family

A family wanted to live with only solar panels, well water and a garden. Until Italy took away her children

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High in a forest in Abruzzo, Italy, a stone house fell completely silent in November last year. Until then, that place was the self-sufficient refuge of Nathan Trevallion, Catherine Birmingham and their three children. However, on November 20, 2025, a judge decided to remove them of family custody for living disconnected from the grid, without schooling and in an environment that he considered unhealthy. The resolution started a fire political and social in Italy. What for the family was a self-sufficient life project—solar panels, well water, compostable toilet, garden—became a court case with enormous international repercussions. The story, however, goes beyond an Italian court order. It is the symptom of something bigger: a growing movement in Europe—and also in Spain—of families and communities seeking to get out of the urban grind, disconnect from the electrical grid and live self-sufficiently. How far does the freedom to choose that lifestyle go? And where does the State’s intervention begin, especially when minors are involved? The case that divided Italy. The family, of Australian and British origin, had been living in a forest in Palmoli since 2021. The house was precarious but, according to themenough: electricity with solar panels, well water and an outdoor composting area as a toilet. In autumn 2024, all were hospitalized due to accidental mushroom poisoning. That episode was the one that activated the alarms of social services. As collected Corriere della Seraa technical report described the home as “ruin” and “without adequate conditions for minors.” That’s when social services intervened. The lack of schooling of the minors, the absence of pediatric follow-up and the almost total isolation in which the family lived set off all the alarms. Following these reports, a court in L’Aquila ordered in November of 2025 the withdrawal of parental authority and the transfer of the children to a center, where the mother could stay with them temporarily. The decision has caused a real political earthquakewhere political leaders and several judicial associations denounced pressure from the Government. At the same time, more than 150,000 people signed online petitions demanding that minors return to their parents. The family breakup and tensions in Vasto. The litigation is still in full swing. The development of the case during the first months of 2026 has been marked by institutional complexity, friction and the desperate search for reunification. The deepest wound of this process is, without a doubt, separation. According to Il Messaggerothe situation reached a critical point on March 6, when Catherine, the mother of the minors, was removed from the Vasto family home. In her only in-person visit after the expulsion, social services reports indicated that the woman showed “hostile” attitudes and incited other residents to rebel against the educators. This episode led to the drastic decision to cancel subsequent meetings, limiting maternal contact to video calls, in an attempt to preserve the children’s serenity. However, distance is taking its toll. A forceful technical report presented on April 3, 2026 before the L’Aquila Court, signed by the psychiatrist Tonino Cantelmi and the psychologist Martina Aiello, set off alarm bells. The experts They noticed that children show obvious “signs of psychological distress” and deep trauma resulting from the separation. The document is clear: there is no evidence of abuse or mistreatment by the mother. For this reason, specialists have asked the court for the “urgent and unavoidable” reconstitution of the family, warning that prolonging this fracture will only aggravate the damage to the mental health of the children. An institutional clash in the middle of the crossfire. The family drama has transcended the walls of the reception center to become a political and institutional powder keg. The management of the case provoked an open and public confrontation, collected by RaiNews. On the one hand, the Ombudsman for Children of Abruzzo, Marina Terragni, visited the minors in March and publicly reported having found some children with “notable psychomotor agitation” and obvious trauma due to the repeated changes. The response from social services was immediate. They flatly accused Terragni of exposing the professionals to a “public pillory” based on statements that, according to them, did not correspond to reality, ensuring that the climate in the family home had returned to being “serene.” Polarization and media pressure have escalated to worrying levels: The tension even manifested itself with screams inside the court itself, and the judge of the Juvenile Court, Cecilia Angrisano, had to receive a police escort after being the target of continuous threats on social networks. The countdown. While the courts decide, the family tries to put the pieces back together and comply with the State’s demands. Nathan, assuming a conciliatory role, has moved to regularize his situation. As detailed Il Messaggerothe father delivered to the City Council of Palmoli a personalized study plan, supported by the Libera Schola Foundation of Milan and inspired by the Waldorf-Steiner method. In addition, the family has begun to comply with the vaccination schedule and the children have been receiving in-person classes with a tutor since January, as pointed out by Corriere della Sera. The most tangible progress has come from the municipality itself. In a gesture of support, the Palmoli City Council has given the family, free of charge and for an initial period of two years, a newly renovated 70 square meter house. As detailed Il Giornale, The house, financed with European PNRR funds, has solar panels, heating and all health guarantees, thus solving the judge’s main claim. At the moment the house remains empty until the family is complete, as detailed by Nathan. Everyone’s eyes are now on the Court of Appeal, which has a key hearing set for April 21, 2026. Off-grid: from bucolic dream to global phenomenon. To understand the background of this trend, just open Instagram. As the magazine explains Ethicsit is enough for the algorithm to detect a certain interest in self-sufficiency to fill the feed of videos of families drying their own food, women showing their renovated campers or couples who live half a year off … Read more

Taking money from a family member just before their death seemed like a great idea to avoid paying taxes. It wasn’t

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Why should an additional tax be paid for receiving money in inheritance for which the deceased already paid taxes? Many people ask that question and They decide to jump into the mountains (prosecutor) trying a thousand and one tricks to avoid payment of the Donations and Inheritance Tax. The most common trick is to empty bank accounts of the family member before he or she dies. Spoiler: it goes wrong. A solved case by the Superior Court of Justice of Madrid shows that this belief can be very expensive, and that the attempt to avoid the treasury can end up exactly where one wanted to avoid arriving: paying the Treasury even more than what they would have paid in the beginning. Money, what money? A woman was listed as the owner or authorized person on several of her sister’s bank accounts. In September 2017, this died without leaving a will. When the General Directorate of Taxes of the Community of Madrid began to investigate the case, it found that the deceased’s assets were much larger than what her sister wanted to make out. As of December 31, 2016, the three bank accounts of the deceased accumulated considerable balances: one with 9,217.08 euros, another with 51,216.58 euros and a third with 132,644.53 euros, in which the sister appeared directly as joint owner. In addition to these savings, the deceased had received 45,000 euros in April 2017 for the sale of her part of a property that she shared with her sister. By December 31, 2017, all the money in the accounts was gone. The Treasury calculated that the total money and assets that should have been declared in the inheritance amounted to 122,931.67 euros, to which was added the value of 50% of a property in Hoyo de Manzanares valued at 1,812.50 euros. ​No resignation possible. The sister responded to the first requests from the Treasury by assuring that the deceased had died without assets. Some time later he provided a notarial document of renunciation of inheritance dated September 29, 2020, more than three years after death occurred. His argument was that he did not know that his sister had assets, and that the only movements he had made in the deceased’s accounts were payment procedures for the residence where he received care his sister in her last month of life. The court that reviewed the case in the first instance initially agreed with him, considering that this payment could be interpreted as timely management. However, the Community of Madrid, in charge of collecting the tax, appealed and the TSJM resolved differently. Although in theory you can renounce an inheritance at any time during the process, doing so after having acted on the deceased’s assets has tax consequences that no notarial deed can erase. What does it mean to accept an inheritance without wanting to do so?. In Spain, you do not need to sign any paper to legally become an heir. The law includes in its article 999.3 the figure of tacit acceptance, which occurs when someone acts on the assets of a deceased as if they were already theirs, even if they have never confirmed acceptance of inheritance. Withdrawing money from your accounts, selling your property or simply managing your assets are examples of actions that, in the eyes of the law, are equivalent to saying “yes, I accept”, even if no paper has been signed.​​ The problem is that many people are not aware of this rule and believe that as long as they do not sign anything before a notary, they are safe. In reality, what matters is not what is signed, but what is done. The Supreme Court takes decades establishing that any act that unequivocally reveals that someone he is behaving like an heireven if informally or even unconsciously, has the same legal and fiscal effects as an express acceptance of the inheritance.​ What the law says about disappearing money. The TSJM applied the article 11.1.a of the Inheritance and Donation Tax Lawwhich establishes that the assets that would have belonged to the deceased up to one year before his death They are considered part of the inheritanceunless proven otherwise by solid evidence. Not only did the sister not provide any explanation as to what had happened to that money, but she did not even try throughout the entire process. The court also assessed that the deceased was admitted to a nursing home and was receiving special care, which made it highly unlikely that she would have been able to manage the withdrawal of the money from her accounts on her own. Given that the sister was the owner or authorized owner of all of them, the judges concluded that moving that money was equivalent, in the eyes of the law, to having accepted the inheritance. Pay the tax, but get rid of the fine. The TSJ of Madrid confirmed that the woman had to pay 26,217.11 euros as settlement of the Inheritance Tax for her sister’s inheritance. However, the judges annulled the fine of 17,999.73 euros that the Madrid treasury demanded, because the Community of Madrid failed to prove that the woman had acted with the deliberate intention of deceiving the treasury, something that the law requires before being able to impose a financial penalty of that type. In Xataka | The “Great Transfer of Wealth” is not only a thing for the rich: demographic change will concentrate wealth among the youngest Image | Pexels (cottonbro studio)

The head of AI at Alibaba leaves the company. That points to a 180º turn for the Qwen family models

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An employee leaving a company does not have to mean a radical change, especially when that employee has been the leader of an important project and his departure occurs just after the launch. This is what just happened with Junyang (Justin) Lin, the technological leader of the team qwen. A strange exit. On March 2, Alibaba launched a new model family lightweight with two fast models designed for edge use, a multimodal model for agentic systems and a reasoning model that stood up to much larger models. The next day, Junyang Lin announced on his X account “I am leaving. Goodbye, my dear Qwen,” without giving further details. And he wasn’t the only one. Also leaving the company were Hui Binyuan, a scientific researcher, and Yu Bowen, head of post-training at Qwen. No one has commented on the reasons behind his departure from the company and rumors that they had been fired They didn’t wait. However, according to Panda Daily, Alibaba said it had approved his resignation. ¿What is happening? Justin’s departure caused a stir among his colleagues, with some claiming that it was “the end of an era”. We are talking about the person who has led the Qwen team from the beginning and a great AI researcher, with an academic profile that exceeds 40,000 citationsso this decision has raised many eyebrows. Whether fired or resigned, Justin was a key figure on the team, but he also leaves just after a launch and several other employees have followed him. What is happening at Alibaba? Closed models. As we said, the parties involved have not offered more details, but the theories have not been long in coming and one of them is that Alibaba could be thinking of moving towards closed models. Alibaba has been making efforts to monetize its AI and closing their models could be part of the plan. It would certainly make sense for the project leader to quit at the prospect of such a profound change. There’s a new guy in the office. Shortly after the news broke, another one jumped out: Alibaba has signed Zhou Haowho until now was a researcher at Google DeepMind. Zhou will join the Qwen team as head of post-training, so he will directly replace Yu Bowen and not Justin. Zhou has been a key figure in the development of Gemini 3, the Seeker’s AI mode, and Deep Research mode. lto open source strategy. DeepSeek, Kimi, Qwen… Chinese companies have become the standard bearers of open source AI, an antagonistic strategy with the closed stance of the US. But it is not a question of giving away AI just for the sake of it, but rather it is part of their roadmap: offering access to create a large user base and thus be able to be dominant in the future. Furthermore, Chinese companies know very well that the US is technologically ahead (Justin himself recognized it recently), so launching open and free AIs is a way to gain ground on them. However, in the long term it does not seem like a very good strategy because there will come a point where they want to monetize it and there is a risk of losing users who feel betrayed. We do not know if Alibaba has already started down this path, but if it has, we will soon see if this risk is real or not. Image | qwen In Xataka | China’s open AIs aren’t “beating” ChatGPT, they’re doing something more important: catapulting their industry

Kia needed an electric Sportage on the market. The Kia EV5 is an (almost) perfect bet for the European family

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Kia has been building one of the most interesting ranges of electric cars on the market for years. The EV family has managed to establish itself as one of the most attractive and risky options. From the Kia EV6 and its particular design to the most rational EV3 and the monstrous EV9. Now, the company has placed the EV5 on the market, one of the most rational proposals and necessary for your current offer. South Koreans needed a car that would perform the functions of the Kia Sportage, one of their best-selling models, with completely electric technology. And his proposal is as solvent as it is rational and attractive. Kia EV5 technical sheet New Kia EV5 Body type five-seater SUV Measurements and weight 4,610 meters long, 1,875 meters wide and 1,680 meters high. Wheelbase of 2,750 meters. 1800 kg weight. Trunk 566 liters with the sum of the front and rear trunk. Maximum power 160 kW (217 HP) and 295 Nm. WLTP consumption 16.9 kWh/100 km DGT environmental distinctive Zero emissions. Driving aids (ADAS) Mandatory by the European Union. Others Triple screen: 12.3-inch instrument panel 12.3-inch central screen 5-inch climate control screen Android Auto and Apple Car Play compatibility. Wireless mobile phone charging. Harman Kardon sound system as option. Electric hybrid. No. Plug-in hybrid. No. Electric Yeah. 81.4 kWh battery with 530 km of WLTP autonomy Versions with double motor (all-wheel drive) and a more powerful GT option will arrive. Price and release Now available With 81.4 kWh battery from 46,070 euros before aid (from 39,490 euros with discounts and aid) Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? Balance is the word We could say explain the Kia EV5 with a football simile. The Kia EV5 is like a sober doorman. If you don’t like football, a goalkeeper sober He is the one who flees from eccentricities, the one who turns spectacular saves into simple saves. And a stop is just the final result of a very in-depth previous exercise, of strenuous training to be strong in the legs and extensive knowledge to position oneself in the right place at the right time. Whether the stop is complicated because it is attached to the lower corner of one of the posts or to give security to the team by taking the ball in a lateral center. Can an eccentric goalkeeper be good? Yes. And very good indeed. There are goalkeepers who earn their fame for stops that seem impossible, for having reflexes typical of the animal world. But it is no less true that many of these saves are only the result of having made a bad previous decision, of reaching the ball in a hurry for the simple fact of being worse positioned under the goal. Something like this happens with the Kia EV5. It is not a spectacular car in any sense. But almost everything is done grating at a very high level. It’s not eccentric, it’s not surprising. But it is a good electric car. A very interesting option if you are looking for a good family car as the only vehicle at home. And the Kia EV5 does not have the imprint and footprint of the EV9. Nor is it committed to that monolithic aspect of the EV3 that makes it so particular and that polarizes opinions about its design so much. This intermediate option seems like a kind of softened version of both cars without losing that muscular appearance, playing with straight and very pronounced edges. Its appearance, in fact, makes it appear larger. Its 4.61 meters seem to be more when you have it in front of you for the first time. We are, however, at figures very much to the taste of the European customer, who in this type of car largely opts for vehicles slightly larger than four and a half meters. With a wheelbase of 2.75 meters, the space for the rear seats is very good and maintains a trunk that, adding a front space in which little more than the charging cables can fit, reaches 566 liters. In the front area, it maintains the aesthetics and layout that has been accompanying the brand’s latest launches. The instrument panel and the central screen are embraced by the same frame, with a third digital space that unites both surfaces. All of this is supported on a kind of very clean horizontal desktop with touch buttons on the surface. On the steering wheel and the central area we have a multitude of physical buttons with some details that we liked. The instrument panel is displayed on a widely configurable 12.3-inch screen in its central area. In it we can find graphics of all kinds, from consumption to navigation or what the infotainment system is playing. Above the view we have a clear Head-Up Display with precise information for driving. The central screen, compatible with Android Auto and Apple CarPlayit is also 12.3 inches. Here, the possibilities are very wide and it has interesting solutions, such as a vertically sliding widget that supports the information displayed by the browser. However, I have two problems. The first is that it has so many shortcuts and so many functions to customize that it forces you to overcome a certain learning curve to be clear where each function is. I, who hadn’t gotten into a Kia for a while, had to spend some time finding, for example, the consumption data. My second problem is in the representation of the icons and shortcuts. The black background is useful to avoid confusing the driver but I think there is a lack of contrast in the icons. I, at least, have had some difficulty reading them clearly. I would have to test the car further to see if this can be fixed by, for example, increasing the screen brightness. Between both screens there is a third space in which the air conditioning is controlled. It seems like a good one to me. We have the basic … Read more

A Russian family lived isolated in Siberia for more than 40 years. He didn’t know about World War II or the space race.

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In the cold, vast and desolate siberian taiga one would expect to find spruce trees, maples, streams and acres covered in frozen silt. Maybe (hopefully) some lone pso or wolf. What no one would include on that list is what he discovered around mid 1978 an expedition that flew over a mountain located more than 240 km from any human trace. There, in the middle of the Abakan mountain rangea group of geologists came across a family that had been isolated for 42 years. Its story still fascinates today. And that cabin? Such a question must have been asked 47 years ago by a group of Soviet geologists flying over the Siberian taiga, an area rich in oil, gas and mineral reserves. He ran summer of 1978 and the team, led by Galina Pismenskaya, was traveling by helicopter in a region of Siberia located 160 km from the border with Mongolia when the pilot saw something between the trees. Something unexpected. A rudimentary cabin with a small garden. In most parts of the planet, such an image would be of little interest, but Pismenskaya’s team was supposedly in an unpopulated area. In fact, the Soviet authorities were not aware that anyone lived there. The nearest houses were supposed to be more than 200 kilometers away, so the question was obvious… What the hell was that shack doing there, built next to a stream, among trees? They were so intrigued that geologists decided to land. “We come to visit”. The impressions of Pismenskaya and her colleagues when approaching the hut we know them thanks to Vasily Peskova Russian journalist and traveler who would later interview the protagonists of that story to collect it in a book. Upon landing, the researchers found a hut made with the little that the taiga offered: bark, branches, trunks and pieces of wood blackened by humidity. On one side there was a tiny window. On the other side there was a door through which an old man appeared. “Like something out of a fairy tale”, would relate some time later Pismenskaya, who recalled that the man was barefoot, was wearing a patched shirt and pants and sported a scraggly beard. “He seemed scared. We had to say something, so I started: ‘Greetings, Grandpa! We’ve come to see you.’” The fact is that that old man was not alone. When they entered the hut with him, the geologists discovered that he lived with his four children. They all shared that wooden construction without rooms, blackened by smoke, cold and with the floor covered in shells. Upon seeing the new arrivals, one of the young women began to pray, scared. Another, hidden behind a post, ended up collapsing from suffocation. Logical. The family had not seen another human for four decades. Dating back to 1936. The old man in question was called Karp Osipovich Lykov and the fact that he lived there, in conditions almost medieval people, hundreds of kilometers from any hint of civilization and surrounded only by his children, is explained in light of what happened in Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Just like his Karp family was an old believera member of a church split from Orthodox Christianity that embraced the ancient liturgy and ecclesiastical canons. The path of Karp’s coreligionists had diverged from the Russian Orthodox already in the 17th century, after Nikon’s reformwhich made them outcasts. This had happened in times of Peter I…and with the Bolsheviks. This harassment affected the Lykov family directly. Around 1936, a patrol shot his brother on the outskirts of the village where they lived, so Karp made a radical decision: he gathered his wife Akulina and the two children they had at the time (Savin, nine years old, and Natalia, two) and escaped into the forest. Literally. He walked away as far as he could. Without looking back and with light luggage that included just a handful of seeds, a rudimentary spinning wheel, a couple of jugs to boil water and the clothes they were wearing. Once in the taiga, the family built a cabin with what they had on hand, set up a garden and continued with a life marked by isolation, their beliefs and deprivation. In 1940 the couple had their third son, Dmitry; and four years later the fourth and last daughter, Agafia, was born. Back to history. The Lykovs continued with that life until Osipovich’s helicopter located them in the summer of 1978. It may sound strange, but the family had settled in a particularly inhospitable place. No one saw them before because no one looked there. The marriage moved as he encountered difficulties, moving further and further away from the villages and towns, until settling at a point located more than 240 km of the nearest settlement. Not even the Soviet authorities were aware of the existence of that family. The consequences of that isolation are obvious. For the Lykovs, time, politics, science… stopped dead in 1936. The family did not know that Europe had been shaken by World War II, nor that man had stepped on the Moon in 1969, nor was it aware of the space race, the name Kennedy or the Beatles did not ring a bell… Some family members marveled at seeing a television or items as seemingly simple as matches or a roll of transparent cellophane. Fascinating yes, bucolic no. The Lykovs’ 42 years of isolation were, however, hardly bucolic. Their cabin was built next to a stream and the forest offered them wood, fruit and even game, but the harsh conditions of the taiga subjected them to a constant test. Especially the first years. Agafia even told how towards the end of the 1950s the family faced their peculiar “years of hunger”, during which they had to decide whether to eat the little they harvested or save some of the seeds to grow them the following year. “We were hungry all the time,” he admits. Years later the family suffered a frost … Read more

Five board games that you can’t miss to have fun this New Year’s Eve with friends and family

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Christmas is a time when we tend to get together much more with friends and family, and not only on the two specific dates such as Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. If you want to have a fun time on Christmas evenings (especially this New Year’s Eve), count on a good assortment of board games will make a difference. We present five totally essential options that you cannot miss at home. Exploding Kittens In the corner intended for board games at home, one of the ones that cannot be missing is Exploding Kittens. This has managed to achieve the achievement of being the most supported game (in all history) in Kickstarter. One of the main reasons for the success of this game is that it allows you to play quick games of about 15 minutes and from 2 to 5 players. The objective is simple: build your own deck of cards while avoiding the explosion of any of the protagonist kitties. Asmodee Exploding Kittens, Game for children and adults from 7 years old The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Throw Throw Burrito Another game that has already had some success at gatherings with friends and family is Throw Throw Burrito. It is for ages 7 and up and the games (like the previous one) are quick (about 15 minutes) and between 2 to 4 players. It’s a board game very simple to play: you will get points with the cards you win, but you will lose them if you get hit by the soft burritos, which are the protagonists of the game. This game is created by the same authors as Exploding Kittens. Exploding Kittens Throw Throw Burrito The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Catan One of the essential board games if you like classic strategy games is Catan. It is designed for three or four players and the games last between 45 minutes and an hour. This is a game for bring out your negotiating streak. From Catan, it can be noted that you will never play two identical games. Likewise, you can buy separately a good number of expansionswith which to give greater depth to the game and have new gameplay options. Devir – Catan, Board Game The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza On any Christmas evening with children, I personally recommend Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza; a very simple gamebut with which fun and laughter are more than guaranteed. Created by Lupilo, it is perfect for players from 8 years old and the games can be played up to a maximum of eight players. The mechanics are simple and when the card matches the word it says, the last one to put their hand on the central amount wins the pile. The games are also quick, about 10 minutes. Ludilo – Taco Gato Goat Cheese Pizza | Board Games The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Trivial Pursuit The last of the board games that we believe are essential in any home is Trivial Pursuit in your classic version. Above all, it is a perfect option to have fun while learning about different categories. Of course, you should know that it is a game suitable for those over 16 years of age, although there are also editions for children and with specific themes, such as harry potterFor example. The objective of the game is simple: go around the board and answer the questions correctly. six categories (entertainment, geography, science and nature, sports, art and literature, history and hobbies) and get a cheese of each color or category to be declared the winner. Hasbro Gaming Trivial Pursuit (in Spanish) 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 | Exploding Kittens, Hasbro, In Xataka | The 41 Best Board Games: From ‘Catan’ to ‘Gloomhaven’ In Xataka | These are the board games that are never missing in my suitcase when I go on vacation with my partner

Cooking for an entire family on Christmas Eve is a dying tradition. And the explanation is in Mercadona

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The usual thing at this time of year is that most family gatherings become a single topic: What to have for dinner on Christmas Eve? And on New Year’s Eve? Is the menu repeated from other years? Is the entire purchase completed or are there still issues pending? That was the usual. At least until, in one country at a time less fond to cook and more to the already prepared foodanother question began to form: Why spend hours in the kitchen on the afternoons of December 24 (and 31) if we can order dinner to a restaurant, catering or the super trustworthy? It may seem like a simple anecdote, but it says a lot not only about Christmas but about how homes and our consumer habits are changing. An afternoon locked in the stove? That Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve are special events, no one doubts it. Neither do they both basically revolve around the table. However, that is one thing and quite another that we are willing to spend hours locked in the kitchen to prepare appetizing dinners for a regiment of relatives, something not so strange just a few decades ago. In 2019 the German supermarket chain Aldi made a poll in which he asked the Spaniards the same thing: how much time we spend preparing Christmas lunches and dinners. Their conclusion was curious: although on average we dedicate 137 minutes to them, the vast majority of those interviewed (62%) aspire to cut that time between stoves, leaving it at 112 minutes at most. Who cooks then? Others. It’s that simple. It is not easy to measure the trend, but a Google search is enough to find articles from regional newspapers that talk about how more and more families order the main Christmas meals and dinners from restaurants, hotels or catering companies. It occurs in the Community of Madrid, Galicia, Aragon, Catalonia, Castile and León either Estremadurato cite a handful of examples of a trend that actually transcends communities. Not only that. In addition to families willing to pay to get rid of the burden of preparing dinners for 10, 12, 14… diners, we find companies willing to cover that growing market niche, some as relevant as Mercadona, the supermarket chain with higher quota of the country. Christmas Eve ‘made in Mercadona’? That’s how it is. Since the end of November, Juan Roig’s company has announced its ‘Ready to Eat’ oriented towards parties, a section that allows you to order canapés, stuffed chicken, suckling pig, lamb… in advance to be served during the nights of December 24 and 31. “Just heat and serve,” Mercadona boastswhich highlights how the service allows families to save time “without having to worry about the kitchen.” It makes complete sense if you take into account that the Valencian company has been betting for years precisely because of that line of business and Roig himself has publicly acknowledged who is convinced that in the middle of this century kitchens will disappear from Spanish homes. His prediction points in a clear direction: supermarkets will no longer be just the places where we shop, they will be the food references where we will buy dishes and even where we will consume them. Don’t we cook anymore? Not quite. We continue cooking, although it is true that we do it differently and less and less. He gave us a clue recently a study published in TIJGFS which leaves out a revealing piece of information: 59.1% of Spaniards We still cook practically every day, which means that most of us still use our ovens and vitro. The other side of that figure is that there is 40.9% who never cook or do it very rarely and that percentage has been growing in recent decades. The CIS has also confirmed that the majority of their respondents (46.5%) believe that home cooking is losing ground to fast food. If that were not interesting in itself, there are other indicators (from the food industry) that suggest changes in consumption: for example, we increasingly demand less fresh bread and fisha latter product that begins to associate to leisure outside the home. And what happens at Christmas? Beyond our general eating habits, Christmas has its own peculiarities. Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve dinners are not ‘normal’ dinners. Firstly, because a higher degree of elaboration than normal is expected of them. Second, because it involves cooking for many more people than those who are part of the usual family nucleus: on December 24 and 31, cousins, in-laws, brothers-in-law, nephews sit at the table… Which ends up easily translating into groups of more than ten diners. Is that important? Yes, if we take into account that we increasingly live in smaller apartments and families are smallerwhich translates into a series of practical complications: How to cook for 12 people in a tiny kitchen with a two-burner vitro? Where to store so much food? Where the hell can you seat 12 or 14 people in a room where there is furniture for one couple, who is the one who really eats in that house the rest of the year? It was done until now, right? Yes. But times change. And that is something that is easily observed when going out into the street. looking at statistics. The fact that there are more and more single-person households or households made up of two people and fewer than three, four or more members means that there are fewer people accustomed to cooking for groups. We are also less willing to spend hours in the kitchen, as stated in 2019 Aldi and confirm the boom of ‘Tardebuena’ and ‘Tardevieja’. We enjoy the afternoon more the 24th and 31st because we spend less time between pots. There is another factor and it is economic. In restaurants and catering establishments there are different rates, but they usually guarantee two things: fixed prices and menus and guaranteed product. Nothing about being surprised that the kilo of lamb has … Read more

How to make a Christmas greeting by creating a family or group photo from separate photographs

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Let’s tell you how to create Christmas greetings by generating a group image from separate photos. For this we are going to use artificial intelligencespecifically Gemini with its Nano Banana, being possibly the best free alternative to do this. Here, the secret is again to use an appropriate prompt in which you describe exactly what you want. We are going to tell you everything you should take into account and the prompt you should use later to create the image. You will see that it is quite simple. Group Christmas greeting with Gemini Before you start, you first have to Carefully select the photos you want to use. Try to have similar lighting, or that the same part of everyone’s body can be seen. Gemini is going to try to cut and paste all the photos together making as little modifications as possible, so keep that in mind. They should be photos that look similar. Of course, you should also know that you will be able to change their clothes to the people in the photos. Therefore, and although the ideal is for everyone to be dressed similarly, it is not essential, because then you can have Gemini put the clothes you want on them. Once you have everything, start a conversation with Gemini. Inside, first upload the photos you are going to use. Afterwards, you can copy and paste the following prompt and send it along with the photos: I want you to create a Christmas card with a family photo. I’m going to give you separate photos of people, and I want you to create a family photo where they all appear together. Under the photo you have to say “Merry Christmas”. Make the background with Christmas motifs. In this prompt you can make changes or more details. You can describe the background to be used, and also the font and text. Don’t be afraid to try, experiment and try again if the first result doesn’t work out for you. After doing so, as we have told you before, you can ask Gemini to change their clothes. This way, if people’s clothes are different in the photos, you can unify the result a little. In fact, if you have a group photo you can also simply ask them to change their outfits. Another option is to upload the group photo and then an individual photo of another person who is not there and ask Gemini to add this person. And do you remember when we told you how to turn your photos into video game scenarios either in a character from Stranger Things? Well, you can also use these tricks here to make the greeting as original and personalized as possible. In Xataka Basics | Gemini Image Editor: 16 Ways and Tricks to Squeeze Nano-banana with Google’s AI

You can pay for dinners, but not receive family donations

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The use of digital payments has skyrocketed in Spain thanks to the ease of payment from mobile phones and the success of platforms like Bizum. For this reason, the Government has decided to adapt the regulations to today’s world. As of January 1, 2026, it is redefined how banking entities must inform to the Tax Agency about the movements of its clients. The historical limit of 3,000 euros that until now acted as a reference for notifying the Treasury is eliminated and the criteria is changed: the amounts no longer matter but the patterns. The key question is how this affects individuals. End to the limit of 3,000 euros. Until now, banking entities had the obligation to inform the Tax Agency of any movement that exceeds 3,000 euros, regardless of whether it was a company or an individual. With the new Royal Decree 253/2025 which comes into effect on January 1, 2026, that limit disappears. Starting in January, the reporting obligation goes from being based on the amount of the payment to the type of operation and the total volume of the year and the obligation to report is also added when these payments are made through mobile payment applications or payments associated with mobile phone numbers (Bizum). This opens the door to operations that previously did not generate any type of notice (payments of 50, 200 or 500 euros made by card, transfer or Bizum), can now become part of the periodic reports that financial entities send to the Treasury. Bizum and mobile payments: what changes? The elimination of this limit does not mean that the Treasury will review these movements one by one, but the automatic barrier that prevented small transfers from flying under the Treasury’s radar is eliminated. Payment systems between individuals, such as Bizum, which were traditionally presented as an “informal” and quick way to send money, are thus integrated into the official information circuit. Payment and electronic money entities must report to the Treasury the credits and charges of all these accounts, including those associated with external apps or virtual cards. That is, the Treasury will also know what income or payments are made through these platforms and their frequency. Paying for dinner is not paying a mortgage. For the individual user, this means that sending a Bizum to a dinner with friendsa gift or a shared expense continues to work as usual. What changes is that the information circulates more systematically between the entity and the Treasury. If the movements are sporadic and consistent with personal use, it will have no consequences. However, if these payments are continuous, high, periodic or present their own patterns of economic activity, they could reveal some undeclared commercial activity or hidden donations between family members. Donating is not a crime.. One of the most frequently asked questions It has to do with the possibility of making small donations to family members: helping a child with their studies, supporting a family member with an unexpected expense or making specific contributions. The new regulations does not limit these operations on the platforms, since money transfers of 200, 500, 1,000 or 2,500 euros can continue to be made without any impediment. The change is in the Treasury’s ability to detect them if they occur through Bizum, transfer or digital payment on a recurring basis. …crime is not declaring it. Although the operation remains legal, the inheritance and donation regulations apply. That means that any donation, even a small one, must be declared. In the majority of autonomous communities, the rates for these donations they are very rewarded between immediate family members, to the point that in many cases nothing is paid. But declaring them is mandatory. If the movements are repeated or if the recipient cannot justify the origin, the Treasury could detect them and request explanations or impose sanctions. They want to detect undeclared activity. The focus of the new regulations is not to check whether you pay for your friend’s movie tickets or every daily movement, but to identify economic activities that are hidden behind dispersed digital payments: undeclared rents, private classes, recurring sales of products or habitual income that could be considered commercial activities camouflaged as personal transfers. That is why, more than sending a certain amount of money to a friend or family member, what increases is the Treasury’s control over frequent and repetitive income, regardless of the amount. In Xataka | Bizum en la Renta 2024: what income and payments you have to declare and how to do it in the 2025 declaration Image | Ivan Linares (Xataka Mobile)

A family wanted to live with only solar panels, well water and a garden. Until Italy took away her children

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High in a forest in Abruzzo, Italy, a stone house now stands silent. Until just a few weeks ago, that place was the self-sufficient refuge of Nathan Trevallion, Catherine Birmingham and their three children. But a few days ago, a judge decided to remove them of family custody for living disconnected from the grid, without schooling and in an environment that he considered unhealthy. The resolution started a fire political and social in Italy. What for the family was a self-sufficient life project—solar panels, well water, compostable toilet, garden—has become a court case with enormous international repercussions. The story, however, goes beyond an Italian court order. It is the symptom of something bigger: a growing movement in Europe—and also in Spain—of families and communities seeking to get out of the urban grind, disconnect from the electrical grid and live self-sufficiently. How far does the freedom to choose that lifestyle go? And where does the State’s intervention begin, especially when minors are involved? The case that divided Italy. The family, of Australian and British origin, had been living in a forest in Palmoli since 2021. The house was precarious but, according to themenough: electricity with solar panels, well water and an outdoor composting area as a toilet. In autumn 2024, all were hospitalized due to accidental mushroom poisoning. That episode set off alarm bells for social services. According to Corriere della Seraa technical report described the home as “ruin” and “without adequate conditions for minors.” That’s when social services intervened. The lack of schooling of the minors, the absence of pediatric follow-up and the almost total isolation in which the family lived set off all the alarms. Following these reports, a court in L’Aquila ordered in November the withdrawal of parental authority and the transfer of the children to a center, where the mother could stay next to them. The decision has caused a real political earthquakewhere political leaders and several judicial associations denounced pressure from the Government. At the same time, more than 150,000 people signed online petitions demanding that minors return to their parents. Off-grid: from bucolic dream to global phenomenon. To understand the background, just open Instagram. As Ethic magazine explainsit is enough for the algorithm to detect a certain interest in self-sufficiency to fill the feed of videos of families drying their own food, women showing their renovated campers or couples who live half a year off what they grow and collect. life off-grid or “self-sufficient” has become an aesthetic, philosophy and even aspiration for emotional disconnection. But it is also political. The same medium reminds that a small part of the movement arises from groups “sovereign citizen“who reject the authority of the State. They are a minority, but they exist. The majority, on the other hand, opts for the off-grid for reasons of sustainability, teleworking, search for autonomy or reaction to the climate crisis. Also out of fear: there are communities —like the ecovillage of Tamera, in Portugal— that are preparing for a possible collapse of the current model. In Sweden and Finland, the governments have released official guides to prepare for extreme scenarios. Spain is not far behind. The movement off-grid It has also taken root. It is no longer a thing of hippie ecovillages of the 90s: today it is embraced by engineers, teleworkers, urban families suffocated by the cost of living and foreigners from northern Europe who seek autonomy and nature. In the Karrantza valley (Bizkaia), for example, a family left town to produce their own energy and grow their food, a model that is repeated in the Basque Country, Cantabria or the interior of Spain, where many opt for hybrid solutions—solar panels, wood stoves and water recovery—combined with public school and community life. At the same time, ecovillages such as Matavenero, Lakabe or Arterra Bizimodu, according to elDiario.esconsolidate rural repopulation based on sustainability and self-management. And adding to this trend is the arrival of new off-griders foreigners. As Euroweekly points outmore and more British, German or Dutch families buy farmhouses in Catalonia, the Alpujarra or Castellón to disconnect from the grid. Some stories border on the epic: an English couple built their life from scratch with yurts, dry toilets and rain catchers. What they are looking for – a lower cost of living, teleworking, autonomy or simply another way of living – comes with a price: living with wild boars, storms and no less bureaucracy. But legally how is the matter? The contrast with Italy becomes evident when Spanish regulations are analyzed. In energy matters, the framework is clear: Royal Decree 244/2019 It allows self-consumption and does not require contracting electricity supply. Living with isolated solar panels, batteries or small generators is perfectly legal as long as the installation meets safety standards and is carried out by a licensed professional. Legalization is not strictly mandatory, but it is advisable to access public aid, obtain certificates or take out specific insurance. Something similar happens with water. The Water Law establishes that groundwater is public domainso any well—with few exceptions—must have authorization from the corresponding Hydrographic Confederation. Drilling without a permit or extracting water from a protected aquifer can lead to significant penalties. In other words, you can live with your own well, but the collection must be regularized. The point that makes the difference. When it comes to housing, living in a remote area is not illegal as long as the construction has the necessary documentation: license, occupancy certificate and minimum health and safety conditions. But if minors live in that environment and the house presents risks to their well-being, authorities can intervene. However, the determining point is in education as in Italy. Unlike other European countries, Spain required by law that all minors between 6 and 16 years old are educated in recognized centers. He homeschooling is not regulated and, in practice, it is considered illegal. A family that decided to educate their children exclusively at home would face truancy proceedings, visits from social services and even judicial measures in serious … Read more

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