Month: April 2026

It was a triple trap designed by North Korean hackers

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A Spanish blockchain developer was almost a victim of one of the cyber espionage operations more sophisticated ones circulating right now. The bait they used was something as innocent as a job offer sent via LinkedIn. Which It seemed like a professional opportunity. It was actually a trap designed by one of the hacker groups most dangerous north koreans and best financed in the world. The case was analyzed by Claudio Chifafounder of cybersecurity company DLTCodeand coincides with another attack documented a few weeks before vs. Chris PapathanasiouCEO of security firm AllSecure. Two almost identical attacks, two different countries, the same perpetrator: the Lazarus groupthe unit of government digital operations from North Korea. The job offer had a cat in the bag In the Spanish case, the contact came in the form of something as common in the LinkedIn environment as a job offer as a strategic advisor in a decentralized video game project with 100% remote work and flexible hours. After a brief conversation, the supposed recruiter sent a link to advance the hiring process by calling the candidate for a 45-minute video call. After that initial conversation, the bait that would have completed the trap came into play: downloading a repository and opening it in Visual Studio Code to review it. In the case of Papathanasiou, the modus operandi was virtually identical: A LinkedIn profile offered him a job at a company it described as “a rapidly growing team developing the first decentralized AI operating system,” also with a Calendly link (a meeting scheduling tool) to schedule the call. During the video call, the supposed selection manager briefly used the camerashowing a face that matched the LinkedIn profile which he was using as a cover, although the voice did not fit with public videos of that person that Papathanasiou later found. “I started recording mid-conversation once I became suspicious,” said Papathanasiou, who suspects the attackers used surveillance technology. deepfake for impersonate the identity of your interlocutor. Claudio Chifa, on the other hand, became suspicious due to the sum of small details that did not quite fit with the project they were offering him: “The interlocutor’s accent had nothing to do with Portugal, the instructions in the GitHub repository were clearly generated with some AI, which also made me doubt the quality of the project. But, above all, it was the insistence on releasing the code on my machine for an advisory position,” the cybersecurity expert stressed. Three traps in one shot Both the repository analyzed by Chifa and DLTCode and the one investigated by AllSecure hid three independent infection mechanismsdesigned to be activated simultaneously when the folder was opened, so that, if one failed, the other two acted as a backup, completing the job. The first took advantage of a feature in Visual Studio Code that allows you to configure automatic tasks when opening a project. The malicious command was executed in a hidden window, leaving no trace visible to the user, and could adapt to the victim’s operating system (Mac, Linux or Windows). The second mechanism operated during the usual project installation process using npm (the package manager or component installation tool used by JavaScript programmers). At that time, the attacker’s server automatically received all the credentials stored in the system, including keys from services such as AWS, Stripe or OpenAI, and took full control of the computer. The third front of attack was linked to the previous two, so that it was enough to open the folder for all three will be fired at the same time and take their respective positions. “The smartest thing about this attack is that it does not depend on the victim do anything extraordinary. They don’t ask you to run an .exe, they don’t ask you to deactivate the antivirus, they don’t ask you to do anything that activates your alarms. They ask you to open a folder in your code editor. Something that a developer does fifty times a day,” highlights Chifa. Designed to leave no trace The history of the repository analyzed by DLTCode reveals that the operation has been active since September 2025, with eleven control servers from which the attackers manage malware remotely rotated throughout that period. When AllSecure attempted to analyze its attack from AWS servers, Lazarus operators detected that the source IP belonged to a data center and immediately severed the connection. That doesn’t give you an idea of ​​the level of active surveillance this group has over its own infrastructure. The final objective of both attacks was the same: steal cryptocurrency walletsbrowser passwords, SSH keys (remote server access codes) and any stored credentials in the system that may be useful to them in the future. The FBI esteem that the Lazarus group has accumulated more than $1.5 billion stolen in cryptocurrencies through campaigns of this type. How to defend yourself against these types of attacks What saved Chifa from falling into Lazarus’s trap was stop to analyze the code before executing it. Something about the meeting didn’t add up to him and he decided to investigate first. Papathanasiou did the same and, under suspicion, created an isolated virtual environment and analyzed the repository from there instead of opening it directly on his computer. For programmers and software engineers, who have become the main target of these cybercriminals, experts recommend disabling automatic task execution in Visual Studio Code, always inspect the configuration and installation files of any project received externally, and never run code of unknown origin outside of an isolated environment. “The most important precaution is to distrust any selection process that asks you to run code during the first contacts. No legitimate company needs you to open a local repository on the first call. If someone contacts you on LinkedIn with an extraordinary project and a few days later they are asking you to download code, that is the time to stop,” warns the founder of DLTCode. If you suspect an attempt to attack in Spainboth the National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE) … Read more

They believed they had found jobs in large companies. In reality they were being deceived: this is how the trap works

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Looking for a job is already hard enough without having to be suspicious of every message that arrives in your inbox. And yet, that is exactly what the campaign that has warned about proposes. NordVPN: a trap set up to look like a real opportunity. We are not talking about a clumsy email or a sloppy website, but rather something much more refined, with names like Meta, Disney, Coca-Cola or Spotify as a claim. That’s the key to everything: they play with the illusion of those who believe they may be on the verge of an interview or a new job, when in reality they are entering into a fraud. The investigation alerts of a campaign of phishing specifically aimed at job seekers. The attackers have set up an attack chain in several phases that impersonates large brands and seeks to take the victim to a very specific point: a false login screen with which they intend to keep their Facebook credentials. Let’s see in detail the strategy of these cybercriminals. The mechanics behind fraud that imitates real selection processes It all starts with cold recruitment emails, carefully written and with a professional tone that seeks to resemble real human resources communications. It is not a minor detail that some of these shipments are made through legitimate services such as Google AppSheetbecause not only can that help you avoid spam filters, it also helps make the scene more believable to the person on the other end. The trap, at least at the beginning, is not presented in a crude way, but with a very careful appearance. From there, one of the most peculiar pieces of the entire chain appears: the so-called “HUB” domains. According to the investigation, these are pages that do not show their most sensitive content to anyone who enters directly. If a security analyst or an automated system visits that domain without coming from the specific link included in the email, what they find is a generic website, with hardly any visible activity. The truly important part is only activated when the visit arrives from that specific reference, which acts as a key and reveals the next step of the deception. The next move of the campaign is to give the victim exactly what they expect to see after a convincing recruitment email: a website that looks like a job portal. The research explains that, after that first access, the user lands on a intermediate domain which simulates a legitimate job offer portal and where you can consult positions that seem real and associated with the company whose identity they are impersonating. The more the scene resembles a normal job search, the easier it is for the person to interpret everything that comes after as a logical part of the same process. Campaign replicates legitimate job pages and uses Facebook login as hook The decisive moment comes when the victim clicks on “Request” or “Send request”. That click does not open a job form or a next phase of the supposed selection process, but rather a phishing page that asks you to log in with Facebook to continue. That’s where the trap stops insinuating itself and begins to execute its true purpose. All of the above was designed to lead to that exact point, one in which the request may seem like another simple verification within the application, when in reality what is being delivered are the account credentials. The supposed job opportunity was nothing more than the decoration of an operation with a much more specific purpose. According to the research, the final objective is steal Facebook credentials and thus obtain access to the victim’s account, with the possibility of also compromising other services connected to it. That’s why it’s a good idea to stick with a practical idea: before entering any credential, you should check the URL carefully, check that you are on the official domain, and be wary of any strange login. Images | Xataka with Grok | NordVPN In Xataka | AI is crucial for the US military. So he’s naming OpenAI and Palantir leaders as lieutenant generals

Mythos will be the most dangerous AI model, but companies are already taking note of its security tips

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Top AI companies are in the race to create the best artificial intelligence model. That race has been won by Anthropic with Mythos. At least, That’s what they claim (of course)with phrases like it is so powerful that they cannot make it public. There is reasons to take Anthropic’s words with a grain of salt, but what is evident is that Mythos is already working. Although the company has not released it, has already given access to certain technology partners. The decision is based on the company’s fear that the model will be used maliciously. They themselves have described as a threat to cybersecurity based on the number of zero-day vulnerabilities that Mythos would have found in both the main operating systems on the market and in browsers. And, just when the model is arousing opinions from some and others, Mozilla arrives to affirm that the latest version of Firefox 150 It has security fixes for 271 vulnerabilities that have been discovered thanks to this preliminary version of Claude Mythos. For its part, OpenAI does not believe anything at all. “Just as capable as a human” Mozilla it details in one of the latest posts on his blog. The company had been collaborating with Anthropic for some time and using the Claude Opus 4.6 model to find errors. In January, it found 22 vulnerabilities in a couple of weeks, 14 of them rated very serious. Of those 22 found by Opos 4.6, which is already a powerful model, we move on to the 271 discovered by Mythos. It is a huge leap and Mozilla wanted to continue investigating to see to what extent the new model surpasses Opus. Analyzing Firefox 147, Mythos generated 181 functional exploits. Opus 4.6? Just two. 90 times less. Those results have led Mozilla to write that Mythos Preview is “just as capable as the best human cybersecurity researchers”adding that they have not found any categories that humans can detect that Mythos cannot. This has another reading since, as the company itself states, seeing that the model is capable of finding so many errors in such a short time makes them wonder if it is possible to stay up to date in cybersecurity work when alternatives to Mythos are developed that do fall into hands not controlled by those responsible. There is always the fact that Mythos has not found any errors that Mozilla’s human ‘watchmen’ have not detected and that a tool like this will help to have a more secure system. All of this, in the end, pushing that narrative that Mythos is practically a technological miracle. a nuclear bomb The other side of the coin is that Sam Altman, head of OpenAI, doesn’t believe anything. Taking advantage of his recent participation in a podcast, he has qualified The entire Anthropic movement as a fear-based marketing ploy. He accuses Dario Amodei’s company (Altman’s public enemy) of wanting to restrict AI to a small number of people in a strategy that he has compared to having an atomic bomb, threatening to release it and making a living by selling bunkers to protect themselves from that same bomb. “It is evident that this is an extraordinarily powerful marketing strategy. We have created a bomb and we are going to drop it. You can buy a bunker from us for 100 million dollars” It is one more point in that historical rivalry in which both companies (and managers) have been involved for some time, but it comes just when Anthropic is having a greater role and OpenAI is being forced to release ballast in the form of services like Sora. Altman is not the only one who thinks that Anthropic is repeatedly using this discourse of “We have something so powerful that we cannot make it public” because it is a good strategy to obtain financing. There are already voices that they point that Mythos is not that big of a deal and, in fact, other models have proven to be able to do the same, finding the same errors and problems detected by Anthropic. But, above all, we must remember that, in 2019, someone already said that a model was too dangerous for public release. Who? OpenAI itself with GPT-2. Obviously, it wasn’t that dangerous. In Xataka | OpenAI and Anthropic have proposed the impossible: lose $85 billion in one year and survive

We have seen it in action and everything changes there

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Hey, what was the title of Almodóvar’s last film? Play the song that uses the basis of “Saturday Night” by Aitana. Move the music to the living room. Daniela is coming to dinner, do you think she will like this dish? How do I look? Is this outfit formal for the event? Buy my favorite wine. Order a Cabify from here to Cibeles. There is nothing strange in these sentences. They are how we speak. The rare thing, until now, was for an assistant to understand them well. Amazon brings Alexa+ to Spain with the promise to change that. After seeing it in a presentation just a few hours ago, the idea is clear: talk to our Echo devices so naturally that we forget that they are machines. The Alexa+ leap is not only in AI, but in how we speak What Amazon is trying to sell with Alexa+ It’s pretty easy to understand, at least on paper: stop talking to a speaker as if we were giving orders to a robot. Instead, the idea is that we can express ourselves naturally, change the subject, leave half sentences or say things as we would say them at home, without thinking too much about how to formulate them. That was, in fact, one of the most repeated ideas during the presentation. Amazon summed up part of that ambition with a pretty clear phrase: “We no longer have to learn the Alexa language.” Said like this, it may sound nuanced, but it is not. Until now, a good part of the experience with this type of assistant involved us adapting to the machine: repeating the activation word, choose each term wellavoid detours and trust that he would not get lost along the way. With Alexa+, at least from what we have seen, the promise is just the opposite. We can ask him to change the music in the room, ask him about a movie, resume a previous conversation or chain several ideas in a row without having to start from scratch each time. That’s where Amazon believes the real leap is. From there the other great promise of Alexa+ comes into play: that it not only responds, but also does things for us. Amazon presents it as a leap from the assistant that informs the assistant that acts, and that is where functions such as managing the calendar, writing an email or playing music come in according to our tastes. The situation changes when that action leaves the ecosystem itself and fully immerses itself in real-world services, such as reserving a table or ordering a car. In Spain, this layer of actions starts with several partners already mentioned by Amazon, among them TheFork, Cabify and Tripadvisor,. Translated into day-to-day life, that means that part of the most ambitious usefulness of the assistant will not only be played in how it converses, but in how many services it manages to understand well outside the home. And there, at least for now, the initial photo is still quite limited. Another thing that Amazon wanted to highlight in the presentation is that Alexa+ not only improves when we talk to it, but also when we give it more context about ourselves. Some of that knowledge can come from our daily activities, from calendar entries or from what you already know from previous interactions, but also from information that we choose to share with you explicitly. The company showed, for example, how documentation can be sent to you by mail so you can incorporate it into your context, such as a school menu. From there, Alexa+ can retrieve that data later and use it in subsequent responses. That layer becomes even more striking when the camera on some Echo devices comes into play. In the presentation we saw how Alexa+ could “see” and answer questions about what is in front of you, from an outfit to other elements of the environment. There were also scenes in which he crossed personal context with practical suggestions, such as recommending a recipe based on what was at home and adjusting that proposal when remembering that a guest did not like a specific ingredient. Added to this is another strong promise: internet connection, real-time information, integration with music and video beyond Amazon’s own services and a well-worked adaptation to Spanish from Spain, both in accent and in cultural references and everyday situations. Our first impression, after seeing it in action just a few hours ago, is that the proposal makes sense and that Amazon has found a fairly clear way to explain why Alexa+ wants to distance itself from the usual Alexa. The presentation was solid and left a good feeling, especially due to the naturalness with which the assistant seemed to chain requests, understand the context and move between different tasks. Now, all of this happened in a controlled environment, prepared by the company itself to show the product in its best version. It promises, yes, but the important test will come when it starts to leave that framework and we see how it really performs in real life. Another important point of the launch is the price, because Amazon has decided to place Alexa+ in a very particular field. During early access it will be free, but after that it will become cost 22.99 euros per month if contracted separately. At the same time, the company has also confirmed that it will be included in the Prime subscription in Spain. And then there’s the most practical part of all: how to get started. Here Amazon proposes two paths. The first involves purchasing one of the compatible Echo devices, which gives immediate access to the early access program. The second is designed for those who already have one at home: in that case, you have to register on the website that the company has enabled, www.amazon.es/nuevalexaand wait to receive an invitation. Amazon assures that these additions will be made in phases over the coming weeks, so not all … Read more

In Spain we have glorified the long nap. In scientific studies they have a different opinion on the matter.

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The siesta is, for many, a fundamental pillar of the Mediterranean lifestyle and an essential pleasure during the afternoon to be able to endure the rest of the day. However, scientific evidence has put this habit under the microscope, especially when naps last several hours and even give you time to dream several times. And the duration, frequency and especially age have a lot to say about the impact on health. The border of time. The current scientific consensus draws a fairly clear line between the classic power nap and the nap of putting on your pajamas and getting into bed for several hours. Because the barrier is marked precisely at the half hour mark, meaning that whoever passes it may begin to notice changes in their health. Here, a recent study from the University of Murcia analyzed to more than 3,000 adults in a Mediterranean environment to analyze the effect of naps. And the reality is that spending more than these 30 minutes was associated with having a higher BMI, a higher incidence of obesity and also being more likely to have a metabolic syndrome such as, for example, diabetes or hypertension. And there is more. When it comes to cardiovascular health, the reality is that the heart can suffer. Here the European Society of Cardiology presented In 2023, different data associated naps longer than 30 minutes with almost double the risk of developing atrial fibrillation. But also the American Heart Association took data who supported this point by pointing out that naps lasting longer than an hour increased the rate of cardiovascular disease by 1.82 times. The age factor. In this sense, one of the most important studies published is found in JAMA, that after following 1,338 older adults for 19 years and objectively measuring their sleep, they were able to see the effect it had. Here it was seen that sleeping more during the day, doing so more frequently or concentrating the nap in the morning was associated with with higher mortality from any cause. Specifically, each extra hour of daytime sleep increased the risk of mortality by 13%. There is much left to investigate. Among the studies that are currently available, no clear correlation has been found, that is, that someone who takes a three-hour nap a day should not have any problems. The only thing that is pointed out is that having the need to sleep excessively during the day can be a consequence of a poor night’s rest because there is a disease that is beginning to see the light, such as sleep apnea. You can take a nap. Although it may seem that we are demonizing the nap, the reality is that it has an important beneficial component when it comes to naps. less than 30 minutes. Here we are achieving an improvement in cognitive performance and it is also a way to recharge our energy a little for the rest of the day. But from here to actively planning a nap that can last for hours, there is a long way that should undoubtedly be avoided. Images | Unsplash In Xataka | Sleeping four hours a day and performing at your best is not a myth, it is a genetic rarity of 1% of the population

seven Oscars endorse ‘El Golpe’

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There are two things that we can assure without fear of being wrong. First, the strong point of Netflix’s catalog is not the classics: other platforms such as HBO, Disney+, Filmin or FlixOlé are infinitely more stocked with films not tied to current events. Second, everyone likes it ‘The coup’. It is infallible: the charisma of its cast, its sparkling sense of humor, its legendary soundtrack and its adorable classicism make seeing it again today still a joy. Luckily, the stars have aligned and you can now enjoy this sensational gangster comedy, unexpectedly, on Netflix. ‘The Coup’ brought together Paul Newman, Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill four years after ‘Two Men and a Fate’. The script, written by David S. Ward, is inspired by the real-life scams of brothers Fred and Charley Gondorff and set in 1936 Chicago, it follows an apprentice con artist (Robert Redford) who teams up with a veteran (Paul Newman) to avenge the death of a friend by conning mobster Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Bathed in a sublime episodic structure (with sections presented with cards that imitate the covers of the ‘Saturday Evening Post’) that announces to the viewer each phase of the scam, this is also a film that plays to scam the viewer: it shows its cards while deceiving you with others. A playful script with vibrant dialogue is one of the strong points of the film, which at the 46th edition of the Oscars, in 1974, won seven awards out of ten nominations: Best Film, Direction, Original Screenplay, Editing, Artistic Direction, Costume Design and Adapted Soundtrack. Among the most remembered ingredients of the film is the soundtrack, which has a peculiarity. Marvin Hamlisch adapted compositions by ragtime by Scott Joplin, despite the fact that the genre had already lost its validity twenty years before 1936, when the plot takes place. The fantasy worked anyway: the soundtrack went to number one… in the seventies. It was one of the key elements that helped turn ‘The Coup’ into a cultural phenomenon. In Xataka | Tomorrow the animated spin-off of the platform’s only powerful franchise premieres on Netflix: ‘Stranger Things’

In Singapore, luxury is not having a Ferrari or a Lamborghini. True luxury is simply driving

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Singaporethat small city/country-state between Malaysia and Indonesia where there are barely more than five million inhabitants, is a place of contrasts. While the enclave has a high degree of government control and certain practices that can be classified as repressive, on the other hand, new technologies are embraced to the point of being a world reference in the public sphere towards AI. There, having a car is not a practical necessity, it is a statement of status. Driving in Singapore. The story was told a year ago. the new york times. In Singapore, owning a car is not practical, it is more of a statement comparable to wearing a designer suit or sporting a luxury watch. The reason? He property certificate system (introduced in 1990 to control congestion and pollution) requires citizens to pay astronomical sums just for the right to buy a vehicle. These certificates, known as certificates of entitlement (COE), can reach up to $84,000raising the total price of common automobiles to exorbitant figures more typical of a supercar. As insurance agent Andre Lee, who in 2020 paid $24,000 for a Kia Forte Second-hand, having a car was simply part of his professional image, although he later recognized that the expense was not justified and chose to sell it. The price in 2026. This year, the COE system has prices that exceed usually $100,000 Singaporeans (about 70,000–85,000 euros) just for the right to circulate for ten years. The different categories oscillate in that range, with large and premium cars reaching the highest figures, while even commercial vehicles and motorcycles have seen notable increases compared to previous years. This volatility, with biweekly auctions that can move prices by thousands of euros, reflects a deja vu: an extremely stressed market where artificial scarcity imposed by the State continues to be the dominant factor, even above the cost of the vehicle itself. An unnecessary luxury. The underlying problem is also explained from another side. With a public transport network affordable and effective, few residents They really need a car to get around the city. Long rides cost less than two dollars and transportation apps like Grab are available. widely available. Despite this, twice a month they celebrate COE auctionswith limited quotas set by the government. This policy has been very effective: Singapore has only 11 cars per 100 inhabitants, far below countries like the United States or Italy, where the figure exceeds 75. Other cities have adopted anti-congestion measures, such as urban tolls in LondonStockholm or New Yorkbut none charges as much to own a car as Singapore. The car and social classes. For the richest in the country, purchasing a vehicle with all the associated costs does not represent a problem. Su-Sanne Ching, a businesswoman, said that paid $150,000 by a Mercedes-Benzincluding a COE of $60,000. On the other hand, for the middle class, especially families with children, the car becomes a luxury that is difficult to sustain. Joy Fang and her husband told the Times that they bought a used Hyundai Avante in 2022 for $58,000 to take his two children. Every month they allocate more than 10% of their family budget to maintain the vehicle, which has forced them to reduce outings and trips. Even so, they consider that the alternative (moving with small children and bags on public transport) is unviable. Help for electricians. Regarding “electrification”, the main aid (EEAI) has been reduced by half. Previously up to 15,000 SGD, and now it has a maximum of SGD 7,500. Not only that, apparently, it already has a date of disappearance by 2027. Plus: the VES system too has been adjusted and has progressively reduced incentives. In other words, this year, the nation seems to be in the phase of progressive withdrawal of aid to electric vehicles. Sometimes not even the symbolism. There are more extreme cases. Even for those who purchase a car for symbolic or professional reasons, as Andre Leecumulative expenses can cause the decision loses meaning. Maintenance, gas, parking and insurance end up exceeding initial expectations. Lee, for example, sold his car three years after purchasing it and now commutes by public transportation, or borrows his father’s vehicle when he needs to meet clients. In his opinion, there are other priorities that ended up outweighing the image projected by having your own car. Rational choice versus chaos. Singapore’s restrictive model contrasts with that of other Southeast Asian cities like Jakarta or Bangkokwhere extreme traffic turns travel into an odyssey. For many Singaporeans, giving up the personal car is a reasonable price to enjoy clearer streets and fast journeys. In this regard and according to sociologist Chua Beng Huatthe choice is cultural and practical: the population prefers to avoid long hours behind the wheel. The man himself, despite owning a BYD SUV to transport his grandchildren, says he uses the subway when he goes downtown. Ultimately, the car in Singapore appears to have become an aspirational rather than a functional commodity, one reserved for those who can afford it without compromising their finances. Unlike other parts of the world where the vehicle represents an almost imperative need for mobility or independence, in the island-state it is, for many, a luxury that compares with the most ostentatious objects. Driving there is like having a Rolex, or almost. Image | William Cho In Xataka | Guide to know if your car will be able to circulate in the ZBEs of Madrid in 2025: labels, registrations and areas In Xataka | How to make an appointment at the IMSS online in Mexico A version of this article was published in 2025. We have updated its content with everything that has happened since then.

Belgrade’s “liquid trees” are the fascinating biotechnological solution to clean the air in cities

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Today, the city of Belgrade has a significant problem in terms of air quality, which is already something quite typical of large cities. The situation here, the truth is, is quite critical, with some areas where the limits recommended by the WHO are exceeded by up to 5 times, and to solve it, the idea that we can have in mind is need to plant more treesbut the reality is that there is little space available to plant them, so they have had to choose to install what they have called liquid trees. The solution. Under the name of LIQUID 3this project has been operating since 2021 in front of the Stari Grad City Hall in the Serbian capital, and to the surprise of many it is not shaped like a tree, but is a simple glass tank that is filled with 600 liters of water inhabited by local microalgae. But just because it doesn’t have the shape of a tree doesn’t mean it doesn’t work as such, since it literally uses photosynthesis to absorb carbon dioxide from the environment and release pure oxygen into the environment, and the truth is that they are very efficient, since a single tank of LIQUID3 is equivalent to the absorption capacity of two 10-year-old trees or 200 square meters of grass. How is it possible? That a simple tank surpasses an adult tree when it comes to ‘purifying’ the air, the truth is that it seems strange, but biotechnology has achieved something incredible. Specifically, science has seen how microalgae have the ability to capture carbon dioxide and fix it between 10 and 50 times faster than land plants under controlled conditions. In fact, studies indicate that these algae can fix approximately 1.8 grams of CO₂ for every gram of biomass generated, achieving CO₂ removal efficiencies close to 50%. And designed for the city. Being in the center of a city is not easy, and that is why scientists have had to use strains of Serbian freshwater microalgae that grow with simple tap water and withstand extreme temperature fluctuations. And here the research indicates that these species are ready for the most hostile environments. And another positive point they have is that they hardly require maintenance, since it is limited to the fact that the biomass generated must be extracted every month and a half, and in addition, water and fresh minerals are added. The positive here is also that biomass can be used as a great natural fertilizer. More than a lung. The LIQUID3 is not just a laboratory experiment that has taken to the streets, but has been designed as multifunctional urban furniture, since, in addition to purifying the air, the structure functions as a bench to sit on and even adds solar panels to charge your cell phone or provide night lighting. It is not definitive. Although it seems incredible, the truth is that we must put our feet on the ground in the face of technological enthusiasm. Although right now the figures are very good, there is still a lack of studies that can validate the impact it has in the long term and measure whether they are really giving good results, and above all that they are real. But the most important nuance here is that these systems do not replace traditional trees or forests, which logically must remain where they are and promoting their implementation. In this way, we are left with the fact that this technology has been designed for dense and highly polluted urban areas where traditional planting is logistically impossible. Where the asphalt does not give an inch to the roots, the liquid trees rise like a high-tech green oasis, giving the city’s lungs a break. Images | LIQUID3 In Xataka | Tell me where you live and I’ll tell you how healthy your tap water is: the map of Spain that analyzes each municipality

The iPhone can do much more than we think. The key is in the Shortcuts and this way you can start taking advantage of them

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A few days ago I was in a cafe with a friend when, in the middle of the conversation, he took out his iPhone and showed me how much of a Shortcuts expert. At that time I thought more people should know that. Barely two weeks have passed since then and now I have to present to you this video that my colleagues at Xataka have made, a very good opportunity to start using the mobile “like a pro”. Ana Boriawhich has tested devices like the Plaud Note Pro or the Nothing Phone (4a) Pro and that even you have been encouraged to home automation your homenow wants to help us make life easier for iPhone users. This is a video in which he shares his experience with a tool that can be very useful and explains how to use it for tasks such as scheduling the sending of messages, reading news with a single click or creating a QR code to share the WiFi network. The video that we have just published on the Xataka YouTube channel It starts precisely with that last possibility. “You probably know that on Android, simply clicking on the Wi-Fi network gives you the QR code to share it with everyone. Well, then on iPhone it is not so simple”, says our colleague. How to do it then? With Shortcuts. We just have to add the shortcut that Ana left us and configure it exactly as she explains. In addition, it proposes three different options so that everyone can choose the one that best suits their needs. “If you have traveled, it may have happened to you the same as me, that when you go to another country they don’t speak your language, but they don’t speak English either. Well, for that, this shortcut has been great for me,” says our colleague when presenting her next recommendation. In this case You don’t even need to download any additional applications. All you have to do is take advantage of a shortcut that is also capable of detecting the language automatically. Ana also reviews other especially useful shortcuts, such as one designed to read the last 10 articles from our favorite websites, another to obtain a personalized note with parameters from the Health app and several automations for the iPhone to execute certain actions based on the time or location. It is true that launching these shortcuts requires following some steps, but In the video there are all the necessary links to download them and start playing with them. I hope you like preparing it as much as we do. And, of course, we invite you to leave your comments both here and on YouTube. Images | Xataka In Xataka | The foldable iPhone is getting closer every day: this is everything we know about it so far

Ryanair has grounded its passengers twice in one week. The culprit has a first and last name: EES

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For a plane to take off on time and end up leaving hundreds of passengers behind is something that does not happen often. However, it has already happened on several Ryanair flights in recent weeks, and the explanation, technically, has little to do with the airline really. The new border system. The European Union has launched the Entry and Exit System (EES), a digital border control that forces non-EU citizens (including the British, since Brexit) to register their biometric data every time they cross a Schengen area border. That includes facial scanning and fingerprints. The system began rolling out in October and was due to be fully operational in all Schengen countries from April 10. What no one calculated quite correctly is the time it would take to process each passenger at the controls. What happened in Milan. On April 16, a Ryanair flight bound for Manchester took off from Bergamo airport, leaving behind a group of passengers still stuck in border control queues. According to counted one of those affected, Adam Hassanjee, 18, told the BBC, they had not moved in the queue for an hour and a half when they saw the plane leaving. He had to make a living on his own: first a flight to Malta, then to Leeds. In parallel, to EasyJet something similar happened to him at Linate airport, also in Milan, where of the 156 passengers on a flight to Manchester only 34 boarded. It has not been the only case. That same April 10, the date on which the EES was to be activated throughout the Schengen area, another Ryanair flight between Tenerife South and East Midlands, United Kingdom, also left passengers on the ground. Among them, according to reported BBC, a 42-year-old teacher, his wife and two-year-old son, who had to spend £1,600 finding an alternative route home because the next available Ryanair flight didn’t leave for a week. Ryanair’s version: they didn’t leave anyone. The airline has rejected firmly the narrative that he “left passengers behind.” His argument goes through the fact that everyone who was at the gate when it closed flew away. Those who did not arrive on time simply missed their flight. They also explained that, once boarding is closed, the passenger manifest is legally signed and sent to the captain, from which point nothing can be done. The EES thing, according to the airline, is a border control problem, not theirs. Punctuality. Technically, Ryanair may be right. But the image it conveys is that of an airline that prefers to leave on time, without dozens of passengers, rather than wait for a new, slow and technically problematic border control system to let its people through. It is not that it is illegal or unusual in the industry, but after the general chaos due to the implementation of the EES, there was a striking lack of communication to travelers. Peter Walker, the teacher who was stranded in Tenerife, counted to the media that at no time was there anyone from the airline to inform them or help them with options. What Brussels says. The European Commission has defended that the EES “works very well” and that in the vast majority of countries there have been no incidents. He acknowledged, however, that in some member states technical problems were detected in the first days. Just like share According to the media, since it started in October, the system has recorded more than 56 million border crossings and has prevented the entry of 28,500 people, of which 700 were identified as a security threat. Cover image | Niels Baars In Xataka | Commercial aviation is based on very old aircraft. The Iran war is going to make it even worse

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