Millions

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates import millions of tons of sand every year despite living on immense deserts

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The story is striking in itself: Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two countries closely associated with the desert, import tons and tons of sand every year. So striking, in fact, that the first intuition is that it is false. But, as soon as you get closer to it, you discover that not only is it true, but it is more interesting than it seems. Because yes, these countries import a lot of sand. In 2023, only the United Arab Emirates bought more than six million tons. And it is surprising, of course, because these are two countries located on enormous deserts. The explanation, however, is simple: the sand they have is not suitable for certain things. At a technical level, what is known as “eolian sand” (that which the wind accumulates in dunes) is very fine, very uniform and very rounded. That makes it a poor sand for making glass, concrete or other industrial products. It is not that it cannot be used, but it requires adjusting the mixtures, controlling the granulometry and impurities (fines), and carefully balancing the manufacturing processes. That is to say, the process ends up becoming so expensive that it is cheaper to import sand that is more suitable for standardized processes. And this, ultimately, should not surprise us. Sand is, today, the second most exploited resource in the world (only after water). The United Nations Environment Program estimates that every year 50,000 million tons of sand and gravel are used. What’s more, the lack of sand is so obvious that there are criminal networks that traffic with her internationally. However, we are not talking about just any sand. There are, as is evident, many types of sand. For what is not interesting today we can distinguish natural sand (HS 250590) and siliceous/quartz sand (HS 250510). The Gulf countries import, above all, the second. Emirates, to give an example, is spent half a million a year in the first and 87 million in the second. That is to say, although they are countries ‘rich’ in sand, they do not have the sand they need. A sand, moreover, with very specific specifications (granulometry, purity, humidity, fines, contaminants, consistency of supply) and that are basic for glass, foundry, filtration or the chemical industry. However, they also import natural sand. And this is interesting because, as they point out in the UNthis only makes clear the significance of the problem of governance and externalities. Despite having usable sand, in many cases it is preferred to buy from other countries (such as Oman) to avoid the negative externalities of draining sand from their coasts and deserts. Something that can alter livelihoods (fishing, agriculture due to salinization, coastal tourism) and increase vulnerability to storms. In the summer of 2019, the couple who became famous was arrested in Sardinia for hiding 40 kilos of sand in his trunk. That was the anecdote, the problem was another: that beyond mass tourism, the tensions on the sand are increasingly greater. It is something that has only grown and is normal. The world is not here to do without one of its most valuable resources. Image | Lars Portjanow In Xataka | We are running out of sand. And there are already traffickers who negotiate with it in India or Morocco

two different versions, millions of accounts in check and one good idea

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If you’ve received a message from Instagram asking you to reset your password in the last few days, you’re not the only one. A quick look to Reddit or social networks like X/Twitter evidence that it is something quite common at the beginning of 2026. In fact, there are those who assures have received these messages on several occasions this week, including a few times a day. what has happened. Numerous Instagram users have detected unusual activity related to mass password reset requests. More specifically, they were receiving password reset emails that looked legitimate without having requested it first. Two versions that explain it. Following that massive request and speculation, on January 9, the antivirus software company Malwarebytes made public a data leak. Just a few hours ago, Instagram pronounced. The versions of each one: According to Malwarebytes, a group of cybercriminals “stole sensitive information from 17.5 million Instagram accounts, including usernames, physical addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and more.” It is not mere scraping, but an authentic doxing kit found on a popular cybercrime forum. From here, there were two options: either we were facing an automated brute force attack where legitimate “I forgot my password” emails were generated and, within the chaos, a malicious email was sent so that you click on a false link. Or that Meta had executed a defensive Instagram reset of those accounts it considers compromised. According to Instagram, they have fixed an issue that “allowed a third party to request password reset emails for some people. There was no breach of our systems and your Instagram accounts are secure.” He closed the explanation with an apology for the inconvenience. Tap to go to the post Why is it important. Instagram minimizes the impact of this incident by calling it a “software problem” and not a systems breach since technically, if they did not enter their servers, they do not consider it a hack. In any case, this alleged data leak contains usernames, real names, physical addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses. The level of risk is high insofar as this exposure of confidential personal information is of such caliber that it breaks the barrier between the digital and the physical. Exposing who you are online also jeopardizes real-world security. The reports detail that parts of that database are being marketed on the black market, sorting them into batches based on countries and numbers of followers. That is, prioritizing high-profile accounts such as influencers or business accounts. What should you do now. To begin with, under no circumstances touch on the links that appear in the emails, no matter how real they may seem. From here: Change Instagram password from the app, in ‘Settings and activity’ > ‘Account Center’ > ‘Password and security’ > ‘Change password’. Use a long, robust and unique one. Configure the Two-Step Authentication that you will find in the ‘Password and Security’ section of the app, following the previous route. Better avoid the SMS option. Likewise, it is advisable to log out on all devices and, in case you have received several messages, check if the emails are truly from Instagram through the ‘Emails from Instagram’ option in the settings. If you detect any, delete them. In Xataka | “You can’t trust your eyes to know what’s real anymore.” Instagram CEO announces that the feed is dead In Xataka | Instagram has wreaked havoc on tourism in half the world. AI has arrived to multiply it by a thousand Cover | Solen Feyissa and Gemini

In 1957 the BBC explained that Italians picked their spaghetti from “pasta trees.” And millions of Britons believed it

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On April 1, 1976, Patrick Moore He entered the BBC Radio 2 morning show to comment on a curious astronomical phenomenon that was about to take place. He explained that, just at 9:47 that morning, Jupiter and Pluto would align with the Earth, producing a gravitational effect that would predictably be noticed throughout the planet. According to Moore, the most (re)known astronomer in England at the time, those who jumped at that precise moment would notice a brief but significant sensation of weightlessness. Just after 9:47 the BBC lines were jammed with people saying that, indeed, they had observed this decrease in gravity. The only problem is that it was all a joke. On April 1 (‘april fool’s day‘) is the Anglo-Saxon equivalent of our April Fool’s Day and Moore’s action was, indeed, an April Fool’s joke. A very successful prank: a woman even claimed that she and eleven other friends had been “dragged from their chairs and orbits gently around the room” as a result of the gravitational phenomenon. In 2008, the British network announced that a colony of flying penguins on King George Islandvery close to Antarctica. In fact, they made a video as you may have seen above. Another very funny one was the ’57 documentary about the “pasta trees” from which the Italians collected spaghetti. the dragons return The BBC has a long history of dabbling with pranks and science, but they’re not the only ones: to the now traditional BJM joke numberwe can add very funny jokes like NASA’s cow spacesuit, the Stonehege forgery by Martínez Ron or the one Nature published in 2015 about the existence of dragons. “Emerging evidence indicates that dragons can no longer be dismissed as creatures of legend and fantasy, and that anthropogenic effects on the global climate may be paving the way for the resurgence of these beasts,” they said in Nature. And, hey, it sounded like a great argument against climate change. In ’96, Discover Magazine published a long report about a new fundamental particle in physics, the bigon, and it was the size of a bowling ball. According to scientists, the only factor that prevents us from identifying them is that they only exist for a millionth of a second. The article ended on a wonderful note: “Is there any chance that bigon is just some kind of ridiculous April Fool’s Day joke, as almost every other physicist says? ‘People are so cynical,’ Zweistein replies. ‘Science,’ he notes, ‘routinely produces findings that seem too wonderful to be believed, and yet turn out to be true.’” But without a doubt my favorite joke was from CERN in 2015. That April 1st, they released a press release with a bang: they had found the “first unequivocal evidence of the Force.” Finally, so many millions invested were useful for something! As the researchers explained, many details were unclear and much remained to be investigated, but the preliminary results They indicated that this new physical phenomenon could be used for “long-distance communications, influencing minds, and lifting heavy things out of reservoirs.” The research was carried out by a research team led by the prestigious Professor Ben Kenobi from Mos Eisley University on Tatooine. So that later they say that scientists are not doing well. In Xataka | “It’s a little scary, but it’s normal”: in Sweden anyone can know how much their neighbor earns and it has been a success In Xataka | I asked the AI ​​any nonsense and now I’m writing a news story about it

In Spain, couples no longer have children, they have pets. So they are spending millions of euros on gifts for them

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Recently the Royal Canine Society of Spain made an experiment curious. He asked pet owners about their Christmas plans and found that the vast majority, 85% of the dog owners surveyed, planned to buy some “detail” for their furry companions, gifts on which they planned to spend an average of 35 euros. Not only that. Good part of the people with whom the institution spoke (56%) recognizes that on occasion he has spent more money on details for his dogs and cats than for family and friends. It may seem anecdotal, but these figures tell us a lot about an expanding business that is already moving billions of euros: that of pets. Pets and Christmas gifts. Studies are just that, studies, with their strengths and weaknesses, but they help us better understand some trends. Hence the survey posted last week by the Canine Society is so interesting: 85% of those interviewed plan to buy “some detail” for their pets this Christmas, spending on average about 35 euros per head. “More and more people understand Christmas as a time to share with family… also with them,” slide the organization, which estimates that above all, toys, special snacks, beds and blankets will be purchased. Is this something so strange? No. And for two reasonsmostly. The first is that in Spanish homes it is increasingly easier to find pets than children. The second is that we think less and less about spending hundreds or even thousands of euros on our four-legged companions. It comes with taking a look at the data from the sector or even from the INE to verify it. Right now the statistical institute has 1.8 million children under four years of age registered in Spain. If we talk about pets, however, the REIAC, the Spanish Network for the Identification of Companion Animals, had around 10.2 million dogs and 967,000 cats registered in 2023. There are many, but the data falls short when compared to those managed by other institutions, such as the Statista portalor ANFAC, the Spanish association of feed manufacturers. The latest report from the employers’ association concludes that in Spain there are around 20 million petsamong which dogs (6.96 million), fish (five million), cats (4.93 million) and birds (3.23 million) stand out. A growing business. These data are interesting because they do not only tell us about the love of Spaniards to surround themselves with pets. Together they form the basis of a business that is rapidly expanding: the care of pets. He latest report of Anfaac in fact shows a growing industry, which in 2024 had a turnover 2,053 million5% more than in 2023. Spending on cat food alone skyrocketed in one year about 12%which raised the total turnover of that business niche to more than 900 million. One figure: 175,000 million. “A household with a dog or cat spends, on average, between 160 and 220 euros per year on their food, to which we must add everything related to their care and health,” they clarify to elDiario from the NIQ consulting firm. Their estimates suggest that in Spain pet food already represents a business worth more than 2.2 billion euros, a figure that rises to around 175 billion euros if we value the market internationally. Is there more data? Yes. Another clue is given to us the last barometer of petparent published by Aedpac, the Spanish Association of industry and commerce in the pet sector. Their report shows that if all the money we invest in pets is taken into account, including food, veterinarians, insurance, hairdressers, hygiene items or toys, on average a dog owner spends 1,908 euros per year. In the case of cats it is around 1,728. “It is a growing market. We have not yet reached a bubble or saturation point because it is a solid reality, not a two-day whim,” explained recently to the newspaper Five Days Ignasi Solana, general secretary of Aedpac. The sector saw “an uptick” during the pandemic, but the growth of the pet care business appears to go beyond COVID. Redirecting the business. So much so that there are already toy stores and hair salons that have redirected their businesses to focus on pet care. Even some traditional manufacturer of traditional nougat has been launched this year for the first time to the lucrative (and above all growing) pet food sector. and the experience not seem to be doing badly altogether. “In our vision of petfood “We are talking about a business that represents more than 1,600 million and has been growing by close to 30% in recent years,” comments to elDiario Pauline Worbe, from the firm Worldpanel by Numerator, who remembers that in Spanish homes there are now more pets than children. “We are talking about a sector with promising prospects.” Beyond Spain. The phenomenon is not (far from it) exclusive to Spain. In fact, it is already being felt in such powerful markets. like chinesesupporting a billion-dollar market that expects to grow strongly over the coming years. In 2023 Bloomberg Intelligence estimated that the pet industry was already around 320 billion dollars globally and would reach around 500 billion by 2030. An understandable figure if you take into account that its analysts estimate that in a few years the pet food business will grow by 52%. Images | Xan Griffin (Unsplash) and Matt Nelson (Unsplash) In Xataka | Spain is filling up with buildings with pets. The Horizontal Property Law clarifies what to do when they cause nuisance

The great Christmas revolution in Spain is not the millions of LED lights: it is the rise of "Good afternoon" and "New Year’s Eve"

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Don’t look for them in the RAE dictionary because academics have not yet found a place for them there, but over the last few years two words have been making their way into the national Christmas lexicon: “good afternoon and new year’s afternoon”. Just like Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, the canonical celebrations they have begun to complement. Actually both terms are self-explanatory: good afternoon and old afternoon They are nothing other than lateness (a phenomenon upward) transferred to the festivities of December 24 and 31. It’s that simple, that effective. The formula has caught on to such an extent in recent years that it has gone from being a diffuse and spontaneous phenomenon to a settled reality that moves thousands of peopleis organized with weeks in advancehas the institutional endorsement of the town councils and gives an extra boost to the coffers of the hoteliers. New times, new traditions. Christmas is (almost by definition) synonymous with tradition, but that doesn’t mean it’s immutable. On the contrary. Over the last few years, the holidays have been enriched with new habits that, through repetition, have already become established in Spanish ‘Christmas lore’: lighting parties of the lights, the fights between city councils to erect XXL luminous trees, the ‘pre-grapes’ and of course the good afternoon and old afternoon. New celebrations that take over from others that falter. ¿Good afternoon and old afternoon? Exact. Two expanding trends that are practically self-explanatory. The good afternoon and old afternoon They are nothing other than the adaptation of the late to the two big Christmas events: Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. The party no longer starts at night, with a copious dinner. It begins at noon and in the afternoon, with celebrations that usually leave homes and move to public spaces such as restaurants, bars, streets and squares. It is not about replacing the family dinner on the 24th or the one that precedes the 12 bells on the 31st, but rather about rethinking the celebration with friends and family, adjusting their schedules to bring them forward towards the afternoon (even at noon) in a ‘challenge’ to the traditional dinners that go on forever and the old party favors. A proven success. It may seem simple, but it works. If you open Google and type “New Year’s Eve” You will basically find two things: announcements from town councils that inform about their celebrations (the list is extensive: Petrer, Cartagena, Torremolinos, Boadilla del Monte, Two Sisters, Fuenlabrada…) and articles of regional newspapers that they count how the “previews” of December 24 and especially December 31 have gained popularity over the years. “It’s like reliving a day of the Pilar Festival in the middle of Christmas. A terrifying vermouth, but with wonderful billing,” explained last year to the newspaper ‘Heraldo’ a hotelier from Zaragoza who told how the good afternoon and old afternoon They have carved out a niche for themselves in December. There is nothing written about how to celebrate them, but the most common thing is that the afternoons start in the hours before dinner, even around noon (about one or even a little before), and continue for hours, until eight. In Xataka Nougat has always been the most popular and democratic sweet at Christmas. Now it’s becoming a luxury Searching for the causes. that the old afternoon is gaining strength precisely now and not eight, ten or eleven years ago is no coincidence. Although it is not easy to determine the reasons that explain why a trend succeeds, the truth is that the boom in Christmas “previews” is preceded by factors that have paved the way for it. The first (obvious) is the expansion of late in Spain. Whether causality or not, as the population pyramid of the country is thinning at the base and widening in the age group between 30 and 50, evening leisure has been gaining weight. That is, venues willing to offer experiences similar to those at night parties, only at an afternoon time that prevents the client from staying up late or waking up the next morning exhausted and hungover. The legacy of COVID. Another factor that helps understand the success of the good afternoon either old afternoon It’s the pandemic. COVID not only forced us to spend weeks confined at home, it also (and perhaps because of that) rediscovered the pleasure of going out and enjoying the streets and terraces, which is precisely where they are celebrated the afternoons of December 24 and 31. This is how hoteliers explained it to them in 2024. The Digital Confidential in an article in which it was stated that attendance at the Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve previews shot up by 25% in just two years. {“videoId”:”x80zm7f”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”How your TOWN or CITY has changed in 40 years: this is the NEW GOOGLE EARTH feature”, “tag”:””, “duration”:”135″} Is there more? Yes. To all of the above, other equally important keys can be added, such as families being less willing to spend hours between stoves or the increase in ordered dishes to restaurants. If we enjoy more leisure on the afternoons of the 24th and 31st, it is simply because we organize ourselves differently on those days and we are less tied to the kitchens. Another key is the advantages to organize midday and afternoon plans instead of long dinners, especially if there are children involved. How icing is it the bet what have they done not a few town councils by the evening parties, especially in small towns where the afternoon has become an opportunity to celebrate (in community and with music) Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. Images | Gijón City Council, Fuenlabrada City Council In Xataka |It has always been said that the King of Spain plays Gordo with the number 00000. There is a part of truth and part of a lie (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = … Read more

The Earth has been providing heat for millions of years and now Google wants it for something very different from heating

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The race for artificial intelligence is no longer fought only in laboratories or chip factories. It is moving towards much more basic and, at the same time, more critical terrain: electricity. At a time when data centers are increasing their energy consumption and the electrical grid is beginning to show signs of saturation, an American geothermal startup has just closed one of the largest financing rounds in the sector. It is called Fervo Energy, it has raised $462 million and, among its investors, is Google. It is not just another financial movement. It is a clear sign of where big technology companies are looking to sustain their ambitions with artificial intelligence. First commercial project. The company has closed this financing in a Series E – one of the last phases of private investment before a possible IPO – aimed not at research, but at the deployment of large-scale energy infrastructure. The round, led by B Capital as lead investor, will serve to accelerate the construction of Cape Station, its geothermal plant in Utah, and advance the development of other projects. In other words, moving from technology demonstration to commercial production of firm electricity for the grid. In addition, the round has aroused the interest of a broad group of industrial, financial and technological investors. Among the new names are AllianceBernstein, Mitsui, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and, especially significantly, Google. As reported by TechCrunchFervo has raised nearly $500 million in equity and debt in the last year alone, reflecting an unusual investment appetite for a technology that for decades was considered marginal. The Google entry. Fervo is not just a climate bet or an impact investment: it is a direct energy supplier for data centers. The company already maintains an agreement with Google to supply geothermal electricity to its facilities, something that turns the technology company into a client and investor at the same time. This move fits with a broader trend. The big tech companies they have stopped trusting only in the traditional electricity market. The explosion of generative AI has multiplied the demand for continuous, stable and emission-free energy, a profile that neither solar nor wind power alone can guarantee without massive battery backup. On the other hand, geothermal energy offers firm electricity 24 hours a day. How does the Fervo bet work? Fervo’s key It’s in your technology of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Unlike traditional geothermal energy – which depends on natural hot aquifers – Fervo drills hot rock, injects water and creates artificial reservoirs that allow steam to be generated in a controlled manner. A direct adaptation of hydraulic fracturing and directional drilling techniques developed over decades by the oil and gas industry. It is no coincidence: many Fervo engineers come from that sector. The flagship project is Cape Station, located in Beaver County, Utah. According to the company’s planswill begin supplying 100 megawatts in 2026 and will reach 500 megawatts in 2028. One of the key factors is speed, as the company has drastically reduced the drilling time for its wells: from about a month in its first projects to a current average of about 15 days. As Sarah Jewett, senior vice president of strategy, explained, to TechCrunchapproximately half of the cost of a well depends on drilling time. Reducing it is synonymous with economic viability. AI as the engine of the new energy map. The rise of Fervo cannot be understood without the pressure that artificial intelligence puts on energy infrastructure. According to the International Energy Agencythe electrical consumption of data centers could double before 2030. An analysis by the Rhodium Group goes further and estimates that advanced geothermal could cover up to two thirds of new energy demand of these centers in the United States. Google is not alone in this race. The company is simultaneously exploring the reopening of nuclear plantsthe development of small modular reactors (SMR) and even experimental projects as solar-powered orbiting data centers. The logic is the same in all cases: ensure its own, stable, long-term electricity supply. In the words of the CEO of FervoTim Latimer: “There is a huge appetite to understand how the history of electricity demand is going to be resolved.” The answer, increasingly, lies in energy sources that previously seemed secondary. A sector that matters again. For years, geothermal energy was relegated to wind and solar energy. Today, United States live a true renaissance of the sector. The combination of new technologies, private capital, institutional support and demand from Big Tech is changing the landscape. Fervo is considered a pioneer within this new ecosystem. According to TechCrunchthe company is focused for now on the western United States, where the hot rock is closer to the surface, but does not rule out expanding to other states or abroad when its technology is even more optimized. The subsoil as a competitive advantage. While artificial intelligence is presented as the most ethereal technology of our time, its expansion depends on something deeply physical: constant, cheap and clean megawatts. In this context, Fervo represents more than just an energy startup: one more—but key—piece in the new infrastructure that supports the digital age. Google didn’t get here by chance. He has been exploring all possible avenues for some time to ensure stable power for his AI. And in that strategy of not closing any doors, while some look to the sky, others – like Fervo – look underground, kilometers underground, where the planet’s heat is beginning to emerge as one of the most solid responses. Image | FervoEnergy and freepik Xataka | The United States may win the AI ​​race, but its problem is different: China is winning all the others

millions of websites are down after an internal failure

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History repeats itself just a few weeks later. cloudflareone of the fundamental pillars of the internet infrastructure, is suffering from technical problems that have left a multitude of web pages and digital services inoperative and with loading failures. The incident is especially affecting electronic commerce, with giants such as PCComponentes or MediaMarkt experiencing drops in their services. what’s happening. According to the official company status pageat 08:56 (09:56 CEST) Cloudflare has begun investigating “issues with Cloudflare Dashboard and related APIs.” Although the company already indicates that it is investigating, the impact on clients who use its APIs is immediate, causing requests to fail and errors to be displayed. Coincidentally, the company is carrying out scheduled maintenance in its Chicago data center (ORD), although at the moment it is unknown if there is a direct relationship between both incidents. The impact. The decline is palpable in our country. Users and reports on social networks confirm that high-traffic websites such as PCComponentes and MediaMarkt have ceased to be operational. There are also complaints about communication services like Zoom. We do not yet know the magnitude of the failure, since it has just occurred, but it is notable that pages like Downdetector have also succumbed. The tool we use to check if a service is down is having trouble loading. It rains in the wet. This is not the first time this has happened. Less than a month ago, on November 18, Twitter and ChatGPT were the “snitches” of a Unusual traffic spike on Cloudflare services which wiped out many other websites until service was restored. This recurrence highlights the extreme dependence that the network has on this provider. When your systems fail, the domino effect is inevitable: if Cloudflare goes down, half the internet goes down. At this time, the incident status remains marked as “investigating.” However, some websites are beginning to return to normal: Downdetector itself already reflects the Cloudflare incident. In Xataka | The battle between LaLiga and Cloudflare is claiming many victims. Now those victims are joining forces

Crucial was the gateway to the world of the PC for millions of users. AI has just put an end to its story

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Many users remember the moment when they decided to build or improve their first computer: the search for a fast SSDa RAM kit and the feeling that the PC world was within anyone’s reach. That vision, extended for almost thirty years, is now going through a turning point. The explosion of artificial intelligence has altered the balance of the memory business and has pushed suppliers like Micron to make decisions that would have seemed unthinkable a short time ago. Micron just announced that it will stop selling consumer products under the Crucial brand. The company announced that it will continue to ship memory modules and storage units until the end of its second fiscal quarter, in February 2026, and that it will maintain warranty service for devices already in the hands of users. In parallel, it will continue to operate its business catalog with Micron products for commercial customers. The announcement came accompanied by a precise explanation: the company wants to prioritize attention to segments where demand is growing more quickly. The message of Sumit Sadana, executive vice president of Micron Technology. “AI-driven growth in data centers has driven a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit Crucial’s consumer business to improve supply and support to our largest strategic customers in higher growth segments.” The brand that grew with the home PC. Since its launch in 1996, Crucial was presented as Micron’s branch dedicated to memory and storage upgrades for the home user. Over the years, the brand entered more categories, such as memory cards and external drives. Its constant presence in physical stores and online distributors helped establish it as a household name in the components market. That 29-year trajectory is what is now behind us with Micron’s decision. The pressure of AI on memory. The rise of AI computing has generated unprecedented demand for memory, especially from HBM, used in accelerators from NVIDIA, AMD and other companies. This type of components requires complex manufacturing processes and absorbs a large part of the manufacturers’ capacity, that concentrate resources on meeting business contracts. Fewer options for mounting and expanding PCs. After years of presence in the consumer channel, Crucial leaves a gap that mainly affects the variety of the available catalog. Although there are still alternatives, the departure of a supplier with such a constant presence means fewer options when choosing memory modules or storage units. The price of RAM memory, increasing. Crucical’s farewell occurs at a time when the price of RAM has skyrocketed 300% since September. And, at least according to data from the consultancy TrendForce, everything seems to indicate that the increase in the cost of computer modules is far from over. Images | Micron | Nathan Anderson In Xataka | The war to dethrone NVIDIA has just begun: Amazon and Google are already armed

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

One-minute episodes, crazy plots and millions of views: welcome to the age of l

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It was clear that with the inability to maintain attention for too long in a single point, a phenomenon like that of the microdramasfictions in ultra-brief pills with continuous twists and suspense situations, would end up triumphing. Now, after sweeping Asia, they reach the United States and Europe. And they are willing to turn the durations of fictions upside down in streaming. What are they? An audiovisual format that consists of mini-soap operas or short series designed for consumption on mobile devices. Generally, each episode lasts between 60 and 90 seconds, although it can reach up to ten, and the series have between 20 and 100 episodes, accumulating a total duration similar to a feature film. This accelerated narrative is filmed in vertical format, and structured to hook the viewer with shocking hooks in the first seconds, conflicts that evolve quickly and cliffhangers that invite you to watch the next episode without interruptions. Hurry, hurry. Production is ultra-fast and low-cost, with seasons that can be recorded in less than two weeks, allowing for great proliferation of titles. Narratively, microdramas rely on highly addictive stories, inherited from soap operas, with recurring themes such as secret romances with billionaires, revenge, marriages of convenience, even forays into romance and delirious vampire romances… and all condensed with frequent emotional rewards and very little expenditure on sets, editing, soundtrack and technical displays. In Xataka The new fever in China is mobile series with one-minute episodes. And they prepare their landing outside Asia Where was he born? This format originated in China, where they are known as wei duan ju either duanjudriven by the massive emergence into the market of smartphones and the rise of short video platforms such as Douyin and Kuaishouespecially during the pandemic. Since then, the format has expanded globally, adapting to the audiovisual consumption habits of generation Z and millennials, who prefer short, vertical content for quick consumption on social networks. Where to see them. The main platforms to watch microdramas are YouTube, TikTok and Instagram. According to a study by Ampere Analysis, YouTube It is the leading platform, with 44% of microdrama viewers consuming this content there, where creators monetize directly. TikTok and Instagram are often used to promote them with teasers and teasers that direct users to paid apps like DramaBox, ReelShort either CandyJarTVwhere they can watch the complete series, often under a freemium model (free initial episodes and payment to continue). In these there is already an abundance of non-Asian series: a look at ReelShort allows us to understand the appeal of these products, openly oriented towards the female audience, and with categories that do not hide an exploitative point, almost an emotional fetish: ‘Hidden Identity’, ‘Taboo Relationship’, ‘Babies and Pregnancies’, ‘Love at First Sight’, ‘Vampires and Werewolves’, and of course an immense remnant of products from Asia. And now, in the United States. Alan Mruvka, founder of E! Entertainment Television, plans to launch Verza TVthe first American platform dedicated exclusively to microdramas, which is expected to arrive in mid-November 2025. This pioneering initiative will follow a financing model similar to that common in China: users can watch up to five free episodes of any title, and to access the rest they must pay $4.99. Verza TV’s catalog will include dramas inspired by TikTok trends, reality shows in micro format, interviews and information about celebrities (something Mruvka knows a lot about thanks to his experience with E! Entertainment) and new microdramas based on those that have been successful in Asia. The figures. The global microdrama market is estimated to reach 2025 a projected value of $11 billiona figure that almost doubles the income of FAST channels (free, linear and with ads), which shows the rapid growth of the format. China dominates this market overwhelmingly, contributing close to 83% of global income thanks to its massive domestic production and consumption. A juicy business, quick and easy to produce, and which may soon find a new audience eager for strong and, above all, fast emotions. Photo of Becca Tapert in Unsplash In Xataka | The great Chinese revolution of recent decades is not technological or economic: it is that of Christianity (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news One-minute episodes, crazy plots and millions of views: welcome to the age of l was originally published in Xataka by John Tones .

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