Kingdom

There are so few bees that there is a law in the United Kingdom that requires new houses to have “rooms” for them.

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On a global scale, humanity is facing a natural disaster that we have not yet come to terms with: the “insect apocalypse.” Science takes years showing its decline and although without careful thought the first impression may be “how nice to get rid of mosquitoes”, that loss threatens ecosystems essential for human life. In this collapse there is a most critical and weakest link if possible: pollinators. Its disappearance not only affects the flora, but also the food. Faced with progressive urbanization and the loss of its natural habitats, current architecture in the United Kingdom has begun to integrate microconservation solutions into the buildings themselves: the Bee Bricka brick that, in addition to supporting walls, houses bees. What began as a sustainable design project has become an urban policy phenomenon that is spreading around the world. bee bricks. As you can see below these lines, a bee brick looks quite similar to a normal brick, but with one particularity: on its front face it has 18 cavities of different diameters. The back is solid, which prevents insects from entering the interior of the building. It is made from precast and largely recycled concrete (75% granite waste from the Cornish kaolin industry and 25% granite aggregate and cementitious material as a binder). Behind the choice of design and materials used are years of testing and research not only by engineering professionals, but also by biology, such as collect research log from Falmouth University. This Bee brick can be integrated directly into the masonry of a new building, replace an existing brick in a renovation or placed independently in a garden or orchard. As a presentation, the British company Green&Blue came up with the idea and the first brick hit the market in 2014. This is what a brick for abjeas looks like. green and blue Why it is important. Because bees are one of the main engines of pollination of terrestrial ecosystems. According to the IPBES Thematic Assessment on Pollinators, Pollination and Food Productionmore than three quarters of the world’s major crops benefit from animal pollination and approximately one third of the global volume of food produced depends on it directly. That same report indicates that 87.5% of the planet’s flowering plants are pollinated by insects or other animals. And although in the collective imagination we associate this function with honey bees (Apis mellifera), this is actually an exception: they are a social species, domesticated and exploited by humans. In short: they are an overwhelming minority. Most bees do not produce honey, do not have a queen, and do not form colonies. Of course, they are first-class pollinators and some are specialized in specific species. Their decline has no substitute: if they disappear, there will be plants that will be left without a pollinator. Context. In the UK there are approximately 270 species of bees and 90% of them are solitary, such as collects the British National Bee Unit. And it is not an isolated case: on the European red list of bees of the IUCN are also the majority and on a global scale the Journal of Applied Ecology establishes that more than 75% of the more than 20,000 described species of bees are solitary. In other words, it is not an isolated case of the islands. And the problem of British bees is not exclusive either: they are losing their nesting habitat at stratospheric speed. Historically, they made their nests in cavities provided by construction, such as dead wood, cracks in the mortar in old buildings, gaps between stones and also in slopes of unpaved earth, in gaps between stones… spaces that with modern construction, so homogeneous and sealed (compared to the previous ones), have disappeared. The large-scale use of pesticides, the disappearance of grasslands or the effects of climate change, which are pushing species adapted to lower temperatures to the margins, do not help either. And that this study from Anglia Ruskin University evidence that solitary ground bees nest in a wider range of habitats than previously believed. Rooms for bees by law. The southern English coastal city Brighton & Hove was the first to turn the Bee Bricks into a legal requirement for new buildings. From January 2022 all new buildings over five meters high must include both Bee Bricks as nest boxes for swifts. Out there, Cornwall adopted in 2018 an official planning guide that includes bee bricks as a prescriptive biodiversity measure and several construction companies in the south of England they integrate them voluntarily in their projects for more than a decade. And do they work? Trials in Cornwall between 2019 and 2021 demonstrate modest results: occupancy rates were low, although nesting activity was recorded in bricks of all colors and in both urban and rural environments. The species that used them the most were the red mason bee (Osmia bicornis) and leaf cutters of the genus Megachile. He Conservation evidence from the University of Cambridge systematizes the available studies on artificial habitats for bees and concludes that nest boxes and cavity systems are used by solitary bees, as long as they are well designed and located. To work, the bricks need to face south, more than a meter off the ground and near flowering plants. Without those conditions, the probability of a bee colonizing them drops dramatically. Yes, but. In addition to the modest results precisely due to unsuitable designs and arrangements, there are experts such as Dave Goulson, professor of biology at the University of Sussex and one of the most renowned bee researchers in the United Kingdom, warns for The Guardian that the holes in the Bee Bricks are too small and shallow for most solitary bee species and that the initiative risks being greenwashing for the real estate sector: “We are kidding ourselves if we think that having one of these in every house is going to make a real difference to biodiversity. Much more substantial action is needed.” On the other hand, other ecology professionals they point out … Read more

For decades, the “Galicia” octopus has been the greatest guarantee of quality. The United Kingdom wants to take it away

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The Galician octopus may be the most famous, but for some time now, talking about the most precious cephalopod in the country’s gastronomy requires looking beyond the Rías Baixas. In fact, it forces us to take a leap of hundreds of kilometers and look at the other side of the English Channel, on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. There the English fishermen have encountered a curious octopus invasion which at first they viewed with suspicion (they have been dedicated to capturing other species for generations), but each time it awakens greater interest in London. The question is how can it affect that to Galicia, a land that has turned octopus into a ‘religion’ (in addition to a big business) and that in recent years has encountered the opposite panorama: a fall in the capture of cephalopods. What has happened? That the octopus map is changing. And although we still don’t know for sure how deep (and stable) that transformation will be, it has been clear enough to generate expectation in Galicia, a land closely linked to the cephalopod from a cultural and economic point of view. To understand it, we have to go back to 2025, when fishermen who fish on the southern coasts of the United Kingdom encountered an unexpected picture: in the pots that have been installed for generations to hunt crabs and lobsters, they began to appear empty shells…a clue to the presence of octopuses. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it so strange? Because the ports in the north of the peninsula are used to large unloadings of octopus, but things change when we talk about Newlyn or Brixham, in England. There the boats that go out to fish hope to collect sole, turbot, crabs or lobsters. A few months ago, however, the fishermen encountered an unexpected (and apparently inexplicable) invasion of Octopus vulgariscephalopods that usually live in the Mediterranean or other areas of the Atlantic, such as the Galician coast. It was not a one-off boom. Nor something anecdotal. The phenomenon was so surprising that it even caught the attention of Stephen Castle, a reporter for The New York Timeswho in September traveled to Brixham to talk to sailors and operators. In a chronicle about what he saw there, he talks about fishermen ecstatic to see how their turnover skyrocketed thanks to new catches, auctions of tons of merchandise and veterans of the sector recognizing that it was the first time they had captured the species in their waters in more than 40 years. This is good news, right? Depends. Castle chatted with fishermen who rub their hands when they see the tentacles wriggling in their nets, but also with others who frustratedly tell how octopuses boycott the pots with which they capture shellfish. They are not the only ones who are not enthusiastic about the new plague. “I recently visited the fishing industry in Plummouth and was informed that there was an unusual abundance of octopuses in the south west. The Ministry of Environment and Food understands that the proliferation is affecting shellfish pot fishing and causing concern in the fishing sector in the area,” warned in May last year the Labor MP Daniel Zeichner. And why not take advantage of it? That is the question that the British authorities seem to have asked themselves, who have decided that the cephalopod invasion may be something more: an opportunity. At the beginning of the year Vigo Lighthouse revealed who in London want to promote a formal, regulated and industrial fishery of the octopus vulgaris. In short: make a virtue of necessity and equip yourself with a strategy to gain a foothold in a market that moves billions of euros. Proof that the United Kingdom they are very serious with the octopus is that the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Marine Management Organization (MMO), two departments linked to the Government, “are considering how best to collaborate with the EU to learn from existing octopus fisheries.” a few days ago The Voice of Galicia even reported that the country is already looking at the markets of the rest of Europe and Morocco. It makes sense if we take into account that the change on the English coast, with an octopus boom that in turn reduces the population of other traditional species, already affected to the Christmas campaign. Do they have that many octopuses? Yes. In September, after speaking with the manager of a market, Castle talked about the sale of up to 48 tons of octopus in a single day. Official MMO data shows that last year a total of about 1,900 tons of octopus, especially in Brixham and Dartmouth. It is an exceptional fact. First, because it exponentially multiplies the discrete cephalopod capture data recorded so far. Second, because it surpasses the 1,200 t handled in the markets of Galicia. There is sources which indicate that total sales in the UK markets would be much higher. Data from the Xunta on the sale (blue) and price (yellow) of octopus in the markets of Galicia. Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that English fishermen have found octopuses wrapped in their nets and pots. Vigo Lighthouse remember that in Devon and Cornwall sailors already encountered similar situations in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, when the regional press came to speak of “a perfect plague” of “disgusting beasts” that “almost ruined” the sector. On this occasion there are signs that suggest that it will not be something temporary. Experts such as Seteve Simpson, from the University of Bristol, slide that climate change is “a likely factor” in explaining the increase in octopuses in southern England. “Our waters are warming, so our little island of Britain is becoming increasingly favorable for octopus populations,” he theorizes. There are clues that suggest he is not wrong. In Plymouth there are fishermen who recognize that they not only encounter adult specimens when fishing. They also see … Read more

The United Kingdom has a laser capable of shooting down drones flying at 650 km/h. And each shot is the same as two beers.

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For some time now, armies have pursued an idea: weapons that fire energy instead of projectiles. Already in the Cold War was experienced with systems capable of concentrating heat at a distance, although technical limitations relegated them to tests and prototypes for years. Today, with advances in electrical generation and beam control, that ambition has begun to emerge from the laboratory, although it still entailed challenges that for a long time seemed impossible to solve. The UK seems to have solved the most important one. From the laboratory to real combat. He DragonFire program marks a turning point in the evolution of directed energy weapons, and it does so by going from technological demonstrator to embedded operating system. The United Kingdom has decided to accelerate its deployment until 2027integrating it into Type 45 destroyers and becoming the first European country from NATO in deploying a functional naval laser. There is no doubt, the movement is not only technological, but also doctrinal, because it implies changing the way in which air defense at sea is conceived, integrating new layers that do not depend on traditional ammunition. Two beers for the price of a shot. The key element of DragonFire is not only its accuracy, but rather its economy. Each shot costs just about 10 pounds (just over 11 euros) in electricity, just a couple of “pints” in a pub compared to the hundreds of thousands that a conventional interceptor missile can cost, which completely alters the balance between attack and defense. we had seen it in Ukraine and now in Iran. In a scenario where cheap drones are launched by the dozens or hundreds, responding with expensive missiles had become unsustainable, while a laser allows the pace to be maintained. without depleting critical resources. This difference makes the laser an especially attractive tool in modern conflicts where saturation is more important than sophistication. Extreme precision and new capabilities. The system has proven capable of hitting targets the size of a coin a kilometer away, maintaining the beam on moving targets until causing structural failure. More: its architecture combines multiple fiber lasers in a single high-quality beam, guided by electro-optical sensors and continuous tracking systems. Furthermore, its sustained firing capability eliminates one of the main limitations of conventional weapons: need to rechargeallowing you to take on multiple threats consecutively in a matter of seconds. The response to swarms. The rise of cheap drones and swarm attacks has put in check to traditional defense systems, designed to intercept more limited and higher value threats. DragonFire positions itself as the direct response to that change, offering an effective solution against small, fast and numerous targets without compromising missile arsenals intended for strategic threats. In this context, the laser does not replace existing systems, but rather complements themreinforcing short-range defense and freeing up resources for more complex scenarios. From sea to air and land. Beyond its naval deployment, the program aims for broader integration in ground and aerial platformswhich infers a structural change in modern weaponry. Let us think that the possibility of standardizing this type of technology in vehicles, ships or even combat fighters opens the door to a new generation of systems where energy progressively replaces to physical ammunition. Analysts recalled by Army Recognition that although there are still limitations (such as the need for line of sight, electrical power and thermal management), the advancement of DragonFire indicates that that concept before fantastic of “infinite ammunition” has ceased to be a theoretical idea and has become an operational reality in development. Image | UK Ministry of Defense In Xataka | Spain has built a laser that shields the backbone of its Navy: the A400M is now ready for combat In Xataka | China has achieved something hard to believe: reducing the production of laser weapons and parts for electric cars to one second

Big Tech has entrusted the keys to its kingdom to NVIDIA. Now they want the keys back

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NVIDIA is no longer a gaming graphics card company: NVIDIA is a ubiquitous company. That means it is the baby at the baptism, the bride at the wedding and the cement of the manufacturing industry. artificial intelligence. Your hardware is in the most powerful data centers on the planethis software controls everything and your money invest in any company that has something to say in AI. Big Tech (and everyone) is blindly trusting NVIDIA and has been given the keys to the house, but something is changing. And now they want the keys back to regain control. All the spotlights. Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta have bought hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GPUs to shape your AI aspirations. At some point many began to develop their own hardware, but in the end NVIDIA’s was everywhere and was the one that gave the most guarantees, so they “gave up.” Apple, curiously, opted for Amazon. And not just the big ones. OpenAI, Anthropic, Mistral or xAI are purely AI companies that They bet very heavily on NVIDIA from the beginning. Its hardware is the one that leads the way, the one that Western and Chinese companies want and the one that has such a brutal demand that it has elevated the company as the best client of TSMC and Samsung. amd. But no one likes to have all their eggs in one basket, and those same names are moving. From a position of absolute dominance, in a short time we can move to another in which the hardware market is much more diversified. AMD is NVIDIA’s great historical rival in the PC gaming segment (and in consoles), but although they were out of the conversation for a few years, they have returned with force. They have the hardware and are moving to get the same memory that NVIDIA has (and Samsung wins more than anyone else) and contracts as juicy as the one they achieved recently with Meta. The big rival also has deep pockets and is committed to taking a piece of the AI ​​pie. The Chinese threat. On the other side of the world we have China. We have said on numerous occasions that China is on to other things when we talk about AI. If the West pursues the AGI (with questionable claims like it’s already here), to China doesn’t care exactly. They want fast chips that allow them to create accessible and monetizable models in the short term. But they also have Huawei, the company that has become the spearhead of the Chinese technology industry thanks to its collaboration with foundries such as SMIC is allowing, in an unthinkable way due to vetoes, can develop advanced chips. The development of cutting-edge chips still needs to be achieved, but Huawei already has more powerful inference chips than NVIDIA’s H20, according to them, and a supercluster for training. Taking back control. Because in that term, “inference”, is where the current key is. AI training is important because it is what allows the model to then have the data and have a wardrobe to pull from, but inference is the final layer, which processes the user’s request to provide a response. There is not so much raw power needed, and that is what almost all the companies mentioned above are taking advantage of. Amazon, Google or Meta have programs in which they are actively researching or developing chips proper for inference. OpenAI has signed an agreement with Broadcom to supply chips and xAI along with other companies Musk also has its own chips and they plan to open factories. And in China things are no different with Cambricon wanting to be a local alternative to NVIDIA and giants like Alibaba either ByteDance getting into chip design. Groq. Given this, do you think NVIDIA is standing still? Among their hardware proposals, they have Groq, an inference accelerator that is designed for, next to Vera Rubinprocess a large amount of data at enormous speed. Groq was an unknown in the world of AI – until NVIDIA licensed it – and specialized from the beginning in that: chips with minimal latency for inference. The key is in the architecture of its chips and it was a piece that was missing from the NVIDIA catalog and shows that, although the rest want the keys back, the one that already had them may have made a backup copy to continue being the reference. Because they may all be preparing their chips, but while they arrive, NVIDIA is already there and, in fact, with Groq it seeks to sneak into theThe $50 billion pie: China. Problem for NVIDIA. But of course, that’s part of the story. The other is that NVIDIA also has all its eggs in one basket: that of AI. In the middle of last year we already mentioned that six customers represent 85% of all NVIDIA revenue in the previous quarter. It is an absolute nonsense that shows that, if there is a shift in technology, a puncture of the bubble or a new player that arrives strongly, the situation for NVIDIA may not be so favorable. The question is whether a regime change can come and everything will be allowed to collapse like a house of cards. The uncomfortable thing is that an absurd amount of money is being invested and it’s not something that can escalate forever. In Xataka | Jensen Huang believes we have reached the “coming of the AI ​​wolf.” It is perfect for feeding a Tamagotchi

Iran has made energy a problem again. The United Kingdom believes it has found a solution in solar panels

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There are issues that we believe are resolved until reality reminds us that they are not. Energy is one of them. We have been talking about for years solar panelsof self-consumption and of alternatives to fossil fuelsbut in many cases they remained a rather gradual, almost optional decision. That has changed. The rise in energy prices linked to the conflict in Iran has brought the problem back to the forefront and forced several governments to react. The United Kingdom has decided to act. The specific measure. What the British Government has put on the table is not a generic promise, but a plan to try bring so-called plug-in solar panels to stores in “the coming months.” To make it possible, the Government is working with Amazon, Lidl and the manufacturer EcoFlow. There is also an interesting nuance here: we are talking about an American e-commerce giant and a very recognizable supermarket chain in Europe. What makes them different. At this point, it is worth stopping for a moment on what exactly we are talking about. These plug-in solar panels do not work like a traditional photovoltaic installation, which usually requires construction, permits, and the intervention of a professional. The idea here is much simpler: smaller devices that can be placed on balconies, walls or gardens and connected directly to the home electrical network. According to the British Government, this approach would allow them to be used without the need for an electrician, as long as technical and safety standards are adapted. The context. It is no longer a secret that the conflict in Iran has hit one of the most sensitive points of the global energy system, the Strait of Hormuzthrough which a relevant part of the world’s oil circulates. When that flow is threatened, prices react quickly, and that is just what has happened. In a few days, crude oil and gas have risen sharply and that impact ends up reaching Europe in the form of more expensive fuels and higher bills, which has forced several governments to act. The European mirror. If we leave the United Kingdom, what we see is a map of quite diverse responses to the same problem. Rising energy prices have forced action, but each country is doing it in its own way. Spain has opted for a broad package of aid and tax cuts, valued at around 5,000 million euroswhile Germany has focused on regulating the behavior of gas stations and Portugal has applied fiscal adjustments more specific about fuels. Faced with these measures, more focused on cushioning the immediate blow, the British movement introduces another approach, facilitating access to alternatives such as solar energy to reduce dependence in the medium term. Images | Caspar Rae In Xataka | Europe has a million reasons to fear an increase in the price of electricity. Spain has something else: renewables

The United Kingdom has just detained a Russian oil tanker in Gibraltar. The problem is the possibility that they are armed

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Spain controls one of the busiest maritime passages on the planet: for the Strait of Gibraltar More than 100,000 ships cross each year, including thousands of oil tankers. Just a few kilometers from its coasts, a good part of the crude oil that feeds Europe circulates, and any alteration in that flow has a direct impact on the Spanish economy, from the price of energy to maritime security. From sanctions to interceptions. What for months was a silent economic war you have just crossed a new visible line. The Royal Navy no longer limits itself to observing Russian maritime traffic, it now follows it, identifies it and makes it easier to approach. The case of the MV Deyna oil tanker in Gibraltar mark that change. It is not an isolated incident, it is the symptom of a strategy that is beginning to materialize at sea. And in this turn there is a key detail: for the first time, the pressure on the shadow fleet stops being just legal or financial and becomes operational. The fleet in the shadows. Russia has built a network of hundreds of opaque tankers to continue selling crude oil despite the sanctions. This includes everything from old ships to constant flag changes or business structures that are difficult to trace. All designed for keep the flow of income that fuels its war economy. This network has been for years difficult to attack because it operates on the margins of international law. But now that margin is narrowing, and every interception at key points like Gibraltar points directly to a critical vulnerability of the Russian system. HMS Cutlass stopped the tanker Gibraltar and the bottleneck. The strait, furthermore, is not just any place. As we said at the beginning, it is one of the most guarded maritime crossings on the planet. and convert it at pressure point against Russian oil has a clear logic: controlling traffic is controlling business. HMS Cutlass operations near France show that NATO is willing to use intelligencesurveillance and naval presence to stop this flow. If you will, each intervention sends a message that goes beyond the specific ship, one that announces that it is no longer safe to operate in the shadows near Europe. The problem. It turns out that this is where the story really changes. Because Russia not only wants to protect its fleet, it is considering doing so with military means. Armed patrols, fire equipment on board and even the possibility of militarizing the tankers themselves. What until now were civil ships with economic functions could be transformed into platforms with defensive capacity. And that turns any approach or follow-up into an operation with a real risk of escalation, where an inspection can turn into an armed incident. From drones to oil tankers. Ukrainian naval drone attacks against Russian ships have been the trigger of this change. They have shown that even large maritime assets are vulnerable, and Russia has responded hardening his stance and preparing an active defense. This connects directly with the current global scenario, where energy transportation has become in strategic objective. The sea, which for decades was a relatively stable highway, is beginning to look more and more like a diffuse war front. The domino effect. The paradox is quite evident. While the West try to cut Russia’s revenues, the war in the Middle East has put Moscow’s crude oil back to the center of the market global, with India and China absorbing shipments that previously found no buyer and prices rising higher and higher. And meanwhile the shadow fleet returns to be indispensable. That makes any try to stop it have global consequences, turning each interception into more than just a naval operation: a piece in a much larger battle for control of the global energy flow. A new red line. If you like, the final scenario is the most uncomfortable and dangerous. A Russian tanker detained in Gibraltar It is no longer just a sanctioned ship, it may be the first link in a chain of tensions that escalate rapidly. Because if those ships start to go armedeach interaction at sea stops being administrative and becomes potentially military. And at that point, the question stops being whether the shadow fleet can continue operating, and becomes what will happen the day someone shoots first. Image | kees torn In Xataka | The Canary Islands and Galicia have set off the Navy’s alarm bells. Russia’s ghost fleet has arrived in Spain with warships In Xataka | A ghost fleet has mapped the entire underwater structure of the EU. The question is what Moscow is going to do with that information.

Throwing concrete into the sea is usually a disaster or cause for conflict. The United Kingdom is using it to revive an ecosystem

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When huge blocks of concrete are thrown to the bottom of the sea, we can think that whoever is doing it is looking for a territorial conflict or even to ruin the ecosystem, as It was already seen in Gibraltar in 2013 in order to prevent fishing. However, on the coast of the United Kingdom, this same action of throw concrete blocks It has become the spearhead of one of the most ambitious bioengineering and ecological restoration projects in Europe, despite being contradictory. The objective. The objective of throwing these blocks is to bring reefs back to life of native North Sea oysters, lost more than a century ago due to overfishing, pollution and the destruction of their habitat. Heavy engineering. At first glance, it seems simple to take some concrete blocks and throw them over the side of a boat. But in reality the 20 blocks recently deployed off the coast of Tyne and Wear are actually pieces of green high-tech. And it’s no wonder, because have been developed ARC Marine under the name Reef Cubes and made with a special material called “Marine Crete”. Furthermore, they are not small at all, because each of these cubes weighs six tons and measures one and a half meters high. Why this weight? This initiative promoted by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Wild Oysters project and Groundwork, leaves nothing to chance, since the fact of launching these heavy masses of concrete is explained by the British climate. In the previous phases of this project, the team encountered devastating storms that destroyed all restoration attempts. That is why these six-tonne masses ensure that the violent ocean currents and waves of the North Sea do not move the structures even one centimeter so that they can develop their final objective. Its usefulness. The magic actually happens on the surface of the block, as these cubes are not entirely smooth, but are designed with complex rough textures and artificial pores that perfectly mimic natural marine surfaces. These automatically become the perfect anchorage for life to thrive and an ideal refuge for fish and crustaceans. The role of oysters In addition to the roughness, 4,000 native European oysters have been placed inside each of these 20 immense cubes thanks to the efforts of 190 local volunteers. And it makes all the sense in the world, because beyond their great gastronomic value, oysters They are the great “purifiers” of the ocean. To give us an idea, a single adult oyster is capable of filtering up to 200 liters of water per day. In this way, when they feed they eliminate pollutants, nitrogen and excess nutrients, radically improving the quality of coastal water and allowing sunlight to penetrate deeper, which in turn stimulates the growth of marine flora. In short, these blocks act as a new ‘home’ for the animals that live on the seabed, but also as a way to clean their environment. It already gave results. The robustness of using thousands of tonnes of concrete on the seabed has already been tested in Scotland with great success, and now this project is just the beginning of what is to come. That is why, while these artificial reefs begin to filter millions of liters of water daily in the north, other projects are taking note to scale the idea to titanic proportions. In Norfolk, initiatives such as Oyster Heaven and Norfolk Seaweed are already planning the deployment of 40,000 clay “Mother Reefs” by the end of 2026. Their goal is to house 4 million juvenile oysters, which would officially be crowned the largest restored reef in all of Europe. In this way, throwing blocks into the sea has gone from being a technique to create conflicts between regions to being able to recover part of an ecosystem. Images | Robert Katzki Nicolas Arnold In Xataka | The “green belt” of the Earth had been stable for centuries: now it is moving towards the northern hemisphere in a worrying way

The United Kingdom has opened the kamikaze drone that exploded at the European base. The surprise is capital: it is not from Iran, it is "made in Russia"

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In Ukraine, the drone remains knocked down have converted in one unexpected source of strategic information: Engineers and analysts often rebuild their interior piece by piece to trace their origin, their electronics, and the supply networks that make them. IF you want, a kind of “military archeology” or “war unboxing” that has become common practice in modern conflicts, where a single microchip or a navigation module can reveal geopolitical connections much broader than a simple attack appears. The same thing just happened, but in Iran. A drone and a new unknown. When a kamikaze drone hit against the British air base of RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus, seemed like another episode within the increasing escalation of drone attacks in the Middle East. However, analysis of the remains of the device by British intelligence has revealed an unexpected detail: inside there was a Russian military navigation system Kometa-Ba sophisticated component designed to resist electronic interference and improve the precision of attacks. The discovery surprised British researchers because the device had been launched by a Iran-aligned group from Lebanon, making the incident the first tangible evidence of Russian military technology used in an attack within the regional conflict. In Xataka Satellite images have revealed that Iran knocked down four of the US’s eight unique defense systems. If they reach zero a new war begins The track that connects two wars. The Kometa-B system is not just any component. It is about of a module which had already been detected in drones intercepted on the Ukrainian front, where Russia uses it to improve the navigation of its weapons against Western electronic warfare systems. Finding it inside a drone that ended up exploding in a European military base suggests that some of that technology has come out from the Ukrainian theater of war and has reached the military ecosystem surrounding Iran. That technical detail has opened a new line of concern among Western intelligence services: the possibility that Moscow is providing equipment, electronics or technical knowledge that is increasing the effectiveness of Iranian attacks and those of its regional allies. An alliance that is becoming closer. The discovery fits within a strategic relationship which has been deepening since the start of the war in Ukraine. During the early years of the conflict, Iran provided Russia with technology to make drones of Iranian design (especially variants of the Shahed model) that Moscow has used massively against Ukrainian infrastructure. Over time, Russia began to produce their own versions already introduce improvements electronics and navigation. Now the indications are that some of that cooperation could have been invested: Components or systems developed in the Russian military industry would appear in weapons used by militias aligned with Tehran on other fronts. {“videoId”:”x89xg5y”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”American aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford – CVN 78″, “tag”:”Ships”, “duration”:”145″} Russian intelligence in the shadows. He discovery of the drone It also coincides with information from Western officials who claim that Moscow has been providing Iran with intelligence information on US military positions in the Middle East, including the location of warships and aircraft. I counted the weekend in an exclusive the Washington Post that such support could explain the increasing precision of some recent attacks against Western military infrastructure and radar systems. Iran has limited space capabilities, with very few of its own satellites, so access to data from Russian observation systems would be a significant advantage for planning more selective attacks. In 3D Games Children under 5 years old in 2026 will never have to work, according to Vinod Khosla. This is what the great era of AI abundance has in store for us Regional conflict with echoes of global war. If you also want, the appearance Russian technology in an attack against a British base suggests that the war in the Middle East could be becoming increasingly intertwined with the strategic confrontation that already exists between Russia and the West since 2022. For Moscow, an escalation that keeps the United States and Europe focused on another front may have strategic advantagesfrom the distraction over Ukraine to the rise in oil prices. Although the Kremlin has avoided getting directly involved in the war, and even Trump maintained in the last hours a first conversation telephone with Putin, the presence of your technology on the battlefield and suspicions about intelligence sharing point to a familiar pattern of indirect conflict: a scenario in which great powers do not fight each other openly, but their weapons, their data and their influence begin to appear in increasingly unexpected places and uncomfortable. Image | National Police of UkraineRAF/MOD In Xataka | The US has begun to take on one last suicidal mission: enter Iran to remove a 441 kg buried “treasure” that gives meaning to the war In Xataka | The war in Iran has confirmed what was sensed in Ukraine: battles are won long before the first missile is launched (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 The United Kingdom has opened the kamikaze drone that exploded at the European base. The surprise is capital: it is not from Iran, it is “made in Russia” was originally published in Xataka by Miguel Jorge .

The United Kingdom has found lithium under its feet, but extracting it is going to be a billion-dollar logistical nightmare

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For vacationers visiting cornwallin the south-west of the United Kingdom, the landscape is a haven of peace dotted with historical remains. It is the land of the old tin and copper mines that inspired series like Poldarka region with more than 4,000 years of mining history. However, beneath this postcard scenario lies the most coveted resource of the 21st century. The then Prime Minister Boris Johnson baptized it in 2021 as the “Lithium Klondike”, in reference to the historic gold rush. Today, As detailed in an extensive report by Guardianthat “white gold” is the great hope for the British energy transition. The race for the first drop of lithium. The sector has recently reached milestones that seemed impossible a decade ago. On the one hand, as reported Financial TimesCornish Lithium company has just commissioned its first commercial demonstration plant in the region. This facility is designed to extract lithium from hard rock in former clay (kaolin) mines, a crucial step that demonstrates that large-scale domestic mining is technically feasible. Crushing stone is not the only way. In parallel, a fascinating technology has emerged that unites mining and renewable energy. It turns out that, several kilometers deep, the superheated water flowing through the fractures of the granite of cornwall It is loaded with dissolved lithium. As explained by BBCTaking advantage of this has enabled a historic milestone: the United Downs power plant, operated by Geothermal Engineering Ltd (GEL), has become the first in the country to generate electricity from the Earth’s heat, while producing the first domestic supply of lithium extracted from these underground fluids. The mechanics, as detailed Guardianis ingenious: the boiling brine is pumped (at about 200 °C), its heat is used to drive turbines that generate electricity, the lithium is chemically extracted and the cold water is returned to the subsoil. The initial figures for this project are modest—just 100 tons of lithium per year, enough for 1,400 electric cars—but the goal is to scale up to 18,000 tons per year. What does it really mean to unearth this treasure?? As emphasized Financial Timesthe primary motivation is geostrategic: the West desperately needs to reduce its dependence on China in the critical metals supply chain. Additionally, unlike wind or solar energy, geothermal brine provides renewable electricity “24 hours a day, 7 days a week”, shielding the network against the vagaries of gas. An abyss riddled with obstacles. But from the laboratory to the commercial mine there is a stretch full of barriers. First, drilling wells kilometers deep or building processing plants requires massive injections of capital. The GEL project has already cost 50 million pounds, inform BBC. Furthermore, the market is ruthless: recently, the Imerys British Lithium (IBL) side project, which promised to create the largest lithium hub in the country, has had to be halted due to “funding constraints and difficult market conditions.” The second major obstacle is the emotional shock with the population. A report from a few months ago in The Conversation perfectly illustrates this drama in the village of St Dennis. For Cornish Lithium to expand its open-pit mine at the former Trelavour quarry, it needs to demolish huge conical mountains of clay waste. The problem is that the locals have affectionately named them Flatty and Pointy. What for the mining company is debris that blocks lithium, for the people it is their heritage, their visual identity since the 19th century. It is the bitter dilemma of the green transition: sacrificing the local landscape to save the global climate. The Spanish mirror. This tension between national urgency and local rejection resonates strongly in Spain. As we have explained in Xatakathe European Union has launched a lifeline of 22,000 million euros to support 47 strategic mining projects and stop the bleeding of foreign dependence. Seven of them are on Spanish soil, with three standing out in Extremadura: the Aguablanca mine (the only nickel deposit in Europe, which reopens after a decade) and the tungsten mines of Las Navas and La Parrilla. However, the syndrome NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) hits just as it does on British soil. The same publication recalls that the emblematic and controversial Cáceres lithium mine has been left out of European aid due to the fierce opposition of neighborhood and environmental platforms, a social pressure that has already managed to knock down similar projects in Ávila. The shadow of the dragon: the clock is ticking. While Europe deals with waste dumps and bureaucracy, China competes in another league. Fatih Birol, director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), warned to launch An operational mine takes an average of 17 years. The West is running against the clock, and Beijing is two decades ahead of us. And the data is suffocating. China processes 80% of the world’s lithium and 95% of graphite. For years, they sold batteries below production cost, taking losses to exterminate Western competition and establish silent dependence. Far from relaxing, the Asian giant keep devouring the subsoil: it has recently tripled its lithium reserves (going from 6% to 16.5% worldwide) thanks to new discoveries in its salt lakes. And the problem is not just “white gold.” The IEA alert that by 2035 there will be a 30% supply deficit in copper. Without copper for the cables, having batteries will be useless. The true cost of the transition. The UK’s mining awakening is the perfect microcosm of the challenge facing the West. We have discovered that we have the treasure under our feet, but geology is only the starting line. “White gold” requires colossal sacrifices. It requires risking billions in unstable markets, altering places that communities love and facing a very slow bureaucracy in the face of an implacable Asian rival. The batteries that will power the 21st century are not only going to cost us money; They will require profound social wear and tear. Lithium promises us the future, but unearthing it is going to be a real nightmare. Image | Cornish Lithium Xataka | China sold cheap batteries … Read more

There is a paradise island that you only enter armed. And the United Kingdom wants to “liberate” it from the United States

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Prima facie, chagos It’s just a handful of perfect islands lost in the middle of the Indian Ocean, too small and remote to matter to anyone. But precisely that distance, that silence and that almost total absence of glances, have turned the archipelago into one of the most uncomfortable places of the map, one where paradise and power have been coexisting for decades without giving explanations. A paradise taken by force. part of history we tell it a few months ago. In the middle of the Indian Ocean, the Chagos Archipelago was for centuries a forgotten place, inhabited by a community that developed your own culture far from the great powers, until in the middle of the Cold War the United Kingdom decided to turn it into a global strategic piece. To make this possible, London separated the islands of Mauritius and, in agreement with the United Statessystematically expelled the entire local population between the late 1960s and early 1970s, emptying Diego Garcia to build a joint military base that has since operated outside of public scrutiny. We are talking about a territory where civil life disappeared completely. No one enters here without a weapon. For more than half a century, Diego Garcia is a geopolitical anomaly: a tropical island with perfect beaches and intact reefs that cannot be accessed without military authorization and where the armed presence it’s the norm. Officially administered by the United Kingdom and rented to the United States, the base has been key in operations in the Middle East and Central Asiaand has been surrounded by persistent accusations about secret flights, clandestine detentions and activities that have never been fully clarified. What happens inside remains, to a large extent, a state secret shared. Diego Garcia Island Invisible expelled. As the base grew, the Chagossians were trapped in exile, many of them scattered between Mauritius and Seychellesdeprived of their land, of adequate compensation and for decades even of the right to return. Their towns were swallowed up by the jungle, abandoned churches and cemeteries, and their history was minimized by official documents that described them as temporary workers, not as a community with deep roots. To this day, many continue to die without having seen the place where they were born, while decisions about their future are made. systematically without them. The transfer in small print. Thus, after years of international pressure and a strong opinion of the International Court of Justice, a few days ago London announced its intention to return sovereignty from Chagos to Mauritius, a gesture presented as the closing of a colonial wound with an important “but” in the background. It happens that the agreement includes a key condition: the Diego García base would remain operational for decades (99 years), thus shielding Anglo-American military interests. For many Chagossians, devolution without the island of Diego García is not a real liberation, but a repetition of the same pattern under another name. The clash between allies. The latest twist has come when the United States stopped the processwary of any change that could affect one of its most sensitive military installations, and provoking open tensions with the United Kingdom while returning the negotiations to the starting box in the already closed offices. Thus, Chagos it is again the scene of a dispute where the discourse of international law and decolonization collides with the logic of global security, confirming the central idea that has run through its entire history: on this paradisiacal island, neither the landscape nor its former inhabitants rule, but rather an armed silence of which, still todayyou can’t really know what the hell is going on inside. Image | Anne Sheppard, POT In Xataka | A Finnish couple found an uninhabited island on Google Maps. Today they rent it for 2,400 euros per night In Xataka | One of the most remote islands was taken 60 years ago by the United Kingdom and the United States. Since then, what happens there has been a secret.

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