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If the question is how to stop the bleeding of emptied Spain, in Cantabria they are clear: subsidizing festivals with bulls

May 4, 2026 by usatoday24

If you have learned anything ‘Spain emptied’ At this point there are no magic recipes against depopulation. In recent years, the administrations of that rural Spain that is gradually emptying have tried everything, often without success: from offering free employment and housing to assume the management of basic services, such as gas stations and stores. Now in Cantabria they have decided to add a new strategy against rural exodus to that list: subsidize bullfighting celebrations. At the moment the measure does not seem to have served to attract new neighbors. What it is generating is controversy. A cape for bullfighting. To understand the controversy we must go back to April 28, when the Official Gazette of Cantabria (BOC) published a call of subsidies from the Ministry of the Presidency. It basically announces a sum of 41,000 euros to “promote bullfighting in rural areas.” For this purpose, the Government offers to cover up to 90% of the expenses of the festivals that revolve around the bull, with amounts that range between 2,000 and 14,500 euros, depending on whether they are bullfights, bullfights, bullfights or other “popular celebrations.” It matters what… and it matters where. So far nothing exceptional. Spain has been immersed for years in a debate (sometimes bronco) on bullfighting and whether or not it should be supported with public funds, but the Cantabrian initiative does not stand out precisely for its budget. In 2025, without going any further, the Community of Madrid approved a game of 1.7 million of euros to support the Bull Festival. What is striking about the Cantabrian case is that its objective is not only to support the ‘national holiday’. In fact, that is not even the main argument made in the call of the BOC. Its purpose is another: to fight against depopulation. The subsidies are specifically directed at the 41 municipalities of the community at “risk of depopulation” and their objective appears clearly described in the official bulletin: “Encourage the aforementioned local entities to have resources that energize their social and economic life, such as bullfighting shows.” In short, use the bullfights, bullfights, bullfights, bullfights and other shows with bulls to revitalize the economy and establish population. “Put them on the map”. In case there were any doubts, the counselor of the Presidency, Isabel Urrutia, recalled a few days ago that last year the Cantabrian Government financed bullfighting celebrations in four small municipalities of Cantabria, which in his opinion allowed “to put them in the focus of the bullfighting world.” “We help with small aid to fight against depopulation and put these municipalities on the map, many of them with a great tradition of bullfighting. The aid is fulfilling its objective,” argues the counselor after remembering the case of Pesaguero: the town has 400 inhabitants, but in 2025 1,800 fans attended its bullfighting show. What exactly do they subsidize? Low the argument that bullfighting can become a “stimulator of social and economic life”, the Cantabrian Government offers to assume up to 90% of the expenses of organizing the festivities, as long as they do not exceed certain limits: 14,500 euros in the case of bullfights or bullfighting, 10,000 if we are talking about bullfights with picadors or bullfighting of bulls, 6,000 for bullfights without picadors, calves or festivals and 2,000 for similar shows. “To award aid, the Government will take into account the classification of the municipality as being at serious risk of depopulation or special and differentiating treatment for this reason, and also the type of show or celebration,” duck the regional executive. Although it recognizes that there are 41 municipalities that meet the depopulation requirements to qualify for aid, in 2025 only bullfighting shows were subsidized in four town halls of the region: Pesaguero, Tudanca, Rasines and Bárcena de Pie de Concha. In 2024 there was one more, Molledo. This would be the third consecutive year in which subsidies have been announced that, they insist From the regional government, they are fulfilling the objective with which they were set. Opinion division. Not everyone thinks the same. The Franz Weber Foundation has questioned that the initiative really serves to strengthen the economy of those localities or combat rural exodus, and provides data as proof: the number of residents who have won the subsidized town councils can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Literally. “Four inhabitants in three years”, resume the organization, which estimates the funds mobilized between all the calls at 132,000 euros. The tables from the INE confirm that Bárcena de Pie de Concha only gained one neighbor between 2023 and 2025 and Rasines another five. Pesaguero and Tudanca lost population. “They neither fix population nor suppose a real dynamic activity,” ditch the foundation. “The autonomous Executive has dedicated around 132,000 euros since 2024 under this excuse, but the population reality in the municipalities awarded in different calls shows an evident inability to have a positive impact.” In your opinionthe real purpose of the Cantabrian Government is another: “Support bullfighting using subterfuges such as depopulation.” Images | Alex-David Baldi (Flickr) and Arild Andersen (Flickr) In Xataka | The great debate about the future of bullfighting is not in Spain, but in an unexpected country: South Korea

We are injecting radioactive material into live rhino horns so that we stop consuming them

May 2, 2026 by usatoday24

Maybe you didn’t know it, but to protect ourselves from human nature itself, which is capable of generating the most absolute chaos, most of the main airports and ports, including those in South Africa, already have the necessary infrastructure to detect radioactive material. So that? To detect nuclear weapons. Thus, in theory, we avoid smuggling between countries. In a twist, science has just found in this infrastructure a solution for stop poaching. Radioactive horns. The news is as surprising as it is true: a group of South African scientists has been injecting radioactive material directly into live rhino horns for some time. The idea: make them easier to detect at border posts. Behind the project is the Radiation and Health Physics Unit (RHPU) of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg. Why the horns. Of course, the enclave where it is happening is not trivial. South Africa is home to most rhinos on the planet and, as such, it is a hotspot for poaching driven by, and here comes the key, demand from Asia. Yes, there the horns are used in traditional medicine for its supposed therapeutic effect (not proven). As Professor James Larkin, who directs the project, explained, “every 20 hours in South Africa a rhino dies for its horn.” In fact, before this surprising twist in the script, an attempt had been made to save the rhino with another unexpected move: investing in bonds. Not only that. Researchers indicate that the smuggling of these horns has now made them “the most valuable counterfeit product on the black market, with a value even greater than that of gold, platinum, diamonds and cocaine. These poached horns are trafficked around the world and used for traditional medicines or as status symbols,” they assure. Radioactivity injection process. under the name Rhisotope Projectresearchers are drilling low doses of radioisotopes into the horns of 20 sedated rhinos whose health will be monitored for the next six months. We are talking about two small radioactive chips in the area of the horns that are then “finished off” by spraying 11,000 microdots in the area. Long term. If successful, the program could be expanded in the long term to include elephants and pangolins, as well as other plants and animals, according to the university. The material, in principle, would last five years on the horn, which “was cheaper than removing it every 18 months.” “Each insertion was closely supervised by expert veterinarians and great care was taken to avoid any harm to the animals,” Larkin explains.. “Through months of research and testing, we have also ensured that the inserted radioisotopes do not pose any health or other risks to the animals or those who care for them.” Poison to humans. In essence, once the dose of radioactivity is inserted, the consumption by any means of products made from the horns will make them “essentially poisonous for human consumption,” they say in the work. Be that as it may, the main objective is none other than to identify smuggling attempts, if possible, before they leave the country. How the alarm goes off. Apparently, this infrastructure found in many airports works more or less simply. Anyone trying to get past the radioactive horns would set off alarms and trigger a police response. By the way, scientists remember that the process is not harmful to animals, since the dose of radioactive material is so low that it does not affect the health of the animal or the environment in any way. Figures that have led to the situation. Last year, the country’s Environment Ministry said that, despite the government’s efforts to combat illicit trade, 499 of these giant mammals died in 2023most in state parks. In figures, it represents an increase of 11 percent compared to 2022. To give us an idea of this sad realitywe are talking about figures of up to $60,000 per kilo, which explains why rhino horn is still one of the most lucrative illegal markets. Image | Witts University, Martin Pettitt In Xataka | For centuries, British sailors devoured green turtles until they were almost extinct: today we have recovered them In Xataka | We have a serious problem with the extinction of bees. The United Kingdom wants to solve it with bricks *An earlier version of this article was published in June 2025

Taylor Swift has stopped by the patent office with two phrases and a photo. Its objective is to stop generative AI

April 29, 2026 by usatoday24

Two phrases spoken in promotions for their latest album and a photograph from a concert from the ‘Eras Tour’. Taylor Swift has simply registered that with the US Patent and Trademark Office as a strategy to shield herself from generative AI. He is not the first famous person to walk this path, but he is the first so famous. AI is already beyond the control of platforms and courts: will it succeed when the (inevitable) clash with one of the most powerful people in today’s entertainment industry arrives? The record. On April 24, Swift’s company, TAS Rights Management, submitted three applications before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). They were detected and analyzed by the lawyer specialized in intellectual property Josh Gerben: two are sound markssound marks with the phrases “Hey, it’s Taylor Swift” and “Hey, it’s Taylor”, taken from promotional introductions to her album ‘The Life of a Showgirl’. The third is a visual mark: Swift with a pink guitar and black strap, bodysuit multicolored and silver boots, on a pink stage. Legal loopholes. Generative AI can replicate a person’s voice without having to copy any specific file, usually protected by copyright. The model learns the timbre, the cadence, the phonetic pattern, and then generates completely new audios. Classic tools to protect copyright are of no use here. The loophole that Gerben believes can protect Taylor (and the rest of the artists) is the “trademark law” that pursues any use that is “confusingly similar” to something registered, that is, anything that is similar enough to generate confusion. A complicated story. Swift comes to this decision after a long history of clashes with AI. In January 2024, a flood of pornographic images generated with AI They spread across X with such speed that the platform had to temporarily block searches for their name. They had been originated on 4chanwhere users competed to avoid the filters of platforms such as DALL-E or Microsoft Designer. And in the 2024 presidential campaign, Donald Trump shared artificially generated images which suggested that Swift supported him. It’s not the first. Taylor Swift has a precedent in the guild. In January of this year, Matthew McConaughey became the first Hollywood actor to use this strategy on a large scale: eight trademarks that include video clips, audio recordings and his famous phrase “Alright, alright, alright” with which he debuted in ‘Movida del 76’. Paradoxically, McConaughey is an investor in ElevenLabs, a company specializing in AI voice cloning. Another trivial precedent. In 2024, Scarlett Johansson publicly denounced that OpenAI had released a voice for its GPT-4o chatbot that sounded “eerily similar” to hers, even though Johansson had previously declined an offer to lend her voice. OpenAI withdrew it, but without giving any explanation as to whether it was due to legal pressure or for another reason. It was a small victory for artists in this field, but without a judicial resolution that could set a precedent. The doubts. Gerben believes that there may be, thanks to this move by Swift, some deterrent potential: “in theory, if a lawsuit were filed over the use of Swift’s voice by an AI, she could claim that any use of her voice that sounds like the trademark violates her trademark rights.” Of course, he acknowledges that “the strategy of registering yourself has not yet been tested in court with respect to AI.” Swift and McConaughey are literally opening avenues that it is not yet clear how they will work legally. In Xataka | After destroying her tour, her film and being the queen of streaming, Taylor Swift achieves a new milestone: being a billionaire

wants Gemini to stop being the only AI with privileges on Android

April 29, 2026 by usatoday24

The European Commission has published their preliminary conclusions on how Google manages artificial intelligence on Android. According to the organization, the operating system favors Gemini over the rest of its competitors, which is why it requires the company to apply measures to promote interoperability between other AI alternatives in its ecosystem. As might be expected, Google, for its part, is not willing to accept it without a fight. Another chapter in the Digital Markets Law. This law (DMAfor its acronym in English), is the one that forces large technology companies considered “gatekeepers” (including Alphabet) to guarantee fair conditions of competition on their platforms. Google has been subject to this legislation since March 2024 and because of this has had to introduce changes in Europesuch as showing screens so that the user can choose other search engines apart from Google on Android, or allowing alternative payment methods in its application store. Now Europe has knocked on the door again, this time over questions about Google’s AI, and it is the next chapter in this tug-of-war between regulation and private companies. Gemini rules Android. When you turn on an Android mobile with Google services, Gemini It’s already there, integrated at the system level. It can be voice activated, access screen context, interact with other apps, and generate proactive suggestions based on your activity. Applications like ChatGPT or assistant Claude They can be installed, but they do not have the same level of access. The European Commission points out specific cases where Gemini is the only way available: sending an email from the default email app, ordering food at home or sharing a photo with contacts. That, according to Brussels, is not fair competition. What the EU proposes. Preliminary measures published last Monday they point in several directions. Third-party AI services should be able to be activated using custom wake words or physical buttons on the device. They should also be able to access screen context when the user opens them, and query local device data to provide suggestions and summaries, something only Gemini now does. In addition, the Commission proposes that other AIs can control apps autonomously, such as Gemini is already starting to do (although the result still leaves something to be desired in some cases) and that external developers have access to the hardware necessary to run local models with comparable performance. Finally, Google could be forced to create new APIs and provide technical support to other AI developers who want to integrate into Android, all at no cost to third parties. Google’s response. The company was quick to react. Clare Kelly, Senior Competition Advisor, described the proposal as an “unwarranted intrusion” that “would require giving access to sensitive hardware and device permissions, unnecessarily increasing costs and undermining critical privacy and security protections for European users.” Google defends that Android is already an open ecosystem and that device manufacturers have full autonomy to customize the AI services they offer to their users. What’s coming now. The process is not over. The Commission is opening a public consultation until May 13, after which it will review the input they have received (including from Google) before issuing a decision by July 27. If Google does not comply with the measures or an agreement is not reached, the company is exposed to fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover. Just like share from Ars Technica, although Google would not have to open its systems all at once, implementing these changes would take time and doing so in a hurry could create security risks. Furthermore, as is often the case with DMA decisions, any changes that finally occur would be, at least in principle, limited to the European market. Cover image | José García and François Genon In Xataka | A developer went to sleep with a $10 alert on Google Cloud: he woke up to a bill of more than $18,000

wants Gemini to stop being the only AI with privileges on Android

April 28, 2026 by usatoday24

studies a huge submarine cable with distant Ireland to stop being an energy island

April 26, 2026 by usatoday24

Spain may have emerged as one of the EU states that more and better have understood and adopted the energy transition towards renewables, but there is an unquestionable geographical reality: The Iberian Peninsula is an energy island which has a problem called France. A bottleneck that prevents Spain from exporting its enormous surplus of solar energy, so the European Commission wants to correct it with ambitious connection goals for 2030. How? Looking at the sea that surrounds the peninsula in search of partners “to lend a helping hand” to solve this limitation: across the Mediterranean with two gigantic connections to Italy and also towards the Atlantic, with a cable between Spain and Ireland. The future cable between Spain and Ireland. The planned route would link the northern coast of Spain, specifically Asturias, with the southern coast of Ireland, with an estimated length of between 1,000 and 1,100 kilometers, as collects The Energy Newspaper. Although there is no defined route yet, the infrastructure will have to navigate considerable depths in the Bay of Biscay and the Celtic Sea. Go ahead that the agreement signed between Spain and Ireland It is a Memorandum of Understanding to study the feasibility of an underwater electricity cable within the framework of the WindEurope 2026 congress held in Madrid signed by the Spanish vice president Sara Aagesen and the Irish minister Darragh O’Brien. Why is it important. Because both Spain and Ireland share a structural problem: they are one of the least interconnected electricity markets in Europe and are classified as “energy islands” by the EU, which limits their ability to export renewable surpluses and reinforce their security of supply (friendly reminder: the blackout). From the point of view of energy security, more interconnection means less dependence on imported fossil fuels and more resilience in the face of shortages. This cable would diversify Spanish export routes, a detailed priority objective in REE Electrical Planning. The energy logic of the project rests on the complementarity of renewable resources: Spain would export solar surpluses and Ireland would provide electricity generated in its offshore wind farms. Both technologies have generation profiles decoupled in time, so the exchange is technically valuable to stabilize both electrical networks: when the sun shines in Spain, it can power Dublin, when Atlantic storms sweep the north, its wind turbines can sustain Spanish industry. Context. Spain currently has barely 3,000 MW of interconnection capacity, which represents a ratio of 2%, according to REE dataon its installed mix of approximately 150 GW. That is to say, it fails to meet the minimum target of 10% set by the EU for 2020 and has to work a miracle to reach the 15% planned for 2030. This chronic deficit limits the capacity of the Spanish system to export the growing surpluses of wind and solar energy. The project arises at a time of maximum urgency for energy independence after the gas crisis. Recent war conflicts have led the EU to accelerate the processing of large electrical interconnections between European markets as a tool for collective energy security in search of self-sufficiency with its own resources. Initiatives like the plan REPowerEU They have these cross-border interconnections as one of the levers with absolute priority. Map of transmission and storage projects. ENTSO-E Main connections in Spain. A brief summary of the very few electrical connections of the Spanish state with other EU states: Existing: Spain–France (Pyrenean land interconnection), with a current capacity of approximately 3,000 MW through the Pyrenees and Spain – Portugal, through various bidirectional land high voltage lines that make up the Iberian market. Under construction or approved: the submarine cable of the Bay of Bizkaia between Spain and France, scheduled to enter service in 2028, will add 2,000 MW of additional capacity with France. The wire Fontefríabetween Portugal and Galicia, will provide about 1,000 MW of exchange. Projected (under study or preliminary phase): Apollo Link between Spain and Italy, of 2000 MW and entering service in 2032. Iberia Link between Spain and Italy of 1,200 MW. Trans-Pyrenean land connection through Navarra and Aragon, blocked by the French government. How are they going to do it?. Technically, the project would be executed using a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) cable, the standard technology for long-distance underwater interconnections, due to its lower energy loss in transportation compared to alternating current. There are direct and operational precedents of a similar scale, such as the recent Celtic Interconnector between Ireland and France. After signing the Memorandum of Understanding to study the viability of an underwater electricity cable that links both states, the project must be technically and economically evaluated jointly by Red Eléctrica and EirGrid, the operators of both states. They will then present it to the European authorities for possible inclusion in the list of Projects of Common Interest (PCI), which would give it access to European funding and accelerated administrative procedures. ENTSO-Ethe association of European network operators, publishes every two years the Ten-Year Network Development Planthe technical reference framework to prioritize and evaluate this type of projects. Yes, but. The project is in its earliest phase, which means that it has everything ahead of it and a submarine cable is a major technical and economic infrastructure. A cable of more than 1,000 kilometers in length implies an estimated investment that would exceed 2,000-3,000 million euros, a construction period of several years once approved and logistical challenges in North Atlantic waters. Furthermore, the route through Asturias would require reinforcing internal transport networks to cross the Cantabrian Mountains to connect with the large solar generation centers in the interior of the peninsula. In Xataka | The submarine cables belonged to the teleoperators, and now the big technology companies are controlling them In Xataka | The first great Atlantic submarine cable that connected us to the internet says goodbye for a simple reason: it was too expensive to repair it Cover | ENTSOE

There is a product prepared so that we can stop taking our cell phone out of our pocket. The glasses: Crossover 1×44

April 24, 2026 by usatoday24

We have been wanting to find a replacement for our cell phone for years. We believed that smart watches could be a good alternative, but in reality they have ended up becoming a useful complement, without more. However with the smart and connected glasses things promise to change, especially because it is a product with a very striking formatfeatures that can be truly remarkable and a current state that promises a lot in the short term. The question is whether glasses can process everything that smartphones can do today. They may not be prepared for our current consumption of video or networks – there the mobile touch screen continues to win for the moment – but their possibilities in terms of voice and visual interaction with AI They are very interesting. There is here a first clear challenge with privacy. We already saw how Google Glass could not fight against that stigma, and suspicions have continued to appear with Ray-Ban Meta glasses. The other, that of miniaturization: can technology integrate everything necessary into these glasses that weigh just 50 grams to ensure that the experience and performance achieve their results? What we have seen seems to point to yes -the chinese manufacturers They are surprising a lot in this area—but we will have to see how it advances quickly. We talk about all this in this new episode of Crossover, so we hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. On YouTube | Crossover In Xataka | Going to an exam with AI glasses and passing it by cheating is now possible. And Valencia wants to avoid it

The oceans are smoking and the bad news is that that phrase is starting to stop being a metaphor

April 16, 2026 by usatoday24

Global sea surface temperature is once again approaching 2024 records, Arctic ice marks its historic winter minimum and the average temperature is 1.43 degrees above pre-industrial levels. What’s more, the Earth’s energy imbalance has reached its highest level in 65 years. And all of this without El Niño being active. So I have to correct myself: what is happening is not that the sea is smoking. That’s a huge understatement. What happens is that the oceans have gone up a notch and we are completely caught out of the game. What is happening? According to Copernicus dataIn March, the global average temperature was 13.94 degrees. That is 0.53 above the 1991-2020 average and 1.48 above the pre-industrial temperature. It’s not the warmest March on record, but it’s close. In contrast, February 2026 was one of the three coldest in the last 14 years. And it’s curious because, anyway, we are in ENSO-Neutral conditions. The 2024 record was reached with El Niño pumping heat from the Pacific; Now we are in the most absolute normality. That does have experts from half the world worried. And the sea? In the sea things are more complicated because the surface temperature is very close to lrecord ace of 2024. Furthermore, it is not a question of a specific rebound: it is the result of a sustained rise throughout the entire month of March. There are specific areas (subtropical and northeastern North Atlantic, North and South Pacific) that are already at record values; The big question is what will happen at the end of the year and, above all, at the beginning of the year when El Niño is at its highest peak of intensity. Well, but this doesn’t affect us much, right? It depends on what we mean by ‘affect’, of course. What there is no doubt is that, despite the fact that temperatures are rising around the world, the Mediterranean has become the great laboratory for all detected and undetected climate risks. After all, Mare Nostrum heats up to 20% faster than the global average. And that has clear and direct consequences for water: from the mass extinction of vertebrates to the decline of grasslands to an enormous mortality of fish. Is a sea dying little by little; a sea that drags us with it: because the heat of the Mediterranean injects more water vapor and fuels extreme precipitation phenomena. The DANA of Valencia It’s a reminder of all this.. That is, the scenario is known. What remains is to see what we do to prepare for it. Images | BenBaso | Xataka In Xataka | Something strange has happened in the stratospheric polar vortex. And it is a hint of the winter that awaits Spain

The industry does not stop raising the price of games and I have gotten hooked on this free movie guessing game

April 11, 2026 by usatoday24

There’s something perversely satisfying about spending weeks thinking more about Al Pacino movies because of one game than any recent AAA release. This movie guessing game has no cutscenes spectacular nor does it come with an ambitious built-in trailer. This is a free website, without invasive advertising, that makes you chain movies with an unknown rival from the other side of the world. Is called ‘Cine2Nerdle‘, and its Battle 2.0 mode is, right now, the hardest thing for me to leave in the browser. How to play. The daily puzzle puts you in front of a grid of 4×4 tiles. Each card contains a word or phrase. The objective is to rearrange them by exchanging positions until each row or column alludes to or describes a movie. There are between four and five movies hidden on each board. When you have three tiles of the same movie lined up, they light up yellow; when you complete all four, the row is resolved. And when you have four horizontally you have to reorganize in search of the fifth. All with limited movements, of course. What makes Cine2Nerdle genuinely interesting in its single-player mode is its constant cheating. A card can belong to a row because it is the place where a movie takes place, and simultaneously to a column because it is the last name of the leading actor in another. This game of polysemy also affects false paths; A proper name can have multiple owners, an initial can be a title or the name of a character. Each puzzle is more like a crossword puzzle than a logic test. Its secret: Battle Mode. The daily puzzle is already good enough, but what makes ‘Cine2Nerdle’ a diabolical invention is the Battle mode, and more specifically its second version. The basic idea is a 1vs1 duel in real time: both players start from an initial film and have 25 seconds, taking turns to chain together others that share at least one member of the artistic team: actor, director, screenwriter, director of photography. And so on until someone is left without an answer or runs out of time. What Battle 2.0 added over the previous version is a layer of strategy that transforms the game. Before, games could last about an hour if both players knew cinema well. Now each player carries a “battle kit” that includes items as a condition for immediate victory (for example, mentioning four science fiction films from the eighties or connecting films with an actor without using him as a direct connector), life savers (small helps, such as revealing facts about the films) and the possibility of banning films or actors to the rival. Thus the games are resolved in about five minutes. The good thing: before each game you prepare the kit of aids and objectives that you have gained while playing, and thus you can make up for your film-loving shortcomings. Pure RPG mechanics. The strategy. You have to use the aspects in which you are strong and have knowledge to drag the rival there. For example: are you an expert in horror films from the eighties? Mention long career directors who take the game from the present, where everyone knows titles, to decades past (e.g. John Carpenter). Take the game to your territory, and there, begin to uncover increasingly rare films, and reinforce your choices with prohibitions on using the best-known actors in the cast. The remains of ‘Wordle’. When the New York Times bought ‘Wordle’ for more than a million dollars By early 2022, the game already had millions of daily users. The formula was simple: one word per day, shareable on networks, without unnecessary additives. What followed was an avalanche of thematic derivatives: geography (Worldle), music (Heardle), mathematics (Nerdle)… Most did not survive a year. Cine2Nerdle He is one of the survivors. It was created by Nilanth Yogadasan, who had already published CineNerdle (a puzzle of film frames that were revealed little by little). The jump to “2” completely changed the mechanics and also, as its creator recognizesis a nod to the style of titles like ‘2 Fast 2 Furious’: the sequel that puts the number in the middle. The kind of winks for coffee lovers that turn a game for film nerds into an accessible and fun experience. In Xataka | The Spanish Puzzle Championship exists, real professionals participate and there are prizes of up to 1,000 euros

the day ships stop arriving from the Middle East

April 10, 2026 by usatoday24

There is a date marked in red on logistics calendars across the continent: tomorrow, April 10. According to the projections of the analysis firm Argus Mediaaround this day the last shipments of aviation fuel (jet fuel) that managed to cross the Strait of Hormuz before its closure will dock in European ports. From that date onwards, entry volumes will plummet. The impact is no longer a theoretical threat. According to TVP Worldthe shortage is already palpable in Italy: the airports of Bologna, Milan Linate, Treviso and Venice have issued notices warning of possible restrictions on refueling due to the limited availability of fuel from their supplier, Air BP Italia. It is the first major warning of a domino effect that threatens to paralyze the European skies. The perfect storm in the Gulf. Since the start of the Third Gulf War on February 28 more than 20% has been canceled of the world’s seaborne jet fuel supply, and no less than 42% of seaborne imports from the European Union and the United Kingdom. The recent news of a “two-week truce” announced by US President Donald Trump has been received as a mirage in the industry. According to Politicalthe ceasefire will not solve the shortage in the short term. Willie Walsh, director general of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), warned that rebuild damaged refining capacity in the Middle East will take months. Among the infrastructures hit is the Al-Zour refinery in Kuwait, responsible for providing approximately 10% of Europe’s jet fuel imports, as pointed out BBC. Furthermore, maritime logistics is unforgiving. In the most idealized scenario where Hormuz is completely reopened today, ships would take 25 days to reach Europe sailing through a Red Sea where the Houthis remain a threat, or up to six weeks if they are forced to go around the Cape of Good Hope. Prices are skyrocketing. The price of aviation fuel in Europe reached last week an all-time high of $1,838 per ton, compared to 831 dollars before the start of the war. This increase translates into an immediate logistical problem on the landing strips. Anita Mendiratta, special advisor to the Secretary-General of UN Tourism, explains to Euronews a crucial technical detail: airports cannot store aviation fuel in large quantities. The entire system is designed to rely on continuous deliveries through refineries and pipelines. Any slightest interruption breaks the chain. The consequences are already visible on the exit panels. Just two weeks ago, we reported in Xataka that more than 25,000 flights canceled over the Middle East, while European airlines such as Scandinavian SAS have canceled at least 1,000 flights in April alone. For their part, giants like Delta Air Lines plan to absorb $2 billion in extra costs during the second quarter alone due to fuel, according to Reuters. How does it affect the passenger? Analysts of Barclays, in statements collected by Politicalthey end the era of “super normal” prices and cheap tickets. Airlines will also have to make drastic decisions about their fleets: Willie Walsh, in an interview with Bloomberganticipates that companies will be forced to evaluate the accelerated retirement of high-consumption aircraft, such as the gigantic A380. United States to the rescue (at the price of gold). In this survival scenario, Europe has found a lifeline on the other side of the Atlantic, although at a very high price. According to Financial TimesAmerican fuel already accounts for half of British imports (compared to the usual 7%). However, Europe is waging a fierce bidding war with Asia over shipments that, as it warns, Argus Media in the British environment, they will barely cover half of the gap left by the Middle East. Internally, the resistance goes in other directions. While countries with their own refining such as Poland are more protected, the calculations of Argus Media collected by Euronews They estimate that, without new shipments, commercial reserves will be exhausted in three months in the United Kingdom, in four in Portugal and in seven in Spain, Italy or Germany. Faced with this fragmented map, the EU is in tow: its spokesperson, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, has acknowledged to the same medium that Brussels still lacks a “complete image” of national reserves to be able to organize a solidarity plan. The lessons of a dependent industry. Beyond the April emergency, the crisis has uncovered deep structural flaws in global aviation. According to Aviation WeekMarie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s chief economist, was astonished at the world’s complacency in living “under the domination of this monopolistic industry that is oil.” Thomsen denounced the very serious lack of investment in Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), pointing out that capital is overwhelmingly directed to sectors such as artificial intelligence. For his part, Willie Walsh launched a direct criticism of governments: while States maintain immense strategic reserves of crude oil to cushion global crises, “it does not seem that we have any strategic reserves of jet fuel,” collects Aviation Week. The underlying fear is not just a difficult summer, but a permanent paradigm shift. According to a European executive in the energy sector to Politicalthe “worst case scenario” is that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, but under new rules: with Iran applying permanent restrictions or charging tolls that alter global energy dynamics forever. A summer on the wire The high summer season is just around the corner and the market is walking on the wire. A firm analyst Vortexa warns in the BBC that, if these interruptions persist, maintaining the current level of flights will be logistically unsustainable without drastic route cuts and massive fare increases. Starting tomorrow, when the last ships that managed to escape the blockade unload their precious fuel in the continent’s ports, European aviation will begin to fly with the reserve light on. The era of absolute vulnerability of the European sky has just taken off. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The canary in the mine of the new oil crisis are the airlines: they are already canceling flights due to lack of fuel

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