Sierra was the second most powerful supercomputer in the world. When its time came it ended up in the shredder, literally

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Supercomputers represent the extreme of modern computing: machines capable of performing enormous amounts of calculations every second and supporting scientific or strategic projects of enormous complexity. Saw He was one of those giants. For years he operated in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratorywhere he was in charge of highly sensitive simulations for the United States Government. At the time he came to occupy second place in the TOP500 rankingwhich ranks the world’s fastest supercomputers. But in high-performance computing, even the most advanced systems have a limited lifespan. After seven years of service, Sierra has been retired. A giant for simulations. When Sierra began operating in 2018 at the Livermore facility, it was incorporated into the center’s high-performance computing infrastructure to support the nuclear arsenal maintenance program managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Instead of resorting to real nuclear tests, scientists use computer simulations capable of reproducing the behavior of the weapons and materials involved in their design. This work requires extraordinary computing power and also has implications in areas such as nonproliferation and counterterrorism. Almost at the top of the ranking. As we noted above, for several years the Sierra was among the fastest machines on the planet. According to the TOP500 ranking, it recorded 94.64 petaflops, that is, tens of quadrillion floating point operations per second. To achieve this, it used an unusual architecture at the time, based on IBM Power9 processors combined with NVIDIA Volta V100 graphics accelerators. This design allowed work to be distributed among thousands of computing nodes and offered a notable leap over previous generations of supercomputing. When the hardware starts to fail. Supercomputers do not escape a reality common to any technological infrastructure: over the years, the hardware begins to deteriorate. In this type of systems, The usual useful life is usually around five to seven yearsa period after which the failure rate begins to grow and maintaining the system becomes more complex. As these machines accumulate hours of operation, the likelihood increases that certain components will fail or need to be replaced. In the case of Sierra, furthermore, part of the problem was already very specific: some of its components had stopped being manufactured and the version of the operating system it used had lost support. The successor. Sierra’s retirement is also related to the arrival of a new generation of supercomputing at the center. In 2025 it began operating The Captainthe system destined to take its place within the laboratory’s computing infrastructure. Although at first glance both may seem similar facilities, the difference is inside. El Capitan uses an architecture based on the AMD Instinct MI300A APUs and a shared memory system between CPU and GPU, which allows it to achieve much higher performance. According to data released by the lab, this machine can reach 1,809 exaflops, about 19 times faster than Sierra at its peak according to TOP500. Disassemble a supercomputer piece by piece. The end of Sierra was not simply about shutting down the system and leaving it out of commission. The process was carried out in several phases that began with the progressive removal of computing nodes and internal components. Technicians dismantled entire racks, extracted batteries and separated different elements for recycling or controlled destruction. Some parts, such as system plates or metal structures, were sent to specialized facilities for shredding. Since Sierra had worked with simulations linked to the US nuclear arsenal, the laboratory had to prevent any possibility of partial data recovery or reconstruction of sensitive information, hence the storage devices received even stricter treatment. Images | United States Department of Energy In Xataka | Meta has been buying chips from NVIDIA and AMD for years. Now it also makes its own so as not to fall short

in one million euros a year

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Inditex has just presented the best results in its history. For the first time in its history, the company founded by Amancio Ortega has reached 6,220 million, with a turnover that was close to 40,000 million euros. In that context of historical numberswhat its top managers earn draws attention…and not precisely because they are modest figures. Marta Ortega, president of the company and youngest daughter of Amancio Ortega, has been in office for four years and her remuneration has not moved a single euro since it stabilized at one million a year. Meanwhile, the CEO, Óscar García Maceiras, has just raised his salary for the third consecutive year. The CEO who rises while the president remains still. As reflected in the Annual Corporate Governance Report 2025 of Inditex, García Maceiras closed 2025 with a total remuneration of 11.55 million euros, which represents an increase of 3% compared to the previous year and a cumulative increase of 38% since he assumed the position of CEO in November 2021 after the departure of Pablo Isla. Their remuneration is broken down into a block of 7.4 million euros in cash which includes a fixed salary, short-term variable percentage and long-term variable percentage. As and as usual In senior management positions, remuneration is completed with a package of shares or other financial instruments valued at 4.1 million euros. These new shares are added to the 118,329 titles which he already has. This salary growth for the CEO caused the total amount allocated to the board of directors to also increase, going from 14.28 million which they registered in 2024 to 14.5 million euros in the last financial year. One million euros a year: the price of presiding over Inditex. Martha Ortega became president non-executive of Inditex in 2022 and since then her salary has always followed the same line. In his first year he received a salary of 834,000 euros. However, in the following three years and unlike the rest of the directors of the Zara parent company, his salary has remained unchanged at one million euros. Neither the company’s record results nor the increase in dividends to shareholders have moved that figure. Now, that million is not the only income that Marta Ortega receives from her ties to the group. According to published Digital EconomyIn addition to her remuneration as president of Inditex, she receives remuneration for her participation in the boards of directors. of Pontegadea Investments, Partler 2006 and Pontegadea GB 2020, the companies with which the Ortega family controls the textile group and manages the rest of your investments. In addition, its shareholding percentage also brings some dividends, although without reaching the levels that this year Amancio Ortega will receive. A top management that also wins. García Maceiras is not the only one who has seen his income grow after the company’s good results. The joint remuneration of the 19 executives who form Inditex senior management It amounted to 139.5 million euros in the last financial year, compared to 132 million the previous year. That is, an increase of 7.5 million distributed among that select group of managers. In contrast, the average Inditex employee he earned around 40,000 euros in 2025, 5.26% more than the previous year. The difference between what the CEO earned and what a standard employee of the company receives exceeds 280 times. It is a gap that does not go unnoticedespecially in a year in which the company has broken all its historical profit records. ​Amancio Ortega does not care about his salary. There is a surprising fact when the remuneration of the Inditex leadership is broken down. Amancio Ortega, the man who founded the group and who remains its main shareholder with control of more than 59% of the capital through family officehe repeated in 2025 with an allocation of just 100,000 euros per year as a member of the council. Without a doubt, this is a figure that, compared to the 3,234 million euros that it will receive in the context of the dividends that correspond to its participation, has more symbolic than practical value. In Xataka | Marta Ortega has inherited something more than a textile empire: Amancio Ortega’s taste for big logistical bets Image | Wikimedia Commons (Nemigo), GTRES

the only tools this expat needs to hunt down Iran’s ghost tankers

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From the 47th floor of his Singapore apartment building, Remy Osman, a British expat who works in the beverage industry, has a front-row seat to one of the world’s biggest geopolitical clashes. Armed with binoculars, a wide-angle camera and live tracking applications, Osman watches as a 333-meter-long supertanker moves at a snail’s pace along one of the busiest shipping routes on the planet. The scene contains a brutal irony: as detailed Financial Timesthat ship’s cargo has almost doubled in value since it set sail just two weeks ago, coinciding with Brent crude oil reached 120 dollars per barrel in the wake of the war between the United States, Israel and Iran. From his balcony, Osman hunts the ships of the so-called “shadow fleet”, sanctioned oil tankers that operate outside the law, but in broad daylight. The ship that caught Osman’s attention is the Hugean 18-year-old oil tanker. According to the sanctions list records of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)it is an Iranian-flagged ship operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) and heavily monitored since 2018. Although the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz began at the end of February with attacks by the United States and Israel, the Huge It has been one of the few large crude oil cargo ships (VLCC) that managed to get out of that mousetrap. From his privileged vantage point, Osman has identified an unmistakable pattern: the Iranian oil tankers sail towards the east sunken in the water, revealing that they are loaded to the brim, and a week later they return in the opposite direction floating much higher, with their load considerably lighter. The most surprising thing is the nerve with which they operate in the midst of the current crisis. Ships that were previously hidden now display their names and flags as if to say: “We have as much right to navigate these waters as anyone else,” Osman himself said. to the Finance Times. This impunity has reached the point that almost two-thirds of the NITC fleet have started transmitting data accurate in their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) after seven years of manipulation and concealment. Tehran’s lifeline The impact of this ghost fleet parading in front of Osman’s window is titanic. As the world suffers “the largest supply disruption in history” due to the closure of Hormuz, Iran continues to export its crude oilsurpassing the barrier of 2 million barrels per day. The millions of barrels that Osman sees disappearing on the horizon have an overwhelmingly single destination: China. The Asian giant absorbs around 90% of Iran’s oil exports. The data tracked corroborate this massive escapeplacing the “Iran-China” route in first place in dark operations, moving more than 1.6 million barrels per day. While Iran profits, the rest of the planet trembles. With some 20 million barrels a day taken off the formal board due to the physical blockade of Hormuz, the scenario of a barrel at $200 is already a real possibility. The global threat is proportional to the size of this illicit network: according to Fortunethe dark fleet is estimated at about 1,100 vessels, representing between 17% and 18% of all liquid cargo tankers in the world. The machinery to outwit the Western powers is a marvel of evasive engineering that occurs a few kilometers from Osman’s house. As explained Financial Timestankers do not sail directly from Iran to Chinese ports, but instead perform ship-to-ship (Ship-to-Ship) transfers on the high seas. The main scenario for this transfer is the Eastern Outer Port Limits, in Malaysian waters, an area with little supervision. On a single day last January, satellite images confirmed the presence of about 60 of these ships anchored there, operating with total impunity. To achieve this level of invisibility, they exploit legal loopholes in the sea. As detailed Fortune, The international maritime system is based on voluntary compliance: ships simply turn off their radio transponders, spoof their locations, or change their identities by scratching their registration numbers. In addition, they rely on “flags of convenience.” According to the statistics of Tanker TrackersIn addition to Iran and Russia, dark ships often fly flags of countries such as Panama, Cameroon or Sierra Leone. The final link in this chain is found in Asia. The report of Kharon reveals that the final buyers They are not the large state oil companies, but the so-called refineries teapot. These small, independent refiners absorb 90% of Iranian exports and give Beijing “plausible deniability” in the international community, even though these private companies are deeply connected to the Chinese state through joint ventures and front-line networks in Hong Kong. Attempts to stop this illicit transfer have been few and often frustrating. Although Malaysian authorities recently seized crude oil worth almost $130 million from two suspicious tankers, the outcome was laughable: after paying bail of just $75,000, the ships were released. The next day, Osman looked out on his balcony again and there was one of them, the Celebratebrowsing again fully loaded. The paradox in the shadows Still, the war has brought some complications. According to Lloyd’s Listthe escalation of war forced at least six ghost tankers that were sailing empty towards the Persian Gulf to turn around (the so-called U-turns) and abort its operations. But the network is resilient: as experts point out, the shadow fleet is designed precisely to operate under disruption. The great irony is that, while those sanctioned find cracks to navigate, the legal actors are desperate. The blockade has forced Saudi Arabia to use its oil pipeline through the desert against the clock to divert millions of barrels to Yanbuin the Red Sea, where an emergency armada of supertankers is queuing up in an agonizing attempt to evacuate legal crude oil and prevent economic collapse. How to conclude Fortune, The dark fleet did not arise because the maritime system is broken, but because it was always voluntary. Today, sanctions have pushed countries like Iran to build a highly effective parallel system. While the formal world looks for alternative … Read more

will not work miracles

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Just do scroll a few minutes on TikTok or Instagram to come across a video teaching the great benefits of taking magnesium supplementationpromising to sleep better or make your muscles perform better than ever. This has caused magnesium to become almost something essentialbut the reality is that it does not work miracles. Like other supplements that had their great heyday in the past. Specific cases. The current scientific evidence is clear and fits perfectly with what nutrition experts warn: in the healthy population, the absolute priority is diet. Magnesium supplements are not a miracle pill and only make true sense when there are deficiencies or very specific clinical situations. The problem is that the general population falls into wanting quick benefits with a simple pill. This is something that can be seen in a medical consultation, where leaving without a prescription for a new medication seems crazy, since we do not welcome being prescribed a diet or a series of exercises. In the end we want a pill that cures absolutely everything and gives us the greatest fulfillment in terms of health. The effect of magnesium. This is what happens with magnesium, and it is normal when it is sold to us as something so good. But the question we must ask ourselves here is: do we really lack that much magnesium? The answer is varied, because intake data in Europe reveal that between 25 and 40% of adults are below the average requirement, being a relevant problem in women. However, going “just right” in magnesium does not mean that you have clinical hypomagnesemia (a drop in magnesium), nor does it mean that you need to buy the best supplement. The vast majority of these people could solve their problem by making small adjustments at the supermarket: eating more legumes, nuts, seeds, green leafy vegetables and whole grains. Which is supported. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) endorses that magnesium reduces fatigue and supports muscle and nerve function. But if we look at recent clinical trials, its miraculous effect is nuanced. For example, it has been seen that magnesium oxide used as an osmotic laxative for decades, and it is something that has been confirmed in the laboratory. Another effect with strong evidence behind it comes from a meta-analysis published in 2025 that shows that prolonged supplementation for between 12 and 16 weeks with doses of 250-450 mg per day improves blood pressure, lipid profile and reduces inflammatory markers. What is less clear. On the other side of the scale, there are some effects that do not have such strong evidence. For example, a mantra that has been heard is that supplemented magnesium is ideal for migraines. Something that has been demonstrated, but without very conclusive data. As an extra, magnesium is also sold as the ultimate and most natural sedative, but here is the data They are less spectacular than they seem. The reality is that it helps a little with insomnia and mild anxiety, but the quality of the evidence is limited, and the effect, according to trials, is not uniform. Where to click. If they have sold magnesium to avoid cramps while running or perform better in the gym, the truth is that it is smoke. An in-depth 2024 scientific review on magnesium and exercise concluded that the evidence for performance, recovery and cramps is minimal and, thus, its widespread use in athletes is not solidly supported. It is not the solution either for the famous hot flashes that exists when you reach menopause, since the trials here show that magnesium does not reduce the frequency or intensity of these. Yes, it is true that right now there are some studies underway with specific formulations to see if they act on other symptoms. They are not all the same. The most important thing here is to always consult your doctor so that he or she can determine if there really is a deficiency of this mineral (or others) through a simple blood test. If confirmed, you have to know how to choose well, with magnesium citrate being one of the favorites as it is the one that is best absorbed in the intestine. Be careful not to go overboard. Different institutions mark a very clear red line: they cannot be consumed more than 350 mg of magnesium in the form of a daily supplement. Overcoming this barrier, especially if more than 400 mg are taken daily, opens the door to the most common adverse effects such as diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps. Additionally, magnesium supplements are contraindicated in people with severe kidney failure, as their kidneys cannot filter the excess, which can cause severe muscle weakness and neuromuscular blockages. In Xataka | There are people obsessed with consuming magnesium as a supplement when the best way is to put it in your diet

TicketMaster executives privately admit what their clients have suspected for years:

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Slack messages exchanged in 2022 between two regional directors by Live Nation (declassified this past March 12 in full antitrust trial) describe their own clients as “idiots” from whom they are “robbing hands full.” These are not mere private outbursts: they are involuntary testimony to how a company that controls 80% of the primary ticket sales market in the US works. It is no surprise to those who have been paying parking fees of $250 for a Kid Rock concert for years. But seeing it in writing has a special weight. What they said. Ben Baker, then regional director of ticketing for Live Nation venues in Florida and Jeff Weinhold, senior director in the Virginia area, had been exchanging views on their work for months. In one conversation, Baker boasted about what he was doing with the add-ons that raised the base price of a Kid Rock concert in Tampa Bay. Baker wrote that the customers were “stupid” and that he almost felt sorry for taking advantage of them. Weinhold responded that he had VIP parking for $250. Baker’s retort: ​​They were “robbing them hand over fist, baby, that’s how we do it.” and there is more details: Baker speaks of income of $124,790 in upsells (upgraded tickets, VIP tickets, or better seats) for a Dead & Co. concert, followed by Weinhold’s suggestion to dynamically raise prices before sending the marketing email. “LOL. I’m evil,” Weinhold wrote. Baker used the internal term “dyn up” to refer to raising prices through dynamic pricing. There are also conversations about designing the purchasing interface so that artist names appear next to the upsellsa technique that Baker himself admitted to having “stolen” from the competition. Beyond the anecdote. Live Nation tried to keep the messages from reaching the jury. Their lawyers downplayed them, and when they became public, the company issued a statement attributing them to “a junior employee talking to a friend.” It is not clear Which of the two regional directors with responsibility for pricing are referred to as “junior.” Lawyers for the plaintiff states argued precisely that they are not irrelevant messages: artists have no interest in milking their fans, but Live Nation can do it because artists have nowhere else to go. The giant controls approximately 80% of the ticketing in large US venues and 60% of concert promotion, according to data cited during the trial. The construction of the empire. This vertical concentration was not built overnight. The merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster was approved in 2010 and created a model in which the same company promotes the tour, manages the venue and sells tickets. After, Ticketmaster also began to charge commissions for resale among fans, which was especially noticeable during the pre-sale of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras ​​Tour’ in 2022, when the collapse of the system led to a Justice Department investigation and hearings in Congress. And the dynamic pricing model has already been successfully exported (pecuniary) all over the world. The agreement. On March 9, the DOJ and Live Nation agreed to a surprise settlement that ended federal involvement in the trial without the judge being informed until the last minute. The terms required the company to limit its service fees to 15%, cut exclusive contracts with venues to four years, divest from 13 amphitheaters and open its marketplace to competitors like SeatGeek. The agreed payment amounts to between 280 and 300 million dollars for the states that accept the agreement. What the pact does not contemplate is the separation of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. And now. More than 27 states, including New York, California and Illinois, rejected the federal settlement and decided to pursue the lawsuit on their own, since the crucial monopoly issue had not been addressed. Furthermore, the case is not exclusively American. In September 2024, the European Commission launched an investigation into Ticketmaster following the Oasis pricing scandal in the UK, where tickets went from £135 to £350 in a matter of minutes during the sale. The Live Nation model is neither an accident nor a deviation. Baker and Weinhold’s chats reveal, and this is the truly uncomfortable part, that company policy has been exactly what it seemed to be for years. In Xataka | Spotify killed the record and the industry pivoted to concerts. Netflix killed cinema and the industry was left with a “space crisis”

The Supreme Court ended up seeing the obvious

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The last straw for a worker is to have been doing the same job for more than 16 years in the same place and with the same colleagues, and to be fired for not having passed the trial period. It seems like a joke, but it is exactly what happened to the employee of a notary office in Madrid. What came next was a judicial battle that reached the Supreme Court, and ended up agreeing.​ Although taken to the extreme, this case is no exception. In Spain, companies terminated more than a million contracts in 2025 alleging that the worker had not passed the trial period, and the data suggests that behind many of these dismissals there is something else than employees who did not perform enough.​ Sixteen years in the same place. Just like is detailed in the sentence of the Supreme Court, The worker had been working in the same notary office since May 2004, chaining contracts with different notaries who occupied the position throughout that period. In September 2019, the titular notary was assigned to another location and was offered the choice between going with him to Jávea and keeping his contract in force, or collect your compensation for the cessation of its activity. The employee opted for compensation of 10,071.20 euros.​ A few months later, the new notary contacted him to enlist his services and that of his former colleagues at the same notary office. In February 2020, he signed a permanent contract with this new notary with a trial period of six months. It should be noted that the new notary was employing the majority of the previous staff, he continued in the same office, with the same furniture, computers and software as all his predecessors. The pandemic and layoff. With the state of alarm due to COVID-19 newly declared, the worker and two colleagues went to the notary’s office to remind the notary that he must apply the health measures dictated by the authorities: shifts, gel, masks and limiting activity to urgent matters. The notary’s response, recorded literally in the sentence, was that “this is not a cooperative.” That same afternoon, the three received their dismissal letters for not having passed the six-month trial period contemplated in their indefinite contract.​ The case took five years to resolve. In December 2023, a first court ruled in favor of the worker: if the new notary had assumed the staff and resources of the previous one, there was a transfer of the company and the agreed trial period was void. There is no point in testing the ability of someone who has been in the same position for 16 years. Finally, and after several appeals before different instances, in January 2026 the Supreme Court confirmed its verdict: the trial period was not valid and sentenced the notary to reinstatement of the employee or compensation of 54,294.42 euros.​ One million layoffs a year. This case is striking because of the extreme and obvious nature of the situation, but it is nothing more than an example of an upward trend among companies to avoid compensation for unfair dismissal. According to report data ‘Balance of the labor market in 2025‘ Prepared by the USO union with sources from the SEPE, INE and Social Security, Spanish companies terminated 1.02 million contracts alleging that the worker had not passed the trial period. This represents an increase of 2.34% compared to 2024 and 79% more than in 2021, before the last labor reform in which permanent contracts were reinforced compared to temporary contracts.​ What it does especially that data is relevant The thing is that it is not a general increase: it is mainly the indefinite contracts that are behind this growth. Before the labor reform, in 2021, only 13% of all dismissals for not passing the trial period corresponded to permanent contracts. In 2025, that percentage had already risen to 75% of layoffs. To put this figure in a context, dismissals of permanent workers grew by 137% in the same period, while dismissals of permanent workers in a trial period grew by 864%, to exceed 720,000 cases. “At USO we have always said that it was more than suspicious data. Suddenly, there are many people who are not worth the job for which they are hired. It is clear that the trial period is an escape route to hire people temporarily and not even have to compensate them. But it has been seen that, even so, not only is its use abused, but it is twisted and used illegally,” warns Joaquín Pérez, general secretary of USO. The gap left by the storms. To understand the reason behind this sudden use of the trial period to argue for dismissal, we must take into account a detail in the regulations that governs severance pay: When an employee does not pass the trial period, the company does not have to pay him any compensation or justify his termination of the contract. On the other hand, for a dismissal, it must be justified and, depending on the case, compensation must be paid. Firing with the excuse of not having passed the trial period is even more profitable for the company than letting it expire. a temporary contractsince in this case a compensation of 12 days per year worked is applied. Therein lies the trap that the unions They have been denouncing for some time. With the latest labor reform, companies can no longer chain temporary contracts so easily and are forced to hire indefinitely in many more situations. Terminating an indefinite contract during its trial period is cheaper than any other form of dismissal, and hardly requires any paperwork. As and as they pointed from The Economistthis fraud of law would be producing a precariousness of permanent jobs. The Ministry of Labor launched inspection campaigns in 2024 and 2025, but in January 2026, layoffs for this reason continued to grow by 1.3% compared to the same month of the previous year. In Xataka | Companies … Read more

The southern entrance to the A5 underground is already 80% excavated, and there is a culprit that has speeded up the work: the soil

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Allow me, if you don’t mind, to use an expression that I have been wanting to use for a long time: there is already light in the tunnel. That’s right, then the burial of the A5 Move against the clock to meet deadlines. And the goal is to open traffic in November. The southern tunnel of the Extremadura highway has already exceeded four fifths of its route under Madrid. There is less left, largely due to the technical innovations that have made it possible. The largest work in Madrid right now. The burial of the A-5 is, today, the largest infrastructure under construction of the capital. Under the streets that connect Madrid with the exit to Extremadura, two tunnel boring machines work in parallel to bury one of the historic entrances to the city and thus free up surface space for urban use. Where is each tunnel. The work runs in two independent galleries. The southern tunnel, through which vehicles entering Madrid will circulate, has been excavated for approximately 80% of its length. The northern tunnel, the exit, is advancing at a slower pace and has completed about half of the route. Although the asphalt has not yet been laid, the interior appearance of the most advanced gallery already allows a fairly clear idea of ​​what the final infrastructure will look like, according to transfer to Telemadrid the technical teams that supervise the work. The key to acceleration: the ground. As the media points out, a new construction system applied to the tunnel floor has made it possible to speed up both the excavation and the consolidation of the infrastructure. For this reason, and because of the work that is being put into the work every day, it has been possible to reach 80% without major delays, maintaining the schedule. 14 emergency exits. Parallel to the main gallery, the work includes the construction of 14 emergency exits, one every approximately 200 meters. Each of them is accompanied by technical rooms where the systems necessary for the operation of the tunnel will be housed, including geothermal installations that will improve its energy efficiency. Jump to the surface. Starting in September is planned that the works also extend abroad, with urbanization actions in the area around the A-5. The idea in this phase will be to definitively integrate the infrastructure into the surface, with the aim of reducing traffic outside and taking advantage of the area for new public spaces. November, the date marked on the calendar. With the tunnel boring machines still in operation, the goal is for vehicles to be able to travel through the new tunnel before the end of the year. November is the date currently managed by those responsible for the work. So we just have to wait a few more months to call it a day. one of the heaviest works of these years in the capital. Cover image | Madrid City Council In Xataka | Portugal had to choose where to take its AVE first. And between Madrid and Galicia, it is very clear

the absolute dominance of uranium

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In late 2022, as he secured his third term in office, Chinese President Xi Jinping issued a serious warning to his top brass: they should prepare for “stormy seas” and “worst-case scenarios.” The party leader was obsessed with the crises of the “gray rhinoceros”obvious dangers but for which one is often not prepared. Today, with the Middle East submerged in a deep war that obstructs vital trade routes, the Asian giant’s resilience and energy strategy face an unprecedented litmus test. At the heart of this geopolitical storm is not only oil, but also “radioactive black gold” – uranium. A suffocation point. To resist this impact, China’s Ministry of Finance has budgeted 110.68 billion yuan (about $16 billion) for resource storage in 2026, an increase of 8.1% from the previous year. As Even Pay, director of the strategic advisory group Trivium China, explains to the Financial Timesfor decades Western economists criticized the inefficiency of maintaining these gigantic reserves, but the current crisis has completely vindicated Beijing’s strategy. A giant thirsty for uranium. However, at the heart of this geopolitical storm are not only fossil fuels, but also the “radioactive black gold” – uranium. The vulnerability of sea routes has accelerated Beijing’s urgency to escape its dependence on oil. The Chinese nuclear program is advancing at a dizzying pace. At the end of 2024, the country had 58 nuclear power units in commercial operation and 27 under construction. In fact, the government approves between ten and eleven reactors a year, with the goal of double its capacity by 2040. The problem? China produces very little uranium. According to World Nuclear AssociationIn 2023, national production was barely 1,700 tons (4% of the world), being forced to import about 22,000 tons the following year. As emphasized Bloombergthe country depends on imports to satisfy more than 70% of its domestic demand for this fuel. The strategy at hand. To overcome this deficit and prevent its nuclear sector from suffering the same strangulation as oil, Beijing has deployed an unprecedented financial, geological and technological strategy: Financial muscle: In December 2025, China National Uranium Co., the only company with rights to extract this element in the country, debuted on the Shenzhen stock exchange. According to Bloombergits shares tripled in its premiere, raising some 4.1 billion yuan (570 million dollars) that will be used to boost domestic and foreign mines. The Treasure of Ordos: Salvation could be under the sand. As reported by the specialized media Futurethe discovery of a monumental deposit of 30 million tons of uranium has been estimated in the Ordos Desert, in Inner Mongolia. China has managed to develop leaching technology on site to extract this mixed material in sandstone in an economically viable and environmentally friendly way. “Fishing” uranium in the ocean: With demand expected to exceed 40,000 tons in 2040, China has looked at the sea. China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced a historic milestone– The successful extraction of uranium at the kilogram level from seawater in a real marine environment. Land alliances: To avoid maritime blockades, China seeks border allies. According to the magazine The DiplomatMongolia is trying to develop its critical minerals sector – such as the huge Zuuvch-Ovoo deposit operated by France’s Orano – and China is emerging as the natural customer due to its geographical proximity and railway infrastructure. Beyond uranium. Beijing’s plan is not limited to securing traditional uranium. As we have explained XatakaChina has already commissioned the TMSR-LF1 reactor in Gansu province, which uses molten salts and thorium. Thorium is three times more abundant than uranium in the Earth’s crust, giving China an immensely rich “plan B” within its own borders. On the other hand, nuclear energy is no longer just a source of electricity. In January 2026, the Xuwei project started in Jiangsu province. How we advancethis pioneering project combines third and fourth generation reactors to produce steam at very high temperatures for the petrochemical industry, with the aim of replacing more than 7 million tons of coal per year. The century of the Chinese atom. The war in the Middle East has not stopped China’s ambitions; rather, it has validated the government’s obsession with economic security and preparedness for protracted crises. As Western powers try to rebuild their nuclear industries, China has gone into full action. From the depths of the Ordos Desert to the waters off its coasts, the Asian giant is rewriting the rules of the game. It is no longer just about surviving global instability, but about securing the fuel necessary to dominate the energy landscape of the 21st century. Image | World Economic Forum and IAEA Xataka | Nuclear energy has generated electricity for decades. China is reinventing it for something else: the industry

I used to make Word documents. Now I make apps even for the silliest things

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In Xataka, our colleagues were organizing some procedures. Some that, until now, we were doing in the cheesiest way possible: through bullets in Slack. Until my colleague, Javier Pastor, decided to create an application with Claude Code and glm-47. It reminded me a lot of my case. For a couple of months now, with Claude fever, I have gone from creating Word documents, Excel lists or even notes, to creating applications for everything. The era of vibe coding. We are facing a completely different era. one in which we don’t need to know about programming to create simple solutions that make our lives easier. This type of apps, Claude’s artifacts or websites have nothing to do with what a developer could do manually, but they are a fantastic solution for executing tasks that, until just a few months ago, were quite tedious. You don’t even need a complex prompt: just tell us what you want in natural language, and the apps will take care of it. Claude and Antigravity. In my particular case, I have been obsessed with what Claude calls artifacts for a few weeks now. It is editable and executable content locally (although it can also be uploaded to the web), super simple interfaces that are created in just over five minutes. Recently, I was asked to correct a 21-item clinical test with reverse scores where it was especially relevant to know the score on each item, and to scale according to the score in which state the interviewee was. It seemed completely anachronistic to me to do this process by hand, so I got to work. Be clear about where there is failure and where there is not.. I still don’t trust AI because of its ability to hallucinationbut there are aspects where it is practically impossible for it to fail. One of them is simple mathematical calculations: test corrections, random numerical generation apps, automated records… The possibilities for creating tools in which it is practically impossible for AI to fail are countless. This is just a simple example of a questionnaire with automated correction and interpretation (there are dozens of websites trying to achieve the same thing with much less elaborate interfaces). But I have used it to create my own social media analysis systems, automated calendar management with Google Drive and Sheets, etc. There is no turning back. The results of apps made using vibe coding are fascinating. From Open Source platforms to set up a homemade Google Photos to obsessions such as being informed about the harshest news through interactive websites vibecodeadas. They are relatively easy to create (they usually take no more than 20 minutes), open the door to a world of possibilities and, for the most nerd (and denied in programming, as a server), they are the new toy in the age of AI. In Xataka | Vibe coding wants to help Open Source. But developers don’t want AI botches

A woman spent six months in prison because an AI made a mistake. The terrible thing is that no one checked it

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Angela Lipps is a resident of Tennessee (USA) who has never been on a plane or taken a trip to other states in the country. Even so ended up in a security cell 2,000 km from her home for a terrifying reason: AI facial recognition software decided that her face matched that of a scammer operating in North Dakota. we have it. It all started with the clue given by the security cameras. Fargo police were investigating a bank fraud in which a woman used fake military IDs to withdraw huge amounts of money. The detectives in charge of the case decided to entrust the work of recognizing the images from the security cameras to a AI facial recognition softwareand after the analysis the system returned a name: Angela Lipps. An agent took a look at her social media, decided that her body and hairstyle matched those of the suspect, and signed the arrest warrant. like in the movies. A US Marshals team showed up at Lipps’ home in Tennessee and He detained her at gunpoint. She was babysitting four children, but that didn’t matter: she was treated like a fugitive from justice. They did not ask him any prior questions, nor did they compare his version. They didn’t even have physical evidence that placed her in North Dakota beyond what the facial recognition system had said. And since the AI ​​said it, it had to be true, right? Six months in prison (and in limbo). Being considered a fugitive, Lipps was not eligible for bail, and spent 108 days in a Tennessee jail waiting to be extradited to a state she had never visited. Then, in late October, she was transferred to a prison in North Dakota. In all that time, no one at the Fargo Police Department bothered to even check to see if the suspect had an alibi because once again, there was no need to check: AI couldn’t fail. At least, according to the police forces that were in charge of the case. Zasca. The funny thing is that proving Lipps’ innocence was really easy. When a public defender finally reviewed the suspect’s bank statements, the case fell apart. While the scammer was stealing thousands of dollars in North Dakota, Angela Lipps was buying tobacco at a Tennessee gas station, using Uber Eats and cashing her Social Security check in her hometown. The GPS and bank records were definitive and irrefutable evidence. Come home come back. On December 24, on Christmas Eve, the prosecutor’s office in charge of handling the case dropped the charges and Angela Lipps was released. Of course: they did it without further ado, on the street, in a state she didn’t know and where it was very cold while she had been arrested wearing summer clothes. The defense lawyers were in charge of paying for a hotel for him and another NGO called F5 Project helped him return home. The tragedy does not end there. The problem is that his return to Tennessee was not happy at all. During the six months he spent in prison, Lipps was unable to pay his bills and ended up losing his house, his car, his savings and even his dog. The Fargo police chief, who held a news conference to mark his retirement, did not even want to answer questions about the case. There has been no official apology or compensation for this huge police error. It’s not the first time, but it seems incredible that it won’t be the last.. We do not know what will end up happening with this scandal, but it is not the first of its kind that has occurred. In the US they have been arresting suspects using facial recognition systems for some time, but These systems fail and cause arrests of innocent people. This type of problem of poor application of AI tools in criminal investigations is present in Spain, where we already talked about the tragic consequences of using VioGén or what happened to him false complaint detection system just a year ago. AI can help, but in these types of processes human supervision is especially crucial. Image | Xataka with Freepik In Xataka | AI videos have broken Instagram and TikTok algorithms. Welcome to the new “AI dumps”

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