move

The answer to how we move from one language to another

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Here a server lives in Vigo and, throughout the day, frequently switches from Spanish to Galician. Jumping from one language to another happens naturally, spontaneously, depending on who you are talking to, where you are, or even what you are doing. The same thing happens to many people around me who have grown up listening to both languages ​​or, in other parts of Spain, to people who have learned Catalan, Basque, Valencian, Aranese, Bable from the cradle… even dialects with much smaller communities of speakers, such as the gallery. That ability to jump from one language to another is something we take for granted, but it remains a fascinating phenomenon for linguists. Now a group of researchers wants to understand it better focusing the focus on two very specific areas of the peninsula quite far from each other: Galicia and Gibraltar. The key: multilingualism. The dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) defines the “multilingualism” as the “coexistence of several languages ​​in a country or territory”. It is a known phenomenon and to which we are more than accustomed in Spain, where although Spanish is the official language throughout the State and there are a handful of co-official languages ​​in certain regions, a rich melting pot of speeches, dialects and slang coexist. Now… Do we really understand how multilingualism develops? Why do we jump from one language to another? Majority, but unknown. The previous one is an interesting question because in the world there are millions and millions of people who switch daily from one language to another with complete naturalness: they do it depending on where they are, who their interlocutor is, if they are working or having drinks with their friends… It even happens within the same family. Curiously, despite the fact that it is such a widespread phenomenon, there are those who believe that we still have a long way to go to understand it. “Multilingualism is a majority reality in the world, but we still know little about how it works in diverse and changing communities,” they explain those responsible for ‘BabelBrain. The Babel Brain: Mapping Multilingual Ecologies’, a project led by an expert from the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC) who has set out to understand it better. And how do they want to do it? Studying what happens in two multilingual communities on the peninsula separated by more than seven hundred kilometers: Galicia and Gibraltar. The objective, they comment from the USC, is to compare both territories to “analyze how people build their social relationships between several languages” and “understand what this multilingual experience reveals about adaptation mechanisms and the human capacity for language.” In Galicia, Galician and Spanish mainly coexist, although it is also possible to hear other languages ​​that have arrived through the flow of migrants. In Gibraltar the languages ​​in contact are English and Spanish, which has in turn led to “own linguistic practices”, such as the plaina similar combination to spanglish although specific to that region. His use of Spanish is very marked by Andalusian usage and also incorporates words of other languages. Why Gibraltar and Galicia? If the idea is to study multilingualism in Spain, why not go to other regions with more speaking communities or where more languages ​​coexist? From BabelBrain they explain it clearly: Galicia and Gibraltar may be separated by seven hundred kilometers, but they share a series of characteristics that are especially interesting. “Both communities share the characteristic that one of the languages ​​is in decline (Galician in Galicia and Spanish in Gibraltar),” remember the groupwhich also specifies that the two regions need to be more analyzed. Two years ago the Galician Institute of Statistics (IGE) published a report which pointed out that residents who exclusively use Spanish already surpassed those who always express themselves in Galician. The first group represents 30%. The second, 24%. In Gibraltar there are also experts who recognize your “concern” due to the “level of deterioration” that Spanish is suffering there. One goal, two phases. To achieve its objective, the study will be divided into two phases. In the first, which was already underway in June in both Galicia and Gibraltar, researchers will collect samples of spontaneous conversations and work with questionnaires. “The objective is to document the real uses of languages ​​in everyday life,” clarifies the USC before specifying that linguists want to take care of rural areas that are usually left out of studies. The second phase will consist of “experimental studies” more focused on understanding how we process languages ​​and how linguistic experience, contexts or patterns of use influence them. With this objective, techniques of pupillometry and conceal tracking that help understand how speakers process information when reading, listening, or interpreting. At stake is a key task: better understanding our adaptation mechanisms, especially when it comes to language use. Images | Wikipedia and Michal Mrozek (Unsplash) In Xataka | In 1971, an aquarium in the United States took in an orphaned seal. Five years later he started doing something: speaking in English

The PSP is more than 20 years old and has no reason to move ‘Counter-Strike’. A developer has decided to try

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Those afternoons began with a simple gesture: turn on the computer and open ‘Counter Strike‘. Sometimes it happened at home and other times in an Internet cafe, still decisive in places where domestic connection was just beginning to spread. Then came the servers, network games and scenarios like de_dust2repeated until each hallway was familiar. For those of us who lived through that stage, “playing a Counter” did not just describe a video game, but a specific way to pass the time. In 2005, the PSP was beginning to make a place for itself among players when ‘Counter-Strike’ had been on the PC for years and its version 1.6 had already become a reference. Sony’s laptop belonged to that same technological culture, but never received an official delivery of the Valve title. They shared a time, an audience and many hours of playing, although their paths did not cross. More than two decades later, a developer has decided to bring them closer through a project that does not go unnoticed. The way chosen to bring Counter-Strike closer to the PSP is called OpenStrikea project that looks familiar on screen, although under that appearance something completely different works. We are not looking at Valve’s commercial game running on the laptop or a direct port of its engine, but rather a new implementation that recovers maps, rounds, shooting and combats against bots. Each user must provide the maps and textures from their own copy, while the movement, rules and rendering depend on a base created expressly for the project. Behind that base is Yifeng Wang, known as doodlewind on GitHub, a developer linked to open software, interfaces and web technologies. Its objective was to test PocketJS and Pocket3D and demonstrate that that architecture could go beyond interfaces to support a 3D game in real time. As he explained when presenting OpenStrike, he chose the PSP because its hardware does not allow it to disguise an inefficient architecture with more memory or power. If that worked there, the demonstration would be much more convincing. The first obstacle was elementary: the PSP cannot directly run a program created for the PC. Your processor uses a MIPS architecturedifferent from the one for which ‘Counter-Strike’ was compiled, and they also change the system, the libraries and the way of communicating with the graphics hardware. Copy the executable to a memory card would be like providing written instructions for another machine. You had to recompile and adapt the original code, emulate its environment or, as Wang did, build a new implementation that spoke the console language from the beginning. Once the barrier of architecture was overcome, an even tighter fight remained: making everything fit and respond in time. The PSP-1000 had 32 MB of memory, of which the programs could use 24 MB, and its processor reached 333 MHz. Everything necessary for the game to work had to coexist within that margin. Maintaining 60 images per second meant doing all that work in about 16.7 milliseconds per frame, with no room for unnecessary calculations. The solution was to prevent the PSP from calculating during the game everything that could be prepared in advance. OpenStrike incorporates the map lighting into the geometry itself, adapts the resources to the console format and takes advantage of the pre-calculated visibility information of the BSP maps to limit rendering to potentially visible areas. According to Wang’s measurements on a physical PSP, the test run on dust2 remains at 60 FPS, also during combat. It is still, however, a proof of concept without multiplayer, purchase phase or all the systems of the original game. As shown in the demo published by the projectthe crossover between ‘Counter-Strike’ and the PSP no longer belongs solely to the realm of the imaginable. OpenStrike is still far from reproducing the full game, but it delivers on the essential promise: recovering a recognizable part of that experience. That is the true scope of Wang’s work. Not to demonstrate that the laptop hid an unknown power, but rather that its limits could still become the starting point for building something new. Images | Yifeng Wang In Xataka | Microsoft wants to preserve Xbox games and has chosen an unexpected path: officially emulate them on Windows

Japan did not need another aircraft carrier to make a move. His next military step begins with Vietnam

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Japan has spent decades measuring every military gesture with almost surgical caution. Not due to lack of industry, technology or capacity, but due to the weight of its recent history and the political limits that have marked its defense since the post-war period. Therefore, when Tokyo moves a piece in this area, it is advisable to look beyond the apparent size of the gesture. What we have before us shows where the Asian country is moving. The specific news. The movement appears in a statement from the Japanese Ministry of Defense after the meeting that the Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi He held two days earlier with General Phan Van Giang, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Vietnam. According to Tokyo, both agreed to start talks to establish new forms of cooperation in defense equipment and technology. The most striking part is the possibility of jointly developing and producing fast landing craft. Vietnam, partner without alliance. The choice of Vietnam is not coincidental. We are talking about a country whose recent history was marked by the war with the United Stateswhich since diplomatic normalization in 1995 has elevated its relationship with Washington to the rank of comprehensive strategic partnership and that, at the same time, avoids presenting itself as part of a military bloc. That combination is precisely what makes its role interesting for Japan: Hanoi needs to strengthen its capabilities, diversify partners and protect its maritime interests, but without becoming trapped in a formal alliance. In this balance, Tokyo appears as a useful, advanced and politically less strident partner than other actors. The policy of balance. This position has a very specific translation in Vietnamese defense doctrine: the so-called “four noes”. Hanoi maintains that it does not participate in military alliances, does not align itself with one country against another, does not allow foreign military bases or other countries to use its territory against third parties, and does not resort to the use or threat of force in its international relations. It is an architecture designed to cooperate without being absorbed by anyone. The maritime map. The Japanese statement does not mention China as a direct recipient of the message, but it does place the conversation in two very specific spaces: the East China Sea and the South China Sea. For Tokyo,the first is part of its major security concerns; for Hanoi, The second is the stage where they concentrate some of its main maritime tensions. That is why the two ministers stressed the freedom of navigation and overflight, in addition to respect for international law and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Why they matter. The expression “fast landing craft” may sound minor compared to submarines, fighters or large warships, but their function is very specific: moving troops, vehicles, equipment or supplies to a coast, an island or an area that is difficult to access. In a fragmented maritime environment, with archipelagos, reefs and territories where distance is not always measured in kilometers but rather in the ability to arrive sooner, this mobility has strategic value. We are not talking about a spectacular weapon, but rather a practical tool for operating where the map narrows. Japan moves its industry. The possible cooperation with Vietnam fits into a broader transformation: Japan is trying that its defense industrial base weighs more inside and outside the country. We have seen this in the reform of its military equipment transfer rules, revised again in April 2026 to promote more defensive cooperation with allies and like-minded countries, and also in advanced projects that are still in the research phase, such as the electromagnetic railgun. The point is that Tokyo is moving away from viewing its military industry as a purely domestic matter. A very measured turn. The interesting thing is that neither country needs to present this as a breakup for it to have weight. Japan does not suddenly abandon its historical caution, and Vietnam does not sign a formal military alliance. What we see is a much more discreet formula: industrial cooperation, defensive technology and naval capabilities in an area where every small movement is read in a strategic key. That’s why landing craft may seem like a small thing on paper, but they say a lot about where the Indo-Pacific is moving. Images | Xataka with Nano Banana In Xataka | Germany wanted to armor its army with a volunteer military. He has encountered a boom of conscientious objectors

Peter Thiel is one of the pillars of Silicon Valley. His record-breaking move to Florida is one more nail in California’s coffin

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A rental contract does not usually provide enough space for owners, except if it is for a centrally located apartment in Madrid or Barcelona for less than 600 euros. Then, it would be a miracle. But when the signer is one of the names that they defined Silicon Valley and their destination is Florida, things change. As and how I collected the North American Fox BusinessPeter Thiel has just signed the contract for what will be his offices in Miami, paying more than anyone else in that city before. “For Peter Thiel to sign that lease, marking a milestone of $250 per square foot, is absolutely incredible,” said Joe DaGrosa, founder and president of the real estate investment consultancy. DaGrosa Capital Partners. The record price reached in office rentals draws attention, but what is truly interesting is what lies behind it: a historic name in Silicon Valley is willing to pay more just to leave California as soon as possible, joining (and urgently) the migratory wave of millionaires who have already established their residence in front of the warm waters from Miami. A record rental that hides a trend Thiel’s office will occupy part of the 44th floor of the tower 830 Brickella busy building in which it will share elevators with companies such as Microsoft or Citadel. Its offices will occupy about 1,690 m2 and the price that has registered the record is $2,690.98 per square meter. That is, a bill of 4.55 million dollars per year. As Joe DaGrosa explained to Fox Businessthe average rent in that area was around $40 or $60 per square foot for an office, which implies that Peter Thiel would be paying between 525% and 316% surcharge for the rent of their offices. The increase in the price of business land in South Florida already compete with the prices of Manhattan and San Francisco. This price increase has arisen from the growing interest of technology companies that until now had their headquarters in Silicon Valley, but are now moving en masse to Miami, following in the footsteps of their founders. Thiel hasn’t arrived in Florida overnight. Just like other millionaires have done like Jeff Bezos o Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, Thiel bought a property in Miami Beach more than five years ago. In December 2025, with California already debating the tax on great fortunes, Thiel Capital announced that opened office in that same area. The final blow came in February with the announcement of Palantir: the company chaired by Thiel confirmed the move from its headquarters to Miami, thus completing the migration of Thiel’s main businesses to Miami. Expelled by a tax that does not exist Behind so much movement there is a very specific reason: tax payment. California has been debating for months application of a tax single 5% on the assets of those who exceed $1 billion and reside in the state on January 1, 2026. This tax is expected to raise about $100 billion over the next five years, which will be used to mitigate cuts in social benefits for the most vulnerable population in California. The measure has already gathered more than 1.5 million signatures, well above the million necessary, and was confirmed to be submitted to vote next November after the failure of negotiations between the driving unions and Governor Gavin Newsom, who is against imposing the new rate that would affect about 200 people. That is, the millionaires already have started their preventive migration reacting to a tax that has not even been approved and that does not even have the support of the state governor. Larry Page and Sergey Brin left California before the tax deadline. Page paid more than 170 million dollars for two houses in Coconut Grove, and Brin was bought a 51 million home on Allison Island. Mark Zuckerberg, after two decades in San Francisco, changed zip code to become Jeff Bezos’ neighbor in Billionaire Bunker. The great beneficiary of the move It’s been Florida. His choice has not been causal, and responds to a compelling reason: he does not charge income or wealth tax, and that weighs a lot when the fortune is counted in billions of dollars. Not all technology magnates take a dim view of the tax on large fortunes. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, has expressed his willingness to pay taxes get approved and stay in California. But Thiel already donated three million dollars to the California Business Roundtable, the group fighting the proposal. In Xataka | More and more millionaires and technology companies are fleeing California. The winners: Texas and Miami In Xataka | Billionaires prepare their mansions for the apocalypse: luxury bunkers have become a trend Image | Gage SkidmoreUnsplash (mark)

“When things move fast, people make mistakes and it costs them money”

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Next to the Fiorano track, the small circuit inside the Maranello factory on which Ferrari tests its F1 cars every winter, the noise is deafening. “When things move too fast, people make mistakes,” he explains. Bogdan Botezaturesearch director of bitdefenderone of the largest cybersecurity companies in the world. Botezatu could refer to the sports cars that, right at that moment, are spinning around the circuit without stopping. But he’s actually talking about something else. Last month, Bitdefender released its first Cybersecurity Grand Prix Fan Threat Indexan elaborate study of the risks and threats that spectators of sports around the world, including F1, face every weekend. The purpose of the investigation is simple: to show the multiple tools that hackers have around them to violate the privacy of viewers and, in the most extreme cases, raid their bank account. “Frauds are evolving. Last year, cybercrime had a turnover of around 9 billion (trillion in English) of dollars globally. Of those 9 billion, only 1 billion came from the scamming“explains Botezatu. His index aims to monitor how scams evolve. In the middle of the Soccer World Cupwith millions of viewers glued to their mobile phone screens every day, the phenomenon is more current than ever. Bitdefender, however, focuses on another area: motorsports. For years, the company has collaborated closely with Ferrari, whom it sponsors and offers cybersecurity solutions for its F1 team. This is no small matter: Ferrari, like all other F1 teams, jealously protects its technical findings. Industrial espionage has always been the order of the day in a competitive environment. With Bitdefender, Ferrari aims to limit damage in today’s highly digitalized environment. “If you look at what happens to large companies, they are constantly being attacked by ransomwareintellectual property theft, infiltrations… But they are protected, they have their own cybersecurity teams, they can protect their perimeters, they can service their infrastructure, they have agreements with companies like Bitdefender. They are protected,” Botezatu points out. We are not, he implicitly suggests. “Things at home are fundamentally different,” he continues, “spectators watching F1 or other motor sports don’t have these safety nets, they aren’t even aware of the risks of cybercrime.” When we sit in front of the television to watch an F1 race or a soccer match, we focus on sport. The only problem is that on the other side of the screen there is a army of scammers and hackers trying to take advantage of the show. To take it out at our expense. The range of tools available to scam us is wide. From merchandise from smuggling (fake t-shirts, accessories, jackets, caps; in the case of football teams, t-shirts) to fraud in the purchase of tickets (often with juicy and pompous “last minute” offers), passing through the ecosystems of streaming. Much of Bitdefender’s talk emphasizes this last aspect. How it works The order of the factors is almost always the same: before a big event, such as an F1 GP or a football tournament, there is an uptick in fraud due to illegal tickets, in addition to a growth in fake advertisements. merchandising. During the celebration of the event, the numbers increase exponentially. streaming malicious, in most cases disappearing at the end of the show. After the race or the game, the scam in the form of highlights or surveys that give rise to abuse. “In the case of motorsports, its ecosystems are dominated by speed. You have to sell or buy tickets quickly, you have to find a service streamingyou have to find legitimate stores merchandising. If there are mistakes, they cost money,” Botezatu reasons. “And there is also an emotional investment during the weekends,” he adds, pointing to the impetuous, nervous and effusive aspect of the sports fan. It’s not just about watching an F1 race or a soccer match: you want be part of itso decision making is sometimes conditioned. Bogdan Botezatu. One of the advantages of protecting users during sporting events is that the behavior of cybercriminals is predictable. The scammers They know that the activity is concentrated during the weekends on Telegram or Discord channels and on streaming unofficial. There are suspicious VPNs, aggressive ads, fake subscriptions and a long list of mechanisms to capture our attention and surprise us. Its operation, in the case of streamingis always the same: First there is amplification on social media: Telegram channels, Facebook groups, Discord servers and Reddit discussions. Then direct monetization is sought: unlock payments, force interactions with ads, redirect users, push notifications push. He streaming of the race is secondary. And finally, the infrastructure is disposable: domains that appear and disappear just before and after the race often use the “cc” domain. Another problem identified by Bitdefender is the services of streaming of Android. We talk about applications like Playfy TV and Cricfy TV. According to them, they require installing APKs and are risky. At the same time, all this It is related to the “streaming boxes” offered by Chinese companies, specifically BADBOX 2.0. They put malware on Android, phones, tablets and much more. Its impact is very high, they seek compromise devices before even reaching the consumer. Using this technology we open our devices to the enemy, according to Botezatu, who specifically focuses on this mechanism. He streaming sports is fundamentally based on Discord servers, Telegram channels and communication systems. backup They work by invitation. The references of streaming They are deleted after the races, the servers are migrated and there is a very high link rotation that makes it impossible to chase them or protect against them effectively. For all this, the Bitdefender expert insists, it is very important to be aware of the risks involved. His summary is very simple: if you have to install something, a bad sign. Given the location of the talk, in the heart of a racing circuit, and the orientation of Bitdefender, sponsor of an F1 team, it is natural to suspect that his efforts are aimed at motor sports fans. and your Fan Thread Indexin … Read more

Ukraine has found Russia’s weak point in Crimea. And now there is a line of Russian trucks that cannot move forward

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During World War II, General George S. Patton It stopped its advance not because of a lack of tanks or ammunition, but because of something much more basic: gasoline. Their armored columns consumed so much fuel that logistics could not keep up. Since then, armies learned a brutally simple lesson: sometimes war is decided not by who fires the most, but by who keeps the tank full. The real Achilles heel. For months, the war in Crimea had been told in terms of missiles, air bases and attacks on the Black Sea Fleet. But Ukraine seems to have identified something much more vulnerable, the same thing we just saw with the US agreement with Iran to end the war: the fuel. It is not just about destroying military objectives, but about attacking the “blood” that makes the entire Russian machine work. Without gasoline, trucks do not move, projectiles do not arrive, drones do not fly, nor an offensive is sustained. And that’s exactly what kyiv is cutting. Hit the artery. I was counting this morning the financial times that the Ukrainian campaign has concentrated on the land corridor connecting continental Russia with Crimea, especially the “Novorossiya” highwaythe great logistics work inaugurated in 2023 and presented by Vladimir Putin as one of the great strategic successes of the war. It we counted recently. That road connects Rostov with the peninsula through occupied Mariupol and Melitopol, and has now become a shooting gallery: more than 375 documented attacks against trucks and vehicles since May, many of them precisely on that road. The message is clear: there is no need to destroy Crimea, enough is enough with disconnecting it. A peninsula that lives off what it enters. The problem for Moscow It is structural. Crimea neither produces oil nor has enough refining capacity to sustain itself. It has always depended on external supplies, before from Ukraine and now from Russia. This dependency turns each destroyed convoy into an immediate problem. The images of kilometric queuesdigital coupons and rationing at gas stations in Sevastopol show how the logistical impact translates almost instantly into social pressure. What at the front is a supply interruption, in the rear already seems like a siege. The Kerch bridge is no longer enough. For a long time, the bridge was the great russian lifeguard. But since the 2022 attack that damaged its stretches and set a fuel train on fire, Moscow has greatly reduced its use for sensitive shipments. Transporting fuel by road is much less efficient than by train, because a single rail convoy is equivalent to dozens and dozens of tanker trucks. And therein lies the problem: Ukraine is hitting both systems at the same time, forcing Russia to improvise floating bridges and much slower and more vulnerable secondary routes. The intermediate drone war. The most interesting thing is that this campaign is not being led by either small front-line drones or large strategic drones, but rather a new intermediate category that we have been explaining. We talk about systems like the FP-2, Behemoth or the Hornet that allow you to attack at distances of up to 200 kilometers with enough charge to destroy trucks, warehouses and bridges. They are cheap devices, difficult to intercept and operate with networks like Starlink that complicate Russian electronic warfare. It’s a major change, as Ukraine is turning logistics into its own front. Crimea is an island again. If you like, the great effect of this strategy It is psychological and military both. Crimea was conquered by Russia as a platform to project power, and now it is beginning to look an isolated enclave which needs to be fed daily to survive. If Ukraine keeps up the pace through the summer, the pressure will not only be on the southern front, but at full capacity Russian to sustain operations in the region. And there is the central idea: Moscow still has missiles, bases and soldiers in Crimea, but Ukraine has understood that the weak point was not so much in destroying them directly, it was in simply leaving them without gasoline. Image | Britannia In Xataka | We have to start thinking about the Ukrainian war in terms greater than those of the First World War. In Xataka | The drone war has left a clear lesson for Ukraine: you can’t leave home without a 100-year-old machine gun

“we will move more than a million passengers”

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Ryanair will reduce its activity in Zaragoza by 45% starting in November. At least, that is the threat that is on the table if Aena does not lower its airport taxes. But far from falling in traffic, Zaragoza has one goal: to reach a record number of travelers. And that’s how they intend to achieve it. The notice. Ryanair will cut its activity in Zaragoza by 45% if airport taxes remain as they are. And, of course, if the increase that Aena wants to apply starting next year is maintained, with an eye on the period 2027-2031. The movement is framed within the cut of 1.2 million places that the company has announced for the regional airports of our country in the next winter season. Asturias, Valladolid, Jerez, Tenerife North and Vigo will say goodbye to all the company’s activities, if the plan goes ahead. The data. So far this year, Zaragoza has recorded a drop in the number of passengers of 0.5% but its operations have skyrocketed, registering an increase of 16%. The data has some interesting figures: Passengers on domestic flights have barely fallen by 0.1% Passengers on international flights have fallen by 1.4% International operations have soared by 21% while national operations have grown by 7% Operations to move merchandise are the ones that increase the most. In total, the total cargo moved has increased by 22% so far this year. All this data is collected by Aena. and the answer. To Ryanair’s threats, the response from Zaragoza is clear: they want to continue growing. Last year, Zaragoza barely exceeded 700,000 passengers, with a growth of 1.9% compared to 2024. For next year, the goal is to reach one million passengers, an ambitious figure taking into account that Ryanair would reduce its activity by half. In words collected by The Newspaper of Aragon, The general director of Transport of the Government of Aragon, David Sánchez, assures that the current volume of passengers is very far from what was expected in a city like Zaragoza and that they intend to increase them with new international routes. And he emphasizes: “in the year 2027, Zaragoza Airport will handle more than a million travelers.” In that same newspaper, reference is made to the fact that the Aragon Government Council will soon present “the tender for a tourism promotion contract for the opening of new routes, both national and international” with the aim of increasing these flights. Where to? In Herald They explain that two legs support the project to multiply the number of travelers. The main objective would be a connection with Frankfurt, a key city in international air traffic. By passenger volume, It is the fifth in Europemany companies use it as a stopover for their connections with long-haul flights and it is located in the economic capital of the European Union. Also, a few weeks ago Wizz Air confirmed that it will connect Zaragoza with Milan starting in September through Malpensa airport. It will make three weekly flights and its 40,000 seats will replace Ryanair’s withdrawal from this connection (it flew to Bergamo, the usual route for low-cost operators) and which also offered 11,500 fewer seats for that same period. But above all, we want to continue increasing the workload in the transport of goods. Right now, Zaragoza is the second airport in Spain in this section and since The Aragon Newspaper They point out that continuing to grow is one of the great objectives for next year. Back to the rates. It remains to be seen, however, how the issue of airport taxes and Ryanair’s threats turns out. The Irish company assures that if the expected increase continues from next year, its activities at regional airports will be reduced and, with them, the routes it has available in Zaragoza. Aena wants to apply a 3.82% increase to current rates in the period 2027-2031. The airlines, however, want the current fee to be reduced by 4.9%. The CNMC defends a rate cut of 0.59%a figure very far from the airlines’ claims but halfway between both parties. For now, Ryanair has welcomed this proposal from the CNMC but it is not confirmed that Aena will listen to her when proposing to the Government its plan for the coming years. Photo | Pedro Sanz and Burak Sahin In Xataka | The new EU border system is leaving people without flights. Ryanair has a solution: close check-in early

To move the cutting head of the ‘Monica’ tunnel boring machine, a 152-wheel truck was needed. It’s the key to Australia’s ‘water battery’

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Transporting a gigantic tunnel boring machine to the work point is no small feat, and Madrid has a few things to say about this. However, in Cooma, a small town in the Australian state of New South Wales, they seem to have gotten the hang of it. And the colossal piece of steel crossed its streets at a snail’s pace on a 152 wheel truck. The cargo was part of Snowy 2.0one of the largest energy storage projects in the world. What is it about?. The piece was the central block of the cutting head of the tunnel boring machine named Monica. According to Snowy Hydro, the public company behind the project, this component weighs more than 137 tons and measures seven meters wide. The head is the part that really matters in a tunnel boring machine, since it is the rotating disc that faces the rock and crushes it as it moves. Media deployment. Monica’s head is too big to transport in one piece, so it had to be divided into five parts. Still, just moving the center block required months of preparation. The entire transport reached 73 meters in length, and was moved at night facing the last stretch along the Snowy Mountains Highway, heading to the Marica site, north of Kiandra, where the machine would be assembled. A colossal engineering project. This move was just one piece of a much larger puzzle. The company indicates that in the previous weeks more than 140 large loads were delivered to Marica from the port of Port Kembla, south of Sydney. The tunnel boring machines do not arrive assembled, as they are transported in sections (head, drive system, shields, support platforms) and are assembled on site. In fact, last October, the transport of Monica’s motor system (a component about 207 tons and eight meters wide) brought more than 1,500 people to Cooma, in what Snowy Hydro called one of the largest loads ever transported by road in New South Wales. What is all this for? Snowy 2.0 is, in essence, a gigantic water battery. The project will connect the Tantangara and Talbingo reservoirs through some 27 kilometers of tunnels and an underground power station. The idea is to generate electricity by turbineing water when demand is high and, in times of surplus solar and wind energy, pump it back uphill for reuse. The company assures that it will have a capacity of 2,200 megawatts and enough stored energy to supply about three million homes for a week. Start-up. Last February, Snowy Hydro announced that Monica had been commissioned and would be responsible for excavating the section of the tunnel that crosses the Long Plain fault zone, a geologically complicated area. Designed by the German firm Herrenknecht, the machine advances at one end of the tunnel while another tunnel boring machine, Florence, does so at the opposite. The idea is that both are underground before being dismantled. For those dates the project exceeded 70% execution. Snowy 2.0 has not been without controversy with news of cost overruns and delays, and completion is now scheduled for December 2028. Images | Snowy Hydro In Xataka | Canada is going to debut the residential skyscraper with the most floors in all of North America: it has 12 sides and 351 meters high

China is about to launch the most powerful cargo drone in the world. And it will move it with hydrogen

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The aeronautical industry has been researching and experimenting for quite some time. with hydrogen turboprop engines on airplanes. A Chinese company is about to break that barrier, as it has taken off an airplane with one of these megawatt-scale engines. Aero Engine Corporation of China (AECC) has completed the first test flight of the AEP100, installed on a 7.5-ton cargo drone, in an operation that took off from Zhuzhou airport, in Hunan province. what has happened. The device flew for 16 minutes, reached an altitude of 300 meters and traveled 36 kilometers at a speed of 220 km/h before landing without incident. According to AECC, the engine operated stably throughout the flight profile and responded as expected. Chinese state media present it as the world’s first flight with a hydrogen turboprop of this power. Why is it relevant?. Yes, it is a short, unmanned, low-altitude test. But this means that hydrogen aeronautical propulsion leaves the laboratory and test benches to face real flight conditions. AECC maintains that the country already has a complete technological chain for hydrogen aeronautical engines, from essential components to system integration. direct combustion. The AEP100 does not use fuel cells to power an electric motor. It burns liquid hydrogen directly in a turbine cycle, just as a conventional turboprop would burn kerosene. This is the main difference with other bets. Airbus, for example, has prioritized fuel cells on its roadmap to a hydrogen commercial aircraft in 2035, while China has opted for direct combustion. Combustion is more complicated to tame in engineering, but offers much higher power density, something key to scaling up to larger aircraft. What aircraft is it intended for?. The AEP100 is custom designed for the W5000, a twin-engine cargo drone developed by Chinese startup Air White Whale. According to the manufacturer’s data, we are talking about a device with a maximum takeoff weight of 10.8 tons, 5 tons of payload, more than 65 cubic meters of hold and a range of 2,600 kilometers. Just like share from China Daily, when it completes its first flight, it will become the most powerful transport drone in the world, surpassing the Norinco Luca. Deadlines. Yuan An, general manager of subsidiary AE General Aviation Power Tech, has explained The engine is in the final phase of the type certification process and they hope to obtain approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China in 2027. The process is progressing faster than usual because the AEP100 shares a core with the AES100 turboshaft, which shortens procedures. Yuan has also assured that the AEP100 and its variants will “end the heavy dependence on foreign engines” in Chinese general aviation. Where will it be used first?. For now, we have to forget about getting on a hydrogen-powered passenger plane. The bet goes through what they call the “low altitude economy”that is, situations in which unmanned cargo drones, inter-island logistics or controlled transport routes to remote areas are used, being scenarios where hydrogen refueling infrastructure, certification and operational economics are more manageable than in passenger aviation. Yuan remember also that the United States has more than 275,000 general aviation aircraft, while in China there are only a few thousand. The problems that remain unresolved. Burning hydrogen in a turbine is no small feat, as you can imagine. It burns at higher temperatures than kerosene and with a much higher flame speed, which requires the design of systems that avoid autoignition, flame flashbacks and combustion oscillations. Added to this is storage, since liquid hydrogen requires cryogenic temperatures close to -253 ° C, heavily insulated tanks and, most likely, redesigning the geometry of the fuselage itself to accommodate it. Sustainability. aviation Today it is around 2% of global CO₂ emissions, a figure that could skyrocket in the coming decades if the sector maintains its dependence on fossil fuels. China aims to reduce its exposure to imported oil in an increasingly complicated geopolitical scenario, so hydrogen can fit into both narratives. And now what. China’s road map mark 2028 as horizon to validate similar technologies in small unmanned aircraft, helicopters and urban air mobility, 2035 for applications in broader regions and 2050 for large commercial turbofan aircraft. The first flight of the W5000 with the AEP100 installed is expected in the coming months and will be the next litmus test. Cover image | CCTV In Xataka | For China, DeepSeek is more than just AI: it is the key to creating an industry that makes them independent of Nvidia

7,000 employees move to AI while 8,000 clear their desks

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Thousands of Meta employees will go to sleep tonight without knowing if tomorrow they will have work. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has set a date and time to put end to the long agony that their employees were suffering in one of the further staff cuts that Meta has done in its recent history. According to advanced Reuters, the company has asked its US employees to telework tomorrow while layoff notices are rolled out. A measure that, beyond logistics, reflects the enormous tension that the company knew would be generated that day. Layoffs at 4 in the morning and without relief. According to an internal document to which the news agency has had access, the layoffs will be carried out in three waves that will begin at 4 a.m. on Wednesday, local time, in each region. This was detailed by Janelle Gale, director of Human Resources at Meta, in an internal memo shared with employees. “Many leaders will announce organizational changes,” the directive wrote. According to that document, the set of layoffs will affect about 10% of the entire workforce of the 77,986 employees that Meta had at the end of March. Furthermore, the company has withdrawn 6,000 offers of work to fill vacancies that were open. More than 7,000 employees relocated to AI. The layoffs are just one part of the restructuring movement that Mark Zuckerberg is carrying out. Meta has already reassigned more than 7,000 employees to new positions in new projects linked to AIaccording to the same Gale memo. Some transfers have already become effective before May 20, but in other cases employees will be notified throughout the same Wednesday. In that internal communication, Gale explained the goal of the changes: “We are now at a stage where many organizations can operate with a more horizontal structure, with smaller teams of groups or cohorts that can move more quickly and with greater autonomy.” The company also will eliminate middle management to flatten your hierarchy and speed up decision making. Weeks of anguish before the cut. The last few weeks at Meta have been especially hard for workers after the news of the layoffs leaked, and the hasty confirmation by the company. Meta employees rated the experience as “a hell of 28 days.” During these days a group of employees protested against the use of mouse tracking technology to monitor productivity, in a tension scenario in which many workers questioned their permanence in the company. The price of betting everything on AI. These changes are part of a profound renewal at Meta this year, which many are already calling Meta’s “second Year of Efficiency”, in reference to the first major restructuring that Mark Zuckerberg applied between 2023 and 2024. According to pointed Business Insider, several company leaders did not rule out further cuts beyond this initial 10%which makes May 20 the beginning of a process of thinning the Mera structure that is more intense than anticipated in the initial figures. In Xataka | Technology companies have laid off 92,000 employees to invest in AI. The problem is that the layoffs are costing them a fortune. Image | Unsplash (Mariia Shalabaieva), Goal

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