Mobile Tech & Gadgets

Something strange happened inside the Earth in 2011 and 27 years of data have not solved the mystery

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In 2011, scientists observed an unexpected change in the flow of molten iron and nickel that makes up the earth core external. While its surface flow normally moves westward, it was detected to be moving just eastward. It was something totally unusual and mysterious. As a result of this observation, a study was launched, the results of which have recently been published. The objective was to know the reasons, but now there are only a few certainties and still many doubts. 27 years of observations. In this study 27 years of behavior of the Earth’s core were retrospectively analyzed, between 1997 and 2025. The core cannot be directly observed. However, its behavior directly influences that of the Earth’s magnetic field. Therefore, fluctuations in one can be detected in the other using satellite observations. It was seen that while the Earth’s outer core moves normally westward, there was a portion of it that went from a weak westward flow in 2010 to a much stronger eastward flow in 2012. It remained that way until 2020 and now appears to be starting to weaken again. Three options. When this change in movement was detected in 2011, it was thought that it could be due to three reasons. On the one hand, it could be a one-off fluctuation. On the other hand, it is possible that it is part of a periodic oscillation. And finally, it could be due to a way of establishing a balance in the circulation of the core. The only thing we see at the moment with the satellite observations is that the change was progressive. The behavioral modification began in 2010 and was already very clear in 2012. In 2011, when it was observed, it was in full transition. Other simultaneous observations. When analyzing the data from that period, it was seen that, coinciding with this change of direction, there were also some seismic signals that agree with the dates. Even geomagnetic shocks have been detected that correspond to a turbulent activity in the earth’s core. It’s not a whirlpool. This change of direction has not occurred throughout the core. For a start, the earth’s core consists of two parts: the internal and the external. The internal one is subjected to so much pressure that the metals are in a solid state despite the high temperatures. On the other hand, on the outside they are in a liquid state and, therefore, in motion. Even so, it wasn’t the entire outer core that changed its movement either. It corresponds to a specific region, located under the Pacific Ocean. It could be seen as a whirlpool, but these scientists have concluded that it is not, since the movement is part of a larger, wavy structure. Something like if an entire section of this part of the core suddenly began to move against expectations. Why is it important. The movement of the molten metal in the core generates electrical currents, which in turn give rise to a geomagnetic field that extends into space. Therefore, thanks to the movement of the Earth’s core we have an entire magnetic shield around the Earth that protects our atmosphere from the erosion caused by particles from the solar winds. For this nucleus to change its movement is not dangerous. We are not going to run out of atmosphere, because the core is still there. However, understanding its fluctuations can help us also understand the fluctuations of the magnetic field. This not only protects the atmosphere from erosion. It also helps us keep away a good part of the particles that could affect our telecommunications systems. Therefore, understanding how this shield works can help us prevent those more extreme events that do cause some technological havoc. That’s why, while this study has given us a lot of interesting data, it’s still not enough. We must continue monitoring the Earth’s core, what caused this anomaly of 2011. Image | THAT In Xataka | The Webb and Hubble telescopes simultaneously observed Jupiter’s auroras. The problem is that they didn’t see the same thing

In 1982, Spain was so drunk on Naranjito that it dedicated an anime to him. And now it’s going to be re-released

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The linear channel of nostalgic series and movies VinTV has announced the re-release of ‘Football in Action’ on June 11, 2026. It is the day that the USA Soccer World Cup., and the recovery has something of an event: it is the first time that the series returns to a Spanish screen since TVE concluded its original broadcast on June 12, 1982, one day before the opening of the World Cup, without there having been reruns or a DVD edition. This curious darkness that surrounds one of our undisputed national icons is what has meant that few know that whoever directed the series would launch ‘Dragon Ball’ five years later. Spain did not encourage. In 1981, when production of the series began to commemorate the World Cup that would be played the following year, Spain did not have an animation series industry capable of undertaking such a project. The first serious attempts to build an industry They begin precisely in those years: There was, of course, Cruz Delgado’s ‘Don Quixote de la Mancha’, and also the studios that worked as subcontractors of Hanna-Barbera. The role of BRB International. It appears in the credits of ‘Football in Action’ as a co-producer, but it was not an animation studio. Founded in 1972 by Claudio Biern Boyd, the company was born as an agency merchandising. His leap into co-production was articulated by associating with studios that provided the technical means. BRB provided the concept, the relationship with TVE and the characters, and the animation was done by others. For ‘Football in Action’, those “others” were Nippon Animation. The Japanese studio, founded in June 1975had already done series like ‘Heidi’, ‘Marco’ and ‘The Dog of Flanders’. BRB and Nippon had already collaborated on ‘Ruy, little Cid’, and the same plan was followed with the Naranjito series. Spanish anime. It cannot be said that it is not noticeable that Soccer in Action is, essentially, an anime. At least aesthetically: hyper-expressive eyes, limited animation, slapstick and physical comedy. Its plots mixed documentary sports history, adventures against the villain Zruspa and visits to the World Cup host cities. Alfredo Di Stéfano participated as a sports advisor and Matías Prats provided the voice of the series commentator. And there was international projection: France 3 broadcast it with the title ‘Onze Une pour Coupe’, Canale 5 in Italy as ‘Naranjito’, and it also reached Portugal and Latin America. Only France published a DVD edition, in 2013, including four episodes in Spanish to replace chapters of the French version that had been lost. The responsible one. The director of ‘Football in Action’ was Minoru Okazaki. He debuted as an anime director in 1964, in the ‘Astro Boy’ series for Mushi Production, the studio that Osamu Tezuka had founded. That is to say, we are facing one of the builders of modern anime, since ‘Astro Boy’ would establish the visual and narrative language of the genre. When Okazaki came to ‘Football in Action’ he had already been in the industry for seventeen years. That same year he also worked on ‘Dr. Slump’ and five years later, in 1986, Okazaki was one of the original directors of ‘Dragon Ball’, produced by Toei Animation. Throughout his career he continued to be linked to other installments of the franchise. The prophecy. One last curiosity: at the end of the series, one of Zruspa’s henchmen warns that they will return “when Spain organizes another World Cup.” Finally, almost five decades later, it will happen (even if only in part: Spain will hold the organization along with Portugal and Morocco) in 2030. What is not so clear is that our future mascot will have a letter of introduction designed by an anime legend. In Xataka | When football wants to be American football: FIFA invents a halftime show with Madonna in imitation of the Super Bowl

How to change the name of your Gmail email and what happens to the old address when you do it

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Let’s tell you how to change Gmail email name from your Google account. With this, if you have an old email with a name that you no longer like or represent you, you can change it without having to create a new accountand maintaining all the data you have about yourself. This is an option that has already begun to be deployed in Spain, although in a phased manner. This means that you may not have it available yet. Another thing you should know is that It is only possible to change your name once every 12 monthsso you better be clear and think carefully about the change you want to make. What happens to your old account after the change The name of your Gmail email It is the one you use not only to receive emails, but also to identify your Google account. And with this, it is the email with which you register for services, the one used in Google Drive, etc. Your Google identity identifier. When you change your Gmail email name, your old email becomes an alternate secondary address. This means that you will keep both email addressesand that you will receive emails on both accounts. This is important so that you don’t suddenly cut ties with whoever may write to your old account. Changing your email does not mean losing the previous oneand you will continue to receive all the emails sent to your old address in the inbox of the new one. Change the email address of your Google account does not affect the data saved in your account. Your photos, messages, files, subscriptions, and more will remain. Some Google and third-party services, such as smart home services, will use the new address if you have them linked directly to your account. In other cases, you will have to change the address. And as we have told you, Google will allow you to change your email address again for an alternative, although You will not be able to create a new one until 12 months have passed since you last created one. How to change the name of your Gmail account To change your Gmail email address, you have to enter myaccount.google.comwhich will take you to your Google account settings page. You can also do it from any Google service, because by clicking on your profile image at the top right, in the menu that opens you can click on Manage your Google accountwhich will take you to the same configuration page. Once inside your Google account settings page, in the menu on the left Click on the section Personal information. Within this section, now click on the option Email. This will take you to a screen where you can manage both your main and recovery emails. Here, click on Email from your Google accountwhich is where you manage your primary Gmail address. You will enter the screen where you can see your Gmail email account. Here, click on Change your Google Account email address. If the option does not appear, you will have to wait for Google to implement it in your account. This will take you to a screen with all the information. In it, at the bottom you will have a box of User namewhere you can write the new address you want to use. Of course, you will have to do tests, because it must be an address that is free. In Xataka Basics | European alternatives to Gmail and Outlook: the best email providers made in Europe

Ukraine has been left without thousands of drones. An error classified them as electric cars, and the Treasury has fried them with taxes

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During World War II, the United States Army created entire systems classification and emergency purchases because normal bureaucracy was too slow to keep up with the pace of war. Eight decades later, Ukraine has discovered the same problem from the opposite side. Drone warfare crashes into bureaucracy. Ukraine has been transforming the front into a war laboratory automated where ground drones have become essential to transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or attack Russian positions without exposing soldiers. The problem is that, while kyiv was trying to accelerate this military revolution, the bureaucracy has ended up mistakenly classifying these unmanned vehicles within the same tax category than electric cars. When an old exemption for EVs expired on January 1, drones began paying a 20% VAT. The result has been devastating: according to the industry, the army could have bought some 5,000 additional drones only in the first half of 2026 if that tax had not come into force. Thousands of drones lost at the worst moment. They counted on Insider that the impact has been especially serious because it has arrived at a critical phase of the war. Ukraine is increasingly relying on autonomous systems to compensate for human and material attrition against Russia, to the point that Zelensky claimed that his forces carried out more than 22,000 missions with ground drones in just three months. kyiv wanted to acquire 50,000 units this year, but the new VAT skyrocketed costs, froze public contracts and left manufacturers whole for months. no state orders. Some companies drastically reduced production to survive, while others tried to reclassify their robots as armored vehicles to avoid the tax burden. A trapped military industry. The chaos also reflects how the military technological revolution is advancing faster than the laws themselves. Ground drones were so new within European and Ukrainian commercial standards that they did not even there was a category clear to classify them. When a former tax exemption for electric vehicles expired, the system automatically absorbed these military robots into the same regulations. The Ministry of Defense suddenly found itself with insufficient budgets and paralyzed purchasing processes because, technically, essential weapons for the front had no longer been considered. exempt military equipment tax. Manufacturers like Tencorecreator of the popular TermIT dronethey spent up to five months without public contracts and had to survive thanks to volunteer organizations that directly supply military units. In a war economy where many companies literally live from order to order, three months without state purchases is equivalent to little less than a heart attack industrial. The big problem is not just making weapons. The episode reveals something deeper about the evolution of modern warfare. For years, drones, artificial intelligence and automation have been talked about as the future of combat, but Ukraine is discovering that the bottleneck is not always in the technology. Sometimes it is in the administrationin legislation or in bureaucratic systems designed for peacetime. Russia and Ukraine are immersed in a race of constant adaptation where every month counts and where losing half a year due to tax procedures can have direct effects on the front. The sector itself calculates that the tax exemption would save about 200 million dollarsa gigantic figure for an industry that still depends on precarious financing and accelerated production. The problem is that even if Parliament now corrects the law, the damage has already been done: delayed contracts, lost capacity and thousands of drones that never made it to the battlefield when they were needed most. The paradox of the war of the future. The story perfectly summarizes one of the great contradictions of this war. Ukraine has become the country that has integrated autonomous systems the fastest in real combat and has built an ecosystem with more than 280 companies and 550 models different from ground drones. However, that same ecosystem remains dependent on sluggish state structures, legacy regulations, and legal frameworks unable to keep pace with military innovation. While the front is filled with robots that transport ammunition, evacuate wounded or attack Russian trenches without a human driver, the State continued to administratively treat them as if they were simple electric cars. The irony could not be more brutal: one of the most technologically advanced wars of the century lost thousands of combat machines not due to lack of industrial capacity or due to Russian attacks, but because the Treasury decided to apply the same tax treatment than to a civil electric vehicle. Image | x In Xataka | A Ukrainian stork has managed to outwit a Russian drone in flight. The video is the best clue about who will win the war In Xataka | Ukraine has been terrorizing Russian soldiers with its heavy drones for years. Now they are literally giving it back.

Neither Robotaxi nor Cybercab. Elon Musk is having a hard time naming his autonomous taxi, and now it’s French sparkling water to blame

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It will soon be a year since Tesla’s first autonomous taxis began to roll And to this day the creature still does not have an official name. AND not because Elon Musk hasn’t tried. First it ran into the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and now it has been a French sparkling water company. rookie mistake. Tesla may have the technology of the future rolling on the streets, but when it held the ‘We, Robot’ event in 2024 in which it presented the Cybercab, it forgot a small detail: it announced the name without having officially registered the brand. This is where Unibev comes into play, a French beverage company, which saw the perfect opportunity to troll the richest man in the world. The patent troll. What Unibev did is a clear case of patent thief (or troll, as they would say in ‘Silicon Valley’). Taking advantage of Tesla’s oversight, six days after the announcement, the company registered the name Cybercab and it doesn’t seem like it’s because they want to call their sparkling water that way, but rather to simply be annoying. The company already had a history of trolling Musk and in addition to Cybercab they also registered Cybertaxi, Robocab Systems, XCab, Cyber ​​Diner, Teslaquila, Teslaquila Hard Seltzer and With a Touch of Musk. Some horny ones. The answer. The USPTO suspended Tesla’s application because Unibev had beaten them to it, but Tesla did not sit idly by and filed a lawsuit of more than 150 pages in which they accuse Unibev of bad faith and having acted as a patent thief. Having registered before is not synonymous with victory, since simply proving that Unibev does not manufacture vehicles the authority should rule in favor of Tesla. In their application, Unibev said they could use the name for “a car, a ship or a plane.” It seems easy enough to dismantle, the problem is that the litigation could extend until 2027. If Unibev wins the dispute, Tesla could be forced to negotiate the use of the name outside the US and even have to use another name in certain markets. And ‘robotaxi’?. Tesla too tried to register the trademark ‘Robotaxi’but the USPTO told them that nanai. The reason had nothing to do with any patent thief, but because it is “used to describe similar products and services of other companies. (…) This expression appears to be generic in the context of the applicant’s products and/or services.” The USTPO comes to say that it is too standard a name, it would be like registering the ‘taxi’ trademark. There is still more. The organizational chaos does not end with taxis, the same thing also happened with its autonomous minibus, presented with great fanfare as “Robovan.” The problem is that Tesla announced it without first having verified that the brand was already registered by an Estonian delivery company. Tesla has had to look for less attractive alternatives such as “Robobus”, “Robus” or “Cyberbus”. About launching autonomous vehicles with super-advanced technology, well, that’s all the paperwork. Image | tesla In Xataka | Tesla robotaxis are autonomous, except when driven by a man from Texas

Spain and Morocco have been dreaming of a tunnel under the Strait for 40 years. The great enemy of the project is called Umbral de Camarinal

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Linking Europe with Africa from the Strait of Gibraltar has been discussed for decades. However, in recent years we have seen how the Governments of the countries involved have been adding steps to this project. Spain and Morocco work has accelerated in recent months to make a railway tunnel a reality that would pass under the Strait and that would connect Punta Paloma (Tarifa) with Cape Malabata (near Tangier). The infrastructure (if it is built) would easily become a historic engineering work, allowing people to cross from one continent to another in just half an hour. What are we talking about?. The project contemplates a strictly railway tunnel, without a viaduct or vehicle lanes (something it originally discussed doing), with a total length of about 42 kilometers between stations, of which 27.7 are submerged. The deepest point it would reach 475 meters below sea level and would cross what is known as the Camarinal Threshold, the shallowest area of ​​the Strait and, curiously, much more complex from a geological point of view. What would it be like inside?. According to data collected by the Spanish public company SECEGSA, the design proposes two independent single-track tubes, each with an inner diameter of 7.90 metersand a 6-meter central service gallery for maintenance and emergency tasks. This gallery would connect with the main tubes through transversal passages every 340 meters. At the lowest point of the layout there would be a safe parking area with intervention areas and a smoke extraction system. High-speed trains for passengers and shuttle convoys for goods and vehicles would run through the tunnel. Who is in charge. The project is moving forward in two ways. On the Spanish side, the work is coordinated by SECEGSA, a public company created in the eighties precisely to promote this connection. On the Moroccan side, the Government has decided to concentrate all its efforts on the channel with Madridruling out other parallel paths. The most recent and relevant agreement It was signed on December 4, 2025 in La Moncloa between the Minister of Transport of Spain, Óscar Puente, and his counterpart in Morocco, Karim Zidane. It contains a memorandum between the Spanish National Geographic Institute and the National Center for Scientific and Technical Research of Morocco (CNRST) to jointly study the seismicity and geodynamics of the Strait for three years. Financing. In March of this year, the Spanish Government approved an additional transfer of 1.73 million euros to finance technical studies, according to they count from La Razón. Added to this item is a marine research campaign commissioned by the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) with a budget of 553,187 euros, published in the Official State Gazette. This campaign, lasting about 15 days and scheduled for the first half of 2026, includes high-resolution bathymetry, sampling of sediments and rocks from the seabed, and laboratory analysis. Three CSIC institutes participate (Marine, Geological and Mining Sciences, and Oceanography), the Navy Hydrographic Institute and the United States Geological Survey. Obstacles. The key is in the Camarinal Threshold. The Spanish subsidiary of the German manufacturer Herrenknecht, specialized in tunnel boring machines, carried out a feasibility study that concluded that the work is technically possible with current engineering, although he warned of enormous logistical and economic challenges. The subsoil of that area is made up of materials from the Flysch Complex, with layers of sandstone and clay of turbidite origin, covered by more recent sediments. This geological variability, added to the fact that the Strait is located on the Azores-Gibraltar-Tunisia fracture, the same one that caused the devastating Lisbon earthquake of 1755makes excavation a particularly complex challenge. On the other hand, it should be noted that the Strait is not an easy scenario. More than 100,000 ships pass through its waters a year and the study area is located within a Special Conservation Area with a protection plan for orcas. More than 1,900 species of marine flora and fauna have been recorded, which requires obtaining certain environmental permits before doing anything. How much will it cost. Although there are no concrete figures on how much the project would cost, Morocco World News situates the estimated cost alone for the Spanish part is above 8.5 billion euros, while other media such as El Diario elevate the total budget above 15,000 million, to be distributed between Spain, Morocco and the European Union. In any case, it will be one of the most expensive infrastructures ever built in the region. When will it be ready. Here it is advisable to lower expectations. And the deadlines that are managed They place the possible inauguration between 2035 and 2040always in the best of scenarios, but very possibly set more in the 2040s than before (that is, if the work is ever executed). If the seismic and geotechnical studies end up being favorable, a reconnaissance gallery could be put out to tender in 2027, requiring several years to complete to obtain detailed information on the terrain and the viability of the project. Why it matters beyond engineering. Connecting Africa with Europe by rail would encourage trade in very profitable ways, integrating the railway networks of the Maghreb with the European system and making the peninsular south take on a completely different color as a logistical node. Of course, it also raises political debates, especially regarding immigration management. Be that as it may, we will still have to wait to find out if the project finally materializes. Cover image | SECEGSA and Google Earth In Xataka | Amazon wants to save its ‘cloud’ from the mud: the plan to shield Zaragoza against large floods

MediaMarkt drops the price of this 65-inch Samsung QLED TV with AI

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Finding the perfect balance between a generous diagonal, top-notch image quality and a reasonable price is not always easy. However, MediaMarkt has just put an offer on the table that is difficult to refuse. Now, you can take this Samsung TQ65Q7F5AUXXC with a discount of more than 50%. It has gone from costing 1,099 euros to 499 euros. Samsung – QLED TV 163cm (65′) Samsung TQ65Q7F5AUXXC, 4K Vision AI Quantum dot Smart TV. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A TV powered by AI The great asset of this Samsung 65 inch QLED It is its ability to reproduce colors. Thanks to nanocrystal technology Quantum Dotthis panel is capable of displaying 100% of the color volume, which translates into much more vivid scenes, natural skin tones and good brightness, even in brightly lit rooms. In addition, it has the system of Dual LED backlightwhich combines warm and cold lights to noticeably improve contrast and viewing angles compared to traditional LED panels. But the most defining feature of this TV is its chip Quantum Processor 4K with AI. This uses deep learning algorithms to analyze the source of origin in real time. This on a day-to-day basis means that if you are watching a football game on DTT or an old movie streaming, the TV cleans the noise from the image and improves the sharpness to rescale it to a resolution as close as possible to native 4K. ⚡ IN SUMMARY: offer for the Samsung TQ65Q7F5A smart TV today ✅ THE BEST Your processor: As we have already said, the most important thing is not the panel, it is this chip. It uses neural networks to analyze the image frame by frame. If you watch old or low-quality content, the AI ​​reconstructs textures to make them look like real 4K. Aesthetics: the AirSlim design is really impressive. It is flat on the back (it doesn’t have that bulge where the connectors go), which makes it ideal for hanging. ❌ THE WORST Black people are not pure… When using a side or limited zone backlight system (not MiniLED), you cannot turn off the pixels individually. If you watch a movie with black bands at the top and bottom, you will notice that they are not black like the TV frame, but rather have a slight glow Lack of Dolby Vision… Samsung’s eternal fight. Netflix and Disney+ broadcast a lot in Dolby Vision. This TV translates it to standard HDR10, which is fine, but it doesn’t take advantage of the 100% dynamic range that the director of the series or movie planned. 💡 BUY IT IF… You are looking for a television for intensive day use and for playing video games, it is one of the best options on the market for this price. It has high-end technologies at a mid-range price. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You are a cinema purist who only watches movies at night, in the dark and seeks the perfection of absolute black; This model will leave you a little indifferent. In this case, the ideal is to go for an OLED TV, although knowing in advance that you will pay, at least, almost double. Some sound bars that may interest you for this TV Samsung Sound Bar HW-B650F/ZF with Dolby Adio/DTS Virtual:X The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Samsung Sound Bar HW-T420 – 150W Sound, 2.1 Ch The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Webedia and Samsung In Xataka | Best televisions in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended 4K smart TVs In Xataka | Best sound bars in quality price. Which one to buy and seven recommended models from 140 euros

In 1967 a war closed the Suez Canal for eight years. Half a century later, the Strait of Hormuz looks into the same abyss

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When war broke out between Egypt and Israel in 1967, fifteen commercial ships were trapped in the Suez Canal. The captains dropped anchor assuming they would only have to wait a few days for the fighting to end. They were right about the duration of hostilities: it was the Six Day War. However, It took eight years for the canal to reopen. When the ships were finally able to set sail in 1975, only two were still seaworthy. The rest had rusted so much under the desert sun that They went down in history as the “Yellow Fleet”. Almost sixty years later, history rhymes in the Persian Gulf. Ninety days after the war between the United States, Israel and Iran blocked the Strait of Hormuz at the end of February, the most important maritime passage in the world remains closed. Dozens of oil tankers wait at anchor, waiting for a diplomatic agreement that always seems imminent but never arrives. The optimism trap on Wall Street The analyst Javier Blas, in your column for Bloombergexposes the dangerous complacency with which the world is facing this closure. The financial industry operates under an adapted version of Stein’s Law: “The Strait cannot be closed forever because it would cause too much economic damage; therefore, it will reopen soon.” The problem with this logic is that the economy has not yet inflicted the pain necessary to force peace. As Blas points out: For Washington: The war is proving politically cheap. The US economy is riding with quarterly growth of more than 4% and the S&P 500 index is close to historical highs, having risen almost 10% since the start of the conflict. For Tehran: Even as the currency plummets and inflation chokes the population, the Iranian regime has demonstrated for decades an almost inexhaustible capacity to absorb economic punishment when it considers it faces an existential threat. While the mediators seek an agreement in Islamabadinertia maintains the illusion of normality. The market has absorbed the disappearance of about 20 million barrels per day thanks to accumulated inventories and massive releases of strategic reserves. Qero the global tank is emptying. June: The end of logistics inertia If we do not see shortages on the streets it is due to pure physics of transportation: a supertanker moves at the speed of a bicycle. The fuel that the West consumed in the spring left the Gulf before the first missile fell. However, the data They already show the cracks in the system. Global demand fell by 5 million barrels per day in April, the largest consumption destruction since the COVID-19 pandemic. And the blow is already felt at home: Funcas warns thatIf the conflict continues, Spanish inflation will exceed 4% and growth will fall to 1.8%. In addition, the multimillion-dollar extra cost of fuel for airlines such as Iberia or Vueling directly threatens the waterline of Spanish tourism. The real precipice has a date: June. With the arrival of summer, the peak driving season and the massive use of air conditioning will collide with inventories at multi-year lows. Furthermore, a diplomatic reopening it would not solve the physical problem: Clearing the mile-wide Hormuz safe lane would require months of complex naval operations. However, the impact of this crisis goes far beyond the gas pump. As the physical shortage of crude oil becomes undeniable, the most serious repercussions are brewing in the bowels of the global financial system: The fracture of the petrodollar: The unwritten agreement of 1974, which guaranteed security in the Gulf in exchange for crude oil being sold in dollars and reinvested in US debt, is breaking down. Countries like India They are selling their US Treasury bonds to obtain liquidity and pay for much more expensive oil. The bond market: The persistence of energy inflation has skyrocketed sovereign bond yields. 30-year Treasury bonds in the US exceeded 5.15%. The cost of real life: If government bonds yield above 5%, 30-year mortgages are inexorably approaching 7%. This translates into more expensive loans, lower business investment and a paralysis of the real estate market. As several analysts warn, undoing the economic damage from Hormuz could require an induced recession to curb borrowing costs. The bypass of the desert While the world waits, some actors have already given up on Hormuz. United Arab Emirates has accelerated urgently the construction of a gigantic pipeline that bypasses the strait, with the goal of exporting 3.5 million barrels a day directly to the Gulf of Oman by 2027. It is “prudent planning for the worst scenario,” and a clear sign that Abu Dhabi believes the waterway could remain threatened for years. Half a century ago, no one imagined that 15 ships would spend a decade rotting in the sun in Suez for a war that lasted less than a week. Today, the world assumes that the Hormuz crisis will be a temporary blip. But as the days go by, the shock absorbers wear out and the financial markets creak. The oil is simply still waiting in the sea. Image | Photo by Jens Rademacher on Unsplash Xataka | The war in the East has reached an unexpected agreement: one where the US does not discuss Iran’s missiles, bombs or uranium

Apple develops the anti-theft function that was missing from the iPhone

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Unfortunately, having your cell phone stolen It is a situation that many people have had to suffer. If, in addition, the theft has literally taken your phone out of your hand, not only will you be scared, but the thief will also get your phone unlocked and can access all your apps. Apple is working on a feature to prevent precisely this Theft detection. The information comes from the internal iOS code to which 9to5mac has had access. It details a function that will detect when an iPhone has been taken from its owner’s hands, automatically blocking it. It doesn’t prevent it from being stolen, but at least it makes it inaccessible, something that may deter some thieves. How it works. This function takes advantage of mobile sensors such as the accelerometer to identify the typical “pull” in this type of quick theft, causing the mobile to lock immediately. To determine that it has been a theft, take into account other factors such as the distance to a paired Apple Watch or whether the device is in an unknown location. Android already had it. Surely many of you are thinking about it since you read the headline and indeed it is: Apple has not invented anything. Google presented this feature at Google I/O in May 2024 and implemented it at the end of that same year. It does exactly the same thing: it detects when the phone is “torn” from our hand and blocks it. Why is it important. That Apple is going to arrive later does not mean that this function is not important, especially considering that iPhones are the favorite target of thieves. There are no statistics broken down by type of mobile phone or by type of theft, but In 2024 the OCU mentioned that in Spain around 250,000 mobile phones were stolen a year, so a function of this type will be very useful for many victims. Protection in case of theft. Apple already has this feature in case of theft that applies measures such as requiring Face ID authentication to perform certain actions and applying a security delay when making critical changes such as changing the Apple ID password or changing the passcode. It lacked extra protection in case our cell phone was taken away while it was unlocked. It’s unclear if it will arrive with the next iOS 26 update, but the fact that it’s in the code indicates that it shouldn’t take too long to arrive. Image | Xataka with Gemini In Xataka | Up to three years in prison for stealing a cell phone: the new law that wants to punish thieves who steal again and again

Francisco Valencia, CEO of Secure&IT, on the challenge of AI attacks

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Yesterday morning I went to a new edition of the cybersecurity conferences of Secure&IT in Madrid with a fairly clear idea: to listen to how companies are using the artificial intelligence to better defend yourself and make life difficult for cybercriminals. It was a reasonable expectation. AI has become one of the great promises of the sector and it seemed logical to think that a good part of the conversation would revolve around its new defensive capabilities. But the day left a much deeper reading. What is moving is not just another technological layer on top of the usual systems. It is the mental framework of cybersecurity itself. The speed of change, the sophistication of attacks, and the entry of new algorithm-based tools are forcing companies to rethink everything from how they patch software to how they anticipate threats. The feeling there, listening to the speakers, was clear: we are not facing a simple update of tools, but rather a change of era. Francisco ValenciaCEO of Secure&IT, who I was able to interview a while agoput that idea on the table as soon as it began with a particularly graphic phrase: “We have always said that in cybersecurity we are one step behind cybercrime and we are now 10 steps behind cybercrime“The statement was surprising for its crudeness, but it also helped to organize the conversation. Looking at this disadvantage head-on, without selling false certainties, may be the first step to understanding what is coming. Cybersecurity was waiting for an ally, but cybercrime has also found one The key is that AI has not only changed the available tools, but also the balance of the game. Valencia put it crudely because, from his point of view, cybercriminals have taken off while many companies are still trying to decide how to use AI in a safe, useful and governed way. This difference in rhythm explains a good part of the diagnosis. Attackers don’t need to resolve every internal debate in an organization, justify every deployment, or wait for a perfect corporate policy. They just need to test, automate and exploit what works. The speaker began by addressing one of the most disturbing pieces of this new scenario: the Dark LLM. LLMs, or large language models, are the technical layer that powers applications such as ChatGPT, Copilot or Gemini: systems capable of interpreting instructions, helping to program or solve complex tasks. The companies that develop them introduce limits, filters and guardrails to prevent harmful uses, both for safety and for the ethical criteria with which they design these systems. The Dark LLM, such as FraudGPT and WormGPTstart from a much more dangerous logic: offer similar capabilities, but without those barriers. The interesting thing is that this logic does not always depend on creating a new model from scratch. Valencia also spoke of jailbreaka way of trying to avoid the limits of conventional AI through carefully constructed instructions. It’s not simply asking a system to do something forbidden, but wrapping that request in a context that pushes it to respond where it should stop. In practice, the result can be similar: capabilities of a powerful model put at the service of uses that large companies try to block. This leap is very well understood when we move from the tool to deception. For years we have associated many fraud campaigns with clumsy, massive and easy-to-detect messages, but AI allows us to change the scale without giving up personalization. The CEO of Secure&IT summed it up with a very clear phrase: “I don’t need to send the Nigerian’s spam to 20 million people saying that I have fallen in love with 20 million people to see who will bite. I send the same email to 20 million, but I tell each one what they want to hear“That’s the difference: the attack can still be massive, but it no longer has to seem generic. The attack may still be massive, but it no longer has to feel generic. During the presentation a term also appeared that caught my attention: malware polymorphic. It may sound very technical, even more typical of a conversation between analysts than an article to understand what is happening, but it helps to land something important. We are no longer just talking about a malicious program that enters a computer and tries to repeat itself on other computers with the same behavior. It is something much more sophisticated: a threat capable of reaching a machine, reading the environment, identifying what defenses are in front of it and generating a version adapted to that specific scenario. The consequence for security teams is obvious: if each machine receives a different variant, detecting patterns, relating signals and reconstructing the attack becomes much more difficult. It is no longer just a matter of finding a malicious file and following its trail across the network. In a scenario where “the virus on each computer is different“, the campaign can have the same objective, but leave different traces on each team. And when the traces change, the analysis is no longer linear. Secure&IT dedicated its cybersecurity days this year to analyzing how AI is changing the sector Valencia’s message about automation was one of the clearest of the day: AI is taking time away from defense. For years, companies have had some margin between detecting a vulnerability, creating an exploit, and actually exploiting it. That margin could be imperfect, but it existed. It allowed you to organize analysis, prioritize patches and update systems every certain number of months. The phrase that best condenses the change is direct: “Until now time was a weapon to defend ourselves and now time is no longer a weapon to defend ourselves.” The consequence is very practical. If before an organization could carry out vulnerability analyzes every several months and plan updates with some calm, that scheme is beginning to fall short. According to experts, an AI tool can search for a vulnerability, identify it, prepare the attack path, and run it … Read more

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