Month: March 2026

the wearable AI recorder that’s not for everyone, but it’s perfect for some

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When I tried the Plaud Note ProI came to a conclusion that I did not expect: I was one of the very few gadgets of AI that justified being a device and not simply an application. The question I ask myself now, weeks after having the NotePin S on me, is whether its spiritual successor can say the same. The answer is not so clean. The NotePin S arrives as the wearable version of that same proposal. Same brain, different packaging. Instead of a card that lives glued to the iPhone by MagSafe, here you go a small 17 gram oval that you can pin to your lapel, hang around your neck, wear on your wrist or pin with a magnetic pin. Plaud presented it at this year’s CES with the promise that capturing what you say would never require taking out your phone again. When you first hold it in your hand, the thought is almost identical to the one I had with the Note Pro: how well finished this is. Solid materials, premium feel, that type of product that does not boast of being expensive but suggests it. The finish of the Plaud NotePin S. Image: Xataka. The box is also unusually neat for a startup: magnetic clip, pin, necklace cord, bracelet and charging base included from the beginning, something that with the original NotePin required a separate purchase. All this comes with the Plaud NotePin S box. Image: Xataka. Image: Xataka. The most relevant change compared to the previous model is small and huge at the same time: they have replaced the pressing gesture with a physical button. The original NotePin had a problem for some users, who were encountering recordings that had never started because the touch gesture had not responded well. The S solves this with a long press to record, a press to stop, and a short press during recording to mark a highlight (one of its best features). Simple. Works. I’ve spent a few weeks wearing it in different formats: The clip on the lapel is the most natural in face-to-face meetings. It is the image that crowns this article. The magnetic pin, the most elegant. The cord-necklace, the most comfortable for everyday use outside of formal contexts. The bracelet, on the other hand, is the option that convinces me the least: the material feels below the level of the rest of the kit, and in a world where almost everyone already wears a watch, adding another element on the wrist is not very practical. With the cord to hang it around your neck. Image: Xataka. With the bracelet adapter to wear it on the wrist, with a form factor similar to that of typical activity bracelets. Image: Xataka. Here in a slightly more inclined view… Image: Xataka. …and here on the side so that the thickness can be distinguished. Image: Xataka. What does work consistently is recording. The microphone picks up well up to about three meters, which is enough for most meetings. The transcription, processed in the app using models from OpenAI, Google or Anthropic of your choice, is accurate in Spanish without the type of errors that would cause you to lose confidence in the system. Automatic summaries, especially when you have marked highlights During the conversation, they are the most useful final product: what previously required rereading the entire transcript now appears organized and immediately actionable. There is a novelty in the ecosystem that deserves special attention: along with the hardware, Plaud has launched a desktop application for Mac and PC that records Zoom, Google Meet or Teams meetings in the background without adding any bot to the call. It is an important distinction because similar alternatives appear as visible participants in the meeting, which makes many interlocutors uncomfortable. Example of a recording made with the Plaud NotePin S seen in the Plaud interface. In the screenshot you can see the summary, much more extensive and structured than we could expect. More than a summary, it is a complete and detailed outline. Image: Xataka. A sample of some of the templates with which we can tell Plaud “how” to generate a transcription and the subsequent treatise. Very useful. Image: Xataka. And another example of a summary, in this case we can see how he makes the quotes in the language of the recording, English; but it offers us the entire summary in our native language, Spanish. Image: Xataka. The Plaud app does not appear anywhere, it records natively and is free for those who already have the hardware. For those of us who use the physical device and also usually have meetings by video call, the integration of both sources in the same hub It’s really comfortable. What is uncomfortable is the question that appears here. With the Note Pro, the hardware justification was clear: it freed you from your phone, it had four high-quality MEMS microphones, and the 30-hour battery let you record everything without worrying. The NotePin S has only a fraction of that claimed battery, and its three-meter effective capture radius puts a real limit on it in large rooms. Although in a high school classroom, where I recorded the image above, it responded perfectly. In everyday contexts, both are sufficient. In the most demanding contexts where the Note Pro especially shined, the NotePin S falters in comparison. What the NotePin S offers that the Note Pro can’t is that you can wear it, not just carry it around. And there is the basic question that must be answered before buying it: do I really need to wear my recorder, or is it enough for me to have it in my pocket or on the table? By separating its magnetic coupling, the charging connector is revealed. Image: Xataka. And so it is attached to the USB-C charging accessory. Image: Xataka. Here, separated from the clip that allows it to be put on the lapel. Image: Xataka. For a journalist doing interviews on the move, the … Read more

Gasoline has risen so much that even Mark Zuckerberg has looked for a low-cost gas station to refuel his yacht: Gibraltar

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From the start of the war of Iran, filling the car tank has become one of those little dramas everyday things that we all know well. A few euros more, a sigh of resignation, and continue. But there is another refueling scale that makes your complaints at the gas station For those 10 extra euros that it cost you to fill the tank, it almost sounds like a joke. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook and fifth greatest fortune of the world, owns the launchpada 118 meter superyacht valued at about 300 million dollars. Since the US and Israeli bombs began to fall on Iranian soilfilling your fuel tanks involves an extra cost of $278,880 with each refueling. The most curious thing is that the solution that the tycoon has found is very similar to the one that any citizen with a foot in this price escalation has probably adopted: look for a low-cost gas station. The painful tank to fill Maintaining a luxury superyacht is not cheap, which is why only millionaires can afford it. He launchpad by Mark Zuckerberg has a fuel tank of approximately 420,000 liters. To put it in context, it is the equivalent of the capacity of about 7,000 medium-sized cars at one time. The yacht is equipped with four MTU 20V 4000 M93L engines which, sailing at a cruising speed of 16 knots, consume about 982 liters per hour each. That leaves us with approximate consumption of 4,000 liters of fuel per hour. That is to say, an equivalent consumption 560 cars traveling at 120 km/h or 73 buses. To this we must add that the launchpad He does not travel alone, he does so accompanied by his support yacht, the wingman. Expenses double. The Launchpad has four motors like this According to price data monitored by the specialized portal Ship&Bunker in January 2026, the average price per ton of fuel for yachts (MGO) was $715. Data from March 2026 on this same portal suggest that its price has skyrocketed to $1,379 per ton. This means that filling the fuel tank launchpad In January, Mark Zuckerberg had to pay a bill of just over 300,300 euros, while doing so today It would cost you about 579,180 euros. An extra cost of $278,880 with each refueling in just three months. Gibraltar: low cost gasoline for yachts Faced with such an increase, Mark Zuckerberg and many other wealthy yacht-owning tycoons have done what any neighbor’s son would do in this case: look for low-cost gasoline. In this case, the closest and best located is Gibraltar. As and how they stood out in The CountryGibraltar is not only a strategic rock between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean that Philip V delivered generously to the British. For superyacht owners who frequently cross the ocean, it is the equivalent of a motorway gas station as it is located on the most optimal shipping route to cross the world by sea. For superyachts that, like the launchpad, they just made Its periodic maintenance in the exclusive shipyards of La Ciotat (France), the Strait route is the shortest to go down to the Canary Islands and, from there, head to the warm waters of the Caribbean to meet its owner in Miami. The same thing happens with the reverse route, allowing ships to refuel without deviating from the most optimal route between both continents. He launchpadwhich is more similar to a small cruise ship than a pleasure boat, stops in Gibraltar regularly on its routes between Europe and America. It is not because of the pleasure of its views, but because of the price and the refueling infrastructure for superyachts, cruise ships and large freighters that has created Gibraltar. Its special tax status allows boats over 18 meters to refuel with duty free fuel, making it a mandatory stop for these giants of the sea. It is no coincidence that he is one of the bunkering points busiest in the world, with prices that, even after the escalation following the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, remain lower than in many ports in northern Europe or the eastern Mediterranean. In Xataka | The difficult part has not been building an 80-meter, $200 million yacht. It has been taken to the sea without destroying it Image | Feadship, Meta

If the question is how Seat has lost 100% of its profit in its best year, the answer is simple: Chinese electric car

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The electric car continues to be Seat SA’s great debt. The company that houses Seat and Cupra could be popping the champagne with record numbers, but a decision has destroyed its profit margin despite billing more than ever and selling more cars than ever. The numbers. Seat SA has presented results. The company that houses Seat and Cupra has made public its 2025 numbers with record figures that invite optimism: 15.3 billion euros in turnover (5.1% more than the previous year) 586,300 cars delivered (5.1% more than the previous year) More plug-in hybrids sold than ever, with a growth of 62.9% More electric vehicles sold than ever, with a growth of 65.9% But the figures are obscured when we talk about benefits. And the company barely retained 40.9 million euros of net profit, 92% less than the previous year. And the data on its operating profits is even more dramatic. Seat indicates a million euros with a drop of 99.8% but that figure is subject to IFRS (international financial standards). Seat reports in its results note of -93.1 million euros as a result of exploitation with Spanish financial standards, along with a cash flow of -431 million euros after investing 1,300 million euros in CAPEX and R&D, which add up to a total of 6,200 million euros invested in this item since 2020. A strategy that works. In 2022, with Wayne Griffiths at the helm of the company, Seat SA took a turn in its strategy. The then CEO said that “Cupra is not the end of Seat. Cupra gives Seat a future and the future is electric. The future is Cupra.” Three years later, Cupra has sold 328,800 units, 56.1% of Seat SA cars, with a growth of 32.5% compared to 2024. So, Seat SA had just lost more than 450 million euros in two years. The company has managed to refresh its image and move customers towards more expensive models that leave a greater profit margin. It is never good news to sell fewer cars (Seat sold 257,400 units in 2025, 17% less than the previous year) but the company has managed to compensate for this decline by selling more expensive cars. And not only that, increasing sales. The electric car. In addition, the company has achieved a substantial increase in sales in its most electrified models. However, if Seat has lost relevance in the market it is because its offer, right now, is anti-competitive where electrification is demanded. In fact, the ECO label (and in mild hybridization versions) will have to keep waiting in models like the Ibiza or the Arona. Markus Haupt, new CEO of Seat since Griffiths leftalready made it clear a few months ago that It was impossible to launch an electric car with the Seat logo right now. The problem, he pointed out, is that it was too expensive and that prevented a positioning aligned with the role that Seat is currently playing within the Volkswagen Group. From Germany they understood that that affordable electric role had to be covered by Skoda and Seat will be relegated to an access brand to the motor market, with cars that are already veterans in the market and very little electrified engines. Cars in which no money has been invested but they continue to report profits despite the fact that their sales have been declining. Looking at the volume of electric sales in Europe, it seems that it makes sense not to continue loading up on models that can be cannibalized within the Volkswagen Group. And the Tavascan. Seat SA’s commitment to electric cars was to come with the Cupra Tavascan. The car was sold as a turning point for the brand with the aim of making it clear that we were facing a new image and that Cupra was not only seen as the sports version of Seat. Cupra aimed to make itself in a journey that had already begun with the Born. The Volkswagen Group decided early that for him Cupra Tavascan was competitive it had to be taken to China. But with production already committed, The European Union imposed harsh tariffs on carssince it has the participation of SAIC. The base 10% soared by another 37.6%. That has eaten into any kind of profit generated with a car that had this as its primary objective. These tariffs have not had to be paid by the Skoda Enyaq, Audi Q4 or Volkswagen ID.5, all produced in Europe. Last February, the European Commission confirmed that had reached an agreement to withdraw tariffs on this car as an exceptional case. Cupra has promised not to lower the price and to comply with an export quota. Both figures are, however, confidential. at losses. Although Cupra has promised not to lower the price, it is highly unlikely that the company would have opted for this once the tariffs had been lifted. And it is that the Cupra Tavascan was being sold at a loss despite exceeding 40,000 euros per unit. Aware that it was impossible to sell the car at a price that would allow them to make money with such high tariffs, Cupra preferred to eat that cost and lose money with each car sold. The strategy may make sense because the production commitments in China are maintained and it has helped the company to put the car on the street, make it visible and invest in brand image. Already in 2024 the brand expected to lose 500 million euros with the sale of the Tavascan. An optimistic view. The good news for Seat is that, at last, they have managed to get their Tavascan to start generating profits for the company instead of eating them. But also that Cupra remains strong with its electrified bet. The Cupra Born has been recently renovated and the Raval will arrive in 2026, made in Martorell. The company’s goal is to achieve, by 2030, a profit margin of 6%. To do this, they say, they will focus on cost … Read more

NASA already has a new date for its manned mission around the Moon

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Since Apollo 17, no human being has traveled to lunar orbit again. More than five decades have passed since that last manned flight to the satellite, and the return has not been exactly quick or easy. He Artemis program accumulates delays, technical reviews and calendar adjustments, and the Artemis II has also had to stop recently due to a problem detected in the rocket’s helium system. Even so, there is an important novelty: after completing the repairs,NASA has already pointed out a first launch opportunity for this mission that will once again take astronauts to the Moon’s environment. The Date. Following a flight readiness review, the US space agency announced that it is working with April 1, 2026 as the first opportunity to launch Artemis II. That initial attempt is scheduled for 6:24 p.m. (Eastern time in the United States), which in mainland Spain is equivalent to 12:24 a.m. on April 2. This schedule comes after repairing a problem in the rocket’s helium system, an element that regulates the pressure of the fuel tanks and which forced the vehicle to be removed from the platform to replace a defective seal. Artemis II launch window schedule for April 2026 How launch windows work. In space exploration we do not work with rigid dates, but with periods of opportunity. A launch window is the interval in which the rocket can take off to follow the planned trajectory and meet the mission objectives. That margin depends on very precise orbital calculations that take into account the position of the Earth, the destination and the energy necessary to complete the trip. If the vehicle cannot take off within that interval, the attempt is canceled and you must wait for the next available window. Guaranteed launch? Although there is a calendar with concrete opportunities, each attempt still depends on several factors that must be aligned at the last moment. Technical teams continue to work in both the assembly building and the Kennedy Space Center launch infrastructure, and the rocket itself must return to the pad before beginning the final sequence. During a press appearance, Lori Glaze, acting associate administrator of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, remembered that there is still work to be completed and that the launch will depend on what the hardware itself indicates. Added to all this is the time, because in a mission like this you cannot operate with the risk of lightning, precipitation, hail or excessive winds. Ground travel. The Space Launch System rocket must first return to the Kennedy Space Center pad from the assembly building. Once there, teams must prepare the vehicle and facilities for the takeoff attempt within the available window. This type of operation requires continuous reviews and coordination between different systems, so it is not always possible to attempt a launch the next day. In fact, Lori Glaze noted that, within the first six days of April, the agency anticipates around four real attempt opportunities. The return. When it finally takes off, Artemis II will mark the return of a human crew to the Moon’s environment for the first time since 1972. The mission will take on board American astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, along with Canadian Jeremy Hansen, on a flight of about ten days around the satellite. The plan is for the Orion spacecraft to circle the far side of the Moon, the region we never see from Earth, before beginning the return journey. This flight will serve to check the operation of the systems in real conditions before the next steps of the Artemis program, which aims to take astronauts back to the lunar surface on subsequent missions. Images | POT In Xataka | We already know what we will eat on the moon: Madrid stew. An American team manages to grow chickpeas in lunar regolith

The world needs to get oil out of the Middle East by any means possible. Their only hope is 30 giant ships queuing in Yanbu

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The landscape off the coast of Yanbu on the Red Sea has completely changed in a matter of days. The area is now taken over by VLCCs (Very Large Crude Carriers), colossal supertankers capable of swallowing two million barrels of crude oil. They are not there just passing through; Its massive concentration responds to a single objective: to carry out the largest and most urgent evacuation of oil in recent times. A fleet to the rescue of the market. To understand the magnitude of this rescue operation, just look at the figures that provides Financial Times: What is happening is a real “flotilla of supertankers” sailing against the clock. About 30 of these giants head to Yanbu, when the usual thing is that only two arrive a month. The reason is that traffic in the Persian Gulf has come to a “stalemate” following the Iranian attacks. The maritime tracking data it handles Bloomberg give an idea of ​​the urgency: In just 48 hours, at least 25 of these giants have headed to the Saudi port. We are talking about a fleet with room to load some 50 million barrels that, otherwise, would have no outlet. It is an essential escape valve right now. The blockade has already caused world production to fall by 6% and the plug is so big that neighbors like Iraq and Kuwait they have had to start closing wells because, simply, they have run out of room in their tanks to store the oil. The “sea bridge” to avoid Iran. How do these ships load oil if they do not enter the Gulf? The answer is in the desert, but the result is seen in the port. Saudi Arabia is using your pipeline East-West like a turnstile. The crude oil travels overland 1,200 kilometers to Yanbu, where the “army” of ships awaits it to distribute it to the world, especially China and India. According to Wall Street Journal, This infrastructure has become “one of the most critical pieces of the world economy” overnight. The CEO of Saudi Aramco, Amin Nasser, confirmed in this medium that they are reaching their maximum capacity: 7 million barrels per day flowing westward. Of them, 5 million are destined directly to be loaded on these supertankers for global markets. The risk does not disappear, it just changes coordinates. But sailing to Yanbu is not a safe ride. As he warns Financial Times, The ships must now “challenge the notorious hotspot of Houthi attacks.” To leave for Asia, these supertankers have to cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait. Although the Yemeni group had signaled a pause in its attacks, experts from EOS Risk They assure that the tankers continue to assume an “enormous risk”, since the area is within reach of Iranian missiles. Even the port of Fujairah in the Emirates, which is also trying to act as an escape route, is already has suffered damage from drone attacks last week. The message is clear: the alternative is less dangerous than Hormuz, but it is not immune to war. The limits of the plan. The big question for markets is whether this armada of ships and desert pipelines can prevent economic collapse. The closure of Hormuz has taken 20 million barrels per day off the board and physical reality imposes its limits on the alternative route. On the one hand, there is a critical funnel in the port itself. According to data from the Argus Media agencyalthough the Saudi pipeline manages to transport up to 7 million barrels, the Yanbu terminals only have real capacity to load between 4 and 4.5 million a day on ships. Inevitably, supertankers will have to queue. On the other hand, the distillate crisis looms. As experts cited by Middle East Eyethe East-West pipeline transports crude oil, not refined products. No matter how many ships fill up in Yanbu, markets like Europe are left without their vital supply of diesel and aviation fuel, which is usually processed in the unreachable refineries of the Middle East. According to Sparta Commodities in statements for WSJwith this route only half of the problem has been “solved.” There are another 10 million barrels that are still trapped with no possible way out. Therefore, it is no longer “crazy” for a barrel to reach $200. The demand for oil is “inelastic”; the economy cannot stop consuming it from one day to the next, which generates brutal upward pressure. The geopolitics of “the worse the better” While ships maneuver in the Red Sea, in Washington the focus is purely strategic. Donald Trump has made it clear that stopping Iran is the priority, even above the price of gasoline. “We make a lot of money when prices rise,” the president even published on his social networks, emphasizing that the US, as a large producer, can afford a resistance that other countries do not have. For its part, the historic opening of the IEA’s strategic reserves (400 million barrels) attempts to “buy time,” but as analyst Javier Blas says, nothing replaces to the actual opening of the Strait of Hormuz. Image | Photo by Khristina Sergeychik on Unsplash Xataka | China has just found a hole in the US’s quietest weapon: an algorithm has hacked its B-2s in Iran

heat records in Spain have doubled

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Every summer in Spain seems to bring with it the same refrain and we repeat several times “this is the hottest day I can remember.” And although sometimes memory deceives us, statistics and mathematics have confirmed that It is not a subjective sensationbut breaking the thermometer year after year has become normal. And it is more common in some specific regions of our country, such as has collected El Confidencial in an interview with the researchers. The data. This has been determined by a team of researchers from the University of Zaragoza who has analyzed data from the State Meteorological Agency between 1960 and 2021. What they were able to observe is that the frequency of breaking a high temperature record has multiplied by two due to global warming. The interpretation. In the published article by these researchers, they are not limited only to counting hot days in a specific time range, but they developed a mathematical tool first level to have very reliable conclusions. And, instead of looking at weather stations in isolation, the team has created a Bayesian model using MCMC (Monte Carlo Markov Chains) methods. This means that they designed an algorithm that is capable of understanding how temperatures are related in space throughout the entire Spanish geography and in time during the period of more than sixty years that they have analyzed. An advantage. This system allowed them to filter out the statistical noise that exists when we interpret these data in a raw manner. In this way, they have processed data from more than 40 locations in mainland Spain and have found out not only how many records have been broken, but how many would have been broken if climate change did not exist. The result is that today we see twice as many records as would be expected in a stable climate. High heat areas. The spatio-temporal model has not only produced a national average, but has also made it possible to map extreme heat with astonishing precision, pointing out that the impact of climate change is more pronounced in specific areas of Spain. In this way, if we look at Spain in general, the frequency of thermal records in the last decade is almost double what is normal. But if we specify much moreareas such as the Northern Meseta, in the area of ​​Madrid and part of Castilla y León, and especially during the summer, have tripled the record data in their historical series, which is well above the national average. A prize model. The great work done by this group has not gone unnoticed, but has managed to win different awards, such as the award for the best applied contribution in statistics. But beyond recognition, the researchers have left a “gift” to the scientific community by leaving the model completely open in R. This means that climatologists and data analysts around the world can download their code and apply it to predict and model the breaking of thermal records in other regions of the planet. Images | Immo Wegmann In Xataka | Long periods of drought are going to become more and more normal. It’s time to get used to them

Madrid stew. An American team manages to grow chickpeas in lunar regolith

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A team from the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M has achieved that a handful of chickpea plants complete their life cycle in a substrate that imitates the lunar regolith. That is to say, (for the first time) it has been possible for a legume of direct nutritional interest to germinate, develop flowers and produce seeds in a medium of this type. But, let’s go for twists. Grow chickpeas on the Moon!? Although that is the most striking headline, the truth is that it is not exactly that what researchers have shown. We have been trying to find ways to grow crops in the lunar regolith for years and, in fact, the tests that were done in 2022 on real samples were a failure. For this reason, the team has focused on demonstrating that a sterile substrate could be transformed into something similar to arable soil by exploring the symbiosis between the plant in question and a fungus. That is, the crucial thing is that they have managed to ‘bioremediate’ the pulverized rock. And what did they do? The researchers got together chickpeas with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi drastically improve the absorption of water and nutrients, increase resistance to stress and function for practical purposes as natural biofertilizers. The chickpeas in question flowered and produced seeds in soil containing up to 75% simulated regolith. In the soil composed of 100% simulated regolith they couldn’t get them to give seedsbut the step forward is incredible. Above all, because we have gone from a proof of concept in which lPlants could survive with a lot of stress to one where they can generate crops. The choice of plant is also interesting. Typically, space agricultural research has focused on short-cycle leafy vegetables and, indeed, lettuces. have been cultivated on the ISS for a long time. The problem, as researchers say, is that these vegetables serve to complement the diet, but do not contribute much nutritionally. Chickpeas (with their 15 grams of protein per cup and almost all essential amino acids) are something else. However, the question is important: does it make sense to plant on the Moon? And the answer, as Raúl Herranz of the CSIC points outit’s just not right now. If you need 25% of the necessary soil, mushrooms and some worms… it is probably more efficient to carry the chickpeas packaged. Luckily, this is only the beginning of the journey and there is still a long way to go before the final turnaround. The good news is that we are getting closer. Image | Salvatore G2 – POT In Xataka | A study has tried to find out why space food is so bad: it’s not the food, it’s the astronauts

when geography suffocates the world economy

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Seeing a barrel of oil at $200 has gone from being an apocalyptic scenario to an option on the table. The mirage of recent days, with Brent relaxing around 90 dollars after the initial scare of 120, does not deceive the experts because the physical reality of the market is broken. As detailed in The Energy Newspaperconsulting firm Wood Mackenzie estimates that the market will need prices of at least $150 in the coming weeks to force a rebalancing of demand. At the $200 mark, his conclusion is devastating: it is no longer crazy. It was already being announced. From the Iranian military command itself Khatam al-Anbiya, its spokesman Ebrahim Zolfaqari has issued a direct warning: the world must “prepare for a barrel of oil to reach $200.” To put this figure in perspective, an opinion column Financial Times Remember that the historical peak of $147 reached in 2008 would be equivalent to about $222 today if we adjust it for current inflation. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has been blunt in his last reportcalling the current scenario “the largest supply disruption in the history of the world oil market.” The physical blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has taken 20 million barrels a day off the boardan impact that multiplies by five the losses caused by the historic Arab embargo of 1973. How is it possible? In his first official message, Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, confirmed that the lever of closing the Strait of Hormuz will continue to be used against its adversaries and attacks are becoming a tangible reality. As has been advanced oil price, Iranian drones have hit storage tanks in the port of Salalah, in Oman, and two oil tankers (the Vishnu and the Zefyros) caught fire in Iraqi waters after being attacked by underwater drones. The lack of maritime exit is collapsing the logistics chain from its origin. Iraq have been forced to close wells and reduce their production by 70% simply because they have run out of physical space in their storage tanks. Paradoxically, Iran’s oil heart, Kharg Island—which channels 90% of its exports—remains intact; However, a direct attack by the US or Israel on this facility would fire automatically a barrel above $150. But we have strategic reserves. And yes, the 32 member countries of the IEA have agreed to a historic and unprecedented release of 400 million barrels of their emergency reserves. According to data from the IEA monthly reportobserved global inventories are high and amount to 8.21 billion barrels. However, this desperate release just buy timebut it does not solve the immense physical blockage. According to Financial Times, oil demand is extremely inelastic; That is to say, it is very difficult for people to stop consuming it suddenly even if it is more expensive. Therefore, a real shortage of just 2% in global supply is capable of triggering massive price increases, neutralizing the reserve shield. So what’s going to happen? The military solution at sea seems very limited. According to Lloyd’s Listestablishing a Western naval escort system would limit tanker traffic to less than 10% of its usual volume, as convoys would be restricted to groups of 5 to 10 commercial vessels per transit. Added to this is that the biggest current threatsea mines scattered in a bottleneck just 34 kilometers wide. Faced with this maritime plug, the main escape valve is the pipes in the desert. Saudi Arabia is operating against the clock its East-West (Petroline) pipeline to divert up to 5 million barrels per day to the port of Yanbu on the Red Sea, completely bypassing Iran. The United Arab Emirates supports the maneuver by injecting almost 2 million additional barrels through its pipeline to Fujairah. As confirmed Financial Times, The Saudi route has successfully managed to register a record of exports through its western ports of 5.9 million barrels per day on March 9. An unprecedented escalation. To this complex logistical puzzle we must add the political variable in Washington, which does not seem to be in a hurry to force a de-escalation that will alleviate the markets. Through their social networksDonald Trump has made it clear that the cost of energy is not his main concern right now. “The United States is the largest oil producer in the world, by far, so when prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the president posted. His absolute priority, he explained, is to stop Iran, an objective to which he attaches “much greater interest and importance.” With these words, the current administration publicly assumes that it prefers to deal with rising gasoline prices rather than loosen the strategic noose on Tehran. In short, the desert pipelines and strategic reserves act as a tourniquet, but they do not stop the bleeding. As long as diplomacy remains stagnant, Washington prioritizes the fall of the Iranian regime over lowering crude oil prices, and the Hormuz Pass remains a 34-kilometer-wide minefield, the world economy will continue to dry up. In this scenario, a barrel reaching $200 is not a catastrophic prediction; It is simply the next logical step if ships remain unable to sail. Image | Photo by Chris LeBoutillier on Unsplash Xataka | Saudi Arabia has an ace up its sleeve to tackle the oil crisis: a 1,200-kilometer oil pipeline through the desert

Strangely enough, Iran is exporting more oil now in the middle of the war than before the conflict

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The global crude oil market is experiencing “the largest supply disruption in history,” as the International Energy Agency warns. But the almost total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz hides a brutal irony: the same waters that are closed to the rest of the world are being used by Iran to export more oil than it sold before the war. The incessant flow. Far from paralyzing, the Iranian export machinery has accelerated. According to data from Kpler, In recent days, ships have loaded a daily average of 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, surpassing the barrier of the 2 million daily they exported in February. The big question is where all this crude oil is going. The answer is unanimous: towards China. A graph of Statista illustrates that the Asian giant It is, by an overwhelming margin, Iran’s largest buyer, accounting for 90.8% of its oil exports in 2024. Since the war began in late February, at least 11.7 to 12 million barrels have crossed the strait bound for China, according to estimates from TankerTrackers and Kpler collected by CNBC. In fact, how to detail Wall Street Journal, There is an anecdote that borders on the surreal to illustrate this situation: small Chinese tankers navigate the strait communicating by shortwave radio with the Revolutionary Guard. “We are a Chinese ship. We are going to pass; we are friendly,” they announce in English to ensure safe passage. A question of survival. As an expert explains consulted by Deutsche WelleChina has become the “indispensable lifeline” for Iranian exports in a context of harsh Western sanctions. This has created a “parallel market” where independent Chinese refiners buy discounted crude oil by operating outside the US financial system, according to the agency Anadolu. However, global panic is evident. The crisis promptly shot up oil prices close to $120 per barrel, levels not seen in four years. The impact has been such that, how to explain BloombergBeijing has ordered its refineries to cancel export shipments of refined fuel to ensure domestic supply in the face of the volatility of the conflict. The dilemma of Kharg Island. Although the United States and Israel have bombed thousands of military and strategic targets in Iranian territory, there is one enclave that remains mysteriously intact: Kharg Island. This small piece of land, just about 20 square kilometers, is the true jewel in the energy crown, channeling 90% of the country’s crude oil exports. According to analysts Guardian and France 24the answer is economic terror: an attack on Kharg could catapult the price of a barrel to $150, sending global markets into a “nose dive.” Also, how my colleague Carlos Prego explains in Xatakadestroying the facilities would deprive a hypothetical successor government of the main source of income necessary to rebuild the country once the war ends. Iranian evasion tactics. Iran’s export success is not based only on military intimidation, but on complex sanctions evasion engineering. According to The Wall Street Journalthe regime uses a “shadow fleet” made up of old oil tankers that sail without tracking systems and under false flags, such as those of Comoros or Guyana. On a financial level, the sophistication is just as high. Intelligence documents revealed by Euractiv show that Iran uses shell companies in China to carry out euro-denominated transactions, moving hundreds of millions through accounts at European banks such as Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. Simultaneously, a report of ACAMS exposes how the Revolutionary Guard uses the cryptocurrency ecosystem (with multi-million dollar transactions in stablecoins such as USDT) to launder money and finance their affinity groups without going through traditional banking. Finally, although Iran is trying to diversify its departures using the Jask terminal in the Gulf of Oman – thus avoiding the Strait of Hormuz -, CNBC warns of its extreme inefficiency: Loading a supertanker there can take up to 10 days, compared to the one or two days it takes in Kharg. Triumph in the midst of chaos. The conflict in the Middle East has drawn a counterintuitive scenario. While the large producers of the Persian Gulf are bleeding economically due to the paralysis of trade routes, Iran has capitalized on the chaos. The panic of a global energy collapse acts as an invisible shield that protects the island of Kharg from Western bombing. Under this umbrella of armed immunity, war has not suffocated the Islamic Republic; On the contrary, it has given it a maritime monopoly that allows its ghost fleet to continue feeding insatiable Chinese demand in broad daylight. Image | Photo by Fredrick F. on Unsplash Xataka | China just found a hole in the US’s quietest weapon: an algorithm has hacked its B-2s in Iran, and they have the audio

Mexico has placed impossible tariffs on Chinese cars. What they didn’t imagine was that the cars were already there.

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Export to buckets. That was China’s goal in 2025 towards Mexico. Alerted by the enormous tariffs that the country was going to impose, as it has been, Chinese manufacturers have done everything possible to be faster than the Government. Now, exporting a car to Mexico from China is unfeasible. But the Chinese cars arrived months ago. taxes. Was a 20% tariff on Chinese cars too little? Mexico believes so and that is why, since January 2026, it has been applying a new 50% tariff on imports of products arriving from countries with which it does not have trade agreements. Come on, what Chinese cars now have to pay 50% tariffs to enter Mexico. The measure, explained in Motorpasión Mexico has a bit of a protectionist flavor compared to China or India (the latter country has Mexico as the third country to which it sends the most cars). But, above all, It has a lot of nods to the United Stateswith whom Mexico has a special trade agreement that has been at risk since Donald Trump returned to the White House. when you go. I will tell an anecdote from the writing of Xataka. In our Slack we have a reaction from Chenoa to point out to someone that we were already contemplating writing on a topic that he now proposes to us again. You know: “when you go…”. And that is what has happened to Mexico with China. Manufacturers, alarmed by the possibility of tariffs being raised in their country of origin (as has finally happened) began to send all the cars they could to Mexico. The result: 625,187 cars exported to Mexico in one year. They have done “a Chenoa” to Mexico. one in three. To understand the magnitude of exports, according to data from the China Passenger Car AssociationMexico is the country to which China exported the most cars in 2025. These more than 625,000 vehicles surpassed those purchased by Russia (582,738 units), which has serious difficulties in obtaining vehicles from abroad. The United Arab Emirates, with 571,937 cars imported from China, was the third country that received the most cars. The figure is enormous. And in Mexico around 1.5 million cars are bought a year. That is, if in 2026 each and every one of the cars exported by China were sold, in 2025 we would be talking about one in every three sales in the country being from Chinese manufacturers. How many are available? Those exports, of course, leave a pool of cheap cars in stock so the impact of Chinese cars on the market will continue to be felt for some time. It must be taken into account that it is calculated that China had already taken 15% market share. The storage of these cars, everything indicates, guarantees that Chinese brands continue selling at the same rate throughout the year. They point out in Motorpasión Mexico In 2025, it is estimated that Mexicans will buy just over 400,000 cars of Chinese origin. The only question is how many of them belong to the more than 630,000 cars imported last year and how much is the stock since a part of them must have been imported into the country in 2024. Photo | aboodi vesakaran and BYD In Xataka | Japan has been charging a 0% tariff on foreign cars for half a century. It will be very difficult for you to find one on the street.

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