fallen

why Gen Z has fallen in love with technologies that they did not experience

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Technology has been sneaking into almost every corner of everyday life for decades: how we communicate, how we save memories, how we listen to music or how we entertain ourselves. ada generation has enjoyed its own innovations: from the Walkman to the compact camera, including the Game Boy and the Nintendo DS. As the years went by, many of these devices seemed destined to remain as relics in a drawer, surpassed by increasingly powerful mobile phones capable of concentrating almost all possible functions in a single device. However, in the era of the smartphone, AI or virtual reality, some of these “relics” are regaining prominence among recent generations. Compact digital cameras, retro consoles or cassettes reappear in second-hand stores or in TikTok videos where the young people who use them have not witnessed their birth or their rise. Nostalgia or novelty? The “return” or growing interest in vintage technology could be explained as a new wave of nostalgia. Alvaro Soler, sociologist and disseminator in social networksspeaks of a “retro utopia”: an idealized look capable of commercializing aesthetics and products from the past. “May we consume again retro technology “It has to do with the consumption of retro culture,” he explains, giving as an example the success of series like Stranger Thingswhich “make us go back to the 80’s, with consoles and arcade games, but also with fashion, music…”. In this way, Soler explains the market’s ability to take advantage of previous designs or products and present them as something attractive and desirable again. This is precisely one of the nuances that explains the return of retro from places beyond nostalgia. Although some of these devices do awaken memories and have a nostalgic connotation for those who grew up with them, not all the young people who recover them today have used them. In fact, many of them become familiar with these devices through social networks. Soler attributes to these platforms the power that classic advertising had before. They also come into play influencerswhom Soler defines as “figures of success or in whom you have to see yourself reflected.” In many cases, he adds, a large part of their identity is built through what they consume and display. This makes those who follow them more likely to be interested in or consume what they show in their profiles, including vintage technology. Thus, although many young people have not grown up with these devices, they can become desirable objectsassociated with an aesthetic or a way of being in the world. What for some is nostalgia, for others becomes a new necessity. This is the case of Lara, a young woman – who prefers to keep her identity private – who is fond of analog cameras from the 70s (like the Zenit). Although he did not experience either the arrival or the rise of these devices, he confesses in conversation with Xataka find something “unique” about them that attracts you. A camera not to scroll The return of this type of technology also has another reading. For Claudia Pradas, psychologist and disseminator on social networksin a young population overexposed to constant stimuli, screens and immediate rewards, “a more limited technology can be psychologically attractive” because “it reduces the load.” Compared to the mobile phone, which is at the same time a camera, console and music player, these devices have a single functiona restriction that can feel like a relief. “We are constantly exposed to super-overloaded technology that can fatigue us,” he explains, while these devices “can promote relaxation or deactivation of the nervous system, generating well-being.” Therefore, instead of interpreting this boom as a rejection of the new, Pradas proposes reading it as a search for alternatives: devices that allow us to continue using technology but at a different pace. The type of experience they offer also influences. “Old” devices force a more physical relationship that moves away from using the smartphone: insert a cartridge, rewind, press buttons, print a photo… For Pradas, that tactile dimension is key. In a context of digital saturation, “a sensory experience beyond the visual and auditory can help us become more rooted in the present.” Sociologist Soler agrees that the search for disconnection is one of the factors behind this return to previous technologies. Many of these retro consoles, he explains, they do not depend on the internet: they allow you to continue using digital technology, but without constant connection or online services. Something similar happens with photographs. Uploading images to networks or storing them in the cloud does not generate the same relationship with memories as printing them and saving them in an album. On the Internet, he says, images can become more volatile, get lost among thousands of files or become diluted in the continuous flow of content. Instead, developing photos or physically preserving them creates another way of relating to time and memory, “more tangible and lasting.” In a context of hyperconnectivity, changing memories from the digital environment to the physical dimension can also function as a way to organize and preserve what we really want to remember. This power of disconnection is corroborated by Elena, a 23-year-old young woman whose playing with practically discontinued consoles evokes the same tranquility as “when you watch a movie you’ve seen 200 times”; The simplicity of these devices gives you the calm that current video games do not achieve. “Right now (video games) are like a movie, but before everything happened on a very small screen with drawings that could even be in black and white,” he points out. The simplicity and the imperfection that characterize old games—and that extends to the grain of a compact camera or the less clean sound of a vintage player—are part of their appeal. In the face of increasingly perfect and faster devices, these small failures or limitations are perceived almost as a mark of authenticity and humanity. “Old analog cameras have nothing to do with cell phone photographs. I don’t take photos with my cell phone because for me … Read more

Thousands of people have fallen in love with seven dogs abandoned and on the run in the middle of China. It was just another AI video

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The image was undeniably powerful, almost cinematic. In the freezing darkness of the night, with temperatures below zero, a pack of seven dogs walked in formation on the shoulder of a highway. The video of just 11 seconds, published in chinese platform Douyinshowed a motley crew: a German shepherd, a golden retriever, a Labrador, a small corgi, and several mixed breed dogs. The clip went viral, quickly racking up more than 230 million views. The audience, saturated with news about wars and disastersfound an emotional balm in these animals. But what the network hailed as a miracle of loyalty and survival, the real version of the Disney movie Homeward Bound or the children’s series Paw Patrolturned out to be a completely prefabricated story. The birth of a viral myth. It didn’t take long for the internet machinery to build an epic narrative. From there, speculation became “truth.” Rumor spread that the seven dogs had escaped from a traffickers’ truck that was taking them to a dog meat slaughterhouse, and it was even claimed that they had walked 17 kilometers together. The anthropomorphization of the pack reached extraordinary levels. As illustrated by the comments of Internet userssocial networks assigned a role to each dog in this pack: the injured German shepherd was the “General” whom everyone protected; the golden retriever was the “guard” that was placed near traffic to shield them; Chinese rural dogs were the “guides” with a sense of direction; and the little corgi was the brave leader and “nurse” who walked 50,000 steps—twice as many as the rest—retracing his steps to make sure no one was left behind. The truth behind this story. The event, however, was much less romantic and lacked villains. Extensive field research carried out by reporters City Evening News dismantled the theory of the great escape. There were no meat traffickers, no kidnapping trucks, nor a 17-kilometer trip. Reporters located the village in Shuangyang district where the animals came from. Three of the most famous dogs belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Zhang: the corgi, affectionately called “Big Fatty” (Dapang); the German Shepherd, “Four Treasures” (Sibao); and the golden retriever, “Long Hair.” As the family explained, around March 13, the German shepherd simply went into heat. Since the dogs in the village usually roam freely, the males in the area were attracted to her and began to follow her, going just 4 or 5 kilometers away until they reached the highway. The rescue was not out of a movie either. Although volunteers from rescue bases such as Tong Tong or Bitter Coffee (led by Professor Liu) used drones to search for the herd, the resolution was purely customary. As detailed City Evening NewsMr. Zhang had a dream in which he was feeding his dogs. Convinced that they were alive, he went out to look for them in neighboring towns and found them safe and sound in the walled patio of a house where they had entered to take refuge. The other dogs in the video turned out to be pets of other neighbors in the area, such as Messrs. Guo and Jing, who returned home on their own. The engine of deception. If the story was so simple, how did it become a global phenomenon full of false details? The answer is in technology. According to an in-depth analysis of cnnalthough the original clip of the dogs walking on the highway was authentic, the story was hijacked and inflated using Artificial Intelligence. After the video went viral, AI-generated “spin-offs” proliferated: cinematic posters of the seven dogs, fake trailers showing their “exciting escape” and hyper-realistic images of the animals tearfully reunited with their supposed owners. The reason is purely economic, since “attention is money on the Internet”, as TJ Thomson explainsassociate professor of digital media at RMIT University. Content creators saw a golden opportunity to capitalize on a trend. As Tama Leaver, a professor at Curtin University, adds, inventing or embellishing these stories using AI is “a very effective way to increase an account’s numbers quickly.” The implications beyond. Although it may seem like an endearing and harmless anecdote, this viral hoax has tangible consequences. On the one hand, it perpetuates stigmas. Although since SCMP contextualizeciting the Dalian Animal Protection Association, that pet theft for meat is a real problem in some areas of northern China (which prompted genuine concern from many), in this specific case the false narrative fueled the fires of racism. As pointed out cnnthe invention of the “meat factory” fueled negative stereotypes against Chinese citizens, something especially dangerous in a climate of growing xenophobia. On the other hand, there is the damage to our information ecosystem. Chinese state media and the Jilin tourist office had to intervene to deny the rumor. as quote Guardianauthorities warned that this incident “reflects deficiencies in the dissemination of information online, where subjective speculation is easily taken as fact.” Professor Tama Leaver warns about danger of complacency: If we let our guard down and accept AI-generated images without questioning them because they are “cute dogs”, our critical skills will be atrophied when faced with false images about serious topics, such as war conflicts. @cnn A viral video showed a group of dogs in China who were purportedly captured to be eaten, escaped, and made the long journey home. The problem? The story’s not real. CNN’s Jessie Yeung explains how this kind of misinformation can spread. #cnn #news ♬ original sound – CNN The fragility of our eyes. The ending of “The Adventures of the Seven Dogs” in Changchun did not require an epic soundtrack, but a leash. Owners now leash their dogs during the mating season. However, the trail they leave on the network is deep. In an era dominated by AI and the desperate search for clicks, our need to consume happy endings it makes us deeply vulnerable to manipulation. The true story of the German shepherd or the corgi teaches us a hard journalistic and social lesson about the contemporary internet: as Professor Thomson … Read more

Volkswagen is going to eliminate 50,000 jobs by 2030: it is the price it pays for having fallen asleep

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The German giant closed 2025 with the worst result in almost a decade. It is no wonder, because right now Volkswagen is in the middle of several open fronts, among them China’s pressure and USAwave transition to electricwhere it is putting special focus. But the context has not been the only reason. The blow in figures. The Group had a profit of 6.4 billion euros in 2025, 44% less than the previous year. In fact, it is the lowest since 2016, the year of the diesel scandal. Total revenue remained stable at around €322 billion, but operating profit fell almost by half to €8.9 billion. On the other hand, the group’s operating margin stood at 2.8%. Why is this happening? Context doesn’t help, but it’s not just context either. Volkswagen has had structural problems for years that the current crisis has amplified: your internal software it is expensive and slow; China, its largest market, it slips out of your hands; The Trump administration’s tariffs hit its sales in the US and Europe is buying fewer cars than before the pandemic, specifically some two million fewer vehicles per year than in pre-pandemic. In Xataka The electric car revolution has an absolute winner: the Chinese battery giant is becoming more and more giant The adjustment plan. Oliver Blume, CEO of the group, communicated in his annual letter to shareholders that “in total, around 50,000 jobs will be eliminated before 2030 in the Volkswagen Group in Germany.” The cut exceeds 35,000 positions that had already been agreed with the unions at the end of 2024 within the restructuring pact ‘Zukunft Volkswagen’ (The future of Volkswagen). This agreement, signed with the IG Metall union and the works council, prohibits the reduction of staff and guarantees employment until the end of the decade, but in exchange it freezes salaries in 2025 and 2026 and reduces productive capacity by 734,000 units per year. The company estimates that these measures can generate up to €15 billion in annual savings by 2030. The additional 15,000 positions now announced come from brands such as Audi and Porsche, and software subsidiary CARIAD. What’s wrong with China. Volkswagen was the best-selling manufacturer in China for decades. In 2024 lost that position to BYD; in 2025 it fell to third place, also surpassed by Geely. The group’s total sales in the country fell 8% in 2025, and those of electric vehicles plummeted more than 44%. To answer, the group works with XPeng on a specific electrical architecture for the Chinese market, the CEA platform, which is now ready for series production. Blume described the process as transforming “an idea into cutting-edge architecture in just 18 months.” {“videoId”:”x9tnvi4″,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Why YOUR NEXT CAR WILL SURELY BE CHINESE”, “tag”:”Webedia-prod”, “duration”:”614″} The software problem. One of the group’s most expensive burdens has been CARIAD, its internal software division in which it invested around 12 billion euros without the expected results. The group has pivoted, with CARIAD now primarily managing external alliances. The most important is the one it maintains with Rivian, the American manufacturer of electric vehicles, in which Volkswagen has committed 5.8 billion dollars. Rivian’s technology, its zonal architecture and its software, will debut in the VW ID.1scheduled for 2027. Last week, Rivian CFO Claire McDonough told investors that the relationship is “very strong” and that work is progressing faster than VW could have done alone. In Xataka Renault has encountered a problem: it does not know how to grow. And he believes that his solution is to become premium Porsche, the other source of tension. The Stuttgart brand, usually the most profitable of the group, has also been affected. Its commitment to electric power has cost it nearly 4.7 billion euros, a figure that has practically absorbed its entire operating profit. Sales in China have also suffered. What’s coming now? “We can only achieve this if we continue to rigorously reduce costs. That is what we will focus on in the coming months,” counted the group’s CFO, Arno Antlitz. The group also is studying cuts of 20% in the costs of all its brands before the end of 2028. However, there are signs of improvement: the fourth quarter of 2025 was better than the previous ones, and the group foresees an operating margin of between 4% and 5.5% for 2026. Cover image | Volkswagen In Xataka |Renault wants to become bigger than ever before 2030. And to achieve this they are going to copy the philosophy of the Chinese brands (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news Volkswagen is going to eliminate 50,000 jobs by 2030: it is the price it pays for having fallen asleep was originally published in Xataka by Antonio Vallejo .

Its shares have fallen 99% and threaten to sink it

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As I write these lines, X (the artist formerly known as Twitter) is full of memes and jokes about Fernando Alonso and the vibrations of the AMR26. I don’t know what happened to him in qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix. I don’t even know if, given what I’ve seen, He will at least be able to run on Sunday. The only thing that is clear is that Aston Martin is a meme factory. They have kept Fernando Alonso, capable of selling us the impossible. They have signed Adrian Newey, one of the most successful people in the history of Formula 1. And the preseason is summarized in that, in a year that Honda powers the team, Fernando Alonso has been seen walking with a Toyota Yaris through Monaco. Did you think it couldn’t be worse? Well, tell that to those who bought Aston Martin shares in 2018. Today they have depreciated 99%. The company’s fate hangs by a thread, mired in debts that seem like a slab that is impossible to lift. No clear candidates for purchase. With Lawrence Stroll, owner of the Formula 1 team and endorsement for his son to drive one of the cars, buying the company’s image to be able to use its name, colors and logo in the future. You can do it no matter what. And that’s not good at all. A life on the brink of bankruptcy The story of Aston Martin is a story of survival. Actually, few luxury companies can say that they have not encountered serious viability problems throughout their history. Ferrari, who sees the world burning around him and who seems untouchable on his throne, It was saved by Fiat in 1969. Lamborghini did not find stability until it was bought by the Volkswagen Group. Bugatti, which is also inside, it’s a money losing machine. And if we look at the British, Jaguar is in a process of reinvention. Lotus was bought by the Chinese conglomerate Geely and today little remains of what it was. McLaren is not much better than Aston Martin. As Raymond Blancafort explains in The Vanguardbarely 10 years had passed when Aston Martin encountered its first bankruptcy. After a first adventure focused on the world of competition, it was in the 1930s when the management at that time began to focus the company on street sports cars. Things would not improve later and David Brown, a businessman, would be the one to buy the company after World War II, assume the accumulated debts and pay his own tribute. And since then, Aston Martin sports cars have the letters DB associated with them. As the decades passed, the brand maintained two things: fame and debt. While James Bond rode around in his sports cars, the company’s buying and selling games marked the future. To the point that the company came to form Premier Groupthe umbrella under which Ford held Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo… and Aston Martin. Things would not end well (Ford announced historic losses) and In 2007 it changed hands again to go to David Richards, who already controlled the future of the competing company, with the support of an American banker and two Kuwaiti groups. In 2013, Mercedes joined the company with a small participation and the objective of sharing knowledge and developments. In 2020 Lawrence Stroll arrived. A more than complicated crisis We have stopped along the way because the arrival of Lawrence Stroll marked a before and after. In 2018, this Canadian businessman creates the Racing Point group and buys the Force India Formula 1 team. The following year, he formed a team with the Mexican driver Sergio Pérez and a debutant: his son Lance Stroll. It would not be until 2021 when Racing Point became the Aston Martin Formula 1 teamwhich remains in a completely separate structure from the car manufacturer. But how do you get to this point? At the same time that Lawrence Stroll was taking his first steps in Formula 1, the Canadian acquired 16.7% of the vehicle manufacturer. The agreement included that the Formula 1 team would inherit its name. For this, Stroll paid almost 240 million dollars and a rights issue of 417.5 million dollars was carried out, which already anticipated that his weight in the company would continue to increase. The promise was to get Aston Martin out of a complicated situation. With less than 6,000 cars sold, the company announced losses of more than 120 million euros, 89% more than the previous year. Stroll arrived with the intention of turning the Aston Martin DBX, its future SUV, into a luxury product. Yes to Porsche had rescued him with the Cayenneif Lamborghini was producing the Urus, Aston Martin would regain momentum with the DBX. The truth is that the car is being a failure. The British SUV has never had enough traction and nor did it have the advantage of the Cayenne or the Urus, which share a platform and development with other Volkswagen Group cars, which helps reduce the risks. The projections of selling 5,000 cars annually have remained at 1,000 units placed on the market each year. With the Aston Martin DBX in free fall, the next ones to jump off the cliff were investors. Since going public in 2018, the shares have fallen 99% and The company now costs just over 400 million euros. last summer Liverpool invested more money in signings than what the entire company costs. Although the SUV has not found its place in the market, the DBX has not been the only thing that has failed. In 2017 the development of the Rapide Ewhich was supposed to be a rival to the Tesla Model S. The project ended up being canceled for a very simple reason that was pointed out by Tom Stacey, a senior lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University who worked for the company at BBC: In all parameters, the Aston Martin was a worse car than the Tesla. Not only that. Time has shown … Read more

BYD sales have fallen 41% in China. It is the biggest symptom that something much more serious is happening in your industry.

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They are very specific days but the data is the data. And the data says much more because of what it hides than what it says at first. BYD has fallen 41% in sales during the Chinese New Year holidays. The problem is that the Chinese market seems to be slowing down. And BYD isn’t the only company feeling it. 41%. This is, as we said, how much BYD sales have fallen in China during the month of February 2026 compared to the same period in 2025. The data is provided by CarNewsChina where it is also noted that it is 9.5% less than last January, so the trend does not invite optimism. In the middle they point out that this fall coincides with a Chinese New Year that in 2026 has completely departed the month of February. These are days in which sales inevitably fall because citizens live immersed in the largest migration in the world and this year has been one of the longest festive periods in recent years. In 2025, these festivals occupied the last days of January so that during the remainder of the month they were able to reach cruising speed, which exacerbates the decline. The price war. BYD’s low sales are exacerbated by a stagnating local market. To continue encouraging sales, BYD, Tesla or Xiaomi are offering financing for seven years. Something common in our country but a rarity that is becoming consolidated in China and that makes another detail clear: there is no room to continue lowering prices. Already in January, the China Passenger Car Association announced that sales had fallen 13.9% compared to the same month in 2025. The situation was more complicated among “new energy” vehicles, as plug-in hybrids, electric and extended-range electric vehicles are called. In this case, the drop reached 20%. Obviously, for BYD, Tesla or Xiaomi, who only offer electric or plug-in cars, the former, the situation is more delicate. A must-see. Exporting has become an almost obligatory outlet for BYD. Although its sales have decreased in the local market, exports have exceeded 100,000 units and that represents a growth of more than 50%. And there are already four consecutive months with shipments of this volume, they point out in CarNewsChina. Although BYD’s progress had been slow in Europe until recently, in 2025 they grew 270% on our continent. January has also been a good year (they almost triple their position compared to January 2025, they point out in The Energy Newspaper) and is a boost to a policy that has opted to give more for less money within plug-in vehicles. If we talk about Spain, one of the most important countries for BYD right now outside of China, BYD has placed two electric cars among the 10 best-selling cars so far this year and another two among the five best-selling plug-in hybrids. Much more than a symptom. Although we have focused on BYD sales, what is clear is that in 2026, car sales will not start in China. In The New York Times They reflect the drop in the company’s share price, which has lost part of the support of investors. But the problem goes beyond the brand’s headquarters. Mike Smithfrom Washington and Lee University, points out to the American media that 40% of the vehicle production generated by China is not being used, according to his calculations. This is not the first time that there has been talk of Chinese overproduction of automobiles. The constant evolutions in the product have made products launched just a few months before obsolete, pushing the price war even further. And with a country overproducing cars and evolutions at a dizzying pace, it is logical that the customer stops purchasing, expecting a better car at a better price in the short term. Photo | EEYAUT Waihung on Wikimedia In Xataka | Same car, three names, three prices and one reality: China has chosen Mexico as the spearhead of its exports

Russia set up a secret network to sell 90 billion in oil. It has fallen due to using the same mail server

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In the geopolitical chess of international sanctions, where Western governments design complex legislation to suffocate Vladimir Putin’s war machine, sometimes checkmate comes not from a brilliant diplomatic maneuver, but from corporate stinginess. An entire global smuggling network, designed to the millimeter to be invisible to the eyes of Washington and Brussels, has fallen like a house of cards for not wanting to pay separate email bills. A simple saving in computer infrastructure has exposed a monumental flow of black money. a colossal IT blunder (a huge computer error) has brought to light a smuggling network that has moved at least $90 billion worth of Russian oil. As revealed by extensive research of the Finance Timesthis plot is mainly responsible for financing the Kremlin in its war against Ukraine. The British media has identified a network of 48 companies which, on paper, operated completely independently from different physical addresses. However, in practice, they acted in unison to disguise the origin of the crude oil, especially that of Rosneft, the Russian state-controlled oil company. The need to hide these exports became life or death for the Kremlin in October 2025, when the United States imposed direct sanctions to Rosneft and Lukoil. From that moment on, a previously unknown company called Redwood Global Supply was suddenly crowned as the largest exporter of Russian crude oil in the world. This firm, along with the rest of the network, is linked to a group of businessmen of Azerbaijani origin with privileged access to the leadership of Rosneft, led by figures such as Tahir Garayev and Etibar Eyyub. The independent Russian media The Moscow Times has been echoed of this discovery, highlighting a devastating fact: in November 2024, more than 80% of Rosneft’s maritime exports They moved through this network. Sergey Vakulenko, former head of strategy at Gazprom Neft and current researcher at the Carnegie Center, explained to this medium that using fifty shell companies is “an old trick from the 90s” to evade taxes, but he confesses his surprise at the fact that a single network has become so immensely crucial for a giant like Rosneft. The triumph of shadow intermediaries The existence of this network means, quite simply, that the Western sanctions system is full of holes and that Russia has managed to industrialize evasion. According to the investigationthe success of this $90 billion network was based on strict separation of roles to erase the money trail. The network used a group of shell companies exclusively to buy crude oil shipments in Russia, and another group of companies, totally different on paper, to sell them in key markets such as India or China. In this way, the initial buyer and the final seller almost never coincided in customs documents. Furthermore, in most cases, the crude oil was labeled under generic names such as “export mix”, which destroyed any possibility of tracing its origin or checking whether the price cap imposed by the G7 was being respected. As we already explained at the time in Xatakathis modus operandi It is not new and it relies on an architecture of evasion that has been brewing for years in places like the United Arab Emirates. Something very similar happened with the case of Christopher Eppinger, a young trader German that perfectly illustrates how this underworld works. As we detailed in our report, while Europe boasted of energy sovereignty, an army of new intermediaries moved to Dubai—a jurisdiction that does not apply sanctions to Moscow—to make gold. The network now discovered by the British media uses exactly the same tools that we already analyzed: the express creation of opaque companies, the use of the “ghost fleet” (aging ships that turn off their transponders when approaching to load Russian crude oil) and transfers of oil on the high seas to mix it and falsify its origin. The only difference is that the Rosneft network uncovered by the FT was operating on an unprecedented industrial scale… Until they made a rookie mistake on the internet. The rookie mistake This entire sophisticated international network collapsed due to an absurd detail that borders on comedy. He Finance Times discovered that these 48 multi-billion dollar companies shared a single private server for their emails: mx.phoenixtrading.ltd By pulling this digital thread, the journalists of the FT they managed to identify 442 web domains who shared administrative functions of back office on that same server. The next step was pure data mining: they compared the names of those domains with the customs records of Russia and India. Thus, they discovered that the domain foxton-fzco.com It corresponded to Foxton FZCO (based in Dubai), buyer of $5.6 billion in oil; and? advanalliance.ltd It was Advan Alliance, which sold 1.5 billion to India. The desire to create and destroy companies quickly to mislead sanctioners—according to The Moscow Timesthe average lifespan of these signatures is only six months—led the network to centralize your IT infrastructure to reduce costs. A saving that has cost them their anonymity. The show must go on In the short term, the strategy of those involved is denial and adaptation. How to collect Finance Timesboth Tahir Garayev and Etibar Eyyub have categorically denied their involvement in sanctions evasion, calling the accusations “baseless” (curiously, Eyyub sent his denial from an email address hosted on the compromised server). The original company that founded the network, Coral Energy (now 2Rivers), has also disengaged from operations. However, behind the scenes, the machinery is already looking for new avenues. A senior Russian energy executive, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up the situation in the investigation starkly: “It creates additional costs and inconveniences. But at the end of the day, the show must go on.” The United Kingdom has already reacted to the investigation of the British media, sanctioning nearly 300 entities linked to this “dark web”, blocking Russian ships and banks. The fall of this immense $90 billion network shows that, in the 21st century, bank secrecy and flags of convenience are useless if the system administrator decides … Read more

It was the pizza and it has already fallen

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In the US, pizza is religion. And it is logical. Not only for its flavor. Several generations have grown up watching how the Ninja Turtle or Scooby-Doo got their boots on with a dish that in Washington DC they have even elevated to the category of geopolitical indicator. The big question is whether that love of dough, tomato sauce and mozzarella is fading as Mexican food conquest the heart the stomachs of Americans. Of course there are indicators that suggest this. What has happened? That the United States seems to be losing interest in pizzas. Your chains they grow slower that the entire sector of the fast foodsales are suffering and there are studies that suggest that in the country it’s easier find cafes or Mexican restaurants rather than pizzerias, something unimaginable not long ago in a country hooked on the most famous dish of Naples. So much so that there are big chains of pizzerias passing by economic difficultiesclosing stores or directly declaring bankrupt. What does the data say? They confirm that gastronomic ‘prick’, which some of the major US newspapers are already talking about. In December he did The New York Times and I recently confirmed it The Wall Street Journal with a chronicle in which he slips a revealing fact: in 2024 pizzerias were the sixth most popular type of restaurant in the US, far from the second position in the 90s. Not only that. The number of pizzerias spread across the US has been decreasing since the peak it reached in 2019. Meanwhile, cafes with pastry service and Mexican restaurants have grown at a good pace. Are there more indicators? Yes. There are signs to suggest that specialty pizza chains have seen sales growth was stagnating in recent years, moving away from the pace at which the fast food. Some of the most famous firms in the sector recognize even that they have chained quarters of sales declines or that customers have gone from ordering family pizzas to smaller formats with fewer ingredients. “The pizza sector is in full transformation. That’s what consumers tell us,” admits to TWSJ Ravi Thanawala, Papa John’s International. That does not mean that pizza is no longer a business in the US (in 2024 the chains generated 31 billion in sales through their restaurants), but it does seem to be losing ground. Both economically and culturally, giving up space on the streets in favor of places with other gastronomic offerings. Click on the image to go to the tweet. And what is the reason? Better to talk about reasons, in the plural. Those who have started looking for explanations point to a decisive factor that usually determines demand: price. Today a large pizza in the US costs 17 dollarsmore than other alternatives fast food. “The prices have become crazy. When I was little we would order two extra-large pizzas, a soda and a side for $25.99,” he lamented recently in TNWT Celest, a young woman from Los Angeles. Have they risen that much? As explains a pizza makerthe reality is somewhat more complex: pizzas have become more expensive in part because ingredients like pepperoni have also become more expensive. The problem is that competition in the sector (both between pizzerias and with other chains) often leaves pizza makers no choice but to enter the game of promotions and discounts. In August Domino’s launched a limited offer of $9.99 per pizza, which increased its quarterly sales by 5.2%. His experience confirms another key to the pizza crisis in the US: unlike what happened a few years ago, consumers today have a wide range of possibilities. They have to open Uber Eats or any other similar app to have a meal at home. It doesn’t matter if it’s Chinese, Mexican, Korean, Spanish food… or pizza. Are there more factors? Yes. US pizzerias have not only seen increased competition in their market niche. They also fight with another rival: frozen pizzas that can be bought directly in supermarkets, a business on the rise and that has been improving its offer over the years. This without taking into account another factor that helps to understand the growing weight of Mexican gastronomy in the US: there are more restaurants because simply the population native to that country has been shot during the last decades, especially since the 70s. Added to the above are changes in consumption and a part of the clientele that is increasingly concerned about their well-being. So much so that the manager of a firm with 270 pizzerias in the US recently recognized to TNYT that studies the idea of ​​creating a pizza “compatible with GLP-1“, with lower calorie content. Whatever it takes to ensure that pizza does not lose its culinary throne in the US. Images | Daniel (Unsplash) and Hybrid Storytellers (Unsplash) In Xataka | If the question is how to make a team more productive, the answer according to Jeff Bezos is clear: with two pizzas

greet. He has fallen on his face

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There are companies that are committed to we all end up having a humanoid robot at home, as if it were that movie based on Asimov’s novel. The most leading companies are concentrated in the United States and China, with figure and Unitree as a spearhead. Now there is a new country that wants to enter the humanoid robotics race, it is Russia and its first attempt has been, shall we say, striking. What has happened? The first Russian humanoid robot was presented yesterday in Moscow. In the video shared on networks You can see how the robot appears from the side of the stage, accompanied by two men who watch it very closely, with the soundtrack of ‘Rocky’. All very epic, or that was the intention. The robot takes a few steps, stops and salutes, then immediately loses its balance and falls face down on the ground. What follows is the robot “kicking”, the employees dragging it and trying, without much success, to cover the scene with the stage curtain. A disaster. Reactions. The first thing that catches your attention is that the robot walks very clumsily, very far from what we are used to. robot shows in china. The reactions on the networks were immediate and many pointed out that the robot seemed somewhat “harmed.” “I can’t stop laughing. I think he learned to walk from alcoholics,” said one user on X. “Powered by vodka,” this other guy joked. There has also been some positive comments which point out the difficulty of creating a humanoid robot that walks, even if it is that bad. AIdol. This is how they have named the first Russian humanoid robot manufactured by the Idol company. According to the russian news agencyAIdol is capable of “walking, manipulating objects, and communicating.” It also has the ability to reproduce facial expressions thanks to 19 servomotors and has seven microphones, speakers and cameras to interact and move around the environment. Supposedly, AIdol can move at a speed of 6km/h and maintains balance on uneven surfaces, although judging by its appearance on the scene, we have quite a few doubts. And finally, AI could not be missing, we do not know what models it uses, but AIdol has the capacity to generate contextual voice using AI. Plus, everything works offline. The excuse. Idol, the company behind the creation of the robot, said that the crash occurred due to a calibration problem and that the robot they presented was in the testing phase. There has also been talk that it could be due to poor lighting or voltage problem. What we do know is that the Russian news agency does not mention the incident in its extensive article on AIdol. What’s more, the video that includes the news is cut just before the fall. It could be worse. This is not the first time that Russia has ventured into robotics. In 2018, on Russian television A robot appeared that walked, danced and could even talk. They called him Boris and promoted him as a way to encourage young people to become interested in robotics. The problem is that it later became known that Boris was actually a man in disguise and not a real robot as they wanted us to believe in the broadcast. Image | x In Xataka | Robots are taking over factories and warehouses. Now they target the fruit seasonal workers

A huge fuel tank has fallen from heaven in Argentina. And we already have suspicious: a Chinese rocket

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The afternoon is almost always quiet in the small Chaco town of Puerto Tirol, north of Argentina. On Thursday, that tranquility was interrupted by an object fallen from heaven. He had appeared on a rural property whose owner did not hesitate to call the police. The police cordoned off the area waiting for firefighters. All the investigations are already made on the Internet. What is known. The object measures 1.70 meters long by 1.20 meters in diameter. It is metallic, has a cylindrical shape and is covered with carbon fiber or a similar compound material, so it is surely a pressurized propellant tank, a piece of the space rockets known as Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV). When a satellite or a rocket re -enters the atmosphere, most of its body is burned by pressure. These containers, on the other hand, are designed to support very high pressures, so it is not strange that they survive intact. Or judging by the photos, somewhat chamuscados and frayed. What is suspected. The first identification came from the hand of the Caribbean Astronomy Society (SAC) in A Facebook post. They confirmed that it looks like a piece of space vehicle, specifically a COPV. And they pointed out that, of the most recent releases, the main candidate is a Chinese rocket released the day before. The analysis of the trajectory seems to confirm suspicions. The astrophysic and renowned Jonathan McDowell satellite tracker He corroborated this hypothesisstating that the object is “probably” the tank of the fourth stage of a Chinese jielong-3 rocket. From China to Chaco. The private company China Rocket had launched on Wednesday the eighth mission of its Jielong-3 rocket. The Y8 mission took off From a maritime platform At 07:56 UTC to put 12 satellites of the Geely Future Mobility constellation in orbit, a positioning and communications service of the Chinese automotive giant Geely. After displaying the satellites, the fourth stage of the rocket continued to orbit the earth until 9:00 UTC of the next day, when It was sighted disintegrated in the sky 15 kilometers from Puerto Tyrol. Most likely, it will not be completely burned and the deposit survived the fall. A questionable history. China has earned in recent years. The most notorious case is that of the CZ-5B state rocket, whose central stage of more than 20 tons is designed to reach the orbit and then fall to the earth unpredictably within a period of days or weeks. The reality is that this behavior is changing, and both state and private companies are actively providing their rockets on the ability to actively extend, keeping some fuel and after deploying satellites. The problem is not that. But the space garbage, and that is that the Earth’s orbit has become a landfill. There are all kinds of dead satellites and rockets in the terrestrial orbit that gradually approach the earth due to atmospheric braking. With the rise of satellite megaconstellations, every day they re -enter the atmosphere an average of three large pieces of space garbage. And in this case they do it without any control. As a result, incidents in inhabited areas are increasingly frequent. In March 2024, a fragment of a battery pallet discarded from the International Space Station crossed the roof of a house. In January 2025, A half ton ring He appeared in a town in Kenya. In February, several fragments of a spacex rocket They fell near the city of Poland. The Earth is very large and mostly depopulated or covered with water, but it is a matter of time that something happens. Therefore, space agencies such as ESA They are promoting a commitment of “zero waste” to harden the regulations of their own missions. It is necessary, yes, a global consensus. Images | Llitory region In Xataka | The fireball that crossed Spain on Sunday will not be the last one: with 8,000 Starlinks in orbit, it will be a habitual show

We had been talking about the most lethal Russian weapon that seemed like Ukraine fallen asleep. His answer is called Liutyi

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If drones have become The protagonists From the Ukraine War, the model that has marked Russia’s offensive offers no doubts: The Shaheds of Iranian origin, then converted into different versions assembled in MoscowThey are the basis of Russia’s offensives. And in Ukraine? There they also have been perfecting a device that has become key to attacks on critical objectives of the enemy. The strategic weapon of Ukraine. Yes, kyiv, aware of its lower industrial and resources capacity, has opted for a different approach: Use surgical attacks with drones of own manufacture against strategic objectives deeply located in Russian territory. The jewel of this strategy is the AN-196 Liutyia lodging ammunition system designed to achieve precision Critical facilities of military logistics, oil refineries, air bases and essential industrial centers for the Russian war effort. Development and technical characteristics. Dron Liutyi began to develop In 2022 by Antonov in collaboration with Ukroboronpromconceived as a long -range unidirectional attack vehicle. The first version weighed between 250 and 300 kilosmeasured 4.4 meters long with a wingspan of 6.7, and was promoted with a gasoline engine that moved a rear propeller. It incorporated a V -tail design to improve stability and aerodynamics, and initially carried 50 kilos of explosives at a range of 1,000 km. The most recent versions have practically doubled their benefits: increased load capacity to 75 kilos and a range of up to 2,000 km, for an estimated unit cost In 200,000 dollarsfigure greater than that of the Shahed but still much lower than that of a cruise missile. And more. Your navigation combines inertial and satellite systems In the initial phase, while in the final approach it resorts to artificial vision to execute evasive trajectories, dodge defenses and hit with precision. First operational deployments. The use of Liutyi was made visible in 2024 With deep attacks in Russian territory. In January, an attack against An oil tank In St. Petersburg, he was attributed to drone, as was the March attack against the Ryazan refinery that caused a great fire. In June, the Mozdok Air Basein Norte Osetia, which houses bombers Tu-22m3 and fighters MIG-31it was also beaten. These incidents showed that Ukraine was in a position to project power hundreds of kilometers from the front line. Expansion of your role. The improved Liutyi versions began to be used massively this year. On March 13, an attack reached a Gas pipeline control center In Sátov, affecting the Russian energy sector. In April, several waves of Liutyi impacted the base of the 112.ª missile brigade in Shuya, destroying facilities of command and barracks. In July, two Liutyi penetrated 1,400 kilometers to Izhevsk, where They hit the Kupol plantproducer of anti -aircraft Tor-m and Harpiya drones, causing significant damage. That same month, different videos They documented attacks against objectives in the Leningrad region, in the city of Pensa and at the Sochi airport, where a fuel tank was reached. These blows have had a double effect: disorganizing Russian logistics and forcing Kremlin to allocate resources to the defense of the rear. International response. Despite his successes, Ukraine faces the disadvantage of not being able to manufacture Liutyi in quantities comparable to Shahed’s mass production by Russia. External support is, therefore, crucial: Germany has committed investments to produce 500 additional unitswhich will allow the pace of operations. Thus, the Ukrainian strategy will continue based on the selective use of these drones, with emphasis on precision attacks and not saturation. To maintain its effectiveness, Liutyi must adapt continuously, incorporating advances in artificial intelligence, computer vision and electronic countermeasures resistance. Strategic role in war. In short, although less known than The ShahedLiutyi has become a symbol of Ukrainian capacity to innovate and hit in depth, eroding the perception of security in the interior of Russia. Their attacks have affected energy facilities, refineries, industrial plants and air bases, weakening critical infrastructures and forcing Moscow to disperse their defenses. In this way, the drone not only compensates (in part) the Ukrainian material inferiority in front of the Russian military industry, but also opens a new psychological and strategic front by demonstrating that no Russian area is out of reach. Thus, everything indicates that its role will continue to expand in the coming months, consolidating itself as one of the key weapons in the Strategy of Resistance and Counteroffensive of Ukraine. Image | Open Source In Xataka | Not that war in Ukraine has become a laboratory of the future, is that there are drones saving lives with bicycles In Xataka | If you want to learn to handle a combat drone, the best school is Ukraine. And there have been infiltrated Mexican narcos

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