depends

Europe desperately needs coltan for its chips. The solution is in a town in Ourense and depends on a single procedure

by

Galicia hides beneath its soil an indispensable technological treasure for the 21st century, and the machinery to unearth it has already been put into operation. We are talking about the Penouta mine, located in the Ourense town of Viana do Bolo, which is the only coltan mine on the way to being active again throughout Western Europe. This is not a new deposit, since the original operations of this mine They ceased in 1985 and the area was abandoned. Although there was a recent attempt at reactivation by the company Strategic Mineralsthe project ended in bankruptcy. Today, however, this highly strategic asset awakens from its slumber and its long-awaited reopening already depends on one last bureaucratic push that could be resolved before this summer. The penultimate notice. To understand where this mining resurgence is, you have to look at the offices. According to the Vigo Lighthousethe Council of Ministers has just given the green light to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). This step was vital for the Australian group Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), through its Spanish subsidiary, definitively acquires the deposit. A purchase that has been forged after a public auction in which the firm presented an offer of 5.2 million euros. With the blessing of the central government and the financial muscle secured, the ball is now in the court of the Xunta de Galicia. As pointed out The Voice of Galiciathe operation depends solely on the General Directorate of Energy and Mines approving the transfer of the licenses from the former promoter to ETM. The Ministry of Economy and Industry assures that the process is “very advanced.” Regarding deadlines, the company hopes to be able to sign the deeds in the month of May, or in any case, complete the process throughout the second quarter of the year, inevitably before the month of July. A lifeline for Europe’s technological sovereignty. The Galician exploitation of Penouta is rich in tin and tantalum (popularly known as “black gold” or coltan), critical minerals for the manufacture of electronic components at a time when Europe seeks to depend less on third countries. According to statements by Daniel Mamadou, general director of ETM, collected by The Economistthe company has committed to ensuring that all production “remains available for the development of associated industries within the European Union”, and have already initiated contacts with potential local partners. Added to this is its value as a circular economy model. An EU report a few years ago dedicated an entire chapter to Penoutahighlighting it as a reference in the recovery of critical raw materials from mining waste (slag heaps) from the old exploitation of the 80s, an activity that, in addition, “can help restore the environment.” The open fronts. The reactivation plan will be progressive, where ETM plans to start first with “section B” (the waste dumps), which will allow a gradual incorporation of workers. In parallel, the company will prepare the documentation to request a new license for “section C” (the exploitation of the mine itself) with the aim of starting to extract coltan in 2027. To shorten these bureaucratic deadlines, the company plans to request the declaration of a Strategic Industrial Project (PIE). This care when requesting new licenses is not coincidental, since the judicial front has marked the recent history of Penouta. On the one hand, there is good news for the project: the Provincial Court of Ourense firmly filed a case for alleged polluting discharges in February when it found no evidence of criminality. However, the main exploitation permit of the previous owner was annulled in 2024 by the Superior Court of Xustiza of Galicia (TSXG), considering the environmental impact study on the Natura 2000 Network “insufficient”, a decision that is currently pending appeals before the Supreme Court. The firm that will change everything. The closure of the previous stage of the Penouta mine left 55 families on the streets after the bankruptcy. Today, the scenario is radically different. With Australian financing guaranteed, authorization from Madrid in the pocket and a judicial horizon that is beginning to clear, Galician “black gold” has ceased to be a frustrated project and has become the country’s great mining hope. Now, the entire sector holds its breath waiting for that single signature from the Xunta de Galicia that will put Ourense back on the map of the European energy transition. Image | Strategic Minerals Europe Xataka | Madrid has the key mineral underground so that Europe does not depend on China. The problem is that there is a gap above

Spain has a very ugly bird that does not want it to become extinct. And all of Europe depends on you not doing it

by

For the last decade, Villafranca de los Barros (in the heart of the province of Badajoz) was the European vulture capital. More than 600 black and griffon vultures They have left the AMUS wildlife hospital in Villafranqués to repopulate places in France, Sicily, Cyprus or Bulgaria. Now and this is the news, receives 15 specimens of Italian vultures. Are we running out of Egyptian vultures? Are there few in Spain? It depends on how we define “few.” It is true that the numbers continue to fall in Aragón, Andalusia and part of Castilla y León; However, it is no less true that around 82% of all Egyptian vultures in Europe. And then? Why do we want twelve birds? Essentially, because the Italian Egyptian Vultures are having a very bad time. The Cisalpine country has only a dozen wild breeding pairs and needs Spain to keep the genetics and breeding capacity alive. The idea is to use the Italian specimens to reinforce the European capacity to obtain chickens (something that, in this species, is especially difficult). And scavengers, despite the cultural disdain we have for them, are important. Only Iberian vultures They remove bodies from the field for a value of about 45 million a year and save about 77,000 tons of CO2 in the same period. But there are even much clearer cases: India, for example. Eyal Frank and Anant Sudarshan of the Harris School of Public Policy and the University of Warwick they did the math of the economic impact of the loss of vultures in the subcontinent. We talk about $69.4 billion annually derived from mortality and the economic costs associated with premature deaths. “The collapse of vultures in India provides a clear example of the kind of hard-to-reverse and unpredictable costs that the loss of a species can have on humans,” The great European hope. If it works, many of the first chickens will be released in Italy with the idea of ​​​​reinforcing the wild population of southern Italy. After that, they will be used to reinforce other weakened nuclei: first in Spain and then in the rest of the continent. In this sense, Spain has become the last great European reservoir. And that between poisoned baits (979 corpses between 2019 and 2023), power lines and wind turbines, it’s not that we treat vultures very well. Image | Nitish Patel In Xataka | Mia, the world’s first bionic vulture who has been able to land and walk again thanks to a titanium “suchi roll”

If the question is whether you can go on vacation or play sports while on sick leave, justice has the answer: it depends.

by

There is a widespread belief about what it means to be on medical leave. Many people believe that being on medical leave is incompatible with doing any type of activity physical or going on a trip, and that doing so may be grounds for disciplinary dismissal. It is a widespread fear, but the reality is quite different. Knowing the nuances around this issue can prevent workers and companies from be seen in court. A recent sentence issued by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community confirms what Spanish judges have been repeating for years in their rulings: that the problem is never the activity itself, but rather whether carrying it out affects in some way the process of recovery from the illness or injury for which one is on sick leave. That detail changes absolutely everything. ​What the law says, and what it doesn’t say Although many people believe it this way, no Spanish labor law expressly prohibits playing sports. or go on vacation when you are on medical leave. There is no article that says “if you are on sick leave, you can’t do this or that.” What the Workers’ Statute does include, in its article 54 that regulates the conditions of disciplinary dismissal, is that a company can fire you if you seriously breach your employment obligations or act in bad faith. And that’s where these cases fit. The principle that truly governs these cases is not prohibition, but compatibility with recovery. In practice, this means that when you are on medical leave, you have an obligation not to do things that slow down or contradict your own recovery process. Not because the law expressly prohibits it, but because acting in a manner inconsistent with your medical diagnosis can be interpreted as a serious lack of honesty with your company and with Social Security, which covers a large part of your salary during that period. When the judges have ruled in favor of the company The courts have supported layoffs disciplinary action when the activity carried out during the medical leave was clearly incompatible with the declared illness or injury, especially if it occurred several times and the company was able to demonstrate it with medical reports and even with the provision of evidence by a private detective. The most recent case is the sentence which was resolved by the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community in January 2026, which stated that a worker was on sick leave due to a lumbar injury compatible with limited effort and moderate physical activity and was investigated by private detectives. During that period, it was confirmed that the employee was doing intense and repeated physical exercise for several weeks in a row (running, mountain routes lasting several hours, gym training, etc.), an activity that, according to the court, was incompatible with his illness and made his recovery difficult. The court declared the disciplinary dismissal valid not for playing sports, but for doing an activity contrary to the recommendations for recovery from sick leave due to low back pain. In a similar vein, the Superior Court of Justice of Aragon, also declared valid the disciplinary dismissal of an employee who was on medical leave due to an injury to the cruciate ligament in his knee and had to undergo surgery. During his recovery, the employee He participated in several padel tournamentsand even winning some of them while on medical leave due to his knee injury. The judges have also ruled in favor of the worker Case law also has numerous examples to the contrary, where the dismissal was considered unjustified because, although physical activity was recognized, it could not be demonstrated that the activity harmed recovery from the injury. An example of this is the who judged the Superior Court of Justice of Murcia in which an employee on leave due to depression and anxiety traveled to Albania for 12 days. As and how I analyzed Iberleythe Murcian High Court declared that the trip did not interfere with recovery nor did it contravene medical recommendations, which is why it declared the dismissal unfair. It has not been the only case. The Supreme Court confirmed in November 2024 that the dismissal of a driver who played paddle tennis while on sick leave due to low back pain was inappropriate, because her own doctor had recommended in writing that she do moderate exercise, including that type of activity. The key is always in the doctor As can be seen in the different examples, the key is not the sport that is practiced or the trip itself, but what the doctor says about that activity and whether that activity negatively affects recovery. The judges limit themselves to analyzing whether the worker’s medical reports authorized or recommended what he did, whether the company was able to demonstrate with an expert report that it was detrimental to recovery, and whether the worker repeated the behavior in a way that would suggest that he was simulating his state. A worker on sick leave due to depression or anxiety who is advised by his psychiatrist to go out, exercise or travel has every right to do so. In fact, it can be an important part of the treatment. For all this, the most useful practical advice is to always have the doctor’s authorization in writing before carrying out any physical activity or travel during sick leave. This role does not guarantee that the company will not consider a disciplinary dismissal or that the judge will always agree with you, as some of the previous cases demonstrate, but it makes a real difference when it comes to defending yourself. Without that documented medical support, courts tend to side with the company when there is evidence of activity. In Xataka | A company fired the same employee twice in eight months. The court has annulled them and returns to work with 25,000 euros Image | Freepik (pressfoto)

depends on China to do it

by

I don’t need to tell you that the world is becoming a vibrant hornet’s nest with several open fronts. Some explode directly, such as conflict between the US, Israel and Iranand others endure, buried and palpitating, in the form of diplomatic tensions and tariffs. The United States has been and is the dominant world power economically (in terms of nominal GDP) and militarily, but China is moving inexorably to break its hegemony on all fronts. Trump has the main mission of “Make America Great Again” and in the military it involves adopting a more proactive role: we have seen in Venezuela and in Iran but also on a small scale with the boarding of ships. Given this scenario, China is in an uncomfortable position (buys 90% of all the oil Iran exports) that attempts to resolve with maximum diplomatic pressure but without military action. There is a broad business relationship at stake. If it did, the United States would have a lot of problems. Because the relationship between the United States and China is paradoxical: they are geopolitical rivals but at the same time they have a symbiosis economically and industrially. And if the United States wanted to strengthen its military, China would be essential, as evidence this internal report commissioned by the Department of Defense itself. Why is it important. Because we are probably in the greatest moment of military tension between both powers since the Cold War and the United States has been declaring China since “pacing challenge“(for Pete Hegseth, it’s already “pacing threat“): in different defense documents: The pace of the Asian giant is a challenge that threatens the supremacy of the United States. Despite this, its dependence on the military supply chain has not decreased, quite the contrary. If China decided, either in retaliation or on its own initiative, to disrupt its supply chain, the operational capability of the US military would be seriously compromised. Context. The fall of the USSR in the late 1980s was followed by a reduction in defense spending in the 90s, at which time the industry moved in search of economic efficiency in the form of contractor mergers and supplier outsourcing. To where? Towards Asia, something that its base industry also did. Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, China was establishing itself as a global supplier of electronics, semiconductors and critical raw materials. A concrete example that you can see at a glance in this graph: the rapid rise of China in rare earth production and the fall of the United States. Chinese suppliers to the US military. NUMBERS MATTER: DEFENSE ACQUISITION, US PRODUCTION CAPACITY, AND DETERRING CHINA In figures. Govini’s internal report from 2024 leaves some numerical data that supports the serious dependence of the US military on China: 41% of the semiconductors in its weapons systems and infrastructure depend on Chinese suppliers. Chinese suppliers in defense supply chains have quadrupled between 2005 and 2020. US dependence on China in electronics increased by 600% between 2014 and 2022. Graphic that relates American weapons to their Chinese producers. NUMBERS MATTER: DEFENSE ACQUISITION, US PRODUCTION CAPACITY, AND DETERRING CHINA China is the world’s factory. A no-brainer: semiconductors are everywhere, from cell phones to missiles or drones. And China makes more chips than anyone else and also dominates in assembly, although lags behind in advanced chips. Yes indeed, is among your priorities. The United States has attempted to repatriate chip production with its Chips lawbut its consequences will be seen in the medium and long term, not in the coming months. At the moment, its first green shoots are the plant TSMC in Arizona. China is the “mine” of the world. We mentioned it above because it is the clearest example: in rare earths, China is the absolute queen of the industry from start to finish: from deposits to processing. And it’s not just rare earths: it’s also gallium, germanium, graphite, antimonyhe cobalt or the tungsten. Be careful, this does not necessarily mean that it dominates because of the deposits it owns, but because it has set up a powerful refining industry that allows it to control the processing link, so that other countries turn to China for this operation. They are industries that require high investment and low margins, which makes them unattractive for private companies without state support to enter the sector. China knows this and uses it as a currency of pressure in the form of restrictions and locks. In Xataka | The US Navy warns Congress: China is erecting the largest nuclear barrier in its history under the sea In Xataka | China needs chips and the United States needs energy: in the AI ​​race the two great powers have divergent paths Cover | Nick Fewings and Scandinavian Backlash

If the question is whether there was life on Mars, NASA has a new explanation: it depends

by

NASA’s Curiosity rover has been shedding light on Mars since August 2011, making authentic discoveries on its surface, in your clouds and of course, about its potential habitability. And if its younger brother Perseverance found a few months ago “the clearest sign of life we ​​have seen on Mars”, one of Curiosity’s latest discoveries is not so clear. What Curiosity found. Since 2012, Curiosity has been exploring Gale Crater, a place where there was a lake billions of years ago. In March 2025, while the rover’s integrated laboratory was analyzing a clay rock there, they found the presence of decan, undecan and dodecan. What’s that? Alkanes, that is, long chain hydrocarbons formed by hydrogen and carbon atoms. Why is it important. Because Curiosity’s discovery is the largest organic compounds ever found on the red planet and its size is such that its existence can hardly be explained by simple chemistry. On Earth, these types of hydrocarbons are usually fragments of fatty acids produced by living beings. However, on Mars, its origin is not so clear: it is reasonable to think of a biological origin, but with current evidence there is no confirmation. Biology or geology? The degradation of fatty acids causes the appearance of these hydrocarbons one way or another, but their presence does not imply that they necessarily come from a living organism. In fact, on Earth they can also be generated by geological processes. In short: detecting organic molecules on Mars does not mean finding life. Correlation does not imply causation. A “reasonable” hypothesis. So they analyzed the known non-biological sources of these organic molecules looking for an explanation for these quantities found. Since none of them fully explained this abundance, in this recent study published in Astrobiology that the research includes have raised a “reasonable” hypothesis: that living beings could have formed them. Among the known sources are molecules from meteorites that crash into the surface of Mars, cosmic dust, geological chemistry such as the Fischer-Tropsch synthesis plausible on early Mars or ultraviolet radiation, which in addition to destroying organic components can also form them, are some of the candidates. The method. To reach these conclusions, the team of scientists combined laboratory experiments, mathematical models and data from the rover, which allowed them to go back in time 80 million years to estimate how much organic matter existed at the beginning, before cosmic radiation destroyed it. The amount they were able to reconstruct far exceeds what unknown non-biological processes can generate. Of course, it does not affirm that there was life, nor are there fossils or biomarkers of course. In fact, their conclusion is clear: more studies are needed to conclude on the absence or presence of life on Mars. In Xataka | There are those who believe that 50 years ago we found life on Mars (and then accidentally destroyed it) In Xataka | China is getting closer to surpassing NASA in its Martian mission. And just invited other countries to join Cover | NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

ASML CEO knows the whole world depends on her

by

The European Union has announced the inauguration of a new research center dedicated to the development and manufacturing of semiconductors. The project, called NanoIC, wants to become one of the fundamental pillars of the European Chips Act program. 2.5 billion euros on the table. The total budget is 2.5 billion euros, of which 700 million come from EU funds. Another 700 million will come from regional and national governments, and the rest will put ASML on the table and other industrial partners. What is Imec. In reality the project is an expansion of the Imec facilities at its headquarters in Leuven, near Brussels. This body does not manufacture commercial chips, but is the “laboratory” in which rival companies such as Intel, Samsung or TSMC collaborate to define the chips of the future. clean rooms. This is a new clean room (“cleanroom“) of 2,000 square meters which will among other things house ASML’s new next-generation High NA EUV scanner which is expected to arrive in mid-March. The total area of ​​Imec’s clean rooms amounts to 12,000 square meters and the company claims that this makes it a central part of the Chips Act strategy. Imec will soon build another 4,000 square meter clean room on the aforementioned Leuven campus. Everyone loves ASML. ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet highlighted the leading role that your company has managed to achieve thanks to its semiconductor manufacturing machines, the only ones in the world capable of producing the most advanced chips today. As he said, these are the machines “that everyone would like to have.” China sighs (for now). He is right: today the US is a key trade ally but does not have comparable technology of its own, and China has been trying to develop extreme ultraviolet machines for some time. but for now he is still behind in that race. Obviously Europe depends on the US and China in many other areas, but ASML is certainly a clear technological asset for European interests. Inverse dependency. The vice president of the European Commission, Henna Virkkunen, indicated in a interview with Politico that “it is true that we have some of the key technologies, such as ASML, that everyone is dependent on globally.” He explained, of course, that the EU has no plans to turn that into a weapon for potential negotiations, “but it is important to realize that we have those strengths that others do not have.” Changing the story. These statements undoubtedly seek to counteract the idea that Europe depends totally on American technology, demonstrating that the old continent also has its own levers to negotiate. Digital sovereignty. The EU is expected to prepare a second Chips Act which should be presented at the end of March and which would clearly differ from the first. Instead of an emergency response to a project that will turn Europe into a competitive region at a technological level. But. The initiative is striking, but it also has important challenges. We are looking at a research center and that means that its size and budget cannot be compared with those investments in data centers made by large US technology companies. But in addition to that parameter there is another even more relevant one: that of talent. Europe must train and attract enough engineers to operate these centers and develop that work there and not in companies or centers that compete in other regions, including of course the US and China. In Xataka | We already know what the chips that will arrive until 2039 will be like. The machine that will allow them to be manufactured is close

depends on the West more than it admits

by

China has managed to become the giant we know today: controls the processing of critical minerals, leads battery manufacturing and builds 74% of renewable energy of the planet. However, behind this imposing façade of self-sufficiency, the Asian giant hides an Achilles heel that its propaganda tries to silence: a critical dependence on the technology, machinery and intellectual property of the West it is trying to displace. The paradox of Chinese dominance. For decades, the West operated under a mirage. As analyst Gillian Tett explains in it Financial TimesWestern elites assumed that making things was low-margin “dirty work” that could be outsourced. While the world became obsessed with software and code, China was quietly building the physical infrastructure of the 21st century. Today, Beijing owns what investor Craig Tindale called “processing sovereignty”: controls the 98% of galliumhe 90% of rare earths and the 95% polysilicon. But this domain is incomplete and vulnerable. The recent failure of the Chinese company Defu Technology in his attempt to acquire the Luxembourg-based Circuit Foil for $204 million—blocked by the Luxembourg government—has shown that China is not self-sufficient in high-precision components. Despite its trade balance reaching a record surplus, Beijing was forced to import $1.3 billion worth of advanced copper foil last year alone, a discrete but vital input so its next-generation electric vehicles can even start. The “brain” is still foreign. The dependency is deeper than it seems. A report from Tsinghua University reveals devastating data: The Chinese wind industry still imports 60% of its rotor bearings, 70% of the transistor modules for the electrical grid and, most surprisingly, 100% of the logic modules that control the turbines in real time. Aware of this “bottleneck,” President Xi Jinping has personally pressured its manufacturers to “master key technologies.” The effort is bearing fruit—state media They report that the national production of bearings rose to 60% in record time—but the gap in high-end electronics continues to be the great handbrake. Even in cutting-edge sectors like green hydrogen, where Beijing has massive plans, a study published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy underlines that Chinese industry is struggling to abandon its dependence on foreign-made proton exchange membranes. Beijing has the factories, but the West still has the “brains” and the fine chemistry that makes the machines work. From the “Malacca Dilemma” to resource nationalism. To understand Xi Jinping’s movement of pieces, you have to go back to 2003. Then, leader Hu Jintao coined the “Malacca Dilemma”: the fear that a hostile power would block the strait through which almost all the oil consumed by China passes. The commitment to clean energy was not only a climate issue, but a national security strategy to break that chain. However, in trying to escape dependence on oil, China has fallen into the trap of geology. Although it is the largest refiner in the world, it is poor in its own deposits of lithium, cobalt or nickel. As you have warned an extensive report on Financial TimesIndonesia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo are tightening their access rules, forcing Beijing to increase its strategic reserves amid fears that third-country resource nationalism will disrupt its supply chain. The awakening of a “disarmed” West. In Washington and Brussels they have gone from complacency to counteroffensive. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and his G7 counterparts have met recently to create a “floor price” for rare earths, seeking to stifle the competitive advantage of Chinese subsidies. In Europe, the Commissioner for Industry, Stéphane Séjourné, has sent a message that has made boards of directors tremble: through the ReSourceEU program, the EU could legally bind companies to diversify their purchases to prevent Beijing from using permanent magnets as a geopolitical weapon. For its part, Donald Trump’s administration bet on recovering the control of physical matter through Venezuelan and Guyanese crude oil. However, as Gillian Tett warnsthis could be a pyrrhic victory: while the US fights for the fossil fuels of the 20th century, China continues to deploy ultra-high voltage networks to fuel its future race to Artificial Intelligence. The clash of clocks. Rebuilding this sovereignty is not just a matter of capital; It’s a matter of hands. Expert Craig Tindale postulates that the West suffers from a “human bottleneck”: after decades of deindustrialization, engineers who knew how to operate chemical plants and foundries have retired. China, through the prism of long-term planning inherited from Confucian thought, has synchronized its “industrial clock” with the political one, planning in decades what the West measures in financial quarters. The energy transition has ceased to be a humanitarian mission and has become a total battlefield. China dominates scale and execution, but the West still holds the keys to technological innovation and control of capital markets. The greatest risk is that this clash of strategies ends up slowing down the decarbonization of the planet. At the end of the day, the interdependence between China and the West is their greatest common weakness, but also the only guarantee that both sides are forced, sooner or later, to understand each other. Image | freepik Xataka | The gas market becomes unpredictable: we have tanks full and ships on the way, but the price remains an enigma

There is a material on which the future of the iPhone and AI depends. And almost everything is manufactured by the same Japanese company.

by

More than 100 years ago two Japanese textile companies called Fukushima Boseki Co., Ltd., and Katakura Seishi Iwashiro Bosekisho they joined forces to become Nitto Boseki Co. Ltd, also known as Nittobo. A century later we have encountered a giant on which a critical material for the future of our chips depends: glass fabric. Technological glass artisans. The Japanese company was the first in industrially producing carbon fiber. They did it in 1938, almost right at the same time as Owens Corning Fiber Glass in the US. Later, in 1969, they developed the “crystal fabric” or “glass cloth” (glass cloth), a material that began to be used in printed circuits Hello, T-glass. That material evolved and in 1984 they launched their T-glass, an even more specialized glass fabric that began to be used as a substrate in chips of all types. This material is different from the common fiberglass like that used in surfboards or in insulation solutions. Thus, it has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion, which ensures its good performance even when the chips are operating at maximum performance. Japan, we have a problem. As indicated on Nikkeiexperts warn that the lack of this material has become a major obstacle to chip manufacturing and the advancement of AI in 2026. Nittobo is practically the only company in the world capable of manufacturing this glass with the necessary quality. Its glass fabric is extremely thin, bubble-free and heat-resistant, which has made it a fundamental part of chips such as those used in iPhones. Apple, in fact, was one of the first major technology companies to reach an agreement with Nittobo to use this material. Everyone loves Nittobo. The good performance of this material has now made companies like NVIDIA, Google or Amazon also demand T-glass for their chips, and that has generated a worrying competition due to inventory that is quickly depleted and it is not clear that it can cope with demand. Apple asks for help. The situation is so tense that Apple has sent some managers to Japan and has even asked the Japanese government to intervene to ensure supplies from Nittobo. Once again the objective is to guarantee the launch of its key products, and at Nikkei they point directly to the expected foldable iPhone. The fiberglass fabric is a critical layer on the chip substrate and ensures that everything works perfectly even under heavy workloads. Source: Nikkei. Capacity will grow, but not immediately. At Nittobo they know very well what the situation is like, but they can’t do anything to remedy it, at least in the short term. A company executive quoted in Nikkei indicates that “if we do not have additional capacity, it means that we do not have additional capacity no matter how much pressure is put on Nittobo. The way I see it, the situation will only improve significantly when Nittobo’s production increase becomes a reality in the second half of 2027.” Looking for alternatives. Apple and Qualcomm are looking for plans B, and their initiatives to find new suppliers in China or Taiwan are already underway. However, the demand for the quality of this type of material is very high: an error in the quality of the glass of the chip substrate cannot be repaired, and would ruin entire batches of components. AI causes chaos again. We already saw it with memories: the AI ​​industry needs immense quantities of DRAM and NAND memory chips, and that has now meant that the rest of the world is suffering from a huge rise in prices. The same thing is happening with this glass fabric: AI chip manufacturers have an exaggerated demand for this material, which harms the rest of the “traditional” chip manufacturers and, therefore, the users. bad business. And as happens with memories, in the end the material is sold to the highest bidder, which are usually companies like NVIDIA that have exceptional profit margins. That leaves consumer electronics manufacturers in a vulnerable position and with declining sales forecasts. Nittobo does not want to saturate the market. And as happened with the memory market, Nittobo does not want to oversize its business in the face of this demand and prefers to be cautious. Japanese suppliers already suffered losses from overstocks in 2022, so they are now reluctant to expand their factories aggressively. It is precisely the same speech that Micron made, which already suffered from excess inventory after the pandemic: although they could now manufacture more memory chips, for them that means risking history repeating itself. In Xataka | A thousand-year-old mystery allowed us to put nanotechnology into modern screens. Today the discovery has a Nobel Prize

In 2025, the salary of 6,800 Valencian civil servants depends on an Access form. Only one person knows how it works

by

According to has revealed According to the Audit of personnel expenses of the Generalitat Administration prepared by the Sindicatura de Comptes, the Valencian Community is experiencing a situation that is torn between the surreal and the negligence: two computer systems on which the payrolls of almost 6,800 civil servants and public employees depend cannot exchange data. The only way to achieve this is through an application made in Microsoft Access by a single person who would also be the only one who knows how to maintain and update it. SIGNO and GESPERJU2 do not speak to each other. He SIGN program (Integrated Payroll Management System and Others) is the internal computer system of the Generalitat Valenciana used for the management, calculation and payment of payrolls of civil servants and labor personnel of the Valencian Administration, including education, health and other services, allowing procedures such as direct debits and registrations or cancellations of employees. On the other hand, the GESPERJU2 program is a platform that manages the labor files of the personnel at the service of the Justice Administration of the Valencian Community, in processes such as the management of payrolls, permits and other administrative and human resources situations of its staff of judges, magistrates and Justice officials. What is expected is that the platform that manages payroll and the one that manages whether employees are on leaveon vacation or have requested a leave of absence were connected. To the surprise of the auditors of the Sindicatura de Comptes, these two platforms cannot exchange data. An “improvised” connection. As and stood out The Economistthat the officials of the Department of Justice of the Valencian Community receive their payroll on time and without errors depends only on a “patch” in the form of an application created with Microsoft Access. That’s not the auditors’ most surprising discovery, however. The person who created this application is the only one capable of updating the salary tables and other parameters necessary so that the officials’ payrolls are processed without problems. According to the Syndicate reportthis disconnection between platforms has left the Administration in a situation of “absolute dependence on a person”, in addition to “posing a high risk of continuity of operation if this person could not use this parallel application.” We imagine that at this moment, that person will be the best protected official in the Valencian Administration. Two platforms and end up doing it by hand. Another derivative is added to this unprecedented fact. The Access application has its limitations, so some payroll incidents must be done by hand by an official, so that they are reflected correctly. As the audit report noted, “the calculation of certain payroll incidents is carried out manually (arrears, three-year terms previously consolidated in General Administration positions, salary supplements for vertical replacements or guards), which increases the possibility of errors.” As described in the report, the integration problem would not be limited to Justice. Also mentioned is the risk that, due to a lack of communication between platforms, the same person who has had their position changed or promoted, could “collect two salaries simultaneously” (in the old position and in the new one) without being detected. TALIA: the great promise. TALIA is the new personnel management application that is proposed to replace the current ones and whose first phase has already would be tendered and awarded. The promise of TALIA is that personnel information and payrolls of Administration personnel will no longer live on separate and unconnected islands. However, its deployment is planned for years to come (if deadlines are met), and the precedent of delays and cost overruns in implementations like the one suffered with NEFIS in 2019. Until then, someone in the Valencian Administration will ensure that paid for the Office license. In Xataka | Companies bet everything on returning to the office. The public administration has an ace up its sleeve: teleworking Image | Unsplash (Rafael Oliveira)

The US electrical grid depends on Chinese devices. And that worries their national security

by

United States national security has always been measured on aircraft carriers, missiles and satellites. Today, however, a growing part of that security depends on something much more everyday: electricity. The grid that powers homes, hospitals, data centers and military bases is going through —despite political resistance from the Trump administration— an accelerated transformation towards renewable sources. But that transition, key to the country’s energy future, has introduced a silent vulnerability. The back door open. The expansion of solar energy has made the US electrical grid depend massively of inverters made in China, essential devices for converting solar energy into electricity usable by the grid. They are not simple pieces of hardware: they are digital systems, connected, with software, remote communication capabilities and, in many cases, manufactured by companies with direct or indirect links to Beijing. For years, this dependency was seen as an industrial or commercial problem. Today, for those responsible for national security, it has become something very different. The agency notice. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), the National Security Agency (NSA) and the FBI published a joint notice in which they alleged that cyber actors sponsored by the People’s Republic of China had compromised and maintained persistent access to critical US infrastructure. The identified group, known as Volt Typhoonhad managed to infiltrate organizations in key sectors such as energy, water, transportation and communications. The objective was not to steal data or obtain financial benefits. According to the security agencies documentthe behavior detected “is not consistent with traditional espionage” and points, with “high confidence”, to a different strategy: enter critical systems, remain hidden for long periods and wait. Wait for a crisis or conflict scenario in which those same infrastructures may be interrupted or degraded. It’s exactly the scenario that FBI Director Christopher Wray has described before Congress warning that China is positioning itself to attack American civilian infrastructure as part of its strategic planning. From stealing secrets to preparing chaos. For years, cyber activities attributed to China focused on the theft of intellectual property and trade secrets. Today, according to security officialsthe objective is different: to create the ability to cause internal chaos in the United States and limit its room for maneuver in a conflict, especially in the Indo-Pacific. The systems attacked by Volt Typhoon—such as ports, regional power grids, or water utilities—have no immediate economic or political value. Precisely for this reason, experts conclude that the only reason to infiltrate them is to be able to sabotage them later. It is not necessarily about causing a national blackout. As government sources explainselective interruptions, cascading failures or highly visible incidents would be enough to generate social panic, put pressure on policy makers and condition decision-making. Towards the transition. The U.S. power grid is increasingly reliant on solar inverters and storage systems—so-called investor-based resources— which are not simple pieces of hardware. They are digital, connected systems that regulate the flow of energy, stabilize the frequency and constantly communicate with other elements of the network. According to the In Broad Daylight reportprepared by Strider Technologies, since 2015 China has exported nearly 2.68 billion kilograms of inverters to the United States, dominating two-thirds of the world market. To understand the scale of the phenomenon: 86% of electricity companies analyzed by Striderwhich represent about 12% of the installed capacity in the United States, use at least one Chinese supplier considered risky. Together, these devices are present in 5,400 megawatts of solar capacity spread across 22 states, enough electricity to keep more than a million homes powered for a year. The concern is not trivial. A Chinese manufacturer remotely disabled inverters installed in the United States and other countries amid a contract dispute, demonstrating that manufacturers retain operational control on already deployed equipment. Furthermore, research cited by The Washington Post reveal the existence of undocumented communication components in some inverters, capable of connecting to external networks without the operators’ knowledge. According to Striderthe problem is compounded because Chinese academic and military institutions have produced thousands of studies on foreign power grid vulnerabilities, many of them focused on deliberate disruption scenarios. China has come forward against the accusations. A spokesman for its embassy in Washington responded to Reuters and Washington Post rejecting that there is a security problem and denouncing what he described as a “generalization” of the concept of national security to discredit Chinese advances in energy infrastructure. Beijing has not announced technical reviews, external audits or changes to the control mechanisms of these devices. A dilemma without a simple solution. In the short term, US authorities have ordered electric companies to limit or monitor external communications from these devices. However, as officials recognizethe fragmentation of the electricity sector—with thousands of operators and unequal standards—makes a uniform response difficult. In the medium term, the dilemma is more complex. A massive recall of Chinese hardware could put energy supplies at risk at a time of strong demand growth. Maintaining it implies accepting a strategic vulnerability. In the long term, the consensus among analysts is clear: energy is no longer just an economic or climate issue, but a matter of national security. As Strider’s report concludesensuring the transition to clean energy without creating new strategic dependencies has become a defensive priority. The new dimension of national security. The US power grid does not need to be attacked tomorrow to become a pressure tool today. The vulnerability already exists, integrated in the form of everyday devices, invisible to the end user but critical to the functioning of the country. The question raised by the official documents themselves is not whether that capacity will be used, but in what context and for what purpose. Because, in the strategic competition of the 21st century, the control of energy can be as decisive as the control of territory. Image | Unsplash and freepik Xataka | The US and China are involved in a controversy over renewable devices: what we know (and, above all, what we do not know) so far

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.