massive

LaLiga’s massive IP blocks are making life impossible for users, companies and developers. So you can claim

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LittleCranky67, which is the alias of our protagonist, didn’t know what was happening with his computer this weekend. This developer was doing something that never gave him any trouble: working with the GitLab platform to download a Docker software package. That process kept giving him strange errors, and LittleCranky67 ended up realizing what had caused it all: LaLiga’s indiscriminate IP blocking. After share your frustration on HackerNewshundreds of comments confirmed other similar cases, and in them we also discovered something interesting: how to officially claim LaLiga. Or at least, how to try. A sad old story. LaLiga he shields himself in the Judgment of December 18, 2024 issued by the Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona. This allows you to demand from operators such as Movistar, Vodafone, Orange or Digi to block at the IP level any address that is identified as a source of illegal IPTV broadcasts during LaLiga football matches. Many of those IPs are Cloudflare shared IPs, so when the IPTV service IP is blocked, all domains associated with that shared IP are blocked, which can be hundreds or even thousands. And in those domains there are web pages of private usersfrom companies that they stop being able to sell and also critical services for developers such as Docker, GitHub or GitLab. The irony is that lockdowns don’t work. While many users complain about these blocks and how are affecting websites and services that usemany others continue to remember on social networks that in reality the blocks to view these IPTV broadcasts can be easily circumvented in many ways. The most popular, use VPN services. In LaLiga they know that this method is widely used, so for months They are also working on blocking those services. It doesn’t seem to be serving a lotand whoever really wants to watch the football game without paying has many relatively simple ways to achieve it. If you are affected, you can claim. In that thread, several users remember that one way to try to change things is for users to protest, complain and complain en masse. There are several ways to do it: Telecommunications User Service Office. It is the official body in Spain for these cases. A formal claim can be filed for arbitrary loss of service or censorship, and even claim financial losses if the blockade prevents you from working. Those who have a digital certificate or Cl@ve can do so directly online. Complain to your internet provider. It is also important to open a support ticket with your operator. It is true that they are obliged to follow court orders, but they must know that the blockade is causing collateral damage to services that have nothing to do with football. Common Electronic Registry (SARA network). This portal It also allows you to send formal complaints to management if other methods fail. Spanish Data Protection Agency (AEPD). Those responsible for RootedCON have been fighting this situation for some time, and offer another recommendation: report LaLiga to the AEPD. This template allows you to complete that complaint in a simple way Demagive to Telecommunications Operators. At RootedCON they also suggest filing a complaint against ISPs, and explain the process in a small thread on Twitter. Again, just download a request and file it individually. Complaint to the European Commission. It is also possible to enter the European Commission complaints website to send a claim to the entity. We explained it in Xataka and the process is another way of trying to stop this situation with the help of European bodies. The BOE serves as a defensive argument. In these complaints it is advisable to cite the BOE-A-2022-10757 as a legal reference. It corresponds to Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (LGTel) and is the fundamental rule that regulates your rights as an internet user in Spain. The message that we can write is the following: “Under the protection of Law 11/2022, of June 28, General Telecommunications (BOE-A-2022-10757), specifically regarding the rights of end users (Chapter IV) and the principles of continuity and quality of service, I present this claim for the blocking of access to legitimate IP addresses (specify which ones, e.g. Cloudflare/Docker) unrelated to any illicit activity. This blockade constitutes a violation of my right to communication and the contracted service, causing harm (professional/personal) by preventing the operation of work/security tools. “I request the immediate cessation of said technical restriction in compliance with the provisions of the aforementioned Law.” The nightmare continues. The debate in HackerNews is nothing more than confirmation of what internet users in Spain have been suffering for more than a year. A private organization has the power to order ISPs in a country to indiscriminately block IPs without judicial review in real time, during regular hours, causing documented harm to third parties that have nothing to do with the original violation. In that thread some users compare the situation with that of the Great Firewall of Chinanot so much in intensity as in its logic. We are faced with an infrastructure of selective censorship that seems to be able to be applied to any content that an actor with sufficient judicial power wants to block. From football to tennis or golf. In fact, things could go further, because what began as an attack against illegal broadcasts of football matches could now be seen in other sports such as tennis or golf. Telefónica —which follows in the footsteps of LaLiga— wants to extend indiscriminate blockades to the Champions League, tennis or golf. This threatens to suffer these side effects for many more days and for many more hours, and can mean that for a good part of the week, users like LittleCranky67 find themselves unable to download Docker packages or access thousands of legitimate websites that end up being knocked down by these blocks. Images | Wirestock | LaLiga In Xataka | LaLiga has been at war with Cloudflare for years over piracy. It has just joined forces with its main competitor

The massive flight of investors and millionaires suggests that he has achieved it

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For years, Dubai has been the promised land for millionaires from all over the planet who saw the United Arab Emirates as a idyllic place to live without paying taxes. The Iranian attacks with missiles and drones on different infrastructures in Dubai in recent weeks have changed that perception and the financial elite, especially Asian millionaires, are putting their feet (and fortunes) on the run. The city that seduced more than 81,000 millionaires Since 2014, it is now facing an unprecedented flight of capital and talent. The prestige that took decades to build is being tested in a matter of days. ​Explosions in the heart of the city. The last few weeks have left us images that few would have imagined in February. The Fairmont The Palm hotel, located in one of the artificial islands off the coast of Dubai, was hit for an explosion. Days later the remains of an Iranian drone demolished set fire to the iconic Burj Al Arab, the international airport has suffered damage from drone attacks and the american consulate has been the target of another drone attack. The city that boasted of being the safest in the world, in a matter of weeks, has become a scene of war. “The US-Israel war against Iran is undermining that crucial sense of security in Dubai. Dubai’s economic model relies on expatriate residents providing talent, muscle and investment capital. Stability and security are needed to attract skilled foreigners.”, assured to CNBC Jim Krane, researcher at the Baker Institute at Rice University. ​Asian money in retreat. However, the most visible impact is being felt among Asian investors, who had become one of the pillars of Dubai’s financial growth. According to data by Henley & Partners, Dubai is currently home to 237 centimillionaires (people with wealth of $100 million or more) and at least 20 billionaires Asia accounted for 47% of all multinational companies attracted to Dubai International Chamber in 2025, and around a quarter of the more than 2,270 foundations created in the Emirates have Asian ownership, according to data from the consulting firm BSA Law. Bloomberg published that the United Arab Emirates had attracted some 700 billion dollars from millionaires around the world, especially Asians. Singapore and Hong Kong, new chosen destinations. Grace Tang, CEO of Phillip Private Equity, pointed out to Reuters that between 10 and 20 of their customers, mostly Asian, are asking about how transfer your assets to Singapore to protect the value of its assets. Hong Kong also emerges as an alternative. For his part, Felix Lai, from the consulting firm JMS Group, counted to Bloomberg who had organized a private jet flight to transport 15 clients from Oman to Hong Kong at a cost of approximately $300,000. “They didn’t even care about the price,” Lai explained. “They just wanted to leave.” An advisor in Singapore who declined to be identified added that more than half of his 13 clients in the Emirates are seriously considering moving their assets: “Flying back and forth will be complicated even if the conflict ends tomorrow. It’s about trust.” Dubai’s economic model faces its biggest test. Dubai does not depend as directly on the oil industry as its neighbors, but its economy is based on its ability to attract expatriates, your investments and his talent. At the beginning of the year, the Dubai International Finance Center housed 1,289 entities linked to family offices (61% more than the previous year), and the 120 main families in the center jointly managed more than 1.2 billion dollars, according to CNBC. Although stock markets around the world have felt the earthquake resulting from the attacks in an area of ​​strategic resources for trade and energy, the impact of the conflict with Iran has been much more severe and direct for the Gulf markets. The Dubai Stock Exchange (DFM) has fallen more than 16.6% since the start of the war between the US and Israel against Iran. Fitch Ratings had already predicted before the war a real estate correction of up to 15% in 2025 and 2026. Everything indicates that they have fallen short the worst estimates of the financial consequences. Passing panic or structural change? Not all actors in the sector believe that this will lead to a permanent mass flight. Dhruba Jyoti Sengupta, CEO of Wrise Private Middle East in Dubai, pointed out to Reuters that his firm had not observed “serious conversations about capital flight” as its clients remain confident in the country’s long-term resilience. ​Nirbhay Handa, CEO of migration agency for millionaires Multipolitanpointed in Bloomberg “If uncertainty lasts a few weeks, some companies may pause their expansion, but stability will likely return quickly to Dubai as the situation improves.” What does seem clear is that the city will have to rebuild something much more difficult to build than its skyscrapers for millionaires: trust of those who chose it as a home for their money. In Xataka | A company wants to build a €4 billion megacasino in Dubai. The problem is that Dubai prohibits gambling Image | Unsplash (Wael Hneini)

Massive study confirms direct link to heart damage and mortality

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For years science has been warning us that ultra-processed they are a danger because of the effects it has on our body. Something that began as a suspicion about nutritional quality has now become a statistical certaintysince ultra-processed foods not only make you fat, but also directly hit the cardiovascular system. With figures. A new study conducted by Florida Atlantic University (FAU) and published just a few days ago in The American Journal of Medicine has put an alarming figure on the table: high consumption of these products is linked to a 47% higher risk of suffering from cardiovascular diseases. And it is not a study that is based on speculation, but the authors have analyzed the data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey corresponding to the period 2021-2023 cwith a sample of 4,787 American adults. How it was done. The methodology is robust because it does not simply look at what participants eat, but the researchers adjusted the results taking into account confounding variables such as age, sex, race, income level and, crucially, smoking. With all this, and eliminating the effect of tobacco and socioeconomic situation of the equation, the result was that those who consume greater amounts of ultra-processed foods are almost 50% more likely to develop heart pathologies compared to those who consume less. It is not an isolated case. If this study were the only one, we might be skeptical. The problem is that it rains in the wet, since the FAU research It arrives to confirm a trend that we had already seen in previous macro studies, consolidating what in science is called a dose-response relationship: the greater the amount of ultra-processed foods, the greater the damage. For this we have the French precedent with a famous studio of the cohort NutriNet-Santéwith more than 100,000 participants, which has already shown that an increase of just 10% in the ultra-processed diet is associated with a 12% increase in total cardiovascular risk. There is more. A meta-analysis published in 2024which reviewed more than a million participants, found a linear relationship in which for each additional daily serving of ultra-processed foods, the risk of cardiovascular events increases by 2.2%. And if we still want more evidence, in Australia A 25-year follow-up of almost 40,000 people linked high UPF consumption with a 19% higher cardiovascular mortality. The new tobacco. The most striking thing about this new research is not only the numbers, but the comparison they make with tobacco and the public health crisis it generated in the 20th century. And while the anti-smoking campaigns achieved drastically reduce deaths due to lung cancer and heart disease, the food industry has filled shelves with products classified as ultra-processed. Because? The mechanism behind this 47% elevated risk appears to be related to systemic inflammation and altered lipid metabolism. It must be taken into account that industrial processing generates polluting byproducts such as acrylamide and uses additives that increase oxidative stress in our body. Basically, the body loses the ability to “cleanse” itself at the cellular level, decreasing antioxidant enzymes and allowing free radicals to damage the inner layer of the vessels, which accelerates the formation of atherosclerotic plaque. This is combined with a nutritional composition with 5 or more ingredients, rich in added sugarssaturated fats and additives, but poor in fiber and micronutrients. A trio that directly impacts blood pressure and insulin resistance, increasing predisposition to diabetes. Images | Darko Trajkovic In Xataka | Making extra rice is no longer a mistake: cooling and reheating it can reduce its calories according to some nutritionists

We have been avoiding aged cheese for years for health reasons. Massive study suggests we were wrong

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For decades, nutritional guides and specific diets focused on ensuring brain health, such as the famous MIND diethave had a common enemy: saturated fats of dairy origin. However, science has now given a turn of the wheel to show us that we were completely wrong. New evidence. A new and comprehensive study published in the magazine Neurology You just turned this belief upside down. After following almost 28,000 people for a quarter of a century, researchers at Lund University have found a surprising association: regular consumption of high-fat cheese and cream not only does not increase the risk of dementia, but seems to reduce it significantly. The Swedish diet. The researchers conducted a median follow-up of 25 years until 2020, cross-referencing dietary data with the Swedish National Patient Registry. The result was that during this type 3,208 were identified cases of dementiaand from here we began to see what these people ate. In this case, those who consumed 50 grams or more of high-fat cheese per day showed a reduced risk of dementia of between 13% and 19% compared to those who did not consume it. Furthermore, consumption of high-fat cream was associated with a 16% reduction in the risk of having full-blown dementia. But there is more. The most curious thing about the finding was the specificity, since similar benefits were not found in low-fat dairy products, nor in regular milk or butter. In this way, you can see that there is something specific in the nutritional matrix of cheese and fermented cream that plays in favor of our brain. Why this cheese. Emily Sonestedt, co-author of the study, She was surprised by the resultsalthough he points out that they have biological logic. While traditional diets limit cheese due to its calorie and saturated fat content, this food is rich in medium chain fatty acids, vitamin K2calcium and high quality proteins. In addition to all this, the fact that it is a fermented food can positively influence the intestinal microbiota, and we know more and more about the direct connection between the intestine and the brain. In this way, maintaining a good microbiota again indicates that it guarantees us having better brain health. You have to be cautious. Before running to the supermarket to buy all the types of cheese on the shelves, it is necessary to put on the usual handbrake in science, since we are talking about an observational study. This means that science points out that two things happen at the same time, but it does not prove 100% that one causes the other. And in this case, lifestyle may be interfering, such as the fact that people who eat cheese in Sweden have other lifestyle habits such as greater physical activity that protect them, although the researchers tried to adjust the variables. The verdict. The idea that “all saturated fat is bad for the brain” is losing steam in the face of evidence that certain complex foods, such as aged cheese or cream, have properties that go beyond their basic nutritional label. As is often the case in nutrition, the key does not seem to be eliminating food groups, but rather understanding the quality and source of what we eat. Images | Aliona Gumeniuk Robina Weermeijer In Xataka | Forgetting things is not a bug, it is a feature of your brain: how not remembering things makes us think better

the founder of Telegram charges against Pedro Sánchez and sends a massive message

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He package of measures of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to regulate social networks has not only aroused the ire of Elon Musk, who has launched several disqualifications through X. It has also provoked a reaction from the CEO and co-founder of Telegram. Pável Dúrov is sending a message this afternoon to Spanish users of the platform in which he frontally rejects the proposal and warns of what, in his opinion, would be its consequences. Hey, you have a message from Durov. If you use Telegram and have a Spanish number, it is very likely that this afternoon you received an unusual notification. The official ‘Telegram’ bot, the same one usually used for security communications such as login codes, displays a message forwarded from the channel @durov. “The government of Pedro Sánchez is promoting new dangerous regulations that threaten your freedoms on the internet,” the text begins. From there, Dúrov promises to “explain” why he considers that the package of measures represents an alarm signal for freedom of expression and privacy. Durov Dúrov’s message translated into Spanish in the Telegram bot Against the prohibition of social networks for minors under 16 years of age. One of the central criticisms of the founder of Telegram points to the proposal to restrict the access of minors under 16 years of age to social networks. Dúrov maintains that such a measure, in practice, would imply strict identity verification controls that would go beyond that age group, citing formulas such as DNI or biometrics. “It sets a precedent for tracking the identity of EVERY user, eroding anonymity and opening doors to mass data collection,” he says. “What starts with minors could spread to everyone, stifling open debate,” he adds. Here it is important to clarify something important: for now, the Government has not fully detailed what specific technical measures would be applied for this age verification, nor how they would be implemented in practice. That is to say, Dúrov’s interpretation is based on a harsh scenario, but the actual implementation will depend on how the initiative ends up being drafted and the mechanism chosen to apply it. Risks of “overcensorship”. The message also focuses on another point of the proposal: tightening the responsibility of the platforms, including their managers, if they do not remove content considered illegal or hateful. According to Dúrov, this would push companies to act preventively and aggressively, with a clear collateral effect on public debate: “this will force over-censorship—the platforms will delete anything minimally controversial to avoid risks, silencing political dissidence, journalism and everyday opinions.” And what about the algorithm? The initiative also proposes legally punishing the manipulation of algorithms and the deliberate amplification of illegal content. Dúrov interprets this point as a potential paradigm shift: that the control of the order of what we see on the Internet becomes a regulated matter with room for political intervention. “Governments will dictate what you see, burying opposing opinions and creating state-controlled echo chambers,” he writes. In the same block, he warns that these types of measures would end up affecting the free circulation of ideas. Measures against polarization. Another leg of the package is the creation of a system described as a “footprint of hate and polarization,” which would quantify how platforms amplify social division and serve as a basis for future sanctions. Durov dwells especially on this point, questioning the fit of categories that, in his opinion, are too open and moldable: “vague definitions of ‘hate’ could label criticism of the government as divisive, leading to closures or fines. This can be a tool to suppress the opposition.” A message without gray, waiting for the small print. Overall, Dúrov presents the proposal as an inseparable block of threats against freedom of expression and privacy, hardly distinguishing between measures or opening room for nuances. It is a reading aligned with Telegram’s usual narrative, which tends to frame regulation as a direct risk to digital rights. But it also leaves a decisive factor in the background: several parts of the plan, as we say, are still pending completion, both in its final formulation and in its technical implementation. Telegram does not come to this debate from scratch. Dúrov’s intervention also occurs in a complicated context for the platform. Telegram has been under the spotlight for some time due to the role played by some channels and groups in the dissemination of content that is difficult to moderate, and due to the recurring debates about responsibility and cooperation with authorities. Added to this is that the founder has been noted in France in the framework of investigations linked to the use of Telegram against criminal activities and certain illegal content. This history helps to understand why these types of messages are not just political criticism. Images | Dima Solomin | Moncloa In Xataka | We don’t know if banning social media for those under 16 is going to solve the problem. Yes we know that it will generate others

AI doesn’t just live on chips, it also requires massive energy, so Google has bought an energy company

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The AI needs a lot of energy and technology companies are already planning how to power their huge data centers. On the table there are such creative ideas as take them to space either submerge them in the sea to reduce its consumption. Google has opted for a more immediate solution: it has purchased an electricity company for data centers. The agreement. Google has purchased Intersect Powera company dedicated to developing energy infrastructure, including renewable energy sources, for data centers. Google has paid $4.75 billion for the San Francisco-based company, in addition to assuming its debt. According to Sundar Pichai: “Intersect will help us expand our capacity, operate with greater agility in the construction of new power generation facilities in line with the new load of data centers, and reinvent energy solutions to drive innovation and American leadership” Why it is important. The agreements of AI companies are usually focused on computing capacity, not energy. This agreement underscores the importance of energy in AI infrastructure, putting it on the same level as the very chips it powers. Data centers are being developed at a brutal pace and energy is presenting itself as a bottleneck. Satya Nadella already said it: there is no power for so many chips. It’s Google ensuring enough “food” for its chips. Yontersec. Google’s relationship with Intersect began just a year ago, when big tech acquired a minority stake in the company. Under this collaboration, several projects have come to light in their data centers. Both these projects and all Intersect personnel are part of the agreement. What the agreement does not include are other company assets, mainly located in Texas and California, worth 15 billion. These will continue to operate under the Intersect brand. Energy. In 2023, data centers already accounted for 4% of the energy consumption of the entire United States, and at the rate at which they are being built, the figure will continue to increase (there is talk of 12% by 2028). The problem is that US electrical infrastructure cannot support that pace and is having consequences for consumers through price increases in electricity. Google assures that with this agreement it will be able to guarantee “an abundant, reliable and affordable energy supply that allows the construction of data center infrastructures without passing on costs to network customers.” Image | Wikipedia, Intersect In Xataka | Talking about artificial intelligence is talking about energy, and the fashionable term is ‘bragawatts’

The DGT is “favoring massive fraud” with the V-16 beacons. We don’t say it, FACUA denounces it

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Of favoring “massive fraud” and “very serious passivity.” This is how Rubén Sánchez, spokesperson for the consumer association FACUA, has defined the attitude taken by the DGT on the occasion of the arrival of the V-16 beacons, which will be mandatory from January 1, 2026 to replace the emergency triangles. The association defends that many drivers have bought beacons that are now useless. But, in addition, the press conference and the company’s statement also leave another door open: who and why are criticizing or defending the measure? “A massive fraud”. The words are not found in the statement issued by FACUA but he does pick them up Europa Press from the mouth of Rubén Sánchez, spokesperson for the association, who has accused the DGT of favoring a “massive fraud” with its “very serious passivity” in the face of V-16 beacons that are sold as “approved by the DGT” but in reality are not legal. At the press conference, Sánchez has been much harsher with Traffic than the association has published on its website, ensuring that “it is silent while a multitude of companies, manufacturers and sales platforms are making money at the expense” of consumers” and that the DGT is doing it “absolutely badly because it has allowed large-scale commercial fraud.” Because? Because some of the V-16 beacons that are sold as “approved by the DGT” are not valid, according to FACUA. The association assures that there are companies using this claim to sell their beacons but these do not meet the connectivity requirements and, therefore, an agent can fine the user if they use it in their car. How is it possible? There are two options in this case. The first is that, directly, the company that is selling these beacons is engaging in fraud. That is, you are knowingly selling a product using a claim that is false. Therefore, the best we can do if we find a particularly cheap beacon is review on the DGT website that we are facing a device that complies with all of the law. The other possibility is that the shopping centers have taken out of storage the beacons that began to be sold before their connection with DGT 3.0 was mandatory. At that time, it made perfect sense that the box stated that they were “approved by the DGT” but obviously they have been out of date. FACUA denounces the following: “The obligation to inform the consumer about “the essential characteristics of the good” and to provide him with “relevant, truthful and sufficient information” about it is also being violated, as established in articles 20.1.b and 60.1 of Royal Legislative Decree 1/2007, of November 16, which approves the consolidated text of the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and other complementary laws” Tepidity. FACUA’s words contrast with those of other consumer associations. The most obvious case is that of OCU, who have been opposed on some occasions to the measures taken by the DGT, such as environmental labelingbut they have not been dissatisfied with the V-16 beacons. The consumer association has made publications specifying what requirements are necessary to have a V-16 beacon connected or dismantling hoaxes. Posts that come with discounts on subscriptions that have a V-16 beacon attached as an ol giftdirect sale of this product. Beacons, beacons everywhere. And the V-16 beacon has become the star product of Christmas. All the large surfaces are promoting this product with supposed discounts, large online shopping spaces such as AliExpress or Temu They take discounts on the product to their highest point. The companies telephone They deliver it with new contracts, Mail has it in its offices and driver associations such as RACE either RACC They also have theirs. It is the result of a process that has allowed certify the same product with very subtle differences and then sold under different names. The most flagrant and controversial case of recent days is that of Angel Gaitan. He influencer has repeatedly criticized the imposition of this new device but has not lost the opportunity to sell a beacon under your seal which, in reality, is the same as that approved by the inventors of the new device and those who received the first approval from the DGT to sell their beacons presuming complete legality. Photo | Facua In Xataka | Yes, next year I am going to carry the V-16 beacon because they force me to. It doesn’t even occur to me to throw away the triangles

with massive ‘spam’ and 2,000 euros in salary

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In the middle of 2025 the postal mail (Correos knows it well) is not usually news. However, in Belgium there are about 150,000 letterswith their corresponding envelopes, addresses and letterheads, which are giving a lot to talk. Logical if you take into account that the one who sends them is the Ministry of Defense and their recipients are thousands of 17-year-old Belgians whom the Government wants to encourage to join the army or, at least, to try a one-year voluntary ‘military’. In exchange he offers them a net salary of 2,000 euros per month. What has happened? That in Belgium, 17-year-olds have begun to receive a very special letter this week, an invitation from the Ministry of Defense in which they are encouraged to join the army and try a 12-month voluntary military service. It is not a surprise because the letter is the result of a public agreement adopted months agowhen the House of Representatives agreed to “raise awareness” among the country’s youth via postal mail, but still sent the envelopes has generated expectation. The person in charge of announcing it (via X) has been the Minister of Defense himself, Theo Franckenof New Flemish Alliancea nationalist and conservative formation. “Yesterday, 149,000 letters were sent. All 17-year-olds in the country are encouraged to join the armed forces in general and to go on voluntary military service for one year in particular. Let’s go!”, the leader tweeted on Saturday along with several photos in which the envelopes are seen stacked on tables, boxes and inside a bucket. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Are more details known? Yes. Some. For example, the recruits selected for this first voluntary ‘military’ will be eligible for a net salary of 2,000 euros monthly. It is also known that, although letters are being sent now, registration will not open until January 2026. Before then, the Ministry will hold online and in-person information sessions in the different provinces of the country. However, the new military will take a few more months to start. It won’t do it in principle until september. Another interesting fact is that 500 volunteer recruits will be accepted from the outset. between 18 and 25 yearsa figure that should be reached without problems if one takes into account that only a few months ago the Ministry of Defense acknowledged that it expects to receive some 3,500 applications for the first cam. Do you only want 500 recruits? Yes. And no. That will be the starting point, but the goal is to expand it little by little. After the first batch of 500 volunteers, the idea is that the number of places will be expanded to 1,000 in 2027 and continue to strengthen with a view to reach 7,000. Once the military begins, recruits will participate in a ten-week basic military training phase, which will be followed by another more specific stage. The purpose? That the new soldiers end up accessing the different branches of the army and are in charge of maintenance work. surveillance and support. What does Belgium want? Strengthen (and rejuvenate) your army. “It is about opening the mind to the military, about telling young people that defense is an option, even an opportunity. The objective is also to make young people aware that the world has changed and that there is a threat that weighs on our country. It is a social project,” explained Francken recently Le Soir. The truth is that to meet its objectives the Government needs to increase the pace of recruitment. As remember The Countryciting the Belgian press, today Defense enlists about 2,800 soldiers a year. The figure serves to maintain its volume of 24,600 troops (thousands of reservists are added to them), but it seems difficult to allow it to reach the tens of thousands of troops that it wants to add in the medium term. Belgian News Agency points out that in a decade officials intend to expand the Defense workforce to 34,500 soldiers12,800 reservists and 8,500 civilians. Does context matter? Yes. And quite a bit. Data from the Macrotrends platform show a considerable drop in the number of Belgian military personnel over the last 30 years, a decline especially acute in the early 1990s, just when Belgium decided to abolish compulsory military service. At that time the geopolitical scenario was marked by the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, today it is marked by the war in Ukraine, the break with Putin’s Russia, the threats of Donald Trump to leave NATO and an increase in military investment. In fact in spring The Belgian Government decided to increase its defense spending to reach NATO’s goal of dedicating 2% of GDP to the sector. Today the alliance is already looking beyond, to a mobilization of 5%. Is it a unique case? No. And perhaps that is the most revealing. That Belgium has decided to opt for a mandatory military service is part of a more global attempt to strengthen armies in the West. Not long ago there was another nation that moved in a similar direction: Germany. His Government has moved to recover military service, suspended in 2011, with a voluntary recruitment system. The possibility of a “recruitment lottery”. Neither Belgium nor Germany they are alone. In recent years, especially after the Russian annexation of Crimea, a good number of countries They have strengthened their recruitment systems or (at least) opened the debate on recovering their military: from Lithuania, Latvia and Romania to the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway or Denmark. Spain discard recover compulsory service (abolished in 2001), although there are other formats, such as military camps, which are arousing interest. Is there debate? Yes, the topic raises debate. And Belgium once again provides a good example. There the military has been received with criticismespecially from youth organizations that fear that “the promise of a high salary can exploit the precarious situation of young people and make militaristic discourse socially acceptable for a generation in … Read more

The patch to avoid another massive blackout is going to cost us 731 million euros. Iberdrola has already begun to collect it

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The blackout on April 28 did not come free, and we consumers are going to pay for it. Iberdrola has confirmed that the extra cost caused by the “reinforced mode” that was activated after the massive blackout. And everything indicates that the rest of the electric companies will follow in their footsteps. what has happened. They tell it in The World. Until now, the impact of the blackout on the bill had been limited because the CNMC intervened so that the electricity companies could not modify the price for customers who have contracted fixed rates. FACUA also issued a statement warning that rates could not be raised if it did not appear in the contract. The blackout was more than six months ago, more than enough time for many free market contracts to have been renewed. This has given Iberdrola the opportunity to introduce clauses that allow them to pass the cost on to customers. Reinforced mode After the blackout, the so-called “reinforced mode” was activated. This adjustment involves intervening in the market to incorporate more conventional energy (gas, hydroelectric and nuclear) and limiting the entry of renewables with the aim of avoiding voltage failures. And of course, these energies are more expensive, in addition to requiring more auxiliary services to stabilize the network. The problem is that this It started as a patch after the blackout, but it has become the new normal which remains half a year later. The cost. It covers from the blackout until September and amounts to 210 million euros distributed between Spain and Portugal. Of this sum, Spain assumes the majority, with 180 million euros. Iberdrola regrets that the change in the system by Red Eléctrica is entailing an extra cost that “affects our results” and they hope to transfer 70% of this amount to their clients before the end of the year. Not just Iberdrola. Nothing prevents the rest of the electricity marketers from following in Iberdrola’s footsteps. According to El Mundo, the total cost of the reinforced mode in these six months amounts to 731 million euros and it looks like it will remain active for longer, so this amount will increase. The CNMC warns that any change in contract prices must be communicated transparently. From one pocket to another. In the Iberian Peninsula there are five nuclear power plants, 1,300 hydroelectric plants and some 200 gas plants. These conventional (non-renewable) energy plants are providing more energy as long as the boosted mode remains active and they are receiving more income for it. What is striking is that they mostly belong to private companies such as Iberdrola, Naturgy either Endesawho are the ones who will end up increasing the price of the invoice. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Five months later we continue to discover things about the blackout in Spain. And the news is getting worse for Europe

This is the “danger zone” we enter after the massive death of corals

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The Earth has officially entered a grim new era. climate reality. According to a shocking new reportthe incessant increase in heat in the oceans has pushed the corals from around the world beyond its limit, causing a unprecedented large reef mortality because of this climate change. Something that is not good news at all. This event, according to scientists, marks the first climate tipping point we have passed as a planet, directly threatening the livelihoods of nearly a billion people. The report. This data has been collected in the “Global Tipping Points Report 2025”, prepared by an international consortium of more than 200 researchers. And the truth is that they are not at all positive, since they suggest that even in the most optimistic scenario, where global warming does not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, practically all warm-water coral reefs will exceed a point of no return. This makes their loss “one of the most pressing ecological losses facing humanity,” although the disappearance of corals is only the tip of the iceberg. Experts point out that since 2023 we have witnessed how the temperature has increased more than 1.5 °C compared to the pre-industrial average. In this way, exceeding the 1.5 °C limit now seems quite inevitable and could occur around 2030, something that puts our planet on the brink of an abyss. What are ‘turning points’. These points are nothing more than critical thresholds. Once crossed, the climate system is pushed into a new paradigm, triggering effects that will go on in a chain. Specifically, we talk about events such as widespread death of the Amazon rainforestthe collapse of the Greenland ice sheets or the collapse of the circulation of Atlantic southern overturn (AMOC). The Amazon, in particular, is in a critical situation. The report warns that not only warming threatens the forest, but also the combination of this with deforestation. With 1.5°C warming, only 22% deforestation would be enough to reach its point of no return. The current figure is already at an alarming 17%. All is not lost. Despite the bleak outlook, the report identifies a silver lining, which is nothing more than a paradigm shift that, unlike the negative ones, triggers a cascade of beneficial changes. Since 2023, the world has seen very rapid progress in the adoption of clean technologies, especially in two key areas: velectric vehicles and photovoltaic solar energy. Accompanied by a drastic drop in battery prices, these factors are beginning to reinforce each other, accelerating the energy transition in a way that few anticipated. The problem. According to the report’s authors, it lies in governance systems. From national policies to multinational agreements, such as the from Pariswere not designed to address turning points. They are designed to manage gradual, linear changes, not abrupt, cascading collapses on multiple fronts at once. But these turning points are really threatening, so they point to a series of immediate actions to be taken in all countries to avoid a catastrophic situation. In this case they point to the following: Reduce emissions of short-lived pollutants such as methane and black carbon. Accelerate efforts to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Making global supply chains sustainable. Develop mitigation strategies for climate impacts. The message is clear and forceful: what we have done so far is not enough. Researchers urge not to look away. As Milkoreit concludes, “even having a reader have the courage to stay with the problem is work, and I want to recognize that work.” Images | quinguyen Chris LeBoutillier In Xataka | In the fight against climate change, we have developed the air conditioning revolution: ionocaloric cooling

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