decades

China is building the fusion-fission reactor that the US canceled decades ago. The future of nuclear energy depends on your fate

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In the newly built Yoohu scientific island, next to the city of Nancheng, China advances discreetly in its plans to materialize a project that the United States explored and abandoned decades ago: the hybrid fusion-fission reactor. Xinghou-1. His name means “spark”, and is inspired by an appointment by Mao Zedong: “A single spark can set the entire meadow.” But it’s no small thing: it has behind An investment of more than 200,000 million yuanthe equivalent of 28,000 million dollars. The objective: build a hybrid central with 100 megawatts of electrical power, 300 megawatts of thermal power and, most importantly, a plasma energy gain factor (Q) greater than 30. An unprecedented achievement that could redefine the future of nuclear fusion nuclear energy. What all this means. To understand the magnitude of this objective, you have to put it in context. The nuclear fusion, the same process that feeds the stars, promises clean energy without the radioactive waste of current nuclear fission. The great challenge is get a fusion reaction to generate more energy of which consumes. The National Ignition Facility of the United States achieved in 2022 a historical milestone with a value q of 1.5demonstrating for the first time a net energy gain. The International Experimental Thermonuclear Reactor (Iter), a gigantic multinational project that is being built in France, aspires to achieve a Q> 10 to demonstrate the viability of large -scale fusion. Xinghuo, however, points to a Q> 30, the threshold that experts consider necessary for a merger plant to be commercially profitable. How does China plan to make this giant leap? The answer is in your hybrid approach. A fusion-fission reactor. That is, a reactor that uses the high energy neutrons generated by a fusion reaction (the “spark”) to bombard a mantle of fistible material such as uranium. This triggers a fission reaction that greatly multiplies energy production. In essence, use the fusion as a catalyst to make the fission much more efficient. The Xinghuo-1 project has already entered into the initial phase, which includes the tender and evaluation of its environmental impact. Its development is in charge of the state company Nuclear China Industry 23 Construction Corporation (CNI-23) and the private company Lianovation Superconductor. The road that the United States abandoned. The concept is not new. During the 1970s and 1980s, the United States Department of Energy investigated hybrid reactors before political priorities changed. Concerns about nuclear proliferation (hybrids can be used to produce plutonium) and a strategic commitment to “pure fusion” such as the definitive and cleaner solution led to the abandonment of this line of research. United States, and with it much of the West, They put all their chips on projects like the iter. China, on the other hand, has seen a shortcut in the hybrid model. While pure fusion follows decades away from its commercialization, a hybrid reactor like Xinghuo could connect a merger plant to the electricity grid much earlier. As soon as in 2030, According to SCMP. A coordinated national commitment. Xinghuo is part of a well -financed fusion ecosystem. China also maintains the East project, a Tokamak fusion reactor that has been able to maintain a 100 million degrees plasma for more than 17 minutes. The Huanliu-3 project, a newer and more powerful tokamak in experimentation phase. And the CFETR project, A large -scale pure fusion reactorconsidered the Chinese equivalent of Iter. The success of Xinghuo not only depends on its own advances, but also on the development of a complex industrial supply chain for key components such as superconductor magnets and the thermal vacuum chamber. If China makes Xinghuo work, either in 2030 or 2035, the implications would be seismic. They would demonstrate the viability of a route to commercial fusion energy that the rest of the world abandoned long ago. He could put Beijing years, if not decades, ahead in the energy race. Image | Xinhua In Xataka | The largest nuclear fusion project fails before the first ignition: Iter delays one of its key milestones at 2033

Europe has perfected missiles for decades. His new weapon is designed to sacrifice before touching the ground

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Europe has been betting on precision missiles. He Taurushe Meteor or the Aster 30 They are a good example of this: expensive systemscomplex and refined to the millimeter, designed to get it. But the war has changed. It is no longer enough to have better missiles In it Aeronautical Hall of Paris, MBDA has presented Your answer. It is not a drone to show off, nor a weapon for surgical missions. The One Way Effector does not return, does not shoot: it is made to fall. And in that act, fulfill your mission. His role is to saturate. Fly in mass, force reactions, shoot alerts. Overwhelm the enemy based on volume. It does not seek to go unnoticed. Seeks to force you to react The One Way Effector does not fit at all in the best known categories. It is not a cruise missile, although it travels hundreds of kilometers. It is not a recognition drone, because is not designed to return. It is an disposable aerial ammunition, propelled by a small turbophah, whose mission is one: wear defenses. The approach reminds of the Shahed-136 Iranian that have redefined the Ukrainian front: Waves of cheap ammunition against very expensive interceptors. But MBDA has taken the idea one step further: greater speed, greater difficulty of interception and an explosive load would be enough to not be able to ignore it. Because that is logic. If the drone impacts, he has fulfilled. And if they demolish it, also: the enemy has had to spend a missile, activate a radar or turn on an alarm. The system is designed to operate in Salvas. We do not talk about one or two drones, but of tens thrown simultaneously from the ground or from the back of a vehicle. Each unit Follow your route via GPS guidancewithout the need for communication between them or coordination algorithms. They move in a group, enough to saturate the enemy response. Conceptual image of the One Way Effector It reaches speeds close to 400 km/Hy transports a 36 kg eye, equivalent to that of an artillery projectile of 155 millimeters. Has an estimated scope of 500 kilometers And a cost that MBDA describes as “a fraction of a cruise missile.” It is not stealthy, nor does it intend: its effectiveness happens to be visible, for forcing the enemy to act. If no one reacts, the drone arrives. And if someone does, it is exposed. The idea is that each defensive shot destined to demolish a position. Each lost interceptor reduces the response capacity. That is the game. The One Way Effector is not an experiment or an exotic prototype. MBDA wanted it to be, from the first day, a chain manufacturing product. To achieve this, he has signed an alliance with the French automobile sector that allows you to produce even 1,000 units per month. A Taurus missile To climb that production, the design has been simplified to the extreme. Body of compound material, commercial pieces, modular construction. No terminal guidance sensors or technologies difficult to maintain. His great asset is the volume. This does not mean that Europe is renouncing its precision arsenal. On the contrary: One Way Effector does not replace Taurus or the meteor or Aster 30. Is designed to accompany themto open their way. Taurus is a cruise missile that travels hundreds of kilometers and seeks to penetrate defensive layers with precision. The meteor dominates the Aire-Aire combat with its reach of more than 100 kilometers and its ability to correct real-time trajectory. Aster 30 protects airspace as part of a high efficiency antimisile system. But there is a common point: all are scarce and extremely expensive. Each launch is a strategic decision. The One Way Effector, on the other hand, is intended for the opposite: to be launched without hesitation. If the deadlines are met, the first test flight It will take place between October and November, and Production will start in 2027 With the first operational units. Images | MBDA | Saab In Xataka | Russia recalled a threat that appears in the war between Iran and Israel: the possibility of a nuclear disaster

Spain has presumed for decades of consuming more fish than anyone in Europe. Now that has entered into crisis

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Spain is surrounded by almost 8,000 kilometers of coast, it has a profuse cuisine in dishes based on fish and maricos and its fishing sector generates every year tens of thousands of jobs and billions of euros. Not to count on how weird the town (at least in the coastal areas) that does not have a market in which to buy a hake, a golden, trout, mussels or a good fresh lubina. Despite all that, Spain is less and less a country of fish. Its weight on the refrigerators is descending. A lot. And for a long time. A percentage: -4.3%. He last report of the government about fish consumption does not leave good news. In March we Spaniards have bought 2.9% less than during the same month last year, a bad fact that really hides another worst: what has “punctured” really is the consumption of fresh fishing, which has fallen 4.9%. In fact, that percentage has been softened in part due to an increase in frozen fish, which has grown around 4%. The thing does not improve when we expand the focus. If we analyze The last mobile year (from April 2024 to March 2025) The consumption of marine products in general has fallen 2.7% and that of fish in particular 4.3%. The behavior of frozen products during that period was somewhat better than that of fresh merchandise, but still both have lost weight in purchase baskets. The protagonists: cod and gold. The report allows you to go further and take a look at how the different products have responded throughout the last year. And there are some that go particularly poorly stopped. Golden purchases have collapsed 23.5% and mackerel and cod around 21%. In general it has also been a bad year for seafood, molluscs and frozen and fresh crustaceans, although more cooked varieties have been bought. “They click” the preserves and win other products, such as salmon or smoked trout. One question: Is it a punctual fall? No. And that is the big problem. The sector It takes time Seeing how fish consumption falls, which has already taken him to claim to institutions measured to reverse that trend. Under the “fishing products” label enters a range of foods that range from fresh or frozen fish to the seafood or preserves and not all evolve the same, but statistics show that, together, consumption is going back. According to government data, in 2003 the per capita consumption of products related to fishing touched the 27.8 kilos per year And in 2009 he even reached stroke the 30 kg. In 2013 that same data was already in 27.2 kgbefore the pandemic had fallen to 22.5 kgin 2023 marked 18.9 And last year that same average had descended to 17.9. Now the last map report with the March values ​​lead to think that the trend will remain this exercise. A figure: 19 million. Those of the Ministry are not the only data that account for the fall in fish consumption in Spain. In October the statista portal published Another report which reflects the same trend from a somewhat different perspective: that of tons of fish consumed in the whole country. Its tables reflect that if in 2023 consumption amounted to 887.4 million kilos, last year that data had already descended until it was 868.3, which reflects a fall of 19 million In just one year. The consumption curve has been descending since 2009, with a slight rebound in 2020, coinciding with the pandemic. The great unknown: Why do you go down? The million dollar question. And it does not have a simple answer. One of the possible keys is the price. The statistics Officers also show that, on average and in general terms, fresh fish comes out more expensive than meat of the same type. The latest map report also reflects that throughout the last year, between April 2024 and March, the average price of fish -related products had increased 3.5%. The technicians of calculating that in March fresh fish increased 4.9% compared to 2024. Another key: education. Fish is not, however, the only thing that has become more expensive. In recent years he has also done it (and sometimes clearly) The meat. Hence, when explaining the trend It is indicated Often other factors, such as changes in consumption habits, a certain ignorance of the product, the search for more comfortable options or the loss of habit, especially among the youngest, to go to the markets to buy fish. A report On the subject elaborated a few years ago by the Ministry and AECOC in fact identifies four profiles of young people in front of the fish: that of those who reject it flat, who are inclined to other options such as meat, a more “pragmatic” profile that is not willing to invest the time it requires buying and cooking fish and the “distrustful”, with doubts about the origin or conservation. A notice: “It is essential”. With that backdrop a long time ago that the fishing employer demands to institutions that promote fish consumption. In 2023 the Secretary General of Cepesca insisted that it is “essential” to promote healthy eating and support sea food. “We still do not understand why the consumption of fishing products with VAT reduction,” I cried. In his favor the guild has the advice of the health experts, which They advise Eat between three and four rations every week. Images | Grupo Eroski S.Coop (Flickr) and Doğan Alpaslan Demi̇r (Unspash) In Xataka | There is so many demand for fish in China that has opted for drastic measures: two “aircraft carrier” as a hatchery

The price of negative light is a problem. It is also the biggest opportunity to reindustrialize Spain in decades

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See the wholesale price of light to zero euros or even negative has ceased to be an anecdote for become a daily phenomenon In Spain. Symptom that renewables dominate the energy mix, is a growing obstacle to the profitability of electricity, but is still cheap energy. And as such, it is the best opportunity to reindustrialize Spain in a long time. Why it happens. “Zero or negative prices are a symptom of abundance of renewable resources to generate electricity,” analyst Pedro Cantuel, who works in Ignis’s energy management, explains to Xataka. In the central hours of the day, when photovoltaic production is massive, renewables flood the network with a practically null marginal cost, which collapses prices in the wholesale market. The time to reindustrialize. The abundance of cheap energy puts Spain in a competitive advantage position against its European neighbors. If Spain can offer clean energy to a very low cost, it becomes a magnet for industries that devour electricity, such as data centers, metallurgy or new green chemical industry. “In the European context, I think this can happen, since Spain could offer more competitive electricity than some of its neighbors,” explains Sergio Fernández Munguía, engineer of the renewable sector and author of Windletter. “In a global context, industrial electricity in Spain is still expensive because the invoice includes many other items beyond the cost of electricity.” Who has to adapt to who. The industrial model of the twentieth century was based on a premise: the energy was available 24/7 at a more or less stable cost. The renewables have broken this scheme: their production is intermittent. The traditional solution is to store that energy with batteries or pumping centrals, but the high cost of these facilities has dragged their deployment. Fernando Rodríguez, an industrial engineer of the energy sector, believes that the true revolution is not only to attract the usual industries, but to create those of tomorrow. The solution, according to Rodríguez, is that the industry adapts to energy until there is economic storage, and not vice versa: “The industry of the future will have to work with greater inventories, as was the case before the imposition of the imposition of the Just in time“ Flexible and modular manufacturing. The idea is to design industrial processes that can operate in full load when energy is almost free and reduce its activity or stop when it is expensive, without losing efficiency. It is already happening in adaptable industries such as recycling, large -scale 3D printing or desalination, which can program their consumption peaks for maximum solar generation hours. Concrete cases? In the United States, the Alcoa Warrick aluminum giant already adjusts its production to the available renewable generation. In Germany, the School of Engineers of Munich and Linde have designed an ammonia plant that works both 100% and 10% of its capacity, adapting to the production of Hydrogen Grandolytic. The industry will be where renewables are. Rodríguez believes that an industrial relocation will be necessary, and gives as an example the failure of the German “electric highways, a project to carry wind energy from the north to the industrial south that will end up costing more than 140,000 million euros. “Industrial companies must relocate near the new centers of gravity of electric production,” he explains. In Spain, this means taking factories to areas with more sun and wind, creating development poles in places that until now were not industrial foci. If energy is free, who will build the central? The cheap energy avalanche has an inevitable counterpart that puts the entire system at risk. If prices are zero, producers’ income are also. “Negative or zero prices discourage new investments,” confirms Sergio Fernández. “Especially in photovoltaic, those who are making numbers for new plants will see that their expected income in the market is lower than a few years ago and, therefore, also their profitability.” A nipe castle. This problem not only affects future renewable plants, but also the support that guarantees that we have light when there is no sun or wind: combined gas cycles. “As the price of the wholesale market falls,” says Fernando Rodríguez, “the growing opportunity cost will leave investments to generation, transport, distribution and marketing without investors and without financing.” The long -term danger is evident: a total break in the investment that leads us to an obsolete and unable to meet future demand. Without a robust system, there is no possible competitive economy. To take advantage of the industrial opportunity, Spain has to strengthen its nipe castle, and it is not enough to touch the prices artificially. The attack plan. The first bottleneck is the electricity bill. Although energy in the wholesale market is cheap, the invoice is still expensive. For Pedro Cantuel, the solution goes through a “drastic reduction in the final invoice eliminating taxes, bringing system charges to the general state budgets and reduce regulated costs.” The second problem is oversupply. How is demand increased? Cantuel proposes to “encourage electrification to replace the consumption of winter gas with electricity.” And at an industrial level, support great consumers “with the same mechanisms that our German or French competitors have, facilitating the connection of new demand to the network. Spain before its historical opportunity. A turning point that can allow the country to reindustrialize sustainably and become an energy power in Europe. But time runs, and it is essential to “create a national long -term plan that provides stability and certainty to the sector,” claims Cantuel, who defines as a priority “set clear rules for storage and new vectors, such as hydrogen.” The relationship between electric and the government is enquisted by the 7% tax on the generation. Consumers complain that the distribution toll “far exceeds real network costs.” Defining the rules of a competitive New Spain requires a country plan that puts all interested parties to row in the same direction. Without an ambitious and coordinated plan, today’s abundance could become the precariousness of tomorrow. In Xataka | The light price is … Read more

New York has released its new and revolutionaries garbage containers. They have been in Spain for decades

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They call it “The garbage revolution”although it really has little revolutionary. At least for any European accustomed to doing something as simple as throwing their waste into the garbage can. On Monday the New York authorities They took chest announcing its new and brand new strategy to manage the waste of the Big Apple, a pilot program that is now bounded to a neighborhood and,, according to their driversit will be a pioneer throughout the United States. So far not surprising beyond political rhetoric. The funny thing is what New York wants to boost that peculiar “revolution” of cleaning: with garbage cubes and trucks such as those seen in the streets of Spain for decades. Garbage. In New York, workers of the garbage collection service are forced to do something less and less frequent in Spain and most European cities: withdraw on the sidewalks plastic bags full of waste and throw them to the rear of a truck. For them it is a Latoso work. For the city, a problem: the bags are piled up in the streets, hinder the passage, generate bad odors, overthrow liquid and attract rats. In fact, the New York town hall has already had to see them with Rodents. That is why in countries like Spain a different strategy has been chosen for a long time. Collectors are installed in the streets so that citizens can throw their garbage bags inside, leaving them safe from rats and seagulls. Over the years the system has been purified with wild boar cubes, collectors endowed with Electronic locks that are unlocked with special cards and systems that facilitate the discharge of garbage inside the trucks. Revolution in New York. After half a century Of “accumulation of garbage in streets”, in New York they have decided to say enough and change their garbage collection model for a new one, very similar to that of Europe. The first step was taken in 2023, when the authorities demanded from the businesses of the food branch (from bars to supermarkets) that they deposit their waste in containers. A year ago that obligation extended to all companies and in recent months the same standard has been making its way between small residential buildings. The great change has now arrived with a pilot test in the streets of the Community Board 9 of Manhattan, where the use of containers will apply to all types of residential buildings, from small blocks of less than ten homes to the largest, with more than 30. The City Council claims that the neighborhood has thus become “the first neighborhood of North America to have 100% of its garbage in containers” and even speaks of a “garbage revolution.” An old flavor revolution. The most curious thing is that this revolution really has little revolutionary. At least from the perspective of Europeans, who have been (if not decades) accustomed to the tools with which New York now wants to improve the management of their garbage. The reason is simple: the change in the Harlem will basically be supported on three pieces, all integrated for a long time in the urban landscape of the Spanish cities: Empire garbage cubes with capacity for 3,000 L, collectors with wheels and side load trucks. Closed and card cubes. Over the last weeks the New York Health Department has dedicated itself to installing in West Harlem around 1,100 Empire containerswhich are the ones that present a small novelty. Unlike most garbage cubes that can be seen in Europe, these collectors will not be available to any neighbor who passes through the sidewalk. They will remain closed and their use will be assigned exclusively to a building, which can access the collector thanks to a special card. In fact, residents will not even pull the bags in the cube. The idea It is that they leave them in an area of ​​collection in the building itself and the cubes themselves handle them the staff of the buildings or the waste managers. It is not the model that is usually used in Spain, although here They also look card collectors. Measuring buildings. The largest blocks of West Harlem, those with more than 30 homes, have been assigned Great Empire Garbage Cubes. Those between 30 and 10 apartments are allowed to choose between that smaller model or containers with wheels and the buildings with less than a dozen families are asked to use 200 l cubes. To expedite the work of the operators, a year ago the City Council also presented a prototype of garbage collection truck with lateral load that can be handled by only two operators. In November the Consistory has already asked these smaller buildings for residential use to start using containers, which has a first idea of ​​what is their result. Your conclusions? “The first data show that the use of containers is working: since the demands entered into force, six months ago, the number of rats has decreased,” celebrate. A revolution with challenges. New York is discovering more than the use of containers. He has also encountered the challenges they represent. The New York Times public A chronicle This same Monday explaining how cleaning service employees have to deal with double -row cars that block the cubes and prevent trucks from accessing them. It also warns of the impact they will have on the parking spaces. The municipal authorities already calculate that expanding the program to the entire city would demand to eliminate 50,000 spaces to park vehicles. That without having the hundreds of millions of dollars that would require buying garbage cubes and collection trucks capable of attending the entire population of the Big Apple. Critics write down a “but” more: That the initiative to recycling does not expand. Image | City of New York In Xataka | The cities emptied during the pandemic. The rats took advantage of him to impose his reign

China has broken the dependence of the GPS in two decades. His proposal has already convinced 140 countries

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China has just published The data of your satellite navigation system (Beidou) for 2024. After the figures a geopolitical transformation is read that has not made much noise but that is full of meaning. Why is it important. The United States controlled global satellite navigation through GPS. China has created a viable alternative in just twenty years, breaking its own agency and also offering options to other countries. Beidou began as a Chinese military project in the 1990s. Today it is recognized by the United Nations as a global satellite navigation provider, integrated into eleven international organizations. In figures: The Chinese satellite navigation sector invoiced 79.9 billion dollars in 2024. That is 7.4% more than in 2023. Beidou processes more than one billion daily location requests (it is not a False Friend: one billion). And guide 4,000 million kilometers of navigation every day. Besides… 288 million Chinese mobile phones already integrate Beidou. The system covers 99% of urban and rural roads in the country lane precision. Yes, but. Beidou has not displaced GPS as a dominant global standard. Most current devices use several satellite constellations (GPS, Beidou, Galileo, Glonass) to improve precision and reliability. The 140 countries that use Beidou do it mainly as a complement to GPS, not as a total substitute. And they adopt it differently: More than 30 African nations They have installed continuous reference stations for high precision services in agriculture, water management and weather monitoring. In Latin America, ports like Chancay’s in Peru They integrate Beidou In smart navigation systems. In Asia and the Middle East, several countries use Chinese constellation to complement transport and logistics services. The majority does not completely replace GPS, but adds Beidou as a second option to reduce dependencies or improve coverage in regions where US signals are weaker. One of Beidou’s strengths is his best coverage in the southern hemisphere. In 2020 he completed his global scope. Between the lines. China has not defeated GPS, but has achieved something equally valuable: reduce its critical technological dependence. The United States can no longer cut access to satellite navigation as a diplomatic weapon against China. And now what. Beidou marks the Chinese patron: not completely replace Western systems, but to create viable alternatives that reduce strategic dependencies. Not to compete, but build your own parallel reality. As Huawei has doneamong others. Satellite navigation is only the beginning. China replicates this strategy in 5g, AI and renewable energies. In Xataka | China is turning its roofs into power plants. He has achieved in three months what in Europe costs three years Outstanding image | Xataka

You have to wait 17 years for a mine to give results. China already has two decades of advantage

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The new map of global power, It no longer happens with having oil. The true strategic value lies in the domain of critical minerals, such as lithium, nickel, copper or rare earths, considered the backbone of essential technologies. Therefore, whoever controls their access, production and refined is equivalent to having the keys to the energy and digital future. According to has estimated In an interview for the Wall Street Journal IEA director Fatih Birol, to have an operational mine, can take up to 17 years. While many countries just begin to move, there is already a country at the head. The arrival. There is an Italian saying that says: “piano piano if Arriva Lontano”, translated would be that little by little you get away. And it is not surprising that this premise comes as a finger ring for the Asian giant. Since the beginning of this century, Beijing adopted a deliberate large -scale investment strategy throughout the value chain of critical minerals. The result of this bet is that China is currently the main world refining of 19 of the 20 strategic minerals Evaluated by IEA. More recent data. Between 2020 and 2024, he was responsible for approximately the 80 % of supply growth Global lithium and copper. Control is even more overwhelming in certain key elements: The country processes 95 % of graphite which is used in lithium -ion batteries. 98 % of rare earths necessary to manufacture high -performance magnets, fundamental in electric motors, wind turbines and advanced military systems. Out of its borders. Many of the mines and processing plants in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia are owned by Chinese companies or have a large participation of Chinese capital, According to Wall Street Journal. Starting with Indonesia, where much of the nickel, mineral for high energy density batteries is refined. For its part, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the refinement of the cobalt It is in hands of Chinese companies. They have seen an opportunity. Not everything is extracting, knowing the current situation of the planet have seen an opportunity in recycling. More than two thirds of global growth in battery recycling since 2020 They have taken place in Chinawhich reinforces its leadership even in the final stage of the mineral life cycle. This power, based on sustained investment, low costs and an aggressive industrial policy, makes China not only a dominant supplier, but an actor difficult to replace. The clock against the West. The regions that seek to reduce their dependence, such as the United States and the European Union, have faced financial, regulatory and logistics barriers. In addition, the recent fall in the prices of many critical minerals has discouraged investment, making even more difficult for new actors to enter the market, such as He explained The Wall Street Journal. This has especially affected emerging companies, whose initiatives have been paralyzed by the lack of clear economic signals. The reactions. The United States has issued executive orders to accelerate permits and stimulate internal investment. The European Union has launched its Critical RAW Materials Actdesignating 47 strategic projects that will have priority in financing and authorizations. Both blocks seek to weave alliances with producing countries such as ArgentinaBrazil and Australia, with the intention of building more resilient supply chains. However, even if all these projects were approved today, the tangible benefits would not be seen until the second half of the next decade. The window of opportunity to reduce dependence is narrow; The risk of falling behind is real. The concentration of minerals. According to the IEA86 % of the refined production of key minerals comes from only three countries. In many cases, one: China. More than half of the 20 critical minerals are already subject to some type of export restriction. Since 2023, Beijing has implemented controls on Galio, Germanio, Bismuto, Antimony and various rare earths, many of them essential for electronic, energy and military industries. It brings consequences. These restrictions have caused abrupt price increases and have turned on alarms in governments and companies. The dependence of such a small number of suppliers converts the entire value chain into a fragile system: a climatic catastrophe, a geopolitical crisis or a technical accident is enough to trigger a collapse of the supply. IEA has estimated That a prolonged interruption in the flow of key metals for batteries could make global prices more expensive by up to 50 %. A silent threat. Of all minerals, copper emerges as one of the biggest challenges. Although it is not unusual or new, it is absolutely essential for electrification: it is used in smart networks, electric motors, transformers and loaders. The IEA report He has warned That by 2035 there could be a supply deficit of 30 %, due to the drop in the mineral law, the lack of new discoveries and the high development costs. Unlike lithium – new actors have emerged as Argentina either Zimbabwe-, the copper market It is still concentrated in a few countries and is subject to long regulatory processes. The delay in expanding the offer has direct consequences: without copper there are no cables, and without cables there is no electrification. The bottleneck is not theoretical: it is imminent. The new game of power. In a world that advances towards an electrified economy, critical minerals are no longer one more component: they are the very axis of the energy and technological future. The concentration of its production in a few actors, added to the long development terms and economic barriers, forces countries to act urgently and coordination. The energy security of the 21st century is not played only in the oil wells, but in the tunnels of the mines, the refining ovens and the laboratories of advanced materials. And in this new subsoil geopolitics, time is a resource as scarce as lithium. Image | Pxhere Xataka | China was for decades the largest CO2 issuer on the planet. Renewables are correcting what seemed impossible

For decades Madrid was a demographic vacuum for Valladolid. Now it is Valladolid who takes away neighbors

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For a simple matter of work, For decades Many Valladolid had no choice but to make their bags and move to Madrid. There are the companies. And good professional perspectives. Today things are different, how they reveal The latest data of the Castellanoleon City Council. The Telework expansion and the Communications improvement He has allowed not a few Pucelanos to return to his city without giving up his jobs in the capital and even turn the demographic tortilla: now it is Valladolid that grows at the expense of Madrid. The data are of course eloquent. What do the figures say? That for years the Castellanoleonese city endured a migratory balance with the clearly negative capital. Many more Pucelanos went to Madrid than Madrid arrived in Valladolid. If it follows The historical series From the municipal census it is proven that this favorable imbalance to Madrid dates back to at least 1997, with years in which the difference was brutal: in 2014, for example, Valladolid scored 736 casualties of Pucelans who made the bags to move to Madrid; The reverse tour (from Valladolid to Madrid) did only 305 people. And is it like that? No. And that is the novelty. We know the change thanks to An analysis of The confidentialwhich has had access to updated data from the Valladolid City Council. They show how between 2022 and 2023 the migratory balance between the cities of Valladolid and Madrid experienced a turning point: if in 2022 the Pucelana city registered 799 casualties of neighbors to Madrid destination in front of 617 high in the opposite direction, in 2023 the photo was the opposite: it computed 765 high and 566 casualties. From the red numbers he went to a positive balance of 199 people with Madrid. The trend was confirmed in 2024 with a new positive migratory balance. The Pucelano City Council scored 796 high from Madrid compared to 504 casualties from neighbors who moved to the state capital. Again a positive balance, of 292 people. In a matter of only two years Valladolid has therefore gone to drag a historical deficit in the exchange of population with Madrid to “win” 491 new registered at the expense of its southern neighbor. That trend has coincided with the general growth of the Valladolid register, which has been gaining population for several years and is now located in 303,843 inhabitants according to The municipal censusthat It does not always coincide with that of the INE. Is there more data? Yes. The general “picture” can be completed with more brushstrokes that help to understand the change. The turn in the migratory flow has also been found in the whole of the Madrid region, not only in its capital. After decades, moving in “Red Numbers” (in demographic terms), in 2023 Valladolid registered higher from new residents from the Madrid community than Low of Pucelanos who had moved to municipalities such as Móstoles, Alcalá de Henares, Leganés, Fuenlabrada, Getafe or Madrid itself. Between 2023 and 2024 in that sense a positive balance of 758 new registered. At the end of 2024 The North of Castile I already pointed the change of tendency citing the statistics of the INE, although in its article it managed data until 2023 and provincial level, not exclusively of the municipality of Valladolid. What did they show? Something similar to what the Pucelano City Council register reflects. In 2023 they arrived at the Valladolid set 1,785 from the Community of Madrid, while they left the province 1,270 person to settle at some point in Madrid. Result: a positive balance of 515 people for Valladolid. It is not bad if one takes into account that the previous year (2022) the province had lost 115 people in favor of the Community of Madrid. And what is the reason? Rather, we should talk about reasons, in the plural. When analyzing the change in trend there are those who speak of The expansion of teleworking After the pandemic or attractiveness of the Valladolid real estate market in front of the Madrid, which makes the purchase of housing much more assumed there than in Madrid. According to Idealista, the square meter costs in Valladolid 1,832 euros while in Madrid it is located in 5,467. Something similar occurs in the rental market: in the Pucelana city, the M2 regrets average to 8.9 euros in front of the 21.4that Madrid charges. But … why this abrupt change? While it is true that COVID-19 marked a before and after in the implementation of teleworking in Spain and that the real estate market He has not stopped tense In recent years, both trends have not explained why the population flow between Valladolid and Madrid has experienced such a sharp change in such a short time. Nor why it has been accentuated in 2023. Hence, when the analysis of the phenomenon adds another determining factor: the improvement of transport between Valladolid and the Community of Madrid. At the end of 2007 The line was released High speed Madrid-Segovia-Valladolid, which made it possible to arrive from Valladolid to Madrid in less than 60 minutes, instead of the more than two hours that it has the same route by car. Since then the service It has improved In medium distance services until, today, A wide grill of frequencies in birds Ave, Avant, MD, Alvia or Avlo capable of going from Valladolid to Chamartín in 54 minutes. The key in recent years has been nevertheless another: the price. What has changed? In 2019, take the train daily to go to Madrid from Valladolid demanded to disburse hundreds of euros Every month. Today the situation is different. Regular users have benefited from Free bonds MD and a 50% discount For recurring travelers of the Avant trains. In January The Council of Ministers agreed to maintain at least until June 30 the direct aid to the transport of travelers for frequent customers of nearby, rodalies and conventional MD, with “free fertilizers”. The Avant offers a 50% reduction … Read more

The “computer” of 2,000 years ago fascinates us for decades. A new study points out that it might have not served at all

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125 years ago, divers who were collecting sponges in the Aegean Sea, in front of the island of Anticitera, They gave with remains of an old shipwreck. Among jewels, coins and ceramic remains, there was something that caught the attention: a copper fragment of something that seemed to be a gear. It was a compendium of gears that seemed to be part of something much bigger and was baptized as’Anticitera mechanism‘. For decades it was an ignored curiosity in the archives of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, until the researcher Derek de Solla He recovered it, studied and determined that it was an advanced Greek “computer” built at some point between 200 and 100 AC after many theories, a group of Argentine researchers have put the anti -life mechanism to see how the first computer in history behaves .. And the conclusion is that … it was nothing more than an ingenious toy. The main piece First computer For decades, this mechanism fascinated us due not only to its antiquity, but because ignorance about its function allowed the elaboration of all kinds of hypothesis. However, it was Solla who studied more in depth at the beginning, creating physical simulations about the complete state of the mechanism. Thus, and according to the researcher, the anticitera mechanism was a piece corresponding to a more complex object, composed of at least thirty bronze gears placed strategically in a wooden box with approximate dimensions of 340 x 180 x 90 millimeters. It was activated by a crank that allowed to move the gears and perform its function. Which? Well … predict astronomical positions. According to Derek’s studies, the anticitera mechanism was a planetary computer, a very cool name to describe a “computer” that allowed predicting astronomical positions, lunar phases, eclipses and, therefore, calculating cycles of the 354 -day lunar calendar or dates for sports games, among others The pieces found Through different discs, it showed the astronomical data and, supposedly, was designed to reproduce the irregular movement of the moon in its rotation thanks to specialized gears that compensated the anomalies in its trajectory. And, after that first finding, we found more and more pieces of the mechanism, which has allowed us to get an idea of ​​how it was. It was evident that it was A very advanced machine for its timebut it is also clear that it had a number of limitations. The first: however advanced Greek astronomers were, the mechanism embodied knowledge to date, so comparing it with subsequent techniques and tools is meaningless. The position of some planets is very diverted with respect to modern measurements, for example. This is logical and It does not remove merit To the device, but there were two factors that limited their precision: the mechanics itself and the manufacture of the gears. Due to wear, copper teeth could be increasingly inaccurate and, in addition, as they were manufactured by hand and not in series in a assembly chain, any deviation in the gears would affect their accuracy in the calculations. And that is what previous studies reported, such as those of Mike Edmundsbeing one of the few who has been able to directly investigate the device and lead the equipment that is responsible for your analysis. For what supposedly served Another representation of the Anticitera mechanism Testing Now, some Argentine researchers from the National University of Mar de Plata, have simulated by computer the anti -litera mechanism and their conclusion is … that it was useless. Esteban Guillermo Szigeth and Gustavo Francisco Arenas are those researchers, and have shared their conclusions in Arxiv. For their simulation, they were based on previous studies that already took into account the influence of irregular triangular teeth and the consequences of physical inaccuracies in its construction. When performing it, they realized that the triangular teeth did not seem to have a negative impact on the functioning of the mechanism, but of traffic jams in the gears when turning the crank. That, they point out, would have made it very not very practical in scientific use, practically impracticable, reducing the mechanism to an “ingenious toy.” Now, they also claim that it is the result of a simulation about what they know about the device that It was found in 1900 And that it is possible that, taking into account the necessary skill for its construction, the irregular space between the gears could be a fruit of corrosion, and not something deliberate in its design. The researchers propose that the wheels, given the slightest mismatch, would be stuck as it is extremely pointed, when we wear out or not being well balanced by the manufacturing of the time The researchers propose a series of improvements for the gears that would avoid this defect found, but also comment that it must be “cautious to assume that the measurements perfectly reflect their original values” due to what is commented: someone took too many discomfort to build that and it is unlikely that there would be something so complex, but not functional. That is why they also point out that more must be investigatedeven developing more refined techniques, to better understand the real precision and functionality of an anti -litera mechanism that still has room to fascinate us. On the fact that it was found among the remains of a wreck, the answer is much simpler: surely It was part of the loot for some Roman emperor, probably Julio César. Therefore, the anticitera mechanism remains a source of speculation and fascination due to the tremendous merit of its construction more than 2,000 years ago, but study after study, the conclusion is that the easiest thing is that it served little. Even so, researchers point out that its construction was a technological milestone. And that is something that nobody has questioned. Images | GRB16, Zde, Tony Freeth, David Higgon, Aris Dacanalis, Lindsay Macdonald, Myrto Georgakopoulou, Adam Wojcik, Mike Peel, GTS-TG In Xataka | The myth of the creative genius or why most … Read more

After decades of success, the restaurant day menu faces its great crisis and a dilemma: reinvent or die

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A few weeks ago the veteran articulist David Sharrock published in The Times A wide report about Madrid gastronomy. So far not surprising. That in Spain we enjoy a good kitchen, with large dishes, chefs, restaurants and ingredients is no surprise. The funny thing is that in his analysis Sharrock does not talk about that. The focus focused on another symbol of homeland cuisine, one that passes through low hours and faces the complex challenge of adapting to the 21st century: THE DAY MENU. Sharrock warns that the lifelong menu is “threatened by modern life.” And he is not the only one who thinks like that. A figure: four million. The menu of the day is an institution in the bars of Spain. And for several reasons. The first, its long tradition, which can be traced at least 60 years agowhen in the time of Fraga Iribarne as Minister of Information the Francoist Government established that a good part of the food stores offered a menu at a fixed price. The goal: to enhance tourism. The second key that demonstrates to what extent the formula of the daily menu has penetrated in Spanish gastronomy is its level of implementation. The Spain hospitality association estimates that some are dispatched every day four million throughout the country, which leads to its general secretary, Emilio Gallego, to claim your acceptance. “The menu of the day remains a spectacular success formula,” he says. A price: € 14. Hospitality in Spain has not only calculated how many menus are served daily in the country’s restaurants. At the end of last year he published A report in which goes beyond and analyzes its prices, profitability and the differences between regions. Your main conclusion? That at least in 2024 the average cost of the menu of the day in Spain was around 14 euros, although there are cities in which this figure is quite higher. In Bilbao, for example, the average was 15.5 and Barcelona in 15.1, although there are those who clarify that it results today “Almost impossible” Find a menu in the center of Barcelona for less than 16 euros. Are all strengths? No. The menu perhaps enjoy a long tradition and is rooted in the hospitality of Spain, but on its horizon they appear clouds. And one of them (and the most important) is found in its price. Although its rates increased by 19.5% between 2016 and 2024 (which in practice translates into 11.7 to 14 euros), hospitality in Spain remember that this accumulated increase remains below the general CPI (23.4%) and is much lower than that of food and beverages or the one that In your day They reached certain key products in kitchens, such as olive oil. Between 2023 and 2024 the menus did rise above the general price index, but despite that rebound, of 80 cents on average, the collective recalls that there are many hoteliers to which it is difficult for their businesses to give benefits. To be more precise, They cite a study which reveals that 42.3% of entrepreneurs claim to have experienced a “loss of profitability” during the last year, especially due to the increase in salary costs, food and supplies. At the end of 2024 almost a third of the restaurants (32.5%) admitted that their menus had not increased that year. “Totally in danger”. The hospitality data of Spain give a track of the first great challenge facing the menus for their survival: profitability. To succeed, a menu of the day must offer a range of attractive dishes and a certain variety, but it must also convince in another crucial aspect: the price. The key is how to fit that list (high quality, variety and low price) and at the same time the business gets more than cover costs. A few months ago a hotelman from Vigo I recognized to The country That, despite the fact that his bar was small and that he takes care of almost everything, so that his offer is “viable” needs to sell at least 40 daily menus at a price of 15 euros. “Below that figure, it will only serve to cover costs.” “It is totally in danger, and fortunately, because it is not a sustainable model for the hotelier,” Point to the same newspaper Paco Cruz, The Food Manager, speaking precisely about the state of health of the menus. In his opinion, the formula is profitable basically in certain businesses, with a good flow of clients and experience. The AI, to the rescue. “The customer of the menu of the day wants first five, five seconds and variety every day. But what do you do with what is left over? If everyone asks for the same, what about the dishes that are not requested? The losses are brutal and that is unsustainable from any point of view: economic, ethical and environmental,” Add Cruz. The challenge is so complex that there are those who have already sought help in AI, as Fusion was checked in Madridwhere chef Eneko Atxa and physicist Eneko Axpe presented a tool designed to design attractive menus … and above all profitable. Objective: efficiency. “Inflation is almost 40%. The diner says they are charging me more, 19.5, but the hotelier has a hard time doing 39.2 more,” recalled During the ATXA presentation before adding to that price increase the increase in rentals and energy. The objective of the delight tool is precisely to look for “an orderly efficiency” in the menu, maximize the benefit and seek maximum efficiency in the number of chefs, customers and purchase. “The menu is an immaterial good in our culture and one of the challenges and problems facing hoteliers and diners,” Axpe points out. Cost of costs (and something else). Although inflation and imbalance between the rise in prices and salaries is one of the great challenges of the menu of the day, it is not the only one. As Sharrock points out in Your chronicle of The Times The format … Read more

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