china

Japan does not want to depend on China for rare earths. And that is why it is drilling the ocean at 6,000 meters deep

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He map of the world’s (known) rare earth reserves makes one thing clear: China is the absolute queen. Although They are neither earth nor are they rareconstitute a real poker of aces in the game of global geopolitics, energy and technology. And it’s not just about having lanthanides in your territory, it’s about discovering them and knowing how to extract them. Within that graph, in the Asia section, we can see that Japan does not even appear on the map. And it’s not because there aren’t any, because there are, there are. But so far they have turned to their trading partner and neighbor: China. Where Christ lost the lighter. In 2024 Japan found an impressive site of 230 million tons that would put it on the front line. But that site had small print: it is at the bottom of the sea, in a coral atoll in the Pacific about 1,900 kilometers southeast of Tokyo. Fair where they suspected. Last summer discovered his roadmap with a first stage that would begin right now, in January 2026. Japan and China, on the brink of the abyss. The two Asian countries are mired in a deep diplomatic crisis. The great trigger was the statements of the Japanese Prime Minister at the end of 2025 suggesting that a Chinese military intervention in Taiwan could be considered an “existential crisis” for Japan, which would open the doors to a Japanese military response. The consequences were immediate: China considered it interference and began to intensify its maritime patrols and areas near Japanese waters in a move that has displeased the Japanese government. consider it reckless in terms of security. 2026 also began with trade consequences from China such as the veto on seafood products, restrictions on tourism and an embargo on the export of dual-use goods (civil and military), including rare earths. So Japan has to expedite another way to obtain rare earths to feed its automotive industry in particular and technology in general. And he has done it. Just in time. Given the rough patch he’s going through with his partner and neighbor, the timing couldn’t be better. Last Monday a mining ship set sail for that remote atoll located in front of the Minami-Torishima Island to begin a month-long mission in which the famous Japanese drill ship Chikyu and a crew of 130 people will have to go all out, literally, to try to continuously extract rare earths from that succulent seabed six kilometers deep. And we say “try” because It’s the first time it’s been done. If successful, a full-scale mining test will follow in February 2027. Japan’s “detox” of Chinese rare earths. It is not the first time that Japan has been in this situation. Without going any further, in 2010 China retained exports after an incident that took place between a Chinese fishing boat and two Japanese patrol boats near the Senkaku Islands (administered by Japan but claimed by China). At that time, Japan managed to reduce their dependence from China from 90 to 60%. The alternative route involved investments in projects abroad (for example, from Australia) or promoting recycling and manufacturing processes that are more independent of the base material. But now it is different because who can obtain rare earths within their own territory. Looking to the horizon. Since the diplomatic crisis of 2010, Japan has been investigating in search of mineral reserves. Without going any further, this one on Minamitori Island has been in development since 2018 and the Japanese government has invested more than 40 billion yen (250 million dollars) since then. It was previously considered economically unviable, but between China’s embargo and the willingness to pay higher prices, it already seems more plausible, explains Kotaro Shimizuprincipal analyst at Mitsubishi UFJ Research and Consulting. The senior director of economic security policy at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan on the China Talk podcast This week’s issue revealed how the government must continually remind companies of the importance of diversifying their supply chains: “Sometimes an event occurs and the company reacts, but when the event ends, the company forgets. We have to maintain a continuous effort” In Xataka | The “B side” of the United States landing in Venezuela: a subsoil full of hypothetical rare earths In Xataka | Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earths. The problem is that there are no roads to get to them. Cover | Peggy Greb and Gleam – Photo taken by Gleam., CC BY-SA 3.0

This is the city that linked China with the Mediterranean that one day an earthquake hid from the world

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If there is a historical myth in archeology, it is finding the lost city of Atlantis. However, throughout history a few have been found: from that of Thonis-Heracleion in Egypt to the Greek of Pavlopetri passing through Port Royal in Jamaica. None are Atlantis (in fact, for numerous historians and scientists It’s more of a philosophical allegory of Plato than something real), but the last city that has just been found, far from typical places like the Atlantic, has quite a few similarities. Of course, it is in a lake in Kyrgyzstan. The lost city of Issyk-Kul. More specifically, it was in the northwestern waters of Lake Issyk-Kul that an international archaeological expedition organized by the Russian Geographical Society (RGS), the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic stumbled upon Toru-Aygyr, as reports the news of the SGR. For the investigation they used underwater drones and high-precision diving. The legends were true. Around the Issyk-Kul lake run several popular legends about its formation submerging a city that already existed, something that was historically reinforced by the local rumor that when the weather is good and the water is calm, remains of the city can be seen. Likewise, within the Catalan Atlas of the Mallorcan cartographer Cresques Abraham it is recorded on a map the existence of a monastery where were the remains of San Mateo. This lake has been one of the obsessions of the historian and archaeologist Vladimir Ploskikh, behind the aforementioned discovery. Satellite view from 1992. Wikimedia But what a lake. Issyk-Kul is a truly fascinating lake without having to resort to myths: its name in Russian and Kyrgyz is “hot lake” and it has merit being 1,609 meters high. The secret is How deep it is (average 270 meters, maximum 702 meters), it is slightly salty and subsoil geothermal activity. Is the second largest alpine lake in the worldonly surpassed by Titicaca and one of its peculiarities is its transparency: its visibility is such that it can be seen up to 20 meters deep in favorable conditions. The icing on the cake is that there is evidence that there the black plague began. Vilya Shoni,. Wikimedia A most advanced city. Finding a submerged city is not unusual, but among the peculiarities of Toru-Aygyr is that its ruins are in shallow waters and the good state of conservation of its constructions, with solid stone structures, clay bricks and even wooden beams. In addition, they reveal that it was an advanced infrastructure, with public buildings, brick homes and irrigation systems. More specifically, they identified remains from a medieval cemetery, large ceramic containers, pieces of a mill, an architectural element that points to the decoration of a building such as a mosque, a bath or a madrasa. After checking with archival materials, the team confirmed that they were looking at a city that handled silk, spices and metals in the transfer of these goods between China and the Mediterranean from the 2nd century BC to the mid-15th century. Stick with the final date, we’ll come back to it later. Elizaveta Romashkina. Russian Geographical Society. It is the missing link of the silk road. As concludes researcher at the Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnology of the National Academy of Sciences of Kyrgyzstan and head of the Kyrgyz expedition, Valery Kolchenko: “The monument we are studying is a city or a large commercial agglomeration located on one of the key sections of the Silk Road.” During the investigation, they found a second site corresponding to a Muslim necropolis from the 13th–14th centuries that still preserves vestiges of traditional Islamic rituals, a third with remains of medieval ceramics, a large entire vessel (khum) and more burials. Finally, a fourth location located in the western part, of which remains of structures remain. The team’s idea is to return to continue analyzing everything, but for now the remains already say a lot about the relevance of the enclave, which Chinese historical sources record, such as explains the head of the expedition, Maksim Menshikov. Why did it sink? aka the Pompeii effect. The presence of large ceramic vessels and millstones in their original positions reveals that the city was abandoned abruptly, without subsequent looting. Kolchenko clears us of doubts: it was an earthquake. “At the beginning of the 15th century, as a result of a terrible earthquake, the city was submerged under the waters of the lake. According to our assessment, at the time of the disaster the inhabitants had already abandoned the settlement. The tragedy can be compared to the story of Pompeii, although it is much less known to the general public.” After the earthquake, he explains that the region’s population drastically changed how they lived, going from a prosperous medieval urban civilization to nomads. This large earthquake caused the lake’s water level to suddenly rise, swallowing the city. The water enveloped the city in mud and sand, protecting it from erosion and exposure to oxygen. It is not Atlantis nor does it need to be. It goes without saying that Toru-Aygyr is not the mythical Atlantis, but comparing it is inevitable due to the legends that surround it, the records that remain of its existence over the centuries in different civilizations and of course, the large amount of treasures found and its prosperity: there lived an advanced, rich and living city that disappeared one day under the waters. In Xataka | The Atlantic has a ‘Lost City’ with the key to life on other planets. Now it’s in danger In Xataka | Eastern Atlantis: this is the lost continent that united Greece and Anatolia 35 million years ago Cover | Mikhail Preobrazhenskiy and Elizaveta Romashkina from the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences

Apple promised they would be happy by sweeping the iPhone in China. Until Huawei made things clear

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For years, the iPhone was the best-selling mobile phone in China despite the efforts of Asian manufacturers. Xiaomi, Huawei, OPPO and Vivo were fighting to create a product at their level (or even superior in some key aspects, such as the camera), achieving privileged positions in a ranking in which Apple used to dominate. It’s not like that anymore. Again, king. Huawei has been in first place in shipments within its country for more than two years. This past 2025, despite having lost 1.9% in annual growth, it is still slightly above the iPhone company. Specifically, 16.4% market share compared to Apple’s 16.2%. Apple grows 4% year-on-year, an increase motivated by the great commercial reception of the new family iPhone 17. In fact, Apple has already surpassed Samsung and has become the first manufacturer worldwide, despite being the second in China. Yes, but. Although Huawei is reigning with an iron fistthe data is not enough to assert that this will continue to be the case next 2026. There has never been such a fierce fight between the main Chinese manufacturers. Huawei: 16.4% market share. Apple: 16.2% market share. Vivo: 16.2% market share. Xiaomi: 15.4% market share. OPPO: 15.2% market share. Minimal differences in quota that will translate into a constant dance of positions during 2026. There is a clear message here: Huawei has not been able to be stopped in its native country. The Huawei case. Vivo, Xiaomi and OPPO maintain a close relationship with Qualcomm, the giant in charge of providing the best high-end Android devices with the most powerful chips on the market. Meanwhile, Huawei has had to adapt to playing with more restrictions than the rest: has had to develop together with SMIC their own processors He had to create a software ecosystem completely independent of Android Almost completely redesign your supply chain Make an even more ambitious bet on your domestic market, where life without Google is the norm The surprise. For years, we have seen Chinese mobile phones as great high-end proposals, but with some important disadvantages compared to Western rivals (fewer years of support, mediocre video recording, “crazy” specs without any sense of assembly…). This has been changing for a while now.. Today (saving the subjectivity of which software we like more or less), Chinese mobile phones are the most ambitious hardware proposal overall. They have the best batteries on the market, by far. On a photographic level, they are beginning to move dangerously far from Apple, Google and Samsung. The hardware set usually far exceeds what we see in the rest of its rivals. Chinese brands are very focused on their expansion throughout Europe, and it shows. not so fast. The Asian market is a great mirror in which to see how the fight between large technology companies progresses, but its particularities are still there. On a global level, at least currently, Apple and Samsung seem practically unreachable. Only Xiaomi, with a 13% share worldwide (compared to Apple’s 20% and Samsung’s 19%), plays in the double-digit league. Vivo and OPPO, with a share of 8%, have not moved their position since 2023. By 2026, consultancies like Counterpoint expect a year of moderation and a poor growth forecast. The global price crisis in DRAM/NAND memories will force an imminent price increase. Whoever manages to contain the dam will win this year. Image | Xataka In Xataka | Chinese mobile phones conquered the market by dividing into a thousand different brands. Now they are doing just the opposite.

China has made a decision regarding layoffs justified by AI: they will not be appropriate

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Artificial intelligence is already showing signs of being the most transformative element of the productive fabric since the Industrial Revolution, even more than the arrival of the Internet. This means that its arrival has a direct impact on million jobs that will no longer be necessary or will be changed by others of new creation. This transformation of the labor market will not be something that happens in a few years: AI is already reducing hiring of the youngest and is behind many layoffs. China, one of the main actors in the race for AI, has put a limit on AI: its use will not be a justified reason to fire employees. Limit on layoffs due to AI in China. In a publication The Commission for Arbitration of Labor and Personnel Disputes lays down case law on whether the adoption of AI by companies can be considered a justified reason for dismissing an employee. The decision has its origins in the case of a worker who had been collecting manual data for maps in a technology company since 2009. Last year, the company implemented a system that automated that same task using AI. As a result, the company eliminated his department and fired him for alleged drastic change in working conditions. The arbitration commission ruled that this dismissal was unfair because the deployment of AI is a voluntary business decision to gain competitiveness, and does not represent a justifiable reason under its labor regulations. Therefore, the company had to compensate the employee and was recommended to negotiate contracts or relocate the affected personnel to another position. Chinese labor law leaves no room for AI. In China, the law allows contracts to be terminated only if there is a major objective change that makes it impossible to continue developing that position, such as force majeure or public policy closures. That is, if the collection of this data had been prohibited by law, his dismissal without compensation would be justified, but not for applying business strategies aimed at improving the company’s productivity, such as deploying AI or purchasing new machinery. The arbitration court’s decision recognizes that these technological changes may “lead to adjustments in the employment structure,” but “do not present the characteristics of force majeure and unpredictability required by ‘objective circumstances’.” That is to say, it is legitimate for them to be applied, but companies must assume the payment of severance pay. collected in the Labor Contract Law of the People’s Republic of China, which establishes the payment of one month’s salary per year worked. Social responsibility of AI implementation. Chinese Arbitration Commission ruling recognizes that companies can deploy AI to improve your productivitybut forces them to “simultaneously assume the corresponding social responsibilities, achieving a harmonious balance between the application of technology and the protection of workers’ rights.” The ruling emphasizes that companies cannot let the weight of technological innovation fall on their employees, so, instead of firing them, they must offer training in the new technologies they implement or in new positions to balance technical progress with labor rights. AI claims thousands of jobs in the US. Labor legislation in the US has not been so protectionist with employment. According to a report from the consultant Challenger, Gray & Christmas AI has been the reason for the dismissal of 48,414 employees in 2025, with the technology sector being the most affected for this reason, with restructuring due to the integration of AI or by improve efficiency in its development. ​In the United States, most states (except Montanafor example) follow the doctrine of “at-will” employment, which allows tech companies to fire engineers or other employees for any non-illegal reason, including adopting AI to automate tasks. It is not necessary to justify with specific causes as in other countries, as long as there is no discrimination based on race, age or gender. Europe and Spain closer to China’s approach. In Europe, or more specifically in Spain, labor regulations do not contemplate the implementation of new technologies as a valid justification for the dismissal of workers, so they go associated with the payment of compensation for unfair dismissal or the legislation that regulates Employment Regulation Files (ERE) That does not mean that Europe (or Spain) is immune to the impact of AI. In fact, according to what was published for him Financial TimesEuropean banks could eliminate around 200,000 jobs by 2030 due to AI automation and branch closures, equivalent to 10% of the workforce of 35 large entities. In Xataka | We believed that AI was going to retire an entire generation of workers early. The opposite is happening Image | Unsplash (aboodi vesakaran, Arif Riyanto)

The US already knows when it wants to return to the Moon to beat China. The problem is how the ship will return

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There is already an official date. After years of delays and speculations, NASA has confirmed what was rumored in the halls of Washington: Artemis 2 has the green light for launch on February 6, 2026. And what is its destination? Neither more nor less than the Moon itself. Tuning. With this announcement, NASA is already preparing for the transfer of the gigantic SLS rocket (Space Launch System) to platform 39B this very January 17, starting the final countdown for humans to orbit the Moon again. Something that has not happened since 1972 with Apollo 17. However, this is not a celebration without controversy. The mission, which will take the astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen to a 10-day trip around our satellite, has been brought forward under strong political pressure. And it does so with a worrying technical asterisk: the behavior of the Orion ship’s heat shield. A battle of pressures. On the one hand, Donald Trump has historically shown its impatience with the deadlines that NASA was giving to be able to orbit around the Moon. All this with an eye on China, which threatened to be the ‘first’ and overtake the United States in this fact. What has been the solution? put to Jared Isaacman as NASA Administratora billionaire, private pilot and astronaut (known for his missions in Polaris Dawn and its links with SpaceX) to prioritize speed and calculated risk-taking over the complete risk aversion that “old NASA” had. Because. February 6, 2026 has been set as set in stone for several strategic reasons that outweigh engineering doubts about the heat shield. The first of them It’s the race against Chinasince the Asian country has a very advanced lunar program and aims put taikonauts on the Moon before 2030. If Artemis 2 was delayed to redesign the heat shield (which would have taken years), Artemis 3 would have been gone until 2028-2029 or longer, leaving the door open for China to arrive earlier or very close. But they do not stop here, since for this administration the Moon is a springboard to reach Mars, this mission being a simple way to validate the systems they are using. That is why every delay on the Moon is a delay for the mission to Mars, which promises to be the historical legacy they seek. The Avcoat dilemma. The main point of friction between engineers and the agency’s new management lies at the bottom of the Orion capsule. During the Artemis 1 unmanned mission in 2022the heat shield (made from an ablative material called Avcoat) behaved unexpectedly. And instead of being consumed uniformly, it broke off in pieces, creating craters and cracks due to the gases trapped in the material. during re-entry into the atmosphere. The engineering logic faced with this problem would mark make a new design or material change. But since it is something that would delay everything, NASA has opted for a change in angle during reentry to minimize thermal stress in the most affected areas to maintain the same shield. The doubts. NASA assures that the risk is “acceptable”, but this decision has raised blisters in the aerospace security community. Added to this is that the life support system (ECLSS)provided in part by ESA, has never been fully tested in flight with humans, adding an extra layer of uncertainty to the mission. Charles Camarda, veteran astronaut of the STS-114 mission, the return flight after the Columbia disaster, has been blunt in this regard. In statements, Camarda has compared the current situation with the “dysfunctional culture” that led to the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. But for the NASA administrator, Artemis 2 is a non-negotiable step to ensure American leadership and the future cislunar economy. Operating tension. As if the pressure on Artemis were not enough, NASA also faces a parallel crisis in low orbit. The agency and SpaceX have scheduled January 14 undocking of the Crew-11 mission of the International Space Station (ISS) due to urgent medical evacuation. This is an unprecedented event in the history of the ISS: lowering an astronaut for an unspecified medical problem (although he has been confirmed to be stable). Although Isaacman has assured that this operational incident will not affect the schedule of Artemis 2adds a considerable load of stress to mission control teams in Houston, who must now manage a crisis in real time while preparing for the most important launch of the decade. What can we expect? At the moment, the dates we know are January 17, where the SLS rolls towards its platform, and February 6, when the window for its launch will open. In total, a 10-day flight mission is expected, with a lunar flyby and high-speed return. Specifically, 40,000 km/h. NASA has much more at stake than a mission in February. The validation of its security model is at stake in the new space era, where geopolitical competition and commercial rush collide head-on with the immutable laws of physics and thermodynamics. Images | Pedro Lastra POT In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury

We have spent 30 years forgetting how things are made. Now China has the keys to the matter and the West is in panic

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For the past three decades, Western democracies have operated under an intellectual mirage. Elites, blinded by a neoclassical bias, assumed that control of intellectual property, financial instruments, and software code constituted the pinnacle of value creation. In this worldview, physical processes—the “dirty work” of mining, refining, and manufacturing—were considered low-margin commodity services that could be outsourced to low-cost jurisdictions without strategic risk. As Gillian Tett explains in his Financial Times columnthis cognitive bias allowed China to dominate global supply chains with little protest. The material deterioration of the West. The essence of the current problem is defined by investor Craig Tindale in his essay “The return of matter”. In it he argues that the West has suffered “strategic disarmament” by dismantling its national productive economy in favor of quarterly financial efficiency. As Tindale details, he fell into the “raw material paradox”: believing that possessing the raw mineral is equivalent to possessing the usable material. While the West possesses vast geological deposits, China has monopolized the “Midstream,” that is, the heavy industrial capacity to refine, smelt and purify these materials into useful forms. Without this capability, a lithium mine in Australia or a copper mine in Arizona are simply quarries for a Chinese smelter; They are not strategic assets for the West if Beijing has the keys to access them. The data is there. The data of the Chinese industrial domain are, as investor Craig Tindale describesoverwhelming and unprecedented in history, consolidating what he calls “processing sovereignty”: Gallium: China controls approximately 98% of global production, a material that is essential for AESA radars, 5G networks and the semiconductors of the future. Rare earths: The Asian giant dominates 90% of chemical separation capacity – the true technical “separation wall” – and more than 90% of the production of NdFeB magnets, vital for electric vehicle engines and defense systems. Graphite: Control more than 90% of the production of graphite anodes, the indispensable component of virtually all lithium-ion batteries. Magnesium and Polysilicon: Your control extends to 90-95% of magnesium casting (key for aluminum alloys) and 95% polysilicon necessary for solar energy. As Tett points outwhile the West became obsessed with software and services, China was quietly building the physical infrastructure that today gives it a massive competitive advantage in the race for artificial intelligence and the energy transition. This physical reality is what has forced the Trump administration to try to redraw the energy map by taking Venezuelan crude oil, desperately seeking to regain control over the “matter.” The electric wall of AI. This physical reality has revealed that the race for Artificial Intelligence It’s not just a question of code or chips. The digital leadership of the West is now encountering the physical limit of cheap energy. Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang, director of Nvidia, agree that the biggest current problem is not the excess of chips, but lack of electricity to connect them. On this board, China has gone from being a dependent petrostate to becoming the first “Electrostate” in the world. Beijing now produces 2.5 times more electricity than the US and builds 74% of all current solar and wind projects on the planet. By investing massively in electrification, China is expanding an infrastructure that could give it a definite advantage in the AI ​​race. The Venezuelan trap. Against this backdrop, Donald Trump’s administration has accepted the importance of physical matter, but seems determined to fight with tools from the last century. The taking of Venezuelan crude oil seeks to consolidate the reserves of Venezuela, Guyana and the United States are under US influence, which would represent close to 30% of the world’s oil reserves. according to a JPMorgan report. However, Venezuelan oil alone cannot solve the AI ​​problem. As Gillian Tett warnswhile Washington asks the world to buy 20th century infrastructure (fossil fuels), Beijing offers 21st century infrastructure (renewable energy and high voltage networks). In addition, Venezuelan crude oil is “mortgaged”: The country owes up to $60 billion to China under the oil-for-loans model, and its infrastructure is in ruins. The skills gap and the clash of “clocks.” Rebuilding industrial sovereignty is not just a question of money. The West has closed its heavy industrial capacity for thirty years, causing a “human bottleneck”. Metallurgists and process engineers who know how to adjust an unstable furnace or a chemical separation train are retiring without relief. Tindale further postulates a conflict of time horizons. The “Western Financial Clock,” which requires quarterly profits, has destabilized the “Industrial Clock” (which requires decades of investment) and the “War Clock” (which requires immediate reserves). While China’s clocks are synchronized by the state, the West remains trapped in short-term financial efficiency. Towards a rematerialized sovereignty? The JPMorgan report suggests that the US has won the short-term battle for Venezuelan crude oil. But, as Gillian Tett concludesrisks losing the global strategic war for the energy that will power AI. Tindale’s thesis is blunt: a civilization that financializes everything ends up sacrificing the material base that keeps it independent. If the West does not rebuild its foundries, refineries and factories, it will renounce the material sovereignty that sustains democracy, becoming a simple “quarry” rich in resources but poor in capacity in the face of a rival that already holds the keys to the physical world. Image | freepik Xataka | Venezuela has something much more valuable than oil and the US knows it. The big problem is that he doesn’t know where he is.

China knows that what happens in ‘Interstellar’ is a real problem on the Moon. And it has been proposed to solve it

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58.7 microseconds. That is the daily margin of error that separates a terrestrial clock from one on the Moon. This time lag It seems ridiculous, but it brings head to aerospace engineers for decades. The reason? That ‘sigh’ can be crucial in a mission, the difference between a perfect landing and a disaster. And while in the West we continue talking about the problems of Artemis missionin China they have found the solution for that time lag. It is called LTE440, and it is another example of the China’s methodical advance in the new space race. Microsecond piggy bank. If you have seen the movie ‘Interestellar’, looking for information about how time flies far from Earth, that you would come across the general relativity theory formulated by Albert Einstein. Simply put, the passage of time is relative, and the speed at which it passes depends on two factors: gravitational field intensity and orbital speed. The stronger the gravity, the slower time passes, and that is why it moves a little faster on the Moon than on Earth. The net result of that orbital effect is a slight advance in lunar clocks. One of between 56 and 58.7 microseconds per day, or 0.000058 seconds. It seems tiny and negligible, but in the end, the sum of 58 microseconds each day is there. 0.0017 seconds per month. 0.021 seconds per year. It is still little, but in terms of the space industry, it is unacceptable. LTE440. This synchronization between the lunar and terrestrial clocks has been one of the headaches of space engineering for years. In 2024, the International Astronomical Union, fixed that the Moon should have its own temporal reference. Meanwhile, time has passed and an answer has arrived: LTE440, or ‘Lunar Time Ephemeris‘. It is a software developed between the Purple Mountain observatory next to the University of Science and Technology of China. And it arrives to solve two of the historical problems in that lunar timing: Precision: Complex missions require total accuracy (not with a Casio, but with atomic clocks), and the solutions until now did not allow such precision. Complex calculations: Current solutions were not very accessible and engineers had to do laborious calculations and mathematical operations to solve jet lag. Absurd accuracy. It is estimated that the precision of LTE440 It will be less than 0.15 nanoseconds before 2050 and its accumulated errors will remain below 1/20,000,000 of a second even after a thousand years. But more important than this is that the research team has made obtaining the calculations as simple as doing a single operation. Thus, the LTE440 software will allow you to directly and easily compare lunar time with Earth time. opening doors. Okay, great, but… really that much for 56 microseconds? Having the current aspiration of creating a communication network and missions both with the Moon and interplanetary, one of the most logical applications is that of a global network of lunar clocks. Another is to allow extremely precise remote control missions to be carried out from Earth. China and Russia, for example, plan build an International Lunar Research Station looking to 2035, and LTE440 opens the door to more precise operations on the satellite ground. But also something more tangible and easy to understand: establishing a navigation system similar to GPS on the Moon. It is something that does not exist, but that seems crucial for future space missions. Because this is not about establishing colonies on the Moon, but about taking advantage of the satellite. For example, to investigate it, but also to get resources that can be used on Earth. And a system like LTE440 is an open door for the development of the navigation technologies necessary to bring these missions to fruition. The US looks closely. As we say, China has one eye on the Moon and space, and that is something that the United States is following with interest. China is taking giant steps and the United States has come to feel that it is being left behind. Artemis II is the American answera program full of problems and delaysbut it seems that it is already working. On the other hand, and as with the terrestrial situation, the United States considers that China’s advance in space is not a mere scientific question, but rather a threat to the country’s national security. They have reached aim that the Space Force will do “whatever it takes to achieve space superiority.” Therefore, LTE440 is, at the same time, a technological milestone, a great step for humanity in the new space race and a threat to those interests of the United States. Now, as we read in SCMPthe software is still in an early phase, so it has yet to be applied in real-time navigation solutions. Images | Tomruen In Xataka | Hubble continues to discover amazing things about the universe: a starless galaxy dominated by dark matter

There is someone who is clear that China has a very difficult time overtaking the US in the AI ​​race: the Chinese themselves.

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China or the US, who will win? the AI ​​race? The US seemed unattainable, but after the launch of DeepSeek a year ago, China became almost at par. Since then, the possibility of China winning the race became very real. Great figures of American AI Several Chinese AI companies have already warned about this situation they are doing very well on the stock market. Despite everything, there are those in China who do not see it at all clearly. Low chances. They count in Bloomberg that Chinese companies have less than 20% probability of being able to advance the OpenAI or Anthropic models in the next 3 or 5 years. Justin Lin, technology manager of the Qwen modelsduring Justin Lin, technology manager of the Qwen models from Alibaba. To the limit. The event was also attended by Tang Jie, founder of Ziphu AI, one of China’s ‘AI tigers’ that last week it had a spectacular IPOincreasing the value of its shares by 36%. Its founder pointed out a somewhat uncomfortable fact for the Chinese AI ecosystem: while companies like OpenAI dedicate “a large part of their computational capacity to next-generation research, we are at the limit of our possibilities. Just meeting delivery demand consumes most of our resources.” In other words: the restrictions on the latest technology are working. The gap is widening. As we said, the launch of DeepSeek R1 a year ago unleashed a wave of optimism among Chinese companies. Since then, a few have launched new LLMs such as Alibaba with Qwen, Ziphu AI or Minimax. However, Tang notes that “some may feel excited, thinking that Chinese models have overtaken American ones, but the real answer is that the gap may be widening.” Restrictions. Speakers blamed the situation on a lack of resources caused by US blockades, especially AI chips and lithography machines. Their chips are not that powerful, so, as Tang says, all their computing power goes into serving their customers. This greatly limits them when it comes to continuing to scale their models. Shunyu Yao, former OpenAI and current chief scientist at Tencentis committed to focusing on solving bottlenecks such as long-term memory and promoting self-learning of future models. Independence. From the government is promoting technological self-sufficiencyprioritizing the use of national chips over American alternatives. The reality is that without access to the most advanced lithography machines, China is lagging far behind. One fact: Huawei and SMIC are ‘tuning’ old ASML machines and making authentic viguerías that have allowed them to obtain chips of 7 and up to 5nm. It’s a technical feat, but its chips are still several years behind the competition. The aces of China. It is clear that China is lagging behind in chips, but there are other areas in which it has an advantage that can be decisive, one of them being electricity. While The Chinese government subsidizes and bets heavily on renewablesin the US electricity has become a bottleneck for its increasingly numerous data centers. Another critical point is that The US has cut funding for academic researchwhile China has done so national priority. And that’s not to mention that they might lose the AI ​​race, but China is winning almost everything else: batteries, robotics, electric cars and especially renewables. Image | Gemini In Xataka | The US believed it had dealt a mortal blow to China when it deprived it of NVIDIA. He only accelerated one plan: ‘Delete America’

Nvidia is the ball in the AI ​​game. The US wants to share it with China, but it is not clear that China wants to play

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The CES held in Las Vegas is the great showcase of technology, and if there has been a protagonist (apart from the chinese humanoid robots), that has been Jensen Huang. The CEO of Nvidia has become a key figure in the technology landscape. artificial intelligence because it is their chips that are shaping the data centersand the H200 It is the great proper name. It is the favorite for ‘assembling’ data centers and has become a throwing weapon in the commercial and technological warwith the United States vetoing the sale of the chip to China. But the situation seems to have relaxed and there are already those who point out that Nvidia will soon have access to a critical market. In short. We already mentioned it in December: Nvidia planned to increase production of the H200 chip for 2026. It was not something that responded only to the rise of artificial intelligence this year (which so many problems it is going to give us consumers), but to something much more important for the company: the reopening of the Chinese market. It all came after the announcement that the United States would allow exports, specifically, of the H200 to certain Chinese customers. They had to have a series of characteristics, such as being validated by the Department of Commerce, in addition to having a 25% rate on each sale. It’s outrageous, but while it was being debated whether China would now want to buy the H200s for its data centers (the country is developing its own solutions), from Reuters point to one piece of information: two million orders. Two million H200. After opening the door, it was reported that two Chinese giants such as Alibaba (e-commerce, cloud services and the model qwen) or ByteDance (TikTok, Douyin and AI chatbots) would be asking the Chinese Government to They will let them buy Nvidia chips to boost business. More recently, since Reuters A specific figure is pointed out: two million H200 chips (with ByteDance and Alibaba asking for 200,000 H200 each). It is the order that the Chinese companies would have already made, at the expense of receiving the green light to be able to formalize the purchase. Strict payment plan. The H200 is not the most cutting-edge chip that Nvidia has to offer, but it is one of the most used in data centers and the one that is allowed to export to China. Other more powerful ones remain restricted for national security reasons. And, although there is nothing official yet, Nvidia has set certain purchase conditions. Basically, transfer financial risk to customers: if imports are approved, they will have to make full payment in advance. Deposits were previously allowed to some companies, but this lack of regulatory clarity, market instability and a stock of H200 that may be insufficient if the market reopens require these measures. 50 billion dollars. With this operation, Nvidia must be crazy about music. In the middle of last year, Huang himself pointed out that the Chinese AI market had headed toward $50 billion, stating that “it would be a tremendous loss not to be able to address it as an American company.” That someone else says it may not have as much weight, but Nvidia is now in the focus of all the big technology companies. You don’t have to be naive. Messages like “the world is hungry for AI, let’s put American AI at the forefront” surely contributed to the relaxation of trade conditions approved by the Trump Administration a few weeks ago. In fact, if we say that Huang has been one of the great protagonists of the CES, it is not so much because of the technology presentation, but because of continuing to push that commercial narrative. The CEO pointed out in the ‘No Priors’ podcast that “the idea of ​​decoupling from China for philosophical or national security reasons is not based on common sense”, also stating that he was optimistic about the relaunched relationship with China thanks to the new measures imposed by the United States. Because “China is an adversary, but also a partner. And the idea of ​​decoupling is naive,” he said. What if I don’t want to now? But although Nvidia has increased production of its H200s in Taiwan in anticipation of an avalanche of orders from China, the ball is not in its court: it is in that of its potentially large new customer. Although everything boils down to “business,” in this case there is something else at stake: technological sovereignty. Huang believes that there will be no official announcement from China about the “openness” of its hand when it comes to letting its companies buy American technology and assumes that if orders are being placed it is because they can. Now, with the intensification of trade bans by the United States, China responded. Banned Apple devices in official centers, also purchasing from companies like Micron (which have also focused on AI, abandoning the RAM segment for users) and restricted the purchase of Nvidia chips Manufactured expressly for the Chinese market. At that time, Local companies such as Huawei or Cambricon have advanced with their solutionsachieving very high yields that are allowing China’s robotics and AI industry flourishes. Friction. However, the H200 remains the “standard” for many data centers, and there may be a desire to buy as much as possible in advance of possible future bans while they continue to develop their own chips. We will see if the wish of the American giant and some Chinese companies that see CUDA as the optimal system for AI. China is very clear that its “dragons” are enough to stand up to Western technology, the ‘Delete America’ plan is still going and accepting the H200 could perpetuate a situation of dependence on foreign technologysomething that the Government wants to avoid at all costs. In whatever way, depending on BloombergNvidia will start shipping H200 en masse in the short term. Images | Nvidia, Karola G, Pexels In Xataka | … Read more

It had been a long time since a cell phone left me speechless. So I went to China to test the Honor Magic8 Pro camera

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If you asked someone from HONOR how they were going to improve the camera on their phones next year, the answer they would give you is that you hold the telephoto. A few weeks ago I was traveling to China to see first-hand the factory and the R&D laboratory from which the HONOR Magic8 Proa terminal that bets (almost) everything on the camera. And what a camera. Just stroll through the busy streets of Shenzhen or sit and enjoy the sunset in Hong Kong to discover that yes, HONOR has been working hard on its camera. I can’t talk about specifications, yet, but I can confirm that we have a wide angle, an angle and a periscopic zoom which is, without a doubt, the main protagonist. So much so that I ended up using it more than the main sensor for obvious reasons. That zoom was enjoyable A quality optical zoom not only makes the photo “look sharper”, but also gives a lot of play. The perspective we get with the telephoto cannot be achieved with a normal zoom (cropping of the sensor), since it is by using a longer focal length that we get that “compression effect” of the shots. Let’s say that the distance between two objects in different planes of the scene is reduced, something that is very useful in urban photography and allows us to achieve things like this. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka But let’s start at the beginning. Little can be said about the main sensor. It is a sensor that HONOR has clearly mastered and whose results speak for themselves. Good control of highlights and shadows, notable HDR work and faithful color representation, although some background work is noticeable to highlight the strongest colors. In this case, green. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka At night, the sensor knows how to surprise. It is no secret that there is a treatment for shadows and noise, but The result is one of the best I have seen to date.. These photos are really complex because you have fine details in highlights and huge contrast. The terminal resolves photos well, preserving detail, eliminating noise almost completely and keeping glare at bay. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka In this image we have to look not only at the enormous tubular building on the left, but also at its reflection in the next building. It is not a pastiche of lights without rhyme or reason, but the camera manages to perfectly capture the reflection without burning either the background or the building. Also notable is the definition not only of the lines of light, but of the light bulbs themselves hanging from the trees and the texts of the distant blocks. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka I liked it a lot during the day, but it’s at night when it really conquered me. If you told me 15 years ago that a gadget I carried in my pocket was going to allow me to take this photo, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. HONOR has done an excellent job not only in the camera, but in the processing. This image would be impossible to take freehand if there were not good stabilization, a good sensor and good background processing. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka But if this camera surprises, the telephoto is another story. The HONOR Magic8 Pro has a periscope with 3.7x optical magnification that we can digitally expand up to ten and 100x. The sweet spot, however, is x3.7. Because? Because we can get closer to the subject taking advantage of the full resolution of the sensor and take photos like these, I hope you are not hungry. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka In these photos you can perfectly see what I mentioned previously. Without an optical zoom we would not be able to achieve a blur as silky as this image. You don’t have to rely on portrait mode to crop your subject and blur the background, but you can achieve a superior effect by simply moving away from your subject and using the zoom. If you add a large, high-resolution sensor to that, you get a photo with exquisite textures. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka If we talk about urban photography, this periscope allows us to get closer to the scene and frame in ways that, normally, we could not achieve, either because it does not have a telephoto (something strange in the high range) or because the resolution of the sensor is not up to par. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka It also allows us to see things that we can only intuit with the naked eye. The advantage of having this resolution is that, even when cropping by zooming to 10x, we can achieve good results. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka The best thing is that the quality of the photos is preserved even when light is scarce. Normally, it is taking photos at night when I least enjoy testing a mobile phone. It is the most complex moment and where the seams are usually seen by the cameras. The HONOR Magic8 Pro is not exempt from those seams by any means, but the work that the Chinese firm has done is sensational. Photograph taken with the HONOR Magic8 Pro | Image: Xataka Photograph taken with … Read more

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