Uber and its Spanish competitor Cabify suspended services in response to the Catalan government’s new rules that ride-hailing services can only pick up passengers after a 15-minute delay from the time the user requested a ride. (Reuters)

Talking point: The new rules were implemented after mass protests by Barcelona taxi drivers, who claimed that ride-hailing companies had undermined their business. The suspension comes a few weeks before the city hosts the annual Mobile World Congress, which is expected to bring over 100,000 people to the city. Barcelona’s approach to dealing with sharing-economy companies is strict compared to other major cities managing the transformation: in June 2018, the city and Airbnb came to an agreement to give officials access to the data it collects in order for Barcelona to verify hosts are following municipal regulations. Meanwhile, in Mumbai, Uber can now be used to book a water taxi to a tourist site outside the city; it’s called, um, UberBoat.