Month: January 2026

Russia has turned Ukraine into a scene from Minority Report. He has sent a “soldier” named Svod to anticipate the future

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At the doors of fourth year of warRussia still has not found a consistent formula to break the Ukrainian defenses, despite having more troops, a much more stable flow of material and a wide repertoire of advanced technologies that, on paper, should have tilted the battlefield. If the war in Eastern Europe was already a unprecedented laboratory of war technologies, Moscow has taken the most unprecedented step of all. The problem that Russia is trying to solve. They counted in Forbes that, among the many causes of this below-expectation performance, there is one especially painful: the inability of many Russian officers on the front line to take quick tactical decisions and sustainable over time, precisely those that decide the outcome of local clashes that, accumulated, determine an entire offensive. This deficit does not arise from nothing, but from the combination of a military culture rigidly hierarchicaldesigned to execute orders rather than improvise, and from a generation of extremely young commanders with limited experience, pushed to lead units in a type of combat that mercilessly punishes hesitation and rewards immediate adaptation. The “soldier” Svod. The announced answer is Svod, a digital tool AI decision support system conceived as a tactical situational awareness system for front-deployed officers. Its function, according to the description of the Russian Ministry of Defensewould be to gather and merge in the same information space multiple sources of intelligence, from satellite data and aerial images to reconnaissance reports and open source material, to convert that chaos of signals into a common usable image. From there, the system I would apply advanced processing and models assisted by artificial intelligence to analyze what comes in, project operational scenarios plausible futures and guide the command towards the most convenient course of action. The underlying intention is not hidden: to accelerate the decision cycle, reduce friction between “what is happening” and “what is ordered”, and guide managers towards rmost effective answers in an environment where every minute lost translates into casualties, burned material and wasted tactical opportunities. Software connected to what already exists. Svod does not present itself as a device magical that a soldier hangs on his chest, but rather like a software architecture that is integrates into networks and media now available. It works as a layer that merges data and displays it to commanders on computers or tablets, with secure communications and decision support tools. The important thing is the effect it produces: converting a crowded battlefield of signs into something that looks legible, and that the tactical command has concrete guidance when the environment changes faster than the upper echelons can keep up. Deployment and focus. Furthermore, the plan wants to be implemented at full speed: after various operational tests in December 2025, it is expected to begin deploying it in April 2026 and extend it widely by September. In fact, the first units to receive it would be involved in the Pokrovsk axiswhere Russia concentrates part of its offensive effort. That portrays it as an immediate solution to correct command and control failuresnot as a quiet modernization ten years from now, and explains why it is prioritized where wear is maximum and the margin of error is minimum. A perverse incentive. In an army like the Russian one that rewards obedience and punishes improvisation, a local commander may be forced to attack even if he knows it is a bad idea. With constant pressure, some they execute and accumulate casualtiesothers seek to survive within the system by simulating results, sending small groups to mark their presence and using drones to appear successful. In this context, Svod intends to push more coherent decisions with the real situation, giving a shared and more immediate vision to the front without touching the core of the model: continuing to command from above, but with a tool that reduces “surprises” and imbalances. Minority Report in military version. There is no doubt, the bet has something of a futuristic scene that we had already seen in the cinema: just like works as Minority Report that had played with the idea of ​​algorithms that anticipate the future, Russia seeks to anticipate what is going to happen before it happens, with that “soldier” called Svod that calculates, projects and recommends. The promise is very easy to understand: if the system sees better and faster, it will be able to anticipate where the weak point is, when to press and when to readjust the attack. It is a way of turning combat into a prediction problemwhere human intuition and improvisation are replaced by a living map that attempts to order chaos. What it can contribute. If it works well, Svod could improve identification of objectivescoordination and detection of gaps in the Ukrainian defense, as well as other similar tools have proven valuable in other armies. The problem, most likely, is that its effectiveness will clash with the reality of the front: electronic warfare, degraded communications, incomplete data, and models that fail when the enemy learn and change patterns. In this sense, Ukraine has adapted quicklyand that makes it much more difficult for a system to accurately predict what will happen next. Still, the movement is more than significant: war is becoming a sensor competitionnetworks and decisions, and Russia is trying to have AI reduce a problem that has cost it too dearly. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | 1,418 days have passed since Russia invaded Ukraine: the war has already lasted longer than the Soviet fight against Hitler In Xataka | The latest camouflages of Russian troops confirm an open secret: the war in Ukraine is the most Looney Tunes in history

Windows 95 had a little secret that made rebooting faster. The reason was in its more chaotic architecture

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If before Windows 95 If you used other operating systems, it’s hard not to remember the feeling of being faced with something completely new. That proposal introduced elements that we take for granted today, such as the Start menu, the taskbar or Plug and Play, and it did so at a time when starting a PC was almost a small ritual. But beneath that familiar interface a complex architecture was hidden, the result of the forced coexistence between DOS inheritances, 16-bit Windows and the first 32-bit layers. That design, as inelegant as it was effective, gave rise to unexpected behaviors that still surprise today. Few users knew that Windows 95 hid an alternative route to the classic reboot. It was enough to hold down the Shift key during the process started from the graphical interface for the system to display the warning “Windows is restarting”, instead of following the path of a cold restart, as described by Raymond Chen. The difference was not spectacular, but it was noticeable at a time when every minute of starting counted. That small gesture activated an internal mechanism designed to avoid, whenever possible, starting from scratch. The shortcut that did not restart completely Behind this behavior there was a precise technical decision. Chen details that Windows 95 used a flag called EW_RESTARTWINDOWS when invoking the old ExitWindows function, still 16-bit. With that instruction, the system did not order a cold restart of the computer, but rather something more limited: close Windows and restart it. The objective was to save steps, as long as the internal situation allowed it, although this optimization depended on everything fitting correctly. Once that alternative route was taken, the process followed a very specific sequence. The 16-bit Windows kernel was shut down first. The 32-bit virtual memory manager was then turned off and the processor returned to real mode, the most basic state of the system. At that point, control returned to win.com with a special signal asking for something very specific: restart Windows in protected mode without going through a full computer boot. With control back on win.com, the most fragile part of the process began. The program had to simulate a clean boot of Windows, as if it had just been run from scratch, which involved, in Chen’s words, resetting the command line options and returning some global variables to their original values. Although the work was largely clerical, it was especially complex because win.com It was written in assembly. There were no abstractions or modern conveniences. The decisive point was in memory. When win.com was executed, like any .com file, it received all available conventional memory. However, it freed up almost all memory beyond its own code so that Windows could load a large contiguous block when entering protected mode. If during the session a program reserved memory within the space that win.com had left free, the memory was fragmented. In that scenario, win.com could no longer recreate the original map it expected, and, Chen explains, it was forced to abandon the fast reset and fall into a hard reset. When everything fell into place, the process continued without turning back. win.com jumped directly to the code responsible for booting Windows in protected mode, recreating the virtual machine manager and llifting the 32-bit layers again. From there, the graphical interface loaded as usual and the user returned to the desktop. The difference was subtle but real: Windows hadn’t had to reboot the entire system to get to that point. This type of shortcut was only viable in a system built on cross-compatibilities. Windows 95 had to coexist with DOS software, 16-bit Windows programs and Win32 applications, and that mix forced us to accept inelegant but very practical solutions. The developers took advantage of this complexity to introduce hidden optimizations that could speed up restarts, although they could sometimes end in crashes. The obsession with saving memory led to very imaginative solutions. Chen explains that in assembler it was common to recycle code that was no longer going to be used as if it were free memory. On win.com, the first bytes of the entry point were reused as a global variableunder the premise that this code was only executed once. Since the quick restart did not return to that initial point, the system could allow that shortcut without affecting the process. That shortcut also showed its seams. Chen recalls that some users detected errors after performing several consecutive quick reboots, something that he was unable to consistently reproduce. Their hypothesis is that some driver wasn’t rebooting properly, leaving the system in a weird state, and that weirdness ended up taking its toll later. It’s no surprise that this type of behavior wasn’t presented as a documented feature, but it sums up the spirit of Windows 95 well: inventive, ambitious, and full of compromises. Images | Microsoft In Xataka | Schrödinger’s Office: at this point it is impossible to know if Microsoft keeps it alive or if everything is AI and Copilot

single person tables

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Eating alone outside the home has its own particular casuistry and I know this because I have had to travel without companions many times, enough to develop a filter of places that do and others that don’t. Among those running for office, there is no shortage of leaning on one side of a tavern bar to have a quick pintxo at a small table at Starbucks, passing by a more or less discreet table at McDonalds for a quick refueling. I want to eat my burger alone. About looking for a small table or one little corner It has its logic: eating has its intimate and shameful part reinforced by the feeling of “not wanting to bother” because well, although in theory any restaurant is suitable for a person to eat, in practice they may not be interested in having a table of two or four wasted with only one diner. On the other hand, you can also enjoy your food at your leisure. In the McDonalds of China those individual positions are already They are among the most valued. The provision itself is not new (and not necessarily It has to feel like a punishment.) nor does it have to go hand in hand with those seats shaped like a bike seat nor of reduce them to a minimum to save space, but rather high tables with a screen that gives a feeling of false intimacy for solitary diners. The phenomenon has been widely reported on social networks such as Xiaohongshu or Weibo, the counterparts of Instagram and Twitter: Shanghai news outlet Kankan News collect some of the best in one video. The McDonalds screens. Kankan news What false intimacy hides. In short: these screens make it very easy for you to avoid having to act Swedish to avoid the uncomfortable situation of meeting an acquaintance and having to greet them until you meet them. You sit there discreetly and eat without interaction. The Shanghai media reports testimonies from psychology professionals that explain the phenomenon: social interaction is risky for them compared to chats, where you can edit or delete what you say; and as a refuge after the inevitable social exposure after work, where they have the obligation to be friendly and smile due to social imposition. To the youth Chinese society ignores social interaction. China Youth Daily interviewed to 2,000 people between 18 and 35 years old and the result was overwhelming: 64% feel lost when they meet people offline. The percentage is even higher in this 2023 survey conducted on 1,438 Chinese people born between the decades from 1980 to the 2000s: more than 80% reported feeling anxious in social interactions. Time Magazine has put it into perspective because the phenomenon is much more than eating alone: ​​Chinese society has gone from traditionally living with family nearby (even sharing a roof) to the younger generations embarking on their lives alone after leaving their homes in rural areas to work in big cities. The maximum and most tragic expression is the success in downloads of the app “Are you dead?”. The McDonalds screens, part two. Kankan news The economics of social phobia is here. China has seen a dramatic shift in the number of people living alone, with more than 100 million single-person households, according to annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China 2024. In 2030, they estimate that the figure will rise to 150 – 200 million. And the economy is adapting to this paradigm shift: according to research firm iResearchthe economy of social anxiety in China already moves approximately 172 billion dollars in initiatives such as carts with “Do not disturb” signs so that product promoters in Freshippo supermarkets (owned by Alibaba), gyms and 24-hour stores without staff where everything is managed with QR codes without crossing a word with anyone, do not approach. In Xataka | The future of delivery lies in group orders with your neighbors: China is already experiencing it In Xataka | China is filling up with “quadricycles” that do not require a driving license. And they are a problem for road safety Cover | Bruna Santos

music streaming has changed and there is no longer an obvious winner

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Long gone are the times when Spotify was practically the only option to listen to music on your mobile. Today the panorama is much more interesting: Apple Music and YouTube Music They have gained weight, they have made a real place for themselves in the daily lives of many users and they have turned a decision that was previously automatic into a question that is much more complicated than it seems. If you are paying to listen to music, which one do you choose? At Xataka we want to help you solve it. Instead of asking you to try each service on your own, we have done it ourselves. Specifically, our colleague has done it Ana Boria in a new installment of ‘Versus’the video format where we have already brought products and platforms face to face with very different approaches, such as AirPods Max vs. Sony WH1000XM6 or the iPhone Air vs. Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge. Three services and a decision that is no longer obvious Ana starts from a very recognizable situation: she has been using Spotify for years, but lately she has been wondering if the time has come to change. With that doubt as a starting point, the video starts with the essentials, the catalog. “Both Spotify and Apple Music tend to stand out for their huge library of official songs from record labels,” he explains. And from there he highlights the fact that makes YouTube Music start to play with a differential advantage. The comparison also stops at an area where not everything is so obvious: sound quality. Before getting into technicalities, Ana makes clear an important idea to ground the debate: “There are technical differences that are not always noticeable if you use them with cheap headphones or common speakers, but that can be appreciated if you have good equipment and also have very fine hearing.” With that context, review the strengths and weaknesses of Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube Music in this section. Beyond what they offer on paper, it also matters how each service is experienced in daily use. And there the application makes a difference. Not everyone is looking for the same thing: some prefer a clean and minimalist interface, while others value having more options, more controls and more customization possibilities. The video goes into this point in depth and, in addition, addresses something especially useful if you come from another platform: the tools to import playlistsjust the scenario that Ana is exploring. In the final section, our colleague focuses on one of the factors that most determine the choice: subscription plans and price. It explains it very clearly and with tables to compare at a glance what each service offers and what concessions each modality implies. “In the case of Spotify, as we all know, we have a free version, with many ad cuts, low audio quality…”, he remembers, before laying out the advantages and disadvantages of each proposal. If you want to know all the details of the test, in addition to the winner of this ‘Versus’ with the new star rating system that we have just released, we invite you to see the full video on the Xataka YouTube channel. And, as always, you can leave us your opinion both there and in the comments of this article. Images | Xataka In Xataka | Apple Creator Studio is not just a subscription. It’s Apple looking to conquer the little tiktoker who uses CapCut and Canva

We have been relying on the Nutri-Score in stores for years. Science believes that its real impact is zero

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He Nutriscore what we can see in some foods born with an ambitious promise: simplify the nutritional complexity of products into a code of easy to understand colors to know if a food is healthy or not. However, what on paper seemed like the definitive solution against obesity and poor diet is facing a much grayer scientific reality. His dark side. Although the idea seemed quite good, the reality is that new scientific reviews are setting off alarm bells. The conclusion being drawn is quite clear: the real impact on the shopping basket is minimal and the algorithm categorizes foods that are essential as something very bad. A good gap. One of the strongest arguments in favor of Nutri-Score comes from studies conducted in controlled environments, i.e. a laboratory. But what happens when we go down to the real, everyday world? This is what they wanted to analyze in a recent narrative reviewwhich evaluates consumer behavior in physical supermarkets and throws cold water on the system. And with this food color coding, the data shows that the improvement in the nutritional score of the purchase is only 2.5%. That is to say, it has hardly been noticed that a person begins to eat much more appropriate foods with this color code. Something that quite disagrees with the laboratory results that predicted that the effect was going to be much better. The real victim. The fact that some people’s shopping baskets have improved a little is the motivation that some producers of these foods have to change their ingredients to achieve a better Nutri-Score. as seen on Eroski. But this does not mean that citizens have changed the way they shop. The great blind spot. The fiercest criticism from the scientific field, highlighted by organizations such as the Puleva Nutrition Instituteis the omission of micronutrients. The current algorithm focuses almost exclusively on macronutrients, which are fat, sugars and proteins, but forgets other points that are fundamental. One of these points are vitamins and minerals, which are logically essential for the body, especially because some of them must be taken as they are not produced by the body. But polyphenols or bioactive compounds also stand out, which are essential antioxidants that can prevent chronic diseases. Unfair penalty. The system that is implemented right now also penalizes foods for their total fat content without differentiating whether they are healthy, something that has led to putting a bad score for olive oil. A paradoxical situation. The study from the University of Granada wanted to see the same thing about soluble cocoa to highlight these large discrepancies that force us to question Nutri-score. The result of the research team indicates that while pure cocoas with a higher bioactive profile can receive low grades such as C or D. But, on the other hand, others ultra-processed products with additives They achieve better scores, even A, simply by adjusting their sugar or fiber levels, without necessarily being healthier. Trying to correct it. The scientific community is no stranger to this problem and logically when something goes wrong you want to fix it to make it fit reality and that it truly fulfills the objective with which it was created. In fact, recent updates have already tried to correct the algorithm to better treat vegetable oils and nuts and penalize ultra-processed foods more strongly. However, the validations insist that, although there is an association between scores and macronutrientsthere remain huge gaps with comprehensive dietary guidelines. And we must keep in mind that the Nutri-Score measures “isolated nutrients” but not the overall quality of the food. ¿Where are we going? Science seems to indicate that the Nutri-Score is a useful but overly simplistic tool. By trying to condense health into a letter, nuances are lost that really make a difference in longevity and disease prevention. Although the algorithm is being refined to better align with European recommendations, the risk of the consumer blindly trusting an “A” for a processed product versus a “C” for a natural food remains present. Images | Franki Chamaki In Xataka | Ozempic’s “great rebound”, in figures: science reveals that the weight returns four times faster than with a diet

There are bales of straw hanging from the Thames bridges. It is not a coincidence, it is a centuries-old security system

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If you visit London, you may have seen that a huge bale of straw hangs from some bridges that cross the River Thames. Nobody has left it there by mistake, it is a signaling system that dates back to the 18th century. Notice to sailors. The reason for hanging a bale of straw from the bridges that cross the Thames comes from an old regulation of the port of London. Clause 36.2 of the statutes indicates that a straw bale must be hung “when the free height of an arch or the span of a bridge is reduced with respect to its usual limits”, that is, it is a signal so that no boat hits the bridge. Dubious effectiveness. When the law was first enforced it made sense to use some physical element as a warning that a bridge was lower than usual. At that time, the Thames was the main access route for goods to the city and it was very busyso it was necessary to use signage. What is striking is that it has been maintained over the centuries, especially considering that there are more effective methods to mark it, especially at night when the bullet may not be clearly visible. Recent cases. It is not a rarity, the system is applied religiously whenever there is any work that reduces the height of a bridge even a little. Happened in 2023 on the Millenium pedestrian bridgein 2024 in the East India Dock Road Bridgein 2025 in the Barnes Railway Bridge and in the Charing Cross Bridge. Those responsible for hanging the straw bale are the contractors who carry out the corresponding work. If they don’t, they face fines of up to £5,000. A very English custom. There are more quaint laws still in force in the United Kingdom, such as the one that states that certain species of fish are property of the crown (whales, dolphins or sturgeons) or the ‘Salmon Act’, which establishes as a crime the “suspicious handling of a salmon”, in reference to poaching. There are others that for whatever reason do not continue to apply, such as Licensing Act of 1872 that prohibited being drunk in a public place. Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | The pioneer of modern surgery today would be considered a danger: Robert Liston, “the fastest knife in London”

Four astronauts are going to undertake an unprecedented journey to the Moon. They have no intention of stepping on it

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After years of delays and rumors, NASA confirmed it finally: Artemis 2 will take off towards the moon imminently: it will be on February 6 when the team of astronauts formed by Christina Koch, Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Jeremy Hansen returns to lunar orbit after almost 60 years. More specifically, it was in ’72 with Apollo 17. There is nothing left in the countdown for a 10-day mission full of doubts and some controversy. The previous steps. On January 17, NASA began the deployment of the enormous SLS rocket (Space Launch System) and the Orion capsule from the vehicle assembly building to launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in a 6.4 kilometer journey carried out on a gigantic Crawler-Transporter 2 tractor in enormous logistics. Now that you are on the platform, the next step is the “Wet Dress Rehearsal” (something like the general rehearsal) where the cryogenic propellants are loaded to check that there are no leaks and a complete countdown is executed that stops just before ignition to validate the flight software and the synchronization of the ground systems. If all goes well, the launch window opens on the aforementioned February 6. The crew. POT The mission. Artemis II will not land on the Moon, but will instead perform a lunar flyby with the aim of testing the life support systems and manual maneuvering capabilities of the Orion capsule in the deep space radiation environment. In addition, the spacecraft will use lunar gravity to “propel” its return to Earth without major engine ignitions. The parallels with Apollo 8. Analogies with the veteran ’68 mission are inevitable since Artemis II will not land on the moon, but will instead perform a lunar flyby. On that mission, the astronauts were able to see and photograph the far side of the moon and now, the team will travel beyond its far side. Apollo 8 was launched at a time when the program’s lunar module was not yet ready for manned flight and with Artemis II more of the same. Thus, the first planned lunar flight of Artemis is called Starship HLS (Human Landing System), it is being developed by Space However, given the doubts regarding its development schedule, NASA has a plan B: hire another company. Why don’t you go to step on the moon?. In short, because it is not a lunar module and therefore, because it is not prepared for such a purpose. NASA Deputy Director of Mission Analysis and Evaluations Patty Casas Horn deepen: “Throughout NASA’s history, everything we do carries some risk, so we want to make sure that risk is sensible and only accept as much risk as is necessary, within reason. So we develop a capability, then we test it, then we develop a capability, then we test it. And we’ll land on the Moon, but Artemis II is really focused on the crew.” The program’s debut was Artemis I, which on a 25-day uncrewed mission orbited the moon in 2022. Now we are in the next phase: the first time there will be people aboard the Artemis spacecraft. The crew will transfer to the Orion capsule to move around the moon just before the SLS rocket launches Orion into Earth orbit. Horn explains that in this mission “we will test many new capabilities that we did not have available in Artemis I”, for example the comfort of people or collateral effects such as the humidity they add to the air, their needs for food, bathrooms or water. Wet Dress Rehearsal. POT What makes it unique. The crew intends to travel beyond the far side of the Moon, which could open the doors to a new record for the distance that humanity has traveled from Earth, a title that to this day boasts Apollo 13 with 401,000 kilometers. On the other hand, the SLS is the most powerful rocket in operational configuration, surpassing the mythical rocket in thrust. Saturn V of the 60s. Logically, it will also do so with cutting-edge technology, such as autonomous optical navigation systems or the Orion heat shield, redesigned after data from Artemis I, to protect the crew during re-entry at 40,000 km/h. Furthermore, in this mission NASA has remembered diversity to mark a milestone in the form of a trip beyond low Earth orbit for a woman, a Canadian and an African American because yes, there is life beyond the white American male cishetero In Xataka | It is now possible to book a hotel stay on the Moon for $250,000. Building it is still the complicated part In Xataka | We have been deceived by the distances of the Solar System: the closest neighbor to Neptune is Mercury Cover | POT

and that includes products from Korea

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Entering Mercadona and finding empty shelves in the cosmetics section is no longer surprising. What was once an almost automatic purchase—gel, deodorant, a basic cream—has transformed into a treasure hunt driven by social media: 3.50 euro products They sell out, they are recommended as if they were high-end and They generate videos with millions of views. It does not happen in a specialized perfumery or in Sephora, but between preparations and delicatessen. In the last year and a half, the white label Deliplus has gone from being a functional and cheap option to becoming one of the great engines of skincare in Spain. And not only because of price. What is happening in the aisles of Mercadona is the visible symptom of something deeper: a change in the way of consuming beauty, in the perception of luxury and in the growing—and now structural—influence of Korean cosmetics. Before the Korean aesthetic became explicit in its launches, Mercadona had already been training its consumers in a different logic for some time. In the last two years, Deliplus has intensified its presence with products that go far beyond basic care: serums with promises botox-likepatches, facial treatments, perfumes inspired by great houses and cosmetics designed to function as dupes of the high range. The strategy is to detect trends, replicate them quickly and place them in an everyday and massive environment, where the low price reduces the perceived purchase risk to almost zero. The result is not only sales volume, but a cultural phenomenon: the supermarket cosmetics aisle converted into a new aspirational showcase. Trying stops being a thoughtful decision and becomes an impulsive gesture. It is on this basis – a brand already accustomed to virality, to dupe and immediate consumption—where the codes of Korean cosmetics fit with special ease. The settlement of K-Beauty Korean cosmetics, known as K-Beautyhas not prevailed only for its products, but for a combination of industry, culture and digital marketing that has been going on for more than a decade expanding outside of South Korea. In economic terms, Korea has established itself as one of the great cosmetic powers in the world. since last year compete directly with historical giants like France or the United States. The K-Beauty It has ceased to be a niche fashion and has become a structural force in the global market, with a presence in pharmacies, department stores and European supermarkets. But its success goes beyond the numbers. Korea has been able to sell a specific idea of ​​beauty: compared to the traditional Western approach, which is more corrective and focused on treating visible problems, Korean cosmetics has built his story around prevention, care of the skin barrier and consistency from an early age. It is not about covering up imperfections, but rather preventing them from appearing. Hence aspirational concepts like the glass skin: luminous, uniform and healthy skin. This approach fits especially well into the logic of the algorithm. Step-by-step routines, visual formats, assets with recognizable names and photogenic results turn the K-beauty in perfect content for TikTok and Instagram. Added to this is the cultural weight of Hallyu u “Korean wave”: music, series and aesthetics that reinforce the association between Korea and cosmetic innovation. Mercadona does not adopt this philosophy in all its complexity, but it does translate its codes to European mass consumption: sticksessences, “all-in-one” products, language of star assets and visible promises in a short time. Koreanness works here as a cultural shortcut: it evokes care, modernity and efficiency without needing to explain the entire system behind it. One of the clearest examples is the Facial Clean detox & illuminating stick facial mask, which costs 3.50 euros. As explained Trendsit is a stick mask—very common in Asian cosmetics—whose format and message of quick results explain a good part of its success. However, compared to the narrative of “it works for everyone”, the first crack appears when the dermatological criterion comes into play. “There are no miracle creams”: the warning that does not go viral The dermatologist Almudena Nuño, who we have interviewedmakes it clear from the beginning: there are no universal or miraculous products. “The same cosmetic can be wonderful for one person and disastrous for another,” he explains. The difference is not in the price or the virality, but in the type of skin, in habits and in the rest of the products that are being used. In the specific case of this type of masks with clays, Nuño emphasizes that they can work well on combination or oily skin because they help absorb sebum and mattify, but they can be irritating on sensitive skin or skin with previous pathology. “When you see completely opposite opinions – some love it and others it destroys their skin – it is not because the product is good or bad, but because it is being used without criteria.” For the dermatologist, this is one of the big problems of the skincare viral: the promise of an immediate result detached from the context of use. The stick mask is no exception. In recent months, Mercadona has launched facial essences, hydrating mists, products with hyaluronic acid microcapsules and cosmetics that are deliberately placed in concrete steps of the Korean routine —after the toner and before the serum—. They are no longer just selling a cream: they are selling a way to take care of your skin. The problem, according to Nuño, is that they try to replicate a complete ritual with one or two products. “Korean cosmetics work because they are accompanied by habits: strict sun protection, consistency from an early age, careful diet, medical treatments when necessary. Here we want the result without everything else.” However, this phenomenon cannot be understood without the economic and cultural context. Mercadona has perfected what has been called the luxury of hallway: products reminiscent in texture, packaging or effect to high-end cosmetics—Lancôme, Dior, Shiseido—eliminating the price barrier. You don’t just buy a functional product; you buy the feeling of participating in a global trend. This … Read more

For thousands of years, human beings have avoided crossing the Taklamakan Desert. Now China is raising fish there

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For more than 1,500 years, the merchants who traveled the Silk Road dared with oceans, mountains and jungles, they dared with endless walks, with warlords, with hunger and pain and the cold; with one of the most destructive epidemics in history; but they did not dare with the Taklamakan. That sand hell (whose name comes from the word ugiur for “abandon, leave alone, leave behind”) is not only the second largest dune desert in the world, but it moved, invaded and devoured everything around it. It’s been a nightmare for thousands of years. Well, now, China is farming fish right there. As? As it sounds, Xinjiang has been committed to producing fish and seafood “in the middle of the desert” for years. And no, obviously, it has nothing to do with “releasing fish in the sand” as if it were worms from Arrakis. The key is saline-alkaline water, lined ponds and recirculation techniques. It is not a revolutionary approach (already We have talked about similar techniques), but without a doubt Chinese producers are taking it to another level. Xinjiang aquaculture production was 196,500 tons in 2024. And, of course, the “desert seafood” boom raises questions about water, energy and scalability. From the promise of fresh fish… We are talking about a very harsh physical context (annual rainfall of less than 100 mm, very high evaporation and salinized soils): thus, the entire Tarim sub-basin depends on melting snow to provide water. Therefore, on the table, there are two clear approaches: the first, which has become popular in the Westtalks about the construction of monitored ponds. And this is already, in itself, very effective: “species such as grouper, mullet, shrimp, oysters and pearl musselsyes reach commercial size with survival rates close to 99%”, always according to the available data. But that’s just the beginning; just a proof of concept. …to the promise of mar. As explained by several chinese mediathe final horizon of the project is much more ambitious: creating a sea in the middle of the desert. That is, take advantage of the water associated with saline-alkaline soils and saline lakes to simulate marine conditions with technical adjustments, circulation systems and cultivation of microorganisms. And thus be able to breed species normally linked to the sea. But can that be done? Of course you can. We have the technology to do it. In a world where aquaculture already exceeds extractive fishing in volume, the interesting question is not that: the question is whether the model is scalable without aggravating tensions over water in a hyper-arid region dependent on snowmelt. What the industry that sees tons of fish emerging from the desert is asking is something even more basic: is it possible that the beginning of the end of commercial fishing is beginning? Image | On Magnet | China is exporting millions of shrimp with antibiotics to the world. And they could end up on your table

The war already lasts longer than the Soviet fight against Hitler

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On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa with almost four million soldiers and thousands of tanks, opening the largest front in history. In just a few months the Red Army lost millions of men, but that war would end up becoming in a total pulse: factories dismantled and moved to the east, entire cities converted into fortresses and a mobilization so enormous that even today it remains the central axis of Russian memory. The invasion of Ukraine has just surpassed the Soviet fight against Hitler in days. A historic threshold. Yes, the war in Ukraine reached a milestone as symbolic as it was grim on January 11, 2026: 1,418 days of combat since the Russian invasion, then exactly the same duration as the Red Army’s fight against Nazi Germany in the so-called Great Patriotic Warfrom June 22, 1941 to May 9, 1945. The comparison is devastating by contrast and propaganda, because the operation that the Kremlin sold as quick and surgical has ended up fitting into the schedule of the greatest existential war of Soviet history. And it also does so with an ironic twist that weighs tons: then the USSR was fighting against invaders who reached the gates of Moscow, and now Moscow is the invader, and after almost four years it still has not closed the conflict or translated it into a clear victory. A war of attrition. Far from a rapid campaign, the conflict has become a slow crushermore similar to a war of positions than to the decisive offensives of the 20th century. Russia occupies about a quarter of Ukraine, but its advance is described as progress at a snail’s pacepaying each kilometer with time, lives and ammunition. In that sense, there is an image especially revealing: After years of fighting, Russian forces are further from kyiv than in the first weeks of the invasion, when the initial blow seemed destined to topple the Ukrainian government. The war, even with external attempts of negotiation, does not give clear signs of closure, and each month that passes reinforces the idea that Moscow underestimated Ukraine, overestimated its own performance and entered a field where attrition rules more than maneuver. Panzer III marching towards Voknavolok on 1 July 1941 Russia and its tradition of wars. Russian history is plagued by conflict prolonged and campaigns that lasted much longer than expected, almost as if duration were a structural constant of their way of waging war. There are examples that draw a pattern: an endless war in the Caucasus that lasted for more than a century, or a chain of wars with the Ottoman Empire that spanned centuries and reordered borders and loyalties in the Black Sea and eastern Europe. Even when Russia sought “quick solutions,” the result was often the opposite: unexpected defeats, victories very expensive or bogged down that forced them to sustain the effort for years. In that sense, Ukraine would not be an anomaly, but rather another confirmation that the “short hit” in Russia is often more a political wish than a military reality. When losing is very expensive. Furthermore, Russian defeats are not measured only in territories or casualties, but in political earthquakes. The war against japan in 1904-1905 not only meant a military coup and the humiliation of a European power defeated by an Asian rival, but also fueled an internal crisis that led to the revolution of 1905exposing incompetence, eroding morale and opening the door to a decade of instability that would end exploding in 1917. The idea is clear: when the war drags on, the defeat becomes visible and the State loses its aura of control, the damage filters inward. The country does not need to collapse immediately, it is enough for legitimacy to crack and fear to become in everyday wear. Afghanistan as a warning. The most modern parallelism It’s Afghanistan: a Soviet intervention designed to sustain an allied regime that ended devouring resources for more than nine years. It was not only a military defeat against insurgents, it was an economic and moral drain thatthat accelerated the decline of an already rigid, inefficient and stagnant system. The 1989 withdrawal It left a demoralized army and a tired society, and the impact was so profound that it became one of the wounds that preceded to the Soviet collapse. That memory works as a warning because it shows that, in Russia, a long war can survive on the front while rotting inside, leaving a bill that is paid years later. Ukraine and the weakening. The war in Ukraine may not cause an immediate collapse of the Russian state, but it will aims to subdue him to continuous pressure on the economy, industry, army and social fabric. Even if there is no revolution, attrition operates like acid: it erodes capabilities, pushes to improvise solutions, exhausts reserves and reduces room for maneuver for other challenges. The Russian death toll (more than 156,000) illustrates the magnitude of the cost, higher than the total for Afghanistan despite having been sold as something quick and controllable. And although those losses do not come close to the demographic horror of the Great Patriotic Warare enough for the war to stop being an episode and become a structural wound. Blow to prestige. Beyond the battlefield, the invasion has also damaged Moscow’s image as a global supplier of weapons and as a military power. They remembered in Forbes the sharp drop in its exports and a symbolic change: France overtaking Russia as the second largest arms exporter in the world, something unthinkable recently. Also the decline of emblematic programs due to cost and performance, such as the T-14 Armataand the Su-57 casea fifth-generation fighter that fails to attract buyers and whose actual operational presence seems limited. Contrasted with this is the industrial and export success of the F-35, which has become Allies and partners standardwhich accentuates the feeling that Russia not only wears itself out fighting, but also emerges from the war with less technological brilliance and less … Read more

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