objective

The Silver Route seemed like the perfect train for the Spanish west. They seek to recover it with one objective: forget about Madrid

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Cáceres and Salamanca are separated by just 200 kilometers but the journey takes seven hours in the best of cases and requires passing through Madrid. We talked, of course, about going by train. And the capitals of these two provinces represent one of the biggest railway holes that our country has. The situation is not unique in Spain (from Murcia to Granada you also have to go through Madrid) but perhaps it is more bloody because one day there was that option that structured the west of Spain. It was known as the Silver Route. Now, more than 40 years after its closure, there are those who continue fighting for its reopening. A line that was born sentenced From Seville to Gijón, passing through Mérida, Cáceres, Salamanca, León or Oviedo. The Silver Route It was designed as a railway corridor for passengers and goods away from the large Spanish economic centers. It was about finding an alternative so that not everything went through Madrid, Bilbao or Barcelona. And, curiously, its origin must be sought very far from these cities. It was in Paris in 1877 when the contract was signed to build a railway between Palazuelo (current Monfragüe station) and Astorga, they explain in The Extremadura Newspaper. The project was ambitious as it passed through a lot of unpopulated area in its attempt to connect the north of Extremadura with Salamanca, Zamora and León. Yet, the line went ahead in the last years of the 19th century. Between 1893 and 1896, the four sections that would end up forming the most representative axis of the line were inaugurated from south to north. This was the backbone of a road that connected to the south with the Mérida-Seville section and the Venta de Baños-Gijón in the north. Without a large city to drive it and without direct access to a large port, the line was falling into ostracism. First, because the State did not find sufficient reasons to modernize it and, at least, electrify it. And without investments, the tortuous path became less attractive for passengers and companies. The axis survived the Civil War but beforehand an investment had been requested that never arrived. In 1933, the iron bridges were replaced by steel ones but no major efforts were made. In the following years, they point out in the local mediaderailments and accidents multiplied due to lack of investment. For decades, once sentenced, the line remained open but in 1984 its definitive closure was confirmed. By then, the trains were barely running at 50 km/h, an average speed lower than that recorded during their opening. A train bus accident in 1981 in which a woman died put the finishing touches on a decision that began decades ago when no one wanted to invest in the western axis. Let it come back! Today, the connection between Cáceres and Seville, passing through Mérida, continues to exist, although it is a single-lane railway and is not electrified. The connection between Salamanca and Gijón is also maintained. But how you can see on this Adif mapa hole separates Cáceres and Salamanca. From Plasencia, you will see a green line leaving towards the north. In Salamanca, another leaves in a southerly direction. Are they projects to recover this train? No, they are Greenwaysconditioning of the old railway section to convert them into easy paths for walking, running or cycling. What some institutions have been demanding for years is that these Greenways are not the only vestige that remains from those days. In 2023, the city councils of Salamanca, Cáceres, Béjar, Plasencia Guijuelo and Hervás together with the Chambers of Commerce of those first three cities signed an institutional declaration demanding the return of the train. “Employment, creation of opportunities, logistical development, diversification of the productive system and stopping depopulation,” with these words they began a text to justify their demands. It pointed out some technical issues such as that the section between Plasencia and Salamanca has 4G network coverage on 90% of the route. But, above all, it was remembered that the new train could be an alternative route for the transport of goods in the western area, capable of connecting the Atlantic ports in the north with those in the south without passing through Madrid. This was the premise, in fact, with which the idea of ​​resurrecting the West Corridorunder the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A project that, as they remember in the text, was not carried out. in the diary Today They collected information that the Gijón Chamber of Commerce put on the table in 2022 to defend this line: it could capture up to 625,000 journeys for goods which now carry trucks going up the A-66, also known as Vía de la Plata. Beyond unfulfilled promises (in addition to Zapatero, José María Aznar also promised to reopen the line after Felipe González closed it to passengers in 1984 and to goods well into the 90s), one of the biggest problems that this Western Corridor has is that it does not fall within the plans of the European Union as far as the railway is concerned. The Trans-European Transport Network ignores this and maintains that hole already mentioned between Cáceres and Salamanca and Salamanca and the south of Asturias if it is not passing through Valladolid. Regardless of whether we are talking about a passenger or freight network, the result is the same. That is why from the Corredor Oeste platform, together with the city councils and the rest of the local organizations, They have been organizing mobilizations and meetings to press and get the project taken to Europe. According to his calculations, it would hardly be necessary to invest 1.9 billion eurosvery far from what is being invested in other corridors such as the Mediterranean, which already exceed 8,000 million in investment. They also defend that the new Silver Route railway would be key to connecting the Atlantic Corridor, which does have European approval, with the Spanish south, offering a … Read more

China is manufacturing missiles at an unprecedented speed. And the final objective is not Taiwan, it is another island 3,000 km away

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In the early 2000s, many Chinese technology companies they became famous manufacturing thermal cameras, fiber optics or cheap electronic components for the civilian market. Two decades later, several of those same companies appear linked to one of the most ambitious military programs on the planet. Xi’s missile factory. Reuters counted in an extensive report that China is manufacturing missiles at a speed that is beginning to transform entire sectors of its economy. What for years was a relatively opaque military ecosystem is becoming a gigantic industrial chain where dozens of private and state companies are skyrocketing income thanks to the accelerated rearmament promoted by Xi Jinping. The most revealing data is not only the increase in chinese arsenalbut the number of companies that already partially make a living from it: manufacturers of infrared sensors, fiber optics, stealth coatings, 3D printed metals or specialized electronic systems are registering record profits while much of the Chinese economy is going through much more serious difficulties. Beijing has achieved something that few countries have achieved on this scale: merge civil and military industry to the point of converting missile development into a strategic economic engine. The real target is further away than Taiwan. The island constantly appears as the center of any possible conflict in Asia-Pacific, but depending on the mediumthe Chinese missile deployment points to something broader. Beijing not only wants the ability to invade or blockade the island, it wants to prevent the United States from being able to intervene effectively. And there appears the true strategic objective located about 3,000 kilometers away: guam. As we have counted At other times, the island functions as one of the main US military nodes in the Western Pacific, a huge air, naval and logistics platform from which Washington could sustain operations around Taiwan. That is why China has been developing systems specifically designed to threaten it for years, like the DF-26known precisely as “Guam Express”. Chinese military logic is relatively simple: If it manages to put Guam at risk, it greatly complicates the US ability to project power near its coasts and breaks one of Washington’s great strategic advantages in the region. Economy oriented to manufacturing war. Plus: Xi’s program does not depend solely from state giants such as China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation or China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. The most striking thing is how civil companies seemingly normal have ended up integrated into the Chinese military ecosystem. Some began manufacturing thermal sensors to detect fever during the SARS epidemic and today produce components for missiles and military drones. Others develop fiber optics for precision navigation or stealthy materials capable of reducing radar detection of aircraft and projectiles. The result is an industrial structure that is extremely difficult to isolate through sanctions, because many of these companies operate simultaneously in civilian and military markets. The United States has been trying to limit Chinese access to advanced chips and sensitive technologies, but Beijing has responded by expanding an increasingly extensive and autonomous national network of suppliers. The effect of the war on Iran. The war between the United States and Iran has further reinforced this arms race. While Washington consumes part of its missile and ammunition reserves In the Middle East, China is carefully observing how modern wars are becoming conflicts of industrial attrition where the ability to manufacture and replenish weapons quickly begins to be as important as the individual technological quality of each system. That is where Beijing believes it has an advantage. The reason? China already has of thousands of missiles ballistic and cruise able to cover much of the Indo-Pacific, and the expansion rate it’s still huge despite the purges internal affairs within the Chinese Army and the investigation of senior commanders for corruption. In some ways, Xi seems to be preparing the country for a prolonged scenario of military competition where whoever manages to keep production lines open the longest will survive. The new global race. All of this is happening while much of the planet simultaneously accelerates its rearmament. France, South Korea, USA either Japan are increasing production and military spending, but the Chinese case stands out for its industrial dimension and by the speed at which it evolves. Beijing not only increases the number of missiles, it also develops new hypersonic generationsexpands its nuclear arsenal and tests systems capable of threatening aircraft carriers, air bases and targets thousands of kilometers away. The big concern in Washington is that China is approaching a point where it can sustain a conflict long thanks to a combination of mass production, relatively low costs and enormous integration between civil companies and defense. That is why the growth of the missile program China is beginning to be interpreted less as simple regional rearmament and more as the silent construction of an economy prepared to compete militarily with the United States on a global scale. Image | CCTV In Xataka | The YJ-20 has just entered the scene at the most delicate moment: China has launched its hypersonic missile against the US and Japan In Xataka | China is beating the US with a simple strategy: manufacturing hypersonic missiles at the price of a Tesla

Taylor Swift has stopped by the patent office with two phrases and a photo. Its objective is to stop generative AI

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Two phrases spoken in promotions for their latest album and a photograph from a concert from the ‘Eras ​​Tour’. Taylor Swift has simply registered that with the US Patent and Trademark Office as a strategy to shield herself from generative AI. He is not the first famous person to walk this path, but he is the first so famous. AI is already beyond the control of platforms and courts: will it succeed when the (inevitable) clash with one of the most powerful people in today’s entertainment industry arrives? The record. On April 24, Swift’s company, TAS Rights Management, submitted three applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). They were detected and analyzed by the lawyer specialized in intellectual property Josh Gerben: two are sound markssound marks with the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor”, taken from promotional introductions to her album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’. The third is a visual mark: Swift with a pink guitar and black strap, bodysuit multicolored and silver boots, on a pink stage. Legal loopholes. Generative AI can replicate a person’s voice without having to copy any specific file, usually protected by copyright. The model learns the timbre, the cadence, the phonetic pattern, and then generates completely new audios. Classic tools to protect copyright are of no use here. The loophole that Gerben believes can protect Taylor (and the rest of the artists) is the “trademark law” that pursues any use that is “confusingly similar” to something registered, that is, anything that is similar enough to generate confusion. A complicated story. Swift comes to this decision after a long history of clashes with AI. In January 2024, a flood of pornographic images generated with AI They spread across X with such speed that the platform had to temporarily block searches for their name. They had been originated on 4chanwhere users competed to avoid the filters of platforms such as DALL-E or Microsoft Designer. And in the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump shared artificially generated images which suggested that Swift supported him. It’s not the first. Taylor Swift has a precedent in the guild. In January of this year, Matthew McConaughey became the first Hollywood actor to use this strategy on a large scale: eight trademarks that include video clips, audio recordings and his famous phrase “Alright, alright, alright” with which he debuted in ‘Movida del 76’. Paradoxically, McConaughey is an investor in ElevenLabs, a company specializing in AI voice cloning. Another trivial precedent. In 2024, Scarlett Johansson publicly denounced that OpenAI had released a voice for its GPT-4o chatbot that sounded “eerily similar” to hers, even though Johansson had previously declined an offer to lend her voice. OpenAI withdrew it, but without giving any explanation as to whether it was due to legal pressure or for another reason. It was a small victory for artists in this field, but without a judicial resolution that could set a precedent. The doubts. Gerben believes that there may be, thanks to this move by Swift, some deterrent potential: “in theory, if a lawsuit were filed over the use of Swift’s voice by an AI, she could claim that any use of her voice that sounds like the trademark violates her trademark rights.” Of course, he acknowledges that “the strategy of registering yourself has not yet been tested in court with respect to AI.” Swift and McConaughey are literally opening avenues that it is not yet clear how they will work legally. In Xataka | After destroying her tour, her film and being the queen of streaming, Taylor Swift achieves a new milestone: being a billionaire

He arrives and hides for as many hours as necessary until his objective appears

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In some sectors of the front in Ukraine, units began to detect something strange during the night: in the thermal cameras, small hot spots appeared motionless for hours on rooftops, roads or open fields, without anything happening… until at dawn one of them was suddenly activated and everything changed in a matter of seconds. The birth of the “patient” drone. The war in Ukraine has shaped a new figure on the battlefield, another one: a weapon that does not run or pursue targets, and that does not need to be shown, because it simply wait your moment. These are drones that arrive from the air, land silently and remain hidden for hours or even all night until their target appears, transforming combat into a matter of of patience and calculation where the decisive factor is no longer speed, but the ability to anticipate the enemy. This evolution has blurred the lines between mines, munitions and aircraft, creating a system that turns any logistics route, building or road into a latent trap. How to build an invisible ambush. They counted in Forbes The weekend that the success of these drones does not depend on improvisation, but on meticulous prior work based on signals intelligence, aerial surveillance and analysis of movement patterns to determine where and when to place each device. Once the point is chosen, the drone lands in an area that combines concealment and technical feasibility, often with landing gear modified to adapt to uneven terrain, and is connected via fiber optic (sometimes km) to avoid interference and reduce its detectable signature. From that moment on, a wait begins that can last for hours, with the operator waiting for a single opportunity in which the target enters the field of action. Attack without warning. In the videos that have started to circulate showing this type of ambush drone, whose term comes from the way the Russians have called it, Zhduns (“Waiters”)it can be seen that when the moment arrives, the blow is practically immediate and leaves very little room for reaction, since the device is activated from a minimum distance and without the acoustic warning typical of FPVs in flight. Although these systems usually load less explosive to compensate for the weight of the cable and structure, the factor of surprise compensates for this limitation, allowing precise and effective attacks that turn certain areas into psychologically hostile spaces for the enemy. The result is the creation of authentic “scary zones” where any movement can trigger an invisible attack. The war within the war. The response to these systems has generated an additional layer conflict in which there are drones that search for other drones before they “wake up”, using thermal cameras capable of detecting the residual heat of their components even when they are turned off. Added to this are more advanced sensorssweeping air patrols and the use of decoys to deceive the adversary, creating a constantly evolving game of ambushes, counter-ambushes and counter-ambushes that hardly anyone could have imagined a decade ago. In this surreal environment, superiority does not depend only on technology, but on who learns to adapt the fastest. From the air to the ground: robots that expand the trap. Yes, because this same concept of persistent risk is spreading to the ground with the increasing use of unmanned ground vehicleswhich no longer only transport supplies or evacuate wounded, but also participate in direct attacks and offensive operations. These systems allow reduce exposure of soldiers, taking on critical logistical tasks and, in some cases, holding positions for weeks or launching coordinated attacks against enemy positions. The integration of ground platforms with aerial drones adds a new dimension, allowing ambushes to be deployed from unexpected locations far from the front. Battlefield learning alone. If you also want, it is very possible that the next step points towards increasingly autonomous systems, with artificial intelligence capable of monitoring, detecting movement and alerting the operator, reducing human burden and multiplying the number of devices controlled simultaneously. Although there are technical and ethical limits, especially when it comes to identifying targets, the trend seems clear: battlefields saturated with machines capable of to wait indefinitelylearn from the environment and act at the right moment. In this scenario, war stops being a succession of visible confrontations and becomes a network of hidden threats where the most dangerous enemy is the one that has been waiting for hours (or days) without being seen. And with an unprecedented advantage: impossible to track your breath. Image | x In Xataka | Russia has an unprecedented enemy in the Ukrainian war: Japan has just landed with a weapon to take down its shaheds In Xataka | Ukraine has recalled the weapon used with Stalin to convince the US: literally, turning Donbas into “Donnyland”

We have covered the ISS in moss with a single objective. And now the possibility of “terraforming” Mars is closer

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Last year, scientists published the results of a study in which they told how they had covered the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) with moss. Although the study It was published in Decemberit was not a Christmas decorative strategy. They wanted to check if this primitive plant is capable of surviving the inhospitable conditions of space. The results were so positive, they could take humanity one step closer to terraforming Mars. A primitive plant to start a new life. The first plants that appeared on Earth were bryophytes, more specifically mosses. They are very resistant plants, capable of growing directly on rocks. From there, they can photosynthesize if they have the right water and nutrients. It is a process in which they capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and generate oxygen. In addition, they generate organic matter that, upon death, becomes the perfect substrate. so that other more complex plants can grow. That is why the study was carried out to see if moss can survive in space. It was proven yes, so it could be an interesting candidate for terraforming Mars or the Moon. The study. Basically, what was seen in the study is that the mosses exposed on the outside of the ISS were able to survive for 283 days exposed to extremely cold temperatures and very intense ultraviolet radiation. When they were returned to Earth after that period, more than 80% had survived. In fact, planting them made them germinate. Carl Sagan already predicted it (more or less). The dream of terraforming other planets is not something new, although it is true that for a long time it was almost a fantasy. In 1961, for example, Carl Sagan made an interesting proposal to terraform Venus. It is known that this planet neighboring Earth It is covered by a dense layer of clouds. Since clouds here on Earth are usually made of water, the famous astrophysicist proposed planting cyanobacteria inside them. These microorganisms have the ability to carry out photosynthesis, like plants. Therefore, they could consume carbon dioxide and generate oxygen. The problem is that it was later discovered that the clouds of Venus are actually made of sulfuric acid, so their proposal became unattainable. Proposals to terraform Mars. No further proposals have been made to terraform Venus, but there have been proposals to do the same with Mars. It’s also pretty inhospitable, but it has a lot more potential. In fact, last year was published in Nature a study that talked about the possibility of turning the red planet into something similar to Earth with only four steps. The first would be to melt the ice, so that it becomes an immense ocean of liquid water. For this, the temperature would have to be increased by at least 30ºC. heat is needed. The second step, therefore, is to obtain that heat. It was proposed to use solar sails that direct most of the solar radiation to these ice reserves. Aerosols could also be dispersed in the atmosphere that cause a kind of greenhouse effect, further retaining solar radiation inside the planet. A vaulted habitat. Although Mars has its own atmosphere, it would have to be reinforced with something that would allow it to create a biosphere. Therefore, it would be interesting to build vaults into which to introduce the first Martian inhabitants. Life that brings more life to Mars. Finally, it would be necessary to use genetically modified-extremophilic microorganisms. These are microorganisms capable of surviving in extreme conditions. For example, microorganisms that survive in media with high salt concentrations or very high or very low temperatures are Extremophiles. Even so, it would be necessary to genetically modify them to make them even more resistant to extremely low temperature and pressure conditions. These microorganisms would be photosynthetic, so that they generate oxygen and organic matter. Moss comes into play. Following the results of the International Space Station experiment, it is clear that moss could be a good complement to these extremophile microorganisms to terraform Mars. Unfortunately, it is estimated that to have the technologies necessary to meet all the requirements we will have to wait at least 100 years. It’s a long time, but with everything humanity has waited for, it would only be a little longer. For now, as the road safety advertisements say, the important thing is to arrive. There are already space agencies trying to date that first step. Let’s start there. Image | Julius A OBARO (Wikimedia Commons) and Freepik In Xataka | Chernobyl was filled with mushrooms after the nuclear accident. Thanks to them we discovered a “new form of photosynthesis”

More and more Spanish bars refuse to let you pay at the table. Its objective is very simple: greater rotation

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“To pay, at the cashier.” It doesn’t matter if you live in the very center of Madrid, the most touristy area of ​​Barcelona, ​​next to Malagueta, in Vigo or a remote town in Bierzo, it is most likely that at some point in the last few months you have heard that phrase when you ask a waiter to please charge you. To pay for the coffee you just had, you must get up and go to the checkout yourself. Or what is the same, you do not have the option of being charged at the table. It seems like a minor issue, but this decision is not accidental: it responds to a logic that seeks to speed up the rotation in the premises and get the most out of them. “Excuse me, can I have the bill?” In Spain there are some 87,000 restaurants and food stalls, almost 163,400 drinking establishments and 270,200 “food and beverage services”, according to INE datawhich gives a pretty clear idea about how we live in Spain: we like (a lot) to go out for coffees, beers and tapas. Therefore, no matter what region you live in, chances are that in recent months you have sat at a table in a bar or restaurant. And that’s also why you’ve probably noticed that it’s becoming more and more common that when you want to pay and ask for the bill, answer the same: “To pay, at the cashier.” Unraveling the mystery. The question is obvious. Why the hell are they asking us to pay at the cashier? Are we not hindering the passage of other customers like this? Does it have any advantages over the option of paying the bill directly at the table? The mystery was cleared up a few months ago Jairosanbor, a tiktoker that usually publishes on his account videos related to the world of hospitality. And the answer is quite simple: although several factors come into play, everything is limited to a simple question of rotation in the premises. In other words, make a business profitable and get the most out of it. Time and agility. The logic is simple. If the customer receives the bill at their table, pays and the waiter charges them, even having to return to the bar to get change, a process is lengthened that could be simplified if the payment is made at the cashier. It may be a matter of minutes, but over the course of an entire day, a week, a month or a year (even more) that time can translate into higher turnover. More rotation. More clients. Higher income. “A little trick”. “What you get is that the customer gets up without any problem and leaves you the table free so that someone else can automatically sit down. If you had him here waiting for you to bring him the bill, charge him, he leaves and comes, in the end more time is wasted,” comments Jairposanbor in his TikTok video, of just 30 sure. “It’s a little trick for the rotation.” Personnel issue? The “little trick”, as the hotelier defines it, may seem simple, but it has given rise to a good number of articles about the themein the pressand some debate in the comments of the video. There are those who relate it, for example, to the greater or lesser availability of waiters in the establishment. “Another trick: add more staff and if the customer leaves happy that they don’t have to wait, they’ll probably come back,” comment a user. Another adds that charging cash may increase turnover and profitability of the establishment, but it can have a negative effect: it places more workload on the employee behind the bar. Cash vs card. They would come into play more keys. For example, although it is increasingly common for restaurants or cafes to allow payment by card, especially in large chains, in those cases in which the business only accepts cash, the “collection at the counter” rule simplifies the process quite a bit. No picking up cashround trips between the bar and the table to look for change or for the money to ultimately pass through several hands within the business. Useful, not infallible. Of course the tactic can be useful, but it is by no means infallible. First because, as some users also comment on TikTok, there are customers who do not like being sent to the bar to pay for their drinks. Second, because rotation is not 100% guaranteed either. As another remembers tiktokerthe trick fails when there is more than one person at the table, only one gets up to pay and then returns to his seat to continue chatting. A sector in change. César Sánchez-Ballesterospresident of the Tourism and Hospitality Federation of the province of Pontevedra, Feproturprovides some extra keys. Tricks like the one shared by Jairoposanbor seek greater optimization, but that is not the only way that hoteliers follow to achieve it. For years the group has opted for new strategies, such as online reservations, letters with QR codeapps that allow you to make orders and pay… Until reaching extreme examples such as experiments of McDonald’s in the US, with stores where there is hardly any interaction with staff. Of orders, payments… and personnel. “We see more and more examples of optimization,” comments Sánchez-Ballesteros, who remembers in any case that the client always has the last word, as has been made clear in the comments of TikTok: he is the one who decides what compensates him, what practices he considers good, what bothers him or the services he is not willing to give up. Against this backdrop, there is another factor that conditions work in restaurants and bars: the shortage of qualified personnel, which further reinforces the urgency that businesses have when it comes to polishing internal processes. It’s nothing new. For years the hospitality industry has been pointing out on a recurring basis the shortage of professionals, a deficit that becomes especially visible in times of … Read more

Changan lands in Spain but its objective is global

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They arrive in our country in 2026 but Changan’s backpack is loaded with experience. With its first two models flanking the presentation and the presence of the personalities who will direct its operations in our country, this Chinese company gained muscle in Madrid, the first stop in an expansion that they want to be as rapid as it is successful. The cover letter was quickly put on the table: “We want to manufacture five million units in 2030. 3.5 million will be new energy cars (a category that in China includes plug-in hybrids and electric cars)” said Manuel Perez Casado, head of sales in our country and on whose shoulders most of the presentation fell. The goal is ambitious. So much so that if it were achieved it would put the company in the famous five million club. A space reserved for the chosen ones. In the absence of knowing the consolidated data for 2025, it is only certain that two brands have far surpassed the five million units sold: Toyota (which has exceeded 11 million of cars sold) and Volkswagen. Behind, BYD has not achieved break the barrier of five million that has been fighting for two years. That is, right now, selling five million cars means becoming the third best-selling manufacturer in the world. That’s where Changan is pointing. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? Your arrival in Spain Although Changan arrives in Spain in 2026 as a Chinese firm that may be unknown to the general public, it has 45 years of history behind it. During the presentation, much of the speech focused on building trust in the company. As a group, Changan is fighting, right now, to be the fourth conglomerate of China’s largest car manufacturers. Ahead and as the undisputed leader is BYD, which dominates the Asian country and has found in its BYD Seagull (Dolphin Surf in Europe) a car that has swept the low-priced models. It is followed by Chery, the largest exporter in China that sells in our country under the brands of Omoda and Jaecoo and whose cars serve as a basis for Ebro. The third group is Geely, owner of Volvo or Smart, among other companies. Changan has, like Chery, a long tradition in the export of vehicles. It currently actively sells in 115 different countries, has 21 factories and development centers and more than 24,000 employees spread across 31 countries. In Europe they have centers in Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom that, they say, will help them tune the cars to European tastes. Changan’s contact with countries outside of what has been happening in China is not new. They have development and research centers related to autonomous driving in the United States and design centers in Japan. Furthermore, they have had and have collaborations with Ford and Mazda. So much so that Japanese electric cars are, in essence, Changan cars. Yes, he Mazda 6e and the future Mazda CX-6e They are electric cars built on the Chinese skeleton that Mazda claims to have tuned for European tastes. For now, we have only been able to touch the first of them and we can confirm that it is a good car but that its driving feel and some details of its interior in terms of ergonomics are not exactly what we expect from this Japanese brand. Their weapons to open a gap Ahead of its collaborating company, Changan arrives in our country with the Deepal S05 and S07. They are practically the same car with some differences in equipment and battery size. The first of them is the smallest and makes an appearance in our country with a 68.8 kWh battery with LFP technology which promises 485 kilometers of electric autonomy. For its part, the Deepal S07 does so with an 80 kWh NCM battery that certifies 475 kilometers of autonomy. Both cars were on display during the presentation and we were able to get into one of them in a lap from which we can draw few real conclusions. We will have to wait for a contact or an in-depth test to have a better perspective of the whole. If we talk about driving feel, we found it to be a car that accelerates sufficiently but lacks a bit of restraint in its suspension, too soft which generates very long supports, and that has a proposal that is too artificial in its direction, at times excessively forceful but without the ability to transmit anything that happens with the wheels, which makes us lose feeling when moving quickly. Yes we can say that both cars are greattaking care of the materials that are reached by hand, prioritizing soft plastics and leaving the hard ones where we usually will not touch. They are very spacious cars that comply with the maxim of many other Chinese cars that we have had in our hands. In general, they are well-resolved vehicles inside, with a lot of interior space for the rear seats and with a trunk that is somewhat fair for its size. And, above all, with very extensive equipment. The Deepal S05 comes with a 15.4-inch screen with 2.5K resolution (compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay) that flows very well in the tests that we were able to do when we got on it. Its equipment has all the expected driving assistance systems in level 2 autonomy such as adaptive cruise control. Cameras with what the brand calls 540º vision are also included. That is, we can see what we have under the car. Deepal S05 interior For its part, the Deepal S07 adds a rotating screen that moves left or right to facilitate handling for the driver or passenger. Of course, like its little brother, it lacks any type of physical buttons for the air conditioning functions. Also included as standard is a glass roof and wireless charging for your mobile phone. In this case, the screen is 15.6 inches. The cars have a … Read more

After Venezuela, the United States is already saying loud and clear what its next objective is: Greenland

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The world looks at Venezuela, but a good part of Europe, NATO allies and more specifically Denmark have one eye (or both) on another geographical point: Greenland. The capture of Nicolás Maduro opens a very wide range of questions about the future of Venezuela, but it has also fueled the unknowns that for months They surround Greenland, geographically located in North America, although at a political level it depends on Denmark. That Donald Trump wants Greenland to come under Washington’s rule is not new, but his words take on a new meaning after what happened on Saturday. Especially because the Republican leader himself has remembered in the last hours that he does not give up on the island: “we need itdefinitely”. Beyond Venezuela. That Venezuela is the protagonist of the start of 2026, no one doubts it. The operation launched by the US on Saturday and which culminated in the capture of Maduro opens a wide range of unknowns about the future of the South American nation. Especially after Trump himself has slipped that he is determined to keep the country under his tutelage “until there is a reliable transition”, a process for which doesn’t seem to trust in María Corina Machado. What happened in Venezuela has, however, shaken some chords that go far beyond America. The main one is probably related to Greenland. Trump wants the US to control the island, crucial for its geostrategic value and mining resources. That’s nothing new. He has said it on many occasionsbefore even being sworn into office. Saturday’s campaign, however, gives a new veneer to that claim, especially because there are those who already warn that the US has shown that it is willing to ignore international law. Click on the image to go to the tweet. “SOON”. The above would be enough to rock the diplomatic waters around Greenland, but Trump himself (and his entourage) have taken it upon themselves in the last few hours to make it clear that they are not giving up on Greenland. The first message in that direction was sent on Saturday by podcaster ultraconservative Katie Miller, who posted a tweet in which it showed a map of Greenland colored with the US flag and a message as simple as it was resounding: “SOON”, ‘soon’. The tweet, which has more than 28 million views, caused a stir because Miller is not a simple influencer from the republican and MAGA sphere. During the Republican’s first term she played a relevant role in the Department of Homeland Security and today she remains the wife of Stephen Milleran influential figure within Trump’s White House team. Hence, Denmark has given special relevance to his tweet. Just a few hours after Miller published it, the Danish ambassador to the US, Jesper Moller Sorensen, he took it upon himself to respond by the same means (X) to make it clear that Washington and Copenhagen are allies and Greenland is already integrated into NATO. “We expect full respect for the territorial integrity of Denmark.” “We need it”. Miller hasn’t been the only MAGA voice to speak out about Greenland. In case there were still doubts about the White House’s position, Trump himself has also done so. On Sunday, in an interview with TheAtlantic, The Republican made it clear that his aspirations for Greenland remain as strong as a year ago, if not stronger. In fact, far from softening the tone after the multiple frictions With Denmark, Trump has been gradually raising the tone. During the interview The Republican insisted that he will not give up the island and recalled that right now it is “surrounded by Russian and Chinese ships.” “We need Greenland, without a doubt. We need it for defense,” he emphasizedblunt. Just words? That is the unknown that remains after what happened on Saturday in Venezuela, a powerful military deployment that resulted in the capture of Maduro and that some experts and countries They see it as questionable from a legal point of view, if not directly contrary to international legislation. In the case of Greenland, the US has not only limited itself to sending messages. TO end of december Trump appointed the governor of the state of Louisiana as the US special envoy for Greenland, a decision that caused discomfort in the Danish Executive. The chosen one, Jeff Landry, is not just the governor of Louisiana. He is also a MAGA ally who, having recently assumed his position as special envoy, proclaimed in X that their goal is for “Greenland to be part of the United States.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. “Enough of the insinuations”. Trump and his entourage are not the only ones who have raised their voices to talk about Greenland. On this side of the Atlantic it has also done so (and with increasing forcefulness) Denmark itself through his Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen: “I have to say this to the US: there is no point in talking about the need for the US to take over Greenland. I strongly urge you to stop threats against a close ally.” His voice joins that of Ambassador Moller Sorensen, who remembered in X that Greenland is already part of NATO, so it is integrated into the same defensive alliance as the US. More resounding It has even been the Prime Minister of Greenland, Jens Frederik Nielsen: “That’s enough. Enough pressure. Enough insinuations. Enough fantasies of annexation.” A recent survey has revealed that 85% of Greenlanders They do not want their island to integrate into the United States. The new Monroe Doctrine? As remember Financial TimesTrump himself has slipped that the Venezuela operation goes beyond that nation and is framed in a broader concept of “hemispheric defense” that reinforces Washington’s role in the American continent. Against this backdrop, Greenland finds itself in a complex position: it is geographically located in North America, but administratively and politically linked to Denmark. The picture is also completed with its important geostrategic role and mining wealth, which opens a … Read more

The objective is to know how they disappeared

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For decades, paleoanthropologists have grappled with a biological paradox. Neanderthals, a species supposedly adapted to the frigid cold of Europe, had huge, wide noses. A feature that in theory is completely inefficient to be able to warm the frigid air before it reaches the lungs. But due to the lack of fossils, experts could not explain what exactly had happened to this species until now. A reconstruction. In order to understand what was happening here, the experts they have managed to rebuild digitally the inside of the ‘noseAltamura Man‘, the best preserved Neanderthal in the world, without even touching it. And what they have found dismantles much of what we thought we knew about the face of our evolutionary cousins. The objective in the end has been quite clear with this study: to know one more reason why they became extinct from our planet. And all because right now the extinction of this species remains a mystery, although the latest studies suggest that They are more integrated with us than we think. The calcite prisoner. To understand the magnitude of this finding, you must first understand the subject. The ‘Altamura Man’ was discovered in 1993 by a group of spologists in the Lamalunga karst system, southern Italy. And it is not a normal fossil. The skeleton is complete, but it fell into a natural well and became trapped in a chamber where, over the millennia, water and limestone did their work. Today, the Neanderthal is literally embedded in the cave walls, covered in “popcorn” calcite formations that have protected it, but also made it impossible to extract it without destroying it. This mineral “prison” has had an unexpected advantage: it has preserved bone structures so fine and fragile that they normally disappear in the fossil record, such as the nasal turbinates and ethmoid laminae. It is the first time in history that we have a complete Neanderthal nasal cavity. Virtual dissection. Since they couldn’t remove the skull to put it in the laboratory’s scanner, they had to take the laboratory to the cave itself. Something that at first seems like a completely impossible mission. The solution found was endoscopic technology, since using high-resolution medical probes (such as those inserted into the bronchi to explore them) they passed through the ocular and nasal cavities of the fossil. The magic came from combining these images with photogrammetry techniques, since an exact 3D model of the inside of the skull was generated. Central heating. Once we had a pretty good photograph of the inside of this Neanderthal’s nose, it was time to interpret. For years there was a hypothesis in mind that to compensate for having a wide nose in a cold environment, Neanderthals must have unique internal structures. There was talk of vertical projections and medial thickenings that would act as radiators to heat and humidify the air. Two fundamental points so that you could breathe correctly. But the result of the analysis has said different things. First of all, the inside of the nose is strikingly similar to that of a modern human, just in a larger facial “frame.” This means that the supposed exclusive adaptations they had were not present in this fossil, and the airways did not have an ‘alien’ architecture as might be expected. A new extinction. In this way, Neanderthals do not seem to be able to adapt to such cold environments to be able to breathe properly. We as humans have many mechanisms to heat the air before it reaches our lungs to guarantee gas exchange. But this is something that was not found in our ancestors. In this way, if cold air reaches the lung, respiratory difficulty can be found, which at high temperatures can effectively cause the death of a species if we contextualize ourselves in extremely cold environments. Why his face. If the giant nose wasn’t an ultra-specialized “air heating machine,” why did they have it? The study suggests that we should stop looking only at the climate. The very characteristic face that this species had seems to be the result of two specific factors: Genetics of the ancestors. Very high energy demand that required a lot of oxygen and that is why a huge air intake was needed. Altamura Man lived during MIS 6 (about 130,000-170,000 years ago), a cold time, but in southern Italy he enjoyed a more temperate climate. Its nose, “normal” on the inside but enormous on the outside, suggests that the facial evolution of this species was not a straight line directed solely by the thermometer. Images | Aldo Hernandez Paul Pastourmatzis In Xataka | We still don’t know why Sapiens triumphed over Neanderthals. But we have a new hypothesis

China continues to draw up five-year plans in the old communist way. Objective: tech self-sufficiency

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Let’s talk about five-year plans. Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov She had no idea, but her exaggerated productivity ended up messing her up. In 1927 he began working in the Tsentrálnaya-Írmino mine and realized that he was good at it. In fact, he was much better at it than the others. In August 1935 smashed the record of mine productivity and extracted 102 tons of coal (14 times its quota) in five hours and 45 minutes. Days later he crushed it again and extracted 227 tons. He became a hero to socialist workers—in addition to appearing on the cover of Time magazine—and from that was derived the stakhanovismwhich advocated the increase in labor productivity based on the workers’ own initiative. That didn’t matter to Stalin: the Soviet Union was already completely immersed in its second five-year plan with a clear objective: the frenetic industrialization of the country based, of course, on trying to convert all workers into new Stakhanovs. And from those five-year plans we ended up moving on to others. China signs up for the five-year period That idea of ​​five-year plans ended up being used by China, which began to apply them in 1953 – with the help of the former Soviet Union – and has maintained them until now. In fact, the Asian giant has debated these days what will be your 15th Five Year Plan and the focus is clear: technological self-sufficiency. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China published on Thursday a statement in which he made it clear. Its objective was to “greatly increase” the self-dependence capacityand in that plan there are clear fronts for the medium-term future of the Asian giant: Promote R&D in critical technologies such as semiconductors, robotics, high-performance computing and, of course, artificial intelligence. Build a “modern industrial system“that allows reduce dependency of foreign components, equipment and knowledge. Promote the domestic market as a pillar of growth and reduce exposure to possible impacts of the export model Integrate technological development with national security: self-sufficiency not only makes economic sense, but also geopolitical sense. This five-year plan is clearly a consequence of the times we live in: the trade war with the US that it started years ago has marked the apparent end (at least partial) of globalizationand now both are looking for the same thing: not depend on others. China’s new five-year plan goes precisely in that direction, and has a clear impact both for that country and for the rest of the world. On the one hand, greater state investment in strategic sectors and greater interventionism are proposed (Hello Mr. Trump). On the other hand, this move may reduce Chinese demand for foreign technology, exacerbating technological rivalry with the US but perhaps opening new opportunities for collaboration with other countries. If successful, China’s five-year plan can stabilize growth in the face of potential external threats, but if self-reliance is prioritized too much, international openness and competition could be neglected, which could slow innovation or lead to less efficient companies. Source: Bloomberg And there is another problem: as they point out on BloombergChina is the great world exporterprecisely because their internal consumption is insufficient: they produce much more than they need. The contribution of exports to the country’s GDP is getting biggerbut consumption has stagnated or falls. All the details of the final five-year plan will be published in March, and will intensify the focus on everything related to the technological field. This effort, which began after that first veto of the Trump administration on Huaweiseems to be bearing promising fruits for China, which is becoming in an overwhelming machine of technological innovation. That pace will not slow down. Alexei Grigorievich Stakhanov would probably be proud. Image | Chinese Communist Party In Xataka | Spain has an antidote to mental and emotional exhaustion: the nap

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