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The Fujian is officially China’s largest power catapult. Beijing already has a button to challenge the US Navy

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It has been almost two years since China ended its long-awaited Fujian aircraft carrierits largest warship with cutting-edge technology for the nation. From then until now it has been going through different scenarios of tests and tests that will confirm reliability of what should be the spearhead for Beijing to compete in the same league as the United States. That day has already arrived. The naval power of the 21st century. China has made official the entry into service of Fujian, its first aircraft carrier with electromagnetic catapultsa milestone that marks a qualitative leap in the country’s naval ambition and in their direct rivalry with the United States. In a ceremony held in the port of Sanya, on the island of Hainan, President Xi Jinping performed the symbolic gesture of pressing the launch button from the ship’s control bubble, in an act that state propaganda presented as the beginning of a new era for the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Projection and vulnerability. With 80,000 tons displacement, 300 meters in length and capacity to operate nearly 60 aircraft, the Fujian becomes the jewel of the Chinese fleet, the third in service after from Liaoning and the Shandong. Its distinctive feature is the electromagnetic catapultsan aircraft launch system similar to the American EMALS that only equips one other ship in the world: the USS Gerald R. Ford. China has thus jumped directly from aircraft carriers with a “ski jump” ramp to a generation of electromagnetic propulsion directed personally, according to Beijing, by Xi. This technical advance has clear strategic implications: improves the rate of departures, reduces wear and tear on aircraft and allows the operation of drones or lighter devices, opening the door to a more flexible and modern on-board aviation. Fujian The jump and the dimension. The Fujian represents more than just a technical improvement: it is the first completely designed and built in Chinafree of the Soviet legacy that conditioned the previous ones. The Liaoning was originally a ukrainian helmet unfinished work of the eighties and the Shandong su national derivativeboth with STOBAR systems short takeoff. With Fujian, China abandons that past and exhibits its technological maturity, especially in a context of industrial rivalry with the United States, whose own EMALS program has faced years of failures and cost overruns. In contrast to the Gerald R. Ford problemsXi’s speech and the staging of the ceremony convey a message of effectiveness and national pride: that of a power capable of manufacturing its own cutting-edge ships while the adversary hesitates. The choice of the port of Hainan was also not accidental. from there, China control access to the South Sea and projects its influence towards the western Pacific and the Taiwan Strait. On that board, the Fujian is not just a ship, but a political statement about Beijing’s ability to contest global maritime dominance. Fujian Target of the future. However, the relevance of these steel colossi coexists with a paradox. While the great powers continue to invest billions in building them, the conflict in Ukraine has shown that he size no longer guarantees invulnerability. With low-cost naval drones, Ukraine has managed to disable much of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, inflicting a “functional defeat” without possessing a single aircraft carrier. The contrast is eloquent: asymmetric warfare reduces the effectiveness of the most expensive conventional weapons, but not their strategic value. In the case of China and the United States, aircraft carriers maintain their role as projection and deterrence instrumentsuseful for both combat operations and coercive diplomacy. Make fear. Washington continues to use them as pressure tool geopolitics: Donald Trump himself ordered the deployment of the Gerald R. Ford against Venezuela as a symbolic warning to the Nicolás Maduro regime. The scene, with an aircraft carrier escorted by four destroyers and armed with 70 aircraft, illustrates the extent to which these ships continue to be armed ambassadors of the superpowers, beyond their debatable military profitability. Global deterrence. Modern navies are aware that aircraft carriers are both a symbol like a target. During the Cold War, it was estimated that twelve conventional missiles to sink a super aircraft carrier. In 2005, the experimental sinking of the USS America required four weeks of sustained attacks, confirming its structural resilience, but also its exposure. In a scenario saturated with hypersonic missiles, swarms of drones and long-range anti-ship systems, its survival in real combat is increasingly uncertain. However, no other platform offers the combination of mobility, air capacity and logistical autonomy that an aircraft carrier provides. That is why China, despite investing in missiles to repel a US fleet off its coast, considers these ships essential for its own global ambitions. As pointed out analyst Nick Childsfrom the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Beijing understands them as an indispensable tool to project influence and support an eventual operation on Taiwan. Geopolitics of steel. we have been counting: the rise of Fujian is part of a broader strategy of naval expansion that has turned Chinese shipyards into the most productive on the planet. The country’s surface and submarine fleet is growing at a pace the United States can no longer match, and each new vessel reinforces the narrative of industrial self-sufficiency that Xi Jinping presents as an emblem. of the “national renaissance”. Facing eleven US aircraft carriers (ten nuclear and one conventionally powered), China has threebut with plans to build at least a nuclear one, the future Type 004which could directly rival the Fords of the US Navy. Unlike Russia, whose only aircraft carrier, the aging Admiral Kuznetsovhas been out of service for years and is headed for scrapping, China and the United States are today the only powers capable to sustain fleets with great oceanic projection. Europe, for its part, maintains a symbolic presence: the United Kingdom uses its aircraft carriers Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales on diplomatic or training missions, while France prepares its new future-generation nuclear aircraft carrier. Century of the seas and fragility. If you like, Fujian also symbolizes the meeting point … Read more

Archaeologists have been fascinated by the largest temple in the Mayan world for years. Now we know that it is a map of the cosmos

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Our knowledge about the first Mesoamericans they just widened. And in a big way. A team led by professors from the University of Arizona has published a study with new revelations about Aguada Phoenixa site located east of the state of Tabasco, Mexico, near the border with Guatemala. Said like that, it may not seem like a big deal, but Aguada Fénix is ​​not just any place. When it was discovered, about five years ago, showed up as “the largest and oldest Mayan monument ever discovered.” Now we know that he also had some surprises in store for us. What is Aguada Fénix? To answer that question we have to go back a few years, to 2017, when with the help of lidar technology A team led by two professors from the University of Arizona (UA), Takeshi Inomata and Daniela Triadan, identified an ancient monument that until then had gone unnoticed in the state of Tabasco, very close to Guatemala. The laser beams, capable of passing through tree canopies and revealing three-dimensional shapes, showed nothing more nor less than a monument of more than 1,400 meters long, about 400 wide and between 9 and 15 high. That’s right from the start, because if you go beyond the central platform the set occupies much more spacewith roads and enormous pipelines connected to a nearby lagoon. Why is it important? Because of its reach. And historical relevance. When the archaeologists began to excavate and resorted to radiocarbon dating, they had another surprise: the complex had been built between the years 1000 and 800 BC, which was older than the archaeological site of Ceibalin Guatemala, considered the oldest ceremonial center. Aguada Fénix therefore left a double surprise for the researchers, as confirmed in 2020when announcing the discovery, the University of Arizona itself: not only was previous Ceibal, but stood out in size. In fact, it became the “largest known monument in Mayan history”, far surpassing the pyramids and palaces built during subsequent centuries. And why is it news now? Because researchers have not been content with presenting Aguada Fénix to the world. Over the last few years They have continued investigatingexpanding our knowledge of a complex that actually extends far beyond the central platform and the nine roads initially identified. Thanks to tools such as LIDAR, experts have found out that it extends kilometers further and detected an extensive hydraulic system with channels 35 meters wide and five meters deep with a dam. Have they discovered anything else? Yes. To begin with, Aguada Fénix probably served as a very special ceremonial center, a “cosmogram” that represented the order of the universe as its creators understood it. During the excavations they discovered a cross-shaped well in which they recovered ceremonial artifacts, pieces that offer us “unprecedented information about the first Mayan rituals.” To be more precise, they found jade axes and ornaments showing a crocodile, a bird and a woman giving birth. “It is like a model of the cosmos. They thought that it is ordered according to this cruciform pattern and that this is linked to the order of time,” adds Inomata. Ritual decorations? Not only that. When they reached the bottom of the pit, the researchers located another smaller cruciform structure with a new surprise. There they found mineral pigments, mounds of blue, green and yellow tones that mark cardinal points. “We knew that there are colors linked to directions, and that is important for all Mesoamerican peoples, even the Native American peoples of North America,” comments Inomata. “But we’ve never had pigments arranged this way. This is the first case where we found them associated with each specific direction. It was exciting.” And what were they doing there? Archaeologists believe that the different pigments and other materials were arranged as an offering and then covered with sand and earth. They also verified that radiocarbon dating dates them to around 900-845 BC. With all this data on the table, they do not rule out that people later returned to the monument to perform rituals and deposit objects. Another revealing fact is that the central axis of the Aguada Fénix monument seems to align with the sunrise on two very specific dates: October 17 and February 24, 130 days apart, which suggests to experts that it represented half of the Mesoamerican ritual cycle of 260 days. Inomata remembers that it would not be exceptional. The layout would agree with that of other Mayan sites. Why is it so relevant? Beyond the scope of the site itself, the new findings are relevant for what they tell us about the ancient inhabitants of the region. For a start, remember from the UAdebunks the old theory that Mesoamericans grew gradually and dedicated themselves to building increasingly larger settlements until they reached Tikal in Guatemala or Teotihuacán in central Mexico. Aguada Fénix is ​​long before the heyday of both enclaves, which does not mean that it is “as big or even bigger than them.” “What we are discovering is that there was a ‘big bang’ of construction at the beginning of 1,000 BC that no one really knew about,” reflects Inomata. With the discovery of the state of Tabasco it is confirmed that “from the beginning” there was large-scale planning and construction. Aguada Fénix is ​​so old in fact and anticipates so much of the Mayan apogee (around the 3rd-10th centuries AD) that experts are not sure whether its builders spoke Mayan languages. In any case they do admit “a strong cultural continuity” with later communities. How the hell did they build it? That is another of the most suggestive conclusions of the study that Inmoata and his colleagues have published in Science Advances. In it they slip a curious theory: although it is known that other enclaves, such as Tikal, in Guatemala, were governed by powerful monarchs, in the case of Aguada Fénix there are no indications that speak of powerful rulers with the ability to force their subjects to work. That does not mean … Read more

Carratraca was a small town in Malaga with 800 inhabitants. Now it will be the largest natural theme park in Europe

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Carratraca is a small town in Malaga that does not reach the 800 neighbors. Yeah ‘Evolution Park’ It meets its objectives in a short time, however, it will have a unique facility in Spain and an international reference: a theme park dedicated to nature that (among many other claims) wants to be equipped with the longest aquarium in the world and the largest aviary in the country. Along the way, by the way, it aspires to mobilize a million-dollar investment and generate a volume of employment that is equivalent to 45% of the entire population of Carratraca. One figure: 786. They are the neighbors who (according to the INE) are registered in carratracaa small municipality in the Guadalteba regionprovince of Malaga. There, in the heart of the Sierra del Agua, is where an ambitious project has begun to take shape that aspires to become a benchmark beyond Malaga, Andalusia or even Spain: Evolution Parka theme park dedicated to nature that, according to the data outlined by the Board, it will have the longest aquarium in the world and the largest aviary in the country, among other attractions. What exactly will you offer? The regional government presents it as “a nature theme park”, a large facility located on the slopes of the Sierra de Aguas and Sierra Blanquilla that aspires to become into “a reference center for sustainable tourism”. That is at least the philosophy’s rhetoric. If we look for specific details, it comes with reviewing the Andalusian newspaper archives. After all, the project is not new: takes years on the table, although its future seems to have cleared up in recent months thanks to the endorsement administrative. Animals, cabins… and a ‘mega aquarium’. Although the latest What has emerged from the park is that it will have “the longest aquarium in the world”, the largest aviary in Spain, a natural history museum, planetarium and 360º cinema. The Andalusian press has been making some progress for some time. keys of the project. For example, it will have animals, although it will move away from the traditional concept of a zoo. There is who points In fact, it will also act as a wildlife rescue center, recreate habitats and be the biggest theme park of the nature of Europe. In April SOUTH pointed out that the enclosure will include themed accommodation (such as African-style cabins), a museum with replicas of extinct animals made by paleoartists, a simulator type ‘Flying Theater’ or a train that will allow visitors to move around the enclosures and observe the animals safely. Regarding the aquarium, he pointed out that it will measure about 80 meters long. All in one large farm of the Sierra del Agua located just four kilometers from the urban center of Carratraca and connected through the A-354 highway. The town is located about an hour’s drive from the center of Malaga. Another figure: 10 million. Although the initiative seems to have aroused enthusiasm in the Board and the City Council, in reality it is a private proposal which will start with an investment of three million of euros and will end up mobilizing around 10 million. Behind is Ecological and Recreational Estate Arroyo las Cañas 2013. The diary SOUTH clarify that to give shape to the project, a land of around 200 hectares was chosen within the municipality of Carratraca and that the idea (at least today) is to have the project ready in four years. “It’s not just sun and beach”. If the future park is in the news today, it is because its promoters have managed to go beyond paper and infographics. The laying of the first stone of Evolution Park was celebrated on Thursday, a symbolic ceremony which, however, is interesting for two reasons: first because it confirms that the project is alive; second, because it has demonstrated its institutional support. The Minister of Tourism, Arturo Bernal, attended the event, for example, and highlighted that the complex “will generate an economic and social impact” that will make the small Malaga town “a new benchmark for nature tourism.” 350 jobs. A curious fact about Evolution Park is that it aspires to generate a volume of jobs that is equivalent to almost half of the population of Carratraca (780 residents), as it was responsible for underline yesterday the Junta de Andalucía. “This unique project in Europe, with a private investment of 10 million, will promote the creation of more than 350 direct and indirect jobs,” celebrated the leader, who insisted that Evolution Park will help diversify the tourist offer of the entire province. “Projects like this are the best proof of why Andalusia is a leading and reference destination. A destination that is not only sun and sand, but also mountains, culture, heritage, sustainability and life.” Images | Andalusia Tourism, Ian Schneider (Unsplash) and Ministry of Tourism and Foreign Andalusia (X) In Xataka | The coast of Huelva has been touristed for decades. Now one of its last virgin areas will become a megaurbanization

YouTube is ready to launch the largest video reconstruction project in history. And yes, it will use AI

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YouTube was born in 2005 and, since then, it has become the largest audiovisual archive in recent history. For years, millions of users uploaded videos in 240p or 480p because that was what the cameras, connections and devices of the moment allowed. This material does not lose value because it has low resolution: there are extraordinary pieces that continue to be a reference. But today the screens are better, the sound matters more and that difference is noticeable. So now comes an attempt to update that experience without erasing the past. An ocean of videos. The YouTube catalog is not large: it is huge. The figures published by electroiq put the total at around 4.3 billion videos in 2025, after a stage in which the Shorts format It pushed the increases to levels never seen before. About 800 million were added in 2023 alone. That momentum has tempered, in part because of controls on repetitive content and a lower craze for short clips, but the trend remains. If the current pace continues, the service could surpass 10 billion videos before 2030. YouTube begins to “reconstruct” its videos. YouTube has announced that will begin to automatically improve videos uploaded in resolutions between 240p and 720p, raising them to HD quality using artificial intelligence. The process does not delete the original files or modify the base video: it is an alternative version visible under the “super resolution” label. Creators will be able to decide if they want it to be applied and viewers will retain the option to view the content in its original resolution. It is a measure that seeks to modernize the archive without altering its authenticity. Lens: 4K. The roadmap is clear. After starting with videos below 1080p, YouTube wants automatic enhancement also reach 4K resolutions “in the short term,” according to its announcement. To support that jump, heavier uploads are already being tested with some creators and thumbnails will also be able to reach 4K, thanks to the extension of the file limit from 2 MB to 50 MB. Everything points to an attempt by the platform to ensure that both the content and its presentation are at the level of current panels. The audio also goes up a notch. The modernization of the catalog does not stop at the visual. YouTube has also introduced automatic audio enhancements that adjust the mix and maintain a more consistent volume between different scenes. These automatic improvements are grouped under the “Stable volume“, which the viewer can activate or deactivate according to their preference. With this, the company seeks to prevent sound jumps from breaking the experience, something common in old videos or recordings with basic equipment. It will not be for all videos. YouTube clarifies that these improvements will not be applied indiscriminately. They will only affect videos uploaded in low resolution that have not been previously remastered to 1080p or higher. Additionally, as we already mentioned, creators can decide from YouTube Studio whether they want the platform to apply visual or audio enhancements to their future uploads. It is a measure that seeks to avoid unwanted distortions and give room to those who prefer to keep their content exactly as it was published. If these enhancements are disabled for the channel, viewers may not be able to use features such as “Stable volume” or “Super resolution” on that content. Upscaling no longer lives on your TV. Many televisions include their own systems to improve the image, but YouTube’s approach is different. Instead of applying upscaling on the device, the platform does it in the cloud, allowing it to process millions of videos consistently without depending on the user’s hardware. Additionally, the viewer can choose between the original playback or the enhanced version from the quality menu, with an option visible and explicit in the interface. Catalog, discovery, legacy. For creators, this update has an immediate benefit: they don’t need to re-upload old videos to make them look better on current screens. The file remains intact and the enhancement is applied as an additional layer, respecting the original. This can help valuable pieces from years ago gain presence, without altering their essence. The viewer, for their part, receives a more homogeneous experience and the possibility of choosing how to view each content. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 | CardMapr In Xataka | NVIDIA has risen to the top for its AI data centers. Your next big leap: cars

The largest Primark store in Spain is a money-making machine. It is so profitable that even Amancio Ortega makes money with it

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The Primark flagship store on Madrid’s Gran Vía is not only a place to buy cheap clothes, but it has become a monument in the city, both for its size and for the historic building that houses it. The flagship store of the Irish clothing brand has just completed its tenth anniversary active and leaves us with some really interesting figures and data. One of the most curious facts is who he is. really your home. It’s almost a cosmic joke. A historical and popular monument. According to data Provided by the brand itself, the Primark store on Gran Vía has a total area of ​​12,500 square meters, making it the largest of the group in Spain and possibly one of the largest in the world. With more than five million visitors a year, it is one of the most visited commercial spaces in Spain and a key point of Madrid commerce. It is located in the Paris Building, an emblematic building designed in 1924, notable not only for its architecture, but for its artistic decoration, represented by its majestic imperial staircase and its impressive glass dome. On their roofs it rages an epic battle between figures from Greek mythology: Diana the Huntress observes from the building opposite the fight to the death between the Phoenix sent by Zeus to punish Endymion, Diana’s lover. He testimony of that fight It is reflected in the form of two lost arrows of Diana, which from the sidewalk welcome visitors at the main entrance of the store. This combination of history, architecture and grandeur makes the store an authentic “monument” on Madrid’s Gran Vía. Official data and operating figures. According to the study data carried out by the consulting firm AFI on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the storearound 1,000 people of 28 nationalities work there, generating 500 indirect jobs through suppliers and additional services. At an economic level, the store contributed 83 million euros in 2024 to the economy as a whole, of which 42 million euros corresponded to taxes and social contributions. To understand the economic dimension of this economic mastodon, it is enough to say that Primark’s enormous space contributes more than 10 million euros annually to the local Gross Domestic Product through its operations alone. The “unofficial data.” Jaime PlaCEO of SUOP, has started a series of videos in the TikTok profile of the teleco, which details data and figures of emblematic buildings such as the Bernabéu, the Madrid airport or, of course, the Primark megastore. Between data and estimates from the video that the businessman dedicates to this location, it is noted that the salaries of the employees who work in the store amount to approximately 2 million euros, while cleaning, security and insurance services represent a monthly expense of 100,000 euros. Added to this are 20,000 euros per month in electricity and water supplies. All this, together with the merchandise on display on its shelves adds up to an approximate cost of 11.7 million per month. The “cosmic joke”: rent. According to the data provided by Pla, among these monthly expenses, 1.8 million euros are allocated to pay the rent for the building. This point is especially striking because the building where the store is located is owned by Amancio Ortega. It is ironic that the founder from Inditex, is collecting rent of the most important store of its main rival in the sector of retail textile. Amancio Ortega, through Pontegadea, bought the Paris Building to Drago Real Estate Partners in 2015, just before the store opened to the public. It is not known exactly how much Pontegadea paid for him, but the starting price of the operation was 400 million euros. Pontegadea: the “premium” landlord. Amancio Ortega founded Pontegadea with the intention of turning into profitable investments the dividends that its founder receives each year for 59.294% of Inditex shares. with those billionaire annual dividendsPontegadea has become Amancio Ortega’s second empire Thanks to your strategic real estate investmentsOrtega has become in the home from companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Spotify and, as if it were a cosmic joke, also from Primark, charging a millionaire rent to the main rival of the company that made him a millionaire. In Xataka | In his efforts to diversify investments, Amancio Ortega takes a new twist: becoming a port authority Image | Primark, GTRES

The largest collection of malformations in Spain is in Madrid. And they are going to close it

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Hidden in the bowels of the Complutense University of Madrid, half a thousand plastinated animals with congenital anomalies wait patiently for time, lack of funds and laziness to send them to a lost warehouse by the hand of God. More than 25 years of work that are about to be lost. A very very strange place. As Manuel Ansede told in El PaísNieves Martín and Luis Avedillo (two researchers from the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the UCM) have been collecting all types of animals with malformations for a quarter of a century. However, the lack of funds and the increasingly demanding requirements requested by the administration mean that the collection is on the verge of closing. The denial of the latest subsidies (of barely 23,000 euros) means that the situation is beginning to be unsustainable. And it is something very useful. Animal and human malformations are highly comparable, making the 500 specimens a very interesting resource for teratology, embryology and fetal medicine. We must not forget that, according to the WHO, Every year around 240,000 neonatal deaths are due to these types of problems and, despite all the progress we have made, we know too little. In fact, that denied grant of 23,000 sought to turn the collection into a reference center for these topics and develop a “malformopedia” that would complete the wonderful work that, for decades, the people of the Spanish Collaborative Study of Genetic Maformations coordinated by the Carlos III Health Institute. Is it really a problem? At the end of the day, without a stable and well-stocked repository, what we are losing is comparative material to study in depth embryological hypotheses and the mechanisms behind birth defects. We lose the ability to go further. Perhaps the best example is public health. By successfully integrating cases of congenital malformations (especially those in pigs) with human surveillance, we could accelerate the identification of signals about environmental or teratogenic exposures (and improve clinical guidelines). It is not an isolated event. And that’s the worst. The Olavide Museum (historical collection of ‘moulages’ – waxes – dermatological) or the long-awaited Cajal Museum (which never quite come true) are clear examples of the problems that Spanish scientific heritage has. While the Vrolik museum in Amsterdam or the Mütter of Philadelphia lead the international conversation in teratology, genetic research and the most recent ethical debates, Spain is unable to find 23,000 euros to adapt the facilities of its reference collection to current regulations. It is still a metaphor for the state of science in the country. Image | Philippe Wagneur

The two largest travel agencies in Spain fight to sell trips to Disney. This is the business of children’s dreams

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Ávoris has lost the exclusivity it maintained in Spain to market trips to the Disney parks. El Corte Inglés Travel obtained authorization in May to distribute these packages through its Smytravel platform, breaking a monopoly that allowed its great rival to consolidate its leadership in the ranking of Spanish travel agencies. Now both giants compete directly for the same pie: the 500 independent agencies integrated into Traveltool and the thousands of Spanish families who ask about the price of a trip to Disney every year. Why is it important. Disney is not just another product: it is the star product of family tourism in Spain (and increasingly even for adults without children). Its parks received 142 million visitors in 2024, almost doubling its closest competitor, and Disneyland Paris is the loose leader. This trip is sold almost exclusively through physical agencies, generates high margins and attracts families who are especially willing to spend a lot of money to make their children’s dreams come true. Whoever controls Disney controls a substantial part of the family travel business. The background. The exclusivity of Ávoris has never pleased its competitors: For years, agencies that wanted to sell Disney had to resort to the group’s tour operators: LePlan and Touring Club. That made Ávoris the inevitable intermediary of a business with guaranteed demand. This privileged situation used to generate recurring complaints in the sector for what they considered unjustified favorable treatment. Yes, but. Ávoris has not sat idly by. It has launched improvements to the LePlan and Touring Club platforms with a new centralized page that offers training, inspirational content and tools to design personalized Disney experiences. The answer comes weeks after Tourmundial (the brand of El Corte Inglés) announce combined packages to Disneyland Paris with accommodation, transportation, tickets and complementary services. Between the lines. This trade war points to something deeper in Spanish society: the touristification of childhood. Going to Disney has become an almost obligatory milestone, a natural extension of the first communion as a rite of passage and as an experience that “must be lived.” Not taking your children to see Mickey and company can generate a feeling of social exclusion, as if the experience were an essential requirement for a complete childhood. So agencies don’t just sell trips, they sell the feeling of tranquility from meeting social expectations and the fulfillment of the child. In Xataka | The incredible story of the couple who lived at Disneyland for 15 years without the visitors realizing it Featured image | Capricorn song

In 2018 it was a countryside on the outskirts of Chongqing. In 2025 it will be the largest train station in the world

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On June 27, China inaugurated the Chongqing East Railway Station, officially the largest railway terminal on the planet. With 1.22 million square metersThe equivalent of 170 football fields, this colossus is five times the size of New York’s iconic Grand Central. The project cost around 6.7 billion euros to materialize. In addition to its magnitude, this megastructure also has a series of very interesting characteristics that we are going to tell you about below. A titanic project in record time. Work officially began in November 2018, but satellite images shared by China Perspective on social networks show how between 2023 and 2025 the project went from being a vacant lot to a fully functional station. In fact, before work began in 2018, the area was a complete valley. The terminal opened to the public last June and already moves up to 16,000 passengers per hour. Click on the image to go to the post In addition to a station, a strategic node. Located in the Nan’an district, on the outskirts of Chongqing (a megacity in southwest China), the station has 15 platforms and 29 tracks. It is designed like a central axis within the national railway network known as “Ocho Verticales y Ocho Horizontales”, which connects the western and eastern regions of the country. From here, travelers can reach Beijing, Shanghai or Guangzhou in just six or eight hours. It also serves as a gateway to cities such as Chengdu, Wuhan or Kunming in times ranging from one to three hours. Image: Reddit Design inspired by the region. Unlike some of the stations we have in Europe, with a somewhat more austere design, Chongqing East boasts an aesthetic with cultural identityas well as functionality. The columns imitate the huangjue trees, typical of the area; the vents are shaped like flowers, and the welcome signs are designed like bamboo scrolls. Its glass ceiling also stands out, offering a good amount of natural light to the main room. A model of urban development. The station environment is conceived as a transit-oriented development zone, which will include hotels, offices, shopping centers and cultural facilities. In this way, the extensive land that existed before has now not only become a large station, but a whole new urban district. A way of doing things already classic in China. What’s coming Chongqing East is not finished, as it is only the beginning of an even more ambitious railway network. High-speed lines such as Zhengyu and Yukun are under construction and will further reinforce the station’s role as a continental hub. China has been showing us for decades how efficient its mega-constructions are, which go from record to record, as in the case of this station. Cover image | Yi Cheng (shared by China Perspective) In Xataka | While half the world debates and makes promises about nuclear energy, only one country is keeping them: China

Europe has done the only thing it could do to compete with SpaceX and China in space: merge its largest companies

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Europe has grown tired of watching from the sidelines how SpaceX and, increasingly, Chinaredefine the rules of the game in space. The continent’s response was inevitable: a historic fusion. The three European aerospace giants, Airbus, Leonardo and Thales, have signed a memorandum of understanding to combine its spatial divisions into a single, colossal enterprise. Merge or die. This is not news that we break every day. It is the most ambitious move in the European aerospace industry since the creation of the MBDA missile consortium in 2001. And at the same time, it is not an offensive move, but a strategic survival maneuver. Given the agility of reusable rockets and Elon Musk’s megaconstellations, the fragmentation of Europe had become an unsustainable burden. Now, the plan is to create a European champion with the critical mass necessary to at least be able to compete. A colossus about to be born. The agreement, which It’s been brewing for months. under the code name “Project Bromo”, it will give rise to a new company that, if approved by regulators, could be operational in 2027. The figures used give an idea of ​​the scale of the operation: a combined annual turnover of 6.5 billion euros, and nearly 25,000 employees spread throughout Europe. Airbus will have the majority stake with 35%, while the Italian Leonardo and the French Thales will share the rest almost equally, with 32.5% each. Despite the majority of Airbus, the government of the new colossus will be “balanced” and under joint control, as reported by the companies. What does each one contribute? Each partner will contribute his crown jewels in the space sector. Airbus will contribute with its Space Systems and Digital Space businesses. Leonardo will bring its Space Division to the table, including its valuable stakes in Telespazio and Thales Alenia Space. Thales will mainly contribute its shares in those same joint ventures (Thales Alenia Space and Telespazio) and Thales SESO. Why it was inevitable. The harsh reality is that Europe was falling behind, and very quickly. SpaceX’s disruption has been brutal, especially on two fronts: launch and satellites. While Europe continues recovering lost ground With the development of its Ariane rockets, Elon Musk’s company has not only radically lowered the cost of putting something into orbit, but has flooded the sky with its Starlink constellation and its military version, Starshield. Beating SpaceX is no longer possible. On October 19, the company surpassed a staggering number of 10,000 Starlink satellites launched in just over 300 launches of the Falcon 9 rocket. This network of small satellites has cannibalized the traditional market for large and expensive geostationary satellites, the pillar on which the business of European companies was based. The only thing Europe can do, and what this new giant is destined to do, is recover its technological sovereignty in space and, with it, its security. Image | Airbus In Xataka | “We are the company that has developed an orbital rocket the fastest”: PLD Space, one step away from making history from Spain

is that they are the largest in Andalusia

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The speleology It is a fascinating activity. This discipline mixes sports exploration with scientific study and constantly reminds us that we can continue discovering things from our past. Recently, we have found treasuresfurther cave paintings and clues about the arrival of man to Mallorca. The latest has been a brutal underground connection in Malaga. And officially they are the largest caves in Andalusia. Historical connection. It was last September 26 of this year when the Underground Explorations Group of the Malaga Hiking Society confirmed what had been suspected for years: Sima Nevero and the Sima Aire They were physically connected. These are two cavities that are about 340 meters apart in a straight line, but of course, that distance is if we create an artificial tunnel. Nature is somewhat more complex. Let the numbers speak. This confirmation has given rise to the birth of the Nevero-Aire Complex, an underground system that, right now, is about 26,445 meters with a drop of 955 meters. These impressive figures make it one of the most extensive underground systems in Spain and the largest caves in Andalusia. Having discovered this cconnection between the chasms It is an achievement, but it is really not that strange if we take into account that the Sierra de las Nievesto which they belong, is an enormous karst system that extends for more than 12,000 hectares. Three decades of exploration. The carbonate terrain is very sensitive to erosion by rainwater, which favors the creation of underground networks formed by galleries and wells. And it has not been found by chance: in recent years, explorers have dedicated themselves to surveying and studying the cavities, looking for that connection between the chasms, something that was suspected. for more than 30 years. It was in the 80s when curiosity about these galleries began. At that time, the Sima del Nevero was a cavity barely 15 meters deep, but its study confirmed that it reached 755 meters. That of the Aire, for its part, sank to a depth of 724 meters and the clues that the speleologists followed pointed to that physical connection between the two. path ahead. As we say, although it is now that the connection to obtain those 26,445 meters of galleries has been confirmed, it is estimated that there is much more that we still do not know. So much so that researchers hope that it will be integrated with the Cueva del Agua and other systems, reaching a total of more than 50 kilometers of galleries. If so, the Sierra de las Nieves would go from being the largest cave system in Andalusia to being one of the largest underground systems in all of Europe, rubbing shoulders on the list with the Muotathal swiss or Alto del Tejuelo in Cantabria, both surrounding 213 kilometers of interconnected caves. All far, yes, from the more than 590 underground kilometers of the ‘Colossal Cave’ in Kentucky. Heritage. Aside from the records, it is interesting that we continue to discover new developments in both underwater and terrestrial exploration due to the valuable information on the geological, hydrological and climatic processes that they can provide. In this context, this information dates back millions of years and is another “medal” for a system that is already a National Park and UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is evident that this is a great addition to the underground geological heritage of Andalusia, and now it only remains to be seen how many more connections speleologists will be able to add in future expeditions and research. In fact, the intention is to continue exploring. Rogelio Ferrer is a member of the GES and has commented that the discovery has been like “opening the pandora’s box“, but the next step is to raise more money, since expeditions like this “require a significant investment that is beyond our reach.” For the moment, and as they point out researchers and the Commonwealth of Municipalities of the area, is that the Sierra de las Nieves “is not only beauty on the surface: also in depth, geological history and an example of commitment to science.” Images | David Garcia Rodriguez, Sierra de las Nieves (Miguel Benitez) In Xataka | The largest vertical well in Spain is in Cantabria: so deep that it takes 12 seconds for a stone to hit the bottom

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