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Danone wants to pay 1 billion for a powdered shake company. It’s his answer to Ozempic

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Danone has announced the acquisition of Smella British shake and powder company that competed with things like Soylent or Joylent in the “complete nutrition” sector, for about 1,000 million euros. It is an earthquake in the sector, but (above all) because of what it implies. The food industry is preparing for the earthquake caused by the new GLP-1 drugs and is doing so by gobbling up everything there is for functional nutrition. What is Huel? Founded in 2015 in the United Kingdom, it had a turnover of around 250 million pounds in 2025, sells in more than 100 countries and has among its investors to Idris Elba and Jonathan Ross. But none of that explains why a company like this is worth so much money. After all, Human Fuel sells nutritionally complete meals: powders, shakes, bars and instant meals. Although the idea is that these products cover 100% of daily needs, the same company recommends complementing it with conventional food. And why does Danone want that? That’s the big question. The purchase of Huel is part of the strategy Renew Danone which, since 2022, seeks to expand and diversify the company’s work. Danone already has Nutriciaits specialized medical nutrition division (Fortimeloncological supplements, pediatric formulas), which operates in the clinical and hospital setting. With Huel, you are building a functional and specialized nutrition ecosystem that covers all steps from the clinic either probiotics to mass consumption. The central issue is that the market does not stop growing. To grow and transform. It is estimated that meal replacements move between 16,000 and 21,000 million dollars each year. and heanalysts agree in which it will grow at a rate greater than 5%. But what makes this operation more than a corporate purchase is the context. GLP-1 drugs (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro) are radically transforming food purchasing habits. Users eat less, buy less ultra-processed foods, and when they eat, they look for maximum nutritional density in every bite. According to Circana, households with LPG-1 usersThey will represent 35% of food sales in the US by 2030. Nestlé has already launched a specific line (Vital Pursuit), Conagra Label your dishes “GLP-1 Friendly” and General Mills is reformulating its products so they have more protein and fiber. And why now? Basically because Danone has money. In 2024, they had a cash flow of more than 3,000 million euros. In 2025, Danone CEO made it clear that the company wanted to “go on the offensive with acquisitions. And I have done it. In the last few years they have bought three emerging companies in key sectors (and many others that, finally, has not been able to acquire). Danone isn’t buying a smoothie maker: it’s buying a position in the new food chain the GLP-1s are creating. One where food is not sold for pleasure or convenience, but for function. Image | In Xataka | Neither Soylent nor Joylent. May the future not take away the ritual, flavor and texture of eating.

is left out of the elections and reopens the debate on its verification

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Carrying your ID on your cell phone is no longer a hypothesis, it is a reality in Spain. The official application MyDNI allows you to identify yourself with legal validity on a day-to-day basis, replicating in digital format several of the uses of the physical document and relying on systems such as the QR code verification. On paper, the approach is clear: simplify identification without losing guarantees. But when this technology leaves the controlled field and enters more demanding contexts, questions arise. And that is precisely what just happened. The point of friction has not taken long to appear, and it has done so in one of the environments where any identification system is most stressed: elections. The Central Electoral Board has agreed suspend the use of MiDNI and MyDGT in electoral processes until “it is guaranteed that the control of the verification of the identity of voters by these systems is sufficiently secure.” The measure responds to a request from the Popular Party, which had warned of “doubts and social alarm” around how identity is verified in these applications, especially in the absence of additional mechanisms. A digital advance in the face of its first major trust test To understand where that point of friction appears, you have to look at how the system is designed. MiDNI allows you to display on the screen a version of the document with basic data such as name, photo and ID numberelements that the Central Electoral Board itself had considered valid to identify the voter. But it also offers an additional level through a QR code that gives access to the complete DNI and whose validity is temporary. This code acts as a real-time verification mechanism, since it connects with the National Police servers. In practice, however, it is not always used and there is no general system at the tables to check it. Until now, in fact, the Central Electoral Board itself had maintained a more flexible criterion. According to El Paíshad already rejected a similar request from the PP before the elections in Castilla y León. Interior also defended that this interpretation fit with the flexible criteria that the Board itself has been applying to facilitate voter identification, to the point of allowing voting with an expired DNI or without documentation if the members of the table know the voter personally. The change in criteria, therefore, does not come after incidents reported at the tables, but rather as a result of reopened doubts about how identity should be verified with these applications. The case does not mean the end of the digital DNI, but it does introduce an important nuance in its development. MiDNI continues to be part of the identification digitalization process in Spain and maintains its role in different face-to-face uses. At the same time, its landing in a context such as the electoral one has reopened the debate on how identity should be verified in especially sensitive environments. The suspension agreed to by the Central Electoral Board is proposed as a temporary measure until this aspect is resolved. Images | MiDNI Portal In Xataka | Carrying your ID on your cell phone is very easy. You just have to take advantage of your next visit to the police station

The Bernabéu was facing a financial disaster after the concert fiasco. So he has converted to tennis

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The Bernabéu will convert its retractable grass into clay courts for training at the Mutua Madrid Open 2026. The move is possible thanks to the engineering of the stadium renovation, which has invested more than 1.3 billion euros, and the gap in events left by Real Madrid’s calendar. It is also the latest expression of an ambition that has been colliding with neighbors and noise limits for years. What’s going to happen? From April 23 to 30, the Santiago Bernabéu will stop being a soccer field and become several clay courts. The best tennis players on the circuit (among others, Carlos Alcaraz, Jannik Sinner, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek) will train at the Real Madrid stadium during the first week of competition of the Mutua Madrid Open 2026, which begins on April 20 at the Caja Mágica. The Bernabéu will be a minute’s drive from the players’ hotel. The information, advanced by The New York Timesmarks the arrival at the stadium of a sport that Florentino Pérez has been fooling around with for years. How to do it. All this is possible thanks to retractable pitch system installed during the remodeling of the stadium, completed at the end of 2023. The field is divided into six trays measuring 107 by 11.67 meters, each weighing approximately 1,500 tons, which are moved by 24 transport carts and stored in the hypogeum: a 30-meter-deep underground greenhouse equipped with growth lamps and air conditioning systems that keep the grass in optimal condition. The entire process takes approximately six hours. Once the grass is stored, the concrete base is free to install any other surface, such as clay for tennis. It is the same mechanism that allowed us to host the first NFL game in Spain last November. 1.1 billion does not pay for itself. The conversion into a multifunctional stadium is not Florentino’s whim, although he tries to sell us that it has always been a personal dream, as we explain below. The renovation of the Bernabéu has cost, after chaining up to three loans, around 1,100 million euros. Football is not enough. Real Madrid plays around twenty home games per season, which leaves the stadium empty more than three hundred days a year. The strategy is to fill those days with events that generate additional income, following the model already practiced by facilities such as SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles or Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The club surpassed €1.2 billion in annual revenue in 2023-24 in part thanks to this diversification. AND as we counted at the timethe large Spanish stadiums are looking for new sources of income: Athletic is studying options with San Mamés, Betis is working on Villamarín, Barcelona has just invested 1,450 million in the Camp Nou. They all look for the same thing: that the business does not depend on those 19 or 20 game nights a year. Dreaming since 2019. In the general assembly of Real Madrid that yearthe club president explained that injuries had frustrated several attempts to organize an exhibition match between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the Bernabéu. Pérez had been thinking about the idea for some time. Federer retired in 2022, Nadal in 2024, and the match never came. But the link with tennis remains intact: Nadal has declared on several occasions his desire to preside over the club one dayand Alcaraz, number one in the world, is a declared Madrid fan. The first team players frequently appear in the boxes of the Caja Mágica during the tournament. That the Bernabéu now hosts the training of the circuit’s great figures is, at least, the modest and executable version of that effort by Florentino Pérez that was never fulfilled. Previous setbacksand how to solve them. The plan to turn the Bernabéu into an events machine has had a serious setback: the concerts. Since the inauguration of the stadium as a music venue in April 2024, the residents of Chamartín complaints about noise levels accumulated which sometimes exceeded 85 decibels, when the municipal ordinance establishes a maximum of 53. The City Council processed sanctions for a total of 2.6 million euros between April and December 2024. In September 2024, Real Madrid suspended the concerts scheduled until early 2025, and the complaint by the Association of People Injured by the Bernabéu is still ongoing. The situation ended up expelling artists like AitanaLola Índigo or Dellafuente from the stadium. On the other hand, tennis training does not generate this problem: a group of tennis players training in a stadium without 80,000 attendees in the surrounding streets is, acoustically, an activity of another category. For the club, it is also a way to demonstrate that diversification is possible without raising eyebrows. In Xataka | Shakira is not convinced by any stadium in Madrid to close her world tour. So he’s going to build his own

96 drones with a science fiction launch

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In recent years, the cost of many drones has dropped to the point that many military models are infinitely cheaper than the missile that tries to shoot them down. At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence have allowed relatively simple machines execute tasks that previously required entire human teams. In China they have taken an unprecedented step towards the war of the future. The next step. Yes, Beijing just taught in a video something that goes far beyond the individual drone: a coordinated swarm of up to 96 units which works like a single system intelligent at a devilish speed. This is not about launching devices, but about orchestrating a distributed air force where each drone has a role and all act as a single organism, marking a clear leap towards a dominated war by software, algorithms and autonomy. The demonstration also leaves a clear idea: the future will not be a more advanced drone, but rather many drones working together as if they were one. The “kill chain” converted into a single system. As can be seen, the Atlas system integrates a single sequence the entire combat process, from detection to attack, eliminating traditional intermediate steps along the way. In the test, the swarm identified a target among several similar ones, made decisions autonomously and executed a precise attack in mid-flight, displaying a chain of destruction continuous and automated. There is no doubt, this approach completely transforms war, because it is no longer a question of isolated platforms, but of complete systems capable of to perceive, decide and act without interruptions. Science fiction. The heart of the system is its deployability: we are talking about a vehicle that can launch drones at a rate of one every three secondsquickly generating a critical mass in the air. This technical detail is key, because it allows one to be built in a matter of minutes. dense and coordinated formationone capable of saturating defenses or executing complex attacks. It is, therefore, not just speed, it is the ability to turn a launch into a controlled avalanche of perfectly synchronized units. A swarm that thinks and reorganizes itself. As we said, each drone is equipped with algorithms that allow you to communicateshare information and adapt in real time, avoiding collisions and adjusting your position within the group. Besides, can be reassigned during the mission, changing functions as the combat evolves, which introduces unprecedented flexibility in conflicts. In other words, this kind of “collective brain” turns the swarm into something closer to a distributed intelligence than to a set of independent machines. Algorithmic control. They had something in the PLA that already we had seen beforethat one of the most profound changes has to do with the fact that a single operator can control the entire system, delegating complex tasks such as target recognition, mission assignment or route planning to artificial intelligence. This reduces human burden and accelerates decision times to levels that are difficult to match by traditional systems. War thus goes from depending on operators to depending on previously trained algorithms. Attack and defend in another way. Plus: the system allows combine different types of drones in the same mission, from reconnaissance to electronic warfare and attack, creating staggered waves capable of overcoming defenses or penetrating in depth. That is to say, for either side, progress blurs the line. between front and rear and forces us to completely rethink anti-aircraft defenses, which no longer face just one missile or drone, but dozens of them acting in a coordinated manner. A new and disturbing scenario where the real weapon is no longer the drone itself, but the system that connects them. Image | CCTV In Xataka | Ukraine is close to achieving a milestone that no one has achieved: building the largest drone industry without China’s help In Xataka | 200 drones in the hands of a single soldier: China is advancing very quickly in a type of war that seemed like science fiction

Saudi Arabia had billions to build the future in the desert. He has decided to sacrifice them to destroy Iran

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The cranes have stopped roaring in the Tabuk desert. There where it should rise a colossal artificial lake at 2,600 meters high and a science fiction metropolis valued in billionsToday the priority is to look at the sky looking for the trail of ballistic missiles and kamikaze drones. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) had promised the world a glass and petrodollar utopia called NEOM, a monument to his own ego designed to whitewash the regime’s image. However, the harsh reality of the Middle East has ended up imposing itself on the renders in 3D. A crossroads in the gulf. We are looking at what is now, for all intents and purposes, a Third Gulf War, and Saudi Arabia has reached a historic crossroads. Caught in the war waged by the United States and Israel against Iran, the Saudi monarchy faces an existential dilemma: save its economy and its megalomaniac pharaonic project, or take advantage of the chaos to dismantle, once and for all, the regime in Tehran. And judging by the shadow movements of its leaders, Riyadh seems willing to let its economic utopia bleed if it means it can win this war. Facing the gallery. Behind closed doors, Saudi Arabia’s message is one of absolute containment. In recent communicationsthe Saudi government has insisted that it has “always supported a peaceful resolution” and that its only priority is defending its population and infrastructure from daily attacks. This is what an analysis by Dr. Turki Faisal Al-Rasheed has defined as “strategic patience”: a tactic in which Riyadh avoids direct confrontation to protect its investments, while subtly encouraging the weakening of its regional rival. The reality is more complex. However, the leaks tell a very different story. As revealed The New York TimesBased on sources informed by US officials, MBS has been privately pressuring US President Donald Trump not to stop the war. The crown prince sees the current US-Israeli military campaign as a “historic opportunity” to destroy Iran’s hardline government. The talks have reached the point where MBS would have advocated for ground operations and even the military takeover of Kharg Island, the Iranian oil heart. The diplomatic board is abuzz. Mohamed bin Salmán’s phone does not stop ringing, as he urgently needs to shield his vital infrastructure from attacks and, to do so, he relies on the Western umbrella. As detailed ReutersBritish Prime Minister Keir Starmer personally telephoned MBS to condemn the Iranian offensive and confirm the deployment of more British defensive military equipment. London’s goal is to protect the kingdom and try to ensure that the sea trade route does not completely collapse. But while MBS is piling up shields and secretly pressuring Trump not to relax the blow against Iran, other regional allies are desperately trying to put out the fire before it devastates the entire Gulf. As revealed by the agency AnadoluPakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif contacted the crown prince to underline the “urgent need” for a de-escalation. Islamabad’s move is not a toast to the sun: Pakistan has emerged as the great shadow mediator, to the point of offering to host direct talks between the United States and Iran based on a 15-point American peace plan. The sacrifice of Vision 2030. “It’s the last thing he wanted. He wants stability and order, he doesn’t want missiles or drones flying.” This is how forceful an expert seemed consulted by him Financial Times. The diplomatic “detente” that Saudi Arabia had signed with Iran in 2023 has been shattered. Iranian retaliatory attacks have hit the giant Ras Tanura refinery, the Shaybah field and the Prince Sultan air base. The cost of this war for MBS’s dreams is already incalculable. Formula 1 had to cancel its April races. In the entertainment sector, the CEO of Savvy Games Group recognized that the war escalation It will “cool the perception” of Saudi Arabia as a safe destination for investment of 38 billion in eSports. The biggest collateral victim: NEOM. The artificial lake project Trojenaawarded for $4.7 billion to an Italian construction company, is already facing leaks about delays of between three and four years. The 2029 Winter Games have been postponed indefinitely and the extra costs suffocate an already deficient budget. The war and instability in the Red Sea discourage foreign investment, vital for these science fiction cities to go from render to reality. The reality of the Saudi coffers is critical. As revealed The New York TimesEven before the conflict broke out, the crown prince was already facing serious financial challenges. The 2030 deadline is approaching and the government assumes budget deficit forecasts for the coming years, suffocated by excessive spending on megaprojects and vast investments in artificial intelligence that are straining the country’s resources to the limit. And a prolonged war threatens to blow everything up, since MBS’s success depends on a single factor that is currently non-existent: a safe environment for investors and tourists. Holding the pulse. To withstand the challenge, Saudi Arabia has had to resort to an engineering work born of fear in the 80s. With the Strait of Hormuz strangled by the Iranian threat, Riyadh has activated its logistical “antidote.” State oil company Aramco is pumping against the clock through the East-West Pipeline, a 1,200 kilometer pipeline that crosses the desert to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. The objective is to move up to 7 million barrels a day by land, avoiding Tehran’s missiles. The landscape in Yanbu is like something out of a movie: an “army” of at least 25 supertankers (VLCC) crowds on the coast to evacuate some 50 million barrels. However, there are no magic solutions. The port has a physical funnel (it can only load between 4 and 4.5 million barrels per day) and, in addition, ships must cross the Bab al-Mandab Strait, exposing themselves to the Houthi rebels. Added to this is that the pipeline only moves crude oil, leaving markets such as Europe without their vital supplies of refined products such as diesel, exacerbating the global energy … Read more

We thought that the heart of the Milky Way was an immense black hole. Mathematics has changed this idea for us

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Science advances, and this also means rewriting what we believed to be ‘absolute truth’ within different fields of knowledge. For example, for decades the scientific consensus has been unwavering in pointing out that in the heart of the Milky Way, about 27,000 light years from Earth, there is a huge supermassive black hole. But now this is not so clear thanks to a new study who has “seen” something even more interesting in this location. Breaking rules. It has been a study published this year the one who has proposed that the “monster” that governs our galaxy is not a black hole, but an ultradense core of dark matter. A compact object of almost four million solar masses that a priori would be composed entirely of fermionic dark matter. How do they know it? To support this bold claim, researchers have used the RAR model. This is very important, since, unlike the classical theory, which separates the central black hole from the halo of dark matter that surrounds the galaxy, this new approach unifies both concepts into one. In this way, it is proposed that dark matter particles are highly concentrated in the galactic center, forming a compact and massive nucleus, while on the outskirts they are diluted, forming the well-known and extensive dark halo. The big question. If it’s not a black hole, why does it “look” like one? And it is something normal that passes through our minds, especially after the year 2022 when the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) gave us the first “photograph” of Sgr A* where a bright ring could be seen surrounding a deep central darkness. And although this could be definitive proof that there is a black hole at the center of our galaxy, this is not the case. This is where previous key work published in 2024 comes into play, which pointed out that a dense core of fermions illuminated by an accretion disk generates a “shadow” visually indistinguishable from that cast by a classical black hole. That is, this dark matter is disguised to be able to deceive our telescopes when taking different measurements. Mathematical tests. In addition to this interesting theory, the scientific team has subjected it to a rigorous statistical examination using complex simulations and Bayesian analyzes to verify its robustness. Here they have shown that this dark matter core perfectly explains, for example, the orbits of the S stars that orbit the galactic center. But this unified model also fits precisely with the most recent data on the galaxy’s outer rotation curve provided by the Gaia DR3 mission. You have to look better. Although the mathematics add up and the model passes the statistical tests with flying colors, dethroning a supermassive black hole from the scientific imagination is not an easy task. And it is somewhat relevant, since the dark matter core lacks an event horizon, which is the absolute gravitational boundary of no return from which any element would be absorbed by the black hole. To know once and for all whether we are dealing with a black hole or a giant ball of dark matter, astronomers are aiming for the next generation of observations. We need to track what happens a little closer to the absolute center and future data of the GRAVITY interferometer (installed on the Very Large Telescope) will be key to detecting the subtle orbital deviations in the closest stars that would end the debate. Images | Dns Dgn BoliviaIntelligent In Xataka | We have a serious problem in our plans to colonize Mars: the astronauts’ blood is mutating

the largest purchase in its history in one of the worst moments

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It has taken a while, but finally Renfe has given the green light to the purchase of new AVE for use in Spain. The Board of Directors of the operator has made it officialin what has been the largest purchase of high-speed rolling stock in its history. Below all the details. What has happened. The Minister of Transport, Óscar Puente, announced this Wednesday in the Congress of Deputies that Renfe has approved the tender to acquire 30 new high-speed trains for an amount of 1,362 million euros. The operation, which according to El País It exceeds in size the purchase of 30 Talgo Avril units made between 2015 and 2016, and also includes an extension clause that would allow the order to be increased to 40 trains, with a total investment that would be close to 1,777 million. Why is it coming now? The tender was scheduled for February, but the Adamuz accident in January, in which 46 people lost their lives, forced Renfe to postpone the decision. That accident, in which an Alvia was involved on the Madrid-Seville line, fired alarms about network status and the age of part of the fleet. And the crisis of accumulated incidents in the Spanish railway system has accelerated the need to renew the train fleet. In detail. The new convoys will be designed to travel at 350 km/h, although reaching that speed will require prior infrastructure works. Adif plans to begin the renovation of the Madrid-Barcelona line this year, where the change of sleepers will allow the current limit of 300 km/h to be exceeded. Each train must have a minimum capacity of 450 seats in two classes, and include accessible spaces for people with reduced mobility, bicycle areas and restaurant services. Technically, the trains will operate in standard UIC gauge (1,435 mm) and must be equipped with the ERTMS/ETCS and ASFA signaling systems. The deadlines. The contract demands that the first five trains will be available within 40 months of signing, and that the entire fleet will be delivered within 78 months. The agreed supply rate is one new train approximately every 45 days. The contract has a total duration of six years and also includes the corresponding spare parts. Who can win the contract. The main candidates are Siemens, with its Velaro Novo model, and Hitachi Rail, with the ETR 1000 (the same train that Iryo operates and that was involved in the Adamuz accident, although the investigation points to a failure in the infrastructure as a probable cause). Also have been visited by Minister Puente and the president of Renfe, Álvaro Fernández Heredia, the facilities of the Chinese firm CRRC and the Spanish plants of Talgo, CAF and Alstom. And now what. The arrival of these trains comes with the intention of providing a response to demand growth of the AVE during the next decade. And for this there are several challenges ahead: that the infrastructure is ready to take advantage of the 350 km/h and ensure that delivery times are met. On the other hand, the operator needs regain traveler trustand this purchase seems one of the first steps to make it possible. It remains to be seen who gets the contract. Cover image | Wikipedia In Xataka | Two floors, 200 meters long and one objective: to modernize the most used and chaotic Cercanías line in Spain

The new Siri will not be Gemini with another face. Apple has helped Google to build what it could not do alone

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The new Siri, according to rumors, was going to land with iOS 26.4. This version arrived on compatible iPhones yesterday and, to no one’s surprise, there is no trace of Gurman’s prediction. What we have woken up with is new details about the agreement between Google and Apple related to access to Gemini. And there are interesting details. The agreement. Quick context: Apple and Google have teamed up to give Apple access to Gemini. The company has been promising for years that Siri, integrated into Apple Intelligence, will be an assistant that lives up to expectations. But after delays and more delays, it became clear that Apple needed help. The multi-year collaboration allowed Apple Foundation Models to rely on Gemini models, running on the platform Private Cloud Computing from Apple. Beyond this, no details about the agreement were revealed. The new. According to The Informationthe collaboration between Apple and Google will be somewhat deeper than expected. So much so that Apple would have full access to the Gemini model within its facilities. One of the company’s main purposes would be to produce smaller models designed to run locally and oriented to specific tasks within Apple devices. Distillation. Apple would not have agreed with Google to access Gemini with an integrated Siri interface. The objective is to use the main model to “distill” more efficient models, with lower requirements and fast operation. In other words and based on this information, Apple has made clear Google’s superiority in its AI models. So much so that he has needed to access them directly to be able to create the solutions that he has been promising for two years. What’s coming. According to Gurman, Apple is finalizing the changes to Siri to present it on June 8 at its WWDC, the developer conference it holds annually. In it, we will supposedly see Siri as a chatbot integrated into iPhone and Mac, as a real alternative to ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. Late, very late. Apple’s problem is not being late with AI. It is coming at a time when giants like Claude iterate practically daily and when it is more than difficult to surprise the world. All the promises of Apple Intelligence, that contextual Siri, and that deep integration with the phone are already achieved by some of its rivals, since Apple has been waiting for two years. The big question is whether or not it will be worth the wait. In Xataka | Apple confirms the date of WWDC26 and hints at something important: AI will not be the only focus

The wine industry believed it had its new El Dorado in China. Until China asked its officials to stop drinking

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a few days ago Dynasty Fine Winesa wine company listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange, had to share the class of information that makes shareholders’ coffee (or wine, as the case may be) choke: their 2025 profit forecast has plummeted more than 50% with respect to 2024. The news might not have interest beyond its board if it were not for the fact that it connects with a larger trend: changes in the Chinese market that have led to the Asian giant ceasing to be the inexhaustible gold mine that the sector imagined in his day. And in part it is due to the guidelines on morality by Xi Jinping. What has happened? That the Western alcohol industry’s dream of finding a new big gold mine in China seems to be slowly receding. And this is especially noticeable in wine cellars. After years of accelerated growth, in which the Asian giant seemed increasingly interested in wines from Australia or France, demand has started to slow down. The signs are clear. has fallen per capita consumption, imports, production and there are companies such as Treasury Wine Estates, Pernord Ricard, Diageo or Dinasty Fine that have seen how it gets complicated the panorama in the country. China is no longer in the news for increasing its world import quota from 1 to 8% in record time to make headlines for the drop in demand. What does the data say? There are many indicators to pull from. Of all, perhaps the most eloquent is the one published by the Interprofessional Wine Organization of Spain (OIVE), based in turn on Chinese customs data. The organization recently revealed that in 2025 imports suffered a decline of 26.7% in volume, although the increase in the average price reduced the fall to 14.6% in terms of value. The “prick” affected exporters like France or Chile. Is it the only indicator? Not at all. Another producing country that has also suffered the ups and downs in the Chinese market is Australia. Although the wineries there received good news in March 2024when Xi Jinpuing lifted the tariffs that penalized his wine exports, the joy was short-lived. A few months ago Wine Australia published a report in which it recognizes that shipments of merchandise to other countries were reduced by 6% in volume and 8% in value in 2025, a decline that is partly explained by the fall in two markets: the United States (-12%) and especially the Chinese one, which contracted another 17%. Are only imports falling? No. Just a year ago the University of Adelaide published a study which shows that the changes in the Chinese wine market are much deeper and more complex. Per capita consumption, for example, skyrocketed during the first decade of the century, then registered fluctuations until 2016 and from that year on it suffered a decline that extends at least until 2022, the last year analyzed. The production curve is not good either. “We have seen how the (Chinese) market has completely dried up,” he complained recently in statements to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) the owner of a winery that exports wine from New South Wales, Australia. Your case is illustrative. Until 2019, 40% of its profits came from China. The collapse in sales in that market has now translated, however, into a surplus that will force him to let 30% of his grapes rot this year. Has the market changed that much? It seems so. In November 2025 the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post (SCMP) published an extensive report which made its premise clear from the same headline: “European wines stay on the shelves while China looks for cheaper drinks.” In the chronicle he talks about a contraction in the consumption of both premium wines and traditional spirits, while other options such as craft beer seem to be gaining ground. The information is accompanied by a graph that reflects the fall in wine imports between 2017 and 2023. If there were any doubts about whether the trend only affects European or Australian wineries, a few weeks ago The New York Times public another report in which he explains how the drop in demand affects the distilleries of Maotaiin China itself, dedicated to the production of baijiua powerful liquor. Why is demand falling? There are several factors. Influences the economic slowdown and the hangover real estate crisiswhich have in turn affected spending on alcohol, especially when we talk about expensive imported wines. There are also analysts who they point to a change in consumer habits, especially among the youngest. Recently Global Timesa Chinese newspaper linked to the communist government, published a report in which he told precisely how the new generations show less interest in drinking. In that aspect they connect with other societies that live the same phenomenon. Is it the only reason? No. There is another. And although a priori it may seem minor or secondary, it is relevant enough for WSJ I related it directly with the decline of the wine market. Which is it? The position of the Chinese Government. A few months ago the Executive headed by Xi Jinping issued a strict guideline in which it prohibits the serving of alcohol, luxury dishes or cigarettes at official meals. The objective: end excesses. “Extravagant banquets and excessive alcohol consumption were a regular part of official life in China. But such excesses, long criticized by the public, have come under increasing scrutiny. As part of a new push to ensure discipline, China has imposed a widespread ban on alcohol at official receptions,” it proclaims. a statement published in May 2025 by the Information Office, which warns: “Excessive alcohol deteriorates the image of officials.” And is it being fulfilled? Although it cites the rest of the economic and cultural factors that influence demand, WSJ points out the government guideline as one of the factors that explain the change in trend in China. He even shares a concrete example: last year during the conference of a state-owned … Read more

Meta has ended up firing its developers to pay for AI

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Mark Zuckerberg’s company is not having its best week. To the sanctions imposed by a US court for not protecting users of the addictive consequences of their platformsjoins a new round of layoffs that affects hundreds of people in five business areas. It’s not the first time so far this year, and it probably won’t be the last either. We cannot say that the measure has caught Meta employees by surprise, because a few days ago Reuters I was already ahead that the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp was planning to cut staff due to the increased costs of AI development. Now have materialized eliminating the departments closest to the metaverse. 700 employees on the street and a metaverse that goes out. According to published NBC Based on sources close to the company, Meta will lay off about 700 employees in this round. The cuts will affect Reality Labs, the division that for years was the flagship of Zuckerberg’s big bet on the metaverse, which just a few days ago announced the Horizon Worlds closure on Quest headsetsas well as some in the human resources departments, sales and Facebook employees, as pointed out The New York Times. Those affected are a small fraction of the nearly 78,000 employees that Meta currently has on staff, but the reason given by the company is already a classic in big tech: “Meta’s teams restructure or implement changes periodically to guarantee that they are in the best position to achieve their objectives,” said a Meta spokesperson. in a statement to which you have had access NBC. Layoffs down, bonuses up. Hours before these layoffs were announced, Meta presented a new stock compensation program for six of its senior managers. The message between the lines has not gone unnoticed. While the company cut staff with the argument of reducing costs to face the huge investments in AIwith a forecast of expenses of between 162,000 and 169,000 million dollars for 2026, the executives closest to Zuckerberg saw their compensation increased by up to 921 million dollars each for the next five years. Meta justifies the increase to its managers as a tool to retain talent in the middle of the war for the best AI profiles, but the temporal coincidence between both announcements could not have been more unfortunate. ​Layoffs without financial hardship. Historically, a company laying off its employees was a clear sign of financial problems. Instead, in the age of AI, each round of layoffs is celebrated on the financial markets with increases in the price of shares because it is a clear sign that the company is restructuring to adapt to changes in strategy for the development of AI and continue generating million-dollar income. In fact, one of the phenomena that is occurring In the latest rounds of layoffs in large technology companies, while hundreds of employees are being laid off from certain departments, new vacancies are opening up. to hire new employees with another profile more AI oriented. ​Meta is not an isolated case. What happens in Meta is part of a dynamic that is repeated throughout the sector. Amazon, Microsoft and other big tech companies have announced massive cuts in recent months, and in all cases the AI appears as the main justification for layoffs. According to data From the consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, AI has been the argument for 12,304 layoffs so far in 2026, the equivalent of 8% of all layoffs recorded in that same period.​ In Xataka | Mark Zuckerberg spent millions on a “superintelligence” team. He is dedicating it to creating a personal AI agent for you Image | Goal

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