With the United States forces in full retreat from the country and the peace talks between the Taliban and the government on hold until January, violence monopolizes the day-to-day in Afghanistan.

Terror broke out this time in the form of sticky bombs and there were two attacks in Kabul and Ferozkoh, Ghor province, to hit high-ranking officials. In the center of the capital, the city’s deputy governor, Mahboobullah Mohebi, was killed and one of his aides and two other people were injured.

The attack in Ghor killed the number two of the Provincial Council, Abdurahman Atshan. No group claimed responsibility for these actions aimed at weakening the power of the institutions.

On paper, Kabul should be the safest square in Afghanistan, but in just over a month the center of the capital has been the target of two indiscriminate rocket and mortar attacks and the university campus was the scene of a jihad operation. urban area in which 35 students died.

In this case, it was the jihadist group Islamic State (IS) who claimed responsibility for the massacre, but the Government did not believe this version and accused the Taliban of being the true authors of the assault. Journalists are also in the spotlight and two well-known presenters have died in the last three weeks.

The peace talks are on hold until January and the president, Ashraf Ghani , asked the two sides to consider the possibility of “abandoning the luxurious hotels of Doha” to continue the dialogue in Afghanistan. The city of Kandahar, a stronghold of the insurgency in the south of the country, offered to resume the dialogue between Afghans during the next month.

The Taliban have respected the ceasefire agreed with the United States since February 29 in exchange for the withdrawal of its troops, but they refuse to accept a truce with the government and this complicates talks that are progressing very slowly.

In these months, operations against the Afghan security forces have intensified and the clashes leave a high number of casualties among civilians, soldiers, police and Taliban. The initial hope sparked by the talks has been faded by the violence.

Finally, the United States troops will not be out of the country for Christmas, as Trump hinted in October in a message in a clear electoral tone, but their withdrawal is progressing according to the deadlines agreed with the insurgency.

In an interview with the BBC network, the Taliban leaders reminded the next tenant of the White House, Joe Biden , the importance of respecting the agreement. The Islamist group believes that “each foreign soldier who remains in the country beyond the stipulated time will be considered a legitimate target and we will resume the holy war.”

Joe Biden has chosen Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend (Indiana) with whom he faced in the Democratic primary, as his next Secretary of Transportation .

It was expected that Biden would save somewhere in his Cabinet for this 38-year-old, for two reasons: He is a future value of the Democratic party and Biden owed him a great favor.

Buttigieg starred in a brilliant breakthrough in the Democratic party and came to dispute the center of the party to Biden, the great favorite of the primaries.

Buttigieg was a design candidate, he seemed to have come out of a focus group of political consultants from the Democratic establishment: young, gay, Christian, Harvard-trained, war veteran – a short stint in Afghanistan, Midwest and moderate. .

His only experience was being mayor of a city of 100,000, but it didn’t matter. He covered its gaps with presence, enthusiasm and an optimistic, “Obamian” message of union, harmony and progress. “Major Pete” or “Mayor Pete” became one of the campaign icons.

Buttigieg would not have had a chance to run in a primaries with better candidates. But in the face of many left-leaning rivals, he became the centrist alternative to Biden. The now president-elect, despite being the favorite, was reeling in the debates and his campaign was adrift.

Against the odds, Buttigieg prevailed in the inaugural primaries , the Iowa caucuses. In the next round, in New Hampshire, he was second, behind only leftist leader Bernie Sanders. His Achilles heel was the black electorate, with whom he never connected. And when the primaries came to a state with a large black minority, South Carolina, it collapsed, while Biden was resurrected.

Buttigieg was able to continue in the fight and seek a miracle on Super Tuesday, three days after the South Carolina primary, the date in which the most states are played.

But the young politician made his calculations and opted for a strategic decision: to step aside to secure a future in the Democratic establishment. He canceled his campaign and joined Biden’s. The next day, another moderate candidate, but with fewer options,, Amy Klobuchar, did the same. The ‘establishment’ was milling around Biden.

Buttigieg quickly became a mainstay of the Democratic campaign. He received congratulations by phone from Barack Obama for his generosity. Now the reward has been collected.

Buttigieg had another factor going for him: his appointment to any Cabinet position would make him the first openly gay person in the highest rank of the US Government. Biden has promised a Cabinet “that looks like America” ​​and that. includes diversity of sexual orientation.

Buttigieg made his an electoral card and now it has also been decisive in reaching the Government.

It rang for several portfolios, as ambassador to the UN or secretary of Commerce. In the end, he will be left with Transport, a department with 55,000 employees , in which he will be in charge of a dozen agencies, with responsibility for airspace, national highways or pipeline security.

Your experience for this will be limited. In South Bend, it only managed a fleet of sixty buses on the public transportation service. Other contenders for the position, such as David Kim or Sarah Feinberg, accumulated years of experience in the transport sector and in the public department of the sector. But Biden didn’t owe them one.

“I promise you, throughout your life you will end up seeing a lot more of Pete than me,” Biden said at the first joint rally. Now, his appointment has once again disappointed the leftist currents, who consider that they do not have sufficient representation in the Cabinet.

Buttigieg is not left with a flashy position, but with the visibility and presence he needs to continue his political ambitions, without needing to win a congressional election – for example, senator from Indiana, a difficult seat for being a very state. Republican- to stay in the spotlight. There is no doubt that Buttigieg will run for president again , in 2024 or later.

Donald Trump ordered in May to extend the ban on companies in his country from acquiring and using devices made by foreign companies that may pose a “risk to national security.”

Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei has sold all of its interests in Honor, the company’s mid-range mobile phone brand, to the Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology consortium as a result of the “tremendous pressure” it has been subjected to. recently the Chinese supplier’s business as a result of the supply chain impact of the US veto.

“Huawei’s consumer business has been under tremendous pressure lately. This is due to a persistent lack of technical elements necessary for our mobile telephony business, ”the Chinese giant acknowledged in a statement.

In this way, Huawei has decided to sell all its business interests in Honor to Shenzhen Zhixin New Information Technology with the aim that the brand, as well as its sellers and suppliers, can overcome the difficulties.

Once the sale is completed, Huawei has ensured that it will not own shares or participate in any way in business management or decision-making activities at Honor.

«This movement has been carried out by the industrial chain of Honor to guarantee its own survival. More than 30 agents and distributors of the Honor brand first proposed this acquisition, “said Huawei.

Since its inception in 2013, the Honor brand has focused on the youth market offering phones in the low to mid-range price range, with more than 70 million units sold annually.

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order last May to extend the prohibition to American companies from acquiring and using devices made by foreign technology companies that may pose “a risk to national security”, such as the China Huawei, thus renewing the veto declared a year earlier.

Huawei achieved a turnover of 671.3 billion yuan (86.275 million euros) in the first nine months of 2020, which represents an increase of 9.9% compared to the sales revenue recorded by the company in the same period. 2019. Huawei’s sales revenue growth was thus below the 24.4% increase registered in the same period of 2019.

81.4% of households with at least one member between 16 and 74 years old have some type of computer (desktop, laptop, tablet …), which represents an increase of 0.5 points compared to 2019.

This is how It emerges from the latest Survey on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households corresponding to 2020, which has just been made public by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). By type of device, 76.2% have desktop or laptop computers and 58.4% have tablets.

The mobile phone is present in almost all households (99.5%, with an increase of one point compared to 2019). For its part, the landline continues its decline and it is available in 71.1% of households, 3.8 points less than in 2019.

More than 15.5 million households with at least one member between the ages of 16 and 74 (95.3% of the total, compared to 91.2% in 2019) have access to the Internet by fixed and / or mobile broadband.

The main type of broadband connection is through fixed modes (fiber optic or cable network, ADSL…), which is present in 82.1% of households (regardless of whether they also have a mobile connection). For their part, 13.2% only access the Internet through a mobile connection (3G or 4G…).

The mobile phone is already present in almost all householdsn (in 99.5%)

The percentage of households with fixed broadband increases the larger the size of the municipality. Thus, it reaches 85.5% in those with more than 100,000 inhabitants or provincial capitals, compared to 73.7% in those with less than 10,000 inhabitants.

For their part, households with higher incomes have a fixed broadband connection to a greater extent than those with lower incomes. While the latter have a higher percentage of access only by mobile devices.

96.2% of households with a net monthly income of 2,500 eurosor more have fixed access and 3.6% do so only through mobile. On the contrary, among households that earn less than 900 euros, the percentages are 62.7% in fixed access and 23.2% only through mobile.

More and more minors with mobile
The use of new technologies by minors is, in general, very widespread. Computer use is very high (91.5% of minors compared to 89.7% in 2019) and even more so is Internet use (94.5%, 92.9% in 2019).

Almost 70% of kids between the ages of 10 and 15 have a mobile phone, three points more than in 2019

On the other hand, 69.5% of the population aged 10 to 15 has a mobile phone compared to 66.0% in 2019. By sex, girls use new technologies to a greater extent. By age, the use of ICT grows as the age of minors increases, especially after 13.

93.2% of people aged 16 to 74 have used the Internet in the last three months (2.5 points more than in 2019). This represents a total of 32.8 million (with an increase of more than one million users).

By frequency of use, 91.3% connect at least once a week (3.6 points more than in 2019), 83.1% daily (5.5 points more) and 81.0% several times a day (6.1 points more).

The activities most carried out in the last three months by the population aged 16 to 74 have been: using instant messaging services, such as WhatsApp (by 89.5%, 85.1% in 2019), searching for information on goods and services (78.3%, 72.9% in 2019) and telephoning or making video calls over the Internet (77.7%, 54.9% in 2019).

64.7% of the population aged 16 to 74 have participated in the last three months in general social networks (such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube). This percentage is 6.1 points higher than in 2019. The most participatory are students (93.8%) and young people between 16 and 24 years old (93.0%). By sex, the activity of women (66.4%) is higher than that of men (62.9%).

The average estimated cost per buyer ‘online’ reaches 274 euros, nine euros more than last year

Almost 19 million people, 53.8% of the population aged 16 to 74, have bought online in the last three months for private reasons, compared to 46.9% in 2019. 62.6% have bought in the last 12 months (58.0% in 2019).

The average estimated cost per buyer reaches 273.8 euros , an increase of 9.1 euros compared to 2019. In total, 93.6 million purchases are made. 51.2% bought some product in physical format; 30.2% clothing, shoes or accessories (bags, jewelry), 16.1% deliveries from restaurants, fast food, catering and 14.0% sporting goods.

During the last 12 months, the products most purchased on the Internet were clothing, shoes or accessories (39.6% of the population purchased them), computers, tablets, mobile phones or accessories (24.2%) and sporting goods (the 22.0%).

On the other hand, 35.7% of people aged 16 to 74 have downloaded a product or subscription over the Internet in the last three months , 18.6% software (including updates), 15.6% movies or series in streaming and 11.3% games online or downloaded.

The father of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, has proposed to redirect his little offspring so that “users have control of their data.” An adventure that he launches with his ‘startup’ Inrupt through the Solid platform.

Through this tool, Berners-Lee wants to force large organizations and governments to build applications that respect privacy and give citizens the power over their data. The one that gave rise to the web is now seeking to make a 180 turn to that model where the technology giants offer their services.

“As we have all discovered, this has not been the best for us,” Berners-Lee has repeated on more than one occasion in the past.

This open source platform and developed by the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is underway since this week for governments and companies to give a total update to the web and control return to citizens. Solid will be “a fundamental change that will not only restore users’ confidence in their data, but will help them improve their lives,” Berners-Lee explains on his personal blog.

The idea of ​​returning to a more just and decentralized internet has been in the head of the father of the web since 2018. “Every once in a while a large social network drops a large amount of private data,” he says.

“We have assumed in the past that we have to use these social networks because the world works that way, but that idea is being challenged on several fronts,” he points out.

This initiative, says Berners-Lee, “is not just about privacy, but about access.” The objective of the Solid platform is not to bring together all the data in one platform so that they are more accessible to companies, but rather that citizens are able to control them and see what access they have to them.

It is, according to its creators, a large warehouse distributed by personalized blocks baptized as pods. “The big difference with other similar web or mobile communication proposals is that it is the user who decides who can access this information and the owner of the application must ask the user for permission to view it,” they say.

Ahead of this week’s big launch, Solid has already been working in the shadows with companies and executives. The British BBC, the UK National Health Service and the Flemish Government in Belgium have already been Solid and Inrupt’s first testing grounds.

At least from theory, the pandemic has been an obstacle to dating or simply to relate to other people. It has never been an easy task but now with masks and required distances it is a challenge.

The dating applications are a good way to meet people and in recent times, many who have shown their commitment to the development of new tools that make the safer experience .

Tinder and Badoo were pioneers in offering security functions for women and now the Spanish startup Kiki, in addition to putting a price on meetings, implements an SOS button to guarantee the safety of its users.

To ensure security, the user must verify their identity and can share their location during meetings. In addition, it has the SOS button in the app, which connects directly with the national emergency number.

The application, which was launched in Spain in April 2018, differs from others in that it shares a fee with its users. The person who wants to meet another, pays him a small amount in KiKi Coins in order to guarantee the meeting and, in return, the one who accepts it, wins up to 70% of those virtual currencies that he can invest in experiences with other users in establishments with which they have agreements.

30% keep the app. The appointment is guaranteed from the moment it is paid and does not depend on the reciprocity of the ‘matches’.

«We share the benefits with users, monetizing their free time. Users usually buy the 150 KiKi Coins package, with which they can make up to 15 invitations ”, says Rubén Juan, Co-Founder and CTO of the platform.

You have to register, with a photo, and enter basic information (name, age, tastes and hobbies). It works by geolocation, so you have to activate that option. The interface of the application is similar to that of any other of this type.

The platform offers the user several plans with different fixed rates: for example, have a coffee (5 euros), go to the cinema to see a movie (10 euros), have a drink (15 euros), share a dinner in a restaurant (20 euros) and even travel to another city (100 euros).

Fertility treatments involve many visits to the clinics to be able to do all the monitoring of the process. Or they entailed, since one of these specialized centers has designed a new formula to allow those procedures to continue to be performed without the need to go in person.

Although there are no official figures, the covid-19 pandemic has led to a significant decrease in cases in the field of assisted reproduction. Several estimates made from surveys carried out in these centers, at national and European level, calculate that one in three treatments is no longer carried out.

Juana Crespo, a doctor at one of these fertility clinics, considers in any case that “what is really important is to find a balance between those women who cannot hopelessly wait” on the path of becoming mothers. For this reason, he has devised a new system so that patients can follow up from home.

“The process guarantees that the follow-up of the cycle is similar (saving physical distances) to what would be done in the event that the patient had to come to the clinic,” he explains. The objective is to reduce face-to-face trips to one or two, and that the rest of the treatment is carried out at home.

“With only three ultrasounds we can monitor the patient’s stimulation process, and with two we can know if she is perfectly prepared for transfer”, defends Crespo.

With this system, the clinical history of the patient is made by phone or video call. The results of other medical tests (such as laboratory tests) can also be sent without having to go to the center.

Regarding the gynecological examination and the follow-up of the cycle, the clinic explains that they provide the necessary tools so that the patient can undergo a guided gynecological examination at home and assessed remotely by her gynecologist in real time.

When the gynecologist considers that the patient is ready for the ovarian puncture, it will be the first moment in which she has to go to the clinic. Later he will return for the transfer of the embryos.

The objective is to limit the face-to-face visits of the person who is undergoing the fertilization process to a minimum «Beyond the consultation itself, which is covered by a gynecologist at all times, it is about bringing the clinic closer to the patient, putting the whole team and our work at her home through different telematic means “, argues this doctor.

Juana Crespo recognizes, however, that not all cases can – at least, at present – be monitored remotely. “We are working to try to make them the maximum number,” he adds, also stating that the results are “exactly the same as we would get if the patient came to the clinic.”

Covid-19 has destroyed families, has blown up the way of living and relating to practically the entire planet and has ruined millions of businesses. In Spain, the hospitality industry is a true reflection of the damage caused by SARS-CoV-2.

The hospitality industry is made up of more than 300 thousand establishments that employ 1.7 million people and has a sales volume of 123,612 million euros, with a contribution of 6.2% to the GDP of the Spanish economy. That’s before the pandemic, since restrictions have put 25,000 people in the service sector laid off in November.

The limited capacity and hours, the arrival of the cold or the forced closure of bars and restaurants has caused the goodbye of historical establishments, but also the reinvention of many. Digitization is the key tool for the survival of many of them.

“There was already a great run run in the hospitality sector with digitization, but sometimes you need an electroshock to accelerate that process,” says Carlos Gómez, CEO of Cheerfy, to this newspaper.

According to the Juntos por la Hostelería platform, made up of the Hospitality Industry of Spain, FIAB and AECOC, more than 40,000 restaurant businesses have already closed; and this figure is expected to rise to 65,000 establishments by year-end.

Many establishments have reinvented themselves and have opted for take-out or home delivery. Two solutions that have allowed to avoid the blows of the crisis derived from Covid-19.

“It is true that there is no clear vision that this is going to be a long-term strategic bet,” says José de Isasa, director of institutional relations at ElTenedor. “For some, for example, it is temporary,” he points out.

The emergence of these two new lines of business and the inability to go to the restaurant, “has accelerated the arrival of technology to the restaurant,” says Gómez. However, on many occasions those requests have been entered by hand and all valuable information has been lost in the age of big data.

“There is a lot to do,” the Cheerfy CEO tells this newspaper. This startup, born simultaneously in the United Kingdom and Spain, works as a customer loyalty platform for the hospitality sector, through the personalization of non-intrusive experiences. “We have been working with the sector for 15 years and we have more than 1,000 tools that help to have a more efficient management,” he says.

Now, together with ElTenedor, they join forces “to continue supporting the catering sector in these difficult times.” Both companies have reached an agreement to offer an attractive solution for the client, very easy to implement, that integrates seamlessly with their management systems and that allows them to efficiently process customer orders from start to finish, including the shipping process.

“The Spanish restoration is tremendously heterogeneous in terms of digitization”, details the director of institutional relations of ElTenedor. “It is very fragmented and there is a great digitization deficit,” he adds.

This agreement will allow to reach more than 12,000 establishments and that they can optimize resources. “The agreement with Cheerfy responds to what restaurants are demanding at the moment: personalization of their proposal, transparent integration with their administration and management systems, a simple and cost-efficient solution and a transparent migration for the restaurant business”, he says in a statement Marcos Alves, CEO of ElTenedor.

The irruption of Cheerfy in the market comes with the aim of “creating a loyalty platform for the hospitality industry”, comments Carlos Gómez. “We wanted to detect the customer, profile him and give him a personalized service.”

The arrival of the covid-19 closed the rooms and the business moved to home delivery. This 180 degree turn also changed, in part, the objectives of the startup. Reduce your customer commissions and data ownership.

According to Gómez, Cheerfy’s proposal offers two differential advantages: we provide much more profitability through our own channel compared to the marketplace, 10 points less in the average ticket, and because we do not offer a solution whereby customer data remains in the hands of the restaurant themselves.

This agreement with ElTenedor offers restaurants a personalized customer experience with the restaurant’s brand and hosted on their own website and “above all an attractive solution for the customer that allows them to efficiently process customer orders from start to finish.

In addition, thanks to this collaboration, the restaurants associated with ElTenedor that hire Cheerfy Shop will benefit from a 25% discount on the start-up of the service.

A year has passed since the first confirmed case of a ‘strange disease’ that the Government of China located for the first time in the province of Hubei: COVID-19.

Twelve months later, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the pathogen that causes this disease, has claimed the lives of more than one million 417 thousand people and has infected more than 60 million around the world, according to data from the University Johns Hopkins.

This month, the first signs that the world may soon have an effective tool to fight the pandemic came with the publication of results from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca , which showed that their doses against the new coronavirus work at different percentages.

And while these results offer hope for the end of the pandemic, there are those who think about when the next could come … yes, pandemic. One of those people is Bill Gates.

The Microsoft co-founder this month started a series of podcasts with actress Rashida Jones (which you can listen to on this link ) called Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions.

In his first podcast, Gates estimated that the next pandemic to hit the world may be quite close. “If we do well, it will come in 20 years, but we have to assume it could come in three years,” he said.

Gates assured that if this were to happen, the next pandemic will have a less destructive effect than that caused by COVID-19 thanks to the experience of recent months.

“Most countries will respond like Australia and South Korea, with extensive testing and quarantines. Our testing tools will be much better. We will not be so stupid on that occasion,” he added.