problems

Voltage problems have returned to the Spanish electrical system and the big question is what have we been doing these last six months

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The ghost of big blackout has returned to the fray: the Spanish electrical system has voltage problems. Serious problems, indeed. So serious that Red Eléctrica has had to ask for permission to take action on the matter. It goes without saying, but uncertainty spread like wildfire. Six months after the great blackout, Spain is living a little déjà vu. Are there reasons to be alert? What has happened? Electrical Network just notified to the CNMC which, for a couple of weeks, has observed sudden variations in voltage in the peninsular system. As he explained, this could compromise the security of supply and urgent measures would need to be taken to solve it. That includes temporarily modifying various operating procedures to stabilize the system while underlying problems are found. What do these modifications consist of? The proposals go from allowing technical adjustments to be applied directly during daily programming to giving the operator more room to act quickly if it detects a risk of instability, even before the operating day begins. In addition, it adopts stricter control of the automatic instantaneous balance mechanism and tightens the reactive voltage control. In summary, what has been notified is an express adjustment of the country’s electrical operations to contain the ups and downs in voltage that have been recorded. And all of this, to be implemented in five days. The big question is “now?” Because as Javier Blas pointed out“for months, the Spanish electricity grid operator (and the government) have been putting off the country’s electrical problems” and now, suddenly, a whole series of urgent measures are required. Red Eléctrica’s response. Given the concern generated by the request, the operator had to leave in passing, clarifying that there has been “no talk of a risk of imminent or widespread blackout”, that the voltage variations “have not posed a supply risk because they have been within the admissible limits”. However, the truth is that no one is too calm. As Blas said“The urgent request adds up to an additional $1 billion cost for Spanish customers as the grid operator is operating the system in what it calls a “boosted mode” since April 29 (in effect, operating gas-fired power plants more intensely and reducing solar and wind power).” If under these conditions the entire series of measures that have been requested are needed, there is some underlying problem. Or, at least, that’s what it seems: that the symptoms of stress in the system are clear and it is not at all clear that a handful of temporary measures are the solution we need. Image | Anton Dmitriev In Xataka | Harvest wheat or kilowatts? The new account that many farmers in Spain make

We are clogging the ocean’s carbon toilet and it is something that is only going to cause us problems

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The ocean right now is acting as a big ‘carbon toilet’. An essential natural system that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and locks him in the deep sea, helping regulate global climate. However, the recent heat waves we have experienced at sea are altering this critical process, which could have serious consequences for the climate of the entire planet. The ‘carbon toilet’. On the surface of the ocean we can now find organisms called phytoplanktonwhich have the ability to absorb CO₂ and produce oxygen through a simple photosynthesis mechanism with the help of sunlight. The problem is that we live in a life cycle that constantly advances, and that is why these organisms are food for small marine animals. called zooplanktonwhich generate feces in the form of small pellets that they sink to the seabed. This phenomenon, called the “biological carbon pump,” transports carbon from the atmosphere to the bottom of the sea, where it can remain isolated for centuries. In this way, the seabed can be seen as a large ‘cemetery’ of CO₂ stored in the feces of these animals. Something that in the long term is helping us clean the atmosphere and mitigate global warming. Heat waves. In the Pacific Northwest, two major episodes of marine heat waves that occurred in the periods 2013-2015 and 2019-2020 are changing everything. Temperature increases drastically altered the composition of phytoplankton and zooplankton, generating a “clogging” effect on the carbon toilet we have in the ocean. The lack of deep mixing and nutrients, caused by warming and stratification of the water, favored smaller species that produce feces that tend to float rather than sink, slowing the transport of carbon to the depths. A new layer. If the feces float, this simply means that the organic carbon now accumulates in the superficial layers of the water instead of reaching the deep areas where it was sequestered. This is also added to a greater bacterial proliferation in warm waters that decomposed more organic matter, releasing CO₂ again into the water and subsequently into the atmosphere itself. This is something that weakens the role of ‘buffer’ to try to compensate for the concentration of CO₂ in our atmosphere. Consequences. These changes not only affect the carbon cycle, but also the very base of the marine food chain. The decline in large phytoplankton reduces oxygen production and limits the feeding of larger marine species, including whales and commercial fish relevant to humanity. Zooplanktons are also responding to warming with changes in size and distribution, further impacting the efficiency of the carbon cycle since the smaller their size, the less CO2 they will capture and the less O2 they will produce. How it was done. In order to draw these conclusions, the research was based on a decade of data that was obtained through Argo biogeochemical floats. These are autonomous devices that have the ability to explore the ocean layers by measuring chemical and biological parameters without the need for constant human presence. This has allowed changes in marine ecosystems to be monitored in detail during extreme events, revealing hitherto invisible patterns and providing an essential tool for future studies and mitigation strategies. The future. These episodes of marine heat waves are increasingly frequent in our oceans due to global warming, as we are also experiencing in Spain. This means that if greenhouse gas emissions are not quickly reduced, the ocean could lose much of its ability to absorb atmospheric carbon. In Xataka | The question is not when it will stop raining, the question is how much more water will fall this fall

Japan has found the three most serious problems of the massive arrival of tourists. And none has to do with tourists

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Summer has confirmed two things around Japan’s tourist success: avalanche has been bigger than expected, and the nation I wasn’t so prepared As I believed. In fact, they have even had the idea of give away flights to foreigners to encourage them beyond the congested Tokyo. In contrast to tourist hordes, Japanese They barely travel To other countries. And that explains many of the evils that the country is finding quite well. The shadow of discomfort. Japan has passed in just two decades of being considered a expensive destination and reserved for a few to become one of the main tourist poles World Cups The number of foreign visitors has grown from 6.7 million in 2005 to almost 37 million in 2024with 2025 on the way to beat a new record. The government aspires to reach 60 million in 2030supported by the global manga popularity, anime and Japanese culture, as well as events such as Tokyo Olympic Games and Osaka’s Expo. The problem? That what I know promoted how A “Inbound Tourism Boom” has become qualified by many as “tourist”, with agglomeration scenes at famous crosses such as Kamakurakomoe’s or in Kyoto’s temples. The initial enthusiasm has given way To growing complaints On noise, strange manners, garbage and pressure on housing and hospitality prices. The weight of the economy and demography. However, when the nation has counted the evils of such discomfort, it has been found that the main problems He has them at homeit was not. Behind that discomfort underlies a psychological element linked to the relative decline of Japan. The strong devaluation of Yen It has made the country cheap for foreigners, but at the same time it has reduced the ability of Japanese young people to travel abroad. For a population that ages quickly (With 16% of over 75 years old) see tourists who marvel at how cheap it is everything A humiliating contrast With the eighties, when Japan was the most expensive country in the world and its own boomers they toured the planet with the latest generation cameras. He Hotel increase (more than double since 2021) and the pressure On rentals In cities such as Kyoto generate the feeling that the economic benefits of tourism do not translate into real improvements in the life of residents. Kyoto redefinition. If there is a place that embodies the debate, it is Kyoto. The old capital, famous for its temples and their geishas, ​​is so congested that many Japanese today consider it an awkward destination and even avoid traveling there. School excursions, once a passage rite, They deviate to cities such as Kanazawa or Nagasaki due to delays, agglomerations and increasing costs. For the inhabitants, the avalanche has raised rentals and Modified social fabricto the point that some experts ensure that the city already meets the definition of Overtourism: When the normal life of its residents is compromised. Historical memory and new tensions. It is not the first time that Japan faces a tourist saturation problem. In the sixties and seventies, internal prosperity generated OLADAS OF DOMESTIC TRAVELS that transformed cities such as Kyoto or Nara, with complaints similar to the current ones. Remembered the Financial Times that then There was talk of “Tourist pollution”, and some anthropologists warned that residents ran the risk of becoming “strangers of strangers” in their own land. Today that Speech resurfacesamplified by social networks with viral tourist videos chasing geishashanging of toriis or violating rules of coexistence. A new term has even coined, “Touristphobia”to describe the mixture of tiredness, irritation and rejection that generates the massification, sometimes dyed of a xenophobic background. Tourism as a political weapon. The issue has entered fully into Japanese politics. In full leadership election of the Democratic Liberal Party, figures as healthy takaichi They have turned the issue into a flag, linking the discomfort of tourists with the Immigration debates and the arrival of foreign workers, increasingly necessary for the shortage of labor. The rhetoric against the “tourist abuse” intermingles with warnings about an alleged threat to national identity. Thus, the debate on tourism ceases to be just a matter of urban management to become a symbol of deeper anxieties about the future of the country. The forgotten of the map. Meanwhile, they remembered In the Financial Times What regions like Fukui show the other face of the currency. With a recently extended bullet train from Tokyo, a world -class dinosaurs museum and outstanding cultural enclaves remains one of the prefectures less visited For foreigners. Their hotels and transport fail to attract enough travelers and their problem is not excess, but The lack of tourists. There, the mayor admits that they have not yet seen or a trace of the hordes. This contrast reflects a central dilemma: Japan needs to better distribute the benefits of tourism, encourage repeated visits and direct the flow to still non -saturated areas, but lacks the infrastructure and political vision necessary to achieve it. A nation mirror. The debate on tourism is ultimately a mirror of Japanese society. Talk about a country agingwho feels the pressure of A weak currencywhich recalls with nostalgia the times of its economic preeminence and that faces the Challenge of managing The massive arrival of foreigners in cities that are exceeded. The challenge is not only to limit agglomerations, but in redefining the relationship between residents and visitors, between their own economy and coexistence, between opening and identity protection. Thus, Japan, which in the past exported millions of tourists, is now seen in the difficult position of learning to manage their own attraction. Image | Pexels, Pexels In Xataka | While Japan is crowded with tourists, the Japanese barely travel to other countries. The reason: only 17% have a passport In Xataka | In Japan tourism has become a problem. So have an idea: give away flights to foreigners

two out of three kilos of cinnamon that are imported to the EU have problems

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In 2022, the European Commission He did a study about the most popular spices on the market. The radiography was bleak: the fraud was the order of the day. Moreover, it was something extremely common. We talk about pepper, cumin, turmeric the saffron or paprika. That was a huge scandal and the same commission asked the Member States to reinforce the controls. What happened next can not surprise anyone. Let’s talk about cinnamon. In 2023, cinnamon was the fifth most imported spice in La Unión. In recent months, the commission science and knowledge service (The Joint Research Center) analyzed more than a hundred samples of cinnamon marketed in a dozen countries of the European Union. The result? More than 66% of the samples analyzed They have problems. What happens to them? Either they violate the international quality regulations or the food security legislation of the European Union. Some present indications of fraud, others a high amount of lead and some more exceed the legal limits of coumarin (a substance that, although natural, is potentially toxic to the liver). That without having fraud, of course. Up to 9% of the samples labeled as Canela de Ceilán were totally or partially replaced By Canela de Cassia, “a cheaper and lower quality alternative, with a stronger flavor and that contains cumarina naturally.” What we can do. That is the worst. Judging by the results of the JRC, we can do little with the media we have right now. “The type of irregularities detected in cinnamon, including fraudulent practices, is diverse and cannot be addressed with a single analytical technique, so standardized methods are needed,” The commission says. Taking the problem seriously, leading to take action on the matter. Above all, because the high rate of irregular samples of cinnamon in the European market indicates that “all actors in the sector, from political leaders to control laboratories and manufacturers, must pay attention.” Image | Michael Collett In Xataka | It seems honey, it smells like honey, it knows honey, it is not honey: the fraud in the imports that it ravages to Europe

In case Spain did not have enough problems with sun and beach tourism, add a new business: wedding tourism

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There are those who travel to disconnect, to learn about new landscapes, cultures or traditions, to whom he guides his appetite or simply who wants to enjoy relaxing days on a distant beach with a soda in his hand. To all of them is now added a type of tourist difficult to classify and seeks something totally different: marry. Your trips feed the flourishing (and millionaire) Industry of Rinning Weddings And they are already The pillar of some balearic farms. The ‘yes I want’ as a new rising tourist asset. Two words: Rinning Weddings. The concept is not new, but a quick search on Google is enough to verify that little by little gains strength in Spain. The Rinning Weddings or ‘destination weddings’ are neither more nor less than what the term suggests: couples who, instead of getting married in the city in which they live or in which some of the bride and groom are sought, choose to give the ‘yes I want’ far away. In another city or region. It may even that in another country, including destinations as exotic as Las Vegas or some Greek island. The idea is very simple: that the wedding is more than a wedding for boyfriends and guests, that is also a getaway. A juicy business. It is not easy to provide precise (and updated) data on how many Spanish partners travel to other countries to marry and how many foreigners Spain choose as the scenario for their bodies. In any case something is clear: with Spanish tourism Breaking records and approaching the barrier of 100 million Of visitors, it is a juicy business. And clearly on the rise. In February, Future Marketin Sights consultant published A broad study that estimates that The global market The wedding tourism will be around 36,800 million dollars, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.4% throughout the next decade. They are high values, but above all they exceed those who handled only a few years ago. His Calculation for 2022for example, pointed to a business volume of ‘Solo’ 23,000 million. “The Rinning Weddings They are one of the most popular and most dynamic segments in the global wedding industry, in which couples opt for personalized experiences in exotic places around the world, ” The authors collect of the study. “More and more boyfriends choose to exchange their votes in picturesque and culturally rich places, often with a group of friends and family. The market covers a wide variety of services and destinations offers.” How does Spain affect? As Spain sits top of the world ranking of tourist destinations and even dreams of crowning it (something feasible already in 2040according to the estimates of Google and Deloitte), our country is also reinforced on the map of the Rinning Weddings. On the Internet they can be found A good number of websites in English dedicated to Organize weddings In Spain or what They promote the peninsula and the islands as “An ideal destination” so that the bride and groom exchange alliances. The Canary Islands, Malaga, Marbella or Mallorca usually appear on their list, although in reality the market is very wide. A few years ago Ciudad Rodrigo (Salamanca) launched a baptized initiative ‘Ciudad Rodrigo Wedding Friendly’ I was looking for precisely position the town on the map of wedding celebrations. As the main asset he used his rich historical heritage. A quick search in The Wedding Travel Company It shows in any case that couples determined to marry their city have an extensive list of alternatives in Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Portugal or the United States, to quote only some countries on their vast list. “We specialize”. To understand the phenomenon The confidential He has spoken With some representatives of the Mallorca sector, one of the hot points of national tourism. And their data and statements are striking. Finca is Cabàslocated just over 20 kilometers from the urban center of Palma, explains that practically 100% of the weddings they do are tourists. And the director of the farm They are brownlocated not much further from there, it agrees that about 98% of the links that host them also lead. “There is a lot of American, a lot of German, a lot of British,” Confirm Yesssi Morel, Wedding Plannerfor whom, beyond the attractiveness of Spain or the costs, the key of the island pull in the destination wedding market is the approach that the sector has adopted. “I think we put everything very easy to foreigners. We are specializing a lot. Every time weddings are perfected more.” As for costs, statista data Before the pandemic show that Spain is one of the countries where the most expensive weddings are celebrated ($ 23,400 on average in 2019), although in reality the data is not much higher than that of Italy and is below the $ 29,000 that were reached that same year in the US. “They seek to save and in Mallorca they have the same wedding with the same quality they could have in the US, but at a lower cost,” Morel clarifies. And how does Mallorquines affect? That is the other big question. In a market that looks at the foreign client and the American couples with a wide budget, what options do they have left? The topic is interesting because, as remember the Wedding Plannerforeigners who plan to marry their home usually follow certain patterns: they reserve well in advance and have no problem in celebrating their ceremonies any day of the week. That (of course) forces the locals to adapt. “The Mallorcan marries only on Saturday and usually prefer certain months, such as September. If they do not escape, they run out of dates,” Confirm The wedding organizer. “Farm owners believe they have a treasure in their hands. They have seen a reef.” Images | Carlo Buttinoni (UNSPLASH) and Camila Cordeiro (UNSPLASH) Via | The confidential In Xataka | The end of the open bar: how weddings are leaving behind their only ‘collective … Read more

One of the biggest problems in education in Spain is also the most ignored: teachers work too much

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Yesterday, the government announced that I was going to shield by law The reduction of school schedule in the classroom of children’s, primary, ESO and high school teachers. The idea is that the recommendations of the current educational law (the Lomloe, an impaished in 2020) become mandatory norms for autonomies. Thus, teachers would have a maximum of 23 hours per week and institute professors one of 18. In this context, “shielding for Lay” means gathering support in a greatly polarized congress and, of course, that has created a huge public debate. Not only about the government’s ability to realize the measure, but also about the measure itself. And skepticism is understandable. For years, many of the work improvements for teachers have not been exactly aligned with the well -being of students. The best example is continuous day in schools: although the available evidence says that The game is better, More and more Spanish schools implement it. And the pressure of the unions in this regard has been key. However, little by we start looking at the data, everything seems to indicate that the reduction of teaching hours is a good measure for students. The situation in Spain is not good. Especially in primary school, teachers They dedicate 20% more to direct teaching of time that the average European Union: 854 hours throughout the course against 703. This, in part, is an inheritance of the crisis. At that time, Rajoy’s government expanded the hours of direct teaching to 25 in primary school already 20 in the institutes. Over time, some communities have reduced those limits (in Galicia the teachers teach 23 hours and in Castilla La Mancha the teachers, 19), but the reality is that the Lomle recommendations have generally been ignored. And the evidence indicates that downloading to teachers is a good idea. To start because it has no negative effects on students. Almost all workload reduction initiatives report the same results: An improvement in the welfare of workers and no significant negative consequence. To continue, because it is a much more cost-effective measure than reducing the rat of the classes. In the background, although reducing the number of students per class is a good measure, there is a point where the cost of continuing to lower it (the facilities that need to be created for it) do not compensate. Reduce school load for teachers has a similar effect. And, to end, because this type of measure They help to resize The non -school work carried out by teachers. The school bureaucracy is getting bigger and so? Erosion quality of teaching. Classing is the most ‘intrinsically attractive’ task for teachers, but it is also the one that wears the most. Being able to balance the impact of each task on the final workload is key in the best teaching innovation programs. Is it enough? Beyond real viability of the proposal, It is inevitable to ask if it’s enough. Education is “a powerful tool to intervene in the problems of segregation, opportunities, performance and conflict.” But We continue giving bandages Without having any plan on the table. Image | Taylor Flowe In Xataka | Opening schools during non -school hours is a good idea. The problem is that we need much more

the problems of referring to the AI ​​as simple as recognizing a photo of Francoism

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An image of a humble Spanish family in the 50s has recently become the epicenter of a viral controversy in X. The photograph It ended up unleashing the hysteria of many users, a hysteria caused by blind trust towards the responses of artificial intelligence, in this case that of Grok. Another example of verifying historical information with AI has its things. What happened. It all started when the @kritikafull user public A black and white photograph of a family in poverty conditions, accompanied by the following phrase in an ironic tone: “We lived better.” The image generated thousands of visualizations, but also aroused the interest of many users who doubted that photography was taken in Spain and ended up resorting to Grok, as usually happens lately on the social network, to verify the information. The origin of the controversy. Image: Arenas Photographic Study A problematic answer. Grok I identified erroneously Photography as an image taken during the great American depression, attributing it to photographer Walker Evans and stating that he showed the Burroughs family. This answer He replied massively In dozens of publications that accumulated thousands of visualizations, making the error an apparent truth that served to discredit the original publication. A research work. The user @ropamuig37, who describes herself in her profile as a historian, decided to verify the facts by one Inverse image search on Google Lens. The result took it directly to the photographic file of the University of Malaga, where the image appears perfectly classified as “Housing, August 1952, Malaga, Spain”. Photography is part of a series of reports that includes Spanish housing of the time. If AI says no, I believe it. When the historian gave Grok the real documentation, artificial intelligence He was inflexible For hours, insisting that it was an “UMA error” and maintaining that it had “verified” the similarity with the American photo. Even after the historian gave him obvious visual direct and comparative links, Grok took almost two hours to recognize his mistake. The damage was already done, since the publications that took the verification of Grok ended up flooding the social network with thousands of visualizations. Meanwhile, the real verification of the historian (and other users such as @Remusokamias it reminds us in their thread) barely accumulated at the beginning a fraction of what the rest of the publications that viralized Grok’s wrong response achieved. A major problem. On the platform The use of Grok has been normalized To perform all kinds of checks before user publications. “Grok, explain this” or “Grok, is this right?”, They are increasingly common expressions in X, where millions of users have begun to delegate to the verification and understanding tasks that traditionally required to contrast diverse sources. And of course, at least today, blind trust in these tools can generate Large -scale misinformation. We have already lived it over the last years after the AI ​​boom, a consequence that, given the growing refinement of these tools, goes to adults. In polarized contexts when any information can be instrumentalized politically, AI can also become a dangerous tool. Especially for its ability to Generate quick and verify responses to contrast certain facts. Luckily, this case has not been serious, but reflects the massive adoption of AI tools and how much we begin to trust them. Cover image | Arenas photographic study and Walker Evans In Xataka | Microsoft opted everything to OpenAi to win the AI ​​race. Start realizing your mistake

O Solve these four big problems as soon as possible or Intel will be condemned to a very dark future

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“I think it is too late for us (to achieve the position of Nvidia in the field of artificial intelligence), Although we have other opportunities in this market (…) twenty or thirty years ago we were leaders. Now the world has changed. We are not among the ten main semiconductor companies. We have to be humble. ” These words of Lip-Bu Tanthe general director of Intel, are aimed at the company’s employees in a clear attempt to expose what challenges they face. The challenges with Those who are dealing Intel They exceed the other challenges that he has faced during his more than half a century of history. The leadership that has sustained for decades in the manufacturing industry of integrated circuits is in the hands of The Taiwanese company TSMC Since the mid -2000s. In addition, the stagnation during the last years of the PC market and the slowness with which Intel has participated in the AI industry have placed it in a very compromised position. It is necessary to compete from you to compete again with AMD. Intel and AMD compete on several fronts. Three of the most important are the processors for servers and work stations, the GPUs for artificial intelligence and the CPUs for PC. The company led by Lisa supports a very solid position in these three market segments, and if we stick to CPU for PC enthusiasts During the last generations it has been very successful among users. In fact, to us your chips Ryzen 7000 and 9000 We love. In this Intel scenario you have no choice but to fight from you with AMD and recover a technological leadership that lost a long time ago. His future is in the hands of lithography 18a. Intel’s short -term competitiveness is closely linked to the success of a single semiconductor manufacturing technology: 18A photolithography. Ben Sell, Vice President of Intel Technology Development, confirmed At the end of last September that the 18A node already has the maturity necessary to enter large -scale production in 2025. and also assured that it will benefit from the resources that have been reallocated since the 20A node. In the current scenario the 18A node will be the true protagonist. That is not the slightest doubt. The 18A node already has the necessary maturity to enter large -scale production in 2025 The internal division should be left behind. The possibility that the Board of Directors of Intel decides to split the chips manufacturing subsidiary of the company’s matrix and put it in the hands of another company has triggered a deep internal division in the company. Joseph Bonetti, main manager of Intel engineering programs, expresses it in this way: “Intel leaders, Board of Directors of Intel and Donald Trump administration, please do not sell or give the control of Intel Foundry to TSMC just when Intel is taking the technological front and starting to take off. It would be a terrible and demoralizing error.” Bonetti also maintains that Intel is not lagging for its competitors, and that the advances that their engineers are achieving in the field of chips production are very important. Lip-Bu must recover government confidence. Lip-bu Tan, the general director of Intel, is in a very compromised position. Before arriving at the company that Cadence Design Systems currently led, an American company specialized in the development of software and hardware tools to design and verify integrated circuits. The problem is that just a month ago, in July, the US Department of Justice condemned her to pay a fine of more than 140 million dollars for selling commercial secrets to China. According to this US institutionCadence Design Systems delivered this critical information to the National University of Defense Technology, a Chinese teaching and research center that is supervised by the Chinese army. Lip Bu-Tan Intel leads since March 2025but there is a crucial fact that we should not overlook: although this conflict has taken it out of Cadence Design Systems directed this company between 2009 and 2021. And this was the period in which According to the US Department of Justice There were export control violations by which this company has recently been convicted. Image | Intel In Xataka | Intel has confirmed that the 20A node will be skipped to reduce expenses. The 18A node will enter production in 2025

Renfe trusted the Avril trains to face the Low Cost of Ouigo and Iro. They do not stop giving problems

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When the competition has pressed, Renfe has seen how his commitment to a low -cost service to the AVE had been as necessary. The problem is that this service, called Avlo, is operated by trains that in just over a year have not stopped giving problems. Retired avlos. It has returned to normal with the five Avlo trains frequencies between Madrid and Barcelona for the month of August but for a few days the cheap offer of the company in the corridor faded completely. First the five trains retired. Then the frequency was in three options in the day. Finally, they can already be bought normally. It is what Víctor de Elena accountjournalist electionomista.eswho had written an article last Friday explaining that Renfe had stopped offering his services of the Avlo line between Madrid and Barcelona. Since last Friday, when the information was published, the sale of tickets has been returning to normal. What happened? Everything indicates that Renfe has been putting patches to a complicated situation. He explained about Elena that Renfe had found a fissure in one of the components of the Bogies of an Avril train. This would have caused that, temporarily, it would be suspended The sale of all Avlo tickets in Madrid-Barcelona. Hours later, Renfe sources would confirm to the medium that during one of the maintenance reviews last Monday, July 21, one of the five 106 series presented “a fissure in an element of the tractor bogie called a bast.” Subsequently, a review of the five trains that serve and the affected systems were replaced. Now, according to Renfe “trains are operating without any anomaly.” More slowly. The trains operate, yes, but below the expected speed. They point out in electionomista.es That according to the State Railway and Adif Security Agency, Renfe operates the trains at 250 km/h of maximum speed, instead of the 300 km/ha those who were operating in a stretch of 190 kilometers that extends between Puerta de Atocha and Ariza (Zaragoza). In your communicationRenfe points out that the company “through its Renfe Travelers and Renfe engineering and maintenance, as a railway company and entity in charge of maintenance, respectively, as well as Talgo in its condition as manufacturer and the State Railway Security Agency, guarantee that the circulation and operation of trains is carried out with total security for travelers.” In the statement they point out that the offer is being reorganized with the S106 trains but do not specify anything about the speed at which trains circulate and emphasize that the sale of tickets is being made “normally.” In Xataka We have contacted the company but so far we have not obtained an answer. The Avril. The S106 series in which the fault has been detected corresponds to the trains known as Avril. Trains that since they were launched in 2024 They have caused various incidents. The S106 series It is designed by Renfe to fight the lowcost but also to be able to offer a service in Galicia that You will not have competition in the short term. For this last line, Renfe has 15 trains in his hands that can change the wide track automatically. Then, it has another 15 trains to operate between Madrid and Barcelona. Of the latter, they carry the specifications to operate as AVE but in five other trains the places have increased from 507 to 581 seats and thus be able to compete as a low cost option. A controversial arrival. When the Avril trains made an appearance they have already arrived surrounded by controversy. They launched in May 2024 but The material had been delivered with three years delay. Then, of the 30 trains, 12 of them had been delivered in a first lot. The first steps of the Avril were not the best. They promised to improve the connection between Galicia and Madrid but in the first days they registered delays of more than two hours and in later days of more than 30 minutes. Neither In the Asturian line The promised time sales were being fulfilled. But, in addition, the trains did not like among the experts either. Accounts in social networks that follow the current world of the train and its novelties portrayed the excess noise and vibrationsas well as They questioned the quality of some materials used in the rolling material. More incidents. The incidents did not stay here. Above all, Avril trains are remembered by the fault in the Galician line that on the first day of this year he left thousands of passengers on the ground or in the middle of nowhere. In a kind of “2000 effect”, trains were retained by a software problem With the year jump. And Barcelona-Madrid has not been the only one. Just a few days ago, a S106 series train collapsed at low speed at the Gijón station without consequences for travelers. At the moment, Renfe has not given explanations about what happened. Photo | André Marques 432 In Xataka | “In 1961 it took Bilbao for three hours and five minutes. Now it takes three and ten”: Cantabria and the drama of Spain with the train

The end of mathematical problems without solution

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To the models of artificial intelligence (AI) Currently, mathematics are good. In fact, in October 2024 Goal AIthe finish line, managed to generalize Lyapunov’s function. The Russian mathematician Aleksander Lyapunov proposed the concept of the function that bears his name in 1892. His work is a very important tool in the study of dynamic systems, but mathematicians have since struggled to find a general method that allows identifying the functions of Lyapunov. And they have not been successful. However, Goal AI has had it. This is not at all the only recent success of AI models in the field of mathematics. Sergei Gukov, Professor of Theoretical Physics and Mathematics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), leads a team of researchers who are looking for The way to use this technology to solve advanced mathematical problems that require thousands, millions, or even billions of steps. Currently these scientists are working on the conjecture of Andrews-Curtis, a problem of combinatorial theory of groups proposed 60 years ago. Google and Openai AI have won gold in the mathematics Olympiad Gukov and his team have not yet managed to solve the main conjecture, but with the help of AI they have achieved something important: they have refuted several families of problems related to the conjecture of Andrews-Curtis and known as counterexamples that have remained open for more than 25 years. Gukov acknowledges That current AI models have important limitations when facing very complex mathematical problems, but it has the hope that in the future this technology allows the human being to solve Mathematical Millennium Problems. The best asset that researchers have to face this challenge is to instruct AI by resorting to learning for reinforcement According to this mathematician, the best asset that researchers have to face this challenge is to instruct AI by resorting to Reinforcement learning. Anyway, something important has just happened. As we anticipate in the holder of this article, the models of Google and Openai AI They have won the gold in The International Mathematics Olympiad. Both managed to solve five of the six problems posed using general purpose reasoning models capable of processing mathematical concepts using natural language. This strategy is different from the one they have previously used the AI companies in mathematical tests. In any case, According to SCMP An expert they have consulted argues that the speed with which the AI models are being developed suggests that they are less than a year after being used to solve some mathematical problems that still have no solution. As we have seen, Sergei Gukov defends this same idea, although this last mathematician has not dared to specify the moment in which AI will begin to solve the problems in which mathematicians have been engaged decades. Who knows, perhaps the solution to the millennium problems is close. Hopefully. Image | Jesus Thomas More information | SCMP In Xataka | These two problems have baffled mathematicians for decades. A genius has solved them with a stroke

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