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A Cuban mechanic has converted his car to run on charcoal because gasoline is no longer an option

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Juan Carlos Pino, 56, has left his neighbors speechless after convert your small Fiat Polski 1980 in a vehicle that runs on charcoal to operate. He has done it from his workshop in Aguacate, Cuba, a town of about 5,000 inhabitants 70 kilometers east of Havana, and the news has gone around the world. Shortage. Cuba passes through one of its worst energy crises in decades. Since January, when the Trump administration blocked fuel supplies to the island, gasoline has become a practically inaccessible commodity for most Cubans. On the black market, a liter costs eight dollars (about six times the official price), and power outages are now a constant. Added to this scenario is the closing of Venezuela’s oil tap, which historically had acted as an energy cushion for Havana. As if that were not enough, the global context is also worrying with the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz and the war conflict in the Middle East. The barrels that Russia has supplied to Cuba has given some relief to the country, but as reported its Minister of Energy and Mining, Vicente de la O Levy, the supply is scheduled for “the end of April”, and at the moment there is no confirmation on when the next shipment could arrive. Hence, some have opted for such creative measures to boost the engines of their vehicles. How the invention works. Pino built the propulsion system entirely from salvaged parts and scrap materials. The charcoal is burned inside a converted propane cylinder, sealed with the lid of an electrical transformer. The hot gases pass through a filter made from a stainless steel milk can filled with old clothes, and from there they reach the carburetor to replace gasoline. The whole set (a 60 liter tank welded to the rear of the car) It took two months to build.. Starting up, however, requires patience, since you have to light the charcoal with alcohol and wait about thirty minutes before you can leave. “It’s not a car for someone who’s in a hurry,” he joked. The inspiration came from the internet. Pino did not start from scratch. According to what he said, he spent hours watching videos of Edmundo Ramos, an Argentine engineer who has been perfecting biomass-powered car technology. According to explained Ramos himself told Reuters, since the crisis in Cuba began, he has received calls from several Cubans asking for help, from an ice manufacturer that could not produce, to an ice cream maker or shopkeepers. Ramos maintains that practically any engine can adapt to this system, as long as hot gas can be introduced into the carburetor instead of gasoline. Atracloc tionto the. Pino started his car for the first time at the beginning of last month. The Polski completed a journey of 85 kilometers and reached a top speed of 70 km/h, according to collected Reuters. In Aguacate, the vehicle has become the newest, as neighbors come to take photos, and some ask out of curiosity if the mechanic can build one for them. “This is Cuba. A salad made of everything,” summed up one of the neighbors in the middle. Distress. This very creative invention is nothing more than the symptom of an economy on the limit. In Cuba, scarcity has generated an entire culture of improvisation that Cubans themselves call “creole inventions”. Blackouts of up to nineteen hours, neighborhoods without water for weeks, families cooking with firewood or collecting rainwater in soda bottles. Just like shared El País, the Cuban Observatory of Conflicts, registered more than 1,200 protests in the last month, mainly due to supply cuts. What comes next. Pino already has the following project in mind: adapt a tractor with the same system. “We need mobility, we need to be able to farm,” he declared to the media. To his neighbors, he has become more than just a handyman. “They tell me I’m a magician,” he says proudly. Images | Reuters, The Country In Xataka | Someone dumped 167,000 tons of rubble and asbestos in Malaga. And now Malaga has a serious problem

Paying more for a very fast NVMe SSD is wasting money if you only save PDFs, but it is the only option if you are also going to work from it

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Like me, you have probably also at some point faced the purchase of a new storage unit, internal or external, for your desktop PC or portable. Something that, until a few years ago, was quite simplified: either you chose a 5,400 rpm HDD (revolutions per minute), or you chose one of 7,200 rpm. End of story. To something else. But since SSDs came onto the scene, purchasing (and usage) possibilities have changed a lot, making opting for one type or another is not so simple. Today, taking into account the price differences between HDDs (the “old” mechanical disks) and SSDs (the “modern” solid state drives), the choice is clear: SSDs win by a landslide, offering wide capacities and much, much higher speeds. Although well, the current context of AI surcharges It changes the film a little and, whatever purchase we make now, it will entail a greater outlay. But this shouldn’t last forever and, under normal conditions, SSDs are still the best value for money purchase option for general use. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links So, well, you already have one thing clear: to expand capacity, in general terms, the ideal in 2026 is to go for an SSD. However, the choice is not so simple because different technologies and different models come into the field of SSDs, each with a series of advantages and disadvantages. All of them, valid for any use you plan to give them, be careful. But not all of them cost the same and, depending on what you need your new unit for, Smart purchasing will tip the balance on one side or the other. And your pocket, of course, will thank you for choosing carefully. In other words and to give them first and last names: in a scenario in which you need more space for your PC or portable and you have to go through the checkout to expand it using an SSD, you will have to choose between an NVMe SSD or a SATA SSD (which are the main types of SSD that are generally sold). The first, more expensive and faster. The second, cheaper and slower. AND each one, in its proper context, shines with its own light. Next we are going to see how they differ and why they are a better purchase option compared to their rival, depending on the context. And thus pay more if the situation requires it or save as much as possible if you are not going to take advantage of its full potential. SATA SSD: not as fast but cheaper When SSDs burst onto the scene, they did so in a format we know as SATA. In units of different sizes (although also ostensibly more compact than mechanical HDDs) that are still commonly marketed in 2.5-inch models. If you have a laptop or desktop PC from a couple of decades ago, probably contains one of these. These SSD units were, at the time, night and day compared to mechanical HDDs. What used to take you half an hour to wait was suddenly completed in minutes. And also, without noise. The “problem” is that today, with much more modern and faster units (spoiler: NVMe), this type of SSD have been relegated more to pure storage than as devices for daily work. That is to say: what we once stored on HDDs, we now do on these SSDs. A digital storage room that, in any case, is much faster and makes it easier (and faster) to move large amounts of data and copy and paste files. In addition, the SATA SSD is probably the only option when it comes to somewhat “old” laptops: today, practically all models come with an M.2 connector (where the NVMe are installed), but if you have a laptop that is a few years old (around 2018 or earlier) it will probably not have said connector and the 2.5-inch SATA SSD is the one you will have to use. If you are also using a mechanical HDD, the change will be spectacular. Does this mean they are a bad choice? Not at all, they’re still great in 2026… but especially for what I’m doing: storing. Because if what you need is a “hard drive” on which to install the operating system, applications and games, or on which work intensively on tasks that require constant writing and reading of data (such as video editing), then you will be limited. This leads us to the next model: NVMe SSD. NVMe SSDs: faster and more expensive While SATA SSDs are somewhat larger and slower (but cheaper), NVMe SSDs are a rocket. The quickest and most direct way to describe them is: speed, speed, speed. While the former would become a one-lane national highway, the latter become a highway with eight lanes in each direction. This means that if a sporadic car (some file, such as PDFs) is going to pass through these “roads”, SATA is enough for you; If you need several heavy trucks moving at the same time (video editing, for example, with thousands of MB of data moving at full speed) then That national highway will collapse and there is no choice but to drive on the highway.. NVMe SSDs also stand out in design: they are compact, stylish and very small. The inseparable companion of any current desktop or laptop PCbut also in video game consoles by offering better performance in all types of tasks and taking up less space (something vital, for example, in the case of consoles). In fact, this is the type of SSD that the PlayStation 5, the Steam Deck… come with in the M.2 connectors that they incorporate. Connector that, by the way, has been present on practically any desktop or laptop motherboard for a few years now. This type of SSD is more expensive than its SATA relatives, but that extra financial effort is worth it if, in addition to storing data as such, you plan to work on them. … Read more

Apple has only found one option to make a cheap laptop: make it a mobile

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The new MacBook Neo It costs 699 euros because it has the iPhone 16 Pro chip inside. Not the M4 from a couple of years ago, neither the M3 nor the M2. The A18 Pro: the same processor as many people have in their pocket. Apple has solved the price problem by doing something that until recently would have been unthinkable in its own mental architecture: reuse a mobile chip in a laptop. They put it in an aluminum case with a keyboard and hinge, gave it a new name, and sold it as if it were a different category. It is not. It is something more similar to an iPhone without a touch screen, with a trackpad and keyboard, and with macOS on top. For years, Apple has maintained (implicitly but consistently) that the Mac and iPhone were worlds apart, with different chips, for different uses. ARM architecture unified the foundation six years ago, but the M family and the A family followed separate paths: one for the desktop, the laptop and the tablet; another for mobile. That separation has sustained an entire product hierarchy. The Neo just killed it. Apple is admitting that the mobile chip is sufficient for most customers’ laptops. It is a recognition that has more implications than the price. If the iPhone chip is good enough for a Mac, what exactly the hell were we paying for before? The answer is… Apple’s margin. And the name. And the feeling that a Mac was something qualitatively different from a mobile phone with a keyboard. Now that feeling has a reference price: 600 euros difference between the cheapest MacBook and the most expensive iPhone. And the Neo’s USB-C ports don’t support Thunderbolt because the A18 Pro It doesn’t support it, so that’s not a product decision, it’s an original limitation that Apple has accepted as sufficient. The Neo isn’t exactly a strategic bet either. It’s more like an admission.. Apple had spent years without anything really competitive below 1,000 euros and it knew it, which is why sold the M1 in the United States for $700 as an emergency maneuver. On this side of the Atlantic, the empire of reconditioned and second-hand goods was taking away too many sales. The iPad with keyboard did almost the same thing as the entry-level MacBook Air and cost less, with the disadvantage of iPadOS but with greater versatility due to the touch screen and the option of using it undocked. The only way down was to cross the internal borders that Apple itself had built between its chip families. And there is what the Neo leaves in the air, more interesting than any specification: if the mobile chip is already sufficient for the work laptop of the majority, the convergence between both categories is not a future hypothesis. This is what Apple just put in its window for 699 mutts. In Xataka | Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play Featured image | Apple

I have used my Android mobile as a PC thanks to desktop mode. It is a fantastic option

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Ricardo Aguilar, a colleague at Xataka, knows a lot about mobile phones, so from time to time he throws some insult at me about my already somewhat mature Pixel 8 Pro. Today, however, the insult is mine. Because? Well, because as he himself warned the team, Android ‘desktop mode’ is finally available. This optionthat I’ve been waiting for years (he knows it well) it also arrives in a limited way, because only some devices can enjoy it. Specifically, the recent Pixels. And my Pixel 8 Pro is one of them. In the past I have tested this feature on other devices: I did it of course on Samsungs, which has been offering it through DeX for yearsand also on some other mobile such as Motorola and some Huawei models, which they also boasted of said characteristic. Google had been around for a while raising this possibilityand last year an Android beta appeared that offered this capability. Now that option is finally officially available, although as we say, for now only on Google Pixels starting with Pixel 8. Enviable start-up To activate this option you must first activate the developer options in the Android settings, and then enable option for desktop features which we can find almost at the end of those options for developers. Once this is done, the system asks for a restart, after which everything is ready to use desktop mode. To do this, I connected a 15-inch external monitor to my Pixel through a USB-C to Micro HDMI cable (I tried a USB-C to USB-C cable, but the cable I used had a small problem). By detecting that we connect the mobile phone to a screen, The Pixel gives us the option of using the mobile phone as a “Computer” (the desktop mode itself) or of projecting it as it has been possible to do for years. I chose the first option​​ and I finally found that desktop mode that basically makes Android becomes a hybrid operating system which works practically the same as Windows, Linux or macOS do on a PC or laptop. Thus, we have a desktop in which there is a lower bar with the application launcher and a series of “pinned” apps, and at the top a system bar that allows, for example, access to notifications and quick settings on our mobile. From there the experience is very similar to using a PC. We can open applications and, of course, resize and move windows to place them however we like on the desktop. I normally use two competing advantages of the browser to work on the topics I prepare for Engadget, and that is exactly the configuration I have used to write this text: with two Chrome windows I have worked practically the same as I usually do on my Mac mini M4. A small change of mentality Obviously in that desktop mode it is necessary connect a mouse and keyboard to the Pixelwhich I have connected via Bluetooth. The detection and operation of these devices was carried out without problems, and once on the desktop everything works, I insist, as one would expect. You can quickly launch apps from the taskbar launcher and pin certain apps to that taskbar. It is also possible to show all open applications with that old access at the bottom right with a square-shaped icon. There is a strange feeling here because logically what you are using are the applications on your mobile phone natively. Thus, it is not necessary to open WhatsApp in a browser tab because you already have the native app ready and running in the background, and the same goes for the rest of the options, such as the Twitter app (X) or YouTube: they are not tabs, but full-fledged apps. It is a slight but curious change of mentality, of course. And there is also the other reality: some apps that we usually use on the desktop are not as clear as those on Windows or macOS. There is a clear example in the file explorer: Android has its own (Files) and I, for example, usually use Amaze for these tasks, but Google has never conceived Android as an operating system in which the user messes with files and folders. We can do it, yes, but it is not the strong point of this platform, as neither is it, for example, working with the command console. Here again that possibility exists, but you have to “play around” a little more to be able to install a terminal and use it in a similar way as we would do in Linux, macOS or in Windows CMD/Powershell. I have not tried much more demanding applications at the moment, but this opens the door to using some more advanced and ambitious applications in desktop mode: here it occurs to me that an image or video editor could be a striking candidate to take advantage of this desktop mode. There is also striking scope here for entertainment with games that we can play with a mouse and keyboard as we would on a PC, even though they are games for Android. The possibilities are most striking. Your PC can certainly be your mobile These tests have made me realize that this definitely opens up those possibilities that we have been talking about for years. A laptop normally solves the mobility issue, but if you need to have “your PC” anywhereyou don’t even need that anymore: if you have a monitor, keyboard and mouse somewhere else, this Android desktop mode allows you to use your device almost like a PC. I just did it while writing this article, and the truth is, the experience has been surprisingly good. Not perfect, mind you– The on-screen keyboard appears from time to time as if the system does not detect that you have a physical one connected, for example, and window management is not as intuitive as one might wish. But still the overall result is fantastic in my … Read more

In this city in Ukraine, going outside is not an option because of the drones. So they have found a solution: live underground

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For decades war was thought of as a recognizable front line, with more or less secure soldiers, trenches and rearguards. The massive emergence of drones has dynamited that scheme: the sky has become a permanent hunting ground, the distinction between combatant and civilian has been blurred and entire cities now live under the constant threat of cheap and lethal machines that can attack at any moment. In Ukraine they have forced everyday life to hide underground to continue existing. Kherson and the threat behind the windows. The key Ukrainian city has become the most extreme example of how drones have transformed war and civil lifeto the point that going outside has become the closest thing to a “death sport”, with Russian quadcopters operating from the other bank of the Dnieper that they hunt random people in what the Ukrainians themselves describe as a “human safari.” In a city of wide avenues and tsarist architecture, today the sky is the true enemy, responsible for hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries in a single year, in what the United Nations and human rights organizations describe as war crimes and the world’s most intensive use of drones against a civilian population. Live underground. Faced with the impossibility of completely protecting the surface, life in Kherson has declined literally underground. There is no rhetoric, since they literally live underground with hospitals, maternity wards, public offices, theaters and cultural spaces moved to basements and former Soviet shelters, while playgrounds have been replaced. through underground game rooms and all schools in the city operate only online. This forced displacement has created a strange and oppressive routine in which day-to-day life passes between corridors, bunkers and improvised roomsbecause any exposure to the open sky can end in seconds with a guided explosion from a remote camera. It is the real version of any scenario that science fiction cinema or literature ever staged. Improvised defenses. Faced with this omnipresent threat, the authorities have deployed a combination of solutions that illustrate the extent to which the city lives in an almost post-apocalyptic future, with kilometers of anti-drone networks covering entire streets, mesh tunnels over the main access roads, electronic interference walls next to the river and hundreds of concrete capsules spread along the sidewalks to offer immediate shelter. Even so, those responsible themselves admit that nothing is completely effectivebecause drones evolve, dodge defenses, throw grenades or mines and turn any daily journey into a desperate race in which you cannot run faster than the machine you are chasing from the air. Live, not just survive. In this extreme context, the effort is not limited to keeping the population alive, but rather to preserving a minimum feeling of normalityespecially for the little ones, children, who grow up under constant stress and fear of going outside. In fact, there is a whole network of psychologists, educators and volunteers who organize dance, art or biology classes in basements, install sandboxes so that the little ones can touch the ground and even create spaces where choosing, playing and learning is a form of emotional resistance in the face of a war that invades everything. The idea is clear in Kherson: it is not enough to hide, you have to keep livingeven under layers of cement. The laboratory of a disturbing future. If you like, Kherson is not just a devastated city, but an advance which many fear will become the norm in many other conflicts of the future, one where cheap and precise drones democratize the ability to attack civilians with an ease that was unthinkable just a few years ago. Thus, after a Russian occupation, a liberation celebrated and an immediate return of horror from a distance, the city has been trapped a kilometer from the front, with a population reduced to a fraction of the original that, despite everything, refuses to leave. Underground, between networks, shelters and constant alarms, Kherson survives like a brutal warning of how the war of the future can empty the streets and push human life to simply hide to exist. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | A drone takes aim and blows up a Russian penguin in front. It is the result of an increasingly absurd war In Xataka | Three Russians surrender on camera: what was previously a “normal” scene in the war in Ukraine is science fiction

Self-consumption is no longer a marginal option to conquer half of Spain

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The spring of 2025 marked a before and after in the psyche of the Spanish consumer. The so-called “Great Blackout”which left millions of homes without power on the Peninsula, transformed the perception of solar panels. What was previously seen mainly as a way to reduce the monthly bill, is today perceived as a guarantee of resilience and energy independence. in the face of market volatility. The consolidation data. According to the “Solar Report 2025: X-ray of self-consumption in Spain”, prepared by SotySolar in collaboration with the Spanish Photovoltaic Union (UNEF)the market has entered a phase of maturity after years of accelerated expansion. Spain closed the 2024 financial year with an accumulated installed capacity of 8,137 GW. These figures closely coincide with the records of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO), which places the power at 8,255 GW. However, Red Eléctrica raises the total estimate current at 8.7 GW, integrating data from the Electrical Measurements System (SIMEL) and estimates from the System Operator (OS). The end of “refundable” subsidies. After the closure of the European Next Generation funds, the sector has stopped depending on direct aid to embrace more structural profitability. This change is reflected on the national map: Catalonia has become the benchmark for success, with an increase of 20.6% in the volume of interested parties thanks to agile management of its local incentives. Despite the accumulated strength, the beginning of 2025 presented a slight cooling: the residential sector suffered a drop of 14% in the first quarter compared to the average for 2024. Even so, self-consumption has maintained sustained growth since 2021 and demonstrates greater stability than the large plant market (utility scale). The profile of the new consumer. The user profile has evolved towards a more informed and demanding one. Although financial savings continue to be the main driving force for 65% of users, factors such as sustainability (12%) and energy independence (8%) have gained unprecedented weight. As José Donoso, CEO of UNEF, explains, self-consumption has gone from being a minority technology to an “everyday, reliable and essential appliance.” This maturity is reflected in the choice of the installer: the price continues to matter (45%), but trust based on recommendations (25%) and support in procedures and aid (20%) are now decisive factors. The new standard. The acquisition model has undergone a radical transformation. Financing has gone from being a barrier to a driving force: between 60% and 70% of households opt for flexible payment formulas, a figure that rises to 80% in projects that exceed €10,000 or include batteries. In fact, strategic partners like Pontio They project to exceed 10,000 funded installations in 2026. This financial boost facilitates the integration of aerothermal energy, which has established itself as the ideal companion to photovoltaics. 66% of solar system owners plan to install aerothermal in the next three years. However, as experts in Xataka warn80% of Spanish houses have technical deficiencies in their electrical installation, which requires a prior evaluation of the insulation to prevent the investment from becoming an expense that is difficult to amortize. Roadmap. To prevent progress from slowing down, UNEF has proposed in its presentation urgent measures that strengthen the structural profitability of the sector: Tax incentives: Apply a reduced VAT for both installations with and without batteries. Network expansion: Extend the distance of shared self-consumption from the current 2 km to 5 km. Administrative simplification: Extend the exemption from requesting access and connection permits to all facilities that inject less than 15kW into the grid. Review of tolls: Modify the distribution between the fixed and variable part (target 25% fixed and 75% variable) to encourage savings. For its part, Red Eléctrica has reinforced the “maximum observability” of the system, publishing detailed information on self-consumption on all its platforms from the end of 2025, including a new demand curve (“Total Scheduled”) that integrates the impact of this energy on the national grid, where it already represents close to 4% of demand. An irreversible path. Self-consumption in Spain has come of age. It is no longer a specific response to a price crisis, but a strategic decision. As José Carlos Díaz Lacaci, CEO of SotySolar, points out, the path towards electrification is now “irreversible.” The challenge for 2026 will be to modernize the real estate stock and consolidate an intelligent management model that guarantees that every ray of sunlight captured becomes energy freedom for the citizen. Image | Unsplash Xataka | Landing at an airport full of solar panels had become a drama. Until Malaga had an idea

replanting them in the bush is not an option

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Once the holidays are over, it’s time to take down the tinsel, dismantle the Nativity scene, put away the garlands, lights, hanging Santa Clauses and other Christmas decorations and ask yourself the same question as every year: Where the hell to store all those decorations? And above all, what do we do with the tree, that fir tree that is more than a meter high that we bought in a nursery back in December and that has spent weeks presiding over our living room loaded with balls and flashing LEDs? In Madrid they have decided to go ahead to that question by making something clear: Christmas trees should not be thrown into any container and of course they cannot be abandoned on the street. It’s not even right take them to the mountains to plant them there, as nice as that sounds. There is another solution. What has happened? That (with permission from Vigo) Christmas is over. And that means that thousands and thousands of Spanish homes are dedicating themselves to the laborious task of dismantling their nativity scenes, taking down tinsel, putting lights, snowman figurines and hanging Santa Clauses in boxes and, above all, dismantling their trees. Those who have opted for artificial fir trees (or they have rented them) will have no problem, but things change in homes with natural trees. What do we do with the tree? The big question. At the end of the day, a tree should not be treated as just another piece of urban waste. This same week the Madrid City Council remembered it with a clear message: “Its abandonment on public roads or its deposit in unauthorized containers has a negative impact on both the environment and the proper management of waste.” Even Ecoembes recognize that the issue raises doubts and encourages transplanting as long as the trees are real, alive, and “possible.” If not, remember that they must be taken to a clean point, just like synthetic ones. Should we replant it then? Not so fast. To prevent people from giving a second life to their trees in the mountains, on Wednesday (just after Kings) the Community of Madrid issued a statement in which he remembers that, no matter how bucolic it may seem, this solution is a bad idea and is prohibited. The reason is simple. As remember the regional government, the usual thing is that at Christmas the houses are decorated with fir trees of the variety Abies albanative to the north of the peninsula. If we dedicate ourselves to replanting them without criteria in other regions, with other ecosystems, we run the risk of ending up damaging the local flora. Is it prohibited? The Community’s warning is very clear. In his note he recalls “the prohibition of replanting Christmas fir trees in natural areas of the region” and cites the Forest Lawamong other state regulations. “As they are species foreign to the environment, they can cause imbalances in ecosystems, be a source of pests or diseases and increase the risk of forest fires.” Instead of looking for a clearing in the mountains to plant our Christmas tree, the regional body encourages us to contact the town councils and use their collection services. The goal: that our fir tree be relocated to an urban park or garden, where it will grow safely without “putting biodiversity at risk.” Click on the image to go to the tweet. What to do in Madrid? In reality, Madrid residents have it very easy. On the same day that the Community warned of the prohibition of planting fir trees in the mountains of the region, the City Council of the capital announced his campaign Christmas tree collection. During the remainder of January, families who want to get rid of their fir tree will be able to deposit it at two points: one is in the El Retiro Stove Nurserythe other in the Country House Nursery. Whoever wants to use the service will find them open every day, morning and afternoon. Are there conditions? Yes. The campaign is not designed for any type of tree. The idea is for Madrid residents to deliver their fir trees alive, with a cohesive and moist root ball. In fact, the technicians will not collect dry specimens, with loose branches or those in which the root ball is so broken or without roots that it is impossible to recover it. In case there was any doubt, the Consistory clarifies that the collection points are for natural trees, not plastic. “This initiative aims to promote responsible habits among citizens, especially during periods of high consumption such as the Christmas holidays, as well as reinforce the culture of recycling and respect for the environment once the celebrations are over,” duck the organism. Is it something new? No. Last year the City Council already launched a similar campaign during which it collected 597 fir trees after the holidays. Of them, 168 were saved, 28.1%. The idea is that those lucky specimens, which arrive in a condition good enough for gardeners to care for, end up being replanted in green spaces. When choosing a location, the technicians take into account that they are not native species so as not to damage the environment. Trees in poor condition suffer a different fate. The City Council staff takes them to the Mijas Calientes Plant Waste Transformation Plant to subject them to a composting process and create an organic fertilizer that is later used in the parks, gardens and other green areas of the capital. The idea, the City Council clarifies, is to “close the cycle of use of plant waste.” In the last campaign (2024-2025) that was the fate of 429 fir trees. Typically, 25 to 30% of the collected fir trees are recovered. Images | Madrid City Council and Frames For Your Heart (Unsplash) In Xataka | In Spain, homes have changed so much that at Christmas they no longer think about gifts for family members. They buy them for dogs

The EU needs to rearm quickly and cheaply. And your best option right now is through AI

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Both GPS and ARPANET, the germ of what would later be Internetwere born within the United States Department of Defense. From radar, which was developed during the 1930s and perfected during World War II, advances later emerged such as the air traffic control system or the microwave. There was a time when military technology was a source of inventions for the civilian sphere. With AI, technical advances begin to occur in the opposite direction: from the civil to the military. They are companies that we all know – Google, OpenAI or Anthropic – that are developing the most sophisticated models in the world and defense organizations are waiting. For the European Union, this trend coincides with an acute crisis in the field of defense. The war in Ukraine has undermined the foundations of political life in Brussels, while presenting Russia as a growing threat. Added to this is the Trump Administration’s willingness to stop security aid to European countries. A breeding ground that has driven the need to rearm. In March, the European Commission announced the ReArm Europe initiative o Readiness 2030. The objective is to significantly increase the EU’s defense capabilities. This is a plan that wants to mobilize nearly 800,000 million eurosincluding 150,000 million in loans for military investments. State governments are expected to push for the modernization of their armies, but the mobilization of private capital is also sought. The increase in security spending is also reflected in the Multiannual Financial Framework (2028-2034)presented in summer. This budget, which defines at a financial level the EU’s priorities for the coming years, provides for an allocation of 131,000 million euros to support investment in the areas of defense, security and space. Without knowing how the distribution is, the funds are five times higher than those of the previous period (2021-2027). (Pablo Bejarano) These efforts of the EU to recover the lost ground in defense could benefit from the technological race that is currently being experienced. Above all, advances in AI, called to reconvert armies and forms of deterrence that countries exhibit today. In one of the round tables at the Web Summit, held in Lisbon last November and which acts as a meeting point for startups from around the world, several experts addressed this topic. Under the title ‘From code to combat: Why AI defense tech is exploiting‘, participants discussed the rise of AI in defense. “What is changing the technological landscape is the speed of innovation,” commented Josh Araujo, CEO of the startup Forterra, in reference to the accelerated pace of technological evolution. “And in Europe, what happens with defense budgets is that it is no longer interesting to buy old things. You can take a system, man it with humans and put armor on it, so we are talking about refined and expensive systems that take decades to design. Or you can deploy autonomous systems low cost that put humans out of danger and allow more firepower and more deterrence capacity to be projected at a much lower cost.” The boost of startups and private capital Forterra is an American company dedicated to developing autonomous ground systems for the field of defense and industrial logistics. Araujo is used to dealing with both military and civilian actors and highlights the importance of deterrence: “The point is that for Europe and our allies, it costs aggressors much more to carry out an aggressive action. The key here is to deploy as much capacity as quickly as possible at the lowest possible cost.” To make this deployment at low cost, AI will be key. a report of the think tank RAND recommends estimates that advances in autonomy and robotics will allow this type of technology be used en masse. “AI represents a great opportunity. If we realize what we generate today on the battlefield, with swarms of drones, autonomous ground vehicles and different mission systems, we see that there are enormous amounts of data,” says Araujo. “Traditionally you had to have a lot of people staring at their computer screens to analyze and absorb the information. But AI offers us the possibility of taking this information, giving it meaning and putting it in context so that a human can make decisions based on that information,” he adds. Forterra’s CEO adds that this change has occurred over the last three or four years. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/Commons) One of the most direct use cases of AI has to do with improving the surveillance capacity of the terrain, through the analysis of mass images. But the technology has also been used in the search and identification of targets or to guide drones towards the target without the intervention of an operator. Likewise, in Ukraine has been rehearsed vehicle deployment terrestrial autonomouswhile the launch of swarms of drones that act on missions in a controlled manner is proposed. All are formulas for increasing war capabilities at low cost, compared to the means that have been used to date. There is still a lot to refine, yes. In an informal conversation, a director of a company in the defense sector in Spain admitted that generative AI is still in the exploration phase and that for now it does not have clear uses in the military field. This does not prevent a flood of technology startups from directing their efforts towards the defense sector. James Cross, co-head of private investment at the firm Franklin Templetonwas the other participant in the Web Summit round table and painted a context full of economic incentives: “I have been investing in defense since the late 90s, but things have changed a lot in the last ten years. Before, no venture capital firm would have invested in a defense-oriented company and today, apart from AI, defense is probably the hottest sector.” Cross seasoned this vision with two notes: governments now they have gotten involvedsomething that has not happened for a long time, and more and more money is going to startups instead of traditional arms contractors. In the first half … Read more

A British MP did not have permission to build a house in the countryside so he was left with only one option: dig it up

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Housing is one of the main problemsnot only because of the scarcity that makes its price skyrocketsbut because, even if you already have a plot on which to build the house of your dreams, urban planning and environmental legislation will not always allow you to build it. That is precisely what happened to British MP Bob Marshall-Andrews in the late 90s, when he wanted to build a house with sea views in Wales, but faced a huge dilemma. Environmental regulations did not allow him to erect any buildings since it was a natural space. There was only one way out so that your home was legal: dig it out. A house in a hole with sea views As and how did he count Wales Onlinelawyer and Labor Party MP Bob Marshall-Andrews and his wife Gill wanted to escape the bustle of the city and enjoy the leisurely pace of the waves crashing into St. Bride’s Bay on the Pembrokeshire cliffs in the far west of Wales. For years, he and his family had been spending vacations in an old military barracks. on Druidston Cliffuntil the structure began to deteriorate and the need to build something new became apparent. That’s where his problems began. The land of the MP and his wife Gill is located about 150 meters from the sea, in the heart of the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, a protected area since 1949 that covers more than 300 kilometers of coastline with cliffs, open beaches, sheltered bays, marshes and dunes. In this environment, the authorities have been traditionally very strict: the neighbors considered practically impossible to obtain permission even for small glazed extensions in existing houses. To comply with the regulations and still stay in that place, the only way was to literally hide the new house underground, excavating the land and taking advantage of the natural ridge of the cliff as part of the construction. The idea came from his son Tom, who thought it would be a good idea to integrate the house into the landscape by excavating it between two hills. The result was Malatora semi-buried house, almost invisible from afar, which today has become one of the most striking examples of architecture integrated into the landscape of the Welsh coast. So much so that it even has your own reference on Wikipedia. A crazy idea that ended in genius The British parliamentarian left the commission to the architects Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levetefounders of the Future Systems studio, had a central premise: to obtain legalized housing that would not give arguments to those responsible for the park. to deny license. To avoid any feeling of privilege towards a parliamentarian, the project was planned from the beginning as a construction that would not compete with the landscape, but would hide in it and reduce its visible impact to a minimum, just as Tom, the son of the owners, had proposed. Thus, the architects chose build downexcavating the hill instead of raising a traditional construction, so that the house will be buried under a cover of earth and grass that continues the shape of the hill. This strategy is reminiscent of ancient techniques from northern Scandinavia, where layers of earth and grass were accumulated to form thick walls with good thermal inertia and great camouflage capacity in the terrain. The designers were inspired by the wing section of an airplane for its visible part. The façade facing the sea is resolved with a large glass plane and portholes, while the upper part and sides are buried and covered with grass and vegetation, so that from the park path the house is perceived as a simple mound covered with grass. This extreme integration with the landscape It was decisive for the local authorities to give their approval, since the construction does not break the undulating line of meadows and bushes nor does it introduce visible plot limits, fences or gardens separated from the rest of the park. Furthermore, technically, no construction had been “raised”. Inside, the curved floor plan is organized around a central fireplace, inspired by the great medieval halls. A large semicircular sofa and prefabricated walls that separate the rooms of the house without touching the ceiling, reinforcing the feeling of continuous space. Respect for the environment was taken to the extreme even during its construction, as many of the internal elements, including the bathrooms, were manufactured in workshops and brought in small pieces to the plot. A decision designed to reduce heavy truck traffic to a minimum on a narrow road adapted to the orography of the cliff. The house soon became popular in the area and, given its peculiar design, the locals have baptized it as “the Teletubbies house” due to its resemblance to the half-buried house from the children’s series, a nickname that its owner receives with humor. In Xataka | Of all the places there were to build a $400,000 house, this millionaire chose the most unusual: in a tree Image | Geograph.org (Cered, Deborah Tilley, Simon Mortimer, Michael Graham, Dave Challender)

Let’s say goodbye to Google Assistant a decade later. Google has begun to delete its code to leave only one option: Gemini

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It’s not official but as if it were: the end of Google Assistant or the classic Google Assistant, is scheduled. An analysis of the latest version of the Google app for Android carried out by Android Authority has revealed his almost definitive goodbye. The Mountain View company is eliminating the code that, for the moment, allows us to choose between Gemini and the old assistant. It is the chronicle of a death foretold that ends an era within the company. Where before we saw the Assistant icon and dialog window, we now have the Gemini one. Image by Iván Linares for Xataka Android failed promise. Launched in May 2016, the Google Assistant was going to be a revolution. On paper, it promised full voice control of your cell phone, car and home. In practice, like many users have experiencedits use ended up being “despairing” although the “Okay, Google” It became popular in smartphones and speakers. Your inability to understand the context or natural language and the rise of AI models, has finished burying it. The future belongs to Gemini. With the rise of generative AI, Google has bet everything on Gemini, but it has had a rather confusing rollout. For months, the American company maintained a curious mess with several duplicate names, apps and services… Bard, Assistant with Bard, Project Astra… In practice, two assistants live on the same mobile phone. In February 2024, its “transmutation” began: that was when Google launched the dedicated Gemini app (Bard was left behind) on Android, which when installed was offered as a replacement for Assistant. As we tested in its day, the new AI took over of the invocation with the famous “Hey Google” command. A more mature replacement. The problem with the Gemini assistant is that, at first, it was quite green. It was a powerful chatbot, but a not so useful assistant: it could not execute the basic tasks that the previous one could do, such as routines or orders for home automation. However, Google has spent the last year making Gemini absorb the features of its predecessor. The turning point came at the end of last year, when Gemini Live – the conversational voice mode – finally landed in Spain and in Spanish. Already approaching 2025, Gemini learned a basic function that it was missing: making calls and sending messages without having to unlock the mobile. The last big feature inherited from Assistant, the «Scheduled actions»arrived in June of this year. Google’s plan. At the same time that Gemini was learning the old Assistant tricks, Google has been dismantling the latter, removing useful functions. The objective is more than clear: Gemini is the future and will be everywhere. Now you can act like the “all-seeing” assistant thanks to Project Astra (integrated in Live mode), it is coming to Google Home speakers and its landing on Android Auto is imminent. The last step remains. And that is eliminating the escape route: Google has already consolidated the transition. Gemini is the default assistant on new mobile phones and can be installed on old ones without major impediments. The analysis of the APK of the specialized Android media only confirms that the last step is very simple: eliminate the option to go back. The king is dead, long live the king. Cover image | Composition with Google images and generated with Nano Banana by Pepu Ricca In Xataka | How to create Gemini Gems to have your personalized version of artificial intelligence

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