Hundreds

the appearance of hundreds of holes in its deserts confirm it

by

In the midst of the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union learned that the best way to avoid a nuclear war was to convince the enemy that it could never destroy all its weapons in one fell swoop. Half a century later, hundreds of new holes appeared in the deserts of China They suggest that Beijing has reached exactly the same conclusion. The revolution was underground. Over the past decade, much of the attention on Chinese military power has focused on their stealth fighterstheir aircraft carrier or their hypersonic missiles. However, the deepest and potentially most consequential change has occurred far from the spotlight, in the western deserts of the country. There, satellite images have revealed the appearance of hundreds of new silos for nuclear missilesa transformation that many analysts consider the largest expansion of China’s strategic arsenal in its entire history and that marks a radical change in the way Beijing conceives its nuclear deterrent. Chinese deserts and silos. The turning point came in 2021, when researchers specializing in open source intelligence they detected the construction of huge silo fields near Yumen, Hami and Ordos. Only those three areas add up to around of 320 new installationsan unprecedented figure for a country that had historically maintained a relatively small arsenal. The United States believes that all those silos they will end up housing missileswhile other experts suggest that some could remain empty to make it difficult for an adversary to know which contain real weapons and which are decoys. Chart showing the extent of ICBM silo construction at the Hami Missile Range Philosophy change. For decades, China’s nuclear strategy was based on having a limited number of missiles capable of guaranteeing retaliation if attacked. Now the objective seems different: increase the size of the arsenal, disperse it and make it much more difficult to destroy in a first hit. we have told before. The combination of hardened silos, mobile launchers and new technologies seeks to ensure that, even after a massive attack, China retains capacity enough to answerthus reinforcing the deterrent effect of its strategic forces. DF-41 A mobile and prepared force. Technological evolution reflects this doctrinal change. The old DF-5fed with liquid fuel and deployed in silos, continue in service after several modernizations, but the leading role has passed to the DF-31 family and, above all, to the DF-41. These missiles use solid fuel, can travel on large launch vehicles and come into action much faster, greatly reducing their vulnerability. Additionally, several versions incorporate multiple independent warheads (MIRV), allowing a single missile to attack several different targets. Type 094 The entire Chinese nuclear triad. Land-based missiles are only part of the plan. Beijing is also strengthening its naval component with class submarines. Type 094 and the future Type 096equipped with missiles JL-2 and the more advanced JL-3, which will allow attacking the US continental territory from waters much closer to China. At the same time, the development of the H-20 stealth bomberintended to complete a fully operational nuclear triad, that is, the ability to launch nuclear weapons from land, sea and air. H-20 Complicating any defense. Modernization is not just about making more missiles. China works in hypersonic glide vehicles capable of maneuvering at high speed after being launched, making it extremely difficult to intercept. He new DF-61 It could become the first Chinese intercontinental missile designed to use this type of weapon. Added to this are penetration systems, improvements in precision and mobile platforms capable of hiding and moving continuously, increasing uncertainty for any adversary. A new stage. The Pentagon estimates that China already has more than 600 operational nuclear warheads and could exceed the 1,000 before 2030. More important than the number is the speed of the transformation: in just a few years, Beijing has gone from maintaining a relatively modest nuclear force to building a structure comparable, in some aspects, to that of the other great atomic powers. The hundreds of silos that have been appearing silently in the desert are physical proof of that change and a reminder that China’s most important military revolution may not have occurred in the air or at sea, but underground. Image | FAS 2021, Google In Xataka | China has just launched its new heavy ion accelerator. He hasn’t built it just to study atoms In Xataka | New missiles are not needed to change the nuclear balance. China has just shown that sometimes it is enough to turn a single key

A cloud hundreds of kilometers away can ruin this summer’s eclipse and we are already beginning to know what the weather will be like in each place.

by

As the time approaches see the solar eclipse on August 12 2026, many of us are asking the same question: Will the weather be good? This is a relevant question whenever we are going to observe one of these astronomical phenomena. Nobody wants rain to ruin their show. However, specifically, it is even more important to look at the sky, since the Moon will obscure the Sun very close to sunset, so clouds can be especially treacherous. Today, we cannot know for sure what will happen. Weather predictions are more accurate the closer the date gets. To be considered reliable, they must be done about 3 days in advance. However, the first trend maps for the week of the eclipse are already beginning to appear. They are relatively optimistic, although they do not paint an ideal scenario either. Drier days than normal. In general, the forecasts they point because the days will be drier than normal for these dates in Extremadura, northern Andalusia and eastern Castilla y La Mancha. At these points the solar eclipse will not be seen in its entirety, but a good part of the Sun will be covered and the spectacle will be worth enjoying. On the other hand, there is a small area with less luck, since more rain than normal is expected at this time. These are the rest of Castilla la Mancha and south-central Aragon. Here we do find some points of the strip of totality. Dry does not mean cloudless. Just because rain is not expected does not mean that the skies will be completely clear or without haze. We cannot predict the haze so far in advance and neither can the clouds. Yes, we know that in inland places like Burgos, Soria either Teruelthe weather in August usually favors clear skies, although there may be afternoon storms that ruin the sunset. In the north, for its part, we will have to pay attention to the Atlantic cloudiness. And what about the heat? The first trend maps indicate that the day of the eclipse will be warmer than normal in practically all of Spain. Surprise for no one, with the summer we have. For this reason, much emphasis is being placed on wearing a hat and cool clothing, as well as carrying bottles of water to avoid the effects of the heat. During the exact moment of the eclipse, temperatures drop for obvious reasons, but it is normal to go to the site well before, so the heat can be a problem if we do not take precautions. The problem of the sunset. At the time the eclipse will take place, the Sun will be very close to the horizon. At that point, it happens that the light has to go a longer way through the atmosphere to reach us. The atmosphere dims sunlight. Therefore, as it travels through more of the atmosphere, the light arrives very weak. If we add to that a few clouds in the west, the eclipse could be ruined. Furthermore, there is the problem that, with the Sun this low, Even clouds hundreds of miles away can be annoyingagain because light must travel a very long path to reach us. Anyway, we will have to be patient. When the date gets much closer, we will be able to know with more certainty if there will be annoying clouds. In fact, even knowing it, we can have some surprises at the last moment. There have even been cases of cloudy and stormy skies that They have opened for a few seconds during the eclipse by pure luck. Even with late-breaking clouds, the solar eclipse should not be considered lost. Image | Magnific/Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | A third of Spain will be completely dark for a minute or two. The astronomical event of the century is approaching

Microsoft bet 80 billion that you would play hundreds of titles. It failed because you just wanted to play the same old game.

by

I have dozens of games in my library. Do you know how many I play? to two: from time to time I play a FIFA (I’ll always continue to call it that, I’m afraid) and if I get around to it I’ll hit the old ‘Battlefield 1’ that still has me conquered. In recent years I have enjoyed ‘Ghost of Tushima’, ‘Star Wars Jedi: Survivor’ or ‘Sifu’, for example, but while I was spending hours on those half a dozen titles, many others that I have in my library are simply collecting dust. Surely many of you play many more games and invest much more time in this, and Microsoft was surely thinking of you when it configured its future strategy. Xbox’s ambition was great until it wasn’t The idea in 2020 was clear, and those responsible for Microsoft said that There were 2.8 billion gamers in the world and they wanted to conquer them all. As? Well, with two great projects: Spend a million in buying video game development studios to constantly grow the catalog, and, of course, Create the ‘Netflix of video games’ with Xbox Game Pass Both ideas seemed to make a lot of sense and many gamers, especially those of us who were from Xbox, felt excited by that ambition. Xbox Game Pass seemed to be really exceptional for gamers and a nightmare for Sony, and although the operation to buy Activision Blizzard and franchises like ‘Call of Duty’ It was exceptionally expensive.the play again seemed like a fantastic bet for players of all types. But lo and behold, it wasn’t. These days we have known that Microsoft has spent close to $80 billion on agreements that would give it access to titles such as the aforementioned ‘Call of Duty’ or ‘Skyrim’, so that these video games could be available from day 1 or almost from the first moment on Xbox Game Pass. They wanted to create a catalog that would allow gamers to play hundreds of titles, including the most recent “triple A” titles, as part of the subscription to that service. They were wrong. And we also thought that the idea made sense. less is more The truth is that the strategy has not worked out well for them. The company has announced that will lay off 3,200 employees in its Xbox division20% of its staff, and will also allow five development studios to leave the company to follow their own path again. Maybe the answer wasn’t having more games. Steam already gave a strong clue at the beginning of 2025 when it pointed out that its platform It had become a video game dump.: Of 19,000 titles in 2024, almost no one played 80% of them. As in many other areas, the long tail theory prevails: interest is concentrated in a handful of contents that, on their own merits (perhaps seasoned with some luck) become absolute successes. The reality for the vast majority of gamers is the same: there are too many games on the market and people simply don’t have time to play all of them. Let’s be handsome or uglyWe insist, there is no time for so many video games. My colleague Jose García wrote in 2021 his particular reflection on how many we have become new digital Diogenes When it comes to video games: we get countless new games (most of them free) on Epic Games, Steam or GOG, but we have them collecting virtual dust in our library because we will never play many of them. My situation was also reflected in another text by Isra Fernández: Being a gamer after having children is complicated. The Netflix of video games was a utopia The picture that this situation paints for us is one that we intuited and made sense, but that we deceived ourselves by rejecting. Creating the Netflix of video games was impossible because video games are radically different to series or movies. While one consumes series or movies once and abandons them probably forever, gamers return to the video games we like again and again. We don’t spend an hour or two on them, but dozens and even hundreds of hours both in solo games and in games against other players on the internet. The way of consuming both content is precisely what destroys the illusion that a Netflix of video games makes sense. Xbox Game Pass offers us hundreds of titles so we can try them (and buy them) if we want, but we rarely do. I myself enjoyed Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for three years, and although I tried around twenty titles during that time, I always ended up returning to my classics. The options were wonderful, but I just didn’t have time for them. because when I wanted to play, I wanted to go back to my FIFA or my ‘Battlefield 1’. Microsoft itself already accused the problem when it gave us the worst news two years ago by raising the price of Xbox Game Pass. That was not enough, because a few months later he uploaded it again. The service was becoming more exclusive than ever, and it was doing so for one simple reason: they weren’t making enough money with it. But there is another problem that It is not just about consuming, but about producing. The “Netflix rhythm” is also unviable: there four scriptwriters start writing and in six months the platform releases a series that people devour in a weekend. In video games things are different, with increasingly longer and obscenely expensive developments. The famous availability of games available on “day 1” does not help either. That AAA video games worth 70 or 80 euros are available for free to subscribers was wonderful for us, but a shot in the foot for the company’s accounts. Building loyalty was important, but that was killing income for developments like these in which a lot of time and money is invested. The conclusion is clear in retrospect: Microsoft’s strategy was fantastic for … Read more

hundreds of Chinese boats preying on fishing grounds

by

There are maps that speak for themselves, like the ones has disclosed during the last few days the Ecologist Movement of Peru (MEP), an organization dedicated to the defense of the environment. Last week its managers hung up two satellite maps in which dozens and dozens of colored arrows can be seen crowded together in the Pacific, just off the coast of Mollendo. Each one of them, MEP complaintreveals the position of a Chinese ship that goes to the edges of Peru’s national waters in search of its squid schools. His presence already has put on guard to local fishermen. What has happened? That MEP has stirred up an old debate in Peru (and other nations of South America): the impact that the Chinese flag fleet has on the maritime resources of the region. On June 22, the organization published a satellite map online showing the concentration of dozens and dozens of ships just 220 nautical miles off the coast of Mollendo, south of Peru. According to the organization environmentalist, there are around “300 Chinese vessels” dedicated to “exploiting fishing outside the limits” of their national waters. Just one day later, on June 23, MEP returned to the fray with another satellite map that shows a long trail formed over the Pacific by ship marking points. “Satellite images from June 1 to 19 show that the Foreign Squid Fleet has completed its migration (north-south) along the edge of the Peruvian EEZ,” warned the entity. “Around 400 Chinese fishing vessels are concentrated 220 miles off the coast of Mollendo.” @ecocentristas This is what the fleet of around 300 Chinese fishing vessels that are concentrated 220 miles off the coast of Mollendo looks like 🇵🇪 🛰️These are China’s boats, exploiting fishing off the limits of the seas of Peru. 🇵🇪🦑🦑🦑 Ecological Movement of Peru ♬ original sound – Ecologist Movement of Peru – Ecologist Movement of Peru What is the problem? Basically the number and location of that large fleet of fishing vessels. If MEP is correct, these are hundreds of Asian ships mobilized right on the border of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), a region in which the coastal States (in this case Peru) have sovereign jurisdiction, which affects, among other things, their natural resources. The EEZ usually extends 200 miles, which would put the Chinese fishing fleet almost on the edge. The problem is that, beyond the demarcations drawn in offices or the distances included in international treaties, the Peruvian EEZ is situated in a much larger context: the ecosystem of the humboldt currentmaking that region of the Pacific especially valuable for fishermen. The UN itself recognizes that it is one of the “most productive areas in the world”, although it has also been warning for years about the serious threat which involves both climate change and the overexploitation of its fishing resources. What impact does it have? The million dollar question. In 2025 the newspaper The Republic public a report in which he echoed several complaints from Peru’s artisanal fishermen: incursions by Chinese vessels into the EEZ, indiscriminate exploitation of resources and fear that squid schools would be depleted. “The Peruvian boats go out, but they don’t bring the amount they used to. The Chinese boats prey on the sea, our boats are small, everything is done by hand. On the other hand, they have machines that take the fish faster,” explained to the newspaper Alberto Sánchez, fisherman from Paita, from Lima. Sailors dedicated to the artisanal capture of Pucusana even have denounced the sighting of large vessels in the 200 miles of the Peruvian EEZ despite the fact that the fleets must transmit their position via satellite. @ecocentristas 🛰️ Satellite images from June 1 to 19, 2026 show that the Foreign Squid Fleet has completed its migration (north-south) along the edge of the Peruvian EEZ. Around 400 Chinese fishing vessels are concentrated 220 miles off the coast of Mollendo. 🇵🇪 @ecocentristas ♬ original sound – Ecologist Movement of Peru – Ecologist Movement of Peru Is it something new? No. In 2024 MEP already launched a similar complaint. He even shared a map showing the accumulation of Asian ships right on the border of the Peruvian EEZ. “Where is the foreign squid fleet located? How many ships are there? What type of vessels are they and how many are in Peruvian ports?” I questioned the organization. A few days ago, after its last complaint, the Peruvian Navy (MGP) carried out an exploration flight which confirmed that, at least today, the foreign fishing fleet operates outside the Peruvian maritime domain, 230 miles away. Does it only affect Peru? No. The debate regarding the presence (and impact) of foreign fishing vessels on the South American coast is not new and goes far beyond Peru, also extending to nations such as Chili. Infoae cites studies that estimate that in 2024, 1,359 vessels will operate in the 500 nautical miles located off the coast of Peru. Of them, 525almost 40%, were ships of Chinese origin, a figure that far exceeds those of other nationalities. MEP’s warning also comes just a few days after Sustainable Fisheries Partnesihp launched a statement resounding in which they warn of the importance of not overexploiting the region’s resources. Hence, among other things, it requires that any legislative change be supported by a “scientific basis”. In the specific case of Peru, the agency warns of the registration of around 2,000 new vessels “built outside the legal framework” at a time when “the fishery has captured 83.27% of the quota” planned for this year. Does context matter? Yes. And not only because of the warnings from environmentalists or the misgivings of the sector. Two years ago the organization The Outlaw Ocean published a report in which he warned that China’s fishing footprint goes far beyond its fishing grounds or Asian flag vessels. The country also operates in other waters of South America, Africa and the Pacific thanks to ‘flagging’, which basically consists of arranging for a ship to fly the … Read more

“A microsecond lag in GPS could miss a moon landing by hundreds of meters”

by

The competition and space disagreements between the United States and China are one of the main geopolitical problems in 21st century science. We might think that this effort to be first only harms them, but in reality it can be a problem for anyone who enters the space race. There are many issues that serve as examples, although the most recent is the one that concerns lunar time. It has long been clear that there must be a lunar standard time, but The United States has decided to establish a and China another. The consequence is a weak satellite navigation system, which can affect anyone who wants to land on the Moon. At the moment, it seems that NASA is the most advanced in this regard, but it is possible that it will have to do so under Chinese standards, so the conflict, if they do not agree, is served. Two hours for one place. USA has agreed determine the lunar time under something called Coordinated Lunar Time (LTC). That would be the time under which the LunaNet satellites would work, a satellite system projected by NASA in 2019in order to control the first navigation system of our satellite. For its part, China has decided to establish the time according to the Lunar Time Ephemeris (LTE-440). This is the system with which both Queqiao-1 and Queqiao-2, the only two lunar relay satellites that are currently active, maneuver. They are designed for communications and would be the first step towards a lunar GPS system. Why is it necessary? Gravity is very different on Earth and the Moon. We know that gravity, in addition to generating attraction on bodies, also curves space-time. As a consequence, time passes more slowly the greater the gravity. And what does that mean? Well, basically, time passes faster on the Moon. Specifically, 56 microseconds faster. That means we can’t use the same time on Earth as we do on the Moon. Our natural satellite needs its own schedule. Be careful with the GPS. GPS systems work by signaling temporal signals measured by satellites. It measures how long it takes for the satellite signal to get from one point to another and, thus, the distance can be calculated. Therefore, it is very important that satellites and clocks work with the same time system. When traveling to the Moon, you should take into account how the satellites used by GPS measure time. But we have already seen that China and the United States do not agree on that. For now, LunaNet is nothing more than a project. The Chinese lunar GPS system too, but at least there are already satellites. Those from the United States have not been launched. Therefore, if NASA lands on the Moon without taking into account the Chinese time system, there could be problems. Just a microsecond of difference in lunar time can affect hundreds of meters away. That can be very dangerous in the face of a moon landing. China has already tried it. The Asian country is the only one that has landed a ship on the far side of the moon. Terrestrial radio systems do not reach this area of ​​our satellite. Therefore, this unmanned moon landing had complete dependence on Queqiao-1. It was proven to work, as the moon landing was a success. But of course, the ship was synchronized with the satellite time system. It is necessary to reach agreements. Sometimes these types of political disagreements make scientists quite lazy. They may want to reach agreements to work in a safer way. At the moment, NIST, which is the United States Standards Institute, is having conversations with the Purple Mountain Observatory (Zijinshan). This institution is one of the main managers of Chinese satellites, so its decisions are very important in the decision to use one time system or another. For everyone to achieve their goals, this time it would be necessary to work as a team. The grudges and competitions could end up delaying the space race for both sides. Image | Magnificent In Xataka | Mars was the great space battleground between China and the US. Now it’s the Moon and there’s too much at stake

The European Union is successfully demolishing hundreds of dams across the continent. It’s for our good

by

When Tore Sorebakken and a team of workers reached the Vinstra River in the heart of Norway in December 2025, no one knew what they were looking for. But when they emptied the pond, drilled dozens of holes and installed 750 kilos of explosives, local authorities stopped them and asked them what why were they trying to destroy that natural waterfall. Sorebakken, surprised, had to explain to them that this was actually a dam built at the beginning of the 20th century to facilitate the transportation of wood and generate a minimum amount of hydroelectric energy. The locals had completely forgotten about it: as I say, they had no idea that it was a human infrastructure. And that is a beautiful metaphor for the enormous abandonment that European rivers have suffered for decades. Free the rivers. Six years ago, the demolition of old dams and clogged weirs was anecdotal in Europe. But in 2024 it came into force European Union Nature Restoration Regulation. It sought to return 25,000 kilometers of river to “free-flow” status before 2030. Since then (since before, really, because there were countries that began to implement it before it came into force) we have had five consecutive years of historical highs. In 2025, according to Dam Removal Europe annual reportat least 603 barriers were removed on the continent. This allowed more than 3,740 kilometers of river to be reconnected. The ‘more’ in the previous paragraph is because reconnection data is only available for 198 of the 603 barriers removed. But why do we want to ‘reconnect kilometers of river’? There are many data, but one that is especially clear is that More than 42% of European freshwater fish species are threateneds and about two-thirds are at risk of being so. Whether we like it or not, 9 out of 10 natural disasters in the European Union in the last decade have had to do with water. And having the rivers full of forgotten structures is part of the problem. ‘Taking back control’ of rivers is essential to reduce the risks of contemporary European society. But that will have consequences, right? This can be read in many places: that European policies of “dam demolition” aggravate droughts. The problem is, of course, that is inaccurate. At least, if we go by the majority of the demolitions. Almost everything that is being torn down are weirs of less than two meters. That is, small barriers that do not store water, but rather raise the sheet to divert flow to an irrigation canal, hydroelectric plant or mill. In fact, most of them should already be demolished because the concessions that allowed them have expired, but no one has paid special attention to it. Until now. Image | Red Zeppelin In Xataka | “In the next ten years, Spain and Latin America are going to suffer (a lot) with water,” Robert Glennon (University of Arizona)

Sudan hid hundreds of unknown tombs of a lost civilization. They have appeared thanks to satellites

by

If there is a known civilization within the African continent, it is Ancient Egypt and figures like Ramses or Cleopatra. However, relatively nearby there was another kingdom studied at length by archaeology: Nubia (although less famous to the general public). And between the two, a desert to pass by, literally and figuratively. Because there is the Atbai desert, a region between the Nile and the Red Sea where an archeology team just discovered hundreds of tombs from more than 5,000 years ago arranged in a monumental way, as you can see on these lines. The discovery. An international archeology team has identified 280 stone funerary monuments scattered throughout the desert, of which only 20 were known to exist. That is, 260 are “new.” The funeral complex has been called Atbai Enclosure Burials and its construction probably dates back to between 4500 and 2500 BC. These structures consist of large circular or ovoid enclosures delimited by large walls made of local stone, whose diameters vary from five meters in the most modest examples to reaching 82 meters. Inside they have found remains of both humans and cattle, sheep and goats. The internal layout of some tombs points to a certain social inequality: in several landmarks there is a central burial that dominates the structure, with other humans and animals arranged around it. In fact, the tomb with the most grave goods contained the remains of about 18 cows. Why is it important. Because these tombs suggest that the region was not a mere passageway between civilizations, but the home where pastoral people lived. The Atbai Desert was not a no man’s land between Egypt and the Red Sea, but had its own identity. As suggests the paperthe monuments are the cultural expression of a society with social strata in which wealth was evidenced with rituals, these stone milestones and livestock, like other neighboring regions. Context. According to previous excavations and the radiocarbon used on them, these monuments were probably built during the decline of the African Humid Period, when that area located in northeastern Africa went from more humid conditions to aridity because at that time the Atbai desert was not such: it contained vegetation and water sources, even if they were seasonal. As the climate became harsher, herding cows also became a more arduous task, so they adapted their herds: sheep, goats and finally camels. How they discovered it. In a word: satellites. The team made up of archaeologists from Macquarie University, France’s HiSoMA research unit and the Polish Academy of Sciences used satellite remote sensing over the eastern Sudan desert to map 1,000 kilometers of desert in search of more clues to its history. Why would an archaeologist want to avoid digging? Basically because in Sudan there is an armed conflict which means that field work can be directly lethal. But in addition to locating the tombs, the satellite images also revealed dense networks of ancestral trails engraved in the landscape by the repeated passage of livestock between grazing areas and water sources, a direct and visible trace of livestock activity linked to the funerary sites. That is, they not only found where they buried their dead, but also the paths they traveled in life. Yes, but. The first “but” is obvious: the majority of this funerary display has only been seen on satellite and has not been excavated, which leaves basic information such as precise dating in the air. On the other hand, this discovery located in the Atbai Desert could be just the tip of the iceberg: others may have been lost due to erosion, floods or even modern mining, which is very active in the area. The authors themselves acknowledge that they do not know with certainty whether these structures are exclusive to the Atbai or if they existed in neighboring regions and simply have not survived. The million-dollar question is: if in a desert as little studied as this one, 260 monuments have just appeared at once, how much history of the pastoralist Sahara will still be hidden under the sand waiting to be discovered? In Xataka | We just discovered that a semi-legendary Nile king really existed thanks to a 17th century document found in trash In Xataka | A Spaniard claims to have solved how the Great Pyramid of Giza was built: the answer was right under our noses Cover | Atbai Enclosure Burials: Monumentalism, Pastoralism and Environmental Change in the Mid-Holocene East Nubian Deserts edited with Gemini

Alcasec managed to access hundreds of thousands of banking details in Spain: now it has accepted prison

by

There are cybersecurity cases that seem distant until they force us to look inward. We are not talking about a large foreign technology company or a gap lost in some remote corner of the Internet, but rather about banking data of citizens in Spain, access linked to public infrastructure and a chain that, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, ended with hundreds of thousands of records entered into a portal for sale. What we have seen with Alcasec It matters not only because of the name itself, but because of what it reveals: personal information has become a very valuable commodity. The agreement. This part of the case has been settled in the National Court with an agreement between the accused and the Prosecutor’s Office. According to EFEJosé Luis Huertas, alias Alcasec, has accepted a sentence of two years and seven months in prison for the crimes of illegal access to computer systems and discovery and disclosure of secrets. The Prosecutor’s Office initially requested three years, but applied the mitigating circumstance of confession. Along with him, Daniel BE and Juan Carlos OG, thus identified in the judicial information, have also accepted a sentence: two years and two months for the first as a cooperator and one year and three months for the second for discovery of secrets. The access. The indictment describes an entry built in layers, not a simple stroke of luck. On October 19, 2021, Alcasec contracted two massive data storage systems with Cherry Servers, a company based in Lithuania, using an email account created when he was a minor to hide his identity. Later, Daniel BE, whom the Prosecutor’s Office links to Russian forums specialized in the unauthorized sale of passwords, provided him with a stolen digital certificate issued to the General Directorate of Traffic. With that certificate, always according to the accusation, he managed to navigate the SARA network, connect to the CGPJ Judicial Neutral Point website and obtain the credentials of an official from a Bilbao court. The impersonation. The next step, always according to the Prosecutor’s Office, was to convert that first access into a way to obtain more credentials. Alcasec and Daniel BE created a page that pretended to be the access website to the Judicial Neutral Point, and the former sent a text chain to different courts that redirected to that false page. Two officials mistakenly entered their passwords, which allowed the scope of the attack to expand. The mechanics are important because they show that the intrusion did not depend only on a technical vulnerability, but also on deception of real users. The scale. With these credentials, according to the indictment, Alcasec made 438,099 requests to the Tax Agency’s “extended bank accounts” web service and shortly after carried out a second attack. The data is not minor: we are not talking about an isolated query, but rather a massive volume of queries to sensitive information through a system connected to the Administration. For the sale of data, some of relevant people, the portal was available. The reduction. The accepted sentence does not come out of nowhere, but from an agreement in accordance with the Prosecutor’s Office. As we noted above, the initial request was for three years in prison, but it was reduced to two years and seven months when the mitigating circumstance of confession for the recognized crimes was applied. The prosecutor also valued the collaboration of the accused during the investigation, particularly in providing their codes and passwords. In addition, they accepted the confiscation of the effects and the physical and virtual money seized in the searches carried out in Madrid, Cartagena and Dos Hermanas. Another investigation. There is an important nuance to not mix planes. Alcasec has been in provisional prison for a year for a different reason, related to a network of cyberattacks that seized sensitive and private data of millions of citizens and that he allegedly led. In that investigation he was arrested along with former Secretary of State for Security Francisco Martínez, currently on trial for Operation Kitchen. The reading. What this case leaves behind is not only an accepted conviction, but a fairly clear photograph of where part of cybercrime has moved. We are no longer just talking about entering a system, but about chaining access, taking advantage of real credentials, consulting sensitive services and preparing information for sale. Images | Capture YouTube In Xataka | We have spoken with one of the leading cybersecurity companies in Spain. And his diagnosis is not encouraging

six companies, hundreds of millions of dollars and 25 missions to conquer the South Pole

by

NASA has already launched phase 1 of construction of your moon base. They have not yet taken a new batch of humans to the Moon, but it is important to prepare the ground, which is why this Tuesday they announced the first steps they are taking to do so. And, as it could not be otherwise, it all starts with million-dollar hires. 6 companies in total. At the moment, NASA has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in hiring six companies that will be in charge of developing the technologies necessary to launch the first phase of the lunar base. The companies in question are Blue Origin, Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines, Astrolab, Lunar Outpost and Firefly Aerospace. In general, in this first phase of construction of the lunar base it is expected to explore the south polar region, test various technologies and prepare surface operations. All of this will be carried out through 25 missions that will include 21 moon landings. Moon Base 1. To begin with, the first three missions are expected to launch this year. The first, Moon Base 1, will be carried out by Blue Origin. Jeff Bezos’ company will take its lander to the Moon Blue Moon Mark 1the “brother” of the Blue Moon Mark 2 that is preparing to become the human landing system for the Artemis missions. As payload will include the Stereoscopic Cameras for Lunar Plume-Surface Studies to study how thrusters interact with the lunar surface, and the Laser Retroreflective Array, which helps spacecraft in orbit determine a more precise location using reflected laser light. The mission will take place in autumn 2026 if all goes well. Since it will be the first to land in the Shackleton crater, where the base is to be built, it will also be in charge of checking the viability of lunar landings near the lunar base. Moon Base 2. The second mission, which will also travel to the Moon at the end of 2026, will be carried out by Astrobotic. It will send its Griffin lander to the Moon, loaded with 500 kg of instrumentation, including a rover to study the surface on which the base will be built and mature the mobility systems for future manned vehicles. Moon Base 3. The third mission to be sent in 2026 has been granted to Intuitive Machines. This company will take its Nova-C Trinity lunar module there, which will be in charge of studying lunar eddies and the behavior of materials under extreme conditions. Furthermore, this mission will not be 100% private, as it will include payloads from the European Space Agency and the Korean Institute of Astronomy and Space Sciences. Some of the models that NASA showed during the press conference Boogies to move around the Moon. So that future astronauts who travel to the lunar base can move around it, they want to take two manned lunar vehicles there. Said so that we can all understand each other, two boogie-type strollers, designed to move around the lunar surface, both with and without a crew. Its development has been entrusted to the companies Astrolab and Lunar Outpost, also as part of this first phase. Delimitation drones. The company Firefly Aerospace has been entrusted with taking the 4 Moonfall drones to the Moon, whose main mission will be to inspect the area in search of the best landing places for the astronauts. Although they will also have a much more peculiar mission. As explained At NASA’s press conference, its executive director of the lunar base program, Carlos García-Galan, these drones will also be stationed in the corners to delimit the perimeter of the lunar base. Next phases. This first phase will last until 2029. Then the next phase will begin, which will end in 2032. In this, the permanent infrastructure of the lunar base will begin to be built, including electrical installation. From then on, it will only be necessary to refine more and more details and little by little receive the astronauts of the Artemis missions of the future. Without a doubt, this is the beginning of a new era of space exploration. Image | POT In Xataka | We knew there was water on the Moon, but not why some craters were empty. Finally we have the answer

We have hundreds of abandoned silos in Spain. Extremadura has found the perfect technology to convert them into batteries

by

There are industrial infrastructures that, when they stop being useful, end up blending into the landscape without making much noise, turned into concrete ghosts. The old grain silos, which for decades were the vibrant heart of the agricultural economy of many towns, are today the best example of this reality in rural Spain. However, the energy transition has brought them a destiny that is as unexpected as it is promising. The region of Extremadura has decided to give a second life to these abandoned giants next to roads and plains, transforming them into enormous facilities to store renewable energy. Silos in batteries. All of this materializes under the THESILO projecta cross-border initiative that has just been officially presented in the small town of Torremocha in Cáceres. There, the City Council has donated a disused silo to house the first experimental pilot that will test this technology in real conditions. The urgency of this essay is better understood when looking at the sector’s figures: over the last year, according to data from Red Eléctrica de España (REE)nearly 10,000 MW of new renewable power were installed in the country. The conflict arises when this enormous production is concentrated at specific times of the day, especially with photovoltaic technology. In very sunny regions like Extremadura, the electrical grid collapses as it cannot absorb all the available energy, causing the dreaded “dumps”: plants that must stop their production because there is nowhere to store the electricity and the energy is wasted. So the solution proposed by THESILO is brilliant in its simplicity: take advantage of these enormous concrete structures to store electrical surpluses in the form of heat. Nordic inspiration. Although visually it may seem like science fiction, this concept already has a solid precedent in northern Europe. In Finland already operates successfully the system Power to Heat (energy to heat) through gigantic “sand batteries”. In the town of Pornainen, a silo filled with 2,000 tonnes of crushed soapstone is capable of storing heat at temperatures of up to 500°C for months, achieving an efficiency of between 85% and 90%. The Extremaduran project It is based on the same principle: When renewable production skyrockets and electricity loses value in the market, that excess energy will be used to power high-efficiency resistors that will generate heat. This heat will be trapped inside the silo using very low-cost granular materials as a storage medium. There is no need to use construction sand; The use of recycled waste from quarries, industrial by-products and demolition materials that resist high temperatures in a stable and economical manner will be investigated. Once stored, the objective is that this heat can be distributed through thermal exchange systems to supply the local agri-food industry, public buildings or homes in the surrounding municipalities. The project, whose execution It is scheduled between January 1, 2026 and December 31, 2028, and is structured around four main axes, ranging from the adaptation of the silos to the analysis of their legal and environmental viability. X-ray of the project. To understand the magnitude of THESILO you have to look at its figures: framed in the European Interreg POCTEP programthe project manages a budget of more than 1.5 million euros, largely supported by FEDER funds. The cross-border consortium is led by the Iberian Center for Research in Energy Storage (CIIAE), which has built a strategic network with Spanish and Portuguese allies such as AGENEX, INTROMAC, ADAI, AreanaTejo, the Polytechnic of Portalegre and ITECONS. An essential union of forces to cover the EUROACE euroregion (Extremadura, Alentejo and Central Portugal), an extensive territory where today 1,050 disused silos await with the potential of becoming the thermal battery network of the future. An impact that crosses borders. Beyond the technological component, the socioeconomic impact is the true driving force of the initiative. The Secretary General of Science, Technology and Innovation, Javier de Francisco Morcillo, stressed during the presentation that the ultimate objective is the “boost of business growth and the revitalization of rural communities.” According to the secretary, Europe demands that the knowledge generated “leads to a transfer of results that results in immediate socioeconomic improvement.” Furthermore, he highlighted the capacity of Extremadura to lead these cross-border funds, recalling that the region has captured between 2021 and 2025 more than double the funds from the Horizon Europe program compared to the 2014-2020 period, according to data from the CDTI. The future involves recycling the past. There are still unknowns to clear up and regulatory procedures to overcome to demonstrate that this model works on a large scale. The Torremocha pilot will be the true test of fire to evaluate how the original structure of the silo responds to high temperatures and certify whether the investment makes sense compared to other solutions that are gaining ground, such as hydraulic pumping or chemical batteries. However, THESILO perfectly summarizes where the energy transition in Europe is headed. Decarbonization cannot depend solely on newly built pharaonic infrastructures; It also requires projects that embrace the circular economy. Reusing already built infrastructure not only reduces costs and avoids new construction, but also brings forgotten giants back to life, attracting investment and employment to areas that have been losing population for years. A demonstration that the solution to tomorrow’s energy challenges may be hidden in plain sight in the towns of rural Spain. Image | Xataka Xataka | Finland has found a cheap way to store energy all winter: a tower of 2,000 tons of sand

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.