control

What is this tool and what is it for to control your browser automatically?

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Let’s explain to you What is Playwright and what is it for? this free open source tool. With it you can make a web browser work on its own without anyone touching it, and it’s something you’ve probably heard about in the context of artificial intelligence and the AI agents. This is an increasingly present element in the world of AI, and it is worth knowing about it. Therefore, even if you don’t have technical knowledge, we are going to try to explain it to you in a simple way. What is Playwright Playwright is an open source tool created by Microsoft. It is an automation program that allows you control a web browser using code, so that it does things on its own, such as opening pages, clicking buttons or filling out forms. The beauty of this program is that it does not control its own browser or anything like that, but you can use it in the browsers on your computer. It is compatible with Chromium, Firefox and WebKitbrowser engines such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari. Come on, you can use it on them to automate tasks. This is a completely free and open source project that Microsoft maintains on GitHub with the Apache 2.0 license, and an active community. You can access the project with its official website playwright.dev and its repository at github.com/microsoft/playwright. What is Playwright for? The use for which this tool was created is perform automatic tests on web pages. For example, if a company develops a website or app, they can have Playwright do things on it to check that everything works, and also when making changes to some elements. Thus, they can try from the purchase button to the registration button. You can also test web applications or web games, and check how they work in different browsers to see that they all work correctly. But since it is a tool to control browsers, its uses have ended up being many more than testing websites and tools. For example, it can be used for visual regression testing, accessibility auditsAPI testing or performance checks. It can also be used for web scraping tasks, which is extracting data from web pages automatically, or taking screenshots. And also you can create scripts automaticallybecause it has a recording mode that records the actions performed in the browser to generate the code to execute them whenever you want. And of course, you can also use it with artificial intelligence. Playwright has become the fundamental piece that many agents use to navigate the Internet. They do this with the Playwright MCP component, which uses the Model Context Protocol so that agents can know the navigation functions and use them. In practice, this means that tools like Claude Code, Codex, Cursor or VS Code can use the Playwright MCP to control your navigation, converting what you ask them with natural language into actions. You ask the AI ​​to go to a website and download a form, and the agent will use Playwright to access the website and do what you ask. In Xataka Basics | Artificial intelligence on your PC: the best free tools to install AI models like DeepSeek, Llama, Mistral, Gemma and more

Demis Hassabis, Nobel Prize winner, warns of the risk of losing control of AI

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Let’s think for a moment about how the technology market moved before November 2022. The artificial intelligence It was already present in search engines, cameras, recommendations and digital services, but it was not yet the label that brands tried to place on each product or the argument around which a good part of their presentations revolved. The industry had other visible priorities and distributed its attention among multiple fronts. Less than four years later, it’s hard to find a large manufacturer or platform that hasn’t reorganized part of its strategy around AI. You only have to look at where the money is flowing to understand the magnitude of this race. Big technology companies allocate huge investments to chips, servers and data centers that span different parts of the world, while seeking to ensure the energy necessary to keep them running. Governments are not just watching, either: the United States and China support the development of infrastructure and computing capacity as part of economic and strategic competition. In the midst of this acceleration, one of its main protagonists has warned that we are advancing faster than we understand. The warning from those who are on the front line of the race The message does not come from outside the sector. Demis Hassabis He is co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, one of the laboratories that promotes the development of the most advanced artificial intelligence systems. Under his direction, projects such as AlphaGo, who defeated a world Go championand AlphaFold, capable of predicting protein structures. In 2024, Hassabis and John Jumper jointly received half of Nobel Prize of Chemistry for his work on protein structure prediction. His words have weight precisely because of this double condition: he helps build this technology and, at the same time, he calls for mechanisms to contain its risks. Part of the text published by Demis Hassabis in X | Click to see the full message Hassabis starts from a conviction that helps understand the urgency of his proposal: he believes that general artificial intelligence (AGI), defined in its text as a system capable of exhibiting all the cognitive capabilities of the human brain, could arrive in just a few years. He does not present it as a certainty, but as a close possibility that would force us to prepare before technology reaches that point. Their concern covers cybersecurity, possible biological and nuclear risks and, later, increasingly autonomous systems, capable of acting with less supervision and improving their own capabilities. In an extensive article published in Xthe manager tries to hold two ideas at the same time. Artificial intelligence can become an extraordinary tool for science, medicine and the economy, but that potential does not eliminate the need for establish controls and oversight mechanisms. Nor does he propose waiting for a specific threat to appear to react, because then the measures could arrive too late. Before detailing which organization and what evaluations it considers necessary, it sets out the diagnosis that serves as the basis for its entire proposal: “We are currently locked in an extremely intense trade and geopolitical race unfolding at multiple levels. While these competitive dynamics are driving rapid advances and accelerating their extraordinary benefits, progress on the frontier of AI is outpacing our understanding of the technology. No one in the world knows for sure what will happen next, and not even the experts agree. When there is such a high degree of uncertainty and so much at stake, moving forward with cautious optimism is the sensible and correct strategy.” The answer he proposes is to create in the United States a specialized organization in evaluating the most advanced artificial intelligence models. Their proposal takes as reference a public-private partnership or a self-regulatory entity with federal supervision, led by a board that would also include independent specialists and representatives of the open source ecosystem. This institution would define what thresholds make a system a frontier model and design assessments on cybersecurity, biological threats and other high-risk areas, as well as tests to detect attempts to circumvent safeguards or signs of deception. In a first stage, laboratories would voluntarily share their models up to 30 days before launching them. Initial cooperation could later become a mandatory requirement. Once the protocol is validated, any model considered frontier would have to pass the evaluation before reaching the United States market. Tests would be periodically reviewed to replace outdated ones and measure new capabilities, while independent auditors would help expand the control system. The approach goes even further: if the severity of the risks justified it, the framework could be used to coordinate a slowdown in development between major laboratories. The concern is not exclusive to Hassabis. Geoffrey Hinton has recognized that we do not know if we will be able to retain control of systems more intelligent than us, while Joshua Bengio calls for more research and specific mechanisms to monitor them. In 2023, Elon Musk also signed an open letter what he asked for pause for at least six months the training of more powerful AI systems than GPT-4although a few months later it announced xAI and began to compete directly in this market. Many of these voices agree in calling for caution, but there is no consensus on the probability that we will lose control. The history of artificial intelligence still does not have a written outcome, although its first effects have already changed our relationship with technology and the decisions of those who develop it. It remains to be seen whether the body proposed by Hassabis would have a place, whether its evaluations would be truly effective, and whether laboratories and governments would agree to submit to them when they conflicted with their own interests. It may also happen that some of the risks it poses are oversized or do not materialize. For now, his proposal adds a concrete roadmap to a discussion in which there are still more unknowns than certainties. Images | Google In Xataka | Claude has a space … Read more

“microshifting” is hacking work to give us back control of the clock

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Before his son wakes up, John D. Connolly has already been working for an hour. He has breakfast with his family, works four hours before eating with his wife, resumes at four in the afternoon and returns to the computer when the child is in bed. On weekends, when necessary. Connolly, 46, founded the financial advisory firm Bifrost Advisors and spent more than two decades working regular hours before accepting that this wasn’t how he thought best. “I could spend six hours looking at the screen without more gas, but I had to stay two and a half more hours,” explained to wall Street Journal. Now he doesn’t work less. He works when his mind is there. Jen Meegan, editor-in-chief of creative agency Sheer Havoc, starts her day before her teens order breakfast. Read emails, review ideas from the previous day. He takes them to school, does the shopping, comes back and works in concentrated blocks of a few hours. It ends late at night. “Sometimes the most important work happens during the break,” told the agency AP News“because you’re not sitting staring at the screen with no ideas.” Connolly and Meegan practice what has begun to be called microshifting: Fragment the workday into short, non-linear blocks, adapted to moments of greatest energy or the demands of real life. It’s not a passing productivity fad. It’s the next frontier of workplace flexibility, and the debate is already underway. What exactly is microshifting? The most precise definition has been coined by the company that popularized the term. Owl Labs, video conferencing technology company, describes it in its 2025 report as “structured flexibility with short, non-linear blocks of work tailored to each person’s energy, responsibilities or productivity patterns.” In practice, these blocks usually last between 45 and 90 minutes, separated by personal, family or rest time. The distinction with teleworking and the hybrid model is fundamental. Teleworking changed where you work; microshifting changes the when. It is, in the words of researcher Jonathan Westover, “the next evolution in work design, beyond remote and hybrid models,” according to his article published in the Human Capital Leadership Review. It is not, however, a completely new concept. It is related to techniques such as timeboxing or the Pomodoro method, although with a fundamental difference: it does not respond to an external timer, but to the vital rhythm of each person. As he describes it with some irony The Guardian, “an extreme form of hybrid working” and remember that, in the past, this was simply called “taking liberties.” The difference now is that there is data, there are companies that promote it and there is a name. Why now? He microshifting It has a specific origin: the 2020 pandemic. Mandatory closures forcibly broke the traditional schedule. Millions of workers learned, without looking for it, that they could do their jobs in unconventional hours. When the mandates came back to the office, many did not want to give up that autonomy. The paradox of the current moment is striking. While the microshifting grows as desired, physical presence in the office also silently increases. The Owl Labs report named the phenomenon as hybrid creep: 34% of hybrid workers go to the office four days a week, up from 23% in 2023, without there having been a formal mandate. Employees are being called back out of inertia, and in response, they are claiming control over when. Data suggests this is already happening: 59% of employees schedule personal appointments during work hours and 82% prefer meetings to end before four in the afternoon. The most powerful driver is also care: 72% of caregivers are interested in microshifting, compared to 28% of those who do not have that responsibility. Theresa Robertson of Maryland practiced it for 25 years to care for her chronically ill husband. “It was the only way to have a life and earn a salary,” told to CNBC. The next battle according to Fortuneit is no longer where you work, but when. Work-life balance has overtaken salary as the top priority for office workers globally. The new perspective of the experts Academia and business management, traditionally conservative, are beginning to validate this intuition. Mark Pacitti, founder of Woozle Research, not only defends that five hours of work deep are more valuable than eight of diminishing returns; has measured it. At his firm, he invested in tracking tools to track when his researchers were performing best and discovered that the last few hours of an eight-hour shift were inefficient. Reduced shift length and output increase. Today he promotes it as a competitive advantage in a sector, that of financial research, where the burnout It’s epidemic. This approach is supported by cognitive science. Professor Anita Williams Woolley, of Carnegie Mellon University, explains that when trying to solve difficult problemsthe mind can only push for so long; Microshifting, well managed, prevents burnout. However, voices like that of Professor Kevin Rockmann of George Mason University, they ask for caution: “The whole point of microshifting is to take care of yourself. That’s not a bad thing, but it shifts the emphasis from the individual to relationships.” Aytekin Tank, CEO of Jotform, adds thatalthough microbreaks boost creativity, they require clear rules so as not to cannibalize deep work. “To do cognitively demanding work you need an environment where your brain can focus on a single task without interruptions,” he warns. It is a delicate balance: flexibility, yes, but with precise communication so as not to break the team’s coordination. Lights and shadows: the risk of the infinite journey He microshifting It has a dark side. The first is the feeling of being “always connected.” Isabelle Young, political organizer who organizes his work like this to manage a chronic illness, she admits bluntly: “Work is never over, so you’re never really disconnected.” Labor experts warn that schedule autonomy can become a hidden expectation: employees who stretch their day to fourteen or sixteen hours to be available in different time zones. Cali Williams Yost, flexible … Read more

Orange has taken complete control of MasOrange. European consolidation is one step closer

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Orange has taken full control of MasOrange after closing the purchase of the 50% that was still in the hands of Lorca HoldCo, the company owned by the KKR, Providence and Cinven funds. With this operation, expected for monthsthe French company becomes the sole owner of the largest telecommunications operator in Spain. The movement represents a very important step towards a long-awaited market consolidation which the large operators have been behind for years. One in which the fewer intermediate operators, the better for the giant operators. what has happened. On Christmas Day, Orange, Bouygues Telecom and Iliad (Free) announced the joint purchase of SFR for 20.35 billion euros. Agreement through which the three groups will share the clients, assets and frequencies of the second largest operator in France. The transaction, which will be closed in 2027 after passing the necessary regulations, follows the line of what happened in Spain: Orange has acquired MasOrange. The other half. Orange has acquired the remaining 50% of the capital of MasOrange, to date in the hands of his co-sharer Lorca. The agreement, valued at 4.25 billion euros, already has the necessary authorizations in Europe. Following this move, Orange now controls 100% of the operator’s capital, completely diluting MásOrange. Why is it important. Spain becomes the second most important market in Europe for Orange. At the end of the first quarter of 2026, MasOrange had 26 million mobile telephone customers and 7.1 million fixed broadband customers. Those numbers now belong entirely to Orange. “The acquisition of all of MasOrange is a strategic step in our “Trust in the Future” plan and reinforces Orange’s position in Spain.” Secondly, the movement advocates the European consolidation of the telecommunications market. The large groups are closing the circle: Telefónica, Orange, and Deutsche Telekom. The photo. Europe is one of the regions with the most operators per region, a total of 34 compared to 3 in the United States and 4 in the Chinese market. The major European companies need to continue absorbing their small rivals. Reason? The following: Proportionally, Europe has eight times more operators than the US and China, something that ends up translating into much more compressed margins and a drop in 41% in the market capitalization of the sector between 2015 and 2023. Without consolidation, European telecoms have a difficult time not depending on foreign funds and capital.

Japan has had enough of tourists littering the streets. So he has started to control them with police and fines

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No matter which guide you use, surely if you are looking for the iconic places in Japan, Shibuya, one of the districts, will be among them. more dynamic from Tokyo. The neighborhood is known for its neon lights, its skyline and (above all) its famous intersection. Shibuya sukuranburu kōsatenthrough which thousands of tourists pass every day. If you search on TikTok for #sibuyacrossing you will find more than 70,000 videosthe majority of foreigners. Local authorities have grown tired of these crowds leaving their streets. full of garbage and has decided cut to the chase. As? With special patrols and sanctions. What has happened? That the government of the Shibuya district, in Tokyo, wants to get rid of people who throw garbage in its streets. And he has decided to do it the most effective way (and emphatically) possible: using the police and with sanctions that will be imposed on the spot and offenders must pay either in cash, with a credit card or by means of a QR code. It is not a more or less diffuse idea or a political proposal that still needs to be debated and processed. The measure has already been introduced as an amendment in the ordinance for the ‘Joint Creation of a Clean Shibuya’, a rule from 1997. Now, and after a grace period that began in April, the authorities have begun to issue fines. They have even promoted a campaign with a name that leaves little room for interpretation: “If you throw garbage, you lose money”. Proof of how seriously the police take it is that only on their first day did they process a dozen of sanctions. What fines and how are they applied? The fines amount to 2,000 yenabout 10.7 euros, and will be applied immediately so that offenders can pay them in cash or by pulling a card. As if the threat of sanctions were not enough, the district has decided to mobilize a patrol of several dozen agents (up to 50) who will be in charge of exploring the area in search of offenders. As the objective is to eliminate dirt, the focus has not only been placed on pedestrians. The same rule contemplates fines of 50,000 yen (270 euros) for positions takeaway or vending machines that do not install trash cans nearby. Is the problem so serious? No data has been released on the amount of garbage that is collected every day on the streets of Shibuya, but there are several characteristics in the area that explain why the government has decided to resort to fines. The first is that public containers are not plentiful. In 2013 the authorities they withdrew bins and encouraged people to manage their waste responsibly. The idea was not only to avoid collapsed bins, but, as remember the BBCimprove security. In general, in the country it is not strange to find areas in which containers are scarce for fear that they will be used in terrorist attacks. This lack of buckets has not gone unnoticed by the millions of tourists who visit the country each year. In 2025 the issue appeared in a government survey on the problems faced by foreign tourists. He was cited by 20% of the respondents. Is it the only explanation? No. Shibuya is an important (and above all busy) tourist hub. According to the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), during peak hours between 1,000 and 2,500 People cross its famous intersection every two minutes. “It is one of the most emblematic places in Tokyo,” the agency points out before remembering that just with the number of people who accumulate there, including residents and visitors, a stadium could be filled in a short time. Although slightly less than 250,000 peoplethis avalanche of passers-by is much better understood if we take into account that Japan has been experiencing an authentic tourist boom. It is estimated that only last year they visited the country 42.7 million of foreigners, a relevant figure for three reasons: it represents a year-on-year increase of almost 16%, it is the first time that the figure exceeds 40 million and, above all, it marks a historical record. Fines only for tourists? No. Fines for littering the ground apply to both visitors and local people, although it is not unreasonable to think that the measure has been adopted largely with foreigners in mind. And not only because it is centered on a tourist hub. The sanctions are immediate, they can be paid with a card or a QR and the agents in charge of enforcing the rule will speak several languagesincluding English, Chinese and Korean. “Shibuya is an international area visited by many Japanese and people from all over the world. We ask all visitors, regardless of nationality, to respect the city’s rules,” underlines Ken Hasebe, district leader. The authorities conduct a survey, carried out last year, which shows that 52% of the people hunted for littering were foreigners. Does it only happen there? No. Shibuya is not the only point in Japan where the tourist avalanche has generated tensions with the local population. In fact, you don’t have to go back very far in time to find two other towns that also decided to adopt measures to avoid the overcrowding, dirt and traffic problems generated by tourism. One is Fujikawaguchiko, which in 2024 installed a barrier to cover your views of Mount Fuji. The reason? The hordes of tourists seeking selfie perfect. The other is Fujiyoshida, who recently canceled their festival of the cherry blossom to save the neighbors the inconvenience caused by the thousands of foreigners that the event attracts. The country even has decided to charge for the ascent of Fuji to prevent it from becoming a huge public landfill. Images |Timo Volz (Unsplash) and Jezael Melgoza (Unsplash) In Xataka | Antarctica was practically the last corner of the Earth immune to touristification. That’s ending

a legal battle for control of Nexperia

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A company can be many things at the same time: a factory, a subsidiary, a patent portfolio, a piece within a supply chain. But, in the technological war we are seeing between China and Europe, it can also become a battlefield. Nexperia fits right in there. We are not just talking about who owns a semiconductor company based in the Netherlands and owned by the Chinese Wingtech, but about who can decide on it when courts, governments and the fear that certain industrial capabilities end up under another center of power come into play. The new demand. The latest movement comes from China. According to ReutersWingtech Technology and a subsidiary have filed a lawsuit against Nexperia BV and five other entities before a court in Guangdong, which has already accepted the case. The company provisionally claims 8 billion yuan, about $1.18 billion, for the economic losses it attributes to the conflict. SCMP adds another relevant element: Wingtech is not only asking for compensation, it is also demanding to regain full control over Nexperia, a point that once again places the case in the field of corporate governance. The origin of the crash. To understand why the demand does not come from nowhere, you have to go back to September 2025. So, The Dutch Government intervened Nexperia and removed Wingtech from effective control of the company, citing fears about a possible transfer of operations and intellectual property to China. The administrative decision was later revoked, but the problem did not go away. Wingtech maintains that its scope of control remained limited by a parallel Dutch court ruling, still relevant to the dispute. Nexperia’s response. The Netherlands-based firm has responded by downgrading the immediate scope of the judicial move. In statements reported by the aforementioned news agency, Nexperia stated that it “has taken note of Wingtech’s announcement” and that it understands that the corresponding court “has not opened the case to trial.” He also regretted the strategy of its Chinese owner and maintained that Wingtech does not seem interested in reaching a solution beneficial to all parties, including its own shareholders. The Chinese legal route. The lawsuit is not only based on a business claim, but on a politically charged legal framework. Wingtech invokes China’s Foreign Sanctions Law to seek compensation for damages it attributes to restrictions on Nexperia. The company maintains that Nexperia and its executives applied “discriminatory restrictive measures” within the meaning of that law. The financial blow. The financial blow. The push for Nexperia is also leaving its mark on Wingtech’s accounts. Reuters notes that the company closed 2025 with a net loss of 8.7 billion yuan, compared to 2.8 billion the previous year. The deterioration continued in the first quarter of 2026: income plummeted by 94%, after the foreign business stopped consolidating its results. A conflict still open. The lawsuit does not close the battle for Nexperia, rather it prolongs it in another area. SCMP points out that Beijing and The Hague have defended that the case should be resolved “between the two companies without government interference,” as explained on April 17 by the Dutch Minister of Economy, Heleen Herbert, after meeting with the Chinese ambassador to the Netherlands, Shen Bo. The message seeks to limit the conflict, but the evolution of the case itself shows how difficult it is to separate business, courts and industrial policy when a semiconductor company is caught in the middle of the fight between China and Europe. Images | Nexperia In Xataka | Brussels has just fined Temu the largest fine in its history with the Digital Services Law: 200 million euros

In the 16th century, Spain wanted to control the Strait of Magellan by founding a city. It became a cursed settlement

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A coin is a coin. And a compass, a compass. What seems so obvious changes when we talk about the old (and ephemeral) city ​​of King Don Felipea Spanish settlement founded more than four centuries ago by Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa on the northern shore of the Strait of Magellan. Its objective was to become a fortress that would reinforce the control of the Spanish Crown in a strategic maritime passage, but the mission became so complicated that the town ended up becoming a death trap for its settlers. Things went so badly that with the passage of time the citadel ended up being renamed ‘Port of Hunger’a name much more in line with what happened there in the 17th century, and its memory it faded in the mists of history. We had to wait until well into the 20th century so that the secrets of King Don Felipe would emerge from oblivion… and the earth. Now the archaeologists have found among its ruins a small piece of silver that in March 1584 Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa himself deposited there during the founding ceremony of the town. In its day it was a simple currency (a real of eight) that was used for ritual purposes. In 2026 it has become something more: a compassa guide that will help researchers better understand the structure and location of the city of Rey Don Felipe, the cursed citadel in the Strait of Magellan that should never have existed. At the ends of the world Today the world lives pending what happens in the Strait of Hormuz. Almost five centuries ago the eyes of the Spanish Crown were directed towards another maritime strait with important strategic value: that of Magellana navigable strip located south of what is now Chile and that stands out as the natural connection between the Pacific and the Atlantic. Since Ferdinand Magellan crossed it for the first time, in the autumn 1520the pass became an object of desire for the Spanish Empire, especially after other expeditions managed to cross it successfully and the English entered the race for its control through late 1570s from the hand of the corsair Francis Drake. To guarantee Spain’s geopolitical plans and its exclusive control of the transoceanic passage, the authorities had an idea: found permanent settlements in the area. The mission fell to Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboaa hardworking sailor who, among other missions, had participated in a (frustrated) mission of the Viceroyalty of Peru to hunt down Drake. Sarmiento first undertook an expedition with two ships in the autumn of 1579 to reconnoiter the coastline of the strait and explore its coasts and, once back in Spain, in 1580 he played a decisive role in getting the Council of the Indies to decide to build citadels and fortifications in the transoceanic passage to America. The expedition left Sanlúcar at the end of September 1581 with a fleet of 23 boats and around 3,000 men, including sailors and future settlers. Despite his enormous ambition, the adventure started badly. And not only because of the differences between Sarmiento and Diego Flores de Valdeswho had been appointed captain general of the Strait Navy. Before even leaving Cádiz, a storm sank half a dozen ships and killed 800 men. What followed next was a journey marked by disagreements between Sarmiento and Valdés, illnesses, the inclemency of the ocean and storms that caused the expedition to lose ships, crew and supplies. After various incidents and vicissitudes, Sarmiento and his men arrived at the strait at the beginning of 1584 and founded a city that they named ‘Purification of Our Lady’. It didn’t work. The location and climate did not help, so Sarmiento looked for a new enclave, near Cape Vírgenes, and founded a settlement which he called ‘Name of Jesus’. Determined to continue with the mission, the sailor chose part of the 340 people he kept and looked for a third location to create another citadel. On this occasion he baptized it with a nod to the Habsburg court (King Don Felipe) and celebrated the founding ceremony in March 1584. We know that Sarmiento himself participated in the ritual. On March 25, he laid the first stone of the citadel church and, with it, in the foundations, buried a real of eight silver. As they explain from the Bernardo O’Higgins University of Santiago, it was “a symbolic gesture that marked the birth of the city.” If the ritual was intended to promote the settlement’s fortunes, it only half worked. It has served archaeologists of the 21st century, who have just found the coin “in place and position” described by Sarmiento in his writings and now, thanks to that clue, they will have an easier time interpreting a map of the 16th century in which the buildings of the town are represented. The one who certainly had no use for the currency was the colonists who settled in Rey Don Felipe city. Theirs was a tragic story from the beginning. a cursed city Ciudad Rey Don Felipe may have enjoyed a privileged location from a geopolitical and strategic point of view, but the truth is that it soon became hell for its settlers. And not only because the crew of the ill-fated (and diminished) Armada del Estrecho arrived in Magallanes at the limit of their strength. In ‘Port of Hunger. Beyond the legend’a work signed by the historian Soledad González and the archaeologist Simón Urbina, a key piece of information is provided: “On board the ships or on land they saw people die or desert. nine out of ten colleaguesfriends or family. As if that were not enough, after founding the Nombre de Jesús settlement, the crew divided into groups to expand towards the Santa Ana peninsula, precisely to establish Rey Don Felipe. Once there, and despite the fact that Sarmiento de Gamboa was quick to lay the foundations of the new citadel (both in a metaphorical and literal sense), things did not improve. The scene looked so bad … Read more

the radical plan for buyers to take control

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The world faces “the greatest threat to energy security in history.” As warned by the International Energy Agency (IEA)Europe has aviation fuel reserves for only “about six weeks.” Along the same lines, countries like Pakistan or the Philippines are days away from running out of gasoline at their pumps. The war and the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz have caused the largest oil supply disruption ever recorded in history. According to Maurizio Carulli, analyst at Quilter Cheviot in statements to Euronewsthe prolonged closure of this key corridor has removed about 12% of the world’s oil supply from the market, an impact far greater than that of the Yom Kippur War or the invasion of Kuwait. For 65 years, the global dynamic has been immutable: the producing countries, grouped in OPEC, have dictated the volumes and the rules of the game. However, the magnitude of this crisis is prompting economists to propose a radical paradigm shift in which the balance of power changes sides. “OPEC in reverse” To address this market suffocation, University of Massachusetts Amherst economist Gregor Semieniuk and his colleague Isabella Weber propose a revolutionary idea: create an “OPEC in reverse.” As detailed Fortuneit would be a global coalition of oil-importing and consuming countries that would act as a bloc. Instead of controlling production volumes as the traditional OPEC does, this consumer club would set a purchase ceiling or maximum price. As explained on the financial portal Reelfinancialthe primary objective is to stop a bidding war in which rich nations monopolize the energy supply, raising costs to the point of expelling lower-income countries from the market. It is not an idea without historical foundations. The experts themselves remember that the IEA, founded in 1974, was born precisely as an institutional counterweight of the consuming nations against OPEC. Since former US President Ronald Reagan removed oil price controls in 1981, the system has been governed almost exclusively by free trade. However, Eswar Prasad, a professor at Cornell University, explains in Fortune that the international economy has stagnated in a “zero-sum game.” Prasad compares the current energy crisis to the hoarding of vaccines and medical supplies by rich countries during the pandemic, leaving poorer nations with shortages. The roadmap according to the experts To materialize this plan, Semieniuk points out that the United States is in the ideal position to lead the new coalition of buyers. Being a net exporter and registering an energy trade surplus close to $100 billion in 2024, Washington has the financial and geopolitical muscle necessary to force change, explains Fortune. In addition to coordinating price caps, economists advocate implementing taxes on windfall profits (windfall taxes) on giants like ExxonMobil or Chevron, companies that continue to profit considerably from the rise in crude oil prices. The mechanics of this strong state intervention are justified by the seriousness of the situation. Faced with an unprecedented military blockade, governments must take a much more active role to ensure fair access to energy, making it clear that, in times of war, the free market cannot be the only response mechanism. This consumer proposal comes at the exact moment when the historic producer cartel is collapsing. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) have made their departure from OPEC official prioritizing their “national interest.” The impact of this divorce is tectonic. In an opinion column published by Reutersanalyst Ron Bousso warns thatAfter the Gulf blockade, OPEC’s global market share had already plummeted to 26% in March. The cartel is rapidly losing its ability to dominate and stabilize the markets. The OPEC crisis is not purely economic; Its roots are deeply political and territorial. Analyst Robin Mills explains that OPEC obliged the UAE to limit its production to 3.2 million barrels per day, despite the fact that the country had invested billions to reach a real capacity of 5 million. Added to this quota tension is an evident diplomatic fracture in the Gulf. Emirates has felt betrayed and abandoned by its Arab allies after having to absorb the impact of almost 2,800 Iranian drone and missile attacks alone. Consequently, the geopolitical chessboard is being rapidly redrawn. Joe DeLaura, energy specialist at Rabobank, underlines in the magazine Intelligencer that the world is heading towards fragmented blocks. The UAE is strategically pivoting toward the United States in exchange for protection for its shipping, and DeLaura anticipates that countries like Kazakhstan could be next to rebel against OPEC quotas. In his opinion column for Le MondeStéphane Lauer summarizes the great historical irony of this collapse: OPEC, created in the 1960s out of an iron desire for national sovereignty against Western powers, is fracturing today “in the name of that same sovereignty”, with each state seeking its own salvation. The dawn of a new era OPEC, as we knew it for more than half a century, has fractured. As explained by Jorge León from Rystad EnergySaudi Arabia has been left practically alone to bear the enormous cost of stabilizing supply, which anticipates an era of extreme volatility. While the old cartel is bleeding due to internal divisions and the weight of the war, an unprecedented window of opportunity opens for importing countries to finally take control of the market. History has already shown for 65 years that an organized coalition of nations can shape global energy markets. The big question now is whether the consumer world will have the courage and political will to do exactly the same. Image | Magnificent Xataka | Iran has responded to the US plan to liberate the ships in Hormuz with another approach: one with drones, missiles and burning ships

Excess control is triggering the anxiety of an entire generation of children

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They are there for everything. They solve problems before they appear, supervise every school assignment, do every basic procedure, intercede with teachers and leave no room for failure. This description, which for decades has been disguised as ‘unconditional love’ and ‘protection’, for science is simply helicopter parenting. A way of being parents that, although it seems to be very beneficial for the little ones, the reality is that it is taking its toll on the autonomy and emotions of current generations. A confirmed epidemic. When researchers look at the impact of helicopter parenting on a large scale, there really isn’t much of a doubt. For this we can go to a recent Norwegian systematic review which analyzed 38 independent studies, where it was found that between 70% and 90% of the research points to a relationship between excessive parental control and mental distress. And, on the other hand, no study pointed to a reduction in stress. This is reinforced by a extensive meta-analysis of 53 studieswhich shows that this predictive style drastically reduces self-efficacy, worsens academic performance and increases different mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety in young people. No room to mature. The consequences of constantly “flying over” your children’s lives reach their tipping point when they reach university or enter the job market, where they suddenly have to mature overnight to face the usual problems without parental protection. Although we have already seen some Spanish universities asking parents not to go to higher education centers to claim in the name of their children that they are of legal age. And that these generations that have been so protected is later translated in less personal determination, a greater fear of intimacy when faced with something difficult and problems of social integration. The fact of not having faced frustrations in controlled environments because they have been avoided, ultimately leads to a fear of failure and, therefore, an avoidance of facing problems. Ultimately, maturation towards a functional adult is delayed. The academic impact. In this sense, already in 2017 a large study pointed out that university students with “helicopter parents” report lower academic performance, with worse social integration and, above all, with greater dependence on medications such as anxiolytics to deal with the psychological discomfort caused by the new reality. The figures behind it. Here, a recent work carried out with 697 Turkish adolescents pointed out that mothers have overprotective attitudes in 15.% of cases, compared to 8.8% that corresponds to fathers. Furthermore, the problem has early roots, since longitudinal studies show that high parental control is capable of predicting future depression in children. since 11 years old. And in the Spanish context, some analyzes suggest that structural factors such as continuous intensive work hours combined with pressure for academic success outside of school may be aggravating these patterns in current generations, creating a perfect breeding ground for overprotection. The mental cost. The psychological mechanism behind this emotional disaster is well documented and indicates that helicopter parenting frustrates the most basic psychological needs of minors, and above all autonomy. By removing them from different situations, the message sent to them is that they are not capable of doing it on their own, causing their self-esteem to plummet and they fail to value their abilities. This, in complicated situations such as decision-making in adulthood, is where the true effect of this overprotection will be seen, since it has always been resolved. And this is something that will mark them a lot. Images | freepik In Xataka | Adolescents up to 32 years old: neuroscience explains why the brain takes much longer than we thought to mature

invent the remote control before television

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Televisions change, technologies change, but there are interactions that last despite the passage of years, decades and even centuries. An example of this is the remote controller, which has historically allowed us to interact with devices from a distance, although what we currently know is very different from the first concept of remote control. Although televisions did not become more common in the last decades of the 20th century, the concept of the remote controller appeared much earlier. Specifically, in 1901. And a fact that you may not know is that one of the pioneers of the remote control was a Spaniard, the engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo. The controller anticipated the televisions The history of the remote control dates back, as we said, to the first years of the last century. In 1903, the inventor, mathematician and engineer Leonardo Torres Quevedo (1852-1936) conceived, built and patented the first remote control in history. He called it Telekino, and as one might think It is far from the controls for televisions and other devices we see now. Miniaturization was not a reality until much later and the Telekino took up an entire table. Telekino in Abra. Image: Torresquevedo.org Of course, the Telekino was not created with the idea of ​​controlling televisions remotely, which in reality did not become a reality almost until the incorporation of the cathode ray tube (with the push from Telefunken and other manufacturers). The idea was to control airships without anyone being in danger in the tests, but finally he tried it with boats as they recalled in the written edition of The Country in 2007, when the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) recognized the invention by including it in its official list of milestones in the history of engineering. It was the first time that a Spanish creation became part of this list, in which we find inventions by Benjamin Franklin, Alessandro Volta and Guglielmo Marconi among others. Telekino, as you may have deduced, comes from TV (from ancient Greek, “far”, meaning “at a distance”, “remotely”) and kinein (also from the Greek, “movement”), by the way. IEEE Recognition Plaque. Image: YouTube We already talked about Telekino in Xataka precisely because of this historical recognition, also to remember that at the time it was not highly praised. In fact, Torres Quevedo himself would abandon the project as he did not receive sufficient support. The valuable legacy of Torres Quevedo One of the prototypes of the Telekino is located in the Torres-Quevedo Museum, in the Higher Technical School of Civil, Canal and Port Engineers of the Polytechnic University of Madrid. And thanks to a short (virtual) visit to that museum for the centenary of one of the Spanish engineer’s inventions we can discover more of them, also very relevant. Torres Quevedo is credited with nothing more and nothing less than the first Spanish airship, as well as the first ferry suitable for transporting people (or in other words, an open cable car for people). The invention was patented in 1887, and it would not be until 30 years later when it materialized, being launched on Mount Ulía in San Sebastián in 1907. Compensation also came in the form of international export, since the system reached neither more nor less than to Niagara Falls. Thus, the call Spanish Aerocar It continues to operate today in the well-known region and celebrated its centenary in 2016, having completed more than 10 million transports without recording incidents. Torres Quevedo was also a precursor of modern computing with his Ajedrecista, considered the first chess computer game, and the electromechanical arithmometer, a calculator accompanied by a typewriter, a precursor to digital calculators. In Xataka | In 1925, procrastination was already a problem and someone found the definitive solution: the isolation helmet. In Xataka | We have been fascinated for years by the geniuses who come up with revolutionary innovations out of thin air. It’s always been smoke This article was originally published on Xataka a few years ago, and we have recovered it from the archive.

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