depends

“The world doesn’t realize how much the AI ​​industry depends on scientists in China” Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia

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When someone as important to technology as Jensen Huang speaks, the bread rises. The CEO of Nvidia is a person who, although he is not known for giving headlines as controversial as his colleague Elon Musk, does say interesting and important things to understand the sector. At the beginning of the year he sat with Time to chat at length about the AI: whether or not it is a bubble, its impact or who is winning this race. In that interview China appeared and the commercial dispute that your company has with the Asian giant. There he made something clear: the world needs China more than the other way around. An example: his armyChina is achieving technological independence while its American counterpart increasingly resorts to Chinese imports. Thank China. When it comes to AI, Huang is clear: the providential weight of Chinese talent in the research and development of artificial intelligence. The CEO of Nvidia affirms that much of the world’s progress in artificial intelligence depends on Chinese researchers, and that the interdependence between the economies of China and the United States is greater than the public perceives. And he sums it up like this: “The idea that the United States can disengage from China is wrong.” Why it is important. Because the position of the boss of the most valuable company in the world, who is also American, collides with the toughest wing of the White House, which every now and then comes with new restrictions on the export of chips to China. If the industry’s reference supplier depends on symbiosis instead of separation, it is a warning to sailors for those who promote those obstacles in the form of laws that seek to limit Chinese access to the most advanced processors. Context. Note that this was not the first time that Jensen Huang argued for Chinese supremacy in AI. Already in May of last year at the Washington Forum claimed that 50% of the world’s Artificial Intelligence researchers are Chinese and that this data should influence “how we think about the game” of technological competition. Months later, in an interview with Citadel Securities collected by Fortuneinsisted that it is a mistake not to let these researchers build AI on American technology and that those policies that seek to harm China often also harm the United States. In detail. In that same interview Huang also made it clear that Taiwan will continue to be the centerpiece of AI chip manufacturing, despite the noise and interest from the White House in relocate production to the United States. In fact, in other interviews he has already clarified that manufacturing in America does not mean abandoning Taiwan, but rather spreading the risk. A complement. After all, You cannot abandon its highly refined production chain overnight as Trump intends. The small print. Jensen Huang has repeated the same speech on several occasions and scenarios, but as CEO of Nvidia we cannot lose sight of a reality: the commercial interest of his company. The Asian giant’s market share was enormous before export controls began, going from 95% to 0%. So Nvidia is the main one interested in defending openness. On the other hand, and although that 50% is real and matches different measurements Regarding talent in AI, this weight measures origin or training, not where these scientists work or what banner they have for the advances they achieve, since there is a large number who carry out their work in American universities and companies. In Xataka | “We chose the wrong technology”: Jensen Huang returns to Japan to acknowledge his debt to Sega 30 years later In Xataka | Jensen Huang enters the Samsung salary controversy: “Workers should earn as much as possible” Cover | Wikipedia and Gary Lerude on Flickr

We believed that stress was only psychological. Science shows that it also depends on the amount of water you drink

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We all know that facing a tight deadline, a job interview, or a heated argument trigger our stress levelsand it is nothing more than a basic evolutionary response. However, science is beginning to see that the intensity with which our body reacts to a stressor depends not only on our psychology, but on something as fundamental as the amount of water we drink throughout the day. It has been investigated. A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology has put on the table the relationship that exists between the general state of hydration and the reactivity of cortisol to acute stress. In other words, a dehydrated body is a body that overreacts to the problems that may arise on a daily basis. Cortisol. To understand this finding, we must first look at the ‘place’ where our stress is regulated, which is the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis. This system is activated when we face a psychosocial threat that culminates in the release of cortisol, which is our main stress-related hormone and can be easily measured through saliva. Logically, cortisol at normal levels is necessary for survival, but the problem arises when it remains high for a long time, which begins to generate many problems in our body and also confronts us with anxiety disorders. Hydration. This is where water comes into play, since dehydration, even mild, is not just having a dry mouth but biologically, it is a major stressor. When we do not drink enough water, our blood volume decreases and its concentration increases. The body perceives this as a threat to homeostasis and responds by releasing hormones to try to compensate for this lack of fluid, such as vasopressin, which causes us to urinate much less to avoid ‘wasting’ water. Threats. What science demonstrates here is that when we subject a person who is poorly hydrated to psychological stress, the body experiences a double threat. Here the nervous system is already dealing with the physiological stress of lack of water and, if we add to that an external stressor, such as a work problem, the cortisol response shoots up much more abruptly than in a well-hydrated person. But we are not facing something completely isolated, but rather there are many studies who have found a relationship between state anxiety and hydration. If we go to the purest physiology, it makes sense, since the brain is made up of 73% water and that is why it is extremely sensitive to a drop in the amount of liquid drunk throughout the day. It is not the same for everyone. Human biology is rarely a simple equation, as the salivary cortisol response to psychosocial stress has high variability between people. Age, sex, coffee consumption, smoking or steroid levels act as modulators of this hormone, for example. However, the state of hydration is now emerging as one of the most easily modified variables by ourselves. We can’t change our age or erase a family problem, but we can make sure that our fluid intake doesn’t make things more difficult for our nervous system. Images | engin akyurt In Xataka | The myth of “two liters of water a day” collapses: a mistake from 1945 that science is now trying to correct

“We rushed with the Taycan. A 911 will never be electric, viability depends on the combustion engine”

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The electric car is suffocating for brands that produce luxury sports cars. The market does not seem to be determined to buy the proposal and companies have been taking steps back in their strategy or have opted for an unexpected path. Porsche is one of them and its CEO, Michael Leiters, is very clear about it. “We rushed”. For Leiters, the Porsche Taycan was “a flagship project and an excellent product” but it arrived early. That is what he defended in a meeting organized by the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport which brought together the CEOs of Mercedes and the Volkswagen and BMW automobile groups, as well as the president of the board of directors of Audi. There, at the round table, Leiters pointed out that the product is good but that the future is not only about the electric car. “It seems that we were too fast with the jump to electric, we will continue investing in this sense but we will not have an electric 911. Viability depends on the combustion engine and the hybrid,” Leiters made clear. What happened to Porsche? The German company is going through a difficult financial moment. In its 2025 income statements a profit margin of 0.2% was reflected. That is to say, Porsche turned on the machines, put its operators to work and moved all its resources and its profit was practically non-existent. An entire year lost. The perfect storm has hit the German company. In China its sales have plummeted because The Porsche Taycan has become outdated and their customers no longer want their combustion cars, while look at the local market. In the United States, tariffs have punished the company so much that It was rumored that they could take part of their production there. And, furthermore, the jump to the electric car is not completely convincing. He porsche taycanalthough renewed, has not regained the traction of its early days. and the Porsche Macanwhich is only sold in purely electric format, is a great car but it seems that the customer is looking for something else. The client. Within the Volkswagen Group, Porsche has a problem with the electric car. Almost all cars within the rest of the group are replaceable by electric cars because they are mobility objects. There are honorable exceptions where the customer would continue paying extra to have a car with a combustion engine but in no case is there such a strong identification as with Porsche. When we get on the Porsche Macan We tried to explain why the car was not working properly. A Porsche Macan is the everyday car for customers who are already within Porsche and a purely electric version for everyday use could fit them. But there is a client who comes new to Porsche for whom electric is not worth it. that person has preferred to pay a premium By the Germans, for the simple fact of enjoying a car with Porsche DNA, they fulfill a dream that seemed unattainable to them. And no matter how good the electric one is, for them the Porsche DNA is inseparable from a combustion engine. In that case, electric is not an option, which leaves out a very important customer base. Expectations satisfied. Porsche has encountered another problem, everything indicates that the electric supercar is not of interest. The Taycan is a great product that sold a lot in the first years but it has deflated over the years. And the thing is that, after the first fever of having the first electric Porsche that everyone is talking about, the balloon has deflated. Lamborghini keeps delaying its first electric car because electric supercars are not receiving the love of the public. Maserati has thrown away billions of euros to cancel cars that were already developed. Mate Rimac confessed that his electric supercars are not selling, although pointed out the policies to promote electric cars as the culprits. That’s why Ferrari seems to have wanted to try its luck with a completely disruptive product and different. Aware that they were not going to please their most loyal customers and that they could not catch those who do not like their aesthetics, whether correct or not, they have ended up taking a third route, no matter how controversial it may be. In the end, the same as always. In his statements, Michael Leiters also made it clear that they did not have the development of an electric Porsche 911 on the table. It makes perfect sense seeing how the Taycan has deflated and the low interest in the Porsche Macan. Completely electrifying its most iconic model and the one most respected by its fans is presented as a leap into the void. And, to begin with, the Porsche 911 is a particular product. Throughout its history it has evolved taking solutions that seemed sacrilege at the time. Air cooling was abandoned and the turbo was introduced. But jumping to a pure electric car seems like an insurmountable red line. Also because batteries add weight and force a redistribution of the masses that threaten break their very particular dynamic. The good thing for Porsche is that the gap that Europe has left for combustion engines will allow them to continue selling its iconic sports car at an even more expensive price. and with The United States taking steps backwards With the electric one, the red carpet is laid out to amortize investments and earn more money. Photo | porsche In Xataka | Electric car skeptics are in luck: the United States has just joined their cause

Experts agree that “the quality of rest depends on whether you go to bed at the time when your body is ready to sleep”

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When you read the question “what time should you go to bed?” He usually waits for a number, a specific time, a recurring pattern to do as the day ends. Bad news. What research has discovered is that the ‘perfect time’ for going to bed is with parents. That is, genetics (chronotype) and a handful of other things. That’s why it’s time to see what the experts say. The time to go to sleep. These days, there are some statements from dr. Celia García Maloneurologist specializing in Sleep Medicine and co-director of the Madrid Clinic CISNe in which she explains that the quality of rest does not depend only on the number of hours. On the contrary, it often depends on sleeping at a time when the body is biologically ready for it. This is interesting because it shows a paradigm shift in global sleep science. That moment matters, yes (but not that much). In 2021, Nikbakhtian and his team reviewed sleep routines of more than 100,000 adults. The interesting thing about this study is that they did not use self-reported responses, but rather what a week of wrist accelerometer data said. Their conclusions were clear: going to bed between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. was associated with a lower cardiovascular incidence. It was bad news for Spain, the European country that takes the longest to go to bed. However, the details are important: it was not a question of ‘the earlier you go to bed the better’ (because going to bed before 10pm was also a problem); It was about finding the appropriate moment for each society, country or culture. And that’s where the surprises begin. Because what we are discovering is that regularity is the key. In this case, the Windred team reviewed data from six years of life of about 60,000 people. Their conclusions were that the most regular quartiles showed between 20% and 48% less mortality from all causes compared to the most irregular ones. This is because, we now believe, genetic variants are associated more with schedule than with duration and quality of the dream. The researchers’ thesis is that when we find a stable time to go to bed, the rest of the pieces begin to organize themselves. What does all this mean? For us mortals who just want to sleep, there are a handful of consequences: There is no magic hour. What we have to do is look for a stable window: if we find a time to go to bed, the rest of the system tends to adapt. However, chronotypes exist. It’s a good idea to find out which one is ours and “negotiate with it.” Take care of your dream. Although we sometimes insist on sleeping at a certain time, we often forget that sleep hygiene (and, above all, light) is one of the most important things to sleep well. Image | Annie Spratt In Xataka | You take some melatonin and fall asleep. It seems like a harmless practice for your health but it is not so.

The world depends on gas to produce food. Paraguay believes it has the definitive solution thanks to the Itaipú dam

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In the midst of a scenario of high tension in the Middle East and threatened trade routes, a project in the heart of South America promises to change the rules of the game for global agriculture. The British company Atome has given the final green light for the construction of Villetaa fertilizer plant in Paraguay valued at 665 million dollars, which will completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels in its production. A question of food safety. As detailed Financial Timesthe fertilizer industry’s dependence on natural gas is an Achilles’ heel for the global economy. Traditionally, most nitrogen fertilizer is produced by combining nitrogen from the air with hydrogen extracted from natural gas. However, Villeta will use renewable electricity to separate hydrogen from water (electrolysis). For Olivier Mussat, CEO of Atome, the project’s focus goes far beyond sustainability. “It’s not an ecological story, it’s actually a food security story,” declared in FT. Mussat’s warning is no small matter, since between a quarter and a third of global nitrogen fertilizer exports pass through the Strait of Hormuz. With the recent conflicts, gas shipments have fallen, raising prices and raising alarms about a possible food crisis. For Latin America, an agro-export power but highly dependent on imported fertilizers, the project works as a “structural hedge” against geopolitical volatility. The financial milestone that Wall Street observes. Atome managed to close a financing package that includes $420 million in debt and $245 million in equity. This backing comes from development lenders of the caliber of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB), along with specialist hydrogen investment fund Hy24. “We have shown that you can actually close and finance a green fertilizer facility on an industrial scale. It has never been done before,” Mussat said. For his part, Pierre-Etienne Franc, executive director of Hy24, explained to the press that having cheap and non-fossil energy sources offers “a route to green fertilizer that will be localized”, making the industry independent of raw material prices dictated by natural gas. The technical feasibility. Green hydrogen has historically been too expensive to compete with its fossil counterpart. However, Paraguay’s competitive advantage changes the equation. The Villeta plant will operate with electrolyzers large-scale powered by the Itaipú hydroelectric dam (shared between Paraguay and Brazil). According to the company’s projections, electricity costs will be just under $30 per megawatt-hour under a long-term agreement. This technical and economic feasibility was enough to convince the Norwegian fertilizer giant, Yara International, to sign a binding contract of 10 years to purchase the entire production of the plant, estimated at around 260,000 tons per year, a detail exhaustively covered by the industrial press. The view from Asunción. For decades, Paraguay has exported its surplus energy generated in Itaipú to its neighbors, Brazil and Argentina, at very low prices. For the local pressAtome’s installation represents a historic paradigm shift. It means taking that clean energy and using it within the national territory to generate local jobs and produce a good with high added value. Although Villeta will represent less than 1% of the global nitrogen fertilizer market when it begins production in 2029, its backers and market observers agree on something fundamental: if the Paraguayan model works, it could become the definitive template for freeing global agriculture from its dependence on fossil fuels. Image | Atome Xataka | We are wasting a valuable resource: urine is helping solve the fertilizer crisis

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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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