paying

this changes just before paying

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Probably, like us until a few hours ago, you have also wondered what was really going to change with the new rate that the European Union began to apply from July 1 from 2026 to certain shipments of up to 150 euros coming from outside its borders. In recent days there has been a lot of talk about the measure, its objectives and its impact on different e-commerce platforms. However, there was a much simpler and, at the same time, much more important question: when would we end up paying. To find out, I went through exactly the same path that any user would follow, searching for products on Temu, AliExpress, Amazon and SHEIN that were most likely to arrive from outside the community market. Very soon I discovered that the first clue was not in the price or the cart, but in the labels of the platforms themselves. In Temu, for example, finding a product marked as “Sent from Spain” does not mean the same as another identified as “Local warehouse”, a difference that may affect what comes next. Temu marks some products as “Local warehouse”, although that label does not necessarily guarantee that the shipment leaves from Spain. The difference between both labels is much more important than it seems. When consulting the explanation offered by Temu herself, I verified that “Sent from Spain” means that, according to the platform’s historical data, that article has been sent exclusively from Spain during the previous three months. “Local warehouse”, however, does not guarantee that. Temu explains that these products are more likely to arrive sooner because they are sent from your country or region, or from nearby countries or regions, an important nuance because it leaves open the possibility that the order comes from another point in Europe and not necessarily from Spain. Temu differentiates between “Local warehouse” and “Sent from Spain”: this second label does point to a recent history of shipments from Spain The first warning appeared even before adding the product to the basket, directly on the item sheet, where the platform warns that “additional customs-related fees will apply.” However, it has not yet indicated how much they will cost. When accessing the cart, the amount remains the same and only invites you to consult the final payment. It is in the last step, just before clicking “Process order”, when the complete breakdown appears with a new line called “Customs clearance service fee”, which in my tests amounted to 3 euros plus the applicable VAT. Temu already warns in the product sheet that additional fees may apply The cost of the fee does not appear in the cart: Temu incorporates it in the step prior to processing the order, when it already shows the final total to pay AliExpress also ended up adding an additional cost during my testing, but the way it was presented was different. Instead of incorporating a “Customs Clearance Service Fee”, the platform displayed a “Estimation of customs charges” for a total of 3.63 euros. When clicking on that concept, AliExpress explained that it was an estimate of taxes and duties calculated before completing the purchase, also adding that there would be no additional charges at the time of delivery. Although the amount matched exactly what it had seen on Temu, the information was presented in a different way. On AliExpress, the charge appears within the final summary of the order: 3.63 euros under the concept of “Estimate taxes” Amazon was the only case where my tests did not reproduce the same behavior I had seen on Temu and AliExpress. For several hours I tried to locate products shipped from outside the EU to see if the new charge also appeared during the purchase process, but I couldn’t find any examples that showed it. That experience, however, did not necessarily mean that the platform had chosen not to apply the new measure, so I decided to directly address the question to the company. A spokesperson responded with the following statement. “The vast majority of customer orders in our stores within the European Union are shipped from the EU and are not affected by this new customs fee. For the small number of items that are shipped cross-border to the EU, the €3 import fee is a requirement set by European law and is submitted directly to customs authorities. It is not an Amazon fee. Customers will clearly see the import fee before completing their purchase.” After what I saw in Temu and AliExpress I expected to find similar behavior in SHEIN, but the experience was different. I chose a product sold by SHENZHENJIAYU, a Chinese seller, and went through the exact same process until the last step before payment. On this occasion the amount remained unchanged from the item sheet to the checkout. In addition, the platform itself displayed a message indicating that the final price includes applicable import taxes, without incorporating an independent line that would break down any additional costs during the purchase. At SHEIN, the total remained unchanged until the last step – a separate line for the new rate did not appear during the purchase process At this point, the question was no longer which platform showed an additional charge and which did not, but who actually ends up bearing that new cost. The answer is not as simple as it seems. The regulations create a new right applicable to certain low-value shipments, but do not require that it is always the consumer who assumes it financially. From there, each company’s strategy comes into play. During my tests, Temu and AliExpress ended up increasing the amount I had to pay to complete the purchase, while at SHEIN I did not see that change. This does not mean that some platforms apply the measure and others do not, but rather that they may decide to transfer that cost in different ways or even integrate it into the final price. When I carried out these tests, the new measure had … Read more

Is it worth paying more for the most compact smart ring on the market?

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The market of wearables in format of smart ring It is in a moment of maturation and one of the undisputed kings of the sector, Oura, has made a move. With the recent launch of Oura Ring 5the company seeks to protect its throne against some increasingly aggressive rivals. However, the Oura Ring 4 It is still a very powerful option in stores and often has good offers. If you are thinking about making the leap to invisible technology, we analyze in depth what changes, what remains and which of the two models best adapts at your finger and your budget. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OURA Ring 4 Smart Ring The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Technical sheet of both Oura smart ring models feature oura ring 5 oura ring 4 thickness 2.28 mm (40% more compact) 2.88mm broad 6.09mm 7.9mm weight Between 2 and 2.69 grams Between 3.3 and 5.2 grams materials Aerospace Titanium Titanium sizes available From 6 to 13 From 4 to 15 autonomy Between 6 and 9 days Between 5 and 8 days Water resistance 100 meters (IP68) 100 meters (IP68) price (from) 429 euros 379 euros subscription 5.99 euros per month (mandatory) 5.99 euros per month (mandatory) The key differences to note Design: the Oura Ring 5 no longer looks like a device tech Without a doubt, the greatest evolution of Oura 5 It’s your “slimming“. Although the Oura Ring 4 was already stylish at the time, it still felt like a slightly thick or technological ring compared to a traditional wedding band. On the other hand, the Oura Ring 5 has achieved reduce its total volume by 40%. At only 2.28 mm thick, it is very discreet and blends perfectly with conventional jewelry. The largest size of the Ring 5 (2.69 grams) weighs less than the smallest Ring 4 size (3.3 grams). If it could previously be annoying to sleep with the previous model, the new one solves this problem completely. Of course, you have to be careful with the sizes. To achieve this size, Oura has had to sacrifice options. The Oura Ring 5 It is only available in sizes 6 to 13while the Oura Ring 4 ranges from 4 to 15. If you have very thin or very large fingers, the previous model is still your only option. Sensors and precision Both devices use LED light combinations (red, green and infrared) along with temperature sensors and accelerometers to monitor your health 24/7. The difference lies in the physical layout. By downsizing on Ring 5, the sensors now protrude less but they make better contact with the skin. Oura says that although the Ring 5 traces 12 signal paths (compared to the Ring 4’s 18), its new algorithms and improved component power offer even more accurate and stable heart rate and blood oxygen readings during nighttime movements. The software does not discriminate (for now) One of the most honest points from Oura is that the big software news reaches both generations. The ecosystem releases powerful tools such as Health Radar (designed with Resmed to measure nocturnal blood pressure and breathing patterns), the AI medical advisor Counsel Health and metrics for users using GLP-1 weight loss medications. So you won’t miss out on any of these health benefits if you decide to save and opt for the fourth-generation model. Autonomy: being more compact does not make it impossible for the Oura 5 battery to last longer It can be thought that a ring 40% smaller would house a tiny battery, but Oura has redesigned the battery to improve autonomy. The Oura Ring 5 promises between 6 and 9 days of actual usescratching an extra day of average autonomy compared to the 5-8 days offered by the Oura Ring 4. Both models They are loaded using their own basealthough the Ring 5 now has an optional very convenient aluminum travel case, sold separately. So… which model to choose The initial outlay of the Oura Ring 5 starts in the 429 euros for its standard finishes (silver and black), scaling up to 529 euros if you are looking for the new premium finishes like Deep Rose. For its part, the Oura Ring 4 is part of the 379 eurosa difference that usually widens when we find specific sales. In both cases, remember add the 5.99 euros per month subscription to unlock your metrics, which is mandatory on both generations. If you still hesitate between the Oura Ring 4 and the Oura Ring 5, here is the key to choosing. Buy the Oura Ring 4 if: You are looking for the best quality-price ratio: The software, graph and health analysis that you will see on your smartphone are exactly the same. You have an extreme size: If your finger requires a size 4, 5, 14 or 15, Ring 5 does not directly manufacture your size. You take advantage of an offer: If you find it discounted by a margin of more than 70 or 80 euros compared to the new model, the smart purchase is to go for the previous generation. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links OURA Ring 4 Smart Ring – Rose Gold The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Buy the Oura Ring 5 if: You are looking for maximum comfort: If you are a light sleeper or are not used to wearing rings, the Ring 5’s smaller millimeters and grams justify paying for the novelty. You want it to pass for real jewelry: Its aesthetics are impeccable and the internal sensors are barely noticeable when touched with your finger. You want to stretch the battery to the maximum: Its small extra autonomy guarantees you forget about the charger for more than a week. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide … Read more

paying 920 million a month to SpaceX

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Elon Musk created SpaceX for space exploration, reducing costs related to transportation and ultimately colonizing Mars, but what he has found is a vein on Earth: Google and SpaceX They just signed a lucrative agreement of infrastructure that puts Elon Musk’s space company at the center of the enterprise AI ecosystem. Among other things, because it is not the first agreement it has signed of this type: in May it already made same with Anthropic. Bottom line: Google is going to pay SpaceX almost a billion dollars a month to lend it computers. It may be a simplification, but it is not an exaggeration: SpaceX has tens of thousands of the most powerful graphics cards in the world in its data centers and Google urgently needs them so that its artificial intelligence continues to stand up in the AI ​​battle. 920 million dollars a month. That is the agreed price for the rental of part of its processing capacity, specifically 110,000 Nvidia GPUs, CPUs, memory and related components, from October 2026 to June 2029. That is, approximately $30 billion over the life of the contract. The rollout will be progressive, so until its entry into force in October, Google will pay a lower rate. To put the movement in perspective, Jensen Huang, revealed As of October 2025, the company had shipped a cumulative total of 4 million Hopper GPUs (H100 and H200) and 3 million Blackwell GPUs since its launch. The 110,000 GPUs in the Google and SpaceX contract are equivalent to what Nvidia ships globally in about a week at the current production rate. Why is it important. Because it is a reflection of the current state of the race for AI: Google is a company with plenty of financial and technological muscle. Without going any further, Google together with Amazon and Microsoft control more than 60% of the global cloud infrastructure market, according to data from Synergy Research (yes, with a 14% share in cloud infrastructure (IaaS/PaaS), it is the third in contention). And still it is not enough: TechCrunch collects the statements from a Google representative explaining that demand for Gemini Enterprise has even exceeded their expectations. For SpaceX, the impact is tremendous: the space launch company has managed to partially and on the fly convert itself into a cloud infrastructure provider. The agreement also comes at the perfect time: one week before its shares begin trading on the Nasdaq. Documentation provided to the Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Musk’s company intends to raise $75 billion at a valuation of approximately $1.75 trillion, the largest IPO in history. Context. As we mentioned in the intro, the agreement reached between SpaceX and Google is similar to the one reached with Anthropic at the end of May and by which the company led by Dario Amodei agreed to pay $1.25 billion per month until 2029 to rent all the available capacity of the Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, Tennessee. As a curiosity, this center was initially built by xAI, now integrated into SpaceX. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, is investing ruthlessly. Already is committed more than 180 billion dollars to spend on technological infrastructure in 2026 alone and has announced an expansion of 80 billion more. The agreement with SpaceX is the bridge while it materializes. In detail. As with the agreement with SpaceX, there is a cancellation clause: if it fails to provide access to the number of GPUs committed by September 30, 2026 (just one day before the full deployment takes effect), Google can either accept the number provided with a reduction in that quota or cancel everything. Likewise, both SpaceX and Google can terminate the agreement simply with 90 days’ notice after December 31, 2026. Important: Google retains all intellectual property of its AI models, content and data even if they run on SpaceX servers. SpaceX puts in the machinery, but doesn’t have access to what’s inside. Yes, but. The cancellation clause puts a possibility on the table: that SpaceX cannot provide those 110,000 operational GPUs before September 30, 2026, something essential to close this lucrative agreement under the terms described. This agreement with Google and the previous one with Anthropic put an obvious conflict of interest on the table: SpaceX is an infrastructure provider for two of the big rivals of xAI and its Grok models, so Elon Musk finds himself in a curious situation: he is the one who decides which infrastructure he gives up and which one stays. We do not know which SpaceX data center will be for Google and Musk has already indicated, according to TechCrunchthat Colossus 2 is reserved for xAI. In Xataka | The most worrying sign for Google: its own AI engineers prefer to use Anthropic AI In Xataka | Who is really winning the AI ​​race, in a graph that puts Google in trouble Cover | dvids and Flickr

China is taking away all its scrap paying up to five times more

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The scene seems like something out of an industrial espionage thriller, but it takes place in broad daylight. As anticipated Financial TimesChinese buyers are making appointments in the parking lots of stores like Home Depot in the United States to discreetly purchase lots of scrap metal valued at more than $20,000. This is the front line of a silent war for global resources. According to this same media, Asian intermediaries are sweeping up American scrapyards and paying up to five times the usual price, snatching the material from local recyclers. The director of a recycling company in Texas sums it up bluntly: “it’s a secret war that no one talks about.” Why so much interest in residual remains? The answer lies in the metal that makes them up. As explained The Conversation, Tungsten – whose name means “heavy stone” in Swedish – has the highest melting point of all known metals, reaching 3,422 °C. Furthermore, its extreme hardness and resistance to thermal shocks make it an absolutely irreplaceable material for manufacturing everything from aerospace technology to armor-piercing military ammunition. Market strangulation. China currently controls almost 79% of global tungsten production. As detailed in an analysis by expert John Connortension erupted in February 2025, when Beijing tightened its export controls in retaliation for US tariffs, cutting its shipments to the West by a drastic 40%. The economic impact of this decision was devastating. The restriction caused a strangulation of the market and a brutal increase in prices, which shot up 557% to reach $2,250 per metric ton. The great paradox is that, while the global shortage of virgin tungsten is caused by Beijing’s quotas, it is China itself that hoards recycled American scrap—such as worn-out industrial drill bits—to take it back to Asia through third countries such as Canada or Dubai. Industry analysts warn of imminent danger: If China officially reopens its doors to direct imports of scrap metal, the result will be a disaster for supply in the rest of the world. The global board. Today, almost absolute control of these supply chains gives China immense commercial and geopolitical power. This dominant position allows Beijing to use critical technologies and materials—so-called “bottlenecks”—as a lever of international influence that it can pull at will. Faced with this drain on resources, the debate has reached the highest levels. The report of Financial Times collect voices within the recycling industry and the US Congress demanding an immediate ban on the export of tungsten scrap to China to protect national security. However, the United States faces a temporary impasse: the country currently lacks the processing capacity necessary to convert all that exported scrap into useful finished products for its industry. In search of extraction. As Connor explainsthe solution inevitably involves diplomacy and investment abroad. The expert points out that Kazakhstan, which has the largest reserves of tungsten outside China (estimated at about two million tons), has become the center of the US strategy, attracting government-backed investments to develop local mines. But the race is head to head and Beijing has not sat idly by. In fact, China has already moved ahead in the Central Asia region, having started commercial production at the gigantic Boguty mine in Kazakh territory. At the same time, new Western actors are trying to close the gap. The financial portal Trading View informs that companies such as the Canadian mining company Allied Critical Metals are committed to revitalizing historic European projects, such as Borralha in northern Portugal. The company has a clear objective: to start the production of tungsten concentrate before the end of 2026 to meet the urgent demand in the West. Industrial ingenuity versus dumping. The middle The Conversation provides a historical parallel extremely interesting: during World War II, faced with the critical shortage of molybdenum caused by attacks by German submarines on maritime convoys, engineers from the British company Vickers managed to innovate by recycling the metal directly from mining drill bits. Today, that same logic applies to tungsten, which has a very high recycling rate of 42% globally. In Western markets this figure shoots up to an impressive 70%, driven precisely by the need to compensate for Chinese dominance over the primary mineral. In addition to technical innovation, state protection strategies gain prominence. In March South Korean Sangdong mine opened; Once at full capacity, this facility could produce more than 80% of the world’s non-Chinese tungsten. The most notable thing about this project is that the Seoul government has established a guaranteed minimum price for the mineral, thus protecting the operation from possible practices of dumping. Flooding the market to artificially depress prices is a tactic China has used successfully in the past to bankrupt Western investors in the critical minerals sector. An imminent warning for the West. The clock is ticking and the consequences of inaction could be fatal. An imminent and dangerous reality stalks the West: the Third Gulf War has consumed munitions at a staggering rate and depleted US stockpiles of tungsten-dependent missiles such as the Patriot and THAAD systems. taking them to historic lows. Without a stable and massive supply to quickly replenish these arsenals, the US military risks a true military disaster should a larger conflict break out, such as a direct confrontation over Taiwan. As a final reflection, andThese restrictive tactics from Beijing should be read as a stern warning. The current tungsten crisis should force Western governments to wake up once and for all and “de-risk” (de-risk) urgently their supply chains. Only by building an independent industrial network can the Western world avoid making its security and economy dependent on the monopoly of a single country. Image | Unsplash Xataka | The US is withdrawing soldiers from Europe. His plan to reassure her is to leave something much more disturbing in front of Russia.

There is a division of Xiaomi that no one pays attention to. It is exactly the one that is paying for the party of mobile phones, AI and cars

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Xiaomi is no longer just a smartphone company; It is a conglomerate of four large divisions that support and feed each other to compete in an increasingly aggressive market. The surprise is that financially the division that generates the least attention is the one that is paying for the other three. The results for the first quarter of 2026 They make it clear: boring business is pure profit. Four companies in oneto. Xiaomi’s current structure settles in four large pillars that are also notably different from each other. Smartphones with the brand that ended up becoming popular globally remain critical to preserving the user base. Then there are internet services (advertising, Mi Cloud), which complete the Apple-style mobile ecosystem. The electric car and AI make up another pillar that fascinates and demonstrates the firm’s ambition in these new areas. And finally there is the IoT division, which a priori seems the least notable, but is much more so than anyone would think. Services, services, services. As we said, mobile phones are Xiaomi’s hallmark, but its profitability comes hand in hand with internet services, which operate with an astonishing gross profit margin of 76.1%. As with Apple, here Xiaomi takes advantage of its almost 750 million active users with advertising, subscriptions and cloud services integrated into its HyperOS mobile operating system. It is a profitable vicious circle: IoT and mobile phones are Trojan horses that manage to put the user into a digital ecosystem in which they end up spending money. Blessed IoT. And despite the fact that it receives less media attention, the gross margin of the IoT division reached a spectacular 25.2% in the first quarter of 2026 according to the company’s financial results. This number is much higher than the 10.1% generated by smartphones, which have logically been punished by the memory crisis. In fact, the gross profit of the IoT division has been 6.2 billion RMB, much higher than the 4.5 billion of the mobile division. The latter bills much more, but it does not shine as much in those gross profits. Refrigerators triumph. The president of Xiaomi’s IoT division, Lu Weibing, explained that the role of this business is key in the Xiaomi group, because it is “a very important balancer” against the impact of the increase in memory costs in the rest of the divisions. Company officials expect this “cost supercycle” (or in other words, the memory crisis) to last until 2028, and that will continue to complicate the mobile division’s margins. Sell ​​less, but more expensive. The escalation of component costs has made Xiaomi make a drastic decision: sell less, but more expensive. The distributed smartphone units they fell 19.2%, but its average selling price reached a record figure of 1,310 RMB, 8% more than in the same quarter of 2025. Xiaomi has a 23.5% share of premium smartphones in mainland China, and makes it clear that the focus is now on super high-end mobile phones. “Premiumization” of the home. The strategy of selling more expensive is also being applied notably in the IoT division, which includes household appliancesand which has also adopted a “premiumization” strategy. Instead of just distributing third-party products, the company is developing its own high-end air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines. This has allowed IoT gross margin to rise 5.1 percentage points in just one quarter. AI price war. The launch of its own AI model, MiMoit was already a surprise, but these days the firm has announced that cut the prices of its API by up to 99% (there are technical arguments) in order to compete with rivals like DeepSeek. This model is at the level of the best Chinese open models, but the company itself has not yet achieved the objectives they seek. As with other AI startups, the costs are massive, so this division of Xiaomi depends on the cash flow generated by the rest of the businesses. Cars impress, but they lose money. The division that brings together electric cars and AI did not have a good quarter and lost 3.1 billion RMB. The new Xiaomi Su 7 has been a success in number of reservations (80,000), but operating expenses for this part of the business have risen 45.8%, too much to be offset by the revenue growth of this division. Xiaomi is the new Samsung. Xiaomi He was born looking very similar (or aspiring to be very similar) to Apple, but currently its structure and strategy are much more similar to that of Samsung. Its advantage is that it currently has an ecosystem with more than 1.1 billion IoT devices that allow it to grow and invest in cars, AI or mobile phones. The problem is what happens if the cushion provided by the benefits of the IoT division deflates. In Xataka | Leica is teaching Xiaomi everything it knows: when the student no longer needs the teacher, the agreement will have fulfilled its function

In 1972 Italy wanted to put an entire city in a one kilometer building. Half a century later he is still paying the consequences

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The same year that construction of the Corviale complex began, US authorities began demolition by Pruitt–Igoea gigantic public housing complex that had been presented just two decades earlier as the future of the modern city. The coincidence was almost symbolic: while one country demolished one of its great urban utopias, another began to build a new one. A city within a building. During the 1970s, Italy believed it could solve several urban problems at once. Rome was growing rapidly, peripheral neighborhoods were multiplying and public housing was facing increasing demand. The answer It was the Corvialea gigantic residential structure almost a kilometer long designed to house around 8,500 people. Its architect, Mario Fiorentino, did not simply imagine a block of flats, but a authentic linear city where streets would be corridors, squares would emerge from common spaces and daily services would coexist with homes. That vision was intended to demonstrate that architecture could reorganize urban life from its foundations. A utopia that was never completed. The problem appeared before the project was even finished being built. The company in charge of the works went bankrupt in 1982 and many of the essential elements of the original design never came to fruition. The famous middle floor used for shops, offices, services and community spaces was left empty and ended up being occupied by families looking for a place to live. What was to become the social heart of the complex ended up becoming a housing labyrinth improvised. Many of the planned facilities were also never built, leaving the infrastructure that was to turn the building into a self-sufficient city incomplete. When architecture conditions everyday life. Over the years, Corviale began to demonstrate that buildings are not simple containers where people live. Its long corridors, its few entrances, the complex interior circulation and the enormous scale of the complex began to influence the way in which the residents they were related to each other. The elevators are They broke down constantlyforcing thousands of people to travel long distances to enter or leave their homes. The centralized heating system caused conflicts between residentsirregular occupants and administrations on who should bear the costs. Some researchers even described the building as a small town whose governance problems were directly linked to its physical characteristics. From the symbol of the future to the symbol of failure. As the deterioration progressed, Corviale began to accumulate a reputation increasingly negative. For many he became the perfect example of the excesses of urbanism postwar monumental. Its critics described it as a concrete monster, a residential prison or an example of how certain urban planning ideologies had ignored people’s real needs. Illegal occupations, maintenance problems, the presence of criminal activities and institutional abandonment reinforced this perception. for years proposals arose to tear it down completely and replace it with smaller-scale traditional neighborhoods, connected by streets, squares and buildings closer to human dimensions. Giuditto Miele at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Corviale complex The battle to decide your destiny. However, Corviale was never demolished. Unlike many other large post-war European housing estates, managed to survive to demolition attempts. Part of the explanation lies in its increasing symbolic value. What for some was an urban failure, for others represented an unrepeatable piece of Italian architectural history. The building ended up getting heritage protection and became part of the national debate about what to do with the great utopias of the 20th century. The discussion stopped focusing solely on whether the project had worked or not and became a more complex question: how to transform such a gigantic structure without destroying it. Half a century of reforms to correct an idea. The last decades have been marked by an almost constant succession of regeneration projects. International competitions, neighborhood associations, architects and public administrations have tried adapt the complex to current needs. Some interventions have regularized occupied spaces, others have rehabilitated common areas and several seek to recover the pedestrian scale through new public spaces and green areas. No other residential complex in Rome has received public investment so intense and prolonged. The paradox in this case is more than evident: the building that was born to simplify urban life has become one of the most complex regeneration operations in the city. Consequences of a big bet. The story del Corviale It continues to fascinate because it transcends architecture. It is the story of a time that believed that social problems could be solved through great physical solutions and a city that continues to deal with the consequences of that bet. The building, by the way, still standinginhabited by thousands of people and subjected to continuous transformations. For some it demonstrates the limits of grand urban visions, for others, the ability of a community to adapt to an unfinished project. The truth is that half a century later, Rome continues to dedicate resources, time and energy to managing a structure designed to function as a complete city. And perhaps that is the clearest proof that Corviale never stopped being exactly that: a city enclosed within a building. Image | Wikimedia, Umberto RotundoAlessandro Pace In Xataka | In 1970 Japan built homes of the future where each capsule would be replaceable. Half a century later he discovered that no one knew how to repair them In Xataka | The incredible story of the tallest building on the planet that ended up becoming the largest swimming pool in the Soviet Union

The disastrous return of Amaia Montero with Van Gogh’s Ear is a good x-ray of the dangers of paying for nostalgia

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Thirty thousand people have filled the BEC in Barakaldo for two nights to witness one of the most anticipated returns of Spanish pop. Amaia Montero returned to Van Gogh’s Ear almost twenty years later of his departure, on a tour called ‘So many things to tell’ and that promised to close a cycle (or open a new one). But these first concerts (especially the first one) have ended up being talked about for very different reasons than expected. The Ear, the return. When La Oreja de Van Gogh officially announced on October 15, 2025 that Amaia Montero was returning to the band, the tickets were sold out. in a matter of hours in numerous cities, and new dates were added due to demand. The tour consists of 16 stops that extend until November 2026 and include the Movistar Arena in Madrid (three nights), the Palau Sant Jordi in Barcelona and the Illunbe Donostia Arena. It is, right now, one of the most relevant pop phenomena of the year in Spain. How it started. The trigger It was an appearance that no one expected. in July 2024, by Amaia Montero at the Santiago Bernabéu during one of Karol G’s concerts to perform ‘Rosas’, the anthem from Van Gogh’s La Oreja. The reaction was enormous and shortly afterLa Oreja de Van Gogh announced the departure of Leire Martínez, the group’s vocalist for 17 years, from the band, alleging “different ways of living the group.” In October 2025, Amaia’s return was officially announced. 2026 is the year of the 30th anniversary of La Oreja and the 25th of ‘El viaje de Copperpot’, one of their most remembered albums. What happened in Barakaldo. On May 9, 2026, the tour started at the BEC and 18,000 people attended the first concert. Amaia appeared center stage on a raised platform, wearing a bright pink jumpsuit. He said: “I went down to hell itself, but with my scars, after fighting a lot, here I am.” However, despite good intentions, the chronicles they agreed in which Amaia was “out of tune and too tight to reach the high notes.” It especially went viral their performance of ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’the Prince classic popularized by Sinéad O’Connor and with which the band originally discovered her, but deeply out of tune. Amaia herself acknowledged on stage: “I do it terribly”. The amazing thing is that, as has also been saidAmaia “has had more than a year to prepare vocally” and despite this she showed “many technical deficiencies.” The group could have adapted the tonalities to their current voice, but they have not done so so that the songs are identical to how fans remember, and that is the problem. Second round. On May 10, in the second concert at the same venue, the setlist went from 25 songs to 22. ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’, ‘We’re all dancing to the same song’ and ‘The girl who cries at your parties’, the three songs that had generated the most problems the night before, disappeared. The presence of songs from Leire Martínez’s era was also reduced. Amaia was more confident and the elevated platform was reserved for ‘Mariposa’. The reactions of the fans. The acrimony with which Amaia’s return has been received has to do with the fact that the audience of La Oreja de Van Cogh is divided into two communities. The fans who came with Amaia, thirty-somethings who grew up with ‘Rosas’, ‘La playa’ or ’20 de Enero’, experienced the concert as the return of a diva and the disagreements were excusable. The fans who joined with Leire, on the other hand, listened to someone sing with obvious effort songs that his protégé performed for almost two decades with great technical solvency. A good part of the band’s fans (or ex-fans, at this point) think that there is a voice that has now been displaced, without a satisfactory public explanation and with an exit that It was tense: Amaia did not agree to share the 30th anniversary concerts with Leire, and the group chose to do without her. This has irremediably fractured the public, who in the case of the fans of the expelled vocalist, spread Amaia’s failures on social networks with particular viciousness. The comeback syndrome. Not all nostalgic reunions are a triumph. There are those that burst resoundingly because they try to revive an energy that responded to unrepeatable circumstances, but what they achieve is to make very clear just the opposite: that that energy no longer exists. The Sex Pistols on their 1996 tour is one of the most memorable cases for its self-awareness, but the drama dates back before: The Animals, Simon & Garfunkel or The Byrds in previous decades also failed when trying to win back their audience. The list of bands that recently crashed a reunion (not necessarily commercially, mind you) is endless: Jane’s Addiction, Guns’n Roses… The reason is always that the search for money is evident above the relationships between its members, sometimes very deteriorated. In this case, despite the fact that the economies of the band members They are very healthyfrom the videos we sense a certain suspicion and discomfort between the musicians and vocalist. Because that’s another: whether they succeed lyrically and commercially or not, what they won’t be able to escape is the evil tongues. As Leire fans know very well. In Xataka | The internal drama that Andy and Lucas lived through for years: story of a breakup that we are seeing live

Murcia has been paying the first “shadow toll” in Spain for 27 years. This year will end it

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It was 1997 when Murcia approved the Law 4/1997, of July 24, on Construction and Operation of Infrastructures of the Region of Murcia. It might seem like a regulation more related to the infrastructures of the autonomous community, but far from it. Two years later, taking advantage of this text, the Murcia Government gave approval to the construction of the Aunor Highway (the RM-15 highway), granting the concession to a company owned by Sacyr and OHL. In October 2001, the toll road was already in operation. But on this toll highway there are no barriers or personnel to collect the corresponding amount. But yes, the people of Murcia pay for it. It is what is known as a “shadow toll” road. And in 2026 it will end. Goodbye to the first “shadow toll” in Spain Just like explains Sacyr on its websitethis Murcian highway is considered the first shadow toll highway in Spain. A formula unprecedented until then in our country. Operation is simple. The concessionaire company builds and maintains the road for the stipulated period of time. During the years that it is active, the control means certify the number of vehicles that pass on the road but the driver does not stop to pay at any time. At the end of the period stipulated in the contract (in this case, each year), the Government to which the highway belongs pay a variable amountdepending on the number of cars that have circulated through it. That is to say, the cost of traveling on the road does not only affect the driver’s pocket, it is all citizens with their taxes who pay the concessionaire company the amount corresponding to the number of vehicles that circulate on it. In this case, the concession for the RM-15 was 25 years. Therefore, next September the concession period will end and the Government of Murcia will have the opportunity to extend or terminate it and, in that case, take charge of the maintenance and operation of the road itself or contracting the services to a third party. This last option will be the one that comes out ahead, they explain in the local media as The truth. The Government of the Region of Murcia has put out to tender a contract for the maintenance of this road, along with other conservation actions and operations on other roads in the Mula Sector. The amount is 20 million euros and 20 companies have participated in the competition. With the end of this shadow toll, an annual payment of between 10 and 13 million euros per year ends, according to the media. In total, it is estimated that once the contract is finalized, between 305 and 312 million euros will have been paid to the concessionaire company. In its day, the highway was seen as a relief for the residents of the Northwest and Río Mula regions. He explained The truth that the road allowed greater access to the towns in these areas but, above all, it was a much safer alternative than the previous national highway, which crossed municipalities and made it “the most dangerous road in the Region of Murcia.” Photo | Google Maps In Xataka | If the question is how to get rid of tolls, the European Union has a clear answer: being an electric truck

Spotify and Apple Music have a problem with AI-generated music. And the real musicians are paying for it

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Music generated by AI has flooded the large platforms of streaming without anyone having asked for it. Deezer says it detects 75,000 AI tracks uploaded every day, and the number is growing. Spotify has uploaded 75 million songs of that type in the last twelve months. And Apple Music recognizes that more than a third of everything that comes to it is “100% AI”. Why is it important. It is not only a quality problem for the catalog or the reputation of the platform, but also an economic problem. Spotify, Apple Music and most platforms operate with a proportional distribution model (pro-rata): each artist receives a percentage of the total pool royalties equivalent to your reproduction quota. The more AI songs that accumulate listeners (even if they are fraudulent, generated by bots) the more it dilutes what a real musician earns. Between the lines. Although more and more music of this type is uploaded, almost no one listens to it, at least on purpose (sometimes AI songs sneak into algorithmic discovery lists). The problem is not the demand, which does not exist, but the brutal and increasing amount that distorts the algorithms and erodes the income of real artists even though their songs are still the ones that people do want to hear. Someone is uploading music that no one asks for to collect money that they do not deserve because the listeners arrive via bots. And that is money that the real artist stops earning. The background. The most extreme case, at least documented so far, has been that of Michael Smith, an American businessman who between 2017 and 2024 generated more than 10 million dollars in royalties wearing Suno and other tools to create hundreds of thousands of songs and armies of bots to play them automatically. That was the first case of fraud streaming with AI criminally prosecuted in the United States. According to the accusation, it accumulated 660,000 views a day. One billion views and zero fans. Yes, but. The platforms are already facing this wave. Deezer has been the most aggressive: it has implemented AI automatic detection, excludes those songs from algorithmic recommendations and has demonetized 85% of its views. Bandcamp has outright banned AI-generated music. Apple Music has begun to roll out its ‘Transparency Tags‘ (optional for now), and Spotify has released a verification stamp ‘Verified by Spotify‘ to ensure there is a human behind every artist profile. The problem is that both Spotify and Apple have opted for voluntary systems: it is the labels and distributors who must declare whether they have used AI. Nobody who lives off fraud is going to do it. There is an important distinction: It is one thing for a musician to use AI as a tool within their creative process (to refine a lyric, generate a base, experiment with sounds…) and quite another for an entire song to come out of Suno or equivalent with a pair of prompts and without real human intervention. The platforms, at the moment, do not distinguish between one thing and another. And Spotify has also left a door open by noting that “the concept of artistic authenticity is complex and rapidly evolving,” which in practice means that AI artists could end up being verified one day. Featured image | Xataka In Xataka | Science has measured how music impacts us during exercise: choosing the right Spotify list is essential

Fed up with paying almost 8 euros for a Guinness, someone thought of setting up an index to find cheap beer

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How delicious is that little beer that you drink right after leaving work or after a paddle tennis game and how angry it is when you find out that they have raised the price. Matt Cortland He paid €7.80 for a pint of Guinness in Dublin in March 2026 and didn’t like it one bit (the price, not the beer). So instead of criticizing the waiter or posting a review on Google complaining like some people do, he adopted another strategy that was slightly more laborious but much more effective (judging by its results): a very complete price index where he would know where to drink the best and at what price. Because revenge, like beer, is served cold. The project. Is called Guinndex and is independent of the very famous Irish beer brand. You go to the website, enter a pub, a city, a county or a postcode in the box and it returns pubs and the cost of a pint, as well as useful information such as its location or its score. Or you zoom in on the map to see with a traffic light map which taverns look cheaper than others. A good way to save if you travel to Ireland and fancy a pint of Guinness. In fact, it has very diverse rankings ranging from how long it takes to earn a pint (depending on salary) to pubs named after animals or the best pub names (praise be the “Hairy Lemon”). Today it has almost 6,500 registered pubs in the 32 counties of the country and almost 1,300 prices verified and rising thanks to anonymous contributions from users. The price index for Dublin. Guinndex Why is it important. Because the Irish Central Statistics Office stopped tracking the price of a pint since 2011, leaving a data gap of more than a decade in a country where Guinness is much more than a beer. And although Guinness is almost a religion in Ireland, it is the same everywhere: no one knows for sure if they are overcharging you compared to the standard price or how much extra. The Guinndex fills that gap with real, verified data, not estimates. Furthermore, it does so publicly and for free, so that it allows obtaining an objective reference so that consumers have information and can put pressure on prices. It’s the market, friend. On the other hand, and leaving aside the anecdote of finding where to drink cheaper, what it shows is relevant: that the cost of carrying out a complex idea has plummeted and streamlined so much that a single dev is capable of setting up a project of this magnitude in just 48 hours when before it took weeks of work, a certain budget and a team. Context. Matt Cortland likes AI, data and Guinness, as he himself admits on the project website. He is an American engineer based in London with strong ties to Ireland: his partner is irishlived and trained there with the George Mitchell scholarship and course the Creative Digital Media master’s degree from TU Dublin. He is not just a tourist they are trying to scam. The project came at a critical time: Diageo, the company that owns Guinness, had applied several price rises in a row and some pubs had taken the opportunity to inflate margins. If you’re not careful, you can pay up to €11 for a pint, although the average price in Dublin is €6.94 and €6.06 nationwide. How has he done it. With an AI agent named Rachel who looked human, understood Irish humor, and had a Northern Irish accent (after several tests, she concluded that this worked best), as its author tells. The task was simple and quick: call, ask the price of a pint of Guinness, say thank you and hang up. Few people discovered that it was a chatbot and there were all kinds of responses, even waiters who offered to buy him a round. During the St. Patrick’s weekend he called 3,000 pubs, answered more than 2,000 calls and more than a thousand pubs provided a price: he already had the Guinndex base. The technical stack was jack, knight and king: the Google Maps API, ElevenLabs for the voice and agent logic, Twilio for making the phone calls, and Claude for extracting Guinness prices from the transcripts. Cortland explains What cost him the most was time, since he only invested about 200 euros. The consequences. The most immediate impact is behavioral: Cortland account that the owner of a pub lowered the price of his Guinness by 0.40 euros and then updated the information in the Guinndex himself. When there is price transparency and it is available to everyone, it is capable of changing behaviors. However, the biggest consequence is the technological moment in which we live: three APIs, 200 euros and a weekend are enough to build a project from scratch, with real utility and that is already changing prices. The bottleneck is no longer money or infrastructure: it is knowing what problem is worth solving. In Xataka | Spain can tell itself as many times as it wants that it hates Cruzcampo. The figures say a very different thing In Xataka | We humans like beer. The big question is whether we like it enough to have invented agriculture Cover | Guinndex and Christopher Zapf

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