Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Europe has found a hole that has been sending sensitive material to Russia for years: a “Mercadona” from Germany

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More than 400 billion packages circulate around the world every year, and the international postal system is designed to move them as quickly as possible. To achieve this, many shipments cross borders with simplified controls and risk-based reviews, not full inspections. That logistical efficiency, designed to speed up commerce and everyday correspondence, sometimes generates unexpected cracks in much larger systems. An unexpected hole. Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the European Union has lifted one of the sanctions regimes wider of its history with the aim of economically isolating Russia and hindering access to technology that can feed his military machine. Advanced electronics, sensitive components or certain industrial equipment are theoretically blocked to prevent them from reinforcing the Kremlin’s war economy. However, the practical application of these restrictions faces a constant problem: the more complex the sanctions system, the more ingenious They become the routes to avoid it. And in this case the weak point has appeared in a place so everyday that it is difficult to believe. A clandestine channel in the supermarket. The story was told in a report in Politico. Apparently, in several Russian chain supermarkets throughout Germany, among shelves of sweets or freezers, advertisements have appeared that promote a logistics service specialized in sending packages from Germany directly to Russia. What at first glance seems like a postal service for the Russian diaspora has become an unexpected crack within the European sanctions system. Customers may drop off boxes that supposedly contain clothing, books or small personal items. No one inspects the contents and, for a few euros per kilo, the package begins a journey that ends in Moscow or St. Petersburg. In this apparently innocent flow, even sensitive electronic components whose export is prohibited. The inherited logistics network. The middle counted that behind this circuit is LS Logistics Solution GmbH, a German company created by former employees by RusPostthe subsidiary that the Russian state postal service had established in Germany before sanctions forced it to close. After the invasion of Ukraine, that structure did not completely disappear. It was reorganized under a new namekept part of its staff and continued to operate from Germany with a similar system. The result is a kind of parallel postal network that collects packages throughout Europe and concentrates them in a warehouse near the Berlin airport, from where shipments to Russia are organized. The seal trick. The key to the system is an apparently bureaucratic detail. The packages do not have labels from the Russian Post, but from the state postal service of uzbekistan. Since that country is not subject to European sanctions, the shipment can take advantage of special rules that protect international postal traffic. In practice, this means that packets move with lighter controls than traditional commercial shipments. This administrative difference, designed to facilitate mail between citizens, becomes a back door for sensitive goods to cross borders without raising too many suspicions. A kilometer trip through Europe. The route of the packages illustrates chow it works the system. After being picked up from supermarkets or delivery points, they spend a day or two in Germany before moving to a large logistics warehouse near Berlin airport. From there they are loaded onto trucks that cross Poland on the A2 highway and continue to Belarus. Even though this country is also sanctioned for its support to Moscow, the packages continue to advance thanks to your status international postal mail. After traveling more than 2,000 km, they end up arriving at addresses in Moscow or Saint Petersburg. The problem of sanctions. Plus: the episode also reflects a challenge that those who design economic sanctions are well aware of. Officially blocking trade is relatively simple, but preventing alternative routes appear It is much more complicated, and that is already we have told it in the drone war in Ukraine. Each new restriction forces the creation of more complex control systems, while those who try to circumvent them constantly search new legal cracks or logistics. The result is an endless game of adaptation in which authorities try to close holes just as new ones begin to appear. Always one step behind. They finished the report explaining that European authorities are already reviewing the case and have strengthened the rules to pursue sanctions violations. Be that as it may, the discovery of the network itself demonstrates to what extent the system can make fun. As governments design increasingly strict legal frameworks, makeshift logistics networks continue to find ways to move sensitive goods across of unexpected routes. And in this case, the blind spot that allowed this channel to Russia to be kept open was not in an industrial port or a large cargo terminal, but in something as everyday as the check-in counter. a supermarket. Image | flowcomm, RawPixel In Xataka | In 2022, the war in Ukraine sent supermarket prices soaring. Iran threatens to make it child’s play In Xataka | The EU has a perfect plan to suffocate Russia. The problem is that now it needs its oil to survive

All the lighthouses that illuminate the coasts of the North Atlantic, gathered in an impressive interactive map

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The figure of the solitary lighthouse keeper in charge of the thankless task of keeping his tower operational and in good condition at the service of the boats has long been a rare sight: they are in danger of extinction in front of the automated towers, both in terms of lighting and other auxiliary tasks within of the DGPS differential system. There are (almost) no lighthouse keepers, but the lighthouses look like never before. Only Europe’s 90,000 kilometers of coastline They are a veritable garden of lighthousesbut one thing are lighthouses (that iconic tall tower with a light on top) and another is lights for maritime signaling, where large lights, small lights, beacons or buoys enter. The reference technical standard is IALA Recommendation E-110, as collects and translates into Spanish Puertos del Estado. If we talk about maritime signage, things change there and the figures increase: there are 23,217 lights in the northern seas alone, according to OpenStreetMaps. It must be considered that this is open data, provided by the community, with areas very well mapped and others not so well. The lighthouses of the North Seas, as we have never seen them If we stick to the northern seas, the lighthouses drop to around 2,500 units. Although his thing is teaching and business, Wharton University professor Ethan Mollick has condensed all this information into an interactive map using vibe coding: Lighthouse Atlas. Lighthouse Atlas This map of the northern seas is more than a mere cartography of that maritime signage: it is interactive, making it a tool as visual as it is impressive for the possibility of playing with zoom, filtering or the information it shows. If you also hover over the lights, you can see more data such as their name, color range or frequency. In addition to being able to filter to see only the headlights (‘Major lights only’), as Mollick explainseach light has the correct color, each flashes with the appropriate frequency, and its brightness has been scaled according to OSM data. You can also see how far away they are visible. How far are the light signals seen in the Atlantic, between the Spanish and French states Thus, the size of the points serves to get an idea of ​​how close or far the vessels can be to view the signals. For example, on these lines you can see how much the signals of the muga between the Spanish and French states illuminate. Especially striking because of how congested the Norwegian coast is, as can be seen numerically. in the database from Norsk Fyrhistorisk Forening, the company that compiles a detailed map of locations along the entire Scandinavian coast. However, of the historical 212, it has about 150 operational. It is not the only one: Scotland and the Isle of Man, the coasts of Denmark and the Adriatic Sea, on the coasts of Greece and Türkiye are also well nourished. In Xataka | A man bought a desert island in 1962: he planted 16,000 trees and turned it into an anti-rich sanctuary In Xataka | All the lighthouses of Europe, with their different patterns and colors, gathered in this fantastic map Cover | Lighthouse Atlas

BYD is already studying entering Formula 1, according to Bloomberg. And it is not a whim, it is a necessary step

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To understand a leak you have to imagine (or be clear about) who is behind it. But also how and when the information has been leaked. And in this case, of course, there is little that is coincidental. BYD is studying its entry into Formula 1, according to Bloomberg. In the week in which Formula 1 arrives in China and the sport seeks new markets. The rumors. BYD is studying its ability to compete in Formula 1 and/or the World Endurance Championship (WEC) according to Bloomberg. The media outlet points to “people familiar with the matter,” who point out that the company calculates how much money an investment could take where no success is guaranteed. For the information of Bloomberg It seems that internal investigations would be in their early stages. And the media points out that there would be two possibilities, from creating your own team to buying one already on the grid, a more common option. Because? On BYD’s side, the reason is clear: trust. The company needs to open up to new markets but, in addition, its plans for the next five years include a rapid expansion. The company has also seen how its sales have collapsed in China and there are those who anticipate a stagnation in sales if the State does not return the purchase aid of recently recalled electric cars. Entering one or both of the competitions would give the company a layer of credibility and confidence in the face of possible new competitors. Competitions continue to be a huge laboratory where solutions and ingenuity can be developed that can then be applied on the street, but they also help create history and brand image. Chinese companies need a boost in this last sense to give credibility to their proposal. At the moment they are doing it by following all the challenges that traditional manufacturers once set themselves. That’s why Xiaomi has sought its own record at the Nürburgring. That’s why BYD boasts of having the fastest car in the world. Jumping into competition is only a natural step in strategy. Formula 1. Why would BYD be interested in Formula 1 when the championship is not going through its best moment? For several reasons: With the change in regulations, the battery and electric motors are more important than ever. Right now, the type of motorization is aligned with a proposal with which BYD can take advantage on the street. Despite criticism, it remains the queen category of motorsports. Neither the World Endurance Championship (except the 24 Hours of Le Mans), nor the World Rally Championship, nor Formula E, nor the American competitions (Indycar or Nascar) attract so many viewers to television. Formula 1 has gained enormous weight among young people in the United States. Your documentaries Drive to survive They have increased interest in a population group that may be interested in their vehicles. The country also already organizes two Grand Prix, which would serve as a showcase where, at the moment, they cannot sell their cars. Formula 1 aims to once again attract the Chinese public. This weekend F1 returns to Shanghai, which has been sowing the seed since 2004 (with the 2020-2023 break due to the Covid-19 crisis). If Formula 1 is interested in gaining followers in the country, BYD would be a great tool. And the problems? The problems for BYD are also several and almost all of them are linked to the fact that it is impossible to guarantee the return of investments in competition in terms of success. And it is difficult to measure its social impact in the short term. Bloomberg points out that a year in a championship like Formula 1 or the WEC is equivalent to investing about 500 million euros. The company does not have a previous competition structure. That leaves two possibilities: create it from scratch with inexperienced engineers or buy existing equipment. Neither option is cheap. The future of Formula 1 is uncertain. The current regulations do not convince either drivers or fans. Some teams even supported freezing the change or not giving so much weight to the batteries and others like Audi, which had already made the investment to enter it, refused. The doubt is whether the sport will maintain the current rules as they are or if they will move away from a proposal that fits with BYD’s philosophy. Just as BYD has a lot to gain in image, it can also lose it. Both Formula 1 and the WEC are dominated by Western teams, failing could mean a step back in the communication strategy. The WEC. The World Endurance Championship could be a logical and alternative option to Formula 1 that seems to have fewer risks. The organizers seem willing to open their hand with the type of motorization used, so there are not so many regulatory restrictions in that sense. This has once again attracted brands such as Ferrari, Aston Martin, Lamborghini, Ford or Genesis (Hyundai). In addition, it would allow him to grow and gain experience without having so many spotlights on him. Endurance races are an excellent opportunity to test the reliability of advances that can then be replicated to a greater or lesser extent on the street. A success would be excellent publicity and a failure would not attract as many eyes. Photo | BYD and Drew Bates In Xataka | From BYD to Xiaomi: all the Chinese cars that are already sold in Spain, Europe and those to come

which cars can circulate and which rest on March 14

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This Saturday the Hoy No Circula Saturday scheme is reactivated, the tool with which the Environment Secretariat of Mexico City (SEDEMA) limits the circulation of certain cars in the Valley of Mexico to reduce pollution levels. Those who plan to use their vehicle must verify in advance the completion of the license plate and the verification hologram before entering the road. The limitations are not limited to the 16 municipalities of CDMX, but also extend to several suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico, where the scheme is applied under the same conditions. The program also operates in: Atizapan of Zaragoza Coacalco de Berriozábal Cuautitlan Cuautitlán Izcalli Chalco Chicoloapan Chimalhuacan Ecatepec de Morelos Huixquilucan Ixtapaluca Peace Naucalpan de Juárez Nezahualcoyotl Nicolas Romero Tecámac Tlalnepantla de Baz Tultitlan Chalco Valley Also, remember that if your route passes through any of these locations, the Saturday No Circulation Day also applies. What cars and license plates does Hoy No Circula Saturday affect? The objective of the program is to take part of the vehicle fleet out of circulation to cut emissions, but on Saturdays specific criteria are applied that are added to the scheme from Monday to Friday. Not all car owners rest on the same weekend: the hologram, the last digit of the license plate and whether Saturday corresponds to an odd or even week determine which cars stay parked and which can drive. According to the Secretariat of the Environment of Mexico City (SEDEMA), this Saturday scheme complements the regular calendar of the Hoy No Circula program in the Metropolitan Zone of the Valley of Mexico. It is worth remembering that the Today it does not circulate on Saturdays, it does not operate 24 hours a day. The application hours go from 5:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., so that outside of that period—at night and early morning—the program does not impose restrictions on the circulation of vehicles, unless an environmental contingency or other extraordinary provision is decreed that temporarily extends the usual limits. In the case of March 14, 2026, the calendar indicates that it is the second Saturday of the month, which is why it is considered an “even week.” Under this configuration, vehicles with hologram 1 and license plates ending in an even number are those that must remain out of circulation during program hours. If your car meets that combination, you will have to leave it stored until after 10:00 p.m. On the contrary, cars with hologram 0 and 00 maintain permission to circulate without restrictions within the framework of Today No Circula Saturday. Those with hologram 2 cannot circulate under any circumstances on Saturdays. In addition to the previous cases, remember that there are a series of exempt vehicles that can circulate without being affected by these limitations. These are: Electric cars, natural gas or equipped with a hybrid system Vehicles with plates registered for people with disabilities Units intended for urban public transport service, including funeral services Vehicles dedicated to school or passenger transportation Units assigned to public security and/or civil protection tasks Those who decide not to comply with the provisions of Hoy No Circula are exposed to a significant financial penalty. The fine for violating the program ranges from 20 to 30 times the Measurement and Update Unit (UMA), which is equivalent to approximately 1,924.40 pesos at the minimum and up to 2,886.60 pesos at the maximum. Added to the economic impact is the possible immobilization of the vehicle and the time spent resolving the situation before the authorities. In conclusion, if you are going to travel by car this Saturday through CDMX or through the suburban municipalities of the State of Mexico included in the program, it is advisable to check before starting what hologram your vehicle has, what the ending of your license plate is and if the calendar shows an even or odd week. Hoy No Circula Saturday focuses on removing the most polluting cars from circulation, but at the same time it forces people to better plan trips and evaluate mobility alternatives when the vehicle must rest. Photo | Valerie Kaarna In Xataka | The countries that pollute the most in the world, gathered in a detailed graph

a system governed by AI agents

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The way we use mobile apps could be entering a new stage. Until now, the Android experience has been based on something very simple: opening applications and performing step-by-step actions within them. However, Google is exploring a different model, in which artificial intelligence acts as an intermediate layer between what we ask for and what apps can do. In that scenario, we won’t always be the ones scrolling through menus or completing processes manually. In many cases, it will be enough to express what we want to do so that the system will try to solve it for us, coordinating different phone functions. The next step in Android. In a post on the official developer blogthe company presents new capabilities designed so that applications can work directly with assistants and AI systems. These functions are designed so that tools like Gemini can discover and execute certain actions within some apps. The project is still in an early phase, but it suggests a very specific direction: begin to reconfigure Android as an environment in which artificial intelligence can help complete tasks. What do we understand by agent. In the field of AI, an agent is a designed system to move from response to action. While early digital assistants functioned as consultation tools, agents attempt to understand an intention and plan how to carry it out. To do so, they combine several capabilities: understanding natural language, evaluating the context and deciding what steps are necessary to fulfill a request. It is not just about generating text or suggestions, but about organizing a small chain of decisions oriented towards a specific objective. If we follow the reasoning that Google presents in its publication, the change does not only affect AI, but also how applications are conceived within Android. For years, the main objective of any app was to get the user to open it and complete all the necessary actions within it. However, now that criterion is beginning to shift. In this new scenario, success begins to be measured less by getting us to open an app and more by its ability to help complete a task, even when the user does not directly interact with its entire interface. One of the first pieces of change. The first path that Google proposes to move in this direction goes through something it calls AppFunctions. It is not a user-visible function as such, but rather a set of tools with which developers can expose functions and data of their apps to intelligent assistants such as Gemini. The example mentioned by the Android blog itself is quite illustrative: on the recently introduced Galaxy S26 seriesGemini can access Samsung Gallery features to locate specific photos based on a natural language request, such as asking to show images of a pet. In that case, the assistant interprets the request, activates the corresponding Samsung Gallery function and returns the result without requiring the user to manually navigate through the gallery. The other way of Google. Along with direct integrations, the company is preparing a second formula to extend this model to more applications. As he explains, it is an interface automation system that will allow Gemini to take care of generic multi-step tasks without depending on a specific connection between the app and the assistant. Instead of relying on a function previously exposed by the application, the AI ​​acts directly on the interface. Google notes that this initial preview will be tested on the Galaxy S26 series and some Pixel 10within the Gemini app and with a limited selection of delivery, grocery and transportation applications in the United States and Korea. The company also ensures that the user will be able to follow the process through notifications or a live view, resume manual control at any time and receive notifications before sensitive actions, such as a purchase. Looking to the future. If Google’s announcement makes anything clear, it is that Android is beginning to prepare for a different stage. The functions presented are still in development and their deployment will be gradual, but they point to a specific direction: an operating system in which artificial intelligence plays an increasingly active role in the way we perform daily actions on mobile phones. Pixel and Samsung appear for now as the most visible references, although Google suggests that it wants to bring these capabilities to more manufacturers as the ecosystem evolves. As is often the case with these types of changes, the final result will depend on how the tools, integrations and the response of the users themselves evolve. Images | Google In Xataka | The iPhone has been a “made in China” phone for decades. Now it is changing countries at full speed: India

Sierra was the second most powerful supercomputer in the world. When its time came it ended up in the shredder, literally

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Supercomputers represent the extreme of modern computing: machines capable of performing enormous amounts of calculations every second and supporting scientific or strategic projects of enormous complexity. Saw He was one of those giants. For years he operated in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratorywhere he was in charge of highly sensitive simulations for the United States Government. At the time he came to occupy second place in the TOP500 rankingwhich ranks the world’s fastest supercomputers. But in high-performance computing, even the most advanced systems have a limited lifespan. After seven years of service, Sierra has been retired. A giant for simulations. When Sierra began operating in 2018 at the Livermore facility, it was incorporated into the center’s high-performance computing infrastructure to support the nuclear arsenal maintenance program managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration. Instead of resorting to real nuclear tests, scientists use computer simulations capable of reproducing the behavior of the weapons and materials involved in their design. This work requires extraordinary computing power and also has implications in areas such as nonproliferation and counterterrorism. Almost at the top of the ranking. As we noted above, for several years the Sierra was among the fastest machines on the planet. According to the TOP500 ranking, it recorded 94.64 petaflops, that is, tens of quadrillion floating point operations per second. To achieve this, it used an unusual architecture at the time, based on IBM Power9 processors combined with NVIDIA Volta V100 graphics accelerators. This design allowed work to be distributed among thousands of computing nodes and offered a notable leap over previous generations of supercomputing. When the hardware starts to fail. Supercomputers do not escape a reality common to any technological infrastructure: over the years, the hardware begins to deteriorate. In this type of systems, The usual useful life is usually around five to seven yearsa period after which the failure rate begins to grow and maintaining the system becomes more complex. As these machines accumulate hours of operation, the likelihood increases that certain components will fail or need to be replaced. In the case of Sierra, furthermore, part of the problem was already very specific: some of its components had stopped being manufactured and the version of the operating system it used had lost support. The successor. Sierra’s retirement is also related to the arrival of a new generation of supercomputing at the center. In 2025 it began operating The Captainthe system destined to take its place within the laboratory’s computing infrastructure. Although at first glance both may seem similar facilities, the difference is inside. El Capitan uses an architecture based on the AMD Instinct MI300A APUs and a shared memory system between CPU and GPU, which allows it to achieve much higher performance. According to data released by the lab, this machine can reach 1,809 exaflops, about 19 times faster than Sierra at its peak according to TOP500. Disassemble a supercomputer piece by piece. The end of Sierra was not simply about shutting down the system and leaving it out of commission. The process was carried out in several phases that began with the progressive removal of computing nodes and internal components. Technicians dismantled entire racks, extracted batteries and separated different elements for recycling or controlled destruction. Some parts, such as system plates or metal structures, were sent to specialized facilities for shredding. Since Sierra had worked with simulations linked to the US nuclear arsenal, the laboratory had to prevent any possibility of partial data recovery or reconstruction of sensitive information, hence the storage devices received even stricter treatment. Images | United States Department of Energy In Xataka | Meta has been buying chips from NVIDIA and AMD for years. Now it also makes its own so as not to fall short

in one million euros a year

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Inditex has just presented the best results in its history. For the first time in its history, the company founded by Amancio Ortega has reached 6,220 million, with a turnover that was close to 40,000 million euros. In that context of historical numberswhat its top managers earn draws attention…and not precisely because they are modest figures. Marta Ortega, president of the company and youngest daughter of Amancio Ortega, has been in office for four years and her remuneration has not moved a single euro since it stabilized at one million a year. Meanwhile, the CEO, Óscar García Maceiras, has just raised his salary for the third consecutive year. The CEO who rises while the president remains still. As reflected in the Annual Corporate Governance Report 2025 of Inditex, García Maceiras closed 2025 with a total remuneration of 11.55 million euros, which represents an increase of 3% compared to the previous year and a cumulative increase of 38% since he assumed the position of CEO in November 2021 after the departure of Pablo Isla. Their remuneration is broken down into a block of 7.4 million euros in cash which includes a fixed salary, short-term variable percentage and long-term variable percentage. As and as usual In senior management positions, remuneration is completed with a package of shares or other financial instruments valued at 4.1 million euros. These new shares are added to the 118,329 titles which he already has. This salary growth for the CEO caused the total amount allocated to the board of directors to also increase, going from 14.28 million which they registered in 2024 to 14.5 million euros in the last financial year. One million euros a year: the price of presiding over Inditex. Martha Ortega became president non-executive of Inditex in 2022 and since then her salary has always followed the same line. In his first year he received a salary of 834,000 euros. However, in the following three years and unlike the rest of the directors of the Zara parent company, his salary has remained unchanged at one million euros. Neither the company’s record results nor the increase in dividends to shareholders have moved that figure. Now, that million is not the only income that Marta Ortega receives from her ties to the group. According to published Digital EconomyIn addition to her remuneration as president of Inditex, she receives remuneration for her participation in the boards of directors. of Pontegadea Investments, Partler 2006 and Pontegadea GB 2020, the companies with which the Ortega family controls the textile group and manages the rest of your investments. In addition, its shareholding percentage also brings some dividends, although without reaching the levels that this year Amancio Ortega will receive. A top management that also wins. García Maceiras is not the only one who has seen his income grow after the company’s good results. The joint remuneration of the 19 executives who form Inditex senior management It amounted to 139.5 million euros in the last financial year, compared to 132 million the previous year. That is, an increase of 7.5 million distributed among that select group of managers. In contrast, the average Inditex employee he earned around 40,000 euros in 2025, 5.26% more than the previous year. The difference between what the CEO earned and what a standard employee of the company receives exceeds 280 times. It is a gap that does not go unnoticedespecially in a year in which the company has broken all its historical profit records. ​Amancio Ortega does not care about his salary. There is a surprising fact when the remuneration of the Inditex leadership is broken down. Amancio Ortega, the man who founded the group and who remains its main shareholder with control of more than 59% of the capital through family officehe repeated in 2025 with an allocation of just 100,000 euros per year as a member of the council. Without a doubt, this is a figure that, compared to the 3,234 million euros that it will receive in the context of the dividends that correspond to its participation, has more symbolic than practical value. In Xataka | Marta Ortega has inherited something more than a textile empire: Amancio Ortega’s taste for big logistical bets Image | Wikimedia Commons (Nemigo), GTRES

the only tools this expat needs to hunt down Iran’s ghost tankers

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From the 47th floor of his Singapore apartment building, Remy Osman, a British expat who works in the beverage industry, has a front-row seat to one of the world’s biggest geopolitical clashes. Armed with binoculars, a wide-angle camera and live tracking applications, Osman watches as a 333-meter-long supertanker moves at a snail’s pace along one of the busiest shipping routes on the planet. The scene contains a brutal irony: as detailed Financial Timesthat ship’s cargo has almost doubled in value since it set sail just two weeks ago, coinciding with Brent crude oil reached 120 dollars per barrel in the wake of the war between the United States, Israel and Iran. From his balcony, Osman hunts the ships of the so-called “shadow fleet”, sanctioned oil tankers that operate outside the law, but in broad daylight. The ship that caught Osman’s attention is the Hugean 18-year-old oil tanker. According to the sanctions list records of the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)it is an Iranian-flagged ship operated by the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC) and heavily monitored since 2018. Although the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz began at the end of February with attacks by the United States and Israel, the Huge It has been one of the few large crude oil cargo ships (VLCC) that managed to get out of that mousetrap. From his privileged vantage point, Osman has identified an unmistakable pattern: the Iranian oil tankers sail towards the east sunken in the water, revealing that they are loaded to the brim, and a week later they return in the opposite direction floating much higher, with their load considerably lighter. The most surprising thing is the nerve with which they operate in the midst of the current crisis. Ships that were previously hidden now display their names and flags as if to say: “We have as much right to navigate these waters as anyone else,” Osman himself said. to the Finance Times. This impunity has reached the point that almost two-thirds of the NITC fleet have started transmitting data accurate in their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS) after seven years of manipulation and concealment. Tehran’s lifeline The impact of this ghost fleet parading in front of Osman’s window is titanic. As the world suffers “the largest supply disruption in history” due to the closure of Hormuz, Iran continues to export its crude oilsurpassing the barrier of 2 million barrels per day. The millions of barrels that Osman sees disappearing on the horizon have an overwhelmingly single destination: China. The Asian giant absorbs around 90% of Iran’s oil exports. The data tracked corroborate this massive escapeplacing the “Iran-China” route in first place in dark operations, moving more than 1.6 million barrels per day. While Iran profits, the rest of the planet trembles. With some 20 million barrels a day taken off the formal board due to the physical blockade of Hormuz, the scenario of a barrel at $200 is already a real possibility. The global threat is proportional to the size of this illicit network: according to Fortunethe dark fleet is estimated at about 1,100 vessels, representing between 17% and 18% of all liquid cargo tankers in the world. The machinery to outwit the Western powers is a marvel of evasive engineering that occurs a few kilometers from Osman’s house. As explained Financial Timestankers do not sail directly from Iran to Chinese ports, but instead perform ship-to-ship (Ship-to-Ship) transfers on the high seas. The main scenario for this transfer is the Eastern Outer Port Limits, in Malaysian waters, an area with little supervision. On a single day last January, satellite images confirmed the presence of about 60 of these ships anchored there, operating with total impunity. To achieve this level of invisibility, they exploit legal loopholes in the sea. As detailed Fortune, The international maritime system is based on voluntary compliance: ships simply turn off their radio transponders, spoof their locations, or change their identities by scratching their registration numbers. In addition, they rely on “flags of convenience.” According to the statistics of Tanker TrackersIn addition to Iran and Russia, dark ships often fly flags of countries such as Panama, Cameroon or Sierra Leone. The final link in this chain is found in Asia. The report of Kharon reveals that the final buyers They are not the large state oil companies, but the so-called refineries teapot. These small, independent refiners absorb 90% of Iranian exports and give Beijing “plausible deniability” in the international community, even though these private companies are deeply connected to the Chinese state through joint ventures and front-line networks in Hong Kong. Attempts to stop this illicit transfer have been few and often frustrating. Although Malaysian authorities recently seized crude oil worth almost $130 million from two suspicious tankers, the outcome was laughable: after paying bail of just $75,000, the ships were released. The next day, Osman looked out on his balcony again and there was one of them, the Celebratebrowsing again fully loaded. The paradox in the shadows Still, the war has brought some complications. According to Lloyd’s Listthe escalation of war forced at least six ghost tankers that were sailing empty towards the Persian Gulf to turn around (the so-called U-turns) and abort its operations. But the network is resilient: as experts point out, the shadow fleet is designed precisely to operate under disruption. The great irony is that, while those sanctioned find cracks to navigate, the legal actors are desperate. The blockade has forced Saudi Arabia to use its oil pipeline through the desert against the clock to divert millions of barrels to Yanbuin the Red Sea, where an emergency armada of supertankers is queuing up in an agonizing attempt to evacuate legal crude oil and prevent economic collapse. How to conclude Fortune, The dark fleet did not arise because the maritime system is broken, but because it was always voluntary. Today, sanctions have pushed countries like Iran to build a highly effective parallel system. While the formal world looks for alternative … Read more

will not work miracles

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Just do scroll a few minutes on TikTok or Instagram to come across a video teaching the great benefits of taking magnesium supplementationpromising to sleep better or make your muscles perform better than ever. This has caused magnesium to become almost something essentialbut the reality is that it does not work miracles. Like other supplements that had their great heyday in the past. Specific cases. The current scientific evidence is clear and fits perfectly with what nutrition experts warn: in the healthy population, the absolute priority is diet. Magnesium supplements are not a miracle pill and only make true sense when there are deficiencies or very specific clinical situations. The problem is that the general population falls into wanting quick benefits with a simple pill. This is something that can be seen in a medical consultation, where leaving without a prescription for a new medication seems crazy, since we do not welcome being prescribed a diet or a series of exercises. In the end we want a pill that cures absolutely everything and gives us the greatest fulfillment in terms of health. The effect of magnesium. This is what happens with magnesium, and it is normal when it is sold to us as something so good. But the question we must ask ourselves here is: do we really lack that much magnesium? The answer is varied, because intake data in Europe reveal that between 25 and 40% of adults are below the average requirement, being a relevant problem in women. However, going “just right” in magnesium does not mean that you have clinical hypomagnesemia (a drop in magnesium), nor does it mean that you need to buy the best supplement. The vast majority of these people could solve their problem by making small adjustments at the supermarket: eating more legumes, nuts, seeds, green leafy vegetables and whole grains. Which is supported. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) endorses that magnesium reduces fatigue and supports muscle and nerve function. But if we look at recent clinical trials, its miraculous effect is nuanced. For example, it has been seen that magnesium oxide used as an osmotic laxative for decades, and it is something that has been confirmed in the laboratory. Another effect with strong evidence behind it comes from a meta-analysis published in 2025 that shows that prolonged supplementation for between 12 and 16 weeks with doses of 250-450 mg per day improves blood pressure, lipid profile and reduces inflammatory markers. What is less clear. On the other side of the scale, there are some effects that do not have such strong evidence. For example, a mantra that has been heard is that supplemented magnesium is ideal for migraines. Something that has been demonstrated, but without very conclusive data. As an extra, magnesium is also sold as the ultimate and most natural sedative, but here is the data They are less spectacular than they seem. The reality is that it helps a little with insomnia and mild anxiety, but the quality of the evidence is limited, and the effect, according to trials, is not uniform. Where to click. If they have sold magnesium to avoid cramps while running or perform better in the gym, the truth is that it is smoke. An in-depth 2024 scientific review on magnesium and exercise concluded that the evidence for performance, recovery and cramps is minimal and, thus, its widespread use in athletes is not solidly supported. It is not the solution either for the famous hot flashes that exists when you reach menopause, since the trials here show that magnesium does not reduce the frequency or intensity of these. Yes, it is true that right now there are some studies underway with specific formulations to see if they act on other symptoms. They are not all the same. The most important thing here is to always consult your doctor so that he or she can determine if there really is a deficiency of this mineral (or others) through a simple blood test. If confirmed, you have to know how to choose well, with magnesium citrate being one of the favorites as it is the one that is best absorbed in the intestine. Be careful not to go overboard. Different institutions mark a very clear red line: they cannot be consumed more than 350 mg of magnesium in the form of a daily supplement. Overcoming this barrier, especially if more than 400 mg are taken daily, opens the door to the most common adverse effects such as diarrhea, nausea and abdominal cramps. Additionally, magnesium supplements are contraindicated in people with severe kidney failure, as their kidneys cannot filter the excess, which can cause severe muscle weakness and neuromuscular blockages. In Xataka | There are people obsessed with consuming magnesium as a supplement when the best way is to put it in your diet

TicketMaster executives privately admit what their clients have suspected for years:

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Slack messages exchanged in 2022 between two regional directors by Live Nation (declassified this past March 12 in full antitrust trial) describe their own clients as “idiots” from whom they are “robbing hands full.” These are not mere private outbursts: they are involuntary testimony to how a company that controls 80% of the primary ticket sales market in the US works. It is no surprise to those who have been paying parking fees of $250 for a Kid Rock concert for years. But seeing it in writing has a special weight. What they said. Ben Baker, then regional director of ticketing for Live Nation venues in Florida and Jeff Weinhold, senior director in the Virginia area, had been exchanging views on their work for months. In one conversation, Baker boasted about what he was doing with the add-ons that raised the base price of a Kid Rock concert in Tampa Bay. Baker wrote that the customers were “stupid” and that he almost felt sorry for taking advantage of them. Weinhold responded that he had VIP parking for $250. Baker’s retort: ​​They were “robbing them hand over fist, baby, that’s how we do it.” and there is more details: Baker speaks of income of $124,790 in upsells (upgraded tickets, VIP tickets, or better seats) for a Dead & Co. concert, followed by Weinhold’s suggestion to dynamically raise prices before sending the marketing email. “LOL. I’m evil,” Weinhold wrote. Baker used the internal term “dyn up” to refer to raising prices through dynamic pricing. There are also conversations about designing the purchasing interface so that artist names appear next to the upsellsa technique that Baker himself admitted to having “stolen” from the competition. Beyond the anecdote. Live Nation tried to keep the messages from reaching the jury. Their lawyers downplayed them, and when they became public, the company issued a statement attributing them to “a junior employee talking to a friend.” It is not clear Which of the two regional directors with responsibility for pricing are referred to as “junior.” Lawyers for the plaintiff states argued precisely that they are not irrelevant messages: artists have no interest in milking their fans, but Live Nation can do it because artists have nowhere else to go. The giant controls approximately 80% of the ticketing in large US venues and 60% of concert promotion, according to data cited during the trial. The construction of the empire. This vertical concentration was not built overnight. The merger between Live Nation and Ticketmaster was approved in 2010 and created a model in which the same company promotes the tour, manages the venue and sells tickets. After, Ticketmaster also began to charge commissions for resale among fans, which was especially noticeable during the pre-sale of Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras ​​Tour’ in 2022, when the collapse of the system led to a Justice Department investigation and hearings in Congress. And the dynamic pricing model has already been successfully exported (pecuniary) all over the world. The agreement. On March 9, the DOJ and Live Nation agreed to a surprise settlement that ended federal involvement in the trial without the judge being informed until the last minute. The terms required the company to limit its service fees to 15%, cut exclusive contracts with venues to four years, divest from 13 amphitheaters and open its marketplace to competitors like SeatGeek. The agreed payment amounts to between 280 and 300 million dollars for the states that accept the agreement. What the pact does not contemplate is the separation of Live Nation and Ticketmaster. And now. More than 27 states, including New York, California and Illinois, rejected the federal settlement and decided to pursue the lawsuit on their own, since the crucial monopoly issue had not been addressed. Furthermore, the case is not exclusively American. In September 2024, the European Commission launched an investigation into Ticketmaster following the Oasis pricing scandal in the UK, where tickets went from £135 to £350 in a matter of minutes during the sale. The Live Nation model is neither an accident nor a deviation. Baker and Weinhold’s chats reveal, and this is the truly uncomfortable part, that company policy has been exactly what it seemed to be for years. In Xataka | Spotify killed the record and the industry pivoted to concerts. Netflix killed cinema and the industry was left with a “space crisis”

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