returned

The truth behind the medical milestone that has returned activity to a frozen brain

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One of the wishes of many people is to live forever and they may have in mind ending up with their head stuck in a jar like in the Futurama series or becoming cryogenized for an eternity until the key to eternal life is found. But we are still quite far from that, although right now science has been able to recover the activity of a brain after ‘killing’ it. Far from the resurrection. In recent days we have been sold the idea that we are facing a new way of ‘resurrecting’ the dead or achieving the wish of eternal life, but the reality is that the latest thing science has done is recover short-term functional activity in mouse brain tissue after subjecting it to vitrification. What was done. Historically, the great enemy of cryopreservation of human tissue have been ice crystals. This is because when we freeze tissue, the water in the cells expands and crystallizes, perforating the cell membranes and destroying the structure from within, making it impossible for that tissue to come back to life. Something that generates a lot of damage and that goes against the famous cryogenization cabins that promise to wake us up in the future when science has advanced a lot. But now, instead of traditional freezing, the latest experiment used powerful cryoprotectants and took mouse brain tissue to -150ºC. This process transforms the liquids into a glass-like state, preventing the formation of these crystals, and when they wanted to ‘awaken’ the tissue again, ultra-rapid reheating was simply done to prevent crystallization from destroying the samples. What was achieved. The original article shows extraordinary results, since the amount of neuronal properties that survived were many by ensuring that the cells did not collapse and the tissue returned to consuming energy normally. In addition, the neurons maintained their ability to fire signals and also the possibility of creating new connection networks, which is essential for learning and memory. Why does it matter? As he warns Nature Newsthese results must be read with caution, since it is mouse tissue, not a complete human brain. And recovering electrical activity in a cut of the hippocampus is not equivalent to restoring the consciousness, identity or life of an entire animal, much less a person. But even if they do not manage to pause our definitive death, the reality is that this can be crucial in the field of research by facilitating the transport and storage of brain samples for study in other places. But it will also allow drugs to be tested on actual brain tissue that has been preserved, perhaps reducing the need to sacrifice so many experimental animals. Images | rawpixel.com on Freepik In Xataka | Alzheimer’s leaves its mark decades before showing its face: keeping vitamin D at bay is already a promising shield

then he returned them

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There are companies that make money selling clothes. And then there is Inditex, which also has a turnover of millions of euros building nursing homes for its own founder. Zara’s parent company earned an additional 49 million euros thanks to the orders that Amancio Ortega placed with Goa Invest, the group’s construction subsidiary, according to the annual report of the group deposited with the CNMV. As and as highlighted Vozpopuliwhat is striking is not so much the amount of the figure as the path that this money takes in the financial framework of the company: it leaves Ortega’s pockets, enters the coffers of Inditex and, for the most part, returns exactly to the starting point in the form of dividends. The numbers of the works. Inditex’s annual report reflects that the textile parent company charged 49 million euros to “Pontegadea Inversiones, Partler Participaciones, Partler 2006, or related entities or persons.” In other words, the charge was made to Amancio Ortega’s real estate holding company and other companies in his family business network for the concept of “provision of construction services.” This figure represents an increase of seven million more than what Ortega’s companies paid last year to Inditex, and 9 more than what they paid in 2023. In addition, Ortega paid another two million to Inditex for “other concepts.” Despite being a real estate company, Pontegadea hates doing constructionso the bulk of that bill corresponds to the work that Goa Invest, a subsidiary construction company of Inditex, is carrying out to build and launch seven comprehensive care centers for older people in Galiciaa project promoted entirely by the Amancio Ortega Foundation. The seven centers are part of a commitment by the founder of Inditex to reduce unwanted loneliness and isolation among the elderly, of whom five have been delivered. Amancio Ortega, Zara’s landlord. However, the amount paid to Inditex for these concepts has a very specific destination: pay rent. Inditex allocated those same 49 million euros (three million more than the previous year) to pay rent for the commercial premises where the stores of the group’s different brands are located, whose ownership is in the hands of Pontegadea Inversiones and Partler, the two companies that, between them, retain more than 59% of the capital of Inditex as representatives of Amancio Ortega. To that sum should be added the million euros paid to Rosp Corunna, the property company of Sandra Ortega, eldest daughter of Amancio Ortega and owner of 5% of the group, also for the rental of premises to Inditex brands. However, if the analysis is extended to all the group’s accounts, it is found that those 49 million paid to Pontegadea is like a drop in an ocean, since they barely represent 4.5% of the total allocated to leases, which as a whole amounts to 1,085 million euros annual. Residences for the elderly, a 90 million project. The construction project for senior centers started in 2019when the Xunta de Galicia and Flora Pérez Marcote, wife of Amancio Ortega and vice president of his foundation at that time, reached a collaboration agreement with an initial budget of 90 million euros, but the planned investment has been expanded to 180 million euros. The seven facilities will be distributed among the main Galician cities and, once in operation, they will be integrated into the Xunta’s public elderly care network. At the same time, the Amancio Ortega Foundation promotes another initiative to combat loneliness among the elderly: the installation of Amazon speakers with Alexa and integrated artificial intelligence in residences and private homes. The program, named Network Voicesaccompanies 26,000 elderly people daily and had an initial budget of 15 million euros assumed entirely by the foundation. A modest figure for Inditex. To understand the real magnitude of all these movements among the companies in the family business ecosystem around Amancio Ortega, it is convenient to place them against the results of the company as a whole. Inditex registered a historical net profit of 6,220 million euros in its last fiscal year, which represents an increase of 6% compared to the previous year and exceeds the barrier of 6,000 million euros for the first time. Compared to that scale, the 49 million in rents that Pontegadea receives are, in relative terms, a modest figure within the financial machinery of the most powerful group in world fashion. Money changes pockets, yes, but without leaving the family perimeter. In Xataka | Amancio Ortega: the billionaire who lives like a neighbor (except for private jets and superyachts) Image | Wikimedia Commons (Nemigo), GTRES

We wanted electric cars and solar panels. The Hormuz blockade has returned us to the era of coal and nuclear energy

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The Third Gulf War has caused what decades of climate summits tried to avoid: the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has erased 20% of the world’s supply of oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) in one fell swoop. Faced with the imminent threat of a large-scale blackout, governments around the world have put their energy transition plans in a drawer. However, to keep the lights on and the economy afloat, the immediate response has been to look back to the past: burn coal by the piece and resurrect nuclear power. The mirage of “bridge fuel.” Asia buys more than 80% of the crude oil and gas that transits through Hormuz, but the problem goes far beyond a simple ship jam. This crisis has destroyed one of the great pillars of the energy transition. As explained The New York TimesLiquefied Natural Gas (LNG) was sold during the last decade as the perfect “bridge fuel”: less polluting than coal, more reliable than intermittent renewables and capable of being transported by sea to any corner. That bridge just blew up. The damage is far from being repaired, and it is estimated that the infrastructure attacked It will take years to operate again. Added to this is that Iran has turned the Strait of Hormuz into a kind of maritime “VIP discotheque”deciding by hand which ships can cross. No one can depend on LNG ships to guarantee their sovereignty. The main problem: live without pantry. But there is a technical factor that has turned this crisis into an immediate catastrophe: lack of storage. Unlike the West, most Asian countries lack underground gas stores, leaving them completely exposed to supply disruptions. While nations like South Korea can last up to 52 days and Japan about three weeks, Taiwan walk on a wire extremely fragile, with a legal security threshold of just 11 or 12 days of reserves. Without a “pantry” to store the LNG, Asia has no room for maneuver: if the ship does not arrive on Monday, the blackout begins on Tuesday. This structural vulnerability is what has forced an unconditional surrender to coal. Coal’s dirty lifesaver. As Jonathan Teubner, the aforementioned analyst, perfectly summarizes by Financial Times: “No coal ship passes through the Strait of Hormuz.” That is the key to everything. Being a cheap, abundant resource that does not depend on the troubled waters of the Middle East, the most polluting mineral has returned with a bang. According to FortuneSouth Korea has removed the 80% operational cap for its coal plants, a decision that has drawn the ire of environmental groups who accuse the government of using “energy security as a pretext.” Thailand, for its part, is restarting plants it had dismantled last year. From Seoul to New Delhi: the dilemma of the powers. Japan, one of the world’s largest gas importers, has also bowed to the evidence, allowing its least efficient coal plants to operate at full capacity for a year. Energy desperation is such that in Japan There are already voices demanding cancel the emissions trading system, calling it a “death sentence” for the coal plants they now need to survive. In India, the situation is critical. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has warned of a “major challenge” ahead of the summer. To avoid massive blackouts, New Delhi has commanded giants such as Tata Power and Adani Power operate at full capacity, while Bangladesh seeks multi-billion dollar loans. Sam Chua, analyst at Rystad Energy, sums it up in Financial Times: We are not seeing a transition, but a brutal “destruction of gas demand.” Although it is not that simple: the money wall. This coal revival has a glass ceiling. As experts point out in Japan Timesthe banking sector flatly refuses to finance the construction of new coal plants for fear of being left with “stranded assets” (stranded assets) in the face of global climate commitments. That is, countries are squeezing their dirty old infrastructure to the last drop, but they can’t build new ones. Charcoal is the assisted respirator, but not the cure. The atom as a shield: the great redemption of uranium. Panic too has broken atomic taboos. Taiwan, whose government promised a “nuclear-free homeland” in 2016, has announced plans to restart two decommissioned reactors. The Philippines has charted a fast track to atomic energy by 2032, and Vietnam has just struck a deal with Russia to build its first reactors. Uranium is no longer seen as a threat, but rather as the only way to protect the electricity supply against maritime blackmail. The domino effect reaches Europe. What started as an emergency solution in Asia is already infecting the West. The crisis has forced the European Union to break its own historical taboos, admitting that Europe committed a “strategic mistake” by moving away from atomic energy. Brussels has already put 200 million euros on the table to develop Small Modular Reactors (SMR) by 2030. This shift shows a continental fracture: while France entrenches itself protecting its nuclear investment of 300 billion euros and blocks energy interconnections with the Iberian Peninsula, Europe assumes that it cannot guarantee its future solely with the sun and the wind. War rationing in the 21st century. While the plants uproot, the daily suffocation hit the streets. Philippines has declared a “national energy emergency.” In South Korea, the government implores families to take short showers and Samsung has prohibited its employees from driving to work based on the license plate. In Thailand, officials operate with work weeks for four days and they are prohibited from wearing ties in order to raise the temperature of the air conditioning. The collapse is so severe that Thai ambulances have taken to Facebook to beg gas stations to reserve diesel for them to save lives. The collateral damage. The scope of this blockage transcends the electricity bill. If the conflict lasts until June, Bloomberg alert that the barrel could touch $200, a price designed to cause “demand destruction.” This would lock global inflation at a chronic … Read more

James Cameron has always played heads or tails with his films. Cinema has returned him a fortune of 1.1 billion

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Imagine shooting movies that cost hundreds of millions, dive into the impossible and play it all on one card: that the public likes them. James Cameron has done it for four decades and that bet on heads or tails in each film has helped him enter a select club: that of the billionaires list Forbes. At 71 years old, the director of titles such as Titanic and Avatar has achieved an estimated net worth of $1.1 billion, thanks to a balance between box office revenue, profit-sharing agreements and the exploitation of licenses for his most profitable franchises. Some hard beginnings. Cameron’s path was neither immediate nor easy. Before becoming a successful name in Hollywood, he worked as a truck driver and production assistant with modest salaries. His first feature film as a director, ‘Piranha II: The Vampires of the Sea’ in 1982. A creative setback that hardly brought him any income, but it helped him gain a foothold behind the cameras. The real turning point in his career came with ‘Terminator‘ in 1984. The filmmaker claimed that he had dreamed the apocalyptic story during a feverish night and, to ensure creative control, he sold his script for one dollar, a bet that resulted in a “low-budget” film ($6.4 million), but which represented a return of $78 million at the box office and the definitive boost for his career as a director. There is no easy movie: everything is heads or tails. Camerón risked his salary to carry out the project the way he wanted, and he came out of that adventure very well. That triumph led him to continue risking immediate benefits in exchange for control and participation in future income. In ‘Risky lies’the director went overboard with the production budget, becoming the first film to exceed $100 million. To avoid ceding creative control, Cameron renegotiated his agreement with FOX, allowing the studio to recoup its investment by ceding part of its profits to him. Finally, it was not necessary since the film grossed $378 million worldwide. Another example of this dynamic was ‘Titanic. When the budget exceeded $200 million, Cameron voluntarily gave up his salary as director and producer. The studio, resigned to rising costs, prepared for a financial debacle. However, the result was a success that grossed more than $1.8 billion at the box office and more than $800 million in VHS sales, making Cameron one of the highest-paid filmmakers of his generation after receiving a percentage of the profits. Avatar and his great gold mine. However, despite having a track record full of titles that are already part of the history of cinema, its real gold mine It’s the saga ‘Avatar‘. The first film, released in 2009, grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide and generated more than $350 million directly for Cameron from its box office rights, physical sales and licensing fees. Your producer, Lightstorm Entertainmenthas contributed to his fortune with parallel income derived from the saga through theme parks, merchandising and technological agreements. The sequel’Avatar: The Sense of Water’ It totaled more than 2.3 billion at the box office, with Cameron obtaining around 250 million dollars for its box office and production rights. Just a few days before the premiere of the third installment with ‘Avatar: Fire and Ashes’Forbes already takes its box office success for granted and estimates that Cameron could add at least $200 million more to his pre-tax assets if the film meets commercial expectations, as it did. the second installment of the saga. A legacy that goes beyond money. Throughout his career, Cameron has been known for both his perfectionism and his willingness to give up short-term benefits in order to maintain creative control or improve the end result. That approach has led him to technological and business projects outside of cinema: from immersion in digital effects with ‘Terminator’, to underwater exploration after ‘Titanic’ and the environmental activism at the end of the first installment of ‘Avatar’. Cameron doesn’t usually talk about wealth. In a recent interview with Puck, the director said that “I wish I were a billionaire.” According to Forbes, his salaries as a director, participation in the profits of his productions, income from theme park and toy licenses and the value of his production company, raise James Cameron’s fortune to over $1.1 billion. At least until the premiere of his new installment of ‘Avatar’. In Xataka | The “100 billion dollar club” has added a new member: for the first time, the new member is a woman Image | The Walt Disney Company, Flickr (SMPTE)

Ukraine has returned from Europe with 250 fighter jets under its arm. The problem is that only Spain has told him the truth

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The new European trip of the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has finished in Spain and has crystallized into a military agenda that aims to reconfigure the Ukrainian air force over the next decade, based on political agreements of enormous symbolic scope. If nothing goes wrong, the Ukrainian nation has nothing less than 250 European fighters under his arm along with a huge aid package and arsenal. The problem is that the financing is very uncertain and its execution is very distant. Aerial reconstruction as a continental ambition. In Paris, the Ukrainian president signed a letter of intent to acquire up to one hundred Rafale fightersdevices that France presents as the heart of the future defense of Ukraine, complemented by Samp/T systemsnew generation drones, guided munitions and incipient industrial cooperation to manufacture interceptors on Ukrainian territory. The French bet aims to elevate Ukraine to European technological standardintegrating it into a long-term security architecture and relying on a financing framework yet to be defined, where the European Union and frozen Russian assets appear as the great promise, although deeply controversial. The political gesture, celebrated as historic in parisresponds to the French ambition to lead the regeneration of Ukrainian air power and to reinforce the role of its defense industry in a continent that is rapidly rearming. Doubts about the bet. Diplomatic enthusiasm contrasts with operational uncertainties. They remembered TWZ analysts either The Wall Street Journal that Ukraine does not have of the financial margin to pay for neither the acquisition nor the maintenance of a hundred Rafale, and France is going through a period of budget fragility which makes sustained long-term commitments difficult. The idea that Europe could finance the purchase through new joint debt mechanisms or from income generated by frozen Russian assets divides the states members and poses enormous legal risks, especially for Belgium, which holds most of those funds. Added to this is the industrial reality: the Dassault production chain is saturatedwith deliveries committed for years, and the manufacturing of 100 additional devices would require extraordinary efforts. The perspective of a parallel program, with 150 Swedish Gripen also agreed in the preliminary phase, increases doubts about whether Ukraine could sustain, train and maintain such a vast fleet of 4/5th generation aircraft. For many, the initiative reflects more a political movement to keep France at the center of the Ukrainian equation and to boost European industry in the face of a United States more distantthan a realistic military acquisition plan in the short or medium term. A Gripen fighter The military horizon. Zelensky’s trip has also highlighted the arrival of a winter that anticipates a new Russian campaign focused in energy infrastructure and strategic cities. France insists that Samp/T systems are demonstrating remarkable effectiveness against Russian missiles with a complex trajectory, even higher, some French commanders claim, than the performance of the Patriot in certain scenarios. In parallel, Paris reinforces its role as a provider of interim air capabilities, including Mirage fighters and precision ammunition, while promoting a future coalition of countries Europeans willing to guarantee the security of Ukraine after an eventual ceasefire, a project still impossible as long as Moscow rejects any negotiation. This strategy, which attempts to combine immediate support with an architecture of long term securityreveals both French determination and the continent’s real limitations in simultaneously sustaining the current war and future rearmament. Among others, Spanish military aid to Ukraine will consist of 40 IRIS-T missiles Spain and the contrast with the promises. The final stop of the trip, in Madrid, has revealed a very marked contrast between the declarative exuberance of some allies and the measured (and often austere) approach of the Spanish Government. Spain announced a package of 817 million of euros, which includes 300 million in nationally produced weapons, 215 million channeled through European programs and additional 100 million to acquire US missiles through PURL initiative of NATO. It is a significant effort in political and logistical terms, but modest in comparison with the great European powers and especially small in the face of the air ambitions presented in France or Sweden. In practice, it is a calibrated support for immediate needs from the Ukrainian winter: anti-aircraft missiles to repel drones and protect critical infrastructures, plus a commitment to accelerate joint industrial capabilities in areas where Spanish companies (with Indra at the head) can offer practical solutions such as deployable radars or anti-drone systems. Spain and realism. If you also want, the Spanish case reflects a much more realistic line than that of other countries visited by Zelensky. Since the beginning of the war, Spain has contributed with useful materialsbut in many cases coming from surplus (Leopard 2A4 retired, M113 obsolete, Hawk batteries aging) and has prioritized its participation in European programs where the direct cost to its budget is lower. In comparative terms, and especially measured as a percentage of GDP, Spain is far behind of the hard core of military support for Ukraine. However, what it offers now is probably more sincere and sustainable: an acceptable package, focused on urgent and realistic needs, that does not promise fighter fleets, perhaps impossible to finance, or industrial projects that exceed national capacity. Spanish extra ball. Furthermore, Spain stands out where other countries they can’t: in the reception of refugees, in the medical rehabilitation of Ukrainian soldiers and in light but reliable industrial cooperation. So, on that journey that began with spectacular advertisements in Paris and Stockholm, the Spanish stop has served to balance in a way the expectations. In that sense, Spain appears as one of the few allies that gauges its support by looking ahead. the budget figuresavoiding promising what it will be difficult to fulfill and remaining firm in what it can offer: a modest but operational contribution. Image | Ronnie MacdonaldTuomo Salonen, Air and Space Army Ministry of Defense Spain In Xataka | Europe already knows the arsenal it needs for rearmament. Now the most difficult thing remains: how to make it arrive in time if Russia attacks … Read more

In case there weren’t enough AI companies. Jeff Bezos has just returned from the shadows to raise another one, according to the NYT

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After leading Amazon for almost three decadesJeff Bezos left four years ago the highest position in the company that he created to focus on other projects. Personally, His wedding to Lauren Sánchez made headlines; professionally, His involvement with Blue Origin has been constantat a time when the space company rivals SpaceX like never before. At 61 years old and in a comfortable stage of his life, few would have imagined that Bezos would return to the CEO chair of a new company. But in Silicon Valley, where withdrawal is rarely final, nothing can ever be closed. The case of Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google, is a good reminder: At the age of 70 he assumed the presidency and executive direction of Relativity Space. And now, according to The New York TimesBezos is back. Bezos returns to an operational position with a powerful bet The tycoon, who as of this writing appears as the third richest person on the planetaccording to Forbeshas set his sights on a new project. We talk about Project Prometheusa company that emerges with financing of 6.2 billion dollars, much of it contributed by Bezos himself. And, of course, it is a bet on artificial intelligence. The company appears at a time when artificial intelligence is experiencing accelerated expansion. It is no secret that the environment is dominated by names like Google, Meta and Microsoft, along with references such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Added to this dynamic is a growing number of startups seeking to differentiate themselves with more specialized proposals. That Bezos adopts an operational role in this context reinforces the relevance of the project and positions it from the beginning within the competition for the most ambitious advances in the sector. As detailed by the American newspaper, the first steps of Project Prometheus have not been particularly visible and there is still no confirmed date for the start of its operations. However, the type of technology that is being developed is known, focused on applying AI to engineering and manufacturing challenges in areas such as computing, aerospace and automotive. It is an approach that requires teams with high scientific specialization. For now, the location of the company has not been made public either, a fact that remains unclear. The company is focused on applying AI to engineering and manufacturing challenges in areas such as computing, aerospace and automotive. The sources consulted point out a relevant detail: Bezos returns to direct management by becoming co-CEO of Project Prometheus, a role that he had not held since leaving Amazon. Share that responsibility with Vik Bajajphysicist and chemist with extensive experience in applied research. We are talking about a profile that worked alongside Sergey Brin at Google X and later participated in the launch of Verily, Alphabet’s laboratory dedicated to life sciences. Project Prometheus is part of a broader trend within the sector. A growing number of companies are applying artificial intelligence to tasks linked to the physical world, from robotics to drug design or scientific research. This year, several researchers from companies such as Meta, OpenAI or Google DeepMind have abandoned consolidated projects to found new initiatives, such as Periodic Labsfocused on accelerating discoveries in physics and chemistry. It is in that environment where Prometheus begins to place itself. The interest in applying artificial intelligence to the physical world also responds to an important technical difference. Large language models learn from huge amounts of digital text, from articles to technical documentation. According to The New York Times, the new approach goes one step further: systems that can also learn from real experiments, run by robots in automated laboratories. Initiatives like AlphaFold have already demonstrated advances in areas such as drug design. It’s on that frontier, where software meets physical experimentation, where Prometheus wants to compete. The implementation of the project is also reflected in your team. Project Prometheus, sources say, has incorporated nearly a hundred employees, including researchers from companies such as OpenAI, Google DeepMind and Meta. This movement confirms the technical ambition of the company and the intention to advance quickly in a field where talent is decisive. Bezos’ decision to return to an operational role also comes at a particularly competitive time for the industry, adding even more attention to the company’s next steps. Images | Jeff Bezos | Igor Omilaev In Xataka | Apple steps on the accelerator towards the most important change of the decade: the succession of Tim Cook

We have returned to an era that we thought forgotten. That of the nuclear threat of the US and Russia launching their reply: Poseidon

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In recent days all roads trace a common landscape: from Moscow exhibit and test “superweapons” that defy traditional categories (autonomous nuclear torpedoes, nuclear cruise engines, and indefinite-range missiles) while in Washington the political and media reaction accentuates a dynamic action-reaction that could return the world to an (il)logic of open competition between nuclear powers. Someone should stop it. Poseidon. He Russian Poseidon has returned to the forefront as the epitome of the hybrid between a fantasy factory and a real military program: an unmanned, reactor-powered underwater vehicle, conceived to transport a nuclear warhead to coastal targets or naval groupings, operate at great depth and high speed and (according to the official Russian narrative) bypass conventional defenses. The impact figures published in Moscow (speeds between 60–100 knots, operational depth ~1,000 m, “megaton” capacity that some sources stretch up to 100 Mt) feed the symbolic dread. However, analysts remember physical limits and Soviet precedents that qualify both the real effectiveness and the plausibility of “tsunami” type effects capable of sweeping away cities. In practice. Thus, the majority agrees that Poseidon It is best described as a capability designed for political and strategic cost: suitable to reinforce a “second strike” or to be used as a system of intimidation, not necessarily as an everyday weapon in an escalated conflict. Burevestnik and a persistence. We told it last week. Along with the torpedo, Russia has shown the Burevestnik (a nuclear-powered cruise missile that promises essentially unlimited range) and other platforms that the Kremlin lumps together under the label of “invincible weapons.” These initiatives obey a logic of modernization that combines technological ambition, industrial vulnerabilities (sanctions, reliability problems) and media staging: the public demonstration of tests does not detonate charges, but announces theoretical capabilities and forces adversaries to regroup resources and doctrine. Continuity with the Soviet tradition of studying large-scale underwater effects and the historical experience with essays they show that ideas can persist even when physics and engineering limit their real usefulness. Washington’s response. The political reaction in the United States, personified by presidential statements about “restarting testing” and public instruction to military departments, has been immediate (and disorderly). The announcements arrive in a critical moment (with the New START treaty close to expiration and with China throwing uncertainties about its own nuclear growth) and can be read as strategic messages, instruments of pressure and, sometimes, as gestures directed at the internal public. One thing remains clear: Trump’s formulation was more than ambiguous and it is not clear whether it refers to nuclear detonations (critical/non-critical), increased testing of delivery systems, or increased sub-critical experiments and simulations. There is no doubt, this ambiguity is dangerous because conditions perceptions and responses international without the technical and legal scaffolding that a decision of shock would demand. Burevestnik How “nuclear” is prescribed. On TWZ Several experts consulted describe the practical path to resume nuclear detonations: The president can order actions, but execution requires the involvement of specific agencies (Department of Energy, NNSA and national laboratories), budget authorization from Congress and logistics focused on the Nevada National Security Site as the only realistic site for contained underground testing. In any case, the deadlines they are long: A “simple burst” could be organized in months, a useful instrumented test would require 18–36 months, and a new design development program would take years. Furthermore, the cost would be high and would most likely provoke retorts from Russia, China and others, reigniting a cycle of arms races that post-Cold War agreements had managed to tacitly contain. Technical dimension. The technical usefulness of returning to explosive tests to maintain the national arsenal is, obviously, discussed: US laboratories maintain that, thanks to advanced simulations, subcritical experimentation and vast historical data, the reliability of nuclear warheads can sustain without detonations. The tests would serve, in theory, to validate new designs and increase confidence in specific features. In practice, they would reopen the door to developments that amplify offensive capabilities and complicate the balance of terror, in addition to generating environmental and proliferation risks. The media theater. Plus: not everything is technology. There is a strong performative component. Putin and the Russian media apparatus have known convert essaysimages and statements in one power narrative which includes synchronies with popular culture (television series) to magnify its psychological impact. In Washington, the improvised communication from social networks it has a similar but less institutionalized effect: statements without clarifying technique or procedure can be interpreted as a political will to rupture and push allies and adversaries to take asymmetric measures. Geopolitical consequences. The costs of a back to testing are not limited to budgets: there is talk of reactivation of the nuclear race, of degradation of international trustor the erosion of regulatory regimes (the CTBT and the verification architecture), in addition to a probable expansion of arsenals by China and other actors who do not participate in treaties today. Added to this is the risk that the US internal debate (political polarization, legislative pressures and the dynamic of “showing” without a technical roadmap) will generate hasty decisions. Worse still, the media normalization of “anti-coastal weapons” or “Frankenstein” torpedoes may facilitate usage doctrines that lower the threshold for tactical uses of nuclear weapons, an especially dangerous prospect. Uncertainty. In summary, the news of the last days They are, more than anything else, a warning: we are witnessing the sum of three processes (modernization and Russian technological experimentationpoliticization and theatrics of deterrenceand American answers marked by tactical uncertainty and political haste) that, together, fuel a dangerous inertia. The question is no longer just whether Poseidon either Burevestnik are fully operational, it is whether the international community, and especially the capitals with decision-making power, will recover the technical prudence and diplomatic rigor necessary to contain the escalation. Image | US Space Force, Russian Defense Ministry, Los Alamos National Laboratory In Xataka | Last week, Russia launched its fearsome Satan II nuclear missile, Putin’s “invincible weapon.” It came out regular In Xataka | There is something more disturbing than “a Chernobyl”: it … Read more

OpenAI teamed up with NVIDIA and made circular financing fashionable. Anthropic has returned the ball with a surprise girlfriend: Google

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Let’s see if we were going to believe that OpenAI was going to be the only one to look for powerful allies. Nothing of that: Anthropic just did the same and has announced an eye-catching agreement with Google. The AI ​​startup will have access to up to one million Google TPUs in a pact that is worth “tens of billions of dollars.” Less noise, but a lot of nuts. The figures of the agreement are modest if we compare them with those that OpenAI has managed in its circular financing agreements with NVIDIA, amd either Broadcombut here Anthropic seems to take a very different position. Compared to colossal projects like Stargate, Anthropic’s idea is focused on execution. Without making much noise, the company led by Dario Amodei has been gradually conquering the business sector. More than 1 GW of computing capacity. On CNBC indicate that this investment will allow the creation of a data center with a computing capacity greater than 1 GW and have it ready in 2026. It is estimated that a center of these characteristics would cost about 50,000 million dollars, of which about 35,000 million would be dedicated to AI chips. It may not be comparable to Stargate and the idea of ​​investing $500 billion in data centers, but the alliance between Anthropic and Google is significant. More than circular financing. The partnership certainly features elements of circular financing, but it is more of a symbiotic relationship with that cross-investment component. The dynamic is simple and is now completed with that commercial return. The agreement requires Anthropic to buy or rent infrastructure services from Google Cloud. Virtuous circle. With its original investment in Anthropic, Google helped that company grow, which in turn allows Anthropic not only the ability to grow, but the need for enormous computing power… provided by Google. In essence, some of the money Google invests in Anthropic returns to Google Cloud as revenue. The vicious (or virtuous, as they say in the US) circle is complete. Anthropic diversifies. Anthropic’s AI models are trained and used using infrastructure from various manufacturers. Thus, they use both Google TPUs and Amazon Trainium processors and NVIDIA GPUs: each platform is assigned to a specialized workload. In the case of Google’s TPUs, according to Anthropic the focus is “its strong price/performance ratio and its efficiency.” Promising successes, but… Anthropic’s growth is evident, and its annualized revenue rate (ARR) is now estimated to reach $7 billion. Claude Code, its developer assistant, managed to generate 500 million dollars after just two months on the market. But as always, that revenue can’t hide the fact that Anthropic, like other AI startups, you continue to spend much more money than you earn. Amazon is your other great ally. In fact, the company led by Andy Jassy has invested around $8 billion, when official data indicates that Google has invested $3 billion. AWS is still considered the largest infrastructure provider for Anthropic, and its supercomputer Project Rainierbased on the Trainium 2, allows you to have a large computing capacity for every dollar invested, they point out on Amazon. The company’s influence is not only financial: it is structural. Image | Wikimedia | Fortune Brainstorm Tech In Xataka | You thought you had an amazing connection on Tinder, but you were actually chatting with ChatGPT

Ukraine has returned from the US with two bad news, and the least of it is the Tomahawk missiles

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Last Friday it was supposed to take place a nuclear meeting for the future of war in ukraine. However, what happened in the White House ended up being less a diplomatic exercise than a scene of head-on collision: a president demanding territorial capitulation from an invaded country, a president refusing to give up what he still defends under fire, and a third absent actor marking the remote script of what Trump repeated with a literality that blurred any pretense of mediation. Concessions and threats. He had exclusive the financial times that Trump discarded the maps of the front, repeated that the war was not such but a “special operation” in Putin’s words, and urged Zelensky to accept the loss of Donetsk and the entire Donbas as the price of peace, warning that “If Putin wants, he will destroy you.” The conversation degeneratedapparently in shouts and ultimatum language, with the Ukrainian delegation attempting achieve Tomahawks (denied) while listening to arguments identical to those from Moscow put forward one day before to Trump himself. The American president even verbalized in public, already on Air Force One, the solution of freezing the war “where the lines are,” leaving negotiations on territory “for later.” The Russian proposal. Putin, in his previous call, demanded total surrender of Donetsk (a military objective that Moscow has failed to achieve in eleven years of combined war) offering as a counterpart only parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia that it currently controls precariously. For Ukraine, surrender the eastern bastion without combat (key to containing a penetration towards the Dnieper and kyiv) it is unacceptable because it would be equivalent to dynamiting the strategic defense of the entire country and, in psychological and political terms, to legitimizing a violent annexation project active since 2014. Trump and the European reading. trump had hinted Weeks ago that Ukraine could recover “everything and more,” and that Russia was a “paper tiger,” he now maintains that Moscow “has gained property” and should be given some credit. The literal echo of Putin’s points in Trump’s words dissipated among allies the hope of reopening the arms route and revealed that the matrix of the negotiation that Washington is pushing is no longer symmetrical but asymmetrical: downward pressure on the invaded and assumption of the invader’s premise. Russian internal calculation. For Ukrainian analysts, Donetsk’s demand does not so much seek to maximize territorial gain as to induce a sociopolitical fracture within Ukraine: forcing the leadership to consider what society will not tolerate to open an axis of internal delegitimization. Putin, in fact, already knows the social impossibility of barter, and that is why he insists: the desired cost is the erosion of cohesion rather than the line on the map. The Ukrainian position. Zelenskiy confirmed after the meeting that I would agree to freeze the front in its current location as a condition for entering talks, but stressed that there will not be additional delivery of territory. Considers that any negotiation must start with an immediate cessation on the line of contact, not with prior territorial modifications in favor of the aggressor. Trump’s public statements and the prospect of a Trump-Putin meeting in Budapest They do not alter that principle: without prior freezing and without forced concession, there is no viable dialogue. Tactical horizon. Ukraine enters winter under massive attacks on your energy infrastructure while responding by hitting Russian refineries. The lack of long range missiles from Washington after the call with Putin limits its capacity for deep counter-escalation just when Moscow is looking for time, social fatigue and diplomatic fracture. kyiv, in the absence of immediate alternatives, indicates that a ceasefire on current lines would be acceptable as a table key, but not the surrender of Donetsk as an entry passport. Peace on demand. If you will, the scheme that has emerged from this sequence (Putin-Trump call, Trump-Zelensky meeting, territorial barter proposal and appeal to the “agreement” freezing positions) places Ukraine before a conditional peace that recognizes the violence of annexation as a fait accompli and requires the invaded to formalize it. The ukrainian reaction (freeze, negotiate, but not give in) is the last dam between an end to the fire and an end to the State in the political-strategic sense. The meeting did not bring closer an equitable end to the war: it clarified the type of end that certain architecture is willing to accept, even if it does not say it out loud. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, NARA In Xataka | The factories of deep America have reopened. And they all make the same “toy”: an army of combat drones In Xataka | The crazy number of drones has turned the Ukrainian sky into the M-30 at rush hour. Identifying the enemy is a danger

The Casio watch from ‘Back to the Future’ has returned with a retro design and eighties spirit

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There are products that not only stand the test of time, but also make them your best ally. In a market saturated with new developments, retro has found its own space: it sells emotions, memories and authenticity. Casio knows this well. In recent years he has rescued icons such as DW-5000the first G-Shock in history, and has experimented with ideas as curious as the CRW-001a ring watch that reinterprets the concept of the original Casiotron. This 2025 has decided to look even further back, to 1985, the year in which MArty McFly wore a calculator watch on his wrist. The result is the Casio CA-500WEBF-1Aan official reissue of their classic Vintage watch celebrating the 40th anniversary of Back to the Future. More than an accessory, it is a capsule of that decade in which digital still had a tangible charm. Design, nostalgia and business: Casio’s time travel Built on the basis of the original calculator watches, this proposal adopts an aesthetic that directly reminiscent of the DeLorean. The silver case, with a polished finish, evokes the stainless steel of Doc Brown’s car. On the buttons, Casio introduces small touches of color that simulate the light indicators of the temporal control panel, while the back is engraved with the flux capacitor, the fictional component that made time travel possible. The official Back to the Future logo appears on the metal buckle, and the set maintains the proportions of the original 1980s model. The elements have been adapted to preserve the recognizable appearance of the watch without altering its functional character. The result is a product that translates the film’s imagery into measured and coherent visual details. In addition, it maintains the functional base of Casio’s calculator watches, with an eight-digit calculator, 1/100th of a second stopwatch with 23:59’59.99 capacity, daily alarm, time signal and automatic calendar programmed until 2099. Allows you to switch between 12 and 24 hour format. It does not incorporate light, a decision consistent with fidelity to the original design. The case is made of resin with a silver finish, while the stainless steel strap uses a link bracelet with an adjustable clasp. The watch weighs around 53 grams and is water resistant, as stated in the official sheet. It works with a CR2016 battery, whose estimated life is five years. Altogether, it offers current basic functions with the classic format that made it recognizable. The presentation of the CA-500WEBF-1A reinforces the idea that this watch does not only seek to sell, but to be evoked. Casio delivers it in a case designed like a VHS video tapewith an outer sleeve illustrated with the logo and aesthetics of the original film. The nod is not accidental: Back to the Future was one of the great hits of the domestic format in the eighties, and that choice connects the product with its time of origin in an immediate way. The CA-500WEBF-1A is designed for an audience looking for more than just functionality. It does not compete with smart watches or high-end sports models, but with memory. Beyond the visual effect, the packaging fulfills a clear function within the Vintage line’s strategy: turning each launch into a collector’s item. Price and availability of the Casio CA-500WEBF-1A The CA-500WEBF-1A already appears in the official Casio Spain online store, within the Vintage series. The website indicates that it will be “available soon”, with an official price of 119 euros. Nevertheless, the company’s press release for the European market indicates that the launch is scheduled for next October 22. Images | Casio In Xataka | Casio knows that its calculators have lost the battle in the West. So you have designed a plan B: Africa In Xataka | One of the most legendary cars in the history of cinema can be “copied” by anyone. And that has consequences for the industry

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