turning

Turning off notifications 24/7 is no longer rude, it’s the new technological self-care

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In 2026, hyperconnectivity has reached unprecedented levels. However, in the midst of this constant noise, a paradoxical cure has emerged: ignoring those we know and love has become the new secret to a happy and peaceful life. As the magazine details Wiredwe are witnessing the rise of a digital tribe known as the “maximalists of the Do not disturb“. They are users who have decided to keep their phone notifications silenced 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What was once considered a serious breach of the social contract—the tacit obligation to always be available—is now a viral trend. On platforms like TikTok, videos celebrating “monk mode” or the non-stop use of “Do Not Disturb” mode rack up millions of views. In the comments, the debate rages: while some applaud it as the definitive act of self-care, others criticize it as a terrible lack of respect for others. What has happened to our availability? The norms of social etiquette have changed drastically over the last fifteen years. If at the beginning of the last decade the golden rule was “don’t call anyone after 10 pm”, the current rule seems to be “don’t call anyone, ever”, as I already warned The New York Times. Telephone calls without prior notice by message or email have come to be considered intrusive, uncomfortable and even alarming; Nowadays, if the phone rings suddenly, we instinctively assume that a misfortune has occurred. To stop this intrusion, users have taken the tools of their own operating systems to the extreme. The technical difference that has facilitated this radicalization is key: while the traditional silent mode turns off the tones but allows the screen to continue lighting and vibrating, settings such as “Do Not Disturb” mode or “Sleep Mode” act at a deeper level of the system. These tools block vibration, dim the screen light, and hide visual alerts, eliminating any physical interruptions. According to account Wiredfor many this habit began as a survival mechanism during the 2020 pandemic, when their entire lives were reduced to the screen. After discovering the peace it brought them, they decided to never turn on the notifications again. Personal limits versus social cost. Living in a silent digital limbo has profound psychological implications. Turning off notifications is a declaration of autonomy; Those who do so are not building a wall to isolate themselves from the world, but rather installing a “door” that they only open when their schedule and mental health allow it. But this position requires paying a social toll. Announcing that you live in “Do Not Disturb” mode is almost like declaring that you were vegan in the 90s: it is often perceived by those around you as a self-righteous or rude attitude. Friends, partners, and family members often get frustrated when they don’t receive immediate answers. For this reason, the maximalists of silence have learned that preventive communication is key to explaining that this is not a personal attack, but a necessary barrier. Paradoxically, this digital isolation improves relationships in the physical world. By not paying attention to a bright screen that demands their attention, these people demonstrate an absolute presence in face-to-face conversations, generating bonds of greater depth and trust. Expert support. Science supports this need for disconnection. The cost of always being available is very high and directly affects our mental and cognitive health. The studies warn of three major impacts: Symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity: An investigation, published in Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, has shown that constant interruptions caused by smartphones can cause symptoms of inattention and hyperactivity—associated with ADHD—even in the general population that does not suffer from this disorder. Simply having alerts on maximizes these interruptions and increases inattention levels. Stress due to job fragmentation: A study of University of California, Irvine revealed that when people are constantly interrupted in their tasks, they try to compensate by working faster. However, this accelerated pace comes at a severe price: one experiences increased workload, higher levels of stress, frustration, time pressure, and tremendous mental effort. Cognitive leaks: Adrian Ward, professor at the University of Texas, ensures that cognitive ability It is significantly reduced just by having the smartphone within reach, even if it is turned off. Added to this is that each notification causes “cognitive hiccups” of about seven seconds, splintering our attention. Once concentration is broken, it can take the brain more than 23 minutes to regain it. The digital paradox. Despite its benefits, silencing your cell phone is not a panacea for everyone. Previous research suggests that, for some people, turning off alerts can cause anxiety about missing something important (the well-known FOMO). This anxiety causes users to interrupt themselves more frequently to check the screen, resulting in a net increase in distractions. At the same time, the trend has been quickly absorbed by the market. An article from Guardian criticized how “productivity gurus” on TikTok they had commodified the #monkmode (monk mode), selling it as an isolated and somewhat melancholic self-optimization formula, forgetting that the human mind also fights against forced hyperconcentration. Finally, we come to a technological irony of our time. Recent clinical protocols, like the essay published in Frontiersevaluate the use of mobile applications mindfulness (like InMind) to combat work stress, burnout (burnout) and improve the engagement of office workers. In the middle of 2026 we depend on applications within our phones to cure the anxiety that that same device generates in us. The rebellion of silence. As we move into 2026, putting your phone on permanent silent has gone from being a simple setting in the settings menu to becoming a statement of intent. As they conclude in Earthis a reminder that human attention is a finite and extremely valuable resource, to be spent by conscious choice and not by the beep of an algorithm. In the end, as summarized by the testimony collected by Wiredgiving up immediate availability in the era of “always connected” is perhaps the most peaceful … Read more

literally turning Donbas into “Donnyland”

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For decades, one of the greatest obsessions of Soviet power was to convert certain cities in personal symbols of leadership, to the point that Stalingrad not only appeared on maps and speeches, but also in propaganda, in military reports and in the way millions of people understood the course of a war. Because sometimes the way a place is named can influence as much as what happens inside it. The Ukrainian war and names. In the midst of stalled negotiations and agonizing wear and tear on both sides, the New York Times had this morning that Ukraine has introduced an idea as striking as it is revealing: naming a disputed area of ​​Donbas nothing more and nothing less than like “Donnyland” in honor of Donald Trump. This is not an isolated occurrence, but a calculated attempt to influence Washington’s position at a time when its role fluctuates between ally and mediator. The proposal, which mixes irony and strategy, reflects the extent to which kyiv perceives that language, symbols and political psychology can be as important as territorial control on the ground. Donnyland as a pressure tool. Apparently, the concept arose in private conversations as a way to push the US administration to toughen its stance in the face of Vladimir Putin’s demands. The logic is quite simple: if a hypothetical demilitarized or economic zone carries the symbolic seal Under Trump, the United States would have more incentives to protect it and guarantee its stability. From that perspective, it is not just a name, but an attempt to convert a devastated and partially depopulated strip in a political assettransforming territory into a negotiating card designed to alter the balance of power at the table. Borodyanka Donbas as a key piece of the blockade. The region in question, still under ukrainian control but pressured by russian forceshas become one of the main friction points in the peace talks. kyiv fears that giving up that territory will facilitate future offensives, while Moscow insists on complete control, blocking any significant advance. In this context, ideas like that of a neutral zonea special economic model or even that of a shared administration have been explored without success, making it clear that the future of Donbas remains the hard core of the conflict. TOadopting the logic of “branding”. The hypothetical use of “Donnyland” fits into a broader trend in which countries try to attract the attention or favor of great powers through symbolic gestures hyperbolic, such as previous infrastructure proposals or agreements with the name of American leaders. Furthermore, this type of movement reveals a diplomacy increasingly personalizedone where perception, ego and narrative can influence as much as military facts. In this case, Ukraine seeks to turn a disputed territory into a political project with its own name, attempting to align strategic interests through a simple change of label. From Stalingrad to Donnyland. As we said at the beginning, history offers precedents for how names can become tools of power, as happened with Stalingradwhose symbolism during the Second World War reinforced the figure of Joseph Stalin and turned the battle into a global political icon, or more recently with the Polish proposal from Fort Trump There is no doubt, although the context is different, the underlying logic is quite similar: using a name to project power, mobilize support and condition decisions. In the current case, Ukraine recovers that historical intuition and adapts it to a modern diplomacy where influence also involves connecting with the personal motivations of the leaders. Between strategy and symbolism. Be that as it may, and despite the striking nature of the proposal, the truth is that the talks remain blocked, with rigid positions and little progress on key issues such as territorial control or security guarantees. Of course, the “Donnyland” idea It has not yet been formalized and coexists with other more technical proposals, but the simple fact of its mere existence reveals the level of improvisation and/or creativity that diplomacy has achieved in this conflict. In the end, more than a solution in itself, the initiative shows the extent to which Ukraine is willing to explore any avenue (even symbolic) to tilt a war that is no longer decided only on the battlefield. Image | Picryl, Pexels In Xataka | In 1914, submachine guns forever changed the way war was waged. In 2026, it’s algorithms’ turn In Xataka | Ukraine has captured a North Korean missile from Russia and opened it: the surprising thing is not its parts, but how they work

Turning plastic into fuel profitably was a pipe dream. A new process just made it possible

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A team from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the United States, has achieved convert plastic bags and kitchen boards into gasoline and diesel without having to resort to high temperatures or expensive materials. The discovery, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, has raised some eyebrows and below we tell you all the details. The problem they are trying to solve. The plastic is one of the most difficult materials to recycle profitably. Specifically, polyethylene (the polymer that makes up supermarket bags, white plastic containers or kitchen cutting boards) accumulates millions of tons in landfills each year. Until now, the only technically viable way to turn it into fuel was through a process called pyrolysis, which requires heating the material to temperatures between 450 and 500 degrees Celsius. An expensive, energy inefficient process that is difficult to scale to an industrial level. What does the new method consist of?. Researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have opted for a different path: introduce the plastic into a mixture of molten salts with aluminum chloride, which acts both as a solvent and as a catalyst. These salts are inorganic compounds that remain stable even under demanding reaction conditions. The key is that the aluminum atoms in the mixture bind to the polymer and generate areas of high acidity that break the long molecular chains of the plastic into smaller fragments, which are transformed into molecules typical of gasoline or diesel. And all this at less than 200 degrees Celsius, a temperature comparable to that of a conventional domestic oven. Why it represents a relevant technical leap. Beyond the reduction in temperature, the process dispenses with three elements that make traditional methods more expensive and complicated: noble metal catalysts (such as platinum), organic solvents and external contribution of hydrogen. According to Zhenzhen Yanga scientist at ORNL and one of the lead authors of the study, “this is the first time that molten salts have been used as a means to produce high value-added chemicals from waste without any catalytic initiators or solvents, and at a temperature below 200 degrees Celsius.” Gasoline efficiency reaches approximately 60% in moderate conditions, a result that the researchers themselves describe as promising for its future industrial application. As they verified that worked. To understand exactly what happens during the reaction, the team used a combination of advanced analysis techniques, including soft X-ray spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, neutron scattering, and gas chromatography. Thanks to isotopic labeling, they were able to track how carbon behaves during the process and confirm that the simplest polymer chains produce gasoline-like fuel, while the more complex ones derive into diesel molecules. By having this level of detail, the process could be optimized depending on the type of fuel you want to obtain. What remains to be resolved. The system is not ready to scale immediately. The main obstacle is that the aluminum salts used are hygroscopic, that is, they absorb moisture from the environment, which compromises their long-term stability. The team working now on ways to confine or protect these saltspossibly using halides or carbon materials, to make them more durable under real industrial conditions. Mbeyond the laboratory. If the process manages to scale successfully, the implications are considerable. Polyethylene is the most produced plastic in the world, abundant and cheap to obtain as a raw material. Aluminum salts, for their part, are low-cost commercial materials. According to Liqi Qiua postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee, “the starting material is abundant in consumer waste, and our catalyst system, molten aluminum salts, is very cheap.” The result could be a cost-effective route to converting plastic waste into high-quality transportation and industrial fuels, while also clearing up our landfills. At the moment the patent is pending, so we will have to wait to find out if this remedy ends up coming to fruition. Cover image | Elbert Lora and Marek Studzinski In Xataka | An 11,000 km ring around the Moon: Japan’s incredible plan to light up the Earth

is turning old mines into lakes

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The energy transition has a hidden side that often remains in the background: it is not only saying goodbye to fossil fuels but also thinking about what to do with these degraded lands after years of extractive activity. The mines. Leaving these exploited lands to their fate is a waste in every sense. Germany knows this and has promoted the largest landscape intervention in Europe: the Lusatian Lake District. You can see it better in the photo that illustrates this article: the before and after: what began as a network of huge open-pit coal mines is being transformed into a complex system of more than 20 interconnected artificial lakes, a true vacation paradise for sailing or taking a bike ride. In fact, You can now book a getaway over there. The project. Between Berlin and Dresden, Germany is transforming one of the most degraded landscapes in Europe into the largest system of artificial lakes on the continent: Lausitzer Seenland. This is a conversion project of old open pit lignite mines in a network of 23 lakes that occupy 13,600 hectaresten of them connected by navigable canals forming a continuous area of ​​7,000 hectares. The state-owned company LMBV Lausitzer und Mitteldeutsche Bergbau-Verwaltungsgesellschaft) oversees the technical execution, which includes the creation of tourism infrastructure, such as beaches, ports, cycling and camping areas, along with state-of-the-art facilities. The process is long and need a lot of money: Going from a mine to a long-term safe lake costs between 200 and 600 million euros and in Lusatia alone it has already cost 7 billion euros. Why is it important. This project represents the largest environmental restoration effort of post-mining landscapes in Europe and constitutes a relevant case study for the rehabilitation of degraded areas. As collect this analysis from the German Federal Environment Agency, 19 of these lakes have already achieved good/high ecological potential. That is, recovery is possible. Beyond ecological recovery, the lakes also fulfill water management functions: during 2018, more than 62 million cubic meters were released from the lakes to raise low levels of the Spree and Schwarze Elster rivers during drought, such as collect the local media Niederlausitz Aktuell. The project also has significant socioeconomic implications: the government has destined 40,000 million euros to promote this transition from mining in the eastern coal regions towards other vectors such as sustainable tourism. Context. At the time of the German Democratic Republic were extracted more than 2,000 million tons of lignite from depths greater than 60 meters, leaving enormous craters in the landscape. Lusatia was the country’s gasoline: in 1989, lignite production there reached 195.1 million tons. In total, open pit mining of lignite has devastated 179,490 hectares in Germany. German reunification in 1990 marked a before and after. The fall in energy demand and that the Federal Environment Agency will classify it Since lignite is the most polluting fossil fuel, it brought about a progressive dismantling of its mining. During the 1990s the LMBV was tasked with restoring 19 open pit mining areas in Lusatia. As explains Dr. Uwe Steinhuber of LMBV, it will take at least two generations to complete it. How they do it. The rehabilitation of Lusatia is supported by geotechnical stabilization and active hydrological control, such as collects LMBV in this report. To transform mining craters into safe lakes, it applies deep vibration compaction techniques that prevent liquefaction of sandy soil, while accelerating filling through controlled diversion of flows from the Spree River. The process is monitored by the Copernicus satellite, which detects ground movements. Water chemistry is the other great technical challenge in that the oxidation of pyrite causes extreme acidification such as documents the Canadian Journal of Soil Science. To neutralize it, they use treatment plants and ships, which allows them to reach the quality standards of the Federal Environment Agency. Yes, but. We have already seen that the calendar is long and the budget astronomical, but LMBV warns that still remains: at the moment they have invested 7,000 million euros, but the total cost of the project (which includes other regions) amounts to 13,800 million. The entire process will end in this decade, but it will be necessary to apply surveillance in the coming generations, both for contaminants and the geological stability of the area. Despite all efforts, rehabilitation is far from ideal: of the 36 lakes assessed by the Federal Environment Agency (which includes other lakes outside the tourist district), 12 they got “moderate” classification due to mercury or endocrine disrupting compounds such as tributyltin and one presented “poor” status due to excess nutrients. There is scientific evidence which support that mining soils present severe physical, chemical and biological limitations that make complete ecological restoration difficult. In Xataka | Germany has had a crazy idea to solve one of the problems of renewables: covering a lake with solar panels In Xataka | A mining company believes that under the soil of La Mancha there is a “Gold” of rare earths. And at the moment they won’t let him take it out Cover | Tourismusverband Lausitzer Seenland (Steffen Rasche)

The dogs of La Rioja are turning industrial estates into Need For Speed. The Civil Guard has not been amused

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The Civil Guard has been dismantled in La Rioja a modified vehicle hangout whose drivers had a very clear intention: to organize illegal races and perform different illegal maneuvers (skidding, acceleration, etc.) as an exhibition. Although they enjoyed the plan for a few hours, the party ended with 120 people identified, 25 sanctions and crimes such as possession of weapons and driving under the influence of drugs. The Spanish Fast and Furious. A meeting spread through social networks, with the presence of influencers and with more than one hundred participants from several autonomous communities. The Civil Guard had been monitoring the call for weeks, articulating both an intervention operation and a preventive surveillance and control device in various industrial estates in the region. Real images of the meeting, broadcast on the internet. burning wheel. According to the authorities, the agents observed exhibition maneuvers such as skidding, sudden accelerationsburning tires, near the public parking lot of one of the shopping centers in La Rioja. In nearby industrial estates, drivers were detected carrying out illegal races, who are now being investigated for crimes against road safety. It’s not something new. This same weekend the Civil Guard has investigated three people for participating in an illegal vehicle race in the Villaluenga-Yuncler industrial estate, in the province of Toledo. The operation was part of an operation that is underway since Februaryand that has already claimed several arrests for illegal races in the area. Last March Traffic officers detained 33 drivers for the same reason, in the industrial estates of Lleida. Andalusia is not spared either, where recently A gathering was dismantled in one of the main avenues of the city. what’s happening. Nothing that hasn’t been happening for decades. Since the early 2000sillegal racing remains alive in Spain. Modified car hangouts are not a random crime: they are a subculture that has been outside the law for years and that, with the arrival of social networks and messaging apps, has it even easier to attract followers. What for decades was an invisible counterculture, confined to polygons and internet forums, is now announced on social networks, filmed live and exposed more than ever. And if not, tell that to the guy who asked his partner to marry him in the middle of a car meetup… and ended up seriously run over. In Xataka | Saudi Arabia believes the world deserves an F1 circuit on par with Mario Kart. So it’s being built

The largest naval project in German history since World War II is turning out to be a crazy disaster

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In Europe, large military programs often take more than a decade to be completed and, in many cases, end up costing several times more than initially anticipated. It is not uncommon for complex projects to accumulate thousands of technical requirements and go through multiple reviews before reaching production. In this context, some plans are born as emblems of modernization… and end up becoming examples of how difficult it is to bring them to fruition. From something historic to something unsustainable. He program F126 was born as the great symbol of German rearmament and largest naval project of the country since the Second World War, but over time it has become quite the opposite: an example of how an ambitious plan can derail to the point of collapse. Conceived as a latest generation frigateflexible and prepared for decades of service, the project has not only accumulated delays and cost overrunsbut has called into question Germany’s ability to execute large military programs at a time when it aspires to lead European defense. Technical errors and chaos. He told in an extensive report the financial times that the origin of the problem seems as modern as it is devastating: a failed bet on a new software design that was not ready for a project of this scale. What should have been an advanced tool ended up generating cascading errors, from cables incorrectly located on the plans to steel parts manufactured with incorrect shapes, forcing manual corrections and slowing down the entire production. The result was a system that was moving at just a fraction of its planned pace, with delays that pushed the initial delivery several years later than planned. A culture shock. It turns out that the problem was not just technical. Apparently, the media reported that the project was trapped in a deep shock between the Dutch shipyard’s way of working and the German contracting system, known for its extreme rigidity. Thousands of specifications detailed even the smallest elements, while approval processes were they dragged on for months within a complex bureaucracy that required paper documentation and rejected even plans in English. This combination made collaboration a slow, frustrating, and, in many cases, unproductive process. Skyrocketing costs and limit decisions. As the problems piled up, so did made the invoice: The project, initially valued in the billions, began to go off track with significant cost overruns and structural delays. As it is, Germany now faces critical decisions ranging from replacing the main contractor to accepting billions already invested. as irrecoverable losses. At the same time, faster but less ambitious alternative solutions are being studied, reflecting the extent to which the original project has lost credibility. Notice to sailors of rearmament. If you like, the case of the F126 goes beyond a simple industrial failure: it reveals the limits of European military cooperation even among closely integrated countries and raises questions about the continent’s ability to implement complex joint programs. In a context of increasing of defense spending and increasing strategic pressure, the project has become a clear warning: It is not enough to invest more, you also have to know how to manage better. Because otherwise, even the most important projects can end up being, as in this case, a costly and lengthy example of what not to do. Image | Give me In Xataka | Germany is experiencing a new “industrial miracle” that it already experienced 90 years ago: that of weapons In Xataka | Germany was a sleeping military giant: now it has been awakened and it is already surpassing the US in bullets produced per year

To survive the end of oil, China has resurrected an old German technology from World War II: turning coal into plastic

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While the world assumes that China’s energy transition is based exclusively on solar panels and electric vehicles — and, in part, it is, consolidating as the first great ‘electrostate’—, reality hides a much darker side. Faced with the outbreak of the Third Gulf War, Beijing has not even flinched. Beyond its immense strategic oil reserves, the secret of its resistance lies in an even more daring maneuver: the resurrection of German technology from World War II. An old German technology. Faced with the instability of oil imports, China has perfected the use of coal to produce petrochemical products. This synthesis technology (historically known as the process of fischer–Tropsch) was originally developed by Germany to sustain its military economy during World War II. Although it is widely known in the chemical industry, its main defect has always been the enormous pollution it generated. China has improved it. Far from settling for an outdated process, Chinese researchers have radically improved it. According to the state agency Xinhuaa team from Peking University has achieved a historic breakthrough by adding a minimal amount of methyl bromide (five parts per million) to the catalytic process. This surgically “turns off” the pathway that forms carbon dioxide as a byproduct, reducing these emissions from 30% to less than 1% and opening the door to near-green manufacturing to convert coal-derived synthesis gas (syngas) into olefins, the building blocks of plastics. At an industrial level, expansion is already a fact. As detailed South China Morning Postin Turpan prefecture (Xinjiang), construction has just begun on the world’s largest coal-to-ethylene glycol (a toxic compound used for plastics and antifreeze) project, with an astonishing capacity of 2.4 million tons per year. Even, as the magazine highlighted ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineeringresearch is being carried out on how to integrate this process (called PFTO) to chemically recycle tons of plastic waste, converting it into syngas and then back into light olefins. Did you see it coming? It is not the first time that China decides to take sides and prevent rather than cure. The Asian giant has decided to completely decouple its industry from maritime vulnerabilities and Western influence. “This is not China’s war, but Beijing began preparing for it years ago,” points out The New York Times. Everything accelerated during Donald Trump’s first term, prompting President Xi Jinping to demand complete “self-sufficiency” that would insulate China from any disruption to foreign supply chains. Time has proven them right. The war in Iran has brutally increased the price of crude oil, suffocating international petrochemical competitors that depend on black gold. In contrast, local Chinese coal has only gotten cheaper. According to Reutersthis has been a financial triumph: shares of companies such as Ningxia Baofeng Energy, which produces millions of tons of chemicals from coal, have risen 30% since the start of the conflict, while traditional Asian refiners such as Rongsheng Petrochemical have lost up to 27% of their stock market value. Furthermore, the Chinese media analyzed by Carbon Brief They insist on a unanimous nationalist message: in the face of a real emergency, coal is the only resource that the nation truly controls, acting as the great “ballast” guarantor of its national security. A change to other sectors. The change is undeniable. As revealed Bloombergthe country’s main coal miner, China Shenhua Energy, has cut its overall budget by 16%, but has almost doubled its investment in coal-to-chemical conversion, from 2.5 billion to 4.1 billion yuan by 2026. But at a devouring pace, as The New York Times provides information that measures the phenomenon: in 2020, China used 155 million tons of coal to manufacture chemicals; by 2024, the figure jumped to 276 million, and in 2025 it grew another 15%, single-handedly exceeding the total annual coal consumption of the entire United States. The research center CREATE confirms this trend in its reportconfirming that the use of coal in the chemical industry grew by 20% year-on-year only in the first half of 2025. Added to this is that, as the American media explains80% of Chinese nitrogen fertilizer (a third of the world’s supply) is already made with coal rather than oil or gas, allowing Beijing to keep its product at less than half the global market price. Behind it there is a very high cost. All this bold industrial maneuver has a severe climate cost that is already setting off international alarms. China’s draft 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) has set extremely cautious climate goals. As the experts explain CREATE and collect Financial Timesthe set goal of reducing carbon intensity by only 17% is “disappointing” and leaves room for the country’s emissions to continue growing between 3% and 6% in real terms over the next five years. This new government plan de facto reverses the international promise to “phase down” coal consumption, replacing it with a consumption “plateau” and explicitly protecting the large-scale expansion of the coal-based petrochemical industry. Only chemical projects already planned to be built between now and 2029 could increase China’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by an additional 2%. The forecasts are resounding. According to Bloomberg, By 2030, China’s chemical roadmap will massively stop using oil as a primary fuel (thanks to the adoption of its electric vehicles) and will take advantage of its modernized facilities to seek 85% self-sufficiency in all advanced materials and chemicals, displacing traditional giants. A feared crisis of overcapacity. The European ideas laboratory MERICS warns of collateral consequences: The Chinese domestic economy, with consumer confidence stagnant since the pandemic, has no way to absorb all this gigantic new production of materials and plastics. As a direct result, Chinese factories are forced to export their immense surpluses to the rest of the world at fire sale prices. This aggressive price war propelled China’s trade surplus to a stratospheric record of $1.2 trillion in 2025. According to the complaint MERICSthese massive exports are cannibalizing the industrial base of other nations; In the European Union alone, up to 500 manufacturing jobs are being lost daily due to the total … Read more

The war in Iran is turning tourism upside down. And that translates into something for Mallorca: thousands more Germans

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In just over a month, the Middle East conflict has reminded the world that, at least in the 21st century, the seismic wave of wars is felt far beyond where the bombs fall. Its effect has already spread to the price of oilthe stock market and geopolitics and now threatens to shake the shopping basket. Another sector in which it is also leaving its mark (and a lot) is the touristwho has seen how in a matter of weeks flights were canceledthey reinforced routes and basically demand swung at a global level. And that is being felt strongly in the Balearic Islands. More flights to Mallorca. That the Balearic Islands see their flight schedule reinforced at the gates of Easter and with summer just around the corner is nothing new. What is curious is that the programming is shielded with dozens and dozens of extra frequencies, such as reveals Mallorca Diarywhich estimates that the war in Iran has led to more than a hundred extra flights being planned between Germany and Mallorca for the start of the season. In practice this translates into something that will soon be noticed in the Balearic Islands: tens and tens of thousands of extra places for German travelers until June. How many flights are there? Yes. The biggest injection will come from Eurowing, an airline low cost based in Düsseldorf and part of the Lufthansa Group. A few days ago its managers announced the scheduling of a hundred extra flights to Palma, an effort that they relate (without mentioning it directly and explicitly) to the instability that the Middle East is experiencing. “The airline responds to the changing demand of the sector and reinforces its offer to the western Mediterranean,” clarify. According to the calculations of the company, the reinforcement of its operations with Mallorca will result in 36,000 extra seats until the end of May. “Around 100 additional flights are planned to Palma, along with around 70 connections to the Canary Islands (Fuerteventura, Las Palmas, Tenerife), as well as to Faro, Málaga, Naples and Nice,” Eurowings specifies before specifying that the new scheduled flights will operate from the airports of Berlin, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg and Stuttgart. Beyond Eurowings. The Lufthansa airline is not the only one that has decided to redouble its commitment to the Balearic Islands. Condor Flugdienst, another German operator, will reactivate two connections with the Spanish archipelago starting in May: one will be the Dortmund-Palma route, which will be covered daily with an Airbus A321; the other will link the Münster/Osnabrück airport with Mallorca. The list of companies that will target the Balearic Islands offer in the coming weeks are Ryanair and TUI Fly. The first offers a route to Mallorca from Friedrichshaffen, in Baden-Württemberg (Germany). Regarding the second, Tourinews inform that a few days ago it announced the scheduling of 68 additional flights with around 10,000 seats from several German airfields, including Hannover and Munich. The destinations are spread across various points throughout southern Europe, including Greece, the Canary Islands and Mallorca. “They have changed their plans”. It is not just that German airlines seem to look with redoubled interest at the great destinations of southern Europe and the Mediterranean. The sector itself recognizes a change in trend that is related to the war in Iran and the influence it is exerting on the market. “Many tourists who had not yet booked and were planning to travel to destinations in the Middle East have changed their plans at the last minute and opted for other places,” clarify to Mallorca Diary from the Business Group of Travel Agencies of the Balearic Islands (AVIVA). a few days ago The reason assuredciting data from tour operators, that British reservations have skyrocketed by 40% in the Balearic Islands. The Canary Islands have also recorded an increase of 16%. “Last minute increases”. Last week the Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca (FEHM) calculated that the average occupancy during Easter will be around 70%, a level similar to that of past years, with 92% of its places activated. In the specific case of Palma, the forecasts were somewhat better and almost 90% of the available rooms were expected to be filled. These are, however, the starting data. In general, the group is cautious, remembering the “uncertainty” that reigns in the market internationally and also recognizing that its initial estimates may be out of date, opening the door to an increase in reserves. “There may be increases due to last minute sales,” anticipates the executive vice president of FEHM. Has the scenario changed that much? The truth is that yes. And in several aspects. The war and its consequences, which extend far beyond Iranian borders to the rest of the Persian Gulf, have made tourists from other countries be suspicious of destinations established until now. A few weeks ago, the Mabrian firm studied the security perception indices of nations such as Qatar, the Emirates and Saudi Arabia and found that the indicator had plummeted. The most curious thing is that it has also taken its toll on other distant tourist spots, such as Jordan, Türkiye or Egypt. The study was carried out shortly after the US and Israeli attack on Iran and Tehran’s subsequent reaction, which turned the airspace of much of the Gulf upside down. Since that region plays a key role as an air interconnection point on routes between Europe and Asia, the war also took its toll to connections with countries like Sri Lanka. Surprising (but not that surprising). In reality, the latest movements of Eurowings, TUI Ryanair only confirm what analysts tell us. weeks anticipating: that part of the demand that now views the Middle East with suspicion will be redirected towards other beach destinations in Western Europe. Which is it? In mid-March the BBC spoke from Portugal, Italy and Spain, as well as the Caribbean, Mauritius and the USA. They were not simple predictions. The British chain cites data from a famous travel agency, Thomas Cook, which already at that time … Read more

While the West debates what to do with AI in schools, in China there are already schools turning it into a child tutor

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Anyone who has been a child or a parent knows the scene: the flexo light on, an incomprehensible math problem on the table, tears falling from the frustration of not understanding a lesson or not being able to pronounce a foreign language, and a parent losing patience after explaining the same thing for the fifth time. In China they have found a way to turn it around, parents frustrated and exhausted by their workdays are delegating the academic supervision of their children to artificial intelligence. While in different countries there is a strong debate and fear about whether AI erodes critical thinking of students, the opposite is true in China: a 2025 survey led by KPMG revealed that more than 90% of the Chinese are optimistic about this technology. The phenomenon came to light and sparked debate on social media when a mother in Shandong province discovered her husband playing on his mobile phone while letting her Kimi AIa chatbot capable of processing two million characters, did his son’s homework. But this father is not an isolated case. Many adults are using AI not just to teach, but to do the dreaded “parenting chores.” Mr. Zhang, for example, admitted to using the chatbot Doubao to generate summaries of the Aesop’s Fables and print step-by-step images for your third grader’s craft projects. The market has responded with an avalanche of gadgets. Zheng Wenqi, a working mother, bought for about 375 dollars the “Native Language Star”, a device composed of a mask that muffles your voice in Chinese and a speaker that translates it into English to converse with your children. Others, like university professor Wu Ling, They invested $1,170 in AlphaDoga robot dog powered by the DeepSeek model that practices English, dances and keeps his only son company. There are even parents who have gone one step further by becoming creators. This is the case of Yin Xingyu, a mother from Shenzhen who does not know how to program, but who uses the technique of vibecoding with DeepSeek to create interactive English word games for her 6-year-old daughter, as well as generate personalized comics using the Nano Banana Pro imaging model. For the purist parents, devices have emerged such as the “Youdao AI Q&A Pen”, a smart pen designed from “asceticism”: it has no browser or games, it only guides the child step by step in their mathematical reasoning without giving them the direct answer. A multi-million dollar business in a gray area All this enthusiasm has fueled a runaway educational technology market valued at more than $43 billion. Outsourcing has left the homes to take to the streets and, until July 2024, The opening of about 50,000 was estimated “AI study rooms” across the country. In these establishments, children sit in cubicles in front of standardized tablets; They cannot leave until the indicators on the screen turn from red (errors) to green (correct answers). As detailed on CCTVthe “teachers” in these rooms do not teach, they are prohibited from explaining the subject and they act as mere supervisors and commissioned salespeople. To cope with the monotony of 6 to 8 hours answering questions, some children learn to play Go or Gomoku secretly on the same machines, often with the supervisors’ blind eye. However, former employees and parents report that in many of these centers, “artificial intelligence” is just a marketing façade to charge more, and children simply consume pre-recorded lessons on basic tablets. Behind these study rooms hides a business survival tactic. Many of these centers operate in a gray zone to avoid the strict “double reduction” policy. imposed by the government in 2021which banned for-profit tutoring to relieve financial and academic pressure on families. By arguing that “it is AI that teaches and not a human,” these companies dodge education regulators, registering under names of “cultural media” and avoiding words like “enrollment” or “classes.” Franchises are strategically expanding into peri-urban areas and small towns, where rents are low and parents are equally willing to pay for a place to leave their children. This mass adoption is no accident; is backed by a clear state directive. The Chinese government is promoting the integration of AI in education as part of a national strategy to accelerate its technological progress against global competitors such as the United States. The regulations are already on the table. Starting with the fall 2025 semester, Beijing will require a minimum of eight hours per year of AI education in all primary and secondary schools. The transition has been rapid and planned, with higher education leading the way: 99% of university students and teachers in China already use generative tools, and elite universities such as Zhejiang or Fudan have made AI courses mandatory and transversal subjects. Science supports this dive. An empirical study conducted with high school students in H city showed that the duration of daily use of AI tools significantly and positively influences students’ AI knowledge and algorithmic thinking. That is, constant exposure is already shaping your cognitive and technological abilities. The debate is served The families’ opinions are drastically divided. For many, AI democratizes education. Mothers like Li Linyun celebrate that the Doubao chatbot be a “24-hour, knowledgeable and extremely patient teacher,” which has saved him hundreds of dollars on human tutors and improved his relationship with his daughter. On the other hand, technological dependence terrifies educators and a faction of parents, who criticize that children are becoming lazy and losing the ability to think independently. In study halls, proctors notice that students, desperate to turn the screen green, resort to tactical memorization: repeatedly choosing incorrect answers by discard until the system approves them, without actually learning the concept. Added to this is the “AI illusion” and its hallucinations. Su Xiao, mother of a ninth grader, discovered that the general models They could invent historical data with complete confidence and fluency, or omit crucial data in mathematical problems, offering logically impeccable but erroneous results. This forced her to become a “cyber quality inspector,” … Read more

turning the “sea of ​​death” into a carbon sink

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For decades, the Taklamakan desertin the Chinese region of Xinjiang, has had a nickname quite eloquent: “the sea of ​​death.” And it is no wonder, since it is the second largest mobile dune desert in the world and a place where, historically, whoever enters does not usually leave. But faced with this major problem with sand for the surrounding areas, China decided to find a solution. The solution. China since 1978 has been waging an ecological engineering war against sand with a very specific weapon: the Three North Shelter Belt Programbetter known as the Great Green Wall. A name that seems to come out of Game of Thrones, but its objective is to stop erosion and sandstorms. But a new massive study published in PNAS has just revealed an unexpected and monumental side effect: human intervention has turned the edges of one of the driest places on Earth into an active carbon sink. The data. The study has focused on 25 years of data obtained through field work and also with satellites. What the team has found on the margins of the Taklamakan is what they call a “cold spot” of carbon dioxide. This means that in reforested areas the concentration of CO₂ is between 1 and 2 parts per million smaller than in the surrounding environment. And although it may not seem like much, in climatology it is an outrage. The trend in this case is quite clear, since The vegetation cover is increasing every yearand there is also a tendency for soil and plants to be “eating” more carbon than they are emitting. How is it possible? The million-dollar question here is pretty clear: how do you keep 66 billion trees alive in a place where it barely rains? The answer lies in water management technology and species selection. In this case, the project does not focus on planting oaks or pines, but is based on Extremophilous species like him Tamarixhe Haloxylon and the Euphrates poplar, which are plants evolutionarily designed to survive on very little. But the technological key has been the use of drip risk with saline water. Origin of water. China discovered that under the Taklamakan there are immense aquifers, but they are too saline for traditional agriculture. However, these “halophytic” plants can tolerate it, so it seemed like it was done on purpose. That is why groundwater is used to irrigate the protective strips that exist, especially around the famous tarim desert highway. The result with this is that soil moisture drops drastically between waterings, but the plants survive. And, although the salinity of the superficial soil increases, studies indicate that it is manageable in the long term and does not salinize the deep layers. This has made it possible to complete in 2024 a “green belt” of 3,046 kilometers that encloses the desert, stabilizing dunes that previously moved meters each year. Its stability. Unlike the Great Green Wall attempts in the Sahara, which have suffered from political instability and a lack of continued funding, the Chinese project has maintained its course since 1978. This continuity has allowed a “40-year experiment” that is now bearing fruit with important conclusions. The Chinese authorities themselves cite that national forest coverage has gone from 10% in 1949 to 25% today, thanks in large part to this project. As a result, in places like Maigaiti in Xinjiang, sandstorm days have dropped from 150 a year to fewer than 50. It is not the panacea. The source article warns of the limitations of this project: photosynthesis and carbon sequestration are strongly correlated with seasonal precipitation. This means that at least 16 liters of rainfall per month is needed in high season to maximize its effect. But behind it is climate change that is drastically altering rainfall patterns in Central Asia, which could weaken the carbon sink. Although what is happening in Taklamakan is causing a paradigm shift, since now where we see reforestation of deserts, we also see a way to cool our planet by reducing the concentration of CO₂. Images | Wikipedia Jasmine Milton In Xataka | Someone has counted each and every tree in China. Because? Well because now it is possible

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