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It was the largest batch of medieval helmets found in Spain

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It was 1990 when the nets of some local fishermen “fished” two large metal blocks off the coast of Benicarló (Castellón), like says the University of Alicante. Inside were dozens of iron helmets that were initially thought to be Roman. After all, all the clues pointed in that direction: they appeared alongside Roman amphorae, Roman anchors and bronze helmets of the Montefortino type, a model used during the Punic Wars. Almost 40 years later, the error has been discovered: They were old but not that old. The discovery. In fact, they were almost 1,500 years more modern than initially thought. This new study has identified at least 43 matted and corrosion-melted helmets as belonging to the Late Middle Ages. The key to identification has not been the metal, but the textile remains that remained inside some helmets, which, thanks to the fact that they were adhered and sealed by the marine concretionsthey held out until they were able to radiocarbon date them. Why it is important. With 43 copies, according to the University of Alicante the set constitutes the largest known collection of medieval helmets recovered in Spanish waters and even in the western Mediterranean. Furthermore, they are a little-known rarity. according to the research team: non-elite infantry equipment, manufactured in smaller workshops and distributed through secondary or regional markets, and prior to the European standardization of plate armor. On the other hand, this correction several decades later serves as an example to illustrate a common problem in archeology: dating by association, that is, if the remains next to it are ancient, this too. However, if this hypothesis is not supported by absolute scientific methods, glaring errors can be made. On the other hand, it is also a poorly documented rarity, according to the research team: non-elite infantry equipment, manufactured in smaller workshops and distributed through secondary or regional markets, and prior to the European standardization of plate armor. Context. The dates of the dating fit with a time of strong instability on the Valencian coast. The study documents that Islamic piracy on the coast went from sporadic attacks to a structural threat since the mid-14th century, which led to fortifying the coast with watchtowers and mobilizing local militias. In this scenario, a shipment of cheap infantry helmets could have been destined for troops from the Kingdom of Valencia, mercenary companies or municipal militias. By type, these helmets date back to just before Europe standardized 15th-century plate armor, when workshops in Lombardy and Milan were beginning to dominate large-scale production. Before that, armor varied greatly depending on the region. In detail. The samples were sent to two independent laboratories for dating, one in Miami and another in Mannheim, where accelerator mass spectrometry was used. Four of the five dates fell between the third quarter of the 14th century and the beginning of the 15th century and the fifth was deviated, pointing to being later (more than 100 years later). As a curiosity, the fabric turned out to be a simple taffeta fabric, with vegetable fiber threads, probably a lining or interior padding. Yes, but. The research team points out that the exact origin of the helmets remains open: they could have been manufactured locally in the Iberian Peninsula or arrived via the trade routes of the western Mediterranean, at that time dominated by the workshops of northern Italy. The Crown of Aragon, with Valencia as a weapons producing and exporting centermaintained intense commercial traffic with Genoese merchants that operated in their ports. This fifth date, which behaves like an atypical value, points more to pollution produced on the seabed than to the helmet being used for a longer period of time and at some point having its inner lining changed. As for the reason for the sinking, the study only points to piracy, which is a reasonable assumption, but not a proven fact. In Xataka | The oldest bone spearhead found in Europe was not created by our species: it had already been there for 30,000 years In Xataka | More than 3,000 years ago Europe was already hosting battles involving several regions. We know it thanks to some arrows Cover | cambridge

Warren Buffett is ending one of the largest philanthropic relationships in history for a reason: Jeffrey Epstein

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For almost twenty years, Warren Buffett took advantage of the summer break to convert part of his Berkshire Hathaway shares and donate them for philanthropic purposes. For much of those two decades of giving, the Gates Foundation had been the main recipient of the billions distributed by the veteran investor. However, last year something changed and the 2026 cast confirms it: Warren Buffett no longer trusts the foundation of his former friend Bill Gates. Like every year, the “Oracle of Omaha” has made his annual donation and, for the second consecutive year, the Foundation of his old friend Bill Gates has been left without a single dollar. The reason has a first and last name: Jeffrey Epstein. A promise for life. In 2006, Buffett signed a commitment that he himself described as irrevocable. In your original letter To Bill and Melinda Gates, the millionaire investor promised to donate shares with several conditions. As Pulitzer-nominated journalist Tim Schwab relates in his book ‘The Bill Gates problem‘those conditions were: The funds had to be spent within the year they were received, discounting the 5% of assets that foundations must donate by law. Bill, Melinda or someone from the Gates family he had to remain active at the head of the foundation. The donations had to be counted as charitable contributions, which for tax purposes taxed differently to gifts and donations. Those conditions made Buffett the foundation’s largest individual donor. According to the official statement of Berkshire Hathaway, this year has converted 8,000 Class A shares into 12 million Class B shares, but with a totally different destination than usual. Epstein changed everything. The first cracks in the relationship between Gates and Buffett began with the Bill and Melinda divorce in 2021. The veteran Omaha investor was very close to Melinda’s values ​​and her management skills. Those cracks soon they became a breakup when the Department of Justice declassified documents that revived doubts about the Gates contacts with Jeffrey Epstein, the financier convicted of sexual crimes. In their statements to Congressadmitted that meeting with Epstein put his reputation and job at risk. Buffett, for his part, described that relationship as “unpleasant” in an interview with CNBCalthough he clarified that he has also made a mistake when choosing friends. His children take over from Gates. Buffett insists the decision is not just about Epstein. According to what he told Reutershis three children Susie, Howard and Peter already they have instructions to manage the distribution of his fortune. This year the distribution has gone to four family foundations. The bulk, 9 million shares, went to the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation, in honor of his late wife. The rest has been divided between the Sherwood Foundation, which Susie runs, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, which her middle son runs, and the NoVo Foundation, run by her youngest son, Peter. Goal: spend $140 billion by 2034. The most striking thing about the distribution of donations this year has not only been the confirmation of the break with the Gates Foundation. Warren Buffett has advanced the schedule to divest his entire stake in Berkshire Hathaway, some $140 billion. In previous communicationsthe millionaire claimed to have planned to distribute it ten years after his death. According to your own releasenow “My goal is to dispose of all of my Berkshire shares within approximately eight years… I am hopeful that all three of them will be able to complete the distribution of my shares by December 31, 2034.” Buffett himself acknowledged that “Of course, mortality is unpredictable, but my remaining shares will be donated to all four foundations in one form or another by December 31, 2034.” His children will gradually sell his remaining shares, some 188,290 Class A shares, until they exhaust a fortune that for almost twenty years was linked to the projects of the Gates Foundation. In Xataka | The True Legacy of the Duty Free Founder: How Chuck Feeney Inspired Bill Gates and Warren Buffett Image | Flickr (Statsministerens kontor, Fortune Live Media)

Denmark was building the world’s largest wind farm when a 400-year-old sunken ship was found

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Although we have been watching for years how China builds renewable mega-facilities like It is on the Tibetan plateau or this other colossal wind farm with 136 wind turbines 100 kilometers offshoreis not the only country with great ambitions to generate clean energy. Without going any further, Denmark is in the preliminary stages of setting up the largest offshore wind farm in the world, Hornsea 3. But for now this installation will have to wait because in the middle of prospecting work, they have found gold. Or rather, lead: the one reveals the existence of a wreck with a cargo of lead ingots. The discovery. This huge wind farm is being installed by the energy company Ørsted, in the North Sea, off the coast of Yorkshire. There, about 120 kilometers from Norfolk and about 40 meters deep, they were doing safety surveys of the seabed in search of possible unexploded ordnance from the Second World War when they came across a 17th century shipwreck. The curious thing was the trigger for such a discovery: what appeared on the monitors were three lead ingots weighing 70 kilograms each that were still stacked in their original position. There were also some remains of wood and some hull of the ship that transported them. Thanks to the mark that the smelter left on the ingots, it is possible to try to trace their origin, in this case of hypothetically linked to Derbyshire. Why is it important. Because it clearly evidences the early modern English lead trade. In this case, the wreck found is directly on the route that linked Hull with the Netherlands through the North Sea. Context. At that time and as the MSDS Marine explainsEngland produced large quantities of lead, especially in the mines of Derbyshire and the Peak District. From Hull and London it was exported to other locations, such as Amsterdam and Rotterdam. Before we discovered the toxic effects of lead, this element was commonly used for pipes, cookware, weapons, and other products. Transforming it into ingots made it easier to transport as merchandise. A curiosity: the heritage legislation of the United Kingdom requires archaeological studies to be carried out before the construction of this type of infrastructure and thank goodness, because in British offshore wind farms in recent years a roman anchor has been found. In detail. More specifically, the three recovered lead ingots have three different engraved markings (“IS”, “EB” and “H”). These signs are reminiscent of those found in the Kennemerlanda Dutch East India Company ship sunk in 1664 near the Shetland Islands. For this reason, in this preliminary phase the research team holds that the ship was probably Dutch and was heading back to the Netherlands loaded. Yes, but. At the moment, almost everything is hypothesis: a deeper investigation is needed to determine the origin of the ship and a more precise dating beyond the “17th century.” Furthermore, the geological origin of lead has not been analytically confirmed either. In Xataka | 80 years ago an American destroyer attacked what it believed to be an enemy submarine. We just discovered it was a sunken ship In Xataka | Barcelona started digging to build a parking lot. He ended up discovering a 10 m medieval ship of uncertain origin. Cover | Fredrik Öhlander and MSDS Marine

Madrid wants the largest Ferris wheel in the world. For now he is settling for a French merry-go-round

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Fifty-nine years old. That is the amount of time that has passed since the noble Madrid Amusement Park has not had a new tender that allows a new company to manage the more than 30 machines that attract approximately one million visitors each year. A single operator. The concession worked in favor of a single company: for an initial period of 35 years, until 1992, the concessionaire could thus fully amortize the investment in civil works and attractions. And so much: it is estimated that more than a million people visit these attractions every year. The term was extended: first, an extension of 24 more years, until 2016; then another extension to the September 27, 2027coinciding with successive major internal reforms—more thematic areas, roller coasters, Nickelodeon expansion—that justified maintaining the same operator. almost six decades of continued exploitation since the concession to Parques Reunidos that began in 1967. And now, Madrid wants to “resurrect” it under two clear rules: a non-renewable eight-year concession and a complete overhaul. And, on the horizon, that gargantuan attraction that we have talked about on occasion. London Eye twice. Literally, Madrid dreams of the largest Ferris wheel in the world. Behind the capital’s Business Forum, which has been defending a structure of about 260 meters for years, doubling the 135 meters of the London Eye. Carlos Rubio’s design proposes an elliptical apparatus higher than the Ain Dubai (250 meters), with panoramic cabins and a multi-story observation deck in the center. The problem is that a good part of Madrid does not want to talk about the Ferris wheel. In 2025, the City Council commissioned a geotechnical study to assess whether it was viable to plant something of such a scale in the Enrique Tierno Galván park, within Arganzuela. The report concluded that technically it could be done. And the neighbors opposed it, suspecting that this move would be the prelude to the privatization of a green lung, an idyllic area to walk the dog or read for a while. The Delicias para Todos neighborhood association warned of the impact: 300 fewer trees, almost a thousand meters of lost soil and a stolen public landscape. They gathered more than 14,000 signatures against it in a few weeks. Finally, a municipal plot next to the EMT garages, next to the hospital Peace in Madrid Nuevo Norte, even without a formal project registered with the City Council, will presumably be the new home of this star wheel. A French merry-go-round. At the same time, the City Council has decided to put out to tender the management of the legendary Casa de Campo Amusement Park. José Luis Martínez-Almeida, mayor of the city, announced during the State of the City Debate that those almost twenty hectares will go to competition. Aim: modernize it. Among the conditions there is a very specific jewel to preserve, maintain and restore: the wooden merry-go-round, the oldest of all the machines, built in France in 1927 and acquired for the inauguration of the park in 1968. A fair trader from Madrid bought it and took it to the San Isidro meadow, to finally pass into the hands of the City Council and install it in Casa de Campo. It is considered “one of the pieces with the greatest heritage value in the complex” and protected under a wooden pergola to prevent it from deteriorating. Taxidermy and memory. This merry-go-round is an artisanal attraction in the art deco/modernist style, handcrafted by French cabinetmakers, with horses, tigers, elephants and even pigs carved in wood, some with glass taxidermy eyes, and period melodies that recreate the atmosphere of the early 20th century. A little murky for current childhoods, although the memory of the carousel outweighs any scare. During its last major restoration, completed in 2012 by artist Félix Rego, figures were disassembled and recomposed, damage after decades spent outdoors was corrected, and everything from the hood to the chrome was repainted. The idea was for the carousel to continue spinning as something active, not to leave it relegated to a museum piece. Madrid already had its ferris wheel. Compared to the 260 meter tall monster, Ferris Wheel Vision was modest, to say the least. Installed in the 70s next to the central lake and dismantled in 2011, this attraction offered views of the Casa de Campo. It was part of a period of expansions along with Jet Star, La Casa Magnética and Las Alfombras Mágicas. His disappearance was experienced as a small trauma. After 40 years of service, he received a tribute video official when he retired to make way for more intense speeds, like the Abyss or Tarantula. And she wasn’t the only one to die either. Seven Peaks, the Cafeteria Tree, the Ghost Ship… most of them have been falling in favor of roller coasters. New times, new rhythms. With the cable car under renovation —47 panoramic cabins Swiss-made, with glass floors in some of them, sensors, AI and almost double the speed—it seems time to check the nostalgic button. That today the City Council protects an almost hundred-year-old French merry-go-round at the same time that it opens the door to a gigantic structure says a lot about the moment: the capital wants to play in the league of global icons – “a Ferris wheel is worth a ride,” it is often said – but it knows that its true emotional heritage continues to float on the artifacts that have been spinning at 10 km/h in the Casa de Campo for decades. Continuous circular motion, the cycle of life. Images | Madrid Amusement Park; own assembly In Xataka | Madrid has been obsessed with having the largest Ferris wheel in the world for years. And it’s closer than ever to getting it. In Xataka | The best amusement parks in Spain: a selection of getaways full of fun and strong emotions

China is diverting its largest rivers thousands of kilometers away. The price to pay is a huge environmental mystery

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Water in China has a basic geographical problem, since the south of the country floods very frequently while the north is in a drought situation. To solve it, the Asian giant has spent decades running which is probably the most ambitious hydraulic engineering project in the history of humanity, since they are literally moving nature. Making history. If there is a country capable of altering the face of the Earth to guarantee its economic and demographic survival, it is China. The premise is as simple to understand as it is pharaonic to execute, since what they are doing is transferring water from the rich Yangtze River basin in the south to the arid plains in the north, where a large part of the country’s population, agriculture and industry is concentrated, but barely 20% of its water resources. The result of this It is the ‘South-North Water Transfer Project’ that has a colossal network of canals, pipelines and pumping stations that are defying geography. The figures of a titanic work. To estimate the size of this project, it is enough to go to official sources, since, according to the latest updates from China’s Ministry of Water Resources, the infrastructure is unparalleled in the world. Specifically, to date, the system has managed to transfer more than 70,000 million cubic meters of water through its central and eastern route. From a hydrological perspective, as detailed in CEDEX technical schemes on platforms such as Hispagua, this is equivalent to moving entire rivers artificially. The beneficiaries There have been 150 million people who have seen how this water injection It has even allowed an “ecological replenishment”, recovering the water table in northern areas that had been depleted for decades. But massive intervention on the ground always has a “B side.” The rivers. As China redraws its water map, an alarming fact emerged, as official censuses revealed that tens of thousands of rivers appeared to have disappeared in the country in just a few decades. Here the specialist media have raised great global concern about this phenomenon, since it is not known if this transfer was drying out the country at an unprecedented rate. The answer. It was given to us by an article published in 2019 that pointed out that the massive “disappearance” of the channels was not due to the fact that they had evaporated overnight due to dams or climate change, but rather to a problem of cartographic methodology. That is, historically, censuses included what scientists call ‘pseudo-rivers’ and used counting criteria that were not supported. Now that they have applied a much better and more consolidated hydraulic classification, the number of these “lost” rivers has been drastically reduced. The ecological cost. The fact that rivers are not disappearing en masse from the maps does not mean that the megaproject is free, since modifying the flow of some of the most important basins on the planet entails risks that scientific literature has been monitoring for years. Already in 2009, a classic review published in Wiley by researcher Zhang Quanfa warned of the profound Yoenvironmental implications of the transfer. Here he proposes that extracting such massive volumes from the south irreparably alters the Yangtze basin, causing an alteration of the southern aquatic ecosystem, or it has even been seen that as less fresh water reaches the mouth of the Yangtze, sea water penetrates inland, threatening the local supply and agriculture of the delta. The demographic cost. Added to these environmental warnings is the institutional analysis of experts such as Mark Wang and Chen Li who point out the governance challenges and the enormous political and social friction generated. Here different critical organizations point out that the authorities have forced the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of people and have required multimillion-dollar investments in treatment plants to prevent contaminated water from the south from ruining the reserves in the north. Images | ダモリ In Xataka | A small river lost between Russia and North Korea is testing something much bigger: China’s patience with both.

It is the largest distillation attack ever recorded

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Anthropic has sent a confidential letter to the US Senate accusing Alibaba of orchestrating the largest distillation attack it has ever suffered Claude. According to share Bloomberg, the Chinese company would have created almost 25,000 fake accounts to extract capabilities from its AI model without paying for them or investing in its own development. What exactly happened. The media, which had access to the letter, affirms that this dates back to June 10 and was addressed to Tim Scott and Elizabeth Warren. It states that operators linked to Alibaba and its AI laboratory, Alibaba Qwenwould have generated more than 28.8 million interactions with Claude between April 22 and June 5. According to the media, to avoid detection, they resorted to obfuscation techniques and proxy networks. The objective of these attacks, according to the media, was to extract the most advanced capabilities of the model, including agentic reasoning and software engineering. Claude is not available in China, so these attacks were supposedly executed through fraudulent accounts. What is distillation about?. Is a widely used technique in the industry to train smaller and cheaper models from the results of a more powerful one. In itself it is not illegal, but it is when it is done without authorization and on a massive scale as would have happened, in theory, in this case. Anthropic argues that these attacks turn “hundreds of billions of dollars in American investment and development into a massive subsidy for our geopolitical competitors,” according to collect the Wall Street Journal. It’s not the first time. In February, Anthropic had already pointed out three Chinese laboratories (DeepSeek, Moonshot and MiniMax) for a similar campaign that claims to have generated more than 16 million interactions with their model through some 24,000 fake accounts. The signature account that OpenAI and Google have also published findings on similar attacks against their own models. What makes the Alibaba case different is the scale, almost twice as many interactions as the previous case. Also the timing, since the information suggests that it occurred weeks after the Trump administration would warn explicitly in an internal memo that this type of AI theft and at this scale was “unacceptable.” Audacity. Anthropic accuses Alibaba of having acted “brazenly” knowing it was in the crosshairs. The Chinese company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, operates in the United States and has investors regulated by the SEC. Even so, the media suggest that the attack occurred after the White House statement. The Financial Times points out Furthermore, the White House had concluded that Alibaba provided technological support for Chinese military operations against US targets, something the company categorically denies. This week, Alibaba He also filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon to remove her from a blacklist that links her to the Chinese army. What Anthropic asks of Congress. The company proposes three concrete measures: The first is to update antitrust laws so that AI companies can share information about these types of tactics without incurring legal problems. The second, strengthen export controls on advanced chips so that China cannot take advantage of the answers provided by American AI models even if it obtains them. The third, legislate to directly penalize Chinese laboratories that carry out distillation attacks, with sanctions that could include blocking their access to AI chips or models manufactured in the United States. The race behind. Anthropic warns in its letter that if China manages to close the gap, it could have “advanced cyber capabilities to deploy against the US government and American companies.” The model Mythos from Anthropic, which has worried everyone with its capabilities, it is precisely the one that worries Beijing the most. 360 Security Technology founder Zhou Hongyi called Mythos a “cyber nuclear weapon” at a conference in Beijing, according to informed South China Morning Post. Zhou admits that China is “far below” that level and called for developing its own equivalent to ensure mutually assured destruction in the event of a digital conflict. What can happen now. Alibaba shares have fallen more than 4% in Hong Kong after the accusation was made public, according to they advanced From the WSJ Laila Khawaja, director of research at Gavekal Technologies, told the media that, given that this is not the first accusation of this type against Chinese companies, the reputational damage should be limited. What’s really at stake is whether Anthropic can convince Congress to greenlight its requests. For now, the company simply says that it “will continue to work with Congress and the Administration to maintain American leadership in AI.” Cover image | AI-generated with Magnific In Xataka | The great fortunes of artificial intelligence: who is who in the new AI millionaires

The largest earthquake in Venezuela in more than a century also showed that almost everyone has a pocket seismograph

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On June 24, a pair of earthquakes of magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 They shook northern Venezuela just 39 seconds apart, causing the largest seismic disaster the country has experienced in more than a century. The fatalities They already exceed 200with more than 4,300 injured and thousands missing. Collapsed buildings in Caracas, the international airport closed and an area of ​​devastation that extends for 150 kilometers. Curiously, seconds before the first earthquake hit, thousands of Android users in Venezuela received a notification on their phones. It is not that Google has the power to predict earthquakes, but the technical and scientific basis behind your alert system It’s fascinating. A country without an official seismic warning system. Venezuela does not have any national earthquake early warning system. If we compare with regions like Chile or Japan, which have thousands of seismic stations, the national network in Venezuela has less than 40and this is a huge limitation in terms of alerting and risk mapping capacity. The case of Venezuela was dramatic precisely due to this lack, since the country did not have enough time to evacuate. However, some people received warnings seconds or even minutes before noticing the tremor thanks to Google’s Android Earthquake Alerts system. Pericles Sánchez, a 39-year-old writer from Caracas, He received the alert on his mobile phone with enough time to get out onto the street before the strongest shock came. As he explained, his family did not suffer damage to the house. How Google turns cell phones into seismographs. All smartphones have tiny accelerometers that can detect signs indicative of a possible earthquake. If your phone detects something that could be an earthquake, it sends a signal to Google’s detection server along with your approximate location. That server combines information from many phones to determine if an earthquake is really occurring. This is how Google competes against time, as it takes advantage of the fact that digital signals travel at a speed well above the speed at which seismic waves propagate through the ground. The system also uses artificial intelligence models trained with thousands of documented seismic events to analyze the pattern, frequency and coherence of signals received from multiple devices simultaneously. The alert is only activated when a minimum number of telephones in the same area simultaneously confirm a recognizable seismic pattern. Physics. Earthquakes generate different types of waves that travel at different speeds. Primary, or P, waves move fast (about six kilometers per second) but cause little damage. Secondary, or S, waves are slower (about three to four kilometers per second) but are responsible for most of the destruction. The Android system detects the first P wavesthose that arrive first, and sends the warning signal before the Ss reach people. This margin can be a few seconds or, for those who are further away from the epicenter, up to a minute. During a magnitude 6.7 earthquake in the Philippines in November 2023, the system launched the first alert 18.3 seconds after the start of the earthquake. People closest to the epicenter received up to 15 seconds of warning and nearly 2.5 million people were alerted. Two types of alert, depending on the danger. The system emits two categories of notices for earthquakes of magnitude 4.5 or greater. The BeAware alert is designed for mild shocks and informs the user with a conventional notification that respects the phone’s silent mode. The TakeAction alert is reserved for more dangerous situations, taking control of the screen and emitting a loud sound even if the mobile is silent. In both there is information about the estimated magnitude, the distance to the epicenter and basic safety recommendations. A network of 2.5 billion people. Google has taken advantage of motion sensors more than 2 billion smartphones to create an earthquake early warning system that is as effective as conventional seismometers, according to a study published in the journal Science in July 2025. The system has detected more than 18,000 earthquakes since its deployment in April 2021 and currently operates in 98 countries. In the US it operates better than in the rest of the countries. The system does not operate the same everywhere. In California, Washington and Oregon, Google work with the ShakeAlert teamwhich uses a network of more than 1,600 seismic sensors installed in the ground to detect earthquakes and determine their location and magnitude before sending the data to Android devices. Outside of those states, the approach is what has been seen in Venezuela: collective detection using the accelerometers of millions of mobile phones, without physical infrastructure on the ground. And it is precisely in this second modality where the system is most valuable, because it covers regions of the world that have never been able to afford professional seismic networks. Cover image | Ricardo Aguilar and USGS In Xataka | “The biggest mistake of all time”: Bill Gates let slip 400 billion when Microsoft didn’t buy Android

Jaén was the largest producer of lead in the world. Decades later, he wants to repeat the game with rare earths, but he has a problem: reality

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Somewhere between Linares and La Carolina there is a rusty derrick: the iron skeleton of what was, at the end of the 19th century, the largest producer of lead in the world. It is, obviously, the past, but in recent years many are completely obsessed with it being also the future. We have the latest example of this about 80 kilometers north of that derrick. There, in Aldeaquemada, an Australian company has just extracted a drill core and to announce that it is “a high quality area”. The question that hovers over Jaén these months is not whether there are minerals under its feet. We all know that. The question is whether all this dance of prospecting that we are seeing is something real or is it simply the expression of the desire of a province that continues to associate its ‘golden age’ with mining. What is happening? The last episode, as I say, stars Osmond Resources. In the SOR-08 survey has cut more ore than expected north of the province. We are talking about a project that covers 756 mining units between Aldeaquemada and Santiesteban del Puerto and search “titanium, zirconium, hafnium and rare earths” trapped in quartzites that hundreds of millions of years ago were beach sand. The ad has a trick, yes. What they have announced is a confirmation ‘during’ drilling. Laboratory analyzes (those that count) will take weeks. But, in reality, that is not what interests us. It is enough to do a small search on the internet to confirm that Jaén entire is being drilled with passion and enthusiasm for months now. And where does all that enthusiasm come from? In principle, three relatively independent engines. The first is geopolitical: in 2024, the European Union pressed the accelerator on ‘mineral sovereignty’ and approved a regulation on critical raw materials. The idea was to ensure that the extraction, processing and recycling of strategic raw materials carried out in Europe cover respectively 10%, 40% and 25% of EU demand. A project like Orión, oriented towards rare earths, is typical of something that in Europe (and in Madrid) sounds like glory. The thing about Madridor it is rhetorical. Just a couple of months ago, the Government approved a raw materials plan of 414 million euros which includes the largest mining prospecting campaign in Spain in more than half a century. Sierra Morena is expressly cited in it. Sara Aagesen he came to say that “with all certainty” rare earths will appear in the country. And then there’s the bag… That is the third engine. Companies like Osmond Resources live off the deposits, yes; but above all they live off the news cycle. After all, its market capitalization depends more on the ‘media battle’ than on the final results. In a field as complex as mining, failure is almost a given. And why is it important? Because behind all this noise there are a lot of small, aging towns those who are sold a new future. The mayor of Aldeaquemada It didn’t take long to celebrate Osmond’s results as a way to “generate jobs and wealth.” But the reality is that the Most exploration projects never produce. The energy transition has served as an alibi to look underground again, but the sector has changed so much that for the vast majority of actors, expectations are beginning to be more useful than reality. And that, in Empty Spain, is an existential problem. Image | Shane Mclendon In Xataka | Where there was lead before, now there will be rare earths: Jaén revives its mining past for the energy transition

China will build the world’s largest AI network with its own chips, although they are not enough

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The Chinese Government is launching a project that seeks to invest $295 billion in five years in the deployment of a national network of data centers of artificial intelligence (AI). In the current scenario of confrontation in the technological field between the US and China, this plan is not surprising at all. However, we cannot ignore the fine print: at least 80% of the underlying technology, including AI chips, must come from domestic suppliers, such as Huawei or Cambricon. Early October 2024 the Administration sent Chinese AI companies were given a recommendation asking them to use chips produced in China as much as possible. Ten months later, this recommendation became a requirement. The Chinese government forced state-owned data centers across the country to use at least 50% Chinese integrated circuits in their servers. Now, as we have just seen, this figure rises to 80%. Be that as it may, this scenario clearly favors three companies: Huawei, Cambricon and Moore Threads. Nvidia and AMD no longer count for China Huawei invests more than 25 billion dollars annually in developing your hardware for AIso presumably it will not take long to match the performance of the GPUs produced by Nvidia or AMD. However, this company faces an enormous challenge that will probably prevent it from meeting the demand for AI chips from the Chinese market in the short term. In mid-June 2025 Jeffrey Kessler, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security at the US Department of Commerce, made this statement in Congress: “Our assessment indicates that Huawei’s Ascend chip production capacity by 2025 will be 200,000 units or less, and we anticipate that most or all of that production will be delivered to companies within China.” This limitation has a specific technical basis: yield per wafer The integration technologies used by the Chinese semiconductor manufacturer SMIC to produce Huawei or Cambricon chips have a very wide room for improvement. The per-wafer performance of SMIC integration technologies has a very large room for improvement SMIC already has the capacity to manufacture 6nm integrated circuits, and will soon also be able to produce 5nm semiconductors, but is limited by the performance of the deep ultraviolet lithography equipment (UVP) that you have in your possession. It is commendable that SMIC and Huawei engineers have managed to refine their integrated circuit manufacturing processes enough to be able to produce 5, 6 and 7 nm chips with ASML’s UVP equipment, but a priori it is very unlikely that with these machines they will be able to go beyond 3 nm. And it is because the technique of multiple patterningwhich is what they are using, imposes important limitations. A note: this strategy broadly consists of transferring the pattern to the wafer in several passes with the purpose of increase resolution of the lithographic process. Its problem is that it usually has an upward impact on the cost of chips and a downward impact on production capacity. For Huawei, it is a big problem not to have the necessary technology to produce cutting-edge semiconductors comparable to those manufactured by Intel, TSMC or Samsung, which is why it is working on the development of its own equipment. extreme ultraviolet photolithography (EUV). This scenario has caused the Chinese semiconductor industry to question whether national hardware can maintain the pace demanded by the Government. SMIC co-CEO Zhao Haijun has warned that this hasty addition of capacity can leave data centers idlecomparing this situation to building highways before there is traffic. In addition, several Chinese executives in the chip sector have recognized separately that his country is five to ten years behind in the cutting edge in silicon for AI data centers. In the current situation, the decision has its logic. Another thing is whether China can comply with it. Image | Cambricon Technologies More information | Tom’s Hardware In Xataka | NVIDIA has to deal with the absolute distrust of several US legislators. Your plan in China is in danger In Xataka | The US wants to end Chinese AI chips sold abroad. And China knows how to defend itself

the largest surveillance device at a sporting event

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He World Cup 2026 which begins tonight will be the largest soccer tournament in history: 48 teams will face each other in 104 matches, distributed in 16 venues in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and more than five million fans in the stands. It’s also going to be one of the most watched sporting events of all time. This is the security apparatus that is going to be deployed in the stadiums. A world cup under the magnifying glass. The event is held in a terrorist risk contextfueled by the conflict between the US and Iran. Of the more than 100 games, 78 are going to be held in eleven American cities, which places considerable strain on security resources at all points in the chain, from travel to the stadium itself. They count in Wired that the Trump administration may use this event to deploy an invasive surveillance system without appropriate safeguards. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), has issued a travel warning to attendees to the world cup, in which they specifically warn about “repression of freedom of expression and protest and increased surveillance.” Drones. Both drones and, above all, anti-drone systems will play a key role in the security of events. Stadiums will be no-fly zones, but there are other gathering places that may be targets for drone attacks. The company Fortem Technologies has once again been chosen (already participated in Qatar in 2022) to deploy its kinetic anti-drone technology at US headquarters. Contracts have also been signed with Sentrycs, which will contribute its non-disruptive anti-drone technologyand Axon, which will deploy a full stack of drones and counter-drones in Dallas. Facial recognition. It will be another of the great security systems used during the event, something that already happened during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where more than 15,000 cameras monitored the stadiums. In this edition, the stadiums of Boston, Miami and Atlanta, making up the facial recognition powered by AI to gain access to the premises and make payments, and there will also be facial recognition on Kansas City buses. Robot dogs. In addition to facial recognition in the stadiums themselves, Boston Dynamics robot dogs equipped with cameras will be deployed capable of detecting faces. These robots will be seen at the venues in Dallas, Texas and at the New Jersey stadium, where the final will be held, which has been classified as a “national special security event.” In Mexico, at the Monterrey stadium, they also plan reinforce security with four robot dogs. Command platforms. Lenovo is the official technology partner of FIFA and has announced that will be in charge of managing the command center in which they will monitor the movements of the crowd and manage the devices that each worker will carry. On the other hand, Booz Allen Hamilton will provide his Sit(x) platform of situational information in real time. What if it’s not temporary? In statements to WiredElectronic Frontier Foundation security analyst Matthew Guariglia warns of the risk of this technology being used “to restrict people’s civil liberties and the fact that surveillance infrastructure is precisely that: infrastructure.” That is to say, there is concern that all these supposedly temporary measures will end up being permanent. Additionally, there is concern that ICE performs during the games against the migrant population. The agency’s director has confirmed that ICE will be a key part of the security of the events, but They have not made clear what their role will be. The militarization of sport. As we said, in the previous edition of the World Cup in Qatar there was an enormous security deployment, but also took advantage of this context to reinforce its national security strategy, outsourcing part of that security to allied powers and using the tournament as a test bed for new military and police capabilities. They say in Wired that there is not much information about the companies behind many of the World Cup security contracts, but they are expected to end up in the hands of military industry companies such as Palantir, Anduril and Lockheed Martin. Organizations such as Privacy International fear that these events will be used to normalize mass surveillance tools. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle: “Citizens will behave because we are recording and documenting everything that happens”

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