants at dawn and foreign visitors join in rituals that have been celebrated in this same environment for centuries. Jetavanaramaya, the brick dome that defied time The construction that dominates this complex is called Jetavanaramaya and its scale is difficult to assimilate without dwelling on the figures. The stupa was completed around the year 301 ec using some 93.3 million bricks of baked clay and reached around 122 meters high, one of the highest heights in the ancient world. Due to its size, when it was completed it was ranked as the third largest construction made by humans, only behind the pyramids of giza. That material ambition alone sums up the magnitude of the project. The current appearance of Jetavanaramaya is also the result of a long history of deterioration and recovery. After progressive collapses and stages of abandonment, the stupa today reaches nearly 71 meters in height, far from the image it projected in its origin. Despite this reduction, its volume maintains it as the largest known brick construction, a scale so extreme that, according to a comparison collected in historical sourcesits bricks would be enough to build a wall about 30 centimeters thick and nearly three meters high between London and Edinburgh. The fact that it was covered by vegetation for centuries contributed to this feat of ancient engineering remaining relatively ignored outside the region. Beyond its architectural dimension, the stupa was part of a complex religious organization that articulated the monastic life of the environment. The complex, called Jetavana Vihara, was designed to accommodate a large community of monks and situate spiritual practice around the permanent presence of the main construction, visible from any point in the complex. The choice of brick as the main material completely conditioned the logistics of the project. Unlike the pyramids of Giza, built in stone, this stupa required preparing, transporting and assembling millions of pieces that were more vulnerable to erosion. Remains of ancient ovens found in the region confirm massive productionalthough without a conclusive attribution to the work or a secure dating to the beginning of the 4th century. The mobilization of labor necessary to complete construction remains one of the least clear aspects of the historical record. Part of the mystery surrounding the stupa comes from what has been found inside. They were found of reliquary chests placed on various construction levels, an arrangement that confirms their function as a container of religious meaning in addition to technical prowess. Next to them appeared gold panels with representations of bodhisattvastoday preserved in the Colombo National Museum. This set of findings provides material evidence of diverse doctrinal currents and suggests that the enclave participated in cultural networks connected with India and other regions around the Indian Ocean. Perhaps the most striking thing is not only that a structure of these dimensions has survived for more than 1,700 years, but that for centuries no stupa of comparable scale was erected in the region. This fact places Jetavanaramaya as the culminating point of a construction tradition that later evolved towards other forms and proportions. Its current presence reminds us that societies long before modernity were already capable of coordinating work, technical knowledge and collective beliefs with extraordinary ambition. Images | erdbeernaut (CC BY-SA 2.0) | Wimukthi Bandara (CC BY-SA 4.0) | In Xataka | 50 years ago a German started a futuristic paradise in Lanzarote. Nobody imagined that it would end up being the most famous ruin on the island

There is only one market in China where European brands dominate. Exactly, the one that no one cares about

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Much has been written about the decline in sales of European and traditional manufacturers in China. Volkswagens, Porsches and Mercedes have collapsed in a market that, until very recently, was key when it came to presenting results year after year. Have they collapsed? Not in all markets. In one they are still leaders. Exactly, the one that no one cares about. Leaders. A ranking where 18 of the 20 best-selling cars in China are not Chinese? Yes. It is the extra-luxury market, the one where cars that cost more than a million Chinese yuan are collected, almost 122,000 euros in direct exchange. They collect in CarNewsChina that in this list only BYD has made it among the best sellers. The rest, 90% of the list, is made up of the so-called traditional brands. If we remove Lexus, which is Asian and enters with its Lexus LM (a minivan with a screen that crosses the entire width of the car) and its Lexus LS, the rest are European brands. Yes, Europe also rules in China but it does so in a market of ridiculous volume. Porsche dominates here. The best-selling car over one million yuan is the Porsche Cayenne. Before its renewal that will offer an electric version, the Porsche SUV leads this table with 17,194 units sold in 2025. Land Rover closes the podium, which has placed the Range Rover and the Defender as the second and third best-selling car in this group. Below, Porsche repeats again with the Panamera (fourth classified) and will appear again with the Taycan. But the brand that is most repeated is Mercedes. Cars signed by the brand appear up to seven times, although, yes, it accumulates the sales of the AMG and Maybach divisions separately. Their S Class (fifth, signed by Maybach, and sixth classified) are the best sellers. It also appears with the G-Class and the GLS. The exception. From the Chinese market, only BYD penetrates this hyper-luxury market. It does so with the YangWang U8 and its even longer version, the U8L. This car, both versions of which have exceeded a thousand units, is a gigantic SUV with extended range options (plug-in hybrids with very wide electric range) that has become famous because it is capable of floating on rivers thanks to the enormous power of its wheels. A drop in the ocean (1). There are two problems for European manufacturers. The first is more than evident: its sales are very low. Porsche, which in 2020 shipped almost 89,000 units in China has closed 2025 selling less than half (it has fallen short of 42,000 units). The drop compared to 2024 is 26%. Mercedes boasted when it comes to presenting results of continuing to lead the extra-luxury market in the Asian country. The accumulated sales in this list exceed 38,000 units but the fact that the twentieth place is the Mercedes-AMG GLS with 83 units sold throughout the year gives an idea of ​​its size and its competition. Yeah, Mercedes sold almost 460,000 units in China last year but it is 12% less than the previous year and is very far from the almost 775,000 units placed in 2020. A drop in the ocean (2). This market, if we analyze its best classifieds, almost entirely lacks electric cars. The closest thing is the plug-in hybrid versions, like those offered by BYD. They are automobiles, pure gasoline ones, that are clearly declining in China. Where in 2020 17.8 million gasoline cars were sold Today 10.85 million cars of this type are sold. New energy cars (plug-in hybrids and electric) already account for 60% of sales in the Asian country. In Autohomeexplain that this situation has weakened brands that have collaborations with European automotive companies. They give as an example the case of Maiteng, a company associated with Volkswagen that was a symbol of status and recognition and that has had to lower its prices to continue selling. Right now, the market where European manufacturers succeed is the niche of the niche. They don’t even consider it. But there is also another reason why Europeans succeed in this market. The Chinese don’t even consider entering it. With the market clearly betting on its local manufacturers, they are offering their most advanced cars at “affordable” prices compared to foreign manufacturers. Already in his presentation, the Xiaomi SU7 Ultra highlighted its price difference with the Tesla Model S (DEP) and Porsche Taycan Turbo. While the first one came on the market with a price of 814,900 yuan (it would not be included in the previous list), the German one cost almost two million Chinese yuan. The price war in China has pressured all companies to reduce their prices drastically. This has left out traditional companies that have found an evident loss of competitiveness in all types of markets, from general to luxury, where Chinese manufacturers are offering features and equipment typical of hyper-luxury segments in cars that, due to price, do not fall into that category. Photo | Hong Wei Fan and Arthur Wang In Xataka | We tested the Ojo de Dios with which BYD wants to break the market: autonomous driving for a 9,000 euro car

dominate in the age of AI and video games

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Officially, CES 2026 in Las Vegas starts tomorrow, January 6, but as usual, some companies have wanted to stand out to capture the spotlight. One of those is an AMD that is pushing its processor division hard and that has stood at the event with three new Ryzen. Not three different processors: three categories. As it could not be otherwise, there are many “artificial intelligence” in the equation. It is something that the company’s latest processors for Consolidated PCslike the Asus ROG Xbox Allythey have made it clear, and that in these new families it continues to be promoted. That said, we are going with all the new AMD processors, including some more industrial ones that are not interesting for us as users, but that says a lot about the state of the technology industry in general and The United States and AMD itself in particular. New AMD Ryzen AI 400 APUs Image | amd First things first: the Ryzen AI 400. It is an APU, a package that integrates CPU, GPU and NPU to process artificial intelligence tasks. This type of units is found in established consoles, laptops and PCs, and this AI is responsible for “inventing” frames per second with tools such as ‘frame generation’ or reconstructing the image with AMD’s FSR and the Nvidia DLSS. In this new family, we see improvements in memory speed, cores and frequency, but what stands out is the performance of the NPU. It has 1.2 times more TOPs than previous Ryzens. Manufacturers are expected to start launching compact laptops and desktops at the end of January this year, and the features of all Ryzen AI 400 processors are as follows: Cores/threads Maximum frequency cache memory speed NPU TOPs GPU CUs Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 12 / 24 5.2GHz 36MB 8,533 MT/s 60 16 Ryzen AI HX 470 12 / 24 5.2GHz 36MB 8,533 MT/s 55 16 Ryzen AI 9 465 10/20 5GHz 34MB 8,533 MT/s 50 12 Ryzen AI 7 450 8 / 16 5.1GHz 24MB 8,533 MT/s 50 8 Ryzen AI 7 445 6 / 12 4.6GHz 14MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI 5 435 6 / 12 4.5GHz 14MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI 5 430 4/8 4.5GHz 12MB 8,000 MT/s 50 4 Ryzen AI Max+ Image | amd On the other hand, there are the Ryzen AI Max+. They are also APUs that integrate graphics, processor and NPU, but the TDP is higher because they are designed for more demanding tasks such as 3D modeling, video editing and video games with comparable image quality, according to AMD, to what we would have if we used a conventional CPU plus a graphics card. Now we will see the frequencies, cores and bandwidth, but AMD has focused on commenting that the characteristics of this processor allow AI models to run in local mode without depending on the limitations of the cloud. In fact, the model Liquid AI It is the one they mention as local execution and it can be downloaded for free by everyone who has a Ryzen AI processor. And, of course, comparisons are odious, but they have put an Asus ROG Flow Z13 face to face with an AI Max and at MacBook Pro M5 to tell us that the Asus performs 1.4 more in AI tasks, 1.8 more in content creation, has 1.8 faster multitasking and better performance -1.6x- in ‘Cyberpunk 2077‘. Here is the entire family: Cores/threads Maximum frequency NPU TOPs GPU CUs GPU TFLOPS Ryzen AI Max+ 395 16 / 32 5.1GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 392 12 / 24 5GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 390 12 / 24 5GHz 50 32 48 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 388 8 / 16 5GHz 50 40 60 Ryzen AI Max+ 3 385 8 / 16 5GHz 50 32 48 New Ryzen 9000, because not everything is AI Image | amd If the two previous families rely on AI to be able to handle models locally and to improve visual parameters in video games, now we move on to the new Ryzen 9000. These are processors designed for the desktop, and within the new family of Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9we have real beasts with a TDP of up to 170 W and maximum frequencies of up to 5.7 GHz in the most powerful of them: the Ryzen 9 9950X3D. It is a processor with 16 cores and 32 threads with a combined cache of 144 MB and AMD itself is not the one it has used for its comparisons because it is a processor more designed for creating content than for video games. Looking for a greater balance, there is the Ryzen 7 9850X3D. It has 8 cores, 16 threads, a TPD of 120 W and a maximum frequency of 5.6 GHz. This is 400 MHz more than the fabulous 9800X3D and maintains compatibility with the AM5 socket. If you already had a previous processor compatible with that socket, the change is very simple. These are all the new Ryzen 9000: Cores/threads Maximum frequency cache TDP Ryzen 9 9950X 3D 16 / 32 5.7GHz 144MB 170W Ryzen 9 9950X 16 / 32 5.7GHz 80MB 170W Ryzen 9 9900X 3d 12 / 24 5.5GHz 140MB 120W Ryzen 9 9900X 12 / 24 5.6GHz 76MB 120W Ryzen 7 9850X 3D 8 / 16 5.6GHz 104MB 120W Ryzen 7 9800X 3D 8 / 16 5.2GHz 104MB 120W Ryzen 7 9700X 8 / 16 5.5GHz 40MB 65W Ryzen 5 9600X 6 / 12 5.4GHz 38MB 65W Ryzen 5 9600 6 / 12 5.2GHz 38MB 65W And, although it is not new, AMD has recalled that they launched Redstone recently. This is the name they have given to FSR, its image reconstruction technology and pixel generation. Most new games are already compatible with Redstone and it is something that we can see in this video and that only interests you if you have a Radeon RX9000: Embedded APU, the … Read more

We believed that drones would dominate any war. The Arctic is proving just the opposite

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For decades, drones occupied a secondary place in armed conflicts. They existed, they were used in very specific operations and almost always under centralized control, but they did not define the rhythm of a war. That changed with Ukraine. There, unmanned systems became an everyday, cheap and ubiquitous tool.integrated into the way of fighting. That experience has reinforced the idea that modern warfare will inevitably be a drone war. The problem is that this conclusion only works in certain scenarios. And the Arctic is beginning to demonstrate, quite forcefully, that not all battlefields accept the same technological rules. The growing interest in the Arctic does not respond to a technological fad, but to a profound change in the geopolitical situation. The melting ice is opening sea routesfacilitating access to resources and altering natural barriers that for decades made it difficult to operate in that region. In that context, NATO military forces have intensified exercises and deployments in the High North, aware that Russia has a clear advantage in the region. Cold that changes everything. The extreme temperatures of the Arctic impose different rules than other military scenarios. Components designed to function normally fail when the cold changes their physical properties. Rubber loses elasticity, aluminum and other metals become more brittle, and lubricants thicken to compromise the movement of key parts. It only takes one system freeze to knock out an entire platform or immobilize a convoy. It is not a specific problem, but a chain of effects that begins with the thermometer and ends with operation. The sky also gets in the way. Added to the problems on land is another less visible, but equally decisive, factor. At extreme latitudes, magnetic storms and auroras interfere with radio signals and satellite navigation systems. It is not just about losing precision, but about seeing the positioning and synchronization data that support communications, sensors and modern weapons altered. In an environment where visual orientation is already complicated by snow and lack of landmarks, any additional distortion makes navigation an unstable task and, in some cases, directly impracticable. When they are also bothering your signal. Added to this natural degradation is an additional problem: jamming and other interferences that are not always directed at the target that ends up suffering them. In the Arctic, the planet’s own geometry works against it, since from high latitudes there are fewer satellites available as part of them are hidden by the curvature of the Earth. That makes any interference have a greater impact. In northern Norway, regulator Nkom registered six GPS failures in 2019 and 122 in 2022, and since the end of 2024 it has stopped counting them due to their frequency. These limitations are not theoretical. On a polar exercise in CanadaUS Army Arctic off-road vehicles broke down after 30 minutes because the hydraulic fluids had solidified in the cold. Under these same conditions, Swedish soldiers received night vision devices valued at $20,000 that failed because they could not withstand temperatures of -40°C. The lesson for planners is an uncomfortable one. Operating in the High North requires assuming sudden failures and that logistics, more than technology on paper, ends up setting the real pace of any deployment. Rethink technology and procedures. Faced with this scenario, the response is not only to manufacture more resistant equipment, but to distinguish between technological limits and operational limits, a common separation in analyzes of the use of UAS in Arctic environments. Some problems can be mitigated with redesigns, from materials and power sources to more robust navigation alternatives. Others require changes in the way we operate: planning missions assuming signal losses, reducing external dependencies and training to work with incomplete information. All of this explains why the Arctic does not support simple translations from other recent war theaters. In Ukraine, small and cheap drones, supported by constant digital linkshave shown their usefulness in an environment with infrastructure, human density and many more references. In the High North, that ecosystem does not exist. According to the approach included in the tests described, the drones there would have to incorporate de-icing systems, a more robust propulsion for the wind and operate with another type of fuel. Far from being a perfect laboratory for digital warfare, the Arctic is forcing us to rediscover physical limits that are not negotiated. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | US Navy In Xataka | Satellite images have revealed that China has gathered its most important aircraft carriers. And that can only mean one thing

While the US and China dominate different sectors, Europe leads an unexpected leadership: heat pumps

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Europe is experiencing an energy and industrial crisis that has reopened old fears: factories that lose competitiveness, homes punished by gas and a political debate that looks backwards. But behind the noise, the data tells a completely different story: Europe is not going backwards. It is leading the largest energy transformation in the world. And at the center of that transformation is a technology that is already changing the rules: heat pumps. The real problem: an industry trapped by gas. A large part of public opinion believes that European industry is becoming more expensive because of climate policies. But, As Jan Rosenow points outOxford energy professor, in EUobserver, the reality is exactly the opposite: “I do not accept the analysis underlying the reversal narrative. The idea that green policies must be dismantled to lower prices is nonsense.” According to Rosenow, the real shock came after 2021, when Europe lost access to the cheap Russian gas pipeline and had to replace it with much more expensive LNG from the United States. The impact was brutal: energy-intensive industries stopped production and never returned to pre-Ukrainian War levels. Ember’s report quantifies it: Europe paid an accumulated extra cost of 930 billion euros during the energy crisis due to its dependence on imported fossil fuels. The conclusion is uncomfortable, the problem is not that Europe has gone too fast in the transition, but too slow. Europe leads the solution, although it does not know it yet. While the political debate goes in circles, the market advances. Europe is, today, world leader in heat pumpsa title that he does not hold by chance. In residential adoption, some countries are decades ahead of the rest of the world: Norway has 632 heat pumps per 1,000 homes and Finland has 524, according to European Heat Pump Association (EHPA). And the surprise is in the laggards, countries like Poland, Ireland or Portugal continue to grow even in years of weak market. The European industry dominates the market. European manufacturers such as Vaillant, Stiebel Eltron, Bosch, Viessmann, Danfoss, NIBE or Clivet dominate the global market. Unlike what happened with solar panels, Europe has retained manufacturing capacityalthough it still partially depends on imported compressors and electronics. Still, most employment, engineering and assembly remain on European soil. A revolution underway. Industrial projects are not prototypes: they are signs of the times: So why do we still depend on gas? Despite technological leadership, adoption is slower than it should be. There are four main blocks: Electricity continues to be weighed down by the price of gas. In much of central Europe, gas sets the marginal price of electricity. This means that even if renewables lower the cost, gas increases it again at the peaks. As the Financial Times points outthe result is an obvious paradox: the most efficient technology (the heat pump) seems expensive because electricity is distorted by gas. Taxation. The Oxford Professor details that the majority of European countries They charge more taxes on electricity than on gas. This penalizes the clean option and favors the fossil option. Lack of installers. The European Commission calculates that they are needed 750,000 additional installers before 2030. The German company Apricum adds that the experience installation remains “complex and fragmented”. Cultural barrier. As Rosenow explains: “Most industries are used to burning things.” Fire is perceived as safe and familiar, even though it is more expensive and inefficient. But this barrier disappears when you look at northern Europe: Sweden, Finland or Denmark already use heat pumps on a large scale even at sub-zero temperatures. Electrification is not a green whim. Heat pumps are not a technological anecdote, but the pillar of a broader movement: the electrification of the continent. According to the EMBER reportelectrification could halve the EU’s fossil dependence by 2040, and that two-thirds of energy demand could be met by mature technologies: heat pumps, electric vehicles, storage and solar. Today, however, the EU has barely electrified 22% of its final energy, which reveals ample room to triple that share in the coming years. The European Commission agree with this diagnosis. Brussels estimates that Europe will have to reach 60 million heat pumps installed in 2030 – compared to 25.5 million currently – to meet its climate and energy security objectives. Also, remember that the entry into force of the new ETS2 from 2027 fossil gas will progressively become more expensivenaturally accelerating its replacement by more efficient electrical technologies. Europe needs to trust its own leadership. European politics is trapped between nostalgia for cheap gas and the fear of losing competitiveness compared to other regions. But the data tells another story: Europe is leading the technology that can free it from those dependencies. While some in Brussels debate whether the Green Deal should be slowed down, the market and European engineers are saying the opposite. If Europe wants secure energy, strong industry and affordable bills, the answer is not in returning to gas, but in something much simpler: plugging itself in. Image | dbdh Xataka | Aerothermal energy is the heating of the future, but the electrical installation is stuck in the past

China has presented its X-36 aircraft to dominate the air. And then he took him to a secret base where the real surprise was.

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The public appearance of the J-36 and later a “twin”, marks a turning point in Chinese military aviation, placing Beijing in a direct race for air supremacy in the 21st century. Until just a few years ago, the US lead in stealth fighter development seemed assured. However, the new Chinese platforms, first shown on flights captured without censorship and now visible in satellite images in a secret base near Lop Nur, indicate that China has not only advanced in technology: it has decided to demonstrate it. The sixth generation. It became official on October 31, 2025, when several videos shared on chinese social networks and internationals showed what was identified as the new J-36 stealth plane 6th generation Peking flying in formation with a J-20probably the two-seat J-20S, near the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation facilities. The disclosure deliberate imagesoperational integration with J-20S fighters already in service and the parallel deployment of two different sixth-generation designs suggest that China is not simply testing isolated prototypes, but rather building a deeply interconnected aerial ecosystem, conceived to coordinate manned fighters, heavy stealth platforms and swarms of advanced drones in penetration, supremacy and airspace control missions in highly defended theaters. Design break. The J-36the most visible and talked about aircraft, stands out for its queueless configurationa trait extremely difficult to stabilize without advanced algorithmic and computational assistance. Its wide fuselage, long chord wings and air intakes positioned both on the top and on the sides indicate an absolute priority: minimize the radar signal from any angle and operate for long periods within denied zones. This type of design, compared by analysts to a crossover between stealth fighters and bombersis not only aimed at air-to-air combat, but rather at acting as a tactical node in the air: monitoring distributed sensors, coordinating unmanned platforms and providing range and persistence in deep missions. The evolution between the prototype seen in December 2024 and the one shown in 2025 (with modifications to nozzles, landing gear and control surfaces) aims for rapid iteration and a high testing rate, characteristic features of aeronautical industries with mature design cycles. The J-20S bridge cone. He use of the J-20Sthe two-seat variant of the Chinese fifth-generation stealth fighter, as an escort and supervision platform in mixed flights with the J-36it is not a minor detail. The additional cockpit of the J-20S is optimized to manage sensors, data links and control of autonomous systems, making it the “human piece” that oversees what will, in the future, become increasingly automated. This pairing reflects the American operating concept for your NGAD programin which a very high-level fighter does not replace existing models, but rather coordinates and amplifies them. China, similarly, appears to be preparing mixed attack packages: the J-36 opens the way and establishes an information bubble, the J-20S protects and directs, and unmanned platforms execute saturation, deception or attack. Installation near Lop Nur Satellite image providing an overview of the entire facility near Lop Nur, as seen on November 3 Chinese Area 51. And after the show, the J-36 was stored in an unknown location until a few hours ago. The appearance of another prototype alongside the J-36 (the smaller but still heavy one called like J-XDS) at a remote base near the historic Lop Nur nuclear site revealed something crucial: China is transferring the testing phase from manufacturer facilities to an advanced experimentation center, similar in purpose to the US Area 51. The track of more than 5 kilometersnew hangar installations, expansions and projects under construction suggest an environment designed for intensive testing of sensitive systems, stealth operations and doctrine validation. That both models were parked outdoors, knowing that they would be captured by commercial satellites, reinforces the interpretation that Beijing seeks to show capacity and leave it to Western intelligence to fill gaps and debate roles, sizes, engines, automation levels and actual missions. Put another way, ambiguity is part of the strategy: forcing the United States, Japan, South Korea and Australia to prepare for several simultaneous scenarios, which disperses resources, planning and budgets. A future combat ecosystem. The key does not lie only in manned aircraft. China is expanding rapidly parallel programs from autonomous and collaborative stealth drones, from naval UCAVs like GJ-11/21 to operate from aircraft carriers to “loyal wingman” type CCAs of similar size to that of a light fighter, planned for accompany the J-36 such as range multipliers, sensors and ammunition. The goal is to create a spectrum of interdependent systemswhere the sixth-generation fighter acts as the aerial brain, while swarms of drones execute risky tasks, absorb fire, open access corridors and saturate long-range defenses. This, in theory, fits directly into Western Pacific scenarios, where any operation requires penetrating dense and deeply integrated networks of surveillance, over-the-horizon radars, satellites and naval missiles. A challenge for Washington. The presentation and the transfer of evidence to one top secret base They underline a reality: China is not building a single aircraft, but rather preparing a complete doctrinal architecture to contest (not just balance) American air superiority. For the United States, Japan and allies, the concern arises not only from technical progress, but from the calendar. Washington plans to deploy its first NGAD fighters towards 2030, but Beijing is already flying prototypes in experimental operational configuration accompanied by mature fighters. Yeah the J-36 or that twin pragmatic J-XDS reach levels of availability and credible doctrine sooner, the aerial map of the Pacific could undergo a profound transformation. What for decades was a question of “whether China would reach the fifth generation” has now become a different and much more pressing question: what the hell will air combat look like in the next decade. Image | Planet Labs, Chinese Social Media In Xataka | China appears to be molding a huge stealth aircraft called the J-36. This image is emerging as proof of his ambition In Xataka | We have been tying ribbons to suitcases for years to identify them at the airport. Your employees warn that it is a bad idea

dominate the entire value chain

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The race for control of the energy of the 21st century already has a provisional winner. While Europe stumbles over his own debates and United States try to rebuild an aging nuclear industry, China step on the accelerator. In April, approved the construction of ten reactors worth 200 billion yuan (24 billion euros). It is just one step in a much broader project: the return of the atom as a pillar of global power. New conquests. China has been competing for years to lead all possible technological transitions: from renewable energy to storage, and now also nuclear. In the words of energy analyst John Kempthe country has 59 operational reactors and more than 30 under construction. No other nation has such a program. In fact, half of all the reactors being built in the world are in Chinese territory. Beyond talk about a “nuclear renaissance,” only China is turning it into state policy. A bet on nuclear. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA)security and reliability of supply have become critical priorities for Beijing after years of expansion of electricity supply. However, the push towards nuclear has another dimension of technological independence. Under the Made in China strategy, the country sought to dominate all the links in its energy chain, and today it produces 100% of its nuclear equipment in national territory. according to China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA). In parallel, China promotes its technology abroad. According to the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)the export of the Hualong One reactor is a national priority, with reactors in Pakistan, projects in Argentina and expansion plans throughout Asia and Africa. Nuclear energy is both a tool for decarbonization and energy diplomacy: a way to secure supply, reduce emissions and project technological power. The renewable paradox. China leads the global green transition, but its energy matrix still marked for coal. According to Ember data38% of the country’s electricity already comes from low-carbon sources. Even so, 62% continue to depend on fossil fuels, a proportion that reveals how far they still are from total decarbonization. Their challenge is monumental: leave coal behind without turning off the country. That is why the atom does not replace renewable energy: it sustains them. Nuclear acts as “firm energy”, the basis that keeps the electrical system stable when there is no sun or wind. Coal continues to be the great point of friction—it guarantees supply and employment, but clashes with the ambition to be a renewable leader. In more geopolitical terms, renewable energy is a form of sovereignty. Any country can generate its own electricity. But China wants something more: full control of the electrical system. The muscle of the atom. China is building reactors at a rate no one else can match: between ten and eleven per year. According to the IAEAthe country already has 58 operational reactors and 27 under construction, totaling more than 86 GW of capacity. Nuclear represents 4.47% of its electricity, a small but increasing share. According to Global Energy Monitorthe operational park amounts to 58.1 GW, with forecasts of 63 GW at the end of 2025 and 71 GW in 2026, the year in which China will surpass France as the second nuclear power. Projections from the China Nuclear Energy Association foresee more than 100 GW in operation by 2030 and nearly 200 GW in 2040, double current US capacity. In 2024, nuclear investment reached an all-time high of 146.9 billion yuan. Although its participation in the electricity mix is ​​around 5%, the magnitude of the Chinese system converts that percentage into a volume comparable to all of France’s nuclear production. Technological ambition. After decades of dependence on foreign designs such as the American AP1000, Beijing has developed their own models. Hualong One, a third-generation reactor, is already operating in four national units and thirteen more are under construction. And it doesn’t stop there. China also leads the fourth generation of reactors, safer and more efficient. In 2023, the HTR-PM came into operationthe world’s first modular high-temperature reactor, in Shidao Bay: the prelude to a new stage where nuclear becomes flexible, scalable and commercially viable. In parallel, the Xinghuo-1 project—a hybrid fusion-fission reactor— seeks to achieve a Q factor > 30enough to generate more energy than it consumes. China hopes to have it connected to the grid by 2035, which could put it decades ahead of the rest of the world in the race for commercial fusion. Such ambition requires fuel. China has uranium reserves, but not enough for its expansion. Last year it produced just 1,700 tons, 4% of the world, and imported more than 22,000. Your solution: “fish” uranium from the sea. Researchers at the Frontiers Science Center for Rare Isotopes at Lanzhou University have developed a material called DAE-MOF, capable of absorbing uranium 40 times more efficiently than previous methods. The goal is to have pilot plants by 2035 and large-scale production in 2050. The ocean, with its 4.5 billion tons of dissolved uranium (a thousand times more than land reserves), could ensure centuries of energy autonomy. Another step towards total independence. Forecasts. If plans are met, China will surpass France in 2026 and the United States in 2030 in installed nuclear capacity. By 2040, its 200 GW operating will represent close to 10% of its electricity mix, according to the CNEA. At the same time, the country will maintain its dominance in renewables: the IEA estimates that it will reach 2,460 GW of clean energy in 2030, double that of 2022. And it is not just about energy. Nuclear expansion is reshaping the economy, industry and diplomacy. China positions itself as a global supplier of civil nuclear technology for countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America: an energy diplomacy that combines technological prestige, state financing and its own safety standards. This expansion not only redefines its electrical matrix, but also its international influence: energy has become a diplomatic instrument and a brand of industrial prestige. The century of electrons. China has not stopped burning coal, but it … Read more

Cookies will continue to dominate everything

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Google has announced the end of most of its technologies Privacy Sandbox. These systems began to be developed six years ago with the intention of getting rid of cookies, but that initiative now almost completely disappears after suffering severe problems and delays. The decision affects developers, advertisers, media and Chrome users on both mobile phones and computers. Living without cookies seemed possible. The dream was that the Chrome browser would end up having a system in which the data used to personalize the advertising that we see in the browser would reside on our devices. From there, these systems would have used algorithms to offer targeted advertising, and we would all win: advertisers could continue sending “personalized” advertising, but without specifically and individually tracking each user. Many systems disappear. On the official blog of this technology, its head, Anthony Chavez, explained that it will withdraw the vast majority of technologies that it had developed for that purpose. According to this manager, the abandonment of these systems is due to their “low adoption rate.” It will keep some of the technologies: CHIPS (“partitioned” cookies), FedCM (to provide a federated identity) and Private State Tokens (anti-fraud) will remain active. We want a universal standard. In addition to the low adoption rate, Google added that the ecosystem of advertisers, developers and media requested advertising and performance measurement solutions capable of operating broadly. This is exactly what many sectors were protesting about, accusing Google of favoring Chrome and its advertising platform with this type of system. Google precisely adds in its announcement that they will work on an interoperable standard that meets the requirements requested by the W3C organization. Plummeting income. The tools that Google was testing with Privacy Sandbox were failing in key aspects. Above all, in the decrease in income: those who tested these systems detected a 30% drop in income, and also latency problems that increased it by 200%. Their technical complexity and lack of trust were other factors: the systems simply did not fulfill their purpose. A setback for the industry and users. He Google initial announcement almost six years ago it was promising: they wanted to eliminate cookies from Chrome. His first attempt, FLoC technologysoon was criticized by all kinds of sectors that described it as “a terrible idea.” Then they came other attempts and proposals like Topicsbut the theoretical end of cookies in Chrome it kept getting late. Many wasted resources. As they point out in PPC.Landthis surrender by Google means that the work of companies, developers and media has come to nothing. Those who tried to adapt to these technologies and prepare for that hypothetical future without cookies now find that all those efforts were in vain. Cookies will continue with us. So Google (and its billions of users) are back to square one. Cookies have proven to be overly important to the internet economy, but their impact on privacy and user experience—including cookie notices—remains dire. W3C open standards as an alternative. The W3C consortium is working on solutions through its Private Advertising Technology Working Group (PAT WG). One of the systems developed is the so-called Privacy-Preserving Attribution: Level 1which measures advertising conversions avoiding user re-identification. Now it remains to be seen if it can become an interoperable standard adopted by browsers. In Xataka | “Accept or reject” cookies has become the daily torture of millions of Europeans. And the EU finally wants to fix it

Microsoft wants to dominate AI to gross power blow

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Think of a complex so extensive that it could be confused with an industrial city, where each square meter is designed so that the artificial intelligence Do not stop for a moment. Thus the new Microsoft campus in Wisconsin (United States) is configured. The goal they announce is overwhelming: Render ten times more than the fastest supercomputer of the moment, a message with which they want to make it clear that the battle for AI is played on the computer scale. A data center of this type does not resemble that of a traditional cloud where emails or web pages are housed. It is conceived to train and execute large -scale AI models, such as those that drive applications such as Chatgpt either COPILOT. According to the American company, the project will materialize at the beginning of 2026, after an initial investment of 3.3 billion dollars. When the cloud becomes concrete, steel and many chips The cloud does not float in the air. It rises on concrete soils, with metal structures, pipes and cables that travel underground kilometers. This is how it actually materializes, and Fairwater It is intended to be the most ambitious sample of it. According to Satya Nadellathis campus will become a strategic piece to hold loads that demand each time More energy and computing capacity. In the IA competition, having data centers of this scale is more than a matter of competitive advantage. Fairwater’s key is how it organizes all that calculation power. The company explained that each rack integrates 72 GPU Nvidia Blackwell, Linked through NVLink and NVSWITCH to share up to 1.8 terabytes per second and access 14 terabytes of grouped memory. Of course, he has not detailed the exact number of racks that the campus will have and has limited himself to talking about “hundreds of thousands of accelerators” in total. Together these systems will work as a single supercomputer capable of processing 865,000 tokens per seconda figure that gives an idea of ​​the magnitude of the project, and will be part of a global network of the Azure Network Wide Network Wide Network Beyond the technology that houses, Fairwater impresses with its physical dimensions. It rises on a land equivalent to more than one hundred hectares and adds more than 110,000 square meters of built area. Civil works, according to Microsoft, has required huge figures: 75 kilometers of foundation piles 12,000 tons of steel structure 193 kilometers of medium voltage electric wiring 117 kilometers of mechanical pipes Refrigeration is one of the great challenges of any data center, and in Fairwater becomes even more critical for the chips density it houses. According to data from the Wisconsin Climatology Officethis state presents a Very marked thermal amplitude: In winter, minimum temperatures can fall below 0 ° C with abundant snow, while in summer stockings greater than 25 ° C are reached with high humidity. This variability forces us to have infrastructure that does not depend on a favorable climate, unlike locations in northern Europe where constant cold becomes a natural ally. That is why Microsoft has opted for a liquid refrigeration system in closed circuit that only requires water once during construction and then reuses it without loss. According to the company, more than 90% of the capacity works with this method, supported by the second largest water coolers in the world and in 172 six -meter -high fans that help dissipate heat. The rest of the infrastructure takes advantage of the outer air, but changes to water in the hottest days, when the temperature and humidity exceed what the environment can offer. It is a design designed to maintain efficiency throughout the year in a place where the weather does not always play in favor. Behind Fairwater there are more components designed to sustain datasets massive No bottlenecks. Let’s look at some of them: Total capacity in exabytes “Five soccer fields” size systems More than two million reading/writing operations per second in each cloud storage account Its own system that accelerates access to data and reduces latency, guaranteeing that GPUs never stop Enough optical fiber to give 4.5 turns to earth. Fairwater is, for the moment, a project under construction and many of its promises must still be tested. Microsoft states that when starting at the beginning of 2026 it will be able to perform until ten times more than the fastest supercomputer of the world, although it does not need which one refers to. The true magnitude of Fairwater will only be known when we enter into operation and we can contrast if those figures are fulfilled beyond paper. Images | Microsoft (1, 2, 3, 4) | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 In Xataka | Huawei has a plan to advise Nvidia in China: a supernod of 15,000 processors

the 15,000 ninja companies that dominate key niches without anyone knowing them

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China not only manufactures giants such as Alibaba, Tencent or Tiktok. He has built meticulously An army of 14,600 “small giants” that dominate fundamental industrial sectors, but without making noise. Why is it important. While in the West we follow the track of BydXiaomi, Bytedance or Huaweithese specialized SMEs are those that control the pieces of the industrial puzzle. Sensors, aerospace components, specialized semiconductors: the niches where technological supremacy is really won or lost. The context. He “Little Giants” program He was born in 2015 as part of “Made in China 2025“Its objective: push highly specialized medium -sized companies to develop competitive advantages in specific sectors. A surgical model against the model of large state companies. There are 15,000 “small giants” with official certification. Almost 90% are in the manufacturing sector. More than 80% focus on emerging strategic industries such as integrated, robotic or aerospace circuits. And almost 5,000 work in AI AND CLEAN ENERGIES. That is happening. Each “little giant” receives state support to dominate a specific niche. Submarine cables, superconductor materials, quantum sensors, satellite systems … technologies that seem lower but vital for global supply chains. And for Chinese military development. Some examples: Leaderdrive: Specialized in precision harmonic reducing. Endovtec: Develop advanced endovascular devices. Phabuilder: Biotechnology to produce industrial materials. Acoinfo: Develop real -time industrial operating systems. Guizhou Anda: Battery materials, supplies Catl and Byd. WELION: solid state batteries of high energy density. JIASHIDA Robot: Domestic cleaning robots. It is no accident that The United States has already included many of these companies in their blacklist. They are the real threat: not the brands that anyone knows, but those that manufacture the components that make the world work. This “unique champions” strategy makes medium -sized companies practically monopolies into ultra -specialized sectors. Result: If you need a certain type of semiconductor or components, you have no alternative. And that company is subsidized, protected and backed by the Communist Party. Outstanding image | Acoinfo In Xataka | China has an ambitious plan to overcome the West in Technology. And he has already chosen his 18 companies to get it

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