Someone thought it was a good idea to bring a Bluetooth device called “Bomb” onto a plane. What had to happen happened

Imagine that you are sitting in that modern torture chamber that we call “economy class” on a transcontinental plane when, after an hour in the air of the eight-hour trip from New Jersey to Mallorca, the aircraft turns around to land at the point of origin because the bomb threat protocols are activated. Now stop imagining because that is precisely what happened this past May 30 when the United Flight Boeing 767 that covered the Newark – Palma de Mallorca route thad to turn around with 12 crew members and 190 passengers of which one was the owner of a Bluetooth device with a peculiar name. “Bomb”. The “Bluetooth bomb” He United Flight 236 It should be just another conventional flight, but those who took the one last Saturday experienced an unusual adventure. When the ship was flying over the Atlantic and in a period Between 60 and 90 minutes after takeoff, someone noticed a disturbing detail: searching for Bluetooth networks, They found a device called “BOMB”. If someone was carrying a bomb with a Bluetooth connection, I highly doubt it would be visible to everyone and, on top of that, it would be called “Bomb”, but it was enough for the situation to explode. The crew, using the public address system, repeatedly asked that the Bluetooth devices be turned off, even threatening with turning around, but after seeing that there were still some lights left and that the “bomb” was among them, the maneuvers began. In coordination with the company’s operations center in Chicago, it was decided that it was best to declare a state of bomb emergency and return to Newark. The plane landed as if nothing had happened, but on the ground there was a significant police and security deployment that forced the passengers to vacate the ship, leaving their hand luggage behind. Image | Flightradar24 As part of the procedure, it was now the security forces that were going to be in charge of inspecting that luggage again. It has not really emerged what the device was, but what is clear is that there was no real explosive device. United has not given detailsbut different media indicate that a 16-year-old passenger had a device named with that name. Some say it’s a Fitbit, others say it’s a Bluetooth speaker. No details have been given about the consequences. that the passenger will have to face and everything has remained an anecdotal situation and a story that those 212 people will tell at some point. Now, there are interesting readings. The first is that there are devices for which you can change the name of the Bluetooth connection. For example, we can call our cell phone whatever we want, just like Wi-Fi networks, but there are others that are not easy to change the name of. A speaker or headphones usually have the name they come from the factory, unless they have an app that explicitly allows you to change the identifier. This is important because there are speakers like the Bombbox from JBL and, above all, the Hama Bomb 3.0 that have ‘BOMB’ in the name. Obviously, it doesn’t just say that and there are numbers and the brand, so it would be easy to deduce that it is a totally different device than a bomb. Also, if this were the case, the device would be turned off and not searching for Bluetooth all the time, so what makes the most sense is that it is a mobile phone with that ‘nickname’ for Bluetooth. That said, when the crew asked to disconnect the Bluetooth, if the person had headphones on they might not even notice and, if they did, it was a message that could be interpreted as “put the phone on.” airplane modeThere are cell phones that, when they activate airplane mode, deactivate all wireless communications, but there are also those that only deactivate Wi-Fi, the mobile network and leave Bluetooth to allow connection with headphones. This is for trying to find an explanation for a bizarre story like few others that had a happy ending for the passengers, being able to board a new flight the morning of the next day, but which could be very serious for the funny or clueless owner of the device. Because it is one thing to take longer to take off, but having a plane turn around, relocate all the passengers and the company pay compensation… is not cheap. AND I’m sure someone at United Flight isn’t happy at all.nor were those who were on that flight and who had zero information about what was happening, even having to go to reddit to find out about the movie and report the company’s compensation: a $15 bonus to spend on food. Moral: take a look at what your devices are called. In Xataka | Airplanes have circular windows for a reason. It took two plane crashes to find out.

There is a secret outpost in a desert in Iraq to bomb Tehran

During the Gulf Warseveral Bedouins in western Iraq began to see helicopters and military convoys appear and disappear in remote areas of the desert where there was apparently nothing. Years later it was learned that many of those areas had been used as secret outposts and makeshift runways for Western special operations far from any official map. An outpost in the middle of nowhere. He told it in an exclusive the wall street journal. The war between Israel and Iran has left images of missiles, bombers and attacks thousands of kilometers away, but one of the most surprising stories of the conflict has occurred far from the cameras, in the middle of the Iraqi desert. According to several sources cited by the mediaIsrael secretly set up a forward base inside Iraq to support part of its air campaign against Tehran. Apparently, the place served as a logistics center, a support point for special forces and a rescue platform for downed pilots, all just a few steps away. hundreds of kilometers from Iran and hidden in one of the emptiest and most difficult to control areas of the Middle East. The idea seems straight out of a military espionage movie: a clandestine enclave installed silently inside another country, protected from the air and prepared to intervene in a regional war without official recognition. The strategic importance of Iraq. The detail reveals to what extent the distance was one of the big problems Israeli operatives during the campaign against Iran. Bombing Iranian targets from Israeli territory involves traveling enormous distances, maintaining long flight routes and assuming constant risks for pilots and aircraft. Having an outpost in Iraq changed part of that equation. It allowed rescue teams to be brought closer, special forces to be deployed and an intermediate point from which to react quickly in emergencies. The presence of Israeli air force commandos trained to operate in enemy territory further suggests that the enclave was not simply a makeshift base, but an infrastructure designed to sustain complex operations behind the lines of conflict. The pastor who almost discovered it all. The story took on an even more surreal tone when the base was nearly exposed by something as simple as a local shepherd. According to the published informationa local man alerted Iraqi authorities after observing strange movements and helicopter flights in the desert. The Iraqi Army sent several units to investigate and there began one of the most delicate episodes of the entire operation. The soldiers advanced in Humvees towards the area at dawn and ended up under intense fire supported from the air. In fact, a Iraqi soldier died and others were injured. The extraordinary thing is that for weeks no one understood exactly what had happened there: Iraq denounced an unauthorized foreign operation, some media initially pointed the finger at Washington, and rumors began to circulate about special forces operating clandestinely in the desert. Only later did the possibility begin to emerge that Israel was defending a secret facility directly linked to the war against Iran. Invisible war within another war. Plus: the episode shows the extent to which modern conflicts are full of invisible layers that rarely appear in official statements. While the world’s attention was focused in ballistic missilesdrones and attacks on Iranian facilities, in parallel clandestine operations were carried out in third countries to sustain all this military machinery. I remembered the Journal that the western Iraqi desert had been used for decades these types of activities by American forces, from the wars against Saddam Hussein to operations against the Islamic State. The reason is simple: the region is huge, isolated, and sparsely populated, making it a perfect place to deploy hard-to-detect temporary outposts. The difference is that now the scenario was not a US invasion or an anti-terrorist campaign, but a regional air war in which Israel needed to operate at an enormous distance from its territory. The long shadow of the United States. Although sources assure that Washington knew of the existence of the Israeli base, the United States I would have avoided participating directly in the clashes that occurred around the enclave. Even so, the whole story once again shows the extent to which the US military infrastructure in the Middle East continues to condition any regional conflict. The bases, air corridors, intelligence and experience networks accumulated over decades of operations in Iraq have created an ecosystem that allows for this type of rapid and discreet deployments. In fact, his own rescue of an F-15 American aircraft shot down near Isfahan during the war demonstrates that both countries were operating simultaneously in an extremely complex theater, one where commandos, helicopters and rescue teams could move across several countries while officially many of those operations They didn’t even exist. Image | NARA In Xataka | While everyone was looking at Hormuz, Russia has found a much more important route to supply drones to Iran In Xataka | We sensed that Iran’s attacks on the US had been important. In reality, they were devastating

Malaga had some enviable rustic plots. Now you have a time bomb with 167,000 tons of debris and asbestos

The volume of the figures is scary. According to official data from the Ministry of the Interiorthe Civil Guard has uncovered the illegal dumping of 167,000 tons of waste from construction works within the framework of what is called “Operation Cover”. This macro-operation has so far resulted in the investigation of twelve natural persons and three legal entities, all of them strongly linked to the construction and earthworks sector. They are accused of alleged crimes against the environment for systematically evading all legal controls required for the treatment of this waste. The trap of economic profit. Why was this location chosen? The answer, as is usually the case in environmental crimes, lies in economic benefit. As the environmental technical magazine explains Rethemethose investigated used rustic plots located in the Axarquía region to convert them, de facto, into clandestine landfills. The objective was purely lucrative: to avoid at all costs the payment of the corresponding fees for the treatment of this debris in duly authorized recycling plants. Behind the mountain of garbage. The problem is that it has become a critical focus for the residents of the area. According to what they warn from the Interiorthis negligence represents an enormous risk of fire due to the amount of flammable material that has been piled up. In addition, there is a real fear that toxic waste will seep underground and ruin the water in local aquifers. However, the most disturbing discovery in the area has been the appearance of fiber cement (asbestos) among the rubble. According to the local media South Journalimproper handling and exposure to the elements of this “highly dangerous” material causes the release of harmful fibers into the air, posing a direct and lethal risk to public health. The judicial future of operation “Cover”. With the damage already done on the ground, the focus now shifts to the courts. The police proceedings carried out have been handed over to the Environmental Prosecutor’s Office of Malaga, which will be in charge of leading the judicial procedure against the fifteen accused. However, the case is far from closed. The investigation carried out by agents of the Nature Protection Service (Seprona) of the Civil Guard remains open. The authorities have intensified surveillance in the province and it is not ruled out that new actions or accusations may occur in the coming months. The ghost of Nerja and urban pressure. This discovery in Axarquía is not an isolated case, but rather the symptom of a structural problem. local media provide fundamental context to understand the magnitude of the situation: the strong urban pressure in the province of Malaga and the immense volume of waste generated by brick greatly complicate control in rural and agricultural areas. Furthermore, what happened a few years ago with the illegal landfill in Nerja. In an old quarry located within a protected area (the Sierra Almijara natural park), more than 802,000 cubic meters of uncontrolled garbage accumulated over 18 years (from 1998 to 2016). Despite the obvious environmental catastrophe, the legal complexity of the matter led to all the accused, including businessmen and senior political officials of the municipality, being finally acquitted through sentences issued in 2023 and ratified in 2025. The bill we all pay. Hiding 167,000 tons of waste under the rural carpet of Axarquía is the empirical demonstration that the apparent economic “savings” of a few private companies ends up becoming a heavy and unfair toxic debt for the entire society. What was going to be a rustic plot dedicated to the land, today is nothing more than a time bomb loaded with asbestos, polluting liquids and flammable materials that waits under the sun for someone to finally assume the real cost of deactivating it. Image | Civil Guard Xataka | BonÀrea has achieved what practically in the world: that the system for recycling plastic packaging works

The first letter bomb was made in a pharmacy in Vigo and exploded in the hands of the captain general of Galicia in 1829.

TO Nazario Eguía and Sáenz de Buruaga (1777-1865) we remember him for his political and military career, which even earned him the title of Count of Casa Eguía, but if this Biscayan with strong absolutist convictions was a pioneer in something (despite himself), it was in something else: letter bombs. In October 1829, Eguía found an envelope in his office in Santiago de Compostela that burst as he took off the flap, causing him more a dozen woundssome very serious. Let it be known that it was the first letter-bomb in history and its origin (or at least that is suspected) you have to look for it in a pharmacy in Vigo. “Excessively hard”. Nazario Eguía He was going to become a clergyman, but the war got in his way. At the age of 16 he abandoned ecclesiastical studies, took up arms against the French troops and began a brilliant military career that led him to serve under the orders of Wellingtonpromote to Field Marshal before the age of 37 and occupy the position of captain general of Galicia. Over time they would even name him a count and he would distinguish himself as an outstanding Carlist. In addition to his successes on the battlefield, Eguía was known for his toughness, which among other things earned him the hatred of the liberals while he served as captain general of Galicia. As explained the biography dedicated to him by the Society of Basque Studies, displayed an “excessively harsh” character. And that ended up generating quite a few enemies. Among them some with chemical knowledge and amazing expertise when it comes to assembling almost undetectable bombs. “Del Rey, for General Eguía”. The event occurred on the morning of October 29, 1829 in the Santa Cruz palace in Santiago de Compostela, where Eguía had his office. The soldier was reviewing the correspondence with his assistant when a package caught his attention. The sheet in question came from León and came wrapped in three different envelopes. The assistant was in charge of opening the first two, but when he reached the third he found a note: “Very reserved. From the King to General Eguía”. The soldier, a staunch absolutist, could not resist the temptation: he took the letter from his assistant, went to his table, ran his index finger along one of the folds and tore the envelope. Mistake. “At the same moment a loud explosion was heard. The table sprang to pieces and the general and the chair rolled on the floor,” details the writer Manuel Curros Enríquez (1852-1908) when remembering what happened that morning. “When he got up he had one of his hands destroyed.” “A terrifying detonation”. Curros’ story is not the only story that allows us to get an idea of ​​how serious the explosion was. Another testimonyeven more valuable, was contributed by Eguía’s secretary: “A frightful detonation and the surprise left the bystanders as if petrified, whose astonishment grew when they saw their general pouring blood from his face (…) and observed the frock coat he was wearing, defeated by the mouth-sleeves and part that covered the belly.” The journalist and historian Eduardo Rolland remember that the Galician press even explained how the explosion left a blood stain on the roof of the palace that could still be seen several months after the attack. Result: 13 wounds. Not only do we have a precise idea of ​​what the explosion was like. We also know what the bomb looked like and the effect it had on its victim. Regarding the first, the letter contained gunpowder mixed with arsenic and crushed glass, a combination designed to cause maximum damage. As for the captain general, he survived by a pure miracle. The chronicles say that he suffered 13 woundssome very seriousdistributed over the face, belly and thighs. The worst part was taken by their hands. The right one was so torn that doctors had to amputate it. On the left he lost two fingers. He was so badly off that the Government had to grant him a dispensation special so that he could sign documents with the help of a stamp. Who was the author? It seems that Eguía did not have many doubts. The story de Curros (not without epic) claims that after the explosion the captain proclaimed that he still had one hand left “to hang the culprit” and then cited his main suspect: “No one but Chao is capable of inventing such a perfect work!” This Chao was neither more nor less than José María Chao, chemist, pharmacist and above all a militant liberal. We know that he was a native of Leiro (province of Ourense), who participated in skirmishes during the Liberal Triennium and that around 1826 he set up a pharmacy in what is now the historic center of Vigo, a pharmacy that ended up becoming a reference for liberals forced to adapt to the Omino DecadeOh the repression under the reign of Ferdinand VII. The big doubt. Was Chao really the creator of the first known letter bomb? It is certainly not strange that Eguía suspected him. In addition to his chemical knowledge, in October 1829 Chao he had just gotten out of prison and it is said that his pharmacy was a hotbed of conspirators. It is true that the package bomb had been sent from Leónbut that could have been a ploy to deceive the authorities. However, evidence is one thing and evidence is another. Not all sources agree on whether the attack was clarified and Chao’s responsibility was confirmed. The biography that the Royal Academy of History (RAH) dedicates to Eguía assures that, although the liberals were suspected, “the authors could not be discovered.” The Voice of Galicia assures However, the apothecary could not get rid of a punishment and Rolland goes further and he slips that in 1873 Chao was “unequivocally” identified as the author of the letter. The first letter-bomb in history? What surely neither Eguía, nor Chao, nor any … Read more

to open Hormuz the US is no longer going to bomb, but rather something more dangerous

In the Persian Gulf there is an enclave of just a few square kilometers that, despite its size, became bombed hundreds of times during the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s while continuing to function as one of the main crude oil outlets in the world. Their history shows that sometimes the smallest places are also the hardest to replace. The war is changing the verb. Over the weekend, the arrival of a second amphibious group US launch into the Gulf, with thousands of Marines on board, is not just another tactical move but rather a sign that the war is possibly coming to a head. a new phase: to open the Strait of Hormuz, Washington is no longer thinking only of bombing, but of doing something much more dangerous, taking the key territory. How have we been countingKharg, the small island off the Iranian coast, concentrated near the 90% of exports of the country’s oil and has become the true center of gravity of the conflict, not because it is large or defensible, but because whoever controls it control the flow economy that sustains the regime. After weeks of remote attacks, the accelerated dispatch of amphibious forces indicates that the United States is preparing the option that involves boots on the ground, a qualitative leap that transforms an air campaign into a potential occupation operation. The plan is not new, it is from 40 years ago. I remembered the financial times this morning that what today seems like an improvised escalation actually has much deeper roots, because the idea of ​​taking Kharg is not new, but is part of a script that Trump had already outlined in the eightieswhen he openly argued that the United States should directly hit Iranian oil assets to force concessions. So talked about “go and take the island” as a response to any challenge in the Gulf, and four decades later that same scheme (ultimatum, economic pressure and decisive use of force) reappears almost no changes. The difference is that now it is not campaign rhetoric, but a very real option on the table, turning an old strategic intuition into an operational plan with global implications. The economic switch of war. The logic behind this move seems quite obvious: Iran has managed resist bombing and, at the same time, maintain its crude oil exports while blocking those of its rivals, turning the closure of Hormuz into an economic weapon that puts pressure on the rest of the world. From that perspective, for the United States, taking Kharg would break that dynamic by cutting off Tehran’s main source of income and striking back in the same area, the economic one, where Iran is trying to win the war. In other words, it is not so much about destroying as to control and taketo use the island as a negotiating lever to force the reopening of the strait and, ultimately, force the regime to accept imposed conditions from outside. The impossible operation. On paper, the capture of the island could be relatively fastsupported by previous attacks and the deployment of amphibious units capable of assaulting key points such as the airport and port facilities. However, the difficulty is not in conquering Kharg, but rather in holding it: its proximity to the Iranian coast makes it an exposed target to missiles, drones and constant attacks, while American supply lines would be vulnerable in an environment saturated with asymmetric threats. That is to say, the scenario looks less like the traditional blitzkrieg campaigns of the Americans and more like a war of attritionwhere holding a small island can become a large-scale strategic problem. The risk of escalation without return. Most analysts agree on the same diagnosis: the real danger is not only military, but political and economic. Such an assault operation would imply a direct escalation against the economic heart of Iran, with unforeseeable consequences: from regional attacks to energy infrastructures (Iran, in fact, has already warned with this) to a prolonged rise in oil prices and increasing pressure on the United States to exit the conflict. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that there is no guarantee that taking the island will force Tehran to give in. In fact, it could, on the contrary, further harden its stance and widen the conflict. In this unstable balance, Kharg Island has ceased to be just a military objective and has become a strategic bet high risk for Washington: a move that could change the course of the war… or trap it in an even more dangerous phase. Image | USN In Xataka | We wonder if it is safe to fly now that there are more drones than Ryanair planes: the answer is an Ockham’s razor In Xataka | The weapon to liberate Hormuz has fled 6,000 km from the war. And that just means the US is preparing for what comes next.

There is a Russian bomb floating in the Mediterranean coming from Ukraine. And Europe trembles because it can explode at any moment

It is a fact that most of the world’s trade moves by sea. This means that every day thousands of ships cross key routes very close to European coasts. In this constant traffic, a single out-of-control incident is enough to put entire ecosystems in check and force several countries to react at the same time. The war in Ukraine has just ended activate one of them. A bomb adrift in the heart of Europe. The situation is the following: in the Mediterranean right now there is more than just a damaged ship, the Arctic Metagaz is a latent threat that mixes war, energy and environmental risk in a single point. We are talking about a loaded Russian tanker with gas, fuel and diesela ship hit by a drone attack from Ukraine that sails uncontrollably, with structural damage and a real risk of explosion. Not only that. It appears to have no crew, is leaking and catching fire, and is moving slowly between European waters and North Africa. What makes it especially disturbing is not only its condition, but its origin: It is one more piece of the war being fought in Eastern Europe that has ended up floating in the Mediterranean, moving the conflict directly to the doors of the entire continent. It’s not just the front anymore. The episode confirms something that was already intuited for some time: that the war between Russia and Ukraine is no longer confined to the Black Sea or the land front. Ukraine has expanded its radius of action by attacking Russian ships on much more distant routes, including those that are part of the called “ghost fleet”key to avoiding sanctions and financing the Kremlin’s war effort. These increasingly frequent attacks turn ships into de facto military targets, even if they are sailing through international waters or near European territories. The result is an extension of the conflict that blurs borders and places Europe in an uncomfortable position, because it is not a direct part of these attacks, but its potential scenario. Arctic Metagaz Ecological risk and implications. The immediate danger right now it’s pretty obvious: an explosion or massive spill in an area of ​​high ecological value could cause lasting damage in the Mediterranean, affecting protected ecosystems and coastal economies. But the problem goes beyond the environmental impact. These types of incidents also reveal to us the fragility of the maritime system in times of hybrid war, where poorly maintained, aging ships, with opaque structures and no safety guarantees, They circulate on key routes. The combination of sanctions, evasion and attacks turns these ships into risk vectors that can trigger crises at any moment. Europe and the threat. The European reactionwith Italy and France along with several EU members warning of the imminent risk, reflects a growing concern: countries have asked a coordinated response facing a problem that is not only specific, but structural. The difficulty in intervening (whether due to weather conditions, the location of the vessel or legal issues) also represents a capacity and governance vacuum in nearby waters. While Russia he ignores of incident management and points to coastal states as responsibleEurope faces a rather complex dilemma: managing the consequences of a war in which it neither controls the origin nor the evolution. Symbol of a new phase. If you also want, the derived from the Arctic Metagaz summarizes like few elements the evolution of the current conflict: a war that no longer only dynamits infrastructure on land, but is capable of turning the sea into a space constant riskwhere each asset can become a threat. It is not just, therefore, an accident or an isolated episode, but the proof (one more) that the conflict has acquired an unpredictable dimensionwhere an action in Ukraine can end up generating a crisis thousands of kilometers away. And that is precisely what it has of the nerves to Europe: not knowing when or where the next impact may materialize. Image | war-sanctions.gur.gov.ua In Xataka | While we all look at Iran, in Ukraine they continue doing their thing: robot against robot battles where humans only watch In Xataka | Ukraine has become the world’s leading specialist against Iranian drones. And he won’t share his antidote

the new “atomic bomb” is invisible

In every major conflict or world war, there was a time when a technology apparently secondary changed the rules of the game and redefined what it meant to have an advantage. Sometimes it is not the loudest, nor the heaviest, nor even the most visible weapon, but the invisible infrastructure that supports everything else from the air. A war in the clouds. The invasion of Ukraine has shown that the modern battlefield is not only measured in kilometers conquered or armor destroyed, but in megabits per second. High-speed satellite connectivity transformed the way to fight by allowing almost instant command, control and coordination at any point on the front. That has led to a dark reversal, because when that network is cut, not only is the Internet lost: Vision, synchronization and response capacity are lost, and the affected army is suddenly disoriented in an environment where every second decision can be lethal. The digital trap. Taking advantage of Russian troops’ desperation to regain access to Starlink after geo-blocking imposed by Elon Musk on SpaceX, a Ukrainian cyber assault unit launched a covert operation on Telegram. The trap: offering false registration services on a supposed Ukrainian “white list.” What happened? That Russian soldiers, believing they were reestablishing their connection, voluntarily sent terminal identifiers, account data and exact location coordinates. Instead of the Internet, they received 155 mm artillery fire. More than 2,000 data entries and thousands of dollars paid for the fictitious service turned the technological necessity into a kind of lethal “honeypot”, where each attempt to reconnect revealed a target. Starlink as strategic infrastructure. In this way, the SpaceX constellation not only facilitated communications, but also allowed to operate dronescoordinate attacks and maintain digitalized logistics on an extended front. A trap that has possibly been a pioneer in the Ukrainian war, but that will surely be the “norm” in future conflicts. When the company limited access only to verified terminals Because of Ukraine, Russia was suddenly deprived of a system on which it also depended. The interruption, in fact, has slowed offensives, forced a return to more vulnerable manned vehicles and generated chaos described by Russian voices as an operational “hell.” Connectivity stopped being a complement and became backbone of combat. Satellite Internet as an “atomic bomb.” The digital deception operation was not only a brilliant tactical action, but the verification of a strategic reality: In contemporary war, dominance of the information spectrum and networks is equivalent to the air superiority of the 20th century. Without real-time data there are no precise drones, no coordinated command, and no synchronized attacks. Disconnection de facto turns a modern force into an army blindexposed and extremely slow. Thus, the adversary that controls the network is not only able to listen and observe, it also has the ability to decide when the enemy speaks or, as in the case at hand, when he falls. Balloons in the sky. The data that confirms the importance of being “connected” on the battlefield has arrived this week. Given the loss of Starlink and the delay of its own Rassvet satellite constellationMoscow has activated emergency solutions such as the Barrage-1 stratospheric ballooncapable of raising 5G communication equipment to 20 kilometers in height to offer regional connectivity. The idea is not new and it could work as temporary nodebut it lacks the global coverage and resilience of thousands of laser-connected satellites. Furthermore, its lower altitude makes it a potential target for anti-aircraft defenses, hunting drones or electronic warfare, transferring the battle for connectivity to the physical sky as well. Without a network there is no modern war. If you will also, the Russian dependence on commercial systems and the Ukrainian effectiveness in exploiting that vulnerability reveal a profound change in the nature of the conflict. Digital infrastructure is no longer a simple logistical support, it has become a decisive weapon that articulates all the others. While Moscow searches technological patches and alternatives that time will tell if they are improvised or not, kyiv has shown that cutmanipulating or controlling the net can upset the balance on the front line faster than any ground offense. In the war that is being fought in Ukraine, and possibly in those to come, whoever dominates the connection in space, dominates the combat. Image | Support Forces of Ukraine Command, Ukraine Defense Ministry In Xataka | It is evident that Russia can absorb thousands and thousands of casualties. So Ukraine is already designing a much riskier plan In Xataka | An unprecedented experiment is happening in Ukraine: bombs have turned dogs into other animals

bomb them with 6,000 logs from helicopters to fix a decades-old mistake

Historically, the rivers of the Pacific Northwest of the United States They were a chaos of fallen wood, deep pools and irregular currents that prevented the normal flow. The logic marked clean them and remove all the trunks to facilitate the passage of water and transportation, something they did not hesitate to do. The problem is that this has subsequently been seen to be a mistake, and they have literally had to fix it throwing logs into the river with a helicopter. Something that may seem crazy, but that science has endorsed as the best. A bombardment of wood. The project, led by the Yakama Nation in collaboration with organizations such as The Nature Conservancy has reached an unprecedented milestone. They have managed to place more than 6,000 Douglas fir logs and cedar along Central Washington’s 24 miles of rivers and streams. With helicopters. A task that was not easy, and for which helicopters have been requiredsince access by land to these virgin areas is almost impossible without building roads that would destroy the ecosystem that they are trying to save, in a paradoxical way, ‘dirtying’ the rivers. That is why the use of cargo helicopters has allowed the wood to be deposited with surgical precision without touching the surrounding forest floor to do as little damage as possible. An image that has actually attracted a lot of attention on social networks due to the impression of seeing a helicopter dumping wood into a river. A dirty river. Although seeing thousands of logs piled up in a river may seem like a natural disaster, to a biologist it is a perfect work of engineering. And these stacks are called ‘Engineered Log Jams’ and have a very clear meaning. The first is that the logs create deep pools and shadows where the water stays cold, which is vital for the survival of salmon and bull trout in the face of rising global temperatures. Stopping the current. This is another reason why science justifies the need to have these logs in the river, since slowing down the water allows the gravel to settle for the salmon to lay their eggs. Something that is complemented by the possibility of shelter that the trunks provide to hide from predators. Furthermore, by forcing the water to go around the obstacles, the complexity of the channel is recovered, avoiding accelerated erosion of the banks. The backup. As we have said before, it has not been a unilateral political decision, but rather it has had the support of science with different studies. These targeted a survival rate of 78% of fauna after major floods, more than meeting the protection objectives. And the success has been such that they are already being replicated in other parts of the country. The public administration itself is financing similar projects in the olympic peninsula and in counties like Cowlitz they have doubled down, placing up to 8,000 logs in the Grays River. The return of the salmon. This project is not just a question of river aesthetics. It is a battle for food sovereignty and biodiversity. Research in the Elwha River already confirms an immediate positive response with the presence of young salmon in front of these structures. In this way, what was eliminated decades ago because it was considered “garbage” or obstacles to progress, is today reinserted with high-tech helicopters. It is the recognition that sometimes, for nature to function properly, we need to make rivers “dirty” and full of obstacles again. Images | Job Vermeulen Magnus Mandrup In Xataka | Finally we have salmon without an environmental footprint, without overfishing and without microplastics. It’s just not salmon

A video of a Russian soldier ignoring a bomb falling on him is the clue to something deeper in Ukraine

This circulating a clip as brief as it is disturbing: what appears to be a fragmentation munition falls at a soldier’s feet, explodes practically beneath him and, against all logic, the man continues walking as if nothing had happened, “ignoring” the immediate impact of a detonation that, by pure physics, should have destroyed him or at least knocked him down and left him incapacitated. The explanation points to a tactic that is not new. What doesn’t fit. The most striking from the video It is not just that he remains standing, but the absence of the instinctive reaction that any body has to pain and shock, as if the nervous system were disconnected or anesthetized. And here comes the detail that makes the scene even more disturbing: according to Canadian analyst Roythe scene suggests that it is a Russian soldier, and that what we see is not a typical Ukrainian attack, but a deliberate attempt to eliminate him by his own people, perhaps because he was trying to defect. In that reading, the explosion would not be bad luck, but rather a covert execution, with what appears to be una OFSP-0.5, launched with the intention of cutting his retreat short and erasing any uncomfortable history before he crosses a line or surrenders. The “zombies” of Bakhmut. The image does not appear out of nowhere: it fits within a sensation that is repeated from the hardest moments of the siege at Bakhmutwhen Ukrainian fighters they described Russian attacks that seemed written by someone who doesn’t understand human survival. Waves of men advancing without coordination, without visible tactical logic, walking almost in a straight line towards enemy fire, with stories that spoke of soldiers who kept appearingalthough the first had already been killed, and with a strange passivity even under bombardment. We talk about videos where soldiers were seen move slowlystaggering, as if they were stuck in a thick dream, unable to move away even as grenades fell around them. In that framework, the video soldier current seems like the extreme version of the same impression. The drug hypothesis. For months, many Ukrainians have sustained an uncomfortable idea: that part of these attacks are not explained only by incompetence or desperation, but by soldiers “doped” envoyswith substances that reduce fear and disconnect prudence. The accusation appears in direct testimonies: men who seem euphoric or absent, who advance without understanding what they are doing, who do not retreat even if death is obvious, who react late or not at all. Not only that. Suspicion persists because, from a military point of view, the temptation it’s too clear: If what you need is infantry who will walk toward fire, who will endure a corridor battered by artillery, who will not be slowed by anxiety, and who will execute orders in an environment where instinct would say “flight,” a stimulant or narcotic mixture can make a soldier a more manageable asset. Pervitin, an early form of methamphetamine, which was widely used in Nazi Germany The Nazi shadow. To understand why this idea is not science fiction, just look at the most famous historical precedent: Nazi Germany led drug use combat at an industrial level with Pervitina low-dose amphetamine similar to modern methamphetamine that was first popularized in civilian society and then became a military multiplier. wanted something simple: reduce sleep, raise morale, reduce fear, increase aggression and sustain the execution of tasks without rest for days, just what is needed for rapid offensives and to maintain the rhythm when the body should collapse. And it wasn’t just the Nazis, also the allies. Super soldiers. That logic fit like a key in the blitzkrieg lock: continuous movements, mechanized attacks, advance without pause, a sensation of permanent thrust that overwhelmed the enemy not only because of the power, but because of the ability to not stop. He myth of the “super soldier” It wasn’t a futuristic helmet: it was a pill. And if that episode taught anything, it is that armies, when they believe they can gain an advantage or sustain performance, usually put immediate effectiveness before medium-term human cost. Soldiers under the influence. The pattern of effects attributed to this type of stimulant is perfectly compatible with what appears in many stories of the war: less fear, more aggressiveness, less need to sleep, more resistance to fatigue and a certain ease in executing simple commands even in extreme conditions. The price is usually the psychological and physical toll: dependency, depression, impulsivity, loss of judgment, and a progressive degradation of the soldier as a functional person outside of the moment of combat. On the front line, however, that bill is irrelevant to a short-term planner: if what you need is for someone to cross a field of fire today, you care little about what happens to them a month from now. That’s why video on networks It is so symbolic and striking: it seems to be the exact moment in which the body stops behaving like a human that preserves its life and begins to behave like a moving object that only obeys the forward vector. The other side of the coin. However, there is an essential nuance: “zombie” behavior does not always involve drugs. It may simply be the ugliest version from reality: extreme coldlack of equipment, exhaustion, hungeraccumulated sleep, sustained stress and the confusion of a mind that shuts down. The early hypothermiafor example, fits brutally with many clips: slowness, clumsiness, difficulty processing stimuli, confused speech, lost gaze. And in the Russian case there is also a historical tradition of war “fuel” much more mundane: alcohol as a tactical and psychological value, from vodka rations in World War II (used to combat the cold and to give courage before attacks) until modern episodes of indiscipline and documented drunkenness. A sign of the times. In short, the video that has gone viral In networks it leaves that somewhat absurd feeling of “two options”: either it was a Terminator, or the soldier was under some type … Read more

Russia has reminded the planet that the war in Ukraine is a ticking bomb. And for this he has pressed a nuclear button: Oreshnik

Over the past few months, the war in Ukraine has seemed advance by inertia: fronts that barely move, stalled negotiations and constant wear and tear that threatens with normalizing the conflict in Europe. But in recent weeks Moscow has remembered, without the need for major territorial conquests, that it continues to have the ability to alter the chessboard with a single gesture: the nuclear one. The button that is always there. In a stuck war In the mud of the front and industrial wear and tear, Russia has once again remembered that it is still sitting on a strategic bomb pressing a button that does not need to be pressed completely to take effect: that of Oreshnik missilean intermediate-range system with nuclear capacity whose use, even with inert or conventional charges, functions as a political message rather than as a tactical weapon. The launch detection from the Kapustin Yar strategic polygon and the subsequent explosions near Lviv, a few kilometers from the Polish border, do not seek so much to destroy decisive objectives as to point out that Moscow can escalate whenever it wants and from wherever it wants, even from facilities associated with its strategic nuclear forces, deliberately breaking the “conventional” routine of the conflict. Symbolic weapon, real threat. It we have counted before: the Oreshnik, derived from the RS-26 program and capable of carrying multiple warheads that separate in flight, it is not a missile designed to win battles in Ukraine, but to cross psychological red lines in Europe. Its hypersonic speed, its potential range of up to 5,500 kilometers and the fact that Ukraine lacks defenses capable of intercepting it turn each launch into a demonstration of the structural vulnerability of NATO’s eastern flank. When Russia first used it against Dnipro in 2024 with dummy heads, he made it clear that he was not testing marksmanship, but rather strategic credibility. Now, by bringing the impact closer to the NATO border and the European Union, the message is even more explicit. Controlled climbing. The reappearance of the Oreshnik is no coincidence. It occurs while Ukraine refuses to give up territory in the negotiations, while Moscow insists that any Western troops deployed on Ukrainian soil would be a legitimate objective and while Washington, under Trump, intensifies pressure on Russia’s allies like Venezuela. The Kremlin justifies the attacks as retaliation for alleged Ukrainian attempts to attack the residence of Vladimir Putinaccusations that even US intelligence services they doubtbut the real logic is different: to raise the psychological and political cost of Western support without formally crossing the nuclear threshold. Energy, winter and strategic terror. As in previous winters, Russian missiles and drones are once again baiting the Ukrainian energy infrastructureleaving entire neighborhoods in kyiv and other cities without electricity or heating amid sub-zero temperatures. The Oreshnik fits into this strategy of calculated terror: not only does it damage critical facilities, but it amplifies the feeling of helplessness by introducing a weapon that symbolizes the maximum possible escalation. Ukraine responds by hitting power grids in Russian regions such as Belgorod or Oryol, but the strategic asymmetry remains intact. Europe as a target audience. Furthermore, by hitting near Lviv and, by extension, Poland, Russia is not just talking to kyiv, but with Brussels, Berlin and Paris. The Oreshnik is a reminder that Ukrainian theater is inseparably linked to European security and that any expansion of military support has an immediate reflection on the deterrence ladder. It is no coincidence that Moscow recently showed the deployment of the system in Belarus, further extending the reach shadow over the continent. The temptation of blackmail. Thus, with minimal and extremely slow territorial advances, and a growing human and industrial cost, Russia uses the Oreshnik missile as a substitute for victories on the battlefield. It is not a weapon to conquer Ukraine, of course, but rather to remind the world that the conflict cannot be closed by ignoring the Russian nuclear dimension. From that prism, each launch is a warning: Moscow does not need to detonate a warhead to reactivate the founding fear of the Cold War. Just show the button, press it even half and make it clear that it is still there, waiting, like a time bomb that sets the pace of all future negotiations. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine In Xataka | Ukraine has become an animal slaughterhouse: Russian soldiers appear with horses and drones blow them up In Xataka | First it was Finland, now the US has confirmed it: when the war in Ukraine ends, Russia has a plan for Europe

Log In

Forgot password?

Forgot password?

Enter your account data and we will send you a link to reset your password.

Your password reset link appears to be invalid or expired.

Log in

Privacy Policy

Add to Collection

No Collections

Here you'll find all collections you've created before.