United

For decades, the “Galicia” octopus has been the greatest guarantee of quality. The United Kingdom wants to take it away

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The Galician octopus may be the most famous, but for some time now, talking about the most precious cephalopod in the country’s gastronomy requires looking beyond the Rías Baixas. In fact, it forces us to take a leap of hundreds of kilometers and look at the other side of the English Channel, on the southern coast of the United Kingdom. There the English fishermen have encountered a curious octopus invasion which at first they viewed with suspicion (they have been dedicated to capturing other species for generations), but each time it awakens greater interest in London. The question is how can it affect that to Galicia, a land that has turned octopus into a ‘religion’ (in addition to a big business) and that in recent years has encountered the opposite panorama: a fall in the capture of cephalopods. What has happened? That the octopus map is changing. And although we still don’t know for sure how deep (and stable) that transformation will be, it has been clear enough to generate expectation in Galicia, a land closely linked to the cephalopod from a cultural and economic point of view. To understand it, we have to go back to 2025, when fishermen who fish on the southern coasts of the United Kingdom encountered an unexpected picture: in the pots that have been installed for generations to hunt crabs and lobsters, they began to appear empty shells…a clue to the presence of octopuses. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Why is it so strange? Because the ports in the north of the peninsula are used to large unloadings of octopus, but things change when we talk about Newlyn or Brixham, in England. There the boats that go out to fish hope to collect sole, turbot, crabs or lobsters. A few months ago, however, the fishermen encountered an unexpected (and apparently inexplicable) invasion of Octopus vulgariscephalopods that usually live in the Mediterranean or other areas of the Atlantic, such as the Galician coast. It was not a one-off boom. Nor something anecdotal. The phenomenon was so surprising that it even caught the attention of Stephen Castle, a reporter for The New York Timeswho in September traveled to Brixham to talk to sailors and operators. In a chronicle about what he saw there, he talks about fishermen ecstatic to see how their turnover skyrocketed thanks to new catches, auctions of tons of merchandise and veterans of the sector recognizing that it was the first time they had captured the species in their waters in more than 40 years. This is good news, right? Depends. Castle chatted with fishermen who rub their hands when they see the tentacles wriggling in their nets, but also with others who frustratedly tell how octopuses boycott the pots with which they capture shellfish. They are not the only ones who are not enthusiastic about the new plague. “I recently visited the fishing industry in Plummouth and was informed that there was an unusual abundance of octopuses in the south west. The Ministry of Environment and Food understands that the proliferation is affecting shellfish pot fishing and causing concern in the fishing sector in the area,” warned in May last year the Labor MP Daniel Zeichner. And why not take advantage of it? That is the question that the British authorities seem to have asked themselves, who have decided that the cephalopod invasion may be something more: an opportunity. At the beginning of the year Vigo Lighthouse revealed who in London want to promote a formal, regulated and industrial fishery of the octopus vulgaris. In short: make a virtue of necessity and equip yourself with a strategy to gain a foothold in a market that moves billions of euros. Proof that the United Kingdom they are very serious with the octopus is that the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the Marine Management Organization (MMO), two departments linked to the Government, “are considering how best to collaborate with the EU to learn from existing octopus fisheries.” a few days ago The Voice of Galicia even reported that the country is already looking at the markets of the rest of Europe and Morocco. It makes sense if we take into account that the change on the English coast, with an octopus boom that in turn reduces the population of other traditional species, already affected to the Christmas campaign. Do they have that many octopuses? Yes. In September, after speaking with the manager of a market, Castle talked about the sale of up to 48 tons of octopus in a single day. Official MMO data shows that last year a total of about 1,900 tons of octopus, especially in Brixham and Dartmouth. It is an exceptional fact. First, because it exponentially multiplies the discrete cephalopod capture data recorded so far. Second, because it surpasses the 1,200 t handled in the markets of Galicia. There is sources which indicate that total sales in the UK markets would be much higher. Data from the Xunta on the sale (blue) and price (yellow) of octopus in the markets of Galicia. Is it something new? Yes. And no. It is not the first time that English fishermen have found octopuses wrapped in their nets and pots. Vigo Lighthouse remember that in Devon and Cornwall sailors already encountered similar situations in the late 19th and mid-20th centuries, when the regional press came to speak of “a perfect plague” of “disgusting beasts” that “almost ruined” the sector. On this occasion there are signs that suggest that it will not be something temporary. Experts such as Seteve Simpson, from the University of Bristol, slide that climate change is “a likely factor” in explaining the increase in octopuses in southern England. “Our waters are warming, so our little island of Britain is becoming increasingly favorable for octopus populations,” he theorizes. There are clues that suggest he is not wrong. In Plymouth there are fishermen who recognize that they not only encounter adult specimens when fishing. They also see … Read more

China has almost closed the AI ​​gap with the United States. And he has done it with all the sticks in the wheels

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It is difficult to go into detail about the number of dances in which the United States and China are immersed at the moment. The technological war is the umbrella under which the trade warthe attempt of military conflict in the South China Seathe robot racethat of the energy and that of artificial intelligence. Everything is related to each other and, although the United States has exercised an aggressive technological blockadeStanford University is clear that it has not been of much use. And they are clear that the AI ​​gap between the powers is “practically closed.” The report. When a new model or version of AI is presented, those responsible show graphs and tables in which they comment on how good their product is. It is something that always has to be taken with a grain of salt because the idea is to make your product look good – it would be necessary to do more – and, for this reason, an external analysis is needed to show us the complete photo. In this sense, the annual report from Stanford University (in its ninth edition) is one of the best thermometers for taking temperature in the state of AI. One of the conclusions of study is that the Chinese models are very close to the American ones. If at the beginning of the AI ​​boom those from the US set the tone with an abysmal difference, at the beginning of 2025 the distance was greatly reduced to the point that DeepSeek-R1 equaled the best American models on several occasions. Since then, the absolute top model is that of Anthropic, but currently only with a 2.7% advantage over the best Chinese model. Different approaches. In fact, in the graph with this specific analysis you can see how the distance between the two is closed as the performance of the Chinese models increases exponentially in a very short time. And something that the study highlights is that, although the United States continues to lead the battle because it is the one that produces the most top-level AI models and with the most important patents, China leads in volume of both models and production of those patents. Also in other sectors, such as AI in robotics, for example. sticks in the wheels. And the most notable thing is that China has achieved this evolution without having the best tools. As a result of the technological and trade war, it is known that the United States has done everything in its power to prevent cutting-edge technology will reach the hands of the Chinese industry. For years they prohibited American companies (which are the ones that control the AI leader like NVIDIA or AMD) sold their higher-end platforms to Chinese companies, but also They shorted the European ASML and the South Korean Samsung and SK Hynix. Because the US has the aforementioned NVIDIA and Intel, but ASML is the one that manufactures the most advanced machines for making chips, Samsung is one of the world’s leading foundries and leader in high bandwidth memory along with SK Hynix and then there is the Taiwanese TSMC as the largest foundry on the market. Although the US has more recently shaken hands with China in this regard, there are still restrictions on Chinese companies accessing the latest technology. Counterproductive. However, through innovation, government support and a little bit of smuggling, gray market and reverse engineering, companies like SMIC -the Chinese foundry- or Huawei They have managed to develop their advanced equipment and chips. The US has tried to put all the pieces in the wheels of the Chinese industry, but as some reputable voices in the chip sector have pointed out, this has only served for China to directly and advances its technological sovereignty program. That is to say, the vetoes that had such a hard impact at the beginning have served to light the flame of technological development. Huawei is the best example of this, since was ostracized five years ago and recently showed that not only has he recovered, but he has returned in better shape than ever, even becoming one of the main drivers of AI for Chinese industry. Approach. Something that the Stanford AI study also highlights is how the two countries are approaching this segment of AI. And we talk about money, of course. While private investment in AI in the United States reached almost $286 billion, in Europe The investment was almost 21,000 million and in China it was only 12,400 million. This is tricky, since it involves private financing (and this year among just a handful of American companies 650,000 million dollars will be melted) and the state support from the Chinese government should not be underestimated, but beyond investment, American companies have focused on creating the most powerful models regardless of the price while the Chinese approach is to make a Cheap AI to be almost transparent to the user. The goal in both cases is mass adoption, but here the cheaper the product and better integrated into everyday platformsbetter. Taiwan. There are other adjacent topics. For example, China has the energy for the AI ​​erabut The US has the data centers. According to the report, there are more than 5,400 data centers in the American country, which is more than ten times the amount that any other country has, but all this with a curious counterpoint: it is a Taiwanese company that manufactures almost all of its artificial intelligence chips: TSMC. The company is expanding with foundries in the US, but although a conflict that will break those relationships is not in sight, it is evident that depending on a foreign country is not the best strategy for technological independence. That is why they are injecting a lot of money so that Intel be the great foundry, but the reality is that it is still very far from TSMC and, although the US is making attempts with native companies such as Applied Materials, the main partners continue to … Read more

The United Kingdom has a laser capable of shooting down drones flying at 650 km/h. And each shot is the same as two beers.

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For some time now, armies have pursued an idea: weapons that fire energy instead of projectiles. Already in the Cold War was experienced with systems capable of concentrating heat at a distance, although technical limitations relegated them to tests and prototypes for years. Today, with advances in electrical generation and beam control, that ambition has begun to emerge from the laboratory, although it still entailed challenges that for a long time seemed impossible to solve. The UK seems to have solved the most important one. From the laboratory to real combat. He DragonFire program marks a turning point in the evolution of directed energy weapons, and it does so by going from technological demonstrator to embedded operating system. The United Kingdom has decided to accelerate its deployment until 2027integrating it into Type 45 destroyers and becoming the first European country from NATO in deploying a functional naval laser. There is no doubt, the movement is not only technological, but also doctrinal, because it implies changing the way in which air defense at sea is conceived, integrating new layers that do not depend on traditional ammunition. Two beers for the price of a shot. The key element of DragonFire is not only its accuracy, but rather its economy. Each shot costs just about 10 pounds (just over 11 euros) in electricity, just a couple of “pints” in a pub compared to the hundreds of thousands that a conventional interceptor missile can cost, which completely alters the balance between attack and defense. we had seen it in Ukraine and now in Iran. In a scenario where cheap drones are launched by the dozens or hundreds, responding with expensive missiles had become unsustainable, while a laser allows the pace to be maintained. without depleting critical resources. This difference makes the laser an especially attractive tool in modern conflicts where saturation is more important than sophistication. Extreme precision and new capabilities. The system has proven capable of hitting targets the size of a coin a kilometer away, maintaining the beam on moving targets until causing structural failure. More: its architecture combines multiple fiber lasers in a single high-quality beam, guided by electro-optical sensors and continuous tracking systems. Furthermore, its sustained firing capability eliminates one of the main limitations of conventional weapons: need to rechargeallowing you to take on multiple threats consecutively in a matter of seconds. The response to swarms. The rise of cheap drones and swarm attacks has put in check to traditional defense systems, designed to intercept more limited and higher value threats. DragonFire positions itself as the direct response to that change, offering an effective solution against small, fast and numerous targets without compromising missile arsenals intended for strategic threats. In this context, the laser does not replace existing systems, but rather complements themreinforcing short-range defense and freeing up resources for more complex scenarios. From sea to air and land. Beyond its naval deployment, the program aims for broader integration in ground and aerial platformswhich infers a structural change in modern weaponry. Let us think that the possibility of standardizing this type of technology in vehicles, ships or even combat fighters opens the door to a new generation of systems where energy progressively replaces to physical ammunition. Analysts recalled by Army Recognition that although there are still limitations (such as the need for line of sight, electrical power and thermal management), the advancement of DragonFire indicates that that concept before fantastic of “infinite ammunition” has ceased to be a theoretical idea and has become an operational reality in development. Image | UK Ministry of Defense In Xataka | Spain has built a laser that shields the backbone of its Navy: the A400M is now ready for combat In Xataka | China has achieved something hard to believe: reducing the production of laser weapons and parts for electric cars to one second

Europe cannot be a “technological vassal of the United States”, and the CEO of Mistral is clear about the path

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Mistral is emerging as the pillar of European artificial intelligence. A few weeks ago we said that the French startup had raised another 830 million dollars to create AI data centers in Europe. Arthur Mensch is the CEO of the company and, for some time now, he is establishing himself as one of the powerful voices within the initiative of European technological sovereignty. His new warning is that Europe cannot be a “vassal state” of the United States and he has published a roadmap so that Europe leads AI. It won’t be easy. European swerve. There are those who complain that everything cannot be politics, but really politics is something that permeates many layers and the European turn in search of technological sovereignty has a lot to do with this. It is something that has coincided with the return of Donald Trump because Europe has realized that, between threats and the “I invaded Greenland”, can’t trust his ally. With American technology companies very involved in the ideology set by their Government, there is a demand for sovereign European alternatives that do not depend on American Big Tech nor how they may process your sensitive data. What happens with rockets, satellites, chips and even with Microsoft Office. And AI is no exception. Measures. That’s right where it comes into play. Mistral. As the greatest exponent of European AI (within the Generative AIsince we also have the suite from the Spanish Freepik as one of the most important companies in this field), Mistral and its CEO are voices with a certain weight when it comes to talking about what seems to be the only topic of conversation in recent months. And Mensch has clear that Europe cannot be a “vassal” of US technology companies. For this reason, they have published “European AI: a roadmap to lead it”, a long document in which it urges the institutions of the European Union to speed up procedures and permits to take advantage of its single market position of more than 450 million people and combine the talent of different countries at the service of AI. From European AI, of course. The premises are clear: Attract and retain talent. Unlock the full potential of the single market. Embrace European AI on all economic fronts. Empower Europe with critical infrastructure for AI. 80%. Each of the measures has a series of points that detail what the optimal way to proceed would be (according to Mistral) to achieve European leadership and stop depending on foreign technology. And one of the points to keep in mind is that Europe has the possibility of commanding, but it faces a devastating fact: 80% of the digital infrastructure continues to depend on non-EU providers. To put it down: if a ministry needs an office suite, turn to Google or Microsoft. If a hospital needs an AI, goes to ChatGPT or Huawei. If we limit ourselves to AI, Mistral estimates that only 20% of EU companies have adopted AI and that only 11% of SMEs take advantage of its potential. slap on the wrist to regulatory Europe. What they point out is that this situation makes us vulnerable to extraterritorial controls that put the strategic autonomy of the member countries in check. They defend that this roadmap is not a theoretical exercise, but rather something practical that is based on three key principles: Action over theory. Unity against the fragmentation of each of the governments. And the most important: the speed is questionable. We must find quick ways to attract talent and capital so that the most innovative in Europe are not left behind, trapped in regulations that take time. Ambition. They warn that it is something with potential not only for Mistral, but for the entire ecosystem, an ecosystem in which Mistral is already very, very well positioned. Part of the 830 million they have raised will go to their facilities near Paris where there will be 13,800 NVIDIA GB3000 chips (You can’t become independent from NVIDIA…), but it won’t be the only one. By 2027 they hope to have a €1.2 billion facility in Sweden with 23 MW of computing capacity. In total, they hope to achieve 200 MW of capacity by the end of next year. It is very, very far from China and, above all, from the United States, but although the distance is enormous, it is an important step. The B side of the matter. Now, everything has a twist, and the twist of this enormous amount of money is that this round is not venture capital, but debt financing. The main French banks have lent this money to create data centers and, while the risk capital is not returned, the debt is, and with interest. It doesn’t matter if Mistral’s move turns out well or not, even if the AI ​​bubble bursts: the banks that have lent the money expect to receive it with the aforementioned interest regardless of how business goes. It is an added pressure for the company, but also a sign that they trust in what they are building. In Xataka | ChatGPT’s milestone is not being a good AI: it is having become one of the biggest attention grabbers in history

Europe fled from Russia’s gas to fall into the arms of the United States. The Third Gulf War proves that it was a trap

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Behind troop movements and sea blockades for the Third Gulf Warthere is a much quieter script twist that is shaking the foundations of the continental economy: false European security. A problem that comes from the other side of the pond. After the energy crisis due to the Ukrainian War (still valid), Europe thought it had solved its great energy vulnerability by changing the gas that arrived through Russian gas pipelines for liquefied natural gas (LNG) that crossed the Atlantic in ships from the United States. The idea of ​​the European Union was to bet its imports on Washington to diversify sources and avoid future geopolitical blackmail. However, the American lifeline has turned out to be punctured. With the global market in maximum tension due to the war in Iran, the US is not guaranteeing European supply and makes gas subject to trade wars and political whims. The real Achilles heel. Europe now depends on the United States for two-thirds of its LNG imports, according to the center for economic studies Bruegel. As global supply falls due to the conflict, Asian buyers — who traditionally sourced from the Gulf — are competing aggressively for flexible gas ships. The result is a bidding war to the highest bidder: according to Bruegelseveral shipments of American LNG have already been diverted from Europe to Asia in the midst of the conflict. At the diplomatic and commercial level, the situation with our “savior partner” is enormously unstable. In the midst of this crisis, Donald Trump has come to criticize European allies, urging them on social networks to “get their own oil,” according to Bloomberg. As if that were not enough, political friction over the conditions of the trade agreement between the EU and the US has caused senior US officials to threaten retaliation, casting serious doubts on Washington’s previous commitment to sell $750 billion in energy products (including its precious LNG) to the European bloc. The price of the “green illusion”. The impact of this imbalance is being brutal for European pockets. According to the Financial Times Based on data provided by the European Commission itself, the bill for EU fossil fuel imports has increased by 14 billion euros in just 30 days of conflict. Gas prices have experienced a rise of 70%, while oil prices have become more expensive by 60%. This puts in front of the mirror what in Euractiv have baptized as “the green illusion” of Europe: a glaring structural failure in the energy transition. Despite having invested nearly one trillion euros in renewable energy, the European Union’s energy dependence on imports remains at 60%, practically the same figure as in 2004. An ineffective design. The reason for this price contagion lies in the very design of the European electricity market. By operating with a marginalist system, the most expensive technology (usually gas) is the one that sets the price of electricity for everyone, as explained in Strategic Energy. In countries heavily dependent on gas to generate electricity, such as Italy, gas sets the price 89% of the time, exposing citizens directly to international volatility. However, there is hope if you do your homework. In Spain, the enormous growth of wind and solar energy has caused the gas only mark the price of electricity 15% of the hours, much better shielding the country against these external shocks. In fact, it’s not all bad news: solar electricity generation has saved the EU from spending 2 billion euros in fossil fuel imports only in the first 20 days of March. And now what? It doesn’t look like we’ll get a break anytime soon. The crisis will not be brief, as the European Commissioner for Energy, Dan Jørgensen, has strongly warned. who has made it clear thateven if peace were declared tomorrow, prices would not return to normal in the foreseeable future. The European Commission is already finalizing a “toolbox” with emergency measures that will suddenly return us to the scenarios of 2022. On the table in Brussels is the possibility of recovering taxes on extraordinary profits that fell from the sky (windfall tax) for energy companies. Drastic measures in sight. Brussels also foresees drastic measures to contain demand based in the well-known 10-point plan of the International Energy Agency. This would translate into recommendations to Member States to encourage teleworking, reduce speed limits on motorways and promote both public transport and car sharing. At the strategic level, to stop the bleeding in LNG prices and prevent the US from playing against Europe with Asia over shipments, the think tank Bruegel proposes a radical solution: that the EU act as a bloc and coordinate its gas purchases directly with large importers such as Japan and South Korea to avoid a bidding war. The invisible problem. To understand the complete picture, we must talk about the great bottleneck that almost no one talks about: concrete and copper. European renewable deployment is colliding with a lack of capacity in electricity networks. According to a report from the climate think tank Emberat least 120 GW of planned renewable energy projects in Europe are at risk simply because the grid cannot support them. The logjam is monumental, with almost 700 GW of renewable projects stuck in connection queues awaiting permits across European countries reporting this data. And this is not just a problem of the macro plants of large corporations; It directly affects the average citizen. According to calculations in the same report, 1.5 million European homes could face delays in being able to connect the solar panels on their roofs due to obsolete distribution networks that do not have the capacity to take on the energy. A chronic gap. The underlying problem is a chronic gap in the system itself. As pointed out EuractivEurope has changed how it generates its electricity, but it has not electrified its real economy. Cars continue to burn oil, heavy industry continues to use fossil gas and the general electrification of the economy has been stagnant for ten years. Europe has spent … Read more

Iran has made energy a problem again. The United Kingdom believes it has found a solution in solar panels

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There are issues that we believe are resolved until reality reminds us that they are not. Energy is one of them. We have been talking about for years solar panelsof self-consumption and of alternatives to fossil fuelsbut in many cases they remained a rather gradual, almost optional decision. That has changed. The rise in energy prices linked to the conflict in Iran has brought the problem back to the forefront and forced several governments to react. The United Kingdom has decided to act. The specific measure. What the British Government has put on the table is not a generic promise, but a plan to try bring so-called plug-in solar panels to stores in “the coming months.” To make it possible, the Government is working with Amazon, Lidl and the manufacturer EcoFlow. There is also an interesting nuance here: we are talking about an American e-commerce giant and a very recognizable supermarket chain in Europe. What makes them different. At this point, it is worth stopping for a moment on what exactly we are talking about. These plug-in solar panels do not work like a traditional photovoltaic installation, which usually requires construction, permits, and the intervention of a professional. The idea here is much simpler: smaller devices that can be placed on balconies, walls or gardens and connected directly to the home electrical network. According to the British Government, this approach would allow them to be used without the need for an electrician, as long as technical and safety standards are adapted. The context. It is no longer a secret that the conflict in Iran has hit one of the most sensitive points of the global energy system, the Strait of Hormuzthrough which a relevant part of the world’s oil circulates. When that flow is threatened, prices react quickly, and that is just what has happened. In a few days, crude oil and gas have risen sharply and that impact ends up reaching Europe in the form of more expensive fuels and higher bills, which has forced several governments to act. The European mirror. If we leave the United Kingdom, what we see is a map of quite diverse responses to the same problem. Rising energy prices have forced action, but each country is doing it in its own way. Spain has opted for a broad package of aid and tax cuts, valued at around 5,000 million euroswhile Germany has focused on regulating the behavior of gas stations and Portugal has applied fiscal adjustments more specific about fuels. Faced with these measures, more focused on cushioning the immediate blow, the British movement introduces another approach, facilitating access to alternatives such as solar energy to reduce dependence in the medium term. Images | Caspar Rae In Xataka | Europe has a million reasons to fear an increase in the price of electricity. Spain has something else: renewables

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

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

The United Kingdom has just detained a Russian oil tanker in Gibraltar. The problem is the possibility that they are armed

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Spain controls one of the busiest maritime passages on the planet: for the Strait of Gibraltar More than 100,000 ships cross each year, including thousands of oil tankers. Just a few kilometers from its coasts, a good part of the crude oil that feeds Europe circulates, and any alteration in that flow has a direct impact on the Spanish economy, from the price of energy to maritime security. From sanctions to interceptions. What for months was a silent economic war you have just crossed a new visible line. The Royal Navy no longer limits itself to observing Russian maritime traffic, it now follows it, identifies it and makes it easier to approach. The case of the MV Deyna oil tanker in Gibraltar mark that change. It is not an isolated incident, it is the symptom of a strategy that is beginning to materialize at sea. And in this turn there is a key detail: for the first time, the pressure on the shadow fleet stops being just legal or financial and becomes operational. The fleet in the shadows. Russia has built a network of hundreds of opaque tankers to continue selling crude oil despite the sanctions. This includes everything from old ships to constant flag changes or business structures that are difficult to trace. All designed for keep the flow of income that fuels its war economy. This network has been for years difficult to attack because it operates on the margins of international law. But now that margin is narrowing, and every interception at key points like Gibraltar points directly to a critical vulnerability of the Russian system. HMS Cutlass stopped the tanker Gibraltar and the bottleneck. The strait, furthermore, is not just any place. As we said at the beginning, it is one of the most guarded maritime crossings on the planet. and convert it at pressure point against Russian oil has a clear logic: controlling traffic is controlling business. HMS Cutlass operations near France show that NATO is willing to use intelligencesurveillance and naval presence to stop this flow. If you will, each intervention sends a message that goes beyond the specific ship, one that announces that it is no longer safe to operate in the shadows near Europe. The problem. It turns out that this is where the story really changes. Because Russia not only wants to protect its fleet, it is considering doing so with military means. Armed patrols, fire equipment on board and even the possibility of militarizing the tankers themselves. What until now were civil ships with economic functions could be transformed into platforms with defensive capacity. And that turns any approach or follow-up into an operation with a real risk of escalation, where an inspection can turn into an armed incident. From drones to oil tankers. Ukrainian naval drone attacks against Russian ships have been the trigger of this change. They have shown that even large maritime assets are vulnerable, and Russia has responded hardening his stance and preparing an active defense. This connects directly with the current global scenario, where energy transportation has become in strategic objective. The sea, which for decades was a relatively stable highway, is beginning to look more and more like a diffuse war front. The domino effect. The paradox is quite evident. While the West try to cut Russia’s revenues, the war in the Middle East has put Moscow’s crude oil back to the center of the market global, with India and China absorbing shipments that previously found no buyer and prices rising higher and higher. And meanwhile the shadow fleet returns to be indispensable. That makes any try to stop it have global consequences, turning each interception into more than just a naval operation: a piece in a much larger battle for control of the global energy flow. A new red line. If you like, the final scenario is the most uncomfortable and dangerous. A Russian tanker detained in Gibraltar It is no longer just a sanctioned ship, it may be the first link in a chain of tensions that escalate rapidly. Because if those ships start to go armedeach interaction at sea stops being administrative and becomes potentially military. And at that point, the question stops being whether the shadow fleet can continue operating, and becomes what will happen the day someone shoots first. Image | kees torn In Xataka | The Canary Islands and Galicia have set off the Navy’s alarm bells. Russia’s ghost fleet has arrived in Spain with warships In Xataka | A ghost fleet has mapped the entire underwater structure of the EU. The question is what Moscow is going to do with that information.

Throwing concrete into the sea is usually a disaster or cause for conflict. The United Kingdom is using it to revive an ecosystem

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When huge blocks of concrete are thrown to the bottom of the sea, we can think that whoever is doing it is looking for a territorial conflict or even to ruin the ecosystem, as It was already seen in Gibraltar in 2013 in order to prevent fishing. However, on the coast of the United Kingdom, this same action of throw concrete blocks It has become the spearhead of one of the most ambitious bioengineering and ecological restoration projects in Europe, despite being contradictory. The objective. The objective of throwing these blocks is to bring reefs back to life of native North Sea oysters, lost more than a century ago due to overfishing, pollution and the destruction of their habitat. Heavy engineering. At first glance, it seems simple to take some concrete blocks and throw them over the side of a boat. But in reality the 20 blocks recently deployed off the coast of Tyne and Wear are actually pieces of green high-tech. And it’s no wonder, because have been developed ARC Marine under the name Reef Cubes and made with a special material called “Marine Crete”. Furthermore, they are not small at all, because each of these cubes weighs six tons and measures one and a half meters high. Why this weight? This initiative promoted by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), the Wild Oysters project and Groundwork, leaves nothing to chance, since the fact of launching these heavy masses of concrete is explained by the British climate. In the previous phases of this project, the team encountered devastating storms that destroyed all restoration attempts. That is why these six-tonne masses ensure that the violent ocean currents and waves of the North Sea do not move the structures even one centimeter so that they can develop their final objective. Its usefulness. The magic actually happens on the surface of the block, as these cubes are not entirely smooth, but are designed with complex rough textures and artificial pores that perfectly mimic natural marine surfaces. These automatically become the perfect anchorage for life to thrive and an ideal refuge for fish and crustaceans. The role of oysters In addition to the roughness, 4,000 native European oysters have been placed inside each of these 20 immense cubes thanks to the efforts of 190 local volunteers. And it makes all the sense in the world, because beyond their great gastronomic value, oysters They are the great “purifiers” of the ocean. To give us an idea, a single adult oyster is capable of filtering up to 200 liters of water per day. In this way, when they feed they eliminate pollutants, nitrogen and excess nutrients, radically improving the quality of coastal water and allowing sunlight to penetrate deeper, which in turn stimulates the growth of marine flora. In short, these blocks act as a new ‘home’ for the animals that live on the seabed, but also as a way to clean their environment. It already gave results. The robustness of using thousands of tonnes of concrete on the seabed has already been tested in Scotland with great success, and now this project is just the beginning of what is to come. That is why, while these artificial reefs begin to filter millions of liters of water daily in the north, other projects are taking note to scale the idea to titanic proportions. In Norfolk, initiatives such as Oyster Heaven and Norfolk Seaweed are already planning the deployment of 40,000 clay “Mother Reefs” by the end of 2026. Their goal is to house 4 million juvenile oysters, which would officially be crowned the largest restored reef in all of Europe. In this way, throwing blocks into the sea has gone from being a technique to create conflicts between regions to being able to recover part of an ecosystem. Images | Robert Katzki Nicolas Arnold In Xataka | The “green belt” of the Earth had been stable for centuries: now it is moving towards the northern hemisphere in a worrying way

If Apple is forced to choose between the United States and China, Tim Cook is very clear about which one he will choose

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Tech CEOs are on tour, and they’re pointing east. a few days ago, Lisa SueAMD boss, went to visit samsung for the first time. The result is a contract for the South Korean company to manufacture the next-generation memory for the American company’s AI platform. For his part, Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, was traveling through China. And, after all the pressures from Donald Trump For Apple to manufacture in the United States, Cook is clear about one thing. China is Apple’s base. The best. believe me. Tim Cook has transcended. Although it seems that he has little left in the position (at some point he will have to retire and John Ternus aims to be the successor), Cook has become an almost political figure. This is demonstrated in his travels through other countries or in the United States itself. His trip to China has consisted of several phases. He first visited the Apple Store by Taikoo Li, but the highlight was the trip to Beijing to meet with the Minister of Commerce. One of the points of the meeting was the bilateral relationship between the two. Because Apple is a huge customer for the Chinese technology industry, but China is also a safe asset for Apple. So much so that, as reported by the state portal Xinhua, Cook stated that “China is the most important production base for Apple, as well as its main source in the supply chain.” China’s pressure. The visit occurred at a time when things are as they are between China and the United States, but also with Apple. The details of the commercial and technological war between the powers are something that we have covered almost daily, but with Apple there is also a mess created due to the commissions in the App Store. China has demanded greater flexibility from Apple on store restrictions and Apple’s response is a reduction in commission from 30% to 25%. It’s just a little bit of giving in and a show of goodwill on Apple’s part, but China continues to ask that they loosen control over the App Store, which translates into allowing more third-party payment options to cut what they consider like a monopoly. Come on, Apple, in the eyes of Chinese regulators, still have homework. And the pressure from home. But at the same time that Cook’s visit to China takes place and it is declared that it is the great base of the company, something is moving. On the one hand, India wants to become the new China, and in 2025 Apple achieved a milestone: that one in four iPhones are assembled in India. Assembling is not the same as manufacturing, where China continues to lead the way. And the United States wants to turn the tables. Within its protectionist policies, Donald Trump’s government is trying to get its technology companies to create value on homeland. Intel’s billion-dollar rescue It was an example of the extent to which the US wants its technology to be manufactured in its territory and the truth is that it is bearing fruit. Apple or NVIDIA already have some assignments for Intelbut these incentives are also encouraging foreign companies such as SK Hynix, Samsung or, above all, TSMC those that are taking over the Americans in their territory. Many millions at stake. But despite the demands and demands, a powerful gentleman is a gift of money, and China is a huge market with great potential. It is evident that we can think that “what is Cook going to say in China, which is wonderful, of course”, but we must not forget that this is a company that, like all others, seeks the greatest benefits. And China not only has the capacity to meet Apple’s needs in terms of device manufacturing: it is a market to exploit. A few weeks ago we echoed how the company’s sales marked the best quarter since the first of 2022ending years of declines in Chinese territory (where Huawei has been making a strong comeback), but it’s not just Apple that is pursuing entry into China. NVIDIA has spent months putting pressure on his government to let them sell the H200s in China. Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, commented that the Chinese cake is one of 50,000 million dollars and publicly asked the US government to stop being jealous and start collaborating in the name of capitalism. Cook has had a similar message on his trip to China, one supported by Li Qiang, Prime Minister of China who pointed out that if industrial issues are politicized, “the supply chain becomes a weapon, costs will only increase for companies and the momentum for development will be weakened.” In the end, they have gone to puncture where it hurts: the pocket. Images | Tessa Bury In Xataka | The decline of “Apple culture.” Blind devotion has evolved into critical enthusiasm

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