hands

Renfe has a contract of 4,000 million euros in its hands. And no Spanish company gives you the trains you are looking for

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Renfe is preparing to choose the lucky company that will supply at least 30 high-speed trains. It is the most expensive tender in the company’s history, with around 4,000 million euros at stake. It is also the litmus test to see if Spain once again positions itself as a leading country in high speed. The contract. 1,362 million euros insured and the possibility of reaching 1,777 million euros. That’s only with the purchase. Because if we take into account the cost of maintenance, a long-term contract is estimated at 4,000 million euros. This is the contest to which anyone can apply. As long as, of course, it is capable of delivering 30 high-speed trains and is open to the delivery of another ten units if the Spanish company so requests. It is one of the previous steps to launch a Madrid-Barcelona line in less than two hours. A comprehensive renewal of the line thanks to a Spanish invention and new trains capable of reaching top speeds of 350 km/h are essential. Quickie. In substance and form. Because in order to comply with the specifications of the Renfe contract it is essential that the trains can run at a maximum of 350 km/h as we say. Inside they will have to accommodate 450 passengers, have a space for transporting bicycles and a cafeteria car. But in addition, Renfe wants the chosen company to deliver at least five units in the first 40 months once the contract is signed. At the latest, the last unit of the fleet of 30 trains will have to be delivered before month 78. That is, the company will have to have everything ready in less than six and a half years and after three years Renfe has to begin to reap the first fruits. “Citizens would not understand”. That is the warning that José Ignacio Jainaga, president of Talgo, has issued in statements collected by The Mail. And the obligations included in the contract specifications leave this Spanish company in a very complicated position according to experts. In fact, Jainaga wanted to highlight the efficiency of its trains, which it considers are capable of offering an efficiency “35%” higher than rivals, but it has not talked about deadlines or being able to reach the aforementioned 350 km/h with its trains. Despite this, he considers that citizens “would not understand that the regulator, the operator, and ultimately the Government, do not consider Talgo’s solutions as the best adapted to the priorities of Spanish society.” CAF, another company specialized in the construction of trains, would also be outside the conditions required by the contract right now, they explain in The Basque Journal. The company has the approval for its trains to run at 300 km/h in Spain since 2020 (the most advanced reach 320 km/h top speed) but with such tight deadlines, CAF would be left out because it would not be able to develop a new platform in time. Without a trace of Spain. Both CAF and Talgo understand that with these conditions they will not be able to compete in a contest that is considered one of the most attractive in Europe. At the moment, it does not seem that either company can offer such fast trains within the planned times. CAF, as we say, does not have a platform capable of reaching this speed. Talgo, on the contrary, managed to reach 360 km/h with their Talgo Avril but they are limited in their approval to reach a maximum of 330 km/h. But, in addition, the relationship between Talgo and Renfe is not going through the best moment. The Avrils arrived with reliability problems that hit the ceiling with the fissures in Madrid-Barcelona. Renfe considers that, since they are under warranty, Talgo must fix them but this company says that the problem is generated by the infrastructure. In addition, Renfe sanctioned Talgo with more than 100 million for being late in delivering these trains. A punishment that Ignacio Jainaga, president of Talgo, claims to have been resolved although no further details have been given, stated in The Confidential. Beyond Spain. In the midst of these controversies, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transportation, did not hesitate to show interest in trains that are manufactured far from our borders. It makes sense because, according to the experts referenced in the previous media, only Hitachi or Siemens seem really well positioned to be able to compete for this project. Before the bidding rules were announced, Puente toured the factories of these companies. He appeared, for example, at the Siemens factory whose Velaro Novo Yes, it can operate at more than 350 km/h. Hitachi has the ETR 1000 that Trenitalia uses for Iryo and that reach a top speed of 400 km/h. But, also, Puente also traveled to China where he praised the CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles trains because they are capable of reaching the aforementioned 350 km/h but, above all, he praised their ability to deliver them in record time and at a much more competitive price. He came to point out that: “Chinese manufacturers deliver trains at half the price in a period of six months to two years, while the European industry offers them to you for 60 months. I am the politician who buys and I don’t have 60 months” However, this possibility has been put into more doubt because the European Commission is investigating this company because it considers that the Chinese State has doped it financially, which could leave it out of Renfe’s famous 4 billion euro contract. Photo | MaedaAkihiko In Xataka | “They deliver trains in six months at half the price”: Renfe needs new AVE and is clear that China will give them to them

We are in 2026, but you will only see part of the World Cup in 4K because of DAZN: TV manufacturers are already rubbing their hands

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You have a 4K TV, you have contracted Movistar Plus, Orange TV or DAZN and you are ready to live the Soccer World Cup 2026 in the best possible quality so as not to miss any details. Well we have bad news for you: almost all the games will arrive on your screen with a 1080i resolution, even if your television platform can broadcast in 4K. The fuse was lit as a result of the message from a user from Movistar Plus on X, in which he asked if he could watch the World Cup in 4K HDR. The initial response from Movistar was “Yes, as long as you have the UHD disc you can watch the games that will be broadcast on DAZN in 4K HDR.” The problem is that, when asked by our colleagues Xataka Mobileboth Movistar Plus and Orange TV have discarded that those matches are going to be broadcast in 4K. The controversy is served. The World Cup signal comes in 1080i: that changes everything DAZN is the one who has the rights to broadcast the 104 matches of the tournament in Spain. The problem is that your DAZN World signal arrives in 1080i resolution, not 4K. Since Movistar Plus and Orange TV only limit themselves to distributing the signal, what they receive is what they give you. Both operators have confirmed it: there will be no 4K on their platforms for the World Cup matches. In Xataka The gap between Samsung and TCL in the television market seemed unbridgeable. Until it stops looking like it This represents a clear setback in terms of resolution and image quality since in Qatar 2022, World Goal It broadcast the 64 matches of the championship in 4K UHD both on Movistar Plus and on its own app. However, all is not lost. In a corner of the reviled DTT we have a glimmer of hope left for those of us who want to see the World Cup in the USA, Mexico and Canada with the best possible quality: La 1 UHD (Ultra High Definition). Yes, on DTT RTVE took over the rights to World Cup broadcast and will offer 33 open matches, including the opening match, the two semi-finals, the third and fourth place and the grand final, in addition to all the matches in which the Spanish National Team participates. These 33 matches will be the only ones that can be seen openly and in 4K in Spain. However, this RTVE signal also has small print for television platforms such as Movistar Plus and Orange TV, since on its grid They carry La 1 HD, but not La 1 UHDso to watch the games in 4K it will be necessary to tune in to the La 1 UHD channel on DTT, not the platform. First impressions of the TCL RM9L with RGB MiniLED: the alternative to OLED for large format screens Only Vodafone TV customers, you just added the RTVE channel in 4K on your grill, and Digi TV They will be able to watch the matches broadcast by the public entity in 4K quality from their platform. In short: if you want the 33 games in 4K, you need DTT (free to air) or Vodafone TV and DigiTV (with subscription). If you want to see the rest, you’ll have to settle for 1080i resolution. All is not lost: your television can save the game This is where something that few people take into account comes into play. when buying a TV: he image processor and its algorithms image enhancement and scaling. No matter how good your TV is, it’s not going to convert a 1080i resolution signal into 4K by magicbut it can improve a lot quality in which you watch the World Cup. Current televisions apply a process called upscaling, in which they take the input signal and upscale it to the panel’s native 4K resolution by adding, through AI and other algorithms, data that was not in the original source. In fact, it is the same process used by 8K TVs to display content that is in 4K. {“videoId”:”x95se90″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”How technology has changed football ⚽️”, “tag”:”webedia-prod”, “duration”:”708″} In this way, the processor “generates” an image that emulates 4K quality, improving the sharpness, color and motion processing of the original signal along the way. Therefore, how much the better the processor and the more refined the scaling and enhancement algorithms, the more convincing the result will be, reducing the difference between native content in 1080 and 4K. Amazon Prime Video, for example, has entire teams dedicated to ensuring make your signal look good on every type of screen and in every network condition. In practice, a high-end TV from Sony, Samsung or LG with a powerful processor can improve its quality when a 1080i game is displayed on a 4K panel. There is more detail, less noise, and the movement of the ball loses that artificial texture that poorly scaled signals have. On the other hand, with an entry-level television that does not have a reliable image processor and does not have optimized scaling algorithms, the signal is shown as it arrives: a 1080i expanded to cover the 4K panelbut without providing any improvement to the resulting image. In Xataka | Xiaomi castles in the QD-Mini LED in 2026: five new TVs and makes the leap to 98 inches with a knockdown price Image | Unsplash (Vitaly Gariev) (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news We are in 2026, but you will only see part of the World Cup in 4K because of DAZN: TV manufacturers are already rubbing their hands was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

The shape of the hands is one of the last evolutionary mysteries of the human being. And we are one step closer to solving it

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Our hands are, without a doubt, one of the wonders of biological engineering, since for a long time, the dominant evolutionary narrative has focused on how our anatomy transformed to allow precision grip and the manufacture of complex tools. However, if we look beyond the fingers and focus on the wrist, the bones tell a much older and more surprising story. New tests. A comprehensive published study in the magazine Proceedings of the Royal Society B has put on the table quite important evidence about how our ancestors moved. And the conclusion is that the morphology of our wrist retains an undeniable echo of a common ancestor adapted to walking supported on the knuckles. How they have done it. To reach this conclusion, the researchers have not relied on isolated conjectures, but on a large-scale anatomical analysis. The team analyzed more than 2,037 carpal boneswhich are what form the wrist, belonging to different species of primates, crossing these data with the anatomical analysis of 55 fossils of extinct hominins. What they discovered by mapping all this morphology is that human wrist bones don’t look like those of most primates, but instead share deep structural similarities specifically with African great apes. It’s not a coincidence, since it responds to the biomechanical adaptations necessary to support the weight of the body on the hands when they are closed. That is, although today we use our wrists for complex tasks such as typing, painting or even performing surgery, their architecture was designed for walking on the knuckles. Cautiously. Does this mean that our ancestor walked on his knuckles with absolute certainty? In science, closed statements are dangerous, and the authors of the study themselves are cautious, since they do not present this ancient practice as an irrefutable dogma, but as the most consistent and plausible interpretation according to the anatomical evidence on the table. Its evolution. Our body did not evolve suddenly to its current form, but rather went through different phases at different rates. Here the study shows this phenomenon in our hands, since, while the general structure of the wrist has preserved those primitive evolutionary signals shared with African apes, other parts of the hand changed later. Specifically, adaptations associated with fine, precision manipulation appeared much later in our evolutionary lineage. In Xataka | We had always believed that evolution had been arrested for thousands of years. The redheads were telling us the opposite

The first letter bomb was made in a pharmacy in Vigo and exploded in the hands of the captain general of Galicia in 1829.

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TO Nazario Eguía and Sáenz de Buruaga (1777-1865) we remember him for his political and military career, which even earned him the title of Count of Casa Eguía, but if this Biscayan with strong absolutist convictions was a pioneer in something (despite himself), it was in something else: letter bombs. In October 1829, Eguía found an envelope in his office in Santiago de Compostela that burst as he took off the flap, causing him more a dozen woundssome very serious. Let it be known that it was the first letter-bomb in history and its origin (or at least that is suspected) you have to look for it in a pharmacy in Vigo. “Excessively hard”. Nazario Eguía He was going to become a clergyman, but the war got in his way. At the age of 16 he abandoned ecclesiastical studies, took up arms against the French troops and began a brilliant military career that led him to serve under the orders of Wellingtonpromote to Field Marshal before the age of 37 and occupy the position of captain general of Galicia. Over time they would even name him a count and he would distinguish himself as an outstanding Carlist. In addition to his successes on the battlefield, Eguía was known for his toughness, which among other things earned him the hatred of the liberals while he served as captain general of Galicia. As explained the biography dedicated to him by the Society of Basque Studies, displayed an “excessively harsh” character. And that ended up generating quite a few enemies. Among them some with chemical knowledge and amazing expertise when it comes to assembling almost undetectable bombs. “Del Rey, for General Eguía”. The event occurred on the morning of October 29, 1829 in the Santa Cruz palace in Santiago de Compostela, where Eguía had his office. The soldier was reviewing the correspondence with his assistant when a package caught his attention. The sheet in question came from León and came wrapped in three different envelopes. The assistant was in charge of opening the first two, but when he reached the third he found a note: “Very reserved. From the King to General Eguía”. The soldier, a staunch absolutist, could not resist the temptation: he took the letter from his assistant, went to his table, ran his index finger along one of the folds and tore the envelope. Mistake. “At the same moment a loud explosion was heard. The table sprang to pieces and the general and the chair rolled on the floor,” details the writer Manuel Curros Enríquez (1852-1908) when remembering what happened that morning. “When he got up he had one of his hands destroyed.” “A terrifying detonation”. Curros’ story is not the only story that allows us to get an idea of ​​how serious the explosion was. Another testimonyeven more valuable, was contributed by Eguía’s secretary: “A frightful detonation and the surprise left the bystanders as if petrified, whose astonishment grew when they saw their general pouring blood from his face (…) and observed the frock coat he was wearing, defeated by the mouth-sleeves and part that covered the belly.” The journalist and historian Eduardo Rolland remember that the Galician press even explained how the explosion left a blood stain on the roof of the palace that could still be seen several months after the attack. Result: 13 wounds. Not only do we have a precise idea of ​​what the explosion was like. We also know what the bomb looked like and the effect it had on its victim. Regarding the first, the letter contained gunpowder mixed with arsenic and crushed glass, a combination designed to cause maximum damage. As for the captain general, he survived by a pure miracle. The chronicles say that he suffered 13 woundssome very seriousdistributed over the face, belly and thighs. The worst part was taken by their hands. The right one was so torn that doctors had to amputate it. On the left he lost two fingers. He was so badly off that the Government had to grant him a dispensation special so that he could sign documents with the help of a stamp. Who was the author? It seems that Eguía did not have many doubts. The story de Curros (not without epic) claims that after the explosion the captain proclaimed that he still had one hand left “to hang the culprit” and then cited his main suspect: “No one but Chao is capable of inventing such a perfect work!” This Chao was neither more nor less than José María Chao, chemist, pharmacist and above all a militant liberal. We know that he was a native of Leiro (province of Ourense), who participated in skirmishes during the Liberal Triennium and that around 1826 he set up a pharmacy in what is now the historic center of Vigo, a pharmacy that ended up becoming a reference for liberals forced to adapt to the Omino DecadeOh the repression under the reign of Ferdinand VII. The big doubt. Was Chao really the creator of the first known letter bomb? It is certainly not strange that Eguía suspected him. In addition to his chemical knowledge, in October 1829 Chao he had just gotten out of prison and it is said that his pharmacy was a hotbed of conspirators. It is true that the package bomb had been sent from Leónbut that could have been a ploy to deceive the authorities. However, evidence is one thing and evidence is another. Not all sources agree on whether the attack was clarified and Chao’s responsibility was confirmed. The biography that the Royal Academy of History (RAH) dedicates to Eguía assures that, although the liberals were suspected, “the authors could not be discovered.” The Voice of Galicia assures However, the apothecary could not get rid of a punishment and Rolland goes further and he slips that in 1873 Chao was “unequivocally” identified as the author of the letter. The first letter-bomb in history? What surely neither Eguía, nor Chao, nor any … Read more

If he wants to beat Anthropic, he needs more hands. So you’re going to double your template.

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OpenAI just realized that they had been launching products without rhyme or reason and they need to focus on something. And that something is the business sector, where an Anthropic with a much clearer business plan has been eating up their ground. To achieve this they need to increase their staff. A lot. More hands. According to Financial TimesOpenAI is planning to increase its staff throughout the year, almost doubling it. They currently have around 4,500 workers and the idea, according to internal sources, is to reach 8,000. To reach that figure they would have to hire 12 people a day; human resources will be on fire. The departments that need the most personnel are product development, engineering, research and sales. In addition, there is a figure that the company wants to reinforce; These are “technical ambassadors”, who will be a type of advisors who will guide companies that use their products so that they get the most out of them. They have also rented new offices in San Francisco, which will bring the total surface area to more than 90,000 square meters. Unstoppable Anthropic. This is part of a strategic reform that seeks to regain ground in the business segment, where Anthropic has gained a very solid position. According to data from Ramp AI IndexAlthough OpenAI is still the most used solution in business, adoption is falling while Anthropic is doing like a shot. 70% of companies that buy AI solutions for the first time choose Anthropic, at this rate, in a short time they will overtake them in the number of business users. It’s not that big of a deal. OpenAI has downplayed this figure because Ramp is a financial service and its data comes only from transactions made with your credit card “it’s like saying that global sales of lemons can be calculated based on my son’s lemonade stand,” said a company spokesperson. Be that as it may, the reality is that OpenAI is taking steps towards a restructuring of its product portfolio and its organization, and recovering business share is among its priorities. Unify portfolio. As part of this strategic pivot, OpenAI is planning the launch of a super app that will unify Codex, ChatGPT and the Atlas browser into a single tool. During 2025, OpenAI launched many very disparate products, many of them being half abandoned along the way like ChatGPT Atlas. In addition to showing a clear lack of focus, it is a very inefficient strategy; There are many computers, they all need computing capacity and no one is clear about what to prioritize, a disaster. The change is led by Fidji Simo, the company’s apps manager, who recently told employees “We cannot waste this moment because we are distracted by parallel projects.” The agreement with the Pentagon. All this coincides with the soap opera of Anthropic and the Pentagon. After weeks of tensions, Anthropic finally ended up on the government’s blacklist and OpenAI signed the agreement. What followed was that people started uninstalling ChatGPT en masse and in the public eye ChatGPT became the bad AI and Anthropic became the good AI that had not given in to government pressures. Sam Altman assured that there was no problemthat we could rest assured and that they also had red lines, a statement that has little to do with the facts. In Xataka | OpenAI wants us to have sex with ChatGPT. Your wellness advisors think it’s a terrible idea Image | Levart_Photographer, Nathan Sack on Unsplash

While half the world is worried about aging, one industry is rubbing its hands: the elevator industry

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The world ages. And at a good pace too. If the World Health Organization (WHO) hits the nail on the headin 2050 the percentage of people over 60 years of age will double that of 2015. From representing 12% it will become close to 22%. Beyond the percentages, this aging translates into challenges in economic, health and social matters. Also in juicy business opportunities, like the one that he thinks he has before him the elevator industry. In their case, an older world will be a world with more work. What has happened? That TK Elevator has shaken the elevator sector by openly recognizing that the gradual aging of the planet (very visible already in Europe or countries like Japan either Korea) represents a lucrative business opportunity. The reason is simple: the more elderly, the greater the need for elevators in buildings. Especially since these and their services are also aging. “A growing trend”. If TK’s words have generated so much expectation, it is because it is not just any company. The firm, based in Düsseldorf, is a heavy weight within the sector, where it is responsible for both manufacturing machinery and maintaining it. Their models can be found in emblematic skyscrapers in New York, although the bulk of their business comes from much more modest buildings occupied by homes, offices or shops. His prediction about the future of the sector in an increasingly aging world has not been made anywhere either. has shared it with one of the most influential newspapers in the US, Financial Times. “As the population ages there is a need to install elevators. We see this becoming a growing trend,” recognize the firm’s executive director, Uday Yadavl. The example of Japan. During his interview, Yadaval cited a specific case: Japan, perhaps one of the countries that is most clearly suffering from the winds of demographic winter. Although all your attempts to reactivate its population engine (and there have been many), the birth rate continues at levels historically low while on the streets it is increasingly easier to find elderly people. According to Our World in Datathe country has the highest “old-age dependency ratio” (the ratio between people over 64 and people of working age) in the world: in 2021 it exceeded 50%, which means that there are only two people of working age for every elderly person. And since then demographic indicators have not exactly improved. It is estimated that about 30% of the country’s population is 65 or older, which is equivalent to tens of millions of people. A widespread phenomenon. Japan is not the only nation facing an aging population, a problem with which Europe fights and other countries, such as South Korea either China. In general the WHO has warned that the trend seems to be accelerating globally and remember that in 2020 the number of people aged 60 or over exceeded that of children under five. “In 2030, one in six people in the world will be 60 years old or older,” insists the WHO, recalling that by then the world population over 60 years old will total 1.4 billion people, well above the 1,000 in 2020. Demographics (and more). It’s not just that more and more older people live in cities and need elevators to get to their homes, it’s that the buildings themselves need renovations. At the end of the day, we age… and the blocks in which we reside. Yadav estimates There are about 22 million elevators worldwide, of which a third (30%) are more than two decades old. In practice, this translates into an immense number of facilities that probably need improvements and tune-ups, a demand that, assures the manager from TK Elevator, is already “growing in a meaningful way.” “More than remarkable”. Although his weight in the sector gives him special relevance, Yadav is not the first to have publicly recognized the good forecasts that the elevator industry has. Last summer Roland Berger published a report in which he provided several insights into the global elevator market, valued according to his calculations at 107 billion dollars. After “several ups and downs” in recent years, marked by COVID-19 or the real estate crisis in China, companies now face a “more than notable growth panorama.” A trend that connects the sector with the flourishing silver economythe economy driven precisely by aging. Images | Zhuojun Yu (Unsplash) In Xataka | In Japan there is no doubt that they live worse than 30 years ago. Houses are literally getting smaller.

Spain’s main problem is not weapons, fighters or drones. It is the number of hands you need to use them.

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In recent years, the defense debate in Europe has revolved almost exclusively around money and technology. It talks about percentages of GDPmodernization and new systems capable of changing the battlefield. However, there is a much less visible factor that ends up being decisive when it comes time to turn plans into reality. A decade of losing muscle. The news Europa Press gave it. Since 2010, the Spanish Armed Forces They have lost 13,300 troops and they carry a structural deficit that the Military Life Observatory describes as chronic. As of January 1, 2025 there were 116,739 soldiers in active service, very far from the legal minimum of 130,000 established by the Military Career Law. The gap ranges between 13,000 and 23,000 uniformed personnel, a figure that is practically equivalent to an entire army within the system itself. Objectives that are not met. Several weeks ago another news item put the target on an enlightening fact: the regulatory framework establishes a maximum of 50,000 officers and non-commissioned officers, but there are only 40,656 dashboardsincluding 227 generals, leaving a wide margin unfilled. In the troops and Navy, the budget ceiling has limited staff numbers to 79,000 for years, although it is barely exceed 76,000 troops. The distance between what is provided for in the law and what is available in the barracks is not temporary, but sustained over time. More budget on weapons, fewer hands to operate them. The strategic debate in Europe has turned towards the modernization of systems and increased spending up to 2.1% of GDPbut the emphasis has not been transferred with the same intensity to the staff. Weapons programs and technological capabilities are expanding, but the number of military personnel is barely growing or even go back. Hence all this leads us to another reality very different from what we usually think: Spain’s main problem is not fighters, drones or new systems, but rather the great number of staff missing to use them and keep them operational. A 2025 that closed in negative. Despite the government’s commitment to increase staff by 7,500 personnel in four years, 2025 ended with 832 fewer soldiers than the previous year. The drop was especially pronounced at the officer level, where a thousand professionals they abandoned or passed to the reserve without sufficient replacement. Although non-commissioned officers and troops registered slight increases, the global balance was once again negative at a time when the international environment demands just the opposite. Lack of interest. The interpretation of these data leaves little room for doubt. The number of places offered has increased, but the proportion of applicants per vacancy has decreased worryingly. In the troop area the ratio has fallen to 4.2 applicants per placefar from the levels of a decade ago. In officers and non-commissioned officers, the descent is even more pronouncedwith fewer candidates and a worse selection margin, which limits the quality of replacement and anticipates problems of generational change. Salaries, mobility and little incentive for promotion. There is much more, as the report points to lower salaries to other bodies of the State and to an accumulated loss of purchasing power that discourages a military career. Constant mobility can imply a higher cost of living and low salary compensationleading many to give up promotions. The result is that “little interest” in progressing within the institution and a structure that ages without sufficient renewal. Stressed and aged. The other elephant in the room: more than a third of the dashboards exceeds 50 years and the troops also show progressive aging, while the reservists have decreased steadily since 2014. For its part, female participation grows slightly up to 13.1%above the NATO average, but it does not compensate for the overall loss of troops. I remembered the newspaper El Mundo that the system is also facing an increase in harassment complaints that adds reputational pressure at a time of low recruitment. Material capacity without critical mass. All this leaves a more or less illuminating map. Spain is investing in capabilities and is committed to increasingly demanding international missions, but it does so with less staff that fifteen years ago. The organizational structures and operational commitments have not diminished, rather the oppositewhile the human base it doesn’t stop shrinking. From that perspective, everything indicates that, if the trend is not reversed, the country may find itself with a future where the Armed Forces are modernized in equipment, but without the critical mass necessary to sustain them over time and respond reliably to an increasingly demanding strategic environment. Image | Air and Space Army Ministry of Defense Spain, Spanish Army In Xataka | Spain has a dilemma that is difficult to solve: call the US or be the last with a fighter jet in danger of extinction In Xataka | Spain has built a laser that shields the backbone of its Navy: the A400M is now ready for combat

Mexico needs the Mayan Train to work. And they are so desperate that they have put it in military hands

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There are many ambitious trains, but like the Mayan Train there are not as many. And it’s not because this train stands out for its speedby go through impossible tunnels either for luxurybut because few trains in the world must support a load as heavy as this one: being the backbone of the tourism in Mexico. Born with tremendous ambition, he started his engines with promises of wealth. AND is crashing resoundingly. So much so that Mexico has completed the transfer of control of the train to the Secretariat of National Defense. Army, to manage. FONATUR Tren Maya was the organization attached to the Ministry of Tourism that, since 2018was responsible for leading and managing the project. However, things did not work out, the plans were not fulfilled and, already in September 2023, when Obrador saw the arrival of the deadline to launch the train, he began to take steps for the Secretariat of National Defense to take control. After a series of steps, and as we read in Chroniclerit was at the end of 2025 when the process was finalized for Tourism to stop operating the train and Defense to take charge of it. Goals. The program has the following goals: Consolidate responsible transportation with the environment and society. Offer a safe and innovative transportation system. Ensure profitability through efficient management. That last point sounds like an ax to the previous management, but they are going to have a difficult time. Indifference. It was a few weeks ago when, in an article published by El País, the figure was revealed: the Mayan Train moved 5% of the expected demand. Neither tourists nor locals seem to have the slightest interest in a vehicle that was born to unite the different regions of the Yucatan Peninsula. Just because, It is the tourist jewel of Mexicobut also a tremendously unequal region in which Chichén Itzá brings together the majority of archaeological tourism, to the detriment of the others. And it seems that the train is not solving this. The report states that, during the first year, it transported about 3,200 passengers daily. Do we contextualize? The forecasts were for 74,000 passengers per day. Billionaire failure. It is a hard blow for a project that was already born on the wrong foot. It was the most ambitious project of the previous president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, one without private or foreign capital, 100% Mexican, which caused headaches practically from the beginning. Obrador took advantage of that public investment, but from an initial budget My dear between 120,000 and 150,000 million Mexican pesos -about 7,400 million euros-, it ended up costing more than 500,000 million pesos -about 24,500 million euros- for 1,500 kilometers of roads. Current itinerary Expansion. The change in management is not symbolic: a series of actions have been proposed to expand services. On the one hand, passing under military control implies that seeks to operate with greater security for passengers, especially in areas where conflicts with drug traffickers are a problem. Greater professionalization of management is also sought through an administration under military command, but in the background there is an expansion plan. The aim is to transport cargo such as food for isolated indigenous communities or medical goods. Also that the train serves as a humanitarian corridor in the face of misfortunes, and for this they will create more than 3,000 additional kilometerswith an extension to Puerto Progreso. Will anything change? It’s the million dollar question. On the one hand, the Sheinbaum Government has made it clear on more than one occasion that they want the railway to be the backbone of the country not only for the transportation of people, but also as a freight corridor. The goal By 2030, four million passengers per year and 4.7 million goods per year will be moved thanks to the integration with the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Thuantepec. Come on, turn the train into something that can compete against the Panama Canal. But of course, it can become a way to move goods, but we have to see if passengers use it to move. In statements to El País, it is more profitable for locals, and it is also more practical, to get around by bus. And tourists usually arrive in Yucatán with already established itineraries that do not require train services. And, on the other hand, there are the controversies associated with the military and the construction sections that they were in charge of in the past. Sections 5, 6 and 7 were commissioned directly to SEDENA, and there are not few cases of environmental violations, social conflictsviolation of human rights against indigenous Mayan communities and extra costs associated with those sections under military control. Images | Mayan Train, ProtoplasmaKid In Xataka | Urban transportation in Mexico City hangs by a thread. Literally: they will have the longest cable car in the world

The community has made it clear that they do not want AI in Windows and Microsoft has ignored them. So they have taken the law into their own hands

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Microsoft’s obsession with putting AI in every corner of Windows is logical at the current time (after all, it’s what everyone is doing). The problem is that the community has been very clear about this: they don’t want to. Microsoft has continued with its plan flood Windows 11 with AIbut we already have a way to avoid it. Winslop. The name comes from the play on words between Windows and Slop, which is the term used to refer to ‘AI garbage’, that is, very poor quality content. This is a free tool whose purpose is to eliminate all traces of AI from the system. Its creator makes it clear that he is not anti-Windows, in fact he states that he likes the platform, what he doesn’t like is the direction it is taking. CleanIA Windows. Winslop is totally free and you can download it from Github. The interface looks like old versions of Windows and consists of a list with all the changes that we can apply. There is an option that inspects the system and proposes the changes to be made, or we can check the boxes we want, depending on the level of cleaning we want. The list is quite long and is divided into categories, these are some of the functions we found: System: shows details if there is a blue screen instead of a sad face, optimizes system sensitivity, speeds up shutdown time… Microsoft Edge– makes it not the default browser, disables the Copilot icon, removes the shopping assistant, does not show sponsored links when opening a tab… Interface: Turn off transparency effects, hide taskbar search, turn off Bing search… gaming: Disables DVR recording, power throttling and visual effects. Privacy: disables activity history and location tracking Advertisements– Remove ads system-wide. AI– Hides Copilot from the taskbar and disables Windows Recall. Bloatware. There is more. Winslop is divided into three tabs: Windows 11, applications and extensions. From the apps section we can eliminate pre-installed applications such as Bing News, Bing Weather, WindowsCamera and many more. As in the other section, pressing the ‘Inspect System’ button gives us a list of suggestions to eliminate and we mark the ones we want. It’s not the first. Recently we told you about a tool that was born with the same objective (although with a name with less punch), RemoveWindowsAI. Like Winslop, it also disables all AI functions, but beyond its functions, the important thing is that its simple existence was already a symptom of community fatigue. The fact that another app has come out only confirms it. The PC IA. The obsession with turning Windows into an agentic system has collided head-on with what the community is asking for, to the point that Microsoft is losing favor with users. A year ago PCs with AI promised to be a revolutionbut they have come face to face with reality and even historical brands like Dell are changing their discourse. Microsoft is left alone. Image | Winslop In Xataka | There’s a reason AI PCs aren’t hurting Apple: Nobody asked for AI PCs

Their lands are in the hands of only 421 landowners

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While the whole world watches how digital and financial power is concentrated in the hands of a handful of millionaires in Silicon Valley, Scotland stands out for something much more physical but which serves as an example that this concentration of power in a few hands has been happening for centuries: land. Only 421 owners control around the 50% of private rural land of the country. It is a figure that is difficult to find in other countries and makes Scotland practically unique in Europe. What is surprising is not only the concentration of land in a few hands, but its persistence. While much of the continent fragmented property after revolutions, agrarian reforms or wars, Scotland has reached the 21st century with a territorial structure that has barely changed in centuries, maintaining its feudal structure. An anomaly with historical roots. The key to this territorial anomaly is intrinsically linked to its history. Scotland never experienced a radical break with its system of large estates. The power of the tribal clans first and the landowning aristocracy later consolidated enormous areas under a single owner. When other European countries redistributed land among their citizens, in Scotland the right to property remained almost intact. The historical studies reveal that already at the end of the 19th century the land was concentrated in a few hands, and the arrival of the modern State did not substantially alter that map. The result is that Scotland enters the 21st century with a property map that appears frozen in time. A European rarity considered “exceptional”. Why wasn’t it distributed? The absence of a profound territorial reform was not accidental. Unlike France, Germany or the Nordic countries, there was no massive redistribution of the land when feudal privileges were abolished. One of the reasons that weighs most heavily in this “anomaly” is that in Scotland there was no revolution or civil war that promoted a social change and land ownership, as happened in Europe with the World Wars, with the French Revolution, with the different dictatorships. Thanks to this territorial calm, the United Kingdom avoided major agrarian redistributions and protected private property as a pillar of its economic and political system. From lords to billionaires. For centuries, the great owners were dukes and great lords of aristocratic families. Today the profile is more diverse but equally wealthy. Scotland has become a magnet for international millionaires, heirs to large fortunes, investment funds. The reason why has attracted so many millionaires It is simple: few regions in Europe offer such large areas of land and the legal stability with respect to territory that Scotland offers. This is the case of Danish businessman Anders Povlsen, fashion magnate at the head of brands such as Jack&Jones and one of the main investors in the online giant Zalando, which in recent years has become one of the largest private landowners in the United Kingdom. Along the same lines we find the billionaire heiress of the Lego empire who, according to published The Timeslittle by little has been acquiring huge plots in the Scottish Highlands. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, emir of Dubai, is also among the new landowners who is acquiring land in Scotland at a frenetic pace. He already has eight houses in that area Owning land is a sign of power. In the Middle Ages, owning land was a symbol of economic power since a productive benefit was obtained from the crops. Today, it also maintains that powerful status, although for different reasons. Whoever controls thousands of hectares of land influences housing development, in energy projectsin land use and in the future of entire communities. a study of the Scottish Land Commission warns that such extreme concentration of land in the hands of a few landowners can limit local democracy and slow rural development, as a few people make key decisions about huge territories and those who live in or around them. Reforms that advance slowly. The Scottish Government has attempted to correct this anomaly with new territorial reform laws. Transparency has been improved, public procurement has been facilitated and the introduction of “public interest” mechanisms for large urban plans is being debated. However, both analysts and British media agree that current tools are completely insufficient to substantially change the balance on Scotland’s land ownership map. Concentration remains the norm, not the exception. Instead of dividing, they regroup. The most paradoxical thing about this situation is that, despite the political debate, recent data They show a reconcentration driven by the new millionaires turned landowners, who are buying large tracts of land and their surroundings. That is, properties that already belonged to others are once again concentrated under a single owner. He follow-up carried out by former MP Andy Wightman reveals that most big land deals end up in the hands of those who were already big landowners. These operations are supported by a real estate market that works in their favor due to high prices, a low supply and buyers with great financial capacity. The high prices of farms make them inaccessible to local communities or farmers who cannot compete against the financial capacity of millionaires. The gentrification has arrived to the Scottish Highlands. In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn Image | Unsplash (Toni Tan, Garvit Nama)

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