United

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

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

The United States is convinced that the Chinese army already uses its chips for ia. Nvidia has a different opinion

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The CEO of Nvidia, Jensen Huang, recently granted An interview to the CNN medium, where he could speak without capujos about the current context of his company, about Nvidia’s position in the AI racethe benefits of this technology, and other relevant topics of current affairs. In addition, he has also provided his opinion about The commercial war with China and restrictions, as well as the possible use of American technology in Chinese military terrain. Chips for the Chinese army. The United States has shown concerns in the past about whether advanced Nvidia chips would be used by the Chinese army. Those concerns gave rise to The restrictions of chips A100 and H100. Despite this, There are indications that the chips would also be reaching the Chinese army. Nvidia is not worried. Huang It has subtracted importance To Washington’s concerns about the military use of its artificial intelligence chips by China, arguing that the Chinese army cannot depend on American technology that can end up being restricted at any time. Their statements come while the company promises to resume sales of Its H20 processors to the Chinese market and days after meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House. Huang’s position against Washington. In the interview, the manager defended that “we do not have to worry” about the military use of American technology in China, since “they simply cannot trust it.” His argument is that Beijing will avoid depending on US components due to the risk of future limitations. Huang added that China already has “a lot of computing capacity” and does not need Nvidia chips to develop its military capabilities. The restriccions have hit Nvidia. US administrations have maintained export controls on the most advanced semiconductors for fear of strengthening Chinese military capacities. These measures, applied in a bipartisan manner, have cost Nvidia billions of dollars in potential revenues. According to the company, restrictions made them lose approximately about 15,000 million dollars in sales After the latest restrictions imposed by the Trump administration to prohibit their chips to China. The company affirms which also had to amortize 5,500 million in inventory. Between Washington and Beijing. It is clear that the company is making extraordinary efforts to maintain a balance between Washington and Beijing. His CEO openly criticizes control policies, arguing that They are counterproductive For American technological leadership. His thesis is that for the United States to maintain its dominant position in AI, American technology must be available globally, included in China, where half of the world’s developers are located. American senators They have warned him specifically that avoids meeting with companies linked to the Chinese army or intelligence organizations during your visit to Beijing. Meanwhile, Nvidia faces Huawei’s growing competition and other Chinese chip manufacturers, although the country’s technology companies continue to demand their processors due to their platform CUDA. And now what. Nvidia has announced that you will request licenses for Resume Sales of the H20 Chip to Chinawith the US government ensuring that it will grant them soon. The company has also developed a new processor specifically designed to comply with current regulations: the RTX Pro GPU, which is part of the architecture Blackwell and is completely adapted to export controls. China represents 13% of the total income of Nvidiaabout 17,000 million dollars, which explains why Huang maintains its favorable speech towards the Chinese market while sailing among the geopolitical pressures of both countries. The H20 chip had been developed specifically for the Chinese market after the restrictions of the late 2023, becoming the most powerful product legally available until its effective prohibition in April. Cover image | Nvidia In Xataka | The Nvidia’s supercomputer costs millions of dollars. And to work we use a switch with three kilometers of cable

Google has a new and huge transatlantic underwater cable. One that will connect Santander with the United States

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If you are reading this it is because you are connected to the Internet, and if you are connected to the Internet it is because there are on the seabed true highways of huge fiber cables that interconnect the world. Submarine cables are really fascinating and In Spain we have a few. Well today we have to add another: Sol, the new Google transatlantic submarine cable that will connect our country with the United States. From Santander to Florida. Sol will be Google’s second submarine cable that will connect Spain with the United States. It will be, in fact, the only fiber optic cable between Europe and Florida. The cable, which will have 16 pairs of fiber optic cables, will be manufactured in the United States, will connect to the Google Cloud region in South Carolina and will be deployed from Palm Coast, Florida. It will pass through the Bermuda Islands, then it will reach the Azores and, finally, it will land in Santander thanks to the infrastructure provided by The Spanish Telxius. 10 Google applications that could have triumphed Scheme of the Sun and Nuvem cables | Image: Google In detail. This cable will be added to the facilities already available, such as Nuvem, Firmina either Equianto establish connectivity centers in the Atlantic. The idea, they explain from Google, is that Sol and Nuvem complement themselves to “contribute a double transatlantic resilience.” Nuvem is a sun -like cable: it leaves South Carolina, passes through Bermuda and arrives in Europe through Portugal. The idea is to offer two interconnected systems on land to increase the reliability and capacity of the system. That is, provide redundancy and security. So that? According to the company, the objective of displaying this cable is to improve the integration of the Google Cloud Region of Madrid With the entire network, as well as reinforce the global network that, for the moment, is composed of 42 regions. According to Google in a statement issued to media: “(Sun deployment) will help meet the growing demand for Google Cloud and IA services by its customers in Europe, the United States and other regions, adding capacity, increasing reliability and reducing latency for Google users and Google Cloud customers worldwide.” Grace Hopper deployment in 2021 | Image: Google The second Google cable in Spain. France, Ireland, England, Spain and Portugal are, for obvious reasons, the main European ports of submarine cables. In Spain we have some very important as Tide, Andjana and Grace Hopper. Tide is owned by Meta, Telxius and Microsoft, connects Bilbao with Virginia Beach and measures 6,605 kilometers. The Brutal Andjana is owned by Meta, measures 7,121 kilometers, has 24 pairs of fibers, a capacity of 500 Tbps and connects Europe with the United States. Grace Hopper, meanwhile, is the first cable that Google installed on our borders. It is one of the longest: with its 7,191 kilometers, Grace Hopper connects Bilbao with Bellport (United States) and Bude (England). The longest? Although cables such as Sol, Marea, Grace Hopper and company are a prodigy, the reality is that they are not the most impressive. They do not shade in terms of distance to 2AFRICAan international submarine cable surrounding the coast of Africa to connect Europe and the Middle East. It is a mamotreto of 16 pairs of fibers, 180 Tbps of capacity and a length of 45,000 kilometers that connects 46 service stations in 33 countries. It is expected to be finished by the end of this year. Cover image | Government of Spain, Wikipedia In Xataka | Goal already has the tool to lead the AI ​​era: an underwater cable that will take more than one return to the earth

The United States has decided to launch millions of flies with airplanes on its own territory. It has good reasons

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As killing flies to guns, in the United States they have decided to do it using more flies. Literally. For months the country faces the ghost of the Cochliomyia hominivoraxa fly that in its larval state is a serious threat to cattle, wildlife, pets and even Humans. Hence the country has devised a peculiar strategy to fight it: raise thousands of millions of flies and then release them from airplanes. It sounds crazy, but it makes all the meaning. There is no small enemy. At first glance the Cochliomyia hominivoraxalso known as the New World Barrenning Worm (or NWS) does not seem much. But that is with the naked eye, of course. Although they are not much greater than common flies, in their Larval state they represent a considerable threat, especially for cattle, pets and wildlife. NWS females deposit the eggs in wounds or mucous membranes and, once they hatch, the larvae break through the meat, feeding thanks to their sharp oral hooks. Hence “BARRENOR WORD”. Dead cattle in weeks. The species is so voracious that the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) warns of its effects, the risk of cattle and what the nation is played by keeping it at bay. “It is crucial to protect our livestock industry, our economy and our food supply chain,” emphasize. In An interview With the AP Agency, Michael Bailey, director of the American Association of Veterinary Medicine, is even more explicit: the larvae can end a 450 kilos bovine in a matter of two weeks. And why is it news? The boreride worm is An old acquaintance of the American authorities. Although the species is endemic to Cuba, Haiti, Dominican Republic and countries in South America, the US has been looking for a way to prevent the species from expanding north with the help of Panama. Moreover, in his day he already deployed a strategy that allowed him A small outbreak Registered in the Florida Keys in 2017. The problem is that now the larva is calling again at the gates of the southern US, which has put the USDA on guard. “Although the NWS has been eradicated from the country for decades, recent detections in Mexico, at points as north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 1,125 kilometers from the border, have led to the immediate suspension of the imports of living cattle, horses and bison in the US entry ports on the southern border on May 11,” I recognized The government recently. Cattle lock and something else. Import blocking is only a small part of the Usda activated plan to curb the expansion of carnivorous parasite. The US authorities also want to have a vast network of facilities that allow him to raise hundreds of millions of NWS flies every week. And are willing to invest millions of dollars to achieve it. The Agriculture Department has already announced the investment of 8.5 million in a southern Texas and other installation 21 million To re -adapt a metapa plant, in Mexico, which was dedicated to the breeding of fruit flies. The idea is that it now focuses on the NWS. Both facilities will also be added to another base of Panama that is already able to raise about 177 million flies every week, a figure that the USDA considers insufficient. Its goal is to get to 400 million. But … raise flies for what? To have fewer flies. I know, it sounds inconsistent, but it makes all the meaning of the world. The flies that leave those hatcheries are not ‘normal’, but special specimens, males sterilized with radiation that can mate, but not (and this is the key) reproduce. The idea is actually very simple: scientists raise millions of flies, billions, and then release them in the fields so that females mate with those altered males. The result are eggs unable to hatch, which translates into less larvae and, over time, in diminishing populations. A solera technique. The technique is interesting for several reasons. For a start, Remember APit is more effective and ecological than resorting to pesticides. In addition, Washington has already proven that the system works relatively well. USDA remember which used the same “biological control technique” to end NWS populations in the 60s and the 2017 Florida outbreak. The same strategy has also been deployed in other places to combat different pests. Los Angeles used it to stop the proliferation of the Fruit fly And Singapore did something similar with the mosquitoes They transmit dengue. ‘Bombing’ of flies. Raising sterile male flies is just the first part of the plan. To work and stop the carnivorous worm, something else must be done: release those diptera strategically. And the US already knows how to do it. The Associated Press agency It has relieved that the government proposes to throw the altered specimens on southern Texas and Mexico. In fact he hopes to have In late of this same year a special installation to disperse insects in the Moore Air Baselocated almost at the border with Mexico. The new farm of southern Mexico would take something more to be ready. It would not be activated until July 2026. Images | USDA (Flickr), APHIS-USA and Wikipedia In Xataka | These worms live in the most radioactive area of ​​Chernobil. To everyone’s surprise, they seem immune to radioactivity

In his career against the United States, China is betting on something different: an artificial intelligence “personified”

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The AI ​​race has two main actors: the United States and China. Although at first it seemed unattainable, China already steps on Americans as far as quality is concerned and advanced by leaps and bounds in areas necessary for its development such as energy. China has another ace in the sleeve: the personified. Two ways of seeing the AI. Although they compete in the same land, the strategies of both countries have obvious differences. A clear example is in the business model itself: United States bets on a premium and China for a free AI. The differences would go much further. As writes As Andrew Stockols writesMIT researcher specializing in digital infrastructure in China, the United States focuses on the abstract, leading the great language models with Chatgpt, Gemini or Claude. For its part, China is betting very strong for an IA integrated into physical systems and infrastructure, with a clear leadership in areas such as industry and robotics. The “personified”. In English it is called “Embodied ai”, which can be translated by personified, embodied or integrated. It is an AI with physical presence, applied to systems that interact with the environment through sensors and actuators. It is the artificial intelligence applied to autonomous cars, personal mobility vehicles, models of “urban brain” and of course robotics. This idea is Chinese government priorityalready include the term in your work report This year. Robots for everything. Robots running marathons, Making Kick-Boxing, Playing football and even Robots-pump. China likes robots, it is clear to us, but this obsession goes far beyond these nice examples. Leading the robotics sector is part of the Plan “Made in China 2025” already today have achieved a competitive position, so much that in the United States already The alarms jumped. If we focus only on the industry, China is the undisputed leader with a 51% of the total stock of industrial robots. A few months ago, He appeared at BeiSi Kaiwu“The first integrated AI platform” with support for different “bodies.” This platform allows robots to perceive, interact and learn from the environment dynamically. In addition to humanoid robots, it is also intended for other products such as autonomous driving or even wearable devices. Autonomous vehicles. In 2020, China published its “Innovation and Smart Vehicle Development Strategy” where the idea of ​​”person-carretera-nube” is included. The key to this proposal is that not only cars carry sensors and cameras, they must also be present on roads, especially intersections. In addition, cars would communicate with each other to avoid collisions. Although with advantages from the point of view of security, there is a disadvantage and it is the cost of creating and maintaining that infrastructure. But not all self -employed vehicles have to be cars, other personal mobility vehicles are also developing with autonomous driving such as Autonomous wheelchair that the Freego company presented in March this year. Urban brains. There is even more. Another of the key applications of this integrated AI is in the cities. China has been working on the idea of ​​the smart city for a long time. Already in 2016, they developed a solution for the city of Hangzhou that helped Manage traffic using AI. Since then, they have not stopped appearing similar projects And there are currently many Chinese cities that have “brains”. However, behind this intelligent city idea there is an interest in improving the governance of cities or, in other words, that works as a surveillance system. We see it in This ambitious plan to integrate AI in the city of Wuhan: “Integrating algorithms of AI in real environments. Imbued with the predefined values ​​by the Chinese Communist Party, the AI ​​interacts with its natural environment, learning as it progresses.” Image | Alex Knight in Pexels In Xataka | There is a new battle between China and Elon Musk: its protagonists are humanoid robots and goes for long

The United States is creating “the iPhone of AI”. China is doing “the Android of AI”

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There is an interesting paradox in the current development of AI that says more about geopolitics than about technology: USAtraditionally leader in proprietary software and monetization, is building closed models of AI. Chinahistorically more restrictive with the flow of information, it is leading the open source AI. An investment that is not accidental: each block adopts the strategy that best serves its structural interests. → United States (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google), is building the equivalent of the IPhone of the AI: Very sophisticated systems. Vertical integration. PUPLE POLIDED PREMIUM EXPERIENCES that justify charging for access. The logic is clear: when you control the best GPUS, the main cloud services and you have the capital to train the most advanced models, monetizing that advantage through payment APIs makes immediate economic sense. It is the model that has holding American software for decades. → China, on the other hand, with Deepseek, Qwen and Minimax Mastering the rankings of open models, it is creating the Android of the AI: A free and modifiable ecosystem. Downloadable for local use without depending on payment APIS. Permissive licenses without business restrictions, Unlike Meta with Flame. Accessible source code for independent research and development. As we said at the timethis approach is not due to altruism, nor by cultural difference. It is a strategy based on creating global dependence on a Stack Chinese technological when American becomes inaccessible. Or at least, to present it as a very attractive alternative even before seeing its results. It is true that he calls is American and is also in the league of the greats being open source (With an asterisk of the size of Mestalla). A habitual hypothesis also seems feasible: that target was released precisely because it was behind. The classic defensive strategy to erode the advantage of leaders. China does it from another position: growing strength. And in addition, having to deal with access restrictions to western markets. When your rival controls chips and cloud platforms, and can cut the tap at any time, the only way to create an alternative ecosystem is to make it so accessible that the world cannot ignore it. Soft Power Technological: give today to dominate tomorrow. That, or cling to developing markets plus the gigantic domestic market. This is how Huawei stopped competing to build a parallel reality. The numbers speak alone. According to the Benchmarks of artificial analysis (based in California, not in Shenzen), The three best open source models leave China. Each startup that Depseek uses instead of GPT, each country of the southern hemisphere that displays Chinese models because they are free, each university that trains over Qwen instead of Claude, is another node of the ecosystem that the United States cannot censor, regulate or disconnect unilaterally. It is a story very similar to that of The slow but unstoppable Chinese independence of GPS: In two decades it is no longer that I do not need it, it is that Beidou has reached 140 countries. It is also true that There are traps in both strategies: The American model generates immediate income but creates incentives for the rest of the world to look for alternatives, especially when commercial wars are intensified. Competence. The Chinese model conquers users but at some point it will need to monetize without frightening its base. The latter is something that Google learned with Android for the bad ones: after conquering 70% of the world, it began to monetize it aggressively and ended up receiving huge fines in Europe, antitrust demands in the United States and Chinese alternatives … as Harmonyos de Huawei. The circle closes. The lesson is that giving technology to create dependence works, but monetize that dependence once established attracts the attention that nobody wants: that of regulators. It is the dilemma that China will eventually face its “free” models of AI. The real battle is not for today’s best, but to control the Intellectual infrastructure Tomorrow. The United States sells the premium service. China gives the universal operating system. And the outcome will be that of two historically successful, but opposite philosophies: the American persistence by aggressively monetizing in front of Chinese patience to invest decades if necessary until it can lead. Immediate income against long -term dependence. Time will say. In Xataka | Four AI companies are monopolizing the intellectual future of humanity. They are not good news Outstanding image | Ilgmyzin in UnspashAlibaba, Xataka

The United States has threatened reprisals to Spain if it does not put 5% of GDP in defense. Olive oil trembles

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They do not run easy times for Spanish olive oil. Still Broken marketthe turbulence in prices and suspicion of the “speculation”now an unexpected threat is added: Donald Trump’s anger. Yesterday, after the disagreement between Washington and Madrid during the NATO Summit, the Republican said he will “pay” Spain for his refusal to dedicate 5% of GDP to military spending. He did not go into details, but it was enough to stir the ghost of the tariffs. Especially for a sector, that of olive oil, with a key weight in the US. “They pay double”. It is not the first time that Donald Trump shows Your anger For the reluctance of Spain to dedicate 5% of GDP to defense, but never before had it done so round. On Wednesday, after Sánchez insisted on his refusal to reach the same expense commitment as the rest of NATO allies, the Republican warned Spain that would have to pay yes or yes. “It is terrible what Spain is doing and we will make it pay,” Trump started After the NATO summit held in The Hague. “It is the only country that refuses to pay. We are going to make them pay twice, but otherwise (…). The Spanish economy is going very well, but it could be razed if something happens.” Have I heard tariffs? The US president did not stay there. He said he would look for a way to “compensate him” and launched a notice: “We are negotiating with Spain a commercial agreement and we will make them pay double.” The experts They recognize that it is difficult for the US in less than two weeks The deadline agreed by Washington and Brussels expires to avoid a tariff war, his words have raised blisters. “It takes us out of the market”. The restlessness is greater among the sectors with the greatest presence on the other side of the Atlantic and that, therefore, more harmed would be seen if Trump uses its tariffs to ‘punish’ Spain. In 2024 our country exported goods worth more than more than 21.200 million of dollars, with a prominent weight of certain sectors, such as machinery, pharmacist or agri -food. And in the latter there are those who already recognize their concern. “It seems tremendously serious. It gives us panic and of course (if fulfilled) it completely takes us out of the market,” Recognize to the Efe Rafael Sánchez de Puerta agency, president of the Agrifood Cooperatives Oil section. The sector knows what he’s talking about, he remembers, because years ago he has already suffered The tariffs activated by Washington in the middle of Boeing-Airbus commercial war. A figure: 1,031 million. The olive oil is not the only sector that has been put on guard. In the last hours the looks have also been directed to other industries with a strong presence in the US, such as The wine or pharmacist. However The data The government shows that the oil mills are one of the most vulnerable to Trump’s anger, at least within the agricultural sector. Last year they sold in the US more than 113,400 tons of olive oil by 1,013 million of euros, 58% more than the previous year. In fact, the American is one of the largest markets in the sector, after the Italian. If the White House decided to apply levies to olive oil, Spanish producers would see how they are complicated 15% of its exports. The what … and when. The tariff ghost also caught the oil industry at a complex time, after several years marked by squalid campaigns due to droughts and a not much simpler horizon. Although farmers are enjoying a good harvest, which will overcome the 1.4 million tonsthey face a price drop in origin that has dragged them to a committed situation. So much that the Ministry of Agriculture has already moved to remove oil from the market, If you judge it necessary. Images | Gage Skidmore (Flickr) and NEUFAL54 In Xataka | The Spaniards have been telling us that olive oil is the healthiest. Science has something to say

His passage through the United States has been a failure

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It began to glimpse since last April the ugly things were put on. Renfe’s adventure in the United States has ended. He does it without carrying out the great project they had and confirming millionaire losses even though no train ever shot. The project. A high speed line 386 kilometers between Dallas and Houston. That was the great project that Renfe had in mind to enter the US market, a market that seemed perfect because it lacks high -speed roads among large cities. Dallas and Houston are two of the cities that generate more money in the United States So in European eyes it seemed a round business. The intention was to launch a train that reached a maximum of 386 km/Hy joined both cities in less than an hour and a half with an intermediate stop. A not so good idea. But although the business seems evident to European eyes, the thing is not so simple seen from the American perspective. To have, throughout the United States there is not a single high -speed line that connect large cities as we understand in Europe or Asia. In fact, the highest speed is reached in a line in Florida (between Orlando and Miami) that, for just 32 kilometers, is traveling to a maximum of 201 km/h. Then, the speed falls again. And although there is various projects underwayUSA It is still a desert for high speed. Bye. After more than a five years, the project has been completed, the operations of Renfe of America have completed, they point out in electionomista.es. The company had created a subsidiary in the country to take the reins of a project that, they assured, could generate 5.3 billion euros before 2042. In Aprilhowever, it was already guessed what was going to be the end of Renfe’s American adventure. So be Duffy, Secretary of Transportation, confirmed with a statement that denied the help of 63.9 million dollars that was pending to surrender (it was already approved) because “the financing of this project is a waste of taxpayers’ funds and a distraction of the main mission of Amtrak to improve their existing deficient services.” That help was key to continue advancing in the high -speed railway corridor project of Amtrak Texas that Renfe had entered fully into 2021. More and more involvement. The origin of Renfe’s landing in the United States must be sought before. In 2018the company arrives as an advisor to carry out the project, imposing itself on other companies in the contest as a trainitalia. The initial contract required Renfe’s involvement for 18 months and, subsequently, the works would begin. However, with the project at the dead point, In 2021 the conditions were extended Initials and Renfe open their subsidiary in the country to gain presence in it, positioning itself as a commercial exploiter of the line. No more public money. However, the project still needed public money for construction, which did not finish please the country’s transport department. To support the withdrawal Of the more than 60 million public funds it was stressed that the project was born with an exclusively private vocation but threatened to assume the taxpayer an expense of up to 40,000 million dollars. Now, Renfe has ended up folding its operations, reflecting in its 2024 accounts extraordinary losses of 4.5 million euros and a 100% deterioration on investments undertaken for more than a five years, they point out in electionomista.es. Photo | Renfe and Aaron Burden In Xataka | China leads high speed trains. Your plan for 2030 shows a reality: it aims to be unattainable

The United States has lost almost all its advantage in the face of China. And in just over a year

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American leadership in AI wobbles. The data of the AI Index 2025 Stanford reveals that China has trimmed the technical advantage of the United States to levels that seemed difficult to reach. Above all, because it has taken a little over a year to close most of the gap. Why is it important. The United States maintains the volume –40 notable models against 15 Chinese at the end of the year in the Epoch list-but China has shown that quality is no longer American monopoly, and that almost-convergence rewrites the rules of geopolitics in the most promising and strategic technology of the 21st century. The figures. In January 2024, the best American model exceeded Chinese in 9.26% in Benchmarks of chatbots. Just over a year later, that advantage has collapsed to 1.7%. Convergence is repeated in reasoning, mathematics and programming. The case Deepseek It is a perfect example. While Google spent 192 million dollars on the specific training of Gemini 1.0 Ultrathe Chinese startup said they have achieved competitive results with just 6 million. That caused A media and stock market earthquake At the beginning of the year. The contrast. They are two different approaches: The United States dominates for quantity and resources: it leads private investment (150,000 million dollars in 2024) and concentrates the most valued companies in the sector. China is responding efficiently: less models, much lower costs, equivalent results. The narrative of “Chinese technological backwardness” falls apart. Yolanda Gil, co -director of AI Index, He explained Thus his surprise: “I hoped that a more efficient version of the LLMS appeared at some point. We simply did not know who would build it or how.” Yes, but. American hegemony persists on other fronts. American companies continue to create the most influential models and monopolize global investment. And Europe is relegated: only three notable models in 2024. All French. The shadow of Mistral. The background. This race reflects a broader battle for the future of the digital economy. China demonstrates that efficiency can compensate for huge spending, challenging the “brute force” model that has characterized US development of AI. In Xataka | Openai is going better than expected thanks to payment users. And that marks an evident direction Outstanding image | Aerps.com in Unspash

An engine that the United States tried to build without success in the Cold War

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The new space race has brought back the attempts to develop rocket engines much faster. And it is not NASA, but the European Space Agency who is chasing the old dream. Context. The thermal Nuclear Propulsion Motor (NTP) is an almost as old idea as the space race itself. In the same 1961 speech with which John F. Kennedy promised to take a man to the moon, he also requested funds for the Nuclear Rover rocket with the promise of “an even more exciting and ambitious exploration of space.” More than 60 years later, space nuclear dream is still a unfulfilled promise. Europe wants to try. Interplanetary trips twice as fast. That is the central promise of nuclear propulsion, and ESA believes that it is an attainable future to reduce the nine months of earth-marte travel to half. With the help of the heavyweights of the French space and nuclear industry (CEA, Arianegroup and Framatome), ESA has concluded in his study alumni that technology offers “huge increases in performance” and “can be operated safely.” Meanwhile, in the United States. NASA has had to end its last attempt to develop an NTP engine. He Draco projectdirect heir to the initiatives of the 60s (the Rover and Nerva projects), has fallen into the Trump administration cuts. The justification of the White House for cutting is that they are “expensive investments” and “there are other alternatives.” The news has fallen as a jug of cold water for those involved. Bhavya Lal, former associated administrator of the NASA, He said to Spacenews: “We have spent almost 20,000 million dollars in space nuclear energy since the 50s and the only system we currently have is a radioisotope generator the size of a 100 watt bulb.” Many possibilities. One thing is the generators of the Martian Rovers or the Voyager and New Horizons probes, which use the heat of passive disintegration of the plutonium to generate some electricity with their small radioisotope generators (RTG), and a very different one is an active fission reactor to generate a massive thrust (a NTP rocket engine). New Horizons illustrates the difference well. It was one Mission to explore Plutobut it passed through the dwarf planet without the capacity to enter its orbit, obtaining just 24 hours of data. With nuclear propulsion, I could have orbized for years, and the scientific return would have been immensely superior. Oh, irony. Jared Isaacman, Trump’s nominated to direct NASA that was removed when Elon Musk lost its influence on the White Househe was a supporter of the development of this type of engines. The NTP are “exactly the type of thing in which NASA should concentrate its resources,” he said on one occasion. Now, Without Isaacman And with the Canceled Draco project, Europe embarks cautiously on the path of nuclear propulsion while the United States step back. Kennedy’s promise is still waiting. Of course, the things of space go slowly, and there are still a few viability studies before the European thermal nuclear propulsion engine takes shape. Image | POT In Xataka | Electronuclear and Nuclear Fusion Propulsion are the options of science to take us to deep space

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