state

After 40 years in the Galician sea, the radioactive drums are in a critical state of deterioration. The solution may be worse than letting it be

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“There is no life down there.” For decades it was almost a legend among activists and oceanographers: a giant landfill, with hundreds of thousands of radioactive drums, abandoned in the abyssal plain of the Atlantic. The problem is that there was life and they were killing it. A little less than 300 nautical miles from Cape Fisterra in Galicia – just over 500 kilometers – the Nodssum Project, which is already on its third expedition, has sounded the alarm. Far from the myth, French scientific missions They located thousands of barrels, went down with manned submarines, photographed leaks and measured radionuclides above what was expected. 220,000 barrels They only found a thousand. The rest, some 100,000 tons of nuclear waste, lay at the bottom and was carried away by the currents, its contents scattered. Now, with just over 3,500 barrels located, it is concluded that they are suffering from an “advanced state of deterioration”, according to researchers from the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). A cemetery under the Atlantic. Where does all this come from? The drama began in 1946. And until the early 1990s, British, Dutch, Belgian, French and other European ships continuously dumped low- and medium-level radioactive waste at the bottom of the Atlantic. They are concentrated in an area of ​​about 10,000 square kilometers, at a depth of 4,000–5,000 meters. It is, without hot cloths, the third largest landfill of canned nuclear waste known on the planet. Inside there are no fuel rods, but rather civil and military nuclear waste: sludge, gloves, laboratory equipment, medical remains, resins, contaminated scrap metal, encapsulated in cement or tar to withstand the pressure of the deep ocean. When the landfill began to be mapped, they did not even document 1% of the total. To date, just over 3,000 barrels have been located, identified with the autonomous robot UlyX and high-resolution sonar. A longliner and a lot coraxe. The They came between two freighters that were dumping garbage to the Atlantic Trench. The press took notice and that practice bounced around in newspapers around the world. The protests had an effect, because the European body in charge of controlling this waste declared a moratorium on discharges. Moratorium that is still in force today. The first NODSSUM-I campaign focused on making the invisible visible. since a decadethe expedition has been expanding the mapped area to about 140 square kilometers, with densities of about 20 drums per square kilometer and more than 3,350 barrels cataloged. The great novelty came with the manned submarine Nautile, which made it possible to directly observe the state of the barrels at more than 4,000 meters deep. It was then that the real state could be noticed. Barrels in the last. Corroded surfaces, colonization of anemones, open cracks in dents and leaks of encapsulating material – with tar and cement overflowing – in some containers, in addition to the detection of radionuclides above what was expected. The sea salt is slowly eating away some brass lacking the necessary security. The expedition has taken 345 samples of sediment, about 5,000 liters of water and specimens of abyssal fauna (fish, amphipods, small crustaceans) to analyze them in the laboratory with precision one hundred times greater than that of the instruments on board. To date, no “anomalies” have been found in the sediments and, although the radionuclides are below legal limitsthey do exceed all previous estimates. Rescue them… or leave them where they are. The current objective is to contain the threat. Can 200,000 drums be removed from the bottom of the Atlantic? Technically, yes; Politically, economically and in terms of risk, things get complicated. The Nuclear Safety Council insists on a clear message: the Galician and Cantabrian coastal waters do not show significant levels of radioactivity, below the limits set by Spanish and European regulations. And Spain does not even have responsibilities, since it did not dump waste into the Atlantic trench. In fact, the problem goes beyond the astronomical cost: many barrels are so degraded that they could disintegrate in the lifting process. If deterioration continues, will there be greater problems resulting from bioaccumulation? How does it affect the abyssal food chain? This is exactly what you are looking to answer. At the same time, we are trying to study this deep habitat full of organisms adapted to a darkness that now coexists with an 80-year-old nuclear legacy. Images | BNG (by Wolcott Henry), Flickr (owned by Tomas Vazquez) and Campagne NODSSUM, CNRS, Flotte oceanographique française. In Xataka | 800 meters deep in a 175 million year old rock: Germany’s solution to nuclear waste In Xataka | The big problem with nuclear energy has always been its waste. Russia can now recycle them up to five times

“All pollution can be sent into space to return to the state before the Industrial Revolution”

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Taking data centers to space. Although Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, it seems that the idea does not convince him too muchsome of the largest companies in the world have embarked on the race to fill low orbit with satellites. AWS with Blue Origin is there, Google is thereElon Musk says that he already has them with a simple Starlink update and even Nvidia, Eric Schmidt and Sam Altman They have an interest in the matter. The advantages of take these data centers to space They seem clear: without water consumption because they are cooled by the cold of space, without energy consumption because they are powered by inexhaustible solar energy and without taking up space. The astronomers They are not particularly enthusiasticbut it seems that the industry is moving in that direction and one of the most enthusiastic, Jeff Bezos, has left a curious message. By taking data centers into space, “we can make parks like Paris everywhere on Earth.” Playing this card is a dangerous thing. Improve the Earth by taking factories to space We have already discussed the objective: to have space computing power to support terrestrial computing thanks to a power that can scale by carrying more and more satellites that do not require investing in dissipation and power systems. With energy being a problem in some countries due to what these data centers consume, makes sense in the roadmap of these large companies. But Bezos, who has spoken at length about why they want to go to the Moon, why they want to turn the satellite into a gas station and how they plan to achieve the goal, has not been so specific when talking about constellations in low orbit or computing beyond the clouds. It has focused on two things: remembering why they are investing so much and launching a romantic message that clashes with what these data centers are causing on Earth. “We have to build the infrastructure for a constantly changing scenario,” says Bezos. “The price of the space race is very high and if you look back, before the Internet, there were very few actors. Two boys in a workshop could make a huge company. “We’re at that point in the space economy.” “We can make parks like Paris everywhere on Earth” The objective is to collect resources and materials on the Moon because, as he has admitted, “The Moon is a gift”but he has also commented that “many of the resources we need are in space.” And it does not refer so much to the regolith as to the aforementioned dissipation and infinite solar energy. “We are focusing a lot on that to exploit the space economy. It is infinite and it will happen,” he says. Now, he points out that they don’t know when it will happen because orbital computing will be a big step, but he did leave some… curious phrases. “Everything is better than 500 years ago, but we have more pollution on Earth than 500 years ago. If we send all that away, if we can send all the pollution from factories on Earth away from Earth, we can return to the state before the Industrial Revolution.” At this point, someone would ask, precisely, who are the ones that are generating the most pollution with the energy needs of their data centers and the need to return to coal In order to satisfy the demand, the private jet travel, what rockets pollute space, one’s own low orbit pollution with as many satellites or actions as promoting a fast consumer society that wastes so many resources. But, beyond that, it is not easy to send “all the pollution from Earth’s factories to space.” There are industries that are simply impossible to send to low orbit because, beyond the obvious logistical limitations, we are talking about a first-come, first-served space. And America is moving, but also ChinaIndia, Russia and Europe. The message that there are parks like in Paris anywhere in the world is powerful, of course, but start watering those parks in some countries. In Xataka | Data centers are real “heaters”. And they are settling in regions as hot as Aragón

Without state aid, China feared that electric sales would plummet. Until the Hormuz crisis arrived

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It seemed that the market was retreating but, perhaps, what it was doing was taking a breath to come back much stronger. Never before in China have plug-in and electric hybrids, known as “new energy” cars, had so much weight. Last April, a new record was broken that only confirms where the future of its industry lies. Record. 61.4% of the cars sold in China last April they were “new energy” vehicles. This is the category used by the Chinese State to talk about plug-in and electric vehicles. Its market penetration is the highest in the country’s history. The figure is almost 10% higher than last year, despite the fact that sales have fallen. This means that gasoline-powered vehicles have collapsed and that the customer is already beginning to massively accept the plug-in vehicle as the car of the future. a collapse. It is the word they use in CarNewsChina to refer to the drop in sales of internal combustion cars. And, according to data provided by the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA), the sale of combustion cars has plummeted by 37% compared to the previous year and 33% compared to the month of March. Media like Jiemian They point to a clear cause of this trend: the price of oil. Last April, sales of cars with internal combustion engines were reduced by 530,000 units. The drop is undoubtedly influenced by a rise in the price of gasoline. The State has tried by all means to mitigate the impact on the consumer and the industry. In their market planning, the extra cost at the pump has been cushioned but, as they point out in Reutersgasoline and diesel are close to reaching all-time highs. Thank goodness. In Reuters They assure that China is the country that is best saving the oil crisis due to its diversified purchases but also due to the intensive use of electric cars. According to the Chinese media 36krIn 2024, China was already saving more than 400,000 barrels of oil per day thanks to its electric cars and represented a saving of 12% of its imports of this product. They explain that, although crude oil imports increased in 2025, this was due to an acceleration in the industry but electric cars helped mitigate the impact on purchases. Relief is key given the constant interruptions in regular supply of the countries near Hormuz. And it is that China has Russia as its main supplier but Saudi Arabia follows as second. A powerful track. So far this year, overall car sales in China have declined and especially “new energy” cars have been in the spotlight. Without the support of the State with purchase aidits sales have fallen by 17% but indications are that the oil crisis is helping the market rebound. In April, the drop in these cars was 6.8% while global sales fell 21.5%, both data compared to the same period of the previous year. In the first 10 days of Maysales of these cars have decreased by 13% compared to last year but have grown by 27% compared to the first 10 days of last April. Without state aid, car sales in China have fallen, underscoring the country’s historic problem in encourage family consumption. However, it does make it clear to us that the slowdown between plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles is being less than that of the rest of the technologies despite the fact that the State has stopped pushing. A backup. The movement towards electric vehicles is an endorsement of the policies of the Chinese state. With the economy managed with five-year plans, China has been building a base for more than two decades to be dominant with the Chinese electric car. He attracted knowledge by giving up landhas built a solid foundation in the supply chain and now Their brands already dominate the local marketthe largest in the world. But they have also given a lesson that is beginning to be seen outside their borders: the electric car is a good tool to alleviate the complications of the oil market. On a day-to-day basis, the savings by charging an electric car at low power are very high. If the price of gasoline rises, the savings skyrocket. Beyond China. Aware of this, China has put the turbo into its exports. BYD (which only sells plug-in vehicles) has broken a new shipment record. They are at the perfect time to enter the market with their low ranges but also offering electric cars at very competitive prices. Especially among plug-in hybrids. At the moment, most of the sales of Chinese cars in Europe are low-end cars with combustion engines. This already helps them penetrate the market, gain share and begin to be seen by new potential clients. But, also, its plug-in hybrids do not pay tariffs. This is allowing them to compete on price with Europeans and in countries like Spain, where it is considered the main purchasing value for a large part of the market, it is key. For example, a fact: so far this year, five of the 10 best-selling plug-in hybrid cars in Spain they are Chinese. Photo | INC and BYD In Xataka | An electric car is 54% cheaper to maintain than a combustion car. And it may not compensate because the data has a trick

Not even God is saved from AI, so the Vatican has gone from the commandments to being the first State to legislate it

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Incredible as it may seem, the Vatican is moving faster than most historical institutions in the face of artificial intelligence and everything that is coming our way (and that, in fact, we are already getting a glimpse of), from disinformation to voice and video deepfakes, to the silent erosion of what we understand as reality. An institution that is more than 2,000 years old and old-fashioned is giving a lesson in institutional agility to governments, parliaments and even technology companies that do not know where they are going. And it does not do so from naivety, but from a firm and concrete theological conviction: that human dignity is not negotiable, not even in the face of a language model with a billion parameters. It has taken the EU years to approve its AI Act and even so it was a pioneer, but big tech in general is behaving like the tobacco industry by self-regulating tobacco. In this scenario, the Holy See has had internal directions in force for months, alliances in cybersecurity and a pope who has already said that AI cannot preach faith. The Vatican’s position. In addition to prohibiting the use of AI to write sermons, last February Pope Leo XIV asked the priesthood do not look for “likes” on social networks. A year earlier, the Vatican had issued one of the world’s first regulatory frameworks on AI demanding ethics, transparency and putting humans at the center Thus, Vatican policy establishes that technology “should never surpass or replace human beings” and must be at the service of human dignity. And it is not something new: the previous Pope Francis already laid the foundations in his Laudato Si’ of 2015, but applied to the digital world. Why it is important. Because the Holy See is moving more and better than the bulk of traditional institutions to establish norms and safeguards against disinformation generated by AI. While the EU approved its legislative framework as a bloc, the Vatican has been the first individual sovereign State to have immediate compliance guidelines for its administration, ahead of powers such as the United States or China. By positioning itself as a moral authority, it seeks to fill the regulatory and ethical void that technology companies have left open. This positioning has real institutional weight: the Vatican operates as a diplomatic actor with permanent observer status at the UN and relations with more than 180 states, which allows it to project its ethical standards beyond the religious sphere, in a space where neither governments nor technology companies have achieved global consensus. Context. We have already seen that the movement is not something sudden or improvised and that the Vatican’s position has been brewing for years. In fact, it is the evolution of the “Rome Call for AI Ethics“, a historical (but voluntary) document where the Vatican managed to get giants such as Microsoft, IBM and Cisco will sign a commitment to develop technologies that respect privacy and inclusion The current geopolitical context, marked by cyberattacks and the use of deepfakes in conflicts, has forced the Holy See to accelerate its cybersecurity partnerships and establish monitoring within Vatican City itself to protect its information sovereignty. At a regulatory level, the Vatican is not going it alone: ​​the Holy See’s approach is complementary to that of the AI ​​Act: the EU regulates by law and the Vatican provides the moral authority and ethical principles of universal application, something that cannot be legislated. Retail. The Vatican’s regulatory framework focuses on both technical security and the social impact that algorithms have and seriously warns about the risk of a new inequality gap: between those who control AI and those who are controlled by it. The Vatican has established formal cybersecurity alliances with simultaneous focus on defense, diplomacy and ethics. The internal guidelines They prohibit AI that manipulates people, generates discrimination or compromises institutional integrity and there are specific safeguards on data. In Xataka | “AI will never be able to preach the faith”: the Pope is asking priests not to use ChatGPT to write their sermons In Xataka | The Vatican, a holy and renewable city: the Pope’s plans to make the small Catholic state more sustainable Cover | Google DeepMind and Julien DI MAJO

The emptied rural Spain has been revealed as the great energy engine of the State

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Spain is a State full of contrasts. At a demographic level, the population density is concentrated in Madrid and coastal cities, that is, 30% of the territory concentrates 90% of the people. It is “tight Spain.” The rest, approximately five million people, occupy 70% of the territory, in the interior of the peninsula. More people consume more resources, which puts two realities on the table: Madrid consumes more and generates less energy than anyone else and that emptied Spain is the energy engine of the State, as the report summarizes “The energy transition in the Spanish rural environment” prepared by Monitor Deloitte. The most striking fact: 84% of renewable energy generation comes from rural environments. Context. In the collective imagination we associate energy production with large nuclear or fossil fuel installations, but nothing is further from current reality. Spain is carrying out an energy transition collected in the National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan with the objective of reaching 81% electricity generation from renewables. And it’s on the right track: the report of the Spanish Electrical System of Red Eléctrica for 2023 It showed that it had already exceeded the 50% quota. At specific moments, has reached 100% supply. Listing renewable sources by their importance, we find wind energy prominently, followed by photovoltaic and hydraulic energy. Where. In rural territory, in that sparsely populated place where natural resources and space abound. The report highlights regions such as Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León and Aragón as hubs precisely because of their availability of soil and climatic resources (radiation and wind). Why is it important. Because the State needs that emptied Spain and its resources to successfully carry out its energy transition. Without that territory or its available resources, there is no decarbonization or energy sovereignty. Obviously a paradox occurs: that the most populated places are those that produce the least energy and vice versa, which generates a territorial imbalance. However, this deployment of infrastructure can become an opportunity to promote local employment and thus establish the population. Finally, agrivoltaics is revealed as a way to modernize the agricultural sector, making it possible to make cultivation for food compatible with energy supply, all on the same soil. In figures. In addition to this substantial share of 84% of renewable energy from rural areas, the report reveals other interesting figures: There are 15 provinces with critical population density (

Google is going to build a mega data center in a state where the drought is atrocious. Your cooling plan: use air

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The American state of Texas has been dealing with heat wavesdroughts and a increasing pressure on its aquiferswhich makes it on paper one of the worst places to set up a data center. Well, Wilbarger County in Texas is just the place chosen by Google to set up your next data center. But big tech hides an ace up its sleeve: it is not going to use water for cooling, but air. Context. Briefly, a data center is an industrial facility full of servers where information transmitted over the internet, such as AI responses or your Google photos, is stored and processed. And if your personal computer requires cooling when it has been working with a certain intensity for some time to dissipate heat, more of the same with servers, which operate 24/7. The usual thing in these plants is to use thermal dissipation systems with water, either with chillers, evaporation or direct cooling with immersion, thermally efficient solutions, but problematic if water is scarce. The problem? That Texas is an oven that is not for buns: its drought is pressing. But Texas is not a foreign place for Google: it has been in that state for more than 15 years, where it has operational centers in Midlothian and Red Oak and already plans to build two more campuses in Armstrong and Haskell Counties. It’s very serious. The project. The Wilbarger County data center will reduce water use so much that it will restrict its application to basic campus uses such as kitchens and services. As? Google has not provided details of the technology, only that it will be advanced air cooling. Cooling with air in such a hot scenario implies greater energy consumption, so the problem now becomes electricity. What Google proposes is a “Power first” model. In short: the data center goes hand in hand with its own renewable electricity generation plant. Google’s energy partner for this project is AESone of the largest producers of renewables in the US, with whom it has a 20-year energy purchase agreement at an agreed price. This is how both win: AES has stability to build the plants and Google has the guaranteed supply and price. Furthermore, according to Google, they already have the land and the interconnection signed, which saves bureaucracy and launches the project into the construction phase. Why is it important. Because according to EESI estimatesa medium-sized data center can consume 416 million liters per year for thermal dissipation alone, the equivalent of a thousand homes. And if there is a shortage of water, allocating it to meet the needs of a data center is hardly justifiable. Wilbarger’s project solves this with air cooling, removing the precious commodity of water from the equation, but also from the electrical grid itself: Google cooks it and Google eats it (with the help of AES). Given that the demand for computing continues to grow, a model that does not consume water or overload the network emerges as a solution to a resource management problem. In figures. For Google, Wilbarger County is not a pilot plant and its size demonstrates this: 0 liters of water for cooling. The project will provide 7,800 MW of power to the Texas grid. The agreement between the technology and energy companies is for 20 years. Google advertisement an investment item of 40 billion dollars for Texas in November 2025 and has provided a $30 million fund to boost energy initiatives in Texas from 2026 to 2028. It won’t be easy. Although Google has been cryptic when it comes to reporting what the technology, its capacity and needs will be, the reality is that when cooling with air in a hot climate, the pressure is transferred to the electrical grid. On the other hand, and although this specific project points the direction of a possible solution to this problem, we will have to see if and how it can be scaled, because there are more and more data centers and the climate is increasingly more extreme. In Xataka | Google doesn’t have rockets, but it is going to install data centers in space. SpaceX and Blue Origin rub their hands In Xataka | Data centers in space are the finger, Google’s purchase of an electrical company is the Moon Cover | Google Data Centers and Ganapathy Kumar

We tend to think that the war of extermination was invented by the modern State. A mass grave from 2,800 years ago has just destroyed the myth

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There is an almost romantic tendency to idealize the remote past. Perhaps, inspired by the myth of the “noble savage” they often let’s imagine prehistory and the first societies as peaceful environments where extreme violence and systematic was an aberration or, in any case, an invention that came with the help of more modern times. But the reality is that if we had a time machine, this would be one of the few places where we would have to travel. A reality. Archeology has an uncomfortable habit of unearthing truths that do not fit our prejudices. The latest blow to this idyllic vision that some may have comes from the Balkans, specifically from a mass grave in Gomolava from 2,800 years ago that reveals a calculated, selective and brutal massacre against women and children. A mystery. In the 9th century BC, during the first Iron Age, the Carpathian and Balkan region was inhabited by societies that we today consider primitive. Specifically, they could be found semi-nomadic groups and sedentary communities who were beginning to clash for control of the territory. But here there were neither states nor regular armies. In this way, when archaeologists found a huge mass grave with the remains of 77 individuals at the Gomolava site, the first hypothesis was the most logical for the time: a catastrophic epidemic devastated everyone. However, a new study published in the magazine Naturehas completely rewritten the history of this site, combining forensic, genetic and isotopic analyses. Annihilation. Here the DNA was clear, since there was no trace of deadly pathogens. In this case, people died not from a disease, but from an outbreak of deliberate violence that has shocked the scientific community. Not only because of the violence, but because of the demographic profile, since 70.8% of the adults were women and 66% of the total were children and adolescents. Here the forensic analyzes revealed a terrifying pattern, since the vast majority had injuries at the time of death in the skull. Thus, they were forceful blows inflicted from above, suggesting that the attackers could have been on horseback or executing the victims while they were kneeling or subdued. Why children and women? The answer is pure strategic calculation, since the study of isotopes and DNA revealed that, with the exception of a mother and her two daughters, the victims were not related to each other and came from various regions with varied diets. But it was not a simple robbery gone wrong, but rather an interregional selective annihilation designed to wipe the reproductive future of rival groups off the map. And, in a context of profound social restructuring and territorial conflicts in the Carpathian Basin, eliminating offspring and those people who can produce even more offspring, such as women, was the most brutal and effective way to assert power in an area. Without a doubt, a great strategy to prevent anyone from claiming rights in that area. Ritual. To add another layer of complexity to this dark episode, the burial was not improvised. Contrary to what happens in many mass graves that are quickly made to throw the corpses, andIn this case they took their time. Investigators saw that the victims were buried next to bronze jewelry, ceramics and even sacrificed animals, so it was quite taken care of. Here the theory proposed is that it is a “macabre demonstration of power”: an act where the brutality of the massacre coexists with the socioeconomic value of the victims and the need to maintain the funeral customs of the time. Image | Sarah Nylund (Nature) In Xataka | When did human beings start “cooking”? The answer lies in some carp from 780,000 years ago.

In case of need, that AI is from the State

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The Pentagon dropped the bomb a few hours ago. Anthropic has until this Friday at 5:01 p.m. to agree to have its AI models used for whatever the Pentagon deems appropriate. It is something that is turning the conversation on its head upside down. ethical use of AIbut more important than that, it puts on the table a very clear intention on the part of the United States: that if they consider that all resources must be used in matters of national defense, all resources belong to the State. And that’s where artificial intelligence from private companies comes in. In short. Dario Amodei is the CEO of Anthropic. The name may sound more familiar to you. Claudeone of his models. These are very versatile, but they have a red line very clear: They cannot be used for mass surveillance of US citizens (be careful with the nuance). Nor for the development of weapons or the use of autonomous weapons controlled entirely by AI. And this is something that conflicts with what the Pentagon wants: to use Anthropic models without restrictions. Why Anthropic, you might ask? Well, because this company offered its tool to the Government for the symbolic price of one dollar, which earned them a contract of 200,000,000 dollars. The move did not go badly, and little by little their models were integrated with those of Palantir. Now, the US wants to have an ‘unleashed’ AI, but as my colleague Javier Lacort explainsthe laws and ethics of the United States Armed Forces are based on the fact that a soldier can and must disobey a manifestly illegal order. An AI can do whatever you want it to do. A lever from 1950. A 200 million dollar contract is juicy, but seeing the nonsense that is continually invested in AIit’s pocket change. Anthropic would have it as easy as refusing and clearing the way for someone else to take his place in the Pentagon, right? Well… it’s not that simple. And it is not for two reasons. The first is that it is already highly integrated into all the systems, processes and services that the Department of Defense uses on a daily basis. It is too big a ship for it to change course. He “knows” too much about the interiors of those systems that must be highly secret. But the most important thing is that the United States has a lever to take over whatever it wants. The only thing you have to argue is that it is due to a need for national security. In 1950, during the Korean War, the Defense Production Acta law that grants the president powers to secure supplies necessary for national defense. This, for example, gives the Government power to require companies to prioritize contracts with the State to allocate materials, services and facilities. Also allow aid to expand productive capacity and, ultimately, put the largest companies in the country to work depending on what is needed. Too powerful to be private. This document has been expanded and expanded over time, since the needs of 1950 are not the same as those of later decades, and in 2023 the Executive Order 14,110. It is one that forces the owners of the most powerful AI models to notify the Government when they train systems that may pose a risk to national security, the economy or public health. After him, other drafts have been signed expanding the demands on AI, but the truth is that the Pentagon does not need to publish anything new to pressure Anthropic. Under Title I (ordering that certain products or services be provided to the Government), the Pentagon could take over Anthropic’s AI to carry out its designs. The support is what we have already mentioned: that “national defense.” And, in practice, it is defined that, if the company does not want its AI to do certain things because of that kind of moral code, if it becomes the property of the Pentagon, the ethical barrier can be eliminated. Disciplinary punishment for the “AI woke”. And now, the big question. Can Anthropic say something like “look, you keep the 200 million and each to their own”? Well no. Or not in such a simple way. I have already commented that Claude is too deep into the Pentagon systems (to the point that he was used in the operation to capture Nicolás Maduro) and “knows” too much. She’s very integrated into the Pentagon’s classified systems, and as we can guess, they weren’t going to let her go that easily. And that’s where the figure of Pete Hegseth comes in. He is the Secretary of Defense, and he has qualified that Anthropic moral standard like that of an “AI woke.” Yes… Because Google, OpenAI and xAI allow that the Government uses its models in any “legal” scenario (for the Government, of course), but not Anthropic, and in addition to the lever of the Defense Production Act, the United States can harshly punish the company. If they do not “give in” to their requests, they could identify Anthropic as a company that puts the country’s supply chain at risk. It would be cLike the Huawei veto a few years ago, but to a national company. In practice, US companies would not be able to work with Anthropic. That is to say, the country has a couple of good “arguments” for Anthropic to hand over that moral bar. Learning. It won’t be that long until 5:01 p.m. on Friday, February 27, when we will know if Anthropic agrees by hook or by crook to the Pentagon’s “requests.” What is clear is that this is a lesson. Not so much for American companies that, in the end, operate under the umbrella of the Defense Production Act, but for those of the rest of the world. Specifically, the European ones. And I’m thinking about the space race. Europe, like China, Russia and the United States itself, has embarked on the new space race. They are … Read more

We send you a free VPN so you can watch football for free. Sincerely, the US Department of State

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The US State Department has announced one of the most unusual moves in recent digital diplomacy: the launch of freedom.gov, a portal designed to help citizens in Europe and other regions circumvent content restrictions imposed by their own governments. Among many other implications, this would allow LaLiga’s indiscriminate IP blocking to be avoided, which would make freedom.gov a great way to watch football for free via IPTV. What irony. what has happened. The Trump administration, under the direction of Undersecretary of Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, has announced this project that would offer VPN-type tools to route traffic through US servers. According to Reuterswhich cites three sources familiar with the plan, the launch was scheduled for the Munich Security Conference, but was delayed for reasons that the State Department has not clarified, although some of Rogers’ team’s own lawyers are known to have expressed internal reservations. Europe censored, and rightly so. The DSA The initiative is a frontal attack on the most recent European digital regulations, and especially the Digital Services Act (DSA). In the EU, large technology platforms face million-dollar fines if they do not quickly eliminate hate speech, disinformation or terrorist propaganda. For exampleX (formerly Twitter) received a fine of 120 million euros last December for non-compliance with the DSA. This protection of this type of speech was also clearly reflected in the efforts that Germany made in 2024: nearly 500 removal orders of content related to terrorism, which ended up resulting in more than 16,000 deleted contents. The freedom of expression argument. From the perspective of Washington—or more specifically, the Trump administration—these laws are a cover to silence conservative voices. Freedom.gov is like a shield under the umbrella of freedom of speech. One that would allow any citizen to access content blocked in their country. The domain, which was apparently registered on January 12, currently only displays the National Design Studio logo, the words “fly, eagle, fly” and a login form. The promise at the moment is that said platform will not track the activity of its users. The networks breathe fire. The comments on social networks have been numerous. Reception of the news mixes disbelief with sarcasm and the indignation. In Bluesky and Maston the most repeated criticism is that of double standards: the US trimmed funding the Tor project while at the same time building a portal for European citizens to access prohibited content. Renee DiResta, journalist for The Atlantic, summed it up well with the question: “Is the State Department going to set up a Nazi website?” Other comments opt for humor and compare this initiative with the 4chan platform (“4chan.gov”, they said some), known for its controversial lack of censorship. Transatlantic tension. Brussels maintains that its regulations protect European democracies from extremist propaganda, a strong argument considering that the continent experienced totalitarianism firsthand. That an ally like the United States actively encourages disobedience to local laws and invites Europeans to bypass blockades is disturbing. The paradox is notable: the same country that for years warned of foreign interference in its internal processes is now studying offering tools precisely to do the same in Europe and other regions. This affects Tebas and LaLiga. The measure could have a curious side effect and become the worst nightmare for Javier Tebas and LaLiga. Tebas, president of that organization, has for years led the most aggressive legal crusade in Europe against illegal streaming football broadcasts. He has been pressuring operators for years to indiscriminately block IPs corresponding to IPTV services. The effectiveness of these measures depends on a fundamental assumption: that users do not have easy, free and reliable access to a VPN. Thebes knows this, and in fact These days he has attacked two suppliers of this type of services alleging that new court orders force them to also block said IPs. Freedom.gov threatens precisely that scenario. If the portal ends up functioning as a secure tunnel to American servers, any fan of soccer broadcasts in Spain would have a couple of clicks away with a perfect tool to mask their IP, avoid their operator and transparently access the illegal IPTV channels that LaLiga was blocking with its legal efforts. Therefore, there would be no need to pay a subscription to NordVPN or its rivals or configure anything: just enter the freedom.gov domain. LaLiga Indian in November 2024 that in Spain “live sports content is pirated more than 25% above the European average”, which amplifies this potential impact. The irony is extraordinary. A foreign policy maneuver designed to promote the Trump Administration’s peculiar vision of freedom of expression could turn the Washington government into the ideal solution for “free football” in our country. Image | Chris Robert | Peter Glaser In Xataka | Football has become the anchor of operator subscriptions. And LaLiga is making more money than ever

India wanted to impose an indelible state app on all mobile phones. In a matter of days he had to take an unexpected turn

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The Government of India movement to force a security app to be installed On all mobile phones sold in the country it has lasted less than a week. On November 28, the Ministry of Telecommunications sent a private communication to the manufacturers in which it gave them 90 days to comply with the measure. However, the general rejection of public opinion, doubts about its impact on cybersecurity and the apparent opposition of some manufacturers have forced a change in plans. The order began to gain public relevance when its internal details became known. Reuters noted that The Government not only requested the mandatory presence of Sanchar Saathi in new mobile phones, but also its incorporation in those already in the supply chain through software updates. The agency also reported that the initial instruction specified that the application could not be disabled. What is Sanchar Saathi. The program’s own website define the tool as a public service aimed at empowering users against fraud and device theft. It is available as a mobile application and also as a web portal, from where it is possible to temporarily lock a lost phone, track subsequent use attempts and, if recovered, reactivate it. The Government frames these functions within a broader digital education effort, with end-user security materials and advisories. From security discourse to doubts about surveillance. The debate intensified when opposition figures and privacy specialists They questioned the initiative. In his opinion, an application managed by the State, coupled with such a broad mandate, required additional guarantees to rule out intrusive uses. Organizations such as the Internet Freedom Foundation They asked for transparency and access to the full legal text. Under pressure, Scindia publicly defended that “spying is not possible” with Sanchar Saathi and denied that the app can be used for surveillance. Opposition from manufacturers added pressure to the process. Reuters indicated that Apple had no intention to comply with the order as it was proposed and that it would convey its objections to the Government, while Samsung and other actors expressed similar reservations. According to sources cited by international media, the companies questioned whether the instruction had been issued without prior consultation and warned of its impact on the privacy policies of their ecosystems. The context was not minor: India has become one of the fastest growing markets for smartphones, especially for companies like Apple and other large manufacturers. An express reverse gear with success figures in hand. The rectification came on December 3, when the Ministry of Communications published a note announcing that mandatory pre-installation was no longer necessary. The decision was justified by the “growing acceptance” by Sanchar Saathi, which according to the Government now has 14 million users and allows around 2,000 frauds to be reported daily. Only the previous day, 600,000 new registrations had driven tenfold growth. Scindia then insisted that “spying is not possible”, despite the skepticism of specialized groups. In recent years, as reported by BloombergIndia has driven decisions that have forced big tech companies to readjust, such as demands for access to encrypted information or recent attempts to have manufacturers distribute the GOV.in public app suite. All of this occurs in a market that is strategic for Apple and Google, both in sales and production. The withdrawal of the mandate makes it clear that these dynamics continue to evolve and that balances will likely continue to be redefined. Images | Ministry of Communications of India | Piyanshu Sharma In Xataka | There are 500 million users who could perfectly upgrade to Windows 11. The problem is that they don’t want to

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