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After 20 years of works and 4,000 million euros, Asturians demand one last thing for the AVE: traveling with their dog

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“Our dogs are family. They are not an extra suitcase, they are an essential part of the trip. Europe is already ahead of us by allowing dogs of all sizes on trains. Why can’t Renfe be just as modern and empathetic?” With these words and the support of more than 5,000 signatories, Isa Díaz Yusta, who promotes a petition on Change.org, summarizes the feelings of Renfe travelers in the north of the country as stated The New Spain. And the train company does not allow the access of dogs weighing more than 10 kg on the routes that go to Galicia, Asturias or the Basque Country. That impossibility has open a wound in northern Spain. The aforementioned request is not the only one. With almost 5,000 supports, another user of the same platform also has a petition open for Renfe to allow dogs weighing more than 10 kg to travel on these routes. “We can’t always drive or leave them with someone. Many of us need the train to go see family or for work, and leaving our colleagues behind is not an option,” says the promoter on this occasion. Arancha Gómez, again another Change.org user, asks that the possibility of carrying accompanying dogs be expanded on all lines operated by Renfe. It is the same thing that Laura Serena asks for, whose request has already been collected more than 26,000 signatures. I don’t have a driving license, so I depend entirely on public transportation. And, although I have been waiting for a change for years, Renfe only allows traveling with dogs weighing more than 10 kg on four routes. FOUR!!. The rest of the country remains inaccessible for those of us who travel with large dogs. Not without my dog Indeed, as noted in the last petition, Renfe only allows traveling with dogs weighing more than 10 kg on limited routes. Since the petition was launched, Renfe has been expanding the destinations in which you can travel accompanied by large dogs but, for now, the only AVE available are still the following: Madrid-Barcelona Madrid-Zaragoza Madrid-Alicante Madrid-Valencia Madrid-Seville Madrid-Málaga Madrid-Granada However, the company The possibility of traveling with dogs is not enabled between 10 and 40 kg on all high-speed and long-distance lines. On the contrary, dogs of this size and any other can ride on Cercanías trains. If we want to travel with a dog weighing less than 10 kg, Renfe allows us to do so on all AVE, long-distance, AVLO, medium-distance and metric gauge trains. Except in the latter, the pet can travel in a carrier that does not exceed 60x35x35 cm for a surcharge. On those trains that have places specifically reserved for dogs to travel, you can pay 35 euros so that the pet does not travel in the carrier. However, as we say, only on selected routes you can travel with dogs weighing more than 10 kg. In this case, it is mandatory to fill out a document discharging the company’s responsibilities and another to confirm that we are aware of the regulations. The dog will travel in the adjacent seat and this cannot be chosen because there are pre-established places for this purpose. Furthermore, in these cases, the company provides a travel kit and has a series of standards and recommendations that are summarized in this document. In the delivered kit there is a seat cover and a mat to place on the window seat. The dog must be on a leash of a maximum of 1.5 meters and with a muzzle. In all cases, only one pet is allowed per traveler, but in the particular case of dogs weighing more than 10 kg, no more than two pets are allowed per car on the same train. Furthermore, on the Madrid-Málaga and Madrid-Granada corridors, only one pet of this size is allowed per train. Asturian users, as we have seen, complain about this type of restrictions for a line that It opened in 2023 after 20 years of work (13 years late) and a investment of 4,000 million euros. Even on lines that do allow it, some travelers also complain that the purchasing process can be too complicated. They explain in the blog Pipperontour that not all trains on the enabled lines allow traveling with dogs and, furthermore, this possibility only appears to be added in the last step of the purchase process, which makes it difficult to get a ticket. To try to make everything clearer, Renfe has a space where all frequencies can be consulted that allow large dogs but the aforementioned blog states that this list is not always updated. To all of the above we must add that it is no coincidence that some of the popular petitions requested through the Change.org platform come from northern Spain. In one of them it is remembered that Gijón is one of the cities in our country with the most registered dogs and Asturias is the Autonomous Community with the most dogs per inhabitant of our country. Photo | john crozier and Phil Richards In Xataka | “In 1961 it took Bilbao three hours and five minutes. Now it takes three and ten”: Cantabria and Spain’s drama with the train

Spotify has had to remove 75 million songs made with AI. Bandcamp has decided not to have that problem

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The Bandcamp music streaming and sales platform has announced that will completely ban music generated “in whole or in substantial part” by artificial intelligence, becoming the first major music distribution service to establish such a restrictive barrier against synthetic content. Bandcamp thus draws a very clear red line in the debate about where the use of creative tools ends and where total automation that dispenses with human authorship begins. What does the statement say? Bandcamp’s statement presents two fundamental prohibitions. On the one hand, any musical content generated entirely or substantially through artificial intelligence, a formulation that avoids defining exact percentages but establishes that there is a threshold regarding the weight of AI in the creative process. On the other hand, it extends the prohibition to the use of algorithmic tools to replicate styles or voices of real artists, connecting this restriction with the platform’s pre-existing policies against identity theft and intellectual property infringement. Citizen collaboration. The advertisement includes a complaint mechanism For users: users can report suspicious material using the platform’s reporting tools, which will be reviewed by a moderation team. The company explicitly reserves the right to remove music suspected of having synthetic origin, without the need for conclusive evidence, a clause that gives wide freedom to moderators but could also generate false positives. The company acknowledged that the policy may require updates as the generative AI landscape evolves, referring to how quickly these technologies are being developed. The conceptual debate. This decision is part of the debate about AI and creativity that is going through the world of culture: using algorithms as instruments as opposed to delegating the creative act to them. The United States Copyright Office established in January 2025 that work generated by AI can be registered when it “incorporates significant human authorship,” but that content produced solely through promptswithout additional creative intervention, falls into the public domain for lack of a recognizable author. Nuances and tools. And it is difficult to determine the limits. The spectrum ranges from musicians who use AI to clean up audio or get inspired by melodies to those who simply write text instructions and let the model generate entire tracks. There are conceptual artists who go to the opposite extreme of artificial intervention: composer Holly Herndon turned her voice into the project Holly+ into a “digital instrument” that is publicly accessible and that other musicians can play. The debate is endless: MIT Technology Review raised in April that tools like Suno and Udio produce “creators” who are not conventional musicians but “prompters“. The result is works that cannot be attributed to a composer or singer, dissolving the usual definitions of authorship. The flood. The figures reveal an exponential escalation in the appearance of music created with AI on platforms. Deezer spoke in November 2025 of more than 50,000 tracks completely generated by AI each day, 34% of its daily volume, and an increase of 400% compared to January, when the figure was 10,000 songs per day. A study by Deezer itself said that 97% of listeners do not know how to distinguish between human and synthetic music after a blind test for the participants in the study in which they were shown two tracks, one with AI and one real. The Spotify drama. While, Spotify revealed in September 2025 which had removed 75 million “spam tracks” in the previous twelve months, an amount that rivals the platform’s entire catalog of 100 million songs. The emblematic case of the fictional indie band The Velvet Sundown illustrates the dimension of the phenomenon: this group completely generated by AI It reached 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify during the summer of 2025 before its creators admitted its synthetic nature, under pressure from listeners. Follow the money. The case of Xania Monet is another side of the problem. This fully synthetic R&B artist generated over $42,800 in less than two months with over 17 million streams totals, which led to the signing of a multimillion-dollar record contract after a bidding war where a record company allegedly offered $3 million. At the same time, country was the first genre to be marked as a big loser in this war between real and synthetic artists: in December 2025, the number of country songs generated by AI outsold completely human jobs. There is a clear motive for these maneuvers: money. Tools like Suno and Udio produce for free and a user can generate hundreds of short tracks that can generate profits. Let’s multiply it exponentially: massive uploads to platforms, bot farms that generate songs and upload songs without rest, automation of payments… We are not looking for isolated successes, but to add millions of reproductions, against which a real artist cannot compete. Percentages. And that’s why Bandcamp and Spotify are so different. Bandcamp is a marketplace straight where artists charge an average of 82% of each sale, with the platform keeping 15% on digital items and 10% on physical items, with additional payment processing commissions of 4-7%. bandcamp has paid more than 1,640,000 million dollars directly to artists and labels since its founding in 2008, with 19 million transferred in 2025 alone thanks to “Bandcamp Fridays”, days in which the company completely waives its commission. This structure makes AI-generated music counterproductive for the platform: no one buys synthetic albums produced by AI. prompts. Spotify, meanwhile, operates on a subscription basis, distributing roughly two-thirds of its total revenue in royalties. The platform paid 10 billion dollars to the music industry in 2024but the average payment for stream ranges between 0.003 and 0.005 dollars. Besides,Spotify implemented a threshold of 1,000 annual streams in 2024 for a track to generate royalties. This structure creates perverse incentives to “cheat”: virtually free AI production, mass uploading of tracks, use of bot farms to inflate the number of views… The pay-per-play system stream It allows tiny fractions of a cent to turn into million-dollar amounts if there is enough volume. The reaction. The Bandcamp movement has some protection of its image, … Read more

The sale of a 22 million euro mansion moves the axis of luxury on the Andalusian coast: to Sotogrande

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The price of housing in Spain it doesn’t stop going upbut this unstoppable increase has not been a brake on closing the most expensive real estate sale in Andalusia. That the mansion protagonist of the unusual record have your own name It is already an indicator of the economic level to which this home points: Niwa, a mansion in Sotograndehas closed for more than 22 million euros. To put it in perspective, that price implies that its new owner has paid about 5,116 euros for each of the 4,300 meters built of this property. Taking into account that the average price in the province of Cádiz is about 2,249 euros/m2, places the operation at levels of the price of homes in premium areas of the big cities.​ Niwa: 4,300 m2 of sustainable luxury Niwa is located in The Seven, the most exclusive sector of the already exclusive luxury development The Sotogrande Reserve. The property occupies a 10,000 m2 plot on a hill overlooking the Mediterranean and facing Gibraltar, surrounded by the Los Alcornocales Natural Park.​ The mansion consists of 4,300 m2 built, distributed in nine suites, with an outdoor infinity pool, an indoor covered pool, spa, gym, cinema room, wine cellar and garage for eight cars. The project came from the pencils of Manuel Ruiz of ARK Architects and was carried out with construction techniques more advanced and sustainable with the environment since 95% of its structure was prefabricated in a factory and then assembled in the chosen location. This allowed us to reduce the impact on the environment and reduce emissions.​ Sotogrande began its development in the early 60’s as a private residential area with 24 hour security. It currently has five golf courses and is considered one of the most luxurious urbanizations and exclusive to southern Europe, which attracts foreign buyers for its designer mansions, its privacy and its proximity to exclusive services. In 2024, the average sales prices of their houses reached 1.9 million euros, with transactions reaching up to 17 million euros. Some of the new construction phases that were started were sold at 85% in phases such as Village Verde. Plots in the most exclusive areas of Sotogrande, such as The 15, start at three million euros, while in The Seven, where Niwa is located, they can exceed eight million euros per plot. “Over the last ten years, Sotogrande has invested in its facilities, maintaining its essence as a low-density, high-quality destination. It is very exciting to see how this positioning is increasingly relevant for our clients,” assured in statements to The Confidential Rita Jordão, Marketing Director of Sotogrande SA. Luxury moves south “The sale of NIWA marks the beginning of a new era for Sotogrande, where architecture and lifestyle multiply their value on the Costa del Sol and, I would dare say, on the entire Mediterranean coast. NIWA is a modern palace reinterpreted with a contemporary language that is situated halfway between the classic and the current, with a very special materiality,” confirmed its creator, pointing to a substantial change in the preferences of ultra-rich clients who seek to settle in Andalusia. Given the growth in popularity of these new luxury enclaveshistoric luxury areas, such as Marbella, are losing relevance after decades of urban pressure, and foreign buyers They have begun to set their sights on Sotogrande. “The record sale of NIWA firmly consolidates Sotogrande as a destination among the best in the world. What is happening is not a change of course, but a natural consequence of what Sotogrande offers is increasingly valued in the luxury market,” confirmed Jordão. In Xataka | A businessman built a mega mansion without permission: the neighbors have gotten the city council to demolish it Image | ARK Architects

Greenland has 1.5 million tons of rare earths. The problem is that there are no roads to get to them.

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The geopolitics of the 21st century has found a new and icy epicenter. After the capture of Nicolás Maduro In Venezuela earlier this month, Donald Trump’s administration has turned its diplomatic aggressiveness northward. The goal It’s an old longingtake control of Greenland, which the White House defines as an “ingot” of strategic resources. However, the physical reality is inescapable since beneath a complex geology lies an absolute lack of basic infrastructure that turns any extraction plan into a logistical chimera. The 93-mile wall of asphalt. Since the Republican Party introduced the Make Greenland Great Again Act In 2025, pressure on Denmark has escalated to even suggesting the use of force. As explained by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)Washington has elevated Greenland to the category of “national security” need. This position, which some analysts already call the “Donroe Doctrine”, seeks to secure the hemisphere as an exclusive sphere of influence against Russian icebreakers and Chinese expansion. But obsession collides with engineering. According to CSIS dataGreenland—a territory three times the size of Texas—only has 93 miles (150 kilometers) of roads in total. There are no railways and the settlements are isolated from each other by land. Diogo Rosa, researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, warns in Fortune that any mining project must create these accessibilities from scratch. This includes ports capable of handling industrial volumes (Narsaq port barely moves 50,000 tons a year) and local power plants, since the current electrical grid is unable to sustain a large scale mine. The enigma of eudialite. Even if roads were built to reach neodymium and terbium, the mineral itself poses an unprecedented technical challenge. Greenland’s rare earth elements are typically encapsulated in a complex type of rock called eudialite. Unlike carbonatites that are mined elsewhere in the world with proven methods, no one has developed a profitable process to extract them from eudialite, as explained by analysts. For this reason, experts like Javier Blas describe the enthusiasm of the Trump administration as a “Optimistic PowerPoint”. Blas maintains that the island is not a Wonderland of raw materials: if after decades of exploration no large mining company has operated successfully, it is because the processing costs—which would exceed 1 billion dollars—devour any profits. Added to this is that deposits as Kvanefjeld They are co-located with radioactive uranium, which has generated massive social rejection and environmental laws that block the projects. The mirage of mining wealth. Currently, Greenland only has two active mines: an anorthosite mine and the Nalunaq gold mine. The latter, operated by the Canadian Amaroq Minerals, managed to produce 6,600 ounces of gold in 2025, exceeding its own forecasts. But as Scott Dunn, CEO of Noveon Magnetics, points out, in Fortunethe success of gold (a high-value, low-volume mineral) is not scalable to rare earths. While Washington makes long-term plans in the Arctic, companies like Dunn’s are already producing magnets in Texas with materials sourced outside China, demonstrating that the solution to technological supply could be closer to home than the Polar Circle. The China factor: the silent owner. The great strategic obstacle to the “Donroe Doctrine” is not only the ice, but that Beijing is already there. China controls near the 90% of global supply of rare earths and has known how to play its cards in the Greenlandic subsoil through litigation. The company Energy Transition Minerals (ETM), with significant Chinese capital, holds an arbitration international against Greenland, demanding historic compensation of $11.5 billion — four times the island’s GDP — following the ban on uranium mining in 2021. This legal dispute places the island in a geopolitical clamp: Washington wants control to expel Beijing, but the latter is already blocking the richest deposits through business actions and prior exploitation rights. The navigable Arctic: an unexpected ally? Paradoxically, the hoax Climate change is what is accelerating the White House’s plans. Greenland is warming much faster than the rest of the planet, and melting ice is transforming the Arctic into a strategic trade corridor. As the New York Times reportsthe Polar Silk Road is no longer a projection: in October 2025, a Chinese ship reached Great Britain from the north in just 20 days, saving 40% of the time compared to the Suez Canal. This new connectivity turns Greenland into an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” in the middle of new sea routes. However, sea ice melting does not solve the problem on land. In the north of the island, extreme weather continues to force any mining machinery to hibernate for six months a year, maintaining profitability like an “optical illusion.” The treasure behind the ice wall. The attempt to take control of Greenland seems to hit a wall of environmental laws, hostile geology and, above all, a total absence of basic infrastructure. The Trump administration has invested hundreds of millions in mining companies, but the results remain buried under layers of permafrost. As Anthony Marchese summarizes in Fortune: “If you go to Greenland for its minerals, you’re talking about billions of dollars and an extremely long time.” While the White House sells the island as the definitive trophy of the new technological Cold War, the technical reality of 2026 dictates a simpler sentence: the island’s greatest treasure remains protected not by weapons or treaties, but by the lack of a road that reaches it. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The US has decided that Europe is its problem in Greenland. Germany wants to convince him that the problem is Russia

invest a million in an infrastructure that has been ruined for decades

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The capture of Nicolás Maduro by US forces has left to Donald Trump’s administration as de facto “guardian” of the richest oil sector —and at the same time more punished. In this new geopolitical board, Repsol CEO Josu Jon Imaz was selected to participate in a key meeting in the East Room of the White House along with other oil giants. According to BloombergRepsol is now seeking urgent licenses to resume the export of crude oil, an activity that was frozen after the trade embargo of March 2025. The slogan so that Repsol can fulfill its strategic plan and take its business to the stock market upstream (exploration and production) on Wall Street, needs its Venezuelan assets to stop being a risk accounting entry and become real barrels. Resuscitate a “broken” industry. During the meeting, Trump has asked the oil companies a joint investment of 100 billion dollars to revive an obsolete industry. But the infrastructure it’s so deteriorated that the state-owned PDVSA has gone so far as to dismantle oil pipelines to sell the metal as scrap. Even so, as RTVE has explainedRepsol has promised to triple its production, going from 45,000 to 135,000 barrels per day within three years. titanic challenge. Venezuelan crude oil is “extra heavy”, thick as tarand arrives at the refineries “dirty”, loaded with salt and metals. Only companies with historical roots such as Repsol (present in the country since 1993) have the know-how to process this “heavy food.” But the problem is not just oil. 90% of what Repsol produces in the La Perla field It’s natural gasa resource that powers 33% of Venezuela’s electricity supply. Without Repsol gas, the country goes out; But for this gas to be profitable and exportable, the company needs to build liquefaction plants that simply do not exist today. “Pragmatism in the face of the Trump environment”. To facilitate the disembarkation, Washington has declared a “national emergency” that allows the US Treasury to shield Venezuelan oil revenues in US accounts. This measure, qualified by Expansion like an unprecedented movementseeks to prevent funds from being confiscated by the thousands of creditors waiting at the door, offering the “total security” that Trump promised executives. While Repsol declares itself “ready to invest strongly,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods threw a cold bucket of water on the White House itself. According to the Financial TimesWoods affirmed that Venezuela remains “uninvestable” without drastic changes in the legal framework and recalled that its assets were confiscated twice in the past. On the horizon. Repsol walks through a financial minefield. Still carries a property debt of 330 million euros from PDVSA. Furthermore, Financial Times warns that competitors like Chevron have an advantage due to their close personal relationship with Trump and for having maintained constant operations under special licenses during the years of the embargo. Added to this is the warning from analyst Ron Bousso in Reuters: Trump has suggested that companies should “forget” past debts to start on a “level playing field.” For Repsol, this could mean definitively giving up collecting what was lost under Chavismo in exchange for maintaining its future exploitation rights. A final bet. The company must decide whether to bury billions in rebuilding fossil infrastructure in a world clamoring for the energy transition. The “hole” of 1,160 million euros in Spain’s trade deficit with Venezuela It is just the symptom of a dangerous dependency. Venezuela is still the largest gas station in the world, but today it is a facility in ruins. Repsol’s success will no longer depend only on its technical expertise in the Quiriquire or La Perla fields, but on its ability to dance to the rhythm set by Washington in a reconstruction that, according to expertscould take decades to complete. Image | Repsol Xataka | Getting hold of Venezuela’s immense oil reserves seems like a “bargain.” It’s actually an engineering nightmare.

Tesla wanted to make 20 million cars in 2030. The reality in 2025 is that Tesla has crashed and BYD is already leading

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Tesla has had another setback in 2025. And it has accumulated two years in a row of decline. The company had experienced a meteoric rise until 2023 but has accumulated two years of clear decline. And the most worrying thing is that their promises were to multiply their sales but, above all, to take advantage of the pull of an electric car that is gaining followers. When it is easier to sell electric cars, Tesla falls. 1,636,129. These have been the cars delivered by Tesla in 2025. Of them, 1,585,279 correspond to the sum of the Model Y and Model 3, which leaves the S, X and Cybertruck slightly above 50,000 units in an entire year. Why does an electric car have less autonomy than advertised? For the second year in a row, Tesla falls. If we review the figures for 2024, the company put about 150,000 more electric cars on the market than this year. to get it pressed the accelerator to the floor in the last quarter of the year but this time it has not worked for him. two years. Although Elon Musk’s team tried by all means to stop the fall in 2024, this time it has been impossible. The drop in deliveries is significant but it is much more so if we look at 2023. That continues to be a record year for the company. So they put 1.81 million cars on the market. If we look back, Tesla has stopped selling around 10% of electric cars compared to two years ago. That year, Tesla positioned the Tesla Model Y as the best selling car in the world. With his final push, Tesla managed to stop BYD from overtaking him. But it was a victory with an expiration date because the Chinese company has far surpassed it in 2025. According to data collected by ElectrekBYD has sold 2.25 million electric cars in 2025 (exceeding 4.5 million cars in total). 20 million. Tesla’s data is especially concerning for the company because its promises were enormous. In 2022, Elon Musk aimed to In 2030 they would sell 20 million cars. To give us an idea, it is the sum of all the sales of Toyota and the Volkswagen Group together. The problem for Elon Musk’s company is not just that its growth has stagnated. The real problem is that it does so just when the electric car market is broader than ever. In the absence of knowing the definitive data for 2025, the truth is that Every year the electric car market is broader and the possibilities of placing a car in it are broader. In the European Union (with data from November) The electric car has grown by 27.6%. And the share of electric cars has grown by three points, standing above 16%. According to ACEA data, only in Croatia, Estonia, Luxembourg and Romania have fewer electric cars been sold than in 2024. And sales of electric cars in China continue to grow. Because? There are several factors that explain Tesla’s sharp sales decline. Elon Musk’s company has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in 2025. The first stages of the year They didn’t anticipate a good workout. and it has ended up being confirmed: And he has made efforts. And the company has tried to turn the tables. The most obvious efforts are the redesign of the Tesla Model 3 (September 2023) and Tesla Model Y. The latter has undoubtedly had to impact its production in 2025 but it is clear that it has not managed to gain traction as expected in the market. But, in addition, the company has put on the market two shortened versions called Standard. The objective is clear: to make the product more attractive while raising the price of the previous options so that anyone interested in them would have to spend some extra money. At the same time, it looks like a great car to sell to large fleets. No gap. The other big problem for Tesla is that rivals seem to have entered territory that seemed limited for the company. In China, the market has long turn towards local products and in Europe more attractive sized versions are arriving. And the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are large for the size they are usually purchased in Europe. Before, with less competition, they seemed like the ideal product. and for price They are still one of the best options of the market but unaffordable for those looking for cars of about four and a half meters. Tesla is also not managing to carry out options that are clearly cut from the Model 3 or Model Y. The company had the objective of launching an electric car smaller than these two models but if it has not launched them on the market it is because can’t make them profitable. Photo | Bram Van Oost In Xataka | The Tesla Model 3 and Model Y Standard confirms a story. The story of what I want and I can’t of Tesla’s 25,000 euro car

A tax on billionaires has made the founder of Google seek refuge in Miami. A $173 million shelter

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Larry Page, co-founder of Google and second largest fortune in the world according to Forbespacks his bags after 30 years living in California. It’s not a whim. There is a compelling reason behind this decision: not pay taxes. However, the millionaire moves from state to state. the most millionaire way possiblewhich is none other than spending no less than 173.4 million dollars on two mansions near the sea in Miami. A house with a name and surname in Coconut Grove. According to published The Wall Street Journalthe co-founder of Google has acquired two properties in Coconut Grove, one of the most exclusive and luxurious neighborhoods in Miami, for about $101.5 million and $71.9 million respectively, for a total outlay of $173.4 million. One of the mansions was initially put up for sale for $135 million and extends over a 1.8-hectare beachfront plot, has 13 bedrooms and 15 bathrooms, several pools and gardens surrounding the construction. The mansion was owned by Jonathan Lewis, a well-known philanthropist and civil rights activist who died in 2023. The sale of this mansion known in the area as “Banyan Ridge“, closed in mid-December with a significant discount. ​A second retreat close. As and how they point From the specialized real estate portal Realtor, without leaving the neighborhood and just under four minutes by car from his main residence, the millionaire would have bought a second mansion for about 71.9 million dollars. This second property would also be located on the seafront with views of Biscayne Bay. In this case, the construction has about 1,579 square meters, seven rooms and belonged to the journalist and writer Sloan Barnett, heiress of billionaire George L. Lindemann, as he collected The Wall Street Journal. Fleeing the millionaire tax. Larry Page’s hasty move and other Silicon Valley millionaires It comes in the context of California’s plans to vote on approving a tax that would levy 5% to the estates of more than 1 billion dollars. According to what was published by The New York TimesIf the tax is approved, it could be applied retroactively to those billionaires who reside in California as of January 1, 2026. Therefore, in order not to be included in that calculation, Page has packed his bags to start the year as a resident in Florida. Analysts consulted by the American media calculate that, taking into account that it is the second largest fortune in the world with a valuation of 270.1 billion dollars, this tax could mean a tax bill of more than 13 billion dollars. Following in the footsteps of Bezos and Musk. Larry Page’s move is not an isolated or strange case. Jeff Bezos did the same from Seattle in 2023, although at that time justified his move to Miami to be closer to the family and operations of Blue Origin, his aerospace company. Bezos also made a grand landing in Florida, buying several mansions on the artificial island known as Billionaire Bunker for about 237 million. The change of residence (and state) has given you an estimated tax savings of about 1 billion dollars. Something similar happened to Elon Musk who, after his judicial dispute over the payment of his salary bonus of Tesla in Delaware, changed the headquarters of his companies and his residence to Texasavoiding paying 13.3% in California capital gains taxes. Bad news for your neighbors. The exodus of millionaires from California is making local real estate agents make a killing selling luxury homes in areas like Coconut Grove. Dina Gold Thayer, by Douglas Elliman, explained to The Wall Street Journal that “every two days, we show available homes to San Francisco clients. Everyone is in a hurry to buy to avoid the retroactive application of the wealth tax.” This rush to buy is an opportunity for residents, since their potential buyers had less room for negotiation, causing prices in the area to skyrocket even more. In Xataka | In a financial carom, Google has stood up to NVIDIA, leaving an unexpected winner in the crazy AI race: Larry Page Image | Flickr (Fortune Global Forum)

has turned impatience into a business worth 152 million

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A cell phone store salesman who sings opera, shaking with nerves and win a talent show. David Bisbal working in a nursery before leaving in Operación Triunfo. The entertainment industry has been selling the same message for decades: talent is everywhere, you just have to discover it. But there is another, less romantic talent that often goes unnoticed: that of making money where no one else had seen it. Aena has just demonstrated it with its 2024 results. It has turned a testimonial line of business into a gold mine: VIP services. In just six years they have gone from 79 million euros (2019) to 152 million in 2024, the last with the results published. There will be millions more when they publish those for 2025. They have doubled their turnover and now represent more than 10% of the company’s commercial income, compared to the 5% they represented in 2019. He told it The Economist and it is a great perch to tell the change in the way in which Aena extracts value from its airports: it depends less and less on the gross number of passengers, and increasingly focuses on monetizing the experience of those who can and want to pay to avoid the inconveniences of mass transit. The distribution of AENA’s income Aena closed 2024 with revenues of 5,828 million euros, 13.3% more than the previous year. But not all that money comes from the same place, nor does it grow at the same rate, as we can see by reading the company’s income statement. The structure of its income is built on four pillars: 1. Aeronautical revenues → 3,148 million euros, +13.7%. Is the hard core of your business: These are the fees that airlines pay to use the facilities. Landings, takeoffs, use of terminals, passenger assistance… They are regulated income, with prices set according to a framework that limits their growth. They represent 55% of the total. They increase with traffic (309.3 million passengers in Spain in 2024, 9.2% more), but their room for maneuver is narrow. 2. Business income → 1,760 million euros, +14.7%. This is where Aena has learned to play. These are the income generated within the airports, beyond the basic air transportation service. And the growth is greater than that of traffic, which means that Aena is making more money for each passenger. Within this category, the breakdown is striking: Duty free shops (duty free): 527 million euros, the largest component. A growth of 28.2% compared to 2023. Restoration: 347.9 million (+7%). Parking: 204.1 million (+13.3%). Vehicle rental: 207.7 million (+12.5%). VIP Services: 156.2 million (+31.3%). Stores: 136 million (+1.6%). VIP services are not the ones that bill the most, but they are the ones that grow the most. And its margin is brutal: 83.3% of EBITDA in 2024, only surpassed by the commercial business as a whole. 3. Real estate services → 114.3 million euros, +8.4%. This is perhaps the segment less visible but most profitable of the entire Aena structure. With an EBITDA margin of 78.8%, only surpassed by commercial activity, real estate services demonstrate that it does not take a lot of volume to generate a lot of value. This includes the rental of space for air cargo (representing 46% of the total for this line), but also offices, hangars, land and technical premises. It is a long-term business, with stable contracts and recurring clients.. The investor’s dream. Airlines need operational bases, logistics operators require warehouses near the runways, and auxiliary companies request spaces for maintenance. Air cargo in particular has become a strategic asset. With electronic commerce that continues to grow throughout the world, Airports are not only passenger transit, but also logistics centers. Aena knows this and charges accordingly. Cargo revenues reached 52.7 million euros in 2024, consolidating itself as the main component of this segment. It is a less elastic business than commercial business because it does not grow at the same rate as passenger traffic, but it provides predictable income, high margins and little volatility. A corner of almost assured stability. 4. International activity → 727.3 million euros, +17.9%. Aena has been trying for years to replicate the model that is working so well outside of Spain. And the numbers are starting to add up. International activity grew by 17.9% in 2024, the largest increase of all segments, although its profitability is still significantly lower than that of the rest of the group, a 44.9% EBITDA margin vs the 60.2% average. The heavyweight is Brazil. The consolidation of Eleven Airport Block (BOAB)which Aena began operating in 2023, contributed 196.3 million euros in revenue and 102.9 million to EBITDA. There are eleven airports distributed throughout the country, with 27.4 million passengers in 2024. 52.4% EBITDA margin, still far from Spanish standards but on the rise. The other Brazilian asset is the Grupo Aeroportuario del Nordeste (ANB), with six airports that moved 15.9 million passengers. Then there is Luton, London airport in which Aena has a stake. It moved 16.7 million passengers and generated £345.5 million in revenue. EBITDA was £155.3 million with a margin of 44.9%. Excluding the concession fee and extraordinary adjustments, the real margin would be 56.8%. Historical record of income and EBITDA. The international commitment has strategic logic: Spain has a natural growth limit, and diversifying geographically reduces risks. But it also has its complexities. Concessions abroad operate under different regulatory frameworks, with tighter margins and political and exchange risks. Aena is learning that exporting the model is not automatic, but it is fair to admit that the 2024 numbers indicate that it is on the right track. The VIP business What makes the case of VIP services especially interesting is that its expansion does not seem to have peaked. In 2024, Aena inaugurated new lounges in several airports and expanded the existing ones in Ibiza, Tenerife South, Seville, Asturias and Palma de Mallorca. Fast Track revenues (priority access to security control) grew by 36%, and Fast Lane revenues (preferential boarding areas) … Read more

Someone stole 56 million liters of water during the last 18 months in Murcia. It’s just the tip of the iceberg

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A pendulum and a couple of wooden sticks are the only tools that dowsers need to, supposedlydetect the magnetic flows of water currents to find underground water. Actually, a dowser is not much use, but it is the name with which SEPRONA baptized a surveillance cycle to catch the water thieves. One of the last cases It is that of the 50 million liters looted by two businessmen in a period of 18 months. But it is neither an isolated case nor something that shows signs of stopping. Louvres. One of the latest SEPRONA operations have taken place in Puerto Lumbreras, in the Region of Murcia, where agents have opened proceedings against two businessmen as alleged perpetrators of a crime against natural resources and the environment. It is estimated that they carried out well exploitation activities for decades, but to be specific, in the last 18 months alone, 56 million liters of groundwater were allegedly stolen. Those investigated used a clandestine well without a volumetric meter that was hidden in one of the companies and was not water that they used to irrigate their own crops (something that is usually common in this type of activity), but to sell. Pirate hydrological. They were capable of extracting more than 100,000 liters a day, which they sold and distributed through their own tanker trucks. Its use? Intensive livestock pig farms. Sale to other companies. Sale to individuals for filling swimming pools. Fine or “operational cost”? SEPRONA began the investigation after a complaint signed by 128 residents of Zarzalico who detected an illegal pipeline of several kilometers built to supply feedlots, and it is estimated that the two businessmen invoiced about 275,000 euros during the 18 months already mentioned. The curious thing about the matter is that, as we say, it has only been investigated for a year and a half, so the figure could be astronomical if the estimate that the activity was carried out for decades is true. Water theft is not something new, far from it, and in fact there are studies which suggest that, for more than a century, it was a practice that occurred in the Spanish southeast. It makes complete sense if we take into account that the area, with Almería or Murcia, being the “orchard of Europe”, is not exactly in which the most rainfall is recordedbut where it is most needed for the cultivation of fruits and vegetables. In fact, this is called “virtual water” that these areas export in tomatoes, lettuce or avocados. This theft of water has been taken as a “survival mechanism”, something necessary to maintain activity during droughts, and there is also studies which point out that the administrative fines received by those who commit the infraction are lower than the economic benefit obtained from the stolen water. Illegal wells in southern Spain in the Andalusia region Devastating. The problem is that the accounts don’t add up where it matters most: in nature. The systematic depletion of aquifers due to illegal well activities has led to the depletion of some of the most important wetlands in our geography. Doñana is the clear examplero, since the national park has been, and is being, drained by hundreds of illegal wells for cultivation. But you don’t have to go far from Puerto Lumbreras to see the effects, and the Mar Menor is another example. Fresh underground water is looted and, sometimes, used to irrigate agricultural fields in which nitrate fertilizers are used that, due to runoff, filter into the soil or end up directly in the sea. This causes the water to have less oxygen than it should, and when it ends up in the lagoon, the fish die from anoxia. Add and continue. Unfortunately, as we say, it is not even a problem new… neither isolated. These last years We have been talking about dozens of people investigated, detained and convicted. The Malaga water company, in fact, has even hired private detectives to monitor employees, suppliers and customers. According to WWFthere are more than 500,000 illegal wells in Spain, the benefits offset the administrative fines and fevers like avocado fever They don’t help at all. Images | Greenpeace, Niriho khoka In Xataka | Andalusia has become a hostile land for the avocado. So an unexpected region is taking over: Galicia

a 2.8 million m2 palace for four people

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In Vadodara, an Indian city of just over two million inhabitants, stands Lakshmi Vilas Palace: the largest mansion in the world, surpassing even Istana Nurul Iman of the Sultan of Bruneiwith an area of ​​2.8 million square meters distributed in more than 170 rooms. To put it in perspective, Lakshmi Vilas Palace is four times larger than Buckingham Palace including its gardens (242,000 m2) and almost five times the area occupied by the Royal Palace of Madrid (595,000 m2 with gardens). The most curious thing of all is that only four people live in this impressive palace. A building to live like a maharajah Built between 1878 and 1890 as a symbol of power of the maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad III, Lakshmi Vilas Palace occupies 2.8 million m2 spread over more than 170 rooms on several floors. Their stays are below the 3,418 rooms of the Royal Palace in Madrid or the 775 rooms that the Buckingham Palace in London has, but the difference is their size since all the rooms in the lower part were designed as large rooms for diplomatic and social events of the royal family that built it, while the private rooms were relegated to the upper floors to better preserve the privacy of their guests. In its construction, Indo-Saracenic styles were experimented with, fused with Gothic, Moorish and Indian stone and marble, with large stained glass windows imported from Belgium and wood carvings by local craftsmen. In summary, a bet that groups together in the same space the colonial history of Indiawith an exterior aesthetic very much in line with the Indian taste of the time, and interior decorations closer to a European country house. Photo of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace after its construction in 1890 The cost of its construction amounted to more than £6.3 million, which was a real fortune at the end of the 19th century. Details such as marble floors and carved wood work by local artisans define its opulence. The palace had the most modern amenities for its time, including several elevators that connected the floors. Only four inhabitants in a private kingdom Samarjitsinh Ranjitsinh Gaekwad, current Maharaja of Baroda since 2012, his wife Radhikaraje Gaekwad and their daughters Padmaja Raje and Narayani Raje are the only tenants of the enormous palace, so, given its enormous scale, each member of the family could enjoy about 700,000 m2 for their exclusive use. According to detailed the medium specialized in architecture Architectural igestthe Gaekwad family comes from a prominent Maratha dynasty that reigned in these lands (now known as Vadodara) from the early 18th century until 1947. This sumptuous palace has witnessed the coronation of four monarchs of this family saga. “The scale of the palace is enormous. I have lived here for 23 years and right now I am discovering things for the first time,” declared Radhikaraje, the maharajah’s wife, in an interview with the specialized media. One of the halls of the Lakshmi Vilas Palace Although it has fewer rooms than iconic European palaces, its rooms are enormous. Radhikaraje Gaekwad explained to Architectural Digest: “It’s easy to be captivated by grandeur. But this is our home.” In addition to having Venetian mosaics or crystal chandeliers in its interiors, the palace is surrounded by enormous gardens, a golf course, a small private train that runs through the gardens and even an old zoo with a pond in which several crocodiles lived. Lakshmi Vilas Palace Library after its completion in 1890 He Hathi Hallwith lavish ornaments in blue and gold, was the point from where the Maharaja mounted his elephant for royal processions, with decorative carvings of elephants on arches and pillars. The Lakshmi Vilas Library It consisted of about 20,000 volumes, which Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwar III donated in 1910 to form the core of the Central Library of Baroda. Currently, part of those enormous halls that occupy the ground floor are intended for cultural use as a museum with historical weapons, paintings and mosaics, while other wings of the palace, such as Laxmi Vilas Banquets, host events and ceremonies. Thus, luxury is democratized without losing its stately essence, and contributes to its maintenance. As a curious note, one of these rooms it was stage of the meeting between the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi and Pedro Sánchez during his state visit in October 2024. In Xataka | Jeff Bezos is building a mansion in Billionaires Bunker: the problem is that they don’t know what to do with their excrement Image | Flickr (sandeepachetan), Wikimedia Commons (Notnarayan)

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