We have been believing for years that yogurt was the best probiotic. Science is now crowning kefir

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In recent months there is a dairy product that has begun to become very popular, causing traditional yogurt to begin to falter from its ‘reign’ on supermarket shelves. We are talking about kefir, a product that is increasingly you are listening much more and which is registering a boom that is driven above all by social networks that have promoted some of the benefits it can have for the digestive system. A battle. For decades, yogurt has been the undisputed leader in taking care of our intestinal flora due to the ‘good’ bacteria it has in its composition. However, at a microscopic level, the battle is completely unequal, since, while conventional yogurt usually contains between 2 and 5 bacterial strains whose effects on the intestine are transitory, kefir is a massive symbiotic consortium and offers a better long-term result. We are talking about an ecosystem that houses between 30 and 50 strains of bacteria and yeast, and here the published reviews highlight that this overwhelming microbiological diversity allows kefir to survive stomach acids and ‘settle’ in the intestine in a persistent way. In this way, the bacteria are not passing through as can happen with yogurt, but rather kefir settles and transforms the bacterial flora. And more benefits. Its level of residual lactose here is significantly lower, so the bacteria and yeast in kefir “eat” much of the sugar in the milk during its fermentation, which explains why there are clinical trials showing that lactose intolerant They digest it without having as much reflux and also with less bloating. What does science say? Here there are different sources that can be consulted that suggest that the consumption of kefir reduces some of the bacteria that colonize our mouth producing cavities and is also a proven ally in the eradication of the dreaded bacteria. Helicobacter pylori (although strict antibiotic treatment is required to eliminate it). A recent meta-analysis published in 2025 indicates that kefir also reduces markers of general inflammation and oxidative stress, which are two of the great enemies we face when we talk about harmful agents for the body if they are maintained over time. Furthermore, its ability to reduce the fasting glucose and insulin resistancemaking it a food of interest for the control of type 2 diabetes. The small print. Like everything in nutritional science, the “how much” and the “what” are critical. Here studies indicate that to obtain these metabolic and anti-inflammatory benefits, doses of between 400 and 600 milliliters daily are required, maintained constantly for periods of 4 to 12 weeks. If taken in a ‘jumping’ manner and without consistency, no results should be expected. Which one to choose. Although it may seem like it, not all kefirs are the samesince a pilot trial in healthy men showed that traditional kefir (made from real nodules) reduces LDL cholesterol and inflammatory cytokines much more than hyper-processed commercial versions. The reason is quite simple: industrialization tends to simplify microbial diversity to sterilize the product, losing along the way part of this microbiological ‘magic’ that we appreciate so much. Images | freepik In Xataka | We have been assuming for decades that “skimmed” or “0% fat” yogurt is healthier. It’s time to rethink it

Someone with a hairdryer “broke” Polymarket weather forecasts and pocketed $34,000

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On April 5, a Polymarket user with the name “xX25Xx” bet $119 that the temperature in Paris would exceed 18ºC that day. Shortly afterwards the temperature recorded by the Metéo-France network sensor at Charles de Gaulle airport unexpectedly rose several degrees. That caused xX25Xx to cash out $21,398 for profits. Then something even more striking happened: no other sensor in Paris recorded that rise, and the user had already deleted his account. French police are investigating whether someone physically manipulated the sensor to win the bet. As? Easy. The “crime” weapon according to the forums. In Polymarket’s Discord channels, the “traders” themselves began to share theories of all kinds after hearing the news. AI-generated images were also shared on Twitter showing how someone with a hair dryer could have modified the sensor located near Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris. Multiple users They aimed for the “cordless hair dryer trick”, although it would have also been possible to achieve the same thing with a lighter. There’s the bet: from $119 to more than $21,000. Source:Polymarket The temperature did not rise. The analysis of the French company Bubblemaps revealed that no other meteorological sensor in Paris recorded the temperature rise that the Charles de Gaulle sensor recorded. The anomaly was therefore perfectly located, and the French national meteorological service, Metéo-France, announced that had filed a lawsuit due to manipulation of its data processing sensors. Both the sensor analysis and the data led to a clear conclusion and the French police are now investigating the matter. The Bubblemaps analysis revealed that this temperature peak experienced in a specific sensor was not experienced in the rest of the weather sensors in Paris. Source: Bubblemaps. It was not an isolated incidenteither. What happened on that occasion had actually happened other times. On April 6, the Charles de Gaulle sensor recorded a rise of four degrees Celsius in 12 minutes despite other sensors showing lower figures. A Polymarket user who had bet on higher than normal temperatures on that specific day won almost 30,000 euros. The pattern repeated itself on April 19. Three different Polymarket wallets won more than $280,000 in total by betting that the temperature in Paris would reach 19ºC on April 15. The real problem. The most striking thing about this event is not being able to use a hairdryer to win $20,000, but the fact that Polymarket has a single physical sensor in Paris as a data source for those temperatures. This means that anyone with physical access to said sensor – knowing it is the right one – can manipulate it without problems. There is no verification or redundancy in data sources, and here Polymarket has a notable underlying problem with bets that can be manipulated really easily. A more worrying pattern. The dryer case is a clear example of a new category of crime that these “prediction” markets have created. In recent months we have discovered how there have been investors in Polymarket who have managed to win large sums of money by betting on events in which there was a clear suspicion of insider information. It happened with the pardons that Biden granted before leaving the presidency, with the capture of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and with the moment in which would announce ceasefire in Iran. In all of those moments, someone knew something before the market and took advantage of it. Polymarket as oracle of the financial world. The disturbing thing is that Polymarket is becoming a tool that is being used by financial and investment companies like the prestigious Goldman Sachs. She and several investors use Polymarket data for their own operations, but if the platform’s data is as manipulable as it seems, that information is contaminated from start to finish. Image | Sunny River generated by AI In Xataka | If you think you can beat a betting house in the long term, we have bad news: they have you in from the beginning.

This space company has designed the suit for astronauts that you would also want to wear on the street

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The private space company Vast has presented at the 46th Space Symposium the suits that its team will wear both in training on Earth and in missions in space. These are aesthetically appealing clothes, but above all they have been manufactured with careful consideration of the needs of astronauts. on the International Space Station. Thus, the aim is to facilitate both their movements and their ability to work. Both with and without gravity. As explained in a Vast statement former astronaut and company advisor Megan McArthur, in space the body takes on positions that it does not take on Earth. Additionally, when working in microgravity, it is necessary to always have your hands free and tools within reach. They may be necessary at any time. For this reason, spacesuits must put comfort and operability above all things. Pockets, zippers and hooks. Vast’s spacesuit consists of two pieces, which can be worn separately or as a jumpsuit, joining both parts with a zipper. It has a multitude of pockets, like cargo pants. The main difference with any garment with pockets that can be worn on Earth is that each of them is intentionally placed to squeeze out their use in microgravity. They are right where they are needed. On the other hand, astronauts may need to access tools quickly, so opening and closing the zipper of the pocket takes up too much of their time. That’s why spacesuits also have hook-and-loop closures on the pants legs. Mobility comes first. The suits are made from a lightweight, breathable and flexible material with rear vents and shoulder gussets, allowing full range of motion. In addition, it is tailored to each astronaut, so that the fit is completely personalized. Many tests ahead. Vast has just signed its first contract with NASA to take its astronauts to the International Space Station in 2027. During all that time, just as the hardware necessary for the mission is thoroughly tested, the relevant tests will be carried out on the spacesuit. Above all, it must be confirmed that the materials are safe, durable and compatible with the space station environment. There is no washing machine in space. Both the Vast suit and the rest of the uniforms used by astronauts on the International Space Station, They must be dirt resistant and quick drying. Thus, crew members can wear the same clothes for several days without problem. Clothes that get dirty faster, such as underwear, are changed more often. They are placed in airtight bags and, when enough accumulates, they are added along with other waste in a cargo vehicle that is sent to Earth, so that all of these waste products are burned as they pass through the atmosphere. Not to be confused with the extravehicular suit. What Vast has just presented is the uniform of its astronauts. This should not be confused with the extravehicular suit, which is used on flights and spacewalks to protect astronauts from radiation, fire, or extreme temperatures. The uniforms They are something much simplerwhich can even be worn on Earth to attend events. Still, these are not random garments. There is also a lot of technology behind it. Vast Seasons. Vast’s goal is to support continued human presence in space in the future, with an eye toward space research, industry and tourism. To this end, this company has several space station projects, both single module and multimodular. They also plan to build a station with artificial gravity in the future, something that has not yet been achieved. But first they must gain experience and hours in space. Therefore, the first step will be to take its astronauts to the International Space Station. Now, thanks to NASAhave their first private mission in these facilities on the horizon. If all goes well, the launch window will open in summer 2027. Images | Vast In Xataka | This woman has been accused for years of committing the only crime that has taken place in space. It was all a lie

Since we cannot solve the drought, we are creating plants that are 100% resistant to it.

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Five amino acids. For 450 million years, everything has depended on five amino acids. A team led by the Blas Cabrera Institute of Chemistry-Physics has managed to identify the ‘minimal molecular code’ that determines how plants perceive and respond to water stress. In fact, using crystallography and mutagenesis techniques, they have mapped the evolutionary history of that receptor. What’s more, they have shown that it can be rewritten. What is water stress? It is, in essence, something key for plants: the hormonal apparatus of plants uses abscisic acid to detect when they have to activate or not activate procedures to calibrate responses to water restrictions. We discovered how these receivers worked 19 years ago and, until now, we have not been able to obtain a commercial version that has benefited from this knowledge. This is what the IQF people want to solve. After all, 10,000 years of agricultural selection have radically improved plant productivity, but have left it highly exposed to drought. However, it is not that they have solved the problem. What they have achieved is, in reality, finding the grammar with which to rewrite the problem. The good news: The EU has just changed the rules. For years, European regulation has been very conservative when it comes to gene editing and, although it is true that The Regulation of New Genomic Techniques does not resolve the problem, yes it is a big step forward. Although, of course, that doesn’t mean much: almost 20 years of work has failed miserably. Perhaps the only difference (besides what we are discovering) is that we are running out of time. Time? From the change in rainfall regime in the 80sSpain has experienced increasingly intense drought episodes. In these 40 years, we have experienced at least three very intense episodes. And the structural agrarian impact of all this is enormous: 13 million hectares are rainfed and we do not have water to reconvert them. In the end, sooner rather than later, we are going to need those plants. Image | Wolfgang Hasselmann In Xataka | Spain faces its greatest agricultural challenge of the century: converting 1,901,529 hectares of olive groves into irrigation before it is too late

know where every naval fleet in the world is 24 hours a day

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For years, on the high seas, commanders trusted that dense clouds or a few well-calculated hours between satellite passes were enough to move undetected. The fragility of that trust was evident March 16, 1988when the American frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts collided with a mine in the Persian Gulf and was almost lost without anyone having seen the threat coming. That scene made it clear that at sea it is not always whoever shoots first who wins, but whoever knows exactly where to look… and when. The end of the invisible ocean. The great naval fleets have moved under an almost sacred premise: the sea is too vast, the weather is unpredictable and satellites were still supposed to be limited to guarantee constant surveillance. It turns out that this idea has just begun to break down tangibly after the chinese demonstration continuous tracking of a ship in motion from a geosynchronous orbit to almost 36,000 kilometers in height. What once depended on brief windows of observation can now be transformed into permanent surveillance, shaking one of the strategic pillars on which modern naval power has been built. Three satellites to see everything. The key to the leap announced by Beijing is not in deploying hundreds of satellites, but in change orbital logic: when placed in geosynchronous orbita single satellite can constantly observe the same region of the planet without interruptions. Not only that. With barely three platforms positioned over the large oceans, China could continuously cover the main sea routes and naval operation zones, achieving global surveillance 24 hours a day in any weather condition. There is no doubt, this introduces an idea that is difficult to ignore, because it is no longer about seeing more times, but rather about never stopping seeing, which brings closer the scenario in which any relevant fleet could be located and followed persistently. From detecting to fixing. Last month, China public a series of undated radar images to give an idea of ​​the power it has over our heads. The monitoring of Japanese tanker Towa Maru It was not only symbolic, but technical: the satellite radar system managed to maintain stable contact despite the waves, cloudiness and interference from the sea, and it did so with a margin of error small enough to be useful in a military environment. Although that precision alone does not allow a direct attack, it does fit perfectly into a broader architecture in which other sensors (drones, long-range radars or lower altitude satellites) refine the location in real time. In this context, weapons designed to attack ships at great distances could receive updated data constantly, drastically reducing the room for maneuver of the adversary fleets. South China Sea Washington in suspense. we have been counting. For years, the US Navy has exploited the gaps between satellite passes, weather conditions and the vastness of the ocean to conceal its movements. The appearance of a network capable of observing without interruptions threatens to eliminate that margin of operational invisibility, forcing us to rethink how aircraft carriers, submarines or logistical convoys are deployed. If every movement can be detected in advance, the strategic surprise is reduced and safety distances increase, which directly impacts the effectiveness of any intervention in sensitive areas. like Taiwan or the South China Sea. Resistant and difficult to destroy. Another key element is the very nature of these satellites: by operating in much higher orbits than traditional systems, they are considerably more difficult to neutralize with conventional anti-satellite weapons. Furthermore, by requiring only a few units to cover the planet, the system is cheaper to maintain and easier to protect or replace than large constellations in low orbit. A priori, this not only improves resilience in the event of conflict, but also complicates the plans of any adversary seeking to blind the space surveillance network. The software that listens in the noise. Beyond the hardware, the decisive leap seems to be in the algorithms capable of processing extremely weak signals after traveling tens of thousands of kilometers. Separating a ship’s echo from the chaotic noise of the ocean was, until now, a problem considered almost unsolvable at these distances, but the new approach allows identify minimal patterns amidst massive interference. This capability opens the door to even broader applications, from vehicle tracking to the detection of other military targets, and at least suggests that what has been seen so far could be just a first version of much more advanced systems. Master the orbit. In short, the strategic impact goes beyond the naval field and points to a deeper change where competition is no longer focused solely on controlling maritime routes, but on dominate orbital infrastructure which allows you to see before your rival. As many analysts point out, if this technology matures and is integrated with other intelligence and attack systems, the military balance could shift. towards those who control that permanent observation layer thousands of km away. In this scenario, the idea that it is enough a trio of satellites to monitor the movement of entire fleets ceases to be a hypothesis and becomes a clear warning for sailors of where modern warfare is headed. Image | Picryl, NASA In Xataka | China is making an “invisible ocean” of the planet: when it is finished it will steal the last advantage that the US had left In Xataka | China has just mounted the largest cannon in its history on the bow of a ship. And that can only point in one direction

The latest MacBook Air drops in price, the perfect eReader for reading on the subway is on sale, sales on consoles and more. Hunting Bargains

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There is little left to close the month of April and so far we have been seeing very good offers on all types of devices, especially on Nintendo Switch 2 and some Apple phones and computers. Do you want to know what the best deals are right now? These are the ones we have been finding throughout the week and that are still available. MacBook Air M5 by 1,099 eurosthe latest Air laptop launched by Apple with a good storage configuration. nintendo switch 2 by 469 eurosa pack that includes ‘Pokémon Pokopia’ and a keychain. Kobo Clara BW by 129 eurosthe ideal e-book reader for reading away from home due to its quality and size. Poco X8 Pro 5G by 263.97 eurosan economical mobile phone with a very large battery. Atari 7800+ by 66.90 eurosa retro console that is compatible with the original cartridges. Nintendo Switch 2 + Pokémon Pokopia + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links MacBook Air M5 If this week there is a notable offer in the Apple brand, it is the one from the MacBook Air M5 because its price has dropped to 1,099 euros. This is the configuration of 512GB storagecomes with the M5 chip to ensure good power and excellent performance and is perfect if you want it to study or even work, whether at home or away thanks to its 13.6-inch diagonal, its thickness or its weight of 1.23 kg. MacBook Air M5 (512GB) – 13.6 inches The price could vary. We earn commission from these links nintendo switch 2 MediaMarkt has launched what is one of the best promotions of the nintendo switch 2. By 469 euroswhich is what the console costs by itself, you get it as a gift ‘Pokémon Pokopia‘ (physical edition, game key card) along with a keychain of… yes, ‘Mario Kart World’. It is the same keychain from the previous pack that included said video game. The offer will be available until April 28 unless units are sold out before. Nintendo Switch 2 + Pokémon Pokopia + keychain The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Kobo Clara BW Several stores, including MediaMarkt, have lowered the price of Kobo Clara BW until the 129 euros. It is one of the eReaders with the best quality-price ratio on the market and is ideal if what you are looking for is to read at home and away from home. Because? Comes with a screen E Ink Letter 1300 six inches, so it maintains the good quality of this type of screen and a compact format so that it is comfortable to carry. Its performance is very good and it is waterproof, so you can use it next to a pool in summer. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Poco X8 Pro 5G Do you want to renew your mobile? Well, be careful because AliExpress has 263.97 euros he Poco X8 Pro 5G. He is the younger brother of his generation who stands out among other things for his great 6,500 mAh battery with 100W fast charging, so it will give you a good autonomy of approximately two days. It also comes with the Dimensity 8500 Ultra processor and HyperOS operating system. Poco X8 Pro 5G (256 GB) – European version The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Atari 7800+ The Atari 7800+ It is a particularly interesting retro console because it is compatible with original cartridges. Its price right now is 66.90 euros and, although it is true that the design has been maintained quite faithfully, it includes certain improvements to have a better experience, such as an HDMI port and options to choose between several resolutions. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Image | Apple, Nintendo, Rakuten Kobo, Xiaomi, Atari In Xataka | The best mobile phones (2026), we have tested them and here are their analyzes In Xataka | Best electronic book readers (e-readers) in quality price. Which one to buy based on use and five recommended models

DeepSeek has just released a model that competes with Opus 4.6. It costs seven times less and runs on Chinese chips

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They have passed 484 days since that “DeepSeek moment“, but the wait It seems to have been worth it, because we have the new DeepSeek V4 with us. We are facing an absolutely gigantic open weights model that once again promises to crack the foundations of the proprietary foundational models of Anthropic, OpenAI or Google. This is moving, gentlemen. Gigantic and open. DeepSeek v4 is an Open Source model and comes in two versions. The first is the Pro, with 1.6 trillion parameters (1.6T), of which it has 49,000 million active. The second is Flash, with 248,000 million parameters (248B, huge for a “Flash” model) of which 13,000 are active. More efficient than ever. Both versions they make use of a Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architecture, which means that only a fraction of the parameters are activated in each inference. This allows the computational cost to be reduced significantly. Both versions support a context window of one million tokens—to include novels and novels at once as input—when in v3 it was 128,000 tokens. Furthermore, this model is much more efficient than its predecessor in computing per token: it requires only 27% of the operations per token and 10% of the KV cache compared to DeepSeek v3.2. Benchmarks promise. DeepSeek’s internal testing reveals that v4 Pro-Max (the best model with the highest reasoning ability) outperforms or is on par with Claude Opus 4.6 Max, GPT-5.4 xHigh, Gemini 3.1 Pro High, Kimi K2.6 and GLM 5.1. The results, however, are not independently verified, which means we should take them with caution. The numbers are still striking: in LiveCodeBench, a programming test, DeepSeek v4-Pro-Max achieves a 93.5% score compared to 88.8 for Opus 4.6 and 91.7% for Gemini 3.1 Pro. In other tests there is more variability, but at least on paper DeepSeek v4 Pro seems as good as Opus 4.7, which until now was the absolute benchmark. Much cheaper. But as happened with its previous version, the difference in price with those models from US companies is astonishing. As point the analyst Simon Willinson, the official prices of DeepSeek v4 Pro are 1.74 dollars per million input tokens and 3.48 dollars per million output tokens, up to almost seven times less than those of Opus 4.7 and up to almost 9 times less than those of the new GPT-5.5. With DeepSeek v4 Flash the cost is 0.14/0.28 dollars per million input/output tokens, when GPT-5.4 Mini costs up to 16 times more. The conclusion is obvious: if it really does what it says it does, the price is an absolute bargain. That is precisely the challenge: that real experience confirms what the benchmarks say. The hardware mystery. DeepSeek has not revealed what hardware has been used to train this version of its founding model. In the past they did admit that they had used NVIDIA’s H800s. Which yes it is known The thing is that the model has been developed to run on both NVIDIA and Huawei Ascend chips. This last has confirmed Baidu that its Ascend Supernode clusters based on the Ascend 950 will fully support DeepSeek v4 versions. Huawei support is “horrible” news for the US. In The Information they already commented that one of the reasons for the “delay” in the appearance of this model was to adapt it so that it worked without problems with Huawei chips. That support is according to Jensen Huang “horrible” news for the US, because it means that dependence on NVIDIA chips no longer exists or at least is reduced to a minimum. But. The launch comes at a difficult time for the company. Guo Daya, one of the people responsible for the v1 and v3 models, has signed for ByteDance to work on AI agents. Luo Fuli, who led the development of v2, joined Xiaomi last year. This launch also coincides with DeepSeek seeking external funding for the first time. They are expected to raise about $300 million and obtain a valuation of about $20 billion. according to The Wall Street Journal. From the surprise effect to the continuity effect. The launch of DeepSeek R1 in January 2025 was surprising because it demonstrated that China could train competitive models at a fraction of the cost of Western models. With DeepSeek v4 that surprise effect disappears to give way to the continuity effect. This model seems to maintain precisely what made the previous model famous: extraordinary power at a very low cost. Bad news for Anthropic. Such low prices are terrible news for Anthropic, which in recent weeks has been forced to execute a kind of “reduflation” of their new modelswhich are not more expensive but consume many more tokens. We’ll have to see if DeepSeek v4 Pro is as good as the company promises, but if it is, we’ll have another “DeepSeek moment” before us. Maybe not as notable as last year’s, but equally relevant. In Xataka | DeepSeek promised them happiness as the great Chinese AI. I didn’t count on a small detail: Kimi

Today torreznos are a delicacy of Spanish gastronomy. For years they were despised for being a shepherd’s dish

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The pattern is so consistent it’s almost laughable: the lobster “it was a punishment” for servants and prisoners In colonial New England, oysters were Dockers’ food in Victorian Londonthe oxtail was second meat, what you took home when there was no sirloin. All current haute cuisine is built, to a large extent, on the recipe book of survival. But the case of the torreznos is even more interesting. A day for history: November 19, 2024. On that day, the European Union enrolled the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) “Torrezno de Soria”. A PGI is, in essence, a seal that recognizes the reputation of a product. In this case, it recognizes the way in which the people of Soriano salt, marinate and cure white pork belly. A preparation that, moreover, moves almost five million kilos of bacon every year (growing almost 30% a year) and more than 20 million a year. Why is it more interesting? Today, Soria torrezno is consolidating commercially at a national and international level and it is curious because this process coincides with the end of domestic slaughter. And it is not an impression: the data from the Health area of ​​the Government of Castilla y León point to a 64% reduction in the number of home killings in the last decade in areas like Tierra de Campos. The interesting thing is that this decrease in slaughter is, in a way, the necessary condition that allows the industry to develop. This is how culinary nostalgia works: the same people who eat it today in trendy bars are usually the grandchildren of those who ate it not because they liked it, but because there was nothing else. Am I implying that the torrezno are not good? It wouldn’t occur to me. Only, as always, the story is more complex than it seems. The first written reference we have (or that, at least, I have been able to find) is a reference to the usefulness of torreznos to identify insincere converts. Then much more appears: bacon in Spain was not something frowned upon, it was something central to the diet… for ideological reasons. It was when the obsession with old Christians disappeared that the torreznos began to become a stronghold for the poor and shepherds. From there, the story (as I said) is a classic: offal, barnacles and sea urchin have gone from being ‘offal’ to being gourmet delicatessen. The torrezno too. Eating is something full of ideas. That is perhaps the most revealing thing about the Torreznos case, the confirmation that we eat with our mouths, yes; but above all we eat with ideas. The torrezno has only been able to be renamed as something gourmet once it has ceased to be anyone’s food out of obligation (out of that economic or political-social obligation). Maybe it’s the right time to think about how we think about food. Image | DAP In Xataka | Hearts, bowls of torreznos and raw milk: what the ancestral diet fad consists of

240 km without curves, in the middle of the desert and with truck traffic

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Imagine driving for more than two hours without turning the steering wheel even a single degree. No curves, no noticeable slopes, no changes on the horizon. That is the reality of Highway 10 (Highway 10) of Saudi Arabia, which holds the Guinness record as the longest straight road on the planet with a completely linear section of 240 kilometers. A highway born for a king. Highway 10 stretches 1,480 kilometers from Ad Darb to the border with the United Arab Emirates, but it is its segment between Haradh and Al Batha that has received all the attention. The road was originally built as a private road for King Fahd of Saudi Arabia, although today it has become a fundamental artery for the transport of goods between the center and west of the country with the Emirates. The Empty Quarter desert as a setting. The road crosses the Rub’ al Khaliknown as the Empty Quarter, the largest sand desert in the world. The area itself explains why it is possible to build such a straight line: there are no mountains to surround, valleys to cross or geographical features to avoid. Just sand and more sand as far as the eye can see. The infrastructure is completely paved and has mainly two lanes in each direction, supporting intense truck traffic that crosses the desert. Speed ​​limits adjusted for heavy traffic. The maximum speed allowed on this highway varies depending on the type of vehicle: passenger cars can travel up to 120 km/h on fast sections, buses 100 km/h and trucks 80 km/h. Although in 2018 were announced Upper limits of up to 140 km/h for light vehicles in certain sections, the constant presence of heavy transport makes maintaining these speeds complicated in practice. A mental challenge more than a physical one. Believe it or not, driving on the straightest road in the world is not as easy as it seems, especially due to fatigue. The monotony of the desert landscape and the total absence of visual stimuli can cause drowsiness and even a dangerous disconnection while driving. Added to this is the occasional threat of camels wandering across the road. So, although the route is ‘easy’ to handle, mentally it can become a nightmare. Not for nothing is it found in Dangerous Roads website. Reinforced security measures. Aware of the risks involved in driving on such a monotonous road, the Saudi Ministry of Transport and Logistics has implemented various improvements safety features, including paved shoulders, reflective pavement markings (known as “cat’s eyes”), protective barriers, kilometer signs, and directional and warning signs. Here the driver’s attention must be vital, especially on a road with so few changes. Other legendary straights. Before Highway 10 snatched the title, the Australia’s Eyre Highway boasted the record with a 146 kilometer straight stretch through the Nullarbor Desert. Although almost 100 kilometers shorter, this Australian road remains one of the most unique driving experiences on the continent. Also noteworthy are roads such as ND-46 in North Dakotathe United States, or some sections of the Argentine Route 40which although they do not compete in length of absolute straightness and offer a great variety of landscape that softens the eye, also encompasses endless kilometers of monotonous movement. Cover image | City Vibes In Xataka | Yes, the V16 beacons transmit your position in the event of an accident. No, the DGT cannot “spy” on you with them A version of this article was published in 2025

with the ‘Hero of the Seas’, Royal Caribbean believes that

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At Royal Caribbean they continue to explore a very specific idea: that the cruise stops being just the place from which you travel and becomes, in itself, the great argument of the trip. That’s where it comes in Hero of the Seas, presented by the company as the fourth ship of the Icon class. Rather than stopping at the beginning of the list of novelties, what is relevant is the movement it reflects: when it seemed that this type of boat had already taken its formula very far, the move points to a new attempt to take it one step further. The Icon class already has the Icon of the Seas and Star of the Seas at the top, while below are giants of the Oasis class such as Wonder of the Seas and Utopia of the Seas. This helps us read the company’s move: Hero is not presented as a discrete evolution, but as a direct continuity of the range with which Royal Caribbean has reserved its largest ships and its densest offering for the family audience. If there is something that we already know well about the great Royal Caribbean cruises, it is their way of divide the ship into neighborhoodsalmost as if each area had its own character. Hero of the Seas will follow that same scheme with eight neighborhoods on boardbut the company wants to accompany it with more layers of offer: nine swimming pools, 28 restaurant spaces and new accommodation options for multi-generation families. Seen this way, what is drawn is not just a large ship, but a structure that, on paper, seeks to fit different ages and rhythms within the same trip. As we can see, what the firm proposes for Hero of the Seas is a more segmented aquatic offer: a new Caribbean-style pool, a larger exclusive area for adults, improvements in bathing spaces already known from the Icon class and new water games for children. Royal Caribbean uses several proper names to dress up that proposal, but the substance is easier to explain. Divide these aquatic spaces into several areas aimed at different audiences and times. A ship that wants to look less and less like a ship The other great leg of Hero of the Seas has not to do with rest, but with reinforcing the offer of active leisure throughout the day. Royal Caribbean includes here two new family slides with floats and an update to Storm Chasers, to which it adds several elements that are already part of its usual recipe on large format ships: a combination of aerial walkway and zip line over the seasurf simulator, climbing wall, minigolf and sports courts. We are not facing a break with what the shipping company was already doing, but rather an expansion of that mix between water park, sports deck and resort leisure. The accommodation also falls into that segmentation logic that we have been seeing in the rest of the ship. Royal Caribbean talks about very attractive options for families, such as a three-deck tree house or rooms directly connected to areas designed for traveling with children, but at the same time maintains premium suites and more standard cabins. This allows the proposal to be read better: the shipping company combines more attractive accommodations with a broad base of options aimed at different audiences, from large groups to passengers looking for something more conventional. Beyond what it can offer on board, Royal Caribbean has already made it quite clear how it wants to put Hero of the Seas into circulation. The company has placed its premiere in August 2027 from Miamiwith seven-night itineraries through the eastern and western Caribbean, and with a fixed stopover at Perfect Day at CocoCay, its exclusive enclave in the Bahamas. From there, the ship will move between destinations such as Roatán, Cozumel and Costa Maya or Philipsburg and Charlotte Amalie, depending on the route chosen. It is also the part that completes the commercial fit of the project. Images | Royal Caribbean In Xataka | A millionaire has been living from cruise to cruise for more than 25 years: his biggest problem is not money, but balance

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