Political

Returning to the Moon before 2030 begins to seem like a political fantasy

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This same week we learned that the Artemis II mission, which was to put humans around the Moon again, it had to be delayed. The old ghosts of the space program, as it is the complexity of liquid hydrogenhas once again been a blow to NASA, which is increasingly closer to SpaceX to delegate part of its space missions. Hydrogen as a cursed inheritance. As a reminder, all the problems with Artemis II have arisen during the general refueling test, since it had to be stopped when a leak was detected in the hydrogen fuel lines. For fans of the show, this sounds awfully familiar. They are faults traced to which The Artemis I mission has already suffered and that seem inherited from the Space Shuttle era. Liquid hydrogen, being the smallest molecule in existence, has an astonishing ease of escape through the slightest imperfection, a situation that has been recently aggravated by the extreme cold on test platforms. The dependence on SpaceX. While the SLS rocket shows signs of technical and budgetary fatigue, with Boeing threatening staff reductions amid this crisisNASA is forced to pivot increasingly toward the private sector. This is where SpaceX meets with open arms. The current plan is complex: the SLS must put Orion capsule in orbitwhich will then be coupled with the SpaceX human landing system (HLS) to go down to the lunar surface. However, the SLS delays put at risk the entire chain of missions that come after such as Artemis III that could go until 2028. It has its challenges. But SpaceX is not completely perfect, since for the Starship HLS to reach the Moon, it requires an orbital resupply maneuver that could involve up to 12 prior tanker flightsan unprecedented logistical complexity. Although Starship also faces its own challenges and delays, different sources indicate that is the only lander contracted with real capacity to operate before 2030. Although NASA has opened the door to Blue Origin for later missions seeking to diversify, today, without SpaceX, the lunar rhythm would collapse. Until exhaustion. While SLS struggles to overcome basic leaks, SpaceX is following its “break things to learn fast” philosophy. By the end of 2025, the company completed its eleventh test flightachieving a key milestone: the smooth and controlled splashdown of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean and the successful restart of the Raptor engines in a vacuum. This flight marked the end of the “V2” era. Now, SpaceX transitions to Starship V3, an even larger and more capable beast, designed specifically to meet Artemis’ payload requirements. But introducing a new vehicle involves new risks and time-consuming certifications. More than a rocket. We often forget that the Starship HLS is not just a transport vehicle; It will be the “home” of the astronauts on the lunar surface for a week, which further marks this dependence. Although it does not stop here, since SpaceX has completed SpaceX recently completed 49 crucial contract milestones for NASA that go beyond propulsion, including life support that will keep the astronauts alive. Although they have also managed to validate the system for the descent of the crew on the moon or the Raptor engines that have demonstrated their ability to ignite after being exposed to the deep cold of space. Dependency is a problem. With the current data on the table, the optimism of 2025 has evaporated, delaying the date of the different missions to return to the Moon. And although the SLS is currently a bottleneck, the immense complexity of the Starship operation, which requires an almost weekly launch chain, is the real wall against which Washington’s political dates crash. Images | SpaceX In Xataka |

China has been writing an endless novel about how to overtake Europe for 16 years, and it has become a political weapon

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Somewhere on the Chinese internet there is a science fiction novel which has been written since 2009 and will probably never end. It is titled ‘Illumine Lingao’ (临高启明, translatable as “The Morning Star of Lingao”) and accumulates millions of words distributed over thousands of chapters. It does not have a single author: it has been written collectively by hundreds of people, mostly engineers, technicians and military history fans who have been contributing chapters, technical corrections and secondary plots over almost two decades. It has generated more than 1,400 derivative works. And it has never been translated into any Western language. What is it about? The premise is simple: more than 500 21st century Chinese citizens, armed with modern technical knowledge, travel back in time through a wormhole to the year 1628, to the death throes of the Ming Dynasty. They settle in Lingao County, on the island of Hainan, and from there they unleash an industrial revolution that alters the course of history. The goal: make China reach modernity before Europe. How it arises. The text began to take shape in 2006 as a discussion on SC BBS, the oldest military-themed forum in China, from a question that struck a chord: “What would you do if you could travel to the Ming dynasty with modern knowledge?” The debate crystallized three years later in a collective writing project led by a user known as Boaster, whose real name is Xiao Feng. The first installment was published in 2009 on Qidian Chinese Network, the country’s largest web literature platform. In 2017, China Radio, Film & TV Press published the first volume in print format. What makes it special. What sets ‘Illumine Lingao’ apart from other time travel fantasies is its obsession with technical detail. The chapters include long discussions on how to make nitric acid from scratch, what materials are needed to build chemical synthesis towers, or how many tons of industrial equipment would be needed to begin mechanization without prior machines or tools. Chinese readers have dubbed it “the encyclopedia of time travel.” Some critics They consider it “a unique phenomenon of contemporary Chinese literature.” But… what sensitive chord does this work touch? Needham’s puzzle. In 1942, the British biochemist Joseph Needham He traveled to China as a diplomatic envoy. During those three years he discovered that the Chinese had developed techniques and mechanisms that preceded their European equivalents by centuries. The printing press, the compass, gunpowder, paper money, suspension bridges, toilet paper… all had emerged in China long before Europe even conceived of it. Needham returned to Cambridge and documented this in ‘Science and Civilization in China’, 25 volumes that asked why modern science and the industrial revolution developed in Europe and not China, if China was so far ahead. This question, known as “Needham’s puzzle”, touches the most sensitive nerve of Chinese historical consciousness. Historians have proposed dozens of answers. Some point to geographical factors: while Europe competed fragmented into rival states that stimulated military and commercial innovation, China remained unified under a bureaucratic system that did not need change to survive. Others point to philosophical reasons: Confucianism valued social harmony over disruption. And some say that the key difference was European access to the resources of the American continent. For Chinese intellectuals, the “Great Divergence”, the moment when Europe overtook China, is not an abstract problem for historians. It is the question that explains the “century of national humiliation” (1839-1949), the opium wars, the burning of the Summer Palace and the Japanese occupation. That is why in ‘Illumine Lingao’ we travel to the Ming dynasty: 1628, sixteen years before the dynasty collapsed due to the Manchu invasion. For these Chinese intellectuals, the Ming dynasty represents the fateful fork: it is the moment when China chose the wrong path and Europe took the lead. Rewrite history. ‘Illumine Lingao’ belongs to a literary genre that enjoys enormous popularity in the chinese web literature: chuanyue (穿越), time travel stories in which contemporary protagonists use their modern knowledge to alter the course of history. In China, this genre has an implicit nationalist charge. It is not about looking at the past or resolving temporal paradoxes, but about correcting it, giving China a second chance. ‘Illumine Lingao’ takes this premise to the extreme: the documentation of each step with obsessive technical rigor turns the novel into something more than entertainment. It is a manual and a manifesto. A manifesto of a specific party. More than entertainment. As has been analyzed in academic circles, ‘Lingao’ reorganizes the historical narrative of Chinese socialist construction around the framework of industrialization and technological progress, with a clear nationalist sense. Its roots are in the so-called Industrial Party, which is not a real party, but rather a label to designate a current of thinkers, online commentators and influencers who share a vision of the world based on industrialization as a supreme value. For them, the material transformation produced by industrialization is an objective measure of national success. At the beginning of this century, its area of ​​theoretical development was the Internet, going against the grain at a time when the Chinese economy was betting on low-cost manufacturing and foreign direct investment. At that time, the idea that China could manufacture advanced semiconductors It sounded like science fiction. The Industrial Party made the leap to public influence in 2012, when the news website Guancha It began to include party members among its editors, defending the Chinese government from ultranationalist positions. Cultural battle. ‘Lingao’ has also largely become a political tool. When in 2011 a high-speed train rammed another convoy from behindcausing 40 deaths and 192 injuries, the Government wanted to manage the information so that the idea of ​​prosperity at any cost was not clouded. But on social media, negative opinions about the accident even surpassed state censors and They questioned the idea of ​​”progress” that the government maintained. Was the speed of development exacting an unacceptable price in human terms? ‘Illumine Lingao’ became a reference text in … Read more

The wolf has been a huge hot political potato for years. In Asturias they will allow the hunters to dejize them

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In Spain there is a group that has been aware of the wolves. And they are not the zoologists, animalists, hunters or farmers. Even more so that they are politicians who have spent the last years discussing The legal status of the Canis lupusa delicate issue that has generated a deep debate. The last arrives from Asturias, where the Principality has taken A decision Radical: Allow hunters to shoot the wolves in certain community reserves. Not everyone believes it is legal. What happened? What Asturias will allow That hunters shoot Lobos during their beaters in certain areas of the Principality, those reserves in which there has been an increase in cattle attacks. The decision, which has already generated an intense debate and has encountered The frontal opposition of the animalists, directly connects with a series of legal changes that have gradually cracking the legal shielding of which the Canis lupus. What do Asturias want to do? Open the door to the hunters to participate in the reduction of the population of Lobos. As a “complementary control method”, the Ministry of Rural Affairs has decided that hunters of those regional reserves “in which a greater number of damage to cattle have been detected” can shoot wolves during hunts scheduled to capture other species. That is, it gives the green light to the hunters so that (if certain conditions are met) they can reduce them while looking for prey. “The goal is Clarifies the Principalitywhich has also asked that in the “most affected” hunting preserves the guards participate in the controls together with the natural environment agents. Why do you do it? To answer that question you have to go back several months, to April, when the Government of Asturias presented its annual “road map” (applicable until the end of March 2026) to “reduce damage to the primary sector and social conflict” related to the wolves. That is, its ‘Wolf Management Plan’an official document that among other things clarified how many catches of Canis lupus The Asturian authorities have authorized. In that document It was revealed that the minimum wolves are around 345 copies and, based on that, the Ministry of Rural Affairs has decided to give green light to “the extraction of a maximum of 53”. Even the maximum number of animals that would be “extracted” in each area of ​​the Principality was required, some guidelines were given on the periods to carry out “the controls” and it was clarified how they will be carried out. Among them, in addition to the beating made by the environmental agents of the Principality, It was already progressing that one of the options contemplated by the plan was to resort directly to the help of hunters in regional reserves. But the wolf was not protected? Throughout the last months the status of the wolf has changed considerably. And with him he has done his legal armor. In Spain the most relevant novelty It happened in March. During the processing of A law of food waste (yes, you have read well) Congress approved several amendments centered on the wolf. And among them there was a specific one that returned the species to the situation in which it was before 2021year in which the Canis lupus It had been added to the list of wild species with special protection (Lespre). In the practice that the wolf appeared in the Lespre valed the hunting of specimens north of the Duero, something that already happened south of the river. The decision of the Congress to take it out meant that the Peninsular North packs lost their armor, which in turn opened the door for the autonomous communities to decide on their hunt. The Principality itself I recognized Last April that launched its ‘Wolf Management Plan’ after the last changes in Lespre. It was not the only one. Cantabria did something similar. In fact rtpa It revealed This same week that the community has already “extracted” more than half of the wolves of the quota authorized for the 2025-2026 period, which translates into 25 copies of a total of 41. And why do you turn to the hunters? That is one of the keys to the controversy that has emerged in Asturias. The Principality explains that it has decided to allow hunters to shoot wolves while looking for other species in reserves for “Increase efficacy” of the plan, which provides for the “extraction” of a maximum of 53 wolves. There are those who have seen in that argument an alarm signal. “If the reason for involving hunters is the difficulty in reaching the number of dead wolves established in the quotas, perhaps the cause is not so much the lack of efficiency of the method to hunt them, but the shortage of wolves itself, something that seems that the Asturian government does not even value,” warns The Wolf Protection Fund, very critical of the new decision of the Principality. How many wolves are there? In spring the regional government calculated that the wolf is present in 83% of the Asturian territory, where some 45 herds inhabit between 360 and 405 animals. “Since 2001, the year in which 22 herds were registered, the population has shown a general growth trend, as well as the damages caused by livestock,” Concrete the Principality. To be more precise, remember that last year damage to 3,257 head of cattle and the cost of compensation grew to exceed the million and a half euros were confirmed. These figures are those that justified the control plan, although It is unknown How many wolves have fallen in the community today. Have there been reactions? Yes. And of different types. The Government insists in which his is a “balanced positioning” between the preservation of the species and the interests of farmers and ranchers, but the truth is that everything related to the legal framework of the wolf has been involved in a deep debate for months. The hunters They recognize Having received the last announcement from the … Read more

The Saudi strategy is not only economical, it is also political

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Fifty years after the Arabic embargo of 1973, which fired prices and changed the world economy forever, OPEC+ moves again. This time, it is still in the opposite direction. Instead of restricting the offer to make crude oil, the group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia has decided to continue with the open tap. The announcement that stirred the market. The decision came after a video call between eight key countries of the OPEC+. According to the press releasethe group will add 137,000 barrels per day in October, first step to dismantle 1.66 million b/d that were still frozen until 2026. The context matters: in April, the block had already surprised returning 2.2 million B/D a year earlier than expected. This acceleration resulted in a 12% drop in crude oil prices so far from 2025, According to Bloomberg. The market immediately reacted. As Reuters has collectedBrent rebounded 1.95% up to $ 66.78 and WTI 1.94% up to 63.07. Analysts such as Ole Hansen (Saxo Bank) have interpreted the reaction as a classic “sells with the rumor, buys with the fact”: the increase was lower than anticipated, which relieved fears of immediate oversupply. But why does the open tap continues? As Bloomberg has pointed outthe poster has abandoned the role of “price defender” and has pivated towards the recovery of market share. In addition, Saudi Arabia demands compensation to countries that have overcover, such as Kazakhstan, Iraq or United Arab Emirates. The gradual increase allows us to emphasize quotas and reveal who really has the capacity to pump more and who does not. A deeper goal. The movement also has a political reading. According to BloombergMohammed Bin Salman will visit Washington in November, and the increases send a sign of goodwill to President Donald Trump, which has been demanding lower prices for months as a measure to contain inflation. Reuters He recalled That Trump has even hinted at a second phase of sanctions to Russia, which reinforces the logic of lowering oil. The play also exposes an American contradiction. As we have detailed in Xatakalower prices relieve inflation and give political air to Trump, but at the same time suffocate fracking, cornerstone of the energy independence that he claims. Many shale companies need quotes of $ 60–65 to be profitable. If the Brent falls below that threshold, Trump’s “victory” over cheap gasoline could become a blow to one of the strategic sectors of his own country. RUsia quiet in the OPEC+. In theory, Moscow should oppose: you need high prices to finance its war in Ukraine. In practice, accept the Saudi plan. In fact, Russia He already asked for a pause in Julysupported by Algeria and Oman, but was ignored. The Russian lifeguard is in Asia. As the BBC explainedPutin met in Tianjin with Xi Jinping and Narendra Modi at the Shanghai cooperation organization. There he reinforced his links with the two largest buyers of his crude. On the one hand, China imported more than 100 million tons of Russian oil in 2024, almost 20% of its energy purchases. On the other, India multiplied its purchases to 140,000 million dollars from 2022, after western sanctions. These clients, attracted by Russian discounts, are lifeguard that allows Moscow to tolerate lower prices in the OPEC+. For Modi, in addition, challenging Washington’s pressures reports internal political benefits, According to the BBC. Why don’t prices sink? Despite the increase in supply, crude prices have remained surprisingly stable. Several factors help explain this resilience. First, the increases have been more nominal than real: effective production is below what announced, According to The New York Times. To this is added the threat of new sanctions against Russia, which maintains a risk premium in the market. In addition, barriles return the “safety network” of idle capacity, which paradoxically limits the bearish pressure by leaving less margin against disruptions, Bloomberg warns. Finally, the Saudi “boldness” has reinforced the confidence of the operators: after the initial drop of 2025, the Brent stabilized around 66–67 dollars. The Saudi paradox. In parallel, Saudi Arabia is reducing its internal oil consumption to release barrels to the international market. As we have pointed out in Xatakathe kingdom displays solar and storage projects that replace crude oil in electricity generation. The logic is simple: each solar megavatio is equivalent to an extra barrel to export. This strategy strengthens its role in OPEC+, but generates fiscal tensions that have already forced megaprojects such as Neom, which is an early sign that the offensive to gain fee can hit the heart of the Saudi reformist agenda. Horizon 2026. Beyond the present, the look is set in the future. According to ReutersGoldman Sachs projects a slight surplus in 2026 for supply improvements in the Americas and the weakening of Russian crude. Its forecast places the Brent in 56 dollars and the WTI on 52 on average that year. The Saudi strategy seeks precisely to reach that scenario with greater share and margin to cut if necessary. According to Financial Timesthe real impact of October increase could be much more modest than it seems. Although the OPEC+ announced 137,000 additional daily barrels, analysts estimate that the effective figure will be around 60,000 b/d, since most countries involved pump almost at full capacity. Only Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser extent, United Arab Emirates have real maneuvering margin. The decision, however, has an internal function: Riad takes advantage of the return of barrels to measure the production capacity of each member with a view to renegotiating quotas in the future. The true test will arrive in the fourth quarter of 2025, when the market must absorb a greater flow of crude oil in full season of weaker demand. Chronicle of an announced break. In 1973, the OPEC paralyzed the West with an embargo that triggered prices. Half a century later, the same poster changes course: it floods the market to gain share, satisfies Donald Trump, discipline to the shale and seeks to reaffirm internal leadership. The movement is not … Read more

Russia has recovered a Soviet festival as a cultural and political counterweight of Eurovision. It will not be easy

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You may like more or less, but there is an indisputable truth about Eurovision: it is not just a music festival. Beyond choreographies, lights, Brillibrilli And the catchy melodies, the appointment organized by the UUr is loaded with geopolitics. Russia knows. Hence, you have decided to start Your own alternative to the European Festival, which was expelled by the invasion of Ukraine: Interview. Your name may find you strange, but connect with an appointment of the Soviet era. The big question, now that the festival has started Your countdownit is whether Interview will become a real alternative to Eurovision. It will not be easy. What happened? That Russia is promoting its own Eurovision. Or rather, he wants to recover an old festival that hurts its roots in the time of the USSR, back in the 60s and 70s, when it served as showcase and agglutinator of the nations of the socialist block. The appointment is called Interview And it has been cooking over the last months: In February Vladimir Putin gave order to start it, In June The first participants were announced and (except for unforeseen changes) the appointment will be held in two weeks, Saturday 20in Moscow. Do we know what it will be like? More or less. The web Interview is grim Live Arena From the Russian capital, it will be issued through the official channel Piervy Kanal and will include about twenty artists. In June, at the beginning The countdown From the appointment, the organization talked about the participation of 20 countries, especially members of the geopolitical block BRICS and CEIalthough the list includes some surprise. Specifically those responsible for the festival They announced As participants to Azerbaijan, Belarus, Venezuela, Vietnam, Egypt, India, Kazakstán, Qatar, China, Colombia, Cuba, Kyrgyzstan, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, United States, Tayikistan, Uzbekistan, South Africa and Russia itself. Only only the representatives of 17 candidates are announced on the interview website, including the great surprise: the US flag bearer artist, Brandon Howard. Why is it interesting? Input because it shows the determination of Vladimir Putin to recover interview, An old appointment Soviet whose history can go back to the 60s and 70s and that had Two great stages: between 1965 and 1968, when it was developed in Czechoslovakia; and between 1977 and 1980, when Sopot, Poland, replacing the City International Festival. In the early 80s the authorities decided to cancel it after the emergence of the movement Solidarność and his destiny was definitely marked with the fall of the USSR. In 2008 He had a fleeting resurgence and in 2014 Putin He showed his interest In recovering the cut, but the authentic support seems to have now received it, in 2025, Three years later that the Uuer decided to expel Russia from the Eurovision Festival for the invasion of Ukraine. What does Putin intend? Interview resurgence is not a simple matter of nostalgia or historical curiosity. In the festival there is a clear component of geopolitics and culture, just like there is in Eurovision. Good test is the list of countries with confirmed representatives or Howard’s presence. The context is not accidental either: the relaunch of interview comes three years after the Uuer showed the exit door to Russia, after Putin Try to recover Friendship games as an alternative to the Olympic Games (of which It was also excluded for his role in Ukraine) and in a moment of international claim in which the Russian leader has been shown with such relevant leaders Like Xi Jingping, Narendra Modi or even Donald Trump. Is it only geopolitics? No. There is also a cultural factor that Kremlin wanted to make clear from the beginning. Months ago, after the return of Interview, the Russian senator Liliya Gamerova was announced He claimed that the festival “will promote real music” and turn its back on “false values ​​outside any normal person” in an evening reference to Eurovision. In 2014, Putin’s vindication of Interview coincided with the victory at the European Festival of Conchita Wurst And last year the winner was the non -binary artist Nemo Mettler. In a Interesting analysis Posted today in The Guardian Elise Morton recalls that throughout the last decades Eurovision has been associated with the causes LGBTQ+, a link that can be traced at least 1997, with the participation of PALL ÓSKARthe first openly gay contestant of the festival. 11 years ago the victory of the Drag Queen Wurst coincided with Putin’s attempt to promote “traditional values” in Russia, which included limiting LGBTQ+contents. What will it be for? With interview, The expert reflects In Visual Cultura Bárbara Barreiro, the objective of the Kremlin is clear: to create a “cultural counterweight” to Eurovision, “to challenge Western cultural dominance” at a time when the UER Festival has become a “representative of liberal values.” Not just that. As Morton remembers, it has also served as a showcase so that countries that were under Soviet domain exhibit their cultural independence. Will it have it easy? It does not seem. Eurovision’s popularity lies in its effectiveness as an audiovisual show, something to which interview should aspire. And no matter how much the Russian festival presumably an artist poster, the truth is that it starts with some disadvantages. To begin its ignorance and the low impact that seems to be having on social networks. On Instagram the event has just over 4,000 followers. It is a figure understandable by the difficulties in accessing the platform from Russia, but its mark on the Russian network Vkontakte And Telegram is not much better, with just dozens of followers. Is it the only handicap? Another logistics challenge is the time spindle. Although in Eurovision Australia participatesmost participating countries (whether or not in Europe) share a more or less similar schedule. To hit with an hour of maximum audience does not represent a great challenge for its organizers. Nor manage a vote system that makes the audience feel participate. Musicians from countries such as the US, Russia, China or Saudi Arabia … Read more

Thousands of Americans want to flee from the country because of the political climate. And they have a preferential destination: Spain

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Work from A beach in Bali Or from a hidden place in Costa Rica it was an almost unattainable dream for many high qualification employees. Of those that call white collar. Then 2020 arrived and Everything changed. He Teleworking boom He created a diaspora of professionals, especially Americans, who seek to live in more friendly environments, without giving up the generous salaries offered by the US. The Iberian Peninsula has become the preferred destination in 2025 For those digital nomads. Portugal and Spain, as golden destinations. During the last year, web visitors on Expatriados Expatsi have prepared A survey to 113-363 Americans who were considering leaving the United States and working remotely from other parts of the world. 68% of them showed their preference for Europe as destination from which to work as a digital nomad. Portugal and Spain occupied the first and second place as a favorite destination, although both countries have hardened Its immigration policiesfollowed by the United Kingdom, Canada, Italy, Ireland, France, Mexico, New Zealand and Costa Rica, which close the top 10 of destinations. Reasons for the United States. Among the reasons that the Americans argued To get out of the country It was imposed to venture into new experiences and personal growth with 61% of cases, marking a decrease of more than 10% compared to 2023. However, the perception that the US has become a country too conservative (56% of the answers) and that there is too polarized political climate (53%), have been the reasons that have grown the most during the last year. Something that has also been appreciated in the number of residence applications and American citizenship who want to leave the country In 2025. 48% of respondents ensure that one of the reasons that lead him to want to live outside the US is to avoid the threat of Weapons violence. The fourth importance in importance (with 48%) to abandon the so -called “The Land of Freedom” is, curiously, the search for “different freedoms“. Those who argue this reason ensure that they seek to move to countries in which homosexual relations (60%) and same -sex marriage are allow of cannabis They close the list of freedoms looking for those expatriates. Who wants to live in the Peninsula? The profile of digital nomads looking to leave the US in the coming months are mostly professionals with a partner (44%) and single people (28%). 28% correspond to families with children. The vast majority of candidates to become digital nomads are young between 25 and 44 years (39%). However, there is also a high number of professionals between 55 and 65 years. 30% of them have confessed that intends to retire In their destination countries. The data suggests that 68% of respondents say they want to leave as soon as possible from the US. 12% expect to be able to do it before six months, while 54% expect to do it before 2026. Spain is a country for nomads. The requirements to obtain the digital nomadic visa vary in each country. To request the digital nomad visa in Portugalthe candidate must demonstrate: Stable monthly income: equivalent to four times the Portuguese SMI (about 3,480 euros per month). Demonstible savings: at least 36,480 euros. Remote work: It must be an employee of a company outside Portugal or autonomous. Duration: The initial visa lasts one year and can be renewed annually. For its part, the Requirements for digital nomads in Spain They are somewhat more lax: Monthly income: equivalent to 200% of the monthly Spain SMI, so stable income of at least 2,368 euros per month must be accredited. Remote work: demonstrate a employment relationship with a foreign company or international clients, with minimum age of 3 months and demonstrable professional experience of at least 3 years. Legal requirements: Not having a criminal record and having a valid private insurance in Spain. Duration: The validity of the visa is one year, but you can request extenders until five years. In Xataka | Digital nomadic visas: the countries hook to attract the best digital talent without paying the cost to keep them Image | Unspash (Anastasiia Nelen)

Tesla was a transatlantic for Wall Street. Elon Musk’s political adventure the iceberg that almost sinks with his fortune

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Tesla has been synonymous with Innovation and success In the electric mobility sector, with an admired brand image and a privileged position in the stock market. The Apple of the automotive, Some qualified it. However, Elon Musk’s foray into American politics has triggered a series of events that have put both reputation and reputation in check The financial results of the company. Musk’s political experiment It has had consequencesdirectly affecting public perception and Tesla’s sales. The destination of Tesla and that of his CEO go hand in Your personal fortune. Tesla before Musk politicization. Before Elon Musk got involved actively in politicsTesla was considered one of the world’s great technological companies and with potential for exceed billion dollars In stock market capitalization. The company was rubbed by giants such as Apple, Microsoft and Amazon, and its Growth seemed unstoppable Thanks to the confidence of investors and the growing demand for electric vehicles. In that scenario, Musk’s personal fortune also reached record figures, exceeding the second time the roof of 300,000 million dollars. Tesla was seen as a safe bet for its investors and its founder was generously rewarded for it. Elon Musk arrived sweeping everything in politics. Elon Musk’s politics landing divided the opinions of investors among whom he thought that his positioning together with Trump (openly contrary to electric cars) would provide strategic advantages to Tesla, and those who saw the brand the brand endangered. For a while, the euphoria of the markets for the change of government gave wings to the company’s actions that marked records after day, while Musk’s fortune shot overcoming the 420,000 million dollars. The panorama changed radically after the elections and Musk’s role at the head of the Government Efficiency Department (Doge). The Tesla reputation He quickly deteriorated when the new department began applying unpopular measures and Musk became the “demolition ball” of the State, As described The Financial Times. Musk and Tesla are one. The image of Tesla is closely tied to that of Elon Musk, so when Musk’s popularity collapsed, he dragged with Tesla, plunging her into An unprecedented reputational crisis. The company sales 13% fell in the first quarter of 2025, while revenues were reduced by 9%, up to 19,335 million dollars. The net profit sank 71%, leaving only 409 million dollars. From the financial crisis of Tesla there are not even those buyers who have decided to sell their Tesla in 2025, who have seen how, due to the reputation of their CEO and the largest number of teslas put up for sale, its price is being depreciated In the second -hand market. Musk’s popularity (lost). A recent survey performed by CNBC He has revealed that 47% of respondents have a negative opinion of Tesla, while 27% maintain their positive opinion of the manufacturer. Its CEO moves in very similar percentages with 50% of negative opinions and 36% of respondents who give them their support. However, as Micah Roberts, a partner of Public Opinion Strategies, the republican pollster who carried out the study, “where Tesla is stronger is among the people with less likely to buy an electric vehicle”, so those who support the political position of their CEO, will probably never be customers of the brand. Tesla forced retirement. Before the collapse of the results and the pressures received From the Republican bench and by investors of Tesla, Elon Musk has recognized in an evening that has not dedicated enough time to the company. In the presentation of results he has promised reduce “significant“His political involvement from May to get the brand out of the problem in which he himself has put it. In a few months, Musk’s fortune has experienced the same ascent and fall as Tesla. Although the value of its actions in the company has decreased considerably, the Impact on your heritage personnel have been damping by the Spacex growth and of XAI, your AI company. If it weren’t for good performance of these companiesTesla’s debacle would have had even more serious consequences For Musk’s richness, which is currently maintained at the same levels That when everything began. In Xataka | “Sader than a sack of bricks”: Elon Musk attacks the ideologist of the US tariff policy In Xataka | Elon Musk has forged the fame of a bold founder: he did not create either of the two companies that made him a millionaire Image | Flickr (Gage Skidmore), Unspash (Dmitry Novikov)

Musk’s political ambition has turned Tesla into an ideological lightning rod. And the whole company is paying

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Tesla’s action touched its historical maximum at the end of 2024, just in time for Christmas. Since then You just made receiving coala paradox for the leader of the electric transition. From $ 480 to 240. Half. 50% fall (and 15% in a single session last Monday) is no longer a market correction or temporary fluctuation. Is the materialization of the political risk that Musk has accumulated deliberately during the last two years. Musk, with its lights and their shadows, It is an atypical phenomenon and a case study like or not. But he has also starred in his own even more atypical phenomenon in recent business history: the transmutation of an aspirational brand in the object of cultural repulsion for a part of its original client base, as stated The Verge. Tesla built an empire on very specific pillars: Technological innovation Environmental sustainability. A vision of the future techno -optimist. It was a perfect car – figured and literally – for progressive consumers with purchasing power that wanted to signal not only financial power, but avant -garde values. Musk’s political turn has caused a cognitive dissonance too heavy For a good part of this segment. This ideological fracture can be put figures. In California, one of the great progressive bastions and originally the most important market for Tesla, Model 3 sales They collapsed in 2024. In Europe, collapse has been even greateralthough it would be unfair to signal only to Musk’s personal future, since here a perfect storm has come together. They are more typical figures of A brand exodus – Here we can point to Chinese cars, but in the United States not – than a simple sector recession. Especially because even in Europe we have seen A growth of 34% in electric car sales at this time. The most visible demonstration of this brand crisis is the spontaneous emergence of an ecosystem of embarrassed owners. From apology stickers (“I bought it before Elon went crazy”) to the replacement of the Tesla logo with other generic badges. They are drivers who seek to dissociate their creator’s car. The protests have climbed to pure and hard vandalism, with concessionaires Tiring in Oregon, Molotov cocktails in Colorado and some Cybertruck on fire in Seattle. Tesla has become An ideological lightning rod. Meanwhile, competition has taken advantage of that vulnerability. Hyundai, Kia, GM U Honda (let’s mention Chinese brands on this side of the Atlantic) have been launching electrical alternatives perhaps not as painting as a tesla, but already attractive and more or less reasonable prices. In this equation There is a blind spot: Musk itself. His political ambitions and his parallel agenda with Trump have eclipsed their business vision. Tesla needs more than ever its affordable model – about $ 25,000, The repeated and deformed promise since 2018– To compete against byd, omoda, Jaecoo and company. But Musk is aspiring to something much older, maybe even too conceptual, such as Humanoid robots. Or with the promises of robotaxis that do not finish arriving … while Waymo already operates real fleets of autonomous taxis. Tesla’s technical credibility has also worsened. The promise that all cars manufactured after 2016 contained the necessary hardware for totally autonomous driving turned out to be true. Musk He admitted that they will have to replace on board computersa process that he confessed “painful”, and now faces collective demands for deceptive advertising. Tesla was, is and will surely be the king of the electric car in many ways, but something has changed lately. Trump can convert the White House into a Tesla dealership and proclaim in your social network Your absolute support to Muskbut You cannot reverse financial physics. The destruction of value has been monumental: 800,000 million dollars of stock market capitalization and 100,000 million of Musk’s personal heritage have evaporated in less than one semester. Even some historical shareholders, loyal to Musk, They have sold mass actionssuch as Robyn Denholm (the president of the Council) or James Murdoch (son of Rupert). There is a fire in Tesla, but that is not too worrying, every company happens at some time. The problem is that it is self -induced. Tesla will survive, surely, it has a solid cash position and hard -working economies. We are no longer in 2019. The real question is whether you can recover your old statusthat of Visionaria company, while its founder is still determined to sacrifice it on the altar of its political aspirations. The divorce between Tesla and a part of its original customer base seems difficult to reverse in the short term. The maximum irony of this story may be that the greatest enemy of the original mission of Tesla – to school the world transition towards sustainable energy – turns out to be Musk itself. Outstanding image | Tesla In Xataka | Tesla’s most buoyant business is also the most unknown: energy generation and storage

Political Round: Mayor turns to allies to save herself

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The attack against the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass after the dramatic fires has placed her in a vulnerable situation, after the serious crisis took her by surprise in Ghana when she was making her fifth international journey. It is known that the progressive movement is looking for a candidate who can give them the fight when they try for re-election next year; and many wonder if his former opponent, Rick Caruso, would come for a rematch. The mall businessman raised $20 million for the Fire Department Foundation to purchase equipment to help save lives. And here comes the interesting thing: the mayor has realized the pit she has fallen into, and has turned to her political allies to save her. The president of the Los Angeles County Federation of Unions, Yvonne Wheeler, and even the international firefighters union headed by Frank Lima, another union of theater employees and two more representing service workers have publicly come out to clean him up. the image, splashed by fire. The campaign to remove blame for the fires is underway. First stop, the unions. The City’s budget problems, which will be aggravated by the expenses of the feared fires, will not help him in his quest to regain his lost popularity. And things have gotten so bad that the devastation caused by the fires prompted Councilwoman Traci Park to resign as chair of the Los Angeles Council’s 2028 Olympics Committee to dedicate herself full time to recovery efforts. as president of the Special Committee on Recovery newly formed by the councilors. Rob Bonta rises Contrary to Bass, the figure of California prosecutor Rob Bonta has risen to the skies with the arrival of the anti-immigrant hurricane Donald Trump to the White House. And no politician in California, nor Governor Gavin Newsom himself nor Mayor Bass, has been as open and vocal as the prosecutor after the avalanche of anti-immigrant measures by the new president.. Bonta, who immigrated as a child with his parents from the Philippines to California, immediately sued the Trump administration over its executive order that wants to end birthright US citizenship. The opportunity to make his name better known in the state comes when time is short for him to decide whether or not to enter the Democratic race for governor. De León opens fire Former councilman Kevin de León reappeared on the scene, publishing on site De León, author of the Sanctuary Law he introduced when he was a senator, said he made sure this legislation survived the most rigorous legal challenges, even winning approval from the Supreme Court in the early Trump era. De León tagged in his comment Prosecutor Bonta, who defended SB 54 against a Justice Department memo that calls on prosecutors to prosecute those who do not participate in federal immigration enforcement efforts. Without delay, Republican Congressman Kevin Kiley responded to De León, telling him that he introduced a bill to prevent California from going after local officials who do not comply with SB 54. Kiley’s plan is to end the Sanctuary State in California and MediCal for undocumented immigrants. All of this becomes more relevant following the announcement that Huntington Beach in Orange County has just declared itself a Non-Sanctuary City and filed a lawsuit against California’s Sanctuary State law.

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