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Five years ago, Venice spent more than 5 billion on a system of barriers against the sea. Now look for a plan B

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There was a time when Venice looked at the Adriatic with ambition. The sea not only shaped the city, permeating its DNA, it also propelled it until it became a naval power who fought for dominance of the Mediterranean. Today things are different. The Serennissima (turned into tourist power) observes with increasing concern the coming and going of the tides, the same ones that in 2019 submerged it under 187 cm of water, flooding 80% of the city. The reason is very simple. Everything indicates that the multimillion-dollar system that Venice was equipped with a few years ago to protect itself from the threat of high water It won’t take long for it to become obsolete. And it is not very clear what the alternative is. One figure: 18. The threat of flooding is not new in Venice. In fact, one of the worst in memory was suffered six decades ago, in November 1966when an intense storm caused the water to reach 194 cm, flooding much of the city. However, experts have been detecting worrying signs for some time. It is not just that Venice sink or the sea level rising (which too). There are increasingly clear signs that suggest that floods will become more frequent in the future. Recently, a group of researchers dedicated themselves to analyzing the “extreme” episodes suffered by the city, those in which 60% of its surface was flooded. Throughout the last century and a half, it counted 28 incidents of those characteristics. The surprising thing is that the vast majority of them (18) were concentrated during the last 23 years. One measurement: 0.42 m. Today more than half of Venice is alone between 80 and 120 cm above the average sea level and projections show that this scenario will soon worsen: in the best of cases, if we manage to drastically reduce our polluting emissions, the sea will rise 0.42m by 2100. In the worst case, it will be 1.8 m, which would greatly complicate the outlook for the Serennissima. In fact, now the high tide already leaves St. Mark’s Square only 30 cm above the water level. One name: Mose. Aware of how much is at stake in Venice, the Italian Government has long been looking for a way to protect itself from floods. The result was Mose (experimental elettromechanical module)a system made up of four barriers and 78 independent mobile gates that allow authorities to protect the Venetian lagoon from what is known as high watertides that flood the city. The objective: to temporarily isolate the Adriatic lagoon and thus protect Venice from the most dangerous tides. To achieve this, the barriers were strategically installed in the inlets of Lido, Malamocco and Chioggia. Each gate also measures 20m wide and between 18.6 and 29.6 m long. An investment: 5,000 million. It is said that the project mobilized an investment of more than 5.5 billion of euros (its execution was marred by corruption). Its work began in 2003 and after several delays it carried out a first test in October 2020, in an event led by the then Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte. A year earlier, Venice had suffered a of the worst floods that are remembered, during which the water reached 187 cm, flooding part of the entrance to the Basilica of Saint Mark. An indicator: frequency. The problem is that the authorities are turning to Mose much more often than expected. EuroWeekly assures that in less than a month, between January 28 and February 19, the system was activated 30 times. Other media report that since their inauguration at the end of 2020, the barriers have saved Venice from flooding in 154 occasions. The problem is that the use of Mose does not come free to the region, neither in economic terms nor on a social and environmental level. Setting up the enormous Mose floodgates has a direct cost, but it also has another indirect cost: by isolating the lagoon, the system alters, for example, the activity of the port sector and interrupts maritime traffic with the port of Marghera. Guardian points out that pressing Mose’s button has an economic impact of more than 200,000 euros for Venice. For this year’s Carnival alone the total bill would be around five million euros. An extra concern: the lagoon. Not everything is measured in operational cost, maritime traffic and economic impact. Altering the tides in the area also has an impact on its ecosystem and that is something that worries experts like Andrea Rinaldo, from the scientific committee of the Lagoon Authority. Especially if two fundamental data are taken into account: first, the frequency of use in recent years; second, the forecasts for sea level rise. “With one more meter, the Mose barriers would have to be closed an average of 200 times a year, which means that they would practically always be blocked,” explains Roinaldo. “When this happens, the lagoon loses its function as a transitional environment. It would become a pond.” A victim: the lagoon itself. As explains GuardianBy blocking the flow of water, the barriers encourage the growth of algae. The problem is that when these die and decompose they directly affect the quality of the water and the rest of the flora and fauna. Does that mean Mose was a mistake? Rinaldo thinks not. The changes are simply happening much faster than engineers expected, forcing authorities and technicians to think about the future in the medium and long term. At the end of the day, if Mose taught anything, it is that projects of his importance are not approved and executed overnight. One question: What to do? The great unknown. Those responsible for Mose are looking for ways to reduce its impact, but it is not an easy decision. Among other things because the Venetians themselves have become accustomed to the barriers and gates coming into operation at the slightest risk, points out Giovanni Zaroti, one of the system technicians. Rinaldo mentions the possibility of launching an international call … Read more

With the new increase, the Netflix plan with ads already costs more than what it cost to watch the platform without advertising two years ago

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Netflix has just confirmed a new price increase in Spain. When the platform presented the plan with ads in 2022, it did so as the economic option for those who did not want to pay the full rate. Four years later, as Antonio Ortiz emphasized in Xthat plan with advertising costs more than the old basic plan cost without any type of advertising, which was eliminated in 2023. The new prices. The increase affects the three rates available in Spain. This is how they look: Standard Plan with ads: It goes from 6.99 to 8.99 euros per month, an increase of two euros or close to 29%. Standard Plan without ads: It goes up from 13.99 to 14.99 euros. Premium Plan: Access to four simultaneous screens, 4K resolution and without ads, scale from 19.99 to 21.99 euros, surpassing the barrier of 20 euros per month for the first time. This is the second price increase in less than two years, since in October 2024 the company increased its rates in Spain. The new prices are now active for new users and will apply to current users in the next billing cycle. Ten years reviewing upwards. Netflix arrived in Spain in October 2015. Since then, the evolution of its rates describes a trajectory without exceptions. In 2017 the Standard plan increased by one euro and the Premium plan by two. The same pattern was repeated in 2019 and 2021. In 2022 it introduced the plan with ads at 5.49 euros, and in 2023 it eliminated the basic plan of 7.99 euros to push towards that advertising option. Already in 2021 we were talking about how the Premium plan had risen 50% in four years. It has not stopped doing so: currently it costs 21.99 euros, in 2017 11.99. Almost double in nine years. The paradox of the cheap rate. As we say, when the plan with advertisements arrived in Spain it did so 5.49 euros per month. Subsequently It went to 6.99 euros and now stands at 8.99 euros, which represents a joint increase of around 64% since its launch. That is, Netflix’s cheapest option has gone above what the old Basic plan without ads cost, which remained at 7.99 euros until its final elimination. In other words: whoever today wants to pay as little as possible on Netflix accepts advertising and pays more than what those who had a completely ad-free subscription paid two years ago. Because. The company often justifies these revisions as necessary to sustain investment in content. Netflix plans to allocate about $20 billion to this aspect in 2026, 10% more than in 2025. But there is a very clear reason for these increases to arrive at a fixed and almost biannual cadence: Netflix has more than 325 million global subscribers and previous increases have not caused significant falls in its user base. Put into practice: the plan with ads accumulates more than 190 million monthly active users and represents 55% of new registrations in markets with enabled advertisingaccording to the company’s own data. It is the segment that has grown the most, and also the one that suffers the greatest percentage increase in this last round. The end of the climbs? At the beginning of this month, a court ruling in Italy It could mark a before and after in the relationship between the platform and the continent’s regulators. A court in Rome ruled that price increases applied by Netflix in Italy between 2017 and 2024 are illegal under the national consumer code, which requires specific and advance justification of any price change. Premium subscribers active since 2017 could receive refunds of up to 500 euros and those on the Standard plan, around 250. Netflix has 90 days to notify all those affected through its website and national media, under penalty of 700 euros per day for delay. The judges’ decision is a good blow for the finances of Netflix, which is going to appeal the ruling, and which could affect the platform’s more than 5.4 million subscribers in Italy. The potential bill for the platform could exceed 2 billion euros. The door to similar litigation in other European countries remains open, although the transposition of European Directive 93/13/EEC on which the Italian court’s decision is based varies between legislations. In Spain, for now, it can be applied but a comparable judicial resolution has not yet been reached, although FACUA has filed a complaint before the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, which could also end the platform in court. In Xataka | 29 years later, Netflix has become the television it promised to replace. That’s why Wall Street has punished her

the plan to send infinite energy to Earth

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In the global energy transition there are countries and countries. There are some that are more advanced and others that are not so advanced. And although the ease of access to classic fossil fuels works as an anchor to resist change, the fact that you have not been dealt the best cards in terms of natural resources does not help either. Japan is one of those countries where change is almost a matter of survival: little land available, it matters about 90% of its primary energy and if we talk about resources, is testing the wavesbut the wave drive It’s a tough nut to crack. So Japan has decided to look at the energy transition from a spatial perspective, that is, capturing radiation outside of Earth, where it is more constant and powerful. We already saw it with his Ohisama satellite and now with his Moon Ring for, like says Beyonceput a ring on the moon in the shape of a solar plant. The idea. The proposal consists of installing a continuous belt of photovoltaic cells along the equator of the Moon covering a circumference of 11,000 kilometers, thus ensuring that a part of the structure is always exposed to direct sunlight, that is, 24/7 energy generation. From there, the electricity is converted into microwaves and high-density laser beams to be sent directly to receiving stations on Earth. What you propose Shimizu Corporation It is not so much a closed project with a specific date, but a long-term engineering vision to guide its line of research in space energy and this private company is not alone: ​​it has institutional support in the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, which He’s been researching it for decades.. Shimizu Corporation Operating Diagram Why is it important. Because global energy demand continues to grow and terrestrial solar energy has important limitations in the form of the day and night cycle, clouds or the atmosphere itself, which reduce its performance. A plant at the equator of the moon would solve all three in one fell swoop: continuous solar energy, without the atmospheric filter or the risk of a cloudy sky. This is simply impossible on Earth. The European Space Agency has already recognized the strategic potential of space solar energy in your Solaris program. The eventual materialization of this project represents another step in the “Hydrogen society“, the vision of an economic ecosystem where hydrogen replaces fossil fuels as the main energy vector, arising from Japan’s need to overcome its extreme dependence on energy imports. In context. The idea is not new by any means: back in 1968 it already occurred to the American aerospace engineer Peter Glaser, who published an article on the subject in Science magazine. Much has happened since then and numerous governments and space agencies have also studied its feasibility: NASA did it in ’79, the British government has been exploring the idea since 2021 and China plans a demonstration in low orbit in 2028 followed by a test in geostationary orbit by 2030. Shimizu takes it a step further: he has moved it from Earth orbit to the moon, which brings certain geometric advantages, but also increases logistical complexity. In detail. Bring materials from Earth to space It’s not exactly easy or cheap.so their idea is to build the solar panels mainly with resources extracted from the lunar soil itself, using autonomous robots operated remotely. The solar ring would cover the lunar equator with a width of up to four hundred kilometers. The energy would be transmitted to Earth via a microwave antenna twenty kilometers in diameter, guided by a ground beacon for precise pointing. The concept of wireless power transmission is not science fiction: California Institute of Technology performed in 2023 a demonstration in orbit. Yes, but. We are facing an engineering project on a scale unprecedented in the history of humanity and the cost of launching cargo into space is the least of the problems (it is being reduced thanks to operators like SpaceX): so would building an infrastructure of these characteristics in situ. And even if it could be done, cosmic radiation and micrometeorite bombardment on the lunar surface would constitute a serious risk to the integrity of the panels, which implies a challenge in terms of useful life and maintenance. NASA itself points out these barriers in evaluating the space solar energy concept. In Xataka | Japan has lost a five-ton satellite in the most unusual way imaginable: “it fell” during launch In Xataka | Japan has just made a monumental bet on perovskite solar panels: they are its best chance against China Cover | Shimizu Corporation

the AI ​​+ Education plan to integrate AI at all educational levels

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The artificial intelligence is storming the classrooms. Chatbots have become another everyday tool in university life and teachers are realizing something: all students submit the same work. But apart from how ‘Vago’s Corner‘ vitaminized, there are those who are pushing to introduce AI into the educational system from the same bases. And there China has an ambitious plan to stand out in the fierce global competition. Its name is ‘AI + Education’, and it is supported by the Ministry of Education itself. The problem. AI and machine learning They have been used as tools for years. When the current AI chatbotsmachine learning was responsible for analyzing tremendous amounts of data to learn ‘on the fly’, being a tool for many sectors. But it is clear that AI has boosted the entire sector, and in China ends to overcome an achievement. The architect was Archon, an AI that uses a theorem search engine to transform informal proofs into fully verified projects. Its repository is a huge library maintained by a community that dumps hundreds of thousands of theorems and definitions, and it is the one that has completely autonomously solved an open problem proposed more than a decade ago. The only human intervention has consisted of downloading files behind paywalls, since they were the ones that Archon could not recover. The solution. This case is just one example of the use of AI in China, a country that is promoting this technology as a way to achieve technological sovereignty in the complicated global scenario in which we find ourselves, which is going to integrate it into the earliest educational strata. Inside From China’s Long-Term Education Plan to 2035 (somewhat similar to the country’s five-year economic and technological development plan), is the ‘AI + Education’ action plan. As detail in South China Morning Post, it is something presented by the Ministry of Education that seeks to integrate artificial intelligence into every stage of learning starting from primary education. It is the immediate response to similar plans for the assimilation of AI in education proposed by competitors such as Europe, Singapore and, above all, the United States, and the objective is clear: to increase literacy in artificial intelligence throughout the country as a pillar of future economic competitiveness. Math, cone, tongue, AI. The architects of the plan argue that the skills necessary for the modern era must be redefined and “AI is forcing a systemic and fundamental review of education.” The intention is that, instead of fragmented local projects in which each one can go at one speed, there is a program regulated by the central government to consolidate AI platforms and what this implies at the level of computing power and networks. Let everyone go at the same speed, in short. For this transition, teachers will be trained and required to have knowledge of AI and, as we say, it will be something that will go from the most basic level in schools (to feed curiosity and problem-solving skills in students) to university, so that graduates have better access to AI learning opportunities. That is, AI will be a core part of the education of a Chinese student from childhood to adulthood, so when any type of problem arises, they know how to use the tool to solve it. AI study rooms. But even if it is now that the Government wants to introduce AI into the formal educational system, this is something that has been embedded in the education of young Chinese for some time. Not just Yale students They were going to use AI to find jobs, and in China it has been reported that there are about 50,000 AI “study rooms” across the country. To call them something. These are cubicles in which there is a tablet that proposes tests and where no teaching is done, since the software on the tablets cannot explain the subject and they only function as “supervisors.” It’s like learning a subject by taking multiple choice exams and remembering which question you got right and wrong, but without having any idea why. It is a lucrative educational technology business – valued at $43 billion – and it has already been reported that, to cope with the monotony of six hours in front of the tablet answering questions, children start playing classic games like Go. This system operates in a gray area because since 2021 China has not allowed for-profit tutoring to alleviate financial pressure on families, but since AI does not teach, this system operates in an unclear framework. And it is paid, of course. Debate. Such has been the commotion in these AI study rooms that the same Ministry of Education that now seeks to make AI a core subject in education, has come out lecture to ban elementary school students from using AI tools to complete their assignments. AI should only be a supervised support tool, and it is something that also goes hand in hand with what teachers demand. With the government proposal, what will be sought is not that students do their homework with AI tools, but that they know how to use them, what they are useful for and how to have this software as another tool at their disposal when developing. But what you want is one thing and what you achieve is another, because there is something that comes into play here: the situation of each family, and there are already those who warns that AI can widen the country’s social gap. While in large cities where parents can have a higher level of education and, together with teachers, carry out good AI education work so that children know how to interact with it and even question the machine and its hallucinations, students in rural areas run the risk of being parked in these digital babysitting cubicles with easy answers while parents work. In Xataka | “We exploit the weaknesses of AI”: teachers’ lonely struggle to reinvent homework and exams

OpenAI swore that ads on ChatGPT were its “last resort.” Now they are your survival plan

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a couple of years ago Sam Altman said that placing ads on ChatGPT was “the last resort for our business model.” Well then, ChatGPT ads are here and OpenAI is sure that it will be the business of the century, one that will generate a whopping $100 billion. what has happened. He leaked it Axios; During a presentation with investors, OpenAI has confirmed its forecasts for the newly released advertising model in ChatGPT. During 2026 they expect to generate 2.5 billion dollars and this will increase in the coming years until reaching 100 billion in 2030. This is the progression they project: 2026: 2.5 billion 2027: 11,000 million 2028: 25,000 million 2029: 53,000 million Why it is important. Advertising has gone from being the last resort of its business model to directly being its business model. OpenAI is losing money at an unsustainable rate and has been making profound changes to be more profitable, such as focus more on enterprise customers, but it may be too late. Advertising is your way to profitability. In other words, your survival depends on this going well. butterfly effect. If it works for them and they achieve their goal, it can change the rules of online advertising. 100,000 million is many millions, enough for Google and Meta’s business to end up being affected. Furthermore, advertising within a chatbot like ChatGPT can be much more profitable because the user says in a much more direct and detailed way what they are looking for. On the other hand, advertising on Instagram or Google Ads requires work to collect data to guess the user’s tastes. If it doesn’t work for them, the outlook looks bad for the technology sector. We talk about the most valuable private company in the world and Its possible bankruptcy can cause a domino effect that freezes investments and punctures the expectations placed on AI. Users. To achieve these numbers, OpenAI estimates that it needs its weekly user base to reach 2.75 billion by 2030. Right now ChatGPT has 900 million weekly active usersthat is, they have to triple them in four years. We talked about ChatGPT having to be at the level of WhatsApp or YouTube. There is already 6 billion people with internet accessAs far as there are users, the question is whether it is feasible for OpenAI to attract almost half of them. The mass adoption of AI is already in a more mature phase and, although it is the most used, ChatGPT is no longer the pretty girl; Now it coexists with equally capable competitors and most importantly: The image of the company has been eroding. The double edge of advertising. Advertising can be tremendously lucrative for OpenAI, but it puts user trust at risk, and that is just what they need to fulfill their plans. We have normalized seeing ads everywhere, but having them appear in a conversation with a chatbot threatens to erode their main promise: to be assistants that respond solely to the user’s interest, and not to the commercial priorities of those who pay to advertise. Two things can happen here: that the rest of the AI ​​companies jump on the bandwagon and we normalize that the free versions have ads (the ideal scenario for OpenAI), or that OpenAI is left alone and people end up going to other ad-free chatbots. Anthropic said it would not advertisewe will see if in a few years they continue to maintain it. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Before, advertising was to monetize. Now it is to punish you and YouTube has taken it to the extreme

97% of a key mineral for Europe comes from China. Spain has a plan of 197 million to turn it around

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Constant technological development has unleashed a silent but relentless geopolitical war. At the center of the target are rare earths and critical minerals, essential for manufacturing everything from mobile phones to electric cars or wind turbines. Nowadays, how to explain Europa PressEurope is in a situation of extreme vulnerability: 97% of the magnesium we consume comes from China and 98% of the borate we import from Türkiye. However, the solution to this deep dependence could be buried under Spanish soil. A new plan. As detailed in the National Mining Exploration Program 2026-2030 (PNEM), the official document promoted by the Government of Spain20 of the 34 raw materials that the European Union classifies as fundamental have been detected in the Iberian Peninsula. Of them, 17 are considered strategic due to their high technological and defense impact. To map and take advantage of this “treasure”, the Executive has launched an ambitious plan. The financing table of the PNEM itself projects a total investment of 197 million euros for the five-year period 2026-2030, adding public financing, aid and private investment that is expected to be mobilized. A breath for Europe and an opportunity for Spain. The European roadmap, crystallized in the Fundamental Raw Materials Regulation (Critical Raw Materials Act or CRMA), is very clear: guarantee access to a safe and diversified supply. By 2030, the European Union has set a goal of extracting at least 10%, processing 40% and recycling 25% of its domestic demand for these materials. In this context, Spain is not a secondary actor, but is the only producer of strontium in Europe, hosting 15% of the world’s reserves in the Montevives and Escúzar basin in Granada, and holds the position of second largest copper producer on the continent. according to data provided by Europa Press. The main focus of exploration is located in the Variscan or Iberian Massif, an extensive geological strip that crosses the west of the peninsula from Galicia to Andalusia, passing through Cantabria, Asturias, Castilla y León and Extremadura. The official document highlights, within this great massif, the so-called Central Ibérica, Ossa-Morena and South Portuguesa Zones as priority areas for general exploration. The private sector takes positions. On a practical level, intentions are already being translated into business movements on the ground. In Extremadura the Junta has granted a license to explore an area of ​​49,500 hectares in the Cáceres regions of Los Ibores and Campo de Arañuelo. In Andalusia, specifically in Jaén, the Australian company Osmond Resources will promote the Orion projectcovering 228 square kilometers in the former mining region of Linares-La Carolina to search for unusually high concentrations of rutile, zircon and rare earths such as neodymium. For its part, the European Commission has already blessed seven strategic projects in Spanish territory to protect the supply, located in enclaves of Ciudad Real, Orense, Cáceres, Badajoz, Huelva and Seville. Cutting-edge technology versus “pick and shovel”. The National Mining Exploration Program does not contemplate blindly digging holes. The Ministry’s text outlines six great performances interconnected to locate these raw materials. The process will begin with an exhaustive review of historical data and geoscientific reports, followed by the preparation of highly detailed geological-mining cartography. From there, technology will take over. Geochemical soil prospecting campaigns and complex isotopic analyzes will be carried out to find anomalies in the terrain. In addition, cutting-edge geophysical techniques will be deployed, using everything from airborne gravimetry and magnetometry equipment (planes and drones), to remote sensing using high-resolution hyperspectral and satellite images provided by the European Space Agency. All of this will be complemented by carrying out physical surveys to confirm the mining interest of the anomalies. Finally, as the official plan highlights, all this huge amount of data will be processed using algorithms, artificial intelligence and machine learning to generate predictive models of mineralization. The inevitable clash: Mining vs. Biodiversity. However, technology collides head-on with strict environmental reality. The clearest example is in Campo de Montiel (Ciudad Real). There, the company Quantum Minería has been trying to exploit a promising monazite deposit to extract rare earths. But the project has encountered strong neighborhood opposition due to the very high water consumption it requires and an unexpected defender: the iberian lynx. The recovery of this feline’s territories in the area has become a major legal obstacle for the mining company, paralyzing permits due to fear of destroying its habitat. Although before the environmental alarms go off, it is important to make a fundamental point: this National Program serves to know what we have, it is not an authorization to dig it up. The Ministry’s own document clarifies that the plan does not establish “binding or indicative objectives” for exploitation. That is, it is a purely prospective roadmap and data collection that does not compromise or zone the territory to open real mines. The mine is in the “garbage”. Faced with this paralysis and the immense difficulty of opening new mines in natural areas, Spain has an ace up its sleeve: secondary mining and the circular economy. The National Program reserves one of its main transversal lines to respond to article 27 of the European regulations (CRMA), thoroughly investigating the economic potential of mining waste facilities that were closed or abandoned in the past. The Ministry document remember thatalready in the 80s, an inventory was prepared that cataloged 21,673 waste structures (rafts and waste dumps) spread throughout the national territory. Now, the State’s objective is to review this catalog and promote geochemical characterization work to recover those fundamental raw materials that, at the time, were not of interest or could not be extracted and were discarded. As pointed out Europa Press, Research teams from the University of Seville led by professors Joaquín Delgado and Antonio Romero are already working in Río Tinto (Huelva) designing experimental plants to recover valuable metals and rare earths from the acidic waters of abandoned mines. Even beyond the mine. A clear example of this circular bet is the RC-Metals projectled by the National Center for Metallurgical Research (CENIM-CSIC). … Read more

We had a perfect plan to decarbonize the electrical grid. The brutal consumption of data centers has dynamited it

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The daily headlines multi-million dollar investments announced in new language models and cutting-edge chips. Venture capital investors have pumped more than half a billion dollars into AI startups over the last five years. But, as a revealing analysis warns of TechCrunchthe smart money has begun to change sides: today, the best investment in Artificial Intelligence is no longer software. The reality on the ground has become extremely arid. Putting up walls and stacking servers in a giant data center has become the easy part of the equation. The real wall the tech sector is crashing into is finding the electrons needed to power it. According to a report by the analysis firm Sightline Climateup to 50% of data center projects announced for 2026 could face delays. Of the 190 gigawatts (GW) of capacity the company tracks globally, just 5 GW are under actual construction today. The bottleneck is no longer the microchips. It is access to the electrical network. The tyranny of 24/7. Consumption has run amok at a pace that 20th century infrastructure cannot process. A Goldman Sachs analysis projects that AI will shoot energy consumption of data centers by 175% by 2030. The figures all point in the same direction: the Open Energy Outlook predicts that electricity demand combined data centers and crypto mining will grow by 350% this decade. As a result, the pristine image of the technological cloud is evaporating. Google’s emissions have increased by 48% in the last five years, and Microsoft’s by 31% since 2020. The reason? What is known in the industry as the “tyranny of 24/7”. The algorithms do not sleep and require a continuous and steady power supply; They cannot be turned off simply because the wind stops blowing or the sun sets. Given the lack of mass storage systems globally, the fuel that is covering this urgent gap is not green. It is natural gas, which has returned from retirement as the great structural support of the sector. A global collapse with two faces. The pressure has already broken the market balances. In the PJM region—which supplies 13 eastern US states and has the highest density of data centers in the world—capacity prices went from $30 to $270 in a single auction at the end of last year. As John Ketchum, CEO of NextEra Energy, noted, we are facing a “golden era of energy demand”, but with an insurmountable physical limit: “the new electrons cannot reach the network quickly enough.” This electrical asphyxiation is redrawing the global map, and Europe is the best example. Historically, the European market was dominated by the “FLAP-D” markets (Frankfurt, London, Amsterdam, Paris and Dublin). But the network of these cities is no longer going strong. According to data from Greenpeacedata centers accounted for almost 80% of electricity consumption in Dublin, forcing Ireland to impose a moratorium. The market share of these traditional capitals will fall sharply by 2035causing a mass exodus to the Nordic countries (with unburdened networks and cold climates) and to southern Europe, such as Spain, Greece and Italy, in search of green megawatts. The hardware and network problem. When we scratch beneath the surface of this collapse, we discover that the physical problem splits into two large gaps. First, the machine to generate the energy is missing. Since intermittent renewables are not enough, companies turn to gas. However, gas turbines have become a rare commodity. Three years ago, Siemens Energy executives considered this market “dead”; Today, the factories are so overwhelmed that the delivery times for these turbines can extend up to seven years. Second, the “plumbing” is missing. Once the electricity is generated, the task of taming it within the building falls to the transformers. It is an iron and copper block technology that has barely changed in 140 years. As explained TechCrunchAs servers demand more power, traditional electrical equipment will take up twice as much space as the servers themselves. It is mathematically unsustainable. ‘Smart Money’ changes sides. Against this backdrop, venture capital is pivoting. Big tech companies (Amazon, Google, Oracle) are starting to behave like energy giants, devising alternatives to minimize their dependence on an outdated public grid through hybrid or generation approaches. on site. The solutions are divided into several fronts: The nuclear resurgence: Google has signed a pioneering agreement with Kairos Power to develop seven small modular reactors (SMR) by 2030, and Amazon tried (although regulators temporarily blocked it) connecting a data center directly to the Susquehanna nuclear power plant. Super batteries: Google is collaborating in Minnesota with the company Xcel Energy and the startup Form Energy to install batteries capable of discharging energy for 100 hours, thus stabilizing the peaks of renewables. Hardware innovation: Dozens of startups (such as Amperesand or DG Matrix) backed by investment funds are developing silicon-based “solid state” transformers, seeking to finally retire old iron and copper to save vital space in facilities. Regulatory surgery: In southern Europe, organizations such as the CNMC in Spain are applying “flexible access permits”, forcing centers to accept cuts in emergencies so as not to collapse the entire country. The paradox: AI as savior of the electrical system. However, the story has a fascinating twist. The same technology that today threatens to burn the cables of half the world could be the one that ends up saving the electrical system. According to the consultant’s estimates Deloittethe application of artificial intelligence to optimize industrial systems and electrical networks will save more than 3,700 TWh globally by 2030. That is, AI will save almost four times the energy consumed by all the data centers on the planet combined. A report of Ember over Southeast Asia (ASEAN) support thiscalculating that integrating AI into the management of its networks will save more than 67 billion dollars and avoid the emission of almost 400 million tons of CO2. But to get to that future of efficiency, you first have to turn on the machines today. And what is at stake is the world economic map. Hosting these centers is … Read more

The US has sent Iran 15 points to end the war. He has also sent a plan B as explosive as it is disconcerting through the air

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In the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union held open negotiations while, at the same time, deploying thousands of troops and nuclear weapons in key points of the planet. In reality, that logic of talking and putting pressure at the same time has never disappeared and continues to be one of the most recognizable constants of modern conflicts. The 15 points. First the official route. The United States has sent Iran a 15 point plan to try to end the war, using Pakistan as an intermediary and with the intention of stopping a conflict that already affects energy markets and regional stability. The document addresses key issues like the nuclear programballistic missiles and maritime security in the Strait of Hormuz. However, it is not clear whether Iran has even agreed to discuss it or whether Israel endorses the content. Furthermore, much of the plan appears to be based in previous proposals which have already been rejected, which casts serious doubt on their real viability. Diplomacy does not stop war. Although Washington presents the plan as a way out, the reality on the ground is very different. military operations have continued without pause within that campaign named after a Michael Bay movie, Epic Fury. In fact, the United States and Israel have continued attacking infrastructure Iranian military while Iran maintains the launch of missiles and pressure on maritime traffic. The White House itself has made it clear that the negotiations they do not replace to military objectives. In other words, the situation generates a scenario in which diplomacy advances in parallel with an escalation that does not stop. F 35c The ground deployment. At the same time that there is talk of agreements, the United States continues sending and increasing its military presence in the region. There are already nearly 7,000 new troops sent in a few days, including units of the 82nd Airborne Division and marines prepared for rapid operations. So that? In theory, these forces can act in specific scenarios such as the capture of strategic points or the reopening of maritime routes in Hormuz. There is no doubt, its deployment does not respond to a withdrawal, but to the expansion of military options available if the negotiation fails. Advanced capabilities by air. The reinforcement is not limited to ground troops. New fighter planes have also appeared like the F-35Cunits that are being deployed to the area of ​​operations, adding to an already very large air force. These systems provide precision strike, close support and air superiority capabilities. Not only that. Movements of other assets such as airplanes have also been detected special operations and deception systems against anti-aircraft defenses. In short, everything points to preparation for more complex scenarios that a simple containment. If the 15-point plan does not work, plan B is ready to act. The strange B2s of plan B. In this context, the B-2 bomberswhich are operating from US territory and have appeared with some visible modifications on its wings that have not been explained by military sources. They counted the TWZ analysts that these changes could be related to sensors, electronic warfare or improvements in its survivability, but there is no official confirmation. Your role, as almost alwaysseems key for Washington because they are the only ones capable of attacking highly protected targets long distance. Its presence, along with these modifications, reinforces the idea that the United States is preparing specific capabilities for more demanding phases of the conflict. A plan that does not resemble a negotiation. The combination of all these movements paints a fairly clear scenario. While presenting a peace proposal publicly, a military architecture is deployed at the same time increasingly widerwith units like those B2 with additions that had rarely been seen in other conflicts. A troop contingentfighters, strategic bombers and naval reinforcements accumulating in the region, suggesting that Washington is not betting solely on a negotiated solution. Rather, an alternative is being prepared in which military pressure increases if talks do not progress. A disconcerting war. In recent months we have seen scenes of soldiers controlling machine guns mounted on drones with devices like a Steam Deckremote operations that seemed to mark the definitive course of modern warfare. It has been spoken artificial intelligenceof drone swarms and remote combat as the new standard. However, in parallel, the United States is preparing to send thousands of paratroopers (around 3,000), a capability designed in the 20th century to take key positions quickly. The image is difficult to fit because of its anachronism. While one part of the conflict aims at total automation, another recovers classic forms of massive troop deployment. This coexistence is not an anomaly, it is the sign that the current war does not replace what came before, or not at all, but rather accumulates it. Two open roads. The result of all this is a strategy that advances in parallel. On the one hand, an attempt to reach an agreement with multiple conditions extremely difficult for Iran to accept. On the other hand, a deployment which allows the war to be rapidly escalated if necessary. The key at this time and in the coming days will be whether one of these paths prevails over the other. Because, for now, the United States has sent two diametrically different messages at the same time, and both they are still active. Image | USAF, US Army In Xataka | Drones and ballistic missiles have revolutionized warfare. Iran suspects there is another weapon: rain theft In Xataka | There are four days left for the US to make a momentous decision: whether it wants to turn Iran into its own Ukraine

Movistar Plus+ activates its Free Plan with complete programs and a lot of content, regardless of which operator you are

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Even though Movistar Plus+ is available for non-customers of the company, we have a new twist in the script. The platform announced today the arrival of Free Planan access mode that is completely free and that will allow us to see a lot of content, both on our mobile phone, on TV or on any other device. The best? To register you only need an email and a password. Movistar Plus+ Free Plan The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The free Movistar Plus+ modality has a lot to see This new Free Plan is a very interesting way to see what the platform offers without having to pay anything. Also, as we say, to register no need to enter a card or other payment method. All you need is a very simple registration with email and password that will only take a couple of minutes. Of course, this free modality does not give us access to the entire Movistar Plus+ catalog. Despite this, there is no lack of content at all. For example, Free Plan allows you to enjoy the first chapter of the platform’s original serieseven the premiere ones. That’s where ‘For a hundred million’ comes in, as well as the first episodes of the true crime by Carles Porta or series such as ‘Poquita Fe’, ‘La Mesías’ or ‘Querer’, among others. We will also have available some of the most notable programs that Movistar Plus+ has, such as ‘Ilustres Ignorantes’ or ‘El consulta de Berto’, as well as ‘The Day After’. Additionally, this Free Plan will also issue the pre- and post-match of the Champions League matches and the Europa League. For 9.99 euros per month you have complete series, movies and football If you try the platform and want more, you have the option to subscribe by 9.99 euros per month (or 99.90 euros per year). In exchange, the entire platform catalog will be opened to us, which includes the entire series and a lot of quality movies with movies like ‘Sirat‘, ‘Sundays‘, ‘Maspalomas‘, ‘Dinner’ or ‘Fury’. Monthly subscription to Movistar Plus+ The price could vary. We earn commission from these links In addition, along with other live sporting events, we will have several very interesting soccer matches. The most notable are the Champions quarterfinals with the great games Real Madrid-Bayern Munich (April 7) and Atlético de Madrid-Barcelona FC (April 14), although there is more. All taking into account that it is a platform that we can share with a friend or family member without any problem. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Movistar Plus+ In Xataka | Mega-guide to set up a home theater: projector, screen, sound system and more In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs

Huawei has been plotting a plan for six years and now they are ready to dethrone the undethroned: NVIDIA

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With the beginning of the technological war between the United States and China, Huawei was given a mission: to become the spearhead of Chinese technology companies. After a tough first few years that were like a pilgrimage through the desert, the Chinese company has come back strong. Not only has it regained leadership in China, but it has taken steps to become the lever of the industry. Yes a few days ago presented its supercomputernow it’s time for something more modest, but essential in the AI ​​career. An inference chip that, they claim, is more powerful than the NVIDIA alternative. Atlas 350. Within the framework of the Annual Partners Conference, the company has once again introduce the Atlas 350 platform (already advertisement at Huawei Connect 2025 last September). This is a card that uses the latest version of its processor Atlas 950PR and which, according to the company’s data, has an improvement in inference performance of 2.8 times compared to the competition. That competition It’s the H20 chip, a trimmed version which was the one that NVIDIA had permission to sell in China. It is a platform focused on rapid data movement, which makes it ideal for a high workload in tasks such as search recommendations, multimodal generation and use of large-scale language models. It is an accelerator, in short, a piece of hardware dedicated to a very specific task, and it is what it knows how to do well within a server. to the mess. To train AI, China has other weapons, some from Huawei itself, but this Atlas 350 is to meet that goal of the Chinese industry of making AI tools accessible and monetizable as soon as possible. In fact, at the event it was confirmed that there are already partners launching servers built with the Atlas 350 as its heart. And here is the real relevant data. Huawei is not just presenting things: it is presenting and announcing that it already has partners launching products with this new technology. Because the idea is that each new piece of hardware begins to be distributed and deployed as soon as possible among Chinese companies that are within the ambitious five-year plan for technological sovereignty. Essential. For months now, the company has been moving to position itself as the lever for the rest of the Chinese technology network with NPUs, dissipation hardware, standard cards for AI, motherboards and “other different forms of hardware to facilitate the development of customers and partners.” At the event, they highlighted that “although the first half of the era of artificial intelligence focused on computing power, the second will be defined by data.” And it is in that inference where Huawei wants provide all your infrastructure to become an indispensable piece of the ecosystem. Because China, within the great future plan, is fighting to become a power not only of the AI ​​that we know, but of the physical artificial intelligencerobots or 6G networksa field in which Huawei also leads. Enough? That’s the big question, and the answer may not depend as much on raw power as it does on the ecosystem. I’m not talking about the rich ecosystem that Huawei is building, but rather the ecosystem of tools. If everyone uses NVIDIA cards for training (in the inference we see that little by little everyone is waging war on their own), it is for them that the software and processes are optimized. And the most leading Chinese companies they want NVIDIA hardware to be on par with or surpass American rivals. This has been a soap opera with NVIDIA pressuring Trump to let it sell the H200s in China, achieving it after 25% tariff for those purchases and then China sending contradictory messages. On March 31 there will be a meeting in Beijing between Trump and Xi Jinping and it is expected that export controls – and the issue of NVIDIA – will be put on the table. And someone who is going to be watching that meeting carefully is Huawei. Because China is at a crossroads right now: it knows that Your companies order NVIDIA chipsbut at the same time the Government does not want them to leverage themselves using foreign technology that could leave them stranded again. Images | Huawei In Xataka | The looming bottleneck in AI is neither RAM nor gas: it’s that TSMC’s N3 node is absolutely saturated

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