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We already know who to thank for Google making AirDrop also work with Android phones: the European Union

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A few days ago Google gave a surprise and announced that it had managed to make its system Quick Share was compatible with AirDrop. Suddenly it was possible to wirelessly transfer data and content from a Pixel 10 to an iPhone or iPad and vice versa. What Google did not do is tell how it did it, but in reality the credit was not its own, but rather the European Union’s. what has happened. Google has updated the feature Quick Share of Android to support AiDrop. That makes it possible to share files directly over an end-to-end Wi-Fi connection. Any Apple device with AirDrop enabled will appear in the list of nearby devices when you try to share content with Quick Share, and the same will happen in reverse in the AirDrop menu. It is the Android-iOS interoperability (and we will see if also with macOS) that we have all dreamed of for a long time, and that is now finally a reality. First the Pixel 10, then the others. At the moment only the Google Pixel 10 They support this option, but it is more than likely that it will reach the entire range of Android devices. Google confirmed in The Verge that Apple had not been involved in this development in any way, but in reality it was. The thing is that his role was not voluntary. How AirDrop works. This feature makes use of Bluetooth to allow devices to detect each other, and then an end-to-end Wi-Fi connection takes care of the data transmission. The crucial detail is that Apple developed a proprietary protocol called Apple Wireless Direct Link (AWDL) to facilitate that connection between devices. And since it was proprietary, no one else could use it and AirDrop was a fantastic option that was only available for devices in this ecosystem. Very Apple everything. This is where the EU comes in.. At the beginning of the year the European Union decided that Apple had to adopt interoperable wireless standards and was to do so starting with iOS 26. No one paid much attention to the impact the announcement would have on AirDrop, but cloud services company Ditto took care of glimpse the future and explained how “the EU has killed AWDL.” Which is effectively what happened: Apple was forced to abandon its proprietary protocol in favor of interoperable alternatives. Hello Wi-Fi Aware. The new regulations forced Apple to add support for the Wi-Fi Alliance’s Wi-Fi Aware standard and replace AWDL. The curious thing is that Wi-Fi Aware was developed with the support of Apple, but here the operable implementation was the one that was forced to be used on devices from the Cupertino firm. This reminds us of USB-C. This reminds us of what happened previously with the Lightning port, which was essentially a proprietary version of the USB-C standard. When the EU forced to use this connector on mobile phones and other devices Apple had to ditch the Lightning port. That has made charging adapters interoperable, and the same is now true for AirDrop. A promising future. Wi-Fi Aware has been added to both iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 (but it does not seem to be integrated into macOS 26), and therefore mobile phones from the iPhone 12 will be compatible with this option. For its part, Android has been supporting this standard since Android 8.0, which makes the vast majority of devices candidates to take advantage of this interoperability with Apple devices. What’s not clear is whether it will be possible to use QuickShare with AirDrop directly on Macs, but there are alternatives in that case: myself I have NearDrop installed on my Mac mini M4 and I can share files from my Pixel 8 Pro without problems with Apple equipment. In Xataka | Notifications with ads from some of the apps we use the most are hijacking our phones. And there’s not much to do

put everyone to work

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A recent announcement of the Government of Spain reported on the activation of the gateway that automated the granting of the Minimum Vital Income (IMV) for those unemployed people who have already exhausted both their unemployment benefit and unemployment benefit. This measure contrasts with those being taken by Belgium, which will eliminate subsidies for the long-term unemployed and those suffering from long-term sick leave. He government plan to cut public spending has been one of the main reasons for the call on strike that has paralyzed air communications, transportation and a good part of its industry and services. At an event with students from Ghent University, Prime Minister Bart De Wever I assured them that: “Without policy changes, the welfare state will collapse, not in my lifetime, but in yours.” Either cuts or chaos. Prime Minister Bart De Wever has launched a series of budget reforms aimed at solving serious problems that the country has been facing for decades with the unemployment and long-term sickness benefits that Belgian workers receive. According what was published by The Brussels TimesWith the adjustment plan proposed by the Belgian executive, structural savings of 9.2 billion euros are expected to be obtained by 2029 and the accumulation of debt will be reduced by another 17 billion euros. “This is the only way to safeguard our welfare state for the future,” wrote Prime Minister De Wever in your X profile. Strikes for a harsh adjustment plan. The unions have organized the thirteenth strike since Bart De Wever took office as Prime Minister in February 2025. The call has been three days of protests that have left empty streets and minimal services. On Monday public transport stopped, on Tuesday teachers and doctors joined in, and on Wednesday there was a national strike in the rest of the sectors. Everything comes from government savings planwhich seeks to cut spending on benefits to comply with EU guidelines and lower the deficit. Although the Belgian economy looks good in macroeconomic terms, its government believes that the system of long-term sickness and unemployment benefits is too permissive and discourages re-entry into the labor market. End to unemployment for life. In Spain this figure does not exist, but Belgium was the last country in the EU which granted unemployment benefits without a time limit. That is, unlike what happens in Spain, which is limited to a maximum of 24 months, in Belgium there was no deadline to stop receiving this benefit, so someone who began receiving it at the age of 25 could retire collecting it. Starting in April 2026, that premise will completely change. The Government has sent thousands of letters to these indefinitely unemployed, informing them that those who have been unemployed for more than 20 years will automatically lose aid. Progressively, the measure will be extended to those unemployed who have been out of work for more than two years, except for some supervised exceptions that will be able to maintain it. Who lose this subsidy and do not have financial resources, they will have to ask for help at their local social center, which applies stricter rules and controls to encourage them to reenter the labor market. Control of long-term patients. More than 526,000 people are registered as unemployed on long sick leavein a country that has 11.7 million inhabitants. This represents a cost of 9,000 million euros per year to the State. Far from stopping, since the belgian environment The Brussels Times estimate that the number of long-term patients who receive a benefit go up to 600,000 by 2035. To avoid fraud, the government is going to require periodic medical checkups for those who have been sick for more than a year, sanctions will apply against doctors who issue an abnormally high number of sick leaves and will help to adapt jobs for those who can go back to work. Unemployment is concentrated among migrants. Belgium registers an unemployment figure of 5.9%, well below the 10.5% registered in Spain and even lower than the euro zone average with 6.3%. However, according to Eurostat data 2024, if the unemployment data is segmented by nationality, the percentage of unemployed Belgian nationals stands at 4.7%, shooting up to 16.4% among migrants. That is, a difference of 11.7 percentage points that makes the State endure greater financial pressure with citizens who supposedly came to work, but are unemployed. As and how he published Politicalsix out of ten unemployed people in Belgium are not Belgian. The Government is optimistic. The Belgian Government is optimistic about the adjustment plan given that it involves increasing revenues with more taxes (for example, VAT on some products will be increased) and reducing payments with fewer subsidies. According to sources of The Brussels Timesthe “return to work” plan for long-term sick people alone should generate savings of 1.9 billion euros in subsidies. “I could say that I can solve the problem without the citizens feeling it, but that would be a lie. If you do not dare to take drastic measures, you are not worthy of governing,” said the prime minister, underlining the seriousness of the measures taken. In Xataka | In Belgium the authorities have asked their citizens not to eat the Christmas tree. And they have good reasons Image | Unsplash (aboodi vesakaran, DC)

put UBTECH’s most advanced humanoid robots to work

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In Fangchenggang, where control windows and cargo trucks outline the routine of a border with Vietnam, an experiment is being prepared that will not take place among laboratory prototypes, but among travelers, agents and logistics workers. China has chosen this place to test humanoids in real situations, with deliveries scheduled from December and very specific functions: guiding movements of people, supporting logistical tasks, participating in certain commercial services and carrying out inspections both at border posts and at industrial facilities. An ambitious contract. The agreement signed between UBTech and a center specialized in robotics in this border city amounts to 264 million yuan, about 34 million euros, and establishes the deployment of the model Walker S2 in different types of scenarios: border crossing, logistics zones and industrial complexes. According to the company, the humanoids will be intended to guide flows of people, organize internal transportation operations and carry out structured inspections in facilities linked to steel, copper and aluminum. From prototypes to 800 million. UBTech arrived at Fangchenggang with a model that is no longer presented as a prototype, but as an industrial product. The Walker Series accumulate valued orders by 800 million yuan by 2025, not including educational and research models. UBTech assures that it has already begun to deliver the first industrial batches of the Walker S2 and that its objective is to accelerate production at scale, with a view to manufacturing thousands of units and reducing costs so that humanoids enter real environments. Robotic administrations. The rollout of UBTech fits into a broader trend within the Chinese public sector. The Zhejiang immigration office already uses robots for daily tasks, such as support in people flows and information services. At Hangzhou airport, one of these systems answers simple questions to passengers, while at the top of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, held in Tianjin, a multilingual robot developed by iBen Intelligence was used for protocol assistance. The Fangchenggang initiative is part of a coordinated strategy from the State to organize the humanoid sector in China. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology created a national committee specific for this type of robots, chaired by the organization itself and made up of companies, innovation centers and relevant technical figures. It includes executives from UBTech, Unitree, AgiBot and representatives of the Shanghai innovation center. The goal is to set standards and accelerate the transition from laboratory to commercial and administrative applications. What is relevant is not only that the humanoids have contracts and assigned functions, but also the place where they are going to test them. A border is a regulated space, with people in transit, goods, controls and tight times. If they work there, it will be easier to propose new applications in other public contexts. The Fangchenggang Pass serves as a laboratory, but also as a stage to observe what sharing tasks between machines and human workers entails. Images | UBTECH In Xataka | NVIDIA is the most valuable company in the world because it had no competition. Until Google started making chips

What is this feature, how does it work, requirements and how to activate it

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WhatsApp has started to implement the function that will forever change the way we use messaging applications, the use it to talk to other applications from third parties. This is a function that comes to Europe, which is where messaging applications are being forced to open and communicate with each other. We are going to start the article by explaining what exactly this function consists of, telling you in a way that you can understand. Then we will tell you what is necessary to contact another messaging application, and we will finish by telling you how to configure it on WhatsApp. Just remember that this feature has already started rolling out, but it will still take time to reach all userssince he will do it little by little. Therefore, if you want to use it you will have to pay attention to the next WhatsApp updates that arrive to you. What is WhatsApp Interoperability The WhatsApp interoperability It is a technology with which you can talk to users of other messaging applications directly from WhatsApp. Currently, if you want to talk to a Telegram user you need a Telegram account, and the same with iMessage and other apps. Well, soon it will also be possible to do it with WhatsApp. This means that you can write messages from your WhatsApp to a user who uses Telegram or another messaging app, all in a simple way and without too many complications for the user. This will remove barriers and the need to register for certain apps to talk to specific users, while giving you more flexibility to choose the one you prefer to use. This is not something that WhatsApp is going to implement because it wants to, but because the European Union obliges you to do so considering it an “access gatekeeper” application because it is widely used. Other applications such as Signal or Telegram are not considered as such, so they are not required to take this step. How this option works The theory of this ineroperability is simple: if two applications support this technology, users of both will be able to talk to each other without changing apps. Therefore, it is as if you activate a kind of bridge between two applications to be able to access other users from WhatsApp. By doing so, the messages and any other content you send from WhatsApp to third-party users will remain encrypted in transitWhatsApp cannot see them. But the encryption disappears when you reach the other app, so Privacy will depend on the policies of each app to which you send the messages. So that you understand, if you use WhatsApp and send a photo to other WhatsApp users, all communication will be encrypted, and not even from WhatsApp will the photo be visible. But when you send a photo from WhatsApp to another application, when it reaches the other app, the visibility of its content will depend on the encryption level of this other application. Come on, what you must be careful which third-party apps you connect with. If the other app has encryption equal to or better than WhatsApp, nothing happens, you will still have privacy. But if you send something to an app without good encryption, its content could be exposed. In addition to this, If you block someone on WhatsApp, the block does not apply to other apps. In other words, if you activate using WhatsApp with another messaging application where a user you blocked also has an account, this user will be able to use the other app to send you messages on WhatsApp. Requirements for this feature If you want to send a message from your WhatsApp account to a person’s account in another app, this other app should also be compatible with the technology of interoperability. Come on, you will only be able to connect with third-party apps that also allow their users to connect with those of other apps. This also means that although WhatsApp is already beginning to deploy this technology, this does not mean that you can write to Telegram or iMessage users as soon as you receive them. Everything will depend on what These applications also implement the function. If they decide not to do this, you will not be able to communicate with their users. Activate messages with third-party apps To activate the WhatsApp connection with third-party apps, you will have to go to the WhatsApp settings. Inside, click on the section Accountand here click on the option Third Party Chat Requests. Here you can activate the feature, and then below activate the applications you want to connect with. Only apps that also have the feature activated will appear. WhatsApp will then allow you to choose if you want messages with other apps appear separate or they are combined with the internal ones, so that you can have two windows or just one. In addition, you can also configure who can add you to groups made in other apps with which you have connected WhatsApp. In Xataka Basics | Send WhatsApp messages to yourself: How to do it and 11 uses for the function

Although they work, they leave a disturbing doubt

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They are the medications of the moment and without a doubt the golden goose of the pharmaceutical industry. Drugs like Ozempicthe Wegovy or the Mounjaro have proven to be a very effective weapon to achieve significant weight losses in patients, which undoubtedly makes them very attractive for those people who suffer from obesity. The problem is that since they are so recent, we do not know exactly their long-term adverse effects. And this is a serious problem. Although these drugs are currently available on the market, science has the obligation to continue investigating their effectiveness and also the long-term side effects. Therefore, three new and exhaustive Cocharne scientific reviewsrequested by the WHO itself, confirm it: they work and they achieve significant weight loss, although there is then a rebound effect. But beyond this there are several problems that surely are not discussed as much. The same reviews as praise its effectiveness They issue a strong warning: strong involvement of pharmaceutical companies in practically all of the studies analyzed raises serious concerns. The evidence on long-term safety, side effects and how financial ties might be influencing outcomes remains, according to the researchers, “limited or uncertain.” Side A. The analysis done by Cochrane evaluated three of the main agonists of the GLP-1 receptor. These drugs, which were originally intended for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, mimic a natural hormone that our body secretes, GLP-1. By increasing their concentration, what is achieved is that the patient you feel full for much longerand therefore do not eat as much food. The results of these drugs are really positive. The undisputed star is Mounjaro, which managed to reduce on average 16% of body weight after taking it after 12 to 18 months. But Ozempic, which is undoubtedly the most famous, is not far behind, since it reduces weight by around 11% in a period of 24 to 68 weeks, and the most important thing is that the effect persists for two years. Side B. Throughout the research, several blind spots emerge that are sometimes not counted, as patients are left with almost miraculous weight loss. And taking it is not a bed of roses, as it has side effects such as nausea or digestive discomfort which are very frequent. But also, and this is key, the studies found practically no difference between the drugs and the placebo in terms of major cardiovascular events, mortality or quality of life. That is, with current evidence, they make you lose weight, but there is no evidence that they make you live longer or be happier. Conflicts of interest. This is the central point of the warning issued by the scientific review, since they have seen that most of the studies in the reviews were financed by the companies that manufacture the drugs themselves, so there may be a significant bias in the results. It cannot be logically compared to the results offered by completely independent results, which is what this review demands. Great unknowns. As we say, these drugs are known to have a short-term effect, which is significant weight reduction. But the question it raises is… What will happen in the future among patients who take it regularly? This is where a lot of data is still missing. These are the effects we know as ‘Type C Adverse Drug Reactions’. Precisely because they are chronic. There are very clear examples, such as that benzodiazepines produce long-term tolerance or dependence. Additionally, most trials were conducted in middle- and high-income countries, with little or no representation from regions such as Africa, Central America, or Southeast Asia. Because body composition and diet vary globally, the authors caution that it is not known how these drugs will work in more diverse populations. A bittersweet taste. GLP-1 drugs are promising, but the scientific basis on which clinical and policy decisions are based is largely built by their own manufacturers. This is also added to the need to wait for possible long-term complications to arise that determine the non-recommendation of using this treatment. But this is not something that stops countries from betting on this treatment as is the case in the United States where Donald Trump reached an agreement with different pharmaceutical companies to reduce the price of these medications by a good percentage with the aim of making them more accessible. Images | David Trinks In Xataka | Someone gave Gemini 1.5 a video of him exercising. He is capable of becoming a personal trainer

OpenAI is going to have to pay a fortune in credit obligations in 2026. Today the accounts do not work out

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In recent months, OpenAI has signed agreements worth more than $1.4 trillion in infrastructure—data centers—that will be built in the next 8-10 years. The problem is that to do this they will have to face gigantic credit obligations that will require billions of dollars in 2026, and it is not at all clear how they will be able to face those payments. bad business. Your current income structure certainly does not support such debt. Sam Altman indicated in X They expect to end the year with more than $20 billion in annualized revenue. Even so, they will continue to be in (very) red numbers, although they also promise that by 2030 they will enter “hundreds of billions of dollars“The accounts do not come out, and that makes it virtually impossible to meet all credit commitments without resorting to extraordinary forms of financing, refinancing or… Rescue. Last week there was already talk about how both NVIDIA and OpenAI had dropped the possibility that papa state had to rescue them in case of a debacle. Sam Altman himself clarified shortly after that “we don’t have or want government guarantees (…) and taxpayers should not bail out companies that make bad business decisions.” He does not want a rescue, but he does talk about agreements with the government. Although Altman clarified that he was not seeking government bailouts, he did make it clear that there is a debate about a strategy to face these loans: “The only area in which we have discussed loan guarantees is in the framework of supporting the construction of semiconductor factories in the United States (…) Of course, this is different from governments guaranteeing the construction of data centers for private purposes.” It seems impossible for them to get out of this. As analyst Ed Zitron explains in your newsletterOpenAI needs $400 billion over the next 12 months to meet those credit obligations. Not only that: for him OpenAI’s plans to build chips with Broadcom and fill a 1 GW data center or create similar data centers with AMD chips Instinct or with the Vera Rubin from NVIDIA “There is not enough time to build these data centers. And if there was enough time, there would not be enough money. And if there was enough money, there would not be enough (electrical) transformers, electrical grade steel or specialized talent to supply the electricity for these data centers.” That’s all a gigantic house of cards. Possible strategies. OpenAI increasingly depends on debt issues and strategic investors, but also on those circular financing agreements it has reached with several companies. SoftBank, which already invested in OpenAI, could expand its bet, especially now that it has just sold completely all its participation in NVIDIA. Although the sale has obtained almost $6 billion, the figure is still insufficient even if it is invested in OpenAI. And of course OpenAI could achieve explosive revenue growth, but it is far from clear that it will achieve such growth in the short term. The other solution: slow down. OpenAI’s excessive ambition makes everything surrounding its agreements and proposals absolutely enormous, and that also affects its credit obligations. Adopting a slightly less risky strategy and setting more feasible deadlines could reduce the financial stress to which the company is subject… but it would also raise doubts about the growth promises that Altman and his people have made for years. Going public? Another option for OpenAI is to go public now that it has managed to complete the restructuring and has become in a for-profit organization under the umbrella, of course, of the OpenAI Foundation. In recent days there was talk about how this option would allow the company get a billion dollar valuationbut the analysts they doubt that something like this is going to happen in the short term… if it happens at all. And the bubble keeps growing. Analysts like Scott Galloway they explained recently that the valuations of companies like NVIDIA, Oracle or AMD are conditional on those “handshake” agreements with other companies like OpenAI. For him, these agreements have no substance: there is much ado about nothing. If the market ends up losing confidence, the consequences could be dire and the hypothetical bubble could burst. Source: Apollo Academy All eggs in one basket. Stock market concentration does not help. Torsten Sloj, chief economist at Apollo Global Management, has been talking for some time about the dangerous concentration of the S&P 500 index in 2025. A few days ago published a graph in which it showed the returns of various assets in the last five years, and there is a clear conclusion: while “the Magnificent Seven” have grown exceptionally, the rest have barely done so. Image | Steve Juvetson In Xataka | There is a race in which Anthropic is winning over OpenAI: that of being profitable

Work absenteeism in ITV workshops has skyrocketed in some autonomous communities. The solution: private detectives

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The public company SITVAL, in charge of managing technical inspections of vehicles in the Valencian Community, has put out to tender a contract of 140,000 euros to hire detective agencies to investigate possible unjustified absences, incompatible activities or fraudulent situations among its staff. Just like inform from El Español, the measure seeks to tackle an absenteeism problem that has skyrocketed since the ITVs went under public management in February 2023. The underlying problem. Since Ximo Puig’s Government reverted service to the public sector, work absenteeism in Valencian stations has skyrocketed to between 16% and 18% on average, according to share the middle. The figure doubles the regional average for absenteeism in the community, which stands at 6.4%, and is well above the national 7%. The result is a collapsed service with waits exceeding eight weeks for heavy vehicles, according to the Valencian Federation of Transport and Logistics Entrepreneurs (FVET). What will the detectives do? The contract, published On October 27 on the Public Sector Contracting Platform, it commissioned the agencies to observe, monitor and prepare documentary and audiovisual reports on SITVAL personnel. Just like share El Español, detectives must collect truthful information about possible unjustified absences and, if necessary, appear before administrative or judicial bodies to ratify their reports. The contract is divided into three lots, one for each Valencian province, with an execution period of two years. It is not an isolated case. The Valencian Generalitat is not the first administration that uses private investigation services to control absenteeism in public ITVs. The Government of Andalusia launched a similar service in August of last year, divided into two lots for the western and eastern areas of the community. Consequences. The middle emphasize That the reversal of the service, which occurred three months before the 2023 regional elections, has generated an unexpected effect: the massive relocation of inspections. According to data Officially, in 2024 a total of 291,662 vehicles chose to pass the ITV in other autonomous communities such as Murcia, Castilla-La Mancha or Tarragona, which means less income compared to the 2,332,087 inspections that were carried out in 2022. Qresion in it transportation sector. The situation has led the Valencian Federation of Transport and Logistics Entrepreneurs (FVET) to announce the departure of its presidentCarlos Prades, from the board of directors of SITVAL at the end of October. “We pay more than in other communities for a less efficient, slower service that generates uncertainty,” denounced Prades, who added that “Valencian stations are no longer a real option for many companies.” The figures don’t add up. Puig’s Government justified the transition to public management arguing that it could generate up to 40 million euros per year in operating income for the Generalitat, compared to the 7 million euros paid by private concessionaires together. Although it seems that the forecasts have not taken into account the impact of absenteeism, the drop in inspections carried out or additional costs such as this investigation services contract. Cover image | FVET In Xataka | Yes, there is a way to check if the V-16 beacon is working correctly. And you are not going to alert the DGT or the emergencies about it.

They cannot force you to work on weekends even if your contract says “Monday to Sunday”

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The Supreme Court has brought order to an area where many companies moved with ambiguity: the possibility of changing the working day at their convenience, by far that indicates it in the employment contract. In a recent ruling, the Supreme Court has unified its criteria and it is no longer enough for the contract to say that you can work “from Monday to Sunday” as a justification for change the work dayyou must negotiate it with employees before applying the change. What exactly has the Supreme Court defined?. The judgment responds to the request for unification of criteria requested by the CGT union in the face of previous contradictory rulings. The origin is a collective conflict raised by the unions after a company decided extend your day Monday through Sunday to serve the needs of its business clients. For more than five years, the staff of that company had worked only from Monday to Friday, so the unions understood that the change in hours represented a substantial modification of working conditions and, therefore, should be subject to negotiation, as established in the Article 41 of the Workers’ Statute. The Supreme Court agrees with the unions and annuls that decision, indicating that, although the contract allowed working “Monday to Sunday”, the change required a formal procedure. In the words of the ruling, “if workers have been providing services from Monday to Friday since 2017 and in 2022 the company informs them that they have to start doing so from Monday to Sunday, this represents a substantial modification of working conditions.” Why is it important. The Supreme Court makes it clear that the regular consolidated working day It cannot be altered unilaterally by the company. The court admits that the contract included the possibility of working from Monday to Sunday, but emphasizes that the practice sustained for years has more legal weight than the generic clause. That is to say, if from the beginning the day was configured from Monday to Sunday, that practice is consolidated, and any substantial change that is applied must be negotiated. According to the ruling, “the company could not decide unilaterally, and without following the procedure of article 41 ET, to start providing services from Monday to Sunday when since 2017 it had been providing services from Monday to Friday.” What it means for workers. The Supreme Court ruling strengthens the position of employees and gives them more tools against non-negotiated shift changes. If a staff has been working a specific schedule for years, that practice becomes part of their contract, even if it is not explicitly written. In practical terms, this means that workers can challenge any substantial alteration to their working hours or schedules if they have not been previously negotiated. This new ruling restores the staff to their previous schedule and declares the business decision void, urging them to negotiate the change in accordance with the provisions of article 41 of the Workers’ Statute. What changes for companies. With its unification of criteria, the Supreme Court places limits on the unilateral modification of the conditions and organization of work by companies, forcing them to reach agreements with employees as long as these changes are substantial and have a justification. The court points out that the company could have easily started the negotiation “claiming that the client company required the services to be provided from Monday to Sunday”, which in the court’s opinion is a more than justified reason, and not directly impose it. In Xataka | It seemed obvious, but the Supreme Court had to remind them: Ryanair cannot elect a union, the employees choose it Image | Flickr (Chris Arnold), Unsplash (Eduardo Alexandre)

Restoring vision is one of the great challenges of contemporary technology. These Spaniards have had an idea and it seems to work

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In January 2018, the car Tonya Illman was riding in got stuck in the sand. They were on Wedge Island, 180 kilometers north of the Australian city of Perth; so while they waited for roadside assistance to arrive, Tonya took a walk on the beach. And it was there, among the dunes, where saw something sticking out of the sand. It looked like an old bottle and he picked it up thinking it would look good on his shelf. Then, as they emptied it of sand, they found a note: a form on the back, a small handwritten note on the back. Tonya had just found a message that had been thrown into the sea from the German ship Paula on June 12, 1886. A message that had taken 132 years to reach its destination. Well, this, just like this, is how we tried to restore sight to blind people: throwing electric bottles into the sea of ​​neurons in our brain. Now a Spanish team wants to change that. What has happened? That a team from the Miguel Hernández University of Elche and the Center for Biomedical Research Network (CIBER) just published data from a new “round-trip” cortical machine vision system; that is, capable of adjusting stimulation according to the neuronal response. The results (despite being in a preclinical phase) they are excellent. How does it work? It is a device of about four millimeters with 100 microelectrodes that is implanted through a small hole of about 10 millimeters. The interesting thing is that it is a system that records and stimulates at the same time. This is what allows you to adapt the stimulus patterns in real time and fine-tune the stimulation to adjust it. And that has been the complicated part. In the end, sending stimuli to the brain is trivial; But during all these years it was a lot like throwing a bottle into the sea: I knew what you were sending, but not what was being received. With these new ones closed, everything changes. Are they the first to get it? Reviewing clinical trials databasesit seems that there are a couple of other companies developing the same type of devices: the trend seems clear and we can see how the market is changing from the They seem to be a little more advanced, but not too much. Which is good news for the UMH and for Spain. It is clear that the only way we have right now to move forward on this problem is ‘personalizing’ the way systems stimulate the brain. And the only way to do it is through these closed circuits. It is still curious that the field of research has survived such notorious failures as those of retinal prostheses (which left many people in the lurch). But here we are, one step closer to being able to look back. Image | Ruiqi Kong In Xataka | Hundreds of blind people received bionic implants to restore their sight. Now they are out of support

It is not a version, it is the work of the US

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If something has remained crystal clear to the Ukrainian government in these more than three years of war after the Russian invasion, is that international sanction mechanisms have a huge hole. TO the tests we refer, since kyiv intelligence has hundreds of reports in your possession that reveal that Russian drones have passed those sanctions for the lining. And not just drones, even in the tanks or missiles cruise and ballistic. The latest: The Kremlin’s most sophisticated drone is, essentially, from the United States. Orion is Western. Ukrainian intelligence has revealed that the Orionthe main Russian one-ton attack drone and almost identical in appearance to the American one MQ-9 Reaperdepends largely on electronic components manufactured in the United States and other Western countries. Built by the Russian company Kronstadt (already sanctioned for its involvement in the Kremlin’s war machine), the Orion was conceived as the jewel of Russian unmanned aviation, capable of carrying up to 250 kilograms of bombs guided missiles and Kh-series missiles, fly for thirty hours and operate at a range of about 250 kilometers, expandable up to 300 via relay. The but. However, its technological sophistication rests on a opaque network of providers international: sensors, navigation modules and microchips from companies such as Motorola, AMD, Texas Instruments, Analog Devices or Maxim appear integrated into their main control and recognition systems. Technological dependence and holes. He report of the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine (HUR), published on November 5 in its War&Sanctions portalincludes a complete technical breakdown of the drone, with a 3D model and a list of 43 Russian companies involved in its production. Of them, about a third are not subject to sanctions by the countries of the international coalition, which has allowed a stable flow of critical components to be maintained through intermediaries and border countries. Although direct exports of microchips to Russia fell sharply after the 2022 invasion, sales to Türkiye they doubledthose of Georgia increased by 35 and those of Kazakhstan by 1,000, in what analysts interpret as a triangulation network intended to circumvent export controls. For kyiv, the only way to stop this flow is to impose strict tracking of each component, forcing companies to mark their products with unique numbers that allow them to follow their journey to the end user. The double edge of Russian rearmament. The Orion was announced as the Russian answer to the American Reaperbut its trajectory has been rather irregular. Although Moscow presented it as an operation in Syria, its serial production only started in 2022coinciding with the large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Quickly, the prominence of the device was displaced by Shahed drones of Iranian design, whose local manufacturing at the Alabuga plant largely replaced the original Russian project. Despite this, the Orion remains a symbol of Russia’s attempt to develop indigenous capabilities high-tech, while exhibiting its structural inability to do without the Western industrial ecosystem. The paradox, there is no doubt, is that the same drone used to bomb Ukrainian territory depends on the American business electronics that operate under a sanctions regime designed precisely to prevent this. Implications and risk. The discovery of foreign components in Russian weapons goes beyond the war in Ukraine: it highlights the fragility of control mechanisms of exports and the transnational nature of the dual technology market, that which can serve both civil and military purposes. The HUR has warned that these cracks allow Russia to sustain its war effort despite restrictions, prolonging the conflict and threatening global security. The experts they point out that the challenge lies not only in stopping illegal shipments, but in redesigning a supervision system that exhaustively traces the destination of each microchip and electronic module, something that today seems unviable given the complexity of global supply chains. Thus, the case of Orion becomes an accurate metaphor for the new face of technological warfare: a war fought not only on the battlefields, but on the silent silicon circuits that cross borders in disguise legitimate trade. Image | Boevaya mashina, Mike1979 Russia In Xataka | The unhinged phase in Ukraine is no longer drones launching drones to attack other drones: one mind now controls everything In Xataka | The latest image of a Russian camouflage can only mean one thing: Ukrainian drones are spreading terror

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