solution

The waiting list for a liver transplant can be eternal, so they have created a solution: inject yourself with a miniature one

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The National Transplant Organization of Spain makes it clear: The liver is one of the most requested organs on the transplant list, only behind the kidney. Only in the Spanish state in 2025 there were 310 people waiting and that Spain It is a world power in transplants. There are not enough donated and compatible organs to arrive in time for all those people who need them. This historical gap that no country has managed to close is a double tragedy: for the sick person, who waits without guarantees, and for the health system, which cannot offer them another way out. Liver transplant remains the only cure for certain conditions, and the path to it is full of obstacles: surgical complexity, compatibility problems, the exclusion of patients too fragile for surgery or lifelong immunosuppression. Even when an organ arrives on time, not everyone can receive it. Until now, there was no alternative. That could be about to change. The invention. An MIT research team led by Sangeeta Bhatia has developed “satellite livers”, a type of mini-livers capable of assuming the functions of the diseased liver without having to remove it. One is inside, its cells form a stable structure, connect to the person’s blood vessels and begin to produce proteins that the damaged liver can no longer make. They do not replace the entire organ, but they relieve it of its functions. They are actually small grafts of functional liver tissue that are administered via a syringe guided by ultrasound, that is, without surgery: minimal invasibility. Why is it important. Because it addresses the two big problems for those who need a liver: the shortage of available organs and those who cannot face a transplant operation. If you can have surgery, they act as a bridge until they find a suitable organ. And if you can’t, these mini livers cover the liver functions that your liver can’t do. In this way, satellite livers increase the spectrum of treatable patients. From a more general point of view, this invention is a milestone in liver tissue engineering: science has been trying to replicate the nearly 500 functions performed by the human liver for more than a decade. And if implemented in the different health systems, its impact is direct: according to the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD)chronic liver disease is the 12th leading cause of death in the United States and rising. Context. Although the liver is an organ with a remarkable regenerative capacity, it does not work miracles: when it exceeds a certain threshold of damage, regeneration is not enough and only the transplant remains. Since the 90s, medical science has been trying to transplant isolated hepatocytes, but the results were poor. Bhatia is not new to this either: has been there for more than 25 years investigating bioartificial liver models, which has served as a basis for understanding what conditions hepatocytes need to remain functional outside the liver. This MIT work is precisely the practical application of all this knowledge. How it works. The research team developed the idea of ​​turning these cells into an injectable along with hydrogel microspheres and fibroblasts. The spheres are intended to enable this route of administration by ensuring uniformity. Fibroblasts act as a support, helping hepatocytes survive and promoting the growth of new vessels into the tissue. Without blood supply, those cells would have their hours numbered. In the team’s experiments in mice, new vessels formed next to hepatocytes, allowing them to receive nutrients and function normally. In these rodents, the cells remained viable and secreting proteins during the eight weeks of the study. Yes, but. Although the results are tremendously promising, it is a preclinical study done in mice and the leap to humans is enormous. The human liver contains between 100,000 and 130,000 million hepatocytes and replicating a sufficient functional mass with injected cells is a challenge that this study has not yet addressed. Even assuming that we extrapolate this finding as is to humans, immunosuppressants would still need to be used. And it is not a minor problem: the fact that the immune system attacks weakened patients increases the risk of infections, tumors and kidney damage. In Xataka | The “silent” liver epidemic: we have a problem that escapes analysis and that science is already seeking to stop In Xataka | Fatty liver advances silently, but science has found unexpected allies: coffee and green tea Cover | Elen Sher and Magnificent

Spain has been without an essential weapon for war for years. Airbus has found the solution in Seville, and fires torpedoes and sonobuoys

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One of the most outlandish ideas of World War II was to convert old B-17 bombers into giant loaded drones. with almost ten tons of explosives. The pilots would take off, activate the remote control system and parachute before the plane continued toward its target without a crew. The project it was a failurebut it left a curious lesson: finding submarines and destroying hidden targets has always required the development of some of the strangest and most advanced technologies of each era. The capacity that Spain lost. Modern warfare still relies on highly sophisticated technologies, but some capabilities remain as essential as they were decades ago. One of them is the surveillance and pursuit of submarines. Spain lost that tool in December 2022 with the withdrawal of veterans P-3 Orionleaving a void that was especially striking for a country with thousands of kilometers of coastline, a strategic position between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and intense naval activity in its waters. Since then, the Armed Forces have lacked an aircraft capable of locating, tracking and attacking enemy submarines, a situation that is now beginning to be resolved. thanks to a program developed entirely in Seville. Cockpit of the new maritime patrol C295 The answer comes from Andalusia. Airbus advances in the construction of the new C295 MPAa version specifically designed to return to the Air and Space Army a capability that had been missing for years. The program has already passed several important industrial milestones, including powering up systems and commissioning the engines of the first aircraft. The company ensures that the deadlines remain as planned and that flight tests will last for more than a year before the delivery of the first unit in 2028. Beyond a simple replacement, Airbus considers this development the most ambitious project carried out on the C295 platform and aspires to turn it into an international reference within maritime patrol. View of the interior of the warehouse from the airplane ramp The return of the submarine chaser. The characteristic that distinguishes this aircraft from the rest of the C295 versions is its ability to combat underwater threats. The device will be able to carry between two and four Mk46 or Mk54 torpedoes and deploy up to sixty sonobuoys, small floating sensors that listen to sounds underwater and allow hidden submarines to be located. The combination of both systems returns to Spain a fundamental tool for contemporary naval warfare. For years, the country has lacked a platform capable of searching for submarines at great distances, classifying them, tracking their movements and, if necessary, attacking them. The new plane recovers precisely that function, one of the more complex and strategic within any modern air force. An arsenal of sensors. Anti-submarine warfare depends on both sensors and weapons. Precisely for this reason, the C295 MPA will incorporate a very extensive set of specialized equipment. Among them are synthetic aperture radarselectro-optical systems, magnetic anomaly detectors capable of perceiving the presence of large metallic masses underwater, automatic vessel identification systems and an advanced acoustic system to process information collected by sonobuoys. Added to this are self-protection equipment against missiles, encrypted satellite communications and tactical data links that will allow information to be shared in real time with other naval and air units. An industrial project. Although Airbus leads the program, development has also become in a shop window of the Spanish defense industry. Companies such as Indra, SAES and Tecnobit participate by providing self-protection systems, acoustic sensors and encryption equipment. The contract also includes simulators, infrastructure, training and logistical support, consolidating a technological ecosystem that goes far beyond the manufacture of the aircraft itself and reinforces Seville’s role as one of the main military aeronautical centers in Europe. Much more than a new plane. The acquisition of eight devices of maritime surveillance and eight of maritime patrol is part of an investment greater than the 1.7 billion eurosto which other contracts for new versions of the C295 have been added. The program reflects the extent to which Spain is rebuilding capabilities considered essential in an international context where submarines once again play a leading role. In essence, the history of new C295 MPA It is not just about a plane that has just come off a Sevillian assembly line, but rather about how a country that had lost one of the most important tools to control its seas is recovering the ability to find invisible threats underwater and respond to them with its own means. Image | Airbus In Xataka | The S-82 is Spain’s second new generation submarine: it has just completed a critical test before delivery In Xataka | Spain is selling military technology for scrap: the latest was a Navy submarine for 130,000 euros

In Euskadi they believe they have the solution to the neighbors’ opposition to wind power. Let them take 7% of your profits

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On May 18, the pre-booking period opened. In less than 24 hours, 51 residents of Rioja Alavesa had already put their money in the wind farm that no one wanted to have next door. Seven percent guaranteed annual profitability. Minimum investment, 1,000 euros. Project name: Gure Haizea. Our wind. Euskadi has not inaugurated a wind farm for twenty years. The last one came into operation in 2006. For two decades, projects have multiplied on paper and have gotten stuck in the courts, in the allegations commissions and in neighborhood assemblies. The result is that the autonomous community, which has a world-class wind industry, produces only 7.9% of its electricity with its own renewable sources. The Basque Government’s objective is to reach 15% in 2030. To achieve this, it needs the residents of the affected municipalities to say yes. And so far, the majority have said no. The park that no one wanted to have next to. The Labraza wind farm, in the Alava municipality of Oion, is under construction. Forty megawatts of power and an investment of 59 million euros. When it comes into operation, it will produce around 99,679 megawatt hours per year, enough to supply around 30,000 homes, and will avoid the emission of approximately 16,300 tons of CO₂. It will also increase the installed wind capacity throughout the Basque Country by 26%, according to data from Iberdrola and of Basque Energy Entity (EVE)the public agency of the Basque Government that co-manages the project through its joint venture with Iberdrola, called Aixeindar. What makes Labraza more than just another wind farm is what this joint venture has just announced: for the first time in Euskadi, citizens will be able to participate in the financing of the project and collect interest for it. The chosen formula is crowdlendinga type of crowdfunding in which individuals lend money to a project and receive a guaranteed annual interest in return. In this case, 7%. The platform that will manage the process is Fundeen, the first Spanish investment platform in renewable energies authorized by the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV). The maximum term is three years. The minimum contribution, 1,000 euros; the maximum, 100,000. The total objective of citizen financing: three million euros. As reported by the Basque Energy Entitythe pre-booking period opened on May 18. In just 24 hours, 51 small investors had already covered 60% of the objective, according to data published by ElDiario.es. The final financing will be formalized in June. The problem that profitability tries to solve. The rejection of wind farms in Spain—and in Euskadi in particular—does not arise out of nowhere. It has concrete and legitimate roots. The reasons for rejection They are diverse: the landscape impact of wind turbines in mountainous areas with strong natural and cultural value, criticism related to noise, the effect on birds and ecosystems, and above all the feeling that large electricity companies obtain benefits while municipalities receive little real compensation. In Álava, more than 100 renewable initiativeswith an especially high concentration that has triggered neighborhood alarms. The underlying issue is more structural. 84% of Spain’s renewable energy is produced in rural areas and in so-called emptied Spain, but without that money stay in the territory. The municipalities assume the visual, sound and landscape impact. Energy travels to cities. The benefits go to the company headquarters. That energy inequality is the core of a problem which has manifested itself in different ways in different territories: Aragon tried to keep its energy surplus, Galicia proposed half-price electricity for residents of municipalities with renewable installations, and now Euskadi is trying 7% profitability for its citizens. The proposal of crowdlending try to attack exactly that gap. If the neighbors also make money from the wind, the equation changes. The park stops being an infrastructure imposed by someone from outside and becomes, at least partially, an own investment. That is why the name in Basque matters: Gure Haizea It’s not just a brand, it’s an argument. More than money, also cheaper electricity. The mechanism is simple in its conception. Through the platform Fundeeninterested citizens can enter the Labraza project as lenders: they contribute between 1,000 and 100,000 euros for a maximum of three years and receive a guaranteed 7% annual interest regardless of what the park produces. They do not buy shares or become owners, but rather creditors of the project. It’s an important distinction: the risk is lower than in direct investing, but so is the control. The initiative is primarily aimed at the inhabitants of Labraza, Barriobusto, Oion and Rioja Alavesa, although it is also open to the entire historic territory of Álava. The objective, according to EVEis to always prioritize investors from the areas closest to the park. It is not limited to financial performance. The inhabitants of the Administrative Boards of Labraza and Barriobusto They will also be entitled to a special electricity rate once the park comes into operation, and throughout its useful life. The package also includes up to 90 local jobs during construction, an initial income of around 1.2 million euros for the municipal coffers when the works start and about 230,000 euros annually in taxes and fees. To explain the details, Iberdrola and EVE organized in-person information sessions in Labastida, Oion and Laguardia during the month of May. Spain already has precedents. What Euskadi presents as new is not exactly its own invention. The model of crowdlending for wind farms has already been tested in other Spanish communities, always with the same platform—Fundeen—and with a profitability also set at around 7%. In the Canary Islands, the company Ayagaures Medioambiente promoted the Renove II wind farm in Agüimes (Gran Canaria) with exactly this scheme. More than 45 investors, prioritizing the residents of the municipality, contributed 1,080,000 euros, 20% of the total budget of just over five million. The success was such that the company is already working on a second project with the same model. In Navarra, the Montes de Cierzo wind farm of the Norwegian Statkraft also … Read more

If the question is how to deflect projectiles without skyrocketing military costs, China has found the solution: crocodiles

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In recent years, the US military has even tested fibers inspired in spider silk for future bulletproof vests. The reason was simple: some natural materials achieve absorb impacts and deform better than many modern artificial compounds. The idea of ​​using animals. The search for more effective shielding has been inspired by natural solutions for decades. Since the Second World War, different armies have studied biological structures capable of absorbing impacts, distribute energy or resist attacks better than expected. China has just joined this tradition with a peculiar proposal: armor inspired by the crocodile scales. The logic behind the project is simple. Instead of relying solely on making armor thicker, heavier and more expensive, researchers are trying to modify the way projectiles hit the surface to force them to deflect, lose stability and fragment before passing through. How it works. The Ningbo University team replaced the traditional hexagonal plates used in many armors composed of small rhomboidal ceramic pieces placed at 45 degree angles. The arrangement imitates the irregular, overlapping structure of crocodile scales. During testing, the design was able to more effectively reduce the residual velocity of hardened steel projectiles and increase fragmentation of the ammunition upon impact. The objective is not only to withstand the shot, but to alter the physical behavior of the projectile at the moment of contact so that part of its energy is lost before reaching the main armor. The obsession with reducing costs. The most relevant thing about the project is not only the additional protection, but the attempt to make it cheaper. Chinese researchers they insist in that any structural improvement that allows the same materials to be used with better results can greatly reduce the manufacturing cost. There is no doubt, this obsession makes a lot of sense in modern warfare. Shielding vehicles, helicopters or troops against increasingly powerful ammunition requires enormous amounts of advanced materials and gigantic budgets. From that perspective, if a relatively simple geometric modification achieves better results without increasing weight or industrial complexity, the economic impact can be enormous on a large scale. Logic born of recent wars. If you like, the Chinese research also reflects a broader change that is already seen in Ukraine and other recent conflicts: it is increasingly important economic efficiency of weapons and defenses. For years, military innovation was dominated by extremely sophisticated and expensive systems. Now many countries are looking for solutions that are sufficiently effective, easy to manufacture and sustainable in long wars. In this sense, Russia already demonstrated how relatively simple glider bombs could cause enormous problems at low cost. Ukraine responded with cheap drones capable of destroying much more expensive equipment. The shielding crocodile inspired fits perfectly into this new logic: trying to unbalance the relationship between cost and effectiveness without having to resort to futuristic technologies that are impossible to mass produce. Future battlefields. For now, the Chinese system remains in the experimental phase and still needs much more demanding tests, including multiple impacts and firing from different angles. Still, researchers believe it could end up being used in armored vehicles, helicopters, ships and even light aerospace structures. What is interesting is that China does not present the project as a spectacular technological revolution, but rather as a pragmatic improvement based on simple principles. geometry and materials. An idea that pretty well sums up where part of current military innovation is heading: less obsession with creating impossible weapons and more interest in find smart ways and relatively cheap to survive in an environment where each projectile and each armor cost more and more money. Image | David Shackelford, PXHere, Unsplash In Xataka | China is manufacturing missiles at an unprecedented speed. And the final objective is not Taiwan, it is another island 3,000 km away In Xataka | China has made a science fiction dream come true: an electromagnetic cannon capable of reaching 3,000 shots per minute

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz chokes the Chinese economy. Its only energy solution is a historic pact with Putin

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“一日不见，如隔三秋” (A day without seeing you is like three autumns). Using the Russian translation of this ancient Chinese proverb, President Vladimir Putin wanted to begin his meeting with Xi Jinping. The gesture of extreme closeness was not accidental. Tiananmen Square was dressed up with a 21-gun salute, a military band and dozens of children waving flags to welcome the Russian president. On the face of it, Beijing displayed the same diplomatic theatrics and pageantry it had offered to US President Donald Trump just days earlier, as detailed Bloomberg. However, the background was diametrically opposite: if with Trump the red carpet sought to appease and choreograph stability with a volatile rival, with Putin the authority and support for a cornered partner was staged. The Chinese leader addressed his counterpart as an “old friend,” a term unusually reserved in the Party bureaucracy for highly regarded foreigners. The visit, which marks the 25th anniversary of the signing of the friendship treaty between both countries and represents Putin’s 25th trip to China, represents a vital alliance at the most critical moment of the decade. Behind the walks through the imperial gardens and the closed-door meetings, there is a suffocating urgency. The global board is burning due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz derived from the war between the United States and Iran, a blockade that has cut off Asia’s energy arteries and has turned this summit into a geopolitical lifeline. The Siberian lifeguard. The response to the crisis has a clear name on the agenda of both leaders: the Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline. According to the estimatesOnce completed, this colossal 2,600-kilometer-long infrastructure will transport up to 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas per year from the Russian Arctic fields of Yamal to northern China, passing through Mongolia. Moscow and Beijing have already reached a “general understanding” on the project, encompassing consensus on the layout and construction methods, as stated Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov told journalists and spokesman Dmitri Peskov confirmed. Additionally, both governments have signed a legally binding supply memorandum to boost construction. But all that glitters is not gold. As newspapers such as he Financial Times and CNBCthe agreement has been stumbling over the same rock for years: the price, financing and delivery schedule. China, aware of its position of strength, demands that the rate for the new gas pipeline be equal to the price of the heavily subsidized Russian domestic market (between $120 and $130 per 1,000 cubic meters), conditions that would drastically reduce the profit margins for the Russian state giant Gazprom. Furthermore, secrecy and caution reign in Beijing: as pointed out Reuterswhen Gazprom announced the memorandum last September, China did not issue any official statement on the matter. And even if the agreement is closed now, Russian salvation will not be immediate; from the research unit of China National Petroleum Corp. (CNPC) has already has warned that gas projects of this magnitude require at least eight to ten years for their construction. The Hormuz factor: a geopolitical accelerator. If the gas pipeline had been on the drawing board for years, the Third Gulf War has stepped on the accelerator. The de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused a real cataclysm in the Indo-Pacific region. This maritime blockade has suddenly interrupted the arrival of half of China’s oil imports and almost a third of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply. The consequences they have been immediate: The Asian giant has already reported a rebound in inflation and an abrupt weakening of its domestic economic activity during the month of April. Faced with maritime vulnerability, securing a land supply route is vital for Beijing’s survival. As experts in German Welleinstability in the Gulf has triggered China’s desire for a pipelined energy flow that is immune to Western sanctions or American naval blockades. Still, China faces this crisis with homework done. Far from improvising, Beijing took advantage of the previous years to buy heavily sanctioned crude oil from countries such as Russia, Venezuela and Iran. Thanks to this, China today has colossal strategic reserves, also supported by a fleet of Iranian oil tankers that function as a floating warehouse off its coasts. A deeply strained and asymmetrical relationship. Although official statements speak of “mutual respect” and a “limitless” partnership, economic reality depicts a deeply unequal relationship. President Putin himself has declared that Russia and China want to be equal partners, but the gap is evident: the Chinese economy is almost eight times larger and much more technologically advanced. Without China’s money and technology, the very survival of the Russian regime would be in question. The data is devastating. According to him Financial TimesRussia has suffered a 38% year-on-year drop in its energy export revenues. To survive Western isolation, Moscow has turned China into its lifeline. At the end of last year, more than 99% of bilateral trade was settled in rubles and yuan to circumvent the SWIFT system, and Beijing currently supplies 90% of imports of sanctioned Russian technology, including semiconductors, microelectronics and dual-use goods, essential for its war machine. For his part, Xi Jinping carries out a delicate diplomatic balancing act. His meeting with Putin comes just days after his summit with Donald Trump. This synchronicity allows Russia a key tactical move: as reported EuronewsPutin’s trip serves to receive direct information and exchange views with Beijing on recent negotiations with Washington. Simultaneously, China does not hesitate to invoke its “Blocking Rules” to order its domestic refiners to ignore US sanctions and continue buying Iranian crude. But at the same time, as the newspaper highlights Asahi Shimbunthe Chinese Ministry of Commerce confirmed the purchase of 200 Boeing aircraft just after Trump’s visit, in a clear gesture to stabilize its economic ties with the West. A new world epicenter. The current crisis and the negotiations in Beijing certify an irreversible paradigm shift. The entry into operation of “Power of Siberia 2” is not just a commercial agreement, it is the chronicle of an announced breakup. … Read more

Wind turbine blades are a deadly danger to birds. The solution: paint them like poisonous snakes

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One of the great drivers of the global energy transition are wind turbines. Of course, they have been carrying a silent problem for decades: they kill animals. Wind turbines kill 368,000 birds a year in the United States and Canada alone, according to this study published in PubMed. The data for Europe is more fragmented and varies greatly by country and type of facility: in Germany for example place mortality between 100,000 and 250,000 birds per year and SEO/BirdLife esteem that between 1.2 and 4.6 million birds die per year (data from 2023). Given that the expansion of wind power seems unstoppable, the question is how to minimize these deaths, e.g. with self-adaptive speed blades. A research team from the University of Helsinki and the University of Exeter has just publish a proposal unexpectedly simple but effective (judging by its results): painting the blades with the colors of poisonous animals, appealing to one of the most solid principles of evolutionary biology. Those dangerous snake-painted wind turbines. The research team exposed birds to videos of turbines spinning in four color schemes: standard white, a black blade, red-white stripes, and a red-black-yellow biomimetic pattern that was inspired by coral snakes and dart frogs. The result was clear: the birds systematically avoided the blades with the biomimetic pattern and moved closer to the white ones. The remarkable thing about the discovery is why it works. It was not necessary for the birds to learn in the experiment to associate those colors with danger like Pavlov: They were already learned from home. The key is in aposematism, just the opposite of camouflage: signaling danger with colors, something that has been engraved in the nervous system of birds for millions of years. The team simply transferred that evolutionary signal to a huge steel structure. Why is it important. The United States Renewable Energy Institute calculate that per megawatt installed the turbines kill between two and six birds and between four and seven bats, figures that seem small but are considerable on a global scale: the world’s wind capacity already exceeds 1,000 GW installed, according to the Global Wind Energy Council. Reducing the death of animals is the main reason, a good practice that is even more relevant if the species in question has a small population. If the solution is also something as cheap as changing the paint color, the cost-benefit in terms of conservation is difficult to ignore. Context. Aposematism is a documented evolutionary mechanism for almost two centuries: The idea is that certain toxic or dangerous animals warn of their danger with bright colors. The winning combination to scare you is red-black-yellow, universally recognized as a sign of toxicity among vertebrates. What this study does is apply this principle outside of the natural world by projecting it onto an industrial infrastructure. It is not a pioneer: there is a previous investigation in Norway in which they tried painting a blade black to break the optical illusion of a “still hole” created by the spinning turbines and the results were already promising. This new study goes a step further by actively exploiting the perception of danger. How it works. The birds process color in a radically different way from humans. They have four types of photoreceptors instead of three, which gives them tetrachromatic vision and allows them to detect ultraviolet. In short: they appreciate contrast better than humans, so apostematic signals are extraordinarily striking to them. For the experiment they used touch screens designed specifically for birds, so that they interacted with them by moving closer or further away from the stimuli, thus allowing them to precisely quantify how they behaved in response to each pattern. The biomimetic pattern was the most avoided of all. Yes, but. As the research team acknowledges in the paper, all tests were carried out in the laboratory, with birds in front of screens, not with wind turbines spinning in the open field. Perception distance, approach angle, flight speed or weather conditions are variables that the experiment does not replicate. Taking it to the real world can be a very different story. Furthermore, the study was carried out with a limited number of species. Aposematic responses depend on the evolutionary history of each lineage and whether that group has coevolved with those dangerous species in its territory. Come on, what may be useful for birds native to an area may be useless for migratory raptors or for species affected in specific wind farms. In Xataka | There are cannibalistic rabbits on a farm in Valladolid. His rancher is clear about the reason: wind turbines In Xataka | Spain’s bats live in uncertain times. The reason, according to the CSIC: the wind turbines Cover | Gonz DDL and David Clode Alfonso Castro

The Strait of Hormuz has become a death trap. The Arab Emirates’ solution is a pharaonic oil “bypass” through the desert

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The new energy order is not debated in suit and tie summits, but is rising against the clock under the scorching sun of the Arabian Peninsula. Suffocated by the Third Gulf War, the United Arab Emirates has hit the table: it refuses to leave the survival of its trade routes in the hands of chance, war or its neighbors. The strategy is clear: if the strait is a minefield, they will build a rear exit. The news that has shaken the foundations of oil logistics came to light through official channels. According to a statement from the company itself ADNOC (the Emirati state oil company), His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed has chaired a key meeting in which he has ordered an urgent directive: to accelerate the construction of the new “West-East Pipeline” project. But what infrastructure are we talking about exactly? As energy analyst Javier Blas points outthe key to this movement is that the Emirates is laying out a second oil pipeline expressly designed to turn its back on the Strait of Hormuz. The date marked on the calendar is 2027. When they open the tap, this new infrastructure will double the volume of crude oil that the country takes out to the world through the port of Fujairah (in the Gulf of Oman). In practical figures, this represents a gigantic leap: they will go from the 1.5 million barrels a day that they move right now, to injecting between 3 and 3.5 million. It is not a project improvised in the last week. As analyst Bachar El-Halabi points outwork on this project began quietly in early 2024, long before the war in Iran paralyzed the region. However, the conflict has acted as the definitive “catalyst.” The war did not inspire the pipeline, but it has injected it with urgency. The logistical “antidote” As was discussed in the middle Amwaj Mediathe Iran war has starkly exhibited the tremendous vulnerability of maritime bottlenecks (chokepoints). The near-total shutdown of Hormuz has caused the worst supply disruption in history, removing 12% of the world’s oil from the market. In this context, the West-East pipeline stands as a lifeline. This Emirati infrastructure, added to the gigantic oil pipeline East-West (or Petroline) of 1,200 kilometers that Saudi Arabia has reactivated towards the Red Sea, form a true logistical “antidote.” They are escape routes that neutralize Tehran’s blackmail, allowing crude oil to go out into the world without entering the range of missiles and blockades in the Persian Gulf. They are, in the words of experts, “buying invaluable time” for the West. To understand the privilege of having this infrastructure, just look at the neighboring country: the situation in Iraq exposes the other side of the coin. Lacking alternative outlets to the sea and completely dependent on Hormuz, Iraq has been left without physical space to store its own oil. As a result, Baghdad has been forced to shut down 70% of production in its prolific southern fields and beg the Kurdistan region to let them use an old, patched-up pipeline to Turkey that barely manages to export 250,000 barrels a day. Iraq is a hostage to its own geography; The Emirates, on the other hand, are buying their freedom with steel and engineering. A free (and flooded) market by 2027 All this new logistical muscle takes on its true meaning when it intersects with another historic decision: the Emirates’ slamming of the door on OPEC+. Emirates has formally left the organizationarguing the defense of their “national interest.” After almost six decades, the country has decided that its national interests no longer fit into the cartel’s quotas. The UAE had been accumulating commercial frustration for years because OPEC forced them to limit their pumping to 3.2 million barrels per day, despite the fact that the country has invested aggressively to reach a production capacity of 5 million barrels by 2027, the same year in which its new megagas pipeline to Fujairah will be ready. But as various international media explain, this divorce is not just about money. Abu Dhabi feels betrayed. The Emirates have had to absorb much of the impact of Iranian missiles and drones alone, feeling that their Arab “brothers” and the Gulf Cooperation Council were turning their backs on them. Therefore, the consequences of this schism will be tectonic. The cartel has seen its global market share plummet to 26%. When the Strait of Hormuz reopens and the West-East pipeline operates at full capacity, the Emirates will flood the market under its own rules, leaving a lone Saudi Arabia to bear the brutal cost of trying to stabilize prices in a world of extreme volatility. The cold war for the future The Emirati order, in fact, is directly addressed to Riyadh. In the silent cold war it is waging with Saudi Arabia for regional hegemony, the Emirates refuses to be a supporting actor in the face of Prince Mohamed bin Salman’s monolithic “Vision 2030.” As explained Middle East Economythe UAE can afford to leave OPEC and endure a downward pulse in prices because its break-even Fiscal is around a comfortable $45 per barrel, compared to the much greater needs of its neighbors. Thanks to diversification, the Emirates today generates 25% of its electricity with the Barakah nuclear power plant and has immense solar parks, allowing itself to use today’s petrodollars to finance hydrogen and the technology of tomorrow. However, this apparent invulnerability has a terrifying blind spot. Military analysts warn that, in the era of hybrid warfare, a steel pipe is of little use if a $500 drone can paralyze the region. The Third Gulf War already demonstrated this fragility when a drone reached the gigantic Emirati Ruwais refinery. Added to this is the panic unleashed when pro-Iranian militias explicitly threatened vital infrastructure such as the Barakah nuclear power plant. The Emirates is building its financial and logistical freedom, yes, but it is doing so through a minefield. The new West-East pipeline is ultimately much more than a … Read more

After a catastrophic 2025, Tesla sales continue to decline in China. The solution is an old acquaintance

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Sales of electric cars have fallen in China. Although the loss is not as high as that of pure combustion vehicles, the decline in the market is producing very bad results for Tesla. And Elon Musk’s company has brought out one of its traditional tools to boost sales again. An obvious fall. Sales of electric cars in China are not reaping the best results although, everything must be said, recent weeks are beginning to give some hope to companies. At the moment, if global sales are not suffering a setback it is because the accelerator has been put into exportswith record numbers and growth of more than 70% compared to last year. But in the domestic market, sales of “new energy” cars (plug-in hybrids and electric) have fallen 21%reaching 2.92 million cars sold compared to 3.66 million last year. In recent weeks, the Hormuz crisis has served to begin to ground the decline of this type of car. Without state aidits sales had fallen but in recent days we have seen how the savings compared to gasoline have turned the situation around, to the point of break record in plug-in penetrations in the market. Damaged. The context so far this year has not been easy for brands that only sell plug-in vehicles. Much less, therefore, to those who only sell electric vehicles, like Tesla. Without state aid at the beginning of the year and a Chinese New Year longer than usual, sales of this technology fell in a market accustomed to growing year after year. This situation rewarded those who have the most diversified business. In January and FebruaryGeely, which has a portfolio where electric, plug-in hybrids and pure combustion cars are intertwined managed to surpass BYD whose leadership seemed untouchable. Tesla has been through a similar situation. So far this year, Its sales from January to April 2026 have fallen by 15%. It is a bad figure considering all the difficulties the company went through last year. This has led it to lose more market share and remain at just over 3%. Interests. Among the sales of its cars in China, The company has a huge dependence on the Model Ywhich represents around 75% of sales so far this year. But in April, where the Model 3 had a year-on-year drop of 66.09%, the sedan barely accounted for 11% of sales. The fastest solution has been through an old tool: loans. The company has an active campaign in China to defer payments for its cars at 0.99% interest in the case of the Model 3 and 0.92% in the Model Y. The idea is simple, aiming to reward the customer in the long term because it is increasingly difficult for them to compete at the starting price. Right now, in Spain it gives loans above 3% which, however, remains relatively low for our country’s market. However, the company has been offering similar loans before and, right now, In Germany a 0% interest offer is available. Other solutions. Very low interest loans are not Tesla’s only move in China. Aware that the Model 3 has little sales at the moment, GigaShanghai’s exports have skyrocketed so far this year. So much so that global sales, internal sales and those outside Chinese borders, they have grown 36% last April. This means that, clearly, Tesla is trying to move the focus of its target audience. The company has encountered the problem that in China the customer has turned to the local product that usually offers more for less money. The solution is to push the European market, which is now receiving the first units of the Basic Tesla Model 3. less margin. The problem for the company is that it can no longer push the price as hard as before. Before the massive embrace of the Chinese car in its local market and new models began to arrive in the European market, Tesla played as it wanted with demand rising and falling prices. Today those days are over and, what is worse for the company, Your profit margins cannot respond as before. As the price has fallen, the margin has narrowed, losing ability to continue moving in the market. This explains why the voices calling for smaller and more affordable versions of their cars are heard louder. A ship that, given what has been seen, Elon Musk’s company has not been able to bring to fruition. Photo | Priscilla Du Preez and Sou Jest In Xataka | Elon Musk called the $25,000 Tesla an “absurd idea.” Now you need it to compete in China

The biggest problem with living on the Moon is its nights. NASA believes it has found the solution to avoid running out of electricity

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If we want to build bases on the Moon or on Mars, we must work on the development of technologies that make the lives of lunar colonists easier. For example, it is important to think about ways to obtain energy. In the case of Mars, there are already scientists working on methods to obtain electricity using carbon dioxide from your atmosphere. But the ideal would be to be able to use batteries. They would have to be rechargeable batteries, since there are no containers for batteries on the Moon (on Earth there are, throw them away where they belong). The problem is that lunar nights are very long, so solar energy cannot be used to obtain electricity to recharge them. Therefore, NASA scientists they are already working in rechargeable batteries that generate and store energy in a very original way. Only two ingredients. The battery in question, called a regenerative fuel cell, contains hydrogen and oxygen gases, which combine to give rise to water. In this reaction, heat and electricity are generated, which can be used to supply the devices necessary for astronauts’ daily lives. Once no more energy is needed, the water molecules break down, giving rise to hydrogen and oxygen, which are saved for when it is necessary to start again. Thus, the fuel is not wasted. It regenerates. Big as a human being. Let’s not think about small batteries like the ones we use at home. Not even in batteries like those in a car. This regenerative fuel cell is much larger. It is practically the height of a human being and the length of a sedan car. First tests. In 2025, the basic components were tested to verify that the previous design technology was viable. Right now NASA scientists are doing more advanced tests, with the aim of analyzing whether the fuel regenerates properly. In a test cell, the system can be operated remotely. Furthermore, once the test has started, it can continue autonomously, without intervention from the researchers. Learnings. Everything is expected to go well in the tests. But, in any case, there will be learnings that serve to perfect the device. After five years of development, the prototype has advanced a lot, but these types of experiments are what really help to perfect a technology of this caliber. Heading to the Moon. Once the tests are completed, the goal is to repeat them in an environment that simulates lunar conditions. Theoretically, the battery is designed to withstand the extreme temperatures of the Moon, even on its cold two-week Earth nights. If all goes well, the technology would be ready to be used. in the Artemis program. This is the objective with which this battery of 270 sensors and 1,000 components was designed. There will be time to think about Mars. At the moment, the closest target on the horizon is our satellite. We need energy to stay on its surface. Image | NASA/Magnific In Xataka | We have not yet colonized the Moon and we have already filled it with garbage: there are even abandoned golf balls

Corning has the solution to accelerate Nvidia chips even more

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There are good reasons why a company of Nvidia’s stature would want to collaborate with a company like Corning, specialists in manufacturing the glass that protects our mobile phones. Corning offers more products than your Gorilla Glassand that is precisely what Jensen Huang’s company is interested in. And it is that Nvidia is going to invest about 3.2 billion dollars at the glass manufacturer with the intention of multiplying the optical connectivity production capacity on US soil tenfold. What’s on the table. The financial scope of the agreement has been revealed in parts. It was initially announced that Nvidia would receive warrants (stock purchase rights) to acquire up to 15 million Corning shares at a price of $180 per share, representing a potential investment of up to $3.2 billion. Added to this is a pre-financed warrant for another additional 500 million. But the CEO of Nvidia confirmed on CNBC that the company has also made “a prepayment of several billion dollars” to finance the construction of the new factories, a figure that was not part of the initial official announcement and whose exact amount has not been made public either. Fiber optics are the thing. The data centers that power AI They house hundreds of thousands of GPUs that must communicate with each other continuously and at high speed. For decades, this communication has been carried out using copper cables, and in fact for short-distance connections within the rack (from the server to the switch), they are still used, but fiber optics end up being superior in everything, both in terms of speed, energy consumption and lower signal loss. Which Nvidia has in mind. The technical term at the center of this agreement is co-packaged optics, which refers to the integration of glass fiber directly into chip systems, progressively replacing copper cables. Inside Nvidia rack systems (such as the Vera Rubin) there are currently about 5,000 copper cables that could be replaced by Corning fiber optics. Already at last year’s GTC, Huang rated this technology “essential for the deployment of AI.” The company has been preparing the ground for months: in March invested $4 billion in Coherent and Lumentumtwo companies specializing in lasers and components that convert data between light and electrical signals, which then travel through Corning fiber cables. Who else is in the race. Nvidia is not the only one betting on this technology. Its competitors Broadcom and Marvell They have already launched similar productsand Intel also develops its own co-integrated optics solutions. For its part, Corning already had Meta as a reference client. In fact, Zuckerberg’s company announced an agreement of up to 6 billion dollars for Corning to expand its optical cables plant in Hickory, North Carolina. The alliance with Nvidia now adds three more facilities and multiplies the company’s optical connectivity manufacturing capacity in the United States by ten, in addition to increasing its fiber production by more than 50%. ““Made in America”. The agreement comes precisely at a time when the Trump administration is pushing to relocate technological supply chains that have been built for decades in Asia (Taiwan, China or Vietnam). Huang counted to CNBC that “it is an extraordinary opportunity to reinvest and revitalize American manufacturing for the first time in generations.” According to the CEO of NVIDIA, the tech sector would not be the only one to benefit, since the construction and operation of these data centers generates demand for electricians, construction workers, chip manufacturing operators and infrastructure specialists. “The skilled worker shortage and demand are incredibly high,” mentioned Huang in the middle. Converted company. Corning has become another of those companies that have seen their business benefit from the AI ​​boom. And the signature accumulates an increase of more than 300% in the last year, driven by its repositioning towards the AI ​​market and moving away from its best-known image as a manufacturer of glass for mobile screens. In Xataka | If the question is whether using ChatGPT or Claude in English is more efficient and saves tokens, the answer is: yes

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