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In the last three years, Spain has gained 1.2 million singles. In exchange it has added… 105,000 married people

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Spain is (increasingly) a country of singles. Although there are still more married than divorced, separated, widowed or people without an ‘official’ partner, the latest statistics from the INE reveal that the sum of these last categories already exceeds that of those who have said ‘yes I want’. Logical if you take into account that in the last three years the number of married people has grown by 0.5% while the number of single people shot up by 9.2% and the number of divorced people by another 8.8%. These are data that must be handled with some caution, but they show that something is changing. New times, new ways of living. A country of singles. That singleness is gaining strength as a vital plan is nothing new. We have been talking about the ‘great recession’ of romantic love, spin entry of traditional courtship or even how (despite the rise in prices and the difficulty of accessing credit) more and more people You choose to buy your home alone, without sharing expenses with a partner. Despite all of the above, it is still interesting to take a look at the INE statistics on the marital status of the population, especially when (how it just happened) show a newly updated photo. Year Singles Married Widowers Separated 2024 14,532,528 19,058,788 2,909,384 3,228,054 2023 14,357,158 19,017,938 2,911,402 3,141,053 2022 14,058,103 18,877,848 2,912,811 3,049,715 2021 13,304,355 18,953,251 2,899,639 2,966,450 One figure: 14,357,158. The definitive records of the INE show that last year there were 19.06 million married people residing in Spain, 14.53 million single people, 2.91 million widowers and 3.23 million divorced and separated people. If the ‘adult’ population of the country, over 16 years of age, is taken into account, the conclusion is clear: people who have said ‘I do’ continue to represent the largest group. They assume 45.8%compared to 34.9% of singles, 7.8% of divorced people and 7% of widowers. Does the marriage last? Yes. And no. It is true that it is still the largest group if we talk about marital statuses and it is also true that there are more married people in Spain today than in 2021, but the tables from the INE leave another, much less flattering reading: the married population has grown less than the single or divorced population. In 2024 there were in Spain 105,537 marrieds more than three years earlier, representing a growth of 0.55%. If we talk about singles, their number has grown by 1.23 million people during the same period, which translates into a rebound of 9.23%. The group of divorced or separated people has gained 261,604 people in three years, with a growth that is close to 8%. Year Average age of first marriage (men) Women 2023 37 34.9 2018 35.6 33.5 2013 34.4 32.2 Beyond the INE. The INE is not the only indicator that something is changing in Spanish society. Another (also of a statistical nature) is Eurostat, which has been documenting for a long time how we get married later and later. According to your dataIn 2023, on average, Spaniards said ‘I do’ for the first time at the age of 37 and Spanish women at 34.9. It is interesting for several reasons. To begin with, because these data place Spain as the European country in which we later made relations official. If we talk about men (37 years) we are tied with Sweden, but if we focus in women (34.9 years) we are above the Nordic nation, where the average is 34.8. We not only delay our passage through the altar. He has also done it motherhood. In fact, pregnancies among women over 40 years of age have skyrocketed in recent decades to represent close to 10% of the total. The way we face our life horizon has changed so much that there is more and more leisure on offer focused on singles or it is easier, for example, to meet people who decides to buy a home without having a partner. Less ‘I do’. The trend is also reflected in the last yearbook of the Spanish Episcopal Confederation, although in their case the figures reflect religious links. In 2024 the Church registered 31,462 Catholic weddings, below the 33,500 a year before and far from the more than 110,000 in 2007. They are values ​​in line with the latest statistics from the INE, although when handling them it is advisable to keep certain keys in mind: their record only tells us about “civil statuses”, so, remember in 20Minutes Pau Miret, CED researcher, does not include those singles who have decided to change marriage for “non-marital cohabitation.” That is, settled couples who share a home and function in practice as a marriage, but choose not to make it official. Image | Ismail Hamzah (Unsplash) In Xataka | The slow but inexorable “Japanization” of Spain: births have fallen by 50% since the time of the baby boom

A Harry Potter fan fiction was so successful that it changed the names of its protagonists. And thanks to this he earned 3 million dollars

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A Harry Potter fanfic has just become one of the most successful publishing releases of the year. ‘Alchemised‘, SenLinYu’s debut novel, sold 300,000 copies during its first week in bookstores and reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list. But the real impact came days before its publication, when Legendary Entertainment paid more than $3 million for the film rights, setting a record for a debut novel. How it was done. The story behind the book is as notable as its figures: ‘Alchemised’ was originally titled ‘Manacled’, and was a fanfiction that mixed the universe of harry potter with ‘The Handmaid’s Tale‘ by Margaret Atwood, focusing on the relationship between Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy. Over 18 months, SenLinYu transformed his viral story (which racked up millions of reads on the fanfictions Archive of Our Own) in a completely original work, eliminating all traces of intellectual property of JK Rowling and Atwood of the text, but trying to preserve the core of the narrative. The result: Favorite Debut Novel of 2025 at the Goodreads Choice Awards. What is it about? Alchemised follows Helena Marino, an alchemist and healer who awakens after 14 months as a prisoner of war of the necromancers, the victorious side in a devastating civil war. Helena discovers that her mind has been magically altered, erasing crucial memories from a part of her life she doesn’t even remember owning. The book has a violent and dark approach, and that is why SenLinYu rejects the “romance” label despite the love component: “I didn’t write this book with the idea that it would be seen as aspirational.”he states. The author’s past. The appeal of the book lies precisely in that uncompromising darkness. SenLinYu, of Japanese descent, injects into her fantasy elements based on the real horrors of war (her maternal grandmother was in American concentration camps during World War II) and has sought to recover ignored historical perspectives, particularly the experiences of Soviet women on the Eastern Front. That combination of epic fantasy and anti-war criticism has connected with readers who seek more mature and disturbing narratives than those usual in the genre. The paradigmatic case. The path of fanfiction The publishing phenomenon has an inescapable antecedent: ‘Fifty Shades of Grey’. In 2009, EL James began publishing chapters of ‘Master of the Universe’ on Fanfiction.netreimagining the relationship between Edward Cullen and Bella Swan from ‘Twilight’, without vampires but with a domineering billionaire. Reader reaction was so positive that James self-published the story in 2011 after removing explicit references to Stephenie Meyer’s saga and renaming the protagonists Christian Gray and Anastasia Steele. The leap came in March 2012, when Random House acquired the rights of the novel in a seven-figure contract. The result was more than 150 million copies sold globally and a film trilogy that grossed $1.3 billion at the global box office. Even then Jennifer Bergstrom, executive at Simon & Schuster, declared that “the fanfiction It has definitely become part of what we publish. This is changing the industry at a time when traditional publishing needs it most.” For the first time, major publishers were publicly acknowledging that online communities of amateur writers were a legitimate talent pool. Other successes. The success of ‘Fifty Shades’ was not an isolated case. Anna Todd wrote a story about One Direction’s Harry Styles on Wattpad in 2013, publishing it in serial format under the title ‘After’. The story accumulated more than 1,000 million readings on the platform before Simon & Schuster offered him a contract with which sold more than 10 million copies and generated five movies. More recently, Ali Hazelwood transformed her fanfiction of Star Wars centered on Rey and Kylo Ren in ‘The Love Hypothesis’, which It will soon be adapted to film. The journey here. This transformation of fanfiction into a bestseller would not have been possible without the digital ecosystem that supports it. Archive of Our Own It houses more than 13 million works and has become the most important archive of transformative writing. ‘Manacled’ by SenLinYu It was the second most read story in the entire history of the web when it was removed in January 2025, having accumulated more than 10 million views and 84,000 kudos (the equivalent of “likes”). This phenomenon has forced the traditional publishing industry to rethink its methods of attracting talent. Literary agents and editors now systematically scour Wattpad, Archive of Our Own, and Fanfiction.net, identifying high-impact stories before offering contracts. Removing references to other people’s intellectual property is now a standardized process, and thanks to this, trends such as videos on ‘Manacled’ accumulated millions of views years before ‘Alchemised’ hit bookstores. A whole tide of public before the official publication of the book. In Xataka | JK Rowling against fandom: How the Harry Potter universe lost its magic

a supermassive black hole ejected from its galaxy at 3.4 million km/h

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Until now, we thought about supermassive black holes like the immovable anchors of galaxies, being gravitational giants that keep everything in order from the center. But we were quite wrong, since the James Webb Space Telescope us has confirmed that, sometimes, these anchors break and are shot through intergalactic space as if they were real gun bullets. The study. A team led by astronomer Pieter van Dokkum of Yale University has presented the first observational confirmation of a wandering supermassive black hole. It is called RBH-1 and its existence is the result of one of the most violent events that physics allows: being “kicked” out of your home by gravitational waves. A scar. Detecting this is not easy, since black holes They cannot be seen with the naked eye, but the destruction they leave in their wake is analyzed. This is precisely what JWST saw when it detected a massive linear structure about 200,000 light years long (twice the diameter of the Milky Way), which connects a distant galaxy with a bright, fuzzy spot. After trying to analyze this destruction in more detail, the telescope itself has revealed that it is a discontinuity. In layman’s terms: there is something extremely massive moving at an absurd speed of 954 km/s, which is equivalent to 3.4 million kilometers per hour. A speed that would allow us to travel from the Earth to the Moon in less than seven minutes. How do we know? The question in this case seems obligatory: How do we know that it is a black hole and not a simple star formation? The answer lies in everything it leaves in its wake, since by moving at this type of high speed, the black hole It compresses the gas so violently that it generates a trail of hot plasma that can be measured, as well as the formation of new stars. And now science has been able to confirm that this gas is not heated by the light emitted by stars, but by the brutal collision of a target that has at least 10 million times the mass of the Sun. Why is he running away? The theory behind this phenomenon is not new, but has been predicted by general relativity for 50 years. But in order to understand what has happened here, we can see it in three different steps: The first thing that happened was the merger of two galaxies and their respective supermassive black holes that began to orbit each other. After this, a third galaxy arrives to join this party and its black hole interacts with the binary system formed before. Finally, a cosmic “kick” is given. In this case, the interaction of three bodies generates a great asymmetry in the gravitational waves that results in a black hole shooting out of the galaxy at a high speed. It’s not the first. We already knew about wandering “stellar mass” black holes (a few times the mass of the Sun) roaming our own Milky Way, detected by gravitational microlensing effects by Hubble or the Gaia mission. However, finding a supermassive, what is the type of object that usually lives in the heart of galaxies, is a milestone on a different scale. Why this matters. The confirmation of RBH-1 is not a simple curiosity for physicists, but validates models of galactic evolution that suggest that the universe is full of these ‘exiles’. And this shows that if supermassive black holes can be ejected so easily, it means that many galaxies could be “orphaned” of their central core, affecting how they grow and form stars. Images | NASA Hubble Space Telescope In Xataka | China is launching more rockets into space than ever before. And the reason is very simple: not to depend on Starlink

Bermuda shouldn’t be there, but there is a compelling reason for it to remain after 30 million years

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Bermuda is an anomaly in themselvessince it is normal that they were not there. To understand it, you have to know that this volcanic archipelago was formed 30 million years ago, and the normal thing, after so much time of inactivity, is that the oceanic crust would have cooled and sank. But this has not happened, and science now believes it knows why. The study. A priori the islands should be submerged, but They are still there elevated about 500 meters above what would correspond and Yale University wanted to find the solution. And the truth is that they have found it hidden 20 kilometers under our feet. An x-ray of 400 earthquakes. To solve the mystery, researchers did not use excavators but seismic waves. Analyzing the data of almost 400 earthquakes recorded by the BBSR station in the Bermudathe team managed to create a map of the innermost layers beneath the archipelago. What they found is a unique structure in the world: a lower layer about 20 kilometers thick located right between the planet’s crust and mantle. And its function is really important, since it acts as a floating support that keeps the Bermuda on the surface without sinking. And all thanks to the fact that it has a much lower density than the material that surrounds it that generates a buoyant force. Something unique. Beyond understanding why Bermuda is still there, we also see that this is a very unusual structure. So much so that it is unlike anything seen in other similar archipelagos, such as Hawaii. Its origin. When it comes to finding out how that plate is in its current location, there are several theories currently in force among the scientific community. The first of them is based on the fact that a remnant of volcanic activity from 30 million years ago was “sealed” under the crust. The second theory that is used focuses on a chemical process where sea water penetrates the rocks of the mantle, altering them and making them less dense, and, therefore, causing them to float. But whatever the origin, the study confirms that Bermuda sits on a tectonic anomaly that defies geological models. The end of myths. The truth is that Bermuda has always been a great mystery, starring for example in the ‘Bermuda Triangle‘ where it is said that things like airplanes disappear. Something that we try to explain with the meteorological phenomena that develop in this location. But what seems to have finally turned out is how Bermuda was in that location when it should have been on the seabed for many years. Although this has only made geologists have to rethink how tectonic plates work under the oceans. In Xataka | Spain turns in the opposite direction to the rest of Europe. It is part of a geological plan: close the Mediterranean

A man bought Lambo.com to ask for 75 million from Lamborghini: justice has taken it from him and his problems do not end there

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In 2018, an Arizona domain investor thought he had found a four leaf clover digital by taking control of the “Lambo.com” domain for $10,000. The man was convinced that one day he could resell it for a huge amount thanks to Lamborghini’s fame. Years later, the judges have given him bad news: not only will he not get that money, but he will be left without the domain and with a considerable legal bill. I am “Lambo” for life According to the documents In the case, Richard Blair bought the Lambo.com domain in February 2018 for $10,000, seeing in it a business opportunity linked to the enormous popularity of the Italian car manufacturer and the colloquial name by which its supercars were known: lambos. In Xataka Lamborghini will only manufacture 29 units of its latest supercar but don’t be in a hurry: they were already sold before being presented Shortly after the purchase, Blair began using “Lambo” as a nickname online, although until then there was no sign of him identifying himself that way. Blair maintained that this nickname was not related to the Italian brand, but rather was a play on the English word “Lamb“, that is, lamb, trying to present an alternative explanation that would distance it from the universe of supercars. At the same time, he redirected Lambo.com to another page where he published personal content and from which he presented the domain as an asset for sale, trying to show that the use of the name It was linked to its own identity and not to an attempt to take advantage of the car manufacturer’s reputation. In Xataka Buying a Lamborghini is a luxury reserved for a few: building one with used parts and an Ikea sink is another level Lambo’s price escalation The case records show that Blair soon set a very high price for the Lambo.com domain. The domain was first listed for sale on August 6, 2020 for $1,129,298. On December 23, 2020, the figure already tripled, rising to 1.5 million dollars and on January 27, 2021, it already reached 3.3 million dollars. Far from stopping, the owner continued to increase expectations and on September 23, 2021 the price rose to $12 million, on August 11, 2022 it made a considerable jump to $58 million, and on September 7, 2023 the figure reached $75 million. According to pointed Road&Track, during that period Blair received several offers for the domain but rejected them, because his objective was not to sell it to any buyer, but to get Lamborghini to pay an exorbitant amount for an address that fits the colloquial form of his name. Blair’s move did not go unnoticed by the Italian manufacturer, which in April 2022 filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), under the protection of the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy UDRP), requesting the transfer of the Lambo.com domain to the company considering that it was trying to profit from a name clearly linked to its trademark registered by the supercar manufacturer. In August 2022, WIPO concluded that Blair acted in bad faith and ordered the transfer of the domain to Lamborghini, understanding that he had no prior rights to the term “Lambo”, that he only began using that alias after purchasing the domain, and that he was trying take advantage of brand awareness to profit. Despite that decision, Blair decided to go to federal courts to appeal the WIPO resolution and maintain control over Lambo.com, prolonging the conflict and thus assuming new legal costs. The final blow of the courts As the conflict progressed, Blair redirected the domain to a personal website where he published a text in which he warned that he would be confronted by those who tried to take away his domains. “I AM LAMBO of LAMBO.com and I will defend, defeat and humiliate those who try to steal any of the trademarks from my domain name, including my nickname,” a statement attributed to Richard Blair himself. {“videoId”:”x957t4e”,”autoplay”:false,”title”:”Lamborghini Countach”, “tag”:”Lamborghini”, “duration”:”163″} The litigation ended up in district court of the United States, which supported the WIPO resolution and concluded that Blair had no rights to the name, demonstrating that he did not carry out any real activity on the page and that he attempted to benefit from the reputation of the Lamborghini brand. The result is that the manufacturer has obtained the Lambo.com domain without paying a single cent, while Blair has lost both his initial investment of $10,000 and the sales opportunities. In addition, the court has ordered him to pay legal costs, so buying Lambo.com not only has not brought him the expected benefits, but he has had to put money out of his pocket. Greed broke the bag. In this case, one that came loaded with money. In Xataka | In Dubai they don’t know what to do with so many abandoned luxury supercars: the less shiny side of getting rich Image | Lamborghini (function() { window._JS_MODULES = window._JS_MODULES || {}; var headElement = document.getElementsByTagName(‘head’)(0); if (_JS_MODULES.instagram) { var instagramScript = document.createElement(‘script’); instagramScript.src=”https://platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js”; instagramScript.async = true; instagramScript.defer = true; headElement.appendChild(instagramScript); – The news A man bought Lambo.com to ask for 75 million from Lamborghini: justice has taken it from him and his problems do not end there was originally published in Xataka by Ruben Andres .

Apple made privacy its flag. One of his functions has resulted in a fine of 98 million euros in Europe

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Privacy has been one of Apple’s great arguments to explain why its ecosystem works differently. It is not just a technical issue, but a narrative built over years. Precisely for this reason it is surprising that a tool presented as an advance for the user is at the center of a fine of almost one hundred million euros. The Italian Competition Authority has imposed Apple fined 98.6 million euros for abuse of dominant position, considering that the implementation of App Tracking Transparency restricts competition. The focus is not on the idea of ​​​​protecting data, but on how those rules were applied to developers who distribute their apps on iOS. This is where the underlying shock lies. The origin of the function. Transparency Tracking App It does not arise in this regulatory context, but several years earlier, as part of a broader change in Apple’s privacy strategy. The feature was introduced in April 2021 with the release of iOS 14.5 and was presented as a direct way to return control over advertising tracking to the user. From then on, each app had to ask for explicit permission before tracking user activity on other apps and websites. It was a turn that reordered the mobile ecosystem from within. The logic behind App Tracking Transparency is based on a specific definition of what Apple considers tracking. It is not just about displaying ads, but about linking data collected in an app with information obtained from third-party services for targeted advertising or measurement. If the user chooses not to be tracked, the developer loses access to the IDFA and, according to system rulesnor may you use other personal identifiers for the same purpose. It is a technical cut that simplifies the user’s decision, but has direct consequences on how many applications are monetized. A position of strength in the iOS ecosystem. For the Italian authority, the key is not the subsequent opening of the system, but the situation that existed when ATT began to be applied. During that period, Apple concentrated control over the distribution of iOS apps and over the rules that govern advertising tracking at the system level. From that dominant position, the regulator concludes, the company was able to set conditions that had a competitive impact. All of this, beyond the stated objective of protecting user privacy. The App Tracking Transparency Notice The core of the reproach: “double consent.” The heart of the penalty is how ATT was applied to third-party developers. According to the Italian authorityApple’s screen required a first permit to be requested which, by itself, did not meet all the requirements of European data protection regulations. This forced developers to request a second additional consent for the same advertising purpose. That extra step, the regulator maintains, reduced the probability of acceptance and limited the collection and use of data necessary for personalized advertising. The economic impact is one of the pillars of the file. By increasing the friction of obtaining consent, ATT limited the collection and linking of data used to measure and personalize ads. For the Italian authority, this harmed developers whose business is based on the sale of advertising space and also affected advertisers and intermediation platforms. In the summary of the case, the regulator adds that this design could generate benefits for Apple, both through higher commissions associated with App Store services and the growth of its advertising business. Was there another way to do it? One of the keys to resolution is that the problem is not in the goal, but in the path. The Italian authority claims that Apple could have achieved the same level of privacy protection without requiring duplicate consent requests. Disagreement and notice of appeal. Apple has expressed its disagreement with the resolution of the Italian authority and considers that it does not adequately value the privacy protections provided by ATT. In a statement cited by Reutersthe company insists that the system was created to give users clear control over ad tracking and that its rules apply equally to all developers. The company has also confirmed that it will appeal the fine and that it will maintain its commitment to protecting user privacy. The fine is the result of a long and complex investigation. According to the case summarythe Italian authority opened the file in May 2023 and expanded its scope in October 2024, in coordination with the European Commission, other competition regulators and the national data protection authority. This joint approach underlines that ATT’s analysis was not limited to a single country or a single dimension. Rather, it was approached as a intersection between competition, privacy and the functioning of the digital market. Beyond the announced appeal, the resolution imposes immediate effects. The authority orders Apple to immediately cease the aforementioned conduct and refrain from repeating similar practices in the future. In addition, Apple has 90 days to inform the AGCM how it will comply with those demands. It is not clear, for now, whether this calendar also depends on the appeal process, but the case makes it clear that the debate is no longer just theoretical. Images | Georgiy Lyamin | Screenshot In Xataka | We believed that Microsoft had already put Copilot everywhere. LG shows us that we were very wrong

Telefónica promised great savings by 2030. Its ERE has been negotiated at 2,500 million euros and 4,525 layoffs

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Telefónica and the majority unions UGT, CCOO and Fetico-Sumados have signed the employment regulation file (ERE) that will affect the seven subsidiaries of the group. The minimum volume of departures is set at 4,525 employees, 14 less than initially planned after a last-minute reduction in the divisions of Telefónica Global Solutions, Telefónica Innovación Digital and Telefónica SA As highlighted by CCOO statementthe agreement is reached after almost a month of marathon negotiations, which began in November when the management communicated its intention to carry out the ERE for objective reasons that would affect 6,088 employees. Fewer layoffs than estimated He agreement reached establishes the minimum departure of some 4,525 employees, which represents a reduction of 25.6% compared to the 6,088 dismissals proposed at the beginning of the negotiations. However, this limit only responds at a minimum estimatethe company estimates that finally about 5,500 employees will take voluntary leave. In any case, it is a lower figure than that announced by the operator before the negotiations. The bulk of the adjustment corresponds to the companies covered by the Related Companies Agreement (CEV), with 3,765 minimum departures distributed as follows: 2,925 in Telefónica de España (almost 33% of a workforce of 8,892 people), 720 in Telefónica Móviles (20% of a total of 3,587 employees) and 120 in Telefónica Soluciones (11% of 1,118 workers). In the case of these companies covered by the Related Companies Agreement, the final number of dismissals is not fixed, but depends on the volume of voluntary adhesions, with a range that goes from 3,765 to 5,040 departures. The group’s global units total 585 layoffs. 109 layoffs in Telefónica Global Solutions (17% of the 638 employees), 182 in Digital Innovation (18.3% of 993 employees) and 294 in the TSA parent company (25.3% of 1,160 employees). Added to these figures are 175 departures from Movistar+, which represent 20.3% of its workforce of 860 people, a significant reduction compared to the 297 departures initially planned. Economic conditions and membership requirements Compensation contemplates different sections depending on the year of birth of the workers. Those born between 1969 and 1971 will receive 68% of the regulatory salary until the age of 63 and 38% thereafter, although in Movistar+ those born in 1971 are excluded. For the oldest For those born between 1965 and 1968, the percentages are 62% up to age 63 and 34% thereafter, while those born in 1964 or before will receive 52% of the salary up to age 63 and 35% thereafter. To voluntarily join with these conditions, 15 years of seniority in related subsidiaries and 13 years of seniority in global subsidiaries are required. In addition, the latter include voluntary bonuses of between 5,000 and 18,000 euros depending on seniority, doubling the amounts initially proposed. The departure process will be carried out in a staggered manner depending on the subsidiary. For related subsidiaries, the voluntary departure request period will begin on December 29 and end on January 26, while for global subsidiaries, it will extend from December 29 to January 29. In Movistar+, the voluntary deadline is postponed until January 7 and will be accepted until February 6. Spend to save Telefónica calculates that this ERE will have a cost of about 2,500 million euros before taxes. For Telefónica España and Movistar Plus+ the provision will be around 2.3 billion euros, while for the corporate units it will be approximately 200 million euros respectively. These staff cuts are part of the new Transform & Grow strategic plan of Telefónica for the period 2026-2030, which seeks to save costs up to 3,000 million euros annually in 2030. However, the company estimates annual savings close to 600 million euros from 2028, with a positive impact on cash generation as early as 2026. Simultaneously with the ERE, Telefónica has reached an agreement with the union centers to extend the collective agreements of the seven subsidiaries until 2030. The most significant advance is the commitment to increase salaries 1.5% each year while the agreement is in force, affecting both the related subsidiaries and the global units of Telefónica. Employees of the linked subsidiaries will receive an additional payment of 300 euros in October, of which 150 euros will be consolidated annually in the salary tables. The social benefits include the extension of the teleworking package up to 12 days, the extension of the 36 hour work week to global units, the improvement of bank guarantees for home purchases from 75,000 to 100,000 euros, aid of 3,000 euros for rent and the declaration of December 24 and 31 as non-working days. In Xataka | The best strategies to ask for a salary increase, the negotiation most similar to a “battle” at work Image | Telephone

Netflix entrusted him with more than 70 million for a series. He came with zero episodes and a luxury mattress bill of $638,000

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Carl Rinsch, director of the semi-unknown Keanu Reeves film ’47 Ronin’ has been convicted of defrauding $11 million to Netflix. For the production of a science fiction series that was never made… nor was it planned to be made. Electronic fraud, money laundering and illegal transactions are the charges for this ingenious scoundrel who dared to tease one of the giants modern audiovisual corporations. What happened. The ‘White Horse’ project, later renamed ‘Conquest’, started in 2018 as an ambitious science fiction series about an artificial humanoid species that rebels against its creators. Netflix beat out Amazon, Apple and HBO in a bidding war for the rights to the series, disbursing more than 61 million dollars and granting Rinsch final creative control. 44 million dollars later and after filming in Uruguay, Brazil and Hungary, there was nothing on Mr. Netflix’s table. Crazy investments. In March 2020, as the pandemic spread, Rinsch requested an additional 11 million to, supposedly, complete the series. For some reason, Netflix agreed: Rinsch transferred the funds directly to personal accounts and speculated with stock options for Gilead Sciences, the pharmaceutical company that wanted to end COVID-19 (and COVID finished with her), losing approximately half of the capital in weeks. He later invested in Dogecointurning 4 million into 27. With the profits he unleashed a consumerist hurricane that resulted in five Rolls-Royces and a Ferrari worth 2.4 million dollars, two Hästens mattresses handcrafted in Sweden valued at 638,000 dollars, Swiss watches worth 387,000 and antique furniture valued at 3.3 million. Netflix canceled the project in 2021 after receiving only some promotional fragments of the hypothetical series. The sentence. In an unusual strategy, Rinsch chose to testify in his own defensemaintaining that the 11 million constituted a legitimate reimbursement for own capital invested in the project, and that the material already shot served as a negotiation tool to secure a second season that Netflix would never formally authorize. The prosecution presented bank statements showing direct transfers from the production budget to Rinsch’s personal accounts. Why did it happen? To understand this series of misfortunes for Netflix’s pocket, we must contextualize when it occurred: between 2018 and 2020, Netflix was at the center of a kind of streaming “gold rush”, with spending on content that reached $17.3 billion in 2020. The platform then accumulated 45% of global spending on streaming content since 2010, doubling the investment of your closest competitorAmazon Prime Video. The war for creative talent intensified with the launch of Disney+ in November 2019, followed by HBO Max, Apple TV+ and Peacock. Those were the times when, seeking to create a consistent catalog, Netflix prioritized quantity over quality. In this context, Netflix gave Rinsch that final cut for fear of losing the project to rivals. Other frauds. Rinsch is not an isolated case in an industry increasingly vulnerable to fraud. David Ozer, producer with credentials at Starz Media and Sony Pictures Television, serves sentence after diverting more than $200,000 from the ‘Safehaven’ budget. More recently, in August 2025, David Raymond Brown was accused of orchestrating a Ponzi scheme for 12 million dollars: the producer created a fictitious company that issued invoices for non-existent or already paid services and falsified his profile on IMDb to attract more investors. Header | Dima Solomin in Unsplash

Madrid wants to convert its least used Metro line into the “Gran Diagonal”. A 1,000 million project without a clear end

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A line that connects the southwest of Madrid with the northeast of the city. A project to quadruple the extension of Madrid’s least used line with the aim of turning it into one of the city’s great arteries. We are talking about the expansion of line 11 of the Madrid Metro. In 1998, Madrid inaugurated a new Metro line. It had been 20 years since new lines had been launched in the capital and the project ended up being the first of the last major investment in the Madrid Metro that the Autonomous Community has made. until the reforms we are experiencing today. The work attracted attention due to its short length (only three stops at the beginning). Then Metrosur (Line 12) and the Light Metro lines (LM1, LM2 and LM3) would arrive. Except for LM1, all the aforementioned lines were longer than the new Line 11 whose 8.5 kilometers and seven stations were dwarfed by Line 12, with its 28 stations and more than 40 kilometers long. Now, Madrid wants to transform that line and make it one of the main axes of the Madrid underground. The numbers point high. From a “forgotten” line to the Great Diagonal Currently, line 11 of the Madrid Metro is, by far, the least used in the city. According to the company’s own report, there are only three lines that are below it but two of them are branches of main lines that far exceed the flow of line 11. Beyond the numbers on lines 7B and 9B, line 11 and its 10.8 million passengers per year they are located just above the Ópera-Príncipe Pío Branch, which moves 10 million passengers despite only having one stop at origin and another at destination, with a train that is round trip. However, Madrid wants the seven stations that currently make up line 11 to be the embryo of a gigantic line that is beginning to be known as the “Gran Diagonal.” The project, of course, has several phases but some of them are still up in the air and others do not have an execution date, although they do have a budget. Map of the expansion of line 11 At the moment, what is underway is the connection of the Plaza Elíptica station in Carabanchel with the Conde de Casal interchange. This link involves excavating more than six and a half kilometers and the creation of two stations: Comillas and Madrid Río. These will join the Plaza Elíptica station to the south and continue north with stops at the already existing Palos de la Frontera and Atocha, before reaching Conde de Casal. 514 million euros will be allocated for this section and although it was expected to be ready in 2026, everything indicates that the works will not finish until a year later and that It won’t be until 2028 when finally the new link will be available. In order to speed up the works, Madrid already has Mayrit readya tunnel boring machine from Germany that can drill 15 meters a day, compared to the two meters that are excavated a day if working only with a pick and shovel. In Xataka we have already talked of this tunnel boring machine that measures 98 meters long and weighs 1,500 tons. After arriving piece by piece, it has taken almost a whole month to be able to operate with it, since assembling it was quite a puzzle. complete at 27 meters depth. This will be the first section that aims to almost double the extension of line 11 and increase the number of people who pass through its trains by up to 75,000 daily passengers. This first section should become the heart of a line that is clear your future in the south. The expansion at this end plans to link the La Fortuna station with Cuatro Vientos, with just over two kilometers of track and an awarded budget of more than 75 million euros. But, at the moment, there are no execution dates for it. Where more doubts are being generated is in the north of the capital. From Conde de Casal to Mar de Cristal, the city will add its main stops to already built stations, specifically in Vinateros, La Elipa, Pueblo Nuevo and Arturo Soria. But it is from Mar de Cristal where the project, for which 600 million euros will be invested, has been changing. As can be seen in the map above, the project contemplated taking the line to the airport and later to a final stop called Valdebebas Norte. In elDiario.es They assure that Metro de Madrid retains the possibility of building a second station to double the latter. The opening, according 20Minutes It would therefore be staggered, coinciding with the three sections already mentioned. Once completed, Madrid line 11 will become one of the main routes to transport passengers. An approximate extension of 33.5 kilometers is expected (from just over eight kilometers currently) and 20 stations from the mere seven it currently has. All this with an expense of more than 1,100 million euros. Photo | Madrid Metro and Community of Madrid In Xataka | Faced with daily collapses, the Madrid Metro could increase frequencies or put in “pushers.” He has chosen the second

start a purge if it reaches 9.5 million inhabitants

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The idea of ​​drastically limiting immigration to Switzerland is neither a recent anomaly nor a passing eccentricity, but the reemergence of a fear deeply rooted in its political and social history, visible already in the seventies with the initiatives of James Schwarzenbach and the concept from Uberfremdung. That’s why the last idea is not surprising, although it is scary. The fear that returns in cycles. Last year I remembered it in a great report of the Vanguard. That climate of identity anguish of the 1970s, fueled by the rapid economic growth and the massive arrival of foreign workers, left a lasting mark: the conviction that the State had to actively protect the demographic and moral composition of the country, an obsession that never completely disappeared and that reappears strongly in moments of pressure or perceived saturation. From immigration to the population limit. The current proposal goes a step beyond the classic debates on quotas or visas and directly proposes a kind of dystopia: a population cap total, set at around 10 million inhabitants, with a first alert threshold in the 9.5 million. In practice, this approach turns immigration into a variable to cut almost automatically if the country continues to grow, without distinguishing between refugees, skilled workers or highly paid managers, and opens the door to a policy that prioritizes the total number of residents over economic or humanitarian needs. Caught up in their own success. The background of the initiative is a paradox that is difficult to resolve: Switzerland is one of the countries more prosperous in the world, with a dynamic economy, global companies and salaries much higher than those of its neighbors, and precisely that success has made it a magnet for immigration. He population growth of the last decade, driven almost entirely by arrival of foreignershas fueled the perception that the quality of life deteriorates through of skyrocketing rentssaturated infrastructure and congested public transportation, although these same immigrants support key sectors of the labor market. The staggered “purge.” Thus we arrive at an approach without half measures. The plan promoted by the Swiss People’s Party introduces a progressive logic which is more reminiscent of an emergency switch than a classic immigration policy. Yeah is overcome that threshold of 9.5 millionthe first restrictions would fall about asylum seekers and family reunification. Not only that. If 10 million are reached, Switzerland would withdraw from international treaties considered “population boosters” (as the proposal states) and, as a last resort, it would abandon the free movement agreement with the European Union, a move that would have profound consequences on residence rights of millions of Europeans and about the Swiss access to the single market. The clash with reality. A good part of the business community and the large economic lobbies warn that this strategy would have a high costfrom a shortage of hundreds of thousands of workers to an accelerated aging of society and a loss of competitiveness structural. Although defenders of the initiative they promise compensation In the form of lower rents and less pressure on the welfare state, the absence of detailed studies and the weight of trade with the EU raise fears that the cure is more harmful than the disease. Discomfort amplifier. Unlike other European countries, Switzerland channels this type of tensions through referendums frequent, which allows latent concerns to quickly become concrete political proposals, no matter how Orwellian that they seem This characteristic explains why ideas that in other places would remain in the media debate, or even that, end up being voted on there, but it also makes the country in a laboratory where it measures the extent to which a society is willing to sacrifice growth and openness in the name of identity, control and perceived stability. Europe watches. Many media outlets in the country have gone one step furtheranticipating the activation of the plan and projecting what it would mean for the old continent. A rhetoric that tells that the Swiss debate anticipate discussions that already appear in other countries, where immigration continues to gain political weight while the traditional parties try to contain the extreme right through cordons sanitaire that do not always reduce their appeal. The Swiss experience points to a disturbing approach, to say the least: that ignoring or disqualifying discomfort does not eliminate it, and that the question is not so much whether there should be immigration, but at what pace and on what scale. In that sense, the possibility of a demographic “purge” Switzerland is not just a national decision, but a warning sign about the direction some European democracies could take if they fail to reconcile prosperity, social cohesion and political legitimacy. Image | Ruth Georgiev, IToldYa In Xataka | Switzerland has been a refuge for great fortunes for decades. Now he is debating taxing heirs In Xataka | Millionaires are changing their countries of residence in 2024. These are their new destinations explained in a graphic

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