reason

Webb and Hubble telescopes watched Jupiter’s auroras at the same time. For some reason, they did not see the same

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The Great red spot, Polar cyclones, Cloud bands. Jupiter is known for its colossal dimensions and eternal storms. But their auroras are not far behind, and only now We are seeing them in detail Thanks to the power of the James Webb space telescope. A Christmas gift. Newly published with a study of Nature Communicationsthe images were captured on December 25, 2023 with the Nircam Chamber of the Webb Telescope. The most immediate conclusion is that the jovian auroras are of another level. Hundreds of times brighter and more energy than those of the Earth, not only feed, as on our planet, of the particles loaded with the solar wind, but also of the volcanic material expelled by the active moon ío. Hyperactive. The team that led the observations took a surprise when analyzing the data. They hoped to see slow and gradual changes in the auroras, but instead they found “the entire bullendo region and exploding of light”, a hyperactive show that “varied in a matter of seconds.” “What a Christmas gift was that, he left me hallucinated!” Confesses the researcher Jonathan Nichols of the University of Leicester, the United Kingdom. A mystery. To round the study, the team coordinated Webb’s observations in infrared with Simultaneous observations of the Hubble Space Telescope in the ultraviolet spectrum. And here was the puzzle: the brightest lights observed by the Webb in Jupiter’s atmosphere did not have a counterpart in the Hubble images. The webb focused on trihydrogen cation emissions (H3+), a molecule that shines intensely in infrared when high -energy electrons impact molecular hydrogen. But to produce the combination of brightness observed by both telescopes, a huge amount of very low energy particles would be needed by hitting Jupiter’s atmosphere, something that until now was considered practically impossible. What follows. The team plans to study this difference between webb and Hubble data, and explore its implications for Jupiter’s environment. Webb’s next observations will be compared with NASA Juno probe data to try to unravel the origin of the broadcast. The findings will be used to guide the Juice Mission of ESA, who travels now to Jupiter. Seven of their instruments, including their two cameras, will dedicate themselves to study the Jovian auroras when the probe reaches their destination. Its nearby measurements will help astronomers better understand the interaction between the magnetic field and the planet’s atmosphere, in addition to the moon ío. Images | NASA, ESA, CSA In Xataka | These real images were unthinkable before the Webb Telescope: they are planets orbiting other stars to 130 light years

There are thousands of more efficient systems to create a “white smoking”. The Vatican refuses for a reason: the Holy Spirit

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On October 26, 1958, one of the More Rocambolescas stories Around al smoke that announces The choice of a new Pope. That morning, smoke appeared clearly white leaving the chimney of the Sistine Chapel, and the crowd gathered in the Plaza de San Pedro exploded in jubilation. However, shortly after the smoke became dark, and the faces became disbelief. That confusion stressed the need to improve the clarity of the signal and not leave everything in Holy Spirit hands. A choice between the human and the divine. When the cardinals today enter the Sistine Chapel for Start the conclave, will invoke the Holy Spirit With the song Veni Creator Spiritusan ancestral prayer that summarizes the tension between human reason and spiritual discernment. In Catholic theology, the Holy Spirit It is one of the three people of the Trinity and is considered the true guide of this process. Although the election of the Pope involves politics, strategy and human relations, it also presents itself as a Cooperation with the Divine. Some describe it as a silent presence that guides, does not impose, as a “good educator”, As Benedict XVI saidthat inspires, but does not make decisions for men. Some of it remains in the essence of the final announcement through the white smoke. One thing seems clear: the Church rejects any technification of the moment. The conclave that confused everyone. The unusual scene that we commented at the beginning should choose the successor of Pope Pius XII. That day, during one of the votes, it appeared clearly white smokeHabemus Papam, or so they thought. The people gathered in San Pedro shouted for joy, the bells of the Basilica began to repair and some media came to announce the choice. However, minutes passed, then hours, without the official announcement or the new Pontiff appeared. Finally, the Vatican clarified that he had tried to An error: The white smoke had been the product of incomplete combustion or a poorly calculated mixture, and in reality the consensus necessary to choose potatoes had not yet been reached. The confusion made it clear that some things had to be improved, something that the Vatican corrected in part over time and, since 2005, with the accompaniment of the bell repique to confirm the choice. The language of smoke. It is part of the ritual: every time the Catholic Church chooses a new Pope, millions of people look towards the small chimney from the Sistine Chapel Waiting for the signal: Black smoke if there is no agreement, white smoke if the successor has been chosen. What seems like a simple symbolic gesture is, in reality, a Extremely precise operation and loaded with engineering, chemistry, symbolism and tradition. Burning ballots and the use of smoke as a form of communication They date back to the fifteenth centurywhen a way to transmit the result of the choice without breaking the secret of the conclave. The image of smoke ascending to heaven evokes ancient religious and biblical rites, where smoke was understood as a spiritual bridge between the human and the divine. Preparations and technology. After the Death of Pope Francis At 88, the Vatican confirmed that The conclave It would begin today May 7 with a special mass in San Pedro, followed by secret votes in the Sistine Chapel. There have been installed Two stoves: One to burn ballots and another to generate the visible smoke. These stoves are connected through A metallic ductcarefully assembled and inserted by technicians who work without damaging the Renaissance structure of the chapel. Each tube union is sealed, previous smoke tests are carried out and firefighters are available in alert in case any technical failure occurs. Everything must work without error margin: an escape or an ambiguous signal would turn the liturgical act into a global crisis broadcast live. The 1958 example does not forget. The chemistry of the message. To ensure that the world clearly sees what happens within the conclave, smoke is not exclusive product of ballot combustion. The BBC counted that chemical compounds packaged and electronically activated are used. To generate black smoke, potassium, anthracene and sulfur perchlorate is mixed, and for white, potassium, lactose and pine resin is used. In the past He tried with wet and dry strawbut the results were inconsistent. Since 2005, the Vatican also sounds like those bells of San Pedro to visually and loudly confirm that a new pontiff has been chosen, avoiding confusion such as those that have occurred in the past. Negative to modernize. The truth is that the system could be much easier if the Church would like to take advantage of some of the new technologies. However, despite the advances and suggestions of implementing colored lights, digital alerts or more modern electronic systems, the Vatican insists on Keep the ritual as it is. If you want and from your perspective, for your excellence it is not just about communicating a news, but about preserving a liturgical experience with deep theological burden. As The historian Candida Moss explainedthe smoke not only informs: it incorporates the faithful to the mystery, makes them feel participants of a transcendental moment in the life of the Church. The papal choice is not (alone) an administrative event, but a ceremony full of centuries of faith, solemnity and spiritual continuity. Image | blues_brotherWikimedia In Xataka | Just before locking themselves in the conclave, the cardinals have done one last thing in the Vatican: to give a binge In Xataka | Francisco I has died, so the most strange and fascinating ritual of the Church begins: the funeral of a Pope

67 years ago Pope Pius XII starred in the most macabre goodbye of the Church. The reason: exploded in full funeral

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Throughout his almost two decades as Pope, Pius XII had to deal with the complex scenario of World War II and The Holocaustwhich has made it A controversial figure. His critics accuse him of having silent before the Nazi extermination. His supporters see in him a strategist who maneuvered to save lives and prevent Hitler’s wrath from being on Christians and Jews. Curiously and After the death of Francisco Ithese days his name is playing for a very different reason: His caulitous funeralthat probably make the burial of Pius XII the most macabre and commented of the long history of the Vatican. After all There are few chronicles that they argue that during their funeral one of the worst things occurred that can happen in such circumstances: his body exploded for the past of the curia and the doctors. Literally. A goodbye with controversy Pius XII had a pontificate convulsive. And very much in spite of (and that of the church) their last days were fogged by the same feeling. Although his agony was not especially long (he felt bad October 6 of 1958 and died only a few days later, on Thursday 9) everything related to his health status became an obsession for the press. So much interested and such was the fight to publish in first the death of the Pope that some media decided to use a first level source: the doctor Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisiwho for decades had been a friend, confidant and personal doctor (Pontifical file) of Pius XII. “In those days the Vatican was extremely hermetic and it would not have occurred to him He remembered in 2005 The journalist Alexander Chancellor. When in 1968 he put himself at the head of the Reuters delegation in Italy, he himself met an old red phone in the office that, as his colleagues explained, had been installed there ten years before to be able to contact Galeazzi-Lisi. The problem is that the doctor turned out to be a source as influential as unreliable and lack of scruples. Over time Galeazzi-Lisi It would end up expelled of the Vatican for allegedly wanting to take advantage of his position at the Holy See while the Pope agonized. To be precise, They accused him to strain a camera in their room to photograph the dying and then sell the material. The reward was juicy. ABC remember that there were magazines and editorials that offered him $ 3,200 for the snapshots and another 20,000 for his story. It was not the only thing that the doctor was accused. From Riccardo Galeazzi-Lisi, it is also said that he promised to give a journalist’s death exclusively. The pact was allegedly that when Pius XII had gone to better life, the doctor would open a window of the papal residence. With what they did not tell, neither the doctor nor the press was that the heat of the Roman October took a nun to open that same window to ventilate the building, which led the reporter to misunderstand the signal. Other sources They assure that what Galeazzi-Lisi had committed was to stir a handkerchief and that the journalist confused him with a curtain moved by the wind. Whatever the right version, the truth is that on Wednesday, October 8, when the Pope was Agonizing but still aliveseveral media went out with a news as resounding as false: “Il Papà è Morto”. There were still several hours for Pius XII to die due to a “circulatory disorder.” The news was made public another better doctor, Antonio Gasbarrini. The most curious thing is that the main (and infamous) participation of Galeazzi-Lisi in the last goodbye of Pius XII began just then, after the death of the Pope. A frustrated embalming Although Francisco I simplified Papal funeral In order for the ceremony to look more like that of “a shepherd” than to “a powerful man of this world”, his funeral has made clear once again that the burial of a high pontiff is an unusual event. It is estimated that in just a few days about 250,000 people They passed before the coffin, in the Basilica of San Pedro del Vaticano, to say goodbye to him. In times of Pius XII something similar happened. The body used to stay Exposed for days so that the faithful could transmit their goodbye. And that, of course, required trying to remain preserved in the best possible conditions as much time as possible. The usual thing was that they retired part of the body of the body, but that idea did not seem like Pius XII too much, determined to be buried “As God created it”. In His memoirs Galeazzi-Lisi recounts how to these misgivings he decided to speak to the Pope of a new conservation technique that he had developed with a colleague of Naples, a simple, little invasive method of a mixture of herbs and essential oils. The technique was known as “Aromatic osmosis”it had been prepared by Galeazzi-Lisi with the help of a embalder called Oreste Nuzzi and one of its great advantages was that it barely required to manipulate (or eviscerate) the body of the deceased. It arrived with submerge it in the oil and aromatic herbs preparation and then wrapped it in layers. The doctor assured that the method was similar to that used by the Egyptians in their rites or the one that had been used with Jesus Christ. In his galeazzi-lisi memories even He recounts How he showed Pius XII a hand treated with his mixture. “He was amazed to see his appearance”. Did the Pope accepted that new technique to his body? It is not clear. What seems to be that Galeazzi-Lisi managed to achieve the approval of the Church. The works started on October 10 and priori followed the doctor’s guidelines: the body of the Holy Father was treated with the preparation of herbs and oils and then covered with a kind of cellophane to “conserve volatile aromas and ensure the best … Read more

A magazine bought a Cybertruck for $ 100,000. Nine months later it only is worth $ 8,000 for a reason: repairs

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For a few years now, there is a maximum among engine journalists when someone asks us about a car: I can tell you if I like reliability It refers. And we cannot know how time will pass through the car. Of those cars that have been in the market for some time, analysis can be done, Like those of the OCU or the celebrities of JD Power in the United Statesto understand your reliability. Also of engines used for many years by the same company. But, for example, with current Chinese cars it happens to us that we cannot glimpse their long -term reliability. It is something that time will say. Years ago that was supplied by the media with long -term tests. The cars used to be used in specialized writings for a year or a number of kilometers that could reach 100,000 or overcome this barrier and extend up to 200,000 or 250,000 kilometers. Those evidence, today, are almost exceptional. In the United States, however, they are still active among the most successful specialized media with greater support. An example is Edmundsa magazine that will be 60 years in the market next year and that is one of the greatest references in the country. Without the possibility of receiving a long -term assignment, the magazine decided to get a Tesla Cybertruck to submit it to a long -distance test. His intention was to verify How the new Electric Pick-up of Tesla agedstudying the costs of its maintenance and any other type of problem that could arise. But the problem that has arisen is that its Tesla Cybertruck is worth $ 8,000. In five months, the magazine has seen how its more than $ 100,000 paid by the electric car have vanished. A blow has ruined the long -term test. Repairing it costs Cuatro Dacia Sandero The journalists of Edmunds explain in your article That last summer they bought a Tesla Cybertruck. They did it after having entered the waiting list to acquire one thanks to the reservation of 100 dollars that had been deposited in 2019. Then, the car was sold by Tesla as a gigantic pick-up pick-up of steel bullets or balls (Ahem) that would be put in the market for a price of less than $ 40,000. More than five years later, Tesla still does not find an affordable model To give a new push to its sales and the Cybertruck began to Sell ​​over $ 100,000. Specifically, 101,985 dollars paid in Edmunds By rejecting the Cyberbeast option, which adds the FSD autonomous driving functions and multiple aesthetic details. Of course, the price would have been increased by another $ 20,000. They said then that they considered that, or not, it was “one of the most interesting cars that have been launched in recent years.” And they stressed that “we will do everything with him, from the usual tests of EDMUNDS EV And the load tests until proven its off -road capacity, put a microscope in that body and check what it is to live with this brutalist beast day by day. (…) We will also watch how it behaves Full Self-Driving In such a large vehicle. And, of course, you will probably see it in a career, because … why not? “ However, enthusiasm soon vanished within the writing of Edmunds. They explain that after five months of this one-year test they parked the pick-up on the street and never started again. In fact, What started from rennet was the rear axle. On December 11, 2024, a car that crossed an intersection had an accident, was fired against the car and crashed into the car, affecting the rear wheel and bumper. This caused damage to the wheel, the tire, the steel panel, the bumper and “doctors” of internal elements. The impact was so great that he moved the Cybertruck to the sidewalk next to the one he was parked despite his 2,995 kg of weight. In Edmunds They had to imagine that the repair was going to be expensive because “part of the rear axle had fallen to the ground.” There was no choice but to call the crane. And the nightmare began. Click on the image to go to the original tweet They ensure in the middle that no independent workshop was willing to take care of the car repair, so they had to contact the official Tesla service. But, even within the company, there are only a handful of stores that have the certification to work with the stainless steel body. Although they claim that angels is the city with the most cybertruck on the planet (we would say in the United States since it is only sold there), only two spaces within a radius of 90 kilometers have permission to work with the car. One of the stores confirmed that they would have to tow the car and wait a month to receive an estimate of the damage and the cost of repair. Then, they would have to tow the car again to a parking lot and wait another five months before repairs began when they would have to tow the car. In its second option, the technical service also estimated the waiting time before giving the budget but would begin repair at the end of whether they were satisfied with it. Of course, a few days before carrying the car from Tesla they called Edmunds To tell them that they were saturated and that they could not give them a budget until another month later. In total, they had to wait two months to have a budget. The valuation had a cost of $ 1,128 And it was conclusive: repairing the car would cost 57,879.89. When they searched for the current vehicle value they found that before having suffered an accident, it is quoted at $ 86,160. That is, with the repair they were only wasting time and money. The breakdown, published by the medium was as follows: Stripes and … Read more

The reason why electricity took more than 15 hours to restore 100% in Spain: the feared “Black Start”

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The Iberian Peninsula went out at 12:33 of April 28. In just five seconds, two southwest disconnections of the peninsula They removed more than half of the instant demand from the network. The frequency collapsed and interconnection with France jumped by instability. Spain stayed at 0 MW and 0 Hz, never seen. Resting the service was the real challenge. 15 hours of surgical work. At 03:30 on Tuesday, Red Eléctrica, the Spanish electrical system operator, announced that 99.95% of the demand was covered again (100% was not reached until the afternoon in the afternoon). Spain starred in greater practical exercise of replacement of a European network From the great continental blackout of 2006, The first on this scale from a country that obtains its energy mainly from renewable sources. The dreaded Black Start. Turn on the light out of nowhere, start the zero power grid. With 50 million users, Spain has faced One of the most challenging cases of “Black Start” They are remembered. He needed 15 hours because he had to go step by step, first starting the most flexible plants: hydroelectric plants, enabled for Black Start with diesel structure to feed pumps, valves and control systems). Mainless Spain redeemed. With 10% of the Spanish mix and 25% of the Portuguese, the pumping hydraulics was the first ammunition: The hydroelectric plants of the Muela and Aldeadávila They synchronized in three minutes, moving from zero to 3 GW. Each central created its 50 Hz “island” (the frequency at which the turbines have to turn) before introducing load. Red Electric was connecting the turbines one by one and introducing load in a dosing way so as not to stop them. Gas for climbing. With the nuclear off (except for the imported of France, which provided 1.4 GW of power in the replacement), the gas plants became the backbone of the network before reincorporating renewables. Monday’s wind was almost calm and the photovoltaic disappeared at nightfall, so the weight fell on water and gas. Morocco injected several hundred MW who were critical to start plants in Andalusia. As for nuclear. The automatic cut of five of the seven reactors generated a radio traffic jam: the xenon-135 accumulated after a sudden stop absorbs neutrons and blocks the reaction for 24-48 h. 32 hours after the blackout, No nuclear had yet been synchronized. That 3-4 GW hole synchronous forced to squeeze hydraulics and gas and delayed total recovery. The fuses jumped. When the blackout occurred, more than 70% of the generation was renewable (37% solar, 32% wind). 3.4 GW of nuclear energy, 1.6 GW of cycles and 1.4 GW of cogeneration provided the synchronous inertia of the network, but were not enough to compensate for the disconnection of two stations. Neither The interconnected network was enough to sustain the frequency (only 3 GW with France and 700 MW with Morocco). The substations acted as giant fuses against imbalance and isolated the network to avoid catastrophic damage. That is why it is said that Spain and Portugal are energy islands, despite being in the same network as the rest of European countries. Some lessons. With high renewable quotas, which They do not have the inertia of other energy sources To stabilize the network, it takes a greater resilience than the European electricity grid. In other words, invest in investors at network level, batteries and renewable synchronous (biomass or more pumping hydraulics). As well as in better interconnections. All this is planned, but it was not on time to avoid the blackout and the Black Start. Image | Electric Red In Xataka | We have just lived the first great blackout of the renewable era. The debate is now how to get the last one

With O3 and O4-mini, chatgpt reason better than ever. But more important than the model is that we can ask you certain questions

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I read Alberto Romero a few days ago in his great The Algorithmic Bridge counting Three stories who shared something disturbing: they were Three people saved by doing something as simple as asking chatgpt About his symptoms. They did not use Prompts sophisticated or advanced techniques. They only described pain, discomfort, a concern. And they lived to tell. The interesting thing in the conductive thread of these three stories is not that the AI ​​was right (although he did). Is that Natalia came up with asking Chatgpt for that tension in his jaw. It is that Cooper thought about sharing his dog’s analytics. And that Flavio, with an increasing pain, will value consulting a Chatbot In addition to a doctor. The protagonist of these three stories It is not chatgpt, but that previous momentthat moment that someone thinks “What if …?” We live obsessed with what the machines are taking us away. Employment, singularity, creativity. But along the way we are losing something almost equally valuable by our own foot: The ability to imagine unplanned uses, unlikely connectionsways of use that break the instruction manual. The gap is not only between those who dominate technology and those who are not between those who can reimagine it and those who use it following established patterns. Is Like when we buy a new oven. There are those who feel patiently to read the instruction manual memorizing each official function, and those who immediately begin to tighten buttons, turn dials and create combinations that perhaps or the manufacturer conceived. Both will end up cooking, but it is the seconds who will discover that putting the grill A medium power while turning the fan, an impossible finish is achieved to achieve the official recipes. True innovation has always emerged from those who consciously ignore theoretical limitations. The good thing is that, in the same way as Talent is very democratic, This capacity does not understand credentials. A programmer senior You can get stuck by writing code with Chatgpt while a teenager discovers that asking him to simulate difficult conversations before having them. And it turns out that it works as an emotional mirror that never appeared in any manual. The stories that Alberto collects have something more in common: they occur in the medical field, where knowledge has historically been power. Where the diagnosis flows from top to bottom. Where the informative hierarchy is so rigid that it has its own uniform. However, there are Nature, Cooper and Flavio, investing the order, leading to the expert a diagnosis that they could not have formulated but that the AI ​​could detect. It is not a matter of blind faith in technology (Everyone confirmed with professionals). It is something much more subversive: a silent rearrangement of who has access to what information and at what time. While we keep wondering if the machines are going to steal our imagination, the reality is much simpler: The decisive is not what AI takes us away, but what we think about doing with it. There is the true competitive advantage of the 21st century: in that ability to see possibilities where others only see tools with predefined instructions. Natallia, Cooper and Flavio did not save their lives for having access to superior technology, but for daring to think differently. In Xataka | O4-mini is much more than another model of AI. It is the Tesla Model 3 of OpenAI Outstanding image | Xataka

Goal has an excellent reason to launch a gigantic flame variant 4: Specialization capacity

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Goal advertisement Last Saturday the launch of flame 4, his new family of Open Source models of IA. The company takes chest with three multimodal variants and one especially striking for being absolutely huge in size. But it is for a good reason. Hello, call 4. It has been almost a year since the goal announced Call 3and his new family of models arrives with three different variants: Call 4 scout: the most “small”, which competes with Gemma 3, Gemini 2.0 Flash-lite and Mistral 3.1. Call 4 Maverick: Compete with GPT-4O, Gemini 2.0 Flash and Deepseek v3 Call 4 Behemoth: An absolute monster that as Meta surpasses GPT-4.5, Gemini 2.0 and Claude 3.7 in various benchmarks. The latter is not demomently available publicly. Amazing context window. These models offer a context window of 10 million tokens, something simply spectacular. That means we can enter a gigantic amount of data such as entry (PROMPT), for example huge code repositories on which to work directly. Mixture-Of-Experts. These models use mixture -of-ou-explet architecture that already took advantage for example Depseek. As we explain then, this allows to divide the model into “experts” that activates according to the type of request. That improves efficiency and has proven to be a fantastic technique for models to behave optimally with much less resources consumption. Scout has 16 experts and Maverick has 128. This type of architecture also favors the inference phase, or what is the same: the models will respond not only efficiently, but fast and fluid. Call 4 Behemoth, the “Model Professor”. It is not yet available, but this variant is absolutely huge and has two billion parameters (2T in English), when calling 3, which was huge (405b) was a five times smaller model. Deepseek R1 has 671,000 million parameters, three times less that calls 4 Behemoth. The key to this model is that it serves as “teacher” for smaller and, above all, specialized variants. The flame 4 comparative table with respect to some of its rivals. Specialization. This variant is also a perfect candidate to be “distilled” and starting from it to obtain much smaller but equally capable models that “learn” from that “teacher teacher” that is call 4, but adapting to more concrete areas and scenarios and in which they can highlight. And less censorship. OpenAI’s image generator He already took a 180º turn and applies much less inspired censorship By Grok 3. Goal does the same with flame 4, which according to the company has become “responds with a strong political inclination at a rate comparable to Grok in a controversial set of political or social issues.” Thus, we have a somewhat less “politically correct” model. For now debatable results. Although the model seems to score very well in benchmarks, experts like Simon Willinson They have tried it And they ensure that their first impressions are not especially remarkable. Gemini 2.5 Pro seems to behave much better in one of the tests he performed when summarizing and analyzing a text. However, with flame 3 something similar happened, and both calls 3.1 and calls 3.2 significantly improved their behavior. They can already be tested. Call 4 is now available In WhatsAppInstagram, Facebook or the website of Goal AI. And once again, experts offers the possibility of download italthough you will basically need a cluster with a lot, a lot of memory to be able to run them at home. They are also available in Huggingface. And soon “will reason”. Mark Zuckerberg Indian In its Instagram account that in addition to these models, next month we will see a model called 4 reasoning that will be the company’s first reasoning model. It is an especially interesting variant, especially when competing with Deepseek R1 (and its successor, which It will appear soon). Images | Goal In Xataka | Great technology have determined something this year: that we end up talking to an AI

Europe will invest a lot of money in countries as far away as Uzbekistan or Kyrgyzstan. The reason: rare earths

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Surely it went unnoticed by the vast majority of the planet Between tariffs and war conflicts. Kazakhstan announced last week the discovery of his Greater rare earth sitewith an initial estimate of one million tons of key elements such as Cerio, Lantano, Neodimio and Ititrio, all fundamental for the global energy transition … or to begin a new arms era. And now the news that did reach more people: the EU will invest a fortune in Five Central Asian countries. The official reason? Strive ties. The truth? The track is one of the five countries: Kazakhstan. The news. In full escalation of commercial tensions with the United States, the European Union surprisingly announced an investment of 12,000 million euros in Central Asia during its first summit with the five countries of the region (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzista, Tayikistan and Turkmenistan). The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that these funds will go to key sectors as transport, clean energy, connectivity and sustainable development of strategic natural resources. Tariffs and foreign trade. In a context marked by the new 20 % tariffs imposed by Washington to European imports, von der Leyen stressed that the EU seeks to offer A reliable alternative Faced with powers such as Russia and China, betting on egalitarian associations and investment in local capacities. In addition, the common commitment to the Territorial sovereignty and peace in Ukraine, condemning the Russian aggression and reinforcing the message that respect for international law will be a cornerstone of this new strategic association. The EU, which already represents 22.6 % of foreign trade And more than 40 % of foreign direct investment in Central Asia, seeks with this summit to consolidate its regional influence and open new trade routes that avoid Russian territory, such as the Transcaspiano corridorKey to reduce the Eastern Energy and Geopolitical Dependence. A key region. Behind good words are not only sustainable development and regional cooperation, but a critical geoeconomic priority: ensure the supply of essential minerals For the European green transition, the strengthening of its industrial base and the development of its defense capacities, all in a context of growing global tension and structural dependence of China and Russia. Strategic minerals. The urgency of this strategic turn was evidenced after the recognition of a disturbing vulnerability: in 2023, 94 % of imports European rare earth came from China, Malaysia and Russia. In addition, China controls the 60 % of world production of critical minerals and 85 % of its processing, while strengthening its own green industry. This concentration of power, added to political proximity between Beijing and Moscow, has led to worrying episodes, such as Chinese restriction to Antimony exporta key mineral in military technologies such as precision optics and night viewers. Abundance, but with limitations. In this panorama, Central Asia emerges as a realistic and attractive alternative. Kazakhstan currently produces 19 of the 34 minerals critics defined by the EU and could expand this figure 21 in the short term After the announcement of last week. Uzbekistan, meanwhile, is the fifth major supplier Uranium World and has important reserves of gold, silver, titanium and molybdenum. The region also has lithium, silicon and tungsten, fundamental for batteries, solar panels and electronic defense systems. However, much of these resources are trapped in a poorly developed mining sector, lacking modern infrastructure and technological capabilities for sustainable extraction. There, a priori, money would be destined. The European strategy. They counted on DW That, in the face of the geoeconomic competence of China and Russia, Brussels seeks to differentiate offering cooperation models based on industrial associations and mixed companies with local actors, favoring direct foreign investment, regional business growth and progressive industrialization. This approach is especially attractive to Central Asian leaders, who see in it a way to diversify their economies, reduce dependence from Moscow and gain greater strategic autonomy. The cornerstone of this approach would be the Gateway Global Initiativethe ambitious European project of 300,000 million euros conceived as an alternative to the New Silk Route China. The transcaspian corridor and a promise. A crucial component of the European Plan is the development of the Transpian International Transport Route (Titr), that logistics corridor that would unite China and Europe through Central Asia and the Caspian Sea, reducing traffic times to 15 days and avoiding the step by the Suez Canal or Russian territory. The problem? The dimension of investment. The implementation of this corridor requires an estimated amount of 18.5 billion euros In infrastructure, of which more than half have already been mobilized by the EU through an investment forum with support from its member states, the private sector, and institutions such as the European Investment Bank and the BERD. To get an idea, the Expert Samuel Vestterbye That this route could multiply container traffic from the current 100,000 to 800,000, with a transformative economic impact for both regions. The Russian “friend.” No doubt, the European turn also has a clear geopolitical dimension: stop use which makes Russia of Central Asian countries for avoid sanctions Western imposed after the invasion of Ukraine. The European diplomat Kaja Kallas was explicit in that sense when warning in Asjabad that Russian companies should not use the region as commercial escape route. In this context, the EU needs to balance a incentive and pressures policy: Offer real economic development through infrastructure and commerce, while demanding cooperation in compliance with the western sanctioning regime. Something like the “carrot and stick” approach that analysts see as an opportunity to consolidate strategic relationships that transcend the economic. Challenges and Emergency. Despite the advances, the European strategy has notable challenges before him. Experts Like Marie Dumoulinof the European Council on Foreign Relations, warn that the concrete projects of the Global Gateway take to materialize and lack visibility in the region, which could weaken the EU’s ability to compete with Chinese or Russian offers. In other words, that what is said is credible Brussels must Accelerate implementation of infrastructure works, show tangible results and … Read more

The Spanish car will be unscathed from US tariffs for a very simple reason: we manufacture cheap models

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25% of tariffs on all cars that enter through the borders of the United States. That is the last major measure announced by Donald Trump that, if nothing changes, will enter into force on April 2. A new economic decision that has evident winners and losers. How does Spain affect you? 25% tariffs. It had been rumored for a long time and Donald Trump has ended up confirming it: the United States will tax with 25% tariff to all cars that enter through its borders. If the car has been manufactured outside the United States, the importer will have to disburse 25% more through the car. The announcement has a small print that was later clarified by the White House, they collect in The country. For cars manufactured within the economic space of Canada-Mexico-United States (which have a special treaty) only the tariff will be applied to the pieces that are not produced in the United States, which should partially mitigate the norm. The latter is important since it is estimated that tariffs will raise the purchase cost of a car in the United States between $ 4,000 and $ 10,000 Since half of the cars bought in the country come from abroad and, from those assembled there, 60% of the components are also manufactured outside their borders, they point out in Motorpasion. And a threat. “If the European Union collaborates with Canada to economically harm the United States, they will be imposed on a large -scale tariffs, much greater than expected, to protect the best friend that both countries have had,” Donald Trump threatened in words collected by The country. The words of the president of the United States are a notice for a European Union that had threatened to reactivate tariffs that were already in force during Donald Trump’s first mandate and even go one step further, as reported The New York Times. Germany is especially vulnerable to US policies. It is the country that exports the most cars to the United States. According to Bloombergin 2024 they exported 446,566 cars worth 24,800 million dollars. In addition, its main manufacturers produce a good part of the cars that sell in the United States in countries such as Mexico or Canada. So, 80% of cars that Volkswagen sells in the country come from outside the United States. Mercedes does the same with 63% of its cars and BMW with 52%. What about Spain? According to the Data from the Department of Commerce collected by The country. Spain only exported 8,316 light vehicles that added a value of 178.5 million dollars. Both figures are, obviously, minimal if we take into account those that we have been renovating previously. According to Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC)the main shipments from Spain to the United States represented Volkswagen and Ford. Despite this, those 178.5 million dollars contrast with the more than 8,000 million dollars that Spain exports in cars to France or Germany, the main markets for the Spanish industry. Small and European. If the Spanish industry will not suffer with the tariffs raised by Donald Trump it is because the cars we manufacture here are focused on the European market. Most of them are Compact and utilitarian vehicles of relatively low prices that are manufactured in Spain because the labor is cheaper and, therefore, allows to better adjust the benefits margins. The data pointed out that Ford was one of the most affected companies in Spain because it produced in Almussafes (Valencia) the Ford Transit Connect. This vehicle was exported to the United States because it was used as a taxi in New York. However, It does not occur since 2024. To this we must add that the country has been taking positions in recent years to reposition its industry in the electric car. And production plans for this type of cars also indicates that They will be small carsdestined for a European public. Consumers. So far we have talked about the industry but, obviously, a European response will touch sectors outside the car. While in the United States half of the cars that are bought are manufactured outside the country, only 12% of cars imported to Europe come from the United States, According to Acea. If Europe decides to respond by raising more commercial barriers to the cars that come there, the main damaged will be the Tesla Model S and, above all, the American sports models such as the Ford Mutang or the Chevrolet Corvette. Models that, like the Ford Broncothey arrive at droppers and are especially expensive to compensate for the European Emissions Standards. Therefore, if the European Union decides to answer we can expect an increase in the prices of other products. For example, it was already valued to impose Harley-Davidson motorcycles. Photo | Stellantis In Xataka | Europe wants to complicate things to China but Spain has other plans: go for free to attract MG and Byd factories

Openai is about to be worth as much as Coca-Cola even though it is still a money losing machine. The reason: SoftBank

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Openai is about to close a gigantic financing round led by SoftBank that will double its assessment as reported Bloomberg. This new round will coincide with a non-tan-positive scenario for the company: that of increasing doubts about the rhythm of real progress of generative AI. The panoramic. The startup is finalizing a financing round of 40,000 million dollars led by SoftBankwhich will raise its value to 300,000 million. This assessment would place Openai in the select club of the most valuable companies in the world, drawing with a whole Coca-Cola, and getting closer to others such as Netflix or Tesla. The context. The investment is structured in two phases: An initial of 10,000 million (7.5 billion softbank and 2.5 billion of other investors). A second of 30,000 million scheduled for this year. Among the investors that accompany SoftBank are the Magnetar Capital Fund, which could contribute up to 1,000 million, in addition to Coatue Management, Founders Fund and Altimeter Capital Management. This round almost doubles the assessment achieved in October 2024, when OpenAI captured 6,600 million led by Thrive Capital at an assessment of 157,000 million. Between the lines. This spectacular increase in value could be interpreted as an attempt to maintain the perception of exponential growth at a time when the generative AI seems to have reached some plateau in its practical development. And now what. OpenAI must demonstrate that it can transform its technological leadership into a sustainable business model that justifies this astronomical assessment. And Altman will have to overcome the sandwich made by his investors (demanding returns) and the infrastructure (which requires continuous capital). After the initial euphoria with the generative AI, with the arrival of Chatgpt in the late 2022 as a clear turning point, we are going to a somewhat more selective phase in which only market leaders will continue to capture large amounts of money. In Xataka | The new OpenAi image generator takes a 180º turn in a section that we did not see coming: censorship Outstanding image | Mariia Shalabaieva in Unspash

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