problem

A month after the blackout in Spain, we continue to drag the same problem that led us to him: electric networks

by

The energy transition progresses strongly, but does so on a fragile base. According to the International Energy Agency, In your latest reportthis year 3.3 billion dollars in energy will be invested and only 12% will go to the networks. The imbalance is evident. And also worrying. A worrying imbalance. According to the IEAfor every dollar destined to produce electricity, just 40 cents are invested in transport networks. There are even more, the transformers can take up to four years to be available. To that is added a worrying increase. Since 2018, the prices of cables and transformers have doubled, making the expansion of infrastructure that support the system even more difficult and expensive. Is there a risk of blackout? The IEA has made it clear: “Entrepreneurship safety requires a rapid increase in networks.” A warning that resonates strongly on the Iberian Peninsula, which the report mentions as a case study after The April 2025 blackout. As for the blackout, and even without definitive official causes, everything indicates that it was not caused solely by the low inertia of the system, as initially suggested, but by a chain of chained technical failures. However, what this incident illustrates a structural problem: Investment in infrastructure and support technologies, such as MicroRedes either storage. Without a reinforced and prepared network to manage an increasingly complex electrical system, you can suffer interruptions. A bottleneck. There is even more, because a human capital challenge is added to investment problems. IEA has estimated that by 2030 there will be a deficit of 1.5 million workers qualified in electrical networks. This shortage affects key tasks such as the installation of transformers, digital systems or advanced control. In addition, planning and permits are slow processes. Networks require more than cables: they need intelligence, distributed control and resilience against failures. Are there solutions on the horizon? IEA has proposed Two clear lines: on the one hand, long -term network plans (minimum 10 years) such as those already applied India, Brazil or South Africa; And on the other, bet on digitalizationwhich already represents 25% of the global investment in electrical networks. The urgency of reinforcement. The final warning of the report does not leave interpretations: “Without action, the electrical networks will be the bottleneck of the energy transition” without a modern, robust and prepared network to manage variable clean energy, the green transition will not only be inefficient: it can become insecure. Renewable growth cannot be sustained on infrastructure of the twentieth century. So here a fairly clear question underlies: are we reinforcing our electrical networks with the same ambition with which we install renewables, or are we building on unstable terrain? Image | Miguel Á. Padriñán Xataka | In Elche a solar macroproject threatens a protected place. It is only the tip of the iceberg of a problem throughout Spain

Spacex has always been 10 years ahead of the competition. The problem is that in China that law no longer applies

by

The Falcon 9 rocket has turned 15 this week. In December they will do 10 years of their first landing. Eight ago that was first reused. More than 400 reusations later, Spacex still has no competition. But the competition will not arrive staggered, it will arrive suddenly and will do so from China. The Boyante China Space Industry He is living an authentic effervescence in the development of reusable rockets. Operations? Even none, but far from being projects on paper, there are already several companies that have successfully completed vertical take -off and landing tests with prototypes that mix technologies inspired by Falcon 9 with more modern ones, anticipating the entry into Starship service. These advances, which remind the first days of the Grasshopper and Starhopper Spacex prototypes, are not only aimed at deploying mega-constellations of Chinese satellites, but also to compete in the global release market. Assembly of astrophysic Daniel Marín (Eureka) with Chinese VTVL prototypes Space Epoch: This relatively young company (founded in 2019), hit the table on May 28, 2025. Its VTVL Yuanxingzhe 1 (YXZ-1) prototype, 4.2 meters in diameter and made of stainless steel, made a leap of 2.5 kilometers high, threatening controlled in the sea. According to Eureka, it was The first Chinese VTVL prototype to make controlled amelizer: He had no landing train and was designed to perch and sink slowly, a strategy that Space Epoch plans for recovery From the first stage of its orbital rocket Yuanxingzhe 1. Once operational, this rocket intends to place more than 10 tons in low orbit. The prototype is propelled by a longyun Ly-70 engine of methane and liquid oxygen. Landspace: One of the most advanced private, Landspace is developing the Zhuque-3a two -stage rocket of methane and liquid oxygen built in stainless steel, with a height of 76.6 meters, comparable to Falcon 9. Its VTVL prototype performed An impressive 10 -kilometer altitude In September 2024 (Eureka mentioned a second jump of the ZQ-3 VTVL-1 at this point on September 11, while other sources point to the end of August for a similar milestone). This flight included the first realer in flight of an engine during the descent in China, landing successfully. Landspace aspires to a first orbital launch of Zhuque-3 in 2025, with recovery of the first stage by 2026. ISPACE: Another private pioneer, Ispace, is working on its reusable Hyperbola-3 rocket. To do this, his Hyperbola-2y (SQX-2Y) test vehicle completed several VTVL jumps at the end of 2023: one of 178 meters in November and another of 343 meters in Decemberboth with successful landings. These trials were crucial to validate the technology of their Metallox engines and guidance systems. ISPACE plans the first flight of Hyperbola-3 by 2025 and the recovery of its first stage in 2026. Deep Blue Aerospace: This Nanjing-based company develops the Nebula-1 (Xingyun-1), a fluid oxygen rocket and oxygen. Already in May 2022, its demonstrator VTVL completed a 1 kilometer jump with successful landing. In September 2024, a major prototype tried a jump with greater altitude (between 5 and 10 km), But he suffered a hard landing due to a problem with thrust controlalthough the company considered that many objectives of the essay were met. Deep Blue Aerospace also has the Nebula-2 in its plans, a Heavy Class-class launcher 9. Sast (Shanghai Academy of SpaceFlight Technology): This state entity, part of CASC (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation), is leading government effort in reusable rockets. Its VTVL prototype, sometimes called Longxing 1 and associated with the future CZ-12A or CZ-12R (a reusable version of the CZ-12), has also made remarkable jumps. On June 23, 2024, this prototype, propelled by three longyun Ly-70 engines (the same as Space Epoch), reached 12 kilometers of altitude on a test flight from Jiuquan. Subsequently, on January 19, 2025, a second prototype tried an even more ambitious leap of 75 kilometers from Haiyang, but was lost during the flight. Galactic Energy: Known for its CERES-1 rocket, Galactic Energy is developing pallas-1, a fluid oxygen rocket and oxygen with a first reusable stage. Although he has not yet made a VTVL jump with a full rocket prototype, In August 2023 he carried out a vertical landing test using a reaction motor proof vehicle (nicknamed “Firebird”) to validate control algorithms. They expect the first orbital launch of Pallas-1 (in disposable mode) between the late 2025 and early 2026. Linkspace: It was the first Chinese private company to focus on reusable rockets. Already in August 2019, its RLV-T5 prototype made a 300-meter leap with successful landing, a pioneering milestone for Chinese startups. Although its subsequent progress has been slower compared to its competitors, its initial role was fundamental. Space Pioneer: This company is developing the Tianlong-3, a Falcon 9 class launcher designed from the beginning for reuse. Although he has not yet performed a VTVL test, the company has advanced in the construction and proof of the Tianhuo-12 engines and the first stage of the rocket. Its first orbital launch is expected between 2024 and 2025 (without attempted recovery on the first flight), closely followed by VTVL landing tests. Vertical landings ‘Made in China’ The list does not end there, which draws a trend: China not only wants to match Spacex’s reuse capacity, but is cultivating a robust ecosystem to compete directly with Elon Musk’s company. The objectives: reduce launch costs, increase cadence for the deployment of new mega-constellations (Like Guowang, the Chinese answer to Starlink) and, ultimately, cut distances with the company that is launching 80% of the total mass that is put into orbit. So, although Spacex remains the indisputable reference in the reuse of orbital rockets, the question is no longer whether it will have a serious rival in China, but which of this growing legion of contenders, in addition to the CASC itself, will be the first to consistently replicate the feat of landing and reuse orbital rockets as something routine. The race is in full swing, and landing platforms on land and sea … Read more

One day, all Germans in Germany appeared closed on Google Maps. The problem is that nobody knows why

by

He common sense It is the best guide to avoid mistakes. The problem is that it is easy for us to leave it aside while We blindly trust technology As if it were infallible. And if not, they tell the German German drivers because, just before a national bridge, they saw in Google Maps What half country had become a forbidden area. Short. On Thursday, May 29, the Ascension Dayeither Christi Himmelfahrt. It is a national holiday whose previous day is one of those who more displacements record. HE esteem That, at that time, there are between six and eight million displacements, but although many concentrate the day before the holiday, there are also millions of displacements the day in question. The surprise came when drivers who use Google Maps in your vehicle They ran into With this image in which you can see a “prohibited” symbol on the main roads that join the four cardinal points of the country and cities as important as Berlin, Hamburg or Frankfurt. Inutschland in GanzChaos Bei Google Maps: Dienst Zeigt Unzählige False Sperrungenhttps://t.co/qefirrihx3 – Peter Berger (@leosgeminix) May 29, 2025 Alternative road collapse. It may have happened to you that seeing a sign of “prohibited the step” and your common sense dictates that you should pay attention to that signal, but the GPS Indicates that you can go through that street and, for a moment, you lean to browse. We trust them because they do not usually fail, but given that vision of the main cut roads, and how we read in The Guardianthere were those who did not play it and decided to go on secondary roads. The result was expected: collapse in some of them, delays, travelers trying to find deviations to those main routes and many calls to the police and the traffic control authorities asking about the situation. Also speculation about a cyber attack (as with the blackout in Spain) or a terrorist attack. Citizen collaboration. There was also the case of people who did not attend to those stop signals and dared to circulate on those roads, supposedly, cut. When they could do it without problem, they began to report their cases and that was when Google began to act. The company began to eliminate those notices in the application and traffic was restored as the rest of the people undertook their trips and consulted a route on Google Maps that no longer had the warning symbols. Engadget He assures that the error only lasted two hours, but it is more than enough time for that avalanche of drivers on secondary roads. Ok, but … what caused it? Google’s response was extremely vague. As we read in Arstechnicathe company did not comment specific details and, in fact, a Google spokesman confirmed to German media that the company would not give details about the case. They limited themselves to saying that a technical problem had been investigated that showed temporary road closures inaccurately, but that it had already been solved. They also commented that Google Maps baby from three sources: user reportspublic sources and external suppliers. And there may be the “guilty” (among many quotes). The German Automobile Club is one of the largest automobile associations in Europe and, in the face of the holiday, He warned on possible retentions on those roads. The speculation is that the Maps failure was related to a “hallucination” of the application due to jamsstill, non -existent. Not all GPS. Now, those who had to drive with total tranquility that day were the users of Apple Maps and Waze. Although the latter is owned by Google, both showed the traffic data correctly, without any closing signal on those roads. Being so marked for the exits in Germany, the drivers who were guided with those apps had to drive quieter than ever. In the end, it was at anecdote and in travelers who arrived something later to their destination, but can also teach a lesson: having several alternativestaking an eye on each of them before leaving is not a bad idea. Image | Xataka assembly In Xataka | Register or pay the fine: Spain already has a toll road where you cannot pay in the window

Grandmothers have always taken chairs to the street to chat. In Granada they have encountered a problem: the police

by

Santa Fe is A municipality of the Vega de Granada (Granada) of Luenga Historia and somewhat less than 15,000 neighbors that has just sneaked into headlines From the whole country for a peculiar motive: to have declared war on such an entrenched custom, as grenadine, as summer and apparently as peaceful as taking chairs to the streets to chat the fresco during the sunsets of the summer. Or so They interpreted it The networks until the mayor has been forced to take the floor to calm the spirits. The controversy has stirred a curious question: Can the grandparents continue enjoying long talks forming corrosons on the sidewalks, sitting to the fresh? The origin of everything: a tweet. The check From the Local Police of Santa Fe in X it does not reach the thousand followers, but holds the dubious honor of having published one of the most controversial tweets of recent weeks. The reason? On Tuesday, May 27, early in the afternoon, the police station launched A message in his profile in which he warned about the risks of placing chairs on the sidewalks to chat. “We know that taking chairs or tables at the door is a tradition in many villages, but public roads are regulated. If the police ask to withdraw them, do it out of respect and coexistence. With civism and common sense there are no discomfort,” he said The messagewhich in a matter of a few days has accumulated 6.5 million visualizations, around 6,000 responses and It has been replicated in media All Spain. Click on the image to go to Tweet. Why’s that? More than for the message itself, for the image that accompanied him and the association of ideas he suggested. The notice of the Local Police of Santa Fe included A photograph in which you could see a group of six old women sitting quietly in the semicircle in front of a house, on the sidewalk. Plastic and folding chairs. Pleasant chachara. And a group of elders enjoying the fresco of the sunset after a hot day. An almost traditional scene that we have been seeing in the streets (both in Santa Fe and other peoples) and cinemas without to date having generated the slightest controversy. And the scandal arrived. It doesn’t matter that the rest of the Santa Fe Local Police publications accumulate just a handful of Likesor comments. The famous grandmothers’s tweet ended up viralizing, jumping to media like South Canal, ABC, The Spanish either local newspapers and unleashing a heated debate in X in which the sneer and indignation were combined. “Enough impunity for grandparents who take the fresco when the afternoon falls. All the weight of the law”, Ironiza A user. “Handling and misrepresented”. The controversy climbed to such an extent that a few days ago the mayor of Santa Fe, Juan Cobo, granted An interview To the Cope chain to clarify what they allow and what do not allow municipal ordinances and what the police really wanted to convey with their famous message. The talk It has hung in full On the official website of the City Council and basically clarifies that the elderly of their breaks on the sidewalks have never wanted to deprive. “It has misrepresented. It seems that there are no more important news,” He lamented The mayor. A for “uncivic” attitudes. Although The tweet of discord It was accompanied by the photo of a group of old women sitting on chairs on the sidewalk, smiling and in peaceful attitude, Cobos nuances that the message was actually intended for other people: those who occupy the public space of the town with “uncivic” attitudes. From there, he says that no one in Santa Fe pretends to prohibit the elders of the town that they continue to take chairs to the sidewalk at sunset to hold quiet conversation and at schedules in which they do not bother the rest of their neighbors. “No one will prohibit our elders from going to the door, feel and enjoy the fresco. Not much less. This is intended for those who, doing uncivic acts, put themselves at the doors with the excuse of taking the fresco, cut the streets, put barbecues, sing, touch the guitar and leave everything in that way,” Cobo precisewhich ensures that the municipal police station receives an “avalanche” of calls from people who complain about that kind of behavior. The key: the regulations. The mayor It goes further And remember that what is and is not allowed is regulated in an ordinance prior to its arrival at the Consistory, a rule that seeks to guarantee “the coexistence and rest” of the residents of the people. “What they are doing is to remember that there is an ordinance, that the fresco can be taken, but without disturbing others,” The councilor insists In reference to the tweet. “People who get up at five at six in the morning have the right to rest.” “Our elders who have the absolute certainty that they will be able to continue taking the fresco as until now,” The first mayor remarks Before complaining that the news about the supposed war of Santa Fe against afternoon on the sidewalks has come out of mother, with statements that he believes “manipulated.” In summary: the elders of the people can continue enjoying such an entrenched, so peculiar tradition that there are Who thinks which deserves to be a World Heritage. Image | Santa Fe Local Police (X) In Xataka | Aragon wanted his children to eat more fruit at school. So he went to look for her 10,000 kilometers away

China has emerged a new problem with its rare earths: smuggling

by

China is deploying police, customs agents and even spies to stop the smuggling of its increasingly precious Rare earthcritical minerals on which it maintains an official embargo. Why is it important. The Asian giant The world production of these materials is obsessively controllingessential for the car, technological and military industry. Its new anti -policy campaign aggravates even more the shortage that US and European companies are already suffering, who are not finding short -term alternatives. The context. China cut legal exports of seven types of rare earths –and magnets manufactured with them– last April 4. The measure is part of a pressure strategy for the United States to reduce tariffs on Chinese products and allow the sale of sensitive military technology to China. Yes, but. Smuggling had historically been an escape valve. Chinese organized crime unions came to traffic half of the country’s annual production before 2010. Multinationals such as Boeing, Volkswagen and Toyota depended on supply chains where legal and illegal production was mixed, according to a report from The New York Times. Between bambalins. Senior customs, trade, police and intelligence services met on May 9 to Plan the offensive. Three days later, representatives of eleven national ministries and seven provinces issued a joint statement: the control of strategic mineral exports is “related to national security.” In detail. The new license system demands thorough documentation. Complete traceability. Chinese companies have to certify not only who buys the material, but how it will be used at each subsequent stage of production, including photographs of final products. This information, in addition to avoiding smuggling, can also become a detailed map of the use of rare earths abroad for the Chinese government. And that would facilitate future attacks directed against specific companies and countries: they will know who will produce what. The facts. Traditional smuggling routes have been complicated: With the scarcity getting worse outside China and prices shooting, the potential benefits for smugglers willing to assume the risk are enormous. But new security measures make the game more and more dangerous. Outstanding image | Lio voo In Xataka | China has executed three master moves to break the technological dependence of the West. The sanctions were his best gift

In Elche a solar macroproject threatens a protected place. It is only the tip of the iceberg of a problem throughout Spain

by

Spain advances in its energy transition, but not without conflicts. In Galicia, for example, the expansion of wind farms has generated A growing social rejection for its impact on the landscape. Something similar happens in the teacher, where local communities They denounce the implementation of renewables without planning or consensus. Now, the conflict moves south of the province of Alicante. The voices of the protest. The environmental group friends of the wetlands of southern Alicante (AHSA) has resorted to the authorization of Lucinala, a macroproject of solar energy As detailed in their press release. The authorization was granted by the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, despite the fact that the group presented allegations and a first resource last years, still unanswered. Although the project has been reformulated and its reduced surface, environmentalists continue to see it as a direct threat to the natural and agricultural values ​​of the Galvany Clot environment. Project chronology. Lucinala, a solar plant of more than 62 MW of power and 120 hectares of surface, has already received two administrative authorizations In just 15 months. Despite the unfavorable reports issued by entities such as the City Council of Alicante or the road unit, the central government gave the project to the project in January and April 2024, according to He explained The information. The local medium continues to detail that the promoter has introduced modifications in response to these institutional objections, such as the underground of evacuation lines, the elimination of an intermediate substation or the displacement of the electric layout. These measures allowed the project to raffle the main legal obstacles. However, they have not managed to dissipate the social or ecological opposition to the project. A protected area. In the province of Alicante there are about twenty protected placesnot as many as in other areas of Spain. For this reason, the location of the Lucinala plant is especially sensitive in a critical area from the environmental point of view: The Landscape Basin of Galvany Clot. This wetland, located in the municipality of Elche, has various protection figures, both regional and European. The Ecologists collective In your press release He has denounced that the set of eleven solar plants would occupy more than 190 hectares, a figure that exceeds in 10 hectares the total area of ​​the wetland itself. In addition, they added that 60 hectares of high quality agricultural land, 31 hectares of forest land and 25 hectares of areas with flood risk would be affected. And the ecological connection of the Clot was committed to the Serra of why, to the north, which would fragment key habitats for local fauna. This can bring tail. Beyond the specific case, AHSA, together with more than 150 organizations integrated into the Macrorenovable Platform, They have denouncedA speculative “bubble” driven by European subsidies Next Generation. On the other hand, AHSA has warned that renewable projects in process in Spain are already 144 GW of power, well above the 89 GW planned in The National Energy and Climate National Plan (PNIEC) 2021-2030. Even so, the Latest reports From Red Eléctrica de España (REE) they have indicated that, at the end of 2024, the installed renewable power reached 85.1 GW, very close to the marked objective. Reopening the debate. It is true that from the environmental group they insist that abandoning fossil fuels is urgent, but they warn that a poorly planned transition can reproduce old errors: concentration of energy power, loss of territorial sovereignty and false promises of sustainability. Instead, they bet on a fair transition, decentralized and sensitive to territory. At that crossroads, the question continues in the air: how to move towards clean energy without leaving behind the territory, biodiversity and those who inhabit it. Image | Pxhere and Ferran tab Xataka | Solar panels that clean other solar panels: the photovoltaic industry has entered its self -replicant phase

We have been listening for years that commercial calls end. The problem is that they never end

by

Next June 7 Mobile use will be prohibited to make commercial calls. From that moment “they will have to be done from a prefix from a province or from an 800 or 900 number,” said the Minister for Digital Transformation and Public Function, Óscar López. It is an important news in the fight against telephone spam, but the problem is that it is not enough, and most likely we continue to receive these types of annoying calls. Eternal fight against unwanted commercial calls In June 2023 It entered into force he last change of the General Telecommunications Law (LGT) that establishes that we cannot receive commercial calls without prior consent. However, Made the law, made the trapbecause the problem is that they can continue calling us if previously We gave our consent. The question is, did we give it? The truth is that yes, because a good part of these communications we have authorized when hiring various services, opening accounts on the Internet or filling business forms. In these documents there are usually clauses that we implicitly accept when leaving our data. According to the modification of the LGT, there are two exceptions that allow companies to make calls to users: If we have expressed prior consent in the contract: The normal thing is that we have granted it without realizing it. In many cases we even authorize third companies to call us if they are related to the contracted services. If the company has a legitimate interest in communication: that “legitimate interest“For example, in the case of calls to improve the service and offer discounts. In those cases they are not considered unwanted communications. Both exceptions are reasonable, but in practice companies are using them abusive. The new reform that will enter into force this Saturday, June 7, was announced months ago. It does not completely solve that problem, even if it mitigates it. There will be no commercialized calls made from mobile phones, but calls with international origin will be blocked, another method that advertisers They took the opportunity to continue “frondo” To users to unwanted commercial calls. The previous consent will have an expiration date Even more striking is the fact that the traditional “trap” that companies had used may no longer have indefinite validity. Thus, the previous consent we had granted will have a two -year “expiration”. From that moment It must be renewed. In this new reform of the regulations there are two other interesting measures that can help mitigate the problem a little more: Nullity of contracts: If we receive an unwanted commercial call and sign a contract for that call, said contract will be considered null and we can request your nullity. Registration of senders: As operators will maintain a record of authorized numbers for commercial calls: if the sender is not registered in the registry, the calls will be blocked. These measures may not eliminate the problem completely, but it is reasonable to think that they will reduce the number and frequency of unwanted commercial calls. We will continue to receive commercial calls The reforms of the General Telecommunications Law leave the doors open to companies can continue to contact users. To start and as we said, they can only do it from a prefix of a province OA through numbers 800 and 900. This type of messages and spoofing calls will probably continue being one of the traditional cyber attacks. But in addition to the calls we receive from such numbers for having given prior consent, there are two others: Operators: The law establishes a period of up to 12 months since the decline of a telephone company is caused so that those responsible can make calls in order to retain or bring the client back. Fraud and scams: It is something that companies fail to stop and continue to suffer. Through Spoofing ‘techniques They manage to falsify the sending of messages and calls to deceive users. The government has been raising solutions In this regard, but for the moment the problem persists. Many measures, no definitive The condemnation of commercial calls (whether real or scams) is limited, but seems difficult to eliminate it completely in the short term. The reforms that the government has been carrying out for two years have contributed to limiting the ways in which companies take advantage of this resource, and the end of commercial calls from mobile number is a good sample of this. However, there will continue to exceptions in them we will continue to receive commercial calls. The Robinson list It will continue to be another of the tools to try to avoid those spam calls, but there will undoubtedly other others such as Google call filter or a new alternative called Stop Advertising. All of them contribute to mitigate one of the big problems for mobile users. One that will be difficult to disappear at all, but to which little by little they are putting more and more obstacles. And meanwhile, a last resort: We can always report. The Spanish data protection agency puts at our disposal A form with which make a formal claim When we detect unwanted commercial calls that violate the law. In Xataka | Solving one of the great mysteries of our time: if it is useful to sign up for the Robinson list In Xataka Mobile | I thought I blocked the so -called spam and it turns out that I was asking to be called. This is how the previous consent works

The world wants more and more matcha tea. The problem is that Japan is not being able to give it to him

by

For centuries Matcha tea It has been one of the most recognizable symbols of Japanese culture. Now is that and something else: a drink popularized by social networks and coveted in the international market to such an extent that, in Japan itself, there are stores that have been forced to limit sales by customer. The world is thirsty for Matcha. Increasingly. And that has triggered a deep imbalance in the market that will not be easy to correct in the short term. The big question is … why? Limited purchases. The market of Matchaa popular Japanese powder tea that is made with Técha leaves And it stands out for its bright green color, faces a complicated scenario: a considerable (and growing) decoupling between the supply and demand that has even led some suppliers to limit the amount of product they sell to their customers. Recently Nikkei Asia He spoke of online stores without stock or UJI and Kyoto stores in which only a single Matcha product per day is allowed to acquire. Nothing else. “Due to the strong and continuous increase in the demand for products in recent months, the current demand has already exceeded our production capacity,” Recognize The store Marukyu Koyamaen In a message posted on its website. “This translates into an extremely low inventory of all Matcha products at this time.” If the scenario were not complex in itself, it is added that there are producers who want to prevent their historical clients, such as temples, sanctuaries and places where the drink is used for ceremonial purposes, they are left short. A figure: 4,176 tons. The figures always help to better understand trends. And that of the Matcha boom is no exception. Although throughout the last decades the consumption of green tea and Matcha has been losing bellows in Japan, its success among foreign consumers has triggered the production of the ground TE. If in 2010 the country produced 1,471 tonsin 2023, according to the data of the Ministry of Japanese Agriculture (Maff), that volume had shot up to the 4,176 tons. Almost triple. The Japan Times Precise In addition, in the last five years, the sector has experienced a key change, orient more and more towards the international market: today more than half of the Japanese matcha ends up exporting. In general Nikkei Calculate That last year the flow of green tea exports reached 8,798 tons, ten times more than a couple of decades ago. Of that volume, powder tea, especially Matcha, represented more than half. The reflection in prices. The increase in demand has not long to move to prices, which draw an upward curve. After years down, the value of the tancha began to rebound after the pandemic and It has been consolidating little by little. In early May the Japanese newspaper The Asashi Shimbun revealed That, in the first auction of the year of green tea held at the Ja Zen-Noh Kyoto distribution center, the kilo reached an average of 8,235 yen, almost 67 dollars and 1.7 times more than a year ago. The value far exceeds the previous record, of 2016. Looking out of Japan. Interestingly, matcha fever comes after decades in which both the consumption of powdered tea and green tea in general has been losing strength In Japan’s households, which also explains that has decreased production. The causes of their renewed boom must be sought beyond, in an international demand that According to some analysts It moves to historical maximums. Only American buyers absorbed in 2024 44% of shipments International TEA powder. Second, quite a distance, Germany and Malaysia are. There are estimates that calculate that Matcha’s world market will be around 5,000 million of dollars in 2028, a more than considerable amount if one takes into account that in 2023 it stood at 2.8 billion. “In spite He recounts in Bloomberg K. Oanh ha. What is that boom? There is not a single factor that explains the growing world thirst for Matcha. When analyzing the phenomenon, analysts usually point out a key: the visibility it has reached in networks, both for its photogenic bright green hue and by the videos and comments that extol their health benefits, a message that seems to have penetrated above all After the pandemic. To that growing interest are added the changes in the consumption of the Matcha, which has ceased to be an exclusive drink of homemade ceremonies and meetings to join bottled drinks or even accompany chocolates and ice cream. And why not grow anymore? The tancha production has grown over the last years, expanding beyond the traditional areas of Japan. In addition, their farmers have seen how new competitors from China and South Korea arrived. So … why not that mismatch between supply and demand is not remedied? The key is in the limitations that the sector itself is found to expand its crops. The country has land, but plantations are not created overnight. It takes years In being lists and tancha leaves need to pass a storage and processing phase. Especially if farmers want to wear stone mills. The sector is not alien to the shortage of collectors and the lack of generational relief in a country that dealt with a serious birth crisis. Either to A record tourism flow that further tense demand. With that backdrop, farmers also face a fear that complicates the investments in the plantations: that the Matcha boom stays alone in that, a punctual fashion. Images | Matcha & Co (UNSPLASH) and T.TSeg (Flickr) In Xataka | Japan’s economy depends more and more on a very Japanese phenomenon: fans absolutely delivered to its idols

In 1958 we found a skull with 300,000 years in China. The problem is that we do not know what “homo” belongs

by

It all started a 1958 day when some peasants from the province of Guangdong in China were collecting guano of bat in a cave and noticed something unusual: bone remains that looked like a human skull. They warned local researchers, who cataloged the piece and baptized it with the name of the nearest people, Mabaand the number ‘1’. When did this be live? At some point in the period between 130,000 and 300,000 years ago, and the big question to answer was to what extent It was our ancestor. A recent study already has the answer. More or less. The ‘Chinese Neanderthal’. You will be wondering how such an extremely open temporal fan is handled, and the answer is that it is complex to perform a more precise dating due to complexity of both the site in which it was found and the features of Maba 1. At first, the specimen was nicknamed as’ the Chinese Neanderthal‘Due to cranial similarities with that species, but other studies have dismantled that hypothesis, bringing it closer to homo. It does not fit. But there was still a problem: facial similarities and microtomography analysis rule out that it was a neanderthal, yes, but it is not fully fits with a Homo erectus or with the Homo sapiens. Either with those Denisovanosand the problem is that it can be many things. Facial features, such as nasal prominence, brings Maba 1 to Neanderthals, but the neurocranium It has similarities with Homo Heidelbergensis and Homo Erectus. However, the cranial volume is comparable to that of modern humans and everything adds to a set that is very different from other Chinese fossils of the Pleistocene. Summary: We have no idea. Seeking to learn more about him, the authors of A new study carried out by researchers from the Institute of Paleontology and Paleantropology of Vertebrates of the Chinese Academy of Sciences analyzed the cranial cavity, the diplus vessels and the rest of the internal structures of the skull. Using the technique of tomography, researchers discovered that MABA 1 does not belong to a single class: it belongs to many. And the truth is that it is not so strange to find hominids of this period that they do not fit completely into established categories. No, it is not a “lost link”, at least not in the most colloquial sense, but it seems to be an individual belonging to those cases than They blur the limits between different species human 3D reconstruction of the skull for study But it teaches us something. This whole case reminds me of the episode of ‘The Simpsons‘In which Lisa finds the skeleton of an’ angel ‘and takes a piece to the local archaeologist to investigate it. After the evidence (which we later knew he did not make), his conclusion was that the results were not conclusive. With Maba 1 something similar happens, but it does leave us an important lesson. The researchers comment that “the internal structures of MABA 1 show a combination of morphological characteristics found in several species. And these findings further evidenced the high morphological variability among Asian hominids in the middle pleistocene.” In fact, Maba 1 is a perfect example of that complexity in the human evolution that we commented, since the mixture of features reminds other contemporary fossils found … in Africa. Researchers are clear that “currently, it cannot be definitively classified in any known hominid taxon”, but also that it remains a key fossil to understand the diversity of the hominids of the Middle Pleistocene in Asia. At the moment, it is not a Neanderthal and, now, we also know that it is a “no erectus.” We will see what happens in future investigations, but Maba 1 is not unique. Images | Ryan Somma, Mankuen In Xataka | The “ghost species” with which our ancestors were settled and disappeared without (almost) leave a trace

Japan has been seeing how its birth collapse little by little. Now faces the result: the “problem 2025”

by

Japan has a great great Population challenge ahead, a demographic watchmaking pump fed by a birth rate that He has won to place in historical minimumsincreased life expectancy and a weight increasing of the elderly population. That is no novelty. However, however, Japanese economists and politicians look with increasing concern A key datethe turning point from which this aging will begin to take its toll to the country. And it has already arrived. The “problem 2025”. Although there is still much 2025 ahead and it is soon to know if Japanese birth will continue The descending curve of The last decadeDemographers have long suspected that this will not be an easy year. And the reason does not reside so much in fertility and mortality rates as in what it represents. 2025 will mark the point where the Japanese born during the Baby Boom of the late 40 (1947-1949) will exceed 75 years. And that means a real challenge for several reasons. In fact, in the country they have been talking about “Problem 2025”. More than a symbol. Japan It is not the only nation that deal with the winds of demographic winter, although there they blow with more force than usual and the problem is faced from a particular perspective. From the outset, the Japanese do not perceive the elderly as most countries. For them, the usual thing is that people who have turned 65 “Genki” categorythat of healthy and active people. As I remembered The Economist A few months agomore than 50% of people between 65 and 69 years and more than a third of those of 70 to 74 are still working. Moreover, in the population group between 65 and 74, only 3% of the Japanese require nursing care. His life is so active that the country’s gerontological association has even proposed to include that cohort in a new category, that of the “pre-estatants.” The thing changes after 75. Crusade that barrier only work 12% of the Japanese and the percentages of the population that require care. They are the “advanced elders”, the horizon that the millions of Japanese are now born during the Baby Boom of the late 40s. And with them the whole of Japanese society does. Why is it a problem? Because, like They have not been warning for some time Experts, that demographic turn will submit the pension system and medical care in Japan to greater pressure. And it will also do it in an aged country, accustomed to seeing how every year it is achieved A new historical minimum of birth rate and in which the population of working age It has been descending evident since the beginning of the century. The result is what experts such as Takado Komine, of the Institute for International Policy Studies (IEPI), has called The “problem 2025”, a crisis with multiple edges and derivatives that affect society and economy. “A sudden increase”. In A recent analysis On the phenomenon, Europa Press cites some of the fronts on which the “problem 2025” will let yourself feel. The first, he remembers citing an IPEI report, will probably be geriatric care services. The organism Consider which is “almost certain” that as of this year doctors and nurses will deal with “a sudden increase” of people who need care, which will result in “a significantly greater burden for workforce.” And what will be the result? A foreseeable personnel and greater pressure deficit on social coverage systems. In 2018, the government has already made accounts and concluded that between 2025 and 2040 the general social security costs, including pensions, will shoot almost 60%. Everything while The weight of the population Over 65 years old does not stop increasing in the country. The report also indicates the challenge that will be for large urban areas, where a greater volume of elderly people is concentrated. The Government has already launched to solve the problem, but the challenge is considerable and is accompanied by threats, such as giving rise to an inequality crisis among older people. How serious is the problem? It arrives with review some figures to understand it. Last year they were born in Japan 721,000 babiesthe lowest data since the country collects statistics. Only in 1949 (in full baby boom) it is estimated that they were born 2.69 million babiesthe same ones that will now cross the 75 -year border. According to Precise The Economistthe population that exceeds that age is expected to rub the 22 million. A decade ago they were just 17. Image | Woody Yan (UNSPLASH) In Xataka | The Japanese demography debacle, illustrated in a graphic that speaks for itself

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

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

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

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