Month: December 2025

They charged him for “leg room” and “priority seating”

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Michael O’Leary, CEO of Ryanair, went to dinner at a restaurant in Ireland and ended up receiving a karma master lesson. The restaurant owners had added a surcharge to their bill. things so common like sitting in a chair or having leg room under the table. Checkmate. A quiet dinner…until the bill arrived. As and how I collected the british The Independentthe CEO of Ryanair went out to dinner on a random Friday at a restaurant in Navan, a city in County Meath, Ireland. Dinner at the Luvida restaurant went smoothly while the millionaire executive I tasted some breaded prawns, mushroom toast and sea bass, everything washed down with a good wine. Once the tasting of the dishes was finished and he was satisfied with the course of the dinner, the manager asked for the bill without knowing what they had in store for him from the other side of the counter. The bill: 104.45 euros with many “extras”. When he received the bill, O’Leary found some concepts that caught his attention. The dishes and drinks they had consumed amounted to a subtotal of 104.45 euros. However, to this amount were added some additional charges which added 37.85 euros more to the amount of the account. The restaurant shared the bill for O’Leary’s drinks that night in your profile from Facebook. As can be read on the ticket, the breakdown of those 37.85 euros was made up of 7.95 euros for a supposed “extra leg room” at your table, or 9.95 euros for a “priority seat.” In addition, there was an additional charge of 19.95 euros for a “quiet area reservation.” To make things even more interesting, in the corner of the note you can read the indication “Terminal 1”, reinforcing the parallelism with an airport experience like the one that Ryanair provides to its users. The total bill: 142.30 euros that the manager had to pay after dinner. An Irish “trolling” with a British backlash. Obviously, these are not common concepts in a restaurant since it is assumed that sitting in a moderately comfortable chair while dining is part of the service. However, and displaying sharp British irony, the restaurant staff put O’Leary in the mirror for the way his company treats its customers. In fact, the airline has already been sanctioned on several occasions for its policy of charging an additional fee for hand luggageto which is added the collection of other charges and penalties such as the selection of seats and even make the boarding at the last minute. O’Leary took it with humor. According to what they say local mediathe manager took the joke from the restaurant service with great humor. Which has not transcended It is whether O’Leary finally paid the surcharges or they remained in the final bill as happens with the surcharges of the users of the airline he runs. What the millionaire did do is pose with a friendly attitude with the restaurant staff, who appreciated the visit and the executive’s good nature. “Thank you to Michael O’Leary for choosing to dine with us tonight. It was a pleasure having you. I hope you don’t mind if we add some additional charges to your bill for extra legroom, priority cabin seating and quiet area reservation,” the restaurant published on its profile on social networks. In Xataka | Now we know why Ryanair charges its passengers for everything: it is the key to having a profit of 2,540 million euros Image | Wikimedia Commons (Polish presidency of the Council of the EU 2025), Luvida

Now their biggest challenge is to convince Beijing to let them use them

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China is experiencing an unexpected situation in the midst of the race for artificial intelligence: the country’s big technology companies want access to the chip NVIDIA H200but this time it is not Washington that sets the pace, but Beijing. The American government has opened the door to its export under clear conditions, although the final permit now depends on China, that has been tightening its policy for months on foreign semiconductors. Alibaba and ByteDance move in this delicate balance, aware that their ability to advance in AI in the immediate future will depend on what their own regulator decides. Two giants with enormous needs: Alibaba and ByteDance are not simple technology companies, but two of the companies with the greatest demand for computing capacity in China. Alibaba maintains an e-commerce network and cloud services that centralizes a good part of the purchases and sales that go through Taobao, Tmall or AliExpress, both in China and abroad. ByteDance operates TikTok and its Chinese version, Douyin, in addition to maintaining Doubao, its own AI chatbot. This combination of platforms with massive loads turns each jump in power into more than just a technical improvement: it conditions their ability to keep up with the pace of the sector. The change of course in Washington: On December 8, President Donald Trump announced that the United States would allow H200 to be exported to “approved customers” in China, a move that marked a turn from previous restrictions. The agreement contemplates that the US government receives 25% of the income from these sales, above the 15% applied to H20. The White House presented the decision as a formula to strengthen domestic manufacturing and sustain high-skilled jobs, while maintaining direct control over the flow of chips to China. Where the H200 fits into the NVIDIA lineup: The H200 belongs to the Hopper architecture, presented in 2022, and occupies an intermediate position between the generations already established in the market and the new Blackwell line, which is NVIDIA’s priority today. Blackwell-based servers can achieve tenfold performance gains on certain models compared to systems using H200, according to recent company data. Still, the H200 remains a relevant product for advanced training, especially in markets where access to newer hardware is restricted by export controls or limited supply capacity. NVIDIA H200 Why the H200 makes such a difference: The distance between the H200 and the H20 is still notable. According to the Institute for Progressthe H200 achieves a total throughput of 15,840 TPP, almost six times more than the 2,368 TPP of the H20. Compared to the most advanced domestic chips, the gap continues. He Huawei Ascend 910C It reaches 12,032 TPP and offers a memory bandwidth of 3.2 TB/s, while the H200 reaches 4.8 TB/s. That combination of power and speed explains why this chip is so coveted for training large-scale models. Alibaba and ByteDance have conveyed to NVIDIA their willingness to acquire large batches of the H200 if they receive approval from Beijing, according to information shared with Reuters by several sources. Chip availability is reduced because some manufacturing capacity is geared toward newer generations, increasing pressure on the purchasing window. In this scenario, both companies are trying to anticipate whether the Chinese regulator will allow a processor of this level to be incorporated into their training systems without additional restrictions. Access conditioned by the Chinese strategy: Authorization to purchase H200 depends not only on company demand, but on how it fits into the self-sufficiency goals set by Beijing. According to sources cited by the aforementioned agency, regulators are likely to demand precise details about the purpose of each order. In all this, it is no secret that China tries to accelerate the development of its own products through manufacturers such as Huawei and Cambricon, and any import of advanced hardware is examined in light of that strategic horizon. The situation leaves a market in which the rules seem inverted: chips like A100 and H100 They remain under export control, while the H200, more powerful and recent, could arrive in China under an exceptional framework. This asymmetry conditions the advancement of the country’s most ambitious models, which need competitive hardware to continue evolving. The outcome will depend on what Beijing decides in the coming days. Images | NVIDIA | Arthur Wang | In Xataka | Media China is talking about a feature of the ZTE Nubia M153. And the most surprising thing is that the phone is already out of stock.

Jeff Bezos fired the CEO of Blue Origin two years ago. In retrospect, it was the best decision he could have made.

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The most surprising fact about Blue Origin is that it was founded before SpaceX. Obsessed with space since childhood, Jeff Bezos saw the potential the aerospace industry would have and began selling thousands of Amazon shares to build a rocket company. He founded Blue Origin in 2000, when his net worth was around $6.1 billion. Two years later, a young Elon Musk obsessed with the conquest of Mars invested $100 million (more than half of what he had from the sale of PayPal) in founding SpaceX. Who would suspect that the company that would end up revolutionizing the sector would be that of the eccentric South African businessman and not that of the CEO of Amazon, who multiplied his assets by 30. The sleeping giant The Blue Origin coat of arms For almost two decades, Blue Origin was the butt of jokes in the sector: a company financed with infinite funds that sold 15-minute suborbital trips to millionaires, but when it came time to reach orbit it only produced powerpoints and legal lawsuits to stop its opponents. Blue Origin was aware of its apparent slowness in the face of SpaceX, to the point of deliberately adopting it as its motto. The company’s coat of arms includes two turtles and a Latin phrase that Jeff Bezos has publicly defended with pride: Gradatim Ferociter“step by step, fiercely.” But although projects such as the powerful BE-4 engines and the reusable New Glenn rocket had been in development for years, the reality is that Blue Origin did not step on the accelerator until the end of 2023, when Bezos said enough and caused a CEO change that has been like night and day. The Dave Limp Effect The first stage of the New Glenn rocket returning to the factory A little context. By 2023, under the leadership of Bob Smith, Blue Origin had become a bottleneck for US national security. The new Vulcan rocket from ULA (the company that had a monopoly on government launches until the arrival of SpaceX) depended on Blue Origin’s BE-4 engines, which kept falling behind schedule. At the end of that year, Jeff Bezos made the decision to remove Bob Smith and entrust the company to the executive who had led Amazon’s devices division during the creation of Alexa or Kindle: Dave Limp. Today, the engine crisis is more than resolved. Blue Origin has celebrated the delivery of the 30th engine to ULA, which will allow its partner to meet its launch obligations for the Space Force. But it has not been the only thing that Dave Limp has managed to channel as the company’s new CEO. Under old management, Blue Origin operated with a crippling risk aversion. He sought perfection on the first try, which translated into eternal development cycles. Limp arrived with the Amazon system under its arm: Blue Origin went from being an R&D company to becoming a real rocket factory willing to take risks. The internal culture had already begun to improve when, in February 2025, Limp laid off 10% of the workforce. “We grew too fast and lost focus,” he explained. But the effect was immediate: Blue Origin has become a company that is agile in decision-making. Instead of having a single rocket that’s scary to break, they’re a real rocket factory. So when the New Glenn finally took off, crashing on the landing attempt, it was not a single prototype: there were other stages of the rocket already on the production line. From New Glenn to Super New Glenn New Glenn vs Saturn V vs New Glenn 9×4 If anyone had doubts about Limp’s management, the events of this last year have dispelled them. Blue Origin has successfully completed two orbital launches that have completely changed the narrative, and which have soon been overshadowed by the company’s roadmap. He maiden flight of the New Glenn It was a partial success. The rocket reached orbit (and there are few rockets that can say that on the first try), but the first stage disintegrated while trying to land. Far from stopping to investigate the failure for a year, Blue Origin analyzed the data, adjusted the software and moved forward with the second attempt, as SpaceX would have done. In November, the second New Glenn successfully launched NASA’s ESCAPADE mission, two probes that were placed at the L2 Lagrange point awaiting gravitational assistance to travel toward Mars. But even a Martian mission can take a backseat when, against all odds, the first stage of the rocket landed on the Jacklyn maritime platform in the Atlantic Ocean. Blue Origin is only the second company to achieve the propulsive landing of a rocket. For the first time, SpaceX has a real competitor capable of recovering orbital-class boosters. One that uses methane for cleaner and cheaper combustion, and that promises to carry up to 45 tons to low Earth orbit. Shortly after the launch, taking advantage of the momentum of success, Blue Origin announced an improved version of the BE-4 engine and a new variant of the rocket: the New Glenn 9×4, which instead of seven engines in the first stage and two in the second, carries nine and four. In addition to a larger 8.7 meter diameter canopy, to launch larger space stations, telescopes and satellites. What does this mean? That Blue Origin is going for the “Super Heavy” category, in which SpaceX competes with the Falcon Heavy and the gigantic Starship, still in development. This variant of the New Glenn will be able to carry 70 tons to low orbit, which with Starship’s permission surpasses almost everything else on the market and, most importantly, with an architecture that has already flown and landed. To conquer the orbit and the Moon With the New Glenn 9×4 scheduled for 2027, Jeff Bezos and Dave Limp’s attention is now focused on scaling the rocket’s manufacturing and reusability capacity to reach 24 launches per year between now and then. SpaceX continues to play in its own league with 160 launches … Read more

The Great Rental Review of 2026 is going to be dramatic for thousands of Spaniards for one reason: 1,700 euros more

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The usual thing around these times is that people start talking about New Year’s resolutionsprojects, trips… plans for 2026 that is already around the corner. That’s the usual. In Spain there are thousands of families who face the year with a very different feeling: restlessness. They are tenants, they have been residing in rented houses for years and now they see how their contracts are about to expire in a very different scenario to the one they had when they signed them, back in 2021. Things have changed so much that there are those who estimate that some tenants will have to pay up to 4,600 euros more per year if they don’t want to move. What has happened? For thousands of Spanish families, 2026 will not be the year of North America World Cup nor that of Eurovision without Spain. 2026 will be the year in which they will have to decide whether to move or agree to pay much more for their homes. The reason is a phenomenon that some have baptized as “the big rental review” and in practice it is nothing other than the expiration of the contracts signed between 2020 and 2021. After the five-year extension that marks the lawnow many tenants have to sit down and negotiate with their landlords. But that’s normal, right? Correct. Contracts signed from 2019 onwards last five years if the landlord is an individual or seven if it is a company. During this period they are renewed annually automatically and the normal thing is that the rents are updated in a controlled manner, based on the CPI or the IRAV index. That hasn’t changed. What is special about the rental contracts signed in 2020 and 2021 is that they were agreed in a very specific context, conditioned by the impact of the crisis of COVID-19. It comes with taking a look at the price chart of Madrid prepared by Idealista to understand it. After years of moderate rent increases (or stagnation), in mid-2020 rents began to become cheaper and did not recover until well into 2021, when they gained momentum that continues even today. What does that mean? That if you signed a rental contract in January, February, March… 2021, you did so at an advantageous time that has kept you ‘safe’ these last five years from the price increase that the market has accumulated. Now, once that agreement expiresif your landlord wants to renegotiate the contract, he will do so in a very different context, with rents in maximum values. Has rent become so expensive? Yes. Until now we could get an idea thanks to platforms like Idealista. Now we have a theoretically more precise tool: calculations from the Ministry of Social Rights and Consumption prepared from data from the INE, the Tax Agency and the IEF. The results has advanced them The Country and they show that contracts that must be renewed in 2026 will become more expensive by up to 383 euros per month compared to the time of the original signing, which translates into about 4,600 euros more per year. That would be the forecast for the most extreme cases (not the average), but it is eloquent. Is there more data? Yes. The estimates of advanced consumer The Country show an estimate of how much rents will rise per year for a household with a median income. For Spain as a whole, this calculation shows an increase of 1,735 euros. In the case of the Valencian Community it would reach 2,686, in the Canary Islands 2,267, in Madrid 2,042, in Cantabria 1,869 and in Andalusia 1,952. In the rest of the regions analyzed, the increase in median income ranges between 1,408 and 884-329 euros/year, the latter data corresponding to Ceuta and Melilla. And the calculation of 4,600 euros/year? It comes out of the heaviest estimate, the one that corresponds to the Balearic Islands. There the Consumption data show the increase in rent prices can exceed 4,615 euros per year. As a reference, Idealista indicates that in March 2021 the residential square meter was rented on the islands at 11.2 euros. Today it is above 19. If we take an 80 m2 apartment as a reference, that means that a tenant who five years ago paid 896 euros/month today would have to pay 1,528. That is, 632 more. When managing the advanced table by The Country It is worth keeping several keys in mind. To begin with, it does not include data from the Basque Country or Navarra due to their regional regimes. Nor from Catalonia, since one relevant part of the population resides in declared neighborhoods “stressed market areas”which influences their prices. The increase calculations also seem to have been carried out with respect to the values ​​at the signing of the contract (2021), which leaves the doubt as to whether they have taken into account the updates of recent years. Another fundamental factor is the context: the estimates are based on a portfolio managed by Sumar, which takes time pressuring its government partner to extend hundreds of thousands of rental contracts about to expire. Does it affect many people? The answer is once again positive. At least if we take Consumption as a reference. After examining the data from the Household Panel, Pablo Bustinduy’s department has come to the conclusion that in 2020, 568,500 contracts and in 2021 another 632,300. The first ones have been completing their five years of validity in recent months. The latter will begin to do so from January, affecting 1.6 million people. The communities that will (potentially) be most affected are Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Valencian Community. The first saw 145,900 contracts signed in 2021, affecting some 404,100 people. In Catalonia, 112,700 and 301,000 were recorded respectively, although there the tenants have the declaration of stressed areas in their favor. In Andalusia there are some 85,500 contracts with 213,700 affected tenants and in the Valencian Community there were 65,500 agreements with 155,000 people involved. Anything else? Yes. … Read more

We are 21 days away from 2026. 21 days away from being fined if we do not have insurance for our electric scooter

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We have seen it with the V-16 lights and it will be repeated in the future. A standard arrives, makes a lot of noise and is forgotten. Until a few days before it comes into force, noise is made again and those affected run out to get their papers in order. It is the same thing that has happened with electric scooters. January 2, 2026. It is the date chosen by the DGT so that all electric scooters that circulate in Spain have three obligations: Owner’s liability insurance Electric scooter registration Electric scooter certification As with the V-16 lights, it is not something that was decided yesterday. It is something that It was approved in 2024 (to comply with the transposition of the Directive 2021/2118) so users have had more than a year and a half to complete all the procedures. Furthermore, the decision can be applied by City Councils for years as in Córdoba that has been active since 2023. What are the procedures? The one that can give us the most headaches is civil liability insurance. All users who use the electric scooter they must have insurance to cover our damages in the event that another driver is responsible for an accident in which we are involved or to cover damages to third parties if we are to blame. In addition, the electric scooter will have to be registered and have a certification confirming its approval. The latter is mandatory for all electric scooters that have been sold in Spain as new since 2024. But, in addition, it will be mandatory from 2027 for those that were purchased previously. The “registration”. This license plate is actually a plate that must be visible on the electric scooter with the relevant information that certifies its approval. The plate, like the approval, must be included in all electric scooters sold from 2024. If you have an electric scooter that does not have said plate and that does not have the certification, you must request a test in one of the four laboratories that have the approval of the DGT to carry out these certifications. You can do the procedure request from the Traffic website but only one of them, IDIADA, is located in Spain. What is certified? Electric scooters have been, for a few years, considered in a category of their own. Specifically, they are personal mobility vehicles and these are the most important criteria they must meet: Maximum speed of 25 km/h Weigh less than 50 kg Maximum power of 1,000 W if they do not have a self-balancing system Maximum power of 2,500 W if they have a self-balancing system Maximum handlebar height of 70 centimeters What if I don’t comply? Whoever does not comply will have to prepare the portfolio. And with the obligation to have civil liability insurance for the electric scooter also comes the obligation to pay a fine if we do not comply with it. Specifically, the penalty can range from 200 to 1,000 euros since in the reformulation of the Automobile Insurance Law It is established that electric scooters, classified as light personal vehicles, will face penalties of one third of those registered for cars. That is, a third of the penalty of between 600 and 3,000 euros that is established for those who drive a car without insurance, depending on the seriousness of the facts. Photo | Michel Grolet In Xataka | Barcelona suspected that many electric scooters are souped-up. They just stopped one that could reach 113 km/h

This is the Internxt promo this Christmas

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When we talk about cloud storage, most of the time we go to the services that have been running the longest, such as Google Drive. Now, we cannot forget that we have very good alternatives to these services. One of the best is, without a doubt, Internxt: a cloud service of Spanish origin that right now has a very interesting Christmas promo: we can get its cloud storage service from 16 euros per year. And be careful, because that can make us win a card of up to 1,000 euros to spend on sites like Amazon or a Visa prepaid card. The price could vary. We earn commission from these links Secure cloud storage at a very good price The offer, which allows us to enjoy a discount of 87%, is great. Before talking about it, yes, it is worth stopping first to talk about the service that Internxt offers. It is a great option if we are looking for a cloud that guarantees the highest level of privacy, since this service uses ‘Zero-Knowledge’ encryption‘. This means that the files are encrypted before being uploaded to the cloud on the user’s computer. and not even Internxt itself can access them. Furthermore, this data is distributed and fragmented throughout the network. Thanks to this, what is achieved is that it is very difficult for a third person to fully access them, thus increasing their level of security. And not only that, but it is also about an open source alternativewhich is a window of transparency that makes it easy for any entity to audit it. To all of the above we must add that its servers use renewable energy and that it does not use any type of tracking policy or selling data to third parties, so, as we have already said a few lines above, it is a great option in terms of privacy. Although, obviously, it is also a great service (and a very complete one, in fact). Internxt offers three different plans. The most basic, called Essential, costs as we said above, 16 euros per year currently (or 247 euros if we opt for their lifetime plan, whose RRP is 1,900 euros). This, in addition to giving us 1 TB of cloud storage, also offers a VPN and an antivirus. If we go with this plan, we will enter a draw to win a 100 euro card to spend on Amazon or whatever we want, since it acts as a virtual Visa card. This is a fairly attractive price for everything it offers, although we only have to take advantage of it until January 11. Below we leave you a summary of what the other two Internxt plans offer and their prices (both annual and for life): Premium Plan: 3 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus and cleaner per 31 euros per year (or 377 euros lifelong). With this, you enter the draw for a 300 euro card. Ultimate Plan: 5 TB of storage, VPN, antivirus, cleaner and meet per 47 euros per year (or 507 euros lifelong). With this, you enter the draw for a 1,000 euro card. Some of the links in this article are affiliated and may provide a benefit to Xataka. In case of non-availability, offers may vary. Images | Internxt In Xataka | Google Drive alternatives: the best cloud storage services for your files In Xataka | Best VPNs 2025: guide with the 17 best services to protect your online privacy

It is now legal to bring your own food and drink into festivals

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It is a battle for consumer rights that is receiving very notable attention, and there is nothing strange about it: it affects some of the most widespread forms of leisure, cinema and concerts, and at stake is the right of customers to bring drinks and food into the venues. FACUA has been filing complaints against cinemas and event organizers for years and today we have a resolution that could set a precedent that changes everything. What has happened? The Court of First Instance number 4 of Valencia has issued the first ruling in Spain declaring null and void the clauses of a festival that prohibited access to the venue with food and drinks purchased abroad. The judicial resolution affects the Madrid Salvaje festival, and considers these restrictions as abusive practices that violate consumer rights as reported by FACUAthe association that filed the lawsuit. The ruling also annuls the charge of three euros as “management expenses” that the organization applied to attendees who wanted to recover the unconsumed balance on the bracelets. cashless. The court expressly prohibits the promoter to reiterate these practices in future events and thus establishes a precedent that could affect future editions of festivals in Spain. Because. The sentence justify your decision in the impossibility of attendees doing without food during the long days that the festivals last. The magistrate emphasizes that requiring users to leave the premises to eat would mean missing part of the scheduled concerts, in addition to generating unnecessary inconvenience. The resolution concludes that this prohibition constitutes in practice a forced imposition of hospitality services that consumers have not requested. That is, preventing entry with food from outside is equivalent to forcing the audience to purchase products exclusively in the festival’s internal establishments, which represents an “unjustified contractual imbalance.” The ruling emphasizes that the fundamental purpose of these events is to offer musical entertainment, with the restoration being a merely accessory element that should not condition the enjoyment of the main show. Repeat offenders. This is not the first time that Madrid Salvaje AIE has faced sanctions for its trade policies. The Community of Madrid has already imposed a fine of 96,000 euros for irregularities committed during the 2023 edition of the Brava Madrid festival. That sanction responded to the imposition of the system cashless as the only form of payment within the premises, without the possibility of paying in cash. In addition, the organization established a period of only seven days to claim outstanding balances. FACUA maintains active complaints against the 2024 and 2025 editions of Brava Madrid. Legal precedents: cinemas. The judicial argument of the case does not arise from nowhere, but is based on precedents established around the film sector. The Superior Court of Justice of Castilla-La Mancha established in a previous resolution that prohibiting the consumption of products according to their origin constitutes an irrational restriction of the consumer’s ability to choose. That ruling introduced the concept of “tied sales”, identifying how establishments use their dominant position to indirectly force the purchase of complementary services. The report prepared in 2016 by the then Spanish Agency for Consumer Affairs, Food Safety and Nutrition (Aecosan, today Aesan) was especially forceful when analyzing these prohibitions in movie theaters, concluding that the viewer was unjustifiably deprived of the main service they had paid for (watching the movie) when they were unilaterally imposed on them to use accessory services that they never requested, with the sale of food and drink being a secondary activity, not the essence of the movie business. The fines. These rulings regarding cinemas led to specific financial sanctions. The Basque Consumer Institute fined Yelmo Cines with 30,001 euros after a complaint from FACUA Euskadi for preventing access with external food. FACUA Galicia filed similar complaints against Cinesa in the Marineda City shopping center in A Coruña, while the Andalusian federation denounced five Yelmo establishments for repeating this policy after having been previously warned by the Junta de Andalucía in 2019. Implications. This court ruling sets a precedent of enormous relevance for the music festival industry in Spain, being the first resolution that specifically addresses these practices in events of this type. The ruling opens the door to possible retrospective claims by attendees who were affected by similar policies in past editions of Madrid Salvaje or other festivals that have maintained similar restrictions. It is an unequivocal warning about the illegality of such measures. The court decision significantly strengthens the position of consumer organizations, which have been fighting these trade policies for years. The court’s express order prohibiting Madrid Salvaje AIE from reiterating any of these clauses in future events also establishes a control mechanism that could be applied to other promoters. The cases pending resolution in courts regarding analogous situations—both in festivals and in other leisure spaces—now have a solid jurisprudential reference that will predictably influence the rulings. From now on, consumers have the right to freely choose where to purchase their food, which takes precedence over the commercial interests of the organizing companies, which redefines the relationship that existed to date between promoters and the public. Header | Colin Lloyd in Unsplash

The V16 wanted to replace the triangle and reduce risks. They have ended up proving that they can also create them

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On January 1, 2026, it will be mandatory to carry in the car an approved V16 beacon. The introduction of this device is surrounded by a great controversy regarding its implementation, its real usefulness or the emergence of illegal devices. What has just been discovered is that more than 250,000 beacons are affected by serious cybersecurity vulnerabilities. It is the umpteenth disaster that affects these devices. what has happened. Luis Miranda Acebedo, cybersecurity expert, has published a complete and in-depth analysis of the digital security (or rather, lack thereof) of one of these V16 beacons. Specifically, the Help Flash IoT model, which is especially striking because the person who distributed it is Vodafone and the operator confirmed months ago that it had sold more than 250,000 units in Spain. The document and its conclusions are worrying. Vulnerabilities everywhere. In his analysis Miranda explains that although the analysis only focuses on this device, “the security problems found in the communications part seem to be common to all devices.” Specifically, the errors found by this expert for that part were the following: Sending data in plain text– The beacon transmits exact GPS coordinates, IMEI and network parameters without any encryption. Anyone who intercepts the signal can read them. Lack of authentication and integrity: There are no mechanisms to verify that the server is legitimate or to ensure that the message has not been modified along the way. Susceptibility to false stations– It is possible to spoof a cell tower to intercept traffic, block alerts from being sent, or inject false data. Private APN Exposure– Although this beacons a private Vodafone network, the connection commands and keys are exposed on the debug port, making the network accessible to an attacker. The V16 Help Flash IoT beacon is a real trick. Image: Luis Miranda Acebedo. OTA updates, another disaster. The problems are not only limited to that part of the V16 beacon’s communication with the APN and the servers of each provider, but are also present in the OTA (Over-The-Air) update system: Insecure update: Simply press the power button for 8 seconds to activate a maintenance Wi-Fi network. The name (SSID) of the Wi-Fi and its password are identical (HF-UpdateAP-5JvqFV), they are “harcoded” in the firmware. Not only that: Miranda tested two different units and those credentials coincided, which leads him to think that they are the same in the 250,000 devices sold by Vodafone. unsecure HTTP: To download the new firmware, the HTTP protocol is used without further ado, not the secure version (HTTPS), allowing an attacker to intercept and modify the file in transit. No digital signature: The device does not verify the authenticity of the firmware, and accepts any file sent to it, allowing the installation of malicious software. DNS Spoofing– By not using DNSSEC it is trivial to trick the device into connecting to a fake server controlled by a cybercriminal. Open debug port: The port is also physically accessible without a password, allowing you to view all the logs and extract sensitive information from the hardware. Hacking a beacon is easy and cheap. The researcher explained that it is possible to buy a device that simulates a telephone antenna (500-1,000 euros). Using a Rasperry Pi 4 or a laptop, free software can be used to “intercept and manipulate the “secure” communications of these beacons.” After running a proof of concept, he managed to hack a beacon in 60 seconds and install malicious firmware that allowed him to have full control of the beacon. With this firmware it could send false locations, access the operator’s private APN, generate massive false alarms or turn the beacon into a brick. What Netun says. The company that manufactures these beacons, Netun Solutions, has sent out a press release to try to clarify these risks. Exposed data: The signature indicates that the beacon transmits geolocation, a device identifier and some technical parameters. They admit that this data can be exposed, but they emphasize that there is no transmission of personal data such as license plates or user IDs. Logical: they are not associated with the beacons. Plain text: Netun officials explain that the decision to send plain text was made to “guarantee long-term interoperability and robustness.” Private APN: It is also noted that the beacons connect through a private APN and a VPN from the operator, but Miranda explained how the connection parameters are exposed on the serial port. Physical access and removing the eSIM are enough for an attacker to connect to that private network. Netum in turn points out that physical access means that “the impact is limited to that specific unit.” OTA problems: Regarding the OTA functionality that also shows a vulnerability, Netun states that this function has been disabled through firmware updates. Improbable mass attacksFinally, those responsible point out that massive attacks could only be carried out by compromising a large number of beacons. They also explain that the Netun platform “limits the number of frames that each SIM can send” and the frequency of sending. What Vodafone says. At Xataka we have contacted Vodafone, and one of their spokespersons tells us the following: “The V16 beacons approved and marketed by Vodafone Spain constitute an adequate system that complies with current regulations for road emergency signaling. In particular, Help Flash IoT is certified in accordance with the regulations required by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT) for connected V16 beacons, meeting the necessary technical requirements in terms of visibility (sufficient light intensity), resistance, flash reliability, signal duration, etc. These requirements also include the data communication protocols of the beacon with the servers. The V16 beacons have internal security mechanisms and the Vodafone network provides an additional layer of security with controls that ensure that communication is made from the beacon authorized by the network. On the other hand, the beacons integrate NB-IoT connectivity, which guarantees that the beacon is only used for location in an emergency by authorized entities with the user’s knowledge. The communication that passes through Vodafone … Read more

Mercadona has found a vein to grow beyond its white label and prepared food: tourism

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Hotels, restaurants, agencies, guides… When you think about those who are making a fortune with the tourist boom In Spain, the mind goes directly to the hospitality industry and related businesses, such as holiday apartments. There are, however, other sectors in which the flow of visitors is felt with similar force, such as commerce or food. They show it with astonishing clarity the data from one of the firms most relevant of the retail national, Mercadona. In their stores, tourists represent such an important business niche that this year they will leave 1.8 billion of euros and will account for 4.5% of gross sales. One figure: 126.3 billion. That tourism is a huge business is nothing new. The INE estimates that last year the accumulated spending of foreign visitors in Spain was close to 126.3 billion euros16.1% more than in 2023. And everything indicates that this progression will be maintained in 2025. First, because the flow of travelers keeps growing at a good pace. Second, because this greater influx comes accompanied by an increase of spending: between January and October of this year alone, tourists spent around 118.6 billion eurosa figure that takes into account international tourism. A percentage: 4.5%. The increase in tourists is felt in vacation rentals, restaurants, hotels… and the accounts of one of the large Spanish retail chains, Mercadona. Yesterday Expansion public an article which shows how the footprint of foreign visitors in the Valencian chain has not stopped growing in recent years, both in net terms (millions invoiced) and in the weight that these incomes have in the company’s accounts. If in 2021 Juan Roig’s chain earned 750 million euros thanks to sales to tourists, which represented 2.7% of gross income that year, in 2025 the picture is very different. If Mercadona’s forecasts are met, 2025 will close with a sales volume to tourists of 1.8 billion euros, which will increase its contribution to the company’s total gross turnover to 4.5%. The data They are calculated thanks to purchases paid with foreign cards and are interesting because they show a sustained progression during the five-year period. One year: 2021. The last five years have been anything but boring in the tourism sector, which has gone from suffering the hangover of the pandemic to achieving record results. The INE tables show that in 2021 Spain received 31.2 million foreign tourists, 71.6 in 2022, 85.2 in 2023 and 93.7 in 2024. This year in October it already exceeded the 85 million. This rise has been even an increase in tourist spending: 34.9 billion in 2021 to 126,100 in 2024. All this data seems to have been clearly reflected in Mercadona’s accounts. According to the information to which you have had access ExpansionIn 2021, tourists left 750 million in the chain’s stores, which represented 2.7% of its total gross income. In 2022 these values ​​were already at 1,060 and 3.4%, respectively; In 2023 they amounted to 1,340 and 3.8% and in 2024 they reached 1,550 and 4%. If the forecasts are right, this year will close with sales to tourists worth 1.8 billion euros, 4.5% of gross sales. One question: Was it expected? Yes. And not only because of the increase in tourism, which translates into a greater number of potential foreign buyers. The supermarket employers’ association, AEDAS, calculate that in the most touristy areas these represent around 18% of the total consumers. And if Mercadona stands out for something, it is for its extensive presence in Spanish territory, with more than 1,600 stores spread throughout Spain and a wide presence in the Valencian Community. In fact, at a general level it is estimated that its market share in the sector it’s already around 30% (a high percentage that even exceeds some regions), far above the rest of its competitors. Images | Pedro López (Flickr) and Mercadona Via | Expansion In Xataka | Action supermarkets have gone from being unknown to conquering half of Europe. In Spain they will not have it easy

Australia has decided to ban social media for those under 16 years of age. The mystery is how they are going to achieve it

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December 10 was the date marked on the Australian calendar for prohibit social networks for minors under 16 years of age. Australia becomes the first country to implement a measure of this type, although there are others that also want to do it like Denmark or France. The ban is already in force, however there are still many doubts about how the measure will be enforced and how effective it will be. What exactly does it prohibit? The Online Safety Amendment establishes 16 years as the minimum age to have a social media account. This means that minors can access networks without logging into an account, which will allow them to consult public posts on social networks, watch YouTube or read Reddit threads. Without an account, they will not be able to access personalized feeds, receive notifications or communicate with other users. Currently, the amendment includes eleven services prohibited for minors: Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, X (Twitter), Reddit, YouTube, Twitch, Kick, Threads and Lemon8. It is not ruled out that the list will change in the future. How are they going to verify the age? The million-dollar question and the one that leaves us with the biggest doubt of all. The amendment details the prohibitions, but leaves it up to the platforms to do the work of verifying the age of their users. It does not say how they should do it, it only specifies that they will not be able to do it just by asking for the DNI and they will not be able to save data related to age verification. Although they do not establish rules on how to carry it out, the Australian Government published a report in which they concluded that age verification technologies were technically viable. In the report they analyze several methods: Checking documents and identity records. Age estimation using biometrics and facial recognition. Age estimation from the user’s behavior or fingerprint. Parental control mechanisms. Image: Wikipedia The doubts about the effectiveness We have the recent case of United Kingdom when it banned porn for those under 18. They also proposed various age verification methods such as those mentioned in the Australian report. The reality has proven to be more complex and, after the blockade, there were a brutal spike in downloads of VPN serviceswhich means that many users fake their location to bypass the block. The law is made, the trap is made. Furthermore, the system is not perfect. They count in NYTimes that some teenagers have used the facial recognition option in some apps and it has incorrectly estimated their ages. And there is also the issue of privacy. Although the law says that platforms cannot collect data from the age verification process, there is no standardization in this regard and if we have learned something after decades on the internet, it is that leaks happen. What are the platforms doing? Instagram, Facebook and Threads Meta has already done his homework. On November 20, it notified users minors under 16 that their accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads were going to be deleted. Regarding age verification, in September 2024 already announced “accounts for teenagers”which restrict certain features, such as making the account private by default and limited messages. To detect age, since April they have been using AI tools to detect users who lie about their age. In statements to Vergea representative of Meta has assured that the regulations “isolate adolescents from online communities and information, while providing inconsistent protection in the numerous applications they use.” TikTok and Lemon8 Bytedance apps have confirmed that from its entry into force, they will deactivate the existing accounts of those users under 16 years of age and will not allow them to create new accounts. Additionally, content from underage Australian users will be hidden. Regarding facial recognition, they offer several methods such as age estimation through facial recognition, credit card authorization, and verification of official identification documents. reddit Reddit has also started suspending the accounts of those under 16, but gives them the option to download their data first. In a post on the platformthey say that age verification will be done through “a prediction system.” The platform has taken a stand against this decision and states that the law “undermines everyone’s right to freedom of expression and privacy.” YouTube YouTube communicated that as of December 10, it would begin to suspend the accounts of those under 16, although they will be able to continue watching YouTube without being logged in since the law does allow it. They do not say how the age verification will be done, what they do say is that the new law is a mistake and that it will have a counterproductive effect since, by deleting the account, the possibility for parents to control what their children see will be lost, so minors will be even more insecure. snapchat In one publication on your website, Snapchat confirms that from December 10 it will block all accounts of those under 16. They will keep the account blocked for three years and if users turn 16 during that time, they will be able to recover it using age verification. Verification will be done in three ways: connecting the app with an Australian bank account, scanning the ID document and using the age estimation through a selfie. Twitch The streaming platform will prevent users under 16 from creating an account. For this they will use their verification system through facial recognition. Existing accounts will be deactivated starting January 9. Kick In the case of Kick, as published Guardianthey will use the same age verification system that Snapchat uses. X (Twitter) Elon Musk’s social network requested last September that the entry into force of the new regulations be delayed, as published Guardian. From X they expressed “serious doubts” about the legality of the regulations. What happens if the platforms do not comply? The law does not say how they should ensure that minors create an account, but it does say the consequences … Read more

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