coming

El Niño is coming back in a big way

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Since mid-2025, we had no news on the front: the equatorial Pacific has been governed for months by a tremendously weak, decaffeinated and boring La Niña. But things end. And this La Niña is, in fact, ending very quickly. As I write, Kevin waves are transporting heat into the eastern Pacific and major seasonal models are signaling with unprecedented fixation that El Niño is just around the corner. What’s more, they point out that the next episode of ENSO is going to be between strong and very strong before we know it. First of all… what is El Niño in 127 words. What we know as El Niño-Southern Oscillation (or ENSO) is a cyclical (although somewhat irregular) climate phenomenon that has large effects on the global climate. During the warm phase (during El Niño itself), the lack of trade winds to cool the surface causes the temperature of the Pacific waters to skyrocket. And that, precisely that, disrupts all the Earth’s weather systems, causing the thermometers of the entire planet to skyrocket. As explained from AEMET“El Niño, through different atmospheric teleconnections, gives rise to drier than normal conditions in certain parts of the world; while in others it causes more precipitation. Some countries have to deal with significant droughts and others with torrential rains.” What happened now? Something quite curious, really. In just one week, we have gone from the most absolute tranquility (60-70% chance of neutral conditions) to 80% of a strong or very strong El Niño before summer ends. What has changed, as I said above, are the ocean signals: NOAA have found signs of significant subsurface warming, and that warming is the classic first sign that something is starting to change. Basically, since the beginning of the year there have been three episodes in which warm water from the western Pacific has been moving eastward. Changes in the wind pattern have also been detected. And why does it concern experts? Because these rapid changes are very similar to what happened in 1997. The super El Niño of 97-98 was one of the strongest ENSOs in recent years and caused numerous problems: the estimates say that he alone caused damage to global economic growth of around 5.7 trillion dollars. Obviously, many things They can go wrong between now and summerbut we would be wrong if we do not pay attention to the Pacific. We are at the doors of a global food crisisthe last thing we need is for El Niño to hit the Southern Hemisphere hard during the last months of the year. Image | NOAA In Xataka | Long periods of drought are going to become more and more normal. It’s time to get used to them

These are the new features coming to the popular application

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Let’s tell you what they are the new channels and stations that come to TDTChannelsas well as those who leave the platform. TDTChannels is one of the most popular applications available to watch television and radio channels over the Internet on any device. Remember that the application is free and does not even require registration or a DTT antenna. It is simply the best alternative for watch DTT on your mobile either watch DTT onlinealthough there are also other alternatives quite interesting. New TV and radio channels on TDTChannels Those responsible for the service have pointed out that they are making adjustments to the list of online channels and radio stations that are available in the service. These are news from television channels What we are going to find: TV channels that are added TV channels removed Updated TV channels 7TV Andalucía (Arcos, Campo de Gibraltar, Jerez, San Fernando, Rota) COPE Play Time 3CAT Vinaigrette 3CAT Joc de Cartes On Play (RTVE) Star TVE Europe 8M (RTVE) Cartaya TV RTL Radio Freccia Italia RTL Zeta Italy RTL 102.5 Italy (Musicals) Cosmos TV Peru Colombia Signal Chillhop Music College Music Paramount Network Quickie Channel The Twins House 2 Zero Wave COPE SAM Ibiza 101TV Round 101TV Cadiz DanceStar Disney Channel THIRTEEN TV Almassora EsTuTele Telecija TeleQuivir Yours La Janda TV TeleGranada TVM Córdoba TeleBilbao 101TV Malaga 101TV Seville Cordoba TV Freedom Digital TV Vinx TV The 9 TV TV Carmona ATV Andorra Current Time TV Miami TV Jenny Live ZAZTV Pat Bolivia News Caracol Colombia Telepacific Colombia Canal Capital Colombia Successful Peru News Panamericana Peru Globovision Venezuela VPI TV Venezuela Dance TV Estonia Fashion TV RU.TV Russia ABC News USA There are three sections in this list. First you have channels that join, then channels that leave, and then channels that information has been updatedwith new links, logo correction, etc. The changes have focused mainly on regional and local channels, temporary signals, and several international channels. And now, let’s tell you news on radio stations. Here, there are much fewer changes, but we tell you anyway. Stations that come Stations that leave Updated stations COPE (All regional stations) À Punt FM Onda Madrid BE Manresa Radio Gracia Next FM Hit103 Onda Guillena Radio RM Requena Utiel Onda Cero Puertollano Medea FM Popular Radio – Herri Irratia Radio Malibu Radio Mogan As you can see, the changes in terms of radio stations have been more focused on updating existing stations. Install and add channels to TDTChannels You can download TDTChannels for free in its versions for Android and for iOSand download your APK file to install it on Android TV or Fire TV. You can also view its content online entering directly into your Web page. What you are going to download from the application stores on your mobile is the channel aggregator. The skeleton, to which you then have to install any IPTV list. We have told you about the official list of channelswhich you can install by downloading and adding their M3U, M3U8 and JSON lists In Xataka Basics | DTT channels in 2026: what changes are there with a channel that is leaving, a new channel and another that changes its name

NVIDIA is going to spend $4 billion on photonics companies. He is preparing for what is coming

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NVIDIA does not provide stitches without thread. At the end of August 2025, the company led by Jensen Huang announced that in 2026 their platforms artificial intelligence next generation (AI) will use photonic interconnections to achieve higher transfer speeds between GPU clusters. This announcement came during the conference specializing in semiconductor engineering and high-performance computing ‘Hot Chips’, which was held in Palo Alto (California), and was just the prelude to what was to come. And this same week NVIDIA has revealed that is going to invest 2,000 million dollars in Lumentum, and the same amount in Coherent. These two companies have something very important in common: they are specialized in developing photonic technologies. Shortly after NVIDIA confirmed its interest in them, the shares of these two companies rose 5 and 9% respectively. And the company led by Jensen Huang has committed to purchasing products from Lumentum and Coherent for several billion dollars, and also to use their advanced laser solutions and optical networking technologies. Photonics is the support that cutting-edge semiconductors need Most IC designers and manufacturers are working on the development of silicon photonics. Douglas Yu, a TSMC executive with responsibility for systems integration, explained in September 2023 very clearly what disruptive capacity this technology has: “If we manage to implement a good integration system for silicon photonics, we will unleash a new paradigm. We will probably place ourselves at the beginning of a new era.” Silicon photonics is a discipline that in the field in question seeks to develop the technology of this chemical element to optimize the transformation of electrical signals into light pulses. The most obvious field of application of this innovation is implementing high performance links which, on paper, can be used both to resolve communications between several chips and to optimize the transfer of information between several machines. In AI clusters, thousands of GPUs must work in unison, so it is essential to connect them using high-performance links The advanced packaging technologies used by leading semiconductor manufacturers, such as TSMC, Intel or Samsung, can greatly benefit from a very high-performance inter-chip communication mechanism. And large data centers where it is necessary to connect a large number of machines, too. However, there is one discipline in particular that has an overwhelming future projection and that would benefit greatly from building on the advantages offered by silicon photonics: AI. This is precisely NVIDIA’s bet. In AI clusters, thousands of GPUs must work in unison, so it is essential to connect them using high-performance links. It is possible to solve this challenge using traditional copper cables or optical modules, but both of these solutions introduce into the infrastructure very important inefficiencies. The most problematic are energy loss and bottlenecks. Data transfer can consume up to 30 watts per port, which increases energy dissipation as heat and increases the likelihood of failure. Additionally, latency limits the scalability of clusters as the number of GPUs in data centers increases. To resolve these inefficiencies, NVIDIA will integrate the optical components required for photonic interconnections into the same switching chip package. This technology is known as CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) and manages to reduce power consumption to only 9 watts per port. Additionally, it minimizes signal loss and improves data integrity. Looks really good. NVIDIA has confirmed that it will integrate CPO technology into its Quantum-X InfiniBand and Spectrum-X Ethernet interconnect platforms during 2026. However, there is something important that is worth not overlooking: CPO is not going to be an extra. When it arrives, it will be established as a structural requirement of the next generation of AI data centers in a clear attempt to increase the competitiveness of NVIDIA’s AI hardware platforms. Image | Generated by Xataka with Gemini More information | Reuters In Xataka | Intel and TSMC lead the photonic chip revolution. Their problem is that China has just gotten fully involved in this war

Apple made a splash with its cheapest iPhone. And the iPhone 17e is coming to repeat the play

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Apple has just renewed its entry-level iPhone, the successor to the e family. Last year we saw a iPhone 16e that landed with a clear purpose: to be that iPhone for those who want a completely new iPhone, but with the basic specifications. Thus the iPhone 16e was born, a phone that has just been renewed in true Apple style. We tell you all the specifications, technical characteristics and news about the new iPhone 17e. iPhone 17e technical sheet iPhone 16e Screen OLED 6.1″ Super Retina XDR 2,532 by 1,170px (460 dpi) Up to 1,200 nits True Tone, HDR Processor Apple A19 Bionic Storage 256/512GB RAM memory 8GB Dimensions and weight 147.67×71.5×7.8mm 170g Software iOS 26 Apple Intelligence rear cameras Main: 48 MP, 26 mm, f/1.6 front camera True Depth 12 MP, f/1.9 Battery nd Connectivity USB-C 2 Wi-Fi 6 NFC Others Face ID Dynamic Island IP68 resistance Emergency calls Accident detection Price From 709 euros (Much the same. but better The iPhone 17e is not a mobile phone in which technical specifications prevail. It is a mobile phone in which the basics prevail. The phone repeats with an OLED screen, with Retina XDR resolution (2,532 by 1,170px) and a sin that we already criticized last year: a brightness of 800 nits which goes up to 1,200 nits for HDR content. Taking into account that the iPhone 15 went on sale in September 2023 with a panel that reached 2,000 nits, and that low-mid-range models are already around 3,000 nits, it is a brightness that is not typical of a phone that starts at 709 euros. The main novelty is that, this year, the front part is protected with Ceramic Shield 2, being much more resistant to scratches. Specifically, Apple promises up to three times more. The processor also changes, the same Apple A19 Bionic that the iPhone 17 incorporates. Like its older brothers, this model starts with 256 GB, finally banishing the 128 GB from the map. Regarding wired charging, it is 20W and promises a 50% recharge in 30 minutes. Same autonomy, more charge Apple promises the same autonomy in this iPhone 17e, despite the fact that the processor is a priori more efficient. Yes, there are improvements in fast charging, now including MagSafe and going up to 15W wirelessly compared to 7.5W in the previous generation. The camera repeats with a 48 megapixel sensor onlywith 2x “lossless” zoom thanks to the cutout in the central area. It’s Apple’s way of offering “a telephoto lens” and a sort of dual-camera setup on a phone with a single sensor. For the rest, we are looking at the same phone, these being its main new features: faster CPU 9 more hours of video playback Double the internal storage 15W wireless charging with MagSafe Panel with Ceramic Shield 2 Versions and price of the iPhone 17e The iPhone 17e returns from 709 euros, although it must be taken into account that it now starts at 256 GB. 250 euros than a iPhone 17but with some specifications behind a iPhone 15such as the double camera or the panel with dynamic island and 2,000 nits. Shock more or less, the iPhone e formula works. The iPhone 16e had very good sales resultsand the new model with more power, more storage and some additional improvements points to the same path. Image | Apple In Xataka | iPhone 16e Vs iPhone 16. Which Apple mobile to choose according to your tastes and needs

The DGT sold us a “reasonable period without sanctions” for the V-16 beacons. The fines are already coming

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Unwritten agreements have a problem: nothing is written. It seems silly but it is more than obvious. When there is talk of a “reasonable period” or “being flexible” but nothing is signed, the truth is that there are reasons to be suspicious. Because nothing and no one prevents breaking that supposed agreement with which all parties agree. Or if not, tell those who have been fined for not having the V-16 beacons. They are already fining. This is what they assure from Pyramid Consulting. This consultancy, specialized in appealing traffic fines, already indicates that its offices have received a penalty because a driver did not have the V-16 light to signal a dangerous situation. The penalty is 80 euros, as we already had in Xatakaand it reads that the reason for the sanction is “not having the corresponding V-16 regulatory sign installed on the vehicle.” The penalty was imposed on January 6, Three Kings’ Day, and the gift will be a financial penalty of 40 euros if the driver accepts prompt payment. “A reasonable period”. Penalizing a driver on January 6, 2026 for not having a V-16 beacon raises blisters among drivers. And Fernando Grande-Marlaska, Minister of the Interior, and Pere Navarro, director of the DGT, were faced with a pool full of contradictions and decided to jump into it headlong. In December 2025, faced with the prospect that drivers were not going to have the V-16 beacon on time, the DGT already announced that there would be no extensions in the application of the measure because, in their words, there would be no point in delaying it to the summer of 2026 since the situation would be exactly the same. Of course, they indicated that they had considered delaying it. However, that same month of December, the director of the DGT himself indicated that agents “will be flexible” so fines were not expected, at least, in the first days. They talked about “consolidating this issue” without having to deal with a barrage of fines. On January 8, Grande-Marlaska defended that the beacon was not tax collection, that “information would take precedence over the sanction” and that fines would not be imposed. a “reasonable” period of time. By then, Pyramid Consulting’s client had already been sanctioned. They think they are right. From the consultancy they assure that they are going to appeal the fine. The reasons they allege are that articles 9 and 103 of the Spanish Constitution specify that the Administration must guarantee the legal security of citizens. And they point out that the Administration’s actions must comply with and be: Foreseeable Transparent Consistent Adjusted to good faith They assure that Grande-Marlaska’s statements, in which it was suggested that the agents would not sanction “in a reasonable period of time,” invalidates the sanction and generates legal uncertainty for the citizen since a safeguard message is sent that in the end has not been fulfilled. The contradictions. The problem here is that those responsible for the Ministry of the Interior and the DGT sent messages that contradicted what is stated in the law. Both assured that there would be no fine for not having the beacon and not using it but, at the same time, they neither offered a specific time period nor was any type of order approved in which this was reflected. This left it up to the agents how to act. And if they considered that a car was not correctly signaling its position, there were sufficient reasons to sanction it, according to the approved regulations. And although the DGT’s public message was in the direction of not fining, the agents themselves have recognized that they have no order to act in this way. Photo | DGT and Pyramid Consulting In Xataka | The V-16 beacon has many problems: the manufacturer turning off its servers and leaving you offline is not one of them

Some extremely complicated days are coming

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If two years ago someone would have told us that today we would be wishing If it stopped raining, we wouldn’t have believed it. But reality always exceeds our expectations and, this week, it is about to also exceed the hydrological limits of the south and west of the country. And with the terrain already saturated after weeks of storms and more storms, AEMET rain warning “intense and extraordinarily persistent” that can trigger floods, floods and landslides, as well as strong winds and maritime storms. We don’t know what’s coming to us. What is going to happen? At a technical level, on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday the arrival of the high-impact storm Leonardo (fed by a current of humid subtropical air) will initiate an episode of precipitation that can turn the entire third of the peninsula and many points in the west of the country upside down. He black point is in Grazalemathe Ronda mountain range and the Strait of Gibraltar with up to 250 mm of rain in 24 hours. To this we must add Sierra Nevada, which, although it will receive about 100 mm, the rise in the snow level can cause a massive thaw that puts the entire Genil basin and the rivers of the Mediterranean coast in check. In general, any point in the south facing windward and areas with orographic enhancement are candidates to receive a huge hydrometeorological impact. It is not a specific event. Above all, because adding Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, more than 400 mm are expected in parts of the Béticas. To this we must add the more than 200mm in the upper Guadalquivir and the more than 100mm in the basin. That is, a lot of water. Something that added to that “The soil is clay and its use is agricultural.“, will make the filtration very poor. The entire Guadalquivir valley from Córdoba onwards is activating eviction plans because the overflowing of the river is a risk that cannot be ignored. Beyond the floods. Because yes, floods and overflows are possibly the main problem and the Hydrographic Confederations are working at full speed to regulate the levels of channels and reservoirs in anticipation. However, the problems are many and landslides that can cut roads, damage buildings and destroy basic infrastructure are not minor. Why is this happening? Or, rather, why is it going to happen? And the key to all this is the combination between “it has already rained a lot” with “more is coming.” When the soil is near saturation (and, right now, it is), the extra rain is almost automatically transformed into runoff: streams and ravines grow quickly and the risk of flooding increases even without a specific “waterspout” being necessary. Here, therefore, the problem is not so much in the sky (that too) but in the orography. We will see persistent rains that will accumulate enormous amounts in a few hours and the insufficiency of drainage infrastructure will do the rest. In other words, if we have to summarize everything we are going to experience in the next few hours and days, the precise word is “be careful.” Great care. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | What seemed like a “festival of storms” has turned into a nightmare: AEMET prepares for “the highest hydrometeorological impacts in the world”

TCL is growing wildly in TVs while Samsung falls. The surprise that no one saw coming is about to happen

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The global television market fell 1% year-on-year in November 2025, but behind that decline is the sign of a change in hierarchy: Samsung continues to be the leader with a 17% share, but TCL has boosted its sales by 20% compared to the previous year and is already close to first place. What seemed impossible two years ago (a Chinese brand that used to be seen as ‘cheap’ taking the throne from Samsung) is now a very real possibility. The data comes out of latest monthly report sales report published by the market analysis firm Counterpoint Research. The figures. Samsung has gone from 18% to 17% market share in one year, with a 3% decline in units sold. TCL, on the other hand, has climbed from 13% to 16% and continues to rise. Hisense, the third manufacturer, has fallen 13%, dragged down by the collapse of the Chinese market (-24%), where it is stronger than in the West. LG has grown by 7% and stands at 9%, while Walmart has strongly entered the top 5 after completing the purchase of Vizio in December 2024. Between the lines. TCL’s rise is neither coincidental nor ephemeral. The company has stopped being seen as a manufacturer of cheap TVs to position itself in premium technologies such as MiniLEDwhich sells at more competitive prices than Samsung. That combo has been lethal in emerging markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where demand for quality is growing but price remains decisive. And there is another key factor: TCL hardly depends on the Chinese market, which is in free fall. Hisense has collapsed due to its exposure to its country of origin (it accumulates almost a third of its sales there), but TCL has diversified its sales and is now reaping those fruits. The master stroke. TCL just signed a historic agreement with Sony to manufacture its televisions under a joint venture in which the Chinese will control 51% and the Japanese 49%. It is a move that changes everything: TCL gains instant credibility in the premium sector by associating with a brand synonymous with image quality, and also manages to penetrate Japan, a protectionist market where Chinese brands have a very difficult time. For Sony it is a way to survive in an increasingly competitive market where it does not manufacture its own panels and its premium prices leave it out of the game. For TCL it is the definitive boost: it stops being the cheap-Chinese manufacturer and starts managing one of the most respected brands in the sector. The joint venture will start in 2027, so the immediate effects will be less than anecdotal. But in the medium term, history may change. Yes, but. Samsung is not going to let itself be dethroned without going down into the mud. Although its share has fallen, it still has great financial muscle, a global distribution network full of alliances forged after many years of relationships with distributors, and an advantage in premium segments such as OLED and QD-OLED. Besides, Walmart’s acquisition of Vizio It marks the entry of a third major contender in North America that could make life difficult for both Samsung and TCL. What is clear is that 2026 will be the definitive year: TCL, Hisense and Xiaomi are going to continue putting pressure on MiniLED and medium-large screens, just where demand grows the most. And if Samsung does not react as it should, the surprise It may be a matter of quarters. He 2026 World Cup can alter all forecasts. It is one of the great incentives for millions of homes to renew their TVs, and whoever best positions themselves in price and technology will win the jackpot. And now what. The battle to lead TV sales is no longer just a technological issue, it is also a question of pricing strategy and geographical expansion. TCL has shown that it can grow with a lot of commercial aggressiveness without giving up the best technologies. Samsung is going to have to decide whether to lower its prices or take refuge in the most premium segment. The third option (staying still) does not seem viable for anyone’s sake. In Xataka | I also plugged the HDMI cables into the first port I found: I was wasting half my TV Featured image | TCL

The number of new apps coming to the App Store has skyrocketed. We have a culprit: “vibe coding”

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The arrival of tools based on generative artificial intelligence has caused a real explosion in mobile application stores, especially since we have development environments with AI that allow us to create and deploy applications without needing to know programming. According to data from venture capital fund Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), new apps launched in the iOS App Store in the United States increased 60% year-on-year in December, after remaining practically stagnant for the previous three years. The accumulated year-on-year growth in the last twelve months reaches 24%. The person responsible has a name: the “vibe coding“, that way of programming in which AI does much of the work. What is happening. 2025 has been the year in which “sensation programming” has exploded. And it is that in environments of ‘agentic programming‘ or vibe coding, just explain to an AI tool what application you need and the machine takes care of writing the code. Platforms like CursorBolt, Google AI StudioClaude Code or V0 have democratized app creation to the point that anyone with an idea can turn it into a working prototype without writing a single line of code. This opens many doors, as thousands of new developers without technical training are publishing applications in stores. That’s also a problem. Going back to 2008. As points out a16z, the situation evokes the early days of the iPhonewhen Apple launched its SDK and in a matter of months went from 500 applications to downloads that exceeded 1,000 million. That ecosystem ended up generating hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. Here the phenomenon is even more overwhelming, since the creation of applications is no longer ‘limited’ to experienced developers, which means that in an afternoon we can create any simple app, as long as we know what to ask of the AI. Image: a16z The problem. Things are clear: you will not be able to create a complex application in one sentence. And now he told us Miguel Ángel Durán, a software engineer known as midudev, in March of last year: “don’t think that just saying something without knowing anything about programming is going to give you the next Airbnb.” As my colleague Javier Pastor mentioned some time ago, the case of Leoa user who created an entire SaaS platform with vibe coding and even got paying customers, perfectly illustrates the risks, since two days after bragging about his achievement, he had to ask for help because his app displayed public API keys, had an easy-to-jump paywall, and crashed his database due to basic programming errors. Quality matters. “You can do very basic things. We have tried Cursor, Bolt, etc., and you reach a level that one may think is advanced, but in reality what usually happens is that they are cloning a Github repository and changing its colors,” we say. counted Some time ago Daniel Ávila, co-founder of CodeGPT. There is a flood of low-quality apps, much more than before, since now many more inexperienced people can easily publish them in any app store. And the problem is that many of these applications do not even reach the prototype level, being unfinished products that work superficially and then end up accumulating all kinds of technical errors. Even worse if the app has a paywall. Between optimism and caution. “Vibe coding is super interesting to extend the prototyping of ideas and empower people,” we say. explained last year Nerea Luis, doctor in computer science. But he also recognizes that “it has risks” because completing these projects requires knowledge that neither the user nor the AI ​​possess. On the other hand, Omar Pera, Chief Product Officer of Freepik, was more optimistic: “vibe coding turns top engineers into 2x or 3x engineers.” Does it democratize access to application development? Yes, of course. The problem comes when the AI-generated application of someone without experience goes from a project to learn, as a hobby, or as an app development for one’s own use, to a project that encompasses more ambition and seeks to attract many clients. Cover image | James Yarema In Xataka | We believed that the AI ​​talent war is about engineers and developers. Actually, it’s about plumbers and electricians.

AEMET has set an expiration date on Borrasca Harry. But what’s coming from Greenland is about to begin

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On January 17 and 18, AEMET issued a series of special warnings due to a Mediterranean storm that has been causing problems in the Balearic Sea for days. But, in those notices, there was something else: a problem. And no, it’s not just that we are going to the most unstable week of what we have had in winter. And then? In those noticesAEMET describes a blocking pattern that was elongating a trough and favoring a retrograde DANA. That was Harry, a high-impact storm forming in the Mediterranean (and already is leaving snow near the coast). According to AEMET estimatesthe accumulations can be on the order of 200 liters in 48 hours in the Girona area and more than 20 centimeters of new snow in southeastern Iberian. But Harry ends tomorrow and that’s where the problems begin. The jet returns. Because, in parallel, the anticyclonic blockade between Greenland and the Scandinavian peninsula will interrupt the zonal flow and force the polar jet to lower latitude. In fact, it will descend so much that it will focus directly on Spain, guiding fronts and cold masses from the north. Or, rather, we are talking about cold advection with synoptic trajectories. These models still lack consistency, of course: but the models and outputs are converging in this scenario. What should we expect? Right now, the point of greatest risk It is the Mediterranean coast. Although Harry already has an expiration date, it is a storm that can be very intense locally and can cause problems in short basins (with rapid floods). Not to mention the difficulties at the coastal level and the gusts of wind. Then, if we are a little lucky, it will be reactivated.Atlantic storm machine and a train of storms will begin to enter from the west. If we are unlucky, the cold will return. But, well, at the gates of February it is still within what is expected. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | After the cold comes something much more problematic: the explosive cyclogenesis that AEMET predicts for the Mediterranean

Chinese oil tankers are arriving in Venezuela and coming up empty. Exactly what the US was looking for

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The map of world power has been redrawn in just one week. What began as a military operation to capture Nicolás Maduro has transformed into an energy earthquake that has left an image for history: the gigantic Chinese supertankers, which for years were the financial lifeline of Caracas, turning around in the middle of the Atlantic. A U-turn in international waters. The ships Xingye and Thousand Sunny —two supertankers (VLCC) with the Chinese flag—have definitively abandoned their course towards Venezuela. As confirmed by the South China Morning Post (SCMP)After weeks of inactivity and uncertainty anchored in the ocean, these colossi return to Asia empty. These ships are not just any oil tankers. According to Reutersare part of a group of three ships dedicated exclusively to the Venezuela-China route to transport the crude oil destined to pay the gigantic Venezuelan external debt. Its withdrawal is the clearest sign that the South American country, now under US control, will not export crude oil directly to its main buyer in the short term. The embargo that Trump does not lift. Although the US president stated last week that China “would not be deprived” of Venezuelan oil, the reality in the ports is different. According to SCMPChina has not received shipments from the state-owned PDVSA since last month, while Washington insists that the oil embargo remains in force. Where does the oil go then? While the Chinese ships return empty, the giants of the trading Global companies such as Vitol and Trafigura are already preparing the first shipments of a $2 billion deal to move 50 million barrels accumulated in inventory. the destiny, as reported by Reutersit will be the United States and other markets like India. China could receive part of this oil, but only if it negotiates with these intermediaries, thus losing its direct and preferential access to the benefit of the discounts it obtained. through its independent refineries or “teapots”. The bill that no one wants to pay. After the euphoria of the military takeover, a financial dilemma of billion-dollar proportions looms. Venezuelan oil has been takenbut it is mortgaged. China financed railways and power plants for decades through more than 600 bilateral agreements. Regarding the debt, the figures estimate around 10,000 million dollars, although other calculations of think tanks they increase the historical debt to more than 60,000 million, much of it structured under the “oil for loans” model. However, the great fear in Beijing is that the new government led by Trump will invoke the doctrine of “hateful debt”. As pointed out expert Cui Shoujunthis legal recourse would allow the new executive to repudiate the loans alleging that the Chinese money did not benefit the people, but rather served to keep the Maduro regime in power. Outrage in Beijing. The response from the Asian giant is firm and has not been long in coming. The official China Daily media has qualified Maduro’s capture and the January 3 military intervention as a “flagrant hegemonic invasion” and an act of “neocolonialism.” In editorials signed by researchers from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the US is accused of using “hard force” to trample international norms and send a message of fear to the rest of the Latin American countries that seek an independent path. A treasure in ruins. The capture of Maduro has put the largest crude oil deposit in the world in the hands of Washington, but the trophy comes with a fine print that could break global financial balances. The infrastructure that the US now inherits It is literally in ruins: Loading an oil tanker today takes five days compared to the only day that was enough seven years ago, and the crude oil arrives “dirty” (with excess salt and water). Reconstruction will require $10 billion annually for a decade. The battle in Venezuela is no longer fought with soldiers, but in the offices where it will be decided who pays the Chinese debt and who repairs PDVSA’s rusty pipes. Meanwhile, the ships Xingye and Thousand Sunny They move away from the Caribbean, symbolizing the end of an era. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The “B side” of the United States landing in Venezuela: a subsoil full of hypothetical rare earths

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