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A company has filled a neighborhood with sidewalk outlets to charge electric cars. Their results are contradictory

February 20, 2026 by usatoday24

In 2022, a German company called Rheinmetall proposed a new charging solution: put outlets on the sidewalks. Trying to find solutions for those who wanted to jump to an electric or plug-in hybrid car but did not have a garage, the company proposed a system to charge on the same street, without having to go to an electric station. Three years later: we have the results. A pilot test. After receiving approval from the authorities, the company began a pilot in 2024 in central Cologne and Lindenthala residential neighborhood of the city characterized by its low and individual houses. Neighborhood where, by the way, you will find the status of the local soccer team. The idea is simple, you park on the sidewalk and on the ground, on the curb, you find a plug hidden in a cover. You scan a code printed on it and connect the car with your own charging cable for AC use. As if it were any other charging point, both ends are joined and when the payment is completed, it is passed through the use of a mobile application. The results. In general terms, the results have been good. According to the company, a total of 2,800 charging cycles were carried out in the pilot test in one year. On average, the cars recharged 18 kWh, which in the city means more than 100 kilometers of autonomy for an electric car and between 80 and 100 kilometers on the highway (depending on its efficiency). They point out that each day the plug has been used an average of twice a day and that its availability has been 99%, so there have hardly been any breakdowns. The figure is good if we compare it with the European and Spanish average. In our country, public outlets They are only used 1.5 times a day and, on average, each charger is only busy between 30 and 120 minutes a day in Europe. Customer opinion. The company has conducted a survey of users who have offered their point of view to the system. It included the score given by the drivers (five points maximum) and some notes, complaints or recommendations made by customers. In total, the system has obtained 4.38 points out of five. But, above all, they have received very positive evaluations among customers over 60 years old, who value the simplicity of the system. In addition, they highlight that the plugs have not been damaged by water and that vandalism or uncivil acts (such as not picking up pet excrement) have not been found to have been a problem when recharging. A curious solution is that the cover that hides the plug has been designed to open with a small push of the charging cable, allowing the customer to lift said cover without having to touch it with their hand. Good idea, with some cracks. They point out in forumelectriccars that one of the main problems with this type of charging points is the cost of the plug. Each one of them, which has refrigeration and air conditioning to improve charging, costs 5,000 euros, so it is a bad idea compared to a traditional home charger. Furthermore, if you want to get the most out of the system, it would be necessary to reserve space for these charging points on the street, so there is no difference with any other public charging point unless the street is filled with plugs. That is, as happens with public outlets that are not located at a gas station, the parking space is reduced to reserve spaces that are not always occupied. Other proposals. Public charging is one of the great challenges that the electric car represents. One of its advantages is to leave the house with a charged car or, at least, take advantage of its parking lot to fill its batteries since alternating current is slow and most of the time a car is stopped. The most obvious proposal is the electric stations, with a huge number of high-power plugs available. another is fill shopping and leisure centers with chargerssince a visit to fully recharge the battery can take days or weeks (depending on daily trips) without plugging in our car. With an average of 50 kilometers per day, a car that drives 500 kilometers of autonomy in the city has 10 days to go without plugging the car back in, just three days a month. But if we want to bring public charging to the city streets, Portugal, United Kingdom either Netherlands have been experimenting with public outlets on streetlights. The system is as simple as including sockets on the curbs but with the difference that the socket comes from a street lamp and does not require installation on the ground. The paradox of slow recharging. The problem with this type of recharge is that slow charging takes hours and hours with the car plugged in. If a socket charges our car at 7.4 kW of power, it will be necessary to spend about 10 hours to completely fill the battery of a 60 kWh vehicle, a small size that is on the border between those who want the car for an urban environment and those who want to dare to travel with him. Those refills They are interesting if the price is low But they require that, to get the most out of it, we have to leave the car parked there for an entire working day or an entire night. The system, therefore, is certainly inefficient in terms of servicing more than one car. To charge at this power, the data says that most electric car drivers charge at home. Outside of it, the customer usually chooses to recharge at higher powers. For example, a 50 kW plug can now fully charge a car in less than three hours, which is the time we spend watching a movie at the cinema. And on a trip, the most practical thing is usually to look for … Read more

sport has been disguised as therapy to charge you more money

February 14, 2026 by usatoday24

There was a time when gyms smelled of liniment and rusty iron. Success was measured in guttural screams and soaked T-shirts under the military motto of the no pain, no gain. That era is dead. If you walk into a fashion studio today, you will smell like incense and see pastel colors. The industry has understood that to capture the masses it had to stop selling exhaustion and start selling “connection.” As explained by trend magazinesWe have entered the era of strong Elegance. This new concept, far from being a brand, is defined as a natural evolution of training “better, not more.” The goal is no longer to destroy muscle, but to “connect with your body” through softness and technique. It is the birth of Cozy Fitness or gentle training. However, behind this facade of Zen calm, the economic projections are dizzying. It is estimated that the global market for Pilates and Yoga studios will reach 520.61 billion dollars by 2035driven by a population that values mental health over gross physical appearance. Redefining effort The paradigm shift is not accidental; responds to a post-pandemic demand for mental health. According to a report by Les Mills99% of respondents say they feel “happier” after training, and 42% prioritize exercise specifically to improve their mental well-being. This has caused low-impact disciplines, such as Pilates, to be the most booked class for the second year in a row. But let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that “soft” means “easy.” Specialized media They warn that disciplines like sweep (a fusion of ballet, pilates and yoga) generate a real metabolic and mechanical overload. By working with isometry and bringing the muscle to fatigue without heavy weights, strength and postural improvement are achieved. This is where the narrative turns perverse. Under the promise of “liberation” and “self-care,” the industry has commodified the management of the self. An in-depth academic analysis on the philosophical dimensions of medical sciences suggests that modern fitness It is a byproduct of neoliberal ideology. We are instilled with the notion of the “entrepreneurial self”: health and aesthetics become an individual responsibility for success or failure. Wellbeing is sold as a commodity, and the individual is forced into constant “self-optimization.” If you are not healthy and radiant, it is because you are not managing your body “company” well. This pressure manifests itself in new obsessions such as Protein Chic. We have gone from eating out of necessity to consuming protein-enriched products (even popcorn or water) as a status symbol. The protein shake has become in a religious ritual, a tool to feel that we have “fulfilled” the mandate of physical productivity. Furthermore, sport has become a class filter. Fashion competitions like Hyroxwhich combine running and functional exercises, have become at an exhibition of lifestyle where you pay a high registration fee (about 70 euros) to show that you can afford to suffer in a way cool and gamified. The drivers of change: loneliness, identity and fashion To understand how we got to this point, you have to look at who is filling the rooms. Generation Z has turned the gym into its new bar, desperately seeking a tribe instead of cold machines. A report from 2025 reveals that 36% of young people regularly go to these centers, not only for the physical, but to combat loneliness and find community. Their priority is belonging, which explains the mass exodus toward group classes versus solitary training. The large chains have read this emotional need perfectly and have changed their business model: they no longer sell an hour of exercise, they sell identity. The success of brands like Brooklyn Fitboxing, which expects to invoice 50 million eurosis based on gamifying that community. In the same way, Pilates Club has skyrocketed his income 60% in Spain by focusing on “operational quality” and selling the feeling of belonging to a select and exclusive club. This aesthetic obsession has permeated everything, even technology, which has abandoned crude plastic to disguise itself as high jewelry or become invisible. “Technological minimalism” is the new norm: bracelets like the Xiaomi Smart Band 10 They are now launched with ceramic straps to be worn as fashion necklaces, while devices such as smart rings or heart rate sensors Whoop they bet on “silent monitoring”. It is the triumph of constant but discreet data: the obsession with measuring the body 24/7 without looking like a cyborg. Where are we going: From aesthetics to biology The immediate future of the industry delves into this sophistication. Trends for 2026 point to ‘Body Literacy’: according to elleusers no longer want generic recipes, but rather understand their own biology, hormones and stress response. We move from aggressive “bio-hacking” to personalized and clinical understanding. In Spain, the market is entering a consolidation phase. According to reports from consulting firms such as BDOlarge operators will stop opening centers indiscriminately to focus on increasing the average income per customer (upselling) and offer comprehensive family services. The gym wants to be the center of the social life of the entire family. However, there are cracks in this perfect pastel world. While the sector premium talks about connecting the soul, the segment low cost go on being a battle of prices and efficiency, reminding us that “spiritual well-being” remains, in large part, an affordable luxury. Even technology is showing signs of exhaustion. Technology analysts They point out which devices like him Apple Watch They seem to have reached their ceiling in sports. They have become excellent “entertainers” of well-being (Wellness), but they lack the technical depth of a real coach, remaining on the surface of motivation with synthetic voices that congratulate you for closing rings. As Ale Llosa, founder of one of these new success methods, summarizes, in Vogue: “Soft is fashionable, but without strength there is no resilience.” The question we have left, as we close the locker room locker, is whether this new era of fitness is really making us freer and stronger, or if it has simply built us a prettier, … Read more

Iberia is going to charge up to 140 euros extra for checking in irregular luggage. Now we just need to know what “irregular luggage” is.

February 12, 2026 by usatoday24

Since January 28, Iberia has already an additional charge applies for checking in irregularly shaped luggage. What do you mean by irregular luggage? It’s a good question. From Iberia they assure that everything that is soft bags, plastic packages, round or oval packages and any non-rigid packaging that could interfere with the airport’s automatic systems, are susceptible to a surcharge. But it is worth qualifying. Irregular luggage. The airline define Irregular baggage is any package whose shape, material or dimensions may create problems in airport baggage handling systems, as indicated in its official statement. This includes duffel bags, oversized soft backpacks, plastic-wrapped packages, or any object that is not the typical rectangular shape of a hard suitcase. The company assures that this type of luggage blocks automated conveyor belts and complicates stacking in aircraft holds. Just like share In La Voz de Galicia, airlines argue that the handling of non-regular packages represents one of their biggest logistical problems, since the automated systems are designed specifically for rectangular suitcases and these objects can get caught in the sensors or prevent the passage of the rest of the checked luggage. Route Domestic flights (except Canary Islands) Canary Islands / Europe / Africa America/Asia By route (origin-destination) €35/$45/£35 €60 / $75 / £55 €125 / $150 / £110 Connecting flights €40/$50/£35 €70 / $80 / £65 €140/$165/£125 How much does the new rate cost? The amount varies depending on the route and whether the flight includes connections. On domestic flights within the peninsula and the Balearic Islands, the charge is 35 euros each way. For destinations such as the Canary Islands, Europe or Africa, it amounts to 60 euros. On intercontinental routes to America or Asia, the rate reaches 125 euros. If the trip includes connections, these amounts rise to 40, 70 and 140 euros respectively. Iberia clarifies that this charge is added to the price of the luggage, although if the ticket already includes a checked bag, only the additional amount will be paid. Fees apply regardless of whether the passenger has already paid for checked baggage. How it works in practice. According to they count From Iberia, the airline staff will assess each case at the special baggage check-in counter and decide whether or not to accept the bag. Furthermore, it warns that in exceptional situations the luggage may not travel on the same flight as the passenger and may be transported in a special hold or on a later flight. The airline recommends using rectangular or proportioned rigid suitcases to avoid these extra charges and incidents. Differences with special luggage. This new rate is independent of the charges that Iberia already applied for special luggage such as musical instruments, sports equipment or bicycles, which have their own rates. Golf equipment, skis, fishing rods, skates or rackets cost between 30 and 40 euros if booked online, and between 60 and 66 euros if purchased at the airport. Bicycles cost between 65 and 72 euros on domestic flights, while surfboards range from 70 to 77 euros. Musical instruments are the most expensive, with rates ranging between 150 and 330 euros depending on the duration of the flight, and can only be arranged directly at the airports. Cover image | Miguel Angel Sanz In Xataka | Flying in “Business” class is the new trend among low-cost airlines. In all except one: Ryanair

charge double for more speed

February 9, 2026 by usatoday24

Anthropic just launched Fast Mode for Claude Opus 4.6a configuration that allows you to obtain model responses up to 2.5 times faster. Of course, it will also affect our pocket, since the price also multiplies. Although right now this is an experiment aimed at professionals who need speed in critical tasks, it is also a move that we are starting to see more and more: monetizing AI tools with incremental improvements with what is already in place. And of course, if this reduces that margin between expenses and income of its operations, better and better. What Anthropic has announced. Fast Mode is neither a new model nor a trimmed version of Opus 4.6. It is the same intelligence, with the same reasoning capacity, but configured to prioritize speed of response over cost efficiency. According to the companyoffers 2.5 times faster responses while maintaining the same model accuracy. At the moment it is available in the testing phase for Claude Code users who have the additional use activated, and also on platforms such as Cursor, GitHub CopilotFigma or v0. The hit to the pocket. While Opus 4.6’s Standard Mode charges $15 per million input tokens and $75 per million output tokens, Fast Mode multiplies those fees: $30 input and $150 output for contexts under 200,000 tokens. In longer contexts, the output rises to $225 per million tokens. Anthropic is offering a 50% discount until February 16, but we’re still talking about a significant increase. The bill especially skyrockets if you activate Quick Mode mid-conversation, as it charges full price for all the previous context. Who does it make sense to? Anthropic says that Fast Mode is designed for interactive work where latency matters more than cost. Real-time debugging, fast code iteration, urgent fixes before a deadline. Situations where waiting breaks the workflow. According to the official documentationit doesn’t make sense for long standalone tasks, batch processing, or jobs where the budget is tight. If Claude is going to spend 30 minutes refactoring code in the background, paying more for speed doesn’t add anything. The signal that sends the market. Fast Mode is not just a premium option. It’s Anthropic testing how far its professional clients are willing to go to achieve fluency. And by the way, sending a message: improvements in speed and user experience are going to cost more and more. The company needs to close the gap between what it spends on computing and what it makes, and it’s doing it faster than its customer base needs to be faster on computing. Fast Mode is billed directly as additional usage, completely skipping the fees included in subscription plans. Between the lines. Anthropic’s move fits into a broader trend. AI models are reaching a level of capability where “revolutionary” improvements are increasingly rare. What remains are incremental adjustments: a little faster, a little more context, slightly more precise responses. But those settings require massive infrastructure and face. So companies in the sector are trying new ways to monetize what they already have. In this case, charge much more to do the same thing, only faster. It is making performance profitable as a premium service. The speed trap. “Speed is addictive”, counted Civil Learning in his Medium article. Once you experience a model that responds instantly without losing reasoning ability, going back is frustrating. Anthropic knows this. Fast Mode doesn’t just sell speed, it sells the ability to maintain flow during intense programming or debugging sessions. And once you get used to it, it’s hard to give it up. And now what. Fast Mode is a research preview, meaning both features and pricing are subject to change. Anthropic plans to expand access to more API clients, but for now it keeps it under control. The key will be to see how many professionals are willing to pay that extra price on a sustained basis. Cover image | Anthropic In Xataka | ChatGPT is increasingly turning to a source that supplants Wikipedia: Elon Musk’s Grokipedia

charge to see the Trevi Fountain

February 3, 2026 by usatoday24

Since the mass tourism was consolidated, many historic enclaves and emblematic landscapes have gone from being lived spaces to become scenes Subjected to constant pressure, first by the popularization of travel and then by the amplification of social networks. Over time, this accumulation of visitors has forced cities and towns around the world to test solutions every time more diverse (taxes, quotas, access restrictions or changes in the uses of space) in an attempt to preserve places designed to last centuries in the face of an increasingly intense form of tourist consumption. The selfie as a payment entry. And it is precisely at this point where the latest movement of the authorities in Rome appears, who have begun to put a price not on the contemplation of their monuments, but on the concrete act of standing in front of them and producing content, turning the selfie into a checkout experience. The most symbolic case is that of the Trevi Fountain, where viewing the monument is still free from the square, but going down to its level, occupying the iconic frame, throwing the coin and taking a photo now requires pay two euros. In other words, the fee does not buy history or heritage, but rather time, space and proximity in a saturated scenario, explicitly assuming that the true tourist value is no longer in looking, but in appearing in the image. La Fontana as a permanent filming set. For years, the Trevi Fountain had become a human funnel where thousands of daily visitors competed for a few seconds in front of the marble, the water and the cell phone camera, until the experience became an almost impracticable horror. If you like, the new limited access system works as if it were a set locker: Whoever pays can go down, pose, repeat the photo and stay as long as they want, while gestures that break the illusion of the stage, such as eating or drinking, are prohibited. Rome thus assumes that the contemporary ritual is no longer tossing the coin to return to the city, but rather certifying on networks that one has been there, and that this gesture has an economic and management cost. Between normalization and controversy. There is no doubt, such a measure has divided visitorsbetween those who see it as reasonable to pay “what a coffee costs” for an orderly experience, and those who consider inadmissible put economic barriers to a historical symbol. However, the debate hides a broader reality: paid access does not arise so much from the need to collect money as from filter flows, reduce masses and monetize a pressure that already exists, or so they say in the administration. With more than ten million people a year coming to the Fontana, the payment acts as a regulator of the desire for proximity, not of cultural interest. Throwing coins, new risky sport. CNN counted that on the first day of the new system, not everyone was convinced. Apparently, a group of Spanish tourists, reluctant to pay, stood outside the barriers and threw coins into the fountain from above. In fact, several failed completely and did not reach the water, while below, paying visitors ducked as the coins they were raining from above. A municipal official said that in the coming days they would introduce patrols to prevent injuries from incorrect throws. Same problem, different solution. Also in Italy, in the small alpine village of Santa Maddalena, at the foot of the Dolomitesthe response has been different, but part of the same diagnosis: the express selfie is emptying the places that it makes viral of meaning. In his case, the enclave church. There is no charge for downloading a photo, but rather directly limits access For those who do not stay overnight, parking becomes more expensive and they are forced to walk a long way to get to the church that has become an Instagram icon. The objective: to discourage the visitor who arrives, takes the photo and leaves, leaving saturation, but little value for the community. From seeing to consuming the frame. In short, both in Rome as in the Dolomitesthe underlying message is the same: mass tourism no longer revolves around discovering places, but rather consuming images, and administrations are beginning to manage this phenomenon as a product with limits. From this perspective, the Trevi Fountain symbolizes the definitive step, by clearly separating free contemplation from access to the “filming set”, while Santa Maddalena is committed to brake directly to the passing tourist. Two different approaches to the same contemporary problem: when the trip is reduced to a selfie, heritage ends up becoming a stage and access, inevitably, a regulated good. Image | Benson Kua In Xataka | In its fight against mass tourism, Italy has entered uncharted territory: a tax on tourist dogs In Xataka | Italy has had an idea so that mass tourism does not choke it: higher rates and in more places for travelers

OpenAI is very clear that ads on ChatGPT are going to work. So much so that they are going to charge more than TV for them, according to The Information

January 27, 2026 by usatoday24

A few days ago we knew that OpenAI was going to draw up a plan to insert advertising in ChatGPT. Now, according to they point Sources from The Information, the company is already establishing the rates that it is going to start charging advertisers, and the truth is that they are going to give something to talk about. The media shares that OpenAI asks for approximately $60 per 1,000 impressions (CPM), a very high figure when compared to other media, including television. The problem is that OpenAI does not yet offer anywhere near the same measurement tools as Google or Meta. The price thing. The figure of 60 dollars is at NFL levels, according to reflects Gennaro Cuofano, founder of The Business Enquineer. OpenAI has not yet specified what data it will provide to advertisers, only that it will be “high level”, so there is some skepticism if we take into account that companies like Meta and Google allow us to track very specific and detailed metrics when we see an ad through their platforms. Vender access, without results. The company is betting for capitalizing on its audience of more than 400 million users before building the necessary infrastructure to offer this type of service. As Cuofano details, it’s about “selling reach now, building attribution later,” similar to what Facebook did in 2010, when it had a massive, fast-growing audience and opted for ads without yet an advanced metrics infrastructure. Time has ended up proving Zuckerberg’s platform right, but we will have to wait to see if the move is worth the same to OpenAI. Nfinancial need. The strategy can also be seen as an attempt by OpenAI to reverse the economic situation through which it passes. And as we knew through internal documents, the company projects operating losses of $74 billion by 2028, driven largely by AI operational costs. The idea is that the ads appear in the coming weeks only for free and download users. Go plan in the United States, while Plus, Pro, Business and Enterprise subscriptions will be free of advertising. OpenAI affirms that the ads will not influence the chatbot’s responses and that it will never sell conversation data to advertisers, in addition to avoiding sensitive topics such as mental health or politics. And now what. OpenAI will now have to demonstrate that it can scale this model beyond experimental budgets. And to scale a platform towards revenues that exceed tens of billions of dollars in advertising, it will be necessary to build a very solid measurement infrastructure and establish relationships with advertising agencies that it does not have now. It remains to be seen if the same promises that feed your ecosystem of products also allow them to build an advertising ecosystem as large as Google, Meta or Amazon have demonstrated in recent years. Cover image | OpenAI In Xataka | “The assemblies are not going to be done by AI”: we talk to the kids who have become carpenters, truck drivers and tinkerers

charge a lot to Big Tech that uses it for AI

January 15, 2026 by usatoday24

The world’s largest free encyclopedia is celebrating. Wikipedia turns 25, and to commemorate this event they have prepared content and activities for all its users that give context to the beginnings of this non-profit project. However, perhaps the most striking thing about your statement It has to do with the new vision that the Wikimedia Foundation will take from now on: a Wikipedia in the age of AI. For this reason, those responsible for managing this digital library have also revealed that Microsoft, Meta and Amazon joined other Big Tech companies such as Google to be able to use Wikipedia content to train their language models. To do this, companies pay good money to the foundation for having premium access to that content. What is happening. The Wikimedia Foundation has confirmed that Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Perplexity and Mistral AI have joined Google as paying customers of Wikimedia Enterprise, a commercial platform launched in 2021. According to Lane Becker, senior director of revenue at the foundation, this initiative offers a version of the Wikipedia API “optimized” for commercial use and AI companies, with functionalities customized according to the needs of each company. Why are they paying? Tech companies rely massively on Wikipedia to train their AI models. 65 million articles in more than 300 languages are essential for chatbots like ChatGPT or virtual assistants. However, Wikipedia says that this use has also increased the maintenance and server costs of the library, whose traditional financing comes from small donations from the public. “Wikipedia is a critical component of the work of these tech companies that need to figure out how to support it financially,” explained Lane Becker told Reuters. In detail. Wikimedia Enterprise is not simply downloading Wikipedia. The platform allows these companies to access content at a volume and speed specifically designed to train large-scale AI models, with structured data formats and custom functionality requests. Microsoft, Perplexity and Mistral AI joined forces over the last year, while Meta and Amazon were already partners although their participation had not been publicly announced until now. Between the lines. It is a financing model with which the Wikimedia Foundation would benefit more, in addition to individual donations. It’s also a change in how Wikipedia sustains its nonprofit mission. For years, the platform has relied on individual donations while large corporations benefited from its knowledge for free. Now, the foundation has found a balance: keeping access free for the general public while monetizing heavy commercial use. “Reaching a new sustainable balance with these new companies is critical for our continued existence, but also for yours,” pointed out Becker to The Verge. Wikipedia in the age of AI. Just like account Foundation, Wikipedia continues to be created and maintained by approximately 250,000 volunteer editors around the world who write, edit and fact-check information for free. Tim Frank, corporate vice president of Microsoft, counted that “together, we are helping to create a sustainable content ecosystem for the AI internet, where contributors are valued.” On the other hand, Selena Deckelmann, Director of Product and Technology at Wikimedia, assured that “Wikipedia proves that knowledge is human and knowledge needs humans. Especially now, in the age of AI, we need Wikipedia’s human-powered knowledge more than ever.” Cover image | Oberon Copeland In Xataka | The Apple Intelligence and Siri disaster has caused something unusual: Apple gives the keys to its kingdom to Google

The EU already has a date to charge Chinese platforms at least three euros per package. Temu had been preparing for a long time

December 13, 2025 by usatoday24

Buying something cheap online has become an almost automatic gesture for many. A pair of t-shirts, a mobile accessory or a small gadget that costs little more than a coffee arrives at home in a few days, often from platforms such as Shein, AliExpress or Temu. It is not an isolated perception. The compliance reports themselves under the Digital Services Law They show the extent to which these platforms have been integrated into the day-to-day life of digital consumption in the Old Continent. This change in habits has a very concrete translation in figures and logistics. In 2024, the European Union received 4.6 billion low-value shipments, equivalent to more than twelve million a day. According to the European Commission91% of these shipments came from China, a constant flow that has not only grown exponentially in recent years, but has put customs and control systems, designed for another volume and another reality of international trade, under unprecedented pressure. What changes come and when. Brussels’ response to this scenario has a calendar and concrete measures. It has been agreed to apply a fixed tariff of three euros to items contained in small shipments that enter the European Union and have a value of less than 150 euros. We are facing a transitional solution that will begin to be applied on July 1, 2026 and that will serve as a bridge until the entry into operation of the new European customs systemwith a large data node to centralize information and improve risk management, and with a community authority to coordinate and homogenize the application of the rules. The EU has been working for some time on a structural reform of its customs union to unify data, streamline procedures and strengthen supervision at community level. The creation of a common information system and a European customs authority seeks to correct the fragmentation between Member States, a problem that the massive increase in small shipments has made evident. Faced with increasingly atomized and low-value trade, Brussels aspires to a different model, with more coordination and a more homogeneous application of the rules throughout the internal market. Behind the scenes of the measure. The political impulse behind this reform responds to several fronts open at the same time. On the one hand, European authorities have been warning for years about undervaluation practices that distort competition and penalize businesses that do comply with the rules. Added to this are “risks to the health and safety of consumers, high levels of fraud and environmental concerns.” When is the fee paid? The key to this measure is the moment in which the tax is activated. The three-euro tariff is applied when the merchandise enters the European Union, that is, at the time of importation. This implies a fundamental difference for our purchases. If the product is shipped directly from outside the EU, the shipping is subject to that rate. Things change when the order leaves a warehouse located within the single market, the package does not cross a customs border again and the tax is not activated in this case because the import should have occurred earlier. The document approved by the EU does not say at any time that the consumer will pay this tariff directly. The rule is limited to establishing that the tax will be applied to the goods at the time of their importation. From there, the logic of the market suggests that it will be the platforms, sellers or logistics operators who manage the payment before the customs authority and then decide how to integrate that cost. In practice, the most common thing is that it ends up being reflected in the final price or in the costs of the order, that is, we would see it reflected at the time of “checkout” of our purchase. Three euros per product or per item? The Council document is precise in one key nuance. The tariff is defined as a fixed charge of three euros on items contained in small shipments, and not as a flat rate per package or as a surcharge for each individual unit. This choice of words indicates that the calculation is linked to the declared content of the shipment, and not only to the box in which it travels. In the absence of a more detailed operational guide from the authorities, and following the usual logic of customs, this allows us to interpret that several identical products would be grouped under the same item. For example, if an order includes three pairs of sneakers and three watches, the tax would not be applied six times, but rather once for the sneakers and once for the watches. That is, three euros for each type of product included in the shipment, and not for each unit purchased. Temu anticipates the change. Faced with this new scenario, Temu has been adjusting its model in Europe for some time. The platform has reinforced agreements with local logistics operators to expand delivery options and support its local seller program, with a bid to serve more orders from within the community market. In its official communications, the company notes that it expects local sellers and logistical compliance within the EU represent up to 80% of its European sales, a strategy that seeks to gain agility, shorten deadlines and adapt to a more demanding regulatory environment. The key question is whether this model pays off. Centralizing stock in the EU provides control and speed, but requires better selection of which products are offered and in what quantities. The calendar, in any case, is already defined and the countdown for the changes in the community customs system to come into force is underway. At the same time, e-commerce platforms are starting to respond. Everything indicates that part of this adjustment will end up being reflected in higher prices for some products from China, although its real scope will depend on how logistics is reorganized in the coming months. Images | Xataka with Grok | Olga Nayda In Xataka … Read more

There is now a standard to charge companies to take down the website

December 11, 2025 by usatoday24

When we use Gemini, ChatGPT either Grokit is easy to think that this ability to produce results in a few seconds borders on the extraordinary, even with its common flaws. But there’s no mystery: they depend on models trained with massive amounts of information. This process has ignited an increasingly intense debate about how all that content is used and the extent of control of those who generate it. In this climate a proposal appears that attempts to bring some order. Mass extraction of content. The accelerated growth of AI has exposed the aforementioned phenomenon. Companies use proprietary trackers and third-party data sets that aggregate material from thousands of websites. For publishers, the problem is not just scale, but a lack of transparency about what is collected, how it is used, and who profits. The clash between these interests has fueled demands and debates about the balance between innovation and copyright. What is RSL 1.0. Now it comes RSL 1.0an open standard designed to let publishers express, in machine-readable form, how their content should be used in the age of AI. The initiative arises from the RSL Collective and the RSL Technical Steering Committee, where internet companies, media and standards organizations such as Yahoo, Ziff Davis and O’Reilly Media participate. The objective is for the media to be able to define transparent rules of use and licensing that AI systems must respect. An operating standard. Here the robots.txt file appears on the scene, which has been the fundamental tool to guide web crawlers, allowing or denying access to certain routes on a site. That simplicity was useful for years, although it did not contemplate specific uses such as training AI models. RSL 1.0 goes one step further and describes differentiated permissions through categories such as “ai-input”, designed for training, or “ai-index”, linked to classic indexing. The “ai-all” category allows you to block any use related to AI. The idea is that with this system editors can define specific limits without losing visibility in search engines. The rules are still simple, but now much more informative. Resolving a key limitation. Until now, according to the promoters of the initiative, a publisher who wants to avoid this use must accept that their content will also stop appearing in traditional search, because Google does not offer an individual option to separate both areas. For the co-founders of the RSL Collective, “RSL provides exactly that layer that was missing,” by allowing independent control between both uses. The contribution model. One of the most notable new features of RSL 1.0 is the “contribution” system, designed so that creators and non-profit organizations can demand contributions from the AI systems that use their material. The initiative has been developed together with Creative Commons and seeks to reinforce the sustainability of the digital commons, which brings together billions of open resources on the web. Its executive director, Anna Tumadóttir, points out that “it is essential that there are fair sharing options beyond commercial licenses, in order to continue supporting the commons and protect access to knowledge in the age of AI.” Wide adoption. The release of RSL 1.0 has generated notable support among publishers, platforms, and technical bodies, as well as support from infrastructure providers such as Cloudflare, Akamai, and Fastly. Their involvement is relevant because these services can directly apply the rules that the editors define. Now, although RSL 1.0 introduces a clearer framework for expressing usage rules, it does not solve all the problems posed by training AI models. The standard relies on trackers to follow it and infrastructure providers to enforce it, so companies that ignore these signals could continue to collect content without permission. It is also unclear how it will affect small publishers who lack the resources to negotiate with large platforms. The advancement of AI has changed the way we interact with information, although we often forget that behind those quick results is content created by millions of people. We have to wait to see if RSL 1.0 will balance the rules of the game. Images | Xataka with Gemini 3 Pro | Solen Feyissa In Xataka | McDonald’s has not learned from Coca-Cola and has presented a Christmas advertisement made with AI. The reactions have been even worse

This Christmas I won’t go on a trip without my powerbank. It has a screen and can charge up to a computer

December 8, 2025 by usatoday24

I never got around to using the portable battery that I bought many years ago because it took many hours to charge, but a few months ago I bought the Anker Prime Power Bankwhich usually hangs around 75 eurosand the truth is that I am using it a lot, especially for traveling. And for next Christmas I have it clear: it is one of the devices that I am going to use the most. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links A powerbank that I now carry almost everywhere The practical thing about the Anker Prime Power Bank is that it is a portable battery very powerful (up to 200W), so it can be used for a wide variety of devices, whether the mobilewhich is usually the most common, the tabletheadphones and even Compatible laptops like MacBook. Another point to highlight is that it comes with a 20,000 mAh capacitythus allowing devices to be recharged several times. It incorporates a total of three USB ports (one USB-A and two USB-C) and allows you to recharge up to three devices at the same time. At the design level, the most particular thing is that incorporates a screenwhich is quite useful both to see how much autonomy you have left and to check at what power each device is recharging. On the other hand, the portable battery also comes with a USB-C cable and a carrying bag. You may also be interested Anker Nano Power Bank 10,000 mAh Powerbank with Integrated USB-C Cable, PD 30W Maximum Power with 1 x USB-C & A, Compatible with iPhone 17/16/15/14 Series, MacBook, Galaxy, iPad, AirPods and more The price could vary. We earn commission from these links UGREEN Nexode Power Bank 20000mAh 130W, Portable Charger with 2 USB C and 1 Type A External Battery with Screen, Compatible with MacBook iPad, iPhone 17 Pro MAX Air 16 15, Galaxy S24 Ultra, Gray 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. Image | Anker In Xataka | 21 essential gifts for travelers: gadgets for train, plane or car trips In Xataka | The five essential accessories for traveling comfortably by plane (even if you fly with Ryanair)

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