The US has decided to shoot itself in the foot and destroy one of the best AI companies in the country

Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, published a few hours ago a statement in which he announced something unusual: the Department of Defense (DoD) has confirmed that “we have been designated as a risk to the national security supply chain” of the United States. This agency thus fulfills the threat it posed a few days ago and automatically turns Anthropic, one of the best AI companies in the country (if not the best) into a pariah company. What implications does that have? Many and all of them huge. I veto Anthropic. This designation prohibits Anthropic from doing business or developing projects for the US military. That is already serious, but it is not just the Pentagon, for example, that will not do it: any company that works with the Pentagon is also prohibited from using Anthropic’s AI services for any government project. We are facing a decision whose collateral effects could be terrible for Anthropic. The loss of revenue could be massive, and if other federal agencies follow the Pentagon’s lead, Anthropic could have a hard time defending its viability against its competitors. That designation is not immediate, and there will be a transition period six months for DoD to migrate to other vendors (like OpenAI). It had never been done with a national company. The ban on Anthropic is absolutely extraordinary, and that designation as a “supply chain risk” was a measure historically reserved for foreign adversaries like Huawei. By applying this label to an American company, the DoD severs its commercial ties and marks the company with a stigma, a kind of “scarlet letter” that could scare away global investors and partners. ethical shock. The core of the conflict is not technical, but moral. Anthropic was born as a spin-off from OpenAI with the aim of avoid existential risks in the development of AI models, and the company has always positioned itself as a great defender of alignment with human values. Its CEO, Dario Amodei, insisted that its AI could not be used for mass surveillance or for the development of lethal autonomous weaponsbut that has collided head-on with the US government and military establishments, which wanted practically total access without restrictions, except those imposed by the US Constitution and laws. to the courts. Amodei has explained in its statement that it will fight the decision in court. His argument, he explains, is that statute 10 USC 3252 It is a tool of protection, not punishment. The defense will need to focus on showing that the Department of Defense did not use the least restrictive means to ensure security. If they succeed, they could invalidate the designation, although the reputational damage has already been done. The dilemma of sovereignty. Can a private company be above the Government? The Pentagon argues that no supplier can slip through the chain of command, and one thing is certain here: for an AI to have usage clauses that limit military operations is to cede national sovereignty to a private algorithm and the terms of service of a board of directors and a CEO who have not been democratically elected. The threat of extreme interventionism. This unusual measure could end up setting a precedent. If the government punishes companies that ask uncomfortable questions or place limits on the use of their technology, AI innovation could change its philosophy. Companies that want to survive would have to do so without questioning the orders out of pure fear of bankruptcy and bankruptcy. Transition period. There is, however, a period of six months granted for the transition and that seems to make it clear that the Pentagon still depends on Anthropic technology for current operations, as demonstrated by the kidnapping of Nicolás Maduro or the current intelligence analysis of the conflict in Iran. It remains to be seen how events will evolve, but the outlook for Anthropic is certainly worrying. And for the rest of the companies too, if indeed justice rules in favor of the Department of Defense. Image | Anthropic | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | Anthropic has become the Apple of our era and OpenAI our Microsoft: a story of love and hate

China surrounded an enclave with robots. Now they have been given a rifle to shoot at 100 meters, and the result points to an island

China has been leaving increasingly explicit clues about how it imagines future conflicts. In 2025, PLA maneuvers included island assault exercises minors using ground robots and unmanned systems, a sign that Beijing is no longer testing only classic amphibious crossings, but scenarios where machines make way before soldiers. Those practices marked a clear direction: Combat automation was no longer a distant theory, but something China was beginning to test on the ground. Now he has amplified it. Drones with rifle. China has made a qualitative leap in the use of combat drones by demonstrating that a UAV armed with a standard assault rifle can be 100% right of his shots against a human target at 100 meters while remaining in hover. The system, developed by a Chinese company together with the PLA special operations academy, fired 20 times and placed half of the hits in a comparable radius. a shot to the heada result that makes it clear that these are no longer experimental platforms but rather precision weapons ready for real environments. Extra ball. It does not seem like a specific experiment or a laboratory demonstration: the team itself has explained that the only “imperfect” shot was due defective ammunitionnot the system, making this test an unmistakable sign of where Chinese combat power is headed. Taiwan and a problem. This progress cannot be understood without the Taiwan backdropone of the most urbanized territories on the planet, where any military operation would require fighting in dense megacities, full of civilians, underground infrastructure and narrow streets that neutralize many traditional advantages. For the PLA, the challenge is not just cross the seabut to dominate neighborhoods, subway stations and residential complexes where human infantry suffer enormous political and military costs. The Chinese response to this dilemma is neither doctrinal nor moral, but technical: dealing with urban warfare as an engineering problem which can be solved by delegating violence to machines capable of moving, identifying targets and shooting without fatigue or fear. A bet. In fact, recalled in The Diplomat that the essay of the armed drone fits into the third major phase of Chinese military modernization, the so-called “intelligentization,” which seeks to replace human decisions with distributed artificial intelligence systems. Having mechanized and digitized its forces, the PLA now aims to delegate key functions (detection, prioritization and attack) to algorithms that operate faster than any human chain of command. In this framework, a drone with a rifle is not a curiosity, but rather an elemental piece of an ecosystem where sensors, weapons and software act in a coordinated manner, reducing the role of the soldier. to a mere initial authorizer or, in the extreme, eliminating him from decision-making altogether. Swarms in alleys. There is much more, because the medium stood out documents and studies linked to Chinese military universities that reveal that the target is not individual drones, but autonomous swarms specifically designed for urban warfare. These systems are designed to operate at low altitudes, inside buildings, indoors and underground, even when communications are degraded or non-existent. Through simple rules and self-organization, swarms They could patrol areastrack people and execute attacks without receiving orders in real time, a solution that the PLA consider ideal to neutralize defenses in cities such as Taipei or Kaohsiung and to eliminate key objectives before external forces can intervene. The gray area of ​​legality. The technological bet is accompanied by a legal position deliberately ambiguous by Beijing on lethal autonomous weapons. As? Defining as unacceptable Only those systems that simultaneously meet a series of very strict criteria, China leaves itself a wide margin to develop weapons capable of killing without direct human supervision, as long as they can be stopped in theory or follow pre-programmed rules. This ambiguity, they say, contrasts with documented risks of AI in combat (identification errors, inability to interpret human intentions, data biases) and makes it easier for research to advance without clear regulatory brakes. The future that is being tested today. In short, the drone that shoot with surgical precision at 100 meters is not an anecdote, but tangible proof of where the Beijing strategy: move the war to the heart of the city and delegate it to machines. There is no doubt that if this model is applied in a conflict such as Taiwan, the combination of autonomous swarms, integrated light weapons and decisions without human intervention could multiply the risk for civilians and reduce the political thresholds for the use of force. From that prism, what is presented today as a technical experiment is, in reality, a most disturbing preview: that of an urban war where the alleys are no longer patrolled by soldiers, but by armed robots that will never ask questions. Image | Heeheemalu In Xataka | The biggest geopolitical risk on the planet is not Greenland. It’s a smaller island with a disturbing neighbor: Taiwan In Xataka | 200 drones in the hands of a single soldier: China is advancing very quickly in a type of war that seemed like science fiction

an AI that decides when to shoot has hidden where it is least expected

In recent months, Ukraine has seen technological leaps that until very recently were more typical of the realm of science fiction. Of the machines capturing and taking prisoners went to drones attacking on his own in a matter of weeks or even the arrival of a “general AI” capable of converting soldiers in “invisibles”. The latest: a kind of cross between Terminator and Predator. From improvised anti-aircraft weapon to autonomous system. Yes, Ukraine has turned urgency into advanced military engineering by developing what they have called like Predatoran automated machine gun turret initially created for the Magura naval drones could face Russian helicopters and fighters that They patrolled the Black Seaa space where air pressure on Ukrainian operations increased after the success of unmanned attacks against the Russian Fleet. The Predator debuted in combat end of 2024when its sensors and target acquisition capabilities allowed two helicopters to be shot down using missiles fired from other naval drones, and months later it helped shoot down a Russian Su-30, demonstrating that an unmanned explosive vehicle could also provide anti-aircraft cover. A twist. Once the success of the machine was seen, Ukraine decided to “hide it” where it would be a surprise to the enemy. It turns out that integrating this turret into a maritime platform was a complex challenge which made it necessary to guarantee stability in adverse conditions, precision in a moving hull and compatibility with guidance processes that combine optical sensors, artificial intelligence and gyroscopic systems. The Predator turret equipped on a small tracked vehicle Naval technology adapted for drone warfare. Thus, although it was born for the sea, recent tests of the Predator have confirmed its usefulness in the dominant theater of modern warfare: the FPV drone combat loaded with explosives, responsible for a growing share of Ukrainian losses on the ground. With 7.62mm ammunition, optical sensors, gyroscopic stabilization and automatic detection alerts, the system can be mounted on track vehicles or in the bed of a pick-up, shooting on the move and following minimum targets of just a few centimeters at 100 meters. And more. Artificial intelligence allows the turret identify threats and present options to the operator, who maintains the final decision to avoid fratricidal fires, while the new versions incorporate laser rangefinders and precision improvements adapted to drones controlled by radio frequency or fiber optics. From Ukraine to NATO. The rapid industrialization of the Predator (more than thirty units built and a plan to produce a hundred a month in less than half a year, with a unit cost of less than $100,000 for the Ukrainian forces) makes this system one of the most agile developments of the Ukrainian military complex. In fact, its success has awakened the NATO interestwhich invited the company to an Innovation Challenge and put the system to the test at an evaluation event in France, where the manufacturer presented it remotely as a modular and immediately deployable solution to threats that evolve with weeks, not years, of margin. Additionally, UGV Robotics plans a larger caliber model, the Apex Predatorwith .50 ammunition and the ability to intervene against heavier aerial threats, aiming to turn these turrets into an exportable standard for Western allies. The new paradigm of Ukrainian defense. The story of this turret illustrates how Ukraine is integrating naval and land capabilities into the same combat ecosystem automation basedmodular sensors and systems capable of operating on unmanned platforms, a strategy driven by constant pressure from Russian drones and the need to protect both infantry and exposed vehicles. In this context, a design conceived so that an explosive drone would not be shot down from the air is now transformed into a ground defense against cheap and lethal swarms, making the Predator a symbol of Ukraine’s shift towards a distributed, adaptive defense focused on neutralizing asymmetric threats before they reach their objective. Image | UGV Robotics In Xataka | It’s not that the war in Ukraine has been gamified, it’s that there are now “hero points” to exchange for exclusive weapons In Xataka | In the midst of rearmament, Europe has realized an unimportant detail: it does not have enough bullets

A new threat has arrived in the skies of Europe. They are not drones or fighters, and the order is to shoot before you ask

For weeks now, the European sky has has converted in a silent front of hybrid war: brief incursions, weak signals, ambiguous trajectories and objects that, without carrying clear flags, force airport closures, diversions of trade routes and military responses that consume resources and erode civil normality. The pattern is repeated from the Baltics to Central Europe and seems designed to measure the NATO reflexes. Now something else has arrived, and it’s not drones or fighter jets. Balloon waves. Lithuania has announced that will bring down any balloon that crosses from Belarus after detecting in one go 66 night intrusions and chain closures of Vilnius airport. The government described the phenomenon as hybrid attack and activated the closure of the eastern border, initially temporary but set to become indefinite, with minimal exceptions for diplomats and EU citizens in transit. The decision marks a turning point on NATO’s eastern flank, where violations of airspace by drones, balloons and Russian aircraft are increasing. have become recurring in recent weeks, from Estonia and Poland to Denmark, Norway and Germany, fueling the impression of a sustained campaign of provocations calibrated to measure reflexes, saturate defenses and erode political tolerance at the cost of deterrence. Nature and sign. The balloons (some weighing more than 50 kilos, also used for tobacco smuggling) are interpreted not only as a criminal economy but also as a cheap instrument. psychological warfare and technical rehearsal: they stretch the “gray zone” five kilometers inward, force airport closures, degrade logistics, strain the civil and military decision chain and expose the friction of activating rules of engagement against targets no classic military sign. Lithuania will involve NASAMS, RBS-70, Avengers and MANPADS in neutralization, despite stocks depleted by transfers to Ukraine and the intrinsic difficulty of shooting down balloons with low radar signature and low kinetic energy. The political message is deliberate: any permeability (even if it seems marginal) will be treated as a strategic precedent. Escalation in NATO. We said it at the beginning, the episode arrives after penetrations of Su-30, Il-78 and MiG-31 in the Baltics, and after the recording of swarms of drones over Poland, Denmark, Munich or the Baltic, with more than 170 flights disrupted in one week in Vilnius and almost 14,000 passengers affected. Reiteration converts the episodic in pattern: state actors exploit loopholes in regulations (civil balloons, meteorological assumptions, smuggling) to degrade the continuity of European civil aviation and test the elasticity of ROE and allied cohesion without crossing explicit thresholds of article 5. Lithuania, in fact, studies consultations under article 4and has hinted that the closure could extend to the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, raising the economic-logistical vector of the pulse. Hybrid war as a framework. Vilnius is clearand describes the phenomenon as a psychological operation aimed at disrupting daily life, testing NATO-EU synchrony and normalizing aggression (of low lethality, of course) as noise permanent. The background signal (at no point is Moscow explicitly named) fits into the repertoire hybrid warfare: discreet sabotage, information manipulation, low signal intrusion, erosion of trust and critical infrastructure, in conjunction with the war in Ukraine and under the plausible protection of Belarus. Plus: the closure of borders is accompanied by tougher criminal penalties against smuggling and coordination with Poland and Latvia to shield the eastern edge as a strategic unit, given the calculation that firmness, the earlier, will define how much the enemy will dare later. Image | LITHUANIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE In Xataka | Europe has decided to take action against Moscow’s hybrid war. So Germany has started hunting for Russian drones In Xataka | The Spanish invention that simplifies the hunt for Europe’s biggest threat: how to detect the arrival of drones in a matter of seconds

Japan is so desperate for its bears that it will allow hunters to shoot them in cities. Problem: you run out of hunters

Tuesday was not an easy day Numatain Gunma prefecture, north of Tokyo. Around seven thirty in the afternoon the police received the notice that a 1.4 meter bear He had sneaked into a supermarket with several dozen customers and destroyed the fish and sushi sections. He also injured two people, one in the parking lot and another inside the store. It is not an isolated case. Not anything exclusive to Numata. Japan has a serious problem of encounters with bears. To solve it, the authorities have decided to use their most experienced hunters, but they won’t make it easy either. There are less and less. What has happened? That Japan has a problem with encounters between bears and humans, episodes that in most cases result in scares or injuries, but that sometimes end with the worst outcomes. It’s not something newbut statistics show that the problem is far from being solved. CNS News assures that between April and September 108 people suffered injuries caused by bears, reflecting a similar rate to the year between March 2023 and 2024, when the Government recorded a record of 219 attacks. Is it that serious? Many of the encounters end in scares or injuries, but the Japanese media also talk about an all-time high number of deaths: seven, the highest number since records began in 2006. The people who have suffered attacks also include both locals and tourists from other countries. In fact, just a few days ago a Spaniard received the blow in the village of Shirakawa-goWorld Heritage Site. In Shiretokoanother place popular with tourists, the trails were closed after an attack in August. What is the reason? Better to talk about ‘reasons’, in plural. When analyzing the problem, a cocktail of causes is usually cited in which environmental issues are mixed with other social and demographic issues. At the end of the day the record of attacks arrives in full abandonment from rural areas and farmland and with a serious population decline that the country has been dragging on for several decades. There are those who include other causes in the equation, such as the effect of climate change on food availability or fluctuations in acorn and beechnut harvests, which cause food scarcity among the adult population. The truth is that Japan is losing inhabitantsis suffering a rural exodus, has seen the borders between populated centers and forests blur and the country has also seen a clear increase in the bear population. Yomiuri Shimbun ensures that the number of black bears has tripled since 2012, with tens of thousands of copies, to which are added the brown from Hokkaido. And how to solve it? The big question. A month ago the country took an important decision and not exempt from controversy: Amended its wildlife protection and management law to relax rules governing what hunters can and cannot do in densely populated neighborhoods. To be more precise, the new regulations allow municipalities to commission hunters to carry out “emergency hunts” for dangerous animals in inhabited areas. Until now, the general rule prohibited killing wild animals with weapons in public spaces. It could only be authorized (and exceptionally) by the police in cases of imminent danger. After the legislative changemunicipal governments may authorize hunts against brown or black bears in densely populated areas provided that certain requirements are met: first, it must be an emergency measure; second, there can be no room for other solutions; and third (and most importantly) it must be ensured that no stray bullet will end up harming a resident. The idea is that only authorized hunters intervene. End of the problem? Not quite. Japan has decided to rely on hunters to solve bear attacks, but the problem is that in the country (like in Spain) there are fewer and fewer hunters. The diary The Mainichi published on Thursday a extensive report in which he recalls that the number of licenses in force in Japan has been decreasing as the population has decreased, the fields have been abandoned and society has changed. If in 1976 there were 500,000 first-level permits approved, since 2012 the figure has always been below 100,000. Who will shoot the bears? In Japan, there is also debate about who will be able to kill bears in neighborhoods full of houses and people. The Government already has announced that the measure will be accompanied by training workshops to guarantee that the system works correctly, which also includes planning security measures, restricting access and evacuating residents. “Emergency shots” are not in any case the only solution that the country has on the table. On the trails of Fukushima, for example, they have installed devices with sensors that seek to scare away animals. The idea: that they emit an annoying buzzing sound that becomes more intense when the bears approach. Images | Suzi Kim (Unsplash) In Xataka | Wolf hunting throughout Spain depended on a red button that changes its status. And Europe has decided to press it

The semiconductors will shoot the price

PWC has published in its report ‘Global semiconductor industry outlook 2026‘A projection: completely autonomous vehicles (level 5) will need five times more semiconductors than a traditional car. And its cost will multiply by ten. A current basic car (level 0) carries between 200 and 300 chips valued at about $ 500. They serve mainly for engine control, safety and infotainment systems. Nothing especially sophisticated. Why is it important. The semiconductor content of a car will multiply by ten when we reach full autonomy. From the current 500 dollars to more than $ 5,000 per vehicle. This jump will change the cost structure of the car industry and create a gigantic market for chips manufacturers. The climbing. Each level of autonomy shoot the needs: Level 1 and 2: driver assistance and automatic distance maintenance. The cost rises to about 800 dollars in chips. Level 3: Autonomous driving on highways without constant supervision. More than 1,000 semiconductors and about $ 2,000. Level 4: Autonomous operation in the city, limited to specific areas. The cost reaches $ 3,200. Level 5: Total autonomy in any climatic and traffic condition. More than $ 5,000 per vehicle. The context. The explosion in semiconductor content responds to the fact that autonomous vehicles must process large volumes of real -time data, and that translates into computing capacity, and more information collected from the environment. A level 3 car already needs more than 1,000 semiconductors to capture information around it, high performance computer chips (HPC) to process it, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and electronic control units to maneuver the vehicle. The most advanced designs will add chips for vehicle-a-all communication (V2X), exchanging data with the road and other cars. Meanwhile, the transition to the electric car continues to increase the demand for power semiconductors for investors and battery management. In detail. The architecture of an autonomous car is divided into technological layers, each with its own semiconductors: Sensors: radars, lidar sensors, cameras and ultrasound that capture the environment. Each type requires specialized chips to process its signal. Computing: High performance CPUS and GPUS that execute AI algorithms to interpret data and make decisions. Electrification: semiconductors of silicon carbide (sic) and of Gallium Nitruro (Gan) to manage electric power with greater efficiency. Connectivity: Chips for 5G communication, V2X and remote updates. Control: electronic units that translate decisions into mechanical actions. Image: Freepik, Xataka. Turning point. Level 4 vehicles will start commercially climbing around 2030, mainly in Robotaxis services In delimited urban areas or transportation hub-to-hub of goods. Level 5, capable of operating without a steering wheel in any condition, will arrive much later, perhaps even in the next decade but something later. This calendar gives time to the semiconductor industry to prepare, but also points out that the great ball is still seen. Yes, but. This projection assumes mass production and that technology will fulfill its safety promises. Nothing guaranteed. Technical difficulties, regulatory frameworks and social acceptance can slow down the deployment. Between the lines. Tesla, General Motors and Ford already design their own chips for central computers and ADAS systems. They seek control over critical technology and differentiation. Traditional semiconductor manufacturers (Infineon, NXP, STMICROELECTRONICS) will share market with these new competitors. In Xataka | I have tried a totally autonomous taxi. This is traveling without driver Outstanding image | GibblesMash Asdf

He has found a way to shoot China’s competitiveness in the face of the US

Two days ago we told you something very interesting: the Chinese state medium Securities Times had revealed that Huawei was about to present a technological advance that pursued Reduce China dependence of HBM memory chips (High Bandwidth Memory) from abroad. According to this source Huawei was going to officially announce his technological milestone a few hours later, during the celebration in Shanghai (China) of the Applications Forum and Development of Financial Reasoning 2025. Huawei has fulfilled what was promised, although not as we had planned. In any case, before getting into flour it is important that we remember that Chinese memory chips manufacturers They are not producing solutions capable of competing with the most advanced memories manufactured by South Korean companies Samsung and SK Hynix, or the American Micron Technology. GPUs for Ia work side by side with HBM memory chips. In fact, its performance is largely conditioned by these memories. As the editors of SEMIANALYSISthe total bandwidth of the HBM3 memory chips that live with some of THE GPU FOR THE MOST ADVANCED Nvidia or AMD exceeds 819 GB/s, while DDR5 and GDDR6X memories reach much more modest 70.4 GB/Sy 96 GB/s. HBM3E memories and future HBM4 are even better. Chinese manufacturers of this type of chips do not yet produce this kind of memories, but it seems that Huawei will deeply alter this scenario. An algorithm expressly designed to accelerate inference in AI The filtration that occurred scarcely 48 hours suggested that probably what Huawei was going to present was a avant -garde packaging technology that, perhaps, would rival those used by SK Hynix, Samsung or Micron to produce their HBM3 and 3E memories. And it is that manufacturing these integrated circuits is complex because they require stacking several DRAM chips and implementing an interface between the XPU (Extended Processing Unit) or extended processing unit and extraordinarily dense HBM chips. As a button shows: in a HBM3E stack the XPU and the HBM memory are linked through more than 1,000 drivers. According to Huawei, the UCM algorithm is capable of drastically accelerating inference in the great AI models However, finally Huawei has presented a different technology: an advanced algorithm called UCM (Unified Cache Manager) that, according to this company, it is capable of drastically accelerate inference In the great models of artificial intelligence (AI). A relevant note: inference is broadly the computational process carried out by language models with the purpose of generating the responses that correspond to the requests they receive. To achieve its purpose, the UCM algorithm displays a very ingenious strategy: decide in what type of memory it is necessary to store each data taking as a fundamental indicator the latency requirements. In practice, this algorithm behaves as a gigantic cache that guarantees that each data will go to the right memory, including HBM3, with the purpose of minimizing latency during inference. If it is a very often used data, it will be stored in a very fast memory, such as HBM3. According to Huaweithis technology is able to reduce the latency of inference by 90%. Interestingly, this company plans to do the UCM Source Open Algorithm in September. More information | SCMP In Xataka | Nvidia has to deal with the absolute distrust of several US legislators. His plan in China is in danger In Xataka | The US wants to end the chips for the Chinese that are sold abroad. And China knows how to defend oneself

Benalmádena wants to shoot sales in their stores. So he has declared war on colored awnings

Benalmádena has tired of colored potpourri on the terraces of the local restaurants and shops, so he has decided to cut for the healthy: an area, a tone. In the middle of summer and with restaurants, deploying umbrellas and awnings to protect its clients from the Mediterranean sun, the City Council It has moved token To give commercial neighborhoods a more “homogeneous” aspect. The objective: more attractive, more purchases. Goodbye, colored tide. Benalmádena, one of the most popular tourist destinations on the Costa del Sol, has decided to put order in a small detail that marks its visual personality: the awnings. Recently the City Council celebrated A special commission Centered on terraces, watchmen, facades and shops in which it approved a series of measures to “homogenize” the image of some neighborhoods. To be more precise, he has focused the focus on the area of Benalmádena Pueblo. Gray I love you gray. The most interesting measure focuses on the awnings and separating screens from its central almond. Benalmádena Pueblo will say goodbye to the potpourri of shades for the sake of a much more “attractive” image. “The awnings will be gray with white aluminum profiles, not allowing any commercial brand, only the name of the black establishment.” Are there more news? Yes. For the lateral separations of the terraces, the use of screens will be allowed, but as long as they fit certain patterns: They must be forged at the bottom and glass in the upper. The separators can also wear the name of the establishment as long as they do it in vinyl or with screen printing. The City Council also wants those stores that occupy public space with fruit, vegetables or vegetable positions do so with structures that “harmonize” with the facade. “Enjoy and Buy”. At this point the question is obvious: for what? What is the purpose of change? Raúl CamposCouncilor in the area of Commerce and Consumption, explains it clearly: the objective is to “improve aesthetics and order the area”, a change with which the session wants to go beyond the strictly visual and favor the local economy. “We are working to create an attractive and orderly commercial environment that invites you to enjoy the municipality and buy.” And from now on? The City Council wants to go beyond Benalmádena Pueblo and extend the initiative to other nuclei. The newspaper South keep it up That the change will arrive in Arroyo de la Honey and Benalmádena Costa, although the aesthetic details that will be applied in each area must still be agreed. The idea, the City Council insists, is to “respect the idiosyncrasy and personality of each urban nucleus” also adjusting to “the precepts of urban discipline” of the general plan. The Consistory emphasizes that decisions are made “with the consensus” of the Association of Merchants and Entrepreneurs (Aceb) and the open shopping center. The municipality already has a ordinance that regulates the terraces of the watchmen and the facades of the establishments and marks some guidelines on elements such as umbrellas or awnings. For example, it establishes that they must “harmonize” with the facade and its color has to authorize the community of owners. Beyond Benalmádena. Benalmádena is not the only town that has proposed to homogenize the exterior furniture of its terraces and shops. Throughout the last years similar initiatives have emerged (not always with equal success) in Salou, Malaga, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Algeciras, Mieres, Estepona either Marínto name just a handful of examples. The objective: that the most visible areas have some harmony and end colored pastiches. Images | Benalmádena City Council 1 and 2 In Xataka | Aragon’s ski stations are sentenced to death. One of them has had an idea: the biggest tobogan in Europe

The United Kingdom was waiting for an invincible hunt. Today, the F-35 flies little and cannot shoot its own weapons

He F-35b Lightning It is one of the most advanced fighters in the world. It has low observability when radar can take off in short distances and land vertically, and is designed to operate from Terrestrial Bases and Bases. You can execute Aire-Aire, air-surface, electronic warfare and intelligence in parallel missions. On paper, the United Kingdom was going to turn it into the cornerstone of its aerial power, With 138 planned units and a service horizon until 2069. But reality goes behind that ambition. A new report by the National Audit Office (NAO) He has just documented in detail a series of problems that drag the program: from sustained delays to capabilities yet to be integrated. The result is a much less solid photograph than expected a decade ago. And that opens uncomfortable questions about costs, efficacy and planning. F-35b, promises and delays As we said, the F-35B Lightning is the short take-off version and vertical landing of hunting by the United States The Joint Strike Fighter program. United Kingdom chose this variant To replace your Harrier and operate from the Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers. You can fly to more than Mach 1.6, reach 50,000 feet of altitude and execute multiple types of mission. A Harrier plane landing Its strong point is in the fusion of sensors and in the ability to share data in real time with other platforms. Unlike previous generations, the F-35B not only acts as an attack vector, but as a network intelligence node. In 2012 the first units arrived in the country, with Raf Marham as the main base. United Kingdom has invested at least 11,000 million pounds (about 12.6 billion euros) until March 2025, According to the National Audit Office. And yet, the level of operational capacity reached is lower than the ministry expected in 2013. The postponement of the total operational capacity (FOC) of 2023 at the end of 2025 implies that the F -35b have not yet reached the degree of maturity necessary to operate with full capacity. According to the NAO, the flight hours accumulated in 2024 were lower than those required, which limits the preparation of crews and the real availability of the fleet for intensive missions. In addition, the plane is currently limited in armament. Today only the guided pump Paveway IV and the Air-Aire Amraam AIM-13D, According to the RAF technical file. NAO confirms that the integration of British Meteor and Spear 3 missiles It has been postponed until the early 2030. In practice, this means that the F -35B cannot yet execute attacks from long distance with state -of -the -art weapons, such as its original strategic purpose. An F-35 landing There are also structural limitations. As The Register has pointed outthe short take -off design and vertical landing (Stovl) imposes significant restrictions on the payload and at the operational reach of the plane, something that conditions its effectiveness in demanding combat scenarios. This assessment is not part of the official NAO report, but it does reflect a usual concern among several specialists. To all this, the cost of full life cycle could reach 71,000 million pounds (about 81.9 billion euros). The problems are not alone Although the F-35B is already in operational use, the figures reveal a compromised capacity. In 2024, only around one third of the fleet was available to execute all the expected missions. Part of the problem is structural: the United Kingdom has failed to cover all the necessary positions to operate and maintain the system. Engineers are scarceand prolonged displays in aircraft carrier make many fate F-35 as unattractive. A F-35B of the United Kingdom The supply of pieces is not guaranteed either. The global logistics system, managed from the United States, has not grown at the same pace as the international fleet. That has generated bottlenecks, delays in deliveries and an excessive dependence on temporary solutions. Although during the deployment of Carrier Strike Group of 2025 the availability rates were improved, everything indicates that these levels may not be maintained once the operation is finished. Despite delays, costs and availability problems, the United Kingdom retains an outstanding role within the International F-35 program. He was the only level 1 partner to join the United States -led program and maintains 38 members of the Ministry of Defense Integrated in the central team of the project in Washington, more than any other country. This implication has given tangible results: British companies manufacture at least 15 % of the value of each unit produced. An eye on the future While the F-35 still faces limitations, the United Kingdom already promotes its own next generation project: The Tempest huntintegrated since December 2022 in the multinational program Global Combat Air Program (GCAP)together with Italy and Japan. Conceptual image of the future hunting of the Tempest program This effort, led by BAE Systems (United Kingdom), Leonardo (Italy) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (Japan), aims to develop a Sixth generation furtive plane for 2035with prototypes flying before 2028. The headquarters of the program is based in the United Kingdom. Since its origin, it has been raised as an open architecture platform, with engines, plane, sensors and weapons developed under national control, seeking greater technological autonomy with respect to the US. Despite optimism, there are still tensions. Italy has expressed concern about the lack of transparency in the technological transfer from the United Kingdom. Images | Raf (1, 2), | Adrian Pingstone | BAE Systems In Xataka | There are those who ask why airplanes have no parachute. This manufacturer decided to stop asking him and putting one

The coffee situation was already limit. Tariffs threaten to shoot their price at unbearable levels

The situation of Coffee Market in 2025 It is a gallimatisms. Different factors have caused the price of coffee to experience one of the Greater climbs in historywe must all add one more: the US tariff pulse with the rest of the world. And there is a great question about the table: if the great toasters stop selling both to the US because the costs are unbearable, will they adjust production or sell their surpluses cheaper to the rest of the world? The answer is that … it seems that everyone will make war on their own. Problems everywhere. The 2024 coffee harvest faced a series of problems that caused raw coffee prices to increase drastically. Extreme climatic factors how droughts and irregular rains hit the two Main coffee producers (Brazil and Vietnam). This has affected both the production and the quality of the grain, but they have also caused transport cuts due to Problems on the Suez channelwhich has delayed shipments and increased costs. All this, in addition to other factors, has caused coffee to be going through strong inflationary pressure, with increases that, depending on the week, have reached up to 40% compared to what is seen a year ago. It is something similar to what is happening with cocoa and that has turned coffee into one of the thermometers of the global economy. The blissful tariffs. The one that was missing in the equation was … Trump. Tariffor “tariff” has become the word Favorite From the new president of the United States, and these last weeks we have lived an authentic tariff syrup between countries. It is something that affects markets such as cars, oil, technology, Digital services, food products And, obviously, coffee. These tariffs proposed by the United States are a protectionist measure, but also a throwing weapon with a clear intention: threaten countries To do what the USA wants. A clear example is the Tariff threat to Mexico and Canadatwo of the main US business partners that originated Dimes and Diartes among the presidents of the countries. And also We have seen it with Colombia. If the Latin American country did not yield to the aggressive immigration policy promoted from the White House, the threat was to impose rates of 25% and up to 50%. And what product that the United States loves is one of the world powers? Coffee. Hitting the pocket. According to the Observatory of Economic Complexity, in 2022 Colombia exported 15.6 billion dollars To the US, of which almost 1.8 billion corresponded to coffee. Coffee is the great merchandise exported by the country, in terms of value, only behind oil. The New York Times warned that imposing 25% or more to Colombian goods would impact the pocket of the Americans and here there are two options: or stop consuming so much … or assume the extra cost. Variety of postures. Boris Wüllner is the CEO of Green Coffeeone of the largest producers in Colombia that has been investing great sums In the country. In an interview for The RepublicWüllner comments that it is time for companies to look for the way of being more efficient in the production chain, even toasting the grain on American soil to “avoid a larger tax effect.” In fact, he sees it as a business opportunity. While Latin American coffees will be taxed with 10%, those of Indonesia and Vietnam will face tariffs of a 32% and 46% respectivelywhich will allow, despite those 10%tariffs, the Colombian product is more competitive. Wüllner also considers that it will be the consumer who absorbs the increase that these tariffs will imply, but that they will not stop drinking coffee. Different opinion have from Europe, specifically from Lavazza. Touching the limit. Its executive director, Antonio Baravalle, believes that consumer tolerance is reaching the limit due to high prices and is clear that this increase in costs for consumers is what has generated “an average contraction of the world coffee market of approximately 3.5% in the last two years”. And that the tariffs had not yet come into play. From the US National Coffee Association they share this opinion, commenting that “the great price increase is eaten the liquidity of the customers. They do not have all the money to buy what they need.” Beyond producers and USA. The issue is that it is not an issue that affects only the directs involved. “If the US imposes a 25% tariff on all Colombian exports, the coffee market, which is already red, will heat even more,” I commented A few days ago Javier Blas, Bloomberg columnist. Colombia is the third producer worldwide of a variety, the Arabica, which is also the most appreciated among specialty coffee shops. And that the Colombian market sets out in the United States could impact the rest of the world. Liquefied natural gas. As? With more price increases to cushion the coup to producers and toaster. But … what if the situation were different? Here we can look at the LNG. If large toasters reduce purchases in the US, the most likely scenario is a combination of production and detour adjustments to other markets. In other sectors, such as liquefied natural gas, we have already seen similar dynamics: when US imports decreased after fracking boomexporters they redirected Part of their sales to Asia and Europe, and even slowed their production. Although coffee and LNG play in different leagues (one is an energy raw material, the other a perishable agricultural product), market logic is comparable: less demand in a key destination forces to look for other markets or produce less to avoid collapsing prices. That could be the strategy of large coffee producers, who are already preparing for it optimizing costs and logistics, as Wüllner proposes. Hope? Depends. On the one hand, the FAO (the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) estimates that The worst has not happened And that, because coffee has no alternatives, although prices rise, consumers will continue to pay them. On the other, … Read more

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