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Russia has turned Ukraine into a scene from Minority Report. He has sent a “soldier” named Svod to anticipate the future

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At the doors of fourth year of warRussia still has not found a consistent formula to break the Ukrainian defenses, despite having more troops, a much more stable flow of material and a wide repertoire of advanced technologies that, on paper, should have tilted the battlefield. If the war in Eastern Europe was already a unprecedented laboratory of war technologies, Moscow has taken the most unprecedented step of all. The problem that Russia is trying to solve. They counted in Forbes that, among the many causes of this below-expectation performance, there is one especially painful: the inability of many Russian officers on the front line to take quick tactical decisions and sustainable over time, precisely those that decide the outcome of local clashes that, accumulated, determine an entire offensive. This deficit does not arise from nothing, but from the combination of a military culture rigidly hierarchicaldesigned to execute orders rather than improvise, and from a generation of extremely young commanders with limited experience, pushed to lead units in a type of combat that mercilessly punishes hesitation and rewards immediate adaptation. The “soldier” Svod. The announced answer is Svod, a digital tool AI decision support system conceived as a tactical situational awareness system for front-deployed officers. Its function, according to the description of the Russian Ministry of Defensewould be to gather and merge in the same information space multiple sources of intelligence, from satellite data and aerial images to reconnaissance reports and open source material, to convert that chaos of signals into a common usable image. From there, the system I would apply advanced processing and models assisted by artificial intelligence to analyze what comes in, project operational scenarios plausible futures and guide the command towards the most convenient course of action. The underlying intention is not hidden: to accelerate the decision cycle, reduce friction between “what is happening” and “what is ordered”, and guide managers towards rmost effective answers in an environment where every minute lost translates into casualties, burned material and wasted tactical opportunities. Software connected to what already exists. Svod does not present itself as a device magical that a soldier hangs on his chest, but rather like a software architecture that is integrates into networks and media now available. It works as a layer that merges data and displays it to commanders on computers or tablets, with secure communications and decision support tools. The important thing is the effect it produces: converting a crowded battlefield of signs into something that looks legible, and that the tactical command has concrete guidance when the environment changes faster than the upper echelons can keep up. Deployment and focus. Furthermore, the plan wants to be implemented at full speed: after various operational tests in December 2025, it is expected to begin deploying it in April 2026 and extend it widely by September. In fact, the first units to receive it would be involved in the Pokrovsk axiswhere Russia concentrates part of its offensive effort. That portrays it as an immediate solution to correct command and control failuresnot as a quiet modernization ten years from now, and explains why it is prioritized where wear is maximum and the margin of error is minimum. A perverse incentive. In an army like the Russian one that rewards obedience and punishes improvisation, a local commander may be forced to attack even if he knows it is a bad idea. With constant pressure, some they execute and accumulate casualtiesothers seek to survive within the system by simulating results, sending small groups to mark their presence and using drones to appear successful. In this context, Svod intends to push more coherent decisions with the real situation, giving a shared and more immediate vision to the front without touching the core of the model: continuing to command from above, but with a tool that reduces “surprises” and imbalances. Minority Report in military version. There is no doubt, the bet has something of a futuristic scene that we had already seen in the cinema: just like works as Minority Report that had played with the idea of ​​algorithms that anticipate the future, Russia seeks to anticipate what is going to happen before it happens, with that “soldier” called Svod that calculates, projects and recommends. The promise is very easy to understand: if the system sees better and faster, it will be able to anticipate where the weak point is, when to press and when to readjust the attack. It is a way of turning combat into a prediction problemwhere human intuition and improvisation are replaced by a living map that attempts to order chaos. What it can contribute. If it works well, Svod could improve identification of objectivescoordination and detection of gaps in the Ukrainian defense, as well as other similar tools have proven valuable in other armies. The problem, most likely, is that its effectiveness will clash with the reality of the front: electronic warfare, degraded communications, incomplete data, and models that fail when the enemy learn and change patterns. In this sense, Ukraine has adapted quicklyand that makes it much more difficult for a system to accurately predict what will happen next. Still, the movement is more than significant: war is becoming a sensor competitionnetworks and decisions, and Russia is trying to have AI reduce a problem that has cost it too dearly. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | 1,418 days have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine: the war has already lasted longer than the Soviet fight against Hitler In Xataka | The latest camouflages of Russian troops confirm an open secret: the war in Ukraine is the most Looney Tunes in history

In 1987 a death was filmed so savage that people had to cover themselves. The trick to achieve it turned RoboCop into a cult work

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In 1987, the film director Paul Verhoeven gave a twist to action science fiction with RoboCop. In reality, that was a cocktail very much to the director’s liking where there was satire, cyberpunk and police thriller. The difference was that he did not limit himself to telling the fall and rebirth of a hero: he decided to win over the viewer with emotional hammer blows, with a death. so cruel and excessive that it was impossible to look at without feeling uncomfortable. The scene that changed everything. Alex Murphy, the protagonist, appears up to that point as a good cop thrown into a corrupt world, but the film doesn’t have time to build him up calmly, so it does it by the most brutal way: literally, it tear apart in front of the viewer so that, when he returns converted into a machine, he understands that what has been lost is not only flesh, but humanity. Verhoeven explained it with an almost religious and at the same time tremendously cynical idea: “if you want to resurrect Murphy as an all-powerful RoboCop, first you have to crucify him.” And that crucifixion, instead of being symbolic or elegant, is filmed like a physical nightmaredirty and painful, one designed so that the viewer cannot avoid the impact. The slaughter as a narrative. The sequence It is constructed like a public execution, with the criminals laughing in the background, and that is possibly the key to its violence: it is not just that it unlockis that along the way they humiliate him, turn him into a broken toy, and torture him as if the gang were enjoying the show. The scene is escalating until it seems impossiblewith the protagonist trying to understand what is happening to him while his body stops obeying him, and the band acting like real madmen. There is the moral trick of the director of RoboCop: The villains were absolutely grotesque, yes, but the film removes any sympathetic veneer from them and turns them into a total social menace. Thus, when the final shot arrives that puts an end to the execution, the viewer is no longer watching the typical “80s action” film, he is seeing the point of no return that makes the entire film, from that minute on, a story. of loss and revenge. The old school of effects. It is impossible to talk about this classic without mentioning what makes it unique. The how was filmed: no less than under the orders of the legendary Rob Bottin with an artisanal obsession that today seems unthinkable based on meticulously designed prostheses, molds, fake parts and physical tricks. In order for the mutilation to work without putting the actor at risk, a a fake hand From a real mold, it was reconstructed in fiberglass and divided into sections so that it could be “popped” with compressed air and stage blood without the need for explosives near the face. It wasn’t just an effect, it was a device home engineering: internal blood tubes, pressure control, parts that could be assembled and disassembled, and a repeatable explosion pattern to always nail the same result. “Death” was also filmed with a staging designed to hide the real and sell the fakewith raised floors, holes through which to put the real arm under the stage, and a member of the team moving from below a false arm attached with Velcro as if it were a living limb. The underground trick. Plus: Murphy’s death is supported by a secret choreography that the viewer never saw: operators out of shot, hidden mechanisms and an absurd number of hands working to make a second of screen seem like an organic nightmare. Not only that: a foam arm in disguise with a police uniform, a metal structure to hold it, hinges at the “elbow” and even a support anchored to the false floor so that everything could resist the violence of the effect. While the actor was dying and staggering above, below there was a team of professionals pumping blood by hand and adjusting compressed air. Even the shots that “break up” the armor were reinforced with simple but brilliant physical details, such as small charges of talcum powder to simulate fragmentation, a very cheap solution that, in camera, added texture and turned the scene into something tactile, with dust, impacts and material that seems to fall off the body. The Peter Weller doll. Another stroke of genius came with the moment of the auction: for a final shot that in the released version lasts a sigh, a Murphy’s full torsoa sophisticated doll with a latex face made from a mold of the actor, an internal fiberglass skull and mechanisms to move the neck, jaw and body. It was not a static mannequin, it was a creature manipulated by cablescapable of opening his mouth in a silent scream, leaning, trembling and reacting to the shot as if there was still life inside. The execution was designed so that the back of the head “jumped out” with a controlled explosionwith pieces pre-cut to break in a specific way and with the interior prepared with blood and soft fragments, so that the horror felt mechanical but compelling. In addition, the “sweat” detail was added with water sprayas if the doll was breathing for the last time, and a motor with vibration so that the body seems to tremble with fear, an almost obscene trick due to its human nature that returns to artifice. Censorship as an enemy. The most incredible thing is that, even so, what was seen in the rooms was a cropped version. RoboCop’s violence clashed head-on with the rating system of the time, and the film was given an X rating several times, forcing reedit, cut and sacrifice material until a commercially viable qualification is achieved. Paradoxically, the cut that helped save it was one that its own creators considered “shabby” or too obvious, the moment in which Murphy’s arm flies off pulled by a … Read more

Until now, launching satellites was the business. The US has just turned its exorbitant cost into a million-dollar opportunity

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For years, the space business has revolved around a very specific idea: launch more satellites, faster and cheaper. The race to fill low Earth orbit with large constellations has skyrocketed demand and turned takeoff into a multibillion-dollar industry, but it has also brought to the table a problem that for a long time remained in the background: what to do with these satellites when they reach the end of their useful life and continue to take up space in orbit. In this context, the United States has taken a decisive step by promoting and beginning to materialize the exorbitant market. New business on the horizon. This step forward has already resulted in a concrete contract. Starfish Space has been awarded of an agreement valued at 52.5 million dollars by the Space Development Agency (SDA) of the United States Space Force to offer a service for deorbiting satellites at the end of their useful life. The assignment includes the development, launch and operation of the otter ship in low orbit intended to deorbit satellites of the PWSA when they are no longer operational, with a first operation and the possibility of carrying out several more. The launch is planned for 2027. behind the scenes. This shift cannot be understood without the economic context that has turned space into a high-volume industry. Global space launch services market reached $21.19 billion by 2025 and, according to estimates by Precedence Researchcould climb to 70,560 million in 2035, with a compound annual growth rate of 11.56%. A substantial portion of that revenue comes from continuous satellite deployment, driven by constellations that require frequent launches to maintain and renew their in-orbit networks. An increasingly saturated orbit. Having thousands of satellites operating at the same time is not only a question of deployment, but also of end-of-cycle management. Those responsible for large constellations must decide whether to deorbit their satellites relatively early to limit the risk of orbital debris or whether to keep them active for as long as possible to extract their full economic and operational value. This tension, without a simple solution, has become one of the main drivers that push us to search for new formulas to manage the end of life in orbit. What changes with “deorbit-as-a-service”. Starfish’s proposal is based on separating the end of life of the satellite from its design and daily operation, allowing an external spacecraft to be responsible for deorbiting without requiring prior modifications to the devices in orbit. The company maintains that this approach allows operators to maximize the useful life of their constellations and delegate the retirement of those satellites that cannot deorbit themselves. The previous step. Although the deorbit mission has not yet launched, Starfish Space comes to this point with a previous history of in-orbit demonstrations. The company launched Otter Pup 1 in June 2023 and managed to maneuver it to within 1,000 meters of a target ten months later, a relevant milestone for approach and control operations. In October, an Impulse Space Mira spacecraft used Starfish software to approach another spacecraft to within 1,250 meters, and in June 2025, Otter Pup 2 was launched with the goal of performing the first commercial docking of satellites in low orbit. The big question to answer. What is now being tested is whether satellite deorbiting can go from being an exception to becoming a recurring industrial practice. The expansion of constellations and the pressure to keep low orbit operational force us to look for solutions that do not depend solely on each individual satellite. In this context, the United States’ decision to contract this type of services offers a first sign of where the sector can evolve, although its real scope can only be measured when the first missions begin to operate. Images | Starfish Space In Xataka | Human beings have not set foot on the Moon for 54 years: the mission that aims to correct it has just entered its final phase

It’s called Sirius-82 and it has turned rivers into modern minefields

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On a front where everything seems decided by trenches, artillery and drones In heaven, there’s another war going on moving in silenceclose to the water and away from the spotlights. The Dnieper River, turned into a natural border and lifeline, has been filled with small battles for islands and passes that can change the balance of an entire region. And in that fight, Russia has just introduced a novelty explosive. A river as a front. The war between Russia and Ukraine remains bogged down in a wear balancewith Ukrainian defenses slowing advances and much of the attention focused on Donetsk, but beneath that noise there is another battle less visible and very strategic: control of several islands in the Dnieper River. Ukraine dominates these islands and the western shore, while Russia controls the eastern shore and tries to seize them to facilitate assaults across the river and, in perspective, sustain operations that once again put places like Kherson at risk. On that river board, where each crossing is a potential suicide, technology appears again as the shortcut to gain margin without paying the human price. Sirius-82. The broadcast videos by the Russian Army show a new unmanned surface vehicle, Sirius-82which begins to operate in the Dnieper with a much more pragmatic than sophisticated approach. From what can be seen, it is compact, about two meters long, and is oriented towards short duration missionsprobably with electric and battery propulsion, which fits the river environment and quick round-trip tasks. It does not look like an advanced autonomous system, but rather an instrument of “useful warfare” built to work now, here and now, even if it is crude and limited. A YaRM Modular charging and FPV control. The design suggests modularity, with the ability to carry cargo on the deck and also within the hull, making it an adaptable platform to different missions without redesigning the vehicle from scratch. In one of the recordings you can clearly see how he has two YaRM anchored river minesweighing about 13 kilos each, placed on the deck and released by mechanical actuators that release them into the water. Control, furthermore, cannot be more “old school”: an operator directs it with a joystick like those of FPV drones and monitors the camera on a laptop, a simple recipe that reduces costs and speeds up deployment, but that in real combat may be enough. River mining: the trap. The first function shown is the placement of YaRM mines in shallow watera Soviet resource intended for rivers and canals, usually anchored just below the surface to threaten light vessels. Russia would use them to attack Ukrainian resupply boats moving towards the islands, which is precisely the weak point of any forward control on a river: maintaining supplies and rotations under fire. Ukraine, in turn, uses similar mines to stop or destroy Russian attempts at rapprochement, and the result is an environment in which the Dnieper ceases to be a natural barrier and becomes a dynamic minefield, where the risk is not on the horizon, but under water. Demining and sacrifices. The other side of Sirius-82 is that it can serve to clear mineswhich is just as important in a river war where each step requires opening a safe corridor. A video shows it as a sacrificial platform, advancing until it detonates a Ukrainian mine to clear a passage before a manned boat enters, a brutally logical concept if lives are put before material. Furthermore, it is mentioned a common Russian technique demining by explosive charges with delayed fuses launched at intervals to detonate nearby mines, and the Sirius-82 could do that job without exposing a crew in the middle of a river with no coverage. A type of solution that only requires repetition and the absence of remorse when losing the vehicle. Kamikaze attacks and assault support. Beyond mining, the system could be used like kamikaze drone against Ukrainian vessels, ramming them and detonating a charge on board to destroy both, taking advantage of their low profile and the discretion of electric propulsion. It is also suggested a more “logistical” use in support of assaults on the islands, carrying supplies or even evacuating wounded if it is adapted for larger loads, something that would fit with a positional combat where the islands function as small bridgeheads. All in all, the Sirius-82 does not seem like a superweapon, but rather a tool to win the daily battles on the front, where each box of ammunition and each water crossing decides more than a major offensive. The pattern of war. What the appearance of Sirius-82 reveals is a trend of which we have talked before: Russia and Ukraine are pushed by personnel shortages, casualties and a very long front to replace humans with machines in tasks where the risk is disproportionate. And the interesting thing is that this replacement does not necessarily come with advanced autonomy and latest generation sensors, but with “primitive” systems but perfectly functional, built quickly and with a clear objective. The underlying message is that modern warfare does not always reward the most sophisticated, but rather what can be mass produced and deployed, what is sacrificed without hesitation and what solves a specific problem this week. A river that is no longer geography. If you like, Sirius-82 is a symptom of how the Dnieper is transforming in a space of access denial on a tactical scale, where mines, drones and remote control They replace the classic patrols. It is small, cheap and expendable, but that is precisely why it is dangerous: it allows the river to be planted and cleaned with less human risk, and it maintains constant pressure on the islands that Ukraine controls. And the more these platforms become normalized, the more likely it is that river combat will evolve into a “micro-robot” war who decide the terrain meter by meter, until crossing the nation’s largest river is less a military maneuver and more a technological lottery. Image | Telegram In Xataka | Ukraine … Read more

The ultra-rich have turned it into their refuge

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The ultra-rich of the world they are choosing Spain like a paradise for your dream homes. High-income people are increasingly opting for properties with views of the Mediterranean Sea, away from the hustle and bustle, with a temperate climate and legal certainty for your investments. In recent years, ultra-high net worth individuals (so-called UHNWIs) Ultra High Net Worth Individuals) have put Spain in their sights, catapulting the country to fourth place globally in demand for luxury properties, as revealed the report Private Office Market Report 2026 by the real estate agency Engel & Völkers in collaboration with the consulting firm Henley & Partners. Spain: preferred destination for millionaires. Spain has slipped in in fourth place in the world in demand for luxury homes, only behind Italy, France and the United Arab Emirates. The analysis carried out by 160 international advisors reveals that prices in the premium real estate segment rose in Spain (as in Italy) driven by the mediterranean lifestyle. In contrast, destinations such as France and Canada registered moderate decreases. According to data from a study by the luxury real estate platform LuxuryEstate.com collected through the specialized portal Funds Societythe interest of millionaires from all over the world in Spain is solid. 77% of searches for luxury properties come from foreign buyers, with the ultra-rich Germans standing out with 27% of the total, above the French (17%) and Americans (5%). This translates into a record of almost 93,000 luxury homes acquired by non-residents in 2024, consolidating Spain as a safe destination for investors in luxury properties. Reasons that attract fortunes. It’s no longer just about saving money: the rich want to live (even) better. The Engel & Völkers report highlights that more than 50% of international advisors highlight an increase in preference for destinations that invite people to live. outdoor life (such as gardens or terraces accompanied by temperate climates) as the main feature for selecting luxury properties. This figure rises to 69.5% for requests in Europe and 54.8% worldwide. Jawed Barna, CEO of Engel & Völkers, sees it clearly: these properties act as “lifestyle assets.” Hans Lenz, an advisor in Mallorca, tells how “we have a growing group of clients moving here thanks to the incredible climate, security, connectivity and schools, with 19 international schools in Mallorca.” The exemption from wealth tax of up to three million euros and the absence of inheritance tax in the Balearic Islands accelerate the arrival of wealthy families to the Balearic Islands, combining remote work with the beach and golf. Classic destinations. According what was published by IdealisticMadrid, the Balearic Islands and Marbella are the most common destinations for these wealthy buyers. In Marbella, 8,708 luxury transactions were closed in 2024, an increase of 5.64% year-on-year, with 92% in foreign hands such as Mexicans and Russians. These operations seek absolute privacy, panoramic views and luxury equipment such as infinity pools. Millionaires, along with Latinos, choose a formula that mixes the business potential of the destination with relaxation. When you clear the Neighborhoods like Salamanca in Madrid or Pedralbes in Barcelona They see apartments exceeding one million euros they pass to American and Latin American millionaires. In 2026 it will go further. According to data from the Engel & Völkers study, the luxury market in Spain generated 20,550 million euros in 2025, which represents a growth of 6.2% compared to the previous year, with Chinese tourists responsible for 20% of total spending in this segment. Stuart Siegel, of Engel & Völkers Americas, predicts that the rich will continue to invest in homes designed for long-term enjoyment, prioritizing quality of life over quick profits. For his part, Daniel Hadi, CEO of the real estate agency for the Middle East, warns that the lack of exclusive villas and mansions will drive up current property prices even more. Given this luxury housing shortagebuyers will begin to look towards Branded Residences from prestigious brands such as Four Seasons or Dorchester, equipped with private spas and other luxury services managed by brands. In Xataka | The sale of a mansion for 22 million euros has revealed a new reality: Sotogrande is the new Marbella Image | Unsplash (Norbert Buduczki)

How the Sinaloa Cartel turned the marble industry into its methamphetamine logistics center

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If Walter White had exchanged the New Mexico desert for the Mediterranean coast, his story would not have been very different from what the National Police has just revealed. in the series Breaking Badthe Albuquerque chemist hid his money under the sand and used a car wash to launder his “blue empire.” On the other hand, in the province of Alicante, the setting has been a marble industrial warehouse, an armored underground bunker and a statue of Popeye that, instead of spinach, kept the purest “crystal” of the Sinaloa Cartel. As if it were a script by Vince Gilligan, “Operation Saga” has revealed that the largest methamphetamine network in Europe did not operate from marginal shadows, but from the heart of the marble industry between Novelda and Monforte del Cid. He Heisenberg From this plot he decided that the marble blocks were the perfect container for the desires to expand the empire that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán one day founded. The end of “Operation Saga”. The National Police, in a strategic alliance with the US DEA, has put the final lock on an investigation that began in 2023. According to the official press releasethis second phase has culminated in the total dismantling of a Spanish-Mexican organization responsible for turning Spain into the main hub of methamphetamine from the mainland. If in May 2024 the first phase already left a record number of 1,800 kilos of drugs seized, this new coup has ended with nine key arrests. The operation has managed to decapitate the infrastructure that the Sinaloa Cartel had woven between Tenerife, Madrid, Valencia and Alicante. A popeye 40 kilos. The logistics of the network were as ingenious as they were sophisticated. According to local mediathe narcotic was traveling from Mexico hidden inside imposing marble stones that were legally imported. Once in Spain, the organization used the business structure of a well-known marble worker in the area to move the drugs. We found the most surreal example in July 2024. The police intercepted a statue of Popeye, five feet tall and in metallic colors, bound for Tenerife. Its base was not solid metal, but contained 40 kilos of methamphetamine. The recipient, a “historic drug trafficker” on the island, was waiting for the shipment without knowing that the figure had been under police surveillance for months. This seizure made it possible to confirm that, after the 2024 coup, the organization was trying desperately refinance. The bunker and the salary of silence. Civil engineering put at the service of crime reached its zenith in a Novelda warehouse. There, the agents They found an underground bunker hidden under a heavy steel plate and a large stone block, where almost 3,000,000 euros in cash were kept. While the money was accumulating in Alicante, in the Madrid neighborhood of Malasaña, the organization supported a member of the Sinaloa Cartel “in reserve”. This man lived in a semi-cloistered regime in an apartment from which he barely left. He received a salary of 2,500 euros per month exclusively in exchange for his silence, since he knew the details of the entry of the 1,800 kilos of the first phase. A global drug network. The logistics brain was not at street level. The leader of the drug transporters, a Spaniard with a record of crimes against property, coordinated movements between Mexico and Spain through criminal teleworking from Dubai. From there he supervised not only the glass, but also secondary shipments, such as a 38-kilo shipment of marijuana intercepted in Finland. But why Spain? The answer lies in waste science. a study about wastewater (analyzing metabolites in urine) is the definitive tool to measure actual consumption. Although the consumption of methamphetamine in Spain is lower than that of cocaine, EUDA studies place Spain and the Netherlands as distribution hubs. In areas like Euskadi, for example, records of amphetamines in wastewater already show peaks that are eighty times the national average, an unequivocal sign that the market is there. The end of one era (or the beginning of another). The operation, directed by the Investigative Court number 6 of the National Court, has also seized seven luxury watches, geolocation devices and ammunition. With this, the Police consider that the most powerful criminal network of synthetic drugs in Europe has been dismantled. However, as Commissioner Alberto Morales warnsSinaloa’s persistence is legendary. Since 2009 they have tried to settle in Spain in every possible way: from “Chapo’s” cousin detained in the Palace Hotel in 2012, to the drug laboratories of “Los Chapitos” dismantled in Toledo in 2024. Today the Novelda bunker is empty and Popeye rests in the Canillas police facilities, but the authorities are clear that the “European dream” of the Mexican cartels is far from over. Image | lifestyle.sustainability and freepik Xataka | There is a huge gap between what we think medical marijuana does and what it actually does.

China has turned the Arctic into its own “Panama Canal.” And that explains the US obsession with Greenland

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It seems like it was centuries ago, but until not too long ago the Arctic was seen as an inhospitable territory, more associated with school maps and scientific expeditions than with great power disputes. However, accelerated thaw and the changes in routes navigation have turned that apparently marginal region into one of the most sensitive spaces on the geopolitical board, one where decisions made today can define the economic and military balance of the coming decades. Stop being peripheral. Yes, for decades, the Arctic was a space remote, frozen and secondary in global geopolitics, a natural border that separated blocks rather than connecting them, but accelerated thaw has transformed that white void into a strategic corridor where trade, resources and military deterrence overlap. What was once a physical boundary is now an emerging highway that shortens thousands of kilometers between Asia, Europe and North America, and that simple climate change is reordering strategic priorities of the great powers at a speed that has caught many governments off guard. China and the Polar Route. China has identified before anyone else the potential of these new routes and has integrated them into its long-term vision as a “Polar Silk Road”conceived as a functional equivalent to the Panama Canal or the Suez Canalbut under much more flexible conditions because the rules are not yet set. Chinese research vessels, experimental freighters and icebreakers they are already browsing through the High North, collecting oceanographic data, mapping seabeds and testing routes that reduce by half travel times between Asia and Europe, while establishing a presence that, as happened in the South China Sea, begins as scientific and commercial and ends up having inevitable military implications. Submarines, data and war under the ice. The most disturbing element for Washington and its allies is not only trade, but the underground: The Arctic Ocean offers ideal conditions for underwater warfare, with layers of water, variable salinity, and natural noise making sonar detection difficult. The dives of Chinese research submarines under the ice, together with the deployment of “civilian” vessels that in practice function as covert military platforms, point to a clear objective: break the historic American submarine superiority and prepare the ground so that, in the future, Chinese nuclear submarines can operate near the North American continent with greater freedom and less risk. The Sino-Russian alliance. Chinese expansion in the Arctic is amplified by its understanding with Russiawhich provides experience, technology and access to already exploited routes along its northern coast, while receiving in return key industrial and technological support to sustain its war in Ukraine. This axis turns the Arctic into a space where two nuclear powers They coordinate in their own way air, naval and potentially submarine patrols, opening the door to a scenario that was unthinkable during the Cold War: Asian forces with the capacity to rapidly project themselves towards the Atlantic without passing through easily monitored bottlenecks. Greenland as a hinge. In this context, Greenland stops being a frozen and sparsely populated island and become the hinge that controls the eastern flank of the Northwest Passage, the gateway from Europe to that future Arctic highway. Whoever has decisive influence over Greenland can monitor, condition or even block maritime and submarine traffic in one of the most sensitive routes of the 21st century, in addition to housing radars, airports and key sensors for the defense of the American continent. The emergencies. Here comes the Trump’s renewed interest to take over Greenland, which does not respond to an eccentricity or a nineteenth-century imperial impulse, but rather to the recognition of an emerging strategic vulnerability. Washington watches how Beijing advances in the Arctic the same way he did in other settings: arriving early, coming to the table when the rules do not yet exist, and securing positions which then become almost impossible to reverse, which explains the pressure on Denmark, the enlargement of icebreaking capabilities and closer integration of the High North into NATO planning. No locks. In summary, and unlike the Panama Canal, the Arctic is not a closed infrastructure nor regulated by consolidated treaties, but rather a space under construction where the early presence defines future power. For the United States to allow China to consolidate a dominant position on these routes would be to accept that its geographic and naval advantage can be eroded without a single shot, simply by letting the ice melt and others write the rules. Greenland thus appears as the last piece of a bigger puzzle: one where it is not about buying or invading an island, but about deciding who controls trafficsecurity and the balance of power in the next great axis of global trade and war. Image | RawPixel In Xataka | A document clarifies “the Greenland thing” since 1951. Hitler’s Germany made an agreement possible for the US to do whatever it wants In Xataka | The gold of the 21st century is not in Venezuela: China and Russia know it and that is why the US wants Greenland no matter what

has turned impatience into a business worth 152 million

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A cell phone store salesman who sings opera, shaking with nerves and win a talent show. David Bisbal working in a nursery before leaving in Operación Triunfo. The entertainment industry has been selling the same message for decades: talent is everywhere, you just have to discover it. But there is another, less romantic talent that often goes unnoticed: that of making money where no one else had seen it. Aena has just demonstrated it with its 2024 results. It has turned a testimonial line of business into a gold mine: VIP services. In just six years they have gone from 79 million euros (2019) to 152 million in 2024, the last with the results published. There will be millions more when they publish those for 2025. They have doubled their turnover and now represent more than 10% of the company’s commercial income, compared to the 5% they represented in 2019. He told it The Economist and it is a great perch to tell the change in the way in which Aena extracts value from its airports: it depends less and less on the gross number of passengers, and increasingly focuses on monetizing the experience of those who can and want to pay to avoid the inconveniences of mass transit. The distribution of AENA’s income Aena closed 2024 with revenues of 5,828 million euros, 13.3% more than the previous year. But not all that money comes from the same place, nor does it grow at the same rate, as we can see by reading the company’s income statement. The structure of its income is built on four pillars: 1. Aeronautical revenues → 3,148 million euros, +13.7%. Is the hard core of your business: These are the fees that airlines pay to use the facilities. Landings, takeoffs, use of terminals, passenger assistance… They are regulated income, with prices set according to a framework that limits their growth. They represent 55% of the total. They increase with traffic (309.3 million passengers in Spain in 2024, 9.2% more), but their room for maneuver is narrow. 2. Business income → 1,760 million euros, +14.7%. This is where Aena has learned to play. These are the income generated within the airports, beyond the basic air transportation service. And the growth is greater than that of traffic, which means that Aena is making more money for each passenger. Within this category, the breakdown is striking: Duty free shops (duty free): 527 million euros, the largest component. A growth of 28.2% compared to 2023. Restoration: 347.9 million (+7%). Parking: 204.1 million (+13.3%). Vehicle rental: 207.7 million (+12.5%). VIP Services: 156.2 million (+31.3%). Stores: 136 million (+1.6%). VIP services are not the ones that bill the most, but they are the ones that grow the most. And its margin is brutal: 83.3% of EBITDA in 2024, only surpassed by the commercial business as a whole. 3. Real estate services → 114.3 million euros, +8.4%. This is perhaps the segment less visible but most profitable of the entire Aena structure. With an EBITDA margin of 78.8%, only surpassed by commercial activity, real estate services demonstrate that it does not take a lot of volume to generate a lot of value. This includes the rental of space for air cargo (representing 46% of the total for this line), but also offices, hangars, land and technical premises. It is a long-term business, with stable contracts and recurring clients.. The investor’s dream. Airlines need operational bases, logistics operators require warehouses near the runways, and auxiliary companies request spaces for maintenance. Air cargo in particular has become a strategic asset. With electronic commerce that continues to grow throughout the world, Airports are not only passenger transit, but also logistics centers. Aena knows this and charges accordingly. Cargo revenues reached 52.7 million euros in 2024, consolidating itself as the main component of this segment. It is a less elastic business than commercial business because it does not grow at the same rate as passenger traffic, but it provides predictable income, high margins and little volatility. A corner of almost assured stability. 4. International activity → 727.3 million euros, +17.9%. Aena has been trying for years to replicate the model that is working so well outside of Spain. And the numbers are starting to add up. International activity grew by 17.9% in 2024, the largest increase of all segments, although its profitability is still significantly lower than that of the rest of the group, a 44.9% EBITDA margin vs the 60.2% average. The heavyweight is Brazil. The consolidation of Eleven Airport Block (BOAB)which Aena began operating in 2023, contributed 196.3 million euros in revenue and 102.9 million to EBITDA. There are eleven airports distributed throughout the country, with 27.4 million passengers in 2024. 52.4% EBITDA margin, still far from Spanish standards but on the rise. The other Brazilian asset is the Grupo Aeroportuario del Nordeste (ANB), with six airports that moved 15.9 million passengers. Then there is Luton, London airport in which Aena has a stake. It moved 16.7 million passengers and generated £345.5 million in revenue. EBITDA was £155.3 million with a margin of 44.9%. Excluding the concession fee and extraordinary adjustments, the real margin would be 56.8%. Historical record of income and EBITDA. The international commitment has strategic logic: Spain has a natural growth limit, and diversifying geographically reduces risks. But it also has its complexities. Concessions abroad operate under different regulatory frameworks, with tighter margins and political and exchange risks. Aena is learning that exporting the model is not automatic, but it is fair to admit that the 2024 numbers indicate that it is on the right track. The VIP business What makes the case of VIP services especially interesting is that its expansion does not seem to have peaked. In 2024, Aena inaugurated new lounges in several airports and expanded the existing ones in Ibiza, Tenerife South, Seville, Asturias and Palma de Mallorca. Fast Track revenues (priority access to security control) grew by 36%, and Fast Lane revenues (preferential boarding areas) … Read more

Imoo turned the children’s smartwatch into its own genre. Now all the parents who bought it are stuck

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According to CounterPoint Research estimate for the global smartwatch market in 2025… Apple grew 12%. Samsung fell 6%. Imoo grew by 17%. Action replay: A Chinese brand that exclusively sells children’s watches is growing more than Appleand definitely more than Samsung, which is going down. Imoo, what The year has already started growing in quotaalready has 7% of the global smartwatch market. And it doesn’t really compete against the Apple Watch Ultra or the current Galaxy Watch: compete against the anguish of not knowing where your child is when he leaves school. Or rather: against the fear of not knowing if one day something happens. Counterpoint Research projects that the global smartwatch market will grow 7% in 2025 after first falling in 2024. That rebound is partly explained by Apple launching the cheap SE 3 and recovering after seven consecutive quarters of declines. But there is another factor: China went from 25% global share in 2024 to 31% in 2025. And within that jump, Imoo has a specific role that perhaps we are not looking at closely enough. Huawei is reinforcing its focus on health and sports, Apple maintains its inertia, Xiaomi focuses on the watch as part of a domestic ecosystem… and Imoo has turned parental fear into a product category. Their watches have GPS, calls, SOS button or alerts when the child leaves an area geofenced by his parents. As a watch it is not very smart and perhaps fits better in the category of surveillance and emergency aid device. Imoo hasn’t invented parental fear, but it has built a great machine to monetize it. Besides, It is a device that creates functional dependency: Once a parent puts it on their child’s wrist, they get used to the peace of mind it provides. So it is difficult not to renew it when the child stamps it or when it becomes obsolete. This success of Imoo goes beyond technology: when you grow 17% a year selling this type of watches, you do not measure adoption, but rather the number of parents who have decided that the anxiety that would cause them not knowing where their child is (understandable, of course) is worse than the inconvenience of constantly tracking them. Once you cross that threshold, there is no turning back. Previous generations had opaque spacesmoments of disappearance for a few hours before returning to dinner. These spaces are closed with this type of products, colorful and gamified, with a branding questionable but an unquestionable commercial success. Parents do not feel that they “control”, but rather that they protect. And kids don’t feel tracked, at least until they get acne and the bomb goes off, until then they just feel like they have a cool watch. And there is an advantage for parents: if suddenly almost all of your child’s classmates have one, the fact that your child does not have one becomes an anomaly. Imoo’s 7% share (and counting) measures how many children are growing up knowing that their parents can track them at any time. It measures a generation that normalizes permanent connectivity as a default state from the age of six. Counterpoint speaks of the smart watch market with “China-driven growth” and “different strategies to sustain the engagement of the consumer”, but it does not mention that One of those strategies is to redefine a part of childhood. The next son will also wear the watch. And the next one too. Imoo doesn’t need to grow faster than Apple to win. It just requires that each generation of parents find it more unthinkable than the previous one to leave a child unaccounted for. In Xataka | After almost a decade with the Apple Watch, I have switched to a Garmin. And I understood what I was missing Featured image | Xataka

South Korea just turned on AX K1. “An AI for everyone” that puts the country in the race between China and the US

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The race for artificial intelligence It is the new diamond of the economy of many countries. one to whom they are throwing money as if the world were going to end and that it is having serious implications on issues that affect citizens such as energyhe employment and with one last controversy: the exorbitant price of RAM. The great powers they want to be sovereign in this field, and South Korea has just light his first hyperscale artificial intelligence model. His name could be some son of Elon Musk: AX K1. In short. Developed by the giant SK Telecom, AX K1 is a model that has 519 billion total parameters, although during inference, which is the practical use case, it “only” activates about 33 billion. It’s still accurate (as accurate as an AI can be) but consumes far fewer resources. That 519B – A33B mode is based on the ‘architecture’mixture of experts‘ that selects in real time and dynamically the optimal parameter subsets for each task. These parameters are like the neural connections that allow the model to “learn” during training, and the fact that South Korea already has a hyperscale model is a huge leap in the country’s position within the global picture of AI. Master Model. The design of this model allows stable performance in tasks such as advanced reasoning, mathematics and multilingual comprehension, but there is also an interesting concept: it works as a “Master Model”. These models are the ones that transfer knowledge to smaller models. While the master knows everything, the lighter model is specialized in a specific task. And, although the large model consumes an enormous amount of resources, the “student” that inherits complex capabilities without having to manage so many parameters can run on devices and environments with more limited resources. For example, the AX K1 with those 512B can “transfer its knowledge” to those below the 70B scale, much more specialized and cheaper. “As Korea’s leading AI company, we will continue to push forward our efforts to deliver AI for everyone” – Tae Yoon Kim “AI for everyone”. In less words: the master model allows the expansion of AI to be accelerated because the hyperscale is used for research, but the lower scale is used for more everyday products. And, precisely, that is what SK Telecom seeks: for its IOA to be the basis on which the country operates. In collaboration with different universities, associations and thanks to the memory manufacturer SK Hynix –one of the giants of the sector and part of SK Telecom-, the company hopes it will be the foundation of an “AI for all.” This implies that they will deploy it in their services and, as it is open source, its API can be the basis of other models in university, business and even national ecosystems. In fact, there is already talk of very specific solutions, such as access to AI through text messages and even phone calls, but also multilingual search services and even a boost for AI in video games. And, of course, for humanoid robotics either for education. The great advantage that the consortium that owns AX K1 has is that it is one of the largest groups in the world, with a presence in the semiconductor, telephone, transportation, construction, energy and video game industries. Therefore, you can easily scale this technology. Third in contention. SK Telecom has confirmed that it plans to continue expanding its model with agent-based execution and those 519Bs allow Korea to become “one of the top three artificial intelligence nations in the world,” in the words of Tae Yoon Kimone of those responsible for the model. The group’s intention is to help “consolidate South Korea as one of the world’s top three artificial intelligence nations,” a race that is taking place resources difficult to contextualize in both the United States and China and which is crushing markets like RAM for consumers. Image | SK Telecom In Xataka | The exorbitant deployment of data centers for AI has a new problem: salt caverns

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