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China will bring together more than 300 humanoid robots in a half marathon. The goal goes beyond running

April 17, 2026 by usatoday24

Seeing more than 300 humanoid robots preparing to run a half marathon in Beijing has something of a futuristic image, yes, but also quite a declaration of intentions. The appointment, scheduled for April 19 within the framework of The Beijing Yizhuang Half Marathon and Humanoid Robot Half Marathon in 2026 is not presented as a simple flashy exhibition, but as an event in which China will bring together dozens of brands, teams and systems to test them before the public. What we have before us is not just a race: it is another way of showing us to what extent humanoid robotics has become an area that the country wants to take very seriously. New edition. Last year, Beijing had already held a half marathon of humanoid robotsbut now the leap is evident: preparation has mobilized dozens of teams and has forced the organization of large-scale night tests to check that everything works on the ground. Xinhua reported that more than 70 teams participated in the last comprehensive test held between the night of April 11 and the early hours of the 12th. More than resistance. The interesting thing about this appointment is not only in seeing which robot can withstand the distance better, but in observing how it travels it. Both autonomous navigation and remote control equipment participated in the previous tests, which will allow different technical architectures to be shown. That nuance matters a lot, because it shifts the focus from the simple spectacular image to something more useful for reading the moment of humanoid robotics in China. What is at stake is not only completing the journey, but also checking what degree of autonomy and what type of control can be sustained in an open environment. The names of this edition. If there are robots that help to better read the level of this appointment, those are the ones that arrive with clearer objectives and a more recognizable profile. The Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Center has confirmed the participation of Tiangong Ultra and Tiangong 3.0, with three units of the former competing completely autonomously, without human navigators or external guidance signals. Unitree has also confirmed the return of the H1, in a version adapted for long distances. Added to this is the presence of Lightning and Yuqi Boy, the two models with which Honor enters this race. What China wants to teach. This race can also be read in a much broader way. It is not only about seeing dozens of humanoid robots facing a half marathon, but also about interpreting the message that China projects with that image. Humanoid robotics has become one of the areas in which the country wants to make its position clear.. And few formulas are as effective to do so as taking that bet out of the laboratory, turning it into a public event and showing it on a stage capable of attracting attention inside and outside its borders. Images | Beijing Government In Xataka | Anthropic was the “don’t be evil” of AI for developers. Now he’s squeezing them all

Volotea begins to charge extra due to the rise in oil prices on its flights. 97% of passengers have agreed to pay it

April 17, 2026 by usatoday24

More and more airlines are already taking measures to contain the energy chaos that has arisen as a result of the conflict in the Middle East. Although many of them have chosen to cancel a good number of flightsothers have chosen to make their tickets more expensive. One of them has been Volotea. And the Spanish airline has launched a price adjustment policy linked at the cost of fuel which can make the ticket already purchased more expensive up to a week before flying. Crisis in the Middle East. The blockade of the Strait of Hormuzthrough which it passes about 40% of oil consumed by European airlines, has skyrocketed the price of fuel and forced the sector to look for ways to avoid absorbing the blow on their own. Volotea has been the first Spanish airline to transfer this cost to the passenger explicitly and with its own mechanism. What exactly has he done. Since March 16, Volotea has applied what it calls the Fair Travel Promise: seven days before the departure of each flight, the airline consults the market price of fuel in public sources and, if it has increased compared to the time of the reservation, charges the passenger a supplement of up to 14 euros per person per trip. According to they count From 20 Minutes, most surcharges are between 7 and 10 euros. And the adjustment can also work the other way around: if the price of fuel drops, the company returns the difference. What options does the passenger have? The traveler who receives the surcharge notice has a period of 48 hours to decide what to do. You can pay the supplement and continue with your plans, request a full refund of the ticket, or take advantage of the time offered by the airline to modify or cancel the reservation for free up to four hours before takeoff. The company ensures that its customers are aware of this policy before booking, since they must accept it at the time of purchase. The numbers that Volotea manages. According to data from the airline itself, 97% of affected passengers have chosen to pay and keep their trip. The company interprets that percentage as a sign that the measure “is aligned with customer expectations,” in its own words. In addition, it has canceled a small percentage of flights due to higher fuel prices, although it assures that it affects less than 1% of its total schedule. Countermeasures. Not all airlines are acting the same. According to Expansioncompanies such as Air France-KLM, Qantas or Cathay Pacific already apply fuel supplements, while IAG (the group that owns Iberia and British Airways) or Ryanair do not do so at the moment. Groups such as Lufthansa or Ryanair itself have asked the European Union to study a joint purchasing model for kerosene, similar to the one that was launched with gas after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Why can it go further? If the Strait of Hormuz blockade is prolonged, pressure on fuel prices could intensify. The Airports Council International (ACI Europe) and Ryanair already have warned that the problem of cancellations in the industry could worsen if supply suffers. Spain has some margin thanks to its national refining capacity (almost 9.9 million tons of kerosene per year, according to share El Mundo), but it is not a structural solution. Volotea has moved in a different way, and now we wonder if more airlines will join this strategy. Cover image | Dylan Agbagni (Wikipedia) In Xataka | Airlines are becoming more imaginative to save costs: Lufthansa is going to clean economy class less

“Toxic” people are altering your DNA and making you age almost a year faster

April 17, 2026 by usatoday24

‘Toxic’ people can be anywhere, such as the office, school or even in one’s own homewith an effect that quickly depletes our energy when dealing with them. In psychology, these types of people are beginning to be called ‘hasslers‘ and are defined as people who complicate life, whether they are family members, work colleagues or even partners. The problem is that they can even affect physical and mental health. They make us old. That a toxic person can damage our mental health It is something that we have already internalized enough from our own experiences, but now the PNAS magazine has confirmed that chronic stress derived from these relationships has an impact on the “biological clock”, causing our cells to age much faster. How it looked. To reach this conclusion, the researchers analyzed to more than 2,000 adults from the state of Indiana in the United States for almost 20 years. But here they did not limit themselves to asking them about their stress levels in a survey, but rather they cross-referenced the data with different biological markers from their saliva. From here, scientists used epigenetic clocks as algorithms that do not measure how old we are on the DNI, but rather different key points in our DNA that indicate how aged our cells are. Among these points, for example, stands out the methylation of DNA or some very specific chemical marks. The results. This is where it was seen that indeed people who were in relationships with very conflictive people in their immediate environment had an accelerated aging rate of an extra 1.5%. This means that biological age increases by an average of nine months. Because? That something that seems purely psychological affects on a physical level seems like something that has little to do with it, but the reality is that interacting with these people constantly increases the levels of cortisol in the blood, which is the stress hormone. And having a lot of cortisol is not recommended at all, since it is related to an increase in oxidative stress that damages cells. But in addition, the study observed that this process inhibits a key enzyme in cells such as telomerase. And it is key because its function is to protect DNA to prevent it from shortening at an accelerated rate to the point where the cell has to be destroyed. Something that also favors cellular aging. Not everyone suffers the same. Here women, smokers and people with low social support show greater vulnerability to this accelerated aging by being with the wrong people. Furthermore, the study identified that family members and work colleagues have a greater weight in this wear and tear than friends, probably due to the difficulty of “escape” from those ties easily, while with a colleague you have to put up with it no matter what. It can be fixed. Until now we are quite clear that having a toxic relationship gives us more misfortunes than joys, but the question is obligatory: can we go back? Here science suggests that we are facing a partially reversible process, meaning that with psychological therapy, the establishment of clear limits in the social sphere or even physical distancing from that toxic person, the clock can be “slowed down.” Images | Italy Gariev In Xataka | The science of being single: a macro study warns that well-being plummets if you have not had a partner by 25

China already has its “flying truck.” The HH-200 has just completed its first test flight

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

China has just put into the air one of those machines that, by concept and ambition, do not go unnoticed. It is not a new fighter jet like the J-35Abut rather a commercial unmanned aerial system for transportation, completed its first test flight on April 15. There is still no logistics network deployed, but there is a movement that allows us to understand where the Asian giant wants to move in the pilotless air transport of goods, especially within the framework of its commitment to the so-called low-altitude economy. First flight. After the entire development phase, the program has already left paper behind. CCTV places the inaugural test in Puchengin the province of Shaanxi, and explains that it lasted for 22 minutes, with correct operation of the onboard systems and stable evolution of the device during the journey. To be precise, this is the first real flight evaluation, and it has been completed satisfactorily. The figures of the device. Once the test is confirmed, the next thing is to take a closer look at what kind of aircraft China has in its hands. It is a system with a square section fuselage, high wing, double engine and double boom, with dimensions of 12.2 meters long, 16.8 meters wide and 3.7 meters high. In the operational section, it boasts a maximum load capacity of 1.5 tons and a maximum range of 2,360 kilometers. Furthermore, according to official information, it is capable of reaching a maximum cruising speed of 310 kilometers per hour. The logistics part. Beyond dimensions or scope, one of the keys to the HH-200 is how its operations on the ground and in flight are planned. China News assures that the system has been designed with civil aviation standards and that it can perform the flight intelligently and autonomously from start to finish, with obstacle avoidance functions supported by AI. Added to this is a direct passage fuselage and a rear configuration designed to facilitate loading operations, allowing work with pallets, loading platforms and conventional forklifts, to the point that two operators could complete loading or unloading in five minutes. Where do you want to operate. The device is not only designed to move goods from one point to another under ideal conditions. Instead, it has a strong environmental adaptation capacity and can execute missions on short runways, high-altitude airports, extreme temperatures and adverse weather. China News gives us some interesting concrete examples: cargo routes in coastal and border areas, internal logistics routes between specific points and operations between islands in Southeast Asia, before opening the door to uses such as emergency rescue, remote sensing or agricultural and forestry tasks. From trial to market. After this first milestone, the next step will not be an immediate implementation, but an additional testing phase. It is expected that the vehicle will continue to accumulate flight tests before its eventual entry into service, an important nuance to avoid confusing initial technical success with operational maturity. Even in this scenario, according to China News, the project has 20 order intentions and closer cooperation with several firms. We have to wait to see if we will see the HH-200 beyond the testing scope. Images | CCTV In Xataka | Boeing has surpassed Airbus after years behind. That doesn’t mean I’ve regained control.

We have covered the ISS in moss with a single objective. And now the possibility of “terraforming” Mars is closer

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

Last year, scientists published the results of a study in which they told how they had covered the outside of the International Space Station (ISS) with moss. Although the study It was published in Decemberit was not a Christmas decorative strategy. They wanted to check if this primitive plant is capable of surviving the inhospitable conditions of space. The results were so positive, they could take humanity one step closer to terraforming Mars. A primitive plant to start a new life. The first plants that appeared on Earth were bryophytes, more specifically mosses. They are very resistant plants, capable of growing directly on rocks. From there, they can photosynthesize if they have the right water and nutrients. It is a process in which they capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and generate oxygen. In addition, they generate organic matter that, upon death, becomes the perfect substrate. so that other more complex plants can grow. That is why the study was carried out to see if moss can survive in space. It was proven yes, so it could be an interesting candidate for terraforming Mars or the Moon. The study. Basically, what was seen in the study is that the mosses exposed on the outside of the ISS were able to survive for 283 days exposed to extremely cold temperatures and very intense ultraviolet radiation. When they were returned to Earth after that period, more than 80% had survived. In fact, planting them made them germinate. Carl Sagan already predicted it (more or less). The dream of terraforming other planets is not something new, although it is true that for a long time it was almost a fantasy. In 1961, for example, Carl Sagan made an interesting proposal to terraform Venus. It is known that this planet neighboring Earth It is covered by a dense layer of clouds. Since clouds here on Earth are usually made of water, the famous astrophysicist proposed planting cyanobacteria inside them. These microorganisms have the ability to carry out photosynthesis, like plants. Therefore, they could consume carbon dioxide and generate oxygen. The problem is that it was later discovered that the clouds of Venus are actually made of sulfuric acid, so their proposal became unattainable. Proposals to terraform Mars. No further proposals have been made to terraform Venus, but there have been proposals to do the same with Mars. It’s also pretty inhospitable, but it has a lot more potential. In fact, last year was published in Nature a study that talked about the possibility of turning the red planet into something similar to Earth with only four steps. The first would be to melt the ice, so that it becomes an immense ocean of liquid water. For this, the temperature would have to be increased by at least 30ºC. heat is needed. The second step, therefore, is to obtain that heat. It was proposed to use solar sails that direct most of the solar radiation to these ice reserves. Aerosols could also be dispersed in the atmosphere that cause a kind of greenhouse effect, further retaining solar radiation inside the planet. A vaulted habitat. Although Mars has its own atmosphere, it would have to be reinforced with something that would allow it to create a biosphere. Therefore, it would be interesting to build vaults into which to introduce the first Martian inhabitants. Life that brings more life to Mars. Finally, it would be necessary to use genetically modified-extremophilic microorganisms. These are microorganisms capable of surviving in extreme conditions. For example, microorganisms that survive in media with high salt concentrations or very high or very low temperatures are Extremophiles. Even so, it would be necessary to genetically modify them to make them even more resistant to extremely low temperature and pressure conditions. These microorganisms would be photosynthetic, so that they generate oxygen and organic matter. Moss comes into play. Following the results of the International Space Station experiment, it is clear that moss could be a good complement to these extremophile microorganisms to terraform Mars. Unfortunately, it is estimated that to have the technologies necessary to meet all the requirements we will have to wait at least 100 years. It’s a long time, but with everything humanity has waited for, it would only be a little longer. For now, as the road safety advertisements say, the important thing is to arrive. There are already space agencies trying to date that first step. Let’s start there. Image | Julius A OBARO (Wikimedia Commons) and Freepik In Xataka | Chernobyl was filled with mushrooms after the nuclear accident. Thanks to them we discovered a “new form of photosynthesis”

‘GTA Online’ has been making more revenue than many new games for 13 years

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

A game released in 2013 for previous generation consoles is earning more than a million dollars a day in 2026. It is the online mode of ‘Grand Theft Auto V’, which has just a few months left before its own creators try to replace it with the most anticipated sequel in video game history, ‘GTA VI‘. The dilemma this poses for Rockstar is unprecedented (and the figures that show it came in a not exactly official way). The hacking. On April 11, the ShinyHunters group (responsible for previous security breaches in Ticketmaster or Santander bank, among others) accessed the Rockstar Games servers through an exploit in cloud management software. The company confirmed the attack, although it described it as having limited impact on its operations. What hackers posted after Rockstar refused to pay a ransom for the information it was not code from the long-awaited ‘GTA VI0, but business metrics extracted from the internal analytics platform Anodot. And what they leaked was not bad news, quite the opposite. To the point that Take-Two’s shares rose as soon as it went public. A million a day. According to leaked information (which Rockstar has neither confirmed nor denied), ‘GTA Online’ earned an average of $9.59 million per week between September 2025 and April 2026, with a weekly maximum of almost 28 million and a minimum of 4.7 million. The annual figure is around 500 million dollars. More than a million a day, not bad for a game that debuted in 2013. How they do it. The backbone of the model is Shark Cards, packs of virtual currency that players purchase to acquire cars, properties or weapons within the game. The Shark Cards generated more than 5 billion dollars between 2014 and 2024but the thing is that only 4% of the active player base has spent real money on the game. They are the so-called “whales”, users who concentrate practically all of the spending, and who generate these exorbitant incomes. ‘GTA Online’ is, in that sense, a business model like the most aggressive free-to-play games. The cherry on top of GTA+. Added to all this is GTA+, a paid monthly subscription that Rockstar launched in 2022 and which, according to the same leaked data, reached its peak of 1.3 million subscribers in December 2025, coinciding with the launch of the update.A Safehouse In The Hills‘. It added luxury mansions to the game and resumed the narrative of ‘GTA V’ with the reappearance of one of its protagonists, Michael. The death of ‘Red Dead Online’. These figures also explain why Rockstar stopped updating ‘Red Dead Online’ regularly. The online mode of ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ generated an average of $507,000 per week between June 2024 and April 2026, compared to 9.59 million weekly for ‘GTA Online’. Take-Two was immediately clear where resources needed to be concentrated. Coexistence. Although Rockstar has not officially detailed what its online component will look like, leaked court documents They suggest that ‘GTA VI’ will include a multiplayer mode (something that, now that the colossal income of ‘GTA Online’ is known, no one doubts). But at the same time, that’s the problem: in a message to shareholders in FebruaryTake-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said that “I have every reason to believe that we will continue to support ‘GTA Online’. There is a large community that enjoys it and remains engaged.” Does that imply two live-services simultaneous, with the consequent investment in resources, updates and player service? There is a precedent. When ‘GTA Online’ arrived on PS4 and Xbox One in 2014, Rockstar did not close the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions. Both generations coexisted for more than a year receiving the same content, and in 2015 the ‘Ill-Gotten Gains Part 2’ update was the last significant one for the old platforms. Even so, those servers were not permanently turned off until December 2021, six years later. The history problem. If they were two different services, the online mode of ‘GTA VI’ would arrive without twelve years of updates, without thousands of accumulated missions, without the ecosystem of properties, vehicles and businesses that ‘GTA Online’ players have built for more than a decade. The examples of sequels that failed to attract the players of the previous game are numerous, but ‘Payday 3’ stands out among them all (the number of players for ‘Payday 2’ is still five times higher). Big losses. Players who have spent years accumulating virtual money, garages, businesses and personalized clothing in ‘GTA Online’ will hardly dare to start from scratch. And at the moment no one has dared to talk about a transfer of assets between both games: the practical and design implications of such an exchange make it practically unfeasible. (And so not to mention FiveMthe community role-playing mod based on ‘GTA V’ that Rockstar bought in 2023 and is still an active source of income). Most likely. As Kotaku predictswe’ll most likely see a multi-year period of coexistence, with Rockstar gradually trying to move the user base from one game to another while keeping both running. Controlled closure of ‘GTA Online’, indefinite maintenance with minimal updates or something in between? It all depends on how fast ‘GTA VI Online’ grows into a game that, let’s not forget, will attract thousands of new players. At the moment, the bar he has to reach is very high. In Xataka | In a time when almost no one develops their own graphics engine, ‘GTA VI’ arrives to punch the table

an “early summer” arrives in April

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

In April 2023, an anomalous warm episode broke absolute records from across the southwest. The thermometers marked 38.8 degrees in Córdoba, 37.4 in Morón and 36.9 in Seville. It seemed like an isolated event, something related to the El Niño event that was about to begin that May. But not. Summer arrives this weekend in much of the country. What does AEMET say? According to the agency“temperatures are expected to be noticeably higher than normal for this time of year, especially the maximum temperatures that will be more typical of early summer.” And no, it is not an exaggeration: according to ECMWF data, a large part of the southwest of the peninsula and the Ebro valley will be in the 99% percentile compared to the 1991-2020 reference period to date. That is, we are going to experience one of the warmest temperatures ever recorded for April 20 in those areas. The first heat wave of the year? No, the temperatures will not reach that high. It must be remembered that, from a technical point of viewthermometers should read temperatures that would be high for July and August for three days in a row. Obviously, although the weekend is going to be very hot for the month of April, we are not going to reach those extremes. However, that does not mean that it is not dangerous. It is well documented that the first warm events of the year are the ones with the greatest risk because they usually catch us off guard. It is true that 30 degrees will be more uncomfortable than dangerous for most citizens; But it is good for the most vulnerable to pay attention. Spring is not what it used to be. Not even a year as strange as this one is free from this type of phenomenon. And that’s driving farmers across the country crazy: If a couple of weeks ago the frosts crushed the cropsthis Saturday the heat will do its thing. Just when the grain heads, the stone fruit set and the late flowering of the olive tree occurs in the south. January 2026 has given us many reasons for optimism, but it is very difficult to face the future without seeing all the meteorological setbacks that lie ahead. Image | BenBaso | Xataka In Xataka | AEMET has just made it official: Spain faces its first risky heat wave of the year this weekend

What is a Roman bust doing in a pre-Hispanic tomb in Mexico?

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

It is not strange that from time to time archaeologists surprise us with fascinating finds. A bone that tells us about shows with wild animals in Roman Britannia, a stalactite that reveals to what extent the Mayans suffered from the droughts, a 16th century wreck sunk with part of the menu of its crew members… The list is long, but in it it is difficult to find milestones like the one left 90 years ago an excavation at the site of Tecaxic-Calixtlahuacain Mexico. While studying a pre-Columbian tomb, historians located what appears to be part of a Roman sculpture, a figure that some experts date to the AD. 2nd and 3rd centuries AD The question is obvious: How the hell did it get there? First jump back: 1933. To understand the enigma we have to jump back 90 years, to 1933, when a team led by José García Payón He was excavating in the Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca site, 65 kilometers northwest of the capital of Mexico. There the experts located a funeral offering which included pieces of gold, copper, turquoise, rock crystal, jet, ceramic… and something much less common in a pre-Columbian funerary trousseau: a terracotta head. Click on the image to go to the tweet. Two big unknowns. The bust in question shows a bearded face, with a style, features and even a hairstyle that fit more in ancient Rome than in pre-Hispanic America. The piece is so curious that in recent decades it has fascinated archaeologists and led to several investigations that try to answer two big questions: Where did the figure come from? And how the hell did it end up among the offerings in a tomb from the late 15th century? The scope of the mystery is better understood when we know a fundamental piece of information from the 1933 excavation. The ringleader did not appear in an open (and manipulable) space, but among offerings buried under three intact floors of a pyramidal structure. That is to say, everything indicates that no one altered the trousseau since the date of the burial, which experts date between 1476 and 1510. If that small bearded bust that looked like something out of ancient Rome was there, it was, in theory, because someone deposited it before sealing the tomb. Second jump back: II AD The leader of Tecaxic-Calixtlahuaca continued to be involved in unknowns until early 60’swhen Ernst Boehringer, the president of the German Institute of Archaeology, suggested that it was probably of Roman origin and had been made between the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. He is not the only one who thinks this way. Bernad Andreae, another eminent archaeologist, shares the hypothesis and even has gone one step further: “The hairstyle and the shape of the beard present the typical features of the period of the Severan emperors (193-235 AD).” In case there were any doubts, in the mid-90s the University of Heidelberg, in Germany, subjected the figurine to a thermoluminescence dating test. The time frame he provided is much broader, but it clears up the mystery: he concluded that the head had to be manufactured between the centuries IX BC and XIII AD Some sources even limit that window between the II BC and VI AD If we take into account that the rest of the items of the funerary trousseau were from the Aztec-Matlatzinca era (15th-16th centuries AD) the question was repeated again: How do you explain that an ancient Roman figurine ended up buried there? And what is the answer? The reality is that experts only handle hypotheses, not certainties. Some are fascinating. Others not so much. Among the latter there is one that has been on the table for a while and explains that for decades the academic world viewed the Calixtlahuaca figurine with certain suspicion. We can accept that the bust is Roman, even that it was made at the beginning of our era and ended up in a pre-Columbian tomb that remained sealed until the 1930s; but that does not mean that we have to accept that the figure had been buried there at the end of the 15th century. How is that possible? Very easy. Perhaps someone placed it there 90 years ago, during the García Payón excavation. “It could be a hoax, it could be a Roman figurine placed at the site or laboratory,” slides Michael E. Smithprofessor at Arizona State University. It is not a theory just thrown into the air. The same expert recalls that in the academic world it is rumored that the famous ringleader was snuck in by a student to play a prank. There is even a suspect. “Many archaeologists in Mexico have heard the story and tend to believe it.” The great unknown. When Smith tried to delve deeper into this possible explanation, he encountered a seemingly insurmountable wall. He couldn’t confirm it. Nor deny it. It also doesn’t help that his protagonists have died and that Payón was not especially exhaustive with his notes. In fact there are those who assure that the collection of artifacts extracted from Calixtlahuaca exhibited in the Museum of Anthropology of Toluca includes ceramics that come from other sites. Another plausible possibility is that the ringleader was associated with the trousseau for a mistakenot intentionally. Strange yes, impossible no. It is not the only hypothesis that archaeologists have raised. Smith himself acknowledges that there are others on the table, equally plausible, such as the fact that the figure was brought with him by a Spaniard at the beginning of the colonial period and for some reason ended up included in the trousseau along with other pieces whose origin can actually be delayed until the beginning of the 16th century. After all, the Calixtlahuaca burial occurred prior to prolonged contact with indigenous people, but it coincides with the first years of exploration. As notes Arkeo News That leaves out a remote possibility: What if, for a historical twist, a Roman antiquity traveled in the first colonial expeditions and then … Read more

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

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

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

A gasoline engine that uses 3L per 100km is a dream come true. And only Spain could manufacture it.

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

With gasoline and absolutely shot dieselsreduce a few tenths (or liters) to 100 It is the wish of practically every Spaniard. Although the efficiency of current engines is increasing, and gasoline consumption is not as high as it was two decades ago, giants like Repsol are struggling to develop ultra-efficient engines that run on renewable fuel. And they have achieved it. They are not alone. Repsol has the fuel, but needs a partner to develop the engines. That partner is horse powertrain, a Joint Venture between Renault and the Chinese group Geely. This is dedicated to designing, manufacturing and selling thermal and hybrid propulsion systems, something that allows both Renault and Geely to continue exploring the combustion vehicle of the future without abandoning their electrification plans. Horse H12 Concept. This is an engine that promises less than 3.3 liters per 100km in the WLTP cycle, with a reduction in consumption according to the company of 40% compared to the average of new gasoline vehicles registered in the last two years. The best of all? The engine has been developed in Spain, and runs on 100% renewable Repsol gasoline. Horse has its operational headquarters in Madrid, engine factories in Valladolid and gearbox factories in Seville. Why is it important. The Horse H12 Concept is not a shot in the dark. It is an evolution of an already existing engine: the HR12. It is a 1.2-liter three-cylinder produced in Romania, and used in models such as the Dacia Duster. What makes this Concept version special is its exhaust gas recirculation system, a specially optimized ignition system and a hybrid gearbox. This Concept version, in alliance with Repsol, shows how far these engines can go with the help of synthetic fuel. It is not an experiment with an engine designed from scratch, it is the refinement of something that already exists. The other 50%. Repsol is now capable of producing gasoline of 100% renewable origin on an industrial scale at its Tarragona plant. According to what it indicates, it is compatible with all current gasoline vehicles, without requiring any type of modification. It’s your Nexa fuelcurrently available at 30 of Repsol’s stations. The same happens with its diesel, which promises to reduce net CO₂ emissions by up to 90%. And if you’re wondering how much the joke costs, approximately 10 euro cents more per liter compared to conventional fuels. Combustion is not dead. The comings and goings of Europe with combustion cars in 2035 They make it clear that the future will involve electrification. But the plans of giants like Geely and Repsol to try to keep more environmentally responsible combustion solutions alive are a clear indication that gasoline and diesel still have life ahead of them. In Xataka | The question is no longer whether diesel will continue to rise: it is whether it will become an expensive fuel forever.

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