internet

The age verification thing is nothing. Greece wants to completely eliminate anonymity on the internet

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Greece will hold elections in early 2027 and its rulers have had a unique idea to avoid (or mitigate) deepfakesthe disinformation and the toxic speechesespecially in relation to that electoral process, but also in other scenarios. What they want is nothing less than eradicate anonymity of the internet and that you have to reveal your identity on platforms to be able to use them. Remembering democracy. Dimirtis Papastergiou, minister of digital governance in Greece, remembered in Euractiv how democracy was born in his country with a clear objective. “In ancient Greece, everyone could express their opinion openly and by name. They raised their hands and shared their perspective. This should inspire us as we seek to shape a new digital democracy.” Goodbye to anonymity on networks. That reflection is the argument behind a controversial measure: Greece has a plan to try to prohibit anonymity on social networks. This will make it possible to minimize the growing toxicity in these networks, says the minister, who is promoting an idea that is already being debated in the presidential office of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister. Pseudonyms yes, but always associated with your real identity. The measure does not seek to prohibit the avatars and pseudonyms that users use in their profiles. Instead what you want is to guarantee that the system knows exactly which citizen is behind that label. As the ministry states, any opinion is valid as long as the person expressing it can be traced by the authorities in the event of a legal infraction. Against harassment and defamation. Papastergiou highlights how anonymity has become the perfect shield to attack reputations or harass in a coordinated way. These situations have attempted to be investigated by the Greek police without success due to the opacity of the platforms. If age verification is required link an account with a personthe government may apply measures so that the social cost of defamation is the same in real life as on the screen. The 2027 elections as a catalyst for the decision. Greece’s political calendar has caused this regulatory urgency, because the Greek country will hold general elections early next year. According to the prime minister’s cabinet, the national political debate has become a chaos of fake news and threats orchestrated by both anonymous users and coordinated bot attacks. The electoral campaign has already begun unofficially, and this ban on anonymity is presented as a “hygienic” measure to avoid or at least mitigate disinformation and hate speech that, according to the government, contaminate the coexistence of Greek society. Bad business for Facebook, X or TikTok. Prohibiting anonymity would have a clear impact on the platforms, which since their inception have built their user base assuming that a large portion of them used an anonymous profile. This has favored an extraordinary growth in the number of users, although it is clear that some of them are duplicates or are bots. Papastergiou accuses companies of maintaining this business model for pure economic benefit, prioritizing that over toxicity problems, for example. The confrontation is served: on the one hand, the state demands the ability to identify its citizens, and on the other, companies protect anonymity because that favors the advertising business model. Also in digital press. Pavlos Marinakis, vice president of the government, has gone further and points out that this measure may not be limited to social networks. Their idea is to demand that all articles and comments in digital press are signed by real people, thus eliminating pseudonyms and spaces for collective opinion. This has set off even more alarms, this time among those who defend digital rights, who see here a potential tool to silence criticism and complaints that are made with anonymity as the only shield against retaliation. A European precedent. Greece is the most vocal country in proposing this measure and activating it unilaterally if the European Union does not move. Greece already has been added to this trend of imposing age verification to prohibit the use of social networks by those under 15 years of age. A piecemeal approach poses problems and is even questionable under the DSA framework. In fact, it is to be expected that the EU will rule on the matter, and the approval of such a measure at a pan-European level faces extraordinary obstacles. In Spain has also been considered that possibility, but It’s much easier said than done.. Very dangerous. Dismantling anonymity on the internet undoubtedly has its advantages when it comes to mitigating all the toxic, hateful and misinformation speeches that abound on the internet, but the disadvantages are even greater. The Greek plan assumes that the State will always be a benevolent actor and that this user identification will only be used to prosecute real crimes. However, we are in an era of extreme polarization and such a measure would allow, among other things, to create a gigantic database in which each real DNI would be associated—among other things—with a political opinion. It is the seed of a massive surveillance system that could be more toxic than what it precisely wants to combat. Image | Chaozzy Lin | dole777 In Xataka | You’ve been ‘user84721’ for years. A study just showed that AI can know who you are in minutes

If the question is how many websites has AI generated, the answer begins to explain the new internet

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Creating a website has never been just one thing. For years, for many users it meant choosing between fighting with tools like FrontPage, hiring someone who knew how to design, or settling for other types of solutions. Later, templates and visual editors began to gain ground, lowering the barrier to entry. Now we are witnessing a new change thanks to tools such as Lovable either Vercel v0which promise to turn a description into something publishable in just a few minutes. The AI ​​leap. The intuition that AI is gaining weight in the new web already has a concrete figure on the table. This is what the study points out “The impact of AI-generated text on the Internet“, signed by researchers from Stanford, Imperial College London and Internet Archive. The work places the percentage of new websites analyzed classified as generated or assisted by AI at around 35% by mid-2025. Before the launch of ChatGPTat the end of 2022, that percentage was zero in the study sample. The speed of change, rather than the isolated data, is what makes it relevant. How they measured it. To arrive at that figure, researchers worked with the Internet Archive and analyzed monthly samples of sites between August 2022 and May 2025. In each case they searched for the oldest archived copy available on the Wayback Machine, downloaded the HTML, and extracted the text for processing separately. They then tested several detection tools and chose Pangram v3which was the one that offered the highest detection rate in its tests. Some of the pages published by the Lovable community The result. The research found a website with “a decrease in semantic diversity and an increase in positive sentiment.” Do you mean that all this is positive? You can depend on the angle at which you look at it. The same text warns that “as AI text becomes more common on the Internet, the range of unique ideas and diverse points of view is reduced.” An expanding industry. What the study shows has not appeared out of nowhere. An industry of its own is being consolidated around this promise of creating a website with less friction, with tools designed for very different users: from those who need a simple page for a business to those who want to prototype an idea quickly. Wise Guy Reports Data They place the market for tools to create websites with AI at 3.1 billion dollars in 2024 and project it to reach 25 billion in 2035. The direction of travel seems clear: publishing is becoming increasingly accessible. What’s coming. In web creation, AI is already moving pieces, and professional design does not seem to be immune to that change. That doesn’t mean it’s going to put an end to web designers or that all projects can be solved with generative tools. There are products, brands, stores and services that will continue to need criteria, architecture, design, maintenance that is less semantically diverse and more positive overall, and a technical layer that is not so easily resolved. However, it makes sense to think that professionals will also end up relying on these AI tools to speed up parts of the process. Images | campaign In Xataka | Kimi Code is eight times cheaper than Claude Code and does 75% of your work. The question is whether it is enough

Someone connected an unprotected Windows XP PC to the Internet to see what would happen. The result is not surprising

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When Microsoft ends its support for security updates in its operating systems, it is not usually advisable to use a PC with said system unless it is for a specific and specific case. Eric Parker, content creator specialized in technology, wanted try with an experiment: use Windows XP today connected to the Internet and eliminating all types of protections. As you may have imagined, the PC has become a magnet for malware. In fact, in just 10 minutes, the operating system was completely compromised. Parker also helped make this happen for educational purposes and to demonstrate how dangerous it can be to use an operating system like Windows XP today. Windows XP without firewall and without NAT 10 minutes later: a magnet for malware The expert configured a virtual machine with Windows XP Service Pack 3 on a Proxmox server, also disabling its firewall and NAT (Network Address Translation) settings and replicating the connection conditions common in the early 2000s. To recreate this scenario, the researcher Completely disabled Windows XP firewall and assigned a direct public IP address to the system, exposing the machine without any intermediate protection. As seen in the video, in just ten minutes, the system showed the first signs of infection with the appearance of the “conhoz.exe” process in the Task Manager, which turned out to be a Trojan disguised as a legitimate component of the operating system. After downloading a compatible browser and continued use of the system, in a short time we see how the PC starts to accumulate malware from multiple unknown sources. The system had been a victim of several Trojans and malicious programs running from temporary folders. He was also the victim of a rogue FTP server that allowed full remote access to files, DNS modification to redirect traffic to attacker-controlled servers, and the creation of additional user accounts for attackers to maintain access to the system. A whole string of malicious processes that ended up hijacking the PC. Image: Eric Parker The key factor that allowed the rapid entry of all these malicious components was the vulnerability EternalBluepresent in unpatched Windows XP SP3. This security breach, which was later used by the famous ransomware WannaCryallows attackers to execute remote code without any user interaction. Parker explains that tools like Nmap allow cybercriminals to scan the network for vulnerable systemsquickly identifying exposed and unprotected Windows XP computers. A system that was crying out to be violated and a Windows 7 stronger than it seems The content creator himself admits that the conditions were as optimal as possible to get malware: disabled firewall, direct connection without NAT and unpatched system. Under normal circumstances, with a basic home router and the firewall activated, Windows XP would be significantly more protected. However, the risk does not disappear completely. The use of outdated browsers and the ease of privilege escalation on this operating system remain serious problems. And as shown in the experiment, once infected, The malware was able to automatically close security tools like Malwarebytes. To contrast the results, Parker performed the same test with Windows 7 under identical conditions. Surprisingly, after ten hours of exposure, the most modern system showed no signs of infectionevidencing the significant security improvements implemented in later versions of Windows. Now that official security update support for Windows 10 is ending soon, it’s good to take a look back and see how an outdated system can easily become compromised. Fortunately, today we have many more alternatives if we do not want to update to Windows 11. Cover image | Eric Parker In Xataka | FCKGW-RHQQ2-YXRKT-8TG6W-2B7Q8 This article was originally published in Genbeta in June 2025 and is part of Genbeta’s “greatest hits” that we will discover here in the coming weeks.

95% of intercontinental internet traffic goes through submarine cables. China has just proven that it can cut them at 3,500 meters

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The world is connected through the “invisible”, almost omnipresent and seemingly omnipotent internet. But it turns out that 95% of data traffic runs through cables that, although not visible, are very tangible: the submarine fiber optic cables that run around the world. This strategic infrastructure is inherently vulnerable due to its vast extent in unmonitored environments. Until recently, threats were limited to random accidents in shallow waters, but sabotage are the order of the day. In this scenario, China has just marked a technical milestone that is a warning to sailors: has tried successfully a submarine cable cutter who plays in another league. Thus, it is capable of cutting with high precision and operating at depths of up to 3,500 meters. The tool. The system that China through its Haiyang Dizhi 2 scientific vessel is an electro-hydrostatic actuator (EHA), a compact device that integrates the hydraulic system, the electric motor and the control unit in a single piece, a combo that as explained The South China Morning Post allows you to get rid of the external oil pipe common in this type of system. The Ministry of Natural Resources of China explains for the Chinese media that last Saturday, April 15, its first mission in deep waters was carried out. This is not the first deep underwater cable cutter we have seen from China, in fact it has them to cut even deeper seabeds: the China Naval Scientific Research Center (CSSRC) and the State Key Laboratory of Deep Sea Manned Vehicles also developed a little over a year ago a vessel that uses a diamond coated grinding wheelcapable of operating at depths of 4,000 meters. Why is it important. We have already glimpsed in the intro that currently, practically the entire of intercontinental data traffic travels over submarine cables. He Center for Strategic and International Studies gives an example of its importance: in the financial environment, approximately 22 trillion dollars move per business day through these systems. Any disruption can unleash chaos on entire countries, leading to digital isolation, collapsing financial systems, degrading military capabilities… much more than a simple cyberattack. Underwater cables are inherently vulnerable due to their exposure and with these types of systems not even depth is a guarantee. Furthermore, repair at a depth of 3,500 meters is slow and expensive, requiring specific vessels that are not plentiful. context. Since 2024, China and its vessels have become common suspects in cases of alleged sabotage. Two examples: is in the Baltic and is in waters near Taiwan. These events have generated growing concern in NATO on the security of these essential undersea cables from hybrid warfare tactics. China, for its part, justifies this development as part of its scientific research and deep-sea mining program through the Chinese Academy of Sciences: the ability to cut cables is necessary for the recovery of stuck equipment, cleaning marine debris, and preparing the seabed for deep-sea mining. However, it is inevitable to think about the duality of its functions. chow they do it. In 2020, a team of engineers from Lishui University, in the coastal province of Zhejiang, opposite Taiwan, developed a device for cutting underwater cables by drag (one of several patents in recent years made in China) and in the patent application The team said that “The traditional cutting method requires first detecting the position of the cables, then excavating and recovering them to cut them. The process is complex, a lot of expensive equipment is needed, and the cost is too high. A fast and low-cost cutting device for submarine cables is needed to perform this task.” These new tools seek to solve this as they operate directly on the cable on the seabed without the need for extraction. In the 30-day mission of the Haiyang Dizhi 2 vessel, in addition to testing the cutting tool, they also tested an autonomous underwater vehicle called Hai Ma, recovered 16 self-developed measurement probes and deployed China’s first deep-sea winch with 11,000 meters of coaxial cable. Yes, but. The fact that there are patents and tests on tools to cut marine cables at great depth and efficiency does not mean that they have been used in these incidents, although it does indicate an interest in cutting them. China has a known official position, as we saw last year when a similar tool came to the fore. At that time Liu Pengyu, declared that the device is used in marine scientific research and that both the United States and several European countries have similar technology. Likewise, it highlighted the importance that China gives to protecting underwater infrastructure and its commitment to the international community to protect them. In Xataka | The submarine cables belonged to the teleoperators, and now the big technology companies are controlling them In Xataka | The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it Cover | seatools and CCTV

Snapchat invented the format that dominates the Internet. 15 years later it is still unable to make it profitable

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Evan Spiegel this week sent a memo to your employees announcing that Snap is going to lay off about 1,000 people16% of the entire workforce, in addition to canceling 300 vacant positions that had yet to be filled. Snap thus hopes to save more than $500 million in annualized costs starting in the second half of this year, although the cut is expensive in the short term, since it will have to pay between $95 and $130 million in compensation. Nevertheless, the stock rose 7% in response to the layoffs. The markets have been asking for them for a long time. Why is it important. Snap’s is not a “normal” failure story. It’s much more interesting than that. It’s the story of a company that forever changed how we communicate online and yet has failed to build a profitable business on it. In 2025 it lost 460 million dollars, although it is true that in 2024 it lost more and in 2023 even more. He has spent his 15 years of life in that dynamic. It still hasn’t closed a single complete year on a positive note. The context. His paradox begins in 2013, when he launched Stories: photos and videos that lasted 24 hours, published before disappearing. A format that is common today but at that time groundbreaking. A format that freed people from the pressure of permanence, of the trail. In August 2016, Instagram launched exactly the same thing, with the same name, and with much bigger muscle behind it. Within two months, Instagram had 100 million Stories users. It had taken Snapchat four years to reach that number. A year later it had already surpassed Snapchat. Yes, but. The problem was not that they were copied. The problem was that Meta, TikTok and YouTube adopted the format with an advantage that Snap never had: data. Meta and Google know who we are, what we buy, what interests us. Snap knows much less. That’s why their advertising converts worse, and advertisers pay less for it. A vicious circle. The coup de grace was Transparency Tracking AppApple’s privacy policy released in 2021, which sank tracking-based advertising models. Meta also sufferedbut Meta had the scale and ecosystem to absorb the impact. Not Snap, so its stock went from touching $83 to trading today around $6. A drop of more than 90% from its highs, in less than five years. However, Snap has 946 million active monthly users, grows 12% in year-over-year revenue and has one of the youngest audiences on all platforms. The most coveted demographic for fashion and entertainment brands. It has cutting-edge augmented reality technology and also has Snapchat+, your paid subscription, which is growing well. That is the contradiction that a thousand layoffs do not resolve: Cutting costs improves margins, but alone does not truly monetize a platform with almost a billion users when its audience is young and difficult to convert, and its competitors have ten times more resources. There is also an activist fund in the capital, Irenic Capital Management with 2.5%, which has been pushing for months exactly in this direction: cuts. And now what. Spiegel speaks at memo to concentrate investments where monetization already works. That is, give up on markets that are difficult to grow and profitable (Spain has every chance to be one of them) and focus on more powerful ones, presumably in the style of the United States or the United Kingdom. Give up growth in search of sustainability. Snap has been trying to solve an equation that others have solved at their expense for 15 years. These layoffs are bought time to keep trying. Featured image | Shutter Speed In Xataka | Snapchat introduced its own version of ChatGPT in its app. Nothing has gone, nothing good

A fan secretly recorded 10,000 concerts over 40 years with a dictaphone. Internet Archive is digitizing everything

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For four decades, Chicago club owners would see a guy with deep pockets walk in and turn a blind eye. Aadam Jacobs didn’t sell anything or bother: he simply recorded. Every week, several concerts. Every year, hundreds of tapes. Forty years later, that absurd and methodical habit is one of the most valuable and unique sound files of rock history. Who is it. Jacobs, who is now 59 years old, began recording concerts in 1984 with a dictaphone-style device that his grandmother lent him. He was 17 years old and was already recording songs from the radio when he realized he could do the same live, simply hiding a recorder in a pocket when entering the room. Jacobs does not consider himself an obsessive archivist, but simply a music fan. His reasoning was simple: if he went to several concerts a week anyway, why not document them? More and better. Over time the equipment improved: from the Sony cassette it went to DAT (digital audio tape) and from there to solid state digital recorders, although in the first years he admits that he used quite mediocre material because I didn’t have money for anything else. At first, the venue owners tried to stop him from recording, but over time he became a regular figure on the Chicago music scene and many began to let him in for free. A profile of him in the ‘Chicago Reader’ in 2004 he described it as one of the city’s cultural institutions. What’s in the boxes. What has happened with the Aadam Jacobs Collection, which is the name that has ended up being given to all of their recordings, is especially valuable to fans of indie and punk rock from the 1980s and early 2000s, when the scene hit the big time. mainstream thanks to nirvanazo. The catalog includes early performances by REM, The Cure, Pixies, The Replacements, Depeche Mode, Sonic Youth and Björk. There are also rarities, like a 1988 concert by rap pioneers Boogie Down Productions, or a 1990 performance by cult group Phish. The star: Nirvana. Nirvana’s recording from 1989, when the group was completely unknown, may be the most interesting of all, taken two and a half years before the release of ‘Nevermind’. But there are also hundreds of performances by smaller groups that have no other sound documentation of their career. Engineers reviewing the recordings acknowledge some surprise at the good quality of many of the recordings, especially given that Jacobs was not using professional equipment. How it started. After appearing in a 2023 documentary, the Internet Archive contacted Jacobs to propose preserving the collection in its live music collection (Live Music Archive), since analog tapes have a limited lifespan. Gradual demagnetization, fungus and mechanical deterioration of coil mechanisms mean that the risks of loss increase with each passing year. Internet Archive volunteer Brian Emerick travels to Jacobs’ house once a month and picks up 10 to 20 boxes, each containing 50 to 100 tapes. He transfers the analog recordings to digital files, which he then sends to other volunteers for mixing and mastering. Emerick estimates that it has digitized approximately 5,500 performances since the end of 2024, and that the project will still take several years to complete. An exception. Jacobs’ tapes have survived through a mix of personal obsession and luck, which has ended up leading them to a repository where they will remain for posterity. He smartphone has democratized concert recording, to the point where it is practically impossible for a live show not to have its corresponding digitalization. But democratizing is not preserving: most of that material ends up buried in forgotten backups or online platforms that change their terms of service frequently. Jacobs was methodical despite his amateur status, and that is what has saved this true musical treasure. In Xataka | The first chorus decides everything: streaming is making today’s songs much simpler

Using multiple VPN hops is an extreme technique to leave no trace on the internet. This is how it works

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Let’s explain to you How the multi-hop technique works in a VPNso that you know this method to leave no trace on the Internet when you browse. Because if one VPN It already offers you a layer of security and privacy, with this technique also called Multi-Hop you add more additional layers. This is a technique that is implemented in several commercial VPN services, from NordVPN even others of the best vpn services. But sometimes they can have somewhat different names and characteristics. Therefore, we are going to try to explain everything to you in a simple way. What is multi-hop in a VPN When you use a VPN, you are protecting your online traffic with a layer of security. This is done by passing your traffic through a server before it reaches its destination. This server sees and hides information such as your real IP, which makes your browsing safer. But there are times when this is not enough, and there are users who need additional layers of privacy. This is where the multi-hop technique comes in, which instead of sending your traffic through a single VPN server, routes it through two or more servers until it reaches the Internet. Imagine that you want to get from point A, which is your computer, to point B, which is the website you are going to visit. You can do it without further ado, in plain sight of everyone, or you can use a VPN which is like a tunnel where it is hidden from you and your browsing is made more private. Here, a multi-hop would mean taking several detours and several tunnels to make tracking you much more complicated. NordVPN with 76% discount The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Using this technique, your data is protected with several layers of encryption. Before leaving the computer or mobile phone, several layers are applied beforehand depending on how many hops you are going to have, and then each server decrypts its corresponding layer. It’s like putting it in a safe box to which only you know the key, but inside there is another box with another key, and inside another with another key. As if I were inside a Russian doll. This technique also change your IP address on each server to make it more difficult to track you. None of the intermediate servers will have full visibility. Meanwhile, the former knows where you come from but not where you are going, and the latter knows where you are going but not where you come from. And what’s the difference between a multi-hop or changing the VPN server manually? If you disconnect from one VPN server and connect to another, things like your IP and location change, but you’re still using a single server that knows where you come from and where you’re going, where your connection starts and ends. While, a multihop divides on two or more servers this information of where you come from and where you are going. You will have hidden more. Depending on the VPN service you have contracted or configured, this multi-hop can be offered to you in different ways. For example, NordVPN offers the option Double VPNwhich is a multi-hop on two servers. This doubles the encryption of your connection, and although it is less private than doing it on three or more servers, it means that your connection does not slow down as much. In short, this is a technique for those seeking maximum privacy, although It is not the only alternative. There are technologies like Tor network which do the same thing natively with at least three nodes, being the great reference for external anonymity. The difference is that Multi-hop chains together commercial VPN servers, while Tor routes traffic through nodes operated by anonymous volunteers, prioritizing complete anonymity over speed. You can go further by jumping between different providers Another thing to keep in mind is that multi-hop can be done within the same supplier or between different. Within the VPN provider itself, it is usually done with its own systems such as the aforementioned DobleVPN from NordVPN, a method that facilitates the process but allows the provider to have a theoretical global vision of the chain. While, doing it between different providers maximizes privacy. Doing this is more complex, as it is not natively supported in commercial apps. You would have to do this by setting up the router with a VPN and then using someone else’s software, or by using an intermediate VPS server. These are more technical configurations, although in exchange you get more privacy and security. No VPN service will have a complete view of your traffic, or if a service is hacked or has to give access to third parties through a court order, it will not have all of your browsing information either. It is for very extreme casesbut it is a possibility that exists. Multi-hop has two negative things The multi-hop technique adds as many additional layers of encryption and privacy as there are hops to different VPN servers you make. However, you already know what happens when when driving your car you deviate down several streets instead of going in a straight line: it takes you longer to reach your destination. This makes using this technique your connection is slower and has more latency. There is data which indicate that latency increases between 50 and 150 ms with each hop, while connection speed can drop between 30 and 60% per hop. This data can change a lot because they depend on aspects such as the distance between VPN servers, the protocols you are using, or the processing power of your devices. For example, jumps to geographically close servers each other cause less slowdown, while a jump between servers on different continents can severely penalize your browsing. However, although there may be changes, all this always ends up translating into The websites and apps you use take longer to loadwhere … Read more

SpaceX is about to go public promising to bring AI to space. What really sells is satellite Internet

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SpaceX has confidentially registered with the SECthe US regulator, its application to go public, in what could become the largest public offering in history. Why is it important. The valuation of Musk’s company exceeds one and a half billion dollars, and the objective is to raise between 50,000 and 75,000 million euros before the end of June. To put it in perspective: the IPO of the Arab oil company Saudi Aramco in 2019until now the largest in history, raised just over 25,000 million. Furthermore, this news has been presented as a milestone in space exploration, but if you read between the lines, the real story is different. Between the lines. The story that SpaceX is going to sell to Wall Street mixes rockets, Mars and AI. It is the perfect cocktail to attract capital in 2026, but analysts who have looked at the numbers and quote Reuters are a little cruder: the $1.5 trillion valuation is only supported by starlinkthe satellite Internet service that already has nine million subscribers and generated $8 billion in revenue in 2024 alone. SpaceX billed between 15,000 and 16,000 million dollars in 2025, with about 8,000 million in profit. Starlink accounts for the clear majority of that revenue and almost all of the margins. The orbital data centersthe great promise of the IPO, are still an unproven concept. As said market strategist Shay Boloor: “Starlink is the only reason this assessment is defensible.” The contrast. SpaceX was born in 2002 with a mission: to make humanity multiplanetary. Mars as a destination and reusable rockets as a means. That narrative has had to give some ground. And Wall Street, which has been buying anything with the word AI for years, hears that and opens its wallet. The money trail. This year, SpaceX absorbed xAI, Musk’s AI startup and now also the parent company of X. Musk paid $44 billion for Twitter in 2022 and since then, X and xAI are projects that consume a lot of cash, especially the latter. SpaceX’s IPO, according to The New York Timesis proposed among other things to pay the debt that Twitter incurred when Musk bought it and to finance xAI’s data centers. In other words: the jewel in the crown finances loss-making companies. The big question. Can SpaceX trade at $1.5 trillion with markets shaken by war? The Nasdaq just suffered its worst week in almost a yearwith the war between the United States and Iran in the background and oil skyrocketing. Some bankers have pushed SpaceX to keep between 15,000 and 20,000 million in cash before exiting. For what may happen. The moment of debut can be decisive for the worse even if the fundamentals are great. What is certain is that if the operation goes ahead, Musk, who owns about 42-44% of SpaceX, will almost certainly cross the threshold of a trillion dollars of personal wealth. He would be the first billionaire in history. In Xataka | Seven of the ten largest fortunes in the world in 2026 are due to AI: this illustrative graph makes it very clear Featured image | SpaceX

The internet has become obsessed with drinking hot water in the morning. Science is clear about what it does (and what it doesn’t)

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We live in an age obsessed with ice. From the omnipresent iced coffee winter to complex viral drinks like sleepy girl mocktail that flood our social networks. However, in the midst of this liquid sophistication, the most revolutionary gesture for our gastrointestinal and mental health upon waking might be the simplest, most boring and cheapest of all: a glass of hot water. Faced with the inertia of an accelerated modern life full of stimuli, serving ourselves a glass of water at a pleasant temperature is presented as the first self-care gift that we can give to our body after emerging from the inertia of sleep. But what is the truth behind this practice? Is it an internet myth or a truth backed by science? The viralities of social networks. Just enter platforms like TikTok or Instagram to see thousands of influencers documenting how this morning habit deflates them, gives them energy and improves their digestion. As documented New York Timeshot water has become the new wellness superstar on-line. However, what the internet has dubbed a novel “longevity hack” is actually a fundamental pillar thousands of years old. This practice is deeply rooted in Indian Ayurveda (where the morning ritual is known as usha paana) and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). In these cultures, it is believed that the cold turns off the agni (the digestive fire) and weakens the vital energy or Qiforcing the body to expend extra energy to warm the stomach. Hot water, on the other hand, balances the Yin and the Yangkeeping the body calm. Plain water, tea or infusions? When experts talk about this habit, they literally mean just that: water. Pasu Harisadee, traditional Chinese medicine educator, points out that “simple water is the most neutral base and the most recommended for most.” Of course, additions are allowed. Squeeze a little lemon provides vitamin C; add fresh ginger strengthens defenses and combats nausea; and a touch of honey can soothe the throat. However, the medical portal Verywell Health makes an important distinction versus tea or coffee: although infusions provide fluids, the caffeine present in coffee or certain teas has a slightly diuretic effect. Pure hot water is the undisputed champion of direct hydration. The golden rule and the temperature paradox. This is where medicine draws a non-negotiable red line: be careful not to get burned. Although some portals such as Healthline suggest that hot drinks They can be consumed in a range of up to 71ºC, oncologists and gastroenterologists are much more strict. As a study published in Frontiers in Nutritionconsuming drinks over 60ºC (140ºF) on a regular basis is associated with an increased risk of esophageal cancer, in addition to damaging oral tissues and burning taste buds. The ideal temperature should be lukewarm or comfortingly hot, never smoking to the point of burning. As Helen Ruckledge summarizes, nutritionist: “A tip: if you choose hot water, boil it and let it cool instead of drinking it directly from the tap.” The science behind. The core of this debate lies in separating magic from physiology. And in this area, experts have very clear positions: Intestinal hygiene and digestive “awakening”: This is the most supported benefit. Ana Luzón, Nutrition and Dietetics technician, explains in ABC which is about pure “mechanical efficiency”. Our body is at about 37ºC; Introducing ice water suddenly means a little thermal stress. Hot water acts as “intestinal hygiene”, dissolving food remains and mucus. For her part, Dr. Lisa Ganjhu, a gastroenterologist consulted by The New York Timesillustrates it perfectly: during the night, the digestive system is paralyzed. Hot water generates waves of contraction and relaxation in the muscles of the esophagus, stomach and intestines. “It’s basically telling everyone, ‘Okay, get up. We’ve got to get going,’” he says. This natural lubrication is key to combating morning constipation. Achalasia relief: To give it a deeper medical dimension, hot water is particularly useful for people who suffer from achalasia, a rare disorder that makes it difficult for food and liquid to pass into the stomach. Heat helps relax the lower esophageal sphincter, making the swallowing process easier. Relaxation of the nervous system: Holding and drinking a hot cup activates the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for the “rest and digest” mode. This calms muscles, reduces tension, and relieves morning anxiety. Besides, a 1978 study already explained, the steam from hot water helps clear nasal congestion and relieves cold symptoms much better than room temperature liquids. Debunking myths: Neither ‘detox’ nor fat-burner. The big question that haunts the reels: Does hot water detoxify? No. Kristen Smith, nutritionistand Diane Lindsay-Adler, dieticiandetail that water does not magically eliminate toxins, the liver and kidneys are responsible for that. Hot water simply helps these organs do their job of filtering properly by keeping them hydrated. It is vital to compare this with dangerous internet methods. The obsession with do “detox” based on liquid diets or juices is a danger. A Northwestern University study showed that eliminating fiber living on juices for just three days is enough to ruin the intestinal microbiome. Hot water, on the other hand, is safe and assists the body without destroying the flora. Does it speed up metabolism and lose weight? Neither. There is no solid scientific evidence that it acts as a fat burner. There is a very brief metabolic cost while the body adjusts the temperature of the liquid, but it will not cause you to lose weight. The temporary weight loss that some notice on the scale is due, purely and simply, to the fact that the hot water has helped them go to the bathroom. The other side of the coin. A good analysis is not complete without its counterpoint. When is it not a good idea to drink hot water? If your goal is pure rehydration (for example, after intense exercise), a 2013 study showed that fresh water (at about 16ºC, similar to that of the tap) is the most effective. Additionally, there is a curious paradox with sweat: drinking hot … Read more

Singapore is the hidden “heart” of the Internet and global telecommunications. It all started with a tree from there.

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We live in a connected and globalized world where (almost) everything is in the cloud and available through the internet. Although these connections seem invisible to the eye, they are not: submarine cables are responsible for of 97% of intercontinental traffic. If you take a look at the world submarine cables mapyou will see that there are areas that are true deserts and others that are tangles. One of the most congested points is precisely in Singapore. That the enclave is on the maritime route between Europe, the Middle East and East Asia partly explains why: geography is a historically compelling reason. However, the real trigger was a very curious Scottish doctor and a tree native to the Malay Peninsula. The impressive Singapore node. That Singapore is Asia’s great connectivity hub is a reality: it unites East Asia, South Asia, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean and Europe. But it is not only a busy area, it is among the large exchangers that keep the world connected through their interconnection density and operational resilience. Approximately 30 active cables and many others in imminent deployment converge in just 720 square kilometers of territory, according to TeleGeography. To prevent your seabed from becoming a tangle of cables, the deployment is restricted to three specific areas awarded in strict order of arrival eight landing stations. On the Equinix campus is the Singapore Internet Exchange (SGIX), a point where traffic is literally exchanged between hundreds of operators throughout Asia at a very short physical distance, which translates into ultra-low latency. In addition, its redundant capacity is such that when other critical routes fail, it is capable of absorbing traffic diversions, as happened during the Red Sea crisis in 2022. That tangle of cables is Singapore. Submarinecablemap Context: geography as state policy. Singapore’s reality as a first-rate hub is largely to blame for its strategic location: it is at the southern end of the Malaysian peninsula, where the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea meet. In the Strait of Malacca, right where it becomes the Strait of Singapore, its narrowest point is only 2.8 kilometers wide and there are areas where the depth around 25 meters. over there 80,000 ships pass through each year. Its position is key, but there is a milestone that marked everything: in 1819 the British East India Company obtained the right to establish a trading post over there. Since then, the Strait of Malacca has been a usual suspect in international trade: it is where much of the world’s oil (even more so than Hormuz, which is currently raging with the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran). Is one of China’s doors to the world. And also the area through which any cable that connects the West with East Asia passes. Many ships, many cables and little space constitute a potential recipe for disaster, which your government conscientiously manages and continues to promote vigorously. favorable regulatory conditions to attract more wiring. The material that started submarine cables. We have made a small flashback to the 19th century with the British East India Company that we now return to. When in 1822 the Scottish surgeon William Montgomerie was in Singapore precisely at the service of the East India Company, something caught his attention: the handles of parang (a type of machete) were made of a material that looked like plastic wood. Of course, unlike wood, this material did not splinter, was resistant to impacts, molded to the workers’ hands and was immune to water. A marvel, come on. A material with properties that he had never seen in his life, so he sent a sample to London for exhibition at the Society of Arts. There were no wires in Montgomerie’s head, what he had in mind were surgical instruments. In 1845 the Society awarded him an award and engineers began to work with this prodigious substance. Illustration of the Palaquium gutta. Franz Eugen Köhler, Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen – (1883) Köhler’s Medizinal-Pflanzen in naturgetreuen Abbildungen mit kurz erläuterndem. Plastic before the plastic boom. Gutta-percha is the dried sap of trees native to the Malay Archipelago such as the Palaquium gutta, a natural latex that becomes rigid when cooled and has waterproof, saltwater-resistant and electrically insulating properties. Taking into account that Bakelite did not arrive until 1907in the 19th century it was the only material with that magnificent combination of properties, ideal for insulating an electric cable at the bottom of the sea. At that time there was no fiber optics, but there was telegraph. The rapid industrialization of gutta-percha. British engineering stepped on the accelerator and by 1851 we already had the first submarine cable with gutta-percha crossing the English Channel, led by the brothers Jacob and John Watkins Brett. The “nervous system” of the British Empire It grew at dizzying speed: by 1866 it had 15,000 nautical miles and by 1900 it reached 200,000 nautical miles. Singapore was already on the wiring map thanks to London’s connection to Hong Kong through India and the Strait of Malacca, laid by the British-Indian Submarine Telegraph Company. That stretch of coast where the cable reached in 1871 is where the Meta or Google cables pass today for identical geographical reasons as they do now, a century and a half later. The environmental drama. We have already seen that in the West there was a real furor over gutta-percha, the obtaining of which had small print: unlike rubber, it was not enough to bleed the tree, it had to be cut, removed the bark and boiled. An adult tree produced between one and seven kilos. For the first attempt at a transatlantic cable, which dates back to 1858, it required an enormous amount: for 2,500 nautical miles in length (4,630 km) 300 tons were needed. Only two years after Montgomery introduced gutta-percha to the old continent, Tomas Oxley estimated that the 412 tons exported to Europe had caused the felling of 69,000 trees. He Palaquium gutta disappeared from Singapore by 1857 and much … Read more

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