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Spain’s Top Court Backs Barcelona’s Plan to Ban Holiday Apartments

A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
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Spain’s Top Court Backs Barcelona’s Plan to Ban Holiday Apartments

A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)
A demonstrator holds a house-shaped sign that reads "from touristic flat to temporary rent to Airbnb" during a protest to demand lower housing rental prices and better living conditions, in Barcelona, Spain, November 23, 2024. (Reuters)

One of Spain's top courts on Thursday backed a plan by Barcelona to ban holiday apartment rentals by 2028, rejecting an appeal that argued the measure infringed on the rights of private property owners.

Barcelona was the first Spanish city to adopt a radical decision to shut down all short-term rentals as a way of addressing rising rents.

Following the court ruling, Barcelona's local authorities said they will not renew tourism licenses for short-term rentals after 2028.

"The ruling by the Constitutional Court reinforces, validates and gives legal security to this measure," Barcelona's mayor Jaume Collboni told reporters. "We are on the right path."

Spain is the world's second-most visited country after France, with a record 94 million visitors last year. The country is wrestling with how to balance sustaining tourism, one of the main drivers of its economy, with the needs of locals who say they are being priced out of the housing market by affluent visitors.

In June, Collboni said he would scrap the licenses of more than 10,000 short-term rental apartments, basing his plan on a regional housing decree adopted in 2023 that allows municipalities to decide whether to include holiday flats in their planning permits.

The court said that the regional decree for tourist lets "does not constitute a suppression of property rights".

Airbnb has urged Collboni to reconsider his crackdown on short-term rentals, arguing it only serves to benefit the hotel sector.

The European Holiday Home Association, which represents short-term rentals on online platforms such as Airbnb, also filed a complaint with the European Commission against the region of Catalonia, where Barcelona is located, for allowing cities to ban such rentals.

Other Spanish regions such as the Canary Islands are putting limits on the short-term letting market to contain surging house prices.

Barcelona aims to support the creation of new hotel beds to provide tourist accommodation in areas outside the city center once the ban on renting holiday apartments to tourists comes into force.

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Varieties

France Heatwave's 1st Major Outage Leaves 68,000 Homes Without Power

Parisians bath in the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )
Parisians bath in the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )
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France Heatwave's 1st Major Outage Leaves 68,000 Homes Without Power

Parisians bath in the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )
Parisians bath in the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, as the national weather service, Meteo France, placed 54 departments, about half the country, under a red heat wave alert, Tuesday, June 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena )

Europe's record-breaking heatwave left around 68,000 households without electricity in northwestern France on Wednesday, authorities said, in the country's first major power outage of the latest bout of extreme weather.

The outage, which involved a transformer on the electricity grid, was related to extreme temperatures and did not injure anyone, AFP quoted the prefecture in the coastal department of Finistere as saying in a statement.

The incident took place around 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) on Tuesday in the commune of Ergue-Gaberic near the city of Quimper in Brittany, the prefecture added.

While teams from French grid operators RTE and Enedis had worked through the night to fix the issue, power is not expected to be restored in full until the end of the day at the earliest.

Up to 106,000 clients of the French power network were left without power by late Tuesday, as the continent's sweltering heatwave pushed the country into its hottest day ever.

"For technical reasons, RTE will not be able to re-connect the affected households during the course of the day; connections will be made, at the earliest, by the end of Wednesday," the operator said.

Finistere is one of 58 French departments under the highest red alert for extreme heat on Wednesday, with temperatures of 39C to 41C expected on Wednesday from Brittany to the Paris region.

The extreme weather is being driven by atmospheric and circulation patterns that keep hot air trapped in place for days, with these factors worsened by global warming, experts say.

Varieties

Clean Up 'Toxic Men’ Ad Compels Dettol to Apologize in China

The advert sparked an uproar on the Chinese internet, with some users saying it objectifies women (Getty Images)
The advert sparked an uproar on the Chinese internet, with some users saying it objectifies women (Getty Images)
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Clean Up 'Toxic Men’ Ad Compels Dettol to Apologize in China

The advert sparked an uproar on the Chinese internet, with some users saying it objectifies women (Getty Images)
The advert sparked an uproar on the Chinese internet, with some users saying it objectifies women (Getty Images)

British hygiene brand Dettol has apologized for an advert in China that it claims was meant to call out sexism, but has instead backfired, according to BBC.

The five-minute long advert for a multipurpose disinfectant, styled like a micro drama, starts out with a man looking for a partner who is “clean” and “not tainted by other men.”

A plot twist comes late in the advert when his new girlfriend calls him out for his misogyny and breaks up with him. Dettol is then presented as the solution against “toxic men [who] are just like bacteria.”

The advert sparked an uproar on the Chinese internet, with some users saying it objectifies women and others calling for a boycott of the brand.

Dettol said the advert, which has been removed following the backlash, was intended to criticize gender stereotypes, but that snippets of it that later circulated online distorted its core message.

“We recognize that it has offended many people, especially women. We take responsibility for any negligence in creating and reviewing the content of the advert,” Dettol said in a statement on Monday.

The company also said it would review its content moderation processes.

Dettol was founded with a mission to “protect the health” of families, it said, adding: “But we are well aware that true protection also lies in safeguarding the dignity of every individual and their right to be treated equally.”

The advert has sparked heated discussions across Chinese social media platforms over the last few days, with many people angered by its attempts to compare a person's “purity” with the disinfecting abilities of Dettol products.

“What a trashy advertisement. It's left me speechless,” a user wrote on Weibo, China's X-like platform.

“What a hopeless company. What is their senior management doing?” read another comment. “I'm never using Dettol again. There are so many brands in the market after all.”

Varieties

In Search of Happiness: Young People in South Korea Resort to Dopamine Sites

Instead of spending money, the sites offer a form of digital role-play, capturing the experience of consumption while protecting your bank account (File/Reuters)
Instead of spending money, the sites offer a form of digital role-play, capturing the experience of consumption while protecting your bank account (File/Reuters)
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In Search of Happiness: Young People in South Korea Resort to Dopamine Sites

Instead of spending money, the sites offer a form of digital role-play, capturing the experience of consumption while protecting your bank account (File/Reuters)
Instead of spending money, the sites offer a form of digital role-play, capturing the experience of consumption while protecting your bank account (File/Reuters)

Online “dopamine sites” are now trending among young people in South Korea by offering fake consumption experiences such as a fake food delivery service and a virtual cigarette, all for a quick escape from financial and social pressure.

According to Psychology Today website, these sites capture the pleasure associated with buying without the financial cost, splitting the emotional experience of anticipation from any real-world consequences.

People using these sites have experienced a surge of desire, happiness, or excitement generated by mentally simulating the future purchase. The anticipation often generates a psychological reward equal to, or sometimes greater than, the actual purchase.

We often hear dopamine described as the brain’s “pleasure chemical,” but that description overlooks the role of anticipation. Dopamine plays a major role in motivation, learning, and anticipating rewards. Much of the activity in dopaminergic reward systems occurs before a reward is received.

The sites are hyper-realistic, mocking major Korean e-commerce giants and food delivery apps.

One popular site, FoodNeverComes, mimics a food delivery app where you can compare menu items, read reviews, pick your favorites, fill your cart, and even watch a virtual courier make progress toward your house on a live map.

Other platforms simulate cigarette breaks, allowing users to sit in virtual break rooms with strangers that recreate the ritual of stepping away from work without lighting a cigarette.

The trend has gone viral among young South Koreans facing rising living costs and growing pressure to consume.

Instead of spending money, these sites offer a form of digital role-play, capturing the experience of consumption while protecting your bank account.

According to the Korean Times, one user found the fake delivery site helpful for managing late-night cravings, and a college student reported less loneliness after visiting a smoke-break site while studying for exams.

The Comfort of Rituals

Ordering food, shopping, and taking cigarette breaks are social rituals. They tap into familiar and enjoyable behaviors that provide structure, anticipation, a sense of control, and temporary relief from stress.

Virtual breaks replicate the social and restorative aspects of stepping away from work. Sitting in a simulated break room with anonymous others creates a sense of presence and social connection that, for some users, takes the edge off loneliness.

In digital environments, neural systems involved in empathy and social cognition can bridge the physical gap; by processing virtual people as real, the brain creates the sense of shared experiences that can support empathy and connection.

Coping Skill or Digital Detour?

Reactions to the popularity of dopamine sites have been mixed. The benefits depend on how the platform is used. A virtual experience can be beneficial as entertainment, stress relief, or imaginative play.

However, if virtual experiences replace meaningful real-world activities, if simulated purchases increase a sense of deprivation, or if they reinforce rather than address compulsive behaviors, then the benefits may come with psychological costs.

Whether fake takeout sites catch on in the West remains to be seen. But by splitting the emotional experience of anticipation from the financial transaction, the “dopamine site” trend highlights how much of our enjoyment of consumption rests in the emotions associated with imagined futures rather than ownership itself.

“Better understanding that distinction in our own lives can help us make more intentional choices about how we spend both our time and our money,” the website noted.