rescue

We believed that tons of feces were the big problem with the touristification of Everest. Until the scam rescue arrived

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Everest may be the roof of the world, but it has long ceased to be the remote and isolated place they found themselves seven decades ago. Edmund Hollary and Tenzing Norgaythe first to summit its icy summit. The best proof was left to us just before the pandemic by Nirmal Purja, the author of one of the most famous (and striking) snapshots of the mountain: in it we see a very long row with dozens and dozens of tourists climbing in single file towards the summit, just as if they were queuing to enter the Louvre or board a cruise ship. That Everest has become a monster touristified It’s no surprise. What is curious is that there are people (presumably) breaking the laws to take advantage of that demand and defraud the insurers. A huge theme park. One would expect the highest place on the planet to be an inhospitable place, reserved for the most intrepid locals and adventurers. Perhaps it was like this in the 1950s, when Hollary and Norgay ascended to more than 8,800 meters of altitude to reach its summit. Not today. The photography that Purja took in 2019 is just the graphic verification of a phenomenon that can be measured in figures… and even in feces: Everest is a tourist icon that they visit every year hundreds and hundreds of climbers, leaving behind millions of dollars and a trail of tons of waste. You will find more infographics at Statista Where there is tourism… There is business, of course. That universal truth is applicable both in Amsterdam, Florence either Barcelona such as in the remote Himalayas, which over the last few decades has seen a thriving industry take shape dedicated to serving those who visit Everest. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTC), in 2023 alone Nepal’s tourism sector generated revenue worth about 2.5 billion of dollars and boosted hundreds of thousands of jobs, both direct and indirect. Even Nepal has considered shoot 40% the fees he charges mountaineers, a source of income that among other things helps him clean the region. Where is the problem? Beyond the environmental impact that this overcrowding has in the mountain range, there is actually no problem in travel agencies, Sherpas, transportation companies, hotels and other businesses oriented to Nepalese tourism trying to make money. Climbing Everest doesn’t come cheap, but at the end of the day, whoever wants to pay for it. The problem is that not all of these professionals respect the law when looking for ways to make money. What’s more, there are those who have no qualms about cheatfalsify and commit millionaire frauds. Mountaineering and picaresque. The news I advanced it a few days ago The Kathmandu Postone of the largest English-language newspapers in Nepal. The Central Investigation Bureau of the Nepalese Police (CIB) has revealed a network dedicated to deceiving insurers who cover mountaineers in the Himalayas. Their modus operandi may vary, but the idea is always the same: alleged scammers make fraudulent ransoms to claim compensation. It may sound rudimentary, but the scam takes advantage of two circumstances that work in its favor. First, in rescue operations speed prevails, so there is no room to wait for the approval of the experts. Second, deceived insurers are often based thousands of kilometers away (in London or Paris), making it difficult for them to confirm what is happening on the ground. One goal, two methods. How do you prepare the scam? The CIB has identified two methods. The first is quite simple and requires the tourist to participate in the deception. If a climber is exhausted after days (or even weeks) of hiking and wants to save the trip back to camp, his guide can offer him a way out that is as comfortable as it is ethically questionable: faking an illness so that the insurance company can mobilize a rescue operation. The second method is a little more complicated, but the end result is the same. The guides or accommodations take advantage of the client’s ignorance to make them believe that the symptoms of altitude sickness (which are usually resolved with rest, hydration and a gradual descent) are actually signs that they are at serious risk, even of death. The key is to suggest the hiker enough so that he ends up asking to be evacuated by a charter helicopter. And where is the business? In the cost of the operation. It is not just that the company that provides that service charges the insurer for a helicopter that was not really necessary, it is that, precise The Kathmandu Postoften manages to expand its profit margin. As? It carries several passengers on the same flight and then sends separate invoices to their insurance companies. In practice that means that a single $4,000 charter flight can end up giving rise to three separate claims worth $12,000. Added to this are alleged treatments in the hospital, even when the client in question did not need assistance. For example, the Nepalese newspaper talks about cases in which treatment is claimed for hikers who were actually in the cafeteria. Not all people who are involved in this mess have to participate in the deception. He post speaks of falsifications of flight manifests or reports with digital signatures of completely unrelated doctors. One figure: 20 million dollars. At the end of March the CIB accused 32 people for this type of crimes, which according to the AFP agency amounted to a total scam 19.69 million of dollars. It may seem like a lot, but the figures revealed by the CIB investigation are eloquent: between 2022 and 2025, it identified 4,782 foreign patients treated in the investigated hospitals. Of these, inspectors believe that 171 corresponded to simulated evacuations. During that period some health centers received deposits worth millions of dollars related to those services. The older ones are the helicopters. Poisoning? The CIB investigation has attracted the attention of the media everyonealthough their headlines often focus on another … Read more

They have analyzed the coordinates of the rescue of the pilot in Iran. Not only do they not add up, they point to a very different mission from the US

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In the most complex military operations, it is not uncommon for open data (images, coordinates or videos) to allow reconstruct scenarios with a level of detail that was previously only available to the intelligence services. In recent years, independent analysts have come to identify locationsmovements and even operational failures crossing public information in a matter of hours. Because sometimes, the key is not in what is told, but in how they fit (or don’t) the visible pieces. The official version: Mission Impossible. It we count yesterday. The official narrative describes a rescue operation on a large scale to recover a crew member from an F-15E Strike Eagle shot down in Iran, with special forces deployed on the ground, multiple aircraft involved and direct confrontations with Iranian units. The pilot would have survived thanks to his training, emitting a signal from an elevated area while elite teams located and extracted him in a complex but successful mission. However, from the beginning it has attracted attention the enormous cost material, with aircraft destroyed or damaged worth hundreds of millions of dollars, something disproportionate for a conventional rescue operation. The first step: follow the coordinates. More than 48 hours after the rescue, the analyst of the popular Simplicius Substack has compiled all the information that has appeared about the operation. Its analysis begins by dismantling the official version based on a basic element: geolocation. The first information places the demolition in the southwest of Iran, near the coast (about 80 km), an area consistent with the type of operations that a combat fighter of this type would carry out. The problem? That the appearance of the subsequent videos and remains identified on the land that we commented yesterdaywith C-130 transport planes and destroyed American helicopters, appear at hundreds of kilometers awayin the vicinity of Isfahan, which introduces a contradiction that is difficult to ignore and forces us to rethink the entire sequence of events. One more thing. As clarified Also the analyst, the geolocation of the CSAR (rescue operation) only showed a group of search helicopters passing through that areathat is, it did not geolocate the remains of the downed F-15E. For all we know, those helicopters could have been passing from there to the place of the accident in Isfahan. However, it must be remembered that even official sources from the main US media outlets, all with direct contacts in the government, initially reported that the accident occurred precisely in the area where the CSAR helicopters were sighted and geolocated. That is, the inconsistency in the geolocation found is not based solely in a single test. Plus: it seems evident that it makes more sense for an F-15E to be operating in the coastal area and not hundreds of km deep in Isfahan dropping short-range bombs, a task that should correspond to stealthier aircraft. Even so, a subsequent geolocation supposedly located the F-15E accident just south of Isfahan. C-130 and MH-6 helicopters destroyed The pieces don’t fit. From there, the data has accumulated inconsistencies that further distort the official version. For example, the use of huge transport planes to rescue a single pilot, the alleged mechanical failures that forced to destroy aircraft on the ground despite evidence of impacts and shrapnel through images and videos. Not only that. The lack of coherence about how was he evacuated to the staff after these failures generate more than reasonable doubts. What real chance is there that the two MC-130s that flew some 100 US special forces members to Iran to rescue the last F-15 crew member, suffer at the same time mechanical failures and could not take off? But even if it were true,how they managed then remove that same number of people after both planes suffered those “mechanical failures”? The photo used for geolocation, which shows the crater, belongs to an original series of photos with remains of the F-15E The landing strip. Each detail, in isolation, could be explained, but together they draw a pattern that suggests something else was going on. In fact, the analyst explained that the geolocated remains of the C-130s, which apparently used a local “agricultural landing strip”, are located just on the other side of a mountain, about 35 km from the Isfahan nuclear facilitywhere Iranian near-military-grade enriched uranium is supposedly stored. This result comes from the previous image, that is, this would place the distance between the two places of the remains at about 25 km. The location to the northwest is the F-15E crash site, and the location to the southeast is the C-130 wreckage field. The geolocated remains of the C-130s, which apparently used the agricultural landing strip (32.223369, 51.897678), and which are located just on the other side of a mountain, about 35 km from the Isfahan nuclear facility, where Iran’s near-military-grade enriched uranium is supposedly stored Plot twist: the nuclear hypothesis. That proximity, just 35 km southeast of one of Iran’s main uranium deposits, it doesn’t seem casual and opens an alternative hypothesis: that the rescue operation was actually a cover for a mission much more ambitious. In fact, Trump I had already spoken to extract Iranian uranium, an operation that would require the construction of landing strips in the country. Therefore, it is plausible that the plan was already underway for some time, while the American president bought time by stating that it was only a theoretical “possibility” under consideration. Under this scenario, the presence of special forces, the volume of resources deployed and the risk assumed seem to fit better as part of a clandestine operation than as a simple rescue. A parallel narrative. With the official data taken together, the story evolves towards a different interpretation in which airstrikes, special forces activity and even the possible disinformation campaign attributed to the CIA They would be part of a coordinated operation to distract, confuse and execute deeply hidden objectives. Of course, the rescue would still be real, but it would cease to be the main objective and become the … Read more

To rescue the pilot lost in Iran, the US has told a story worthy of Spielberg. Some explosive images tell a very different story

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In military manuals, rescue missions in enemy territory are as rare as they are dangerous: In decades of modern conflicts, only a few have been successfully completed without becoming a complete disaster. Some have marked history for their failuresothers for their execution to the limit, but most share something in common: the margin of error It is practically non-existent. Two stories for the same mission. When explaining the rescue mission of an American pilot on Iranian territory, Washington has told a story that Spielberg himself would sign: a wounded airman, alone and hiding in a mountain crevice, resisting for almost two days while the enemy searches for him and an elite force that bursts in between explosions to get him out alive. Of course, there is another version that is not narrated by American communiqués, but by some explosive images launched from the Iranian side: destroyed aircraft, improvisation on the ground and an operation that, although successful in its end, seems much more chaotic than what was intended to be conveyed. Between the two, a story full of chiaroscuros is built where epic and uncertainty coexist. The demolition and the race against time. lThe story started several days ago with the downing of an F-15E in Iranian territory, an already exceptional fact as it was the first American fighter lost in combat in years. The two crew members eject, but only the pilot is quickly rescued, while the weapons systems officer is isolated in a hostile mountainous area. From there a race against time: The wounded airman climbs a ridge, hides in a crevice and emits intermittent signals so as not to give away their position, while Iranian forces, militias and even civilians motivated by rewards search the area. For hours, not even Washington is clear if he is still alive. The perfect official version. The American narrative presents the mission as an impeccable display of power and coordination, with special forces, bombers, drones and massive air cover executing one of the most complex rescue operations in its history. There is talk of surgical precision, absolute control of airspace and clean extraction no American casualtiesculminated with a triumphalist message that elevates the operation to a symbol of military superiority. The CIA involvement adds an almost cinematic component, with an apparent deception campaign that confuses the Iranian forces as they locate the pilot “like a needle in a haystack.” A US Army AH-6 Little Bird helicopter The “other” details. However, upon delving into all the data that has been appearing, important cracks appear in the story. The first rescue attempt fails under enemy fireseveral helicopters are damaged and at least one A-10 falls during the operation, which already calls into question the idea of ​​total control. It happens that the final extraction is not goes as planned. How much? Apparently, two special operations planes were trapped on the ground after their wheels sank on a makeshift runway, forcing emergency reinforcements to be sent and, attention, to destroy them later to prevent them from falling into Iranian hands. The images of the place They show charred remains of aircraft and helicopters, evidencing a much more eventful and risky operation than the official story suggests. The ambiguity of combat. Because another key point is the nature of the confrontation. While some versions speak of a “mass shooting”other more detailed sources indicate that there was no direct combat sustained on the ground, but rather air strikes against approaching Iranian forces. This difference is neither trivial nor minor, because it actually transforms a narrative of heroic confrontation in a very different where technological and aerial superiority was the truly decisive factor, reducing the drama of hand-to-hand combat, but increasing the feeling of distance between what was told and what happened. Propaganda, perception and war of stories. If you like, everything indicates that the rescue was not only a simple military operation, but a narrative battle in the middle of war. From the sidewalk in Washington, the story became a kind of “Easter miracle” useful for bolstering domestic support and projecting strength. However, from the sidewalk of Tehran, the simple fact of having shot down the plane It already served as proof that he could challenge the United States. In that context, every detail counts the same that every omissionbecause control of the story is almost as important as the tactical result. Success with many shadows. The pilot seems to have been finally rescued and that, in military terms, marks the success of the operation. However, the path to achieve it reveals something more complex: a mission on the edge, with failures, improvisation, extreme risks and decisions made on the fly that contradict the image of perfect execution. Perhaps for this reason, between the story that seems written for the cinema and the one revealed by the smoking remains on the ground, it remains a conclusion most uncomfortable: even the most successful operations can hide a reality much more fragile than one wants to admit. Image | US MARINE In Xataka | The US is going to end its war in the Middle East with a very uncomfortable reality: Iran had years of advantage underground In Xataka | If the question is “how close are we to an escalation in Iran,” the answer is US A-10s flying there

Southeast Spain is the driest place on the peninsula and a DANA has just arrived to “rescue” it. It will give more problems than solutions

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Right now, as I write, “the world cup is falling” on Alicante. And that, in itself, is news. Not the DANA that is crossing the southeast right now, which has a moderate entity and is going to leave unremarkable accumulations; No. It could be, but no. The news is thatit’s raining in the southeast and that, for some time now, has become almost a miracle. A miracle that leaves something revealed, Almería, Murcia and Alicante live in a climatic (and emotional) ‘new normal’ for which we have no physical (nor psychosocial) infrastructure. Let’s look at it in some detail. What is happening? At a meteorological level, the situation is very simple. In the early hours of March 10, a DANA detached itself from general circulation and positioned itself between eastern Andalusia and the Alboran Sea. In the next few hours, the epicenter It will be located over the province of Alicante and it will also cause enormous instability in Murcia, Albacete, all of eastern Andalusia and some parts of Valencia. AEMET predicts accumulations of between 30 and 50 mm in Murcia and Alicante, with some very specific areas reaching 80 in six hours. We may see snow above 900 meters. However, it must be taken into account that the DANA is very small: any change in trajectory, can move precipitation from one region to another. Is it normal? If we are honest, it is quite normal. This is part of a very unstable first week of March with storms, DANAs, haze and many more problems. The underlying problem. The problem is that, for months, we have seen how the very abundant rains of January They left aside this corner of the Peninsula. Thus, the Segura basin is the worst in the entire country followed by that of Júcar and that of the Andalusian Mediterranean basins. That is, not raining is a problem. But let it rain too. Because throughout that area of ​​the country, although it may not seem like it, although it is very subtle, tension continues every time a DANA appears on the weather forecast maps. The worst part goes to the areas where it hit the DANA of 2024 (with up to 30% of children with sleep problems and thousands of people suffering from eco-anxiety and fear), but the consequences are there whether we like it or not. Above all, with failures around the corner. Rethink everything to adapt to what is coming. A few weeks ago, AEMET and the University of Valladolid They published a very interesting work in which they explained that without climate change the DANA of 2024 It would have been much more unlikely. The January rains over Andalusia they do not help to calm to the experts. Image | ECMWF In Xataka | In California, the funds discovered that there is no investment more profitable than farmland. Now it’s Spain’s turn

Boeing has come to the rescue

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We have not returned to the Moon since the mission Apollo 17in December 1972. Maybe that mission doesn’t sound particularly familiar to you, and that’s completely normal. Of all the times we have approached or walked by our satellitemost people remember the mission Apollo 11 by Neil Armstrong’s famous quote, “It’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” and, possibly, the Apollo 13not because it was a success, but because one of the oxygen tanks exploded and, fortunately, the astronauts managed to save themselves. Fifty-three years later, we are closer than ever to revisiting the one that illuminates us when the sun goes down. We will do so with the Artemis II mission, scheduled to launch as soon as February 2026. But this return is not without challenges. And we are not talking about the delays of the Artemis program, which are not always really delaysbut of a piece as common as it is indispensable: the vehicle that takes astronauts from their bedrooms to the spacecraft that will transport them to the Moon. And someone has come to the rescue of NASA. Returning to the Moon is not just a matter of rockets Historically, astronauts have used the well-known Astrovan to get around from the operations building to the launch pad. From the STS-9 mission of the space shuttle Columbia, in 1983, until the end of the program with the STS-135 mission of the Atlantis, in 2011, a Airstream Excella of 1983 modified specifically for the transport of astronauts. And since NASA has not had its own system to launch astronauts into space since the end of the shuttle program, SpaceX and Boeing, the two American contractors that have assumed this role, have used their own vehicles, turning the historic Airstream Excella into a museum piece. The Artemis program became a good excuse to take a step towards modernity and incorporate, of course, an electric vehicle to transport astronauts. Under this premise, NASA announced in July 2022 that the astronauts of the Artemis program would move in vehicles from Canoo Technologies, an American startup. The fleet would be made up of three vans based on the Lifestyle Vehicle (LV), a model that, strikingly, had not even begun to be sold at the time of the announcement. Even so, there was a vote of confidence and, of course, a contract involved that required compliance. The Canoo vehicles that NASA bought Everything seemed to be progressing without visible setbacks, but things were getting complicated inside. In summary, the company published a press release on its website, which can only be consulted on the Internet Archivein which it voluntarily filed for Chapter 7 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. This implies the cessation of its operations and the liquidation of all its assets. The vehicles had already been delivered to NASA, but using them left one question in the air: if a technical problem arose, who would respond? It was time to make a decision. The original Astrovan With the “countdown” underway for the launch of Artemis II, the US agency’s options were not many. Go out and find a new contractor? NASA had already paid for three Canoo vehicles that now lacked operational support. So there were two alternatives at home: use the Tesla Model employed by SpaceX or resort to the Boeing Astrovan II. Finally, NASA opted for this second option, at least as explained by the agency itself. in a statement provided to the Orlando television network Spectrum News 13. The solution is to temporarily rent the Boeing vehicle for, at least, the Artemis II mission, while other options for the future are evaluated. Boeing’s Astrovan II It is worth remembering that, although the transportation of astronauts before a mission may seem like a minor detail, it is not at all. It is a highly tense situation in which everything must flow with millimeter precision, and the comfort and conditions of the crew are key. So much so that these vehicles are adapted to meet NASA’s strict specifications and have everything necessary so that astronauts can move around with the Orion survival system spacesuits. It’s not as simple as getting into any car and that’s it. Boeing’s Astrovan II The Astrovan II is the result of a collaboration between the caravan firm Airstream and Boeing. It is, in essence, a modified Mercedes-Benz Sprinter 4500driven by a Mercedes-Benz 2.0 liter diesel engine and four cylinders with turbo. It features custom seating, USB charging stations, 110V power outlets, and a live TV broadcast system, as well as being ready to welcome astronauts in their suits. As expected, there are those who are in favor and those who are critical of this decision, but on paper it seems the most logical option. And if you’re wondering if the Astrovan II has ever been used before, the answer is yes. The vehicle debuted on the Boeing Crew Flight Test (Boe-CFT) mission, launched on June 5, 2024. Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams were transported in it from the Kennedy Space Center to the launch pad of the Starliner Calypso capsule. That was, precisely, the mission in which the capsule had problems and the astronauts ended up returning to Earth aboard a SpaceX ship. Images | POT | Boeing | Canoo In Xataka | We have filled the Earth’s orbit with satellites. And now the risk of a catastrophic collision is very high

How China has managed to rescue its astronauts in record time when it took the US months

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Last year, Boeing starred in a space drama that kept the world in suspense: the Starliner crisis. After discovering leaks and failures in its propellers, NASA took months between deliberations, tests and safety meetings to finally decide that the astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams They would not return in their ship, but would wait for SpaceX’s Crew-9 mission to return. Now, China has faced a similar scenario that it has resolved in a few days. The haste has its explanation. A cracked window. The news broke on November 5. The Shenzhou-20 mission, crewed by Chen Dong, Chen Zhongrui and Wang Jie, was preparing to return to Earth after six months at the Chinese Tiangong space station. However, during inspections prior to undocking, the astronauts detected an anomaly that so it was not made publicbut that we now know: “small cracks” in the external glass of one of the capsule windows. After analyzing photographs and running simulations in wind tunnels, CMSA (China Manned Space Agency) engineers determined that the damage had possibly been caused by the impact of micrometeoroids or small fragments of space junkcompromising the structural integrity of the ship. The conclusion put Chinese astronauts in a bind: the capsule “did not meet the conditions for a safe manned return.” The game of chairs in orbit. Unlike the International Space Station, the Tiangong space station cannot accommodate six astronauts for a long time, so the Shenzhou-20 crew had to be brought in as soon as possible. China always maintains a Shenzhou ship and a CZ-2F rocket ready to take off in case of emergency. However, on this occasion, the CMSA ruled out launching the new Shenzhou-22 spacecraft to bring back the three stranded astronauts because it “included instrument upgrades for which the outgoing crew had not been trained.” The solution chosen to bring the crew back was, therefore, to do so aboard the Shenzhou-21 ship that had arrived with three other astronauts two weeks earlier. A literal change of chairs (they had to move the adapted seats from one ship to another) and with a single sacrifice: leaving the three crew members of the Shenzhou-21 at the mercy of a compromised ship (the Shenzhou-20) in the event of an emergency. In summary. The three outgoing astronauts They landed safely on November 14 aboard the ship of his three incoming companions. The reason why this exchange of ships was faster than in the case of the Starliner or, a year earlier, the Russian Soyuz MS-22, was, on the one hand, that the Tiangong station is not yet large enough for six people to live in, and on the other, that the replacement ship was already there. What cost NASA months of risk analysis and public relations management with Boeing, China solved in a matter of days thanks to the availability of spacecraft. The logistical sacrifice is that the crew of the Shenzhou-21 (which will stay in space for six months) has had to give up their “lifeboat” until the Shenzhou-22 spacecraft is launched without a crew as a new return vehicle. The Shenzhou-20 will return empty to analyze its damage on the ground, if it ultimately survives re-entry. Image | CGTN In Xataka | The only photo you need to understand the scale of what Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company, has just done

When the Titan submarine exploded there was nothing left to rescue. Except one very important thing: a memory card

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It has been more than two years since the Titan submarine tragedy and the story continues to make people talk. The last thing we know is that the recovery teams found the camera that was part of the submarine. The camera was damaged, but inside it housed a memory card from which they were able to extract image and video files, although none from the implosion. The discovery. Youtuber Scott Manley told it in your X account. In a series of posts, Manley has published several images of the camera’s recovery report detailing its characteristics and condition. It was a Rayfin Mk2 Benthic underwater cameracapable of submerging up to 6,000 meters deep thanks to its titanium body. Although the case appeared intact, the sapphire crystal lens was shattered. Upon disassembly, many of the components had light damage, but one of the boards included an SD card that was in good condition. The content of the card. Investigators and forensics managed to make a duplicate of the card and extract the contents. In total, they obtained nine images and twelve videos. However, the camera had been configured to save the captures on an external storage device, so it did not contain any images from the day of the fateful dive, but rather they were images taken at the Marine Institute in Newfoundland, which was where the missions to the Titanic departed. In the images they have shared you can see the facilities and some underwater images, but at shallow depths. Catastrophic implosion. The Titan left Newfoundland on June 16, 2023. An hour and 45 minutes had passed when communication was lost, but it was not until four days later that the coast guard found the first remains of the vehicle and confirmed what they suspected: it had imploded. They found remains of the vehicle, but no body of the five crew members could be found. It was avoidable. The Titanic is located at a depth of 3,800 meters, where the pressure is 380 atmospheres. There is vehicles capable of reaching this depth and even more, but the Titan had a long history of problems and his own Former director of operations called the tragedy avoidable. In fact, several members of the underwater exploration community, including James Cameron, They had written a letter to OceanGate where they expressed their concern and assured that they were “going down the path of catastrophe.” The company ceased its activity after the accident. Image | Scott Manley in X In Xataka | Seven questions (and seven answers) about what really happened to the Titanic submarine

If the question is why the US wants to rescue Argentina with a fortune, the answer has two ingredients: China and Lithium

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Argentina entered again in Turbulence zone Despite the drastic fiscal and monetary adjustment of Javier Milei. A bulky defeat in provincial elections, the erosion of support in Congress and a corruption scandal that splashes their surroundings fired the doubts of the investors, forced sales of reservations by More than 1 billion of dollars in three days to defend the exchange band and approached the weight to the lower limit of the corridor. And then he The United States appeared With a briefcase under your arm. American help. Yes, the reaction was a political-financial turn of Washington: the Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, defined Argentina As “systemically important ally in Latin America” ​​and announced that “all options” were on the table to stabilize the markets, an explicit wink to the “whatver it Takes” of Mario Draghi in 2012. The message, a priori, had immediate effect on prices and expectations, but opened a greater debate about the scope, incentives and the risks of such support. What has been promised and how. The United States Treasury discusses a swap line with Buenos Aires of 20,000 million of dollars with the Central Bank and the possibility of buying sovereign debt in dollars from Argentina, in addition to making direct currency purchases if the conditions justify it. The operational tool would be the so -called Exchange Stabilization Fundwith wide discretionary margin to intervene in foreign exchange and assets, used in 1995 To help Mexico. Besent added that the treasure “is prepared” to acquire bonds and offer backup credit. Trump himself, after meeting with Milei, affirmed that will help, although he said “I don’t think they need a rescue,” framing assistance as access to “good debt” and market liquidity. In parallel, Milei sought internal oxygen suspending temporarily Grain export taxes to accelerate the flow of commercial dollars, while keeping operational, although partially activated, The swap line With the Popular Bank of China (18,000 million, of which about 5,000 are active). The small print. The announcement acted as a short circuit: The peso bounced, the 2029 and 2035 bonds recovered between 6 and 7 cents and the yield of 10 years in dollars fell from 17% to ~ 15%. Great managers They celebrated the signalunderlining that it provides a “critical window” to the legislative. However, investors requested details: effective volume, deadlines, conditions and intervention triggers. The Treasury He has suggested Absence of “conditionality” added to that of the IMF, but the practice usually imposes safeguards. In “House”, the package faces resistance: Criticism in Congress American questions to allocate emergency funds to sustain the currency and assets of a third party, with the political risk of being perceived as a lifeguard to Trump’s personal ally. Strategic reasons: why. The Analysts coincide With a clearly geopolitical reason: reduce dependence Argentina from China in financing, swaps and access to critical minerals Like lithiumand strengthen an openly government Pro-Mercado and aligned With Washington. The second It is financial: Prevent an episode of regional systemic instability due about 35% of the living support of the background on a global scale. The third may be of global signal: reaffirm the capacity of the United States to stabilize emerging markets with sovereign instruments, projecting financial power in a context of strategic competence. And the fourth, more tactical, purely electoral: Prevent short -term stress Extra ball: Meme politics. An added, less economical and more symbolic factor is politics turned into “Meme”. Just like Bukele He built prisons In El Salvador for ICE deportees as a gesture to Trump, Milei has earned a place within the magician imaginary in the United States for Your incendiary stylehis rejection of the establishment and His libertarian rhetoric. Under that prism, the current White House is willing to hold it because it embodies a political-cultural ally More than institutional, if you want to also, a kind of entry between “politically incorrect countries” that lend mutual support. If instead of Milei will govern A classic Peronista rescue of this size would have hardly been articulated, although, paradoxically, Trump shares with Peronism more related features than with the libertarian ideology that Milei proclaims. Lithium site A NAFTA as a counterpart. It We have counted before. Another angle to consider is the possibility that the financial rescue serves as prelude to an eventual Free Trade Agreement Between the United States and Argentina, a play that would fit with the interests of both parties. For Washington, it would be a way to shield access to strategic raw materials under a stable institutional framework and without the threat that Beijing capitalizes them through state investments. For Milei, a NAFTA with the world’s first economy would be political and economic support Of enormous value, with the ability to attract private capital, reduce financing and consolidate its image of “reliable partner” within the western block. The scenario, which is known, is not formally at the table, but the background of the rescue makes it a plausible possibility: the United States does not usually move chips of this magnitude without also binding long -term commercial commitments. The Argentine structural problem. The Financial Times counted This week that “shock therapy” stopped hyperinflationary drift, but the economy is still caught in A monetary duality that makes the system dependent and vulnerable to twists of feeling: each capital output realizes distrust in the peso and forces expensive defenses with few reserves. In this framework, the discussion about dollarization returns to the center: Milei champied her In campaign, then postponed it for its costs (loss of monetary policy, impossibility of adjusting by exchange rate and binding external cycles), but broad support from the United States could reopen it. Regional experience (Ecuador) and The European They teach to enter is easy and get almost impossible. Without tax reforms, productivity, exchange regime and institutional credibility, assistance can become a expensive and ephemeral patch. China and Treasures. As we said, the “nuclear” aims to remove Buenos Aires from the Chinese orbit in the dispute for strategic resources. The lithium of the “triangle” that integrates Argentina, … Read more

Elon Musk says he will rescue the two astronauts stranded in the space at Trump. The problem is that

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A incendiary message. “The president of the United States has asked Spacex to bring the two astronauts stranded at the International Space Station as soon as possible,” Elon Musk wrote In his profile of X. “It is terrible that the Biden administration has left them there for so long.” After 20 minutes, more than one million people have seen the message, which Musk apostilled answering “true” to the following answer: “The hatred they had was greater than their desire to rescue those astronauts.” A little context. In June 2024, two astronauts arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Starliner spacecraft, Boeing’s alternative to the Crew Dragon of Spacex. The ship had to spend a week in orbit before returning to Earth, but A failure in the propulsion system During the first leg he made three months undergoing And finally I would go empty. Elon Musk’s X messages about astronauts Elon Musk lies. No one will be surprised at this point that Musk publishes propaganda in his X profile, but the message misrepresent the reality in a particularly fantasy way. While it is true that astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are still in space since June, they are not stranded. SPACEX CREW-9 MISSION took off in September 2024long before Trump assumed the presidency, with two empty seats to bring them back. So why do they continue in the ISS? It was the plan provided by NASA. Wilmore and Williams were reallocated to the CREW-9 mission and became part of the permanent crew of the International Space Station. Williams is, in fact, the commander of expedition 72, and He has just taken a space walk As part of your tasks. That NASA did not ask Spacex to look for them immediately has nothing to do with the hatred of Musk, but that there was no crew dragon to immediately available. The most logical solution was to get two astronauts out of the next round trip (the CREW-9 mission) to leave two free seats. And now what? The return of the CREW-9 mission is scheduled for the end of March 2025. So far, the expected thing was that Wilmore and Williams return along with their mission partners, the American Nick Hague and the Russian Aleksandr Gorbunov, in March or maybe in April. But Musk’s message suggests that perhaps his return goes ahead. As for the Starliner, NASA canceled the flight that had hired Boeing By 2025. The two astronaut rotations of this year will be in charge of Spacex while Boeing continues to analyze what could fail in its first manned flight and how it plans to solve it. Images | Steve Jurvetson (CC By 2.0), NASA In Xataka | The Starliner ship is not only a humiliation for Boeing: it is a moneyless money well that will no longer be able to recover

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