speed

The Government of Spain has insisted that we do not exceed the speed limits. And it has a threat: jail

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At the moment it is a Bill presented in the Congress of Deputies but it is much more than that. It is confirmation that the Government will debate when a driver should go to jail in case of speeding. The PSOE’s proposal is to reduce this margin, which now requires driving through the city at more than the permitted speed of 60 km/h. 10km/h. It’s not much but it would be a substantial difference. Until now, a driver who exceeds the maximum speed allowed within the city by 60 km/h or more faces a prison sentence. Outside the city, the speed must exceed 80 km/h above the maximum permitted limit. With the change in regulations What the Government wants to carry outthe idea is that these limits are lowered by 10 km/h. That is, a driver has to face jail if he exceeds 50 km/h in the city and 70 km/h on roads outside of town. “Excessive permissiveness or laxity”. It’s like the Bill presented in the Congress of Deputies qualifies the current thresholds to determine what is a crime and what is not when we break the speed limits. Currently, the limits are as follows. City: Streets at 20 km/h: prison from 80 km/h Streets at 30 km/h: prison from 90 km/h Streets at 50 km/h: prison from 110 km/h Road outside the town: Road at 90 km/h: jail from 170 km/h Road at 100 km/h: jail from 180 km/h Road at 120 km/h: jail from 200 km/h The arguments. To promote this regulatory change, the Government indicates that the European Union is promoting changes to reduce road accidents. This is how it is understood more restrictive speed limits in much of Europe, although Germany continues to enjoy roads that lack them (up for debate today) and countries that They want to increase them to 150 km/h. But, in addition, the PSOE hides behind the fact that a 1% increase in speed has a 4% impact on its consequences. Therefore, the impact caused by an accident due to excess speed, which according to DGT accounts is present in 22% of accidents, is growing exponentially. Furthermore, the new wording emphasizes the consequences in the city, where excessive speed has more serious consequences on the health of vulnerable people such as pedestrians, cyclists, users of personal mobility vehicles and motorcyclists. Are there reasons? The truth is that excess speed is, behind distractions, the leading cause of accidents in our country. And its consequences are especially serious in the city. According to the DGT5% of pedestrians hit at 30 km/h die. At 50 km/h, the risk increases to 50% and at 80 km/h death is almost certain. And on the road, an impact at 120 km/h is considered to translate into a fall of a fourteenth floor. At 180 km/h the impact is equivalent to falling from a 36 story. What would happen to the drivers? At the moment, speeding Driving at more than 60 km/h in the city and more than 80 km/h outside of it are considered crimes, like those positive for alcohol and drugs. This means that the driver, in addition to the financial penalty, faces a prison sentence of three to six months that does not have to be served on the first occasion. Of course, although the sentence does not exceed two years, a judge has the power to decide whether to send the driver to prison. And also if it imposes a financial fine, which is calculated based on the damage caused or the risk to which it has subjected other drivers and traffic agents if no accident had occurred, from six to twelve months or work for the benefit of the community from thirty-one to 90 days. In addition, he would be deprived of his driving license for one to four years. Will it move forward? That is something that the Congress of Deputies now has to debate. Both the DGT and the Government have recently been promoting more restrictive measures against excessive driving. Under the direction of Pedro Sánchez, the penalties for mobile phone use have worsened and the obligation to have insurance and registration if you have a scooter. In the same way, there has been an attempt to promote a change in alcohol limits that would prevent a person from driving as soon as they had had a beer or a glass of wine. However, this reform is still up in the air. Photo | Max Angelo In Xataka | A town in France has managed to reduce the speed of its cars. Without radars or traffic lights or speed bumps

Japan’s problem is not that it is stopping having babies at a record speed. It’s just that he did it 17 years earlier than he should have.

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If there is a way out of demographic pitJapan still hasn’t found it. And not for lack of effort. Although all your effortsof the imagination and million-dollar investment that has been allocated to birth policies, its balance of births continues to be disastrous. The last one has just been published by the Government and shows that in 2025 they were born in Japan 15,179 fewer babies than in 2024. It is the tenth consecutive year of decline, a new historical low and above all a scenario in which Japan did not expect to find itself until 2042. The question is: Is Tokyo willing to cover this birth rate disaster with a greater migratory flow, the demographic table that keeps afloat other countries? What has happened? that Japan has received a hard bath of demographic reality, something that is beginning to be common. The Ministry of Health has just published the birth rate for 2025, a document that leaves little room for optimism. Throughout last year, 705,809 babies were born in the country, a bad figure no matter how you look at it. It represents the lowest record since statistics began to be compiled in 1899, and above all it confirms that the birth rate has been declining for ten consecutive years… with no prospect of improvement. In annual terms, these 705,809 births represent a decrease of 2.1% compared to 2024. If we look further back, to the last decade, the drop is around 30%. The only good news is that the data improves (slightly) some forecasts launched by the Japanese press a few months ago and that the speed at which the birth rate falls seems to be slowing down little by little. At least it is lower than that of the 2022-2024 period, when it exceeded 5% annually. Is it that bad news? Yes. For several reasons. The main one is that the Japanese demographic crisis is worsening much faster than the Government believed, which years ago prepared for a pessimistic scenario. In 2023 the National Population and Security Research Institute and Social Security (IPSS) published a report in which it calculated that the number of annual births would not decrease to 700,000 until 2042. The reality is that the country has already moved within that range in 2025, 17 years than expected. What’s more, the IPSS estimated that 774,000 babies would be born in 2025. The actual data that we know today (705,809) is closer to its most pessimistic projection (681,000). Why is it a problem? Because Japan is proving that, despite its multiple attempts, it has not managed to close its demographic gap. It is not just that their birth rate is falling, it is that vegetative growth (difference between births and deaths) gives clear alarm signals. Although the deaths have decreased by 0.8%the Japanese population shrank by 899,845 people last year. Media like Nikkei either The Japan Times In recent hours, they have published analyzes that warn of the gradual aging of the country and (above all) the pressure it puts on its social security system and pensions. There will be something positive, right? More or less. The statistics leave some positive readings or that show possible paths to follow, although with nuances. For example, in 2025 marriages increased slightly compared to the previous year (1.1%) to reach 505,656. The question is whether this rebound is the result of the hangover from the pandemic, when many couples postponed their weddings. Another curious fact is that there are territories that seem to have hit the right demographic key: in Tokyo the births increased by about 1.3% last year, reaching 88,518, and it is estimated that its metropolitan area accounts for almost a third (30%) of all births registered in the country. What is the solution? The big question. The difficult thing is to answer it. Japan has tried with economic and labor incentives, programs for pair…Everything to boost your birth rate, a goal to which you have dedicated millions and millions. It has been of little use to him. There are those who believe that in this scenario a possible salvation is to rethink the national immigration policy. “Refusing to accept an adequate flow of migrants is not only ignoring economic reality, but giving up on our collective future,” pointed recently to The World Akito Tanaka, from the Migrant Solidarity Network. “Policies that are increasingly limiting the entry of foreign workers are exacerbating precisely this problem,” Tanaka insists.who warns that Japan faces “an unprecedented demographic crossroads.” The latest data from the Ministry of Health actually leaves an interesting idea: the 705,809 babies registered in Japan in 2025 not only correspond to births to parents of Japanese origin, but also include foreigners. What is Tokyo’s position? It does not seem very willing to bet on foreigners to revive its population. In fact just yesterday transcended that Japan’s immigration agency has tightened the guidelines that applicants for permanent residence must comply with. In practice the changes make it more difficult meet the requirements to obtain the visa, for which it is key to demonstrate good conduct and financial self-sufficiency, among other conditions. It’s not exactly new. It has been known for months that the government of the conservative Sanae Takaichi was planning double the time minimum stay that foreigners must remain in Japan to qualify for citizenship. Can it change? In the midst of an avalanche of international tourism (which has generated multiple tensions between foreign visitors and the native population) the presence of foreigners has become a relevant issue in Japanese politics. In fact, after taking the reins of the Government, Takaichi did not take long to promote an immigration policy that revolves around regulations with an eloquent name: “Law for a society of orderly coexistence with foreigners.” His last results at the polls They show that their position does not upset the electorate. Image | Andrew Leu (Unsplash) In Xataka | If Korea believes it is experiencing a demographic crisis, it is because it does not … Read more

Yes, the DGT has limited the maximum speed to 80 km/h and has prohibited overtaking. And there’s a good reason for that: wind.

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In Spain the weather is bad. I don’t know if you had noticed but we have had rain, snow and very strong winds for a month and a half. Meteorological events that are impacting all types of sectors. Also that of mobility, where closed roads, incidents on the road and restrictions are being the general trend. If you go to your favorite social network and read that the DGT has limited the speed to 80 km/h, don’t panic. It’s normal. At 80 km/h maximum. And overtaking prohibited by order of the DGT. It is a headline that has been repeated in the last two days and has spread across social networks. Headlines that hid an essential word to understand the information: temporal. Meteorological storm, because the restrictions are due to the clash of storms that we have chained for days and weeks in the Iberian Peninsula. And temporary because the restrictions are not definitive, they are simply used to maintain safety on the road. The restrictions. One of the provinces that found the most restrictions of this type during the past weekend was Castellón. The region has had to live with an orange alert for wind and the DGT decided that the maximum speed at which one could drive on Saturday was 80 km/h on three roads in the province, where overtaking was also prohibited. The trucks They were also not allowed to circulate on the AP-7. Yesterday, Sunday, normality was recovered. These restrictions have obviously been temporary. And, effectively, the DGT can apply temporary restrictions on speed or overtaking for meteorological reasons, just as can close a road to traffic due to snow or it can be restricted to those who They drive with chains or winter tires. For security. The wind is a danger on the road and overtaking is critical when there are very high wind gusts. In particular, some are very dangerous: Screen effect: when you drive through a tunnel or infrastructure that cuts off the side wind and it disappears. At that moment, a gust of wind can move the car to one side of the road and If we are caught off guard the movement will be sharper. Overtaking: something very similar happens when we overtake a large truck or van. In this case, if we are fighting a crosswind, passing a vehicle will automatically cut off the force we receive. You have to be careful because normally we have been moving the steering wheel to the right slightly to counteract the force of the wind. By overtaking the truck, that resistance disappears and we can go against the vehicle on our right, adding that the truck or van fights not to go to the left, which can end in contact. Furthermore, when overtaking, we will again feel the screen effect described above, so we must be careful and remain attentive. Trailers: Both situations are especially dangerous if we drive a vehicle with a trailer since, in that case, the car does not receive the same forces as its rear part and, in an extreme case, movement angles that are difficult to manage can arise. What does the DGT recommend? The first thing we must do is adapt our speed to the traffic circumstances. The DGT has the power to reduce the speed of the road to 80 km/h and prohibit overtaking, but the logical and essential thing is to apply common sense and take your foot off the accelerator. Taking this into account, we must remain very attentive to resolve any gusts of wind. If this happens, you have to act gently, calmly. The DGT also recommends circulate in high gears (one lower than usual) to have a greater response from the engine if we need to get out of trouble. And remember that the more voluminous and taller a vehicle is, the more risk it has of overturning, the more complex it will be to control it and the more care we must take when overtaking it. Photo | Theo Lonic and DGT In Xataka | Everything I learned the day I was surprised by the snow: tips for driving on ice when the situation gets complicated

Something dark keeps growing in the Greenland ice. And it’s melting the frozen mass at an unexpected speed

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Greenland was for centuries synonymous with immobility, a territory that seemed oblivious to the passage of time, protected by an ice sheet so vast that even polar explorers could see it. like something eternal. From the first Inuit settlements to the European expeditions of the 19th century, the island was more a symbol of resistance than change, a place where the landscape imposed its own rules. Precisely for that reason, any alteration On its surface today it has a historical weight that goes far beyond what appears at first glance. A dark spot on the ice. Something seemingly insignificant is growing on the immense Greenland ice sheet, but with a disproportionate effect: microscopic algae that dye the snow green, red or grayish brown and reduce its ability to reflect solar radiation. In a warming Arctic up to four times more faster than the rest of the planet, this so-called “dark zone” accelerates the loss of hundreds of billions of tons of ice each year, directly contributing to sea level rise and adding a new layer of complexity to an already destabilized climate system. Dust, nutrients and a cycle. counted the new york times last week that much of the latest research shows that the wind blows phosphorus-rich dust from the rocky fringes discovered on the margins of Greenland into the ice, fueling algal blooms. Here’s the crux of it all, because as the ice melts, also releases trapped nutrients for decades or centuries in its deep layers, creating a kind of vicious cycle: one where more melting releases more food, algae proliferate, the ice darkens and melts even faster. This mechanism, time and time again, turns warming into a self-accelerating process that is difficult to stop once it has started. The measurable impact of a microscopic phenomenon. In southwest Greenland, one of the fastest melting regions, algae already explain about 13% of runoff water generated by summer thaw. In fact, studies published in journals such as Environmental Science and Technology and Nature Communications have shown that even minute amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen, released from the ice or transported through the air, are enough to sustain these biological communities, suggesting that the phenomenon could extend to areas much wider of the cap. A climate problem. Plus: ice darkening does not occur in a political or economic vacuum. The retreat of sea ice around Greenland is opening new sea routes and facilitating access to mineral, oil and gas resources, increasing the strategic interest for the region. Any additional industrial activity could release, for example, soot and particles that further aggravate the darkening of the ice, accelerating a process that, in the worst case scenario, could contribute to a global rise in sea level of up to seven meters if the ice sheet completely disappeared. What is known… and what is not yet. The scientists match in which algae are not the cause of global warming, but rather a consequence which amplifies its effects, while underlining that the root of the problem continues to be the burning of fossil fuels on the planet. However, it is still unknown precisely to what extent this “dark spot” can expand and how to integrate your impact in sea level rise models. Meanwhile, Greenland seems to offer us a most ominous warning (another one): that even the smallest changes, those invisible to the naked eye, can tip the balance of one of the largest and most fragile systems on the planet. Image | Jenine McCutcheon/University of Waterloo In Xataka | Why we find 50,000 meteorites in Antarctica if they fall the same all over the planet: ice has the answer In Xataka | Antarctica launches its “Doomsday Vault”: a sanctuary at -50 °C to save the memory of the glaciers

charge double for more speed

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Anthropic just launched Fast Mode for Claude Opus 4.6a configuration that allows you to obtain model responses up to 2.5 times faster. Of course, it will also affect our pocket, since the price also multiplies. Although right now this is an experiment aimed at professionals who need speed in critical tasks, it is also a move that we are starting to see more and more: monetizing AI tools with incremental improvements with what is already in place. And of course, if this reduces that margin between expenses and income of its operations, better and better. What Anthropic has announced. Fast Mode is neither a new model nor a trimmed version of Opus 4.6. It is the same intelligence, with the same reasoning capacity, but configured to prioritize speed of response over cost efficiency. According to the companyoffers 2.5 times faster responses while maintaining the same model accuracy. At the moment it is available in the testing phase for Claude Code users who have the additional use activated, and also on platforms such as Cursor, GitHub CopilotFigma or v0. The hit to the pocket. While Opus 4.6’s Standard Mode charges $15 per million input tokens and $75 per million output tokens, Fast Mode multiplies those fees: $30 input and $150 output for contexts under 200,000 tokens. In longer contexts, the output rises to $225 per million tokens. Anthropic is offering a 50% discount until February 16, but we’re still talking about a significant increase. The bill especially skyrockets if you activate Quick Mode mid-conversation, as it charges full price for all the previous context. Who does it make sense to? Anthropic says that Fast Mode is designed for interactive work where latency matters more than cost. Real-time debugging, fast code iteration, urgent fixes before a deadline. Situations where waiting breaks the workflow. According to the official documentationit doesn’t make sense for long standalone tasks, batch processing, or jobs where the budget is tight. If Claude is going to spend 30 minutes refactoring code in the background, paying more for speed doesn’t add anything. The signal that sends the market. Fast Mode is not just a premium option. It’s Anthropic testing how far its professional clients are willing to go to achieve fluency. And by the way, sending a message: improvements in speed and user experience are going to cost more and more. The company needs to close the gap between what it spends on computing and what it makes, and it’s doing it faster than its customer base needs to be faster on computing. Fast Mode is billed directly as additional usage, completely skipping the fees included in subscription plans. Between the lines. Anthropic’s move fits into a broader trend. AI models are reaching a level of capability where “revolutionary” improvements are increasingly rare. What remains are incremental adjustments: a little faster, a little more context, slightly more precise responses. But those settings require massive infrastructure and face. So companies in the sector are trying new ways to monetize what they already have. In this case, charge much more to do the same thing, only faster. It is making performance profitable as a premium service. The speed trap. “Speed ​​is addictive”, counted Civil Learning in his Medium article. Once you experience a model that responds instantly without losing reasoning ability, going back is frustrating. Anthropic knows this. Fast Mode doesn’t just sell speed, it sells the ability to maintain flow during intense programming or debugging sessions. And once you get used to it, it’s hard to give it up. And now what. Fast Mode is a research preview, meaning both features and pricing are subject to change. Anthropic plans to expand access to more API clients, but for now it keeps it under control. The key will be to see how many professionals are willing to pay that extra price on a sustained basis. Cover image | Anthropic In Xataka | ChatGPT is increasingly turning to a source that supplants Wikipedia: Elon Musk’s Grokipedia

What are they and how do they affect the maximum speed on highways and highways?

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Let’s explain to you what are dynamic speed limits on highways and highways. Because no, the speed limits are not going to change forever nor are we going to say goodbye to 120 km/h, but in some sections the maximum at which you can drive will depend on each moment. Therefore, taking into account everything that is being said and exaggerated, we are going to try to explain to you how this type of speed limits works. Just remember that At the moment they have only been implemented in some sections of specific roads, not on all highways and expressways. What are dynamic speed limits? Highways and expressways have a speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour. But when a section of road tends to have a lot of traffic or complications on a regular basis, or simply when the weather and visibility are poor, then these static limits can even become dangerous, because people tend to go faster than they should. For these cases, the DGT is beginning to implement a technology that has already been satisfactorily tested in countries such as Germany or France, managing to reduce accidents in high traffic areas. It is about the dynamic speed limitswhich will vary depending on the conditions at any given time. This technology uses artificial intelligence to record and process traffic or weather data in real time, and will take into account visibility, peak times, times and incidents that occur. With all this, The speed limit will be adjusted automatically taking into account the situation at all times. In the sections where it is implemented, the speed limit will be displayed on the illuminated panels on the roads. Thus, if the conditions are not bad, this system will at specific times reduce the speed limit from 120 km/h to 100, 90 or even 80 km/h. For example, if it is very foggy this morning, perhaps the limit is 120 to 80 km/h to avoid accidents. That limit to which it is lowered will be the legal one at the moment in which it is posted, so speeding will have fines which can range between 100 and 600 euros and between 2 and 6 license points. Come on, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a stretch of highway, if it says the limit is 80 right now, that’s how it is. For now, These dynamic limits have only been applied to one trackwhich is the AP-7, in one of its sections in Catalonia. Taking into account that it is a system that works satisfactorily in other European countries, if the bet goes well in this area, it would not be ruled out that it be implemented in others. Cover image | Jorge Franganillo In Xataka Basics | DGT express fines: what they are and how this new system works to notify violations in 48 hours

We already know which country had the highest internet speed in the world in 2025: Spain

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How has the internet changed in 2025? It’s too broad a question, but if there’s anyone trying to answer it, it’s Cloudflare. The company has published an extensive summary of the most important thing this year and among the numerous conclusions there is one that has surprised us: Spain is the country with the fastest internet connection in the world. Spain at full speed. in the studio stands out that Europe was the clear leader in terms of the best internet connection speeds. Here Spain was also the protagonist, because it was the country with the highest download speed in 2025, with 318 Mbps on average (25 Mbps more than in 2024). It was also the best in terms of upload speed, with 206 Mbps (13 more than in 2024). A possible person responsible. Cloudflare indicates that the reason why Spain leads this unique ranking is probably in the program UNICO-Broadband (Universalization of Digital Infrastructures for Cohesion). This initiative has been going for years and the current goal was to achieve an infrastructure capable of providing services at symmetrical speeds of at least 300 Gbps, scalable to 1 Gbps, and achieving 100% coverage in 2025. Achieving everything is almost impossible —Hello, rural Spain— but that effort certainly seems to be paying off. Spain also more than meets the metric of latency under load: even on intense connections, response times are very good. We also enjoy excellent latency. Data download and upload speeds are important, but so is the latency of the connections: the lower it is, the more fluid the communication is, especially in video conferencing, gaming and streaming applications. Here Iceland takes the cake with only 13 ms, but Spain is still among the best with 19 ms. Things are even better in the so-called latency under load, which measures how long it takes a signal to go and return (the ping) when the internet connection is under intense load (playing online, watching 4K videos). In that metric, much more realistic than “resting” latency, Spain is in third place with 89 ms, a truly remarkable figure. Years as leaders. These results may surprise, but in reality Spain already led these rankings in past editions of Cloudflare’s annual summary. It happened in 2024and also in 2023which is undoubtedly great data that shows that despite the problems that may arise, most users have access to an enviable infrastructure. More traffic than ever. Global internet traffic grew by 19% in 2025, and the person most responsible for that traffic was the Googlebot that searches the internet to index it and make it easier for us to find all types of data in the Google search engine. Although crawlers from AI companies are gaining ground, they are still a long way from Google’s activity, and with good reason: all types of websites want to be “crawlable” in order to be “findable.” The same does not happen with AI. The higher the ratio, the less traffic these chatbots send to content websites. Anthropic is the worst here, and Google, of course, the best by far. What happens to AI in 2025. There are many metrics related to AI this year. For example, Anthropic is the platform that sends the least traffic to content websites (ahead are OpenAI and especially Perplexity). This also causes platform crawling bots (GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot) to be “blocked” in the robots.txt files of many websites to prevent them from collecting data without permission to train their models. Google continues to reign. The list of most popular internet services Not much has changed around the world: Google leads that ranking, and is followed by Facebook, Apple, Microsoft and Instagram. It’s probably more interesting to see what data Cloudflare is reporting on the most popular generative AI services. There the winner is not a surprise (ChatGPT), but the order of the rest of the contenders is striking, because they are then followed by Claude, Perplexity, Gemini and Character.ai. Grok is in ninth place and DeepSeek in tenth, for example. That list will surely be very different in 2026. Image | Sasha Pleshco | Stephen Phillips In Xataka |

The drone war in Ukraine is advancing at the speed of light: what was useful two weeks ago is a death trap today

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Since the first months of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has converted the use of drones in one of the central pillars of its defense, and has done so to the point of transforming a conventional conflict into a permanent laboratory unmanned combat. In this environment of constant adaptation, drones have not only redefined the way we fight on the front, but have imposed an unprecedented pace of technological change that forces armies, industries and training centers to update almost in real time to avoid becoming obsolete. Classrooms at war. The Ukrainian drone schools have become one of the most extreme laboratories of military learning in the world, forced to rewrite their training programs at a dizzying pace that in some cases reaches the two weeks. In a conflict where drones have become the main instrument of attack, reconnaissance and attrition, the distance between an obsolete lesson and a lethal decision can be measured in days. For these centers, adapting is not an academic question, but rather a direct line between survival and death on the front, in an environment where technology, countermeasures and tactics change constantly and rapidly. In Xataka We had seen everything in Ukraine, but this is new: drones are disguising themselves as Russian soldiers, and it is working Synergy. To stay relevant, instructors are not limited to manuals or simulators. They regularly visit the battle lines, maintain permanent contact with alumni deployed and testing new technologies before incorporating them into their courses. In schools like Dronarium, with offices in kyiv and Lviv, its R&D manager, the veteran known as “Ruda”, explains that technological evolution on the front is so rapid that it requires almost immediate adaptability. There is no two equal classes: Each lesson incorporates small adjustments resulting from what happened days before in real combat. More than 16,000 students have passed through this center, and their experiences are directly integrated into the curriculum, turning training into a living system that feeds back on the war. Two-way learning. One of the pillars of this model is communication direct and permanent with the combatants. Messaging groups connect deployed instructors and operators, allowing soldiers to share new enemy tactics, technical problems or improvised solutions, while receiving advice in near real time from the rear. In centers like Karlsson, Karas & Associates or Kruk Drones, this relationship does not end at the end of the course: it is maintained throughout the operator’s operational life. The instruction is clear: nothing is taught that is not strictly necessary in combat, and what is no longer useful is unceremoniously discarded, no matter how recent it may be. A war that reinvents itself. The central weight of drones on the battlefield explains this urgency. The majority of frontline impacts and casualties already depend on unmanned systems, requiring continuous modification of both platforms and employment tactics. New models appear, others are neutralized by countermeasures, and the rules of the game are constantly rewritten. This speed has set off alarm bells in the West: military officials such as British Minister Luke Pollard warn that NATO forces run the risk of becoming obsolete, trapped in acquisition cycles that last years in the face of a war that repeats every two or three weeks. {“videoId”:”x8j6422″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Declassified video of the clash between Russian fighters and the American drone”, “tag”:”united states”, “duration”:”42″} The industry learns from Ukraine. The schools they are not alone in this race. Defense companies that observe the conflict have begun to copy this model of direct interaction with the front, shortening your cycles developmental. Manufacturers of anti-drone systems and UAV platforms visit the battlefield, chat with operators and fine-tune designs in a matter of weeks, not years. Some executives recognize that the ways in which Ukrainians use technology have surprised them, forcing them to rethink basic assumptions. At the same time, the soldiers themselves benefit from this exchange, providing constant feedback and receiving improvements, spare parts and solutions adapted to their real needs. In Genbeta According to psychology, those who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s developed mental strengths that are being lost today Schools under fire. There is no doubt, this permanent adaptation has a cost. Drone schools are not only competing against the technological clock, they are operating under the direct threat from Russian attacks and with limited financial resources, often depending on donations to continue functioning. In this context, their fight is not only to stay updated, but to survive. Even so, their role has become central in modern warfare: they are the link that connects innovation, industry and real combat, and the best example of how Ukraine has turned the urgency of conflict into a flexible and brutally efficient national military learning system. Image | Heute, RawPixel In Xataka | The new episode of terror in Ukraine does not involve missiles or drones: it involves leaving a city without cell phones In Xataka | Europe faces a question it can no longer avoid: how to respond to a war that is rarely declared (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news The drone war in Ukraine is advancing at the speed of light: what was useful two weeks ago is a death trap today was originally published in Xataka by Miguel Jorge .

The Madrid-Barcelona AVE will reach a peak speed of 350 km/h. And it will do so thanks to new sleepers of Spanish design

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While in China they are already thinking about trains that reach 4,000 km/hIn Spain we are looking for an AVE that reaches 350 km/h that could be reached without problems if it were not for one detail: the tracks. And for something much more specific: the sleepers. The solution is a new design called “aerotraviesa” that will increase the speed of the BIRD. The problem is that theory is one thing, and practice another. a physical problem. Spain plays in the high speed major league and, in it, Renfe opera four types of trains. The Alvia and Avant reach 250 km/h. The Avlo and the AVE reach 300 km/h. However, the machines are prepared to reach higher speeds, the aforementioned 350 km/h. The problem is in physics. When a train exceeds a certain speed, 300 km/h, a phenomenon called ‘ballast flight’ occurs. This implies that the underside of the train generates turbulence that creates areas of low pressure on the track. This causes the passage of the train to vibrate the stones, the ballast, lifting them and causing them to collide against the underside of the train or settle on the tracks and sleepers themselves. Furthermore, at more than 300 km/h, the possible bumps on the journey increase. Air traverses. That’s where a new sleeper design comes into play that the company itself Adif presented a few years ago. Instead of a flat crossbar, a traditional rectangle, the central part of it has a more rounded design. Adif affirms This modifies the velocity field on the ballast in the area between the sleepers, minimizing the presence of ballast particles, and the key points are: Reduces 21% of the aerodynamic load in the space immediately above the ballast bed. The design allows increasing the distance between the ballast level and the upper face of the sleeper. It has no higher manufacturing or handling costs (they are still molds). And most importantly: the aerodynamic load generated by a train at 330 km/h on a track with current sleepers is equivalent to that generated by the same train at 370 km/h, but with aero sleepers. AV350 Plan. In short, the aerocrossers improve the aerodynamic performance of the infrastructure and there is another important fact: their use allows an increase of 12% in the operating speed of the train. And it is not just theory, since Spain wants to start installing overhead traverses to improve the speed of the AVE. A few weeks ago, Óscar Puente, Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, advertisement that the Madrid-Barcelona line will be the first to have these overhead traverses. The result? Reach the maximum speed of the original design of the infrastructure, which is 350 km/h. Currently, the AVE reaches those 300 km/h due to the physical limitations mentioned above. This will allow us to go from the two hours and 37 minutes of the AVE that currently takes the least time to less than two hours. Puente highlighted that the design of the aerocrosses is pioneer in the world. The Polytechnic University of Madrid, Adif and SENER constituted a consortium to develop this technology and obtained the patent in March 2014, achieving international protection in Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United States. There are countries that have faced the ballast problem in other ways, Germany covering the ballast with concrete, for example. Arching an eyebrow. Increasing the speed of the train by changing the sleepers sounds great. The problem is that there are some aspects to consider. On the one hand, the cost-benefit debate not only because of what the investment will mean in changing all the sleepers, but also because of the maintenance of certain train materials that will suffer more than now. Driving at 350 km/h exponentially increases the wear of both the wheels and the catenary, regardless of whether the ballast causes no damage to the train, or causes less. On the other hand, not only the sleepers come into play, but also the own land. A bump at 300 km/h can be annoying, at 350 km/h it can be something more. Or two. And, beyond whether it is worth the investment to gain half an hour or what will happen with those possible technical problems, the big question is what happens with the rest of Spain. It is estimated that the Madrid-Barcelona section in which these air crossings begin to be applied will take about two years to complete. At a rate of 800 sleepers changed per day and 1,666 sleepers per kilometer, the work is of great magnitude. And it is clear that it is a congested route and that it is seeing a boom in the number of travelers, but while that line is reinforced, the connection with other parts of the peninsula remains neglectedlike the train to Soria, Teruel or the perennial case of Extremadura. Images | Xataka, Adif In Xataka | AVLO’s departure from Madrid-Barcelona seemed like another problem for Renfe. He has left us an unexpected winner

In 1970, the train to my town in Extremadura took 20 minutes longer than it does today. It’s a painful reminder about “high speed”

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For eight days, Cáceres and Badajoz have been linked by train. To be exact, they are united by a train typical of the 21st century and, more specifically, of 2025. Since last December 1the two largest cities in Extremadura are linked by a journey of just 50 minutes. A trip with four frequencies daily that makes the lives of thousands of Extremadurans easier. By the middle of next year, in 2026, the Government says that trains will finally be able to reach 300 km/h. If fulfilled, it will be a milestone for the region and a first step to make that Madrid-Lisbon a reality, of which been talking for more than 20 years. Europe seems to have gotten serious in that sense. The intention is to have a connection between capitals in 2030 and that four years later, the journey will only take a little more than 180 minutes. Three hours that now seem little more than a chimera. Especially if we take into account that the first promise to connect both cities dates back to 2003. So he was aiming for 2010 as a final date to have the high-speed connection ready. Today, from Madrid to Badajoz, the only section that operates at “high speed” is the one that separates Badajoz from Cáceres… and a little further, up to the Monfragüe station and its connection with Plasencia. The problem is that the Plasencia-Badajoz section is only one of the three sections that make up the connection between Madrid and the Portuguese border. Yes, it began to act as an electrified connection of iberian width in December 2023. Now, almost two years later, passengers can move between Cáceres and Badajoz in less than an hour. But traveling between Madrid and Badajoz still requires you to use almost five hours of travel. And it is not something that is going to change in the short term. Because it took us almost the same time to get to Extremadura as it did 50 years ago. 20 minutes Browsing the net and trying to understand how we have evolved, I came across the seventh number of the Renfe guide in which the schedules of all the trains available in Spain between December 1970 and March 1971 are collected. In addition to having a good time diving and finding some curiosities such as that the traveler had a Madrid-Paris available that only required worrying about the change in gauge at the border, I found something that caught my attention. Since I was a child, I move frequently between Madrid and Extremadura. Specifically, a town near the Monfragüe Natural Park, an enclave that is located a few kilometers from Plasencia. As long as I’ve had a car, I’ve always traveled in it, but when I didn’t have a driving license I used to opt for the bus. First because there were more frequencies available. Then because delays and breakdowns became part of normality. A shame because the train trip is much more comfortable than the bus and should be faster. Ought. Because while diving I found a detail that caught my attention. Trains leaving from Madrid and arriving in Extremadura in 1970. Click on the image to see more schedules There it was. Train leaving Madrid at 10:40. Arrival at Palazuelo-Empalme (current Monfragüe station) at 13:41 minutes. 181 minutes to cover the 253 kilometers of the journey. Today, luckily, Renfe offers a faster connection. Specifically, 20 minutes faster. As you can see in the following image, the trains between this Extremaduran station (the first electrified) and Madrid are still more than two and a half hours away to travel just over 250 kilometers. Let us remember that Madrid and Barcelona aspire to be united in less time. Or that in less than 10 years we should see a Madrid-Lisbon in less than three hours. The problem, as we said, is that the connection between Madrid and Extremadura is progressing at an extremely slow pace. The first step has been to electrify the Iberian gauge track between Badajoz and this Extremaduran stop. Now, in addition, it is double, which prevents a failure in one direction from immediately affecting the other and, at least, one of the two from continuing to function. The second and biggest problem is that the connection in its La Mancha section is especially slow. The line is divided as follows: Plasencia-Cáceres-Mérida-Badajoz section Talayuela-Plasencia section Madrid-Oropesa section At the moment, the section between Talayuela and Plasencia (on the Extremadura side) is in the construction phase but as indicated in Levantthe works are still in an initial phase. In fact, of the seven subsections into which it is divided, only two of them have been completed, as collected by Adif. Despite everything, the deadlines should not be extended much longer and the section should be active in 2028. But the most problematic thing is in Castilla-La Mancha. The Madrid-Oropesa section is still in the information project phase. In it, the biggest obstacle is the passage through Toledo. The intention of the Ministry of Transport and the city council is to bring the AVE as close as possible to the municipality, using the current station that is located just two kilometers away in a straight line from the urban area. This forces us to design a new viaduct to solve the passage through the Tagus… and there is the conflict. The Autonomous Community and platforms in defense of the city’s heritage believe that it damages its image and propose an alternative station in an industrial estate further away from the urban area, reducing the visual impact and discarding the need for the viaduct. They show in an exhaustive analysis in Geotrain how one day, if all goes well, in 2030 we will have a connection between Madrid and Badajoz in 151 minutes. That is, in two and a half hours. Until then, it will still be 10 minutes less than it currently takes to the station closest to my town, located long before reaching … Read more

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