production

The production of this Disney movie was so chaotic that a documentary detailing how it was made disappeared

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In 1994, the director of ‘The Lion King’ had his next big movie ready: a musical epic about the Inca Empire, with Sting composing the songs and Owen Wilson in the cast. Six years later, what ended up hitting theaters was ‘The Emperor and His Follies’, something radically different: an emperor turned into a llama, a good-natured peasant and meta jokes that broke the fourth wall. Animated on the fly from an unfinished script, all to meet the release deadlines promised to McDonald’s. A real debacle recorded in a completely inaccessible documentary. The successor to ‘The Lion King’. Development of the film began in 1994 under the title ‘Kingdom of the Sun‘ (The Kingdom of the Sun), as an epic and dramatic adventure loosely inspired by ‘The Prince and the Pauper’ by Mark Twain. Its director was Roger Allers, who was coming off the biggest hit in the studio’s recent history, ‘The Lion King’. Allers introduced then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, a story set at the height of the Inca civilization. What was it about? The premise was ambitious: an arrogant emperor swaps places with a peasant who physically resembles him, while the villainous Yzma wants to destroy the sun to obtain eternal youth. For the soundtrack, following the model of Elton John’s success in ‘The Lion King’Allers signed Sting, who had already written several songs linked to the original plot. The team traveled to Machu Picchu in 1996 to learn about Inca architecture and Andean landscapes. It was exactly the type of production that Disney had been making since ‘The Little Mermaid’: epic, musical and very, very expensive. So much for Disney. After the disappointing box office results of ‘Pocahontas’ and ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’, two films loaded with dramatic elements, studio executives believed that the project was too ambitious and serious, and that it needed more comedy. The solution was to hire Mark Dindal as co-director, and he was tasked with lightening the tone. Allers continued working on his dramatic epic while Dindal pushed toward the absurd. A test screening in 1998 revealed that schizophrenic tone, in two mutually incompatible directions. One of Disney’s executives threatened producer Randy Fullmer with canceling the project. The McDonald’s problem. Added to all this was an extra problem: the film had to be finished in time to be released in the summer of 2000, since the promotional agreements with McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and other companies had already been signed and depended on that date being met. Allers acknowledged that production was delayed, but asked for between six months and a year of extension to solve the problems. It was denied. The director resigned, leaving Disney with at least $20 or $30 million already spent on animation. And no movie for the summer of 2000. Eisner gave Fullmer two weeks to prove the movie was salvageable. If not, the project was closed. Dindal took control alone. He completed ‘The Emperor and His Follies’ in a year and a half, a record for a Disney production, and with an unusual need in the world of animation: it was produced without a finished script. Also in this process the cast changed: Owen Wilson was replaced by John Goodman, because the character of Pacha stopped being a double of the emperor to become a burly family man from the countryside. The hilarious character of Kronk, one of the film’s great discoveries, did not exist until the end: he was added during emergency rewrites. The documentary that Disney doesn’t want you to see. Sting had agreed to compose the songs on one condition: that his wife, documentary filmmaker Trudie Styler, could film the production process. The resulting documentary‘The Sweatbox’, covers the long and troubled production. The title comes from the screening rooms at Disney studios, known for lacking air conditioning. ‘The Sweatbox’ premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2002 and quickly disappeared from circulation: Disney has never released it on DVD or streaming. The documentary includes, among other moments, the call in which Fullmer tells Sting that his eight songs have been eliminated. Only two Sting songs survived on the final soundtrack. The documentary has been compared to ‘Hearts in Darkness’, the making-of of ‘Apocalypse Now’, for its portrait of the human cost in a decaying creative process. And of course, there is a copy of ‘The Sweatbox’ circulating unofficially on the internet. Poor results. The film ended up grossing $169 million worldwide on a budget of $100 million, a disappointing figure compared to Disney’s other hits during the 1990s. The film found some success in the domestic market and became the best-selling DVD of 2001, which would spawn a television series (‘Kuzco: An Emperor in School’) and a direct-to-video sequel (‘The Emperor’s Crazy 2: Kronk’s Big Adventure’). The footprint. Curiously, the influence of ‘The Emperor and His Follies’ is deeper than it seems. The film’s non-stop parody humor anticipated ‘Shrek’, released just a year later, and other animated films with which DreamWorks Animation would find success in subsequent years. This film is quite a visionary and remains one of the most unclassifiable films of modern Disney. In Xataka | The first cartoons were flat and unappealing, until Walt Disney invented something: the multiplane camera.

Porsche has stopped production of the Taycan because the rich don’t want it. And that says it all about the new Ferrari Luce

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The sports and luxury electric car market has been in a week like no one remembered for a long time. Mercedes and Ferrari have presented two supercars that anticipate their next steps regarding their zero emissions and that confirm their commitment to this technology. Porsche, however, is taking the opposite path: it has temporarily suspended production of its Taycans. What has happened? Porsche has temporarily stopped production of its most advanced electric car, the Taycan. At the moment, we know that at the end of last week the production chain stopped and more closures are anticipated in the short term, explain our colleagues from Motorpassion. And the reason is as simple as that they do not sell. They point out in Automotive and Sportwhich in the first quarter of the year barely 3,420 units have been delivered (19% less than in the same period of the previous year). If these figures hold, at the end of the year Porsche would have sold about 14,000 electric supercars, the lowest figure since its launch. We better stop. They say that a withdrawal in time is a victory. In the case of the automobile industry, it is totally true. When overproduced, the product accumulates in warehouses, takes up space and depreciates. In the end, it is best to give it a way out with suggestive discounts that can eat into the profit margin. This is a problem that Stellantis has experienced firsthand, which even came to “give away” the electric Fiat 500 in the United States to get them off your back. Honda has preferred cancel its upcoming electric launches and assume more than 2,000 million dollars in losses due to the expected low demand. This is a problem for any company but it is much more so for a brand like Porsche whose value is based on exclusivity and brand image. Finding dozens of Porsche Taycans online at ridiculous prices (as ridiculous as the price of a car that starts at over 100,000 euros can be) would be killing its position as a brand that one longs to achieve at some point in their life. Have we reached the limit? The Porsche Taycan was a success in its first years. In a few months of 2020, it already placed more than 20,000 units and in its first full year it exceeded 41,000 units. After a small drop in 2022, in 2023 it once again surpassed that barrier of 40,000 units and everything seemed to be going smoothly. In fact, the company based its strategy for the future on electricity as a fundamental pillar. But 2024 arrived and the crash began. Sales fell by half that year. In 2025 they remained at just over 16,000 units and the accounts say that it looks even worse for the remainder of the year. Along the way, the Chinese public that was essential for Porsche has turned its back on itfocusing on luxury cars much cheaper they are faster and that, above all, They offer other types of experiences. Chinese market closedeverything indicates that in the United States and Europe the market is already full of Porsche Taycan. It must be taken into account that the brand also has to deal with the tariffs in the United States which forces them to raise the price of the car or assume a narrower profit margin. We might think that we are facing the usual drop in sales of a product at the end of its commercial life, but the Taycan was renewed in 2024 and there is no announced replacement model that would make it lose its appeal. a trend. The production stoppage of the Taycan is just one more example of how the market is retreating. The company opted to convert the Macan, its great best-seller, into electric and the bet has gone wrong in numerical terms. Also they seem to have gone backwards to its “electric-only” project for the future Porsche 718. “We were wrong,” its former CEO has come to point out.now president of the Volkswagen Group. On the same wavelength, Lamborghini has stopped its plans to put an electric supercar on the market. Lotus, which within Geely was betting everything on pure electric, will also return to the combustion engine although with hybridization. And Mercedes is going the same way because does not sell its most expensive models. a problem. The electric supercar has a problem: it is not sold. In China, where electric has been assumed as the only future, it seems that there is no turning back but in United States emissions regulations have been eliminated and in Europe it will be allowed to sell cars with combustion engines in a movement that limits them to the most expensive and exclusive vehicles. That is to say, in Europe combustion sports cars will be even more exclusive, as the general fleet of vehicles is rapidly electrified. But, also, an electric can’t match the experience of its sound, its smell and its touch. It may be faster but it doesn’t sell the same experience. a clue. In the last week, Mercedes has presented the new Mercedes-AMG GT in its fully electric version. Without noise, they have recorded the sound of the legendary V8 that until now was under the hood to include it as a soundtrack. An attempt to make the car more than just a fast but aseptic product. The other great failure among the public has been the Ferrari Luce. On social networks and even the most renowned voices within the Ferrari orbit They have skinned him. But the movement is interesting because the new electric points to a different strategyto an audience that Ferrari does not have right now. It doesn’t want to be an electric supercar, it wants to be a fashion accessory. And only from there is its launch understood. Photo | In Xataka | The new Ferrari Luce is much more than Ferrari’s first electric car. It is a desperate cry to find a new audience

On its way to increasing military production, Spain already has two new candidates: Seat and Ford

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Europe rearms. The war in Ukraine and the constant pressure from the United States Government for European countries to increase their defense spending has driven a rearmament that crosses Europe and has raised blisters among the nations that invest the least in defense. One of them is Spain. But Spain, like many other European countries, is already looking for spaces to increase its weapons production. And he has an idea: car factories. What has happened? Spain is already considering using car factories to promote its military modernization programs. That’s what it says Expansiona medium that points to internal Defense sources as the voices that advance the conversations that the Government would have had with companies such as Ford and Seat. According to this medium, the conversations are part of the implementation of “the budgets and sizing of the new military modernization programs (PEM) that are going to be launched.” The objective is to define the budget to be used and where it could go, with the intention of presenting them around summer and assigning them at the end of the year. Seat and Ford? That Seat and Ford are the first to be mentioned makes a lot of sense. With its conversion towards the electric carMartorell planned to reduce staff and resize its facilities. In 2022 they estimated a surplus of almost 2,000 direct jobs and with a commitment to new technology, the El Prat plant focused on gearboxes is one of the most notable. For its part, Ford seems to be looking for a new future to its Almussafes plant or, at least, part of it. The company has significantly reduced its production and, although it has confirmed the assembly of a new modeleverything indicates that Ford does not fully trust the plant. In fact, the latest rumors suggested that The Chinese company Geely wanted to take over part of the facilities. With a view to Defense. Although there is now open talk of converting part of the plants of these two companies into spaces to produce military material, the truth is that this idea has been floating around Seat for a few weeks. Last March it already emerged that Seat negotiated with Indra to manufacture light military vehicles. The agreement, they assured in Five Dayswould have the approval of the Government, which already stated last year that the reconversion of the automobile industrial sector could involve, at least in part, supporting Defense. It also coincides with the increase in Indra’s investments in the military field. Not only in Spain. Reconditioning automobile facilities to produce war material is not an idea that was born in Spain, far from it. In Germany, there have been negotiations that one of the Volkswagen plants begins to manufacture tanks. Last year there was also talk of Renault’s turnaround, pioneer in tank productionto manufacture drones bound for Ukraine. And not just vehicles. Last March there was already talk of the possibility that Volkswagen will start producing parts for missiles at its Osnabrück plant, according to Financial Times. The intention is that trucks would leave their facilities to transport them but also basic equipment such as shuttles or electrical generators to activate them. A key moment. If governments are looking with eager eyes at European automobile plants, it is because they know that the industry is not going through its best moment. The conversion to electric cars points to massive layoffsespecially because they lack a good part of the mechanical components that are present in any combustion car. Furthermore, its simplification points to shorter assembly times, a greater presence of robots and less human capital. These massive layoffs could be saved, at least in part, with the reconversion of these plants. It must be taken into account that manufacturing in Europe is more expensive than doing so in Asia or countries with preferential trade agreements with Europe such as Morocco either Türkiye. This is moving part of European production to these countries. Especially the smaller ones that are more complicated to make profitable. Spain is of the countries that are suffering the least from the blow because, at the level of salaries and energy costs, we are more competitive than plants from Germany or France. However, both Volkswagen with Seat and Ford, Stellantis either mercedes They have dropped that they are willing to reduce their workforce and production in our country. Photo | Caesar and seat In Xataka | Ford invested 1 billion to produce electric cars in Europe. Now it will invest money in laying off 1,000 employees

has skyrocketed its production and is about to say goodbye to imports

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Although officially the war that is grabbing all the headlines these days is the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iranthe reality is that global geopolitics is such a hornet’s nest that the whole world is rearming itself. And while Europe discovers that it is missing essential things as ammunition opqualified personnel to manufacture themChina reaches this critical moment in an almost unbeatable position: the army of its great rival depends more and more of the Asian giant and is also just a breath away from being self-sufficient. The document of “Trends in international arms transfers, 2025” published a few days ago by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, collects the trends, changes and main actors in the global trade in heavy weapons between the periods 2016-20 and 2021-25 and makes one thing clear: in weapons, China cooks it and China eats it. China’s change. While the global volume of arms transfers has grown by 9.2% in the 2021-25 period, China has remained the fifth largest exporter in the world (with 5.6% of the global share). But his way of interacting with the market has changed radically: he now sells more and buys much less. 10 years ago China was the fifth largest arms importer in the world and today it barely appears in 21st place: it has dropped out of the top 10 for the first time since 1991. It is not that it has disarmed by any means. In fact, is producing fighters as if there were no tomorrow and that’s it has surpassed the United States in the production of nuclear submarines. The thing is that you no longer have to buy what you make at home abroad. This is how global arms imports are distributed: the 10 largest importers and the rest. China is in that rest. SIPRI Why is it important. Because China is the second military power in the world in spending (according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies) and that a country of its size and investment stops depending on the foreign market is further confirmation of the maturity of its industry. And reduce his Achilles heel: if he does not depend on anyone for weapons, there is no pressure to try to cut off his supply. Without going any further, one of China’s first measures in the tug of war over tariffs was to tighten its control framework for rare earths, essential for weapons. On the other hand, China’s influence is not only measured by its borders, but by who depends on it: we have already seen how it is essential in the United States supply chain, but the SIPRI report highlights how it stands as the pillar of Pakistan’s defense, is the largest supplier of weapons to Sub-Saharan Africa and is opening new markets in Europe (Serbia). Global context. The SIPRI document places this change in a context of global rearmament, especially in Europe (where there are 210% more imports) and direct competition from the United States. According to the report, the US arms export policy towards Asia and Oceania is partly determined by its objective of containing the influence of China, highlighting key recipients such as Japan, Australia and South Korea. From ‘Made in Russia’ to ‘Made in China’. China has reduced its imports between 2016 and 2025 by 72%. Historically, the Asian giant was dependent on Russian technology, but not anymore. Of course, Russia continues to be its main supplier: it accounts for 66% of the total imported. After the end of the Cold War, Beijing continued to depend on Moscow and its technology, but throughout the 1990s there were key moments for this turning point in Chinese strategy, such as Yinhe’s trauma in the Malacca Strait either the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1996 in which American military superiority and the need to build its own defense industry were evident. China is rearming. Beijing already has the largest navy in the world in terms of number of ships, according to the US Department of Defense and has established itself as the reference in the deployment of hypersonic missiles. At the strategic level, the Pentagon plans that China will have more than 1,000 nuclear warheads by 2030. If We analyze your most recent budgetwhich grew by 7.2%, technological self-sufficiency and scientific innovation in defense appear as the absolute priority to break any external dependence. What it means for the rest of the world. For Russia it obviously means losing its largest and most loyal historical client. According to SIPRI data, the fall in Chinese purchases has dragged Russian exports to historic lows, aggravating the crisis in its defense industry. For the United States it is a poisoned candy: while Washington tries to reinforce its allies in the Pacific, it faces a rival that sets a pace of industrial and technological production that today is difficult for them to follow. For figures like Pete Hegseth, China is no longer just a competitor, it is the pacing threat: the threat that sets the pace and scale to which the rest of the world must try to adapt. Countries geographically close to China are also accelerating their purchases, driven both by US reinforcement plans and their own fear. The question is how long they will be able to sustain this pulse, because, in terms of industrial mass and speed, today no one seems capable of keeping up with China. In Xataka | The US has a problem in its military career: China has “infiltrated” its army’s supply chain In Xataka | The US has a very serious problem with its F-35s: China is producing fighter jets beyond its capabilities Cover | CCTV, SteKrueBe

The United States had not manufactured its most critical uranium for 20 years. He has just resurrected his production with an old metallurgy trick

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In the hills of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, lies a place that carries the weight of contemporary history in its foundation: the Y-12 National Security Complex. According to the files of the US Department of Energy (DOE)these facilities were born in 1943 as a vital cog in the Manhattan Project. However, for more than two decades, the halls of its most advanced nuclear processing sector had remained in a prolonged dormancy. Today, that industrial silence has been broken. The United States has just ended a long gap in its domestic processing capabilities. The milestone that marks this rebirth is as visual as it is forceful: the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has successfully manufactured its first “button” of purified enriched uranium, an achievement that opens a new era in the American nuclear deterrent. In short. From the NNSA have confirmed the restart of uranium purification at the Y-12 complex. It is not a sudden step; This achievement comes months after, in September 2025, the start of the project will be authorized electrorefining. This is the first authorization of its kind since the opening of the Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility 15 years ago. More in depth. The new process allows installation slam the door definitively on the old Y-12 plants. For years, uranium processing depended on complex chemical treatments that were inefficient and, above all, posed greater risks for workers. The new era abandons these legacy systems in favor of much cleaner and safer technology. A strategic milestone. According to the statement from the NNSAthis purified uranium is a critical material that will support unavoidable national security missions, from the production of nuclear weapons to providing the fuel needed for the reactors of the United States Navy’s aircraft carriers and submarines. This effort is not a coincidence, but respond directly to the security and defense guidelines promoted under the mandate of President Donald Trump. Added to this military strategy is a pressing need for independence of resources. In November of last year, the US Geological Survey (USGS) added uranium to its final list of 60 critical minerals. This government directive has a clear objective: to shield the country against the risks of interruption in global supply chains. The “magic” of electrorefining. The secret behind this renaissance is called electrorefining. Although it may sound like science fiction, it is based on well-established commercial processes commonly used to purify everyday metals such as aluminum, titanium or copper. The method was originally developed by the prestigious Argonne National Laboratory and later perfected by the Y-12 development team itself. A simple process (at first glance). To understand how it works, the magazine Science Direct explains it in a simple way: The process uses an electrolytic cell where two electrodes are immersed in a chemical solution. One of them acts as an anode (where the impure recycled material is placed) and the other as a cathode. Through a controlled electrical reaction, metal ions travel to the cathode, where the pure metal is deposited, while the impurities fall to the bottom as an “anode sludge.” The result: An astonishing 99.9% purity. The format: An NNSA spokesperson He explained that the process It first generates “purified uranium crystals,” which are then melted in a furnace to create the compact, secure, high-purity uranium “buttons.” Additionally, Nikolai Sokov, senior researcher at the Vienna Center for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation, explained that this innovative technology allows recovering and recycling uranium from various byproducts. Along the same lines, this method drastically reduces the waste generated compared to old chemical treatments. The weight of history: environmental debt. No story about the Y-12 complex would be complete without looking at its darker side. The background documents of the US Department of Energy rreveal the heavy inheritance of the Cold War. During the 1950s and 1960s, facilities used massive amounts of mercury for lithium separation. The ecological toll was devastating: an estimated 700,000 pounds (more than 317,000 kilos) of mercury were lost in the buildings and the surrounding environment. Today, to contrast technological advancement with the mistakes of the past, the top priority of the Environmental Management (EM) program at Y-12 is the cleanup of this mercury. He DOE informs that it is being built the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility. Scheduled for 2027, this plant will be capable of treating up to 3,000 gallons of water per minute. This vital infrastructure will allow older, more contaminated facilities (such as Alpha-2 by 2029 and Beta-1 by 2030) to be safely demolished without mercury ending up in the nearby Upper East Fork Poplar Creek. A process of metamorphosis. Audrey Beldio, NNSA Principal Deputy Administrator for Production Modernization, summed it up forcefully in the statements. project startup: “Electrorefining revolutionizes the processing of enriched uranium.” With uranium flowing again into Y-12, the United States is not just abandoning aging infrastructure. It is sending a clear message to the world: after twenty years of lethargy, the US nuclear sector has taken a leap towards a future where technological efficiency, the safety of its workers and the reliability of its arsenal are once again the spearhead of its defense policy. Image | HeUraniumC Xataka | While the West does not decide on nuclear, China already has a reactor 100 times more efficient than traditional ones

You’ve probably never heard of urea. The missiles in Iran are destroying their production, and that will affect your food

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At the beginning of the 20th century, the world feared it would run out of food because crops were not growing enough to feed a growing population. The solution came from chemistry: an industrial process capable of manufacturing artificial nutrients for plants and multiplying crops across the planet. Today, this invisible system supports much of what reaches our plates, but it also depends on a global chain. surprisingly fragile. The invisible substance that feeds us. We already said it in the headline, you may not know urea. However, this chemical compound is one of the silent pillars of modern agriculture. It is nitrogen fertilizer most used in the world and indirectly responsible for approximately half of global food production. Its function is simple but crucial: providing nitrogen to crops so they can grow quickly and produce larger harvests. To give us an idea, approximately half of global food production depends on synthetic fertilizers. nitrogen basedand urea is the most widespread of all. Without it, agricultural yields would fall abruptly, which would directly affect products as basic as wheat, corn or rice. The Gulf and fertilizers. It happens that a large part of this global agricultural system depends on a very specific region of the planet: the Persian Gulf. The Middle East is home to some of the largest plants of fertilizer production in the world and is also a key source of raw materials necessary to manufacture them, such as ammonia or sulfur. Furthermore, the Strait of Hormuz has become an essential artery for this trade. between one quarter and a third of the world’s traffic of raw materials for fertilizers passes through this maritime passage, along with approximately 35% of global urea exports and 45% of sulfur trade. A war that hits the food chain. The military escalation in Iran and the attacks around the Strait of Hormuz are starting to interrupt that delicate system. Maritime traffic through the area has been drastically reduced and several ships have been attacked, while industrial facilities in the Gulf have suffered direct damage. In Qatar, one of the largest fertilizer facilities in the world had to stop your production after a drone attack, while Iran has paralyzed its own ammonia production. Every missile in the Iran war is not only destroying its production, it brings us a little closer to a dystopian future scenario. Urea sample in the form of granules The domino effect of urea. When the supply of fertilizers such as urea is interrupted, the impact soon spreads to the food system. If farmers cannot apply enough fertilizer, the ccrops produce less. Some experts estimate that the lack of fertilizers could reduce harvests by up to 50% in the first affected agricultural cycle. This decline would quickly translate in price increases in basic foods. Bread could become more expensive in a matter of weeks, while derived products such as eggs, chicken or pork would do so months later, as the increase in the cost of animal feed is passed on to the entire food chain. Gas, the hidden ingredient. The manufacture of nitrogen fertilizers also depends on another key factor: natural gas. Between 60% and 80% of the cost of producing fertilizers comes from the gas used in the chemical process that transforms atmospheric nitrogen into compounds usable by plants. With the war driving up energy prices and damaging industrial infrastructure, the cost of production skyrockets even before fertilizers reach the market. In a few days, the international price of urea has risen more than 25%reaching levels close to 625 dollars per ton. Risk of global food crisis. I remembered the financial times that the situation also comes at a particularly delicate moment in the agricultural calendar. In much of the northern hemisphere, farmers are starting the season spring planting, when they buy and apply the fertilizers that will determine the year’s crops. If the Strait of Hormuz disruption lasts more than a few weeks, the impact could extend far beyond energy or maritime trade. Thus, what today seems like a localized geopolitical crisis could transform into something much deeper: a global food shock reminiscent of (or even surpassing) the one that occurred after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In that scenario, the war in Iran would not only be fought with missiles and drones, but also in the fields of crops half the planet. Image | liz west, nara, LHcheM, eutrophication&hypoxia In Xataka | Iran is directing its attacks where it knows it hurts the West: energy and data centers In Xataka | In 2022, the gas crisis skyrocketed the price of electricity in Spain. In 2026 we have a “green shield” but also a serious problem

China’s brutal dominance in rare earth production in the last 30 years, in a revealing graph

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There are few strategic natural resources as important as gas, gold or oil, but there is one that is less known and that is decisive in practically any industry and therefore, also in geopolitics: the rare earthwhich are neither earths nor rare (in fact, they are a list of 17 metals). The state that has enough rare earths in its territory and the capacity to extract them will have much to gain to become a power. Well, if you can cough China, the absolute leader in rare earths so much in reserves as in production. A picture is worth a thousand words. But today the power of China is discussed is one thing and another if the Asian giant started by winning the game. Spoiler: no. The United States Geological Survey It has a very complete database where to visualize production by country from 1994 to the present (among other information), but more than a table, it is better seen with images. Thus, at a glance you can see its beastly hegemony in this chart from Visual Capitalist from 1994 to 2024. 30 years of rare earth production. Visual Capitalist An animation still counts more. The Visual Capitalist illustration shows Chinese superiority, but the evolution of rare earth production by country is better seen with an animation showing its meteoric rise because yes, the global rare earth industry has been profoundly transformed in the last 30 years. In just three decades, China has gone from having a 47% quota to almost 70% of the 400,000 metric tons produced today (by the end of 2024). Or what is the same, going from manufacturing 31,000 metric tons to 270,000 metric tons, something that can be seen in this animation by Global Times and Valiant Panda: Tap to see the animation. Production by country of rare earths from 1994 to 2024, Global Times How America Lost Control. It’s worth stopping the animation at the beginning, because in the 90s the United States was the world’s largest producer of rare earths and Mountain Pass was its main plant for obtaining them. Its average extraction was around 20,000 – 22,000 tons. And then, in 1997, came the Mountain Pass environmental disaster: a burst pipe in the eponymous mine that contaminated the Movaje Desert with toxic radioactive waste. Between the disaster and the subsequent lawsuits, production suddenly fell to 5,000 tons between 1998 and 2002. It would then fall to 0 in the 2000s. It would be in the 2010s when it began to recover: now the United States is around 46,000 metric tons. As Rocío Jurado sang, now it’s too late, lady: it was also in the 90s when China went into steamroller mode. The unstoppable rise of China. That China has come to dominate world production hides several keys. The first, the ability of its suppliers to offer lower prices Thanks to state aid, laxer environmental standards and cheaper labor made possible costs that the West could not cope with. China had the resources, but its victory came because it was able to build an entire industry while the rest of the world watched. Producing the raw mineral is only the first step, then it must be separated to achieve a high degree of purity (between 95 and 99%, depending on the application) in a complex, expensive hydrometallurgical process that, as we have seen, leaves radioactive waste along the way. Where it still dominates more: refining. Because although China has a share of almost 70% of world production, its dominance is even more overwhelming in refining: it produces around 90% of world refining. In fact, other countries such as Australia or the United States extract minerals, they turn to China for refining. If there is no refining industry at the level of extraction, there is no sovereignty. Other faces. Trump wants to step on the accelerator of national mining and expedite permits, the EU also seeks its strategic sovereignty with laws such as the Critical Raw Materials law and its application in places like Per Geijer’s Swedish megamine. We have already talked about Australia, which at least until this year It will depend on China for refining those 16,000 metric tons that have been around in recent years, but there are other countries that have joined the race. But while the Global Times animation focuses on great powers, the Visual Capitalist graph reveals new players in the industry such as Myanmar, Thailand or Nigeria, especially focused on more scarce and valuable elements. However, their supply chains are unstable and have their own regulatory and geopolitical risks. In Xataka | The world’s rare earth reserves, laid out in this graph showing the brutal dominance of a single country In Xataka | Europe seeks its sovereignty in rare earths and knows how to achieve it the fast way: with a supermine in Sweden

A report has set off alarm bells in Europe. Russia’s shell production is meaningless for a single war

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When Russia crossed the Ukrainian border in 2022, Europe reacted as it had not done since the end of the Cold War: massive sanctions, accelerated rearmament and a political unity forced by urgency. During these years, the European debate revolved around a seemingly simple question about kyiv’s resistance, as the conflict lengthened, became normalized, and ceased to be a “temporary” war. Now, with the front stagnant and the calendar moving forward, in the European capitals it is beginning to prevail another concern. What will Russia do when this war is no longer the center of the board? It’s not just the front. Yes, as the conflict in Ukraine approaches its fourth anniversary, it is beginning to take hold in Europe a different reading And more disturbing: Russia is not acting like a country trapped in a war of attrition, but rather like a power that uses the conflict as, perhaps, a preparatory phase. In the last few hours, a piece of information has appeared on the old continent: the massive increase in its military production suggests that Moscow is not only thinking about supporting the current front, but about setting up a later strategic scenarioin which having reserves, industrial capacity and room for maneuver will be as important as any territorial advance achieved in Ukraine. The figure that triggers the alarms. The data that most worries the European intelligence services is the Russian production of ammunition, which has exceeded the seven million projectiles annually, a figure 17 times higher to that of the first stages of the invasion. According to the Estonian intelligence service Välisluureamet, this jump is not explained by a simple intensification of combat, mainly because it makes no sense, but by the construction of new industrial plants and the will to rebuild strategic reserves in the long term. For Europe, the implicit message is clear: no one manufactures at that rate if they are only thinking about surviving the current conflict. Resist and prepare. This rearmament occurs despite the Russian economic deterioration, enormous human cost of the war and the increasing difficulties for recruit soldiersreinforcing the idea that the Kremlin prioritizes material accumulation over internal well-being. The support of North Korea, which has come to supply a substantial part of the ammunition used in Ukraine, has allowed Moscow to gain time and rebuild arsenals. For Estonia, maintaining these reserve levels is a central element of planning possible future conflictsnot simple insurance for the ongoing war. The north enters the radar. we have been counting in recent months. That fear of what comes next is not limited to the eastern flank. Now Norway has warned openly that a Russian move to protect its nuclear assets in the Arctic, concentrated on the Kola Peninsula, a short distance from its border, cannot be ruled out. This is not a classic ambition of conquest, but rather an aggressive defensive logic: ensuring the ability second nuclear attack in case of an escalation with NATO. The Ukrainian War has forced Nordic countries to plan for scenarios that a few years ago would have seemed unlikely. Tactical peace for strategy. The Guardian said this morning that, while increasing its military capacity, Russia deploys calculated diplomacy that seeks to buy time and divide the West. Estonian intelligence describes opening gestures toward the United States and negotiating rhetoric as a maneuver to reduce pressures, exploit cracks between Washington and Europe and consolidate positions without giving up the underlying objectives. In parallel, Moscow intensifies influence operations and hybrid warfareaware that the Ukrainian post-war can be as decisive as the war itself. The disturbing scene. In short, the combination of mass production of ammunition, possible nuclear planning, hybrid pressure and instrumental diplomacy seem to paint a panorama most uncomfortable for Europe: one where even when the weapons end fading in Ukraine, Russia will remain an actor ready to act. From that perspective, it is not only the end of a war that is worrying European capitals, but the beginning of a stage in which Moscow, industrially reinforced, could decide when and where to tighten the chess again. Hence, what comes after Ukraine is precisely what generates the most fear. Image | Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Vitaly V. Kuzmin In Xataka | The question is no longer whether Europe “is at war”: the question is whether it is willing to defend itself In Xataka | First it was Finland, now the US has confirmed it: when the war in Ukraine ends, Russia has a plan for Europe

Boston Dynamics starts commercial production while Optimus remains wrapped in promises

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Boston Dynamics has unveiled the product version of Atlas, not a prototype or technical demo. The company describes This humanoid robot as an enterprise-grade system, designed from the ground up to be systematically manufactured, maintained and repaired. In its official communication it insists on concepts such as reliability, field service and prolonged useful life, a clear way of marking distance from more experimental approaches. In this way, Atlas makes the leap into the industrial world, with deployments announced for 2026 and a roadmap that, within the framework of Hyundai’s plans, points to a production capacity of up to 30,000 units per year. Meanwhile, Optimus remains tied to internal testing and automation at Tesla. Elon Musk had projected have “thousands” of humanoid robots working in factories by the end of 2025, but as of today there is no public evidence that the company has reached that goal. A change of stage announced in advance. The move towards a commercial Atlas had been in the works for some time. In 2024 the hydraulic robot stage will be officially closedactive for more than a decade, to give way to a completely electric design aligned with a real deployment. That decision came as recent advances in artificial intelligence accelerated the training and production of complex robots. Hyundai, client and driving force of the deployment. Atlas’ industrial leap is supported by a key corporate relationship. Hyundai Motor Group, the majority shareholder of Boston Dynamics, is also the humanoid robot’s first customer. He assures her that An initial deployment has already been completed in 2025 and an additional fleet is planned to be shipped in 2026 to the Robotics Metaplant Application Center. From there, Hyundai’s industrial investment context points to a possible expansion of scale, although these figures appear as general plans and not as specific commitments directly linked to Atlas. Designed for human environments. Atlas is not conceived as an isolated machine within a closed cell, but as a robot capable of moving through the same spaces in which people already work. Its function is aimed at handling and logistical support tasks in factories and warehouses, sharing an environment with human workers and other automated systems. To make it possible, the design has been optimized for coexistence, with mechanisms that allow detecting the proximity of people and stopping the operation when necessary. For a robot to truly fit into a factory, uptime is as important as the task it performs. Atlas is designed to operate during standard shifts, with an autonomy of approximately four hours in typical use. When the battery runs out, the robot itself can replace it autonomously in less than three minutes and return to work, allowing for continuous operation cycles. The charging system also works with conventional 110 V or 220 V electrical outlets, avoiding costly modifications to the infrastructure. Control, fleets and continuous learning. Atlas is not only intended to act autonomously, but also to integrate into monitoring and control systems at scale. Technically, it can operate autonomously, but also by remote control with virtual reality or tablet, and be managed as part of a fleet. In addition, a collaboration with Google DeepMind comes into play, aimed at integrating Gemini Robotics models to accelerate the learning of new tasks, a capability that the company presents as part of its roadmap and not as a fully deployed function from day one. Images | Boston Dynamics In Xataka | If China manages to lead in humanoid robots it will not be only because of its technology: its companies know how to sell them better than anyone else.

plans to increase production of the H200 in the face of an avalanche of orders, according to Reuters

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NVIDIA once again finds itself in the center of the game. According to Reutersthe company analyzes increasing the production of its chip H200 after orders from China have exceeded what its current capacity can cover. But this time the result will not be decided in Washington, but in Beijing, where the government must authorize the entry of the hardware. The Chinese response will determine whether the window opened by the United States translates into real sales or remains a gesture caught between opposing interests. What has changed in Washington. The turnaround began in Washington on December 8, when Donald Trump announced that the United States would allow the H200 to be exported to commercial customers approved and validated by the Department of Commerce, with a 25% tax on each sale. The measure marked a turning point with respect to previous restrictions and introduced a more flexible control model: the US Government will supervise shipments from Taiwan, subject processors to a security review before authorizing their departure to China and apply the corresponding surcharge. NVIDIA celebrated the announcement as a balance that, according to its own statement, seeks to make national security compatible with commercial activity, while in the markets its shares rose around 2% in subsequent operations. Avalanche of orders. The signal that has led NVIDIA to consider increasing production is clear. According to the aforementioned agency, H200 orders from China already exceed the current manufacturing capacity of the chip. AND, as we pointed out last weektechnology groups such as Alibaba and ByteDance have contacted the company to explore volume purchases, aware that availability is very limited. NVIDIA has informed these clients that it is studying adding capacity, although without commitments or figures, in a context marked by scarcity and the priority that other more advanced generations have today. The interest in the H200 is also explained by its place in the NVIDIA catalog. It is the most powerful chip of the Hopper generation and a clearly superior alternative to the trimmed models designed for China, although it falls behind Blackwella generation with which, Trump explained, NVIDIA’s American customers are already moving forward. That position makes it an awkward balance: it’s not state-of-the-art, but it’s advanced enough to make a difference in training large-scale models. What China decides. Beijing is not limited to giving a yes or no. According to sources cited by Reuters, the internal debate revolves around how to allow access to H200 without weakening the momentum of its domestic semiconductor industry. The authorities are studying imposing specific conditions on each order and reviewing the final destination of the chips, in a context in which Manufacturers like Huawei or Cambricon continue to be priorities for the country’s industrial policy. NVIDIA H200 Capacity and bottlenecks. Increasing H200 production is not an immediate or easy decision. The chip is manufactured at TSMC using its 4nm process, an advanced capability that is hotly contested today. NVIDIA is prioritizing Blackwell production and preparing the transition to Rubinwhile competing with other large clients, such as Google, for space in the Taiwanese manufacturer’s most advanced lines. That context explains why the company has warned its customers of tight supply even if it ultimately decides to add capacity. National security and industrial pressure. The H200 debate goes beyond NVIDIA. In Washington, fear persists that the sale of advanced chips will contribute to strengthening China in sensitive areas, while the Administration itself has defended that completely cutting off access to American chips could reinforce the efforts of local manufacturers. The solution adopted by the Trump Administration seeks that balance, but keeps alive a controversy that conditions both exports and the real possibility of expanding production. With demand pressing and supply at a minimum, the outcome is now being played out in the offices of the Chinese regulator. If Beijing authorizes the purchases, NVIDIA will have to decide to what extent it can reallocate capacity without compromising its industrial priorities. If it doesn’t, the H200 will join the list of advanced chips caught between politics and strategy. In both scenarios, the episode confirms that access to hardware has become as determining a variable as the chip design itself. Images | NVIDIA + Photoshop In Xataka | Microsoft has reduced its ambition with AI. It has been realized that almost no one uses Copilot, they say in The Information

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