Alcohol needs to win over a generation that is becoming less interested in alcohol. Your strategy: offer something else

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The alcohol industry has come to an interesting conclusion. Maybe Generation Z is less interested for the drink that millennialsbut that does not make it immune to an age-proof claim: curiosity. Starting from this premise, the companies dedicated to producing distillates and wines have decided to refocus their strategy and bet on new products that appeal to the youngest. And that happens so much for him came no/low as for him tequifresa either Dubai chocolate. The goal is clear: connect with a demographic cohort that seems to be losing interest for alcohol and will decide the future of the industry. What has happened? Basically, Madrid has just said goodbye to the Gourmet Salonone of the largest European fairs for the high-end food and beverage industry. Until then, nothing out of this world or that may be of interest beyond the specialized industry. The curious thing, how has revealed the EFE Agro agency, is that on this occasion at IFEMA not only bottles of traditional wines, craft beers and traditional spirits have been seen. Companies in the sector have wanted to bet on new unorthodox products and flavors to awaken the curiosity of customers. And that (although at first it may seem anecdotal) is of interest beyond the industry. Why’s that? Because the sector is transforming. Just take a look at the newspaper library to check it out. Although Spain chains record tourism figuresin 2024 the sales recorded by the brewery association fell by second year in a rowsomething that had not happened for more than a decade. The figures Advanced by Circana suggest that the outlook was more promising in 2025, although also with surprise: sales of ‘without’ beer increased almost three times as much as those of alcoholic beverages. Its turnover is still much lower than that of ‘con’ beer, but there is a trend change. And the rest of the drinks? The panorama is similar in the case of wine. The Spanish Oenology Federation estimates that in 2025, 9.35 million of hectoliters, 5.2% less than the previous year. As with beer, its demand is very established and has experienced fluctuations in recent years, but that does not mean that wineries are looking for new business niches. For example, the development of ‘without’ wines or the use of new formatslike packaged broth bag-in-box or served directly from the tap. With respect to spirits, the employers’ association estimates that in 2024 their consumption contracted 3.7%which aggravates the fall that had already suffered in 2023. What is the strategy? From what has been seen these days at IFEMA, the industry wants to go one step further. Bottles of tequila flavored with strawberry, melon, peach or even with even more unorthodox flavors have been promoted on the stands. Orujos Panizo, which has been dedicated to the production of spirits for almost 90 years, has launched, for example, a cream liqueur Dubai chocolate. The objective is clear: to take advantage of the wave of popularity of the sweet and reach out to the young public at a time that, the head of the company recognizes, is not exactly good for the industry. The strategy does not seem misdirected. EFE Agro assures that the demand for some fruit creams with tequila is growing by double digits. Of course, the product starts from “very low” figures. Are there more ideas? Yes. To bet on him tequifresa either meloncello the one known as came no/lowpartially dealcoholized or alcohol-free broths. From being practically unknown in the sector, ‘without’ bottles have begun to sneak into professional tastingscontribute millionaire income to some companies and (above all) generate promising business expectations in the medium term. The specialized medium Italian Food News assures that the ‘without’ wine market expects to expand with a compound annual growth rate of 10% until 2033, expanding its market from 2,000 million to around 5,200. Does consumption change that much? It seems so. And the change is especially interesting among Generation Z, the population cohort born between the mid-1990s and the first decade of this century. Although 76% of young people between 14 and 18 years old admit having tried alcohol at least once in their life and 21% have gotten drunk in the last month, their relationship with drinking is changing. At least when compared to previous generations. “Generation Z drinks less than millennials and these, in turn, less than the boomers“, explains to The Country Andera Mellado, promoter of a ‘sin’ beverage distributor. “They’ve seen how their elders drank and they don’t want to get into that.” Is it just supply and demand? No. It’s something cultural. Habits change, the way of find a partner and to enjoy the leisure. They even change events that until not so long ago were inextricably linked to the “open bar”, like weddings. The vocabulary is also transformed. Terms become popular straight edge and Dry January and Anglo-Saxon expressions like superb curious, mindful living either zebra stripingwhich identify new ways of approaching drinking. That of course doesn’t mean that alcohol has disappeared from Generation Z’s radar or there are no more bottles. 28% of young people recognize that in the last month they have binged on alcohol, the so-called bringe drinking. What do the studies say? That in general there is a decrease in alcohol intake. Although Spain has one of the higher levels of consumption, WHO data show that the average per capita has decreased in recent decades. If in 1975 it reached 18.5 l (pure alcohol), in 2022 it was already around 11.7. The study on consumption among younger youth (14-18 years old) from the Ministry of Health also shows a gradual loss of interest in drinking over recent years, especially since the middle of the last decade, although in both cases it is a trend with fluctuations. Images | Panizo Distilleries, Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash), Vitaly Gariev (Unsplash) and Ministry of Health In Xataka | Having a beer or a wine at 65 seems like a harmless indulgence. We have more and more evidence to … Read more

This is how the Rocketroll project works

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Artemis II has been an example of how far space travel can go. So far that there will come a time when the technologies currently used to propel ships will be insufficient. There is no point in using solar energy if we move too far from the Sun or travel to the Moon, with 14-day nights. Nor is it useful to use the best fuel if the trip is going to be so long, so far and with so much load that refueling needs would be unfeasible. For this reason, nuclear propulsion has been considered for some time to take ships where they cannot go today. The European Space Agency (ESA) has also jumped on that bandwagon and has already carried out its first studies. An order for three consortia. The ESA just announced the first results of the Rocketroll project, which has asked three independent consortia to design an approach to use nuclear electric propulsion in European space missions. This is something that other space agencies, such as NASA, have already begun to study, but in European territory work had not yet been done on this specific issue. Thermonuclear propulsion vs nuclear-electric propulsion. In fact, nuclear propulsion for spacecraft had already been studied in Europe. That is the key to the Alumni project, presented by ESA last year. The difference is that in that case a thermonuclear propulsion system was designed. That is, a reactor in which nuclear fission generates heat that is used to heat a fluid that serves as a propellant. What has been studied in Rocketroll is different, since nuclear fission generates electricity, which is supplied to a series of electric motors. Each one has its advantages. In absolute terms, thermonuclear propulsion is more powerful. However, it is accompanied by technical problems, such as storing a sufficient amount of propellant. Plus, it’s very expensive. The other option is cheaper and, accompanied by some chemical propulsion, is just as powerful. That is why ESA is so interested in having its ships work with this mechanism. Three consortia, three proposals. Three multidisciplinary consortia have participated in this project: Tractebel, CNRS and OHB Czech Space. Each has made a proposal that would be incorporated into the entire system. For example, the first consortium has proposed using enriched uranium as a generator of nuclear power. Uranium-238 is the most abundant in nature, but it is not fissile. This means that a nuclear fission chain reaction cannot be maintained from it. Nuclear fission is the process by which energy is obtained in nuclear reactors, so it is of no use to us. On the other hand, Uranium-235 is fissile. Enriched uranium is richer in this isotope, so it can be used in a nuclear reactor. Compared to other options, such as Plutonium-239, Tractebel considers that this is better. For its part, CNRS proposes using a molten salt reactor. That is, a reactor in which this type of salts are used as coolant and/or fuel to trigger nuclear fission. Finally, the third consortium proposes that the ships be larger to optimize the results. Scheme of the alumni nuclear thermal propulsion system (Image rotated) A safe option. All consortia conclude that nuclear-electric propulsion can open new paths for space exploration. This is great news, but we may have doubts about its safety. Before them, they remember that it is a risk-free process. The uranium that would be activated remains inert and is only activated, to trigger nuclear fission, once it is in orbit. There would be no risks while handling the ships on Earth. In addition, shields are used so that astronauts and spacecraft cargo are not at risk when the reaction is triggered. We must not forget that space is also a large source of radiationso ships must be properly protected. Next steps. This first step by Rocketroll has been little more than a brainstorm. There is still quite a way to go. For example, each system will have to be studied separately, from the nuclear reactor to the radiation shield, including the energy conversion system, the thermal heating and cooling system and the electric thrusters. For all this, ESA has already formed a nuclear propulsion working group that will oversee the design and construction of subscale hardware. There will also be laboratory tests to confirm that everything is working properly before even thinking about testing the system in space. This technology may be the future, but it must be tested slowly. Image | THAT In Xataka | The West stopped building nuclear power plants because they were too expensive: China is teaching it a lesson

Europe thinks that it is the one who wants to become independent from US technology companies. It’s actually the other way around.

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We are going to have to make a dictionary when we talk about artificial intelligence. Yes generative artificial intelligence, general artificial intelligence, AI agents and Google has its Personal Intelligence. This service has been available for a few months in the United States and is now expanding to the rest of the world for users of the company’s suite. To all? Well no, not everyone, and Google leaves out the entire European economic area, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. What does this do. First of all, Gemini Personal Intelligence is like an ‘entity’ that has an eye on all the Google applications that we use with our account. It is a connection between the entire ecosystem which has access to all the information from YouTube, Maps, Calendar, Drive, Gmail, Docs or Photos. The idea is that they know everything about you to help you with day-to-day requests. Google itself gives an example: Since I connected my apps through Personal Intelligence, my daily life has become easier. For example, two weeks ago we needed new tires for our 2019 Honda minivan. While waiting at the store, I realized I didn’t know the size of the tires, so I asked Gemini. Nowadays, any chatbot can find these tire specifications, but Gemini went further. He suggested two options: one for daily driving and one for all-weather conditions, with references to our family road trips to Oklahoma that I found on Google Photos. Then, he neatly extracted the ratings and prices of each one. When I got to the counter, they asked me for my license plate. Instead of looking for it or losing my spot in line to get back to the parking lot, I asked Gemini. It extracted the seven-digit number from an image in Photos and also helped me identify the specific model of the truck by searching Gmail. Just like that, we had everything ready. Everyone can appreciate how useful this is, of course. Because, furthermore, it is not free: you need to be on an AI Pro or Ultra payment plan. Europe, you are excluded, beautiful. But if you think that life can be solved for you like the person in the example and you live in Europe, you should know that you cannot access it. Google has made it very clear that the feature is not available in the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland due to the strict privacy regulations that are found within the General Data Protection Regulation. It is one more service that does not reach European users due to these stricter privacy conditions and, in addition, they have not detailed any deadline so that we Europeans know more or less when it will be available in the region. If you read us from a Latin American country and you are interested in this software, good news, is available. Privacy. Regarding privacy, being something that we should take very seriously, it is curious how in the age of AI that privacy is eroded because the models have more and more data. We give a lot to this software and we don’t really know who’s watchingand Google wanted comment What is the privacy approach of your Personal Intelligence. According to the company, we can link and unlink applications from the ecosystem according to our preferences, but once we connect Photos, for example, you will have access to everything. They say that the photos in the gallery will not be used to train the model (here it is extremely sensitive because we each have personal photos on our mobile) and they take “measures to filter or hide personal data from the conversation.” They point out that “we do not train our systems to learn your license plate number, but to understand that, when you ask for it, we can find it.” Regarding health, a sensitive topic that is topical due to what El Salvador has done, they assure that “Gemini tries to avoid making proactive assumptions about sensitive data such as your health, although it will analyze that data if you ask it.” ¿Pressure? In any case, and what Google’s Personal Intelligence has to offer draws more or less attention, it is evident that carrying out a global launch of this magnitude without waiting to ‘sort the papers’ to launch it in Europe is also a declaration of intent. Europe is at a time when it is seeking its military sovereignty, aerospace and technologicalareas in which depends largely on the United States. We are building our infrastructure and systems, and not launching something like this in Europe is one more way of putting pressure on the organizations that, very actively, sand have positioned about the treatment of our data by these large companies. Image | Google (edited) In Xataka | Sometimes erotic AIs are AIs. And sometimes, they are a man from Kenya who charges two dollars an hour

urine is helping solve the fertilizer crisis

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I never imagined that one day I would find myself in the position of calculating how much human urine Spain produces each year, but here we are: adding permanent residents and international tourists, the country produces 23,948 million liters of urine per year. 23,000 million that we are literally flushing down the toilet and that, in short, could help us solve the enormous problem that is approaching us with the fertilizer crisis. Use urine as fertilizer? It’s not a new idea. In fact, it has been around for more than fifteen years and there are already commercial fertilizers on the market (the Swiss Aurin, for example) and others that are under development (one in Spain by the ICTA-UAB). In places as diverse as the United States, France or the International Space Station, the use of urine is the order of the day. For years the Rich Earth Institute Vermont (USA) has a program dedicated to examining the safety and efficiency of using urine for this purpose. As they themselves explained on the BBCthe idea of ​​recycling urine responds to two basic reasons: the first is “the fertilizers it produces, which are valuable for agriculture”, the second is “the pollution it avoids”. Resolved. As if that were not enough, as our DAP colleagues explainthe University of Surrey has just solved one of the key processing problems: clouding of membranes in the concentration process. And then? If we have been working for 15 years, why do we still depend on the Gulf? Because the barrier is not scientific, the barrier is infrastructure and regulation. Let’s think about it for a moment: yes, Spain produces almost 24,000 million liters of urine, but how the hell are we going to collect it? We would need an entire circuit of toilets with urine separation, a channeling, collection and processing system on a national scale. Plus, if we had all that, there would still be a ton of regulatory issues and associated risks (like pharmaceutical waste). The thing is moving. That is true: the rising price of Gulf urea makes all these alternatives more attractive. And it does it automatically. In that sense, the 473 liters of urine produced by each adult can be a small ‘gold mine’. The issue, as I say, is that it is not simple: studies indicate that in the sewer urine is diluted up to 100 timesso it must be separated at source and collected with separate circuit toilets (something that, well, right now is anecdotal in urban environments). But it starts somewhere. Because, as said Siddharth Gadkari, lead author of the study published in the Journal of Environmental Chemical Engineering, human urine hides a kind of paradox: “although it contains the essential nutrients we need for agriculture, we currently treat it as waste.” With a little luck, these connection tests will move legislation and in a few years we will begin to see how that begins to change. Image | Philippe Murray Pietsch In Xataka | Going to the bathroom is a waste: urine is the real liquid gold and is full of valuable things

There have been three times that PS5 has increased in price. These reconditioned ones with a 24-month warranty are the best alternative to spend less

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We told you a few weeks ago: PlayStation 5 has increased in price (again). The cheapest version of the console now starts at 599.99 euros, a price that is high and even more so if we take into account that it came out at 399.99 euros back in 2020. In what scenario does that leave those of us who want to renew the console? Well, in a complicated one, but in which there are alternatives to renew console for less money. We have an example in Back Market: we can get a PS5 Digital from 480 euros. PlayStation 5 Slim Digital The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A PlayStation 5 at a good price and with a 24-month warranty PlayStation 5 arrived almost 6 years ago in two different versions: without reader for 399.99 euros and with reader for 499.99 euros. If it had happened like in other generations of consoles, the normal thing at this point is that we could buy a PS5 in stores at a much lower price. However, paradigm shift: Now the same console costs 200 euros more. In a year where we will have great releases like ‘Marvel’s Wolverine‘or the more than expected’Grand Theft Auto 6‘, There are many people looking for a PlayStation 5. It is true that offers come out from time to time, but with the new prices that these consoles have, it will be difficult to see a good deal. That’s where these Back Market consoles come in. This store has expertly refurbished devices at very tempting prices. That is the case of the PlayStation 5 Digital, available right now for 480 euros. What do you want with a reader? You also have it available for 515 euros. The best thing is that, in addition, they are devices that They have a 24-month warranty and 30 days free trial. Other refurbished consoles that may interest you We have focused on these two models, but Back Market also has a section dedicated only to consoles. As a summary, we leave you some below: Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Alexandre Schrammel on UnsplashPlayStation In Xataka | PlayStation 5 Pro vs PlayStation 5: these are all the differences between the two Sony consoles In Xataka | Two years ago I bought a PS5. I wish someone had told me I needed these plugins too.

While everyone was looking at the Middle East, North Korea has had time to do what Iran has not been able to: go nuclear.

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It happened a few years ago, when in the midst of increasing tensions with North Korea, the Japanese government came to send alerts to millions of mobile phones through the J-Alert system when it detected the overflight of a missile, causing unusual scenes in which trains stopped and citizens took refuge in stations without knowing exactly what was happening. That reaction, almost automatic and difficult to imagine in peacetime, left a clear image of the extent to which certain global balances can be strained without warning. The regime that did not fall. I told a few days ago in an extensive special report the wall street journal the story of the surprising source of North Korea’s enduring power, a nation that has survived the demise of the Soviet Union and the transformation of China because it ceased to be just a communist state and became something more resilient: a closed ideological structurehereditary and almost religious. There it is impossible not to start with the Kim dynasty that managed to consolidate a system in which power is not only exercised, but also believed, internalized and transmitted as a faith. That model, built from Kim Il Sung and perfected by his successors, has made it possible to maintain extraordinary internal cohesion even in conditions of extreme isolation. While other regimes eroded as they opened up to the world or collapsed under external pressure, Pyongyang consolidated a base of control much deeperdifficult to dismantle from the outside. From ideology to state religion. I remembered the Journal that the core of that system is not only political, but also symbolic and emotional, with elements that clearly recall an organized religion. The Juche ideology It progressively replaced classical Marxism, incorporating rituals, symbols and an almost messianic narrative around the leader. The omnipresence of Kim Il Sung, his conversion in “eternal president” and dynastic continuity have generated a structure of loyalty that goes beyond political obedience. This model, influenced indirectly through Christianity that once dominated Pyongyang, allowed the construction of a system where loyalty to the leader is perceived as an absolute truth, something that largely explains its stability and capacity for resistance. The silent military leap. On that internal basis, North Korea has developed a pretty clear strategy: to arm oneself militarily until one becomes practically untouchablealthough no one knows exactly how much of it is true. Today it is recognized that it has intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of reach US territory and has reinforced its arsenal with increasingly sophisticated systems. Not only that. The recent tests, just a few days ago from their new destroyer, with high-precision cruise and anti-ship missiles, they clearly show that it is no longer just a matter of accumulating weapons, but of integrating them into a modern military architecture, with rapid response capacity and systems resistant to interference. In fact, accelerated construction of new warships It aims at a transition from isolated platforms towards a structured naval force, which expands its projection capacity and complicates any containment scenario. Nuclear expansion in full noise. I told it this week Guardian through internal analyzes held by the UN nuclear watchdog. While much of the international attention was focused on the conflicts in the Middle EastNorth Korea has been taking advantage of this context to advance its nuclear program without restraint. As? Activity at key facilities such as Yongbyon has intensifiedwith new reactors, reprocessing plants and possible undeclared facilities to enrich uranium. The agency’s estimates point to dozens of warheads already operational and a growing capacity to produce enough material to between ten and twenty weapons additional each year. In other words, this rhythm, sustained over time, indicates that the objective is not only basic deterrence, but rather reaching a volume that guarantees the survival of the regime in the face of any attempt at forced change. The power that Iran has not consolidated. The key difference here is that North Korea has achieved what other countries in similar situations have achieved (call it Iran) have not been able to: convert their nuclear program into a fully integrated tool in their survival strategy. While other powers under international pressure have seen limited or braked its development, Pyongyang has moved closer to a point of no returnone where its capacity is broad enough to deter any intervention. In this context, it is possible that the real change is no longer just quantitative, but strategic: because when it reaches a surplus of nuclear capacity, the risk will cease to be solely regional and will have global implications, opening the door, at the very least, to new proliferation dynamics. Image | DPRK In Xataka | The US has activated plan B before Iran knocks down its last radar: disarm South Korea against the North’s new nuclear “toy” In Xataka | If the question is what has North Korea achieved in the last four years, the answer is simple: an unimaginable arsenal

South Korea overtakes China as ASML’s largest market. Sanctions are already changing the world

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In the first quarter of 2026, South Korea has accounted for 45% of ASML salesthe Dutch manufacturer of lithography machinery without which no advanced chip exists. China, which until now led the same ranking with 36%, has fallen to 19%. The order of the semiconductor world has been inverted in the duration of a ‘Q’. Why is it important. ASML is the only company on the planet capable of manufacturing extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machinesessential to produce chips less than 7 nanometers. Whoever controls access to ASML controls, to a large extent, which countries can manufacture elite semiconductors. That is why the figures for the first quarter of 2026 are not just another balance sheet but a way to understand the geopolitical map in real time. Or at least with “only” three weeks of latency. In figures: South Korea: 45% of ASML sales in Q1 2026 (up from 22% in the previous quarter). China: 19% (up from 36%). Taiwan: 23% (up from 13%). ASML’s total net sales in the quarter: €8.8 billion. Net profit: 2,760 million euros (+17% year-on-year). Sales forecast for 2026, revised upwards: between 36,000 and 40,000 million euros. The context. The United States has been building a sanctions architecture for years designed to disconnect China from access to advanced semiconductor technology. ASML, a Dutch company but with technology whose development has also involved American and British partners, stopped selling its EUV machines to China years ago. In 2023 added restrictions on more advanced DUV/UVP systems. What the first quarter data show is that this fence already has measurable effects on real sales flows. Between the lines. South Korea’s jump is not explained only by the Chinese fall. Samsung and SK Hynix They are in full race to build high-end memory capacity (the type of chip that powers AI data centers), and both companies have accelerated their orders for EUV machines. SK Hynix has committed nearly 12 trillion won (about 8.2 billion euros) in EUV lithography equipment for its Cheongju and Yongin factories. And Samsung, for its part, has placed a bulk order for approximately 20 EUV machines as part of a larger purchase of 70 systems for its P5 plant in Pyeongtaek. The underlying message is that the demand for AI is already sold in advance. According to ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet, customers in the memory segment have already exhausted their capacity for the entire year. Supply will not meet demand in the foreseeable future and prices continue to skyrocket. Main loser? China, without access to EUV, has been using older DUV systems for years and multiple exposure techniques to approach the 7 nanometer nodes. This translates into chips that are more expensive to produce and have lower yields. Companies like SMIC, ChangXin or Yangtze Memory Technologies operate under increasing financial pressure: the more exposures you need to compensate for the absence of EUV, the worse the production economics. The big question. Can China build its own ASML? There are prototypes in development and the ambition to achieve mass production of EUVs before 2030 is public and no one hides it. That doesn’t mean we can take it for granted: neither Nikon nor Canonwho have dominated lithography for decades, have managed to develop EUV systems. ASML is where it is because it spent years working to achieve it, and it also did so with a very well-coordinated ecosystem: Carl Zeiss optics, specialized laser technology, thousands of components from suppliers around the world… Replicating that from scratch, under sanctions, in less than five years, is a titanic task even for a country of 1.4 billion inhabitants and an excessive ambition. Yes, but. The restrictions, in fact, have not sunk China, but have forced it to adapt. SMIC produces 7 nanometer chips using alternative techniques, although at higher cost and on a smaller scale. The pace of state investment in semiconductors has not slowed down. And the fact that several engineers who have worked at ASML have ended up in Chinese projects has raised alarms on the other side of the Pacific. China has built its current position on a long-term mindset. The sanctions close the shortest path, but that does not mean that other paths do not exist. In Xataka | China prepares a 2nm AI chip to end NVIDIA’s dominance. Your problem is how you are going to manufacture it Featured image | ASML

China and the US have focused on the race for humanoid robots. Now China is clear about which ones make money: dogs

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It is difficult to talk about all the open fronts that China and the United States have. The technological war covers everything and, if there is a race for artificial intelligencethere is one just as fierce in the field of robotics. The two powers are focusing on the humanoid robots to put them in factories or in customer service, but the market is talking and it turns out that they prefer dogs. Robot dogs, specifically. In short. Right now, China is the summit of robotics. Not only because of how advanced their robots are, but because they are already putting them to work. work in factories, stores either museums. They are not theory, they are practice due to government support and, above all, because the components to make a robot are manufactured… in China. This advantage is something that no other country has and that is essential (let them tell the eTSMC’s 60 minutes strategy in Taiwan). There is multitude of robotics startups and, although the humanoids are the most striking, the robodogs are the ones that make money. In an article by SCMP They explain how quadruped robots are preferred by robotics companies because they are becoming business drivers. AgiBot is one of those companies, and has just expanded its robot portfolio with the creation of a subsidiary -AgiQuad- focused exclusively on quadruped models. Their justification is that they consider that it is what is going to boost the robotics business and they do not want their robodog to live “in the shadow of a humanoid robot.” That is, instead of launching under the same brand a humanoid robot and a quadruped one and that customers have to choose (and compare), they prefer to ensure that each branch of the business operates a different type of robot. Projection. AguQuad plans to become a 500 million yuan (about $73 million) business by this year, scaling to 10 billion yuan by 2030 with 300,000 annual robot shipments. At the moment, they say that they have everything sold and that they continue producing units because they are completely out of stock in the warehouse. And they are not the only ones. Other companies like Amap or the giant Alibaba They want to get into this robot fight to stand up to Unitreebut in the field of four-legged robots. Speaking of the dancing queen, it is estimated that Unitree’s quadruped robot division generated 490 million yuan in revenue in the first three months of 2025 alone. That is, in just three months, it generated as much as what AgiQuad expects to generate this year. Already Deep Robotics He is also doing well in this field. Deployment. According to IDC analyses, the quadruped robot market generated $180 million in 2024 and is expected to generate $700 million this year. The estimate is that the segment will reach 50,000 million yuan, about 7,329 million dollars. And the question is… where are these robots going? Many go to exhibitions and fairs in which the robotic muscle of Chinese startups is shown, but there are others that are already operating on the ground. China wants ‘civilian’ quadruped robots, like assistance for blind peoplebut there is also deploying units among firefighters and, as we said a few days ago, within the Chinese army with support, reconnaissance and attack units. The race doesn’t stop. This scenario makes sense if we take into account several details. The first is the most practical: quadruped robots have years of analysis behind them and have already proven to be very useful in various scenarios. the chinese army He’s not the only one who has them. and, for example, in the United States they are beginning to be deployed in data center surveillance tasks. And the second reason is because those years of research and development have led to them becoming increasingly cheaper to produce, allowing their manufacturing to scale and leaving more margins for manufacturers. Prices are also falling and it is easier for different actors to integrate them into their workforce. Precisely for this reason, quadruped robots can be a viable commercial product for those same companies that continue to push the development and commercialization of humanoid robots. The Unitree itself that we talked about before just started to sell its R1 model through AliExpress with a planned launch for the United States, Japan or the United Arab Emirates. Price? $8,200, but you start somewhere. In Xataka | China will bring together more than 300 humanoid robots in a half marathon. The goal goes beyond running

Netflix makes more money than ever and its shares fall 9%. The explanation is that Netflix is ​​the new mainstream

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Reed Hastings founded Netflix 29 years ago with an idea as simple as it was revolutionary: charge a fixed fee in exchange for access to content on demand and without interruptions, in a digital version of the video store by mail in which the company took its first steps. This Thursday, as the company posted solid quarterly results that still disappointed Wall Street, it was announced that Hastings will step down from the board of directors in June. The man who built Netflix is ​​leaving now that the platform is no longer what he envisioned. The results. The results for the first quarter of 2026 are, in absolute terms, notables. They reached 12.25 billion dollars, 16% more than in the same period of the previous year, meeting what the company itself had projected and slightly exceeding the average expectations of analysts. Net profit grew 82% to $5.23 billion. It is a spectacular percentage, yes, but that earnings per share of $1.23 includes the $2.8 billion break-up fee Frustrated deal with Warner Bros. Discoverywhich inflates the accounting result. Without it, the number would have been more modest. And that’s why shares fell 9% on Wall Street. Fall in the stock market. The main reason for this stock market crash was not the data for the quarter, but the outlook for the second. Netflix projects 13% growth in revenue for Q2, to about $12.6 billion, when the Wall Street consensus was closer to $13.1 billion. The difference is small in relative terms, but enough to remind us that investors have been accustomed for years to Netflix far exceeding its forecasts. Goodbye Hastings… The company has also announced that Reed Hastings, co-founder and until now president of the councilwill not stand for reelection when his term expires at the shareholders meeting on June 4, 2026. This ends 29 years with the company which he himself co-founded. Hastings had already given a step back in January 2023when he left the co-CEO position in the hands of Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters. His definitive departure from the board, the company explained, responds to his desire to focus on philanthropy and other projects. During the call to analysts after the presentation of results, Sarandos had to respond to whether Hastings’ departure had any relationship with the failure of the operation with Warner Bros. Discovery. Sarandos stated that “I’m sorry to anyone who seeks palace intrigue. Reed was a great defender of that agreement.” …hello to the announcements. Hastings was for years one of the most visible skeptics within the company regarding the use of streaming advertising. In 2022, when Netflix first lost subscribersdeclared to be “against the complexity of advertisements.” Four years later, the advertising business has become one of the structural pillars of the company. The company works with more than 4,000 advertisers, 70% more than the previous year, and the advertising-supported plan already accounts for more than 60% of new registrations in the 12 countries where it is available, according to data from Netflix itself. The projection of advertising revenue for 2026 is 3,000 million dollars, double the 1.5 billion generated in 2025. It is paradoxical that the platform that has been seen as an evolutionary step of traditional television, without its inconveniences (among which, without a doubt, is advertising), now competes directly with YouTube and linear television for brand advertisements. What’s more: Netflix has migrated its advertising technology to its own platform, leaving behind dependence on Microsoft, and programmatic purchasing It is already close to 50% of its advertising business not tied to events. The paradox. That is, everything in these results points to a great paradox. The company itself recognizes which represents less than 5% of the share global television, but projected annual revenues of between $50.7 billion and $51.7 billion place it among the largest media companies on the planet. And meanwhile, its shares fall 9%. There is an explanation for all of this. For years, Netflix was a company of exponential growth, the type of asset that technology funds love: skyrocketing subscriber metrics, unstoppable geographic expansion, its own content that accumulated prestige and audience… Now it is something else: the mainstreamprofitable and predictable, with several monetization levers (subscription, advertising, live sports, gaming) and a business model that is no longer surprising, but widely imitated. A solid company, with a dominant position and prospects for growing profitability, but at a calm pace, in the medium term. It is certainly not the Netflix that Hastings built. In Xataka | Netflix is ​​desperate to find the next franchise that will make it gold. The problem is that he can’t find it.

It took them two minutes to hack the EU app for minors. It’s not as serious as it seems

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In the middle of the week, the EU announced that he already had his tool ready to verify age on the internet. It put on the table a solution to prove identity when accessing online services, and finally unify a control method for minors. In just 48 hours someone has already hacked the application, but there is a trick. what has happened. Paul Moorecybersecurity consultant, shows in X the vulnerabilities of the app that the European Union promised to have ready. Specifically, the app asks us to create a PIN of four to six digits to protect our identity. A pin in theory encrypted and saved in a file. Moore has discovered that, at least in the version of the app that he has been able to test, the encryption PIN can be deleted from the file and the previously configured profile can be entered. In other words, you just need to delete a line of code to access the data. What is the error. The app, despite the fact that the EU indicates that it was already ready, currently does not encrypt this PIN. Nor are the credentials linked to a specific PIN so that, if someone tries to change or delete it, our data cannot be accessed. He also points out that, at least right now, the app trusts too much data to an editable file. If an attacker accesses it, it is quite easy for them to bypass the app’s layers of protection and use someone else’s identity. It ends by showing how the obligation to use biometrics is a boolean variable (true or false), modifiable by changing “false” and “true” in the editable file. Why is there a trick. There is a distance from saying to doing, and the European Union has launched a triple by ensuring that its app “is now ready.” The version to which the consultant has had access is not the final one, it is a demo version in which the security layers have not yet been added. Beyond being minor bugs, they are structural errors that should not even be present in an initial version. The controversy arises when Ursula von der Leyen assures that the app is “technically ready”, presents it at a press conference, and hours later it is learned that it is still in the testing phase. Why is it important. Despite being a pre-production version, the hack helps us get an idea of ​​the app’s operation and interface, as well as the possible limitations it may have at the security level. In fact, it would not be the first time that an app from the EU or the Spanish administration has had serious security incidents. On January 30 of this year, the European Commission detected signs that its mobile device management platform (in which it stores data on its employees) had been compromisedand Radar COVID was born in Spain without complying with the RGPD. What has tipped us off. The initial version of the age verification app shows us a simple interface in which, after entering the PIN, we have three verification methods. Through our ID By passport Using a QR code The app has four sections: welcome, consent, security (PIN) and verification. The app developers will be responsible for integrating this European solution into their apps and, despite Von der Leyen’s fervor, there is still no date for its arrival. In Xataka | Is it time to end anonymity? The arguments for and against the pillar on which the internet has been built

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