German

Months ago, Mallorca began fining drivers in its ZBE. Now he has a problem with German tourists

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Joachin Fischer is one of the many (many) German tourists who like to enjoy the landscapes, weather and coves of Mallorca. For decades he has been visiting the island at least twice a year. If his name has stood out among the thousands of compatriots who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands, it is because a few months ago posed in front of the cameras of the press showing a fine, a sanction of 200 euros sent by the Palma City Council for (and this is the key) having accessed the Low Emissions Zone (ZBE) from the city with your car. fischer claims who drives a Tesla suitable for driving on the BZE, but that is not the only feature of his vehicle. Another (crucial) is that it has a foreign registration, which partly explains the fine. Your case is important because is not the only one German tourist who claims to have suffered a similar sanction in Palma. What has happened? That the activation of the low emissions zone (ZBE) in Palma is having unexpected protagonists: German tourists. The Balearic capital launched zoning a little over a year ago and months later, in julybegan to apply sanctions to drivers who do not respect it. Until then, nothing out of this world. At the end of the day, Palma City Council has only adjusted to what the Climate Change Law for cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The surprise came after time, in Novemberwhen it was found that the measure was causing friction with tourists who arrive in Palma with their foreign-registered cars, even the zero-emission ones. Why’s that? The news gave it Mallorca Diary last fall: tourists who arrive in the city with their own vehicles risk fines if they enter the streets delimited in the ZBE. And this is basically because they do not have the option of registering their license plates to process the permit. Even in those cases where they drive models that meet the technical requirements. “They are not authorized to enter the ZBE, since the DGT system is not universalized throughout the EU and each country has its own classification method, so the level of emissions of cars with foreign registration cannot be automatically verified,” They explained in November from the municipal Mobility area of ​​Palma. “They may be exempt only if they register in the system and justify their residence, meeting the established requirements.” And what is the problem? That last nuance. In the website that Palma City Council dedicates to the ZBE includes a specific section on “vehicles with foreign registration plates” in which two points are especially highlighted. The first is that “vehicles registered outside of Spain are not classified according to the criteria of the environmental label of the General Directorate of Traffic.” The second, that drivers of vehicles with foreign registration interested in accessing the ZBE must process a “authorization”a permit designed primarily for residents and owners of properties, businesses or parking spaces. The question is… And the tourists? Many of the thousands of Germans who spend their summers in the Balearic Islands rent cars with Spanish license plates with a badge that allows them to circulate without problem through the Palma ZBE, but there are also cases like Fischer’swho prefers to disembark with his own vehicle. What’s wrong with them? In November Fischer counted to the Balearic press that he had received a fine of 200 euros from the City Council for driving his electric Tesla where he shouldn’t have been. “I only entered Jaume III for a moment to pick up my 14-year-old daughter after shopping in El Born,” he lamented the man, who assures that he prefers to use his private car and not a rental one because it “amuses him” and gives “greater flexibility” when planning his trips. “Not being able to register my car, I thought that my green ecological device and the electric car license plate would be enough to avoid the fine, as is the case in low-emission zones in German cities. But that was not the case.” Is he the only one affected? It doesn’t seem like it. On those same dates the newspaper Mallorca Zeitung assured that he was receiving “more and more messages” from readers with fines. The Mallorcan press has also echoed complaints from those affected who speak of “discrimination” against Europeans with foreign cars or point out how complicated it is to register a vehicle on the list of authorized license plates, especially for those who do not speak Mallorcan or Spanish. One of the arguments put forward by critics is a note posted on the DGT page which explains that, although Spain does not issue badges for foreign vehicles, that does not have to be a problem. “If your car has an environmental label in its country of origin (Germany, Austria, Denmark, France) it is considered to have the Spanish equivalent,” he clarifies. There is who also remembers that Palma is not the only city council (neither in Spain nor in Europe) that applies mobility restrictions in the center, and insists: the rules are the same for everyone and “ignorance does not exempt from guilt.” Images | Sergiy Galyonkin (Flickr) and Đorđe Pandurević (Unsplash) In Xataka | Houses are so expensive in the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands that they are expelling even Germans and British people from the market.

The Nazis produced 1,200 films. 44 of them remain prohibited and guarded by the German Government to this day.

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In the Faculty of Information Sciences of the Complutense University of Madrid An optional subject is taught called History of informative and documentary cinema. A few years ago, the teacher who taught that class had the habit of giving his students fragments of ‘The triumph of the will‘, the documentary that Leni Riefenstahl directed about the Nazi party congress in Nuremberg, in 1934. She always added that she only showed those fragments because, if she put it in its entirety, she feared that we would want to join the party. ‘Triumph of the Will’ is one of the more than 1,200 films that the Ministry of Propaganda German, under the command of Joseph Goebbels, produced to spread Nazi ideals, anti-Semitism and to justify the Second World War. When the war ended, the Allies banned about 300 of them, and 44 are still on that list in charge of the German government. Why are these movies banned? Those forty-four were the subject of a documentary a few years ago, ‘Forbidden Films’which not only explained what kind of tapes they were and what they were about, but also asked whether they should no longer be banned and what legacy they might have left, 70 years after the end of the war. Your director, Felix Moellerproduced it in the face of disinterest of German youth about the history of the Nazis and the rise of the extreme right in Europe, and the documentary shows the reactions of different people when watching some of these films. Because the German government does allow their exhibition, but for educational purposes and with an expert in the room to explain and contextualize them. In the trailer you can already see some of these opinions, from those who are surprised because these films have good technical quality and are entertaining, to those who think that some of them should remain prohibited because they were, at the time, Nazi symbols, such as ‘The Jew Süss‘, which was probably the most successful of all the productions promoted by Goebbels. ‘The Jew Süss’ was the second film adaptation of the life of Joseph Süss Oppenheimer, financial advisor to the Duke of Württemberg during the 18th century and who was accused of fraud, bribery, treason and even illicit relations with several ladies of the court, and executed for these crimes. His story had been treated in books and even in plays that generally focused on it as a great human tragedy. But Goebbels saw that he could present Süss as a arrogant jew who infiltrated the Germans to take away what was theirs. He already had the most important piece in his cinematic anti-Semitic propaganda. ‘The Jew Süss’ was a great popular success. It was screened at the 1940 Venice Film Festival, receiving good reviews for its technical workmanship, reviews that did not seem to be aware of the ultimate objective of the film. Goebbels himself wrote in his diary about the film that it was “an anti-Semitic film of the kind we could only wish for. I’m very happy about it.” Good but dangerous movies In 1994, the film critic Roger Ebert wrote about one of those 44 banned Nazi films, ‘Triumph of the Will’, that “we would all have reflected on the received opinion that the film is good but evil, and that writing about it raises the question of whether quality art can be in the service of evil.” Ebert asked himself the same question with ‘The Birth of a Nation’, RW Griffith’s film that is considered one of the founding works of cinema and, at the same time, deeply racist. Those films, at the time, were not considered that way. Luis Buñuel himself stated in his memories that, in 1935, no one in Hollywood thought that ‘Triumph of the Will’ was dangerous because there were too many regional dances and too many songs for its propaganda message to be taken seriously. The Second World War drastically changed that perception, but until then, the productions of the Ministry of Propaganda Germans used entertaining stories to convey their ideals. They portrayed the British as cruel inventors of concentration camps or justified the invasion of Poland by showing the Poles persecuting the German minority living there. They could be full of stereotypes, historical manipulations and blatant attempts to “brainwash” their viewers, but they were well produced and shot and were very successful at the time. For all these reasons, they remain prohibited. But should they continue to be? In ‘Forbidden films’ there are scholars who claim that these films clearly show what should not be repeated in the future and that, therefore, their access to them should not be restricted, while former members of neo-Nazi parties point out another reason for them to be removed from the “black list”: “When something is prohibited, it becomes interesting. Prohibiting things makes them fascinating and taboo because if it is prohibited, it must be true to a certain extent.” Other Banned Non-Nazi Films Nazi ideological propaganda is the reason why these 44 films remain banned in Germany, which also has a great controversy over the passage to public domain of ‘Mein Kampf’but throughout the history of cinema there have been films that have also been included in “blacklists” for reasons that can range from accusations of obscenity to, directly, blasphemy. Or it could have happened to them like ‘The great dictator‘, the satire that Charles Chaplin made of Hitler and Mussolini, in 1940, and which was banned in Argentina precisely for that parody, since Germany had been an ally of Juan Domingo Perón. It was even on the verge of not being shown in the United Kingdom because, when filming was announced, the country was trying to appease Hitler in his expansionist desires for Europe. When it was released, however, the British were already at war with the Germans and there was no reason for its censorship. You don’t have to go to China or countries with fundamentalist regimes to find the most … Read more

Russian oil never stopped arriving in Europe and this 30-year-old German knows it well because he has earned millions by supporting the system.

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JR Ewing, the oil magnate dallasused to repeat that “the essential thing in this business was to always be one step ahead.” If I lived in 2025, I probably wouldn’t be wearing a Texan hat: I’d be a trader in my late 30s with a laptop, a rented office in Dubai, and a German passport. And perhaps he would look a lot like Christopher Eppinger, the young man who, according to an extensive report in the Financial Timeshas managed to become a millionaire by speculating with sanctioned Russian oil while Europe proclaimed from the rooftops that it was breaking dependence on the Kremlin. Because while Brussels talked about “energy sovereignty” and announced price caps, a parallel ecosystem of nomadic traders, ghost fleets and opaque companies continued to move millions of barrels away from the official radar. In that underground of the global economy, Eppinger found his opportunity. The sanctioned oil never stopped flowing; It simply stopped being visible. And he knew how to make it profitable. When a door closes. Christopher Eppinger, marked since childhood by the chapters of dallas that he saw with his grandmother, he found in the war a window to get rich. The young German moved with the same logic that much more veteran intermediaries have used for decades: special purpose companies in the United Arab Emirates, triangulated operations with India or China, sales contracts for discounted crude oil and the logistics of a ghost fleet that operates on the margins of maritime law. While European governments presented sanctions in solemn press conferences, he took advantage of every crack in the system to buy low and resell high. He didn’t need his own ships, or infrastructure, or even physically touching a barrel: it was enough to know where the opportunities were and who didn’t want to look too closely. Showing an uncomfortable truth. The story of this young German is not an anecdote, but evidence that the sanctioning system never acted as intended. Organization reports like Public Eye show that, between 2023 and 2024 alone, newly created companies or companies relocated to Dubai accounted for more than half of the Russian oil exported by sea, displacing traditional centers such as Switzerland and Singapore. According to Bloombergkey figures in the energy trade, such as Murtaza Lakhani, helped Rosneft reconfigure its export chains through the Emirates to keep flows active despite sanctions. And while much of Europe tried to break ties with Moscow, some countries —like Hungary and Slovakia— took advantage of exceptions to continue receiving crude oil and gas through the Druzhba pipeline. Energy dependence, far from being broken, fragmented into a more chaotic, less transparent and more vulnerable system. In this environment, profiles like Eppinger’s are not only possible: they are almost inevitable. The recipe for enrichment. Eppinger’s method follows a clear logic that the Financial Times details precisely. The first step is to move to Dubai, which has become the “Desert Ireland”thanks to minimal taxation, thousands of special purpose companies created in record time and a confidentiality regime that allows operations without revealing the beneficial owner. The United Arab Emirates does not apply sanctions against Moscow and serves as a perfect platform to move cargo, contracts and dividends without European surveillance. The second pillar is the ghost fleet: hundreds of aging, poorly insured oil tankers, with registrations in opaque countries and with transponders that turn off just when the ship approaches a Russian cargo. These ships They are the heart of parallel trade which has kept Russia exporting above the $60 limit imposed by the G7. The third consists of the Offshore transfers and triangulations. The scheme is simple: buy cheap Russian crude, transfer it to another tanker in international waters, mix it or rename it “Malaysian” or “Indian”, and resell it at an international price. A digital business, fast and — above all — difficult to track. And the fourth element is the ambiguous tolerance of the West. As Bloomberg has detailedthe United States avoided acting harshly for months to avoid causing a global rise in the price of oil. In the EU, exceptions and loopholes allowed non-European companies, although controlled by Europeans, to operate without restrictions. Eppinger moved precisely in that gray space: a legally ambiguous but economically explosive territory. The great gray void where everything is possible. The short answer is: it depends. The long answer is more uncomfortable. According to regulators cited in the different sources, an operation can be technically legal if Russian oil is purchased below the price ceiling, transported to a country that does not apply sanctions and is executed from a legally established entity outside the EU. Switzerland even recognizedaccording to Public Eye— that subsidiaries of Swiss companies established in Dubai are not subject to Swiss sanctioning legislation, as long as they are formally “independent.” This legal architecture allows traders like Eppinger to act without violating the letter of the law, even if they clearly violate its spirit. The question is not so much whether what you do is legal, but why it is possible to do it. Will there be consequences? The cracks in the system are beginning to produce visible effects. On the military front, Ukraine has expanded the war towards Russian energy infrastructure: attacking refineries thousands of kilometers from the front and disabled tankers linked to sanctioned crude oil trading. Russia has lost around 13% of its refining capacity and several regions have suffered queues and gasoline rationing, according to the Financial Times. On the diplomatic and economic level, according to BloombergWashington is already studying specific sanctions against intermediaries in the Emirates, while the United Kingdom has begun to penalize marketing companies with opaque property registered in Dubai. In Europe, pressure is growing on countries that continue to receive Russian energy by land, such as Hungary and Slovakia, identified as leakage points in the system. Eppinger’s business, like that of many others, could have its days numbered if the regulatory fence tightens. For now, it is still profitable. Russia gets richer while Europe … Read more

In 1973 a German dreamed of exploiting Lanzarote. 50 years later no one has been able to move the ruins of his monster

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Of all the ghost architectures and abandoned to their fate in Spain, few like the shadow that rises in a unique place in the Canary Islands. Its history begins in the early seventies, at a time when Lanzarote was opening up to international tourism in the heat of expansive urban planning, laws favorable to foreign investment and a climate of economic optimism that seemed to have no limits. And then a “visionary” arrived. A hyperbolic dream. In that context, the German businessman Erick Becker imagined a gigantic tourist complexmade up of five hotels, an aparthotel, more than twelve hundred bungalows and a capacity for four thousand people. The emblematic piece, the Náutico hotel (renamed over the years as Atlante del Sol), was to be the gateway to an urbanization in German capital that saw Lanzarote as an ideal territory to attract European visitors. The legislation of the time, headed by the Strauss Law of 1968encouraged German investment in developing countries and helped direct a flood of capital towards the Canary Islands that found an apparently perfect opportunity on the island. However, the choice of location would prove to be a major mistake. Tourism against the landscape. The Rubicon coast It had virulent waves, constant winds and rugged geography without a beach or adequate access. In those decades, Lanzarote’s infrastructure was fragile, and the area even lacked a road that connected the place with the inhabited centers. Despite this, the project moved forward in fits and startsraising the main structure of the hotel before the oil crisis of 1973 paralyzed the European economy and brought with it a promotion that would never open its doors. Since then, the unfinished mass was abandonedconverted into an unused concrete skeleton that began to hint at the ghostly silhouette that would mark its future. Abandonment, illegality and law. After the abandonment of the project, the Atlante del Sol was suspended in a legal limbo that the subsequent evolution of Canarian urban planning ended up resolving against it. The Island Management Plan of Lanzarote from 1991a pioneer in the protection of the island territory, reclassified the area as rustic land for natural ecological protection, nullifying the urban character it may have had under the regulations of the 1950s and 1960s. With the passage of time, the area was also incorporated into the Natura 2000 Network as a Special Bird Protection Area, reinforcing its ecological value and further shielding its non-urbanizable nature. In parallel, Spanish and regional legislation chained new land laws in 1976, 1990, 1998 and 2007, which consolidated environmental regulations. much more demanding than existed when the original license was granted in 1972. Final blow. The Superior Court of Justice of the Canary Islands made it clear in 2016 that this old license was invalid operational, because an unfinished work loses any right protected by obsolete regulations when subsequent laws come into force. In essence, what may have been legal in the 1970s ceased to be legal decades ago. Added to this was a determining fact: the property it was never finished nor to be used, and its current state (absolute ruin, no services, no access and no technical possibility of becoming operational equipment) prevented it from being considered a heritage work. The court concluded that reviving a license from 1972 was as inappropriate as pretending that the island had not changed in fifty years. That ruling legally sealed the fate of the hotel: either remain abandoned or be demolished. The ghost and watchman hotel. With the passage of time, the Atlantean of the Sun It went from being a frustrated project to becoming a strange element embedded in one of the natural spaces most beautiful and unique of Lanzarote: the natural pools from Los Charcones. There, between the wind, the volcanic rock and the crystalline puddles, the abandoned hotel took on a disturbing, almost sculptural presence. For tourists who discover the area, the semi-ruined structure has become part of the landscapean example of beauty in decay that contrasts with the serenity of natural pools. For others, it is an open wound, a reminder of the speculation of the seventies and the urbanism that was promoted without paying attention to the physical reality of the territory. Chaos tourism. His inaccessibility (the absence of roads continues to be one of the main limitations today) has kept it outside the conventional tourist circuit and has contributed to its degradation. The wind, saltpeter and abandonment have turned the building into a dangerous shell, used occasionally as an improvised shelter by campers since the seventies, especially at Easter, when entire families came to occupy the windowless rooms applying minimum standards of coexistence. The picture is as unusual as it is revealing: a hotel that never opened turned into a sporadic camp for those seeking a unique experience in an isolated place. Between memory, business and protection. Over the decades, different owners tried to recover the building’s destiny, either by giving it tourist use or transforming it into healthcare facilities. Among them, the company Hipercan Don Jersey SL tried to reclassify the land to convert the hotel into a social and health center, claiming that the 1972 license was still valid and that the reform would allow the municipality to be provided with a new public service. But the administrations maintained a firm position: Yaiza already had sufficient equipment, the property was in ruins and the land belonged to a protected natural space whose ecological value should prevail about any intervention. The courts confirmed this position repeatedly. Neither the heritage argument, nor the intention to reconvert the building, nor the appeal to old investments managed to reverse a situation that had been legally closed for decades. Even if there was a will to rebuild, the cost of rehabilitation would be exorbitant. And if demolition were chosen, the operation (valued at more than one million euros) would require facing considerable technical and environmental obstacles. Uncertain future. In recent years, the discussion about the future of the Atlantean Sun has regained … Read more

The most German museum in Germany laughs at its visitors. And it is triumphing

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Imagine booking a guided tour of a museum and the guide being an arrogant, resentful and rude know-it-all. It certainly sounds very unpleasant, but there is a museum in Germany where people are lining up and paying to live the experience. Grumpy guide. This is how the museum Kunstpalastlocated in Dusseldorf, advertises this curious guided tour format, which they describe on their website as a “highly unpleasant” experience. During the visit, which lasts 70 minutes, the guide challenges visitors to name works, and then ridicules their knowledge. He does not insult the visitors directly or comment on their physique, but he does ridicule them as a group. He also scolds them if they use their cell phones or sit down and criticizes artists who, in his opinion, should not be on the walls of the museum. Waiting list. They count in Guardian that the grumpy guide’s visits have been a complete success and the waiting list extends until 2026. It is true that this guided tour format only takes place twice a month, so it is not that there are many tickets, but the museum claims that they have managed to sell them all out since they launched it in May of this year. Tickets cost 7 euros. Pay to be insulted. The museum director admits that he was inspired by Karen’s Dineran Australian restaurant chain where the waiters are very unfriendly and unpleasant to customers. There are more restaurants of this type in which you pay for an experience beyond the food, like a kind of dinner-show in which the fun is being treated badly. There are even more extreme cases such as This Japanese restaurant where waitresses slap customers in exchange for 3 euros. There is a goal behind it. The visits with ‘grumpy guide’ have not been a mere occurrence, but are part of a European initiative to attract young audiences and look for fresher and less elitist formats. The Kunstpalast museum has its unfriendly guide, but there are other curious initiatives such as Stuggart History Museum Nudist Tours or the sock tours of the Vooorlinden museum in Holland. Image | Pexels, Unsplash In Xataka | No wonder the theft of jewels from the Louvre has been so easy: the museum’s security has been a disaster for more than a century

While all Spain is pending that their children learn English, in the Canary Islands they have another obsession: the German

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The Canarian ties with Germany are strong. And they come from afar. They date back (at least) at the end of the 19th century And they have been reinforcing thanks to the Expats and the Huge weight which has the German market in the Canarian tourism sector, capital piece in the economy of the region. This link explains that in its classrooms it is studied more German than anywhere else in Spain and Parents committed in which their children learn at the same time the languages ​​of Cervantes and Goethe. It is the ‘Germanization’ of Canarian education. What happened? That Canary Islands show signs that little by little in a key area is being germanized: early childhood education. At least if we compare it with the rest of Spain. German influence on the archipelago (and more in zones With a strong foreign presence) it is nothing new, but there are indicators that help to better understand what extent they are pending in their classrooms and homes. The last one left it a few months ago The confidential in A report which shows how parents are betting on their children speak of Goethe’s tongue (almost) from the cradle or even cases of children who chapurre them before the Spanish. Are there figures to try it? Yes. Those of the Ministry of Education, which reflect how the teaching of German stands out in the archipelago against other regions of Spain. Although Canary Islands is one of the communities Less populated of the country is the one that has the most students studying German in the classrooms. At least in the 2020-2021 course They added 31,300considerably above the Community of Madrid (28,300), Catalonia (24,600), Andalusia (18,100) or Balearic Islands (13,800), two regions in which there is also a strong presence of tourists and Expats. And who studies it? That is the most interesting. The language is not only learned by young people who study ESO or university students. In the archipelago he has also penetrated among the youngest children. The 2020-2021 course there was almost 500 students Studying German in the Early Childhood Education stage, data that exceed only Catalonia and Andalusia, with much greater population. If we talk about Primary the figure, the largest registration in the country is triggered. In general the learning of German It is less extended than that of English or French, but still reaches a notable weight in the Canary classrooms. The region stands out For how extended the study of the second languages ​​is. What is the reason? There are several factors that explain that clear Germanization, but two stand out above the rest: the first are the Historical ties Between the Canary Islands and Germany, which date back to 19th century And they explain that there is a German school in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and another in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. According to the Canarian Institute of Statistics (Istac), the Germans are one of the main foreign population groups in the region, although they are significantly below nationalities such as the Colombian, Venezuelan or English. The second factor is tourism. The sector has A crucial weight In the GDP of the region, where it generates thousands of millions of euros every year. And much of that flow of money comes out of German pockets, such as I recognized Recently the Canary Islands government itself, taking stock of the 2024 campaign. statistics From Exeltur they show that in 2024 the German was The second market International most relevant to the tourism sector of the region. Only the British is overcome. What supposes that in practice? That speaking German becomes a key tool, both in the Canary Islands (work or not in tourism) and when looking for a job in the rest of the country or the EU. “Everything that is science and engineering is very enhanced in German, but nothing happens if the girl later chooses to be a hairdresser and not continue studying. I try to give her best for her future,” Explain to The confidential A Canarian mother who pays 600 euros per month (activities included) so that her daughter is formed at the German school. “I know people who have studied in this school and thanks to that they work or live outside.” Is it important? There are those who believe it. “Learning this language here is a priority for two reasons. First because it gives you the possibility of leaving the islands to, for example, exercising as an engineer or sanitary in other places. It is also essential to work in the southern area of ​​the island (Gran Canaria), where tourism is concentrated and people are always needed to deal with Germans,” Marta García reflectshistorian of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. “Here is key to accessing certain positions and ascending.” That influence explains that there are also adults who throw themselves to study the language to prosper, that the Canarian government has reinforced your bet For the linguistic immersion scholarships to study in Germany (and Ireland) or that there are even cases of children who begin to Chapurrean German before Spanish. Although it is not a generalized trend, a few months ago The confidential He reviewed A specific case, that of a four -year -old girl who entered the German school in Santa Cruz de Tenerife without speaking at all Spanish and surprised her parents by expressing themselves first in German. “I had a delay in language and I worried when I saw her speaking first German. I thought I was wrong and went to see the pediatrician, but luckily she started speaking Spanish last year.” Images | Norbert Braun (UNSPLASH), Guillaume Didelet (UNSPLASH) Via | The confidential In Xataka | For the first time in ten years, La Palma has shown the best creatures of its parties: the disturbing dwarfs that dance Polca

A German Fire team was blindly trusted in its diesel trucks. They discovered that the electric were better

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“We cannot trust experiments in an emergency.” It was, without any doubt, the most repeated phrase in the fire department of the Garching Campus of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) when they considered replacing their diesel trucks with electric. At least, that’s what they assure from the University itself. The phrase was repeated to satiety by their own firefighters during internal surveys. The rejection was widespread for the delicate of the matter: to change the reliability of their diesel trucks for a technology with which many of them had not had contact. The most repeated doubts, collect the companions of Motorpasionwere their load times, the reliability of trucks and even safety during operations. All these concerns seem to have disappeared. And, for those who have not disappeared, there is an expected security network. No, autonomy is not a problem either A year later, everyone seems to be delighted with change. The Fire Park now uses a 66 kWh capacity battery, engines that generate 490 hp and, the small trick, an autonomy extensor that is put into a marking with a six online cylinders that generates another 301 hp diesel. Regarding your capacity techniqueIt has a 2,000 -liter water tank and another 125 liters of Igniphuga foam and, despite being electric, a half -meter Vadeo capacity. That is, at the technical level, there is no substantial difference between an electric truck and a traditional diesel. We said the little trick is in that diesel generator. And it is that the truck is, in reality, an electric of extended autonomy that allows it to have a safety network. This type of vehicles are designed to be used as almost always electric and the combustion engine is nothing more than an emergency solution. In fact, they are usually engines that are used as an electric generator, producing electricity to a battery that feeds the engines. The solution is very widespread in China And, in fact, brands like Hyundai either Mazda They have cars that apply this technology. In the case of an electric firefighter truck, the solution does not go so through the autonomy available to travel (in a city they should be short distances) but to “skip” the load of the truck in case of requiring several interventions in a short time. Because, at the level of interventions, according to your data only 3% They need to turn on the diesel engine to be able to supply energy to the water pump. This, obviously, needs to pull the vehicle’s energy but is not until after half an hour when the battery is exhausted and need to turn on the diesel propeller. “In more than 97% of operations it is not necessary”, They emphasize. Saved that first and important stumbling block, from the fire team seem to be delighted with the new vehicle. They point out that without engine noise they can communicate better between them, both to speak directly and to understand what is being said on the radio. In its article, the German University emphasizes that it is a clear improvement within the vehicle but also for those who work outside it. “This allows us to communicate much better among us, which is great. You can also understand the radio and your colleagues without any problem, so you do not have to continue asking questions, a great gain in safety and comfort.” From the Fire Department they say that “our experience shows that electric mobility works for the Fire Department. I hope that many more fire departments follow their example. In any case, there is a lot of interest: we regularly receive consultations about our experiences.” The next step, they say, will be to install solar panels to load the trucks. Photo | Technical University of Munich (Tum) and Jai Heike In Xataka | Turn off electric cars, according to firefighters: self -colombing, twice water and triggered temperatures

His name is N8N, he is German and has converted the automation of workflows into something sexy

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For many years Jan Oberhauser worked for special effects (VFX) companies in the film and television industry. In those works he realized that automating certain tasks allowed simplifying his work and that of his colleagues in a remarkable way, and that was when he decided to take a complete turn to his career: he created an automation startup he called which he called N8N and has ended up becoming the last and promising European unicorn. There is nothing. Thus N8N was born. The company founded by Oberhauser He was born in 2019 In Berlin, Germany. Its objective: create a workflow automation platform that stood out for being Open Source – they prefer to use the term “Fair Code“,” Fair code ” -. In addition, you could and can be used in both autohosped mode (anyone can be mounted on its PC/server) and directly through its” key in hand “systems with the traditional SAAS scheme and its Subscription plans. The code is available In Github. What does this platform do. Basically, Automize everything. For this, it makes use of integrations of all kinds in third -party web applications and services, but also internally developed tools and, for some time, AI models that have become one of the star ingredients of those automation. The possibilities are practically unlimited, but to give some examples, N8N allows: That upon receiving an email in Gmail the sender leakes, the attachments are saved in Google Drive and you will notify you in Slack That if any event occurs in an app or service, you are sent an alert in slack, whatsapp or discord Download SDE files a FTP server, convert them to another format, process them and then distribute them by messaging channels A big ifttt. In essence N8N is something like a IFTTT Supervitaminazo: It is possible to chain all kinds of tasks so that “if this happens, you do this another.” However, the goal is to capture not only to end users – in Reddit There is a community Very nourished and enthusiastic of them – but to business users, for whom it raises a clear alternative to very popular automation platforms such as Zapier either Make (In both cases, no autohosped solution). Something that seems boring and cumbersome apparently becomes something fun, almost sexy – as they demonstrate Some YouTube video tutorials-, with N8N. N8N has not stopped growing. In 2020, a few months after being created, he already captured a small investment round of 1.5 million dollars. A year later They raised 12 million dollars more in a new round, and since then they have not stopped growing, but their true explosion has taken advantage of the boom of generative AI. A German Unicorn. Four months ago and after a new financing round of 55 million euros, N8N had a notable assessment of 350 million dollars. But as they indicate In Bloombergthis assessment could now be triggered to the 2.3 billion dollars thanks to a recent additional round in which the Risk Capital firm will lead with an important participation not yet defined.N The French Mistral either The Spanish Freepik. AI agents as a key ingredient. The company already exceeds 40 million dollars of recurrent income (subscriptions), and has benefited from the aforementioned AI and the phenomenon of the AI agentswith the difference that here these agents are really One more piece of those flows Automation. When you define one of those flows, they can “call” any model of AI to perform any task, and from it, that the exit ends up being the entrance of a new stage of the workflow. The power of the system, which was already remarkable, is now multiplied with the help of that option. In Xataka | “Ai Fluency” will be the new “user level office” in employment offers. The problem: you will have to learn on your own

China has attacked a German plane with a laser weapon

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The Red Sea is has become In one of the more volatile foci of the current geopolitical map, marked by constant attacks From the hutis to commercial ships in retaliation for the war in Gaza, the growing militarization of strategic routes and a complex SInterests between powers such as Iran, the United States, China and the European Union. And in the midst of this scenario more and more tense, maritime security missions can face challenges that go beyond conventional attacks. The last one has been as unclassifiable as extremely dangerous. Laser climbing. On July 2, 2025, a German surveillance plane was attacked with a laser For a frigate from the Navy of the Popular Army of Liberation (Plan) while participating in a routine mission off the Coast of Yemen. The aircraft, a Beechcraft King Air 350 operated by civil contractors from Yibuti and with German military personnel on board, he was fulfilling support functions within the ASPIDES OPERATION of the European Union, destined to Protect navigation In the Red Sea in front of Hutis attacks. According to them German authoritiesthe Chinese ship had already been previously sighted In the area, but this time he launched the beam without prior notice, forcing the mission to abort and return based. The Berlin government has responded firmlyconvening the Chinese ambassador to express their protest and qualifying the act of “totally unacceptable” to endanger the staff and hinder international operations. Repeated pattern The incident It is not an isolated fact. Since 2018, the Chinese Navy has been accused in several occasions to use laser weapons against military aircraft from the United States, Australia and the Philippines in different scenarios Strategic, from Yibuti to the South China Sea. In all cases, light beams, although without immediate destructive impact, were used with intentions of harassment, disorientation or intimidation, and some caused mild eye damage and disruption of optical sensors. The situation evokes especially A 2018 case In which two American pilots suffered injuries for a Chinese military laser while operating from the base in Yibuti, the same area from which the German plane attacked took off. The code for unexpected meetings in the sea (Cues), signed by China, Explicitly prohibits These practices for their risk of physical damage and military escalation, but its breach has become an unofficial tactics of the plan in scenarios where geopolitical friction is high. Laser boom and naval proliferation. The use of laser technology on board wars It is not exclusive From China, but its systematic and aggressive deployment is an alert signal. The proliferation of these systems, which vary from simple dazzling manuals up to Laser cannons capable of disabled sensors, drones and Antibheque missilesis part of a growing trend in contemporary marine. China has incorporated These devices to various types of vessels, including amphibious ships of type 071 classin parallel to the development of similar systems by the American Navy and other powers. What distinguishes the plan is your willingness to use them in peace time for the purpose of harassment, with tensions that touch the threshold of the conflict without formally crossing it. The possibility that these incidents are repeated or climb especially to European countries whose naval presence in distant waters has increased in response to new global threats. Geostrategy in the Red Sea. The growing Chinese influence in the Red Sea adds a disturbing nuance to the incident. Since 2008, the plan maintains a continuous naval presence in The Gulf of Adénbacked by your Permanent base in Yibuti. Recently, Beijing has reached An understanding With the hutis to guarantee the safe step of Chinese commercial ships through the Red Sea, while other international actors face systematic attacks. This ambiguous position allows China to present as a stability guarantor in the region, while hindering with unstalled hostility Maritime security missions led by the West, such as ASPIDES OPERATION. The incident with the German plane can be read, in that sense, as a form of indirect pressure to discourage the European military presence in waters now considered vital for Beijing’s strategic interests. Silent expansion. Beyond the Red Sea, the European fear of Chinese expansion is not limited to the naval field. Continent authorities have expressed their growing concern for Beijing’s influence on critical infrastructure, transport routes and geostrategic areas such as The Baltic either Arctic. In that context, the German response (formally convene the Chinese ambassador) represents a diplomatic gesture unusual For Berlin, more traditionally prone to equilibrium than to direct confrontation. However, in the face of a potential aggression against European military personnel and a repeated pattern of Chinese naval harassment, the measure acquires a symbolic value: it indicates that European patience against the erosion of fundamental international standards It has a limit. Diffuse red line. Although It has not been confirmed If the laser used in the attack was of high power or material damage has been detailed, the very involvement of a Chinese military system against a European aircraft in official mission feels a preceding worrying. As the Red Sea becomes an increasingly complex scenario (with Iran, the Hutis, the United States, Europe and now China playing parallel and contradictory roles), the use of silent weapons, Like the lasersis emerging as the perfect tool to inflict deterrence without firing a bullet. If you want also, each of these Pulses Invisible tense a little more the thread of regional stability and threatens to turn the Red Sea into a new gray area of ​​military competence. Image | Pla, China Military Online In Xataka | The “trick” of modern wars: how US ships repelled drones in the Red Sea without shooting a single shot In Xataka | China has ordered its ships to turn around in Ormuz: what reveals the silent withdrawal of its oil tankers

Germany believes having found the most German solution to its productivity problems: work more

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Germany has been considered for decades as The economic locomotive from Europe. However, currently It crosses a crisis that has surprised analysts and experts. The model that allowed the country to prosper with reduced working hours and shoot its productivity, seems to have reached its limit. German leaders They look for new formulas To recover lost growth and have found a possible solution: work more. Germany works little. In recent months, the economic debate has intensified without the German responsible having found the key to getting out of the economic stagnation. However, from the business circles of Bavaria, southeast of Germany, they point out that it could be something as simple as increasing annual work hours. The formula: eliminating one of the religious holidays of the German calendar. According to published the newspaper Welt, Federal Foreign Minister Friedrich Merz would agree with this statement: “In this country we have to work more and, above all, more efficiently,” said the president in a few words that Later he clarified “But in Germany we have groups, especially among the youngest generation, which work a lot.” They have tried everything. The pilot tests of the four -day work week They have not achieved the Productivity impulse that the country needs. Foreign Minister Merz recently warned: “With the four -day week and the balance between professional and personal life we ​​will not be able to maintain the prosperity of this country,” declared The German Chancellor to I monde. This statement has generated discomfort in a society that has always been considered hardworking and disciplined. For decades, German workers have enjoyed shorter working hours compared to other European countries, especially those in the south. This situation was justified by high productivity and added value of German products and services, which allowed “doing a lot.” However, the economy fails to take off and the government now points to “lack of work” and “preference for leisure” as factors that are ballasting economic growth. Eliminate holidays. Before this panorama, some voices of the business have proposed concrete measures to increase the working time Without increasing working days daily, which in many cases are already more than 40 hours due to the enormous load of overtime. According to published BildBertram Brossardt, general director of the Bavarian Business Association, suggested to eliminate, at least one of the holidays that the Germans have. “Easter Monday, Monday of Pentecost and San Esteban. My colleagues in France and Italy are constantly surprised that we have those free days. Removing one of those free days would greatly benefit the German economy and would not mean a heavy burden for employees,” said Brossardt, adding that “religious festivities should not be taboo in the debate.” The data support it. The proposal is not just symbolic. Christoph Schröder Researcher at the German Economic Institute (IW) He maintains that Eliminating a holiday could increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Germany by up to 8,600 million euros. According to published The avant -gardeMichael Hüther, director of the IW, gave as an example the case of Denmark, which had recently eliminated a holiday “that was an additional income of 400 million to the state budget,” said the economist. The problem is that all federal states in the country, regardless of setting their own holidays, should agree to abolish it. Germany to the tail at hours worked. Brossardt’s arguments rely on blunt data. In 2023, a German employee worked an annual average of 1,343 hours, which is 92 hours less than in Austria, 186 hours less than in Switzerland and 391 hours less than in Italy, According to OECDE data. “We are not productive enough. If we want to be competitive, we have to return to work more!” said The businessman to the newspaper Bild. Despite these figures, Germany is not the country with more holidays. On average, the Germans enjoy 9 national holidays, although in some southern regions such as Bayern, Basen-Württemberg or Saarland can reach 12 holidays. In comparison, Austria and Malta enjoy thirteen holidays. In Spain, the usual are twelve, with some autonomous communities such as Catalonia, Community Valencian and Navarra add 13 holidays; Ceuta has 14 holidays a year, while the Canary Islands conform to 11 days. Average weekly hours worked in each country The problem is not the days. Such and as he published The confidentialsome experts do not believe that eliminating a holiday is the solution for the German economy, but that the country must face a change in its labor market to recover the productivity of yesteryear. Germany is the second European country where less hours work a week in full -time jobs, and the figure drops even more if the Part -time contracts. According to official dataone in two women works part -time in Germany. Therefore, some economists propose Encourage the incorporation of women to the full -time labor market and facilitate the arrival of more foreign workers to relieve the shortage of qualified labor. The key, according to these experts, is a deep review of the German labor market to adapt to the new challenges economic and demographic that supposes the Agence of the active population. In Xataka | Some researchers have analyzed the working day in Spain: the same thing that 40 years ago is worked, but in worse jobs Image | Unspash (Mashkumar Painam, Spencer Davis)

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