power

Russia’s elite GRU moves its war against Ukraine’s power grid to Polish soil

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Winter in Eastern Europe is not just a season; It’s a damage multiplier. As my colleague Miguel Jorge described wellwhat is emerging in the region is a ruthless reality dubbed “thermal terror.” In this scenario, extreme cold becomes a weapon of war designed to make civil infrastructure – heating, electricity, water – the cruelest target. The ultimate goal is not only to destroy military capacity, but to make daily life physically unviable. Under this logic of making daily life unviable to wear down the population, the Kremlin’s most feared cyberespionage group has decided to cross a dangerous border. 500,000 homes in the spotlight. As Poland prepared for the holidays, its security systems detected what Energy Minister Milosz Motyka called the “strongest attack against Polish energy infrastructure in years,” as reported by Reuters. The sabotage occurred on December 29 and 30 and was surgical. The targets were not chosen at random, but instead targeted two cogeneration plants and systems that connect renewable energy facilities — such as wind farms — to power grid operators. In other words, directly to the key nodes so that energy reaches homes. local media they collected the statements from Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who put figures at risk: if the attack had been successful, half a million people would have been left without heat in the middle of winter. Fortunately, as detailed in the press release of the Polish Governmentthe defenses worked. “At no time was critical infrastructure threatened,” said Tusk, although the incident has been treated with the utmost seriousness, mobilizing the special services to their full capacity. Sandworm’s signature. The attack took on an international dimension when the cybersecurity firm ESET announced the discovery of the weapon used: a destructive malware called DynoWiper. As reported by TechCrunchESET attributed this operation with “medium confidence” to the Sandworm groupan elite unit within the Russian military intelligence agency (GRU). The choice of dates does not seem coincidental. As investigative journalist Kim Zetter points outthis attempted blackout in Poland came almost exactly ten years after the first Sandworm cyberattack against Ukraine’s power grid in 2015, which left 230,000 homes in the dark. For experts, the use of a wiper on Polish soil is an unprecedented event, as it marks Russia’s move from simple espionage to destructive sabotage against a NATO member. Furthermore, this is not an isolated episode because since the beginning of the Ukrainian War, Poland has undergone a sustained increase of cyberattacks attributed to Russian actors. Nevertheless, according to the Ministry of Energy itselfthe December attempt was a turning point both in its intensity and in its objective: it was no longer about probing defenses, but rather about causing a real blackout. Anatomy of the attack. To understand the seriousness of the issue, it is necessary to break down the technology used. Unlike the ransomware commona wiper It is software designed exclusively to destroy. Your goal is not to ask for a ransom, but delete permanently information and leave equipment unusable. In this case, the attackers went directly to the ICS (Industrial Control Systems) systems since these systems are the ones that allow electric companies regulate the supply and monitor the network. So, Sandworm sought to break communication between renewable energy sources and distribution operators. When attacking these nodes, the technicians’ margin of action is minimal because the failures propagate in a chain. A conflict that expands. The Polish Prime Minister directly linked this attack to his country’s support for Ukraine. “We sell electricity there and, in critical situations, we receive it from them,” Tusk explained.. Attacking the Polish network is, by extension, attacking Ukraine’s energy rear. This Russian aggressiveness is not new for Western intelligence services. In fact, the United States government keeps a reward 10 million dollars for information about six GRU officers belonging to Sandworm, responsible for global attacks such as NotPetya, which caused losses of 1 billion dollars. According to Microsoft, Sandworm—whom they call Iridium— has launched nearly 40 destructive attacks against critical infrastructure since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, seeking to degrade not only military capacity, but the population’s trust in its leaders. From NATO’s point of view, attempted sabotage does not automatically activate collective defense mechanisms, but it does reinforce disturbing evidence: hybrid warfare makes it possible to strain the European system without formally crossing the red lines of an armed conflict. The next frontier is no longer territorial, but digital. Faced with the growing threat. The Polish Government is finalizing the Law on the National Cybersecurity System, a regulation that seeks the “autonomy and polonization” of security systems to reduce dependence on devices that facilitate foreign interference, according to official information. However, December’s failed sabotage is a reminder that in modern warfare, the front lines are on power plant servers. While in the trenches of Ukraine soldiers try to hide their thermal trace from drones, in cities like Warsaw or Krakow the battle is being fought so that the simple act of turning on the heating does not become an impossible luxury. For now, Poland has won this defensive battle, even achieving a historical record of energy production a few days after the attack. However, Sandworm’s shadow is still long. The hackers’ message is clear: “If we can’t turn off the light, at least we can scare you.” The war for control of the European switch has only just begun. Image | Unsplash and freepik Xataka | La Gomera has been suffering constant total blackouts for years. Now you have a solution: a cable that is unique in the world

some need chips and others need power

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Under such a reflex (and common, in my case) act of taking out the cell phone and opening Gemini or have a browser tab open with ChatGPT There is a huge infrastructure behind it. I am a free user of both models, but AI is a long-distance race that is worth a lot of money. Hence, companies with a solid ecosystem such as Google or Meta can better endure this initial phase of expansion and that OpenAI already has it on its roadmap. put advertising. I have mentioned two products that I use daily and that are competitors, but on a global stage they are on the same team: the United States. On the other side of the ring, China. Because the other power that has entered the race is China (Europe is still finding its feet). In fact, his government has outlined a detailed plan to dominate it by 2027. While in China the push for artificial intelligence is led by the government, in the United States it is the private sector. Two different ways of understanding the business that constitute the tip of the iceberg of two routes that, despite having a common goal, increasingly diverge. Different investment approaches. If we talk about investment, the difference is abysmal: in the United States, a venture capital investment of 175 billion dollars was made, according to data from China International Capital Corp. If we look for a figure from a reference entity within the US, signatures like PitchBook up the ante up to 222 billion (brutal: of every 3 dollars invested in startups in the US, 2 go directly to AI) and Crunchbase estimates it at 168 billion dollars. In any case, light years ahead of China, which is around 6 billion dollars, according to the Stanford AI Index Report. Focusing on business, the range narrows: American big tech companies invested six times more than their Chinese counterparts, according to with data from Pitchbook and FactSet. And if we combine public and private, too: in China the sum amounts to 165,000 million dollars in recent years, well behind the 563,000 million coming from companies and the US government. An obvious thing: state and private capital have different expectations in terms of profitability, investment horizons and target sectors. A concrete example: China has just launched its first LLM aimed at agriculturea strategic sector for the state that is surely not among the first interests of the US private sector. And this is key to understanding their divergent growth trajectories. Where does each one invest?. In China, money is flowing into underlying technologies, with advanced semiconductors leading the way. as explained by CICC. In the United States, on the contrary, the absolute priority is the construction of data centers, a slow and full of so many obstacles that until they consider the spaceand energy infrastructure able to meet the demand. And it makes sense, as each one’s case is particular: China is facing a technology blockade that has made it have to dig in its heels and step on the accelerator to achieve self-sufficiency and thus address the scarcity of resources derived from its restricted access to latest generation chips. In the case of the United States, the combination of aging energy infrastructure and strong growth in electricity demand has reactivated its search for new energy sources, with significant geopolitical effects, and has returned prominence to industries such as nuclear. What if it’s a bubble? In the midst of the growth phase of the sector and with countries putting all their efforts into action, it is inevitable to think that sooner or later the bubble could burst. For the Nobel Prize winner in Economics Michael Spence, we are facing a “rational bubblethus justifying the investments: “The cost of coming in third place in the competition is much greater than the losses derived from overinvestment or inefficiency” he explained in the Taihu World Cultural forum. At last month’s FII Priority Asia forum in Tokyo, SoftBank Group founder and CEO Masayoshi Son attempted to allay fears explaining that “if AI were to generate 10% of global gross domestic product in the long term, it would more than offset trillions of dollars in AI spending.” In any case, there are surveys that give food for thought. In Xataka | The race for AI has placed China in an unthinkable scenario: forcing the United States to leave its comfort zone In Xataka | Europe is discovering right now that the US is not the partner it thought. And that is a problem in AI. Cover | Gemini

Why are they different and what power does each one represent?

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Let’s tell you what are the colors of USB connectors that you can find both in the memories and in the cables that use this technology. These are the colors that you find on the tab, on the piece of plastic that goes inside the connector itself. Because it is not the same whether the color of this tongue is white or black or it is blue, the three most common colors, since each one points to different characteristics. Therefore, we are going to explain everything to you in a way that you can understand. What are USB colors USB is a plug & play connection interface, a term that means that when you plug it in it starts working. However, there are different USB typeseither because they have a connector with a different form factor or because the chips inside are different. Since its creation, USB has been evolving, and the different types have different powers and speeds. But since on the outside all connectors of the same form factor are the same, The colors added to the tab indicate the USB version that is, and each version has different features. Come on, this way you can know that a USB with a black tab is a USB 2.0 with a fairly limited data transmission speed, or that a turquoise one is a second generation USB 3.1 with a much higher speed. What does the color of the USB mean? Next, we are going to tell you which version of the USB standard each color corresponds toand what is the maximum connection speed that each of them supports. These colors are especially important in USB type A, the usual large ones, because that is where it is best seen. White tongue: It is associated with USB 1.0 and 1.1, the most basic and oldest created for simple peripherals such as mouse and keyboard. Its transmission speed is 12Mbps. Black tongue: It is associated with USB 2.0, also old. These already allow other devices to be powered with powers of 2.5W. Its transmission speed is 480 Mbps. Dark blue tongue: It is associated with USB 3.0 or 3.1 Gen 1, and is used for external drives and fast memories, in addition to supplying power at 4.5W. Its transmission speed is 5Gbps. Turquoise tongue: It is associated with USB 3.1 Gen 2, which greatly improves the performance of the previous generation. Its transmission speed is 10Gbps. Red/orange tongue: It is usually used for fast or special ports, and is also associated with USB 3.2, whose transmission is 5Gbps. It is also present in ports that allow charging even with the device at rest. Yellow tongue: This color usually means “always on,” and is for ports that continue to manage power even if the device is suspended or turned off. It is used as a permanent charging port, and usually uses USB 2.0 or USB 3.X speeds depending on each device. In Xataka Basics | Types of USB cables: which ones exist and how to identify them

The future of energy lies in fusion, and China aims to light the first light bulb with the power of the Sun in 2030

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When we think of the future energyit is easy for us to think about renewables. Much of Europe has a while running with renewables, China is an expanding power and even some states in the United States They are seeing its benefits. However, the future lies in nuclear power. But not because of fission, but for the fusion. And China has just taken a giant step in the forecasts of its BEST program with a single objective. Replicate the process that powers the Sun. China and the ultimate energy. Fusion and fission are nuclear reactions that release energy from the nucleus of the atom, and That’s where their similarities end.. Briefly, fission consists of breaking the nuclei of heavy atoms such as uranium to release energy. It is the process that we use in current nuclear power plantsand decades ago we managed to make it something stable. Fusion is the reverse process: it joins light atoms to generate energy. It is tremendously unstable and the heat generated is enormous, but the process generates a much higher amount of energy. Imitate that star power It is extremely complex, but we have been trying to replicate it for years for a very simple reason: it is estimated that it will offer almost unlimited energy and long-lasting waste-freesomething against which nuclear fission can’t compete. China is one of the countries that is pushing the development of nuclear fusion plants the most, so much so that it intends to put the first plant into operation a decade before its competitors. EAST. It stands for ‘Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak’, an experimental program that China has been developing since 2006 to test the viability of commercial fusion energy. After setting some records for temperature and operating time, in 2021 achieved continuous plasma operation for 17 minutes in which the core operated at 70 million degrees Celsius. They are five times the sun temperature and, although temperatures of up to 160 million degrees were previously achieved for 20 seconds, the ideal is to maintain a very high temperature for as long as possible. Steps have continued to be taken and researchers recently discovered that the reactor could work at 165% of its maximum theoretical capacity without suffering disruptions. To contextualize, it is as if we have an engine designed to go at 200 km/h, but we discover that we can drive at 330 km/h constantly without it overheating. In short: China is taking steps to control the enormous challenge represented by the magnetic confinement of plasma. BEST. The ‘Burning Plasma Experimental Superconducting Tokamak’, for its part, is the spearhead of its nuclear fusion program. If EAST is the proof of concept, BEST is the demonstration of feasibility. The EAST steps are those that will be replicated in BEST, a reactor built on a larger scale that will operate for a shorter period of time in a sustained manner, but under conditions of greater energy gain. Goal: 2030. China began construction of the BEST in 2023 and hopes to complete it by 2027 to begin testing with plasma. If it goes well, the CFETR reactor will be the one that pours fusion energy into the grid. In a statement published by the state media Xinhuawe see that the intention is to generate electricity by 2030 and start do it commercially by 2035. If the goal is reached, China will be the first country that will be able to commercially emulate the power of the Sun to light the “first nuclear fusion light bulb” in history. Although, of course, the United States and Massachusetts They also say that they will be the first. They are not the only ones. If they reach the goal, it will be a fundamental step in achieving new generation energy, and they want to reach that future a decade before the rest of the countries, or so China suggests. In this race for nuclear fusion, the BEST is expected to begin operating commercially between 2030 and 2035. Meanwhile, in France there is the ITER. With 24,000 million euros in budgetis the most expensive international program in history, only surpassed by the Apollo Programthe International Space Stationhe Manhattan Project or the GPS system. It aims to be very powerful, but has constant delaysa budget that has overflowed and an operational date that has not been fulfilled. In the United States, a private startup is building SPARCmuch smaller than ITER, but more profitable. United Kingdom has the STEPJapan JT-60SA and Russia the T-15MD Hybrid. Talking about dates is complicated, since there were tests that were expected to be obtained in 2025 and were not achieved… and there is talk of between 2040 and 2060 for the commercial viability of this energy “from the stars”, although the calendars have been readjusted. China has turned new generation energy in a matter of stateand we will see if they meet their goal of starting production in 2030. And, although it seems that we have to put the artificial intelligence even in the soup, the enormous energy needs of this technology are encouraging advances in nuclear fusion. The joke that nuclear fusion energy always has 30 years to go may have come to an end. Images | Oak Ridge National LaboratoryNASA In Xataka | Europe is looking for where to put its first nuclear fusion reactor. And Spain is one of the best candidates

three out of four workers have not improved their purchasing power in two years

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Salaries rise, but they give less and less. At least that is the perception of three out of every four workers in Spain, who feel that They have lost purchasing power or they have not improved it in the last two years, despite having chained annual salary increases. This leaves an increasingly widespread feeling: working serves to cover holes, but not to live better. ​In response to this perception, the majority cut back on leisure and vacations to face basic housing expenses, shopping basket and paying bills. What is striking is that only a minority consider asking for a salary increase in 2026. They don’t make it to the end of the month. The photograph left by the last InfoJobs report It is that of a labor market in which 38% of workers have lost purchasing power in the last two years and 34% say that it has remained the same. This means that almost three out of every four employees have not perceived a real improvement in their ability to save or in its purchasing power. The survey indicates that only 28% claim to have increased their purchasing power. This situation occurs especially in young people between 16 and 24 years old who are entering their first jobs, so they start from a very low previous income. The salary in Spain. According to Eurostat data The average annual salary in Spain in 2024 was 33,700 gross euros, below the 39,808 gross euros that on average registered the European Union. But the averages leave room for interpretation. If we use the data collected by the last 2023 Annual Salary Structure Survey, The median salary in 2023 was 23,349 euros, while the modal salary (the most common) was within the limits of the Minimum Interprofessional Salary with 15,574.85 euros per year. Increases that do not compensate for inflation. The InfoJobs survey indicates that 52% of those surveyed have had a slight salary improvement and 6% recognize a significant increase. Even so, only 40% declare that they have improved their purchasing power, which indicates that a relevant part of these increases has been absorbed by inflation and the rising cost of living. Among those who have received salary increases, a considerable proportion indicate that their economic capacity remains the same or has even worsened. InfoJobs summarizes this gap by noting that “perceived increases are not translating into a real match with the cost of living.” Furthermore, moderation weighs on expectations of increases in the future and they expect insufficient increases in the coming months. 69% estimate that the salary improvement will be less than 1,200 euros gross per year (an increase of 100 euros gross per month) and half do not plan to exceed 2,400 euros gross per year. The payroll goes to housing and basic expenses. The spending structure reinforces the feeling of suffocation in which 92% of those surveyed have had to cut expenses. The InfoJobs survey indicates that dwelling and the shopping basket They add up to 44% of the workers’ monthly budget. Savings represent only 10% of the salary, which greatly limits the possibility of building a financial cushion or facing unforeseen events. Between the ages of 25 and 44, a stage in which mortgages or high rents are usually assumed, housing absorbs 26% of the salary. This implies applying cuts to spending, which are concentrated mainly on leisure and free time (78%), and on vacations and getaways, with 75% of workers having cut their budget to cover the essentials. ​Dissatisfied with salary. The survey reflects that 33% of workers are dissatisfied with his salaryespecially women under 35 years of age and people with low or medium salaries. Despite everything, the percentage of general dissatisfaction decreases compared to the 39% that was registered in last year’s consultation. However, this discontent does not translate into an intention to ask for a raise. Only 17% of workers plan to ask for a salary increase in the coming months, while 83% will not do so. Among those who do not plan to apply for it, just over a third attribute it to the fact that they expect the employer to take the step (21%) or to the fact that they have already had a recent review (16%). A complicated labor market. The majority consider it difficult to find a job that provides a substantial improvement in their current salary or working conditions, which causes a certain immobility in the active search for improvement by changing jobs, as is the case. how it was happening in recent years. The conciliation conditions appear as the most difficult aspect to improve for 45% of employed people, closely followed by the possibility of accessing better salaries, which 42% see as especially complicated. According to the authors of the report, “taken together, the data reflect a labor market that workers perceive as not very permeable to improvement, where progress in salary, conciliation or professional development is increasingly complex.” In Xataka | A study has compared the gap in public salaries vs. private companies in Europe and has found a problem: Spain Image | Unsplash (Emil Kalibradov)

The new Qualcomm chip for PC is a declaration of intent: more intelligence than power

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Qualcomm has taken advantage of the CES 2026 to present the Snapdragon NPU reaches 80 TOPS and it proclaims itself as the world’s fastest for laptops. Why is it important. This launch does not specifically confront anything that Intel or AMD have, but rather it is a positioning play: Qualcomm is betting on energy efficiency and integrated AI as its differential weapons, not on dethroning anyone in benchmarks. This is the chip that wants to colonize the mid-high range of Windows laptops, not the 17-inch clunkers for gamers. Between the lines. The figures are curiously contradictory: Qualcomm talks about a 35% jump in CPU but a 78% improvement in the NPU. There is the implicit message: Qualcomm knows that part of the future does not involve winning in traditional processing, but rather mastering computing. Local AI. In other words, Qualcomm has decided that one of the next PC battles will not be fought in Photoshop, but in applications that run LLMs or generate images offline. The 3nm node and memory LPDDR5X up to 152 GB reinforce this narrative: Qualcomm is building machines to work all day without a plug, not sedentary workstations, so to speak. It is an explicit commitment to the user profile that values ​​autonomy and instant response over sustained power. Yes, but. The problem continues to be the ecosystem: Windows on ARM It has improved, but it still has incompatibilities with professional software. Adobe works, yes, but the market goes further. Qualcomm can have the best chip on the market for efficiency… and still be irrelevant if developers don’t optimize for its architecture. Apple managed to overcome the latter in 2020 because it controls the silicon, the operating system and the hardware: without transition there was no business with the new Macs. Qualcomm has to convince third parties. The context. This release arrives while Intel tries to recover lost ground and AMD consolidates its dominance in high-performance laptops. But neither has the mobile DNA that Qualcomm does. It is a company that comes from the world of the smartphone, where efficiency is not optional but existential. That background is their advantage: they have been making powerful chips that don’t fry eggs in your pocket for decades, not to mention modifying the phrase slightly and making it sound worse. The threat. For Intel and AMD, the danger is not that Qualcomm will take market share from them tomorrow, but that it will normalize ARM on Windows. If the average user begins to associate “laptop with a good battery” with “it has a Qualcomm chip”, the x86 architecture is at risk of losing its last stronghold of absolute dominion. And that is a structural change, not a temporary one. In Xataka | The amazing history of ARM, the architecture that triumphs in mobile phones and that was born more than 30 years ago at Acorn Computer Featured image | Qualcomm

Working in a nuclear power plant is not the best way to avoid cancer. Now it turns out that its waste also serves to cure it

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If there is a terrifying and mainstream disease, it is cancer: after all, according to the WHOone in five people will develop it at some point in their life. Although in some cases the risk factors vary depending on the type of cancer, working in a nuclear power plant poses some riskas long as there is greater exposure to ionizing radiation, even if there are no accidents or more intense exposure through maintenance work. Paradoxically, the activity of nuclear power plants, which can cause cancer, also serves to generate the basis of the medicine to cure it. And we are not talking about a potentially distant study, but rather something that can already be materialized. In fact, the United Kingdom has already taken a step forward to transform some of its radioactive waste into anti-cancer medication. The world’s first lead-212 radiopharmaceutical ecosystem. Because in the UK they have closed an agreement between the public body Nuclear Decommissioning Authority and the biotechnology company Bicycle Therapeutics for which the latter will have 400 tons of reprocessed uranium to extract the valuable (for the medical industry) lead – 212 for 15 years. Behind Bicycle is Sir Greg Winter, co-founder of the company and winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2018. This will provide them with the infrastructure to create the world’s first end-to-end lead-212 radiopharmaceutical ecosystem, from discovery to commercial supply. So explains it Mike Hannay, Chief Product and Supply Chain Officer at Bicycle Therapeutics. The benefits of lead – 212. Lead – 212 is an isotope used in therapeutic contexts thanks to its particular decay properties, so that it emits both alpha and beta particles. While the former provide high-energy, short-range cytotoxicity, the latter have a more extended range, targeting micro-metastasis. In a simplified way, this medically applicable isotope is essential for precision treatments against tumors resistant to other therapies. Thus, it carries radiation and acts directly on cancer cells to destroy tumors, minimizing the damage to the surrounding healthy tissue. This type of technique offers promising results in prostate cancers and neuroendocrine tumors of organs such as the intestine or pancreas. Extracting lead-212 is an arduous task. Converting the waste from nuclear power plants into cancer treatments seems like a fantastic idea for two reasons: because of the cure for cancer itself and the problem of dealing with radioactive waste, one of the great challenges faced by these energy industries, which have also explored other avenues such as take advantage of the remaining energy. But getting here has not been easy: the extraction process of this isotope has been carried out by the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL) with a complex chemical process that requires the isolation of scandalously small quantities of the precursor material from the used nuclear fuel. Thus, first the Thorium-228 is extracted from the reprocessed uranium to later process it into Radium-224. It is then loaded into a lead-212 generator that has been custom-made for Bicycle Therapeutics’ needs by US company SpectronRx. This is a continuous regeneration, producing enough lead-212 to deliver tens of thousands of doses of precision therapy per year. The laboratory explains that the critical part is in the beginning: “The initial precursor material extracted is comparable to finding a single drop of water in an Olympic swimming pool.” From that minute amount, an even smaller fraction of lead-212 is separated. First discover the universe, then cure cancer. In addition to this unexpected use of nuclear power plant waste, in recent weeks a group of researchers from the University of York have evidenced in a study that the intense radiation captured in the beam absorbers of particle accelerators could be reused to produce materials used in cancer therapies. Those particle accelerators They are used, among other things, in experiments to discover the matter of which the universe is composed. In Xataka | The rarest element on Earth aims to cure cancer. And Europe is already accelerating its production In Xataka | We have been believing that bacteria are a weapon against tumors for 150 years. And finally we have discovered how Cover | Jakub Zerdzicki and Ivan S

Something is going wrong with AI. The US is turning to energy solutions that it thought were buried to power data centers

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The race to develop and operate increasingly powerful artificial intelligence models comes at a cost that is rarely at the center of the technological narrative. It is not in the chips or the software, but in the huge amount of electricity needed to keep active data centers running around the clock. In the United States, this pressure is already being translated into concrete decisions: polluting power plants that were in retirement are being restarted to cover increasing peaks and tensions on the grid. The paradox is evident, the most ambitious advance in the technology sector depends, for the moment, on energy solutions from another era. The problem is not so much an absolute shortage of electricity as a time lag. The demand for data centers linked to AI it’s growing much faster than the ability to launch new electrical generation, especially renewable, in short terms. Building large energy infrastructures takes years, while these complexes can advance in much shorter time frames. Faced with this temporary shock, network operators and electricity companies are turning to what already exists and can be activated immediately, even if it is more polluting. PJM in context. The clash between electricity demand and supply is perceived with special clarity in the PJM region, the largest electricity market in the United States, which covers 13 states and concentrates a very significant part of the country’s data centers. We can understand it as a large regional electricity exchange that coordinates generation, prices and network stability in real time. There, the growth of data centers linked to AI is putting to the test a system designed for a very different consumption pattern, making PJM the first thermometer of a problem that is beginning to appear in other areas. What is a central peaker. The calls central peakeror peak, are facilities designed to come online only during short periods of peak demand, such as heat waves or winter peaks, when the system needs immediate reinforcement. They are not designed to operate continuously, but to react quickly. According to a report According to the US Government Accountability Office, these facilities generate just 3% of the country’s electricity, but they account for nearly 19% of the installed capacity, a reserve that is now being used much more frequently than expected. South view of the Fisk plant in Chicago The case of the Fisk plant, in the working-class neighborhood of Pilsen, in Chicago, illustrates well how this shift translates on the ground. It is an oil-fueled facility, built decades ago and scheduled to be retired next year, that had been relegated to an almost testimonial role. The arrival of new electrical demands associated with data centers changed that equation. Matt Pistner, senior vice president of generation at NRG Energy, explained to Reuters that the company saw an economic argument to maintain the units and that is why it withdrew the closure notice, a decision that returns activity to a location that many residents believed was in permanent withdrawal. When the price rules. The change is not explained only by technical needs, but also by very clear market signals. In PJM, the prices paid to generators to guarantee supply at times of maximum demand skyrocketed this summer, more than 800% compared to the previous year. An analysis by the aforementioned agency shows that about 60% of oil, gas and coal plants scheduled for retirement in the region postponed or canceled those plans this year, and most of them were units peakerjust the ones that best fit in this new scenario of relative scarcity. The bill for this energy shift is paid above all at a local level. The power plants peaker They tend to be older facilities, with lower chimneys and fewer pollution filters than other plants, which increases the impact on their immediate surroundings when they operate more frequently. Coal is also postponed. The phenomenon is not limited to power plants peaker fueled by oil or gas. On a national scale, several utilities have begun to delay the closure of coal plants that were part of their climate commitments. A DeSmog analysis identified at least 15 retirements postponed from January 2025 alone, facilities that together represent about 1.5% of US energy emissions. Dominion Energy offers a clear example: In 2020 he promised to generate all its electricity with renewables by 2045, but after the company projected that data center demand in Virginia will quadruple by 2038, it is now taking a step back. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | Theodore Kloba In Xataka | A former NASA engineer is clear: data centers in space are a horrible idea

The European Bizum wants to be working next Christmas, but first a problem must be resolved. One of power sharing

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“Wow, but if it gives me the option to pay with Bizum, how cool.” That was my expression a few months ago when in an online purchase the online store offered me to pay directly like this. No debit or credit card, no Google Pay. With a Bizum. The instant payment system that is triumphing in Spain is so good that What we want is for it to work further. And that is precisely what the banking entities of the European Union want, who saw a “European Bizum” as a great idea. There’s just one problem. Who will control it. The European Bizum is approaching The European Central Bank he has been fighting for five years for that application that does the same as Bizum but throughout Europe. There was a major power struggle here with two large factions. On the one hand, the consortium Spain-Italy-Portugal. On the other, that of France-Germany-Belgium-Holland, who wanted to impose its own Bizum, called Wero. Fortunately, in recent months we have seen how the positions of both consortiums have become closer and the unification now seems almost definitive. This is what they indicate in five dayswhere they quote “market sources” who talk about the agreement being signed in early 2026. The European Bizum should start operating at the end of next year if everything goes as expected. This system may not be a new application, as requested by the French and German entities, but rather a system that interconnects existing ones. It is a somewhat more confusing solution but also more practical, because users will not have to change apps. For example, a Spanish user will be able to send a Bizum to a German at no cost, and the German will receive that money in his Wero app in a way that is transparent to him. The European banks participating in the negotiations have reached an agreement to establish a new company that will be the owner of this interconnection technology. There was talk of applying certain commissions, “but it was finally rejected in favor of a multilateral network.” Power distribution And there is the new challenge: Who is in charge in this new society? The distribution of power is now the great unknown, and there are several options. On the one hand, each national platform receives practically the same participation. On the other hand, the distribution should be made based on the volume of each country and then corrected. The Bizum model seems like it can also be applied to that pan-European solution. It is interesting to realize that as explained in the economic newspaper, the owners of Bizum are 22 Spanish banks, among which the participation varies: Caixabank: 25% Santander: 21% BBVA: 18% Sabadell: 12% Other minority banks such as Unicaja, Bankinter or Cajamar have lower participations, but Bizum’s statutes establish that no bank can have more than 25% participation. Do we need a digital euro? Europe has been looking for a solution for some time that would allow it to mitigate its dependence on the two great giants of electronic payments: Visa and Mastercard. The European Payments Initiativecreated in 2020 by 16 banking entities, had precisely the objective of creating a European interbank network that competed with these platforms and with others such as PayPal. And little by little it has been proven that Bizum was precisely a great candidate to achieve this. The application, with more than 30 million users in Spain, has not stopped growing in benefits and alliances like the one a year ago they signed with Revolut. There are still other obstacles in the creation of this European Bizum. For example, building a common deposit guarantee fund to deal with large US entities. It does not seem that this is going to be a major impediment to the implementation of the pan-European alternative, and that makes us wonder what happens now with the digital euro. The European Central Bank (ECB) has been designing the design of this digital asset for years. There have also been important movements in that sense, and if the European regulations are approved in 2026, there will be a pilot starting in 2027. The EU seems to want to be ready for a possible first broadcast in 2029. However, that European Bizum will theoretically solve part of what the digital euro wants to achieve, so does it make sense? It is very likelyespecially since the digital euro is a legal tender issued by the ECB. It is not just a way to transfer money, but a digital form of official money itself. Both alternatives can coexist, and this European Bizum may be the best way to promote the use of the digital euro. In Xataka | The Treasury confirms it: payments for dinner and gifts to your friends through Bizum do not go to the Tax Agency

If you buy it you get a camera module. This is the new offer in this mobile with great power and autonomy

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Unlike what we saw a few years ago, Realme has taken a huge leap by betting on high-end mobile phones that, by all accounts, have managed to attract us both visually and technically. He Realme GT 8 Pro It arrived in stores just a few weeks ago and can now be purchased on Amazon for 899 euros. It is available in two colors: es and eye, because it comes with a charger and a camera module. Realme GT 8 Pro (12GB, 256GB) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A mobile phone that can change the camera module At the design level the Realme GT 8 Pro It stands out above all for its camera module: It is quite large and can be exchanged with others sold by the brand. One comes by default, but when you buy it on Amazon the store gives you an additional one valued at 19.99 eurosthus allowing us to customize it. Beyond its design, the truth is that the Realme GT 8 Pro also manages to shine in power and autonomy. Regarding the first, it achieves this thanks to its processor Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 which comes, in this case, along with 12 GB of RAM and also has 256 GB of internal storage. The battery is well served thanks to its 7,000 mAh capacity. It also supports 120W fast charging and 50W wireless charging. In addition, its screen is excellent as it has a good 6.79-inch LTPO AMOLED panel that offers a QHD+ resolution and a 144 Hz refresh rate. You may also be interested realme Buds T200Lite True Wireless Bluetooth Headphones, 32dB Intelligent Active Noise Cancellation, 360° Spatial Sound, Autonomy up to 48 Hours, White The price could vary. We earn commission from these links realme Watch 5 Smart Watch for Women and Men, AMOLED 1.97″ Smartwatch, Bluetooth Calls, Independent GPS, 108+ Sports Modes, Health and Sleep Tracking/IP68/NFC, 14 Day Battery, Silver The price could vary. We earn commission from these links 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 | Amparo BabiloniRealme In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2025), we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | The best quality-price mobile phones (2025). Their analyzes and videos are here

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