weapon

If the US attacks Iran with drones, it will be in for a surprise. Russia shielded its sky with an explosive weapon: Verba

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It we count last week. In the Middle East, crises rarely erupt overnight. First pieces move away from the spotlight, discreet commitments are signed and deployments multiply that seem routine. Only later, when everything falls into place, do you understand that the board had been preparing for something bigger for weeks. Now we know that Washington has not been the only one that has prepared. Agreement sealed in the shadows. counted this morning in an exclusive the financial times that Iran and Russia signed a secret contract of almost 500 million euros for delivery of 500 lVerba portable spears and 2,500 9M336 missiles. It would be Tehran’s most significant move to rebuild air defenses devastated after the 12 day war against Israel. The Iranian request came just days after its integrated network was seriously degraded by Israeli and American attacks, which allowed enemy aircraft to operate with superiority over large areas of the country. The agreement provides deliveries until 2029although the media explained that there are indications of early shipments, and it is complemented with night vision devices and other equipment that points to a phased but urgent reconstruction. What are Verba and why do they matter. The Verba system is a portable guided missile infrared designed to shoot down drones, cruise missiles and low-level aircraft such as helicopters, operated by small mobile teams that can deploy dispersed defenses without depending on fixed radars vulnerable to bombing. These are not heavy strategic systems like lthe S-300 or S-400but rather a flexible tactical layer that complicates helicopter operations and low-level flights. Its adoption is rapid, requires less integration and allows Iran to reinforce critical points at a relatively acceptable cost for Moscow, which can supply them without weakening substantially its own defense against Ukraine. Verba missile carrier A military alliance despite sanctions. Apparently the contract was negotiated between Rosoboronexport and the Iranian Ministry of Defense, with intermediaries already sanctioned by Washington, in a context of growing cooperation that includes Iranian drones employed by Russia in Ukraine and a bilateral treaty signed in 2025. Moscow thus demonstrates that it has no intention of abiding by Western sanctions or the arms embargo reactivated by European powers, while Tehran tries rebuild the relationship following the perception that Russia did not come to their aid during the latest conflict with Israel. The flow of cargo flights and the reception of attack helicopters Mi-28 reinforce the image of a active and sustained military association. The largest deployment since 2003. It we count last week. The agreement emerges in parallel to a massive accumulation of American air and naval power in the Middle East, with dozens of F-35, F-15 and A-10 fighters deployed at bases such as Muwaffaq Salti in Jordan and Prince Sultan in Saudi Arabia, in addition to two aircraft carrier groups led by the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Gerald R. Ford. In total, about 40,000 troops and a fleet comparable to the one before the 2003 invasion of Iraq support Donald Trump’s threats to impose a nuclear ultimatum on Tehran. Iran, for its part, warns that it would respond by attacking US bases in the region if hit. A reinforcement that changes the risk calculation. The new systems They will not turn Iran into a conventional rival comparable to the United States or Israel, of course, nor will they prevent sustained air campaigns if these are executed with technological superiority. However, they can raise cost and risk of specific operations, especially helicopter raids or low-altitude attacks, and prolong a possible conflict by making initial phases of aerial suppression difficult. In an environment where each shootdown would have a disproportionate political and strategic impact, the mere presence of hundreds of mobile launchers introduces a tactical deterrence variable. A preparation race. What does seem quite clear is that the combination Iranian rearmament and American deployment draws a scenario of maximum tension in which diplomacy and force advance in parallel. Tehran seeks to buy time, rebuild defensive layers and negotiate from a less vulnerable position. Washington tries to pressure with a demonstration of power without recent precedents in the region. What happens in the coming weeks will not only determine whether there is an attack or an agreement, but also whether the Russian-Iranian alliance is consolidated as a military axis capable of openly challenging the sanctions regime and reconfiguring the strategic balance of the Middle East. Image | ТАСС In Xataka | It is so small that it can barely be seen from space, but this secret island is the main problem for the US to attack Iran In Xataka | If the most advanced US nuclear aircraft carrier maintains its speed it will reach its destination on Sunday: a bad omen for Iran

We have been believing for years that intermittent fasting is the definitive weapon to lose weight. Science has another idea

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During the last years, the intermittent fasting has gone from being something exceptional to becoming a nutritional strategy that there is more and more talk and that it has more followers behind it. And it is no wonder, since the promise is quite seductive as it does not focus on what you eat, but on when you eat, activating different metabolic switches to accelerate fat burning. Although there are also detractors behind. New data. The Cochrane library, considered a great world reference, published a few days ago a great review about intermittent fasting that acts as a bucket of cold water, since it suggests that this diet does not offer superior benefits to conventional weight loss diets. The backup. We are not talking about a small study whose validity can be questioned, but in this case the Cochrane researchers analyzed 22 randomized controlled trials that added up to a total of 1,995 participants. overweight or obesity. The objective here was to compare different fasting modalities, such as going 16 hours without being able to eat with eight hours of eating, fasting on alternate days or 5:2 diet compared to classic calorie restriction or inaction. What they found is that, when pitting intermittent fasting against regular dietary advice, the difference in weight loss is virtually zero. The data. Getting into the matter, when intermittent fasting was compared With standard calorie-restricted diets, the mean difference in weight change was a minuscule -0.33%. This difference can translate into that intermittent fasting may result in little to no difference in weight loss with the traditional method. Regarding quality of life, such as the feeling of energy, no difference was seen and, regarding the levels of total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol and triglycerides, fasting did not prove to be a panacea either, yielding results of “little or no difference” compared to the control diets. The small print. One of the most critical points of the Cochrane review is the certainty of the evidence, which they rated mostly as “low” or “very low.” This does not mean that the studies are poorly done, but rather that there are important limitations, such as risk bias, inconsistency in results, and lack of precision. But there is one fact that should worry anyone who decides to opt for this diet independently, without medical advice, since, although the evidence is uncertain, some studies pointed to associated side effects specifically to fasting. These include headaches, nausea, cold intolerance or even insomnia and lack of concentration. What is not yet known. Perhaps it is the most revealing thing about this scientific study, since there are still many unknowns surrounding intermittent fasting that invite further research. In this case, none of the 22 studies included data on “patient satisfaction,” which is important because we don’t know if people prefer to go hungry for a few hours in exchange for eating more later, or if they hate the process. And being comfortable with a diet is essential so that you don’t abandon it halfway through. In addition to this, none of the studies pointed to the relationship that may exist in chronic diseases that require significant dietary control, such as diabetes, and which is very common in the population. But one of the big problems in science today is duration, since most studies lasted less than 12 months. We don’t know if fasting is sustainable or safe beyond a year. It is not a miracle diet. What we do know is that intermittent fasting works, but the key point is that It is not superior to the tools we already had as a calorie restriction accompanied by a balanced diet and exercise. For the average patient, this is actually good news: it means that the The best diet is the one you can stick to. If someone finds it easier to skip breakfast with a 16:8 fast than to count calories at each meal, fasting is a valid tool. But if fasting causes headaches, you’re not missing out on any “magic” metabolic benefits from eating three times a day. Although in this process the most important thing is always to be advised by personnel who are qualified in nutrition to be able to have the best dietary plan, to have real objectives and, above all, not to get frustrated along the way. Images | VD Photography In Xataka | We believed that a vegetarian diet guaranteed longevity. In extreme old age, the data says just the opposite

Countries are desperate to raise their birth rates. They have a very simple weapon to apply: teleworking

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He aging population is one of the most pressing problems for large economies around the world. The birth rate is a pillar in a country’s economy, since the economy, the labor market, education and health, among many other policies, depend on it. When governments talk about “birth crisis“, they almost always resort to the same repertoire of solutions: baby checks, tax deductions or daycare aid. The problem is that, after years of applying them, fertility in most rich countries continues on the ground. However, a new study raises a new perspective: what if the solution to the birth rate problem was in the way we work? In that scenario, teleworking appears as a surprisingly powerful lever. Telework to have more children. a study carried out by researchers at Stanford University has discovered that offering work flexibility and teleworking improves the fertility rate in couples in which one of the members teleworks. The researchers did not measure the number of births (natality), but rather the fertility indicator. That is, the number of children that participants say they plan to have. The result is difficult to ignore because someone who does not have free time or who considers that they could not take on the upbringing of a child, nor do they consider having one. That is to say, there is no such predisposition, which does not help the birth rate grows. According to the study, going from having no teleworking option to teleworking five days a week is associated with an approximate increase of 0.13 children per woman in terms of expected fertility. This is equivalent to an increase of between 7% and 8% over the average of the group analyzed. Birth and fertility are not the same. It should be noted that talking about birth and fertility represents different scenarios, and this confusion can distort the debate. The birth rate It is the number of births that occur in a country during a specific period. It is the most common data when talking about birth rate since it determines, in real terms, the number of annual births, and allows it to be compared with the number of deaths to establish the demographic balance. Fertility, on the other hand, is a background indicator. It represents the number of children a woman has (or is expected to have) throughout her life. It is usually expressed as Global Fertility Rate (TGF). The difference between both concepts is important. While the birth rate can vary from year to year (for example, advancing decisions or in response to certain policies) without changing the structural trend, the fertility rate is a long-term metric: it indicates whether a woman plans to have only one child (no matter the year) or more. Motivated to have children. Examples like South Korea or Japan They show how complicated, and how expensive, it is to change a downward birth rate trend. That is why the increase in the intention to have children, without making any investment or applying additional fiscal policies, is very striking. The results of the study suggest that, perhaps, the way forward is not to subsidize the birth of more children, but rather to make the organization of parents’ work compatible with their upbringing. It’s not for money: it’s for time. For years, the political response has been fairly predictable. Having children is expensiveso you have to put money on the table to lighten that burden. The problem is that, although in most homes they need two salaries To survive, the truly scarce resource is time to take care of the children. Teleworking and flexible hours have reduced this daily friction since it implies less time traveling, greater control over schedules and, above all, greater ability to react to unforeseen events. for child care. The report ‘Women in the Workplace’ prepared by McKinsey showed that the lack of flexible hours forces many women to reduce their hours or stagnate their professional career. On this point, the conclusions of the Stanford researchers fit with the data that Pew Research got In a previous survey: Even with the difficulties of reconciling family and work, the majority of respondents considered it necessary to continue working and did not want to sacrifice their professional careers. What they needed was a job that does not make work life and childcare incompatible. It needs investment, but it is cheap. The study concludes that to match the fertility rate achieved by teleworking, it would be necessary to apply fiscal policies and incentives at a much higher cost. Subsidized childcare can improve the situation, but none of these measures make it easier. child care on a day-to-day basis, nor does it encourage families to have more children that complicate logistics even more. The time availability and flexibility of teleworking does. This does not mean that the implementation of teleworking is free. Has organizational costs for companiesyou cannot telework in all sectors and it can generate inequalities between employees whose positions do allow teleworking and those who do not. In Xataka | We have been teleworking for four years and a study has reached a conclusion: working from home makes us happier Image | Pexels (Anastasia Shuraeva)

It was the US with a weapon that it did not know how to use

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Until very recently, airspace was understood as a stable domain, regulated almost exclusively by manned civil and military aviation, with clear borders and protocols inherited from conflicts (along with the trauma of 9/11). The emergence of drones has begun to break that balance: first in lthe battlefieldsthen at the borders and now about the cities. The last example exposes that even simple perception is a trap. Drone war. Yes, because the accelerated expansion of drones as a military and criminal tool has placed the United States before an uncomfortable paradox– Protect your territory without turning your own airspace into a dangerous testing ground. For a decade, the Pentagon has developed a sophisticated arsenal of lasers, electronic inhibitors and high-power microwaves to shoot down dronesbut the rules for using them safely over cities full of commercial planes remain diffuse, or even erroneous, creating a gap between military logic and civil reality that is beginning to take its toll. The El Paso episode. Yesterday, the sudden closure of the El Paso airspace exposed that tension clearly, when the Federal Aviation Administration decreed extreme restrictions without prior warning, paralyzing commercial, medical and military flights within a radius of dozens of kilometers. The measure, initially planned for ten days, got up within a few hours, but left behind institutional confusionwith local authorities overwhelmed and the feeling that no one had a crystal clear and coherent version of what happened. Map published by the FAA after the closure of airspace Threat or ridicule. Then the contradictions began. While the administration maintained that the closure responded to a drone raid of Mexican cartels, multiple leaks pointed to a different problem: The hasty use of new anti-drone technologies by federal agencies without prior risk assessment to civil aviation. In this context, the intervention of Customs and Border Protection with a directed energy laser without prior preparation, provided by the Department of Defense, would have been the trigger for an extreme decision adopted by the FAA due to the impossibility of guaranteeing air traffic safety. A US Army AN/MPQ-64 Sentinel laser radar seen deployed near the southern border with Mexico in 2025 It’s a balloon’s fault. The subsequent revelation that the supposed hostile drone was actually a simple party balloon He turned the episode into a symbol of the new times and the risks of improvising in an environment saturated with sensitive technology. The lack of prior coordination, the lack of information shared between agencies and the speed with which an unprecedented closure was activated reminded many local officials of the hours after 9/11fueling rumors, theories and disproportionate fear among the population. In fact, it slipped the “nuclear” issue. The border as an involuntary laboratory. El Paso, along with key facilities like Fort Blisshas become a scenario where national security, organized crime and testing of advanced military systems come together. Although the use of drones by cartels for surveillance and smuggling has been common for years, their constant presence raises a question most disturbing: Why on earth did a known and recurring threat lead to such a drastic reaction this time, when similar incidents had been handled previously without closing the sky? A problem that becomes a ball. If you will, and beyond the specific incident, the El Paso closure reveals a structural challenge that is just beginning. As more sophisticated drones proliferate and increasingly powerful defenses are deployed, the coexistence between military technology and civil aviation will require clear protocols, real coordination and institutional transparency. Otherwise, each failed test, or each poorly explained interference, will continue to demonstrate that in the war against drones it is not only important to shoot them down, but also to prevent the remedy from be more dangerous than the threat itself. Image | FAA, US Army In Xataka | In its fight against drug trafficking, Mexico has taken note of the lessons of Ukraine: drones with machine guns In Xataka | The factories of deep America have reopened. And they all make the same “toy”: an army of combat drones

Shepherds have become the great weapon against fires. So Galicia has created a shepherding school

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“We have to put an end to that thought, when you say that you are a pastor, of ‘poorlook what he has to do.’” Speaks María Jesús Crespo, a 58-year-old Galician who has been working for more than a decade caring for a flock of sheep in Aranga, in the Betanzos region. It is not his only occupation. María Jesús also leads the Association of Sheep and Goat Breeders Ovicaone of the entities that has just activated a school for shepherds in Galicia. The objective, as Crespo insists, is to break stigmas, modernize the sector and demonstrate that in 2026, pastoring is still a completely viable profession. career pastor. If there are faculties dedicated to training doctors, pharmacists, engineers or architects, why wouldn’t there be specific classrooms for new pastors? To such a conclusion that they have just reached in Galicia, where the sector has launched a school focused on pastoralism. The initiative has the Galician Government and the sector itself behind it through Ovica and has the support of Fundación La Caixa. Its purpose: to instruct future pastors in the necessary skills to carry out their work in the 21st century, which involves not only knowing how to take care of flocks. To achieve the degree, students also need to assimilate knowledge about management and technology. 570 hours… and a lot of work. To demonstrate how ambitious the initiative is, the Xunta specifies that in total the training will cover 570 hours: 250 of theoretical training, designed above all so that the new pastors adopt an “agrarian business” approach; and 230 hours of eminently practical nature. Upon leaving the classroom, the students will apply their knowledge on farms spread across almost twenty rural towns in the province of Ourense. There they will soak up the knowledge of hard-working shepherds, like María Jesús, who explains that throughout his years of work he has even had to deal with wolf attacks. The idea is that during their weeks of practice the students prepare to know how to act when a cow goes into labor or limps. “There is a cycle of technical-economic management of a farm, issues of traceability and marketing, occupational risk, environmental awareness, agrotechnology, animal health, management, production, forage and feeding…”, explains the president from Ovica in Vigo Lighthouse. “When we talk about shepherds we tend to think of a person with a stick and a flock, but today they are agricultural businessmen. We have to change the chip and transfer that change in profile.” “It is very necessary”. María Jesús defends that the launch of the school is not a whim. On the contrary. With it, they hope to help vocations like theirs emerge and, above all, professionalize a profession that, they insist, cannot be practiced today as in the time of our grandparents. “School was necessary,” underlines. “It’s about preparing people to work in the 21st century.” Is it that important? Yes. And not only because of the economic impact of the sector. Grazing is directly related to some of the great challenges facing the country, such as rural depopulation, the sustainability of “emptied Spain” or even the fight against forest fires. Given that Galicia is one of the regions most affected by fire, the Xunta itself insisted on that idea a few days ago, during the presentation of the shepherding school. “The promotion of this training offer, in addition to encouraging the incorporation of professionals dedicated to grazing, contributes to promoting this type of extensive breeding that creates a natural barrier against forest fires and promotes a managed and productive forest,” claims. Beyond Galicia. The new grazing school in Galicia has generated expectations (a week after its presentation it already had 25 registered), but the truth is that it is not the first of its kind in Spain. In Aragón they have, for example, the shepherding school The Estiva and in Catalonia the School of Pastors and Pastorscreated in 2009 to “guarantee generational change” and promote the creation of sustainable and profitable livestock farms. Not long ago we told you how in the Valencian Community there are also a similar initiative to “empower” pastors. Images | José Antonio Serra (Flickr) and Xavier (Flickr) In Xataka | “Depopulation causes problems, urban overpopulation too”: Kike Collada, the twenty-something mayor and tiktoker of emptied Spain

Spain’s secret weapon in the Olympic Games is a skater dressed as a Minion. Universal almost prevented it

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Tomàs-Llorenç Guarino Sabaté had been preparing for months for the most important moment of his sporting career. The 26-year-old Catalan skater, six-time Spanish champion, was clear about how he wanted to make his debut in the Olympic Games: dressed as a Minion, on the ice of Milan-Cortina 2026performing a medley of songs from the Universal Pictures animated saga. He had used that program throughout the season in international competitions, with the characteristic costume of blue jumpsuit and yellow t-shirt. I thought I had all the permits in order. Drama at Universal. On February 3, just four days before the opening ceremony of the Games, Guarino received devastating news: Universal Pictures was denying him permission to use the Minions’ music and costume in the Olympic event. “I was informed that I no longer have permission, due to copyright issues,” the skater explained in a statement published by the Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation. Their competition was scheduled for Tuesday, February 11. Changing programs at that point seemed impossible. Permits? What permissions? In August 2024, before starting the season, he had processed the necessary permits through ClicknClearthe official system that the International Skating Union (ISU) makes available to athletes to manage music rights. His intervention included four pieces: Universal Pictures’ characteristic fanfare in the Minions version, ‘Freedom’ by Pharrell Williams (which appears in ‘Despicable Me’), and two other compositions related to the franchise. Negotiations begin. The week before the Games, Universal Studios requested additional information about the music and costumes that Guarino had been using for months. A race against time then began: the skater and his team had to negotiate simultaneously with Universal Pictures, Pharrell Williams, Sony Music and Juan Alcaraz, each owner of different rights of the songs. But as the news spread on social media, the massive support for Guarino convinced Universal to reconsider its position. All good. The skater quickly got approval for two of the songs, and got permission for a third by contacting the composer, also Spanish, directly. The fourth and final piece, Pharrell’s, was resolved at the last moment. On Friday, February 7, just two hours before the figure skating competition at the Games began with the team event, final confirmation came. The Royal Spanish Ice Sports Federation (RFEDH) announced that Guarino had obtained all the necessary licensesand managed to participate as planned last night. The laws. Guarino’s case is not an isolated incident. For decades, the International Skating Union (ISU) strictly prohibited the use of music with lyrics in competitions. Skaters could only choose instrumental pieces, usually classical music, that were in the public domain and did not raise copyright conflicts. In 2014the ISU decided to allow vocal music to attract a younger audience and modernize the image of the sport. The first time was in PyeongChang 2018. More cases. This artistic opening brought unforeseen consequences: skaters began to use copyrighted music, and artists began to claim compensation for its use. Alexa Knierim and Brandon Frazier used a version of ‘House of the Rising Sun’ performed by the duo Heavy Young Heathens in Beijing 2022, who sued them. This year, Russian Petr Gumennik They denied permission to use the music from the soundtrack of ‘The Perfume’. Belgian Loena Hendrickx changed one Celine Dion song for another at the last minute due to legal complications. Canadian artist CLANN expressed his displeasure upon discovering that the American Amber Glenn had used one of her songs, even though she had won the team gold medal with it. Mea Culpa. ISU President Jae Youl Kim has openly acknowledged the extent of the problem during these Games. The organization continues to seek solutions, but the complexity of the music rights ecosystem (involving songwriters, performers, production companies, record labels and distribution platforms) makes any licensing system vulnerable to errors or misunderstandings. The 2014 decision to modernize the sport by allowing vocal music was intended to revitalize it and bring it closer to new audiences, but has generated an unforeseen side effect. In Xataka | Surya Bonaly, the unattainable skater who ended up being banned from “dancing with death”

China has been writing an endless novel about how to overtake Europe for 16 years, and it has become a political weapon

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Somewhere on the Chinese internet there is a science fiction novel which has been written since 2009 and will probably never end. It is titled ‘Illumine Lingao’ (临高启明, translatable as “The Morning Star of Lingao”) and accumulates millions of words distributed over thousands of chapters. It does not have a single author: it has been written collectively by hundreds of people, mostly engineers, technicians and military history fans who have been contributing chapters, technical corrections and secondary plots over almost two decades. It has generated more than 1,400 derivative works. And it has never been translated into any Western language. What is it about? The premise is simple: more than 500 21st century Chinese citizens, armed with modern technical knowledge, travel back in time through a wormhole to the year 1628, to the death throes of the Ming Dynasty. They settle in Lingao County, on the island of Hainan, and from there they unleash an industrial revolution that alters the course of history. The goal: make China reach modernity before Europe. How it arises. The text began to take shape in 2006 as a discussion on SC BBS, the oldest military-themed forum in China, from a question that struck a chord: “What would you do if you could travel to the Ming dynasty with modern knowledge?” The debate crystallized three years later in a collective writing project led by a user known as Boaster, whose real name is Xiao Feng. The first installment was published in 2009 on Qidian Chinese Network, the country’s largest web literature platform. In 2017, China Radio, Film & TV Press published the first volume in print format. What makes it special. What sets ‘Illumine Lingao’ apart from other time travel fantasies is its obsession with technical detail. The chapters include long discussions on how to make nitric acid from scratch, what materials are needed to build chemical synthesis towers, or how many tons of industrial equipment would be needed to begin mechanization without prior machines or tools. Chinese readers have dubbed it “the encyclopedia of time travel.” Some critics They consider it “a unique phenomenon of contemporary Chinese literature.” But… what sensitive chord does this work touch? Needham’s puzzle. In 1942, the British biochemist Joseph Needham He traveled to China as a diplomatic envoy. During those three years he discovered that the Chinese had developed techniques and mechanisms that preceded their European equivalents by centuries. The printing press, the compass, gunpowder, paper money, suspension bridges, toilet paper… all had emerged in China long before Europe even conceived of it. Needham returned to Cambridge and documented this in ‘Science and Civilization in China’, 25 volumes that asked why modern science and the industrial revolution developed in Europe and not China, if China was so far ahead. This question, known as “Needham’s puzzle”, touches the most sensitive nerve of Chinese historical consciousness. Historians have proposed dozens of answers. Some point to geographical factors: while Europe competed fragmented into rival states that stimulated military and commercial innovation, China remained unified under a bureaucratic system that did not need change to survive. Others point to philosophical reasons: Confucianism valued social harmony over disruption. And some say that the key difference was European access to the resources of the American continent. For Chinese intellectuals, the “Great Divergence”, the moment when Europe overtook China, is not an abstract problem for historians. It is the question that explains the “century of national humiliation” (1839-1949), the opium wars, the burning of the Summer Palace and the Japanese occupation. That is why in ‘Illumine Lingao’ we travel to the Ming dynasty: 1628, sixteen years before the dynasty collapsed due to the Manchu invasion. For these Chinese intellectuals, the Ming dynasty represents the fateful fork: it is the moment when China chose the wrong path and Europe took the lead. Rewrite history. ‘Illumine Lingao’ belongs to a literary genre that enjoys enormous popularity in the chinese web literature: chuanyue (穿越), time travel stories in which contemporary protagonists use their modern knowledge to alter the course of history. In China, this genre has an implicit nationalist charge. It is not about looking at the past or resolving temporal paradoxes, but about correcting it, giving China a second chance. ‘Illumine Lingao’ takes this premise to the extreme: the documentation of each step with obsessive technical rigor turns the novel into something more than entertainment. It is a manual and a manifesto. A manifesto of a specific party. More than entertainment. As has been analyzed in academic circles, ‘Lingao’ reorganizes the historical narrative of Chinese socialist construction around the framework of industrialization and technological progress, with a clear nationalist sense. Its roots are in the so-called Industrial Party, which is not a real party, but rather a label to designate a current of thinkers, online commentators and influencers who share a vision of the world based on industrialization as a supreme value. For them, the material transformation produced by industrialization is an objective measure of national success. At the beginning of this century, its area of ​​theoretical development was the Internet, going against the grain at a time when the Chinese economy was betting on low-cost manufacturing and foreign direct investment. At that time, the idea that China could manufacture advanced semiconductors It sounded like science fiction. The Industrial Party made the leap to public influence in 2012, when the news website Guancha It began to include party members among its editors, defending the Chinese government from ultranationalist positions. Cultural battle. ‘Lingao’ has also largely become a political tool. When in 2011 a high-speed train rammed another convoy from behindcausing 40 deaths and 192 injuries, the Government wanted to manage the information so that the idea of ​​prosperity at any cost was not clouded. But on social media, negative opinions about the accident even surpassed state censors and They questioned the idea of ​​”progress” that the government maintained. Was the speed of development exacting an unacceptable price in human terms? ‘Illumine Lingao’ became a reference text in … Read more

an invisible weapon that blinded his soldiers without firing a single bullet

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The number of Venezuelan casualties after the United States incursion in Caracas and the subsequent capture of Nicolás Maduro varies with the passing of the days and the sources, but it seems clear that it amounts to at least double digits (we speak of up to 100). In any case, another piece of information has now been revealed that amplifies the mission. In reality, Washington’s key weapon did not fire a single bullet. The attack that was not heard. Yes, the American operation in Caracas was not defined by explosions or columns of smoke, but by the sudden silence of radars, radios and command centers, a demonstration of force in which more than 150 aircraft acted in a coordinated manner to enter, hit and leave with hardly any visible resistance. In fact and how explains the Wall Street Journalthe key was not to destroy the enemy, but to leave him blind and disoriented from the first minute, unable to understand what was happening or to react coherently while special forces captured Maduro in the heart of Venezuelan power. The invisible weapon. At the center of that blackout was the EA-18G Growler, an aircraft that does not attack people or physical positions, but rather the opponent’s nervous systemspecialized in locating, jamming and neutralizing radars and communications until turning an apparently solid defensive framework into a collection of mute sensors and useless screens. While stealth fighters and bombers performed deterrence and targeted attack functions, the Growler ensured that the Venezuelan defenses they will never get to see them clearly, demonstrating to what extent electronic warfare has ceased to be a complement and has become the precondition of any modern high-intensity operation. Blind before hitting. The logic applied in Caracas reflects a lesson learned and refined in Ukraine– It is not necessary to physically destroy all enemy systems if you can overwhelm, confuse or fool them until void your operating profit. The Growler can simulate multiple targets on the radar, flood the electromagnetic spectrum with noise, interfere with command links and, if necessary, guide anti-radiation missiles against active emitters, creating temporary windows of absolute superiority that allow helicopters and ground forces to operate with minimal risk even in theoretically defended environments. The Russian defenses that did not fire. They recalled in Insider that the most striking result was that none of the Russian-made air defenses in Venezuela’s possession managed to shoot down a single plane American during the operation, despite the fact that the country had on paper respectable systems such as S-300VM, Buk-M2, Pantsir-S1 and radars of Russian and Chinese origin. The image of airspace simply collapsing under a well-planned operation It has been devastating from a symbolic point of view, because it shows that having advanced systems does not guarantee their effectiveness if they are overcome by a combination of surprise, electronic warfare, stealth and multi-domain coordination. 9A83ME launcher of the S-300VM Antey-2500 missile system Not everything is the system. The Venezuelan failure cannot be explained solely by the technical limitations of the Russian systems, but also due to structural factors such as the state of maintenance, the real integration of the defense network, the quality of command and control and, above all, the training and experience of the operators. An anti-aircraft system is only as effective as the doctrine that supports it and the people who operate it, and in Caracas it became clear that, in the face of a well-trained Western force, even feared equipment can be defeated. reduced to passive spectators if they do not function as part of a coherent whole. Repeating pattern. What happened in Venezuela is not an isolated case, but rather fits with a pattern observed in other scenarios like syria or attacks Israelis against Iranwhere air defenses of Russian origin have shown irregular performance against forces that master electronic warfare and stealth. Although in Ukraine, operated directly by Russia, these defenses have worked betterhave also not achieved the invulnerability that their reputation promised, which reinforces the idea that their effectiveness decreases considerably when faced with adversaries capable of combining interference, cyberattacks, deception and precision attacks. Without triumphalism. There is no doubt, for the United States, about the Caracas operation strengthens confidence in its ability to penetrate airspace defended by Russian systems, but it also emphasizes that this success depends on exhaustive planning and intensive use of invisible capabilities that are not improvised. The lesson is not so much that Russian defenses are useless, but that in the face of an adversary that dominates the electromagnetic spectrumEven feared systems can be neutralized long enough for a decisive operation to take place. The war that is not seen. If you also want, the assault on Caracas leaves an uncomfortable and increasingly obvious conclusion: modern war is decided before the first shotin an intangible space made of signals, links and frequencies, where whoever controls the information controls the result. He Growler He did not fire a single bullet, but its effect It was more devastating than that of many bombs, remembering that in current conflicts lose seeing and hearing is almost always equivalent to losing the war before it begins. Image | COMSEVENTHFLTSenior Airman John Linzmeier, Vitaly V. Kuzmin In Xataka | The war in Ukraine has just met that of Venezuela: that means that its two invaders are facing each other In Xataka | While the whole world looks at oil, Venezuela’s true treasure is hidden in the basements of London: its gold

Google’s secret weapon against CUDA dominance is called TorchTPU. And it’s an NVIDIA waterline missile

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Google has launched an internal initiative called “TorchTPU” with a singular goal: to make their TPUs fully compatible with PyTorch. For the not so initiated, we translate it: what Google intends is to destroy once and for all the monopoly and absolute control that NVIDIA has with CUDA. Why is it important. NVIDIA has become the first company in the world by market capitalization for two big reasons. The first, for its AI GPUs. And the second, much more important, for CUDAthe software platform that is used by all AI developers and that has an important peculiarity: it only works on chips from NVIDIA itself. So if you want to work in AI with the latest of the latest, you have to jump through hoops… until now. What happens with Google and its TPUs. Google’s Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) were until now optimized for Jax, Google’s own platform that was similar to CUDA in its objective. However, the majority of the industry uses PyTorch, which has been optimized for years thanks to the aforementioned CUDA. That creates a barrier to entry for other chipmakers, which face a huge bottleneck in attracting customers. Goal is in the garlic. Anonymous sources close to the project indicate in Reuters that to achieve its goal and accelerate the process Google has partnered with Meta. This is especially striking because it was Meta who originally created PyTorch. Mark Zuckerberg’s company has ended up being just as much a slave to NVIDIA as its rivals, and is very interested in Google’s TPUs offering a viable alternative to reduce its own infrastructure costs. Google as a potential AI chip giant. The company led by Sundar Pichai has made an important change of direction with its TPUs, which were previously reserved exclusively for it. Since 2022, the Google Cloud division has taken control of their sale, and has turned them into a fundamental revenue driver because they are no longer only used by Google: Tell Anthropic. A spokesperson for this division has not commented specifically on the project, but confirmed to Reuters that this type of initiative would provide customers with the ability to choose. All against NVIDIA. This alliance is the last attempt to put an end to that great ace in NVIDIA’s sleeve. In these months we have seen how companies like Huawei prepare your own alternative ecosystem to CUDAbut they also participate in a joint effort of several Chinese AI companies for the same purpose. Hardware matters, software matters more. CUDA has become such a critical component for NVIDIA that if other semiconductor manufacturers have not been able to compete with it, it is not because of their chips, but because they cannot support CUDA natively. We have a great example in AMDwhich has exceptional AI GPUs. In fact, they are superior to NVIDIA in certain sections, but their software is not as powerful. In Xataka | Google’s TPUs are the first big sign that NVIDIA’s empire is faltering

We have been believing that bacteria are a weapon against tumors for 150 years. And finally we have discovered how

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In the fight against cancer, there are many treatments that are emerging, being the immunotherapy one of the most innovative, although there are also other alternatives such as based on LED light. Now therapies continue to advance and science is already pointing to a group of bacteria to be able to destroy tumors without depending on the immune response, opening a new era in oncological medicine. It’s not something new. The idea of ​​using bacteria to treat cancer is not new: already in 1868 the German doctor Busch observed that some cancer patients experienced remissions after bacterial infections. Later, William Colby developed bacteria-based treatments that they laid the foundation of modern immunotherapy. However, these traditional therapies require a functional immune system, which is a serious problem for patients who are immunocompromised due to cancer. The present. a study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering presented an innovative “drug-free” strategy that uses a group of bacteria to fight cancer, rescuing this old idea of ​​bacteria against cancer. This treatment has not only demonstrated powerful antitumor efficacy, but it has done so by achieving complete remission of the tumor and, most importantly, it has been maintained for years in mouse models, even in those who are immunosuppressed. The most relevant thing is that the fact that a bacteria helps us with this disease has been achieved without the need to use genetic engineering that alters your RNA. And also, without generating toxicity on the body. A priori they are all advantages. A bacterial duo. The protagonists of this therapy are a bacterial group called AUN, composed of two specific bacteria: Proteus mirabilis (nicknamed A-gyo) and Rhodopseudomonas palustris (UN-gyo). And although we may all have in mind that bacteria are bad for humans, the reality is that They help us (a lot) starting with all those that are in our intestine. When this bacterial duo was administered directly into the blood of tumor-bearing mice, the results were dramatic: complete tumor remission and prolonged survival. And it wasn’t magic. How does it work? It is the obligatory question after seeing the results of this study. The researchers explain that what these bacteria do in short is block the arrival of oxygen and nutrients to the tumors, which literally causes them to suffocate. And a tumor is nothing more than a set of cells that have an advanced metabolism. When taking away their food they end up dead. In essence, these bacteria can reach the tumor and enter its interior, as if it were a Trojan horse. Upon arrival, it causes very small blood clots to form and only in the blood vessels that go to the tumor. In this way, blood clots block the passage of blood and, therefore, its food source. Bacterial transformation. Bacteria are STILL not passive agents, but are dynamic actors that change their behavior when detecting cancer. In this way, the study observed that the A-gyo bacteria undergoes a “wonderful fibrous transformation.” This change is not random. It is specifically activated when the bacteria encounters “oncometabolites“, chemical signals emitted by cancer cells. This highly mobile form of “swarm”, together with the toxins and hemolysins secreted by the consortium, seems to be responsible for the tumor vascular destruction without affecting the rest of the healthy cells. A safe treatment. Using live bacteria as therapy may sound risky, but the study spends much of its time demonstrating the safety and control of AUN. The first thing that has been seen is that the bacterial strains have a unique non-pathogenic profile. Furthermore, to achieve a 100% complete response and avoid the lethality of a single high dose, the researchers developed a “double dose” regimen: a first injection at a low dose, followed days later by a high dose. The low dose “primes” the body, consuming aggressive neutrophils and mitigating the risk of severe cytokine release syndrome. Looking to the future. Although the experiments were performed in mice, the therapy was tested against human cancer cell lines in xenograft models. In this case, cells from human colon adenocarcinoma, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer were used. The results in this case were very clear: all the tumors tested successfully disappeared in the mouse models, without very serious side effects. In this way, we are faced with a therapy that does not require any type of drug a priori and that can be self-managed. The authors of the study point out that this approach can revolutionize cancer therapy, but there is still a long way to go. Images | CDC In Xataka | Colon cancers are increasing alarmingly among young people. We have a suspect: sedentary lifestyle

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