Month: November 2025

greet. He has fallen on his face

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There are companies that are committed to we all end up having a humanoid robot at home, as if it were that movie based on Asimov’s novel. The most leading companies are concentrated in the United States and China, with figure and Unitree as a spearhead. Now there is a new country that wants to enter the humanoid robotics race, it is Russia and its first attempt has been, shall we say, striking. What has happened? The first Russian humanoid robot was presented yesterday in Moscow. In the video shared on networks You can see how the robot appears from the side of the stage, accompanied by two men who watch it very closely, with the soundtrack of ‘Rocky’. All very epic, or that was the intention. The robot takes a few steps, stops and salutes, then immediately loses its balance and falls face down on the ground. What follows is the robot “kicking”, the employees dragging it and trying, without much success, to cover the scene with the stage curtain. A disaster. Reactions. The first thing that catches your attention is that the robot walks very clumsily, very far from what we are used to. robot shows in china. The reactions on the networks were immediate and many pointed out that the robot seemed somewhat “harmed.” “I can’t stop laughing. I think he learned to walk from alcoholics,” said one user on X. “Powered by vodka,” this other guy joked. There has also been some positive comments which point out the difficulty of creating a humanoid robot that walks, even if it is that bad. AIdol. This is how they have named the first Russian humanoid robot manufactured by the Idol company. According to the russian news agencyAIdol is capable of “walking, manipulating objects, and communicating.” It also has the ability to reproduce facial expressions thanks to 19 servomotors and has seven microphones, speakers and cameras to interact and move around the environment. Supposedly, AIdol can move at a speed of 6km/h and maintains balance on uneven surfaces, although judging by its appearance on the scene, we have quite a few doubts. And finally, AI could not be missing, we do not know what models it uses, but AIdol has the capacity to generate contextual voice using AI. Plus, everything works offline. The excuse. Idol, the company behind the creation of the robot, said that the crash occurred due to a calibration problem and that the robot they presented was in the testing phase. There has also been talk that it could be due to poor lighting or voltage problem. What we do know is that the Russian news agency does not mention the incident in its extensive article on AIdol. What’s more, the video that includes the news is cut just before the fall. It could be worse. This is not the first time that Russia has ventured into robotics. In 2018, on Russian television A robot appeared that walked, danced and could even talk. They called him Boris and promoted him as a way to encourage young people to become interested in robotics. The problem is that it later became known that Boris was actually a man in disguise and not a real robot as they wanted us to believe in the broadcast. Image | x In Xataka | Robots are taking over factories and warehouses. Now they target the fruit seasonal workers

We have discounts of up to 75% on all your plans

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When it comes to Internet security, no precaution is too little. The most efficient and simple way to protect ourselves while browsing is, without a doubt, to use a VPN. This tool is one of those essentials that is always good to have installedwhether on your mobile or PC. Thanks to it, we can protect our internet traffic and keep sensitive information such as our IP address safe. In practice, we have free options. These work and can save us at a certain moment, but they are not a good option in the long run. The reason is that they all share a problem: They are not as safe as they promise. If we want to get one of the best on the market, then we have a great option right now with NordVPN: it’s on Black Friday and their plans start from 2.99 euros per month. All without having to apply any coupons or do anything strange, since the discounts are all applied automatically. NordVPN Monthly Basic Plan (2-year plan) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links NordVPN’s Black Friday comes with discounts for all its plans As we say, among all the payment options available, NordVPN stands out for being one of the best and most reliable. Your service, in addition to being easy and intuitive to useallows us to connect to more than 8,400 servers that are distributed in more than 165 different locations. Thanks to this, we will always find a location to connect to that offers fast speed, since we will never find any type of congestion in the system. Additionally, with a subscription, we can use this tool on up to 10 devices simultaneously. We cannot ignore your safety, one of the best we can find today. It uses military-grade encryption to protect our traffic and even includes a ‘kill switch’ function, which, simply explained, will automatically disconnect us from the Internet if the VPN stops working. Black Friday has also arrived for this VPN, which leaves us with all its plans at the best prices of the year. We have discounts that go up to 75%so we only have to look at what each one offers and choose the one that best suits us. The cheapest of all, called the Basic plan, costs only 2.99 euros per month if we choose the two-year modality. In simpler terms: we will pay a total of 80.73 euros and we will receive three extra months (so there will be 27 months in total). Stopping there is just scratching the surface, as the other plans also offer very good value for money right now. These would be the prices at which each of them comes out: Basic Plan: 27 months for 80.73 euros in total (2.99 euros per month). Plus Plan: 27 months for 105.03 euros in total (3.89 euros per month). Complete Plan: 27 months for 132.03 euros in total (4.89 euros per month). Ultra Plan: 27 months for 175.23 euros in total (6.49 euros per month). As we say, it will depend on our needs or what we are looking for. If we only want to have the VPN, then the Basic plan will be enough. If we want an ad blocker and a password manager, we can opt for the Plus plan. It should be noted that both the Full plan and the Ultra plan include 1 TB of cloud storage. Finally, we cannot forget that all NordVPN plans include a 30-day period in which we can request a refund at any time if we are not satisfied. We have to take advantage of all these discounts until next December 1so it is advisable that we do not fall asleep if we are looking for a VPN. NordPass is also on Black Friday with discounts The security of our Internet traffic is very important, but What about our passwords? Keeping these safe is essential to protect all types of information, services or platforms, so any help we can have for this is always welcome. That’s where NordPass comes in, which also belongs to NordVPN and, as you can imagine, is also on Black Friday. NordPass is a very easy-to-use tool that serves to give our passwords a greater degree of security thanks to its strong encryption. Furthermore, by storing them, it allows us to use this tool to auto-complete and auto-save while browsing different web pages. And not only that, since we can synchronize NordPass on all our devices to have our passwords at hand anywhere. The NordPass offer for this Black Friday leaves us with its Premium plan with a 56% discount, so we will only pay 1.29 euros per month in your two-year plan. In other words: it will cost us 34.83 euros in total and we will also receive three extra months. If we want more, we have the Family plan, which has 6 user accountsby 2.79 euros per month. NordPass Monthly Premium Plan (2-year plan) The price could vary. We earn commission from these links 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 | Luke Southern on Unsplash (with editing), NordVPN In Xataka | Public WiFis: why they are dangerous and tips to connect safely In Xataka | The best solutions to protect your data and your company’s IT equipment

China is quietly winning the AI ​​race thanks to something very simple: cheap energy

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“China is going to win the artificial intelligence race,” warned Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. Many thought he was exaggerating, interested in fueling demand for his chips. But, as analyst June Yoon explained in her column for the Financial TimesHuang’s argument contains an uncomfortable truth: the availability of electricity—not chips—is becoming the critical factor for the development of AI. A model like GPT-4 can consume more than 460,000 megawatt-hours per year, the equivalent of the energy consumption of 35,000 American homes, according to a study. The world’s data centers—already colossal—could double their electricity consumption before 2030. And that changes the rules of the game. When there are plenty of chips, but there are no plugs. The race for AI It started with a GPU fever. Big tech companies rushed to buy every Nvidia chip available, but they soon discovered something more worrying: there weren’t enough sockets to connect them. Satya Nadella himself, CEO of Microsoft, he said it bluntly: “The biggest problem we have now is not excess chips, but energy.” Electricity demand has skyrocketed so much that Google, Microsoft and Amazon are already contemplating build nuclear reactors to keep your servers on. The paradox sums up the moment well: the digital leadership of the West encounters a physical limit, that of cheap energy. Energy as a new geopolitics. Analyst June Yoon throw a question that reorders the technological map: what if the AI ​​race had nothing to do with chips, but with electricity? If the last century was defined by oil, this one will be defined by the current China no longer lives off oil: generates it. It has gone from being a petrostate dependent on crude oil to becoming the first electrostate on the planet. More than one quarter of your electricity It comes from renewable sources and its network is growing at a speed that no other country can match. Now that energy sovereignty fuels a new front: artificial intelligence. How did you find the formula? Since September, the Chinese Government Subsidizes up to 50% of energy costs of data centers that use national chips. The inland provinces—Guizhou, Gansu, Inner Mongolia—have become “electric hearts” of Chinese AI: there energy is abundant and cheapand local governments offer historically low rates of just 0.4 yuan per kilowatt-hour. The measure has a dual purpose: Compensate for the lower efficiency of domestic chips compared to Nvidia’s. Promote technological independence in the midst of a trade war. As Bloomberg has detailedthese regions are connected by ultra-high voltage (UHV) lines that transport renewable energy from the interior to the coastal areas where big technology companies, such as Alibaba, Tencent and ByteDance, are concentrated. The goal is clear: ensure abundant, low-cost energy for AI training clusters. According to Rystad Energythe electricity consumption of data centers could more than double before 2030, reaching 1,800 terawatt-hours in 2040. Beijing is preparing to absorb it. The result is a planned, centralized energy ecosystem designed to scale AI. An example is the Talatan Solar Parkwhich extends like a sea of ​​metal mirrors: more than 600 square kilometers of panels that are combined with wind and hydroelectric parks. From there, the power travels along high-voltage lines to data centers on the coast. It is a postcard of the new Chinese power: sun, wind and silicon. China’s electrical advantage. The strategy is also working in the markets. According to Bloombergshares of Chinese power companies have risen up to 40% in a week, driven by demand for AI data centers. UBS forecasts that electricity demand in China will grow 8% annually until 2028. Meanwhile, in Washington, the Trump administration has launched an AI Action Plan to accelerate the construction of data centers and remove obstacles to energy projects. But, as FT analysts point outchip improvements are stuck in single digits, while Chinese renewable energy grows by double digits every year. The power is in the socket. In the race for artificial intelligence, chips are the brain. But the heart beats with electricity. The United States retains leadership and has the best semiconductors (for now); China, the network that keeps them on. As June Yoon wroteall the technological superpowers in history—from coal England to oil America—were built on a source of cheap energy. Today, artificial intelligence needs electricity as it once needed steam. And on that new board, China seems to have found the key: plug in the future before anyone else. Image | Pixabay and Hanwha Xataka | SoftBank abandons the king of chips in its prime. And he bets everything on OpenAI

This song is number one on the Billboard chart in the US. And it has been generated by AI

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The new artist that is triumphing on the charts in the United States is called Breaking Rust, but it is not a person, but an AI. Your song’Walk My Walk‘ has become number one on the Billboard list of song sales of the genre countryand we are not surprised because it is wonderful. And that raises again an increasingly loud debate. Why is it important. Music generated with artificial intelligence platforms has already sowed other controversies in the past, such as the one we experience with famous fake Drake song. Models and services like Suno AI They have evolved so much in recent months that today the results that can be obtained are as good as those of songs played and sung by human artists. And if not, tell this song by Breaking Rust, which has managed to convince people enough to make it number one in the prestigious Billboard magazine of hits in the US. Who is Breaking Rust?. In Newsweek they claim to have contacted the person behind the virtual artist Breaking Rust, but he has not made any statements. The artist has a profile in Linktree and on Instagramwhere 39,000 people are currently following him. In that account, videos made with AI appear in which the image of a cowboy is presented in different situations and with his songs in the background. Meanwhile, on Spotify has Right now more than two million monthly listeners. It is not clear who is behind said virtual artist, although some analyzes have tried to reveal that mystery. It is not the first and it certainly will not be the last hit of AI. What ‘Walk My Walk’ has achieved is striking, but in recent months we had already seen some virtual artists with songs generated by AI They end up being a hit on Spotifyalthough there are suspicions in this success (and probably, many bots). Replicating any style has long seemed like a piece of cake for AI models… even before ChatGPT appeared and it will change everything. We can no longer distinguish if a song was made by AI. It is already difficult to detect whether a text or an image has been created by an AI. The video seemed to be somewhat easier to identify, but the latest versions of Veo or Sora make it really complicated. With music we have reached a point where human music is indistinguishable from that generated by AI. This is what it indicates a recent study linked in Scientific American. It became clear that the majority of participants in this study could not distinguish creations made with Suno AI from human compositions. Rejection and worry. Music generated by AI, as in other types of content, is generating rejection in certain sectors. Josh Antonuccio, from Ohio University, explained that AI-generated content “creates more noise (…) The only thing that will continue to distinguish human artists is those who have remarkable music, a captivating perspective and a story that attracts fans.” Meanwhile, the truth is that this makes it more difficult for artists, especially independent ones who are trying to be successful in this segment. They also wonder if AI will ultimately I shouldn’t pay them a commission considering that he has (probably) trained with his works. In Xataka | The war over AI-generated music continues to escalate: Major labels sue Suno AI and Udio

Spain fears a major collapse during the August 2026 eclipse, so it is already starting to design emergency plans

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Spain has activated the machinery to prepare for one of the most anticipated natural phenomena with the greatest logistical impact: the total eclipse that we will experience next August 12, 2026. A phenomenon that will cross the north of the country and that will make Spain the focus of all lovers of these phenomena that nature gives us, and it is logical, since it is the first total solar eclipse visible from continental Europe since 1999. The challenge of having thousands of people gathered together looking at the sky, and also added to the large number of tourists who will arrive in the country, makes the Government has asked the autonomous communities to prepare security and mobility plans. Something that can be similar, for example, to the organization of a soccer World Cup, but concentrated in a few hours. In order to manage the logistics of this important date, the central government activated an inter-ministerial commission that recently had a second meeting with the regional representatives. The objective is to be able to have a joint response to the massive influx of visitors mainly to the north of Spain. And it is no wonder, since in experience we have in mind the ‘Great American Eclipse‘ of 2024 where thousands of people ended up collapsing parks and roads, even where the eclipse was partial. And we want to avoid as much as possible that this ends up being chaos in Spain. The estimate. We are not talking about a few thousand people interested in these phenomena, but the Government proposes that millions of people can move to follow the strip of totality that will diagonally cross 13 autonomies and at least 27 provinces from Galicia to Aragon, passing through Castilla y León, Cantabria, Navarra and La Rioja. The eclipse will occur just at sunset, with the Sun going completely dark for a few minutes while the Moon blocks its disk, peaking at 20:28. The zone of total darkness will also cross a part of northern Portugal, the extreme west of Iceland and an unpopulated strip of Greenland, but Spain will be the only country where it can be observed with full guarantees and from inhabited places. And in the case of Spain in particular, the truth is that it is something historic, since It will be the first to be seen from the Iberian Peninsula in more than a century. What is requested. The central government wants to anticipate problems that may arise, such as an emergency, which is likely when we talk about a mass of people at a specific point. But in addition to this, contingency plans must also be prepared on roads due to the large number of trips that can occur in a very short period of time. The problem here is that we are in a country that is not centralized in a single administration, and that is why the cooperation of all the autonomous communities is essential. The Ministry of Science emphasize which, in addition to guaranteeing safety and mobility, seeks to promote correct scientific dissemination and avoid risks such as the use of non-approved solar glasses, an aspect highlighted by Cigudosa to prevent damage or fraud in eye protection during observation. The problems. Among those they want to address is undoubtedly the possibility of having accidents on roads, kilometer-long traffic jams and blocked access to cities. This adds to the possible overload of the infrastructures of emptied Spain, since many observation points are located in rural areas or coastal areas with limited resources. This means that it can be very easy for secondary roads to collapse, mobile coverage towers to be saturated, and for there to not be enough fuel or food for all the spectators of this historic event in our country. Although we must also highlight the possibility of a greater number of forest fires due to bad human practices and precisely at a time of maximum risk. Those that are to come. The 2026 eclipse is just the starting signal for a ‘trio of eclipses’ that can be seen from Spain. The specific agenda we have is the following: August 12, 2026: the great northern eclipse, at sunset, which is total. August 2, 2027: Just one year later, another total eclipse will cross the southern tip of Spain. It will be visible from Cádiz, Málaga, Ceuta and Melilla. Unlike the first, this one will be in the morning and will be one of the longest of the century, with a total that will exceed 4 and a half minutes in the Strait. January 26, 2028: an annular eclipse (where the Moon does not completely cover the Sun, leaving a bright circle) will cross the south of the peninsula, visible from areas such as Seville or Granada. In this way, the Government has the task of preparing for three different events in a range of three years that will attract a large number of national and international curious people. In Xataka | Between 2026 and 2028 Spain will become an eclipse paradise. And we have new maps to know where they will look best

Apple TV has decided to swim against the current of all streaming platforms with a singular decision: not to put ads

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The common note among all streaming platforms, beyond catalog details, seems to be in the search for profit by raising cheaper rates in exchange for advertising interruptions. Apple, however, seems determined to differentiate itself, which can undoubtedly bring benefits at an economic and image level. Which is exactly what would benefit you the most at this moment. No ads. Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Apple Services, has confirmed in an interview with Screen International that the company has no plans to launch an Apple TV subscription with ads. The refusal is not indefinite, but at this time that is Apple’s decision. Cue states that “we will not include them for now. It is not a forever negative, but at the moment there are no plans”, and it comes in a context where practically all of its large competitors are expanding their advertising strategies, with more and more rates with ads. Because. He streaming has entered into something we could call his “advertising era“But Apple wants to differentiate itself from there: it believes that if it can maintain a competitive price, consumers will value not having their content interrupted by ads. It is a position that connects directly with the brand’s DNA: control over the user experience, frictionless design, and a commitment to the perception of premium value even if the price is not the highest on the market. It is the same philosophy that applies with Apple Musicwhich has never competed with free, ad-supported versions. What is coming. Apple’s decision takes on its true dimension when you look at what is happening in the rest of the industry. One of the next trends that is going to reach us are ads that fire even if the content is paused. At the moment, in the United States it is Peacock that is experimenting with this way of displaying ads, as well as Netflix in some territories. Disney+ has also shown interest in incorporating it into its catalog. That is to say, what is coming for the more immediate future are increasingly invasive ads, in the style of YouTube or Spotify on their cheaper accounts, and which undoubtedly revalue decisions like Apple’s. Prices: competitive but quality. AppleTV It currently costs 9.99 euros per month in Spainwhile in the United States the price has reached $12.99. At first glance, it might seem expensive compared to competitors’ basic plans. But this is where Apple has executed an interesting positioning maneuver: it does not compete in the low end of the market, but instead offers premium features at an intermediate price. The key is that all content is available in 4K HDR quality with spatial audio, at no additional cost and without advertising interruptions. But also, there are no steps, no temptation to “improve” the plan. You pay a single fee and access the full experience. It’s a radically simple model in a market that has become increasingly (unnecessarily) complicated. Comparison with other services. Apple’s tactic is evident: for 9.99 euros, Apple TV offers an experience equivalent to competing premium planswhich cost between 13.99 and 19.99 euros. It is not the cheapest option on the market (that happens with the ad-supported plans of Disney+, €5.99, or Netflix, €6.99) but it offers superior features at an average price: accessible enough to not seem exclusive, premium enough to justify the quality. What Apple TV offers. If we stay with the numbers, Apple TV loses by a landslide: just 226 titles in its catalog, a microscopic figure compared to Netflix’s 5,720, Prime Video’s 5,354, Disney+’s 2,461 or even HBO Max’s 2,300. according to recent calculations. It only makes sense if the catalog is measured by the quality of the content. While Netflix and Prime Video invest millions in producing and acquiring piece-rate content, Apple TV focuses on fewer productions, but ones that convey exclusivity. Although Apple is far from having series with the impact of ‘Stranger Things’, its biggest hits (‘Separation’, ‘Silo’, ‘F1’), convey that feeling of “there is no filler” that compensates for the smaller amount. The decision to dispense with advertisements for the moment moves along the same lines: to provide the viewer with something that no one else does, an experience of enjoying the series without interruptions or noise. Even if you have to pay something more (and even though the platform accounts they are not at their best). In Xataka | If the question is “where to watch all sports on a single platform”, one company wants to have the answer: Apple

In 2015, a man found a rock and kept it thinking it had gold. Ten years later he discovered his true value

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Imagine that one day, while searching for precious metals with a metal detector, you come across a strange reddish rock. You immediately think that it may be hiding gold, so you don’t hesitate to take it home. After numerous attempts to pierce it and discover what’s inside, you give up. It is a practically invulnerable rock, at least with everyday tools, such as grinders. This is what we just described This is what happened to David Hole.an Australian who used to explore Maryborough Regional Park with his detecting equipment in search of precious metals. And yes, he found the rock and tried to open it without success. In the end it turned out to be something much more valuable than any precious metal: a celestial body that had probably traveled to our planet from Mars or Jupiter, in other words, a meteorite. The Maryborough Meteorite The cosmic rock was discovered by Hole in 2015, although the man did not know what it was until 2018. Three years after its discovery he decided to take it to the Victoria Museum of his country in search of answers. Geologists Bill Birch and Dermot Henry They immediately suspected that it was a meteorite. And this was actually a surprise since most of the “meteorites” that people bring to the museum are not actually meteorites. The specialists had a peculiar piece measuring 38.5 cm x 14.5 cm x 14.5 cm. The next step was to photograph it and do a thorough analysis that consisted of making a small cut in order to analyze its composition. After analysis, it was confirmed that it was a meteorite with a high percentage of iron, that is, an ordinary H5 chondrite meteorite, which suggests that its formation could have occurred in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The origin of the Maryborough Meteorite, it should be noted, is a hypothesis, as researchers do not know exactly where it came from or when it may have impacted Earth. However, radiocarbon dating indicates that the rock has remained on Earth between 100 and 1,000 yearsalthough it is believed that it could have crossed our atmosphere in a period of time between 1889 and 1951, that is, in a recent period. If we talk about the value of the meteorite compared to gold, it is difficult to establish a comparative framework, but the museum points out that this is much more valuable. They say that finding gold on Australian soil is more common than finding a meteorite of these characteristics. “This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria,” they point out, adding that they are important scientific elements that “take us back in time” to study our Solar System. Certainly, meteorites contain valuable information about the formation of elements in the universe and give us a unique opportunity to study them closely to analyze their characteristics and chemical composition. A different type of research, but complementary, to the missions that are driven towards space, such as that of James Webb Space Telescope u the ambitious OSIRIS-REx. Images | Museums Victoria In Xataka | Who or what excavated the ravines on Mars? The answer is even stranger than we always thought In Xataka | There is already speculation even with Martian soil: the largest piece of Mars on Earth has just been sold for 5.3 million dollars

Revolut plans to make the generational leap in Spain: assault private banking

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Revolut is looking for private banking professionals in Spain to build its high net worth division from scratch. The project is in the initial phase, but talks have already begun, according to Expansion. It is the first serious move by the British neobank in a segment traditionally reserved for traditional banking. Why is it important. The bank intends to compete with the leaders of this sector, Santander and CaixaBankwho control more than 35% of the large fortune market in Spain. It is not a minor battle: Santander manages 195,000 million in assets of patrimonial clients. CaixaBank exceeds 181,000 million. Revolut wants to convince these customers to abandon decades of banking relationships for a mobile app. The context. Interest rates have normalized in Europe and banks need to compensate with fees for what they lose in margins. Private banking is the perfect business: High profitability. Less price sensitive customers. Lasting relationships. That is why everyone wants to enter or grow in this segment. Revolut is late to the banquet, but if anyone can offer a different menu, it’s them. Between the lines. Until now, Revolut has been the bank of millennials and generation Z. Young people who exchange currencies to travel, invest in cryptocurrencies, value the absence of commissions and digital agility. Now he wants to manage his parents’ assets. It is a logical but complex leap: going from being the youth alternative to becoming the custodian of consolidated family fortunes. Yes, but. There is another less obvious reading. Millennials who have been with Revolut for a decade are getting older and accumulating wealth. Entrepreneurs who have sold companies. Professionals with consolidated careers. Investors who have multiplied capital. Revolut is not only looking for new customers, it also aims to retain those it already has before they leave for traditional banking when they need more sophisticated services. The strategic turn. Revolut founder Nik Storonsky He’s been anticipating this move for a year.. He presented it as a natural evolution: many bank clients already have high balances and need more than just a well-stocked checking account. But the reality is more pressing: Revolut needs to diversify revenue beyond transactional products (currency exchange, cards, accounts). Their model has worked for the average customer. Now look for the high value one because that’s where the real margin is. The threat. Revolut’s bet is not only technological, it is generational. The bank believes that new fortunes value agility and innovation more than dealing with a manager in a VIP office. It also relies on its young client base to mature with them, creating a natural transition into private banking. And now what. Dates, minimum equity requirements, a list of specific services to be offered by Revolut in private banking… Everything is yet to be defined. It also remains to be known whether the bank will replicate its model from other markets or adapt the offer to Spanish particularities. And, above all, it remains to be seen if it manages to sign top-level professionals willing to work in a technologically powerful brand, but without a history of large assets. In Xataka | Neobanks break 25% market share in Spain. Traditional banking is losing young customers Featured image | Revolut

If you bought your house before 2013 and paid off the mortgage with its sale: The Treasury owes you money

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If you bought your house before 2013 we have good news for you: now you will be able to recover up to 1,356 euros on your tax return thanks to an important change in the way in which the Treasury recognizes mortgage deductions. If you used the money from the sale of your home to pay what you mortgage pendingthis change in Treasury doctrine can directly affect you. The new resolution of the Central Economic-Administrative Court (TEAC) opens the door for thousands of taxpayers to review their statements from recent years and request returns that they couldn’t ask for before. An opportunity to save on rent. The Central Economic-Administrative Court (TEAC) has dictated a change of doctrine in a resolution in which he has clarified that, if you use part of the money from the sale of your house to pay off the remaining mortgage, you can also deduct that amount on your income tax return. This changes the way the Treasury saw things until now and may mean recover more money on your taxes. Previously, you could only deduct mortgage payments while you lived in the house and owned it. If you sold the home, you lost the deduction from the day of the sale, even if you used part of the money to pay off the mortgage. An example to understand it easily. The TEAC resolution has been based on the binding consultation of a taxpayer from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, so his case can serve as a practical example. This taxpayer sold his home in June 2018 and used 10,202 euros of the amount obtained from the sale to pay off the mortgage. At that time, the Treasury only allowed him to deduct the installments paid until May, the month before the sale of the home, because the cancellation payment for the same, although it is part of the investment in that home, was no longer counted because it was no longer his property. With the new TEAC criteria, this cancellation with the money from the sale can also be deducted and therefore the excess withholding in personal income tax that was not previously recognized can be recovered. This represents a real change for those who have sold their house and paid off their debt with the money from the sale, since their right to the deduction does not disappear the day they sell the house, but remains in force as long as they use that money to pay the cancellation of their mortgage. Conditions to access the deduction. As and as they remember in IberleyIn order to benefit from this deduction, a series of conditions must be met. The first condition is that the home had to be your habitual residence until the moment of selling it. The second condition is to have purchased that home before 2013 and to have applied the personal income tax deduction prior to its sale. The maximum base for calculating the deduction is 9,040 euros per year, and the Treasury allows you to deduct 15% of what you pay for the loan. That leaves a maximum deduction of 1,356 euros per year which, if you had not applied it after the sale of the home, you can now claim if applicable. Review of declarations from 2021. From Idealistic stand out that, although this deduction is only for those who bought before 2013, those taxpayers who have sold their home and canceled the mortgage since 2021 can review their returns to see if the personal income tax deduction was correctly applied, including that final cancellation amount. This means that there may be pending returns for those who did not claim it at the time and meet the requirements in the years between 2021 and 2024, as long as their term has not expired. In Xataka | Just in case Madrid had few problems with housing, now it adds one more: US millionaires investing in the city Image | Wikimedia Commons (Jordiferrer, Ruth Leong)

Spain wants more pork and more safe water in its reservoirs. And he is discovering that both things at the same time are not possible.

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Hidden in the Official Gazette of Castilla y León on Monday, there was something that they did not suspect would be controversial: the authorization to install more than 3,500 heads of pigs on the outskirts of San Cebrián de Castro, province of Zamora. Why would it be controversial? As recognized in the Diario de Zamorais the umpteenth authorization of this type in recent years and, unlike others, this macro farm is not close to any urban center. The only small problem is that, well, it is 100 meters from the Ricobayo reservoir, right where the Esla flows into the Duero. And is that a problem? The idea is to install a pig farm “with capacity for 3,100 sows with piglets until weaning (from 0 to 6 kilos in weight), with 620 replacement sows and six boars.” Just over 132,000 square meters, more than a dozen warehouses, a manure dump with a capacity for 1,215 cubic meters and two enormous slurry ponds with a capacity for 14,000 cubic meters. The project insists that “there will be no discharge into the Public Hydraulic Domain”; but, of course, the doubts are more than reasonable. In 2023, 161 Zamora municipalities They were left without drinking water due to contamination of its reservoirs. Because there is also the issue of water consumption. According to the data, an annual water consumption is estimated at 24,479 cubic meters. It’s a lot of water, but it’s not a surprise either: agriculture and livestock consume almost 90% of the Duero basin. And Ricobayo is a critical reservoir And not only for the Northern Plateau. Because what is happening in the Esla River is something much more important than it seems. Spain It is the absolute leader in European porkbut (or “because”) the legal framework is too fragmented and has huge regulatory gaps. That is to say, the basic management of intensive farms has been broken for years. The sum of an unambitious basic state standard, hydrological plans, municipal plans and environmental authorizations leaves room for dozens of towns throughout the country to spend years denouncing the enormous ecological and health consequences of this type of installations. All of this comes at a difficult time. Because the macro farm industry is about to reach its key moment: it is not only that the administration is following The closest issue is that the prosecution is taking cards in the matter. That is to say, in the near future, Spain is going to have to clarify what it wants to be at an agricultural level and at what cost. But you can’t do it with your back to the externalities it produces. The competitiveness of Spanish pork is based on vertical integration, efficiency and scale; and that pushes farms to have greater capacity and associated plants (feed, slurry treatment, biogas, etc.). That is, it puts completely new pressure on parts of the system that are not prepared to withstand it. Water is one of those problems. The Spanish water reserve is at 51.4% of its capacity and we have just emerged from one of the largest droughts in recent decades: how is it possible that a strategic resource like water enjoys these management problems (and this lack of protection)? That question is indeed more complex than it seems. Image | Bob | Raiden32 In Xataka | The Atlas of Toxic Spain: this is the geography of pollution in our country

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