war

the war in Iran has put it in check

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Between Galicia and Tehran there are more than 5,000 km and the situation experienced in the Iberian Peninsula bears little or no resemblance to that which crosses the Persian Gulf. However, a server here, who writes these lines from Galician lands, has found that the situation in the Middle East has turned his travel plans upside down. And he is not the only one. Throughout Europe (and beyond) thousands of people are rethinking their vacations due to instability in the Gulf, which already threatens alter the flows of international tourism in the short term. The reason is very simple: the Middle East is not only a key player in the oil market (something already crucial in itself), it is also a key player in the map of air interconnections, especially between Europe and Asia. And that affects those who plan to fly this year to Vietnam, Japan or Thailand, among other destinations. A turbulent sector. Beyond Iranian politics, the energy market or the general threat that the rise in crude oil ended up moving to the shopping cart, there is a sector that is suffering in a very special way from what is happening in the Middle East: tourism. The Gulf is not only one of the great lungs of the oil industry, it is also a crucial piece on the tourism map. Firstly, due to the growing attractiveness of destinations like Dubai, especially among expats. Second (and this is the key) because in recent decades the region has managed to establish itself as the great connecting node between Europe, Asia and Africa. How important the Gulf is to the operations of international airlines became clear in the days following the US-Israeli attack on Iran. Tehran’s response, which launched attacks on its neighbors in retaliation for the support they provide to the United States, left out of play to airports such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha or Kuwait (among others), unleashing what some analysts consider the biggest crisis aeronautics since the pandemic. Was it that serious? Yes. And so we tell you at the time. That airfields like Dubai had to close their doors for security reasons affected thousands of Western expats who suddenly found themselves without options to return to their countries. The situation reached the point that some drove for hours to try their luck in Oman. Others paid large sums to charter jets. The fact is that the expats were not the only ones harmed. The ‘shock wave’ of the war also hit Western tourists who were on vacation in Asia and overnight they found that the Middle East terminals where they had to make a stopover to return to Europe (Doha, Dubai, Abu Dhabi) were blocked. A young Spanish woman complained in X those days of being “stuck” in Thailand. “The flights are for 4,000 euros or there is overbooking“, he lamented. The Government ended repatriating tourists from the Middle East. And the hangover came. This was more than a week ago, but that does not mean that the waters have returned to normal in airport operations, much less in the tourism sector. To begin with, because part of the Gulf is still an untouchable area for airlines. It comes with taking a look at Flight Radar’s flight monitoring maps to see the huge gap which remains open mainly on Iran, Iraq, Syria and Jordan. Emirates advertisement. Airspace slopes. The reality as of March 17 is that the war continues to condition airline operations in the area. In your last part Regarding traffic, OPS Group confirmed on Monday that a large part of the airspace in the Middle East remains marked by conflict, either closed (Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait and Syria) or subject to more or less restricted operations, as is the case above all in Israel, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar. In fact the platform remember that the most common corridor in the Persian Gulf for flights between Europe and Asia remains greatly altered by the war, which is leading airlines to look for alternative routes, either diverting north, towards the Caucasus, or south, through Egypt, Saudi Arabia or Oman. What do the companies say? The Middle East not only stands out for its geographical position. It is also home to some of the most important airlines in the sector, such as Qatar Airways, Emirates and Etihad. And their grills are still far from being normalized. Just yesterday Al Jazeera informed that Qatar Airways has announced a program of limited flights to and from Doha due to the war. In fact, its operations will remain restricted at least until March 28. “Qatar Airways’ scheduled flight operations remain temporarily suspended due to the closure of Qatari airspace,” explains the company. “The airline will resume operations once the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority announces the full and safe reopening of Qatari airspace.” She’s not the only one. Etihad Airways too indicates on their website which, at least for now, “operates a limited program of commercial flights between Abu Dhabi and several key destinations.” It even gives the option to change reservations at no extra cost. Qatar announcement. “A reduced schedule”. Another company that has not returned to normal is Emirates. In the last hours I published an update in which it clarifies the status of its flight schedule: “Following the partial opening of the region’s airspace, Emirates operates with a reduced flight schedule.” Lufthansa has also suspended operations with Dubai, Dabi, Amman and Ebril until next week. Connections with Tel Aviv, Beirut and Tehran remain marked and in some cases will not be recovered until late April. In general, the specialized environment Condé Nast Traveler informed on Friday the 13th that there are a significant number of airlines with their operations altered in one way or another. What can we expect now? The situation in hubs like Dubai has improved since the total blockade that followed the attack on February 28, but the panorama continues not to be what it was before that date. Dubai … Read more

His marines are sleeping on the ground in the middle of the war with Iran

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To give us an idea, a nuclear aircraft carrier can generate enough electricity to supply a small city and house thousands of people for months without touching land. Inside there are everything from bakeries to hospitals, but also systems that work tirelessly and that, if they failcan completely alter life on board. For example, a small fire can turn into a nightmare. The limit of a super aircraft carrier. He USS Gerald R. Ford, the nuclear aircraft carrier more advanced and expensive from the United States, is designed to operate as a floating city capable of sustaining continuous air operations for months. Its prolonged deployment, which already breaks record numbers after almost ten months at sea, also reflects the increasing operating pressure in the war with Iran. This extreme pace has led the ship to chain missions with hardly any margin for maintenance, accumulating wear and tear on both its systems and its crew. Which reveals a minor fire. The incident that triggered it all began in a seemingly secondary place: the ship’s laundry. According to the new york timesa failure in a dryer or the accumulation of waste caused a fire that spread and forced an intervention that has already lasted more than 30 hours. In a closed, highly flammable environment like an aircraft carrier, even these everyday incidents become critical threats. The fact that it was contained without affecting key systems demonstrates the preparation of the crew, but also demonstrates the delicate operational balance in these floating masses. Hundreds on the ground. It turns out that the most shocking consequence has not been technical, but human, because more than 600 marines and crew members they have lost their beds after the fire. Since then, most are sleeping on the floor or on improvised tables, all in the middle of an active military operation in the war with Iran. If you like, the image of the troops sleeping on the ground breaks with the idea of ​​technological invulnerability and shows everyday reality of sustained combat. A failure in an auxiliary system ends up directly affecting the rest, morale and operational capacity of hundreds of troops. Fatigue, wear and tear and the invisible limit. The episode fits into a broader context of accumulated fatigue after months of continuous deployment. In fact, the Times reported that previous problems in basic systems such as healthcare or deferred maintenance already pointed to progressive wear. many experts warn that these failures usually appear first in everyday services, not so much in combat systems. When these incidents begin to chain together, they usually indicate that both the crew and the ship’s structure are being pushed to the limit. The fragility of the “giants of the sea”. The truth is that the history of aircraft carriers has been full of episodes that show that even these platforms can be compromised in critical situations: in 1967, a rocket accidentally fired caused a brutal fire. on the USS Forrestal against Vietnam, causing 134 deaths and forcing security protocols to be rethought. Two years later, in 1969, the USS Enterprise suffered another explosion on deck due to the detonation of ammunition exposed to the heat of the reactors, with 27 deaths and serious damage. In the new millennium, in 2008, the USS George Washington was out of service for months after a fire caused by a simple poorly extinguished cigarette which caused million-dollar losses, and more recently, in 2020, the USS Bonhomme Richard burned for days in San Diego until it became unusable and was permanently removed, all due to a fire that showed failures in the supervision and initial response. Cases widely documented which reflect that beyond their military power, aircraft carriers remain extremely vulnerable environments where small errors or incidents can quickly escalate into large-scale crises. The paradox of modern war. Be that as it may, the Ford case reveals a key contradiction: the fact that one of the most advanced war machines on the planet can launch planes relentlessly, but also remains dependent on thousands of human routines and basic systems that cannot fail. If you like, modern warfare not only requires technological power, but also sustained resistance. And it is precisely in these everyday details where the problems begin to appear. cracks of a prolonged effort. Image | US Navy In Xataka | The US has asked all its allies in Hormuz for help. The answer he received was anticipated by Spain before anyone else: “no” In Xataka | The world is desperately asking Ukraine for its antidote to the Shahed. And Ukraine has decided to keep them for its war

The “bottom of the barrel” was the cheapest waste of the oil industry. The war in Iran has just turned it into an unaffordable luxury

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Historically, the fuel oil has been known in the oil industry as the “bottom of the barrel.” Typically cheap and underappreciated, this byproduct comes from the bottom of distillation towers, the equipment where crude oil is heated and split into multiple products. In fact, very often, this fuel cost less than a barrel of crude oil, and refineries sold it at a loss as it was a simple remnant of the process necessary to manufacture high-value products such as diesel. However, as expert Javier Blas warns in your column for Bloombergthe Iran war has turned the industry upside down. That waste that no one wanted has become an ultra-expensive raw material overnight, which is bad news for the global economy. Despite being overshadowed by other distillates, the fuel oil plays an immense role in the modern world, driving container ships that act as the workhorses of globalization. The breakup of a market at the limit. In the current conflict, all eyes they are set in the rises and falls of crude oil. However, the real drama is hidden in the physical maritime bunker markets, where the traditional relationship between the price of crude oil and refined products has been completely broken. With crude oil hovering around $100, the fuel oil It shouldn’t be much more expensive. In reality, it is trading at $140 a barrel in Singapore and almost $160 in the Emirati port of Fujairah. A report of Lloyd’s List explains that the average price of the fuel oil of very low sulfur content (VLSFO) in the 20 main bunkering centers reached $1,005 per ton, double its pre-war cost and the highest figure since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. For his part, analyst Clyde Russell warns in his column Reuters that, while crude oil futures are confident of a solution, prices for physical cargoes are sending signals of an impending crisis and a supply chain that is buckling under pressure. The missing link. The key to this specific crisis lies in geography and geology. As Blas points outrefineries in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates produce 20% of all fuel oil sold internationally. Added to this is a crucial geological factor: the crude oil from the Persian Gulf generates much more fuel oil than that of other regions. For example, when distilling a barrel of Saudi flagship crude oil (Arab Light), approximately 50% of what comes out is residue for fuel oil, compared to 33% left by US WTI crude oil. This explains why the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz is a death trap specifically for this byproduct. The logistical panic. The real urgency is no longer just the price, but physical availability. The shipping industry has raised the alarm because supplies are critically low in Singapore and Fujairah, two of the world’s most important bunkering hubs. “If we do nothing, we risk ending up with dry supply points in Asia,” Vincent Clerc sharply warnedCEO of shipping giant Maersk. To avoid collapse, Maersk needs to be proactive and is transporting its own fuel around the globe to have the right amount in the right place, an unprecedented challenge that Clerc compares to the logistical juggle experienced during the Covid-19 pandemic. On a day-to-day basis, the charter market is paralyzed. Scott Bergeron, CEO of Oldendorff Carriers, confess to Lloyd’s List that there are problems getting fuel quotes, and that “availability for April is a big question mark.” The operational consequences will be drastic: Global slowing: Ships will reduce their speed to conserve fuel. Port congestion: Massive congestion is expected in ports that still have reserves. Accelerated scrapping: Older and inefficient fleets could be forced to be scrapped due to the enormous costs. Furthermore, according to Clyde Russell in your column for ReutersAsian refiners are cutting production, and countries like South Korea could restrict exports, pushing dependent nations like New Zealand into rationing measures. The environmental dilemma. This severe lack of supply is even putting pressure on climate regulations. Given the suffocating lack of distillates, The Maritime Executive details that the regulators could be tempted to temporarily suspend IMO 2020 emissions regulations. This would allow ships to return to burning heavy fuel oil (HSFO) widely, freeing up ingredients for other critical sectors. Meanwhile, ships already equipped with scrubbers (scrubbers) can still legally burn the cheaper HSFO. As the price gap between clean and dirty fuel widens, these shipowners are realizing massive savings; In fact, this price spread reached $189.50 per ton in Singapore. The current crisis leaves no room for maneuver. As Javier Blas saysthe world has already spent its main lines of defense against this oil shock: compromised refineries have been avoided and strategic reserves have been emptied. Looking to the future, the only variable capable of balancing consumption with a meager supply is the “destruction of demand” through suffocating prices. Ship fuel may come from the bottom of the barrel, but it has proven to have the ability to sink or keep afloat international commerce. Today, without a doubt, it has become the world’s main problem. Image | Photo by william william on Unsplash Xataka | The US Navy already knows what is going to happen to the planet: the mission to open Hormuz is the closest thing to a suicide operation

The world is desperately asking Ukraine for its antidote to the Shahed. And Ukraine has decided to keep them for its war

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In September 2023, a swarm of cheap drones managed to get through some of the most advanced air defenses in the world and paralyzing strategic infrastructure in the Middle East for hours. That left a conclusion for many armies: the air war of the 21st century no longer depends only on fighters or missiles that cost real fortunes, but also on small machines that can be manufactured in workshops and change the balance of the battlefield. The “antidote” that everyone is looking for. After four years of war against Russia and thousands of Shahed drone attacks, Ukraine has ended up becoming the most advanced laboratory of the world to combat this type of weapons. What began as a desperate need to defend their cities has ended up generating a complete ecosystem defense: detection networks with radars and acoustic sensors, command software that coordinates cheap interceptors and specialized pilots who have learned to confront swarms of drones in real combat conditions. That experience has awakened a enormous international interest because it solves the big problem of modern defenses: destroying cheap drones with missiles that cost millions is an unsustainable equation. Changes the economics of air defense. It we have counted other times. The Ukrainian success is explained above all by cost. While a Patriot missile can exceed four million dollars and a THAAD interceptor is around twelve million, many kamikaze drones cost between 20,000 and 50,000 dollars. Ukraine has broken that logic using tiny interceptors that can cost between $1,000 and $2,500 and that, guided by human operators and thermal sensors or radar, pursue the enemy drone until it is destroyed. Systems like the Sting interceptor (small 3D printed devices capable of reaching speeds close to 280 kilometers per hour) have demonstrated surprising effectiveness in real combat, taking down a large part of the Shahed that attack cities like kyiv. From battlefield to global product. That performance has made Ukraine the center of a new technological career. Gulf countries, European countries and allies of the United States have started calling kyiv in search of solutions to confront the same Iranian drones that Russia has been using for years on the Ukrainian front. Middle Eastern governments, concerned about attacks on oil facilities or military bases, negotiate agreements to acquire interceptors, detection systems and operational training. They not only want to buy the drones, but learn the method Ukrainian: a distributed defense model based on thousands of cheap sensors and small weapons capable of quickly responding to massive attacks. A system to copy. The demand, furthermore, is not limited to hardware. Ukraine too export knowledge. Teams of Ukrainian specialists have already been sent to several countries to explain how to detect, track and shoot down drones in large numbers. In total, at least eleven governments have requested direct assistance to replicate this low-cost air defense model. For many Western militaries, the war in Ukraine has shown that defense against drone swarms is not won with large strategic systems, but with distributed networks of sensors, software and small weapons that operate in a coordinated manner. The great paradox. However, there is a fundamental problem. Despite international interest, Ukrainian companies can’t export their interceptors. The reason? The government has prohibited the sale of defense drones because it considers that all available systems should remain in the country. Manufacturers like Wild Hornets o SkyFall constantly receive purchase requests from the Middle East and Europe, but the official response is always the same: The absolute priority is to defend Ukrainian territory itself. Like the United States. The position reflects a very clear strategic logic. Ukraine faces massive drone attacks every night and needs every interceptor it produces. Selling them in the middle of the war would mean weakening their own defense. The decision, in fact, is reminiscent of what the United States has been doing repeatedly with key weaponry during intense conflicts (the latest: in South Korea): reserve or directly move the most necessary technologies for your own operations before exporting them. In this case, kyiv is applying exactly the same logic. War laboratory. Meanwhile, the war continues to turn Ukraine into the biggest testing ground of the new era of drone combat. The country has even created a specific branch of its armed forces dedicated to unmanned systems and is developing everything from robotic submarines to long-range attack drones. In cities like kyiv, national interceptors are already they demolish more than 70% of the Shahed that fly over the region. That experience, accumulated under constant attacks, is generating innovations that many Western armies have not yet managed to replicate. Pressure of a new war. The reason international interest is growing so quickly is easy to understand: the problem that Ukraine has been facing for years starts to spread to other regions. Iranian drones are now appearing in conflicts and attacks in the Middle Eastwhere the United States and its allies have discovered that their traditional air defense systems are too expensive to confront swarms of cheap drones. Each attack forces interceptors that cost millions to be fired against devices that are worth only a few thousand. Therefore, from US military bases to oil facilities in the Gulf, half the world andis looking towards Ukraine in search of answers. Its engineers, pilots and programmers have accumulated experience that no other army has. They have learned to fight swarms of drones with limited resources and to design cheap weapons that They break economic logic of modern air warfare. An antidote that stays at home. As they counted on TWZthe scenario is summarized in governments around the world calling to kyiv and asking for the “antidote” against the Shahed, while Ukraine has made a pragmatic decision: to keep it to itself. The companies receive offersallies ask questions and specialists travel to share experience. But the weapons that really make a difference right now, those cheap interceptors that have changed air defense, continue to stay at home, because for Ukraine the war is still it’s very far determine. Image … Read more

declare war on overtime

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The idea of ​​getting a girlfriend doesn’t even cross Owen Cao’s mind. Let alone being a father. When in 2024 this Chinese university student shared his case with SCMP He combined his engineering classes with research and activities in the student club, in addition to of course his own hobbies. With such a workload, 24 hours a day fell short and left no room for appointments or thinking about children. Owen was at that time a twenty-something who had not yet finished his degree, but his approach to life is shared by many other Chinese for whom work it makes it difficult for them to plan a family life. Now Beijing is so desperate for encouraging their birth rate, which is beginning to embrace a radical idea: set limits to overtime in companies. What has happened? That in his (desperate) efforts to reactivate the birth rateChina has asked itself an interesting question: What if overtime in companies is limited? Would that help workers have more free time and energy to focus on their family life and (hopefully) have children? Issues similar to these are those that have been put on the table during what are known as ‘Two Sessions’sessions held every March in Beijing and during which topics of interest to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the National People’s Congress (NPC) are discussed. Its objective is to listen to proposals and set certain objectives, such as GDP growth. “Significant impact”. Throughout the sessions Ideas have been proposed such as creating a new holiday that helps stimulate consumption or giving vouchers worth hundreds of yuan to families in the hope of boosting the economy. Another very present topic has been the demographic crisis that runs through China. Against this backdrop, Lu Ming, CPPCC member, university professor and advisor to the Shanghai government, slipped the possibility of putting limits on the time that Chinese people spend at their jobs. The goal? That they have more hours (and strength) to find a partner, get married and start a home with children. “Excessive overtime has a significant impact on employees’ physical and psychological health, their quality of life, willingness to have children, and marriage prospects,” claims Lu. Beyond its impact on consumption, the idea is that the new holiday also facilitates conciliation. The culture of ‘996‘. It is no coincidence that Lu focuses the focus on the workplace. As remember Financial Timesin certain Chinese companies, including those in the technology sector, it is common to apply the so-called “‘996’ work culture”which basically translates into grueling weeks during which employees work from nine in the morning to nine in the afternoon six days in a row. To that is added, remember the teacher“invisible overtime”, the time that employees remain aware of their companies through their mobile phones. Saturated agendas. The problem is not only how this dynamic affects the health of employees, but also the impact it has on their family life and to what extent it harms birth rates. China has long been is conscious that the agendas hypersaturated They are taking a toll on their demographics, a trend that is well identified, especially in the case of young people. In 2021 the newspaper China Youth Daily public a survey with more than 14,000 university students in which, among other issues, he analyzed his love life. Their result was striking: almost 70% of all those interviewed were single. There are those who believe that after the pandemic that percentage may have increased. “You can’t cover everything”. The phenomenon is not very different from that experienced by other countries (inside and outside Asia) in which birth rates decreased as societies became more competitive. A clear example is South Koreawhere this trend has made parenting more expensive. “Many people say that you have to manage your time well, but no matter how well you plan, you can’t cover everything,” Cao confesses. “I have limited energy, so I need to eliminate what drains me the most. First thing? Dating.” Of course, lack of time or the cost of parenthood are not the only factors that affect birth rates. Cultural and social conditions come into play and, in the case of Chino, the long shadow of the ‘one child policy’ applied for decades. Companies pending. It is also no coincidence that Lu places emphasis on the workplace. China has considered other similar measures to encourage its birth rate, such as betting on four day week. They are not shots in the air. The country relies on studies and experiences like Itochu’sa Japanese company that a few years ago prohibited its employees from extending their working day beyond eight in the afternoon, accumulating overtime. After a while, managers realized that not only profits per employee were increasing. So did maternity leave requests. Birth rate downhill. To the frustration of Beijing, the measures it has taken so far to encourage its birth rate (and there have been many) have proven to be ineffective. In 2025 the nation saw its birth rate plummet to a historic low: 5.63 per 1,000 inhabitantsthe lowest indicator since the Communist Party came to power 77 years ago. The problem is that in 2025 the mortality rate also rose to historic levels (you have to go back to 1968 to find a higher one), which translated into the loss of around 3.4 million inhabitants. Image | LYCS Architecture (Unsplash) In Xataka | After years of catastrophe, South Korea is increasing its birth rate. The question is whether it is just a “demographic echo”

India has been wanting to be the new China for years. The Iran war is putting it on a plate

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The iran war is demonstrating, once again, the fragility of globalization. Just look at this graph: Graphic: Xataka The price of a barrel of crude oil has rampaged because Iran is attacking refineries, the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of the world’s crude oil passes It is abuzz and there is instability in the ‘oil well of the world’. Refineries are targetedbut also the new mine of the world economy: data centers. Iran has attacked data centers of Amazon in Saudi Arabia and Big Tech are setting their eyes on nearby countries where they can move. And what is very attentive is an India that has been pursuing an ambitious goal for years: to become the new China. They have been tempting big technology companies for years and with the narrative of being a safe and reliable country in which to manufacture. The war in Iran is now giving it another argument: kamikaze drones do not fall in its data centers. In short. Data centers have become critical infrastructure. They are from the moment you are investing in them. more than we invested to go to the Moonthe economy of some companies and countries is being linked to their success and, above all, they have been since the AI ​​fever has put the world of hardware in an alley. In war and love, anything goes (or so some apply), and this time we are seeing how they bomb schools, hotels and data centers. On March 1 and 2, Iran attacked with its drones two of the Amazon Web Services, or AWS, facilities in the United Arab Emirates and another center in Bahrain. This has forced the technology company to pause activity in those facilities, asking that companies that had services running on their servers migrate to those in other countries. Solutions. Latency plays a fundamental role in certain operations, so they must be servers that are relatively close to those that have been attacked. And that’s where they come into play both that Amazon has in India, specifically the one in Munbai and the one in Hyderabad. These are data centers from Amazon, yes, but the country has big plans to create an industrial fabric based on this type of infrastructure. At the beginning of last year we echoed a mega data center hard to believe. When most of the world’s large facilities remain below 1 GW of energy capacity, an Indian company wants to create a single data center with a capacity of 3 GW. If we return to the Amazon centers in northern Virginia, in the United States, we see that about 300 installations add up to a total of 2.5 GW. And now India wants one to only have 3 GW. And it wants to have it by 2027, a date as ambitious as its own dimensions. Rain of millions. It is estimated that such a facility would cost between 20,000 and 30,000 million dollars, but it is something that today’s India cares little about: they are burning money to attract industry and steal what they can from China. The country has been offering hundreds of millions of dollars to each technology company that wants to settle in its territory. It’s not just money. India is developingits market is growing and something important: young Chinese are increasingly more qualified and labor is getting more expensive. A cheaper workforce in India, added to government incentives, are two powerful arguments for some giants in the technology sector to move to the country. And, little by little, they are achieving it. Xiaomi, Motorola and even Huawei manufacture complete models of some of their lines in India. Asus, HTC, Samsung, Microsoft and LG have plants for some parts and Apple has taken the production of parts to India. old iPhone models. Another one is Micron, one of the main players in the memory segment. tempting everyone. The country wants more and it is gone sitting with representatives of heavyweights such as the aforementioned Apple… and Samsung. They want the South Koreans don’t just make a few piecesbut rather that they invest in artificial intelligence, hardware and in something that India is eagerly seeking: semiconductor research and development. Samsung is one of the world’s leading foundries and is investing millions outside of South Korea. India seeks to be part of that equation. To do this, they have something called PLI. This is a government initiative that encourages the production of a complete portfolio of products. That is to say: the more complete products a same brand manufactures in the country, the more incentives and economic advantages it receives. They also promise less economic friction with the West, although looking at the issue of tariffs and their ups and downs, it is something that can change from one day to the next. And it’s not all about pure and simple money: India is the most populous country on the planet and it is estimated that the average level of income will continue to rise over the next five years, which also “promise” a good national market for those products that companies manufacture on their soil. The Bangladesh Hi-Tech Park project And the result, with Hyundai being the only one with a significant presence and many open fields, buildings under construction… broken dreams. According to estimates, electronics manufacturing in India was a market of 115,000 million dollars and it is expected triple it by 2027. My colleague Laura already detailed that they were executing the technique of being a steamroller based on releasing billsalthough two things must be said. The first is that one of those objectives, the become the foundry of the worldit’s going to be complicated. TSMC is leading the conversation and is moving both on home soil -Taiwan- and in Europe and, above all, the United States. And what is truly worrying for the country is that, in this search for talent at all costs, it has invested a lot of money in the construction of technological cities that … Read more

For Finland, protecting its roads in World War II was essential, so flying trees were invented

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In a war it is not only doing and being, but also appearing. We have already seen recently how Iran pretended to have parked fighters so that Israel wastes its missiles, but this trick of playing catch-up is older than gunpowder. In fact, in World War II the United States had until ‘Ghost Army’ who was dedicated to these tasks. Precisely within the framework of the second war on a planetary scale, this curious story of concealment of infrastructurewhich is run by Finland. Finland is a Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula, the easternmost of the triad made up of Norway, Sweden and Finland. That makes it have a border with Russia, only at that time it was the USSR. Its situation on the map made it fight three wars in three different positions: the Winter War where it was attacked by the Soviets, the Continuation War in which the USSR attacked it, taking advantage of the Nazis’ Operation Barbarossa and the Lapland Warin which he fought against Germany after signing his armistice with the USSR. The photo that illustrates the cover of this piece and that you can see in full immediately after this paragraph was taken by Osvald Hedenström and is preserved in the photographic archive of the Finnish Defense Forces, along with the legend written by the photographer: “The Finns have camouflaged the 10 km from the border on the Raatteen road with country roads, with fir trees that seem to hang in the air, because right on the border there is an observation tower erected by the Russians. Suomussalmi, Kuivajärvi 1941.06.27” Flying trees on the Raatteen road. Sa-Kuva The cheapest camouflage of World War II That is to say, the legend makes three facts clear: that there was camouflage that covered the 10 kilometers of road from the border, which included rural roads and the main highway, and that the threat was a Soviet observation tower right on the muga. As? With fir trees lying. The Finnish army was noticeably inferior to the Soviet one, so they took advantage of the terrain, explains Colonel Petteri Jouko, a military historian at the Finnish National Defense University. for Atlas Obscura: “The Finns did not have the funds to purchase large quantities of artificial camouflage, such as nets, they did use trees, leaves and foliage to confuse the enemy” Because Finland is also a country with exuberant nature: the density of its forests is around 75% of the territory. according to the FAOso discovering critical infrastructure for the movement of troops and supplies such as roads or railways was a piece of cake for the Soviets. Obviously this resource of camouflaged roads was only effective for sky-level observationbut not for reconnaissance aircraft. Trees laid to hide critical infrastructure. Sa-Kuva This camouflage technique was technically simple but arduous. The Finns cut down the pine trees near the roads and then suspended them with steel cables that they had tied to other trees at the ends, although they also used wooden poles. The result, as can be seen just above, in another photograph from the Finnish archive, is that it seemed that the trees were flying over the roads, which from a bird’s eye view appeared to be just another leafy forest. Currently, none of these tree structures have survived; the passage of time and the abandonment of these rural roads has condemned them to their disappearance. In Xataka | Ukraine has found the antidote to Russian kamikaze drones in World War II: an optical illusion worth 500 euros In Xataka | A secret Nazi bunker in Germany hides the most sought-after treasure on the entire planet: hundreds of tons of rare earths Cover and photographs | SA-kuva (Finnish Defense Forces photo archive)

The war in Iran has reconfigured global airspace and its consequences are worrying

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Europe and Asia, continents united by land, are more separated than ever by the skies. Or, at least, it is more complicated than ever to travel between them. With the conflict in Ukraine and Iran active, airlines are either dealing with a bottleneck in their usual corridors or, on the contrary, are being forced to make long detours. And that has enormous implications. The latest. We have now been two weeks since the United States and Israel opened hostilities against Iran. The country’s response against the latter country and all those neighboring countries that host US bases caused chaos in air mobility in the area. Overnight, thousands of people saw how their flights departing or stopping in Dubai or Doha, two of the 10 largest airports in the world by passenger volumethey were cancelled. And they began to enter the hallways hundreds and thousands of other people looking for a quick exit of countries that were beginning to suffer bombings. Only in the first two days of conflict More than 5,000 operations have already been suspended with Emirates, Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways some of the most affected companies. The consequences were immediate: passengers traveling 10 hours by car to neighboring countries to find free seats and tickets shot over the top. 10,000, 20,000 and up to 80,000 euros. Coping as they can. Little by little, the volume of flights at these airports has been increasing. After the first days of hostilities, Dubai is handling about 500 operations daily but this is much lower than the usual average of 1,200 operations. And airlines are in a similar situation. As stated in Business InsiderEmirates aspired to recover 100% of flights this Friday, March 13. Until the start of the conflict, they operated more than 500 flights daily and at the moment they have barely been exceeding 300. And in a worse situation are Etihad Airways and Qatar Airways, with a volume of operations that does not reach 100 daily flights when in the past they also exceeded 500. The passage between Iran and Russia has become a funnel a funnel. Those who do not have to make a stopover or are not destined for Middle Eastern countries are also not free of problems. With airspace closed over Iran, the passage between Europe and Asia has been reconfigured into a kind of funnel where Azerbaijan is key. And in the south the airlines have to deal with the conflict in the East, in the north they have to deal with the War in Ukraine. Most flights between Europe and Asia without stops in the Middle East are passing through the narrow passage between Türkiye, southern Russia and northern Iran. The other alternative is to divert flights through the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula. These narrow corridors represent a new obstacle for travel from Europe that had to pass through Russia before this country’s attacks on Ukraine. And this last country was chosen for a good part of the routes that connect with China or Japan. Now the airlines have two paths: go around to the south or go around far to the north. More, many more kilometers. Obviously, planes have to fly many more kilometers and burn much more kerosene. In The New York Times They give the example of the Nordic countries. Before 2022, flying from Helsinki to Tokyo was as easy as passing through Russia. Now flights have to circle the latter country from the north or south, spending time, fuel and, of course, money. The same has happened with Helsinki-Bangkok, which used Iran to take advantage of the forced detour to avoid passing through Russia. Now they are diverted through the funnel that is the narrow corridor between Russia and Iran. In BBC They already picked up on this problem a few days ago. With growing tension in the Middle East, some airlines had already chosen to reconfigure their flights through the southern part of the Arabian Peninsula before the first attacks. With greater air traffic in the area and more kilometers to travel, the experts consulted by the media point to something obvious: flights will be longer and the risks of delay greater. And the fuel through the clouds. These diversions also arrive when fuel for airplanes has skyrocketed. They collect in Argus that jet fuel is now double the price of oil before its refinement. The gap between both products is so high that American Airlines has lost 19% in stock market value so far this year. The reason: investors distrust the future of airlines. The fuel used by airplanes is a very delicate refined product whose storage costs are enormous so reserves are small. This causes its price to skyrocket with each new conflict and even its supply to be put at risk. When an unexpected situation involves a war conflict in a corridor through which 20% of oil and gas circulates around the world, the situation is much more delicate. and when 40% of aircraft fuel for Europe arrives through the Strait of Hormuz and it closes, we already know what to expect. From tourism to bankruptcy. The consequences of changes in routes and increases in fuel prices are very diverse. According to Deutsches Bankairlines are at risk of bankruptcy if fuel prices remain so high. They don’t talk just to talk. The last time there was such a big gap between the price of oil and jet fuel was in 2005 after the Katrina and Rita disasters. It was the trigger for the airlines Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines went bankrupt. But the change in routes is also key for the cities of the Gulf countries. Dubai or Doha have achieved attract Western tourists who spend a few days in its streets in a kind of gigantic terminal. Without intermediate stops on major trips between Europe and Asia, they risk losing their status as a recreational space between both continents, with tourists having a handful of days between two long trips. … Read more

Strangely enough, Iran is exporting more oil now in the middle of the war than before the conflict

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The global crude oil market is experiencing “the largest supply disruption in history,” as the International Energy Agency warns. But the almost total blockade of the Strait of Hormuz hides a brutal irony: the same waters that are closed to the rest of the world are being used by Iran to export more oil than it sold before the war. The incessant flow. Far from paralyzing, the Iranian export machinery has accelerated. According to data from Kpler, In recent days, ships have loaded a daily average of 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil, surpassing the barrier of the 2 million daily they exported in February. The big question is where all this crude oil is going. The answer is unanimous: towards China. A graph of Statista illustrates that the Asian giant It is, by an overwhelming margin, Iran’s largest buyer, accounting for 90.8% of its oil exports in 2024. Since the war began in late February, at least 11.7 to 12 million barrels have crossed the strait bound for China, according to estimates from TankerTrackers and Kpler collected by CNBC. In fact, how to detail Wall Street Journal, There is an anecdote that borders on the surreal to illustrate this situation: small Chinese tankers navigate the strait communicating by shortwave radio with the Revolutionary Guard. “We are a Chinese ship. We are going to pass; we are friendly,” they announce in English to ensure safe passage. A question of survival. As an expert explains consulted by Deutsche WelleChina has become the “indispensable lifeline” for Iranian exports in a context of harsh Western sanctions. This has created a “parallel market” where independent Chinese refiners buy discounted crude oil by operating outside the US financial system, according to the agency Anadolu. However, global panic is evident. The crisis promptly shot up oil prices close to $120 per barrel, levels not seen in four years. The impact has been such that, how to explain BloombergBeijing has ordered its refineries to cancel export shipments of refined fuel to ensure domestic supply in the face of the volatility of the conflict. The dilemma of Kharg Island. Although the United States and Israel have bombed thousands of military and strategic targets in Iranian territory, there is one enclave that remains mysteriously intact: Kharg Island. This small piece of land, just about 20 square kilometers, is the true jewel in the energy crown, channeling 90% of the country’s crude oil exports. According to analysts Guardian and France 24the answer is economic terror: an attack on Kharg could catapult the price of a barrel to $150, sending global markets into a “nose dive.” Also, how my colleague Carlos Prego explains in Xatakadestroying the facilities would deprive a hypothetical successor government of the main source of income necessary to rebuild the country once the war ends. Iranian evasion tactics. Iran’s export success is not based only on military intimidation, but on complex sanctions evasion engineering. According to The Wall Street Journalthe regime uses a “shadow fleet” made up of old oil tankers that sail without tracking systems and under false flags, such as those of Comoros or Guyana. On a financial level, the sophistication is just as high. Intelligence documents revealed by Euractiv show that Iran uses shell companies in China to carry out euro-denominated transactions, moving hundreds of millions through accounts at European banks such as Deutsche Bank and BNP Paribas. Simultaneously, a report of ACAMS exposes how the Revolutionary Guard uses the cryptocurrency ecosystem (with multi-million dollar transactions in stablecoins such as USDT) to launder money and finance their affinity groups without going through traditional banking. Finally, although Iran is trying to diversify its departures using the Jask terminal in the Gulf of Oman – thus avoiding the Strait of Hormuz -, CNBC warns of its extreme inefficiency: Loading a supertanker there can take up to 10 days, compared to the one or two days it takes in Kharg. Triumph in the midst of chaos. The conflict in the Middle East has drawn a counterintuitive scenario. While the large producers of the Persian Gulf are bleeding economically due to the paralysis of trade routes, Iran has capitalized on the chaos. The panic of a global energy collapse acts as an invisible shield that protects the island of Kharg from Western bombing. Under this umbrella of armed immunity, war has not suffocated the Islamic Republic; On the contrary, it has given it a maritime monopoly that allows its ghost fleet to continue feeding insatiable Chinese demand in broad daylight. Image | Photo by Fredrick F. on Unsplash Xataka | China just found a hole in the US’s quietest weapon: an algorithm has hacked its B-2s in Iran, and they have the audio

Without helium there are no chips or RAM. And the largest producers are in the eye of the Iran war

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Think of the world as if it were a puppet. It is supported by threads that move, but when one of those threads breaks, the whole wobbles. If several strings break at once, the puppet falls apart. In the technological world, 2026 has started on the wrong foot. The main RAM memory companies They have turned to producing memory for AI, leaving the consumer market. This has caused an unprecedented increase of prices that affects consumers, but also companies. Right now, it’s impossible to guess when it will return to normal because each party involved thinks one thing. And, for a few days now, we have another of those threads that I talked about at the beginning: the iran war. The consequence We are already seeing it immediately: the Strait of Hormuz boilingthe barrel of crude oilreaching stratospheric prices and a gasoline –dieselabove all- through the clouds. But since everything that goes wrong can get worse, now there is another crisis knocking at the door: that of helium. And it is the perfect union between RAM crisis and the war in Iran because without helium… well, without helium there are many things that do not work. Neither does artificial intelligence. RAM crisis + Iran war = no helium For many, helium is that gas that gives us such a funny voice and allows us to inflate balloons that float. For the semiconductor industry, helium is a critical and irreplaceable element in the manufacturing process. Being a noble gas, it does not chemically interfere with the materials of the silicon crystal growth process. inside the huge machines that companies use to create the wafers that are later used to make chips. They prevent materials from reacting with oxygen or other contaminants, so the results are purer. They are like a shield, but helium is also essential to dissipate the heat of the extreme lithography machinesto eliminate waste after each manufacturing cycle and even to identify any leaks in one of these machines. Its particles are among the smallest that exist and are what reveal even the smallest leaks in manufacturing chambers that must be under vacuum. Come on, it is not an element that can be easily replaced. There are two companies that right now have such a deep dependency that any variation in supply would be fatal. What companies? Exactly: Samsung and SK Hynix, the same ones that have dedicated themselves to AI and the same ones that do not plan to lift a finger to alleviate the crisis of RAM memory prices (and therefore of SSDs and any device that has a NAND chip). Both are involved in the manufacturing process of the sophisticated HBM4 memoryand both need helium. The problem is that helium is a byproduct in natural gas production, and some of the world’s largest refineries are in the Middle East. With the war in Iran, it is clear that the civilian targets are data centers and energy producers. If these infrastructures are attacked, the rest of the West is paralyzed, and they have begun to launch kamikaze drones against them. There is the oil company Ras Tanurabut also that of Ras Laffan, from QatarEnergy. It is one of the whales in the production of natural gas and, therefore, in the production of helium. And if the refineries close and the ships do not arrive, the smelters’ reserves begin to run out. There are already voices that they point to problems in the medium term if the situation persists. SK Hynix claims that they have a “diversified supply chain and sufficient helium inventory”something similar to what has commented another of the large chip manufacturers: TSMC. The problem is that these guarantees are short-term. If the situation continues with a prolonged closure of Hormuz, more than 25% of the world’s helium supply will be affected. This will cause the companies that ‘use’ gas the most to begin to see that their reserves are depleted at a faster rate than they are replenished. the market, always so unstablehas already reacted and actions Both Samsung and SK Hynix have fallen in recent hours due to supply concerns. Because we are no longer talking about a price of RAM and runaway gasolinewe are talking about helium being necessary for the manufacturing of any advanced chip, but also in quantum computing or for the numerous space launches. And as Hormuz continues, there will be many entities fighting for an essential, irreplaceable and very valuable good. Faced with SK Hynix’s moderate optimism, more pessimistic voices are already seeing echoes of the component crisis of 2020. Images | VALGO, ASML In Xataka | ‘Focus: The ASML Way’: the book that reveals the secrets of the most powerful European company in the chip industry

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