problem Archives - Page 19 of 49

The problem is how to prove something that is not impossible

January 15, 2026 by usatoday24

The capture of Nicolás Maduro by the US special forces has generated one of those stories that, due to its form and timing, seem designed to colonize the collective imagination even before a verifiable version of the events can be established. The rumor: Washington has been able to use its own secret weapon from a Marvel movie. It’s not impossible, and that’s the catch. The perfect rumor. We are not talking about something completely new, because this theory already sounded strongly with Washington and Cuba as protagonists years ago. The return of the “sonic weapon” now appears as a perfect story to explain a humiliating defeat. Also to elevate the operation to the category of a technological demonstration: a group of special forces captures Maduro and, according to a guard, leaves the defenders bleeding, dizzy and lying on the ground unable to get up. It is a type of narration that automatically has gone viral because it does not require nuances: it converts a confusing fight in a clear scene of absolute superiority and ends with a deterrent conclusion (“no one should confront the United States”), which is exactly the phrase that an intimidation campaign would want to put in the mouth of the enemy. From TikTok to institutional speaker. The origin of everything is quite flimsy: it appears in a TikTok videoa testimony impossible to verify (an alleged member of the Venezuelan security forces as a witness), then translated and later amplified by commentators with the clear intention of dramatizing it and making it viral. Then something happens that changes everything: the White House spokesperson share it and promote it as required reading. Without confirming anything, this gesture gives it authority and creates the most certain ambiguity: it is not official, but it is no longer a simple hoax, and in that gray area it fuels conversation, fear and propaganda. The Pentagon and SOUTHCOM take shelter in operational securitywhich leaves the ideal void for the myth to grow without the need for evidence. @franklinvarela09 loser of January 23 recognizing the surrender of Diosdado Cabello eschunlo friend s #greenscreenvideo ♬ original sound – Varela News What we know about the assault. He described operational framework was already, in itself, that of a high-risk mission with specialized means: nighttime heliborne insertion, armed support helicopters, shooting, American injuries and a high number of casualties on the defending side, including foreign military allies of the regime. With surprise, local air superiority, electronic warfare, cyber support, and precise fire, a defensive collapse can occur without the need for mysterious “lightning strikes.” That is why the rumor that has gone viral is not essential to explain the result: it is, in any case, an embellishment that transforms a complex tactical victory into a fable of technological domination. But there is something else. Technology that exists. What really means that the rumor does not die instantly and that many specialized media have remembered, is that it relies on a real background: Washington takes decades researching non-kinetic capabilities and “less lethal” to incapacitate without killing, from the called Active Denial System (millimeter microwaves that cause severe pain) to long-range acoustic devices LRAD type scope and dazzling lasers to deny vision. It has also been explored combine sensory effects (pain, disorientation, temporary blindness, confusion) to break an adversary’s coordination without resorting to immediate lethal fire. There is no doubt that programs exist of this type does not prove that they were used in Caracas, but it does provide veracity: “it may exist” is enough for the story to survive. A briefing slide from about a decade ago describing the “Non-Lethal Weapons Demonstrators” available to the US military at the time, including the Active Denial System and Acoustic Call-type systems “Sonic” as a label. They remembered in Forbes that sound as a weapon has physical limits and is riddled with historical exaggerations: it is easy to promise “paralysis” or “panic” over frequencies, but much more difficult to demonstrate consistent effects beyond hearing damage or disorientation from extreme volume. Furthermore, the TWZ analysts explained that a witness under stress can describe as a “sound wave” any devastating sensory experience: close explosions, flashbangs, overpressure, daze, and trauma. The language of the victim in this scenario does not identify the mechanism, it only transmits an experience, and that difference is crucial when the story travels through networks as if it were a technical report. An ADS prototype loaded into the back of a heavy truck EPIC, the hypothesis. Forbes too emphasized in a more “coherent” alternative with certain symptoms: EPICa concept that would use radiofrequency pulses to interfere with the inner ear and balance, causing extreme vertigo, inability to stand, and visual disorientation. The idea would be tactical and attractive because, unlike sound, radio waves cross obstacles and may feel like pressure or “popping” in the head as it affects the vestibular system. The problem is that there is no public evidence that this program went beyond early phases nor that it exists as an operational capacity, so here it functions more as a credible anchor than as proof. Havana Syndrome. It we count a few years ago. The debate over anomalous health incidents associated with the so-called Havana Syndrome prepared the ground: there was already a conversation about possible invisible mechanisms (acoustic, radioelectric or other) capable of producing real symptoms without an obvious explosion. The official evaluations have oscillated between skepticism about foreign authorship and the caution of not ruling out that a small number of cases could fit with known scientific principles used for harassment or incapacitation. In this scenario, any “invisible weapon” story is feasible because it leads one to think that the strange is not impossible, just classified. The most plausible explanation. If the strongest hypothesis is to be chosen, it is likely to be a combination of actual combat, explosions, distraction devices, smoke, shock and disorganization, amplified by testimony that has every incentive to exaggerate and convert defeat into technological inevitability. Details like “vomiting blood” or … Read more

Barcelona believes it has a night security problem. So you’re going to leave the Christmas lights on all year long

January 15, 2026 by usatoday24

Vigo risks losing his position as “city of lights” (from Spain). Although the Galician City Council usually displays its Christmas decorations already in July and boasts every year of the millions and millions of LEDs that adorn its streets for almost two months, from November to January, there is another city that is about to raise the stakes: Barcelona. There the Consistory has decided maintain part of the lighting for the festivities Old City during the remainder of winter. Their reasons actually have little to do with Christmas. Lights, lights and more lights. Christmas may be over, but in Spain it is becoming common for us to talk about its lights for months and months. In Vigo they do it because the City Council begins to hang them in the middle of Julywith the thermometer flirting with 30º and the city full of tourists in shorts and flip-flops. Now they will do it too in Barcelonaalthough for other reasons. What do they want to do there? The news I advanced it on Monday The Vanguard: Barcelona is finalizing a plan to improve the lighting of some of the narrowest (and darkest) streets of Ciutat Vella, taking advantage of part of the decoration that was installed there this Christmas. That is to say, in the absence of traditional streetlights, garlands strung between facades are good. Although Jaume Collboni’s team has not yet revealed the details of the initiative, the idea does seem clear: it is not so much about neighbors, merchants and tourists continuing to walk for months under decorations of Santa Clauses, Three Wise Men and Christmas trees, but rather about maintaining the most ‘timeless’ designs. Walking under light bulbs. The key is therefore to take advantage of decoration that does not clash with the rest of the winter. To reinforce it, the municipal government also proposes maintaining the garlands that the merchants themselves have placed. In the Gòtic there are businesses that have been hanging decorative lights on their own, although as these were private initiatives they encountered challenges such as the passage of garbage trucks or some parades. Where, when and how. While waiting for the City Council to provide more details about where, when and how the initiative will be deployed, The Vanguard has advanced some keys: the measure will focus on points in Ciutat Vella, Gótic and Sant Pere streets, Santa Caterina and Ribera that aspire to improve their lighting. Regarding the calendar, councilor Albert Batlle explains that the Consistory proposes keeping the lights for several months: “The will is that the measure be implemented, now and in the future, during the winter time period, approximately between the last weekend of October and the last weekend of March.” Two keys: trade and security. Batlle too confirm that the measure pursues two objectives: to favor the businesses and residents of the area and to put an end to alleys in which pickpockets find refuge. “We want to improve the lighting of some small streets in Gòtic and Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and la Ribera to promote commercial, cultural and social revitalization, and also to improve the feeling of security, especially on days with fewer hours of daylight,” he adds. “We are working on the formula to enhance this network.” “They give them more qualms”. The measure appears to have had good reception among the businesses in the area, which even proposed expanding the list of roads that were initially going to benefit from the lights. “If the streets are more illuminated, walking becomes safer and commerce will benefit,” recognize to The Newspaper David González, from the Via Laietana Merchants Association. Proof of how convincing the measure is is that at the time some businessmen from Born they already started to hang garlands at your own risk. “People go along Paseo del Born very happy because the promenade and the streets are usually well lit. But the dark alleys make them hesitant.” The idea has also been found with detractors who consider it a patch. But… Does it work? Although he has achieved reduce your crimeBarcelona usually appears in the area highest of the rankings about the cities insecure from Spain. The key is whether more public lighting will translate into greater real safety, a question that has generated debate in recent years. What they do seem to confirm cases like that of Vigo is that a good commitment to street lighting (even if it is seasonal) serves to attract thousands of visitors. Images | Barcelona City Council (X) and Núria (Flickr) In Xataka | The upper area of Barcelona no longer interests the rich: the Eixample has become fashionable and its neighbors tremble because of the prices

It is raining so much in the province of Jaén that the olive oil harvest has had a problem: there is too much water

January 14, 2026 by usatoday24

The “liquid gold” market expected a great recovery after years of drought, but the data you have given the Food Information and Control Agency At the end of December 2025, they have had a significant impact. Especially in the epicenter of oil production in our countrysuch as Jaén, where it has been registered a 45% drop in its accumulated production. Although it is something that hides an important economic paradox: it is selling more than ever. The figures. As detailed by the Ministry of Agriculture itselfthe reality of the current campaign is radically different from the previous one. While in 2024 Jaén accumulated almost 300,000 tons at the end of the year, this 2025 it has remained at half speed with 164,841 tons, which represents a variation of 45.3%. Something that has also been noticed at the national level. What has happened? Although everyone might think that we are talking about the drought that has caused there to be fewer olives, the reality is that excess rain has been the problem. The intense rainfall of November and December 2025, although beneficial for the tree in the long termhave been an obstacle to the harvest. Logically, with the mud it is difficult to enter with the machines to be able to pick the olives or work by hand. This has caused the harvest to be delayed and has affected the yield of the fruit. Other factors. Beyond the excess of rain at the end of this year, we must also highlight the high temperatures that were recorded in the month of June 2025, which damaged the weight of the fruit after spring fruit set that promised a lot, but fell short. Besides, according to COAG Jaénthe delay in taking the olive to the olive mill due to the weather has caused part of the fruit to suffer damage, reducing the final yield. Less oil, but more sales. Even though the silos fill more slowly, the market is extremely active. UPA Andalusia has highlighted that, despite the decrease in production, sales have increased by 10% in the last quarter, with a month of November where oil output reached 129,727 tons. This means that the consumer continues to demand olive oil despite the instability of recent years. Exports are also doing well, with a substantial increase of 44% in Andalusia, which puts pressure on current stocks, which are 13% lower than last year. The price. Without a doubt it is the most important point for the consumer, especially when in the past we have already seen really high prices for olive oil due to a bad harvest. Logic dictates that if supply falls and demand increases, prices should increase, but experts call for considerable caution. Right now, the price of Extra Virgin oil at origin moves between 4.20 and 4.29 euros per liter, and what is expected is that it will remain at a stable price during the year 2026, without major drops to maintain the stability of the sector that needs to cover costs. Images | Kostas Morfiris Nazar Hrabovyi In Xataka | Half of Spain has gone crazy with the question of whether olives make you fat or not. But your biggest problem is not calories.

The Spanish business that Vodafone sold as ballast is now worth three times as much. Zegona has shown that the problem was the owner

January 14, 2026 by usatoday24

according to further Populi Voicea medium with a good track record in telecom exclusives, Telefónica has started talks with Zegona to acquire Vodafone Spain. The negotiations are recent (just a few weeks) and it was Movistar who picked up the phone first. Telefónica wants to close the operation in the first half of 2026. The rumors come from months ago. The problem is that arrive late, and that has a price. A little more than two years ago, Zegona bought Vodafone Spain for about 5,000 million euros. Vodafone (the British parent) was selling a problematic asset: It was the third operator in a market of four. He was caught between the scale of Telefónica and the agility of the low-cost He inherited a network that required constant investment. And he also inherited a tarnished reputation after years of complaints. For the British group, Spain was a drain of money and effort. For Zegona, a poorly managed gold mine. And in just two years, the fund has proven that he was right: Has returned to its shareholders 1.4 billion euros in dividends (28% of what was paid by Vodafone Spain). Has reduced the number of shares in circulation by 69%. And yet its current capitalization is around 3.6 billion. For fund shareholders, the return has been spectacular: The stock went from 345p when they bought Vodafone (less than 100 when they announced their intentions) to over 1,565p now. It has multiplied by 4.5 in two years. Vodafone Spain generates around 4.5 billion annual revenues and, with more focused management than before and without the bureaucracy of a global giant, it has become a profitable operation that Zegona can continue to exploit… or sell to the highest bidder. Telefónica is now negotiating from a weak position. It needs the operation (Marc Murtra has repeated that Movistar must lead the consolidation of the Spanish market) and the market knows it. An ERE of 4,500 people has just closed. And while Telefónica prepared the house to add more furniture, its price has fallen 27% since the end of October. Zegona, however, its value has skyrocketed. The price of this indecision is between 2,000 and 7,000 million extra euros. regarding what the purchase of Vodafone Spain would have cost in 2023. Zegona is in no hurry. It can wait, it can squeeze, it can even stay as it is. Telefónica now cannot afford that luxury because buying Vodafone Spain is not an expansionist move, it is an almost defensive necessity: needs critical mass before Europe forces further consolidation where Movistar is the main course, not the diner. But when negotiating is a necessity and the other side knows it, the price stops being a variable and becomes a toll. If the operation crystallizes, it will create a giant with more than 45% of the Spanish market, great cost savings by eliminating duplications (headquarters, networks, contracts…) and intense regulatory scrutiny from Brussels. Although not as brutal as it would have been with Vestager because Ribera has another look. Telefónica knows it and so does Zegona. The difference is that one is late and the other can afford to wait. That changes everything in a negotiation. In Xataka | The great dilemma of Spanish telecos: either they become giants or China swallows them Featured image | Vodafone, Telephone

The US already knows when it wants to return to the Moon to beat China. The problem is how the ship will return

January 14, 2026 by usatoday24

There is already an official date. After years of delays and speculations, NASA has confirmed what was rumored in the halls of Washington: Artemis 2 has the green light for launch on February 6, 2026. And what is its destination? Neither more nor less than the Moon itself. Tuning. With this announcement, NASA is already preparing for the transfer of the gigantic SLS rocket (Space Launch System) to platform 39B this very January 17, starting the final countdown for humans to orbit the Moon again. Something that has not happened since 1972 with Apollo 17. However, this is not a celebration without controversy. The mission, which will take the astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and Jeremy Hansen to a 10-day trip around our satellite, has been brought forward under strong political pressure. And it does so with a worrying technical asterisk: the behavior of the Orion ship’s heat shield. A battle of pressures. On the one hand, Donald Trump has historically shown its impatience with the deadlines that NASA was giving to be able to orbit around the Moon. All this with an eye on China, which threatened to be the ‘first’ and overtake the United States in this fact. What has been the solution? put to Jared Isaacman as NASA Administratora billionaire, private pilot and astronaut (known for his missions in Polaris Dawn and its links with SpaceX) to prioritize speed and calculated risk-taking over the complete risk aversion that “old NASA” had. Because. February 6, 2026 has been set as set in stone for several strategic reasons that outweigh engineering doubts about the heat shield. The first of them It’s the race against Chinasince the Asian country has a very advanced lunar program and aims put taikonauts on the Moon before 2030. If Artemis 2 was delayed to redesign the heat shield (which would have taken years), Artemis 3 would have been gone until 2028-2029 or longer, leaving the door open for China to arrive earlier or very close. But they do not stop here, since for this administration the Moon is a springboard to reach Mars, this mission being a simple way to validate the systems they are using. That is why every delay on the Moon is a delay for the mission to Mars, which promises to be the historical legacy they seek. The Avcoat dilemma. The main point of friction between engineers and the agency’s new management lies at the bottom of the Orion capsule. During the Artemis 1 unmanned mission in 2022the heat shield (made from an ablative material called Avcoat) behaved unexpectedly. And instead of being consumed uniformly, it broke off in pieces, creating craters and cracks due to the gases trapped in the material. during re-entry into the atmosphere. The engineering logic faced with this problem would mark make a new design or material change. But since it is something that would delay everything, NASA has opted for a change in angle during reentry to minimize thermal stress in the most affected areas to maintain the same shield. The doubts. NASA assures that the risk is “acceptable”, but this decision has raised blisters in the aerospace security community. Added to this is that the life support system (ECLSS)provided in part by ESA, has never been fully tested in flight with humans, adding an extra layer of uncertainty to the mission. Charles Camarda, veteran astronaut of the STS-114 mission, the return flight after the Columbia disaster, has been blunt in this regard. In statements, Camarda has compared the current situation with the “dysfunctional culture” that led to the Challenger and Columbia tragedies. But for the NASA administrator, Artemis 2 is a non-negotiable step to ensure American leadership and the future cislunar economy. Operating tension. As if the pressure on Artemis were not enough, NASA also faces a parallel crisis in low orbit. The agency and SpaceX have scheduled January 14 undocking of the Crew-11 mission of the International Space Station (ISS) due to urgent medical evacuation. This is an unprecedented event in the history of the ISS: lowering an astronaut for an unspecified medical problem (although he has been confirmed to be stable). Although Isaacman has assured that this operational incident will not affect the schedule of Artemis 2adds a considerable load of stress to mission control teams in Houston, who must now manage a crisis in real time while preparing for the most important launch of the decade. What can we expect? At the moment, the dates we know are January 17, where the SLS rolls towards its platform, and February 6, when the window for its launch will open. In total, a 10-day flight mission is expected, with a lunar flyby and high-speed return. Specifically, 40,000 km/h. NASA has much more at stake than a mission in February. The validation of its security model is at stake in the new space era, where geopolitical competition and commercial rush collide head-on with the immutable laws of physics and thermodynamics. Images | Pedro Lastra POT In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury

Cloudflare is planted in Italy due to blockades. In Spain, the conflict with LaLiga points to the same underlying problem

January 14, 2026 by usatoday24

We are witnessing firsthand how what began as an offensive against unauthorized party broadcasts has transformed into something much broader, a dispute over who can decide which parts of the internet are turned off and how. In Italy and Spain, judicial and administrative resolutions that apply current legislation are endorsing or ordering measures that operate at the network level, measures that, as they are now being applied, may not distinguish between an infringing service and legitimate services that share infrastructure. This scenario has brought to the fore cloudflarea company whose name has been sneaking into the technology conversation for some time. Here we must be clear. What unites the cases of Italy and Spain is not the type of content, but the logic that supports them: to stop the unauthorized dissemination of matches, it has been decided to act where the network becomes vulnerable, in the intermediaries that connect the public with the servers. It is not a button in the hands of a government, but rather a fit between laws, judges or regulators, rights holders and different actors who execute the measure. That strategy allows you to block quickly and with massive range, but it also has collateral damage. Behind every block there is a clear sequence. In Spain, LaLiga takes its requests before a judge and it is the courts that authorize the operators to execute the cuts. In Italy, rights holders enter domains and IPs into Piracy Shield and it is AGCOMthe Italian telecommunications and media regulator, who reviews these signs and converts them into administrative orders that providers must apply. When an authority orders a block, it is not simply saying “close this page”, it is choosing at what point in the journey the connection between the user and the server is interrupted, according to the limits established by current legislation. This can be done by preventing the website name from being translated into a technical address, directly blocking that address, or asking an intermediary to stop serving the data. In this invisible journey there is a particularly sensitive piece, the system that translates website names into technical addresses that computers can understand. Every time we type a URL or tap a link, a DNS resolver responds with the correct IP so the connection can be established. If this translation is interrupted, the page is no longer accessible even if the server continues to function. That is why DNS has become a very attractive lever for blocking, because it allows access to be cut off quickly and without directly touching the content. What is 1.1.1.1 and why is it in the center. Among the many DNS services that exist, there are some open to the public that do not belong to any national operator, and the best known is 1.1.1.1, managed by Cloudflare. It serves as a widely used public DNS resolver that users and applications use to translate domain names into IP addresses. That scale is what makes it especially sensitive in this debate, because any intervention on it is not limited to a country or a specific network, but can have much broader effects. A modem with network cables The company explains For years it has been able to comply with court orders that force it to act on specific clients or on its distribution network, because there it is controlling its own service within a jurisdiction. What it rejects is modifying open tools such as its public DNS by administrative decisions of a single country. In his approach, that would mean that a national authority could change how a basic piece of the internet works for users around the world. Italy, the Piracy Shield system and controversies. The Italian model does not just cut individual pages, but entire pieces of the route along which traffic circulates. Through Piracy Shield domains and IPs are ordered to be blocked and, according to the regulator itselfthe framework also expressly includes public DNS services and VPN providers as obligated parties when they are involved in the accessibility of that content. Cloudflare Global Network Map The problem is not only that the system blocks a lot, but how it does it and with what margin for rectification. Its quick reaction logic prioritizes cutting access while the event is happening, and that increases the risk of affecting third parties when acting on shared parts of the network. AGCOM quotes as balance that since February 2024, more than 65,000 FQDNs, that is, fully qualified domain names and about 14,000 IPs, have been disabled. That clash took concrete form at the end of 2025. In a decision taken on December 29 and recently notifiedAGCOM imposed a penalty of more than 14 million euros on Cloudflare for failing to comply with a previous order issued on February 18, 2025. According to the regulator, the company had to deactivate the DNS resolution of certain domains and the routing of traffic to IP addresses indicated through Piracy Shield, or apply equivalent measures to prevent users from accessing that content. Spain, the judicial path. As we mentioned above, in Spain the system is not based on an administrative regulator, but on a resolution from a commercial court obtained by LaLiga. On December 18, 2024, the Commercial Court No. 6 of Barcelona authorized blocking measures against addresses used to broadcast matches without rights. On March 26, 2025, that same court rejected the challenges and left the order in force. That is what allows access operators to execute these blocks during matches under the direct legal coverage of a judge. The way that order is executed in practice explains many of the complaints that have arisen in Spain. Access providers block entire IP addresses, not just specific domains. This mechanism explains why so many legitimate services end up dragged down by these blocks. Instead of deactivating a specific domain, operators sever an entire IP address, which is often shared by hundreds or thousands of websites. It’s a bit like boarding up the entrance to a building … Read more

Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earths. The problem is that there are no roads to get to them.

January 14, 2026 by usatoday24

The geopolitics of the 21st century has found a new and icy epicenter. After the capture of Nicolás Maduro In Venezuela earlier this month, Donald Trump’s administration has turned its diplomatic aggressiveness northward. The goal It’s an old longingtake control of Greenland, which the White House defines as an “ingot” of strategic resources. However, the physical reality is inescapable since beneath a complex geology lies an absolute lack of basic infrastructure that turns any extraction plan into a logistical chimera. The 93-mile wall of asphalt. Since the Republican Party introduced the Make Greenland Great Again Act In 2025, pressure on Denmark has escalated to even suggesting the use of force. As explained by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)Washington has elevated Greenland to the category of “national security” need. This position, which some analysts already call the “Donroe Doctrine”, seeks to secure the hemisphere as an exclusive sphere of influence against Russian icebreakers and Chinese expansion. But obsession collides with engineering. According to CSIS dataGreenland—a territory three times the size of Texas—only has 93 miles (150 kilometers) of roads in total. There are no railways and the settlements are isolated from each other by land. Diogo Rosa, researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, warns in Fortune that any mining project must create these accessibilities from scratch. This includes ports capable of handling industrial volumes (Narsaq port barely moves 50,000 tons a year) and local power plants, since the current electrical grid is unable to sustain a large scale mine. The enigma of eudialite. Even if roads were built to reach neodymium and terbium, the mineral itself poses an unprecedented technical challenge. Greenland’s rare earth elements are typically encapsulated in a complex type of rock called eudialite. Unlike carbonatites that are mined elsewhere in the world with proven methods, no one has developed a profitable process to extract them from eudialite, as explained by analysts. For this reason, experts like Javier Blas describe the enthusiasm of the Trump administration as a “Optimistic PowerPoint”. Blas maintains that the island is not a Wonderland of raw materials: if after decades of exploration no large mining company has operated successfully, it is because the processing costs—which would exceed 1 billion dollars—devour any profits. Added to this is that deposits as Kvanefjeld They are co-located with radioactive uranium, which has generated massive social rejection and environmental laws that block the projects. The mirage of mining wealth. Currently, Greenland only has two active mines: an anorthosite mine and the Nalunaq gold mine. The latter, operated by the Canadian Amaroq Minerals, managed to produce 6,600 ounces of gold in 2025, exceeding its own forecasts. But as Scott Dunn, CEO of Noveon Magnetics, points out, in Fortunethe success of gold (a high-value, low-volume mineral) is not scalable to rare earths. While Washington makes long-term plans in the Arctic, companies like Dunn’s are already producing magnets in Texas with materials sourced outside China, demonstrating that the solution to technological supply could be closer to home than the Polar Circle. The China factor: the silent owner. The great strategic obstacle to the “Donroe Doctrine” is not only the ice, but that Beijing is already there. China controls near the 90% of global supply of rare earths and has known how to play its cards in the Greenlandic subsoil through litigation. The company Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), with significant Chinese capital, holds an arbitration international against Greenland, demanding historic compensation of $11.5 billion — four times the island’s GDP — following the ban on uranium mining in 2021. This legal dispute places the island in a geopolitical clamp: Washington wants control to expel Beijing, but the latter is already blocking the richest deposits through business actions and prior exploitation rights. The navigable Arctic: an unexpected ally? Paradoxically, the hoax Climate change is what is accelerating the White House’s plans. Greenland is warming much faster than the rest of the planet, and melting ice is transforming the Arctic into a strategic trade corridor. As the New York Times reportsthe Polar Silk Road is no longer a projection: in October 2025, a Chinese ship reached Great Britain from the north in just 20 days, saving 40% of the time compared to the Suez Canal. This new connectivity turns Greenland into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the middle of new sea routes. However, sea ice melting does not solve the problem on land. In the north of the island, extreme weather continues to force any mining machinery to hibernate for six months a year, maintaining profitability like an “optical illusion.” The treasure behind the ice wall. The attempt to take control of Greenland seems to hit a wall of environmental laws, hostile geology and, above all, a total absence of basic infrastructure. The Trump administration has invested hundreds of millions in mining companies, but the results remain buried under layers of permafrost. As Anthony Marchese summarizes in Fortune: “If you go to Greenland for its minerals, you’re talking about billions of dollars and an extremely long time.” While the White House sells the island as the definitive trophy of the new technological Cold War, the technical reality of 2026 dictates a simpler sentence: the island’s greatest treasure remains protected not by weapons or treaties, but by the lack of a road that reaches it. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The US has decided that Europe is its problem in Greenland. Germany wants to convince him that the problem is Russia

The train of storms that threatens Spain is just the beginning of the problem

January 13, 2026 by usatoday24

What is happening? What is going to happen? As I write these lines, nine autonomous communities they have yellow notices due to rain, wind and other coastal phenomena. And the reason, as we have been repeating for the last few days, is a “train” of fronts that comes directly from the bowels of the Atlantic and will cross the peninsula. The forecast, in data. The models are beginning to converge and the forecasts are quite clear: Waves of up to five meters on the Cantabrian coast and off the coast of Galicia. Winds will easily reach 61 kilometers per hour. No particularly intense rains are expected in the coming days (the peak may be 15 l/m2 in areas of Huelva and Cádiz). Although, yes, those accumulated in Galicia, Zamora, Ávila and Cáceres may be important — above all, in a context of saturated soils. The winds, for their part, will be above 70 kilometers per hour throughout the north of the peninsula. And, with these figures, why is it important? Because of what is known as ‘multiplier risk’: we are not going to face any peak of intense rain, but the recurrence of fronts will increase operational risks. It is the meteorological equivalent of a ‘calabobos’: it seems that it does not get wet, but it ends up with half of Spain completely soaked. The only question is whether an effective “atmospheric river” is formed (or not). That is, if the humid and warm air from the Gulf of Mexico integrates into one of these fronts and a greater blow is produced. A “normal” circulation in an “abnormal” context. Because, as it is worth remembering, the cold days of recent weeks are beginning to not be normal on the peninsula. And, although this relatively active western circulation is, the arrival of successive fronts complicates the situation: there is a lot of water accumulated in the form of snow. So we go back to normal. A normality that is summarized in waiting to see how long it takes for the storm corridor to close and waiting for the swamps to continue filling. Summer will be here sooner than it seems. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | While the snow devours half of Europe, there is a place where it is 27ºC and on the beach in the middle of January: Greece

China knows that what happens in ‘Interstellar’ is a real problem on the Moon. And it has been proposed to solve it

January 13, 2026 by usatoday24

58.7 microseconds. That is the daily margin of error that separates a terrestrial clock from one on the Moon. This time lag It seems ridiculous, but it brings head to aerospace engineers for decades. The reason? That ‘sigh’ can be crucial in a mission, the difference between a perfect landing and a disaster. And while in the West we continue talking about the problems of Artemis missionin China they have found the solution for that time lag. It is called LTE440, and it is another example of the China’s methodical advance in the new space race. Microsecond piggy bank. If you have seen the movie ‘Interestellar’, looking for information about how time flies far from Earth, that you would come across the general relativity theory formulated by Albert Einstein. Simply put, the passage of time is relative, and the speed at which it passes depends on two factors: gravitational field intensity and orbital speed. The stronger the gravity, the slower time passes, and that is why it moves a little faster on the Moon than on Earth. The net result of that orbital effect is a slight advance in lunar clocks. One of between 56 and 58.7 microseconds per day, or 0.000058 seconds. It seems tiny and negligible, but in the end, the sum of 58 microseconds each day is there. 0.0017 seconds per month. 0.021 seconds per year. It is still little, but in terms of the space industry, it is unacceptable. LTE440. This synchronization between the lunar and terrestrial clocks has been one of the headaches of space engineering for years. In 2024, the International Astronomical Union, fixed that the Moon should have its own temporal reference. Meanwhile, time has passed and an answer has arrived: LTE440, or ‘Lunar Time Ephemeris‘. It is a software developed between the Purple Mountain observatory next to the University of Science and Technology of China. And it arrives to solve two of the historical problems in that lunar timing: Precision: Complex missions require total accuracy (not with a Casio, but with atomic clocks), and the solutions until now did not allow such precision. Complex calculations: Current solutions were not very accessible and engineers had to do laborious calculations and mathematical operations to solve jet lag. Absurd accuracy. It is estimated that the precision of LTE440 It will be less than 0.15 nanoseconds before 2050 and its accumulated errors will remain below 1/20,000,000 of a second even after a thousand years. But more important than this is that the research team has made obtaining the calculations as simple as doing a single operation. Thus, the LTE440 software will allow you to directly and easily compare lunar time with Earth time. opening doors. Okay, great, but… really that much for 56 microseconds? Having the current aspiration of creating a communication network and missions both with the Moon and interplanetary, one of the most logical applications is that of a global network of lunar clocks. Another is to allow extremely precise remote control missions to be carried out from Earth. China and Russia, for example, plan build an International Lunar Research Station looking to 2035, and LTE440 opens the door to more precise operations on the satellite ground. But also something more tangible and easy to understand: establishing a navigation system similar to GPS on the Moon. It is something that does not exist, but that seems crucial for future space missions. Because this is not about establishing colonies on the Moon, but about taking advantage of the satellite. For example, to investigate it, but also to get resources that can be used on Earth. And a system like LTE440 is an open door for the development of the navigation technologies necessary to bring these missions to fruition. The US looks closely. As we say, China has one eye on the Moon and space, and that is something that the United States is following with interest. China is taking giant steps and the United States has come to feel that it is being left behind. Artemis II is the American answera program full of problems and delaysbut it seems that it is already working. On the other hand, and as with the terrestrial situation, the United States considers that China’s advance in space is not a mere scientific question, but rather a threat to the country’s national security. They have reached aim that the Space Force will do “whatever it takes to achieve space superiority.” Therefore, LTE440 is, at the same time, a technological milestone, a great step for humanity in the new space race and a threat to those interests of the United States. Now, as we read in SCMPthe software is still in an early phase, so it has yet to be applied in real-time navigation solutions. Images | Tomruen In Xataka | Hubble continues to discover amazing things about the universe: a starless galaxy dominated by dark matter

A beetle is decimating the population of Salamanca. And the biggest problem is that it is protected

January 13, 2026 by usatoday24

The story is old, He is almost 20 years old: a protected beetle is destroying the Salamanca oak forests. It is a wood borer that digs galleries in the oaks and ends up weakening them to the point of death. The aggravation. And, although it is true that the dehesa is a very small and localized ecosystem, its economic, social and symbolic importance is enormous. Therefore, the idea of a plague that is ‘drilling’ the productive infrastructure of western Spain and that cannot be controlled because it is “in danger of extinction” makes many people nervous. The problem, as always, is that the matter is a little more complicated. What is that Cerambyx pig? Also known as ‘greater capriconium of the oaks‘, it is one of the largest beetles left in Europe. It is relatively easy to recognize it because it has disproportionate, enormous antennae, longer than the body itself. And yes, indeed, the Habitats Directive protects it at European level. That is, member states have the obligation to establish special areas for their conservation. What happens is that in Spain, at least, this has generated problems: to what we have already mentioned about the oak forests of Castilla y León, we must add the case of the Balearic Islands where the authorities they dedicate million-dollar budgets to protect the Tramuntana Mountains from the overpopulation of these insects. So it is a problem, right? Yes of course. What happens is that a small detail is usually ignored: that, as technical studies have been saying for decadesthe most susceptible trees are usually old or in poor physiological condition. That is to say, historically the greater Capricorn had an almost symbiotic relationship with ecosystems: it helped ‘renew’ the forest, eliminating trees in poor condition. That is, the current problem it’s not just the beetle: it is the poor state of the mountains and pastures. Disrepair? a few weeks ago we were talking de la Seca, a serious disease caused by a pathogen (Phytophthora cinnamomi), linked directly to the decay and death of holm oaks and cork oaks. But, as we also said, despite the alarmism about pests, they are the consequence of decades of bad forestry practices that have undermined the ecosystem from within. The pasture, we already know, is not a ‘virgin natural environment’: it is a very complex agro-silvo-pastoral system the result of centuries of forest clearing, extensive grazing and human uses of all kinds. Practices that have disappeared and have been replaced by other industrial practices that applied little management and a lot of brute force. To that, we must also add climate change. Mytec What is in danger of extinction is the ecosystem. That is the real problem: the hundreds and thousands of trees in poor condition, with strong water stress and problems of all kinds. And that’s where pests grow. Let’s go back to the beetle. Because, of course, its special protection status makes managing it even more difficult than normal. That’s why, The normal complaint is that “you can’t fumigate”: but that doesn’t mean you can’t ‘fight’. Things like silvicultural prevention, surveillance and advanced technical means can help control populations. Furthermore, the same regulations that protect it allows more serious approaches when necessary. However, the problem is the same as always: the forest (even a forest as socio-economically important as the dehesa) is only profitable if the externalities generated by its exploitation are not considered. The best examplewe have been seeing in Murcia for years. Image | Mytec / Josh Hume In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

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