The humanoid robots independently developed by Honor, China's leading smart device provider, swept the top three places at the 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon on Sunday.
Honor's Qitian Dasheng team took the first place, its Leiting Shandian team finished second in 50 minutes and 56 seconds, and the Xinghuo Liaoyuan team claimed third with 53 minutes and one second.
The race kicked off at 07:30 in Beijing's Yizhuang District, also known as E-Town. It covers a total distance of 21.0975 kilometers, featuring two main categories of autonomous navigation and remote control. Robots from both categories competed on the same course, with results calculated using weighted coefficients of 1.0 and 1.2, respectively.
All the three podium finishers were competing under the autonomous navigation category.
Honor's senior engineer Yao Bin said the robots met pre-race expectations by completing the race without accidents or collisions.
"This is our No. 46 model. It finished the race with a time of 50 minutes and 56 seconds and serves as the main robot for our Leiting Shandian team. It only swapped batteries once at the 10.6-kilometer mark, after which it completed the entire course and crossed the finish line. It met our expectations," said Yao.
Over 100 humanoid robot teams and more than 12,000 human competitors competed in parallel during the half marathon.
Zhao Haijie, the men's half-marathon champion, shared his novel experience running alongside robots.
"In the first five kilometers, five to six robots ran past me. The robot in the red outfit had very heavy footsteps, and it was running incredibly fast. Its speed was much higher than mine," said Zhao.
Julio Rogelio Guadarrama Olvera, technical visionary and lead strategist of the Hail Mary Project at the Technical University of Munich, said he was impressed by the rapid growth of the humanoid robotics industry.
"They were actually very tough, you saw the winners, the winners are really impressive. So, also between the smaller teams, the university teams, all of them are actually quite good," he said.
Last year marked the inaugural humanoid robot half-marathon and featured only 20 teams. This year, that number rose to 100, including five foreign teams, while the humanoid robots demonstrated greater endurance, smoother gaits, and more stable algorithms.
Cai Jizheng, director of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area's robotics bureau, said this year's competition included several upgrades, with more complex racing tracks and terrain.
"Compared to last year, there are several key changes. First, the course remains 21 kilometers long, but the terrain is now more challenging. There are more turns. This year, there are 22 turns including 12 left and 10 right. Some of these turns are nearly 90 degrees. We have also added a mix of uphill and downhill sections, as well as ecological trails in the Nanhaizi Park," said Cai.
Honor's humanoid robots sweep top three places at 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon
Honor's humanoid robots sweep top three places at 2026 Beijing E-Town Half Marathon
The two-day European Union (EU) summit concluded in Brussels on Friday without a breakthrough on the bloc's long-term budget, as rising security commitments and soaring energy costs exposed a growing gap between Europe's ambitions and its ability to deliver.
Behind the summit's limited progress lay three pressing challenges: a budget difficult to agree upon, a growing security bill complicated by tensions with Washington, and an energy crisis testing Europe's economic resilience.
The European Commission has proposed a nearly 2-trillion-euro (2.24 trillion U.S. dollars) budget for 2028-2034, seeking to increase investment in competitiveness, defense and technology.
The Irish presidency's latest compromise would reduce the Commission's proposal by around 141 billion euros (158 billion dollars), yet the revised plan has drawn resistance from opposing camps.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned that the compromise would cut budgetary flexibility by half, leaving 99.5 percent of funds predetermined.
"This proposal puts us in a straitjacket," she said.
According to Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, six fiscally conservative countries led by Germany favor a smaller budget, while 17 "Friends of Cohesion," including Italy and Spain, seek to protect agricultural subsidies and regional development funds.
Brussels-based think tank Bruegel argued that both camps supported greater investment in common European priorities but placed national interests first.
It said that the Irish plan as the "worst possible compromise," warning that it could leave emerging priorities, including competitiveness and defense, severely underfunded while protecting traditional spending.
Fabian Zuleeg, chief executive and chief economist of the European Policy Centre, has likewise argued that Europe's expanding investment needs cannot realistically be financed through national budgets alone, calling for innovative financing arrangements, including new common borrowing.
The disagreements leave European Council President Antonio Costa facing a difficult task as he seeks a budget agreement by year-end.
Europe's fiscal pressures are compounded by a growing security bill and differences with Washington over Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the summit that the war would cost Ukraine 155 billion euros (173 billion dollars) in 2027 and requested at least another 70 billion euros (78 billion dollars) in assistance.
The EU has already agreed on a 90-billion-euro (100 billion dollars) loan covering 2026-2027. However, Ukraine's additional financing needs remained under assessment, with European leaders seeking further input from the Commission and international financial institutions.
In its final conclusions, the European Council explicitly expressed regret over the U.S. decision to temporarily lift sanctions on Russian diesel, a move also criticized by Zelensky.
Meanwhile, recent restrictions on the U.S.-controlled Starshield satellite communications service disrupted Ukrainian military operations, exposing another vulnerability in Europe's security capabilities.
"Starlink is really necessary for Ukraine, and unfortunately in the short term Europe can't replace this capability," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged on Friday.
Analysts noted that this episode highlights Europe's reliance on critical U.S. military technologies even as transatlantic differences over Ukraine become more pronounced.
For Europe, the dilemma is increasingly apparent: greater security responsibilities require additional resources, while some of the capabilities underpinning those commitments remain beyond its immediate control.
Energy has become another source of financial strain. According to von der Leyen, the Middle East conflict has added 106 billion euros (119 billion dollars) to the EU's fossil fuel import bill, highlighting Europe's vulnerability to external energy shocks.
The International Energy Agency is accelerating the release of emergency oil stocks, including diesel, with plans to bring another 100 million barrels to the market over four months, while Brussels is pursuing temporary support for energy-intensive industries and measures to improve refining capacity.
Yet the summit exposed divisions over how far climate policies should be adjusted to ease immediate costs.
Italy, Greece and the four Visegrad countries pushed to postpone the EU's second emissions trading system, ETS2, until 2030, arguing that carbon pricing would impose further burdens on households and businesses.
However, Nordic countries resisted, concerned that weakening the system would undermine investment certainty and longer-term climate objectives.
The summit ended without an agreement on further postponement. Leaders instead requested an updated assessment of ETS2's design, impact and safeguards.
Researchers at the European Council on Foreign Relations argued that Europe's green transition was facing growing political resistance shaped by economic insecurity, competing national interests and the distribution of costs.
The dispute reflects a difficult choice: easing today's energy pressures could weaken incentives for long-term investment, while maintaining ambitious climate policies risks adding to the burden on businesses and households.
For European leaders, agreeing on common goals remains easier than deciding who should bear the costs of achieving them.
EU summit ends with mounting bills, unresolved divisions
