Month: July 2026

Fable 5 helps disprove a nearly century-old conjecture

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While Spain made history winning his second soccer World Cup on Sunday, a 34-year-old Harvard mathematician named Levent Alpöge asked Fable 5 for something interesting. Not that he tried to prove the Jacobi conjecture, but that he did the opposite: to refute it. Argentina kicked us while Spain played soccer and Ferrán of my life and my heart scored a historic goal. By the time it was all over, two things happened. The first, that Spain, we insist, was making history with its second star on the shirt. The second, that a conjecture that had not been proven for almost 90 years was definitively refuted thanks to the help of an AI. The aforementioned Jacobi conjecture suggests that a certain type of mathematical function could also work in reverse. It was formulated by Ott-Heinrich Keller in 1939, and in 1998 the mathematician Stephen Smale included it in his famous list of unsolved mathematical problems that were a challenge for mathematicians of the 21st century. A discovery that leaves as many questions as answers Alpöge has not explained in detail how he managed to reach that result or what prompt he used, but in his tweet he indicated that part of the credit was due to his “close friend fable“, the Anthropic model. Abhishek Sahafrom Queen Mary University of London, explained that the very way of facing the problem was unexpected. The conjecture seemed intuitively correct, but no one was trying to refute it, but rather prove it. Chris Bowman-Scargillfrom the University of York, pointed out something that he considers very important: it is one thing to find counterexamples that overturn conjectures and quite another to construct entire branches of mathematicswhich still requires human creativity. He gave as an example Fermat’s last theorem, solved by Andrew Wiles in 1994, and which forced him to develop dozens of pages with new and fascinating mathematical theories. Several experts have already validated this refutation, something that was relatively easy to do. For Saha, AI advances in mathematics had already surprised —they did it with one of the problems recently—, but this went further: “It is probably the most important conjecture in which AI has played a relevant role so far in mathematics,” he said. There is however some open questions: This particular counterexample refutes the conjecture with three variables, but a version with only two variables could be true. One thing is certain: mathematicians are taking advantage of this tool to help them in their work. The most famous in the world does it, of course. Ivan Fesenkofrom Westlake University in China, was talking about this when he stated that AI models are becoming more and more capable: “Right now, AI can already produce math graduates. In a year, it will produce math PhDs. And then the question arises: Do we really need that many mathematicians if AI can do these things so well?” It is a disturbing question, of course. Image | Vitaly Gariev In Xataka | A mathematical problem had been resisting experts for more than 80 years. An AI has surpassed them all

There are already airlines planning flights to see the solar eclipse from the air: is it worth it?

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The solar eclipse on August 12, 2026 will not be seen in Belgium in full totalitybut they are going to express the bias in a very curious way: planning a flight to see it from the air. It will be carried out by the Brussels Airlines companyin collaboration with the Urania Public Observatory, the University of Antwerp and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). In Spain, at the moment, there are companies using the solar eclipse only as a teaser. This is the case of Lufthansa, which is sending emails to its customers encouraging them to fly with them during the eclipse. However, for now they have not planned any specific flights, as the Belgian company has done. Better without clouds. The advantage of viewing a solar eclipse from the air is that commercial flights usually travel above the clouds, usually at altitudes between 9,000 and 13,000 meters. This allows you to see the solar eclipse without the obstruction of clouds, but also without other atmospheric distortions. In the case of the eclipse that will be seen in Spain this August 12, 2026, totality will take place around sunset. With the Sun so low on the horizon, it will be very important that the skies are sufficiently clear and clean to enjoy it in all its splendor. In Belgium the Moon will cover, in the best of cases, 91% of the Sun. It will also happen around sunset, so for Brussels Airlines, its proposal may be a good way to see it in this very particular situation. The details. The flight will leave Brussels for France at 7:20 p.m. and will arrive back in Belgian territory at 9:20 p.m. The maximum occultation of the Sun will take place at 8:21 p.m., in the middle of the trip. The 100 people who have purchased the flights will have plenty of space to observe the solar eclipse, since aisle seats will not be sold, in order to have greater visibility. The experience will be accompanied at all times by the comments of an expert from the Urania observatory and, of course, with protection, since the company will distribute approved glasses to all passengers. All for the modest? price of 299 euros. There are already testimonies. In reality, this will not be a pioneering trip. During the solar eclipse of 2024, for example, many American airlines planned flights specifically for observation. Furthermore, there are eclipse chasers who, after seeing many of these phenomena from the ground, wanted to try the experience in small planes. This is, for example, the case of Glenn Schneider, who in 2017 told in statements to Space that the image is very different from what is seen from the ground. With the air cleaner and the eclipse below, rather than above, it is easier to see the solar corona and specific details such as Baily’s pearls. In Spain what? Spain has already organized a multitude of parties and activities around the solar eclipse on August 12. At the moment, it does not seem that it has organized any flights, like the one that will be organized in Belgium. In this country they have wanted to hurry up, ensuring that there will not be another similar opportunity until September 2090. In Spain, luckily, there will be another solar eclipse within a single year. Perhaps this is the time for companies to get on the organized travel bandwagon. Image | Magnific/Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | Puertomingalvo, the Teruel town of 130 inhabitants that has been without free beds for the eclipse for more than a year

there are people playing for hours to feed the online betting houses

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At 4:30 in the morning, an “Amsterdam” goalkeeper leaves the field to recover a lost ball on the next court. In the next room, separated from the previous one simply by a curtain, another game is played, with other teams. In a while he will also play there, perhaps with another team. There is no emotion or expressiveness on his face, he simply picks up the ball and returns it to his court. We could be looking at a suburban sports center, but there is something liminal and dystopian in mechanical gesturesalmost official, with which this athlete faces the game. Because to begin with, the result is the least important. The important thing is to never stop. The panorama. The collective Bellingcatin collaboration with the football research magazine Josimarpublished on October 21, 2024 a article about 1xBetthe Cyprus-based sportsbook that broadcasts thousands of amateur matches a year live from audience-free gyms in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The analysis detected 1,297 “short football” matches (a variant of indoor football played by teams of between two and five people) in a single 24-hour period in September 2024. It is more than the Bundesliga, the Premier League and LaLiga play together, in a full season. Every year, 1xBet’s figure is around half a million matches. The important thing is to participate. The players change shirts between games: “Barcelona” becomes “Manchester City” half an hour later, and teams with the name of a European club that do not actually exist compete against each other. A Russian football blogger, Viktor Kravchenko, had already denounced in 2021 that these footballers were recruited to play in shifts and that the matches were agreed in advance. Josimar collected the testimony of a young man who received cash for playing from nine in the morning to two in the afternoon, one game after another, for the 1xBet cameras. The other porn. Ismail Vali, then CEO of the analysis firm Yield Sec, explained to Bellingcat why 1xBet remains active a machinery that hardly moves any money: almost no one bets large amounts on a Ukrainian children’s basketball game at three in the morning. These matches serve to keep the user hooked and push them toward products with a higher margin, and we are not just talking about sports bets that, legal or not, yield between 9% and 10%. The casino, however, brings up to 50% profits for the bookmaker. “Crime only invests in more crime,” says Vali, even though legal gambling is not technically a crime. Nothing morbid here, everything normal. Bellingcat traced three of the headquarters to specific locations. One is the Alexander Stepin football school, in the Russian city of Bryansk, which according to the website was active in 2024 (today it is missing), had links with the ruling United Russia party and with Gazprom, the state energy company. In photos published on the web, children posed with weapons in the same facility where the games were recorded. 1,700 kilometers away, in Severodvinsk, Bellingcat identified a party of floorball feminine in which girls of 14 and 15 years old played; There is no way to know if they knew that the match fueled a betting market. In Saransk, the same sports center that hosts matches for 1xBet is also used for weapons training courses. Image: Josimar May your left hand… Meanwhile, 1xBet is listed as a sponsor of two of the biggest clubs in Europe. FC Barcelona renewed its agreement with the betting house until 2029 in July 2024, months before the investigation was published; When consulted by Bellingcat, the club declined to comment. Paris Saint-Germain, sponsored by 1xBet since 2022, went further: in September 2025, almost a year after the report became known, extended the agreement until 2028. …don’t know what the right is doing. In May 2026, online gaming regulatory technology company Gaming Compliance International encrypted the global market of unregulated online betting at $5.9 trillion during 2025, with illegal operators accounting for 78% of the sector’s gross revenue. In the United States, where sports betting is regulated in most states, legal operators managed almost $150 billion in bets during 2024 and generated $13.71 billion in revenue. And it is only a fraction, obviously, of what moves outside of what is legal. Farms are just the surface. In Xataka | Goodbye to Polymarket and Kalshi in Spain: the Government blocks “predictive markets” for not having a gaming license

the Reolink OMVI 3i WiFi arrives in Spain

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When protecting your home or business with video surveillance systems, one of the common dilemmas is choosing between a wide-angle camera that covers a lot of space or one with movement. pan-tilt that allows zooming and tracking. Reolink seeks to resolve this dilemma with the arrival in Spain of the OMVI 3i WiFia smart security camera that stands out for its triple lens system designed to cover a full 360º field of view without losing detail. Reolink OMVI 3i WiFi surveillance camera The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A surveillance camera with no blind spots The central aspect of the OMVI 3i WiFi lies in the combination of its optics. On the one hand, it integrates a 10 MP dual-lens panoramic module; On the other hand, it adds a third PT lens (pan-tilt) of 8 MP. Overall, the system achieves a 18MP combined resolutionallowing you to maintain a continuous overview of the scene while being able to focus or track in detail on specific areas or subjects. To take advantage of this structure, this surveillance camera incorporates the technologies SyncTrack and Auto Framing. These features allow the camera to automatically detect moving people or objects and keep them framed and centered in the image as they move. At the software level, the model debuts the technology AI ReoNeuraa proprietary system that performs intelligent detection processing and video search directly on the hardware itself. By not depending on the cloud for these analysis tasks, the team seeks to reduce both false alerts and response times, while also reinforcing data privacy. Along the same lines, the Reolink proposal waives monthly fees or mandatory subscription services. Recordings can be stored locally using a microSD card of up to 512 GB or by connecting the equipment to an NVR recorder from the brand itself. Price and availability The Reolink OMVI 3i WiFi is now available in Spain with an official recommended price of 319.99 euroswhich can be purchased both on the manufacturer’s official website and through its store on Amazon. For those who prefer installation via network cable instead of wireless connection, the brand also offers the OMVI 3i PoE version. Reolink OMVI 3i WiFi surveillance camera The price could vary. We earn commission from these links ⚡ IN SUMMARY: reolink omvi 3i wifi security camera ✅ THE BEST Complete coverage on a single device: The triple lens architecture allows you to replace the installation of multiple cameras to cover a large space. No recurring costs: Local storage and on-device AI processing avoid paying monthly fees. ❌ THE WORST Initial investment… Its price places it above the simplest entry-level IP surveillance cameras. Wireless signal dependency… Although it has the PoE (wired) variant, the WiFi model requires an access point with good coverage to transmit the high-resolution video stream without interruptions. 💡 BUY IT IF… You have a home with a garden, patio or wide access, as it is ideal for those looking to monitor large outdoor areas, avoiding blind spots without filling the façade with devices. ⛔ DON’T BUY IT IF… You intend to monitor a small room or a hallway, since a triple-lens panoramic model will be excessive in terms of performance and size. Other cameras from the firm that may interest you Reolink Duo 3 PoE Camera: Dual 16MP UHD Lens The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Reolink 3K PT Indoor Camera, Auto Tracking 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 | Reolink In Xataka | 360 cameras, purchasing guide to record or photograph everything around you. Recommendations and six models for all budgets In Xataka | The mobile phones with the best cameras that we have analyzed in recent months (2025)

OLED screens have been manufactured the same way for years. Lenovo and TCL just broke that norm

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Lenovo has presented the Legion R9000Pa 16-inch gaming laptop that becomes the first device on the market to incorporate an OLED screen manufactured using inkjet printing (Inkjet Printing OLED), a TCL technology that has been around at technology fairs for a few years now. According to Lenovo, this is a relevant step towards the commercialization of this type of panels, especially taking into account that the manufacturing process allows costs to be lowered. A screen that marks all the ticks Although Lenovo has not yet shared the complete technical data sheet of the equipment, the firm has given some quite interesting details. And the Legion R9000P mounts a 16-inch OLED panel with a refresh rate of 240 Hzdesigned especially for the most gamers. Furthermore, according to data provided by Lenovo, the screen covers more than 99% of the DCI-P3 color space and promises to maintain stable color performance regardless of the brightness level, something that the brand links to uses that go beyond gaming, such as professional design. The panel also features a Real RGB Stripe subpixel layout, a design that Lenovo explains corrects text blurring and color striping issues that often appear on OLED displays with the traditional triangular layout. It is worth clarifying, however, that if we look at the panel from the point of view of the specifications it offers, it is not a new technology, since multiple manufacturers already offer quite powerful 240 Hz OLED panels. The novelty lies precisely in how it has been manufactured. this panel. What changes in inkjet printing? Traditional manufacturing of OLED displays is based on a process called vacuum thermal evaporation (VTE), which requires high-precision metal masks and very expensive machinery. TCL CSOT’s IJP OLED technology replaces that method with inkjet printing to deposit the light-emitting organic material, which the company claims simplifies the process, reduces material waste and improves production yield. In practice, this could translate into OLED screens that are cheaper to manufacture without giving up the features that make this type of technology attractive, such as very high contrast and color reproduction. These IJP OLED panels They also promise improvements in brightnessan aspect in which conventional OLED screens usually have more difficulties, and something especially relevant in a laptop when we use it in multiple lighting conditions. Neither Lenovo nor TCL CSOT have confirmed whether those manufacturing savings will be passed on to the consumer, as the company has not yet offered details on pricing. More than a decade of development Although the Legion R9000P is the first commercial application of this technology in a laptop, TCL CSOT has been working on it for more than ten years, according to collect in his own statement. We ourselves have witnessed it on more than one occasion at multiple technology fairs such as CES. And not only in laptops, since the idea is that this manufacturing process is compatible for all types of screens, including televisions. According to data According to Counterpoint Research, TCL has around a 14% share in the global television market, a business until now mainly supported by screens. LCD and mini LEDso this technology could also open the door to compete with Samsung and LG in the OLED field. New products are beginning to appear with this technology The Legion R9000P is not the only product that debuts this technology. And days before its presentation, MSI also showed the monitor PRO MAX OLED 271UPJW12a 27-inch panel with 4K resolution that shares very similar specifications to the TCL CSOT panels, although MSI has not openly confirmed that it uses this manufacturer’s technology. If production costs continue to fall, this technology could facilitate the arrival of higher quality OLED screens to cheaper devices. For now, the Legion R9000P is limited to the Asian market and Lenovo has not offered more details about its technical specifications or its availability in other regions, so we have to wait to find out if a launch in Europe is confirmed. Images | TCL In Xataka | DDR4 and DDR5 are in short supply, Apple raises prices and only two Chinese manufacturers can restore sanity to the market

The new law puts an end to one of the last tobacco subterfuges in Spain

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Some customs survive by pure inertia. In Spain, one of them consists of going out to a terrace, ordering a beer and assuming that someone, sooner or later, will light a cigarette half a meter from your table. It doesn’t matter that you are eating, that there is a baby carriage and a mother breastfeeding. It doesn’t matter if the smoke reaches you before the waiter does. So far: the Council of Ministers has given the green light to the project of the largest anti-smoking reform since the ban on smoking in bars and restaurants in 2011. To exemplify the power and scope of this measure: in Madrid alone more than 6,300 bars, almost 64,000 tables and more than 200,000 chairs on terraces. That’s a lot of money. The terrace will no longer be a shared ashtray. The most visible measure affects one of the great symbols of Spanish hospitality: the terraces. When the law comes into force after its parliamentary processing, smoking will not be allowed on the terraces of bars and restaurants. Nor vaping. The Government equates e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches with conventional tobacco in most restrictions. The Ministry of Health survey said, STUDIES 2025that the prevalence of daily smokers among adolescents was registering all-time lowssince counting began in 1994. However, it seems that the problem lies more in a distortion of the samples. The danger of vaping. The Spanish Society of Family and Community Medicine (semFyc) warned, however, that the problem, rather than disappearing, has moved: 90.5% of underage smokers use both vapers and conventional cigarettes. Many young people, in fact, They do not smoke other cigarettes that are not electronicmore in line with other lifestyles and appearances cleaner and more modern. An alternative, clearly, defective. Although the legislation protected the interior of the premises but left a huge legal vacuum in the exterior spaces, this has now ended, understanding that a risk exists and persists, especially for children, pregnant women and hospitality workers who spend full days breathing that environment. Now the inn will have to face this new reality which leaves the local smoker without margin and equates it with that of Sweden, the only country in the EU where smoking is prohibited in public spaces. Tobacco also disappears from campus. The reform promoted by Minister Mónica García seeks to expand smoke-free spaces to marquees, music festivals, and outdoor or non-open-air events (in addition to theaters, cinemas, and any closed venue) and, for the first time, expressly prohibits smoking by minors. It is a cultural change. And there is more: the text, which modifies Law 28/2005, also adds as cigarette-free spaces the beaches, both sea and river, sports centers and public swimming pools, the network of National Parks and the work vehicle itself, as long as you are on professional duty. Denormalize tobacco consumption. Or so the norm says: that smoking stops being part of the daily landscape. Yeah you see smokingit is more likely that you end up smoking. Because if a teenager spends his entire life watching smoking on terraces, at concerts, at universities or in swimming pools, he ends up perceiving it as normal behavior. Reducing this presence also reduces the social attractiveness of cigarettes, according to the scientific evidence supported by the Ministry. “The reality of smoking has changed and this reform pursues a very clear objective: moving towards a tobacco-free generation,” said the Minister of Health, Mónica García. And the data seems to support his claim. The big news: the minors. Until now, the law prevented the sale of tobacco to minors. Now it also prohibits them from consuming it. It may seem like a semantic difference, but it has important legal consequences. The text incorporates an express prohibition on smoking, vaping or using nicotine pouches as a minor. The sanctions will fall on those legally responsible when appropriate and seek to reinforce the preventive message rather than collection. Of course, the reform modifies the sanctioning regime and establishes fines from 200 euros for these infractions. In the case of minors, the financial responsibility will fall on the parents or legal guardians, as always. But the project also foresees that this economic sanction can be replaced by work for the benefit of the community, with a clear educational and preventive focus, similar to what already exists in other regulations aimed at minors. Images | Pexels (Eyüpcan Timur, Helena Lopes) In Xataka | Experts agree: “Regular physical exercise makes the difference in quitting smoking” IN Xataka | It’s never too late to quit smoking: the lungs have an incredible capacity to regenerate

Kimi K3 triggers the alarm in Silicon Valley

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Kimi K3 has just dismantled an idea that had been installed among analysts for many months: the Chinese laboratories of artificial intelligence (IA) were, at least, between six and eight months behind its American rivals. This model, published last week by Beijing startup Moonshot AI, has 2.8 trillion parameters and has been designed for programming, knowledge work and complex reasoning tasks, as well as incorporating native vision capabilities. In fact, it’s bigger than the latest flagship models launched by Chinese rivals, such as Zhipu AI or DeepSeek. Its performance, and this is what is really surprising, has surpassed that of the main closed models from the USAsuch as Claude Opus 4.8 from Anthropic or GPT-5.5 from OpenAI, leaving only from behind of the most recent Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, according to Artificial Analysis data. China is only a few weeks behind The most shocking conclusion Ryan Fedasiuk picked it upresearcher at the American Business Institute, in a report published this Saturday under the title “China has caught up with the US in frontier AI.” Fedasiuk maintains that the gap between the two countries, which until now was measured in months, has narrowed to something close to a few weeks. Large American laboratories continue to lead the absolute frontier with Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol And Kimi K3 not only competes in performance. In tests such as the Arena AI ranking for development front-endthis Chinese model has surpassed both GPT-5.6 Sol and Claude Fable 5 despite being noticeably cheaper than both American alternatives. Of course, its price is somewhat higher than other Chinese models, such as DeepSeek or those from Zhipu AI. This combination (a larger, more capable and cheaper model than much of the American competition) is what has triggered concern in Silicon Valley, a location accustomed until now to taking for granted a cushion of several months of advantage. In any case, the large American laboratories continue to lead the absolute frontier with Claude Fable 5 and GPT-5.6 Sol. What has changed, according to the Fedasiuk report, is the speed at which that distance is shortened. Silicon Valley can no longer continue discounting that advantage for months. Now it is measured in weeks. Image | Generated by Xataka with ChatGPT More information | SCMP In Xataka | China has a plan to win the AI ​​war against the US. And DeepSeek is its champion

smoking and vaping prohibited in company cars and fines of 200 euros

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16 years later, the Anti-Tobacco Law is updated after years of rumors. It does so with substantial changes such as equating vapes with traditional cigarettes. And also with changes that affect mobility. Because smoking or vaping while driving will be prohibited… in some very specific cases. Forbidden. This is what the Government has agreed that with the update of the Anti-Tobacco Law approved by the Council of Ministersfour big changes have been confirmed: Vapes and cigarettes are equated, so both products will be prohibited in the same spaces. Nicotine pouches are also equalized. Consumption by minors is prohibited (previously only sales to minors were prohibited). The consumption of vapes and cigarettes is prohibited in new spaces or those that did not have homogeneous national regulation, such as terracesplatforms or swimming pools, among others. And the car? Indeed, smoking or vaping in the car will also be prohibited. Although only in those that are used in the professional environment. That is, they will be prohibited in taxis and vehicles with a VTC license but also in company shared cars. The prohibition only affects when they provide a service for the transportation of passengers but will not be effective when the professional vehicle is always driven by the same person. That is, in a taxi or VTC you cannot smoke or vape. Nor in a vehicle for the transport of goods in which workers rotate, but there is no problem if the vehicle is for the exclusive use of a single person. The fine? The fine for incurring any of the aforementioned infractions will be 200 euros. That is, in the case of a violation in the car it would be equivalent to a penalty for a serious offense. Of course, we must keep in mind that we are talking about a sanction that is imposed by the Anti-Tobacco Law in very specific situations. Smoking in the car is not punished, smoking in some specific vehicles is punishable, so we should not have changes in the Traffic Law. This means that we do not expect modifications in this last text that could lead to the deduction of points. Tobacco and the car. The issue of smoking in the car has been a source of controversy for years. Last year 2022, the sanctions were updated for throwing a cigarette butt from the vehicle, raising the punishment to 500 euros. However, nothing expressly specifies that smoking while driving is prohibited. For years there have been rumors of the possibility of completely prohibiting this activity or limiting it when there are minors inside. However, fines have been limited to those that can be imposed for not paying attention to the wheel or not being able to control the car at all times. Both assumptions are included in the articles 10.2 and 13.2 of the Traffic Law. These are used as a basis for imposing light penalties of 80 euros. This can be applied to all types of cases due to the diffuse definition of the text. From drinking water or eating until operate the radio while we are underway. Photo | 岁月如歌 In Xataka | All DGT fines for consuming alcohol or drugs: a punishment of up to 1,000 euros and jail

In China, taking a taxi is already cheaper than using your own vehicle for one reason: electric cars

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China is experiencing a peculiar situation: on its streets, it is now cheaper to get around by taxi than by private car. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Transport collected by the Reuters agency, lTaxi trips grew by 6% since the outbreak of the Hormuz crisisa phenomenon that coincides with the increase in fuel prices and the enormous electrification of urban fleets. This percentage translates into more than 3,050 million taxi trips in the month of May alone, demonstrating that the international geopolitical situation has a great impact on people’s daily lives. The context. The war in Iran and the situation in the Strait of Hormuz have caused Chinese crude oil purchases to reach historic lows. Last June, oil imports had a collapse of 41.3% year-on-yearwhich placed them at their lowest level in a decade since October 2016, with only 29.27 million tons (about 7.12 million barrels per day). Added to this is also the low production that the national refineries are having due to a fairly low internal demand. All of this has created the perfect cocktail to generate a shortage situation that has skyrocketed prices, among other things, of gasoline. The secret is in the electrical. This is where the taxi comes into play. Although fuel prices rise every day, the rates for this type of transport in China are becoming cheaper. This is because, as Reuters indicates, almost half of the country’s taxi fleet is electric (a condition that in cities covers almost 100% of the car supply) and, therefore, is not as dependent on volatile oil prices, making it an effective shield from China. in front of shock of Hormuz. But not only that. In recent times, the increasingly easier access to an electric vehicle and the slowdown of the Asian country’s economy has pushed many Chinese citizens to take the leap to be independent professionals and look for work in the mobility sector as drivers with their own car. According to Reuters, companies like DiDi, the main Chinese MaaS application, have grown thanks to this phenomenon. In this case, the company has incorporated more than 2 millions of hybrid or electric vehicles in the last year, which represents a total of more than 8 million fossil fuel-free models in its fleet. Thus, there is more supply and more competition and the rates, consequently, are much cheaper. The user wins. This new trend has already flooded the Asian country’s social networks and, in addition to the lower rates and savings on gasoline, many Chinese citizens point out the comfort of the trip and the ease of not having to look for parking as other benefits of opting for a taxi, as expressed by Yang, owner of a gasoline car, to Reuters. However, not everything is risk-free, since these economics professions in demand -such as those of a professional driver, riders and couriers – are in high demand and could end up saturating the market. A change forever? Since the crisis, it is no secret that the world is getting used to living with a 9% less oil which previously passed through Hormuz. Like many other countries, China is now seeking to be less vulnerable to international volatility and rely less on fossil fuels.. It does so in a very clear commitment to leading decarbonization by dominating the global production of solar panels, batteries and, of course, electric vehicles. The big question is whether this change responds solely to the rise in oil prices or whether it will end up consolidating a change in habits in the mentality of Chinese citizens even when the energy market stabilizes again. Cover image | Teresa Wang In Xataka | China has so many electric cars running on its streets that it is going to use them to generate energy for homes

The EU has hit AliExpress with a record fine. And make it clear that the next one could be even bigger.

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The European Commission has fined AliExpress with 550 million euros for allowing the sale of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its platform. It is the highest penalty ever imposed under the Digital Services Act (DSA)the rule with which Brussels forces large online platforms to monitor what is sold and published on them. The investigation, opened in March 2024, concluded that AliExpress’s detection systems “were not working properly”: many illegal products passed through undetected and others remained on sale even weeks after being identified. Why is it important. It is not the first time that the Commission takes out the checkbook against a Chinese platform. In May he fined Temu 200 million for similar violations, and in December of last year sanctioned X with 120 million for their misleading payment verifications. AliExpress now takes, by far, the hardest hit of the three. Technology Commissioner Henna Virkkunen has been blunt: The sale of counterfeit clothing, dangerous toys and toxic cosmetics “is not an inevitable cost of shopping online”, but rather “a failure” of AliExpress itself when it comes to fulfilling its obligations. According to its own data, AliExpress has 193 million users in the European Union, ahead of Shein (156 million) and Temu (130 million). One in five Europeans shops at least once a month in one of the three. Between the lines. The Commission’s report does not describe a specific failure, but rather a poorly dimensioned system from its roots. AliExpress misjudged whether it had enough staff to review suspicious products, underestimated how poorly its own detection system was working, and failed to evaluate how its recommendation and advertising algorithms were helping to spread illegal items. The “brand authorization” mechanism, designed to curb counterfeits, has been very easy for sellers to circumvent. And when the platform did sanction a merchant, the penalty did not prevent them from continuing to sell the same thing shortly after. Yes, but. AliExpress assures that the fine is “disproportionate” and that it will appeal. It maintains that it has invested substantial resources in product safety and that the decision ignores the “proactive improvements” introduced after the first notice from the Commission, just over a year ago. That nuance matters because the sanction comes after AliExpress escaped a fine in 2024 by pledging to strengthen its controls on medicines and other potentially dangerous products. Brussels has now decided that those promises were not enough. The context. The DSA allows fines of up to 6% of a company’s worldwide turnover. With the 122,000 million euros that Alibaba invoiced last yearthe legal ceiling would be around 7.3 billion. The 550 million applied are far below, something that the Commission itself attributes, in part, to the fact that the standard is still relatively recent. And now what. AliExpress has until October 20 to present a plan to Brussels to correct the deficiencies detected. The Commission will review this proposal in December and, if it considers it insufficient, it may impose additional periodic sanctions, not just a single fine. The underlying message for the rest of the Chinese platforms operating in the European Union, with Shein under open investigationis that size no longer serves as a shield. “Scale is not an excuse,” Virkkunen summarized. In Xataka | EU tariffs have made it impossible to buy on Aliexpress and Shein: in a few months it will be even more complicated Featured image | Xataka

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